More Condo Photos

So I know why people REALLY look at blogs...for the photos! I finally had a weekend to clean up (every room looks great except for the 2nd bedroom; pics of that coming up hopefully next week). So here's what's up:

Our bedroom. I love our blinds...we can move them up or down or whatever. Yes, that is the marimba you see in the corner. I'm not sure if it will stay there, but I actually don't mind it and it fits well in the corner. I put together the Ikea dresser on the left. I haven't really decided where to hang photos yet, and we are still missing some nightstands/lamps, but so far so good.

I don't know why this turned out fuzzy, but this is our little dining nook. I put together the Ikea chairs and Joe was here just in time to help with the table (lucky him). Again, lacking in the photo/art on the walls department, and I haven't really decided what to do. Functional? Yes. Pretty? Not quite.

The living room, as you see it from the front door. There's an Ikea mirror, the TV Ben and Shuana helped us hang, then a plant. The drapes are from Ikea (I think that's the last Ikea shoutout for now,) and I had to iron/mend them, and then hang them all by myself. Thank you.

This is the view from the window. You can see my ghetto setup with the TV wires. I tried to hide them behind the plant, but then the antennae bunny ears were sticking out, so I put the garbage can inbetween them to prevent an accident (i.e. one night I ran into the bunny ears and it was a disaster.) It works...for now.

And here's the couch, chair, rug situation! The couch and chair are from Crate & Barrel and I found the rug by chance at Lowe's, and the pillows came from Pier One. Again, nothing on the walls yet...I didn't want to force it. On the right you will see the banana chair I got for Joe; sort of a peace offering in case he hates all the decorating I did while he was in Utah.

So that's that for now. I finally found our storage unit, so I've been making trips there with our moving boxes and other seasonal things. I'll probably wait until Joe gets here to put everything on the walls (not for his opinion, of course, but because it's so much easier to hang things with a second person!) It's been a slow process, mainly because I've been too lazy to do things by myself...but I'm happy to see it coming together.

Shot Fired

So last night I was seconds away from drifting to sleep when I heard a dog barking...and people yelling...and then a gunshot. My train of thought was kind of like this:

11:50 pm-Ugh, I wish those people outside would stop talking. Oh well, at least my fan is on and I can barely hear them.

11:51 pm-Wow those people are talking louder. How annoying. And their dog is barking a lot. I wonder if I should bring this to the attention of the board members at the next meeting, (to be fair, I had just gone to my first Del Boca Vista meeting and people pretty much complained about everything, so I felt this was acceptable).

11:52 pm-Hmmm I hope I can sleep through all of this talking and barking. LAME.

11:53 pm-I think that was a gun. Was somebody shot? Should I call the police? What do people do in situations like this? 

So of course I call Joe, and then look out the window. There are 5 police cars outside one window and 5 outside the other (thanks, corner unit!) I think whatever went down was across the street from us. I saw a few people get arrested and put in cop cars and heard some person who was under the influence of something mumble: "shot...dog..." and since the dog had stopped barking, I put 2 and 2 together. Good times in Falls Church!!

New Favorite Article...

on napping!

Pics of Bathrooms

Master Bathroom

2nd Bathroom

Photo Post

I've been really bad at taking pictures lately...mostly because I want the condo to be "finished" before I take any pictures. Since I don't know when that will ever happen, I'll just start taking more soon. I didn't take any of Ben, Shauna and the boys, so you will just have to trust me that they were here and were the best houseguests ever!!

Joe and his balloon, surprising me!

Me, very surprised.

Yummy crabcakes.

Joe using a drill. You probably wont see many of these :)

The mounted television. Thanks to Ben and Shauna for all your help!

Us, happy to have a mounted TV.

The dining room...just to give you an idea of the table/chair situation. Still no rug, and I need to get rid of a few things, but almost there. The lighting makes the paint seem much darker than it is.

Ikea boxes. They're ALL unpacked now (and furniture put together). There's also a couch, chair and rug that I will take a picture of soon. We were really roughing it for awhile.

Best. Surprise. Ever.

Thanks to everyone involved in the planning and/or not-ruining of the surprise Joe gave me this weekend: HIMSELF! It was amazing. We had been talking all week, and both "had plans" Friday night (mine were legit; going out with friends from work). Joe was also "going out with friends," so we planned on chatting online around midnight my time. We got online and were talking about our day, and suddenly Joe typed: "The real reason I set up tonight was so I could do something for you. There is something waiting for you outside your front door. Go get it."

I looked out my peephole and saw a smiley face heart balloon. I could tell someone was holding it, but didn't really think it could be him. And then I opened the door, and there he was! Until I opened the door and saw his face, I had NO clue he would be coming. I was so happy to see him; I can't even describe it.

Our weekend was pretty low key; lots of picking up around the condo and putting furniture together on Friday. We ordered pizza and watched movies and it was so much fun to just be together. Ben, Shauna and the boys came in on Sunday. Josh was a natural on the marimba and Zach showed us how he scoots around. Joe made crab cakes and I made kabobs (2 of the 3 or 4 recipes we know). Ben and Shauna helped us mount our TV over the fireplace in time to catch the Celtics-Lakers game.

This morning we made the trip to Dulles at 5 am so Joe could catch his flight and get back to work. It was a great 53 hours :) I know we all joke about how silly and funny Joe is, (and he is...that's one of the reasons I'm in love with him!) but he's also very thoughtful and caring. I know it took a lot of effort to get the tickets, come out here, and most of all keep a secret like that for so long.

And now it's back to reality...but things will be a little busier than usual with Ben and Shauna's visit, and then work will pick up A LOT with freshman orientation, (I'm working 12 days in a row. Yeah.) So *ideally* this last leg of apart-ness will go by much faster than the first. I'll put pictures up soon.

Just something silly

First let me say that Marta (we named our GPS system,) has been so helpful! She navigates me to Ikea, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target like none other. But the other day I was getting on some road, and it looks like the ramp to get on the road had just started being used, so maybe Marta did not have that updated in her system yet. So as I'm getting on this ramp, Marta does this: "Recalculating...recalculating...recalculating...please drive the highlighted route." She sounded so desperate for me to get back on track. I don't know if it's just me that thinks the GPS is hilarious, but I get such a kick out of it. I'm just waiting to have a "drive into the pond" moment like Michael and Dwight did in The Office.

Worst. Commute. Ever.

*I gangked this photo from dcist.com

So, the weather sucked today (big surprise). Rain, hail, wind, thunder, lightening, tornado warnings, etc. After work, the rain had let up and I happily walked to the Metro. I happily got on the Metro. And then I learned there was a tree on the Metro line, and possibly some power lines, too. Sad! The train stopped at East Falls Church and what seemed like a few thousand people were waiting for cars or shuttles (there were one or two buses to take everyone to West Falls Church). I am not one to wait, so I just started following this heard of people walking. I felt like I was in Independence Day or something...everyone walking towards another city after their own was destroyed by aliens. It rained. It lighteninged (whatever). It thundered. We made it to a walking trail, so that was nice.

I walked for about 45 mins, then the nicest girls drove up and said they were shuttling people to the Metro stop! They said "We were on our way to Blockbuster and saw all these people, and thought this would be a better use of our time." Seriously? Amazing! There were also sweet people standing on the side of the road with handmade signs that said "METRO" with an arrow to point us in the right direction.

I guess I can't really complain about any more Metro rides after this...you win, weather. You win.