Random Ramblings

Blizzard of 2010

February 6, 2010 - It's the Blizzard of 2010.  DC is shut down.  Unbelievable!!  It started snowing about 2PM yesterday afternoon and has not stopped since.  Earlier this morning we cleared a pathway from the front door to the driveway, that's covered with snow already!  It's going to be a while before we get dug out I believe.  LOL

The start of the blizzard.

Last night around 10.

This morning at 7am

Yes, 21"!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy 2010 everyone!!!!  Can't believe a whole year has passed again!

2009 was a mixed emotion year for me.  Started out with welcoming our new President to town.  Yes, Gretchen and I were downtown in the cold for the swearing in.  It was freezing, but we can say we were there for this historical event!!

Linda surprised me for my birthday a week later.   We actually got snow on my birthday!  Had a great dinner at Cafe Bonaparte w/my sibs and BFF. 

Had a concert with our friends from Beantown in March and then again in June.  LOL  A few trips up to Philly for Gay Bingo and Gretchen's nephew's 1st Birthday!

July brought our 4th of July weekend trip to the Vineyard!  First time in awhile that I slept in my car overnight.  LOL  That was an adventure, but such a relaxing weekend.  Rode bikes, went to the beach, fabulous lobster rolls in Menemsha.  Good times!  Got to meet the newest additions to our family Sofia and her baby brother Humberto, Jr.  Such cuties! 

Here's a link to the rest of the pix - Vineyard 2009

September/October brought on Hawaii!!!! We hit Kona and Honolulu, Linda was able to join us in Honolulu.  What a wonderful vacation!  Gotta thank the BFF for that b/c if it weren't for the fact that the ADA had their annual session there this year, not sure we would have made it over!  :) 

Here are some of the pix from that trip - Aloha! Hawaii 2009
 

2009 was a sad one for me too.  My aunt passed away.  She was the first of my mom's living siblings that passed.  I still get teary when I think of her.  But I know she's up in heaven with my uncle watching over us.  I miss you Auntie.

November 2009 marked one year cancer free for my BFF!!!!!  

Closed the year off at our favorite gastropub Granville Moore's!

Now it's onto 2010 and new adventures!!

Our Hawaii Adventure - Kona

SATURDAY - After being on 3 airplanes for a total of 12 hours, we made it to Kona! A bit of a wait at Hertz, but then we were on our way in our Ford F10. That we discovered was way too big! We got to our resort -Wyndham Kona Village & the place was really nice!!! After settling in, we went to WalMart to get some supplies & then a bite to eat. Finally crashed after being on our feet for 24 plus hours.

SUNDAY - Didn't do a damn thing! LOL watched football at 8am, figured out some tours & traded in the F10 for a Mustang convertible. Ran to Tarjay (Love the Tarjay here!! Starbux & booze!!) And then had dinner at this Japanese restaurant.  It was very good!  We tried to get there the night before, but never made it LOL

MONDAY -  We toured the Island!  We drove from our condo to the Black Sand Beach (AKA Punalu'u Black Sand Beach).  From there we went to Volcano National Park.  The gas levels there that day were bad!  By the time we got to the Halema‘uma‘u Crater, the levels were so high, they made us stay inside the visitor center for awhile.  Even w/a mask on, I was still coughing.  Poor Gretch just had her jacket to cover her mouth and nose.  Then like 2 minutes later, the wind changed direction and we were ok to go outside.  From there we went to Hilo and had loco moco at Cafe 100.  Soo good!!!!!

It's the middle of July already???

Where has the time gone?!?  September & Hawaii will be here before I know it!  Eep!!! 
Summer hasn't been too bad so far!  We did have a bought of rain, rain, rain and even more rain.  But so far we've had decent weather the past few weeks. 

Went to MV for the 4th.  That was truly an adventure!  LOL  We left MD in plenty of time, but by the time we hit NYC, it rained (surprise!) there were 2 accidents on the GW Bridge (Surprise again!) and traffic again (all together now...Surprise!) We get past that and then...traffic in New Haven.  The traffic Gods were against us.  We finally make up for some time and the arrival time on the GPS seemed doable and then...traffic in Borne, MA.  Al said we should just pull off and grab a hotel for the night b/c there was no way we'd make the last ferry at 9:45pm. 

So we pull off, find a McDonalds, empy our bladders and fill our bellies.  Decided we'd just sleep in Mojo b/c the hotels we were pulling up were getting terrible reviews on TripAdvisor.  So we hang out in McDonalds til the lot starts clearing and then Gretchen sees another parking lot.  Yay!  It's the parking lot for the visitors center in Borne.  So we sleep there til about 5ish and then head to Falmouth to park the car and grab the bus to Woods Hole.

We had some celebrities on our Ferry that morning.  Gretchen spotted Ray Allen as we were walking into the ticket office and then I spotted an older African American man talking to him and it turns out it was Dr. J!  :)

MV was a lot of fun.  We basically just chilled!  Took afternoon naps (Gretch in the hammock, me on the porch) We went bike riding (stop laughing) and did lots of walking.  It was really nice!  I got to meet Jane's little ones.  (So weird thinking of her having kiddies) Took in the sunset at Menemsha (so beautiful!) and had some wonderful lobster rolls!  Can't wait to get back there!  You can check out my pix at - MV Pix.

Not much else going on for now.  A baseball game or two.  Jason Mraz next Saturday (yes, we're actually going to see him in the states! )  Work is going to be crazy next month b/c we have several office moves and a couple of new clients. One of them I'm actually "in charge" of!  Eep!

Our Ghost Hunters Adventure!

I've been following a couple of the crew on Ghost Hunters on Twitter.  One of them posted they were in VA in the DC Metro Area.  I wasn't sure if she was vacationing or they were going to do an investigation.  Well then Grant twittered that he was on his way to DC.  Aha!  They were doing an investigation.  So with the help of my partner in crime, we were able to find the location of the investigation.  It was the Lee Fendall House in Old Town Alexandria!! 

So we met up after work and headed down there.  Got stuck in traffic b/c of a stupid accident and got down to Old Town about 8ish.  We turn onto the street the house was on and Gretchen goes "There they are!  Oh there's Grant!"  I'm all nervous at this point (I always am around people I like LOL) So we park the car a little ways down and get out.  We walk up to them and Gretchen says something about excuse us for being nerdy or something like that & Grant was cool.  Amy was there with him too.  We said something about finding them bc I follow on Twitter and we figured out where they were.  Grant kept asking how we figured it out.  He was truly perplexed.  Then we took pix w/them and left.  Oh, Gretchen mentioned how she thought we'd see the TAPS vans and Grant goes "Those are it.  We have to cover the TAPS part so no one sees us"  They uncovered for one of the pix!  So cool!!!!!

Our pix -