CHEESE!!!!

We're about to leave for a French cow's milk cheese tasting at my favorite cheese shop, Cheesetique. Will give an update later.

Back from Richmond

We didn't end up going to see Carbon Leaf. We got to Richmond around 2:45pm. MTH wanted to see the USA versus Italy soccer match. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings in the Bottom. Of course, we had a few beers and wings. Then, we went to BL's places and had more to drink (although I did switch to water). Then we went to the Hard Shell for dinner around 8pm. We had a cocktail each and shared a bottle of wine. We took our time and enjoyed dinner. By the time we finished, it was well after 10pm. So, we didn't make it to the concert in time. I was disappointed and I'm sure that MTH was even more disappointed. We did get up this morning and have brunch at the Hill Cafe with BL and Brit Girl. I definitely have a great time hanging out with them. Hopefully they'll be able to make it up for our cookout on 7/8.

Getting Excited

We leave for our trip to St. Thomas is less than 2 weeks. It's going to be such a good time.

Can you believe it?

1. We're going to Richmond today and not for me to work. We're going to visit some friends and see Carbon Leaf, a band that MTH has liked since he lived in Richmond. I also really like hearing them live.

2. We just finished watering and weeding the plants on the deck and in the backyard. The only ones not looking too good are the hanging plants. The issue is that they dry out very easily and I don't always remember (or am not able) to water them everyday. I almost think that they need to be watered more than once a day! If these get to the point of being basically dead, we'll throw them out. Then, I'm not sure what we'll put there.

3. We re-decorated the living room last week finally. We have some nice new shelves and we now even have DVR. MTH is especially excited about the latter. We also cleaned up the basement quite a bit. MTH could have a poker game down there now!

That's all for the amazing things that are "unbelievable" in our lives right now. We finally got up off the couch and got something done.

Memorial Day Weekend

In case you're interested, here's what we did over the Memorial Day weekend.

Friday - The Lazy Day:
My long weekend start early as I took Friday off. I had lunch with a friend in our neighborhood and met a new neighbor. She's very cool. I invited her and her husband to our cookout on Monday and she invited us to theirs on Sunday. That evening, MTH and I headed to Wintergreen. We had a wonderful meal of Wendy's on the road. We arrived at Wintergreen around 10:15pm. Then the fun began. We got our key to the room and headed over there. I walk in the door and flip the switch to the light. Nothing. Sometimes, those switches are attached to lamps which can be turned off locally. So, I walked into the room and found another switch and flipped it. Again, nothing. We walked around the entire room trying all of the light switches and none worked. We used the glow from MTH's Blackberry to see the phone so that we could call the front desk. They sent a repairman right away. He walked around trying to find the breaker box. Finally, he found it. All the breakers were in the "on" position. At that point, he said "the owners didn't pay their power bill". Aside: Wintergreen is a condo community where people buy condos but then use them kind of like timeshares. The hotel can rent out the rooms when the owners aren't there. But, apparently, the owners still have responsibility for power and other "amenities". End of Aside. The repairman called the front desk and told them that we needed a new room. He then proceeded to tell them that we should get comped for a night because we were very angry. In reality, MTH and I weren't angry. We knew it wasn't the front desk guy's fault but hey, if they wanted to comp us, that would have been just fine. But, we did get moved to a 3 bedroom 2 level condo that faced the mountains. Definitely a much nicer pad.

Saturday - The Day of Wine Tasting:
We were picked up at our mansion condo. We went to 5 wineries! Needless to say, when we returned to the room, we took a 2 hour nap and then woke up hungry. That night we went to the nice restaurant and had a nice meal and fell asleep again by 11pm or so.

Sunday - The Day of Games:
MTH and I left Wintergreen around 11am. We met up with some friends in C-ville for lunch at a Mexican place. I was so happy as I'd been craving some cheap Mexican food for a while. We then headed back home. Since we made it back before 5pm, we were able to go our new friend's cookout in the neighborhood. It's not far but for some reason MTH and I decided that we didn't want to walk. Instead, I rode my bike and he rollerbladed. We had a great time there. We ended up playing a game called Apples to Apples. It was a lot of fun. There's no board or dice, just cards. But it's not a normal card game either. I definitely recommend this game to others. We go so into playing the game that we didn't pay attention to the fact that it was dark. We then had to bike/rollerblade home in the dark. It wasn't too bad but really is not a great idea.

