Washington International Horse Show

On Friday night, Shiloh and I got tickets to see the Washington International Horse Show. I had passed by the horses on F street a couple of times during the week, and could not wait to see them perform. I spent a good deal of time around horses during college, so the atmosphere definitely stirred up old memories. Great idea Shi!



In the 1st picture above, you can see one of the competitors for the Puissance competition. It is similar to the track event, high jump. The green portion of the wall can be elevated, so the horses take turns seeing how high they can jump. Michael Morrissey and the horse, Scaraberas, jumped 7'1/2" to win ... they tried for a new record, but didn't quite make it.

Here is a run-down of the other events we saw

• Open Jumper Costume Pair Relay
• Saddlebred Exhibition
• Terrier Races
• "Big & Little" - Caroline Williams' Friesian and Mini
• Dressage Exhibition - Ashley Holzer, Canadian Olympic Team
• Four-in-Hand Driving

I wish I had photos of the terrier races. Those little dogs were hilarious!
And check out the sweet mani/pedi!

Summer Wrap Up

Columbus Day Weekend

After all of your nice comments complaining that I haven't posted in a while, I decided that I better have something really significant to blog about. With that in mind, Shiloh and I ventured down south to Charlottesville,VA to go backpacking. Our great friends P & G (& G) joined us for the adventure.

Shiloh decided to make it easy for me, so we did a 14.5 mile hike over 2 days. At the end of the first day, my rear end was sore, by ankles were beat and my collar bone was feeling bruised. I didn't know how I was going to make it home.

At the lowest point of the second day, we were at 800 ft. At the highest, 3900 ft. I'm not going to lie - it wasn't fun. Being outside in the gorgeous weather was so nice and the scenery was amazing, but I couldn't have been more thrilled when it was over. Fortunately, I don't think I was the only one ready to go home.

Gabe was such a trooper, he hung out in his backpack for the entire hike without any complaints. I got hundereds of adorable pictures of him along the way. What a cool kid.

Overnight, Shiloh and I slept in the open air with Adi. This was the most entertaining part of the trip. She stayed up all night chasing away raccoons and several other animals that were interested in our garbage. She would be laying quietly one minute and then would take off, growling and snapping at various animals, one of which sounded much larger than I was comfortable with. I was amazed with her performance. Needless to say, she was a bit tired the next morning. After the trip, she spent over 24 hours at home on her pillow.

We were all relieved that we had Monday to catch up on sleep and stay off our feet.

**Stay tuned for recaps of our summer fun**

Baseball & Burgers

Last night concluded my office sofball team's season. It was a great night.

** A Little Background **

Our team, the Orange Sox, has not done very well. We've consistently improved over the season and have even come close to winning, but the last inning has typically been when we fall apart. Keep in mind, my office has a large female presence. The league requires teams to play at least three women in the first ten of the line up. We had many nights when we were lucky to get three MEN. That aside, the ladies have not done that badly, we just can throw or hit the ball as far...

So back to last night.

The first game marked the benning of the league playoffs. We were seated #8 of eight teams, and we were playing #7. The stars aligned, everyone played weel and we beat them. It was a great feeling to win. We were stoked, packing up our things, patting eachother on the back & heading to our cars... when the ump stopped us.

Apparently when you win a game in the playoffs you play again -- that night. We had not considered the possibility of winning, so we hadn't bothered to see what would happen if we did.

Then came the good news: we were playing the #2 team. This team was serious. Their uniforms were night, their girls were tough (some of which playing better than a few of our guys), they even had a team photographer show up. Needless to say, we were slaughtered. They actually ended up calling the game early because the other team was 10 runs ahead. Chickens. The really sad thing is that we didn't really play poorly. We had a few really solid plays and many of the team members showed marked improvement from the first game. In the end, we just wern't as good. We all agreed - it was a fun game anyway.

Afterwards we headed over to a new restaurant that Chef Spike (a former Top Chef contestant) just opened in S.E. D.C. It's a burger place, complete with milk shakes and homemade fries.

