a couple of fun pics - May in review

Nats game group shot - Katie, Mark, Greg & Debby

Combo's Manzone at the Richmond race - Mark & Katie

Memorial Day Parade

(this is after the parade - why he is still wearing the wool is beyond me!)

For some reason I missed making sure Mark was in the picture of the men marching and clearly seen, but he is there and is marching. He is 5th row on the backside. It was about 85 degree's and partly sunny. Way to hot for me to wear wool! Some guy did pass out after the parade - he was 83 and driving one of the old fire trucks. Good thing he didn't pass out during the parade! This parade was much better than the one we went to last year - many more people and lots more to watch.

Leaf me alone

... while I munch on your lettuce patch...

mmmm.... mmmmm.... tastey!

they both hate the heat - lazy day...

I've decided that lettuce is the easiest, quickest and just about most useful thing to grow. Two weeks after planting my starter set I was eating salads. Romaine and Boston Leaf. Yummy!

What do you do at a fireman's Memorial Day party?

After eating some really good yummy Italian food you go for a ride in a fireman's bucket truck! Is there a better and easier way to see the valley? Nope! We were halfway up Mt. Zion to start with so it was pretty cool! Can you imagine how crazy the little kids went when they saw this truck - never mind that the grandma's that got the first ride! Of course we had to check it out. It doesn't belong to the fire department that Mark is in, but someone was nice enough to bring it for us to have test rides. Mark didn't remember that his newly replaced handy dandy annoying crackberry had a camera while I was up for my ride, but I got his pictures when he went.

Lift off was easy with the cliff

Mark is on back right of the bucket. The driver's last name is Koenig - and he says it right too. He is the assistant Chief of the FD.

Mark waving for the camera - too bad it was cloudy and not a high quality camera, but you get the picture.

See it's up way high - I went this high too - it is almost straight up in the air. Don't worry dry it can hold 1,000 pounds. Wet ,meaning with hoses attached and water streaming, it's 500 pounds. It also has clips so they can repel off it! Yikes! Wonder how often they practice that?
Back on the ground. They party was at the house of one of the firemen and he also happens to be our landscaper. By the looks of his house we are guessing he does great business - and his yard of course was really cool - can't wait to see what our yard ends up like!

I'm guessing my mom wants a full food report. Not to disappoint, but it was catered, but very good catering I might add. Hot and spicy sausage and peppers, buffalo chicken dip, pork and onions, ziti and homemade sauce, veal parm, eggplant parm, snow cones, cotton candy and more desserts than you could ever imagine - he had everyone bring a dessert and there were some mighty yummy cream puffy things! So today is the parade in Marlboro and then a bbq at another fireman's house. More pictures I'm sure - Mark has to wear his uniform!

Whirlwind DC

As usual we hit the road for the weekend - the beginning of our busy summer. Mark's best friend from high school lives in DC so what better way to see the city - Greg and Deb were great tour guides! In one day we walked a lot - guesses ranged from 3 to 6 miles and all I know is that those french fries at lunch probably didn't make it to my hips - nor did the Half Smoke All the Way I had for dinner at the ballgame.
We went to Ruth's Chris for dinner on Friday - excellent as always. The view was very cool overlooking the Potomac River (and the airport, but that just adds to the interesting things to watch). Saturday we started out with breakfast at a place called Luna in Shirlington - yummy of course. Greg and Deb know how to find the good spots and we totally appreciated that! We then hit the road to go see what DC is all about - neither of us had been there since high school so it was neat to see it again.

First stop... the Lincoln Memorial and a view of the

Washington Monument and the reflection pool.

Here are our awesome tour guides Greg and Deb at the WWII Memorial - all decked out in their Nationals gear.

What is water without baby duckies! Aren't they the cutest?

As you can see I am enjoying a cloudy day and am without sunglasses for once - the weather was almost perfect. Warm, but not hot and not very sunny. Just a bit of rain at the right times - when we were under cover!

The Obama residence... taken just for Stephanie.

Celebrity sighting!

Dole was great about having his picture taken with all the veterans there.

What is Washington without a protest? President Obama, President Obama ... I'm sure both Greg and Deb now have this stuck in their mind too. LOL! It was an annoying chant for sure. Of coure you know Obama could hear - what do these people think?

We ended the day by heading to the Nationals ball game - they are awful, but of course it's still fun and the stadium was very full of Phillies fans because you know they are good and we were pretty close to Phillie territory. Not sure if the man in white knew he'd end up on my blog, but oh well - he did.
This is the view from our seats - it was a great view.
Sunday we packed up and headed on out - after having another great breakfast. Shirlington is a very cute area with lots of great places to eat and shop. We did hit Wegman's in Mt. Laurel, NJ of course - we love Wegmans... I got the most yummy looking strawberries - they were locally grown - doesn't get any better than that. Traffic was much better this trip and we are now being tourtured by our kitties for being gone for two nights...

things found at work

This baby squirrel made it's way into our offices this week. One of our animal loving supervisors rescued him and took him home so he could find his way to the local animal rescue shelter. The next day in the mail I got this penguin - one of those silly promo things to make you think "how awesome are these people I need to call them up and get them in here" - do you think I'm that silly to want to buy your services because you give me a stuffed animal? LOL! Simon the squirrel seems to like him and I knew they would both be well taken care of and keep each other company. I had wrapped penguin up in a box for presentation purposes which caused some chaos and fear of what was inside - I promised he didn't bite, but they didn't believe me.

