Squirrel vs. Cat

I am not making this up!

I am sitting in our living room, and our cat A.J. was sitting on my lap snoozing. We have four floor-to-ceiling glass windows/door that look out onto our patio, and a squirrel came up to them and stood on his hind legs with his paws on our window. He moved from window to window... and then... and I promise I'm not making this up... I swear he knocked on the window.

Kitty snapped open her eyes and flew off my lap to the window. Next thing I knew, that squirrel flung himself against the window again and kitty did the same from the inside. This happened a couple of times, and then the squirrel took off.

A.J. obviously knew that that goofy squirrel was "knocking" on the window, and he must know that A.J. lives in here! I wonder how often that squirrel has been taunting poor A.J. from the outside???

New Year's Eve Eve

Today has been a great day! We just wrapped up a yummy dinner of cheese fondue (with granny smith apples, rosemary bread and sauteed mushrooms) and roasted red potatoes, and now we are watching the Redskins wrap up a 27-6 victory over Dallas. Hooray!

And - my favorite! - I had a loooong nap this afternoon after we got home from church. Rob made us lunch, and I crashed on the couch. He was downstairs playing his Xbox, so it was nice and quiet for me. :)

On Friday night, Rob's dad called to say that they all planned to come down to his cousin Alicen's basketball game on Saturday, so we got to see all of his family again yesterday. Carrie and Matt stayed the night with us and left this morning. Alicen's team won, and she played great! After the game, we all went to Red Robin for burgers and fries.

Only two more days of vacation for us... tomorrow night we are headed out for NYE dinner and will be home early to avoid all of the crazies on the road. Happy new year!

Back Home!

We came back home yesterday after five days up in western Maryland. We had a great Christmas and had fun seeing everyone. I was able to see a girlfriend who I haven't been able to catch up with for awhile, and Rob and I had lunch on Christmas Eve with one of my oldest friends and her boyfriend. We also got to see my best girlfriend, her hubby and their adorable little girl. Good times!

We ended up not doing presents with Rob's family until the day after Christmas - we just ran out of time that day! I LOVE everything I gave and received ... especially the green iPod Nano that Rob surprised me with on Christmas morning!

Last night we went to a yummy dinner at Rustico in Alexandria and some good friends. Interesting food choices - Rob and I ended up sharing a sausage and caramelized onion pizza, and I had cheddar ale soup. Yum.

Today was going to the market, unpacking and putting away gifts and organizing our pantry. Tomorrow is laundry, and maybe going to Rob's cousin's basketball tournament. Off to make dinner!

Home for the holidays

Rob and I headed west today to visit both of our parents. Since they live so close, it's MUCH easier! We are staying with my family, but I am writing this blog from Rob's parents' house!

We have gifts galore, all wrapped and ready to open! It will be a little different at my parents' this year - my brother is usually the gift giver (he sits next to the tree and passes the gifts), but since he is in Iraq this holiday we might put Rob up to the job.

Oh - it's getting heated in here! Rob and his dad are watching the Redskins game and there is a challenge on on something-or-another. Voices and blood pressures are raised!

Merry Christmas to all!

A Snowy (Icey?) Weekend?

We are supposed to get our first measurable snow of the season this weekend. I usually love those kinds of weekends - we can spend it inside curled up on the couch and watching the snow fall.

However, the weather is famous around here for not doing what is predicted. Last week we had a terribly messy morning that wasn't predicted to start until after the rush hour. Other times they'll call for six inches of snow and we'll get two. Or vice versa.

So I'm curious to see what we'll really get!

'Till Death Do Us Part

It wasn't but 17 months ago that Rob and I stood under a tent in front of our family and friends and said a vow to each other. You know how it goes... "for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in heath; in good times and bad."

We both meant those words we said. We are serious about it and weren't just repeating the minister like a couple of monkeys. We'd both thought about it and were making a commitment to be a team, for better and for worse.

Not that everything is perfect. The cups didn't miraculously start putting themselves in the dishwasher starting July 29, 2006. Socks don't find the way to the laundry basket themselves, and there are times I wish I were an Xbox so Rob stare at me adoringly (kidding!), but I couldn't ask for more in a partner, and I hope Rob feels the same.

Last week, we learned that a couple we know is splitting up after close to 10 years of marriage. It's really thrown me for a loop. I know that nobody knows what happens behind closed doors, but I would have placed money on a bet that these two would be together for the long haul. I would have lost.

This isn't the first couple we've known who haven't made it, and I know it won't be the last. But every time, it makes me think about our marriage and making sure that those tiny cracks don't get bigger.

