Birthday chicklets

Yes, that's right, we have grown the zoo again and got chickens for my birthday. :)  On my birthday morning I opened presents (many chicken-themed ones) and Wade made me breakfast. After that Mom and Larry came up and we headed up to pick out our chicks at the farm in Largo.  A cold front blew through after Christmas, so it was absolutely freezing and windy out and we were a little afraid the chicks were going to be really stressed (chicks are very susceptible to cold and wind - so much so it can kill them pretty quickly, same goes for stress).  We got a nice tour of the farm and saw more of it than we had in the past - she has geese, pigs, goats, over 400 chickens, ducks, quails, and who knows what else.  We also saw another breed of chicken that was gorgeous, so we're already starting a mental list for the next round of ladies. :)  Unfortunately, one of the types of chickens we thought we were getting were all gone (Plymouth barred rock), so we had to choose a different type.  We found a cute little yellow fluff ball that we named Clementine (Clemmie) and a little yellow and brown one striped like a chipmunk that we named Dottie.  We carefully put them into their transport box that ironically had an old "fragile: handle with care" sticker on it, and headed home.  They mostly peeped in alarm the whole way home and the temptation to snuggle them was almost irresistible since they were covered in chick fluff, and just a few little feathers.

Peeking inside the box....

Once we got them home we cranked up the heat lamp for them and closed them up in our master closet with the space heater to keep it up to the 80's in there for them (the preferred temperature until some of their feathers start coming in).  They generally seemed shell-shocked and we kept checking on them to make sure they were eating and drinking despite the 50 degree temps outside.


That night we had a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants downtown (with the world's best cava sangria), Ceviche.  Afterwards we strolled down to our favorite gelato place, Paciugo, for one of my favorite desserts in lieu of cake: 2 scoops of gelato (pistachio - the real nutty kind, not the weird mint kind, and coconut) floating in a giant mug of steaming hot cocoa and topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. Best.Dessert.Ever.


The next day we took Mom and Larry to lunch and a glass making class for their belated Christmas present.  After that we headed to Tampa for dinner and a movie with Megan and Jimmy at a full service movie theatre that serves gourmet food in the theatre and the seats are plush recliners.  We had a fantastic dinner and really enjoyed watching the new Sherlock Holmes with them.


For a belated birthday celebration the week after my birthday, Wade organized a party at the shuffleboard club when all of our friends were back in town from the holidays.  I was really touched by how many people turned out and we had so much fun that the night flew by.  Wade also made the best homemade key lime pie I have ever tasted (even drizzled with dark chocolate on top!) and it was a huge hit.  Sadly, we were having such a good time we didn't really take any pictures of the festivities.... but I did get one of a few folks playing shuffle:

Brett, Nick, Katie, and Lisa shufflin'.

You can also see more pictures of the chicks on our Picasa site.

Dreaming of a white Christmas

This year Christmas was a bit toastier than the previous years.  It was so warm in fact that the lettuce in our garden started bolting and tried to go to seed (once it does that it tastes funny, if not disgusting).  Drat.  It was in the upper 70s for Christmas, which was perfect for throwing open all the windows and enjoying the breeze.  For reference, the past few years since we left Miami, it's been downright freezing around Christmas and throughout the winter.  In fact, we were so worried this year we bought our first wool blanket for the bed and it has been miraculous on the freezing nights we've had (literally).

We spent Christmas day at our house and opened presents with the furballs.  They usually get presents first so they can entertain themselves while we open ours.  The cats, however, relish the annual paper pile.  We pile all the wrapping paper and packaging paper in a pile in the middle of the floor so they can play and hide in it.  I wouldn't be surprised if this is what they thought their actual present was. 

After presents, we packed up the kids and their new toys and headed to Mom and Larry's for lunch and presents before heading to my Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas dinner.  We had a fun night of catching up before heading back to Mom and Larry's to spend the night.  The day after Christmas was a holiday for both Wade and I, so we hung out on the island for the day with Mom and Larry.

This year was one of the first times I've taken any pictures of our decorations or our tree ornaments so I've put them up on Picasa in case you're interested in seeing how the house and tree look.

Gettin' in the Christmas spirit

December has brought another glorious month at home with no work travel!  Hooray!  Although, this morning I just finished planning my travel for January to Hawaii and DC and I am already dreading being away from home for so long.  Hawaii will be 10 days and DC will be 2, although I'm been threatened with California too... ick.  This month a lot has been happening at work, so despite the joy of being home, it's been stressful while we've been planning for what looks to be a very busy January and February.


So while we have the chance and I'm home, Wade and I have been cramming in as much Christmas flair as humanly possible...  The first weekend we put up all the decorations inside the house and all the lights outside the house, but it just didn't feel like Christmas, so we began a quest to see how many holiday events we could enjoy before we felt ready for the holiday. The first sign something was amiss - this year I had zero desire to do Christmas cards.  So we did an email instead and that was a nice change of pace.


We participated in the Jinglebell 5k Run in downtown St. Pete again this year (although we walked...) - Dustin and Katie ran, while we walked with Chris and Julie.  We enjoyed the live Christmas music and twinkle lights along the route and kept a running commentary along the way with all the interesting costumes people had.  I had a sequin Santa hat, jingle bell earrings, a jingle bell ring, neon necklaces, red sneakers, and my green fleece vest.  Wade donned his usual black "bad" Santa hat. A cold front was blowing through that evening, so it was windy and chilly and a bit rainy.  We still had fun though.  Afterwards we headed out for a late Thai food dinner with everyone.  

