Packing has taken over our lives. Please notice in the above picture we are numbering every box and cataloging its contents. Tonight we reached box number 118 on the spreadsheet…and we’re still packing. The move is scheduled for Saturday. Hopefully we’ll finish before the movers arrive.
It’s done. What a horrible and disgusting process. I had no idea that a stereotype/ generalization could be so true, but the car salesmen we encountered, across multiple dealers were rude, manipulative, aggressive and ridiculous. Do they all have a handbook? Thanks to research and persistence, Aaron kept a few steps ahead of them at every turn, while I took notes and looked mad (not a stretch, I assure you). Anyway, the good news is that we have a brand new car that I am very excited about. Hopefully this means I won’t have to worry about replacing timing belts, new brakes, leaky gas tanks, etc for at least a couple of years.
Aaron and I recently saw the Collateral, starting Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver who finds himself the hostage chauffer of hit man Tom Cruise, while he works through a list of hits. The movie had a promising start and I was enjoying it until about three quarters of the way through. Without giving anything away, the last half hour of the movie relies so heavily on coincidence and clichés that it was almost unwatchable. Presumably we’re suppose to believe that Jamie Foxx’s character has been changed by the evening and that this change drives his actions in the last portion of the film. Really though, it just comes off as silly and trite.
Friday night, the whole family got together, not to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but to belatedly celebrate Aaron, Peter and James’ birthdays. We had a delicious dinner at Floramos. As we were a party of ten, they sat us at this huge round table, complete with a lazy susan in the center to facilitate the passing of plates and drinks. Afterwards we all went back to Peter’s apartment for gifts and brownie sundaes. It was great for all of us to be together.
A friend of Aaron’s at work, Chichi, and her husband Geoff had a baby boy a few months ago. We wanted to give them something to celebrate Gabriel’s birth, so I decided to challenge myself and try out a new knitting project. This hat offered me the opportunity to learn some new stitches and to use the smallest circular knitting needles I have ever seen (US#5, 12″ for you knitters out there)…and the end result was quite cute. Recently, we had dinner with Chichi and Geoff and another work friend of Aaron’s, Wendy. We got to meet Gabriel and present him with the hat pictured above. Isn’t he adorable?
First off, my apologies – I have neglected the blog in recent weeks. Aaron and I have been going through a bit of bad luck, but it looks like things are starting to turn around…After a hectic and intense search (you would not believe some of the dives we saw), we have found a new apartment, and will be moving to Salem next month. Our concurrent project has been looking for a new car, and this project is still ongoing. Unfortunately, our beloved 1994 Honda Accord developed some problems that would have cost more to fix than the car is worth. The car died at a terrible time, but we have been thorough with our research and believe we are close to getting an acceptable deal (please note I did not say fair). If all goes well, and please keep your fingers crossed for us, we should have a new car soon. We’ll keep you posted.
We spent this past weekend visiting with Aaron’s family in DC. As usual there was a whirlwind of activity. It’s like they are a family of humming birds…but we had a great visit all the same. We got to attend both Andrew and Emily’s indoor soccer games and Julie made Aaron’s favorite Indian dinner in celebration of his birthday. We also squeezed in a quick trip to the game store where Aaron picked up Ticket to Ride and Hoity Toity (the English version of Adel Verpflichtet) for his family. Later in the weekend Aaron enjoyed a game of Hoity Toity with Rita, Andrew and Emily.
Click on the above photo of Molly (busy doing homework) to see the album of the weekend.