In spite of the long line, grumpy guy in front of us & the fact that they ran out of Turkey Burgers -- we had a great time. Good Stuff Eatery was DELICIOUS. The "bouncer" was awesome, and did a good job at keeping the crowds in order. Spike was there cooking, complete with his signature fedora in place. He was very nice, made sure we had everything we wanted and even asked how the game went.

I had the Turkey Burger with a beef patty (they were out of turkey) it was delish. The milk shakes were smooth & creamy and the fries were excellent. The best part is, everything they make is made from scratch. I'm starting to feel like an ad -- maybe they should be paying me for this -- but I really did love it. You should really check it out.

You know it's Friday the 13th when

Today has started out all wrong. I woke up 15 minutes before I needed to be out the door. I rushed to get everything pulled together (including myself) and ran out the door to catch the train. I got to the station just as a train was pulling away, so I had to wait 5 minutes for the next one. When I got on the train, a girl that works in my building told me that there were power issues in the city (and our building). Apparently D.C. is experiencing a major power outage today. We arrived at our metro stop to find no lights in the station and lots of people. When we got to the building there were tons of people just hanging around wondering what to do. My office has no power, air conditioning and the server is down for the whole company. I wish this were a good thing... I had so much to do today!

** I just got a call letting me know that the server is working, maybe that means that power is back on **

Regardless, I'm home now, so we'll see what I can get done from here. And it's only 10:30 a.m.! I hope this is not a sign of things to come for the rest of the day.

I have arrived!

In June, I was invited to an event at the National Theatre. I went with some of my co-workers and had a great time. Trisha Yearwood, Clay Aiken and many other amazing vocalists performed. We were also treated to a poetry reading by Maya Angelou. How inspiring. We sat in the balcony and completely enjoyed the show. The theatre is amazing. It was a great evening.

Oh yeah -- the President and First Lady also attended. Here's my attempt at a photo.

Leslie Milk of The Washingtonian wrote about the event on the Capital Comment Blog. http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/7950.html
She writes, "Washington’s political elite dressed to the nineteens ..." Not a bad group to hang out with. If you scroll down to the listing of pictures, I am featured with my friends, Taj and Cory in the 6th picture.
If you're having trouble finding it, here's a direct link to the pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8206629@N05/2542989109

Gone Swimming

For those of you that were in D.C. this weekend, Saturday at around 2:00 p.m. we had a fast, heavy rainstorm that dropped a lot of rain in very little time. We had quite a unique experience as a result of the downpour that I thought everyone would get a laugh out of.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Shiloh and I went to California Pizza Kitchen in Pentagon City with our friends, Rachel, Melissa and John. We were seated at a table next to a large wall of windows. We had a front row seat to the rain as it started to sprinkle. We were wondering how we were going to get back to our car without getting drenched when John said, "it feels like I'm getting wet!" Within seconds water started flowing into the restuarant from gap above the window that is usually filled by a sealant - apparently it's time to be replaced. What started as a small leak...

grew quickly. We dashed to a table a safe distance from our original spot, and not a moment too soon. Before long our table was in a lake of water. The picture below shows the clean up efforts we were seated right in the middle of the large puddle.

So, if you're looking for an eventful eating experience, make sure to head to CPK when you hear rain is coming.

Emergency Preparedness Fair

The second Rachel and Rachel production of the year, this weekend Rachel Watson and I participated in our church's Emergency Preparedness Fair. We had a great time and learned quite a bit along the way.

Memorial Weekend

What a great memorial day! My parents arrive early Saturday morning for a weekend of fun. We headed right over to Eastern Market where we browsed the goods. We used to look forward to the 57th street art fair in Chicago every June -- while the art could never compare, being out among street vendors was a little nostalgic. We found some very cool "singing" bowls. We spent quite a while perfecting the art of making the bowls sing. My parents love finding cool stuff like this, and decided to take one home.



After browsing the market, having our spiritual energy measured and finding lots of great jewerly and bags, we made our way to the Potomac River. We had a delicious lunch at Tony & Joe's and then walked down to Jack's Boathouse where we rented kayaks and played on the river.

