Planes, trains, and automobiles

I was in DC again this week - shocking, I know. But it was a bit of an adventure this time around. Monday I was in DC to give a run through of a talk to colleagues for feedback, which helped tighten up the talk, but also meant I spent a fair bit of time changing and improving things. Afterwards, I dropped some of my stuff in our company apartment then headed into Georgetown with Preetha for our regular pilgrimage to Patagonia and the Ching Ching Cha tea house. It was sale time at Patagonia, so I was trying to see if they had a jacket I had seen online. During my last few trips to DC it was becoming apparent that my lightweight jacket was more of a fall/spring jacket and I was starting to freeze my ass off (literally). So given the sale, and the weather predictions of impending snow, I thought it would be a good idea to peruse jacket options. Luckily, I found the perfect jacket - knee length, recycled stuffing, water repellent, a huge collar, and a lovely sea blue color. I loved it so much I wore it out of the store. :) Thank you end of season sale! After our shopping excursion we had a lovely dinner at the tea house before I headed back to the apartment to continue refining my presentation... until midnight. I never sleep well in DC so I'm never in a hurry to go to bed, despite how tired I am, which leads to a bad cycle of me staying up late, getting up early, then feeling as if I've been hit by a bus the next day.

Tuesday I got up early to catch a train to Baltimore. My first train in fact! I took the metro to Union Station then boarded the Acela Express to Baltimore. I was able to get a little work done on the train and to make the event more fun I listened to the Harry Potter sound track on my iPod (yes, that where my mind goes when I think of riding a train!). It was a short ride though, only about 40 minutes, but it was definitely better than flying - I'll do that again any day. Once I got to Penn Station I hopped the local light rail (metro) to Camden Yard then walked to my hotel. After checking in I headed over to the National Aquarium Baltimore - the purpose of my visit. I got a guest pass then proceeded to wander the aquarium looking for clues as to the aquariums conservation priorities. I saw quite a few conservation messages (more than usual, which was good), and got a feel for the breadth of their aquarist expertise by their displays. I had a few favorites - the puffins, the injured sea turtle, and the rain forest exhibit. Pictures weren't cutting it, so I tried video this time and found that to be much better (although the blog isn't let me post them... hmmm).

After seeing half the exhibits I met the COO (chief operations officer) of the aquarium for lunch. She was really wonderful and came from a background in advocacy and conservation so we talked quite a bit about the aquarium's shifting focus on conservation and what role they could play in my work. After our lunch I went back to the aquarium to see the exhibits again, take some notes, and do a little shopping in the gift shop. :) That evening I reworked some of my presentation again to incorporate my observations from the day, then ran it through for timing. A colleague of mine, Amy, arrived in time for a late dinner and we had a good night talking over dinner before heading back to the hotel for me to run through the presentation again.

Wednesday morning dawned and I was looking forward to it being over quickly since it was going to be a long day. I also awoke to find snow on the ground, which was a half day early. Whoops. By the time I had showered and eaten breakfast my phone was buzzing with activity of folks panicking about the snow and whether we should cancel meetings for the day. By 8:15 when I walked down stairs to head to my first meeting, it was full on blowing snow outside. And not just the lazy feathery snow you might think of, no, this was the giant cotton balls of snow that were wet and would punch you in the eye. Amy and I trekked over to the meeting in blowing giant snow, huddled under her umbrella, while I repeatedly thanked the lord for my new jacket. We got to the meeting a few minutes late - I was there to present about our work to the National Aquarium Conservation Center's board of directors. We sat through a presentation on the oil spill impacts (not good news) then it was my turn. I was pleased to see that I think I've finally gotten control of my near paralyzing fear of speaking in front of people. Up until about a year ago, I used to get nauseous, sweat profusely, and my pulse would race before giving a presentation, but now I get a mild case of the butterflies that I find controllable, rather than debilitating, which makes my job a lot easier. I gave the presentation, then we fielded questions successfully before ducking out early to check out of the hotel. Amy brought her car around and we hurriedly dumped our bags in the trunk while the snow swirled around us. We slowly drove back to DC for more meetings and prayed we'd make it before the snow intensified as it was forecast to do. We arrived in time for a quick lunch then walked to the meeting to get ourselves pulled together and dry off our hair and suit pants that were soaked by the snow. The meeting was long, and frankly painful, as we're working through some strategy pieces that I'm not sure we'll ever have the answer to until we set our plan into motion. We are, as they say in DC, "in the weeds" - which is my least favorite place to be - stuck so far down in the details it's easy to get stuck in the muck and miss the bigger picture. It is a common complaint of policymakers when dealing with scientists - to use the metaphor, policy at the Congressional legislative level is about designating that a swamp exists and telling an agency that they can take authority over that swamp, while the regulatory process driven by agencies gets into the weeds to create the rules for governing the swamp. You can't do the rules before the authority is given by Congress (although, lately some people are trying to cram both into legislation - the authority and the rules), but since apparently the average person never got a decent civics class in high school most people don't understand how our government works and therefore expect and believe things about the government that legally are not possible. This is what makes term limits a difficult thing - just when someone in office begins to truly understand the structure and politics of government to be a capable leader, they are forced out for someone new to come in and stumble over the learning curve all over again. Ahh, but I have strayed dangerously close to talking politics here, something I vow not to do in public (talking religion also falls into that category in my book) - so I will get back to my story. :)

