End of an Era

A few weeks ago, in a lack-of-coffee-induced AM haze, I totaled my 10 year old Blue Saturn Coupe.  The accident was not that bad, but was my fault, and did more damage to my Saturn than she was worth.  I made do with a rental and with J's car for 2 weeks, and then finally, after research and test driving, last night I bought a new car.

Meet my economical, somewhat sporty, environmentally responsible red Prius!



J and I had been discussing getting a new car for me for awhile, and had done some research.  I had never thought about buying a Prius, but with all of the driving I do (500 miles or so a week sometimes!), it makes sense financially.

As much as I love this new car, I was really sad to see my little Saturn go.  She was a great car, and even though she was worn down, a little dirty, with no shocks and a slow oil leak, I was sad to see her go.  Last night, I even realized that yesterday, August 9th, was 10 years to the day that I got my Saturn.  She was a college graduation gift from my parents and in a way, marked my passage into adulthood.  I started thinking about what has transpired these past 10 years, and how she had been a part of it.

She took me to Spartanburg to move into my first post-college house.  She transported me on countless fruitless job interviews right after 9/11, and finally to a successful one that provided my first job.  She carried numerous college girls to many lunches, coffees, and dinners.  Cleaning her on Saturday mornings provided something for me to do other than sit inside watching TV.  She ferried my roommates and I on many ice cream outings.  She safely transported me to "the Branch" on icy and snowy roads.  She helped me map out the mileage for running courses during half-marathon training. She made the trip to Annapolis with me as I moved my life from SC to Maryland (while the Uhaul had most of my personal belongings, she carried the sterling and the grits!)

She got a fabulous daily workout commuting from Annapolis to the Westside of Baltimore every day. She took me to my first audition for the Chorale. She became an expert at navigating between Annapolis and SC. She experienced apartment living for the first time. Her backseat became the scene of many mid-afternoon naps. She transported me to my first date with my husband. And consequently made many trips to Baltimore over the next 2 years. And learned about Baltimore's window-breakers. She learned how to carry my bike during triathlon training. She's an expert at navigating the Chick-Fil-A Drive-thru. She became a fabulous partner on my wedding planning excursions. Her sound system kept me sane during crazy long commutes. She moved with me to Baltimore and took up residence in our tiny, one car garage. And she finally came to rest in a collision repair facility in Randallstown. Though by now, I'm guessing she is scrap metal and parts. :(

So, my attachment to my Saturn is obviously nostalgic. :) My Prius and I are getting used to each other...and I'm excited to see what my next 10 years with him/her will contain!

Summer Time Warp

Ever notice how the summer just goes...Poof?!  Even though I haven't been in school for, oh...10 years, parts of my world still revolve on a summer schedule.  J and I had lots of plans for the summer, mostly to just spend time together after our busy, busy Spring.

Sadly, in terms of free time, the summer is almost over for us.  I start rehearsals for the September 11th Mozart Requiem performance on July 25th.  J starts his Tosca rehearsals at the beginning of August.  And things just get busier from there!  Thankfully, we still have a vacation coming (Maine, oh how I love you!) and I'm excited to introduce J to one of my favorite places to relax with friends.

I do still have some pictures to upload, and despite myself, I'm determined to get them uploaded to the blog tonight!  I may even have some recent ones for you...

So far this summer we've:

-Cataloged 1/4 of J's (and my) wine collection
-Gotten our house in its current state of order
-Worked in our vegetable garden
-Had a Harry Potter marathon in the home theater
-Made Chocolate Frogs
-Spent time with friends
-Cooked a lot of meals with our CSA veggies
-Spent a lot of $ fixing our HVAC unit

This summer, I'd still like to:

-Finish cataloging the wine
-Work on checking some items off the list on the right
-Continue eating healthy
-Make exercising 4 times a week a priority
-Relax

Happy Mid-July everyone!

I Should be Used to this by Now...

...wimping out on a 365 Project, that is!  I'm pretty frustrated at myself...I was doing well keeping up until...well, I wasn't.  Life gets busy, and I forgot one day...and that was it.

The sad part is I still have about a month's worth of pictures that I did take but never posted!  Since I have them, I will definitely post them.

