Goodbye Crab Fest

My amazing friends threw me a going away crab fest. Maryland, the Chesapeake, and the entire area is known for Blue Crab, so it was the perfect food to commemorate my time here. Not only was this a goodbye party, it was actually very educational. For instance, despite having called them "blue crab" during my entire stint here, I didn't realize they actually started out as blue. Who knew? The crabs seen here, however, are red, meaning they're cooked and ready for eating!

Not only did I learn a little more about the blue crab, I had to get a lesson in how to eat them. It's really quite a process, including a lot of pounding, breaking, cleaning out, and finally, eating. They were amazingly tasty! So, so, good. If the goal of the party was to make me realize some of the great things I'm leaving behind, it was a success. 

 More crab enjoyment...

The roomies came out to help me celebrate as well. Yeah roomies!

My friends also made me some pretty fab cupcakes that said "Bon Voyage Beast". Yes, I am known as "beast" out here. This nickname was one of many side effects of participating in rowing. It's just one more connection I have with Frazier...

Second (third? fourth?) lesson of the night: baton twirling. Meghan twirled competitively for something like 10 years. She is amazing. And she has the trophies to prove it. I know because I knocked some of them over in the middle of the night before the triathlon when I got up to go to the bathroom. Woke the entire house up. But that's another story...

Any celebration must be commemorated with a good twirl. Meghan tried to teach me something, but I'm afraid that me + a spinning, slightly heavy baton = not a good idea. I didn't get very far.

 Ta-da! I did learn how to look like I did something, however.

I am now thoroughly sad to be leaving DC and all these amazing people :(. I have exactly one week left in this city.

Triathlon

This Sunday I completed by first triathlon. It was amazing. Three other friends also competed with me. Here we are in line waiting to pick up our packets and get our amazing pink swim caps.

Here I am getting ready for the swim, the first leg of the race. If you can't tell which one I am, even better. The swim was very, very difficult for me. 400 meters doesn't sound very hard but I never advanced must past "tadpole" during swim lessons.

After the swim was the bike - 11.8 miles. But before you can even get on the bike you have to take off your swim cap and goggles and throw on a shirt and some shoes. It doesn't sounds like too big of a deal, but is made infinitely harder when you are already exhausted and are contemplating about 15 miles left to race.

The first few steps after getting off the bike feel pretty wobbly. My legs were kind of singing that I had already put them through a lot. Thank goodness I was still holding onto my bike for those steps. Then I was off for another 3.1 miles.

Here I am at the finish, crossing the line with my friend M! The pic is blurry because we're moving so fast. Yay!

Urban Baby

So I know I've already been scooped on this story (see blog "Loaf of Love"), but I have to share anyway - it's just too good. Last weekend I had the honor of a visit from Jonathan, Chelsea, and Baby E.

I was so excited to recreate my first ever trip to D.C. with my cousin Jonathan. First stop was the white house. Due to the extreme notice and shadiness required to get tickets, we only got to see it from the outside. Family photo op!

Baby E took a little while to warm up to it, but eventually got very excited.

 

It was a bright and sunny day, so we had to rectify Chelsea's lack of sunglasses. A high class street vendor helped solve the problem. The new shades had an ambiguous logo - mostly resembling a D&G/O. We immediately recognized it as the famous Dolce & Obama label.   

You can't be on the mall without at least one visit at a Smithsonian. I might have influenced this particular viewing a little...

We ate some tasty mexican food, the spot chosen primarily for it's location on the way to the metro. You can't see the mall without a lot of walking, which we did. Not sure what we didn't think Baby E should be hearing...

Of course you can't get around D.C. without taking the metro. Look how easily Baby E took to it. She's a natural at navigating urban life.

Chelsea has a great appreciation for Abe the Babe, so we made this memorial a stop on our mall tour. It had been a long time since I had seen the memorials/mall at night. It really ups the "awe" factor. If you can get over the gnats and swamp smell, I highly recommend it.

Sunday morning: Baby E has already perfected a look we've all been giving Jonathan for years. This look says, "not impressed, Jon, not impressed".

We also took a walk to Dupont Circle, and grabbed some coffee along the way. Dupont Circle is the perfect place to get a feel for local life, and it certainly did not disappoint. Crazy was out in full force this morning. (Crazy not pictured.)

Baby E took in the fountain. 

I had to throw this last one in because she's so darn cute.

I loved having them visit, and can't wait to take them up the Space Needle for our next adventure.

Mod Weekend 2010

It's that time again. Time for muumuus, crazy costumes, war stories, and laughing till we cry or worse. This past weekend was mod reunion weekend.

Always a must, this weekend included some very tasty eats. Contrary to years past and the lure of chipotle, we did a lot of cooking. We made some bierrocks and semmel. So good.

We also had to cruise in Jon and Em's latest acquisition. We may have given them a little static about the fulfillment of this mod prediction and it's implication on our own ages. But after one ride, we were all forced to acknowledges its roominess and functionality. I guess the joke is on us.

