Christmas Pictures

Just wanted to post some of the Christmas pictures Kelly took of us - thank you Kelly! I had to post all of my favorites and as Kelly is such an amazing photographer, I am posting almost all of them! Enjoy :)

Our New Love

Kevin and I have discovered Five Guys (super duper yummy hamburger restaurant chain) and now I know what I will be doing for the rest of my life - finding out how to get more burgers from Five Guys ! Do yourself a favor and drive to the nearest Five Guys and order a bacon cheeseburger with all of your favorite toppings (I like mine with sauteed onions, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, and mayo)...mmmmm

On our latest trip to Richmond for some cheesy burgery goodness...

Doesn't look like much, but I promise this stuff is like crack!

She Caught Me!

Disclaimer! I am super lame and usually don't follow through on my "tags" but I figured that I would give this one a go...this is for you, Kelly!

So here are the rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.
5. Leave a comment to let them know


Quirks:
1. I am the "Signs" girl! Look, I can't stand the taste of "stale" water that has been sitting in a cup for who knows how long and has funny little dust floaties in it - I like to have not only fresh water but a fresh cup every time I get a drink. This, of course, drives Kevin crazy because it results in extra dish washing (for me mostly...I don't know why he complains!) Of course, Kevin tries to get me to reuse my cups, but whenever I go back to the cup to use it a second time, I question whether or not the cup is mine in the first place, and then I always end up getting a new cup and starting all over. It just isn't worth it - It is just easier all around if I start every drink with a fresh cup and water.


2. I am still a little afraid of the dark. Do you all remember the part in Home Alone where he conquers his fear of the basement and the furnace (or at least that's what I think that big fiery thing is)...well, I have never really conquered my "basement." The home I grew up in was two stories and my bedroom was on the first floor and my parent's bedroom and the office was on the second floor. As a child, I had to not only leave my closet light on at night in order to fall asleep, but I refused to go upstairs if my parent's weren't home. To this day, I am afraid of going upstairs if it is dark and I am the only one home. In my own apartment, I have to leave all the lights on until the moment when I go to bed, and not a second sooner. I am such a baby!


3. I am a true (and obsessive) fan. Every five years I find something new to obsess over...some book or movie that I just can't get out of my thoughts (or internet searches). When I was a little girl, I watched The Princess Bride every day. I must have driven my mother mad! I mean, sure, the movie is good, but who can watch anything everyday for a year? My friend Kristin and I would watch the movie and then act out the scenes - namely the sword fighting scenes. Kristin had some really cool plastic Samurai swords that we would fence with, all the while spouting lines we didn't understand and switching from left to right hand.

My next obsession hit in middle school when I was reintroduced to the Phantom of the Opera. I had grown up listening to the music from the play (I would borrow my brother's Walkman and would listen to our Phantom tape in secret) but didn't know the story. Well, in middle school I met a really fun and quirky girl named Jenna that was beyond obsessed with the Phantom of the Opera and she introduced me to the literature that spawned the Broadway phenomenon and I was hooked! I read several different versions of the story, each one sinking me deeper and deeper into POTO mania! I begged and pleaded with my parents to take me to the play, but the nearest one was a seven hour drive from home in San Francisco and they were not about to take me there just to see a play. Well, after a year or so of complete obsession, my wonderful dad caved and made a deal with me - if I got perfect grades, he would take me to San Francisco to see Phantom. Of course, I held up my end of the bargain and we took a little daddy-daughter trip to San Francisco to finally see the play. It was AMAZING! It was everything I ever dreamed it would be...and thankfully, the addiction to "The Music of the Night" dissipated soon thereafter. Don't get me wrong, my heart jumps a beat every time I hear those first notes of the Overture, but I don't lie awake at night thinking about being Christine Daae! And if I ever find myself there - I have the movie to tide me over!

The Lord of the Rings was an unexpected obsession (no, I don't speak Elfish!) that hit towards the end of high school and continued into college. Let's just say that I lined my bedroom walls with pictures of Legolas and fought with my sister over who got to name their first born son Elijah. I went to all of the midnight premiers and even sat in line for 12 hours for Return of the King - don't worry, though - I put the time to good use studying for a college final I had the next morning!

