The Honorable, Merciful, and Totally Intimidating Judge Gallahue
Okay, I didn't exactly plan out that I was going to go to court yesterday. Although now I'm absolutely happy that I did. I take a lot of flack for how much I always procrastinate things, and although I'm sure I would save myself a lot of stress if I didn't, in a strange way I sometimes run more efficiently this way. I probably would have just saved myself the hassle and simply prepaid the fine, if I hadn't procrastinated so long that that was no longer an option.
Last month I got a ticket for an "HOV violation" on the 66 Fwy ("Get your kicks, on route 66" - yeah, right!). I think anyone from the west coast, where roads and traffic rules at least make a little sense, can sympathize with me when I say that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that AN ENTIRE FREAKING FREEWAY could be carpool only between the hours of 4:00pm to 6:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Yes, THE WHOLE FREEWAY! Since I currently live in a commuters paradise and never get even close to a freeway normally during the workweek, I had no idea about this rule. Apparently there is a sign which warns you of this right before you enter the on-ramp, but of course you can't really see the sign, because it's mostly blocked by trees until you are already entering. Well, even then I did not notice the sign. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic on the freeway at rush hour in DC, but I had no clue that I was breaking the law, until about 5 minutes later when some cops had set up a road block to catch unassuming fools like myself. I was so confused. The cop could not care less. To make things better, when I had left to go to my car, I put my purse down to grab my mtn bike to hitch onto the car, and accidentally left without it. So I didn't have my license!!! The cop saw how flustered I was about that and at least showed a little mercy in not writing me up for a double violation. And all I wanted to do that day was go for a nice little mtn bike ride.
So, to make a short story long, when there is something that upsets me to deal with, I usually deal with it by not dealing with it. So I placed my traffic ticket onto a heap of other papers that I don't like to acknowledge. Rob kept reminding me to take care of it, but in the back of my mind I didn't want to because I didn't think I deserved it. At the same time, I didn't think I deserved to have to waste my time to go to court about it either. Then came Tuesday night at 11:30 pm, when out of the blue my heart started pounding the way it does when you realize you have forgotten something important, and I suddenly remembered I couldn't put off my indecision about the ticket any longer. I frantically flipped through my mess of papers and found my ticket, which declared that my court date was the very next morning. Uh-oh. That was my school's graduation day. It had become too late to prepay the fine, and too late to ask for a continuance. But the more I thought about it, like h*** was I going to pay that fine. I was going to court, and hopefully it wouldn't take too long so I wouldn't have to play hooky for my school's graduation.
Even though it was already about midnight, I drove back to the freeway entrance to make sure that the sign really was posted poorly. Although it was a pretty enormous declaration, it actually was blocked by trees until you got fairly close.
Okay, here is what I LOVED about court. That judge was so amazingly efficient. And even though he even had everyone who approached him feeling like a bumbling fool, things went smoothly, efficiently, and fast. Everything was right to the point. No fluff allowed in that court. It's almost like having a conversation with Rob! (Note: if this were Rob's story, it would be two sentences long. Something like, "I got a ticket, so I went to court. The judged waived $75 of the fine." I've gone on for several paragraphs, and haven't even gotten to what would be Rob's second sentence.) Anyway, even though he reduced me to a fool, and I didn't exactly present the eloquent case I had in my mind, he also reduced the $125 violation down to a $50 fine. So it was worth my time, and I actually learned and did something new. And I saw how the judge was reducing fines right and left. So, if you have actually made it this far in reading my blog - the whole point of this entry is this: if you get a ticket, GO TO COURT! Even if you are guilty and the judge seems mean and makes you sweat and go anaerobic at the thought of speaking to him. He actually just likes his power, and part of his power is to reduce fines for well-meaning morons like us.
p.s. I even made back for graduation! Thanks Judge Gallahue!
p.p.s. But that was only because I declared myself "guilty with explanation", which allows you to present your case right away. If I had declared myself "not guilty", then I would have had to wait around a lot longer. And since I wasn't really sure which argument to take anyway, I took the one that got me back in time for my job....But, now I wonder what I should have done, if not in the time crunch. Does anyone out there actually know? Perhaps I wouldn't have had to pay anything? Unfortunately, "How to Get Out of a Traffic Ticket 101" wasn't one of Rob's courses at Pepperdine Law School. Go figure. Three years and all that money later, and we still don't even know how to deal with a lame traffic ticket.

