Home Tour, Part 1...

I mentioned previously that I would explain my recent retreat from public life, well this is why. We've moved! Yep, that's right. After nearly 5 years in our cave like apartment in Alexandria Va, we've moved back to our old haunt of Frederick Maryland. It almost feels like moving home. We've rented a new Townhouse in a nice subdivision and we are slowly settling in and loving every minute of it.

We have the end unit! Yep that means only one neighbor. So far our neighboring house is empty and we are LOVING that.

After living in a very dark, small, depressive, mostly underground cave-like apartment with a rowdy 5yr old that stomped and ran around over our heads CONSTANTLY, this is Utopia!

Come on in won't you?

When you come in the front door you have a choice, up or down.

Let's start with down and work our way up. That seems logical.

When you step down this is what you will see...

Brian's office, Bathroom and living room.

Brian's office is the first door to the left. He's in man cave Heaven. He has a door he can shut and not have to hear my music.

The next door is Brian's bathroom. His office has a connecting door.

Then you walk into our living room. The utility closet and my laundry closet are to the right.

Doesn't our TV look so small now?

An evening light picture to show my lighted garland and gas fireplace.

Stepping through the sliding doors you are out on my patio overlooking the yard.

This picture looks a little weird because I stitched 2 images together. Beanie loves running around in her fenced yard. She is in pup heaven.

Next up, Level Two, studio, kitchen and deck!

So check back in a bit and see what's doin on the next level.

Home Tour, Part 2...

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our tour. In this episode we will explore the upper levels.

This time we will take the stairs up.

The view from the top of the stairs. I've started to decorate for the Holidays! Yay!!!

Welcome to my studio/office. I still need to organize, shelve books, get an office desk etc. but that will take some time. Please excuse our mess, pardon our dust, we are under construction. ;)

I have room to sit and read, to do the daily work to keep our company running as well as dance! Yep, that's what the Bear says, Shall we dance?

The tree is waiting for decorations. Where the tree is right now will be my painting area. Plenty of light for many paintings to come!

I even have room for sewing once the holidays are over. I've never had so much room to create! Look out 2011 cause here I come!!

Need to use the Loo? Well you go right on ahead cause we have 4!

From my studio you head right on into the kitchen.

Plenty of room to sit, chat and cook up a storm! I am LOVING this kitchen.

The first place where we've ever had room for a dining table. It's a dream to be able to cook and serve a meal and sit down to eat it at a table like adults and not in front of the television on a TV tray. How grown up is that?

The stairs lead up to the 3rd floor, 3 bedrooms and 2 more Loo's.

From the kitchen you can saunter out to the deck. We may not have any deck furniture yet but we sure do have a view.

We are having so much fun watching the wildlife. So far we have seen, 2 blue Herons, a heard of deer, 3 different Hawks, MANY geese, a groudhog or for you Ohioans a whistle pig. I get up each morning, usually before sunrise, get my coffee and stare out over the wetlands and watch nature wake up. This is what I've been waiting for since living in Nevada.

Next up, a quick peak upstairs and Christmas!

Home Tour, Part 3...

Up to the 3rd and final floor. Thankfully these stairs are carpeted!

Take the stairs up and this is what you'll see.

There's a small linen closet there to the left, followed by a small bedroom on the left. Straight ahead is the guest bedroom that is already set up and the 3rd bathroom, well, that's obvious I would think.

A better view of the fabulous quilt made for the Bear years ago. Isn't it gorgeous?

Turn right and through the French Doors is our master bedroom. Way more room than should be given to one bedroom.

To the left would be a HUGE walk in closet and to the right is the Bear's big closet. And ya, those are French Doors into my bathroom.

Separate his and her sinks to the left, a soaking tub over looking the wetlands and a shower stall and thrown to the right. Room for days really. I've actually haven't used this tub yet but when I do, you won't hear about it ;)

Lots of you have been asking about my X-mas tree. Well here he is. And yes it's a he.

We had gone out with the intention to get a fake tree but ended up coming home with a real Frazier Fir. He's so naturally gorgeous I almost hate to put lights and ornaments on him.

All lit up! LED's and what few ornaments we have will have to do. We are used to a much smaller tree. I love his natural shape and character. He's actually inspired this year's X-mas Card.

Silent Night

I love my fresh garland wrapped in lights. I've never had a banister to decorate before.

Yes Kim, I still have this and I LOVE it!

Merry X-mas everyone and I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into our new home. We miss everyone of you and wish you a very Merry X-mas.

Rally Day and a Bike Date...

It's been a full month since I've disappeared from public life but I promise you I'm slowly getting back in the saddle. But more on that later.

I know by now this is old news but I've had the pictures for this post ready for a couple weeks now so hear it is. All of you already know about "Thee" Rally. Yep, that's right, the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and or Fear that happened on Saturday Oct 30th . We wouldn't have missed it for the world. We also knew that hundreds of thousands of other sane/fearful Americans also wouldn't miss it so what was our plan? Yep, we biked it.

These bikes have not seen the light of day in years. So of course our day began with some minor maintenance such as pumping up completely flat tires, a bit of tightening and oh yeah wiping off the layer of dust they had on them despite being covered. How did that happen?

We started our journey by biking down to Shirlington where we paused for a quick picture to prove at least we started the journey (at this point we weren't sure just how far our out of shape legs would get us).

The smiling Bear.

The smiling Bean and Bear. Erynne, I wore my Peeps hat in honor of you babe.

The Weenie Beenie!! Though I've never eaten there I'll still miss it.

Approaching Pentagon City. You can see the Air Force Memorial!

We finally make it to the Pentagon!

Okay, so after an encounter with a very cranky Pentagon Policeman we ended up here, on the side of the friggin highway. How's that you ask? Well apparently the Army Navy marathon was going on and we were denied being able to ride on the path around the Pentagon. "Which way do we go the" we asked the cranky policeman. "That way" he says pointing towards the highway on ramp. "How do we do that on BIKES" Bear asked him. What was his helpful answer? " Oh I wouldn't know that". Yeah, cops can be dicks. So off we went to traverse our way cross the country side by the highway, round the pentagon and across the GW Parkway. I mean no one does this, there's not even a Bum Path here. But you know what? It was actually a shorter route!

Yay! We made it to the bridge. Pause for a picture for proof!

Picture pause at the Jefferson.

Still having fun! Man the weather was absolutely PERFECT!

Finally made it to the heart of the Mall. See those people behind us? Guess where they are all walking to.

Rally! Rally! Rally!

It was NUTZ!!! We've NEVER seen so many people. We literally got STUCK in the crowd. Brian was holding on to my shirt cause if you didn't hang on to each other someone would slip inbetween you and within seconds you'd be lost. There were sooooo many people that Cell Phone Service went down. Yeah, that many people.

We had fun spotting all the people in costume. It was amazing to be apart of something so HUGE. There was no shouting, no shoving, no yelling or any uncivil behavior. It was almost eerie how quiet the crowd was as it filtered in through the streets and onto the Mall.

Where's Waldo? And Waldo, and Waldo...

Appears someone had something to say.

After the festivities we stopped for a street vendor (heartburn) Hot Dog and made the return trip home.

Yep, we took our off road short cut again!

We stopped for dinner in Shirlington then it was straight home for a nap. What a day, what a day.