Labor Day Weekend

Friday

To start our weekend of fun in the sun we went to a Parade. Marine Barracks Style.

 The Commandant and Assistant with their wives.

 Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon.

It was a nice ceremony in DC where Gary Sinise (LT Dan, Forrest Gump) was honored as an Honorary Marine for all the giving to various military groups through his band LT Dan Band.

After that Brian and I went home and packed. We decided that we couldn't wait to get to the beach so we started our trek.

4 Hours Later (Saturday)

It was beautiful and epic and we needed to get breakfast and toys and beer.

So then it looked more like this

In case you are old (mom) YOLO means "You Only Live Once". 

So Brian and I decided to follow the advice.

First we played sand volleyball, where I was taking it easy and hitting the ball back. Brian advised that YOLO and dive for the ball. Where I found the most dangerous particle in the sand...

my cut leg. That isn't blood trickling down my leg, that is the length of the scratch. 

After that I wanted to take it "easy", Brian decided he would YOLO and chase some waves, a little too far, into a rip current or between two of them. Unaware of the procedures a lifeguard had to go out and save him. Crazy.

You think that we would be done with the mother nature trying to warn us...turns our all she wanted was my flipflops and sunglasses which I lost both of by the end of the day.

We also had horrendous sunburns that are starting to peel as I type. 

Believe it or not we still had an epic time at the beach!!!

Sunday

We did pretty much the same thing. Minus most of the painful injuries and epic rescues.

Safety first pool time at out house...

Monday

We decided to visit the sand dunes. They are some of the biggest dunes ever! Seriously. I felt like I was in an episode of the Star Treks, like in the beginning where Darth Vader eats R2D2 and Dr. Spock gets all mad.

Clair and I looking for a sand snake...

 Sand does weird things to people. Must. Get. Water.

Then we went home and it was sad.

Weekend Reviews

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...we had a crazy weekend followed by a week with my boss gone and then another crazy Saturday.

Let's start with last Friday. Pretty typical night out with a friend from Saint Louis, Aimee.

Drinks after dinner in Old Town. We really wanted to go to a speakeasy type place called PX but there is a 2 week wait for reservations. Maybe next time!!! Welcome Neil to the group, a friend of Aimee's that lives in the area.

Saturday was another day of Kayaking on a different part of the river that is closer to DC.

 This is Brian's cousin that started grad school here this fall! Nice to meet you Leena!

The gang as we make plans for the night ahead.

We decide to hit up a few famous spots with Neil and Aimee. As government workers they had some great recommendations.

First we stopped off at a rooftop bar that gave views of the White House.

 Behind Leena and Brian is the glowing White House.

Then we went to dinner at Old Ebbit's Grille. According to the professionals, this is the place that senators and the like in DC go for lunch. Food was really good. If you want pics of the restaurant, too bad. Come visit and I will take you there and it will be great.

After dinner was dessert. We went to a famous dessert and chocolate place, Coco Sala. Amazing. We got there kinda late so no pictures. In case you are wondering what we ordered...it was the 3 course dessert experience.

Drinks followed at another bar where I met a financial reporter on TV and she was nice. End of Saturday.

Sunday was boring because the dogs needed to go to the vet and groomers and we need groceries.

Last week was a blur, because my boss was gone. It's not the kind of place that when "the boss is away the assistant gets to play" kind of thing. It's more like, the boss is away and you better do your job and figure out her job and do them both kind of thing. It was rough but since I still like my job a lot it was work but it was fun. Tiring nonetheless.

Did I mention that the reason that we even moved out here is because Brian is in school? Expeditionary Warfare School (EWS) is what he does all day and last week he "played" war games. He makes it sound all hard and demanding and then comes home with pictures like this:

 He seems to have it really rough as well...

After the week was over we decided we needed a weekend of fun! Like always!

SIX FLAGS AMERICA!!!

Brian is not on this coaster, the three crazies are Roadie, Gift and myself. Brian gets ill from rides.

Then Roadie, Gift and Brian had a really important race on Sunday.

 I did not go to the race. I slept in and then stocked the bar. More important things...like blogging!!!

Expect more pictures next week. We are Nags Head bound for Labor Day!!!

A Weekend of Fun in the Sun

So this weekend we decided to go play outside! We went biking and kayaking and biking and shopping and ...

Here goes

Saturday

First we rented some bikes. As a group of 6 it is hard to go anywhere in one car and parking sucks so BIKES!!! I unfortunately have no pictures of that...

Then we rode to the waterfront and rented so kayaks! Into the Potomac River we go!

But first some oar fighting:

 Ok, now into the water...

                                                                           
                                                                              Brian

Gift

                                                                             Gavin

Amanda ( the other one)

Rodie (the guy on the left)

Me

We got a couple good shots from the boats:

Then we biked back and it was amazing.

Sunday

So a little while before we arrived in Alexandria, Gavin found some bikes in his basement to give to Brian and I. He's been busy with the Ironman Race thingy so we haven't been able to get them from him yet...until today.

I wanted to go into the city (DC) and scope it out and we decided to take the metro and our bikes. It was awesome.

90's Concert

Tonight we had some fun with a couple friends of ours and went to a 90's concert. On the line up was Fastball, Vertical Horizon. Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray and Gin Blossoms. The most memorable was Smash Mouth. The lead was really funny and entertaining.

The venue was a place called the Wolf Trap. It is a national park that has an outdoor amphitheater. We got lawn seat tickets. When on the lawn you are allowed to bring your own food and drinks..which we did. We had pizza and beer and a really good time!

Gift, the other girl in the picture bought us all mustache glasses to wear. People could not stop staring!

