CNO (Cousin's Night Out)

Thursday night, we decided that it had been much too long since our last CNO (not to be confused with the Cousin's Night In we had 24 hours prior). Both of us had heard so much about the DC night-life, so we decided to cast our apprehension aside and, as someone once said, "live a little." After a quick metro ride and a few blocks of walking, we found ourselves in an environment filled with hard metal music, less than spectacular language, and people chanting: "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Yes, you may have guessed it, Jacob and Thomas finally went to their first NHL hockey game.

The hometown Washington Capitals led by superstar Alex Ovechkin took on the Montreal Canadiens.

Some of you might have noticed that we purchased tickets that would ensure us an extra-wide view. The upside was that there was not much of a threat of fans seated behind us spilling their beverages on our backs...

...no threat at all actually. After the game was over, everybody cleared out and we were able to snap a picture of where we were sitting - the very top row.

While the Capitals lost the game 4-1, Thomas and Jacob had a splendid time. Sure the fans were a bit rough, but once we looked past the tip of the proverbial iceberg and into those fans souls, we realized that they were all friendly people who had simply purchased much too much of the wrong beverage.

After the game, we finished off our CNO by dining at the local Pie Pizzeria. Tyrannosaurus-Tom broke his glass on his teeth and further proved to everyone why we don't go out to nice restaurants.

All in all, our CNO was a great success!

57th Presidential Inaugueration

The 57th Presidential Inauguration (above), WWII memorial (bottom left) and Washington Monument (bottom right).

 

  

In the old US Post Office bell tower.

Even though neither Tom nor Jake wanted to go to the inauguration the chance to be a part of history could not be passed up. Looking back what an opportunity, we were only 50 yards from a jumbo-tron of the president (about half a mile from the actual president). In the picture above Jake is blocking the view of the jumbo-tron, but it was there. We have also made friends with someone with a better camera than our current one, and she has been documenting our adventures. 

Our new camera friend (Catherine), and Tom

'Monument'al Moments

A busy work week has once again come to a close, and what a week it's been! Mr Kelemen and Mr Matthews were both disappointed that the weathermen in D.C. are as unreliable as they are in Utah. Wednesday afternoon and evening, the workers throughout the city were all abuzz with the forecast of significant snow storms that would shut the city down. Both of us were hopeful for an extra extra long weekend--courtesy of a snow-day issued by OMP (U.S. Office of Personnel Management)--but alas, we were to be disappointed. Despite all the hubbub, Thursday morning arrived as dry as the Sahara. So, off to work we went. While Jacob was driving around D.C. in his work issued van (reminiscent of the Kele-bus back at home in Utah), he was surprised and amused to see a small army of snow plows driving throughout the city lined up back to front with their salt sprayers on full blast. The pavement was not even wet and there was nary a cloud in the sky (combined with the fact that they weren't even occupying multiple lanes), but they effectively insured that not only was D.C. sodium protected against up to a foot of snow, but that all of the vehicles in the city will lose a few years due to salt-rust damage. Needless to say, we're no longer in Utah.

(Picture not taken by us...or by anyone this winter for that matter)

But we digress. As we are well aware, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, here goes seven thousand words.

Here is contemporary D.C. (no snow) as captured by Mr. Kelemen and Mr. Matthews in our lovely excursion today to the monuments.

Mr. Kelemen and Mr. Matthews visiting Brother Lincoln (Turns out that the statue on our penny isn't Paul Bunyan after all)

 Brother Thomas reflecting.

Also pictured here:

Reflection Pool (ironically enough), the Washington Monument,

 the Capitol building, and various tourists.

 The DC boys

(picture taken by a Korean tourist-turned-friend who must have been a professional photographer based on the number of pictures that he took, the time that he took to take them, and the various angles that he discomforted himself by, throughout the process)

Thomas after hearing a comical comment by Jacob

Jacob thinking of the comical comment.

Three Wolves in DC

Many people asked us what we were going to do in Washington DC. Saying that Tom was going to work at the American Action Forum and Jake was going to work at the National Defense University (yes, Jake finally enlisted) did not help anyone understand much at all of what we were doing. To be honest we did not know what we were going to do ourselves. So we have started a blog to document our adventures. Tom also writes a blog for work each week at policyinterns.com so, check that out to see if he is doing anything productive. Enjoy!

Pictured here are Akaila, Lone Wolf and Jay-Cub

Today, Jan 12th, we went to the Smithsonian Zoo. Our favorite animals were the wolves .... we fit right in. The howling picture took about 5 minutes to get right so we were howling by the fence for sometime, needless to say people loved the wolf show that we put on.