work/play

This weekend ended up being a full one. We got together with friends at Chef Geoff’s on Friday night. Saturday morning we put in a little run, then did our Safeway grocery shopping, and took our car to the YW camp fundraiser car wash. I think the girls were happy to see our clean, small, child-free car after a long line of minivans.

We had pizza for lunch, then headed to Great Falls Park with the Evanses.

The weather was ideal: seventy degrees and no humidity. We watched a kayaker go through the falls and hiked to the loch ruins. The park was busy but not insane like it was when I visited in November.

I enjoyed getting away for a bit and am definitely looking forward to summer. I need to find me some reasonable-length shorts.

We did our Trader Joe’s shopping (their cereal bars and produce are just so much better than Safeway’s) and watched two West Wing episodes before bed.

On Sunday, we had fruit smoothies and hashbrowns for breakfast while reading the paper. Jason had early meetings, so I walked to church again. When it’s not hot, I don’t mind the walk at all, though my hair does get a little frizzy. Primary was interesting; I think the lesson was called “Emma Smith Compiles Hymns Of The Restoration”, which doesn’t make for the same thrilling storytelling as most Book of Mormon stories. Jason saved the lesson. Unfortunately, he didn’t come with me to sharing time where the kids had a lot of energy.

After church, we had dinner at the Carter’s house. They made ham and funeral holiday potatoes (hashbrown casserole, in Kentucky parlance) and green beans. We brought strawberry shortcakes. We played Ticket to Ride after dinner, which is a game I always forget that I like a lot (despite my last-place finish).

We went home and video chatted with our families and made Monday lunches. Sometimes the weekends go too fast.

bygone week

I feel like we spent most of last week glued to (CNN until their poor reporting necessitated a switch to) NBC. We did start running together, which has been really nice. Jason may not be as talkative as my female running companions, but I enjoy spending the time together.

On Saturday we went to lunch with one of Jason’s grad school friends at District of Pi in Penn Quarter. Afterward, Jason and I grabbed pastries at Paul: blueberry pie for him, chocolate napoleon for me. I took a nap when we got home, after which we picked up some groceries and watched some more news.

Jason had early meetings on Sunday, so I let him take the car and I walked to church when it was time for sacrament meeting. The weather was warmer than I expected, so halfway there I was wishing I’d left my tights at home.

Elder Hallstrom (of the Presidency of the Seventy) came to our ward and gave an excellent talk.

Primary went better than usual lesson-wise. The kids all seemed a little tired, perhaps as a result of our 1:00 PM schedule. Even I’m worn out by the end of church. I mentioned at one point in the lesson that the early missionaries of the church (okay, their sleepiness may also be due to the beyond boring church history manual) went forth around the world, and one kid piped up “But they didn’t know the world was round!” Yes, my child, they did know the world was round by 1830.

The other funny Primary thing is that one kid brings me gum every week. He only brings one piece, and he always warns me that it is very spicy.

Post-church we had taquitos and salad and ice cream sandwiches de Trader Joe’s and talked to both our families. At one point, we held my FaceTime-ing-with-my-dad iPhone up to Jason’s Facetime-ing-with-his-dad iPad and our dads talked to each other. It was quite the meta moment.

My little elbow is healing nicely. Ignore the crazy eyes.

That’s all for now. Here’s to being a better blogger for the remainder of April. I have an untested–but proven true a surprising number of times–theory that when people become intermittent bloggers it means they are either pregnant or getting divorced. Since neither of those things are happening here, I have nothing on which to blame my lack of posts except sheer laziness.

20 hours with Laura

Our good friend Laura was in town for a work conference and elected (to our elation) to spend some time with us afterward. We met up on Saturday afternoon at Pacer’s in Alexandria where Jason was running shoe shopping. He found a great pair (and broke them in on a run with me on Monday morning). We enjoyed a stellar Middle Eastern lunch at The Pita House, then drove out to the Leesburg Outlets.

Laura was a really good sport, considering she’d just come from a busy conference. We found some great stuff, including two polos and swim trunks for Jason and a skirt, t-shirt, and dress for me. On the way home, we got in touch with Grant to wish him a happy fourteenth birthday (not possible) and Laura took a little nap.

The three of us made stuffed peppers for supper, after which we played Settlers and ate the first strawberry shortcakes of summer.

