Welcome to 2008! Looking back over the past couple of posts, I don’t think I ever mentioned that I got promoted to the M Street Starbucks. The week before Thanksgiving, my new district manager approached me about the possibility of moving to a higher volume store; four days later I was in charge of the original M Street store, at the intersection of M and Wisconsin. It was a huge opportunity, and it’s been a lot of fun, and a lot of work too.

Anyhoo, Tina was home for Christmas, which was very nice. Although we didn’t have a tree this year, we did go to midnight mass and had a lot of great food. We tried to photograph most of it (the food that is, not the mass-going), although at a distance all food looks the same Check the side-bar for phone-photo updates. (By the way, I think the preceeding sentence has more hyphens-per-word than any other on this site)

I had today off from work.  Now normally, I don’t get much done on my days off– they are a chance to relax, watch some tv, and just hang out.  Especially when I’m home alone.  Today, however, was a different story.  So far today I have: gone grocery shopping. done the dishes. cleaned the kitchen.  done two loads of laundry.  roasted a chicken (with rosmary, sage, thyme, onion, lemon, butter…  delicious!). made mashed potatos.  made gravy.  baked peanut butter chocolate chip brownies–  all from scratch!  And I have yet to turn on the tv.  Yep, it’s been a pretty good day.

Posted by mobile phone:
I woke up today to see a light frost covering the ground. By the time I was leaving for work it was snowing! I decided to walk to work so I wouldn\’t have to worry about driving home, and now I have mixed feelings about that decision- it ended up snowing all day leaving two inches on the ground. I\’m glad I don\’t have to drive in this, but that means I have to walk in it. Looks like the snow might have stopped, so I\’m about to brave the walk home!

Happy Thanksgiving! Reena flew in from sunny California to spend Thanksgiving with us, and we had a blast! We saw Superbad at the Arlington Cinema and Draft House, had Two Amys (of course), had enormous noodle bowls at Cafe Asia, and cleaned up the apartment a ton (thanks Reena!!). But the highlight of course was Thanksgiving. We were smart enough to spread it across Wednesday and Thursday to maximize our eating potential. On Wednesday, we made cornish game hens with rosemary stuffing, mashed yams, green bean casserole, wild rice and mushroom stuffed squash, cornbread, gravy, cranberry sauce… quite tasty. The game hens in particular turned out really well. Then on Thusday we went over to Erica’s apartment for a proper Thanksgiving feast. In addition to being my next door neighboor as the manager of the new 33rd & M St. store, Erica is a culinary student– awesome! We had so much tasty food: appetizers included a brie and cranberry pastry, crab-stuffed mushrooms, polenta with a mushroom ragu, and deviled eggs. We had the largest turkey ever, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted veggies, squash tortellini with a hazelnut and spinach sauce, all followed with pecan pie and a white chocolate blackberry lemon marscapone tart– pretty much the tastiest thing ever. Jen from Glover Park, Grace from Gelman, Rob from 24th & M and his wife, and Erica’s daughter Alex were all there enjoying the food too. Fun times!

And then on Black Friday, Tina and Reena hit the stores looking for deals. In addition to the usual DVD deals, they made quite an amazing score: we got the Navigon 2100t GPS unit from Staples. It normally retails for $249. They got it for… wait for it… $99. And it comes with a free subscription to a traffic service, which usually is another $99! So a hundred bucks instead of $350? Very strong work. We also got a digital camera for 50% off. All in all, a successful trip to the mall. I’m most excited about the GPS– it’s sooo cool! I haven’t actually used it in the car yet– I sat in the apartment last night watching TV with it on, just so I could know exactly where I was (elevation: 160ft; speed: 0mph)– but it looks like it’s going to be very useful. I’m most excited to use it for all my “regular” trips, to see how ineffecient my typical routes are

Happy Veteran’s Day! Time for an update, I guess. So we opened up the new store on September 28th, 2007. It’s been pretty crazy since then… the Nation’s Triathlon came through our neighborhood on day two, the American Kidney Foundation hosted a fundraising walk near us on day three, the Marine Corps Marathon came right by us, we gave coffee to the Swedish Embassy next door for the Queen of Sweden’s visit, we have hosted two speed dating evenings, as well as weekly job fairs…. like I said, a lot going on!

In other news, I’ve been uploading a ton of photos. I’ve also been listening to a bunch of new music– mostly Patrick Watson and Radiohead. Other than that, not much has been going on. I signed up with Facebook, so hop on and drop me a line!

