Short but sweet and updates galore

Firstly......15 years ago yesterday I started my life with the one guy who totally completes my life and makes it fun and fresh everyday. My soulmate and best friend (C). I love you with all my heart hon and I hope we have many more steps on this road together.

2 years of abandoning this blog and I guess I needed to get back to many things and refresh my life including this. I kind of have pulled out my stitching. I have been working on L*K Christmas. Hopefully my bug is coming back for enjoyment and that spirit of accomplishment.


The same situation of work has come full circle of 3 years ago and I want out tho there might be a few things that might stop me. I did make a move and have started back to school this summer. I've been taking 8 week online classes and am working toward a management certificate. My goal is enough hours and the known missing classes to sit for my CPA soon. Work has shown me one thing though. I have had some pretty good bosses in the past and all up til now have been average or better. My top dawg has shown me what a very poor manager is. I like my immediate boss, he and I get each other well. He would be one reason I don't want to leave.

M is now a high school freshmen ( where did the time go??) Coming into the end of the 1st quarter she has 4A's and 3 B's (lowest B is an 85, other 2 are 88's). Classes are semesters here tho. Hopefully it will continue. She is part of the drama club, culinary club and one other. She is a part of the stage crew for the fall production. We will see about the spring musical, she's not 100% thrilled with it. We will see what happens.

More later

Week 4 basketball and other crud

Week 4 was not a bad week for the girl basketballwise. We won like 20-4. DD played decent 3 boards and a few missed shots but overall not bad.

The week for me wasn't good. Between trying to get work stuff done that is manditory year end and a few other things.....it was just ugly. Friday afternoon (1/30) my grandmother died from a post op infection that she wasn't strong enough to fight off. Her kidneys failed and shortly it was mild support before she just stopped breathing and we had a DNR on her anyway. Funeral was yesterday and the Brit relatives are going home tomorrow (safe travel vibes would be welcome please!!!!).

DD got a part in the chorus of the play, only thing was the number of 7-8 graders who tried out and they tried to place in the main spots first probably kept her from getting a main part but she'll gain experience and that is the key thing this year.

She also passed her make-up test after part way through minor injuring herself. She twisted around her hip a little too hard and quick in one move and it was bad enough that she was in tears. She really debated about finishing it and the instructor was impressed that she did go ahead to finish it and was pretty lienient on her stances because of it. She is now solid BROWN!!!! Almost there for black belt probably about another year (cause it will be 2 3mo tests to move 2 ranks up and then 6 mo til they test for the black) I'm excited for her.

Well that's it for now!!

til later!

Short week 3 update

DD's game ended ina tie 10-10. Both sides had shots that just wouldn't fall for them including DD who went either 0 for 2 or 3. She however had a tremendious game rebounding with 6 boards ( tied for 3rd in that category this week) and showed some nice hustle going to the floor to get balls etc. We were very pleased with that game!

I have pretty much made up my mind. I'm going to go ahead and start taking some online courses probably starting this summer.... tho if I can get my stuff together I might be able to make the 2nd online session for this spring....whew I thought I was crazy before. My house is a disaster area, work and dd seem to have issues, I have other minor obligations and I am telling myself want to do this.....but I think I have put it off for long enough if I'm going to do it.

Anyway any and ALL encouragement will be welcomed as I venture onward in this journey!

til later!!

well I'm back..

Made myself a minor promise to try to be over here more frequently for updates and such and hopefully I'll live up to it. However we are seeing those nasty traits of 3rd or 4th grade peek up again so I may lose out on time because I have to jump back behind dd and make sure she's getting everything done again.

Also, for those who don't frequent my favorite bbs, my grandmother is in the hospital. The origanl reason was internal bleeding that they eventually got under control but not until they had a major bout that placed her in ICU for a while; in the meantime she developed pnemonia/empsema(I know not spelled correctly) symptoms which kept her in there for a bit until Monday. She's now in a private room and has her brother & wife and sister from England arriving today for 2 weeks to help us deal with all of the issues.

I have put needle to thread here and there but nothing really noticable to post that I can get a good camera phone picture of yet and I keep forgetting to charge digital camera's batteries so y'all have to wait on that front.

Week 2 of basketball went well for DD, we clobbered the opposing team to the point we had to reign in the D ( had to do it once last year too). DD scored another basket and brought down 3 rebounds but wasn't into the game until late...she thought we had afternoon games all the time but we only had the 1 first week. Need to make sure she gets that for this week!

Til Later!!!

Happy New Year etc

Well, it is a brand new year 11 days in and I'm chillin' watching football and typing from my living room. It is going to start out kind of busy...dd is still doing karate, and basketball for the next 2 months and who knows how quick for the play (gotta love middle school) and what the practice schedule looks like. She tries out this coming week and I hope she does well enough to get what she wants. School is going decent for her....minor struggle with one teacher and just not thrilled with another class. As long as she keeps good grades....I'm not too bad about it.

I'm not thrilled where I'm working...some of the people I like but there are few too many people there who only care about themselves or getting into others private lives like it is their right. If the economy wasn't so bad and I knew I had stuff lined up...my resignation would have been in a bit ago.

Stitching has been OK but I really need to step up especially if I want to meet one goal. Hopefully in the next few days to a week..I can get pics up of several projects going that I'd like to finish this year.

Oh yeah, we just got off week 1 of games...the team won..DD got a bunch of shots and she wasn't afraid to put it up...she scored 2 points but had several others that just bounced around and missed....more work this summer etc and she is gonna be a very NICE player for any school level. I just need to find more spots for her to play and do well with!

That's it for now.....catch y'all later!

Picture Updates

Here is the stitching side of stuff....

LK Love ornie


Love with Capital L....sorry done with Camera phone and a far distance just to show how far along I am.

Updates

Let me preface this by saying...I'll add pics when I get the chance soon.

For the bathroom stuff, I'll add a photo account page link for y'all to see as I plan on family etc to see it too and it will be easier with all the various computer speeds to let people choose what they want to look at.

That being said here's the latest:

2 weeks later and we have 2 completely redone bathrooms that look totally amazing. We went out last night to get a new shower curtain (hall bathroom) and new towels (both) just to start it out. I love the greens that we chose for our bathroom and the pinks that is in the hall/Melissa's room is amazing too. We had the floor and around the bathtub/shower(depending on which one) ceramic tiled in a stoney like color with lots of yellowy browns in it. We had a border toward the center with accent tiles that look like suns and flowers. We had brand new fans put in with lights and bright 3 sconce lights over the new vanities and recessed medicine cabinets. We also put in new toilets and toppers. The walls not tiled were painted in an antique white that has quite a bit of light yellow in it. I just LOVE the wall color. All in all it looks great.

I have somewhat gotten my groove back and jumped on the 10 challenge again after I bought a new pattern that will work in the new bathroom. I almost have my first completion as my L*K love ornie just needs a face and it will be ready for ornamentation.

Love with a Capital L is cruising along too.The double blues are very pretty with the contrasts. Again once I get the chance I'll try to post it....it is a gift for my parents and they don't know about my blog yet.

Til later!!!

Well here's what's up.....

The Sky ( just kidding).

DD passed her latest belt test and is now a red belt 2 stripes. So close to black that she can almost taste it (just 3 levels of brown yet to go before black). 1st marking period is just about done and she looks like she will make honor roll even after the bumps throughout the marking period. Needless to say that we are pleased with it. Basketball starts in roughly more than a month...YIKES!!!

I still haven't quite made up my mind about school but I am leaning hard and heavy toward it. I do know that having a license or more than just a BS is going to be needed soon to move upto management level and make more than decent $$.

My big news of the day is that we are in the midst of re-doing our bathrooms. We are 3 days in and we basically have 2 gutted out rooms because we are waiting on a reorder on the tub...it had the drain on the wrong side. By Thanksgiving we will have 2 redone bathrooms and I can't wait.

Better run here as things to do. It is close to November 4th in the US so remember to go vote!!!

A Multitude of issues

Sorry it has taken me another month to get back here....but as stated before August tends to be very busy for me for various reasons and this one was no exception!!!

The first weekend of the month was dd's birthday and we did the family thing in which she got lots of $$ and gift cards to use. ( she has since used one of the gift cards in Kohls for a pair of black shoes).

Around this time we heard some "foot steps" in our attic right above our bedroom. Come to find out a mama raccoon had bitten her way in the side of the attic (above dd's room), climbed the gutter outside there which was coming off and prompted a lot of this stuff that happened late into weekend number 2 and start of week 3. DH took off a Thurs,Friday and then Mon-Wed of the next week. We ended up getting guys out to repair wood faschia, put the gutter back up and a trapper in our attic for like 2-3 hours to wrangle out the momma raccoon and baby. The baby was REALLY young too..barely eyes open if they were....Mamma was NOT happy getting removed. DH and DD went on vacation part of that time he was off....going down to NC and Southern VA. Add in also the cable boxes going out on 2 levels and no refresh was fixing it.