After our long meeting Wednesday afternoon I was pretty soured on politics and the current political climate our new Congress is finding itself in. So, I trudged through the snow to the metro, then back to the apartment to drop my ice- and snow-crusted suitcase. I changed out of my suit, glad to be free of its wet pant legs, then headed to the office to pick up my colleague Tim for dinner. We hiked back to the metro in the blowing snow, which unbelievably, had gotten worse, and were now using umbrellas to keep it out of our faces. Using an umbrella in the snow was the weirdest thing - something I only ever thought you needed in the rain, but when the snow is coming down in giant wet clumps, an umbrella is just what you need. We emerged in Eastern Market and met Tim's wife, Nicole, for a drink then dinner. By then the snow had officially made a mess of the city and people were desperately trying to drive out of the city only to find the roads a mess. Nicole had some troubles getting to us and I felt bad for getting them out in this weather for dinner. For me, I walk everywhere, so I didn't really think much of it, but most DC residents literally run and hide from snow or even the hint of snow. You would think it was a hurricane coming the way they hole up. Part of the problem is that it doesn't snow frequently there, so when it does the city is totally unprepared to deal with it and the streets are a mess. Tim and Nicole being from NY, however, were not daunted so we had a nice dinner and I didn't have to spend it alone in the apartment. At this point I realized that my "cheating" the past few days on my GFness was beginning to add up and I was in pretty severe trouble, intestinally speaking. After dinner I practically ran back to the apartment while my body forcefully reminded me of my limits. I needed to unwind from what felt like the longest day ever, so I found a good movie to watch while I snuggled up in bed. It kept me up late again, despite the fact that I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. Everyone had told me our office would be closed the next day, so I didn't even bother setting the alarm.

Thursday morning I woke up to find the snow in a grey slushy state on the street with piles and clumps on the sidewalk. I also realized I slept in way too late and hurried to shower and dress to meet a new colleague, John, for lunch. Our office ended up opening a few hours late so I was fine on time. We had lunch nearby while I got to know more about him and told him about my program. It was a good first meeting and I'm excited to have him on our team. After that I headed into the office to work and then make a pilgrimage to the cupcake store with friends only to discover they were out of their gluten free cupcakes. I nearly cried. I look forward to their cupcakes during my trips since it's one of the only places I have found that makes truly excellent GF cupcakes. Snif. We bought a dozen for everyone else in the office then trudged home in the snow, soaking my pants the whole way back. Darn you evil grey slush! That evening I went home with Whitney for dinner and we vented frustrations on the metro ride to her house. We had a great dinner at a pizza place near her house that had cider and a gluten free pizza crust - it was fabulous and just what I needed. Her husband Maurice brought their son Will to meet us for dinner, but it was a production getting out of the house and through the snow, so I was starting to feel like bad luck. But, it was great to see them again. I took the metro home and packed my suitcase before bed. Thursday nights are always my favorite since I know I'm going home the next day.

Friday I awoke early to find snow falling - again. WTF?! This time it was the fairy tale light and delicate snow, but it worried me that it would mean a cancelled flight. I finished getting ready, started my laundry, ate some breakfast, worked, then packed up to leave. As soon as my sheets and towels finished I tucked them away and dashed out to drop off the apartment keys and meet a colleague for lunch at my favorite Thai place in Dupont Circle, Mai Thai. We had a great lunch then I hopped the metro for the airport. I made it there in plenty of time to get settled at the gate and continue to work on my phone to answer emails. We finally boarded the flight and had a bit of a delay before taking off. As soon as we were in the air I put on Twilight and zoned out. I have a few such movies for that type of occasion - Twilight, Star Trek (the new one), Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (III), and I'm working on adding the newest Twilight movie and a few Harry Potters. Those kinds of fully engrossing entertaining movies are perfect for tuning out a flight and all the wackos on the plane with me and I enjoy getting lost in the movie only to find out we're landing before I realize it.

