Christmas at Jeff's House

We've been staying at Jeff's house for the past week or so, but his extended family has just started to come into town. Last night we all ate dinner together and then Jeff and I opened gifts that had been given to us, since we're headed to Minnesota later today and wouldn't see the whole family together again before leaving (Jeff's parents had to work this morning.)

Here's the Christmas tree:
Here's a gift that Jeff got for his brother - I did the wrapping. You'll never guess what it is.

Jeff opening gifts from his cousin - he got a shirt, a sweater, and a home-made scarf.
The whole family hanging out in the living room.
Jeff got his dad facebook for Christmas - here he's explaining what he set up and how to use it.


Merry Christmas!

The Snow Has Stopped

Sunday morning at 9:30am - it's no longer snowing. Hopefully this means the airports will open.

Not over yet...

Here's the view as of about 9pm:


And Jeff and his dad just after shoveling the driveway (for the 3rd time today).


And I baked cookies!


We'll see how much snow is there in the morning. Though my phone suggests we'll be ok by Monday...

Still going...

As of about 2:15pm:

It's Snowing!

We're currently having the biggest blizzard that DC/Maryland have seen in years. We're supposed to get almost two feet in a day and a half. In the days leading up to the storm, you'd think people were preparing for Armageddon.

People were stocking up on essentials and trying to finish last minute shopping - lines at Walmart snaked through the lines and took about 30 minutes to get through. The gas station was completely sold out of gas.

Jeff and I had a fool-proof plan to go from Baltimore up to our friend Stephanie's house in DC for a 'Tacky Xmas' party. The storm wasn't supposed to start until after midnight on Friday night, so we figured we'd get there at 9pm when it started and then leave by 11pm to beat the storm on our way back to Baltimore.

But this is what it looked like when we got to Stephanie's at 9:15pm:

So we decided to have a bit of an express-style Tacky Xmas, before turning back around and heading home.

We had some cider and brownies and took part in the Yankee Swap. (I think I might re-gift my 2010 Twilight calendar - any takers?) Jeff got this awesome grabber - 'as seen on TV.'

Then we started on the trip back to Baltimore. It took us over an hour just to get to the beltway - usually a 10 minute expedition. Traffic was pretty crazy - about a quarter of the cars just drove with their hazard lights on the entire time. Even though they were going the same speed as the other cars and they were in with the group of other cars. It's not clear how this is supposed to be helpful, and it makes it impossible for them to signal any lane changes, which seems less safe.

In any case, we made it back to Baltimore - the storm was less heavy as we got further north - I guess we were going a bit faster than the storm. We didn't quite make it all the way up the big hill by Jeff's house, so we had to do a bit of walking.

It looked like this when we woke up this morning, and it's still going strong!

Science Comedian

I came across this article in the New York Times, and I think I'd really like to see this guy perform. One thing I don't understand - how did people not find the matrix algebra jokes funny?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15comic.html?em

That's the limit...

I really enjoy keeping busy and doing lots of different things - it's fun to be working and also be in school. Usually its manageable, one thing gets busy while another is in a lull, but once in a while, everything goes crazy at once. Last week was one of those weeks.

At school, it was the last week of classes, which meant two in-class presentations, three papers due, and time to start preparing for finals.

At work, we're working to prepare our annual publication, which means lots of editing, which is time-consuming and requires a quick turn-around. I also happened to have a couple of early-morning events for work last week - I'm not a morning person, so having to be at the Capitol building by 7:30am is not ideal.

It all seemed to be going pretty well, until Wednesday when I realized I'd hit the stress limit. I had my day very carefully planned. Early telecon on campus, PhD meeting on campus, then work from home, Chinese left-overs for lunch, school work, etc. But then, mid-morning, I found out that Jeff had already eaten the left-overs. Clearly, this was a disaster. Now everything could not go according to the plan. I was convinced my day was ruined.

A little way into the complete despair caused by the already-eaten-lo mein, I realized that the issue may not actually be due to lunch, and may just be a sign that I needed to take deep breath, relax, probably take a nap, and de-stress a bit. Which I did.

So by that evening I got back on track with the work and felt much better equipped to handle things like deciding what to eat.

And clearly I've survived both the last week of classes and finals, so it all turned out well in the end!

Pooja's Visit - Two weeks ago...

Two weeks ago, Pooja came to visit Jeff and I in DC, and it was a really fun weekend, coming right as we transitioned from fun-middle-semester time to finals-prep.

Jeff and I are trying to convince Pooja to move to DC (and I think its working). She was checking out schools for potential master's programs.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the crazy blizzard we had on Saturday - though nothing really stuck on the ground, it looked beautiful and winter-y, prompting us to go on a little walk down to the White House to enjoy the view, and then led us to grab some gourmet chocolate before going back to the apartment.

It kept snowing during our walk.

This is the White House Christmas tree. The ornaments are really big.

We came across this park that I thought was really cool - it really doesn't look like it's in the middle of a city.

You can barely see the capital building in the back of this photo - yay winter weather. From here we headed straight to the hot cocoa place.

I'm Back!

As the end of the semester papers, finals, and other work started to descend on my life like ominous storm clouds, I retreated to my study-cave, which explains why I haven't posted anything in the past two weeks.

But now the clouds have parted, the sun is shining... the finals are over. So I'm back.

(Not to be over dramatic, or anything...)

More to come on some of the ups and downs of the past two weeks...

Christmas Decorating

Jeff and I got a Christmas tree from Whole Foods - our first live Christmas tree! Now it's all decorated, and we've got Santas sitting on our desk and snowflakes hanging from our lights.

Audrey Hepburn Movies!

While I was in Minnesota Annette and I got together and watched a couple of Audrey Hepburn movies - both of which I loved and would recommend.

Roman Holiday - This was Audrey Hepburn's first movie - 1953 - and she won an Oscar for her role. It's about a princess from some unknown country that is in Rome at the end of a political European tour. She skips out on the royal schedule for a day to see Rome - with the help of American reporter, played by Gregory Peck. It's a well done and cute movie.




How to Steal A Million - This movie was incredibly adorable - not at all realistic, but super cute from start to finish. Audrey Hepburn lives with her father in an estate in Paris. Her father makes money by selling fake masterpieces. The other main character, a young Peter O'Toole with incredibly blue eyes, enters the story when Audrey catches him trying to steal a painting from her estate. Somehow he convinces her to forgive him and give him a ride home. It only gets more rodiculous (and adorable) from there. If you feel like smiling for an hour and a half straight, I highly recommend checking out this movie.

Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Minnesota, and it was tons of fun! My aunt and uncle and cousins came over for Thanksgiving dinner, and we played games and watched football.

I also had the chance to hang out with my brother and his wife - Emily hosted a cookie-bake party, which was a ton of fun. Plus, now I have about 100 cookies at my house. :)

I had the chance to hang out with Annette and have a mini-Audrey Hepburn movie marathon. We watched 'Roman Holiday' and 'How to Steal a Million' - both awesome movies worthy of their own post.

I hung out with Paul Colling a couple of times - enjoyed the Friday-night happy hour at TGI Fridays, which includes $3 drafts and half-price appetizers. Not bad. I also started Paul on Battlestar Galactica, which somehow he has never seen! We got through the mini-series and two episodes of season one, but he's still got a ways to go.

As always, the weekend went by extremely quickly, but luckily Christmas break is coming soon - I'll be back in Minnesota three weeks from today!