Gorgeous Spring Skies = Writer's Block

Have you looked outside today? Seriously? Okay...I realize if you don't live in Northern Virginia then that statement maybe has no bearing on your life. I'm sorry about that, truly...but here in Northern Virginia the weather today (for the past few days really) is absolutely to die for.

I'm sitting in my office but I can't focus because the sky is an abnormally perfect shade of blue and the temperature is just right and all I can do is fantasize about sitting out on the deck of my house, soaking up some sunlight, reading a book...and yea...sorry....I was thinking on that too intently and completely zoned out. Oops! 

Have you ever seen such a sweet face? Wait - if you've been to this blog before, you have.

Last week I started the week with an always thrilling doctor's visit...but the flip-side of that was that once my appointment was done, I was free for the rest of the day. Because I work somewhere awesome - you know? I went home and got in almost two miles and then joined my Mom for grocery shopping and dinner...all before 6 PM! The rest of the night passed pretty uneventfully for me - I was engrossed in the Nationals game (win!) until I decided to retire for the night.

My Mom came down with some kind of stomach virus on Monday evening and into Tuesday, so I did my best to steer clear of her for the rest of Tuesday. I still remember far too well the stomach virus of February 2015 much to vividly and I think I'd rather saw my own arm off than get a stomach virus again anytime soon. I mean - maybe that's a *bit dramatic* but you get what I'm saying - sickness is not of the good.

Tuesday night feast - a salad feast....that Watson thinks he needs.

Y'all - I'm in trouble. Even the back of his head is cute.

The week itself was pretty uneventful - I walked and walked and walked some more. I watched baseball at night and the Nationals won and won and won some more. It would seem that perfect time of the year has arrived and the days are pleasantly warm, the nights have a cool breeze and I just want to enjoy as much of it as I can...because I'll blink and it will be mid-July and I'll be sweating to death in the shade at 8 at night, you know? Which will be fine...because it will probably mean I'm at Nationals Park, ha-ha! Priorities people...priorities...

Wednesday night clouds...

Watson & I watching Wednesday night baseball...

A walk is made that much better when this is your view. 

Friday afternoon I joined my parents and we headed into DC for the night - amazingly the traffic was not terrible and we even had time to kill after having dinner the Elephant and Crown Pub...although we just chose to go ahead and go into the theater. I was pushing for Starbucks...only to realize that the Starbucks next to the National Theater is closed. Such a horror - seriously. We had tickets to see Jersey Boys; a musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and the play was really good! Of course, the music in the play kind of guaranteed that portion would be excellent...but the whole play was really fantastic. It was even more fantastic when the people sitting to my right moved for the second half of the play and the gentleman's elbow wasn't in my rib. :)

We were sitting up in heaven...hehehe. 

Don't tell - but I took a picture. Not that you can see very much...

We didn't back home until after midnight on Friday...so I slept until 9 AM on Saturday. Can I tell you, it was amazing! In college/after college I could sleep until noon but in the past few years, sleeping late for me meant I might sleep until 8...might... Saturday was a lazy day and it was glorious! I watched Outlander while drinking my coffee and then took off to do my walk; because it was so nice outside I even decided to shift into beast mode and walk three miles! Once I'd come back, I ate lunch while watching Outlander (this time the new episode) and then finally...finally at almost 2 in the afternoon got ready for the day, ha-ha! The afternoon passed pretty quickly and the only picture I have from the whole day? Food! In my defense - it was really good food, ha-ha! I spent Saturday night watching Nationals baseball (win!) and The Office. All in all, a wonderful Saturday!

Some kind of potato bites with aoili & the seriously delicious Chili Polenta bowl from Pavemint!

I was able to coax myself out of bed and to the early service at church on Sunday...coffee is such a wonderful thing, isn't it? As much as I like sleeping in, I also love getting up and going to church first thing on Sunday morning. It sets such a nice tone for the whole day and I've even developed something of a Sunday morning routine: coffee, church, Target run, more coffee...it's lovely, really it is. I find it restful - and isn't that what Sunday is meant to be, a day of rest?

After dinner with a family friend and some baseball (sigh) we drove over to Berkeley Springs, WV - the site of one of the oldest spa towns in the US. Even our founding father George W used to come to Berkeley Springs to take revitalizing soaks in the supposedly healing springs that bubble up from the ground...

Spring in full bloom in Berkeley Springs...

Dipping a toe into the healing waters...

This picture makes me think of the Colossus of Rhodes...I can't decide if that's good or bad...

Random Berkeley Springs shots...

Also - there's a castle. Seriously.

After dinner at Chili's, I turned on the beast mode (again - twice in two days!) and raced to beat the setting sun and get some kind of walking in. Mission accomplished, even if Watson almost yanked my arm out of it's socket three times trying to race after cats. That dog. Sigh. 

And now we've arrived at Monday once more and I'm going to have to leave it at that...because I need to stare out the window some more. The glorious outdoors are tempting me again...