A non-holiday post

I'm on the board of our home owner's association.

It's a complicated story of how I got on the board, and now I wish I had never opened my big, fat mouth.

Back when Mike was doing his travel to Houston, I was in the mode to become a very involved Alexandria citizen. (That was about the time I volunteered for about a dozen "committees" at church, and never got called to serve on any of them. Not that I'm bitter.) I also tried to keep up with my neighbors much more back then, partly out of security - I wanted them to know that I was alone and they should watch out for me.

So, one day this notice comes around for nominations to the board of directors. I had absolutely no complaints about the current board, and no causes that I wanted to take up as a director. But the way I read the notice, it sounded to me like there was an empty seat on the board. Not like I'd be running against anyone or anything.

I asked the busybody of the neighborhood, and he confirmed that, indeed, it was an open seat.

Out of civic duty, I put my name down.

Only to find out that it is not, in fact, an open seat, but rather I had signed up to run against the current president of the board, who'd served for years and pretty much ran the whole darned thing, and that by running, I was specifically running for the presidency spot.

Oops.

I inadvertently made a few enemies. And all I was trying to do was help out!

The meeting is held where the election will be, and both the current president and myself are asked to give speeches about why we'd be good presidents.

She gives hers, which is heartfelt.

I stand up and basically say, "Look, I didn't mean to run against anyone. I thought it was an empty spot, and I'd help out. I'd be happy to still do so. But in no way did I mean to imply that I was unhappy with [current president]. Sorry for the confusion."

Needless to say, I didn't win. (Thank goodness.)

But then a year or two later, a current board member moves. Not the president. So the president approaches me and asks if I'd like to be appointed to the board to fill his spot.

At this stage, I really don't. The civic duty calling has left me, and I'd really rather not bother. But I felt guilty, so I said "yes."

I'm not particularly active. The current president, while a bit domineering, really does take care of everything. It's a volunteer job, and she's really committed to it. There have only been a few small times when I've disagreed with a suggested policy, and we work it out.

Anyhow, I've pretty much skated by on the board not doing much but attending meetings. I've printed up and distributed a few fliers when we have construction going on in the neighborhood, but that's about it.

There is a third board member who has been keeping minutes AND sending out the dues notices every month. She asked if I'd take over the dues starting in January. And truly, it's only fair. It's my turn to pitch in, and it's really not a big deal. A few hours a month, some record keeping, no problem.

Last night I began my first attempt at sending out the dues and ran into immediate problems. The first has to do with the current system being a largely hand-written system, instead of any automation on the computer, or printed anything.

Fine, I put in a few extra hours this first month to make up a few Excel spreadsheets. No big deal.

But then I run into problem number two, and the true impetus for this rambling post.

The very first house record is wrong. A new couple moved in last month, and I don't know their names. I can't exactly send the dues notice with the old owner's name.

So I call the president. She doesn't know their names.

Then I call the neighborhood busybody. He also keeps track of the neighborhood contact list that's distributed to everyone, so he should know.

He does know, and he gives me their names.

Then he asks why I want to know. I tell him I'm starting to do the dues for the HOA.

"Oh!" He says with surprise. "So then you're the treasurer of the board now? I thought you were secretary. When did that happen?"

"Well," I reply, immediately seeing I'm in a trap, "I don't know what you'd call me, except someone processing the dues!"

"What happened to [other board member]? When people ask me, I say she's the treasurer. If you're doing dues, you must be treasurer. Is she secretary now? When did this take effect?"

Crap. I don't know if I've got a title. I don't know if [other board member] has a title. I know she's been doing the work of secretary (taking minutes) and treasurer (processing dues), and I was just trying to be fair. I don't know if we need office titles, or if the bylaws state we need some official action to change titles, or.... really? Really? This is important?

I try to put him off further by responding that we're just "not that big into titles, so call us what you want, I'm doing the dues now."

He actually said at one point, "I'm not trying to be nosey, it's just, well, I want to know what to tell people."

Because so many people care who's who on the Early Street Village homeowner's association. Really.

Okay, now that I have that off my chest, I can start entering these addresses into Excel...

Margaritas! Wine! Chocolate Martini's!

Time just got away from me yesterday (as I feel like it has been for months), and I didn't have the chance to tell you how Sunday's dinner went.

I need to give incredible props to Mike, who did cut up the tomatoes and onions and lettuce and everything else you could want on tacos. He made the meat and squeezed the limes for margaritas. It was all delicious.

Robert and Kristin were hysterical and so much fun to hang out with, as usual. It was the first Barb and Joe had met them, and as Barb said later, "it was better than going to the theater!" The bantering and joking and general making fun never quite stops around them.

The drinking, evidently, doesn't either. Margaritas all around. Some beers. A bottle or two of wine. And because I somehow forgot that it was a Sunday night and I was off to work in the morning (and because I wanted to use Melissa's Christmas present to me, cool red and green martini glasses), I decided to whip up some chocolate martini's for desert.

