Ryan and Steph in DC

Turtle Boil

2010-08-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

My parents friend that lives on Ocean Isle is a Turtle Nest Mother. That means she gets to stay up until 11 for a few days with some other people and check their specific nest every 15 min or so as it is supposed to hatch. We went over Sunday night because that was Day 51, the day that the other nests hatched on the island. Nothing happened that night so we went back last night. Ryan thought it would be a couple days and it seemed that way when we showed up. We got there around 9:30 and there were no changes to the mound....another check at 9:45 and nothing. Our friend came over and told us we should go home. We about did but my dad was asleep in his chair and the rest of us were just watching the stars so we weren't in a rush to get up. Someone went to check around 10 and I honestly didn't even turn to pay attention. Then suddenly everyone starting moving and buzzing. The turtles were coming!

This nest had 129 eggs and they counted approximately 119 turtles last night so they call this a boil since a whole bunch came up at the exact same time (the opposite would be a trickle). Not being a turtle expert, I really don't know but that seems like a huge percentage of the eggs to have survived and hatched. Since this beach is replenished meaning sand is added to keep it from eroding too much, they have to move the nests back to the dunes so they are protected and won't be washed away. This unfortunately makes for a dangerously long "commute" to the ocean for the hatchlings so these "nest parents" build a trough down from the nest to a cooler and attract the turtles to it using flourescent lights. They then carry the cooler to the water and people stand in the water with lights and the turtles go out to the waves. From that point on it's up to nature. It was quite a sight and a huge, healthy boil. We had a great time and were so lucky to have gotten to see it. You can find more pictures here.

Anyways, that's our exciting news.

Steph and Ryan

*P.S. Jennifer you were right. Our friend said one of the islands north of here, near Topsail, had 89 nests which is a huge number. Ocean Isle had 19 i think but it varies year-to-year.

*P.P.S Pictures were difficult as flash was strictly prohibited (the turtles would go towards it). But Ryan and my mom managed to get a few good ones.

Surprise!

2010-08-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

So I don't want to spoil the surprise until Ryan uploads photos--just check back later today! We all got to see something amazing last night that none of us had ever seen before--the kids will probably like the photos. Ryan and my dad are out catching their dinner, which they have not successful done together before. They took the kayaks so they could get to a more remote area so maybe today will be the day.

Fill you in once they return (and remove the fish stink!)!

Pics

2010-07-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, here are 2 pics from this weekend. The first is the poutine. This dish is Ryan's which had bonus artery clogging toppings in addition to the gravy & cheese curds: bacon, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. I had fun learning that cheese curds really do squeak--I didn't really understand it until I ate one!

This is Ryan and I at one of the vistas near the top of Mont Royal. McGill's campus and the Old Port area are behind us (I believe). No that's not how Ryan is styling his hair now--it was REALLY windy! Although there are a lot of spikey hairdo's in this town so he would fit in. :)

Ryan is at work and I am doing school/internship work from the hotel and resting my tired legs. We fly back Wed. We have many other stories and pics but I think they will make more sense together so I will wait until we can upload more photos to write about them.

Montreal

2010-07-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let you know that we are having a great time, but the internet connection is too slow to easily upload photos. We spent yesterday walking around some different neighborhoods and parks and eating. We checked a few of our Canadian food items off our list of things to do: poutine (fries covered with cheese curds and gravy--we have pictures) and Montreal bagels. Both of which were fantastic. I like their bagels better than ours. We also stopped to have a cappuccino and, even though we were already disgusted with ourselves, indulged in a crepe with a homemade caramel sauce and chocolate ice cream--delicious! Needless to say our feet were tired and stomachs full so we came back to soak our feet in the hotel hot tub and skipped dinner. We are off to more "touristy" things today. We are going to Mont Royal this morning and then down to the Old Port area. We will try to upload a photo or two tonight.

Steph & Ryan

Bonjour de Montreal!

2010-07-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Wanted to take a quick moment to say hey and post a few pictures. I have had a good time so far in Montreal. I have been pretty busy with work (as I am basically working 2 jobs), but I was able to get out and see the city this weekend. On Saturday, I probably walked 7-8 miles all throughout the city. I went to the Old Port area, which is full of French architecture and cobble stone streets. I then ventured into Chinatown and ate lunch. I had a fresh and tangy Vietnamese sandwich with 3 kinds of sliced pork covered with cilantro and carrots.

I then wandered up and down Saint Catherine Street which is probably the busiest street in Montreal. It kept raining in stages throughout the day but that gave me an opportunity to explore Montreal's vast system of underground shops and pathways. Since the winters are so cold in Montreal many of the buildings downtown are connect by underground pathways so you don't need to walk outside when its cold. There are also underground malls and shops. Pretty smart!

On Sunday, even though I was very sore from Saturday (I also ran...), I decided to summit Mount Royal, which really isn't as intense it may sound. It basically a large hill just outside downtown Montreal. At the top, there are great views of the city, which you can see below.

I am looking forward to Wednesday when Steph comes to join me. I have had fun, but I think I will enjoy the city much more with her here!

Hope everyone is doing well! Take care.

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

We had an event filled 4th of July weekend. Saturday, Ryan went for a bike ride and I went for a quick run then we took off to the Nats game. We went early to try and see batting practice but it was just too hot to sit down by home plate and watch. So we sought some shade and hung out until the game started. We picked this game because Stephen Strasburg was pitching. The stadium was packed which threw us off a little because we are used to having the whole place to ourselves. It was exciting to see that many people care though.

We were supposed to go for a bike ride together Sunday but were exhausted and knew we had another long day ahead of us. We got BBQ to-go from a local restaurant and took some watermelon and went to watch fireworks. We chose a spot near where we went last year and again it was a great combination: fantastic view across the river and not to crowded. This year we were wiser and hung out for a good hour along the river to let the metro crowds die down and it was a great choice.

The fireworks were great and I hope you enjoy our pictures. Click here for more.

George Washington National Forest Camping

2010-06-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we went camping with some friends at the George Washington National Forest--the guy has a lot of things named after him in this area! Haha! We had a great time even though the rain tried to damper things. We were able to get a fire going eventually and enjoyed sitting around it for a long time. We went for a hike (well my friend and I did, while the boys went for a trail run). They also had a beach area on the lake so we hung out there some. Ryan got to swim in a lake which he had been talking doing for a while. He was a happy camper!

The lake was gorgeous and we had a great time getting away from the city for a weekend. It was a nice change of pace.
Click here for more camping photos.

Since then we have just been working and I finished my summer semester classes. 4 semesters down; 2 to go. Last night we used some of my bday money to go to a great restaurant and had the most amazing food. It's called Zaytinya and they serve Greek, Lebanese, and Turkish mezze (small plates). We could go on and on about the food (especially the crispy brussel sprouts and phyllo wrapped lamb) but we won't bore you. Thanks Mom & Dad & Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel!

For those that don't know already, we are going to Montreal at the end of the month. Ryan's company needs him to cover for someone up there and take a look at their current processes to see if they can be improved. He is going up for about 2 weeks and then I am going up for the last week. It will be a lot of fun to have that amount of time in a city so that we can hopefully see a variety of things.

