Bloggety, Blog, Blog, Blog

The last time I blogged was on 9/11 and little did I know that all hell would continue to break loose around here.  We got our basement fixed up beautifully—I’m happy to say you would never know anything happened.  There is one less couch and there is a lot of extra lighting now, which is awesome, but other than that, life is back to normal downstairs!

In the meantime, the car needed new brakes and I needed glasses, which added up to a lot of money!!!!!  Thankfully we were able to get both done and finish paying off the credit card bills, because things just kept getting crazier!

Unfortunately, just as we were preparing to go to NY for my dad’s 60th, my mom called to say her long time companion Jim had collapsed after having suffered a massive heart attack.  He passed away on September 28th.  Having been a big part of our lives for a number of our years, this was a really sad loss for the family.  I was thus in Florida for almost 3 weeks.  During this time, Kristin from Iceland moved out.  I was disappointed in a way, but I think it was probably for the best and since I am still working with her new family’s other student, I will see her here and there.  I very much doubt we will host next year although I said that this year, so who knows, but I’m excited to say that Penny’s brother Mickey is coming to spend Christmas with us this year, so it’ll be kind of like celebrating with an exchange student anyway and we’ll get 2 weeks of fun before sending him on his way.

Florida was a good time, despite the circumstances.  I found things for Leah to do in and around Vero Beach and we went to the Brevard Zoo, SeaWorld, and Lion Country Safari.  I do believe the kid knows more about animals than any other 2 year old around!  Her particular favorites were the sharks and penguins at SeaWorld.  I also took her to see the movie A Dolphin Tale, which she loved and went around telling everyone she could find that the dolphin broke its tail.  We came home from SeaWorld with a 3 foot long Shamu, and just recently Leah ripped all the stuffing from ‘Mu’s tail and has informed me that Mu has a broken tail like the dolphin.  When I re-stuff Mu, we shall remedy his broken tail with a band-aid!  We also paid some extra money to go pet a rhinoceros, which was a pretty awesome experience that I won’t soon forget!  Leah liked taking a scrub brush to him and tickling him.  Whenever I ask her about the rhino, she says, “BRUSH!” (you can kind of see the rhino behind my mom in the picture above)  So we did a lot of things we might not otherwise have gotten to do and I got to go to the beach (even if it wasn’t Myrtle Beach) and just chill out and help out my mom as needed.  We kind of tossed around the idea of Disney World, I think more because Mom and I wanted to go than we really wanted to take Leah, but cooler heads prevailed—she really is still too young and we want her to remember that first time forever.  Another couple of years!

This class I am taking is really kicking my butt.  For 3 weeks, I basically did nothing, as the professor told me not to worry about it, so I’ve been playing catch up ever since.  We have group projects to do, and I’m happy to say I have great group members who really picked up the slack for me, and so I am now going to work doubly hard to make up for the work I didn’t do on Assignment 2.  Only 36 days till the class is over, THANK GOD, and let us hope I never take a class about organizing data and information EVER AGAIN!  Next semester I hope to take Introduction to Archiving so I can see if I really want to pursue that as a career option like I’ve been thinking I might.

I had fun in October going to the Kennedy Center to see Les Mis with some members of my choir, and then spending that evening answering phones for WAMU at their annual member drive.  We had a recordbreaking night, getting $35,000 in 3 hours, which is pretty incredible.  I love volunteering during The Big Broadcast—the most interesting mix of people volunteer and we had  fun table.  It was nice to unwind and let my hair down after the stress of Jim’s death and the classwork piling up.  The production of Les Mis was spellbinding—literally I wept many times and it was just a great performance. 

Leah and I have been having a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween.  We’ve been doing little projects now, like baking bread and making pumpkin-shaped jello and pumpkin-shaped crayons from all the crayons she broke to bits.  I went over to the local teacher supply store and bought a few charts for the walls so we are learning our colors and taking little scavenger hunts.  We talk about the weather and count the days on the calendar.  We went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins today.  It’s fun and keeps her engaged.  I am looking forward to getting her into preschool, but am not in any rush.  We are keeping busy with a music class and MOPS and various and sundry other activities and are looking into gymnastics.  She’s a fun kid and able to do so much more.  Even though I miss snuggling with a newborn, I do enjoy these toddler days!  I like being crafty and even little things turn into a lot of fun for her, so I try to come up with something to keep her interested and teach her something new, while allowing me to stretch my creative muscles and keep from getting cranky!

Hopefully our bathroom project will get underway soon.  We finally got our loan approved and got the money to pay the contractor, so we’re ready to go.  We picked a design and that’s that!  It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 3 months since the Great Flood, and while it had unintended consequences, it’s fun to think of the positives of the situation and how we’re going to come out of it.  We also paid off our car this month, ahead of schedule, which loosens up our budget some to do some other things.  It’s the first time in 6 years we don’t have a car payment.  We nearly got hit today by the local ne’er-do-well on our way out to get pumpkins to carve, and I thought, “Wouldn’t that just be my luck!?” but thankfully he got back on his side of the road with about 6 inches to spare before he hit us.

Joe and I went and saw the MST3K live show, Cinematic Titanic, again on Thursday night.  It’s a fun way for him and I to celebrate our frienshipversary—this year being #17.  It won’t be long now before I’ve known him more than half my life, which I find mindboggling.  We had our traditional Bertucci’s dinner and then walked around DC for a couple of hours before the show started.  Afterwards, we got on line for the signing and I got myself a poster to have signed.  We also discovered Joel was allowing people to take pictures, so of course, we took full advantage.  I like that all of us are modeling sexy eyewear! :-D  My next big celebrity trip will be in November to see Diane Keaton at 6th and I Synagogue, which should be quite interesting.  I enjoy watching her, and she seems like she’d just be a really nice and down to earth person, so I’m looking forward to meeting her!  I wonder if she’s going to wear something crazy or just dress casually.

In general, I’m just feeling quite content with life.  I seem to have made friends with some exceptionally kind and low key people—just last week I was able to go out to dinner with 3 new girlfriends and we all sat around and laughed and chattered until before we knew it, 2+ hours had gone by.  I’ve joined a new book club here in town, which is fun, and my NoVa book club seems to have gotten back on track, surviving the 7 year itch.  I’ve become very friendly with a wonderful couple down the street and their daughter, all of whom think Leah is the best kid in the universe (and of course, I quite agree!). 

I’m keeping busy, busy, busy and keep telling Mike, “I promise, I’m going to calm down…after this week”.  Fortunately he’s been patient with what has been a ridiculous autumn!

There have been a lot of fun little things going on and I always think, “Oh, I should blog about that!” but usually I am too tired!  It’s a shame—Leah says some damned cute stuff that I’d like to remember and we have a lot of fun and do a lot of things, but time just keeps on slipping away…  I really can’t believe tomorrow is Halloween!  Then it’s November, and I do debate doing NaNoWriMo just so I can get this damned whiteboard down from my bulletin board and finish my book!  And then in a few short weeks, it will be Thanksgiving.  Mike and I have been debating what to do in April for our 10th wedding anniversary, and yet it seems like just yesterday we were getting married.  I feel too young to be this old and too old at the same time. 

I’ll close here and who knows when I’ll blog again!  The new Facebook sucks, but it doesn’t seem to keep me from using it, so of course, you can get my updates there if I don’t update here :)  Ta ta!

Whirlwind Weekend

This is one of those weekend that got so busy and so crazy so quickly that you’re almost glad it’s Monday.  Except that I don’t have back up to keep Leah entertained on Monday. But it’s nice to have her to myself today!

