On his latest publication, to be presented in Delft, Netherlands at the EuroPar Conference this August!
(I’m just a little jealous that I don’t have the vacation time to go along on this trip, but appeased by the fact that we’ll be on our big vacation to Eastern Europe only a month later 
)
With the cool new phone, I’m trying out the twitter thing for short updates during the week, but I’ll still try to update the actual blog fairly often too!
Last week was really busy for me – I had a subcontractor meeting late on Monday, followed by a big customer meeting on Thursday afternoon. Between prepping for both meetings, I was at work late lots last week – but the thought that got me through was that I had enough extra hours to take Friday off!
We kicked off our spring bocce season last Wednesday night with a 16-3 victory, and ‘brick red’ tshirts (as opposed to the lovely pale pink we got last summer). Pinot loved having CJ to hang out with during the game and during post-bocce dinner at Bullfeathers on the Hill. I think we’re all looking forward to this season!
Thursday was wonderful, well, post customer presentation (that went well too, which added to the bliss) – just knowing that I had Friday off, and that the weather was going to be great all weekend.
Friday, we got up and had a leisurely breakfast at home with Nick, then Nick went in to school and Pinot and I set off to run the Capitol Cresent Trail. We got done a bit early and hit up lululemon for some new running gear – I’m all about their manifesto. As a side note, I LOVE the Bethesda shops that allow you to bring your dog in shopping with you and I heart my new running outfit. Then we set off to meet Melanie for lunch at Brown Bag (well, technically in the park, but the food was from Brown Bag).
Headed home, and then Nick and I set off to celebrate our 1000 days of marriage (woohoo!) at the Italian Pines in Gaithersburg, which had really great Italian food with a home-cooked sort of feel.
Saturday mornining, we were up and at em early, heading out to do the 8 mile MS walk. The bus ride to the walk was rather humorous because the driver had no idea where he was going, and Pinot was in the bus seat with us, but the walk was a really good time. It ended at Glen Echo with free subs from Subway.
Saturday night we headed out to celebrate Melanie’s 27th birthday at CoCoSala - all the food was all wonderful, and I loved the ambiance! (Nick and I almost thought that the food was better than the dessert….) After dinner, the 4 of us headed over to the Kennedy Center to see Shear Madness, a whodunnit comedy that was rather entertaining. Ended the night needing a jump, all in all, a great evening!
Today, Nick and I gave Pinot the day off (poor dog, 18 miles the past three days), but we headed out for an early-ish morning run in Bethesda followed by brunch and a leisurely day at home. Nick is kicking off Dynist week this week at school this evening with his group and all the Wisconsin folks that came into town.
On a seperate random note, we’re thinking about getting bikes! Yay!
I didn’t really take many pictures this weekend (shocking, I know) – but Melanie took quite a few with her new birthday camera on Saturday night – I’ll link/upload a few of those when I get them!
This weekend almost made me want to reside in Maryland forever and ever. Friday was beautiful outside, I got of work early and went to my favorite grocery store of all time (Wegmans), got home in time to take Pinot for a 6 mile walk before Nick got home….and then we went to get our iPhones (woot woot!) and ended the night with Crank 2 and iPhone apps.
Saturday was more gorgeous weather wise than Friday was, and it was also Pinot’s 2nd birthday! (Happy birthday to Pinot! Yes, I am a big dork that celebrates the birthdays of our pets, though Cashew is a bit harder to bake for. Anyway….) Nick, Pinot & I set off for a wonderful hike and picnic at Downs Memorial Park. This park was wonderful – we didn’t go that far hiking (only 3.5 miles or so), but we spent a bit of time on the dog beach and set up a wonderful picnic on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. I would head over to that spot with my favorite boy and dog every day if I could, it was perfect. We came back toward the city a few hours later and headed over to see EP’s new place – winding down a perfect afternoon into a great evening with friends and dogs, and dog birthday cakes.
And the weekend is capped with my favorite kind of lazy sunday. it doesn’t get much better than this!
I love my (802) area code. Maybe it’s that I had such a grand time living in Vermont, that I met Nick there, owned my first townhouse/condo there, got married there, still think Burlington & it’s surrounds is a wonderful place to be….(mud season notwithstanding) Nick loves his (802) area code as well - maybe, for both of us, it’s some combination of all/none of the above.
Excitement has been building for us to get the iPhone, oh, since it came out. And we patiently, patiently, patiently have been waiting for our 2 year contract with Verizon to end so that we could make the switch without any big penalties. I’ve had Verizon since my dad got me my first Zach Morris-esqe cell phone when I was about 15, and lately, I keep batting down their calls to remind me that I’m eligible for a new phone and won’t I please sign a new contract?
