picts are up

here is a sampling. more can be found here.


our room overlooking the pool and the mountains


el yunque rain forest


one of several towers we climbed in el yunque


arecibo observatory (the world's largest radio telescope)


old fortress walls around old san juan


awesome band along the street/waterfront in old san juan

it's almost showtime

good luck in cali, guys!

we are back

i've not posted anything about our trip yet but i wanted to let you know that we're back. i know you were worried we'd never return from our vacation!

as you can see, our "mountain retreat" was so relaxing we really didn't want to leave. i'd highly recommend it if anyone is looking to get away, la casa grande mountain retreat in utuado, puerto rico.

so we're back and in the swing of things again. i'm in the mists of uploading the pictures now but probably won't have them organized or anything tonight. so i'll post a link when they're all set.

vacation daze

for the past 2 days i've been technically "on vacation," meaning i've not been going into work. so far it's not really felt like a vacation, honestly. but it's still been good.

i spent the day yesterday cleaning the house* and doing some cooking. one of the families that we stayed with 2 years ago during our trip to tanzania have been in town and we had them over for dinner. it was really nice to see them again and i was happy to reciprocate their favor and open our home to them, even if only for one evening.



i spent vacation day 2 by starting to paint our back room. that's actually not quite accurate. we started painting the back room when we spackled it 8 months ago before we moved into this house. but until this point, that's as far as we've gotten. so i took today to try to tackle another big chunk. i'd say i got about 2/3 of the way finished. hopefully it won't sit another 8 months before we finish!

our real "vacation" vacation starts tomorrow! i'm looking forward to being away from home renovations, cats waking us up at all hours of the night, and all the rest of the hum-drum everyday stuff. hopefully this'll be the ticket to getting us relaxed and well-rested!

(*talk about a fruitless effort. many of you may know that we live very close to a factory which churns out a lot of dust. i spent 1/2 the day yesterday sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, and mopping the house, plus washing sheets, blankets and our bedspread. when it came time for bed i padded in my bare feet into the bedroom, walked by the window and felt a whole lot of grit under my feet! urgh! frustration!)

happy birthday x

today is the birthday of malcom x. he would've been 83 had he lived. if you have not done so, might i suggest you read the autobiography of malcom x as told to alex haley? i actually recommended it as a good read just barely over 2 years ago.

spring is in the air

(even if it feels like summer)

saturday i was trying to make another dent in the vine situation along our fence. i was pleased to find blackberries growing in a few small patches. it's my hope that once i clear out all the other crappy vines, maybe the blackberries will come in full-force. ymmm!

however, i have been temporarily way-laid due to this little discovery.



this was situated right inside a big mess of kudzu and grape vines. luckily i realized it before it was too late and walked away without harming the nest. i was worried i got a little too close and scared away momma for good. but she spent the better part of the afternoon and sunday sitting on her precious eggs, despite our comings and goings while doing remaining yard work.

the bad news is that i can't take those vines out right now. the good news is i don't have to worry about taking those vines out right now! so i've pretty much wrapped up that project (for now). woohoo!

drunken slugs

whoever invented putting beer out for slugs really had it spot-on. i knew something was eating some of our plants but had previously suspected beetles. but when we were digging around yesterday i found a few slugs in the tomatoes. so i thought, "oh, beer! that's what i've always heard works for slugs." chris suspected it was a ploy to purchase myself some beer. but no, i convinced him. "i hear this really works." of course there was the added bonus of me being able to finish off the remaining 5 in the 6-pack, but that doesn't take away the fact that it works! check it out!


that's alotta slugs!

team reid

i spent another weekend outside working on our yard and garden. this time i was joined by my husband, who is now finished with school (for the summer) and has a bit more time to lend a hand on household projects. we did some really fun stuff and i took some pictures. but i'm too tired right now to post anything detailed about that. i just want to sit and veg out to my show.

oh, and one day until vacation. and 4 days until vacation trip. woohoo!

happy mother's day moms

mom


stepmom

(and all other moms too!:)

excitement

i just went out to water the plants and saw a few little bursts of zucchini life sticking out of the ground where i planted seeds last week. there's something about growing a plant from seed that feels so fulfilling. transplanting is okay; but from seed is real growing.

the great outdoors

i spent most of the weekend outdoors, which was great.

saturday i finally followed through on my promise to take a small group of my somali kids to pick strawberries. we had a great time, despite the fact that a lot of the strawberries were a little too far gone for my tastes. and a few of the kiddos fell in the mud. oh well, at least they didn't fall onto the plants, which i kept nagging them about.