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Three Weeks and Counting

In case some of you were wondering, "hmm, where will Rob get posted to overseas?" Well, I will find out in about three weeks, and then I will let you know. Here are some of the options:
Lisbon, Portugal
Rome, Italy
Stockholm, Sweden
Canberra, Australia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Bangkok, Thailand
Santiago, Chile
Seoul, South Korea
Panama City, Panama
Caraucus, Venezuela
Plus, I could get sent some other random place not on the list. Anyway, I really just wanted an excuse to post something and this is the best I could come up with. Tune back in three weeks from now to find out where I am going. Or you could tune back in early to see which race Lorena has either won, or crashed out of!

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The Curse of Memorial Day Weekend (dum-dum-dum!)

It was a dark and stormy night.
Really, it was.
Last night I couldn't make up mind about driving out to New Jersey for a bike race. Rob reminded me of my vow last year to stay indoors around the time of Memorial Day. I reviewed some history in my mind.
4 years ago, Memorial day - collision, bike vs. car. Six broken ribs, punctured lung, 9 days in the hospital.
3 years ago, Memorial day - crash, mtn bike vs. rocks. Over-the-handlebars endo into a pile of rocks. Bruises and enough blood to make my leg the main attraction to every fly, gnat and mosquito in the park.
2 years ago, Memorial day - crash, bike vs. pavement. During the Long Beach Memorial Day bike race, the girl directly in front of me went down, bringing me and four other girls drafting directly behind her down like dominoes.
1 year ago, the week of Memorial day - collision, bike vs. car. 3 days in the hospital. Lots of time spent in rehab.
This year, Memorial day - crash, bike vs. pavement. I actually had a bad feeling yesterday that I would be in a crash today, but I figured I was just being superstitious, so I ignored it and drove to Jersey for the race. (Yes, Becca, I was in Jersey! It was all I could do to keep from calling you at what would have been four in the morning your time to tell you.) Well, with only one and a half laps left in the race, the speed was really heating up, and two girls clipped wheels right in front of me and did a spectacular, bikes thrown up into the air crash. It was unavoidable for me to ride right over the Lipton girl (double ouch for her!) and do a superman onto the pavement myself. Luckily, I landed about as nicely as you can going 25 mph onto asphalt, and only suffered a jammed wrist, swollen cherries on my knee and hip, some road rash, and *omigosh* a broken nail. The Advil girl broke her collarbone, and the Lipton girl's wounds were so bad she had to go to the hospital to get them dressed. So I was lucky, all in all. But still, jagged broken nails are so annoying. The worst was just not being able to finish the race. I felt absolutely FABULOUS today, like I could take over the world (Pinky and the Brain, anyone?), and instead all I did was drive back home with a good case of road rash.
So, maybe next year I'll just stay in bed on Memorial Day.

In response to Rob's blog about the Bike Jam race, the reason I was in last place for several laps was because I got behind a crash in that race also. I was able to stay upright by riding off the road and grabbing onto a fence, but then it took what felt like forever to catch back up to the main group. I don't know what my deal is with Memorial Weekend.
And just to clarify Rob's statement about my performance in his blog - as long as we're making opportunistic generalizations, I think we should equate 9th in one measly race to 9th best in the entire universe. At everything. Man, I'm always having to correct him!

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Another Race Report: Bike Jam/Kelly Cup

Well this has sort of become the Lorena race report blog, but I will write this one. Lorena got 9th in a ginormous national race. So basically she is the 9th fastest girl in America. She got off to a bad start and I was thinking "what in the world are you doing?" Basically she was in last place for the first couple laps, and there were about 90 girls in the race, so last out of 90...not too hot. But she made up for it in the end and was awesome.

If you click on this link you can see her name in the results: http://velonews.com/race/dom/articles/12321.0.html
So, my reports are shorter then Lorena's since I don't actually ride in the races. Maybe she will post a longer one later.

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Quick Update
Okay, here is a quick update to satisfy the appetite of all my hungry blog fans, who are starving for another peek into the life of Rob and Lorena. Here is a peak into our delicious lives of late.

Work
Yes, that is Bill Clinton. Right here at the Potomac School. I don't even want to know how much money we forked out to have him come speak at our dedication day. I mean, he was a great speaker and all. He even inspired our students to work on starting the first school initiated NGO. All I'm saying is that perhaps we could have taken the school on a field trip to the Bahamas instead. We should have voted on this.

