I'm back from the beach, and stuck in my office again.. I just posted pictures from the weekend in the photo gallery (under DC - Virginia Beach) so check them out! Sorry to my family - I will also get the Dallas pictures up asap. ;)

I read a neat article today on privacy. Check it out!

Whew, did we have storms last night! Nothing in the tornado category, but the power went out at my apartment 4 times! I'm lucky my alarm clock didn't die on me while I slept.. Earlier in the evening the weather was gorgeous, and I spent most of the afternoon and evening with the balcony doors and all the windows open. My air conditioning dependant roommate, however, got too hot and turned on the AC. Sad, sad, sad.. :)

After a few weeks of relative calmness, this week is gearing up to be fun-filled and busy!

This past weekend Shilpa and I agreed to move to a new apartent in the (only slightly yuppy) neighborhood of Ballston in Arlington. We are taking over the lease on a 2br/2bath apartment in Richmond Square, a building within walking distance of the metro (Ballston - on the orange line), the IHOP, and the Ballston Mall. The city neighborhood is very young and professional, and we know tons of people there! Our lease begins in August, so expect to see pictures soon!

Speaking of pictures, I am still a slacker and have not finished formatting my pictures from my weekend in Dallas. I have them all on my computer at home, but haven't gotten around to cropping them or editing out red-eye. I promise to do this soon! :)

Tomorrow night I start a jewelry class hosted by the Washington Art League. The class is called Wax Casting in Silver and Gold. Its a beginner class in using wax models to cast solid forms (rings, pendants, bracelets) in precious metal. I am very excited, and hope the class turns out well!

Adam flies into DC on Thursday night, and then Friday we caravan with 5-6 other highly cool individuals to Virginia Beach for the weekend! We're all piling into one hotel suite in order to make the weekend's festivities more fiscally possible, but its going to be great fun! Virginia Beach recently built a three-mile concrete boardwalk and bicycle path along its main strand, and its lined with stores, restaurants, ice cream stands, and amusement rides. I'm looking forward to it! And I will not, I repeat, NOT be forgetting sunscreen on this trip. I endured one of the most aweful sunburns of my life at this exact beach last summer, and I don't want to relive it. :)

So that's what's on my plate for this week. Yeah for summer!

I just spent a nice afternoon watching the 102nd US Open and cleaning my apartment. Go Tiger! :)

I came across an interesting online petition today, and I thought it was pretty useful. Its a small web form that lets you write an email asking AOL to stop force-feeding us 1000-hour CDs in metal tins, and requests the ability to opt out of their mail marketing all together. I don't know much other than I thought it was a good idea. Try it out! :)

After much prompting from friends and family, I am finally writing my recap of my trip to Dallas this weekend! My prediction that all I would do all weekend was eat turned out to be absolutely true! I arrived late Friday night, and woke up Saturday morning to a fantastic breakfast with my Grandad and Meemaw (who are the reason I even started this journal) at Owen's. The Dallas Rolls Royce Club was meeting for breakfast at the same time, so we took some time to ogle all the cool cars immaculately parked outside the restuarant.

For dinner we went to our family's favorite italian restaurant: Angelos. It was the first time since Jeff turned 21 that we'd all gone out to eat, so we celebrated with some very yummy wine. :)

Sunday morning was spent getting the food ready for an even larger group of family to descend upon the Homestead for a good, classic Texas feast: brisket, German sausage, corn on the cob, black eyed peas, and thick slices of buttered bread charred on the grill. Elsewhere I guess this might have been referred to as Texas Toast, but when you are actually in Texas that seems a little funny, so we just called it toast! There was also this fantastically sinful chocolate mousse cake that literally knocked me into a coma on my flight home. :)

If it seems like a short weekend, thats because it was. I wished I could have spent more time getting to catch up with all of my family, so I guess I'll just have to go home more often! :)

Pictures of all of this weekends festivities will be posted soon!

I'm heading out of work in a few minutes to go to the airport. It seems like all I ever do on Friday afternoons is rush to Dulles airport. :) This time, I am heading home to see my family, and celebrate lots of birthdays. I'm looking forward to it! I'm sure I'll have hoardes of pictures to add to my photo gallery when I get back.. ;)

Summer has finally hit DC! This weekend graced us with some exemplary weather, which I took advantage of by sitting by the pool at my apartment and reading on Saturday. I got a little color, caught up with some Nora, and discovered that for the first time in several years, I CAN go underwater. :)

Sunday I helped a friend move to his new apartment in Ballston. Its a great neighborhood, and his apartment is very nice and in a perfect location. Good work, J!

Its close to 4pm, which means its time to go home for the day. Yeah!