no foolin'

thanks for all the well-wishes and greetings on sunday. my birthday was a good one! here's to a great year!

wedded bliss

this is a little delayed...but better late than never.

congrats to tricia and adam for getting hitched this past saturday in hull, ma. wish we could've been there, but for various reasons the trip was not in the cards. i hope you guys had a blast!

on a related note, chris and i celebrated our 6th year of dating on that very same day, st. patty's day. we had a lovely dinner out to mark the event.

*** update***

here's a picture i just got of the newlyweds.

eat locally

i have been reading a new (well, actually, yet-to-be-released) book by barbara kingsolver. i would put a link, but i couldn't really find much info on the web other than where to pre-order it. anyways, the book is about how she and her family took on the adventure of eating only locally produced food for a whole year. it's fairly interesting and has gotten me thinking a lot about what we eat and where it comes from. i won't get on that whole tangent here, except to say, next time you go to the grocery store start looking at where your food comes from. it's easy to see how we spend more fossil fuels on transporting food than we do driving our cars.

so anyways, this book along with the really nice weather this weekend got me and chris out to start our very own garden. this is something that we've been wanting to do for years but up to this point we've not had the ability. so in hopes of having just a few little snippets from our own side yard this spring and summer, and just because we find working in the yard fun, we spent our sunday working on this:




i know; it doesn't look like much now. that's because we don't have anything planted in the bed. we'll do some planting next weekend. we're thinking tomatoes (of course), okra, beans, herbs, and summer squash. but we'll see what we can find at the farmer's market next weekend. even though chris thinks the design of the garden is "ugly", i think it's beautiful and can't wait to see things start peaking out of the soil!

we must be on the right track because after creating the garden i went to the grocery store tonight and saw last week's cover story for time magazine.

alpine bliss

it cracks me up when a cat behaves so typically...well...cat-like. mokey has been slowly clawing her way through various pieces of furniture in our house (our bedframe, a comfy chair). so i decided to try this cosmic catnip alpine scratcher. i was hoping it might distract her away from the people furniture. i opted for the $3 more expensive alpine scratcher because it had a little hole in its base with a mouse-like-thingy hanging in there. sure enough, mokey loved it.



so far she's not really spent much time scratching, but she sure loves the mouse.

still going after all these years

yesterday was my 2 year anniversary. i can't believe i've had something to say for 2 years + one day. ask my husband, i usually don't talk this much.

***update. i guess this message was kind of cryptic. that's what i get for trying to type it out before work this morning. but when i got a "happy wedding anniversary" phone call today i realized that perhaps i should've been more clear here. it's my 2 year BLOG anniversary. sorry for the confusion. happy blogging.***

good and bad

for those of you who know us well, you may know that chris and i have not had television since 2002 when we moved to nj. to be clear, we've had a TV, but have not had cable nor any reception. and we do not particularly care to have it so we never bought rabbit ears or anything. we keep the tv unplugged until we want to watch a movie and then roll it over to the couch.

so anyways, last night chris was going to the laundromat and i decided to go too so i could watch the oscars. (i know, i know. it's not really like me to want to watch the oscars. but i found myself wanting to see it this year). we got 1/2 way through the show by the time our landry was done.i wanted to watch the rest so i decided to try and see if we could get some reception at home. for the first time since moving to our apartment this past may, i plugged the cable outlet into the tv. and what do ya know? we've got tv. a lot of tv. apparently we have some sort of free tv cable service (whether intentionally free or not, i do not know) along with our cable internet.

i still really don't want to watch tv. and we still plan to leave the television unplugged. but now i guess we can't say we don't have tv. we'll have to say something along the lines of "we choose not to watch it," which i guess is more accurate anyway.

does this look funny to you?

our home mac computer recently died and for the past few weeks chris and i have been using this pc laptop. i realized that on this laptop my blog's appearance is not quite right. the toolbar and profile and links that are supposed to be immediately to the right of my last post are all the way down to the bottom of the page. is it like that for anyone else? and for those bloggers out there, does anyone know how to fix this?

bleh

this has pretty much been me and chris for the past several weeks. i came down with a bug last sunday night and am still trying to get my voice back. now i've passed it along to the hubs and he's been down for the count for the past few days. hopefully we'll be up and running again soon. i can't believe i'm saying this, but we kind of miss the real world.

mom's birthday surprise

today is my mom's 60th birthday for realz. but we all got together this weekend in cape may for a surprise birthday party. my siblings, ben and rachel, and my step dad, jim, and i have all been planning this for a few months now. and i think it was a pretty good success. here's the blog about the event. (it's been weird having another blog and not being able to mention it here. i felt almost like i was having an affair. so it's good to get it all out in the open now.)

effing pia

i feel like doo and we leave for nj (the coldest state on the planet*) tomorrow and now blogger has made me change my profile over to google. it's supposed to make my life easier, they said. bull doo! it's turned into a royal pia. thanks, blogger.

