Belated Birthday Trip to NYC

I guess if you have to have a birthday, you might as well do something memorable! My birthday was actually on June 12, but Rob had to work all that weekend (gotta love the Navy), so we took a belated birthday trip to NYC the following weekend. It was a fabulous trip, of course! The weather was gorgeous on Friday and Saturday, but it rained HARD on Sunday. Guess two out of three isn't bad!

We stayed at Millennium Hilton , which was truly right across the street from the World Trade Center site. Even though I've been to NYC several times since 9/11, I had never been to Ground Zero. It's been almost seven years, but it was still a very emotional experience. These pictures were taken from our room. There was activity and construction going on 24 hours a day; in fact, the hotel provides ear plugs and noisemakers to help drown out the noise. With all that work, it makes you wonder why they haven't made more progress? Coincidentally, I just caught part of a story on MSNBC about how the entire "Freedom Tower" project has been plagued by problems from the start.

As with most of our trips lately, we didn't really do the typical tourist things - instead, we focused more on shopping, eating, and drinking wine! The first night we had our best meal of the weekend at a Vietnamese restaurant near the theater district. My best friend Susan and I had discovered it last year during a girls' weekend, and I dragged Rob all over the place trying to find it again! My poor feet were practically bleeding by the time we stumbled across it, but it was worth it!

Saturday we walked down to Battery Park and saw the HUGE line to go out to the Statue of Liberty. If you know me, you know I don't like lines! Instead, we decided to have a glass (or two) of wine and some spinach florentine ravioli at the Battery Gardens restaurant and simply admire the Statue from afar! We also walked and shopped our way through Soho, stopping for another fabulous dinner and more wine.

Enjoying some wine on a beautiful summer day in NYC.

The Statue of Liberty as seen through the purple flowers. Lilacs? Lavender? I don't know what it was, but it was pretty.

At a cute little restaurant in Soho.

Sunday was filled with more shopping before heading to the airport for our 10:00pm flight back to Norfolk. But as with any flight out of JFK, it was delayed...until 2:15 in the morning! Needless to say, we didn't get back home until after 4:00am! It made for a rough start to the week, but it was a great weekend that helped lessen the pain of turning another year older!

More Home Improvements

Despite the horridly hot weather, Rob has gotten quite a bit of work done around the house. Yesterday he painted the nasty metal garage at the back of the property. It's still an eyesore, but it looks slightly better!

The side of the garage, BEFORE.

The side of the garage, AFTER.

The back of the garage, BEFORE.

The back of the garage, AFTER.

Heat Wave

Good grief, it's way too hot for the first week of June! The past couple days have been 100+, and it's supposed to continue through at least Tuesday. Making matters worse, the central air has basically stopped working upstairs. We actually had already contracted to get a new heating/cooling system installed, but that's not happening until June 18-19. Until then, I guess we'll have to get used to some very hot days and nights in the house! (Temps of 80 degrees or more in the house certainly is not conducive to good sleep!)

I think I mentioned in my last post that we went on an impressive shopping spree at Lowe's over Memorial Day weekend, including the purchase of a new washer and dryer set. Well, when they tried to deliver that washer and dryer, we discovered that the dryer wouldn't fit through the laundry room door! Ah, the importance of always measuring and planning... Anyway, we had to place a special order for a different set, and those are being delivered tomorrow. Hopefully this time we're a bit better prepared!

Despite the crazy heat this weekend, we did attempt to do a little bit on the yard. We planted three bushes that we had purchased last week, and finished laying mulch in the area around the koi pond. (Actually, it's just a pond now. The koi all died off a long time ago.) We had plans to do so much more this weekend, but it was just too damn hot. And it was too hot to do much work INSIDE the house, too! Just kind of a wasted weekend, truthfully.

The area around the pond is pretty much finished. Now it's on to the side of the house! (By the way, you can see a little bit of the freshly painted shed in this pic, too!)

Memorial Day Weekend

I guess we made the most of Memorial Day weekend, considering that Rob was working midnight shifts again! He would leave for work around 6:00pm, work all night, get home around 8:00am, sleep until 3:00, then start the cycle all over again. It was so disappointing that he had to work all weekend, as it was just glorious weather. He has four days off now, though, so hopefully he'll be able to get a lot done around the house.