Last Tuesday, we got the mail and in it was a little postcard from Lisner Auditorium.  I was sitting on the back porch when Penny brought the mail up and as I read the postcard, I yelled, “Holy sh**!” and ran in the house to buy my tickets for Cinematic Titanic, the live MST3K show.  I got a great seat and emailed my friend Joe and asked him to go with me, since we spent a good deal of college watching MST3K. 

Friday night, we met up at the Lisner and headed over to Bertucci’s for dinner.  It was a big night for us, every October on some nebulous date, we celebrate one more year of friendship, and this year we celebrated being friends for 16 years.  I brought him some fun cards and he paid for dinner.  Due to the crappy service at Bertucci’s, we sat around for 90 minutes, but it was a fun time to reminisce and talk about life now and I got to preview his new comic book, which is amazing.  (way to go, Joe!)

The show was spectacular.  I laughed for 2 1/2 solid hours.  The movie was predictably horrible.  Although the postcard read for something like “Battle of the Insects”, the real name of the movie was Genocide.  (But as they pointed out, who wants to say they went to the theater to see genocide, and even worse, who wants to say they laughed at it?)  When Joel Hodgson stepped out on stage, the whole theater erupted.  One of the cast members said, “MST3K fans are the best fans in the world.  You know why?  Because the show has been off the air for 12 years and you’re still packing auditoriums!”  WOO HOO!!!!

The movie was horrible—I was actually bored of it, although not of the experience, but I was just like, “Come on already!”  As the MST3K cast riffed on the movie, there was a chance for them to interact with the audience depending on how we reacted to their jokes, so it was just amazing.  Joe and I agreed to bookmark it and if they ever come back to DC, sign us up!

Afterwards, we got on line to get autographs.  I had dug out my old VHS tapes, which Joe was extremely impressed at their condition.  And I had picked up a couple of DVD’s at Borders the night before.  The line was quite long but moved rather quickly and it was exciting to get up there and talk to the cast.  Joel said hello and shook my hand (I’ll never wash it again! haha) and then signed my tapes and I moved on down the line.  For some reason, one of my DVD sets piqued their interest as none of them had seen it before.  Go figure!  It was awesome to meet Trace Beaulieu (unrecognizable without the crazy hair) and Frank Conniff, who looks exactly the same as he did as TV’s Frank.  I shook hand with all of them and they were all so nice.  Joe and I were beside ourselves.

I got home around midnight, and I was exhausted, but I knew the cavalry was coming.  Saturday morning, I got up and we got Leah ready to go to Woodbridge to spend they day with Auntie Melissa.  We drove her up there and dropped her and a pile of toys off and then came home.  Penny was waiting for us, and she told us she missed Leah as soon as we walked in the door! :-D    She had Homecoming on Saturday night, so she was excited to go dancing with her friends.  I spent the day cleaning up the house, which I am happy to report is still pretty clean even though Hurricane Leah has been home a full day now.  It only took me a few hours and then everything was more or less up to snuff—I need to wash the floors, but other than that, I’m in good shape, vacuuming, dusting, and surfaces all complete.

Penny’s friend Ashley came over around 4:30 to do her hair and make up and I sat down and watched a zombie prank on YouTube that my buddy Steve had posted to his Facebook.  I was laughing so hard Penny and Ashley came down to see what the heck was going on.  I don’t know where the Japanese get off making this kind of stuff, but it is HILARIOUS.  I was crying I was laughing so hard, mainly because I could totally picture Leah kicking the zombie in the back.  If you want to see it, click here.

Afterwards, we got Penny dressed and took a few photos before going up the hill to see the family of the young man she was taking to the dance, who happened to be Ashley’s cousin.  He was all dressed up and ready to go, so we all took a bunch of pictures and then Ashley, Penny, and JB headed out and Michael and I came home to go have a quiet dinner somewhere.  We decided on Ruby Tuesday’s.  We went to the one in Central Park, but it was JAMMED, so we took off and went to the one on Mine Road, where we had a delightful meal.

We came home and decided it was a perfect night to spark up the firepit and have some smores and our neighbor Jett came over to say hello while we were out there.  We chatted with him for a while till the fire died out and then retreated to the warmth of the house just in time to get the call that Penny was on her way home.  I downloaded the new Sara Bareilles song King of Anything, which has become my new anthem of the moment and when Penny arrived, we were debriefed on the fun of homecoming, at which it seems she had a great time, and that was confirmed looking at her pictures!

Sunday, Melissa brought Leah home, although Leah didn’t particularly care if she was brought home or not (between you and me, I think she enjoys the spoiling she gets up there).  We took Melissa out to lunch as a thank you for watching our girl and then she headed out and I made a big pot of tomato sauce for my family for dinner, since I was heading up to NPR.  I had planned to bake pumpkin cookies, but frankly, I fell asleep.  The only thing that woke me up at 4:00 was my mother-in-law calling to talk to Penny. :-)  Since I needed to leave around 4:30, it was just as well.  I got up and found Penny and called back to Rhode Island and got myself together and headed out to WAMU, with a quick stop to get gas.  I don’t know how it happened, but I saved 60 cents on gas at Giant, which was awesome.  I thought I’d save about 40 cents, which would have been good enough, but 60 cents is even better!

I got to WAMU at 6:10 or so and found my preferred table was back where I wanted it to be.  My sister walked in and a bat-shit crazy part of me was so happy to see her that I even smiled at her, which she completely ignored and sat elsewhere with her husband.  I found his presence interesting on a number of levels that I can’t really go into.  Anyway, it was a good night, we raised $35,000 in 3 hours.  I only took about 8 calls and not for big money, but a lot of people were getting small donations that apparently added up to a bunch of money in the end.  A place called Tonic (I think) provided the meal, which was a chicken pasta dish, bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, cupcakes and brownies.  The food was very good, especially the salad.  I picked up 5 or 6 new books from the table, which was cool, read a lot of my book club book, and I was home by 11:30.  I’m looking forward to the February campaign!

Good thing too since Michael’s carpool driver didn’t sleep last night (I know the feeling), so he had to get me up at 6:00 to go and take him to the train.  It was actually nice, though, as I got to spend some time with Penny before she left for school, and I was able to write out her note for missing a couple days for our upcoming trip.  I took a hot shower and now I’ve been able to fill in my blog updates! WOW!

By some miracle, it’s 7:45 and Leah is still sleeping!  It was most definitely an awesome weekend.  My father once told my sister that I didn’t understand the importance of feeding the soul.  Well I do, and this weekend, I fed it by just being me and having a whole lot of fun.  And can I just say, walking into a clean house is a real boon to the spirits!  I’ve been beating myself up mentally a lot lately, and this was just one of those weekends that let me put things into perspective.

Coming up, I will finish off my grad school applications—I am waiting on one more letter of recommendation—and we are heading out for my mom’s 60th birthday soon.  Penny and I will spend a day at Disney World, her first time there.  She has triple and quadruple invitations to Halloween parties, so she has to decide what she wants to do about Halloween and I have decided to skip the Rally to Restore Sanity to preserve my own sanity so I can take the girls to the pumpkin patch and we can carve pumpkins and whatnot.  The annual Kosior Fall Festival—I want it to happen! :)

Ta ta for now!

Thus Begins The Insanity!

Tomorrow is April 1, and in a week, my baby will turn 1.  It is something I simply cannot fathom.  She is a beautiful, smart, funny little darling, and while we’ve had moments of stress and anxiety in the past year, I would not have changed a thing about it at all.  I have a dream job—staying home and raising a little person.  What a joy!  Even though I just had some Easter portraits done at Sears, I scheduled an appointment to have some more portraits done on her actual birthday over at Picture People, since they sent me a coupon. 

