Christmas Weekend Recap

Why do long weekends fly by?

Wednesday - Worked at home in the morning and then finished baking pine nut cookies to take over to Helen's. Dinner at Helen's with Christine and her crew plus Aunt Patty and Dave. Low key this year. No one got too rowdy from margaritas. In other words, no interesting pictures to share.

Thursday - Opened gifts from Santa Steve. The biggest surprise was the desk that I wanted but I had forgotten to put on my wish list. I also got replacement knitting needles since I accidently gave mine away; we'll save that story for another day.


Headed over to Mom & Dad's and spent most of the day playing Wii, stuffing our faces, and exchanging gifts which of course included our annual white elephant gift exchange. This year I ended up with Santa Spud. My sister was the big winner with a Granny Racers game.

Friday - Made the mistake of going to the mall along with the rest of NoVA. Note to self: don't go out to any store the day after Christmas. I have no idea what I did with the rest of my day. I think I spent it doing some combination of sewing, eating, and maybe more eating? Stayed in Friday evening to watch Hancock. Cheesy in some parts, but I was entertained enough that I didn't feel the urge to knit, crochet, or do something else to pass the time.

Saturday - Gym, Starbucks, then work. I wanted to finish the users guide that I was working on so that I could bill the company and get paid for the work. We lost power just after I e-mailed the document off so I had no choice but to go to G Street Fabrics. Spent the rest of the afternoon sewing before Steve and I went out to pick up some grub and another movie. This time we picked up Stepbrothers. Sucked. I was bored about 20 minutes into it and spent the rest of the movie crocheting.

Sunday - Met up with Steve's tri buddies for a tourist-y run in DC. Spent the rest of the day craftin' away.

Vintage Christmas Pics

1973 - making me about 1 1/2. Like the boots? Because you know I needed them in the Philippines.


These are all from 1974. Obviously someone thought I was a doll they could play dress-up with. (Mom)

Pre-Christmas Weekend Recap

Friday – Spent the evening with my Chipotle burrito bol and The Hulk (the movie, not Steve). Okay I suppose, but I can’t help but associate Ed Norton with crazy, just like I associate Adam Sandler with silly.

Saturday – Met Nina at 8:00 for a 2 hour-ish run around DC. We started at the Iwo Jima Memorial, headed out to Hains Point, the Mall, and took a quick detour to check out the National tree before heading back. It was the perfect way to spend the morning and a nice reminder that I really do need to get into the city more to take advantage of what’s out there.

Spent the rest of the day baking, baking, and baking. This year’s assortment includes chocolate with cherries (very dense), crispy chocolate chip, pretzels w/ Kisses and M&Ms, and pine nut cookies (my personal favorite). BTW, where the heck are all the Hershey Hugs??? I had to use plain ole Kisses because Hugs are no where to be found.

That night, one of the ladies that Steve has trained with in the past was having a party at her house, er, McMansion. This is now the second house I’ve been to in the last month that has made my jaw drop. Unless I’m housing Hugh Hefner and his bunnies, I just don’t understand why anyone would want a house that big. It seemed like this house had more unused guest bedrooms than we have rooms in our townhome. The stainless steel stove was big enough to roast a few toddlers and the entire house had been professionally decorated ~ I’m guessing decorating a place that big requires something more upscale than Ikea or Target. Anyhoo… it was still fun to hang out with Steve’s tri buddies.

Sunday – Woke up early to get some work done on the user guide I’m supposed to have ready by January. Steve and I stopped by my parents before we all headed over to my cousin’s pre-Christmas family get-together. Being in the midst of present-opening chaos reminded me of the many Christmas mornings I spent with these cousins when we lived in DC.

No sugarplums for you!

Sometimes you're just not in the mood for anything sweet.

2008 Stats

Running:

• Number of running shoes: 3
• Number of races finished: 6
• Total miles run: 1393.2 miles
• Hours run: 208 hours, 32 minutes, 32 seconds (8 days, 16 hours)
• Toenails sacrificed: ½. Despite suffering a bruised pinky toenail after the National Marathon in March, the little sucker never fell off. I’m guessing the new one decided to grow under the damaged one.