Play
A few highlights of the last several weeks:

• Poolesville road race: I got in a breakaway with one other rider from another team. Here's how the team tactics played out. There were a few attacks (riders who suddenly spring away from the main group, trying to get a lead), but the main group caught back up to them. A trick is to get teammates to launch consecutive attacks - once the group sprints to catch up, another teammate attacks again right away, and after a few of these in a row, generally the main group will be too tired to catch up right away, and *wha-la*, a breakaway forms. I launched an all out sprint right after the field caught up to my teammate Jen and her breakaway group. After a couple miles, another girl also broke away from the main group and joined me up ahead. We still had about 27 miles of racing left, so it was in both of our best interest to work together to keep our lead over the chasing field. We took turns "pulling" (riding into the wind and doing the hard work to go fast) and "drafting" (riding right behind another rider to decrease wind resistance, save energy, and get in a so-called rest for a few seconds before pulling again). Working together we were able to maintain our lead to the finish line. And our teammates, in back with the rest of the field, tried to get in the front and make it go slightly slower so they wouldn't catch us. This is called blocking. The really, really fun part about being in a breakaway like this is that you are working in alliance with someone you are ultimately competing against. So you never know when that person might launch a sudden attack and try to outsprint you. Well, I decided I wanted to try to get rid of her on a hill climb (my relative strength). One second we were taking our turns drafting, and the next, before she knew it, I was up ahead on an all-out sprint to beat her. The only problem with this is that we were still about 2 miles away from the finish, and once the hill climb leveled out, she caught up to me and got in my draft. Now, the rest of the racers were still way behind, so we didn't have to worry about them. So once she caught up, we slowed down to a crawl. Neither of us wanted to be in front to allow the other person a free draft to the finish, where they would then have more energy to sling around last second and win. So we poked along very, very slowly - just keeping an eye on each other's every move. Finally, my impatience got the best of me. The finish line was only a couple hundred meters ahead, and I jumped for it. She caught me in the last couple meters and won the race. Shoot! But that was one of the most fun races I've done - consuming both my legs and my brain.

Pic#1: Working together in our breakaway

Pic #2: HPC/List teammates before a race

• Amy's visit: Amy, Rob's sister, flew out for a few days. It was a lot of fun hanging out with her and Brittany, looking at wedding dresses and talking about all the details for Brit's upcoming wedding this summer. I would have pictures of this, too, if photographers would only place themselves strategically in my everyday life the way they do at my races.


• Mount Saint Mary Criterium: Two girls broke away early on in this race. Once it looked like it would stick, I also jumped the field, along with two more girls, to join the breakaway. The five of us worked together the rest of the race to stay in front of the main field, and it came to a sprint finish between us. I came in second. I'm not so hot at sprinting. But the good news is, I beat the girl who beat me in the sprint at the last race. And I got my upgrade to Cat 2. Yay!


• On The Rocks at French Creek: FUN mtn bike race. Camped out in Pennsylvania for this one. There's just something I love about camping. I have lots to say about this one, and most likely no one cares to read yet another stinking race report. But if so, I posted a blog about this on my mtn bike team website, www.dcmtb.com. I'm still nursing wounds from two crashes onto the rocks at this race.

You may wonder what Rob is up to. Clearly, this blog is all about me. Most people with blogs write about how cute their kids are, or what their families are up to, or current events, or whatever. Well, not me. If Rob gets around to posting any time again soon, perhaps you can hear all about him! But here's the skinny: He has gotten to take some trips to NY for work, and he loves those trips. He plays soccer, runs and bikes. And he is my number one supporter at my races, my personal soigneur. I'm still trying to convince him to take the job as my personal massage therapist, but he hasn't signed the contract yet. Not even for $500/hour!

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The Greenbriar Challenge

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=164486&format=html

Oooooooo, yay, that's me in this picture in the Herald. Not that the reporters know or care, so I thought I'd point it out. They are looking at Katie Compton in black, to the left (who won the race), but I am the one front and center. So I pretty much have to create my own attention. Look at me!

