merry christmas!

photo 9: presents

Saturday evening, our church hosted a Christmas party.  The guests of honor were about 100 kids who needed and wanted Christmas presents, without very many opportunities outside of this party to receive those presents.  Some of the older kids and adults put on a little Christmas show, complete with a couple of skits and some caroling.  Dinner was served, then Santa made an appearance.  So many smiles that evening!

Check out some of the presents!

Why am I taking pictures? Original post here.

photo 8: a christmas book

I'm definitely not going to make it through the entire list of photos this December, but a girl can keep trying, right?

I bet you can guess from the title of this post what's wrapped in these packages all tied up with twine.  Shh! Don't tell!

peace and goodwill

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of peace.  To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

-- Calvin Coolidge

photo 7: something cozy

Made a few new beeswax candles in mason jars this week, and specifically made on in an old, stained jar just for myself. I think it gives the bathroom character.

Find the original post here.

a little bit more

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” 

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

photo 6: addressed cards

Alright, so these cards aren't also stamped, like the list suggests, but they're addressed, and that's more than half the battle. So that's good.

You may have noticed that I skipped "something cozy."  That's because I wanted to take another picture this morning like the last one I posted, but I figured that would count as cheating.

The snow/ice mixture that hit the metro DC area on Sunday eventually turned into just plain ice that coated all the trees and all the power lines and all the sidewalks and handrails.  Our power went out for a few hours in a spectacular show of lights as the transformers across the street fizzled, banged, and popped their way out of life.

But, after calming down yesterday, the snow is back!  We're predicted to get at least two inches of snow today, and I'm so excited!  It looks beautiful outside already.

Stay warm today!

photo 5: christmas light(s)

We had snow today!  First the little flakes sputtering down, then the big beautiful flakes sticking to trees and sidewalks and hair and eyelashes, and then the little flakes again as if the snow weren't quite ready to commit to a full winter, yet.

I've heard more of the storm is headed our way, but for now, we're settled in with snacks and football and our little Christmas tree, having a lovely Sunday afternoon in our new apartment.

Find the original photo post here.

Hope you're all staying warm!

photo 4: candy cane

Have you ever eaten these? They're delicious. The only place I can consistently find them is Cracker Barrel (and I don't make it there often,) but I have seen them in other places.

Find the original post of this series here.

advent begins

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.
   "An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’
   "The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all."

-- Edward Hays, A Pilgrim's Almanac

photo 3: a cup of cheer

In this particular case, that cup of cheer is filled with gingerbread coffee.  Mmm.

See the original post here.

photo 2: bows

Alright, so this guy doesn't have any actual bows, but there aren't any wrapped Christmas presents under our tree, yet, and there's a distinct lack of bows in our new apartment.  So I went with twine knots, instead.  Specifically, the ones on my little reindeer, here.

Original list of photos.

twenty five photos of christmas

A few days ago, a friend of mine pinned this (and posted it on facebook).  On the same day (ahem), I realized I haven't been very good about taking and posting photos.  I have a beautiful camera that I love using, but I just haven't used it as much recently, for any number of reasons (can't find a charged battery, too heavy to carry today, etc.)

So, in an effort to improve my skills and post photos to this blog more often, I decided to participate.

Picture 1: something red. 

I'm a couple of days behind, so I'll try and post more soon!

Susannah

happy thanksgiving!

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” 

― Erma Bombeck

home is people

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.” 

― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

moving!

The first piece of exciting news for this fall/winter is fit to print: we're moving!

That's right, we're going from a tiny studio apartment to a kinda-small one bedroom apartment!  This apartment is so fancy, we're going to have things I've never had before in my entire (hah!) adult life.

New things:

1. Dishwasher.  That's right.  I haven't had a dishwasher since I left my parents' house for college.  It's a brave new world, folks.

2. Full-size refrigerator.  Our current fridge is a half-size or young-person size or don't-have-enough-room size or poor-young-recent-grad size or whatever people are calling it these days.  Whatever you want to name it, we're going to have one that's almost twice as big.  Amazing.

3. Counter space.  Currently, we have about 6 inches of counter space.  I wish I were exaggerating.  Full-size kitchen, here I come!

4. Separate bedroom and living room.  Which means we get to have an actual couch. In a living room. With furniture. And curtains.  Like adults have.  Adults have curtains, I think. That sounds right.

