On a Personal Note

Well I guess it is about time to tell everyone about my new job. Yes yes I am very excited. I just recieved an offer this week (which I accepted!) from Brailsford and Dunlavey which is a facility planning and program management firm based in D.C.. They develop "quality of life" facilities that include, sports complexes, student housing, recreation facilities, and confrence centers. To know more about what they do you can check out thier webpage. I start work on monday as a Human Resources Assistant. I am currently working part-time, which will hopefully turn into a full-time job as my career at B&D progresses. Their office is metro accessible, and is also only a few blocks away from where Alex works at the National Democratic Institute. I am not totally sure what my job entails quite yet, except for some database clean-up and updating to start. Hopefully I will get a decent amount of exposure to some general HR concepts to help me prepare to take my PHR certification test as well as possibly become a generalist at some point. Below is the google map of where my office is located in D.C., along with where the apartment is and where Alex works. I will post most locations on here as things become more signifigant to me.But YAY for having a job! Thanks to everyone who has kept me sane by providing support for all those rought days of bad interviews and rejection!


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We Just Made the Down Payment

This is the beautiful home that we just put a down payment on...ok maybe not. Instead we visited Mount Vernon, George Washington's Estate. It is about 8 miles out of Alexandria and the drive was beautiful. We took the George Washington Parkway and drove along the Potomac. Mount Vernon is privately owned and open year round. You do have to pay to visit the site, which is rare in D.C., but it is worth you $13 ($15 for us because we also visited the newly opened distillery and granary). The house is beautiful inside and out. Pictures are not allowed inside, but there is beautiful woodworking and vivid paint colors. The room on the bottom left is the room where GW was elected our first president and in the top right room of the house is where he died of a throat infection. The estate is restored to the year he died because there was a detailed description of the house from that time. It has a breathtaking view from the back, over the Potomac. On the other side of the river you will notice it is not built up because Maryland has put laws in place to preserve the view from Mount Vernon.

And this is the view from the back porch, it is really dark because it started to pour rain for about a half an hour of our visit

There were all sorts of things to see, from the pasture and barns to GW's farming ground where he discovered innovative farming techniques. His grave (original and new) are both on the grounds. He was originally buried in a brick building that looked like a cellar and then I believe when Martha died there was a new structure build for them and family members. There is a memorial to the slaves that served on his estate as well. The grounds also keeps live animals around... many of which I am sure are from the time of GW himself.

In Honor of the Presidential Debates...an Apple Pie

So I decided to bake an apple pie in honor of the first presidential debates. I borrowed ideas from two different recipes and set out to make my first pie. I was stressing about the crust, since as a child my grandma made the most amazing flaky, buttery crust I have ever tasted. I choose a recipe that used both butter and shortening (yum fat) and was pleasantly surprised with the texture. I don't own a rolling pin, so I used a glass which proved to be challenging and my crust kind of looked like a patch work quilt on the top. Here is a photo of the apples being put in the crust.

After this I rolled out another sheet of crust to go on top (which tore in places) and then after I put it on top of my pie realized I forgot my cubed of butter (which are supposed to make the pie rich and creamy) so we had to do surgery on my pie. Needless to say I finally got it all together, wrapped the edges in tin foil to avoid burning and popped it in the oven.

After a small minor catastrophe...the insides bubbled out of the crust and started smoking, setting off our fire alarm, I ended up with a delicious pie that was greatly enjoyed during the debates.

Take Me Out To the Ball Game

I had asked Alex to take me to a baseball game at the new Nationals park. (Ironically I am now employed by the firm that did much of the planning and development of the park, but more about that later). We took the metro in, which was decently crowded on the way in and I was in awe when we got off the metro and went to take the escalators up to street level, to see that all the escalators were going up...no way to go down!

The Nationals played the San Diego Padres. Unfortunately the opening singer who performed the national anthem was less than talented and made you grit your teeth. The park is very open and clean and does boast some decent baseball food options. I was a fan of their cotton candy but not impressed with their overly priced-overly iced sodas.

On Fridays there is a fireworks show following the game, we went on a Sunday so didn't get to see that, but we did get to watch the President races (some historical presidential mascots racing around on Segway scooters...Roosevelt never wins apparently). The park does boast a huge, amazing LED screen that really does enhance your ability to watch the game and catch the score.

The Presidents Race...

Adams Morgan Day

So I have some catching up to do on my adventures. Alex found the information about Adams Morgan day, in the...who would guess, Adams Morgan neighborhood. So despite the 91 degree weather (a record for the day) we jumped on the metro and went to see what it was all about. There was many blocks blocked off and running down the center were booths of food, local artists, jewelers, and various other represented causes and businesses. Local music was on display, however neither one of the performing acts were to my liking. We did not stay long due to the intense heat but there were tons of people there and hope next year we will be able to enjoy more of the food and entertainment. Here is a photo from one of the local restaurants...the name is rather entertaining. They were not participating in Adams Morgan day due to some "scandal" but their name, "Madams Organ" still makes me smile.