Also in the picture are (from the left) Rodie (Gift's boyfriend), Gift (the other girl), Brian (whom you should already know), Me and Gavin (the Iron Man. Very recently he did an Iron Man race in Lake Placid. Did very well.) Gift and Gavin are friends of Brian's from the Marine Corps. They have adopted me into their circle of friends!

The craziness that ensued...

My New Job

So now that I have spent 2 WHOLE days at work I can tell you a little more about what it is that I do.

Our company produces 3D printers for "at home" use. I think most orders are for companies that make prototypes of products and we get a lot of orders from GE as well...who knows what they do with them.

Anyway, my job is to fill these orders. We get orders through Amazon, Staples, our website and our marketers. Each channel has it's own system to process orders through and each has a different priority. So I must find all the orders and then go find the products to send. Most of the time production is behind the demand so I have to poke people to do what I want and when I want it. I also need to continually update the inventory so that we don't run out of something during production. Then I go back to each channel (that the orders came through) and confirm the tracking numbers. I then take all of our copies of the orders and file them away.

Sometimes I help build and organize the stock as well..can't get bored you know?

SO, I wasn't really aware of how much work I would be doing and how important my role is. If we want to ship I have to push the right people the right way to get it done.

Anyway, I get an office. It's super nice. I don't think I've ever had an office before so I am STOKED!

Look!

The first is from the doorway and the other is from the corner.

So far, so good!

Living in DC

If you haven't already heard, Brian (the boyfriend) was stationed to Quantico, which is a short hour to 2 hour drive from Washington DC.

He brought me with him.

In order to update everyone without crowding your facebook feeds with crap, I'm restarting the blog.

Here's what's happened in the last week or 2...

Monday July 15th

The movers came to pack all of our stuff into boxes.

Tuesday July 16th

The movers came and packed all of our stuff into a truck. We won't see it again until July 24th.

We head our in our cars to the east.

It is roughly a 13 hour trip that we plan to make in 2 days.

Once to tired to drive any longer we pullover for the night.

Our digs

Wednesday July 17th

We are to finish the last bit of our trip, but first breakfast.

We travel for hours.

Of course we have the dogs.

A 13 hour trip took us at least 15 hours, but it felt like way more.

Thursday July 18th

It is house hunting day!!!

We are less excited when we try to find a two bedroom place that allows dogs and isn't far from all the action. Ideally we were looking to live in Old Town Alexandria. A beautiful area 6 or so miles Southish from DC. (It's shaded in purple)

Where we are actually living


View Larger Map

It's about a mile from where we originally intended to be.

It's great because (unlike the others) it was ready immediately, allowed both of the dogs, didn't charge for dogs, most of the utilities are covered, lots of green space and its spacious for us.

Time for dinner.

We filled out the application that night!

Friday July 19th

While waiting (and hoping) to hear from the leasing company I decided to start job hunting. I have decided that I will try temping for a while. We are only due to be here 12 months at the most so I'm worried about getting into a job and basically having to leave it.

Before I moved I got a lot of information about different staffing companies in the area. I started to apply online and look for jobs. With in hours of finishing applications I started to get calls.

No interviews scheduled but I have a bunch of assessments to take over the weekend.

NO news from the leasing agency, looks like we will be in the hotel over the weekend. Not the worst situation in the world but if we leave we have to take the dogs. It is hot as hell and we basically have the option to be outside or stay in the hotel.

Saturday July 20th

Finally we can meet up with many of the people that we know in the area.

It was nice to relax and hang with friends.

Sunday July 21

After eating brunch with some friends we decided that the dogs must be as bored as us with being in the hotel room. Our friend told us of a dog park so we took them there.

It had a great place for the dogs to swim!!! They were not so excited.

It was good times.

Monday July 22nd

I start the day getting more calls from recruiters. I also set up an interview for Tuesday the 23rd. Not that it isn't enjoyable but I'm hoping to hear from our property manager that we can move in today...no such luck. Not until Wednesday. Boo. I call the warehouse to confirm delivery of our stuff and our new address and he replied that they wouldn't be able to deliver until Monday the 29th. Not going to work. I'm hoping to start work on Monday and Brian must start on Monday.

I throw a fit.

Tuesday July 23rd

We get in the apartment today and the movers delivered instead of dropping off at the warehouse. This has solved the problem of us having everything we both need and caused the problem of too much stuff and not enough room to paint.

But we push on.

After my interview with a recruiter I head over to the new place. The movers made it before I did. Soon it looked like this

And I really needed to be doing this

It sounds easy enough but the previous tenants left some/most of their furniture, which was to be picked up before we moved in, but because I threw a fit there wasn't time...So us moving our things around their things proved to be time consuming and aggravating. Little by little we finished.

Painting and unpacking

Wednesday July 24

Painting and unpacking

Thursday July 25

Interview
Painting and unpacking
Some of the other's furniture gets picked up.

Friday July 26

Painting and unpacking

I got offered a job!

Saturday July 27

We are mostly done.
The rest of the furniture is gone!
We have to finish, friends are coming over and we are going out in Georgetown!!!

Sunday July 28

We are done and throwing a "moved-in" brunch party.

Our Complex

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Master with the mural that Brian painted for me...

Office/Music room/Gear room

Brian's favorite room

Monday July 29

We start work.
I will be working for 3d Systems. This is a company that produces 3d printers for in home use. I'm not 100% on what I will be doing. I know I will be filling orders, prioritizing production and checking in with customers. I'll let you know more as time goes on.
Now no more posts until awesome stuff happens on the weekends!