Skirkell

Who needs perfection anyway?

2012-01-30T22:38:00.001-05:00

Our amazing chile team

This weekend was one of those weekends where everything goes wrong but you still have a great time (or you have downed enough wine that you don't notice anyway).

Cooking geniuses!

Going into the weekend Crystal, Jessica and I planned to enter and dominate the Federal Hill Chili Cook-off with Crystal's famous Green Chile (Mexican themed - that's with an "e" not and "i"). We got together ahead of time on Friday night to make it because we had a busy schedule over the weekend and somehow imagined that aging must be one of the keys to good chile. Several bottles of wine and some excellent Thai food later it was nearly 10 PM when we realized we hadn't even started on cooking! We quickly threw a bunch of things together in a pot under Crystal's direction but near the end we weren't sure about how thick the chile should be so we ended up adding more roux to make it fairly gravy-like. We all tried it and thought it was the most amazing chile we'd ever had then warned Sean that he wasn't to touch it while it was marinating in the fridge for the next few days. Somehow it was after 1 AM by the time we got home but it was definitely time well spent!

On Saturday I endeavored to do some crafts that had been waiting for a while. I've recently cleaned out my closet and have a pile that is called "tailor or die" - meaning it's either got to be fixed up or thrown out. A few items were simple or cheap enough for me to hack at and while I am no good at sewing, even a blind squirrel gets a few nuts. Though there were several serious setbacks, by the end of the afternoon I had a new pair of shorts, a cute tank top that no longer scoops down way too low, and a jacket sans bleach stains. Success!

Getting ready to Circulate

Saturday night was also the night of Baltimore's famous Black and White Party. Sadly, we didn't purchase our tickets before they were sold out so we were left to pre-party with the Jessica, Sean, and Shannon before they headed off to be fabulous. We decided on the much talked about Wit and Whimsy in the Four Seasons as the location for our pre-party. It was a nice place, one of those dark loud bars that people go to artfully drape themselves on furniture or stare fixedly out of their thick rimmed, hipster-ish glasses.

Our faces at Wit and Whimsy

Unfortunately, I have to report a somewhat disappointing waitress. When we got there she said "Anything sour" was the cocktail special so we checked out the menu and ordered a bunch of Jalisco Sours. Later, when we got the bill we found that they were actually $10 each - not on special! When we asked our waitress what the deal was she said "Yeah, anything sour is the special but those are our specialty cocktails so they don't count." Um really? Sour was clearly in the name and in the drink. And it was like she didn't even realize what she was saying! Not an impressive showing by the Four Seasons.

We still had a good time

We also found out while we were there that somehow Jessica and Sean's dog, Bow, had escaped from their locked house. Considering how they recently found someone hiding in their bushes, Greg and I considered this very ominous but they said that this happens like twice a month! (This is a security breach that would not be tolerated in the Sell household) Luckily Greg and I had a key so we said that we would pick up their dog from their neighbor and then make sure their house was ok.

We got home and headed over to the secretary desk to grab the key but it wasn't there! (We needed the key because the front door was locked and the back was inaccessible) We searched and searched and could not find it so Greg went to go get Bow and to try two random keys we had found. By then I had changed into PJs and a robe and continued searching while Greg was out. He called me to tell me that the keys didn't work so I said I would keep searching. As I dropped my phone into my previously empty robe pocket I heard a clink. I reached in and pulled out the key! I'm not sure if it was magic or not but I have no idea how the key got in there. Had it been in there the whole time? What if it had been and I hadn't changed or put my phone in there? We would never have found it! Words can not convey the amazement I feel about this story. I am seriously wondering if I have a magical Mary Poppins-like pocket.

Wow

On Sunday we went to church and then Greg dropped me off at work and headed off to see Haywire with the guys. You really wouldn't think that anything would go wrong with that but apparently, about 40 minutes into the movie it just went black, 10 seconds later the sound went off and, 10 minutes later they came in and told them that they would either need to watch it from the beginning or could get a voucher for their ticket. Greg opted for the voucher, as the first 40 minutes are quite a drag and he didn't want to sit through that again. The only thing - he's got to go back to Whitemarsh now. Ugh. And, when we got home we found that the dog had decided that our house needed a bit more pizazz, in the form of shredded newspaper strewn everywhere.

Drumroll please

Next up was the Chili Cookoff. Unfortunately, over the previous 2 days our chili had congealed into a solid block and was cold in the middle but burning on the outside when we arrived at Jessica's house. We broke out the block, added some water so that it was stir-able and then jetted off to the venue. We had to delay the tasting of our entry until we could heat it a little but it still tasted excellent while looking just a little bit off - like a combination of green salsa and gravy. We sold our chili (alternately called "White lightning, Green Chili," "Whiter than Mitt Romney Chili," and "No Calorie Chili") with style - Jessica even pulling out the Mexican accent and schmoozing the judges. We were also right next to the owner of Baba's Kitchen, a South Baltimore place we've been dying to go to. It was intimidating.

Boo

The company and conversation were great and we had a wonderful time. For an overall price of $22 the Federal Hill Chili Cook-off totally beat Wit and Whimsy hands down. At least we didn't get taken by some crappy waitress. However, we were pretty sure that we were robbed when we didn't win. I mean who doesn't like green salsa or gravy?!? Whatever, we have plans for next year that include sexier clothing, sombreros, and the addition of tomatillos.

For review:
Wit and Whimsy < Chili Cook-off
Our chile > everyone else who won
Tailoring your own clothes = only in desperation
Haywire < a kick in the face
My pocket = infinity

Photo flashback - wedding

2012-01-25T22:36:00.002-05:00

Last week I was updating some photo albums on facebook and realized that there are a few iconic photos that I haven't posted on Skirkell. So, in order to do a bit of catch up, I think every once in a while I will scan my photo library for a photo flashback segment. I mean who doesn't like looking at random photos? All is good as long as you aren't looking at a series of 300 shots of random buildings in a random city documenting every moment, including the airport, of your buddy's trip abroad (you people know who you are).
Today's photo flashback is from August 2009 - our wedding! When we finally got all our photos together three months later we were, at the time, trying mightily to find our place in Baltimore and I think I must have just overlooked posting them. Many thanks to Kelty Luber who took the rehearsal dinner photos and to Cassie Redstone who took the wedding photos.
Anyway, for those of you who weren't able to make it, we threw and awesome party and we are sad that you weren't there! For those of you who partied the day and night away with us, thanks for making it a great time!

And now you know why all my teammates called me "little Tara"

Forgotten Cocktail Club - an experience to remember!

2012-01-24T19:06:00.000-05:00

This weekend was filled with very sad football. Greg and I think that we may possess some sort of bad kicker mojo since the Ravens, like Stanford, lost the most important game of the season through bad kicking. Now, if we hadn't lost that game, it wouldn't have been the most important game of the season - the Super Bowl would be. C’est la vie.
But enough about sad things, I'm here to report that the rest of the weekend was full of high fashion and an equal amount of catty spite - delightful! It all started a few weeks ago when Jessica mentioned that she wanted to go to the Forgotten Cocktail Club at Maisy's and drink all the excellent drinks bartenders have now forgotten in favor of the booziness of long island iced teas. The only problem – Maisy’s is the lair of Jessica’s nemesis (who from now on we will call Ebola as this is what Jessica actually calls her) from which she launches all of her foul plots. We won't go into the details of why Jessica hates her as I only like to air my own dirty laundry on this blog but I will say that I can't imagine a scenario in which Ebola doesn't deserve whatever she gets.
Anyway, I've spent the majority of my life with attractive, intelligent, and competitive women so I knew exactly what needed to be done- take Forgotten Cocktail Hour by storm with maximum sophistication, sexiness and a bevy of hot men and on our arms!
And no question about it, we did. At first I thought Ebola wasn't going to show which would have been fine since we were having a great time and the prohibition era drinks were fantastic. But eventually she arrived, clearly attired more for a dive bar than a cocktail hour - we gave her a not-so-subtle once over - several times, followed by stink-eye.
Greg and I consider ourselves nice people but don't cross us or our friends because we defend what is ours. I bring a relentless killer instinct while Greg turns to the dark side of his infamous wit. This is very different from Dana's standard response, "It's fine, it's fine. At least now I know - she's just a terrible person." In contrast, the following phrase may have been said this weekend, “Really? She's the one? That's disappointing...I mean she'd be okay-looking if she wasn't carrying that extra 25 pounds of ugly." The author of this phrase feels terrible in retrospect but the author of this blog tells him to get over himself.
Also, of note, in order to make sure we looked as fabulous as possible Jessica traipsed over to our house to squeeze me into several of her couture creations (she has some mysterious sources which fuel her couture clothing business). I found myself in a very striking Alexander McQueen denim corset dress and high heel leather boots. Sadly, I did not remember to take a picture but if you put your imagination to work using Xena Warrior Princess, this is what I looked like.
While quite artistic, we all decided it really wasn’t for me - much better to wear the leg barring black lace dress which engenders all the comments about my calves. The comment overheard this weekend is too bawdy for this blog (I might have been insulted if I was the type to be insulted but I’ll just take it as a compliment) but I will note that Greg asked our friend who overheard it which guy said it and then just shrugged and wandered away. That’s my Gerg.

Cooking with Leftovers - My Favorite Pastime

2012-01-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

So here is another thing that I am ridiculously into - figuring out how to make leftovers into a meal. Maybe it is a little sad, and sometimes things don't end up quite right but I think of it as a challenge.
On Saturday, Tess, Sean, and Crystal came over for a very fun, very chatty, fondue dinner that lasted late into the night. While there wasn't anything of the 5 bottles of wine left over (finally finding a few decent local wines - for a while we were sure there weren't any), there was quite a bit of random food when all was said and done.
As an aside, I think that it is important to add this small note to anyone planning on registering for a wedding or purchasing a fondue pot. Do not bother with a fondue pot that uses fire, you never have the fuel when you want it, can never find the fuel in a store, and eventually end up almost burning down your home. The electric ones are way better. Having learned this lesson the hard way, we used the two electric fondue pots that Crystal had instead of our more traditional one.
But back to the leftovers! So far I've used up the left over bread, cheese, heavy cream, chocolate, chicken, broccoli stems (ok, I'm not sure that you are supposed to eat these but if I'm paying per pound for my broccoli and 3/4 of it is stems, I'm going to figure out a way to use it!), and beef broth. These and a few other ingredients turned into french onion soup, a chicken-vegetable-rice dish, mini flourless chocolate cakes and a quiche (using a pie crust we didn't get to use a few weeks ago). Next I plan on using up the vegi stock, potatoes, mushrooms, sausage, and cooking wine to make soup, thai curry, and risotto.
I am, at the moment very proud of my quiche. Though, I do find it sad when you find out exactly what goes into foods you really like. Turns out that reduced calories are not often part of the process. Really good quiche, I found, is made of a much higher ratio of dairy to egg than you might have imagined. 60% of what isn't crust is either cream or cheese. Whatever, it was extremely tasty!

Harris Teeter Baltimore - It's Not Me, It's You

2012-01-09T22:22:00.000-05:00

Dear Harris Teeter Baltimore,
I am done with you. Your promise of $10 off my grocery purchase of $40 or more no longer holds sway over me. I had high hopes for you. That your coming would change the face of grocery shopping in South Baltimore. That maybe you could fill the void between the over-priced yuppi-ness of Whole Foods and the trashy cheapness of Shoppers. But no, you only combine the worst of both worlds. You have the audacity to charge more than Whole Foods, while maintaining the selection of a Shoppers. Your organic produce is priced equivalent to it's weight in gold, inhabits only a single end shelf, and looks as if it were harvested 6 months ago in South America. You have no good bread.
I was momentarily enchanted by your energy-saving-motion-sensor lights, your energy efficient roof, and your reuse of waste heat. But these aspects only hid your terrible flaws. Even with $10 off, I couldn't save money with you. It would only cover the exorbitantly high price of your organic cheese ($10! - twice what Whole Foods charges!). Your arts and allurements may have made me momentarily forget my frugal family upbringing but you can tempt me no more! After my $90 purchase resulting in an empty fridge, no food I am interested in eating, hunger, and a second grocery trip to Whole Foods, your Siren Song holds no power over me. I am finished being your stooge. Good riddance!

Pics from San Diego

2012-01-05T21:53:00.002-05:00

I'm posting two blogs today because I wanted to put up pictures that Emily sent me but they didn't really fit in the New Year's Eve blog. So - enjoy!

A high five was enough to return Matt to the playground

Me, the attentive babysitter

Greg, not so much - about 30 seconds pre-disaster

I'm just giving him a hard time - he was great

Enjoying taking pics with Greg while on a step

Going against the grain to teach Matt to put the ornaments ON the tree

Ava, telling me where my nose is

Another cute pic with Matt! Poor Joe, so underrepresented

Ava, telling Greg where his nose is

Diane and me

Greg and Diane

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

I felt obliged to leave the red eyes in - too much Twilight

Greg and I enjoyed some serious downtime last week. It’s strange how sometimes vacations can be the most intense times while slow weeks at work can be quite relaxing. Greg was required to take time off from his job at Maryland and while I went in to work. I had everything I wanted to do done early every day and took the opportunity to catch up on a few things at home. Plus, I managed to come back from the West coast with a bit of a stomach bug so it was good to be able to have some flexibility.

The Globe Trotters, doing their thing

The crew

About half of the A-team was around at work so we had fun hanging and at MaGerks on Thursday. Greg and I also had the chance to visit with Steve and his parents while watching Notre Dame lose their bowl game (I am sad to say Stanford could do no better). On Friday, Greg decided that Sean and Jessica’s kids were enough of an excuse to go to the Harlem Globe Trotters so he and Sean took them to a game in First Mariner Arena. That night we also hosted a turkey dinner with Crystal, Sean, Jessica and their kids. It was really fun and Crystal and I were excited for a chance to eat Kirk-style gravy once again.

Not sure no bangs was the way to go

Next up was a New Year’s Eve party at Ryan’s overlooking the Inner Harbor. The most eventful part of the evening was when this guy was hitting on me and I was kicking Greg to get me out of it while he just ignored me (he admitted it!). When I finally dragged him into the conversation he quickly bailed with (and this is a real quote), “I’m going to hmm hmm hmm.” Our friends asked him if he was worried and he just said that I need to be able to figure out how to get out of those situations on my own. There are times when I regret that he doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.

FIREWORKS!!!!!!!

But I also think he wanted to let the guy have as much of an opportunity to say ridiculous things as possible. The most memorable quotes were, “Wow, I am never leaving Baltimore (to start the conversation),” “Are you athletic? You have really great calves,” “I almost played professional tennis,” “I once saw Michael Phelps in a strip club,” and “No one worked harder than me” (this is in reference to how it's not fair that some people are more athletically talented than others). I feel bad making fun of this dude in my blog but he was so self important!
I feel obligated to highlight our walk back home as well, since (though I appreciate the extra efforts of the Baltimore Police department to avoid another 4th of July riot and to keep stupid drunken revelers from being the victims of crime) the plans for the Inner harbor were absolutely stupid. People were only allowed to leave the Inner Harbor and no one could walk through it to get home so there wasn’t really a way to get to Fed Hill from Downtown without swinging way around. We tried to enter through one of the entrances (the area was all fenced in) and were instead directed to walk along the outside of the fence – this unfortunately meant that we had to walk in the middle of an active lane of traffic during the most serious drunken driving night of the year! Great job, Baltimore Police – you don’t think that you could have left 2 feet of sidewalk? We eventually found a safe-ish place to walk and took about a mile detour - good thing I thought ahead and brought flats to replace my 4 inch stilettos!!!!
Anyway, we rounded out the weekend with dinner with Jessica’s family and Shannon (the ladies played a mean game of Taboo!) and then spent all day on Monday working on a craft-based project. We did go to the bars to watch the first half of the Stanford bowl game but I think that it’s best not to talk about it. I’m glad I didn’t watch the end because nothing infuriates me more than poor kicking.

Our West Coast Flyby

2011-12-27T10:42:00.000-05:00

This blog comes from the plane trip back to the East Coast after our speed-dating-esque holiday visits to family on the West Coast. On Thursday night we arrived in San Diego. We tried to be cool and hang out with Emily and PJ but our lameness was quickly exposed by the fact that we could barely stay awake later than their son Joe.
The next morning we decided we needed to go on a run to prepare for all the eating that we were going to do later on. Unfortunately, we found our memories of the running route that, 6 months ago, we needed a map to do were not enough to make it a successful run. We got quite lost and our quick jog turned into an hour and 15 minute run. We had to keep up a running pace the whole time because we were seriously worried it would take us hours to find our way back and we needed to shower and dress before Carl and Brenda showed up at Emily’s for our breakfast get-together.

Ava

Joe and Matt

After breakfast we packed up Emily’s boys and headed off to Diane’s where we decided to go to the park and playground there. The boys had a blast but Greg had a parenting fail when he was hanging out with Matt and Joe and a call from his dad distracted him. Matt blithely took that opportunity to walk off a 4 ft tall platform. No injuries resulted and Matt was quickly set out to do it again, actively trying to walk off the platform while Greg held him back. When progress against a grown man proved to be too difficult, he turned around and dove headfirst down the slide towards Emily. I haven’t mentioned that the little dude is 1.5 years old – quite the tank. Joe meanwhile had his own adventures with a little girl named Samantha who seemed to think he was pretty interesting.
Ava and Diane soon joined us and Ava got busy telling me where my nose was. She has certainly become exponentially cuter since our last visit and has an adorable little lopsided smile and sweet little kisses that melt your heart.
That night’s dinner, gift exchange, and then a short trip to Diane’s in the morning were all we had time for before we headed off to the airport to make our way to SeaTac. We arrived just in time to hop in the car and zoom off to my Uncle Ray’s house for the annual Christmas gathering of the Chinese side of my family. I am always so happy that they make sure that Greg is considered part of the family. This year we all reflected on the past year as a way to update everyone on what we are doing – Greg and I basically did an abbreviated version of our Christmas card, using it’s pictures as props.

Dana, my parents, me, and Greg

Greg and I were reeling with exhaustion by the time we got home but that couldn’t keep us from waking up early to open presents with the family on Christmas morning! This year we got together with Dana to get my mom some canvas prints of her favorite pictures and get my dad a weather station and Skyrim which seemed to be a big hit! We, of course, got some great gifts and stuffed ourselves with Julekaka and other Christmas goodies. Then we sort of just whiled the day away with board games before a big Christmas dinner.
The next day we had one more important stop to make before heading home. My parents, Greg, and I made a visit to Greg’s Grandma Nadine and Uncle Steve on our way to the airport. His uncle and aunt, Mike and Carla, as well as his cousins, Sarah and Chris, were also there visiting. Unfortunately, Nadine came down with the stomach flu an hour or so before we arrived so she stayed in her own little area to the side to limit transmission. Steve and Mike tried to follow her directions for the preparation of an early lunch. Aside from dropping the hot pad into the oven and burning it, things went fairly smoothly.
The whole trip was pretty short but we feel like we packed a lot in and got to see quite a bit of family. I’m looking forward to something of a quiet week for Greg and me to get caught up (and back into the gym – very necessary after all the magnificent food we’ve been eating!).
PS When we got down we found that SOMEONE had pulled down the curtains on our 3rd floor. Ms. Jackson maintains her innocence but we know the truth.

What's not to love about the holidays?

2011-12-23T12:22:00.000-05:00

I’m writing this blog on the plane on the way to San Diego, so by the time you read this, that’s where we will be!

Last week Greg and I continued the holiday celebration with some traditionally Christmas themed events. First, a Dickens’ Dinner from the Federal Hill Parlor series - we were treated to a lovely turkey dinner prepared by our friend Will and some great carol singing and reading of A Christmas Carol featuring our friend Megan. We also attended a Christmas concert at our Church with Sean and his boys in tow (Jessica was feeling a bit under the weather). The songs were quite nice, we got to sing a little, and I learned that our men and boys choir is the second oldest in the nation.

We also enjoyed my work holiday party in which we finally told my boss about our close call a few Thanksgivings ago (we were all at a mutual friend’s house) with destroying his son’s faith in his childhood hero (an important aside here is to say that I’d only been working at the Center for a month and a half when this happened). Greg was talking about the recently breaking news story of Tiger Wood’s SUV crash and said, “There are rumors that he was cheating.” My boss’s son was within earshot and said, “Cheating on what?” Greg and I were momentarily paralyzed with horror as we contemplated how terrible it was that we had just bought a house and I was moments from being fired before I jumped in with, “On a game” and Greg added, “But not golf.” Phew! But just to prove how high the stakes were my boss’s son goes, “Oh good, he’s my hero.”

We spent a lot of time over the weekend slaying dragons in Skyrim but also had time to hang out with the Analyst Team at the A team holiday party. I received a very large thesaurus from my secret santa, Ryan, as the two of us are always looking for a slightly different word than the one we are staring at on our screen. I made pastry wrapped brie for the first time ever and this was a big hit – mostly with me and Crystal. I think I ate about half that thing but besides tasting good it seemed to sop Captain Morgan’s rum/wine right up in our bellies – neither of us were hung over the next day!

Greg and I had one big event from this week – a brewing neighborhood power struggle finally came to a head as board members from our neighborhood association pushed to throw each other out. Essentially it was a struggle between the old guard and the new, people who seem to try and obstruct everything and people who want to get things done together. There were also rumors of some financial trickery but those are, so far, unsubstantiated. Over 100 people (more than half of the members of the association) came together to vote off the old board (there were apparently signs around the neighborhood saying “Liberate Federal Hill”). The vote was 97 to 7 to remove 3 members from the board. Unfortunately, these board members have control of all the finances of the association and have declared that the meeting was not a legitimate meeting (last month they threw the new president off the board and appointed one of themselves to be the president). Even in the face of so many members wanting them to go they say they won’t – I think this is what really makes people wonder if anything is being hidden. They say that there should be a cooling off period until April, quite a few months away, when they say the next legitimate board meeting will be.

Other than that, not much has been going on socially with us this week. My work was completely crazy because a big news story that everyone wanted to interview people from my work for broke. I was handling press calls because our regular press person was on vacation and so I my phone was ringing off the hook – seriously I was gone from my desk for about 5 minutes and I missed 3 calls. Plus, I still had to do all my normal work. I’m pretty sure I earned my pay this week.

Time for Holiday Parties

2011-12-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

One of my friends recently told me that by the time that you make it to New Year's you are tired, poor, and fat. Greg and I are doing our best to make it a trifecta. This weekend was completely booked with friends and holiday cheer - which is exactly the way we like it!
On Friday we made wontons with Scott and Jen and learned how to play Settlers of Catan, which I am now obsessed with (I won our second game, which is the same way I became obsessed with Scrabble...continuing success is clearly not guaranteed). On our walk back we remembered that the Fed Hill shops were doing a moonlight madness sale so we stopped into a few stores and bought a few baubles before they closed at midnight. Of course that also meant wandering around the local used bookstore, Book Escape,which may be my favorite place in Fed Hill.

Us, very sad about our performance

On Saturday, I woke up with a bit of a headache from way too much dessert wine but banished it with a long dog walk, cheese toast, and cookies (I managed to get 7 dozen baked for a cookie exchangedf) before setting off to a bar in Scaggsville (ugh, what a terrible name) to participate in the Trivia championships. After making it out of preliminaries for Mad River's trivia night and then the regional semi-finals we were ready to rock and roll. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our A game and got 10th. Oh well, next time we will pick up the slack and I will stop spacing off while the questions are being read.
I decided I needed a bit of a nap and a run because eating only cheese toast, cookies, and cheese fries (from the bar) was making me feel sick. I managed an hour long nap and a quick 3 mile jog which seemed to help both me and Lily. Then it was time to get ready for more parties. First stop was Blake and Meredith's for holiday drinks and appetizers and the we were off to Sean and Jessica's for Sean's belated birthday dinner. I looked at my watch once and it was 10 PM and then all of a sudden it was a quarter to 1. That was late enough for Greg and me so we speed-walked back home through the chilly wind (the one advantage to short skirts in winter weather is that you have no expectations of being warm and so the numbness of cold is actually ok).
On Sunday we made it to church and then decided to check out the new Harris Teeter that just opened a bit from our house. It was ok, but we still miss the plethora of local organic foods we used to have access to in California (also, seriously, a small brick of organic cheese should not cost $10!). On the bright side, we got $20 in free groceries, so that was a plus. We then managed to cram in some Skyrim before Greg headed to the Raven's game while I got an assignment for school in. As soon as he got back we were off to a holiday cookie exchange where we pulled in a haul of fancy cookies in exchange for my extremely tasty, yet basic molasses cookies.
That's it for now. I think Greg and I will turn in early tonight - we have to be serious about our party training.

Ms. Jackson - A Few Fries Short of a Happy Meal

2011-12-07T11:37:00.001-05:00

Last night the cat lit her own tail on fire by sticking it in a candle while walking all over Greg's computer. Apparently the fire only singed the fur and didn't hit flesh but our house smelled SO bad. She wasn't even fazed by it and just trotted across Greg's desk. I figure that we are pretty lucky that she didn't run around the house with a lit up tail and light our bed or curtains on fire.

The end of Movember

2011-12-04T18:27:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if I have mentioned Movember in my blogs last month but now that it is over it's time to do the post-mortem on it.