(this was taken before the fall into the mud!)

after the picking, as is now tradition, we went to congaree swamp for a hike. this was short-lived due to some immediate bathroom needs of one child.


but we were able to pick up some junior ranger books, which most of them actually enjoyed filling out.



the remainder of the weekend, i spent in our yard. there was much to be done on this front, and are still not done. but we made a nice dent. not only have we not mowed the lawn since we moved in (in october!) but there are a bouquet of ivy trying hard to take over. i found honeysuckle, poison ivy, wisteria, kudzu, and grape vines, just to name a few. my husband cut the grass while i wrangled some of the ivy. (stay tuned for later posts to see if i break out from the poison ivy.) plus i planted zuccinni, cucumber, and barlotti pole beans. here's a picture of our garden now that the grass is low enough to actually see that we have a garden.

congrats to the barns

erin ruth was born at 1:51 this afternoon. check out their blog to read the play-by-play. i am awed at what a blessed gift her birth is.

5 years plus one day

happy anniversary yesterday to my hubs. you're my favorite and i love you.

jubilee celebration

this weekend i was blessed to have been able to attend the jubilee mass and celebration for several nuns in the order of the missionary servants of the most blessed trinity. it was a beautiful celebration and a renewal of my own mission to be a servant. i only wish that i can be half as faithful to my call to service as those 10 women who were celebrating their 25th, 50th, 60th, 70th, and 80th years of service.

philly zoo trip

despite the short length of time (and the heat!), i had a great time saturday visiting with family and trampsing around the philly zoo. it'd been ages since i'd been there and i was pleasantly surprised by the renovations to exibit spaces and the updated collections. the sheer number of animals, etc. that they have on collection is pretty vast compared to the cola zoo. however, they have so much that you almost get the feeling they don't have the space to keep everything, which, if i recall accurately, was the general sense i got last time i was there. so i have to say if i had to choose, i still think i like columbia's zoo better. but philly's zoo (the first in america) will always hold a fondness in my zoo preference.

you can see more pictures at flickr.

cell phone advice?

so i think the time has come for us to get a "real" cell phone. i know, i know. we've tried to fight the system for so long and have managed relatively successfully. a few years ago chris's parents gave us a pay-as-you-go cell phone to use in case of emergencies or for when we're traveling. other than work phones that i've been contractually obligated to use, we've managed to keep the personal use of cell phones to a minimum.

but now, all of a sudden, i've found myself married to "that cell phone guy." he's always on it! all right, all right, it's mostly because of his job*, but still, that thing rings constantly. and over the past few months we've been spending astronomical fees because we've been going over our meager 200 alloted minutes a month.

which brings me to this post. i'm now in the market for a no-frills cell phone plan that will give us like 400 or 500 minutes a month with as minimal cost as possible. we don't need texting, we don't need internet, no bells or whistles. just talk. for cheap. preferably. and if they threw in a free phone for signing up, that'd be great too!

i'd take any suggestions if anyone has any. for those local to the area, anyone have good experience with suncom? it seems like they have the most cost-friendly plans, but i want to make sure i'm not limiting ourselves with crappy service.

*ironic that chris uses the cell phone the most for his job which is really not a job exactly. it's an internship. and he doesn't make any money to work there. yet they call his cell phone like nobody's business. i'm not blaming them, but it just ruffles my feathers a little bit.

two more april birthdays

happy birthday yesterday to erica and mamaw bane! 29 and 80 respectively. i wish them the happiest year yet!

prayer request

chris and i have taken a quick trip to mississippi to help out with his mom and we'll be here for the next few days. continued prayers for her and the family would be so appreciated. thanks!

a real vacation?

at the end of this month chris and i celebrate 5 years of marriage! woohoo! i feel like it's a big milestone. so to celebrate and, heck, just to relax a bit, we've decided we're going to take a real-life, honest-to-goodness, vacation at the end of may.

puerto rico, here we come. we've found some out-of-the-way place to spend a few days just relaxing, hiking, looking at nature and resting. i can just smell the pina coladas now!

feeding addictions

it's been a few weeks since i finished watching season two and season four of project runway. i've not had a chance to check any other seasons out since then (we've been busy!). but in case i was going through withdraw, i was fortunate enough to have seen nick verreos from season two give a talk at usc last week. (i took some pictures but they came out too dark to post here).

let me tell you, that guy seems like a sweetheart. he was very energetic and lively. and he seemed very likable. i was a little disappointed that he didn't dish the dirt too much about the show. but maybe he got to that after i left. i stayed for over 2 1/2 hours and he was just up to the q&a! there was supposed to be a meet-and-greet after that which i, of course, missed. it was 20 till 10 pm so i decided to split.

speaking of tv addictions. i'm mad at desperate housewives because they have not updated their website with the rerun episodes they had been running on tv each week. i was tuning in every week to the website to help me catch up on the gazillion seasons i've missed. but for the past month or so, they've not really put anything up. i guess they're trying to build anticipation for their new show this weekend? but anyways, since they didn't have any new episodes when i checked on saturday night, i decided to try another show out via website. dancing with the stars. i started watching that and within the first few minutes i was hooked. i LOVE it! i guess i really am a junky for "reality tv" as long as they show some sort of talent. ha! (i've only watched a few episodes, so please don't give any spoilers about any of the seasons in the comments.)

2 birthday surprises!

tonight i was talking to my mom and she said, "oh, did you get the sugar scrub i sent in your birthday package?" i said, "no. there was no sugar scrub in the package." after a moment of confusion i realized, OH!, there was a present under the chair in the living room. so i got an extra present.

plus! check this out for another birthday surprise.

watching talkin' funny is chris and my new favorite addiction! they're just so funny. so we often will end our day with an episode or two. this evening i realized that they posted the first episode of their new season so i sat down to watch while eating my dinner. but i realized quite quickly into the episode that there was a birthday surprise! check it out!

p.s. clown warning for those (like me) that aren't too keen on clowns! (she's not too creay though.)

dirty 30

thanks to all the do-gooders, well-wishers, and (not-so-) distant relations who wished me a happy birthday the other day. 'preciate it.

not-so hard trivia quiz: which one of these little cuties just turned the big 3-0?


the hair probably gives it away (or is it the award-winning smile?).

weekend "away"

why is it we forget our camera at times when it would be really great to have them?

this weekend chris and i went to the atl for what we hoped to be a little get-away. we were able to secure a ridiculously cheap deal at a a fancy hotel but didn't really get to enjoy it. we got into town later than anticipated and had some family business to take care of. so we pretty much just dropped our things off, met up with my cousin and his new fiance for a quick bite to eat and then made it to the variety playhouse just in time to catch the last 30 seconds of mike doughty's band (or should i say piad) playing the sort-of fake opening set for their concert. we did get to see the "real" opening act, the panderers, and mike doughty and his band, including our friend and the bass player, andy. we also got to hook up with everyone afterwards. hung out with andy for a bit backstage and then went to grab a bite to eat with andy, mike, and chuck (the road manager?). (by the way, the restaurant we ate at, r thomas was awesome! i wished i was more hungry because i wanted almost everything on the menu.) but this is where the not-having-a-camera-thing comes in. sure would've been nice to have some pictures of us all hanging out. but we do have memories, and i guess that's more important. plus, i can always borrow pictures from other people, like this one i pulled from mike's blog.


picture i pulled from mike's blog of mike doughty and his band

He is Risen

Happy Easter, everybody! I've been silent on the blog this week for holy week. hope it was a blessed one for everyone.

