Wednesday, December 31, 2008

sushi for the new year

i'd write a nice post summing up the year beautifully and poignantly. but for 2 reasons. 1) i have a cat (doozer) sitting in front of the monitor* which makes it hard to see. and 2) i'm headed out to friend's house for sushi! yum!

have a safe and happy new year. welcome 2009! can't wait to see the great things you bring!

*i now have 1 cat on my lap licking my fingers and 1 cat in front of the monitor. sweet. i hate to break their little hearts by leaving the house in a minute.

Monday, December 29, 2008

reengaged

we're back from nj...well, i should say, i'm back. baldman was back for a day and then left for ms, where he will deposit his mother, visit family, attend to some business, and then return to me by the weekend.

we had a fantastic visit with family and i will post pictures and share more later this week.

i do want to share about my big christmas present from my husband. but that requires a little tangent.

when we first got engaged in the late fall of 2001, we did it with very little frills. hey, we're no frills people, so it fit. we did not have an engagement ring, and neither of us felt particularly interested in getting one. primarily this was because we were very aware of the fact that the exploitation of diamonds causes wide-spread human rights abuses in africa (no need to post a link here, just google it for lots of reading). and because the idea that a diamond engagement ring equals forever is just blatantly offensive to me. the other reason was that frankly we didn't have the money and both baldman and i are pretty much ethically agreed that we won't buy anything we can't afford. in the back of my head, i did think it would be cool to get some kind of antique ring maybe for an anniversary or something down the line. but i digress. so we had no engagement ring, just wedding bands.

well, a few months ago when baldman's mom and sister were cleaning their mother/grandmother's house, they came across her engagement ring, given to her in the 1940's. baldman's mom asked if he would like to give it to me, he conferred with me, and we agreed it would be a very meaningful and special thing to have. so baldman took it, got it sized and presented it to me on christmas morning. it was all very sweet. so here's the picture of him giving it to me.

baldman giving me the engagement ring

and here is a picture of the ring with my wedding band. sorry it's not a better picture but our camera kept dying (piece of junk! (the camera, not the ring)).

the new-to-me ring

now that i've had the ring and worn it for a few days it's a really weird thing to have it on. i almost feel too flashy or like i've given up some of my identity. i know that sounds strange, but it's such a rarity to not have an engagement ring, i felt sort of more special not having one, like it was more purposeful that way. but of course, i'm totally happy to have it and i know it's a very special thing! i just have to get used to it. and we feel like it's a win all around. we're making use of something that was no longer being used, thus not necessarily taking away the means by which the diamond was acquired, but at least making full use out of it (it's recycling, y'all!). but more importantly, we have something that has history with our family and that means a lot to all of us. i only hope that we will be able to pass it down to our grandchild some day.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

online card

have a very merry and blessed christmas, dear readers!

our little christmas house in alexandria

Monday, December 22, 2008

it's your birthday today. yes it is!

happy birthday to my sweet, sweet, sweety. i love you and i look forward to many more years to celebrate the blessings of your life.

sweet

Friday, December 19, 2008

a very waldie christmas

it's about to be a very waldie* christmas.

waldie & ben kids christmas



*and cutshall, and reid.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

that's south carolina for ya

when my coworker was doing some research today on local schools she came across this little gem...posted on the district website!

Lexington One spends less per pupil than many school districts in the state. In fact 48 out of the state’s 85 school districts currently spend more per pupil than Lexington One. Obviously the district is a good steward of taxpayers’ money.


really, people!? i would have thought the district would want to hide this fact, not advertise it! wouldn't you think that education would be one thing we would want our tax dollars to go to?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

a capital weekend

i've been absent from posting for about a week because i've been running a christmas frenzy to get everything done before our trip to nj next week. i've also been recovering from a hectic but fun weekend in dc.

we went to the wedding of a friend of mine from college, so we got to reconnect with some old friends and meet some new ones. we even got an added bonus of crashing at the apartment of a friend from columbia who relocated to dc. plus we snuck in a museum or two, which was exhausting, but worth it.

here are some photographic highlights.

the capital at night
the nation's capital in the evening


out on a walk on the parkway
a friendly face.

a blurry picture but you can see her beautiful lace vail
this picture is blurry because our camera was fritzing out, but it shows emily's beautiful dress and veil. the veil was irish lace that has been used for generations of weddings in her family. she looked so classy!

the nyu crew
the nyu ladies

waldie and baldman at the reception
who are those fancy people?

amaretto, the great band at the reception
the band, amaretto, was awesome!

the finesse
the finesse

kermit in the smithsonian
"hello there."

shark!
OMG! baldman's biggest fear!

in the smithsonian
friends

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

an unexpected expense

we had to have a dead tree removed from our property. it was really big, probably one of the biggest in the neighborhood, not that you could tell from these pictures.

logs

logs

stump

bye bye, tree.

this one's for erica

for erica

Monday, December 08, 2008

christmas shopping

for those still looking to get some shopping done, here is a great place to get some creative, home-made gifts.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

waldie's quiz answered

thanks, all, who took part in the waldie's quiz. i didn't expect to get such analytical answers!

so you're all right, even fuzzy (sort of) who said e) dubloons! over the past 14 months we have found any number of (un)amazing things buried (or not buried) in our back yard. we have found lots of small and large pieces of glass, a whole paint can, whole and pieces of cinder blocks and bricks, a rug that was about 3'x15' (buried and covered with dirt and grass), pennies (almost a spanish dubloon), rusted tools, etc.

so we feel fairly certain that before we arrived our house was solidly in the white trash realm. well, maybe we haven't really helped it too much on that front, but at least we're getting rid of the actual trash in the yard.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

a single flower

i think it's appropriate that the rose bushes in our front yard have produced one single pink flower today. today is the anniversary of baldman's dad's death and those flowers were from his funeral.

david reid, march 23, 1954 - december 2, 2007
we miss you.

tricia and david at the southern most point (without being in sand) in nj.

A Solemn Occassion?

Christmas at the Reids