I Wrote the Post, but I Can't Come Up with a Title

Oh Monday - you always have a habit of arriving right on time. Last night as I pulled my Scandal DVD out of the player (do y'all watch Scandal? If not, you need to get on it ASAP. It's on Netflix and it's scandalously good) and I bemoaned that I just couldn't believe it was already the eve of Monday again!

So far this Monday hasn't been too catastrophic although there have been some bumps here and there. Granted, this post is concerned with Monday from a week ago...and all the days that followed that, so this Monday isn't really important yet.

I'm pretty proud of this bad boy - but it's really hard to get that candle lit.

Munching on a salmon "cigar"...he ate the whole thing in less than 30 minutes!

When the pup attacks. And yes, I know this angle is SO flattering...

I'm going to go ahead and confirm that obviously last week, during the actual week I don't think too much happened. I thought I was going downhill pretty quickly on Monday evening; we went to grab groceries after supper and the longer we were in Wal-Mart, the worse I felt! I was sure I was coming down with my annual cold and so I stocked up on medicine and Halls, preparing for the worse. I went to bed Monday night at 9:15 - I wasn't even playing around. I woke up on Tuesday and felt fine! Who knows what was going on?

We told Lindsey we were going to ship Watson to her - he looks thrilled, right?

My friend is trying to catch me up on all my failed/missed movie experiences...

A gorgeous & color filled sunset on Thursday evening.

I did deal with several crazy intense Sinus/Allergy related headaches last week; I guess the changing weather was really messing with my head! I did find that almost as soon as I'd get home and take off walking, getting that blood flowing really made the headache stop! I guess there are so many benefits to walking, including headache prevention! Besides playing catch-up on some TV shows with my Mom, the week itself was pretty calm...we did tell Watson on Wednesday that we were going to mail him to his "Aunt" Lindsey but then only his feet would go into the box, so we decided that wouldn't work. He was amused, as you can tell by the above picture.

A pumpkin spice martini; the perfect way to start off the weekend!

The red-hued view into the belvedere at Long Branch on Friday night; not creepy at all, right?

As soon as five o'clock rolled around on Friday, my friends from the office and I headed toward Upperville for supper at Hunter's Head Tavern before taking a Candlelight/Lantern Tour of Long Branch Plantation. Hunter's Head never disappoints and I was so happy to get to share one of my favorite places to eat with my friends...and as usual, the food was delicious! I tried a Pumpkin Spice Martini and discovered that they can make a pretty nice drink too, ha-ha! The Lantern tour of Long Branch was delightfully creepy...but in a good way. The tour highlighted death, death practices, rituals and superstitions from the 1800's and there was even a coffin in one of the rooms - eek! Once I got home, I didn't linger downstairs too long because I had a busy day on Saturday!

Spending the day in DC with my friend Katie - it was her first time in the city!

The three states I've lived in (so far) represented at the WWII Memorial.

I just couldn't help it...

My friend Katie has never been to DC before and I made it my mission to fix that - because, as I've mentioned, I do love myself some DC and so I had to do my very best to make someone else fall in love with the city...and I think I succeeded! I introduced her to the DC Metro, which can be a thrill...either good or bad, maybe it was a little bit of both between the weird stains, the stranger people, the kid who got sick on the way back to Vienna and the whole one train running thing. All in all it was a fairly smooth Metro journey even if it was delayed on the way into DC and crazy crammed with people on the way out of DC!

These trees are pretty in Autumn...but perhaps just a wee bit prettier in the Spring!

Barry was taking a stroll on the balcony...thinking up another hair-brained idea, no doubt. Oops...did I really type that?

We stopped by all the monuments, (okay, almost all of them) wandered through the White House Visitor's Center and of course, we cruised over to stand in front of the White House and stare at it. We couldn't get very close because the POTUS was taking a stroll on the balcony and so security was heightened. Oh me...whatever! En route to the Metro to return home, I found a teeny duck abandoned on the sidewalk, almost obscured by some construction work going on...but his bright yellow exterior caught my eye, so I grabbed him up and tossed him into my bag. I don't know why, but I just decided I'd take him home with me...he'd be my DC Duck, a souvenir of showing Katie the city. And I definitely gave him a good scrub when I got home....who knows what was on that curb?

DC Duck in the country...

Seriously - he's tiny. As in, rests comfortably on top of a nail polish bottle. I stuck him in a plant on the table to be goofy but he's residing on my dresser now. If I'd found him earlier on Saturday I'd have definitely taken his picture with every monument and memorial.

The picture that accompanied my fifteen seconds of MSU Jumbotron fame on Saturday night!

Oh - if you aren't my Facebook friend then you won't have seen my proclamation on Saturday night about my fifteen seconds of MSU Jumbotron fame. I haven't been to an MSU game this season (driving 13 hours to Starkville is a little far) but I'm planning to be in the stands for the Egg Bowl this year....Hail State. Apparently they put tweets on the Jumbotron during the game and on Saturday night I received a rather excited text from my sister that said "I JUST SAW YOUR TWEET ON THE JUMBOTRON NAT!!!" I heard from my friend Kristen and a family friend, Sandra too - they'd all seen my picture (chugging a cup of coffee, ha-ha) pop up on the 'tron with my tweet! So, I haven't even been to a game yet but I had my fifteen seconds of fame, ha-ha!

Shenandoah National Park is looking especially colorful this time of the year - much more color than last year!

The woods look like they're on fire!

Absolutely breathtaking views in every direction.

Sunday afternoon I joined my parents on a drive through the National Park; well, I joined my parents and everyone else within a 100 mile radius! There was a line a mile long just to get in the park and at every overlook there must have been twenty cars...all crammed together to try and take a picture of the gorgeous Autumn colors! I don't blame them, the colors this year are pretty spectacular! They're certainly much more grand than last year; last year everything seemed like it just turned dark orange or brown and fell to the ground...but this year...oh my. Yellows, reds, oranges that make the threes look like they're on fire...the colors are everywhere! It was definitely a well spent afternoon - especially since we ended the outing with a stop at a local bakery in Sperryville before strolling through the Copper Fox Antiques store.

Isn't this the sweetest face you've ever seen?

I made a Target run (so important) on Sunday evening and even stopped in at Famous Footwear and managed to snag two pair of shoes for $35! I couldn't pass up a deal like that, you know I love shoes! So, that was the past week...in a nutshell. 

I'll leave you with that precious puppy face - my Mom took that picture and really, he couldn't be cuter if he tried. Even if he is begging...