And, I think today I will pick back up with the 365 Project.  I'm learning these days about fighting my desire to be perfect, and to not give up if I'm not achieving perfection.  So I think a fitting application would be to continue with the Project, but not try to make it perfect!

In any case, my goal is to get the photos I do have on the blog tonight.

Crossing something else off my list on the right

21. Spend some time Hiking./visiting in Scotland.

Done.

Of course, we didn't "hike" much per se...I stumbled around a field to take a picture of a cow.  And we walked  A LOT.

I'm counting it.

16/365 Night on the Deck

Page's Long Day...meet Dark N Stormy.  Best enjoyed on a deck outside with good friend(s).

A Fresh (ish) Start

Hello, faithful readers!  After spending the past month and a half or so splitting my time between two cities, working on settling halfway into a new house, and planning a wedding...I've decided it is time for a fresh blogging start!  I also like the fact that Blogger added a few new templates.  What do you think of the new look? (feed readers...pop on over for a peek!)

If you look on the right hand side, you'll also see I've added a To Do List of 50 things.  Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, LMB (who is on her way to Vienna as we speak!) I decided to create this to do list, and see how I do.  In a year, she will be able to cross off number 6 on her list, Live in Europe for a year.  Anyway, the list is quite random and covers everything from the vague category of "be a better person" to cooking, exercise, etc.

In non-blog news, we are settling into our new house fairly well.  As I mentioned in my last post in June, it is hard to own a house one place, and live in another!  We are muddling through though.  The only thing left to do until we move my stuff in is put away our china.  And between J and I, we have a lot of china, crystal, etc!  Thankfully, my parents gave us their huge Breakfront, and J's brother passed along his grandfather's corner cabinet.  I still have my china cabinet in the basement in Annapolis, so hopefully those 3 pieces will hold everything!  We will see.  I'd also like to get some pictures hung on the wall.  3200 square feet of space means A LOT of wall space!

Wedding plans are...well, wedding plans.  There is always something little to take care of (even though the major pieces are in place), and just when I've crossed one thing off the list, time ticks on and 3 more items pop onto the to do list for the current month.  As we quickly approach the 100 day mark, I'm getting kind of excited. :)

I'll be doing the Iron Girl Triathlon for the 3rd year in a row in a few weeks.  It has been helpful to have something to train for, but difficult to get training in!  I have a feeling I will not do as well as I did the past 2 years.  It's to be expected, though.

Well, I think those are all the major updates I have for now!

A Tale of Two Cities

...or a city and a town?  I'm talking about Baltimore and Annapolis, of course.  Since J and I have been dating and engaged, I've spent a lot of time on the road between these two places.  It's a 40 minute drive late at night in no traffic, and about an hour or so if there is traffic.  Now that we've bought the house, I am spending even more time in Baltimore!  It's hard, because I feel like my life, time, and priorities are quite divided.

I'll be living in Annapolis until after the wedding, and I'm very happy about this.  I had visions of one more care-free (ha ha!) summer in Annapolis sitting on the back deck with a glass of wine, going to happy hours with my friends, and so on.  Boy was I deluded!  Between wedding planning and house-settling, I'd say my time is pretty evenly divided between being in Annapolis and Baltimore!  I WANT to be relaxing in Annapolis with my girl-friends, but I NEED to be in Baltimore with my future husband doing house-related things.  Well, and I want to be doing those things too.  It's definitely going to be a balancing act.  I'm hoping I can figure out how to get things done for the wedding and at the new house and still have some time for lazy dinners on the back deck of the Home for Wayward Chorus Girls.  Happy Hours may be a little out of the picture since most of my disposable income is going towards the wedding or the house, but that is ok.

The next two weekends I'll be in Baltimore, but then over July 4th J has a concert to rehearse for/sing in, so I think I will definitely spend that time in Annapolis!

Whirlwind of Life

Oh hello!  Why yes, I am still living, breathing, thinking, feeling, loving, and planning.  Just still not picture taking. :(  However, I will be getting a new camera verrry soon (hopefully this weekend), and I will try to resume my 365 project.  I'm just considering the month of March a FAIL, and moving on.  Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick bullet point update for anyone who has missed me!

• Oh my, I am neck deep in wedding planning.  Enjoying some moments immensely (cake-tasting and wedding discussion time with J)...and others not so much (emailing and calling vendors with no response).  So far, we have a church, a reception venue, a cake, and a photographer.   I have a dress and shoes.  We registered for gifts.  We still need a DJ, official hotel block, and flowers.  But all in all, I think it is going well!

