Weekend

This weekend bought public restroom toilet paper. Ugh. Yes, terrible mistake. This is what happens when you aren't paying attention in the grocery store. Single ply.  Tragedy.  Now I have 8 rolls to get through, like I'm in a gas station restroom. At least I'll save the last soft rolls for the guest bathroom and spare my guests the sandpaper!


In some fun news for the weekend, I went out to celebrate Brooke's 1 year anniversary since ending chemo! WOOHOO! She had a get together at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. I met some of her new friends and caught up with others I hadn't seen in a while.  A good time early night, and great to hang with Brooke!

 

I also did some cooking yesterday, to include a chicken udon soup with SHITAKE MUSHROOMS! That's right, I included my only vegetable nemesis. Actually, fungus.  Either way, I've concluded that I like shitakes, which is a great realization. They have a texture that I don't mind, as compared to button mushrooms which I really have no interest in.  I'll continue trying, as I always do, but this is a breakthrough!

 

I also baked up a coffee cake for the office today, as a morning bite for the folks who had birthdays last week and yesterday.  It was a Barefoot Contessa box mix, and while the crumb and icing were good, the cake was dense and not amazing to me. The folks in the office liked it, but I think I'm just not a huge fan of coffee cake overall, so lesson learned! Fun to bake up none-the-less.

2012 Startup

Well I let the holidays come and go without a peep over here. Yet no one yelled at me! Hooray!

That likely just means that you all know not to check over here very frequently anymore, and I'm sad to say I'm not sure things will get much better.

I do have fun news to share, along with info about my Christmas vacation at home. I'll post pictures this week.

In the meantime, I should share the news that I'm a fellow on Capitol Hill this year.  Around Thanksgiving I found out that I was accepted into the Georgetown Capitol Hill Fellowship program!  My office made my program participation contingent upon getting into a Congressman's (or woman's) office that related to Commercial Space Transportation.  They weren't ready to let me go for a year without a bit of benefit for the office.  So with the help of our Legislative Affairs lead at AST, I got a few interviews with a representative on the Hill and got into the office.  The rep is chairman of the subcommittee on space and aeronautics, so you can see the connection.

So I'm officially placed in the office as the Space and Aeronautics Fellow, and I am enjoying the experience so far, as I get into the swing of things here in the office.  Luckily the session hasn't started so things are a little quiet and I'm learning the ropes.

I'll keep you posted on life here in DC, but I have to warn you that I might be locking down the blog again soon, so stay posted!

Thanks for checking in once in a while. I'll be posting some photos and news about the holidays later this week!  =)

Belated Thanksgiving

Well I enjoyed this Thanksgiving with some new friends in the area. We started the morning by running the Arlington Turkey Trot 5K. Having not run or trained in any way for this race, I was wary of how I would perform, but I actually did decent, running it in 28:15. Not terrible, and my muscles were killing me from a leg workout two days before.

So I spent that afternoon with my friend Angela and some of her girlfriends. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and Bridgette (our kind host) sat down for about 20 minutes to eat with us before she had to leave and go eat a meal with her family. So she essentially held an orphans Thanksgiving for her friends, and then couldn't enjoy much before heading to spend time with her own family. Very sweet.

With my new friend Angela who I've been enjoying lots of great time with!

 

 

 

 

Delicious Turkey

Plates from the Amalfi coast. I recognized them instantly as they look very similar to my own from Positano, one of my all-time favorite places.

This was the pumpkin trifle that Bridgette made, that I was mad for. So delicious.

An amazing plate of food that I scarfed down and loved every bite

My car still smells like campfire!

For Veterans day Angela and I went out to Big Meadows campground in the Shenandoah to escape from the city!
We left Arlington on Friday morning after hitting the grocery store and buying enough food for an entire week!
After leaving town we hit a Dick's Sporting Goods for last minute supplies and made it to the park around 1, with free admission for Veterans Day, which was an added bonus!
We chose a camp site and set up a few of our minimal pieces for our "car camping", before heading out on a short hike. We left around 3:30 on a 3.3 mile loop near our campsite. What we didn't take into account was that the loop had a 1000' vertical drop, which we slowly covered over the first 2 miles. Upon reaching the Falls (Lewis Falls loop hike) the sun was getting dangerously close to setting. So we had to really move up the 1000' back up the hike. We broke a good sweat and made it back to camp just in time.
I didn't have much opportunity for photos in the moment that night, since we worked for an hour to start our fire with the damp wood they sold us in the park. Luckily a nice man shared some of his dry wood with us and we finally got a fire started to warm us up in the 30 degree 15mph wind! The wind penetrated us and Triton was freezing. I struggled to get the stove and lantern started, but finally managed so we could enjoy a tasty pasta dinner with garlic bread and dessert finished with cocoa and schnapps and s'mores!
We camped in the car and started it up for some heat around 4AM. Overall it was a great time out of town, and we took our time coming home the next morning stopping through Sperryville. Lastly we stopped in Warrenton for a diner breakfast (actually lunch).
I just love getting out into the wilderness and away from the city! Hoping for more trips next spring and summer. This was a good practice run!