Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve and I am down in FL. The only disappointment this year is that the weather hasn't been that great since I have been down here! Only the first day that I was here was a beach day, and of course the Steelers were playing, so we spent the afternoon watching the game. (and what a pathetic game it was...)

Anyway, here is a shot of what it looks like off of our balcony in FL this Christmas Eve:

I am hoping that it will blow over so that when we wake up tomorrow morning, it will be gorgeous!! So happy holidays to everyone, I hope you all have a very nice Christmas wherever you are!

I will leave you with a distraction from the above bad weather, me as an elf! Enjoy...

(Well, the elf dance has expired, so now you only get to see the picture from Christmas Eve...)

2008 AFC North Champs!!

Kristi and I took a little trip up to the annoying city of Baltimore last Sunday to watch the Steelers take on the Cleveland Browns V.2 in an AFC North showdown. After beating them in the 'burgh, this game was for the North title and a bye-week for the playoffs. So I guess I don't have to mention that it is the biggest game we have played in Baltimore in a while.

Here come the Steelers!!

After not having won in Baltimore since 2002, we were a bit worried on our way up into enemy territory. Baltimore does not have a reputation for the best fans in the NFL. The last time that I went to a game up there, I was harassed the entire game and then we saw a fight that ended in a broken car window on our way out of town. This time I decided that we would try parking outside the city and taking in the Light Rail. We got on the train, that was filled with opposing fans, but surprisingly, they were fairly civil. We got to the stadium, and no one really paid us any attention. A few passing comments, but nothing that I wouldn't expect from some smack talking.

I am sure a fair amount of those reading this know what happened in the game, so I won't detail that, except to say that it was the defensive battle that we all thought it would be! There were a number of frustrations with some dropped balls by the Steelers receivers, but when it really mattered, my boy Hines made some big catches. This article really shows why I wear his jersey. Nate and Tone also made up for some of their struggles earlier to help the Steelers move down and get the W!!

Kristi has been to Baltimore each year since she moved here and has not seen them win, so she was doubly excited! Here we are after the game ended:

Check out the Stunned guy behind us!!

Congrat's to the AFC North Champs!

Now it is on to Tennessee to take down the Titans...

So long ponytail.....

For those of you who haven't seen me for a while, after the Penguins lost the Stanley Cup Finals last year to the hated Detroit Red Wings, I decided that I would not cut my hair, at least until the season started in the fall. This was the better option, if you ask Kristi and my Mom. If the Pens had pulled the series out, I was going to be sporting a sweet mohawk! Besides getting it slightly trimed to keep things looking somewhat neat, I just let it grow. Here is the before picture of what I looked like from the back:

I am not really sure exactly what it was that made me feel the need to go under the scissors, but I went for it last Wednesday. Maybe it was the fact that I was getting sick of feeling the hair hanging down behind me, maybe it was the fact that I wanted to look a little more clean cut, I don't know...

But without further ado, here is my new haircut from the back:

Please disreguard the quality of the photos, I was taking these pictures in a bit of a hurry, so they didn't quite come out very well! But I think they give you an idea of what I did. So, good bye ponytail! (...for now? who knows...)

Just walking the dogs...

I have not had my 2 cute dogs for the last 6 months or so, about the same amount of time that I have been ignoring this blog. It was a combination of things that lead to the dogs being out of my care for so long. The first was of course the trip to Hawaii. And as you can tell from my last post, I travel and have a lot of different things going on during the summer months. So my parents volunteered to keep the dogs for a while and use their former dog sitter while they were away. Imagine this, she is much cheaper there in Pittsburgh than any dog sitter down here in DC. Another reason for my parents keeping my dogs for so long was the renovation that I had going on in my house. It would have driven the dogs nuts with the workmen there all day.

My cute doggies

This past Thanksgiving weekend was when I was finally getting my dogs back. However, for the last 2 months I have not been dogless. As my friend Matt said in this post, I am doing a hero's job of caring for his dog Brodie, while he is in Iraq. Brodie is a cute little Westie, but like most dogs he has a little trouble streak. I started with him by leaving him in his cage. Then once I felt he was used to being in my house, I left him in my room. After not coming back to any destruction for a few weeks, I decided that he could stay in the living room/kitchen. He has been pretty good overall and only destroyed a few things, nothing too serious.

Brodie looking innocent

Now comes the fun part. As I mentioned before, this past Sunday, I brought all 3 of the dogs back to DC with me after Thanksgiving. When it is just my 2 dogs, they do a pretty good job of going for a walk together. They occasionally get their leashes crossed up, and tend to tangle when we approach other dogs. But otherwise, they walk about the same speed and sniff the same spots, etc. These last several days though, I have had to deal with 3 dogs. And let me tell you, I have probably been quite the sight!

Three leashes are very tough to deal with in many respects. They are constantly getting tangled up. With 2, I can fairly easily get them undone by twisting, but the 3rd one adds an exponential challenge! And that is just while we are putting them on in the house. Once we get outside, all hell breaks loose. Especially if there is a neighbor dog(s) around. As soon as we get walking, none of them want to go the same direction or smell the same areas. And I don't think you even want to get me started on dealing with them going to the bathroom! Do you know how easy it is to hold 3 leashes, hold a plastic bag, and find 3 different spots on the ground, all at the same time?? I'll give you a hint, not at all!!!

