We made a list and checked it twice.

Another work week came and went.  It was a lot of time on mass transit for Ben. There were good days and bad.  The good days meant a seat early and plenty of time to read.  Ben has finished several books this year that had sat on the shelf for way too long.

The bad days meant the bus was running late and was so packed that they don't stop where you are waiting, so you get to wait even longer in the cold.  The glass half-full perspective on this is that it wasn't raining.  That said, the Metro is apparently aware that people may find such practices annoying, so there are announcements that let riders know that "anyone who assaults a metro driver or station manger, while on duty, may be subject to enhanced penalties from the District of Columbia."  Ben is not sure if this announcement is meant to deter riders from assaulting drivers or to just encouraging people to wait until after the driver is off-duty.  

On Friday night, we went to the Kennedy Center to see the musical Billy Elliot.  We were a little nervous about traffic and finding parking, so we decided to eat at the Kennedy Center Cafe before the show.  We had heard decent things about the cafe.  Unfortunately, we heard those things from apparent liars.  Ben's portabella/artichoke ravioli were particularly bad.  Luckily, the Caesar salad was a little better.  Long story short, if you are headed to the Kennedy Center eat somewhere else ahead of time.   

After dinner we headed for the show.  Billy Elliot is a musical that is based on the Oscar nominated movie of the same name from about a decade ago.  The plot of the musical made a little more sense because we had seen the movie.  Essentially, Billy Elliot is a young man from a coal mining town, whose father and older brother are miners embattled in a long strike.  Despite tough times, Billy discovers a passion for dance and ultimately, after much emotional angst for all involved, is accepted to the Royal Ballet School.  The musical added some somewhat strange numbers about Margaret Thatcher that, while catchy, were a little confusing.  Overall, Ben preferred the movie, while Kelly preferred the musical.

Saturday morning started early.  After breakfast, we headed out to take care of a little last minute Christmas shopping and a few life chores.  Getting a little nostalgic for the trip upcoming trip home, we had lunch at Chevy's Fresh Mex on Saturday.  There is a Chevy's just down the road from Ben's house in St. Louis and we have sadly eaten there way too many times - but not recently.  It was a treat.  Stuffed with the three key food groups of chips, salsa, and chimichangas we decided to continue seizing the day.  

There was a good parking space available in front of the Smithsonian American History Museum.  

(If only this food truck had chimichangas.)

We had meant to return to the American History Museum for quite sometime.  When we went with visiting family this summer it was a total madhouse.  With a significant decrease in tourists, we were able to take our time and look around at a less frenzied pace.  As we smelled the roses, we spotted exhibits that featured items like this amazing 1980s mini-van.  One of Ben's high school friends had this same model passed on from his parents when he turned 16.  No one would have imagined then that it would have been featured in the Smithsonian.  

(OK, honestly this probably still has no business being in a museum.)

Exhausted from a thorough trip through the museum, we picked up a movie and headed home for the evening.  We got burned by Redbox - the one we had reserved at was broken - our first choice of the evening was not available at the second Redbox we visited, so we ended up with "30 Minutes or Less."  

Sunday, we were up early again for a reservation at Founding Farmers, which is a farm to restaurant establishment that we had heard very good things about.  

(Sadly, the menu does not feature items named after signers of the US Constitution - though strangely, there is a Benedict Arnold.)

Despite a lot of hype, Founding Farmers lived up to our expectations.  Kelly's French Toast was fabulous.  Ben had a pastrami hash mix that was topped with poached eggs and a mustard hollandaise sauce.  This was good, but it was also accompanied by the best English muffin that Ben and Kelly have ever had - seriously.

After breakfast, we stopped by Einstein Claus to tell him what we wanted this holiday season.

("Hey Einstein, I think you meant E = iPad2")

With our lists given to Einstein Claus, we headed to the Natural History Museum's Imax theater to see a 3-D Grand Canyon adventure.  

(It was hard to give these glasses back after the show.)

It was cool to see the Grand Canyon on such a large screen and in 3-D.  The video only increased our desire to make a rafting trip to the Grand Canyon. 

Before heading home we went by a seasonal holiday market and the nearby Smithsonian Portrait Gallery as there were some new items we had wanted to see. 

Back at home, we took care of some chores and watched football.  Also, Ben has been working on teaching some of the intricacies of football to the dogs.  It has been a slow process.

(Dexter has a lot of issues jumping offsides. If you have met Dexter, this should not be a surprise.)

For those of you wondering about flag football, our tournament that had been scheduled for this weekend was postponed due to congressional scheduling uncertainty.  The tournament will now be held in January at some point.  Maybe Dex and Mo will be ready by then.  

Football, Theater and Mini-golf... Oh My!

Last weekend was jam packed with action.  On Saturday morning we picked up our friend Kelsey, who was in town for the weekend, at the Eastern Market metro and got started on the weekend activities. We walked through Eastern Market to do a little Christmas shopping and perusing before heading to the apartment for lunch. 

After letting Kelsey spend some quality time with Dexter and Mosely, we jumped in the car to go pick up our friend Abe, who was joining us for the Army vs Navy football game. Ben and I had always wanted to go to the "Game of Honor" and it just so happened it was in DC for the first time this year. 

