Raiding Jason's Fridge

Several of my coworkers and I had a BBQ today (really a raid of Jason's fridge before he leaves for Iraq). My company has a project in Iraq and my friend/coworker Jason is headed out there (again). He wanted to grill everything in his freezer since he will be gone 3-6 months. I brought the pups with me and they had a blast. Izzie found an open cooler and proceeded to take out ice, piece by piece, and crunch on it on the deck. It was very funny. The dogs are always a hit; people can't help but love them.

Shaking Puppy

Georgie is becoming increasingly scared of thunder storms. I don't remember him caring too much in the past but now he finds me and curls up next to me, pushing himself into me to make sure I'm there and not leaving him. We had a thunderstorm last night that was so close, it woke me up. I'm not a light sleeper. My poor Georgie then proceeded to do his pushing thing (in bed) while shaking like a leaf. This was around 3am. An hour or so later he finally stopped shaking enough that we could go back to sleep. Crazy dog. Tired Emily.

Rockville

Can you say "hungover"? I have got to start working on my tolerance. I feel like such a wuss. I promised Toby we would go check out some shops in Rockville today so I dragged my hungover butt up to Rockville and shopped. Sadly, neither one of us really got anything, although we tried on some amazingly cute dresses. The problem- they were too short to even consider wearing. They would be fine as long as there is never a need to sit or do anything other than just stand and look cute. And no, these weren't those long shirts that should have tights or pants or something underneath; they were clearly dresses. I don't get it.

Girls Night Out

I went out with my friend Anne and 2 of her friends tonight. I didn't realize how much I missed the occasional night out. We met for dinner in the city at a place called Utopia. And the drinking began. The restaurant was ok; the waitress was stupid. We kept asking what was good and she kinda gave the impression that not much was great. Either disgruntled with her job or just really stupid; she came across as the latter. After dinner and 2 glasses of wine, we headed to a show at the Lincoln Theater.

We saw Carrie Fisher (yeah, Princess Leia) in Wishful Drinking, her one woman show. It's a humorous look at her life growing up in Hollywood. It was very funny, from what I can remember; they allowed drinking in the theater! I would normally have stopped drinking by this point but my friends were drinking so I figured, "what the hell?". And there went 2 more glasses of wine.
None of us were ready to go home after the show but none of us knew where to go in that area of the city. I called a friend of mine, who directed us to what I understood to be Rocker Bar. Reminder: 4 glasses of wine. I am on the phone, on the street, looking for a bar. We ended up asking a cop. Yeah. Meanwhile, my friend is laughing at me over the phone, saying "that's not actually what I said", which I didn't understand until we arrived at Rocket Bar. Yeah. It was one of those nights. So, for future reference, we went to Rocker Bar. :)

Good times.

My Sister's Keeper

I've been reading a lot lately. It's an excellent escape from reality. Too bad the books can't last longer. My latest read was My Sister's Keeper, which is about a girl who is born to be a genetic match (and donor) to her sick sister. It's about her struggle to figure out why she is here. The book was good; it took a very unexpected twist that made it a lot better. The writing was good, but not wow. The book was well worth the read though, especially given the ending.

8 pounds

I haven't talked much about my weight lately. I came back from Florida feeling kinda gross. Within a month, I had lost 8 pounds. Woohoo. I am back into my normal size again for work clothes. I still have a few pounds to go to fit into my cute jeans again. The best part is that it has stayed off since I lost it. I am maintaining! It's time to start losing again I suppose; I've got about another 8 pounds to reach my goal. Stupid dieting. But I feel so much better already.

The Queen's Fool

I saw The Other Boleyn Girl last month and really enjoyed it so I thought I would try reading one of the books by the author. I started with The Queen's Fool and read the entire thing in just a few days (while sitting on the beach); it was incredible. I don't know much about the Henry the eighth time period and with the way Philippa Gregory writes, it all becomes so vivid. The characters are well-developed and the stories are amazing. I'm so excited to have found a new author. She has another 10 or so books so I've got some reading ahead of me.

OBX 2008

I rented a house on the beach for a week again this year. Despite having to work for 1 day and having to keep up with email, I was able to spend a lot of time relaxing and catching up on me. I rented a different house this year and it was oceanfront, with 2 decks, and a jacuzzi. As last year, it was a great time to go- all the kids are back in school and everyone is afraid of hurricane season. The beaches were mostly empty and the weather was beautiful.


I spent most of my time sitting on the beach, reading. I love sitting on the sand. I grew up on beach vacations with my mom and it's always been a relaxing place for me. Georgie spent a lot of time on the sand with me, even though I started to worry about his organs cooking. Georgie likes to sunbathe. To touch him, you'd think he was about to spontaneously combust. But he's SO happy in the sun. He actually prefers the sun to being in the shade under an umbrella. Crazy dog. A great beach companion though.

Our self portrait:

The pups had a great time, as always. On a couple of days, the water came up really high and couldn't flow back out (see the pic below). It formed a pool of water and the pups got to go swimming for the first time. They are excellent little swimmers. Georgie actually took his first swim by accident. We were playing in the water and he romped a little to far and found there was no longer ground under his feet. He figured it out quickly and started swimming. SO cute.

The pups did a lot of playing. Here they are romping on the beach.























I ate seafood every night. Mostly, I went to the local seafood market, picked up their fresh catches of the day, and cooked at the house. I ate a lot of scallops. Yum. I asked the rental office where the good food was and she basically named everything except for the one chain restaurant. I ate at the chain; it was great. I ate at one of the local restaurants; I fed it to the dogs. In case you're ever in Avon, do NOT eat at the Dolphin Den. The seafood wasn't even fresh!

Here's my new friend, the sand crab. He was within a foot of my beach chair one day and kept going in and out of the sand, staying out a little longer each time.
I had good weather every day until Friday. The tropical storm, Hanna was coming through, followed by Ike, so I decided to pack up a day early and head home. I really didn't want to get stranded by flooded roads. So I lost one day, but overall, a great vacation. I am super tan (for me); I figure I have about a week until it fades to super white again. :) I want/need another week.