That's What Jenni Said

Spring will pass in less than 25 days. The spring of my 35th year. The spring of my 15th wedding anniversary. The spring of my father’s death. Looking back over my entries I notice that they stopped soon after my father’s death and the only updates since have been more details on his death and a short note about a prior winter trip to Austria. On my father The first two months were very difficult. I was unable to make it longer than a couple of days without crying over my father’s death. This month there have been no tears but his death still hits me at unexpected moments. I’ll be in the car on the way to work and suddenly it occurs to me as if it were new information: my father is dead. Or I’ll be at the office in a meeting about to present and a voice inside reports with panic: my father is dead! I never know when it is going to bubble up and knock the wind out of me, but I’m learning how to deal with it. The guilt is fading (my mantra: I did my best to be a good daughter and w...

From Zechariah Chapter 1, verse 4: ‘ Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Return to me,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty .’ I read this verse last night (I’m making my way through Zechariah) and it really jumped right off the page at me. After everything God’s people had done to each other and to him he extended this invitation. They murdered, they blasphemed, they lied, they cheated, they worshipped idols and turned their backs on God stubbornly. And yet, God wanted them to know it was as simply as turning back to him and he would respond with love. It’s the most beautiful love story. Aside from reading scripture verses that get me emotional, I’ve been filling my time as of late with work, exercise, and trying to manage my very hectic to-do list. The government contract of my primary employer’s ends at the conclusion of this month, so there is a lot of tasks to be completed related to that, e...

It was a very full weekend around our household. Friday I prepped and executed a birthday party for Literary Elly May . It was her 27th and we employed a zombie theme for the event. It was nice to have all her friends join us to celebrate. Saturday I led my walking meetup ( NoVA Walkers ) on a moderately challenging 6.8 mile hike in the Shenandoah Natl Park. We hiked Piney River Falls with a group of 8 and stopped for lunch once we reached the falls. The trail configuration is out-and-back, with a 3.4 mile decline down the valley to the falls and likewise 3.4 mile incline return. My recent running program has dramatically improved my cardio so I had no difficulties on the return section with breathing. However, despite my  muscle building (also thanks to running) it was clearly not enough to prepare me for a trail with this kind of protracted incline because although I was fine during the hike, I was very sore all day Sunday. Still, it was great to get out there and rise to the ...

I've begun the work of posting the adventure that was the Paris trip to my travel blog. So far I've only posted the first day of pictures and activities (and what a day it was!) but bookmark the location to come back and read all the entries this week as I finish them. The travel blog for Paris is at: http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/47153 I will not be duplicating the entire trip blog here on my regular blog, so you’ll need to bounce over there to read the entries and see the pictures. It’s really one click, quite easy, so try not to whine so about being led all over the internet.  Travbuddy.com is specifically designed to log multi-day trips with mapping and other cool features so I almost always post my longer trip entries over there and just notify you of them here.

I promised a chronicle of the Vegas trip (Dec 12th-14th, 2008) and I've carved out a few moments to finish it. The trip was offered through the Travel Meetup I organize. I planned the itinerary and made arrangements for those who wanted to come along. We flew into Vegas Friday night (the 12th) and after checking into the hotel took a taxi straightaway over to Freemont Street. I introduced the travelers to the Golden Gate Casino and 99 cent shrimp cocktail as well as the overhead light show. It was *not* the family friendly beautiful light show I'd seen before but a raunchy stripper chick performance projected onto the screen ceilings. We were not impressed or happy about this change in programming. Saturday morning we were off bright and early to explore the strip. We enjoyed breakfast at the Ellis Island casino (3 blocks behind the Tropicana and very very affordable) before visiting the Paris, Planet Hollywood, and Caesar's Palace Casinos. At Caesar's we enjoyed che...

As described in my previous notes, September was a very harried month for our household. So it was perfect timing that I had arranged back in the springtime for a ladies getaway trip to the Caribbean for late September. It was the first official trip for my newest meetup group, NoVA Travelers ( http://travel.meetup.com/1256 ). I formed this meetup in early summer at the request of several of the members from my other meetups ( http://cooking.meetup.com/343 and http://walkers.meetup.com218 ) who reported that they enjoyed the short weekend trips I'd planned for those groups and looked forward to longer adventures. The basic operating principles of the group are as follows - I take input from members on destinations they'd like to visit, coordinate that info with the marketing and promotions info I am receiving on a daily basis from various travel agencies, consolidators, and transportation providers (such as the airlines or railways themselves) to find great deals for group tr...

So finally summer 2008 has officially shown up for the party. Fantastic! What's In: ~Traveling! I started a new meetup group this week. NoVA Travelers. We've already got 45 people signed up the first week and growing. Our first two trips on our calendar are a Dewey Beach, DE weekend retreat Aug 15th and a NYC Culinary Tour I'll be leading Columbus Day weekend. Looking to put some more weekend trips on the fall calendar and a cruise in the winter. If you're local and interested you can sign up for the group at http://travel.meetup.com/1256/ . It's nice because it allows me to travel frequently and brings in a little extra spending money each month. I think Jon is worried I'm going to quit the IT world and become a travel agent, but he has not nothing to fear- its no fun planning OTHER peoples' trips. I wanna go on them too or I don't want to do all the planning work. ~Traveling part deux: we're headed to Savannah, GA for labor day weekend this yea...

It's been another productive week. My days were filled with solving problems at work and my evenings were filled with socializing and a few select ParJen Consulting appointments. Saturday was the busiest day of all. In the morning Jon and I ventured to DC to lead the NoVA walkers on a stroll around Southwest DC on the waterfront. We did 3 miles and then enjoyed brunch at Phillips. Immediately following we headed to Alexandria where Jon dropped me off at a client's home to perform some consulting work while he browsed home depot for our new kitchen appliances. After that we headed to my friend Rho's house for the monthly NoVA Supper Club dinner. The theme was Italian and the food was great. Met some new people who were very nice. Today Jon and I finalized our kitchen appliances purchase at the local home depot. We are going with all stainless steel and picked out an oven, over the range microwave, dishwasher and fridge. I'm excited to finally have a convection oven. ...

This week I chartered three new meetup groups, bringing my total to six. Here is the list. Pass the info onto anyone who may be interested: Northern VA Walking Meetup: http://walkers.meetup.com/218 Our scheduled walks and hikes are of the easy to moderate variety and most are also dog and kid friendly. Plan on leisurely adventures with plenty of time to stop and smell the wildflowers or look at the city landmarks. You are encouraged to bring snacks, a journal, a camera, whatever you'd like to carry to make the experience more enjoyable. About every month or so we hold a Happy Hour for members -if you'd like to join our group but want to get to know a few folks before showing up for a walk we welcome you to join us at next happy hour.   Northern VA Supper Club: http://cooking.meetup.com/343/ The Northern Virginia Supper Club hosts a member dinner each month. One of our members hosts the dinner and prepares the main entree. The rest of the members bring a side to share. Com...