*it really is the coldest state on the planet. no need for any fancy links. just trust me.

sexy valentine's day plans

i've been sick for the past 4 days so i'll just get it out of the way and say straight out that i have no sexy valentine's plans, not that we usually do anything for valentine's anyway. but i guess this time i have an excuse?

started to feel sick on sunday night with fever, shivers and sweats. took monday off to recuperate. went to work on tuesday and ended up worse for it. tuesday night i slept a total of probably 2 hours. tried to sleep. couldn't. got up and read in the living room. tried to sleep. couldn't. woke chris up with my restlessness and coughing. read until 5:00 AM and then slept until the alarm woke us up. had to get up because we needed to go and get the car from the shop. so i stayed home today and did battle over the phone with doctors to get a few prescriptions.

so now i'm feeling better enough to be bored and want my husband to come home before i start to feel sick again. i guess this means i'll probably be at work tomorrow. that's fine, though, because that would make it a 2 day work-week because i took friday off to go home. yipee!

a counting

yesterday i did our taxes. it's the second or third year that i've done them. this time i'm really proud because i think there are no mistakes. of course, i thought that last year and they were sent back like 2 times. but this time, i'm even more certain. it brings some kind of arcane satisfaction to know that i can do our taxes. it's like i've mastered one part of my life where you usually have to hire an expert.

tomorrow i have to bring our car into the shop because it broke down on my way home from work yesterday. perhaps my next realm of self-sufficiency should be car mechanics.

david update

chris's dad had another CT scan yesterday. tricia, sums up the latest at her blog.

the short of it for those who don't want to follow the link: disappointing but not discouraging. he'll go on a new round of cemo on monday.

all gussied up

i had a work function i had to attend last night, a gala held at the columbia metropolitan convention center (located directly next to the colonial center which was simultaneously having a monster truck rally). chris was kind enough to join me at the gala, 'cause he's sweet like that. so got all fancy, me in a gown and and chris in a suit. our camera was out of batteries, though, so we don't have a picture of us. but trust me, we looked goooood.

babies!

we have 2 friends (well, 4 friends if you count their husbands) who both had babies in the past few weeks.

angela and ger had a healthy baby girl, piper mclene, yesterday. she wasn't due for another three weeks. but she came early, much to the surprise of her parents, i'm sure, because we were talking with them on sunday and angela didn't even look big!

chris and carrie had baby jonah edward on the 18th. he was pretty much right on schedule and, as i'm sure carrie was sick of hearing, she was VERY big.

so congrats to parents and their families!

laundry services

my husband is out doing our laundry. that's right, our laundry. i was always one to keep our cloths-washing-duties seperate. but he recently offered to start doing my laundry and, probably much to his surprise, i accepted. i guess it kind of evens out our house duties. and i hate going to the laundry mat to wash cloths! so here's to having a new home delivered laundry service!

brings a smile to your day

i was away in myrtle beach this weekend for a work conference. it wasn't too bad. i think it was good for my staff to get some training in and it boosted morale a bit, so it was worth it.

bad timing, though, because fuzzy and erica were in charleston for a comedy festival. so i missed their much-acclaimed don't spit the water performances. we did get to hang out a bit on sunday in columbia, though. so that was fun. wish it could've been longer, but erica had to get back for her dance competition in impress these apes. you should check out all the contestants becuase they're all great! and erica is now in the lead. go girl!

a weekend of eating in review

this was a great long weekend. seems like chris and i spent most of our time eating out. and you know i love eating, so it was all good.



on friday night we went to the olive garden. we usually only go there like once a year when we have gift cards because 1) it's all the way on the other side of town and 2) it seems like there are a whole bunch of really good local restaurants right in our neighborhood. last year i remember thinking that the food really wasn't worth the long wait for a table. this time we again waited what seemed like an astronomical amount of time (okay, it really was just over 45 minutes) but the meal was surprisingly good and fairly reasonably priced. the bruschetta was awesome! i had an adequate glass of wine to complement the portobello mushroom ravioli which was delish! chris had 4 cheese ravioli and though i didn't taste it he said it was quite good.