See Sam's fake blue moustache

Movember is a fundraising movement where men grow moustaches (it was started in Australia, hence the English style spelling) for the month of November to promote awareness of men's health. Apparently (and actually) it is so embarrassing that you feel compelled to explain why that thing is growing on your face that you have to bring up men's health and get people thinking about it. Sam heard about it and decided to start a team with the whole analyst team at the office. Ryan abstained from joining because he had to do the exhibiting with me and had a few big meetings but Greg, Sam, Matt, and Kunal were on board. I will admit that I supported Greg doing it and Ryan not doing it, as I was happier to be married to a moustache than have one as a partner when trying to promote my work project.
However, I almost had Greg shave it when I got back from the west coast trip in mid-November because it wasn't his most flattering look and we had several parties that we were attending in the next week - including Thanksgiving at the Colnitis house. But we persevered and made it through - I stopped looking too closely at Greg's face and he went into his I'll-just-deal-with-it mode (this mode may be the key to our happy marriage). Unfortunately, Sam (yes, the Sam who started the whole thing), caved to his sister's demands and shaved his while he was home for Thanksgiving. He is NEVER going to live that down - from telling him we are worried about him pulling out of a 5 miler he wanted us all to do at 4 miles because his sister calls to anytime he is late asking if he's turned around because his sister told him to.
Kunal, not pictured here, grew something of a trucker barbell kind of 'stache that actually seemed to work and Matt went with a standard one like Greg's. For most of the time, Greg did a bit of a hedge with a bit of stubble everywhere else.
It turns out that it was actually a good conversation starter for men's health and a lot of other guys were doing it so when we were out at the bars they could all give each other high fives. However, I was not too much of a fan (Greg had, by the end gotten used to it but felt it was a hazard while eating soup) and so come December 1 - that thing was gone!
In the end it was a fun experience but I am on guard for other similar months such as "Manuary," "Moustache March," and any and all playoffs.

Justin and Kelty!

2011-11-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, was fortunately pretty slow. The office was absolutely deserted! But both Greg and I needed a bit of a catch-up day after the last few days so the slow day was definitely welcome.
First of all, we've decided to start going back to church after taking the summer pretty much off. Luckily, this year we were on board to be included in the newcomer open house where we made friends with other people our age and were invited to a dinner this last weekend for young couples who are part of the church. It was funny because we took the circulator and only when we arrived at the house did we realize we sat next to another couple heading to the same place.
I unfortunately had a lot of work (both job related and school related) to do so on Sunday after the farmers market, church, and Dim Sum, I headed to work while Greg went to the Raven's game with JP (we have such great friends!). Matt was at work too so it wasn't too lonely and I got a ton of stuff done, which always feels good.
We also had the luxury of having Justin and Kelty come and visit us on Monday and spend the night. It was great to see them again and just catch up on what has happened in life over the past year. Plus Justin hasn't seen our place and neither of them had met Lily so it was great to be able to do an introduction. Plus, they were able to confirm that Ms. Jackson has gotten wildly fat. Justin's dad was treating us to a night out and we certainly did justice to his generosity at the bars. We stopped in at Magerk's, Abbey, Ropewalk, C&R, and then enjoyed the hospitality of our own home as well. Perhaps we had a little too much fun but everyone was mostly fine the next day.
A few things of note - we finally got our car back from the VW mechanic. It had been in the shop for about a week and a half after not being able to start up on Friend's Thanksgiving. The main problem, we think, was just a really dead battery (the most dead the mechanic had ever seen) but there were a few years worth of basic maintenance that had to be done (we've been doing the oil but that is about it) like rotating the tires, changing out transmission fluid, replacing some engine coils, and dealing with slightly rusty breaks - plus there was a mileage/age recommended replacement of the timing belt. We may still have a small problem with the computer but that's not really clear and things are once again running great. It did cost about $2500, which was kind of hefty, but we figured that, compared with a new car, if we made it a year we'd be doing better than breaking even. Plus, the mechanic said that otherwise, things were in great shape. Even more, we had brought it to the dealer first and their costs would have been over $4000 without the timing belt.
In other news, Greg and I received Skyrim late last week. It's the follow-on to Oblivion, one of the best games I've ever seen. This maybe another reason why Greg and I needed a day to catch up with ourselves. Obsessive xbox playing is never good for getting enough sleep.

King and Queen of the Nerds

2011-11-20T22:41:00.001-05:00

Below is an excerpt from our conversation during tonight's viewing of Sunday night football.
Me: He looks like a Hollywood make-up artist put that black stuff on him so he would look like the guy riding the elephant in...
Greg: Already got it and yeah you're right
Me: Wow, you knew I was going to say Lord of the Rings?
Greg: Yeah, and let's be accurate - it was an Oliphant

Road Trip Completed - and Not a Moment Too Soon

2011-11-17T11:33:00.001-05:00

I’m finally back from Las Vegas. Thank goodness, I was super tired of living the life of an exhibitor and was definitely ready to head back to Baltimore and Greg. I also had to miss two sessions of a class that I’m taking at Hopkins and didn’t want to miss another. Fortunately, Ryan and Ann were able to cover the last day of our conference so I could leave 24 hours early.
I am not personally a fan of Las Vegas - I think that it is a completely unnatural city. I mean it’s smack in the middle of the desert for goodness sake! Why would you build a city there? And the whole point of the city is dealing with visitors who are there for artificially constructed things like casinos, high end shopping and shows.
But, since everyone else seems to love it there, it's probably me. First, I hate losing, so I don’t gamble. Second, spending money and not feeling like I’m getting value for it bothers me (especially when I pay in US dollars), so I was not enthused by the overly expensive food and transportation. Third, even though there were some natural wonder options, I’d rather have experiences that I can share with another person, so my weekend there alone was boring. Fourth, I don’t like staying up late (and was still very much on east coast time) but Vegas in the daylight is not so beautiful.
I mostly took the opportunity to catch up on sleep and read a few books. I also woke up early and took did a few runs along the strip, which was actually really nice. Although, the first time I went, I took the advice of the man at the front desk and took the shuttle to the strip, which was late and ended up getting nicked by a truck so it took almost an hour to travel the 1 mile to the strip – needless to say I did the rest of my travel to and from the strip on foot.

When Ryan and Ann showed up on Sunday night, things became noticeably more interesting. Plus, when I went to TGIFriday’s with them (I think I went a total of 4 times…it was in our hotel) the waiters didn’t look at me with pity. Ryan and I walked the strip and did some people watching. We also checked out the Forum Shops and sampled the frozen hot chocolate. The three of us also tried out Dim Sum at Ping Pang Pong, which, despite the seemingly offensive name, was voted the top Asian restaurant in Vegas and was one of the 50 essential restaurants in Vegas. I have to admit, the food was excellent and it was packed with Asian people who seemed to accept it as authentic (by the way, our hotel was definitely geared to Asian clientele –most of the staff spoke Chinese).
The actual exhibiting went really well - less creepiness and a lot more networking at this conference. Plus, the people at this conference were, for the most part, very interested in my project. Additionally, I got a great deal on a solar power kit so that I can charge my cell phone or ereader when on the go. This would have been quite useful for our Belize or Peru trip and will have a home in our emergency kit.
The only issue is…one morning I woke up with a bug bite on my arm! My window was open so it could have been a mosquito but what if it was BED BUGS!?! Needless to say, my suitcase is residing in quarantine in the bathtub until I figure out how I want to make myself feel ok about the situation.

Making the trade show circuit

2011-11-11T07:53:00.001-05:00

Today I'm in Phoenix, Arizona showing off one of my work projects with an exhibit at the Congress of Cities. It's been an interesting time, talking to all the city council members and mayors - a lot of good things and good connections have come out of the trip so I think it was worth it. Also, I am very proud that I was able to shlep all of our display gear out here by myself and set it up all by myself (not so easy when you have something that sets up to stand 10 by 8 ft). Tomorrow I pack it all up and am off to Vegas for more of the same.
A few happenings of interests - I ran into Andrew's parents at the conference and we are going to grab dinner tonight, which should be fun. Also, I'm pretty sure I was propositioned by some middle aged city councilman - somehow I ended up with his cell phone number, an invitation to cocktails, a time to meet up, where his room was, and a wink. Maybe he was just looking to put a fun group together but that was not an invitation I had any intention of taking up. Unfortunately, I saw him leaving as I was coming in to the hotel and had an awkward conversation where he said he was going out and I said "have fun" and then walked into the elevator. Maybe I should be making friends (with people my own age) and seeing all of Phoenix but honestly, if I'm not working my exhibit I want to be asleep in my bed.
On another note, I wanted to relay a conversation from the other day that I think it funny for it's ridiculousness.
Me (in response to doggy footprints): Oh no, I think she stepped in her poop.
Greg: That's why I put her right into her crate.
Me: What?! Now it's all over her blankets and fur.
Greg: No, she licks it off.
At this point there really wasn't anything more to say.

Friends Thanksgiving!

2011-11-06T15:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our second annual celebration of Friends Thanksgiving - our pre-thanksgiving tradition when all of our buddies can get together over a massive turkey dinner and enjoy great company and good food before heading off to respective families for the holidays.
This year, we had a few more chefs among the attendees and slightly more organization on my part so all I needed to focus on was the venue and the turkey. A couple weeks ago Greg and I made the excellent purchase of a long folding table so we were able to accommodate all 14 adults - albeit pretty tightly packed. We also broke into our stored wedding gifts and unpacked some more dishes and utensils - in or normal everyday life we don't need to have so much stuff out but I figured this type of event was why we had all those fancy dishes anyway.

Wishbone breaking

I got a last minute panicked call from Dan who somehow had ended up with sweet potato strewn around his kitchen but fortunately, we had enough random root vegetables to cover it and he filled out the appetizer dishes with a quick trip to the store. The turkey turned out great (I may never switch away from the Alton Brown brining recipe - and this year I had an easier time with the instruction to "tuck the wings underneath the bird," which gave Greg and me fits last year) and the gravy was supper yummy too! Sean (of Sean and Tess) brought some home brewed apple cider, which was one of the highlights of the evening and Crystal made 3 pumpkin pies! I won't go through the entire menu but I can say that it was all really great and we had more than enough food (an early morning concern on my part).

Ms. Jackson's break-in attempt

I sadly have no picture of everyone gathered around the table because I was totally distracted by eating as much as I could fit into my stomach. But before the eating started we did manage to get a wishbone photo with Ryan and Greg (Greg won). I will also mention that Greg, who was carving the turkey, got some excellent instructions on that from a cooking magazine and made a much more efficient job of it this year.
One other thing to note - a few nights ago Ms. Jackson had a big scare. She snuck out when we let the dog out before bed and Greg didn't notice. So she spent the entire night trying to get back inside the house. The screen door is ruined and there are scratches on the outside of the door. I'm surprised we didn't hear anything like "Tailypo, Tailypo, give me back my tailypo!"

Finally, a new post!

2011-10-28T08:36:00.001-04:00

Greg has caught gym fever but I just couldn't motivate myself today. So I'm awake at home and finally have time to write a new blog! As you will notice, the blog has yet another new layout. Blogger has introduced a new type of view which allows readers to have more ready access to your old posts. And since Greg and I had a far more exciting life way back when, vanity demanded that I encourage readers to read posts from when we traveled the world willy nilly.

Me, Kathy, and Greg with HPRP stickers

Anyway, life has been happening at a very rapid pace recently. The weekend after we did the Army 10 miler Greg, Sam, Crystal, Kathy, and I closed out the running season by doing the Baltimore half marathon. Unfortunately, I had a side ache the entire race so picking up my speed was pretty painful and the course was definitely more hilly than the Army 10-miler. I went 1:56:01 (8:51/mile pace) and Greg went 1:48:02 (8:15/mile pace). Sam was super fast and went 1:32:51 (7:05/mile pace), but he paid for it afterwards and wasn't feeling super hot. Greg, Kathy, and I ran in support of the Homeless Person Representation Project (HPRP) and we had big stickers with stats about homelessness in Baltimore on our backs. All in all, we were satisfied with how we did and happy to take a break from serious running for a few months.
That was on Saturday. On Sunday I spent the day at the office (with the exception of a little side break to Kathleen's house for her tailgate party), catching up on some work and studying for my exam in the class I am taking. The exam wasn't until Wednesday but I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well because I was planning on asking the professor for a letter of recommendation. Turns out all that studying paid off because I got the highest grade on the exam!
On Thursday, Sean and Jessica and their kids came over for dinner. It was a nice little get together and I think the entirely vegetarian meal came off well. Mostly Greg and I just made a bunch of the one pot dishes that we usually count as one meal and it all magically seemed to go together - but then maybe that was the wine. Anyway, for those of you who are now wondering if we are vegetarian, the answer is no. It's not that we don't eat meat, it's just that we rarely buy meat at the store so we never have any to cook. We have that giant CSA share of vegetables and we are usually scrambling just to try to eat them before they go bad so there isn't any reason to buy any more food. But I will admit, I'm getting a little tired of the vegetables - I've just eaten too many of them this summer.
Anyway, this past weekend was all about getting the little things that we'd ignored over the past few weeks taken care of. We made a giant errand trip which included visits to goodwill and the consignment store to drop stuff off, which always feels satisfying (we also bought earrings from the consignment store and picture frames from goodwill so we ended up bring home as much as we left). I refinished a picture frame (I am super proud of it) and we put a lot of our photos from the last year up.
Greg has been busy too, working during his off hours to build apps for my work. We've got a great one up in the itunes store right now called BioAgent Facts (download it - we need the numbers!). I'm not sure that he is going to continue with app programming because it might be time he could use for side exploration into interesting research. But I figure it is a good opportunity for me to work a few hours later and we can both be productive that much longer.

Army Ten-Miler

2011-10-10T08:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Greg, Crystal, and I all completed the Army Ten-Miler. The race had over 20,000 people in it and was quite the spectacle. Before the race started I was sort of wondering why I was even out there, (leaving the house when it was still dark to make our way to the DC metro and taking another hour ride from there) but in the end it was a great event that I think I will do next year.
The bit was rough because I got stuck in a slower wave and couldn't get by all the people who were packed in there. After about 2 miles things started to open up but I was still contending with getting by slower pacing people all the way through the finish line. I was so busy trying to make up that lost time that I didn't even notice how far we'd gone until we were already halfway finished! At that point I was chatting with a guy who I kept passing but seemed to always be about 20 feet ahead of me due to better route choices. He was breathing pretty hard and all of a sudden I realized I wasn't breathing hard at all. So I picked up my pace and started really going.
The course looped back on itself shortly after the halfway point and I saw Greg running by me. I jumped around, yelled, and waved but he didn't see me. After that I figured it was just time to power through the end. It turns out that training, fewer hills, and a cooler day make a huge difference. I went a nearly painless 1:25:06 (8:30 pace) and Greg went 1:17:29 (7:44 pace). Both of us would have been faster if we had started with our correct wave. Next week it's the half marathon. I don't expect it to go as smoothly but hopefully it will be ok.
Also, one thing I forgot to mention is that last weekend Greg, Ryan, and I got to go to the Raven's game and watch them play the Jets. It was not the highest caliber game but it was crazy to watch. At one point we we started booing as an official review seemed to go against us and then the official signaled a touchdown for the Ravens. No one could figure out what was going on because the booing had covered up the call!

Swim Across America

2011-10-07T07:59:00.000-04:00

Few weeks ago I did my first swim appearance in a really long time - probably since May 09. Since all the crazy stuff happened with USA Swimming I haven't really wanted to be involved with that world but Swim Across America tracked me down through Sam at work and for some reason I thought it would be fun - turned out it really was!
I will admit right up front to ending my trips to the candy bowl in the office for a whole month and a half before this event just so that anyone from the national team wouldn't go back and say, "I saw Tara and man has she let herself go!" That, in addition to all the training for our 10 miler and half marathon, may have put me in nearly as good of shape as I was in my swimming days.
The event was supposed to be a 1 or 3 mile open water swim to help raise money for cancer. Unfortunately, with hurricanes Irene and Lee, there was so much gross run off that it really wasn't safe to be spending time in the water. I mean, we were doing a swim for cancer, it would seem silly to swim through a bunch of toxic sludge. So instead, the event was relocated to Meadowbrook Swim Club, where NBAC swims out of.
Greg and I got to go to a nice dinner in Fells with some of the staff, donors and some of the other Olympians the night before the event. I wished that I had dressed warmer so I would have felt comfortable on the balcony and been able to hang out longer but it was pretty chilly and I just couldn't hang in there for too long.
The next day we all met up at Meadowbrook and the Olympians signed a bunch of posters and chatted with the younger swimmers. I was actually sitting next to Allison Schmidt, who I knew from when I was swimming so it was nice to catch up a bit. I didn't end up swimming because the whole event was sort of casual, I didn't feel like getting in, and that was fine with everyone. It was just sort of, get in when you want, swim what you want, and hang out a bunch - so I just did that dry.
Anyway, It was a really fun time. I had fun with the Swim Across America staff and definitely think that it is something I'd like to do next year!

Proof we are not done with dog training

2011-10-06T20:26:00.001-04:00

Back from AZ

2011-10-01T08:25:00.000-04:00

All of us

Helping with set up

We got back from our trip to Sedona late Sunday night/early Sunday morning and it has been such a crazy week that I am just getting around to writing! It was great to see Andrew and Lacey and Andrew’s parents again. When we first landed in Phoenix, this Pacific Northwest girl was pretty weirded out by the scenery - kind of like the earth is naked but with some sort of weird stubble. Cactuses = not natural. But soon we climbed into red rock county with beautiful buttes (haha we laughed too) and brightly colored stone all around.

When we finally got to Sedona on Thursday and met up with Andrew, Lacey, and Andrew's parents, we all decided to head out for a hike. Fortunately, our total old person car (Mercury Grand Marquis) made up in seating what it lacked in looks. With the bench seat in front we could fit all 6 of us in there – though things were a bit tight. So we all piled in and headed out for a nice Arizona hike. There was some shade, but I was pretty much immediately parched and found a renewed respect for hot and dry environments.

Grand Canyon w/ river

Greg and Me

I never usually value hydration very highly (unless I am trying to rid myself of a zit) because there are very few situations when I feel thirsty and I’d rather not interrupt what I am doing to take a drink of water or carry a water bottle around. As an example, I generally feel that bringing water on a run in which I am familiar with the route is a waste of effort and creates a chance of having to find a place to stop along the way. But in this case, there was no question – significant amounts of water were required. (Especially when you consider our wine tasting excursion after)

More Grand Canyon

Nice view!

With that in mind, I was prepared with several extra bottles of water when we all set out for the Grand Canyon the next day. I'd never gone before and it's the kind of site that makes you think that someone must have imagined it out of a science fiction novel. Very breathtaking - something so vast that it is impossible to really fathom! I'd like to go there one day again and hike down to the Colorado to get a real idea of the the whole range of experiences and views.

Lacey, Andrew, Greg, and I only hiked about a mile and a half down the trail to the first rest stop and then headed back up to meet up with Andrew's parents. The trail was really nice and it was great to watch the perspective change little by little as we headed down. That night, on the way back to Sedona we stopped for an amazing Mexican dinner - man, I've missed Mexican food out here.

Stitched shot of the Canyon

On our last full day Greg and I ran 6 miles in the morning (it felt great even though it had hills and was at 4000 ft altitude). Then we headed out for another hike in the Sedona area. This time we were headed out to what the locals call the "Vortex." Sedona is one of those towns full of people with crystals doing hot yoga - New Agey type stuff. Apparently there are some energy vortices that people like to go to. I personally didn't feel anything but maybe I should be more open minded or something. Anyway, after we visited the vortex we headed out on a 4 mile hike which seemed way way longer than our run that morning. Even Lacey was feeling a little peevish which is rare for sure. But we made it to the end and then sat in the shade to await Andrew's parents. We spent the rest of the day drinking Margaritas and watching football. Not bad!

Our path back to the vortex

Sunday was too short to do any hiking (I was secretly glad) but Greg and I did get in another 7 mile run. Then we just hung out with Andrew and Lacey - which was really the best part of the trip. We also checked out some more football, which is never really a bad thing (unless you've watched Thurs, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and Monday night). Too soon it was time to head back - although we sadly were delayed and didn't make it home until 2 AM. Yuck.

A few updates

2011-09-29T22:12:00.000-04:00

One quick post before the long blog about AZ - we are still figuring out the picture situation and, as Greg is totally passed out next to me, I'm going to wait until the AM post that blog. But I wanted to add a couple things of note.
1) Greg and I got to hang out with my old coach Lea on Tuesday night, which was great. She was in the area for a recruiting trip and so was able to visit me while she was out here. We went to MaGerks and chatted like old times - I miss the story telling!
2) Greg and I did our final long run today before our races. We went 13 miles - plus about half a mile of walking. It was fine until about 10 miles and then it was pretty horrible. I'm not sure my knees will ever forgive me. But I was happy to have done the whole harbor. We ran to the public works house in Canton and then up into Ft. McHenry and then back, sticking to the board walk as long as possible. All in all, I think it took about 2 hours and 10 minutes but the walking added some more time so we were definitely rushing to get into work this morning. Our races are a 10 miler next weekend and then a half marathon the weekend after that. After these races, I never want to run more than 10 miles at a time again.
3) I've had a really great week at work, including the launch of a huge project I've been working on. There is a huge buzz about it and it is really great that I get to be among the 4 names on the cover of the project!

Extended Weekend

2011-09-22T10:42:00.003-04:00

Woohoo! Greg and I are on our way to Phoenix to meet up with the Schnells (x2! - we've got Andrew's parents on board too). Anyway, we were lucky enough to get invited to their Sedona house where we plan to relax a bit (as an aside - it's a good thing I had an early flight today (with internet) because I got online at 6:30 AM and there were already several emails that needed immediate replies!).
But on another subject, check out the new graphics on the blog. I couldn't deal with all the black in the night shot of Baltimore so now I have a 4th of July shot from the home. I've also made the text slide over the photo so you can let me know what you think of that.

Duke/Stanford

2011-09-16T08:15:00.001-04:00

As a quick aside, I've been messing with Skirkell's graphics. Let me know what you think. I've heard that eyes out of their 20s can't read white text but since I have a year to go, I can't tell. The background is a night shot of Baltimore, but I might switch it out if I think of something better.
Last weekend, Greg and I packed ourselves and Lily up and headed toNorth Carolina to visit with his extended family and catch Stanfordfootball taking on the Duke Blue Devils. Greg picked me up a bit early from work on Thursday and we began our drive south. On the way down we listened to Game Change, which was interesting, though a little boring at first. I mean, the Hilary/Obama battle was a big deal for the country but it was the Edwards drama that really pulled me in - how horrible would it have been if he was the nominee? But I am really looking forward to when Palin enters the story.

The three of us at Bud and Mary Jo's

Anyway, we got in pretty late to Greg's Uncle Bud and Aunt Mary Jo's house. But Mary Jo immediately made us dinner in the form of a "yum ball" (I think). I was confused, and as I write this I find out Greg was too, because it had no resemblance to a ball, but it was very yummy.
I was pretty nervous that Lily would ruin their nice house. It saved us a lot of money to bring her with us instead of kenneling her and it was nice to have her around on the trip so we were really thankful that Mary Jo let us bring her. But still, I kept waiting for her to totally screw up, which she kind of did later.
Anyway, the next day we went to UNC, where Greg's cousin-in-law, CB, is a an assistant coach on the basketball team, and got a tour of the basketball facilities and the basketball museum. Both were really great. And, while we were wandering around the facilities our tour guide introduced me to Marvin Williams, who was among the pros working out there, because we are both from Bremerton.
We hadn't met before (although I think our paths did cross one Christmas break at the YMCA when Dana and I were leaving the pool and he was coming in to shoot) because I am a bit older than him. But he had gone to school with my sister and still remembered her, and through her, knew who I was. So thankfully it wasn't as awkward as it could have been.

Picking up the tickets at Duke's basketball building

After that we meandered around Chapel Hill for a bit, with Bud and Greg's cousin Kris, while we waited to pick up Hunter, Kris's son, from school. The grounds of the college are pretty nice, with a lot of trees. Of course, nothing can beat Stanford, but I will admit sometimes to wishing for some real shade out there.
When we got home we did a little 4.5 mile run, which was brutal in the heat and with the hills. But I was glad that we did it because we hadn't worked out since Monday. Afterward, Kris came over with Hunter and her two twin girls, Kate and Addison. They decided that getting Lily to chase them to a big chair while screaming was a really fun idea. Lily was confused but played along, bounding after them with a playful bounce. Eventually, though, I think that the screaming got to be a little overwhelming and she did what Greg and I call a "protest pee." We've noticed if there is a lot of excitement and action going on that is the time she ends up having a small accident - not the best since these are the times you least want to stop and deal with dog pee. But Mary Jo was cool about it and we felt like we were able to clean it up sufficiently well.
After dinner, we headed to Durham to pick up Chloe, who is Greg's second cousin. She had come up to hang out with us for the weekend while her parents were in Atlanta. Just before she got in the car, Greg and I pulled the Game Change CD out of the player and popped in Mumford and Son's. We wanted her to think we were cool.
The next day was game day. We worked out for a bit while Bud and Mary Joe went to coach and watch their grandkids' soccer games. Apparently, there was some difficulty in getting everyone to play. Maybe next time. Unfortunately, we also found that Lily had a few accidents in the basement. The only thing we can think is that she thought downstairs was outside. Who knows. At that point we were thinking that maybe we should keep her in the bathroom while we were gone at the game but Mary Jo would have none of that. So we set off for the game with Lily sitting by the window watching us head out.

Before the game

The game was awesome! We got to check out the Duke tennis facilities, where Kathy, Bud and Mary Jo's youngest, Kathy, dominated during her 4 years there. When we headed for the game, everyone we came in contact with was super nice, welcoming us to Duke. The game started out with a more even display of football back and forth than I had really expected. The score was only 10-0 us in the middle of the second quarter. And then it seemed like momentum seemed to be shifting towards Duke. They converted on a fake punt and then even though they eventually had punt the ball, as soon as we got it a tipped pass lead to an interception and touchdown. Then they did an onside kick and recovered it! At that point the couple sections of Stanford fans had had enough and woke up from their sleepy and amused observation to put in a few serious cheers. The team seemed to respond to the crowd and the adversity and got two big sacks and then drove the ball straight in for a touchdown as soon as they were on offense. The rest of the game Stanford dominated.
We headed back a bit early to make sure that Lily was ok. Greg might have found a very small spot but all seemed to be well. So, we left her with Bud and Mary Jo and took Chloe out to have dinner with Kris and CB.
The next morning we woke up, hung out with Bud and Mary Jo for breakfast, and then headed out. It was time to return to our lives in Baltimore. The Ravens were playing the Steelers, not a game to be missed, and Greg and I both had work to catch up on. Still, we always wish we could stay with Bud and Mary Jo longer!

