he said. she said. a married couple's blog.

Friday, June 20

Let:

j = size of jessica's stuff
b = size of brendan's stuff
m = size of misc stuff
c = capacity of eight passenger vehicle
x = size of bridget's stuff

So:

c = j + b + m + x

Suppose:

m = 1 person capacity
j = 2 person capacity and
b = 2 person capacity...

That means that x (aka Bridget) is = 3!!

it really didn't feel like we were packing all that much. no wonder my parents used to take two cars when all 6 of us went downeoshun for two weeks!

Thursday, June 12

exterminator

I think my favorite story from our C'ville trip happened at Monticello. We had just come through the "all-weather passageway" and Bridget, Brendan and I were waiting for Anne to use the facilities. Bridget, as she often does, noticed a big old ant crawling around on the brick path. She crouched down and watched it for a few minutes. Some high schoolers who were on a group trip gathered near her and commented on how adorable she is. Then, right on cue, Bridget stood up, sized up the ant, lifted her foot and stomped on it. "I GOT IT!!!" She yelled "SQUISH ANT!!" Too perfect.

Labels: bridget, trips

Sunday, June 8

hot & bothered

Today, we went to Monticello. And boy, was it hot. For the most part, there was at least some sort of a breeze, but when the air completely stopped it was almost unbearable. We had wanted to get an earlier tour than the 9:55 we had ended up with, but our efforts to purchase tickets online were unsuccessful. SQL error messages and no phone number to call to buy in advance.

The grounds were quite pretty; however, there wasn't as much to see as say Mount Vernon. The tour of the house went quite well. Bridget was very good for the most of it, and about halfway through, we took her out of her stroller and carried her. Between Brendan, his mom and I we had plenty of hands. In the very last room (we didn't know that at the time), the Madison bedroom, she got a little fussy and made like 30 seconds of noise.

Well, that was just unacceptable to some Monticello old-lady employee.

She popped her head in the room and said, "Does she need to go out." I said, "No, it's alright. She'll be fine." and then she said "Why doesn't she come out, come with me." and I said again, "She'll be fine." And she was fine but this woman was majorly pushy. I know it probably doesn't sound like it, but she was giving me the disapproving eye like she somehow knew better.

Whatever lady.

And seriously, two minutes later our guide was leading us outside. I mean, she made it through 6 other rooms... I was pretty damn annoyed. I understand that they need to think of all the people on our tour, but it was literally longer to tell this woman that we were fine where we were than Bridget was "fussy".

I would definitely go back though. The house was interesting and the grounds were very nice. It'd be something to see in the fall. I'm not about to let one sourpuss ruin the experience.

Bridget is an incredibly good little traveler.

Labels: bridget, trips

Saturday, June 7

hot visit

We decided on a whim to drive down to Charlottesville this weekend. On the way, we stopped off at the Wilderness battlefields to where Brendan's great-great-great grandfather was wounded. Obviously, he lived, but it's quite amazing. He got shot in the chest and made it all the way to the hospital in Alexandria.

The drive through the country was really pretty. I honestly want to live in an old farmhouse somewhere. Brendan, not so much.

We spent a little time at the downtown mall, had lunch, did some shopping, took Bridget to the Children's Discovery Museum and had gelato.

First of all, the gelato was AWESOME. I had a scoop of rose and a scoop of blood orange. Amazing. Brendan had raspberry and chocolate hazelnut. Brendan's mom had strawberry and dulce de leche. Bridget had a little of everything but preferred the strawberry and the rose.

The Children's Discovery Museum was a lot of fun. It was only $4.00 per adult ($3.50 with our AAA discount). Since it was so crazy hot, it was so nice to get out of the sun, and let Bridget run around and play with a bunch of fun stuff that we didn't have to clean up.

After we checked into our hotel, we took a short drive (2 minutes) to the UVA campus and got some T-Shirts at the bookstore and walked around. It's apparently a big alumni reunion weekend, and they were setting up a dinner around the rotunda, so we didn't get any photos -- we'll have to do that tomorrow morning. We're heading out early to Monticello, a winery (or two) and who knows what else before we go home.

We grabbed some dinner at a little Italian place right near our hotel, and then spent some time cooling off in the hotel pool. (Mom, you will be so happy to hear that Bridget says swim pool with a nice little southern accent.) Bridget LOVED the pool, and did not want to hold onto anyone; however, she does not know how to swim. I totally understand why kiddie pools exist now.

She's fast asleep in the bed now while we wait for the DC United vs. Chicago Fire game to start.

Labels: bridget, trips

Thursday, June 5

makes me smile

There's this commercial that's running on a local radio station in which a man is acting as a labor coach for his wife and doing Lamaze. Bridget has started repeating it, going "tsssst tsssst whoooo" from her carseat.

Cracks me up. Every. Single. Time.

Labels: bridget

Sunday, June 1

statistics

My brother Kevin graduated high school earlier this week (YAY KEVIN!); he's headed to my alma mater, Towson U for college.

Some things struck me in the program (not all surprises)

Total	226
Male	104
Female	122

	Number	% of total	% of females
Headed to traditional 4 year college/university	49	21.68%	n/a
Named Brittany/Brittney	12	5.31%	9.84%
Middle name Nicole/Nichole	17	7.52%	13.93%
First name Brittany/Brittney and Middle name Nichole/Nicole	4	1.77%	3.28%

Labels: family, lists, math