HURRICANE MADNESSSSSS

So I figured with Hurricane Irene making her way up the East Coast, I'd do what any other Norfolkian would do and stay home to challenge the storm. That is, until I got a text Friday morning from my brother offering his house up as a safe haven. Knowing full well of his ulterior motives of wanting to see Ed, I quickly jumped on the chance to go visit- the offer does not come along every day. I rushed home after putting plastic tarps over my computer keyboard to stave off the UTTER DESTRUCTION that would inevitably ensue, packed up the puppy and headed North(ish). Northwest. Whatever. The usual 3.5 hour drive took about 6 hours. No problem. I've got my dog (who looked like this most of the trip), and a book on tape (Decision Points by George W. Bush, which is super-interesting so far, btw).

Brotherbear lives adjacent to the Marine Barracks in the Capitol Hill area of DC, and a distant memory of mine includes going to the Marine Barracks on Friday nights to watch the dapper marines march. I used to get escorted in on the arm of a delightful young soldier; now I awkwardly walk by the (still delightful) young soldiers, but feel much more intimidated by their presence (say awkwardly, slightly funny things, and then walk quickly away). (One day, I hope to woo my husband with my awkwardness. Jury's still out on that one.) All that to say- parking was nonexistent. And in this case, you MOST DEFINITELY do not want to park on the other side of the bridge. No, for reals. Not even a joke this time. I parked the car on the other side, got out for 15 seconds, got back in, and proceeded to drive around for another 15 minutes looking for a place to stop my car.

I woke up the next morning, and completed something that has been on my to-do list for the past 15 or so years (that's three times in two sentences I've used the number "15". I recognize that.); I went running on the Mall. No, not in the mall. On the mall. The national grassy-lawned mall. Mission accomplished with a 3.5ish mile run. I celebrated by having a cupcake. (See below.) And because I'm so cool (nerd.), I named the picture file "hurricupcakes". I'm so stinkin clever I can't even stand myself sometimes.

And then the hurrycane was nonexistent after that. Rather, I shouldn't say nonexistent- I should say... uneventful. This is Sunday morning on the streets:

EXCEPT FOR THIS UTTER DEVASTATION!!! I arrived back home to this sad, sad scene. This patio set is certainly causing some grief in my life. Ideas of what to replace the glass with, or how to go about replacing it?  AHHHHH.

That's all.