•  On the topic of wedding planning...I find it ridiculous that it is so difficult to get vendors to respond to emails requesting information.  We're in a recession...and I am a potential source of money!  If you aren't going to respond to a contact form on your website, then don't put it out there!  I even had a hard time getting some people to call me back.  I can tell you, though, that I am not hiring anyone who won't call back.  As much as I hate the phone, it makes me nervous to think I wouldn't be able to get in contact with someone before the wedding if I needed to!

• At the beginning of this month, some of my friends threw us a fabulous surprise engagement party!  I honestly had NO idea it was coming.  It was a fabulous party with many of our favorite people...complete with a piano player, bartender (the very same one who witnessed our engagement!), fabulous food, and valet parking.  I was so shocked when we walked in, that I think I was speechless for awhile!  We were so grateful for such a special party, and all the effort and love that went into it!  I must also confess that I broke my Lenten discipline and had wine.  But, I figured it is the only surprise engagement party I will have in my life, and I would regret not having some of the tasty bordeaux and cabernet that was provided.  I always say that I am not legalistic about my faith...and this was a night to prove it! :)

• We are headed to SC in a few weeks for an engagement party that my parents are throwing for us.  I am looking forward to that as well!

• On a non-wedding note, we sang Bach's St. Matthew Passion this past weekend.  I hope I can write more about this piece later, because it really moved me so much more than I expected.  I was fighting back tears through both performances.  I am normally not one to jump on a musical bandwagon, but I am really quite a fan of this piece.

• I am really excited about Holy Week and Easter this year.  I am loving singing in a church choir again, especially one that performs works from composers that lived 200 years ago or more.  I have seriously missed good choral church music.

• J and I are thinking about buying a house this summer.  An exciting and frightening prospect.

I think that is about all I can fit into a 5 minute update.  Hopefully I'll be back to elaborate more soon...

New Years' Resolutions

I don't typically put my New Years' Resolutions out on the internet...well really, I don't often even make resolutions!  But this year, I've felt a bit of a need for some changes in my life...nothing major, but little ways that I would like to improve myself.  I also like the idea of using the "New Year fresh start"  to inject a bit more discipline into my life.  I look around at my friends with kids and realize how little time they actually have to themselves.  If I have kids one day, I hope that I will have used the time I have now to accomplish some small things that are easier without little mouths to feed and lives to mold. So...here are my resolutions for 2010!  Let's hope I can stick to them for a little while at least...

1.  Complete the 365 day Photo Project-  Something about this is incredibly appealing to me.  Maybe it is the idea of having a photo record of what I've done for a year...or maybe it is the thought of being disciplined enough to take at least one photo every day and post it.  If I'm successful, this blog might have many more posts than in the past!

2.  Read through the Bible in a year-  I've had this goal for awhile.  But every time I start, I lose steam after a few days/weeks and never finish.  I think it's important to have read the entire thing if I am going to base my life on the Word of God, so I'd better get cracking!  I found a nice plan here...perhaps having a paper copy and one online will make me more motivated!

3.  For every novel that I read, read a nonfiction book-  I waste a lot of time reading fiction.  Some of it is good...some not.  So, I think I need to incorporate some nonfiction into my reading regimen...whether a history book, biography, book on a subject I'm interested in, or a spiritual book.  Since I joined J's book club, this will be a bit easier since the club occasionally reads non-fiction.  Coming up soon is a biography of Huey Long.  876 pages.  Think I can get away with counting that as 2 novels?

4.  Stick to my savings budget-  I go in and out of being good at saving money.  My net worth last year fluctuated by $5000 at any given time.  Sometimes I'm really good at saving...and then I go on spending sprees.  This year, I'd like to even that out a bit, so I've thrown a little "cushion" money into my budget to cover my erratic spending.  Instead of putting $1000 a month into savings, I'm going to attempt to put $700.  Better less saved a month and kept in there than having money subject to my erratic spending habits!

5.  Attempt a "No Spending" month-  This goes along with number 4.  As much as I detest our materialistic culture, I often get caught up in it.  I'd like for March or April to be a "no spending month"...including food, eating out, coffee, clothes, books, etc.  Don't worry...I'll still eat!  I'd just like to see how long I can last eating out of my freezer and pantry!