Well, my bike was finally perfect for the first time in a mtb race this year. Bega from City Bikes performed an emergency operation on the front suspension I blew out at Sea Otter and had the bike perfect for me just in the nick of time on Friday night. Unfortunately, my legs were not in nearly as good of condition as my bike. After a great start and riding up with the lead group for the first couple miles, my legs and body went on strike, and the rest of the race consisted of people passing me and not having any strength to chase it down. It was a really fun, but really technical course, with logs or rock gardens to negotiate pretty much all along. It beat me up in a new way. The last descent was incredibly fun - it was a rocky mud bath that felt great to splash through at high speeds on a warm day. I finished 11th, which I was happy about given my lack of strength that day, but disappointed that I didn't come into the race fresher. Last weekend my road team, HPC, had a team training camp in West Virginia that consisted of 10 + hours of riding up, down, and all around the mountains there. Apparently I didn't give my body ample recovery the week after, and subpar racing is the result. I still haven't quite figured out how to train just right. Learning.

Another picture #1

Another picture #2

another picture #3

another picture #4

another picture #5

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With Love, From Mother Asia
Thanks , Dayna and Garrett, for our lovely Japanese gifts. This is the most stylin' tote bag I have ever seen. I take it with me everywhere, because the power is terrific and I always feel freer to use it than whether to use with what kind of use. You good people. Kansha shemashu.

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Lorena places 15th at the U.S. Open

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2007/apr07/usopen07

In her first "big time" pro road race Lorena placed 15th, in the money! Way to go Woman!

Pics will be posted in the future.

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US Open Circuit Race
Check it out - the road race I am competing in tomorrow in Richmond is going to be on NBC Sports (Saturday, April 7, 2007, 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm EST). Although, I am not sure if they will actually show the women's race since the men usually get all the media...but hopefully there will at least be a few highlights.

www.usopencycling.com

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Spring Break!

Spring break was fabulous! I got to do lots of bike racing and visit many of the people I miss so much in California. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera. So this is pretty much the most boring blog of text ever. All I have is a couple pictures from the Jeff Cup Road Race a couple weekends ago. I got third place, my best yet for a pro1,2,3 race. Isn't this picture beautiful? It was a really beautiful day in a perfect place to ride.

I got to meet my darling neice, Tori. She is a doll! Canon might have some competition for the best baby ever. And it was so much fun to have some good sister time with Rachelle.

I got to go mtn biking with Ralph on one of my favorite trails, often refered to as "Space Mountain", for obvious reasons. When I was driving away through the beautiful canyon near the trails, I was listening to my favorite cheesy music station, the Coast, and "This Used to be my Playground" came on the radio. It pretty much had me in tears. I love and miss that place so much!

It was a blast to hang out with many of my old Pepperdine friends - Rachel, Becca, Ryan, Whitney, Matt, Shelley, and Scott. Not much has changed; it felt just like old times. Becca and Ryan were as stoked to get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pez candy dispensers from me (as gifts for their hospitality) as I would have ever expected. And how exciting to find out that Shelley is now expecting a baby!

It was also wonderful to see Dena and her new baby, Peri (so cute!), as well as my good friend Gina Vincent. It is such a blessing to have such great people in my life.

