Come on Irene

Things finally got back to normal after the random earthquake and all 5 of its aftershocks, when reports of Hurricane Irene started to dominate the airwaves. By the time Friday rolled around, the local news casts had 24-hr coverage of the impending storm. 


Warnings about power outages, water outages, public transportation disruptions etc etc. D.C. had not been hit with a hurricane in decades and none as big as Irene (or so they thought). With all the hype, we briefly toiled with preparing for disaster. We discussed getting bottled water and some canned goods, but quickly concluded that if things got to that point, we would just leave the city and head to Illinois a few days earlier. We had a few life chores to accomplish on Saturday morning, before settling in for the storm. 

Our main priority was getting Mo's hair cut. Her coat grows into her full,thick, wool-like coat and we wanted her to be looking good for the wedding. 

Mo doesn't like storms and we were nervous when the groomer didn't finish until 2:00pm. The early part of the hurricane had hit D.C. and we had to pick her up in some serious rain. Mo did fine and was ready to get back home. She is used to getting approx 16-20 hrs of sleep per day, so having to go to the groomers all morning put her in a grumpy mood.

With Mo returned to us and most of our chores done, we returned home to weather the storm.  With a "if you have lemons, make lemonade" attitude, we embarked on another pickling effort.  We also watched a few movies and stayed indoors throughout the evening, however the rain and wind didn't really pick up until 10pm or so. We were very fortunate to not lose power or water and sustained no damage to our apartment. The worst of the storm hit during the night and caused most of the damage in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs. Overall, our hurricane experience was not bad. It was more like a strong storm, with no thunder or lightning. 

Sunday was beautiful and it was nice to be outside.  We mostly hung around the house in case any more natural disasters decided to show up.  Ben also made some homemade bread.

Monday night was a big night for softball.  We didn't have a game, but it was the year-end tournament bracket selection event.  Our team ended up ranked 27th out of over 100 teams, which was a vast improvement over last year's 90th place finish (pre Kelly & Ben).  Our bracket draw was pretty good.  We will see how the tournament turns out in a couple weeks.

Movers & Shakers

Tuesday started off very boring and just a typical day in D.C., but quickly became a day for the record books. Around 2:00pm a 5.9 earthquake hit the D.C. area. Kelly was in the Ford house building enjoying a beverage when everything starting shaking. When it first hit, everyone in the office just froze (with the exception of one guy who starting screaming "what the F* is that"). Everyone's first instinct was a bomb had exploded in the basement. It was a very scary 45 seconds until we realized it was a earthquake and not an explosion. Sirens, alarms and lights all starting flashing and people starting scrambling. The committee's safety officer was on vacation, somehow Kelly was left in charge of evacuating the office, grabbing the emergency equipment and reporting to the police once was were outside. Fortunately, no one was injured and we got to go home early. The worst part was you couldn't make or receive calls. In the first few minutes we weren't sure how serious it was and if there were injuries, damage, etc. I immediately started calling Ben to make sure he was OK. I finally got a hold of him an hour after the quake, frustrating.

Ben's quake experience was somewhat different. He was enjoying lunch at a nearby restaurant when everything started to shake. With the exception of one man, who jumped up and stared yelling, everyone stayed very calm. Ben's major scare was that he wouldn't be able to finish up his sandwich.  With his turkey panini club safely digesting, Ben headed for safety. Because the phones weren't working there was no way to know what happened. Ben and his co-worker stepped inside a bar and grill to see if they could get news from the TV. In hindsight, going back into a tall building after an apparent earthquake to get information about the earthquake might not have been the greatest idea. Ben's building didn't even formally evacuate, however their office made the executive decision to close up shop for the day. 

Walking around after the earthquake was very odd.  With no real information and no cell service, we just walked around catching tidbits of conversations. Varying reports as to what was actually happening were really the most unnerving thing.  As occasional text message about being safe led to questions if there were people who were not.  

As many buildings were evacuated, it led to significant traffic issues that were compounded by some traffic lights being out.  Ben beat the bus by a record time on his run home.

Before we knew it we were both sitting at home with most of the afternoon at our disposal. We took the dogs for a walk to Lincoln park and enjoyed the most beautiful afternoon we have had in D.C. and then headed home for dinner.