The final weekend of the month came to the point of 4 of the birthday's being celebrated at once and then dd went out with my mom to do some school clothes shopping ( we had gotten quite a bit of the supplies the previous weekend once the list came out). They had a blast and I got stuck waiting for the cable guy cause he couldn't keep the Saturday appointment. DH had gotten going with 3 football drafts of his in 4 days and then helped me with my last 1 2 days later.

School started the last week of August and was going pretty good though most of the 6th and 7th graders have been passing a bug amongst themselves (the 8th graders ignore the group of them) and dd has had it for 2 days this week. She's back in school today(Friday 9/5).

Ok....now for me. I have decided that while I am OK with this job.....it is ultimately not where I really want to be. Too many people with too many quirks and an admin that doesn't want to seem to do his job most days.

So....I've ultimately have been looking at going back to school. For those that don't know and haven't looked at my profile ...I'm an accountant who doesn't have her CPA. Long story short is that Maryland cares about classwork and graduating froma PA school...I was missing 2 classes prior to them going to the 150 hour rule. Anyway I'm just not sure if I should or really do want to do it. Time is a big thing and with dd getting even more busy...... but I REALLY can't advance higher up and make good $$ if I don't get my CPA which going back to school will do (get me the additional hours and those missing classes to sit for it). I guess I'm looking for advice and the like from y'all.

Anyway let me close this now...I've let this run for a couple of days and I just need to get it posted.

2 posts on back to back days.....

Wow...I'm amazing myself here... ( no comments entirely from the peanut gallery please ;) )

Can someone tell me where the summer has gone please???? 5 weeks from Tuesday my sweet dd will be starting middle school. Wasn't it just the middle of June like 2 days ago???

What got me looking at this was the date and such. In my family we have a LOT of summer birthdays and a week from tomorrow dd turns to double 1s (11). Her birthday is a slight signal to me that the summer is on its way out as it is usually 3 1/2 weeks until summer is over.

When I mean a lot of family birthdays...I mean a lot!! We have 2 ( would have been 3 had my uncle not passed away from cancer at a relatively young age) in June, 3 in July and 5 in August and my parent's anniversary also. You kind of understand why summer runs quickly when we get together so much as family for all of these.

DD has been enjoying probably her last year of camp with the after school place she goes ( she won't be there this fall). They have gone to a Mystics game, hersheypark, medievel times, the aquarium, bowling and a few other things. All in all a good time.

Well my break from work is about done and I need to get back at it.

Seen this on a bunch of Blogs and had to add mine too

I also can claim Canada several times over with 2 seperate trips to Niagra Falls, Toronto for a high school band trip, Montreal for a former job and twice to England

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

What's been going on here....

Ok… So where have I been???

Let me preface this by saying, I had placed up a blog meme a month or 2 ago and shortly there after got a rather surprising comment from someone I hadn’t seen in a while or heard from in a very long time. Someone who figured out who I was based on the signature and other things and must have made a little bit of an effort to track me down and it kind of shook me up a bit. It made me wonder if I really wanted to keep blogging about things in general…both with my work life, my hobbies and my family. I kind of have decided to sneak back on and experiment and see what happens. I might just pull this down or go to password/ permissions only eventually.

Anyway that being said here's the latest......
February came and went after a rather hectic schedule which including karate, basketball practices and games, and honors chorus practices; along with Valentine’s Day and couple of birthdays. March and April had a minor breather as we lost the basketball stuff but everything else was running along. May got busy yet again with the end of the year stuff and it was even more as important as it was the last of the Elementary school stuff.

Early May was her karate tournament and she walked in very confident that she’d get a trophy since she did the prior year. She performed exceeding well; but didn’t quite have enough to make the top 4 in any of the three disciplines. She received a medal and our appreciation including my folks who got to watch her perform. It took us over probably an hour and maybe two of a crying fit to convince her that she wasn’t bad but maybe need to work a bit more to perfect her skills and others happen to have a bit better day than her.

Mid May was the Honors Chorus concert which was totally and utterly fantastic. 200+ kids from elementary schools all over the northern half of the county singing in multi-part harmonies, signing one song in parts and just having a good time considering they learned 11 songs in only 10 practice sessions (2 were snowed out). I am supposed to have a CD and DVD on order for it; but have yet to see it though it has only been a month since the concert basically.

