Cubicle improvements

I'm having fun making my cubicle at work my own. Here's my first phase of decorating:



Also, it was driving me crazy to have my back to the doorway, so I have added a rear-view mirror:



Now I won't miss a thing!

Anniversary dinner cruise

Fred and I have celebrated our fair share of anniversaries either apart or under less than ideal circumstances (looking at you, Outback Steakhouse in Meridian, MS, with our kids in 1999). This year we decided to live it up by going on a Potomac River dinner cruise.

Here we are as we got on board:



And who was our next-door neighbor in the harbor? Oh, just the presidential yacht!





The food was really good, and the monuments were just lovely as we glided by:



Towards the end of the evening, the band did a special song for couples celebrating milestones. You know how there's always that one adorable old couple? Well, on this particular cruise, WE were the adorable old couple as we took the dance floor with a pair of newly weds and a couple celebrating 10 years!

Sunsets with a Soundtrack

The US Army Band is having a great concert series this summer where they perform Thursday night indoors at Ft. Myer and then repeat the performance the following night on the steps of the Capitol. This is the second one that we have been to.

Here's a selfie of Annabelle and me from a couple weeks ago:



And here's the Capitol tonight after the sun went down:



Tonight's show was "an evening of symphonic blockbusters from Tchaikovsky, Aaron Copland, and John Philip Sousa." It also featured the winner of the 4th Annual National Collegiate Solo Competition, Chris Leslie, who is an absolute bad ass on the euphonium. You can watch the video of last night's performance here:



Towards the end of every show they play all the service songs and invite veterans and their family members to stand for their respective service(s). We are getting quite a workout jumping up for the Marines (my dad), the Army (Fred and my grandfather), and now Air Force (Mike)!

Speaking of twinsies

Remember how Mike and I dressed alike yesterday? Well, today I went to Fort Myer for a change of command ceremony. The ceremony was quite impressive (as always, click to make the photos bigger):





After the ceremony I ran into my friend Karen, and we had a good laugh over our matching dresses:



Then I went to work and discovered that just about EVERYONE is wearing stripes today:





Stripes--all the cool kids are wearing them!

Twinsies!

Mike and I accidentally dressed alike today:

A Father's Day brew

Fred is in Alabama this weekend for his mom's family reunion, but when he gets home, Mike and Annabelle have a treat for him:

Harvey looks down on us all

Annabelle rides the metro

Given that she didn't go to high school here, Annabelle doesn't have any high-school friends to get together with when she's home on break. Fortunately though, she does have some college friends who are either from the area or come through for a visit. She is also very independent though and doesn't mind striking out on her own for adventure. She has started a photo album on Facebook called "Annabelle Rides the Metro," and she said I could share some of her photos here.

Last month we all went to a park in Maryland to see one of her Rochester friends perform in a Latvian folk band:



A couple days later they got together to explore the city. They had a lot of fun, but unfortunately they got caught in quite a downpour:



Today another friend came through for a visit. They did some typical touristy sites:



They also found the grave of Grace Hopper:



They stopped at the Lincoln Memorial for a tourist selfie: