Design is Cool

Saw these posters around campus.

Thought the design was cool where it was a skull and portraits of a couple getting married.
The play is Blood Wedding, by Lorca, being performed at Georgetown.

Ward Halloween Party

We dressed up for the party as a Bump and a Construction Worker.

Thanks to Eric and Stephanie M. for running the Photo Booth!
(from Flickr)

Used my other birthday present: a new camera! Here are some photos we snapped after trick-or-treating wrapped up and the games were happening up in the gym.


Enjoy!

Round 5

Just can't get enough of my birthday... =)
Received lots of fun cards and other gifts from family. Here are a few fun cards:

Such a sweet card from my sister

(outside)

(inside)

And, amazingly, this card from my mom was delivered. 

Despite having no stamp. Or postmark. Or return address.

(envelope)

(card)

My dad thought he sent his card late. 

Interestingly, it was the first one I received.

(outside)

(inside)

And I got other nice cards from grandparents and aunties. =)

And so it begins

Loaded up with pillows and blankets.

Started our childbirth classes. She's getting closer.

We've been Ghosted!

We were sitting around home tonight,
just minding our business.



When we heard some eerie noises outside our window.



And who burst in the door?

Tommy P!

And Mar-Mar!

They came "ghosting" and brought us these plates of yumminess:

Too bad they couldn't stick around for very long,
but apparently our house was stinky

and there were too many boxes in the way...

What great friends!
=)

Chomp!

Round 4

I'm so special they always give me a long weekend for my birthday. I didn't have work today, but Jill did. I dropped her off, tweeted about them filming Transformers 3, went grocery shopping (used lots of coupons and saved nearly 50% at Safeway), came home and watched Future Weapons on Netflix while doing several sinks full of dishes and two loads of laundry.

Went back to get Jill from work. She took some other pictures from her building of them filming. (Will update with videos later). Made dinner while she ran to UPS to pick up two packages that failed to get delivered to our place.

Had yummy salad with some grilled steak and chipotle salsa ranch. Watched Sherlock Holmes on Netflix and started downloading our photos and documenting our experiences of the last few days.

Got an awesome new present today - I'll blog about it later. Stayed up too late blogging, and am now headed to bed.

I know some other gifts/cards are on their way from other folks. We'll keep dragging this birthday out all week if we have to ;-)

Round 3

The birthday celebration continued through to Sunday.

I forgot to mention that before we left for NYC I had received cards from many of my family members.

Got up, got ready for church, played the organ, helped in nursery, did singing time in nursery, and finished up third hour in elders quorum.

Singing time was fun. Learned some things. We started off with a "wiggle" song. I had them all stand up on their carpet squares, then told them to turn to the left so we could march in a circle. They were all facing different directions. Although they can remember the lyrics to a bunch of songs, apparently the concepts of left and right haven't sunk in yet. Our marching in circle looked like a little kid's soccer game, where everyone clusters around the ball.

We learned how music can make us happy and sang "If you're happy and you know it" and "No one likes a frowning face."

Next we learned how music can teach us about the world around us. We sang about the wheels on the bus and popcorn popping.

Last, we learned how music can teach us about Heavenly Father, and sang "I Am a Child of God."

When home teaching with Jill, then took a nap until dinner time. We were both pretty wiped out from our long ride back to DC.

Spoke with family members and had a yummy day-after-birthday meal.

License Plates

Apparently, one of my "things" lately is to take pictures of interesting/funny/personalized license plates that I see. Here are a few recent ones.

The Marines are coming - Run for it!

Greeted by this van coming up out of Penn Station

How lame. "RAV & US" on a Toyata RAV4 SUV? Maybe it also has the double-meaning of ravenous...

Not a license plate, but a tag line that seems out of place. Allied: The Careful Movers. If your stuff doesn't fit, we'll just strap it to the back of the truck and wrap some super-sized Syran wrap around it...

Round 2

Jill slept in on Saturday, and I got up early to finish some church stuff before we left.

Another 'nother 'nother story. Let's just say some people aren't good at meeting deadlines.

Took the Bolt Bus from DC to NYC. Way better than our last bus trip to NYC on Greyhound (although, interestingly, the DOT info on the side of the bus said Bolt was operated by Greyound Lines; I've learned since that Bolt is a 50/50 venture by Greyhound and Peter Pan). The bus was new, the seats were nice, the ride was smooth, and overall it was pretty enjoyable - as far as 4-hour long bus rides go.

Except, don't sit in the exit row. Our seat rocked a little bit--like it wasn't bolted all the way to the ground--when the bus started and stopped.

We wandered up Avenue of the Americas, looking at stuff along the way. This trip--and last year--NYC threw a street fair for me. =) You can pretty much guarantee the same stuff on each block, but we found the occasional unique stall. Picked up a Christmas present for someone. Saw a Tigger running loose in the wild. And other furry characters that made lots of little kids excited.

