Valentines Day

 Following this... Friday morning was blue skies, much better temperatures and a perfect day to head into the city.  Most schools were still closed and the govt. essential employees had been told to come in 2 hours late.  So when we hit DC at 8 am it was still deserted.

We got off at the Archives Metro with no plan in place and just started wandering.  Headed first to the capitol.  There was no one around except security and workers trying to shovel and clean all the walkways.  Oh, and these snow people.  There was quite a community of them all over the capitol grounds along with iced trails where people had been tubing down the hill.

The best thing about just walking aimlessly is that you happen upon things like this that you would otherwise never see…..

 This is what the sidewalks looked like.  The city doesn't have the capacity to shovel all the walks so the wet snow just sits and turns to ice immediately.  That there is solid ice my friends and the entire national mall was covered in it.

We got part way down the mall and I was SPENT from trudging through the snow so we decided to hop on the Metro at the Smithsonian and head someplace we hadn't been before to find a place to eat.  We were literally the only people in the metro stop.  Have never seen such a thing.  We had our choice of the blue or orange line so we decided to head to the Courthouse stop.  However, right before that stop we came to Foggy Bottom and made a split second decision to hop out.

 I usually only get off that stop to jump on the Kennedy Center shuttle but we decided to wander the area and ended up surrounded by The George Washington University campus.  I was starving and losing my good humor by then so we saw a sign on a building that suggested there might be food and we headed in.  Turned out to house the law classes but it was a nice cafe with coffee, bagels and sandwiches.  We rested, grabbed a bite then headed back out.

 There are a couple of movies we've been wanting to see so thanks to my handy dandy smartphone I found one of them playing in a downtown theatre.  It was about 1.2 miles away so we knew we had plenty of time to walk it and explore.

This is one of my favorite buildings in DC.  This photo doesn't do it justice.  It's right next to the White House.  The streets were still pretty quiet except for a group of students who were taking their pictures and checking out the protest tent across the street from the White House.  There was also a man who just stood in front of the White House reading and speaking from his bible.

Still arrived early so we spent 45 minutes lingering in Barnes and Noble (our favorite cheap date), Tom spent his gift card from who knows when then we walked back up the block to see Philomena.  We both loved the movie though we both hated this photoshopped pix of Dame Judi Dench.  The thing that is so remarkable about her is that in this film especially she looks her gorgeous age….and this stupid poster makes her look 30 years younger.  Grrr.

We checked out several gift shops along the way and Tom felt compelled to try some things on.

 This place is right near Ford's Theatre.  And this photo was right before Tom knocked Abe over and
in an attempt to save him knocked the entire stack of stove pipe hats over as well.  Awesome.

Finally headed home from Gallery Place.  Spent the rest of our valentine day with Tom on his bike trainer and me sprawled on the bed while we watched the documentary Blackfish (yeah, pretty sure I won't be going to SeaWorld anytime soon) then settled in with House of Cards and homemade pizza.  Perfect day with my awesome valentine!

And Yet, Another Snow Day…..

So Tom came home from work Wednesday night and said they were pretty sure the powers that be were going to call for another snow day on Thursday.  He had already arranged for Friday off (he's trying to burn through all the days he's owed) and has Monday off for President's Day.

Sure enough, the snow started coming Wed. about 9 pm and within a couple of hours we got the automated call that schools and govt. were going to be shut down.

We slept in till 8 AM Thursday then headed to the gym to work out.  The weather was ALL OVER the  local news.

 We were relaxed all day and watched Paint Your Wagon and a couple of other old movies while we played Racko.

 Then once the pool opened at 5 pm we headed over there.  It's just across the parking lot.  No lifeguard but the door was open so we helped ourselves.  Had the place all to ourselves for the hour.

 It started snowing again and we settled in with the Olympics for the rest of the evening.  There was a car outside our window in the middle of the street.  I assumed they were stuck so Tom went out to see if he could help but it turned out it was a couple maybe having a little bit of a domestic dispute.  Said they were fine and didn't need any help.  Another car pulled up and parked behind them and they stayed there for about an hour.  Weird.  Anyway, once Tom had been outside he was all stoked to be back out in the elements.  He wanted us to hop on the metro and go into DC but it was 10 PM, I was in pi's and was having none of it.  Talked him out of it but we decided we'd get up in the AM and go then.