5.  Huge bathroom.  Sharing a bathroom with husband will no longer feel quite as much like a weird tetris game.

Quick rabbit-trail sub-list: Things we'll probably never have to say in the bathroom again:

1. "Can you move over a little while you brush your teeth?  I should put on some mascara before leaving for work."  
2. "Dude, you're taking over the whole bathroom."  
3. "Can't you wait five minutes while I put in some hair gel?!"
4.  "Deodorant doesn't go there.  And why is the toothpaste not in its usual spot?  HAIR THINGS GO WITH THE HAIR THINGS.  No, sorry honey.  You're right.  I shouldn't have gotten upset. It's just deodorant."

6. Carpet.  The verdict is out on carpets vs. wood flooring in apartments.  Will let you know if this is a good new thing or a not-as-good new thing.

7.  Triple the closet space.  Honestly, this is better news for hubby.  He probably will still only get a third of our closet (sorry...) but at least the third will be MUCH bigger...right?

8.  Washer and dryer in-unit.  I cannot even explain how happy I am about this.  Cant. Even.

9.  Walls to paint.  I get to paint the rooms!  More on this soon.

Can you tell I'm excited?

whoops

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changing slowly

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter woods.” 

― Henry Beston

autumnal sunshine

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” 

― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

the end of october

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” 

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

delicious autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

George Eliot

racing, racing

Oh my.  I have severely neglected this blog space. So sorry.

In the last 3.5 weeks, hubby and I have run TWO 10k races!  Yes, that's 6.2 miles. Each race.

The first one was nearby, just outside of DC.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took at that race, and it's a pre-race photo.

In this race I managed to totally exceed what I thought I could do time-wise, but had to stop and walk many times. The steady inclines kicked my behind.

The second race was up in Pennsylvania.  We went up to the Runner's World Half Marathon and Festival, and ran the 10k on Saturday morning. We drove up on Friday evening and immediately crashed in bed to try and get some sleep.  Saturday morning came bright and early, but we managed to be enthusiastic and reasonably ready to race.

Sadly, I committed two race-day errors.  The first: lay out all your pre-race stuff ahead of time.  I was packing so quickly on Friday that I actually packed the wrong shoes.  I packed old running shoes that had a few too many miles on them.  My hip wasn't too happy with me, but it ended up being fine.

Which leads me to the second: Don't change anything in your usual routine for race day.  Not only did I bring the wrong shoes, but I couldn't find my warm running fleece and I completely forgot about the slightly-less-useful-but-still-good skiing fleece.  And let me tell you, it was cold.  I ended up buying a lightweight pullover which worked out just fine, but, again, I wore new stuff.

After the race, we cleaned ourselves up and went back to browse the expo and attend the seminar given by Mark Remy.  He was awesome in person, and we won stuff at the Crap Giveaway! Bet you can guess what we won:

Overall, at this race I didn't beat the time from the race in Arlington (I was short about 2 minutes...bummer), but I did beat my more general goal.  This race had many more and much more steep hills, so I still had to pause and walk a few times, but I beat my overall time goal and walked far fewer times.

Feeling pretty awesome!

introverts?

Did you guys see this article/post over at Huffington Post yesterday? 

23 Signs You're Secretly an Introvert

It's reasonably interesting.  Although I don't fit every single one of the categories, I'm surprised at how many apply to me.

I suspect others won't be as surprised as I was (I have my own moments of density).  Even if you don't identify with many things on the list, it's a short read.

blended

"I learned my theology from the hymnal. Long before I was in seminary with Frank Tupper, Molly Marshall, Glenn Hinson, and Bill Leonard, I was taking theology from B.B. McKinney, Fanny Crosby, Martin Luther and Walker's “Southern Harmony.”

What has caused me, a contemporary worship leader, to head back into the waters of tradition and heritage? The shallowness of the vast majority of praise choruses currently available. My twins will soon start coming to “big church,” and I want to make sure they are nurtured in their faith development and not just made to feel good and happy.

I think that is the secret success of the blended style. There will be music that sounds familiar and upbeat and hip to them, but there will also be the great teaching hymns of faith for them to chew on as they grow."

-- David Burroughs

The entire article/conversation can be found here.

library heaven?

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” 

Jorge Luis Borges

inspiration: dishes

One day, I want to have a large, wooden, farmhouse-style table.  A table that gathers friends and family.  On that table, go dishes, centerpieces, serving dishes, glasses of wine, sweet tea, and the delicious food.

