Be careful what you wish for...

Kelly & Ben fans, we have received your letters/calls/mental telepathy and we understand that you want more blog posts.  First, we appreciate the support and hope to respond accordingly.  That said, we can’t make any promises other than that we will try to post more often.  Not just because we are sometimes lazy, but because sometimes we want to give your more than just the details of the daily grind.  Also, maybe you should think of this blog more like a fine wine to be enjoyed on special occasions.

Not sold?  Ok, fine.  Well we have made a few observations in the past week that are worth sharing.

1.  There is apparently a massive shortage of escalator repairmen in Washington , DC.

Ben has long been a huge fan of the escalator.  Ben’s fondness for the escalator started at an early age.  Growing up in a town without stoplights also meant growing up in a town without escalators.  Luckily, before Grandma moved to Northern California, she lived in New Jersey and trips there in the early 80s were highlighted by many things, but few greater than the magical moving staircases.  Later in life, when the apparent magic of moving stairs had faded, Ben had gained enough weight to appreciate a free ride up a set of stairs on a different level. 

Here in DC, Ben often finds himself on the Metro, which is home to many escalators.  Unfortunately, at almost every station, at least one of those escalators is broken.  So if you are looking for steady work and an opportunity to put a little magic back into the lives of commuters, consider a career in escalator repair.

2.  Where does one draw the line between small town common courtesy and big city mind your own business? Keep reading...

So this is a pop quiz for our readers.  It could involve two trains heading to Chicago, but it does not have to.  Why don’t we say, hypothetically, you are sitting on a bus for approximately 40 minutes on the way to work in the morning.  If the person next to you nods off, do you:

a. Tap the person on the shoulder and tell them of your concern that they could miss their stop?

b. Cough or make some other noise that may awake the person so as to allow them to observe their surroundings? Maybe you shout – Oh no! The FBI bomb technician van is coming!

c. Mind your own affair?

d. Wait to see if the person wakes on their own and panics over having ridden the bus 20 minutes past their stop and then chuckle to yourself internally?

3.  The people of the greater DC area have some pretty amazing interpretations of what is a good idea when it comes to bling.  This week’s sightings included: (a) A beat up, old mini-van with spinner hubcaps (if this was meant to be funny, then it really was and we applaud you); (b)A person who decided the solution to their desire to have gold rims was to spray paint their rims and about half of each tire gold; and (c) the Safeway checker was sporting a five-inch tall rhinestone Barney Rubble (of Flintstones fame) medallion on his necklace.   

4. DC’s Caribbean Fest is quite popular.  Kelly and Ben discovered this as they drove around on Saturday taking care of life chores and playing their favorite game of “Do you really think we can fit all this in the Mini” (This week, Ben and Kelly were able to get several 2x4s, two barstools, a large picture frame, and some other shopping in the Mini with room to spare.)

As Kelly and Ben tried to cut back across town, after an enjoyable lunch at the best Thai place they have found in DC, they ran into the Caribbean Fest.  From the friendly confines of their car, Ben and Kelly got to experience a little of the festival as they spent about 45 minutes driving approximately 4 blocks.  Observations from this time included the following: (1) A Mini does not inspire individuals to move out of the road the way other cars might; (2) we desperately need more geography to be taught in the schools – as a significant portion of the crowd carried or wore flags of varying nations, Ben took note that several were not anywhere near the Caribbean; and (3) driving in DC remains a terrible idea that we are apparently doomed to be reminded of on a fairly regular basis.

The week ahead should be exciting as we are expecting our first visitors.  Also, 4^th of July festivities are apparently quite good in DC.  With plenty of material coming up, we will try to keep posting.

Better late than never

The U.S. Open was in D.C. June 16-19.  As the event was essentially in our backyard, we decided to go.  We ended up getting tickets to the final on Sunday.   Sadly, most if not all major golf tournaments do not let you take pictures after the practice rounds.  All photos on this post are courtesy of the magic of the internet.

As the tournament proceeded, Rory McIlory built up a tremendous  lead and was on a record breaking pace. 

Come Sunday, the Open was seemingly in hand. While Kelly is a sucker for a pressure packed finish that creates legends, this final round was going to be a birth of a different type of legend. We were excited to get to watch the next superstar of golf win his 1st major. 

After getting to the course, we decided to walk all the holes and catch up with Phil Mickleson on the back 9. 

