O Christmas Tree

I love my Christmas tree. It is so beautiful! Earlier this month, I went across the street to the Fairlington United Methodist Church the day the trees were delivered, walked right past the rows of enormous trees and asked the guys if they had any small ones. Being probably a little to independent for my own good, I like to get a tree that I can carry and set up all by myself. One of the guys walks me over the the row of 4 small trees (though not as small as I usually get) and I pick one out. Then when we got to my car I pulled out my sole bungee cord, some twine, and a pair of scissors to cut it (that independent thing again...) . The guy looked at me like I was from another planet, "You brought your own twine? And scissors?" Well I didn't want to find the perfect tree and not be able to get it home!! Then another guy walks over carrying some twine, and the guy said again "She brought her own. And scissors too." They had a good laugh at my expense. But I got my tree, and is beautiful. It's always so fun to rediscover the ornaments I've acquired from my various travels - most of which I'd forgotten all about.

Being a Tourist in My Own Hometown

I was able to score free tickets through work for a tour of the Capitol, including the new visitors center which does not open to the public until Dec. 2. So I grabbed a few friends who had never toured the Capitol and we played tourists for the day. It was about 30 degrees outside with a biting wind, but thankfully we found a pretty close parking spot and didn't have to stand in line very long.


The new visitors center is very nice, and includes an "Exhibition Hall" where they have models of DC from the time the first capitol building was built all the way through the present, so you can see how the city evolved over the centuries. A statue of King Kamehameha was front and center in the new visitors center, I recognized him right away. I couldn't tell you who any of the other statues from the various states were!

Our tour began with a brief video in a theater with stadium style seating, and gave an overview of the legislative branch. We then went into the rotunda and what was the house floor in the original building (which burned during the War of 1812) and is now National Statuary Hall and displays statues of notable figures from each state. There are nameplates in the floor that mark where Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams sat.


The rotunda is gorgeous - though after seeing way too many OLD European domes, it looked so new!! There is a beautiful frieze at the base of the dome which depicts the history of the U.S. from Christopher Columbus through the Wright Brothers. It took 75 years and three different artists to complete.


Unfortunately, we were not allowed the see the current Senate or House floors - you have to get tickets from your Congressman to attend a session in order to do that. We did get to go down into the crypt though where there is a compass in the floor that marks the point at which DC is divided into its 4 quadrants.


Overall, it was a nice tour and we all agreed, it was nice to be there fewer people - I expect the place will be mobbed once it is open to the public!

Happy Birthday To Me!!

So it seems this year I'm getting totally spoiled and am having a birthday week! The celebrations kicked off last night with a party at Theresa's. It was so fun! Diego made sangria (my favorite!!) and Theresa got me a Carvel ice cream cake (minus the gluten filled crunchies in the middle)! It was awesome! I love ice cream cakes. Remember the days of Baskin Robbins ice cream birthday cakes with little Cabbage Patch Kid figurines in the top. Yep, about age 10 I think. :-)


Frauke, Steve, Shannon, and Mike were so thoughtful, making gluten free dishes to bring to the party and then giving me a box of gluten free goodies - most of which I've never tried before. Believe it or not, the gluten free market is growing and there are now more products out there than I can keep up with. But it is always fun to try new things and I now have a few weeks ahead of me of testing out new cookies, granola, pancake mix, and pasta! Yummy!


My actual birthday falls on bar night this week, which means a Happy Birthday chocolate waffle! Woo hoo! I'm also determined to visit Hello Cupcake, as my birthday is the perfect excuse, and then on Sunday my mom is cooking me a birthday dinner.

No question about it, I'm spoiled. And very lucky to have such awesome friends and family!

Ein Tag mit Pferden

Pferd, as I came to learn this weekend, is the German word for horse, and is actually pronounced "fiat". My German vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds!

Yesterday, I helped Frauke put her bike together, and was told that following the bike assembly would be a "surprise with Frauke & Steve" and to dress "casual but nice" and to bring a camera. I was so intrigued! For the life of me, I could not figure out where we were going, but when I asked if jeans were acceptable, I was told no.

