Things You Didn't Need To Know - #1 - Lessons in Korean

Reflecting the catchment area (if not the common sense!) of the North Virginia Community College, this tri-lingual sign caught my eye.....


PS Apparently in American English a 'Catchment area' would an 'area of outreach', you learn something new every day ....

Work-at-Home dayzzzzzz

Chrystal here. I must say that these work-at-home days are fantastic. Currently I take advantage of the offer once a week, but according to my wonderful boss, Karen, apparently I can have the option for 2 days a week if I want it... IF I want it?! Duh! So, as long as I can stay focused on work this is a great option! :)

Rob's in a training course this week, a tough one that had him studying through dinner last night, and he kept at it until nearly midnight, dedicated student that he is! Hopefully this will be worth it at the end of the week, as he should attain a new project management certification. Fingers crossed!

Lisa continues to work hard each day helping her patients with their occupational therapy, loving the experience of it all. Those 40 hour weeks are tough, though, aren't they, Sunshine?! lol We're all having a great time together and she's learned to make damn fine cup of tea. We'll get her to England, yet!

Two Parrots Sitting On A...????? - By Lisa

I must say that even after a few weeks here it has still been a mystery as to what the bloody parrots will be doing!! Will they be sitting on a perch, bison, or a can of blue paint?? Or...will they sound like a carrot?? One will never know...but for an evening the mystery was solved...the parrots were on the bar. Now from my college experience (mind you I have grown out of now) I have found that one should not spend too much time at the bar, or they will look like this....



AHHHHHH....frightening, I know :) Oh just kidding! But in all seriousness, my stay here has been wonderful!! NRH is a great place to learn and Chrys and Rob have really made me feel at home. As you can see below...we're just one happy family!






Bobby and Mr. Bear

'Royal visit' from England

This week's big news is the planning of the now annual April birthday trip from Rhiannon. She'll be with us from the 3rd until the 9th to celebrate the big day and 15 years :) .

We are all planning for the trip but first ideas include:

Fudruckers, Mango Mikes , Chinese Food from little boxes, Barrel of Cheese Balls, Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Sheppard's Pie (made by Rhiannon), Definitely NO visit to the Dolphins at the Baltimore Aquarium, BLT Pizza, bring supplies of English chocolate, tea and
Marmite from the homeland

Streets of steam

I guess the novelty will wear off eventually but I still think its cool the way the streets spew such dramatic plumes of steam during the winter time.

(also I hope this works - I am emailing our blog from my phone, we'll see .....)

footnote - OK I cheated a little bit - the text comes through ok but not the picture :(

A week late, but timeless

With apologies for only just finding this.

Here is a link to Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech.

Winter arrives (finally...)

Winter finally arrived in the way of snow while Rob was out at a now-bleak-looking Huntley Meadows. The new winter hat's inaugural trip - a huge success!

(34 N. Shoveler, 11 N. Pintail, an American Wigeon and an Eastern Phoebe were the highlights for anyone interested :) )

Following George's footsteps (....continued)

After our recent trip to Mount Vernon, last night we continued our George Washington theme and went to Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria - terrific food and interesting loot player....

New York, NY

A sample of our weekend in New York - *Here* is a link to some pictures from the city

Adrian and Family on an all-too-brief stop at BWI on their way to Turkey for 2 years - let's hope all this hi-tech helps keeps us all in touch !!

Its that time of year again when, due to the generosity of various friends and family an assortment of furry, squeezy or just plain strange creatures join the family. Here we have the English Bulldog "Tony" (safely sitting on the back shelf of our Honda Accord,'Green') and our assortment of ducks (sitting on our bedroom TV along with their canine friend who seems to have borrowed something from Space Duck...)
Talking of furry, squeezy or strange (take your pick) - Lisa arrived to stay with us for 3 months while she does something very complicated sounding at the National Rehab Hospital (?) as an intern.
So we'll be out partying if you can't find us at home ! :)