We didn't expect the football game to be particularly good as neither team had a great season and Navy had a nine year winning streak in the match up.  We did expect a lot of pomp and circumstance.  And that started before we could even get in the door.  We were stopped to wait for the President and Vice President's motorcade to come through.

Once we got to the front gate, we had to wait as everyone went through extra secret service checks and metal detectors.  We made it in and got to our seats before the action started.

To kick things off, the President flipped the coin to determine game's first possession.

Once the game started, we were reminded that neither team were big passers.  In fact, the picture below may have been the only pass of the first half and it fell incomplete. 

Football without passing leaves a little to be desired.  It was fun to see all of the cadets out cheering on their respective academies.

Also, there was still some scoring and that led to booming celebrations.  The game was close at the end of the first half. 

At halftime we all got a little extra dose of patriotism courtesy of Mr. Lee Greenwood the Grammy award-winning multi-platinum selling artist famed for "Proud to be an American."

Also at halftime, the President took the ceremonial walk across the field. During the first half the President sits on one side of the field and then switches sides for the second half.  

Unfortunately,  the temperature dropped significantly from when we left the house and none of us were prepared for the frigid weather. Ben didn't even take a coat and simply relied on the warmth of his tuxedo sweatshirt. At one point the lady sitting next to him started to try and warm him up by awkwardly rubbing his arms. 

We made the collective decision that we already had the experience of the Army vs Navy game and now we were just watching a really bad football game, so we left shortly into the 4th quarter. 

A perk of leaving early was that we avoided the traffic, particularly that which would have been created by the presidential motorcade.  In fact, we made it home just in time to see the Navy get the victory on TV.

Normally,  we would have considered ourselves to have done plenty and just called it a day.  However, about three months ago, we bought  tickets to the Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater.  It just so happened to be on the same day as the Army vs Navy football game. So, we ate a bite of dinner and then headed to the theater. 

The play was really good and the theater was beautiful, very small and quaint. 

The Presidential Suite, where President Lincoln was shot, is kept the same, including the original portrait of George Washington and bunting that sat in front of his box the night of the assassination.

We chatted with a volunteer that gave a historical rundown of that night, including how Booth escaped out the back door into the alley.

On Sunday, we went to brunch with Kelsey at Busboys and Poets before taking her over to the MLK memorial before heading to our flag football game on the mall. 

Sunday's game had playoff implications, which was exciting because of the people that showed up for the game. We had some of our best players all there on the same day, which never happens, which is all the more reason we were disappointed when the other team didn't show up. Nonetheless, we got the win and earned a playoff birth next weekend. 

We decided to head home and watched a little football, made pretzels and caught up with Kelsey much of the afternoon. We decided to go out for dinner at H Street Country Club. It is your typical  bar, mexican restaurant, mini-golf joint. The beer was decent, the mexican food was good and the mini-golf was awesome. 

 

As many of you know, Kelly hates mini-golf, primarily because she hate putting, and the very real possibility of losing to someone that has never played "real golf". After a solid even par round, Kelly began to see the merits of mini-golf and decide to reevaluate her opinion of the game.

Your Bonus Mid-Week Post (or maybe it is just late)

Friday ended a long work week for us, but included a great lunch experience for Kelly. It was the last day in her office for one of the interns, Jessica, so the office took her out to lunch at Belga Cafe. Kelly ordered the cornbread waffle with pulled pork, fried eggs (over-easy) and avocados. All the the ingredients sounded great on their own, so they had to be outstanding together. It turned out to be a fabulous dish and the envy of everybody from work.

After work, Ben decided to take the Metro down to Eastern Market to walk home with Kelly. We watched the Oregon Ducks win the Pac-12 championship with a victory over UCLA and secured a spot in the Rose Bowl. With the ducks already in the Rose Bowl, we had to anxiously await the outcome of the Big 10 championship game between Wisconsin and Michigan St. The winner would secure the other spot in the Rose Bowl and possibly determine if we should entertain making the trip out to Pasadena for the game. We had discussed that if a match-up of Ben's Alma mater, University of Oregon (Go Ducks!), and his other favorite team University of Wisconsin (Go Badgers!), came to fruition then we would be mildly obligated to attend.  We are still working out the logistics of a trip to Pasadena after Christmas, we will keep you updated.

Saturday we laid around the house and took care of a few life chores. We picked up pulled pork from Kenny's Smokehouse for lunch and were pleased to have given them  a second chance. Kenny's is located about 3 1/2 blocks from our house, however, we had been disappointed by our first experience just after moving to DC.   In their defense, we ordered the pork ribs on the recommendation of the cashier, but neither of us normally get pork ribs so it was probably not a fair choice to use to judge the establishment.  We decided this time around we would go with our preferred BBQ entree, pulled pork. While still not up the Midwest standards for BBQ, it was above average for D.C. and as a bonus, it is conveniently located near our apartment.

