Racing

Last Sunday, I ran a Valentine's Day race called "Love the Run You're With". My sister ran it with me and pushed me the entire way. The boyfriend, who ran and finished before me, jumped in with us for the last 100 feet or so and we finished together. The pictures were finally posted, and here they are (I have on the red shorts, sister has on the gray shirt, and the boyfriend has on the white shorts):

Weekend Recap - 3Day Edition

This LONG weekend was great! Friday I got off work early, and the weather was amazing - 70 and sunny. The boyfriend came over and we just chilled at home with my roommates. Saturday we hung out with my old roommate and her husband, met their new cat, and had a nice time catching up. Sunday we went to the American basketball game (the boyfriend's neighbor works for AU and got us free tickets). The game was very intense, came down to the last minute, and American won! But more importantly it was bobble head night, so we made sure to get there early to get ours. Monday I had off for President's Day and I was in super clean / re-organize / de-clutter mode. I donated 2 huge boxes of stuff to Goodwill (and thanks to my roommate for taking me there) and I feel so much better. I did all my laundry and everything has a place, which is such a nice feeling. See below for some pictures:

The middle shelf had been full of my hardcover books, which I moved out to the unused bookshelf in the family room. Now the bookshelf looks a lot less cluttered:


I re-organized my entire closet:


The boyfriend and I at the AU basketball game:

No Heat

Yesterday my roommate was home and smelled gas in the house. She called our gas company and they came out to inspect. They found that there was nothing wrong with our gas, but that our furnace was emitting high levels of carbon monoxide. The technician placed a "Danger- Hazardous Condition" tag on the unit and said that the heat may absolutely not be used until someone comes out to fix it. This means that since yesterday afternoon we have had no heat.



After not getting back to us all day yesterday, our landlord finally got in touch with us today and had the heating people come out to the house to look at the furnace. Apparently now the entire furnace needs to be replaced, meaning it will be at least a few days before we get our heat back on. Thankfully it is not freezing like it was last week, and despite the highs being in the 50s this week, it still is getting down to the 30s at night.

I have never been so happy to go to work before, seeing as our heat actually works there. Hopefully this will get taken care of soon, otherwise I will be staying at the boyfriends place for a few days.

Weekend Recap

Happy Valentines Day to all of you reading this! My weekend was so busy - it started off with me taking the boyfriend out to dinner. Earlier in the week I had bought a LivingSocial deal to Brasserie Beck, so I decided that we should go to dinner on Friday because it was our anniversary (19 months!). I got all dressed up and told him to meet me downtown, but wouldn't tell him where we were going. He had never been to where we ate out, and I think he enjoyed being surprised. All in all it was a great night.

Saturday morning my sister Amy and her 2 friends came over and made brunch and then made Valentine's Day treats for our significant others. We made chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered oranges, chocolate covered oreos, and chocolate covered cherries (are you noticing a theme here). It was so much fun, and I was very impressed with our skills. This is what the final presentation looked like:


Needless to say, the boyfriend loved the treats we made, and thanks again to Amy for organizing it all and for getting all the materials. After the cooking fest, my sister let me borrow the car (isn't she the best) and the boyfriend and I went to Target. I hadn't been shopping in so long, so I went all out - I got workout clothes, DVDs, groceries, and tons of other stuff. Did I mention how much I love Target - all you need in one place. I was able to stock up thanks to me having the car, and don't need to go shopping again for a very long while.

Sunday morning the boyfriend and I signed up for a 5k Valentines Day run. My sister Amy and her boyfriend also ran the race, and Amy decided to run with me. It was fun sister bonding time, and she really helped push me throughout the race. I was very happy with my time, and had so much fun! Pictures aren't up yet, but once available I'll post. After the race, we all had brunch which was fun, and then I took a nap. I'm still sore from the race, but it was worth it. Also, my sister Amy's boyfriend got 16th place overall in the race! Very impressive! He won this mug for doing so great. And of course, thanks to Amy for running with me, and congratulations to the boyfriend for doing amazing, like always!

