Oh the weather outside is frightful!

...that might just be the understatement of the year!

I know, I know, I know...people in the Mid West and Northern Atlantic might think DC'ers are whimps...but from a girl from Southern California to be stuck in this weather ALONE (aka I have to shovel out a path for 2 little dogs to go to the bathroom outside) this is a blizzard.  Actually it really is :)

It's coming down HARD now...all I pray is for the power not to go out (although, it rocks to live close to Dominion Power less than 1/2 mile away...hehe). 

But being the over prepared person I am....I did my "Omg it's going to snow" freak out a couple weeks ago (for the light dusting we got).

I have my awesome shovel, my little mitten with built in ice scraper.  Pet Friendly ice melt.  Wood for the wireplace.  Tons of food.
And...I found my snow boots from high school survival camp!!


So I will be stuck in my hilly neighboorhood until Monday.  No cars can make it up these hills and only a few have tried and gotten stuck.  Kids are sledding in the street.

And I am sipping hot chocolate....

Here are a few pictures...very hard to take pictures in the snow and I'm scared to get my camera wet!

How ironic is it my tree has a beach theme and we are getting close to 20 inches of snow?

This is looking outside the front door.  Notice the snow on the mailbox.  And my poor car covered in snow.

Charlotte is in there somewhere

Just realized that snow sticks to dogs fur. Nice....

Jake thinks he is part husky

Almost there ....and a taste of creativity!

I just finished my photography final project.  Just one more final and this chick is DONE!!

Since I have been editing in Lightroom and PS Elements for the last day....lemme show you some of my favs

(PS to all your REAL photographers out there...you rock!  I hate editing...and don't most of the time...hehe)

And if you can't tell....I really like playing with landscape and light :)

Peace

I woke up this morning.  And that's what I felt.  Peace.  Thank you for all your kind words. 

After I got back from putting together gingerbread houses with my 2nd graders (if that doesn't make you smile I don't know what does!!) I managed to find these pictures.

My half brother and I

(Wowzers....could I have been any tanner?  Or my shorts any shorter?  Or my top any more multicolored?!  Give me a break, I was 13 :)

And with my grandmother on that same trip to meet him.  He was 20 or 21 in these pictures.

Just when I was getting back into the swing of things...

I get rocked. 
I had this grand idea that after class today I would get started on my Christmas cards and then update my blog (which is long overdue).
When I got home, I had a message that I could barley understand.  Some needed to talk to me about the "Estate of... blah blah blah".

Hmmm...Now, after my mom died, I had TONS of calls from people (mostly creditors and real estate agents).
It's been almost 3 years since she passed away, so any claim they had after a year from her death is not happening....but I called away.

It was a creditors office.  But it wasn't for my mom's estate.  It was for my someone with my dad's name. 

Umm...I asked them if the middle name was Antonio.  Yup, it was.  I told them I hadn't spoken to him in over 10 years so I wouldn't be able to help them. 

Then I thought.....WAIT....the estate?!  They told me he had passed away October 24th, 2008.

They apologized for letting me find out this way and took me off thier calling list.

I got off the phone and cried.  Not because I was close to my father....I wasn't as you can see by the lack of communication.  My dad never really kept in contact with me.  When I got older, I stopped trying to keep up the contact that was left. 

You see, my dad was the eternal teenager.  He didn't "do" the responsible parent thing.  He was married 3 times and had 4 kids (23 year difference between my oldest 1/2 brother and my youngest 1/2 sister).
I have seen 2 of the 3 half siblings once when I was a teenager and I went to visit my father (because I was determined he was cool and would understand me....I was 14 and mad at my mom.....for the entire month I was there my dad handed me off to my aunt/uncle and I saw him a handful of times.  Needless to say, that summer showed me how much of a responsible parent my dad was).

So why was I crying?  Maybe because the other 1/2 of my DNA was gone?  I felt when my mom died I was an orphan.  Today I really felt that way.

