FOOD and FRISBEE

NOTE: There are two entries... so don't forget to read the one after this one :)

Last Friday, we went to a restaurant called Willow which was delicious!! We ordered the mussels which I have never had before. Apparently, Mark had them all the time in the Philippines.. who knew? But they were SO good. I knew I would probably think they were fine but I didn't think I would LOVE them. YUM!

I ordered the duck... the lady asked me how I would like it cooked. I thought it was like chicken and they just cook it all the way. Anyways, it came out a little to undercooked but I ate it anyway. The flavor was amazing but the duck was a little chewy. Note: order duck medium or medium well. Here are the sad remains... doesn't look very appetizing but it was!

Saturday morning, Mark and I got to go to his first frisbee tournament (Day 1) with Snack Pack. They needed girls so I brought my cleats JUST IN CASE! They lost the first game :( because they got off to a bad start. The second game, they won and the third game I got to play!! It was SO fun. I am really glad they let me play. Dr. Nick, our friend from OC who introduced us to the Snacks was even visiting for two weeks so we got to play with him too!! Everyone on the team was really nice and afterwards Mark was ecstatic when someone mentioned Chipotle (an Orange County tradition every saturday for 3-4 years). 

Above: notice "Bugs" look-alike (and sound-alike) in 20 years

Small child in the huddle; he did not play

Us with Dr. Nick

The Team (well most of them)

Mark is so happy. He has his Chipotle, his wife, friends and frisbee. Life can't get much better for him here :)

AND NOW, we are leaving for Spain on Sunday for two weeks. We will be going to Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid and Granada. I am not sure if we will have time to post while we are there but there will definitely be pictures when we get back. Adios!!

-Marsh

A Day in the Life

4:48am - First alarm goes off... snooze
4:53am - Second alarm goes off... hop out of bed!!
By 5:15 sharp, I am out the door and on my way to the metro. It's usually still dark at this time so I have to watch my back! Ya never know who is lurking around in dark corners. My mom would be proud.
After hearing the morning announcement from the loudspeaker, I get on the second orange line train of the day at about 5:25 or 5:26 exactly and begin to see some of the same people everyday. First is the lady who always has about 25 newspapers stuffed into her bag and sometimes she is bopping to her ipod. She's an awkward specimen. Next, Lady-Wearing-Suit-Tennis-Shoes-and-Ponytail gets on at about the 3 stop in and always stands near the door. As I arrive at Metro Center (one stop away from my gym) I exit the train and several paths quickly converge to the escalator where I spot Blind-Lady-With-Cane and I try not to cut her off as she gets on the right side of the elevator, me on the left. And upon arriving at the train stop for the red line train, I see my favorite: Santa-Claus-crossed-with-Colonel-Sanders with a white beard and a cream colored bucket hat. Sometimes I actually skip the red line and walk to work. This is what it usually looks like.

I enter the gym greeted by Clint, my favorite front desk person. Training ensues. Here are some pictures of me with my boss, Lisa and my filipino coworker, George.

The view from the top floor is nice of the Smithsonian Museum.

Work, work, work. Sometimes I get to go home during my morning or afternoon break. Depends on the day. I recently went to meet some people at a Physical Therapy clinic and the White House was on the way.

I take the metro back home at night. Here are some other things I was able to take pictures of that I thought were funny or cute.

When I arrive back at my stop, I walk back to the apartment but this time I can sneak through the market (it's not open at 5:15am) and I pass by the video store with the CUTE kitty inside.

Video Store (above); market (below)

Back at home, at last. Go to bed by 9:30 to be ready for the next day.

-Marsh

Hokm and Quelf

Friday night, we met up with one of my high school/junior high friends, Mia, who I hadn't talked to in probably 9 years!! She and her boyfriend, Dillon, live in DC and both work at the Department of State. We went to The Front Page (repeat, but in Arlington this time) and it was much better than our previous experience. The food and menu seemed a little bit different in Arlington than DC. Let me tell you, this place is weird. I got out of work before dinner and it was 88 degrees and raining. Unfortunately, I had no umbrella so I had to steal cover from the buildings between bouts of rain. Then it hailed!! What? I don't get it. So weird. Anyways, we talked about good old Davis and who we still kept in touch with from high school. Our 10 year reunion will be next year... That's a little scary! I can't believe it has already been that long. After dinner, we made a HORRIBLE decision to go to the Cheesecake Factory... Who's idea was that anyways? A slice of Carrot Cake, Dulce de Leche cheesecake, Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake, and Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake later... I began to realize the mistake we had just made. (when did they start naming the flavors after people?) I felt as guilty as if I had just done cocaine. The double date was a success nonetheless. I hope we get a second date. But we'll wait 3 days until we call them.

Saturday, I had the usual Pilates (slash) Work combo. Luckily, one of my clients cancelled and I got to go home early. Had to prepare for the "block party" at Cody and Diana's in MD. IMPORTANT NOTE, I neglected to mention in my earlier post that Cody and Diana are our friend compliments of Kelli and Dave Sholer (the latter of whom only recently told us after about 5 years of hanging out that he likes to be called Dave and not David)). Anyways... we packed our "overnight" bags and began our trek across the world to Maryland. Went to the block party at Diana and Cody's brand new apartment complex, played some foosball (I lost twice...), a little pool, Hokm (Persian card game), and then Quelf all the while enjoying some red wine. We met D and C's dog (Cooper), cat (Chiro) and then another cat (don't remember her name). Mark really loved Cooper as you can tell.

We had another great weekend with new friends but we still miss you all and hope to see you soon!! Love you!

