Vacation time.

Okay, I am finally getting around to this. See, I spam your flist when I am home sick and don't want to move. It would be nice if I had a voice tomorrow.

I love Washington DC, the last time I was there was ten years ago so this trip was going to be fantastic. We had such a good time, even with crazy grandma around. So that said, here are some pic spam:

Thursday: Library of Congress, Supreme Court Building, Smithsonian's, Georgetown

it was a gorgeous day.

At the Library of Congress

In front of the Supreme Court. I wanted to work here for ages, until I decided that I wanted to teach instead of going to law school. I still have a deep love and respect for the Justice Branch.

Ceiling at the Library of Congress.

I was so disappointed with this library, but then I reminded myself I was going to the Land of Shakespeare in eight weeks.

Where I am one day going to work.

The one picture of the four of us.

A little further back so you get the scenery in.

The Hope Diamond- yet another thing that I was expecting to be larger.

Naked George Washington. it was quite the scandal back in its day.

Little known fact, I wanted to be an astronaut for the first 15 years of my life.

Friday: The National Archives, The Holocaust Museum, and the National Mall



The Constitution. It was freaking awesome.

Picture of the Declaration that almost got me arrested.

Just a pic I loved.


I loved this memorial, it is very peaceful.


With the Washington Monument.

With Mr. Lincoln.


The Korean War Memorial, one of my favorites.

The part of the Wall with my dad's cousin's name.

Saturday: Breakfast with sagacious_c , Mount Vernon, and dinner with

miss_elisha

With the fam, my mom is related to Martha

This was the one day with clouds, it made for some nice pictures.

I have decided that I am going to have my wedding here. It is gorgeous.

Can't you just imagine how gorgeous it would be in early fall or late spring.

Washington's outhouse. Those doors are drawers for poop. They would empty them into the compost heap for reuse.

The dung heap!

I really, really want to live here.

Dad and Grandma flaunt the rules

E, Mal and I. That should be fried cheesecake in front of us, but it was fried ice cream instead.

The whole group. Grandma is still convinced that Chili Verde is red six days later is complaining about her non-deep fried chimichanga.

Sunday: Ford's Theater, Mr. Lincoln's Waffle House, The White House, the Jefferson Memorial, Arlington Cemetery.


In front of the theater, it is smaller than I thought.

In front of the house where Lincoln died.

Same house

The other place I dream of working.

I played the West Wing theme as we stood at the gate

Cherry Blossom festival- the tail end, most the rest of the blossoms were gone.

View from Arlington.

RFK's grave.

The changing of the guard

This was such a great ceremony. I loved it.

Nice to have a bit of spring, seeing as it has snowed the last two days here.

Monday: Private tour of the capitol- it freakin' rocked.

Bennett for Senate har-hardy-har-har (song Zach sang when he was three years old)

My favorite picture at the capitol.

4th Annual Bellamy Family Lip Sync Contest

Last night we had the 4th annual Lip Sync contest- where everyone is a winner. It is always a fun night and I bring you pictures now:

We started out the evening with Hilary and I doing our rendition of loathing, and believe it or not, I actually had that hat sitting in my trunk.




After Lu did Move it Move it, in one of her mom's old dance dresses.


She seemed to be more interested in her shadow. After that Adam and Amy showed up as Troy and Gabby from HSM



Then we had a visit from those people on Disney that dance and stuff



After it was Boston's turn, he did a bit of Chris Brown and Elmo. Well until Boston decided he was done and his parents had to finish it.



Then it was time for Hils and Bart to teach us the better techniques of Yoga.



The parents brought back their hippie ways with Hair


And finally, Adam and I brought down the house with our version of Dirty Dancing




Please notice that form, it took a lot. Dad told me I can now move my hips with the best. Eat your heart out dancing with the stars.

I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley

My seniors continue to work their way through Pride and Prejudice, and today we got to watch tape 4 of the BBC series. I love this part, I used to watch from the part where Lizzie arrives at Pemberley till Lydia's letter arrived just when I needed a pick me up. Well to help them through it I have been buying candy or having food lessons that add a bit of spice to the story. The other day they had to compare the novel to a Tootsie Pop. The answers gave me a good chuckle and I now share some of the best with you:

(Oh and I kept all the original spelling and grammar!)

Tootsie Pops are old candy, but still taste good; like how in Pn'P is an old book, but still contains a story (like sugar) that we can relate to enough in human nature that is enjoyable to read.

The Indian guy on the wrapper looks scary with his bow and arrow but he's actually way awesome cuz with him on the wrapper you win! Like Darcy...seems scary jerk, but actually he's a winner!

A tootsie pop is enjoyable, and gets even better the farther you get, where as pride and prejudice gets worse the deeper you get.

There is a wonderful facade that is the outside and the chocolate on the inside is the inner evil. There is a facade to every character and they have a core that is something different. The lies are masked their truths are masked or vise versa.

The tootsie pop is like the characters in the book. If you hold it right side up it is Wickham cause he is very big headed. If you turn it upside down it is Darcy because he has a firm stances and a strong base of what he knows.

The characters who are said to be hard-heartedness (Lizzie) because the outside represents the hard heart of her and the tootsie roll represents the soft heart she has underneath the hard part.

If it takes 1,000 licks to get to the center of a tootise pop, how many insults will it take to get through Mrs. Bennet's head?

If I have my lollipop and no one else does then they are going to have prejudice towards me. I myself will have pride for my tootsie pop!

The sucker is like Wickham it may be colorful and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside poop brown.

The whole book is sugary and bad for you. The cover wrapper is colorful. Seems like a good idea, but the text is hard and crunchy and the inner meaning is gross and ugly. All in all, a bad idea that gives you a stomach ache. When you're done, the stick is all gross and you feel dirty. You end up throwing it away when you're done.

I picked the violet colored toostie pop because it reminds me so much of Lizzy. I look for every reason not to like the violet colored tootsie pop, and try and cover it uglier so I can hold bigger grudges against it like Lizzy does to Darcy the first half or so of the book. But in the end we find out that everyone is the same.

This one was prefaced with: Think of this in a metaphorical sense. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Mr. Darcy?!
(B's 3rd period may never know)

And lest anyone think that my seniors are getting all the fun, my sophomores got to play Hollywood Squares today!

I have the best brother

So I wanted to show you why I have the best younger brother in the world.

On Saturday night my door rang and there were my parents with flowers. I thought they were from them but they explained that my brother had called them from his vacation, upset that he forgot to get my valentine flowers and begged them to go and pick them up. This is what he got:

I have the best brother

So I wanted to show you why I have the best younger brother in the world.

On Saturday night my door rang and there were my parents with flowers. I thought they were from them but they explained that my brother had called them from his vacation, upset that he forgot to get my valentine flowers and begged them to go and pick them up. This is what he got: