Quebec City

Chris and I spent a long weekend in Quebec City, Canada for the wedding celebration of Chris’s former roommate, Patrick. It’s a quaint old city, and despite the weather being chilly, windy, and rainy, we had a fabulous time wandering the cobblestone streets and taking in the sights. A couple photos:

The spectacular Chateau Frontenac, the hotel where the wedding festivities took place and where we stayed.

At the wedding reception.

You can see the rest of our pictures here:http://picasaweb.google.com/kbiddick/QuebecCityJune2008

Birthday weekend

This past weekend, we celebrated Chris’s birthday in three parts.  Part 1 was dinner Friday night at his favorite Mexican place with a few friends (forgot to take any photos).  On Saturday (part 2, his actual birthday) he got up early to open his presents, one of which was a wallet with tickets to Sunday’s DC United game inside!

Saturday evening we attended the wedding of one of his co-workers where one of Chris’s duties involved baby-holding for a couple that were both in the wedding party.  He continued the baby-holding well after both parents were relieved from their wedding party duties. 

Sunday we headed into DC for birthday part 3 to watch the DC United take on the San Jose Earthquakes at RFK Stadium.  I had fortuitously purchased seats in the shade directly under the pressbox, and we actually had a decent view of the field.  Unfortunately, we missed 3 of the 4 goals scored in the game while waiting in line for fries (reason #415 why you shouldn’t eat fries).  But the goal that we did get to see was really exciting, and Chris was able to see the ones he missed on the recorded game at home later that evening.  The United won 3-1.

When the game ended, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Washington Freedom (the women’s team) would be playing next - a double header!  We moved way down to the front (notice the empty seats behind us in the photo below) and stayed for the first half where the Freedom was already up 4-0.  A great day for DC soccer all around.

June 12 of 12

1) 10:17am - Hooray for our huge, new AC unit!!

2) 10:40am - Taking out cash for our trip to NYC this weekend.

3) 10:49am - Dissertating at the library

4) 2:50pm - Stopped at a light on the way from the mall to Target

5) 3:55pm - Leaving Giant

6) 5:15pm - Playing with Lake

7) 5:20pm - Starting the first (of four) loads of laundry

8 ) 5:30pm - Playing with Titan

9) 5:41pm - Cooking it up: mushroom, sausage, and onion pasta

10) 8:30pm - Sweaty Smitty home from soccer

11) 10:13pm - Last load of laundry is ready for folding

12) 10:16pm - Photo of this list

AC update

No sooner did I publish that last post than the AC office called to say there had been a mix up with our equipment.  Our equipment was taken to a different location, and that location’s equipment was delivered to our AC office, so now they won’t be able to install it until tomorrow!  Boooo!  It’s hot!  This goes to show you should always test your air conditioners well before you really need to use them. 

We’re melting.

This spring (it really is technically still spring until Smitty’s birthday, as he will tell you), the weather has been a bit confused.  We had a few actual springy days, then we had some freezing days, then a few more springy days and then BAM, it got to be 90+ degrees in the span of a couple days.  So, we turned on our AC for the first time late last week only to discover that it was not making cold air (one of those things you never notice until you really need it).  I called the repair company on Friday who said they couldn’t send someone out until Monday (!), so we spent a lot of the weekend in air conditioned restaurants and at other people’s air conditioned homes.  The technician arrived yesterday morning and basically we learned that we need to install a brand new air conditioning unit.  Amazingly enough, the previous one lasted for 18 years (it was new with the house), so it is about time, and this investment will hopefully allow us to list our house a little higher when we decide to sell it.  The new unit is being installed TONIGHT - hooray!!  We cannot wait to enjoy a night of cool, dry air.  We’ve just been telling ourselves that we’ve been very “green” these past few days.  Hot and sweaty, but green.

Chocolate Cake

I’m not a baker. I love to cook, but baking isn’t my thing. I know how to make two things from scratch: banana bread and candy cane cookies, and that’s it. I can make anything from a box, but in our never ending quest of eliminating “partially hydrogenated” and corn syrupy things from our diet, this weekend I made a trial run of Smitty’s favorite: Chocolate Cake. I always make him a chocolate cake for his birthday, but in the past have gone straight for the box. Now, I’m not saying that this recipe is healthy by any means (although it did call for yogurt instead of oil), but at least I know exactly what went into it and can identify and pronounce each ingredient. I even made the frosting! The end result is actually very yummy, and it’s a good thing, because we’re going to be eating this cake for the next two weeks. And again for Chris’s birthday next month.

May 0 of 12

I forgot to take my camera with me yesterday, so no 12 of 12 this month - sorry.  It was a drippy, cold, windy day anyway, and my last of the semester, so the pictures probably wouldn’t have been that interesting.  Summer 12 of 12s should be more interesting:  July 12th will be the last day of Music Camp, August 12th we’ll be at the beach for Hilton Head X, don’t have plans for June 12th, but it’s bound to be more interesting (and sunny) than yesterday was.  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, perhaps I’ll remember to post on here once and awhile.

April 12 of 12

10:45am - Kath hanging out with Lake

12:30pm - Smitty in his study, playing WoW and talking on the phone

12:30pm - Titan lounging

12:58pm - Lunch al fresco!  Enjoying the beautiful weather from our deck.

2:30pm - Enjoying the rest of the beautiful afternoon…. inside the library.

5:20pm - Quick stop by the grocery store to pick up poker night provisions.

6:32pm - Smitty counting out the chips.

6:40pm - Dinner:  BBQ chicken salads - yum!

7:20pm - Kath and Mike waiting for the rest of the poker guests, eating all the food in the meantime.

8:38pm - Lake’s all in!

11:34pm - Game is finally over.  Kath got 2nd place!

11:35pm - Ben was first out, and first asleep.  Wake up, time to go home!

TASC Prom

Last weekend we attended Smitty’s company’s “Spring Fling,” affectionately referred to by me and now many of the co-workers as TASC Prom. We got all dolled up (see below) and went over to the Westfields Marriott for a tasty dinner and some dancing (someone has a photo of Chris doing the zombie dance from Thriller - wish I could get my hands on that one!). As in years past, they gave out Godiva chocolates to the friends and family members of the employees as a thank you for putting up with their sometimes crazy hours and travel schedules. I’ll take any reason to get me some Godiva! This year, Chris also won one of the raffle drawings, and received two gift cards: one for Uno’s Chicago Grill, and one for AMC movie theatres (woohoo - date night!). It was really fun to get dressed up and go out - hooray for TASC Prom!

Trip to the Zoo

This past weekend, we took our first trip to the National Zoo in DC. Our friends were visiting from England and have two kids ages 4 and 6 (ALMOST 5 and 7 as we heard many times over the weekend), so we figured the zoo was a good activity, plus we’d never been so we wanted to check it out. Another family also joined us, bringing the kid count to a total of 4 (all between the ages of 3 and 6). The local family had the brilliant idea of carting the kids around in a wagon, and I don’t know which was more fun for them: the zoo or the wagon.

With four kids, the pace was slow going, so eventually Smitty and I split off so that we could see more stuff on our own. We spent a lot of time at the big cats exhibit (my favorite, of course), and the tigers were especially playful that day. Here’s Smitty with both tigers in the background, a closeup of the feistiest tiger, and then me with the lion in the background.

A good time was had by all.