Phil had a terrible tournament and ended on a sour note. Hole #18 has water on the backside of the green and bunkers in front. Phil's approach shot landed in the front bunker facing the water. In front of 30,000 people, Phil skulled the ball out of the bunker, over the green and into the water, how embarrassing. I'm sure he didn't have much time to sulk because he was to busy counting the millions of dollars in his bank account! 

We went over the the first tee to watch the final group tee off. "In the final paring from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlory" and they were off. 

Rory birded his first hole and that seemed to dismiss the question of another collapse similar to the Masters. We had only planned on watching him for a few holes, but after he birded two of his first four holes, we thought we might be watching a special round. The crowds were crazy. Everyone trying to get close to the action. 

We found with the right strategy, we could watch every shot and still get close every few holes. When most people ran up close to the tee box or the green we stayed back in order to watch the shot. 

We only missed #5 and #17, other than that we saw every shot of his final round 69 in route to his first major championship. After #16 we ran over to #18 in order to get a seat for the final hole. We were on the backside of the green across the water, directly under the huge leader board.

It was an awesome experience and we are very glad we went. It wasn't an easy day. We estimate that we walked, on an extremely hilly course, around 15 miles.

Best Blog Post This Week

On the way to work Monday, Ben spotted this character outside the Metro stop.

That could mean only one thing.  The Nationals were back in town.  But this week, it actually meant two things because the Cardinals were visiting the Nationals.  We went to the game on Tuesday night expecting a Cards win as the Nationals are, by all objective standards, terrible.  As a bonus it was $2 Tuesday, which meant tickets were...(drumroll)... you guessed it - $2.  

We were able to meet up with a few people Ben knew from law school and a campaign.  The Cardinals started taking care of business early and were leading 6-1 fairly late in the game.  

Unfortunately, they gave up a run in the 6th and then 6 in the 7th to blow the lead and ultimately the game.

Not deterred by our team's collapse on Tuesday, we headed back out to the ballpark on Wednesday.  Sadly, the Cardinals let us down again.  The got smacked around to the tune of 10-0.  

The real highlight of the trips to the ball park was to try a couple hot dogs from "Extreme Loaded Dogs."   Frequent readers of this blog may remember that we saw a hot dog with mac & cheese on it at a game earlier this season.  Well, Tuesday we found the stand to purchase such a hot dog, though it also has fritos on top.  What did it taste like you ask?  Well, it tasted like a hot dog with mac & cheese and fritos on top.  Wednesday, we tried the "Deli Dog," which had sauerkraut and thousand island dressing.  It was ok, but next time the frito pie hot dog will probably get the call.

Thursday softball was sadly rained out, but that was probably for the best.  With the late nights at the ball park, it was nice to catch up around the house. We did some more catching up on Friday.  Then Saturday morning we ran out to take care of some errands and hit up Ray's Hell Burger, which we had heard good things about.

We agree that it is a pretty tasty burger.  Some options that we did not take advantage of included foie gras and some bone marrow option.  Thanks, but no thanks.  They also had high quality sweet potato fries as well as a quality 7 cheese mac & cheese.

Weighed down by our Hell Burgers, we decided that it was a good idea to take a walk around the FDR and Jefferson Memorials before heading home.

It was a nice day to walk around and look at the monuments.  There were also a variety of activities taking place in the park areas of the mall.  It appeared that a triathalon had just wrapped up.  Also, there were several softball games and even a cricket match.

After Ben bored Kelly with his partial knowledge of the game of cricket, we headed home to check on the dogs and the U.S. Open scores.  The afternoon slipped away pretty quickly.  One very amusing development was the Mo was finally successful in catching a fly.  Mo is somewhat obsessed with flies and we had a few in our apartment. (When running errands earlier, our inquiry at Target about if they had fly swatters was met with a dismissive no and reminded Ben that he really hates Target deep down sometimes -- primarily because of their absurd return policy).

Anyway Mo or the dog now known as the Mo-sassin was on the hunt and managed to catch/eat a couple flies.  Ben then borrowed from Mr. Miagi in the old Karate Kid and explained to Mo that she could now accomplish anything.  She decided not to accomplish anything more.

And for those of you who like to keep tabs on the dogs and there daily activity.  You will be interested to know that while Dexter is unable to catch flies he has been working on some science experiments.  As it turns out, he was able to prove his hypothesis that the canine digestive tract cannot breakdown a racquetball.

Tomorrow we are off to the U.S. Open.  Sadly, cameras are not allowed, so we will just have to paint pictures with our words to you the reader.  Alternatively, it is on NBC.

long time, no blog

Tuesday was our season finale with the Gensler softball team. We  both had good games, but it was all business for us. The people on the team are very nice, but we really don't know them so we just focus on softball, which is weird but an accurate assessment. Ben continued to take advantage right field, and the tendency of the opposing team to place their weakest fielder there. After Ben hit home runs in his first two at-bats, the opposing pitcher complained to the umpire that he was stepping out of the batter's box. After the warning about stepping out of the box, Ben showed he was human by flying out. This brought to an end Ben's 23-23 streak at the plate in DC softball.  The game came down to the final inning and the mighty Gensler squad held off the charge to get the victory taking the Ben/Kelly DC softball record to 9-0.
 
The Capitol has been all wound up the past week over the Anthony Weiner scandal. Everyday Kelly has to walk past a group of reporters and cameras camped outside his office hoping to catch a glimpse. Luckily his office is next to the Rayburn foyer, which hosts various functions almost daily. Last week Google set up shop in the foyer and put out a nice spread of cheese, fruit and beverages. Kelly also got a chance to hang out on the House floor. She was able to sit down and take it all in. It was awesome. For about 15 minutes, she got to relive all the historic moments of the chamber. The one that kept running through her mind was "December 7th was a day that will live in infamy". She kept looking at the rostrum and imagining FDR giving that address to Congress.

After work on Wednesday we went out for a drink with a friend from Missouri. He worked for Robin on her campaign and we had met him a few times at various functions. As a D.C. native, he has served as valuable resource for us on city living. We talked about living in D.C., Missouri politics, D.C. politics and enjoyed a few beverages in the blistering heat. We headed across the street from Union Pub over to La Loma for some awesome Steak Nachos. They were excellent and only 6 blocks from our house.


Thursday meant more softball, this time with our Missouri team.  Somewhat ironically, we crushed the Orange Crush team.  In the 1st inning, we managed to bat through the whole line-up once without an out.  Ben was pleased to start a new hit streak and raise his 2 home run per game streak up to 6 straight games.  Kelly nearly had a home run,  but was tagged out at the plate after a miraculous throw from the outfield.
 
After a long week, we welcomed Friday with open arms. Ben took the Metro down to the Capitol where we had lunch with an old law school friend of Ben's.   Friday evening was quite as we needed to catch up on a little sleep from a long week.  Eastern time and televised sporting events (in this case the NBA finals) do not help Ben & Kelly get to bed at a reasonable hour.  Monday Night Football could be real trouble this fall.
 
Saturday was filled with life chores and getting the house in order.  Ben made enchiladas for dinner.  After which, we headed downtown to see if we could get tickets to the Chelsea Hander stand-up show.

We were able to get a great parking spot and an even better tickets. As many of you know,  Chelsea loves little people (i.e. the vertically challenged) or as she calls them, nuggets. Believe it or not, we sat next to a pair of nuggets that also happened to be Chelsea's #1 & #2 fans. The concert was good and we laughed almost the whole time. Kelly wished her sister Katie would have been there because she would have enjoyed it even more than the nuggets sitting next to us!  After the concert we wandered over to the Lincoln memorial to see it at night. It was well worth it. 

 
We woke up early Sunday and headed to Baltimore. We had breakfast at the "Paper Moon" which was arguably the best biscuits and gravy in the world or at least in Kelly's world. It was an eclectic little joint, filled with old manikins, little toys attached to the wall and all kinds of objects hanging from the ceiling. It was a little taste of Eureka Springs in Baltimore. The food was outstanding and a place we will patronize as many times as possible. 

After breakfast, we stopped at the old Goucher college where Ben's maternal Grandmother attended college in the late 1930's. There were 3 beautiful stone buildings that still remained. We spent some time walking around the campus and discussing his Grandma's life.  

We headed down to the inner harbor for a stroll and a sno-cone. The harbor was really pretty, however a little touristy. Next up, Camden yards. They were giving away Orioles hats at the gate which got Ben's blood pumping. We took our new hats and took cover from the rain. 

After a short delay the game was underway. Camden Yards is a beautiful stadium and is certainly one of the best in the majors. The game started with a bang as Johnny Damon led off with a home run.

While it looked bad for the Orioles in the 1st, they managed to climb back in it.  Some thought there might be a little magic in the air for the home team.

Despite some impressive rally caps, the Orioles lost in the end. As honorary O's fans, we decided to track down some Maryland comfort food.

After a nice seafood experience, we headed back to D.C. as quickly as possible to get the dogs out for a potty break. They were very excited to see us  and made it the whole day without an accident. We took them on a long walk an enjoyed the cool temperature. Dex took the opportunity to stick his tongue out at authority.

