A Daring Adventure

A Gorgeous Spring Day in Virginia (Among Other Things)

Today was a beautiful, beautiful day.  Virginia can really pull out all the stops in the spring.  See the above picture?  Gorgeous blue sky; not too hot, not too cold.  Perfect.


We went to Roosevelt Island and walked around.  Nature!!  I haven't seen nature in oh-so-long.  You know, since one isn't really exposed to nature much when one is doing nothing but studying Chinese, one doesn't see nature a whole lot.  Which is getting reeeeeeeeally old.


Spring!  There is love in the air.  And in the trees.  See the heart?







The flowers are blooming!  Okay, well, maybe not so much on Roosevelt Island, at least not right now.  There were pretty little vines, though, and some of those had white flowers on them:





Which was fun. 


And dandelions!  There were dandelions galore:






And I was there with two of the three men in my life, seeing as one of them has temporarily escaped the Chinese-language-training-induced gloom that pervades our household these days (Zachary is in Florida with the grandparents).  But the other one, who is rather tall, posed with me, which is always fun:





My son TOWERS over me at this point in my life.  Know what the Chinese say (or, at least, used to say) to women? 


"Obey your husbands, and then when your husbands die, obey your sons." 


So here we are, me and one of my sons.  Someday he'll be taking care of me.  Crazy. 

Speaking of Chinese (it's hard not to, these days), James and I literally had the following conversation last week:


                                                     ~   ~   ~ 


Setting:  Our home.  In the afternoon.  I am eating a meal, James is in a totally other room. 


Suddently, he comes BOUNDING into the room I am in and happily blurts...


                                                      JAMES:

                                             (totally delighted)

                                               What?!?!?!?!?!?!?


                                                         ME:

                                                    (confused)

                                               Huh?  What what?


                                                      JAMES:

                                              (tentatively now)

                                               You... laughed?


                                                        ME:

                                                (:shaking head:)

                                                I did not laugh.

                                                     JAMES:

                                                  (confused)

                                                    But - ??? 

                           But I thought I heard... sounds of... joy?


                                                       ME:

                                             (apologetically)

                              No.  There were no sounds of joy.


                                                     JAMES:

                                                     (sadly)

                                                        Oh. 

                                                      Well. 

Actually, it's been so long since there have been any sounds of joy here that I've forgotten what they sound like.


                                                        ME:

                                                  (:nodding:)

                                                     I know. 


                                           **fade to silence**


                                                    ~   ~   ~


Yes, my friends, that was a real, honest-to-goodness conversation we literally had.  Other than that, the only thing going on around here was my older son's reaction to some pictures from The Royal Wedding.


Upon coming across a picture of Princess Beatrice's festive head decoration of choice:





My son said, "Mom, she looks like a reindeer!"

When's The Last Time I Blogged Twice in One Day?!

(Um... never?)


But even though I already blogged today, I can't help but blog again because YOU GUYS! YOU GUYS! OHMYGOSH, YOU GUYS! 


SO!  PRETTY!!!


Yes, this is my first ever snowstorm, and so my Nikon is glued to my hands this evening as the beautious snowgorgeousness blankets the world.  For, behold!  This was what it looked like at the beginning of today's snow:






Some snow, of course, but nothing major.

But here's what it looks like now, after a couple of hours of snow.  The view from our front door:





The snow is so thick all over the ground:





And there's so much snow on the tree's branches that I've been hearing it cracking (with branches falling off from the weight of the snow) while I've been inside studying my Chinese:





So pretty!


But I'll tell you guys this...

If OPM thinks that my husband should be forced to unearth our minivan at 7 am tomorrow morning from what will look much, MUCH worse than this...

(Because right now it has only yet begun to snow)


...then OPM has a screw loose somewhere. 

In the alternative, I would like to state that housing that comes with covered parking really sounds like a delightful idea right about now. 

 

 

A Trip to the Zoo, a Theme for the RoundUp, and Hugs for a Lovely Lady...

(...but not in that order).


First of all... in case anyone has not yet heard... one of our own dear bloggers is facing MORE than her fair share of trial and uncertainty.  Not only is Jen's husband currently assigned on an unaccompanied tour to Baghdad, but she is now shocked to be facing treatment/surgery for breast cancer (The Dinoia Family).  Jen is extremely active, involved, and influential in the foreign service community.  She is the moderator and/or creator of many of the information-sharing resources that we with State use daily, and she's so sweet and kind that she's beloved by all who know her. 


