Private Breaux Vineyard Tour

Stardate 66653.1

18:11 - Not too long ago, we discovered a little vineyard by the name of Breaux Vineyards. An excellent name for an establishment, if I do say so myself. We decided to investigate it for my birthday. I am not saying that we got special treatment, but Rob called the vineyard up and started dropping some names. So we got a private tour of Breaux Vineyards.

Our tour started off with a wine tasting. You know, like private tours of vineyards do. We had nine wines to taste. I am not much for nonsweet wines, but that is what Breaux Vineyards specialized in. After the wine tasting, a guy named Sam with an amazing mustache with a twirl at the end took us around to show us the barrels in which the wines aged and the bottling station.

After lunch we went to Summit Racing to go-cart. We got some kick ass outfits including some helmets. However, I did not need it. I basically Sunday drove around the course. I had no idea if those crazy little cars could flip over. Every time we went around a corner, I felt myself almost lifting off. Everyone else kept lapping me over and over again. I didn't mind. I was having fun and not ending up in the emergency room.

As far as second celebrations for my 25th birthday go, this is the best.

Time to Move On!

Stardate 66614

11:23 - Well, Focus Foxies, this has been a long time coming, but it is time for me to move on from my apartment.  I know I have only been there for a few months. What you really need to know is that I was dealing with a stage 4 maybe 5 crazy person where the best things I could say about her was that she mostly paid her bills on time and did not steal from me or stab me. That is no exactly a ringing endorsement.... 

Luckily I have found someone else to live with in a near by apartment. That someone is the sweet and awesome Kelley! She has chosen to live with me despite my faults and knowing my love of shenanigans. So win win.

I think I am most excited about decorating this new place. My previous place was a dirty cave, but this place will be bright and sunny! I went to town/pinterest to create for myself a lovely little feminine bedroom complete with a makeshift canopy (see above). The canopy consists of Ikea curtains and curtain rods and some led lights (they don't heat up). I decided on purple because I love all things purple.

The next was the living room! Kelley got an awesome purple rug...notice the theme of the place. I painted a bookshelf along with a couple of other paintings for the walls.

Red Hook Lobster

Stardate 66565.2

15:45 - On a cold day, (far colder than in the Dominican Republic) I decided to indulge a love of mine: food trucks. I had nothing in my fridge for lunch and wanted to continue to walk on the wild side, so food from a moving vehicle fits the bill. For this particular culinary adventure, I chose the Red Hook Lobster.

Red Hook Lobster has a claim to fame as being the best DC lobster truck. They specialize in Maine Lobster Rolls. What qualifies as a ‘Maine Lobster Roll’, Focus Foxies? I am not sure. I really do not have that type of regional knowledge, but the sign on the truck mentioned mayo. I was mostly sold on that point. I went with a shrimp roll meal. This buttery roll was covered, nay suffocated with little shrimp. I mean a pile of shrimp on a bun. The shrimp was coated in a homemade lemon mayo, which was tangy to say the least. The shrimp were on a bed of lettuce, but I had to fight my way in to figure that out.

The meal felt like a little trip to the Northeast. It came with the traditional Northeast Cape Cod chips. They are your typical kettle chips that I adore. The most notable thing about the truck was their drink selection. They had a fountain right there on the side of the truck. All of the cokes were made by Maine Root. This is a small, independent 'soda' manufacturer. They have bunches of different organic sodas to try. I decided to go with something more regionally familiar to me: Mexi-cola. I enjoyed it. It was spicier than your usual coke. It was cool to see Red Hook Lobster support local (by local, I mean Maine) companies. It made it feel more authentic.

This wouldn't be your typical lunch at $12 a meal, but it did make for something different in L'enfant plaza. As I was walking up, the cook/owner and a guest were talking about DC chef twitter fights. It was pretty legit place. I felt like I was a part of something. Soon you won't recognize me, Focus Foxies. I will be a part of the culinary underground.

Combined Federal Campaign 2012

Every year, the federal government hosts a charity drive for their employees to donate to awesome charities. This charity drive is called the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), and it is the only authorized charity drive for the work place. This is how it works, Focus Foxies, we, ‘g-men’ or ‘feds,’ give money to the CFC earmarked for specific charities. You can donate to over 4,400 approved charities, which range from health care to housing to youth development charities. This year, I was selected/volunteered by others to represent my office for the CFC. Basically I helped fundraise and get people excited about the CFC.