we spent most of sunday in the mall. we shopped right up until dinner time so we ended up going out to dinner again. plus, we figured we hadn't spent any of our money on friday night's dinner, so we could afford another night of eating out. this time we went for mexican along our route home. veggie fajitas for me and bean burrittos/cheese quesadillas for chris. however, the pleasant meal was marked part way through by the unmistakable sound of the locking and unlocking of a revolver. that would be the high school student behind the check out counter playing with apparently what was the restaurant's (hopefully) unloaded gun. it was really strange, not so much that he was playing with a gun while the rest of us went along with eating our meal. it was more the ease with which he played with the gun that really struck me.

today the weather was spectacular in columbia so chris and i took a long walk along the riverwalk. and then we rewarded ourselves with a little rosewood dairy bar. i had a strawberry milkshake and chris had their famous (to us) apple turnover, which we got to enjoy while sitting outside.

tonight we met up for a yacs event to brainstorm ideas for meetings in 2007. we also partook in mellow mushroom pizza (kosmic karma and veggie) which is always delicious, as was the company.

we're composting!

this morning, with the help of my wonderful husband, i was able to finally construct a little enclosure for a compost bin. i've wanted to compost for a long time but didn't really think our landlords would be too happy with that. then i just decided to go for it! why wouldn't a landlord be happy to have enriched soil and less junk in the landfill? horay for composting!

thanks, friends.

i just wanted to take a moment to thank all those who donated this holiday season to my fundraising goal for heifer international. (see the toolbar to the right of this page for more information.) i've been reading a lot of really interesting books this holiday season which has inspired me to do something a little more meaningful by send my holiday money to charities. i wanted to spread the word as well and see if anyone else would be interested in joining me. so thanks to all who joined in my cause and donated money. it means so much to me to have such supportive friends and family, folks who care about the world as much as i do. you guys are the best!

as of today we have made 79%* of my goal so i am going to leave the toolbar up in hopes that we can make it to 100% or over throughout the coarse of the year.

*i actually should have a higher percentage, but i donated to heifer in the name of family members and had to do it without it going toward my goal. oh well, the cause is the same.

bringing in the new year with a bang

or a crack/pop, really.



this was the result of my first attempt to cook in the new year. this casserole totally exploded when i (gently) placed it on the table. maybe it's an omen that i should stay away from the stove this year. or maybe it just means i should pay more attention when cooking so i don't put a dish down on a burner that is accidentally turned on. oh well. there went a perfectly good meal and one of my favorite dishes.

cooking (or trying to cook) was not really how we rang in the new year. chris and i went with sean and cheryl to tybee island, ga.



we rented this little place and spent 2 1/2 days, exploring, eating and having a good time. our hosts, paul and annie (and their dog, sandie) were very hospitable. they took us on a boat ride to daufuskie island, a small island off the coast of hilton head, sc (but very accessible by boat from tybee). daufuskie's only access is via boat and it has about 150 year round residents. it also was the setting for pat conroy's novel, the water is wide, which is based loosely on his experiences teaching here during a vista year. in any event, we had a great time visiting tybee, daufuskie, and savannah.

also, i feel remiss if i do not wish a belated happy birthday to my husband.



even though i am posting this late, we did indeed celebrate his birthday on the actual day of his birth, december 22nd. we went out to eat with chris's parents and his 2 somali friends, which was really a great time. the celebrations continued the next day when we had a joint celebration for chris and bo, my step dad. that's when the above picture was taken. from the looks of it you really coudn't tell these guys are supposed to be adults! click here to see all the photos from cape may.

holiday fun

great time in nj. we spent christmas with just mom, jim, my sister and chris's parents. but on the 26th the whole family came down to exchange gifts and celebrate grandmom's 80th birthday. everyone was in good spirits and it was a lot of fun. i still can't get over how old my nieces are getting!

vacation! oh yea, baby!

the club-wide holiday pot-lucks are over. we've taken all the kids roller skating (which was really fun, i might add). we've relocated our office. i've handed in my reports. had our evaluation. everything is pretty much done. now it's vacation time and i can't be more excited.

the in-laws come in tonight. we'll go out to eat for chris's 30th! birthday. then tomorrow we're off (in the dark, wee hours of the night) to my parents' house. i'm just so excited to not have anything really pressing to do today. pack a little, a few errands, but other than that i'd like to read for as much of the day as i can. vacation is loverly.