Wade was there to greet me as always and it's always such a relief to see him when I get off the terminal tram. We stopped at Whole Foods to get some supplies then ran home to change before meeting friends for dinner and Friday Night Shuffleboard. By the end of the night, I was so thankful for being able to end my week with Wade, Katie, Dustin, Chris, and Julie - it made DC feel like a lifetime away.

MLK Weekend

The few days before the holiday weekend I was in DC for meetings. The kind of meetings that make my brain boil and I could swear it was seeping out of my right ear... eew, but true. So I was incredibly happy to get on the plane and head home to host Jason and Rachel for the weekend again. The week always goes by faster when I have something fun to look forward to.

They were in town for the weekend to peruse the local boat market in their continuing quest for a live aboard catamaran. They arrived on Saturday while Wade was at a conference in Tampa giving a presentation so the three of us made dinner, listened to music, and entertained ourselves. It was fun cooking in the kitchen and hanging out with them - and it felt great to see the kitchen excel at welcoming guests and inspiring a good meal despite it's streamlined size. Saturday was CSA pick up day in Miami and St Pete, so we were loaded with veggies and challenged ourselves to see how many veggies from could cram into our dinner. We ended up with an Italian "hash" (my code word for a one pot meal with whatever I find in the pantry and fridge that needs to be eaten) with collard greens, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, beans, and herbs from our garden. It was fabulous and we ate until we were stuffed. Wade made it home just in time for leftovers and we caught up before crashing into bed after a long day.

Sunday the sailors-to-be headed out to look for boats while we did some chores around the house then headed to the store for some errands. We all made it back just in time to go out for dinner at the local British tavern in downtown. Dinner was good and the beer/cider on tap selection was perfect - Moon Under Water never lets us down. After dinner we stopped for ice cream at the local homemade shop near our house then headed home for a rousing game of Parcheesi that Rachel triumphed over. After that the girls headed to bed to read while the guys tests the limits of sanity playing the Wii until the wee hours of the morning.

Monday morning we awoke to rain and a generally ominous sky, which was a bit of a bummer. We made GF waffles with fresh berries and mascarpone cheese as a send of for JB and Rach. They had to pack the car in a downpour while trying to get out in time for appointments with 2 more boats on the way home. We tidied up the house and watched the rain come down in fierce waves. Finally the sky began to clear just in time for our appointment that afternoon with a landscape consultant. We had met him on the native plant garden tour we walked last fall and finally felt ready to start the process. We did a walk through with him to talk about what we'd like our yard to do - aesthetically and functionally. We have in mind a lush yard of low maintenance native plants that will create wildlife habitat and provide food and water for birds and butterflies. We also want a yard that can create some privacy and space for entertaining, but also provide food for us - fruit trees and a small salad garden. We'll have to prioritize and do things in stages so we can slowly pay for pieces of it, so we'll try starting with the things we need to remove now as well as the trees we'd like to start. Clearly we have some nasty invasive plants that we'll need help removing and we have a lot of weedy grass that we need to replace with native ground cover plants that won't require water or mowing (we're pretty anti-lawn since they require a lot of pesticides, watering, and upkeep to look socially acceptable - also, lawns are pretty much a wasteland for every other living creature except humans). We're hoping to get our draft landscaping plan soon and be able to start on some of the prep work during our anniversary on President's Day weekend.

