Lang-kiss-tur, PA

Hi again!  Mike and I are still here, stuck somewhere between Christmas and New Years.  Actually, we're both sitting in the dining room, sipping on our morning coffee.  I have a stretch of a few days off before working New Years Eve and Mike, well, Mike's just working from home today with an extra appendage of a dog (Kaia) on his lap...if only he could bring the dogs to work with him every day ;-)  I can't believe it's already been two weeks since Karen and Pat came to check out the 'Burg.  I was hoping to get these up sooner, but sometime's life is just a bit crazy...here you go, enjoy!

Thursday afternoon (yes, two weeks ago Thursday the 15th) Mike and I made the short trip
 to Harrisburg International Airport to pick up our travelers...

Let's just say the place is quiet, calm, and totally void of stress...
the entire airport is comparable to the Humphrey Terminal at MSP.  

Thursday was Jen's birthday, so we headed downtown HBG to celebrate at Miyako on Second Street for some delicious birthday SUSHI! I mean, who doesn't <3 sushi!  I'm glad to have friends and neighbors who truly appreciate the world of raw fish :-)  Sadly, I don't have any pictures from dinner since I've been a bit lax on the whole picture taking thing lately...but it could also be the fact that everything was so yummtastic that the items on our plates disappeared faster than I would have anticipated.  After dinner (and a few 22oz Sapporos) we headed next door (literally out one door and in the other) to Anthony's Micropub for a few more beers and some darts.

Some stock photos of Anthony's...I've never seen it this bright or this shiny! 

Gotta love the selection of craft beer on tap (or...draft as they like to say here)!

The one un-fuzzy iPhone photo I have from the night...
the birthday girl and Jase posing it up and on display in the front window!

Friday morning, after a few cups of coffee and homemade breakfast at Little Amps, we headed south to Lancaster to peruse the city streets and do a little window shopping.  On a side note...I ventured down to Lancaster a couple of weeks ago (for the first time) on a day off to check out the city.  Cute, quaint little downtown with some fun shops...so, I thought it would be a fun morning/afternoon activity for guests!

Downtown Lancaster...Queen Street bus station

All decorated for the holidays...no snow in sight, though.

Fun little sign...I assume radio or TV station of some sort. 

I was so, so, so glad that I could snap a quick picture of this to share with all of you.
The name of the city is LANCASTER...so I assume the normal pronunciation would be lan-cast-er, eh?
Well, you'd be totally wrong, it's lang-kiss-tur as the photo shows...or as people really say it link-iss-tur.
Needless to say to the dismay of many central PA natives, I remain stubborn and utilize my midwestern pronunciation :-)

Building Character, a collection of shops/booths selling just about anything
and everything.  Love the unique, repurposed, and vintage items scattered about...
and they have a great architectural salvage area with tons of old keys, knobs, doors,
signs, windows, etc., etc., etc.  

Byfar my most-favorite store in all of Lancaster...Mommalicious & My Aunt Debbie.
Sort of a combination small-scale Anthropologie meets Hunt & Gather
(a south Minneapolis must if you haven't already been there...I promise, you won't be disappointed),
but much, much less congested.  I wish this store was right down the block from me!

Hehehe...cute little awning poles all
wrapped up in old sweaters. L<3VE!!

Oh my, antler love in the front window!!  I'm not all about the hunting/trophy head on the wall
of your home, however for some odd reason, I'm extremely interested and intrigued by the
quirky and kitschy "decorate with antlers around your home" trend!!

Awning/ceiling above the sidewalk in front of the store...decorated with old doors, too cute!!

Another reason I first headed down to Lancaster.  Green Scene...a variety of different
green and eco-friendly products for use around the home.  I'll be going back again soon
to stock up on their CommonGood laundry and cleaning products...sold in BULK and refillable bottles!

Can't forget about Occupy Lancaster...Pat was cheering them on :-)

Cute little intersection at the heart of downtown Lancaster...all decorated for Christmas!

The mounted police kinda add to the small-town nostalgia

What you don't see here is the whole host of other small little vintage shops tucked in and around the city. Once I started looking for them, they seemed to pop up out of nowhere...you just have to look!  Mike and I definitely need some time to go and do some more vintage exploring at some point in the near future.  Oh yeah, and we'll most likely be heading back to the Lancaster Central Market to pick up some kitchen goods and mouthwatering grass-fed, free-range meats and homemade cheeses (had a really, really, hard time passing by the guys selling their homemade goat cheese...it looked delicious)!

!YADHTRIB YPPAH

***DARNNIT...some of you may have gotten a sneak peek of this on the 29th, while I was writing it.  Guess my fingers clicked the button a little too soon, as it wasn't supposed to be posted until today, the 30th.  Hope there wasn't too much confusion!***

It's a special day in the Andreen household...one of those days where we all come together to CELEBRATE!! Why, you ask?  Well...the time has come to wish my DAD another 

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  

On this day, not more than a few moons ago, he entered this lovely world :-) 

Dad--I hope you have a fantastic birthday...a day to relax (at least a little bit @ some point during the day) and take in everything around you...and I hope you picked something delicious to eat for your birthday dinner (if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say mock chow mein, although I'm guessing you guys may head out for happy hour and apps somewhere).  Either way, enjoy your day! But before you go, a few entirely random birthday facts...of which I can't 100% verify their accuracy, but I don't really care cause they're still fun!