we had a great easter weekend. friends from out of town came back into town for a little visit. we spent saturday eating good food, hanging out on our porch, dying eggs, and having a hunt. here are some pictures.









for the past few weeks i have been working hard to get our yard in order. the owner before us apparently dumped truckloads of pine straw all over the yard. in addition to it being too much pine straw, it had just sat there accumulating leaves and debris. it was a mess! so anyways, i've spent a lot of time raking the front yard and cleaning everything up. now instead of a pine straw yard, we have a completely dirt yard. but i honestly think that looks a million times better. besides, we're hoping we can get something to grow where the pine straw as. this picture doesn't really show the yard, but you can see the azaleas in bloom.

girl-full weekend and other rambling

i am late on a bunch of blog posts. so i'm doing them all in one right here.

birthdays: happy birthday on wednesday of last week to lindsay. happy birthday on friday of last week to melissa. this is the time of year for some fantastic birthdays!

question: how do you know it's spring? is it a) flowers are blooming, b) the time change last week, c) pollen in the air, or d) waldie has poison ivy.

answer: the one tried and true way to know that sping is in the air is for me to have poison ivy. all the other ways work too, but this way seems to happen more regularly than any other method i've found thus far. where is my pi?, you may want to know. on my face, of course. how lovely.

this weekend: i had a very women-friendly weekend. on friday i attended a fantastic ladies-only dinner party. that was a hoot, i'll tell ya! great food, great drinks, great company and great music.

then, on saturday chris and i headed up to greenville for this one's baby shower.



again, great food, great friends, great games, and a good time.

cutie and cutie

i just think this picture is so sweet.


that's my hubs and my niece, if you didn't already know.

taunting!

the LAST episode of project runway arrived in the mail yesterday (thanks one last time, f & e!). the thing is, i gave up tv on the weekdays. so it'll just sit on our dining room table taunting me until this weekend when i allow myself to watch it. yikes! who's it going to be?? (please don't tell me, i like the suspense/surprise!)

spring break

the only reason i wish i were still in school is so that i could have a spring break. i don't want the homework though. so i guess it's a toss-up.

i sort of vicariously get a spring break because chris is on a quasi-spring break*, so i get to have my husband back at least a little bit this week. woohoo!

this weekend we had a weekend full of fun! we shopped around for inexpensive bookshelves, cleaned out and organized our back room, and then raked our front yard. boy, we're adults huh? that this is our idea of fun! we really just enjoyed each other's company, which was grrrrrrreat!

the kids had fun too!


(notice mokey skulking in the background, wishing that she weren't so fat so she could fit in the new toy too!)

*chris's spring break is only "quasi" because he's still doing his ga and internship, just no classes.

new curls

i finally went for it and cut most of my curls off. it was about this time 7 years ago that i did the same thing. that just so happens to be right at the beginning of when i started dating my husband. so maybe there's some sort of significance there, i don't know. but what i do know was i was ready for a change. so here it is:



other things of note: i drove all the way out to here (1 hr 15 minutes drive) for 45 minutes of the worst presentation i've ever given at a conference which was so disorganized; then i got back in the car for another drive home. yea, that was a waste of a beautiful saturday. though, i have to say, the campus is pretty, the drive was nice and i got to listen to some good radio programs. and when i got home i decided to salvage what was left of the day and do some yard work. so it turned out okay.

tandem couple plus one

congratulations to tandem couple on the birth of their first child, a daughter named indigo aurora. she was born february 9 at 8:08 Am, 20.5", 9lb 3 oz. she's a biggie and what a cutie! special prayers for this little bundle would be appreciated. it seems she was born with some birth defects in her ankle and leg which will require ongoing attention and surgeries. however, from what i can tell, everyone seems to be adjusting well! you can check out their progress here. yea, babies!