Posted by mobile phone:
So I just downloaded and activated WordPress mobile, which allows me to read and edit my site from my phone! Just point your phone\’s browser to www.adamgraunke.com

Miles and miles and miles… So David came back with us from Seattle last weekend (first class! they didn’t even card him for wine, despite his cherub-like face). David has pretty much seen it all in D.C., crazy jet-setter that he is (did I mention first class? all the way from Seattle?) so this trip he wanted to see some sights outside the city. Ever happy to oblige, Tina and I took him to the show (as they say). Friday, we drove out to Harpers Ferry. It was amazingly crowded, but we avoided that by driving off road for a while. The town itself was very beautiful, and old. All the restaraunts were conspiring to not serve food, but through guile and cunning we were able to procure some decent sandwiches, average ice cream, and horrible coffee. On a lark, as we were leaving town, we decided to head to Berekely Springs, where Tina did a family medicine rotation last winter. we got the only open table at the fabulous Lot 12. David treated us to dinner (thanks!) which consisted of halibut, duck, and pork. There were some fancy ingredients and methods, and boy was it tasty We saw George Washington’s bath, too. Saturday, David and I drove to Shanendoah National Park and completed the first third of the Skyline Drive before checking out Luray Caverns. On Sunday, Tina, David, and I drove to Williamsburg and Jamestown to check out some colonial history. We drove the space-age Colonial Parkway (no lane markings!) between Jamestown and Yorktown battlefield, calling everything along the way as “Ye olde…” Overall it was a pretty amazing weekend. Throughout it all, we had some pretty good food too. Scallops for Tina’s birthday, broiled salmon, roasted red pepper pasta sauce, curried chicken salad, basil mashed potatoes, a trio of three-dimensional appetizers… tasty tasty.
Now, with photos!

So I am now, for the first time since I was six, a perfect age. Sadly, baring significant medical and technological breakthroughs, this will be my last perfectly-aged year. I intend to enjoy it.

I didn’t do too much for my actual birthday… Tina took me to Red Robin (yes, they have them out here!) where I of course had a Whiskey River BBQ chicken sandwich and a Mountain High Mudd Pie. Probably like a million (not a perfect number, btw) calories but hey– you’re only perfect twice. Tina did treat me well in terms of presents, I must say. She took us to Baltimore to see the Mariners beat the Orioles (I was super impressed that she was able to arrange a win), and we saw the last showing of The Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center last weekend. Oh, and she got me the DVD set of Planet Earth. Awesome!

We’re coming home this weekend, too, for Dave and Maxine’s wedding. Another short trip home, but Tina and I are both really looking forward to it– especially after the crazy hot humid summer we’ve been having here. Other than that, not much is going on here– I’m opening a new store in September (hopefully– the date has been pushed back a bunch already), so I’m officially not in charge of anything right now

So as I was getting ready to leave this afternoon, I was completely (and delightfully) surprised to see my cousin Chaunaci walk into my store. Apparently she and Bob were in town (well, close enough) for the weekend for a friend’s birthday and tracked me down. It was, honestly, a bit surreal, as they live in Seattle and I had no idea they would be in town. I had just returned from lunch down the street with Tina and was about to head home– turned out to be one of those days that I’m glad I stayed late at work (and let’s be honest… I stay late at work a lot).

What was most impressive though, was that Bob and Chaunaci had the mayor of DC come in earlier in the week to check things out. Mayor Adrian Fenty stopped by Wednesday morning, in the middle of my monthly meeting with my district manager. He had a security detail check out the store, then came in and spoke with customers for about 20 minutes. I chatted with him very briefly– enought to shake his hand, welcome him to the store, and thank him for stopping by. I was thinking I should have taken a picture to post, but the sponteneity of it all (and the four body guards) caught me off guard. Still pretty cool. And for the record, Mayor Fenty drinks a venti chai tea, two tea bags. For those keeping score, President Clinton drinks a venti decaf, Jenna Bush a grande soy latte, and Sen. Leibermann once picked up three frappuccinos.

And lastly, today– our first full-on, great weather, spring weekend, during which frappuccino/iced coffee beverages jumped four-fold, who strolls in but our regional vice president, Wendy. We had a line out the door all day except the two minutes that she was in the store. The store was packed but looked great, so it was a good surprise visit. Busy busy at Glover Park, but as long as things are looking good the exposure is welcomed. Next time any of you are in D.C. be sure to add your name to the growing list of visitors to our store!

So, everything seems to be back up and running fine. I’ve got the moblog all configured, and even Tina can post from her phone. The photo gallery needs some tweaking, and some more photos, but it’s mostly up to snuff.

So Tina and I went to a Caps game the other night, with seats directly behind the Caps bench. Pretty awesome. Although it was actually tough to see the game, with all those hockey players standing in front of us. But it was a cool experience… we went out to a couple of restaraunts afterwards, too: Rosa and Jaleo. Aren’t we the trend setters Anyhoo, it’s getting late (daylight savings time really threw me off!)