So I went on the internet to see if I could find anything out.

Put in the date of death, and the name...

And then my mouth fell to the floor. 

It wasn't my dad...it was my 1/2 brother. 

He died at 36.

I didn't even know him but for the one summer....

I think we have a couple pictures together...so instead of addressing Christmas cards...I am searching for those pictures.

Just one more week....

and I will be back to the land of the living. To say these past three months have rocked me has been an understatement. In order to survive, I had to cut myself off from 2 of my biggest vices; blogging and facebook. And since "cutting back" wasn't an option, I deleted my facebook account until after finals (you know I have been busy when my own husband asks if I have "unfriended" him on facebook...haha).


I also turned off the email notification when someone commented on my blog.

Throughout the semester, I've received emails to see how I was doing. (I'm the girl that usually comments on everything on blogs and facebook....what can I say, I love to be caught up).

A lot has been going on...school, driving a ridicules amount of time, dr.'s, lawsuits, moving (lots of Debbie Downer type posts, so maybe me posting them was a way to pretend they were not happening)....I promised myself I would catch everyone up after finals.

Then yesterday, I got 2 emails from my WONDERFUL friends wondering how I was doing! And then I thought "OMG, maybe people have left messages on my blog". And they had.

So I am writing this to all my friends to say "Thanks for thinking of me". I have a lot to catch you up on. I have a lot to catch up in your lives! It has taken a lot of will power to put my studies first, and I apologize for not being my usual self!

I should be outside enjoying our first dusting of snow...instead I am writing my papers....sigh

MISS YOU GUYS!!

Yet another reason to love DC...

THE FOOD!!

This week is restaurant week in DC. Meaning places that usually cost about $35 bucks for just the main course, have an Appetizer, Main Course and DESSERT (!!!) for $35.05 plus tax (off their special menu).  SCORE

So yesterday, a 6 of us from my new bookclub decided to try Siroc .  It was WONDERFUL!!
Here's the special menu for the week....and I put in bold my choices.   I am getting hungry just thinking about it!
Dinner
Choice of:
House-made Pork, Black Pepper and Parmesan Cheese Sausages, served with Cauliflower Puree and Truffle Sauce
or
Endive and Cress Salad with Avocado, Crispy Bacon and Candied Pecans dressed with a Vanilla Vinaigrette
or
Organic Tomato and Mozzarella Salad, served with Deviled Egg and a Roasted Garlic and Basil Vinaigrette
or
Pan Roasted Scallops, served with Braised Black Lentils, Tomato Sauce and Roasted Artichokes

Choice of:

Cappelacci filled with Lobster and Roasted Corn with a Sweet Pepper Buerre Blanc and Baby Cilantro
or
Hand-made Potato Gnocchi, tossed in Sage Butter, topped with Beef Bolognese and Fontina Cheese
or
Sautéed Filet of Wild Rockfish with Roasted Fennel, Tomato Filets, Fingerling Potatoes and Rosemary Oil
or
Seared Salmon Steak served over Sautéed Broccolini with Pancetta and Cipollini Onions with a Roasted Garlic and Orange Sauce
or
Free Range Veal Cheeks braised in Red Wine, served on Parmesan Polenta with Roasted Carrots and Pearl Onions
or
Caramelized Duck Breast served with a Turnip and Taleggio Cheese Torte, Roasted Figs and a Star Anise Sauce

Choice of:
Tirami Su Wrapped in Chocolate topped with Cocoa and Fresh Berries
or
Almond Cake on Cinnamon Zabaglione Sauce with Blueberry Topping
or
Local Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce and Hazelnut Gelato

It's not you...it's me

It's been weeks since I last blogged.  Lots of major stuff has been going on and I have a TON of stuff to catch up on/blogs to read. 

Birthday

My birthday went off without a hitch this year (ok...well a couple days before I had a little sob fest, but nothing like last year!!) We treated it like a normal day and had a fabulous dinner at The Chart House in Old Town.

