Here's our Bean

Here's our Bean:















Zooming in a little closer, you can see that it's totally, indisputably mine.

Yup, it's wearing a digger hat.

M Lives Up History, While C is Away

C made a quick trip to STL last weekend.  While she was gone, as usual, I got into a little mischief and did activities I would not normally do while C was home.

For starters, I got to fall asleep on the couch watching TV (even though we only get two stations)... mmm the simple pleasures.

Secondly, I trashed the apartment, or at least did not clean up until right before she came home (who cares, we are moving)

Thirdly, I organized some of my posse and took a road trip down to Appomattox Court House, VA the site where General Lee surrendered to General Grant (an old family friend and fan of the STL) to essentially end the Civil War.

My posse outside the court house

It was a cool little National Park, little did I know in advance that the village was actually named Appomattox Court House, because it served as the home of Appomattox County's (no longer in existance) Court House.  Lee actually met Grant to surrender at a nearby house (the McLean House) and not the actual court house.  As the story goes, it was a Sunday and the actual court house was closed, so they met and signed the agreement in McLean's, a businessman, parlor room in the village of Appomattox Court House.

Here I am in the McLean Parlor

Check out the photos from my journey here. I even got the posse to take jumping photos in the fields.

Florida Photos, Finally

I know the anticipation was building from the last post.  You were wondering, "What did C & M do in Florida over Christmas," and "Is he ever going to post the pictures?"

Well, wait no longer here's a preview with links to more:

As you already know, we went Hula Hooping on the beach, but we also

Went fishing with brother D and sister mini-M & caught fish

We also played a little Wii with the T's

Hung on the beach at sunset, and

Took night pictures.

Check out all of the other photos here

also check out our jumping series

Florida For Christmas

For those that didn't know, C and M got to spend Christmas and a chunk of our winter breaks with the H's on the Gulf Coast in Florida. Here's a video posting of just some of how we spent our time (more posts + pictures to follow soon).

C and M's Top 10 Moving List

In February, C and M are moving to a new residence in the greater-DC metro area (place TBD, but fairly certain). With our upcoming move nearly upon us, C and M decided to recap, in a pictorial fashion, our Top 10 favorite things that we will miss most about living in our current apartment

10) The Nearly-Always-on-Heater - our heater really ignites the lavender essence of our herb garden, making the entire apartment smell wonderful. On the rare occasion when the heater is off (we dub this time 'the heater's 15 minute break'), our herb garden becomes wonderfully preserved with ice crystals. Thanks for keeping our comfort and indoor garden in mind Mr. Heater.



9) The building owned shopping carts available at the front desk - while we appreciate the opportunity to move lots of groceries from the car to our apartment in only 1 trip, we particularly are thankful of the building's security measures that require us to sign in and out the carts every time we use one (thankfully no one ever stole the building's stolen shopping carts). Safeway baby!


8) Sir Hack's-A-Lot (our neighbor) - every few months our neighbor gets a really bad illness, causing him to cough and hack extremely loudly at all hours of the day. These echoing coughs warn us in a kind fashion to "Not to come over, because he's sick." While we do not know him personally, we certainly appreciate his warnings, particularly during finals week, romantic dinners and movie night.



7) The Kitchen Prison - In addition to its length and original retro cabinets, our kitchen has many special and unique features which we will also miss. Most notably is the "Kitchen Prison," that charming spot in the corner, right behind the refrigerator door and in front of the stove. Oh the number of times, C and M have gotten stuck, trapped or just lost in that quirky nebulous. We'll miss you Kitchen Prison, as in our new apartment you can open the fridge without hitting the stove.


6) Pint-Size Stove - in lean economic time there is no better way to downsize your food budget, then by limiting your portion size (it's also great for the waistline too). Thank you Pint-Size Stove for preventing us from cooking too much food by limiting our pan size. Your less-than-average girth in no way detracts from your greatness or ability to inconsistently cook our food (how did you know M likes his food super-rare and C likes it well-done). Also, thank you for your dingy and un-cleanable front window, it is better off we didn't see our food as it cooks as that would just make us hungrier. Thank you again for always watching our budget as we face our food weaknesses.


