What's The Deal, Steele?: Leaning Tower of Cookie

Chopped walnuts. Semi-sweet chocolate chips. A little stack of heaven. It had been far too long since I'd done any baking at all, much less made chocolate-chip cookies. This was an egregious mistake on my part, and it had to be remedied immediately.

Ah. Much better.

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It had also been far too long since we'd gone on an outing that didn't involve drive-thru windows or purchases of toilet paper at the grocery store. So we ventured out to Alexandria.

It was a dangerous trip, as evidenced by the broken nail, pictured below. He was so brave in the face of pain -- what a trooper.

In return for his broken fingernail, we decided to buy him a new car.

HA! Kidding. But this shot is so classically Alexandria -- the skinny brick alleyways, the overhanging vines (and the Cayenne...)

We also happened to stop at one of my favorite places. (The barfy greens in the yarn I bought were unbearable. We took it back and exchanged it for something a little less puke-colored.)

I love Alexandria. The new stores, stuffed into old crumbly brick buildings. The trendy people. The lack of parking. (Which is why I will visit, but never reside there.) We felt just like George Washington, commuting in from our suburban Mount Vernon farmhouse to gather supplies in the City.

(That is, if Geo. Wash. considered a five pump cinnamon dolce latte to be amongst his needed City supplies...)

Back in the car, we were delighted to see how close we were to the River. (Extra points if you can spot the Reagan airport.)

And, despite my best efforts, the blossoming cherry trees evaded me. I blame the semi-nasty weather -- it was drizzly and cold all day. This was the best I could get for you. Cherry Blossoms a la Sidewalk.

After our jaunt out in Alexandria, we went out golfing with Steven's friends from work. The driving range is actually pretty cool -- its all computerized and scores you for each swing based on where the ball lands on the driving range.

While the boys practiced their swings, I started in on my freshly-exchanged yarn, while the mom of our couple-friends entertained her one-year old. This little girl was painfully cute -- all bright eyes, pink t-shirts and giggles. And she loved tortilla chips. A woman after my own heart. No pictures of her, because you never know how other people feel about their kid's face online for all to see. (Also, I'm not sure I even got any pictures of her. Kids are fast, which makes it difficult to take non-blurry pictures of them.)