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.