Giving ourselves a pat on the back

Ok, so Brad and I are quite proud of ourselves :) We just finished the last of the renovations on our condo so thought we deserved a pat on the back - enjoy the "before and after" pics! (you should be able to click on each pic to see a bigger version)



The kitchen turned out to be one of my favorite transformations:



And no, your eyes are not deceiving you on that last picture -- the walk-in closet in our master bedroom was indeed used as a baby nursery by the previous owners (complete with pink paint and animal wallpaper). Brad did an amazing job transforming the nursery in to the best closet ever!

MLK 45 years later

Today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. On August 28, 1963, right here in DC, MLK gave that amazing speech so (thanks to the glory of YouTube ... seriously, what did we do before YouTube! ;) I rewatched the full speech today.

Just amazing... the cadence of MLK's voice, the poetry of his words, his messages about non-violence... just amazing:

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

And I love that, watching a grainy YouTube video, 45 years later, I still got chills when he proclaimed:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

2008 Olympics

Well, the 2008 Olympics have officially come to a close and, as always, Brad and I managed to get sucked into the events and spent the last 2 weeks glued to the TV!

I love watching the Olympics ... I love the sense of patriotism it brings out in me. I love the excitement of close medal races (the amazing come-from-behind win by Jason Lezak in the 4x100 relay? or Michael Phelps I-seriously-still-can't-believe-it win in the 100 butterfly!?) And yes, I love all the random sob stories about the athletes (it's not a secret that I am SUCH a sucker and I do admit to having shed a tear or two during cheezy NBC background stories about the trials and tribulations of various athletes)

I also love Bela Karoli - I seriously couldn't understand half the words that came out of his mouth but you gotta love his unbridled passion for the sport of gymnastics. And even though the Olympics are over, I think NBC should retain him and let him announce anything - NFL games, college basketball, whatever - that man cracks me up!

Here's my favorite article from the Olympics, aptly named "Obscure-Sports Diary: You go, trampoliners!". I had been pondering the point of indoor track cycling and marveling at the fact that trampoline is an Olympic sport when I ran across this article. Hysterical. One of my favorite quotes:

My favorite personality of the trampoline competition was eighteen-year-old American Erin Blanchard, who, the announcers said, had been “burned out” on competitive trampoline, but then returned to appear in the Olympics. Eighteen years old, and she's already had time for a burnout and a comeback in the sport of competitive trampoline. I don't think she will have any trouble figuring out what to write her college essay about.

Haha! Anyway, some interesting factoids about the final medal count - click here. Go US for winning 110 medals - see you in Vancouver!

Cheers to 1 year!

Brad and I can't even believe it but its already been a year since we got hitched!! To celebrate our year of wedded bliss :) Brad and I (and Duke!) rented a cabin in Shenandoah for the weekend just like we did the weekend that we got engaged.

We had a great weekend of relaxing at the cabin, BBQ'ing and spending some time in the great ol' outdoors. Oh and a random side trip to Luray Caverns which Brad has always wanted to go visit.

Inspiration for a hump day

Sitting in my (Erin) office on good ol' hump day, an e-mail popped up on my screen from a friend. The e-mail included a link to JK Rowling's recent commencement address at Harvard - http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

It is a great speech, truly inspirational (way more so than Elizabeth Dole was at Brad and my graduation - I have absolutely NO idea what she spoke of that day, I just remember it seemed to go on forever and it was really hot outside!). Anyway, some of my favorite quotes in case you don't have time to listen to the whole speech:

• "Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."
  
  
• "Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes."
  


• "Many choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. .... Those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy."

• "As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."

A snippit from another quote that I loved was: "I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp." Reminds me of the essay I wrote on my Stanford b-school application but that's a topic for another day...

And now we find ourselves in W'burg

Ok, Tour de America 2008 is finally coming to a close. With next week's trip to Germany cancelled, that means that Brad and I will actually be home next weekend with no weddings or trips or anything else - woo hoo!

But we had one last fun trip to take before the Tour closed ... Williamsburg! We drove down on Saturday morning with the intent of stopping and checking out Kiera and Ryan's new place in Richmond, VA but our plans were stymied when Kiera called to say she had pink eye and was contagious. Figuring we could drive down to Richmond another weekend when the germs were conquered, we decided to head straight to W'burg instead. So we finally got to check out my parent's new house which they are in the process of moving in to. The house is a-mazing! Could certainly use a bit more furniture but everything else about it rocks! Brad especially enjoyed that the 10th hole of a golf course is basically in their backyard so he took advantage of the opportunity to walk on to the course and hit some balls.