Two days after we return from that we are going to the beach for a week with my parents! We are soooo ready to be there already and talk about it everyday. So as you can see July is busy but should be a lot of fun. We are looking forward to the fireworks next weekend and will probably take a picnic to the same spot as last year. We are also trying to get to a Nats game soon so we can see the new "phenom" Stephen Strasburg. I'm not sure what's more amazing--his pitching or the fact that people are actually at Nats stadium. I guess we won't have the whole place to ourselves anymore.

Steph's Birthday - Annapolis

2010-06-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Three weekends ago we celebrated Steph's birthday by going to Annapolis for a day, but before we left I got Steph some Calla Lilies that she wanted me to share with everyone!

In Annapolis, we walked around a lot and ate our way through the city. We had a delicious Italian meal for lunch, seafood for me for dinner, and gelato (Steph's "birthday cake") for dessert on the harbor. There were multiple breaks in to shops and coffee houses to escape the heat but it was a great day.

We also toured the Naval Academy as you can see from our pictures. They were out of session so we were able to wonder right into the main hall of their sleeping quarters which is apparently the largest single dormitory in the world. When we needed to relax, we hung our feet off the docks in Ego Alley-- where all the yachts drive by to show off.

Click here for more pictures from Annapolis.

We are looking forward to going back. It was a lot closer than we realized and was a great place to get away to. The following weekend we went camping with some friends so check back for that update in the next few days.

Message from Steph: If anyone wants to see some awesome fireworks, we know where to find them so come join! ;P

Here and There

2010-05-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

Brace yourselves, this is a marathon update. Sorry for the long delay--everyone can thank Mr. Jack Debussey for harassing us until we decided to update to get him off our backs! :)

I finished finals 3 weeks ago and Ryan and I went to see the Braves play the Nationals to celebrate. We had a great time but were 2 out of about only 100 people in the stadium. For the first 7 innings it looked like the Nats were going to throw a no hitter against us--the 2nd pic is Ryan trying to decide whether to cheer for the no hitter or the Braves... it didn't look like our night anyways. My favorite part about the Nats is the presidents' race and we got to walk right past Abe when we got to the stadium so I had to take a pic.

The next morning flew to Atlanta to visit friends and family and Ryan was holding down the fort in DC. While I was gone Ryan spent one Sat going to the embassy open house day for the European Union. The one for all of the other countries was the previous weekend but finals prevented us from going. He said it was a great experience and since I will only have one class next spring I am planning on blocking off those two weekends. He said that they served food and drinks and had other cultural presentations to show off each of their countries. He specifically went to the Italy and UK embassies because the lines are really long so next year we will start early and see more!

While in Atl I got to see all of my girl friends and family including Mrs. B. The day I flew in my dad and I drove straight to South GA to see my grandparents and my uncle had purchased a new tricycle for my grandfather. I took this video with my cellphone so it's bad quality but I thought it kind of looked like an old-school home video and he was really cute riding down the street on it. If you see a 92 yr old man on a red tricycle watch out he's riding to a town near you!

Below are pics with each of my little cousins who are the cutest little people ever! I got to meet Lily the newest addition to our crazy large, girl dominating family! :) Fortunately one of our honorary family members is adding a boy to group in the fall! But I guess Ryan's family is balancing that out by adding another girl. :) The pic of Caitlin and I (middle) is from the Fickle Pickle so I got my fix for the fried green tomato sandwich which will hopefully last me until the fall or winter.

As for what's currently going, I started back to school last week but the classes are only 6 weeks long. I also am doing an internship 2 days a week and working the other 3 in the lab. Ryan has been busy with work but is still enjoying it. He is currently enjoying baseball season and looking forward to the World Cup this summer. Two weekends ago we did some volunteering at a DC public school where we cleaned up the grounds and did some landscaping. The school looked so much better when it was over. We did it with our GTDC alumni club but brought along a few non-gt friends to help us and had a great time.

The weather has been gorgeous and just perfect for several weekends. This past weekend we took a nice walk around Roosevelt Island (pics below) and my friend David came to visit. We enjoyed a nice afternoon and dinner with him in the city yesterday and it was great to see an old, familiar face that we haven't seen in a while! And now, drum roll please......

Ryan is now running again!!!! The pic below is of his broken fibula which has finally healed enough to do fun things again. We want to take advantage of the weather and go for some bike rides but we need to tune up a few things on our bikes, hopefully soon!

Finally a cheese update. Two weekends ago we made gouda which has to age for 3 months but will then be ready (doesn't take as long as cheddar). This past weekend we bought goat's milk from a local farmer at our farmer's market so we are going to make another batch of feta this coming weekend. We currently have a ban on using the first feta until we get another batch aging because we're afraid of running out.

Random Update

2010-04-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

As Ryan will definitely confirm, I am procrastinating writing a paper so I figured I would post an update. This past weekend my friend(& old neighbor) Chris came to visit. We hung out and the guys got to watch and talk sports which I think Ryan really enjoyed. I like and understand sports but when you start talking ERAs and RBIs for some random team's random player I am not the best conversationalist--nor do I really try to be. Saturday Ryan needed to study and his leg was still bothering him so Chris and I left him behind and went to see all of the monuments down on the Mall. I need to get my tourist legs back--I was tired! It was probably a good thing Ryan didn't join us since now we know his leg has been broken this whole time since the ski accident! It was fun to do some touristy things that we haven't done for several months and to have a visitor--we LOVE visitors (**hint hint**)! :)

I'm glad y'all enjoyed our tulip pictures. Ryan brought them back from Amsterdam for me last summer so we were excited all year to have them bloom. The weather was nice enough that we got to eat dinner out on the balcony to enjoy them several nights before it got cold again. This weekend we planted some of our herbs and added another planter so we can have even more! We have a few spots left to fill.

So I was thinking about the day that Gracie (Ryan's niece) made Uncle Ryan draw airplanes over and over again (I personally think they looked more like whales than airplanes :) ) and that reminded me that we never posted a video we took while at Gravelly Park. It's the park we always go to by the airport, but the other weekend we got stir crazy while studying and took a quick break to go watch some planes land. So here is the video so you guys can see how close the planes come.

Tulip Pictures

2010-04-15T19:01:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Pictures of Steph's Tulips are up. You can check out the pictures here!

Cherry Blossoms

2010-04-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, everyone!

We have been really busy the last two weeks, but on Friday we managed to make a little time to go down to the Mall to see the cherry blossoms after work. We found out Thursday that they had just peaked the day before that even though the peak normally lasts a few days but we couldn't really tell the difference. I think all the snow this year probably made bloom predictions impossible. The cherry trees were really pretty and we got a few good pictures (link below). We stayed for sunset and had a great time. There were tons of a people which kind of detracted from the beauty, but the sunset made up for it! We were told by someone that there are some pretty neighborhoods on the northern side of the city that have a lot of blossoms that are pretty to drive around so we might try to check that out once my test is over this week.

Click HERE to see more pictures!

Not much else is going on around here. The weather is gorgeous and is even going to be "summer-like" in the next few days. I hope it goes back to "spring" after that, but my southern bones are still thawing out from the winter so I'm happy with all the sunshine and warmth I can get! Once Ryan's leg heals we hope to start riding our bikes and running. The bikes would have been handy for seeing the blossoms. Oh and to clarify, yes I have to wait for Ryan to bike because I still get easily lost in this city--it's the whole only traveling underground thing. :)

Hope everyone is having as beautiful weather as we are and are enjoying it! Miss everyone and have a great week!

Skication!

2010-03-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

So this probably came as a surprise to most of you after hearing us complain all winter about we were tired of being cold and snowed in, but apparently we decided we hadn't had enough and planned a ski trip to Snowshoe, WV. We were told by multiple people that it was a little further than some other resorts in the area but that the extra drive was well worth it for better conditions and a higher vertical drop. For my family...no it's not like skiing in Breck, but for the east coast they had a LOT of snow this year. I was surprised by the conditions for it being March and in the south east. It was little slushy especially by the end of day but really not that bad and at least it wasn't a solid sheet of ice. The weather was absolutely fantastic the entire weekend--warm and sunny, no gloves needed! So it was the perfect winter-spring transition vacation.

We both had a blast. It was Ryan's 2nd time ever and the first was not that great of an experience. However I think I won him over and he now really likes skiing! (I think it was the teacher this time...me! :) ) A trip to Breckenridge with an intermediate lesson for him is definitely the next step. The little resort town was pretty nice but a lot of the restaurants were closed for dinner since it was the first weekend of the late season. However we managed to find one that had TV's so we could watch our Yellow Jackets win their first round tourney game. The food was pretty good too--Ryan had a pimento cheese bacon burger that he really liked!

Anyways, we can't say enough about how good of a trip it was, and we came back very refreshed. We were both a little physically worse for the wear--Ryan is on crutches now from a fall on his first day but still says he wants to go back next year so I think that's a good sign. What's really nice is that it's close enough that we were able to get 3 days of skiing in by only taking Friday off from school/work!

Click HERE to see more pictures from our trip to Snowshoe! A video from the 2nd day of Ryan is below. He improved a lot over the trip! The first day he ended up going backwards down the hill every time he tried to stop. :)

Note: We just added another post right below this one from an outing before the trip. Enjoy!

Fine Art & People Watching

2010-03-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Ryan and I were pretty stir crazy so we decide to go into the city for the afternoon. We started at the National Gallery of Art. The collection is pretty overwhelming so we wandered aimlessly for the most part but came across some nice pieces in the process. I had been wanting to take Ryan there for a while because the architecture of the building is fantastic and I thought he would like that, which he did. It really is a beautiful building. We were so antsy from being locked up all winter that I thought some people watching would do us good so we bundled up and walked next door to the sculpture garden where they have an outdoor ice skating rink in the winter. We grabbed a cup of coffee and a seat right along the edge of the rink, and let me tell you--we had a great time and we didn't even skate! Let's just say there were plenty of opportunities for laughter. Anyways, click here enjoy the pictures!

Snowfree Weekend!

2010-02-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

So we did some fun stuff yesterday and will fill everyone in on that once we upload pics. Basically, we were just excited to have a weekend where it was above freezing (well without the windchill at least) and not snowing so we went in to the city for the afternoon. Last night we had a ping pong and foosball tournament. Ryan won ping pong, and I won foosball. I think he thought he would win ping pong again so he challenged me again today after we finished cleaning the apartment, but he was WRONG! I imagine there will be a tie breaker match some time this week.

For now, to summarize our winter so far I leave you with a few funny/entertaining items. Don't take the stats one too seriously, I just thought it was humorous (particularly the # of animals that escaped the zoo due to the snow storm!)...I have no idea how accurate it is. I got from here on the WP. The other is a video from the most recent blizzard. It's really short, but I think it takes watching it 2 or 3 times before you really capture how cool it is. If Ryan had a remote time-lapse contraption for his camera (I don't know the real name) we definitely could have done this! There are several other videos on youtube that are time-lapses and they all show just how crazy the snowfall was.

Oh and if anyone needs us to house sit a house in The Keys, California, Hawaii...you get the point...we are at your service!

Miss everyone!

Steph & Ryan

Click to enlarge the picture

Waxed Cheese & Cafe Salsa

2010-02-20T14:55:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update. We finished waxing the cheese earlier this week and it is now aging in the fridge. Click HERE for pictures. We are going to head to Old Town Alexandria tonight to have dinner at a restaurant we went to last summer and loved - Cafe Salsa. Enjoy your weekends!

What happens when you lock us up for a week....

2010-02-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

So DC in general does not handle being locked up due to the snow--a bunch of Type A workaholics get very cranky when this happens. Ryan and I learned that we were no exception to this and apparently fit right in this city. Neither of us has ever been so happy go to work as we were on Friday after having not been there since the previous Thursday. So on Wednesday to pass the time we made cheddar cheese. Click HERE to see pictures--captions describe the steps. It was more complicated than the feta because we had to press it. We used a large tower of my textbooks to do this and they kept falling over as the cheese would sink in certain spots. It would have been entertaining to be a fly on our walls because we would just sit there staring at the Leaning Tower of Public Health Books trying to decide if it was leaning. As soon as we thought it was alright we would walk away they would come crashing down! We are going to cover it in red cheese wax tomorrow and then let it age in the refrigerator for many months. We are so excited to taste it, and I hope we have the patience to wait for it to age.

That brings us to today. Neither of us are big Valentine's Day people, but we decided that it was a good excuse to at least make a nice dinner. So we experimented with something new--butternut squash lasagna (picture below). It was delicious!

Snoverkill (Snow + Overkill)

2010-02-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

We are still here and haven't killed each other yet (jk), but are very stir crazy. GW is already canceled tomorrow which is the 4th day this week and my last day of classes for the week. Ryan is at most going in late but might be canceled as well. I'm hoping that it at least won't be snowing tomorrow even if we are stuck here so we can go outside and get some fresh air. The majority of today was whiteout conditions so we just stayed inside. I can't promise there will be any pictures of "Snoverkill" because we are pretty fed up with it and have run out of things to take pictures of. To pass the time we starting making cheddar cheese as our second cheese. It is being pressed right now. We took pictures and will post those sometime this week once the pressing is done. After it is pressed, it has to air dry for 3-5days and then we get to wax it with the pretty red cheese wax! :) Then we have to say goodbye to it for a minimum of 2 months and probably more like 6 months while it ages.

So this past Sunday Ryan woke up early to go take some sunrise pics. The day after a snow fall is always so pretty and we have had gorgeous blue skies every time. Once he came back I was ready to go out so we put on some ski pants (thanks, mom & dad for getting them out of the attic for us!) and went to the public park up the street. We spent a good two hours building our snowman! The snow was so high that we probably each fell down a good 50times so we were sore after the adventure, but it was a good and fun sore! Our snowman is pretty plump (and kind of feminine) but our neighborhood seemed to enjoy him. We had people tell us he was awesome and secretly watched other people take pictures of him (we were so proud!). So here are the pictures from the rest of the weekend's "Snowmaggedon" storm.

Wish us luck--there's more snow in the forecast for next week! Hope everyone else is staying warm and doing well!

"Snowmaggedon" DC 2010

2010-02-06T17:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm ready for a vacation to the Keys or Hawaii but since that clearly isn't happening, we are embracing the snow for umpteenth time is this "bizarre" DC winter (or so they say). The skies cleared and snow stopped this afternoon just in time for a pretty sunset so we packed the camera up and ran outside. We didn't have time to make it very far before the sun set so the pics are of stuff most of you have seen before but they show the snow. We estimate it to be 2+ feet around here. It came up to my thighs and even then I think I was standing on packed snow. It is a wetter/heavier snow than the last blizzard or like the news channel likes to call it "heart attack snow" because it is so heavy to shovel. The snow was coming down fast and furiously for a good 24hrs and we enjoyed laughing at the SUVs who thought they could drive on it spinning their wheels from inside the apartment. The snow plows are out in full force now, but they haven't reached the asphalt yet. Ok, that's about it. We may venture to the city tomorrow and will update more pics if we do. Until then you can enjoy today's by clicking here. The pictures of the bird prints are from the "warm-up" snow fall last weekend--when does spring come???? Looking forward to the Cherry Blossom Festival!

-Steph

Blizzard Part 2???

2010-01-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

Refer the post on Dec. 22 and you will understand our weekend and what it looks like. We would post new pictures but it really looks the same--lots of snow. Stay warm!

--Steph and Ryan

Stinky Cheese Man! (and woman)

2010-01-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

So the birthday festivities went well and having a birthday on a three day weekend makes time for a lot fun. We started off slow with a quick dinner out and a relaxing Friday evening. Then Saturday we went to the movies, and Ryan had coke and popcorn just like he requested for his b-day (such a big boy! haha). Sunday was his actual birthday so we went into the District and had brunch at this place called Founding Farmers which is a owned by a coop of farmers from the midwest and they use only fresh and as local as possible ingredients. We are both suckers for great brunch food but this was WONDERFUL! Ryan's was the best: leek hash browns with roasted red beets and goat cheese, topped with two poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. We didn't have reservations (they were booked) but it was pouring rain so we were rewarded for being a few of the only people to venture out in the rain and got a table immediately. The rest of his b-day was spent digesting/being in a food-coma and then eating homemade (by me!) carrot cake to start the food-coma all over again.

Monday we went for a hike on the C&O canal starting in Georgetown. We overestimated the warmth of 50 something degrees along the water and were a little chilly, but I think we made it about 5-6miles and managed to take some photos along the way. We then went into the city to pick up one of Ryan's b-day gifts (I wasn't lying about his b-day being the whole weekend) which was a new tripod.

Tuesday we went back to work/school but some of his other presents came in the mail. The one from me was a Cheese Making Kit! He had been talking about making cheese for a while, and I was hesitant because I was afraid the apartment (and us for that matter) would stink but decided to give in for his birthday. We spent this past weekend making feta as our first cheese, and it is now sitting in brine in our fridge. We are really excited to try it in about a month once it has aged some, but I am proud to say it actually looks and smells like feta! We can't wait to make more and get better at it.

The curds, made by adding acid to warm milk will turn to cheese when dried and aged.

Hanging the curds to dry

The cheese will age in this salt brine for at least a month and up to a year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYAN!!!

2010-01-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

We have been doing different things all weekend to celebrate and will update about the festivities later!

Blizzard, Christmas, New Year's, and Failed Trip to KY

2010-01-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and Ryan has his first full week of work in almost a month starting tomorrow. Classes also start for me tomorrow. So it is a good time to catch you up on our December and New Year adventures. We didn't have time to post much about the blizzard, too busy playing in the snow, but the pictures speak for themselves. There was a LOT of snow and it was fun for the weekend, but not so fun once we had to get back to reality/work. We ventured to the city and saw kids sledding down Capitol Hill and dogs going crazy in ~2ft of snow. It was a really fun, cold day. After that we tried to stay inside as much as possible to stay warm.

A few days later we drove to Williamsburg, VA to meet my parents for Christmas and had a really good time. It was very relaxing and a fun, different way to spend Christmas. We explored the Colonial Williamsburg area and spent a lot of time being lazy and eating. :) The town makes Christmas wreaths using only materials available back then, and they were all unique and pretty. The whole town/experience was very interesting and fun. Click here see more Williamsburg pics.

For New Year's we went to one of my friends from school's apartment and rung in the New Year there. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed meeting some new people. We ate our black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, and the next day we went for a fantastically delicious meal in the city. It was one of my Christmas presents from Ryan and was wonderful (pic before dinner below).

We also went to the alumni club's viewing party for the Orange Bowl (and unfortunately bball game too) on Tuesday night. We had a good time but were definitely disappointed in the outcome.

This weekend we were supposed to drive to KY to attend Ryan's longtime friend's wedding, and Ryan was supposed to be a groomsman. We woke up at 4:00am, but the traffic reports from the "Arctic Blast" were unfavorable so we postponed leaving until about 9:30. The roads through VA were very well treated and cleaned, but unfortunately the second (literally) we got into WV the conditions deteriorated. We tried our hardest but about half way through WV decided it was not a smart or safe decision to keep going forward especially with more snow starting to fall. So we turned around and spent the night in Lexington, VA then came the rest of the way home yesterday. We are very sorry to have missed the wedding, but are looking forward to seeing pictures. I bet they look like a Winter Wonderland Wedding. The rest of our weekend has been spent watching GT beat DUKE, football and buying wiper fluid fit for freezing weather!

DC Blizzard '09

2009-12-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

So the city has dug out of the blizzard and is getting back to normal. We are both working and trying to get ready for Christmas so we haven't had time to update the blog with our snow adventures but will try to do it soon. Until then here's a link to some of the pictures from this past weekend.

Click here for blizzard photos

Merry Christmas!

Ryan & Stephanie

Great Weekend!

2009-12-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Wanted to start out saying that it was great to see everyone over Thanksgiving. Steph and I couldn't believe how long it had been since we'd seen some of you. Hopefully it won't be so long until next time.

Well we thankfully made it back to D.C. in one piece, even though we almost needed our bathing suits when we landed into Ronald Reagan on Tuesday. It's a long story... but we basically thought the plane was going into the Potomac as we were landing.

Anyways, it was great for both of us to have a short week last week. Although this week will certainly feel like an eternity.

On Friday, we went to Georgetown for dinner. We went a place we had been to before called Pizza Paradiso. As the name implies, its got some pretty good pizza. We had then planned to take a leisurely stroll through Georgetown but it has gotten quite cold up here so our walk was cut short.

