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. 

Battles with Mother Nature

It snowed the day the packing crew came to box up our things for the move.
It snowed the day the movers came to load our stuff.
It iced the day we got here.  
It snowed on our first day of work.

Mother Nature has it out for us.  I'm not sure what we did to tick her off, but she definitely seems to be inconveniencing us on the key dates that we could really use good weather.  Today was our first day of work and we were both sent home early due to a winter storm.  I swung by Josh's office to pick him up on my way home.  It took 2 hours to drive a total of 10 miles.  Crazy!  Now I understand why the entire D.C. Metro area has to shut down when it snows...it's impossible to clear the streets efficiently with this many cars on the road.  We've been watching the snow from our living room window and it's been white out conditions for the last hour.  The weatherman said that by midnight we should have 7-10 inches.  I'm not gonna lie...I'm pretty excited at the possibility of a snow day tomorrow!

My first day of work was a bit strange and overwhelming to say the least.  Josh's first day went well except for a situation regarding where his temporary office is located.  Not the ideal first day of work either of us had wished for but we survived.

No more boxes!

North American Van Lines delivered our things on Friday and we immediately got to unpacking.  Josh and I were on a mission to get all 51 boxes unpacked and didn't leave the apartment for 48 hrs. 

I spent nearly all day Saturday getting the kitchen unpacked while Josh worked on setting up the surround sound system in the living room - which conveniently for him involved watching movies to "test out the sound quality."  Josh was amazed that I never cut myself with the box cutter, given my history with being clumsy with sharp objects.  But a few broken fingernails and lots of aches and pains later, it finally feels like home.

 
The only slightly disappointing thing about the apartment is the view...a Bob Evans restaurant and the post office.  At least it's just a short walk across the street if we need stamps.  We've explored the neighborhood a bit more and have located the grocery store, gas station, Starbucks, and Target.  Life is good as long as I know my way to Target. 
This morning I did a "test run" of the drive to my new office.  It's 5.5 miles away and took right at 30 minutes to get there.  I'd like my morning drive to not be too stressful, but it looks like I'm going to have to be a more aggressive driver.  Josh and I are both getting anxious for our first days at work.  I feel a bit jittery like it's the first day of school.  Will I make friends? Will I like the work I'm going to be doing?  What outfit should I wear?  Josh's commute to work will only be 10 or 15 minutes, he just needs to figure out what bus he needs to get on at what time.  We both start on Wednesday, so I'm sure I'll have lots to report on later this week!

1,100 Miles From Kansas

Well folks, we made it to Virginia!  Sitting in the car for 17 hrs was grueling, but we arrived here safely.  For the past 2 days we've been hanging out in our empty apartment and learning our way around the area.  The moving company is scheduled to deliver our things tomorrow.  In the meantime it's just us, the cat, an air mattress and the essentials.  Josh and I will both contribute posts to the blog - maybe Alex will even write once in awhile too.  I am not an eloquent writer - my thoughts are random and my blog posts will likely be as well.  We will do our best to post regularly, but for the first few months our posts will be sporadic.

On a side note, I want to apologize to motorists in the greater DC/VA area for my driving.  I learned to drive on country roads in Marion County, KS.  Where it's OK to drive down the center of the road as long as no one is coming and where stop signs are somewhat optional.  Drivers here scare the dickens out of me and I've already had to resort to what Josh calls, my "Dukes of Hazzard" driving skills to get us where we need to be.

We hope you'll follow along on our adventures...far from Oz.