Feels Like August

The night began like any other. We ate dinner, fed the dogs and took the them for a walk. Toward the end of our route, we saw a couple carrying a small dog that they found tied to the fence post at the dog park. They said that they had a heart for animals but they were homeless and couldn't take care of her. They didn't look like your typical homeless people - decent clothing and book bags - looked like an ordinary couple out for a walk. We didn't really know what to do since we already have two dogs of our own. Three dogs is a handful, but we knew this little gal needed a place to stay and some food.

We're pretty sure she is a purebred Cairn Terrier. (Dorothy's dog, Toto, in The Wizard of Oz was a Cairn.) She is small, but full of energy and runs circles around our dogs. As cute as she is, she tends to be dominant and gets aggressive toward Barley and Erma. But it's hard to blame her for having such a strong little personality since she has probably been through some tough times.

Gina spent all day printing flyers and posting them up around the neighborhood. This is one of those days when I'm thankful that Gina is still a housewife. So far, we've only had one person to respond to our flyer - a lady a couple streets over who lost her Golden Retriever recently. Unfortunately, her husband and son wanted another Golden.

We're hopeful that our friend Suzy will be able to find us a home for her since she is very active in the Fredericksburg SPCA.

Until we can find her a loving home, we've got a new addition to the family!

Groundhog Day

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 8:28 PM

We were headed out on Sunday morning and saw this fat brown animal scurrying across our neighbors' lawn. It had a cute little face and a hairy tail. I first thought it was a beaver, but upon closer examination, I realized it was missing the beaver's signature big flat tail and buck teeth. My next guess was a porcupine since it looked like it had quills. But we were wrong on both - our neighbor identified it as a groundhog. Now that I think about it, he does kind of remind me of Punxsutawney Phil!

Howloween

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 7:45 PM

Halloween was fun this year. We started things off on Thursday with Gina's favorite Halloween pastime, pumpkin carving. I will admit that our jack-o-lantern did not turn out to be anything spectacular, but it served its purpose - "Hey kids! We've got candy!" Between Gina and Erma, it is amazing there was still any pumpkin left to carve. The pumpkin guts looked gross, but Erma thought she struck gold.

Then on Saturday afternoon, it was all about the dogs. Dog Krazy, Fredericksburg's downtown dog shop, sponsored the 2nd Annual Tricks for Treats Pawty. The owner of Dog Krazy distributed 5,000 homemade dog treats to 40 local shops and restaurants. For a $10 donation to Puppies Behind Bars, Barley and Erma were able to walk into all the participating stores and get a treat. By 4:30 they had two bags filled with goodies!

This was our first year dressing Barley and Erma up. I think that Barley liked it better than Erma. Barley was Peter Pan and Erma was TinkErmabell. They were adorable, even though most people thought they were Robin Hood and a butterfly.

It was a cool and overcast day, but that wasn't going to stop us from having a doggone fun time!

And this is what happens when you party too hard.

Oktoberfestin'

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 11:49 PM

October has been a fun month! And we would like to take a moment to thank our sponsors - James/Jimothy and Emily Coffmyer, Trish and Malorie Burkes and Sam Adams ... because October means Oktoberfest!! We had been looking forward to the Coffmyer Oktoberfest celebration in Orlando since James and Emily first mentioned it about a year ago. And it was just as fun as we thought it would be - those Coffmyers sure know how to host a bash :).

The backyard looked like a true Biergartenten!

Our hosts tapped the keg and kicked off the party with real-life FBI beer mugs, complete with fingerprint impressions and a certified government seal. They must know someone on the inside to have gotten their grubby fingers on such fancy beverage gear :).

Even Paddington was dressed to celebrate with his little lederhosen.

I must admit, the best part of the party were these AWESOME German gal paper vests!! I shall never even dream of bosoms this big but it was so fun to pretend for a night! The Coffmyers even mailed us three each of guy and gal vests for fun.

Brian celebrated Oktoberfest Vermont-style with Woodchuck Cider. Bonus - he was able to share with Emily's sister Liz, also not a beer-drinker. And he made friends with Paddington by feeding him large amounts of German pretzels.