We spent the day hanging out with my parents and Sharon and then on Sunday, Kiera (on meds and no longer contagious!), Ryan and Natalie joined us as well as my Aunt Claire, Uncle Pat, cousin Kevin, his wife Kerrie, and their 4 kids - Alanna, Patrick, Collin and Kiera. We had a great day just chillin on the screen porch in the back.

Duke thoroughly enjoyed the 2 long car rides in as many days, walks on the golf course and in downtown W-burg, and being chased by Natalie all day on Sunday. We all returned home on Sunday night exhausted, none more so than the Dukester!

Nein Deutschland!

You know work is bad when you find out that you don't have to go on a work trip to Germany next week and you are super excited! Normally I (Erin) would jump at the chance to travel, especially to a country that I've never been to before, but this trip would have involved lots of stress and not a whole lot of fun. No thank you!

Anyway, we'll just have to save Germany for another time!

This weekend's destination: Austin, Texas!

Brad and I just got back from an amazing trip to Texas to spend some quality time at Casa de Worsham outside of Austin. Seriously, that place is the best playground for adults ever! Highlights of the weekend included:

Mike and Dave both came down from NY to hang out for the weekend. We had so much fun with them and it was great to catch up. We got to spend the first night with them in downtown Austin at a dueling piano bar which was pretty funny. Mike or Dave -- be warned, next time we are telling them that its your bday so that you get pulled up on stage!








Fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. By the way, setting off fireworks is fun - I definitely missed out in childhood by only being able to get my hands on sparklers. :)

Numerous hours spent on the lake - jetskiing, tubing, waterskiing and wakeboarding (ok, technically no one actually wakeboarded but at least there were a few attempts). Tommy played the role of expert boat driver all weekend and we all had a blast being pulled along for the ride!

When playtime on the lake was over, we brought the games inside and spent lots of time playing Wii on the big projection screen and also had a few rousing games of Beer Pong on the patio. Watch out for Le Anne, she's a ringer!

And of course, at Casa de Worsham, the food and hospitality is always amazing. I swear, Le Anne must spend a month straight in the kitchen preparing all the meals and snacks. It's better than a 5 star B&B!

We always have so much fun down there and the time just flies by - can't wait for the next time!

This week's destination: Boulder, CO

Brad and my latest destination in our crazy travel tour '08 was a trip to Boulder.

We went for the wedding of 2 friends of mine from grad school -- Andrea and Brent met at school and I got to see their relationship grow over the course of the 2 years at Stanford, eventually leading to a move to Boulder and then a super fun wedding this past weekend. It was great to see lots of friends from Stanford and catch up with everyone. And of course, lots of partying at high altitudes in beautiful weather is never a bad thing :) Highlights included a beautiful outdoor ceremony - complete with an acoustic guitarist playing Phish songs for the processional (gotta love hippie friends!) and personalized vows - and a super fun reception at an art gallery with a delicious make-your-own sundae bar and a terrific band. Great times!


















We were also lucky to get to visit with one of Brad's groomsmen while we were in Boulder. Drew and his wife Allegra, both friends from Duke, live in Boulder and recently welcomed their first child, Cadence. Cady is adorable and, although it was a bit surreal to see Drew as "Dad", it was awesome to catch up with them and get to meet Cady.









Overall, a packed weekend but a really great time. Brad and I are so lucky that we have such amazing friends!

Hanging with friends and celebrating our wedding

Today was a fun day of random activities ... it started off with me at work, which was not fun, but went up from there!

Brad and I headed over to Robyn and Brendan's house to spend the afternoon with their gorgeous - and incredibly smiley - daughter, Eva, and our buddy Ann who was visiting from California. It was fun to get together and catch up. We spent the afternoon just chatting about what was new with all of us, which involved the three Stanford ladies complaining about our jobs. Turns out that all of us are on the job hunt once again -- why is it that we can't seem to find jobs that are the right fit for us while the boys, Brendan and Brad, both like their jobs and have great work-life balances?! Oh well, hopefully we'll all find new jobs soon that are everything we hoped for!

Then Brad and I had a wedding-related date night. First, we went to the spa and spent part of a wedding present - a gift certificate from my sisters/bro-in-law, thanks guys! - to get our first ever professional massages. Seriously, I could get used to those!! Then off to Macy's to spend a wedding gift certificate that was about to expire (which resulted in a new bedspread and ties for Brad - kinda boring but functional!). And then we capped the night with a great meal at a nearby Italian restaurant. It was a great day!

i sveikata! (cheers!)