A new year

Well, the end of the year kind of flew by once Christmas was over. Wade and I both worked, but I did take off for my birthday. Wade made me awesome gluten free blueberry pancakes for breakfast, I opened presents (I like mine opened, preferably, as soon as I wake up in the morning, well, right after kitty snuggling of course), then I took Wade to work. After that I got my first real massage (thank you Groupon!), activated my new library card and picked out some books, then picked Wade up for some lunch at our favorite organic cafe in downtown St. Pete. After lunch Wade went back to work while I wandered the Saint Petersburg history museum and learned a lot about our city. After that I headed home to tidy up the house (read: clean up dog diarrhea and cat vomit) before company came over. Mom and Larry came over to do presents then we left to pick Wade up from work. We headed over to Tampa for Mexican food (again, thanks Groupon!) where Michelle met us for dinner. After a tasty dinner we headed home for one of the best birthday deserts ever - Wade's homemade gluten-free chocolate chip cheesecake brownie sundaes (the ultimate dessert in my mind). Yes, that's right a smorgasbord of sugar and it was SO delicious! We had 3 kinds of ice cream for the brownies and a bevy of toppings: 3 kinds of M&Ms, salted peanuts, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, and ghiardelli caramel dark chocolate squares. Yeah, I kind of went overboard and was having a candy craving for once in my life, so why not indulge?! We had fun making our desserts and the day was over before I knew it. Back to work. Boo.

The next day we drove to see my Grandma who's an hour away in Plant City (only in the winters). We had a nice dinner, but got there almost an hour late due to some horrendous traffic we caught in Tampa - ick! We are spoiled in St Pete, no rush hour traffic here (thankfully).

For New Year's Eve we headed to our next door neighbor's house (who also had the Christmas Eve party) for snacks, drinks, and men acting like 12 year olds while playing with fireworks. I would be lying if I didn't say it was funny - especially when they did something they realized was about to go awry then would run as fast as they could (without spilling their drink of course). Haha. It was a smaller laid back crowd, so we got to know our neighbors better and had fun. We watched the ball drop on TV then went up onto their balcony to watch the fireworks in downtown. A great end to a long year.

New Year's Day we headed to my Mom and Larry's for a great dinner and a sunset. It was great to get out to the beach and it reminded me how much I missed the hot summers on the beach (a cold beach seems so foreign to me) - my mind has already begun the countdown for the hot days of summer we can spend in the pool or at the beach.

We're also still plugging away on the smaller house projects - we're trying to brighten up the front of the house. We gave the shutters a fun paint job, are working on touching up the paint in places we've had to patch the shingle siding, painted that old metal screen door, and we're also in the process of giving ourselves a new mailbox and house numbers (on the cheap). So, once that's done I'll be sure to put up pictures. We still need to do the 'after' pictures, which I'm hoping we can get to very soon. Next on the list is painting the external doors a color to match the shutters and give our side doors a new lease on life. Oh, and we're still trying to close up the attic access now that the work is done and the cats have figured out how to weasel in there to "explore". Eeek.

A very merry Christmas

This year we took a more subdued approach to Christmas and presents - our house was our real gift to ourselves and cutting the last check to our contractor two days before Christmas also made for a humbling financial situation. We're happy to officially be done with the major hired work on the house and will now enter the "we're homeowners and have a list of projects longer than Santa's naughty list" phase.

But we tried to put all that aside and just appreciate having our first Christmas in our new house. I think we definitely succeeded!

On the 21st we have Dustin and Katie over for an early Christmas dinner of shepherds pie then we had cocoa and watched Elf - my favorite new "classic" Christmas movie, and in my opinion, Will Farrell's best movie. Ever. It was fun to start the celebrating early with them before they left to visit family in Alabama.

This year we jokingly created a new holiday by celebrating Christmas Eve Eve. My Mom and Larry came over for dinner on the 23rd, then I chauffeured everyone around the neighborhood to look at lights and envy the historic homes (we even saw people looking at lights via horse drawn carriage!), before coming back watch The (original cartoon) Grinch while enjoying pop corn and hot cocoa. After that we went to bed with a feeling of it being Christmas Eve. We woke up the next morning, made a big breakfast (including our version of figgy pudding with cream cheese icing), then opened our presents to each other in our PJs. It was fun knowing we'd get to do it again the next morning too. :) After Mom and Larry headed home, Wade and I dove into a few of those projects on our list - touch up caulking in our bathroom and painting the shutters on the house. Currently the shutters are black and it makes me nuts, I hate that fact that our house is black, grey, and white and devoid of color. So Wade took all our fake plastic shutters down, cleaned them off, then I started priming and painting them. Once he joined in the painting it went pretty quickly, but we ran out of time and couldn't get the second coat on before heading to our neighbors house for their Christmas Eve party.