Finding time between meals is always a challenge, but we also made it outside to play some bocce ball. This is one of many hotly debated tosses. We were all pretty good with the system of measuring by flip flop, but Em kept insisting that something related to triangles and math would be more efficient. Of course, you can't really be outside that long in Kansas summer heat without also needing some ice cream.

One of the best parts of this mod weekend was meeting baby Ella. She is so precious, and already a kindred spirit. Look how excited she was to wear the mullet and a muumuu. Of course we had to initiate her into the mod. And she definitely looks better in a pink flamingo than I do.

Birthday Excitement!

I turned 29 this past weekend! Woo-hoo!

 

But before that excitement, however, I had the honor of a visit from modmate Kate. Kate was in town checking out George Washington University. I have really only walked through the campus on my way to the Kennedy Center, so I couldn't really offer Kate much info. But we did find this enormous GW head.

 

We also hung out and enjoyed some tasty Ethiopian food.

Then my sister arrived! Since she flew all the way to help me celebrate my birthday, and since I'm leaving the East Coast relatively soon, I figured the obvious choice was to indulge in my favorite thing out here....the beach. It must seem like forever since I've mentioned the beach on this blog. 

This time, however, we headed to Ocean City, MD. We stayed at the ever-classy Flamingo Motel. Although I thought I had thoroughly prepared myself, the Flamingo Motel still managed to surprise.

 

We counted no less than three different shades of teal porcelain in the bathroom. There were hoodlums, yes hoodlums, in the parking lot right outside our door making lots of noise.

The furniture was a delight - my bed had a floating leg and a total of one very noticeable spring on the right side.  I can't even talk about the carpet.

One less than ideal happening was that Delta lost my sister's luggage. This was after numerous delays and re-routing. We went straight from the airport to Ocean City, about three hours away. So we were surprised and delighted to hear that Delta would deliver the bags there. I think we all know where this is going.

This was an all too common sight during the weekend - my sister on hold with Delta. The suitcase did not get delivered to Ocean City. After loosing track of her bag completely, Delta made the obvious choice of not holding the bag at Reagan when it arrived like we asked, conveniently located for us to pick up. Instead, they decided to fly the bag to Atlanta and then back to BWI. This was clearly faster and had the awesome consequence of moving the bag even farther away from us. Go Delta.

 

We arrived at the airport for her departure a little early so we could finally pick up the bag. More shenanigans ensued, but to jump to the end of the story, she and her luggage made it safely home.

But before it came to that, we enjoyed a lovely, albeit hot, weekend in the city. We brunched at one of my favorite locals.

 

Following last year, we celebrated the 4th with a baguette, some tasty cheeses, fruit, and veggies and hummus. Is two years enough to call something a tradition? This year, however, we picnicked on the white house lawn. We staked a claim a little ahead of the fireworks in order to ensure a good view.

 

Here's our view of the white house. We expected the fireworks to be exploding above it (and behind it). And we were mostly right. Unfortunately, they were above it, behind it, and to the right. Exactly behind that tree. Within 30 seconds there was an uprising of people (ourselves included) which made a mass exodus to a new vantage point.

We were still able to find a spot to sit and enjoy the fireworks. 

On Monday we did some kayaking on the Potomac. I didn't take any pictures for fear that my camera would need a tetanus shot if it fell in. It's been recommended that swimmers of the Potomac get tetanus shots. I know enough about that to know I don't want to know any more about why you would need a shot after being in that river.

After a long, hot, sweaty walk back from the boathouse, I was very sad to drop my sister off at the airport (although glad to see her reunited with her luggage). However, I came home to a surprise birthday cake and champagne celebration with my roommates. So awesome of them! 

 

And now I'm 29.

Beach!

Summer is here and that means it is time to take advantage of one of the best things the east coast has to offer...the beach. Some friends and I headed out to Rehoboth Beach, DE for the weekend.

 

I think this picture pretty much sums up our entire weekend:

That was gross, D.C.

WARNING....graphic images to follow. Please do not read or scroll down if you have a weak stomach.

So two days ago I returned from my early morning row to a small house crisis. My roommate calmly told me that we had a small problem....a rat had died right outside our front door. No big deal, I thought. In many of my previous living situations I have had all manner of critters, and I have dealt with them before. I began gathering several plastic bags with which I was planning on disposing of our rat. Taking my bags, I walked to the front door and stepped out. My voice immediately raised 10 notches, and I came quickly back inside. The size of this dead rat was well over anything i could deal with with a few measly plastic bags. It was enormous. And gross.

After using a few techniques from Psychological First Aid, my roommate and I were able to form a plan and attack the situation. She had a snow shovel; I had a broom. We finally corralled the dead rat into about five plastic bags, and then into another trash bag. I'll leave the details of this transfer out, but know that it was gross, and it might have involved some tears. We then bleached the heck out of the broom.

Here's the culprit (I am including this picture by request)....he's about the size of a brick. Nothing like waking up to this guy in the morning...