Winter Wonderland

I know I mentioned in my post yesterday just how lucky I am that I am able to walk to work, but I really have to say again how lucky I am to be so close to work. While my commute in to work yesterday was bad, it was nothing compared to some people's commutes home from work. It took several of my co-workers upwards of 4 to 7 hours to get home last night - which for many including abandoning their cars and walking. Due to great planning, everyone in the DC area left work around 2-3 pm, just as the snow was starting to fall (the government closed at 3pm). However, due to an amazing mixture of cars getting stuck on the roads and everyone leaving work at the same time, the roads were gridlocked AS the storm was happening. Meaning that the plows couldn't through to plow the roads because the cars were stuck on them, and that when cars got stuck in the snow, plows and emergency vehicles couldn't get to them to move them out of the way for others.

While everyone else was sitting in stopped traffic for hours at a time and not moving, I headed home around 5 and despite the sidewalks not being shoveled, had no issues at all. I also have to give props to the metro, because despite the mass chaos on the highways and major roads, the metro seemed to be operating just fine.

After I made it home safely, the boyfriend heard that the buses weren't running in his neck of the woods, so he decided to metro over to my place. He arrived safely, although quite snow covered, and after I made him dinner and were relaxing watching TV, he was getting antsy and suggested we shovel the walk. We got all bundled up, and headed outside to shovel. I started off shoveling, thinking I would do a bit and hand off the shovel when I got tired. I did the steps and saw that the boyfriend looked like the little sibling watching his older sibling enjoy that delicious piece of cake, so I gave him the shovel. I had no idea he loved to shovel so much! He did our entire walkway, the sidewalk, and our neighbors sidewalk (they shoveled our walkway during Snowmageddon last year). He kept saying how much he loved to do this sort of thing and all I could think of was how much of a keeper he was. Thanks again!

Our shoveled walk and sidewalk:


Our neighbors shoveled sidewalk:


One other thing - notice how bright outside it was last night! These pictures were taken around 9pm and with no flash. It looked like daylight out!

All Fired Up

Saturday night, my friend Jesica ("The Bad", of famed The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), invited me to paint pottery at All Fired Up with her boyfriend Chris. I had sooooo much fun and loved it! All Fired Up provided a very relaxing atmosphere to paint away (something I love to do), and the best part was you could even bring in your own food and drinks. The staff was super helpful if you had questions or needed ideas, but didn't bug you if you didn't.

For those of you who don't know how it works, you pick a piece from the wall that you want to paint. There's everything from little boxes, to plates, to mugs, to tiles, to figurines. I was very impressed by the array of options. After you've picked out your piece, you pick out your paint colors, and paint away. When you are finished painting, you leave your piece and they fire it for you, and you pick it up in about a week.

After much debating, I decided to paint a Elephant Bank (like a piggie bank, but the shape is an elephant). I decided to make a bunch of squares on the piece in yellow, red and blue, some overlapping, some not. The painting takes much longer than you would think, mostly because of how many coats you need. I put on 3 coats of each color - the more coats the darker, more rich the color is.

Here are some pictures of the night and the unfired elephant:







Jesica working on her turtle tile


Chris working on his beer stein. He painted the "Piggly Wiggly" pig on it - quite impressive!

I'm Back!

I'm back in DC after an amazing break. I spent a few days in Chicago with the family, and then headed down to St. Louis to meet the boyfriend's family and spend a few days with them. Meeting the family could not have gone better. I felt right at home with them and they did a wonderful job of making me feel like a part of the family.

Chicago:


Before Christmas my mom and sister had been in India for my sister's friend's wedding. They got stuck in Frankfurt for 2 days, when they were finally able to make it back to the US on they day before Christmas Eve. My dad was sick with a sinus infection and my sister and mom were jet lagged, so there was a lot of relaxing going on. Since my sister Amy couldn't make it home for Christmas, and my sister's friend, also named Amy, was going to be around Christmas weekend, we had a replacement Amy for the holidays (see picture). We did a lot of shopping, eating, chilling, and relaxing.