Baltimore Grand Prix

2011-09-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

The hairpin turn (background) was just a few blocks from home

This weekend was the weekend Baltimore has been waiting for all year - to see if the Grand Prix Street Racing event was a success or failure. Baltimoreans were solidly divided. Some were so inconvenienced by the road closures and angry about the costs laid out to bring the event about that they have spent the last several months being negative nellies and swore off the whole weekend. Others, like us, were more excited about the event and we, as walkers, were hardly inconvenienced by the traffic snarls. The whole thing was so divisive that is has even become a wedge issue in the mayoral race!
Well, from my view and the general view of most people who went to the event it went off great! There is always a slight chance in Baltimore that something will go horribly wrong - like the semi-rioting/shooting that happened at the Independence day celebration, when Sam overheard a police officer say in response to a question about what happened, "What didn't happen tonight?" But all in all, Baltimore is a really great city and so the event was a unique opportunity to show the best parts of the city of The Wire fame. The race was shown internationally so even if they weren't here to visit, people around the world got to check out the beautiful sights on the inner harbor and Camden Yards (though we'd rather people came and spent their money in the city).

Cars in the Le Mans race

The racing started on Friday and I wanted to get out of work a bit early to see what was up. Unfortunately, there was just too much to do and I only managed to escape at 4:45. Greg and I had signed up for the 5k that was being run on the racing course so I changed into my running gear and we headed out to the race track. The race was cool - it was definitely unique to be able to see the track all the way around and from the inside! We also ran much faster than we thought we would. Greg went 20:39 (6:40 mile pace) and I went 22:34 (7:17 mile pace). Greg and I were running with our friend Tess for a while but then Greg went ahead a bit and after a while, Tess went off to catch some girl in pink. Still scarred by my Baltimore 10 miler experience I decided just to keep it smooth at the end. I was 42nd for females and 6th in my age group so not so bad.

Up close and personal- that's me in pink

Oh, but here is the bad part (Diane, do not tell Laura this because it would totally gross her out. I mean it totally grosses me out and I know she gets even more grossed out than me). Before the race I stopped in a port-a-potty and moved the seat with my fingers. On doing so, I said to myself, "I better wash my hands as soon as possible." But there was no place to do so. Anyway, 45 minutes or so passed by and the race was late getting off so I started to get hungry. At this point, I had forgotten the port-a-potty experience and so purchased some salt and vinegar chips and chowed down. It was only as I was licking my fingers that I remembered. Yuck! I was so grossed out! I mean disgusted to the point of feeling physically sick! So as soon as the race was over we grabbed Sean and he, Tess, Greg, and I headed straight home and I swished 2 shots of Russian vodka. If anything could disinfect my insides I figured that was my best option.

Checking out the big screen

Anyway, while the human race was fun the car racing was great too! We spent a lot of time with Sean and Tess over the weekend at the track and at various restaurants but we also met up with Young and Ryan and Blake came over for waffles. We only had General Admission to the infield so we didn't have the best of views but we were able to walk around the infield and check out a bunch of different spots where you could see the cars fly by.
The experience really affected all of your senses - you could feel the roar of the engines in your chest, smell the rubber and exhaust, and be totally deafened as the cars screamed past. We had earplugs, which were life savers. I'm not sure I would have wanted to hang out there without them - it was crazy loud!
Unfortunately, we had no idea what the rules of how the race was supposed to go. There were two big races that we paid attention to - the Le Mans race which had different looking cars from the big car companies and then the big Indy race that included Danica Patrick. There were places where there were score boards and speakers announcing what was going on but without any background knowledge of how things were supposed to go, we were really just watching fast cars fly by instead of racing.
All in all, a great weekend! I think that Baltimore will be hosting the race for a few more years and Greg and I are looking forward to seeing it again!

Dining room upgrade

2011-08-30T19:06:00.000-04:00

New dining room

This weekend one of our friends went stir crazy from being stuck inside during the hurricane and cut off all her hair at the chin. All I did was get crazy about painting the dining room from mustard yellow to a nice sage green. Greg is a lucky man.
So on Saturday, Greg managed to talk me out of the painting project by pointing out that the power might go out due to the hurricane in the middle of the project. Which would be something of a problem. Unfortunately, the craziness was upon me and when I made Greg go with me to home depot on Sunday he hardly protested.
We picked up a pale minty green from the store and got to work. We painted the first 2 walls and took a step back to evaluate. That step became many steps as we headed out the door to pick up a different color. In the words of Greg, "it looks like an old lady's dollhouse."

From before we purchased the house

When we got back, I got to work with the new sage green color (painting over both the mint and the yellow). Greg helped tape but soon headed off to an O's game with our guy friends from my work. I spent the next 5 hours painting like a fiend. I got most of it done but at about 11 decided to call it a night. I think I might have given myself an elbow injury from my exuberance.
Greg surprised me the next day when I got home with a completed paint job. I was so happy with it! I think that it looks great. I'm glad we bailed on the color that wasn't quite right and I'm also glad we had the initiative to eliminate the last of the mustard yellow form our house (if you can believe it, the yellow in the 3rd floor bedroom was even darker yellow before we painted over it in light blue). Yay! Hopefully this will satisfy my home improvement focus for a while because my schedule is packed for the next few months - I don't have time to get obsessive about another project!

The other side

2011-08-28T09:46:00.000-04:00

Well, it's morning and we still have electricity. But the night was not without its moments of excitement. Yesterday was pretty rainy from the afternoon on. In the evening we started getting something of a torrential downpour, but there still wasn't much wind. Greg and I coped by playing video games all day.
We went to bed around at 10:30 but Ms. Jackson, who usually hangs out with us at night, wasn't in our bedroom. Sometimes, she likes to think she would like it outside. And since she is an idiot, I couldn't put it out of the realm of possibility that she escaped even with hurricane conditions while I was unsuccessfully trying to get Lily to go outside relieve herself. So Greg begrudgingly accepted my request to get out of bed and make sure she was inside.

Greg, with his head out the window

He found Ms. Jackson. But he also found a leak over the window in the spare bedroom which must have started about half an hour before. We know it must have only been a short while because even though there was a decent volume of water on the sill and on the furniture because there wasn't any damage to the finish of the nice old furniture my parents gave me.
After some initial running around and yelling "crap!" we sopped up the water, plopped a pitcher down under the drip and then broke out the duct tape and plastic sheeting - the Bush administration's FEMA would have been so proud. Anyway, covering the window casing with plastic didn't work and the leaking continued at pretty much the same rate - 1 drip every 3 seconds. We also discovered that the basement was taking on water (this is not surprising, and in fact, we have a sump pump in our basement), and that the sill near our bed on the 3rd floor had some water (actually a big improvement since we repaired the gutters on that side of the house from the big puddles that used to form). At this point, it was midnight, and I was tired enough that containing the water in a pitcher and throwing a towel on the basement floor and 3rd floor sill was as enough for me - we weren't going to be doing any repairs at midnight in the middle of a hurricane.
The wind started to pick up in the middle of the night and I woke up at about 4 as the wind gusted around the house. I went downstairs and everything seemed to be in the same situation as we left it. Since the wind was now so fierce, however, the plastic that we put over the window casement was flying all over outside. So Greg brought it in - it wasn't doing much anyway.

The water that could have been everywhere

So far we haven't seen much damage this morning. The dripping from the window has slowed but we are eventually going to have to do something about it (this is the same window I noticed a draft in over the winter so hopefully it's just caulking) . But thank goodness for Ms. Jackson. If Greg hadn't gone searching for her, we would have never noticed the leak and, given the amount of water that would have been pooling for hours, it would probably would have ruined the wood bed frame, the mattress, the down comforter, the pillows, the desk, and possibly the floor.

Safe Harbor

2011-08-27T07:55:00.000-04:00

The inner harbor is packed!

Last night we walked to Fells (the area that will probably take the worst flooding damage) to hang out with the gang at Kunal's place. On the way there we passed by a number of small naval vessels (16 in all) up from Annapolis. The harbor was also completely packed with luxury yachts. Every possible tie in space was used up. It made me fell marginally better to think that the Inner Harbor is the safest place to be for all these ships.

And the Earth rises up

2011-08-26T10:38:00.000-04:00

Well, by all accounts, its going to be a rough week for the East Coast.
On Tuesday I was at work when all of a sudden I felt a slight shaking while I was sitting at my desk. I've gotten used to the slight shaking that my house does when a large truck drives by so it took me a couple seconds to say, "I'm pretty sure this is an earthquake." It was only a little at first and people came out of their offices to say, "What is that." Everyone was pretty calm and then things REALLY started to shake - enough so that I found even my jaded West Coast self diving under my desk and then evacuating the building. It wasn't the strongest earthquake I've ever felt but it was big enough for the training from years of earthquake drills to kick in automatically. Plus, I'd just been researching disaster preparedness stuff and did earthquakes that morning!
Anyway, all is good. We had a few things fall off shelves at home. Greg was at Hopkins but Lily was in her crate which is protected on the top by a big board so she was safe. There is serious damage to one old church in Baltimore and a few national monuments in DC but all in all things are ok. Still, even just even a little worse would have caused many serious problems, especially since East Coasters don't know what to do in earthquakes. Also, the fact that the earthquake traveled so far - it was felt at least from North Carolina to Toronto - means that damage could have been really widespread. Especially considering how many old brick buildings are out here.
So having lived through one natural disaster we are all gearing up for another one this weekend, when hurricane Irene makes her visit. Greg and I have gotten a lot of inquiries about what is going on here - if we are being evacuated or taking other precautions. I'd like to assure everyone that yes, we are taking precautions and also that the predictions do not look too severe for Baltimore so we are not evacuating.
First, I think a little geography refresher will help everyone calm down. A few years ago there was some confusion because we live in a city that starts with a "B" in a state that starts with "M" but we do not live in Boston, Massachusetts, which is significantly north and on the coast. Baltimore is located on a harbor in the Chesapeake bay, which is on the Western side of the Delmarva peninsula. So, since there is some distance from the coast we are somewhat protected.
Our main concern here is flooding. However, that is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Greg and I live on high ground. Serious problems will occur with flooding if the hurricane moves up close to the city but on the western side as this will push water up the bay and flood lower areas of the city. Some flooding will occur regardless, since this happens with hard rains, and the city has already made sand bags available to residents in who may have to contend with flood waters.

Ryan and Kunal fill sandbags

Greg and I plan to secure out outdoor areas, bringing in outdoor furniture and plants that could take damage. We'll clear out the gutters too. We've gotten some extra food and already have a stockpile of water, flashlights and other basic supplies. We plan to put our car in a garage and have a nearly full tank of gas, just in case. We also plan to make sure that everything is lifted off the floor in our basement, though our sump pump should take care of things as long as the power stays on. Other than that, I think we really will just be hunkering down and dealing with things as they come. We'll see you on the other side!

Belize - The Jungle

2011-08-16T13:50:00.000-04:00

After leaving Turtleman's house we took the 45 minute boat ride down the coast, hopped on the little 12 seater airplane, and then were met by a driver for a 2 hour drive to the Mariposa Jungle Lodge. For my motion-sickness sensitive self this was a bit of an overkill for the day. The last 45 minutes of the drive were on the worst dirt/large rock/pothole road I have ever been on (2 occasions might have been comparable - the road to the trail head for Mildred lakes in the Olympic Mountains and the climb through the Andes to begin our Peruvian hike). So yes, I wasn't feeling super hot by the end. Greg had also been keeping silent about the fact that the Turtleman's house was swaying in the wind in the hopes that I wouldn't notice and start getting seasick - he succeeded but in the end I failed to get my land legs back in a reasonable amount of time so it didn't really matter anyway.
Anyway, Greg and I decided that we'd rather head straight to the lodge instead of stopping for tours of the zoo or doing cave tubing on the drive up. Mostly, we were still in relaxing mode from the beach house and weren't really up to cramming our day full of activities yet. Secondly, we really wanted to take showers.
Our cabana at the Mariposa Jungle Lodge was very luxurious - though I will admit to a little bit of a creep out when the first thing on the list of important information for guests was to make sure that we shook out our shoes before putting them on (yuck - I am not a fan of scorpions and spiders in my shoes). But we had a hot shower, king size bed (with bug net), and a cute little screened in porch overlooking the jungle. The woodwork was also amazing. Dinner was served for us and one other couple in the main lodge - at which point I almost immediately felt better (I also met Sika the dog who was very friendly and licked me, which I thought was cute until I started to get stressed about all the rabies deaths I'd been reading about for one of my projects, fortunately I was assured that she'd had all her shots) - and then we sank into our comfy bed and passed out.
The next day was our trip to Actun Tunichil Muknal cave (ATM). After about an hour and a half on the road - most of it on the same dirt roads we had traveled the day before we began our 45 minute hike to the cave. There were 8 of us but in the cave we split into 2 groups of 4, each with one guide, which was rather nice. We went about a kilometer and a half into the cave, which is filled with ankle to 12 ft deep water (though it had a very high ceiling so I didn't feel too trapped) running through it. Mostly we just had to make our way over, under, and though boulders in the cave but we had to swim a few times as well.
The moving water formed the cave but it was also filled with beautiful rock formations from water dripping from the ceiling. The real interest of the cave though is that it was a place of Mayan worship to the rain god Chaac. There are a lot of pottery fragments from their ceremonies but as you get further into the cave there are also the calcified remains of human sacrifices made to the god. Spooky.

The next day we headed to Caracol, a huge Mayan site, a couple hours drive from the lodge. Our guide for this trip was Damien, who also informed us that he had personally built much of the Mariposa lodge and surrounding buildings. It was interesting to hear about how the lodge came to be and how it worked. We made a stop along to way to look at a huge cavern made by another river while Damien told us about all the surrounding flora and told stories about how he would gather various plant parts and his mother would make it into food.
Caracol was pretty amazing. Canaa, the royal pyramid there, is still the tallest building in Belize. Only 5% of the site has been uncovered, but what is there is pretty grand. Still, we were looking at the homes of some of the most powerful people in the region and I mostly just kept thinking that it was good that they were small people because their stone sleeping platforms and little rooms were tiny! The Mayans never mastered the true arch so they used the corbel arch and were limited on how wide they could build and still be able to create a stone roof overhead.
We also ran into some tourism police, who were sporting some 4 ft long shotguns. At one point, I felt like they were following us, which creeped me out but I think they were just patrolling the site to make sure that no one tried to take advantage of tourists as an easy target.
After we had explored much of the main site with just one other small group on the grounds were were sort of taken aback as a bunch of American teenagers and a few of their parents came thundering up Canaa. Theywere the type of tourists who make me cringe about the impression we leave the rest of the world. They were super loud, took up a ton of space, were 50% obese, and totally unaware that anyone else could be around them. I heard one girl ask, after walking up the the top, if anyone had brought a spare inhaler - seriously. But I will give them this - they weren't whining, even though it must have been in the 90s (and they came in a super old bus which couldn't have been pleasant either) - so they couldn't be too bad. Anyway, we high-tailed it to a different part of the site and checked out all the other buildings, which were quite interesting.
On our way back, we took a stop at Rio on Pools, and decided to take a swim there. Having gotten over confident from my Dramamine-induced immunity to the rocky roads the day before, I had stupidly decided it wouldn't be too bad today and found myself desperately needing a break. We took a little dip and relaxed. I was a little worried once we got in that the water looked more dirty than I had originally thought and would make me sick (and I turned out to be right eventually) but it was nice to cool off.
The next morning we came to the end of our adventure. It was time to head back to the real world. We could have planned to take another day but I had felt that we would need some time at home to readjust to regular life. Turns out we did so I didn't begrudge any time lost in Belize. All in all, a very satisfying vacation.

Belize! - The Beach house

2011-08-14T17:27:00.000-04:00

Greg and I just got back from beautiful Belize, where we spent 8 blissful days. I'll reserve the jungle part of our tour for a later post and start at the beginning - 5 days at the beach.
We were lucky enough to arrive in Belize during a butterfly migration, one of those amazing sights that is impossible to photograph. The view from our house was like watching flower petals or snow flurries floating along on the wind.

Our host and his boat

Greg S., our host, came to tiny San Pedro airport to pick us up. After a 40 minute boat trip up the coast, the shore became more and more wild, with only a few buildings dotting the beach. Our house (also known as the Turtleman's house) over the water wasn't much to look at, but it was quite comfortable. Even though I had more than a few bug bites by the end of our stay, the few feet off shore where our house was placed protected us from the worst.

Watching the sun rise from our balcony

I must say however, before you get the wrong idea, that the house was quite rugged. Mom, you would have HATED it. No running water, a composting toilet, no electricity, and a somewhat musty mattress. But to us it was great. We walked right out and went snorkeling whenever we wanted, felt the beach breeze through the house, and enjoyed the most amazing views. We had a good time sitting on the little balcony, reading and watching the fish wandering around in the little pool made by sea grass around the house. Plus I loved that it wasn't one of those fake luxury places, where you just feel like someone has dropped New Jersey in the middle of another country - it was authentically exotic, and still an easy place to get along. It took a little while for me to settle into not being productive but I eventually got myself to relax and just enjoy myself. I have to say that I was happy with the 10 or so hours of sleep we got since we went to sleep around 8 PM every night (not a good idea to keep the lights on and let the bugs know where we were).

Our last morning at Turtleman's house

We ate most of our meals with Greg S. and his family. His wife, Rosemary, is quite a cook and we enjoyed some great food. Their three kids are delightful and were a pleasure to get to know. The two boys were out spearing the fish for our meals every day and we got to throw the fish heads to the birds and the fish in our pool.
We had a couple snorkeling adventures too. We went out a few times with Greg S. in his boat and had a few exciting times on our own as well. Of course we saw a dizzying array of fish and coral (although a lot of the coral had died off about 13 years ago). We also saw a bunch of eagle rays, sting rays, and a few sharks (nurse sharks). A turtle and I gave each other a bit of a scare when we came about 5 feet from each other on a low visibility day and didn't see each other until we almost smacked into each other face first. We also saw a huge sting ray (like the size of our dinning room table) from the boat. A couple times we went out to try and see the manatee but he wasn't around - we still enjoyed the challenging swim through the currents and coral to the manatee hole.

On our anniversary - with Turtleman's house in the background

The weather was mild pretty much the whole time we were there and we wandered around in our swim suits for most of the day. Later in the week the wind picked up a bit but while it lowered visibility, it also kept the bugs away. There were also a few early morning rain storms but that was also ok - I just used them as a convenient shower since the solar shower didn't have much water pressure.
I did take the time to wash my bangs (the rest was hopeless) for the first time the night before Greg and I headed to the nearby resort to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. Rosemary had headed down ahead of time and warned them about the special occasion so we were treated to a special dinner on the beach surrounded by tiki torches. They all went way out of their way to make the evening special for us - so nice!

The family, minus Kerry (who was shy about the picture)

The next morning it was time to set out and I was definitely sad about that. There aren't too many places that I'm sure I want to go back to but this is one of them. It was just so relaxing...

Jury Duty

2011-08-03T07:44:00.000-04:00

On Monday it was time to do my civic duty and report to the city courthouse for my jury duty by 8 AM. Like many people, my service was a bit inconvenient because I had so much stuff to try to take care of before I left for Belize. I was also a little worried that somehow I would get picked for a long case and then the judge wouldn't let me go on my vacation.
It was my original plan to make myself as unattractive for selection as possible, but when I got there I realized that there was no way I could make myself as unappealing as many of the people there. There were a lot of people who just seemed to be making incomprehensible decisions and who had a really limited ability to be thoughtful (this might not be bad for the lawyers presenting the case, but I wouldn't want to be judged by them!).
Anyway, I sat in the main jury waiting room through all the announcements (they are very respectful but also make it clear that if you try to skip out they will come after you with fines and jail time) and educational videos and then moved to the quiet room. I actually think that there would be many people in Baltimore who would be happy to have free AC and a movie since it has been so hot lately. One group was called at about 10:30 and another group at noon. The second group was juror numbers 222 - 488 and I was 407. So I headed off to Judge Nance's courtroom with about a hundred other people.
When we all got there (after waiting an eternity for the elevators) we first did a role call (I couldn't believe how many people got confused on that) and then we did introductions. I think that they have a print out of all this information but they want to double check it and the lawyers want to check you out. They wanted to know our name, our occupation, our spouse's occupation, and how much schooling we had. I was amazed at how many people did not complete high school! It had to have been 20 percent! I didn't really take note of people who had completed high school or those who had graduated college but only about 10 people in the room, including me, had graduate degrees.
Anyway, they also asked if we knew anyone involved in the case, the defendant, the lawyers, the witnesses, or if we knew any details about the case before hand. Then they asked about who had relatives who were officers of the law. Finally they asked if anyone had been victim of a crime, accused of a crime, or convicted of a crime. Pretty much everyone stood up, including me (my car was vandalized in college - it might have just been hit by a drunk biker, we will never know). At that point we were all divided up into groups by number and some people stayed to talk to the judge privately and some people were excused on break.
When I got back it was my group's turn to go up to the judge and let him ask some questions while the lawyers listened in. He wanted to ask me about the details of that last question and then I also had the chance to ask him if he thought I would have time to do my service before I left for Belize. He obviously wasn't the type of guy to excuse anyone if they asked for it, so I didn't, but I thought it was important that he know my time crunch up front. That way it could be his own idea to excuse me, if that was a possibility.
After that it was more questions to the group about if we would be prejudiced against the defendant because he was an African American man or if we would be prejudiced against the witnesses because of whatever their race was. We were also asked if we would give more or less weight to the testimony of officers of the law. Then it was time to pick the jury and the alternates.
I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief as they started calling eligible jurors in numerical order, since my number was high. Each potential juror was called by number and then came out to stand in front of the juror box. The lawyers got to take a look at them and then say they were acceptable or challenge them. The box was filled up pretty quickly but at that point the lawyers were asked if they were satisfied with the panel.
This is where it got interesting. It was clear that the defense was challenging specific types of people. They mostly challenged non-black people and that the only black person they challenged had a graduate degree and was a computer engineer. The prosecution didn't challenge much, it could be because the case was very clear, I don't know. I think they got rid of someone who seemed like he wasn't really with it and challenged some of the people the defense was trying to add into the jury. Anyway, this went on for a while and I started to be concerned that I would be called. But before that happened they settled on the jury, which was immediately sworn in.
It was, by that time, 5 PM. I headed to the office to get some work done with a fresh $15 burning a hole in my pocket.

Shore

2011-08-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

Greg and Blake before their kayaking adventure

Greg and I spent the weekend at the Jersey Shore with Blake, Meredith, Kathy, JP, and Blake's sister Julie. Meredith's family has a house out in Sea Isle City and so she was generous enough to put us all up.
There were a few obstacles. Kathy and JP found themselves stopped dead on the highway for 2 hours while police and firefighters dealt with a tractor trailer that had caught on fire. Meredith and I had to work on Friday and we missed out on the awesome Kayaking that Greg and Blake indulged in. And a tendon in my ankle started killing me on the second day. But all in all it was pretty great!

Modeling a new backpack style in Atlantic City

I am personally not a fan of just laying out on the beach or even reading on the beach. I think it is mostly because I get bored easily, I like to have a goal when I am doing things, and I am a little afraid of the sun Honestly, I had more than my fair share swimming from 2-5 PM in the California sun for 8 years...yes, all you Stanford recruits hear that - Stanford is a paradise of 365 days of sun a year. jk ;) Anyway, there was a lot of stuff to do and I had a great time running around the beach, playing paddle ball, throwing the aerobie, played bocce ball, and swimming in the ocean. I also learned to juggle for the first time ever, although I'm still struggling to get past the 5th toss. Finally, there was no end to the entertainment of people watching, I mean, it is the Jersey shore.

Kathy dominating cornhole

We also got to play a bunch of cornhole back at the house. Kathy and JP were pretty much unbeatable, even though JP questioned Kathy's abilities at first. On the other hand, JP doesn't drink, which may have given him a distinct advantage. It's a lot like horseshoes except you try to get a bean bag on the board (1 pt) or in the hole (3 pts).
It was all great fun and a really amazing mini-vacation.

