Sure has been a busy week - I am settled in and finally feeling very comfortable. I have tried to put everything in place and it kinda feels like home! The weekend went by too fast. Friday I slept in and went grocery shopping and stuff. I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not – but the grocery store is right across the street. I really can’t drive there. And since I live on the 11th floor and have to carry the groceries up there, I am limited on my grocery runs by what I can physically carry. So, in the store, as the basket gets heavier and heavier, I start to rethink the priorities, “Do I need this 12-pack of soda this trip? Maybe I can go without apples for a few days…” So I lose a few things to lighten the load and then make the trip back to my room. I guess I could drive across the street, right? Wouldn’t that be a waste of gas! At least I could fill up the car and make several trips back down to the garage or just use that wardrobe cart thingie and just hang bags off of it. Sorry… just thinking out loud.

Went to dinner at some Cajun place with James Friday night. He has one of those Entertainment Passbooks, so we spent about half an hour trying to find a place to eat that was close by and in the book. It was pretty tasty. Then we drove down to Georgetown and used another coupon for some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. The Georgetown area is very nice – but darn busy at night; lots of restaurants, bars and shops. Then we ventured over to Union Station to catch a movie, but they were closed. It was just after 10pm! Don’t movie theatres usually have late movies? And since nothing was open to validate our parking, we got to pay $5 for 16 minutes… that’s just wrong if you ask me.

Saturday was a long day. I woke up and looked down at the pool area and saw it was very crowded. I needed to grill some chicken and decided to go down to check out the grills. In the elevator, I noted a sign that said there was a pool party starting at noon. As a result, the grills were being used to cook hotdogs, burgers and chicken. Seeing the opportunity for free food, I went back upstairs, paged everyone to let them know, and changed into pool attire. I went back down stairs and had a bite to eat and then digested it in the sun, laying next to the pool. When I got too hot, I jumped in and the temp was just right! After sunning and cooling off for an hour or so, I was hungry again (I know… I eat a lot!! Darn metabolism!) I grabbed some more food and then saw Larry. He had a bite and we sat for a while and I went up to shower.

I took the Metro to Fairfax and met up with James. We went to an outdoor festival called “Taste of Reston.” A bunch of restaurants setup in booths and offer samples of their foods for $1-5 a taste. You have to shop around to find a good deal or you can blow all your money on a few booths. I got some ginger beer ribs, lobster bisque, awesomely fresh fruit and oysters… all for $8. Then we went to a CrossPoint send off for folks on a mission trip to SW Asia. It was good to see some CP faces again and we watched the movie “Miracle.” It was about the 1980 hockey team beating the socks off the commie Russians in the Olympics at Lake Placid. It was pretty good – the hockey game at the end had me on the end of my seat. They did a very good job recreating the game for the movie.

This morning I went to Grace Community Church again. It was good, but I think I am going to check our McLean Bible Church next Sunday. The series they started today is good and I might have to go to McLean early then Grace afterwards so that I don’t miss it. Work was uneventful. I went to the AF DFAC (Air Force Dining Facility) for dinner. It was pretty good! I have not had a bad meal there yet. What else?... I finally cooked some chicken on the grill this morning. It smelled so gooood! I wanted to eat some right then, but I had to hold back and leave it for later. I’m gonna mix it with some sliced tomatoes and spices and put it over some pasta. Ugh… just thinking about food is making me feel bloated. Time to go to sleep soon… I am going to try to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier so that I can fit some exercise into my schedule in the morning. I need to do more PT!!!

Photos from the food tasting can be found here.