Christmas 2008

Yes, I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear all about our holidays, and I'm sorry I've been so slack. There's just so much to write that thinking about it makes me break out in a cold sweat. But, for you folks, that's something I'll just have to endure.

I'll try to make this as short and sweet as possible. We'll see how successful that is.

Tuesday before Christmas


We arrived in Chicago at about 8am, and were immediately hit with a few inches of snow. It was fun! When we left DC, the temperature had been fluctuating between upper-60's and mid to low-40's, so the cold and the snow helped to remind us that it is indeed winter. After picking up the rental car and heading home (Oswego, IL) to freshen up, we headed back towards Chicago to meet up with Jessie and Joci, and Jeremy's friend Nikki and her husband Corey. We drove around the city for a while, hopelessly looking for somewhere that was still serving brunch. At 3pm. On a Thursday. Not only did we not find anywhere for brunch, but we also did not find a single restaurant that was open for lunch. Seriously?! Finally we gave up and just headed to Starbucks for snack, and then it was off to get creative and paint some pottery. Yep - 5 adults decided the best way for us to spend our afternoon was painting pottery. As lame as that sounds, it was actually a lot of fun - we brought a couple bottles of wine and spent a few hours getting our creative juices flowing. Afterwards, we headed to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba for tapas and sangria, where I once again enjoyed a dish of grilled octopus (not calamari, octopus). Delicioso!

Ha! Look how miserably I failed at keeping it "short and sweet"!

Christmas Eve

Nothing. Jeremy and I ate lunch at Portillo's, went home to digest and finished wrapping gifts.

Christmas

Everyone woke up early to open gifts. Ok, maybe not that early, more like 9am. We all got spoiled rotten - THANK YOU!! It was completely unnecessary, but still very much appreciated. After gifts, we all got ready and headed to Jeremy's Uncle Jeff and Leny's house in Chicago for Christmas dinner. The food was wonderful, and it was great to catch up with all Jeremy's extended family who we hadn't seen in 2 years.

Friday after Christmas

Jeremy and I went to see Blue Man Group, which Jeremy had been trying to get me to see since we started dating. The premise of the show is based on how outsiders (in this case, blue aliens) might view and try to understand humans. I don't know...it's kind of weird. Jeremy had insisted that we sit up close in the "poncho" section - the first 4 rows of the theater, where everyone is given a plastic poncho to wear. I was a little apprehensive, but Jeremy insisted that the front rows were the best place to sit. All was well, until about halfway through the show when (CAUTION: Spoilers ahead!!) they shot some stinky goop out into the audience. Wow...gee thanks, boys. We didn't get too much of the goopy crap on us, but it was enough to gross me out and make me just wish the show was over. Anywho, goopy stuff aside, the show was ok. Definitely not my favorite, but entertaining nonetheless.

After Blue Man Group, we headed to Quartino where we were meeting up with the fam and Nikki and Corey for dinner. The food was wonderful, and we all got stinking drunk on chianti and some sweet-like-syrup orange after-dinner liqueur. Afterwards, Jeremy, Jessie, Nikki, Corey and I all headed over to Pop's for Champagne for more drinks (like we really needed it). After 2 bottles of champagne (at least I think it was two), we decided to head over to the Redhead Piano Bar for MORE drinks. Alas, I was deemed too intoxicated to get in (although I vehemently believe that my stumbling was a direct result of wearing 3.5 inch heels and trying to walk down an icey and snowy path), which one would think might deter us from continuing on, but instead we simply walked across the street to yet another bar. We sat down, complaining about the Redhead and their strict door policies, when the the guy sitting next to us chimed in with "Oh, I own that place!". What?! The owner of the bar we had just been rejected from was sitting next to us. His reason for not spending time at his own bar - he wasn't dressed according to their dress code. Ha! We had one drink there (at least I think it was only one), then decided to call it a night. I woke up at 7am the next morning, still wearing my clothes. It was a fun night.

Saturday

We had a slooooow day, being that we were all nursing hangovers. Then it was off to Jeremy's favorite Chicago-style pizza place, Lou Malnati's for dinner.

Sunday

Up at 5am to fly home. We had an exhausting but awesome time! Yay Chicago!

New Year's Eve

Nothing. Seriously, nothing. I made a dinner of sirloin steak, panko crusted crabcakes with roasted red pepper aioli, twice-baked potatoes and green beans tossed with chives and stone ground mustard. It was delicious. We drank a bottle of wine, and were sound asleep by 11pm. I woke up at 12:30 to the Pussycat Dolls performing at the New Years special on TV.

Yeap, we're just that cool.

And that's it. We're both back to the daily grind, laying low after a busy year and hopeful that 2009 will be as awesome as everyone wants it to be.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas to all...

And to all, wish me luck as I head to the freaking freezing city of Chicago. Seriously. It's 1 degree Fahrenheit at the moment. What the heck??!

Seriously though, I hope that everyone has a fantastic Christmas and gets to spend much needed time with loved ones. I love you all, and I miss everyone bunches. I'll be thinking of you on Christmas morning.

Lots and lots of love and Christmas hugs!
Bec xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS - I've decided that this video of Nat King Cole should be the dictionary definition of "suave".

2008 in photographs

I stumbled across a link to Boston.com's Big Picture section, which is currently running a 3 part series of photographs called "2008 in Photographs". The pictures are absolutely incredible - beautiful, chilling, breathtaking, inspiring. I think it's incredible that, with all the crap that's been going on in the US this year (namely the election and the economic slump), I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. Seriously. And I'm sure that there are many, many other's who are the same. We're so wrapped up in what's happening here, we have no clue as to what the rest of the world is going through. And, apparently, I've missed a lot. Here are my favorites...I'll put a link to the rest of the photos at the bottom.