Food:

• Times we’ve eaten at Chipotle: Too many to count. For a while there it was a weekly thing, but we’ve cut back so that we don’t feel obligated to give the employees a Christmas gift. Kidding. Kinda.
• Burgers eaten: About 4: One mushroom Swiss at Cheeseburger in Paradise back in January with my family, and another mushroom Swiss a few weeks ago in NYC. I’m adding an extra two burgers for barbeques we might have attended. Burger trumps hot dog.
• Gallons of milk: Approximately 26. We go through about a gallon a week and I tend to use slightly more than Steve since I put some in my oatmeal/cereal and also have a glass to wash my vitamins down.

Other useless stats:

• Number of in-person job interviews: 2. Interview number one was with VW. Approximately 2-3 hours long and consisted of a “test” and panel interview. They never returned my calls so I’m guessing I wasn’t Vdub material. Interview number two was with the company I’m currently working for. I was a little skeptical about taking it, but figured I really had nothing to lose. Okay, maybe I lost the parking garage and a window office but I can deal with that.
• Number of different colors of interior paints purchased: 15ish. Actually used 4 colors, the rest of the colors didn’t work out. Fortunately most of these were the sample size.
• Number of hair appointments: 6
• Number of people I know who have died: 3. Steve’s grandmom, John a former project manager, and a friend’s stepfather.
• Number of hangovers: 2. It’s funny how my definition of a hangover has changed through the years. In my 20s, a hangover would have meant praying to the porcelain gods while simultaneously trying to recall what I drank to make me so sick and vying to never drink that much again. These days, I define a hangover as anytime that I feel groggy (which includes a headache) due to having too much to drink. Event number one was the night before Steve’s grandmom’s funeral. The “quick bite to eat” with his NJ cousins who we don’t see often turned into closing down a TGI Fridays, a bar, and finishing off a bottle of wine back at the hotel. Event number two was Steve’s 40th just a few weeks ago where I had too many margaritas that resulted in me having a gnarly headache when I woke up at 5:30 am to find the boys still playing Wii.
• Times inside a church: 2 (one funeral, one wedding)
• Times thrown out of a bar: 1, but that’s one for my entire life.
• Times I’ve flown: 2 - pathetic. I need to go on more trips.
• Number of beach visits. 1 – truly unacceptable. I spent a few hours on the beach in FL while Steve and the rest of his tri-people were off doing their thing. Ran on the beach early in the morning, had breakfast, then plunked myself into a cushioned beach lounger. Heaven. Granted we went to a lake “beach” in NH and then to Deep Creek Lake in July, but I don’t consider those real beaches.

Rudolph the red-nosed SUV

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Originally uploaded by cherrydg

Two Cubes from History

I'd imagine that most if not all of us know exactly where we were and what we were doing on 9/11. Two cubes away from me is Ben, an unassuming man in his 60s with a New York accent who starred in a movie called United 93. Ben remembers exactly where he was on 9/11. If you met him, you'd never know that he was the one in charge at the Air Traffic Control Command Center that day and the one that issued the order to ground all the flights in the country that day. I'm so not worthy.

Pop-up Cards

A refreshing change to the corporate holiday card.

Weekend Recap

Friday - Low key evening with Esteban: lasagna followed by my beating him in 9 holes of Wii golf.

Saturday - Gym immediately followed by a trip to Target. I'm sure no one at Target appreciates my stinky, sweaty self in there at 8:30 a.m., but too bad. I don't like crowds and going first thing in the morning lets me get it out of the way. (Besides, I can treat myself to Starbucks while I'm there.) Went to JoAnn's to pick up some goods for a few tote bags I'm going to make. On my way out of the parking lot I saw my favorite pair: a guy in his early 20s and his elderly grandmom (or much older mom). I've run into them a few times at Michael's on Saturday mornings and am guessing it's a weekly outing he makes with her. Very sweet. He walks patiently with her although she moves r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w with her cane. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside when I see how sweet he is with her.

