Ahhhhhhh

From A:

Our recliner sofa was delivered yesterday!

I'm pleased to report that it reclines very comfortably:

In work news, J had a good first day.  He had the difficult tasks of ordering himself a computer and picking out his office supplies.  He also learned not to eat the bananas in the cafeteria because they peel and taste like plantains.

First Day

From A:

Today is J's first day of work!  Here he is looking all handsome and work-like:

Resident Tourists

From A:

Now that we've had our vehicle safety inspection, emissions test, and have mounted two Virginia license plates on each car, we consider ourselves official residents.  So yesterday we took our first trip into DC as residents.  It's a strange feeling to emerge from the Metro station and have the Washington Monument right in front of you:

Since the Smithsonian National Museum of American History was closed when we visited DC back in 2007, we spent some time checking out the exhibits.  And they didn't disappoint!  Here are two of my highlights (J's highlights differ, I'm sure):

Julia Child's Kitchen:

Kermit the Frog and characters from Sam and Friends:

After the museum, we stopped by the White House on our way to meet one of J's friends for dinner:

Not surprisingly, there were several protests going on.  The protest topics of the day were:

1. Zero Tolerance for Torture
2. Stopping Wars
3. Not all Iranians are Terrorists

Dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill was delicious!

It has quite a history, including:

"The F Street location was just two doors away from the Rhodes Tavern, which occupied the northeast corner of F and 15th Streets. Having a considerable history of its own, its bar was reportedly the site where British generals toasted one another as they watched The White House burn during the War of 1812."

Condo Updates

From A:

The moving company brought all of our stuff a week ago, so we've been hard at work getting boxes unpacked, furniture arranged, and everything put away.  We've made a lot of progress so far!

When we arrived, we were very pleasantly surprised by the new kitchen counter tops that had been installed, as well as a new sink and faucet:

We picked out a new mattress and box springs that was delivered earlier this week.  As you can see, we're trying to embrace the red wall color in the bedroom so we hopefully won't need to paint.  We've found that as long as the lighting isn't too bright, the red isn't all that obnoxious:

Another thing that will help tone down the red bedroom is the new bedroom furniture we've ordered!  I'm talking real, actual bedroom furniture here - the kind that's hardwood, custom ordered, and made in the USA.  More details to come when our furniture arrives in about 6 weeks!

In other furniture news, we've ordered a sleeper sofa (take note, people who would like to come visit us!).  We were able to pick out which sofa and accent pillow fabrics we wanted - from hundreds of choices.  Here's what we picked.  A chocolate brown sofa with accent pillows like the one shown below:

In a completely unrelated side note, Happy Birthday to J's brother Daniel!  Have a great day and enjoy your birthday gift - Amazon promised us it would be delivered today.

Anniversary Photos

From A:

Although we spent our 2nd anniversary packing and moving, we were able to take some time the previous week to have photos taken.

For those of you who attended our wedding, you will recognize the photo shoot location as the chapel and church grounds where we were married.

Here are a few of our favorites.

Virginia

From A:

We're here!  We made it to Virginia and so did our stuff...

... some things in better condition than other things.  Poor Albert.

As you can see, we really had to rough it on the train ride up here.

More updates about our new place to come!

Moving

From A:

Ways to tell you're in the process of moving...

1. There are boxes EVERYWHERE.

2. Your husband spent the afternoon building a television crate.

3. There are notes taped to random items throughout your residence.

4. You only have a few random things left in your pantry, including Shake 'n Bake, peanut butter, Nutella, and Chipotle Tobascso.

Dr. J

From A:

I am very excited to announce that J passed his dissertation defense and is now Dr. J!

Here he is right after his defense:

 

I'm a very proud wife!