Fun times in B-more

2011-07-30T08:12:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks, Greg and I have had a lot of opportunity to hang out with friends. We've been to Trivia night at Mad River with Jessica, Sean A. (a new Sean, not associated with Tess's Sean) and some of their friends. While Greg and I contributed, I will admit that we didn't have our A game on. Greg forgot to think of some baseball guy named Soriano and is still kicking himself. We also had fun with them last Sunday at a "sandwich party," in which everyone brings a type of sandwich to share with the group. I will admit to having put in drastically less thought on this than the other party-goers. Probably about 15 minutes before it was supposed to start I realized that Greg and I were still in sweaty workout clothes and we hadn't even thought about the sandwiches. I threw together some brie and apple paninis, put on a dress, we grabbed the margarita maker, and headed out. When we got to the party everyone introduced their sandwiches and was discussing where all the ingredients were sourced and how it was bought from the farmers market this morning. I just gave the title of our sandwiches and pointed everyone to the margarita maker.
We also had Kathy, JP, Meredith, and Blake over for a feast of all the vegetables we got from our CSA that we couldn't eat during the week. Our AC was shut off that day due to the power emergency caused by the excessive heat (107 in the inner harbor with a heat index of 120). Greg and I had volunteered to give up our AC to prevent brown-outs in other parts of the city and we get financially compensated so I wasn't too upset. Everyone just dressed lightly and it was all good. As an aside, I cannot believe the uproar the program caused. A ton of people, who were happily collecting money from the power company, were suddenly outraged that they had to hold up their end of the deal. Others, who were not part of the program were bragging about how they had AC and were going to crank down the temp just because they could. Here are a bunch of people who completely miss the point - which, if you are one of those people I will spell out. People voluntarily sacrifice a luxury to keep an essential service (power) running for all - who knows, you could be one of those people without power because of all those greedy people sucking energy in the their air conditioners. No your pets are not in danger - our house only got up to 84. And if you have kids, sick people, the elderly, or some other issue you shouldn't have signed up for the program in the first place. I am quite disgusted by all the complainers (of which there are many).
Last Saturday we also had Tess and Sean's engagement party. Crystal and I were planning it and she was hosting it at her house. The theme was wine and cheese and man, was there a lot of those two items. We also played the married/engaged person game where you ask the couple questions about each other to see how well they know each other. Tess and Sean F. played against Patrick (Sean's brother) and his wife Leanne. In a late game comeback Tess and Sean surged past Patrick and Leanne so we all decided that they could get married after all. I was also pleasantly surprised when Sean and Tess produced gifts for the hostesses. Crystal and I got beautiful Under Armour bags that just came out and our husbands got cool Under Armour shirts. What a classy move on Sean and Tess's part!
Lastly, I will note that Ryan finished his Bar exam and we celebrated at Abbey burger on Wednesday. Not only is it good for his career but now that he is done studying Greg has his buddy back and they can go to the batting cages and do all sorts of man dates. Yay!
Right now, Greg and I are at the beach so expect a blog about that soon!

San Diego Pics (courtesy of Emily)

2011-07-17T22:06:00.000-04:00

Me, Matt, Joe, Greg, and PJ (Just before Greg and I got burnt to a crisp)

It might not have been smart but it was funny

Happy to be at the beach - but notice the towel over the shoulders and long sleeves (this is post burn)

Joe, so cute

Yum, that sand must have been tasty Matt!

Harry Potter!!!

2011-07-17T21:09:00.000-04:00

Last night Greg and I saw the final Harry Potter. Aside from a few unnecessary plot changes, I thought it was an awesome movie. A great conclusion to an era of expanded imagination in nearly every young person's life. For those of you who are still waiting to see it, I won't ruin it, but you will be happy with it I think.
In other news, my birthday was last week. It was a very nice day, where I got a lot of random "happy birthdays" on facebook, a couple emails from long lost friends, and ate brownies at our mini analyst birthday part at work. A bunch of my friends from work also met up at Centro later in the evening to enjoy a nice little Tapas dinner and frozen yogurt at Afters (Sam still has his nose in the air about having to serve himself, but I'm happy about being able to add as many toppings as I want). All in all, not a bad way to enter my last year before the dreaded Three-Oh.
Finally, I will mention that yesterday I also brushed off my old swim lesson skills to give Trey, Crystal and Joe's nephew some swim lessons. It is pretty good but he swims like a puppy runs - all gangly limbs and big feet, happy and inexhaustible. Perhaps this is a trait of all 15-year-old boys. I don't know.

Hitting the Ground Running

2011-07-10T23:52:00.000-04:00

Our first day back we hit the ground running - filling our time with old friends, recent friends and new friends.
Late Saturday night we took a taxi most of the way home from the airport but found Fed Hill blocked because of a monster truck extravaganza at Ravens Stadium. So instead of searching for a way through the traffic while the meter ticked along, we decided to walk the next 2 miles back to our house in the warm blanket of mid-atlantic summer air. When we got home we were greeted by a fat cat (she must have gained at least 15% of her body weight while we were gone) who was demanding to know where HER people had gone off too and to make sure that we knew we were never to do such a thing again. It was a long night of the AC struggling to accomplish a 6 degree drop in temperature (there were some complications with animal hair) and dealing with a cat who would not shut up or stop walking on me (I finally shut myself up in the guest room to escape her).
On Sunday, we picked up the dog and then ran some errands while waiting for my college friend Leila to arrive at Penn Station. After we picked her up we all headed to Ryleigh's for brunch and then we showed her all the new work we had done to our house since her last visit. It was great to catch up with her because you never really know when you will next see her or if, when you finally catch her online, if she will be in another country or continent all together. Afterward, Leila, Greg, and I all met up with Wes, Katie and Alice at our house (Leila introduced us to them soon after we moved to Baltimore). Again, Alice was a peach even though it was her nap time and she was facing a dog twice her size.
They all headed out in the late afternoon and Greg and I had a chance to throw a load of laundry in the washing machine and unpack our bags before a dinner date we had with a woman, Jessica, who Greg had met through walking Lily around town, and her husband, Sean. They were super cool and Jessica owns a place called Couture Closet, a cool physical and online boutique of amazing designer fashions (I hope for the sake of my wallet that this will not become my new obsession). Lily got to play all evening long with their dog Bow and seemed to have the same fun time that we did. Anyway, it was great and hopefully we will get a chance to hang out again before their kids get back from "Camp Grandma" (such a good idea).

Pacific Northwest

2011-07-10T00:47:00.009-04:00

Our own fireworks show

It was great while it lasted but Greg’s and my vacation is coming to an end. I’m writing this on one of our plane flights back. So sad. However, I am glad to report that we had a great time during our visit to the Pacific Northwest. The weather was perfect and crisp as only summer in Western Washington can be. I got to catch up with old friends, visited fun places from my childhood and blew off a lot of fireworks.
We got in around dinnertime on the 3rd of July. My sister was already in residence so as soon as we got home we admired my mom’s new electric car and then sat down to a great spaghetti dinner. Yum.
The 4th of July (my favorite holiday) was a great day, marred only by Safeway’s refusal to sell alcohol to Greg because I had been standing with him in line and didn’t have my ID with me. I could take it as a compliment but I think the cashier was just being a jerk (he started to try and pick a fight with Greg when Greg thanked him for calling the manager). Whatever, if they want to miss out on our purchase when we are 8 years past legal drinking age fine. Maybe they thought we were cops. Greg and I left and went to QFC where he wasn’t even carded.

The arc of Roman Candles

The neighbor's extravaganza

Anyway, we spent the day
going on a bit of a jog, cleaning out the kayaks and kayaking around the bay, and then getting ready for our 4th of July party. June, who was something of a college-mom figure for me while I was at Stanford, came with her
daughter and daughter’s fiancé. Margaret, from my old national team days, dropped by. And my best friend from high school, Lauren, also visited along with a bunch of my family. We did the usual lighting off fireworks, which I always think is amazingly fun, and watched several of our neighbors and their 5 figure fireworks extravaganza. All in all, a great day.
The next day we had planned on going to Seattle and doing dim sum and Pike’s Place Market. But instead we decided to just laze around on the court with my parents. My mom picked up dim sum on her way back from dropping Dana off at the airport so we still got to indulge in Chinese food anyway. It was really relaxing to just sit there looking out over the bay and read or play Scrabble.

After the seasickness

Two Orcas

For Greg’s birthday we began
our trip to the San Juan Islands. My dad dropped us off in Port Townsend and we took a whale watching boat to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. On the way we saw a bunch of Orca and Minke whales, which was great! The only downside was that it was pretty lumpy out there and, despite my best efforts at holding it together, I lost my breakfast over the side.

The view from our room

We spent the next few days exploring the little towns and islands with the sort of leisurely pace that comes naturally in the Pacific Northwest. The first day we did a short bike ride near Friday Harbor while we waited for our hotel. Next we lazed in bed reading with the windows open toward the harbor. Then we took a long bath in the Jacuzzi tub. After that, happy hour and pizza. Finally, dinner and then ice cream. All in all, pretty relaxing.
The next day we took the inter-

Relaxing with 14 miles to go

island ferry to Orcas Island and rode bikes from the ferry terminal to Olga café and back, a total of about 34 miles. I have great memories of the island from when I was a kid. My sister and I fell in love with a golden retriever called Liberty there when I was about 6, which fueled my unfulfilled desire for a dog until Greg and I got Lily. Biking was a nice way to travel around the island but unfortunately, the roads had just been resurfaced and there was about 2 feet of loose gravel on the side of each lane, which is not so awesome to bike on. We did, however, have one of our best meals of the trip in the tiny and chilly town of Eastsound at a place called Madronas, which had amazing salmon. On another trip I also think it would be nice to camp in Moran State Park there and walk some of the trails up to the top of Mt. Constitution (a challenge I was not up to on my bike).

In progress

Our last day in the San Juans was only a half day so despite lingering soreness on my part, we took our bikes on a ride around San Juan Island itself. The roads were better and quite a bit less hilly so the 31 miles seemed to pass a lot quicker. There were some great views of the different vistas and microclimates that make up the island and it was a great way to spend a few hours. By the time we returned our bikes to the bike shop it was time to grab a quick lunch (great crab cakes at the Crab House) and then head home on the whale watching boat (fortunately, it was a lot calmer this time).
We had timed it so that we were heading home the very next day, Saturday, in order to have Sunday to recuperate from our vacation (though this morning, in my heart, I was wishing for another one of those relaxing days on the court by the bay). We had time, before our flight out, to catch breakfast with Greg’s Grandma and Uncle Steve where we were stuffed to the gills with pancakes, all kinds of breakfast meats, cinnamon rolls, and other breakfast items. It was a great visit and a great trip. Too bad we won’t be back until December, I’m sad to miss the blackberries this year.

San Diego

2011-07-04T01:52:00.002-04:00

I’m writing this on the plane on our way from San Diego to Seattle. Greg and I spent the last couple days visiting his family in California and had a great time catching up with everyone and enjoying the lovely California weather.
Since Greg's sister Emily and her husband PJ bought their new house a year ago, we’ve been staying with them when we come and visit. It was fun to hang out with their two boys who are 3 and 1 and are really just delightful kids. Sometimes we run into situations where we think, “Man, meeting these kids was good birth control” but other times we just think, “Man, I hope that my kids will be cool just like this.” Joe and Matt correspond with the latter thought. Joe is incredibly bright and good-hearted and Matt is a lovable happy lug.
We made a couple short trips out to the beach where PJ taught us to surf one day and another day he and I swam out to the buoy off the lifeguard station. It’s a good thing we kept our trips short though because Greg and I have no tan base on our backs and got badly burnt (for olive-skinned people) the first day we were out. It made me really mad too because we had sunscreen on - I have to call shenanigans on our organic, non-cancer causing sunscreen. The second day we went with Emily’s crazy intense spray on sunscreen and didn’t get any more burnt.
Anyway, back to the activities that we did on the beach. First, surfing. I am not a good surfer but I have a good time just trying to stand up. As a result, I felt satisfaction in the 10 seconds or so that I was able to stand on the board. I was much more successful at body surfing, which I had a lot of fun with. The Pacific is definitely a lot more powerful than the Atlantic (but it’s also a lot colder!).
Second, swimming to the lifeguard buoy. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this but PJ is a professional lifeguard. So I felt safer that I was with him and that he could fight off the sharks or whatever. But I’m still scared of what is hiding in the water when I can’t see the bottom – I was definitely worried about hitting jellyfish and being attacked by a shark. I was also getting seasick in the first part of the swim from getting smacked in the face with big waves, trying to see with my too long bangs hanging in my face, and swallowing a ton of super salty sea water. But I also felt cool having done it and the way back in was good because the waves were behind me and it was easy to spot where we were going. We caught a few great waves on the way back in, which was really fun!
We also had the opportunity to visit with Carl, Diane, Laura, and Ava. We had a great lunch of yummy burgers at Diane’s while we visited with Laura and Ava. I also had the chance to help Carl try to pick out a dog online – one of my favorite activities. Betty the Beagle is the front-runner but there are a lot of dogs out there for Carl to choose the one that is perfect for his situation so there isn’t any rush.
Other events of note – we celebrated Matt’s birthday with the whole family and PJ’s parents, Pete and Wanda. We always enjoy catching up with Pete and Wanda and seeing what they are up to. I’m not sure if I mentioned it but we were incredibly touched last Christmas when they gave Greg a card to celebrate his PhD. Since they have a son with a doctorate I think they know how nice it is to celebrate the end of the long slog toward that degree.

Getting ready for vacation

2011-06-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

Today, Greg and I leave for our semi-annual West Coast tour. We're spending a few days in San Diego, a few in Bremerton (really the only place to spend 4th of July), and then a few days in the San Juan Islands. Unfortunately, something in Greg's and my dinner last night, which consisted only of cabbage salad at 10 PM, was a problem, resulting in gastrointestinal issues. Hopefully our little bout with food poisoning will be over before we get on the plane in 10 hours. Definitely not the way you want to start a vacation.
In other news, after a very late and very drunken night with Blake and Meredith on Friday I spent most of the rest of the weekend studying frantically for the GRE, which I took on Monday. My math score was really good and though my verbal could have been better, considering the vocab I've gained through romance novels (not kidding, there really are a lot of GRE words used in those books), you don't have to score that high on that part of the test to get a high percentile grade. We'll just have to wait to see about the writing score, but overall I'd say it was good. Also, as a break from studying Greg taught me to play tennis (sort of), which was really fun!
Finally, the reason we got back so late last night was because we were at the mall purchasing a sleep number bed! They were having this sale on all their floor models so we got our bed (which will actually have a fresh topper and new stand) for about 1/3 of what it would normally have cost. I've wanted to upgrade for a while because I personally can't stand the layered foam mattress we have even though Greg assures me that it was quite expensive. The thing bows in the middle (so Greg and I both slide inwards) and isn't quite wide enough to fit me, Greg, and the cat. Sometimes I wake up in the night with Greg on one side and the cat on the other and not even have enough room to fit my shoulders square in whatever space is left to me. So yes, I am excited about this new bed, which is an extended queen (6 inches wider), and when separated into its parts, will fit up our stairs (really, a big hurdle for our house).

Painting the Ceiling

2011-06-20T19:35:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, Greg and I got up early again and went to work on a project that I've been thinking about ever since I watched so much HG TV while Greg was in Prague.
The ceilings of our 3rd floor, where the main bedroom and office are, were a combination of dark wood beams and wood paneling in between them. While this gave the room something of a ski lodge feel, I would have been ok with it if the previous owner had not gone a little crazy with the caulking. There might be a reason to put some sort of sealant between the paneling and the wood beams. I don't know why, but I can accept that. The thing is that whoever put on the caulk got really careless and smeared it way outside of the areas it was needed. It was as if someone had had tried to jump with a brush and paint it in the vicinity of the area where the beams and paneling joined. Over the past year and a half the sloppiness has really grated on me.
Anyway, we decided to paint the paneling white (well, I should say "I" because Greg was really just along for the ride) and spent the last part of the week taping every beam. Then on Sunday we got started with primer and then went on to paint.
I want to insert here that Greg was being a real trooper. It was a 15 hour job and he didn't complain once. We were both exhausted from the day before and incredibly sore but I pretty much needed it to be done that weekend or I was going to wake up in the middle of the night some night and not be able to resist. So Greg plugged away, doing most of the hardest to get to spots due to his extra height and reach.

After

Before

I think the room looks great now. It's much brighter and the ceilings seem further away, which is good since they really come down on the front side of the house near the bed. I was a little uncertain at first because of the huge change and also, the flaws were really apparent to me at first. There were two unfortunate things that will require some retouching though. First, when we pulled the tape, some of the paint that was on the brown caulking pealed off. Again, I blame the previous owner. But there were a few things we could have done to prevent this, first, we could have pealed right after the primer and then retaped. Second, a lighter coat of primer might have helped. Third, we could have taped more on the beams rather than leave a slight edge on the ceiling. The other downside was that there were areas where the tape was not much of a barrier and I will have to paint over the white that oozed under the tape with some brown. All in all though, it still looks good, and I think was a big improvement from before.

Baltimore 10 Miler

2011-06-20T12:47:00.004-04:00

On Saturday Greg and I had the Baltimore 10 miler, a 10 mile running race through north Baltimore. With our first race under our belts last weekend we had some experience to formulate our strategy for this one. First, I was not going to push my pace at the halfway point, since this resulted in serious pain on the last 2 miles of the Survivor Harbor 7 miler. Second, I was not going to try to hold my pace under 8:15/mile like the 7 miler because again - a lot of pain on the last 2 miles and, at the end of the race last weekend, I was definitely not prepared to go another 3 miles. Also, with 7 miles being my longest run to date, I thought it would be best to be conservative. My realistic goal was to go under 1:30 and my super secret goal was to go somewhere around 1:25. (I used to set double goals in swimming too - I always had a realistic one for whatever training phase I was in but every time I dove in I've be going for another American record too)
On race day we got up early, grabbed a bite to eat, and walked about a mile to the metro, which dropped us off only 8 minutes from the starting line. It was definitely a good move because traffic for parking was really backed up. It wasn't too hot, probably hovering between 73 and 75 degrees, but apparently it was humid (I can never tell). I thought we were pretty lucky for this time of year. It could have been A LOT worse.
Anyway, the start of this race was great because they had everyone start in waves according to what they thought they would go (your time starts when you cross the start line). I was officially supposed to start somewhere in the third wave (based on whatever time Greg put for me when he signed me up) but I moved up in the group to start a few minutes behind the 1:30 pacers (also cool that they had people set up to be pacers!). Greg positioned himself further up near the 1:20 pacers.
And then we were off. No matter how much time you spend anticipating a start it always seems a little too soon. But the first little while seemed pretty easy. There was a lot of down hill in the first 2 miles which I should have really noted for later (it was an out and back) but mostly I was just existing in the moment. I passed the 1:30 pacers around the first mile and set myself to hold 8:45s and then maybe pick it up at the end.
Things were going pretty well through the halfway mark and I am really glad to have had the experience not to try to push at the halfway mark, because at the time I was feeling great. But soon I was feeling a little more rough and there were some hills I had not taken note of on the way down that I was battling. I was waiting until the 7 mile mark to start to pick things up but when I got there, I wasn't really feeling like that was a solid idea and put it off until 8 miles. My pace had slowed to somewhere around 9 minute miles and at this point (my goal was now just to try to make it under 1:30), my thank yous to the police officers holding back traffic for the race were mere whispers under my breath, and I was beginning to feel really sorry for myself. At 8 miles, we were into some seriously long hills and I knew that there was no way that I was going to be pushing anything. I kept telling myself that I had less than 20 minutes to go but I was really hurting. Soon, my goal was to just not walk. My friend Kathy ran it last year and said she didn't walk and so that was really all I was holding on to as people started to pass me. At the 9 mile point I was really not sure I was going to be able to avoid walking - everyone always says that the finish feels a lot better than the middle but I was not getting that. The time was ticking by and my realistic goal was slipping further and further away. I only had 40 seconds left before missing my goal when I caught sight of the finish line so I decided I might as well sprint to see if I could just make it. I do not remember much of the last 150 feet or so but it resulted in me crossing the finish line a few seconds under my goal at 1:29:42.
Afterward, I must have been a little out of it because a medical guy asked me if I needed to go to the medical tent. Greg (who had finished at 1:20) says I was staggering around but I'd really just call it meandering (hey, I'd just run 10 miles - what do you expect!). To be honest though, I was feeling more than a little disoriented so I sat down and Greg made me drink a bunch of Gatorade. This was a mistake - I knew I really should be trying to cool down by walking around and as soon as I stood up all that Gatorade came right back up. 3 times.
Now, I have become reacquainted with a few lunches during some of my more epic swim practices, so I didn't think that this was the end of the world. This was, perhaps, the ability to push myself like and an Olympian, but in a sport in which I haven't trained like an Olympian. To my shame, Greg made me go to the medical tent. He said that if a person is saying they aren't sure they can make it to the medical tent without vomiting, this is a sign they should go to the medical tent. On the bright side, it was shady in there, there was ice and there were chairs. I was still feeling a little nauseated - like I had when we went over the pass by Mt. Salkantay in Peru at 4600 meters elevation - but no longer worried about falling down. We sat there for a while while the medics ran around helping people who seemed to be in much worse condition than me and then I was bored and decided to head out.
We got our little fleece vests (the SWAG), decided to skip the beer giveaway, and then wandered around looking for our friends. I still wasn't feeling too good so after about 5 minutes of fruitless searching through the other 5000 racers for our friends we decided to just call it and go home.

Greg and me after we got home

Over all, here were my results
"There were 570 finishers in the Female 25 to 29 age group and 4184 finishers in the 10 Mile Division.
Your overall finish place was 1045, your age group finish place was 81 and your gender finish place was 332.
Your time was 1:29:42.51 giving you an overall pace of 8:58 per mile.
Your 5M split time was 43:40.86, Giving you a pace of 8:44 per mile, Overall place 977, Gender place 277
Your FIN split time was 46:01.65, Giving you a pace of 9:12 per mile, Overall place 1136, Gender place 414"
The rest of the day (there was a lot of it because we were done with the race at about 9 AM) was devoted to dog training (Greg only) and then the Crab party with Crystal, Joe, Tess, Sean, Ari and a bunch of others. After the busy day, we got to bed early to prepare for an epic Sunday of PAINTING THE CEILING! But that is a story for another post.

Survivor Harbor

2011-06-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

Greg and I had a super busy weekend, highlighted by our 7 mile race on Sunday morning.
We also had lots of opportunities to hang out with friends and Steve was even in town for his brother's graduation.
On Saturday night we doubled up with a pre-bay swim master's team dinner (I was not participating as you have to sign up way in advance and there is a lottery) and Kunal's graduation party. We didn't stay long though because we had to get up early to bike down to Canton for the 7:30 AM start of our race.
The race itself is at its core a race for survivors of cancer, stroke, lupus, major accidents, addictions, and other diseases or afflictions. People who aren't survivors are welcome to race too but they aren't the point of the day. It was also a good opportunity for us to prepare in familiar surrounds for the 10 mile race we are doing next weekend and see how things actually go logistically.
The whole thing was really inspirational, but the beginning was especially so. The wheelchair race had gone off at 7, a bit before we got there. But we got to see them racing by on wheelchairs that were clearly built for speed. Some of them were going amazingly fast! And they were flanked by an entorage of road bicyclists to keep people and cars out of the way. At the beginning of the running race, an aisle was formed for the wheelchair racers to fly through on their way to the finish line with everyone clapping - it was something to see!
Anyway - here's the skinny on the race itself. Greg and I started together but split up right after the start because Greg is faster than me and I didn't want to hold him back. I wove through slower runners for much of the first 2 miles, which made things go by really fast. I think that this process both sped me up, by giving me targets to get to, but also slowed me down with all the dodging to get around people. After that, I was feeling really good and the course was following my regular running route. When we got to the halfway point in Fed Hill I started pushing it for the way back. My pace was really good through the inner harbor and to the 5 mile mark. After that, it got a little painful. My pace was still about the same but it took a lot more effort and the minutes seemed to drag out. I was starting to feel like the mile markers were misplaced or something and was expecting to see the finish around every turn (the disappointment was also starting to make me mad). Apparently it got really hot at the end with all the asphalt and no shade but I didn't really notice the heat, I just noticed that I felt crappy and sweaty. Anyway, I finally finished with a 57:29 which means that I was going slightly under 8:15 pace. Greg went 53:25 which is just under 7:40 pace.
One unfortunate thing happened during the race. Some guy had a seizure right in front of Greg. Greg stopped and yelled for help. When people finally came and the guy was surrounded by individuals with phones and his friend Greg started to feel a little in the way so he continued on. I'm not really sure what the final result was but when I ran by him a minute or two later he was looking around and seemed to be aware of what was going on so hopefully things are ok.
Afterward, we stopped by the farmer's market to grab our CSA share. When we got back, we jumped in the car to go see my fellow swimmers do their 4.4 mile swim under the Bay Bridge. We couldn't get to the starting area with Lily so we drove over the bridge and back and had perfect timing to see what we think was our friend leading the first group (he accidentally put himself in the slower group thinking it was the fast group) and also got to see the second group start. Apparently it was a really rough crossing with a bad tide and a storm that came through at the end. I guess more than 60 people had to be pulled early because lightning was striking the water. That had to be disappointing.
Meanwhile we had headed back home where I took a short nap because my head was killing me. Then we were off to the Colnitis's for their son's graduation party. Another bad storm blew through there too and for a moment we were a little concerned about the wind throwing around the canopy or lightening striking the wet pool deck. Afterward we headed home and took poor Lily for a walk since she had been cooped up for a lot of the day and then collapsed into bed. Whew!

Mumford & Sons

2011-06-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

Last night Greg and I were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to Mumford & Sons at Merriweather. Tickets for this show sold out immediately (the capacity of the venue is over 19,000) and were selling for 3 times their value on stub hub so we were feeling good about being able to snag tickets at face value the day before the event. It's a complicated story but I will sum it up by saying that Blake and Meredith came through for us.
Anyway, we tailgated for a bit with threatening skies closing in on us. Sure enough rain soon started falling. Within seconds it was pouring and we ran for the trees. The small little gully we ran to offered pretty good protection for about 10 minutes but then the trees were too soaked to provide an real cover. I wanted to get inside the venue because my white shirt was fast becoming a liability so we headed in and I purchased a new shirt at the merchandise stand. Just after we entered, the weather became even more crazy with sideways walls of rain that I'm sure were dropping more water per second than my shower at home. Then the hail started.
We found refuge in the 9:32 bar where we stayed until Mumford came on stage. We were absolutely soaked through though. Water was running in rivulets down my legs and filling my sandals. My hair was dripping. Things were a little chilly for a while but since the storm broke 100 degree weather it wasn't too bad.
The show itself was great. Greg commented that it was really amazing to be able to catch a band at this stage in their career. This was the largest crowd they had ever played for and you could tell that they were still totally amazed that all these people had come out to hear them and sing along to their songs.

