Trick or treat!?

Well, I think it's safe to say that I am now officially an "American". Today Jeremy and I picked up some pumpkins so that we could make our first Jack-O-Lanterns together. After not finding any pumpkins at the grocery stores (apparently it's time for them to put our Christmas stuff), we made our way out to a local farmers market stall to pick some up. They had hundreds of the things...big ones, teeny ones, wrinkly ones, moldy ones. So many to choose from! We eventually found our perfect pumpkins - big and round, perfect for carving. Jeremy also insisted on getting apple cider and powdered sugar donuts (somewhat of a tradition for him at Halloween). Then it was back home to get friendly with our pumpkins....

Other than that we've had a pretty lazy week/weekend. Oh, we went out to dinner on Saturday night, to a pretty nice place called Sweet Water Tavern. It was really nice, and the food was awesome, except for one thing. Jeremy was eating his coleslaw when he chomped down on....wait for it.....a piece of glass! Crazy!! Luckily he didn't hurt his teeth or cut his mouth, but that was pretty freaky! We both got fresh meals, and then the manager gave us a gift card to use next time we ate at one of their restaurants. And THEN, I looked at my cocktail shaker that my drink had arrived in, and we saw that it had a big ol' crack running down it too! I'm telling you, in between all our car drama and getting glass in our food, I swear that one of us broke a mirror inadvertantly or something. Oh well.

PS - the absolute best thing in the world is a steaming cup of hot apple cider! Mmmmmmmm.....so so good!

Cars and wine

No, the two definitely don't mix. And don't worry - this post isn't about drinking and driving!

This past weekend the weather was so incredible, Jeremy and I decided to make a day of it and head to a local winery. After doing our tasting, we bought some bottles of good ol' vino and settled at a table in the sun to enjoy good food and better drinks.























I think that was probably the pinnacle of our not-so-exciting weekend. On Sunday we went out to brunch at this quirky place called Eggspectations. It's this small restaurant group that I had read about in the newspaper. As would be expected from a restaurant with such a name, it serves all day breakfast, with menu items like "Egg-chilada", "Oy Vegg" and "Yoke around the clock". It was pretty good, but it was nowhere near as yummy as our regular brunch haunt, Harry's Tap Room.

Now to the "car" part of this post. On Wednesday (the 18th) Jeremy and I once again scored free tickets to the Caps game in DC. I was driving our Jeep into the city, when all of a sudden we see police lights in the rear-view mirror. Bugger! Our tags (registration) had expired in July, and in DC that's a big deal - they usually take your license plates and impound your car!! Luckily, we have a sticker on the back that lets people know that the car is owned/driven by a cop (0r in Jeremy's case, and ex-cop), and so we got off with a warning. Thank goodness we had that sticker, because my license is in the process of being renewed (immigration stuff...don't ask!), which is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum of 6 months in jail and/or a $1000 fine. Oops! By now I guarantee Dad's sitting there going "Rebecca! You shouldn't be driving at all if that's the case!!". Yeah, yeah..I know it's bad, but I can't not drive!

Anywho, so after that little incident we decided that Jeremy should drive the Jeep until our registration was renewed incase I get pulled over again. So, for a few days I was driving the rental car we got given while the Mustang is being repaired. Then, on Monday, I was on my way to take Caroline to ice-hockey practice. We were driving in peak hour traffic (which in DC is ridiculous!) that was pretty much stopped on a 4-lane highway. There we are, stopped behind another car, when all of a sudden I look in the rear-view mirror and see a car flying towards us. Next minute - BANG! Some wanker (pardon my language, but there's no other way to describe him) had decided that he could drive that fast when everyone else was going at a snail's pace. Anywho, we pulled off the highway to swap information, and he convinced me that I didn't need to call the police (which would have led to me getting in trouble for my license anyways), and I've never been in an accident so I didn't know any better. Yesterday I got a call from his insurance company to hear my side of the story. The stupid guy had told his insurance company that I had missed my exit and was reversing when he hit me! Aarrggh! Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing - reversing in the second lane from the left, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, to an exit that was at least a mile back! Grr...I'm sooooo mad! I'm still waiting to hear from the rental car insurance people, so nothing's been resolved yet, but if they come after me for money when I've done absolutely nothing wrong than there'll be hell to pay! Stupid bad drivers! I guess the good news is that the damage was minimal, and neither Caroline nor I were hurt (well, my neck's been sore but it's feeling ok today).

And that brings us up to now. It's cold cold cold here! It's not winter yet and the last week it hasn't gotten above about 55 degrees (about 12 degrees celcius). Brrr!

