Around Town

Best billboard I've seen in a while!

Well Said

"To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude."

- Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States

Jonas Brothers Via Cell Phone

Anyone who has a 'tween girl at home knows who Nick, Joe and Kevin are. Yep, they are the Jonas Brothers. And whether they are singing Paranoid or Love Bug or Pizza Girl, or their weekly Disney Channel show is on, Madalyn transforms into a screaming being with no awareness that anything else is happening in the universe at that time. They are a phenomenon, to say the least. For example, at the National Museum of American History there is a photojournalism exhibit chronicling the Inauguration 2009 activities. If you'll remember, the Obama girls were treated to a concert by the Jonas Brothers at the end of a scavenger hunt as part of the festivities of the day. So, they are featured on one wall of the museum as part of the exhibit. When you've made it into a Smithsonian museum, you must be doing something right.

The fellas started their summer tour not too long ago, and Madalyn's cousin, Brittany, got tickets for her birthday for their show in the Seattle area. Madalyn had accepted that she wasn't going to get to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in Birmingham (for a variety of reasons, even though she tried hard to convince us otherwise). So, you can imagine her excitement when Brittany called her from the concert with updates on who was on stage at the time and how much longer it was until the Jonas Brothers performed. Madalyn was jumping around and singing along with them, and even though she wasn't there in person, she thoroughly enjoyed it and said it was the next best thing to being there. How nice to know she's able to appreciate the small, unexpected delights of life!

DC - Day 5

Today was the last day of our vacation. We wrapped up the trip to DC by visiting the National Museum of Natural History. We saw the Hope Diamond, the kids held a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and we all participated in Forensics Friday -- we talked to real forensic scientists and tried to solve a crime based on actual evidence and we learned Madalyn has the rarest type of fingerprint. Always knew she was special!

Madalyn finished up her Junior Botanist program at the US Botanical Gardens. She has to do an activity at home and then she gets her certification and gets to help with future studies in our area. She had lots of fun with this, especially since this goes hand in hand with what she learned in Garden Club this past year in school.

We got schooled in proper Metro etiquette by some locals who weren't too happy that we stood still on the escalator and were in their way of walking up the escalator. Did they miss the steps right next to the escalator? Had I though more quickly, I would have responded to their 'stupid tourists' comment with a reminder that this stupid tourist was contributing to the economy in their backyard, and perhaps they should be grateful and not resentful.

We ate a great meal at Tortilla Coast, a small Tex-Mex restaurant located behind the House office buildings that is a favorite of locals and Congressional staffers. A group of what appeared to be Nationals players came in, and Madalyn had on her Nationals ball cap, so I tried to formulate a plan on how to get an autograph. Problem is, I have no clue who any of them are and I would have felt really stupid if they'd turned out not to be players. They were wearing athletic shorts and tshirts like the players wore to warm up before batting practice last night at the game. At least, I think it was the same outfit. Guess it was a good thing I didn't interrupt their lunch...

We took one final walk down the mall, looked one last time at the Washington Monument and the Capitol, and rode one last time on the Metro as the vacation drew to a close.

The kids (and some strange boy that just walked up to be in their photo)

inside a shark's jaw

Cody holding the Madagascar hissing cockroach (Madalyn wanted me to note she held it, too, but that I had to use the picture of her holding the caterpillar -- see below -- because Cody didn't hold the caterpillar)

Madalyn holding a caterpillar (if I understood the docent correctly, it will become the kind of moth seen in the movie Silence of the Lambs)

DC - Day 4

We had an early morning tour at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where we got to see currency being produced. No samples today, though. We also went to the National Museum of American History. The Road to Freedom exhibit is spectacular. The First Ladies' Exhibit was neat, too. We skipped right over the Inauguration 2009 section...not interested.

We ended the day at the baseball stadium to watch the Nationals pull out a win over the Red Sox. I have never seen a more devoted bunch of fans than those Sox fans. There were as many of them at the game as there were Nats fans. The food was great, the stadium was gorgeous, and we had a great time. Kevin sprung for a cab ride back to the hotel -- we didn't have to fight the crowd on the Metro. Madalyn wasn't thrilled because she loves the public transportation system. Go figure.

Anyway, here's a few pics of the fun:

Cody & Madalyn find out they're not only worth their weight in gold, they're also pretty valuable in terms of their height, too.

A costumed docent at the National Museum of American History told a story about how the first flag was made.

A beautiful night for baseball at the Nationals stadium.

DC - Day 3

Didn't have much hope for the day when we awoke to find a bill under the door with instructions on how use the video checkout feature on the tv. The only problem was, we aren't checking out until Friday. But, we got it straightened out and moved forward with what ended up being Food Network Day for the most part.

We started out in the Georgetown area to visit the National Cathedral. The architecture is stunning. The outside is lined with gargoyles that help direct rainfall off the building. We wanted to take a ride on the C&O Canal in a mule-drawn boat, but there is very little in the way parking and so we chose to forego that activity and drive north to Baltimore instead. We intended to pass by the Naval Observatory on our way out to see the Vice President's house, but we decided to head in a different direction and got to see where the Obama girls go to school.

In Balitmore, we saw Camden Yards (home of the Baltimore Orioles), M&T Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens) and walked around the Inner Harbor. Next, and this is the most exciting part for us, we went to Charm City Cakes and saw Duff's scooter chained to the bike rack outside. You can only get inside by appointment, but Madalyn and I were so excited to know the Duff and Geof and Mary Alice were behind that black plastic watching us snap our photos!

For those of you concerned that he might not, Kevin got his wish and we stopped by Mother's Federal Hill Grille and he ordered the Heart Attack on a Plate. I must say, that deep-fried, cheese stuffed hamburger was quite tasty. The bartender was so impressed that we made a special trip for the burger.

To end our Food Network lovefest, we had cupcakes for dessert from CakeLove (owned by Warren Brown of FN's SugarRush). The kids had Cookies & Cream. Kevin had the new Red Velvet flavor, and I had a chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing. The only bad thing about the experience was the Barack Obama cut-out standing up in the corner.

Madalyn got her wish to swim, we watched the water show in the atrium again, and we are going to rest up for another busy day tomorrow.

DC - Day 2

We went from a cab ride at the speed of light to a stand still Metro trip today. And lots of fun in between.

Thanks to the excellent staffers in Congressman Bright's office, we had a staff led tour of the Capitol (we didn't have to wait in the long line with all the other tourists) and House chamber, where we listened to some Representatives argue about healthcare. We got to see the newly opened Capitol Visitors Center -- very impressive!

On our visit to the United States Botanical Garden, Madalyn participated in the Junior Botanist Program. She had to go through the exhibits and answer questions and do mini experiments. She enjoyed this, even though we didn't get to finish the entire thing. We hope to make it back before we leave.

We also visited the National Air and Space Museum. It was neat to rub a rock from the moon and see the Wright Brothers display. There was also a treasure hunt to find the items featured in the movie Night at the Museum II.

Madalyn studied Leonardo Da Vinci in school last year and learned that there was only one of his paintings in the United States and it was housed at the National Gallery of Art. So, we trekked through the galleries to find it and also did a scavenger hunt designed for kids. Madalyn and I really had fun doing that and she got to learn alot about the artists and their works. We looked really studious sitting on the low sofas studying why all the painting by Dutch artists had clouds in them...hmmm. She was surprised to see all the nude sculptures sitting everywhere.

As for the the Gaylord (our hotel), while impressive in appearance, seriously lacks much other appeal. Our room was not completely clean at check-in, the turn down service attendant came to our room at 10PM the first night we were here, there is nothing around this new development, and housekeeping cleaned our room even though there was a do not disturb sign on our door (we had all our electronic stuff sitting out). I guess the one redeeming quality is the nightly water/light/music show in the atrium fountain.

DC - Day 1

For those of you interested, we will be updating the blog this week with the daily happenings of our vacation to Washington, DC. It's one of the places we wanted to experience as a family and we're off to a good start.

With the five page itinerary in hand, we set off. Travel day (yesterday) was pretty uneventful once we got on the road after coming back to the house twice (I couldn't remember if I cut the oven off and Madalyn forgot her purse). We stopped for a picnic breakfast for Father's Day. Side note: my plans were also to stop in the large cities to get their Sunday papers for the coupons. Before you ask, yes, different newspapers have different coupons. But, we were too early for Atlanta's paper. Forgot about Charlotte, got the one in Richmond, and forgot about the Washington Post). Oh well...

Our plans for today included Arlington National Cemetery and the following must-sees: Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, WWII Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Washington Monument, Constitution Gardens and Union Station. Yes, we were busy, but it was a good day. We won't mention the fact that I almost drove onto the Pentagon compound when I really shouldn't have been there. Serious wrong turn! But, when you begin the day with your daughter crying because she is so excited to be her and end the day with her 'this was a great day, Mom' statement, it doesn't get much better.

