ajmatt blog

We’ve had a beautiful fall here in the D.C. area. While it usually seems like leaves are red one day and gone the next, the fall colors have stayed at their peak for weeks.
Earlier this month, I dragged Matt out of the house, forcing him to take a break from his midterms and get some [...]

There’s a hole in the wall…

What—you wanted pretty photos of Easter Island? Not a chance!
In our infinite wisdom, Matt and I (unanimously, without debate) scheduled our kitchen remodel to start 44 hours after returning home from vacation. (A return trip that included 3 flights, 4 airports, and an 8-hour layover.) Did we fully consider the [...]

Easter Island was incredible, lots of hiking, moais, caves, and petroglyphs - and we of course promise lots of pictures once we get to a stable, fast Internet connection.
Right now, we’re back in Santiago airport waiting for our connection to Calama, the airport closest to San Pedro de Atacama. This town [...]

Matt and I like Santiago. It is beautiful, ringed with mountains, and mild and green even in the dead of winter. I would love to live here, if only to wake up to mountains every morning and eat at a different Chilean restaurant every night.
Santiago is typically used by tourists as a jumping off [...]

Amtrak’s Acela Express is a nice train that provides business class service and rapid speeds between DC and Philadelphia, perfect for my travel needs. In fact, I traveled so much last year I made “select” status, which I took advantage of this afternoon on my way home by using a free upgrade voucher to [...]

It is officially June, the mosquitoes have hatched, I have a few plants in the ground, and yesterday the sky over our house looked like this:

The type of storm you can hear growling in approach, turns the sky green, and sets off tornado warnings in the burbs. For those who aren’t weather map geeks (as [...]

Having survived an overwhelming semester of two classes at the same time along with a very busy few months at work, I’ve spent the last two weeks vegetating on TV shows I’ve missed, watching Blu-ray movies I’ve wanted to see, trying new restaurants and going out to see new movies (unbelievable, I know!), and reading [...]

“On behalf of the Graduate School of Virginia Tech, I am pleased to inform you that based upon the recommendation of the Science and Technology Studies faculty, we can offer you admission to the Doctor of Philosophy at the National Capital Region Campus. Congratulations!”

Yesterday Matt and I drove 6 hours to the Outer Banks in North Carolina in an enormous (rental) SUV that had six cupholders accessible from the front seat. Really, what more do you need in life? (Maybe also to average more than 15 miles per gallon.)
Along the way we passed:

The Stonewall Jackson Shrine
A hitchhiker with [...]

Matt worked a 12-hour day today and I am stuck sitting around with a yet-to-be-determined foot injury, so we ordered Chinese at 9:30.
After dinner, Matt juggled fortune cookies. One fell on the floor and broke. I saw “hard work” between the cookie halves and said, “I think I got yours.” Matt picked the other cookie [...]