Sunday, June 20, 2010

puzzeling

One of my favorite things to do at grandma's house is to go down stairs to the puzzle table and sit with her (and sometimes her friends) and work the puzzle. Most of the time the puzzle is challenging but not horribly bad. Today the puzzle was challenging! It was of a candy jar with random stuff thrown in. The colors were similar throughout the puzzle. The worst part was when we finally finished it a piece was missing. sigh!

Then onto brunch to celebrate our victory at the puzzle table. Dinner was delicious! My grandma knows how to through a brunch.

Unfortunately after brunch it is time for me to get going. I hit some traffic but in all it was a smooth drive and arrived home just in time for dinner. Perfect timing!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Mount Vernon

Today could not have gone better! Grandma and I took our time eating breakfast and getting ready to go. the drive was relatively traffic free (and I love the George Washington Parkway, it is a beautiful). Grandma got a kick out of the GPS Recouculating every few blocks toward the end, I'm not sure why it was hell bent on us getting off the parkway when it took us right there!

Here are some photo's of our adventure. . .
It surprised me that they had a working blacksmith on the property (now). I expected the people to be charicters, reinforced by the fact that the blacksmith's cabin was relativly cool on the side we walked in. When I noticed the guy was covered in sweat I had to go over and investigate. A window was stratigically placed so us guests could see what he was up to. The fire tipped me off that he was real. The lady watching over him said that he made all of the nails and iron work for the property.



In honor of fathers day George himself graced us with his presence to give a his history. After we were done learning we jumped in for some photo's. His outfit must have been very uncomfortable as it was not made out of cotton (wool I think). He was hot!



Here is George speaking to Grandma.

And a photo of the house from the Patomic. It is a little blurry but one of the better one's.
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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Cellphone saga

For the first time in all the years that I have had a cellphone I had never washed it. Until today. It is a very good thing I was planning on replacing it soon. It is strange that i went months with out a car (sharing one with pat) but after 3 days with out a cellphone I was going crazy.

I am normally very good about checking my pockets before washing jackets and pants. Apparently the drive home was tiring enough that after checking all of the pockets in the laundry that was left for today to do, I did not think one bit about grabbing my jacket from the ride and throwing it in the proper color basket with out checking the pockets.

At least I have an idea of what I want.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Princess and the Pea

Last night I felt like the Princess and the Pea.

I fell asleep with my phone in my pocket and it did not stay there all night. As a matter of fact it found a place right beneath me and decided that it was comfortable. though it could have been more uncomfortable it did wake me up, not enough to think clearly mind you. I placed it right back into my pocket.

It again did not stay there but found that nice little spot under me.

Thankfully the next time I awoke I had the smarts to move the phone to my purse and keep it out of my pocket.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Masters part 2

Tonight is looking like I once again will skip the group thing. 2.5 hours is a lot of time to pass, then I would not get home until 10 PM. I looked at apartments in the area to see if they dropped at all. They have not they start at 1300/month. Even though I would get at least 1 hour of my life back and live much closer to my expensive gym I just can't do it.

It is looking like I am meant to be a solo swimmer.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Masters Swimming

I was so excited to learn that Lifetime had a masters swimming program. It was going to be so great swimming with other people again. Even the start time of 7:30 could not dampen my spirits.

today was to be the first time I swam with the group. It was perfect as I had a dentist appointment to pass some of the time. when I got out and headed strait to the gym I realised exactly how annoying this was going to be. It was another 1.5 hours before it started.

I swam alone (ish). Maybe Thursday will be better, but it is doubtful.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Happy Birthday

Today is Pat's 32nd birthday, I skipped the gym to spend a little more time with him and suggest going out to eat as he likes to eat out. Surprisingly he skipped the eating out and opted instead to grill for us. I like that he cooked me dinner on his birthday (I did cook the vegetable and couscous).

I got him the cologne he used to wear along with another that he might like. Unfortunately for me my parents showed me up and got him coffee fresh from Costa Rica. He loved it, not that he didn't like my gift but it was not as good as the coffee.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

DC s. Newark.

The cherry blossoms in DC are a known attraction. Newark is jealous of this fact. They boast that their Park has more trees and more variety then DC. In short they want to be better then DC.

We went this weekend to check out the trees in the park (it is one of the safer sections). Actually the fact that that needs to be clarified takes points from the Newark Park.

Pat read that the park was to be peak when we visited. I am unhappy to announce that it was not even close. Very few trees had full blooms and most were not really blooming at all. We parked roughly in the middle of the park and watched the bikers get ready for their race. as we were walking to find a map of the park we saw a referee (maybe unofficial) sitting on a motorcycle. I couldn't help but point out the unjustness of the situation. Lucky for me he has a sense of humor.

We finally found a fairly large group of trees and a better parking lot when I decided I was sick of the purse I carried as it would not stay on my shoulder. We walked back to pats car and after throwing my purse in the trunk drove over for a better parking spot. We actually skipped the other spot in favor of a lot near a building touting all of the reasons Newark's blossoms are better then DC's. Apparently Newark was first to plant.

After the park Pat and I went to a Portuguese BBQ place and it was delish. We ended up taking it to go but it traveled well (except for the pound of french fries we got with the meal).

In my book DC wins.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter

After weeks of looking for my perfect Easter lunch and finally finding it one week before my date with grandma, Easter is finally here! We spent the morning Puzzling and made lots of progress. 20-30 pieces remained when we went up to get ready for our brunch. The puzzling sufficiently distracted us almost making us late for our brunch.

Thankfully we arrived (just) on time and got a nice table by the window. I always enjoy brunch at grandma's house and today was no exception. After filling ourselves with ham and cookies and other great food we made our way back to the puzzle table where it took Mary Lou, Grandma and I almost 45 minutes to get the puzzle finished! It is a truly hard puzzle indeed when the last few pieces are soo hard!

Unfortunately i had to go home, the only upside is the weather was nice.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Memorial Mall

Or at least that is what I think the park housing all of the memorials in DC is called. That is what I have been calling it. (It is officially the National Mall).

Grandma and I got up and out the door early, by 7:30. We were on a mission to see the pretty cherry blossoms. Traffic was very light until we got onto the roads surrounding the park then we had to look for a parking spot while dodging cars (and a few people). It actually was not that bad of a drive around the park. We had a great view for when we could not go anywhere. We got 3/4 around the park when we found our parking space. We had to wait for the guys to finish their conversation and take apart their bikes (which was quite the task). It was worth the wait!

We were a short walk from the reservoir and trees. on the way was the construction site where Martin Luther King's memorial will stand. We snuck a peak but their was not much to see they were just breaking ground.

Grandma found a park bench to people watch while I took some photo's and then we had one taken together (and I took one of her). Then we made our way to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. It was nice but LONG. It had lots of nice waterfalls and pools for children to play in (and then get yelled at as it is not allowed).

Our plans to drive by the white house were thwarted by the police who would not let me take a right hand turn onto the road I needed, having to take a left we chose to go back and run our errands.