A new blog

Because I write so much on this one. Ha! Not really.

But I did decide to keep track of all the hobby-like pursuits I either want to try or am finally getting around to trying here.  Come check it out and give me some advice, specifically about growing tomatoes :)

DC excursion

*Warning: picture-heavy post and shameless travelogue follow below*

I "had" to take a trip to the DC area for work last week, and since the fabulous Arntz family offered accommodations and company at their place, I decided to stay an extra day to explore with them. I had such a good time, you'd never know I worked two full days! {but I did...just to clarify in case any co-workers or bosses are reading :) }

I arrived on Wednesday, but apparently forgot the existence of my camera until Friday because I'm awesome like that. (I didn't forget the camera itself - I carried that around with me the entire trip; I just forgot to use it for 48 hours.)

First stop: picking up the rental car at Reagan National Airport. I have to say, I was a little worried about navigating/traffic in the metropolitan area, but with a little help from the GPS, I did pretty well. I did, however, have a bit of trouble figuring out how to turn on the car. It was a no-key hybrid, so you just push a button to start it, and it's so quiet I could never tell if the engine was on or not until I tried to drive.

From there, I met up with Rebekah and Stephen (former carpool-ie and her husband) and they took me here for dinner:

I figured I should have some seafood so I tried the crab cakes...yum.

After work on Friday, I met up with Katie (amiga from my Salt Lake days) and her husband Spencer in DC. It only took me 9 years on the metro to get there (seriously, it was like an hour and a half where I started at last stop on the yellow line). But it was well worth the trip to check out a bit of downtown I hadn't seen before, eat a delicious mahi mahi sandwich, and conversate with great people, here (not my pictures - this is all during the non-picture-taking 48 hours):

After walking around the area for a bit, we took the metro back to Katie and Spencer's {amazing} summer living quarters. They let me walk home with them (past the local marsh - we had to dodge cute little frogs the whole way) and gave me a lift back to my car so I didn't have to ride the scary metro all the way to the edge of DC by myself at night ;)

Friday, Rebekah, Stephen, and I trekked through the Manassas National Battlefield Park, site of the first and second battles of Bull Run (or Manassas, depending on whether you had Union or Confederate ties in the 1860s), and where I remembered I had a camera - woohoo!

During our walk around the Henry Hill Loop, we realized we had a lot of questions, both about the battle and the war in general (were the first and second Bull Run battles really at the exact same spot? how far could a Civil War cannon shoot? what, exactly, are the cannons made of? why were the Confederate soldiers wearing blue uniforms? you know..the usual). We set a date with Wikipedia (I know more now. Still not an expert.  Anyone want to recommend a good book?).

Also, I discovered a nest in one of the cannons (not sure if that's a common occurrence or I just happened to look down the barrel of the one cannon harboring bird eggs) and there was a beautiful sunset.

Saturday was hot and humid, but that didn't stop us from covering several miles on foot (or it felt like several miles at least). We started at the Old Town Alexandria Farmer's Market:

After a walk down King Street (where we saw the awesome glass musician in the video below - sideways because, again, I'm awesome), we opted to take the ferry to Mount Vernon and finish exploring Old Town in the afternoon.

That last tree is one planted by President Washington himself at Mount Vernon!

It was a great trip - thanks again, Virginia friends, for showing me around!

With a name like Sherald's, it has to be good

So. On our way home from Moab this weekend, Steve, my mom and I stopped in Price for some ice cream (or those of us who are lactose-tolerant did - the rest of us just stopped in Price). We had some kind of small-town shake-shack in mind, so we figured we had hit the jackpot when Main Street led us to Sherald's.

The line started behind two teenage/early-20s guys ordering burgers. I don't know what these guys do for a living, but I sure hope nobody's life is depending on their ability to make quick decisions. It sounded something like this:

Guy: "Now what comes on the bacon burger?"

Sherald's Employee: (actually, I couldn't hear what she said; she was inside the window. But I think we can safely assume she described the condiments on the bacon burger)

Guy: "Hmm...and what about the cheeseburger?"

Sherald's Employee: (again, assuming she listed the condiments. Besides cheese and bacon, I can't imagine the two burgers really differed that much)

Guy: "And what about the pickles? Do I get those too?"

...this continued for a good three minutes at least. Poor kid probably broke a pretty good sweat worrying about ketchup, onions, and lettuce. I guess if you're craving a really good burger though, you don't want to screw it up. Or maybe this was his last burger before going on a meat-free diet. I have no idea, but he was taking it more seriously than can possibly be healthy.

Anyway, he finally decided on something (and then went to his car to worry about it until they actually brought it to him, I'm sure) and we ordered. (Well, Steve and my mom did.) Steve got a large Reese's Peanut Butter Cup shake and my mom got a small chocolate shake. They told us it would be "a minute" as they were "a little backed up." I'm not sure what was going on in there, since the only other people in sight were the burger duo and two other girls waiting for milk shakes.