So, the next time that you see a guy being pulled in 3 different directions in Arlington, offer to help him out once in a while!

Back to it....

It has been just over 6 months since I last posted on this blog. I am not so sure that there are many people who actually read it when I was posting more regularly, but for those that were (and still are!!!) I have decided to start again. So to jump back into it, I am going to give a quick update on what I have been up to since my last post, the one below from my birthday.

I will give a (brief) synopsis of each month, so here goes:

June:

After spending Memorial Day and my 30th birthday in Florida, I headed out to West Virginia to compete in a 24 hour mountain bike race on a 5 person team, The Mud Slingin' Monkeys. We had a great time despite the crazy muddy conditions!! Right after that, my family and I went on a 2 week trip to Hawaii! It was such a great trip, from the weather, beaches, and scenery to the hiking, surfing, and scuba diving. Just awesome!! It was my sister's 50th and final state that she has visited. I have not added up to see where I compare. We also took my little cousin PJ. Check out photos of Hawaii here.

July:

As usual, this month starts with the 4th of July! However, not as usual, I ended up staying in DC this year and not heading to Cashiers. I managed to have a good time anyway and had a volleyball party on the 5th of July. Per the norm, much mayhem ensued. The next 2 weekends in July I was out of town. The first was for the EX2 Xterra at Rocky Gap, which I was racing in this year, my 3rd out of the last 4 years. It was a great weekend and I did pretty well, but not as well as I had hoped. I had roughly the same time as the last time I raced there. I was hoping to be faster. But I placed 10th in my new age group, out of 43, and my sister came to watch me! The weekend after that, Kristi and I went to San Fransisco for the weekend. We saw Grant, Kristi's friend Megan, and my Mom and B just happened to be out there that weekend as well. It was a fun trip with a visit up to Sonoma and on Sunday before we left, we took a tour of Alcatraz, which was great! The end of July brought with it the start of my construction project at my house. I decided to renovate the kitchen, powder room, and 2 bathrooms. Here are some of the kitchen and bathroom photos.


August:

My focus for most of August was mountain biking. EX2 had 3 mountain bike races, one of which I raced in, the others I worked. Then the last weekend in August was another 24 hour mountain bike race, this time it was in PA at Seven Springs ski area. I raced the event last year and had a great time, so this year I convinced my parents to come watch me. I am not sure if this was a good idea or not!! About halfway through my first lap, I went over the handle bars, with several people on my tail, on a rocky downhill. Not too much fun, but I finished the lap and then put on the ice. I did manage to do 3 more laps before the race was over, but my parents decided that they had seen enough! The one weekend without a focus on mountain biking, even though Dad and I did ride one of the days, was my only trip down to Cashiers for the summer. Kristi and I came from DC and we met B and some of her friends from ATL, along with my parents. It was a nice weekend with a bunch of time on the boat and in the water. Check out photos here!

September:

On Labor Day, the day after finishing up the 24hr race in PA, we started off September the way it should be started, with a trip to Nissan Pavilion to see my man Jimmy Buffett. As usual, it was a hot day and the tailgate was rocking! The next weekend, Kristi and I took a trip up to NY to see her brother-in-law play the drums in Jersey Boys. I thought the show was great and we even got a cool behind the scenes tour of the stage and set! The next day we went to see the 10th from last game in Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately they did not win, but Kristi and I had a great time at the Stadium. We even got a few drinks at the legendary Bowling Alley. The weekend after that, I headed back up to Rocky Gap for our new race, the Day of Endurance.

October:

The fall was kicking in and we decided to go on a camping trip to the Shenandoah's for Columbus weekend. We found a nice campsite, cooked some good dinners, and went on a nice hike. It was a very relaxing weekend with friends. Here are a few pictures. Two weeks later was our semi-annual (4 out of the last 5 years) trip to Las Veags to see Jimmy Buffett at the MGM Grand. We were also celebrating my Dad's 60th B-Day, so we surprised him with tickets to see Elton John and his Red Piano. It was a weekend filled with music, fun, and a little bit of pool time with some of Jimmy's people. Some pictures are here.

November:

We finally make it to this past month! November started out with a trip out to Delaware to see a festival that is hard to describe, so just check out the website for Punkin' Chunkin'. The next weekend we had some visitors from NJ as Kristi's sister and her girls came to DC for the weekend. We had a great time and went to Mount Vernon and to Arlington Cemetery, 2 places that I hadn't been to in a while. The week after that, Kristi and I went to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers play the Chargers. Additionally, my parents and Kristi's parents met for the first time, and yes, everything went smoothly! This brings us to the past week, one of my favorite times of the year, Thanksgiving. I spent 5 days down in Cashiers with family and good friends. We went biking and hiking, and spent a lot of good quality time together(as you can see from the picture above!) Pictures are here.

So, where does the future take me? Well, despite being fairly busy at work, with the potential to get even busier... I hope to get back to updating this space on things that matter to me. Stay tuned, and if you don't hear from me for a while, send me an email to keep at it!! (I guess this means that people would have to be reading this blog....)

~TFW