So after mostly putting her bike together, Frauke and Steve put Paula (another of Frauke's friends who attended the wedding in Germany) and I in the car and started driving West. We still had no idea where we were going. Once we turned off the interstate though, we were informed that we were going to watch the Gold Cup in The Plains. Yay! It's been years since I've been to the Gold Cup and it's always a fun time!
Steve got tickets through his company for the VIP section where we had an open bar and lots of good food! It was a gorgeous (though brisk) day with the colorful leaves providing a scenic backdrop for the races. Clearly we should have bet our 401(k)s since we picked several of the winners just based on their cool names, such as "Scuba Steve" and "Bubble Economy". Frauke was desperately routing for the German pferde, but no such luck, they never made it to the winner's circle.



It was a fun day, that included Steve getting asked at the gas station on the way home if he were "interested in new opportunities", by a guy who was chatting him up because he had a German car and Steve had a German wife and clearly they had loads in common! :-)

Off to Europe Once Again!

Determined to use up every last second of vacation time this year, I just returned from a trip to Austria and Germany. My swimming friends Frauke and Steve got married in Quickborn (a suburb of Hamburg) on October 4th, and I decided it was a good excuse for another international trip. (You can never have too many!) Since my friend Emily (also from swimming) moved to Vienna last year, I decided to visit her too. Who knew joining a masters swim team could result in such great friends and fun trips!

Vienna


My first stop was in Vienna. Emily met me at the airport, pumped me full of coffee, and biked/walked me all over the city. It was awesome! Until that part where I severely sprained my ankle (I actually thought I had broken it) on my first full day of a 10 day trip! Ugh! Emily has a great account of my 3 days in Vienna on her blog, so rather than retype everything I will refer you to her site and just include a few pictures!




Note: My only requirement of Emily for this visit was that she take me to an Austrian Masters practice. So fun to learn swimming terms in German! I thought I was being really smart by learning to count to 10 in German before arriving (I practiced daily on my bus rides to and from work). But why did it not occur to me to learn 25, 50, 100, 200, etc.!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!


My favorite new words (with spelling errors, no doubt):

• Einschwimmen (warm up)
• Abschlag (catch-up drill)
• Schnell (fast)
• Locker (easy)
• Crawl (freestyle)
• Brust (breaststroke)

And that's about the extent of it....still can't get a handle on how to say 25!

Hamburg

Next stop was Hamburg for the wedding. Frauke's father, H-J, nicely picked me up at the airport. Due to my obvious limping, I felt compelled to tell him what happened to my foot. As any good parent would, he suggested that he take me to the hospital, but not wanting to test out the German (or Austrian for that matter) health care system, I politely declined. I figured all they would tell me to do would be to stay off of it, and let's face it, not like that's going to happen when I'm on a tour of European cities. Frauke and her parents did round up an ace bandage, ice packs, some home remedy treatments, and even a set of crutches for me. Who needs doctors when you have the Nitschkes? They were awesome and I am forever grateful.

Not to be deterred by a twice its normal size and all shades of purple foot, I went with the rest of the American contingent (about a dozen of us, consisting of swimming friends, Steve's family, and a few other friends of Frauke) for a tour of downtown Hamburg led by H-J. It was so nice to have such insider knowledge of the city. H-J had a career in the shipping industry and knew the harbor like the back of his hand. Thankfully the sun shined for most of the afternoon (or almost shined - it wasn't raining so we were thankful!), meaning we could do most of our tour on foot. Note: cobblestones are really not fun with a messed up foot!



Polterabend


Friday, the day before the wedding, was the "Polterabend." This is traditional German wedding-eve party that is characterized by guests smashing porcelain into the ground in front of the entrance to the building to bring the couple good luck (and so that they can prove they can clean up together).

SO MUCH FUN!! The party had an American theme to it with burgers, fries, etc. Frauke and Steve had to participate in a few games (for which I was a judge) to determine if they were compatible for marriage and thankfully they were!


Frauke's laptop music library was hooked up to the speakers for dancing, and we were happy alternating with her German friends back and forth between playing American and German songs. This was my first opportunity to meet many of Frauke's German friends - most of whom she swam with in Germany. Right away that gave us something in common to talk about (thankfully they could speak English because my German is non-existent). It seems in Germany, swimming for life saving is a sport and some of her friends compete.


