Rachel's Post

Hi! I'm doing a guest post this morning to tell you about my life in the condo. Let me show you around! I don't have any good pictures of it, but before we got to our new condo, we stayed at a few nights at the Holiday Inn! There are lots of interesting things to smell in a hotel! Plus, I got to try out elevators. I ride those around here, too, sometimes. I don't know what Mom was so worried about -- they're no big deal.

Here's our family room taken earlier this summer. I'm watching Animal Planet on TV in this picture as Mom and Dad finish the unpacking. We have lots of windows in our condo and a sliding glass door that leads to a balcony (or as I like to call it -- the Observation Deck).

I can see both of my yards from the Observation Deck. The one that I am facing is the smaller front yard. Most of the little dogs use that one. But, I like to go out into the side yard, which is bigger and borders a creek. I can't see the creek since they don't mow down the brush that far, but I did see some deer this fall! I chased them out of my yard.

Here it is! This is part of the big yard taken from the Observation Deck this morning. Can you tell how big it is?! You may notice the Metrorail tracks heading into downtown. I haven't had a chance to try that, but a few times I've been outside with Dad and Mom has seen me when she's riding home from work. Otherwise, I don't really notice the train much.

This is my second favorite room in the condo. Mom is a messy cook, so I "find" things sometimes. You may be able to see my treat jar to the left of the stove. I race to that spot as soon as I come back inside from doing my business, because I get a biscuit! My blue food bowls are under the window, but it's always the same old thing. . .

This is my favorite room! I sleep on the bed whenever I get a chance. I like to sleep under the bed, too, but the carpet isn't as plush as the down comforter and pillows. This picture gives me an idea! I'd better wrap this up; it's just about nap time!

Condo Surprise #2

We don’t have much currently going on to blog about, so yesterday and today I have posted some weird stories of things that happened over the summer. I’m sure many of you have already heard this story, but it really stands out in my memory!

I’ve already explained how our building looks like a hotel and is painted Johnson County beige. Well, that really came back to bite me in July. One thing I should explain is that our building was just starting to be completed when we moved into our unit. They were working on the top floors all summer. People have continued to move in regularly throughout the year, but I think the building is still half empty. Because of this, we rarely saw (and still rarely do see) other residents in the hallways or elevators.

One day right before my birthday, Jason was traveling and I was in charge of letting Rachel out. I rushed home from work after a really long day and was very nervous that I had been gone too long. I dashed inside, snapped on her leash and hurried us out the door – pausing only long enough to lock our deadbolt (you know, just in case). Well, of course, everything was fine with Rachel and we had a nice little trip to the yard and then swung by the mail room to check for birthday cards. And I had one! (From my parents – yeah, there might be a check inside!)

Usually we would take the stairs back up, just as we had taken them down, but my feet were tired and whatever – we took the elevator. When the elevator stopped, I was still admiring my birthday envelope and didn’t notice (until I heard a woman gasp) that there were people waiting to get on the elevator (remember, we would never see anyone). Well, I’m very sensitive about my pup offending others, so I quickly hustled us out and around the corner to our door. (I might mention, the gasping woman quickly volunteered that she wasn’t bothered by the dog – she was also surprised to see anyone.)

But it got worse. Not only did we have the couple at the elevator, but as we approached our door, a woman and a toddler came out on their way to the trash chute (it’s fun for kids, too, I’m sure). Well, Rachel LOVES toddlers because their faces are at tongue level. I had met our neighbors before (a young couple – recent Florida State grads) and was confused as to why they were having their guests take out the trash, but hey, the trash chute is a fun game. So, I corralled Rachel and tried to rush us into our condo. But the key wouldn’t turn. That’s when I remembered how I jammed it when I was rushing to lock up when we left! What a pain. So, by now the lady and kid are back from the trash chute and being very nice about how frustrating that is and maybe the desk attendant can use their key and it will work easier, etc. And, of course, I can barely control Rachel from licking this kid like a Popsicle.

To relieve a bit of my load as I try to balance the dog and the mail and the locked condo, I shove my beloved birthday card (and the junk mail) under the door and get ready to head back downstairs to discuss the situation with the front desk person. As I head back to the elevator and attempt to collect myself (oh, and I failed to mention, since I was in a big hurry to get Rachel outside, I didn’t take my own bathroom break after my commute home – I’m dying at this point!), I notice that the elevator signage has a 3 on it. We don’t live on the 3rd floor.

I had never considered that when the elevator stopped it was because that couple called it to the 3rd floor rather than us having arrived on our floor. And it all looked the same as we rounded the corner and headed down the hall. Yes, of course, the units have numbers on them, but I wasn’t looking at the door – I was focusing on unlocking the deadbolt and avoiding the potential for a toddler Popsicle.

Well, the good part was now I could run Rachel upstairs to drop her off (and take a quick break myself). But, then I had to go get the person at the front desk to unlock the unit that was now in possession of my mail. After much knocking and then conversation with the nice neighbor lady again, we determined the unit was empty and the guy used the master key to open the place. The unit was empty – but otherwise looked exactly like my place! I grabbed my mail off the floor and snuck away – never to return to the 3rd floor.