Today, Leah and I went to the mall with my friend Lisa and her little guy, Daniel, who is about 5 months older than Leah.  We walked them around the mall, they both met the Easter bunny, we had a nice lunch, and let them play at the playpark in the mall.  Lisa and I met last summer when I decided to have a Pampered Chef show and put a notice in every mailbox on the street to try and meet my neighbors.  Unfortunately, Lisa couldn’t make it, but we started walking together around the neighborhood.  Leah was still too little to play much, so we didn’t really hang around, but now that Leah is a little bit bigger, we’ve been spending more time together.  Tomorrow, we are going to go up to DC to see the cherry blossoms, have a picnic, and let the kids play out on W. Potomac Park.  It should be a great day.  We are both going back to WW the Saturday after Easter (Leah’s birthday party), and we’ve been motivating each other to walk a couple miles each day when the weather is nice.  I have been enjoying having a friend right down the street and we have common interests and a similar parenting philosophy.  The other night, she, Daniel, and her husband were walking around our block and stopped over.  John and Michael hit it off like a house on fire, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them!

Work started on the house today.  The main level and all the brick and the front porch were powerwashed and the old shutters were removed.  It looks kind of odd in that whoever lived here before didn’t bother to paint underneath the shutters when they painted the house, so we can actually see the color of the original brick.  It makes me wish even more that whoever did it had not painted the brick, but what’s done is done, so now we will finish the job.  We picked what I hope is a nice yellow color, although I suspect that it’s going to be more beige-ish.  I’m reserving judgment till I see it, but I hope I’m going to like it!

Then it’ll be time to get ready for the weekend!!!!  I plan to spend Friday shopping and defrosting a giant turkey, as well as starting to prepare the coconut cake I’m going to make for dessert (unless I wimp out at get the Wegman’s Ultimate White Cake, which, frankly, is AMAZING).  Saturday will be spent doing preparations for Easter, and then in the evening I’ll be going off to dinner and bingo with Wendy.  (Anyone else want to play?  We’ll be in the usual spot!)

I’m really excited for Easter.  I think we’ll have a nice crew and it’ll be fun having some kids around.  Most importantly, Mr. Gobble will be out of my freezer, freeing up valuable real estate for provisions for the party.  I hope the painters get the house painted by Easter is the only thing!  I plan to take Leah to church first thing and then we’ll get cookin’!  So far, Manda is bringing potato salad, Melissa is bringing devilled eggs, and Wendy is bringing a ham and mac n’ cheese to make her fussy eaters happy.  I think we’ll have a nice variety of food for sure.

Monday is book club.  We’ll be discussing Olive Kitteridge and then I will post a review here afterwards.  Friday, Michael is having some training on Leah stuff, and then we have to go to DMV, since we just discovered his ID expired a year ago!  Then we’ll start preparing for the big blow out.  My buddy Joe is coming down Friday to help out, and we’ll go and get the food.  I hope the weather is nice—we’re going to try having a cook out and I would love to be outside as much as possible.  If you’re coming and it’s nice, please bring a camp chair, lawn chair, etc. if you have them.  Saturday is the party and then Sunday I have choir practice.  Then Jennifer arrives that Thursday, and we’ll spend Friday apartment hunting.  Saturday we will take her back to Richmond to the airport, go to a birthday party in Richmond, and hopefully meet up with some new friends we’ve been corresponding with through our adoption attorney—they are hoping to adopt soon, and have turned to us for advice.  The following week is our wedding anniversary, and a pile of dress rehearsals for the chorus concert, which is the following weekend.  The 24th, I am getting together with my friend Kris, whose kids and husband will all be out of town.  The 25th is the big concert (tickets are still available at the low, low price of $85!), and by then, it’ll be the end of the month!  Sheesh, I’m tired just thinking about it.

I’ve been in contact with a friend from home since I sent out the email asking people to vote for Leah.  I said to her that if we won, we would come visit her while we are in NYC, since she lives in NYC, and she told us not to wait, to come anyway!  Turns out she lives right near where I went to college, so I’m thrilled that I can go visit my old stomping grounds, show Michael Manhattan College, and we can go around NYC.  We are hoping to get up there in June.  And of course, in May, we’ve got our trip to Myrtle Beach lined up.  I got Leah some clothes today and a bathing suit—this one a one piece to compliment the two piece her auntie sent her.  We are so excited to be going, although sad to hear the Wellses can’t join us after all!!!  I plan to do a lot of R&R that week.  And it’s nice the fee for the condo includes the maid service, so we can just walk on out of there Saturday morning with nary a thought.

We have become the smoothie king and queen.  We had a box of oranges to use up, so I juiced them all and then put the juice in the blender with the strawberries I had picked and frozen last summer.  YUM!  Since then, we’ve been trying different kinds.  We had strawberry lemonade slush tonight, and last night we had peach-berry.  Michael has loved them too, and we have similar taste in fruit, so it’s working out very well.

So that’s about it.  Less than a week till I get to go back on Facebook, but it doesn’t seem as important as it did nearly 40 days ago.  I have enjoyed blogging again, so I can see myself reading other people’s updates, and I’m sure I’ll post updates, but I just hope I keep up with my blog. 

Till next time!

2009 National Book Festival

The authors for this year's book festival were recently announced. Judy said she didn't think anyone really great was coming, so I didn't bother to look at the site until yesterday. But when I did, I got all excited! Who's going to be there that's got me all excited? Judy Blume!! I can't wait to meet her!

Mark your calendar, DC reading friends :-) It's gonna be a blast.

(I'm also excited to meet John Grisham and James Patterson--hoping I can get Mike to go this year to meet these two!)

(Almost) A Week With Mike and Lesley

So it's hard to believe that Mike and Lesley's trip has come and gone already! (And that I started this blog post 6 days ago and am only just now getting back to it--sheesh!) We had an absolutely amazing time. I can't even say how fantastic it was. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures, but oh well! I was too busy having the time of my life.

I picked them up in Richmond on Thursday morning. Leah and I went down early and we made a little flag that said, "Welcome Uncle Mike and Auntie Lesley!" to greet them with when they came through the security gate. Of course while we were waiting, Leah held court with the many passersby who admired her, but once Mike and Lesley arrived, all bets were off. They had packed light and so had all their gear with them, although Lesley ran afoul of the TSA by packing contact lens solution AND shampoo (naughty!).

We got back to the house before 11:00 and decided to get some Chinese food for lunch. We just hung around and caught up. It had been a year and a half since we'd all been together (seriously!? WTH?! That sucks! Never again!) and they needed to get acquainted with their new niece. Michael rolled in around 5:30 and we got to talking about dinner and decided to go to the new Fredericksburg Pub. Apparently we don't have enough shopping here in F'burg because outside our mall, a new shopping area is going in, and the Fredericksburg Pub is the premiere eatery and is actually open! Mike had sent me a list of restaurants he was curious about in the DC area, and I mentioned the pub to him, and he was sold. I knew Lesley and I would enjoy it and Michael loved it when we went the previous weekend, so we were off! We wound up sitting outside under some stereo speakers playing "Name That Band" and enjoyed the heck out of ourselves. We got home and discussed plans for Friday. Michael and Leah were both under the weather, and Lesley and Mike planned to go to DC on Saturday to meet Lesley's family who were visiting from Canada. We also planned to go to DC on Monday, so we decided we'd try to go to Charlottesville on Friday.

Leah chose Thursday night to throw one holy hell of a temper tantrum. Seriously, I called my mom at 11:00AM and I was like, "What am I going to do with this demon who has invaded my baby!?" Eventually Leah wore herself out, but it was rough going. Consequently, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, so I wound up sleeping in a bit on Friday, which put us off to a late start. Happily, Mike and Lesley totally understood and were just ready to roll whenever we were. Michael decided to stay home, so the other 4 of us piled in the car and headed for Charlottesville--or so we thought.

We talked about where to eat lunch, and Mike said he'd like to go someplace where we could sit and relax. I thought about it and suggested a little place in Culpeper I know called It's About Thyme. Culpeper is on the way to Charlottesville if you don't take the backroads, and it seemed like a perfect spot to stop en route to Monticello, our ultimate destination. We got the restaurant and it was packed, so we wound up waiting about 20 minutes for a table. Mike amused himself by having Lesley pose making various gang signs and laughing his butt off. We were there for over an hour, and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch. But when we got out, we realized it would be kind of dumb to go to Charlottesville, as we wouldn't get there till at least 4:30 and there was probably a limited chance we'd get to go on the Monticello tour. Fortunately, flexibility was our name, and we decided to wander around Culpeper. Lesley and I found a tea shop and bought some raspberry curd (waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than lemon curd!) and we went to the visitor's center and various local shops. It was fun!

On the way back, we stopped off at the store so we could get the supplies for the 80 Plates: India dinner, and that was how we spent our Friday evening--cooking Indian food, hanging out, and relaxing.

Saturday morning, Lesley and Mike got ready and we drove them up to Springfield to get on the metro to go visit Lesley's family for the day. We had talked about the need to rent a car because we weren't sure that we would all be comfortable in the Kosiormobile with Lesley and I squished in around the carseat. But it worked out fine. And at first, I offered to let them take the car for the day on Saturday, but they didn't really feel comfortable leaving us without a car "in case something happened". So thoughtful, just one more reason I love them.

So Mike called a couple places--Enterprise didn't have anything. The second call was hilarious and went a little something like this:

Mike: I'd like to get a car for today.
Car Co.: It has to be back by noon. (it was 9am and they planned to be gone all day)
Mike: Ok, I'll keep it till tomorrow.
Car Co: We aren't open tomorrow.
Mike: Can't I drop it off?
Car Co: If you are near a major airport.
Mike: Ok, how much to have it till Monday?
Car Co: Monday is a holiday, we are closed.
Mike: How about this? You tell ME when I can drop the car off.

We were all cracking up. It wound up they'd have to keep the car till Tuesday and it would have been a lot of money, so we just said we'd drive them, not that Michael and I were especially worried about not having a car.

After we dropped them off, I needed a Starbucks run after another particularly late night and early morning with my WW weigh in. Then we headed to Judy and Lucas's for lunch at Bugsy's and then went home, where I was promptly sick as a dog from something I ate at lunch. I spent much of the afternoon in the bathroom, and we really didn't do much for dinner.

Because we'd decided to have a BBQ on Sunday for Memorial Day, and because we thought it was kind of crazy to have me drive all the way back to DC, Judy offered to drive Mike and Lesley to Woodbridge. So I decided we could meet at Wegman's so I could grocery shop for the BBQ. Mike had put in a special request that I make "coney sauce" for our hot dogs, a special chili sauce that Michael's mom is famous for. I needed to get the stuff for that as well as other items, and I wound up getting everything EXCEPT the stuff for the coney sauce. But I was too tired to go back through the store and get back in line, so I decided to go to Giant on Sunday.

We got home and everyone chattered for a while before turning in early.

Sunday was fun! Lesley and I did our book shopping excursion in the late morning and got the Mikes some fudge on our way back (which was promptly placed in the freezer and forgotten until Mike and Lesley were safely at home). Lesley got Leah a Beatrix Potter tea cup, which is now proudly on display in our china cupboard. I went to Giant and got the stuff we needed for the Coney Island sauce, came home and promptly lost the recipe card from my mother-in-law. Consequently, I started guessing what went into it, since I'd read the recipe so many times and had a fair idea. Finally Michael called his mom to find out the real deal, and I had only messed up a little bit by adding 3 tablespoons of vinegar instead of 3 teaspoons. It was also supposed to simmer for 2 hours, but we didn't have that kind of time. We were hungry!

We had our little BBQ with Judy and Lucas and Dottie down to visit. They arrived mid-afternoon bearing dessert (Smores pie) and I sparked up the grill. Soon we were all gathered around the table munching on dogs and burgers, corn on the cob, macaroni salad, cole slaw, coney island sauce, chips, the works. It was GOOD. For dessert, Judy broke out the Smores pie, which had melted all over the place and was threatening to take over. Fortunately she'd had the foresight to put a cookie sheet under it before driving it down here or I don't know what she'd have done for her car! Melissa stopped by while we were all sitting around outside on the front porch--it was a gorgeous day. We hung around into the late hours of the evening and then Melissa departed, Leah finally fell asleep, and we all turned in to prepare for our DC excursion!

It was at this point I realized how quickly time was flying and how badly that sucked. Back just after we got home with Leah, I remember thinking that she filled a hole I didn't even know existed in our lives--we knew we had wanted children, but we didn't know or were nervous about how she would fit in or we would change to fit in with her, and it turned out she just sort of slid in and completed us. Well, the same sort of feeling happened with Mike and Lesley. When they first got here, we were hanging out downstairs and Mike said, "Your house just feels like home. It's so comfortable." (What an awesome thing to say about someone's house, by the way!) and having them here made it feel like everything was full circle. So we started joking about them moving in, but it was only half a joke. At least on my end. (Although Mike started looking at apartments in DC when they got back :-D)

So anyway, Monday we all got moving a little later in the morning--everyone was so laid back that we just didn't care if we didn't leave the house at 9:00 or at noon. We left around 11:30 and Lesley and I decided our first stop was to go to the Library of Congress. What an amazingly beautiful building! I had never been there before, and I was blown away by it. We just walked around, saw the Gutenberg Bible, looked in the exhibit halls. We did not take the tour, but I plan to next time. They had a beautiful room with Thomas Jefferson's library in it, which made me feel like such a dumbass--the guy had some very high brow reading selections--with amazing curved shelves that Lesley and I immediately coveted. It was actually the only room where we saw any books!

Afterwards, we went to the LOC store and I got Lesley a T-shirt that said, "I cannot live without books. --Thomas Jefferson" So cool! We went outside to take some more pictures.

It must suck to be the woman in this fountain and get smacked in the face by water all day long



After we left LOC, we decided to go to Union Station for lunch. We all wanted something light because we had plans to go to Elephant and Castle for dinner. Plus, you can park at Union Station for a dollar. So all in all, it is the smart choice. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets, where Mike ordered the chicken fingers and got a whole 3 of them. Ha! But we made up for it by going upstairs to the Godiva chocolate shop, where I got my traditional chocolate covered strawberry and we got truffles to share with the men. It was then that Leah needed to be well and truly changed and I decided to put her in some clothes that actually fit. I thought that for Memorial Day, I would put her in a "Born in the USA" shirt that my sister had given us as a hand-me-down from Dottie. However, the entire outfit was waaaaaaaaaay too small! How'd Leah get so big already!? Still, you gotta love that belly hanging out.



I had decided it would be fun for us to go to Madame Tussaud's Museum. I took Michael to the Times Square one when we went sightseeing in NYC a few years ago and we had a blast, so I thought it'd be fun to go to the new one in DC now that it is open. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a parking spot over there, so the 2 Mikes decided to circle while Lesley, Leah, and I went in and had fun with the wax figures.

I've been to the original museum in London, which is FABULOUS, and the NYC one is great. Honestly, I think they need to keep working on DC, there's not too much in there. We got stuck behind a big group of Indian tourists, so we kind of skirted around them and then went back through when things got quieter.Lesley met a hunky dude while we were there and he seemed to like her too.

She was also strictly interrogated by J. Edgar Hoover about her possible activities in the service of Canada, but she told him, "You'll never take me alive, flat head!" and he let her go with a warning.



