Ice Skating

We went ice skating with some friends and had a great time. I wasn't sure how well Robert could ice skate so I had my camera ready to take pics of anything that may occur. He actually did better than me (not that that is saying much at all) but as you can see, I did catch a slip and giggled as I clicked away. Actually, I only captured it because he was attempting ice tricks...you know, the kind where you stop real hard and the ice sprays up, yup that'd be what he was doing. I didn't want to miss out on the trick shots so I handed him the camera and my "tricks" consisted of skating on one leg (while holding onto the wall) and twirling (yeah right, I just put my arms up like those fancy ice skaters do and told him to take the picture). Who knows maybe next time we'll try tricks for couple skating?!

The Story of the Black Pecan Pie

Hmmmmm, homemade pecan pie, am I right? I'm right. So, that's what I set out for. I asked around and got a good recipe for us to make our very own Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving. Meticulously, I followed marthastewart.com's directions, except, of course, when the recipe called for arranging the pecan halves in concentric circles around the pie. I mean, really, what am I? Betty Crocker? It's not going on the cover of Southern Living, it's going in my mouth. I scattered the pecans about and ensured they covered the entirety of the pie. In the oven it went and off to play the Wii... wii went. 15 minutes to go and, and from the kitchen, the sweetest and most innocent voice managed to utter the most horrific question: "umm, why is the pecan pie black?"

"What?!?!?!..." and I'm sure you can imagine, the pie was black because, quite simply, it was burnt. Lacking the resilience of delicious Omaha steaks (see "Historic St. Mary's City"), the pie was subject to overexposure of the oven elements. Misinformed by Stewart's online recipe, the pie I had been looking forward to for well over three weeks, now sat like an exile on the counter. It's not a total loss, though. Masked by gratuitous amounts of ice cream, the pie can be eaten, but the taste is bitter sweet, both literally and figuratively. And now, Martha, you owe me a pecan pie. So, if any of you see her around, squeeze her until a pecan pie pops out.

So, off to DC we went after Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately, no amount of city walking could possibly offset the 7700 calories consumed in one sitting, but apparently Lincoln couldn't care less. He just stared.

Tia standing in front of a tree and looking good as can be. I'm digging the winter look.
Here we are with Bill, the mascot of the US Naval Academy. During the first Army-Navy football game, in 1980, the Navy needed a mascot and picked up a goat on the way to West Point. They beat Army 24-0 and three years later, the goat became the permanent Navy mascot.

This is the bell, which was given to the Navy by the Japanese, which is rung everytime Navy beats Army in football. There was another bell which was rung everytime Navy beat Army in any other sport.

That's a cannon.

They say the first thing most people learn when they go to USNA is "Go Navy, Beat Army" and sure enough that was one of the first things we learned, the first was that the Navy has an academy.

Thank you Jane and Marty Horn for a wonderful weekend. Can't wait for Christmas!!

St. Mary's City, and a little more

Here is Historic St. Mary's City, there's Tia. This is the original Capitol of Maryland and it was this way for about 80 years or so. Here I am making sure a witch gets her comeuppance. Actually, I don't know if they had witch trials in MD, but it's a good action shot.

Here's Tia in front of one of the historic houses. Inside you will find all sorts of antiques, replicas, and souveniers. Here also we learned that back then, the people didn't bathe because it was considered unsanitary. So, they masked their yuchh with perfumes and herbs and stuff.

Also, by show of hands, who here knows that aluminum foil can catch on fire? Well, here we are, broiling our delicious Omaha Steaks that we so graciously received from one of our dear friends (Thank you so very much!) and all of the sudden there's smoke coming out of the stove top. Hm. (I thought to myself) That can't be good. I open the oven door -TIA TIA FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! And now begins the race to get the dish out of the oven put it on top of the stove top get a towel beatthefiredownbeatitdownhurryhurry, aaahhhh, the fire alarm! Run to the smoke censor and use the towel to blow air on it and finally, crisis averted. Those steaks were DELICIOUS! and obviously impervious to disaster.

Williamsburg, Virginia

This past weekend we went to Williamsburg, Virginia. It was suppose to be a rainy weekend, but we lucked out with good weather. We walked about Colonial Williamsburg and saw all the old buildings and fashion of life "way back when". Then, we went shopping. It was fun being with my family! Thank God they aren't too far away; otherwise, I'd be SO homesick.