9-5, traffic, softball, and much more

Busy week here in DC. We started off the 4 day work week with a victory on the softball field. "Gensler Architecture" played solid defense to hold on for the victory. 

Thursday was another softball game filled with several highs and lows. Kelly got home early and thought it would be nice to head out early to pick Ben up from work so he didn't have to walk the approximately 20 blocks to the Korean memorial where the game was. Leaving at 6pm, she thought she had pleanty of time. There are some lessons you only have to learn once, driving in DC traffic at 6pm is one of those lessons. Things were going smoothly and I was on pace to pick Ben up at 6:15ish until the road I was on ended and the White House began. I was stuck on the same block for 20 minutes until I felt the spirit of Dr. Ed Rog and pulled the most amazing u-turn. While still in traffic at least I was pointed in the right direction.

Ben had cut his losses with Kelly and decided to walk to the field in order to keep his place in the lineup. After another 10 min or so she was  able to get on the correct side of the mall and score a parking place at the FDR memorial. Fortunately the game still had not started, as Kelly was not the only one that had difficulty getting to the field, and we use the term "field" loosely. The "field" was a tiny spot between the reflecting pond and the Korean Memorial. There was a  fence behind first base that ran diagonialy through right field. The calf-high grass hadn't been cut since spring of 2009, which made hitting, fielding, running, walking, sitting and standing uncomfortable.

The 6:30 game didn't start until 7:10 and lasted until 9:00, which is unacceptable. On the brightside, we kicked the crap out of the "spin-offs" and improved to 5-1 for the year. Ben continued his hit streak and increased his slugging percentage to roughly 1 Million. Kelly finally broke through and hit the ball hard for 3 hits. We were on the Mall until dark which enabled us to see the Lincoln Memorial at night. It was definetly a cool sight, however the place was packed with tourists.

Friday Ben met Kelly at Eastern Market after work for dinner. We enjoyed some Thai food and talked about our busy days at work. Walking back to the car, we ran into an aquaintence who had also relocated from Missouri.  It was another fun small world coincidence that we have had many of here.

After dinner we headed to Georgetown for a drink. We were going out for a friend's birthday celebration and were a little nervous about the Georgetown scene. The bar, Sequoia, is on the riverfront and a beautiful location. We were glad we went and Ethan was glad to see us, but it wasn't exactly our scene. We hung out for a few hours and then headed home.

Saturday was an exciting day for Kelly. Ben decided to make some of the best chili dogs ever made. He made a big pot of chili and cooked some hot dogs, Hebrew National of course. The day got even better when we found out the Cardinals game was on Fox. We enjoyed our chili dogs and watched Pujols hit the game winner against the Cubs...Boo-yah!

Sunday we woke up and made our weekly trip to the bagelery for breakfast. We enjoyed our bagels while watching the French Open.

Later, we headed over to Dupont Circle to pick up a table and chairs we bought off of craigslist. It was only as we tried loading the table into the mini-cooper did we realize we should have brought tools. The table did not fit in the car and needed to be taken apart. After 20 minutes of consternation, the lady we bought it from found an appropriate tool. It was worth the additional effort once we got it home. A table and chairs was the final piece of the apartment furnishing puzzle. 

We went out for dinner with a friend from Jefferson City who was in town for a conference. The food was good and it was fun to hear what has been going on back in Missouri.  As we walked home, we were sad to see another weekend come to a close.

Heat Wave

Sunday was smokin hot. We refused to go outside unless forced by 1. the dogs need to relieve themselves or 2.bbq. We took the dogs to the dog park in the morning until Dexter approached cardiac arrest. There were 9 dogs at the park which led to mass confusion when trying to play "fetch".

Sunday we headed over to NW D.C. for a bbq at a friends house. While directions to Debbie's house seemed oh so simple on google maps, it proved to be quite complicated. After evaluating our mistakes, we figured out that after coming off the Metro, we went the complete wrong direction. A few things to note: A. it was 101degrees out, B.Debbie lives in a nice area, however we went in the wrong direction of said area, and proceeded into the not so nice area of Columbia Heights, C. Kelly wore shoes appropriate for a bbq, not for a marathon type walk. Once we reached Debbie's the bbq was great. Ben and I competed in a croquet match against folks we never met.


(Kelly wishing she could use a 9-iron in croquet)

  Much to the despair of our new friends, Ben used any means necessary to come out on top (and did - "If you are not first your last" -Ricky Bobby).
After the bbq, we decided to head to the National Mall for the Memorial Day concert on the Capitol Steps. We were much too late to get a seat, but it was a great walk down the mall at night. As we walked around the Capitol we listened to the Marine Corps Band. Another 10 blocks and 6 blisters on Kelly's feet and we were home.