And speaking of Liz (right), here she is with Kathleen (left) - the three of us were in Emily and James' wedding together and it was good to catch up with them.

And speaking of catching up ... here's a throwback to the Valencia Source days, circa 1999-2000. Unbelievable that John Lamothe is a college professor and married with 2 kids now. Unbelievable a.k.a. scary.

Brian made a new friend in Albert Ritzhaupt, another Valencia grad, now also a college professor in North Carolina.

All the Coffin bros were in the house - James, Josh and Jared.

Look for another blog posting in May 2010 with a similar photo (replace beer mugs with wine glasses) from Emily and Gina's 30th Birthday Bash in Napa Valley!!! Can't wait for our trip to the vineyards in celebration of old womanhood!

We couldn't leave all our Oktoberfestin' in Orlando, so when we got back home, Trish and Malorie told us about the first-ever City of Occoquan Oktoberfest. So we headed out early on a rainy and cold Saturday afternoon to join in the Occoquan festivities ... and found nearly nothing! No tents, no biergartens, no German music. The downtown shop owners told us that since it was the first year for the event, the city wasn't really prepared and basically unsure of how to properly host an Oktoberfest party. So, we did some shopping in downtown Occoquan for a while and then found the one and only restaurant in town that was doing anything out of the ordinary for the event. And finally, we had some Oktoberfestin' fun with German food, beverages, music and fun hats!

We got free German? hats courtesy of Sam Adams with our tickets to the festivities. Whether they were really German or not, hats are always fun to wear, especially with Trish and Malorie!

Hats and German fare aren't really his thing, but after some coercing, Brian managed to have a little fun too.

It was so fun to dance and hang out with Trish and Malorie for our first Virginia Oktoberfest. Thanks for the good time, girls!!

With all the Oktoberfestin' out of our system, on Sunday afternoon we took the dogs to Lake Lunga on the Quantico Marine Corps Base (where the FBI lab is located) for a picnic. It was a perfect sunny, but cool fall day.

And Brian was off the next day for Columbus Day so we decided to take the train into D.C. to be tourists for the day. We visited three places we had never been - the Renwick Gallery (filled with folk art and crafts), the National Geographic Museum and the Postal Museum.

This is a sculpture made completely of wood! It is a grandfather clock carved with a sheet over it. The sheet part of the sculpture is actually bleached cherry wood. AMAZING! This was the second-coolest piece of art in the Renwick Gallery.

This kingfish is the coolest piece of art in the Renwick Gallery. It is a CHARACTER kingfish, made completely of cartoon, advertising and comic book characters and art supplies. The bottom photo is a little blurry but you can make out Cap'n Crunch in the center. So very cool.

Brian wasn't totally thrilled to visit the Postal Museum but I really wanted to go (something about the system of mail transport across the world fascinates me ... and I like stamps) so he went along. And then his mood changed when we came upon an entire museum exhibit dedicated to his career! I made him pose like this for the picture.

Perfect Pot Pie

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 9:30 PM

Most of you may be wondering what Gina is doing with her time since she is currently unemployed. Well, she may have found her calling. At least that is what our friend Trish and I think. Gina has turned the 10'x10' space into a gourmet kitchen.

Gina made some minestrone soup a couple of weeks ago and made enough to share with our friends Ted and Trish. Trish ate the soup and immediately afterward sent Gina a funny e-mail declaring that Gina's soup should be called "MAXestrone" because it was so freakin' good! I would have to agree with Trish. It wasn't Gina's creation but her execution was spot on. (Click here for the recipe). This recipe is courtesy of Wegmans - the best grocery store on the planet.

The first time she stepped into our microkitchen she was a little surprised at it's size, or lack thereof. But before long she has begun turning out amazing dishes. Some have been the product of recipes while others have been Gina's own wonderful creations. It is going to be hard to let Gina go back to work when she has been having a tasty warm meal on the table for me on a daily basis. I wish that Gina could somehow turn her love for cooking into a career because I think that she may be on to something. Gina told me that she was making chicken pot pies tonight for dinner. I got very excited because this dish is one of my favs. My older sister Lisa passed this recipe along and we've been making it ever since we got married. It is perfect during the cool fall and winter months.