My little sister got me a head wrap for Christmas, which I am obsessed with:


I spent a lot of time hanging with the cats. My sisters have 3 cats - Chloe, Marley, and Lo, and they are such little piggies that they are in your face every time you have food. Here they are giving me the stare-down while I'm in the kitchen:



A few days later, the boyfriend drove up from St. Louis to pick me up. We had a few hours to hang out, so we walked around the city, stopped by the bean, saw the ice skaters, drank hot chocolate, and tried to stay warm.


Then we were off to St. Louis with a short stop over in Champaign, IL to see the University of Illinois (the boyfriend's alma mater) and to see his friend Derek and his family.

When we arrived in St. Louis, the main thing I wanted to do was to see Scott Air Force Base, because I had never been on a base before. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I had no idea that it would be as big as it was. The base was like it's own little city, it even had a Burger King! See below for some pictures:






Before I knew it, it was time to head back to DC.

Bye St. Louis:


Hello DC:

Christmas Plans Shake-Up

I leave for Chicago on Thursday December 23rd to celebrate Christmas with the family. This year there will be different, mainly because there have been snafus along the way so far:

- Not a snafu, in fact quite the opposite, but I found out last night my roommate Emily and I are randomly on the same flight out there!
- My sister and my mom are on their way back from India today, where they went for my sister's friends' wedding. They are stuck in Frankfurt, Germany for the next 3 days due to weather, so they won't be arriving home until Christmas Eve
- Another sister isn't coming home at all for Christmas. She has to work (didn't really understand the whole story on why she couldn't come), but will be spending Christmas with her boyfriend's family in Pennsylvania. She also didn't make it home for Thanksgiving due to her friends wedding.

This is the 1st year ever that we will all not be together for Christmas. It will be the start, I think, of us not all being together for the Holidays, something I am not yet prepared for.

Zoo Lights

Sunday evening I went to Zoo Lights. I had never been before so I was super excited to go. I also couldn't believe that it was FREE! The weather was a bit chilly, but other than that it was awesome. There was a petting zoo with goats, llamas, and cows, a train set, a gingerbread house competition, and of course Christmas Lights!

Here are some pictures:

Tuesday Tip

When we were in New York, the boyfriend and I popped into Crumbs Bakery to get a quick snack while we took refuge from the rain. Since Crumbs Bakery has opened up in DC (I know of one that opened up downtown by Metro Center, and another one is opening up very soon in Clarendon), I've heard great things about it but hadn't yet tried it. Seeing as I wasn't very hungry, the boyfriend decided to get a Black and White Cookie, and given the size of the cookie, I said I would just have a few bites of his cookie. After taking just one bite of the cookie, I couldn't stop eating it. After I devoured way more than half of the cookie, I went back for another one for us to split, and I also got some tea (pictured). The tea was insanely hot when I first got it, but that was my only complaint. It was amazing and delicious, but more importantly had this super fancy lid where there's a piece that slides over the whole for drinking, which might have accounted for the hotness. Basically, you have to go to Crumbs Bakery if you've never been before. But don't be mad at me when you can't stop eating all their food there.

My Travels: New York Addition

As promised, I have a recap and pictures from my trip to New York:

We got to the bus stop early, so we waited around for a bit:


But, we got the best seats in the house (top row, front seat). Going through the Lincoln Tunnel:


This was the view from our hotel room. Yup, that's the Chrysler Building!


Saturday morning, we rode the subway:


Hooray, we made it to our destination:


Which was the Brooklyn Bridge:


After taking our obligatory jumping pictures:



We shopped, ate, walked around, and stumbled upon this:


And then we hit up the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree:


And Times Square:


The next day, it was pouring rain, so we tried to spend most of it indoors. We went to Madison Square Garden and saw the Knicks take on the Nuggets (I'm sporting a Knicks shirt I picked up at the NBA store the day before):


I think this picture sums up the trip:


All in all it was an amazing time! Many thanks to my little sis for making it all happen, you're the best! Hope you enjoyed the recap!