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My Moment of Truth (and the longest entry ever)
Actually, more like two and a half grueling hours of truth. My first big pro mountain bike race. For the last month, all I had to do was think about the race and my palms would sweat, my heart race, and suddenly, I really had to find a bathroom. Yeah, I get that excited. I think I’m so calm and collected about this whole racing business, but my body tells another story.
The cross country race was a gas! But more-so in hindsight. During the race I remember being so tired I was worried that if I hit one more downhill rocky section, my arms would give out and I would eat rocks. Thankfully, I managed to stay upright and my worst peril was hitting a cactus when trying to pass someone. I’ve yet to pick out all the needles that broke off in my hand. I think it is funny that after my legs carried my body over thirty miles of dessert terrain, it was the muscles in my arms and back that were screaming at me. Guess I still need to work on upper body strength…it was a major limiter to me.
Okay, so this cross country race was what I considered my moment of truth. This is what I have been training for. They called up 72 women to the starting line, and being my first race with this category, I was called up way towards the back. I knew it would be important to move up as much as possible in the short few hundred meters before the start of the single track, so I busted my butt ahead of as many girls as I could, finding good lines and moving up to the middle of the pack by the time the trail went skinny. I was stoked! Riding full speed tightly behind a group made me blind to the trail though, and the next thing I knew, I hit a ditch really hard – enough to knock my seat loose and pointing up – a position I knew I could not ride in for the next 29.5 miles to come. So I had to move off the side of the trail to fix my seat. Standing there in the dust of the racers as they all sped by me almost gave me a nervous breakdown. I felt like my race was ruined because I was not smart enough to swap out my faulty seat post before the race (I’ve had the same problem before). Well, I quickly realized that that was a totally lame attitude to have. The repair took just a little over a minute to fix, my attitude about thirty more seconds, and I was back to full speed. I figured that if this happened to anyone who was actually any good, they would be back into the race in no time. So I tried to be that person. It took me about 10 – 15 minutes to get out of last place, and from that time, I made it my job to just keep passing as many people as I could. That is a fun way to race. I would catch someone, or a train, draft for a while, and pass. I was on the hunt. The only detriment was the times when it was tight and technical so you couldn’t pass someone going more slowly. Although, my body did enjoy the few minutes of relaxation when I knew it just wasn’t possible to get ahead, and I could just use the moment to catch my breath till it was go time again. Each time I passed someone, I was encouraged. I was happy to know that I belonged in that race. I have felt very sheepish and almost embarrassed when people ask what category I race, to have to answer “pro”. Of course I am totally stoked about it, but at the same time pretty insecure. I feel like I’m making a statement when I say that, but really I know I’m not even in the same league yet as the girls I really look up to. But anyway, it was great for me mentally – each time I passed someone my confidence grew.
After mile twenty I could feel myself really fading. I contemplated how tired my arms were and the reality that they really might buckle under a tough section and cause me to crash. That I was already not in a very impressive position anyway, so maybe I should just call it quits before the last lap. But I would never actually do something like that. I had the people at the feed station pour their cups of water on me as I rode by (it was in the 90’s, and cacti don’t offer much in the way of shade) and I passed a couple more girls, and that helped me keep going. It reminded me that everyone starts to fade after working so hard in the sun. So it was okay, as long as I just faded less than everyone else. And I really concentrated on my downhill technique so that my legs would absorb more of the shock and save my arms from going out on me. Two miles away from the finish I knew I could make it, so I put in a last ditch effort and passed two more girls before the finish. So even though my 45th place finish didn’t exactly put me on the next cover of VeloNews, there were 72 riders at the start, so I was happy with myself. And leading the race were Olympians and world champions, so I was actually pretty proud just to ride in their dust. I rode at a new level that day, improved my downhill technique, worked on my mental toughness, and learned I need to do more upper body work. And learned I need to hire a personal masseuse (in my dreams). And I now know more than ever to be fully, fully prepared – if something can go wrong, it probably will. And I also know that I belong in that race. I can do this!

Okay, the other half of the experience was a little less exciting. The night before the XC race was the downtown dirt criterium that started at 7:30 pm. Yes, that’s right, p.m. So I had to live with my nerves all day long. But I used the time to make sure I was perfectly prepared. But, of course, there is no such thing as perfectly prepared. My first “uh-oh” moment was when I went to put in my special night lenses in my new sunglasses. Well, apparently these lenses were made for someone with two right eyes. That makes no sense, but you get my point. It was only a minor annoyance, because at least my clear lenses would work decently for the night (the course was very, very dusty). Crisis averted. Well, then I go to turn on my Garmin bike computer and it would not turn on. In my frustrated state I could not remember how to reboot it, and randomly pushing buttons harder and harder and harder did not do me any good. It also did not respond to my verbal pleas for it to work. I felt so alone without my little computer. Oh well, I still had my legs and my bike, the two essentials. I did my warm up, got off my bike to stretch before lining at the start, and as I went to roll it forward – it would not roll! The front break was locked. I was in a frenzy! I tried to check the brake cable, but the race was ready to start at any minute and I didn’t have the time, or state of mind, to figure out what was wrong. I found that if I manually pushed the brake forward, it would release, but I would have to remember that every time I used the front brake that race, or remember to just not use it. I repeated this to myself about 10 times, but as soon as the gun went off, I completely forgot. It was clamped up just enough to slow down my momentum, but not so hard I couldn’t pedal. I completely forgot about the issue until the race was over and I was pedaling more slowly. And the race was short lived. They pulled everyone in danger of being lapped, and that turned out to be about 75% of us (to my estimate). The laps were very short, under a minute per lap. So given the amazing level of competition, most of us never stood a chance. And given the fact that I would have been pulled from the race anyway, my brake issue turned out to be a positive thing. Otherwise, I would have been in the race for a few extra laps and then got pulled anyway – just wasting energy that was better saved for the cross country race the next day. All in all, I just thought it was cool to get called up to the start line with the women I have read about for years in magazines. I was parked next to Kathy Sherwin, so we chatted, and Allison Dunlap was hanging out with her. And I even got a word from world champion Allison Sydor (okay, only because she had to squeeze past me when they called her up to the start). I was pretty stoked just to be there. I’m glad I have a wonderful husband who booked this whole trip for me.

