Ben's Bday

Since moving to Washington DC, public transportation has become an important part of our lives.  Particularly, Ben's this week as he commutes to and from work.

Ranking Ben's Bus Trips to Work (sad, but true)
1. Wednesday - The 3rd day was the charm. Not too early, not too late, plenty of seating.
2. Monday - Day 1 means I left too early, but plenty of room and low traffic.
3. Thursday - Had to wait for a while to be picked up. Got a seat, but crowded.
4. Tuesday - Bus was running behind.  Heavy traffic.  Stood for 30 minutes.

Ranking Ben's Bus Trips from Work to Home - As a favor to our readers, we will save this for a later post.  If all three of you are really good readers, we'll forget about it all together.

Ben's week has been largely filled by the new job.  Lots of calls, meetings, reading and more. 

Kelly continued to enjoy her freedom this week by visiting the National Arboretum and Arlington National Cemetery. We (Kelly and the dogs) started off the morning at the arboretum and enjoyed all the peace and quiet it had to offer. It felt like I was taking a hike back home. It was a little piece of So. IL or Mid-Mo right in the middle of D.C. The dogs enjoyed the park as well and 'claimed' as much territory as possible during the 3 mile hike. Kelly dropped the dogs off and then headed over to Arlington to take a stroll through the National Cemetery. It is a very moving experience to see all the graves and reading when and where they served. There were a few that served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, what true heroes.

I also got the opportunity to see the changing of the guard.

Today was Ben's birthday.  As many of you know, 33 is the new 32.  The weather cooperated and allowed Ben to play softball on his birthday for the 4th year in a row.  The forecast called for thunderstorms, but they held off and we had a gorgeous evening on the Mall.

The Asses (see the earlier post for the origins of our team name) were victorious for the 2nd week in a row.  Coincidentally, this was Ben and Kelly's 2nd week.  Kelly had a stellar defensive night split between 1st and 2nd base.  Also, she added an impressive triple at the plate.  Ben stood around at 3rd base with little action.  This was probably for the best though because it allowed him to catch his breath after his 3-3 (2 homeruns, 1 double) performance at the plate.  It was a lot of running and Ben is not as young as he used to be - literally.

Ben's favorite restaurant in D.C. is "Ben's Chili Bowl". Its not exactly his favorite food in D.C., but it does have his name in the title which automatically sends it right to the top of his list. To honor both Ben's name and Ben's chili bowl, Kelly got him a "Ben's Chili Bowl" apron for his birthday.