Later that night, we headed up to the U Street neighborhood for a holiday party hosted by one of Ben's coworkers. The horrible D.C. traffic made us question why we ever drive anywhere in the city and reminded us of how grateful we are to live on Capitol Hill.  We finally found a parking spot and made it to the party. The party was fun and included an excellent spread, including mini-pigs-in-a-blanket! There were also white elephant gifts for everybody and Ben took home the top prize of a leopard print snuggie!

We had been checking the Wisconsin vs Michigan St. score throughout the party and decided to head out a little early to get home for the last few minutes. We made it home to watch the last four minutes and the dramatic finish which led to the Wisconsin victory. After our initial celebration, we then grabbed our laptops and started planning a potential trip to the Rose Bowl on January 2nd.

Between the party and watching the finish of the football game, we took Sunday morning as an opportunity to sleep in a little. After a fabulous breakfast burrito creation of Ben's, we headed down to the Washington Monument for our flag football game. We came out victorious on a last second TD. Once again Kelly got roughed up a bit and following this game, announced her retirement from flag football at the end of the season.

(People in the neighborhood are getting ready for the holidays)

After flag football, we went home and spent some quality time with the dogs and the TV.  We switched back and forth between football and golf.

 We were excited to watch the final round of the Chevron golf tournament and see Tiger birdie the last two hole to get his first victory in two years.

(Mo is a big fan of the new snuggie)

Monday brought a return to the work week and a return to commuting fun.  Ben started out the week with a major traffic jam that ad him abandon his bus and walk the last 6 blocks to work. 

Luckily for him, the rain held off until Wednesday. But when it started, we got a lot of it.  The rain means crowded buses filled with wet people and their umbrellas.

One perk of the rain was that Kelly got to try out her new galoshes.  They work well and she got to splash through puddles worry free on the way to and from work.

Black Friday and beyond

Waking up Friday after Thanksgiving was a challenge, however, Ben being an above average husband decided to let Kelly sleep in a bit longer while he walked the dogs and made pancakes. As it turned out, he was just trying to bribe her into heading downtown for a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It worked.

The Bureau of Engraving & Printing is only open Monday-Friday and closed on holidays, which leaves us with little opportunity to take the tour. The day after Thanksgiving is literally the only day we can take the tour without taking a day off of work.  After a hour long wait, the twenty-five minute tour was decent.

(Ben has always liked money.  He has some, but would like more.)

It was more the mystique of all the money and looking at the employees and wondering how often they think about taking ways to take some of the leftovers home. They print on average $900 million a day in that building.

(This is what a million dollars in $10 bills looks like.  $100s probably makes more sense for large transactions.)

(Ben has always said he wouldn't trade Kelly for $1 Million - clearly that is a good decision.)

The rest of the day was spent watching football and catching up with the dogs at the house. While we missed out on most of the traditional thanksgiving dishes, Ben made a sweet potato pie to celebrate the holiday.

Saturday was used to fully recover for the last few days and enjoy some great college football match-ups. We were excited for the Oregon vs Oregon St. and Alabama vs Auburn games, but disappointed when both were blowouts.

On Sunday, we woke up early and headed to a few museums. We checked out the two Andy Warhol exhibits at the Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum. They were somewhat interesting, but overall disappointing. Little of the exhibit was paintings or some of his notable pieces, rather it was more of his early sketches. 

(It took us about 15 minutes to get through the exhibits.)

While we were at the art museums, we checked out the rest of the exhibits.  

We also ran over to the Air and Space Museum to see the new drone on display.  Finally, we noticed there was no line at the National Archives, so we decided to run in and see the Constitution and Declaration of Independence without the pressure of summer lines.

With our museum quota more than filled, we headed back home to enjoy a big bowl of chili and spinach cornbread for lunch. The remainder of the day we spent watching football and working on Christmas shopping.

Monday brought a return to the work week and the bus.

However, Monday evening was full of excitement because of the "Sing-Off" finale was on TV. The "Sing-Off" is a contest to find the best a capella group and one of our guilty pleasures. After casting our ballots for our favorite group, the winner would be announced tonight. Much to Kelly's delight, the "Pentatonix" took the championship, $200,000 prize and the Sony recording contract!  

After work on Tuesday we headed to the Verizon Center to watch the St. Louis Blues vs Washington Capitals hockey game. Neither one of us are real hockey fans, but we thought it was a chance to check out the scene and be around some St. Louis fans for a night.  

Before the game we grabbed dinner at Capitol Q, a bbq joint near Chinatown. Due to our low standards for DC bbq, Capitol Q was decent. Terrible coleslaw, despite the false promises made to us by the Capitol Q staff, but decent pulled pork and brisket. 

Full, we headed over to the game.  The Capitals had just fired their coach and had not been playing very well.  That said, the turnout was very strong - especially for a Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues.

After the first St. Louis goal, we realized their were only about 9 Blues fans in the audience.

The game was fun and included 3 goals, a fight and a St. Louis Blues victory.

However, the most fun was probably reserved for the Chipolte burrito toss.  What could possibly be cooler than throwing/catching a burrito?  For those of you who have been to a Lambert's "Home of the throwed roll," you know the thrown burrito is a gold mine waiting to happen.