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First off, I want to share a blog post that my wonderful college roommate Bryony wrote about historical documents.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!

A Trip to the Market

I swear I'm not a hipster, but I love farmers' markets and everything they stand for. Local food tastes better, local flowers last longer, and where else can you find vintage postcards for crafty projects? If I could live anywhere in DC, I would live inside the Eastern Market building next to the flower lady's stand. Andrew and I have made two trips out on the orange line, and both times we've made extravagant plans for meals that would require a strange cut of meat or a cheese we've never heard of.

A real butcher. This inspires me to take my cooking to a new level.

Unlike most other farmers' markets, Eastern Market stays open year-round (which is why I was able to post these pictures in February). It helps to have a permanent building and an overhang to shelter produce stands:

One thing I've been missing about Charleston is being able to get fresh seafood, especially winter oysters. It's just not winter without an oyster roast. Some of you may think that these tasty little gems look like snot blobs, and they kind of do, but I bet you like gummy worms. Seriously, if you're willing to eat something that has the look and texture of a hermaphroditic animal that eats decaying leaves, give oysters a chance.

Anyway, the point I wanted to make here is that Eastern Market sells fresh seafood! Including oysters! And squid. They also have fish with the heads still attached, but I couldn't look at them without feeling sick so no pictures of those.

If you ever visit me in DC (Kate Fowler in one week!) I will probably take you to Eastern Market over the weekend. Humor me, please, because so far it is my second favorite place in DC. (What is my first favorite place, you ask? Perhaps I will write about that in my next post...)

My 50th Birthday Party

Remember Christmas, when I described the two types of old people? Awesome vs. curmudgeonly. Well, I had another awesome old people sighting, and it reinforced my desire to remain awesome no matter how old I get.

When I turn fifty, I want people to wonder if I'm having a birthday party or a bachelorette party. Nothing raunchy, no penis lollipops or scavenger hunts or anything, just a night out not worrying about anything except having a good time.

On Saturday night, a friend and I saw a group of middle-aged women dancing at a bar in Georgetown. One of them wore a tiara and a pink feather boa, and we debated with two guys there as to which type of party they're having. It turns out, a blonde woman with a nametag that said "Dixie" was celebrating her fiftieth birthday with all of her girlfriends. They danced with a couple of young guys, a couple of older guys, and me and my friend. They knew all the words to "Tik Tok," everyone bought the birthday girl a drink, and they probably went to bed at a reasonable hour (they were in full swing around 10). Sounds like a perfect fiftieth birthday party to me.

First Snow!

Our apartment complex sign

Last night was pretty magical here in Our Nation's Capital. Andrew and I went to see The Artist (phenomenal, btw. I might write another post about how enchanting that movie was.) and when we walked out of the theater around midnight softly floating snowflakes filled the sky and covered the ground. After coming out of a silent black and white movie, a snow-blanketed empty Arlington fit the mood perfectly.

We were the first people out on the pet path behind the building, so Domino quickly filled up the blank snow canvas with paw prints and yellow spots.

Snow paws

While the cold completely shuts Andrew down and reduces him to a whining, shivering mess, Domino seems to gain energy through the snow that coats her fur after she rolls in the drifts. We went for as long of a walk as we could handle, and she ran up and down Key Boulevard like it was her last day on Earth. Andrew threw some snowballs at me (it was prime packing snow) and we did a lot of sliding down the steep hill that's on the side of our building. Basically if you get a little bit of running momentum you can kind of maneuver yourself sideways and snowboard down the icy sidewalk if you're wearing treadless shoes like Chucks. I wish I had a decent video, because I'm not the best at explaining things like that. We had a good time.

This morning the snow iced over and was all nasty-colored, but at least we were awake to see it last night in its prime.

Snow is the best.