After we got our fill of the sun, we returned to my aunt and uncles to meet up to go to dinner. We had delicious food at Tara Thai and enjoyed the company of my cousin, Daren, who left on a mission three days later.

On Sunday, my Aunt Linda hosted a farewell reception for Daren. Many of their friends came to send him off. We broke away for a few minutes to show my parents a few neighborhoods where we have been looking for housing.

On Monday we met up with Paige & Garrett and a couple of their friends for a trip to the National Zoo. We enjoyed the animals in the morning and then made our way to a picnic with our friends at Fort Hunt park near Mt. Vernon. We all enjoyed the sun and great food. This was an excellent welcome to the summer.

Home Sweet Home

It's official. We will be residents of the Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA area for the foreseeable future! We're so excited!

We are not yet sure where exactly we'll live, so if you have suggestions please pass them along.

While I was away...

A lot has happened since I've been away. I don't really have a good reason for my lack of posting, so I'll just give you a quick wrap up of the last month and a half.

1) Shiloh left for training for work around the beginning of April. He comes home on weekends, and the time is passing much faster than we anticipated. We can't talk about his job online, so email us if you have any questions.

2) My wonderful friends threw me and three of my friends an awesome birthday party. I think the breakdown went like this: Sarah's birthday was on Monday, Laura's was on Tuesday, Ali's was on Wednesday and mine was on Thursday. All this combined made for an occasion that had to be celebrated.

A bunch of girls met up for dinner and then Rachel had everyone over for cake & ice cream. Kayla made two amazing cakes making this one of the best birthday parties ever. Thanks ladies!

3) My two great friends Julie and Megan met me at Cake Love for a mini birthday celebration. Megan gave me this fabulous jewelry dish - she had no idea how much I needed this!

4) I never said that I'd do it, but I've developed a bit of an addiction to LOST. Ah! This has led to lots of late nights, not much sleep and probably an increase in blood pressure. I love it. I've been watching it streaming online at ABC.com. I just finished the first season, and have plunged into the second. I'll let you know how it goes.

5) I hit my 9 month anniversary at work. crazy. I love having a job that I love to go to.

6) I bought my tickets to Utah. Shiloh's cousin, Luke, is getting married in Park City on the fourth of July. Shiloh won't be able to make it, so I'll be representing our little family at the wedding. While there, I'll be traveling up to Idaho to visit family and friends that I haven't seen since I left. JaNae may have had her baby by then, so I'm hoping to be able to meet him!

7) Our friends, Paige & Garret, just moved to town. We've had the chance to spend quite a bit of time with them. Their son, Gabe, is so adorable. It's been great to have them close by!

Happy Birthday Faith!

Our sweet friend Faith turned six yesterday! Unfortunately, we were out town on Sunday so we had to have a belated birthday party. It was so fun to hang out with Faith and her family.

Faith had a Hannah Montana theme, and a cake in the shape of a flower. Faith blew out the candles so well, but the flame kept coming back -- I hate it when that happens! The cake was delicious and the ice cream (bubble-yum flavored) brought me back to my childhood.

We're so happy to have such good friends!

Trip to Amish Country

OK...We never actually ventured to the Amish communities, but we did spend this weekend in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Shiloh's cousin Panda and her husband Nate just bought a beautiful house there and we drove up to help prepare the house for move-in. I was suprised how short the drive was, so it looks like we'll be making the trip more often!

We spent the weekend painting, taping walls, listening to great music and playing with Panda and Nate's adorable kids. Not to mention enjoying Panda's amazing cooking! Panda used to paint homes professionally, so watching her at work was impressive! She picked amazing colors that worked perfectly with the beautiful hardwood floors and brick mantle. Nate's mom, Sue, was in town to help wrangle the kids so we could get as much done as possible. She was amazing. We had a great time getting to know her.

Jack

Noa



On Sunday, in between conference sessions, Nate and Panda took us on a driven tour of the town of Lancaster. Nate's office is in a sweet old building right in the heart of town. We quickly fell in love with the area, confirming my dream to one day reside in the great state of PA.