Condo Surprise #1

One of the best parts of living in the condo was evident when we first moved in – there’s a trash chute and a loading dock. Even though we only moved half of our possessions from Kansas, we still had dozens of cardboard boxes and enough packing paper to make a small mountain. Luckily, we could break down the boxes easily enough and take them down the elevator (another bonus – no stairs!) to the loading dock. And there were giant construction bins to collect all of the paper. I’m actually not sure what people do with all that mess when they have to wait a week for trash day. (I guess that’s why houses have garages.)

After we unpacked and put everything in its place, we realized some things weren’t going to have a place in our new home. We went from three bedrooms to two, so we lost a closet. The obvious place to start was Jason’s t-shirt collection, as he was still holding on to too many worn out t-shirts from K-State date parties and philanthropies of the 1996-1998 vintage (before we wised up and realized we didn’t need to buy a commemorative t-shirt for every weekend of college). I turned mine all into a t-shirt quilt one winter, so we’ve still got some nostalgic element left. In addition to the fratter t-shirts, we also tossed old shirts from company meetings and Corporate Challenge. I had so much fun dropping stacks of shirts down the trash chute! (Side note: in our former life we had turned many of said t-shirts into “rags” to be collected and held in the “rag box” in the garage to be used for clean-up during various home improvement projects. We have no such box and no such projects now, so down the chute!)

Ok, this story has gone on for way too long. The punch line is that the next week on my way to the train, I passed a man walking to our building wearing a t-shirt identical to one I had just tossed down the chute. I recognized the wearer as the man who runs the freight elevator and dock, so I’m pretty sure it was not a coincidence that he had also attended the 2006 Belimo Summer Sales Meeting.

Spam and Sushi

Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?! We feasted this weekend for sure!

We were treated to Monty Python’s SPAMALOT at the National Theatre on Friday evening thanks to tickets from Jason’s parents for our Christmas gift. Our favorite scene by-far was the French Taunters. If you haven’t seen it/them, I really can’t do it justice with any explanation. If you have seen it/them, you’re laughing along with me! This show was even better than I was expecting.



Saturday we had the fancy, get dressed up office holiday party at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center. The food was an international feast. I tried everything but mostly was waiting for the dessert bar to come out. Jason enjoyed several rounds of sushi. Not my favorite, so we don’t go out for that much (actually, I can’t think of ever). We didn’t make it out onto the dance floor, but the live band was impressive, as was the building.

House Meets Hotel

We had quaint visions of living in an historic row home with a little back patio for grilling and playing with the dog. Instead, our grill is in storage and we live in a high rise condominium.

We were greatly disappointed when we arrived for our house hunting trip and saw the horrible condition of the properties on the rental market. And we discovered there weren't any beautiful old row homes in nice neighborhoods being offered for rental. Our rental agent showed us 20 or 30 places that were either too rundown to consider or too far away to commute. (We don't even know how many. We've tried to block out working with her -- she was a wreck!)


Getting a bit desperate, we searched on Craigslist in the evenings after she would leave us. And that's how we ended up here - in a building that looks like a hotel decked out in "Johnson County beige." Our place has two important features: it's new (so it's modern - and clean!) and it's commute convenient (immediately across the street from the Metrorail station -- no waiting at bus stops or long walks home in the dark). There is a big yard for the dog to use (on leash only) and management installed several of those green pet-poo trash cans/ bag stations over the summer, which is very convenient since you MUST pick up after your dog.


There are some real advantages to condo life:

• On-site fitness room, summer swimming pool, someone at the front desk to collect your packages and let you in if you forget your keys


• Utilities are low - in fact, we haven't really run our heater yet, because our unit retains the heat from the sun/building heat. This is not a good situation in the summer.


• No yard or driveway to mow, rake, or shovel

And some disadvantages:

• The walls/ceilings/floors are thin, so we get noise from neighbors sometimes. I can tune out the train but not my neighbors.



• We have to go with the dog when she needs out. It's tough to get bundled up and rushed out into the cold - especially if it's dark out.



• No garage/attic/basement to store all that stuff that you don't know what else to do with. For this reason, we only brought half of our "stuff" when we moved - the rest is in storage in Lenexa.
  

But, when it takes less than an hour to do all of our weekend chores around the house, it leaves plenty of free time to be tourists!

