Weekend Update

Did everyone have a nice weekend?  

Did you eat out? Work out? Hang out?

I had a nice weekend, but for me the summer is my glorified weekend. I suppose I should say that summer is my favorite season as a teacher.... It's family vacation time.  Friday was kind of a blur. I worked in the morning and Gary did some errands. We grabbed dinner to go at one of fav grab and go places on H street, Shawafel.  Mmmm....

Saturday we attempted to wake "early" so that we could get on our way for our 5 hour drive to the Poconos.  Gary's family has been renting a place there for the last few years along Lake Wallenpaupack.   We had to pack up Belle and drop her at a co-workers of Garys and then drop Sebastian off at my mom's(her grandson). Unfortunately we hit traffic around Baltimore so we added another hour to our trip.  I however slept most of the way.  I tend to fall asleep quite easily in the car....call it a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. If I'm driving, it's a curse for sure!

Gary's sister and her boyfriend were joining us, sadly Eric, their other sibling was still out at sea. He hasn't been able to join us a in a couple years. Hopefully next year! We all went out for dinner to a local BBQ joint.  Now, not being from the south I've never truly had "BBQ."  This was pretty good though, but I do welcome the day when I can officially say I've had southern BBQ with all the fixings.  Gary and I split the whole rack of ribs and also got a side of 1/2 sour pickles and some corn on the cob.  Kinda a messy meal.  I also got mint chocolate chip ice cream. A large only cost $2.60, which is amazingly cheap since a small dish of ice cream in DC is like $4. Robbery I tell you! 

Here are some pics of our smorgasbord....complete with family members chowing down. Flattering I know, I'm sure they will all thank me.

 I think she's drinking smurf juice....

 Chowing down

 I spared you the other 10 shots the hubby took. It's like he wanted a flip book of me consuming meat.

Sunday started off cloudy, but thankfully the sun broke through the clouds.  We spent the morning/afternoon reading, jetskiing and playing "King of the Tube." Which was basically all of us attempting to pull ourselves out of the water and onto the tube. Harder then it looks peeps...this is where my upper body strength would come in handy.  We have yet to be pulled behind the jetski....

The dock....

 Out and about....

 Later that night.....fire, lit with yes, you guessed it, or not, a flare....did you know that you could light a fire with that? I mean it is fire, so I guess you probably do know....it's just it's not the first thing I would have grabbed.

 Deliciously yummy s'mores.  I think my favorite part is completely charring my marshmallow, or as Jess would say, mallow.  I like to have to blow mine out. Gives it that little extra crisp and cooks the whole thing through. It's about the only thing I will eat burned.   This will not be the last of our weekly fires.  

Have you ever water-skied? 

Tubed?

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend?

Did you spend time outside? 

Did you exercise?

Did you cook?!

My weekend was great, although now that I'm out of school it seems as though every day is part of the weekend.  I was stuck in traffic on Wednesday and happened to also be on the phone with my mother.  I was complaining to her that the traffic for a "Saturday" was awful and that there must be an accident.  She then informed me that it was actually Wednesday and that I was most likely stuck in rush hour traffic. Ha! Silly me.  When I don't really have to keep track of days and time it all runs together.  I have to make sure my schedule is very up to date. 

Friday 

we did nothing, well that's not true. I got up and went for a run, the first one since June 3. Kinda crazy huh?! I've been exercising, just not running.  So I eased back in to it with an easy 4 miler.  When I got home the hubs had made is "man-cakes." AKA pancakes.  There isn't even anything special about them.  I didn't have any of them, but  I did have a nice big glass of chocolate milk.

Then we washed the pup.  She has been shedding like it's her job, as has the cat. Stupid winter coats. I could probably knit a sweater with all their hair.  We've been brushing them a whole lot. Thank goodness for the furminator. That thing is a lifesaver! So much hair comes off of the pets. Even though this is for our dog, it works great on our cat too. Our house looks like there has are tumbleweeds of hair rolling across our "desert." Note: if you visit us, don't wear black.  It's crazy, why do they need winter coats? They barely go outside in the winter, well the cat NEVER goes out!

Anywho, after the pup wash, we took her for a 2 mile walk to help her dry off.  We stopped at the grocery store, the pet store and the hardware store. I needed to purchase mosquito bits.  They are supposed to help get rid of the skeets, since they are supposed to be awful this summer because we had the lack of winter. 