The kids loved Atti. We would have Atti jump for a stick and Jack would bust up with the funniest laugh! When it came time for us to leave and we put Atti in the car, Noa cried and cried. Sue wondered out loud how long they would be able to put off getting a dog of their own.

We laughed and laughed all weekend at the many, many funny phrases coming out of Noa's mouth. Check out the Tingey's blog for new "Noa-isms" that will give you a little glimpse of the sweetness.

Dave & Busters

Last weekend, we spent Saturday evening with our friends Katie and Nathan. They had heard of this place, Dave and Busters, where we could eat and play some pool. So we decided to check it out. Little did we know how intense this place was.

After dinner, we hit the game room. The pool tables were all reserved through the night, so the arcade room fulfilled our gaming craving. We played racing games, shooting games, basketball games, and even tried our hand at Dance Dance Revolution.

Here are some highlights:

We had a great time with Katie and Nate -- we'll definitely have to go again!

Our Tricky Dog

I just added a new list to the blog: Atti's List of Tricks. We've been teaching her a few new ones lately and decided we should record everything she can do -- I think we're at 25 to date!

This makes us wonder, is she especially smart or are we just a little obsessed with teaching her tricks?

Anyone have any suggestions for the next trick we should teach her?

This fence wasn't built in a day

...but not much longer.

My cousins adopted a puppy a few months ago. With the nice weather and the increased energy of the pup, my uncle decided a fence would be an appropriate addition to the yard. Since Shiloh had some time on his hands, he volunteered. Here he is with the finished product. He did a great job. Everyone agrees that it has made life much easier.

Great Idea

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2008/03/27/tatton.virtual.vietnam.memorial.cnn

This is a video about a new website: http://www.footnote.com/. Essentially, it is site that is telling the stories of those killed in the Vietnam War. You should really check it out.

Why do they always do that with the money, before the end of the night?

Apparently that was on my mind last night. I have been sick for the last couple of days and have been having some very strange dreams. Some time in the middle of the night, last night I woke Shiloh up with my sleep talking:

R: Why do they always do that with the money, before the end of the night?

S: What?

R: Why do they always do that thing with the list, before the end of the night?

S: What?

R: Nevermind, forget it.

S: Are you asleep?

R: No.

S: Well then, what are you talking about?

R: I don't know, shut up, go to sleep.

I have a vague recollection of this conversation. I remember waking up, having just spoken, to Shiloh inquiring about my comment. I remember thinking that what I said made perfect sense, but as I repeated what I said, it became very difficult to put my thoughts into words and it was clear that I had been talking in my sleep. For some reason, I didn't want Shiloh to know this. I am so pleased to know that I was so polite in my half-awake state. Sorry Shi, I take back the "shut up".

On the road again

Last weekend, two of my VA friends joined me on a road trip up north. I was throwing a bridal shower for Katie, a good friend of mine from high school, and at the last minute I decided to invite Megan and Julie for a girls weekend to New York! It was a great idea.

These girls are hilarious!

The 5 1/2 hour drive up was so funny. A game of truth or dare revealed so many secrets that we had to declare, "what happens (or is said) in the civic, stays in the civic." We had a fine dinner of rest stop white cheddar popcorn, Cheeto's and doughnut holes, topped of with our beverage of choice. I haven't had road trip with my girlfriends since high school, and apparently, I was long overdue.

The next morning I did a quick drive through of New Canaan - it doesn't take too long - and dropped the ladies at the train station. I sped to my house to pick up some goodies and favors for the shower and then headed to the Read's house. My mom made some delicious snacks and breakfast casseroles that were perfect for the event.

The shower was great. Katie looked beautiful, and so happy. It was great to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen in years. Our friend Kara was throwing the shower with me, I haven't seen her since her wedding. I'm so glad people have showers so I can see all the people that I never get to see.

