Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A pretty snowflake...then pandelerium!


Apparently, it doesn't snow much here in the DC area. Last night's news called for 1-2 inches of snow today. While I thought how much I would enjoy a snow day today as much as the next guy I knew that little of snow just wouldn't be enough to cancel school.

So I'm in my vehicle this morning just after 7AM at a busy 4-way intersection near our hotel. It's dark, eerily quiet, cold, still, and dry. No snow anywhere in sight. There were probably about 15 cars at each of the four points of the intersection, making a total of 60. All of us were probably doing the same thing--flipping through radio channels and enjoying some coffee while waiting for our turns to go through the light and onto the interstate.

Then it happened. Floating down ever so gently like the feather at the end of Forrest Gump was a single large fluffy snowflake. I watched the snowflake finally land right on the street in the center of the intersection. Every car must have been watching it because at that point, all heck broke loose. In a single second the other 59 drivers skipped past the low setting on their windshield wipers and went straight to the rapid setting. Rolling my window down, the sounds of all those wipers sounded like a herd of wild horses running across the meadow. Not just the front windshield wipers but also the back window as well.

Let me remind you that at this point there had only been that one snowflake. That flake must have sounded like a load of wooden pallets being dropped from a 100 foot crane to these folks, because it seemed to scare the bejesus out of them. Once a lane had a green light the entire line of cars moved forward at about 12 miles an hour, apparently just in case the rest of the blizzard would hit at any moment.

It eventually started snowing a little more steadily but certainly less than two total inches by mid-afternoon, and it was above freezing so it was mostly just wet. Nevertheless, there were over 300 emergency calls from vehicle incidents in the DC area before noon today. Schools let out early, salt trucks were everywhere, and the "snowstorm" was the biggest story in town. In Kansas City, it would have just been an ordinary day.

So while I would not want to traverse on roads in Oklahoma and other parts of the midwest right now with the ice storm I'm having my own challenges here with these folks.

The good thing is, there is still some slush around so in this area, there's greater hope for a good ole fashioned snow day for us tomorrow!

Mike
Springfield, VA

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Right place at the right time

Guess it was our lucky day today. We went back into DC this morning and look who we ran into at the White House.

And look who else was still lurking around.

I just couldn't resist giving Bush his due respect on his way out.

And if that wasn't a big enough day already, we ran into Johnny Depp and Miley Cyrus.


Katie Couric finally caught up with me and wanted to know my thoughts on the economic crisis, politics, and if I would go out with her if I wasn't married.

I gave her a little glimpse of what that would be like.

Okay, you've probably figured out we enjoyed some time at the wax museum today. Went to Madame Tussaud's, about 3 blocks from the White House. We hadn't been to one of these in years but as you can see we had lots of fun.

If you don't already know, Shelly doesn't care much for Angelina Jolie.

"Sorry George, I'm flattered but I am a married woman".

"Get up Julia, I've been walking around DC all day and need to sit down."

"You may be tough now, Evander Holyfield, but I'll take you one day".

"Hey Julia, how about I sit on your lap?"

"Let's make this press conference short. I just pooped my pants".

"I just had to lean down and see how cute you are!"

"Oprah, stop eye balling that donut and take a quick picture with me."

"Excuse me President Lincoln, I know you're enjoying the play here at the Ford Theater. But I saw a guy with a pistol over there talking about shooting you."

"I think they did a pretty good job chiseling my face into Mount Rushmore".

"Katie, you look like you're choking. Allow me to give you the Heimlich maneuver."

Quite a fun day indeed.

Mike
Springfield, VA

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Back from Richmond, into the Bumbo

We returned yesterday from a great weekend in Richmond to visit our friends Jeanne and David and their sons Ethan and Jeremy. Ethan is one year older than Anderson so we were given many nice clothes and lots of toys and things to borrow while we're here. Thanks again David and Jeanne for all the nice things and the southern hospitality!

Shelly and Jeanne's sister shared a birthday party Saturday night. David fried a turkey and Jeanne had all the fixin's. Here's Shelly's second of three birthday cakes. Since we just couldn't fit all of Anderson's toys and things for the trip here Jeanne let us borrow a few things. He really enjoys his activity mat. And he has fun in his Bumbo seat. After all that playing with his new toys he was tuckered out. And Daphne is always the first to volunteer to take a nap with someone. We returned to our hotel room last night to a big surprise. The staff here at the hotel had bought Shelly a birthday cake and balloon and they all signed the card. After a big weekend our little Ace enjoyed a nice warm bath. Here he is all cozy waiting for his lotion. Even though we are about 10 miles from the Capitol we ruled out fighting our way through 2 million people to attend the inauguration. Our hotel has been bursting at the seams though. The lobby and common areas last night were full of people. And we could hear many people leaving around 3AM this morning to catch the 4AM subway just down the street from here. We watched the events from the comfort of our room. Made some hamburgers for lunch then some chili for dinner. We've been playing cards this evening and I suppose since I have school tomorrow I should take a glance at some homework later. But it's been a very nice 4 days off. I'll close with a short video we took tonight. Anderson is really growing and is a very happy baby (most of the time)!


