Happy Birthday, Mom!

Rob and I traveled to my parents' house this weekend to help celebrate my Mom's birthday. Last year, I threw a little surprise party for her (think big birthday!), but this year we planned to celebrate with family. My parents visited with my brother and sister-in-law last weekend, so it was just Rob and me for this celebration.

We headed up Friday (left work a bit early) and had dinner with my folks. Before we even left, we knew that Al Roker was calling for snow on Sunday. We kept our eye on the weather and ended up heading back Saturday night after dinner. Good thing we did - we ended up with about 6 inches of snow, and I think they got more in western MD.

Plus, Rob's parents ended up joining us for dinner on Saturday night, which was great! We celebrated Mom's big day at Giuseppe's Restaurant, which is our favorite. We even had our rehearsal dinner there!

All in all, we had a nice weekend, even though it was shorter than planned. Being snowed in at home on Sunday wasn't all bad either - we enjoyed the lazy day!

Rubik's Cube

I've wanted a Rubik's Cube since a little before Christmas and a slick deal that popped up online Saturday got my interest ratcheted up a notch. I missed that deal, but picked one up at Wal-
Mart later that day.

I read a beginner's guide to solving the cube a few months ago (the reason for my interest) but Hasbro actually includes a pretty nice illustrated guide in the packaging these days. The last step looks hairy until you get it completely finished - it pretty much looks like the cube is completely jumbled again - and I actually thought I had messed it up beyond saving the first time I went through the solution! But the next time I read that step more carefully and realized I simply had a few repetitions of the algorithm left to work through. So, I managed to solve the cube for the first time in my life! Albeit referencing the printed solution each step of the way. I think if I memorized the steps I could probably get down to 2-3 minutes per solution. The best I did yesterday was 7 minutes.

There are people that can solve the cube in well under a minute. I believe the world record is actually ~11 seconds. But they memorize 50+ algorithms for many different positions/situations. Don't think I have the time or desire to get to that level. Although it would be cool to get to the point that I can solve one in under 10 minutes without needing a guide for reference.

Scored MD - Duke tickets!

It was for the women's game, though. Not nearly as hard to get your hands on as the men's ticket for this match up, but still a sell-out crown nonetheless. Dad actually bought a mini-season pack of 4 tickets to ~4 games, so he took Kathryn and I to this one. The women's games are a lot of fun to catch if you go to a game with a large crowd and a decent opponent. We took in another game earlier this year with a small crowd and a crappy team that Maryland pulled away from early in the 1st bit of the game. I'm not kidding they had a double digit lead about 5 minutes in and it never got down to single digits again. Yawn.

Duke ended up winning, but it was a semi-close game. Duke's #10 pretty much dominated. Saw a clip of the end-game the next day and Brenda (MD's coach) said if she doesn't get POY something is wrong. My expert opinion (based on watching 2 or 3 women's games this year) is that I'd have to agree.

Good Husband Bragging

I have to take a minute to brag about my sweet husband. Work has been crazy the last few weeks (we have a big conference starting Sunday), and I've been putting in 10-11 hour days. Ugh.

Lucky for me, Rob has been taking over the dinner responsibilities and making sure we have good food to enjoy together each night. He's been so great about it, and I appreciate him so much!

Super Bowl Tradition!

Rob and I started a new "Super Bowl Tradition" today. We decided to make soft pretzels! I used to work at Auntie Anne's pretzels and know the secret recipe and methods. We've made them a couple of times before, and they always turn out great!

I like having traditions with Rob. We are trying to figure out things that our just "ours", and not necessarily those from our families. One tradition we have is to go for Chinese on Valentine's. We've done it the past year or two, and I'm looking forward to it this year! Our favorite spot in Fairfax City is open, and it won't be crowded like other hot spots on February 14.

What traditions do you have?