Supporting the Home Team

One of the fundraising ideas was to do a tailgate lunch, so I took this idea and ran with it. Being very excited about Pro Football this year, I had so many ideas to improve upon this idea. We wanted to keep one thing simple: hot dogs for lunch. They are easy and cheap, two great characteristics for a fundraiser lunch. But my own creative spin on this lunch was to play on the native DC rivalries. Now, the Washington Redskins were having a once in a while good season, yet there is always a lingering Cowboys’ fan base in the district. As sad as it is, they have a stronghold in the nation’s capital. To play on this love/hate relationship, I devised a ‘Battle for the District’ (we added the Ravens in there for good measure). Anyone who wanted to can put in money to vote for their favorite team.  

Someone added the Nationals and Tampa Bay Bucs

Were my colleagues awestruck by the  rookie star power that is the one-two punch of the RGIII-Alfred Morris Redskins offense? Did they wait patiently the return of Ray Lewis and the resurrection of the Ravens’ defense? Or did they support Tony Romo’s offense, the pride of Jerry Jones, America’s team: the Cowboys?

District Focus Foxies will be happy to know that they went with the home team, and the whole event raised about $500. I was so excited to be a part of it all and to help a great charity. HAIL!

National Zoo Lights Date Night

The crab of Maryland

Stardate 66422.4

12:26 - Every year, the National Zoo and zoos all over host a Zoo Lights event. They dress the whole zoo up in lights and invite guests to enjoy the illuminated splendor. We decided to join in on this fun, but we didn't just show up and 'oohh' and 'aah' the lights. We showed up in style, date night style. Not to brag, but I am a FONZ or Friends of the National Zoo. I get invitations to special events before they go on sale. The National Zoo hosted a date night for all of love birds during Zoo Lights.

This is where science happens

Crawfish, not crayfish

This date night included a few VIP activities. We were treated to a glass of champagne and baked goodies while we toured the invertebrate exhibit. The invertebrate exhibit was shut down to the public, so we got our own tour. While invertebrate seem like boring creatures to some, those people don't appreciate a good thing. These creatures are tough and resourceful. They have the weirdest adaptations! Give them some respect, Focus Foxies!

Giant elephant in back

Along with the invertebrate tour, we had plenty of cold weather activities to do. We got a free tube sled ride. I have never been tube sledding, mostly because there has never been snow where I was. There was not any snow in DC that night, but they made a rubber slide on the side of a hill. You would drag your tube all the way up the hill, and they would push you down. Sounds violent, but it was fun!


We also go to meet a zoo favorite: Santa Paws. Santa Paws is a panda Santa Clause. Very exciting to meet this legend. Lastly, the best part of the date night package was the giant snow globe. We got to go into a humongous inflatable snow globe and jump around. They even took a few pictures of us!

The Hobbit

Stardate 66409.5 

18:45 - This is a happy little post to remember an occasion like no other. The occasion, my dear Focus Foxies, was the pre-screening of the first movie of the Hobbit. Yes, before everyone else got to see the Hobbit, Rob and I went to see it in high frame rate and in 3D. It was oodles of fun. We won these tickets through our kickball organization, NAKID. I am telling you NAKID kickball is a gift that keeps on giving!

Later this month, I would go onto see the Hobbit two more times. To say the least, it was an amazing movie.

The Final Frontier in a Theater Near You

Stardate 66382.3

20:26 - There has been many questions as to why this blog is called a 'log.' Most of those people are not fans of such legendary shows as Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. Everyone of their crew writes a log to make sure everything is recorded for future generations. Therefore, like their logs, my log is for anyone who will listen.


So far we established my nerdiness, but you haven't seen nothing yet. Last night I took it to another level. Star Trek: The Next Generation came out on DVD with its episodes digitally enhanced. To celebrate, they released a few episodes along with cast interviews. I found a few a friends to come along with me. By friends, I mean a random group of people organized by the internet.