2008 in Photographs (Part 1)

2008 in Photographs (Part 2)

2008 in Photographs (Part 3)

New hair

Look!!  After growing my hair to probably the longest it's been since I was 5, I've cut it all off to probably the shortest it's been since I had that bad short haircut when I was 13.  Woohoo!!

Is it Christmas yet?

Seriously, is it? We've been bombarded with tinsel and bells and little plastic Santa's for so long, I'm beginning to think that maybe Christmas just passed us all by while we were busy looking for the perfect gifts. It's been almost 2 months since decorations first started to appear, and I really wish that Christmas would just hurry up and arrive already. I'm ready to stuff my face full of turkey and then sit around, moaning about how I might explode. I'm ready to sit around on Christmas morning, listen to Nat King Cole, and hand out gifts in my pajamas. I'm ready to sit at a giant table, drinking wine and trying to comprehend just one of the 36 different stories that are being told at the same time. I really am dreaming of a white Christmas...and it looks like we might be in luck for that this year. And I really can't wait to hang out with family - as much as I love my husband, it does get a little lonely sometimes with just the two of us, and it will be wonderful to spend time with everyone.

In preparation for the holidays, Jeremy and I have been laying low for the last few weeks. Last Saturday we headed over to a friends house to drink some wine, eat some Christmas cookies and play some games. It was a fun night! We played a round of Cranium, and I discovered that I do NOT know the theme song to James Bond. In fact, I didn't even know that it really had a theme song - I thought it was just some random song and then he shoots at that tunnel thingy and blood comes down...I thought THAT was the theme song. So I failed miserably at Cranium's instructions to hum the theme to James Bond - I ended up humming the theme to Get Smart instead. Oh well. At least I could spell hippopotamus and broccoli. If I ever play Cranium with any of you, be sure to deflect all the yellow spelling questions to me - I'm pretty much the queen of the yellow cards.

And that's about all we've been up to. We've just been hanging around, saving our pennies for our trip back to Chicago next week. Jeremy's sick at the moment, which means that I most likely will be sick right on Christmas day. Thanks, honey.

Oh, and speaking of Christmas...I've just finished reading an article that helps to put things in a little perspective at a time when so many people are caught up with the whole "spend, spend, SPEND" at Christmas time mentality. Enjoy!

Stuff is not Salvation

Oh, and I almost forgot...I don't think I had ever seen or heard this gem from David Bowie and Bing Crosby before. It's beautiful, and I love it!!

A little ray of sunshine

While wasting time on Runner's World, a topic posted on the Discussion boards caught my eye - "What do you love about being married?". One person replied with a poem (actually, it's an excerpt from a novel that was later republished as a poem) that I think is absolutely beautiful. Enjoy!

Oh, the comfort --

The inexpressible comfort of feeling

safe with a person,

Having neither to weigh thoughts,

Nor measure words -- but pouring them

All right out -- just as they are --

Chaff and grain together --

Certain that a faithful hand will

Take and sift them --

Keep what is worth keeping --

and with the breath of kindness

Blow the rest away.

By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik - A Life For A Life (1859)

What is the world coming too?

Britney's new CD is actually really good. Really, REALLY good! Like, it's so good I may just listen to it repeatedly all night. Or at least until Jeremy kicks me out.

If you live in the NoVA area, you might be getting a call from me. Just be sure to have some speakers handy so I can keep Britney alive.

At the moment

Random things I'm thinking about

- Kids movies. In the last week I've curled up on the couch to watch: Enchanted, The Incredibles, Over The Hedge, Wall-E, and Bee Movie. Seriously. There must be something in the air.


- Speaking of something being in the air, we know three couples who are expecting! How awesome is that?! Eric & Shannon are pregnant with their second, Mark & Lauren will be the proud parents of baby twins on December 11th, and Bill & Kathleen are due in April. Awesome, awesome and awesome!


- This weekend we're putting up our Christmas decorations! Yesssss! I'm debating whether or not I should buy a bunch of glittery Christmas banners and string them up in everyone's office before they get in to work. Doing so would either result in lots of smiles, or lots of people complaining about the political correctness of Christmas banners. I'm seriously considering doing it. Maybe under the cover of night, so those scrooges who go around saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" won't know who to blame.


- Total Wine is having a Total Tasting Extravaganza! Free admission - check! Tasty, bite-sized appetizers - check! So many wine and beer samples that I may leave the store a little more than just tipsy - check!


- Quicken Online. Could they make my life any easier?! Using Excel to keep track of finances is for suckers, and I'm a sucker no more.


- Why oh why does hot air have to rise?! I mean, I understand the physics behind it, but sheesh! Our bedroom is about 20 degrees warmer than the rest of our house, and our lower level is about 20 degrees colder. It's kind of annoying and it makes it hard for me to sleep at night.


- When is it going to snow already?

- Will someone please send me these? I'm a 7.5, which they appear to be sold out of so you'll have to do some serious searching. I'm not really in the position to spend $600 on a pair of booties, but I figure maybe the cyber-gods will take pity on my lack of funds. Maybe.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!

I believe we may have been sucked into a clever marketing gimmick, one aimed at convincing wine connoisseur wannabes that they are privy to some great secret that only true wine connoisseur's are privy to. Damn you, French winemakers and your clever marketing! You have tricked the world into believing that Georges Duboeuf's Beaujolais Nouveau is some great bottle of vino, when really it's just an average wine that doesn't age as well as it's friends. Still, I'll admit that all the hooplah surrounding it's annual release is kind of fun to be a part of.

Here's the skinny (don't worry, it's interesting even if you couldn't care less about wine):

Beaujolais Nouveau is made from the Gamay grapes, found in the Beaujolais region of France. The Beaujolais region is one of only two wine-growing regions in the world where picking the grapes by hand is MANDATORY! The only other region where hand harvesting is required by law is the Champagne region. Pretty neat, huh?! The other pretty neat part about Beaujolais Nouveau is that French law dictates that it not be released until the third Thursday of November. Ha! What a concept. Anywho, being that the wine is subject to such strict regulations, it's annual release date has turned into a worldwide event. Every year there is a "race" to see who will serve the new Nouveau (ha!) first. There are even parties held to celebrate it's release! Brightly colored posters declaring "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!" ("The Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!") appear in wine store windows, large displays of Dubeof's latest release occupy prime floor space, and customer's scramble to snatch up as many bottles as they can.