End of the month was the school choral and instrumental concert (DD had double duty for that as she played flute in the advanced group). Beginning of June she played for the after school place she goes (graduation for the younger kids). She was asked back in March or so to do it and EVERYONE complimented her on doing such a great job. During the last week of school, she received 8 awards during the ceremonies and her promotion ceremony came along. Neatest thing was the ceremony was in the gym but the refreshment social was in the opposite corner of the building and all of the rest of the kids and teachers set-up aligning the halls to applaud not only the kids moving on but their parents as well. It got to me a bit.

Well, that being said I have been stitching on stuff for other people and not myself lately and I really need to get back to it. I crashed my laptop a few weeks ago (7 years old and not upgraded and bought from a former employer that went bankrupt for like $150.00) by redoing the registry without the disks and such. I didn’t feel too bad about loosing it like that but it did bother me some because I really want to learn how to fix stuff like that. I also play online at various game spots and one I’m very near 1000 badges….my original goal was end of the year but they have piled on quickly so now it is by the end of the summer I want to hit that goal….so if I’m not stitching or hanging on the boards….you’ll probably find me there or watching summer basketball games that the kiddo is in or her karate (red 1 stripe- going for red 2 this summer) and belt test or summer birthdays and activities

Anyway, that’s it here for now…..I’m going to try to be more accessible and visible here and on my boards!! If you made it thus far…..you deserve a medal.

Saw this meme and thought I'd give it a try....

This is so me that it is spooky!!! I think those of you who have met me in real life will agree!

What Jill Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

New stuff

This is last week at my old job and while I'm a little sad to leave several good people...the place is still a mess and headed for more trouble and I just don't want to be there. I'm off to a new job next week.

DD took her makeup test tonight and passed pretty well I think. She's now a Red belt and a new class so the schedule get rearranged yet again but it is in decent shape. Karate is now going to have options for Mon-7pm, Wed-7pm, Fri-6pm and Sat- 11am. Basketball practice is Thursday nights and games Sat mornings and startin next month (less than 2 weeks is honor's chorus).......Let the road trips begin!!!!!!

Also took the gal to a college women's basketball game and we picked a good one as the game went into double overtime before the home team won. We had a good time and she got to see some of the best of the women's college game play and perhaps see some of the things they do to incorporate into her game.

We enjoyed a nice long weekend also.

2008 Stitching Goals

I don't want to make too many simply because I don't want to be disappointed if I have a year like last year.

1. I want to stitch as much as possible on my WIPS

2.Would like to finish Simply Welcome (started late December 2007)

3. Work on to potentially finish Enchanted Fairy

4. Do all 12 of the L*K Christmas virtue ornaments and get them in ornament fashion

5. See significant results in Love with Capital L, Gift of Peace, Apache Wedding, and Enchanted Cottage

6. Finish DD's birth sampler and at least 1 olympic stamp.

7. Work on whatever else call my name.

That being said...I had mentioned the 10 project challenge last year. I'm renewing my challenge.

I'm on for the 10 projects with 2 exceptions: JCS ornament issue(assuming I'm not done by then) and any supplies I might not have or need to refresh for the projects on the challenge. I also reserve the right to change projects in the 10 group. This will be my start list and I'll add more as needed.

1. At least 6 of the L*K Christmas Virtues Ornaments (can be changed to all 12 but if that is only hold-up at end then I'll consider it done)

2. Enchanted Fairy

3. Apache Wedding

4. Enchanted Cottage

5. Simply Welcome

Short but Sweet post

This is to wish y'all a Happy New Year and in my account anyway, may 2008 be much better than 2007 was!

I'll add more posts and the like as soon as possible.

How Appropriate for my year

This is part 2 of my updates....



Those of you who come fromCSC may have noticed my signature line has a quote from Mother Teresa..."I know that the Lord will only give me what I can handle, I wish he didn't trust that I could handle so much."

That has been my feeling for the year 2007, especially at work. It started in January and February as our now former CFO and Controller were stuck on what was believed to be a special project and left the month end close in my lap as our senior G/L accountant was out on leave along with another member of our team.We did the best we could but with them having to approve journal entries and such, closes went really slow. Plus they had to check everything over and it usually ended up in at least 1 late night for that and fixing the things we missed.

March had the introduction of an Assistant Controller who in hindsight did all of things to get hired for the job and said the stuff our former controller wanted to hear. Once she was in position, she only did things beneficial for her image( it was an effort to get her to do other stuff that needed to be done), gave us (the rest of the team) a hard time but especially me, and when things went wrong not only didn't she take any of the blame, but she'd throw anyone "under the bus" . I got thrown there a couple of times and she even had the audacity to do it once right in front of my face.

