I finally decided to check out the mid-atlantic ski scene. It’s not great, but it was better than I expected. I went out to Whitetail Mountain in Pennsylvania (about 1.5 hours away from DC) with a few friends for a full day of skiing. I spent most of the day on the black diamond trails (although the mid-atlantic black is more like a Colorado blue). There was, however, a long and steep mogul trail that kicked my ass.
Today – President’s Day – we decided to visit Mount Vernon. We decided on today because it is the one day all year that admission is free. We got there right at opening time to be sure to beat most of the crowds (and be able to get a good parking spot). Despite this it was still busy, but less so than a summer day I imagine. Both Katie and I have been to Mount Vernon, but it had been a while for both of us. All I remember of the grounds was the large lawn in front of the house (currently buried under 2 feet of snow). As it was George Washington’s birthday he was present for the event. Apparently there was a “surprise” birthday party for him taking place at 1:30pm which we didn’t bother staying around for. I did get a word in to him – I said, “Hey George, you’re looking good for your age!” He gave me a glare and responded, “Not even my wife calls me George.” Doh!
Yesterday Katie recieved a letter from Delta Airlines with an Atlanta return address. Inside the envelope was Katie’s driver’s license. Katie didn’t even know she had lost her license. It has been three weeks since she was in Atlanta. That’s just Katie being Katie.
Many years ago, before there was dirt, my family and I lived in upstate New York. While there we had some neighbors who became good friends of the family. We soon started a tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts with each other. Despite all odds, the gift exchange has endured. I must give props to both our neighbors and my parents for this because we moved away from upstate NY in 1985. I probably would have given up on the gifts around 1986. However, I am truly happy for the gifts they give. Often they include something homemade. Our wedding gifts were handmade teddy bears wearing the exact style dress and tuxedo we wore at our wedding. That was pretty good, but their Christmas gift topped even that. Feast your eyes on my new lion pillow cases. Hell yeah! I immediately replaced my crappy Bed, Bath & Beyond pillow cases. That’s right, Ryan “Like a Lion” finally has a pillow case worthy of his kingly head. Katie was a bit reluctant to have them on the bed at all – much less on my side – but once I gave her the lion-like pose you see in this picture, she relented. I also received a small lion figurine. It stands guard over my cubicle entrance at work. So, thank you for the Christmas gifts, thank you very much.
This morning I learned from the Washington Post that zombies are real. This insightful information came from the Washington Post’s (book) bestseller list – specifically the non-fiction section. Webster’s dictionary defines fiction as, “something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically: an invented story.” Non-fiction would be the opposite of fiction, or something REAL. You can imagine that I was quite surprised to find “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” sitting at #4 of the non-fiction list. Jane Austen’s original novel would, I’m sure, be categorized as fiction. It is fiction because none of its abysmally boring love motifs actually happened. With the addition of zombies we finally have an accurate historical record of Austen’s 19th century events – hence the categorization of the updated novel as “non-fiction.” For those of you who find the thought of zombies discomforting or even frightening, I direct your attention to the 7th bestselling non-fiction book, “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.” I’m sure this guide provides many handy techniques for dealing with those pesky zombies you didn’t even know existed until now. Happy zombie hunting!
Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin
So the Christmas season has come yet again. I know this because CVS has already pre-staged their Easter decorations. So another year has gone by. It has been an exciting one for The Lygers.
In January we attended the Inauguration of President Obama. It was about 20°F and it took us 5 hours to walk 3 miles … but it was a good blog story. We’re glad we went, but we’re not sure it’s something we want to do again. It’s much easier just to watch it on TV.
We had both sets of parents visit us in DC. We marched them all over town until they were dead tired. Some of us (Ryan) did this to maximize the time to see attractions. Others (Katie) did it because she got lost.
Katie secured a full time teaching job at Washington- Lee High School in Arlington, VA. Since taking the job she spends most of her free time grading essays. Ryan makes sure to look conspicuously lazy while she does this.
Katie spent the summer in Santa Fe, NM at one of the Bread Loaf campuses. She has only one summer left before she is a Master of English. After classes ended Ryan flew to New Mexico for a week of traveling. They visited Ryan’s aunt, cousin and grandfather – all New Mexico residents. K & R also managed to squeeze in a day at the Ten Thousand Waves spa in Santa Fe and White Sands National Park.
While Katie was in Santa Fe Ryan visited Cairo for two weeks. While there he learned to walk like an Egyptian and relive all his Indiana Jones fantasies.
In August Congress decided to give free cash to Americans who had strategically purchased gas-guzzling vehicles in years past. Not to be left out of the cash bonanza, Ryan was a loyal American and traded in his Mustang GT “clunker” for a Japanese Toyota Rav4. Katie added in her Camry as a straight trade-in so we went from 2 cars down to 1. Our first trip with the new car was to Sunset Beach, NC for a vacation with Katie’s family.
During the year we also visited The Homestead Resort (mooching off some lawyer friend’s free perks), Charlottesville, Baltimore, and Thanksgiving in MA.
Three days before Christmas and DC is still digging out from 18” of snow. This caused a big brouhaha with Katie getting stuck in Atlanta because of closed airports in DC. Eventually we got her home but required 5 hours of driving by her mother and 8 hours by both her brother and Ryan. This pretty much ruined Ryan’s day of napping and playing Xbox games.
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, and Happy Festivus for the rest of … you. Oh, and also a Happy New Year.
Katie & Ryan