Monday - The Day of the Cook Out:
The cookout turned out great. People really got into playing bocce ball. The specialty food items were a hit. These included grilled Halloumi cheese, grilled doughnuts and fresh made bratwurst from Whole Foods. We'll be having another cookout around 4th of July so I need to start thinking about what new specialties I'll be offering.

Miami was fun

We had a great time in Miami. All we did was lay by the pool, shop, eat and drink. The hotel was an awesome location and the weather over all was all that we could have asked for.

An Homage to ETK

So, I didn't buy any crazy high heels this week. Instead, I went for comfort. But, of course, they must also be cute and cool. Here's my answer to that:



Again, it was taken with my camera phone so I don't know how to get it right side up. You'll just have to turn your head to see it correctly.

Can you see it?

I had a training at the Corcoran last night. When that was done, I just walked over to the Brickskellar from there. I walked down Pennsylvania Ave from 17th to 22nd. In between, I saw the following:

Can you see what doesn't belong?

Caveat: Taken with my camera phone. It would probably be a better picture if I had been able to take a wider angle view. But, you can't complain with a camera phone.

He's Off to Boston

Last night was one of many "last hoorahs" for AG. He and I were on the same team a few years back. He was always a fun guy to work with and hang out with. Even MTH liked him :) Here's a great picture from my camera phone showing AG after his 3rd or 4th shot last night.



We started at the Brickskellar near Dupont Circle. We all just drank beer. Then, we headed to Buffalo Billiards. That's where the shots began. Unfortunately for you dear readers (and fortunately for me), I have no drunken stories of my own. I've had too many in the past and have learned my lesson :)

The reason for the last hoorah is that AG is headed to business school in Boston at Harvard. He'll be making a 3 month trip home to India this summer and then 2 years of fun.

It's going around...

ETK posted this on her blog and I think she expects at least some of us to do the same. So, here are my answers.

Put your name in the subject box.
The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about your friends.
It is fun and has 50 easy questions to answer. Try it; this can be fun and interesting.

1. FIRST NAME? M
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My father - his middle name is the masculine version of M
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? I'm sure it hasn't been too long ago but I can't remember exactly when
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yep
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Turkey
6. KIDS? Phoebe
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOURSELF? Certainly.
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? I've had several but never kept up with it for more than a month at the time.
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? I think so.
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Yes
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cheerios
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Depends on what you mean by strong. I'm not physically strong but otherwise, yes.
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Chocolate
16. SHOE SIZE? 8 or 8.5 for regular shoes; 9.5 for running shoes
17. RED OR PINK? Red
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Slightly crooked top front teeth
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My grandma
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Of course but no one will.
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Khaki cropped pants, blue and green t-shirt and black hoodie
22. WHAT DID YOU EAT LAST? Brown rice cake with peanut butter and glass of milk (afternoon snack)
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Green
25. FAVORITE SMELL? J'Adore
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? MTH
27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Eyes
28. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yes
29. FAVORITE DRINK? Red Wine
30. FAVORITE SPORT? Football (American)
31. HAIR COLOR? Brownish, reddish, blondish
32. EYE COLOR? blue-green
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No
34. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Chocolate
35. SCARY MOVIE OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy
36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Not sure - I don't see very many movies
38. SUMMER OR WINTER? Definitely Summer!!
39. HUGS OR KISSES? Both!
40. FAVORITE DESSERT? Hot chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream (sharing it with MTH at Evening Star)
42. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? MTH
43. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Against the Gods
44. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Laptop when I'm at home and in Richmond; Black with wrist support in my cube
45. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Nothing
46. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SOUNDS? Never thought about it
47. STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles
48. THE FURTHEST YOU BEEN FROM HOME? France
49. HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? It seems like I should but not sure.
50.WHERE WERE YOU BORN? North Carolina

Halloumi

MTH and I discovered another cheese. This time it's not from France or California. It's from Cyprus. It's called Halloumi. I first read about it in my biweekly Whole Foods newsletter. There was an interesting recipe included in the email. When we were in Cheesetique and MTH remembered to ask about it. She had it. (ETK should note that we did NOT buy it from evil Whole Foods - of course, we bought the rest of the food we cooked at Whole Foods). If you clicked on the recipe link above, you'll have seen that it says to grill the cheese. Somehow it's magical cheese. It doesn't melt! Then, you get to eat it. It's awesome cheese. Maybe on the salty side but definitely a nice change. For our first foray into it, we ate it by itself but I think I'll try it with some veggies next time. We also read that in Cyprus, they eat it for breakfast after sauteing it in a pan. I'm thinking we'll try that soon too. I also read that it's good on kebabs. So many possibilities!