I am sure you can all guess what I am obsessed with right now...TWILIGHT!! I have read the books several times over and religiously check the fan blogs for news about the movie. I have done my best to leave this blog Twilight-free so you don't realize how much it occupies my brain and I think I've done a good job! And yes...I went to the midnight showing last night amidst tons of screaming tween girls and then rushed off to see it again today!

4. I am an obsessive compulsive dishwasher loader - or rather, I like my dishwasher loaded in a particular way that I have found to best maximize the dishwasher space in order to wash all of my once-used cups and other dishes at the same time. Is that so bad? This, of course, was brought to my attention by my dear husband who loads our dishes haphazardly, resulting in an unorganized mess. Now, I am extremely thankful that my husband does dishes at all, but I can't figure out why he won't load the dishwasher correctly when he knows that's how I like it to be done? Like I said, I am really thankful that he does the dishes, so I try to just forget about the way he loads the dishwasher and for my own sanity, just reload it the way I like it when he is done.


5. I love chocolate and I love nuts, but I am very particular about how the two associate...and it really is a case by case situation...for example:

chocolate covered peanuts=good
double chocolate covered peanuts=better
chocolate covered almonds=bad
chocolate covered walnuts=bad
walnuts in chocolate fudge=good


6. Last, but not least, I can't finish a whole can of soda. Did I just blow your mind? There have been very few times in my life when I have been able to drink a whole can of Sprite or whatever without either having Kevin finish it off for me or just throwing the remaining carbonated liquid sugar away. I know - it's only 12 ounces, but for some reason soda just fills me up and I can't drink that much. To be truly honest, I don't even like soda that much. I think Root Beer is the best, and I can tolerate most of the others, but I usually never order a soda in a restaurant (works for me - saves money and calories!).



Now for the tags - Some of you have already been tagged, so I leave this up to the rest of you...if you did not get tagged and would like to tell your readers all about 6 of your quirks - here's your chance - you're tagged!

A Little Bit of Virginia History

On Saturday, Kevin and I drove up to Richmond and went to the Confederate White House and Museum. It was really interesting to see Jefferson Davis' home and to learn more about the Confederate Army and Civil War history. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the home, so we tried to make up for that by taking a bunch in front of it!

And yes, I did expect the Confederate WHITE House to be white and not grey...I am not sure if the City of Richmond is to blame for poor upkeep of this historical building or if the building was always a yucky dingy grey color...oh well!

What's Up Washington?

Prepare for the longest post EVER!!! Last weekend Kevin and I took an impromptu trip up to DC to see the sites. It seems that everytime we go to DC we go to the temple and never see anything touristy...in just two short days, we saw almost everything! I apologize that this post is neither funny nor brief...I just had to get all of these pictures posted!

Marine Memorial (Tribute the Iwo Jima)

Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery

View of the Washington Monument from the Jefferson Memorial (if you look closely, you can also see the White House)

After a long hike to see Jefferson Jefferson Memorial - Whenever I go to this memorial, I always think about the Simpson's episode where Lisa goes to see the Lincoln at his memorial to ask him a question and finds it too crowded, so she goes to the Jefferson memorial and nobody is there and Jefferson is sad. Well, if the Jefferson monument weren't so hard to get to and so far out of the way, maybe more people would go there!

World War II Memorial

A friendly reminder to all of us...(Freedom is Not Free)

My favorite memorial - the Korean War Memorial (why Kevin got a picture in front of it and not me, I don't know)

Lincoln looks like he needs to stretch...or at least that's what I think!

Looking down from the Lincoln memorial at the Washington Monument

Kevin's favorite memorial - The Vietnam Memorial

Barack Obama's new pad

I can't tell if my or Kevin's big head is blocking the White House

Kevin's getting a little too chummy with Gov. Palin, if you ask me!

Another friendly reminder...(Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty)

Diamonds are a girl's best friend!! (Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum)

My favorite dinosaur - the Triceratops - aka Sarah from the Land Before Time

Kevin's favorite dinosaur - Stegosaurus

You made it to the end! Thanks for visiting!

Happy Halloween!

The day before Halloween, Kevin and I had exactly one hour to carve our pumpkins together before Kevin had to go back to school for some meetings...I think we did pretty good in that time!

