The National Zoo

A couple weekends ago, Nic and I ventured out in the heat/humidity to check out the National Zoo, which like most of the DC attractions is FREE!! We're both easily entertained by animals, and it proved to be a great day! Here are some pictures from our little adventure.

The lions and tigers didn't seem to mind the heat.

Our favorites were the monkeys. They're so much like people that it's fun to sit and watch them.

The hungry elephant standing behind Nic was one stinky lady.

America's Pastime

Nic LOVES baseball. Lucky for him, I love going to baseball games. Although I am definitely a sports fan, it's not the actual game of baseball that I think is the most fun. I grew up outside of Milwaukee, and as a kid our family would go to Brewers games every once in awhile. I recall loving the tailgating part before (and sometimes after) the games, but not really liking the baseball part at all. I'm sure people who call other states home will disagree with me, but I really must say Wisconsinites are the best tailgaters. The food is often much more than just hot dogs and burgers, and the atmosphere is even better. I'd be content to go just to tailgate and not even make it to the actual game. 

The fun is not limited to the tailgating at Brewers games. First, there's Bernie the Brewer.  At the old County Stadium, whenever the Brewers got a home run, he'd slide down from his little house into a mug of beer.  At the new stadium, he has a dugout and a slide, but sadly, no mug of beer.

What I used to think was the best thing in baseball is the Sausage Races.  As you can see below, guys dressed up as various types of sausage [Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog, (Chorizo is new, and not pictured below as I've never seen him either)] race around the field at the bottom of the sixth inning.  The sausage races make me so happy!!!

You may wonder how this relates to my life now. Well...the Washington Nationals have something similar that I think is even better than the sausages....the Presidents Race!!!  

Your favorite faces from Mount Rushmore run from center field down the first base line  every home game.   Silly antics occur with each running of the presidents.   On Sunday, we saw George hip-check Teddy into the wall...hilarious.  Also, in the 2+ years of these races, Teddy has never won.  He appears to be the laziest and most easily distracted, but entertaining all around.   Even though the Nationals are TERRIBLE, the games are always fun.  

Here are some pics from our latest trip to Nationals Park:

No more excuses from me!!

The other day Nic and I were talking about blogs, and he seemed genuinely surprised to hear that I had one. I swear I must have mentioned it at one point, and his memory must be wrong, but it got me thinking that I REALLY needed to add something. I can make lots of excuses for not posting, the biggest two of which are (1) my life is just not that interesting to write about—it’s a fairly standard combo of work/play/sleep, but I don’t have kids who do silly/cute things or other such interesting topics for blogging and (2) I just don’t take lots of pictures to make what I do more appealing for other people.

Luckily, Nicholas is [finally] here and, as he is an artist, he quite enjoys taking photographs...so that negates my second excuse. I also realized we do lots of fun stuff. We live in Maryland just outside D.C. and visit cool places at least once a week. I have new goal to post at least once a week to share all the fun we’re having in our nation’s capital. Enjoy!

Happy birthday to me!!!

It's been quite a year so far, and we're only two months in...
Yesterday, I had a real birthday, which is always extra-special, but this one was amazing. Thursday evening, Nicholas had stacked up a bunch of beautifully wrapped presents in the living room. Since we knew it was going to snow on Friday morning and he'd be out plowing most of the day and likely well into the night, we went out for a quick dinner and came home to enjoy each other's company on one of the last nights we'd have together until he joins me in DC in 2 months. I kept trying to get him to let me open my presents, but he was adamant that we wait until my true birthday.

I woke up early the next morning and was so excited for Nic to get up so I could open my gifts. What seemed like forever finally passed, and he was awake and ready to start the birthday festivities. He made me get dressed, which was a little surprising to me...I couldn't understand why I couldn't just open my presents in my pajamas. I quickly put on the first non-pajama clothes I could find and was all ready to go while Nic was taking his sweet time getting everything all set.

FINALLY....it was time to open presents. He did a great job picking out perfect gifts that all had special meaning to our relationship. When we got to the last present, he handed it over, and just as I touched the bag, he pulled it back and said he would open the last gift for me. He went into this very sweet speech about how much he loved me and all this stuff which I don't at all remember because I was completely shocked by what he was doing...he pulled a small box out of the bag.


Nicholas asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes!!

The ring is incredibly special to me. It was my great-grandmother's ring which Nic had re-furbished. It is so gorgeous, and I almost believe it's more beautiful now than it was when she owned it many many years ago.



Once we both get settled in DC and with our new jobs, we'll be able to start planning our wedding!! I couldn't be more excited than I am at this very moment.

Our new home

Now that I'm finished with grad school and all the chaos associated with writing and defending my dissertation is through, I have very few excuses for not blogging. I'll try to do better in the future. (Although I do start my new job on Monday and who knows when I'll find the time after that.)

Indie and I will be moving to DC on Saturday. Nic is staying behind in Ann Arbor until the end of April when our current lease is up, and we will anxiously be awaiting him joining us.

I went out there for the day last Saturday to check out the new apartment and sign my lease. I'm excited about how close we'll be to the Metro. I could go on and on about how thrilled I am to be moving somewhere with such great public transportation. Also, we'll be living within walking distance of just about any store you can think of. I'm very excited to not have to drive all the time!

Here's a view of my building.


It's just recently been built, and two more very similar apartment buildings are under construction on our block. From what I can gather, this is becoming one of the new popular areas as DC continues to grow and sprawl out into the suburbs. While the road in front of the building looks very nice in this picture, it's actually quite busy and for some reason cross-walks and walk signals aren't so popular in this area. I'm sure it was quite a sight to see me darting traffic as I was running across the 8 lanes of traffic carrying a bunch of shopping bags.

Just in case all of the attractions of our nation's capital are not enough to entice you to come and visit, here's a view of the pool:
I'm sad to be leaving Michigan, but I'm so excited to call this my new home! By the way, I'll always have a couch and air-bed available for visitors!!!