Just brewing away

My Mentor

We met up for drinks beforehand in Ballston. Our bar of choice was Rock Bottom. It a pretty cool chain restaurant that specializes in brewing its own beer. Literally, it is right behind the bar. They have everything you could want in a bar: decent beer, great prices ($3 a beer), and great TV screens. I tried their winter specialty Winter Tartan. The draft featured a Scottish snowman. How could I go wrong? It was a bit darker than I was used to, but oh well. I mean the Scottish snowman solved that problem. How?  I don't even know. I don't question the Scottish snowman. Focus Foxies, you are probably wondering how many did I have. One. Time for the movie...

The featured show was more than I could ever hope for. They did an extended version of the episode The Measure of a Man. For those non-informed Focus Foxies, The Measure of a Man has a trial that debates the merits of Data (the andriod) being a sentient being. Having the distinction of sentient being has major benefits, mainly you get to decide your future. Data was fighting for his very life against a scientist who wanted to dismantle him and study him. Another episode they showed was equally as important was a 'Q' episode. The 'Q' is a space entity with almost limitless power. Well, an individual from the 'Q' (called 'Q' which can be confusing) has the crew brush with destiny in the form of the Borg. The Borg are a fearsome race of beings that form a larger conscious 'being.' They act in unison to take over every other race and take their technology, lives, and knowledge for The Borg's own. Basically, they are scary as hell on the small screen, but absolutely terrifying on the big screen.

In between the episodes, they showed an interview with the whole cast. I have to say the biggest surprise was from Michael Dorn who played Worf the Klingon. You would think his personality would at least resemble his on screen category. Absolutely not. Unlike Worf, he was done right delightful with hipster glasses to boot. It was fun to see everyone about twenty-five years later still be in sync and still devoted to the fans. They has to get annoying after a while, but they still do it for us!

Star Trek Fanatic Focus Foxies: Caitlin (she knew everybody) our fearless organizer, Paul, Ben, Lisa, and Amy. Yes, the girls outnumbered the boys. 

Night, Classy Night

Stardate: 66327

15:30 - As explained before, the guiltiest of DC pleasures is the thrill of going to happy hour. It is not the worst of our sins, but it plays a prominent role in our lives. My friend Kelley and I decided to give that driving force a bit of direction in the form of MINT. We set a little group that would have our friends go to different locations for happy hour. We need a change up from our usual haunts. Well, so far it has been successful. We decided to celebrate with a different type of happy hour: a classy happy hour. It just so happened that the latest Bond movie (Skyfall) debuted around the same time. Our happy hour became a Night, Classy Night.

We dressed up in our finest. I was in a cocktail dress, Rob donned a tuxedo and top hat, and others did not disappoint.  We found ourselves a nice cozy corner in La Tasca to share pitchers of sangria. I am sure La Tasca serves other drinks. I just never bothered to figure it out. It may seem lazy, but they just have so many kinds of sangrias. I mean huge jugs after jugs of different sangrias. Each one is better than the last one. We finally tore ourselves away from La Tasca to make our way to Skyfall by way of Bar Louie. I have to say that we were the classiest people in the theater by far. Everyone cheered our initiative.

Overall, I think it was a pretty successful night out with a twist. No one wants to just go out and party like everyone else. I like having different themes and having fun with life. They make for better blog posts.

Sangria sippin' Focus Foxies in attendance: The Whole of MINT (it was the place to be)

Colder Weather

Stardate 66255.3

12:40 - On Friday (Stardate 66248), some friends and I went to see the Zac Brown Band. Since they're one of my favorite bands, I was thrilled to get a last minute ticket to the show. So we drove until the city lights dissolved into a country sky to arrive at the Jiffy Lube Live Amphitheater. 

Before any good concert, you must tailgate; it simply is a fact. My well-prepared friends brought hot dogs, chicken, and beer. Also, they brought a grill. Class acts, all of them. We sicced Justin on the chicken, and we relaxed with cold beer in our hands. Life was good. Speaking of being prepared, they brought jackets. I did not. I had no forethought and did not believe that the weather would drop to forty degrees. With only a scarf and a long sleeve shirt, I was stuck in colder weather. 

It was seriously cold. Seriously.

Zac Brown Band has an amazing group of musicians with a wide range of talents, skills, and musical instruments  They go beyond standard country music; they represent every sub-genre of country that I love.  They blend Southern Rock, Caribbean, folk, blue grass, and gospel harmoniously together. My favorite aspect of Zac Brown Band is that their music inspires you to jump right in. Their music pulls you in and does not let you go until they are good and ready to. They never take themselves too seriously. My favorite part is how effortless they make it look. Music, much like life, is too easy to be so damn complicated. They just play whatever they want, however they want to.

Girls' Photo

Focus Foxies, you can understand why I would be excited about seeing Zac Brown Band live. Believe you, me they do not disappoint. They played for over an hour and a half. Their play list was half album hits, half jam session craziness. The whole musical experience just washed over me and helped to put the outside world away for a minute. It felt great to pretend that I didn't live in it. The only worry in world was when the music was going to stop. Eventually their main set did; then, they had a dueling drum solos; then, they came back onstage for an encore. They are that awesome. True story.

After the encore, we saw goodbye in their eyes; we didn't think we could change it. They had to be on the road to their next stop, and couldn't wait around for us. We never questioned why; they just kept chasing those melodies across the US. We were just thankful they stopped by our town. The next time Zac Brown Band comes back by, keep them in mind. I know I will be waiting. In my humble opinion, live music, good friends, and beer are the keys to paradise. 

Focus Foxies in attendance: Justin (Ticket Purchaser), Alex (Photo Queen), Rachael, Kara, and some dude named Thomas?

Becoming a FONZ (ehh)

Stardate 66140.7

15:33 - Many Focus Foxies know that I am a big fan of zoos. I mean a huge fan! Recently, the National Zoo has had many births. After a long wait, they finally put the cheetah and fishing cat cubs on display. We excitedly ran to go see these little celebrities.

We got to the zoo a little late to see cheetahs. They were out, but they chose to be coy. We decided to visit the fishing cats cubs who decided to be coy as well! These cubs were stubborn and playing hard to get. Eventually, they would have to come out of their lofty hide outs. The fishing cats were the first to poke their heads out.  They played around with their mom and walked around the back of the enclosure. I got a picture of one of the fishing cat cubs, but their mom was much more photogenic. Fun fact, Focus Foxies, those spots make for great camouflage so you will have to take my word on their cuteness. My camera couldn’t capture their essence properly.  

One really special moment happened in the Panda Pavilion.  I became a FONZ (Friend of the National Zoo). I choose the young professional option. I will be getting a magazine and discounts on their events. We also got to go into the American Trail early, which brings me to my next adventure.

The American Trail opened! This trail featured many animals from North and South America. The trail had sea lions, otters and wolves, oh my! The otters and beavers put on a show for us. They swam around, and the beavers showed off feats of strength. I got pretty close to a wolf. How awesome is that? The sea lions had an amphitheater to watch them do their thing. The zoo opened a new sandwich stand with environmentally sustainable fish and shrimp. The sandwich was great but priced high. But what are you going to do? The zoo is free to get into.

We decided to make another swing around towards the cheetahs again. They were let out, and they were still being a bit coy. I tried getting more pictures of them. They were hiding behind a tree, and my equipment wasn’t as cool as the tons of professional photographers there. Justin and Carmelita (Cheetah cubs) just wanted to play without being bothered by us.

All in all, a proud day for this focus fox! Being a FONZ is important to me because it helps give back to the zoos I love so much!

Moving to Mt Vernon Triangle

Stardate 66042

14:49 - Recently, I moved from Southwest DC to Mt Vernon Triangle. I wanted to plant some roots in a place where I could decorate and have my own furniture. It has been exhausting to move, but I have somewhere I call home. This post will be all about pictures.

 I made this bed from two Ikea shelves. Ikea will be a running theme in my new place.  I have never been to Ikea before this year, but now I have a mini temple to it. Well, this bed offers a ton of storage. I ended up getting really cute purple storage bins to put in the shelves to hold my clothes.

 Those are my Ikea curtains. I had to hem them myself. I did not realize how long 96 inches is. I will give you a hint, more than 6 feet. Also, I just cut the curtains and hot glued the edges.

I bought a small desk. All of my other desks were just holding places for paperwork. So I decided not to give clutter a space in my room.

These Ikea wall shelves were crazy to put up. They were worth it though. The hold all of my memorabilia and some fancy things. I now have a vase with flowers in an attempt to have nice things. They are fake to make sure they last.

This bit took some time. I have a bunch of currency from around the world, mainly the places I have been. I have wanted to display instead of keeping it in a jar. So I got my hot glue gun out and started arranging.