Pickle update. We tried the homemade bread and butter pickles we made this weekend for the first time and were very impressed. They were ground shaking!

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

Thursday was our second to last regular season softball game and had serious playoff implications. With storms rolling into D.C., we headed to the field in hopes of getting the game in. As Kelly was up to bat in the 2nd inning, a huge bolt of lighting lit up the sky. It struck so close to the Mall that several car alarms were set off and all the girls' hair stood straight up. Ben's hair would have stood up, but it smartly left long before the game started.  Despite the storm, Kelly was able to keep focus and pick up her second hit of the game. Ben also added 2 doubles and a home run. We fell behind in the 3rd inning and struggled in the field. The rain had settled in and it was hard to field, throw and run in the field. In short, it was dumb to be playing softball during this storm. We picked up 8 runs in the 5th inning all with two outs to take back the lead. We held onto the lead and picked up the victory. The win all but clinched the first playoff birth in team history.

Congress continues their recess so things on the hill remain slow. Fortunately, her office is 2 blocks from the National Mall, so Kelly has ample time during the lunch hour to hit up all the Smithsonian museums. With things slow at the office Kelly got to go on a Congressional Delegation trip to NASA's Goddard Space Center in Maryland. It was awesome. We got a tour of the facility and briefings on some of their high priority projects including the touted James Web Telescope, which will be replacing the Hubble Telescope in 2015. The telescope is the size of a tennis court and is about 1000 times more powerful than the Hubble. The greatest scientific feature is its infra red vision, which will allow NASA to see within stars and planets.

Ben has taken up a new hobby he calls "racing the bus."  In an effort to increase exercise levels and reduce his commute time, Ben has started running home from work. Remarkably, his office is only 3 miles away but it takes approximately 40-45 minutes to get to work via public transportation. While he is not fast, so far, he has been able to beat the bus that he normally takes home which makes the whole things a good two birds, one stone situation.  While running, Ben has been passed by faster runners, people on bikes, Segways, scooters, and even some person wearing weird spring boots like those below.

(These really speak for themselves. No caption could do them justice.)

Friday night we ran out to check out some wedding dresses.  It was an exciting experience for both of us.  Ben was mostly excited because the place was near a Trader Joe's.

More shocking than the bridal store was that we saw some guy walking out of a near by store in boxer shorts and a tshirt.  Apparently the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" sign needs to be amended.

Saturday was filled with wedding planning, shopping and life chores. With the wedding fast approaching, we have been trying to coordinate the plans with wedding central (Sparta, IL). We headed to Columbia Heights to do a little Target/Marshalls shopping. Our biggest purchase was canning jars for making homemade pickles. We read an article on how to make pickles and thought it would be a decent undertaking for us.

We stopped by the D.C. Farmer's Market to pick up pickling cucumbers and other required ingredients.  This was not your typical farmer's market, but more of a wholesale docks experience that seems to serve a lot of restaurants.  The market is very reminiscent of markets in foreign countries. As we walked back to our car we saw a woman selling something out of her van and wanted to check out what she was selling. The woman was frying empanadas, taquitos, and tacos with all the fixings. In terms of food that was fried in the back of a van, they weren't half bad!

(Now if I just figure out how to make these in the back of a van.)

We are mailing this post in.

Thursday was a bittersweet day. Kelly had to go back to work, but it also meant another softball game on the Mall. It was a beautiful day in D.C. which made Kelly's 40 minute walk to work much more pleasant. The game was a success we won 16-6, and our team looked sharp both on offense and defense. It was a great night for softball and the Capitol provided a great backdrop for our field.

(Two calves make a whole... lot of hitting)

(view of Washington monument after the game)

The weekend started off with a visit to the Postal Museum, that's right, a museum dedicated to the U.S. postal system. While a bit odd, it had a few interesting features.

(The postal museum has stamps!)

(The Postal Museum has mail trucks!)

 (The Postal Museum takes names and kicks butt.)

(Really, the Postal Museum has it all - even a post office.)

