Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

For my birthday last February, Ben promised to take me to Monticello in the spring. Life got in the way though and spring turned to summer turned to fall.

This was the last weekend we could go and still receive a guided tour of the gardens (which I really wanted to do), so Ben decided he was going to make this happen regardless of what else was in the way.

We got up far too early (it was still dark out!) yesterday morning to head out. Our first stop was a greasy spoon place we recently discovered for cheap, greasy breakfast. The staff was excessively helpful, at one point offering Ben 3 coffee refills in the time span of a single minute.We learned always say yes, because they won't ask you for more if you have a full cup.

Then we got on the road and sat in mysterious traffic. I never saw any accident or construction, so I have no clue why there was so much traffic heading south on a Saturday morning.

We did eventually safely arrive just before noon. The way the place was set up, there was a visitor's center and museum about a mile down the mountain from the house, and then the house sits at the top of the mountain. There's a shuttle back and forth if you pay admission, but there's supposedly a nice trail you can walk if you don't want to give them any money.

We watched a short 15-minute intro video about Jefferson after buying our tickets. I personally think you could skip the video if you ever go. It really didn't teach anything new or provide any prep for visiting the house. Then Ben ate a small lunch, which I skipped because I was still full of greasy eggs on wheat.

Once we were done with that, we took the shuttle to the top of the mountain to see the house itself. LESSON OF THE DAY: Do not build a house on the top of the mountain.

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The first time I saw jurrasic park, I was 10 years old. Probably too young to see it, but I was dinosaur obsessed and made it clear to my parents that I NEEDED to see that movie.

I managed to get as far as the t-rex. I spent the entire rest of the movie hiding in my dad's armpit.

Ben took me to see the 3D re-release of the movie today. I could care less about the 3D. This was about seeing the movie as I should have seen it 20 years ago. And I am proud to say I kept my eyes open and on the screen the entire time! Go me!

I still got pretty scared though! Impressive that a movie that old, that I've seen a billion times, can still make me jump and scream in the theater.

The whole thing made me want to go back to the jurassic park at islands of adventure. That place was like mecca for child-me. It's not nearly as amazing as it was when it first opened (they got rid of the triceratops you could pet), but I'd like to go back there sometime in the future.

Last night Ben and I went to Benihana's for dinner. They once again sent me one of those super generous $30 birthday gift certificates. I don't know how they make money with those things! You can get nearly anything off the menu, so it's an awesome deal.

Dinner was nice. The chef we had didn't put on much of a show, but it was still entertaining enough. Food was good, though Ben complained the chicken wasn't melt in your mouth the way I cook it. ;) I had teriyaki chicken. I made Ben super happy by giving him all my shrimp.

At the end of dinner, they brought me ice cream with a candle and everyone sang happy birthday while they took my picture. I am bright red embarrassed in the picture. But still, fun times were had!

I'm nearly out of birthday freebies. I must find more to sign up for next year.

Redeemed freebies
- Benihana - $30 gift certificate
- Moes - One free entree
- Baskin Robbins - One free scoop of ice cream

Yet to be redeemed
- Ben and Jerry's - One free scoop of ice cream
- Genghis Grill - One free bowl
- Melting Pot - Free box of chocolate covered strawberries with entree. (Not likely to redeem as dinner there is crazy expensive!)
- California Tortilla - Free burrito. (Expired already! Sadness!)

My birthday was Sunday. I'm getting so old! 

I was kinda moody about it all day. But ben was sweet and put up with me. He bought me a brownie cheesecake and took me out for dinner.

It was also the superbowl, but instead of watching that we watched a movie a friend sent us. I didn't like it much. I don't know what ben's opinion was. But we gave it a try. That counts for something, right?

When the superbowl was over, someone in the neighborhood set off a bunch of fireworks. It was loud and surprising, especially because I had been asleep.

Ben has a cold. It makes him snore and gargle all night in his sleep. Earplugs are saving our marriage right now.

He sounds absolutely dreadful. I hope it clears up quickly.

It snowed again. Another half an inch. I'm not sure I'm even going to bother to shovel it today. 

Maggie loves playing in the snow. Part of me wants a real snowstorm so she can have extra fun. She's never seen more than an inch or so of snow in her entire life! Crazy, right?

On to January, so I don't have to type up an entire month all over again.

Also, forgot to mention one thing in December: the final for my programming class.

It was written by someone other than my teacher. And was not very clear at all. My teacher ended up having to explain the directions for every single question on the test because the wording was so poor. I freaked out a lot during the test. I knew the stuff, but the wording of everything made me make stupid mistakes. In the end though, I passed the class with an A. Go me!

Ok, now January.

