It’s been a fairly busy two weeks since my last post and Kirios’ homecoming!

We had a new employee join my team at the Postal Service. It’s nice to have someone else on the team to take on some of the work, and it’s especially nice to have another young woman around the office. Before the new girl, the person closest in age to me was 40. And she’s been on military leave for the past year…

My mom was in town on business for a few nights. We cooked dinner together one of the nights she was in town – salmon on a bed of spinach and feta and grape tomatoes, approved by Kirios, our own expert on Greek cooking.

Kirios and I metro-ed into Washington DC the other weekend to join our friends Marnina and Seth of ibeafoodie.wordpress.com for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s annual Take Steps fundraiser walk. My parents actually attended their Pittsburgh walk the weekend before. It was a beautiful day and the walk route went around the Tidal Basin, passing by many monuments. It was actually the first time I saw the new Martin Luther King Jr. monument close up too!

Kirios and I stop for a photo during CCFA’s Take Steps

The next day, partially inspired by Marnina and Seth and their friends at the walk who participated in the most recent Team Challenge season together, I decided to go for a morning run. It’s been almost a year and a half since I last went running. I stopped running shortly after completing my second half marathon. Since then Kirios has and I have gone running once or twice, but the last time we did, my knee started hurting pretty soon after we started. Unfortunately, even though so much time has passed, that’s what happened last weekend too.  I ran for a little over 15 minutes before my knee began hurting, and I didn’t make it very far after that. My knee hurt for the rest of the day and it was painful to walk up and down the steps at Kirios’ house that night. I think it’s time to try cycling again, because I think my running days are behind me! 🙁

Friday night I got together with a friend for a night of Thai food and television. He convinced me to try watching Firefly, the cult classic Western in space. I hang out with a lot of geeky guys, and have been encouraged to watch it many times. I have to say, it wasn’t bad. I’m not drinking the cool-aid yet, but I could definitely watch some more on another rainy night.

This past Saturday I woke up early and went to the supermarket to buy blueberries. I made my dad’s famous blueberry tart recipe. Kirios met up with me and we packed sandwiches before heading out to Virginia to meet up with friends at the Del Ray Music Festival in Alexandria. It was a little out of our way and random, but a very cute little festival. We got there around 6pm and ate our sandwiches. We also shared snacks – veggies, chips, dip, and the blueberry tart. It was a lovely picnic. We sat on bales of hay and laid out on blankets while local bands played. The sun went down and the temperature improved a lot. At 8:30 Pat McGee came on stage.  I hadn’t heard of him, but one of our friends is a big fan and got us all together for the event. The music was relaxing and the company couldn’t have been better. As the festival winded down, Kirios and I grabbed forks and fought over the rest of the crust in the tart pan.  We went home happy and sleepy. Days like that are what summer is all about!