Wedding Day

Saturday was the big day. I think Frauke and Steve broke all the rules. :-) First of all, they technically got married in VA on 8/8/08 at the Arlington County courthouse. Second, Steve had already seen Frauke's dress because she emailed him pictures of it when she was trying to decide which one to buy. And third, in the middle of the ceremony - before the minister said "you may now kiss the bride" (which he never did end up saying) they kissed each other!


It was a beautiful ceremony. It is German tradition that the bride and groom walk down the aisle together to enter the church. There was also a part in the middle of the service where friends and family went to the front of the church and offered their wishes for Frauke and Steve to have a happy marriage, which was a nice touch (even if I didn't understand most of what was being said). The ceremony was in both German and English. Frauke has asked me to read the english translation of the sermon, which I gladly did, and I think the only word I messed up on was Marienkirche - the name of the church. My pronunciation was not the best.

The bride and groom arrived at the reception site in the back of a horse trailer. Seriously! It was the funniest thing! Nice, upholstered chairs from Frauke's parents living room were placed in the trailer for them to sit in for the ride. Apparently this was rather risky, as they could have gotten a ticket if they'd gotten caught and potentially not even have made it to the reception, but clearly getting married the first time on 8/8/08 brought them luck and they arrived just fine.

The reception was held in a beautiful dining room and the food was delicious (and gluten free, and dairy free, and vegan, and soy free, and oil free....they had a quite a list to accommodate all their guests like me with crazy diet restrictions!). I've come to realize that wedding receptions in the U.S. are in fast forward! German weddings go until 5am, so the courses of food and speeches are spread throughout the night. Tradition is that the cake is brought out at midnight - and this one came out with sparklers attached to it so it made quite an entrance! It was a tiered ice cream cake, made by Frauke's sister, and was therefore the first wedding cake I've been able to eat in over 5 years! Yay! And the bride and groom on top of the cake each had swimming goggles on, which was totally cute!


I lasted until about 2:30am, and even managed a little dancing on my sore foot. Thankfully I had thrown some flat shoes into my suitcase, as heels were out of the question!

Berlin

After a recovery day, H-J took us to Berlin to show us around. He had lived there many years ago and Frauke had gone to law school in Berlin. It was a very interesting city and I wish I'd had a little more time there. It was great to hear insights from H-J and Frauke on what it was like before the wall came down and of the challenges associated with reunification. For example, how do you treat people that committed violent acts that were not considered crimes under a communist regime, but are considered crimes in a democratic society?


I guess because I didn't have a map (I had two fantastic tour guides!) I had a hard time visualizing what was once once West Berlin and what was once East Berlin. It seems the river was always the dividing line, but as a part of the reconstruction efforts, they have diverted the river, which therefore had me totally confused. I was surprised that all of the beautiful architecture and historic sights were in East Berlin.


My swimming friends remained in Berlin to continue the rest of their vacations, but no such luck for me. Out of vacation time, I returned to Hamburg for one last evening in the hotel bar with new friends Paula and Jeff and returned home the next day. It was fun to play "Monday Morning Quarterback" on the plane with Frauke and Steve, assessing what went well and what could have been better with all the wedding festivities. My assessment - it was perfect. I had a great time!

8am the following morning I visited the doctor, who x-rayed my foot from 6 different angles but found no breaks. Good news I suppose, but I hear sprains often take longer to heal than breaks. No turkey trots or jingle bell runs for me this year. Not that that is anything new I suppose! At least I can still bike and have been enjoying the perfect fall (almost summerlike) weather while it lasts.

Click here for the full set of pictures.

Hello Cupcake - Goodbye Dense, Dry GF Cupcake

After reading the rave reviews of a new cupcake shop that just opened up last week in Dupont Circle, I decided I had to taste for myself. This is no ordinary cupcake shop you see, in addition to their regular gluten filled varieties, they sell gluten free cupcakes!

http://www.hellocupcakeonline.com/

So while I was in the middle of reading a very dull, dense report at work yesterday, all I could think about was how I had to try these cupcakes. (Yes, I'm slightly food/sweet obsessed.) After calling to confirm that at 2pm they still had some GF cupcakes left, I headed for the metro (boring reading material in hand for the ride).