Illicit Christmas Photos

No, no, these aren't going to be pictures from the company Christmas party (that's not until Saturday. . . .) These are photos of the Christmas decorations in the main lobby of my office building. I was so impressed when I came back after Thanksgiving and saw them! So, of course, I wanted to share them with everyone. I brought my camera to work yesterday to take pictures for this very purpose. I got a nice one walking into the building upon my arrival:

And then after a long, hard day of taxes, I was looking forward to the splendor of the Christmas tree before I dashed off to catch the train. As I was exiting the elevator, I snapped this photo, a Nutcracker perched in a second floor alcove:

And that's when the cops tackled me to the cold granite floor and wrestled away my camera! Actually, it was just two security ladies who hollered "No pictures!" from behind a desk. I knew they meant me, because there were only the 3 of us in the lobby and I had just lit up the place with a tremendous flash (although, the flash didn't seem to work that well considering how dark this picture looks). Well, I calmy approached their desk and politely explained my predicament: how can I share the joy of Christmas without photographic proof?! They said they didn't know why "They" (presumably the owners of the building, but I don't know who that is -- we only occupy 2 or 3 floors and a law firm has most of the rest) didn't allow it and they didn't know why, but "They" were explicit that no pictures of the building were to be taken. I explained I didn't want pictures of the boring building -- I wanted Christmas! They said "They" don't mind if pictures are taken of the decorations (well, actually they said tree, so this Nutcracker probably isn't allowed), so I snapped a quick one of the tree and got out of there as fast as I could.

The joy of Christmas was temporarily zapped out of me. I wanted to stop and get a comforting hug from this Polar Bear (and it looks like he wants to give me one, too), but I just saw the "baby polar bears attack" special on National Geographic over the weekend so I just tucked my camera back into my bag and went home.

I think the night crew might already have checked in today, or maybe those ladies last night left my picture behind the desk. I didn't really slow down to look, but I felt like they (or maybe "They") were staring at me from behind the security desk when I left the building to pick up my lunch. . . .

Super Tourists

We bought Fodor's "Washington, D.C. 2007" when we decided to move out here, and we (well, mostly me, but Jason's being a great sport) are trying very hard to get every "must see" checked off in the next two years. First stop was the National Zoo, which is actually part of the Smithsonian Institute. And, like all of the Smithsonians (and the vast majority of sites in the area), admission is FREE! This is mama panda, Mei Xiang, who delivered the prize of the zoo, Tai Shan in July 2005. When we were there in June, they thought she might be pregnant again. But, they discovered in July that it was a false pregnancy. Regardless, she was taking it easy on the hot morning that we visited by napping in her inside enclosure. The other two pandas were outside eating bamboo.

So far we have been to the following Washington area tourist attractions:

• National Gallery of Art, West Building (the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci on display in the Western Hemisphere, Ginevra de' Benci, has a front and back and is showed in a columnar display case.)


• Library of Congress (I did not know this was started from Thomas Jefferson's personal collection - although that was mostly lost in a fire. The Gutenberg Bible is one of the most famous pieces currently in the Library.)


• Corcorcan Gallery of Art (I was there to see the last day of the Modernism display. I don't know how much of the regular exhibit was out.)


• Holocaust Museum


• Lincoln Memorial



• Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Vietnam Women's Memorial


• The White House (we went on an interior visit the day before Thanksgiving and had the aforementioned Garden Tour in October)



• Ford's Theatre and Peterson House aka The House Where Lincoln Died (These are a block from my office. I am amazed everytime I walk by them - mostly that they're now next door to The Hard Rock Cafe.)


• International Spy Museum (This one is not free, but worth the price of admission. The pile of poo hidden camera was a favorite! So was learning there are 25,000 spies in the metro area.)


• National Archives (I walk past this almost every day to/from the train. In addition to the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, we saw one of the few copies of the Magna Carta. I just read that it's no longer on display, but it is up for auction if you have $30 million and are interested.)
  



• National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum


• C&O Canal/Great Falls (sort of a mini Niagra Falls: we watched from the Maryland side, which is "Canada," while the Virginia side is like "New York," for those of you familiar with the real thing.)


• Washington National Cathedral (we went on a guided "Gargoyle Tour" which was tons of fun.)


• National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse (there is also a giant Menorah and a fire pit with "Yule Logs")

Celebrating in the Nation's Capital

We normally spend the 4th of July with our friends Keith & Desiree enjoying the Shawnee Mission Park fireworks from our regular lookout off 87th Street. It was sad to miss that this year, but we did have a great substitute: watching the D.C. show from the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac. The fireworks are launched near the base of the Washington Monument. The D.C. summer is sticky hot (more on that later) but the breeze off the river kept things cool while we watched the show. We could see other displays off in the distance as we waited for this one to start. We saw dozens of boats and kayaks in the river and helicopters in the air. Most of the kayakers were wearing what looked like glow stick leis around their necks so people wouldn't run into them in the dark. The best part: no parking or traffic problems! I love the metro!

Celebrity Sightings

This is my most prized photo of our time in Washington. It was taken in October during the White House Garden Tour. In addition to being a lovely picture of The Rose Garden, you can hopefully see the volleyball sitting on the grass where W's dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, had left it. Jason's parents were visiting this weekend and we were in the right place at the right time to get tickets. We were about 30 seconds too late to see them outside. Secret Service told us they had just gone back inside. We think we caught a glimpse of them through the door to the West Wing. . . .

First Post

I've been enjoying reading blogs by Heidi, Courtney and Jami, so I thought I'd post our adventures for those of you who want a little eye on our lives in D.C. Hopefully this will help me be more diligent in my picture taking around the city.

I'll have to do a little back blogging to (quickly) catch up on the last 6 months! Stay tuned.