Thanks to the Foreign Service Institute, I’ve got two more Afghanistan books to read on top of the history book that I’d already purchased. I think I’m glad I waited to start that one until I got the overview from this week’s quick 2-hour history session. At least I’ll be starting with a little context. (Seriously. I had nothing to go on before. It’s rather embarrassing.)

I also learned how to say “hello” and respond “hello” (because it’s two different phrases – aren’t new languages awesome?) in Dari. I’m also fairly confident saying “thank you.” Fingers crossed that I don’t need more than that.

After all this Afghanistan immersion, I’m feeling like I need a little break. I’m also feeling like I want to go into hiding. (In my defense, I think any sane person could only hear the phrase “The terrorists want to kill you!” so many times before deciding they never want to leave their warm bed again.) I’m trying really hard to focus on the fact that it’s only a year and on the other side of that is our tour in Vienna.

Speaking of Vienna, today happened to be EU Day in Washington. Most of the EU Embassies held open houses with entertainment and food. So you can guess where we headed this morning:

That’s right – the Austrian Embassy. We had some coffee, watched apple strudel being made (and tasted some) and picked up about a dozen maps and guide books. Never too early to start planning, you know. We also stopped by the Slovakian Embassy and started planning our trips there as well. It’s a quick drive from Vienna — check your maps. They were serving up a dumpling, sauerkraut, and bacon concoction that convinced us that we may very well be packing on the pounds during our time in that part of the world. “Light” is not a word I would use to describe their food.

The Hungarian and Czech Embassies are in the same general neighborhood, so we checked (czeched? – ha, ha!) them out as well. We got to hang out with some viszlas and pulis at the Hungarian Embassy because we have that weird ability to find dogs anywhere. And we watched a swordfight and toured the Ambassador’s residence at the Czech Embassy. He’s got a pretty sweet setup — swimming pool and everything. You don’t see many of those in DC.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever learned so much in just five days. It was exhausting, both physically and mentally. We played out scenario after scenario. Things that I can now say I’ve done that I never thought I would do:

• Fired a gun.
• Rammed a car through another one blocking the road.
• Applied a tourniquet.
• Studied my surroundings to determine if I was under surveillance.
• Drove a Humvee.

And I was doing much of this while wearing 30 pounds of body armor. I don’t want to give a lot of details about the course (if I was a little paranoid about putting information on the internet before, I’m very paranoid now), but here are some photos for you:

The “bang” portion of the class. Ignore my terrible shooting stance. I promise I was actually hitting the center of the target. In fact, two of the instructors said that I was “a natural.”

I drove both of these. That’s an armored suburban in front.

They didn’t let us drive this one, but we decided to use it as a photo op in our vests.

A “before” photo: fabric washed and pressed for several different projects…some that are done, and some that are not yet.

I finally finished the project that I started at the class I took at the quilt show in Florida way back in November. Here’s a close up so that you can see just how small I learned to stitch:

This is why it took me so long to finish it. That’s the excuse I’m using, anyway.

Looking ahead, I’ve got some craft projects all lined up to take with me to Kabul. And because I like to keep things super-organized, I decided that I needed some way to keep all the supplies for each project together. So I started thinking about buying project bags, then decided why not just make them? And I happened to have some vinyl left over from the diaper bag, which made perfect windows to allow me to see what’s in each one!

Oh, how I love organizing…

I actually have a few other projects finished (or half-finished I should say, since they are just finished quilt tops), but no photos yet. It’s a rainy, dreary day here today, which does not make for good photos. You’ll just have to check back later!

Courtyard at the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery

Wizards versus Cavaliers

Waiting for the best brunch ever. (I had the charbroiled oysters, blackened tilapia, and beignets with chicory coffee sauce.)

Back when I was making bags professionally, I had many requests for diaper bags. Since I know nothing about babies, and therefore, nothing about diaper bags, I always told myself that was a specialty that I did not want to get into. So I turned down several special requests from friends. Saying no to friends is one thing, but when your little brother comes to you and says that the one thing he wants you to make is a diaper bag for his first baby…well, there’s no way I could say no to that.

His issue was that all the bags he and his wife were finding were either “too girly” or “too plain.” He really wanted something that he wouldn’t be embarrassed carrying, but was still a little fun. So when they came to visit over Christmas, I had him look through my fabrics and show me what he liked. My sister-in-law drew up a little sketch of the exterior for me (yes, she’s an arts-and-crafts type, too!) and requested a matching pacifier pod. (That one definitely required some research at the local Babies ‘R’ Us because I had no idea what she was talking about.) And I took their ideas and ran with it.

You can see the little pacifier pod sitting in front of the bag here – it has a strap so that it can be attached to the bag, or anything else, for that matter.

Originally, I hoped to find oilcloth to line the bag, but I couldn’t find anything that looked good. I ended up just making a base that I covered with clear vinyl, and also made the pockets out of vinyl. The rest is just lined with fabric – not so good for clean up. Later on in the process, I found a press on vinyl that you can put on any fabric to essentially make your own oilcloth. So I lined the bottle pocket on the exterior and the pacifier pod with that. I was kind of annoyed that I didn’t find this until I was already done with the bag’s interior…

I decided to go the extra mile and make a matching changing pad as well. It has its own pocket on the back of the bag.

Overall, I think it came out pretty well. Not bad for something that I said I would “never” make!

