Dinner Party

Back in March. Michael and I signed up for "Suppers for 8" through our church. The idea is that 8 people trade off hosting duties (in pairs) for a dinner once a month. May ended up being our month and today was our day to have the two other couples over (wait, 2+2x2 = 6, not 8! Yes, the other two folks have never showed, although we have reached out to them repeatedly. Anyway . . . ). The hosts are in charge of the main dish and while the otherss are supposed to bring sides, desserts, etc. Now, I know you probably think I am here to rave about what I made for the main dish and while it is true that the pulled pork sandwiches and Boston baked beans were delicious (along with a crudite platter with hummus), I actually want to brag about my table setting! Whaaat? I wouldn't say I am known for my table decorating skills - in fact, I've never really put together a fancy table before. To be honest, this table isn't that fancy either, but it was all from my own self - which is pretty amazing considering the decorating gene definitely passed me by!

I made the burlap runner several weeks ago. I guess I can't really take credit for that idea, since burlap in all its guises is quite popular in the home decor blogosphere right now, so I know I saw the idea online. Really, it was quite easy to make - I just sewed together two pieces to give me the right length and then stitched with a decorative colored thread all the way around to prevent the edges from unraveling more than I wanted them to. The place settings were my own brilliance, however. They were precipitated by the gorgeous boUquet of flowers Michael gave me last weekend. Mid-week, the stem on on of the Gerbera daisies broke about halfway up. I took the flower out anD put it in its own small vase. While I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning, I saw that Gerbera and suddenly inspiration struck! Showy flower centerpieces are lovely, but they are a) expensive, b) take up a lot of room and c) inhibit eye contact across a table and therefore stilt a conversation. But a little flower at each place? Perfect! And then make them into place settings? Even better! I was able to pick the 6 vases up at Michael's for $1.20 each and the flowers were $5. So for just over $10, I was able to brighten up the whole table - plus, I can use the vases again.

Dinner was a blast as was Apples-to-Apples afterwards. It's been so nice to have these dinners and to start making friends here in NOVA. We have decided that, even though the group has officially ended (since all of us have hosted once), we want to continue meeting. The next get together might even be at a bowling alley . . . !

Dress Shirt Pillow

I am just so excited about this pillow I just finished, I had to share it! Michael wore through the elbows on one of his favorite dress shirts and rather than throw it away, I made a pillow cover. I'm sure I've seen this online before (not sure I would be that creative without inspiration) but I didn't look up any specific instructions - I just started cutting away, using a pillow cover we already have as a guide. It was super-easy, since the buttons provided the natural opening/closing location so I didn't have to make an envelope closure or sew in a zipper. The most time-consuming was ironing in the interfacing (I wanted to stiffen up the fabric since it was a rather thin dress shirt). Then zip, zip, zip, zip, four lines super quick, turned the pillow right side out and zip, zip, zip, zip again and it was done. Awesome! Michael better keep a close eye on his remaining dress shirts - they might just start disappearing! ;-)

In its designated habitat - note the parrot artwork above

Please ignore the wrinkled pillowcases - I didn't feel like ironing them for this shot. In fact, I never feel like ironing them. Who does that?!

Money shot with better light. Isn't it purdy?

High Speed Rail for All?

Recently, a dear friend of mine posted an image on Facebook that shows a map of the US crisscrossed with high speed rail lines. She commented on how such a system would be awesome, if only "big oil" were not it the way. I would LOVE a nationwide network of high-speed trains. Train travel in Europe is one of the highlights of of visiting there. However, to blame "big oil" for America's lack of viable rail transportation is simply not fair or accurate. Why not blame "big ag", that sued to prevent the building of the California Bullet Train? Or how about, "big air", that is faster for cross-country trips than even these high speed trains would be? What about "big rail" itself, that wastes its government subsidies to make needless cosmetic upgrades instead of fixing infrastructure that could actually make trains faster?!  Or, most damning of all, "big collective American consumer" who clearly prefers the ease, convenience, and/or economics of air or road to rail. If the American public were truly clamoring for rail options, Amtrak wouldn't be losing $1B/year (not a very good investment of tax revenue, if you ask me!).