The summer was full of high tension as we knew the deal closing was impending and of course our now former assistant controller was basically worthless. Morale dropped around the company and it basically has kept on plummeting until maybe year end. With the new ownership having quite a bit of say, it meant recording new stuff related to the deal and the interim CFO ( our old one had to leave when the deal was finalized) gave us spreadsheets with detail on how to record stuff and it became a major mess that only finally got resolved in late November. Not only that we were putting lots of extra hours. Under the old ownership, it didn't mean as much because they'd make sure we'd leave a bit early once things were done and they were also always making sure morale was good and people were getting respect.

Our Controller quit of her own devices in September with her last day in early October. Our former assistant controller, after hearing some of our reports that we were heavily relying on weren't perfect, left 2 weeks afterward. Her leaving was more to preserve her image that all of us knew wasn't that great though I think she was saving face in her mind.

The new CEO and CFO came in in September and October and basically took over wanting to find their pet projects of gaining understanding of our financials and causing issues while we were dealing with new reporting requirements. They also decided to close the accounting operations in Vancouver in Septmeber and bring it down to us, plus do 2 systems changes in 6 months with no back up. The first one went down in July and put us back 2 weeks during close. The second one is still in process...it is a new accounting system and AP is moving over now, the G/L functions aren't moving over until probably late January. All of this has meant putting in long hours and while it didn't matter as much under the old team, this one it does because they are rewarding us in any shape or form seemingly. We don't get to leave early before a holiday weekend, we aren't getting comp time or whatever. It has REALLY brought me down, which is why I didn't post as much on the board and didn't get a chance to really stitch much this past year.

Adding to that the usual family stuff and dd issues with school etc and you canunderstand why I find my "tagline" is so appropriate.

A few more minor updates on DD since last post

I'm one proud mama but I'm looking at a VERY crazy schedule coming up this Winter into Spring......

DD made honor roll for the first quarter...mostly B's..a couple A's....a mix of O's and S's and all I's in Learning skills(I is best there...equals independent)....surprised the heck out of me on that last one.

She also passed her belt test in the middle of October and is a proud purple belt!!! She will either be a red or red 1 stripe when the next tournament hits, which I think judging from last time should be sometime in April.

Basketball starts with a vengenance this weekend( the clinic day) and then the next 2 Saturdays as practice before the new year. I'm guessing a Tuesday practice night after the new year (same coach for the last 3 years and it has always been then). That will be January through the end of February, with games on Saturdays.

Late 2 weeks ago, DD states" Guess what ....I made honors chorus"...... WHAT?!?! She hadn't said anything to us but tried out and was one of 3 from her school's 5th grade class to make it in ( we are talking 40-55 kids total potentially from both classes). Impressive as she said she was the only one to identify notes on a scale(flute for over a year certainly helped). Honor's chorus starts mid February and runs thorugh mid May with a final concert.....local gals if you want the details, email me and I'll give them to you.

This is on top of flute practice and Homework every week night and karate 2x a week ( looks like it will be friday-saturday during this stretch). You don't see me around much on the boards and like(unless I'm snuck in at work...SHHH), you'll know why.

Updates part 1 of many

I titled this post as updates part one of many because i'm not sure how many parts this will run.



I'll start with DD



In the April post, she was in 4th grade. She was about to test for her green belt in karate. She had been playing flute, and major involved in school activities( peer mediation, helping with the disabled kids(LFI) in her school during lunch). She finished the year strong after bumps in the middle. She received 6 awards for chorus, band, honor roll and a few other activities. We were very pleased. This year she has started 5 grade and shown some great maturity that seems to have slid the past week or so a bit, but has been working with some tough stuff including above and way above level math. She is playing flute again this year( we are still having practice issues a touch) and is doing 2nd time peer mediator. I'm just hoping after last year's experiences that we can deal with the coming year better.

Karatewise not only has she since tested for her green belt and passed, she tested for blue during July ( my parents came down to watch her) and passed it also! She has improved so much in the past year. I have heard compliments from a couple of the parents and one of her classmates recently asked for help on a move and dd did a great job showing her it. She tests next weekend for her purple belt.

Just for those not familiar and since there are so many different forms of Martial arts and belt structures, here's her listing in order: white,gold,yellow,orange,green,blue,purple, red, red 1 stripe, red 2 stripes, brown, brown 1 stripe, brown 2 stripes, black.

The week before dd's birthday was basketball camp and both DH and I took it off, we did day things and had fun with DD right after camp. I took her 1 evening down to a Mystics game and we had a blast. She got a basketball with everyone of the ALL Stars from this past year signed and a "floorboard" signed by Nikki Teasley for her birthday amongst her presents. I figured you only turn double digits once so a little spoiling was a good thing. Summer camp for her was fun too. Going to the pool twice a week, a field trip once a week to various places including 6 flags, medieval times, the aquarium and such. She seemed to enjoy herself.

We also had a visit from the troops from England( think it might amongst the last time they'll fly over here) for 3 weeks. We didn't get to spend as much time with them as I'd have liked, but we did get to see them. We also suffered through basically the month of August with no A/C( another long story for the next update).

All in all not a bad time for DD.

DC highlights (and lowlights ;) )... A fun meme

A freind of mine had this in her Blog and they are so true and funny that I had to copy it from her. (thanks Holly and her blog http://stitchesoflife.blogspot.com)

You know you're from Washington DC when...

You say you're from DC, but you actually live in VA or MD but are too tired to explain where.

You don't consider exploding man hole covers to be an unusual occurrence.

You know where the Pentagon really is but never bother to correct anyone about its location.

When it takes you 45 minutes to drive 3 miles on I-66, 95, 395, 495, 50, 123, 29, or 270, it's a pretty good day.

There are at least fifteen ways to get everywhere and you know which way to go based on the weather, time of day, current political climate, terrorism road closures, and whether you are coming or going.

You pay more money in parking tickets in a year than you do in medical bills, college costs and rent combined.

You know that driving through Georgetown, you will hear the music of the car next to you louder than you can hear your own.

"I got stuck behind a motorcade" is a common and real excuse for being late.

"Finding a parking space" actually becomes an appointment on your calendar. (E.g.. 7:00-8:00 Gym, 8:30-9:00PM - find a parking space, 9:00-10:30PM - Dinner reservations.)

You've never once been to Wal-Mart and don't even know if there is one.

When you say you're going to the mall and you don't mean shopping.

You never refer to the 'Metro' as the 'subway'.

You elbow tourists out of the way on the Metro escalators to "gently" remind them to WALK LEFT, STAND RIGHT.

Going to work early means being there by 9:00AM.

You don't bat an eye at 500 politicians and businessmen in suits running like their lives depended on it just to catch a Metro that will be followed by another in 90 seconds.

You call it Targét, not Target, and are well aware that the one in Alexandria is just a "tad different".

When Washington National Airport is and will always be "WASHINGTON NATIONAL" or just NATIONAL, not "Reagan National".

You can tell by people's cars where they live and maybe even what neighborhood.

You've claimed that there's nothing to do on a weekend night even when you have the entire nation's capitol to explore.

You have the Metro map memorized, yet act like you don't know when someone asks you how to get to Metro Center.

You meet someone else who says they're from the DC area and you realize they live two hours away from you.

You notice that there's been construction on the same stretch of highway for the past 5 years and you've never see anyone working on it.

You know you've crossed into Northern Virginia, without ever seeing a sign, only because your speedometer goes from 60 to 0.

You know that Vietnam is no longer in the South Pacific, it's now been re-located to Seven Corners.

The few times you have gotten lost in DC you have somehow ALWAYS ended up in Anacostia and every road out somehow leads back to Anacostia.

You realize that I-395 is Northern Virginia's version of NASCAR.

There is no such thing as North, South, East, or West on the beltway, it's just go "that" way!(Inner circle/outer circle)

You go anywhere on the Eastern Shore, Rehoboth, Dewey, Ocean City, Skyline Drive, or the Outer Banks for vacation and everyone you meet is from DC.

You don't find it unusual for the city (and the government) to shut down when 1 inch of snow falls.

When you refer to "the government" you mean the federal government.

You can see the national cathedral from almost anywhere.

You know at least 2 rowers.

You know that Georgetown is NOT only a school.

You consider Northern VA to be in no way similar to southern VA.

You know which bridges to cross to get to Maryland or VA.

You actually know what goes on in Dupont circle.

You can't go to Tysons Mall without seeing someone you know!!

You have a few friends who don't know what their parents do...It's Top Secret government work.

People don't ask you if Chevy Chase is named after the actor.

You can harmonize perfectly with the alert for "Doors Closing" on the Metro.

50% of your senior class went to Mason, JMU, Tech, VCU or UVA.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from DC.