This and That

I apologize for the long pause...
The last week has been very busy! 

This past weekend we headed south to visit friends in Richmond, VA.  I'll call them...the "ELPG family."  We'll likely make many trips down to Richmond, as I have a few friends that live in that area.  We had a wonderful time hanging out with the ELPG's!  This was our first trip to Richmond so we took a driving tour of some of the sites.  We drove down Monument Avenue which is the only street in the nation to be named a national historic site.  After the Civil War, statues were erected to honor Confederate heroes such as President Jefferson David, Robert E. Lee, and General Stonewall Jackson.

Then it was on to Maymont Park to enjoy some time outdoors since the weather was so nice.  The park contains the elaborate Gilded Age mansion that was home to James and Sallie Dooley.  The Dooley's bequeathed their home and 100 acres to the city of Richmond and it has been developed into an beautiful park.  The property contains several different gardens, walking trails, a nature center and a petting zoo.  For a small fee the mansion and other historical buildings can be toured.  If you would like to read more about Maymont - visit www.maymont.org. I'm looking forward to visiting the park again in the summer to see all of the flower gardens!

Checking out the Italian garden at Maymont

I need to give Josh props for assembling our new office desk this weekend.  It would have taken me 15 hours to put that thing together, but he put the entire desk together in just 3 hours!  Now that we finally have a desk I was able to unpack the last of our boxes!  

I'm very thankful to have the desk put together because for the next 8 weeks I will be doing some serious studying to obtain the first of 2 FINRA licenses I need for my job.  No more leisurely evenings watching TV and going out to explore the city...I will spend every minute of my free time with my nose in this behemoth of a book.  (Even Alex is scared of it.)

I'm hoping that Josh will take over blogging for awhile.  So if you don't see a new post for over a week, be sure to pester him! :) 

 

A Tradition Continues

Amber has done such a great job sharing some of our moments with all of you, I thought I should contribute.

As you know, yesterday was both Amber's and my birthday.  While we were blowing out the candles on our "joint" cake, it prompted memories from my childhood.  So I thought I would share some of those fond memories with you...

Growing up, we (Hatfields) had many traditions.  For example, dad reading "The Night Before Christmas," the night before Christmas (which he still does).  As kids, we could always expect to receive a heart-shaped-box of chocolates for Valentines Day, hunting for candy filled eggs on Easter, and even more importantly, the matters of our birthday. 

Our birthday celebration always contained a very important, constant variable - our birthday cake.  Some of you already know where I am headed with this... Mom, regardless of her schedule would always make time to bake a cake for our special day.  The constant was not expecting the cake itself, but rather the flavor of the cake.  It seemed we always had a yellow-cake with milk chocolate frosting for our birthday, and not just for my birthday, but for both of my siblings as well.  It wasn't until I was a stock boy at the local grocery store during high school, that I realized there were more options than yellow cake mix and chocolate frosting. 

For the past two years, my wonder wife has continued this tradition - baking me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  What's more important is that Amber has conceded her favorite cake (anything other than yellow cake with chocolate frosting) to keep the tradition going.  I've promised her that we will try something new next year... maybe funfetti with rainbow chip frosting.

I plan to continue contributing posts to the blog as we explore our new surroundings.  But will leave the majority of the creative contributions to my much more talented wife.  

More Crab Cakes Please...

Last Saturday was a rainy, dreary day and by three o'clock we were suffering from a bit of cabin fever.  On a whim, we decided to drive up and explore Baltimore.  My distance perception is a bit off here.  From Kansas City it took 2-4 hours to drive to the nearest big city and the drive was usually very uneventful.   I tend to forget that from here we can drive to D.C. in 20 minutes and to Baltimore in 45 minutes!  Not to mention - Richmond in 2 hours, Philadelphia in 3 hrs, Atlantic City (the Las Vegas of the East) in 4 hours and New York in 4.5 hours.  We definitely have a lot of exploring to do.

We made our way to Baltimore and the first item on the agenda was to find the Charm City Cakes bakery.  I'm a big fan of the Food Network show "Ace of Cakes" which features the hilarious characters that work at Charm City Cakes.  

Unfortunately the bakery was closed.  Otherwise I would've had to resist the urge to knock on the door like a crazy woman and beg to meet Duff!  We looked into what it would cost to order one of their cakes and found out that they require a minimum order of $1,000.  Unless it's frosted with real gold sprinkles on top...I don't think I could part with that much money for one little cake! 

Next up we headed over to the Inner Harbor marina in search of some legendary Chesapeake Bay blue crab cakes.  The truck driver from North American Van Lines that delivered our stuff was a Baltimore native and talked about crab cakes for an hour when he was at our home.  We strolled around the harbor for awhile and decided on The Rusty Scupper restaurant. (Seen here on the right with the red sign.)

 

The crab cakes I've had in the past have been patty-like and fried crispy.  Granted, most of the seafood in the Midwest is a week old by the time it gets there so maybe frying it is the best option for flavor.  These were other-worldly.  Plump little cakes full of delicious chunks of moist blue crab meat.  
This photo does not do them justice.  All I have to say is - "More crab cakes please!"

A very full and happy Josh.

To celebrate our birthdays today, we're going to Old Town Alexandria, VA for a night out.  

Happy Birthday to us!

Adventures in Shopping for the Fashion Challenged

Most of you know that I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.  However, my new job requires that I wear a suit on a daily basis since I'm interacting directly with clients.  I just can't understand why anyone wouldn't take advice from an investment professional wearing comfy jeans, an old college logo t-shirt and flip flops.  I think the financial world needs a serious make-under.  Is anyone really comfortable in these things?  For the past 5 years there's been 1 lonely suit hanging in my closet and I've worn it twice in that time period.  
So last weekend we fought our way through traffic down to the Potomac Mills Outlet Shops on a mission to find affordable suits.  Josh's frustration level peaked at about hour 2 so I had to bribe him with a bagel dog and Diet Dr. Pepper to continue on with our quest.  After walking around the mall for 3 hours, we left with - 1 new suit jacket, 3 shirts and 1 pair of shoes.  Mission: failed.  Evidently, I have much to learn about putting together the perfect suit ensemble!  But don't worry...I've since found a few new suits to add to my closet. :)  Now just to work on feeling comfortable in them.