Lions and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

On Thursday night, my mom and cousin came back into town with one extra addition – They had picked Aunt Colleen up from the airport. (She had flown down from NH to spend the weekend with us and so Alyssa wouldn’t have to fly home alone.) With our packed lunches in tow, we headed out Friday morning for the zoo. Despite the heat, it turned out to be a really nice day – The gorillas, orangutans, and pandas still have my vote for fav. zoo animals. It actually seemed like a lot of exhibits were closed from what I remember – for which I was thankful after spending 6 hours walking around in the heat. (I can only take so much animal watching!) After an impromptu BBQ back at my house, they headed back to Winchester and I spent another quiet evening at home alone (missing Frank!).

Day at the Lake

I usually end up running all of my errands on the weekend, but with my cousin in town I didn’t get to check anything off of my list yesterday, thinking I could use today as my errand day. Well, with the weather turning out to be so great my mom instead convinced me to meet her, Andy, and Alyssa at Lake Anna for the day. With Frank out of town (he’s in Mass. for the week at the U.S. Soccer National "B" License Course), I figured “what the heck? Errands can wait!” So, I was out the door a little after 9:30 this morning and made it to the Lake by 11:30. We all met at Tom’s house (a friend of Andy’s) and spent the day on the boat and Jet Ski – What a blast! Can you believe I had never been tubing before? I’ve been water skiing plenty of times, but today was my first time getting pulled behind a boat in a tube…Soooo much fun! Putting off errands was definitely a great idea – Well worth it!

Can't Stop...Won't Stop

I've decided to make this my summer motto. I’ve mentioned before that Frank and I are doing the Rock n Roll half marathon over Labor Day in Virginia Beach - Up until last week, I was getting really scared and possibly thinking I couldn’t do it. After running 4 to 5 miles, I would be exhausted. Last week I officially started my training and ran 5 to 6 miles 3 days a week, did weights one day, and then light cardio at the gym another day, then had my longer 7 mile run on Saturday. This week I did the same thing, but today I pushed myself to do 8 miles. I realize I don’t need to be doing these distances this far in advance, but I feel better pushing myself sooner just to prove that I have what it takes. While running on the W&OD trail earlier this week, I noticed that someone had spray painted “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” on one of the overpasses, so I’ve decided to use that as my inspiration while I’m running. After completing the 8 miles today, I’m now convinced that I really can do this! (For anyone curious about Frank’s training, his motto is, “It’s just 13 miles, I don’t need to train, I can just jog it!”)…We’ll see about that… ;)

Tourist for a Day (or Two)

Phew - Being a tourist is exhausting! On Thursday evening my cousin from NH came to visit – She stayed Thursday & Friday night with Frank & I and then is spending the rest of the week out in Winchester with my mom. On Friday, we decided to check out Mount Vernon and spent most of the (gorgeous) day walking around the grounds and touring the house. I’ve lived in this area how long and have never gone!?! It was time – and worth it – We had a great day. Then, last night, we caught a Nats game – They were in town playing the Texas Rangers. Even though we didn’t stay until the end of the game, it was a pretty good one – The score was 2-3, Rangers, when we left. (We decided to leave in the 8th inning to beat the inevitable crowds that would decent upon the metro.)

Today, my mom met up with us while we explored the Museum of Natural History. I forgot how crowded DC can get in the summer time with all the tourists – the metro and museum were packed! After spending a good 3 hours in the museum, I had enough of dinosaurs, gems, etc and thank goodness Mom and Alyssa had as well…We strolled over to Cosi and enjoyed a light lunch outside, then headed back to the house to relax for a bit. Mom and Alyssa just left for Winchester and I have to say…I am exhausted from all the walking, dealing with crowds, etc. I think I could hit the sack right now!!

Come Sail Away with Me

This Saturday, Frank & I headed to Tilghman's Island, Maryland for a little post-1 year anniversary celebration. After getting a bit of a late start (don't ask!), we arrived at our bed & breakfast around 1pm and then headed over to the docks for our 2pm sail, which turned out to be great! It was pretty hot on land, but the breeze was perfect once we got out on the water. After our sail, we drove around to check out the island (which took all of about 20 minutes) and then headed back to the B&B to reeeee-lax! Our hosts had fresh lemonade and green mint tea waiting along with some light snacks, which we enjoyed on the back porch while watching the boats slowly glide by. We finally (reluctantly) drug ourselves up to our room to shower and get ready for dinner at the Tilghman Island Inn. It wasn't anything over the top - Frank didn't quite care for his rockfish & crab risotto, but I thought my crab cake and soft shell crab were pretty tasty. After dinner (and a mean game of chess in the restaurant lobby) we headed back to the B&B and enjoyed our wedding champagne on the front porch. (The bottle never made it into our car the day of the wedding, so we had decided to save it for our anniversary.) The next morning we experienced a first for both of us - The first course of our breakfast consisted of a french apple tart with ice cream! (Yes, I said breakfast!) That was followed by a fresh omelet with broccoli and cheddar, black beans, and some type of corn/grit cake. The breakfast was much better than the basic scrambled eggs and bacon that I had anticipated (or the bowl of cereal that I'm used to!). We spent some time walking around the shops of St. Michael on Sunday morning and then headed to Kent Island to meet my dad for a Father's Day linner. What a great, relaxing weekend!

