Well, here we are after another record breaking snowstorm! I can't believe we had TWO in the SAME season this year! After last December's record of 16", this February storm decided it could do one better, and the official count at Reagan National airport is 17.4". WOW. I think we wound up with a few more inches over here on the other side of the river. It was a constant pour from Friday through Saturday afternoon... I took a photo of our street outside my door:



We stayed snuggled inside... I have been on sick leave this whole week taking care of Ben, and then taking care of myself after I caught his cold. Joe even got to come home early on Friday before the snow really started coming down, and we've all been trapped inside since. Ben and I are starting to feel better, but poor Joe just woke up this morning with a full blown cold, so he can't even enjoy the snow day today, now that it's completely stopped. Today is supposed to be nice and sunny... perfect for playing in the snow. I might try and brave putting on Ben's snow pants and dragging him out there for a bit on my own ;)

But Lily and I were out early, and I took my camera to catch some early morning shots. We are EXTREMELY lucky that we live in a co-op that hires snow removal crews... so our walk and back parking lot are already shoveled. It doesn't bode well for my poor car however, which is barely visible underneath all the piles. It should be an interesting next few days while we wait to see how it impacts the city, and fingers crossed for a snow day tomorrow! We could all use one more day to get better! :)

Here are the photos I snapped this morning:





















My poor Focus is under there somewhere:

posted at 10:41 AM ~ comments (1)

Update on our housing search: we're still at square one. We can't agree on houses. Joe really liked a house in Hillcrest, but I hated the yard (it was on a steep hill and didn't have a lot of usable space)... and I loved a house in Bowie but Joe didn't like the location being so far away from everything, and not having a direct exit from Rt 50. In his defense, I wasn't thrilled that the nearest grocery store (and ANY other store/restaurant, etc) was 15 min away, and that it took 30 min with NO traffic just to get back to the Hill where our friends are... but the property was awesome. We even saw a deer in the woods jump away as we pulled up! Not to mention the house was in great shape, lots of room, and the street was a cul-de-sac, so the traffic was minimal.

But we decided our first house needs to be one we are both excited about, so we're letting both go. :( I feel like we'll never find a place we can both agree on, but it has to be out there! Good thing we're not in any rush to move. We don't have any future plans to go out again, but maybe next weekend we can find a few more properties. Joe wants to stick to DC for a while, and leave out the Maryland houses until we're sure we can't find anything we like in the District. I'm hesitant to do that because I feel like we might miss out on something great... *sigh* I'm glad we have a patient realtor ;) In the meantime I'm gathering all our paperwork, we got our pre-approval letter, and I'm making a list of lenders so that when we DO find the property, we can jump on it. I'm hoping the spring market picks up early this year, and hopefully we find something sooner than later!

I haven't made any progress on practicing my photography skills. I have a 12 week lesson from "two peas in a bucket", but haven't been able to even get through the first lesson and it's already week 3. There's no time limit though, so I'll just get to it when I can!

Ben is doing better at his daycare. He still has a rough morning, and dropping him off is torture because he's a big freak out teary mess. But he settles down and is all smiles when I pick him up, so I know it will just take a few more weeks until he feels better about drop offs. Poor little guy... the tears are heartbreaking.

We hopefully will have some visitors soon... our friends from New York may come down for President's Day weekend. If they decide not to, my parents have expressed their interest in visiting Ben again, so *someone* will be here that weekend :) Should be a fun time!

So for now, we're still scouting out houses, and keeping our fingers crossed we can find something we BOTH like!

posted at 3:53 PM ~ comments (1)

Let the house hunt in 2010 begin!! We are picking up where we left off (just before the big blizzard!) in our housing search and touring houses this weekend. We're still not focused on a specific neighborhood, so we'll be out in the Bowie/Mitchelville area, the Brookland/Michigan Park area, and the Hillcrest/SW area all day tomorrow. We have quite a few houses that look promising, so here's hoping we have some good luck! Our biggest problem with our decision is that we hate giving up our current location because we just can't afford the $600k+ houses in our neighborhood. When we try to compromise by staying in the city, we give up yard/house space with houses in our price range... but when we find beautiful houses with big yards we can afford, we're out in the boonies and away from all our friends. *sigh* Such is life near a major (expensive) city. But I have faith we will find something... 2010 is our year to be homeowners, I know it! :)