We stayed up late laughing and playing what was definitely my most frustrating game ever (I was plagued by too many sheep).

In the morning, Laura gave me the most wonderful file folders in the world, which she picked up at Paper Source. I love them so very much.

We headed to the airport bright and early. This was a quick trip, but it’s always wonderful to have good friends stop by. It meant a lot that Laura chose to stick around and spend the day with us. I vote next time we meet her in Lexington!

day of rest

Sunday was good. I flouted the no-treats-in-primary rule and made rice krispie treats for the kids. It turns out that when eating, they can’t actually speak, which led to the quietest last ten minutes of class ever. Of course, there was still hilarity: a few of them set leprechaun traps the night before and (I’m pretty sure) were convinced leprechauns are real, and, after I mentioned that I’d run 13.1 miles on Saturday, one kid replied, “That’s funny. You don’t look very athletic.” Nice boost to the ol’ self esteem.

Post-church, we had dinner with our friend Amy (she’s more my friend even though she went to school with Jason at UK). I made empanadas and red rice, Jason made salad, and Amy brought this phenomenal angel food cake topped with toasted coconut.

I really like having people in our apartment. When my parents came in August, I felt like “Voila! This is our home. This space says things about us: what we value, how we spend our time, the things we like. This is where we feel most comfortable.” I should also mention that I also love how a 750 square foot apartment takes approximately no time to clean.

We took Amy home to her cool DC residence at the end of the evening and drove home by way of North Capitol Street. When we got home, we discovered that BYU and UK could theoretically meet in the NIT final four, and that would be worth this season to me. I’m dubious but hopeful.

That concludes our Sunday programming.

three-day weekend with Renegade Roni*

Roni came to visit this weekend after an interview in NYC, which we are really hoping went well so she can move there and see us more often. I picked her up from Union Station on Saturday night.
Sometimes I get complacent about DC and then I see the capitol and go, “Wait! I live where government happens. Wow.”

I wasn’t completely familiar with traffic patterns at Union Station, so I made Roni walk toward the Maryland flag and jump in the car when I pulled over. I did not even get honked at until the next traffic signal when I didn’t realize the light was green. While Roni and I drove home, Jason preheated the oven for our taquitos. We dined on those and Mexican rice and stayed up late talking/watching the BYU vs. Portland basketball game.

The next morning, we had a pancake and eggs and tater tots feast before church, which carried our stomachs through the entire three-hour block. I made crock pot beef stew and–in the spirit of the week–cut the potatoes and carrots into heart-shapes. The carrots held up pretty well, but the potatoes had softened into deformed ovals by dinnertime.

Roni came to Primary with me and Jason stopped in for a few minutes. He told the kids that I’d gotten into law school and their reaction was: “Ew! Gross! Lawyers are mean and judge people!” Thanks, kiddos.

We ate our stew and played Settlers of Catan (because no one can visit us without being forced to play) and devoured the Junior’s cheesecake Roni brought.

When Jason’s Grandma Funny met my dad for the first time, she informed him that he looked like the man who schills Junior’s cheesecake on QVC and that he should definitely stop in at the NYC store and tell them so.

In preparation for the Downton Abbey season finale, we made some soft pretzel bites, which were amazing and salty.

This picture fails to capture Roni whacking me with her dough strand milliseconds later.

Downton Abbey was wonderful, yet depressing. When it was over (and all the pretzel bites except the ones I burned had been eaten), Jason assuaged his sadness by reading, while Roni and I drowned our sorrows in eight rounds of Boggle. As usual, we were neck-and-neck for the first while, and then Roni had back-to-back 40+ point games, leading to my swift annihilation.

Roni had to be at Union Station again by 11:30 AM on Monday morning. I accidentally slept in, but there was still time for French pastries and French braiding.

It’s always good to see Roni and we couldn’t be happier that she made time to visit. There’s something so nice and comforting about spending time with someone who already knows you well.

The house seemed quiet with her gone. We spent the afternoon reading and did the rest of our grocery shopping. Before bed, we finished off the cheesecake and played chess.

*I can’t remember where that nickname came from, but I am pretty sure in my iron-on transfer heyday I gifted Roni a fishing hat with “Renegade Roni” on it in block letters. Oh youth.

saturday, briefly

- celebratory lunch (Jason’s very thoughtful idea) at Lebanese Taverna. Really wish I could cook Lebanese food, especially the kibbeh appetizer: a lamb and beef fritter with bulgur, almonds, and pine nuts.

- window shopping at the temple of conspicuous consumption that is Tysons Galleria.

- French pastries from Paul (a pâtisserie at the aforementioned Galleria). I had a chocolate eclair and Jason had a lemon meringue tart. Both were delectable.

- crazy Russian woman at the Clinique counter informed me I have rough peasant skin and should definitely exfoliate more often. This is (one of many reasons) why I don’t shop at Neiman Marcus.

- afternoon spent reading and grocery shopping and napping and cooking before picking up Roni.

no snow for us

Jason wanted to take some cookies to his coworkers for his birthday, so I whipped up a batch on Thursday night. I’ll wager they were my best chocolate chip cookies to date. I didn’t taste any of the finished product that night because I had eaten approximately four cookies-worth of dough, but Jason did save one for me on Friday, which I happily used to spoil my appetite before we went out to dinner.

I know I’ve been singing the praises of Ghiradelli 60% cacao chocolate chips for some time now, but Jason suggested branching out with Guittard when Safeway was out of Ghiradelli and I loved them (both plain and in cookies). There are no more chocolate chips in our apartment.

The rest of the twenty-seventh birthday celebrations went off without a hitch. I got up early that morning and trekked out in the freezing cold to get Dunkin’ Donuts and an ice cream cake and Jason woke up and thought I had left him, but I returned in peace and safety and we had a most delicious–if not nutritious–breakfast together before work. I had a meeting on main campus first thing in the morning, which meant a nice walk through my favorite neighborhoods in the rain.

We went to Pasa Thai for dinner with the Oswalds and generally had a nice evening. The ice cream cake did not disappoint.

On Saturday, Jason took the car in for its annual safety check and I did my little workout DVD and ate breakfast. We ate pizza and eventually did our grocery shopping and read and watched The Sum of All Fears while we ate dinner. Sunday was more of the usual: Jason had morning meetings and I read the NYT Magazine until it was (past) time to get ready for church. The primary children were reasonably well-behaved. We came home to crock pot chicken tikka masala, which we ate with jasmine rice and (Safeway-purchased but still pretty delicious) naan bread.

We did not get any snow this weekend, though Jason’s parents got almost three feet. I’m secretly hoping for one big work-cancelled snow storm before the season is out, since it has been 730+ days since the DC area had more than two inches of snow and I’m unaccustomed to winters this warm.

Yesterday was our getting-engaged-aversary. Four years ago Jason was taking a History of Jazz test with the most perfect engagement ring in his pocket. (He picked it out because I never wanted to pick out my own engagement ring. He did a mighty fine job.) I waited at my apartment for him to come back so we could go get post-test ice cream. We got engaged instead (though there was ice cream afterward, before we told anyone). To celebrate the occasion, Jason brought home Ferrero Rocher, which we ate happily while watching Sunday’s two-hour-long Downton Abbey.

The sky last night was stunning. Photo credit to Jason en route to Safeway.

things that happened*

*I find it increasingly difficult to come up with new titles that mean “Random stuff that is going on in the life of the Frosts” but don’t sound as dismal as “The Frost Weekend Depository”, which is what I almost called this post.

- We had gorgeous weather a couple days last week. Now it’s just cold.

- I had a nice phone conversation with Grant while I was waiting for the shuttle on Thursday night. On Friday I found this picture on my dad’s Facebook.

It’s tiny and I should really get ahold of the original, but it perfectly captures the quintessential Grant. He’s always been content and chill while the chaos of the Pullan family goes on in the background. When he was really little, my dad worried that he never got a chance to talk (which was true), so Dad would (try to) make us all be quiet so Grant could get a word in. It’s weird that he’s not a little baby anymore.

- On Saturday morning I made pancakes and Jason helped our friends move out of the ward. Lame. Afterward we took naps and read and watched some basketball and waited until it started snowing to do our grocery shopping.

- We celebrated Groundhog Day in the usual Pullan fashion by watching Groundhog Day. We did not make a groundhog cake, partly out of laziness and partly because it is someone’s birthday this week and there may be ice cream cake (or so I’m told). I love Groundhog Day.

- We placed our first ever online glasses order. I tried on all the tester pairs, including Jason’s.

