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By Neil, 5 March 2010

Kate was sick and did not want to Thursday adventure with me. That said I really didn’t want to adventure myself. I was feeling extra lazy and Kate had to kick me off the computer and throw me out the house. It was sunny but not particularly warm so I decided to head for the great outdoors. I landed a short 15 miles outside D.C. at the Great Fall National Park, a small park overlapping the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park.

My first thought after getting out of the car, was, “really, 15 minutes from D.C.?” After 6 months of living in the city and working in a strip mall I had all but forgotten nature. I was flabbergasted to find such natural beauty only 15 minutes from my house! As soon as I arrived I was greeted by two friendly Canadian Geese who walked right up to me as I took their pictures. My other amazing animal encounter was seeing my first real in the wild woodpecker (a Red-crowned woodpecker to be exact). I didn’t have much time to get a nice shot, but at least I’ve got some proof! Also, I snapped a few shots of a bird of prey (still trying to identify it). The falls were actually quite impressive. There was a long boardwalk that took you to an overlook of the falls.

When I got home Kate was feeling a little better. To end the day we made Alice Water’s simple six ingredient free-form apple tart (apples, butter, sugar, flour, water and salt). It was tasty and we ate almost the entire tart before going to bed (Kate finished it for breakfast this morning).

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By Neil, 25 February 2010

With Kate in school and me working afternoon shifts it’s hard to find time to do something together. Serendipitously, Thursdays are more or less free for both of us and so we’ve decided to take a little adventure every Thursday. Today we went to the National Geographic headquarters in downtown D.C. to see a show on the Terra Cotta Warriors Horses. On display were around 15 soldiers, one horse and a boat-load of artifacts unearthed with the soldiers. These are but a few of the over 8,000 soldiers buried in the tomb complex of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unite (through bloody war) and rule all of China.

The show was amazing. The soldiers were so intricate and each one unique. If you are in D.C. before the show ends in April you should go!

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By Kate, 21 January 2010

Neil & I participated today in a march from the White House to the Supreme Court to the Capitol building in orange jumpsuits & hoods.

Read about it here.

[We are in that photo on the far left. I'm holding the B in "Broken" & Neil is right behind me.]

When we got to the Capitol we had to quickly take off the suits to avoid arrest. 28 protesters were arrested outside & 14 were inside pretending to be on a tour & were also arrested for a demonstration the led in the Rotunda.

One year ago President Obama issued an executive order to close Guantanamo & promised it would be completed in one year. He must keep this promise.

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By Kate, 9 January 2010

Neil & I just got back from a week in New Orleans, Louisiana. I spent the week volunteering for Legal Aid & the public defenders. Neil spent the week exploring and eating Beignets and being harassed by NOPD (he may elaborate further in an additional post).

The absolute highlight of the trip, other than staying with our gracious hostess and nun-tastic friend Alison, was The Backstreet Cultural Museum. The museum is a neighborhood cultural preservation project housed in an old funeral home. There are many of the truly awesome Mardi Gras Indian costumes there. They are all hand-made by African American-Native American people who are the progeny of former slaves who found refuge with Native Americans. These costumes are incredible.

They are all hand-sewn with no glue used and take a full year to make.

No one can wear the same costume twice, so each one is started from scratch. There are over 30 Mardi Gras Indian tribes.

Each costume can weigh up to 150 lbs, as you can see from the castle themed costume above are very intricate.

Now we need to come back during Mardi Gras & see these Mardi Gras Indians in action!

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By Kate, 1 November 2009

If you need any evidence that everyone I know is an absolute champion… please see below.

Everyone cowboy-ed up in a serious way for the hat party… most especially my father who piled us with presents, and set up a portrait studio for the event. It was glorious.

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By Neil, 25 October 2009

I fly  to Utah tomorrow morning (Monday,26th  Oct.) to prep for Kate’s birthday season celebrations (see two posts down). Shoot me an email and let’s hang out!

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By Kate, 1 October 2009

So, we got a school break for Yom Kippur… what a great surprise it was in the form of a Jewish holy day. As part of our effort to reclaim and celebrate Jewish holidays…Neil and I headed North to the great states of Pennsylvania and New York.We stopped in Erie to see Aaron, Anne & Lily. Good times were had. Delicious food was eaten (thank to Anne). And many, many, many pictures were taken of Lily.

She is getting SO big… it won’t be long before she is driving!! She even says words now. Among the most popular are, “Up,” “Yay,” and a few expletives not fit for the internet (or at least, that’s what it sounds like.)

If you feel like watching the cutest thing you have ever seen, see below for video of Lily dancing with Neil to Gummy Bear, her favorite song of all time.

Oh man, is there anything better that life has to offer than playing in puddles??

We can never get enough of that LILYBEAN!!! Thanks Anne, Aaron & Lily for the good times!

On our second leg of the journey (about 20 miles down the road on Lake Erie) we visited our friend Jason. He is a visiting assistant professor at SUNY Fredonia, and even has a real office. We are not sure if we can even be friends with him anymore since he is so legit these days.

And because he just LOVES CORN SYRUP SSosososoososo much because it’s fine in moderation, just like sugar.

We got to visit Amish Country (big highlight for me), as well as the Hill Cumorah & Palmyra.

I am now considering naming our first child, irrespective of gender, Palmyra. Think of all of the great nicknames… Pal!

We were going to go to the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh, but ended up not having enough time. Our friend Chris was there and this is what happened to him (he is the one wearing black w/ the white helmet):

SCARY! Scary! SCARY! We are glad that didn’t happen to us & so sad that it is happening to other people simply trying to exercise their 1st Amendment rights… IN AMERICA. I certainly hope that the “land of the free” gets a whole lot freer soon, for Lily’s sake.