6.  Cook one or two recipe's from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Sunday Dinner each week- So obviously, I stole this from the Julie/Julia Project blog and the book/movie of the same name.  But I love French cooking, and need to have a little discipline in order to make myself cook.  I am a decent cook...I can whip up a mean red sauce, put together casseroles, and cook a decent roast.  But, I'd like to take my cooking skills a little further.  I love cooking on Sundays because there is no pressure to be done at a certain time.  I can start cooking at 3:00, and if I'm done by 5:00, then we eat then.  If it's more like 7:00, that works, too.  Part of what I don't enjoy about cooking is the timing.  I haven't told my roommate that this is my plan (she might see it on the blog, though!)..but I don't think she will complain since she doesn't think that I cook enough.  I'm starting this weekend by watching Julie and Julia and making Boeuf Bourginion.  Good luck to me...

7.  Oh, and what is a list of New Years' Resolutions without one to lose weight?  So, I'd like to Lose 10 lbs.  Ha!

So those are my goals for 2010.  Again, nothing major, and all improvements I can certainly live with!

2009 Blog Year in Review

I did this last year and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd give it a go this year, too.  Here is the first sentence of the first post of each month of 2009:

January: When I first moved to Maryland, my intention was to eventually live in downtown DC.
February: I seriously don't think I could have asked for a better way to celebrate my 30th and Maureen's 40ishth birthday.
March: I've really been a blogging slacker the past few weeks.
April: One of my Fall/Winter/Spring luxuries is a pre-bedtime bath.
May:  I've been a really lazy person lately.
June:  Dear Starbucks Triple Grande Iced Latte
July:  It's hard to believe that my last post was almost a month ago!
August: It's crazy to me that this summer is almost over.
September:  Hi again, faithful readers (all 5 of you).
October:  There is just something about the changing of the seasons that is quite appealing to me.
November:  For the past 12 years or so, it has been my responsibility to cook the turkey for my family's Thanksgiving dinner.
December: I am perhaps an oddity when it comes to receiving personal customer service.

So it looks like I was a lazy person in 2009 and time passed me by rather quickly.  At least, that is what I would infer from these first post sentences!  Let's hope 2010 is a little more disciplined for me!

Quick Update

Here are a few things I've have/will be up to:

• - Christmas at the Home for Wayward Chorus Girls was lovely.  My parents were visiting, and we had our normal Christmas Eve gathering pre and post-church.  This year, we must have been tired because the night ended at 2:30 AM instead of 3:30 or 4...

• - The kitties are like two peas in a pod for sure now.  They did finally separate to sleep the other night though...Alfio came into my room and Marcello stayed with Maureen.
  

• - While I'm happy to be in the marathon taper stage, that makes it particularly hard to run at all!  I also can't seem to stop eating.
  

• - New Years' Eve, I'll be headed to the Engineer's Club with J again this year for their NYE bash.  Should be a good time again as I've heard some other fun folks will be joining us.
  

• - Somehow this week, I've ended up with a sinus/cold issue.  I think it is sinus related because I keep dealing with a sinus headache.  No fun :(
  

• - I'm getting really excited about my trip to Disney in a week and a half for the Goofy Challenge!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Stay tuned in the next few days for some more posts I have scheduled to go up...

Blizzard '09

Well, the snow we thought was coming did arrive, and dumped 20+ inches of snow on good 'ole Annapolis!  No Saturday/Sunday Messiah performances...no 22 mile run...it was actually nice to have 2 days where I had to pretty much stay in the house!

Looking out my second story window in a slow part of the blizzard

By Sunday, both my roommate and I were dealing with cabin fever, so we ventured the few miles on icy/snowy roads to downtown Annapolis.  We started out at the Rams Head, and then moved over to Galway Bay.  On the walk over, I grabbed a few photos of downtown in the snow.

St. Anne's Church in the Snow

Reynolds' Tavern

State House

Looking up Fleet St

Snowy Stairs

Historic Homes

State House grounds

Governors' Mansion at Night

As lovely as it was, I hope we don't have anymore storms like this anytime soon!

Yep...it's Definitely THAT Time of the Year Again...

...the time in which I have little to no free time.  Much as I love it, I'm craving a morning to sleep in, drink my coffee, and generally just veg.  Not having that time is my own fault though.  The Goofy training means back to back weekend morning runs.

The past few weeks have been a lovely blur of rehearsals, performances, parties, and running.  I really do enjoy everything I do, I just wish it weren't all crammed into the same time frame!  If I ever decide to train for another long distance race, it will not be during this crazy month of December.  To give you a taste of what I'm up against, let me describe my next 3-4 days to you:

-Tonight: Messiah Dress Rehearsal.  Come home, take relaxing bath, stretch tight hip, go to bed.  Say a prayer for no snow on Saturday.

-Tomorrow: I'm off from work due to a doctor's appointment.  Get up at 6:45 AM (earlier than I do to go to work!), run 11 miles from 7:30 AM to 10:00 AM.  Shower, rush to doc appointment.  Come home and get house ready for guests.  6 PM- Parents arrive.  Rush to church for Messiah performance.  Come home immediately afterwards.  Go to bed.  Pray for no snow on Saturday.

-Saturday: Get up at 6 AM to drive to Baltimore for a 5 mile race. Pray for no snow.  Run race.  Drive to NCR Trail.  Run 17 more miles.  Come home and eat food.  Go sing 8 PM Full Messiah performance.  Crash.

-Sunday: Sleep in briefly.  Brunch with parents.  Send parents off to Williamsburg.  Sing 3 PM Messiah matinee.  Go caroling afterwards.  Come home and crash.

I know I often write about how busy I am, but this weekend really takes the cake!  Hopefully I will make it to the other side...and let's all pray for no snow on Saturday since I'll be running 22 miles and also don't want our Saturday Messiah performance cancelled!

Personal Interactionaphobia (or Why I Hate Small Talk!)

I am perhaps an oddity when it comes to receiving personal customer service.  I truly don't like it!  I'd rather do it myself and screw things up than have someone help me personally.  I'm the person that always says, "Just looking" when someone in a store asks if they can help me, even if I am looking for something in particular!  I'll walk up and down the aisles of the grocery store multiple times in order to find an item before I'll ask an employee where it is.  I used to be much worse...I would have nightmares about having to take my car in to get the oil changed!  I still don't like having to interact with car repairs, etc...but it's easier than it used to be.  In college, I made my roommate call to make hair appointments for me.  Truthfully, I hate the phone more than in person interactions.  I still tell my current roommate that I will pick up our take out order if she calls it in!

My mother, on the other hand, always wants personal service.  She'll call the Omaha Steaks line to order steaks and tell them all about why she needs them...her upcoming dinner party, a daughter visiting, etc.  As a teenager, I was always highly embarrassed when my mom would start telling store clerks her life story.  (Sorry Mama!).  Now, I just find it amusing. :)

I wonder if growing up being embarrassed by my Mom's small talk with strangers is why I dislike small talk so much.  I know there is a place for it, but I just don't like it.  I have some really odd fear of people thinking I am stupid, so I never want to ask for help or service in a store.  I was thinking about these strange fears today because I have an appointment to get my hair highlighted and cut.  I had the same stylist for awhile, but she has stopped cutting hair, so I have been bouncing around to different stylists at the salon.  I am literally nervous about going to get my hair done because having to personally interact with the stylist makes me nervous.  I can't quite pinpoint it...but it must have something to do with small talk.  The thing that made me stick with my last stylist for so long was that she immediately made me feel comfortable and didn't really engage in small talk.  We jumped right in and chatted about life.  Now, I have to answer questions about my job, the holidays, etc when I go to a new stylist.  But, silence is definitely more awkward.  It's such a strange thing!

I am trying to get better about the whole personal interaction issue.  When I bought my MacBook, I made a personal shopping appointment with a real, live person.  And I asked them questions!  I've been actually calling places.  And talking to people.

Honestly though, with online shopping and service, self checkouts, etc on the rise...there must be more people out there like me than I realize.  But perhaps it doesn't stress others out quite like it does me!

Quick Update

Today, I feel the need resort to a bullet-point post.  Please forgive me...

• Last weekend's concert was quite enjoyable.  Good music, a decent performance, fun "hang-out" time...that's what I remember always loving about concert weekends.  While there was drama...this time I was not involved.  Thank goodness!
  