On Saturday we got our first snow. I think it was more snow than we had seen in Georgia for about five years. It snowed pretty much all day, but didn't stick all day so the roads weren't too bad. We decided that on a cold day nothing tastes better than a hot bowl of chili so we went a Washington DC icon: Ben's Chili Bowl. If you think of The Varsity, but a little run down and a lot of people in a small space, then you've got a pretty good idea about the place. We had a great time--the staff were singing and dancing the whole time along with music in the background. You can see a couple pictures below.

And outside...

We both got chili and then split some cheese fries, one of my favorites. Afterward we took some Tums, got back on the train and headed home.

Now what else did we do on Saturday....., oh yeah, we watch the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech win the ACC Championship!!! Go Jackets!!! So that pretty much capped off our fun weekend! On Sunday we took it easy and got ready for the week.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Pictures from September

2009-11-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

Hey,
Steph and I found some pictures today that we forgot we took. They are posted now online. You can find them here. Enjoy!

I have also added pictures that Steph and I took while in the city on Saturday night. Use this link.

Date Night!

2009-11-17T19:11:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

We're doing another post! It's amazing. So what have we been up to lately... We started this past weekend off by watching our Yellow Jackets with the Alumni club at a local bar and grill. We only stayed for the first half and then watch the rest of the game at home. They won, of course, which means Tech is going to the ACC Championship! Steph and I are both excited about that!

Later Saturday evening, we went to Good Stuff Eatery in DC which is a restaurant that we know about because of a cooking show that we both watch, Top Chef. A contestant from the show opened the restaurant in a neighborhood near the Capitol. It was really good! After we ate we walked over to take pictures at the Capitol building. You can see those photos here.

On Sunday, Steph and I went for a bike ride. And then later that day we went to the mall to find her a new winter jacket... we are trying to get prepared for winter up here. We are both a little apprehensive about how cold its going to get.

We both can't wait to come back to Atlanta to see everyone at Thanksgiving. Hope everyone is doing well!

How did we forget the Jackets???

2009-11-10T10:32:00.001-08:00

There were a few major omissions from the blog last night, and they all involve our #7 Yellow Jackets!!! My mom's birthday was coming up so my dad had the idea to fly Ryan and I down to ATL to surprise her and have a birthday party-tailgate for the GT vs Va Tech game. It was a blast (and we scared her nearly to death when we walked in the house) and of course the Jackets won! All-in-all we were only in ATL for about 24hrs, but it was definitely worth it.

The following weekend we got to see our team play again by traveling with the GTDC Alumni Club to the UVA game in Charlottesville. It has been so much fun to be able to see them even though we moved so far away. Unfortunately it rained--make that poured--the whole time (it would stop just long enough to fool you into thinking it was stopping). We looked like a bunch of wet puppies, but very happy ones when we won. It was a long wet ride back to Arlington. Ryan took a photo of us with his phone that I might be able to upload later, but it really doesn't do our "wetness" any justice. I hid in the aisle tunnel for some of the downpours, but Ryan was a better fan than I (even though I think that makes me a smarter one).

Ok, now I really think we are caught up. Go Jackets! Can't wait to see them beat the dawgs at Thanksgiving!

Back in Business!!!

2009-11-09T17:25:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long. We had a bunch of company and then some serious computer problems but we are back in business so here it goes...

The weekend of the last post we went to a Greek Festival in the northern part of the DC. It was smaller than the one we had been to in Atlanta, but the food was fantastic. Our favorites were the tiropita and of course, the baklava. It was a good relaxing weekend.

After that, Ryan's friends came up to visit. It was good to have some visitors and I think the guys had a good time hanging out. They got to see a lot of the Mall, some while Ryan and I were working/school. Then we joined them for the weekend. We went to the Air & Space museum, the Old Post Office building (one of our favorites), and Arlington Cemetery.

About 3 days after the guys left, Ryan's parents came to visit! On Friday while Ryan was at work, the three of us went to see the WWII monument and ended up hitting all the major monuments--Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean and even old Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, we didn't have our professional photographer with us so I don't have any photos from this day. Saturday we went to a local farmer's market with them and then headed in to DC to the Old Post Office museum again. This time the weather was beautiful, and we always like taking visitors here. It's really a great view of DC.

Sunday we took them to see the Air & Space Museum out near Dulles airport. We had not gone back since we went with my parents so it was good to see some of the exhibit that we didn't have time for back then. There's just so much to see there. We also found some really good new restaurants with his parents and had some delicious dinners. As you can see below, we made a stop by Great Falls National Park on the way home from the museum.

Since all of our visitors left, we have been really busy. Ryan's work has been busy, and I had midterms that consumed me for a good two weeks. We are just now settling back into a routine. I guess that about catches everyone up. Enjoy the pictures. We are really excited to see most of you in a few weeks for Thanksgiving! Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. you can find new and old pictures here

A new post to come soon....

2009-10-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a long time. The desktop that we upload photos from is not working so we don't have any photos to share. A lot has been going on so we will try to fix the computer and get an update ASAP.

Catch Up!

2009-09-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

So this is another catch up blog. This coming weekend we don't have much planned except cleaning the apartment, and the following two weekends we have company coming so I imagine it will be another 3 weeks before we sit down to blog again so I'm not even going to pretend that we are going to try this time.

This past weekend we didn't do much except a little clothes shopping that was an emergency trip because the weather turned cool pretty fast up here and we weren't prepared. So I'm going to jump back 3 weekends ago to something more interesting. That weekend the weather made us chicken out from doing anything outside (even though it ended up being gorgeous) so we took off to the National Archives. We took a lot of pictures around the mall area, but Ryan has not finished sorting through them (we got a little click happy on the camera) so we'll post a link update once they are finished.

Two weekends ago we watched our Yellow Jackets play on the laptop--it was not ideal but at least we got to see them. We had other games on the tv on mute and the score ticker kept giving away our score before we would see it happen because of the delay so we had to turn the tv off. Sunday we took off for Gettysburg battlefield. It was a fantastic day and was nice to get out of the city. We were exhausted at the end of it because there is just so much to see, but it was a great excursion and was only 1.5 hrs away. Here are the pics from that weekend: http://picasaweb.google.com/ryanbech/Gettysburg9709#.

Last week we went to the GTDC alumni club's viewing party for the Thursday night game. Unfortunately I don't get out of class until 9pm and only got there for the 2nd half. We are probably going to stay home for tonight's game but will go to another club viewing for a Sat. game when school doesn't interfere. School is going well for me. I am starting to get busy and in the thick of the semester. Ryan has been super busy at work, but that's a good thing. We are both happy and still enjoying it up here--I think the novelty will wear off when winter comes though. Everyone says the weather is the same as ATL, but based on the mild summer we had here, we don't think we agree and so we are bracing for a colder winter than we are used to.

In two weekends Ryan's friends are coming to visit, and as soon as they leave Ryan's parents are coming. We are very excited to have more visitors and can't wait to see all of them!

GO JACKETS!