Dustin and Katie prepping to run while Wade and I search for our walking buddies, Chris and Julie.

The next day we headed to a Christmas concert with Mom and Larry that was two Irish singers/guitar players.  It ended up being a night of Irish pub-humor, story telling, and Christmas songs, and although it wasn't exactly what we originally expected, it turned out to be so much more and we laughed the whole night.


The following Saturday we had a little Christmas bonfire night with the crew from the Jinglebell run, Mark & Annette and their two kids, and Mike & Alison and their son.  It was a fun night by the fire making s'mores and the kids were having a blast surveying all the plants in our garden (once they were stuffed on toasted marshmallows!).


The middle of the month we also headed to the farm to check out the chick selection again to see what she would have for my birthday and how old they would be.  We'll be bringing home two little 3 week old ladies on my birthday next week - a black Plymouth Barred Rock and a brown Sussex (at least that's the plan, we'll see what happens when we get to the farm!).  When we saw them they were only about a week old and tiny little puff balls - it was almost impossible to not stuff them in my jacket pocket and bring them home right then!  But alas, we were definitely not ready and did not have the time to devote to chicks that little, so they're holding some for us until next week.


The weekend after that was Dustin and Katie's Christmas party/house warming and we stuffed ourselves on good eats and homemade egg nog.  We also had a white elephant gag gift exchange - we thought we were coming home with a Snuggie, but alas, it was stolen by Dustin and Katie, so we stole the gag gift they made from someone else: an 8x10 perky Christmas portrait of themselves that looked straight out of a Sears family portrait studio.  We laughed so hard we cried.  We managed to hold onto that one and I now eat breakfast with it every morning, giggling between every bite. :)  Well done folks, well done.


This week we topped off the Christmatizing by watching Elf with Dustin and Katie, which is hands down, my all-time favorite Christmas movie and our yearly tradition.  It seriously cannot be Christmas unless I've watched Elf.


So, we're ready for Christmas - we've done all we can do. :)  All the presents are wrapped, the cats are thoroughly thrilled with hiding under the Christmas tree, and the Christmas music is playing non-stop in the house (my current favorites are Tropical Steel Christmas by the guys who played our wedding, and Christmas With the Rat Pack).  

How could we not get in the spirit when there's this much cuteness under the tree?!

Hilo was not pleased with me invading his private time under the tree...

We also have spent the past few weeks running our own Santa's Little Sweat Shop as we're tried to get some of our hand made fused glass Christmas gifts ready in time.  Everything turned out pretty nicely, but a few things were a little late, so we know to start earlier next year and look forward to getting past our learning curve.


Hope everyone is prepared for a lovely weekend with family and friends!

Home sweet home

November brought all the things we love about living here - cooler temps for outdoor fun and house projects, festivals, and for me, it was a month of no travel and all the time in the world to revel in being home.  So November felt like a month of catch up for me to remind friends I'm still alive and catch up on their lives.  It's also been a chance to dig into some new hobbies for Wade and me.


Wade and I finally got our raised veggie beds installed in the garden - Wade finished phased one just before Halloween (pictures here), then completed phase two in early November.  We planted a bunch of veggie and herb seedlings to short cut our harvest time, but also followed up with seeds as well.  This is our first time planting down here (in Florida, our growing season is October - May), so it's all a huge experiment and we're learning a lot.  I have also checked out an absurd amount of library books on organic gardening, companion planting, and the square foot gardening method.  We don't have a lot of space, so we're trying to maximize what we do have by using intensive gardening principles for maximizing harvest in small raised beds.  In the last few months we've become a little obsessed with trying to figure out how much organic food we can get our of our "land" (our lot and a half) to feed us, but also sustain wildlife with native plants.  So far we seem to be striking a good balance, but this time of year we don't get quite enough sun, so some of our crops are struggling and we're already learning where we might rotate crops for our spring plantings.  We added two big clay pots in the driveway outback for growing and Wade just wrapped up phase 3 of the raised beds: two more 1.5'x12's along the fence, another small 3'x3' box in the garden, and a larger hexagonal box in the yard.  Wade's been quite the carpenter designing and constructing our cedar raised beds!  They're beautiful and functional and we're thrilled with them. We also finally tore out the evil bougainvillea and have replaced it with two edible moringa trees and some native wildflowers.  Next up... we're researching how we can add two pet chickens to the yard to produce eggs and keep down the bug population!  You may laugh, but it's actually more common here in St Pete than you would think.  We know 3 families who do it and really enjoy it - both for the eggs and how friendly and fun the birds are.  I've been reading up on that too and have asked Wade to build me a chicken coop for my birthday. :)

In mid-November we headed back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, but this time with Katie and Dustin.  We had a great time and mercifully it wasn't too hot and the lines weren't too long.  We rode every ride, some twice, screamed like little girls on the roller coasters, had a few butter beers, and almost threw up on a few rides.  An excellent day indeed and the perfect cure for a stressful week at work.  We wrapped up the day at Margaritaville with dinner and drinks before heading home.  And you know what?  We'll still be up for going again. :)  It's nice having Orlando only an hour away!

Mmmm.... butterbeer

Gotta love the Hogwarts castle in the background....

Apparently the red neon on a nearby Margaritaville sign threw Katie's iPhone camera for a loop and we all look sunburned!

