Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The One With Mr. Jefferson's House, No Jefferson.

This weekend we visited Monticello with James and Jennie. I did not realize that the Monticello was so close to us, but James is in Charlottesville at his JAG course and evidently that is where Mr. Jefferson lived. His house was actually a little more awesome than Mt. Vernon, the only thing really missing was people dressed up in period costumes to make me feel so very excited and so very scared all at once. 

Also, a little fun fact for you: The back of the nickle is the same as the view of the back of Monticello...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The One With Shamrock (cold, wet) Fest


Apparently every year, DC has a huge, giant, St. Patrick's day festival that involves bands and booze. Ryan and I heard about it and were pretty excited to go to it. We purchased some tickets, Ryan got out of drill early and luckily I got off work in time to hit up the festivities. First of all, we road the metro down there and it was insanely packed with people wearing crazy green outfits. This probably should have been our first indication of what was in store. I wish I could have taken a picture of the sea of people getting off the metro at the Stadium-Armory stop, but, I did not and just imagine that it was like when I took a picture of the metro during Inauguration, only more people in green. 

Anywhoodle, I should also note that it was cold, and rainy, but we had already paid for our tickets and the beer was included so we figured why not. (The website also had mentioned several fun INDOOR and outdoor events, so we figured we would be able to go inside and get dry if need be, but I will discuss what this "fun" "indoor" event"s" really entailed. 
The event also included, evidently, carnival rides. Is it just me, or does it seem like an incredibly bad idea to include carnival rides (particularily those gravity ones like the kids from the Sandlot threw up on) at a beer fest? Needless to say, we did not partake in the rides, no need to get vommed on in the name of St. Patrick. 
Overall it was a really cool event. Had it even just been sunny, even if it was cold, I think it would have been an A+ event. There were a few different stages (the website had claimed 9, but we found 4) and lots of little booths (where we purchased more clothes when we started to freeze our fannies off) and food and such. 
The indoor event that we encountered was actually a sideshow, and involved a girl putting herself in a straight jacket and trying to escape, and a guy who swallowed swords and bent up hangers. The latter was kind of eerily fascinating, but I had to look away when he swallowed a 2 ft sword that went all the way into his stomach. Thanks but no thanks. 
Hopefully next year it will be sunny and we can recruit some friends to attend with us, although Ryan did stalk and befriend a guy wearing an Oregon sweatshirt...

Friday, March 13, 2009

The One With The Most Magical Shirt In All The Land

Today was the best day ever because my magical Barack O'Unicorn shirt arrived in the mail. Behold the magic: 

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The One With The Washington Monument



Ever since we moved her I have been wanting to go up inside the Washington Monument. Actually no, that's a lie, because originally I did not even know that you could go inside, but once I found that out I was really wanting to go. You have to get tickets ahead of time though, because evidently it is very popular and they sell out quickly. Caitlin and I went down there this morning, and barely made it in time for our 11 AM tour. I was pretty confused as to how it works, so rather than wait in line like everyone else, we just squeezed through the barrier and went up with the first group. I feel like that was a pretty good decision because it was very cold and a little windy outside.Anywhoodle, it was about as cool as I thought it would be, only it might be a little cooler if it had been nicer out! Whoooo wants to go back on a sunny day?! 

Thursday, March 5, 2009

The One Where We Shaved Penny

Every couple of months we like to take Penny to the groomer to get her nails clipped and her bedroom slippers trimmed. We always try to be pretty careful to make sure that they clip her leg hairs a lot because they get really long and bushy. I also like to have her ears trimmed so that the hairs are shorter and she looks younger. It makes her oh so much more lovable. 

Today I dropped her off at the groomer, and they asked me a question which I thought was "is she a cocker spaniel?" so I said yes. Evidently the question truly was "would you like us to give her a reverse mohawk and make her look incredibly stupid?"
I understand that the typical cocker spaniel hair cut invo
lves shorter hair on top and then long hair on bottom, but literally there was no hair on top, and what was basically a grass skirt made of hair on the bottom. 
We went in to pick her up and they make you go pay at the front counter, so I waited in the grooming section while they brought her out and Ryan went to pay. When I saw her I 
could not stop laughing and barely concealed my look of disgust as laughing at her having bows in her hair. I wish I could have taken a picture of Ryan's face when he walked back in, because he was clearly horrified and trying as best he could to hold it in.
As soon as we walked out of the building the consensus was: "What the eff did they do to our dog?!?!" At what point did they look at how Penny was groomed, clap their hands and say "Welp, it's been a good day at the grooming salon!" and think that they should leave her like that. 
We decided to remedy the situation at home, and are now the proud owners of $50 grooming sheers and a naked dog. 

Monday, March 2, 2009

The One With All The Snow


I waited all day on Sunday for the promised snow storm to hit. It started snowing in the afternoon but the ground was so wet that it wasn't sticking at all and I was pretty disappointed. I woke up this morning to a pretty decent amount of snow, and was pretty excited that I would not have to take my Anatomy exam this morning.
Then I checked the school website and it had an alert that the campus would be open at 12 PM due to the snow. My class starts at 12:30. Bollocks. So, I emailed the professor a couple of times to see if he planned on having class anyways, and was THISCLOSE to stalking his home phone number when he wouldn't respond to me, when I noticed that the college website had updated that they would be closed all day. Huzzah! 
Penny and I celebrated by drinking a lot of coffee, catching up on The City on demand, and then falling into a light afternoon coma. I decided that she should be aloud to play in the snow in the courtyard. I opened the door and she ran out, and then stood there by the door so confused that she a) wasn't on a leash and b) wasn't getting yelled at for escaping. I had to tell her to go run around about 5 times before she did, then she ran amuck and came back inside when I told her to. Penny loves snow days.