100 Pushup Challenge Update

In reference to an earlier post Peter or myself will keep this spreadsheet updated with our every-other-day progress. My numbers are quite embarrassing, but at least they are going up! (for now anyway) :-)

In case you haven't read the afore mentioned earlier post, (*gasp!*) Peter and I are participating in the 100 Push Up Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to be able to do 100 consecutive push ups in just 6 weeks! Seems impossible (for me anyway)... we'll see!

Updated Picasa

Hey there. Check out our pictures of our day trip to DC last Wednesday on Picasa. Peter & I went down just for a few hours and checked out a few of the Smithsonian's. I'm so excited that they are all FREE!!! The National Air & Space Museum was especially interesting - if there are any guys (or girls!) that read this blog that are interested, there's plenty of airplane photos! :) We were there for 2-ish hours and didn't even see 1/2 of the museum.
It's about a 30 minute metro ride from our place to DC, and the stop that we got off at put us right between the Washington Monument and the Capital Building... which also conveniently put us smack in the middle of many of the Smithsonian Musuems!

Here's a self portrait of us in front of the Freer Art Gallery:See Picasa for the rest!

This is CRAZY....

One of the craziest, strangest things I've heard of: Click here

Challenge!

Peter and I are attempting the One-Hundred-Push-Up-Training-Program! We start tomorrow... anyone want to join?!

One last thing - I forgot...

When we bought the bed, the saleslady informed us that it would be "hard" at first, and that we'd need to walk all over it to break it in... so here's Peter doing just that (or something like that...).

Making this house a HOME...

This has been our bed for the last 3 weeks... I must say, I'm glad to see it go!This was delivered yesterday... Could not WAIT for bed last night!

And this is the above bed with our new "trimmings" on it! I LOVE the colors and I'm excited to find some paint that will accent it all!
Our living room, finally put together.. We're happy to have places to sit now, but it's driving me crazy that nothing matches! (green, brown, tan, blue, black...) Oh well... it works for now!
"Dining Room" - Really just an extension of the living room, but again, it works!
Futon - We decided this was the way to go rather than a sofa so we could have two extra beds instead of one.
Table-top
I think that about wraps it up... Come visit and see the place for yourself! :)

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico: June 7th-14th

We decided on the 5th of June that since Peter had two more weeks before he started work, that we would see if we could find a cheap trip somewhere tropical! I was browsing on Craigslist, and found a resort in Playa Del Carmen for $300 (!!!) for the entire week - the only catch was we had to be there in two days. No problem! We grabbed some plane tickets, packed up, and were off for some sunny, warm days!
Here's where we stayed: The Royal Hacienda
From the water, looking back at the resort. The building with the grass roof is the restaurant.
Peter bought an underwater digital camera before we left - it was so awesome to just jump in the water with the camera, and click away!
Peter, doing a handstand:
The tile work in Mexico is amazing - this is underwater in the whirlpool:
Storm brewing... It thunder stormed intermittently while we were there - but it's constantly warm, so the rain didn't scare us away.
Relaxing in the hammocks:

More underwater photos, goofing around: Me...
Hubby
Us hanging out at the resort...
Paradise...
This was our dinner one night - Cup 'O Noodles & a mango...
...then this was our dessert! Creme Brulee - YUMMMM!
On Friday we "resort hopped". We first went to the Royal Islander (where we will be staying in October), then the Royal Carribean, and then the Royal Sands. We were looking for some good body surfing waves, but this is what we found when we got to the Islander. This beach was a beautiful sand beach when we were there in 2006, and had amazing waves for body surfing. However, the hurricane that came through last year washed most of the beach away, and exposed all of these HUGE rocks. Not so good for body surfing anymore! According to some of the other visitors, the goverment is planning on bringing in a few million dollars worth of sand to build the beach area back up, as this is a huge resort strip and they are losing customers. They also may make an artificial reef out aways in the ocean to try to change the current a bit to avoid some of the erosion. Apparently they have to do this every few years because of the storms!
We finally found some sandy beach with waves out in front of the Royal Sands. Peter's on the far right of the photo:
Pretty drink! It's called a Tropicana
Pacos Tacos - Our best meal!
The little car that got us where we wanted to go! It's called a Matiz, made by Chevy.
That's all for now - the rest of our photos (all 248 of them!) are on Picasa - feel free to browse!

Waaaay back in time...

It's going to take quite a few photos to catch up on everything! Here goes - one event at a time... :)

The week before we went to Mexico, Peter had the great idea to go look at trailers to store the motorcycles in... Needless to say, we came home with one, and it fits both our motorcycles perfectly! So now they have a nice, dry, secure (hopefully) place to call home. Our property management company allows one parking space per person, so we have our Murano in one, and the trailer in the other... how's that for consolidation?! :-)
Outside:Inside:

See ya later!

We're off to Playa Del Carmen Mexico early tomorrow A.M. for the week!

Hasta la pasta! :-)

I almost forgot!

I got this fortune with my Chinese food the other day! Ooooh boy am I believing in this one! :-D

Our House - Finally

Our townhouse is the white one on the left of this photo w/the black door. It's nothing fancy at all - very typical apartment style, white walls/cabinets/counters & beige carpet. I think it'll warm up a bit inside once I get the walls painted. Both rooms are very big, and the living room is really big also so we can't complain about space. :) We're about 1.5 miles from the metro and a 30 minute metro ride into DC, and only a 10 minute drive to Tyson's Corner. Peter's job is currently in DC, and will eventually be in Tyson's Corner, so we're conveniently centrally located. Our living room - Nice and big, but also a big MESS. Everything to the right of the bikes is for storage, so hopefully this room will be cleared out soon! :-)
Linen Closet upstairs - the bathroom is to the right of this, our bedroom is to the left, and the guest bedroom is on the other side of the bathroom.
Kitchen boxes that I've unpacked so far...
Tea anyone?
How 'bout in my new tea/coffee cups?!
White, white, white.
There's food in the fridge! :-) Maybe I'll cook one of these days...?
Dozer found his spot...
Printer/Modem/etc in our closet
I'm sure you've noticed there's not many photos of the rooms inside... That's because they're such a MESS, and I promise once I get a little more organized, and am not so embarrassed about the condition of each room, I'll put some more pics up. :) Or you could just come visit and see for yourself!
Peter's start date has been pushed out 2 weeks, so we decided last night to take advantage of the extra time and go on a vacation! We found a place on Craigslist, and are leaving at 6 am on Saturday morning for Cancun!! I can't wait!!!
We bought a new bed today - Tempur-Pedic, and I can't wait for it to come! It'll be delivered as soon as we get back from Cancun. We've been sleeping on an air mattress, and we're both more than ready for a real bed!

Recap of Yesterday...

This will be amusing, someday.

Goals for the day: Get Peter fingerprinted in DC before 3:30 (when they close) and leave our place by 6:00 for meeting.

How it all panned out:
Peter spent the a.m. getting info for his background check while I unpacked some more boxes.
2:00 pm - leave our place (walking to the metro - about 1.5 miles away)
2:45 pm - board metro - it is late leaving because they shut down 1 of the 2 tracks for maintenance. Nice, good start. It will get better, right?
3:25 pm - Arrive in downtown DC
3:25 pm - Downpour/Thunderstorms begin
3:30 pm - Realize we've walked the wrong way for 5 blocks, turn around
3:45 pm - Arrive @ DOE building, fingerprinting office is closed.
3:50 pm - Walk back to metro, realize we took the LOOONG way & could have walked only 1 block instead of 4...
**Soaking wet, it's thunderstorming still**
4:00 pm - Board metro to come home
4:05 pm - Hear announcement on Metro that they've shut it down at East Falls Church, a tree has fallen on the tracks. Thunderstorm getting worse.
4:30 pm - Arrive at East Falls Church to at least a thousand people who have nowhere to go and are waiting for busses/shuttles/taxis etc. Total chaos.
4:45 pm - Decide to follow the masses to walk to the West Falls Church Metro and board there.
4:45 - 5:05 pm - Walk 1 mile until blisters form. Take off flip-flops.
5:05 - 5:35 pm - Walk 2 more miles barefoot.
5:35 pm - Arrive @ West Falls Church Metro
**Still soaking wet, intermittent downpours**
5:35 pm - Realize West Falls Church Metro is shut down also, hail a cab.
5:40 - 6:35 pm - Sit in traffic watching our fare go up, up, up. Cab driver informs us that West Falls Church Metro actually WASN'T shut down - the people we saw leaving were the ones trying to go to DC via East Falls Church. Right. Crud.
6:40 pm - Arrive home. Pay $30 cab fare. Way to late to go to meeting. Soaking wet. Grumpy. Blisters. Tired.

At least we got a 3+ mile walk in.

Needless to say - house pictures didn't happen last night.

We're done traveling!

We had a fairly uneventful trip - We had planned each days drive before we left, so I was a bit anxious that everything happen on schedule! :) All happened on schedule, just not always ours - we felt every single bump in the road (the truck had terrible suspension), one trailer tire had to be replaced, spent over $70 on toll roads, backtracked over 50 miles because our GPS decided to take us the "scenic route", and out-ran two tornadoes. Here's a recap in pictures:

The Vehicle: Destination 2,722 miles - 40 hours drive timeThe DriverThe Passenger
The Pain-in-our-rear
Actually, I must clarify. Dozer did exceptionally well for being stuck in a truck cab for 5 days & in a different hotel each night. Each day he was a bit calmer & by day 5 he was riding like a champ. I think he could get used to the trucker's life! I couldn't tho... The View - Entering Utah
More Utah View
Wyoming Windmills - These fascinate me... They are so HUGE!
Tornado finally behind us in Nebraska
Gorgeous red poppies lined the median in Maryland. Sorry so blurry, but you get the idea?
Next up - photos of our new townhouse, as we try to make it a home! :-) That post will come tomorrow.