Decided to forgo the fair-style food for a sit-down restaurant. Our email reminder about the concert recommended a few restaurants nearby and we decided to try Heartland Brewery. Our burgers were pretty yummy and the onion rings came with an awesome spicy fry sauce (no overwhelming horseradish taste like some onion dipping sauces), but apparently anything more than lettuce and a pickle (e.g., cheese, onions) was a high-priced addition to the ticket. Something to remember for the next time (if there is one). People watched for a bit from our restaurant perch, then took a quick stroll before heading to the theater.

Walked up to MoMA, but it had already closed. Which was ok, since we're kind of spoiled by all the free art museums here in DC. But the gift shops were still open and we had fun wandering around in there. Saw some cool salt-n-pepper wobblers; serving utensils designed not to touch the counter; nesting doll measuring cups; nesting bowls that include mixing bowl, sieve, and colander; cutting boards and holder with "filing tabs"; awesome crack-and-grow eggs (flowers or herbs); a birdy paperclip holder; propeller pens; books about custom bicycle makers (highlighting one in Portland, OR); the alarm clock that will hop off your dresser and roll away; an interesting magnetic perpetual calendar and clock; the blue sky umbrella; and the Spacepak toiletry bag.

The store started to close so we figured we'd walk back to Radio City Music Hall. Grabbed a quick picture with the poster on the way in and gave up our water bottles at the security check point... Grabbed our seats and waited for the show to begin!

Although Howard Shore wasn't here this time to talk about it, it was still a great concert. Some of the audience were annoying -- apparently different parts of the theater thought it necessary to clap whenever a character came on for the first time. Frodo. <clap> Sam. <clap> Saurumon. <clap> The Ents. <clap> Gollum. <clap>

Ugh.

All that clapping covered up the live music, which is what I thought we were there to hear.... anyway.

The concert got out around 11:30 and we wandered through Time Square. And kept wandering until we got back to Penn Station. Bought some water at KFC/Taco Bell and sat down inside until it was time to catch our Megabus back to DC. The bus had two levels of seating - but the driver informed us the bathroom was only on the first level. It was an obstacle course to walk through the aisles in general and we figured Jill didn't need to navigate stairs on the bus for the few times she'd likely get up on our ride back.

The bottom level contained a few places where seats sat facing each other and there was a little table (about 8 inches wide) between the seats. We sat across from two friends who had also come to NYC for the day for another concert. Learned they were from Columbia, MD; one was attending school at Temple, the other was at Penn State; both were freshman. It was funny listening to them talk about their trip and chat with friends on the cell phone on the ride back to Philadelphia. It was interesting seeing how different they were (one was a philosophy major, was mostly quiet and spoke intelligently; the other was an about-to-change-from-psychology-because-he-was-failing major who was into sports and built like he had played a few in high school). We talked later about how different we thought they were, but despite going to different colleges they stayed in touch and rode the bus across Pennsylvania to hang out. Philly was the first stop. We got to stretch our legs out once they left; we picked good seats. Next stop was Baltimore. I dozed on and off for most of this stretch. Checked my email a few times and watched out the window in the dark when I couldn't fall back asleep. Last stop was DC. Disembarked, found our car, and pulled into our driveway about 6:30 AM. Slept for an hour then got ready for a big day at church.

Great day with Jill.

(click through to see more photos)
Two days of fun experiences for my birthday.

Round 1

On Friday, Jill had a few surprises in store for my birthday weekend. We already had tickets for a concert in NYC and I wasn't expecting anything else.

She sent me a cryptic schedule of the evening's events - and after work we headed off for dinner. We made a quick stop along the way, but came away empty handed (that's another story), then pulled into the parking garage by one of my favorite places to eat around here.

There we bumped into some friends while waiting for the elevator. Strange, they live on the other side of town...

In the restaurant, we saw a few more people I recognized. I'm a quick study -- and realized Jill had arranged for some friends to meet us for dinner! =)

One of them was running a little late, but that's another 'nother story.

We had a great evening, and Chance managed to snap some photos while we were there.

From: 8 October 2010

Thanks everyone for a fun birthday dinner! (I'm glad "the Chances" were finally able to meet.)

Performance Review

It's about that time again. You think about all the things you've accomplished for the past year at work, papers you've written, and professional development you've accomplished (if you were smart, you kept what some call an I love me file that kept track of this during the year so you don't have to try to remember everything). You submit your comments, then your task leader(s) submit comments, and the division boss has his say. Then the powers that be in the company decide whether or not they'll promote or give raises, etc.

Received the results of a different Performance Review today. When I came home from work and school, I was greeted by the following note on my computer:

It was very sweet, and brought a tear to my eye; I'm truly blessed and abundantly loved.

I guess I'm doing all right.