Tis the Season for big congrats! Sam, a good friend and colleague just graduated from film school (ok it's really not film school, but that's what she majored in - so that's what I call it!) She's been working her tail off and it finally payed off! Brace yourself world - expect big things from this chica!
Also a huge kudos to Katie Santo. Lady bug just ran a half marathon! She went from barely running across an airport to jogging 13.1 miles. And get this - Linds and I were there to cheer her across the finish line and the first thing she told us was how EASY it was. I was having a hard enough time staying awake after Tommy's birthday party the night before and let alone fathoming a breezy trek around Annapolis.
Speaking of Tommy's Birthday, that brings in the final congrats. One of my dearest friends Tommy turned 24. You can read what the DC blog chatter had to say about all his accomplishments, but the biggest is that he turned some serious lemons into lemmencello and now is doing fabulously - for any age. Congrats Tommy and Happy Birthday. We celebrated at The District in Adams Morgan with Mix 107.3's Stephanie Flax, Pamela Sorensen of Pamela's Punch, On Tap's Ashley Estill, WTOP's Bob Madigan, Chris Brown, and HOT 99.5's Toby Knapp ......good time was had by all - from what we can peace together of the evening.
Congrats to auntie and now godmother Katie, her sister just had her baby shower in New York.
Congrats to my colleague Ty, who is due to have her baby girl in January.
Congrats to my step-brother Jeff and his wife Kiana on their new baby girl - Madison. Here's the update from Momma Kim: This is our newest grand baby, Madison Renay Estes. She was born on July 22, 2009. Her daddy is my son Jeff (Army SSgt) and her mommy is Kaiana. Poor mom had a 28 hour labor. We got the call early in the morning. Hopped on a plane late in the afternoon to Olympia, Washington and we still made it there before Madison's debut. She is so sweet, good matured, and hardly cries. She is just like her daddy. His grandpa used to call him "Smiling Jack". Daddy has been gone since she was 3 weeks old. He will be back mid-November. She came down to Southern California so both families could see the baby. She is now 11 weeks old, and talks to daddy on the phone. She is all ready for trick or treating with her cousins and Uncle Kyle. Hope all is well with you all! Honey Grams Kim & Poppa Matt (who is working now in New Orleans)
And congrats to my former professor Steve Roberts, who just published his baby, another book,"From Every End of the Earth," of which he generously dedicated to his students! "Friends: With no money out there for promotion I'm trying to publicize my new book, From Every End of This Earth, through social networking. Here's a link to a podcast and book excerpt, if you like what you read and hear, please send on the link, and some kind words about the book, to your own social networks. This book is dedicated to my former students at GW, which include many of you, and I'm deeply grateful for any help you can give. Best wishes. --Steve Roberts"
The girls and I hit up the Adventure Travel Expo and boy did it have a few surprises.
In addition to the booths highlighting just about every travel destination in the world, they had quite a few demos. A group of scuba schools set up a scuba pool where you can strap on a scuba tank and go swimming right in the middle of the convention center! Next door, the Caribbean vendors were jamming out to their mini-dance fest complete with costumes. Not going to lie, we were pretty interested in the West Virginian white water rafting booth.
But the pièce de résistance was the West Virginian zip line. Although not as long as the ones we did in Costa Rica, this was a pretty great set-up.
After hitting up just about every booth, including the Africa photo shoots, Angela, Katie and I hit the crazy line. Weeeeee!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
This is no taco shop! For Katie's birthday we took her to Oyamel, rated very highly on the Washingtonian's 100 best restaurants. Among katie's fan club is my foodie soul mate, Jordyn, who is about as adventurous in eating as I am so we sailed through the menu.
Done in tapas style we ordered the chef's recommendations for the evening. This included the Ceviche de cayo (sea scallops) with citrus dressing, Ensalsa de Chayote (mexican squash), Albondigas enchipotladas con queso doble crema (chipotle meatballs), Nopal asasdo con salsa molcajete (cactus paddles in green salsa), and Lengua quisada (cow tongue tacos). The stand out for the evening (aside from the foregone conclusive guacamole) had to be the cactus. The mole was perfectly smokey and addicting. There may or may not have even been a few licks to the plate!
After a few mango margaritas we were proudly proclaiming this our new favorite restaurant.