While at work today Gina told me that she was going to dress the pie up with a lattice top crust. Since I arrived home late tonight and wasn't here to witness the master at work, when I walked in the kitchen I found 2 pies looking just like what you see in the picture to the right. I think that her handiwork turned out amazing. I'm sure you all would agree. I must say that it tasted just as good as it looked!

Catch Up on SketchUp

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 9:43 PM

If you know me pretty well, you probably know I love spending hours creating 3D models using Google SketchUp. Now that Gina and I are renting our house in Fredericksburg, I don't have the opportunity to work with wood and build things like I used to in Marietta. In order to feed my creative appetite, I have resorted to SketchUp.

Before we left our home in GA, I measured all the furniture in the house and created models of each piece of furniture. I knew that I would have a few weeks alone in VA (before we closed) so I modeled our rental house. Then it was very easy to determine where to place each piece of furniture using my virtual house. I must say that it turned out pretty well. There were some minor changes, but it made moving the furniture into the house much easier.

(L) photo of rental house

(R) 3D model of house

If you are not familiar with SketchUp, you may be surprised that it is FREE! (Google does offer a professional version, but unless you're $elling your models, DON'T PAY for it.) The options endless with this software.

(L) models of furniture from GA house

(R) furniture models in house

Well, I hope some of you find SketchUp as fascinating as I do.

Mom Time

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Posted by The McVickers | Posted in | Posted on 11:22 PM

My mom was our first guest since moving to Fredericksburg! It was so nice to spend a long weekend with her in our new hometown. We had lots of laughs and good girl time together :).

It doesn't feel like home until you're welcomed on the kitchen chalkboard.

This is why Erma's tag reads "Ball-a-holic". Mom was her new playmate and she was relentless the entire weekend.

One of the many gifts my mom passed down to me is my love of food and cooking. We got to cook an awesome dinner of baby back ribs, mashed potatoes and grilled corn on our first night together and enjoy it on the front porch!

Brian was excited to show off his new workplace at the Quantico Marine Base. The FBI Lab is located on the base, which is 100 square miles of truly beautiful forest. We were lucky enough to see deer and wild turkeys roaming the property on our drive through!

This is the FBI Lab building. Brian works on the second floor. Mom was disappointed to hear there wasn't a morgue like there was at the GBI.

The FBI Agent Training Academy is also located at Quantico and there's a fake town called "Hogan's Alley" where the agents are trained to bust the bad gusy. Hogan's Alley looks just like a movie set - there's a post office, bank, motel (hour rentals encouraged), pharmacy and dry cleaners. Even the Feds have a little sense of humor at the cleaners window message.

Mom came prepared and sported her FBI shirt on our Quantico visit :)

After Quantico, we headed to downtown Fredericksburg for a tour of the Hugh Mercer Apothecary, the Rising Sun Tavern and the Mary Washington House. The prize for best historic tour went to the ladies at the Apothecary who led the tour in full pre-Civil War character!

Brian tested out the Powder Room. We learned the meaning behind all sorts of everyday phrases in today's language on our tour. Men stuck their head through a hole in the door of the Powder Room where slaves would powder their wigs to make the hair look white/gray.

We capped off the evening with an outdoor patio dinner at Jake & Mike's, just a short walk from our house. And we were glad we walked after we saw the very generous glasses of wine :).

Finally, a daytrip to Washington, DC capped off our visit. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a full day of sightseeing at the National Mall and Smithsonian Museums.

We got this pic of the White House just before security ordered everyone off the sidewalk immediately. When we looked over from across the street to see why we were ordered off, we saw a red car pull around to the front of the house and a black Portuguese water dog run across the front lawn.

We took a rest at the Washington Monument and spotted this guy taking pictures. He was wearing girl jeans and had such peculiar poses, Brian couldn't resist imitating him.

And the weekend ended in the same way it began - with Erma begging for Mom to throw her ball. I wish her patience had been passed down to me!