The Reservist

 When Tom was in the Coast Guard he worked in Public Affairs and had several articles and photos published in the Reservist magazine.  Our friend Jeff Smith who is now editor of the magazine sent us this issue that came out after Tom's retirement and had a couple of things about him in it.

 First, they took a chunk out of his retirement speech to print.  He spoke about how reservists and active duty are different and the struggles and conflicts that causes.

Also, a nice little piece about his retirement which was nice.  So far he hasn't missed the extra work!

Pool Time

FINALLY the pool in our complex is open.  One of the main reasons we chose this place but it has been under repair since we moved in even though it was brand new!  Apparently somehow the heating fan broke loose and chopped up some other vital pieces and the new part needed to come from Europe or some other cockamamie story.  So we're back to the three times a week workout and we love that hardly anyone else uses it and we love that it's warm!  Saturday it was actually 94 degrees which is too warm to keep up any good pace and wears you out pretty quickly…..but it sure feels nice when it's in the 20's outside.  Heavenly!

The Pentagon

Our friend Colonel Tom Fuhrmann is wrapping up his job at the Pentagon before he retires and goes back to flying for United so we asked for a tour of the place before he loses his credentials.  My Tom has been there before for work related meetings (and always gets lost in the mammoth place) but I've never been.

We had to show ID in the visitor entrance which was fine but as my bag went through the scanner the Pentagon police asked if I had pepper spray.  Um, yes I do, as a matter of fact.  I pulled it out for them as they explained they would have to confiscate it for good.  I signed some paperwork while the officer made what felt like three phone calls.  Tom stood rolling his eyes while the female officer assured me it was just routine though it looked very, very bad.  The other officer came back and asked me a few more questions then handed me this TICKET!  What?  Okay, it's just a warning, but STILL!  So anyway, 20 minutes later we're finally on our way inside.

The colonel (hereby referenced so the "Toms" are not confused with one another) showed us the map of how the building is laid out and Tom was wishing he'd known that before the many times he's wandered aimlessly trying to find his way around the place.

Unfortunately there are no photos allowed once you step off the metro except for this little staged area so we grabbed a few.  Each military branch has it's own tribute area so we course had to take advantage of the Coast Guard section.

 The entrance level has it's own little mall that includes, a small Best Buy, florist, CVS, candy shop, Starbucks, additional shops and lots of other eating places in addition to another huge food court on a different floor.  There's also a medical and dental office and a huge gym.  The colonel said there is a high priority on productivity so they don't really want you to leave the place….hence, we've provided you with everything you should need on any given day.  It sits on 34 acres, is the largest low rise office building in the world, houses 17 and a half miles of corridor and each wedge of the building is large enough to contain the entire US capitol building.

His office is in the basement and backs up against the gym so it has no windows.  He says there are days that he arrives in the dark, sits in an office with no windows and leaves in the dark so he has no sense of weather or time of day.  Honestly, most people we know who have worked at the Pentagon have not loved it.  I think it's stressful and sometimes they're doing work they're way over qualified for but it seems like it's something everyone has to do at some point on their military journey so they just suck it up and endure their time there.

There's a beautiful memorial area set up in the area of the Pentagon where the plane hit on 9/11.  As you walk down the hall there are gorgeous quilts lining the walls.  Some have the names and some have the pictures of those who died that day.  Others are made by kids with drawings and such.  Very touching.  All the names are also inscribed on the wall and they have graphite paper so you can do a rubbing off the wall of a name.  I just did the September 11, 2001.

 There's also a big book that profiles each of the victims and I just happened to open it to a young man from Utah who died in the Pentagon that day.  His name was Brady Howell.  There's also a small memorial chapel with beautiful stained glass windows and the colonel says they hold several services there a day.  I need to go back another day and see the official Pentagon 9/11 memorial which is on the outside of the building.  We did walk outside to the huge courtyard in the middle of the pentagon which houses a coffee/sandwich shop and benches & landscaping plus offers a quicker way to get from one side of the building to the other. We also went into the area where the big shot's offices are like Secretary of Defense and there are plenty of hallways honoring military heroes as well.

We hopped on the metro and headed to Pentagon City to wrap up our evening by having dinner at Lebanese Taverna which was yummy!  Love having good friends to hang out with!  Thanks for a great tour colonel!

Superbowl Party

 We decided to have a Super Bowl party for some of the international students. I found these cute plates and napkins at Costco and fixed a baked potato bar, meatballs, hot wings, 7 layer dip and any other traditional party food I could think of.  Tom met them at the metro and walked with them to the apartment.

 We had a bunch of games and prizes that required no knowledge of football but just a luck of the draw. Everyone ended up winning something so that was good.  Tom tried to explain what was happening…especially when they were winning prizes because they had drawn the "First turnover/Denver" or "First field goal/Seattle" paper out of the bucket.  Lots of food and fun!

 My friend Kristin also came.  We met in a bible study class and she too has a student in the international student organization though she too is a student and studying law.  She's also gluten intolerant so always whips up yummy things so she can eat!  She brought some yummy brownies and some crispy buffalo chickpeas.  Her student (and mine) couldn't come because they either had Chinese New Year festivities or had spent TOO MUCH TIME at said festivities and needed to study.  Luke, Ping and Chuyao all stayed through the halftime show but then had to leave to also study.  I had planned on that since the game didn't start until 6:30 on the East Coast.  The girls brought me these beautiful paper cuttings which are a traditional folk handicraft of China and get put in windows or on walls and Tom's student Zimo also brought us the door hanging to put up through the Chinese New Year.  It started Jan 31st and goes for 15 days.  It is the year of the horse!

Philly/NJ

We finally did get some real snow.  That's our apartment building off to the right.  It has been bitterly cold though.  Tom stopped and got a shot of the ice on the Potomac.

We had plans to meet Tom's siblings in NJ to finally lay his mom's remains to rest and see the headstone.  We decided to stop in Philadelphia on the way and see if we could find his grandparent's graves at a Catholic Cemetery just out of the city.

Tom got the information from the caretaker and we found his grandmother's marker but were unable to find his grandfather's even after going up and down the rows of headstones.  We went back and it turns out his remains are buried on top of her (and there are two other family plots underneath them) but his grandfather's name was not put on the headstone.  There's not really room to add his to her stone so the family needs to look at getting him his own stone.

It was an interesting cemetery as it was filled with Italian names.  No Smiths & Petersons like in Utah!

We stopped and bought subs for dinner to take to Marie's.  Yeah, healthy eating gets put on the back burner every time we head to Jersey!  Turns out it was Victor's birthday and Marie asked Tom to help put some photos together for the surprise party they were having Saturday night.  So of course Tom can't do anything the easy way and put together a really nice piece with photos, music, special effects and such.  But it also took the entire evening so Marie and I sat and watched some of her favorite shows…..Duck Dynasty and some show about a guy who builds fancy adult tree houses!

We met Joe and Karen at 9:30 the next morning at the cemetery.  Denny couldn't come because it had snowed all week and he had to take advantage of the clear day to catch up on some jobs.  The guy who had dug the spot for the case was there and had everything set up.  Tom went over to take a look at it and Eleanor's name is mis-spelled on the headstone!  Ugh!  The guy said he had noticed that it was different than what he had on the paperwork.  So Tom had to deal with getting that fixed this week.  He contacted the mortuary and the guy sent back a letter of apology.  Honestly, the comedy of errors regarding this poor woman laid comfortably and notably in the ground has been an adventure.  Anyway, it was very low key.  A couple of prayers were said then we left so the guy could finish his job.  We went and had breakfast at a diner then headed back to Marie's so Tom could finish the photos for Victor and burn copies while Marie went to the museum to help some of his friends get it decorated for the party.  Again, it took a couple of more hours but we were finally able to get on the road.  Marie wanted us to stay for the party but we still had things to do to get ready for a Superbowl Party we were having the next day so excused ourselves.