We recently traveled to NYC from Washington, DC. We had various travel options:
Air: $115 roundtrip per person, ~4 hours (house to hotel).
Personal car: $150 roundtrip per person (including tolls and IRS standard mileage rate of 55.5 cents, $50/pp if you count just gas and tolls), ~5 hours (house to hotel).
Bus: $54 roundtrip per person, ~6 hours (house to hotel).
Train: $200 roundtrip per person (if we wanted to not leave at 4am - absolute cheapest with terrible times is $100), ~4 hours (house to hotel).

In no aspect of travel does rail win that trip. Certainly not cost - it's the most expensive. Not time, it's no faster than taking a plane. You might point out that there are fewer security hassles, but the same ease of travel is true for the bus - and are the 4 hours saved round trip worth $150? It's worth pointing out that the East Coast public clearly does want options besides air or personal vehicle - and has found it in busing. Hence the explosion of alternative busing options besides Greyhound. There are at least 5 additional bus companies servicing the DC-NYC route, at a variety of price points (and, correspondingly, amenities). Not surprisingly, we chose the bus option and had a lovely, stress and hassle free trip.

One last point - it may seem to be common sense that "big oil" would be opposed to increased rail usage because it would decrease their profits. It is true that decreasing automobile usage (which is already happening, independent of rail expansion) has contributed to decreased margins for the refining industry. However, consider a few items:
1. High speed rail service would affect only those commuters traveling between city centers - a demographic that is largely served by airlines now. Would actual miles driven decrease by that much? Consider that folks are still going to need to get from the city centers to their actual destination, which, in most of America, is accessible only by road. To truly reduce miles driven, better to focus on commuter transportation between cities and their suburbs.
2. High speed rail would not change the amount of commercial goods shipped via trucks - 70% of America's goods are shipped via truck versus 15% by rail (remaining 15% by air, water, and pipe).
3. Trains require energy to run, which comes either from diesel - provided by "big oil" - or electricity - provided by "big coal" or, yep, you guessed it, "big oil". Oil companies in the US are heavily invested in natural gas, clearly betting on increased domestic and international demand. (Which brings up the issue of fracking, but I'm not even going to open that can of worms right now.)
4. There is a lot more to "big oil" than just automobile use - it's called the petro-chemical industry, not the petrol industry. Even if we could flip a switch tomorrow that made all cars run on solar power, we would still need (admittedly, much reduced) "big oil" to provide all creature comforts we've come to enjoy (one word: plastics).

So, ultimately, high speed rail service isn't the "big oil" killer that some make it out to be, which also means that to assume that "big oil" is behind its non-starter status is naive at best and disingenuous at worst.

OK, one more point. Freakonomics recently polled several rail industry watchers, both liberal and conservative, on whether Amtrak could ever be profitable. Not surprisingly, viewpoints differed wildly, but they all offered analyses of why Amtrak is such a disappointment in its current state. No one, conservative or liberal, points to "big oil". So yes, "big oil" may be making it possible for us to live without a high speed rail system - but it is not the cause or instigator for railroad's demise.

P.S. Is high speed rail all that great? The Cato Institute doesn't think so. I know it's a conservative think tank that "big oil" detractors aren't going to give much credence to, but it does bring up some interesting points . . .

Valentine Craft Win

So my last (and only) craft post was about the total mess I made of a Halloween wreath. It was epic. I even made it on to Pinstrosity and they rated it a 4 out 5 on their failure scale. Ouch! (You better believe I was loving it! ;-P). So, you might think I would have wised up and stuck with cooking or needlework, my more successful endeavours, but I was bound and determined to make a wreath! Fortunately, this one turned out much better than the first!

My initial inspiration was the wreath found here, but I hadn't pinned that image and couldn't remember the details or initially find the post when I went to make the wreath. Fortunately, my good friend Crystal who was visiting all the way from CO found the following pin and we went after it!

http://www.clumsycrafter.com/2012/03/deco-mesh-wreath-tutorial/

We shortly stopped going after it when I realized I didn't have all the appropriate supplies (namely, pipe cleaners) and after the fiasco last fall, I've learned my lesson - no half-baked substitutes! We actually tried fabric strips as well as floral wire - that actually might have worked but I could tell it was taking too much time. So the next day, after dropping Crystal off at the Metro, I picked up some pipe cleaners and made it happen. Bask in the awesomeness.

Isn't it pretty?

Captured in its natural environs - it's huge!

I am so happy with how this wreath turned out. Even though it is much bigger than I expected (that deco mesh really poofs out!) it still looks so lovely on the door. I love leaving the house and coming back and seeing it - it just makes me smile! :-)

Crystal Visits

We were so fortunate this weekend to have my good friend Crystal visit. We are friends from college and she was one of my bridesmaids. She is recently engaged herself so I was super-excited to visit so I could ooh-and-ahh over her ring and talk all matters wedding! Crystal is in the area until Monday, but she has another close friend in Baltimore, so we had only until Saturday afternoon together, but we made the most of it!

Thursday evening I picked her up and she joined our bowling team for the night. Michael had pre-bowled as he had a previous engagement (and his pre-bowl was awesome! 199, 205, 158 for a 572 series!). With Crystal's help we were able to take one game - something we couldn't have done with only 3 bowlers.

Friday morning was spent catching up and wedding shopping. We were looking for various items for the wedding day including shoes. She's found an awesome wedding dress that doesn't require any alterations (!!!) but it does require flats. Neither the options online or in the stores were particularly inspiring, but we did find a plain white pair at Payless that we thought she could paint. Like these, only less detailed and less costly! Unfortunately, we weren't able to do the painting while she was here, but I know they're going to look awesome!

Friday afternoon we headed over to Manassas to visit the Manassas National Battlefield Park site of (surprise!) the First and Second Battle of Manassas during the Civil War, also known as the Battles of Bull Run. Side note, I was in a one-act play in high school called The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry. I was Amy. In the play Amy mentions seeing a Civil War documentary where a gentlemen who knows he's going to die writes a letter to his wife and how watching that documentary makes her cry. I don't know if there was a specific documentary the playwright had in mind, but let me tell you - the documentary they showed at the visitors' center had just such a scene and I certainly cried!

All crying aside, the documentary, vistors' center and park were all pretty awesome. There was both a short walking trail and a longer driving trail to visit all the important sites. We didn't do the walking trail because it was a) cold! and b) getting close to dark. We did do the driving trail. Crystal was a far better picture taker, but I did take a picture of the stone house!

Hmm, my photo looks almost exactly like the one in the link, only not as good. See, this is why I firmly believe in using postcards as the trip photographs! ;-P

Second side note - on the way to Manassas, we passed a sign saying "Entering Prince William County". I have passed that signs many times, but maybe because a close girlfriend was with me, it was the first time that it clicked that Michael grew up in Prince William County - so I did get me some Prince William after all - Beca will be so jealous! ;-P

Saturday was spent in DC, visiting the U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress and National Air and Space Museum - in that order, which meant we were pretty worn out by the time we saw the space stuff! Still, we had fun visiting all three spaces while trying to stay inside as much as possible. Like I said, it was COLD - even Crystal thought so.

Money shot of the US Capitol on the gray snowy day

The Apotheosis of Washington - in the dome

What we looked like most of the tour

General George Washington Resigning His Commission

Charles Marion Russell - Stark Museum of Art had several of his works

John Swigert, Jr.

Our first attempt cut off his head

Our tour guide had no idea what this putti represented - I, of course immediately noted the gear and declared he must be an engineer. The LOC website says he's a mechanic - I say pfft.

Had to get a picture with the baby engineer

The honest-to-goodness actual 1903 Wright Flyer

Snowbirds

Michael and I were able to experience the snowbird life this past weekend. I had to be in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday for my job. Rather than fly down just for the day, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Michael's father lives in Fort Lauderdale (well, Sunrise, if you want to be specific) and made a weekend trip of it. Our flight out of Regan on Friday evening was delayed for 2 hours because of snow and ice - which made landing in warm southern Florida that much better!

We had a blast with Padre and Dale - highlighted, as to be expected, by several amazing dinners. They sure know how to eat! We were able to pick up some Cuban (which we missed during our most recent NYC trip), Argentinian (chimichurri = yummy) and Korean BBQ (which I just discovered on the aforementioned NYC trip). We did drive down by the port and beach to see the cruise ships and inspect the beach repairs to the Hurricane Sandy damage. Mostly, though, it was just nice to sit out in the (not-too) warm weather and enjoy not having to bundle up just to get the mail.

I am not a picture taker, we all know that, but I did get a few shots of Michael having a little fun when we stopped for some hot-from-the-oven donuts . . .

