National Zoo

This afternoon I spent nearly five hours at the National Zoo with two young ladies who had never been to a zoo in their lives! One of them is a friend of mine from high school who is here doing an internship with an Oregon Representative. The other is her roommate here in DC.

Aside from the fact that there were no penguins, polar bears or giraffes (my favorites), we had a good time!

The National Zoo - we had to pose out front, of course.

Our National Zoo would not be complete without our nation's "mascot"

A very playful "kitty"

Cute monkey

Giant Panda

Memorial Day Weekend

It's officially the end of our long Memorial Day weekend, and boy did Tim and I enjoy ourselves. Here are the highlights:

Friday we went to the Nationals-Orioles game at Nationals Stadium. It's a pleasant 15 minute walk from our house, and on Friday nights they have fireworks! The weather was perfect, and even though we lost in the 12th inning we still had a lot of fun:

Nationals Stadium - Home Run Nats!

The four of us enjoying our Friday evening in the sun.

Senators Sausages, where we got our over-priced park food.
I have to laugh at the names places get around here...

Yummy Bratwurst! One for me, and one for Timmy, I swear!

Saturday we got up early and headed out to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

the National Aquarium in Baltimore


Dolphin Show!! My favorite part. :)

Woah!!!

So cute!!

This little narcissistic guy cracked me up!
He loved the camera so I took multiple photos
and I still laugh when I look at them.

Beautiful jelly fish.
There was a new Jellies exhibit that opened the day we went.
We were the first ones in.

Kinda scary croc! Look at those beady eyes.

Lunch at an Irish place on the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

Saturday night BBQ at our place.
Tim grilled yummy burgers and Kielbasa.
Anna and I did the guac, veggies, and fabulous chips with mango peach salsa.

Sunday we went to IKEA to get Tim a new desk (since the moving company never found the major pieces of our desk they "misplaced"). It was pretty comical (after the fact, but not during) to see the difference between how men and women shop. Timmy went straight for the desks and within 10 minutes had decided which one to purchase. Then, in his opinion, we were done. Meanwhile I inspected everything, trying to decide what to get since I had all sorts of plans for the apartment. We compromised in the end and got him a desk and me a bookshelf, a bathroom organizer and two cool lamps. A big thanks to Anna's boyfriend Grady for taking us to IKEA in his truck and helping us transport our purchases.

We also caught the National Symphony Orchestra's National Memorial Day Concert on the west lawn of the Capitol Sunday evening with a couple friends. It was an enjoyable combination of vocal, band, and symphony tunes as well as speeches by famous people like Colin Powell and Gary Sinise. Even a pacifist like me enjoyed the military-focused, patriotic-chill-inducing ditties.

After the concert

Today our landlords took us on a road trip to Annapolis, MD, home of the US Naval Academy and situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River. We took a driving tour of old-town Annapolis and enjoyed the boardwalk for a little while before returning to DC.

Tim and our landlord Marc on the boardwalk in Annapolis -
enjoying the sun, the view, cool drinks and the live music.

Our landlady Dale and I enjoying another bench along the boardwalk.

This evening we saw the Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in the Air and Space Museum IMAX. It was fun to see the film in one of the buildings where it was filmed, but the film itself was nowhere near as good as its prequel.

I think Tim was done having his picture taken at this point.
But here we are waiting for the movie to start.

And to finish the weekend off, we have been putting together our IKEA purchases. Sophie has tried to help, but has mostly just been cute while getting in the way.

Putting Timmy's desk together

Bathroom storage!! Or kitty storage??

I don't think I've had such an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend since 2005 when Tim professed his undying love for me and we began dating! (but that's another story entirely)

No Longer Unemployed

Yes, folks, it's finally official. I've been offered the Administrative Coordinator position at the Center for Democracy in the Americas! And, after a little negotiation, I accepted the job this evening. I will be starting on Monday after a very full week of Temp work this week.

On an entirely unrelated note, I found this video of Obama fairly amusing. Our president has a sense of humor and can make light of a variety of people and issues even during these hard times. I enjoyed his "stand-up routine" even though it's odd to see him joke around through an entire "speech". And speaking of our president, he was featured on the controversial cover of the latest issue of Washingtonian Magazine. I first heard about this cover during my second interview at the CDA and subsequently saw it at the grocery store. I guess all I can say is... I'm proud to call him my "new neighbor" even if he doesn't really qualify as a "neighbor" since his house is nearly a three mile walk from mine. (Yes, I Google Mapped it.)

Around the World via Embassies

On Saturday my friend Anna and I toured several Embassies through the Passport DC Open House program. We didn't make it to all the ones available to us, but we did enjoy several. Check out a few photos below:

Anna getting her Henna tattoo at the Bangladesh Embassy

Me getting mine done

Bangladesh Henna

United Arab Emirates - they weren't open to the public, but their building was the coolest.

See what I mean? Cool Building!

Malaysia, obviously!

Malaysia (they had a fun, cultural marketplace in their courtyard!)

Pakistan

Pakistan

Band playing at the Nigerian Embassy

Drummers at the Ghana Embassy

We also went to the Ethiopian Embassy and saw a traditional coffee ceremony, but I forgot to take a picture there.

I heard a rumor that the Embassy Open House tour happens on the first Saturday of each month, with a select group of Embassies opening their doors. I've not confirmed that yet, but I hope it's true, because it was a lot of fun - and it was free! I love my new hometown!

And speaking of my new hometown... we went to see State of Play on Saturday. Though I was not entirely impressed with the film, it was still fun to see parts of DC I have come to know personally on the big screen.