  
• I also went on the 19 mile running tour of DC.  It was a hilly, tough run...but a lot of fun at the same time.  And confidence-building...it was the first of 3 major back-to-back runs in preparation for the Goofy Challenge.  9 miles on Saturday, 19 on Sunday.  See my running blog for more details on the run if you are interested...
  

• I have a good plan in place for my mini-Thanksgiving feast this weekend.  3 friends, good food, and leftovers.  Ironically, after we finish eating our "Thanksgiving Meal" 5 days early, we are then headed off to sing Christmas Carols.  A sign of the times...
  

• I finally bought my MacBook!  After 8 months of coveting it...I finally was pushed over the edge when my 7 year old desktop stopped connecting to the internet and decided it didn't want to have anything to do with my external hard drive (where all of my music and video files reside).  I generally am the type of person to not replace something until it dies (cars, hair-dryers, etc.)  So, when I started coveting the MacBook, I guess I was waiting until I "needed" it.  Which happened last week.  So far, I haven't had too much time to sit down and explore it, but I do have all my music files transferred over and my iPods (all 3 of them) synced up.
  

• My roommate heads to Paris today, so I'm all alone for a couple of days.  Well, alone except for Marcello the kitten (almost cat).  I forgot that one of the perks of having a pet is their company when there are no other humans around.  Marcello is good company, and tends to keep me entertained, so I think I will be ok.  Hopefully we won't need to test out his guard-cat skills.

I think that's it...look for some photos from my Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday!

Here and There

Oh goodness, I have another busy weekend coming up! Should I be surprised, though? It's just been one after another around here lately. This weekend I have parents visiting (and meeting the kitty cat for the first time), Navy tailgating (which appears as if it will be in the rain), Navy Homecoming game, a Brahms Requiem concert, a concert after-party at our house, and a 5K followed by a 13 mile training run for a total of 16 miles. How do I manage to string so much together in a 2 day time frame? I need to work on my scheduling skills...

Seriously though, it should be a fun weekend. I have no plans for tonight, so hopefully it will be a nice night in. Part of me is thinking I might forgo the Navy game to spend extra time with my parents. Especially since it is supposed to rain all day and I will be leaving the game early to arrive at the concert on time. Hmm, that may be what football teams call a "game-time decision". :)

One annoying thing that I've managed to do is strain the lower vertebrae of my neck. Again. I seem to do this every few months or so just turning my head funny or whatever. I probably need to get it checked out by a doctor or something. The pain typically lasts for a couple of days, and then goes away. It does affect my singing though, since I can't hold my head up properly. Not a good sign for tomorrow night's concert, but what can you do. That's life!

Restaurant Review...Quite Possibly the Best Meal I've Ever Eaten!

On Saturday evening, J took me to Charleston (the restaurant, not the city) for dinner. For those not in the Baltimore area, Charleston is considered by most to be one of, if not THE, best restaurant in Baltimore. As the name suggests, it's lowcountry/French style cuisine...very high end cuisine! It wasn't a special occasion of any sort; he has wanted to go for a long time, and I am always up for a fancy meal. The one caveat was that I had to be able to eat all of my meal. While I eat a lot of food during the day, I typically don't eat a whole lot in one sitting. I'm notorious for "hitting the wall" food-wise and announcing that I'm not eating anymore. So, J made me promise that I would "practice" eating a lot and be ready for the 6 course meal plus wine pairings. His thought was that we need to "do it up right" and go for the 6 course meal to get the whole experience. I also figured the 7 mile run I completed earlier in the day would help with the hunger factor.

