I Feel the Need, The Need for Speed

My cousin Joel just got his pilots license! I haven't gone up with him yet, (see that Joel, I'm getting better, I used the word 'yet' in my sentence. I'm still trying to face my paralysing fears of flying in this tiny plane. Last weekend however when we were in DC, Steve and my cousin Karen eagerly went up with him. And lived to tell about it!

Third Decades A Charm

Well my long awaited, eagerly
anticipated, 30th birthday has come and gone. I have to admit that I wasn't dreading turning the big 3-0 like some women do. I think age is merely a state of mind. If you are happy & healthy then I believe the slowly climbing number doesn't effect you as much as it would another person. I have to admit, I'm pretty happy where my life is right now. Sure, there are still a ton of things I want to do and accomplish, however I don't view my life as 1/3 over, rather 2/3 left to go!

Ok, so back to the birthday weekend! Or should I call it the Dave Matthews, Amazing Race, Scavenger Hunt Extravaganza! Let me recap. Steve told me absolutely NOTHING about this weekend. No clues, no hints, no packing advice, NOTHING! In fact, he fed me so many lies about what we could be doing that I ended up packing a suitcase that would allow me to survive on a desert island eating only coconuts and talking to my new best friend, Wilson the volleyball for about two months. But I digress, I seriously had clothes for anything and everything that came our way. When we first got in the car there was an envelope with my name on it taped to the dash that I Steve said had allll the answers, but I couldn't open it until we got there!!

SIX hours later (I deserve an award for outstanding patience)

Here's Steve hiding the GPS from me so I can't see where we are headed.

We ended up in Hersey, PA where Steve said I could open the envelope. Dave Matthews Band tickets! Yea! For those who don't know, Dave Matthews is my all time favorite band. This concert was the 10th time I have seen him live, but the first time I have ever seen him in PA.

Here we are after the show. All sweaty and gross...but happy!

After the concert we crashed at our hotel only to wake up bright and early to hit the road again. The second half of our trip we drove to Rockville, MD. Right to the door step of our cousins' house. Steve convinced me it was just Sharyn, Joel and Jordan at the house, however when the door opened 10 smiling faces yelled out surprise!!! A bunch of my cousins made the drive from New York and PA to be with me for my birthday. We quickly sat down to some off the hootspa Jewish Soul Food!

Once we finished eating Sharyn broke us up into 2 teams. She gave both teams an envelope that had $40 cash in it, a map of DC and a huge scavenger hunt.

We had 3 hours to complete a huge list of items that took us from the Lincoln Memorial, to the Spy Museum, to the Veteran's Wall, Ben's Chili Bowl and so many other places. We had to document everything we did with either a picture or video. The scavenger hunt would end when we got to the POV restaurant and bar on top of the W Hotel overlooking downtown DC. Team A (my team) was made up of Joel, Karen, Rabbi Andy, Yours Truly and Jordan. Team B was made up of Steve, Jill, Karla and Scott. Our team was called JoJo Belles Posse, named after our sweet Jordan and Team B named themselves the Shoulda Schweigers. Why, because my sweet husband loves making fun of the fact that I am never satisfied with ANY decision I make in life and he has affectionately (I at least hope) nicknamed me this whenever I say, "Oh I should have ordered the ____", or "I should have gotten this dress in _____". You get the idea.

Anyway, the scavenger hunt was a blast and we had so much fun running around DC. here are some photo highlights of the trip.

Wearing an "I Heart DC" Shirt

Roosevelt's "Dog"

Striking the Charlie's Angel pose with total strangers in front of the Spy Museam









Scott with Apollo 11








Just your average pyramid on the lawn in front of the Capital with complete strangers on their backs!


Get tourists to do the peace sign in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Sippin margaritas at Austin Grille

Team B

Team A

The Happy Birthday Song...from strangers!

And again in Chinese

Team A Done! At the POV on top of the W Hotel

Reunited! We can now be a couple again. No more smack talking. (Even though Team A had way better smack talk)

The mastermind behind the scavenger hunt.

We were all exhausted afterwards

Such a fun-filled weekend! Thanks to all my cousins and husband who made this weekend possible. I love you all so much for making me feel so special on my birthday!!!

Labor of Love

Today is the hubby's birthday! Upon his wishes he wanted to do something very relaxing. Being that my birthday was last weekend and non-stop and next weekend we are traveling to Canada for Steve's sister, Shawna's wedding, I agreed that something chill and relaxing would be a great idea. Little did I know that what I had planned would be anything but, (for me at least). This morning I gave Steve a gift certificate to this amazing driving range, mini-golf, batting gage park by our house. Sending him golfing was a nice gesture but what I really wanted to do was get him out of the house for awhile. Why you ask? Well the reason is because I had bought Steve a grill for his birthday and was hiding it in my car for the past two days. I needed to assemble this puppy while he was gone so that when he came home I could sup rise him with it. When I bought the grill at Lowes, my salesman Roger (yes we are on a first name basis) told me that he used to have this grill and it was super easy to put together. I figured if Roger could do it then why couldn't I? He said it took him about 45 minutes to put together and that was with multiple beer breaks throughout the process. He said he would screw 1 thing together then sit down and take a sip of beer, then screw something else together, then sit down and take another sip of beer. You get the idea. So here I go, set out to assemble my first grill. I decided to forgo the beer drinking because A) it was 9am and B) I needed the time advantage to assemble this little baby faster. I guess I should back up and tell you that once Roger loaded the grill into my car it was any ones guess on how I was going to get it out. The answer? Not easy! I mean I almost broke my back, or the grill, or my car trying to get it out. I think all three. The grill was so heavy! Once I pain stakingly dragged it up the driveway into the garage I started to empty all the parts out. 3,090 separate parts later I started to freak out! Ok, so maybe there was only about 25 parts, but I swear it felt like 3,090 parts! 2 1/2 hours later, dripping with sweat, exhausting every curse word I know, I finally finished putting this puppy together. What a lobar of love. Of course I had to photo journal the process....











out of the box


already confused

tired

frustrated

done!

time to grill!

success!