The saga of the air conditioner

2011-06-08T21:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you following the trials and tribulations of our air conditioning system, I am pleased to note that we are finally set. And not a moment too soon - this week's heat wave would have increased the misery beyond bearable and I'm sure even the unflappable Greg would have lost his cool (Since I've only known him for 7 years, I've been assured by his family that this has never happened before and they asked for video documentation if it does occur).
For those of you who don't normally follow the mechanical issues of our home I will update you. Since the deck was completed 2 months ago, Greg has been continually attempting to get our contractor to reconnect our AC, which had been disconnected by a licensed AC guy at the beginning of the process since it had to be moved. Unfortunately, after our contractor paid this guy and purchased all the necessary gas and lines, this guy was arrested for a DUI on a suspended license (which had been suspended for DUI). So our contractor was none too happy and had to get another guy to finish the job and repurchase everything. Apparently, this new guy already had a bunch of commercial contracts and, since the weather was rapidly warming, kept canceling due to emergency commercial calls as offices all started up their AC systems.
So Greg and I were in a conundrum. Not wanting to burn a bridge with a contractor who we felt was fair, did good work, and was honest, we didn't want to freak out. We also didn't want to pay for it to be done by someone else since it is $400 to $600 easy. But then again, we weren't interested in boiling in the heat and it had already been 2 months!
While Greg was gone in Prague the job of badgering the contractor fell to me and I put my nagging experience to work. The temperatures outside began to rise and so did my temper but I held it together. After a few canceled appointments we finally got the AC guy in the day before Greg got back (I think Greg's imminent arrival back home may have had something to do with this) and he worked for 5 and a half hours to connect everything. When he left, I assumed that the AC was all set.
Unfortunately, there was not enough freon. Apparently, our unit takes some special "save the planet crap" (as our contractor said) that was in short supply. So they had to purchase more. And then there was the standard missed and canceled appointments. When it hit 88 degrees in the house Greg, Lily, and I left for a night at Crystal and Joe's, leaving Ms. Jackson to fend for herself in our cooler basement. Finally, on Thursday last week, just before we left, the machine was recharged.
But our saga was not over just yet. We cooled the house that day to make sure everything worked. Then set it to not kick in until 82 since we would be gone all weekend. When we got back, we turned the AC down to 75 and went to sleep. In the morning, we found out that everything had shut down again! Apparently, the filters were full of animal hair which had slowed down air flow and with the AC now on, the whole HVAC system had frosted over. After a few tense hours things were back to normal and everything was working right. We've now gone three days with it working great. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the saga.

New Orleans

2011-06-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

This weekend Greg and I meet up with Andrew and Lacey in La Nouvelle-Orléans for a weekend of gastronomical overindulgence. I've always wanted to go on a Southern food tour but the realities of the size of the South and competing vacation ideas have made me decide to tackle it in pieces. So, armed with running shoes and semi-formal evening wear, we headed down to the Big Easy after work on Thursday night.
We got in late, met up with Lacey and Andrew at the airport, and decided to take a stroll down Bourbon Street before bed. That one visit was enough for us, and was the last late night trip we made down that street. While I am sure that it is wonderful for bachelor parties it was too sleazy for me. I mean, the quality was below skanky. Also, Lacey and I noted the one thing that consistently bothered us about the city for the majority of our stay - the smell. I once had Kelty tell me that she sometimes walks by dumpsters and gets nostalgic for Spain. Well, I think in the future, when I smell what I can only call "garbage juice" I will be nostalgic for New Orleans.
Anyway, Greg and I got up early and went for a run to prepare our stomachs for the onslaught that was to come. It was hot, but our running seemed to improve every day we where out there. We got back, jumped in the hotel pool, and then got ready to explore.

Cafe Du Monde

The first place we all went to was Cafe du Monde for a pre-breakfast appetizer of iced coffee and their famous beignets (little pieces of fried dough covered in powdered sugar). Then we wandered to find a cute little breakfast panini place and noted for later that they also did gelato. Next we decided to visit some shops I had read about but I could only remember that they were on Magazine Street and we trekked for quite a while before coming to the realization that they were much further away (like a 15 minute drive) than I thought. So we meandered back and stopped at Napoleon House for three New Orleans classics - Muffalettas, Red Beans and Rice, and a few Pimm's Cups.
Lacey and I shopped for a few more hours while Andrew and Greg settled in at a bar. But before they broke off from us, we all stopped in to the Southern Candy Maker's shop, tried some Pralines (pronounced Praw-lins locally), and immediately had to buy some. Lacey and my shopping didn't

Andrew's wax nose

produce any purchases but by the time we made it back to Andrew and Greg we were footsore and hot and ready for another dip in the pool followed by a few bottles of chilled rose on our balcony overlooking Chartres street, St Louis Cathedral and part of Jackson Square. (It was near the end of this session that Andrew's wax nose was created out of the external coverings of mini baby bell cheeses).
That night we had reservations at August, a John Besh restaurant. It was pretty expensive but didn't disappoint. Greg and I may consider it the best restaurant dinner we have ever had (I can't say that it's the best dinner because my mom makes excellent spaghetti as well as roast beef). We started out with a complimentary little egg thing that was pretty yummy - the waiter said that if we liked that, we were in good shape for the rest of the meal. We ordered several appetizers to share between couples (they weren't big enough to share with the table), including their famous gnocchi. Next up were the main dishes. I had a dish that did pork in three different ways (good thing I gave up on my New Years resolution). We all shared samples of our dinner with each other and determined that Greg won dinner with his trout, which also had some of the most awesome hollandaise sauce I've ever had (I had him put the leftover on my dinner roll).

Andrew and Lacey

Dessert was equally exquisite but perhaps the most exciting part of the meal was when Greg noticed that they had Pappy Van Winkle on their cocktail list. This rare bourbon is prized by connoisseurs and nearly impossible to find. There are 3 aging levels - 12 years, 20 years, and 23 years. Since the 23 year old one was going for $75 a serving, Greg went for the middle ground and it was amazing! Afterward, we went to the bar to check out the bottle and found that we had gotten the second to last serving, which means we were quite fortunate because even a world-renowned restaurant like August only gets 1 bottle a year.

Me and Greg at Paddy O'Brien's

We waddled our way back to the French Quarter via Harrah's casino, where we checked out some of the slot machines that Andrew's company makes. Before
hitting the sack, we stopped at Paddy O'Brien's for some Brandy Milk Punch (another New Orleans special) which was too heavy on milk for daylight hours on a hot day but perfect for warm evenings.
The next day Greg and I tried in vain to run off the calories from the day before on an early morning jog and then sat outside on the balcony for a while and enjoyed the warm morning. We all headed to Spencer's for breakfast where I had a very interesting eggs benedict po' boy and we discussed the possibility of painting our 3rd floor ceiling (Lacey is 100% behind the idea). The boys decided to join us on our shopping trip that day and so Lacey and I led the way to a bunch of places we had scouted earlier. I ended up purchasing a few accessories like a thin belt and a locally produced Cameo necklace while Lacey found a dress she really liked. Next we stopped in at the Oyster Festival but unfortunately, it was a million degrees by then and I don't like oysters. However, the oyster shucking contest was cool to watch.
For lunch we grabbed po' boys at Johnny's Po' Boy, located a few beers, and sat out in the rainforest-like courtyard of our hotel to chow down. I got a fried catfish po' boy which was really amazing and Greg and I agreed that I had won lunch that day. Lacey and Andrew also presented us with a cute cookie cutter/pancake shaper in the form of a crab for our birthdays, which Greg and I had been ogling earlier. Perfect as a souvenir and for Baltimore - we definitely know what we are making for breakfast the next time they visit us! Afterward, Lacey and I set out to get her a belt that we had seen earlier, while the boys hung out at the pool. This led to 5 more shops; a dress, another belt, and earrings for me; and another dress for Lacey. When we got back, we settled in at the pool for a while and then it was time to set out to dinner.
Our reservations for dinner on that night were for Emeril's - a restaurant by the famous food network star. The food was less subtle than August but it had more kick, larger portions, and was still quite good. I got the pork chop, which was about the size of those giant turkey drumsticks you get at Renaissance fairs. Needless to say, while yummy, I had to pass about half of that on to Greg. I'm not sure who won dinner that night - it was all really good. Again, we tried some of everyone else's food and shared appetizers. But by the time we were done, we had no room left for dessert. We took a taxi back to the French Quarter, grabbed Lacey and Andrew some coffee at Cafe du Monde, and then gathered up some red wine and gelato on the way back to our balcony. We had a pleasant surprise when what I think was a wedding party paraded by us following a marching band and a horse drawn carriage with a happy couple throwing beads to about 100 people following them. The bugs finally drove us back indoors but it was a nice ending to a very nice day.
Sunday was our final day in town. Again, Greg and I valiantly tried to run off some calories trotting by the river and through the empty early morning streets of the French Quarter. We met up with Lacey and Andrew at the pool and then it was off to pack, check out, and leave the bags with the bellhop. We ate a Jazz brunch at Muriel's on Jackson Square and then viewed the Katrina and Mardi Gras museums. We had one final beer and then it was off to the airport and the real world again. What a great trip!

June

2011-06-01T09:25:00.000-04:00

It is now the first day of June. A long time ago, I had decided that May 2011 was the absolute last point to decide to make a comeback in swimming. You need 9 months of drug testing after you come out of retirement to be eligible for a FINA sanctioned meet such as Olympic Trials, you need a few months before that to make your Trials cut, and I think that I would need a few months before that to get into swimming shape. While I have to admit that I have occasionally thought about it and remembered some of that old life fondly - that world holds little temptation for me now.
Sometimes I wonder if I have accepted "normal" as the theme of my life going forward. It would be sad, I think, for someone who experienced the highs (as well as the lows) of competing on the world's highest stage, to sink into obscurity. And that may well happen, as it happens to almost everyone, although I hope that I have not given in yet. But I always hoped to do more with my life than swim, and I think it would be equally sad to cling to something for so long after your time has passed.
The thing to remember is that doing things with your life takes a lot of time. More time than you really have. I spent 4 and a half years competing professionally. In the process I traveled the world and managed to get my master's degree somewhere along the way. I had just turned 26 when the Olympic debacle of 2008 was going on. After that, I spent a few more months swimming the World Cup circuit internationally in order to leave swimming on my own terms. In January 2009 I retired. I spent 6 months traveling the world, got married, found a new job, and moved to Baltimore with a new set of goals and ambitions.
But here's the thing - you can't just show up, wave your arms, and set the world on fire. Just like anything you've got to put the hours in. While I feel good about my current progress professionally, I am aware that my peers are often 4 years younger than I am. Now, I'm seriously considering doing a part time degree to get a Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH), which takes even more time.
And beyond that, for women, the biological clock is ticking. You are a geriatric pregnancy if you are going to be giving birth after 35 and in your mid 30s rates of various problems really start to take off. Let's do the math here. I've got about 6 years to go but we need to subtract at least a year for pregnancy and the "we're trying" period - which is pretty optimistic. So now we are down to 5 years or less. It would be another year before I got to start my DrPH program (assuming I get in) so I'd actually only have 4 years to finish or risk doing work, school, and baby simultaneously. And what about all that traveling Greg and I have put on hold!?! So stressful - and that's the math for just 1 kid!
There are so many people making comebacks in swimming this year or are simply still plugging away. Maybe it has to do with a bad economy, maybe it's just people deciding to end things on their own terms. But sometimes I worry that it's really the first cohort of swimmers who were able to maintain their swimming careers after college, and that making that transition away is hard. Yes, it's true, you come out of professional swimming with plenty of experience on setting goals, performing at a high level, speaking in public, and representing your own brand. But that's not the same as gaining an in depth understanding of whatever field you are planning to go into. And staying in swimming for just a little longer, especially when it's all you've known, is so tempting. So you get stuck, and sometimes it's too late.
I'm not saying that professional swimming is bad. And I'm not saying it's impossible to swim and have an ambitious career. There are many many swimmers who have gone on to do amazing things, often using many of the lessons they've gained through the sport. I'm just saying that for the vast majority of people who already beat the odds to be the best in the world, there's an expiration date.

A week without Greg

2011-05-28T17:44:00.001-04:00

Well, it was a little bit of a lonely week here with Greg gone in Prague. I was left to single parent Lily (I consider Ms. Jackson more of a roommate) which was probably not the best for her since she had to stay in her crate for much of the day. At first I really felt guilty about it but I later realized that all she does is sleep from 10 to 4 even if I am home and since I was getting home early most days I don't think it was too rough on her.
In general, the week consisted of me getting up early every day and taking Lily for some sort of outdoor work out. We ran most days but I'm still cautious of running her too much so sometimes she just got to sit and watch me doing weird jumps and squats and the like. I'd get out of work as soon as I could and then we would go for a walk or 2 in the evening. I was trying to make her as tired as possible but just when I would think I had accomplished my task, another dog would walk by and she would be entirely too full of energy.
The weather was quite warm for most of the week, which brings me to my major challenge of the past few days - getting the contractor to get someone to get the AC working. I'll say up front that I think that our contractor is a pretty honest guy and was happy that he wasn't going to send anyone but a certified AC person in to do the job, but the situation was really frustrating. He finally got an AC guy in on Friday so I was riding back and forth between home and work all day. They were there for about 5 and a half hours, working the whole time, and finally around 4:30 everything was hooked up and the AC was running. All that was left was to wait for the house to cool down.
So I waited. And waited. And when it was 9 PM and the house was still 84 degrees I texted our contractor. He called me back told me that they might have to come back and charge the AC with more freon (apparently, you want to make sure that you don't put too much in and that leaves you at risk of putting too little) but that we should wait until the next day to check to see if things were just taking a long time. Well, when I woke up it was still 83 degrees in the house, so I knew that we had some work to do. Hopefully we can get it fixed tomorrow but with all the trials and tribulations so far and it being Memorial day weekend, I'm not so sure.
Greg gets home today, which will be nice because I am filled with all sorts of bad ideas that he should probably work on preventing. I already signed up for a chance to win the HG TV Green Dream home. I almost unsealed my wedding dress from it's box to try it on (but my coworker pointed out the risks of doing that with animals in the house). Instead I went through all my formal dresses and tried them on (happily they all still fit - although the Chinese dress my mom sewed for me in middle school has gotten a little tight in an area that Sir Mix-a-Lot would be happy about). I did some shopping, both in person and online. And besides vacation planning and some review for the GRE, I've also been watching A LOT of HG TV. Yeah, I've got ideas. Greg, beware.

Babysitting

2011-05-22T13:47:00.000-04:00

This week I was very happy with myself because a conference that I was lead analyst on went off spectacularly. Yay! I’m glad that all my work, analysis, and worry resulted in a good product.
The end of this week has been strangely filled with children. I came home from the conference and met up with Megan, an old college friend, who swung by our house with her 3 kids - Harrison, Briar and London (all 3 or less). Her kids are super cute, we had a fun time catching up, and she taught me how to change a diaper. On Friday, we hung out with our friends, Wes and Katie, and their daughter Alice – who must be 2 or so – and can impressively be trusted on her own not to get herself in too much trouble.
But Saturday was the big day. First, Greg and I wandered around Baltimore on an extended morning run/walk with Lily then headed out to dog training (which we’ve found goes way better with a tired dog). After that, there was only one short hour before we had to head to Dulles to drop Greg off for his weeklong trip to Prague. Then I was heading straight Stevensville (across the bridge from Annapolis) to baby-sit Megan’s kids for the evening while she and her husband Nate attended a wedding.
Besides being sad that Greg was leaving for a week, I was also sad that I now had sole control of the car, and was also soloing it with Megan’s kids. I hate driving and have never actually had sole responsibility of anyone under 5 (much less 3 under 4).
Of course I missed an exit on my way from Dulles to Stevensville and had to wend my way through DC – ugh. I swear the iphone map ap is completely messed up in DC. It continually calls on you to take something called Southworth or Southwest highway which clearly doesn’t exist in the real world since I have missed it half a dozen times using the map ap. So when I saw that road on my reroute I knew I was in trouble. I got lost several times but finally ended up around the National’s stadium and knew that there must be a freeway entrance somewhere around there. I was rewarded when I finally got to my destination with a nice warm sunset and beautiful view of the water while I waited for Megan and Nate to bring everyone back to the wedding (they were going childless to the reception).
The babysitting was interesting, starting off with a huge tantrum when the parents left. But I found that I am pretty immune to screaming child, so I just ignored it and pretty soon everyone came to their senses. I felt bad because I let each of the older kids have something like 4 or 5 Flavor Ices (kind of like Otterpops when I was a kid) but I guess as babysitter, getting through it with everyone happy is really the main point. There were also at least 2 movies playing on various electronic gear at all times so that made things pretty easy. The baby was pretty good throughout and only had a couple crying binges – I found that a vibrating leg seems to calm things down pretty quickly so even though my calf is a little sore this morning I’m pretty proud of that one. All in all, I think things went rather well. I changed my first diaper, picked a kid up with his pants around his ankles and aimed him at the toilet, and generally learned a lot.
I was dreading the drive home and the parking situation in Fed Hill but neither was bad at all. When I got home it was almost 1 and a lot of people were leaving the bars. There was a tiny spot available on my block and two guys helped me wedge my car into it – which pretty much made my night!

President Obama!

2011-05-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

Today was a very big day for Greg and me. We were lucky enough to be included in a town hall meeting with "a high ranking white house official" who we later found out was President Obama! Dan hooked us up with the connection and was also able to share the experience with us (thank you soooo much Dan!!!!).

Greg and I didn't talk about it much because it didn't seem like the kind of thing you talk about beforehand in case you jinx it or whatever. But nothing went wrong and we soon found ourselves in a very intimate room at the Newseum only about 5 meters away from the President!
It was amazing. He was great. Really, there is just too much to say. For most of it, since I didn't get picked ahead of time to ask a question, I was just sitting there soaking it in. Wow. Greg thinks it's the coolest experience he's ever participated in. I have a thing or two above it on my list but I'm still in a glowing state of awe.

The subject of the meeting was serious - the economy - and there were a lot of people who were asking difficult questions. The President did a great job really listening to people's issues and I think that some people will benefit from a bit of personal help from the oval office. It will take time for the economy to recover and for the millions of people who are hurting to find their solutions but today will make a difference to one or two people, which is a good step. Greg and I are thankfully not in the type of situation that would make for a dramatic hard hitting question so I was happy just to witness the whole event.
One funny thing is that the President gives really long answers, which is clearly not conducive to TV. So the news anchors were in the awkward position of trying to be polite while at the same time trying to get the President of the United States to stop talking.

I've posted the pics I got on my iphone but there are a few more of Greg and me that I will post when Dan sends them to me. He brought a camera so we were just going to depend on him for photography but there was a problem for his camera with the lighting and he couldn't get any pictures of the President as he was moving around the room during our 3 minutes of picture time. I quickly started powering up my phone but all that was showing up was that stupid apple - I thought we were going to come out of it with no pictures at all! But the phone powered up just in time to get a few shots off and fortunately, the President was close enough that its limited range worked ok!

quick report - our crazy Saturday

2011-05-10T21:31:00.001-04:00

I was proud of Greg and myself for our amazingly efficient Saturday. We had so much to get accomplished but we passed with flying colors!
We got up early and the first thing we did was clean the house. Next we went to the gym for 2 hours where I did 62 100s swimming and Greg did a running work out. After that we flew back home to grab Lily and head out for dog training. When we got back from that, I threw on my dress and new hat and we headed to Tess's Derby party in honor of Sean's birthday. Next up was a work party at my boss's. We were only able to stay for about half an hour but in that time, my hat made quite an impression. We got home at about 7:15 and had about half an hour to get organized before people started showing up for our "We swim so we can eat" swim team party!
The latter was a great success and people didn't leave until 1 AM - at which point I was pretty exhausted. But my efficiency was not done yet. My stomach hurt in the morning so I got up and the house was pretty much clean by 8:30 - in time for us to head to church. After that, however, my energy was dead. I laid down in my bed and pretty much could not motivate myself to get out of bed all the rest of the day (except for Indian food with Greg, Matt, Dan and Kunal - yum!)

2011-05-05T20:42:00.000-04:00

Greg was hard at work while I was in California. He painted all the furniture that we got from the Colnitis'. So we are finally able to post pics of the new outdoor areas! There is still a little work to do because we are STILL waiting to get the AC connected. But all in all, we are pretty much finished and it look soooooo much better than what we started with. We are super happy with it and definitely excited to hang out outside this spring and summer! I've also posted an old picture of what it used to look like (that carpet was part of the staging when we bought the house and little did we know that underneath it was hideous cracked concrete!)

The Royal Wedding and stuck in mud

2011-05-03T01:34:00.001-04:00

Wow! There is so much going on the world right now! I’m sorry but this is going to be a long one. Let’s start with the Royal Wedding. I know that the world’s most wanted criminal was just recently brought to justice by some awe-inspiring intelligence and special forces work but I don’t think anyone in Abbottabad was wearing any sort of fashion transcending attire. (though on a serious note - GO USA! Very proud to be an American today)
Yes, I did wake up at 4 AM (and no, I didn’t even need an alarm clock I was so excited) to watch the Royal Wedding and it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! The pageantry, the fashion, and the spectacle were all just too much for me to resist. The hats were amazing, the dresses were amazing, and the whole process completely fascinated me. I loved the bride’s dress – perfect for the occasion (but the veil did look a little funny once it was pushed back). The bridesmaid also looked great. I can’t say the same for the daughters of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew, who proved that being a princess doesn’t necessarily mean that you have style.
Crystal and I were texting through the whole thing, which was fun because a few times we texted the exact same thing to each other milliseconds apart. We were also inspired to purchase hats because – well, why not?!? We have a Derby party coming up next weekend in which hats were specifically requested. So if you think about it, we actually HAD to buy those hats.
I got a very large, black hat with a slightly flexible curvy brim and a fluffy black flower. I am a little worried that it is too much hat for me but hey, I’m American, the land of “more is more”. The hat store also had little flower pins so I will be able to accessorize it with other colored flowers. Crystal got a smaller hat that had a little more structure, it was more of a 1920s inspired hat in black with an asymmetrical brim that gave it a particularly nice air of fashion-forwardness.

I am also happy that we no longer have to “take the president at his word” about the fact that he was born in the US and that, at the drop of a hat, so called “birthers” are now roundly accepted as total crackpots. Yes, this was big news to some people but I will count myself among those who were only surprised that President Obama released it now rather than some other more politically advantageous time. Perhaps he wanted to make sure he had sufficient material for his jokes at the White House Correspondents dinner. (As a side note, the white house correspondents were not looking particularly sprightly the next evening when they were reporting that OBL was dead. Could someone have partied a little too hard? Imagine if the strike on the compound had occurred the day before like it had been planned – Seth Meyers' routine would have been ruined!)

On another note, Greg and I had such a jam-packed weekend that I am almost happy to be in Oxnard, CA today if only so I can sleep. On Saturday we went to the gym and I practiced with the Master’s swim team. Next, Greg dropped me off at work where I got some stuff done in between reviewing any part of the royal wedding that I may have missed while Greg went off with Lily to dog training class. Then we were off to the Nationals/Giants game with Dan and his friend Min in DC. The Giants won – yay!
On Sunday we woke up early, went for a run with Lily, went to church, went to the grocery store, and went to the hat store to get my Stetson, which was being stretched (my head is growing, I must be getting smarter). Then we were off to the plant nursery to get some more stuff for our back garden. After that it was to the hardware store for some other supplies. Finally, we rented an extra long van (an hourly rental) and headed to the Colnitis’ to pick up their unwanted outdoor furniture for our new deck.
This is where things started to go a little wrong. It had started raining off an on for the hour or so before we pulled into the Colnitis’ driveway. We parked up above, prepared to schlep the lawn furniture and extra planters up the grass covered hill from the pool house to the van, but Mr. Colnitis suggested we bring the van down the lawn to the pool house and, being lazy rather than smart, we did. When we got to the pool house we found that the van was doing a little spinning on its tires in the manicured lawn. So Mr. Colnitis said we should just load up the van and then drive down the hill a bit more to get to the part of the lawn that they don’t try to maintain and then make as many tire tracks as we wanted as we built up some momentum for the way up. Unworried, we did this.
Unfortunately, we were only getting ourselves deeper in trouble. The van was now 300 feet from the driveway and we were discovering that it could not go anywhere at all. It really was simply spinning in place, eating up the grass. We tried repositioning it by backing down further and only succeeded in destroying more grass. We tried pushing it. We tried a path made of cardboard. We tried calling AAA (they don’t do stuff that is more than 100 ft away from the road) By this time it was pouring and the ground was only getting muddier. Mr. Colnitis was going to try and drag it up with their 4-wheeler but it wasn’t starting. More worryingly, we needed to return the van in just another hour and 20 minutes, before the place closed. We had also taken a closer look at the rental agreement and had seen that we had agreed not to take it off of a well-maintained roadway. Uh Oh!
I was freaking out, hopefully out of sight of Mr. Colnitis, who I’m sure at that point was regretting his generosity. Greg, strangely, stayed calm. It’s good that we seem to alternate who freaks out and who stays calm, I’d hate for both of us to lose it at the same time. It was just about at the point of no return that Mr. Colnitis decided to get out Mrs. Colnitis’ 4-wheel drive Escalade and attempt to tow the van out. We were a little worried that we would end up with 2 vehicles stuck 300 feet down his lawn but after driving it around the lawn for a while we determined that it was safe. We hooked the van up to the Escalade and gave it a go.
Now, this part of the operation was uncertain for several reasons. First, the van was heavy and we couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t make the Escalade start to spin out as well. Also, the vehicles were strapped together with about 3 feet in between them so the potential to take this up a whole other level by crashing our rental van into their expensive car was there as well. Finally, we weren’t too sure what we were hooking the straps to on the van side (or the strength of the straps themselves). Well, I am happy to report that the mission was a success. We ended up breaking both straps and had some heart stopping moments but the Escalade towed the van right out without even damaging any of the nice parts of the lawn.
We got up to the driveway and then sped away to try and get everything unloaded before the deadline. On the road we saw 2 accidents occur seconds ahead of us but we, in our unwieldy, un-maneuverable van with completely bald tires and ceramic pots banging around in the back, managed to escape the wreckage. When we got to our house Greg started unloading while I began to process of wiping away all evidence of our off-road adventure (the van was covered in churned up mud and grass). We dropped off the van just in the nick of time and then headed to the Colnitis’ to drop off replacement straps and a bottle of wine as well as to celebrate our victory over the mud. Phew.
We didn’t get back home until 9:30 or so, but we had barely eaten anything all day (probably a contributing factor to my freak out) and I needed to make some food with leftovers to hold Greg over for the week. So I started in on making dinner while Greg worked on the furniture in the dark. At about 11 PM we hoisted a bench up the outside of our house to the 3rd floor patio. At that point we called it a night, only to head back downstairs a few minutes later to watch the president announce that OBL is dead. What a day! At that point it seemed like our morning run had taken place years earlier.

