Virginia Southerness & Sunsets

I don't know about your "neck of the woods" but the first week of August here in Northern Virginia has been downright pleasant. I mean - I wore skinny jeans to a baseball game - in August and I didn't sweat or feel miserable and hot...it was great.

I'm getting ahead of myself though...I certainly have a tendency to do that, don't I? Oh well. Also, does anyone actually know what "neck of the woods" means? I don't...but it fit, so there you have it.

Flowers anyone?

They certainly added a little something to my desk.

Monday morning was about the way you'd expect a Monday to be; slightly slower than normal (at least for me) and seemed like just the general Monday morning slog to start the week. However, it brightened considerably when one of our clients popped into the office holding a giant bouquet of peach roses. She chatted with me for a few minutes and then asked my name; when I told her, she presented me with the bouquet and announced "well these are for you!" Side note: Exactly - it wasn't some tall, dark and handsome man who presented me with roses on Monday. It was an elderly lady. Flowers are always gorgeous but no one needs to get too wildly excited and think some man was wooing me with flowers. That's still nothing more than a dream... *sigh*

Monday evening rainstorms lead to rainbows...

Oh yeah...that's why my purse smells funny...

Tuesday morning was equally interesting - especially since I've become a devoted fan of all things menthol related for rubbing on tired muscles. I usually save that for when I'm at home but my legs were aching pretty well on Tuesday morning and I'd conveniently stashed a small tub of Tiger Balm in my purse. I grabbed it out and smeared it liberally all over the sides of my calves and then went to our morning meeting...smelling like a nursing home. My co-workers were quick to announce that that someone smelled like Ben-Gay and I admitted that I had Tiger Balm on as my eau de parfum of choice for the morning..and they all wrinkled their noses. My boss however disagreed and said he thought menthol was one of the best smells in the world - and I heartily agreed. I love the smell so much, I don't even mind that it's making my beloved Washington Nationals purse smell mentholated.

Sunset at Long Branch on Tuesday night.

All smiles - until I turn the camera on her.

I appreciate the reminder but I didn't need it, ha-ha!

The rest of the week...as always...seem sort of like a rush of things. I'm not sure why; I wasn't particularly busy. There was church on Wednesday night and I played with Amelia in between looking up a Bible verse and joining conversation - she's all over the place now and pretty funny to watch. Whats even funnier is that she wouldn't smile when I turned the camera on her...little stinker! My flowers survived through the end of the week and between the reminder about the Friday night Nationals game and the win over the Diamondbacks (that we sorely needed), by the time Friday rolled around I was waiting anxiously to head out from work early, get changed into my Harper jersey and get to the Park on Friday night!

A couple flowers, still going strong on Thursday afternoon.

I don't know why this little weirdo sits like this...except that he maybe thinks he is a human...

The Red Porch - my first dining experience was on Friday night.

Jordan Zimmermann & Wilson Ramos with Steve McCatty - ready to start the game.

The Friday work day flew by pretty quickly and before I could think too long about it, we were in the car and headed up the Interstate into DC for some Friday night baseball. We left at 3:30 and we were pretty confident that we'd be ahead of the traffic - especially since at 5 o'clock, most people are headed out of DC and not into it. We did fine for the most part but one thing I've learned in the past year: don't ever count on DC traffic being "easy"...especially not after 5 o'clock. It doesn't matter whether you're coming or going...because everyone in DC is always busy and always has somewhere to get...and they want to get there in a hurry.

Harp tossing some balls in between innings...

Favorite player up to bat? Check!

Fireworks for a finale...if only it'd been a grand finale...

The game was fun; especially right up into the 8th inning, then things progressed downhill pretty quickly. That's really a story for another post though. Seriously - I took about thirty pictures (of course) and I'll share that sad tale at another time. Regardless of the outcome, I absolutely love spending time at Nationals Park and it's definitely one of my favorite places in DC. I was pretty pleased to see my bed at almost 1 AM though; those fireworks after the game really stretched the evening out.

The Washington Monument in the moonlight...

I experienced the Yard Crawl for the first time on Saturday morning and I have to say - I don't think it was really my thing. What is the Yard Crawl? It's basically a yard sale that stretches down Highway 11 for something like...40 miles. I am not and have never been a huge yard sale/garage sale type person and I mistakenly wore blue jeans to tool around from yard to yard...and that was not a great choice. I think I pulled on the jeans and my Scherzer No Hitter t-shirt and realized they were both looser than they'd been previously and so that pretty much decided my outfit. Ha-ha! We finally returned home from our "crawling" around 2:30 and I have to admit, I was a big bum for the rest of the afternoon - no shame, it was a Saturday! I made the suggestion later in the day that we ride into the National Park to watch the sunset and while initially no one seemed too enthused, they changed their minds around 6:30, so we loaded up the dog and into the park we went...

A Saturday night sunset in the park...

Watson not even remotely interested in taking pictures with me.

A few odd little wildflower blooms on the trail.

My "find" on Saturday - and it didn't even come from the Yard Crawl.

Sunday was another afternoon spent in the National Park - we are going camping in September and my parents wanted to scope out the campsite, so we loaded Watson into the car and headed up into the mountains again. Watson was thoroughly fascinated with everything we saw and tried to befriend every person we passed; he's convinced everyone should love him, which I can't really argue with since he's pretty awesome. He scampered all over the campsite and inspected every rock, tree and twig - I may not be too sure about camping but he's going to love every minute of it. We also explored some of Big Meadows and had some blackberry ice cream before heading back down the mountain and home.

The weird positions he sits in...continued...

Big Meadows - stretching into the distance.

Acting like he's not begging for my whole dish of blackberry ice cream.

Adventures are draining!

So...I suppose that's all for this past week. Although, I did find a little something I thought I would share to end this post...

Although I've only been a Virginian for 16 months now (and a Mississippian before that and a Californian before that...) I stumbled onto a fellow bloggers description of what she called "Virginia Southerness" and I just loved it too much not to share it....especially since in my 16 months as a Virginian, I've already experienced quite a few of these "Virginia Southern" things. People have tried to tell me that Virginia isn't really the South...but in reality, it's just not quite as far South....

I love all aspects of Virginia Southerness - horse racing, monogrammed thank you notes, pewter mint julep cups, bright colored front doors, Lilly and Seersucker in the summer, Blue Ridge wineries, college football, the rivah (river for non-Virginians), peanuts and salty ham, people in colonial garb, a true sense of family and the sweet life! - Caroline of Virginia Sweet

I hope your week ahead is filled with sweetness - and maybe a little "southerness"