This weekend is also a holiday weekend, as the federal government is closed for Martin Luther King, Jr Day. I'm going to try and get our house in order (still haven't put away the suitcase from our holiday travels) and also practice some more with the camera! I hope to get some cute shots for a "Valentine's Day" theme with Ben. I found a new site for photography tips, at www.thebump.com. It's a pregnancy site by the same people who bring you www.theknot.com, and their message boards are great, and the photography sub-forum is fantastic. We mostly talk about shoots with kids/babies and people, but there are some pro photographers on there that can give advice on almost any subject. I've learned a few new tips and I'm anxious to put them to practice! It's about time I started really getting my photos to shine!

I've also been trying to make a concerted effort to get back into my weight loss routine since returning from vacation. I was down 14 lbs from Sept to Dec and on a roll... but then over the holidays gained back 3 lbs, and I've been holding steady for the past two weeks. So it's time to check back in and start the ball rolling again. I'm only 10 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm still 27 lbs away from my goal weight. So I've got a WAYS to go, and ideally I'd like to be there by summer! I've got 6 months, so that should be PLENTY of time to do it right! My work is planning a weight loss pool, where you figure out your BMI, and the person who after 90 days has the biggest percentage of loss wins. My goal is 12 weeks, 12 lbs... totally doable :)

So lots of things on my "to-do" list... cleaning, organizing, photos, website, and fitness... let's see how much I can get done in a weekend! ;)

posted at 12:20 PM ~ comments (0)

I really wish I had more time to play around with my digital camera, and to take a class or two. I have a few books, but free time is sacred around my house, and I usually use it to just RELAX and breathe for a second :) Anyway, as I figure out the best settings on the "manual" mode, I still have yet to perfect the settings for different lighting. If I remember to set the aperature right, I forget about ISO and my photos end up grainy. Or blurry. I think if I had a better lens it would help *slightly*... that and a good flash other than the one that is built into the camera. But I think it's more about me just making sure I've remembered everything, and I know they'd be turning out so much better. Case in point, my photos from Christmas of Ben... I completely forgot I had turned up the ISO to get the low light shots at my in-laws, so when I went to take outdoor shots of the snow, they came out super grainy. But I didn't notice until AFTER I downloaded them onto the computer and blew them up... there was no way I'd see that on the little preview display on the camera. Doh! They still came out ok, but could have been SO much better.


(My in-law's backyard, in upstate NY)

But regardless of the photo, I have to say, Joe's parents live on some beautiful property :) The snow scenes were timeless, even if it was frigid and scary to drive on. I just wish I could have caputured it better!

New York Snow Day

So I'm working on it... if anyone has some tips that they use to make sure they've remembered everything when they are shooting, send 'em along! :) Or if you have tips on some nicer lenses (for portraits, low lights, or action) let me know!!

posted at 9:51 AM ~ comments (1)

And since we're in the new year, new decade, some reflections on the past...

This past October marked the 12 year anniversary of this domain, www.carrie.cc. TWELVE YEARS I've had this address... and oh how it's changed. From simple html "about me" site, to webcam (which I started to enter and win a contest at Michigan State) to photo album to full fledged blog and family site, it's had its ups and downs. This year will actually mark the 10 year anniversary of the "blog". Before I hosted it at the new "Blogger" service, I was manually updating the text, and wasn't saving any archives. But since its beginning, I've used this site as a way to practice new development and enhance my programming skills. I'm no graphic designer, but I can hack my way around a CSS template :) I'm still working on the redesign right now, since I want to drop the "first baby" site now that Ben reached his first birthday, and incorporate a more "family" feel. This site has been and will remain the main source of news and history of myself and my family, and (from the emails I get) my far-flung family across the nation appreciates it :) Especially those who are not tech saavy enough to embrace the facebook/twitter world, but can easily find my website and check back every now and then. Hello, family :)

Aside from the site, this decade will bring a lot of new changes to my little family. On the social message board I participate in, someone posted a fun poll about where you were in 2000, where you are now in 2010, and where you hope to be in 2020.