Mom and Larry came back at the beginning of the month (we left up our Halloween decor an extra week so Mom could see them) and that also meant it's that time of year to start making the to-do list for house and yard projects!  The weekend before Thanksgiving, Mom made a run to the nursery with me to get some more plants (yay strawberries!) while the guys worked in the garden.  Afterwards we picked up Alison and headed to the Craft Art Fair downtown to check out the Floridian artists - so many pretty things... Thanksgiving Day we spent with them and Katie joined us too for another gluten-free vegetarian feast.  This year my goal was to only eat what we could get from the farmer's market, and we came pretty close, but next year I'm going to challenge us to what we can grow or what we get at the market, so we'll have to plant the garden earlier.  We did, however, harvest one lonely strawberry just before we went to bed and shared it amongst us and it was absolutely wonderful.  Over Thanksgiving weekend we added another veggie box, replaced the section of fence where the bougainvilla was (thanks for painting Larry!), and enjoyed some good local food.


Thanksgiving weekend Wade and I also started a new hobby - glass fusing at the same studio where I learned stained glass.  (It's basically cutting, designing, and melting glass together to make plates or bowls, jewelry, windchimes, vases, whatever you can imagine)  We're really enjoying it and are already starting on some projects.  It's going to be a lot of fun and we're excited to be able to make some Christmas gifts for family and friends this year!


I wrapped up the month by hosting the monthly Girls Night Out that the neighborhood women in our 3 block radius put on each month.  Since it was "freezing" that day I had everyone over for a fire in the garden with hot cocoa, sangria, s'mores, and popcorn.  It went over really well and we had a lot of fun.  We're really lucky to have such a connected and friendly network of people in our neighborhood.  Wade was a sweet heart and helped me set up in exchange for a s'more or two. :)


As I am wrapping up this post we're breaking out the Christmas decorations... :)

Where did October go?

Oh that's right... October dissolved into a series of plane flights and car trips...  fortunately there were some highlights along the way!

The first week of October I flew to New York City for about 24 hours for a meeting in Manhatten.  The afternoon I arrived, I was able to squeak in a very brief visit to the American Museum of Natural History and this time my highlight was the giant stone head from Easter Island (although I think it might have been a replica?). 

However, the dinosaurs and gemstones are always some of my favorites.  The next day after the meeting, Whitney and I hopped in a cab and headed for Penn Station - on the way we passed "The Naked Cowboy" giving the Times Square crowd a show, and a Home Depot that defied logic for me - it looked like the store front for a Neiman Marcus or something (see below)?!  

After our quick sightseeing, we caught a 3.5 hr train back to DC  - it was only the 2nd train ride I've ever taken - and it was pretty fun!  Sharing the ride with Whitney helped pass the time and it was nice to not have to deal with airport security.  Once I got to DC I worked for a couple of days before coming home Friday night.  We immediately packed up the car and the pets and drove out to the island to spend the 3 day holiday weekend relaxing at the beach house which was just lovely, but a bit rainy.  So we improvised and enjoyed the hot tub in the rain. :)

The following week I was home before hopping a 6am plane to San Jose, CA for a meeting in Santa Cruz.  I was only in Santa Cruz for 36 hours, but I got to room with Whitney again, so that made it fun.  We also had a little expedition to the Patagonia outlet in town for some shopping which was also fun and a welcome break from the meeting.  The second night I left straight from dinner for the airport and caught a red-eye back to Florida.  Thank heaven my flights were on time - I landed in the morning and as soon as Wade picked me up we tossed our bags in the car and headed to St. Augustine for Kellyn and Conrad's wedding.  Wade was kind enough to drive the whole way over so I was able to sleep the entire way.  I usually can't sleep through my flights back from CA, so I had been awake since 3:30am, and the chance to nap was a welcome one.  We got to St. Augustine in time to clean up and change and made it to the wedding rehearsal only a few minutes late.  Afterwards we had a lovely rehearsal dinner at the Lightner Museum, then headed back to the hotel to crash into a delicious king-sized bed.  The next morning we slept in a bit, then enjoyed a great breakfast at a local cafe before heading over to pick up Kellyn to take her to the salon.  Wade chauffeured us and went to check out the fort in St. Augustine while Kellyn had her hair done.  After the hair appointment, Wade and I squeaked in a quick lunch at Aunt Kate's just up the road on the river and had some wonderful Florida-style southern food before I headed back to spend time with Kellyn.   We had a fun afternoon of the ladies hanging out while Wade was able to relax before the wedding.  We had perfect weather for the beachside wedding, including wind strong enough to blow bubbles from the little wedding bubble wands (which Wade discovered) :).  To see how lovely the bride looked, you can check out our Picasa site here. After the ceremony there was a great reception at a huge beautiful beach house just across the street.  We were treated to an incredible sunset over the saltmarshes and river behind the house and it was pretty incredible.  We finally called it a night and crashed in bed before trying to repack some of our stuff which mysteriously had spread itself all over our hotel room.  Sunday morning we had another good breakfast at the nearby cafe before heading home.  Four hours later we were home and I was repacking my suitcase for another trip to DC.


Monday morning I left for DC again and was there for the week.  Work was the usual, but I was able to catch up with friends which was great.  I'm so grateful for the friends I have made in DC who treat me like family, so it really helps keep the loneliness and homesickness at bay when I travel.  I arrived home Friday night to tidy up the house and prep for our Halloween dinner on Sunday night.  We had a great group of people, good "freaky" Halloween themed food, and a lot of fun.  It was the perfect way to end all the travel since I was so thankful to be home and see our friends who I missed quite a bit.  You can check out the pictures here.


