Random Notes

A Hot January Day
Yesterday, January 6, it was over 70 degrees here in the Washington Metro area. I'm not even sure it was ever that warm in January when I lived in Texas. Very odd. Not wanting to let it pass without taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, Jeff and I decided to head to Great Falls park. We'd been to the part of the park in Maryland when Gregory and Mark were here this summer, so we decided to check out the part in Virginia. We arrived a bit after eleven, and the parking lot was already pretty crowded. There were about 10 cars or so waiting to get in in front of us (only one pay station). Jeff contemplated turning around and parking outside the park boundaries and walking in but we waited the couple of minutes required and went in. We clearly weren't the only ones with the brilliant idea of doing something outside. The picnic tables were full and the trails were busy. There were kayakers out on the river and climbers on the rock faces. We hiked around for a few hours, and then left a bit after 2pm. As we drove out, I was impressed to see how far the line to get in stretched and stretched and stretched. There were over 200 cars in line! It was insane. I'm glad we came when we did.


For the Easily Amused
Jeff finally got himself a Wii late last week, so on Friday, he was playing one of the game's he got to go with it: Zelda. He had the option of naming the main character and the main character's horse. He named the main character after himself and then started fooling around with horse's names. I told him to name the horse after me, and he did, which led to lots of amusing moments for me. Like when the little girl stole me and said "I washed Theresa. She's pretty now."

Shopping
I am not much of a shopper. I hate digging through racks and trying on clothes. I'm easily overwhelmed by the choice and by never actually knowing what's going to fit. Every store's clothes fit differently. Then the clothes within the same store fit differently with each year. It's impossible just to go in and pick something up. And then after all the hassle, the stores still want to charge me some ridiculous price. So I generally just don't go shopping and make do with what I have and complain every now and then. But today, I decided to take a chance and go out, hoping to get some new pants using some holiday money I'd received. Usually this would result in me coming home with nothing but frustration. But today I hit the jackpot. I got three new pairs of pants. They normally cost $80, $80, and $58 respectively, but I got them for $20, $20, and $10. What a steal. $218 worth of pants for $50. And now I don't have to go back to the mall for a long, long time. Hooray!