My Magenta

Oh my magenta hoodie.


It's my current favorite. I wore it to DC and I'm wearing it today. Love.

Also, while perusing for subjects relating to this purplish-pink color, I discovered there is a band called Magenta. They are a progressive rock band with a female vocalist. Sounds like my kind of stuff, doesn't it? Oh but wait for the kicker: They are WELSH! YAY! I listened to a few samples online of their music, and while they're not as metal-y as some of the other bands I listen to (Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation) some of their stuff was sort of interesting. One song, "The Traveller's Lament," had a nice Celtic feel to it that I instantly liked. So maybe I will pick up this CD of theirs called "Home," just to see. Yay for new music! :)

DC Pics Done

DC pics are up on the Open Seas Photoblogue. They should appear as the "Featured Album." Go check em out! :)

Grabbing for the Gold

Other than a couple brown shirts with gold accents (like my new Hard Rock Cafe Tshirt from DC) and my awesome gold belt, gold doesn't play much of a role in my life... so once again I am scraping the bucket on this one. :)

I am getting swept up by the phenomenon that is March Madness, as this year I filled out a bracket to try to predict who will go for the gold this year. On my first bracket I picked Memphis to take it all. My sister gave me a few wise pointers and I re-did my bracket, now picking Kansas to take it all. We shall see. As much as I don't like Kansas...but anyways. I am no good at this. But so far I haven't been doing too terribly. I'm sure the next round will be the bracket-buster for me. :)

And since this is the gold post, here are some pictures of gold things... places actually... ;)







They have announced the next fam trip at work, Berlin and Budapest! The bottom picture shows the Corinthian Grand Hyatt in Budapest which is one of the hotels we'd get to stay at. (The first picture shows the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, second picture is of buildings along the banks of the Danube River in Budapest.) They haven't started the sign-up sheet yet, but I'm gonna put in for it... it will take place the first week of May. I could do that. But since I did get to go on a fam trip last year, my chances probably aren't good...they like to pick people who haven't been on fam trips yet. I guess it all depends on how many other people put in for it. But I sure won't miss a chance to go for this golden opportunity to expand my travel horizons!

Book of Silver

Ok quarters don't technically contain silver anymore, but that's what color they are, right? And this is color-blogging, right?? Hee.



I'm not much of a coin collector, but when the U.S. Mint started releasing the 50 States Quarters in 1999, my dad got me a set of collection books to start collecting all the different quarters. The books hold 100 quarters total: 50 state designs, each released from both the Denver and Philadelphia mints (each quarter has a D or a P on it).

2008 is the final year for the coins to be released, so only a few more designs are left to come out (New Mexico will be released at the end of this month, then Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii will be left). Time to start assessing my collection... I was able to add a few more quarters after I got back from Washington, but I am still missing lots from over the years! Of course I try to collect the shiniest, prettiest specimens I can find, but I'm looking for anything that I need now. Here are the designs I am still missing (check your pockets and wallets; I'll buy these from you if you have them!):

• Kentucky (P)
• Ohio (P)
• Mississippi (P)
• Illinois (D)
• Alabama (P)
• Maine (P)
• Arkansas (P)
• Michigan (P)
• Florida (P)
• Texas (D)
• Iowa (P)
• Wisconsin (P)
• Minnesota (D)
• Kansas (P)
• West Virginia (P)
• Nebraska (P and D)
• Colorado (P)
• North Dakota (P and D)
• South Dakota (D)
• Washington (P)
• Idaho (P and D)
• Wyoming (P)
• Utah (P and D)
• Oklahoma (D)

It will be cool to have my books totally full! Then maybe this collection will be worth something... :)

Edited to add: I found out in 2009 they will be releasing quarters for the District of Columbia and also some of the territories... cool! Another year of collecting! :)

Arlington and Mt. Vernon

I am back home now, so I can upload a few pictures! :)



I made it to Arlington Cemetery Wednesday morning, following groups of tourists once inside, because the map they provided of the area was not the greatest thing ever. In fact, I walked right by the JFK grave, which is near the entrance. I was following some group thinking they were going that way, but we ended up at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Which actually proved to be good timing, because I got to watch the Changing of the Guard. Hey, if I missed it at Buckingham Palace when I was in London, at least I got to see it here. :)



Visited the memorials to the Challenger and Columbia shuttles, then saw the Tomb of 2,111 Unknown Civil War soldiers, and the Robert E. Lee house before making my way to the JFK grave.