One of the things that I love about living over here is bearing witness to the change seasons. At the moment we're getting into the full swing of fall (or, for all you sticklers, autumn), and it's beautiful. The weather is quickly cooling down (and the humidity is all but gone), and the leaves are turning yellows and oranges and reds. Fall is so beautiful over here - I wish that everyone back home could experience the change of seasons like we do over here. It's so different from home - over here there are four distinct seasons, unlike Australia, where there's just "stinking hot" and "not so hot". Here we have hot summers with lots of humidity, cool fall when the air is crisp but the sun is still warm, freezing winters with lots of snow (well, not so much snow here), and then spring, with lots of rain. It's pretty cool. I took some photos of our view from our apartment, in an attempt to share some of the fall beauty with you all (although the picture doesn't come close to doing it justice)...

Now, to get my head out of the clouds....This weekend has been fun, but tiring. On Friday night I invited Carina and Marisa over to our house for a sleepover. Woo! I had been missing them, and decided that it would be fun to have them spend the night. On Friday I collected them before I started work, so poor ol' Will had to put up with them for the afternoon (I don't think he really minded that much). We played at Will's school for a good hour or so, then it was off to the bakery for cookies shaped like jack-o-lantern's and donuts smothered with orange frosting. After the kids had filled up with sugary goodness, we made our way to a small toy store by Elizabeth's house so I could find some things to keep the girls entertained, and then we headed to the park armed with a soccer ball and ready to play. After that busy afternoon of "work", Jeremy and I took the girls out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. The nice thing about Macaroni Grill is that in order to keep the table's clean without much effort, they lay a piece of white paper on top of the tablecloth. Then, for whatever reason, the waiter's write their names on the paper when they first come to serve you and leave the crayons behind. So the girls got to spend the night eating spaghetti and meatballs while drawing all over our table top. Jeremy and I were exhausted, but at least the kids had fun. Then on Saturday morning, after we had chocolate pancakes with blueberry and strawberry syrup for breakfast, I took the girls to a local "Fall Festival". It was pretty much just markets, with a moonbounce (jumping castle) and a few other kids activities. The girls came home loaded up with "goodies" - wands and crowns, water-balloon yo-yo's, balloons, stickers, and face paint. Wow. What a day. I was so tired by the time I dropped the kids off with Marianne in DC, but it was fun.

On Saturday night Jeremy and I went out to dinner (again!) with all our friends that we hadn't seen in 3 months. Most of our friends had been off training in Georgia for the SS, and so it was great to finally get to see them all again. We went to a place in Maryland called Mike's Crabhouse, which was right on the water. We ordered 2 dozen crabs to share (there were about 20 of us all together). Mmmm....crabs! My new favourite food! They're a lot of work, but the result is so worth it! When all you slackers finally decide to come and visit me (hehe) the first place we'll go will be a crab shack. Yum!

Which brings us to today. At the moment it's about 14 degrees Celcius outside (yes, only 14 degrees and it's nowhere near winter yet!), so we've been spending the day lounging around inside. We just got back from the movies - we saw The Departed, which was excellent, although not for the faint of heart (it's a movie about organised crime, so there's lots of bad language and lots of blood) - and now we're in for the night and planning to do nothing at all. Oh, what a fun weekend!!

See! We're still alive!

Yeah, I know....it's been months since I last updated my blog. I really do keep meaning to do it, but then I usually get sidetracked. But I've started getting nasty emails and Jeremy has been nagging me about it for the past week, so in order to prevent a coup, here it is....

Since I moved in with Jeremy things have been great! We've settled into our routines and I think we're both learning a lot about each other. It's fun to discover all those little quirks that you can keep hidden while you're just dating. Besides all the getting used to living with each other, we haven't really been doing too much this past month. Most of our friends are away with SS training, so we haven't been getting together with friends very much. Our weekends have been pretty lazy - mostly we just hang around the house, watch a movie, maybe go out to eat, and sometimes take the dogs to a dog park. Not very exciting huh! The most exciting thing that we've done was to go to a pre-season hockey game the past weekend. We scored free tickets (courtesty of Bob) to see the Washington Capitals take on the Carolina Hurricanes. Bob has season tickets to the Capitals (the Caps) that are in the very front row (also known as "on the glass"). Our seats gave us a great view of the ice, and it was super cool when the players "checked" each other. Checking is when a player slams an opponent into the glass around the edge of the ring. Woo! Haha. Even though I don't know the first thing about ice hockey, it was still pretty cool. Jeremy used to play hockey in school, so he was super excited. Check out our exciting pictures!

Our view from our seats.

A player getting checked! Woo!

My job is still going great! I'm having lots of fun, especially with Will (the youngest). We play baseball and basketball and soccer in the backyard, and he's such a cool kid that he's just a blast to hang out with. Every mother I talk to at school who knows the Schmidt's all have nothing but kind things to say about the family. So it's been great.

And I really think that that's about it. Like I said, we're really not that exciting. But you all asked, so I gave!