You know, just 'cause.

Four and a half hours later, we were all still eating and drinking and being merry around the table.

Until I finally had to kick everyone out. I was about to fall over from exhaustion.

And as far as clean-up, Mike did help clear the table. But all clean-up credit needs to go to my in-laws, who washed what seemed like every piece of stemware in my house from the evening's festivities.

He got applause

Need I say more?

(I will, I will, but I need to settle back into the office first!)

A break?

Today reminds me of this post: Men are like puppies.

It's day four of our holiday hosting craziness. Much less pressure today - the in-laws, my brother and sister in law and our friends the Keelings. Not so much "holiday-ness" around today (especially since it's 65 degrees outside). Just a day to get together with some friends we haven't seen in a while. And in all fairness, Lauren did offer to host, but with 8 of us, plus two dogs, there's just a bit more room to spread out here.

So Mike decided that he would cook today. No one should be shocked to discover that this means tacos for dinner.

All that's great, but as I tried to explain to him last night, that still meant that I'd grocery shop, cut up all the toppings, slice the chicken, vacuum the floor (goodness, I haven't vacuumed this much in ages!), and set the table. Then I'd step out of the kitchen for 15 minutes while he put meat in a pan and added a bag of seasoning. It'd splatter all over the place, he'd get kudos for "making" dinner, and then I'd (most definitely with the help of his parents, I'm sure) clean up.

He was appalled at what he characterized as my unfair description. So he insisted that we stop at the grocery store together on the way home from church, and that I go out for a pedicure this afternoon. That HE'D do EVERYTHING for dinner - the prep and the cooking (He did draw the line at cleaning up, though. Oh, and I still vacuumed and set the table, which involved laundry because a girl only has so many linens!).

This all makes me extremely nervous. I have to admit, I just don't trust it. I feel like he's going to use every dish in the house. And he'll forget things - like not chop up onions or tomatoes because he doesn't use them on his tacos. And that the meal won't run as smoothly as I'd like it to.

I know, I know! I have control issues! And I have issues with letting go of being the hostess, even if it's close friends that don't give a hoot if we serve salsa from the jar instead of in a nice dish.

He's being very thoughtful in making dinner.

But I'm still nervous. I wonder when he'll start the margaritas.

And I thought yesterday was nonstop

I wonder if I'll actually get all the way through this post, or if I'll zonk out before it's done.



Today is day three of entertaining large amounts of people, cooking and eating copious amounts of food.


And by copious amounts of food, today I mean mainly a lasagna that I cooked. My first ever!

Today two of my siblings and their families visited. They didn't arrive until almost 4 p.m., so I had the entire morning to make lots of appetizers (you know, the healthy ones, like sausage balls and sweet and sour meatballs and spinach and artichoke dip).

Patricia and Samantha arrived first. Here's Samantha and me, with Samantha in her Snow Princess prize:

Tim, Kelly, Aidan and Katheryn arrived shortly after. Katheryn decided she was much happier as a naked baby. (I had a couple of pictures up here, but decided it wasn't really my call to put photos of Katheryn in just her diaper up on my blog! So take my word for it - she was adorable!)

Aidan wasn't quite sure what to make of his tarantula. He's an 8 year old boy, but he's a little scared of a lot of things. He eventually warmed up to it, though.

We had some good visiting time, dinner, more cookies for desert (I swear, these cookies are magical. They keep remaking themselves!), and then Tim and Kelly were off to her family's house.

Patricia and Samantha are spending the night, and us Fleming girls love nothing more than to lounge in pajamas. Samantha and I matched:

Goldie had a great day, mostly following Katheryn around waiting for her to drop food. But she loves anyone who gives her attention, and is so gentle and patient with kids in particular. So just before she went to bed, Samantha gave Goldie a special goodnight:

So now it's about 9:45 p.m., and I'm about ready to pass out (Patricia and Samantha already went up to bed). The dishwasher just stopped, but it may need to wait until the morning to unload (my in-laws have been incredible helping with the cleaning up and everything - thank you!).

Tomorrow should be a little lighter of a day - dinner with friends, David, Lauren and Joe and Barb at my house. I just may need to sneak a pedicure in there sometime during the day, though...

The day after Christmas

Yesterday was pretty much a comedy of errors.

Maybe errors is too strong of a word. The day was just nonstop. Nonstop people, nonstop visiting, nonstop cleaning, nonstop eating, nonstop everything.

It started early with an immediate full house. Our housekeeper comes on Fridays, so she showed up around 7 a.m. I took the dog out for a walk, after visiting with her about Christmas for a bit. As I come back from the walk, the Direct TV guy is standing on the doorstep. The housekeeper wouldn't let him in, and Mike hadn't gotten up with his alarm. So the poor guy was just standing there, confused.