Now that we’re on the cusp, we’ve begun digging a bit deeper into how we’d go about keeping our numbers – and SNIFF – it seems that we can’t. AT&T says no sir, not eligible, and from looking a bit more, it seems that we can’t keep the (802) and switch carriers because we no longer live in (802). I guess that defeats the purpose of wireless local number portability.
Maybe I’m crazy, but it’s taking a bit of the iPhone fun out of it for me.
On the other hand, I guess we don’t really have to wait the extra couple of weeks to bit the bullet – maybe having a shiney new iPhone with a MD area code alongside my trusty (802) number will make the switch easier for the time they are both active.
We got up early this morning and headed to brunch at Mario’s in Rochester before driving back to DC. Brunch was okay (not worth the price, but considering we didn’t have to cook, it made it worth it) – and we got back to DC at a reasonable hour after a sunny drive the entire way back.
…. I will start being better about updating the blog with things that are happening once again. In a timely fashion, rather than months after the fact.
With that said, I may as well do a quick catch-up post to bring us up to date. So let’s see – since the last time that this was posted – wow. I just realized I didn’t even do an inauguration post.
January was cool for us, living in DC, and being pumped about Obama. C&J were very nice to host us at their pad on Pennsylvania Avenue, prime viewing location for just about everything, but especially the parade. Obama and Biden got out right in front of us and waved right at us, which was the cool – and after that, we (along with Mehul, Liz & Julie) threw our very own Presidential Inaugural Ball. It was the awesome. (And three of us were in the exact same dress – thank you to Melanie for letting me borrow her bridesmaid dress from our wedding!) A slideshow of that is below.
February, already posted about Miami. Otherwise we were playing volleyball and getting through the cold. March came, and my mom came down to visit – we took her out for her first sushi experience and I now have a favorite roll, though I don’t remember what it’s called (blasted chef’s special). We went to Colorado for the annual Pender gathering at the end of Feb/early March, but it was cool because in addition to Nick’s usual group of high school folks, we also got to hang out with Seth and Dave & Rach. Oddly enough, our flight back was delayed by 1.5 days due to a snowstorm on the east coast (Denver was like 70 degrees that day). We got a free flight out of the deal though so we were pretty excited (and honestly, I would have worked from home that day anyway, hate driving in DC when it’s snowing.) Highlights from the Colorado trip are below.
End of March/early April, thus far, has been very eventful, and I think Nick and I are both looking forward to some ‘down’ time, if that ever really exists – especially with the summer coming. Cooking wise, made a really good chocolate cheesecake on a pistachio crust covered in chocolate ganache, went all Polish with pierogui && glumpkies, and a bit Irish with corned beef & cabbage and Irish bread & cheese. YUM. Nick’s grandpa Rutar recently became very sick, and Nick, Pinot & I made the drive from DC to Nebraska for a last visit with him. I’d been bugging Nick to drive to Nebraska for a long time, and though I wish it had been under better circumstances, I admit that I did enjoy driving out. Pinot sort of stressed us out though – we think she was abused by younger children before we got her (rescue dog thing, so we don’t really know), but Derrek, Dalton & Dannika were her first real exposure to kids and that went….well, not as well as we’d hoped. We’ll have more time to practice when Derrek comes out to visit in May though! Anyhow, we drove back from NE (with a big old print from Hobby Lobby – aka best store ever – and a mini Heineken kegerator in tow) just in time for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We checked that out – and the naval observatory open house, booked tickets for Derrek and Louie to come visit for Memorial Day, and then found out out that Nick’s grandpa had passed – he made it to 92 and said that was enough, so earlier this week Nick flew back for the funeral. We’re in Rochester this weekend to discuss some family matters with my mom and siblings. Busy week, to say the least. We’ve also been to a Caps hockey game and the Cavs/Wizards game recently which were both fun. OH – and my big computer thing – we upgraded to iLife 09, and I recently went though and tagged faces and places of all 21,234 pictures in our album. Been keeping up with the family tree site too. Anyhow – a few pictures of recent stuff is below.
So yeah! If I keep this up, then lots of fun stuff coming up ahead – Easter brunch tomorrow, possible iPhones in our near future, Pinot’s 2nd birthday coming up, heading to Vermont to see K’s derby dames finale this season and possibly a last minute trip for my birthday – and fun fun, Louie & Derrek’s trip out for Memorial day – and that only takes us through May.
…. I’m glad that I don’t feel like I need this today!