This was my gift from Geoff

The Colette Bed by Crate and Barrel

Savannah

The next week we drove back to Savannah and our wonderful friends threw us a BBQ and we had a game night.  We also had out of town guests that weekend, so definitley a full weekend for us.  I have to give a shout out to my WONDERFUL and SWEET friend Kristy for her awesome "remember Savannah" gifts.

For someone to remember my love of all things honey and all natural soap and candle for my freakish allergies:)

Speaking of allergies...

Remember those really bad allergies I had to the mold in Savannah?  Well looks like the mold followed me to Alexandria.  The basement of the house we are leasing to purchase is bad....and getting worse.  Which means I am back on the steriods that make me feel like crap.

Needless to say, all the work we did on this house will be in vain.  Thousands of dollars and hours of home improvement down the drain.  I can't stay here.  It would cost to much to redo the entire basement and clean this place up.  So we are out of contract on the house, and trying to get out of our lease.  Funny thing is, the minute I get out of the house, I feel better.  In Savannah it was the opposite, it was the outdoors that killed me!

Please cross your fingers we can break this lease. 

Mold I "grew" from the home testing kit.  I'm no scientist...but that's soooo not good!

House Hunting Again

So I blew it on chosing this house.  Lost tons of money. Geoff and I talked and we are getting something much smaller and in Old Town (town home). The place we are looking at is a lot cheaper than this place (but compared to the rest of the country, still a ridiculous price for the square footage.)  Great school district.  Great location.  Will need to build an addition.  Has no parking but a deep lot (in Old town that's VERY rare).  We can get awaywith 1 car here :)

Built in 1820 (yup, you heard me right).  NO MOLD.  Totally dry and finished basement.

This isn't a forever house, but a house that is ok for a few years.  Totally different from any place we ever saw ourselves in. 

Younger neighboorhood (all our neighboors here are in thier 40's-50's, the house 1/2 block down is owned by the former head of Capital One...talk about us not "fitting in"). 

Must learn to roll with the punches.

My best birthday gift

5 years ago today I got  Mr. "Cupcake"  aka Jake as my first birthday gift from Geoff.  Little did we know how much joy this scraggly, doped up (we got him just after his surgery), smelly (they never gave him a bath, and we had to wait 2 weeks to give him one!) one year old pup (the vets guessed his age) would give us!

In 5 years Jake has moved with us 4 times (2 times was across the country).  Lived in 4 different states (he's very pleased to be back living in his home state of Virginia).


Every year since we've had him...he gets his own special cake and new toys for his "birthday" aka the day we got him!

Normally my dog is never on the counter, but Charlotte would no let him partake on the kitchen floor.  Even up there he felt a little bit of panic and put it all in his mouth.  You'd think we never fed him! 

Couldn't forget about Charlotte

Jake and his new toys...poor guy only got 2 seconds with them before Charlotte stole them.

That's one good looking 6 (we think?) year old pup!

Thankful Thursday

I realize I put my vents on my blog to decompress.

Well today I want to put some things that have made me smile the last few days...

Flowers

BEAUTIFUL flowers sent by my wonderful husband for NO REASON (yup, no birthday, anniversary etc...just an "I miss you" bouquet) .  And those pick lilies are to die for.  They smell so great.

Smart movies

I love movies that have great dialouge and not need the big budget special effects to draw me in.  I had a date with myself last Friday and went to Georgetown to see this movie.  I have no idea, but I started to swoon a little over Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt.  And the dance number to Hall and Oats "You Make My Dreams Come True"...classic :)

A Great Book

One of those books you can read in one day!  You hate and love the main characters. 

Home Projects Accomplished

I channeled my inner Bob Villa...and after 2 hours of swearing (I have no upper body strength to hold things up), getting shocked (yup, I'm the ding, dong that forgot to turn off the breaker thinking "Well, the switch is off and I'm not going to touch any wires"  WRONG)  and a couple trips to home depot (1930 home was not made for modern light fixtures)...I hung my first chandelier! 

Then I got cocky....and decided to go for the under the cabinet lights (the are wired not the plug in type)

These ugly, dirty, ANCIENT lights, were changed to new...non humming/blinking, energy efficient lights!

And may I add...I'm getting faster at changing out fixtures. 

Next up:  New entry light!

New Years "Goals" Update

I'm a little late on this but here's my status...all and all I'm pretty proud of myself.  And while life has changed a bit in 6 months (aka...moving to a new city/state)...I think I can accomplish the remainder in the next 5 months! And notice that there are a lot of "changed to" updates to my list.  I'm a realist.  Life changes, so you adapt!

10. Loose the last 20 pounds by March 1st. 
So close yet so far :( I made it to the last 10 pounds and then I had my horrible hives that caused me to go on some major steriods.  I gained 10 pounds since then :(  Back to losing the final 20 I go (this time on my own...no meds, just excercise "gulp" and lack of will power).  First yoga class today!



9. Take 1 bubble bath a week (cheesy, but sometimes I need some relax time) 
CHANGED TO:
 read at least one chapter a day (any book you want)
Well I made it all the way to May on this until I moved...to a house with no real soaking tub :(  So I changed my goal to something else that relaxes me...reading!  Love it.  Very easy to do!


8.Take 1 yoga or Pilate's class a week (healthy mind and body is the concept I am going for in 2009)
Failing miserably.   Starting classes today.

7.I will finally go visit my friends WITH GEOFF in Texas in Spring (been trying to do that one since 2003)
CAHNGED TO:
 fall 2009 aka TCU homecoming weekend!
Tickets bought...ready to go

6.) Go back to California in spring for Colette's graduation (6.1) Will not be sad when I go back. Will be happy. Mom would have wanted it that way.
Done. 6.1 Done...pictures above :)  Missed graduation though, but made it to California and visited my grandmother.

5.) Get my teaching credential
CHANGED TO:
Get into grad school to get M.ED
George Washington starts classes end of August!!

4.) Once a month, get in the garden and plant something new. Post what I plant
Have been planting have not been posting.

3.)Volunteer once a month with any organization (Humane Society, homeless shelter, church etc)
CHANGED TO:
Donate once a month to any organization

2.)  Eat at least 5 meals at home a week. (this is going to be the HARDEST one by far)
Did so well....until I packed up the kitchen and moved up here.  Doing better since I bought a food/rice steamer.  Still have a ways to go!
 
 
Noticed I have one goal missing?  Well since I didn't real goal #10 I didn't plan that trip to Greece.  BUT my husband still wants to take it before he gets a job up here since who knows when he will be able to accrue that much vacation time again!  We'll see that happens.

California Recap

Finally had a chance to uplaod the pictures of my vacation.
Warning: Tons of pictures (but nt as many as Laura took...she was over 700 pictures by the 7th day!)

Santa Barbara

Great weather, beautiful beaches...great food :)

The Mission

We spent HOURS reading here...

Real Mexican food....yummy!!

I spy with my little eye...

Fire damage in the botanical gardens

Do you see what I see?

I hate stairs..

Lunch on the beach

Los Angeles Area

View from our hike up the Hollyridge

Santa Monica Pier

Malibu

Very cold water!!

Geoff got worried when he saw this picture!

I don't miss this at all!!! FYI this was on a Sunday at 3:00 pm.  Look past the smog and you can see Downtown LA

JAWS @ Universal Studios

The reason I came back home...Grandma Madeline.  Yup, I'm named after her. She'll be 95 in November.

This is her saying "cheese" !  Pretty good for having partial paralysis on her left side!

Depression Art.  The painter painted this for food and boarding.

The Langham in my hometown of Pasadena

More reading was done here!!

Laguna Beach

The Montage for Lunch...heaven

Fancy Pants

and finally my favorite place to "eat"

Pinkberry...how I missed you!!