Hello blog-y people! I haven’t blogged in FOOOOOOOREEEEEEVVVVEEEEEEEER (now, go watch Goonies again if you need to). Apparently when I’m gainfully employed and not lonely (i.e. have enough friends/social activities to keep me from getting restless), I just don’t blog much.
Yep. Living in Rockville, Maryland and working in aviation regulatory law in DC has been good for me. Currently we are living in Northern Virginia, in my parents’ house (but in the guest room, not my old room, that would be weird) while Ben works on securing continual funding for more AMO physics research. Dr. Smarty-Pants!
Anyway, the real reason I’m blogging today is to dump all the photos and a few videos I took of today’s flyover off of Ben’s phone (we swapped today because I left the big camera at home, even though I’d gotten it out to take to work with me today).
Want more info about the WWII war plan flyover to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE day?
Here are the photos from the lower terrace of the Kennedy Center (no filter, just a Moto G cell phone doing whatever it wants), I know they’re not the best, but PLANES! (There is a video on my Facebook page, but not on here because I’m cheap.)
In early October we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! We started with brunch on our awesome patio, where we discovered the biggest, most evil looking caterpillar EVER had been causing our tomato plants to look leggy and bedraggled. Stupid tomato hornworm! Ben didn’t want to get stabbed, touch it, or have much of anything to do with it, so he put on his heavy work gloves (also helpful to assembling and disassembling the sukkah), grabbed a water glass and a flat-head screwdriver, and pried that big thing off and flushed it down the toilet (we don’t have a compost pile to bury it in, as my grandmother suggested and were afraid to open the garbage bin and see it crawling around in there later).
giant hornworm and giant poops
scary, plumpy, huge tomato hornworm
That was our relaxing morning at home…. Oops.
We made up for it with a lovely drive to Brunswick, Maryland, for Brunswick Train Days. Brunswick is a cute little town, about 1/2 way to Harpers Ferry. We didn’t get tickets to ride on the train, but wondered around a bunch of antique stores and had a rootbeer float instead. Then we stopped at the Wegmans off 270 on the way home and bought lots of goodies.
TBen received his diploma today! Yesterday was the hooding ceremony (see video immediately below) and then we had a GREAT dinner with family and friends.
awww, my graduate
all the physics graduates
Then we came home, and Becca slept over, and right before bed, at about 10:45 PM: THE KITCHEN FLOODED! Yes, icky kitchen sink water backed up in our kitchen and made a HUGE mess. We went through the BBB plumbers for Boulder County and NO ONE was willing to come out! Eventually someone gave us another plumber to call, in Denver, who had to send someone from Castle Rock (about an hour away when the weather is good and there’s no traffic, which was the case last night). The plumbers got here at about 12:15 to take apart the sink and snake the drain. BTW, this drain had already been replaced on Tuesday this week when on Monday night the PVC pipe had cracked and slowly leaked already! So, thankfully had just hadn’t had time since Tuesday to put all the cleaning things back under the sink so nothing was ruined by sludgey kitchen water. It was gross. The guys had to snake the mainline all the way to the street and then Ben cleaned up while I took a quick shower and then he did the same. Becca left early to go shower at the gym at school before heading into the lab because we all looked like zombie people in the morning!
In spite of all the drama in the kitchen, and the fact that my dad still had Ben’s poofy hat (which he needed to be allowed to process today), I got to a Weight Watchers meeting this morning, Ben got there in full regalia in time to process with his classmates, and my dad and Ben’s parents all got good seats (though no together) for the big convocation.
The ceremony was lovely, we started with a moment of silence after the color guard presented the colors for the victims of Newtown, CT, and it was lovely how personal the winter convocation was compared to the HUGE spring one. Pat Mason, a baritone, voice professor, award winning performer, award winning educator, and all-around awesome guy gave a great speech about how homework and time in the practice room really do prepare you for real life. I wish I’d had a chance to take a class with him, but everything he teaches is oriented to vocal studies from what I recall.
Anyhow, I know you’re all just here for the photos, so here’s Ben at the big graduation and a cute shot of me at the end.
shake your tail feathers!
sitting through convocation
getting hooded 2.0
yey, grads!
my grad.
shaking the chancellor’s hand
diploma!
undergrads in the stands, PhDs to the left, and masters to the right
recessing
recessing
mountain view outside the stadium
probably my last photo with Ralphie in a while
And now, it is time for some quality time with my pillow. Tomorrow we’re going to the bank to take care of stuff in the morning with my dad before meeting his friends for lunch, and then wandering around town trying to find Ben a graduation gift. I got my own wife-of-the-graduate/channukah present today, some beautiful amethyst earrings from our favorite jewelry store in town. :)
I am a paralegal and former violist living in Rockville, MD. When it's not a chag and I'm not at work or practicing I like to bake, watch TV, sew/knit, and try to keep my patio veggie garden alive. Thank you for visiting!
Ducksandbooks: A Newly Mawwied Lady's Blog 