On a sad note, we will always remember being here when the Metro trains crashed into one another as they did today, thankful that we weren't aboard at the time, but mournful for the families of those that lost loved ones today.

Equally as sad was the funeral of a young soldier that was going on while we were at Arlington. We were right along the route as the horse drawn carriage pulled the casket to the gravesite. We thought it would be interesting to see what happened at a military funeral in Arlington, but even nosy me recognized that it was a private moment for the family.

Enjoy this brief glimpse of our fun...

Anchor from the USS Maine

Home of Robert E Lee @ Arlington Cemetery

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Korean War Memorial

View from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Getting a grip on the Washington Monument

The Alabama pillar at the WWII Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Celebrating Dads

Certainly you knew that June was the month Linus debuted his blanket in the Peanuts comic strip in 1954. Or that National Doughnut Day is always the first Friday of June and June 11 is King Kamehameha Day in Hawaii. Perhaps need reminding that Flag Day is June 14 and National Ice Cream Soda Day is June 20. Who could forget to celebrate National Fruit and Vegetable Month and National Dairy Month in June? Did you know the first Sunday in June is National Cancer Survivors Day followed by National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day on June 2?

In your celebratory state of mind, wish your dad a Happy Father's Day today!

A Must Read

The Letter...amen, sister, amen!

Big Brother Is Watching

Listen, I'm no conspiracy theorist (although I'll go to my grave thinking Hilary Clinton had something to do with JFK Jr's death), but what's up with this incessant need to know everything about me? Target scans the barcode on the back of my driver's license when I write a check, collecting all my info, not just license number and date of birth. The new US passports have a computer chip embedded in the cover for 'quicker processing' they claim, but in reality it gives a full account of where to and when you travel. Now President Obama wants centralized, computerized health records. What's next, toilet seats with infrared technologies to recognize whose crap is left in the bowl so they can track you down if you require more than one flush, thereby raising the water usage level for the day and contributing to global warming? Geez, get a life, big bro.

David Letterman Should Be a Better Man

Don Imus was fired for calling a bunch of girls a name...boycotted, ridiculed, fired. But David Letterman gets to call Palin a slut and her daughter a loosey goosey and gets an 'atta boy.' Honestly, how much further can we spiral downward? I'm sure his mother is so proud of him...

Can I Help You, Sir?

We used to get the local paper delivered to our house everyday, all for $52 for the year (we got a good deal). The next year it went up to $78 per year, so we renewed even though they hadn't added twenty-four dallars worth of content. Last year, the bill came in and we were astonished to see the renewal rate of $228. No way! I cancelled the subscription the next day.

That means to get the coupons (one of the main reasons we got the paper to begin with) now, we have to go buy a paper every Sunday. Well, mostly it's Kevin who goes to Publix to buy the Montgomery Advertiser and the Birmingham News for me.

For the past couple of weeks, though, he's been attracting some unwanted attention as he thumbs through the papers to make sure there are coupons inside. Last week the assistant manager came over to bag groceries in the line where he was looking through papers, all the while eyeballing him suspiciously. Today, the assistant manager actually came up and asked him if she could help him find something. So he had to make some crack about the nagging he'd be subject to if he came home without coupons in the paper.

He's certain he's made it onto the store's most watched list. I can just see it now...the front end manager sitting in that cramped little office watching the monitor for the 'newspaper guy'. Or, the cashiers pushing the panic button under their registers when they see him approach the newspaper stand. Oooo, he's so criminal looking.

He said I'd have to get my own paper next week. I guess since it'll be Father's Day I can cut him some slack and save him having to put on a disguise just to buy my papers.

Transform Her, Please!

Megan Fox might be beautiful but the Transformers star is stupid! Read her statement in an interview she did recently when asked if she could convince Megatron not to take out the world, how she would do it:

“I think I would make a deal with him and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super-bible beating people in Middle America?”

Well, as my kids like to remind me that I've reminded them, you can't call someone stupid just because they disagree with you. So, let's say the people I am calling stupid are those in this country, or world for that matter, who refuse to see that if I, or any other born again Christian, were famous and made a comment like that, I'd be crucified and labeled as bigoted, narrow-minded and intolerant. I'm not asking them to agree with my values and ideology, I am simply asking for them to open their eyes and see that what they are doing is exactly what they are asking us not to do. Wishful thinking, huh?

Have Appetite, Will Travel

Our summer vacation is just around the corner (it's a trip according to my children, because on a vacation you get to just chill out and do nothing, but on a trip you go from can to can't). I've made most all the arrangements (yes, there is a printed itinerary) so I was quite surprised when Kevin said he had a few stops to add.