After the museum, we headed up to our favorite Thai place in Cleveland Park before attempting to get 9 holes of golf in. Unfortunately, the rain beat us to Rock Creek Park golf course and we had to postpone our round.  

We decided to head downtown to Macy's for a little wedding registry work. We tested out a few pillows and kitchen items while waiting for the storm to pass. Since we were downtown, we decided to head over to East Potomac Park golf course for our golf outing.  It had been over a year since either one of us had played golf, and that was apparent with our first tee shots. Kelly started off her round with 2 shanks. (This was good news for Ben who actually managed to win a hole.) After shaking off the rust, we both played fairly well and had a great time. The course is right on the Potomac river with a great view of the D.C. skyline. 

After our round we head home for dinner and a movie. Ben made fish tacos and we watched The Pianist. 

Sunday we headed to Georgetown for brunch. It was a wonderful brunch buffet that included the best french toast in the world. 

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to walk some of it off. We walked around M street and stopped in a few shops before heading down to the waterfront. We walked along the Potomac river walk and enjoyed the cool overcast breeze from the water. 

After Georgetown we got back to the apt in time for the start of the final round of the PGA championship.  Not a bad little weekend.

Life Chores, Museums, and Dog Pics!

With Kelly switching to the committee job, she had a few days off.  Ben arranged to take Monday off as well, which really gave us what amounted to two Sundays.  On the first, actually Sunday, we started the morning with a Target run.

 (Ben needed a new lunch box - this one was close, but didn't make the cut)

(In the big city apparently shopping carts get their own escalator)

After wrapping up some life chores, we decided to be tourists for the rest of the day.  Our first stop was the Building Museum, which is (not surprisingly) in a very impressive building that seems to be under utilized.  Originally built to house the veterans' benefits office.  

(This place is cool, but you know what would make it better... Legos)

Apparently the building is often host to a ball during the Presidential inauguration. However, the current exhibit is highlighted by Lego replicas of famous buildings.  

(Boom!)

Back on the tourist trail, we ran across some high quality souvenirs.  If you have a birthday coming up and know us, this picture might be a sneak preview.

The late afternoon brought rain, so we headed home for the evening.

(Ben Franklin says Hi)

Monday (or the 2nd Sunday if you are keeping track) was great day. We both enjoyed the day off work and knocked out a few more life chores and then did some more little sightseeing. While out, we stopped at "Shake Shack" for lunch based good reviews. Michelle Obama had lunch there a few weeks and thus,  it is a hot-spot.

(Hey, tell everyone you know Michelle Obama was just here.)

The burger was decent, the bun was great, the shake was above average and it was all way way overpriced. At least we checked it off our list of D.C. eateries.

(For those of you scoring DC eating establishments at home, we give it 2.5 chicken drumsticks out of a possible five.)

(For those of you with small children, consider ordering this from their website.)

After lunch, we headed downtown to hit up some more of the Smithsonian Museums that we had not been to yet.

(The original Smithsonian Museum)

First up was the African Art museum. It was a good museum with a lot of old masks and other carvings. It gave Ben an opportunity to flaunt the knowledge he picked up while traveling.  One of the more interesting exhibits were these modern coffins.  

 (This coffin comes with the 4G network)

The African Art museum is close to the Asian Art museum and the Freer art gallery.  They are all also connected underground and so before we knew it we had seen all of them.  It also connected to three other museums that we decided to patronize as well.  From there, we headed over to the Natural History Museum and saw the Hope Diamond, fossils, and moon rocks - oh my!

(Also, the Natural History Museum gave us the opportunity to save a lot of money on car insurance.)

Nearly 'museumed out' for the day, we did quickly swing through the Hirschorn Art Gallery on the way back to the car.

(All those museums made us thirsty.)

After our day out in D.C., we decided to stick it to "Shake Shack" and make a superior burger at home.  Somewhat surprisingly, Michelle Obama did not stop by though.

After dinner, we headed to Chinatown for a movie. Ben got free tickets to a screening of "30 minutes or less", staring Danny McBride and Jessie Eisenberg. Unfortunately the screening had filled up prior to our arrival, but since we were in the theater and had paid for parking, we decided to go to "Change Up" starring Justin Bateman and Ryan Reynolds.  It was not very good. With the exception of a few funny one liners, the movie was just not funny. Oh well it was free. If you are going to see it, wait for Redbox.

