The last several weeks have gone by so quickly that I haven’t had the time to blog. But, lots has been going on. Here is a list of (some) of the things we have been up to:

1. Grandma came for a visit!
2. I made blueberry pie from scratch
3. I bought a bike
4. I met Jim Gaffigan!
5. I worked two nearly 80 hour weeks
6. We marched with Peace Corps in the DC Pride Parade
7. Our basement was finished
8. We put the deposit on getting our new roof
9. I turned 29 (sniff sniff…goodbye 20’s)
10. We survived our first storm of hurricane season

I’ll start at the top of the list.

1. My grandma came to stay with us over Memorial Day weekend! My Grandma is one of the most amazing people on the planet, and I was so excited to have her come stay with us for a few days. She is so amazing that she has even forgiven me for getting us briefly lost in Anacostia, the worst neighborhood in DC.

We tried to cram in as much of DC as possible in two short days before spending a day at Mt. Vernon – George Washington’s plantation.

2. I made a blueberry pie from scratch.
I was having lunch with a friend the next day, and wanted to bring a dessert that took more effort than going to the store. And this was the outcome. It took me over 4 hours to bake two blueberry pies, but I was pretty pleased with myself. Thus, it made the list.

3. I bought a bike!
I’ve been talking about it for a while now – and I finally did it. I tried to talk Erin into getting one too, but she wasn’t interested. Maybe later – after she sees how much fun I am having! Actually, I haven’t had a chance to take it out yet due to weather, work, and I am sure some general lack of energy. But, today the weather is amazing, and it is supposed to get stormy again – so I am determined to get out today! I’ll let you know how that goes…

4. I met Jim Gaffigan!
Erin surprised me last week with tickets to see Jim Gaffigan, my favorite comedian. You may know him as the “hot pocket” guy – although he has plenty of other funny stuff to say too. Erin got a couple of pictures of us, but alas they are on her phone. So, you get this one:

In case you can’t decipher it, he wrote: “Rachel – Greatest Person to Walk the Earth” Day made.

5. I worked two nearly 80 hour weeks.
My main reason for not blogging. I can barely even stand the sight of a computer.

6. We marched with Peace Corps in the DC Pride Parade.
Again, the pictures are on Erin’s phone and she is at school. Sigh. In any case, it was great fun to march with the Peace Corps, who announced recently that they will allow same sex couples to serve together in certain locations – AWESOME!
Another Jordan RPCV was already carrying the Jordanian flag, so I carried Yemen’s flag and Erin carried Somalia’s. Who knew the PC had been in either location at some point from 1962!

7. Our basement is finished! Hooray! Finally!
What was estimated to be a three day job became a 3 MONTH job! As I’ve blogged about in the past, there was problem after problem after problem… It is finally finished, and although it didn’t pan out exactly as we had hoped, we now have a basement TV room, second guest room. Over the next couple of weeks we will be getting things set up, painted, furniture bought, etc…

8. A new roof.
Things are getting started on this. After some more really heavy rains that came through, the increased leaking was evidence that we were out of waiting time, and needed a new roof stat. Not a fun $12,000 to shell out. But, sadly needed. We’ll keep you posted on the progress.

9. I celebrated my last birthday in my 20’s. Sigh.
Although I am mildly traumatized to be entering my final year of my 20’s – I had a great birthday! Erin planned a 90 minute facial, a dinner party with friends, and got me a beautiful pearl necklace with black diamonds 🙂 I am truly lucky.

10. Last but not least – our first big storm of storm season. While I think it would hardly be considered big by the seasoned East Coasters – it was big to me and Erin – seasoned West Coasters…
On my birthday, of all days, the winds blew in, the sky grew dark, and a tornado warning blared. I scuttled to the basement with the cats, wondering why other people weren’t also running for the hills, and waited until the warning expired. 3 tornados did touch down in our area, but none were even close to harming us or our house thankfully. I suppose we’ll get used to these things. But, in the mean time, we learned that I am a sissy.