"Awww, in his newly discovered love of the internet he's found an educational stop I somehow managed to overlook and wants to be sure the kids don't miss it," I thought to myself. "How sweet."

The Food Network magazine, with a mouthwatering burger on the front, he was holding should have been a dead giveaway. The current issue highlights the best burger in each state and I kid you not, he'd calculated our route and checked to see if we'd be near any of the restaurants on our way to DC. He hopes to eat the Down Low Cheeseburger at Holeman & Finch Public House (Atlanta, GA); the Redneck Cheeseburger at Nu-Way Lounge and Restaurant (Spartanburg, SC); the Raleigh Times Burger at the Raleigh Times Bar (Raleigh, NC); Ray's Hellburger's Cheeseburger (Arlington, VA); and the Heart Attack on a Plate at Mother's Federal Hill Grille (Baltimore, MD).

All that beef made my itinerary flow onto page 5...

And the Winner Is...

Not me, not yet anyway. But definitely not from lack of trying.

So, some of you may not know that I love to enter sweepstakes. I'll enter my name for pretty much anything. Right now, I'm trying to win sunflowers for a year, a $5,000 garden makeover, a trip to Albuquerque for a hot air balloon festival, new bathroom fixtures, a Cirque du Soliel package that included tickets to all seven shows playing in Las Vegas and airfare/hotel/spending money, $10,000 for me and $1,000 each for ten of my closets friends (don't start calling me out of the blue...I haven't won yet), any one of 40 trips to Virginia in honor of their 40th something or other, a kitchen technology center, a Broadway Lion King package, and the list goes on.

Most of the time my husband and kids just laugh at me (I must admit creating an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of what sweeps I've entered could be a bit out there), but that stopped when they figured out companies are giving away stuff they'd like, too. Madalyn has me entering (daily) sweepstakes for Demi Lovato concert tickets, a trip to see the Jonas Brothers, a trip to to Disneyland for the royal treatment, and an autographed copy of the Jonas Brothers' new CD (that hasn't even been released yet). Kevin wants a $2,100 gas grill or the tent/sleeping bag giveaway, and Cody would like the me to win the GameStop gift card contest.

Gosh, I sure hope my diligence doesn't pay off all at once 'cause Uncle Sam will come a-knockin' for sure!

Mice & Chickens

There's a Town Mouse, Country Mouse thing going on in our family. You remember, the city mice thought life would be more interesting in the country and the country mice thought they'd like to live in the city. My kids love to visit the country (Elmore County for those of you wondering what they consider the country), although I'm not sure the country mice would want to trade their wide open spaces for our traffic laden roadways.

Nonetheless, Madalyn just loves playing with Sarah's baby chicks. She gets to hold them and enjoys how they'll eat from her hand. Have a look:

Hoarders Anonymous

Hi. My name is Christi and I'm a hoarder. And if you just can't believe that to be true of me, here's proof:

That is only about one-tenth of my collection of toiletries that make their way into my suitcase from hotel bathrooms when I travel. I suppose I should use them instead of buying travel size bottles at the store, but what fun would that be? Kevin suggests I donate some to our friend who has a beautiful cabin in the Smokies that leaves a basketful of these little guys for guests to use. Perhaps one day I'll get to that point, maybe after I complete the 12-step program and all.

On Our Front Porch

The flag of the month isn't quite a flag this month -- it's a windsock of sorts. A little sun for the summer -- as if we need the extra heat.

Only in the South

Say what you may about the South and the heritage of its people, but there are some things that only make sense to and can be appreciated by those of us born and raised here. Like finding a note on your front door from a passerby who stopped to pick a few hydrangeas from the bush in your yard, and leaves a phone number where you can call and tell them its okay to stop by to pick some more. Or getting a phone call from someone who wants to make a recipe you submitted to a local cookbook, but wants to be sure it will feed enough people, so tracks down your number from a friend of a friend of a friend and calls to chat about it.

Only in the south...and proud of it!

SPF 0

Never thought I'd be the sunburned one out of the family since I spent the few hours we sat on the beach under an umbrella, thinking that I'd be protected from the sun. I am lobster red, and I even had the attendant change the position of my umbrella to follow the sun through the sky so I wouldn't get any sun at all (hmmm...then why go to the beach, you're asking...)!

Next time I'll use the new Neutrogena SPF 100+. I'd like to see the sun beat that!