In 2000, I had finished the majority of my classes for my degree at Michigan State, but accepted a full time position working for an internet start-up, and did not end up graduating for another 3 semesters while I finished part-time. I LOVED my job working for Control Room Technologies in Lansing, building web applications in Cold Fusion. My coworkers always inspired me, and I still keep in contact with most of them. I gained so much knowledge and skills, I could not be where I am today if it were not for my experiences there. I had planned on finishing school and continuing my full time employment with the company for many years to come. I was single, but dating, and had no plans on leaving Michigan for any reason. Late that year, I brought home my first pet, a cat named Bailey.

In 2010, from Michigan to Illinois, I'm now working for the federal goverment in Washington, DC. Still doing application development, but my skills have shifted from web apps to Windows Forms development, in a senior role, supporting volunteers overseas for the Peace Corps. I'm celebrating my 3rd wedding anniversary, and enjoying my 13 month old son :) We have a 6yr old yellow lab Lily, and two cats, 10yr old Bailey and 9yr old Poof. I'm absolutely loving my job, my family, and our life on Capitol Hill.

In 2020, I hope to still be in the DC area, but possibly off the Hill, with a home of our own (with at least 3 bedrooms and a yard). I'll be celebrating 13 years of marriage, hopefully with another kid and definitely with animals of some sort :) My career will stay in the technology field... I love this too much to stray. I hope to continue to watch this site grow and develop, and can't wait to see what's in store.

Happy New Year everyone! Can't wait to see what happens!!

posted at 1:28 PM ~ comments (0)

What a vacation. We had a wonderful time with friends and family... but I'm seriously done with snow for at least 10 years. If I never see snow again, I can't say I'd cry. We had clear roads and blue skies when we left DC, and our travels to Michigan were dry and easy. But our trip on Monday night from Michigan to NY was absolutely, hands down, the worst. drive. ever.

We had a fantastic Christmas with my family, spent some time with my sister and a few friends, and said a tearful goodbye to my childhood home. Since my parents were leaving bright and early Wednesday morning for Tennessee (they were packing up the last of the boxes as we left Monday night), I knew it was the last time I'd ever see the inside. I couldn't believe how many memories I was leaving behind... but gave it one last farewell, and we were on our way.

We left at 7pm, and headed to Jamestown, NY (half way) to spend the night. We took I-90, got around Ohio, into Pennsylvania, and the snow started. Joe and I chatted about what exactly "lake effect snow" really was, but really it was no worse than any other weather I've driven in before. A little windy, but the roads were still clear. Joe even mentioned that if I was tired, we could stop earlier, but we were less than an hour away from our hotel, and I was confident we'd be fine. Until we hit Erie, PA. All of a sudden, it wasn't just the wind... but it was the SNOW. And we hit it hard. We stumbled into an area that had already been hit by snowfall, and the plows had not been able to clear the roads yet. It went from ok, to "oh my god where's the road" in about 5 minutes. We were in 0% visibility, on a road that we've never travelled before. It was so bad that I literally could not tell the road from the shoulder. We crawled to the nearest exit which showed a "Gas" sign... only to find zero gas stations. Or hotels. Or ANYTHING. We were in the middle of rural Pennsylvania, south of I-86, east of I-90. Nowhere to stop, two lane roads that had not been plowed, it was a nightmare. I was terrified we were going to wind up in a ditch and stranded... so Joe took over driving and I desperately tried to navigate to anything that might still be open at midnight on a Monday night, in a snow storm. I used our GPS which also shows "points of interest"... only it didn't have ANYTHING within a 20 mile radius. So I turned to my trusty iPhone, searched for "gas" and "hotel" and even "food"... again, nada. We out of sheer luck stumbled across a BP station in the middle of nowhere (and it was NOT on the maps we had!), and even though it was closed, it was at least off the road.

We started to weigh our options. We had a quarter tank of gas, and while we WERE only about 30 miles away from our hotel, it was 30 miles of unplowed roads in 45 mph winds and lake effect snow. So Joe pointed out that the gas station probably would open early, and since it was already 12:30am, it was only a few hours away. So we decided that we'd stay put, with plenty of food, water, and blankets to keep us safe. Ben was sound asleep, and didn't budge the entire time (thank god for comfy carseats!), and while Lily wasn't too happy about laying in the back of the car all night, she was safe and warm on blankets and pillows.

So we spent the night in the car, alternating turning the car on and off to keep warm. The temperatures were also frigid, in the single digits, dropping negative double digits with the windchill. The coldest I have been in a long, long time. But we were still fine, bundled up and running the heat every so often. And Ben was nice and toasty and still sleeping like the angel he is :)

By 5am, the gas station still had not opened, but we noticed plows going by, the snow had subsided, and cars were starting to go by more regularly. So we decided to backtrack to I-90, and find the nearest gas station there. We made it, and decided to take the long way around Buffalo, NY, through Syracuse and south, hoping those roads would be better managed. The roads were better, but we were still fighting bands of snowfall with 1-mile visibility. And while 1-mile is better than 0 and daylight better than darkness, it was still really tough. We got to Syracuse and took a mini-break by going to Target :) Ben needed to get out of his carseat, and we needed a break from the stressful driving. So we recharged ourselves, and then headed back to the car to continue the drive. We FINALLY made it at about 1pm, and I've never been so happy to see my in-laws ;)

And it snowed the entire stay in NY. Santa was smart and brought Ben some snow pants, so on the day where the temperatures warmed to about 40 degrees, we gave Ben a first taste of snow, and he loved being pulled around on the sled :) The other days, the temperatures dropped again and the wind picked up, so we spent most of our time inside, watching Ben play with all his new toys.

Our way home was uneventful... once we got past the NY border, the snow lightened, and then we hit clear roads all the way to DC. All in all, we had a great time, but it will be a while before I'm ready for anymore road trips :) I was glad to see that the snow from our "snowpocalypse" storm in DC had almost all melted away... like I said, I'm done with snow for a LONG time ;)

So now it's back to work, and unpacking. I was able to get through a lot of our photos while we stayed buckled down inside over vacation, so I'll find time to upload those tonight. Here's hoping everyone else had a great holiday! :)

posted at 9:17 AM ~ comments (0)

We're getting ready to take off for the holidays this year... we'll be in Michigan for the Christmas celebration and then we're back up to New York for the New Year. 11 days of vacation, woohoo! We just got hit with the craziest snowstorm for DC... the official count is 16.4 inches! It's the worst we've ever had for a December storm, and #6 of the top ten worst storms EVER! Crazy! So we were able to stay in and get a LOT of housework done before we jump ship :) And of course, get cute photos of Ben :)

Speaking of the ship, we've been dealing with neighbor drama for almost two years now, and it really just needs to stop. Warning: this is a long story, but I just need to vent about the whole situation.

We live in the upper part of a townhome, after previously living in a one bedroom basement apartment of a townhome around the corner (same complex). Having been a basement apartment dweller, we are aware that you can hear your neighbors above you, and pretty much just chalk it up to one of the drawbacks of living in the basement. These buildings were not built that well (in my opinion), and they really didn't consider the noise filter between the upper and lower units. That said, we never, NEVER complained to the people above us that they were being too loud. Especially if it was due to their just living normally in their apartment. So we were really taken aback when someone new moved in below us and started to complain about our noise. And yes, the people that lived above us when we were basement dwellers had multiple parties, and had a dog that was even bigger than Lily. We still never complained.

Maybe I should start at the beginning. We moved into our current upstairs place in 2006, almost four years ago. Previous to the current basement resident, we met the downstairs renter and they were really nice. Never complained about us at all, and was quite friendly. But they moved, and enter new person. Immediately, we see she had posted a note on her trash can about not throwing dog poop in her can. So someone (probably one of the 101 dog walkers we see in our neighborhood) had obviously used her can to toss their dog waste. But I immediately felt defensive, and I told Joe that I bet she thinks it was our dog. But whatever, it wasn't us, and being a responsible pooper scooper, I always scoop and put it in our own can because I appreciate how disgusting it is when it's not your dog. But I had suspicion that they already had a grudge against us for that "offense".

Then came the floor pounding. Before even knowing her name, our neighbor downstairs made it blatently aware that whatever we were doing (read: nothing) was disturbing her, and she proceeded to let us know by pounding on her ceiling. Hello, neighbor, nice to meet you too. Now, if that were me, I wouldn't assume that my upstairs neighbors were TRYING to be loud... they probably had no IDEA that they were bothering me. So rather than be RUDE, I'd probably make a trip upstairs to give them the benefit of the doubt, and let them know that I can actually hear most things that go on in the apartment, and if it was anything that they could help. But ok, that's not her style. Strike number two for us. And I should mention, the ceiling pounds came at daylight hours... we're not talking about 2am wild parties here. And this was pre-baby, so we weren't even up before 8am most mornings, especially weekends.

Then came the Sunday afternoon visit. Joe was listening to music on his computer in the living room, and I went out to walk the dog. Now, when I left, the music was not loud... I could carry on a conversation with Joe without yelling, in the same room. It was 2pm on a Sunday. I came back, and the music was off, and Joe told me that our neighbor had paid him a visit, upset that we didn't seem to realize that she lived below us and could hear us. Um, what? It's Sunday afternoon. Seriously? But ok, I wanted to talk to her directly, so I knocked on her door, and apologized. I let her know that we were not in any way trying to annoy her on purpose, that to us the music was completely acceptable (and I should also note, with our windows open you could NOT even hear the music from the street). But that obviously it bothered her, so we'd try all we could to minimize the disturbance. She seemed ok with that, and I gave her my cell phone number to alert me if we started being too loud in the future. So I really tried to be nice, and we really did try to minimize our noise after that. I even wrote her before we had a big party for the Super Bowl, to warn her that we might be louder than usual, and that she was welcome to come up. She didn't stop by, but I was still making an effort to be nice.

Then came President's day weekend. We had visitors in from out of town, and they have small kids (a 5yr old, 3yr old, and 15m old). So yes, unfortunately they are early risers, it comes with the kiddo territory. BUT... they were only here for the weekend, and it was still not obnoxiously early. At 9am Saturday morning, we were talking in the kitchen, and I get the call from our neighbor downstairs. She requested that we not be talking in the kitchen this early. Um, if anyone knows the layout of our apartment, there's the living room, and kitchen, but it's one big open space, so there's really no place for us to go. BUT, I apologized and let her know that we had people in from out of town. We tried to be as quiet as possible, but like I said, it's one big room, and I'm not about to not talk to my friends that just drove 7 hours to be here just so someone can sleep late on the weekend. Especially for just ONE weekend, it's not like these were permanent guests.

Fast forward to Sunday night... our guests were still here because the Monday was President's Day, and so they were staying an extra night and leaving the following morning. We were watching movies around 10pm, and our friends were getting up to get snacks, drinks, etc from the fridge. I get a call from our neighbor that we are being loud, can we not WALK in the kitchen. Um, what? Now I can't walk in our own kitchen? Seriously? BUT, I told our friends to limit their travels, and when they reacted with surprise, I told them that we need to be considerate, and we do have to make compromises since we do have neighbors that live below us.

But then at 6am the next morning, my friend brought her 15m old downstairs to watch a video, since that's his normal waking time. She tried to keep him quiet, but then when he had to have his diaper changed, he let out a wail (typical 15m old behavior). My neighbor apparently has had enough at this point, and pounds on the ceiling, scaring us and the baby. Now, I finally lost it. After defending her ridiculous behavior and complaints, I stomped back on the floor, and that was the last straw for me. If she couldn't meet me half way and realize that there are sounds we can NOT control (aka walking normally and LIVING normally in our apartment), then I was no longer playing nice guy and trying to limit our activity. She made it clear she wasn't compromising even for one weekend, even for a BABY CRYING... so that was it. I was done.

So a few months later, Joe starts having a busier schedule, and his normal work ending time pushes later and later. We move eating an already late dinner together from 8pm to 9pm... leaving me to do the dishes around 10pm. So after two nights of running the dishwasher at 10pm, I get a phone call from our neighbor asking us if we could please not run it at that time, since that's her bedtime (and no, she's not an 80yr old woman, she's a young girl in her late 20's), and her room is right below the kitchen. Now, if this had been BEFORE the President's Day weekend nonsense, I would have been more than happy to move it to the next morning... but I'd had enough. So I ignore her calls... and the 3rd night she knocks on my door. She asks if I had gotten her voicemails about not running the dishwasher, and I told her I had. She asked if I could please not run it, and I said flatly, no. She was suprised, and tried to figure out why on earth I couldn't wait, and at first I tried giving excuses about needing the dishes for the morning (half true), etc... and when she sarcastically offered to buy me extra dishes, I lost it. She argued that we live in a "community" and that we need to be respectful of other people's schedules. I had to stifle a laugh because I could have said those exact words right back to her. Joe obviously did not have her same work schedule, so shouldn't she mind her own words and be considerate of our schedule? (seriously, what if I was a nurse working midnights or something?) I finally told her that since she had not been willing to compromise, neither was I, and that I could not help that she could hear us. That I was sorry, but she was going to have to put up with hearing us living above her. She left in a huff, and mumbled that she "would see what she had to put up with".

