Gingerbread Village!

Because I'm totally in to any holiday themed event, I was pretty excited about the gingerbread house decorating. But I got lame and bought a kit, rather than make my own. Oh well, I'm a busy girl. John and I put together a seriously ridiculous work of art...Not entering and contests, that's for sure. But we laughed a lot, ate icing, and even named one of the houses (Bob) when I somehow made him a face out of the doors and windows. So yeah, it's not the most beautiful/professional village, but it's ours. Also, there's an evil snowman! Which, John insists isn't evil. "He's misunderstood." But check out those scary red eyes!

Quote of the event: "It snowed rainbows!" Which, wouldn't that be fun?

Company Holiday Party

Our company Holiday Party was once again at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I'm a little tired of planes (one year was enough) and was rooting for the National History Museum. Still, it was a good time. And this year I actually found my coworkers before the end of the night (it's hard with 1,000ish guests in a place that big) and so there were more people to talk to. Super sad that I was so busy chatting and drinking that I never ate dessert! What was I thinking?

Anyway, I think the highlight of the night was learning that 3 of my coworkers think John's foreign.

"He's hot and he's from England...or Australia?"

"Umm, no. He's from Southern Maryland."

"But what about the accent??!!" (best line of the night!)

 Me and Meghan

 Kyle photobombing....Erica and me

 Kyle and Erica

 Jason and Mary....I don't even know

 Yeah, last year's pic was soo much better.

 Love and airplanes :)

 

 The boys pretending to be pilots.

 No drinking and flying! (Kyle and John)

 Meghan, John, me, Mary, and Jason.

 Ladies man

 Cheers! (Kyle and Erica)

Something about this guy just made us want to say hi.

Elmer, the cool bartender, left his station after last call...bad idea. John asked Elmer to make his signature drink. "What's the Elmer?!" It's apparently a rum and coke with a bunch of extra limes. Thanks Elmer!

Quotes from John

I think I need to start a weekly/monthly "Quotes from John" post here because the man is funny. But, maybe it's only funny to me?

"Do you think my beard will ever be white so I can be Santa?" Love!

"Francis Ford Cooksey! (that's a plan on play on Coppola in case you don't know directors)" Nope, I had no clue about directors...

And then this happened:
Coworker: Where are you from?
John: Southern Maryland.
Coworker: *weird look* Hmm. I though I heard a slight Australian accent.
 
He's now on top of the world.

Outdoor Climbing - Carderock

So, the plan for climbing was to go to the gym all winter to build up strength and skill. That way, once Spring came I'd be more prepared for outdoor climbs. But it's been 65ish since Friday and we had to go outside and do something. We took advantage and went to Carderock to climb. Seeing as I'm not at all experienced at this point, I was pretty happy with the small amount of climbing I did. It's the general rule of the group of John and his friends that everything at Carderock should have two added to it to compare to the gym. So a 5.6 is more like a 5.8, approximately. Of course, there's very little outside that's really super easy. So it was an interesting day. I started with an easy climb but it was mostly mantling, which I'd never done (where were my footholds?!). But I made it. Then I did it again later and went a little to the right, which was more fun. But I did have to watch my head at one point so as not to bang it on an overhang. The other climb I did was more complicated. There were almost no handholds. But everyone else did it, so I was willing to try (even if they have 2+ more years of experience than me!) It was only a 5.6 so it was worth a shot. The beginning was great, the middle was horrible. So I only made it about 3/4 of the way up. I think I could have gone the rest of the way, but the one section was super hard and I was just too tired. The rest of what the group did was 5.8 and up so I didn't do anything else. We almost set up a new anchor to try an easy climb, but it was the end of the day and I was fine with not pushing myself on my first time out. So I just took pictures.

John's 31st Birthday

For John's birthday we both took off on Friday and drove to Delaware to the Dogfish Head brewery. It's pretty much his favorite beer.

We went on the "Stashes and Lashes" brew tour which includes samples! First was Raison D'Etre, which is one of John's favorites, so we were happy about that. He used to drink that almost exclusively when we were first living together. Next, My Antonia, which was an ok beer, but nothing special. too hoppy for me. But John said if you're a hops person it was pretty darn great. I of course just love it for the literary reference (Hey Willa Cather!). Apparently the guy who started the brewery was an English major. John now has a new career goal in mind for me. Third was Immort Ale. Don't drink it. It tastes like band-aids. Eww. And I thought Dogfish head could do not wrong. I forget the last one, but it was alright. On the tour we were told about a bunch of beers I'd never heard of, including one with berries that I really want to try. Also, Pangea, which has a cool name.