I was tasked with running the "get to know you" video of Jimmy (Katie's fiance) and making a hat of ribbons from all of the gifts for her to wear. I have to say, it turned out pretty well!
After the shower I drove down to NY with Kara (she lives in Manhattan) to meet up with Julie and Megan. I parked up on the upper west side, near the temple, and took the subway down to Chinatown where the ladies were shopping their little hearts out. I have been completely spoiled by the spacious, clean and well scheduled D.C. metro. I waited for an express train for about 10 minutes, with no idea how close the next train was. So then I gave up and jumped on the train that would stop at every stop. While I was waiting in the station I overheard a conversation that involved, Provo, Utah and BYU. Turns out this crowd was in town for a qualifying race for some of this summer's marathons. Sure enough, they were Mormon. Crazy Mormons, they're everywhere. We had a good chat, and it was nice to have a distraction from my heightened nervousness.

When I met up with Julie and Megan in the extremely crowded shopping district of Chinatown. Megan had her heart set on a blue bag with a braided handle, so we looked in every shop with no luck. Along the way, both Julie and I found bags that we thought were fun, so we tried our hand and bartering the sales guys down to a price we liked. Some of us were more successful than others. Megan never found her blue bag with braided handle, but did find a great white bag that will be perfect for summer.

We then head down south to the tip of the island, we stopped at Ground Zero, which has changed so much since I was there last. They have a memorial set up with pictures from Sept 11 and the days following. There is still a large hole, but it is not nearly as deep as it used to be. I am excited to see what the progress will be in the coming years.

It was just a few more blocks to Battery Park so that Megan could see the Statue of Liberty, so we marched on.

These poor girls had walked so much that after going to the park, we hopped in a cab to find the gelato place that Julie's friend had raved about. It was just a little hole in the wall, and (because it was the end of the day) there wasn't much selection left. However, the gelato was fabulous! I had grapefruit flavored, which I highly recommend.

***

Since we were just a hop, skip and a jump from Little Italy, we decided to have pizza. We came across L'asso, a cute little restaurant with great magazine reviews in it's windows. Unfortunately, we would not have given it such great reviews. We had two kinds of pizza, one of which was from the recommendation of the magazine reviews. Our conclusion: no flavor. The waiter did recommend a different kind -- maybe we should have listened to him. Or maybe we have poor taste.

After dinner we jumped in another cab (soon to be the resting place of my phone) to head up to Times Square. On the way there, we passed Macy*s, who is having it's annual Flower Show. The windows are all decorated with mannequins dressed in clothes made of flowers and plants. I'm sure we squealed and then asked the cab driver to let us out early. The windows were amazing. They never fail to impress.

We decided to go into Macy*s to buy Megan a scarf and hat. I stepped into the revolving door and Julie stepped into the same section of the door. "Ok," I thought, "This is different, but kind of funny." On my next step I was shoved up against the glass of the revolving door as Megan pushed her way in the compartment. We could barely move and Julie (being smashed between us) was bounced between us like a pinball. When we finally managed to move the doors far enough to let release us from the enclosure, we spewed out onto the floor into a pile of laughter - what a sight we must have been to all of the shoppers!

When we left Macy*s we convinced a pedi-cab driver to take the three of us to Times Square for $15! We ended up paying him $20, because it was so much fun! I totally recommend taking a ride next time you're in town.



We spent a bit more time wandering through Times Square before we made our way to the car. To our delight, we happened across the infamous Naked Cowboy! Julie got up close and personal and Megan and I snapped pictures as fast as we could.



It was on our walk to the car that I realized my phone was missing... we went back to L'asso in hopes that it slipped out of my bag as we ate. No luck. So we left the big city sans phone.

The drive back to DC the next day was beautiful. It was amazing how many creepy men we came across. ew. Megan and Julie did so well away from their husbands and babies - I was so relieved that the only tears shed were tears of laughter.

It was a great weekend, these girls are a riot.

March 27 UPDATE: Our amazing cab driver (that drove us from L'asso to Macy*s) found my phone in his cab and dropped it off at a local Verizon store. I should have my phone again by this weekend!