St. Patty's in Alexandria

Yes, it's super early, but the parade was Saturday! Jeff and I headed Old Town to check out the dog show and the parade. Well, it took us longer than we thought to get there via bus, so we missed the actual dog show and got to see all of these crazy dogs hanging out dressed up as leprechauns before the parade. The wind was REALLY cold. Eventually we decided we'd prefer to observe the parade from Le Pain Quotidien, which has a delicious Mediterranean platter with hummus, baba ganouj, and tabouleh, not to mention a decadent Belgian praline spread. So we watched the parade from a heated restaurant, which was even smarter than we realized - the police stopped the parade in sections to let traffic through, which made it super long. We were impressed by the enormous wolf hounds...

but we are still puzzled as to what Storm Troopers had to do with Ireland.

--jess

Weekend

We drove down to NC for the weekend to visit my parents (Mom's birthday was the 7th!) and Nikki, Josh and Mia in Charlotte. It was a LOT of driving, and we were pretty exhausted afterward, but it was worth it. I snapped this adorable shot of Jeff with Squishy (dog) and Lulu (cat) and figured it was worth sharing, especially with people who don't have many pictures of Jeff. I think the trip was just what we needed to refocus ourselves on getting the apartment organized!

We're going to have a very busy March as far as visitors and trips - it should be fun, and we'll be sure to update.

--jess

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey!!!

love,
jessica

Who's Bad? Not the Zoo...

We had quite the full day on Saturday, including visiting the National Zoological Park. Jess was most fascinated with the big cats, but Jeff thought the pandas were fantastic.

Later into the evening we drove up to the Santa Fe Cafe in College Park, MD to see Who's Bad?, the Michael Jackson tribute band. Jess's friend Ray McCall plays trumpet, sings and dances. The group is highly energetic and fantastic, so it made for a long night. There's a picture of them covering "Thriller" at the end of the post; you can probably tell by the dancing. Ray is the one on the right in the shredded black shirt.

We've started a Washington, D.C. album on our Photobucket site where we've uploaded pictures from both the zoo trip and the Who's Bad show. Jess is trying to monkey around with video posting so we can show off how awesome Who's Bad is. For now, it's just a still...

-- j&j

Fat Tuesday

Jeff and I went out with some of my work buddies for Fat Tuesday at a place called Cafe Citron. Just thought I would post a couple of pictures in case you forgot what we look like... The picture to the right is me with Katie and Heather, the audiologists at the office. These are smaller pics because I got them from a website of Heather's.

--jess

6 More Weeks...

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Jeff has actually started going into work on a regular basis, although he hasn't officially begun work, so he gets home early in the afternoon every day. Jess has worked several weeks already, and her schedule is solidifying into three days a week, plus whatever she chooses to do as far as research. She skipped work (with approval, of course), to take a professional CPR course with the Red Cross.

We're almost settled, but haven't really done anything exciting. Maybe soon.

-- J&J

Christmas presents

Jeff and I printed out the Hawaii photographs we gave out as Christmas presents on Snapfish.com, and I planned to give out the link to the entire album in case anyone didn't like the ones we chose for them (note: if your frame broke and scratched the picture, we'll reorder the photo for you - just let us know if you want the same picture or one of the others). These are just pictures we took for the express purpose of blowing them up and framing them, so if you've seen one in the blog you like more, let me know. We're not trying to copyright anything, so if anyone else wants to use them for their own evil purposes, be our guests. Snapfish does a good job printing and the prices are pretty reasonable, but if you want to use a different company, give me an email and I will send you the original shot so you won't have to compromise any megabits.

THIS IS THE LINK TO THE SNAPFISH ALBUM

We'll do a real update soon. Feel free to comment on the pictures!

--jess

...and, we're back!

Did you miss us?

We've moved into our new place in Alexandria, VA. It's very nice - good location and brand new; we've been spending this week acquiring new pieces of furniture and personal touches to make it feel more like home (which is pretty difficult in the absence of our furniture). Zeke is acclimating nicely, although Jess occasionally questions his sanity when he pesters to go on the balcony.

Jeff's heading back to work Monday, and Jess will be starting at Metropolitan ENT next week. She's looking forward to the research aspect and the change of pace.

Jeff put up curtains in the bedroom today. Don't they look pretty? Okay, the picture is a bit backlit, so come for a visit and check them out for yourself.

Our address has, of course, changed. Give us an email if you want it!

--jess & jeff

Mele Kalikimaka 2007!!!

We've returned to NC for the evening after a productive trip to the D.C. metropolitan area after a brief interlude to the Betsey Johnson Regional Hospital emergency room; we thought Jess might have appendicitis. She didn't, and she is okay now after excessive poking and proding.

The main purpose of the trip was to find an apartment. We eventually decided upon The Tuscany. It is brand new and gorgeous, and we're very much looking forward to moving in. The link goes to our floor plan, which we think is perfect for us. We're excited about being able to have a dining room table, and the community has lots of perks, like free coffee.

Jess interviewed at Metropolitan ENT for a position as a research associate/medical assistant. She was offered the position part time at first with the possibility of going full time, and she will start after the first of the year.

Tomorrow we're heading down to Manning, SC to spend Christmas with Jess's family, and afterward to Columbia to check on the house and spend time with old friends. We're heading back up to DC on the 31st to get our keys!

We probably won't have Internet on the 25th, so early Mele Kalikimaka!

-j&j

Moved!

But not really.

We've had lots to do last week, and minimal internet access in the meantime. Between cleaning the house, meeting up with friends for fun and festivities, Jeff's Hail and Farewell (he also spent unfortunate amounts of time at work finishing up everything), and making one last sunrise trip to Waimanalo, we stayed busy.

Jeff's last day of work on the Paul Hamilton was yesterday, and afterward we checked out of the hotel, shipped the car, picked up the cat from the kennel, and hung out at the airport. Despite anticipations of lengthy delays en route, we moved from Honolulu through Chicago to Raleigh with no difficulties, and have spent the day adjusting to the time change at Jess's parent's North Carolina house.

We head up to DC to look for apartments tomorrow.

- j&j