The Great Blog Update, Part I

It has been a while since my last update. I apologize. I have a lot of excuses: (1) we were having all kinds of issues with the Internet (not working, working slow, not having Internet, leeching off other people's Internet (thanks “Gavin”, “Arias Family”, “Cascats” and others for letting me bum your bandwidth)) (2) we were really, really, really busy (3) we were moving (4) we were out of town, and at times, out of cell phone range and, well, honestly sometimes I (5) just did not feel like updating. But now I am going to make up for all of the lost time with a comprehensive update. Frankly, the last two months have been a blur. We have traveled, moved, traveled more, moved more and left the country. So, here is what we have been up to.

Christmas in Killington, Vermont

We decided to head up to New England for a little skiing instead of staying in our little 400 sq. ft. apartment over the X-mass holidays. We had been to Killington (www.killington.com) before and we were familiar with the Birchridge Inn (http://www.birchridge.com/about.html) so we decided to go with what we know. We left about 4:00 am from D.C. and we encountered no traffic at all on the trip up to Vermont. Although we paid what seemed like about $100 in tolls along the way the trip was otherwise unremarkable. It was a really nice drive. When we got there the snow was good and most of the mountain was open. The first day was foggy and it rained (yes rain) but the snow was in good shape. The second day the temperature dropped and it was very icy. The third day was the best of all, although still cloudy. We left the day after X-mass thinking there would be no traffic since it was the middle of the week and there was no traffic on the way up. We were wrong. On the way home, we ran into the traffic jam from hell. Everything was fine until we got about 20 miles south of New York City in New Jersey and then I saw tail lights. I was on the phone with Paul for part of this, he can verify that it was causing me a lot of stress. From northern New Jersey to Baltimore, Maryland about all we saw were tail lights. We were in a traffic jam, stop and go, the entire length of New Jersey, through Delaware (near Philadelphia), and all through Maryland until Baltimore where the traffic suddenly and mysteriously... vanished. It was like everyone on the road was going to Baltimore. When we left Vermont we anticipated arriving in D.C. at about 6:00 pm. Instead, we pulled into our parking garage at about 10:30 pm. I saw things along the way that made me shudder, like a line almost a half mile long for a gas station on the New Jersey Turnpike. It was good to finally be back to the little shoe box we called home, but the big move loomed on the horizon.

New Years Eve at the Kennedy Center

As the title of this section implies we spent New Years Eve at the Kennedy Center (www.kennedycenter.org). The place is huge. There is a symphony hall, opera house, and theater all under one roof. All three were in full swing on New Years Eve. We saw a symphony and then there was a huge party for about 10,000 people in the Grand Foyer. The symphony was just the price of admission. The real attraction was the party. Here is a picture:

We (Mary and I) took the Metro home and we were starving, so we tried to go to the Wendy's but only the drive through was open. We tried to walk to the drive through but they said it was only for cars so we walked home, got the car, drove around the block to the Wendy's across the street, got burgers and fries, drove the rest of the way around the block, went home and ate. In hindsight it seems like a lot of work for a burger and it really made me miss the semi annual breakfast the Mabry's threw on New Years in Houston for all of us hungry revelers. The party was quite fun and I am glad we got to see the Kennedy Center.

Antietam

On the way back from Hagerstown MD, where I went to check on our worldly possessions, I stopped at Antietam Battlefield. You can read all about it here: http://www.nps.gov/anti/ and here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam

In the picture below, our worldly possessions are in the row of boxes along the wall at the left. Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, but I was not supposed to be taking pictures and I snuck this one when the guy was not looking.