Jason pointed out that not one of these pictures shows the glasses I actually purchased. Hint: they are similar.

- Jason didn’t have meetings on Sunday until noon, so we slept in and read the paper. It was nice.

- After church, we made minestrone soup and Grandma Pullan’s French bread. Both = culinary wins. The bread recipe makes three loaves, so I cut it in half and made two (what I thought would be) smaller loaves. They were still massive, which is good because the bread was awesome and we will eat it all.

2.25 day weekend

Friday afternoon was quiet at work, except for the hordes of pro-life rallyers in matching scarves clogging the sidewalks. If I were the rallying kind, I think I’d pick a warmer day, perhaps sometime in April.

We had a quiet Friday night, with our usual homemade pizza and reading. I’m in the midst of Steve Jobs and it is awesome. Granted, he’s crazy and I can’t give it my wholehearted endorsement thanks to some less-than-savory language, but the story itself is fascinating. I’ve always thought of Apple as its post-1997 cool kid persona and that apparently wasn’t always the case.

Saturday morning Jason scraped the newly-fallen snow off the car like he always does while I sat inside all toasty warm. This chivalry has been going on since we became friends and is wonderful because scraping the windows is something I really don’t like doing.

We headed to Tysons for some post-Christmas gift card spending. We did especially well at Barnes and Noble, where we came away with Julius Caesar, Simon Bolivar: A Life, Sacred Hunger, and The Brothers Karamazov . (Can you guess who picked which? Also, I used to always confuse Simon Bolivar and Simone de Beauvoir. So embarrassing…or it would have been if I’d ever had a conversation about either one.) Browsing bookstores with Jason is one of my favorite things in the whole world.

Post-shopping we headed to La Sandia for lunch and churros, then home by way of the auto parts store for transmission fluid! Adulthood is so exciting. In the afternoon we read and I napped (almost always the result of me reading on the couch). Jason went to the stake conference priesthood sesion and we had pizza for dinner.

We woke up early on Sunday morning and made a breakfast feast: pancakes, hashbrowns, and sausage links. Then we headed over to stake conference almost an hour early and were still on hard chairs mid-cultural hall. The program was good and we were especially glad we didn’t get called up for an impromptu musical number, as one couple in the stake did. Another reason to be grateful we fly under the radar stake-wise. Post-church we ate chips and salsa and built a lasagna bolognese for dinner and were visited by our home teachers.

We had laughable but delicious breadsticks and salad to accompany our earlyish supper.

On Monday morning, my alarm went off at 5:26 as it usually does and I ignored it for a while as I usually do. Then I (as do forty percent of all smart phone users) checked my email in bed. I was pleased to discover that work was on a two hour delay thanks to freezing rain. Lucky duck Jason was on a three hour delay. I reset my alarm for a more reasonable hour and drifted back to sleep. The gym was also closed, so I did a quick DVD workout at home when I woke up, showered, and was out the door by 10:00 AM. A good night’s rest and warmer weather perfectly bookended our 2.25 day weekend.

all the newseum that’s fit to print

I felt worlds better on Saturday morning, so we headed out to the Newseum. It’s one of the few DC museums we haven’t hit yet, mostly because of the (kind of steep) admission price. We secured some complimentary tickets, though, which had to be used by the end of the year.

We normally (every day, if your name is Amanda) metro into the city, but there was a ton of track work going on so we decided to drive and park at Georgetown. I embarrassed myself more than a little bit when I couldn’t figure out the ID card swiper and we had to go around the block and re-enter the structure, but all worked out and we parked successfully and walked the

Our Newseum experience began with the 4-D movie (apparently the fourth dimension is moving seats) about the history of news and an FBI exhibit, after which we headed to the top floor and worked our way down.

The view from the sixth floor was phenomenal.

“I can see Russia from my house.”

Both of us were impressed with the scope of the museum. We could have spent hours in any one exhibit, except maybe the presidential pets. We especially enjoyed Tim Russert’s office and the presidential photography hall, but I think the 9/11 section was the overall favorite.

Social media interactive station. How web 2.0 are we?

Right before leaving we saw the eight sections of the Berlin Wall and East German guard tower and the (unpictured) fallen Lenin statue. Very cool.

Overall, the Newseum rocks and made me secretly long to be a journalist a la His Girl Friday (or maybe All the President’s Men).