Halloween night we biked down to Mark and Annette's house that's about 13 blocks south of us.  They are in the "heart" of our neighborhood where the insanity takes place on Halloween and this year we made a point to check it out.  We hung with Mark and Annette and the kids for a while and handed out candy before venturing over to the madness.  The streets were so packed it was difficult to walk in some places - particularly in front of the one house that had a huge scaffolding and acrobats with a creepy circus theme and the occasional pyrotechnic fireball that lit up the entire street.  There were a number of other super decorated houses - Night of the Living Apps (a haunted Angry Birds house), the Mad Scientist Lab complete with blood spurting guillotine and electric chair, the morbid Curl and Die salon, the Titanic, a funeral home that fooled us, and some other generally fun spooky halloween decor.  It was a lot of fun to see people so into it and making a party atmosphere out of it.  We meant to go after our dinner party the night before, but we got done too late and went on Halloween instead.  Next year though, we'll go on the dress rehearsal night in hopes of the crowd being smaller (they do a neighborhood house decorating contest and the night before Halloween they have everyone put on their shows for judging and for folks to enjoy an extra night of fun).


Well, I hope everyone else had a great October and a spooktacular Halloween!

After photos

So, yeah, it has been almost a year now that we've been in the house and I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't posted the "After" photos of Miss Magnolia!? In all honesty, there are so many projects that we still have to do that taking "after" photos just doesn't seem right, but it's starting to feel ridiculous that we have nothing up, so I'm just going to do it anyway. Oh, and I haven't even started on the outside shots yet... yikes.  But here's a sneak peak - the new stained-glass window panel that I made for one of our kitchen windows:

The day after I got back from Atlanta, Megan and Jimmy brought the boys over for a visit. Wade being the wonderful husband he is, cleaned the house while I was gone in preparation for their visit. So, it seemed like a waste to not take advantage of our clean and tidy house. The winter sun is slowly returning which means that lighting for pictures is much better now, particularly in the parts of the house we remodeled. So I took an afternoon to capture as much as I could as best as possible with my small point and shoot camera.


You can see the pictures, here on our Picasa site. Hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I enjoyed taking them!  And in case you don't remember, we went down to the studs in the kitchen, some of the guest bathroom, the entire master bathroom, half the master bedroom, and all of the master closet, which now contains a laundry nook.  We also had to sand and refinish the wood floors in the whole house and put down new travertine floors in the kitchen, guest and master baths, and in the master closet/laundry nook. In the finished attic, we ripped out old carpet, laid new cottage-style painted plywood floors, and painted the walls.  Have fun looking at the before and after pictures to see if you can recognize the house! :)

Fall is in the air

The last weekend of September brought the first hint that fall was around the corner and that the season of lovely weather, festivals, and fun were rapidly approaching.  On Saturday morning Wade and I went on the annual Native Plant Garden Tour which gave us a lot of inspiration last year for our yard, and continued to give us good idea this year.  It was also nice to see how many people are promoting the use of beautiful but environmentally-friendly landscaping that conserves water and feeds and protects wildlife.  It's a bit like a treasure hunt following the tour map, so each year we learn more about new parts of St. Pete we haven't seen before. 


That evening we joined Dustin, Katie, John, and Melissa for Beerfest at the Old Northeast Tavern in our neighborhood to celebrate Dustin's birthday.  They served all you can drink beer, and german food for 4 hours... dangerous.  We had so much fun and passed the evening playing Uno, counting down the beer list, and burning our mouths on steaming hot pizza.

Katie and the birthday boy, Dustin.

I brought my camp mug to drink out of so I wouldn't waste a plastic cup - it was perfect!

Dustin's Beer Boot Mug and the infamous drinking Uno deck. 

We completed The List!  But paid for it the next morning...

AZA Conference

After DC, I headed to Atlanta for a work conference.  I went to meet with a number of public aquariums we're trying to partner with for my work so I thought it would be a good idea to meet them on their turf, so to speak, at the Annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference.  I attended a number of panels to learn more about the role of science and conservation in public aquariums, had many productive conversations, then the day I was due to leave I looked forward to the part of the trip I could have some fun at: zoo day field trip.  


In particular, I was almost as giddy as a school girl at the prospect of seeing two baby tigers.  They were born at Zoo Atlanta on July 5th and recently were available for public viewing.  And my lord they didn't disappoint.  There was a nearly insane amount of cuteness on display as they played hide and seek, pounced, stalked, and rolled around the grass with their mother.  And to the zoo's credit, it was one of the better tiger enclosures I've seen with lots of real vegetation, natural features and water, and plenty of room to romp.  If I've ever thought of committing a crime, it would have been to get behind the scenes to pet one of the cubs because they were a whole new level of adorable.  

I stood and watched them for a half hour, before finally moving on for behind the scenes tours of the lions, birds and lemurs, and elephants.  On the lion tour I was treated to face time with a lioness and her mate (who was not thrilled to see the tour like she was).  The lioness was hand raised and genuinely enjoyed being scratched and loved on by her keeper and it was pretty incredible.  The male however liked to "guard" her and was known for spraying unwanted guests!  So we all took a giant step back as soon as we heard that.  We did however get some great shots, but it was difficult to see them sitting behind the chain-link fence looking bored while they weren't out for the public (the old male was out at that moment and he couldn't be mixed with the younger couple).  Check out more photos here on our Picasa site.


After the tours and group dinner, I headed right to the airport with my luggage to find my late flight was made even later.  Despite the delay it was good to finally be home for a long stretch after so much work travel and vacation.

North Carolina

The end of August brought a much anticipate event for us: VACATION. We were finally going to do it - head out on a real family vacation for longer than a 3 day weekend. I was so excited I started packing a whole week early. And well frankly, I had to. I was in DC up until the night before our vacation, then again the day after our vacation so I had to pack for DC twice and for North Carolina to ensure I didn't forget anything for any of the 3 trips. To add to the mix, we were driving to NC so we could take the "kids" with us - yep, all 4 of them came along which made for an adventure, but also made it more fun since we didn't have to worry about leaving them behind. We also wanted to drive so we could go camping for the first time in NC so we also had to round up our camping gear as well. Given that the 'ole Civic is really starting to show her years, we decided to give her a vacation too and rent a slightly larger car to fit us, our stuff, and the kids and their stuff for the long haul. Despite the extra room, we still had to be judicious about what we packed to ensure it would fit in a "regular SUV" given that we had no idea what to expect from the car rental company.

Friday morning of our trip dawned and Wade headed to work for a half day while I packed, met a colleague for lunch, and prepped the house for our departure. We headed to the airport to grad the rental car before dinner and nearly stroked out when they tried to give us a cracker jack box sized "SUV".

Me: "Well, sir, we have A LOT of stuff to take with us, so we're definitely going to need something bigger than that thing because that is definitely not a "regular SUV"

Rental car dude: "Hmm, ok, go check this one out then..." (Sound of Wade running out to check the car, then running back in, sweating and not looking pleased...)

Me: Yeeeeaahhh, that's not going to cut it either sir. We paid for the bigger car for a reason so I'd like the larger car I was promised (and I don't want to explain that we're cramming 4 animals in your rental car)

Rental car dude: Well, I can borrow a mini-van from the other rental place and give it to you for the same price if you think that'll do it? (Sound of Wade's eyes lighting up)

Me: Well, if you think it can still handle mountains and terrain and stuff...?

Wade: Yes, that'll be great, where do we sign?!

I still had reservations about a mini-van's ability to handle gravelly mountain roads (and my ability to drive a mini-van without vomiting at the image), but when Wade saw that the seats in the van folded into the floor to create more storage that could fit a queen-sized bed he never looked back. Our chariot awaits:

We had a quick dinner, packed up the car, tossed the kids in and hit the road with high spirits. We only had a 5 hours drive to Georgia before spending the night so we were feeling pretty high on life... until Hilo began to have a nervous breakdown and spew out of every end. To his credit, he did most of his business in his litter box (yes, we had so much space we traveled with a litter box for the cats), but once he was empty, he proceeded to foam at the mouth for most of the drive. So I dove into the back of the van for damage control and ended up staying for the rest of the trip with the cats sleeping on me. Oh, right, that all happened at the 30 minute mark. Suuuuuper. We crashed at our usual stopover point in Tifton, GA (thank you Hampton Inn for taking pets!) and spent the evening watching hurricane Irene to see if it was going to screw up our driving plans.

The next day we rounded everyone up back into the car - all of us in a varying state of grouchiness and crustiness - and made the last push for North Carolina. This leg took a little longer so Wade enjoyed the scenery while I slept in the back with the cats covered in drool. We were all relieved when we pulled into Waynesville, NC where my Mom and Larry live so we could let the kids adjust and we could take in the fresh mountain air. It had been a few years since we had been up to visit them and everything was perfectly in bloom so it was great to see them and their mountain retreat.

For the next 10 days we enjoyed their gardens, went camping and hiking, swimming, celebrated Mom's birthday in style, celebrated Samuel's 2nd birthday with Janis and Miles, and went 'tooning with Kellyn and Conrad. We also spent many nights just catching up and cooking at their house (I packed a bunch of cook books that we had fun experimenting with). It was a great vacation and wonderful to see so many friends and family, and so much nature. Check out our pictures on Picasa for more details. :) Happily, some of the time was a bit of a blur from sleeping in and peaceful reading on the deck listening to the hummingbirds and other birds chase each other around the feeders. Just like a vacation should be in my book!

On the way home we had to contend with tropical storm Lee which caused quite a bit of stress with the rain and wind. We were fortunate enough to make it through Atlanta just before a few tornadoes blew through town, but still ended up in some pretty nasty traffic jams that didn't sit well with the pets. However, Wade was our dependable chauffeur for the trip and got us all home safely (and I was only covered in a little cat drool on the way back). The next morning, it was off to DC again which almost made it feel like the vacation was a figment of my imagination...

Oh, and the mini-van? She performed admirably and Wade was actually a little sad to have to turn her back in. ;)  I, however, am still dreaming of a new car someday, one that can tote us and our stuff everywhere, perhaps a Subaru??

Mini-vacay

At the end of July we were able to squeeze in a little mini-vacation with our friends from DC, Glynnis and Nathan. All of us were sorely overdue for a vacation so we were all looking forward to some fun in the Florida sun.

