Time for Spring I Say!

 

DC is in full bloom, and the tourists are flocking to the tidal basin to see lovely pink cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, the trees reached the height of bloom about two weeks ago, so most of the petals have blown into the tidal basin. But! Luckily for you, Andrew and I took lovely pictures last week of some of the last remaining blossoms. For your viewing pleasure:

The first blossoms we saw, on the turnstile at the Smithsonian Metro station

Extreme closeup! Waaaaaahhhhhh!!

Money shot of TJ

Tulips in the floral library between Washington Monument and Tidal Basin - the springtime gnomes worked hard for these colors

Stand out from the crowd inspirational poster shot

But of course we can talk, my dear. If there's anyone around worth talking to... or about.

Dig that Florida Sunshine

Andrew and I went to the beach this past week with his family, and although I didn't take any pictures myself, Google has worked its magic once again to provide you with an image of Seaside, FL.

If it looks familiar, this is where The Truman Show was filmed. Seaside is basically Pleasantville on the beach, with pastel houses and bricked streets. It's definitely a far cry from Folly or Myrtle, my two favorite beaches, but that makes it perfect for a family beach week. Every spring break the town of Mountain Brook, AL, where Andrew is from, migrates down to Seaside and the high schoolers form clumps around town. Occasionally the clumps break up and reform, but every night they formed a giant mass on the beach with stolen alcohol in their sweatshirts and backpacks. By the middle of the week the police carded people to go down to the beach every night... and Andrew and I were definitely questioned about our age more than once.

But about our experiences there: we had a delightful week at the beach, got tan (for us), ate some delicious gourmet grilled cheese (caprese salad anyone?), snuggled with a precious little weenie dog, and had an all-around good time. We enjoyed hanging out with Andrew's brother Sam and two of his friends, all of whom are seventeen. In short, a warm, relaxing week that we definitely needed after the past month.

Pinch pinch

In honor of my favorite animal at the zoo, Darwin the emu:

Happy St. Patty Day!

Lesson Learned

First off, I want to share a blog post that my wonderful college roommate Bryony wrote about historical documents. I'm a huge history nerd (see my MA diploma), and she made some really great points about the way people think about history. Plus, her writing's not too shabby either!

As you may know, Andrew and I live in a nice-sized but wildly overpriced studio apartment in Arlington, VA. This is our first time living without a bedroom since we were in dorms, and cooking is proving an adventure. It's actually not because our kitchen is small; our place has a pretty normal-sized apartment kitchen. No, our problem is the haze of smoke that fills the apartment whenever we use our grill pan.

Grill pans are great - anyone who loves grilling in the summer (or making 15-minute meals) should definitely consider getting one. They're not that expensive as far as kitchen gadgets go, either. Ours looks a lot like this:

Cool, right? You can grill meats and vegetables in the dead of winter right on your stove!

Unfortunately, the air in our apartment doesn't move. The lack of air circulation makes smoke from fatty meats like chicken thighs hang in the air; our apartment starts looking like photos of LA. The first time we set off the fire alarm (BBQ chicken breasts) Andrew stopped moving and just stared at me like a wounded deer while I opened our window, turned on the stove vent, and started fanning at the alarm with a towel. I'd never actually seen a person freeze in the middle of a fight-or-flight response before, and it was a little freaky. Fortunately, after at least four fire alarms he's now an old pro. We get the towel ready, open the window, and turn on the vent all before we start cooking. Tonight we learned that dark meat is best cooked outdoors - after wearing out both of our sets of arms fanning, we've learned to stay away from chicken thighs on the grill pan. Ah, the delights of a studio apartment!