We actually picked up our tree this weekend which is extremely early for us. Twenty-five smackaroos but it's definitely the tallest and fullest tree we've ever had. Afterwards I dragged Steve to Costco to get the grocery shopping out of the way then it was over to Claude Moore park to watch his nephews' swim meet. Spent the evening stuffing our face with a margharita pizza, drinking wine, and watching the movie Ironman.

Oh! Our neighbor gave us these gorgeous little candy things and said it was some kind of Thai dessert. I had to know what they were and found out they're called luk chup.

Sunday - 12-miler out on the Leesburg section of the W&OD. Spent most of the day craftin' it up and adding stuff to our wishlists on Wishpot. I love, love, love this site. Had this been around in the 90s, I'd like to hope that I would have gotten fewer sweaters with dainty little flowers and teddy bears sewn on them. Do I really look like the teddy bear wearin' kind?

Bonus Recap

It’s been such a good week I figured I'd do a recap while I chowed down on my ham, egg, and cheese bagel. Delish. Even better topped off with my gingerbread latte and sips of the pumpkin latte I got for Steve (don't tell).

Monday – Work was boring but I came home to find a care package from Al. I thought she had bought this therapeutic bag thingy she sent but it turns out she made it herself. I miss my craftletic pal.

Tuesday – Had lunch with former co-workers Jenny, Kathleen, and Lisa. I sure do miss working with them, but it was great to catch up even if it was just for just a little while. I also talked to a friend from the gym that I hadn’t seen for a few weeks. Good times.

Wednesday – Work then off to Il Fornaio in Reston to meet Terri and Flo for drinks. I finally got to give Terri-er the cross stitch of her doggy store logo that I’ve had ready for months, and Flo the knitting needle case that I made her. Oh. Did I mention I love vodka tonics?

Thursday – Found out I may actually have a chance to move to the new section of the office they’re building out which will have more windows. Our current cube area is pretty unwelcoming: no sunlight and black ceiling tiles. Bleh. Took a long lunch to meet with a small company that needs a user guide written. They need it by early January, but it seems doable. I’m not actively looking for freelance work, but the extra mula is always welcome and it’s a fairly straightforward project. I got back to the office just in time for the free luncheon that the building management was putting on. Artichoke & crab dip, roast beef sandwiches, chocolate fondue… these are a few of my favorite things. Came home to find more presents! This time Maricel send me some smell-good soaps that are too cute to funkify with my germs and dirt.

Friday – I won! Our building management had a raffle for a $50 Best Buy gift card and I won. Woohoo! Maricel suggested I buy Cooking Mama for the Wii, but we also need ink for our printer. Decisions, decisions.

Steve's Bday Weekend Recap

Friday - Stayed in making brownie cupcakes w/ PB icing, and a ham & potato crock pot concoction for Saturday's lunch. Dull, I know but too bad.

Saturday - Went out for a frosty 12-miler with Tracy at o'dark thirty. The DeGuzman crew came over around noon to watch Navy beat Army (34-0). Steve opened his bday presents during half-time and promptly went downstairs after the Navy game to set up his Wii. We all took turns playing until around 6ish when other family and friends showed up. Watched the pathetic Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya fight. I liked De La Hoya in his prime, but considering how his last few fights have turned out I think it's time for him to hang up the gloves.

Sunday - Made Steve, Chris, Rob, and Joe the Cupcake breakfast before playing 9 holes of Wii golf. Silly how pretty they can make a cartoon golf course. Spent the rest of the day lounging around. Realized around 6pm that other than my run on Saturday morning, I didn't leave the house at all. Eeek.

Turkey Weekend Recap

Thursday – Met Tracy at o’dark thirty for a field trip run to Great Falls . I think trail running is harder than running on pavement, but I managed to finish without falling or doing a Sonny Bono impersonation. After a quick breakfast and shower, it was off to my parent’s for dinner. Dad fried two turkeys: one for dinner and one for Steve to take home. Ever since my parents found out that Steve loves turkey, they make a point to make one just for him any time they cook one. In between dinner and dessert, we watched Get Smart. We stopped by my uncle’s house to visit and draw names for Christmas gifts. Yay! Buying two gifts for the cousins is much easier than buying 13. Steve, his turkey and I stopped by Helen’s before finally take our overstuffed bellies home.