Gary made dinner, we had salad, with grilled chicken, chickpeas, corn, cheese, avocado and toasted walnuts.  He also picked up some yummy bread- we love our carbs!

Saturday

 Gary had to work the brunch shift on Saturday.  Boo! But it pays some extra bills. I didn't sleep in too late either. I went to Eastern Market and ran some errands. I also did my Jillian Michaels DVD for the first time in forever too.  That night we had a 30th birthday party.  UGH, yes, my dirty thirty is coming too....I have no idea what to do for it, of if I should even do anything?

 Suggestions WELCOME?!

Sunday 

I actually had to work. Long story short, I'm working part-time at New York and Company. It's one of my favorite clothing stores.  They give teacher's discounts which is fab! I've never worked in retail before. I've always worked either with children or in the food industry, which I liked.  This will definitely be an interesting job, but I should also have a great wardrobe for next fall. Best Dressed Teacher 2012? Haha! Gary's worried that I'll spend all my money there. But I'm going to be good I promise! It's hard though they have some great bright clothes right now and lots of green which is my new favorite color to wear.  

My Belated Weekend at a Glance

Did you have a nice weekend?

Was it as warm there as it was here?  I thought I would melt several times during the day. Thank goodness for A/C!

My mother came down for the weekend.  She always comes in the beginning of school and visits my classroom and meets my kiddos and does an art lesson with them.  I like her coming at the beginning of the year because she gets to see how immature my students are.  Then when she comes at the end of the year she gets to see how far they have grown.  I'm so proud of my kiddos!

She never comes for a Holiday weekend so this weekend DC was full of events! Rolling Thunder was in town, as they are every Memorial Day.  So thankful for what they stand for, but MAN are they loud! Vrooom!  I loved that they all had flags on the backs of their seriously fancy bikes! 

Proud to Be an American!

Here's my weekend in Pictures(mainly food- SHOCKER! and a few words:-)

Friday Night: Clydes
Crab cake with sauteed spinach and garlic mashed potatoes

 Strawberry Mimosa

Saturday: National Art Musem

Can you guess who did each picture?

Modern Art Museum, don't know who did it, but it makes cool pictures!

Favorite Artist of all time!
Fun Fact: I painted in his garden in France!

Claude Monet

Who loved to paint ballerinas?

Give up?  Degas


How bout this guy?

Van Gogh

Saturday Night Dinner: Fire and Sage
Crab and Corn Chowder- lovin' all the crab! 

 Gary got a Caesar salad with steak and a side of mascarpone macaroni

Dessert: The Sweet Lobby for macaroons of course
Flavors we got: red velvet, hazelnut praline, green tea, pistachio, cappuccino and olive oil walnut and pecorino- I know! Weird Right? But so yummy, it just works!

Sunday: Native American Museum 
So tempted to jump in here, it was H-O-T!

They have a horse exhibit going on right now

 Beautiful

They were also having a Polynesian performance/celebration 

Super cute little girlies!

Lunch- my mother loves eating here. If you are ever in DC, hit up the Native American Museum for lunch, they always have interesting and tasty food!
 I could eat this wild rice salad EVERY day!

Fry Bread- Native American Style, well maybe Americanized Flat Bread:-)

 Rolling Thunder

 Um....crazy Trike!

BBQ:  How many people does it take to locate a ball?!

How was your weekend?

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week and I felt quite appreciated by my students.  I hope if you are a teacher, you did as well.  

Here's my weekend update:

Friday:

 Beautiful weather, so.....I ran after school. I did 6 miles. I haven't run more than 4 miles outside in a while and I'm about 18 days away from my next half marathon and can honestly say I am no where near as ready as I was before.  I think it was helpful that Gary was running the half with me and therefore had to train too.  This one is just women, so he obviously doesn't feel the need to train, but it's nice to have him along on the longer runs, even if he is miles ahead of me. It's also peek tourist season here in good old DC and LOTS of field trips are gracing us with their presence. There were so many groups of kiddos on the mall and they were all in their matching bright colored t-shirts.  I've dodged worse on the mall, but teens often seem to feel entitled(maybe that's just me).

Can you tell that we ate a bunch of it?!