45 min and $15 later ($12 for 4 cupcakes (why go all that way for just one?!) and $3 for the metro fare) I opened up my box of cupcakes and devoured what was absolutely THE BEST cupcake I have EVER had - gluten filled or gluten free. It was phenomenal! Who knew anything made out of rice flour could taste so good? You have no idea the challenge of gluten free baking. I was in absolute heaven. The flavor this week for the GF cupcakes was carrot cake, one of my favorites. I can hardly wait until Monday when I will call and find out what next week's flavor is. I'm hoping for something with chocolate!

And though I was tempted to keep every one of my cupcakes for myself, feeling so deprived of good cupcakes for so long, I dropped one off at my GF friend Linda's house, who declared I must be the nicest person she knows. Awwww.... She too thought it was the best cupcake she'd ever had.

So, yet another story to add to the list of the lengths (and expense) I go to for good sweets!

And after a good dose of sugar, I finally managed to slug through that report.

The Great Dog Paddle

Labor Day in Fairlington is the last day of the summer pool season, and the last 15 minutes the pool is open is designated the Dog Swim. All the canine neighbors head to the pool for some good wet fun.


I honestly had no idea there were so many dogs in my neighborhood. I have never seen so many wet dogs in one place before - it was chaos, but so funny to watch!

Since I was babysitting Sam all weekend, he got to go to the dog swim. After hearing all the stories about him at the lake in Wisconsin this summer, I had high expectations that he'd be the first dog in and would have by far the best dog paddle around.

I guess if you're a dog, pools and lakes are somewhat different, starting with the fact that there's no beach entry to the pool. Sam was not about to just jump off the deck into the pool, and Lori and I were initially unsuccessful at enticing him with tennis balls. So we headed to the baby pool, thinking that would get him started. Only he didn't want to have anything to do with that either. But once Lori went and stood in the middle of the baby pool, he started to feel differently and with a little push from me, in he went. And out almost as fast!


Next we moved onto the big kid pool. With a good push from Lori, Sam fell right into the pool and swam after a ball, demonstrating a perfect dog paddle that would have won him a gold medal in the Doggie Olympics. We will have to work on his start though!

The Office Olympics

So this summer I finally had the opportunity to bring the Office Olympics (which were held at SRI) to EEI, complete with synchronized chair dancing. :-) I had been planning this for 4 years!!

Each division competed as its own country (complete with national anthem - ours was BTO's "Taking Care of Business") and sent representatives to participate in a variety of individual and team events such as the Equestrian Event, Wastepaper Basketball, and the Pencil Javelin Throw, to name a few.

The Olympics kicked off with a pizza lunch at the Opening Ceremonies and concluded with an ice cream social for the Closing Ceremonies, and as I said after the Games at SRI - I've never had so much fun at work!!

Somehow I got talked into participating in the Synchronized Chair Dancing with others in my division, which of course was captured on video. (username eeivideo password edison)

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?pi=0&ps=20&sf=&sa=0&sq=&dm=0&p=B85028082C087A00

The judging was as scandalous as the Olympics Gymnastics judging, but what else would you expect! Our team "BOGolia"wound up with the bronze medal (reasonable) but the team that should have won ("AndTigua" - our Accounting and Technology group) had the misfortune of going first, and thus finished last. Definitely check out their routine if you get a chance. The Marshall Islands (our Communications group) took the silver medal and their performance is entertaining as well. If you can't tell, most of our songs have an electric theme to them (since I work for an electricity organization) and the A&T groups songs all have to do with accounting and technology.

FXCM Summer Party

For the second year in a row, Stan was nice enough to host and Frauke was nice enough to plan the FXCM summer party. It was again tons of fun with great food, great friends, and great music! The house band put on a concert - though with the last night of Olympic swimming on TV, most party goers left in time to get home and see the U.S. men win the gold medal in the 400 free relay. Go USA!