4th annual

our christmas party was this saturday. even though our numbers were drastically down this year (only about 22, as opposed to over double that last year), we still feel it was a successfull evening. the good thing about having so few people is you get to talk to pretty much everybody.

gimme some fried chicken

i don't know if chris is going to post about this (he's probably already composed one but hasn't gotten around to publishing it), but this past weekend he and i went to our 2nd concert in a month. that's probably doesn't seem like a lot for folks who like music as much as we (well, chris) do. if you read a few weeks ago you heard mention of a concert over thanksgiving. we went to see jimbo mathus at hal and mal's in jackson, ms. see fuzzy's post to see pictures and for good links. then this weekend we went to the new brookland tavern here in good ol' cola town to see southern culture on the skids. as expected, it was a great show. the vocals could've been louder, but we'll forgive them for that (since it wasn't really the scots' fault). i've been listening to their hillbilly-meets-surfer music since i met chris and he introduced me to them. they're really fun and funny, singing about double wides, gold-digging, big hair and a myriad of other "red-necky" things. i loved the bass player, mary; she was was so tough looking yet had really small hands.

ready for the holidays

we put our tree up friday night and i spent all day saturday baking cookies. so i guess we're all set. much to my surprise, mokey hasn't really bothered the tree yet. we'll see what happens when we're gone all day at work.

but i think this was a cozy scene with her all curled up next to the tree. she did this all day while i baked. i was jealous.

gift that gives back

this holiday season, give a gift of sustainability and equality. or something like that. click of the heifer box on the right of this page and help me raise money for those in need. or you can go right to my donations page here. read more about heifer international.

vacation

i'm sorry i've not been very diligent in posting lately. i just honestly don't have anything to say. life's been pretty boring lately. busy, but boring. i work a lot and that's about it. doesn't make for much blog reading.

but! we've just booked a weekend vacation over new year's that i'm so psyched about! i'd say i've not taken a vacation in forever but then everyone would say what about africa. but my response would be that that was not really a vacation. but it'd be hard to argue. so i'll just say i've not taken a relaxation-focused vacation in forever. so this is going to be so fun!

rest in peace....

abraham fishington reid. we knew he wasn't doing too well for the past few weeks. today he finally swam his last lap. well, actually he's not been swimming for a while now, just floating lifelessly. but may he float on forever in the heavens.

Thanksgiving recap

Thanksgiving has come and gone in a whirl. I really enjoyed the time off and had a great time with the extendeds. We, of course, have not downloaded our pictures yet. Fuzzy, who is generally more on the ball about these things than we are has his pictures here. He's got some really good shots of the concert we went to on Friday night and of the town of Vicksburg as well.

Happy Thanksgiving

one more day and I'm home-free! Can't wait for my 5 day vacation. Have a happy tofurkey day, y'all.

if you're in columbia, check out live with lucas on thanksgiving morning and you'll see some of my kids stuffing our new bus with donated canned goods.

if i had had a camera...

with me this weekend there would be a picture posted here of chris riding a mini tricycle tractor. knees to his ears and working up a sweat to get the thing moving around the track. this weekend we went to a corn maze to, you know, do a maze. they had children's tricycles for kids to race around a small tire-encrusted race track. brian, chris and nicole thought it would be funny to get on and race around with some kids. it was funny. but without a picture and just this story on the internet i guess it's not really that funny. but take my word for it laughs were had.

the vote has been tallied

and even though judging by the comments on my vote post it looks like the 30th would've won out, i have to inform you that we're going to go with the 16th. i said you could vote, but i didn't say your vote would count.

no, i'm just kidding about that comment. i won't get into all the specifics here but we have decided to go with the 30th. BUT to kaiser and paula, i'd love to get together with you guys on the 30th or over new years or something if you're going to be around or, in kais's case, come down. please, please, please visit! i'd love to see you both.

but, let it be known--reid 4th anniversary christmas party, saturday, december 16th, 7:00 PM. clothing optional.* for those who have attended in years past, you know the details. for those who haven't and want to come, let me know and i'll give you the specifics.