We needed the Direct TV guy to come because none of the DVRs worked after the first install. We come to learn this is because we have too many lines running into the house, because we have SIX televisions, and THREE DVRs. He informs us we need a SECOND satelite dish to accommodate. (Or, we can get rid of a TV or two, but come on, seriously?)

Because we're home from work, we tell him to go ahead. So the Direct TV guy and the housekeeper, and me, and Mike and Mike's parents are all trying to stay out of each other's way. And don't forget Goldie, who has no interest in staying out the way, but would rather be directly underfoot.

(And for the record, here's why I didn't ask the housekeeper not to come - there was a week a month or so ago when we accidentally locked her out by locking the storm door, and even though the following week we tried to pay her for the missed week, she wouldn't take it. So I wanted her to come, and I knew I'd just ask her to stop where ever she was at 11 a.m.)

Mike's parents do me a huge favor and go to the grocery store and so that at least gives a little more room. Still, the remaining four (five with Goldie) are all stumbling all over each other.

My father in law (Joe)'s brother, wife and three kids were planning on coming down from York for the day. So we were serving sandwiches for lunch when they arrived, then the plan was for the whole group to go to a museum.

The Direct TV guy finished at about 11:45 a.m., thank goodness, I drove the housekeeper to the Metro, and we whipped out some sandwich makings for 11. I decided to let everyone else go to the museum, and I'd clean up, and prep for dinner that night and the next night (my family is coming today, Saturday).

The American History Museum was so crowded, they said, that everyone ended up coming back about an hour earlier than I expected.

Snacks out, drinks served, grill fired up. Dinner and desert for 11 again, more visiting, and they left around 8:30 p.m.

Joe and I did some kitchen dancing while he made sticky buns and I tried to get a few things prepped for today. I completely crashed around 11 p.m.

No pictures at all of yesterday! But it's a little after 1 p.m. on Saturday, and I'm taking this quick break before my siblings and their families arrive. I've already snapped a few pictures of the lasagna in a making, so tomorrow I'll post up how today went!

Bacon Extravaganza (i.e. Christmas)

We really had a great day, with lots of fun presents and good food. My only regret is that I really didn’t get the chance to talk to as many friends and family as I would have liked! A few quick hellos, but not enough phone calls or visitin’, or even texts!

The holiday kicked off at David and Lauren’s, with a delicious turkey and all the trimmings.

Off to candlelight service at our church. Maybe I should have turned down that last glass of wine with desert. Mike thought I was going to light the pew on fire by falling asleep while holding my candle.

An early morning Thursday with a quick jog to start the day. Good thing I got that exercise in, because the brunch was not exactly figure-friendly. Let's start with 3 pounds of bacon (yes, I did just say 3 pounds of bacon, for a brunch with 6 people), scrambled eggs, potato pancakes made with some of the left-over trimmings from the night before, bacon and cheese scones courtesy of Lauren, ham (again courtesy of Lauren), and some fruit thrown in for good measure. Washed down with mimosas and SoCo and cranberry juice.

Here's me cooking, possibly explaining that I realize 3 pounds of bacon is a lot, but if we have the ham left over from Tuesday, what's wrong with more pork?

Here's the boys, anxiously awaiting said pork:

A quick clean up before we could FINALLY open some presents! It was, like, NOON before we opened presents! On CHRISTMAS!!!

Notice how the pile grew?

The dogs were hysterical during the present opening. They didn't know which way was up, they were so excited. Sadie loves to tear apart paper, so she kept shredding everything to pieces.

This is Joe trying to get the dogs to open their own presents. Sadie got the trick quick, but poor Goldie was just confused.

I made out like a bandit, as always! Jogging gear, jewelry, candles, jewelry, sweaters, and, if you can believe it... bacon.

David and Lauren gave Mike and I a subscription to a "Bacon of the Month" club.

Seriously. Haha!

After presents, some more snacks (including pastry-wrapped Brie that I made, which was, OMG, so good), a round of Taboo, and then time to prep dinner.

I made Barb's traditional Christmas meal, fillet and lobster tails. Here's Joe pulling the tails out of the shell:

I also put to use some of the reserved bacon from breakfast (I told you it was a bacon extravaganza), topping the twice-baked potatoes and the steakhouse salad (ice burg lettuce wedges with bacon, tomatoes, shredded cheddar and ranch dressing.)

Also used the bacon grease (do you know how much grease 3 pounds of bacon produces?) to saute the asparagus in (teeheehee). No photos of those two items, or of the set table - I must have been getting tired, or drunk, or both.

Dinner was great, paired with a Newton Puzzle and Franciscan Magnificant. Cookies and port for desert.

All in all, a great day. More cooking today, but you'll have to wait for another post for that.