A few other things to note. I haven’t yet mentioned our very nice Easter in which we enjoyed all the pageantry of Old St. Paul’s church with the incense and streamers and festival music. We also enjoyed Easter dinner at Mr. Rain’s Fun house with Joe and Crystal (the best pork shank ever). It was there that we found out that our friends Sean and Tess had gotten engaged! A few days later took them out to dinner to celebrate and got to hear their very excellent engagement story (involving a buried box that Tess thought was an old family pet, the words “are you serious?” and, like every engagement story, a few funny hiccups along the way).

Spring is finally here!

2011-04-23T09:29:00.000-04:00

Recently, Greg and I have been all about fixing up the garden below our deck. Sadly though, the contractor still need to come and hook up the water, AC and do a number of small tasks. It's been a long week of Greg calling and cajoling the guy to come over and get the finishing touches completed.
The gardening has been something of an adventure and I am very proud that so far our Jetta has managed to come through. First we went to the nursery and bought two 9 to 10 ft tall trees and managed to fit them in the car (straight through the trunk, though the front seats and pushing up to the windshield) along with a medium sized rhododendron and some other small plants. Then we went to Lowe's and bought about 800lbs of pavers/edgers. We were seriously worried that this, plus out own weight, would push the limits of the Jetta's capabilities but it came through there as well. And over the past week we've made several more trips to get a total of about 1500 lbs of top soil and garden soil.
Now, you are probably imagining in your mind, pulling up with this stuff and dumping it in some scrubby back yard. But let me remind you, Greg and I live in the city. And as usual, parking spots in front of our house were nowhere to be found. So we were lugging all this stuff through the streets, through our house, and then out into the back area. Needless to say, Greg and I can now hardly grip anything with our hands, they are so sore!
But it all seems to be going well. We finally have enough dirt back there (Lily seemed to think all the moving of dirt was great fun and whenever we shoveled she decided to help us by digging in the same hole we were were working on). On Friday, the water was set back up, so the trees and shrubs went in (on Earth Day!). The stones are down. The herbs have been potted. All we need is for the AC to be settled into it's place! Though even that will not be the end because then we will need to get on to furniture and proper screens for the door. Still, it's been worth it. We can finally enjoy our outdoor areas and we think that when we finally decide to sell it, we won't have that former ugliness to hold back the house.
In other news, my parents finished up their civil war tour and settled in at our house for another few days. It was really fun! Last Thursday, bright and early (leaving our house at 5:30 AM) we got to visit the White House, which Greg and I would probably have never have managed to organize ourselves to do, then we wandered around all the monuments. We visited the Washington monument, and headed toward the Lincoln memorial via the WWII memorial but got side tracked and went to the FDR memorial and the Jefferson memorial. After we finally made it to the Lincoln memorial and the Vietnam memorial we were pretty foot sore and hungry - everything seems so close in DC but its just the grandness of the architecture fooling your distance perception!
We managed to grab lunch in the Red Cross building and then decided to make one last push to Arlington National Cemetery. We were thinking about taking the metro but we were so far from a metro station at that point that it was the same distance to simply walk over and across the bridge and then up to the cemetery. Though I have to say, it was a bit longer than I thought it would be and by the time we made it there we weren't really sure we wanted to walk all the way up to Arlington house. Fortunately, there are tour buses which drive you all around and drop you off places. Totally worth the ticket price! We saw the Kennedy Grave sites, the tomb of the unknown soldier (and the changing of the guard), and Arlington house (which was really cool, had amazing history, and afforded great views of DC).
One cute side story I have to note is that my dad, not usually a man for formality, insisted on bringing dress pants and a dress shirt to wear to the White House. He even borrowed our iron, explaining "Come on, have a little respect!" So we all wore slacks instead of jeans and attire that my very graceful grandmother who passed away a few years ago would have approved of.
Later in their visit, Greg and I also took my parents on a tour around Second Chance, a really great store full of old historic pieces from old buildings and homes. I'd love to hang an old stained glass window as a head board but I can't really justify the $4,000 price tag - it would probably be better to spend that on new appliances. But the store is just full of treasures and interesting projects so it was great to poke around there with my parents and imagine what we could do with different pieces of history. The night before my parents left we went on a restaurant crawl and visited Corvino for appetizers, Centro for dinner, and Blue Grass for bourbon and desserts. What a nice outing!
Between all this we also managed to celebrate Crystal's birthday with a party at her house, participated in the block party in Federal Hill where we met up with Sean and Tess, and head to the ball park to watch the O's. Spring is great out here!

A new deck!

2011-04-08T08:41:00.000-04:00

I think that Greg and I have just gotten through one of the most stressful months we've had in Baltimore. Among other things we've been putting a new deck on the back of our house and improving the 3rd floor outdoor area as well. And, while we thought it would be relatively straight forward it turned out to be extremely complicated, requiring all of Greg's infamous cool to pull it off.
Many many weeks ago we wrote the home owners association next door to us and notified our neighbors that we would be doing this work. The neighbors were cool and the home owners association didn't write us back after 3 emails. So we went ahead and started the project with the contractor using the home owners association driveway to drop stuff off. While Greg was home he made sure the contractor never stayed on the driveway for long and that they cleaned everything up. but when we left for Chicago for the weekend we think that the contractor may have overstayed his welcome and generated some complaints by people who's driveways were blocked. All of a sudden the home owners association was involved and things became incredibly difficult. The job was half done and we weren't sure we were going to be able to finish it (was the contractor going to walk? were we going to be able to get access?). We were really down on Fed Hill and not at all certain we should have moved here but we talked to some of our other neighbors who gave us a ton of support and felt a lot better.
I told Greg that all his dealing with me must have been good training for dealing with this situation and he just told me that his whole life was practice for dealing with me and that this was just a side thing (I'm not sure if that was romantic or not). Anyway, he managed to work things out to have just a few more supervised material drop offs by our contractor and even though it was horrifically stressful dealing with everyone's issues he got it done. Yay! We still have some work to do on the garden so we will send out better pics later.
In other news, I swam my first swim meet with my master's team. I am happy to report that I was fast enough to be happy but slow enough not to think about making a come back. Still, 1:03.9 is pretty decent for 2 days a week swimming. I did feel kind of awkward there though - like I was cheating or something. I mean, it's not precisely fair for me to race against normal master's swimmers when I did it for a living for so long. But whatever, it's still nice to try and go fast so I think I will keep doing the meets.
Finally, last weekend my parents made a short visit to our house - that was the drop dead deadline for the construction to be done and our house was a disaster just before they came with mud and junk from the construction everywhere. But the contractor came through and my parents got to see our nice deck. We also made a tour around Fells Point for a day and my parents pretty much walked me and Greg into the ground. Greg and I haven't really explored there yet so it was fun. My mom also made her famous spaghetti, which is really great. Then they were off on their civil war tour. We all hope to be able to go on our White House tour later in the week but I'm worried a government shut down will ruin everything.
So that was our last couple weeks! Throw in some crazy intensity at work, a big 2 day meeting for me, and a 4 day conference that Greg had to go to and it was definitely stressful (except having my parents here, that was something to look forward to and an excuse to clean everything up). But we are glad that our deck is done and we will have something nice to hang out on in the summer with our friends.

Friends, friends, friends

2011-03-22T22:01:00.000-04:00

The past few weekends have been filled with friends, not a bad way to spend your time!
Leila came to visit us while she was in the area to interview to be a Fogarty Scholar (congrats! She is now Kenya bound!) and we had a blast catching up and taking her to all of our usual haunts on Cross Street. She also has some crazy doctor stories now since she's been traveling around doing 6 weeks in different areas of practice. They make me affirm my decision not to become a doctor but are still fascinating to hear.
Next up was Friday night in Fells Point followed by an after party at Nidhi's. I always think that Canton and Fells Point are a little too fraty for me but then again, other people say Fed Hill is too fraty - I think it mostly depends on how late you are going out. If we are in Fed Hill we almost always head out to dinner or to hang out at my house after happy hour is over so I never am annoyed by jerk guys and slutty girls (mostly I just think about how cold they must be as I pass them on my way out of the bars). Anyway, it was a pretty late night at Nidhi's but she is always such a good hostess, you hardly notice the time passing.
The next morning I swam off my hangover at 9 AM practice, grabbed brunch, threw in a few hours at work, and then it was time for Tess's suprise birthday party! As a little aside, I have to mention that I almost ruined it because Greg and I passed by Tess on the way to the dog washing place (Lily needs another bath so bad right now, I can barely stand to pet her, I'm pretty sure she laid in her food in the kennel) and were yelling "Hi" out the window. I was just about to say "Happy birthday see you soon!" at her when Greg drove off - phew!
Anyway, everyone met up at the Melting Pot a few minutes early to get in place before Sean and Tess arrived. Greg was really stressed that we'd be a little late and run into them on our way in but it all worked out great and Tess was really happy to walk in and see us all. Crystal and Joe were there and so were Caroline and Christopher. It was the first time we had seen Caroline and Christopher since they had their baby, Griffon (seriously, the best boy's name I have ever heard!). Again, it was one of those nights were you don't even realize how late it is by the time you head out.
Just as we were leaving, Nidhi texted us to invite us to brunch on Sunday and there was no way we were going to turn that down - though Kunal and Matt couldn't rally themselves, even at 11 AM! So it was just the three of us plus Dan (who you will hear much more about now that it is baseball season).
We had to take a cab there because our car was blocked in by the people who go to the church across our street (it is common practice for them to double park the church side of the street). We got back so late from the Melting Pot the night before that we decided that we should really just take what we could get. And then with daylight savings we didn't make it out early enough to save it from the church people.
Anyway, our cab driver nearly killed us several times and really did kill a pidgeon on our way to Nidhi's! What a disaster! I felt really guilty even though it was the cab driver that did the murdering! So we decided to walk back home afterward. Definitely a good decision because the St Patrick's day parade was going on and we would have run up a $100 bill getting through the city! We also remembered as we were walking through a ton of people with racing bibs pinned to their shirts that Tess was running in the 5-K that had just finished. So gave them a call, met up at Power Plant Live, and then headed to the Abbey for burgers.
We really didn't need a 3rd giant meal that day but we were hanging out with Wes and Katie for dinner at their house. So we recharged our appetite and headed out to their place for good food and fun conversation. It's always fun at their house because we just sit at the table and debate random things - I don't think anyone feels like they have to agree at the end and it is always interesting. They also have a daughter Alice, who seems to be pretty much the ideal kid - never has any problem with them entertaining, goes to bed when it's bed time, and while she is certainly a centerpiece of their lives it never seems like she takes it over.
So that was the end of that weekend and we had a whole week to look forward to our Chicago trip to hang out with Lacey and Andrew! If you haven't been keeping up, Lacey and Andrew moved from Palo Alto to Chicago over Thanksgiving last year. It was fortunate timing because we got to stay with them for alumni weekend and then they got to be in their new place and near family for the holidays.
Having already been to Chicago several times, we spent most of the weekend kicking back and hanging out like the old days. It was fun to see their new place, check out all the places they hang out, and how they take the El all the time. We watched a lot of good basketball, checked out random open houses, and Andrew cooked up a bunch of good food for us. We also set the date for a joint trip to New Orleans in the late spring. I'm sure Greg and I would have put it off until it was too late but Lacey and I just decided to figure it all out and booked everything while it was right there on our computers. My computer still remembers their router password - how cute!

Yay for Lily!

2011-03-06T14:06:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the extended absence from blogging. I can only claim extreme business of the non-fun variety as my excuse. The week before last I was in Atlanta all week to present at a conference for work. It was actually a pretty good conference, and our presentation went well, my only issue was that I've been to so many different conferences and meetings lately that I'm a little conferenced out.
On the bright side, I did get to see Jason, one of my old coaches and his wife Heidi. It was so great to get together with him over dinner and remember old times and talk about new things in our lives. Also, the hotel I stayed in was HUGE! It was like a spaceship! And when I went up to the 42nd floor in the super fast glass elevators I was imagining myself as a spaceship captain and how cool it would be to be zooming up through it. Yes, my imagination was a little on over-drive but you got to go what you got to do to keep things interesting.
Last week, was pretty much dedicated entirely to work. My outlook calendar was full of meetings and conference calls from 9 AM to 5 PM. We also put on a meeting in DC so there was that. Normally all the analysts get together for dinner and drinks the night before the conference but this time we all were so busy that we bailed. I got to the hotel, hung up my suit, brushed my teeth, and collapsed into bed.
I don't know why, but I actually love sleeping in hotel beds. They are just so comfortable and I don't wake up at 3 AM on fire, wedged between Greg and the Ms. Jackson. This is a definite benefit of traveling for work - I always get put up at a pretty nice place and sleep really well.
Despite the overloaded work schedule I do still have a few fun things to report. First, I have decided to join the Merritt Master's team. It isn't the other one that is at the same facility as NBAC, so I never have to worry that I will run into my old national team acquaintances who are still super fit and racing as fast as ever. However, the Merritt Masters know about my old life so there isn't keeping any of that secret. I join their practices a few days a week and might even go to a meet next month. Their fast group is a good speed for me, though I think I train a little differently that they all do. I don't think that I will ever be able to move past deciding what I think is important in a practice, trying hard at that, and then not trying at all on the stuff I think isn't useful.
Still, it is fun. The group is really social, which is nice, and a lot younger than most master's teams - they are all about Greg's and my age so I feel like it is a nice addition to my social life. Greg and I went to a really fun potluck dinner with the team a few weeks ago and had a blast meeting new people and making new friends.
Finally, I am pleased to report that Lily has graduated from Doggy obedience class. We were doing some last minute cramming before we headed in to the last class and the evaluation and I was seriously worried! She wasn't listening at all and wouldn't go into a down and kept getting up when we walked away. Our trainer had been clear that she does actually fail people and dogs - she said she had failed orchestra kids when she taught high school so I was pretty sure she'd make good on her threat.
To make matters worse, we were in a really bad position in the room (which I only realized once we started). We were at the end of the room next to a dog that was totally failing the class. So not only were all the distraction tools like balls, screaming people, and dogs running straight at her rather than across the space in front of her, (she needed to not move while we stood 10 feet away from her and all the distractions going on unless we told her she could get up) but she kept getting thrown off by the dog next to her running around.
The other tests she had to pass were to stay in a down position and then a sit position while we left the room for a minute. She also had to do a walk by our side, stop when we stopped, turn right and left next to us, and stay by our sides when walking slowly or jogging. Finally, she had to come when called. Needless to say, she also had to have good manners with the other dogs (meaning on barking or jumping at them or really being interested at all in them while on a leash) but I wasn't too worried about that last one because she only fails at that when we are outside of class (though pretty much constantly)
One funny thing was that she loves other dogs so much but we had her staying in a down position when the trainer's dog came up and laid down right in front of her. Lily knew she couldn't get up but really wanted to get to the other dog so she was doing this army elbow crawl to try and get over to the trainer's dog. It was super cute, though I was a little worried the trainer would fail her for it.
In the end the trainer wasn't that mean and when she messed up (with the ball and the screaming person) she got a second chance and got things right the second time. I felt like with all the work we (mostly Greg) had done she should have done better but I will be satisfied that she didn't fail and we can move on to other classes. Plus, the certificate of graduation needed to be sent back to the rescue we got Lily from so at least that is taken care of. All in all, she has really come a long way.

Lessons learned too well

2011-02-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Greg and I had our first experience with puppy diarrhea. It made for some unpleasant clean up (though on the bright side our house did smell nicely of bleach for a little while) and a long night of getting up every few hours to let the dog out. Not to worry, though - our house and most household objects were none the worse for wear and I'm sure more unfortunate things have happened in the 100 plus years this house has stood here. Greg and I continually thank our lucky stars that we got a house with a small outside area out back because getting dressed enough to wander the streets of Baltimore at 3 AM in the middle of winter would just be a pain!
Despite the sick dog, we still managed to get out on Sunday and visit the services at Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. Afterward, we went to an interesting little learning session where the topic was basically "Episcopalian 101" and were reassured that there is quite enough space there for reason, independent thought, and inclusionary values.
Next, we set off through Mt. Vernon on foot to visit Baltimore's China Town. When I had announced that Greg and I were moving to Baltimore in 2009, my Aunt had told me, in a somewhat scandalized voice, that there was no China Town in Baltimore. And I sort of have to agree - the best I can say is that Baltimore has a China Block. But there is a nice little restaurant where you can have Dim Sum and an Asian Grocery store where you can buy Asian food ingredients (there were too many Japanese products in there for me to honestly call it a Chinese grocery store). I bought some soy milk there because I swear I am going to successfully make Do Fu Fa sometime soon and apparently western soy milk won't set up into soft tofu (I sadly know this from experience).
For Valentines day, Greg pulled out the charm and I was pleasantly surprised by flowers, a nice breakfast (though he almost always makes breakfast for me now) and hidden candy found in all types of places. Besides that, there was a little white board for grocery lists on our fridge which I seriously walked by 6 times before Greg finally told me to notice it. For dinner we went out to Salt, which I will now put in my top 5 Baltimore restaurants along with Woodberry Kitchen, Centro, Corvino, and Cinghiale. It was seriously delicious!

Greg and I also had a very interesting conversation over Valentines dinner. We were wondering when we'd ever feel like we were ready for kids and were sort of musing aloud about our mutual uncertainty about deciding to change our lives in such a drastic manner. We only have 4 similar aged friends in our entire set of friends spanning from Washington, to Stanford, to Baltimore who have kids. So we were remarking on how strange the situation would be a generation earlier. I mean, no matter how much Matt tries to tell me that I'm not nearing 30 until I have less than a year to go, it's looming.
Anyway, we suddenly realized that the lessons that permeated our middle school, junior high, and high school years about how much of a disaster it would be to get pregnant or get your girlfriend pregnant are still with us and many of our friends today. Greg and I are well beyond the point where it would be a problem to have a baby - it would mostly just be inconvenient. But there, right there in that statement is the proof. Without seeing the joys and rewards of parenthood all we see is the responsibility, the costs, and the hardships. We remember the calculation in sex ed about the accumulated costs of raising a child, the stories about the single mother who struggles to get her education, and the thought that "If I got pregnant, my world would be over." And though we've come a long way since high school, those lessons still stay with us - if only I remembered calculus half as well. (Moms, don't despair - I'm sure we'll come around sometime. I still have 6 years before I'm classified as a geriatric pregnancy.)

Vienna Continued

2011-02-08T20:34:00.000-05:00

When I last left off, Crystal and I were in Vienna for our conference and presentation. We spent most of our time attending talks, networking, and getting ready for our presentation. The schedule was packed and it felt like there was barely time to even call home to Greg before collapsing into bed, exhausted. I had been concerned that internet cost 27 euro per day but I didn’t even have a chance to get onto the internet until after the 3rd day of the conference!
On the second night, the mayor of Vienna hosted a dinner at a traditional Austrian restaurant for everyone at the conference. It was very funny because the Austrian people are pretty adamant about following plans so we were directed into different rooms with military precision. Crystal’s brother had come from London to visit for the day and we all found ourselves sitting with a group of people from Israel. I was sitting across from someone who actually lived on a kibbutz! It was fascinating to hear about how things work there since it is essentially small scale communism. Very interesting.
At this dinner we also had a lot of traditional Austrian food – that is, fried everything. I wanted to try one of each thing but by the end it all tasted the same – because literally everything, even the vegetables, was fried. I finally reached the point where I just couldn’t do it anymore. The girl who survived the KFC Double Down and the DQ Blizzard at the same time had met her match.
Crystal and I had our presentation on Sunday morning. We felt like it was well received but it wasn’t like the swim speeches I used to give. I usually like to wing it with talks but with such a tight amount of time and our need to be precise with our wording we essentially read from prepared remarks to explain our power point slides. The other thing is that in swimming, I felt like I could speak with absolute authority but in this arena I’m not so confident. I mean, I know my stuff, but there is a lot more to know.
After our presentation, we helped our collaborators from University of Iowa with their poster presentations and demos. We attended a few more talks and then headed out to dinner with the Iowa guys who were really fun to wander the city with!
There was a sad/hysterical moment with Jim, who had not 45 minutes before been opining on the fact that if you get the wrong thing when you order food, you should just eat it. He was adamant. Well, we ended up going out to a traditional Austrian restaurant and he attempted to order the potatoes, vegetables, and cheese (since he is a vegetarian). Apparently he ordered breaded deep fried liver. And because of his previous remarks, he set out to eat it! I ended up giving him half my food (which was the same as what he was trying to order) because there was no way I could eat that many potatoes and just watching him try to eat that liver was making me feel sick.
It was a good night and we stayed out until quite late so the morning was really painful. But Crystal and I dragged ourselves up to put together a report for work and attend a few more talks. When the meeting was over, we set out one more time with the Iowa guys to check out the Hofburg again (I love it, but Crystal is a little sick of it).
After a late lunch, the guys left for their flight for Rome. Crystal and I indulged in a few hours of down time, which felt like such a luxury after the hustle and bustle of the last few days. We got together around 5 to do one last wander in the city. I wanted to see the Danube because I’ve heard so much about it and had such a picturesque view in my mind of it. Well, I have to say, for such a clean city, the area around the Danube was gross and scary. I was expecting some sort of park, but all that we found was graffiti and smelliness.
We exited the area as soon as we could, because by that time, it was dark and seemed unsafe (I was having visions of being set upon by either gypsies or punks - my stereotypical European ne’er-do-wells) and headed into the main part of the city to grab a gift for Crystal’s step-mom-in-law. We ended up at a Swarovski store, which was very interesting. I liked looking at all the jewelry but I still didn’t really get it. It was so expensive, yet some pieces really just made me think of the jewelry I’d get at some place like Claire’s for $5.
Maybe it’s just my internal evaluation, but I’d rather pay more and get a real stone than buy a crystal. Though, when I think about it – I’m not entirely sure what makes a polished rock that much better than a cut crystal. I think if I were ever to get anything from there I’d go for bigger stones, so it didn’t look like I was trying to fake it, and so I could take advantage of big blingy jewelry that you could never get with real stones (well, unless you were the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire).
Both Crystal and I felt like we needed to get something to eat before we headed back to the hotel. Not because we were hungry or particularly wanted food, but because we wanted to remain friends in the morning and felt that managing the airport on a 18 hour fast would be rough. It was at this moment that we realized how Austrians stay so thin. It is their terrible food. The thought of fried meat and cheesy saltiness literally turned my stomach. I would rather go hungry than eat more of that. I feel that I really try hard to eat local cuisine in foreign cities but honestly, after a few days in Austria (I need to add in here that somehow when Markus cooked for us it was much better) it just isn’t worth it. To add insult to injury, the only option for food on the plane was Chicken or Beef – and the salad had fish on it! I think I’ve had more meat in the last week than I usually have in an entire month!
All in all though, I’m glad to have gone on the trip. I got to see a lot of Vienna that I hadn’t had a chance to before, it was great to see the Iowa guys again, and I made a bunch of good contacts. Still, I’m also glad to be home.
FYI - I have to thank Crystal for these pics, though unfortunately, because she was behind the camera there aren't very many of her!

Vienna!

2011-02-07T04:57:00.000-05:00

Today’s blog comes to you from Vienna, Austria. Crystal and I are here for a conference and were lucky enough to be some of the few to be selected to present our work here. It is a very big honor but we only have a 10 minute time slot and 3 minutes of it has to go to questions! We’ve been practicing trying to get our presentation down but it is going to take some smooth talking and no technical difficulties to get this to all work out!
    The flight out was pretty rough and I was very sad because it was my first time on the Star alliance in which I did not have the status to get us into lounges, go through the short line, can get us upgraded for free. Since leaving swimming, I’ve traveled a lot less so my Premier Executive status has gone by the wayside, same with my Hilton Honors Gold and the free breakfasts and internet that come along with it.
    We also had some significant turbulence for much of the flight and at times I was worried that the plane was actually going to fall apart (though for some reason I was confident I would survive). Austrian Airlines has some pretty garish colors and the interior of their planes look like something out of the late seventies. Luckily I was able to sleep a little and missed breakfast – with all the turbulence it would have been a mistake but I know myself and I would have said, “maybe eating something will make my stomach feel better.” (will I never learn?)
    Fortunately, even though we got in at 8 AM, Crystal and I were still able to get into our rooms at our hotel. We took a quick nap, showers, and then headed out to see the town. We grabbed the Austrian version of Greek food, which was really quite good, and then set off to the many many monumental buildings they have here (people forget, this city was the seat of the Holy Roman empire for quite some time and their lands stretched across much of Europe).
    Even though I have been to this city before (you can check the archives of the blog for June 2009) it was mostly taken up with Markus’s antics. Greg and I loved it and had an amazing time living Markus’s crazy life for two days but we didn’t end up seeing much of the vast array this city has to offer. We did get the chance the first time around to see the two most important museum offerings in my book (arms and armor as well as the treasure museum) besides enjoying Markus’s “authentic Austrian party,” his very strange swim meet, and being dropped off in the middle of the Austrian countryside.
This time around, Crystal and I checked out all the cool buildings and then saw the Sisi museum (about the famous Empress of Austria), the silver museum (really mostly about how and what they royals ate), and then the royal apartments. It was really awesome. We also grabbed a snack at a café near the Hofburg, and each got amazing strudels drowned in Vanilla crème. Yum! Next we checked out a bit of the Spanish riding school and went back to wandering the heart of the City.
By this time it was dark and we saw an amazing building lit up and rising above the skyline so we headed right for it. It turns out that the city builds an ice rink right in front of their government building and it really has this amazingly festive atmosphere. We rambled around there, checked out some Cathedrals and then headed back in the direction of the hotel.
We saw a lady eating soup in a window and decided that was for us. So we stopped in and awkwardly ordered some soup and bread for ourselves. By this time I was fading fast so I was happy when we finally made it back to the hotel. What a fun day! But I was tired and ready to hit the sack.
The next day Crystal and I got up, practiced our presentation and then headed out for breakfast at a café. We found a nice little place that only had menus in German. I was brave (or foolish) and ordered something which I didn’t have any clue about. It did have torte in the name (Sachertorte) so I was expecting some sort of mini-open faced pie. So I was a little surprised when the waiter set down a slice of chocolate cake! I thought that I have a good handle on the word that means chocolate something like schokotate – but apparently, I missed this one. So that, and hot chocolate was my breakfast.
Afterward, fortified by my chocolate cake, we set out to continue sight seeing across the city. We had a fun time window shopping as well, but everything is so expensive! I mean, I would have balked at the prices if they had dollar signs next to them, but with euros and the terrible exchange rate there is no way that I am going to try a single thing on!
We got back just in time to make the first presentations of the conference. They were really interesting and I felt like I learned a lot. Afterward, there was a reception and Crystal and I ended up being invited (or inviting ourselves) out to dinner with a big group of people. When we got to the restaurant, there weren’t enough chairs so we plopped down at a table of people from the conference who we didn’t know. Lo and behold, it was the organizer of the conference and several others who were luminaries of their fields. What a treat! It was great to chat and get to know them and listen to their stories.

LOTR

2011-01-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Greg and I have very little to report. Why?
Well it may have to do with the fact that several cable channels have been playing Lord of the Rings marathons on the weekends. Crap! I'm such a sucker to watch that trilogy even though I have it on DVD and could totally watch it without commercials. Somehow, having breaks to flip to football or grab laundry make it all that much more fulfilling!
Still, watching it on cable also means that I can't fast forward through the awkwardness that is Elijah Wood saying "Oh Sam" every 5 minutes. Ugh - couldn't they have picked anyone else to play that role? Merry and Pippin and even Sam manage to pull off their sappy lines without all the weirdness! And Viggo Mortensen manages to look darn good even while speaking a made up language! At least now when I hear it, it reminds me of our newest analyst who didn't realize why we kept saying "Oh Sam" to him for about 3 months after he was hired.
Speaking of new analyst Sam, I have recently been swimming for the first time since the alumni meet back in October. It was fine, it just took so long! Sam, who used to swim, and I have been thinking about joining a master's team in the area - we will see if we actually get around to it. I plan to go in stealth mode. No Stanford caps that say my name on them and Sam is sworn to secrecy. I don't need a crazy master's swimmer trying to race me when all I want to do is get my out-of-shape butt through a decent workout.
In other news, we got some serious snow the other day, which pretty much shut Baltimore down for much of Thursday. It wasn't anything like last year but the snow was coming down in the biggest flakes I've ever seen and there did seem to be quite a build-up from 4-8 PM on Wednesday, not the best timing for traffic.
I have to say, even though I have very little experience with snow, Baltimore residents seem to display very little sense when it comes to bad weather. Yes, they seem to freak out for no reason and close schools and work after the snow has happened regardless of the fact that the streets and highways in Baltimore are bare to the pavement, but then again, they also like to drive places in the driving snow and then get stuck in random snow drifts. I really don't think either of these things make sense.
Last but not least, Greg and I have been testing out restaurant week out here in the DC and Baltimore area. For the uninitiated, restaurant week is when all the restaurants set up a price fixed menu that (this year) costs $35.11 at every restaurant that is offering a restaurant week menu. I am still on the fence as to whether this is really a deal or not. I guess it depends on which restaurant you go to.
I had a meeting in DC that I had to go to so Greg met me out there and we went to the Jockey club - which my coworkers said was either going to be really stuffy or hipster. It was the former. I'd say it was good though not great. The leek soup was the best but I was almost fooled at the beginning because they put down this tiny piece of potato covered in caviar and then put down Greg's dish and I was about to say "Hey! What's the deal here?" when they poured the soup over the top. Phew, no need to be disgruntled or bitchy.
In Baltimore we went to Tio Pepe's which was really good because Greg got to tell me about how his family used to go there. Apparently they were sitting at a table right around the corner from ours for Emily's graduation when the idea of the graduation trip was born. I think that Greg really enjoyed reliving some of his past there.
Though not associated with restaurant week, we went to Magerk's last night with Crystal, Kunal, and Matt. Kunal relayed a comment that one of his acquaintances had said which was that she "would like to sleep with Dwight Schrute from the office, just to see what it was like - would he use a beet?" Now, I have to tell you, what Crystal and I heard was "beat" to which I said something like "I hope so, I imagine that most people have some sort of natural rhythm." Oops.

Getting Things Done

2011-01-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

There are some weeks when the most enjoyable thing you can do is to work on all those things that you don't love but whose extended presence has only weighed on your mind. That was last week for me and Greg. It sounds boring but sometimes nothing is better than just feeling like you have taken care of all those things that are just hanging over your head and know that you have a fresh start. Plus it's nice to not walk in the house and be confronted by piles of old mail, balls of pet fur in every corner, and cluttered up kitchen counters.
Last week Greg and I put a lot of hours into our respective work projects. I've got a ton of active assignments right now so I've been trying to get to work early and staying after just to keep everything going. It's good though because I feel like I've been making a lot of progress and getting a lot of things done. Likewise, Greg has been working on ipad/iphone programing to get a good test platform for his hearing perception experiments at Maryland.
It was a long and fairly arduous week so I was really thankful for the 3-day weekend in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. To ease my mind a bit, I still did a few hours in the office on Saturday and Sunday morning but Greg attests that it was a good thing, saying "You were in a lot better mood after you left the office than before you went in." I definitely feel like I got a lot done in the short amount of time I was in there so I was happy.
Besides work, I did all the sewing this weekend that I had let pile up for the last few months - I fixed the Raven's hat that Lily chewed (just in time for the Raven's loss - yuck!), fixed the glove she chewed, shortened the hem on a pair of slacks, and raised the hem on a skirt. And then I put was finally able to put the sewing machine away! This probably does not sound like much, but it has been out, cluttering up the spare room for months and months. Greg and I also returned some Christmas gifts that didn't fit, vacuumed, went to church, got badly needed groceries and gas, put clothes away, took Lily on some good hikes, I cut my bangs (so glad I can see again!), and we got a lot of sleep.
Greg and I did have time to fit in several Ravens' playoff games with friends. We watched them win with JP, Kathy, Blake and Meredith and then watched them lose with Crystal and Joe. It was definitely sad to see them eliminated from the playoffs. It is so amazing around here how people really support their teams - all the lights in the city were purple and everyone in the city was wearing purple to work on Friday. The loss was especially hard to take because it was to the Steelers and I honestly don't want to deal with Matt and Kunal (both Steelers fans) at work tomorrow.

One last photo catch up - New Year's

2011-01-15T21:14:00.000-05:00

Lily's Snow Day!

2011-01-10T22:17:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago Lily saw her first snow. I didn't have a chance to put up any pics or video but you can check them out here now!

Pics from Christmas in San Diego!

2011-01-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Greg giving Matt a ride on his shoulders. This won't last long - there isn't much space above Matt's head for him to grow!

Me and Joe dancing on the street. I was trying to teach him to waltz but since I don't really know it wasn't working to well! Still he thought it was pretty funny.

Joe and his grandpa Carl. How cute.

Greg and I had a booty pushing contest. Greg was very casual about it. For a minute I thought I would win - he out weighs me but I have a lower center of gravity. No such luck!

It looks like something in Diane's gift was very shocking to Greg and me, even though we were the ones who picked it all out!

Greg and I hold our niece, Ava

What is it they say about giving the children of your enemies a drum? This time Emily and PJ did it to themselves.

Orange Bowl!!!!

2011-01-04T18:22:00.004-05:00

For Christmas, Greg and I gave each other a trip to the Orange Bowl to watch Stanford (#4) take on Virginia Tech (#12). It was our first BCS bowl since Greg and I have been associated with Stanford and such a huge accomplishment for a team that everyone says should struggle in recruiting because of Stanford's tough academic standards. Even better, we got to visit Greg's cousin Mike and his girlfriend Julia while we were down in Florida.
Greg and I took advantage of the opportunity to get a little Florida sun and take a run outside in the warm air. Afterward, we tried to take Mike's car to the beach but, after a slightly scary but mostly giggle-filled attempt to drive around his neighborhood in a BMW with a stick shift, we gave up. Greg could get the car going, but it was rough and things weren't improving with practice. We were also pretty concerned that we were going to ruin the car (it didn't make us feel any better when it kept stalling while Mike was driving us in stop-and-go traffic to the game).
We got to the game with just enough time for a quick tailgate before grabbing our tickets and heading in to get a bite to eat. We got to our seats just as the Stanford Band was coming out. Greg and I were both curious what controversy would be stirred up by our crazy and often offensive band (the school had to issue several official apologies due to band performances during our time there) but they kind of disappointed with a very tame performance. Not that I wanted them to get banned from the state of Florida but hey, making a public apology isn't so hard.
I was, however, very excited about the pregame festivities, which included both fireworks and U.S. Air Force para-jumpers gliding out of the sky. The guy who was trailing the Stanford banner was really enthusiastic about it and landed with a great flourish - it's like he knew what was going to happen! The only thing that was missing was some sort of hawk or eagle flyover, otherwise it would have been the trifecta of Tara's favorite things!
The game itself started out a little nerve-racking because Stanford didn't seem to be playing with our normal focus and poise. We also gave up a safety and a blocked point after touchdown, plus failed on a fake punt. When they went into the locker rooms at half time with the score of 13 to 12, I was concerned.
Fortunately, the team was its old self when it came out for the second half and from then on there was nothing to worry about. While the Virginia Tech quarterback was pretty wily and managed to turn a bunch of almost sacks into first downs, we pretty much dominated in all areas of the game. The final score was 40 to 12. With the exception of the second half of our game against Oregon, it was an awe-inspiring season.
It was great to be in the stands clapping along to the band playing "All Right Now" and enjoying the feeling that the team was going to accomplish what it set out to do. We were also sitting by what I can only imagine was a bunch of former band members since I recognized a few acquaintances who I knew had been the Tree in their Stanford days, they had an uncanny ability to pick out the "woo" jumping part of "All Right Now" no matter what the level of crowd noise, and they had the sort of barely contained drunken craziness that I associate with the Stanford band. They did an admirable job starting cheers and since they weren't right on top of us we were happy to be sitting near them.
When it was all over we headed back to Mike's to take a short nap before heading out to catch an early flight home and get to work. It was brutal, but worth it to come out and watch the Cardinal dominate.

New Year's at Mr. Rain's Fun House

2011-01-03T09:24:00.001-05:00

There's nothing unique about saying "I can't believe it's 2011!" but honestly it really just shocks me. 2011 is just such an odd sounding year, like something off in the distant future that you'll never have to really come to terms with in reality - the ice caps melting, the election of a minority president, or skinny jeans coming back in style. Wait a minute...
My resolutions this year are both banal and unique. I resolve to get back in shape and end my 2 month hiatus from exercise and healthy food - at least until after the alumni swim meet next year (which isn't until October... Ugh). I resolve to eat less Top Ramen and pork (even though I love both!). And I resolve to make this blog more interesting. After a year of listing out a series of bars Greg and I have spent our evenings in I can understand why any remaining readers might be bored - especially since we pretty much go to Magerks 90% of the time. To this end, Greg and I are resolved to do more entertaining things (though unfortunately, we won't be able to compete with 2009's travel, move, and wedding) and then we need to actually remember what made them so entertaining. Let's be honest - no one is interested in a reading of the night's minutes.
So, to start, I'll tell you about our New Year's celebrations.
Greg and I recently sent our xbox in to Microsoft to recover it from the "three-red lights of death." Go ahead, search the internet. It is a real term used to describe the death of your xbox and all gaming activities until you are frustrated enough to pay Microsoft your $100 to fix it. Now, I'm pretty sure that all 5 people reading this blog know that I am a nerd and beyond that I'm not afraid to say it so you won't be surprised to hear that I was quite crushed to have my game of Dragon Age interrupted. Though not as good as Oblivion, it is, shall we say, captivating.
So, on Friday, we started it back up and by midday I already had a video game related injury (not so different from my shoulder injury from knitting). It turns out, when I play video games, I twitch my head slightly and am otherwise catatonic. Apparently I got out of "gaming shape" during the xbox repair hiatus and so my untrained, weak neck muscles became immobile with knots. Still, that wasn't enough to stop me!
I finally called it quits (temporarily) after I took a good, hard look at what my life had become. As if suffering from a "gaming-related injury" wasn't shameful enough, Greg had to bring me food because otherwise I would forget to eat, and let's not even talk about showering. When I finally pried myself away from the xbox, Greg and I decided Lily (as well as us) needed some serious exercise before Greg and I headed out for New Year's celebrations. Since the day was mild we headed out to Loch Raven to walk the fire roads with the dog.
We'd never done this before and were somewhat worried we'd be accidentally shot by hunters, but fortunately everyone made it out sans bullet holes. Lily performed admirably off leash but was a little lame when it came to jumping over logs. I try to remember that she is a city dog and really still a puppy but her attempts to crawl over 18 inch high logs were pathetic. We worked on teaching her to jump over them, which was pretty funny, until she discovered that she could just crawl under them (I will comfort myself with the idea that she is smart). Still, I think that we will continue to work on it until, at the very least, I don't have to stealthily boost Lily into the back seat and hope that no one saw my 45 lb shepherd pretending to be a fat pug.
We ended up walking about 4 miles through the woods chatting about what I was going to do with my video game characters' armor and weapons (I guess you can take the girl out of the video games, but you can't take the video games out of the girl). The best part was when we got to a stretch that was ankle deep in fallen leaves. Lily thought they were amazing! She was just sprinting around in them and then running back to us and clearly having a great time. She even charged right across a creek that was about chest high on her (thank goodness we had a towel on the back seat). Greg and I have definitely discovered the joy of vicarious fun and wonder.
When we got back we were just in time for a quick nap and then preparations to meet up with our friends Tess and Sean as well as Sean's brother and his fiancé. Since we were beginning the night at our place we did a frantic surface clean that mostly involved shutting doors on messy closets and rooms, arranging the unread mail in a neat pile, grabbing all visible hair balls, and putting the dishes in the dishwasher. After warming up at our place we proceeded to (where else) Magerks for some beers and cheese fries and then headed out for the main event at Mr. Rain's Fun House.
For those of you who aren't familiar, Mr. Rain's is the quirky restaurant perched atop the even quirkier Visionary Arts Museum (covered in tiny glittery mirrors with "O Say Can You See" across the front) a few blocks from our house in Federal Hill. The meal was as eclectic as the venue and we had a really fun time sampling absinthe mojitos (they really just taste like licorice), oysters with kim chi, and fresh apple donuts.
As midnight approached, we moved out to the restaurant's balcony to get a good view of the fireworks show. Sean's brother, Thomas, is a military man with an atomic watch and fortunately, the Baltimore fireworks people were pretty precise too because our countdown to midnight was spot on! As I have previously gushed - I LOVE fireworks. And this was a pretty great 25 minute show over the harbor.
By the time we got home around 1:30 we were still trying to find Thomas and Julie a cab back to Mt. Vernon. Let me tell you, Baltimore cabbies do not seem to understand how to turn off their lights when they have customers already or are off duty. A sea of cabs, half of which with their light on, and none would stop for us. There seemed to be a run on them and cab companies weren't even answering their phones so after about an hour we finally had Sean come out and drive them home since for parking reason, our car needed to stay in one place.
To make things more crazy, there was some sort of disaster in the kitchen, waiting for us when we came home. We are still uncertain about what really happened but lily somehow bent her crate up from the inside trying to pry her way out and the bottom tray was pushed out from underneath. Though she didn't escape, many other things seemed to have been mysteriously pushed out of the crate. There was also a large puddle on the floor across the kitchen. The jury is still out on whether it was the dog or if we need a new dishwasher. I'm not sure which one we are hoping for.
All in all though, it was a pretty good New Years. Good food, funny friends, and fireworks (and don't forget the video games!). That's hard to beat.

Holidays! (I'll post pictures when I get them from relatives!)

2010-12-28T21:59:00.002-05:00

Over the past few weeks Greg and I have had the pleasure of attending a plethora of holiday activities, so many in fact, that being party guests seems to be our new career. We hardly had a day off and now we need to try a few days without rich food and alcohol just to give our bodies a break!
We started out with a goodbye dinner at the Abbey for Ryan who has been an awesome intern at my work for the past 7 months. So sad, but since he is going back to get his JD and is moving on to bigger and better things I am happy for him. Afterward, we headed up the street to the Hill for the Federal Hill holiday party where we met a lot of neighbors and had a good talk with our local state senator (who was quite friendly!)
On Thursday it snowed and my work holiday party at the Baltimore Aquarium (with a private showing of the shark and ray feeding) was almost canceled. But fortunately, at the last minute the bosses decided that it was a go. Phew! I was going to be pretty disappointed! It is kind of funny how much people in Baltimore freak out about snow, especially considering that last year was 10 times as bad. But I guess if I wasn't able to walk everywhere I needed to go, I might get a little nervous too.
On Friday we went to Crystal and Joe's for the Analyst holiday party and gift exchange. My cubicle buddy, Matt, and I had each other. How cute. The party was pretty fun and we had the last of our chestnuts. I don't think that anyone else who we have shared them with has been as enthusiastic about them as Greg and I. And by the end, even we were a little tired of trying to peel the second skin off of them but for the holidays they are a nice treat.
On Saturday we had double duty again for the parties. Our first event was a party at the Colnitis's (Kathy, JP, and Steve were there as well as a bunch of people we met at Thanksgiving) after which we planned to leave at about 9 or 9:30 to head to Tess's holiday party. Well, we had such a great time at the Colnitis's (and they had such wonderful food and wine) that by the time I asked Greg what time it was the clock was already striking 11 PM! By the time we made it out we weren't even sure that Tess's party was still going but when we got there at about midnight people were still there and it had thinned out enough that we could really just hang out with Tess and Sean and have a good time.
We were planning on laying low on Sunday and even went to church for the first time in forever to check things out. But the Colnitis's again came through and had some spare tickets to the Saints game! So we walked over to the stadium, ate a ton of their party leftovers at their tailgate and got to go watch a great game. It was even sunny out!
That night, Dan hosted an Inception viewing party but only Greg went because I just needed some time to get myself together for the work week and we didn't want to leave Lily in her crate so much. On Monday, Greg had his opportunity to hang out at home with Lily while I went with Crystal over to Dan and Nidhi's. This time it was for a girl's night of dinner (Nidhi is an excellent cook and more importantly, likes doing it so all I had to do was eat crackers and cheese and drink wine) and watching Love Actually.
On Tuesday we headed to Magerk's because I lost the fantasy football league and owed everyone a night out. Unfortunately, it only ended up being us, Kunal, Ryan and his roommate. It was still cool though because it was Ryan's last night in town so it was nice to be able to see him one last time.
We managed to squeeze in one last get together before it was time to head to the West Coast. On Wednesday night we got together with Steve, Blake, JP and Kathy to just have a little hang out before everyone headed off to their respective families. We made popcorn, pizza and ate julekake bread which was all really yummy. But I was tired from all the partying so we didn't get too crazy. We did get to talking about sports scandal and watched a strange video about feet, which was just plain weird.
Somewhere in the midst of all that I managed to pack my bag, Greg found time to bring Lily to our dog trainer for boarding, and we flew out on Thursday afternoon for San Diego. Our status on United is just about to expire but we were lucky enough to be upgraded to first class for both legs of our flight, which was nice. And although I planned to take it easy, they had a really nice wine on board (apparently they have someone who's job it is to just go around and look for wine for United) so Greg and I had quite a bit of that. I also managed to nearly finish the scarf I was making for Greg's mom and address a vast majority of Holiday cards (though they have a typo, which just KILLS me).
On Friday, Christmas Eve, we got in a little last minute shopping with Greg's sister Emily and then went for a run on the beach with our brother-in-law PJ. It was nice to be running around in the sun and warm weather, especially because I feel as pale as a ghost - such a change from the days when I was getting 3 hours of prime time sun year round, every day! Apparently we were there for the two nice days they had between monsoons.
It was fun to hang out with Greg's nephews Joe and Matt. Joe is a crazy but good-hearted two-year-old and Matt is a very lovable 6-month-old tank who seems to only cry when he is hungry (though I will have to say that that boy eats like a horse) and when he is lonely. It was cute that all you had to do was let him hold your hand or sit in front of him and most of the time he would be happy as a clam.
That night we all went over to Diane's for dinner and hung out with Greg's entire family as well as Emily's in-laws. It was good to catch up with everyone and see how much Greg's niece, Ava, has grown. We had Andalusian soup - a family tradition - and then hung out until Greg and I were about to collapse from exhaustion. It was a nice dinner and a real pleasure to see everyone doing so well.
On Christmas morning, Joe slept in for a really long time (he must not have known what to expect). But when he woke up he was super cute because we were telling him it was Christmas and that Santa had brought him a bunch of presents and the first thing he did was say "Thank you." Adorable. The whole crew from the night before came over shortly after and we got down to the business of opening gifts. It took a while because there were so many of us, we were mixing in belated birthday gifts, and we had all of the babies' gifts to open up.
That night we flew up to Washington to hang out with my family. We did our gift exchange after we got in and then we all played wii mariokart (a gift from my mom to my dad). I think that both my parents get a little jazzed up about it so my mom doesn't like to play because she says it stresses her out. Reportedly, my dad was too keyed up to get to sleep afterward. Greg, Dana, and I had a great time though and it was fun to just do it all together.
The next day we headed off to my Uncle's to have lunch and do a white elephant gift exchange as well as our cousin gift exchange. If that wasn't exciting enough, my cousin has shrunk a size or two and was giving away all of her clothes. And, although I am a bit taller, I could pretty much wear everything with flats or low heels! Yay! It was like going to the mall and not having to stop at the register on your way out. I got something like 10 pairs of work pants, 5 shirts, a skirt, a dress, and a suit! Woohoo!
On Monday we had to drop Dana off at the airport but then stopped in at Greg's Grandma for lunch. My parents came along and Greg's Uncle Steve was there too. We also found out that Greg's grandma didn't realize that Greg had finished his PhD so he had the pleasure of telling her in person about it. We had to leave early to get my Dad to the swim practice he was coaching but it was nice to have a chance to say hi.
With the exception of a nice dinner that night with my parents, some more Mariokart and packing, that was pretty much it! We definitely had a jam-packed few weeks but we were happy to get to see everyone that we did. Now back to real life, at least for a few days. And then we are off with the rest of the Stanford faithful to watch Stanford IN THE ORANGE BOWL!!!!!

Thanksgiving and Park City

2010-12-04T09:57:00.004-05:00

Greg and I have had a fun few weeks since I last updated my blog. We had a fun Thanksgiving with the Colnitis's and their friends as well as a good visit with Justin and Kelty at the Green's house. I'm glad that Greg made us go to the gym because I ate way too much. I'm not usually a fan of the thanksgiving meal but this year it all just seemed amazing!
We had to drop Lily off at doggy daycare Wednesday night through Friday morning because we were going to be gone so much. I felt totally guilty when she didn't want to leave us and go into the doggy play area. It was like dropping a kid off at summer camp - definitely a good idea for everyone involved but sad at the same time.
So Ms. Jackson had the run of the house and we totally thought things were going to be a lot easier but on Wednesday night we came back from the Greens to find several piles of cat vomit all over our house and one on the table (which she isn't supposed to get on but clearly does whenever she thinks she can get away with it!). But that wasn't the end, without the dog around for her to harass she decided that she was the boss of the house and was attacking us when we were trying to sleep! We were definitely relieved when we got Lily back and restored the balance of things.
Last week I was in Park City, Utah for a conference for work. Luckily Crystal got to go too and we had a fun time showing off our work, making connections, and coming up with new ideas. We also had a great time with our collaborators at University of Iowa who were quite funny. We enjoyed joining up with them for dinner outings and trips around town. Besides the work they are doing with us they are also doing interesting things with disease surveillance using Twitter and Criagslist, we enjoyed watching their talks.
After the conference Crystal and I headed out for some cross-country skiing, from which I am pretty sore but it's not as bad as I was expecting. We went about 13 k and were out for something like two and a half hours. Not bad!
We also did some damage at the local outlet mall. Serious damage. Oh well, we both got some great stuff for work, which means we will wear it all the time, and it was all a really great deal. The only issue was managing to pack it all into my carry-on bag, which was already full on the way out here. But if I can get a whole swim meet's worth of items, including a parka into that bag - then I think that I am up for pretty much anything. I put past packing talents to work and got it all to fit.
After Greg picked me up from the airport we headed over to Blake and Meredith's to watch the Virginia Tech game and play Big Buck Hunter (I was getting pretty good at the end!). Then on Sunday we met up with Crystal and took advantage of the Under Armour family and friends discount that our friend Tess gave us. We had to go all the way to the Annapolis mall but I was really happy about that because I had never been to Annapolis before and we had the chance to walk around the main street, see the sites, and have lunch (we also got to watch Crystal's wedding video when we dropped her off at home - so great!). Afterward, Greg went and picked up Steve from the airport and we joined him and his parents for a great steak dinner at Sullivan's. Greg went with them to watch the Steelers game while I went to Blake and Meridith's again to meet up with JP and Kathy and watch the game on TV. I was kind of planning on having some time to decompress but there were too many friends to hang out with!

Friends' Thanksgiving

2010-11-15T20:12:00.012-05:00

I have to keep this short because I have a ton of work to do and an episode of How I Met Your Mother to watch. It's been a while since I last wrote a blog - mostly because I have been busy out of my mind! Work has been very intense and I have a lot of projects that I'm working on. Greg and Lily usually walk me in early and come pick me up late. Sometimes, I feel like my brain is so full I can not remember anything but what I am working on right at that moment!
Still, we have been able to fit in some quality time with friends and the dog, which has been so much fun! Lily continues to be a delight and except for one crazy evening of chewing the toy basket, a few strange encounters with dogs on leashes, and a couple accidents (which may or may not have been the result of human error) things have been great. Greg and I really enjoy strolling around the neighborhood with her and are happy to have the motivation to be out and about. We've also started dog training and even though Lily already had great manners and training from her foster home I think that she will be even better when we are done! Ms. Jackson has also started to adjust and seems to actually be very nice about putting Lily in her place - she bats her on the nose with her claws in, a courtesy she has never shown us!
A few weeks ago Greg and I hosted a small Halloween party and had a few friends over just to hang out. We actually had two shifts - Chris and Amy, Tess and Sean, and Wes and Katie and their daughter Alice came for the early shift while Kunal and Matt came over later to watch Sunday night football.
We were also shocked to actually run out of candy this year! After last year's debacle with 3 Costco bags of candy remaining (after all my coworkers said that you couldn't buy enough candy in my neighborhood) we readjusted to 2 large bags of Cowtails (a local Baltimore treat). But this year we were totally short and at the end one poor little boy in a group of 10 was about to get left out. I gave him one of our cupcakes from our party but I don't know if his parents let him eat it.
The next weekend activity was Friday night at Lime with Tess and Sean, Crystal and Joe, and Ari and his girlfriend Jess. We all got together to celebrate Greg's PhD and I used it as an excuse to have cocktail attire be the dress code. I needed an excuse to wear my new dress from the cute boutique, Babe, around the corner from my house! We had a great time and after exhausting the $3 happy hour Margaritas we made our way to The Reserve for some wings - mmm!
The next morning, not too much worse for wear, we met up with Sean and Tess for brunch at Regi's. We were planning on going to Mr. Rain's Fun House (voted best brunch in Baltimore) for brunch but found out it doesn't open until 11. I guess we will have to save it for another time, after we've had breakfast or something (reminds me of Sunday brunch at Stanford - after doing the swimmer sleep-in until 7, it was impossible to wait until 10 for my first food of the day!)
This last weekend Greg and I hosted Friends' Thanksgiving. Since we are all going our separate ways we thought it would be good to get together for a nice Thanksgiving meal. This was a great opportunity for Greg and I to use all our wedding China and serving platters. Unfortunately, by the time we got to that point we couldn't get to anything and the food prep was getting hectic so it was all just served on whatever plate was closest!
Greg and I were responsible for turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Everyone else was going to fill in with the sides and pie. We decided to brine the turkey Alton Brown style because my mom has had such great results with that style of turkey. About 3 AM on the morning of the dinner I woke up freaking out because I was worried that there wasn't enough ice in the brine and the turkey was going to go bad and make everyone sick! So I got up, sealed the bucket up with duct tape and put it outside in the cold night air. The next panic was figuring out what to do with the wings - who would have thought "tuck the wings under the bird" would be so difficult? We ended up sticking them with wooden skewers and hoping for the best. At that point, it was time to stick the bird in the oven at 500 degrees for half an hour before turning it down to cool slowly for another 2 hours. Unfortunately, after about 7 minutes, smoke started pouring out of the oven and all the smoke alarms started going off in the house! We determined that the bird itself was not on fire and that there were no actual flames and just decided to see where things went (though it was at that point that I decided I needed to make quinoa in case everything went horribly wrong). In the end, everything turned out really yummy (though I wasn't a big fan of the Whole Foods stuffing mix) and in my personal opinion the turkey and the gravy were some of the tastiest I've ever eaten!

Alumni weekend and a new doggie!

2010-10-26T07:43:00.004-04:00

On Thursday Greg and I headed back to Palo Alto for Alumni weekend. We would have rather not traveled across the country two weekends in a row but there was nothing to be done about it. We’d booked the tickets for alumni weekend long ago and last Friday was the only day available for the dissertation defense. Still, despite the serious amount of travel hours we’ve been putting in we still had a good time.
We stayed with Lacey and Andrew again and spent most of Friday trolling the Gilroy wineries that Andrew, Lacey, Greg and I used to visit. I’m not sure how many more times we’ll be heading out there so we decided to buy a case of wine and have it shipped out East. I’ve been having a difficult time sleeping with all the travel and everything that has been going on so I was having my pseudo-narcolepsy attacks while riding in the back of the car pretty much anytime we drove more than 30 minutes anywhere – to and from Gilroy was no exception.
That night, we all went out to Sushi at Fuki sushi and then Greg and I met up with Dana and Mario at the Greenmeadow pool. Our cousins, Wendy and Denny, were in town to watch the game with a bunch of friends (they are all WSU people) and so after Dana finished up coaching we decided to join them at their house party in Los Gatos.
It was an interesting night. Denny, Wendy, and their friends were all enthusiastic about enjoying their weekend away from the kids. There is no way that we were going to be able to keep up with them. The advantage was that we were sober enough to be good at the game they called Bags (others have called it Cornhole). Unfortunately, Greg was unable pull-out a victory for himself and Denny, even though they played several games. Wendy took a bunch of pictures so as soon as I get them from her I will post them in this blog. Denny also definitely gave Mario a hard time. Apparently, he was making up for the fact that Dana doesn’t have an older brother (though I told him that I am happy to submarine any of Dana’s unworthy boyfriends). On the bright side, at least I know that he likes Greg!
Saturday was dedicated to alumni activities. We started off early and headed to the pool for the alumni swim meet. It was chilly but once we started going the temperature wasn’t too bad. I swam the 200 medley relay (breaststroke), the 50 breaststroke, the 100 IM (split with Dana), and the 200 medley relay. I am happy to say that I still have it (whatever it is)! I went 29.2 to win the 50 br – woohoo! Dana, Lacey, Andrew, and a bunch of other alumni all swam in the meet as well and we had a really great time!
Afterward we headed to the tailgates and hung out with a bunch of swimmers at the athlete tailgate. We were even joined by some grads from the 70s for a little while! The game started at 2 and we were only a bit late. It was a little rainy at the game, which was too bad but we stuck it out until most of the way through the 3rd quarter and watched Stanford dominate WSU. The real highlight was getting to go on the field with all the other athletes, former-athletes, coaches and other athletic department staff at half time to celebrate Stanford’s 16th Director’s cup win!
Speaking of the Director’s cup, there is this new totally lame award for best college athletics being introduced this year to try and help other schools win. The new one actually ranks sports to make some more important than others, which I think it totally against the whole idea of the amateur collegiate student athlete. Should we really make one athlete or team more valuable than another? Even though my sport wasn’t a revenue sport I don’t think that it diminishes the accomplishment of achieving at a high level in it. Should we really be sending the message that football and basketball players are more important than everyone else? The most ridiculous part is that this award is officially partnered with the NCAA, so even the NCAA is endorsing the idea that some sports matter more than others, which I think is really disappointing.
Yesterday we had a very exciting day because our new dog, Lily arrived! She is quite amazing and beautiful and has very good manners. Surprisingly, she and Ms. Jackson seem to get along fairly well. They are both interested in each other, though Ms. Jackson will hiss if Lily gets a little too pushy and now Lily whines when Ms. Jackson is close but can't keep herself from sniffing her. Ms. Jackson is clearly the most interesting thing in our house to Lily and Ms. Jackson has been fairly accommodating, which is nice.
We've also noted that Lily is a bit intimidated by stairs, and while that is perfectly understandable given our 100 year old windy staircase, it is something she is certainly going to have to get over. As of now though, she can make it about halfway up or down before she get's stuck and can't figure out where to go next.
There was one sad event that overshadowed the weekend. When we arrived at the pool on Saturday morning the news was all over the deck that Fran Crippen, a great distance swimmer, had died suddenly in the middle of a 10k race in the U.A.E.. It’s not yet clear what happened but the water was nearly 90 degrees. It was shocking and tragic news. I can’t sugar coat it with anything uplifting – he was a good person who died too early.

Successful defense

2010-10-17T21:59:00.006-04:00

So the defense went well and now Greg is a few short logistical steps away from having his doctorate! Greg did a really good job presenting his research on diffusion (which I will summarize as being able to show the relationships between different parts of music -notes, intervals, etc. - in 3-D space). Anyway, it was really great and I was incredibly proud. As we were flying back I had that same feeling from when I used to have a really successful meet and was very satisfied with my swims - except I hadn't done anything! I was just proud for Greg.
We also had a special treat in being able to see all of our California friends again. We stayed with Andrew and Lacey and met their dog Westley. It was great to see them again and hang out like old times - plenty of champagne and wii. I also got to spend some time with Dana, her master's team that I used to coach, her boyfriend Mario, and her two new cats. It was a good time. Later I got to spend some time with the Stanford team at the pool and got to see how out of shape I've gotten. Not too bad - I still went a 29.5 50 br! I also got to exchange stories with my old coach, Lea, like we always used to when I swam. And finally, Greg, Lacey, Andrew and I had a great visit with Tim, Kerrie, and their two daughter Joey and Ellie. They were our old neighbors in Palo Alto and Tim did us the great honor of marrying us.
All the visiting with our old friends made me realize what a great and fulfilling life we had in Palo Alto - fun times and good friends. I definitely miss all of them and the random silly conversations we all used to have. Though I will say that I also appreciate the good times and friends we've made out here too. And we definitely participate in our own silly conversations out here too - Matt and Kunal, I'm looking at you.
In other news, though it seems small compared to the successful completion of 4 years of work, I was very proud to have successfully dyed one of my jackets the other night and turned it from a unflattering light spring turquoise - not a color that is really good for anyone right now - into a wonderful forest green (though it might need new buttons). Greg may have mapped music into space but you still can't wear it!

Catch up

2010-10-15T08:23:00.004-04:00

Today, Greg and I are in Palo Alto for his PhD defense. Since it is pretty exciting for me that he is so close to being finished, I’m sure it’s causing him all sorts of different feelings. As soon as all this is finished it will be the first time in 23 years that he will not have been a student. I’ll let you know how it goes and all the details of this weekend after it’s all finished.
I haven’t written much in the past few weeks because Greg and I have been laying low. I’ve been exhausted from work and, while my progress in that field has been satisfying and has only inspired me to work harder, by the time I get home I’m pretty much just ready to veg out. Even if I wasn’t ready to take a break I think both my eyes and my brain would prevent me from being able to focus on my work. On a similar vein, Greg has been working so hard putting his dissertation together that he barely comes up for air – the other day he completely forgot to eat lunch!
We did get a few opportunities to hang out with friends though. We’ve visited MaGerks a few times with Matt and Kunal, watched the Raven’s game with Blake, Meredith, Kathy, and JP, had dinner at the Abbey with Chris and Amy and had people over for the Stanford/Oregon game (sad). We’ve also gotten a few games of kickball in, though the massive flooding that took place a few weeks ago caused us to miss a week.
I’ve also been enjoying the boutiques in Fed Hill a bit more. I’d have to say that my favorite is Babe, which is right around the corner from our house. I love it! Though I’ve only just graduated from the sale rack and only on “First Thursdays” the first Thursday of the month when all the shops in Fed Hill offer specials and wine. Crystal and I also took advantage of last month’s first Thursday to have some fun in a cute jewelry store in Fed Hill called Alexandra Webb. Both of us found a few great necklaces and it was really fun to look around!
In other news, we got the estimate for the renovations to our 1st floor and 3rd floor patio. While each of them is fairly reasonable (around 5 or 6 thousand dollars for each) when you add in the adjustments to the 3rd floor French doors and threshold the total comes to about $15,000! We could work some magic and make it happen but we’ve decided to wait until the financial benefit of Greg being able to put something other than “student” as his occupation kicks in. Besides, as long as it is finished by the end of March, waiting a bit won’t make much of a difference.
Finally, perhaps the biggest news of this post (other than the intro) is the fact that Greg and I just signed the contract with a local dog rescue (All Shepherd Rescue) and are soon to be the proud owners of a beautiful little German Shepard mix (about 40 lbs at 6 months but not going to get much bigger) who was rescued from Dead Dog Beach in Puerto Rico. She’s staying with her foster mom for the next little while until we get back from Stanford reunion next weekend so that we don’t have to juggle her around during her adjustment period while we travel. We haven’t picked out a name yet – the name her foster parents gave her in Puerto Rico was Osita, and then it was changed to Lily when she got to the States. Our front runners are: keeping it the same with Lily, switching it to Zelda or Avery, or going with some other pop culture reference from our childhood. Suggestions are welcome.
I have to admit, going through the rescue agencies instead of just going straight to a shelter was a bit of a mix of pluses and minuses. On the downside – we had to pass a stringent adoption approval process, which took a while, and it was more expensive. We also had to sign an extensive contract to get the dog. On the plus side, we know from the foster mom that the dog is well behaved, healthy, and has no mental issues. She’s also well socialized with other dogs and cats and has been getting great training at her foster home. Either way – rescue or shelter – it’s a dog that needs a second chance and a home so we had been pursuing getting approved by several rescue agencies and also considering trips to shelters.
So that’s what’s up with is. It should be an exciting new few weeks!

Stanford vs Notre Dame

2010-09-27T07:52:00.005-04:00

This weekend Greg and I headed out to South Bend, IN to visit with Greg's friend Steve and watch Stanford take on Notre Dame. When we had originally made the plans it was shaping up to be a pretty laid back weekend but it turns out that everyone and their mother wanted to go to that game. Steve had 21 people staying in his 3 bedroom townhouse! It was pretty crazy, and even though I'm no stranger to going out and doing things - when we left the house at 12:30 AM to go to the bars I was pretty surprised. Greg and I were lucky and got to sleep in a bed. We shared it with Steve's sister and her boyfriend and Steve slept on the floor (what a nice host). Greg has reported to me that the last time he was there, for the USC game, it was like that, only crazier, and three days straight - no wonder he got sick!
The next day a bunch of us went for a run, mostly to justify the tailgating that was to occur later that day, and then headed off to the stadium parking lot around 11 or so. Tailgating was really fun! And I have to say that Notre Dame fans are really nice. Even though they clearly care a lot about winning, hardly anyone was a jerk to us even though we have a pretty long rivalry with them and were wearing Stanford gear all around town. Seriously - the ratio of jerkiness must have been like 1:200 whereas if this same situation were to play out in Berkeley I'd have to put it at 1:5 (you can't even wear a red shirt in that town on a non-football day without being harassed!) (No offense Jeannine). So anyway, Greg and I were pleasantly surprised with the hospitality of everyone we met and had a great time!
The game was pretty dominated by Stanford but even then we were making friends with all the Notre Dame people sitting around us and chatting about random things. Their stadium is pretty interesting too. It was totally old style, with wooden benches like we used to have in the old Stanford Stadium, in the form of a big giant bowl. There also was no instant replay, which made it a truly live experience.
After the game we went out with Steve's family to Ruth's Chris, which I've never been to before. Man, they serve a lot of food! It was a really nice treat and I'm glad to have finally experienced that kind of steak house. Afterward, Steve's family headed back and Greg and I only had to share the bed with Steve, which was nice because we were totally exhausted from the weekend.
On Sunday we took the train back to Chicago, walked around (it's a great city to just wander in) and watched the Raven's game at a great bar that Steve's dad had recommended. In the evening, we flew back home to a very plaintive Ms. Jackson.
Speaking of Ms. Jackson, I realize that I forgot to mention her adventure the other day. A few weeks ago, we had opened up the 3rd floor balcony doors to air out the house. To prevent Ms. Jackson from escaping we usually cross over two net-like curtains and anchor them with books. Just before we went to sleep, we shut everything thing and locked up. At about 11:30, I suddenly woke up to the sound of fingernails on glass. It was weird. But I laid there and listened for a minute and didn't hear anything again. So I just got up, took a visit to the bathroom and then laid back down and tried to go to sleep. While laying there, I started to wonder where the cat was. I almost convinced myself to forget about it and go to sleep but at the last minute decided I should just check and see if she was in her normal spots. There wasn't any sign of her on the 3rd floor so just for the heck of it I flicked on the light outside. There she was, trying to get into the house! I had a terrible time getting the doors open because they were swollen stuck and then when I finally did, the alarm went off, and Greg leaped out of bed to shut that down. It was a crazy few minutes! Phew! We almost lost our cat and didn't even know it! At least she came back to the house - maybe she isn't as stupid as I thought.
In other news, I am relieved that last week is over. I was in DC for three days straight for work but when you are attending meetings and conferences your actual work isn't getting done! Also, kickball is not going well. Last week was our 3rd straight loss and the week before we were actually mercy-ruled. I'm not sure what needs to happen for us to improve - but we probably should be playing JV anyway.

Super busy

2010-09-19T21:25:00.005-04:00

Greg and I have felt like we have had a crazy couple of weeks. After the long weekend, Greg had several days of presentations/meetings related to his research and I had a pile of work. The following weekend was also cram packed with activities. On Saturday, we did a long run and then went to the farmers market, followed by an evening at Matt and Kunal's to celebrate Matt's birthday. On Sunday we did some frantic housekeeping in the morning and then hosted Amy and Chris to an afternoon in Fed Hill and dinner at our house. We celebrated Monday night football with another trip to Matt and Kunal's but we felt that we just hadn't been able to work in any real exercise so we ran down to Canton (where they live) and then ran back after the game.
On Tuesday I had to go to Virginia after work for a meeting and Greg was nice enough to offer to drive me out there - it was good to have some real together time. Then Wednesday we had dinner with a bunch of friends at a Mexican place called Don Pablos out in Laurel. On Thursday, kickball was canceled but a bunch of us got together to have $4 cheesesteaks at MaGerks. Friday was fireworks night at Orioles park but they were playing the Yankees and tickets were really expensive so we decided to have a quiet night in, which was nice (and we didn't have to deal with belligerent Yankees fans after the terrible end of that game).
This weekend we visited the Renaissance Festival near Annapolis. It was awesome! Really, there were a lot of entertaining things and people to watch. I think that there was a little confusion there about what era and style the actual renaissance was (I think that Goth gypsies are really not quite right) but that just made it all the more entertaining. We enjoyed some interesting mead and fried foods (fried milky ways and mac&cheese!), watched jousting, threw some knives and throwing stars, and checked out the elephants!
Also, big news! Greg and I are considering adopting a dog. Now, before everyone starts freaking out at us about how much responsibility that is, (which someone already did when we started thinking about it months ago) let me remind you that we are A) 28 years old and mature enough to make our own decisions, B) own our own house, and C) one of us works from home, while the other works 5 minutes away from home. Also, a dog is considerably less of a commitment and monetary drag than a baby and I don't think that anyone would be surprised or lecture me on responsibility if I were to announce that we are having a baby (which we currently are not).
So anyway, Greg and I went to the animal shelter and found an amazingly sweet 1-year old shepherd mix (about 30 lbs) but we would have had to pick her up on Wednesday and since I have a conference in DC on Thursday and Greg is joining me and we are leaving on Friday to spend the weekend in South Bend that just wouldn't have been good. We could have called our pet-sitter (who helps with Ms. Jackson) but it really wouldn't have been a good decision. We made sure that she wasn't going to be put to sleep in the near future and the shelter people said she'd be fine. Also, a family took her out to play with her as we were deciding so we feel like she will find a good home or we can just call when we get back.

Jersey Shore!

2010-09-09T16:06:00.008-04:00

For the long weekend Greg and I were fortunate enough to be invited up to Sea Isle, New Jersey for a few days on the Jersey Shore with our friends Blake and Meridith, as well as a few members of Meredith's family. It was great! We enjoyed people watching, long walks on the beach (although I literally had to run to keep up with Blake and Meredith), threw around the aerobie (hurricane Earl was off the coast on the first day but the aerobie flies straight through serious wind), and hung around in the sun. I also discovered paddle ball - which I LOVE! Seriously, I want to play it all the time now, and even incorporated it into our walks. Also, the waves at the beach were perfect for body surfing. I caught quite a few and had a really fun time in the water. Again, while not as warm as Hilton Head, the Jersey Shore has that same hospitable ocean water of the East Coast.
Greg also had some sort of waking dream in which he was rubbing the wall and talking to me about years - saying that he couldn't be responsible for the 2000s - and then trying to explain it all in musical terms of beats saying 1,2,3,4,5,6 vs. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It was odd.
But with the exception of the very strange dream event, Greg and I had an amazing time! I've included some pictures of the view we had from the back porch - they certainly enjoy some amazing sunsets and starscapes. One night, after a yummy dinner at Mike's Seafood, Greg and I laid in the hammock and watched stars. You can actually see the milky way out there!

Dana's visit

2010-09-02T13:46:00.002-04:00

Dana came out to visit Baltimore last weekend! After some initial travel snafus, Greg and I had a great time showing her around Baltimore and introducing her to all of our friends. I'm sad though, that I forgot to take a picture!
Our social calendar has been pretty full lately too. We enjoyed tapas at Centro during their Tuesday night 3 dollar sangria and small plates night with Crystal, Joe and our friends Tess and Sean. On Saturday we headed to Nidhi and Dan's house with Dana in tow for a housewarming party. It was really fun and one of the first times I have actually felt that the roof deck craze in Baltimore is really worth all the hype. Tonight we have kickball, tomorrow we have an Orioles game and then Saturday we head for Jersey shore. Should be fun!
I also have a bit of sad news to report. Our office fish, Thrax died last week. I'm not a fish doctor so I'm not sure what killed him but I refused to allow Kunal to release his body into the harbor - I didn't want to be responsible for the death of some bird out there! Instead, Kunal buried him in his backyard - he wasn't so keen on the idea of flushing him.

West Coast Tour

2010-08-24T23:27:00.005-04:00

Our visit to the west coast was really great.
In San Diego, Greg and I stayed with his sister and brother-in-law, Emily and PJ, and we had a fun time getting to know their sons, Joe and Matt, better (we'd never met 7 week-old Matt before). It was also neat to see their new house, which they moved into just 6 months ago. I don't think it would have been as fascinating to us if we hadn't recently purchased our own home. But we actually had something to relate to when they discussed their home improvement plans and work they have done on the house so it was fun!
We also got to meet our new niece, Ava, for the first time and hung out with her mom, Greg's sister Laura, as well as Greg's mom, Diane. Ava is a tiny little thing who spent roughly the first month of her life in the NICU but at two and a half months she and her mom are doing great.
Diane, Greg's mom, hosted everyone to a great dinner (the vegetarian jumbiliya was really yummy but I actually went in for seconds on the salad - I have so missed fresh avocado). Everyone was there - all of Emily's family, Laura, Ava and Greg's dad, Carl. Afterward, we all hung out until Greg and I couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and were laying on the ground in exhaustion.
It really seemed like the time change was killing us this time and as a result we woke up early the next morning and went for a run to kill some time. It was a good thing though, because we then went to breakfast with Carl and met his friend Joan at a nice place called D.Z. Akin's, which is known for it's huge portions! Even though we totally ended up stuffed, we enjoyed meeting Joan and catching up with Carl.
We also got to visit the beach a little, which was really pleasant. Greg and I had forgotten that the weather really is a lot better in California. Most of the time on the East Coast, I just feel like it is hot. But I got to appreciate the pleasures of dry heat while knowing what humidity feels like. So I finally realized why it is so much more enjoyable - you don't end up sweaty and miserable the moment you move! Joe also really enjoyed the beach and we had a fun time wading in the waves with him.
Dana joined up with us in Bremerton to hang out with my family for the annual summer party that my parents host for my dad's extended family. We got in late Friday night but my mom had made spaghetti (my sister and I always love our mom's spaghetti!) and we hung around the kitchen catching up and eating.
The next day, despite dour predictions, the weather was really nice. We had time before the party to go for a run and pick several cups of blackberries and blueberries - the blackberries went into a yummy cobbler and the blueberries made a great snack! At the family party, we chatted with family and watched the younger generation fish in the bay with hand lines - it's been a long time since those have been out of the basement but they still worked great! A little rain came in right at the end as people were heading out but it was pretty perfect timing. The only bummer was that my dad scratched the inside of his eye or something so was wandering around the whole time wincing with an eye-patch on. Hopefully it will feel better soon!
On Sunday, Greg and I visited with his grandma Nadine and uncle Steve for breakfast. Then my mom, Dana, and me put in a marathon visit to the fabric store because we both had projects we wanted our mom's help on (she is an expert seamstress). While we were gone, Justin, Greg's best man from the wedding and good friend drove up from Portland and was at home, hanging out with Greg when we got back. My mom made a great roast beef dinner (Justin, a vegetarian, only ate the vegis, potatoes, and salad that he and Greg picked outside of our house). My favorite is always the homemade gravy and yorkshire pudding - which Greg and I realized was basically the same as a Dutch Baby - which his family makes for breakfast all the time! We also ate our wedding cake top, which had been preserved for us to eat after our first anniversary - still really yummy!
On Monday it was already time to head home but first Greg and I finally were able to make it into a Wells Fargo to get my name changed on my account. Since they don't have any branches on the east coast we had to wait to bring it in, in person, on one of our west coast trips. With that taken care of, we spent the rest of our time before heading out hanging out on the court by the bay. It's so nice and pleasant there, and my parents are such great hosts, like always I was sad to say goodbye!