*ok, i'm just kidding about the clothing part too. please wear clothes.

the vote has been tallied

and even though judging by the comments on my vote post it looks like the 30th would've won out, i have to inform you that we're going to go with the 16th. i said you could vote, but i didn't say your vote would count.

no, i'm just kidding about that comment. i won't get into all the specifics here but we have decided to go with the 30th. BUT to kaiser and paula, i'd love to get together with you guys on the 30th or over new years or something if you're going to be around or, in kais's case, come down. please, please, please visit! i'd love to see you both.

but, let it be known--reid 4th anniversary christmas party, saturday, december 16th, 7:00 PM. clothing optional.* for those who have attended in years past, you know the details. for those who haven't and want to come, let me know and i'll give you the specifics.

*ok, i'm just kidding about the clothing part too. please wear clothes.

a whale of a day!

on saturday chris and i and our 2 friends from charlotte ventured west to visit the georgia aquarium. despite the cost, which i ranted about a while back, we were able to attend (thanks to the generous donation of my brother and his family) and found it to be TOTALLY worth the fee! the whole thing was way cool and we all (if i can speak for the bunch) were impressed by the artistry of the exhibit designs.

here are a few choice pictures. chris will be posting some video in the near future.

vote NOW!

ok, forget about the vote on tuesday*. you need to vote NOW.

the fourth annual reid christmas party is up for debate. we usually hold it a week or 2 before christmas. but this year, with chris's alternating saturday schedule and my overall constant craziness, coupled with friends having plans and other things, we're not sure when to hold it. we were originally thinking of the 16th. but that seems to be a night when a lot of folks have plans. plus, sometimes the rush before christmas is just so stressfull, what with cookies to bake, presents to wrap, work parties, church parties, etc. so then i was thinking what about december 30. the christmas rush will be over and it might be a little easier to have a party then. but it is the day before new years eve, so folks might want to hold out on partying until the following night.

so this is where you, my faithful bloggers and blog readers, have a vote. a very important vote. use it wisely. comment and let me know your vote for the 4th annual. the options up on the table at this point are saturday the 16th or saturday the 30th.

*i didn't really mean "forget about the vote on tuesday" and DON'T vote. i just mean vote here and vote again on tuesday. hopefully your voice will be heard in both important elections.

birthday girl

happy birthday, maria.(that's the big one rolling around on the floor, not the little one.)

halloween?

ok, what happened to halloween, y'all? when i grew up scores of kids knocked on our door starting at like 4:30 and not stopping until 10:00 or whenever the candy ran out, whichever happened first. this year, when we live in a nice little neighborhood, no trick-or-treaters! even last year (and the few years prior) when we lived in graduate housing we at least had 2 or 3 kids stop by. kids suck this year!

so in honor of halloween and no trick-or-treaters, i think i'll eat a kit-kat (i better get started because we have 2 bags of candy. this, just in time for when chris and i were going to give up refined sugar! sweet!).

halloween hooliganism

last night chris and i went up to north south carolina to a party of some friends of our friends, adam and sara. we've not dressed up in years. actually, i think it was in 2004 at said adam and sara's house that we last dressed up, as publisher's clearing house winners.

anyways, we donned some costumes and had a good time. thanks for those suggestions, by the way.

chris posted about it already if you're curious what we are. and he's got some other fun pictures. but i wanted to add this video. it may not look as funny as i thought it was at the time. that's jello brain for those who really want to know. pretty gross.

born again

it's a strange thing. for the past 2 weeks our fish, abe, keeps going through a process of almost dying and then coming back to life again. he will be curled up at the bottom of his bowl, turned in on himself, totally flaky scales, and barely moving. we did some googling, found some potential problems and tried various things. he'd be okay for a few days and then go back to half-dead fish. for the past week, every time i walk by the bowl i tap on it to see if he's still alive, he’d move a bit and i'm like, "ok, still alive." in some ways i started wishing he would die because it was so sad to see him just laying there and waiting for him to be gone. but then last night i came home and abe was swimming at the top of his tank. apparently, the fish whisperer did something and brought him back to life, at least for now.

for the record

i just have to say i was wrong.

yup. wrong. i admit.

i have been so dreading going back to work today. and now that it's done and over with i see that i was just being a worry-wart, and for no real reason. i mean, seriously, folks. i was like d-r-e-a-d-i-n-g, dreading it. dreams about work. thoughts all weekend of it. avoiding phone calls on the work cell and emails. all because i though it would just be chaos when i got back.

and you guessed it (well actually i told you); i was totally wrong. today was great. the staff had everything in order. without me there they really had to step up to the plate and handle daily operations, which is exactly how it should be. no major mishaps (the few we had i already knew about). it was fabulous.