Some guys have all the luck

My co-worker's son is on an airplane, in first class, sitting next to ... Patrick Dempsey. He's sending us updates about all sorts of stuff... what he's said to people, how he's acting, etc.

The latest... "Appear smaller yes - but avg height...wearing a baseball cap and I would not recognized him, if the rep at the counter in the Crown Rm had not said "I love your show."

Oh, to be there! It would be crazy and fun to be seated next to someone famous on a flight. Lucky guy!

Xmas Shopping!

We've been working fast and furious to wrap up all of our Christmas shopping. I think we are doing pretty good - about 80% is wrapped and ready to go, with only a few things left to be bought.

Rob's been bugging me about what I would like... and I don't really have a good answer! Goodness knows I don't really need anything at all, so I've been trying to think of some stuff I would like to have, since he's going to end up getting me something.

So far, I've said I'd like a watch (check! We picked it up last week.) and some Lock-and-Locks (like tupperware, but better). Last night I said I'd like an iPod Nano, which I was serious about but I don't think Rob thought I was! I love the little green ones, or red.

For Rob, I have a pretty good collection of stuff. The only thing he knows about is a suit, which of course he had to pick out and try on. The rest of the goodies should be surprises for him.

I love this time of year!

First Snowfall of the Winter Season!

We woke up this morning to snow falling... despite Al Roker's prediction that it wouldn't start until after 8 a.m. So needless to say, the roads were a mess on the way to work! My 15 minute commute took about 45, which was crazy. I was just glad to get there!

It snowed most all day - sometimes heavy, sometimes really fine. All in all, I think we ended up with between 2-3 inches. After dinner, we went outside to shovel/sweep and put de-icer on the sidewalk. Hopefully it won't freeze solid tonight!

I love snow, so I was glad to see this! The trees, bushes and branches are covered and everything is so pretty. I bet that it's all slushy by tomorrow afternoon. :(

Elf Yourself!

Have you seen "Elf Yourself"? Upload your family and friend photos and have fun!

Here we are with Carrie and Matt. Watch us boogie!

Finally.... an update!

I don't know that anyone reads this anymore anyway, but I thought I'd finally get around to adding a post. It's been too long!

This fall has been busy. I traveled for the last two weeks of October (for work) and now we are gearing up for the holidays. I can't believe how fast this year has gone!

Big updates... my brother left for Iraq on the Friday after Thanksgiving. He'll be there until May/June helping the Iraqis set up their judicial system (he's part of a group of military lawyers on a team). It's been really hard on my Mom especially, but we are making it through.

Thanksgiving was fun. We went to MD and were able to see both families quite a bit. On Friday night, we attended the annual city tree lighting on the downtown mall and it was COLD! I did enjoy singing Xmas carols and seeing the lights, though, despite the chill.

Maybe I should make a new year's resolution to be a better blogger? :)

What is it with Survivor?

Rob and I are sitting here watching Survivor, and I must say that I've never seen so many fuzzed out body parts than as are on this show. When they dropped the contestants off in China (the setting of this year's competition), Jeff Probst pulled the old trick of sending them off with only the clothes on their backs. No backpacks or suitcases or anything. I think that would stink, but here's my problem with the whole situation.

This is not the first time this has happened. So wouldn't you think some of the cast would suspect that it could happen again and come properly attired?? Why wear skimpy underwear or lacy bras when you know that you could be sent out into the wild with nothing that you'd carefully packed?

My word to next year's Survivor contestants? Please, buy some underwear that doesn't show your business. Wear layers of clothes on the first day. Don't wear high heels or short dresses. Have some sense.

Where Have We Been?

I'm delinquent on blogging.... again. Big surprise! So what's been happening with Rob and Kathryn? Much!

We wrapped up the summer at the lake and packed up our room for the year, which is always kind of sad. We were able to spend a lot of weekends up there this year and really loved it. We'll head back up next summer!

I feel like our weeks have been pretty busy, in addition to the regular workday. We went to the University of Maryland vs. West Virginia University game about two weeks ago, which made for a late night. MD got creamed, but since I was secretly for WVU anyway (don't tell Rob!), I was okay with it. Our seats were crazy - we were right on this aisle that it seemed like everyone in the stadium had to keep walking past us to get anywhere. Eh. What can you do?

Last week we saw Kathy Griffin at the Kennedy Center. I'd actually won the tickets on the radio! My tickets were for Thursday, but we had plans that night already, so we found a guy on Craig's List and swapped for Tuesday. Kathy was pretty funny - I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the show was great.