Since your last birthday, 31,536,000 seconds have passed

The world population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this, another five babies will have been born.

You just so happen to share your
birthday with pro-golfer Tiger Woods
 and Today Show anchor Matt Lauer
--whom you can proclaim is, indeed,
older than you are

...although Tiger Woods is not :-)

In 1817, the first coffee was planted in Kona, Hawaii...good thing, too, cause coffee is delicious and Hawaii is amazing!

In 1954, the 24-second shot clock was first
 introduced in professional basketball
(in a game where Rochester played Boston)

On this day back in 1981,
Wayne Gretzky sets an NHL record
for scoring his 50th goal,
just 39 games into the season...woah!

From PA, the four of us (fur kids included) are wishing you  

A VERY HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY We love you and miss you!!!

Lords and Ladies

Not that really any of you care, but I thought I'd share my excitement with you anyway...this afternoon, I'm FINALLY heading out to get my hair done.  This girl is in dire need of a nice cut and color, cause let me tell you, right now my hair is downright nasty...I can hardly handle it! Eeeekkkkk!  Driving down Second Street in downtown Harrisburg on my way home from work each day, I one day noticed a cute little place--the exterior paint and awning drew my attention right away--just so happens it turns out to be a salon.  Viola!  Why not give it a try, right?!?!  Here's a sneak peak...

Lords and Ladies Salon, Harrisburg. I mean, really!?!?!
 I'm so in love with the silver, feathery, art piece above the door...
coupled with black paint.   Love the color palette...fantastic!

OK, so as I write this today, I've already been to the salon once...but...today, I'm trying a different stylist.  And, since I have absolutely no freaking idea what to do with my hair (and absolutely no artistic eye or ability to visualize what might look good or not so good), I've decided to defer to someone who knows best...and hand over the artistic control to the stylist in hopes that he'll make my hair look fabulous!  I know, right...can you believe I'm uttering those words out of my mouth?  What's gotten into me?  I know the ICU; a good stylist knows hair...I don't expect anyone to come into the hospital and tell me how to care for someone with an EVD on a ventilator (although you better believe that it does happen sometimes), so I'm not gonna pretend I know what's best for my looks ;-)  Keep your fingers crossed...let's hope I walk outta there with a bangin' new hair style!!  Happy Thursday, friends!!

Adventures of the Furkids

Some updated photos of the fur kids, since some of you have been asking...
Tank totally excited for the hockey season or he just found  a very comfortable spot on the bed to take a nap.
FYI, we were apparently in the midst of putting away clean laundry
cause our 2nd bedroom definitely doesn't look like that on a regular basis!

Kelsey sent a care package for Halloween!  Kaia's not so sure about the whole costume thing.  

Maybe she just really wanted to be a frog instead of a chicken.
I'm pretty sure the majority of our dog clothes/costumes come compliments of Kels!
Now, if only I could find some costumes for her kitties...

Ah yes, Tank the chicken.  I don't think he's fooling anyone. 

Basking in the sun...it's what chihuahuas do best :)

Waiting patiently on a recent trip to the vet. 

The Random, The Bizarre, and The Hilarious

Apparently I've acquired a weird knack for finding crazy, random signage scattered around town.  I guess it probably comes from my skills of observation and attention to details.  Here are a few wacky things I've seen of late...don't get me wrong NONE of these are as funny as the "dolphins rape people" sticker we saw in NYC, but they're still good for a laugh!  Consider this your disclaimer...there may or may not be a few inappropriate words and phrases contained in the following pictures :)  Happy Monday...hope you all have a fantastic week (and one last week to countdown to Christmas)!!

Found on a garbage can on Second Street in Harrisburg.
I have to agree...smoking trout sounds a bit more delicious than smoking crack.
Probably a bit more legal and less hazardous to your health as well.  Either way, well said.

For those of you who don't live in central Pennsylvania...they like to use the word "varietals"
in substitution for the word "varieties".  After further research, the word does have it's place in
the world of wine, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't excuse the 264 other ways central
Pennsylvanians put it to use :)

This one courtesy of my fabulously handsome husband.  Found none other than under the
windshield wiper of his car one afternoon after work.  Svend really should have been more
observant and realized that he put the note on the wrong car...unless there are things about
Mike's drive to work that I'm completely unaware of!!

I have to say, this one's pretty awesome.  A little vulgar and Mike probably wouldn't let me put one on my car,
but I assume there is definitely a time and a place where this sticker would be completely appropriate and would come in quite handy!

For those of you who don't follow my Pinterest boards, these are a few other randoms I've found in my endless wandering on Pinterest.  I take no credit for these, other than the fact I've re-pinned them from others, but they're fabulous and I thought I had better share them with you :)

I have to believe there is some sort of a translation error here.  Love it :)

I love smart-ass packaging.

How can you NOT love this!! I mean, seriously.  

Random street art is probably one of my favorite things.  I need to live in an area
somewhere where I can see things like this on a regular basis, cause this is fantastic.
Oh, and murals on old buildings too.  

Just for good measure, this little guy is adorable...and I'm pretty sure he loves that stick!