The Belated Valentine’s Day Update and a Giveaway!

Given the timing of our relationship, The Lawyer and I don’t get to travel very much.  To me, a perfect weekend these days is sleeping in late, emerging from my bed long enough to eat something mildly brunchy and delicious, and then, returning to bed to indulge a food coma and sleep my way through the rest of the weekend.  I know.  I’m so exciting, you can’t stand it.

This past weekend, though, the long weekend coincided with the completion of a Friday exam.  And, as the heavens parted and the sun shone down around us, The Lawyer and I realized that we had three glorious days off!

We immediately planned our escape.

Since we had postponed Valentine’s Day until after my exams, the weekend began with a quiet gift exchange on Friday night.  After eating a romantic dinner prepared by The Lawyer, we watched a Sabbath-friendly documentary, and The Lawyer rubbed my feet in bed.  I had to teach the little kids’ Sabbath School the following morning, but after I was done, we ate a quick lunch and got on the road.

Driving out of the city, towards I-295, on Saturday.

It was an amazing day, if you were in DC.

Why hello there, Jefferson Memorial.

The Lawyer booked us a waterfront view room at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Resort and Spa, which IN THEORY, was a great idea.  When I was studying for my exam last week, all that I comprehended him saying was “waterfront” and “massage.”  My response was probably something along the lines, “Yesss!  Book that!”

Unfortunately, what we didn’t anticipate was hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of loud, rowdy kids running and screaming through the resort.  The only conclusion that we could reach was that schools must have had February break, because there were kids everywhere.  We didn’t get our waterfront view room, because the hotel was overbooked.  I also didn’t get a massage appointment, because the spa was both fully booked and in the process of moving locations.  We didn’t eat at the hotel’s in-house restaurant, The Water’s Edge, because the concierge advised against it “due to the number of kids here this weekend,” and to top it all off, the customer service ranged from mediocre to terrible.

I’m sure that all of this was just some cruel joke from the universe, since I never get long weekends off, but it’s fine.  I put in earplugs at night to tune out the banging as kids ran through the hallway and parents yelled, “Stop that!,” and “Get into the room!”  Then, I reamed out the Hyatt out on a Yelp! review, because if people who love kids (like The Lawyer and I) were annoyed, I assure you that things were out of hand.

Anyway, that was a bit tangential, and not the point of this entry.

We did get upgraded to our waterfront room on the second night, and thankfully, it was in its own little alcove away from the screaming children.  

Then, I enjoyed a luscious nap, while The Lawyer listened to podcasts he had been saving, and we had a decent dinner at the adults-only restaurant on the golf course.  The next morning, we went on a long walk through the grounds of the hotel.  Most of the families were checking out by this time, and things were (finally) quiet and peaceful.

As you probably remember from my summer travels, I love taking vacation photos, but one of the downfalls of maintaining a blog that’s anonymous is that you can’t post digital photos of yourself.  Way back in the dark ages, I used to print photos, but even then, I admit that I wasn’t the best about organizing them into an album or scrapbook.  Now that I use a digital camera (or iPhone), the possibility that I might actually print photos, go to the craft store to pick out scrapbooking papers, and actually sit down to make an album, is non-existent.

Last month, My Memories Digital Scrapbooking sent me a free software package to try out.  Although I was never a big scrapbooker, I do love the idea of being able to play with fun backgrounds, papers, and fonts in a digital format.  For people like me, who are less likely to print out their photos anyway, it’s a quick and easy way to fancy up photos and show them off in a creative, put-together way.

And, especially for people whose parents are a bit technologically challenged (*cough*) and who complain about email attachments and photo sharing sites constantly (*cough cough*), sending a digital scrapbook is a great way to highlight vacation photos, add captions, and make your photos shine without very much effort.

As part of their sponsorship, My Memories is giving away one of their My Memories Suite V3 software packages for one lucky reader!  It's a great toy for new scrapbookers, or even anonymous bloggers who want to share photos with family and friends (ahem), to organize their photos.

There are two ways to enter:

1.      (MANDATORY):  Go to www.mymemories.com and tell me what page you would make first in your digital scrapbook (Birthday? Vacation? Graduation? Baby shower?). For non-Bloggers, anonymous commenting has been enabled, but you MUST leave a name or pseudonym AND an email address for me to contact you.

2.      Bonus entry (Optional):  Follow this blog through Google Friend Connect, RSS feed, or by linking to this blog on your website.  Leave a separate comment telling me that you’re following or linked.

On Wednesday, February 29, one commenter will be chosen via Random.org to receive their free copy of the My Memories Suite.

In the meantime, you can get $10 off the My Memories Suite by using code STMMMS45635.  Since that code is a little complicated and crazy, you might want to copy and paste it before you checkout!

Good luck!