Last year at this time...

All day yesterday I couldn't help but think, "Last year at this time, I was...getting my hair done...getting pictures taken with my bridal party...GETTING MARRIED!" Yes, it's hard to believe one year has gone by already - Yesterday was Frank & my one year anniversary! Since it fell on a Monday, we didn't go all out celebrating - we exchanged cards, I got a dozen roses, then had dinner at 'our' sushi place. To honor tradition and for good luck, we also dug into the top tier of our wedding cake. I had forgotten that there was fruit mixed in with the filling - The whole cake tasted a little too much like bananas for me. (I wasn't expecting much of a year old cake, though!) This weekend we're heading to the eastern shore of Maryland for our little anniversary celebration - We're staying in a bed and breakfast on Tilghman Island and doing some sailing. We're hoping for a relaxing weekend away from all of the stresses of our normal life.

I’ve heard mixed reviews from people about how their first year of marriage goes – I have to say, I couldn’t imagine a better year. Frank and I are blissfully happy – I couldn’t imagine a better husband or marriage. Happy 1 year, hun – Here’s to many more! :)

Birthday BBQ

In celebration of Frank's birthday we decided to throw a rather large BBQ party on Saturday. (We didn't pick the best day considering temps topped over 100 degrees with the heat index - URG!) Despite the heat, I think we could classify the party as a success - We had nearly 60 people stop by! Who would have thought our little house could handle such a crowd. Thank goodness for our screened in porch with the ceiling fan - A surprisingly good amount of people opted to stay out there versus inside in the comfort of the AC. By 10pm everyone had left and since we'd mostly used disposable dishes and serving trays, clean up wasn't bad at all.

Frank's actual birthday was Sunday - Since we'd had the party on Saturday, we kept his actual birthday pretty low key. I made him breakfast - pancakes - and gave him his gift - a Garmin GPS so he can easily navigate to all of his soccer games now. I went out on a limb this year and am really glad I did - He loved it! We then topped off the day with...what else???...a soccer end of season pool party and then some carrot cake when we got home.

Happy Birthday, baby!

Go Away!

Frank and I have recently discovered that our basement leaks water...It definitely sucks but could be much worse. Luckily, the water only comes into the portion of the basement that we left unfinished during the remodel; however, when it's bad it sometimes seeps through to the bathroom and onto the tile in the hallway. Well, with yesterday's storms I was dreading going home to a house full of water...to top off my miserable commute. I left work around 6:10 to catch the 6:18 bus...which never came...then the 6:35 bus didn't show either. With the line for the bus stretching down the block and the rain starting to come down in sheets again, I got frustrated and decided to metro home and walk the 3/4 mile, which consisted of dancing around countless puddles and numerous fallen trees. After walking through the door soaking wet, I went downstairs prepared for the worst - but was so relieved to find a dry basement! We had put some towels up against the wall to soak up the water and it worked! I switched them out for some dry towels and headed to Costco to stock up for our BBQ on Saturday. Unfortunately I came back home to find Frank in the basement mopping up buckets of water - Somehow in a matter of 20 minutes the waters decided to pour in. Bla! Thank goodness nothing has been ruined since we everything in the storage part is in plastic containers, but I’m getting sick and tired of mopping up rain water! We need to get this fixed ASAP! Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

Love and Forgiveness and the City?

(WARNING: May contain SATC Spoiler)

Last night Kel and I caught the 8:10 showing of Sex and the City after a great dinner at Me Jana, a newer Lebanese restaurant in Courthouse. Before the movie, we were both debating on whether we may need some popcorn or snacks to keep us awake during the 2 1/2 movie - We opted not to over-indulge since we'd just pigged out on quite a few 'mezzas' - And we certainly did not need them - The movie was FABULOUS! Both funny and sad, we left the theatre feeling emotionally drained – I think I literally cried throughout almost the entire movie. While the characters were certainly true to their roles from the HBO series, the movie seemed to focus a little more on love and forgiveness versus the usual theme of sex, sex, and more sex. I suppose in the series, the girls were always looking for love, but they always seemed to put having a good time over it! I know Carrie has crawled back to Big countless time already, but I’m not sure anyone should be forgiven for leaving someone at the alter! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for happy endings, but I also could have seen it ending with Carrie and Samantha both single again…Despite Big getting his way, I loved the movie anyway!

Round 4

Weekend Visit #4: This weekend, we had our fourth round of company within the past five weeks – Frank’s mom, dad, Aunt Marlene, and Uncle Carl paid a visit from LI. They arrived Friday evening and left Sunday after breakfast. It was a great, relaxing visit. On Saturday we had brunch at Harry’s Tap Room where I had my usual crab cake eggs benedict – As my idol would say, “Yum-o!!” The rest of Saturday consisted of lounging around the house, doing a little shopping, and mostly catching up with the family – all topped off with a BBQ and a Carvel cake in celebration of Uncle Carl’s birthday. I love when family comes to visit, but I think I’ve had my share for a little bit. Looking forward to a Thursday night when I can relax and don’t have to go crazy cleaning the house in preparation! Too bad my reprieve won’t come this week – I’ve got to spend the end of this week preparing for our BBQ on Saturday for Frank’s birthday – We’ve got about 30 people coming so far and I anticipate at least another 10 from the neighborhood. Should be quite the celebration.