Ready for Christmas brunch

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

How can I resist!?!?!?!

Coooooooookkkkiiiieeeesss

The cookies arrived last night:

There are so many! Buckeyes, sugar with PB cups, choco chip, double choco chip, PB & jelly bars, PB and chocolate bars, coconut and jelly, snickerdoodles (the worst name ever for a cookie because there aren't actually any snikers IN the cookie), you name it!

I'm already in a sugar coma.

Here's another view of the cookies, all stacked up, with some other gift baskets from work:

Anyone hungry yet?

Barb and Joe arrived last night, and it's so. not. fair. that there are all these presents under the tree and I can't open them! (I never did get over the whole 'being the baby at Christmas 'thing.)

Here's more randomness for today, because I'm the only one in the office and it's hard to concentrate.

This is the front of Terry and Sara's Christmas card this year:

And here's the inside:

Go ahead, roll your eyes. But it's darn funny.

What a difference a few months makes

Here's the same view as the header picture, above. The picture above was taken in August. This was taken today:

Playing catch-up

It's been a busy weekend of trying to play catch-up for me. After the last great weekend, then the holiday party and Texas staff in our offices, the DC staff flew to Dallas for some meetings.

It's amazing how the time just evaporates down there! Had a lot of good talks, good planning, good goals... now it's a matter of making it all work!

I got back Friday night, and got right to work trying to prep for the holidays! Menus were decided, groceries were bought, Christmas cards were sent, and presents were wrapped.

In big news for our friends and guests, we made the big switch this week from Comcast digital cable to Direct TV. Mike's long been unhappy with Comcast (We get the extra NHL package, and half the time the stations aren't working. When they are, the games aren't broadcast in HD, and that really bugs him.), but the impetus for the big change came when we wanted to add cable to our guest room. Comcast (a cable company) no longer does cable installations.

Huh?

We'd have to get an electrician, then still pay Comcast a service fee to come out to the house to make the line active.

Instead, we canceled Comcast and got the statelight TV instead.

I'm still trying to figure out the stations, and I lost ALL my saved shows on the DVR, but this is the type of household decision that I just can't get myself to care about. :-)

Heard from my Scottish friends (the ones I met on the cruise last year) this weekend, who sent a care package including this magnet:

Also made Christmas cookies yesterday. I don't make many cookies, thanks to family friend Heather, who gives us dozens of all different kinds of cookies as our Christmas present each year. I think the cookies arrive tomorrow with Barb and Joe and I can't wait! She makes the best seven layer bars, and peanut butter and jelly bars, and chocolate chip cookies, and buckeyes, and... well, you get the point.

I only make one kind of cookie, and it's the one time of year I'll make them. Why? Because they don't have chocolate. And I just don't believe in making cookies that don't have chocolate.

But this is a recipe from one of Barb's friends, and Mike's favorite cookie.

Trust me, they taste better than they look. :-)

And about the yellow icing. Oops. I though it was red. But evidently I'm out of red. So we have green and yellow and white icing cookies. It's kind of like I made them for my high school booster club or something!

Today was about presents. Because these three can't actually read yet, I'm going to take a leap here and post up pictures of what I just bought for Aidan, Katheryn and Samantha. (They are visiting in six days! I can't wait to see them!)

I needed prizes for them to open (in addition to the savings bonds we get the kids - loved by their parents, not so exciting to open!). And these presents crack me up:

A remote control tarantula for Aidan:

A talking purse for Katheryn:

A Snow Princess tiara, wand and sash for Samantha (just don't tell Elizabeth!):

And new baking dish for me:

Oh, please, don't act surprised that I got a present when shopping for everyone else!

In adoration

A quick dedication to Mrs. Huck (whom I know doesn't read this blog) for the Cook's Illustrated "The Best Make-Ahead Recipe" book. It's my savior this holiday season.

A weekend memories are made of

Where is the time going? It’s like it’s just being sucked away from me! I need more of it!
The weekend flew by too fast, but I have a lot of great memories to keep.

I had some great quality girl time with Melissa going to see Twilight. The movie itself was a bit of a disappointment, as I suppose all movies fashioned after books can be. I’ve got a better Edward in my mind than any actor could play.

Off to holiday and birthday parties, lots of catching up with old friends.

An early and very, very cold Sunday morning! Ran in the Jingle All The Way 10k with Keith along Haines Point.

It was around 30 degrees at the start of the race, with the Reflecting Pool still iced over!

Mike came to support us, and dropped us as close to the start as he could get, which was on Constitution and 23rd (the race started closer to the FDR Memorial). Then he drove around searching for parking.

Did I mention it was cold? Very, very cold waiting for the race to start! We kept trying to move into the center of big groups of people for their warmth!

The race itself was really fun, though. 4,500 people, so there was lots of people watching and distractions. It was crowded, so a lot of bobbing and weaving, and we started the race pretty slow. But in the end (including my just barely jogging the last .5 miles), we finished in 55:34, just about 30 seconds slower than in Quantico! I was floored at that.

Mike and Goldie froze that 55 minutes, but it was great to have them, and a dry sweatshirt, waiting at the end!

Home, breakfast sandwiches and mimosas to celebrate, and then David and another colleague of mine joined us for the Steelers/Ravens game in Baltimore.

The game was a blast, not too cold (or that could have been the beers), and much to our surprise, the Steelers actually pulled out a win!

A warm and sleepy drive back to DC capped off the night.

But can I count Monday as part of the weekend, too? Two more colleagues flew into town and after a long day working and brainstorming, we celebrated the season with a holiday party at BLT Steak. I was lucky enough to be the one to plan the party, and I hope everyone had fun! Most of us are pretty close with all the traveling we do together, but there was a new face or two in the crowd, too.

I set up some games for us to play instead of it just being a dinner where you visited with the people sitting closest to you. The first one was close to a White Elephant game. I purchased 12 prizes, ranging in quality from an iPod shuffle and an espresso machine to hangers and kitchen towels. The prizes were unwrapped but marked with a letter, so everyone could see what they all were.

Then I wrapped up boxes. The only thing inside the boxes was a letter that matched one of the prizes on the table. After everyone randomly picked a number, we followed that order to pick a box, open it, and see what matching prize you got.

Complicated, but a lot of fun! It was great to see what prizes were left, instead of wrapping up items and people not knowing if the Harry Connick, Jr. CD they got was a good prize or a bad prize, because they didn’t know what else was left.

I, of course, went last. I’d just take whatever was left, and I was hoping it was one of the kids toys I bought from a $1 bin at Target.

But life can’t work out that well. And if you can believe it, I ended up with the iPod shuffle! I was mortified. The party planner is NOT supposed to get the best prize!

It looks rigged that way, and there is just no possible way I could have rigged this! It’s another reason why I put the presents out for display and wrapped up boxes with the letters inside – so all the boxes would look alike, and there would be no way for me to track what letters were in what boxes.

The second game I took myself out of the race completely. It was a trivia game, and I had e-mailed everyone to provide a question about their job. Then we’d see how well we all paid attention to each other! Everyone was a great sport and actually sent me questions. And we learned that we needed to start listening to each other in staff meetings just a bit more! Out of 13 questions, our highest score was a 6!

Lots of food and general merriment, generous prizes from the company, and more memories.

Is it the weekend yet?

Busy weekend coming up, which means that I'm having a really hard time concentrating on work today.

I have plenty to do today, don't get me wrong. Good, important stuff. New, fun things.

But not weekend things.

Going to Twilight with Melissa tomorrow!! (I know, what kind of true fan can I be if the movie has been open for three weeks and I have yet to see it?)

We'll meet back up with Danny and Mike (they're going to a Georgetown basketball game. Relax, Joe, Danny went there and it's his birthday. Don't lecture on going to a GW game instead.), gather some more friends, and head to holiday parties galore!

Sunday morning I'm attempting my second 10k. (I'm actually debating deleting that sentence, because if my success in November was just a fluke, I don't want to have to tell you all that I didn't finish!)

With my head held high or hung very low, I'll join Mike, David and two of my colleagues are going to the Steelers/ Ravens game in Baltimore.

The fun doesn't stop there! Four out of town colleagues will be in the office Monday and Tuesday, with our holiday party (planned by moi) Monday night. Wednesday I fly to Dallas until Friday night.

Then the holidays are just a hop, skip and a jump away!

Okay, forget work, I need to be planning my holiday menus!

Watchdog

A watchdog, Goldie is not.

We had our carpets cleaned this afternoon, and Goldie could have cared less that there was a strange man in the house, moving furniture, making a lot of noise, running machines all over the floor...

Goldie and I sat in the kitchen for the afternoon, and I had the doggie gate up to keep her in there with me. It was completely not needed. She didn't even sit at the gate and watch the man. She just slept on the rug, occasionally getting up to stretch and walk over to me to have her head petted.

Very mean and scary, this dog.

Time=Money

What amount in shipping fees do you deem reasonable to spend over what you would have spent on an item if you had purchased it in the store, which would have entailed you navigating said store through throngs of people and chaos and mess?

Saturday (after a great lunch with Melis up in Baltimore!), I "swung by" Target to do some shopping for my office holiday party prizes (more on this later, I promise). I had a reasonable idea of the purchases I needed to make, but was also going to need to browse a few items.

For example, I knew I needed an ipod shuffle, and the Harry Connick Christmas CD. But then I wanted to find a household/ kitchen item that was gender neutral and around $40. (Don't ask too many questions now, it's a very complicated prize system I've made up here.) (Oh - and I love what I settled on - single cup espresso machine, anyone?)

