Indiana SAM!

Harrison Ford makes his come back tonight in the premier of Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and someone in the K family is WAY excited. Yep, Big Sam, the ultimate Indiana Jones fan is pumped for the release of this one. We're making a family trip to the theater tonight!

BEEF - It's what's for Dinner!

After a lousy day of packing up the office, lugging around heavy boxes and what seemed like endless traffic on the toll road, a beautiful thing happened. A special commercial made my evening. Most of you know that I'm not a HUGE red-meat eating gal, but if there was ONE man that could change that...it might just be my dear Matthew McConaughey. The National Cattleman's Beef Association has enlisted this fine specimen and that's one heck of an endorsement for beef...whew!

Click Here to Listen

Welcome BABIES!!!!

Just this week, I've acquired two new little friends. First, welcome my little cousin, Julian Patrick Neat (cousin Jason & Jacque's 2nd little one, Lenna's the auntie and Aunt Joy is the G'ma for the 2nd time ;)

Here's Julian's Hospital Glamour Shot


And also welcome Bo Baratta, our 2nd little CMFB baby! Congrats Rienna & Aaron! I think Bo's gonna bring back the Garnet & Black. Here's to Gamecock football 2026!

Here's Bo with Proud Pops, Aaron!

Tennis Anyone?

For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking a tennis class through Reston Association on M & W nights. Going into the class, I knew I was a beginner, I mean I can hit the ball but my form and all that was totally wrong. So my beginners class has been perfect and on top of it, we had the cutest instructor (girls, you would have loved him. Belgian. Cute). But last night I got a makeup class, a private lesson with another instructor and it was great. We got to spend some quality time on forehand and backhand, and I think I know understand my timing and open/closed face and how much difference it makes. I'm ready to pound some balls!

BTW- you can only imagine the funny lines that were said in that class to the cute instructor. "Hey, do you have balls over there?" Answer: "Yep, I've got 4 balls!"

Just a day on the Hill...

Our Governmental Affairs Conference was held a couple of weeks ago and at the event we honored Sec. of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne and Asst Sec of Fishing & Wildlife. Here's our pic! Cool guy.

DC, Seattle, Orcas Island

Chris and I just got back from Orcas Island, WA, where Chris spent 3 years of his childhood and many summers at Camp Orkila. He'd been feening to go there and recently found some affordable fares. We left DC at 6am on Friday and got into Seattle around 2:30pm. After renting a car, we bummed around Pike's Place Market bc I REALLY wanted to see FISH in action. All the salesy trainings I've ever been to talk about how successful that company is bc of their unique approach to business. Cool place, I could have spent a whole afternoon at the market. From there we headed north for an hour and half and caught the 5:30pm ferry to Orcas Island. It's one of those HUGE ferries that you drive on to and then you can venture upstairs to relax. The ferry ride was about an hour and made a couple stops at some of the other small islands out there. Totally beautiful scenery.

We spent the next couple days on the island doing some incredible hikes at Moran State Park and even a challenging hike up Mt. Constitution. My knee LIVED, surprisingly it did just fine. We also did a guided kayaking trip in the Puget Sound and got to see some of the other islands as well as brightly colored orange and purple starfish. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see WILLY. I kept a good look out for any friendly Orcas, but none to be found. Orcas Island is actually where they filmed a great deal of the movie, Free Willy. Apparently we were out there right on the cusp of whale season and with the fishing industry down in the neighboring waters, killer whales were less common due to less fishies for them to eat. I was bummed.

Orcas is a cute little town, kinda a small beach town with tons of pebbly beaches and HUGE cedar and everest trees. Some of the most spectacular scenery, ocean, mountains, tall trees, just gorgeous... a perfect quiet vacation.