bewildered by the rain and fog

So let me preface this post with a few facts:

1. My mother had a conference in DC this past weekend.

2. She asked for my advice on packing as far as weather goes.

3. Even though I consulted my Weather Channel app 3 times, I pretty much made my mother freeze by telling her all the wrong things to pack therefore resulting in a daughter fail.

So despite the weather being at least 15 degrees (or more) cooler than was forecasted, as well as it raining like every day since she landed (when the highest chance was 30% for maybe one day), it has also been incredibly foggy. As in where is the horizon in the picture above?? Love must be in the air for some hot and heavy dementors in the area...

In trying to make the best of things and show Mom something in all this fog and rain, we hit up Mt. Vernon this past weekend. Apparently hardly anyone goes there when it's 40 something degrees out and the sky resembles a white screen (I couldn't imagine why)... On the upside, the guides do offer more information when fewer people are shuffling through the house. 

So after our fun and chilly walk about Washington's plantation, we headed to the National Harbor to drop Mom off to register for her conference. And while we were trying to avoid paying for parking driving around aimlessly killing time waiting on her, we decided to be all spontaneous and hit up some open houses. What are we... 30?? Ha, it was pretty fun I must say. Well, except for looking at some of the asking prices (especially the $400/month HOA fees...). 

But I think my personal favorite from this weekend is the car in the last picture above. Please take as much joy fathoming whatever it is the owner was going for as we did Sunday morning. That van's roof had at least three solar panels, a propeller, and a chair covered in camo. Any thoughts??

And after braving the cold and wet weather for as long as we could, the Berry's finally caved and made our first fire in our new apartment. Now all we need are s'mores :)

A tidbit for a Thursday

Yesterday at the gym, I'm totally struggling with this machine that is kinda broken, and being the enginerd that I am, I'm trying to fix the machine without drawing attention to myself. This nice man walks by (I'm pretty sure he thinks that I'm befuddled by this situation) and starts to help me. Alas, the machine cannot be fixed, and I thank him kindly and move on to another. 

Here's the best part: he asks me if I'm British. Boom. My day is made. Heck, my week is made. 

Naturally, I start to blush as this is one of the best compliments of my life, but I set him straight and tell him that I am actually from the sweet state of Alabama (my thinking is that I could win some education points for our state for not sounding anything like the people in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo). Lo and behold, this man used to work for UAB for 20+ years and loved Birmingham and Alabama so much, he still has his house there. And wants to retire there. He even went on to say that Alabama is a far better place to live than the UK (I'm not exaggerating). Yes, as you could imagine, I was filled with gooby pride and carried on a conversation with him for a few minutes while my sweet husband is quietly laughing at me from across the gym.

I would like to take this time to credit the two straight days of rain and wind from the not-so-sweet Sandy hurricane that encouraged me to watch Downton Abbey Seasons 1 & 2 and thus sound more polished and therefore British for a day or two. Husband had his own Brit invasion the past few days as he finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and requested that we watch the movie version as well. Only one more book in the series to go for a boy who never thought he'd read HP before we got engaged (it might have been heavily encouraged... I'm just looking out for his best interests).

My only hurdle to overcome in order to become a posing Brit (other than the US birthplace and lacking an accent issues): I'm not terribly fond of tea, whether it be hot, iced, or sweet. So really, I'm at an identity crisis because I can't properly become British, nor do some find me fully Southern. But I suppose it's alright because I live in Virginia now, and they don't always offer tea. It's a healthy middle ground, I suppose. 

And in more pertinent news, if you're friends with my sweet brother, Blake, in facebook land or in real life, be sure to wish him a wonderful birthday today! I know he'd appreciate it :)