That night we got to know our neighbors a little better and enjoyed a large party that was mostly their family and coworkers. After a few hours though, it became clear that the wine was taking a toll on Wade and his bottomless cup was not a good thing. We headed home, thankful that we only had to walk next door! We watched something from Netflix, and finally went to bed with Wade only feeling hung over rather than spending the night in the bathroom. :) That night the cats were allowed to sleep in bed with us (one of my Christmas present requests) but all four of us awoke with a start when some of the neighborhood cats seemed to be fighting in the alley, then we realized they were under the house. The noise seemed to be coming from everywhere since they were under the floor, so our cats freaked out and clearly we couldn't sleep. I fantasized about taking a hose under the house (our house is set up on piers) to flush out the cats, but it was so cold out I couldn't bring myself to actually get out of bed. They finally knocked it off after an hour and we all settled back in for some sleep.

Christmas morning came late - we were tired from the midnight cat madness, and Wade was definitely hung over. We finally got up, fed everyone breakfast, ate some cereal, then opened our presents. We did the pets stockings first and they proceeded to be entertained for the rest of the morning with meaty bones for the dogs and ping pong balls for the cats. We also leave all the wrapping paper in a giant pile that the cats tunnel and dig through for endless entertainment. We had another first this year - Wade and I got each other the same gift (a Wii game), which was pretty funny and a source of debate about how we got the lines of communication crossed on that one. After presents we ate, threw together a simplified version of eggplant parmesan for dinner and took it with us to Mom and Larry's for Christmas dinner with them and my aunt Cindy, uncle Rick, and cousins Curtis and Ericka. It was good to catch up with them and the best part of the night was the guys watching a movie while the girls played Rummikub. At one point, my cousin Ericka started laughing so hard that it became contagious and all the women burst into that delightfully uncontrollable laughter - you know, the kind that hurts and makes you cry. The men were thoroughly confused as to what was happening, but we had a great time... even if I did almost pee my pants.

The day after Christmas we met up with Robin and Chad and Kaitlyn for lunch at Peach's. It had been a while since we'd seen them so it was really good to catch up and hear about their new life in North Carolina. We did not envy the amount of cold and snow they were having to adjust to though - I can barely handle Florida "cold" let alone snow and ice! After we said our goodbyes to them we headed back home to do some more caulking in the guest bathrooms before heading to Megan and Jimmy's for dinner. We made it over there early to spend some time with them and their boys before dinner. It had been a while since we'd seen them too, so it was fun to see how big the boys are getting and to hear of their adventures in parenthood. By the end of the night everyones eyes were getting droopy so we headed home dreading work the next morning.

Today we got our last Christmas present to ourselves - insulation. We had some rodent damaged cruddy insulation in the attic, so we're replacing it in hopes it helps our little house keep it's temperature more constant. Today they ripped out the nasty batting and installed new batting on the knee walls in the attic and living room. Tomorrow the second crew will come in with the blown insulation to recover the ceilings. Thankfully, we're getting this done just in time to qualify for the tax break this year, but it'll only be a little kick back. One thing is for sure, our taxes are going to be a lot more complicated this time around and I am definitely dreading it (I get to do the family taxes).

Feels like home

Thursday night we made vegetarian shepherds pie to share with a neighbor. The mom had back surgery two weeks ago so the neighbors have all taken turns making dinner for the family over the last two weeks. It's been a pretty incredibly thing to witness - we thought our neighbors in Sarasota were nice for making cookies the day we moved in, but the level of support and friendship in our neighborhood has been really inspiring - we've already been invited out for guys/girls nights out, a dinner party, a Christmas Eve party, and a New Year's Eve party. It seems like icing on the cake - we love our house and we're just now being able to appreciate how much of a community actually exists in our neighborhood. Makes a house feel more like a home.

