About two months ago I finally bought Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend. Several of my food-loving friends had recommended it to me in recent months. As an everything bagel lover I'm not sure why I hesitated to try this, but I did. The short story is that it's a great blend of flavors that tastes great on just about everything.

​Below I'll tell you all about this treasure, what I tried it with, answer some questions, and share my favorite way to use it {recipe} Everything but the Bagel Fried Eggs.

Four years ago today my husband and I got married! Our ceremony was inside a beautiful church in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. 

The reception was on the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor. She's the ship on which the documents ending WWII were signed and also known as the Battleship Missouri or Mighty Mo. 

She, as ships are always female, was also a star in Cher's "Turn Back Time" video, the movies Battleship, Under Seige, and more. 

Ocean City, Maryland is a classic East Coast beach town. It's located in a super flat part of the country and is home to a long stretch of beach and a lively boardwalk. There are tons and tons of hotels and vacation rentals, miniature golf courses on every block, and souvenir stores as far as the eye can see. There's also an Ocean City in New Jersey. This is not the Jersey shore, kids, it's Maryland.

While most of my high school classmates from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania went to Ocean City, Maryland (OCMD) for "senior week" at the end of our high school careers, I didn't. The last time I visited  OCMD since I was 12 or 13. I fondly remember playing mini golf with family and spending my hard-earned-babysitting-money on souvenir t-shirts and necklaces! Other than those memories, I have very few so I was excited to visit again.

Over the years of traveling with my husband I have learned and adopted his ways of carry-on bags only flying. It has been such an improvement in my life! No longer do I wait around at baggage claim, worry about lost bags, or pay fees for checked bags. 

While carry-on traveling is deserving of another post entirely, the key is making sure you're ready to go through airport secuity with a properly packed toiletry bag. That means your liquids (shampoo, soap, lotion, mousse, gel, etc.) have to be in small sized bottles and then contained in a bag that can be easily removed from your carry on and placed on the conveyor for the x-ray machine.

The sizing for liquids in a checked bag are totally different. This guide is for carry-on bags, the smaller suitcase you bring with you onto to the plane and stash in the overhead compartment. Once I forgot the difference in the size of liquid containers between checked bags and carry-ons and brought a giant bottle of Paul Mitchell (read: expensive) hair mousse in a carry-on. I had to leave behind the entire bottle, it was a tragic first world problem. The curly haired girl's nightmare resulted in both lost dollars and bad hair days while I swore I'd NEVER AGAIN make such a mistake. I have since perfected my carry-on toiletry bag packing! Spoiler alert: I always bring TWO mini mousses. 

Maybe you're feeling emotional or overjoyed because you've just sent your kids back to school. Maybe you can't wait to do so next week. Maybe you want to celebrate Thirsty Thursday (today!) or Labor Day Weekend. Maybe you have a watermelon that you don't know what to do with, like I did. Maybe you're reading this and have just decided for no reason at all that you can't live without a watermelon cocktail for another minute!

​No matter the reason you will surely enjoy this cool beverage. It feels so adult-ish to make a cocktail with real fruit, doesn't it?

While I love, love, love this Cool Watermelon and Cucumber Salad I've had it too much lately. There was one watermelon remaining from a Costco two-pack and I didn't know what to do with it. HELLO ANG, mix it with booze!