They arrived on a Thursday morning in time for us to pick up supplies for the week before heading into downtown St Pete to take in the sights. We got some iced teas at our favorite tea place, Hooker Tea, and sipped them while strolling down the street. We eventually made it to Ceviche, a great Spanish tapas place for a late lunch and early drinks - our favorite being the Sangria they make with cava, the Spanish sparkling white wine. I usually hate sangria (and wine), but these are divine and impossible to resist.
After a lovely meal we strolled back to the car in time to meet Wade at home after work. That night we made some more sangria while Nathan made us savory plantains. Salty sweet goodness topped with sharp cheddar cheese - magical. Also perfect drinking food. :)

On Friday, Wade took the day off too and we drove the 1:15hr up to the world famous (seriously) Weeki Wachee Springs State Park to see the mermaid show and swim in the cool freshwater springs. We missed the main show, but got to see a practice show which was pretty funny. Glynnis and I were half-expecting the mermaids to be swimming around the spring as if they were in a public aquarium display or something, but instead they put on performances and shows of The Little Mermaid. We also discovered that the main spring was really crowded and not exactly what we had in mind, so after asking around we figured out where we might be able to get in the river at the local county park. So we headed up to Rogers Park, had a picnic lunch, people watched (it was the local swimmin' hole after all), and finally rented some kayaks to paddle up river to look for a quieter place to swim. And right here is the exact moment I will forever shoot myself for not taking the camera.

We paddled up river - the put in was only about 2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico - so we were against the current a bit as the tide seemed to be slacking or going out with the river. After a little ways up river we came to a cove of sorts and stashed the kayaks to get in for a swim. We used our life preservers as floaties and broke out the trusty Tervis Tumblers and frosty beverages to enjoy cooling off in the river. We watched a parade of people, young and old, go by in the river and the guys debated using the nearby rope swing (there was lots of rope swinging and tree-jumping to be had in the river). Despite the cooling and blissful relaxation, we finally wondered what else lay up river and decided to find out. Apparently just in time because a few small boats of people stopped in the cove to see the small cave at the bottom. Apparently we were floating above a hidden 140ft deep sinkhole known as Hospital Hole! We shoved on and enjoyed the scenery but definitely felt like we were baking in the sun. Eventually, the river started to clear as we left the Gulf tidal influence behind, and the water started getting even cooler. We explored a little side channel and marveled at the huge mullet in the river, but largely the river seemed too busy to be really "wild". We pulled out again where you could really feel the current of the spring outflow and swam in the 72 degree water - chilly, but so very refreshing. Finally, as we were turning around to head back a girl paddling up stream announced "The manatees are coming!" as if she were a parade marshall. The whole afternoon we'd seen signs about manatees on all the docks and had heard from folks this was a place to see them, but we hadn't had any luck at all. So we slowly drifted down river with the current until Glynnis and Nathan suddenly turned around and excitedly, but quietly, signaled "Manatees!!". The four of us were treated to watching a mother and baby manatee (no bigger than one of our dogs) feeding on a shallow bank in the clear river. We gave them some space, but stuck around to watch for a while - this was the first time Nathan had seen manatees in the wild before. Once the baby realized we were sticking around, he zoomed over to check us out, snuffling the air around us and nuzzling the kayak. We were beside ourselves with an intense desire to pet him and get in the water to swim, but it's a federal/state offense to disturb endangered manatees, so we had to keep ourselves in check. (The more people interact with manatees, the more comfortable they get with people - and boats. Which means manatees lose their fear of people, or worse are attracted to people for food, and become more likely to get hit and killed by boats.) The baby manatee took turns checking us out and checking out Glynnis and Nathan, then he would come along and bump up against or rub on the kayak like he was trying to play with us. It was amazing how playful and curious the baby was, even when we tried to retreat from him. Eventually his mom was ready to move up river, so we continued the other way, passing more manatees and people trailing them.

We had a perfect day in the cool water and streaming sunshine so after turning in our kayaks, we stopped at the restaurant next door for snacks and drinks . We led Nathan on a culinary tour of Florida with fried spicy pickles, smoked fish dip, and fried gator tail. :) Just before we left, a flotilla of manatees came cruising down the river - a call went up around the park and the restaurant and people came out to watch over a dozen manatees heading back out to the Gulf. We finally got in the car feeling fully satisfied with our day and headed home to grill up some veggies for dinner then crashed into bed early.

Day three saw us heading down to Anna Maria for a beach day. We stopped at our favorite Mexican place on the island, Tortilla Bay, for the best queso before heading out to our usual spot on the beach. We parked at Mom and Larry's house then toted everything down for an afternoon of baking in the Florida sun. And baking we were - it was blazing hot and bright out and the water didn't feel all that much cooler. We took turns with the floaties, relaxing with our trusty Tervis Tumbler mugs again to keep us cool. Nathan and I started a round of paddleball, but eventually gave up when we were so tired we just couldn't keep it up any longer. After a few hours we were all hot enough that we packed up and went back to Mom and Larry's to make more rum punch and float in the pool. Eventually Mom, Larry, Wendi, Aaron, Ashli, and Tyler came back to the house to join us in the pool. We had fun playing paddle ball with everyone in the pool but then had to get cleaned up quickly for a dinner reservation at our favorite sushi place, Ocean Star. There we consumed an absurd amount of sushi, but after baking in the sun all day and playing paddleball we were ready to eat just about everything in sight.

Sunday morning we took Nathan and Glynnis back to the airport and it was sad to see them go - we always have so much fun with them. And it was so great having them come here to visit for fun, since I usually only get to see them when I'm in DC for work.

That afternoon we headed back to the island to spend some more time with family while they were in town. We had a great afternoon hanging around the pool with Mom, Larry, Wendi, Aaron, Ashli, and Tyler.

You can see our pictures here on our Picasa site. Thanks to Glynnis for being better about taking pictures than I was - most of those on the site are hers.

Fire and belly dancers...

Yes, that should get your attention. :) It definitely got ours! Wade's birthday was, by request, a very low-key affair this year and was to not include celebration. Which as you might have guessed, goes against every fiber of my celebratory being (see exhibit A: our garage is full of 20 bins of decor for a year's worth of holidays). Despite the clamp-down this year, I broke out the birthday tub and bought a few more decorations to ensure the house was bannered and streamered to the hilt when he awoke on his birthday. Heh-heh, mission accomplished: Wade's birthday celebrated. I made him cinnamon rolls and he opened cards and presents over breakfast. Then I was promptly at a loss as to what to do. The other decree of the birthday man was to have no plan at all, a plan-less day in fact... which made it incredibly difficult for me to comprehend.

We journeyed out to the beach house to clean the pool and lounge a bit before lunch, then enjoyed the best queso for a late lunch. After which we headed to the outlet mall to get the birthday man a few more clothes for work. Then we headed home to settle in for a bit. He didn't even want to go out to dinner and didn't want me to bother making a cake. At this point I think I was visibly loosing my cool. No birthday dinner?! No birthday cake?! What the hell?!

Finally, he was up for getting gelato so we headed downtown for a little ice cream night cap. To our complete surprise, we encountered the 1 year anniversary party of the Chihuly Museum downtown. So we grabbed gelato and headed over to watch - they were celebrating in the park with an African drum and dance show which was pretty awesome. Once that ended, it was almost dusk, and out came a woman with a fire pot and dressed like a belly dancer - and we were officially intrigued. At that point Wade pushed up towards the front for a better look - and he was not disappointed. Three belly dancers proceeded to dance with a rotating collection of flaming props: candelabra like fans, rings on their fingers, a whip, a set of chains (my favorite), and the best in show and Wade's favorite: the flaming hula-hoop. Yeah, you're reading that right, a flaming hula-hoop. Belly dancing + flaming hula-hoop = Wade's best birthday ever. And to his credit, we never would have seen it had we planned out the day, so kudos to you my anti-birthday man. Too bad I wasn't equipped with a better camera, but I managed to get a few pictures to give you a feel... yes, that's a flaming whip at the bottom. Need I say more? Man, we love St. Pete!

Traveling fool

So it's been quiet on our blog and not by choice. My travel schedule and workload went from annoying to stifling pretty quickly, so even my time at home has felt hurried and hectic and as I've struggled to catch up between work trips. So much time in airports/airplanes or heading to meetings has made it difficult for me to keep up with a lot of things at home, let alone even check my email or blog. My work computer is not great, and being stuck for hours (sometimes days) at a time where there is no internet has been extremely frustrating. I have decided that I need an iPad so I can still keep up with my personal stuff (emails, bills, blog, reading, the outside world?!) since my work computer is not able to do that. Unfortunately, that's going to take some time to save up for, but I think it'll be worth it. A lot of colleagues have made the leap to an iPad to stay on top of their personal life and their work because they can do both on an easy to use, internet-connected device. (I'll spare you the infomercial, but let's just say it's a wonder everyone doesn't already use one for work)

I tried to figure out what happened over the last few months, and looking back through my calendar since my last post, I found this:

March 15-18: DC

March 30-Apr 1: DC

(April 2: Tweed Ride & Shuffle)

(April 9: Housewarming Party)

April 10 & 11: DC

(April 15-17: Mom & Larry's weekend with us for the art festival)

(April 20-25: Wade's folks visiting and Lake Disston)

April 25-29: DC

(May 1-4: Marilyn & Tyler visiting and Orlando)

May 4-7: Los Angeles, CA

May 7-9: San Francisco, CA

May 9-10: Monterey, CA

May 15 & 16: Chicago, IL

May 16-19 : DC

(May 27 & 28: Kellyn and Michelle visiting)

(May 27-30: Memorial Day weekend on Anna Maria w/ Dustin & Katie)

June 7-10: Ocean City, NJ

(June 9-12: Alison, Mike, & Rylan visiting)

June 13 & 14: Rhinelander, WI

June 14-17: DC

I've been doing my best to cram in friends and family between the work trips to keep myself sane, but work seems to be crushing out any fun time.

I have a week at home, then I'm back in DC the last week of June. So I am trying to make the most of it and get caught up on things. I have posted pictures for my California trip, the Tweed Ride, our Housewarming party, Marilyn and Tyler's visit, and our trip to Lake Disston with Wade's folks at our Picasa site, feel free to check them out.... (thanks to Katie and Dustin for many of those pictures!)

We've also been madly planting, watering, and weeding the garden and yard which we're really enjoying, but is taking more effort than we expected. We're learning a lot, but also looking forward to the day when the native plants are established and don't need quite the hand-holding they do right now while it's hot and merciless out.

By the way - welcome to the newer bloggers out there (Marilyn, Rachel, and Alette - all to the right on our blog)! Thanks for joining the fold so I can hear about what you're up to! When I am away from home, reading about your adventures has made me laugh despite being so homesick I can barely smile. :)

Breathless

So I have been reading updates on our friends blogs (to the right) and seeing the wonderful new things in their lives and it has been really great to be able to know what's going on in their lives, even if I can barely keep up with my own. I am sorely over due with pictures and stories and will try working on them very soon. Just wanted to post something so you know we haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. I am currently in DC for my third time this month and I am truly worn out on work. I have been traveling a lot and working two jobs in essence until we hire a campaign director so I've been managing a coalition of people and doing my primary duties of outreach and everything else in between.

I can't really put into words right now how I'm feeling other than this: you know that feeling when you're driving a moving vehicle and you momentarily lose control of it as you hit ice or water and you realize it's all moving too fast or erratically for you to control it? Yeah, I've felt like that since February... just when I thought work couldn't get more busy or hectic, it punked me and took things to a whole new level.