that, and i already got 2 things checked off my "to do" list from ideas i acquired from my training.

so, wow. how great.

calling for submissions

chris and i have been invited to a halloween party next weekend. we've not done the whole dress-up-for-halloween thing for a few years now, so it's about time we got back into the groove. i've never been too good at it myself, being that i'm not very creative but extremely tight with my money. but as i was saying, we have this party to go to. the theme is quentin tarantino movies. we've got a few ideas we're simmering about, but as much as we've been racking our brains we've not come up with anything that really knocks or socks off. i'll steal anyone's idea if it's placed here and we find it fabulously witty!

double vision

no, you weren't seeing double. for a while there were 2 of the same posts up. i didn't even know about that until chris told me yesterday. how strange. but if you didn't notice then you'll have no idea what i'm talking about because i fixed it.

fancy living

In my last post I said I was a wallflower and that I would stay inside my hotel room by myself for the night. Well, I wanted to let you all know (since I know you've been dying to find out what I did for the rest of the week) I actually went out that night (Tuesday) as well as for the rest of my nights in Atlanta. After blogging and checking my email on Tuesday I went down for the free drinks in the hotel and ran across a few folks from the club. Three of us went out here for dinner. It was not as fancy as the website makes it out. But it was expensive and the food was really good. We figured, what the hey, we were getting reimbursed for it.

Then Wednesday night everyone in the club was taken out to dinner here by our trainer. This place was also really fancy and expensive. I had a glass of wine and an awesome vegetable plate with squash, cous cous, curried cauliflower, the best baked potato ever, and one other veggie that’s escaped my memory. We were living the high life, I’ll tell ya’.

Then yesterday I ended up the week of training by having dinner with my aunt Mary. I stopped my high-life-livin’ there and we went cafeteria-style, as Aunt Mary always does. But it was still good food and good company.

I’m home now and trying to keep my fantasy living alive by taking a comp day from work. Well, I was "forced" to take a comp day because I’ve been working so much, or so they said. So I will try my best to avoid my email and cell phone today. I’ve already heard the phone ringing and have sent a few messages out, so we'll see how well I stick to that. But it's a good goal to have.

Happy weekend, everyone!

the learning club

completed day one of my training. it's been fairly "training-like," you know, very covey-like, which is fine. it's always good to remind myself of some of those things. the intersting thing is to see and fully realize how big the organization really is. i found out some intersting things to look into for overseas career advancement. you know that's totally cool.

dinner on our own tonight. went out last night for dinner with trea and the cousins. after driving around for freakin' forever we ate at the best mexican restaurant ever*! so i may just do take-out and stay in the room tonight. i'm such a wall-flower.

*or so the band claims it's the best mexican ever. i do think they, of all people, would know, being that when we eat out i think i've only even eaten mexican food with them. the restaurant was aptly named "el torrero." i'll admit it was good. and yes, peter, the guac was excellent. but i can't honestly say it was the best just because i don't know what i would say is the best mexican. but it was good.

balance

this weekend i had a nice balance of "girly" stuff and...well...the-opposite-of-girly-stuff stuff.

on saturday i went to the mall to look for some fall/winter things i've been needing. following the mall i went to lowes and bought various sorts of weather stripping and plastic window coverings. (our house is rather drafty so i'm trying to find cost-effective ways to insulate a home that is not ours to keep.) then i got to go home and install all this fun stuff. it's not like it was that hard, or all that fun really. but i felt useful and it is keeping my hopes going that we won't have another astronomical electric bill. then yesterday evening i followed all this excitement up with a mary kay pedicure party at one of my staff member's homes. i don't usually go to those sorts of things. (in fact i usually don't just NOT go, i avoid them like the plague.) but it was actually enjoyable and i didn't feel pressured into buying anything. AND i went home with really soft feet!

2 things i like

1) that i paid $1.98 for gas today

2) that i'm going on a "vacation" to atlanta next week.

* ok, i'm not going on a vacation. i'm actually going for a training. but i'm really excited about being a big girl and getting my own hotel room for the week where there's a tv and perhaps (so i've heard) a jacuzzi.

blustery weekend

Ok, so it isn’t really "blustery," exactly. But for South Carolina, it's turned chilly! And for now I'm loving it. Though we've already realized that our apartment is going to be freezing this winter because it does not keep the heat.