Meanwhile, Leah and I hobnobbed with the Kennedys and President Obama.




Finally, we all partied with Brangelina and then it was time to find the men.




(Sorry, Ange, this is one baby you can't adopt!)

Lesley bought Leah a little sign in the gift shop that says "Leah Way"--as in, it's Leah's Way or No Way! So cute--I put it up in her room. Then we found Mike and Mike sitting in the car, they had found a parking space right outside the museum, but decided to sit and gossip catch up while we were inside.

Then it was time to head to Elephant and Castle for dinner. We had a wonderful meal there--Mike and I both got the fish and chips to compare to the fish and chips we got at the Fredericksburg Pub. I can't claim a preference either way, both were outstanding. We shared some appetizers, and just had a wonderful time. Mike and I took pictures of each other--the other half of this series is on his Facebook profile. Lesley tried the stuffed Yorkshire pudding that I had when Michael and I went before the Christopher Guest concert. She agreed with me that it wasn't a traditional Yorkshire, but was still pretty darned good!

Then it was time to head back to the 'burg, our DC day ended. Time was going way to freakin' quickly! We got back around 8:30 and then Lesley and I printed out our 40% off coupons and headed to Borders. Borders was having a pretty decent sale, plus all their steeply discounted books were Buy One Get One, so I got 2 books for $3 and then 2 more, one of which was 40% off. I walked out with 4 books for $23. AWESOME!

We came home and watched the season premiere of Intervention and the series premiere of Obsessed, both of which were fantastic. A&E's documentary series are top notch. And then it was bed time!

Tuesday morning dawned way too quickly--the day Mike and Lesley were leaving. *SIGH SIGH SIGH* They packed up in the morning and then we drove to Quantico, where we were harrassed by the guard at the gate for having a "faded decal". BFD, buddy. The General was waiting for us and we grabbed him and went down to Jimmy The Greek's restaurant in Stafford for lunch. YUM. I had the chicken souvlaki and it was fantastic! We took Michael back to work and then we headed to Fredericksburg with an increasingly cranky Leah to do a little geocaching. We managed to find one cache before Leah had a total meltdown and then we went home. Lesley used the time to research and buy Leah a high chair (THANKS AGAIN!) and then we headed out to Richmond to the airport. SIGH SIGH SIGH.

It was a tearful (on my part at least) good-bye! I was so sad to pull away from the airport and watch them head inside. Fortunately, Leah was good almost all the way back home, until about 3 miles before our exit when she started crying. When I got home, I started blubbering again, but managed to regain my composure after a little while. It was such an amazing visit. I am determined not to let another 18 months pass before we see each other again. We are talking about getting a beach house in Myrtle Beach next spring, but I hope Michael and I can get to Atlanta before that.

Thanks, Mike and Lesley, for totally spoiling us rotten during your visit. We love you so much and are so thankful that fate threw us all together in New England!!!

An Evening With Spinal Tap

Last night, Michael and I went out for a BIG date. We've gone out a couple of times for an hour or two, but last night we were excited to go to Washington DC for dinner and a concert. We were heading to see Unwigged and Unplugged at the Warner Theater as our ultimate destination. After discussion about Metro, parking, food, etc. we decided to really make a night of it and drive into town, park, have a nice meal, enjoy the show, and go home. Because I haven't been to Washington since December, I was in a bit of a state over planning our night on the town once the decision was made. However, I must give the Warner Theater's website its due. That site has it all--directions, nearby restaurants, parking, etc. Turns out it's blind friendly too! I read through the nearby restaurants section and the words "Washington's authentic British Pub" caught my eye. I sent the suggestion over to Michael, who hopped onto the Warner website and agreed it sounded like just the ticket.

So it was settled. I picked him up at 4:00 at Quantico and we headed to Washington. There was a slight glitch with Jane (our GPS) who was under the impression we were at the Naval Surface Warfare Center or something, but she quickly righted herself and we were off! We got to Washington before 5:00 and found a parking space by some miracle, and so we decided then and there to take our time over dinner. We selected Elephant and Castle as our dining location, and it was exactly two blocks from the theater. When we arrived, the sun was shining and we decided to dine on the patio! It's been so nice to be able to get out into the open air--Leah's spent the last 3 or 4 days out on our front porch taking in the good clean open air and we've taken lots of walks. Michael and I are well aware that summer is quickly approaching and that means a lot more indoors time, so we are getting it in while we can!

We ordered a short appetizer of potato skins, and then my main entree arrived--stuffed Yorkshire pudding, hell yes! (I actually wanted to type "stuffed Yorkshire pudding, bitches!" but I don't want any of you to take offense :-D) Oh my God, was it good. It was not as good as the Yorkshire pudding that my mom and I make, but it was pretty freakin' fantastic Yorkshire pudding nonetheless. Is there even such a thing as a bad Yorkshire pudding? Doubtful. Michael got the Union Jack pub burger, and he said it was awesome. The mashed potatoes with my meal were real--they had big chunks of actual potato in them, and Michael thought his fries had been fresh cut. We were in heaven. We took our time eating. It's a very popular place and a lot of people who seem to be very impressed with themselves were eating there. But we were seated under a lovely tall tree and I don't think we would have noticed if the President himself had shown up, honestly.

After our main dish, a wind kicked up and I got a little chilly, so I asked our excellent waiter Chris if they had hot tea and he brought me a cup of English breakfast tea. Michael got a cup of coffee and then we decided to get some dessert to kill some more time, so I got an apple berry crumble and he got cheesecake. Yeah, we were totally living it up. I don't know (apart from the Melting Pot) the last time he and I lingered over dinner for two solid hours. It felt like such a luxury to reconnect. We did both admit to missing Leah and we phoned home once during the meal, but my father-in-law told us everything was just dandy and not to worry about a thing.

So, after supper we gathered up our things and went back to the theater. We went up to Will Call and got our tickets and then the security guard suggested we stay in the lobby so that we didn't get trampled when the doors opened. Everyone else had to wait outside!!! Talk about the VIP treatment!!! It was AWESOME! They opened up the main doors about 5 minutes later and then I decided to make one final trip to the ladies room and they let me use the main level restrooms instead of going downstairs because I had Michael with me! VIP treatment!!! A private bathroom!!! LUXURY! :-)

The ushers couldn't have been more helpful and we got to our seats. We were in row B, seats 2 and 4, smack dab on the aisle, so close to the stage we could just about taste it. When you request ADA seating, typically you get put in the back where a wheelchair can just pull up, but we got this wonderful, wonderful seating right in the front of the theater. I'm telling you, these were the best seats I've ever had to any show or concert, bar none.

The show kicked off around 8:15. It was supposed to be no photography, but tons of people were taking pictures, so I snuck a couple myself. Due to the fact I didn't want to draw attention to my clandestine activities, I turned off the flash and kept the camera low. So sorry about the dude's head in front of me. But you can see how close we were!



They played a huge variety of songs, mostly from Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. I didn't know a lot of the songs, I've only seen Spinal Tap once, but I greatly enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the hell out of the stuff from A Mighty Wind. They did a brief Q&A session with the audience, during which we learned that Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy are now working to turn Waiting for Guffman into a Broadway show. I'm not so sure how it'll work, but I'll be interested to see what they do!

They are all tremendously witty, I'm sure that goes without saying, and there was lots of laughter and humor in the show. They made a special video themselves for the Stonehenge song, during which some Troll dolls "danced" around a miniature Stonehenge. They showed a couple of user submitted videos of their songs--one by some dude Reverend Stevie in Perth, Australia and another with the song being sung by Lego people--I have now seen a Lego mosh pit, and it is as cool as you think it could be.