After that we went home and spent some quality time with the dogs.

(Mo decided she should try to get a job to pitch in a little - so far, the search has been difficult)

Softball 9-8, Slurpee 7-11

Thursday's softball game got our team back on the victory train. We held a 2 run lead going into the top of the 7th. Unfortunately, we gave up 2 runs, but were able to win it in the bottom half of the inning. 

Friday was a calm day in D.C. With Congress in recess, seems like everything is a bit more relaxed. It was also Kelly's last day at the Congressman's office. She is heading over to the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. She is one step closer to being an astronaut!

Saturday we decided to put our tourist hats on and check out a few museums. Also, after 2 months of waiting, we finally got to take a tour of the White House. As we were checking in with security, we were told Ben's information did not match his driver's license. He literally had to stand in a corral area and wait for the White House to verify his last name was in fact spelled with a "v" and not a "w".

30 minutes later we were on our way into the President's mansion. We toured the East room, red room, blue room (where the Christmas tree is displayed), vermillion room, china room and the main hallway that leads to the residence. It is a beautiful house full of historic furniture, paintings and artifacts. Kelly was excited to see the red room where John and Abigail Adams used to sit and drink tea. The room displayed the actual tea set the Adams used during that time.

Looking out toward the Mall, we noticed a large water bowl near the yard.  Mo and Dex might have to go on the next tour as they would surely become fast friends with Beau Obama if they would just get invited for a play date. We also got a nice look at the rose garden before heading out to the front of the White House grounds.

After the White House, we stopped by the Renwick Gallery and Cochran Museum for a dose of culture before heading to lunch.  This magical dart throwing marlin was Ben's favorite.  He would like to acquire one for his office.  

(A closer examination of the marlin reveals lots of treasures.)

For lunch, we headed to a place a friend had recommended called Trusty's.  Trusty's was a bit of a dive, but had some interesting menu options.  Ben went with the "DC Sunrise," which was a famed DC half-smoke with a fried egg on top.  Kelly got the "Stacker," which is an amazing combination of the BLT and a grilled cheese in a triple decker sandwich.

After our tasty but incredibly unhealthy lunch, we headed over to the DMV to get D.C. driver's licenses. It was an impressive line.  For those who are a big fan of waiting, we recommend you take a trip to the DC DMV - apparently, Saturdays and Tuesdays are the longest lines.

Kelly had a little panic attack after seeing the line and overall chaos of the place. Overall, the process only took and 1 hour and 15 minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime as it was happening. It was an end of an era as we surrendered our Missouri licenses and received our new identification. We stopped by a 7-11 to treat ourselves for accomplishing this very onerous life chore and then headed home.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may be wondering if we had gotten soft and forgiven 7-11 this quickly.  Well, the answer is that 7-11 responded and made things right with the letter below.

Dear Valued Guest:

We thank you for contacting us regarding 7-Eleven’s Birthday Slurpee® promotion.  We apologize for any disappointment or inconvenience this matter may have caused you and greatly appreciate you bringing it to our attention.

7-Eleven® values each of our customers and places a strong emphasis on providing excellent service.  Feedback from our customers, whether favorable or not, is considered a valuable source of ideas for improving customer service in our stores.

As a goodwill customer service gesture we would like to send you some coupons for a free Slurpee® for you to use at participating 7-Eleven stores.  May I send you the coupons?  If so, can you provide your mailing address?

Thank you again for contacting us and expressing your concerns.

7-Eleven Guest Relations

Rare Mid-Week Post

Sunday evening brought sad news.  Ben's grandmother passed away at 89.  She lived a very full life and was able to spend her final weeks at home with her husband of 70 years.  She passed very peacefully with many of her children in town visiting.  She will be missed.

To cheer everyone up, we have included random pictures of the dogs.

(Dexter loves his corn on the cob toy.)

(Mo enjoying some time away from Dex.)

Monday was a hectic day at work for Kelly as Congress tried to get the debt deal through.  However, after debt limit vote, Congress started their month long recess. This means a nice break in the action at Kelly's office. It also means everyone can breath a sigh of relief that our nightly news can focus on something other than the debt ceiling and the impending economic meltdown for a while.

(Dexter breathing a sigh of relief.)

On Tuesday, we rented "The Adjustment Bureau" starring Matt Damon. It was a decent movie, including suspense, action, and a nice love story. Ben did some cooking and Kelly did some good internet surfing. 

(Bammm!)

As mentioned in the last post, the weekend was tough on Kelly's legs. She continues to run around like a 10 year old and refuses to accept the quality of her knees is subpar. Sliding a couple times and diving for unreachable balls has resulted in this:

No softball tournament this weekend, so we'll probably do something touristy and blog worthy.

The Dog Days of Summer

This was an exciting/nervous week on the Hill. The threat of a national debt crisis put a damper on things, however Whitey Herzog brightened everyone's spirits with his visit to the Capitol. Kelly and Whitey spent a few minutes chatting about their Southern Illinois roots.

On the theme of Cardinals managers, Ben read "3 Nights in August" during his bus commuting time last week.  While it ends in an amusing fashion, it has left him with even more mixed emotions about Tony Larussa.

On Wednesday night we decided to head to exciting suburban Maryland for a movie. While Kelly was not exactly excited to head to Silver Springs, MD for a movie, she supports Ben's need to seize free tickets, regardless of the event (in this case, an advance movie screening). We enjoyed Chick-fil-A prior to the movie (as Ben explained to Kelly how lucky she was to have landed such a catch). The movie was so-so and had way to much violence for Kelly.

In order to fulfill our duty as a pre-release screening audience - The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper tells the story of a man chosen to be a body double for one of Saddam Hussein's sons.  The movie has some interesting bits, but was quite violent and a little all over the place.  We give it 2 1/2 Chick-fil-A chicken biscuits (out of a possible 5).

Thursday was another softball game on the mall and brought another tough loss. We were very frustrated after the game and were looking forward to redeeming ourselves at the "Big XII/Big X" tournament on Saturday.

Friday night we helped a few friends move into their new apartment. There were 10 people or so to help move, which made it much more pleasant.

The next morning we headed to Bolling Air Force Base across the river in Anacostia for the softball tournament. The tournament consists of teams that semi-represent schools from the Big XII and Big X conferences. We, Team Missouri, had never won a game in the 5 year history of the tournament, so everyone was very optimistic about this year's squad. We came out firing in the first game and picked up a win, which put us in the winners bracket. We quickly moved back over to the losers bracket after Texas brought us back to earth in a shut-out. In between games we enjoyed some of the best bbq we have had during our east coast experience. After lunch we headed back to the field for game #3. While we were a better team, Team Ohio State came out on top after our pitching woes caught up with us. Our everyday pitcher was unable to make it due to the pending debt crisis and we were forced to try several people on the mound. After walking in 8 runs in the second game, we followed it up with 6 runs contributed to walks in the third game. It ended up costing us the game and thus ending our tournament run. We were disappointed, but ready to go home and take a shower.

(Cruel debt ceiling... why did you cost us our starting pitchers?)

Sunday morning was tough on Kelly's legs. After foolishly sliding during one of the softball games, she had a series of scrapes and bruises on her thigh and calf. Once she finally decided she had the strength to continue on, we decided to go to Pete's Diner for breakfast followed by a Target run in Columbia Heights. After returning home from our morning adventures, the dogs were pleading to go for a walk.

(How could anyone resist these two?)

We strolled down to Lincoln Park to see if any of their friends were out playing. The heat must have kept all the dogs away but there were a few kids running around that caught Mo's attention. She was basking in their undivided attention while Dexter was involved in an intense game of fetch with Ben. After Dexter was worn out from to much running and Mo tried to eat a fellow park patron's Subway sandwich, we figured it was time to head back home.

(Waiting at home for the dogs was an exciting trip to the shower.)

Sunday evening television offered the NBC special "Taking the Hill" with Brian Williams.  Those who watched really closely (Kelly) were able to see Kelly in the background at one point.

(Follow the yellow arrow and you can see Kelly's head peaking over.)