superhuman. superstar. superhero.

i don't talk much about my job on this blog because that seems like both a boring and a bad idea. and, frankly, if i think too hard about all the servicemen and women coming back from combat with really serious, life-altering injuries, i get really depressed and then i get really mad and then i want to cry.

but, i am also 100 percent inspired by what these wounded warriors accomplish. we are talking about a double leg amputee who ran a 1500 meter race on prosthetic legs he had only had for six weeks. we are talking about service members with severe PTSD who get up every day and face their fears so they can go to work and take care of their families. we're talking about a blind swimmer who will compete in the paralympics exactly one year to the day that an IED explosion took his sight.

it blows my mind, and i feel really honored and humbled to meet these people and see what they can do with my own two (crying) eyes. i still wish it hadn't happened to them, but not a single wounded warrior i've met would give it back if they could, and it's certainly not slowing them down.

so, it's probably no surprise that this promo video for the paralympics made me cry. (embedding was disabled, so click on the link.)

i mean, come on. sure, not all these people were injured in military service, but this is the kind of resilience i am talking about.

it blows my mind. and, when i let it, it changes me, too.

this time, with feeling!

it has come to my attention that the amazing video of singing-and-dancing ryan gosling was not embedded in my previous post. alas! alack! i am so sorry for the tease.

can i make it right? here you are.

free-wheeling

our big accomplishment this weekend was riding our bikes up to mt. vernon.

and back.

we underestimated the round trip by, oh, about 10 miles, so it was pretty slow going there at the end.

but it was also a perfect day for a long, leafy bike ride. and it's always worth it to say hello to george.

you can thank me later

here is just a little treat to send you into the weekend, namely 11-year-old ryan gosling (and his sister) performing a truly ah-mazing dance routine at none other than a mormon talent show.





honestly, i cannot get enough of this video. his mischievous grin? his smooth moves (see: pelvis thrusting)? his oversized silk shirt? it slays me.

it's pretty easy to see how that kind turned into this dude.

the only mystery left is one posed by my friend heathergirl: how did we lose him?

today was a good day.

the temperature is back to normal and there was a delightful breeze.

it was free slurpee day. and you better believe we tapped that.

it was also farmer's market day by my office. i got some mangoes and an avocado for tonight's dinner, and these peaches which i fully intend on turning into a cobbler.

i crossed every single thing off my to-do list at work. every. single. one.

i got an e-mail with adorable pictures of a sweet baby girl born on monday. we'll get to cuddle her tomorrow.

and for the third night in a row, i had nothing to do after work but spend the whole night hanging out with my husband. which, as it happens, is the thing i prefer over most others.

sometimes when things are smooth and happy and drama-free and i feel like i am winning at life, i start to worry that a) i am not trying hard enough or b) something really bad is about to happen to me. that kind of thinking can really take the joy out of joyful moments, so i am trying to avoid it.

and so, for better or worse, i'll just say this: today was a good day.

photo finish

it was a hundred degrees this weekend (not an exaggeration) and since we could spend all weekend at home with the air conditioning on, that's exactly what we decided to do, minus a quick trip to the grocery store because our cupboards were bare.

behold.

{before}

{after}

other weekend happenings.

{favorite flower}

{new hipster glasses}

{minty home-mani/pedi}

{first-timer}

the end.

power surge

we have power! blessed, blessed power! we are so happy and we slept so soundly last night in our very own bed in our very own air conditioned house. it was bliss.

now that the whole ordeal is behind (most of) us, my friend confessed that she wasn't sure which was worse about the great blackout of 2012: that so many people didn't have power or that so many people had to listed to people complain about not having power. i definitely did my share of complaining, and i am sure it was pretty annoying, but not as annoying as not having power for almost a week. a week! so there.

i will say, though, that being out of your house and out of your routine does sort of open up time to do the things that you've been wanting to do but never did because your routine was always in the way. it felt like we had a lot more free time, and a lot more free time together over the past week, which was admittedly sort of nice. especially because we had a powered place to spend it.

so, we ended up getting a lot done.

we nearly finished season three of "friday night lights."

we got some serious planning done for our first anniversary trip to china.

and i finished our first family cross-stitch!

isn't it cute? i got the idea from nicole over at elsa bags, and she got it from martha stewart, who has all kinds of templates you can use to graph out your own family. i figure every time we add a new member to the household i'll stitch a new version, and we'll have a pretty good collection going,

for now, though, it's just me and AWD in our wedding clothes. just the way i like it.

we like america

our independence day plans were pretty much torpedoed by our ongoing lack of power (we're up to 120 hours power-free and still going strong) but we managed to cobble together a pretty good holiday anyway.

we watched the parade downtown for a few minutes.

we saw a new joan miro exhibit at the national gallery.

we walked through the smithsonian folk life festival and saw the AIDS quilt.

we drank a lot of water.

we went to a barbecue across the street. because those people have power.

we packed up more clothes and headed back to our temporary (air conditioned home base).

and, exhausted, we spent the rest of the night watching "friday night lights" and listening to fireworks.

i made a display of patriotism in a blue shirt and red and white striped skirt.

all in all, a good fourth.

powering down

the weekend started out all normal and fun and then a hu-uge storm blew through friday night and knocked out our power and it's been out ever since.

so, it wasn't a very normal weekend at all, though we did still manage to have some fun. like eating out every meal, driving around in the car so we could charge our phones and be in air conditioning, and throwing away everything in our fridge and freezer.

to help myself have a better attitude about the whole thing, i made a list of all the things we could still do with no power, but the first thing i thought of to write down was "complain," so i don't think it really worked.

one silver lining was celebrating sweet and much favored dana's birthday (in the air conditioned comfort of her new and fabulous apartment) and our friends sarah and kc threw open their doors and we've been crashing at their place to escape the stifling heat of our place.

they said 90 percent of customers should have power by thursday. then they said friday. and then they said by the end of the weekend. so, we'll see about that. we're at 62 hours with no power so far but, who's counting?