After new years, I got a lot of sleeping done. Then a lot of cleaning. And cooking. Sooooo much cooking.

It felt good to put away the christmas decorations. Freedom from the most depressing holiday of the year.

Maggie's eye cleared up right away. She was back to her old nonsense in no time.

In other news, noname seems to have developed a uti and is alternating between dribbling on everything and directly peeing on everything. I called the vet, but they couldn't squeeze her in until monday. So we bought noname a pack of diapers to get by until then. Poor smelly puppy.

And then speaking of diapers, on thursday ben and I drove up to baltimore to drop off food to our friends who just had a baby. (Hence all the cooking.) We brought spinach and mushroom lasagna, roasted veggie and kale soup, chocolate chip ice cream, pumpkin spice rice krispy treats, and chocolate chip zucchini bread. It was a mighty bounty of foodness.

I'm not really into babies so I mostly just found the creature to be moist and loud. Maybe it'll be more interesting when it's older and does something other than scream. (So I guess when it's 21?) I mostly just spent the time feeling awkward and trying really hard not to say something stupidly offensive.

Afterwards we stopped at ikea because ben needed a new office chair. We also got a new closet organizer and a shoe rack for me. Which meant a wild and crazy friday night organizing my socks. It may sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm actually unbelievably happy about having my socks so organized.

Today was completely destroyed by typing a huge lj post about december. But now that I'm caught up, that won't happen again. Oh who am I kidding....

I must be getting old, because that ny trip left me totally exhausted. This was the first day this week where I woke up not feeling run over by a truck.

So other stuff in my life.

Tuesday was another farm day. Fruits and veggies were obtained. I even got some flowers this week, which was nice.

Some of the blackberries on the vine have started to turn a little too ripe. Typically I pop the overripe ones in my mouth when I accidentally pick them rather than throw them to the ground. This time, I left the field with a slight buzz. I am a lightweight though, so that might have been part of it.

On wednesday, I took a trillion practice tests for the math placement test at the community college. I was shocked by how much I had to re-learn.

And then on thursday I went in to take the test. It was supposed to take 2 hours but ended up taking 3. (I put 2.5 hours worth of change in the parking meter, but luckily did not get a ticket.) The test is set up in sections and you progress to the next one until you start getting a bunch wrong. Then the test ends. I completed 9 sections, which the proctor said was extremely good and rarely achieved by most people. Take THAT, math! She also said it looks like I easily tested out of taking a math course at all and I just need to talk to an adviser to formalize it in the system. Woo!

Unfortunately thursday and friday appointments were already full. I'll try going early next week. After I get more quarters for those stupid parking meters.

Today I did some house cleaning and food shopping because ben is coming home finally from his long long trip! I'm excited. I've missed him so so much! I'm counting down the hours until his flight lands.

I need community college classes to start soon because I am bored. And lonely. I need friends and hobbies or something.

Maggie is taking my being home for granted. She expects me to play with her allllll the time. It's pretty annoying. She's cute though. I was gone for a couple hours today (csa pick up day) and when I returned, Maggie was wild and crazy with kisses for me. It was super cute.

And taking the dogs for multiple walks all day is good exercise. For all of us. Noname is totally exhausted by the end of our walk. She's so tired, she can't even jump up the tiny step to get through the front door. Poor baby.

Today we had a scary walk because a stupid neighbor a few houses down did not care that her child was running up to my dogs, shoving small filthy fingers in their faces.I kept telling the kid that my dogs were scared and she needed to leave them alone, but the stupid kid totally ignored me. To make things more stressful, their dog was running around the front yard barking and scaring my dogs. I finally had to yell to the mother, "My dogs are going to bite your kid if she doesn't leave them alone." Even then, the mother only half-heartedly called her kid back. It was scary because I know if my dogs bite, the law was going to side with the kid and stupid parent. My dogs are very sweet, but they do not like things suddenly appearing and being shoved in their faces. Finally I got my dogs away from the kid and was able to continue my walk. On the trip back, I carried them past that house of stupidity.

In happier news, today was a csa pick up day. Check out all the goodies!

Most of the stuff from the csa is picked by the farmers, but the annoying stuff (berries) is left in the fields and you have to get them yourself if you want them.

It took forever to pick the black raspberries. They are pretty much at the end of their season. Barely any good ones left on the vines. It was super windy while I was picking too, so I got all scratched up as the vines were swaying around wildly.

Blueberries were super easy as they are at peak of season. I filled my entire box with the berries from just one bush. And they're super sweet like candy. I picked a handful just to eat as I walked back to the main building. I'm probably going to finish the rest off like popcorn while I watch a movie.