But what they don't tell you (and this is the real kicker), is that the Nouveau is the cheapest Beaujolais around, it typically comes from the worst grapes and Mr. Duboeuf, the largest maker of Beaujolais, is sitting pretty, selling his millions of bottles of cheap wine, when there are other, more worthy Beaujolais wine makers out there.

BOO to you, clever marketing schemes! I admit, I fell for your trickery, and I fell hard - we bought 3 bottles of the 2008 Nouveau this past weekend. I feel so ashamed.

Luckily, I am able to redeem myself somewhat - while I did enjoy last year's Nouveau and I will no doubt enjoy this year's, I am also an avid fan of other Beaujolais'. Yep, I also like the "real" stuff. So, please, don't hold it against me that I have 3 of these sitting in my wine rack. I'm still an equal-opportunity Beaujolais drinker!

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving coming up, now is the perfect time for us to take a moment and reflect on all the small things that we take for granted every day. All around the world people are dealing with struggling economies and worry for their future, and it seems that all we hear about is how much people have lost. I wish everyone would just take a deep breath, settle down a little and stop worrying so much about things that are beyond our control. Even though our country may have hit a rough patch, I still have so much to be thankful for.

• I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, who makes me laugh every day, who offers me enough love to fill me up, and who makes it so easy for me to love him back.

• I'm thankful for my family, and I'm especially thankful for the wonderful visitors we've had this year. I'm truly lucky to have such a loving, supportive family, one that will travel across the world to visit me!

• I'm thankful that we have a warm bed to sleep in and food in our bellies.
  

• I'm thankful that we still have our home. So many people have lost their home's due to foreclosure, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we are able to afford to stay in ours. I can't even imagine how it must feel to work so hard and sacrifice so much to be able to buy a house, only to have it taken away.


• I'm thankful that we are young and able to ride out this economic slump. My heart goes out to those who's retirement savings have all but disappeared, and those who's livelihoods have been turned upside down. We know that we'll be ok, that we have many years to recover, but there are so many others who are not so fortunate.


• I'm thankful that we live in a time where a black man can be elected President, and a woman can give him a good run for his money. Even if you voted for the other guy, everyone should be able to appreciate what a wonderful accomplishment it is for our society. What a long way we've come!

And, once again, I'm thankful that this holiday gives me the opportunity to post witty cartoons of talking turkeys. Yay for Thanksgiving!

Lights, camera, ACTION!

The other day Jeremy and I were watching a half-hour show entirely composed of movie trailers. They showed some awesome trailers for some absoutely outstanding movies, including No Country for Old Men, Atonement, and the soon to be released Australia. All very good movies, with wonderful trailers. In the midst of all these "popular" films, they showed a trailer for what I consider to be one of the best film's I've seen in a long time. It may even be one of the best film's I've ever seen - The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. You may remember that I mentioned it before here. Seeing that trailer prompted me to think of some other films I have recently seen that really are wonderful, and that deserve just as much credit as some of the big box office hits. Most of you will probably have never heard of some of these films, which is why I feel that it is my duty to tell you all to go out and watch them. Immediately. Here they are, in no particular order...

1. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et el papillon)

Released in 2007, nominated for 4 Oscars

Watch the trailer!

One word: INCREDIBLE.

Seriously. This film is one of the most incredible pieces of art that I have ever seen. Yes, it is indeed a work of art. The film is entirely in French (with subtitles), and is filmed from the first-person point of view of Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French Elle magazine. At age 43, Bauby suffered a major stroke that left him completely paralyzed, except for his left eye. The film is based on his memoir, Le Schaphandre et el papillon, that was dictated by Bauby himself using only his left eye to spell out words by blinking. His story at times is darkly humorous and you get the impression that Bauby might have been a fun kind of guy to be around. Mostly, however, you almost feel pity for him, that he might have put having fun and living the high life before that which is clearly most important to him - his family. At the end of the film, I was somewhat ambivalent - do I like him, or do I not? Do I feel sad for what he's lost? Or do I just think he screwed up? Either way, his honesty brought tears to my eyes, and the film left me speechless. The cinematography is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Jean-Dominique Bauby's story is truly a heart wrenching one, and the film really captures the emotion of it.

Watch it. Even if you don't like subtitles. You won't be disappointed.

2. God Grew Tired of Us

Released in 2006 

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award & Grand Jury Prize

Watch the trailer here!

If you only watch one documentary in this year, I highly recommend God Grew Tired of Us. This is a National Geographic documentary about the "Lost Boys of Sudan" - the tens of thousands of boys who fled their homes during the wars in Sudan back in the 80's. The film focuses on 3 young men who move to the United States in hopes of a better life. You follow them on their journey as they adapt to an entirely new way of life - moving into their own apartment, their search for work and their quest to help make the lives of their friends and family back home just a little better. The "boys" sense of wonder and naivety are so endearing that I just wanted to scoop them up and hug them until they couldn't breathe. The film makes you truly grateful for all the little luxuries and opportunities that are afforded us. I laughed and I cried. The film really opened my eyes to the obstacles the boys, and likely all refugees, face - being told by police that they can't walk around in groups anymore because other residents are afraid of them, the measly wages they earn that are usually immediately sent back to help out people at home, how overwhelmed they are by simple things like showering or grocery shopping.

It's heartwarming, charming, enlightening and humbling.  Wonderful.