I came home from work to find my pumpkin already scooped! Thanks, Babe!

About to make the first cut!

Kevin went with a scary pumpkin

I, in my obsessed Twilight mode, went with a Twilight pumpkin...I was really impressed with my ability to not only cut this out with a huge steak knife (we lost our special pumpkin carving set) but to do so without cutting off one of my fingers!

Dentists: Cavity of Society, Sleazy Bicuspid (Remover), Root (Canal) of all Evil, Or Guardians of Wisdom (Teeth)?

After six arduous months of self-fueled indignation, I strode confidently into my dentist appointment yesterday ready to reveal the man behind the curtain, ready to raise the flag of truth, ready to expose these people for what they really are: FRAUDS.

Six months ago my wonderful wife set up a dentist appointment and informed me I would be going. Naturally, hating dentists as I do, I resisted. Nevertheless, my resolve was weakened and eventually broken as Leslie prattled on about the importance of dental hygiene, taking care of myself, not looking British, etc. To make a long story short, I soon found myself lying on my back as a strange man probed my mouth with various foreign objects.

I did not ever give a verbal “yes,” but perhaps under Virginia law, submissively lying motionless is sufficient to qualify as “consent.” Regardless, after he was done, he sat me up in the chair and with a stern expression on his face he said, “You haven’t been flossing, have you?” I replied with a well rehearsed line which I have employed during every dentist visit I’ve ever had: “No, not as much as I should.” I then looked sheepishly at the ground waiting for his inevitable scolding. I didn’t have to wait long. “Kevin,” he began, in an authoritative, condescending tone, “flossing is extremely important. All the cavities I found today are a result of not flossing. Remember, if you want clean teeth, you brush; if you want healthy teeth, you floss.”

Before I continue with the story, there are two points I need to address. First, there are likely some of you judging me for not flossing. Well, that’s right - I’m not a great flosser. There, I said it. However, that does not make me a bad person. If any of you are disgusted by this shortcoming, give me two minutes and I can come up with a list of your flaws.

Second, since when did dentists become the nagging parents of society? When I go into McDonald’s and order a Super Sized Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the cashier doesn’t look at me and say, “Do you really need all that?” When I go to a horror movie the ticket guy doesn’t say, “You know, if you watch this you won’t be able to sleep and you’ll want to sleep in my room after it's over.” When I go to 7 Eleven at night and get a huge drink, the guy at the counter doesn’t warn me that if I drink this all tonight, I’ll probably wet the bed. The only person that will forever talk to you like you’re a child is your dentist.

Furthermore, it makes no logical or economic sense for a dentist to get mad when people get cavities. After all, that is how they make money. A dentist getting annoyed when you throw business his way by not taking care of your teeth is the same as the owner of a Chuck-A-Rama getting mad at people for not watching their weight. If there weren’t fat slobs in the world, he'd be out of business.

Anyway, back to the story. After my scolding and empty promises to do better in the future, I recalled that dentists always tell you to floss more. Armed with anecdotal data, I developed a theory that dentists will tell you to floss more during every appointment whether you floss or not. My theory dictates that dentists are playing the odds; they know that 99% of us should floss more, and much like birth control, 99% is pretty good odds. At that moment, I decided to become that 1%. I would become the dentist’s unexpected pregnancy - and I would be just as annoying.

For the next six months I diligently flossed every day. After the first week I had already surpassed my aggregate lifetime record. But I didn’t stop there. I flossed all summer, even when Leslie wasn’t around, I flossed on vacation, and I continued to floss when school started. I became the ultimate flosser. As I flossed, I fantasized about what I would say to the dentist when he perfunctorily told me to floss more. I imagined that I would slowly stand erect, the lights would dim and I would ceremoniously raise my arm and place one finger inches away from his masked face. In my best Charlton Heston voice I would categorically declare, “You sir, are a liar! Shame on you!”

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out like that. Yesterday, I had my long awaited appointment and sat gleefully in the chair ready to bring down an entire profession. However, after a short examination he looked at me and said, “Good, I see that you’ve been flossing.” It was entirely anticlimactic, but at least I learned an important lesson along the way: FLOSS.