Sandbridge

For my birthday weekend, Michael and I took Sonja to Virginia Beach. We met up with my parents and had a great time at the ocean. The most exciting part about the weekend was that we had the opportunity to take Sonja to the beach for the first time!

Virginia Beach

If you've spent time at Virginia Beach, you probably know that the beach is lined with highrise hotels, and it can be really hard to find a spot to lay on the beach among so many people. The water also tends to be pretty brown and murky from lots of sediment perturbation. Not exactly the most ideal beach for me (if I'm going to a beach with lots of highrises, I'd much rather be in South Beach Miami),  but much closer to me than nicer beaches like the Outer Banks of North Carolina.


Since there are rules against bringing dogs to Virginia Beach during the busier times of the year, we decided to make the short 15-20 minute drive over to Sandbridge. Although technically dogs are apparently not allowed there either, the rules are much more relaxed, and there were other dogs on the beach too. It was so exciting to see Sonja on the beach, because she absolutely loved it! Seeing her so excited and running up and down the beach with Michael made me really wish we could have had her off of the leash. She wasn't even scared of the water! I am definitely looking forward to taking her back to the beach again.

I had heard good things about Sandbridge before, I was so glad to be able to see it myself; it reminded me of a much smaller Outer Banks. It doesn't have all of those highrise hotels, and there are streets of cute beach houses lining the shore. The best part for me, though, is that you get a large area of the beach to yourself! No fighting other beach-goers for the best spots. No annoying lifeguards blowing a whistle ever 10 minutes. And free parking on the neighborhood streets!  If you are in Virginia Beach and want a more secluded feel, I would definitely recommend hopping down to Sandbridge. Michael even found me a great birthday treat - we bought some blue crabs and had them for dinner -- one of my favorite memories from going to the beach when I was growing up!

Who needs a nice big bear hug?!

Apparently there is a bear in Slovenia who actually does this!

The male cub charmed Slovenia with his antics, including hugging the family dog and playing on the furniture.

National Arboretum

It's strange to think that you can live practically right next door to something of great historical importance, and end up not seeing it for the years that you are there. While others may visit it from around the country, or around the world, someone living so close by just never goes to appreciate it.

I am one of those people.

I had a bunch of family in town this weekend, and we were looking for something to do that didn't involve a museum. So we ended up going to the National Arboretum. I seriously had no idea that this place even existed, but it has some fascinating artifacts/collections.

-The original columns and stairs from the Capitol building, which Abraham Lincoln stood on!

-The best collection of bonsai outside of Japan - some of them are more than 100 years old.

-A lemon tree with the biggest lemons I have ever seen.

-Very hungry koi fish that you can feed.

-Lots of other things that I didn't have time to check out, like the National Grove of State Trees, the trolley that takes you around to all the different areas, and the azalea gardens.

Another great part about it: it's dog friendly! And I really like being able to take my dog places.

Lunch Boxes

So what does it mean when I come across some adorable lunch boxes on luggage.com, and looking at them makes me want to have children so that I can send them off to preschool looking so cute with their little lunch boxes?

Don't worry, I'm not planning on having children any time soon. But if you are in the market for some adorable lunch boxes, or any luggage-related item at all, there is a great Eversave deal right now -- $25 for $50 worth of merchandise from luggage.com. By adding coupon code "LUCKY" at check out, you save an extra $3.They also sell fabric sandwich holders, which is a great alternative to packing with plastic.

Beginning the Lenten Season

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. That means the beginning of a 40-day period (Lent) in which Christians traditionally refrain from eating meat (not including fish) on Fridays and some people decide to deny themselves of something as a form of penance to God. Many of us can remember the difficult time I went through when I gave up chocolate for Lent in high school. Although that did serve as an act of reverence to God (it is extremely difficult to do when you normally eat chocolate multiple times a day), I wanted to give up something this year that would be an even more surefire way for me to grow as a person and develop my faith.

So, I decided to give up watching T.V.

Yes, I know. 40 whole days without television. 46 including Sundays. Although I won't be watching any shows or movies at home, I will allow myself the opportunity to go see a movie at the theater if it so happens. Thinking back on my lifetime at all of the time I have spent watching T.V., it is really appalling to think about all the ways I could have used that time instead. I saw a commercial a while ago that mentioned the amount of time that Americans spend commuting to and from work in their lifetimes, and I was horrified. But really, I can do a lot more about my lifestyle choices at home than I can about my commute (in the short term). We'll just have to see how successful (or unsuccessful) I am!

These are some of the exciting things I hope to do instead of watching T.V. over the next two months:

• Spend time with my dog, family, and friends
• Clean the house
• Read my current book: Ethics for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama
• Exercise more
• Brush up on Spanish and Japanese

• Read the New Testament of the Bible
• Pick up a new hobby
• Bake new kinds of desserts
• Do a better job of keeping in touch with old friends
•  Make lunches at night for work

And here is some interesting information from Wikipedia about Lent:

• Ash Wednesday gets it name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. Ashes were used in ancient times to express mourning.
• In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting, abstinence from meat, and repentance—a day of contemplating one's transgressions.
• The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus (Easter).
• "Lent" initially simply meant spring (as in the German Lenz and Dutch lente) and derives from the Germanic root for long because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.

Photo of Pope Benedict: roblisameehan

Tag Cloud

So the title of this post may seem a bit boring... who cares to talk about tag clouds anyway?

Well, you should notice my tag cloud. It is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I can't exactly take all the credit though, as I noticed it on the Morrissons' blog first, and I immediately knew I wanted it on my blog when I started one as well. The Morrissons are actually distant relatives of mine (don't ask me to tell you the connection!); Lawrence and Michelle just moved from outside of London to northern Virginia with their three sons. So as their closest relatives in the area, we have had some fun adventures with them since they arrived, which you can read about on their blog. 

So back to the tag cloud... well, I saw it on their blog, but unfortunately the HTML was not compatible with blogger blogs. Thankfully, I found this conversion so that I could add it! I tweaked the HTML a bit to make it look the way I liked, and voila! A tag cloud that actually looks like a cloud!

And now my blog also has a pretty new background to celebrate springtime! I am certainly ready for warm weather!