Death by Finals/ Study break

Wrapping up my last semester has been consuming my time. I've been spending a lot of time at the Library of Congress (easily one of the most beautiful buildings in DC) doing research. On my most recent trip I decided to take a few pictures. Mostly I was procrastinating....

I was at the library researching for a Russian Literature paper. I really liked this portrait I found of Anna Akhmatova (Russian writer my paper is on)

The ceiling in the European reading room

Luckily the project is nearly done and the light is now at the end of the tunnel.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled program next week.

Sticker Warfare 2.0

This past Friday I watched a pretty interesting documentary. Completely by chance it was about the street art phenom that was/ still is taking place around the world; the phemon that I seemed to have covered just the tip of in my last post. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" shows the life of some of the people who have become notorious for their art and trials of their expression. It also has an interesting twist. I caught it on Netflix, it not too long ago hit BluRay in America though. Check out the trailer and a word from Banksy (Director of the documentary and street art revolutionists) below.

Sticker Warfare

All is fair in in love and war.

.. I guess stickers are no exception?? As I've been walking around DC for the past few weeks/ months I've been noticing stickers...everywhere. Some pretty cool ones at that. I was on a walk in Adams Morgan today and just took some pictures of some I came across.

The trend is a great expression of art, politics, social issues, and of course self. Its also a lot cooler to see a sticker on the back of a street sign than tags on the sides of buildings. Philly has murals, maybe DC will be known for its stickers?

Maybe an "Unraveled" sticker will be coming soon

Operation Liberty Bell

Last night me, Ger and my friend Shayla randomly went to Philly for a party. It was one of the most spontaneous things I have ever done and the most fun I have ever had in 3 hours

Waiting for the Chinatown bus

the party was actually a birthday party for my friend Mikey.... the Birthday boy

Manny!

cant be in Philly without a peanut chew in hand

Twas a great night

Spring Stew

While the signs of spring are everywhere, its still cold as hell in DC... definitely not the 80 degree weather I was enjoying in Mexico. To combat the cold and get back on my cooking game I decided to make what will hopefully be my last stew for awhile.

...Besides, my bestie Jared bought me a slow cooker for Christmas and I've been dying to use it! Best gift ever!!

I've done stews plenty of times so I'm comfortable eyeballing amounts and just winging it. For anyone looking to try a stew of their own here is a recipe from allrecipes.com specifically for slow cookers

• 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (I use soy sauce instead)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth
• 3 potatoes, diced
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped

Directions

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

before the meat goes in the slow cooker season and tenderize

Next brown the meat. I use flour but it isn't necessary. Just a few minutes on each side in the pan will do the trick

Chop the potatoes and veggies

Secret ingredient: BEER!!! I used Black and Tan by Yuengling this time, but any dark ale will do

Put everything in the pot and let it rock. 12 hour cook time :( on low if your patient, 6 hours :) on high if your ready to eat like me

Enjoy a bowl and check out the side bar for my cooking music

Viva La Mexico!

As is the time honored tradition, me and a group of my friends traveled to Cancun, Mexico for a break from the cold and to get little wild. These are just a few of my favorite photos.

We stayed at the Bracelo Tucancun Beach resort which had an awesome view and kept the mini fridge stocked with Modelo!!

For shopping we went downtown Cancun to one of the more popular markets, Market 28. This was one of our favorite salesmen...he kept telling us he couldn't get enough of our brown sugar

My bestie Jared always making faces

After a couple days of Hotel food we were dying for local cuisine....BEST TACOS EVER!

Cancun was an amazing time and way too much fun.

Check out the side bar for the "Try five beers" Cancun edition for a little taste of Cancun of your own

Wizards and Rockets

In the spirit of march madness and also just because I love sporting events it was a great surprise when my friend Armani invited me to watch a Wizard's game. The game was last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder

Fresh cut for the ladies or for the game???

Soooo the Wizards have this tradition where the fans are supposed to stand until they score their first points....We were standing for awhile...

Highlights from the game: My $8 Bud light, Seeing Kevin Durant BEAST, Getting caught on the jumbotron and acting a fool, Armani massacring his Js (luckily he was able to save them), and the final score of Thunder 110- Wizards 89 :(

After the game we went to Red Velvet cupcakery. I had the feature of the week, a Guinness cupcake with Guinness cream frosting....

...eh, its close to St. Patrick's day and it sounded good...not so much though. I'll be sticking to the signature cakes next time

Our last stop of the night was Rocket Bar. I love this place for one reason, SKI BALL!

After whooping up on Armani in Ski Ball, my gal pal Geraldine (shameless plug: www.chicsquared.blogspot.com) joined us for some drinks and darts

The face of victory