second marriage

while we visited my family in nj this weekend we went to our local church for mass. apparently the state of nj designated last sunday as a day to give special prayers to married couples to strengthen their marriage bond and preserve their vocation. (i personally, think it might've been more appropriate to do this the weekend before since february 10th was technically world marriage day, but whatever.) in any event, chris and i (along with a couple dozen other couples) got to renew our wedding vows. it was actually really sweet and my husband looked me in the eyes this time as he said his vows. so i guess we're on our second marriage now. cool.

happy birthday mom!

it has been a busy week. we left friday a for a weekend trip to see family in nj for mom's birthday. her actual birthday is tomorrow, so happy birthday, mom!


most of the family came down and we just had a good time eating, walking on the beach, visiting, eating more, and playing around the house.

a new addition

it always takes me ages to add anyone to my friends and family toolbar on the right. so my apologies to city yogan for the delayed addition.

as an aside, she lent me becoming who you are by james martin (who happens to come from my original neck of the woods). i've read about 1/2 of it so far and am really enjoying it. very simple messages with lots of things to think about. thanks, cy!

they arrived!

the seeds are in!



the pictures on the packages look so good, you almost think they're real. i am hoping to plant them tomorrow if i can sneak it in after work and before sunset.

i've not posted about this weekend so i'll say a few words here. i was so productive!

on saturday i visited the all-local farmers market and picked up some fresh goodies. then, it was such a beautiful day, i headed home and dug up our yard. i made a 12' x 8' plot for the garden. our soil is so good (as far as i can tell). there were lots of happy bugs (well, they were temporarily unhappy because i dug them up), and there were very little rocks and the soil just looked dark and healthy! it's so cute, even as just a patch of tilled earth.

sunday the productivity continued. i finally got around to touching up the paint around the new windows which were installed in december. it didn't take too long but it was something that had been nagging me for months. woohoo!

thanks to me, chris has been sick for the past few days, so he's been laying low, reading and just chilling. of course, there's always time for cuddling even if you're sick.

page 123- 3 sentences meme

i was tagged.

* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
* Find Page 123.
* Find the first 5 sentences.
* Post the next 3 sentences.
* Tag 5 people.

the book: mick martin and marsha porter's dvd & video 2004 guide.

the quote: "blue crush:***three maui surfer girls support themselves as hotel maids as they prepare for the big competition at the pipeline, while one (kate bosworth) is romanced by a visiting nfl quarterback (matthew davis). the film is lightweight but entertaining, with an appealing cast, colorful locations, and excellent surfing scenes. rated pg-13 for sexual content and brief profanity."


tagged: i'm not a big fan of tagging. never played the game when i was a kid because i didn't like people chasing after me. so if you want to play, feel free to post in the comments section.

i never have seen this movie, by the way. chris and i were both surprised it got 3 stars. this book, however, is the most cited reference book in the house.

happy birthdays

happy birthday today to tricia and yesterday to fuzzy. february birthdays kids! sorry we're not there to celebrate in person with you guys. of course, i have my annual february cold. so nobody would really want me around.

i've mostly been lying around since wednesday. but yesterday we headed down to south georgia to see my grandparents. i pretty much laid around there too. but i did get a chance to play with their new puppy.


she was a real cutie!

getting ready for spring

i'm a little obsessive compulsive. i just spent almost $60 on seeds. yup, seeds!

you may remember that i made my first attempt at gardening last year and it worked out ok. now that we have a new house with a big-to-us yard, chris and i have been talking expansion. a full-blown garden. so in a few days (hopefully) we'll have our first shipment of seeds. not all of it, of course, will be put in the ground right now. most will have to wait a few months. but we're hoping to get outside next weekend to prepare the ground for some of the winter and early spring crops.

when i told chris i wanted to spend $60 on seeds he said, "well, you work hard. you earn the right to spend money on something that you like to do."

of course, time will tell if i spent a ridiculous amount of money on something that will totally eat up my time for no benefit or if i spent money on something that will be totally fun and will yield great results in our gastronomical lives. i'm hoping for the latter.

