long overdue

my apologies go out to brian and the general public for not posting this link many, many months ago. i have no excuse.

but readers who like their beers as i do should check out brian's blog with reviews of beers available to the general public and commentaries on his experiences as a novice home brewer.

i'll be posting the link in the toolbar to the right of this page as well.

progress

home inspection scheduled (for this thursday).

mortgage applied for and letter sent to realtor.

we're taking steps forward.

the 5th annual reid chrismas party...

will be held in a different location this year, as chris and i have just put an offer in on a house. those of you who know us (which is pretty much anyone who reads this blog) will probably be thinking, what the ...! buying a house. but yes, folks, that's true. and here she is.



it's been a rather quick decision on our part. but we found an excellent deal and just couldn't turn it down. plus, because chris is in school we qualify for a low-income loan, so we're getting a really good deal.

the house is in olympia, which promises to be an up and coming community. so we're hoping it'll be a wise investment which might fund us to africa in a few year's time. but until then, it's a real cutie. 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, bath, kitchen, and screened-in side porch. plus a pretty big back yard. it'll need a little bit of aesthetic repairs but otherwise, it seems to be in good shape. so anyone who has tools and wants to practice some minor home repair, please let us know. we'll be making settlement (if all goes well) september 21. yikes!

superbad and supergood

this friday chris and i went to see the opening night of the much-anticipated superbad movie. i didn't realize that it was opening night when i agreed to go see this, otherwise i might've opted for another night. but we had to head up to the mall to get my haircut earlier that night, so we decided to shoot over for a later movie afterwards.

despite the massive crowd and a totally packed theater, it was a great movie. actually, the crowd made it fun, too. though, everyone was laughing so hard at some parts we couldn't hear the dialogue following. but it was very well written and the boys were lovable and hilarious. both chris and i thoroughly enjoyed it.

having said that, i just have to comment on the state of society that we go to movies and are (highly) entertained by watching teenagers participate in underage drinking and unscrupulous sex. i mean, i was a teenager myself once and i have continued to work with teenagers so i know how life is. i've done my fair share of misbehaving. and i am not surprised or shocked by this kind of behavior. but during the movie i could not help but feel slightly uncomfortable that by watching the movie i (and the tons of other folks in the theater) was somehow advocating this kind of life for these young men (and women) and cheering on their poor decisions when the nerdy guy got some action. and the scenes during which he was getting said "action," well they were so young. is watching that somehow advocating child pornography or something? i doubt it, but i felt weird none-the-less.

i will give it to apatow and the whole gang. as with the 40 year-old virgin and knocked up, they always end up having a relatively healthy outlook on controversial issues such as premarital sex, unwed pregnancy, underage drinking, etc. so i guess that's good. but somehow, it still doesn't take away the fact that millions of people are watching this and many are probably missing that message and just remembering the teen partying part. and that instead of being upset by all this, we find it uproariously funny. of course, that could have something to do with the fact that the movies really are uproariously funny. but still.

day 2 at new job

some things i like about my job so far:

my office is awesome. i have huge windows from floor to ceiling on one wall. i also have "adult furniture" and a real computer. in my last job i didn't have an office and i did have a real computer, but it was shared. the job before that i had offices but they didn't really have nice furniture and the computers were old and didn't work that well. and, since you're wondering, "adult furniture" is like a real desk made of fake wood and file cabinets that look like dressers and stuff. real classy-like.

the people are actually nice and they seem professional. a group of women (with the exception of 1 male, i work with all women) asked me to join them for lunch yesterday and today, and they really seemed to mean it.

there's a wealth of information about topics that really interest me. i've spent the past 2 days just going through material in my office and i've not even scratched the surface yet. there's just so much out there about sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, relationships, etc. and everything i have read so far is so interesting.

the office is only like 5 miles from home. so i can leave less than 20 minutes before work and get there early and i leave a little after 5:00 and get home before 5:30.

browncoating it

when chris visits his parents' house they have a common practice of showing him various tv shows and movies that they really like. this past time when chris went home his parents showed him, among other things, the tv series firefly and its subsequent movie counterpart serenity. i don't know if chris had much hope of it being anything he would be interested in. but it turned out he really liked it, so much so that he brought the dvds home to show me.

now i'm not much one for science fiction (though i think that's changing slowly as i get older). although i have grown up with star wars, i've never watched star trek or aliens or most of the really science-fictiony stuff. but i figured i'd give firefly a chance since chris said it was so good.

boy was i surprised! i loved it. in fact, there were 14 episodes (including a 2 hour pilot) plus the movie and we watched it in less than a week. it was that good. and now that it's over i've been missing the characters and thinking about them a lot. that doesn't happen often with me and if it does, it's usually about book characters i'd just read. i think that's attributed to the great writing and acting in this series, and really fun stories too.

the deal with firefly is that it played on fox and the network pretty much screwed them over in various ways and then ended up cancelling the show half way through its first season. well, the show already had such a strong fan-base and the creator/writer/director, joss whedon (a la buffy the vampire slayer and angel), along with others, pushed really hard and were able to sign a movie deal with universal to finish up some of the story lines. so that's where the movie serenity comes in. it definitely would have been better to have the show continue, but since that wasn't going to happen, the movie did a good job of giving some closure to the whole deal.

in any event, if you've not yet seen this series, check it out. i think you'll turn into a browncoat too.

employment

thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes over the past 2 months as i have been going through the process of seeking new employment. the search is now over!

yesterday i was officially offered and accepted the position of community education program coordinator at sexual trauma services of the midlands. the subject matter will be something completely different to me. but the type of work is pretty close to what i have done before. i have always heard really good things about the organization and i really clicked with the executive director. so hopefully this will be a good match. a bonus for me was that this is a job which will give me some great experiences that will come in handy for when we're in africa*.

*i was going to put a link here leading to information about sexual assault and rape in africa. but, honestly, there's just too much information to put just one link. let's just say, it's an issue all over the continent.

foraging

we're not yet at the point where we have to forage for nuts and berries in order for us to eat. things have not gotten that bad yet. however, i have realized that we have muscadines growing in our back yard! so i went out there the other day to pick the first batch. i am so excited! there were still a lot of unripe grapes so i'll go back out again in another week or so to get more. they are delicious, though, and i think i might try to make something out of them if i get enough the next time around.

little

our little kitty has arrived and he's tiny.



you really can't tell from this picture. even though his name is doozer, chris and i have taken to calling him "little." and mokey, the older cat, we're calling "big" because well, yea, mokey is big and doozer is small. brilliant.

anyways, he's a real cutie. oh, and he has worms. it totally freaks me out and we're giving them medicines to get rid of it. but i've told chris that if i get worms i'm going to be really mad. worms, gross. good thing he's cute, otherwise he'd be out the door.

impress these apes season 2

i'm totally psyched that impress these apes is doing a second run of their 8 week improve competition. and it's even cooler that fuzzy, my brother-in-law, is one of the contestants.

chris and i got hooked on the show during the first run when chris's sister, erica was on it. because the show is based in chicago, we couldn't see it in person, but chris and i would go to the computer every week to watch erica's performances, and often the performances of the other contestants. the show was totally fun and made me realize how talented these folks are (not that i didn't know that about erica already).

so i'm looking forward to another round of hilarity. be sure to check it out and good luck to fuzzy!

i'm stealing

i am stealing this picture from chris's post because i think it's just the sweetest. chris will be home in an estimated 2 1/2 hours and i cannot wait!

it's not been an unbearable 6 weeks, but i have missed my hubs. now if i could just get a job all would be right in my world.

the end is here

the end of my summer travels, that is.

i've just returned from my last big travels of the summer. and this is about how i feel...a little haggard.

on thursday night of last week i drove to asheville, nc to meet my cousin's to leave my car at her place. from there we drove to boone, nc to her parent's house. we spent the night in boone in my uncle and aunt's really cool, old (and slightly ill-repaired) house and then on friday morning, after a slight detour, seven persons and two dogs set off to grandmom and grandad's house in western pennsylvania. those traveling were my mom's brother, my asheville cousin, izzy and aila the dogs, the boys and their respective girlfriends.

we made it to pennsylvania in relatively good time and proceeded to spend friday thru tuesday at grandmom's house. if we thought the car ride was cramped, that was nothing compared to gradmom's. all seven of us (and the two dogs) were joined by my mother, grandmom and grandad and their various animals, and my brother, his wife, and their 2 kids. luckily my brother and his family stayed in a hotel. good choice on their parts.

the occassion was the 60th furgiuele family reunion which was held on sunday. my grandfather is the seventh son of italian immigrants and i think there were another three or four after him. my grandad (who turned 89 in november), his younger sister and older brother are the only ones still alive.



despite the deaths and relocation of numerous relatives, family members and offspring of the original siblings came from all over the country for this year's reunion. we had a great turn-out.



more photos can be viewed at my flickr page.

other highlights of the weekend included me winning bingo for the first year ever and me sort of winning texas hold 'em . i guess unemployment brought me good karma or something.