Memorial Day was hot. So hot there was a heat advisory. We did our best to avoid the weather and stayed indoors. Later that evening, once the sun was setting, we decided to go pay our respects at Arlington National Cemetery.
 It was an impressive sight to see an American flag in front of each grave stone.



 Due to the time of day, there weren't many people at the cemetery, which was nice and peaceful. If anyone wants to go to the cemetery on a future visit, we highly recommend going either earlier in the morning or later in the evening. We stopped by President Kennedy's grave . It was covered with American flags and roses. President and Mrs. Obama had stopped by earlier that day and placed a wreath on the Kennedy's graves.

We headed up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. There was no one else around and we got to see the guard pacing back and forth in total solitude.

We hung out there until the guard notified that the park was closed. After the cemetery, we made our first venture into Arlington for a few groceries from Whole Foods and a slurpee from 7-11.

Once back at the apartment, Ben did some cooking for the week and Kelly mourned the end of the 3 day weekend. While it went too fast, it was an enjoyable few days in DC. The only thing better would have been getting to go to Mom and Dad's retirement party. I guess that is the price of fame, but it can be weird to see family pictures and not be in them. Hopefully the fam will be making a trip out to D.C. in a few weeks! We have already started to plan the itinerary, specifically the cuisine.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On his bus ride to work the other day Ben was startled by a large costumed George Washington walking across the street in a Nationals jersey.  Luckily, other riders saw this and so Ben knew that it was not the result of bad cream cheese on his morning bagel.  A few blocks later a similar Abe Lincoln mascot was crossing the street.

                                                           (Honestly, that is Abe Lincoln)

What did all this mean?  It meant that the Nationals were back from a road trip. It also meant that it was Nationals time!

Today Kelly and Ben went to see the Nationals try to defend the home field against the San Diego Padres. We were nervous about our ability to procure tickets as this was a fierce battle between two last place teams known to have fair weather fan bases.  As we approached the stadium, a gentleman offered to save us the trip to the ticket window.  For $7.50 each, we managed to get in the door.

(Despite the mustache binky, this kid got carded for beer.)  

Conveniently, many of the Washington faithful did not show up and so we were able to relocate to premium seats.

  (These two thought Super Dave was going to make an appearance.)

Nationals Park is not the greatest stadium in the majors.  This is especially true amongst the newer stadiums.  It is not bad, but it just lacks any real defining architectural characteristics. There are a few good views if you walk around the stadium.

(just to the right of the Capitol is an impressive parking garage)

What Nationals Park lacks in design (and honestly quality of baseball - more on that below) it makes up for with an impressive dedication to ballpark cuisine. 

 ("so here is what I am thinking, we take a hotdog and put chili on it")

 (actually, they also do a macaroni & cheese dog - on the left)

 (Kelly loves chili dogs - Ben loves taking pictures of Kelly eating chili dogs)

If you have made it this far, you may be wondering why we are only now getting to the game itself.  Well, that is because it was somewhat of a snoozer with a 2-1 win for the Padres.  The highlight for fans was the Presidential Mascot race which Abe Lincoln won easily.  He even taunted Washington and Madison by falling backwards through the finish line tape.  Teddy Roosevelt was too far behind to even be taunted.  This may have been due to his childhood asthma (if you have not read David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, note that he spends many many chapters on this).

The game itself was highlighted for the Nationals by Lance Nix who threw out a runner at home from left field and added a solo home run.  As Cardinals fans, Kelly and I enjoyed seeing former Cards Rick "The Rick" Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick. 

(Rick reminded us about how he used to strikeout for the Cards too - in this instance with the game on the line)

We also got to see Southern Illinois University's own Jerry Hairston Jr., who didn't seem to have the juice on this day and was unable to pump up the Nationals to victory.

The most enjoyable part of the game was when reliever Todd Coffey took the mound.  As he sprinted from the bullpen, a stopwatch appeared on the scoreboard next to the words "Coffey Time."  We arent sure about the origins of this but it is probably because Mr. Coffey's weight is higher than his ERA.

(and this is why baseball will always be America's past time)

After the game, we headed home for a lazy evening at home.  Tomorrow we will be attending a bbq or two and possibly the Memorial Day concert on The Mall (which will air live on PBS).  Will we be there?  We don't know yet.  You'll just have to read the next post to find out.