Pictures of our Deck

In case you're interested, here are some pictures from our gardening work!

Purple ones are verbena and pink ones are non-stop blooming begonias

Rosemary, Chives, Sage and Oregano

Hanging Plants with Geraniums and a Purple Flower that I Don't Remember the Name

More pictures to follow of the actual gardening in the yard.

Chili Cook Off

MTH and I went to the DC 101 Chili Cook Off yesterday. We've figured out that we're too old for those kinds of things. Not the chili cook off portion - we definitely love eating chili. The crowd part is what we're too old for and the lines!! We had to stand in line first for our arm bracelet and beer tickets. Then, we had to find our way through a sea of people in order to find the tasting booths for trying out the chili. We figured out that we were too late for quite a few of the tastings :( But, of the 3 or 4 that we tasted, they were all very good. I definitely wish we'd been able to taste more. After we finished with the tasting, we listened to Better than Ezra. Then, since we hadn't gotten our fill of chili, we had chili nachos from Hard Times. They were definitely good but we can get Hard Times' chili any time since there's one just down a few blocks on King Street. At least they Red Hook beer (and not just watery Bud Light!).

The Love Boat

I went out to dinner on Thursday night with a friend of ours, Marky. MTH was out of town in NYC for work. Little did I know that I'd get the privilege of hearing the them from "The Love Boat" sung in karaoke. Marky is definitely a good singer. Of course, good singing and the Love Boat probably don't normally go together in a sentence. His performance was right on with how you remember the song when you were little. Very low, lounge singerish, just all around cheesy. There were other songs sung that night (none by me since most of you know that I can't carry a tune) but the only one I'll remember from that trip to karaoke is "The Love Boat".

Dinner Last Saturday

Yes, I'm behind. I meant to post about this one earlier this week. But, the food we made was so good, I have to share :)

When SM visited, she had mentioned that she grilled some tuna. So, I decided that we could do it to. Using my Bobby Flay's Boy Gets Grill cookbook, MTH learned how to sear the tuna on the grill. I made an Avocado-Tomatillo Sauce to go on top. It consisted of grilled tomatillos, a grilled jalapeno, lime juice, honey, avocado, onion, cilantro and oil. You mix everything together in the blender except the avocado, onion and cilantro. So, it's like a vinaigrette with chunks of avocado, onion and cilantro. For the side dish, we made Grilled Asparagus and Rice Salad with Goat Cheese and Spicy Vinaigrette. The original name is actually Grilled Asparagus and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese and Spicy Black Olive Vinaigrette. I didn't own any quinoa and MTH isn't a big fan of olives. It still turned out great! I'll most likely be making it at our next cook out (which happens to be on Memorial Day in a little over a week).

Once we sat down to eat, we were very pleased with the meal that we put together. MTH was an integral part of the preparation as he did all of the grilling while I put everything together. Unfortunately, it was too cool to sit outside. Hopefully tomorrow night we'll be able to enjoy all of the gardening we've done by sitting out on our deck.

Gardening

It seems that I'm now learning about plants. Over the past two weekends, we've "transformed" our yard. We planted lots of different plants in the front and back yards. Begonias, non-stop blooming begonias, alyssum, angelonia, daylilies, coleus, verbena and petunias.

It's nice to accomplish something. Plus, now we can walk out onto the deck and look at a much prettier yard. There's still some work to be done. A couple of our azalea bushes died so there are now a couple of holes where they used to be. We need to find something to take their place. Maybe we'll figure that out this weekend.

We have a cookout coming up on Memorial Day so that gives us even more impetus to finish.

Paris

It's been a year since my last trip. Based on all the jokes people tell about me, that's a long time. I didn't go to the City of Lights with my then fiance, MTH. Instead, it was a girls only trip with MAK. We tried to get EE to come too but she has to procure visas so it's much more of a hassle. Plus, she was changing jobs at the time. Anyway, MAK and I had a great time. Here's a picture that will prove my point.



We were reminiscing a little through email this past week. We've decided that we must keep up the tradition of taking a vacation together. Several years back, she and I took a long weekend trip to Cape Cod. It was a great time. We both enjoy eating, drinking wine and walking around places exploring things. We also took a short bike tour one afternoon. I went out and bought a bike after that. I've been pretty good about riding it (of course, it now needs a tune up so I haven't ridden it yet this year). Here's my favorite picture from that trip.



Back to the topic at hand, Paris. MTH forwarded me an article on CNN yesterday about the many things to do in Paris. He's also ready to go back. For some reason, we really like Paris and France. I'm sure it's more that we love the idea of Paris and France. If we lived there, I think we'd get quite frustrated and fed up. But, by just going for a week or so at a time, we just whet our appetite for all things French (especially the food and wine!). Maybe we'll find a good deal and take a trip over there soon. I hope so.

Of course, I should expand my horizons. There are many other places to see in this world. We did enjoy our time in Dublin and Barcelona for our honeymoon. I've heard that Prague is an awesome place. I'd also love to see Slovakia. My great-grandmother was from there. Although I basically know nothing about the culture, going there would be a great way to learn.

Another Party Disguised as a Horse Race

We've been invited to a Kentucky Derby party this Saturday. It should be fun but I still have to find a dress and a hat! Hopefully tomorrow in Richmond I'll have some luck at the Nordstrom's. I'll keep you posted. SM comes to visit starting on Thursday. She'll also be going to the party with us. She already has her dress and hat. I'm so behind. MTH can just go into his closet and get something together at the last minute. It's so unfair. Of course, I shouldn't complain - it gives me an excuse to buy a new dress! I think we'll cook out again on Sunday. I love this time of year. The weather is wonderful and so far there hasn't been too much rain but it's also not extremely dry. The only complaint is that there are a lot of caterpillars on our back porch. Our neighbors' trees on both sides have the nests in them. It's interesting, we actually have no trees in our backyard. They're all around the perimeter of our yard and give us great shade but aren't ours.

Foxfield

My first time going to Foxfield was yesterday. It's a big party disguised as a horse race. MTH and a couple of friends and I got in to Charlottesville on Friday night. They went out but I went to sleep. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it through the day (from 11am-6pm out in the sun) on Saturday if I stayed out too late. They got in at 2:30am. There's definitely no way I would have been able to function on Saturday if I'd stayed out with them. They had fun though so that's what counts. Plus, they were able to function on Saturday. Although MTH did not go out to dinner with us that evening after Foxfield as he was fading fast. The races themselves were actually exciting to watch but there's a lot of down time in between. Thus, there were snacks and drinks. Plus, we all stand around talking and catching up. It was quite fun. Then, this evening, a couple friends came over and we grilled out. We had those homemade brats from Whole Foods again. They're awesome. I also grilled some sweet potatoes. I brushed them with a fresh herb mixture. Then, we had Thin Mint milkshakes for dessert. It was a great meal and overall a great weekend.

I'm back...

but just for the evening. I'll leave for Richmond for 4 days tomorrow. I was in Macon for the weekend for my Wesleyan college reunion. It's been TEN years since I graduated. Definitely hard to believe! It was fun to see people I hadn't seen in a long time. Some it had only been a couple and some it had been the entire 10 years. The weekend was well planned and the weather cooperated for the most part. I also got to see ETK, KS, MD, LS, ETK's husband, Jason and Jason's friend. We went to brunch at Einstein's in Midtown (at 12th and Juniper). I enjoyed my cheddar shortcakes although I couldn't even eat half.

This week at work is all training. The first 2 days are the All Stat conference. It'll be 100 statisticians in one place :) Then, the last 2 days are an actual training where we dicuss some theory as well as policy. I'm actually presenting a 45 minute presentation so I'm a bit nervous.

Next weekend, MTH and I are going to Charlottesville to Foxfield. I've somehow never made it to this annual event. I just hope it doesn't rain.