Making the difficult decision

Padre's grown a beard!

Isn't he adorable?!

Not Even Skin Deep

I was catching up on my blogs after our trip this weekend and read a post on epbot.com (by Jen Yates, of cakewrecks.com - so funny!) and she posted about this Pinterest board where a former model/photographer points out all the Photoshopping that is done to celebrities and models. I'm happy that I've always had a pretty good self-image but even I can get a little down seeing images of all these beautiful women - and based on all the Facebook and Pinterest posts of friends tagging such images with captions such as "gotta get to the gym so I can look like this" or "why can't I have such flawless skin" or other such statements, I know I'm not the only one. And I can imagine, if one doesn't have a healthy self-image, that the images could contribute to a pretty damaged psyche. The problem is, as the creator of the board points out, the women (and men!) we see in ads, promotional campaigns and movies are so digitally altered that they no longer look real and are not even recognizable as the original celebrity!

Anyway, I spent a good hour perusing the photos (fair warning, there is a decent amount of skin as many of the images are taken from ads and we all know - sex sells (or, at least, that's what Madison Avenue thinks)) and it was probably the best waste of my time on Pinterest ever. Definitely check it out - and let me know what you think! Like I said, I know I'm pretty happy with who I am, but I definitely worry about my (hopefully) future children - one more reason to limit their exposure to pop culture and seek out healthy role models! But even with taking such measures, I know they'll still see stuff that makes them wonder - so I want to make sure I have conversations from the get go on how Hollywood is not real life and their self-worth should not be defined by an unrealistic perception of beauty.

NYC PBR

Because of snafu I made when booking our hotel for our Thanksgiving jaunt to MI, we had some credits with Hampton Inn to use up. Because I knew of Michael's love for bull ridin' (that's right, we don't say the 'g') I decided to check if there were any upcoming PBR (Professional Bull Riding) events near us. Sure enough, PBR was kicking off its 2013 season the first weekend in January at Madison Square Garden in NYC. We really enjoyed our NYC trip in 2011, and now that it is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, it was a no-brainer, particularly when we discovered a Hampton Inn with reasonable rates (for NYC) just one block away for MSG. We decided to see PBR on Friday evening, a play on Saturday evening and bisit sights we had missed last time we were there (I was keen on seeing the Statue of Liberty and/or Ellis Island).

After a long, but ultimately stress-free, bus ride (I definitely recommend it as the best option to get to NYC from NOVA) we arrived at Penn Station/MSG around 15:30 - plenty of time to check in, rest for a little bit, get some food and get to PBR. With the help of Yelp I was able to determine that we were essentially in Korea-town and that miss Korea BBQ was well liked. I had never had Korean BBQ, but I will now sing its praises to anyone who will listen. It was soooo good. Michael had bibimbap, which I make at home and it was tasty, but the star of the show as the thinly sliced marinated spare ribs I ordered. The tables all had propane hot plates (essentially) in the middle and I was able to quickly sear the meat on that. The marinade and BBQ sauce were so flavorful. We are most assuredly going to scout out the Korean BBQ options in DC!

PBR was a blast, as always, complete with plenty of buck-offs (is that the technical term?), a few full 8-second rides, and plenty of inane chatter from the rodeo clown. Seriously, I feel for the guy, having to keep up that patter night after night!

Arena before it filled up

Waiting around

Hold on tight!

Opening - someone stood up in front of us right at the beginning, so I didn't get the full show.

I think this guy is from CO . . .

. . . or maybe this is the CO guy.

The jumping bull looks exciting, but this ride actually was scored rather low because he didn't twist at all.

Saturday day I had hoped to visit Ellis Island or the Statue of Liberty but we discovered (thankfully online, before we made the trek out there) that both areas were closed due to Hurricane Sandy. Shucks! Instead, we spent most of the day wandering through Central Park and visiting the Met. The Met was pretty awesome - although, after seeing museums in Europe, it'll take a lot to wow me - not that I don't think the Met is as good as those museums, it's just that I've seen so much amazing stuff that more amazing stuff is still amazing, just not as amazing as when I first started seeing amazing stuff - does that make sense? I'm going to see how many more times I can use the word amazing!

