Darden Days & Gun Show

 This weekend was Darden's welcome weekend for newly admitted students. They do a dinner at King Family Vineyards, which we love because you really can't beat the view. And you know the open bar is a big draw for us.

 The vineyard hosts polo matches on Sundays and the horses live right on the property. Todd loves them.

On Saturday, we went up to DC for this:

 

Yes, I went to a gun show.

I'll give you a minute to laugh at that visual.

As much as I disliked guns before, Todd and his uncle and cousins made me a second amendment lover this weekend. I like the idea of leveling the playing field between me and the bad guys. After just an hour at the show, then went back to Nikki & David's and spent the rest of the day playing card games and catching up.

This week we were also blessed with another job offer! 

They haven't given us details yet, but it will likely be in RICHMOND! We are so happy to have an option that might keep us in Virginia, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right for us. We have to make a decision by the end of the month, so we'll finally know where we're moving very soon.

Countdown to graduation: 28 days!

Mousy in the house.

One morning last week as we were leaving for school/work, Todd saw a little brown mouse scurry across our entry into the kitchen. Todd's first instinct was to scare it into staying in the kitchen, then swat it out the front door with the broom I was supposed to find and hand him. (In retrospect, this plan also involved me holding the door open while a mouse was swatted in my direction. Um, no.) My plan was to put on some shoes then trap Mousey under a box. So of course both of us acted on our instincts and neither succeeded. The mouse disappeared under the cabinets.

I've thought I've heard him nibbling a couple of times since, but this morning at 4:45 I heard him. I got out of bed, put on my shoes, and sat in the dark listening. He was easy to find behind the oven, loudest eater ever. He even peeked out his little head to taunt me.

I relocated my "humane" mouse traps to right by the oven. I don't really want to kill the poor little thing, but he's had a full week to leave of his own volition or in one of my nice traps. It's snap-trap time, I'm going all Murder I on him now.

But really, how gross does your house have to be to attract rodents? At least Todd was the first to discover him, can you even imagine if he had run over my foot while I was in the kitchen cooking? EWWW! I want to douse myself and the whole place in Lysol.

Countdown to graduation: 46 days!

Cherry Blossom Festival

 We went to the National Cherry Blossom Festival this week! We hit peak bloom and everything. Goal achieved.

  

We got there in the afternoon and went right to the Tidal Basin where all the trees are. We didn't do any of the festival activities, the trees are all we wanted to see.

I made fun of Todd for the artistic composition of this picture. Corners?

We took a hundred pictures that look just like this. The blooming trees were thick enough to form a ceiling overhead. They smelled so good!

About 1/4 of the way around, Todd's sandal strap snapped. It was 1.5 miles to the car or 1.5 miles to the Gap, so I set off to buy Todd some new flip-flops. The Gap had no mens sandals (what?) and there were no shoe stores within walking distance, so we improvised with some duct tape. His shoe held up for the rest of the walk around the basin and the walk to the car, amazing!

We parked at Gravelly Point Park and walked into the city. We'd totally do that walk again for free parking alone. But the top draw for this spot was that it's right across a tiny river inlet from the main runway at Reagan Airport. We watched planes take off on Wednesday and land on Thursday.

We did basically the same thing on Thursday as on Wednesday, but our friends the Teuschers joined us for day two. Before we left, we stopped by Arlington National Cemetery to find my grandparents' graves. It was quite the walk, but I think the parts of the cemetery that don't see all the tourists are the most beautiful anyway. Both of my Stanton grandparents died before I was born and I know almost nothing about them. But we learned from the headstone that my grandfather was a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force and a veteran of three wars. Impressive!

Not pictured: the Cafe Rio stops on the way up and the way back.