As a side note to this already way too lengthy entry, I feel like I am satisfying my 12-year-old spirit with this experience and those to follow. After the first time I had to run the mile with my 7th grade P.E. class, my P.E. teacher, Mr. Leverson, (whom I loved) sent me a Halloween “candy-gram” complimenting me on how fast I had run. He wrote “you must have had the ghoul’s breath at your heels.” I had no idea what that meant. But I got what he was saying, and I remember that night dreaming of becoming a pro athlete. I thought that would be the coolest thing to ever do. But it never quite worked out for me to get to that level in mainstream sports. And now I’m kind of realizing a piece of my dream in what I’ve loved to do most since I was a kid – ride my bike. And that probably helps explain my love for cycling. That’s a small piece to my obsession. But enough already. I’m waxing cheesy, so it’s time to stop.

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Our Good Friends, Ryan and Becca...

So we were at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery museum a couple weeks ago and we saw a picture that shocked us... It was Ryan and Becca!

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We are Blog Losers.

Sorry it has been a while since there has been a post. I have been working late, and Lorena has been racing hard. Here is a cool picture of her, with me in the background. She is all by herself in this picture because she was kicking butt and had ridden away from the pack. She won this race by 45 seconds.

So anyway, that is your quick update. Sorry there isn't a ton of detail, but oh well.

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Tagged!
So, according to Rachel, you can play tag with your blog. Although it's better in real life, because if you don't want to get tagged, you just run away. She tagged me with this survey, which I guess is really the same as those forwards that say you must fill out the info and pass it along to someone else and Microsoft will pay you $10,000 the next day. But since I'm already swimming in cash, I've never filled one of those out before. If you hate them, read no further. But now, since I totally respect the game of tag, I'll play. Do you feel so accomplished Rachel?

Six Things That Make Me Happy
1. Rob singing "Woman" by Wolfmother on the top of his lungs
2. Taking a long nap
3. Taco Bell tostadas
4. Mountain biking any of my favorite trails (Sundance, Moab, Sycamore, "Space Mountain", Fountainhead, ...) on a sunny day, with good friends
5. School being cancelled for snow (the silver lining to winter on the east coast)
6. Church being cancelled for snow (yep, we got a phone call yesterday morning right before leaving. We went right back to bed. It was sooo relaxing.)

Six Strange Things About Me
1. I really like soymilk (Rob thinks it's only meant for people who are lactose intolerant)
2. I am too impatient to wait for elevators, which is the main reason I take the stairs
3. I talk, walk, laugh, scream, hit, cry, and even change clothing in my sleep
4. I feel down if I've gone a couple days without exercise
5. Guess doing math for pleasure isn't exactly the norm
6. I'm afraid of fish

Okay, Dayna and Rachelle, tag. You're it.

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Blue House Girls: Kelly, Lorena, and LeannaLast weekend my old "Blue house" room mate Kelly and her husband Sunny came and stayed with us in DC. Sunny works for Delta and they get to fly all over the place for free, which probably was a big help for Kelly in recognizing that he was "the one". Anyway, besides that fact that he is a great guy for her, I'm glad she found him so that we could have a mini blue house reunion with Kelly, Leanna, and me this weekend. We checked out some DC monuments, but probably spent most of our time together eating (our favorite past time) and playing games.

The Lincoln Memorial
Here we are playing "Ticket to Ride".
Challenge: identify the person who is losing.
Valentine's Date
Rob and I celebrated Valentine's Day early this year because he had to travel to New York this week for work. (Or I should say "got" to go to NY...he loves it when he gets to travel for work.) We went to the National Portrait Gallery, then out to eat at Ruth's Chris Steak House. It was the best steak ever and a really nice date. Thanks DNC and Sarah for the gift certificate, so that I didn't pass out when the check came. Since the cost was on par with a trip to Disneyland, we figured that should put us in some kind of elite snob club, so here we are doing our best to fit in with this society. Donald Trump, watch out. Here we come.
***Elbows on the table - bad manners normally - but totally classy in high society. If you were as classy as we are, you'd know.

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