I'm going to try catching up on my posts on my way out to California next week... I promise. :)

5th Anniversary

This year we had a lot of work planned, so I took an extra day off work to make it a full four day weekend. Friday I ran some errands and started my second stained glass project. That night we met Dustin and Katie for a drink at a new local pub, then Indian food for dinner before making it over for a few rounds of shuffleboard. The courts were absolutely the most packed I have ever seen them and it never fails to amaze us how many people our age are there enjoying shuffle and their beverage of choice fresh from their cooler. :)

Saturday morning was our anniversary so we had a nice breakfast of waffles at home before heading to the market for veggies. We rounded our the trip with the best gelato and iced tea before having tacos for lunch. After that we headed to Weedon Island Preserve to check out one of the county parks near our house. We'd heard great things about it and wanted to see what it was all about. It was hands down one of the better marine education visitor centers we've seen in a very long time (if ever) and there were nice walking and paddling trails. We're looking forward to enjoying such a great park practically in our back yard. After dinner we cleaned up and Wade took me to a surprise dinner in Tampa at Ciro's Speakeasy and Supper Club. We had hand made cocktails and fantastic food in a 1920's style-speakeasy and everything was fantastic. We can't wait to go again with more people - perhaps next time dressed for the themed-occasion like the group in front of us. :) I am dying for an excuse to find a 1920's vintage dress to match our house afterall... :)

Sunday reinforcements arrived to begin the yard extravaganza. It was a good thing Mom and Larry came to help because clearly we were in over our heads. The garden section of the fence was revealed to be in a lot worse shape than we thought (once the evil invaisive plants were yanked) so we decided to rebuild it and move it a bit to gain more room in the part of the yard I am affectionately calling the PFZ (poop-free-zone), also known as The Garden (below).

It's the part of the yard we'll be growing food in and relaxing in and the last thing I want to do is step in dog poop there. No thank you. It's also the part of the yard we're going to save as our project space to learn and experiment with native plants for butterflies, rather than let our landscape guy plan it for us. So the men-folk spent the day rebuilding the fence while Mom and I attacked the bougainvillea. This was no small undertaking as this bougainvillea is large, in charge, old, and mean. It was also in desperate need of trimming. We finally succeeded, but not until after it looked like Mom and I lost a fight with a ferral cat and were bleeding and scratched. That tree is not on my happy list. We also enlisted the help of Dustin and Katie for a few minutes to finally move the picnic table into the Garden (hooray!!). It was dumped on the far side of the house the day we moved in last fall and it hasn't moved since. It finally made the Garden feel like a place to hang out once we actually had a place to sit and I'm so excited! The guys finished constructing the fence around the table (it's too wide for the gate so it was key to move it before the final sections went up) and called it a day. We went to get Mexican food for dinner then came home to crash on the couch and watch a movie.

Monday morning Wade went into work for a half day while Mom, Larry, and I had breakfast then ran a few errands. Wade came home for lunch and by then the dew had dried enough that the guys started painting the fence while Mom and I started cleaning up the garden - getting the old pots and plants out, digging out the crap behind the garage, and ripping off the strangler vines from our Ponytail Palm. (Judging by his size, we think he might be pretty old - he's taller than the garage!) We finally made space for the orchids, the bird feeder, birdbath, and my staghorn which made for a little little grouping in the Garden. Mom was the champ doing a lot of the hard labor or uprooting bad plants and digging out the piles of debris. We even made a stack of firewood from the freshly trimmed cherry laurel logs - looking forward to using that next winter! Once the heavy lifting was done I moved over to help the guys finish painting the fence while mom repotted my herbs and some house plants. We celebrated a hard days work by eating chocolate cake on the picnic table and trying to recall all the birds we'd seen in the yard over the weekend: cardinal, mockingbird, osprey, black-crowned night heron, robin, blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker, brown thrasher, red-shouldered hawk... We finally cleaned up and headed to dinner at the Old Northeast Tavern then swung by our favorite gelato place before Mom and Larry headed home. It was a fun and extremely productive weekend and it definitely won't be the last as we're gearing up to finally get plants into the ground very soon. :)

Thanks for the help everyone!

Yard-apalooza

This year for our anniversary we decided that what we really wanted was a yard we could enjoy (rather than taking a trip). So, President's Day weekend was designated yard-a-palooza for us.

To prepare for the weekend's activities our native landscape guy brought a crew out to hack back the neglect in our yard - the previous owner left us massive amounts of old, invasive, poorly-trimmed bushes, trees, and vines in our yard. Wade and I had already taken a whack at a lot of it over the past few months, but our efforts paled in comparison to what was achieved this week. They ripped out truckloads of evil invasive exotic plants, gave some boundaries to our bountiful cherry laurels, and finally showed the massive yucca who was boss. As a result, our yard looks even bigger and we have some more sunny areas to plant fruit trees! We also can start filling back in with native plants that will require less water and bring in birds and butterflies. More sunny space also means more ground for us to use to

grown things we can eat too - oranges, lemons, limes, carambola (star fruit), avocados, veggies, and herbs. We even have a small banana tree in the yard and a pineapple in a pot. :) Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our rotting grapefruit tree to make this possible (below).

We're still working through how we can lay out raised veggie beds in the garden and install gutters and cisterns to maximize our ability to water plants without tapping an already limited resource in Florida.

The plan is that our yard can support us and the wildlife, and that it will be a place to relax with friends and family. I think we're well on our way!

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.