FINALLY! Richmond Pics!

Finally some race weekend pictures - just a little late!

A view from our seats for the big race - these were the best - lots of action - I mean crashes. We also had great seat mates - the guy next to me had two seats so there was no smashed butt action to deal with. I think some people just walk round the track all race - see them down low - just walking.

Gettin' the track dried the old fashioned way - with the race cars.
Mark is all ready for the action! He did notice that there is a new type of scanner out there so maybe he'll be getting more race gear for Christmas (those who need hints take note).

Me and my favorite car and driver - Kasey Kahne - of course he is nowhere to be found, but they are checking his car over pre-race down in the pits. I think I need new sunglasses?

More fun in the pits on day #1 - the roller skating driver. He was pretty funny and personable.

Mark got Mark Martin's autograph on his race pass holder! He is his favorite driver - we had good timing for this to happen.

passive aggressive or blond?

Or just a clean freak? I had to be at work way too early today for meetings. I mean it was dark out still when I got up at 5:00 am. The sun rises early here... I don't drink coffee all that much, but some days it is just necessary and I sugar and milk it up real good so it tastes good. It sounded like a dream to me after my first meeting so I went to make a cup in our little coffee maker and I noticed that a key piece was missing - after I poured in the water! I didn't want to make a big pot - that is a pain and requires more cleaning that it is normally worth. I finally just did it - and it was worth it. Then I had the awful thought that someone in my office was being passive aggressive - they knew I was coming in at 6:00 am so why did they leave me high and dry with half a coffee machine? Turns out after much laughing over my comment that she thought it needed to be run through the dishwasher at home - first time ever.
Time to switch it back over to my morning tea!

NJ and Trip Tidbits

It was a very long ride home today and for some reason the state of NJ and all it's wonderful traffic was the icing on our trip - and it was not tasty! Our 6 hour trip from VA took almost 9 hours. And we are both very patient people - hahahahaha.... But wait we did stop at Wegman's just outside DC and that was totally worth it! We love Wegmans!
So to inject some sarcasm into it we'll start with:
WONDERFUL drivers and rubber neckers - after a half hour going 20 mph and less we finally came upon the fender bender and a very minor one at that. So 10 miles of backup on 3 lanes for expressway - all I can say is HOW exciting! I mean hello ever see a busted up fender? Yes, that is all it was. NJ must be a boring state for it to attract all that attention.
Those TOLLS - we are going to add them up - I am guessing we blew $25 and $4.75 we had to pay in cash because they didn't label the lane right and the EZPass didn't work on THAT lane. There was the little box that tells you can GO, but it was not activated and the freaky lady wanted CASH. Yeah, whatever lady. That was so fun to dig for money in our NEATLY organized car. That is another story.
Cheap gas - this isn't sarcasm - it is way cheaper than NY gas, but they have this SMART rule that you can't pump your own. There were at least 4 pumpers at this station and I'm guessing they work full time and probably get benefits - so hmmm... how much money do the gas stations make - ALOT obviously to cover all that overhead. So we waited 20 minutes at the thruway rest stop for some guy to pump it. Plenty of time for both of us to run in to potty and for me to dwadle over choosing my favorite flavor of Honest Tea. SO back to the gas lines. There were 6 lanes to choose. We managed to choose the SHORT one - and it was the shortest in length, not in time. Then after the car in front of us was done the guy wouldn't move - I was super happy and CHEERY at this point. Not bitchy at all - me - never. Did I mention it rained all the way home? Ugh... So the gas pump dude asked him to move and he said he couldn't because he was waiting for his friend to bring out his BK lunch. The gas pump guy solved this by having us go around him and use the next pump up. Thank goodness because the BK driver dude didn't come out for another 3 minutes. Pretty sure he was from NJ and was toting something scary with those dark tinted windows.
Oh and Ms. Garmin - she loves to find the shortest route and going through DC this was interesting. Ended up down on Pennslyvania Ave looping around some weird ways - SHORT? Hmmm... Maybe? Interesting - YES.
Obviously my favorite driver didn't win nor did Mark's. Just feeling a bit snarky tonight - good word by the way Andrea - from all that time in the car. We did really like Richmond - cool city. I even got to do some shopping in some cool stores. Shocker at a race weekend for me. Kind of doubt we'll go there for a race again -maybe a vacation stop over or something like that.
Pictures coming soon - camera is still in the car I think??? Wonder what else is in there - HA.

cure for poison ivy

you know those silly e-mails people send around with crazy tips on how to use toothpicks to solve life's problems? yeah, I know you probably don't read them anymore either, but my sister Stephanie does and she found one that she thought might benefit Mark - it contained a cure for poison ivy. It was titled something like 12 uses for your favorite drink. Now I really hate to think we are wasting this item on the itchy scratchy's because it's not cheap, but it works - and works for at least 12 hours. Now you're asking what is it? It's VODKA! Crazy, but it works. Put it on a cloth and apply to the red spots - itchy stops instantly and it doesn't sting. So since we are on a little vacation I brought the bottle from home, which Mark claimed was from college for him - we don't drink that stuff all that much obviously. I'm thinking maybe it's from Ryan - Stoli isn't a cheap drink for a college kid and the label said 2004. However since we are on vacation I might just have to find something yummy to mix it with - kinda doubt I'll have room after enjoying all those free beers in the hospitality tent, but anyway it's an option.
thanks Steph!
vroom - vroom - hoping the rain stays away!