Five for Friday

1. So we're back from Barbados. It was a fantastic trip. Tied with our cruise last August on which was more relaxing - no, wait, our cruise kept me up all night with the rocking of the boat. Dad's guest bedroom didn't rock back and forth. Barbados wins. We had a grand, lazy time: sleeping in; reading on the balcony; bobbing in the clear, aqua water; lunching at the Carib Beach Bar, steps from the ocean. I hope to have some more pictures up later today; for now, I'll leave you with this:

2. Have you been watching the Olympics? They are wrecking havoc on my sleeping habits, but so fun to watch! I think my favorite sport is bobsled. Or ski jumping. Or speed skating. Or curling. Or hockey. Or pretty much all of them :)

3. Speaking of the Olympics, did you hear about the rather inappropriate celebration that followed the Canadian women's hockey team winning gold yesterday? Cigars, beer and champagne, enjoyed by those of age and underage, right on the ice, nearly an hour after the medal ceremony. Certainly this is not the way Canadians want to be represented to the rest of the world? I have met many nice Canadian women and can't imagine that this is a regular thing for most of them. It will be interesting to see what the IOC has to say (although it seems like they're not saying much about anything these Olympics *cough* whiny Yevgeny Plushenko making up a platinum medal *cough*).

4. This morning it was time to head back to the gym in three weeks to work out with my personal trainer. It's amazing how being sick (week 1), a ridiculous amount of snow (week 2), and a relaxing vacation (week 3) can really wreck havoc on your exercise schedule. But it felt awesome to be back in the gym, doing something healthy, and pushing my body just hard enough. Also, apparently I roll my shoulders forward. Must try to improve on this, so if you see me doing it, tell me to sit up straight!

5. As much as I enjoy traveling, I am tickled pink that we will be here in good ol' D.C. for the next five weeks. Will allow us time to recoup, get back into a healthy eating/working out routine and get rested up for the craziness that is our April/May travel schedule!

Happy weekend everyone!!

I miss this view

Barbados sneak peak

it was a lovely, lovely, lovely trip

Five for Friday

1. The snow. If you've been reading my blog, you have seen the insane 55" of snow that we have gotten. I have never seen so much snow in my entire life. We haven't really left our little neighborhood - thank goodness that we have restaurants that are lunch-yummy within walking distance! It seems that the snow has finally subsided, but I think we all have one eye to the sky, as you can never really be sure when the white death will begin falling again!


2. Yesterday's project was digging my car out. When I started, it looked like this: When I finished, it looked like this:

It is about 3/4 of the way dug out, with a nice circumference of no snow around almost all of it. A big shout out to Brad who cleaned off the hood and roof after the second blizzard earlier this week. Of course, I feel like I'm about 98 years old today - very sore from my hour of shoveling!

3. Yesterday, we invited over one of our neighbors, whose husband has been out of town all week and has been stuck indoors like we have been. It was great fun to have some human interaction that wasn't with Brad (no offense honey!). Even better, she is extremely well traveled, so she was great to talk to. She lived in London twice when she was younger and has traveled all over Europe and Asia - I think she even convinced Brad to visit Istanbul! :)

4. One of (few) best things about being snowed in has been all the cooking we've done. I've got another post ready to go later today featuring the homemade pizza we've rocked twice this week.

5. Barbados. Ahhh good ol' Barbados. We will hopefully (knock on wood, cross your fingers and toes!) be boarding a plane to JFK tomorrow evening, hanging out for a few hours at the Days Inn JFK and then heading back to the airport to fly to Barbados. Oh Barbados, how I have missed you!

Wallpaper Wednesday

One of my favorite travel photography blogs, the Digital Trekker, does something fun every month that I thought I would try out: he posts, in various sizes, a photo that you can use as wallpaper on your desktop, laptop, smart phone, etc. Since I hate boring wallpaper backgrounds, I am always playing around with mine to see what fits my mood. My current one is the photo of palm trees that I blogged yesterday, but I thought I would share a different one with you.


Since it's chilly in much of the U.S. right now, how about a perfect view to warm you up?

Small - 240x160

Medium - 500x333

Large - 1024x681

Mega - 2804x1864

Makes a superb BlackBerry background!

Nine Days

:)