3. Grace is Gone

Release in 2007

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award & Screenwriting Award

Watch the trailer here

I've always thought that John Cusack was an excellent actor.  From One Crazy Summer, to Con Air, to High Fidelity, he's always good for a laugh and a quick one-liner.  Grace is Gone takes my love for John Cusack to an entirely new level as he truly shows what a multi-dimensional actor he is.  Cusack plays a husband whose wife is killed while serving in Iraq.  Overwhelmed and unable to tell his young daughters that their mother is dead, he whisks them away on an impromptu roadtrip to an amusement park.  Gracie Bednarczyk offers a charming performance as the youngest daughter - I'm guessing that we'll be seeing a lot more of her in future years.  The movie is incredibly touching, but I suggest you save it for a day when you really need to bawl - it's a sad one!

Other honorable mentions:

• Gone Baby Gone (trailer) - dirty cops, missing kids and the wonderful Casey Affleck
  
• The Savages (trailer) - because Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the greatest actors of this generation
  
• Bobby (trailer) - the line-up is the reason to rent this (Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Emilio Esteves, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Laurence Fishburne...the list goes on), the depth of the characters and the phenomenal acting is the reason to watch it.
  
• La Vie en Rose (trailer) - which you probably know because Marion Cotillard won Best Actress at this year's Oscars.  Another French film with subtitles, it's tells a tragic true story.  If you didn't see it after all the Oscar hype, you should definitely see it now.

That should get you all watching for a while.  Enjoy!

Photos

Here are some of the hundreds of photos from my mom & dad's visit...enjoy!

Mom & Dad's visit

We're back!

Yes, we are still alive over here. I apologize for neglecting my blogging duties - we've been ridiculously busy the last few weeks and, well, what can I say? I'm just slack. So here, for your reading pleasure, is the CliffsNotes version of what we've been up to.

(Note: I've just realized that I haven't updated this thing for TWO MONTHS! How outrageous! Why have you people not been yelling at me?)

SEPTEMBER

Also known as, "The Month Rebecca went gallivanting with Kate, and left poor Jeremy at home". Yes, I was gallivanting. First, it was in Las Vegas, the city of bright lights, smoke-filled casinos, and dirty people. It was a blast - we stayed out until the early hours of the morning and slept until midday. We danced the night away in some swanky clubs, and drank $15 drinks. We also decided that, while Vegas is a fun place to visit, the novelty soon wears off. After 3 nights of partying, we headed back to DC for a brief respite. Then it was off to New York City, the city that never sleeps. I think we were partied out from Vegas, and we spent a lot of our time in NYC cruising around on a double-decker bus, seeing all the sights. I believe we walked about 10,000 miles in the 4 days we were there. It was fun but, once again, we were both glad to leave. We headed back to DC and, after a day of sightseeing, Kate left me for the relaxing portion of her trip - Hawaii. :( It was an awesome couple of weeks. Very tiring, but awesome nonetheless.

The weekend after Kate left, Jeremy and I decided to go camping. Well, we tried to camp, but it turned into quite the fiasco and we left after only one night. Let me just say that if you plan on going camping when it's forecast to rain, you had better be prepared. We weren't, and we were miserable. Our $30 canopy from Target broke into pieces when we tried to set it up, so we had no real shelter from the rain aside from our tent. Our tent is a small, 3-person dome - not the easiest place to just hang out when you can't go outside. It poured rain the entire night - I'm talking big winds, thunder and lightning, and buckets and buckets of water. Our tent leaked, and we woke up with big puddles in each corner. Water dripped down from the ceiling onto us while we were sleeping. Miserable. We tried to start a fire the next morning, with hopes of it warming us up and drying us off. Alas, it was still raining on and off, we had no dry kindling to get the fire started, and we ended up smoking the campground out. So we threw everything in the car (literally, we just chucked it all in) and left. That weekend got a big, giant FAIL.

Which brings us to...
OCTOBER

Otherwise known as the "The Month that Rebecca and Jeremy were so darn busy, they barely had time to scratch their hoo-ha's".

The first weekend in October we drove down to South Carolina for Melyssa & Dave's wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding, and we're so incredibly happy for the newlywed's. Yay Melyssa & Dave! Here are the photos:

2008-10-06 Melyssa & Dave's wedding

After the wedding we had a week of downtime, then we ran a local 5k race. All I can say about that is...BLAH. I ran pretty horribly, which I partly blame on all the food and wine I consumed at my boss's Octoberfest party the night before, and on my lack of running now that the weather is cooler. Oh well.

The next week, the BEST part of this year arrived in the form of my mom and dad! Yay! Here's where you'll really get the CliffsNotes version, because I know that mom and dad have been sending everyone email updates that could double as novels.

Thursday, October 23rd
Mom and dad arrive shortly after midnight - everyone's tired and ready to hit the hay

Friday

We reluctantly go to work, knowing that mom and dad would need to catch up on sleep. We get home at lunch time, and off we go to Wegman's for some groceries. Get home, put turkey in the oven for dinner, go out again to pick out pumpkins for Halloween.

Saturday

Into DC to pick up Marine Corps Marathon 10k race packets. Fight with thousands of people also picking up race packets. Afterwards, spend a couple hours wandering around Tyson's Corner mall.

Sunday

Up at 5am, on the train, then off to run MCM 10k in 70 minutes (boo). Home, shower, drive for 7 hours to get into New York City. Meet up with mom's friend David and his wife for dinner. Jeremy and I are buggered so we go home. Mom and dad go off exploring.

Monday

Pick up sightseeing tickets and spend the day riding around on top a double decker bus. Order pizza in hotel room for dinner, because everyone's too tired to go out.

Tuesday

Home, James! Then back out to watch the DC Capitals vs. the Nashville Predators. CAPS win in a shootout, we get home around midnight.

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

Back to work. Mom and dad explore DC on their own (and successfully master the DC Metro system). Friday is also Halloween, so we get to run up and down the stairs 10,000 times to give kids candy.

Saturday

Drive out to Shenandoah National Park for lunch and to see the pretty sights. Take lots of photos of lots of trees with lots of changing leaves.

Sunday

Brunch at Harry's Tap Room - we eat too much and complain about it the whole way home. Meet Bob, Marianne and the whole crew out at Cox Farms. Have fun on slides and hay rides.

Monday & Tuesday

Work again. Mom and dad leave on Tuesday to ride the train down to Florida.

Wednesday thru Sunday

Disney World. I'm convinced that Disney World is the child-appropriate offspring of Las Vegas - lots of bright lights, lots of crazy characters, and purposely built to be huge and confusing so that you to get hopelessly lost, never find your way out and live there forever, spending lots of money on useless trinkets. But it was fun. Jeremy especially loved riding the "It's a Small World" ride. We had to lure him away with cotton candy, otherwise he would have ridden that thing all damn day.*

Saturday night we said our teary goodbyes as mom and dad were leaving super early. :(

And that brings us up to now. Jeremy started a new job on Monday, and I think he's pretty happy with his decision so far. We're both back at work, and glad to be back on our regular schedules. As much as we LOVE having visitors (hint hint), it's always nice to have things go back to normal afterwards. So now we're just relaxing, kicking back, and moving along with our usual lives.

Phew.

*This is actually not true. Jeremy loathes the "It's a Small World" ride. I just like to make fun of him for it.

Biking adventures...

Today was my first day commuting from work on my bike.  I had planned to ride in in the morning, but I didn't have any clear glasses to wear and I didn't want to ride 20 miles with the wind in my eyes.  After driving around for 20 minutes trying to find a store that was open (no easy task at 5:50am), I just decided to drive in to work and then maybe ride home.

I did indeed ride home, but it was quite the adventure.  First of all, I messed around in the parking garage for a good 15 minutes trying to get the hang of my new pedals.  Finally, I figured I had the technique downpat, so I took off.  I got about a mile and a half in to my ride, and I had to stop.  I called Jeremy and told him I didn't think I could make it home - I was on the verge of tears.  I was finding it sooo difficult, and I was absolutely exhausted and convinced I couldn't make it the 20 miles to home.  After further inspection, I discovered that I had been riding with my front brakes locked!  Oh my!  No wonder I was having such a hard time!  With that sorted out, I was back on my merry way.

Fast forward to the first intersection I came to where I had to unclip myself from my pedals...Well, I got my left foot out just fine, but I somehow managed to clip it back in immediately after.  By that time, I had lost most of my momentum, and...well...you all know what happens when you lose enough momentum on a bike - I toppled over.  Yep.  I fell flat on my back at a busy intersection, which I'm sure provided some entertainment to some lucky motorists.  Luckily the only thing I hurt was my pride.  And my poor bike - I hit the pavement so hard that it bent the shifter on an almost 45 degree angle.  Hopefully it's only cosmetic and I'll be able to get it fixed.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  Jeremy had started riding out by home, and ended up meeting me just past the halfway point, which was nice.  It took us an awfully long time though - with all my mishaps at the beginning, I had given up on trying to make it in under an hour.  Oh well.  Hopefully we'll have better luck next time!!

Another recipe

Oh, and I forgot I wanted to post another delicious recipe for you all to try.  I had a recipe for a vegetarian version of this sandwich, and decided to add meat one day - it turned out fantastic, and Jeremy agrees that it's one of the tastiest sandwiches ever!  Enjoy!

Grilled steak & vegetable sandwich with fresh pesto

1lb flank steak (or any steak really)

sliced cheese - we like provolone

ciabatta rolls

1 green bell pepper (capsicum), cut into 4 large slices (one from each side)

1/2 small onion, sliced

1 portabella mushroom, gills removed

1 zucchini, sliced

a few large handfuls of baby spinach

handful of pine nuts

1/2 handful of parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt & pepper

First, make the pesto by blending the spinach, pine nuts and parmesan cheese in a food processor.  Once well blended, add salt & pepper and drizzle in olive oil until it reaches a spreadable consistency.  Set aside.

Heat the grill.  Season the steak however you please - I like to use a small amount of chipotle powder (very spicy), garlic powder, salt & pepper.  Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill the steak and vegetables until desired doneness.  Allow the steak to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.  Spread the ciabatta generously with the pesto, add a slice of cheese and the grilled and sliced meat & vegetables.  Enjoy!!

A much needed update!

Before people start to throw shoes and other random objects at my head, I thought I had better update this blog of mine.  I know it's been absolutely forever since I wrote on here, and so much has been happening that it's hard for me to wrap my head around everything!  But I'll try, and I apologize if I leave anything out...

As most of you know already, Jeremy's trip was cut short and he's been home for about a month now.  YAY!  It's so wonderful to have him home and to have everything back to normal, although it was an adjustment for me to not hog the entire bed!  

Since Jeremy's been back we've been pretty busy.  The first weekend he got back we went out and bought new bikes!  I've still been running, but wanted to find a way to cross-train and had the brilliant idea to commute to work on a bike a couple of days a week.  Being that it's the end of summer, the bike store was having a big sale, so Jeremy and I both got some pretty sweet roadbikes - I got a Fuji Finest 2.0 and Jeremy got a Fuji Cross Comp.  I guess I ended up with a sweeter bike than Jeremy, because I've been smokin' him on our rides.  Ha!  I haven't ridden it in to work yet, because the bike came with toe clip pedals and I've had a really hard time using them.  Today we put clipless pedals on my bike (clipless meaning I have cleats on the bottom of my shoe, and those cleats snap into the pedal itself) which was an adventure - I toppled over a couple of times because I forgot to unsnap my foot from my pedal!  Oops!  But, now that I have the new pedals on, I'm planning on braving the 20 miles each way and riding in on Wednesday this week.  We'll see how that goes.  Here are a couple of pics of Jeremy and I out on a ride one day -

Getting ready to head out

Me before our ride - yes, I'm wearing spandex from head to toe!

