take a cue from Oliver and make yourself comfortable, grab a cup of coffee while your at it cos this updates long!

For a while there I wasn’t blogging because I simply didn’t have anything interesting to blog about. But, lately I haven’t been blogging because things got very busy there for a while! So, here come the highlights…

• We finally got a couch. It’s a nice couch. One that is a little less nice now because dear little Oliver peed on it two days after we got it. Now, we knew that this might happen, and we thought we had appropriately planned for this possibility. You see, when we purchased said couch we spent an extra $75 to get the stain resistant/waterproof “miracle guard” stuff so that it wouldn’t be a big deal when the inevitable happened. Well, it appears that we wasted $75 because our couch definitely smells like cat urine. I wrote the company an e-mail and told them that their “miracle guard” should really be called “big fat joke.”

• Tim’s mother flew in to town for Tim’s (second) graduation from the Park Police training program. This day also happened to be Tim’s Birthday, so this was all around a pretty busy day.

• And, that brings us to Tim’s (second) graduation. Now, I have no idea why they keep making these guys graduate. Isn’t once enough? He’d already received his diploma and his badge while training in Georgia. Got all dressed up and everything. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since the Feds really do love wasting time and money, but seriously? It was almost three hours long! Though we were treated to a slide show presentation of the rookies in training…the pic of Tim after being tear gassed was particularly amusing. All kidding aside, it was nice to see him in his dress blues and finally done with the longest part of the training.
  

• Next up: Thanksgiving. And for all of you who know that I don’t have the greatest skills in the kitchen, no, I did not cook a turkey. Though I did cook mashed potatoes (special, with cream cheese and sour cream and chives), stuffing, and gravy. It's actually a recipe I got from Sergio and Sherri's family, who we've spent Thanksgiving with every year since 1995 (except this year, of course). We ate with one of Tim’s friends from training and his fiancé, Kirsten, who live in the same apartment complex. This all went great, though I wasn't really prepared for eating dinner at noon. I think I just assumed that we'd be eating later in the afternoon, but it worked out just fine. Though, if I had known we were eating so early I definitely wouldn't have slept in so late, waited so long to shower or go to the store, and I definately would have started cooking sooner. No big deal though, we had a good time :) They're fun to hang out with.
  

• Somewhere in the midst of all of the above, we decided that it would be a good idea to move 36 miles away to Falls Church, Virginia. I could make up some really interesting story about why, like we got evicted or something, but then I’d just be lying. The reason is definitely not interesting at all. Where we were at in Maryland was too far away from absolutely everything, and since I don’t drive that was obviously a problem. If I had tried to get into DC from our apartment it would have taken me two hours one way, two buses, and one metro train. Plus, if I was working in DC, the earliest the system would get me into town was 8:30am, and if I had any plans of making it home at night the latest I would have been able to work would have been 5:30pm. One would have thought that we would have figured this out before moving there, but alas, we did not. Anyway, our new apartment is quite large, actually has a dining area, is three stories up so people aren’t walking right by our windows, is in a secured building, and is one twenty minute train ride to DC. And, there’s a free shuttle to the train station. A good move all around, I think. Though one draw back: It took me, Tim, some random guy who just happened to be walking down the hallway, and about twenty minutes to figure out how to maneuver the couch so that we could actually get it into the apartment (not to mention how long it took to figure out how to get it to fit in the freight elevator).
  

• And, speaking of the Apartment, it just so happens that I have a job interview tomorrow as a Leasing Consultant for this very building. I think it’s pretty ironic actually. We move all the way to Virginia so that my commute into DC would be more manageable, and now my commute might consist of simply walking downstairs in the morning.

• Finally, as of last night, Tim has actually started working in the field. We’ll almost. He’s doing ten weeks of rotations in the five different districts in the Park Police jurisdiction. This first two weeks they’ve thrown him to the lions. He’s working graveyard (6pm to 6am) in the ghetto. Though, I’m sure he’s going to end up with a ton of good stories, many of which I’ll probably end up wishing he just hadn’t told me. Last night was tame though, from what I hear. Though, I did learn that in the DC area there’s a law where you can’t hang stuff from your rearview mirror. I actually think Tim’s pulling my leg on this one, because that’s a totally stupid law, but sometimes I just can’t tell if he’s joking or not. edit: it appears that this was not a joke. It is, in fact, a law.
  

So that’s the last three weeks all wrapped up. Here’s a few tidbits that didn’t warrant there own bullet points: I found Tillamook cheese at Safeway, and Rogue beer at Trader Joes. Both of which are extremely cheap here. Apparently no one on the east coast cares about a fabulous cheese factory or brewery from Portland. Yay! That just means more for me. Also, I’m still thinking I might get to go to the inauguration in January. And better yet, I might also get to go to the National Prayer Breakfast with my Uncle in February. Apparently everyone who’s anyone in politics is there, and I’ll get to eat breakfast with the president (or at least I'll be in the same room).

That’s all for now.