Friday – Lugged myself to the gym. I spent most of the day tidying up and rearranging our wall décor. Looks pretty good if I must say so myself and I didn’t spend a cent. That night, one of the ladies in our running group was having a get-together for the group at her house, or in my opinion, mansion. The house was ginormous! They had a baby grand piano in the front room and if I could do cartwheels, I’m sure I could have done at least 10 before hitting a wall. We hadn’t seen a lot of these people since the summer so it was fun to find out how everyone did at their fall races. Turns out more and more of these crazies are running 50-milers and some are considering a 100-miler in Massanutfen. Insane.

Saturday – Went out for what turned out to be a tough 12-miler. It felt like I had Steve’s turkey friend and a case of beer strapped to my back the whole time. Most of the day was spent decorating the house for Christmas minus the tree. Just like I could do without turkey on Thanksgiving, I could do without a tree at Christmas. We usually get one when Steve realizes Christmas is a few days away. By then, all that are left are the reject trees. The good news is that we usually get our tree for a bargain. I think the most we’ve spent is $20, the least $5. Speaking of bargains, we found this World Market dining set last week on Craiglist. $275 for table and chairs.


Anyway…

Took a trip to Plum Grove Cyclery in Leesburg to check out their sale since everything was 60% off. I ended up buying a pair of Tifosi glasses for running. Merry Christmas to me! Swung by Spokes, Lowes, and the dreaded Wal-mart but managed not to buy a thing at any of those places. After three weeks sans-burrito bol, we went to Chipotle, took our loot home, and watched The Happening. Movie was okay, but I’m thankful for Mark Wahlberg despite his years with the funky bunch.

Sunday – Craft and laundry day. I finished a tote and knitting needle case, and cut fabric for some soon-to-be makeup pouches. We’re having company over next weekend so I attempted to clean up the guest room where I have all my sewing stuff. Al and had talked about opening a craft thrift store where people could bring unused supplies and unfinished projects. Considering the amount of stuff I have, we should do that soon.

Monday – Yes, I know that the weekend is over, but it looks like Santa stopped by our office and dropped off a 42” TV for the lounge. No more playing Wii on the old-fashioned 27 incher.

Sisters vs/ Betty and Lala

Our bus to NYC ended up leaving a few minutes late because some woman's friend was late. We'll call the non-late woman Betty because she was just a b*tch, and her friend will now be known as Lala because she was a space cadet lacking a few brain cells. Not even 5 minutes into the trip Betty, who was sitting behind Steve and I, started complaining loudly that she was not going to be able to sleep because Steve had the reading light above us on. "Oh my god! How am I going to sleep? Can you believe this guy is reading? What's wrong with him? Who the hell reads on the bus?" Blah, blah, blah. Enough!

Me: Ya know what? There's an empty seat up front. Why don't you move up there?
Betty: Why don't you move?
Me: Because I'm not the one complaining.

She shut up about the light but spent the entire ride up complaining about anything and everything. "Are they ever going to start the movie? The volume on the TV isn't loud enough. The TV picture sucks. It's too cold on this bus. These seats are uncomfortable." Will someone please put her out of her misery?

At the rest stop, Betty, Lala, and crew had to be rounded up because they weren't on the bus after the 20 minute stop. Pain in the asses.

Before getting off the bus in NYC, our driver and the lady who coordinated the trip made it very clear that we had to be on the bus by 7:00pm to go home. If you're not on the bus, the driver could not wait around and risk getting a very expensive ticket. Well, Betty is on the bus, but wouldn't you know it, Lala is missing. Betty thinks that Lala is standing outside, so the coordinator lady gets out and finally finds Lala. Turns out Lala got on the wrong bus because she didn't pay any attention to what bus we were on. If I were her, I would have been embarassed and felt awful for making everyone else wait. Instead Betty and Dip Sh*t Deluxe laughed about how funny they thought the whole situation was and how they hated this bus trip because they didn't like being told what time they had to be somewhere. Um... it's a bus trip. What did you expect?