Anyway, about 10 minutes later they brought the shakes out - they were both the same size (which I assume was a small), but we were pretty sure she only charged us for two smalls and we were tired of waiting, so we hit the road. Steve was driving, so I broke out the spoon to help him eat. By this time, we were well on the way to the freeway.

I dug the spoon in for the first chocolate-peanut-buttery bite...but only saw white.

Me: "Huh, I don't see any Reese's yet."

Mom: "I saw her unwrapping some in there so I know she had some."

Me: "OK, they must be deeper inside I guess..."

So I crushed up some Oreos we had in the car to flavor up the first few bites. But after a few bites, all I was seeing was still white - with a few Oreo crumbs here and there. So I dug around a little more. Still nothing. It was barely even vanilla - it just tasted like milk. I added more Oreos thinking maybe the chocolate was all at the bottom and hadn't gotten mixed in right. But by the time enough of the shake was gone that I could really dig around, I was confident there was NOTHING in that shake but milk and a little vanilla ice cream.

But don't worry - I found something eventually! At the very bottom there was literally 1/4 of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Just a quarter of it, sitting on the bottom of the cup in two pieces. Nice.

So be forewarned if you're ever in Price and craving a good milkshake...unless you like to eat a lot of milk-flavored shake with one small bite of chocolate flavor at the very end, Sherald's may not be the place for you. There is, however, a McDonald's across the street.

(Note: I really do promote patronizing mom-and-pop places like Sherald's. And it may have been that girl's first day. Or maybe she just figured she could stick it to the out-of-towners and eat the rest of the Reese's, who knows. )

Snack time

Friday night is usually our date night. I came home tonight and asked Steve if he wanted to go to dinner.

"Sure, but why don't you have a snack now and we'll go later?"

"Because I'm hungry now. Aren't you hungry?"

"No," (sheepishly) "I had a snack."

"Really? Right before dinner?"

"Sorry."

"It's okay. What did you eat?"

(looks at his feet) This is when I remember we made bison burgers for dinner last night.

"Did you eat the left over burgers?"

Nods.

"Both of them?"

"Well...they were kind of small."

"So by, 'I had a snack,' you meant 'I ate dinner.'"

(still looking at feet) "Yeah...I ate dinner."

My husband cracks me up! So I'm currently looking for a "snack," and anticipating a lovely Saturday night out :)

Ambition

I have a dream that someday I'll be one of those women who shows up with amazing homemade goodies for every function they attend (and sometimes for no reason at all). And the recipes will be my own inventions too. For our Primary training meeting tonight, I supplied a bowl of microwave popcorn. I guess I'm not quite there yet.

Up and at 'em

I've been in sort of a winter funk. Haven't worked out, haven't spent much time outside, really haven't felt on top of my game. I can't remember the last time winter got me down so much. But the good news is, I think I've put those winter blues behind me (whether Provo decides to warm up or not)! I got back on the work-out wagon and after a week of depressing, barley-over-one-mile-before-I-think-I'm-going-to-die running, I'm back up to three mile stretches and registered for the Utah Valley half marathon in June. It is a ways from 3 miles to 13, but at least I'm back on track :)

So now I need some assistance. My running tunes have gotten old and I need some new ideas. I like really upbeat music when I work out (Shakira, Abba...you know, stuff that makes you want to move). What do you put on the iPod when you want to step it up?

Ain't nobody gonna slow me down (...oh no, I got to keep on movin...)

Last week, I tried to remove my flash drive from my computer only to get this message:

The device 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.

You go, 'Generic volume,' I will not try to undermine your awesomeness again. I only wish I were having a day like that.

Confession

I am having a ridiculously lazy Saturday morning. Not just that though, it seems that most of my Saturday (and Sunday) mornings have become absurdly lazy recently. After spending all summer waking up long before dawn to get miles and miles of running in before the sun warmed up, I'm not sure if it's refreshing or disheartening that I've spent most of the winter sleeping in (in a way I haven't done since high school) and then don't seem to get out of my pajamas until I'd normally be thinking about an early lunch. If I'm honest I might admit it would feel less depressing if I were still running miles and miles every week. Sigh. Can anyone guess what my New Year's resolution might be (or had better be)?

What about you? Does anyone have good ideas for getting yourself up and moving even when you know it's freezing outside and the nasty air will probably kill you faster than laziness (and when you also happen to loathe treadmills)? And do you believe in alarm clocks on Saturdays (those of you without children)?

A Chance to Help

I'm grateful this morning that family in Haiti is safe. I'm also touched to be reminded of how in a world that can seem so dark at times, we still stretch our arms around our brothers and sisters in need. Please help as you choose - here are a few ideas.

• From the White House Blog:
  
  For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
  
  Or you can go online to organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy Corps to make a contribution to the disaster relief efforts.
  
• LDS Humanitarian Services donation page.