Her brave story reminds us to be diligent, ourselves, with preventative forms of detection (The Perlman Update). 



                                                  ~     ~     ~


In other news, Lydia at the blog Here, There & Everywhere will be hosting this week's State Department Blog RoundUp, and her optional theme this week has to do with traditions!  Do you have any traditions that have come about for your family because of your experience with the State Department? 


(Hmmmmm.... I'll have to think on that one, myself!)


But whether or not you choose to write about the optional theme this week, be sure to send RoundUp submissions to Lydia for inclusion in this week's RoundUp!


                                                   ~     ~     ~


As for us... we FINALLY left the apartment this weekend and headed out into the beautiful weather!  I can't even remember the last time we went somewhere pretty and I took pictures.  I seriously don't.  Between moving and moving and... moving...there's been a serious lack of outdoorsy beauty in our lives.


We headed to the Washington DC Zoo!  And we saw:


A Mandarin Duck!  (To match our Mandarin Chinese!)





And Pandas!  (To match the fact that there is a HUGE panda center in Chendgu!)





Oh my goodness - talk about cute!  They were eating frozen fruit and getting it all over their faces. 





Not a care in the world! 


And there were Toucan(s):






And another incredibly interesting type of bird called a Victoria Crowned Pigeon:





I love the contrast between the bright red of its eyes and the blue of its feathers:





And what's not to like about the nifty feathers on its head?  Fun and interesting bird...





I was so happy to be outside with my camera - I just can't TELL you the joy. 


There were FLOWERS everywhere!

Some sort of gorgeous pink flowers that I can't for the life of me identify, but I'm for sure and certain that Shannon (The Flower Goddess) knows what these beautiful, pink flowers are.


And then, of course, there were... my boys.







They both totally hate having their pictures taken, but Matthew actually allowed me to take a few more...






Showoff!

State. Moving. Money. Pictures. What You've Missed... (Etc.)

This morning is our last here in Washington DC for a few weeks. 


We packed up our Oakwoody (not The Mothership) apartment yesterday.  James is off at his last morning of Training Class #1 ("The Education Needed Before He Can Go to our next post in Chengdu, China"), and when he gets home about noon, our stuff is getting packed into our minivan and we're outta here.  (We have to go back to Houston, Texas (our previous post) to pack up and sell our house, and so that James can process out of Houston.)


Poor James.  The task of getting all our STUFF into our vehicle always falls on him. 


Last night, as we were gathering items and packing, he randomly said to me:


"My Native American name would totally be: Fits Crap in Minivan."

For that is what James does.  He fits all our crap into the minivan.  I don't know how, but he does it.  And he will showcase his Minivan Crap-Fitting Skillz again for us this afternoon.  Don't you wish you were he?

~  ~  ~

But enough of that!  Let's talk money.  For oh, how I love talking money. 


We "moved" here to Washington DC three months ago for James' Training Class #1 (the first of the many classes needed before he can go to Chengdu, China, next year) about three months ago.  Fun little fact:  we have YET to even FILE for the reimbursement of our travel here...from three months ago.

Guess why?  Oh guess, guess, guess. 


Because we traveled here not *just* without Orders (being as it was a last-minute thing), but also without any rubric for billing.  Because the three-month-long Training Class #1 was only meant for him, and not for all of us... so sayeth the Orders.  Thus, only travel for James is on the Orders.


But - ha ha!!  For this training class (Training Class #1) was three months long, and the Orders only authorized him to fly to Washington DC from Texas.  But a rental car wasn't authorized for the three-month-long class time.  So... that would have meant that he would have been here for THREE MONTHS without a car.  And he wasn't even able to be housed at the Oakwood Mothership with the shuttle service (no room there, because this was so last minute).  And not even that, but this three-month-long training class was held at something crazy like ten different sites.  Some even scattered about in Virginia.  Be here three months without a car, without us, and without being at the Oakwood that has shuttle service to class?  I don't think so.  We ALL came, and we SO drove.


So the whole time we've been here, James has been trying to figure out how to bill *driving here* against what would have been paid on the Orders (just him flying here)... had he had any Orders to begin with.  Various and sundry Departments have told him that they are not the ones who will be paying it, so not to bill against them/ their Orders.