2009-08-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was pretty uneventful. Friday we went back to our Indian restaurant from the previous week because we were still craving it and it's right off the metro stop and it looked like it could pour at any minute. We had already lost power due to the storms once that day. The forecast for Sat was all storms from the afternoon on so we got up and took off to Adams Morgan to get out while we had a chance. We just walked around and ate at a small hole-in-the-wall regional Mexican place for brunch. It was a hot and humid so we strolled a little longer then headed home after eating. Yesterday we made our normal rounds to the local area Sunday farmer's market which we are quickly falling in love with and then to other stores to complete the weekly grocery shopping. So like I said, pretty uneventful, but we really enjoyed Adams Morgan and look forward to exploring it more in the future. There was a small gap in the storms on Sat and we stepped outside and there was a huge rainbow! Here's a picture of part of it, it's a little hard to see it, but it was a full arch that was much larger than we could capture with the camera.We haven't had any random political celebrity sightings in a long time because we have been avoiding the mall/WH/capitol area due to the summer tourist season. So to take place of that, this weekend we had a random people watching event from our balcony. This guy pulled up to an empty parking lot across the street and just started playing his guitar on the hood of his car. It was really random and we were amused because we could kind of hear it too and then he put the guitar up and drove off. Here's a pic.

I also realized the other day that we never posted a photo of the apartment since the furniture was delivered so here ya go...

Have a great week!

Steph

2009-08-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Sorry its been so long since our last post; we will try and post more frequently and consistently. So let's see what have we been up to...

Since I got back from Amsterdam, Steph's parents came to visit which was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time exploring several areas of the DC area. One night we went to dinner in Georgetown and another in Alexandria. While I was at work, Steph and her parents went to the zoo and saw the pandas! We also went to a lesser known but very cool Smithsonian museum. It was the Air and Space museum located at Dulles Airport which is basically a huge hanger full of all kinds of aircraft. It houses a space shuttle, the Enola Gay(plane that dropped the first atomic bomb) along with lots of fighter planes and old WWII aircraft. Below are some of the highlights.You can find some more pictures here. You can tell from the pictures that we also showed them Roosevelt Island, which is one of our favorite places in DC.

This past weekend we took it fairly easy, which is exactly what we both needed after several hectic weeks. On Friday we tried an Indian restaruant we had never been to and it was very good, so good in fact that we wanted to go back the next night but we were able to restrain ourselves. On Saturday we got out and ventured up to Great Falls National Park. You can see some pictures of us at the falls below.

Then last night we planned to watch the Braves play the Phillies in a somewhat important game. So to ensure we could enjoy the game we made sure everything was ready for the week early in the day including: laundry, packing lunches, cleaning the apartment, ironing clothes. For the game I even spent two and half hours making my signature honey-hot wings. Once all the food was ready we turned on the TV only to see that the game was in rain delay! It didn't start until 9:45 and needless to say, we didn't see the end of the game. Oh well, at least the food was good. We'll time to go get ready for another day. Hope everyone is doing well.

Oh I almost forgot...I guess everyone who reads this probably already knows but I am an uncle again! My sister Jennifer and her husband Jeff had a baby girl two weeks ago. Her name is Kayleigh. I haven't been able to get out to Colorado to see her yet but I hope to at some point. So far I have enjoyed the pictures. Okay so really leaving now, again we will try to post more frequently.

Back in the USA!

2009-08-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

So I made it back from The Netherlands! I had a great trip and I was able to see a lot of the country. I hope to post pictures soon, but all I have right now is my work computer and I can't use it to post pictures. I was able to upload this one picture of me in Amsterdam with the canal behind me.

My hotel was in a smaller town called Zoetermeer; it was about a 1.5 hour train ride from Amsterdam. When I first arrived, there were no people around. It felt like I was in a ghost town. Apparently everyone takes their vacations during July and August, and they also have about 5 weeks standard for vacation time. So according to the Dutchman who ran the training, that's why the town was empty. I arrived in the morning, took a nap and then headed into Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful and very eclectic town. I felt that the architecture varied greatly from street to street as you will see in some of the pictures. Canals run throughout the city and there appears to be a mass of boats on the canals at all times. I was there on a Sunday, and I was told that the Dutch like to do absolutely nothing but sit in the sun on Sunday. I would definitely say this is the case as every cafe was packed, people were relaxing in the sun on their boats, and others just sat on their front porch soaking in the afternoon heat. My general impression from the whole trip is that the Dutch are very laid back people, which jived well with me. I spent most of my time in Amsterdam walking around taking pictures or relaxing at a cafe enjoying a Dutch beer and taking in the atmosphere of city.

The next day, Monday, my training started, which was good but I won't bore anyone with the details. That night I took the train into another nearby city called Den Haag("The Hauge"). Den Haag is a coastal city where Holland's government is located. I got some good photos of the parliamentary buildings which I will soon share. I had dinner in a popular city square called Plein Square. I took some pictures of that too.

Tuesday, I had more training, and that evening our trainer took the other trainees and I out to dinner. Strangely enough we went to a Japanese Steakhouse, but it was really good. According to the person I sat next to on the plane comming back, Zoetermeer is known for its Asian cuisine. The Dutch don't really have their own foods. They are kinda like the U.S. in that they just borrow from other cultures. The one thing they did want to claim was sandwiches and milk at lunch.

Wednesday was the last day of training and that evening I headed back to Den Haag for dinner. I tried to be adventurous and head to the beach. The only problem was I had to take a tram and I knew that figuring out where the tram goes would be a little tricky. However asked the information desk and the told me which tram to get on. However, they didn't tell me which direction to ride it. I, of course, went the wrong direction. To make a long story short, I never made it to the beach. I went back to Plein Square for dinner which was enjoyable; I don't really like the beach anyways...

Well there's the quick details of my trip. I had a great time and also learned a lot of good information for work. I really liked Holland and the people. I may get return in the future for more training, which would be great, but for now I am happy to be back home in the U.S.

2009-07-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ryan is doing well and enjoying his trip. He will update once he returns to DC.

Ryan's in Amsterdam

2009-07-26T07:20:00.001-07:00

Hi All,

I haven't heard from Ryan, but his flight landed just before 1am so he should be there. I'm glad he left when he did because some nasty storms moved into the area about 1.5 hrs after his flight took off. He was going to take a train out to Zoetermeer to check into his hotel and get cleaned up. Then he was going to take the train back to Amsterdam to explore the city for the day then head back to get ready for training. I asked him to e-mail and, if possible, keep the blog updated while he is there so one way or another hopefully we will all know what exciting things he is up to (with the exception of software training :) ). If he can only e-mail, I will keep it updated. He definitely took his camera so I can't wait to see those pictures!

As for other things going on up here, this week was pretty hectic with normal work/school things so nothing fun to report since the post. I took a final Thursday and have one take-home final left. Once I finish that I have a little over a month off from school.

That's about it from me. Can't wait to see a lot of you next week!

Oh and a shout out to the Barron's and Bechtel's--if the baby comes while Ryan is out of the country, let me know and I will try my best to get in contact with him. I know he's excited to be an uncle AGAIN!

Steph

2009-07-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry we haven't updated in a while but I guess we've been busy with work and school. Last weekend we went to Alexandria for date night. We went to a Latin restaurant; everything was fresh and delicious, especially the maduros. Also we went on a easy bike ride on Sunday into Maryland and back.

This weekend, we wandered into D.C. on Saturday to take some photos from the Old Post Office tower. It gives you a great view of the city that not a lot of people know about. You can see those here. Then last night we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. While we were in line for the movie we ran into some fellow alumni who live in the area. This was ironic since we have just recently been trying to get involved and meet people through the alumni club. I guess we should have known all we had to do was go to Harry Potter movies to meet fellow Techies!

Today we are trying to get ready for the week and I am preparing to go to Amsterdam! Steph has finals, which isn't as exciting but she gets to head to ATL once those are over.

Hope everyone is doing well.

2009-07-10T12:20:00.001-07:00

Not much has happened this week, but I thought I would give a quick update. Ryan is definitely going to Amsterdam at the end of July. No Liverpool this time, but hopefully there will be another opportunity. I'm secretly a tiny bit glad that he is skipping Liverpool and coming back early because then my herb garden won't die of thirst when I head to Atlanta. He leaves and then comes back a day after I leave for Atlanta for Laura and Brian's wedding--we didn't coordinate our trips too well. I'm looking forward to going to Atlanta, and I have a month off from school so that will be a good way to use up some of the time. Ryan is enjoying his work and is staying very busy. My goal for July is to find part-time work or research to do for the fall.

Hopefully we will do something fun this weekend since I have to study for finals next weekend and
we will have more exciting update.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers so far!

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekends. It sounded like almost all of you had plans and so we couldn't be the only ones not doing something. My friend Laura and her fiance Brian came up on Friday afternoon. Once they got here we headed over to the mall to see if we could get into the Air & Space museum and see some of the other monuments. The A&S was slammed with lines out the door to get in so we walked on up to the Capitol to take pictures and they were having the dress rehearsal for the 4th of July concert. On the way to the capitol we stopped to roam around the Botanical gardens. There's an outdoor area that I don't remember being there and the weather was so gorgeous that it was a lot of fun to walk around. Anyways, after the gardens and capitol we decided to try the A&S one more time and were successful. We only had time for a few exhibits but I'm glad we were able to get in while Laura & Brian were here.

They wanted to finish seeing the mall sites so we went on a walking adventure and made it to the other end to see good Ol'Abe, taking pictures of the Washington and WWII monuments along the way. We then went to Georgetown for a late dinner and to walk around. Pictures from this day can be found here.

The next day we got up and headed to the Nats stadium to see the Braves play. Again the weather was fantastic, and we were in the shade and had a nice breeze the entire game--it was great. Unfortunately the Braves lost but we still had a great All-American 4th of July experience. (Pictures here) We came back to the apartment to regroup and grab some picnic food and then took off to Lady Bird Johnson park near Arlington Cemetery. We had been debating for a week or so about where would be the best place to watch and while we don't have anything to compare it to I think we picked the best place. It was across the river from the mall but we could see both the Lincoln and Washington monuments as we sat on the river bank. The fireworks were great and Ryan got some really good pictures. All-in-all it was a fantastic weekend and we were glad we had some friends to share it with.

Beginnings & Endings

2009-06-29T16:42:00.001-07:00

So today was a very eventful day for both Ryan and I. We'll start with Ryan's day because it was far more exciting. It was his first day at work, and it seems like it went really well. He got an office with a big desk and a big window--a window? a private office? what are those?? He also was told that he will probably be heading to Amsterdam and possibly Liverpool at the end of July for training (Amsterdam) and meeting people he will talk to frequently at the manufacturing plant (Liverpool). It's not definite but seems likely so that's exciting.

As for my day, I finished my first graduate school class. Don't know how I did but I think I at least survived. It feels good to finish one and know that I didn't forget how to study (and cram at the last minute!). I still have two classes, but I just have to go to campus once a day in the mornings now, so no back-and-forth which is good. My friend Laura and her fiance Brian are coming to visit this weekend for the 4th of July so I'm going to spend my new found free time cleaning, cooking, and getting ready for their visit. My old roommate from sophomore year may also be in town. We are excited to see people we know here.

Long time... no post

2009-06-25T06:36:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry we haven't posted in a long time, but I guess we've been busy. Steph has been working tirelessly trying to finish up her final paper and presentation for a class that ends next week. She had her presentation yesterday and thinks it went well. She will be keeping herself busy with work through this weekend, but her final is on Monday so she should be able to relax after that. She still has two other classes that go through July, but this one was short and rushed at the end.

While she's been working, I have been enjoying my last week off. In case you hadn't heard, I start work next Monday! I'm really excited about the job. The work is exactly what I studied for in school so hopefully I find it as interesting as I did my courses. Wednesday I wandered up to Great Falls National Park in Virginia. There a pictures here. It's really only 20 minutes away and has many hiking trails and great scenery. Even though you are only 20 minutes away from downtown, you really do feel like your in the middle of nowhere, which makes it a great escape when you want away and relax.

To catch you up since the last post, last Friday Steph had a study session on campus so we met up in Rosslyn after that and took a shuttle over to Georgetown for the afternoon. We walked around and went to a few bars and restaurants for happy hour, appetizers and eventually dinner. We really liked the area and are looking forward to going back.

Once Steph stops hogging the computer after her final is over, we will get back to more regular posts.

Charm City xCursion!

2009-06-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Hope all are doing well. Steph and I had a fun weekend. On Friday we went to Baltimore to catch an Orioles games since the Braves were in town! We got to Baltimore early so we could hang around and do a little exploring. In the end there actually wasn't that much to do that didn't cost money, so we just enjoyed the inner harbor and relaxed. It was surprisingly hot so we spent a lot of time searching for shade (and somewhere to buy sunscreen). Eventually to get out the sun we headed over to Pickles Pub by the stadium for $1 beers, which are always good. After that we went to the stadium early so we could watch the Braves warm up and tried (unsuccessfully) to get autographs.
Camden Yards lived up to our expectations. It was a really fun park that had a great atmosphere. It's no wonder so many other stadiums have been modeled after it.
The game was great. Braves won 7-2. Go Braves! It was also floppy hat night so we got some pretty sweet free hats (See below).
We spent the rest of the weekend mostly relaxing. Stephanie had some school work to do, so she spent time doing that. I was able to get a good bike ride in today and explored a new bike trail in Virginia. All in all a pretty good weekend. Hope everyone has a good week!

Btw, if you want to see more pictures from Baltimore click here.

Relaxing Day at the National Mall

2009-06-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

I had nothing to do today as I am waiting to start work. So I went down to the National Mall to take some photos. Enjoy.

P.S. In case you were wondering, I was not near the shooting at the museum. Thankfully, I was about 1-2 miles away.

