The Peep Show

You would think that finding interesting things to do wouldn't be tough being so close to our nation's capital- but while I have no doubt there are a million interesting things to do, finding out about them BEFORE they happen proves to be more difficult than originally expected. Finding new stuff to fill my time with is a new kick I am on- mainly doing stuff that is a little more out of the ordinary to shake things up a bit.

Naturally then when I got my latest "culture kick" the Washington Post's Annual Peep Diorama Contest Exhibit was exactly what I had in mind. All the "culture" and off-beat vibe I needed, without all the pretentiousness of pretending to like a lot of the things most people are programmed to think they are supposed to find fascinating (see rando art later in this post). Yes, taking in a peep at the peep exhibit was just riiiggghhhhtttttt.

But apparently not for everyone because of the mass email I sent out inviting people I could only rope two other people into trucking it down to the unknown to check it out (in all fairness there was a lot of others who agreed but copious amounts of rescheduling kind of made it lose its luster). But they didn't miss much as the peep displays were spread out throughout the new artisphere building-an attempt to get people to check out the other exhibits as well... which we did- dang museum planners!

Kara and Holmes playing with the giant 3D etcha-sketch.

One of the closest things resembling art at the art museum.

Blue Sweaters sewn together to make a box.
One of the closest things we saw not
resembling art at the art museum.

I thought we looked at all the peeps, but I was sorely mistaken as when I got home to check out the photos online (which I had avoided previous to going), I discovered we had missed some pretty cool looking ones. And each exhibit was numbered-- which at the time we chose to believe was the order in which they had won.

Apparently we were wrong about a lot of things because I discovered the one which I had repeatedly shook my head in disbelief at it not winning had indeed actually won! It's of the Chilean Miners. See picture and WP's video below:

Holmes and I checking out what we thought to be the best one,
but a losing one that was actually the winning one. Get it?

All in all, it wasn't THAT great. But all of use peepers did get pictures with the ones we felt might not have been the best, but were close to our hearts. Mine with the Vincet Van Peep, Kara with the Muppeet Show, and Mike with the Spinal Peep Concert.

The real deal: it gave me faith that I too could become a Peep Show finalist next year! We plan to win the judges over by making every tiny detail out of peeps. Anyone know how to make a cardboard-like platform out of fried peeps?

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Husband, Esq.

This weekend, Husband graduated from Law School!!

I am so exhausted from all the festivities (and food) that I only have enough energy to post the picture slideshow below. But I am so happy for him!

Three years later, and a lot of $tudent loan$, Husband can now...
study all summer to take the bar.

It's not over until it's over. But for now, he can breathe a little easier! Happy Graduation Husband!!

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Parknic: A Picnic in the Park

Last week I had a brilliant beyond brilliant idea. Most of the people I eat with at work all bring their lunches and eat it in the NRA Cafe downstairs. I go through phases of bringing my lunch, going out, or working right through, but I have been boycotting the cafe lately because, well, it's a dungeon. Okay, part of it has to do with just wanting to get away from the building all day and eating downstairs makes me feel like I have been cooped up all day long, but mostly it is just freezing and I can't enjoy a meal if my teeth are chattering.

Anyway, on to my brilliant idea. I would put blankets in the back of my car and then whenever it was sunny out we could all just take our bag lunches to the park to eat! This entire week is supposed to be gorgeous, so today we all planned to head to a park fellow lunch-mate Holmes had scoped out for us beforehand that was only a stone's throw away from work. But sometimes plans swerve in new directions and for a moment there, I thought it might just end up being me and Holmes (and for a moment before, I thought it might just end up being me). I swore to him I wasn't trying to make it a romantic lunch for two- but within minutes of setting up camp on the lush-green fields, everyone else started rolling in to enjoy the sunshine.

Speaking of Mike K. Holmes- we have a guest blogger today! After lunch today I got an email from him recapping the first Parknic Lunch in narrative form...

There was a Tuesday morning… and everything felt like it was the day after Monday, a long Monday. The usual group was at its wit’s end. Amber, our humble protagonist, was having a particularly difficult morning, not that anyone could actually tell due to her usually chipper countenance, but difficult nonetheless. The only one truly able to notice was her iMac, but let’s face it… the lack of opinion and inanimateness makes it fairly useless in this scenario.

She enlisted the help [I told him I needed help snapping out of a bad mood] of a guy with the middle initial of K, but his writer’s block would not let him get past the picture of the mountain goat hanging on his calendar. 

Yet, in this day of frustration there was a glimmer of hope, a journey to the land of Kutner [Park]. A small oasis in Fairfax. The protagonist bravely surveyed the land to make sure no other people had come off the road and set up camp (gotta be wary of cannibals [a witty reference to the novel we read in our two-person book club- "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy). 