Birthday dinner at a seafood place. Crabcakes and softshell crab.

Seeing as Dogfish Head is right by Rehoboth Beach that's where we stayed the night. So the next morning we went exploring. We found really big shells, which I made into seashell bras all along the beach. Because I'm a 10 year old boy. We also found a piece of a hourshoe crab shell and a bird leg/talons.

Then we were on our way to Atlantic City! We found the penguin game from Vancouver and did not do well. Penguins are better in Canada! But then we had a freakin awesome game of craps. It was a lot of fun. If only we'd put more money on that fucking 5!

Next we took a long stroll down the Boardwalk and listened to people and the ocean. We had some drinks at the House of Blues. My amaretto sour was way weak so I ended up confusing the waiter when I asked for a shot. But we had good talks. Like about how we're too old to make out in a bar. When did that happen?

More gambling. Half-naked girls dancing to a live cover band...We played roulette and won on 29 (our anniversary), 18 (John's birthday), and 4 (my birthday). Later in the night we would play more roulette. 18 hit like a total of 5 times that night. John was in heaven. Until a crazy dealer kept yelling at everyone and it wasn't fun anymore.

Between roulette games we had more drinks and listened to a different cover band. Who rocked. I don't think we've ever had that much fun in Atlantic City. Of course I say that and I remember 2 really fun times...but really, it was crazy. I think we got back to our hotel around 3am...but who really knows.

Hannibal Lecter vs Melissa

On Friday night I had a serious nightmare. John and I were walking down the street minding our own business when some cops fucking kidnapped us. They handcuffed/tied us both to two bucket seats in a van. Between us was a box. They stuck my elbow into a tiny hole in the box. At which point Hannibal Lecter started gnawing on my fucking elbow! As he gnawed and my arms became just bone, it would slowly slide further into the hole so that he could eat more. The cops, apparently, were tired of dealing with their whiny prisoners, so they fed us to him. Thanks honorable policemen. I don't know what would happen when he finished the arm, as they way we were set up that's about all that he could eat through that hole...but that's not the point.

The point is I was whining and moaning in my sleep. And I half woke up and was super scared, so I cuddled up to John. I think I was like "Nightmare, eating..." so John just kissed my forehead and told me to go back to sleep. I could have asked for a bit more comfort, but I did fall back to sleep so it wasn't really necessary. So I will consider this sweet and soothing.

Except now he keeps making whining sounds and laughing. Apparently my torture filled nightmare produced sounds that crack the boy up.

I just keep telling him he was the next course...and he laughs some more.

Sometimes boys are sweet. And they share the cherry Starburst you gave them for their birthday, even though it's like his favorite thing in the world. They could just give you all the strawberry but you get a few cherry. That's love.

And sometimes they laugh at you getting eaten.

Good with the bad, right?

Blackwater Falls West Virginia

Since we had a 3 day weekend due to Veterans Day, John and I headed to West Virginia for one last hiking trip before winter. Of course that doesn't mean we won't hike again, but just in case, this trip was made. We decided to stay in a hotel though. Even with nice sleeping bags, sometimes cold weather camping sucks.

We had a beautiful drive out west. A lot of the trees in Shenandoah were still colorful. But then the country music took over the radio, the trees lost their leaves, the temp dropped...and there was snow on the ground.

Our hotel was about 20 mins from the park, so after we checked in we went to do a quick look around before the sun set. The wind was pretty brutal seeing as we were still in fall mode, but I was pretty sure the weekend was supposed to be a bit warmer so I didn't cry.

That night we reverted to our college days and had PB&J, ramen, and various other random foods that were possible to cook in a hotel room. Actually oddly fun. We also watched way too many episodes of House-hunters International and pondered moving to Australia some more.

Our hike was not that long, maybe 6 miles. Hard to say since we did a combination of many trails. The park's longest trail was 1.5 mile so we just kept taking different pieces of them to make a loop. A lot of the time was spent in the woods. One trail seriously should have been about .2 miles, but was a full mile because it just zig-zagged around the trees.

Balanced Rock - milestone 1

We ran into these deer on the trail and they would not budge. No matter how much noise we made, they just looked at us with these "Dude, it's my grass, go away" looks. We would have just walked around them, but there was a baby so we didn't want the mom to flip out. So it took a few minutes, but eventually made it.

Lame stream crossing

Made it to the falls overlook! Realized there was another, better overlook on the otherside. So we hiked back to the car and drove there (No trail from where we were, across the river, to the other side)

On the way back to the car, we came across a rock in our way. So we had to do a little rock scramble.

View from the lodge, where we parked our car.

Good views of Blackwater Falls