Too Hot To Handle...

It has been a busy couple of weeks since our last post.  We have both been busy at work, but managing to squeeze in a few other activities.  Kelly has played a few nice rounds of golf.  Ben's knee has been improving as he continues to rehabilitate it.  

Thursday, June 28 was a big day on Capitol Hill.  Yes, the Supreme Court ruling on healthcare came down that day.  But it was also the 51st annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball game.  

Ben went down to watch some of the game.  He only stuck around for the first 3 innings because the game got lopsided pretty fast and those inning lasted a couple hours.

(Mo is Bi-Partisan when it comes to big foam fingers)

The Democrats came out big and easily won for the second year in a row.  The 2010 election of Congressman Cedric Richmond from Louisiana has proved to be a key addition to the Democrats team. 

In addition to the game, political fans could look in the stands to see congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner.

A more comprehensive recap is available here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/congressional-baseball-republican-slaughter_n_1636191.html

(Just to remind Congress about how DC feels about their lack of a vote)

On Friday, a big storm hit the DC area.  The storm seemed to come out of nowhere as we only heard about it on the news a few minutes before the rain started.  Along with the rain were 80-100 mile per hour straight line winds.  The wind knocked over several trees in the region and caused massive power outages.  

A Toyota Tundra down the street had a particularly rough night during the storm. 

The storm also disrupted the AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club.  Play was temporarily suspended on Saturday to clean up trees and branches from the course.  We had tickets for Sunday's final round.  The drive out to Maryland opened our eyes to how bad the storm really was. We had been very lucky in our neighborhood to keep power.  On our drive to Congressional Country Club, most of the stop lights were out.  All along the way we were amazed at the trees that had been knocked down.

(Once we got to the course, the damage was also quite evident.)

Sunday at the golf course was exciting.  Tiger Woods was in contention and would eventually win his 74th PGA tournament and pass Jack Nicklaus to move into 2nd on the all time win list.

The only downside to Sunday was that it was sweltering.  We tried to stay cool, but it wasn't easy in the near 100 degree heat.

 

(Tiger reads the break on 18)

 (Final scoreboard)

Monday, it was back to work.  However, the 4th of July holiday was a nice midweek break.  On Tuesday night, we went to watch the Giants take on the Nationals. 

Two time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum was on the mound for the Giants.  Luckily for the Nats, he has not been up to his usual form this season.  

The Nats managed to score early and take a commanding lead in the game. 

That left the crowd plenty of time to cheer the Racing Presidents.

And to encourage people to vote for Nationals rookie Bryce Harper to make the All-Star team.

We got even more time to vote for Bryce Harper because there was a rain delay.

When the rain finally passed, the game resumed and the Nationals secured the win.  Following the game, it was fireworks night at the ball park as a preview for 4th of July.

We got home from the ball park pretty late, but were able to sleep in with the holiday on Wednesday.  Once we were up and around, we decided to break out our grill.  It was nice and we had some good chicken and grilled corn.  We spent most of July 4 inside to avoid the heat wave the continues.

When the sun went down, we headed to the Mall to watch the fireworks.  Some people on the news had been down there all day to get a "great spot." We arrived about 30 minutes before the show and managed to find a perfect spot near the Washington Monument.

 (Some of the fireworks seemed out of this world)

And if you want to experience the finale, it is in the video below.

Following the 4th, it was back to work for a few days and the weekend.  So far it has been a pretty easy weekend.  We ran errands on Saturday and stopped for a delicious lunch at Rosa Mexicano.  Sunday will probably be more of the same, but if not we'll be sure to let you know.