My Curly Cutie Sister

Happy birthday to my dear sister Megan!

Look at that adorable face!

You survived growing up in a home with four less-than-perfect brothers.
I know we weren't the ideal playmates.

Who knows how many of your Barbies I buried in the sandbox.

Exhibit A: the Barbie

Exhibit B: the sandbox

Thanks for only body-checking me into the refrigerator once.
I probably deserved it a lot more than that.
(Note to other readers: if you want the backstory on that one, ask our brother Adam. He tells it masterfully.)

You have taught me so much, from Ferengi rules of acquisition to how to tease girls without pushing them over the edge to crying (took me longer than it should have to learn the latter).

Our friendship continues to grow, and I love that we've become travel buddies.
Here's a quick reminder of some of our great adventures:

Disneyland - December 2006

Mr Toad's Wild Ride - one of our favorites

Maybe the best pic of all time; I just had to share it 

Washington, DC - September 2009

 At the US Capitol Building

Kings Dominion for your birthday

Caribbean - January 2010

Soaking up some rays

New York City - May 2011

One of our several shows that trip

You are an incredible woman and I'm very lucky to have you as my sister.
Love you so much, Megan! Happy birthday!

The Smyths Take Manhattan

Note: I'm finishing this post in Jan 2012, so I'll keep it brief and use lots of pictures. Better late than never, right?
We had just as much goofiness as the Muppets, but not quite a much fur.

I took the bus up to NYC, and my parents, Pete, Jordyn, and I had a weekend of Big Apple excitement.

My dad was in conference meetings during the first day, so we figured a good way to see lots of sites in a short amount of time was one of those touristy buses. Cue the Gray Line.

The tour was taking longer than we'd expected, so we hopped off at Battery Park and walked around for a little bit, looking over at the Statue of Liberty for a bit and grabbing an ice cream.

The rest of the tour bus was informative and finished back at Time Square, where we met up with dad for a quick bite to eat and watching sand-sculptors work on a Fleet Week project.

In production

The finished product, later in the weekend

Sand-sculptor watching was brief, as we had tickets to "Anything Goes" on Broadway. The show was quite entertaining, though a little too old-fashioned feeling for me. However, whatever the story and music/lyrics lacked was made up for by Ms. Sutton Foster's performance. I can see why she is the darling of Broadway right now. Extremely talented all around.

Pops played hooky from his meetings the next morning, so we all took the Gray Line bus to Ground Zero and saw the progress so far on the 9-11 Memorial. It's come a long way, and looks like it should be ready by the 10th anniversary in September. Pretty sobering to think about and see up close.

Just chillin' on the Gray Line again

Next on the agenda? Seeing the Blue Man Group perform. Remarkable how many clever gags and technological doodads they used during the show. And not smiling or laughing at any of it! We were cracking up from the get-go and didn't stop until we had left the building. I can't imagine how much fun that job must be.

We didn't have a whole lot of time before I had to head to the bus the next day, but we went up to Central Park, ate at Alice's Tea Cup (I highly recommend it, especially if you get there early before the crowds), and snagged some ginormous dessert cookies from Levain Bakery.

Riding the subway

While waiting for our Alice's Tea Cup table,
Pete & Jordyn looked very metropolitan

A little Alice's Tea Cup magnet shout-out to my running group

The whole visit was lots of fun, mostly because I was with the family and I love seeing them.

So where shall we meet up next? Count me in for wherever.

Evil Dead: The Musical

Last night, I had the great pleasure of going to see something that I never would have expected to exist. People astound me with their creativity, and this was a happy surprise that took me back to my college days living in the dorms. You remember the "Evil Dead" movies starring a young Bruce Campbell, right?Well, someone decided that there wasn't quite enough singing and dancing in "Evil Dead", so they made a musical out of it.Pure

genius.

My friends Matt and Jen let me know that the show exists and that a small production was being done in Adams Morgan. Of course, I immediately went online and grabbed one of the few remaining tickets for an evening I didn't have plans.The show followed the storylines of "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" pretty accurately. Most of the copious quantities of fake blood spewed forth in the second act, and we fortunately had purchased garbage bags to cover our nice clothes (didn't have time to stop home and wear blood-able gear), but being in the splatter zone was still a lot of fun.If you have a chance and you enjoy campy, self-deprecating humor, plus lots and lots of fake blood, find the nearest production of "Evil Dead: The Musical" and go ready to get splattered on!

New Years 07/08

This was one of the most special New Years Eves I've had so far. Kaitlyn flew into town from SoCal, and we had a great weekend doing things together. She flew in on Sunday morning, and I picked her up from the airport. She'd been flying all night and was exhausted. Though she probably didn't feel beautiful, to me she was the prettiest thing I'd seen in quite some time. I was just so happy to see her.

We tried to go to Mount Vernon that evening, but we got there a little bit late and it was closed. So instead we went for a walk in Old Town Alexandria and looked at the Christmas lights. On Monday, I did some work from home and we went to the mall to look at "various items". We grabbed a bite to eat at PotBelly's on our way home, because that's one of the places Kaitlyn requested during her time here.

After a couple hours of primping [is that really a word, it looks so weird], we were all dolled-up and ready to go to the Kennedy Center for our New Years festivities. It was apparent that most of the Kennedy Center patrons that night were a little older, and that made us feel even cooler to be there. The performance of "My Fair Lady" was excellent. The actors and actresses all fit their parts perfectly and put on a terrific show. We especially liked Eliza's dad. You could tell he loved being in the spotlight. What a character!

When we exited the theater, the whole foyer was packed with people. The "beverages" were flowing and the two bands (one on each end of the room) were playing classical music for dancing. Kaitlyn and I took a few moments to enjoy the spectacle and then we threw ourselves in.

We showed off some moves and found a spot to dance right under where the balloons would drop a few minutes later. It was really fun to be "fancy-dancing," our term for it, when the balloons started falling to signal that it was midnight. After a nice New Years kiss, we continued dancing for another hour or so, taking periodic breaks for picture posing. After a little stroll outside to cool off and look at the stars and view of the Potomac, we left the Kennedy Center to meet up with friends at Meghan's house for an after-New Years party, and then headed home.On New Years Day, we had an impromptu Georgetown photo shoot and then met up with Kate and Meghan at La Madeleine for a little lunch (the tomato soup was delicious, as advertised) and then did some shopping. Kaitlyn was very happy to see them and they were likewise very happy to see her. We checked out the National Christmas Tree by the White House, and stopped by the WWII Memorial, before picking up Pat and Talia to get some sushi dinner at Mei Wah.Back at the apartment, Kaitlyn and I didn't go right to bed, because we wanted to enjoy each other's company and delay the coming morning (and Kaitlyn's flight back to Cali). Our goodbye at the airport was lengthy, and we spent a lot of time just holding each other close. The hardest part is that we don't know when the next time is that we'll see each other. But I am grateful for such a wonderful New Years weekend with Kaitlyn and that she came all the way out to DC to see me.