The food was exquisite. At least, compared to anything I've had before. The closest thing I've experienced to this meal in the past is my family's Christmas dinners at Woodlands Resort (the only 5 star restaurant in SC). I started with a butternut squash soup paired with a Chardonnay. Second was cornmeal fried oysters with a French champagne (tasty!). Third I went "light" with a goat cheese salad paired with a Pouilly fume. Fourth, a southern crab cake with black bean salsa (divine!) paired with Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. Fifth (at this point I was getting a little full...the portions are larger than tasting portions but about half the size of a regular entree), Pan-roasted salmon with sorrel sauce piared with Anjou, Domaine Jo Pithon “Les Pèpinières”. The last "real" course was Grilled Beef Tenderloin paired with a Malbec. Thankfully, the wine pairings were 1/3 glass portions or I would have been sleeping under the table! By the time we finished the 6th course...I was literally stuffed. The cheese cart came by though, so we had a slice of a soft cheese from the Italian Piedmont. I can't even remember what I had for dessert...I could only eat one bite! I think it was something chocolate with sesame ice cream? J had the creme brulee trio...maple, cappucino, and calvados. On the whole, J had the more adventurous courses...I can't remember everything he had...but snails, sweetbreads, and venison made appearances. He finished off the meal with a armagnac (like cognac). I had a sip. I feel full again just thinking about that meal!

Our friends were celebrating their 1st anniversary at Charleston that night, too. I read on her blog that they would be there, so we brought along a bottle of wine to "send to their table". They in turn sent over a bottle of champagne. We started with the champagne, and finished our cheese course and dessert with the champagne.

Wow. All in all, it was an incredibly special meal...and one I likely will not be able to top anytime soon! J promised me that if we go back, I can get the 4 or the 5 course meal, which will hopefully leave me comfortably full and able to finish dessert!

So, for those of you in the Baltimore area who haven't been to Charleston, I highly recommend that you go. It's a great special occasion type of restaurant, or like us, if you just want to have a special meal!

Back to Monday

The weekend was great...Navy beat Airforce, the tailgate was fun, I managed to finish the Metric Marathon (full race report here) and had a lot of chill hang-out time with football friends, running friends, and my roommate's family.

This week is a pretty normal one for me...nothing too exciting. I'm looking forward to some more downtime on Saturday!

Odd and Ends

Hi again, faithful readers (all 5 of you). I have a couple of quick updates on what I've been doing and have coming up.

• Rehearsals for chorale are back in full swing. This makes me happy...even though I was burnt out towards the end of last season, I've really missed my music. And so far, making the switch to alto for some pieces is quite refreshing. It's a bit like I get the best of both worlds.
• Tomorrow, Maureen and I are heading to Maine for 6 days to see our friends Jean and John. I never thought this would become an annual trip, but it's one that I always look forward to! Time relaxing on the lake, hanging out with friends, eating good food...always just what I need.
• I'm working on getting myself back into the swing of things exercise-wise now that the triathlon training is over. That means strictly running...which I don't always enjoy. Oh well, it's what I need to do in order to be ready for the Goofy Challenge!
• I've been reading and very much enjoying Julia Child's My Life in France. I picked it up after seeing the movie Julie and Julia, which I highly recommend as well. While I was at it, I bought Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Maureen and I are planning on trying her recipes once a month for Sunday Night Dinner.

Other than that, I'm just trucking along...enjoying the lovely bit of fall weather we've had, and looking forward to the coming "busy" season!

Oh, and I posted my race report for the triathlon on my Running Blog. Feel free to hop on over there and read about my crazy triathlon day!

Morning Energy

It's a shame that I don't have the discipline to get up earlier than absolutely necessary to get to work semi on time in the morning. After noticing an interesting phenomenon in terms of my energy levels, I've decided to call myself a "mid-morning" person. I'm not a full-fledged morning person since I don't hop out of bed all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but after an hour or so of being up and caffeinated, I get this rush of energy to get stuff accomplished around the house. Unfortunately, this burst of energy typically occurs when I'm in the car on the way to work. I can't even jot down the tasks I've remembered I need to do at the house. By the time I get home, I feel like I've been beat down, and have no energy to do much of anything. I struggle to complete simple tasks like make and eat dinner, or even pick up my room.

Marcello, on the other hand, is an evening kitty. He gets riled up between 9 and 10 each night and flies around the house in what is sometimes a tornado of destruction. We've dubbed it "Kitty Arsenic Hour". Except he's not tired and hungry like the kids' arsenic hour. Just crazy. He did crash hard on my lap at the end of arsenic hour last night, but typically he'll go crazy until we put him to bed. When he's not being destructive (knocking over plants, jumping on counters, etc) it's pretty funny.

Seems like we need to teach Marcello to accomplish tasks around the house while we are gone, and pre-arsenic hour. He's obsessed with the Swiffer, but I doubt he'll actually clean with it. Oh well. :)