Annette O'Toole (Michael McKean's wife) came out and sang a couple of songs as well, and then it was winding down. They did 2 encores, however, and when they sang "Old Joe's Place", the place went wild. The entire audience yelled "Ea a Oe's" at the appropriate place and then everyone busted up laughing. It was so great. It looked for a minute like they'd do a third encore, but they didn't, and the lights came back on so we headed out. We got home around 11:30 to a couple of rather harried grandparents--Leah gets into little fits at night. She's a perfect angel all day, but at night she kind of goes a little bonkers. Well, they hadn't seen bonkers baby, only angel baby, so I think they were glad we made it back! But they had done an excellent job putting her to sleep, so it was a grateful me who got to sleep all night.

What a great evening and what a treat to see these guys perform live! We left with great big grins on our faces. The Guest mockumentaries are something we've enjoyed since very early on in our marriage, and so it was kind of special to see these guys in person.

Here are a few more pictures! Again, sorry these are blurry--no flash and all of them dancing around, it was hard to get great pictures! (Oh and Harry Shearer kept looking the other way, so I never did get a really great one of him, but I've met him before, so I guess I can live with my disappointment!)

Snow!

The blizzard actually happened! WOO HOO! I have the day off, and the mister is staying home too. :-) I took these pics around 7:00 this morning while I was waiting to hear that we were off the 2 hour delay and full out cancelled. It's beautiful. I've missed the snow--never thought I'd say it. But this is the most snow I've seen since we left the northeast, and I'm lovin' it. Later, I'll go make a snow angel!

Sunday @ NPR

This past Sunday was one of my twice yearly treks to DC for the express purpose of volunteering at WAMU for their annual member drive. As always we sit and answer the phones, taking pledges, and eating donated food, which often is not that great on Sunday nights. (On the two occasions I volunteered during the day, the food was awesome.)

Well, I got a little bit excited and got up there waaaaay early, so I hung out for a while with my niece. Then we decided to leave Judy's place at 5:00ish because my GPS remains devilish and we really didn't know what to expect in terms of how Jane was going to take us or what the traffic in town might look like. Oddly enough, Jane was cooperative and the traffic was light and we made it up there in plenty of time. So much in fact that we were at WAMU before 5:45. So we just had to sit there as the volunteer start time for the 7pm show is 6pm. We got to see Ed Walker arrive (he's the host of The Big Broadcast) and then the craziest thing happened.

We were parked on a meter outside the Sport and Health Club, which is right across the street from the station. We were the first meter on that side, and up ahead of my car was a tow away zone. We're sitting there gabbing and all of a sudden, this white van--and we're talking a FULL SIZED VAN, not the family funmobile--decides to cram itself into the 6 inches between the front of my car and the tow zone sign.

So I'm like, "Um, I don't think this is going to work out so well" and then the guy starts backing in. And I'm talking this van is getting closer and closer and closer. And finally, I had no recourse--there was a car parked behind me fairly close--I had to start laying on the horn. And guess what? IT DID NO GOOD! The guy kept coming. We were leaning back in our seats while I was laying on the horn, and finally, with literally 2 inches to spare, the guy gets out of his van and comes around the back. Judy yells at him, and he looks at us and GETS BACK IN THE VAN AND STARTS BACKING UP AGAIN.

How he did not hit the car, I do not know, but I assure you, he would have had one hell of an insurance claim on his hands. Then he went into the health club and worked out. I was like, "Go f'ing figure, right?" I get out of the car and check, and there was not room to stand sideways between the two vehicles. There was literally an inch to spare. I was thinking, "If this dude isn't out of here by 10:00, I'm officially calling the cops myself to have him towed." Of course, DC parking never showed up to tow the son of a gun, so I guess they aren't too concerned about fire zones in the District.

So 6pm rolls around and in we go. We stopped at the tables of books out in the lobby and selected a few freebies. This time I walked away with Robert Bosnak's Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming, Masha Hamilton's The Camel Bookmobile, Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Midnights With the Mystic, and Robert Schwartz's Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?. Rather heavy on new age and mysticism, but I'm excited to read the pre-birth challenges book in particular due to the fact that I read a book in which a psychic claimed to be talking to late Princess Diana who imparted to the psychic that she and Charles had pre-planned everything before either of them was even born as there were challeges they each needed to face for their souls to grow.

Ok, it's a little crackpot when it's the late Princess of Wales talking, but still the idea intrigues me. So I'm interested to see what this guy's basis for such an idea is.

Anyway, so we go inside and they have re-arranged the room. Up until Sunday night, we had "OUR TABLE" that we had always sat at, but our table was officially gone. We gave the volunteer coordinator a little bit of crap and then selected a new OUR TABLE which turned out to be the very first table I sat it the very first time I ever volunteered. So that was kinda cool.

So we're sitting around and Rob Bamberger (host of Hot Jazz Saturday Night) comes around and shakes hands with everyone and stops at our table and asks if we volunteered. So I pipe up that not only do we, but that my sister has never once said hello to Ed Walker and has always been too nervous to do so. So Rob says, "Well, we'll have to fix that, I'll be back later!" and disappears.

The tables where you volunteer seat 4. So we were soon joined by an older black gentleman named Sid and an older white woman named Deborah. The 2 of them seemed to know each other and before long, the four of were talking like old friends in and around the calls, which started rolling in at exactly 7:10pm.

In a sign of the times, this Sunday was the first time in the 3 or so years I've been volunteering that I've had calls where people apologized for being unable to do more and have contributed such amounts as $20. As late as last fall, the show raised over $30,000 in one night. This night, it was not to be. We probably did somewhere close to $22,000, but it was definitely in small amounts. My largest donation was $250, and it has not been unheard of for me to get donations of $500 in the past.

So we get through the breaks and the evening has worn on and I'm thinking Rob has forgotten about us when he pops over to our table and says, "When Ed came out, did he ask for Judy?" So I said, "Nope!" and shook my head sadly. "Well he was supposed to!" said Rob. "It's not his fault," Judy said, weasling out of it, "He came out in the midst of volunteer training." So Rob says, "OK, Judy, come with me" and she stands up and he takes her right into the studio, throwing me a wink over his shoulder as they depart. HILARIOUS! She came back blushing furiously and uttered, "I'm going to kill you!" Apparently she wasn't entirely successful at talking to him in the studio either. hahahaha I gotta send Rob a thank you email.

So, I'm not sure what caused it to be brought up, but towards the end of the night, we were sitting and talking about things and Sid mentioned one of the office workers at the station and Deb immediately chimed in that said office worker was anorexic. Sid leapt to her defense and said she was just skinny. So Deb said, "It's too bad she's not working, you guys could decide. She is so skinny and she's got a big head of black hair." We all laughed a bit at that image and then the phone rang at Deb's station and she answered it using her work name, like "Hello, Vandalay Industries" or wherever she worked. So we all started cracking up.

She is wrapping up her call and Sid's phone rings. Deb hangs up, and guess who strolls in at that exact moment? A young woman, extremely skinny with a big head of black hair. Yup! It was her! And we agreed she was anorexic, and the three of us started dying laughing. And poor Sid is on the phone, turns to see what we're laughing about, catches sight of this poor girl, and he busts out laughing into the phone, which only caused us to laugh even harder. Finally he says to whoever he's talking to, "We're having a time over here!" and I guess the guy on the phone started laughing too, and the volunteer coordinator and the phone room coordinators were like, "Geez, I guess that's the party table over there!" Boy, it was funny. I don't know what was so funny about it, but I had to take my phone off the hook--I was doubled over, crying. I'm laughing now!

So it was another great night at WAMU. I love volunteering there for the OTR show and meeting other people and getting free books. Hopefully in the fall we'll get to see Deb and Sid again!

Book Club Adventures

Last night was the latest Lit Chicks meeting, and for our dinner theme we were tasked with bringing food that was associated with a happy memory. One of my happiest memory foods is chicken cordon bleu. I have 2 great memories of it.

1. When I was 15, I went to Europe for 3 weeks with the Girl Scouts. On the Germany leg of our trip, we took a trip to see a portion of the Berlin Wall that was still standing. (This was 1991) It was July, it was warm, and we had to do a LOT of walking to get out to where the wall was. On our way back, we were all hot and tired and wanted to just find someplace to get a cold drink and eat something. So we happened upon a little cafe out there in the middle of nowhere and we decided to go into the courtyard. The people who owned it came out and they did not speak English, and we did not speak German. So they took the whole group of us into the kitchen, opened up the freezer, and we all pointed to the same thing, which they prepared. And it turned out to be chicken cordon bleu. And it was delicious!

2. When I was living in Arkansas, The General came to visit me for Columbus Day. I wanted to cook him a really special dinner for his last night there, and I'm not sure why, but chicken cordon bleu popped into my head. I came up with my own way of putting it altogether and frying it up, and I have to say, it was DELICIOUS. And after dinner, he proposed. :-) Awwww... I feel all smiley and mushy just thinking about it.

So, my plan was that after work (I was working with one of my high school students yesterday until 5pm) I would go to the grocery store and buy the little frozen chicken cordon bleus. The General and I have been eating them for a long time and we love them--although at something crazy like 20 points, they are no longer on our menu selection. But we've never had any trouble buying them.

Well, apparently in Alexandria, they are unavailable. I went to three different grocery stores and the closest I came up with was chicken stuffed with broccoli and cheese. Not going to do it. So I stopped and thought for a minute and decided to improvise and make a chicken cordon bleu casserole. The idea kind of came at me from my mother-in-law, who when I hosted a book club meeting here at my house last fall taught me a chicken casserole recipe that was very good. So I decided I'd make a go of it with chicken cordon bleu.

I picked up a package of those little chicken pieces that you can buy already cooked. I got the honey roasted chicken for that. Then I got 2 packages of sliced swiss cheese, a ham steak, 2 cans of Healthy Request cream of chicken soup, and a bag of medium width No Yolk egg noodles.

I went back to Judy's, cooked up the noodles, threw in everything except one package of cheese which I actually used to cover the whole thing and baked it at 375 for 20 minutes. It was smelling darned good.

Meanwhile, Judy had baked The Cake That Ate Washington. She had gotten the recipe from the Sweet Potato Queens book and this thing was MASSIVE. Four layers, with a filling that consisted of cream cheese, Cool Whip, peanut butter cups, and sweetened condensed milk. We were so nervous about it that she stuck some skewers in it to keep it from falling over. We gingerly made our way to the car and then the fun began.

I have a GPS for the car. She speaks with a proper British accent. Her name is Jane, and she does not like to be disobeyed. I fear her, if I'm being honest.

Well, Jane was unhappy. She'd been stashed in the glove compartment for approximately 2 months, as I hadn't had any new clients and I'd known where book club was, and I hadn't required her services. She intended to teach me a lesson.

So I figured to get from Alexandria to Arlington, we should probably get on 395, but I didn't want to take Van Dorn with all the potholes and traffic lights. I was envisioning this cake splattering all over my dashboard. So I made my way for the Beltway, thinking we could take it to 395 and it would be a little less apt to cause us problems.

Jane did not like this. Jane wanted us to take the Beltway in the other direction. I decided maybe she knew a shortcut, so I would heed her sage advice. We got up into Alexandria towards Old Town, and she told us to take the exit right, where the highway splits into Express and Local lanes. I did so. Once we got over there, she told us to "Bear Left". Well, by bearing left, what she actually meant was keep right. It was a test to see how much power she could lord over us. Because, you see, when I bore left, it shot me back onto the main part of the highway, and in short order, I was traversing the new Wilson Bridge (which is lovely, by the way, just not what I wanted to see at that point).

I could hear Jane shaking her head and chuckling inside her plastic case. By now, we were heading for parts unknown in Maryland, Judy clutching a cake, the chicken cordon bleu casserole smelling heavenly in the back seat, me screaming at Jane, "WTF?! I'm putting the eye on you!" Because you see, I do not like to be late. Ever. I am always early. This drives my sister and husband crazy, because I also do not like to be the first one at our destination and so I sit outside in the car until 'someone else goes in first'. This also saves me the embarrassment of being in the wrong place--if someone I know goes in, then I know I'm in the right spot.

Anyway, this is all to say that fortunately we had left early. Because I can't be late. My sister once was reading Mapquest directions to go to Reston pre-Jane and sent us to Dulles Airport. We showed up at book club 45 minutes late. I was having an absolute panic attack. I was determined that this was not going to happen.

However, there was the small matter of us actually getting back to Arlington. Jane suggested we take 295. We had no choice but to follow her sage advice. We went past Bolling AFB, site of the General's former place of employment. I waved at it. We were heading north, on a collision course with Maryland. And mind you, on account of the cake, I'd been the least popular person on the Beltway, driving a stately 45MPH. I was at this point pushing the needle to 55.

Then Jane dumped us out on 395 and shot us straight through the District. May I just say, the Capitol is lovely in the evening, as are the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. We got off the highway and took a bunch of meandering roads around back into Virginia, and then she spit us off on Spout Run Parkway, which I have affectionately dubbed Serial Killer Highway as it's dark, there are tons of trees and it looks like the perfect place to hide bodies. The road is also very twisty, and I suspect that Jane was aware we were trying to keep the cake upright. I should also say that we were blasting the air conditioning to keep from the cake from melting, and we were both freezing.

In any event, very shortly, we were at Carrie's house, and someone had graciously left us a spot right in front of her house. Fortunately, I am a champion parallel parker, amongst my other great talents, so I pulled in and extricated my sister and the cake from the front seat before getting the casserole and going inside.

I think we set a new landspeed record: we left Alexandria at 6:50 and arrived in Arlington at 7:26. And we were only about the 4th or 5th people there.

But now, I'm gunning for Jane. She will be punished. Well, probably not because next time I'll probably go to book club via Tennessee.

The Storm of the Century

*SIGH*

They had us believing.

My boss was making preparations to cancel work today.

The eye doctor I am taking a client to this morning called me with their inclement weather policy.

Clients called me to tell me not to hurt myself coming out.

Guess what?

It's dribbling a new little flakes NOW, but nothing in the quantities needed to give me a day off.

Well, there's always tomorrow.

An Evening with Stella

Last night was the fulfillment of a quest that I had at times even forgotten about: meeting Michael Ian Black.

I seem to have a curse with television shows. I find these wonderful shows that no one watches and they get cancelled. My heart is currently grieving for Pushing Daisies, an amazing show which ABC has just decided not to order any additional episodes of. Prior to that, I endured the premature loss of Joan of Arcadia, which CBS killed in favor of a Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle about someone talking to ghosts. I watch so little TV that when I finally find a show I love, I fall hook, line, and sinker and take it personally when the networks cancel it. Fox is hardly immune--for they demolished the absolutely brilliant Arrested Development. The only show I have loved that's managed to stay on is Lost. But I digress. Back to the original show of my adulthood that died an early death, and NBC's entry into the "Shows Susan Loved That Got Cancelled Early" Hall of Fame...