2012 seems to be flying by. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I’m more than a little concerned about our next move in August. To Afghanistan. We’ve known for over a year that Shawn would be going to Embassy Kabul this summer, but I just found out this past week that I have been hired for a job there as well. It’s kind of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I would have felt terrible sending him off to a war zone by himself for a year. On the other hand, I had some pretty awesome ideas of what I would do by myself for a year in the US. Oh, well, best not to dwell on that.

“It will be an adventure!” is the official party line around here.

Getting ready to move is always a lot of work. But this one seems bigger. There are more things to take into consideration — extra visas required; lack of space on the compound, so most of our things can’t go along; required training for both of us. The list goes on and on. Actually, multiple lists. I’ve gotten one checklist from the EFM (Eligible Family Member, or what I am in State terms, for those of you just joining us) hiring coordinator, as well as two from the Orientation and In-Processing department. And, of course, I’ve started about four different lists in my head. I really should start writing these things down.

So if 2012 could slow itself down for just a bit, I would really appreciate it. Really.

First of all, my brother and his wife have a baby on the way. The two of them are runners — they met on their college cross country team. So I knew the baby would need appropriate attire to attend the local high school’s track and cross country meets. Bleach pen plus onesie makes a quick and easy gift:

Then, I had seen this tutorial a while back for a tea wallet. Since my mom is a tea lover, I put together a matching tea wallet/mug rug set for her. (The embroidery designs are from Wild Olive.)

Finally, since I’d put all this work into making gifts, why not just make the packaging as well? This tutorial for drawstring bags is great, and super easy. I’m planning on making up a bunch in wine bottle size. Not only will it use up some of my fabric stash, but we often take bottles of wine as hostess gifts. Score!

This one is unrelated to Christmas, but I finally finished hand quilting a lap quilt I’d been working on for myself. The pattern is called “Kitchen Window” from this book by Elizabeth Hartman and I used up some scraps on the back, rather than buying more fabric.

Up next is a custom-made diaper bag for my brother to carry once their baby gets here. He requested “not too girly,” so he looked through my stash of bag fabric while he was here visiting for Christmas. I also got a knitting kit for a bag from my mom, so that will be something to work on soon. And of course, I’ve got several half-finished projects laying around!

Mmm...beignets at Cafe Du Monde

I don’t know how anyone works in a city where there’s so much live music available all the time, and most of it is free. There’s no way I would be able to sit in an office when I know that’s going on right outside. In three days, we managed to see four bands. After lunch on Saturday, we wandered into a little music store and found Ellis Marsalis doing a show to promote his new Christmas album. Crazy!

St. Louis Cemetery

And Bourbon Street….I compared it to Khaosan Road in Bangkok. We ventured over at 2 in the afternoon on a Friday and it was already packed, happy hour was on, and the music was thumping. One of the guys outside a gentleman’s club assured me I would have a great time inside, but we passed that one by. I was on the search for some live Zydeco music and found a band playing another block down. We ended up with 4 beers (2-for-1 happy hour! We were glad we hadn’t gone to a bar with a 3-for-1 happy hour, particularly since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast…) and enjoyed the show.

Steamboat Natchez

We did a jazz dinner cruise on the Mississippi one night. Shawn was pretty excited to ride aboard the Steamboat Natchez, particularly since he had convinced me to read Fevre Dream before our trip. (Vampires on a steamboat is really all you need to know…)

Lunch in the French Quarter - We quickly figured out that sharing a sandwich is the way to go.

I definitely want to take a trip back at some point. Preferably when the weather is warmer, but I think I’ll avoid Mardi Gras. From the number of beads we saw still hanging on the trees along the parade route, I think it might be too much for me to handle!

Two weeks ago, I headed to Florida to meet up with members of my Nassau quilting guild to attend the World Quilt Show. There were some amazing quilts there. I tried to soak up as much inspiration as possible, and, of course, bought some “inspiration” in the form of new fabric. I also had the opportunity to take a class on hand quilting, taught by the author of this book. She was a great teacher and I hope that her technique will help me avoid some of the wrist and hand problems that I sometime experience while quilting. Now I just need to practice… Besides the show, it was a great weekend of catching up with friends.

Last weekend, we had tickets to the Redskins/Cowboys game at FedEx Field. I had never been to an NFL game before, so it was pretty amazing. And even though the Redskins lost, it was an exciting game. Shawn managed to get us great seats on the club level:

I’m hoping to catch my breath this weekend before the events of December begin. Somehow my schedule already looks full!

I don’t really remember how I found the cabin that we stayed at, but it was amazing! The Shadow Mountain Escape property is right on the edge of the park, so you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere (in a good way). It’s so quiet, with deer randomly wandering through. Shawn was hoping that a bear would wander through, but I was okay with not seeing one up close. The cabin itself was a great place to hang out between our area excursions. We enjoyed some bonfires, complete with marshmallows to toast, and Shawn took his telescope along to do some stargazing. Because it was darker than dark at night.

Our cabin, the Butterfly Loft (above the garage):

Take a close look to the left of the sign:

And what was there to do? More than we realized. We checked out the caverns in Luray. I found them kind of gross and kind of creepy (I should have never let Shawn convince me to watch The Descent). But most of all, I think it’s really funny that they were discovered because of two local gentlemen that were trying to find a tourist attraction to boost the area’s economy. Well, I guess it worked.

We toured the Copper Fox Distillery in nearby Sperryville. We got there early for the tour, so Rick, the owner, let us assist him with spreading out the soaked barley for drying. It reminded me why small businesses are the best — this unexpected experience made the whole tour more enjoyable.

And, of course, we did some hiking in the park. It was a long way up, but worth it:

On the Appalachian Trail: