Congratulations Emma Lin!!!

Yup it's true...She survived! Emma graduated from Marymount on Sunday. She made it through her master's program and now has to grow up and become a real girl...adult.

Emma and her parents after the graduation ceremony

We threw her a fun a little party to show her how proud we are of her.

Some of the party goers

Emma's cake - my best one yet...I still need a lot of practice. Brian was teasing me that Congratulations was spelt wrong and I freaked out for a second because I checked it about 5 times before a I put it on the cake. Geez!

Congratulations Emma! You're Awesome!

Valory Comes to Visit!

My former roommate Valory Kneib just graduated with her master's degree in Speech Pathology. YAY VAL! Congrats! And in celebration she decided to take a vacation and come visit me. (or at least I like to think she was coming to visit me and not just because I lived near DC) She spent about 2 weeks visiting us and her Aunt. I've had a most fantastic time. I've been trying to convince her the whole time that she should move out here, but she doesn't feel that this is the place for her. I can respect that and will just have to visit her where ever she may end up. Here are some pictures from our activities.

Valory arrived Saturday, May 3rd and we planned on just sitting around and doing nothing when I got a text from Kendra. It was her birthday and she wanted someone to help celebrate. So we hopped on the metro and head up to Clarendon to the Cheese Cake Factory for some birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Kendra!

I took Monday and Tuesday off and spent those days wandering DC with Val
Yes that is someone wearing a space suit or something. They were having a Military fair on the Mall and well...


We made it out to the Kennedy Center for a concert of the Millennium Stage

The Library of Congress - Jefferson Building

Kendra works for a congressman and took us on a tour of the Capitol Building, however my batteries had just died so Val has the pictures. Afterwards we went to find lunch. Basically we followed all the workers from the Hill and ended up in an area with long lines. We decided to go to this little store and just make due with whatever we could find...besides they had batteries for my camera.

I've now lived in the DC area for nearly 2 years and I still find it amazing that I live here. It's so odd, but I love it and I love it when people come to visit so I can share it with them.

I've been remiss...

I was reminded by my friend Mel that I neglected to publish a post about my Caterpillars



That's right caterpillars. I lived in a small little hick town, or wide spot on the road for many years and in that place there was a house. We called it the Caterpillar House. Why? You may ask. Well, because every spring the porch and yard would be covered with caterpillars! I mean, they were everywhere!



Image my surprise when one day I was walking home from the metro and I noticed what looked like huge spiders' nests in the trees near our townhouse. Although I don't like spiders (at ALL) I was curious enough to investigate. As I got closer to the tree I saw millions of little black bugs moving. Even closer I realized they were young caterpillars! Millions of them. All over the tree.



Later that week Mel and I went for a walk in the forest near her house. As we walked a long noticed the same web/nest things in several of the trees. Walking under the trees we notice again, millions of caterpillars.



Because of my Caterpillar House background I have always had a strange fascination with caterpillars, so we stood around for several minutes watching the caterpillars. Sadly I didn't have my camera, but fortunately my phone has a camera.




Aren't they cute?! There maybe more caterpillar pictures to come.