Seven or eight years ago, my show was Ed. Starring Tom Cavanagh, the show revolved around Ed Stevens (played by Tom Cavanagh), a big city attorney who upon discovering his wife is cheating on him returns to his tiny hometown of Stuckeyville to open a law office inside a bowling alley, the aptly named Stuckeybowl. He finds out that the love of his high school life, Carol (played by Julie Bowen), is still living in Stuckeyville and teaching there. Ed moves in with his best friend Mike (Josh Randall) and Mike's wife Nancy (Jana Marie Hupp), and the cast was nicely rounded out by Carol's best friend Molly played with plucky perfection by the incomparable Lesley Boone, by high school nerd wannabe Warren Cheswick (in a role that launched Justin Long's career), and the bowling alley employees, headed by Phil Stubbs, expertly and hilarious played by Michael Ian Black.

I loved Ed. Fiercely, devotedly. Anyone reading my old, and now long gone, blog at that time knows that Ed was how I spent my free time. I worked on the Virtual Stuckeyville site during much of Ed's run on TV. The show initially made enough of a splash that the cast and creators gave a panel discussion at New York City's Museum of Television and Radio, and being as Boston isn't that far from New York, I gathered up my sister and off we went. The panel discussion was great, and afterwards, we had the chance to meet the cast, with the exceptions being Justin Long and Michael Ian Black.

The Virtual Stuckeyville team had been sent free Stuckeybowl bowling shirts, and I brought mine with me that fine night and asked each cast member and the creators to please autograph my shirt, which they did with grace and enthusiasm. It was a night that makes me feel all warm and happy just to remember it.

Soon thereafter, the film Wet, Hot American Summer (WHAS)was coming out, and was opening in Newport RI. Michael Ian Black was a key cast member in the movie, and I had no idea of what the film was to be about, but rumors were swirling that MIB would show up at the filming. So again, I called my sister, who was living in Newport, and we stood in line at the film, and nothing. Nada. No MIB. Michael Showalter, one of the writers, was there, I THINK, or possibly David Wain, the director, but no MIB. So disappointment reigned in my sad little heart.

Anyway, after 3 seasons, Ed was cancelled. Actually, compared to Joan of Arcadia, which had 2 seasons and Pushing Daisies, which has had 2 half seasons, I got lucky with Ed, and by then, it had probably either jumped the shark or was perilously close to doing so.

During one of the moves, the frame I had used to mount my Stuckeybowl shirt broke, and the shirt was folded and put away amidst a bunch of other memorabilia I had collected from on a variety of interests.

But a few weeks ago, Facebook started popping up advertisements for Stella, a live show starring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain coming to the 6th and I Synagogue. And I started thinking, "third time's a charm". Ok, granted, I had no idea what the heck Stella was or what to expect, but I figured that if I could meet MIB and get him to sign my shirt, life would be good.

Last night I went into DC for the show. Joe took me to a nice dinner and then I got on line at 6th and I. Fifth in line, I might add. So when I got in, shivering from the cold, 35 minutes later, you can bet I was in the front row. AWESOME! YES! :-)

I was seated next to Addie, a young man who was there with his girlfriend. He asked why I was attending the show and who I was a fan of, so I explained the Ed thing and the shirt. It turns out, he was a screaming Ed fan too, and he was blown away by the shirt. He took pictures of it, and when I let him hold it, I thought he'd die of happiness. So I asked him if he knew what Stella was about, and he said not really, but that the three of them were in WHAS together and it was kind of a 3 man stand up comedy act. So that was what I was expecting, and that was indeed what we got.

What was a little strange was sitting in a house of worship while a string of curse words and dirty jokes were emitted for 2 hours. It was hilarious, I won't lie, but it seemed kind of weird in the setting we were in. Still, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

They announced that they were going to go downstairs to screen WHAS for anyone who wanted to stay, and while I had no intention of sitting through the movie again, I did figure that if MIB was down there, I was going too! As it turned out, a line had been organized, and all three sat at a table to do a signing.

Well, being cheap, I didn't have a DVD or T-shirt to have autographed by all 3 of them, so I had them all sign the ticket stub. Fortunately for me, MIB was last on the line, so I pulled out my shirt and said, "You are the only regular cast member of Ed I've never met, and I wondered if you wouldn't mind signing my Stuckeybowl shirt?" So he looked up at me and said, "Sure!" and flashed a grin and then unfolded the shirt. And then, I think, he was impressed, since even the creators of Ed had signed it. He said, "Wow, you HAVE met everyone!" Since the line was long, I was unable to pose for a picture with him, but he did sign the shirt and and wrote "Phil" underneath his name, which was cool. :-)

And then it was all over. I was done and walked away.

But man, was it cool--I got to meet him and talk to him and get my shirt signed, and that's ultimately what really mattered.

My P.O.S. camera didn't do well with the lights, so I only got a couple of good pictures while they were on stage, and with the crowds and the rush, I didn't have much time to squeeze off a good picture in the social hall, but above are the two good pictures I got. It was a lot of fun and a nice way to spend an evening solo :-)

Mark Your Calendar Again, Sweeties

This year's annual Holiday Sing-a-Long at Wolf Trap is Sunday, December 7th. Sometimes they collect for Toys for Tots and sometimes for a food bank, so I'll keep you posted on which it'll be.

However, I'll be there, literally with bells on. And of course, we go for pizza afterwards. Hope to see you there!

Anyone Interested?

Calling all my friends in the DC area.

Anyone want to go tubing the weekend after Labor Day? Check out this website:

http://www.rivertrail.com/TubingAC.html

I would really love to go, and if anyone else is interested, I think it would be a fun group activity. It's also pretty reasonably priced, considering they throw in a lunch.

Let me know!

Pictures

I didn't manage to get anything great, but here are the few pictures I did score! Hope you enjoy.

Wolf Trap Magic

Last night, the General and I went on a little date night to Wolf Trap. This year marks 15 years since the first time I heard and fell in love with the dulcet tones of Kenny G's saxophone and saw him in concert for the first time, so when I found out he was coming to Wolf Trap, I decided what better time to go see him again? Plus, he hardly ever comes to DC, instead playing various jazz festivals and such. The closest one here is in Maryland, and I don't do Maryland--Maryland is what I have to drive through to get home.

So anyway, I got the General and me some premium tickets--13 rows back in the orchestra, and I was ready to roll. Told my dad we were going, since he had first taken me to see him that balmy June of '93 as a present for graduating high school. My dad remembered a lot more about the concert than I did, including that Kenny strolls the audience a few times during his shows.

So we get there around 7:30 (the show was at 8:00) and I parked the General on a wall while we waited for them to open the amphitheater so I could go up to the top of the hill to get a program. I climb up there and get on line at the little souvenir booth and I about wet my pants. Kenny G himself was manning the souvenir stand.

Well, I couldn't let the General miss this one. I ran back down the hill and asked the General if he wanted to meet Kenny G. Of course he did! So together we trucked back up the hill (Thanks, Weight Watchers, without you, I would have surely perished!) and got on line at the stand. We bought a CD and he came over, greeted us, we greeted him back, he signed our CD's and we went back down the hill. I was like, "OK, this is living."

Seriously, I about floated. So we get in to the concert and it's going great, he's playing all his old hits, playing some stuff off his new album, and then he started playing my favorite song "The Joy of Life". I love this song, and the strange thing is, the first time I heard it was when my grandfather died. But it's always been a favorite and in fact, we used it on our wedding CD.

So this was the moment for him to come off stage and start playing to the people and it was like literally watching the Pied Piper. Wherever he went, swarms of people crowded towards him. Well, I was in seat M1, right on the aisle, 13 rows back from the stage. When he started playing "The Joy of Life", I couldn't help myself, I jumped to my feet and started dancing. And when he finally came to our side, I stepped into the aisle and he stood there as I danced, bobbed the sax in my direction a few times and kept on going... So yeah, I danced with Kenny G last night.

Unfreakin' believable. I didn't think about a single damned thing going on in my life while I was there last night--it was the best. That music has seen me through the worst moments of my existence. Awesome.