I didn't know what I was doing when I picked the plums (what does a ripe plum look like?), so I had to guess based on how easily the fruit came off the trees. I took only the fruit that came off with a gentle tug. That sounds about right, right?

Then I had the embarrassment of having to google chives because I did not know they grew in bunches around flowers so I did not know I was looking at chives in the herb garden. And I only knew what the mint was because I was able to pinch and smell it. I am filled with shame because I don't know what my foods look like.

Actually, a really good thing about the farm is that they offer tours for schools and camps on where our food comes from. There were a ton of summer camps at the farm today on that tour. A lot of the kids seemed totally blown away with concepts like "eggs come from chickens" and "you can pull food right off of trees." And these weren't all little kids. Some of them looked to be in middle school ore maybe even a little older.

When I had finished picking all my fruit today, I took a small detour to the barn area because their miniature horse recently had a baby. It was very cute. But not as cute as the BABY GOAT. The baby goat almost killed me with adorable. It was so bouncy! And as it nursed, it wagged its little tail a million miles an hour. Then when it was full, it crashed straight to the ground for a nap. Only to wake up shortly after to bounce around again. I think I need to convince ben to buy me a baby goat.

The adult goats were cute too, sticking their heads out through the fence to beg for food. I bought a little bit of goat food and they ate it out of my hand while I pet them. Sooooo cute! Unfortunately many small children saw my army of tame goats and swarmed over me to pet them. I had to say goodbye to the goats for the time being. (Unless ben buys me a goat.)

Now I need to come up with more recipes for summer squash. Considering what a plentiful summer food it is, there are shockingly few recipes out there for it. Grill it, stew it, stuff it, or bake it into a bread. Ben doesn't like summer squash so I need to get creative.

Work continues to be stressful. Will there ever be a week when I don't say that?

This week was more stressful than most because I could not work late to try to catch up on things. With ben out of town, I have to get home at a decent time to save the dogs.

In happy news, they are taking me off the AWF account. That account has been a mess from day 1 and I've never been able to catch up and get things back under control.

Unfortunately the account they are putting me on instead, League of Women Voters, is a very very active account with a lot of work involved. I will never catch up on anything. Ever.

I'm tired all the time.

I hope things get better in the summer. Summertime was usually a bit slower at defenders. I hope it is here too. I need to rest. Going full speed every day is killing me. I don't know ho anyone else there does it.

Other things:
- New dog walker did not kidnap my dogs. Yet. Still worried.
- Ate tiny pies on Thursday. If you are in georgetown, I recommend the tiny pies from Pie Sisters.
- Winter arrived. We have 35mph winds and wind chill in the single digits. Maggie does not understand why I don't want to go outside and play with her.
- Cleaned out the fridge. Horrifying things resided in the back.
- Bought comic books. Small child was totally blown away that you could have a subscription to all your favorite titles held for you at the store.
- Contemplating going to a korean bath house next weekend.
- Seasoning my cast iron pots today. It makes the house horrifically smoky, but it also keeps the house warm.
- I miss ben.

Between my job and my commute, I have n time for anything. :(

Couple things:

Work - Has been super crazy busy. I hardly have time to even catch my breath. And I am still behind all the time. I'm getting tired of this. They clearly don't have enough people for the work load.I am trying to run at 100% capacity every day, but I'm not a robot. I can't keep this up.

Commute - Metro has been a disaster the last couple weeks. First of all, the crazy up and down weather has caused the rails to crack on several lines. Other train systems haven't had a problem, but metro uses rails not designed for this sort of weather. And then, they recent bought a bad batch of breaks, so a part on the breaks keeps cracking and falling off the trains. Add on the usual door issues and sick passengers and you have the commute from hell for weeks on end. For several nights, I've had to take the bus through dc because metro was so horrifically backed up. Best part? Metro announced last week they were going to raise fares.


Home life - Ben is wonderful. No complaints about him. He keeps me sane despite the madness during the workday.

Dogs - Maggie recently started puppy school. She seems to be enjoying it. In the first class we went over "watch me" and "sit." Maggie knew those already though. In the second class, we went over loose leash walking and sitting for strangers. Maggie is having some trouble with the leash walking. She wants to speed ahead all the time. I'm sure she'll get it eventually though. She's smart. Noname on the other hand is a grumpy grump. I wonder if she'll ever chill out. She's cuddled in my lap right now, so she's good for the moment.

Cooking - I have made a few tasting things these last few weeks, but had no time to take pictures. Thismushroom pie was very easy to make, filling, and rather tasty. It also reheated very well. And this vegetarian cassoulet was also easy to make. It was a good, filling stew to have after a long day at work and a long cold commute.The flavors are not very complicated though, so if you like more complexity, it would probably be good to serve it with some herb bread perhaps.