This past weekend, Brad and I had the pleasure of attending Erika and Kovas's wedding in Chicago. I headed out there on Thursday night to begin the festivities with a bachelorette party for Erika ... which included a fabulous tapas dinner as an ode to Erika's upcoming Spain/Portugal/Morocco honeymoon and ended with drinks and dancing. Judging by the pics below, I think that Erika (and the rest of us) had a fun time!

The rest of the weekend was full of wedding activities (for me, that is - Brad was able to do some sightseeing of Chicago) and learning a lot of Lithuanian wedding customs. The bridesmaids even had to learn a traditional Lithuanian dance called Sadute and perform it at the reception. After which, we were dubbed "honorary Lithuanians" by some of the relatives because they were so impressed that we were able to learn and perform the dance so well. One of the other very interesting moments was when Erika and Kovas performed another Lithuanian tradition and Erika was given a head scarf, broom and apron to represent her becoming a housewife for Kovas - too funny, given how much of an independent woman Erika is!

Anyway, the weekend was great! I can't believe that Erika, Ginny and I - the three amigas from Duke - are now all married!! :)

Congrats are in order!

You are looking at the newest Executive at Clark Construction. :) Congrats Brad!

The Big 3-0!

Sadly (as Brad already mentioned in the last post) I didn't make it to the Moe. show this past weekend. But it was all for good reason ...

Brad and I did a little social divide and conquer and instead of going to the concert with him, I helped plan and attended a surprise 30th bday party for my buddy Ginny instead. Ginny and Geoff just returned from their honeymoon in Greece (and from looking at their pictures, I REALLY want to go to Mykonos now!). So, the evening was a great opportunity to celebrate her 30th, catch up on the honeymoon details and see a lot of familiar faces from the wedding. It was great fun and made me realize how close my own 30th bday is ... dum, dum, dummmm.

But that's ok, at least for the moment, I am solidly in my 20s :) and looking forward to the dawn of a new decade of fun adventures with friends and family!

Moe. Round II

For the past several years, Moe. has made an annual stop at our local outdoor amphitheater, Wolf Trap. This year was no different. Unfortunately Erin had to back out of the concert because of a birthday commitment so it was myself along with a big crew of our DC area music buddies. It's been a while since I've been to a show with a crew of over 10 but that is especially fun at Wolf Trap where you get to tailgate and BBQ before the show starts. Anyway, our seats were in the Pavillion which, although the seats only cost 3 bucks more than the lawn seats, was surpisingly empty so we had plenty of room to spread out and dance. Erin and I have a favorite song by Moe. called "Plane Crash" and I joked with her that because she wasn't going to the show they were going to play it. Sure enough I was correct and it was awesome. Overall, the night was great and to top it off I got some of my best concert photos ever.

Stormy Weather in VA

Three days ago I was running in the gym watching TV and the weather forecasters were predicting heavy storms in our area in two days. I found it odd because usually forecasters have no clue but in this case they were pretty certain. Well they were correct. We had a major storm with serious thunder, lightning, wind and rain. We lost power and got it back about 24 hours later but they are saying it could take 2-3 more days to restore all power. We went out to dinner last night and the restauarant was overwhelmed by the amount of people going out to eat. They were totally understaffed and not happy about it. We ended up getting Erin's dinner for free but we really didn't care about waiting because we had nothing better to do at home. Anyway, as I was driving today I drove past a house that needed to be photographed. It reminded me when I lived in CT we had a storm that brought about 13 trees down in my parents yard. Its sad when only 1 person suffers really bad in an entire neighborhood.

A Day at the Gun Range

When we all went to Vegas about a month and a half ago, Todd mentioned possibly going to a gun range for fun while we were out there. When we were checking out the local ranges and prices out in Vegas, it just seemed astronomical, so instead I consulted a former coworker, Duffy, who is a gun collector and frequents the range. Duffy volunteered to host us one day at the local gun range instead, so Todd and Alex came down this weekend to visit us and take Duffy up on his offer.

It was quite an interesting experience! Duffy has approximately 75 hand guns and brought a wide selection from a very small .25 caliber pistol to a 50 caliber Desert Eagle. He also brought an AR-15 which is basically the civilian equivalent to the military M-16. Some of the guns had crazy kickback and were incredibly loud! The afternoon was capped watching a father judge through binoculars how his (maybe) 10 year old daughter was doing at the range. I thought it was a pretty unique father daughter activity.