We really enjoyed their Asian and Islamic art section, mostly because we really enjoy Asian and Islamic art! That section is where we spent most of our time - much like the British Museum or the Louvre or any other great museum, you really have to pick your battles when it comes to having only one day in a place. We did wander on over to the Temple of Dendur (not as exciting as I'd hoped), through the small portion of the American wing that included several Tiffany stained-glass windows (beautiful) and stared at the Christmas tree surrounded by a Neapolitan Baroque Creche (which was far more interesting to me than Michael). If you click on the captions below, the link will take you to relevant page on the Met website.

We like rugs!	Just look at the detail!	I was tired out!
This is on the list for our next house - just, you know, with references to Jesus and God, not Mohammed and Allah	Serene Damascus room - reminded me of Topkapi Palace	Islamic tilework
Glassware is hard to photograph	Also on the list for our next home	Poor Roman guy, he lost his nose!
Take that, Medusa!	Do not be deceived. These are not sculptures, they are Vanuatuan musical instruments.	The Temple of Dendur would have been more interesting if we could have actually gone inside it.
Beautiful stained glass	Again, look at the detail!	By Daniel Chester French, who also sculpted the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Christmas tree	Beautiful Neopolitan Creche	Obligatory Ingres photo

Lunch was at an unimpressive pizzeria (can't even remember the name now to link up to) but dinner was at our favorite little French restaurant, Saju Bistro. All-you-can-eat free olives - what more can you ask for? We had earlier picked up tickets for Nice Work if You Can Get It, which is a new musical comedy based on old material - the music of George Gershwin and the writings of PG Wodehouse. With those two names, you better believe it was good! Completely and utterly ridiculous - and isn't that what musical comedy is all about?! Matthew Broderick was doing a star turn as the lead character, as did Blythe Danner acting in a cameo role as his mother. Based on applause when other actors came on stage, I'm figuring they were famous in the theater crowd as well, but I didn't recognize them. It was so fun, seeing a brand new musical - meaning I didn't know the story, so everything was new - but still able to hum along with most of the songs, since I do know me some Gershwin. Actually, one of the many LPs I gave Michael for Christmas was a Gershwin collection!

Sunday morning was church, of course, and Michael wanted to take me to high church so we went to Church of the Resurrection, recommended to him by some Boston friends. I had my doubts, as our experience with city churches is that they tend to be rather heretical. Fortunately, I didn't hear the priest say anything I disagreed with - unfortunately, that may just have been because I didn't hear much of what the priest said. It being high church, they used incense - and it being Epiphany (and Feast of the incense-bearing Magi) they used a LOT of it. I've been in services with incense before, but they've generally been in cathedrals with high ceilings and lots of volume to allow the incense to dissipate. Not so, this little city church. The incense stuck around - you could barely see the lights above, the smoke was so thick. Apparently, incense and I don't mix, because I felt ill the entire service. I had a death grip on the pew in front of us whenever we stood up. Another interesting point is that the choral mass was performed in German, using a mass likely written by Mozart père (as opposed to the more famous Mozart fils). I can get down with a good foreign language mass, but even the notes on the score in the church bulletin commented on how it was nowhere near as good as what Wolfgang wrote - and it showed. I don't mean to sound so down on the church - the people were quite friendly - but clearly not my cup of tea!

After church, we had to rush back to the hotel to grab our belongings and head to Penn Station for me to catch a train to Newark airport, as I am in Houston this week for training on my new job. There wasn't much time before my train left, so we wandered into Penn Station, trying to stay close to my train departure platform - because Penn Station is a labyrinth you will never escape from if you venture too deep. There was a TGI Friday's nearby and, while we weren't expecting anything spectacular like our Korean BBQ or French Bistro experiences, at least it should be familiar and quick - and, apparently, expensive! $20 for a entree salad, something that would be $8, $10 max anywhere else. We spent more here than we did at the aforementioned pizzeria (which, will I said it was unimpressive, was still decent) and the only reason it was cheaper than our dinners is because we didn't order any alcohol. Plus, the service was terrible - we ate there specifically because it was close and should have been quick but it took forever to get our food. I was starting to sweat it near the end. Never again! Fortunately, I made my train and flight with no issues and Michael was also successful in catching the bus back home - to our unheated house. Yep, the furnace is on the blitz again - so thankful I'm in warm(er) Houston this week!