When it comes to the dishes, I have fallen head over heels for mismatched china.  It's crazy.  I love it.

So, some inspiration photos!  I started my collection this weekend with a single dessert/salad plate and I could use a little inspiration to keep the vision in mind. 

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washing pillows

I'll tell you a secret about me: I absolutley HATE changing the sheets.  I don't know why, I just don't like it.  I love the feel of clean sheets.  I like to have clean sheets.  I even suck it up and change them (when hubby will help me) without too much fuss.  But I really don't like it.  And I really don't know why.

So, the first time someone mentioned cleaning their pillows to me, I thought, "Why on earth would I want to spend MORE time cleaning bed-related things?"

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While thinking about pillow-related topics and how I probably wasn't being a good wife by not cleaning our bed pillows enough, I decided to do some internet research and found a couple of blog posts about washing/cleaning pillows.

This one suggests washing, then either hanging to dry or drying in the dryer on hot.  Sounds easy and wonderful, except that we live in an apartment building with less-than-stellar dryers.  It would take two dryer cycles to get them dry.  However, it's probably the best post on cleaning pillows that I've found so far!

Good Housekeeping says we should throw them in the washer if they start to smell. Ew. Smelly pillows.  Gross.  They also have ideas for cleaning foam pillows and feather pillows.

Of course, Martha always has the answer.  Apparently, I should be doing LOTS more with my pillows.  Dryer cycle once a month...wash them often... But, to be fair, I'm not nearly as concerned with pillows that sit perfectly fluffed on my bed as most people.  Perfectly fluffed pillows are not one of my top priorities in life.

Jillee over at One Good Thing managed to get the yellow off of her pillows, but I think if I just add a little extra Borax to my homemade laundry soap, it should take care of it.  Especially with newer pillows.  I'm not much of a bleach girl anymore.

This post on SleepBetter.org says we should throw out pillows after 18 months, but that seems like a very short amount of time.  Surely, if I'm better about cleaning them, I don't need to throw them out that soon.  However, that does mean I have to be better about cleaning.  Have you seen this infographic they did?  Color me disgusted. 

We've had our pillows for...a while.  After I told him about all these things, hubby volunteered to go to Target and get us new pillows.  I think I may have worried him with all the dirty pillow talk (hah!).  We can start over with these pillows and try regular washing.  Oh happy day?

Does anyone out there wash their pillows on a regular basis?  Am I the only one that didn't know I was supposed to wash them THAT often?

you learn

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."

C. S. Lewis

Happy Fourth!

We'll be spending the day with a few of the presidents watching some baseball! 

Happy Fourth of July! 

no wrinkles for me, please

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles."

George Eliot

second 5k race recap

Saturday was my second 5k.  I'm sure none of you want to hear my race recap, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Ran the Run for Hope 5k with hubby, who obviously ran much faster than me.  He may be a little rusty (according to him), but his years and years of soccer training tend to make an appearance as soon as he kicks it into serious gear.  He's able to run much faster than me with much less advance training.

I had mixed feelings about this one.  I was not at all prepared for the number of hills on the course.  Seriously, I didn't even know you could fit that many small-to-medium hills into a 5k course.  It was super painful, since I wasn't prepared.  I was extra winded, couldn't keep a steady time, and got the most painful stitch in my side of my life.

All that said, I did somehow (miracle of miracles!) manage to beat my previous time. Must have been doing something right.  Made it in 31:39. 

Yes, I know I'm still slow, but I'm pretty proud of that number.  I could have beat it by MUCH more if the course/hills hadn't half-defeated me and if I hadn't been almost doubled over in pain halfway through from the awful stitch in my side. Oh well.  I beat the girl in the neon top with perfectly fixed hair, who provided excellent motivation for the last half mile or so. (Who still has perfectly curled hair at the END of a race?! Not me. That's for sure.)

Next up, I want to try a 10k!

Happy Monday!

wimp?

 "Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?'"

--Peter Maher, two-time Olympic marathoner from Canada

Running my second 5k tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Boston

You know, when everyone was writing blog posts and news articles and personal reflections about the bombing of the Boston Marathon, I did not.  I didn't know what to write.  Was I qualified to say anything?  I've spent time in Boston and tried to get to know the city, but, though I went to college in Massachusetts, I was almost two hours from the capital city of the Commonwealth. Was I allowed to weigh in?

I had also just started running again, but I'm no where near qualified to write about runners and the pains of marathon runners suddenly caught off guard.  I've never run anything longer than a 5k.  I can't even imagine what the finish line to a marathon would even be like, let alone one so completely changed.

Lucky for me, staying quiet paid off.  A friend of mine put into words what I was hoping someone would: that this is not the way I remember Boston.  I will never ever remember Boston as The City Where That Guy Bombed the Marathon Once.  That's not Boston.

This is Boston.

Enjoy.

carrot fail

Guess carrots aren't my forte. Might need to try again.  They did mature fully and they're a good color, but clearly there's something lacking....

Perhaps I'll try again. Fewer seeds.  And I'll need to do more research (my specialty) to figure out what happened.

tolerable

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

- Henry David Thoreau

passion tea lemonade in a new cup

While on pinterest (a favorite recreational activity of mine), I stumbled across a pin linked to this blog post.  After a quick glance, I realized I had to try to make Passion Tea Lemonade.  Can you imagine a better drink to start summer?  (Well, maybe sweet tea....but this is still pretty high up there.)

I modified her technique a bit.  I used three teabags in the pitcher instead of the whole box, and I left the tea bags in my pitcher while it cooled in the fridge. More time to steep!  My tea was a bit weaker, but still tasty.

When I added the ingredients, I mostly eyeballed it. Ice, two thirds passion tea, one third lemonade.

Boy! was it good!

I'm sure you're all wondering (not really), but that's a new cup!  Hubby and I have been to a few baseball games already this year, and last week they happened to be having a sale on this particular cup.  I'm sure you can all guess how much I love things that are on sale. I had to have it.

It's the perfect size for a tasty summer drink!

live long and prosper

Have you guys seen these kinds of websites?  I somehow found one that predicts how long you'll live.

Apparently, I'm going to get very very old.

My results:

Life Expectancy Results

Life Expectancy: 90.79 yearsLower Quartile: 84.38 years (75% chance you will live longer than this)
Median Lifetime: 93.05 years (50% chance you will live longer than this)
Upper Quartile: 100.10 years (25% chance you will live longer than this)


What's your life expectancy?

Happy weekend!

savannah sunday, part deux

After refreshing ourselves with some pizza, we all (cousins, aunt and uncle, mom, and me) trekked out to see Tybee Lighthouse.  It's gorgeous!  They have a keeper's cottage with furniture arranged in a way similar to one of the actual keepers, an informative video, and you can climb the lighthouse!  Mom and I spent some time in the air conditioning first, but then decided to make the trek of 178 stairs. 

 

 

The view from the top:

 

 

 

The above is a picture of the prism they have in the top of the lighthouse, along with its two bulbs.  The prism is called a first order fractal lens.  I'm not sure of all the mechanics, but I do know it magnifies those two bulbs there and the lighthouse stays lit. 

 

A daytime picture.

Of course, no trip to a coastal city would be complete without at least one abnormally large meal of mostly seafood, and this trip did not disappoint.  We trekked to The Crab Shack and ordered the mostly delicious thing on the menu: the chef special.  Mom and I ordered the size meant for two people -- TWO people -- and this is what we got:

 

 

Don't worry.  Mom and I are pros.  Mom advised not to waste time with potatoes and sausage -- you can get those anywhere -- and focus only on seafood.  Most of the table needed a refresher on how to eat some form of seafood or another, but we tucked in our napkins and got to work.

 

By the end, Mom and I had done some serious eating. This is the end result of our efforts:

 

See?  Pretty awesome, right? I think so.

The Crab Shack also had a gator pit and we were allowed to feed "gator treats" to the animals using poles and string with a bobby pin on the end.  Got a picture of Mom feeding one!

 

 

It was so fun! I've never fed an alligator before, and I doubt I'll have another chance any time soon.  It was pretty sweet.  I don't know what constitutes a treat for an alligator, but they seemed to love them and came to eat willingly.

 

A few more pictures from the restaurant:

 

 

We were tired, but Mom and I returned to the beach later in the evening to do a little extra walking around and looking for seashells. While there, I managed to snap a few pictures of the lighthouse in dusk light.

 

 

 

All in all, I'd call the day successful.  We managed to squeeze in just about as much tourist and local fun activities as any group of seven can manage. 

 

On Monday, we got up for breakfast and to hit a few of the cute stores in historic Savannah (there are so many!) then I caught a flight and Mom began her trek homeward.  It was a lovely, action-packed weekend!

savannah sunday morning

On Sunday, Mom and I got up and headed out for an early start.  This turned out to be a good thing and a bad thing: it was awesome to walk the streets of Savannah in virtual solitude, but it also meant nothing was open.