Paid my respects then headed for the exit. It was another long walk back to the Metro.

From there I decided not to go back to the Mall; my feet had had enough. I visited a cathedral that was close to our hotel, and got there in time for a 12:10 Mass, so that was nice. Then relaxed at the hotel for a bit until Tanya showed up.

That evening (late afternoon, actually) we headed back to the Mall so she could check out the Gallery of Art and she wanted to see the National Archives that wasn't the researcher side. She hadn't seen the documents since she was just a kid. So we did that and we got to see the Magna Carta which had just gone on display there that day. Cool. Then I waited while she went around the Rotunda since I had just done it yesterday. Then we went and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I got the Twisted Mac and Cheese, which was just to die for. Then took a picture of the Ford's Theatre (where Lincoln was shot), which was right next door. It was closed for renovation so we couldn't go in. Oh well.

Went to bed early that night so we could get ready for our big day the next day at...



...Mt. Vernon! I think this was the most fascinating part of the whole trip. I loved touring that old house. We couldn't take photographs inside though. Got to visit George Washington's tomb.



Martha is on the left; George is on the right.

We also did the "National Treasure" tour, because apparently part of the second movie was filmed at Mt. Vernon (I never saw it). Tanya was super excited about it though, and we got to see parts of the tour that you can't see with regular admission, such as the basement, the icehouse, and the riverwalk down the hill from the house:



Definitely worth it.

After our little visit to Mt. Vernon we had to catch a bus, subway, and plane back home... so now here I am. I am working on posting the rest of my pictures to the Open Seas Photoblogue, and will announce when they are done, so check back in a little bit! I'm hoping to have them done in a few days.

All in all a good experience. And the blisters will heal. :)

The National Mall

Been there, done that, seen it, sick of it!! :) I think I walked it twice, at least. Went from the Capitol clear down to the Lincoln Memorial. Saw the National Museum of Air and Space, the National Archives (including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights...neato), and the National Museum of Natural History, where I got to see dinos again like in New York. I visited the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and took a picture from afar of the Jefferson Memorial (they don't make it all that easy to get to from the other stuff, and at that point you're so sick of walking, you think why bother?? Unless you really have a thing for Jefferson, I suppose). Then I took a picture of the White House. I was done for the day after that, and it was only about 3. I met up with Tanya at 5 after hanging out at the Smithsonian Castle for a bit (yep, I did have my obligatory castle experience on this trip!).

Tomorrow I am doing Arlington Cemetery in the morning and then we'll go from there. I'm pretty achy and sore at this point. I hope I'm well enough in the morning to make it and I hope the blisters on the bottoms of my feet don't hurt as bad. I don't want to miss out.

Ok, more later...

Washington, DC!

I am in Washington DC this week! Got here today and have only been to my hotel, and out to dinner. Walked around the north part of downtown a bit (Dupont Circle, Thomas Circle), and the streets take some getting used to, with the streets jettisoning off from around the circles... But tomorrow I shouldn't have much of a problem since I'll pretty much be on the National Mall all day. Should be fun! More later! :)

Sweet Brown

I'll tell you what brown can do for me.


Brownies.



Chocolate.



Cupcakes.



Samoas.

Lately I've been collecting recipes for cupcakes and cookies, because they're just so much fun to bake. And I found (drum roll please):






SAMOA CUPCAKES.

I love that there are people out there that can come up with this stuff. :)

Ok I know it's not much, but I didn't have much else for brown...but I love my sweets. :) Even at the last PartyLite party I went to, all the candles I bought were yummy scents like Coconut Milk Chocolate and Creme Caramel. If I don't have it to eat, at least I can smell it! Can't get enough! :)