June?

Wow.  Is it really June?  I can't believe how quickly the months have gone by.  It seems like time was really dragging for a while, but now it's picking up at 4x the speed.  In exactly 5 weeks, we will be packing out.  In 5 weeks and 2 days we'll be heading to Seattle, and in exactly 6 weeks (and a few hours) we'll be boarding a plane in San Francisco headed for Guangzhou (via Shanghai). 

Mentally I'm as ready as I could possibly be.  However in most other aspects, not so much.  We have taken care of tenants for our apartment... well, the lease isn't signed yet, but they seem committed.  I'm going to assume that's going to work out, because I try to be optimistic (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself).  We will need to sell my car soon.  Maybe we can start that process after our trip to VA Beach this weekend.  Oh yea, and we'll need to categorize our crap and start packing.  Ugh, didn't I JUST do that?  At least I'm not pregnant this time.

Of course, finding the time and motivation to do all this will be the challenge.  We literally have something planned for every weekend until the weekend before we move.  Not that I need to save this stuff for weekends, but some of the plans for our weekends are going to take some prep time during the week, so that's where my motivation to prep for China is lost.  For instance, this weekend we're going to the beach.  Augie doesn't have a bathing suit yet, so I need to get him one.  And I need to wash clothes and pack for that.  Next weekend we're going to Dallas for our friends' wedding, so I'll need to unpack from the beach and repack for Dallas.  After that, we're not traveling again until we go to Seattle, so I guess it's safe to say that very little China prep will be done before we go to Dallas.  Hopefully the pressure of being less than a month away from leaving will be a good enough motivator for me/us by that time!

At least this past weekend was a pretty good and relaxing one.  Yesterday was Aaron's birthday, so I arranged for my parents to watch Augie on both Saturday and Sunday nights so that we could have a nice baby-free weekend.  (Sidenote: I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my parents live in MD during the summer and AZ during the winter.. anyway, they are back in MD for the summer so they're only 45 min away.)  Saturday night, we ate dinner at Macaroni Grill (trying to hit up some American chains before we go to China), which I always enjoy, probably my favorite of the Italian-food chains.  Then, we went to see "Date Night" with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell.  I thought it was pretty good, definitely worth seeing.  I'm not sure it's worth seeing in a theater, but quite honestly, I only think action movies w/ crazy special-effects are worth seeing in a theater because of the big screen (I generally don't like to spend $11/person to see a movie if it's not worth seeing on a big screen...).  Although, one could argue that "Date Night" is an action comedy.  Anyway, I love both Tina Fey and Steve Carrell  so I'd definitely watch it again (at home).

After the movie, Aaron decided he wanted Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for dessert.  And he decided he wanted to go to the one in Clarendon.  But he parked in Ballston, thinking that it was in Ballston.  So we walked for about 45 minutes between Ballston and Clarendon (which isn't so bad if you're not wearing heels like I was...I seem to frequently make bad shoe choices).  At least we walked off some of our cheesecake before eating it!  The cheesecake was great, of course.  We did take the metro back to Ballston, my feet were not going to take another 45 minute walk back.   

On Sunday, we got up and went to church.  Then we just relaxed until about 4, when we went to see another movie, "Iron Man 2."  Before having Augie, we weren't frequent movie-goers, we'd usually see one in a theater every 6-8 months.  We've always rented a lot of movies, but rarely did we actually go to the movies since it's so freaking expensive.  Anyway, now that we have a baby and are barred from taking him to the movies (or at least, it's not something I'd ever attempt, I can't trust him to be quiet the whole time), we go see as many movies as we can fit into the time that he's being watched by my parents.  So we went to see movie #2, "Iron Man 2."  I liked it (of course anything with Robert Downy Jr. is great).  Aaron said he was disappointed and liked the first one better.  He said he liked "Date Night" a lot better than "Iron Man 2."  I don't know, I think he got his hopes up too much and expected more out of it.  I thought it was entertaining enough, so I am glad we saw it.

After the movie, we went to the other place we can't go with a baby - a bar!  We met up with a few people at The Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, which is a bar w/ a great beer list, decent food, and good service.  It was a really good time, and I'm really glad people were able to come out.  I hope we can go back to that bar before we leave, but I am not sure it will be possible. 

Yesterday, on Aaron's actual birthday, I made him a cookie-cake (which ended up being more icing than cookie, but the icing was really good so I think he forgave me).  My parents brought Augie back around dinner time.  We had Filet Mignon steaks for dinner, made on our electric grill, followed by the cookie cake for dessert.  All in all,  I think Aaron was pleased with his birthday weekend (it was much better than last year, I have to say).  I know I had a good time!