Thursday night we headed to a gala dinner for the International Children's Festival. A girlfriend's husband's company had a table, so they invited us to join them. It was great, as usual! During the dinner, performers from a couple of countries perform, and the food is all native to those regions of the world. We saw performers from Bolivia, Sweden, Nepal and Spain. My favorites were Sweden (funny performance) and Spain (beautiful dance).

Friday brought no rest for the weary. My brother was in town for something with the Navy, so we went to Crystal City to meet him for dinner. Rob found us a great new restaurant to try - Bebo Trattoria. The food was delish and the atmosphere was cool. Plus, we enjoyed catching up with my brother.

Last night we headed up to Bethesda to see a new baby of some friends. He is VERY cute and we loved catching up with them and two other couples that joined us there.

So... the start of another week for us! Hopefully this one won't be quite as busy. :)

Kathryn's Political Compass

Took this Politcal Compass test. Check it out here.



In about 30 questions, you can see where you fall on the spectrum. I was -6.0 for
Economic Left, and -1.64 for Social Libertarian. The definitions say that a liberal leftist believes in the supreme value of each individual. Not too bad.

Mr. Fix It

Last night I got a little lazy and decided to shove more dish towels and cloths in the drawer than it could hold. I heard a pop, and the drawer tilted forward out of the cabinet. Whoops. Before I put the clean ones in the drawer, I could have refolded other ones and taken out some that need to go in the trash, but no. I just shoved.

Lucky for me, Mr. Fix It was nearby and was put to work. Rob took out the drawer, determined that I'd snapped the track off of the back of the cabinet (knowing the craftsmanship of our house, it was probably being held on by stickytak or used chewing gum) and proceeded to figure out how to reattach it. Good thing he has those long arms - he had to reach all the way through the narrow cabinet and drill new screws into the back.

Having Rob do that really made me appreciate him. He dropped what he was doing (even if it was only watching TV!) and helped me out. I hope that he feels the same when I help him... or do his laundry... or cook his dinner... or...

Seriously, I'm one lucky gal. Even on days when I could convince myself otherwise, I know that I am. Life isn't perfect, but with Mr. Fix It around, it sure is a whole lot better.

Hot Hot Hot

In case you haven't seen the news, it's hot everywhere. The weatherman on channel 4 today said to expect heat indexes of 115 degrees, with actual temps around 102. Yick.

Lucky for me, my office is always freezing. Seriously, I could have worn a sweater today and been comfortable - if not a little chilly - inside. But I'm wearing short sleeves and am most definitely cold. I even ate soup for lunch! I guess I should be grateful I'm not outside instead!

Rob and I are always at odds about the thermostat, bed blankets, car temperatures, etc. I'm always cold.... he's always hot. Unless I'm warm... then he's cold. I will literally FREEZE in the car sometimes - I turn off all of my vents and put on a cardigan, and he's feeling just fine. At night, I like to get under the bed blankets and warm up, but he declares that it's too hot and kicks them off. What a nut. ;)

Anniversary Weekend!

We had a perfect first anniversary weekend! I warned Rob shortly after we were married that our anniversary celebration was his responsibility, from now until forever. It didn't have to be something fancy - just something that showed that he put thought into it. He came through!

We headed out in the late morning on Saturday and stopped in Middleburg, Va., a little town with antique shops and little stores. We strolled the main street, had yummy gourmet sandwiches at Market Salamander and then shared a cone of homemade blackberry ice cream. So good!

Rob had made us reservations at L'Auberage Provencale, a B&B about an hour from home. It was beautiful! Our room was perfect, and the grounds were filled with gardens, a fruit orchard and great views. We had dinner that night in the Inn's restaurant - amazing. Five courses! The food and atmosphere were lovely.


On Sunday - after a delish gourmet breakfast - we headed to Luray Caverns. It was a last minute add-on to the trip, and I'm glad we did it. The caverns were beautiful! Here are shots of the caverns, and Rob and I in the deep dark!

We took some back roads toward home, with the intention of stopping at Oasis Winery for a tasting. We got a bit lost on the way, but finally found it. We would have been better off just heading home! The tasting was a total let down ... the pourer was poor and it was too busy and loud inside. Oh, well!


When we got home that evening, we had dinner and then shared slices from our wedding cake top, which had been in either my parents' or our freezer since July 29 of last year. Amazingly, it was delicious! It tasted like a fresh cake, and we are still enjoying it. I told Rob that it was kind of sad - I hope it's the only wedding cake I'll ever have, and we were finishing it off! I guess that in the back of my mind, I've known it's been in the freezer for us to enjoy, and now it won't be there anymore. Silly!

Thanks to Rob for making our anniversary special. There is no one else I'd rather celebrate with than you!

Off to the beach (just not us!)

I've been neglecting the site for a long time now, but I see K has been pulling my weight!

My folks (Mom, Dad and Carrie) stopped by our place last night on their way to Ocean City today. Lucky ducks! They went to Mount Vernon yesterday afternoon and then out to our place to spend the night before getting up pretty early this morning to beat most of the traffic.

K pulled together a great dinner last night of vegetable kabobs, roasted garlic potatoes, and chicken. She rubbed the chicken (boneless breasts) with a rub I made from the Barbecue Bible cookbook (great book, by the way), the veggie kabobs got some sort of seasoning along with a coating of some sort of herbed basting oil K has in the pantry, and the potatoes were pan fried in some EVOO with red onion before having a nice chunk of minced garlic tossed in and put into a 425 oven for an hour or so. We've made the potatoes before and they are always awesome. I tossed the kabobs and chicken on the grill and a salad from Wegman's completed the meal! We discovered that Wegman's has bulk organic salad mix in the produce section that is really really good and ends up being cheaper than the bagged mixes. Finished off the chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce of course. We love that stuff!

But now they're at the beach. I'm jealous!

And nice job with the Simpsonizing, K! :-)

The Hamilton Simpsons

I saw this on a friend's blog this morning and thought it was fun - here are Rob and me as "Hamilton Simpsons!"

Go here to Simpsonize yourself!

Our Wedding

Today is our anniversary! We've thought a lot about our day one year ago, the funny things that happened, the friends and family who came to celebrate and how much fun we all had. Here are a few memories to remember....

Hair... the bridesmaids, mothers and I went to have our hair and make-up done on Saturday morning. I had my hair done twice that week, trying to make sure the style would last the day (I have notoriously flat hair!), but nothing had worked, so I was really nervous. I planned to wear my hair down, so the lady teased-teased-teased my hair until I looked like Minnie-Mouse. It was hilarious. But, she must have known what she was doing, because by 5 p.m., it had flattened out to the perfect poof.

Getting ready... it was hot outside, which made it hot inside. Putting on a 40-lb. dress didn't help (not sure of the actual weight, but that's what it felt like!). We stood in front of fans and did our best to keep cool. Tessa and Ashley had a heck of a time getting the veil in my hair, so the comb didn't butt too much up against the decorative comb already in my hair. They persevered and it looked great. The guys were getting ready right next door, and every now and then I could hear them through the wall, as they played pool and hung out. I was anxious to see Rob!

The ceremony... Our wedding was at 5 p.m. When the gal from the club came downstairs to tell us that people were seated and it was time to go, my heart leaped. We went upstairs and I heard the string quartet playing Bach's "Sleepers Awake" for the bridesmaids - that was the first time I'd really gotten emotional. It was beautiful. The girls started going out, and I met my dad on the porch for our walk down the aisle. This is where the first funny thing happened.

Wrong Song!... My mom wanted me to come down the aisle to the traditional bridal march, so that's what I'd planned. But as we stood there ready to go, I heard the four opening notes of Pachelbel's Canon. Um, wrong song. I whispered that to the quartet leader, and she nodded and said "prelude." Prelude to what?? Dad asked me what I wanted to do, and I said "let's go!". What choice did we have? The quartet quickly realized their mistake and apologized a jillion times. It's a good story. :)

Ceremony... Our ceremony was perfect. Our minister from our church here in Fairfax traveled up to do the ceremony and it was lovely. We'd met with him twice before the ceremony, and he worked in so many personal things we'd talked about in those sessions. He recited Corinthians 13 and really made it special to us. So many people have commented that it's one of the best ceremonies they've ever heard, and we agree.

Toasts... During the reception, both Tessa and Dave offered toasts. Tessa's was sweet, and Dave's was funny - just like the two of them. They were heartfelt and perfect for us.

Dancing... We cut a rug! Our friends and some of our families are big dancers, and we had a blast. One guy did the worm (hilarious!) and we just had a good time. Our DJ was terrific and played perfect music to get the crowd going.

Cakes... Delish. Our traditional cake was a four-tier round, and the groom's cake was a two-tier chocolate. It went like crazy - Rob got the last piece! Yummy chocolate-dipped strawberries went with each piece of both cakes.

Leaving... Rob and I changed clothes and went back upstairs for one last dance before leaving for the evening. The crowd gathered around the dance floor and all gathered in the middle in a "big hug" as we danced. We went around the circle and gave hugs before we left the club. It was a perfect ending.

As Rob and I drove to the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg for the night, we talked non-stop about how much we loved our day. We so appreciate everything that our friends, families - and especially my mom and dad - did to make the day special. We couldn't have asked for anything more!