He thinks it's all ironed out now.  Basically, we get to bill against what the plane ticket would have been at the last minute (about $800) to get him here.  That was only half the battle, so please don't anyone say anything like Oh, I knew that!  The other issue was the Orders, or which set to bill against.  For there are so many.  Different sets from different places.


All this to say:  when he was getting hired by State a couple of years ago, I remember hearing about how having good credit was such a big deal.  You HAD to have GOOD CREDIT.  And now I know why.  They want to know that, when you float lots of travel money (which you will), you will still be able to be financially responsible (which we are).  Because you WILL float money.  For long periods of time.  And that's not EVEN when you go on Insanely Expensive Home Leave (Email from the Embassy), which is financially painful and scary.  Holy cow!

~  ~  ~

So, we're leaving Washington DC today and driving back to Texas.  We then have about a month until we have to report back up here for James' Training Class #2 (Mandarin Chinese at FSI for 45 weeks).  Between now and then (the beginning of September) we're going...


... from here to Texas (driving).

From Texas to Seattle, Washington (another James training class, and I'm going, too!)(flying)

From Seattle, Washington (and the Vancouver, Canada area) back to Texas (flying)

From Texas to Florida (driving)

From Florida to Washington DC (flying)

From Washington DC to Florida (flying)

From Florida, with the children, to Washington DC for real and for good until China (driving).

All within the next month.  And somewhere in there, we're packing out and selling our Texas house. 



So those are the plans for the time from now until Mandarin Chinese starts and we're moved (yes, we're PCSing to Washington because we'll be in training for longer than a year) back here.

~  ~  ~

So now, all that's left is to catch you up on what we've been up to in the last few days.


After Matthew finished his Eagle Scout project, we flew from Florida back up here to Washington DC, and James gave Matthew a hero's welcome at Dulles Airport in the Baggage Claim area:

This year is actually the 100th year anniversary of the Boy Scouts, and two Boy Scouty things were going on here in downtown Washington DC this past weekend, so we hightailed it over there.

The first was the Boy Scouts Centennial Parade in downtown Washington DC.  It was the first time since 1937 that the Scouts had a parade in Washington DC... and we were there for it!





There were, of course, lots of Scouts.  And lots of American flags.





Red, white and blue were very much the theme.

There were also a TON of historically-dressed folks.





When these guys marched by, I couldn't help but feel insanely sorry for them.  Yes, they looked so snappy (of course), but honestly- it was something insane like 105 degrees with the heat index.  The heat had to be almost unbearable!





These ladies, also, were dressed so beautifully - but all I could think when they were walking by was Oh my goodness, I'm SO glad I'm wearing shorts and a tshirt! 


We've come a long way, baby.  Yes, the above was more attractive and feminine, but GOSH.  I'll take shorts and a tshirt on any 100 degree plus day!





They had all sorts of historical vehicles.

Everyone in the cars was always dressed in authentic Scouting attire from the period.  So neat!





The parade even had balloons!  Like this cake, for Scouting's 100 year Anniversary.


On one side of the street from the parade, there was the Adventure Base 100 truck and the Adventure Base 100 setup, complete with portable Scouting Museum. 

The Adventure Base 100 setup was right in front of the Washington Monument, and on the same exact street as the parade.

A huge area of grass was roped off...

And the Adventure Base truck was opened up as a Scouting Museum.

~  ~  ~

So - now you're all caught up!  I'll only be on Twitter via my million-year-old Dinosaur of a cell phone for the next few days (as we drive from Washington DC to Texas) until we get everything back up and running in Texas.


A HUGE thank you to everyone for the comments you have left for me and for our family on this blog... on Twitter... on Facebook... via email.  I'm so sorry I've not been on y'all's blogs lately- or returned email lately.  Please forgive me for being so absent and so silent online. 

And now, Fits Crap in Minivan and I have some travelin' to do.  See you on the other side!  :)

I Should Be Packing, but I'm Blogging Instead

Our two boys and I are leaving soon to go to the airport to fly to Florida to stay with my parents to convince the Boy Scouts of America that my older son, Matthew, should be allowed to be an Eagle Scout. 


And so, in a rare burst of procrastination (rare!  HA!), instead of packing, I am blogging.  Because I haven't blogged lately. 


I could regale you with the story from this past week of how one of the Mean FSI Security Thugs and I loudly traded insults with each other in the entrance building at FSI (when I Twittered about it, I got a lot of responses, and it turns out that I am NOT the only one to be treated badly by the Mean FSI Security Thugs. Imagine that!  Total shocker!), but to do it justice, I'd need more time than I have now. 


So, since I only have a couple of minutes, I can only post pictures from the last week or so of our adventures here in Washington DC.  Pictures of our future adventures in Florida are bound to be forthcoming. 





Things probably felt a little off in Washington DC recently, when my incredibly strong husband demonstrated his superhero powers by bending the Washington Memorial.  (But he put it back after the photo op.  Don't worry!  He only uses his powers for good.  Unlike the Mean FSI Security Thugs.)


See?  He put it back.  And it's fine now:






All straight and tall and stuff. 

Good as new.






Like nothing ever happened!

The next few pictures are from the Jefferson Memorial:

















When we were there, there was a wedding being held outside of it!





We caught the tail end, as they were walking around, having pictures taken of the wedding party.


Good luck, you two!  Being married can be the biggest blessing of your life, if you treat each other kindly and with love. 





Important looking helicopters kept flying around above us. 

I was all, "Is it someone important?  Is it? Is it?"  I was totally peppering James with those types of questions. 





We went to the FDR memorial.  Which consists of a WHOLE LOT of waterfalls.  They're very pretty. 





Water everywhere = ducks everywhere.  And you'll never, ever hear me complain about THAT!





You know it's coming, right?


The onslaught of the squirrel pictures?

Because I've never seen anything like how many squirrels there are in Washington DC.  And these squirrels totally have GUMPTION.  They will come up to you and be all, "Hello!?  Food please, tourist slave!" 





They'll size you up to see just how useful you might end up being to them.





They'll look at you from about a thousand different angles and calculate just how many snacks you might have in your camera bag.





They'll walk up, closer and closer to you, and get all aggressive with the flipping of their tails.





Talk about awesome squirrel photo ops!





Being aggressive is their middle name!  I guess the tactic usually pays off.

I can't just leave you with the thought that we've only spent our time in downtown DC, though. 


We hit Old Town Alexandria as well.


That place is just adorable!

So many shops and yummy places to eat!


And now, sadly, the boys and I are leaving mild-weathered Virginia (people in Virginia don't know what heat IS.  Tell this Floridian/Texan family all about how hot you think it is up here.  Because it's NOT, comparatively.) and are traveling to FLORIDA in the MIDDLE of JULY.


Should be lovely in Florida this time of year, right?


:)

A Must See: Great Falls Park (a US National Park)

We recently went to Great Falls Park, and I just can't even tell you guys how beautiful that place is:
















Quite beautiful, indeed.  We were viewing it from the Virginia side, but you can stand on the Maryland side (the other side of the river) as well.  The river serves as the border between the two states.

We got some fun family pictures:






















The above picture of James next to the water marker?  Totally hilarious.  It marks high water during past flooding, and it just so happens that the 1972 high water mark (which is the year James was born) is his same height. 


Matthew saw the really tall trees at the park (there's an area where you view the falls, and then there are wide open, meadowish places where you can have a picnic lunch, and there are also trails.  The trails have really tall trees.) and just had to climb them.  Seeing as that he used to competitively rock climb and all. 





(He's actually really high up in a tree; my lens just doesn't make it look that way.)





Showoff.


It's a great place to let kids run wild...





Especially... you know... rowdy boys. 


My favorite set of pictures that came out of our outing were taken by Zachary. 


Grab your barf bags, those of you who detest reading my gushiness about my Wonderful Husband James (did you know that his name is now trademarked?  It's true (Valdysses)):

This last one is quite possibly my most favorite picture EVER.  It earned Zachary an A in "Photography" on his homeschool report card.


(I'm kidding.)


(He doesn't actually have a homeschool report card.)


(But if he did, I would list "Photography" on it and give him an A, just for that last picture.)


After enjoying the park, we went out to eat at a most amazing barbecue place called Red, Hot & Blue (I'm sorry, Rich of Midlife Diplomatic Crisis - you might not want to keep reading from here on out.  Since this is one of your favorite places to eat and all and since you're in Africa right now.  I don't want to rub it in.). 


It was Father's Day and all (yeah, it's taken me a while to get these pictures up) and so we went somewhere manly.  It doesn't get much more manly than good barbecue!





(Not that I ate much of anything that you see here, as I'm pretty much a vegan...)

But it was a fun Father's Day (my family sincerely likes good food.  Just LOOK at these genuine smiles!  I usually have to beg and plead for smiles, but not when there's barbecue involved!)...

... and now I know that my oldest son actually looks like me:

I mean, I guess it makes sense that my oldest son would look like me, but it never actually crossed my mind that he might look like me until I was editing this picture in Aperture. 


And then I was all Ohmygosh, Matthew looks like me!!!  (At least in that one picture.) 


Except he's way cuter.


And has no grey hair.  That had to be edited out of each and every single picture.  Because he hadn't touched his roots up in, like, a thousand years. 


It's all about converting pictures to black and white, folks.  Black and white photos are much kinder to the elderly matrons you are photographing.  Ahem.

~  ~  ~

In other news, our house back in Houston, Texas went on the market yesterday, since we're (quick recap) being transferred from Houston to Washington DC in order for my husband to train for more than a year for his next post in Chengdu, China. 


Yeah.  Trying to sell a house right now.  THIS should be fun.

Different Kinds of Shoes

Last week was a difficult week for me.


I spent pretty much the ENTIRE week crying...and working through the very complicated logistics of some very important things.


Bottom line:  It looks as though my ten-year, delightful run of being a homeschooling mother is coming to an end, and that my boys will be entering school this fall.  I have not blogged lately because I am not yet strong enough emotionally to talk about this, and it's been the one and ONLY topic in my life for a long while now.  And I'm not even exaggerating about the large amounts of crying that I have been doing lately.


So, yesterday I begged my sweet husband to please, please take me somewhere pretty.  I didn't care where.  And he was more than happy to oblige. 

On our way to Somewhere Pretty, we detoured somewhere else in honor of Shannon & Dave, or Mr. & Mrs. Crazy Footwear (Cyberbones).  Remember back when Dave lost his mind and then lost his mind again and then Shannon lost her mind?  Yeah, well, so do we.  Because, honestly, who wouldn't?


But before we get to that, let me just say the following:  I am NOT a girly-girl.  I've actually struggled a lot with trying to become more "girly" as the years go by.  I've only recently (in the last year or two) cared if the shoes I'm wearing aren't hideously ugly (for two years I actually wore nothing but hand-me-down tennis shoes left over from my then-eight-year-old-son, after he both wore them out AND outgrew them!), and only about a year ago did I paint my toenails for the first time EVER. 


But I know that guys appreciate girly things, so if my handsome husband has to eat at the same buffet day in and day out for a lifetime, the least the buffet can do is try to look cute.  You know?


Anyway.

Ever since reading about Shannon & Dave's footwear, James has been seriously interested in getting a pair of those shoes.  So we went to a local store and tried some on.





DUDE.  Getting this things onto your feet is HARD.


You have to pull and tug...





...and you have to position each and every toe into its little toe-sleeve. 





Sleeveing each toe is a serious undertaking. 


I would possibly equate the entire process with putting on panty hose.  When you're sweaty.  Because the shoe sort of sticks to your skin and is very clingy and tricky to pull up easily.  Plus, your toes do NOT want to naturally slide into their little toe sleeves. 





The end result looks somewhat Alienish in nature. 


James walked around in this shoe for a while, getting a feel for it.  Which meant, of course, that I JUST HAD to try one on, too. 






And so I did.


And I sat, and took a picture (for posterity and the world, etc.) and thought primly to myself, "Good heavens, Shannon, these things are UGLY." 


And I stripped the thing off my foot (no small undertaking;  they're like putting on and taking off second skins) and stuffed it back in its box... and that was the end of it for me.


James, on the other hand, walked thoughtfully around in his pair and has since ordered them in black.


Well, that's fine and good for James, I told myself.  He'll look cute wearing whatever shoes his heart desires, but I wouldn't be caught DEAD in those things.  And we moved on with our day.

The Beautiful Place that James took me was to Turkey Run Park. 


Beautiful, indeed!  We got out of our car.  We were surrounded by trees.  There's a gorgeous, scenic trail leading town to the Potomac.  Lovely!  Gorgeous!!







And also... Rocky.  And steep.


And all of a sudden, the cute, high-heeled sandals, jeans skirt and pedicure just Weren't Cutting It. 

Hmmm...







James pointed out to me how the steep trail wound dramatically around toward the water... far, far below. 

I can totally do this, I thought.  So I wore the wrong shoes for this sort of hiking/trail thing?  So what?


And I started delicately picking my way through the trail.







Okay, so.   The useless, pointless, high-heeled sandals came off almost immediately.


Because when you're walking on pebbles, rocks and branches, bare feet are FAR superior to high-heeled sandals.


And my thoughts started drifting back to... the rugged shoes I had so haughtily scorned earlier that afternoon. 


Huh, I thought to myself.  Those toe-sleeve things would be looking pretty attractive right about now!






High heeled sandals just... really don't help when you're hiking a rocky trail.


But I made it!  And I didn't even get hurt.  Okay, I didn't really get VERY hurt. 


And the Potomac River was so gorgeous.  It was worth the barefoot walk over rocks, stones, and tree roots.






Out in the middle of the river, there were huge boulders:


 


A feast for the eyes and the camera!


There was even a very large snake swimming by.  It stopped and rested a bit on a big rock:





Score 1 for me:  I didn't freak out, even though it was swimming around close to us.  Because I'm down with snakes.  I used to own about 12.  Though, of course, none of the ones I owned were venomous, as I believe that this one was.  Because I like, you know, being alive and all.






Standing around near the water, being barefooted wasn't half bad.  The rocks were cool to the touch and the whole experience was very earthy and pleasant.


But that was, of course, before the climb back UP the trail to the car.





James volunteered to carry my useless, high-heeled sandals during the steep climb back up to the car. And my camera bag.  Because that's what chivalrous gentlemen do.


And I eventually made it!  Bare feet and all.  But very, very humbled.  And sorta kinda wishing I'd been wearing a certain pair of no-longer-considered-ugly shoes that I had tried on earlier that day!


And then God sent another kind of Shoe my way.


A "Song Shoe."


(Because that's how you pronounce this cute little guy's name in Mandarin Chinese):






Song Shoe!  (Actually:  songshu)


He came down out of the tree in which he was hanging upside-down and posed for me.

 



Getting these pictures of him was quite a treat! 


So, Shannon?  YOU WIN.  Because you know how to properly attire yourself for hikes, and I have now shown that I certainly DON'T.  But let the record further reflect that I would WAY prefer to be barefoot around venomous serpents than correctly clothed on a LIVE MILITARY FIRING RANGE.


The End.

The International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, and Chinatown

Yesterday was a touristy sort of day.


When James first got his job with State, and we were here a couple of years ago for his initial training, a  lot of State folks we knew hit the International Spy Museum:






Back then, we were torn.  The price is INSANE, the boys were a bit younger, and there was so much free stuff out there that we just couldn't justify paying $70 for the four of us to hit the Spy Museum when DC was stuffed full to overflowing with amazing, free attractions.  (I can hear David (EF'M) reminding me that NOTHING is FREE; that it is all supported by our tax dollars, which is true, but saying something is free-except-for-our-tax-dollars-of-course is really long.)


So we passed on the Spy Museum back then.


This trip, our boys are a bit older (ages 16 and 11), and we've since hit a lot of the wonderful offerings that are either entrance-fee-free or very, very reasonable.  We figured:  it's time.  So we went yesterday.






You can't take pictures inside, so these outside shots are all I have to offer you until we get to the part about our visiting the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery (which is, quite literally, right across the street from the Spy Museum), but I will do my best to tell you about it so that you, Dear Reader, can decide for yourself whether shelling out wicked sums of money is something you would like to do, also. (In addition to the $70 entrance fees, we paid $10 each way on the Metro for our whole family to travel downtown.)


Okay, the Spy Museum.  Where to start?


First of all, I am sincerely grateful that we did not go two years ago.  This is NOT a young-person-friendly museum.  AT. ALL.  There is nothing hands-on, and you are packed like sardines inside the building with nowhere to go but to follow the traffic flow.  I would imagine that younger children - and when I say younger children, I'm saying that my 11 year old (Zachary) was just at the right age to continue to be interested in everything the museum had to offer - would last through the first few rooms, but that's it.


You get into the museum, you pay your money, and you take an elevator up to the top of the building, where the walk-through, self-guided tour begins with an interesting movie (perhaps 8 minutes long?) about how there are spies everywhere (Washington DC is full of them?) and you might make a good spy if you memorize phone numbers quickly and easily (which I don't, not that I would ever have wanted to "be a spy," or whatever). 


It's an interesting little movie, and when you walk out of the theater, you start a self-guided tour through tons of different-themed rooms.  Lining the rooms are blown-up photographs of spy equipment, or replicas of spy equipment, or little blurbish biographies of spies and how their cover was blown or what have you.  Interesting stuff, if (once again), your children are old enough to continue to be self-engaged in reading stuff on the walls... for a couple of hours.

Some nifty stuff I really liked included:


~  A 3 or 4 minute movie about how locks are picked.

~  A 3 to 4 minute movie about bugging rooms/different kinds of bugs (Bottom line: if someone wants to bug a room and have you not know they did it, they'll totally be able to pull that off without your even knowing that the bug is there).

~  And, on that same vein, did you know that Russia successfully bugged a Main State room with a sophisticated bug in 1999?  Yeppers.  And the Russian spy that kept retrieving the messages was caught and PNG'd back to Russia. 

~ A whole room devoted to spy pigeons.  Yes, as in the bird with wings.  One spy pigeon could carry thousands of messages (because the messages were so small) on its leg, and the pigeons' missions were 95% successful. 

~  Biographies of different people who decided to become spies and why they did so.  One of my favorites:  a young wife whose husband was killed in a war (WWII, I think?) who then became a sharpshooter and was dropped behind enemy lines so she could exact her revenge.  She picked off 50 something people before getting captured.  She was tortured (and then killed), but never revealed any information.  What an awesome woman.


Anyway... Bottom Line:  interesting place, sort of like reading a history book, wouldn't have worked for us (or been worth the money) if our boys had been younger. 


After the Spy Museum, we were delighted to see that the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery was right across the street!  (Okay, *I* was delighted.  James and Matthew were mildly interested.  Zachary was horrified.) 







When we went downtown, we weren't thinking of going there, but its proximity made it irresistible.  


What a great place!


There were, of course, portraits, such as this one of Juliette Gordon Law, the founderess of the Girl Scouts:





And of other ladies, such as this next one whom everyone who reads my blog shall surely recognize:






There was a lovely mother-daughter pair (such a sweet painting)...

And other such portraits as you would surely think you would see at the Portrait Gallery and all.


But there was other art, as well.


There were tons of sculptures, like Louisa May Alcott:

And George Washington:





Some (but not all) of the sculptures or larger pieces of art had lines drawn around them on the floor that one was not supposed to cross...or even step upon.


One line took Zachary by surprise, and he set off an alarm:






The line itself was so far away from the sculpture that my camera literally couldn't get both the line AND the sculpture into the same 35mm frame.  None of us had seen it on the floor.  When he backed up, off the line (he had stepped onto the line but not across it), it chirped for another second or two and then was silent, thank goodness.  The guards didn't even walk into our area.  I figure Zachary wasn't the first one to be surprised by this line!


There were many floors:





And we hit them all!


Gorgeous paintings...

...interspersed with other art, such as a driftwood horse...





... the suffering Virgin Mary...






...Sculptures made out of pieces of metal and light...





... and artwork that Made. No. Sense:





This was a painting that was entirely white with two big black stripes.  And that's it. 


For real?


What also made No. Sense. were the different pieces of modern art that were... well... I don't know how to put it other than Icky, Gross Nudity Pieces. 


I know that "art" often means "nude."  I totally get that.  You walk through the Portrait Gallery and, of course, you're going to see tons of this sort of thing:






It's some goddess and Pan as a baby or whatever.  Fine. 


This sort of thing is NOT what I'm talking about.  What I'm talking about is creepy, nude-for-shock-value, in-your-face-scary-nude stuff that I did NOT take pictures of and will NOT be putting on my blog.  There was even a softcore porn tv-showish wall thing that had the warning, "Some content may not be suitable for children."  We hurried past that wall, but even while hurrying by I saw enough of the tv-show-thing to be revolted.


WTHeck, Free DC Art Museum Place?  On one floor, you have these gorgeous stained-glass windows:





And then, on another floor, you have creepy, nude, in-your-face weirdness.  Truly bizarre.


Anyway, our evening continued with a quick trip to the Metro by way of Chinatown:






This is the "Friendship Archway" in Washington DC.  When built, it was a $1 million piece of public artwork, and is the largest single-span archway in the world.


And it was erected because - get this - Washington DC's "sister city" is Beijing, China.  I had totally never heard this before!


But Chinatown is all nifty.  Check it out:






I'm thinking that HAS to be Chinese.  I'll let you know in about a year.  One hopes that I'll be able to read even a little bit of it by then.  Maybe?


As it was a portrait sort of day, I snapped one of my child (11 year old Zachary) on the Metro:






My eyes.  My nose.  My personality, unfortunately for him.

Why Do I Blog? Well, for One Thing, There's so Much Misinformation Out There!

Sometimes I find things online that have to do with my husband's job, and the stuff I read is so incredibly WRONG that it makes my eyes cross. 


For example, did you know that single/unmarried applicants are given preference for my husband's job during the federal government's hiring process? 


Neither did I.  BECAUSE THEY AREN'T.  Contrary to some hideous misinformation that I read here on this site (the "Best Answer," I suppose, is a bit inaccurate in a few areas, but it was well-intentioned.  The "Other Answer" is truly offensive.), lots of folks with my husband's job are MARRIED.  With CHILDREN.  Like WE ARE. 


Mercy. 

Anyway, I have moved on from my state-of-mind yesterday (and have reminded myself of how grateful we are not to still be where we were in the past), and have gotten the last of the Washington DC Zoo photos together. 

My apologies to anyone who is sick of Zoo pictures.  I have actually saved what I consider to be the cutest for last!  I couldn't get over the elephants and the prairie dogs.  Oh. My. Heavens.  Too incredibly cute!







Playing with water...






Taking a reallllllly long drink...









A portrait...





Eating what looked like ENTIRE BRANCHES from a tree!






The prairie dogs were so terribly cute (and pudgy) that I think that my mother might possibly just pass out from the sheer cuteness of it all. 











My guys, being guys, compared this next prairie dog picture to its being a prairie dog zombie, wandering around muttering, "BRAINSSssss..."














Cutest little pudgy prairie dogs! 

I Could Whine, but I Won't (I'm Working Hard at Being Grateful)

Yesterday, James and I trekked to FSI so that we could peruse the information at the Overseas Briefing Center about our next post (Chengdu, China, in the fall of 2011) and also so that we could meet with an FSI Mandarin instructor who has kindly agreed to tutor us. 


Good heavens.  Anyone been to FSI lately?  The STENCH.  The foul STENCH is overwhelming. What IS it? 

We're assuming it's the mulch?  But how can mulch be such a violent assault upon our senses? 



We've even heard that the mulch has literally spontaneously combusted.  Yes, as in, the mulch has caught fire.  For real?



I could whine about how it feels like spontaneously combusting, foul, rank MULCH (that you can still smell while you're inside the FSI buildings!  There is no escape!) is more welcome on the FSI campus than I am (I have very hurt feelings because of all that my husband and I had to go through yesterday just so I could walk on the FSI grounds), but I will not.  I will keep my snide, hurt-feelinged thoughts to myself and go read about people who don't have great jobs and/or are starving somewhere and then remember to be grateful for all that I have.  For I am quite blessed. 

~  ~  ~

One of my favorite blessings:  my camera.  Which means for you, Dear Reader, that you are about to be tortured with more Washington DC Zoo photos.  Prepare yourself.  


First of all, it was CRAZY just how steep the Metro stop is!







My picture totally doesn't do it justice;  it's pretty much almost a completely vertical climb up to the street!






It's an alligator.  Either that or it's a crocodile.  I think.





Whatever it was, it was friendly!  For see?  It winked at me!


It must have known that I used to own lots of reptiles.  I winked back.  Because we must always be friendly, mustn't we?






A Bearded Dragon. 


You're all pretty and stuff, Bearded Dragon... but I have to say that my husband's beard is better.  Sorry.






This is a local Virginia bird of some sort (Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?) that was flitting about, being all cute. 






An Iguana.






Siesta time for the lion! 


His ladyfriends were totally takin' it easy, also:








I absolutely LOVED the owls. 





A Robin graciously posed for me:





One of the natural zoo enclosures had a GORGEOUS waterfall:









And then we went back down the super-duper-steep Metro:






and went home!

Rest assured, Dear Reader (if you have made it even thus far), that I am almost out of Zoo pictures with which to torment you. 


Almost.  But not completely.