Eventually, the guy with the middle initial of K, also known by some as Holmes, arrived. He was just as impressed with the land as our protagonist Amber, but both were concerned that the rest of the crew would not arrive safely. We were well armed, hoisting a giant yellow club with a projectile [the always fear-inducing wiffle ball and bat] just in case we ran into trouble. We also had two safety blankets with the hopes that it would be enough for everyone. 

However, not everyone was as prepared. Person with the first initial of K, also known as Kara, arrived without a safety blanket, but merely a towel. Luckily, we had some room to spare. Eventually more and more travelers arrived filling out the blankets to the brim. It was tight, but it made due. 

Unfortunately, it was not safe to stay too long. Around 1:00 the area gets relatively dangerous [and our lunch hour is up], so we had to pick up and travel once again.

The group dispersed and I’m not quite sure how anything resolved. Yes, it is unfortunate that the narrator does not know how it ends, but that always allows for a second or third, or at least an anti-climactic cliff hanger...

The End?

If I was in a bad mood before, I wasn't anymore. The Parknic Lunch was just the pick-me-up I needed, and the narrative recap was icing on the cake. 

I have a sneaky suspicion that lunch in the park might just be a reoccurring getaway destination!

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Stealin' Away to Steel City!

The NRA Annual Meetings were so close this year, I couldn't pass up seeing what all the hype was about. Seeing as 95% of my department was already there, it wasn't hard to find someone willing to let us bunk with them for the night. Kara pulled the lucky straw of sharing her enormous room with three other visitors! That's love. 

I didn't have any way of getting up there. I mean, I could have left Husband without a vehicle for a few days- but I heard finding parking alone was going to be horrible or expensive so I talked one of my other co-workers who was left behind to make the trek up to Pittsburgh, Pa. via Greyhound. Yes, a dirty, stinky bus ride to a place called The Pitts. 

It was all dandy until we realized that when the ticket said "1 Stop" on it, it actually meant "1 30 minute stop, 10 million 10 minute stops" so 7.5 hours later, we arrived in Pittsburgh around 1:30 in the morning where we were greeted by an extensive welcome committee of the only three people left awake in the town.

And that was pretty much the last time we saw anyone besides random meal times. While everyone else was working, my ride-mate Sisco (Francisco during business hours, Frankie when you want to make him angry) and reoccurring blog star Melissakurs!!! escorted me around the city where we basically, ate. You see I came to see the Annual Meetings and Sisco came to eat all the foods we have seen showcased on Man vs. Food. We did make it to a little of both of what we wanted to check out- but by the end of the day we were pretty much just exhausted. Although, we couldn't really complain because we hadn't even been working all week like everyone else had. 

Blurry photo of Sisco at the famous DeLuca's, where we ate till we had side cramps.

I am usually a picture crazo when it comes to anything slightly unboring, but this was our first meal and I actually ended up leaving my camera on the table and Melissa and Sisco had to go back for it the next day before we headed out of town. So basically, no pictures of the actual events, or the few hot seconds we got to see other people we worked with, or any of the cool people we got to meet. I ended up with the two pictures above and these two pictures:

On our exquisite bus ride to Pittburgh, we got to taste a lot of.... crappy food. But Sisco assured me that Roy Rogers was money in my pocket- you can see I am holding an approving thumbs up in the picture (it was around midnight at this point) but when I got back on the bus with my food, it was anything but tasty. Sisco claimed it a fluke Roy Rogers experience, but first impressions do make a difference! The beef was rubbery and the BBQ sauce was sweet- thumbs down. 

Bettsie did have her camera though, so she got a few shots. She loved my hotel thinking spot- which usually included the sheer curtains being pulled across the ledge too but they were shielding her shot at a good picture so she made me pull them back and look pensive.

And she did get a few shots of the TV Show's biggest fan- Sisco waiting around to meet the stars. I wonder which of the co-hosts is his favorite?

The best part of the whole trip though was that my boss- the top boss- actually let us drive his F150 BACK to Virginia! His wife drove up separately, so they drove back down in her car together.

1. Best person ever!! There are not many bosses that would let their employees drive their brand new truck on a 4.5 hour trip. And he even cleaned it out before we got in it. We left him some fuzzy dice on his rearview mirror as a thank you. 

2. Best truck ever!! It was such a smooth ride, and I forgot how much I miss being in a vehicle that is a lot higher off the ground. I asked Husband if he would buy me one in black, but for some reason he didn't take me seriously.

I didn't realize how bad the bus really was until we drove back in his truck. 

As always though, the highlight of the trip was everyone's favorite guest-- Yoda:

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