Mike
Springfield, VA

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Happy Birthday to Shelly!


Today Shelly begins the last year in her 30's! And since you all know Shelly doesn't have just a birthday but a birthday week, her events began last night. We went to Arlington and met up with one of my sister Mandy's best friends, Jayna. Jayna moved from Oklahoma to DC a couple of years ago to work for one of the congressional newspapers. She and her husband Matt live in Arlington and work in DC and Alexandria. We decided on Cheesecake Factory as I figured they had the most choices of birthday cheesecakes for Shelly. We all had a great time catching up and the wait staff sang to Shelly as they presented her Snickers cheesecake.


Anderson and I both were corduroy pants and despite OU stinking up the game last week, he wore his OU socks since we knew Jayna was an OSU fan.


When we got back to the hotel we realized something was once again out of the ordinary as Daphne was not right there waiting for the door to open. Yes, she was at it again. Early in the day someone from the hotel staff brought us a big chocolate bar and some hot cocoa mix as their way of wishing us a nice relaxing weekend. Rushing out to dinner we accidentally left those on the coffee table and I guess Daphne just couldn't resist the urge.


This is her guilty look. She always pins her ears back and hunkers down.


But as many of you know who have read previous stories about her getting into chocolate, it doesn't seem to affect her.

This morning we decided to make our first visit across the street to Dunkin' Donuts. After all, it is Shelly's birthday. We've enjoyed some coffee and donuts and Shelly opened her presents from me. She got some Burberry perfume and this watch.

Now we're off to Richmond (about 2 hours away) to stay the weekend with one of Shelly's good friends, Jeanne. We have visited she and her husband David before there and they have also visited us a couple of times in KC. We'll enjoy more birthday festivities there then I'm playing a golf tournament there tomorrow afternoon. We'll head back here to the DC area on Monday, in time to get settled in the hotel and not have to fight the huge crowds expected in the area for the inauguration. I'm out of school Monday and Tuesday for the holiday and inauguration so we plan to enjoy a relaxing few days. Since Daphne chose the chocolate maybe we can still salvage the hot cocoa mix.

Enjoy your weekend!

Mike
Springfield, VA

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

First week DC highlights

Last weekend, we decided to venture out into the heart of DC. Thought it was best to see some sights before 4 million people diverge on this city next week. Shelly and I had each been to DC before but this was our first visit together. And I actually had never visited Arlington National Cemetery, an amazing experience in itself.

It will be interesting to compare this view of the Capitol with the one a week from today as this will be the site of the inauguration.


During our visit to the Library of Congress Shelly and I realized we may have to brush up on our history a bit before we start helping young Anderson with his homework. There, we saw the original book collection of Thomas Jefferson, the Gutenberg Bible from the 15th century, and some of the papers from George Washington's inauguration. This is the largest library in the world with more than 126 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. It has nearly 19 million books. I tried to check out the book "Everybody Poops" but they didn't seem to have it.




Arlington National Cemetery, an amazing and solemn site.






John F. Kennedy's gravesite.

Anderson's first trip on the Metro.

This map on the wall shows the DC Metro system. Our hotel is just a couple of minutes from the southern end of the blue line making for an easy trip to all sights in DC.

Back at the hotel, Anderson had a good view of what happens to your hair when you wear a stocking cap all day.

And finally, this picture was taken tonight. Our hotel is in a great location within walking distance of several stores and restaurants. We already have a favorite Mexican restaurant and walked there tonight. Shelly bought this hat for him the other day. Cute huh? It has matching mittens too. If I wore it people would think I'm crazy but I suppose a baby can get away with it. And yes, he scratched his nose again so another nail filing was in order.

So those are the highlights of our first week here. Expect updates more often as we will head to Richmond this weekend and also plan to see the Wizards and Capitals play, Washington's pro basketball and pro hockey teams. Will probably avoid the inauguration area. Just will be too crazy down there.

Mike
Springfield, VA