Riding back to MD, one of the girls on the bus asked if they could put it in a movie she brought. So the driver puts it in and Lala and Betty start up with "What is this stupid movie? I don't want to watch this. Ugh! Isn't there something better to watch?" I dozed off to this but woke up because my sister snapped. I guess Betty had continued complaining and making snarky remarks when other people on the bus would laugh at the movie. My sister finally had enough and told Betty, "Would you stop complaining?! People are trying to watch the movie!"

My sister is friends with the coordinator lady and told her just how annoying Lala and Betty were. Coordinator lady says they will never be invited or allowed back on this trip. Yay!

Weekend recap

Friday - Trekked up to Chris & Joe's to spend the night since our bus for NYC was leaving at 5:45 Saturday. For dinner we had caldereta that Joe made and finished off Great Harvest chocolate chip cookies. We watched Wall-E and I loved it! There's such little dialogue in the movie so it's funny how much we (okay, I) loved the little cartoon machine

Saturday - After an annoying start to the trip (see rant), we arrived in NYC around 10am. We strolled up to Central Park and spent a few hours checking it out. Fun! I've always wanted to go there after seeing it in so many TV shows and movies.


Went to Gene's Diner for lunch and had a hefty Swiss mushroom burger: Mmm, Mmm good. I think it's the first burger I've had since January when we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise with my family. We rode the subway downtown and strolled around Chinatown and Little Italy for about an hour or two. I don't think any of us were particularly impressed so we rode back up to Times Square. Killed some time in a few stores including Toys R Us where I confirmed that children are just not for me. Grabbed dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner where the wait staff sings while you eat. Swung by a few more stores including the Hershey store before having to head back to MD. Pics from our trip on Shutterfly.


Sunday - I was going to go for a run but my shins are killing me. Spent the day sewing a knitting needle case and finishing up a knit hat that turned out to be way too big even for my oversized coconut.

Tyrone has left the building

Tyrone the Thanksgiving turkey takes flight.

gummy teeth

gummy teeth
Originally uploaded by cherrydg

Gummy body parts

Halloween Weekend Recap

Thursday: We had a costume contest at work and surprisingly had 20+ people dress in costume. Being that our company primarily does work in aviation, we had a "Best Aviation" category. Both my project manager (left) and our intern from Germany (right) had the same idea.



Friday: Not much to say for Halloween. We were invited to a party, but opted not to go. The highlight of my day was finding a cashmere sweater at Nordstrom Rack. I've always wanted one, but never wanted to pay the price. I stumbled across this lime green sweater on the clearance rack which was originally priced at $168. My price: $14.69. Score!

Spent the night handing out candy to kids who no longer say "trick or treat" or "thank you." I actually found myself asking those little boogers who simply held their pillow cases open as if I owed them something, "What are you going to say?" Should I just hand you my wallet? Or perhaps you'd prefer my TV? Ugh. Maybe I should have gone to that party after all.

Saturday: Went to the gym in the morning then spent most of the day painting our living room. Two more walls to do before I'm finally done with the living/dining area.

That afternoon we went to Eric and Kelly's wedding in Burke. The reception was at the Fairfax Country Club - very nice. There were a handful of people there who I used to work with so it was nice to catch up with them. More pictures from the wedding on Shutterfly.

Sunday: Ran for the first time since the marathon. Steve and I decided to make it a "field trip run" at Carderock where we ran along the C&O Canal which was a nice change from W&OD.

After our run we headed to my parents. Took a quick trip to the Filipino store for some goodies and then spent the rest of the afternoon feasting on some crabs.

Synchronized Running

We couldn't do this again if we tried.

Chia Challenge: Day 40 - Judgement Day

Parsley:
Basil:

Medusa a.k.a. cilantro:

Chives? We'll never know.

4:03:38 PR

It was a tougher race than I expected, but I managed to squeak out a PR (personal record) today. We had some trouble finding the bag check before the race so by the time we got into the corral we only had a minute or two before the race started - a little stressful. The first few miles are always hard for me; it takes me 2-3 miles before I can get any kind of breathing pattern down. Unfortunately today I felt like I struggled with my breathing the entire time. Fortunately Steve ran with me the whole race which kept me from walking. (We had the exact same splits to the second at each timing mat.)

For a little while we were on track to finish at exactly 4 hours. By the time we got to mile 18, I knew that I'd be lucky to beat my time from the National Marathon. The last 6 miles weren't pretty, but I did beat my National time by 62 seconds. Not great, but I'll take it.

I'll also be taking several handfuls of my chocolate Chex Mix and chocolate covered pretzels. Gotta reward myself somehow ya know?!

Fini!

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Originally uploaded by cherrydg

All done.

Tattoo Time

Remember those temporary tattoos that Al sent us back in September?

Steve's Wine and Dine lady:

Die Before Fast Food:
And for me....

Eat or Die:

Vino:

And last but not least, Bacon!

Now I'm ready for this race.

Superstitious?

Maybe I am. I bought a hat yesterday at the MCM Expo that I was thinking about wearing for tomorrow's race. Navy blue running cap that has the MCM logo on the front and 2008 on the back. The more I thought about wearing it, the more I thought that I might jinx myself and not finish the race. What if I trip and break an ankle at mile 26? What if I get locked in a port-o-potty? I've decided the anxiety and worrying isn't worth it, so I will wait until after I finish the race to wear the hat. Until then here's what I will be wearing on my foot tour of Arlington and DC:

It's supposed to be cold in the morning so I'll also have to pick a shirt or two that I can toss once I warm up. (The Marines donate whatever clothing is left on the course.)

Chia Challenge: Day 35

Are we almost there yet?

Cilantro:
Basil:

Parsley:

Weekend Recap

Saturday - Last longer distance run before the marathon next weekend. After that I spent most of the day painting our dining area olive white. It's subtle but better than the white that we had.

On our way to Chipotle that night we noticed one of the streets near our house was closed off and there were about 3 cop cars there with their lights on. Then we noticed a cop (we're assuming) in camo, helmet, and a rifle in hand. Uhhh... what is going on? On the way home, camo man was still out patrolling the street. In addition we happened to pass the Loudoun County Bomb Squad truck turning toward the closed off street. No idea what was going on.

Sunday - Second coat of paint. After that we went to Randy's swim meet but ended up missing it because it ended earlier than he expected. Strolled around the furniture store before heading to Helen's to watch football. I couldn't stand the thought of being inside on such a nice day so I spent a few hours raking leaves in her backyard. Rewarded myself with a few Coronas and wings before dinner.

Chia Challenge: Day 30

Petite parsley:

Buff basil:

Wild 'n' crazy cilantro:

Carbo-loading

Care package from Austin full of goodies for after the marathon.

Color Me Stupid

I'm really starting to think I've got some form of retardation or color-blindness going on. A few weeks ago I painted our fireplace. Since then, I've been trying to find a paint color for the rest of the room. As I type this, I have 5 different colors of paint splattered around various walls of our living/dining area. This does not include the 3 shades of yellow I had up there previously which I have then since ruled out. I thought I was going to paint the room the yellow (a.k.a. cowslip, whatever that is) that is shown in the picture. Unfortunately, when I did some of the trim the room started to look like a mix between the Redskins' locker room and McDonald's; neither of which I wanted to spend my time in.

Speaking of Cinder Blocks...

One of the neighbors down the street had all four tires stolen off their Escalade the other night. Imagine waking up to your car being on cinder blocks. Here's the snippet from Loudoun County's website:

Grand Larceny: A resident reported seeing a suspicious vehicle with its tires and rims removed. The owner was located and it was determined the items were stolen during the overnight.
Value: $6150.00 C2008017610

Chia Challenge: Day 25

Cilantro:

Basil:

Parsley: