American Art Museum & Portrait Gallery

In one of our last outings (*sniffle, sniff*), Jason and I took Colin out to the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. It's a very pretty museum inside with a huge variety of exhibits. I'm sure we'll be back!

Make sure you read them!

 Little navigator

July 4th

I call Independence Day the red-headed step-child of my favorite holidays because it's in the summertime and I love winter. But it's still a fun one for me because I LOVE fireworks. They're so magical! It was a HOT one this year. I wanted to go down to the National Mall.... so we did. But not before we sort of dressed up: Jason wore a blue shirt and I wore a red and white one and also painted my nails black with multicolored sparkles like fireworks (which a hippy-looking dude - a guy you would least expect to comment on a woman's nails - complimented while we were out walking around)!

We took so many other photos throughout the day but this is literally the only one worth sharing. Once we got to DC I was feeling miserable with the heat, the mall was a constructional mess (I knew this ahead of time but ignored the facts), and we weren't near any music or anything festive - just craploads of people. After stopping in at Fogo de Chao to get a couple caipirinhas, I said, "Alright, I've been in DC on July 4th. Let's go back to VA now." HA. So that's what we did. After sharing a cup of Pinkberry for dinner, we watched the fireworks from across the river with a sweet little neighborhood with a view where we all had a little "Firework" singalong (Katy, of course) and got distracted by a cute chihuahua during the firework show (we're totally going to wind up with one sometime soon)... It wasn't much, but we enjoyed it. Happy Burfday, 'Murica!

DC's Aquatic Gardens

Last weekend, Jason and I went to the Aquatic Gardens in DC. They were a wee bit waterlogged from a big rain we had a couple of days prior but they were still pretty darn gorgeous. There was so much wildlife! Turtles in all different sizes (I was in turtle heaven), geese with their goslings, fish, and dragonflies galore. And of course, lots of pretty flowers.

 We brought a little someone else with us for the trip too.

This is Colin, the sweetest little guy I've been spending most of my time with lately. While his talented mama is off, "entertaining the masses," as she calls it, we take little trips around DC together. We have the best time!



I adore him.

We'll definitely be making another trip when everything has had a chance to dry out a little more.

There were quite a few walking paths we didn't get the chance to see and I'd love to explore them all!

Playing the Real Estate Game in the DC Area

It's been a five (blissful) months since we've gone out to look at houses. We were burned so badly in our search. Countless contracts, three inspections, three realtors. All for nothing. We were searching in vain for over a year by the time we decided to take a break for a while. We needed that break very badly, and the changes we made really did make a difference in our attitudes and life. In that time off, I tried to convince myself that buying a house wasn't the right choice for as many reasons as I could come up, including (but not limited to):

• I should enjoying being young and carefree without a mortgage.
• Spending money on concert tickets, going out to eat, etc is way more fun than spending it on a mortgage.
• We've always wanted to live in another state doing it now before we have kids and want to be near our family makes sense.
• The majority of our future kids' grandparents will probably move out of town in the next 10 years anyway.
• Grad school would be the perfect opportunity to live somewhere else for a while.
• My tools for yard work right now include kitchen scissors and a serving spoon. And I like it that way.
• Similarly, if something breaks, our sweet land-lady arranges to get it fixed. And pays for it.
• I love our neighbors and our neighborhood.

Then I devised an alternative five-year plan that did not include homeownership that enabled me to think of those reasons listed above. I did a really good job of convincing myself. It really was a great plan - it was valid and smart.

So I'm still not sure I want to be back in the real estate game, but for every con I came up with there is also a pro to buying right now.

Still, I don't know how I feel about it. If it says anything about our experience, we couldn't even remember our realtor's name when we wanted to contact her yesterday. Which might be understandable except that her name? It's my middle name (the one I had 'til I got married, anyway)... and I still had to look it up to remember. (It should be said that this memory black-out had nothing to do with her as a person because she's sweet as can be.)

So all this to say, we're going to start looking again. So... wish us luck? I guess? We'll see how long this lasts. Because honestly? I can see myself walking into one house and then being done again.

P.S. I'm still catching up on posting. I posted two entries (concerts, Baltimore) this weekend to start my catch-up process and plan to do more in the next week or so. And yes, I skipped over the last half of our West Coast vacation. Someday I'll get back to it. Maybe in the dead of winter to remind me of summer again.

Earthquake in VA

We're fine, home safe, and only my shampoo and our waffle iron suffered from the quake.

As earthquakes go, this didn't cause major damage. I've seen a lot of humor, joking, and mocking - which I understand and have laughed at - but I've also seen some fear. Some people had flashbacks to 9/11 today. I know it's true in D.C. and I'm sure it's true of NYC as well. Most people around here aren't accustomed to earthquakes but we do know that we're in our nation's capital and it's always a potential target for terrorism. When things shake around here, most people's first reaction isn't "earthquake" but rather "bomb." I think not knowing initially what was shaking the ground made people extra freaked out. At first I was offended by people mocking us East Coasters - between the uncertainty and not being able to get in touch with family for over an hour I felt like I was going a little crazy. In the end, I think the humor helped me get over it. RIP waffle iron.

One scary bit of info about the earthquake still remains though: After the disaster in Japan a few months ago, Jason and I did a little research about Lake Anna's nuclear power plant since we spend a lot of time down there each year. We learned that it's the 7th most at-risk nuclear power plant for earthquake damage in the US (out of 100+ plants) and was only built to withstand a magnitude of 5.9 – 6.1. Today's earthquake was a 5.8 and the epicenter was a mere few miles from the plant. That's a little too close for comfort if you ask me. Maybe we should work on fixing the plants so they're a little more earthquake-ready? Yeah?

Own the Night like the Fourth of July

My parents and brother were never huge into fireworks and then I married a man who felt just as underwhelmed. But I'm still spoiled. When my dad lived in DC, we sat on his roof deck to watch the fireworks. When we moved to VA, we walked down to the Iwo Jima memorial and picnicked. Once, when my family didn't want to do our normal walk down there, I huffed and puffed about the fact the fact that they were going to sit and watch the fireworks on TV when we have some of the best fireworks in the country and could go out and see them in person. My dad kindly drove a little ways and stopped in the middle of the road to see them (all traffic that can actually see the show comes to a stand-still and people get out of their cars). Another time when I couldn't convince them to go with me, I walked about five minutes from the house until I got a good view and stood there with some neighbors who had the same idea.

This year was similar. I convinced Jason at the last second to drive until we could see them. Slowly more and more people showed up at our spot - they had the same idea. Just keep driving until you get a good view! It only took us five minutes to find this view. I'm thankful to be so close to the city so that I can convince my less-than-excited family to go with me at the very last second. We were at the lake last year so great to see them in DC this year too. These were COOL fireworks - it's always a great show on the mall, but I was pretty impressed this year!

Someday I WILL go down to the mall.
Neither of us are huge crowd people and most say once is enough, but...

it's ridiculous that both of us have grown up here and have never done it.

Maybe next year?

*Yes, I continued with the Katy Perry themed titling. I have no shame.

Dry DC Days

We have been SO LUCKY because the weather in DC has not been very DC-like at all. We have had a few yucky humid days, but also quite a few gorgeous dry(ish) days. Yesterday was one of them, so we took advantage. We started our day early with a belated Father's Day breakfast with my dad and little bro who are back in town after a trek to Seattle and Utah to visit family and friends. Jason and I headed downtown afterward to visit the Crime and Punishment museum and then took a nice long walk to Founding Farmers for a late lunch. My favorite thing about this restaurant is their homemade ginger ale (you know how much I love my ginger drinks) which is spicy and refreshing. Jason tried their orange soda which was pretty tasty too. If I didn't love the ginger ale so much I would try all of their yummy drinks, but I think I'm stuck on it for life. After tweeting about it, a friend linked me to this homemade ginger ale recipe which I must try!

I wish DC had more beautiful summer days like yesterday... We'll keep on wishin'...

P.S. Dear future children, it's okay with me if you don't get my hazel eyes and get your daddy's gorgeous blue eyes instead.

Snowy Thunder

After being passed by multiple times, we finally got our snowstorm! It started in the middle of the day causing traffic to back up like crazy. It took Jason two and a half hours to get home on the bus and he only rides it for a few miles! Crazy. Throughout the night, I was glued to Twitter following the local updates. It was a thundersnow storm so we got some lightening and even got three huge blasts of green light that lit everything up like day from a transformer exploding.

The next morning, I had a two hour delay and Jason worked from home so we were able to have a little fun in the snow.

After our walk, I went to Target, which was deserted, to get some milk, bread, and eggs for a nice breakfast before work. Jason also cooked up some sausage. Yum! It was a great way to start the day.

Of course the schools were closed so the kiddies stayed busy in our courtyard. Get a load of the size of this snowman! That's your average baseball cap on his head!

If this is the only storm we get, we'll be happy. But of course we would always enjoy another!
Anyone else love snow as much as we do?

Zola Dinner

Every once in a while we like to go out and get a nice meal. Last week, we met after work in DC to go to Zola. I think they're a better bar than restaurant, but we were happy enough with the food. I mean, I got a plate of mushrooms and onions - can't go wrong with that! Jason got some fish (the photo didn't turn out) and we got delicious desserts! It was a very nice date night that we ended at home with our pup and with the windows open. Loving this nice fall weather!

I've been fighting a sore throat all week and woke up full-blown sick early this morning so we're being lazy for the weekend while I try to recover. Jason already ran to the grocery store to get me some cold meds, chicken noodle soup, OJ, soy milk, and even some vitamin water and nutella! Sweet husband, I love you!

The July Surprise!

The surprise of July was ERIN!!!

My dearest Erin came into town this weekend to surprise her fiance, Ryan, who is working in the DC area this summer (for NASA of all places - can we say awesome?). He was very surprised so the trip was a success! Here they are. Aww, aren't they cute? We can't wait for their upcoming nuptials NEXT July!

So, lucky me, I got to hang out with her while she was in town. Yay! We drove all around in Arlington, Georgetown, and DC. Some of the highlights include:

• Splitting a peach cupcake (next time we'll try the lemon blueberry one we really wanted that another lady stole right out from under us),
• Cooling off with some gelato (for her) and sorbet (for me),
• Wedding dresses! She tried on wedding dresses and found her perfect dress (it's SO pretty).

Jason also met us for an unsuccessful lunch trip to Good Stuff, which I've been wanting to try for a while now.  While lunch was unsuccessful, dinner was a success! We all made it there for dinner... but not all together. Jason and I stopped to eat to miss some of the traffic back into VA and Erin and crew went later.

Eventually I'll get a burger and a marshmallow shake but I stuck with a chicken breast sandwich, a bite of Jason's burger, and a strawberry milkshake and fries to share. We were STUFFED afterward!

Today, we got to meet Erin, Ryan, and Ryan's sister, brother-in-law, and cute little nephew for lunch today before she flew back to sunny LA. Was so good seeing you, Okie dearest!

Snowpocalypse 2.0

It was quite a weekend! Snowpocalypse 2.0 hit us and hit us hard. We have about two feet of snow on the ground and things are still shut down today! We had a nice and cozy weekend being snowed in!

Our front door got a little bit blocked off by a poor tree that split into four pieces. And check out that snow on the roof! That snow falls off in huge sheets that make our apartment shake and the gutters fall off. Our back door won't open all the way because of all of the snow blocking it from the sheets that have come down!

Rufus enjoyed the snow too. This snow was a bit deep for him so he didn't go leaping through it like last time. He dug around quite a bit though, trying to find things buried beneath the snow!

A little bit of the black and white world.

I'm a bit of a trail-blazer. I wanted to see how high the snow was. There was so much snow that I was actually standing on a good couple of inches of compacted snow so it's actually higher than it looks. Not to mention, the snow wasn't done falling and got higher after this picture. I sent the picture of Jason and Rufus to the Washington Post. I think it should have been February 7th's cover picture!

More black and white world. I love the texture in these two pictures.

Tons of heavy, wet snow doesn't come without consequences. There are dozens of broken tree branches and trunks. It killed a lot of plant life for sure. There is a tree that fell on a car on our street. Bad news. It pulled on power lines as well. Thankfully, our power never went out!

This is the best representation of how much snow we got. This was about two hours before the snow stopped - so a little more fell.

Here's a before and after shot of our walk. We accumulated a lot of snow on ourselves. Check out my hair! I have to say, I am very thankful for my snow gear. Growing up around here, you don't need gear like this regularly, but going to school in Ithaca required proper snow boots and a heavy duty coat. And crew necessitated the purchase of water-proof pants (for rainy regattas which we had a few of). I may as well use the stuff, right?! I may look like a fool but I'm a warm and dry fool!

Rufus stays stylin' in his winter jacket too. We always swore we would never dress a dog and we'd laugh at people that put their dogs in clothes. Well, we take it back now. This Jackahuahua is a shaky little guy - he doesn't have thick fur and he gets the Chihuahua shakes when he's outside in the winter time! Look at that little face! He's cold even with a jacket on!

Drying the pooch off and getting him into his warm sweater. He was a little exhausted after the snow adventure.

The next day the sky was clear as could be. Look at all that blue! Rufus is jumping for joy!