The Smithsonian

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum... Nice! This is what we did in DC on our first visit. Awesome place! We got a free tour and have learned, and by now forgotten, a whole lot about air... and space... not so much about museums... there's an idea, a museum about museums. How very Jerry Seinfeld. Anyway, the tour was free, but the guide was aging and could barely talk above the background noise, so we were often forced to get uncomfortably close to him to find out all the good info. So, what DID we remember? That's right, it's all about poop. Apparently they put it all in receptacles and brought it back to earth. I thought they could probably leave it up there, but can you imagine being another space shuttle looking for the space station and you get human poop on the windshield? They don't have windshield washer fluid, you know. And can you imagine all that astronaut training and then be labeled "first astronaut to wipe human poop from the space shuttle windshield"; I guess there's a first for everything. I think it may be worse for the second guy that has to clean poop. At least the first guy is in the history books, the second guy...? all the shame, none of the glory.

This here's Neil Armstrong and... the other guy, apparently his name is John Glenn. As you can see, they wanted to emphasize that he was NOT the first one on the moon by making him stand on the ladder. I mean, he was on the moon like one minute later than Neil and no one remembers who he is. Poor Jeff Green.

So, anyway, we had a wonderful day. If you go to DC, go to the Air and Space Museum and take the free tour. If you can tell your guide's wearing Aqua Velva, you're close enough to learn.

Halloween

In effort to find a Halloween Costume for the Halloween Party we were invited to, we went to every department store in the area. After 5 stores, we were at a loss for costumes that we needed that night. Putting our heads together our conversation went like this:

Tia: What do we have at home that we can use?
Robert: I don't know.
Tia: What can we do with aluminum foil?
Robert: We can be leftovers.
Tia: Ha Ha Hee Hee! I love it! We can wrap ourselves in aluminum foil.

So off we went back to Target to get more aluminum foil and double stick tape. Robert was the experiment. After wrapping, taping, and seeing his ridiculous yet hysterical costume, I said, "You know I'm not doing all that right?!" I got off the hook and my husband won the "Halloween Good Sport Award!"

North Carolina

Visit to North Carolina

We visited Scott, Nicole, and Madison (my brother and his family) in North Carolina and had the best time! We went to a huge pumpkin patch and took a hayride to the patch where we each picked our favorite pumpkin. Being brought up near the beach where play areas were filled boxes sand, we were fascinated that up up here in NC and in MD children enjoying playing in uncooked corn kernels. Who would have thought?! :) We had fun carving pumpkins and Madison experienced her first pumpkin seed picking, baking, and eating. MMmmm...

Our First Ice-Capade

The weather had been absolutely beautiful here in Maryland! For the first time, this Florida girl is experiencing seasons. The leaves are changing and as we drive down the roads there are signs for farmer's markets, Halloween in the Garden, and food and holiday festivals. The days are getting colder and colder. The other morning we woke up to ice on our cars! Robert, being the first to leave, comes back into the house and says, "There's ice on our cars! How are we suppose to get ice off?" I say, "I dunno, pour warm water on it I suppose." So, we did and come to find out later that morning at work that pouring hot water on your car can cause your windows to crack! The teachers were laughing as my eyes widened in horror as they explained that you have to scrape the ice off your car. One of the teachers then gave me this long scraper with a brush and explained how to use it. I come home and explain that we're suppose to go out into the freezing morning around 6:30 some mornings and scrape the ice off our cars before getting into the car that takes 10 minutes to warm up. This is going to be a LONG winter. However, my loving husband said he would scrape the ice off my car each morning. I am so loved... or so I thought. Come to find out, he knows that this is going to be a shocking winter for me and if their is ANY chance of moving to another cold place he'd better try his best to make it tolerable. :)

Train to Maryland

Ok, so here we are (well, here I am... someone had to take the picture and Tia's hair was doing that Sideshow Bob thing), getting ready to get on the train! We drove to Sanford, left our car with a valet parker (don't be fooled by the fancy name... although, he did put a plastic covering over the seat so as not to stain my already-stained seat covers, very lah-dee-dah), got on the train and, wouldn't you know it, started drinking. There was a complementary wine tasting being held for the upper class passengers.

Tia's big debut as the star of the webpage and just doing a wee bit of "chug-a-lug" if you get my meaning. This food and beverage car was geared towards people getting together and meeting one another. It was very common for anyone to just sit right next to you, ask you where you're from, and then continue with a conversation getting to know one another and sharing each other's travelling stories.

The sleeping arrangements were actually quite rough as I was sleeping in a bed exactly 2 inches wider than my body. Furthermore, I was laying on the top bunk, which for some reason they suspended a good 23 feet from the bottom bunk, and when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I almost peed my pants trying to figure out how to Jackie Chan my way to the bottom with out stepping on Tia or free falling to an unsure and unsteady floor. But, luckily, once I maneuvered my way down, went to the bathroom and came back, I had a good 78 minutes of tossing and turning on a comfy and plush 1.5 inch thick mattress enjoying all the spacious room of what Alcatraz inmates so belovingly referred to as "the hole". We really DID have a great time.

Tester

Welcome family and friends! With a little dedication on our parts this can quickly become a one-stop shop answering any and all questions you may have about our travels.