Things were quiet for a while... I found out I was pregnant and actually laughed that if she thought we were loud NOW, wait until we have a screaming infant that needs to be fed at 2am. If she thought I was going to tiptoe around while he's wailing, she was dreaming. But after Ben was born, he was actually a very good baby, and we didn't have too many 2am screaming matches (lucky them)... but he was (and still is) an early riser, which means early (often before 6am) trips to the kitchen to make his breakfast.

Then we had Ben's baptism party, which started after the 9am mass on a Sunday in June. We had people over (about 15) and one of the kids was playing with a ball in the living room. All of a sudden we felt a familiar "boom boom" on the floor, and it was our friendly neighbor reminding us by pounding on her ceiling that she still hated us. So we apologized to our guests who were really taken aback by the noise, and just laughed it off.

Now, if you haven't noticed, I'm fairly involved with online communities, and yes, I have a twitter account. I am always searching for nearby people I know, and low and behold, I stumbled across our neighbor downstairs, and her twitter account. And why, look there, her boyfriend that lives with her (we think he moved in after the dishwasher episode) has one, too. I saw that they commented when they were out of town, so I began watching their feeds to see if a) they complained about us and b) when they were leaving so we didn't have to hold our breath when the dog ran after her ball too loudly in the living room. I'd laugh at the ridiculous things they would complain about, but mostly it was harmless chatter. Until last month, when "the boyfriend" complained that he should nominate us for Biggest Loser because we are both "obese" and walk like Godzilla through Tokyo, waking him up before 6am. At first I laughed, but then I couldn't let it go. I replied to his tweet that, again, it was NOT our fault that they lived in the crappy basement apartment, and yes, feeding a baby before 6am trumped giving a shit about the downstairs assholes (in shorter, twitter conversation, of course) :) Silly? Absolutely. Petty, probably. Immature, definitely, but I never said I didn't have my moments of weakness :) But so was his comment.

So that's where we stand. He watches my tweets, and still complains about us being too noisy. I'm sure Ben's jumping in his jumper and Lily chasing toys really sets them off. They still just can't fathom that we have every right to LIVE and WALK in our apartment. That it's not our fault that this place was built poorly. Honestly, if it really bothers them that much, they really need to live in a place that doesn't have upstairs neighbors, and let someone else less sensitive enjoy their space (like the person before them). It's not our weight... I won't claim to not have some extra baggage left over from my pregnancy, but I'm only 5'1 and certainly not obese by any means. If they can hear us WALKING and just a ball bouncing, I don't care how much you weigh, you shouldn't be able to hear that level of noise from the upstairs apartment. Again, not our fault, and we are NOT going to tiptoe around our own house, during NORMAL DAYLIGHT hours, just because they can hear us. And do we have 2am parties, and blare our music constantly? No. Of course not. That's what is so ridiculous. Everything they've complained about is from normal living. And Ben isn't even walking yet. :)

By the way, look out neighbors... you think WE walk loudly... you haven't heard anything until you've heard an 18 month old barreling around. Soft isn't in their vocabulary, and I'm not about to restrain him in his own house.

But as much as I am annoyed by their ridiculousness, I really wish we could have gone about this in a different way. I am not a hating kind of person... and I was really hoping we could have called a truce and figured out a way to make things civil for both sides. But I'm pretty sure we're passed that point, and I don't get the impression that it's their way of handling issues. Oh well... some day one of us will move and we'll both have peace again. I will say that I avoid laundry and the dishwasher after 10pm... I'm not TRYING to piss them off. Too bad I can't say the same thing about them.

Ok, off to dinner (yes, it's 9pm)... and back to making neighbors crabby!

In the meantime, Ben's about to start walking, so I hope the neighbors enjoy the "peace" they have now :)

posted at 9:36 PM ~ comments (1)