Our big accomplishment over the weekend was dropping a ton of money at Lowe's! It was a military appreciation weekend with 10% discounts for all military personnel, and we definitely took advantage. Among the purchases: a new washer and dryer, a grill, a couple ceiling light fixtures, a screen door for the back entrance, several plants and bushes for the backyard, solar lights...and the list goes on and on! Rob definitely has his work cut out for him this week!
The cats are normally indoor cats, but sometimes we'll let them join us when we're working outside. Oliver in particular always enjoys the great outdoors!






One of our purchases over the weekend was string lighting for the arbor in the backyard. It almost feels like you're on vacation in Key West or something. Almost...




Rob and the new grill we bought over the weekend. We grilled steaks and corn-on-the-cob tonight. And it was delicious!










We discovered we have a frog living in the swamp that it is our koi pond. I'm not fond of frogs, but Rob seems excited. :-)

Ducks? In Da Hood?? Really?

This was too cute! I came home today to find the cutest duck couple in the front yard. I had to feed them, of course (if anything, just to provide entertainment for the cats!). It was all fun and good, and then an obnoxious group of teenagers had to come along and scare them away. Seriously...I thought that stopped being fun at about the age of five...but never underestimate the stupidity and immaturity of today's youth...

Fun Weekend

Yes, I'm back after a rather extended break. I wasn't sure if anyone was looking at the blog since Rob returned from deployment, but several people have mentioned the lack of posts lately. So I will try to get back on the horse... :-)

It was a beautiful spring weekend here and we took full advantage of it. Saturday was the International Wine Festival at Virginia Beach, so of course we had to partake. It was set up with tasting booths for various countries (Italy, France, US, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, just to name a few). It was very crowded, which of course meant waiting in line for each tasting. But luckily there was live music to keep us entertained while we waited. When we'd had our fill of wine, we went over to the beach and just enjoyed the sun and the ocean.






Rob really was enjoying the Wine Festival, despite the somewhat sour look on his face!







The beautiful weather brought out a huge crowd to the wine festival.


Saturday evening we went to a VMI alumni event along the waterfront in Norfolk. There was no one else from the class of 1998 there, but we had a great time hanging out with several graduates from the classes of 1957 and 1958 and their spouses.











There were probably 100-150 people at the VMI event.


Sunday was another sunny, warm day, so we worked on the yard. We had been bad and really let the yard go since we moved in, but we have been tackling it this spring. We've pulled up tons of weeds, ivy, and bushes that we don't like. Now we've been laying down new mulch. By next weekend we might start planting some new bushes and flowers.








Some of the new mulch in the front yard.


To finish off the weekend, I joined my boss and her family for her son's 21st birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant for margaritas, then went back to their house to have some fun with the Nintendo Wii. Rob and I just might have to invest in a Wii...it's very addicting!

Break-in at the house

As you've probably heard, our house was broken into on March 31. It happened in the middle of the day while we were both at work. I had even come home at lunch, so it happened some time between about 1:00 and 5:00. We're not sure how they got in, but appears that maybe they were able to jimmy open the backdoor. The anoying thing is that we DO have an alarm system, but didn't have it turned on that day. You can believe that we use it ALL the time now!

Anyway, the burglars took pretty much all our electronics and jewelry, plus some other random smaller things. They also completely trashed the house as they pulled out everything from drawers and cabinets as they looked for hidden goodies. It was pretty shocking and upsetting to come home to. Most of the things taken can be replaced, but some things had strong sentimental value - like Rob's VMI class ring and my engagement and wedding rings!

The police were here for several hours investigating, but since then we haven't heard from them at all. We even had a witness (someone who had been working on a neighbor's house) who was able to give a pretty good description of the suspects and the vehicle used, but I don't think the police followed up on it all. It's pretty frustrating, but I guess burglaries just are not the top priority of the Portsmouth police department.

Part of the mess the thieves created while ransacking the bedroom. You can see where the TV used to be...