Saturday Chris and I got up at the crack of dawn (ok, at the crack of 9 AM) and went for a bike ride. It’s a good thing we did it then because it ended up raining the rest of the weekend. But while we were out the sky was gorgeous and we really had a good time. We’re still trying to pick out names for our new bikes. I’m leaning toward Roger for mine and Chris is leaning toward Apple Scruffs (don’t ask). But we’ll let you all know when the important decision has been definitely made.

We spent the rest of Saturday waiting around for the landlord to come by with our new fridge. We were supposed to get it last weekend but that never happened and we had been expectantly waiting ever since. Then last night we went to 2 (that’s right TWO) parties in one evening. One was a work function for Chris. It was held at the Keenan House, which was beautiful but really chilly. We followed that party up with a trip to northeast Columbia to a housewarming for a co-worker and friend of mine.

Today was the usual weekend stuff-laundry, grocery shopping (a big one since we’ve not gone in 2 weeks!) and cooking. I love the smell of cooking in the house on a cold, rainy day. I made pasta fagioli and cornbread. It was awesome!

15 acres/ year = 3.3 planets

check out this link to see how many acres a year it takes to sustain your eating/living habits and how many planets we would need to sustain that habit if everyone on earth lived like you. i thought i was doing good. but obviously i could be doing a lot better!

the family that plays together...

...stays together.

chris and i have been having fun playing together lately. not that we've not played together in the past. but it seems like we don't have much free time anymore so we try to do fun stuff more often and take advantage of time together. you know.

last week we did face masks!



this sunday we took a 6.6 mile walk in congaree swamp.




and tonight we purchased bikes so we can have more adventures together!



we're not the only ones to have recently bought bikes though.

cheese and hummus

For the past year or so every couple of months I get together with a group of women friends and acquaintances to hang out, watch a movie, and mostly eat good food. Last night we watched the lake house at brook’s new home. In my opinion it was a pretty bad movie, like many of the movies we watch. But when you watch it together with a bunch of women it somehow turned a bad movie into a good one. I mean, the concept is totally preposterous and it’s totally cheesy, but yet somehow if you willingly suspend your disbelief you can get wrapped up in it and find yourself rooting for Alex and Kate to get together. And I guess that’s what they want you to do. So it was fun. Both the movie and the gathering of women.

this change was hard

i had my first driving lesson today, as i mentioned previously that i would. halima and i headed out with me driving toward a cemetary at a few minutes before 7:00 this evening to catch as much driving time as we could before sunset. we pulled in just as it started to rain and halima commented that the rain was "no good for driving." but we shrugged it off and swapped spots in the car. she reversed out of the parking spot. turned around and started to head down the road. not 25 feet i noticed a weird rumble. "hold on. stop the car," i said to halima. opened my door and...a flat tire. that's right! totally bald. so instead of a driving lesson halima got a tire-changing lesson. we did really well too, except the bolts were too tight and we couldn't get them off. i called chris to come get us but in the meantime a nice stranger who just happened to be in the cemetary at dark got the bolts off and finished the change.

next lesson, saturday evening.

2 posts in 2 days! i'm back y'all

rundown of the day.

i'm sitting in the library/chris's work using their fabulous wi-fi. though for some reason i can't get on my remote server. so that limits the amount of work i can do, which i'm trying to think is a good thing.

it was a fairly good day. i only cried once. but it was in the office of my big boss and our HR person. i think they really felt for me and the struggles i've been having and they hopefully are going to step in on my behalf to ensure that things get a little better. that's all i'll say about that.

yea, today was a good day. cry at the start, not at the end. and no upset stomach.

who needs addictions?

those of you who know me well know that every morning i have a cup of coffee. not only do i have a cup of coffee every morning, but i religiously have a cup of coffee each morning. i set everything up the night before so that all i have to do is push a button in the morning and viola! instant awakeness.

well, for the past few weeks i've been having an upset stomach every morning. i thought maybe it was anxiety. but i decided this weekend to do without the coffee. so for 2 days i went caffeine-free! for the first time in probably 10 years. and i did okay. i think i might make a habit of it. i did have 1/2 a cup this morning just to put a little pep in my step. but i'm really thinking of just doing without it. for reals.

absence

man, i blogged more when i was in africa than i do now. it's not from lack of thinking about it. i'm just either working or brain dead and really haven't been in the mood to blog. thought about giving it up all together but then i feel like once i start something i should see it through.

so i'm back. with a picture from africa. as the title states, a store front in dodoma.

things of note lately? i'm going to be teaching a somali woman how to drive next week. that should be fun. or an adventure at least.

advice from a 10 year-old vet

"Well that is how cats are.You have to be strict when she is bad,and
you have to play with her and spend time with her.Try and set some
rules,like no shredding papers.If she doesn't listen,then hold her up
to the papers or whatever and say no! Bad cat! It might sound mean
but it works and it doesn't harm her."

