Testing Testing 124: I am in DC for THREE days and Richard turns into Abraham Lincoln!

I wish I could say I was kidding, but nope. Richard turned into Abraham Lincoln. Remember last year's beard contest? Well, it returned again this year. Funny how that happens, huh? The contest wrapped up in February (obviously someone was thinking...just in time for Valentine's Day). Last year I ~~happily~~ graciously agreed to let Richard grow a beard for 3 months. I forgot he was part werewolf. This year, I half-agreed to let him grow his beard out for one month. Being Richard, he puts a twist on things. I guess it could be worse...the "twist" could have involved a mustache like this...

Instead, he was much more timely given that Lincoln is currently in theaters. Richard became Abraham Lincoln. Beard. Hat. Attire. He even made his own hat with construction paper and tape (must be all that time spent in Destination Imagination)! During this time, I was in DC for work. My second day away, I woke up to my "sneak peek" picture.

Richard wasn't the only one having fun with his job (although we define "fun" a tad differently as facial hair is not involved in my definition)! I was away on a team retreat. During our team retreat, we were broken into teams, given 2 hours and $200 dollars to put together a "new homeowners basket" for the nonprofit, Mi Casa, Inc.

I love their vision and mission.

vision

...a world where families and individuals have access to affordable and sustainable housing...

mission

...to provide affordable housing in the D.C. area to foster healthy and thriving communities...

If you haven't driven in DC/VA traffic...don't. Since we only had 2 hours to make the best basket, we drove straight to Bed, Bath and Beyond (McLean, VA)...where all your dreams come true. I'm not going to lie, being in a CAR and driving to a store like BBB made me miss Texas a little bit. And then it happened. I SAW HAND SOAP ON CLEARANCE FOR $1. I'm a sucker for loading up on discounted hand soap (new reality TV show?)... When you live in 450 square feet, you really can't do this. I did however grab a bottle for our basket. Our basket ended up being pretty awesome. In addition to the cool finds we snatched up, we wanted the basket to have a personal feel. Becoming a homeowner is EXCITING...or so I've heard! Ha! We took a group photo (with leftover gigantic Cap1 shirts) with a welcome home sign thanks to my amazing new iphone app, TimerCam. Also, big shout out to BBB for donating not once, but twice to our basket.

I know I document just about everything in my life, but this is a new one. I'm all about green initiatives, but this one made me laugh out loud. I love how our hotel installed a double-headed (which looks like a venus fly trap) shower head and placed a large sign directly below it asking you to be a good citizen and conserve water by only turning on one. I mean... really?