Quick Update

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post a quick update on non-news-related life events...

Brian's parents came into town on Friday and will be here until Wednesday night. It's the first time they've ever been to Washington, and the first time they've come to visit us since we moved here 3 years ago.

One of my absolute favorite things is seeing the city with people who have never seen it before. There's just something about seeing the Capitol, the monuments, the Supreme Court, and all the other beautiful and awe-inspiring symbols of our nation with someone who is seeing them for the first time. It reminds me to take time to appreciate getting to live in such a beautiful city that people come from all over the world to visit, and walking past landmarks on my way to work that people dream their whole lives of seeing.

On Friday night we did my favorite thing to do with "new people" - take a driving tour of the city at night, when all the monuments and buildings are lit up. The city takes on a completely different feeling at night... almost magical, and very dramatic. I love it.

Saturday we all went over our soon-to-be new house (!) and spent about 3 hours with our contractor, our realtor (both of which are fantastic), and Brian's parents going over all the renovations we're going to be starting as soon as we close escrow on Friday. The prior owners basically destroyed the integrity of the house, so we're going to be getting rid of all their awful choices and try to restore it back to its original 1875-era beauty (with some modern conveniences, of course). Oh, and we get to live there! I'm pretty excited about that, too. Not only is it about a 3 minute walk to my office and 2 blocks from the Metro, it's 2 blocks from the Capitol and has views of the Washington Monument. Not that I'm bragging. Well, okay, maybe just a little.

Saturday night we went to dinner at our favorite Irish Pub in Old Town Alexandria (Pat Troy's), then had dessert at La Madeleine (one of my all-time favorites).

Yesterday we drove down GW Parkway and went to Mount Vernon. It could not have been a more perfect, beautiful day for it. After that we had dinner at La Tasca and went through two pitchers of Sangria between the four of us, so we were all feeling pretty good afterward. Today they're doing the Tourmobile and we're going to get together for dinner at Ruth's Chris tonight after Brian and I get off work.

So that's the latest. I'm starting to get pretty excited, but also pretty stressed out about the house stuff, and balancing all of that with stresses and demands of work and making sure I see my husband every now and then. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I know how beautiful it will be when it's all finished, which is comforting. I'll be sure to post some before and after pictures and keep you all posted!