I said burrr its cold in here

Cheesy pictures are the best

Well this week I got a small taste of DC winterish weather.  There was a high temperature of 48 this week, as in that was the highest temp for the week after Monday.  In addition to this lovely temp, it was also drizzly to rainy and quite breezy.  I would like to take a minute now to thank each and every one of you reading this for paying your taxes which is what paid for my Air Force issue blues trench coat.  It had been in a hanging bag since I graduated from basic training in January of 2004.  I found it while I was packing for DC and this week it was ever so handy.  There only a few things that are more irritating than spending your first hours at work with wet pants from having to walk 10 blocks in the rain as part of your commute to work. So thank you all.

Man about town...or grandpa as the kids in the program call me

I know I look a bit pissed in this picture, but it was a cold rainy morning in which I did not get a good night’s sleep, so I was not super with it at this point in the day.  I will have to have someone take a picture of me later on in the day.

So last weekend my pride and Joy came into town.  It was so nice to have a taste of home.  I went out to BWI to pick her up at 10pm.  Due to my level of exhaustion I took the wrong train to the termination point and had to back track 10 stops to get to the correct train stop in which I had to catch a bus to the airport.  It is a pretty extensive public transportation feat to get to the Baltimore Airport.  But alas I got her and we got back to where we were staying.

Joy in front of Ms. Bunn's house.

The woman that I am working for offered to let Joy and I stay in her house while she was in Dubai at a conference on the International Community’s concerns about Pakistan’s Nuclear Security.  It was very nice of her to let us use her house as a base of operations while Joy was in town.

Joy and my feet at Arlington

Friday morning Joy and I headed out to Arlington National Cemetery to visit Pop Pop’s grave and much to our surprise…

The corrected headstone

The government actually got it together enough to fix Pop Pop’s birth date to the correct date.  I was not expecting it to be correct so quickly.  I wonder what they did with the old stone.

View from the Lee-Custis Mansion

After wondering around Arlington for a couple hours we headed back into the district to try and squeeze in a museum before meeting a friend of mine from work and her fiance for a bite to eat. So we decided on the Natural History Museum and here are our pictures from that:

Easter Island Stone man.

Joy in a big shark's mouth

I call this the Michelin Man Orgy

On Saturday we headed to out to the Cleveland Park area and got lunch at a Lebanese Deli.  Byblos was quite tasty.  From there we headed back to Ms. Bunn’s house to grab some more clothes because it was a bit drizzly and kind of cool and we were going to be meeting up with Josie, Hansi, and Katherine for some fun at the Zoo.  On the way to meet up with them we saw this black squirrel, which is not something either of us had ever seen before.

The Black Squirrel of Death

According to a sign at the Zoo the black squirrel and the eastern gray squirrel (like we are used to in Ga) are the same animal just with different pigmentation.  The Black Squirrel is more common in Canada.  Joy and I had the most wonderful time walking around with J, H, and K and getting to know them.  It has been so long since I have seen any of my family on the Chambers’ side that it was like getting to know them for the first time.  They are such wonderful people and I really hope that Joy and I will be able to make a more concerted effort to see them more often.

If anyone knows what this fruit is, then please let me know. I call it NERF fruit.

Sunday Joy and I left the Bunn residence and headed for the Chambers abode in McLean, Va.  We had an interesting train ride through the city as we were sharing it with thousands of people who were in town for the National Equality March.  Joy learned what LGBT stands for and why all the guys were talking in lisps (I really don’t mean this to sound like I am trying to make fun of them, but it blew me away that EVERY guy talked with an exaggerated lisp as if to perpetuate the stereotype) and the girls were trying to hide their chest parts.  It was nice once we got past the McPherson metro stop and they all got off.

Once in Va, Mike picked us up from the metro station and whisked us off to his house where Joy got to meet Grace, Helen, Jane and Ralita for the first time.  We had some lunch and then went to the ball fields to watch Helen’s softball games.  I love youth sports and it was fun to able to sit and hear “Chambers you’re up.” It is nice to be around family.  After the game we went home and Ralita made a very tasty dinner and we had a good time with our table conversations.  After dinner, Joy and Helen headed to the basement to watch Harry Potter.  Mike, Ralita and I stayed up stairs and watched the late football game.

In the morning Mike and I went out to the Giant to get some doughnuts and then over to a coffee shop to get a cup of coffee.  Once home  Mike and Ralita made breakfast.  After breakfast the girls minus Helen went to the park.  I stayed behind to help Helen with her Math homework.  When the girls got back from the park Joy and I said our goodbyes and headed to the metro to take Joy back to the airport.

It was a great weekend.  I really love seeing my family and I really love seeing my wife, so it was a great weekend.  There was a time when Joy and I were sitting in a McDonald’s having breakfast and I forgot that I was in DC. It felt like a Saturday morning in Monroe, sitting around eating breakfast and spending time together…it was nice.

This week I bought my plane ticket home for Thanksgiving.  Ms. Bunn offered to let me park my car in her driveway for the remainder of the program, so I bought a one-way ticket home in November and I will be driving back to DC.  I am looking forward to seeing Joy, Guinness, Stubbs, Rascal, Mom, Dad, Trey, Shay, Avery, Zach, Chris, Christina, Steve, Erica, Jeremy, Marti, Audry, Norah, Adam, Adrienne, Aaron, Naomi, Drew and the family Grubbs, Michele, Jordan, Tommy, Patti, Charlie, Abby, Blair, Guy, Faith, and everyone else.  Hopefully, I will be able to see everyone, but I won’t hold my breath.  I am really excited about my bed and Wal-Mart too.  Oh yeah…Joy’s family will be in town, so how exciting is that?!  It will be a great time.

According to my D-Day calendar on my phone, I am due home in 61 days.  So 61 days until the next chapter in Joy’s and my life.

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