I spent two hours in Target getting my 13 prizes and wrapping paper. A small fraction of this was my fault in not being able to decide on items. But the rest was trying to get up and down aisles through hundreds of other shoppers, and being so fortunate that two of my items were in locked cases - in. separate. departments - and I had to wait twice for an employee to come and unlock the case. Oh, and they had to be wrung up separately. Lovely.

So Sunday I decided to online shop. Mike gave me a budget for everyone, and away I went. Mike's gifts? Check. Joe and Barb? Check. David and Lauren? Check. The office girls. Check. Jenelle? Check. Patricia? Check. Aunt Rita? Check. Terry and Sara? Like a mini-check.

And some more thrown in there.

It still took me hours. I probably spent from about 12:30-4:00 p.m. on the computer. And I still had my moments of indecision. And I almost called and cursed out one company whose Web site kept freezing on me during the check out process.

But, with tea in hand, cinnamon simmering on the stove, and Christmas music playing, I think it was worth the shipping costs.

Just don't tell Mike I took the liberty of only counting the base price towards everyone's budgets. I mean, it's not fair to give $5 less of a present just because it was ordered online!

Not guilty!

This is going to be a short post, because I have a conference call in two hours to go over edits to the member magazine, and I haven't even started proofing it yet. Oy - didn't I say something last week about needing more time!?!

And there is so much to write about jury duty! It was an indecent exposure case. How many times do you think you can hear the word (insert male body part) in one day?

Add 100 to that number, and that's probably how many times I heard it.

Unfortunately, it was essentially a he-said, she-said case. Both sides had some inconsistencies, and some lines that just didn't add up. And I hate to say we found the guy "not guilty." It's not that we thought he was innocent. We just didn't think you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was him that did it.

That was hard to disappoint the woman who brought the charges, because I do believe the experience happened to her. I also hated the judging part. I learned on Friday that I do NOT like to be a part of a jury. Contrary to what some girls I went to high school might say about me, I don't like to make judgements on others. At least, not when it really counts!

We ended up deliberating for about 10 minutes on this decision. And it would have been faster if two of the other jurors had let us take a straw poll from the start on how we found the defendant. But they wanted to talk out why they thought the prosecution didn't convince them, and all the things the prosecutor could have done to convince them.

So once we let them get that out of their system, we all agreed there was just no way to prove it was this guy.

All in all, the people at the Alexandria Court House love their job. The jury coordinator was a hoot, the bailiff was really friendly, and all the security guards were pleasant. So I can't really complain much about the day. Oh, and my fellow jurors, both before we were picked and after, were very chatty people.

And, I'm being a bit too chatty now. I've got a magazine I need to get to!

Back from lunch waiting to start deliberations! I gotta say, this jury coordinator loves his job. He's got all the puns down on serving jury duty, and is super happy and corny. But, hey, that's actually really, really nice. Would rather have moments of wanting to roll my eyes at bad puns than someone who's cranky or mean!

Well, you guessed it, I got picked. 19 of us went in for voir dire, 12 got dismissed, 7 of us stayed for the case.

I can't tell you about it yet because it's still going on. I'm on lunch break now. We've actually heard all the testimony and even closing arguments. Then they dismissed us for an hour for lunch, we'll go back and deliberate.

Can I just say... I don't really like this whole "judging other people" thing. Contrary to what some girls in high school may say, I'm not into that. At least, not when it counts!

First group called to go in! I'm not part of the group! Torn between the competitive, 'pick me, pick me,' and, 'don't pick me, don't pick me!'

The other jurors are punch drunk. it's like everyone is old friends!

Just got my $30 bucks for service! Woo hoo! This doesn't coumt as joint money, does it?

Thought I'd post up here as the jury duty happens. Otherwise, people might get tired of my tweets or Facebook updates. 1. Woman next to me at Starbucks was tweasing her chin. So gross. 2. We report to a room on the 4th floor. When you get off the elevator, there are all the people waitng for trial. Lookin at you. Sizing you up. As you wade through them to the jury room. 3. Now, the waiting begins.

I jinxed myself

I KNEW I shouldn't have told you all I only had one day left to be called for jury duty. 'Cause you KNOW I got called for tomorrow!

Sigh. Play by play to come...

Catch up and push forward!

The days just seem to keep plowing forward, no matter how much I want to freeze time, take a deep breath, and enjoy what's going on for more than three minutes!

It's been yet another hectic week, as I'm falling back in love with my new-and-improved laptop (okay, it's not all new, just certain parts and pieces!). We've had some Texas staff in town this week, which always keeps things interesting. It seems I always end up with way more work when they leave then when they arrived!

But we had great movement on our new office space, including looking at furniture layout options yesterday. Now come on, that's fun!

Oh - let me back further up! Aunt Jerri sent these photos from Thanksgiving:

Aunt Jo cooking (see the big stove? One of the many reasons for Thanksgiving at the convent!)

The Petrons:

The birthday girls:

This week could have actually been worse in the busy department. I am on stand-by for jury duty. It's my first jury summons ever. In Alexandria, they give you a week, and a number. You have to call each day after 4 p.m., to learn about the follow day. If your number is called, you report.

So far, my number hasn't been called. Knock on wood, I really hope it isn't called tomorrow, either!

Okay, my three minute diversion for this morning is over! More to come!

It works! (for now!)

I'm writing this post from my laptop. Yes, the one I dropped. But it's so new and improved with a new hard drive and a newfangled auto-backup system.

Just, please, keep your fingers crossed that it still works tomorrow...

Christmas decorations!

I love Christmas decorations. And music. And cookies. And the general celebratory-ness that is the holiday season.

We arrived back in Alexandria of Friday afternoon and I immediately set in to Christmas decorating. Almost all of Saturday was dealing with the tree - a new one purchased at an after-the-holidays sale in January. I decided to go hog-wild with the lights this year, wrapping strands around each branch level as I put it up, instead of waiting to wrap the lights around the entire tree when it was finished. This proved to be a gorgeous idea. Just one that I'm a little worried about getting OFF the tree when it's time to take it down...

I'll take some snap shots this week to post up, because of course I'm going to assume you're all VERY interested in how the house looks.

Wow, that pretty much wraps up my weekend! Truly! Just lots of Christmas music, burning cinnamon on the stove, and trying out a new (and delicious) beef bolognese recipe!

Now, to online shopping...

Not a passing fad!

I promise, posting is not a fad I was into that has now passed! This laptop thing is just really throwing me off my posting game! (and, no, I'm not even going to link back to the laptop story, because I am so. darn. mad. about. the. whole. thing.)

Thanksgiving was great at the convent, as always. There were 18 of us this year, including my in-laws who flew in from Pittsburgh. We picked them up at the airport then the four of us headed to the Villa to visit Grandmom.

Unfortunately, Grandmom wasn't feeling well at all. We only stayed about 15 minutes to visit with her.

Then off to the convent, immediately digging into all the goodies Aunt Jo had put out for us. It wasn't long until the other Aunts and Uncles and cousins started joining us (including 92 year old Aunt Mary... 92! And when I asked her what she wanted to drink, she said, "A little of whatever you've got." And I said, "We have a lot, why don't you give me a suggestion?" and she said, "Oh, some wine would be nice." LOVED IT!)

Great visiting, great food. But my favorite part came while everyone was cleaning up and my three year old niece, Samantha, wanted to explore the convent. Having pretty much grown up around convents (a lot of holidays like Thanksgiving, vacationing at the beach, and even spending weeks of my summer at another Aunt's convent when I was in junior high), I knew that this was essentially a right of passage for Samantha.

I mean, convents are big. And dark. And creaky.

Very, very scary.

So she wanted to see what was up the big stairs. I took her by the hand, and - being girls - we tiptoed up the stairs to the second floor. Then tiptoed down the second floor, peaking in each room, whispering, stopping to listen, tiptoeing some more.

To... another set of stairs! Up that one, too! And there was a front and a back set of stairs, so then it was up one, down another, back up that one, and down the first!

We even found a cubby on a sort-of fourth floor, where we sat in the almost darkness and whispered, just for the sake of whispering!

She was so fascinated by all the doors, and being so brave to push them open into the darkness! It definitely was my favorite part of the day!

Squished

Not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but this is a staton wagon with THREE golden retrievers in the back. They are all squished together, with their bums back against the back window. They can't move around, and are just swaying into each other!
Happy Tanksgiving!

A full week!

Thanks, Vi, for the kick in the pants.

I can't believe it's been a full week since I last posted. The reason is mainly because of the previously-mentioned dropped laptop. Took it to one computer repair shop, and they got it to turn on. With some help, I even got some documents retrieved off of it.

But then it stopped working again.

So I took it to a new repair shop. And even though I told them I dropped it, and it made a clicking noise, they thought perhaps it was a software problem. This sounded ludicrous to me, but they are the experts, and low and behold, when I got to their shop, they had it working again.

Until I took it home, turned it off, and... wait for it... it wouldn't turn on again.

So now it's back at that repair shop, with instructions for them to, at a minimum, get all the documents off the hard drive and save them externally. They are looking at the hard drive again, insisting that they ran tests and it's fine. But I think I'm going to tell them to swap the hard drive regardless of what their diagnostic tests say. At this point, it's new hard drive or new computer.

Sigh.

I never quite realized how much I used my laptop. I'm an early bird, so I'm in the office by 7:30 a.m. each morning. This generally means I burn out and need a break by 4:30 p.m. I usually leave, go work out, make and clean up from dinner, then sit down for at least another hour doing work and personal e-mails or Web surfing or posting.

