Heather and Greg

What's Halloween with a costume party? We stayed local since Heather was leaving early the next morning for a business trip. One of our hosts, Brooke dressed up as Walter from The Big Lebowski:


Greg dressed up as La Fleur from L.O.S.T. It was easy to do, just borrowed one of Brooke's flight suits and add a paper print out of the Dharma logo, and voila! Worlds easiest (and still coolest) costume.



Greg with Heather (yes, that's Heather!) as a Witch. 33 years old and never dressed up as a witch, it's time to get down with the Halloween traditions!

Couple Nick and Melissa came dressed up, with Nick as a Fireman Calendar pin up and Melissa as a Space Camp character (campy 80's movie, I've never seen it but it's a cult classic!)

Debbie, our hostess dressed up as her daughter's favorite character Dora! She's a little more frightening then the cartoon, I think...


Dogs, they just find us! Dharma the dog, meet Greg the Dharma employee.

Heather discovered the joys of Rock Band at this party. But not just any Rock Band, The Beatles Rock Band. It was all she could do to keep from squealing with excitement. She was terrible at the singing and the guitar, but she could rock the drums, who knew?? Just try and pry the drum sticks from her hands, she'll curse you for sure.

Ah so much to catch up on. It's been a month since I completed the Nation's Triathlon. It's an Olympic distance, which comes out to about a 1 mile swim a 25 mile bike ride and a 6 mile run (1.5k/40k/10k to be exact). It was a gorgeous day, and I was feeling spritely. So much in fact that Greg almost missed me, and my two friends who came to watch completely did miss me LOL. Enjoy some photos!

The mayor of DC Adrian Fenty is an amazing athlete and competes in many of our local events. here he is kicking off the race (shortly before he got in the water himself!).


Me along with some of my training team before the event.

The turn around point of the swim, which was in fact in the Potomac. Don't worry, I only got a little sick from drinking all that yummy water! I'm down there somewhere, but good luck spotting me. Next year I swear I'm going to get a big pink star on my butt so people can see me as I swim.

No pictures of me on my bike unfortunately, but here's one of me on my run! Notice I'm holding my bike gloves, I totally forgot to take them off in transition. But hey, I'm just glad I remembered to take off my helmet!


Triathlon Finisher!

My coach Lloyd and I after the race. He ran a great training program and was a fabulous cheerleader during the race.

Me and Greg (with his hilariously short hair cut!). Greg was also a great cheerleader, I heard him twice while on the bike and twice on the run. His signature whistle definitely travels.

After the race we waited for roads to reopen with a picnic by the Potomac. Couldn't have asked for a better lunch time.

On the walk back to the car we had to stop for our tourist moment.

The weekend after the race my training group all met for brunch to show off a few medals and congratulate one another. It was so funny to see everyone in street clothes without buckets of sweat pouring off.

Well we had the pleasure of spending Mother's Day weekend with Heather's parents. It's been a lot time since that was made possible. Saturday was our big day together, woke up early and went to the Farmer's Market early enough to avoid the crowds.

This farmer's market is the oldest one in the US that's been held in the same location. It's been running so long that George Washington's farm sold their produce here. Officially it's been running since 1753. After that Heather and her Dad went to the gym for a spinning class. So nice to have father and daughter exercising together, and go dad for doing a hard core class like that at the age of 68! Later in the day we prepared a picnic and went to the fabulous Hillwood Estate. It was one of the homes of the Post cereal heir Marjorie Merriweather Post. She had a good eye for antiques and her favorites were of French or Russian origin. The house itself was a living museum and when she passed away she left it for us regular folks to enjoy. I wasn't able to get pictures of the inside of the house as they ban cameras for security purposes and for the integrity of the old paintings and textiles, but I did get a few outside.

The front of the mansion was obscured by the fabulous landscaping:


The back of the mansion was overlooking a vast lawn and all the gardens (It also had a gorgeous view of Rock Creek Park):


A large green house stood on the property, here Mom, Dad and Greg stand in front:

The green house had a huge assortment of orchids, so you know Mom and Dad were in heaven:


By far the favorite of all the gardens was the Japanese themed one:


A view of the garden from the bottom looking up:

Mom and Dad in the garden:

Mom and Greg taking a break. There was a lot of walking involved!

The whole fam in front of the azaleas. We came at peak azalea season and they did not dissapoint:

It's a sad day today, just got pictures of my old house in Massachusetts in various stages of demolition. The house wasn't that fabulous itself, but it was a place I grew up in and I have a lot of fond memories of life on the lake. I hope I get to see photos of what the new owners put up (when the town grants all the zoning and permits, etc, they are being pesky as is their usual M.O.).

Well my birthday was spent with both Greg and I sick, so we've had a delayed celebration. Technically we haven't celebrated at all. But I did come home from my business trip to a giant gift wrapped in bright blue paper with a yellow bow. Greg had used the days I was away to take my Geraint Smith photos and get them professionally framed. I could not ask for a better present. The first photo I bought years ago. It captured my eye because of the peacefulness of the horse in motion. I feel that way when I am in motion.


This next print I bought because it was just so happy. I love the colors.

Finally this last photo is of some black eyed susans and I loved the beauty in the imperfections of these flowers.
Geraint is an amazing photograph and I'm so excited to be able to put these pictures up in my house finally.