Picture of the Day: November 18th to November 24th

November 18th: It was so nice out today! Even at 7am, it was warm enough to walk the track at work. The moon was still up.

November 19th: My parents are down to visit for a few days! They only come once or twice a year, so it was definitely nice to see them here again. My mom is one of the best house guests ever; she always brings all sorts of food! Since my birthday is almost here, she brought down all the stuff we need to make Jewish Apple Cake and taught me how to make it. I helped by drinking wine and eating the extra apples while she finished putting the cake together...oops.   :)

November 20th: We spent today doing some serious spending at a few stores in downtown Culpeper. We started at an antique store, where I think we all found something we liked (I wound up with a metal horse-shaped letter holder made out of a spring and a bunch of random old black and white pictures that made me laugh). After that, we spent the afternoon wandering around the shops in Old Town Culpeper. We bought a LOT of stuff and ate a lot of stuff, too...by the time we got back to our house I think we all needed to sit down for a few minutes!

November 21st: My parents left fairly early to beat the traffic, so after seeing them off we just did a few things around the house before heading to work. This was one of the things Mark and I bought yesterday: an actual painting! It's by a local artist named Jessie Meehan and it's called "We Saw It All Connected". She was actually at the gallery when we bought the painting (and a few prints), and it was really cool to get to talk to her. We hung the painting right at the top of our stairs, which is great since we walk past it all the time. I swear, I find something new in it each time I walk past! If you're interested, you can check out her website here.

November 22nd: I had a little time before work this morning, so I took my buddy Dave flying for a bit. His plane is in the shop with a sick engine, so he hasn't been getting much flying time himself lately, plus it's always more fun to buzz around with someone else. We did a little sightseeing out by the mountains before heading back to the airport, and on the way back in flew directly over Warrenton Airpark, which is where the skydiving school is. Good thing they were all on the ground when we went past!

November 23rd: Today was Remington's Turkey Trot! There's nothing better than a race in your own town...the start and finish line was only a few minutes from our house, and the entire course covered roads that we run all the time. We both ran really well (I ran 30:20, my second fastest time yet, and Mark ran 20:55, which was his fastest yet), and we were both unhappy with how we finished, which I thought was pretty funny. I was mad because I missed third place (and a pumpkin pie) in my age division by about a minute, and even though Mark got second in his age division, he was unhappy because he won a poinsettia, which was the only non-edible prize. We still both had a really good time, and I can't wait to run it again next year. I will destroy those other ladies...that pie will be mine.

November 24th: I had day/mid today and it was absolutely freezing! I think the wind chill on my way to work in the morning was something ridiculous like 12. I figured it would be the perfect excuse to break out my super warm Iceland stuff...between the sweater and the coat, I was nice and toasty for the minute and a half that I was outside all day.