Monthly Archives for November 2008

Day Twenty-Seven: Thankful

It’s Thanksgiving and, well, I have a lot to be thankful for today. Here’s what I could remember in ten minutes, in no particular order.

  • Matt
  • My parents
  • The EAT guys
  • Everyone in SWE
  • Long Beach Stitch n Beach
  • Ladies at Knit Happens
  • Living in LA long enough to appreciate what traffic means
  • Moving closer to family
  • New apartment
  • Old apartment – especially the staff and being super close to Heather
  • Willie and Ollie
  • My work and coworkers – Eileen, ability to work remotely, interesting projects
  • Crappy television shows
  • Ravelry
  • Not breaking Matt’s camera
  • European travels

Day Twenty-Four: Getting to Know You

We’ve been in Alexandria for a little over a week and it’s finally starting to feel like home. Despite the fact we’re still living out of a hotel, that is. While I have yet to have any idea whatsoever where the highways go or fully understand that inner loop/outer loop insanity, I am getting to know where some of my favorite things are located:

1. Shopping: There’s a Gap Outlet, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, and Ross all about 500 feet on the main street of town. One of my first full days in town I found this out and spent just over a hundred dollars for two sweaters, four long sleeve tees, and a pair of jeans at the Gap Outlet. Also nearby-ish is Tyson’s Corner, a fancy schmancy shopping mall which reminds me of the best parts of South Coast plaza – with much better parking.

2. Restaurants: We’ve so far found a good Five Guys and Chipotle as well as a place for fish and chips (Eammon’s), quick weekday lunches (Cafe Eve), amazing flatbread sandwhiches (Perfect Pita) and fast Americanized Asian (Red Mei). We’ve really tried to limit out eating out, despite still have per diem because, well, even with two burners and no oven you can still make good, simple dinners. I’m still looking for a good place for subs and a coffee house but I haven’t exactly tried anywhere for those yet.

3. Wine Shops: In a random strip mall next to a Giant grocery store there’s a great little wine and beer shop we’ve already visited twice. We were happy to learn that they carry several Central Coast wineres as well as a great selection of wines of Alsace and Burgundy. Matt was also happy to learn that they carryAugusteiner beer, his favorite from when we were in Munich a few years ago.

4. Grocery stores: Due to Matt’s love affair with cooking he really loves grocery shopping. Our first few days we visited at least five grocery stores in search of ingredients he needs to cook the way he likes. I’d say our favorites are Harris Teeter, My Organic Market, and Balducci’s although I’m sure we’ll visit the very nearby Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods locations.

5. Knitting Store/Group: If we get the apartment we want, I will live only four blocks from a yarn store. Knit Happens is a small shop that carries nearly every single Rowan and Debbie Bliss yarn along with many, many yarns from local dyers, farms, and spinners. They also have a great staff who is super helpful and friendly, something I never really found in the two stores I frequented in Long Beach. I first went to the store during their Wednesday night knitting group and returned two days later just to sit and talk and knit. The ladies are amazing knitters and are mostly very close to my own age. It’s nice to talk with others facing the ups and downs of being still in or freshly out of college.

Day Twenty-One: Apartment Hunting

Simply could not remember to blog about our first attempt at finding a place to live. Then again, I’ve only got a few photos and none are actually of the insides of any of the places. Oops. Our first day of hunting was Friday. Matt’s work paid for a relator to help us find a place which sounds great but, yeah. Having someone else try to pick out a place for you, having not asked many questions other than how many bedrooms, if you have pets, and your budget doesn’t work so well.

We saw five complexes and none were what we wanted. All were big, fancy corporate places with amenities and small apartments. We want lots of space and zero ammenities ’cause, really, who regularly uses the complex weight room? Plus every place we saw was way out of our price range. I get that she is trying to make money off of us picking a place but, come on. Here’s a few shots from those places.

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Thankfully Craig’s List here had lots of listings. Matt sifted through listings for a few days and eventually narrowed it down to three places. One we never could get a visit scheduled so that’s off the list. The first place we visited is a townhouse right near Old Town Alexandria. It’s two bedrooms plus a full basement with wood floors. Downsides are no dishwasher and a tiny kitchen but Matt can easily use an attached sunroom for all kitchen storage and ingredient preparations. The second place is sort of in the middle of nowhere but a few blocks closer to the metro and very newly rennovated. It’s also got a much larger backyard and heated bathroom tiles (odd, huh?).

After a bit of talking, we decided to put in an application on the first townhouse which I just dropped off with he owner. Hopefully early next week we’ll hear if we got it and then can determine our move-in date. We’re really excited and see no reason the application won’t be accepted but there’s always that fear.

Day Twelve: NaBlo-what?

Yeah. NaBloPoMo sort of died. I blame National Conference followed by the move insanity. Sure, I’ve had internet access and the time but my mind has been mush since Thursday night. I can’t promise it’ll become solid before next week, even, so don’t be surprised if all you see here are photos until we are moved into our new place. But right now I’m heading to a local BBQ restaurant for happy hour and a last goodbye with some friends from school.

Day Six: Conference

First day of conference. After an overnight flight I quickly checked into my hotel and headed to the conference. Thankfully I ran into Jessica from Region H just after I checked in so she and I hung out until the Collegiate Weclome Lunch. Lunch was decent food and our first real opporunity to talk to one another. Most of the rest of the day was spent at our region meetings then career fair then the hospitality suits. Everything was great until I went to go change before meeting the Baltimore SWE ladies – five people in a hotel room. Thankfully that is now straightened out and I can head to bed.

Day Five: Airport

I’m going to a conference this weekend in Baltimore so that means the joys of a cross-country flight. Because I’m cheap and thought I’d have school until 5 pm today, I’ve got an overnight flight. Ugh. I must keep reminding myself that there are some good things associated with this flight:

  • Long enough layover to change, wash face, brush teeth, and put on makeup
  • Have three hours to get from plane to conference which is 60 minutes from airport
  • Will arrive at conference just in time to enjoy a free lunch
  • All the fun of the conference (I’m not being sarcastic when I say fun, either)

Day Three: Nevaeh

I was going to have this great post about a quick knit hat I made for Rendy. Yeah, it’s too small. That entry will have to wait.

Yesterday we went up to the Valley to spend time with Matt’s cousin, Amy’s, family. I brought my camera with me and spent most of the time we were there taking photos of her daughter, Nevaeh. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Nevaeh

Standing with her sister, on her tiptoes for some odd reason.

Nevaeh

Yeah, I’m sort of the one who taught her to stick out her tongue. Amy complained but I figured, hey, I could have taught her much more inappropriate things.

Nevaeh

Day Two: Conference Calls

I am on a lot of conference calls. Some for work, many for SWE. At least once  a week I have to sit through an hour or more of people talking at one another. I often have something to add but typically I’m sitting and listening.

I hate telecons. With a passion.

Most services are poor so you interrupt the other speakers when you speak vs being able to hear two people at once. This results in two people trying to talk at the same time, stopping to be polite, then starting to talk again. Plus there’s the horrible silences when no one talks/responds because they’re all on mute. And, really, most of my conference calls should really be webinars – they’re for information passing with occasional input rather than true working meetings. Working meetings, okay, but info sessions with slides – that could be emailed. But, of course, only if you read them the slides can you guarentee they hear you (notice I didn’t say listen).

(Don’t worry – tomorrow’s post will feature a knitting FO and not a text-only rant.)