We have a computer at home, but it's in the Man Room (silly if you thought this was a shared office!), so Mike's on it most of the time. Especially now that the first part of the CPA exam is tomorrow.

Which just leaves the time I'm in the office. And, goodness, I would never use work time for personal things like posting or searching the Web! (oh, please! I just said I checked work e-mail at home, right?)

No, the real thing holding me back is that I'm now borrowing a colleague's laptop. And these things have cookies, you know! And not of the Oreo variety! Plus, it's just been an unusually busy week for this time of year.

All of that to say... sorry I haven't posted!

(And here you all thought it was maybe because I had actually turned 30 and maybe forgot how to use this Internet thing!)

I drove myself down to Raleigh last Friday to spend the weekend with Terry's and Tim's families. I figured I had already subjected all my friends to celebrating my birthday, and Mike was in hard-core study mode for the CPA test. So why not take myself down to Raleigh, where:
1. No one had yet celebrated my birthday
and
2. I would walk into an already-existing celebration - my brother's!

Hey, Terry's used to me stealing his birthdays. Been doin' it for 30 years now!

I spent the last night of my twenties with an 8 year old, 6 year old, 4 year old, 2.5 year old, and 1.5 year old. Didn't even pack my going-out jeans!

I had a blast seeing all the kids. This is a big "duh" statement, but it was amazing the difference in quality of the time I got to spend with them this weekend instead of in the summer at the beach (see here, here, here and many other posts around those!). In the summer I was one of a bunch of adults, and none of the adults were nearly as exciting as cousins or even babysitters.

But last weekend, I was IT. And we all know how much I love being the center of attention!

Okay, that's enough rambling for the kick in the pants to post. I have more stories from this past weekend, but really do need to get back to work now!

Laptop

I am once again without a laptop.

I may or may not have... um... dropped it on the kitchen table.

But only, like, 8 inches! I swear! (In fact, the guy at the repair shop turned it all around and said, "I can't even tell which side you dropped it on." It was that light of a drop!)

Low and behold, though, laptops are not meant to be dropped, even 8 inches.

It's still going through some diagnostic tests, and I am not-so-patiently waiting to hear the damage.

I hate being without my laptop! It's got all my STUFF on it! It's got my favorite Web sites, my passwords, my music, my pictures!

Am I getting any sympathy here? Or are you so-called "friends" going to admonish me for dropping a brand, spankin' new laptop?

Because - sigh - I'm doing that enough for all of us.

:-(

Try to top this party!

There is no way the actual day that I turn 30 can top this past Saturday! What an incredible, incredible blast I had!

The party really started weeks ago, with many of you indulging my talking and talking and talking about it. Then last week with the blind wine tasting. Friday night I'm sure I bored Debbie and Keith to death over dinner. And those two also got the worst of it trying to distract me while the caterers were setting up and I was waiting for all the guests!

But I'll only bore YOU with an almost minute by minute of Saturday!

In the spirit of my "Not Too Early For Me" friends, I wanted to start the celebration with a birthday athletic event. So I signed Keith and I (poor Keith) up for a 10K on the Quantico Marine Corps Base.

We ran it in 55 minutes and four seconds, and our pace never went above an 8 minute 59 second mile! I think the average pace was just around 8 minutes and 43 seconds a mile.

Here's us after the race:


Home, gathered up Debbie and Melissa and we went for some primping. Nails, hair, and lots of Twilight talk (okay, okay, so Melissa has read Twilight!).

Meanwhile, Mike and Keith moved some furniture in preparation for the party (let's not anyone dwell on how much I felt like I was ordering Debbie and Keith around this weekend!). Not much later, the caterers arrived!

This was the nail-biting part when I was bouncing off the walls with nothing to do but sit and wait! In the meantime, the caterers got the house party-ready:

And the festivities began!

Me and Melissa

The food spread

Mike giving a party toast

Me and Kristi

Me, Debbie and Keith

The party was everything I wanted it to be! Just perfect! All our closest friends were able to join us, and my sister in law Kelly was even able to be there! The caterers were out of this world - so attentive and friendly and full of personality. The food was incredible, and the wine flowed and flowed and flowed!

The party ended around 11:45 p.m. or so, and the after-party began:

I don't remember the last time I saw 3 a.m., and heaven knows I don't remember much of what happened between midnight and stumbling to bed! I did open a few presents that our friends had brought, including this perfect jogging shirt from Jenelle:

There are a lot more photos in a slide show to the right of this post, so check them all out! Please comment if you were there!

Up (with a hang over!) by about 8:30 a.m., breakfast for everyone that stayed over, lots of rehashing our favorite parts! I am so, so incredibly happy with how the party turned out! It's exactly what I wanted!

This 30-thing is great!