While K8's brain is being bombarded with daily tsunamis of policies, acronyms, and bureaucracies, the boys and I continue to explore. That is, when we are not occupied by the pool, playground, or new friends.
On the occasion that I am afforded any real time to do so, I've been attempting to learn Arabic. My efforts in Hebrew are less pressing, as most Hebrew speaking Israelis also speak English fluently. Thus far, my success in Arabic has been limited to a few different ways to say hello and about 20 other words that I have bouncing around in my head, of which, I cannot recall the coinciding meaning.
Being in our nations capital has spurred us to bone up on our U.S. History a bit so we've been watching HBO's John Adams series on DVD. It is a fantastic look into the personalities and realities that led to the formation of this country.
The movie, coupled with my labors in language, has produced dreams that are quite bizarre... especially last night. Yesterday evening Q "captured" an imaginary alligator that, according to Q was skilled in automotive repair and medicine. Unfortunately, this new imaginary friend later fell 4 stories down the apartment's elevator shaft along with my not imaginary belt that he was using as a leash. This resulted in a tear filled meltdown of epic proportions until, "Q, what's that noise? Is there something scratching at our door? Let's go see. Oh, my goodness, it's Alligator. He climbed out. YAY!" Crisis averted but a dream about trying to get your oil changed by an alligator that only speaks Arabic dressed in colonial attire makes for a rather restless night.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Playing Tourist
While we've been here we've spent a great deal of time getting acquainted with our surroundings. The boys and I have wandered through many a monument and park, many a museum has been perused, and a slight sampling of restaurants have been... well... sampled. Here are some of our findings:
Smithsonian Air and Space is the bee's knees. Since we visited the location on the mall, Q has been persistent in a new goal of being an astronaut when he grows up. When we visited the Dulles location we were amazed. Not just at all the fantastic and historic planes and rockets but also at Q's unrelenting excitement throughout the entire visit. Hell, even Ozzi dropped a bunch of, "Oh wow!"'s there. Of course we couldn't leave without getting Q his own orange astronaut jumpsuit.
The National Zoo is fantastic!!! Elephants, hippos, giant octopus, and naked mole rats, zoos don't get much better than that.
Visiting the monuments have been an interesting opportunity for me to try and explain aspects of American History to Q, some of which is a bit difficult. It's one thing to tell a 4 year old that Abraham Lincoln was the president a long time ago (and "No he wasn't that big when he was alive.") but a whole different thing to explain what the Vietnam Memorial represents and "Why is that man crying?"
I had to take the boys hiking around Theodore Roosevelt Island, Q being named after TR's youngest son and all. We even got up close and personal with a couple of young deer.
As for restaurants, 2 Amys has easily replaced Punch as my all time favorite pizza outside of Naples... especially with fresh Burrata on the menu.
A few other highlights thus far, Old Town Alexandria with this guy,
The National Gallery with it's underground passageway,
The Einstein Memorial,
And making some great new friends. Including our new next door neighbors who are from the Twin Cities and knew our neighbors in St. Paul and have a girl the same age as Q.
Smithsonian Air and Space is the bee's knees. Since we visited the location on the mall, Q has been persistent in a new goal of being an astronaut when he grows up. When we visited the Dulles location we were amazed. Not just at all the fantastic and historic planes and rockets but also at Q's unrelenting excitement throughout the entire visit. Hell, even Ozzi dropped a bunch of, "Oh wow!"'s there. Of course we couldn't leave without getting Q his own orange astronaut jumpsuit.
The National Zoo is fantastic!!! Elephants, hippos, giant octopus, and naked mole rats, zoos don't get much better than that.
Visiting the monuments have been an interesting opportunity for me to try and explain aspects of American History to Q, some of which is a bit difficult. It's one thing to tell a 4 year old that Abraham Lincoln was the president a long time ago (and "No he wasn't that big when he was alive.") but a whole different thing to explain what the Vietnam Memorial represents and "Why is that man crying?"
I had to take the boys hiking around Theodore Roosevelt Island, Q being named after TR's youngest son and all. We even got up close and personal with a couple of young deer.
As for restaurants, 2 Amys has easily replaced Punch as my all time favorite pizza outside of Naples... especially with fresh Burrata on the menu.
A few other highlights thus far, Old Town Alexandria with this guy,
The National Gallery with it's underground passageway,
The Einstein Memorial,
And making some great new friends. Including our new next door neighbors who are from the Twin Cities and knew our neighbors in St. Paul and have a girl the same age as Q.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Air and Space
Sorry it's taken so long for me to get another post up. We've been busy getting acquainted with our new surroundings... oh and K8's been busy with training and hammering out the bid list. We feel like we've gotten our bearings here and our final ranking of the numerous available posts around the world was turned in late last week. Yesterday we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out at Dulles Airport and tomorrow we go to Flag Day to find out where our first assignment will be. I will do my best to post our destination asap. Until then...
air and space from tapirspoop on Vimeo.
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