Never fear! We can walk and look at the squares! 

After an unfortunate debacle with a defunct walking tour app, we decided to sally forth using whatever tour info the app would give us and our handy maps and brochures. I managed to take a few reasonable pictures, which I'll share for your enjoyment or amusement or scoffing or whatever other opinion you have of my mediocre photography skills. 

A view of city hall from Johnson Square.

The lion in front of the Savannah Cotton Exchange on Factor's Walk.

A statue/monument of The Waving Girl.

John Wesley in Johnson Square, I believe (there were a lot of squares.)

After working up a bit of a sweat (oops), Mom and I met up with the cousins and family and headed to Fort Pulaski.  The fort had a medium-sized battle of its own in the War Between the States (that's what they called it in the fort info) and the introductory video there was very informative.  Honestly, the fort is one of the better organized nationals parks I've been to, and I've been to several. 

Anyway, after the intro and visitor's center, we all hurried directly to the center of the fort for a musket firing demonstration!  The young lady (park ranger) doing the demonstration was friendly and knowledgeable and I learned lots.

After that was over, we all toured around Fort Pulaski at our own pace. I got to read all the signs and see all the hidden corners.  I'm a slow museum and monument tourer -- I like to read everything.  I even got to play with two lenses (one of them new!) with all the arches in the fort and the interesting architecture.  I hope you'll excuse a few more photos.

All in all, I'd call the morning quite successful.  We saw several things on our list (squares, monuments, the fort...) and had a good time doing it. We all definitely needed food after touring the fort, and after a bit of confusion and trying to find parking, planted ourselves at a pizza place that had no air conditioning, but did have a tv with baseball on.  The pizza was delicious!

Sunday afternoon recap will be posted soon!

saturday in savannah

The last two weekends have been so eventful! I didn't take very many pictures two weekends ago, so I'll just give you the summary version:

Saturday, May 25, we attended the beautiful and joyful wedding of our friends in hubby's hometown.  We got to catch up with many friends that we haven't seen in a while, and met new friends.  It was nice to go back to the town we both enjoy.   Sunday, we attempted to organize the closet and mostly failed, and on Memorial Day, we went to the baseball game.  Because it was in the middle of the day, the game strangely ended up taking most of the day up and left us with a relaxing Monday evening before the work week began again. 

This weekend, I took many many pictures and can't wait to tell you all about it. I'll probably have to tell you about it in parts, so let's start with Saturday!

On Friday evening, I had flown into Savannah to meet up with my mom and my cousins and aunt and uncle.  We were all there to celebrate the graduation of my cousin...let's call him B. B graduated from SCAD this Saturday and it was super awesome to be able to share the weekend with him and his family! Plus, I got to see my mom and tour a new city in the process. 

Saturday morning, I was up early.  I squeezed in a run, mom and I got ready for the day, and we embarked on our adventure. 

First up?  The Harper Fowlkes House! This old house had so much history! And, we had a docent who was extremely knowledgeable and told us about everything she possibly could.  The tour was longer than we expected, but we learned so much!  

I managed to snap a picture of Mom out on the back porch of the house:

Isn't her dress great?

After we had absorbed as much history and as many "really neat" things as we could handle, we walked a block over to the Civic Center to grab seats for B's graduation. 

Funny story, when B took off his graduation robe, we all noticed a strange coincidence.  Unknown to anyone, B and his twin, C, had each bought the same shirt at the same store, but in two different states and without talking to each other.  How strange is that?! Twin connections!

See for yourself!

Anyway, we finished the day up with a delightful Georgia peach sangria at a nearby cafe, and then a delicious dinner at Garibaldi's a few blocks over! 

Next post: Sunday update.  Hope everyone else's weekends were just as lovely!

so THAT's where they come from?

spotted in DC.

government

"A 'government of the people, for the people and by the people' can be no better than the people."

-- Laura Ingalls Wilder

This quote seems to apply today as much as it applied when Laura wrote it.

today.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.”

Chinese proverb

DRP

On Monday, hubby and I decided to try a new restaurant. We trekked out to a new neighborhood that we hadn't visited very often and picked a place that looked good.  Happy coincidence! We stumbled upon a pizzeria that had delicious pizza and a claim to fame: Obama has picked up pizza there before.  It's called Del Ray Pizzeria.

We ordered the "barack my world" pizza (yes, that's a thing) and watched the preview to hockey games that evening and had a positively lovely time.

Doesn't it look tasty?  We ate two thirds of the pizza and took the rest home for one of us to have for lunch the next day.  Win all around.

i did it!

I ran my first real* 5k on Saturday!  I started running in the first week of April and used a training plan on my miCoach app after picking out a small-ish, local 5k.  A couple of weeks in, I set myself a goal time to work toward and kept at it.

On Saturday, I beat my goal time!  I ran with a friend who pushed me to make sure I got it done. I know my time is pretty slow compared to the super experienced runners, and I was even beat by a few little ones under the age of 12.  However, before April 1, I hadn't run in almost two years, so it's taking a while to get back in the swing of things, and I was never a very good runner.

Feeling pretty accomplished. Gave myself yesterday and today off.  Now to set a new goal time and get started on training for the next 5k!

New 5k PR: 33:11

*I ran a 5k about a year and a half ago, but I didnt hardly train for it at all and was roped into participating at the last minute. I consider the 5k this week as my first real 5k because it's the first one I trained for and set a goal time for.

springtime

"Always in the springtime I want to build a house."

-- Laura Ingalls Wilder

birthday weekend

Last weekend was hubby's birthday!  He spent days trying to think about what he wanted to do to celebrate, and in the end, he wanted to travel, even if it was only a little.  We haven't been on a roadtrip in months, and we haven't really travelled in forever, either.  The last time was Christmas, and before that....our honeymoon.  For two people who love travel as much as we do... that's a bit depressing.

Husband picked out a town (Charlottesville, VA), and we made plans.  I decided to show you guys a few picture from the trip.  Don't judge me too harshly; they're cellphone pictures.  I had my camera, but at the one or two places it would have been awesome to take it, I accidentally left it in the car. C'est la vie.  Next time I'll do better, I promise. 

(This post is longer than most. Sorry! But I couldn't resist sharing!)

We woke up pretty early, went on our long Saturday run (usually we run separately because of schedules and such, but this was a treat!), showered, and booked it out the door.

First stop: Barboursville Vineyards! Time to taste some wine and pick out a bottle to save for a special occassion. After some deliberation, the choice was, of course, a bottle of husband's favorite wine: Octagon.

We took a few minutes after our splurge to walk around the Barboursville ruins, which I had never seen before. The mister gave me a brief history of the place, and we puttered around the ruins of the old governor's house.

Now that we were on the move, we decided to go big, and headed to Monticello! It's one of husband's favorite places, and neither of us had been since high school. 

We bought tickets and did a tour of the house, then walked around the gardens for a while.  I've always loved Jefferson's gardens.  They're a cross between a cutting garden and a free-for-all and a well-manicured lawn, which is how he wanted them.  He liked English gardens and French food and beautiful things.  And books. Can't forget the books.

 

(not a terribly wonderful picture of me, but it was windy and it's the only one we're both in from Monticello)

That night we had dinner at a local pub/grill place, walked around the UVA campus a little, and headed back to the hotel to relax.  We'd had a long day.

Sunday morning, we slept in a little, got breakfast in the hotel, and headed to do some exploring.  The downtown stores and shops and such weren't open, yet, so we found a coffee shop and planted ourselves.  It was called Mudhouse.  It was a little bit coffee-snob-y, but when I asked for coffee recommendations, the cashier definitely knew what he was talking about.  Apparently, he'd had seven cups of coffee and multiple espressos already (and it was 10.30 in the morning)!  The art on the wall was a bit strange, but the delicious french pressed Costa Rican coffee more than compensated. 

We decided to head to another vineyard for the early part of the afternoon and then come back to the historic downtown area of Charlottesville later.  We chose a vineyard neither of us had ever been to: First Colony Winery.  The people there were very nice, and we enjoyed tasting new wines. The winery recently changed owners, and they're updating their tasting house area.  The road to get to the winery is not paved (yay gravel and sand?), which made life a bit more exciting.

Afterwards, we headed back to Charlottesville, kicked around the historic downtown for a bit, checked out the nice shops and the other coffeehouse (yes. too much coffee.), then decided to grab some Taco Bell for dinner and head home.

We had such a good time!  By the time I made it home, the tiny car we had rented had given me some pretty awful back troubles, but other than that, the weekend was wonderful.  A birthday celebration worthy of the occassion.