the great white way for the white house

I've been a bit blog silent lately.  It isn't because I've been boring and lazy and had nothing to post about.  It is because I've decided to trade this:

Midtown Manhattan from LIC

in for this:

the Whitehouse

 The opportunity came a bit out of nowhere, but it felt right so I took the chance.  Ever since I said yes I've been spending all my time filling out paperwork and planning the move.  So new city, new job, new exploring, new touch football team (hopefully) and a new apartment (not yet found apartment) to decorate.  Wish me luck!

Wall Art

I've been living for about 8 months with a big blank white wall in my living room.  The space was really to big for any of my framed photographs and I wasn't sure what to do.  Most men would respond that I just needed a much bigger TV, but I don't mind my little guy.  

So one day I decided on an art installation (haha... probably a little to much credit to my artistic ability).

blank wall (with tape for some of my measurements)

To begin I cut out 50 rectangles of craft paper.  Then I drew all 50 states with a sharpie completely from memory (ok lying here).  I pulled out my watercolor set and did some ROY G BV action.  Some states came out better than others, but as a group I think I did a pretty decent job.

I attached them to the wall using map tacks, which resulted in a bit of thumb bruising.

Chilhowee 5K

Last Saturday I ran the Chilhowee Fair 5K for my third time with my fastest time ever.  Chilhowee is a tiny town where I went to school from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  I ended up winning second in my age/gender category (there were only 5 or 6) and 18th overall (out of like 48).  My cousin Whitney won first overall female and my sister Kristen got third overall female, but I did beat my other sister, two cousins, and my parents.

 I recently bought a GPS watch, mostly because I love maps and I was tired of trying to figure out how far I ran (or how long).  When I use it in NYC you can see popular paths of other runners and all the streets I could be running down.  I thought it was funny to see the route in Chilhowee... we basically ran the entire city (and a little bit out in to the country).

Also funny are my splits.  Mile 1 is pretty amazing for me... mile three a bit slow.  I haven't got the start slow, finish strong thing down yet.

Sharing is caring

My niece Gretchen is a modern baby and doesn't travel with toys.  So while she was hanging out at my parents house I let her borrow a few of my old things.

First up was my toy rocking cradle (made by my dad over 20 years ago).  As she was finishing up her bottle we set her inside.  She enjoyed it for about as long as her bottle lasted.  

But she did enjoy sitting in the chair and throwing everything out of the crib.  I also let her play with my Popple, which she loved (she has great taste).

Country Breakfast

My family headed to the K (Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City for those of you not in the know) on Sunday to celebrate my Uncle Dave's 65th birthday (Happy Birthday Uncle Dave!).  We took my aunts' RV up so we had to park in oversized parking all by ourselves.  After a little pre-game tailgating we headed into the game.  The Royals got down early and despite a strong effort in the ninth they loss (we are all blaming it on my Aunt Nancy not putting her rally cap on). 

tailgating all by ourselves

gorgeous fountains

beautiful but windy and chilly day at the ballpark

Gretchen couldn't keep her eyes off of Billy "Country Breakfast" Butler

the Kauffmans

Slugger on the carrousel 

Ode to George Brett