After I got home from my run, Gary and I went out to dinner on our favorite street.  We decided to go to Khan's Mongolian BBQ, one because we haven't been there in awhile and two because it has a great outdoor seating area, prime spot for people watching. I was feeling like I needed a salad, so I ordered the house Japanese salad with dressing, which turned out to be just greens that looked very "American" to me and tart soy sauce dressing, needless to say I was disappointed with that, but thankfully Gary also ordered endamame.   We both go the stir fry. I got beef and he got chicken. If you have never been to one of these places they are great. You pile as many "goodies" as you can into your bowl, veggies and noddles. Then you choice your sauces, your main and an accent.  I got the Teriyaki sauce for my main sauce and a spicy chili for an accent, I am SO glad that I tasted it first and only used a little because it basically burned my face off! 

Hot on the right, next time only one tiny laddle

Gary wasn't so lucky, he got the sweet and spicy for his main and something else spicy for his accent, but he got two huge cups, he wasn't as smart as I and tasted it first.

Mine with plenty of udon noodles!

Gary's with two rice balls and his looks red because his was super on fire....he couldn't even finish, I ate more than he did!

Then we headed to a favorite, RITA'S WATER ICE! They NEVER have strawberry and they did! I was super psyched.  Then enter disappointment.  I don't know if the kid was new, but I ordered the gelati, soft serve on the bottom (like maybe 1/4)  then water ice (3/4) than more soft serve on top. He gave me like 3/4 soft serve on the bottom and 1/4 water ice.  Now don't get me wrong, I   the vanilla soft serve, but this was less that satisfactory in my opinion. Funny thing is, walking home I got stopped by a girl who was like, "OOh what is that?" and approached my dessert, I of course told her and we both went on our way. We then passed several more female groups passing and commenting on my dessert and how good it looked!

Saturday:

Another beautiful day. Have you ever heard of the "Meetup"  it's a website that you can join groups that have similar interests as you and then you "meetup." I joined one for the Zooma half marathon in Annapolis, but because the runs are early Saturday morning and "far" away, I've never gone.  Saturday is pretty much my only day to sleep in.  However, since I feel that I am was not getting enough running done I RSVPed that I would come. I've never run with a group so I was little nervous.  Would I get left behind? Could I keep up? Would it be too hilly? Logical questions, I think.... Because of the warmer days they changed the time from 8:00 to 7:30- UGH! So I went to bed early Friday and got up at 6:00 on Saturday to eat and get dressed, then hopped in the car for the 30+ min drive.  It was very beautiful running along the Chesapeake Bay, all the houses that we passed were lovely and had amazing views.  I would have liked to have stopped and sat on their Adirondack chairs, or sit on their private "beaches."  I started with the lead group, but quickly found they were faster, so I adjusted my speed to my comfort.  I ended up by myself. I could see people in front and there were people behind, but it was just me and my music and the beauty of a quiet Saturday morning.  I will say that it was  a lot hillier than I had expected.  I have a feeling so will the half marathon.   

Saturday afternoon was kinda cool.  There are some great perks to living in Washington DC.  There is ALWAYS something going on.  This weekend happened to be the European Union Embassy Open House.  You could visit all the EU Embassies and see art work, get tours, get freebies and occasionally sample food and drink.  Some Embassies had ridiculously long lines, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the main ones really and the ones with all the freebies and food. It required a lot of walking up Massachusetts Ave and a lot of standing in line.  It was also a warm day, at least in my opinion. I went with my friend Maureen, as Gary was brewing with his friend John.  Apparently last weekend was the Non EU Embassy open house, which I totally missed, but would have been great to visit too.  The metro was SO packed, I've never seen it so bad.  I also don't ride very often for this reason.  We literally packed in like sardines. I was ready for people to start pushing us into the trains, you know, like they do in Japan?! I almost didn't make it off the train and had to push people in front of me to get off faster while shouting "get off" and "coming through."  I did NOT enjoy that aspect of the Saturday.  We visited, Portugal(had a tour, sampled food and drink), Estonia(had dancers and a video), Bulgaria (food and drink), Romania (dancers), Latvia(dancers and video) and The United Kingdom which was a HUGE compound. We got to tour the gardens and they had food and whiskey and lot of other things to see and do.  They were giving away these great reusable bags, but by the time we got there they had run out, totes bumming! 

United Kingdom- beautiful English Roses!

The rest of the night was uber relaxation.  Dinner, vegging and watching a movie.  Gary grilled up a tasty snack and I made roasted brussel sprouts(at Gary's request!!!) with bacon crumbles and freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some boiled potatoes.  

How was your weekend?

Did you go out to dinner?

Did you spend time outside?