Jeremy about to die after our 20 mile ride.  He tried so hard, but just couldn't keep up with my speed demon of a bike!

On Saturday, August 23rd I spent the day/night celebrating my friend, Melyssa's up-coming wedding.  First was her bridal shower and then later that night about 10 of her friends (including me) hit DC for her bachelorette party.  It was such a fun day and an awesome night - we had a giant stretch limo chauffeuring us around for the night, and we had an absolute blast clowning around in the limo and dancing at a bunch of clubs.  Their wedding is in October down in South Carolina - I'm sure that it will also be a fantastic time!

Melyssa & I at her shower

All the girls in front of our sweet limo before hitting DC

Melyssa & I

The next weekend I went out with my friend Katie on Friday night and had a great time in DC, as showcased in this photo -

Me, Katie and Bethany

Then, on Monday (last weekend was the Labor Day long weekend) Marianne offered us tickets to go see Jimmy Buffett play at a concert venue here in Virginia.  Of course, Jeremy will never turn down Buffett tickets, and we convinced the Gibbs' new au pair, Kylie (who is from Melbourne!) and Katie to join us.  We had such a fun day - we got to the venue at about 2pm, set up a canopy and hung out, drinking margarita's and grilling all afternoon.  Jimmy Buffett concerts always bring out some crazy people, so we had a great time looking at all the mayhem and enjoying a hot, summer's day with cool drinks.  Tuesday was pretty miserable for me at work (Jeremy had the day off, the lucky boy!), but it was definitely worth it.  The best part was that Kylie had never heard of Jimmy Buffett and was a little (read: very!) apprehensive about coming, but I think she had an awesome time!  She may even be a Parrothead for life!

We had an inflatable pineapple "face frame" that made the rounds during the day....

The girls - Kylie, Katie, and me

All of us with our pineapple cups!

Inside the concert

  

After so many shenanigans, this weekend Jeremy and I have just been relaxing.  On Friday night, I took Jeremy out on a "date".  Ok, I didn't really take him out, but I did plan everything and surprised him.  To start the night we went to a cigar bar in DC for a drink.  I had also stopped off after work and bought Jeremy a couple of cigars - he loves to smoke cigars, but does it very rarely, so I thought it would be a nice treat.  Then, after an appetizer and a couple of cocktails, we headed to the Blue Duck Tavern for dinner.  The Blue Duck Tavern is constantly rated as one of the best restaurants in DC, and it certainly didn't disappoint!  I had the duck breast, which also came with a crispy duck leg, and succotash.  Jeremy ordered the braised beef rib and the Tavern's famous french fries (cut extra thick and super crunchy).  Both dishes were amazing - it was definitely one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had.  If only it wasn't so expensive - I'd eat there every weekend if I could!

Yesterday we were supposed to run a 5km race but DC was hit by the remnants Hurricane Hanna and it was raining buckets and windy.  The race still went ahead as planned, but we decided that running in a tropical storm really didn't sound like a good time and so we skipped it.  I wish we had gone ahead with it, though, as the rain stopped about 10 minutes before the race was scheduled to start.  Oh well.

And I think that's just about it!  The next few weeks will also be very hectic - my bestest friend in the whole world, Kate, will be visiting for a couple of weeks and we have some fun things planned.  I'll be meeting her out in Las Vegas on Friday, then we'll be back in DC Tuesday, and then it's up to New York City on Wednesday.  It will be a fun week for me, but not so fun for Jeremy.  But that's ok - we've decided that when my little bro comes over to visit Jeremy will take him to Las Vegas and they can have a boys weekend.  Oh dear...

Yummo!

I just had the most delicious dinner I've had in a long time, and so I thought I would post it here in case anyone wanted to try it. I'd heard of something similar before so I decided to make up my little recipe and give it a shot, and it was definitely worth it!

Chicken, roasted butternut squash & gorgonzola pizza

Ingredients:
olive oil
garlic (I used garlic powder)
onion (I used onion powder)
whole wheat pita
rotisserie chicken
butternut squash
fresh rosemary
pine nuts, toasted
shredded mozarella cheese
crumbled gorgonzola cheese
baby arugula (rocket)
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut butternut squash into bite-size cubes, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary, then roast for approx. 15 - 20 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, brush pita with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic and onion. Top with diced chicken, roasted squash, a sprinkle of mozarella and gorgonzola cheeses, then top with toasted pine nuts. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to brown. Remove from oven, top with a handful of arugula and enjoy!

It was sooo delicious - I was sad when it was all gone!

On a completely different note, this weekend started out terribly for me. It was the 4th of July weekend so we had Friday off work. On Thursday night I was so terribly sad and lonely, and I ended up drinking a bottle of wine and feeling sorry for myself. I was feeling better by Friday though and, no, I don't plan on making solo drinking a regular occurrence! Then on Saturday something awesome happened...

As some of you may know, I've been frequenting a website called Runner's World. After whining and complaining on their discussion boards about how I had nothing to do this weekend, I got a message from a girl named Katie that just moved to DC last week - she wanted to hang out! Yay! So we made some plans and I headed into the city. We had dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant called Sesto Senso, then we went to a couple of bars for a couple of drinks. We ended up meeting up with an old high school friend of her's, his friend and his friends' girlfriend. It was a really fun night! I'm so glad I've met someone new and young and fun - hopefully we'll get to hang out again soon. It will sure help to make these couple of months go faster if I have someone to spend my weekends with.

Jeremy is doing fine overseas. He's been working a minimum of 12 hours and sometimes up to 14 hours a day, so I think he's pretty exhausted. His routine seems to be sleep, eat, work, eat, and repeat. But he's keeping busy and I think he's been getting along with all his coworkers, so that's good. Oh, and apparently they were doing Jell-O shots the other night! Ha! I still miss him terribly and some days are much harder than others, but at least I get to speak with him every night and we usually send a couple of emails back and forth during the day. I have no idea how military folks do this - at least I know where he is, I know that he's as safe as he can be over there, and I know that he'll be back in just a couple of short months. If he was doing this because he's in the military he'd be gone for a year or maybe 18 months, he'd be out in dangerous areas, taking fire, and I probably wouldn't get to talk to him nearly as often. So, even though I still hate that he's away, I guess I don't have it so bad after all.

Lonely

Well, it's official...Jeremy is now on the other side of the world, and he'll be there for 3 months. Actually, he's still in transit which means that I'm still terrified for him and won't be happy until I hear from him that he's arrived at his final destination safe and sound. I still can't really believe it. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I won't see him again until September - it's almost incomprehensible that he'll be away for so long. And whenever I think of it that way, in terms of the entire 3 months, it makes me feel almost sick to my stomach. So I'm trying to just take it one day at a time, and not think about it as a whole. I've re-opened my membership to Blockbuster Online and have finally signed up for a library card, so I'll be spending a lot of time watching movies that Jeremy has no interest in and reading books without him bugging me about being boring. Ha!

In fact, I watched an incredible movie on the weekend that I'm sure Jeremy would have hated (actually, we probably would never have even considered watching it together) - it was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's a true story about the editor of Elle magazine who suffers a massive stroke and is left completely paralyzed, only able to blink his eyes. He ends up authoring a book, "dictating" his story by spelling out words by blinking. It's truly incredible movie and I'm glad Jeremy wasn't here to complain about watching it - it's a French movie, and Jeremy detests movies with subtitles! So I guess at least one "good" thing may come out of his not being home - I get to watch all the subtitled movies I want!!

I'm also hoping to take up some time by "training" for the Marine Corps Marathon 10k that Jeremy and I will be running in October. I really want to run it in less than 60 minutes, which means I need to shave a whopping 10 minutes off the time I ran the Capitol Hill Classic 10k in! It will be tough, but we did run the Capitol Hill Classic with absolutely no real training (we only ran the distance once before the race), and so I think that if I can stick to my schedule I should be able to come in under 60 minutes. We'll see. I've started another blog to document my training/running so that I don't bore those of you who could care less...you can find it here if you want to check it out (there's also a link to it over on the right-hand side of this blog).

And that's about it really. Oh, and below are some photos from our camping trip with Joci. Check out the pictures of our bear friends!

Memorial Day Camping

I might just be a little crazy!

Yesterday I headed out the door for a run, planning to do one of our regular routes that take us 4.6 miles through the neighborhood. I got about a mile and a half into it, and suddenly the heaven's opened up! It was DUMPING rain on me - I'm not just talking about a light shower, but a torrential downpour! Plus the wind was blowing at about 50 miles/hour! I felt like I was in a hurricane! Ok, well not really, but it was pretty terrible. So there I am, 2 miles away from home, soaking wet and cold. At that point I really had no choice but to press on - there's a quote I love that says something about how the thing with running is that once you realize that you don't really want to be there you're already miles from home! Ain't that the truth!? So I kept on running, albeit like I was drunk because the wind kept blowing me all over the place. I'd see people driving past me in their (dry) cars, and I could just hear their thoughts "What the heck is she doing out in this?", "Ooooh...sucks it be her!", and "She's crazy!". All very valid points. But I kept going, cut my run a little short, got in 3.8 miles and jumped in a hot shower immediately upon my arrival home. Of course, the minute I got to our house the rain stopped. Typical!

To top it all off, my blisters came back with a vengeance! I think it's time to buy some of those $12/pair socks. For that price they'd better give my feet wings!

Oh, the joys of running.

10km is a long way to run!

Well, we did it! Jeremy and I ran our first 10km race on Sunday. It was GREAT! Aside from a couple of blisters I still feel great afterwards - I'm not sore at all, which is incredible. It was a pretty tough course - the race director must have the devil on his shoulder whispering mean ideas in his ear because there was a killer hill at the end. Why they can't put the bad stuff at the beginning while you're still fresh and eager is beyond me! Oh well.

Sunday morning was absolutely perfect - low 60's, a little cloudy but still nice. Our 6-mile run during the week had been pretty slow and painful so we lined up towards the back of the pack to keep out of everyone's way. We started out extremely slow (the lady at mile marker 1 called out our time of 13-something minutes), and it seemed like everyone sped on ahead. At one point, there were only a handful of people behind us - when I noticed that I very nearly threw in the towel. I didn't want to be so far back - truth be told, I was embarrassed. I figured there was no way we could keep up and run a respectable time, and I would HATE to be last! After mile marker 1 we hit the old baseball park - we had to run around the perimeter. I think we ran downhill for a moment and then we had to run back up, which was pretty tough. Somehow, we started to pick up the pace and our strides were much longer than they are during our training runs, which felt great! All those people who had started out so fast began to slow down and we were catching up! We started picking people off and when they called out our time at mile marker 2 we had run about 2 minutes faster than our mile 1 pace. The next few miles were great - we had found our rhythm, and I just kept picking a person in front of us, we'd chase them down, then pick the next person. We were doing a lot of passing and not getting passed by many. We had one quick water stop (I learned I CANNOT drink and run at the same time), then it was down Capitol Hill, along the straight-away and back up. At the base of the hill was a guy with a cowbell, holding a sign that said "Git er done!" - what a riot! Then came the hill and boy oh boy was it BIG!! I really, really tried to run the whole thing, but towards the top I felt almost faint and we had to walk for a minute. With the mean ol' hill behind us, we picked up the pace again, and pushed hard for the 3/4 mile of so until the finish. I felt great crossing the line, and although our time was still slow, we ran 5 mins faster than our training run during the week. We finished in 70:26.