5) Vent-less Bathroom - who needs a vent in the bathroom; modern building codes certainly requires them for some crazy reason (probably just to create big government). As an added benefit of non-circulated air (I do fine without fresh air on airplanes, why would I need it at home), is great wall art. Despite the management company's effort to 'fix' our artistic expression 3 times (by painting over the art), thanks to our vent-less bathroom our showering experience is brightened by the ever entriguing shapes of peeling paint and mildew patterns. Thanks vent-less bathroom for keeping us entertained in the shower.




4) Workout Closets - another benefit of an old apartment building, heavy metal closet doors! Your heavy doors and poor sliders makes it easy for us to skip the gym - why workout elsewhere when I can work my whole body by just opening the doors a few times. My favorite closet exercise is the 'door-lift.' Thankfully, our closet doors are so old that they struggle to stay on the track- providing us with the weekly activity of 'door-lift' squats to get them back on the track. We can't get enough of this workout, especially when one of your doors falls completely off, forcing us to take the 2nd door off too - feel the burn! As an added benefit your steel-on-steel sliding system provides just enough sparks that should the power go out we can easily start a fire to stay warm. Thank you Workout Closet doors for keeping us strong and safe.


3) Maintenance Team Quick Fixes - thank you maintenance team for providing quick fixes for all of our maintenance needs. When our shower didn't work on move-in day, you were here hours later that afternoon to bang some pipes and convince us it works. When it didn't work again later that night, you were back in hours to remove some pipes and convince us it worked. When the shower didn't work again the next day, you came back a third time and offered to install a new shower head for $10. Thanks maintenance team for being so accessible, your quick fixes make you available to stop by several times per month. PS - we really love your plaster work.


2) Our New Wrap Around Porch - our building was so quiet, plain and ordinary when we moved in, thank you building management for your exterior renovations and NEW wrap-around porch - they add a certain curb appeal that made us glad to call the building home. We love being able to sit outside on our new metal porches and watch the sunset in the refreshing winter air. We brag to all of our friends that our porches go up and down to allow access to all levels of the building - allowing us to share the benefits of a porch with everyone. We particularly love sharing the porches with the building's construction crew who like to stop by our windows about 7:30 am each morning to make sure we're up - the beeping noise of the lift and their banging really helps wake us in a pinch when we forget to set our alarms (M is sometimes late to his 1:30 pm class -thanks for making sure he's up). Also, thank you building management for installing the 'speed holes' right outside our bedroom windows, not only do they make the building look awesome, they help regulate our bedroom's temperature by keeping us from getting too hot. Thank you again for adding some truly unique and awesome features to our apartment - your choice of metal porches really match our aluminium windows well!


1) Outdoor-Inside Windows - avid blog readers know C and M love to camp - we try and go at least twice a year. Yet, sometimes we become stuck inside for long periods. Whether it's during mid-day studies, quiet dinners or down-time reading a magazine, your cool temperament is always there to remind us of the outside we love. Some people desire warm and cozy fireplaces, but, with Outdoor-Inside Windows, all we need is wool socks, long underwear, thick pants, three shirts, a hoodie, a winter cap, gloves/mittens, a blanket or two, and the gentle and constant caress of your breezes to feel comfortable in our living room and bedroom. As an added bonus, without your consistency we would never know the outdoor temperature without looking online. Thank you Outdoor-Inside Windows for bringing the refreshing chills of the outdoors inside to our living room and bedrooms - you will be missed most of all, as our new apartment has new properly fit multi-pane windows.


It will be tough to leave the great added features of our lovely apartment behind; but, change is necessary as we age and grow-up. We will miss the occupants of the other 420 units of the building; the consistency with which you shut the elevators doors right as we approached fully laiden with groceries, along with your forced hellos, fake smiles and odd smells, have made us feel at home for the past 2.5 years. Thanks for everything!

PS - We'll really miss Ladies Night (or Ladies 3 Months as its been) as well.

A C and M New Years Tradition

C and M celebrate the new years differently and with different people every year (not intentionally, it just happens that way). However, there is always one constant... Ice Skating on New Years (day or eve)! This year after being rejected at the Smithsonian's ice rink on the National Mall, we headed over to the mini rink at the Pentagon Row shopping center with Bean-town friends S & S. Click here to see the rest of the album.

Here we are posed outside the rink

A closer shot.

S & S going around the rink

More on New Years and Florida coming soon.