Snow is still everywhere and completely stuck to everything, including our car. We had a heck of a time getting it out of the snow. We used our trashcans to dig the snow out around it since we don't have a shovel. It worked pretty well! We met a few neighbors who were using pots and pans to dig their cars out! And then all of us met yet another neighbor who lent us all his dirt shovel and brooms! Hooray for friendly neighbors!

We had fun a lot of fun hanging out together. We indulged and ate some fun things, watched some TV, I baked some banana muffins and made some smoothies (which we tried to document but we started laughing and progressively got more and more hysterical - Jason is trying hard to take a good picture but I'm laughing so hard I'm crying in the last picture).

It was all simple fun, but we really enjoy doing things like that at home together. And to make it a little extra special, I plugged our Christmas lights in again. It made it feel like it was December again. We're embracing the winter while we still can.

All in all, we had a really great weekend. It's so much fun to be snowed in with the ones you love! Oh and, we're supposed to get more snow tomorrow and Wednesday!

Hooray!!!

Snow & Subarus: Dog Tested. Dog Approved.

Our car is still pretty new to us and it's the biggest purchase I've ever made (other than, you know, four years of private college). And Rufus is the most rewarding purchase I've ever made. (Who says you can't buy/choose your family?) So when I got an email that coupled the two together, I got excited. Subaru a new "Dog Tested. Dog Approved." ad campaign that features dogs in Subarus. The videos aren't anything ground-breaking or fantastic, but they made me smile none-the-less. I like to think Rufus enjoys our Subaru! Speaking of our 'ru, here it is in the snow.

That was around 9:30 this morning and the snow is still coming down like crazy! We're all loving it! I'll definitely post more pictures once the storm has passed us by. Until then, we'll be enjoying being snowed in while watching movies and eating homemade chili, corn muffins, and all of the other delicious treats we stocked up on for the storm!

Winter Snows

This morning, inspiration struck when we woke up to this:

In fact, we fell asleep to it too. The world covered in white. It's so beautiful, so elegant.

I'm one of the odd ones – instead of loving spring and summer, I love fall and winter. It would be really hard to pick one over the other but I think part of the appeal of fall is its build up to winter. The last quarter of the year is my favorite – the months of October, November, and December. January isn't my favorite, but this January has been pretty amazing because we’ve had snow. Glorious, blissful snow.

I absolutely love the winter. It's so romantic. I love the cold, I love being able to see my breath, I love rosy checks, crackling fireplaces, and cuddling under blankets. I love the quiet of winter that doesn't exist in the summertime. I love drinking hot tea, eating hot soups, and baking. My love for winter deepens in the snow. I still get excited about snow. I figure if, after spending four winters in Ithaca, NY I still love it, I'll probably love it forever. I love the sound it makes beneath boots, I love the way it dampens all other sound. I have a love for black and white photography and often wonder what the world would look like in black and white. When it snows, I get a glimpse into that world.

After our last blog post (RIP wordpress blog), on December 19th, we got the biggest snowstorm D.C. has ever had in the month of December.

I wound up getting snowed out rather than in – at a friend's house while dog-sitting. I was pretty bummed out about it, but after a call from my dear mother-in-law, I cheered up a little bit and tried to see the bright side of the situation. I realized, even though I wasn't home with Jason and Rufus, I was in good company – with a pretty doggie named Foxy, a giant Christmas tree, a stash of delicious teas, and a password for Netflix online! I documented the snow as best I could without my camera (hooray Photobooth) for my friends – this was their first huge snow at their new house and I didn't want them to miss it!

And I had Jason document the snow at our place – Rufus couldn't even see over the snow! He loved it though and jumped through it even when he didn't have to.



This past weekend, we got some more snow and it's funny – I got snowed out again! This time in the company of my little brother at my parent's house. I was in much higher spirits this time. It wasn't even a day away from home, and it was at my childhood home. Not to mention, I love my little brother like crazy and it was fun to hang out with him. And... it wasn't that much snow. I don't even think it could be considered snowed in. It was safe to drive the next day and took me less time to clear the snow off of the cars and shovel the house's walkway and sidewalk than it took me to dig my car out in the December storm.

This morning, the snow was gorgeous. It filled the trees and even blew up the trunks of some of them. I had to bring the camera along for my morning walk with Rufus.

We've been issued a warning: we may be getting another huge "snowpocalypse" - one the size of the storm in December. The best part is this time I'll be snowed in with Jason and Rufus.