I definitely learned a few things from this race -
1. Competitors at a 10km are a LOT different from those at a 5km. Quite clearly they are people who have been running for some time - while we were somewhere in the middle of our 5k race, we were definitely towards the end of the 10k.
2. I'm not coordinated enough to drink and run, as learned when I splashed water up my nose.
3. Hills are hard, and will be incorporated more frequently into our training runs.
4. It's ok to have a slow start - it just means you'll feel great when you start passing all those folks who went out too fast!
5. I need to get better socks to stop my poor feet from suffering with blisters!

I felt like it was a GREAT race and, even though I was really nervous at the beginning and didn't think I could do it, I'm so glad we ran. Now I have to work on getting FAST, so we can give mum and dad something to cheer for when they watch us run the Marine Corps Marathon 10km race in October.

The Mustang is no more

Much to Jeremy's dismay, today we traded in the Mustang for a 2008 Ford Fusion. Because I have to drive almost 30 miles each way to & from work, we decided it might be time for a more fuel efficient car. We had been looking for a good week or two, done lots of research and looked at a couple of cars. The first was a 2007 Sebring sedan which, although it looked gorgeous on the outside, was terrible on the inside - all beige, cheap plastics. Ick! Then we had a look at a 2009 Toyota Corolla, which was actually a really nice car. I guess they sell about 10 million of those a week, because they only had one that had all the options we wanted at the dealer, so we put down a deposit in the event they could get one in for us. Then today Jeremy noticed that Ford was offering great financing, so we went to look at the Fusions. And even though we really did trade down - from a V8 to a 4-cylinder, muscle car to family car - it sure doesn't seem like it! We decided on a red Fusion, with the sport package. It has a 6-disc CD changer, 18" aluminium wheels, sunroof, reverse sensing (so it beeps at me before I hit something), and leather seats (black with red inserts). It really is a NICE car! Plus, and here comes the best part, it has a backseat that actual people can fit in (not just elves!)!! It gets much better gas mileage than the Mustang, and it's the type of car that will accommodate our one day growing family. It's perfect!! YAY!!

A busy weekend (and a long awaited update)

This weekend Jeremy and I were probably the busiest we've been on a weekend for a long time! Saturday wasn't quite so hectic, but we did spend a lot of our day either in the grocery store or in the mall. We considered catching a movie, but knew that Sunday would be absolutely insane so we just hung out at home Saturday night.

Sunday began super early for us - 4:45am!! I can't say that I've ever seen what a Sunday looks like at 4:45am, and now that I've seen it I'm ok with not ever seeing it again! Anyway, we had to get up so ridiculously early because....drumroll please....we were running a 5km race! Jeremy and I had signed up for the George Washington Parkway Classic waaaay back, and after a few months of running regularly (actually, it was mostly irregularly) it was finally time to race! We've had absolutely beautiful weather here lately - sunny, deliciously warm and sometimes even hot - and then, wouldn't you know it, Sunday was cold and overcast. The race started down by the water, so for a good hour or so Jeremy and I got to enjoy the wind and the cold that large bodies of water usually bring. Standing there in my shorts and long sleeve tech shirt I felt severely underdressed, and wished that I had the sense to dress like a giant banana like one of our fellow runners! Finally, everyone moved to the starting line and we were off! We took the run really slow, as I had not been running very well recently and I wanted to make sure I ran the whole thing. Thank goodness we did start out slow, because it meant that we could blow past all the people who had started out too fast! It felt so good to be running and actually PASSING people! I'm probably the least athletic person I know and here I was, running 5km on a cold, nasty Sunday morning for FUN! And it really was fun - I'm so glad we did it and I'm so excited to push myself even harder in May when we run our 10km race. We ended up coming 588th & 589th out of 867 people. I wasn't too happy with our time - a pitiful 34:55 - but I felt really good at the end, almost like I could do it all over again. Next time we'll beat the pants off that time! They had professional photographers there taking pics of people as they crossed the finish line, so keep your eyes peeled and I'll post those pics once we get them.

After our race we quickly grabbed some food (they had yummy bagels and granola bars and fruit) and dashed back home to relax for an hour or two before we had to head back out again. Jeremy had scored free tickets to a baseball game - the Washington Nationals were playing the Chicago Cubs! Being that he's from Chicago, Jeremy's team is the Cubs so of course we couldn't pass up free tickets! The weather was still pretty miserable, but luckily the tickets we had allowed us access to the "Club" level, so we escaped inside and sat by the bar instead of freezing our butts off outside. Here are a couple of pics...nothing too exciting.

At the entrance to the new, fancy Nationals stadium

Hanging out inside at the bar

Our view

Jeremy's teams' logo spray-painted onto some guys head!

On our way out

Then, after the ballgame, we headed back home to feed the dogs and then it was back out to meet my girlfriend Melyssa and a couple of other people for dinner at PF Changs. After catching up and enjoying a delicious meal, we finally made it home for good at about 9:30pm. Whew! We were both so exhausted, we decided to live life on the edge and sleep in till 5:45am Monday morning (instead of the 4:45 that we usually wake up at), and then it was back to work as usual.

Other than our super-busy weekend we haven't been to busy lately. Now that we're homeowners we've been trying to cut back our spending a little, which means we don't go out quite as much as we used to. Over the last month we've still managed to fit in Marisa's birthday party, a few dinners out and a round of mini-golf, and we've enjoyed many a margarita on our balcony now that we've got a grill and outdoor setting.

This weekend we're planning on having a nice dinner to celebrate our 1-year anniversary. Can you believe it's been one whole year already??! It seems like only yesterday we were up at Maleny praying that it wouldn't rain! I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun - this year has certainly been wonderful and exciting, and I'm so happy!! Life is definitely good for me right now - I have the most handsome and kind and loving husband in the world, a beautiful house and two annoying dogs! What more could a girl ask for?!