...the rest.

So, I didn't get to finish up with last weekend in my last entry so this will be a shorter one.

On Friday night, Mark and I got to meet up with Van, a girl that he has known since 6th grade! She lives a bit south of us with her hubby Eric and they recently got married after winning a $100,000 dream wedding from US Weekly. WOW! Anyways, we met up in Shirlington at an Indian restaurant, Aroma, which was yummy! Down the street there was a place called CakeLove (my heaven) but it was CLOSED after dinner. We will have to go back and visit for a cupcake. We also stopped by The Curious Grape (a wine store). We tasted a Spanish wine and then bought a couple of bottles so that we can prepare for our trip in June!! Yippee.

On Saturday, I went and took a Pilates class and then trained a couple of people. But afterwards I finally got to meet up with Mark and his frisbee team, Snackpack. I met the guys (and girls) and I was glad to see Mark enjoying his first love. I walked from work to the Polo Fields by the FDR Memorial which was about 2 miles but it was a beautiful day and I got to enjoy all of the major sites during my walk. I don't want to take for granted where we are but sometimes I have to remind myself.

Later that night, we headed down to Alexandria to a friend's house for Paella, wine and conversation. It was SOOO windy as we walked from the metro to the apartment... ugh! So, again we prepared for Spain as we ate dinner and drank some Spanish wine. We stayed up late and had a great time with our new friends!!

Sunday we went to church right across the street. Loved it! The rest of the day we got to chillax and just enjoy the weekend before it was over.

Ok, and here is a picture of Julia after she tried for SO long to crawl... she was tooo tired!

More updates soon. I will try to be better so they aren't novels anymore.

Family. Friends. Work. Politics.

These past few weeks have been very crazy indeed. I will try to highlight the main events that have transpired and make it entertaining and concise so you will keep reading our blog.

Two weekends ago, we travelled back to Tracy, CA to visit our new baby nephew as well as Mark's side of the family. We left on Thursday night and arrived in Tracy too late to see the babies that night. The next morning we greeted Joelle (3 1/2) and Jaden (almost 2 at the time) right when they woke up. They were more confused than excited at first (Joelle takes after Mark and his sister who are very disoriented when they are awakened). But they quickly warmed up to us. While we were with the family, we celebrated Jaden's birthday and he was SOOOOOO happy when we sang happy birthday to him. I have never seen a dimpled grin so big. Baby Julian was precious and we both loved just holding him while he slept... which was basically all he did anyways. Looks like we have another "ina anak" (godchild in tagalog). Mark's sister, Eurose told us this story about Jaden:

Eurose, "I'm going to go feed baby Julian". 

Jaden lifts up his shirt and says, "I feed him!!".

Joelle is pretty funny too when she says she is handsome, pretty and cute... but not beautiful. She used to say she was just handsome but has recently admitted being pretty and cute as well. One day she dressed herself in a green t-shirt, green jacket, green pants, green hat (all of different shades of course) and then searched for her green shoes. She also uses band aids as stickers and puts them all over her legs. When she couldn't find them, she resorted to her pink and brown ones. 

Our TOO-short trip ended abruptly on Saturday night with a red-eye back to DC. We had a wonderful time with the family and miss them very much.

Since our TV stopped working after we moved, we FINALLY got a new one (after paying for cable for two months with no TV to watch it on... the one time Mark was proactive about getting our utilities set up early). So now we can waste away our lives staring at a 40" screen while utilizing minimal brain function instead of exploring the amazing city that is only a metro stop away! YAY!

Last weekend, we went out with our friends Diana and Cody to the Millennium Stage to listen to the National Symphony Orchestra to watch/hear a strings quartet (2 violins, viola and bass). It was delightful (in an English accent) :) It really was but we all agreed that 1 hour was the perfect amount of time. We then headed to a restaurant, The Front Page, which was mediocre. Actually I didn't like what I got but everyone else was fine with their dishes. Our waiter, however... was HORRIBLE. It turns out, we are a little spoiled with customer service in CA but this guy was ridiculous. For some reason he really thought we were annoying when we asked him... well anything. And then he forgot about us for at least 45 minutes when we finished our meals. We probably could have left without paying and he wouldn't have known we were ever there. We quickly paid our bill leaving him a VERY poor tip and ran away. Oops, Mark forgot his camera so he stealthily creeped back to the restaurant and grabbed it. Phew. We headed to a wine bar, Veritas, which was delicious. In preparation for our Spain trip this June, Mark and I got a flight of Spanish wines. We had our second motorcade drive-by that night and we are pretty sure we saw Obama wave from the back seat.

Lately, work has been really hard... for Mark. I love my job and have been getting more and more clients. But he has had a much more difficult time. So, pray for him.

Last week, I had my first experience with lobbying. I attended IHRSA's summit in DC where we met to discuss obesity and physical activity. We also set up meetings with congressmen (actually with congressmen's staffers) but it was pretty interesting to see how it all goes down on "the hill". I am pretty sure the median age was about 50 so I was the youngest by probably 10 years and since I look 18, I'm sure at first they thought I was just someone's daughter who couldn't find a babysitter. Anyways, I had to wear a suit (borrowed from my sister-in-law) and of course I had to be very DC and wear my tennis shoes while walking from home to metro to the hill. Well anyways, I made some good contacts and feel like Obama and I just got a little bit closer.

I am going to cover this past weekend later because I need to go to bed soon. Oh last thing, Julia, my niece is REALLY trying to crawl and here are some really cute pictures of her and my cat too.