50 seconds worth of blogging

things have been busy and i haven't had too much time to update the blog. but here's a quick rundown of what's been going on.

i'm sitting here typing on our new-to-us computer. thanks to e&f for the computer. thanks to adam for the ginormous monitor. and thanks to bo for the keyboard. it takes a village to give the reids a computer, apparently.

mom came in last night for what was supposed to be about 12 hours of visiting (including sleep). from what i hear, she spent an extra 5 or 6 hours in town getting tires fixed. too bad i was at work the whole time. luckily i'll get to see her more next weekend when we take our yearly trip to south georgia.

we said goodbye to another father-figure this weekend. our priest of 4 1/2 years (10 years at our parish) has been transferred to another parish. there is a lot of sadness and of course, wondering what will come next. i'm becoming more aware of the cyclical nature of life every day. all things must pass, as a wise one once said. the only thing that''s inevitable in life is change.

my new addiction

i don't think i've mentioned it yet, but i have to give a shout-out to my new favorite thing in life, project runway. i first started watching in mississippi this december with erica and fuzzy. i have sort of a love/hate relationship with reality tv shows, so i'm not surprised that i was drawn into this show so easily. what's cool about it, though, is that these people really have talent!

so since december e&f have been feeding my addiction by recording the weekly programs and sending them to me. i have to say, it really is so fun to get the dvds of the episodes in the mail each week. i usually end up going right in and watching it. in fact, in the last shipment which i received tuesday night, there were 2 weeks worth of shows! i watched one show on tuesday night. i was half way through my day at work on wednesday and was so cheered when i remembered i had the second episode to watch that evening. it's like crack!

flotsam and jetsam

one of the good things to take so long to post is that some people have already done it.



thanks to melissa for coming down from nyc this weekend and bringing the cold with you. 'preciate that. come back again (but leave the weather from whence you came).

momma mia

mom on beach, late 1970's

baptism of the Lord and of katie

the catholic church celebrates the baptism of the lord today, thus marking the end of the advent and christmas season. it was fitting, then, that i took down the christmas decorations yesterday. the house is almost empty and a lot less cosy without the tree. :(

it was also fitting to celebrate the feast of the baptism of the Lord today because yesterday i had a sort of "baptism" myself. here's the story:

you may remember that i have been fighting a few battles with the house. after my defeat from the toilet and the washing machine last weekend, i vowed i would be more successful this weekend. i decided i couldn't yet win the washing machine battle, but i could "cut it off at the knees" and temporarily solve the problem. so we severed the outside pipe, thus not really fixing the problem, but at least allowing us to do laundry without getting water all over the floor. the real fix will come when we have the funds to call a professional.

and then there was the toilet. i went to the local hardware store and bought all the inside pieces to replace everything in the innards of the toilet. it took me a while, but after carefully reading the directions, i managed to actually take everything out and put all the new stuff in. the good news was that the toilet was functioning after my repairs and the leaking was less, but i could still see the water line dropping a little bit. so i knew there was still a leak somewhere. i went the hardware store again but had little success there. however, after coming home again i soon realized that there was water leaking on the outside of the basin around the nut where the water line comes in from the wall. so now i was really mad, but still determined to win this one. i called my stepdad and bitched to him for a minute and he gave me the brilliant suggestion of ensuring that i screwed the nut in completely (the directions told me not to screw it in too tight because it could brake the tank).

so, i went back to the toilet. i took the lid off but decided not to turn the water back off because all i was doing was tightening a nut. as i proceeded to turn the nut, i realized i was going in the wrong direction. so, of course, water started running out of the bottom of the tank. i was like, "oh no, wrong way." quickly turn, turn, turn the other direction. and then, splash! a fountain of water was coming up from inside the toilet and shooting all over me and the bathroom.

apparently, i had not really secured the water filter system inside the toilet and the thingy* wasn't really secured to the other thingy*. the water shot up so hard that the first thingy* flew in the air, out of the basin and thus causing said fountain of water. i let out a satisfying girl-like squeal but was able to turn everything off relatively quickly.

in the end, i won out against the toilet. the leak is pretty much all but gone and i'm satisfied enough to say i've the victor. for being my first initiation into plumbing i think it was only appropriate that i got initiated through water.

plumber

question for anyone living in the area. anyone know a good plumber?

i just checked out palmetto biz buzz, which i just heard about on sc business review this morning. but there were so many choices, i though it might be good to get some personal opinions as well.

thanks for donating

when you're going to donate an item (any item) to a charity (any charity), please be sure that all the pieces and parts of said item are present with the donation. there's nothing like getting something and then realizing that it's missing half the pieces and you can't put it all together, thus rendering this item completely useless. on the same token, if you're donating something, make sure the item is in relatively good condition. as in, "sure these socks have a hole in the toe but if you have no socks, holey socks are better than none." i guess that's true. but come on, people, everyone deserves and wants un-holey socks. no matter how needy you are. so please folks, when you give to charity give something that would actually work.

thank you.

house 3 - team reid 0

this sunday chris and i attempted to embark on several home-improvement projects.

1) fix a leaky toilet

2) put a wheel on our heavy fence gate

these seemed like manageable goals for a sunday afternoon.

so both chris and i spent a good portion of our day attempting to remedy these 2 seemingly easy problems. but, alas, it was not our good fortune to be so successful this time. unfortunately, the thing i thought was wrong with the toilet was, apparently, not the thing that needed fixing because by the end of the day it was still running. and after chris spent many an hour and lots of *choice* words, the poorly-constructed gate broke where the wheel was attached leaving us with not only a still-heavy gate, but a still-heavy gate with a big chunk of wood missing from the bottom.

we should've just walked away 2 and 0, but we rounded the day off by trying to do some laundry. in this house, that almost always leads to disaster. the problem that i thought i'd fixed weeks ago really wasn't a fix and now it's only getting worse.

so sunday night was not a happy night in the reid household. urghh. but we'll get you, house. team reid will win in the end.

a few new pictures

here's some holiday cuteness...


we're leaving the decorations up so we can enjoy them a few more days. we usually don't take things down until around the epiphany anyway. i never understand how someone could kick a christmas tree to the curb on the 26th anyway.

also...


doozer's fur really fluffed up while we were away. i even commented to chris that what if he's the wrong cat. (there are like 3 other long-haired black cats on the street and i wondered if grabbed the wrong one when doozer got loose a few weeks ago.) but then i remembered that only doozer will scratch at his litter box for like (no exaggeration) 15 minutes when he's done his business. he has to be ours.

also, not cuteness, but sweetness. look what my husband did for me today while i was at work. he turned this:


this picture was taken right when we moved in. add to this, more of an accumulation of junk piled to the ceiling and you'd get a better mental image.

into this:



good hubby!

family props

man, i've got some crazy-smart family.

chris's sister erica is featured in victor skrebneski's new book. i'd show a picture or post a link to buy the book, but apparently it's not available yet online. but go to your local bookstores and request it! of course, you'll have to pay the $125 for it, but it'll be worth it to see erica's 4 page layout! she's beautiful!

also, my brother put out his newest book.



it just arrived in the mail yesterday at our house (thanks ben!). this book is substantially smaller than the skrebneski book mentioned above (that book, i've heard, is a coffee table books and weighs a billion pounds). but it was a ton of labor on my big bro's part. great job, ben! if you're a mac person, go out and buy it!

happynewyear!

i thought i'd start the new year off right with a blog post since i've not done that in a while. we're back in the swing of things again at home and settling in again.

2007 was a good year for us, but it was also filled with a lot of not-so-good stuff and some of the most toughest times we've faced yet. so we're looking forward to 2008 being the best year yet!

last night was a good start to the new year. we had a fun and enjoyable team-reid-prepared dinner in our new house. then we went to a good friend's house for a new year's gathering. once the ball dropped and we rang in the new year, we headed home where we picked up a hitch-hiker (at 1:00 in the AM)! we were a little nervous but we've promised to be better people this year. and the hitch-hiker was a woman and she looked legitimately in need. so we took her a few blocks to a friend's home with no problems on our end. this morning we slept in ( really, really slept in. i won't give you the time we woke up!). we're about to head to church and then hopefully spend an enjoyable day playing and resting. all-in-all it promises to be a great start to 2008.

i hope you all had a happy and peaceful new years and i wish you all the best for this new year.

no more eggs at mepkin

most of you might've already heard this. i'm a little slower to blog than most. but i heard this morning on the radio and then read in the paper that mepkin abbey will no longer be producing and selling eggs. apparently peta had been pressuring them for some time and the monks felt like it was interrupting their ability to to live a peaceful and contemplative life. that's a shame because i really believe in locally produced food, and it was the main source of income for the monks. i'm no animal hater (i am a vegetarian, remember. as are the monks, i think.) but come on.

small hat tip

i've added a new link to the toolbar at the right. check out big gnome for all your pr and marketing needs!

busy work

i am on the phone with the tracfone company right now. my phone stopped working the other day* so i am trying to see if i can get a replacement. i was almost through with one very nice operator and i was just thinking "wow that was easy." and then we got cut off. so now i've had to go through it again.

"plug your phone in....does it work now?"

"no."

"take your battery out and put it back in....now does it work?"

"no."

etc.


*i haven't told them that it doesn't work because i spilt water in my bag and it got all wet. oopsy!

two turkeys

new windows!

our new windows came in today and they are all set to be installed on thursday! i can't wait. we'll have 5 new ones by mid-day.

now, i just have to find a way to swing home for 2 hours in the middle of a work day to wait as they do it..... if anyone knows someone who would like to sit at our house on thursday, i'm all ears.

the gift that keeps on giving

that's how i referred to david's life tonight when i was talking on the phone with chris. there was an article in the vicksburg post today about him. the editor of the paper was a friend and wrote a really nice editorial about him. fuzzy transcribed the write-up here.

the amazing cycle of life

congrats to my old-time friend maria and her husband, dave. they welcomed their new daughter phaedra ariana brown at 9:52am on wednesday, December 5. she weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz, 18” tall. no pictures have arrived in my inbox yet, but when i have them, i'll put a picture up here.

slow food turkey tasting

join the newly forming slow food columbia group sunday, december 16th at 4:30 PM for our first official event, a turkey tasting! we will be comparing an heirloom bird with a traditional bird. admission is free to this event, but guests should bring a side dish prepared with local ingredients. if you're interested in attending, post a comment below before 12/12 and i'll give you the details and location.

feed a cold, starve a fever

is that the old adage? i can't ever remember. whatever it is, i think they should add "feed the mourning" too.

there has been an unbelievable outpouring of love, support, phone calls, food, food, and more food to the reid household over the past 48 hours. it's like nothing i've ever experienced before. it has been totally great because the last thing we want to think about is what to eat. but it's just a really weird thing to experience. i've heard about the fact that people bring food over after a death, but i didn't really know it would be like this. so, yea, feed the mourning. good deal.

also, david's obituary was in the vicksburg post today:

G. David Reid


G. David Reid died Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007, at his residence. He was 53.

Mr. Reid was born in Jackson and moved to Vicksburg when he was 1 month old. He was a 1972 graduate of Warren Central High School and attended Hinds Community College and Mississippi College. He was an electrical technician with various companies and, at the time of his death, was an employee of IGT. Mr. Reid loved his family, music, movies, animals and laughter. He was devoted to his faith.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia Bane Reid of Vicksburg; a daughter, Erica Reid Gerdes and her husband, Fuzzy, of Chicago; a son, Christopher Reid and his wife, Katie, of Columbia, S.C.; his mother, Norma Reid of Vicksburg; a sister, Susan Mahan of Vevay, Ind.; and two brothers, Carl Reid of Flowood and Kyle Reid of Hattiesburg.

He was preceded in death by his father, George L. Reid.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Riles Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Jimmy Biedenharn, pastor of the Byhalia United Methodist Church in Byhalia, officiating. Burial will be at Green Acres Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 5 until 7 p.m. Wednesday at Riles Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, Box 1193, Vicksburg, MS 39181.

David Reid

Chris's dad, David, passed away tonight at around 9:40. I feel honored and blessed to have been among his family as he passed. He is so well loved.