The fun continued this weekend when Jason and Rachel came for the weekend to visit. Friday night we went to a Christmas party at Wade's boss' house and I finally got to meet more of his coworkers who were all really nice, fun people. I am still amazed at how many people our age we've been meeting, so it's exciting to be making new friends. We left the party early to meet Jason and Rachel at our house. We unloaded their stuff and hustled over to catch a game of shuffle board before the courts closed. We had a lovely time - the guys enjoyed some winter ale while the girls sipped hot cocoa in the cold. The courts were pretty packed - there was live music, snacks and drinks for sale, and a party atmosphere. Apparently it was the last Friday of the season (the others are holidays), so they were making quite a night of it. We closed down the courts with a second round then headed home to give our guests a tour of the house. Finally we made their bed and we all crashed for the night.Saturday morning we awoke to rain so we had a slow start and all enjoyed sleeping in a little. Once we finally got moving we headed to the farmer's market to pick up our CSA share and kick off Jason's food vacation by eating our way through the food booths. We had a hearty breakfast, followed by a pastry, then picked up our veggies, and some extras at the organic farm stand. After that we strolled downtown, took a few gag "family" photos in a monster banyan tree, had some fantastic tea at Hooker Tea Company, and found the perfect BBQ spice blend at Savory Spice Shop. We also managed to run into quite a few people we've met over the last year, so it was pretty surreal being out in public and actually seeing people we know (that almost never happened in Sarasota). After that we cruised a few of the artsy places for Christmas shopping for Jason and Rach and finished at Milagros, the soap shop, for me to pick up a few more bars. That night we made big farm-fresh salads, corn on the cob, and quinoa for dinner followed by Wii for the boys while the girls made cookies. Unfortunately, our cookies bombed, but we had a great time making them! We all played a few board games then finally crashed into bed.

(Below is our annual running joke of our family photo - find a scenic tree and pose like we're taking a professionally posed family photo. Half the fun is getting ourselves posed and seeing if we can beat the self timer on the camera)

Sunday we slept in again and enjoyed it quite a bit. We made a big breakfast of pancakes before setting out on a walking tour of the neighborhood. We walked along the water, pointed out our favorite houses, talked about the interesting and unique architecture in the neighborhood and even walked all the way down to Old Northeast Tavern for a late lunch and beers/cider. On the way home we talked about the new boat Jason and Rachel had just looked at and might buy and it was exciting to hear about their hopes and dreams for it. We are also looking forward to bribing our way on to said boat when it's in the Caribbean some day. ;) But, we won't give up our quest to get them to St. Pete and made sure we showed them how lovely the local marina is for people wanting to live aboard their boat.

We were sad to see them go, but look forward to seeing them again in the spring before they set sail. We miss you guys already!

Having them in the house for the weekend was really wonderful and it cemented our feeling that Miss Magnolia is our home, and not just a house we've been blowing all our money on (haha). It was also good timing to soften the blow of our final bill from our contractor - which was pretty brutal and a painful reminder of why we needed to keep Christmas to a minimum this year.

Breaking in the house

Kellyn's impending visit spurred us to get into the Christmas spirit. Her Christmas last year was crappy - she was really sick and almost didn't make it home from the climate meetings in Copenhagen (which also sucked) due to awful weather. So, we decided our mission was to over compensate by making this the best Christmas ever. ;)

This was also our first test run of entertaining guests for the weekend, so we were excited to see how Miss Magnolia would perform. We spent the days before Kellyn's arrival decking our halls and hanging Christmas lights outside. We kicked off her visit with the 5k before her work meetings during the week, then she came to stay with us for a weekend of fun.

Friday night we met Mark and Annette at the Old Northeast Tavern for dinner and beer and cider on tap. We had fun catching up with them and hearing about the adventures of parenthood and the holidays. After dinner they headed home and we headed to a hallmark of Saint Petersburg - shuffleboard. St. Pete is home to the world's largest shuffleboard courts and the Shuffleboard World Hall of Fame. The complex was started back in the 1920s to give the growing vacation destination a social scene. They also hosted social events, card games, dances, lawn bowling (bocce), chess tournaments, and who knows what else. Over the decades things have changed, but the shuffle board, bocce, and chess still remain in the little stucco buildings near downtown. To bring in more people they offer free play and instruction on Friday nights and sometimes have drinks and live music (but iPod driven music at the very least). We got there early and after looking around and dropping a donation in the bucket, realized we had no idea what we were doing. So, we found someone who looked like she knew what she was doing and asked for help. She turned out to be one of the officers of the club and also someone pretty darn good at shuffleboard. She taught us how to play and what the terminology was then she played a round of doubles with us - Wade and I against Kellyn and our new friend Mary. We had a great time and enjoyed the ambiance - Christmas music, twinkle lights, and nice people. By the time we were done (and freezing), we looked around and noticed the huge complex was filling up - mostly with people our age (a shocking change from Sarasota!). It was a really fun way to spend a Friday night and I'm sure we'll be doing it quite a bit.

Saturday morning Kellyn and I headed to the market to grab veggies at the farmer's market and do a little shopping while Wade stayed home to plant some rye grass seed. We found some excellent veggies at the organic farm stand (it wasn't our CSA share week) and discovered some delightful gluten free jam cookies. We headed home with our treasures, had lunch and cookies with Wade, then headed to the local handmade soap store, Milagros, to buy Christmas presents for friends and family. It is my new favorite place to buy gifts and soap. :) Afterwards we strolled down to Sunken Gardens from the house to check out our local attraction. It proved to be an excellent excuse to lounge in the sun for some vitamin D and we also thoroughly enjoyed watching the flamingos dance and flap at each other. That evening we had Katie and Dustin over for dinner and made Mexican food - lots of farm fresh fajita veggies, refried beans, my homemade salsa, tacos, and guacamole. We polished dinner off with Katie's tasty no-bake cookies then headed off for our Christmas event of the evening: A Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas concert. Wade and I were TSO novices for certain and we still can barely describe the event using words. If you were expecting the usual Christmas concert, (which I think a lot of folks were) you instead were ambushed with and 80's hair band version of Christmas. Seriously. Imagine Queen playing a Christmas concert - but with the synchronized head-banging flair of Van Halen. They did rocking renditions of Carol of the Bells and the Nutcracker melody that were my favorites. Oh, and did I mention they were all in tuxes with tails - even the crazy violin player who head banged while in a power crouch? Or that there were pyrotechnics, flames that changed color, lasers, flying stages, and heat we could feel in the nosebleed section? Words. cannot. describe. it. What I can describe is the incredulous reaction all 5 of us had - hysterical laughter afterwards (and during). It was an adventure to be sure and one I don't think any of us will ever forget. If the curiosity is killing you do a little snooping around on You Tube... :)

Sunday morning we all were a little slow going because we got home so late from the TSO concert. We finally rallied and had some breakfast before Kellyn and I headed out to do a little more shopping before Michelle came up to join us for the afternoon. We broke out all the cookie cutters and sprinkles and spent the afternoon making Christmas cookies. We had fun catching up and eating and obscene amount of cookies. Once we were thoroughly sugared, we walked to dinner at the local "better for you" fast food place called Evos before Michelle headed home.

(Below the former EDF office mates: me, Kellyn, and Michelle, with Carmel horning in)

Monday morning came faster than we were expecting and I took Kellyn to the airport. The pets were sad to see her go, and so were we. Now we're hoping she'll come back in the spring with Conrad (her fiance) so we can have more fun when it warms up.

Miss you Kellyn!

JingleBell 5k

This past Wednesday night we started a new holiday tradition - running the annual JingleBell 5k in downtown St. Pete (they shut down some of the streets downtown and lay luminaries along the 3mile path). Well, let's be honest, it was some running and lots of power walking on my end, but Katie, Dustin, Wade, and Kellyn made quite a showing. After the first quarter mile I was already sweating so we stopped to remove layers and take a photo op (below). Wade was a wonderful husband and offered to carry the extra layers for me without even so much as an "I told you so".

You may notice we look a little festive - that's because the 5k is a fun run - there were musicians along the way playing Christmas music, families with dogs and baby strollers, people in costume, and Santa listening to what the kids wanted for Christmas. For our part we wore reindeer antlers, santa hats, tinsel belts, neon necklaces, giant jinglebells, and red and green clothes. But it was freezing out so we had to wear enough layers to keep our teeth from chattering. The girls ran together while the guys forged ahead - we enjoyed the show along the way - buildings, dogs, and people wrapped in twinkle lights and a group of girls in elf costumes. Towards the end it started to rain so we hustled to the finish to find the guys and head to dinner. I made a power finish and ran as hard as I could for the last few hundred feet to make the finish line which I actually really enjoyed... too bad I can't always run that fast!

To celebrate our success (and lament the fact that we should actually do some training for next year) we headed out to dinner in downtown afterwards. Our first choice was packed so Dustin and Katie headed home while Wade, I, and Kellyn met up with a friend of hers from work (Kellyn is in town for a work meeting and staying the weekend to hang out and see Miss Magnolia). We found a new place to try and had a fun dinner before heading home to clean up and pick up Mom and Larry from the airport. They had a late returning flight from Texas so they stayed the night - we had a full house and it was a lot of fun! The cats really enjoyed snuggling Kellyn in bed in the attic and looked pretty put out when she left for her meeting the next morning.

The house is decorated full tilt for Christmas and the JingleBell run was our first holiday event - we now officially feel ready for Christmas and feel like residents of St. Pete. :)