Rollercoasters!

Saturday at King's Dominion- which is farther south of DC than one might think.

Jen on the swings- upside down is, in general, more fun than right side up.

This would be the synchronized slurping contest.

That would be me- on the swings.

Robin, and we haven't even started going fast yet.

Marci- going very fast, and once again upside down.

Break for funnel cake. The goal for the summer was five- almost the end of August and I'm only on number three. Better start attending more county fairs.

George Mason University

Just in case you didn't know, I work at a pretty cool school.

We were just rated as the #1 up and coming school by U.S. News and World Report.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-uc-rank

Happy To Be Alive

Went to New York this weekend, it was a good time. There was a small group from my office that went up for a cooking show with Tre Wilcox from Top Chef. There were two themes for the weekend, "I'm just so happy to be alive" and "I love America." Matt and Dan were pretty strong on loving America, and Jen and I were kind of indifferent at the beginning, but the love grew towards the end. And "happy to be alive" is the the new life philosophy.

The trip started off with a bang and a shredded tire on the New Jersey Turnpike. This was a good test of the new life philosophy, and I must say we all had a good time on the side of the road. It was a great time just sitting there with nothing to do because we didn't have a lug wrench. Most people on the turnpike were surprisingly nice- nobody actually stopped, but we did get a lot of honks and waves- and we backed up traffic on both sides!

We spent a lot of time hanging out in New Jersey which was fun, I'd never really spent time in New Jersey. Well, a little bit in Morris County (Country Club area) Camden (murder area) and an afternoon in Atlantic City. But this time we went to Hoboken, and to a classic Jersey diner where we heard someone actually say "fugedaboutit."

The cooking class was really fun too. We got to eat yummy food and I learned about browned butter and some cooking tips for risotto. Tre signed my book and we got some pictures, and then I finally got into my own bed last night at 3:30am. Actually, I should go to bed now.

IHOP

So this week was Restaurant Week in DC. It's pretty amazing, you can go to all the fancy schmancy restaurants that you'd never be able to afford otherwise and they'll give you a smaller menu that is still pretty pricy, but you get the appetizer and the entre and the dessert. Or in the case of La Tasca, all you can eat tapas.

First I went to 100 King with some friends and the food was great, and the setting was wonderful. The next night was La Tasca with some friends from work, and when they said all you can eat, we took them seriously.

However, the most interesting thing about La Tasca was not the tapas or the cute server from Colombia, it was the couple at the table next to us. Now when I say it was the table next to us, I'm not lying, our bitsy Columbian could barely even fit between the tables. At first we thought we were going to be annoyed by the woman's super loud voice, until we started to listen in on the conversation.

This appeared to be a first date/just met at a conference type of dinner, we learned all about her ex-husbands, and her late husbands (still unclear on the number of each). We learned about his ex-wives (and current wife?) and kids, and her peace corps adventures (she's only traveled in third world countries, and has not seen nearly as much of Europe as she'd like) but she was young and inspired by Kennedy. She has a step daughter and some step-grandchildren and they at least were a good thing that came out of one of her marriages, along with a couple apartment buildings in NYC. He really "likes" gazpacho, but didn't feel like eating it that night.

Things got even more interesting when we realized that they were both drinking from the same glass of wine. He paid for dinner and then they left. I prefer not to think about what happened next.

Now all of this was very very good food, but I must admit that the food at IHOP tonight was just as good. AND Earl is the most amazing server ever. So if you're ever at the Potomac Yards IHOP, ask for Earl and he'll treat you right.

RIP Scrabulous

I just want to say that I miss Scrabulous. The official Scrabble game on facebook is getting better- meaning it actually loaded today. And I respect Hasbro's right to act on it's copyright and shut down the copycat, but still, I miss Scrabulous.

Summer of Fun 2008

It's practically August, and I can't believe it. I guess it's a good thing that time is flying by, because it means there's plenty of fun going around.

Here's some highlights so far:
-Hon Fest
-Screen on the Green
-Rehobath Beach
-Greek Festival
-Assateague Island

-shooting guns
-Roller Derby
-Bear Lake
-Fireworks from Jefferson Monument
-Tour of the capital and white house
-Civil War re-enactment
-2 funnel cakes
-sailing
-shooting the tube
-pancake breakfast

And still to come:
-rafting
-Top Chef cooking class in NYC
-Twighlight Polo
-Beach weekend at NC Outerbanks
-restaurant week
-WV cabin weekend
-3 more funnel cakes (the goal for the summer was 5)

Camping with the ponies

Assateague Island is so much fun, for tourists and for mosquitos. We played on the beach with the ponies. You're not allowed to touch the ponies, but there is nothing that says they can't touch you. There was one that liked us so much that when we would step away he would follow us and then he nuzzled up between my friend Robin and I.

I think that I have 428 mosquito bites, I helped a mole escape from the boardwalk, I saw deer and ponies and crabs and jellyfish, all in all a very good weekend.