Stuff we've been up to

2009-06-10T04:32:00.000-07:00

So, I guess Steph beat me to the announcement, but the job search is over! (Pending a background check) Anyways, I'm really excited and look forward to starting. Right now I'm just trying to enjoy the free time that I won't have in a couple of weeks. I went on a good bike ride yesterday. A new bridge was just built, crossing the Potomac into Maryland, so I rode to that and back. There are some really good off-road paved bike trails around here that go all sorts of places. You can ride to Mount Vernon or even all the way to Pittsburgh! Although, I'm really not sure what's in Pittsburgh to see these days. Last night we made some shrimp and grits for dinner, my favorite! (Steph had artichokes instead of shrimp)

This weekend, depending on the weather, we are planning on going to an Orioles game since the Braves are going to be in town. I'm really excited, Camden Yards is suppose to be a great stadium with a lot of history. We are going to try and make a day of it and head up early to Baltimore and find some things to do in the city. Well I suppose that's about it for now. Take care.

-Ryan

Congratulations, Ryan!

2009-06-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to sneak a congratulations post in for Ryan while he's not around. He has been offered a job as supply chain planner (i think that's the right name) pending his background check--let's cross our fingers they don't find out about his shady past! Just kidding! He's really happy and I am very happy for him! Also, he got his Georgia Tech diploma in the mail late last week. Which as many of you know, GT grads don't really relax until they get that in their hands--now it's really official. I'll try to take a picture of it or him with it.

Congratulations, Ryan!

2009-06-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Okay so a lot of stuff happened in the past 2 days.

Yesterday, I had planned for us to go to the National Botanical Gardens for Steph's B-day, but it has been raining non-stop for the past couple days. Gardens are not very fun when it is raining.

Instead, Steph and I went to the Natural History Museum for several hours. It was a lot of fun but there were middle-schoolers from all around the country there as well. We had both been there before on seperate trips, but it is one of our favorites.

After the museum we went to Dupont Circle to enjoy National Donut Day! We both got our free Krispy Kreme donut! If you happened to miss your free donut, there is always next year. We then wandered around the area as there are lots of interesting and eclectic shops, buildings and good people watching. We stayed around and had dinner at a Thai/Sushi place. It was good!

Today, we volunteered as course marshalls for the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure at the National Mall. There were soooo many people there, I think the estimates were at around 50,000. The event was enjoyable and we were happy to help out.

We also had our second political celebrity sighting! We were stationed at our corner to direct participants before the race started, when a huge motorcade with about 15 motorcycles and 5-6 vehicles with limosuines came screaming past us. We knew it must of been someone important and soon found out it was. It ended up being a whole host of individuals including Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden! Also with them were...

Interior Sec . Kenneth Salazar
Agriculture Sec. Thomas Vilsack
DOT Sec. Raymond L. LaHood
Director of Budget & Management Peter Orszag

...and the prince and princess of Serbia! They were all there as a part of Race for the Cure.

Well that was our last few days. Hope everyone is well.

-Ryan and Steph

Happy Birthday Stephanie!!!

2009-06-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

Today is Stephanie's birthday! Unfortunately she has been doing school stuff all day and I had an interview (but that's actually a really good thing). Tomorrow we are going to have a fun day to celebrate, but I can't say too much because that would give it all away! Hope everyone is doing well.

Ryan

Update: We were able to enjoy some tasty cupcakes per Steph's request for her birthday.

Bikes, Boxes and Chicken

2009-05-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello!

So Steph and I started off the day with a bike ride down by the Potomac. There is a really neat trail that runs along the river from north of DC all the way down to Mount Vernon. We only did a portion of it today and made it to old town Alexandra, which is a quaint little district with cobble stone streets and old shops. It kinda of reminded us of Charleston or Savannah.

We also did some more unpacking....it's a work in progress. Found a quick, cheap and tasty Peruvian chicken joint 2 blocks away. It was really good and the best part is they serve Inca Kola!, which is a Peruvian soda that I had back in high school when I went to Peru. It brought back great memories.
Well that's about it. Hope everyone has a great week!

Weather NOT Permitting

2009-05-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

The weather was awful so we decided not to go to the film festival--we were sitting on the balcony and lightning suddenly struck about a block across the street from us so we went running inside and nixed that plan. Instead we got in the car (a rare occurrence) and went to get Ethiopian food. Ryan had Ethiopian food in Boston with his cousin, but this was my first time--lots of vegetarian options! We both really enjoyed it and were stuffed when we left.

Ryan is working today and tomorrow, and I have some school work to complete plus more unpacking for both of us. It will probably be a low key weekend with maybe a bike ride tomorrow morning--if the weather decides to play nice this time.

Steph

Hi from Steph

2009-05-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

Not much has gone on this week. We have been unpacking, but we did not fulfill Ryan's wishful thinking from the last post--it was not complete in one night. :) There's still more to go, but it is definitely functional now. Ryan went for a bike ride the other evening and made it over to the Kennedy Center. I had my first quiz and case study so I am definitely back in full school mode now. We are planning on going to Rosslyn's Outdoor Film Festival tonight to see Blues Brothers. We are going to try take-out from a BBQ place to take with us. We also have internet now so that has made a big difference in finding places to go and things to do.

--Steph

Airplanes and Furniture!

2009-05-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

So the movers finally came yesterday! It's nice to finally have somewhere to sit and plates and silverware that aren't plastic.

Yesterday, before the movers arrived, Steph and I went to this cool park that is right next to Ronald Regan Airport. The planes land literally right over your head and are only a couple hundred feet up...if that. You can see how close they are in the pictures below.

When Steph gets back from class we are unpacking for the rest of the day; hopefully we can get it all done today. Everyone have a great week!

2009-05-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
So didn't do too much this week. Steph went to her classes and now has homework for the first time in two years and I continued to look for a job.

I got away from the job hunt one day and spent several hours at Roosevelt Island. It's a small island that is national park in the middle of the Potomac between D.C. and VA. Took my camera and got some good pictures which you can see here. Saw a deer up close and everything!

This weekend we tried to go to a Nats game. We went to the park and everything and realized that if we we're going to get cheap tickets we need to plan ahead. So we didn't go. But the Braves are coming to Baltimore in June and D.C. on July 4 so we definitely plan to go then.

Our furniture is coming tomorrow(Monday)! But we've been learning to live quite well without it. Check out our luxurious dining arrangement below:It's actually quite nice out on the porch. We get to watch the planes takeoff and land. Also there is a car dealership across the street that is great for people watching. Well that's about all I have to talk about. Everyone have a good week!

-Ryan and Steph

2009-05-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

First posting on the blog. I will try and keep up with this regularly to let you know what we are up to here in DC. I will also be updating my photos at my google photo site as well if you are interested.
Yesterday, Steph and I went to downtown DC and visited the Native American Smithsonian. On the way we had our first political celebrity spotting! We saw White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanual in the mall in front of the Capital Building(see right). The Native American museum was pretty cool. It was interesting to learn about individuals whos lives and customs were starkly different from our own.

Today, Steph started classes and I resumed my job search. I've got made some decent contacts and found some good jobs to apply for, so I hopefully something will develop. The movers still haven't come with furniture, so we are learning a lesson in patients. If you want to see some pictures that I took while we were at the museum check out this link. Anyways thats about it for today. Hope everyone is doing well.

Ryan