*this was an email in response to a message i sent my 10 year-old niece telling her about how our cat is so cute but she's a terror. i thought it was particularly good advice. points well-taken, doc.

metros are some of my favorite places

Got at b3co.com!

thanks for the link, fuzzy. i've been on more metros than i actually thought i would've. too bad the city i now live in doesn't have one.

phooey

i'm sick for the long weekend. suckeroo.

i guess that's my body saying, "hey girl, get some rest!"

and the cat's going, "yea! it's cuddle time."

i guess i can deal with that.

what we came home with

despite me not really wanting a kitten, chris and i came home with one yesterday afternoon. project pet had no cats over 12 weeks at this petsmart. and i was taken with this tortoise-shelled one.



we renamed her moki (from fraggle rock). and pretty much all she's done is hide under the couch and meow (a lot).



in other news, i finally got up the nerve (or got fed up enough) to cut my hair off again. it's not been short since before we lived in columbia. i am pretty pleased with it.

i'm so lame

i've totally pulled a queen d and not posted in, like, forever. i hope this isn't going to set the tone for the next few months but i have the feeling that it will be pretty lame on this blog for a while.

to give a quick update:

i took a break from working last weekend and went to charleston to meet theresa and zoltan, who were in hilton head on vacation. theresa blogged about it here. we had a great time seeing them, as always. good folks.

work work work this week.

good-bye party for g last night. he leaves for seminary on wednesday. not an overly sappy party, but the sentiment was definitely there that he will be missed.

today, chris and i are heading out to cut my hair and get a cat. in both cases, i don't know what we'll come back with.

it's a major award!

first day of program? check!

back when i was in college in ny i worked for a settlement house called grand street. one summer i was a counselor with a summer camp and i remember my first day with the kids as one of the most chaotic days of my life. i went home after that first day, layed on my bed and staired at the wall for close to an hour, too exhausted to sleep and too jittery to think.

this is how i thought it'd feel after our first day of program yesterday. but much to my delight it was nothing like that first day at grand street's summer camp. my staff was amazing! they kept the kids having fun and under control. the kids had a great time and even did their homework voluntarily. now i know not all days will be like this, but this is a great start!

now, if we could just get our technology up and running! that's where the bottleneck is.

beauty academy of kabul

my new-ish friend, angela, sent an email this week inviting some of the ladies out to see this movie at the nick. i put it in my head that i wanted to see it ever since i heard a report about it on NPR. plus, it's the night before the big day, as i just stated, so i thought it'd do me some good to get out.

this was a really interesting movie, especially as someone who has aspirations of moving and working abroad. i'd definitely recommend it. the typically-opinionated american chauvenism is well-stated and should remind us all that our ways and views are not always the ways and views of others, nor are they always the best. however, the documentary is also a reminder that even the smallest things that people do to help others can create real and lasting change. both should be lessons for us all.

program starts tomorrow

i've been fairly vacant from my blog lately because i've been just been working pretty much all the time. and the few precious minutes a day that i'm not working i've wanted nothing to do with a computer. plus, there's really not too much to talk about other than the hum-drum of work. it's been fairly boring. well, not boring to me, but the retelling would be boring.

but at 2:35 PM tomorrow our club's doors open and we'll have about 100 11-14 year olds wanting to be "entertained" for the after-school hours. i think we're ready. as ready as we can be. so here's to a few weeks more of chaos!

happy holidays

i got a card through interoffice mail today at work. it was a christmas card. strange.

or maybe i just needed a little holiday cheer.

or something

my brother (well actually his company) won some award from mac. that's about all i can say about it because it's all over my head, and when i looked for a link to provide on this post (and to illucidate his dumb sister) my brother had so many hits i just didn't feel like sorting through them all.

but let's just say that last night it was announced that he won an award from apple for the best workflow design in a certain catergory. perhaps he can give more info on a comment??

erica and fuzzy wedding pictures

can be found here. you might want to read chris's blurb about his thoughts and events on the wedding. he pretty much said it all.

thanks, new job for the fun outing!

from the city that gives you the the gamecocks and cocky, meet the blowfish. this is blowie. (i wouldn't make this stuff up!)