2 unrelated thoughts

1) why can i not make pudding? i've tried numerous times over many years and always end up with soup. tonight i have a very tasty chocolate soup.

2) friday night i was at the mall to get my hair cut. as i was walking through the parking lot i was walking behind a boy who was probably about 10 years old. he had no shoes on. i guess "no shirt, no shoes, no service" isn't a policy in south carolina? or maybe it just depends on if i was entering in the lexington county or richland county side of the mall.

ny, again!

i've been absent from the blogosphere for the past 2 weeks because i was out of town again. i was in a wedding in good ol' teaneck, nj over labor day weekend. i was honored to be able to stand for* one of my closest friends, anthony. it was pretty cool how they did the wedding- they had 2 women on his side and 1 man on her side.


here's the bridal party. standing next to me is another great friend from nyu, maria. i'd not seen her in over 4 years. you may guess that anthony is one of three sons in his family. his twin brother was his best man and his younger brother was also an attendant.


the married couple exiting the church

it was great to catch up with many of my nyu crew at the rehearsal and dinner on friday, and at the wedding on saturday.


maria and anthony at rehearsal dinner (where the food was so delicious!)


around the table at the rehearsal dinner: me, my sister rachel (who did a fantastic job with the 2nd reading), heather (the bride), anthony, maria, paul, and dierdre.


melissa and baby ann at the wedding reception


it was awesome to meet maria's kids.

in addition to the wedding festivities, we got a few bonus visits with friends. the first visit was with andy, erica and ariel. we met them for lunch at a cool cafe in williamsburg, which was even cooler because i used to live in w'burg. it was strange to see how much has changed in the 9 years (!) since i lived there.



andy had to take off to pick up his cab (yes, in addition to being a musician, he's also a cabbie) but we got to go thrift store shopping with erica and ariel which was a blast. we'd not seen ariel in 7 years so it was totally cool to see what a smart, funny, confident young woman she is turning into. there were 2 guys sitting in folding chairs on the sidewalk outside the restaurant we ate lunch at. they had signs that said "free advice" and ariel cracked all of us up when she walked straight up to them and asked advice on how she could get one of her arms to be more muscular than the other arm. they told her "life weights every day just on that one arm."



the last bonus visit that we had was with emily and her hubs, kevin. we met up for church at the new catholic center at nyu. the center we used to attend was torn down and now st. joseph's is the parish for the students in the village, so it wasn't too nostalgic for me going there. but when the president of the newman club got up at the end of mass and started talking about the thursday night activities they were planning and the fall emmaus retreat, i lost it. newman club was such a special and important part of my life for 4 years. and we brought emmaus retreats to the newman club. so it was really emotional to see that some small part of the legacy lives on. i would've talked to the president girl after mass, but i know she would've been like "who's this blubbering old lady." so i skipped it.

after mass we met up with melissa, tim, baby ann and my sis for dinner at cafe asean for dinner and dessert at rocco's. so good!



i have to give a big shout out to my sis for putting me and baldman up for the weekend. it was great to just hang out with her in a low-key and fun way! and thanks for taking care of us and supplying us with yummy food all weekend!




*when we arrived at the church on friday for the rehearsal the photographer asked me if i was "standing for the groom." i had no idea what she was asking.

roller derby

last night baldman and i went to watch our first every roller derby game (or bout as they call them). it was so fantastic! we saw our local team, the columbia quad squad versus the nrv from virginia. man, those are some tough girls. we took a few picts but they're not the most clear because of the constant action. but check it out!


the columbia quad squad are in black and nrv in pink. in this pict you can see the girl with the red helmet sneaking up the outside of the lane. she's what they call the jammer (and she's on the quad squad). she'll score points for her team if she passes opposing players. boy, was she a zippy little woman!


this is pretty much what it looked like the whole time. just a blur.


it's actually a fairly complicated game. you see the number of referees that are out there? it really takes some careful watching to see who is illegally hitting each other and how many people the jammers are passing.


here you can see the opposing team's jammer (with the star on her helmet) sneaking by.

the quad squad took the game. i think they have a pretty good record. but someone in the crowd told us that the other local team, the richland county regulators are better. we'll just have to check that out ourselves. i definitely think that the hubby and i will check out more games in the future.

cupcake

oh, cupcake. how i love you. thank you for opening a new store in our city. your delicious goodness is pleasing to my soul. here's to many more evenings of spending time together.

yoga

i went to my 3rd ever yoga class tonight. because my husband works at the university i can now go to one of the gyms and attend whatever classes i want. so two nights a week i'm trying to go to yoga. it's been great. i really like the focus on breathing and feeling good about yourself. and tonight's class really kicked my butt (which i know i need)!

and it speaks to how how small columbia is that at both classes this week i have known several people.

i found it!

a site to watch the new season of project runway! woot woot! well, it worked for episode 1, so i hope it'll work for the remaining episodes! we'll "make it work!"

sick day and movies

i left work early friday because i'd had a sore throat since thursday night (still have it, thanks for asking) and i just wasn't feeling too hot. before i went home i stopped off at the library and picked up a bunch of movies to keep me company while i was resting.

so i'm just going to say it. i watched the sex and the city movie and loved it. i laughed. i cried. i thoroughly enjoyed it. i've never watched an episode of this show in my life. ok, maybe i've seen one episode at some point. and it's not that i had a horrible opinion of the show. i just didn't think i'd like it that much. but you know what i really liked about it? these days we see woman always hating on each other. they're always fighting each other about something (usually men) and jealous of one another. i love that here is a healthy view of women in friendship. they support each other. they love each other. it was sweet.

i also watched cars, fantastic 4, license to wed, and we went to the theater last night to see district 9. cars was cute. fantastic 4-not good. license to wed-awful. district 9 was really good. but i had to stomach my way through not vomiting from the jolty camera.

they have lasers

check out my hubs and his sis on we have lasers!

an ode to trees

baldman was so inspired by the scenery yesterday that he wrote this little tune:

lake jocassee

yesterday we spent a day on a boat!

our friends, the dells, found themselves in possession of a boat for the day. well, actually it's a pontoon. but, same thing to me. anyways, they were kind enough to share their good fortune with us and some other friends. so we spent the day yesterday on lake jocassee in the way way upstate.

i can't tell you how much fun we had. it seems like it's been a really long time since i had such a completely enjoyable day. the weather was beautiful, the scenery was spectacular, the company was fabulous, the food...oh the food. yums. and one of the best parts, i didn't have to do anything. we literally just showed up on friday night and the rest was taken care of. what a treat!

thanks, dells et al. for such a great adventure! i'd be up for doing it again soon!

here are some choice shots, but you can see the whole set on flickr. and, please, no comments on those of us in bathing suits.


"the captain and maryann" with the rock wall behind them




the lake and mountains


hiking to and through waterfalls


dogwood sliding down a waterfall


one of the many waterfalls we saw


he's on a boat, motha' f'ers!


hiking the treacherous terrain up the waterfalls


zach and lindsay swimming


swimming by our fabulous pontoon

slow food fundraiser

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Food & Wine Tasting - Slow Food Columbia fundraiser at Terra Restaurant
When: August 13, 2009 6pm-9pm
Where: Terra, 100 State Street, West Columbia
Tickets: $30 for Slow Food members; $40 for non-members; couples rates
Buy Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/76464

Book your tickets today! We're so excited Terra Restaurant is hosting this Slow Food Columbia fundraiser. Food from Five Leaves Farm, Little Creek Plantation and Anson Mills will be featured with wine from Spanish Vines. Proceeds will go towards future Slow Food Columbia workshops, projects, events and other endeavors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my new obsession

seriously, y'all. i'm, like, obsessed with etsy. i've been going on there looking for gifts for other people and find myself just browsing for hours and looking at everything that i want. bad habit.

i'm not kidding, i love everything on the site and want it all. okay, not everything because i did find some seriously heinous things. but there's a lot of stuff that i really do love. and i want that.

yea for handmade stuff!

mom the kayaker

recently my mom and step-dad acquired a kayak. so apparently my mom has been going out every chance she can get and doing a little rowing on the bay. well, this weekend she completed her first race. check out my mom kicking butt!


the start of the race


there's the silver bullet pulling out into the pack


hmmm, is it just me, or is mom's kayak facing the wrong direction?


you go girl!


she finishes!

all pictures taken by my step-dad, jim.

sad farewll

so, did i mention that our somali family is moving? yea, after about 4 years of living in columbia, they're moving to kentucky. their dad joined them in the states a few months ago and i guess he wasn't thrilled with his employment options here. so he found what he feels will be a better job so they're taking off.

on the one hand i'm so proud of them for being able to seek out the best situation for themselves and being savvy enough to take care of their own needs.

on the other hand, i can't help but feel a little selfish and get mad that the dad is "taking them away from us."

so it's with half reluctance that we bid them farewell this week. baldman took the kids to franky's fun park in the morning on saturday and then we had a cookout in the evening. sadly, their mom had already left so we just got the kids (and some extended kids*) and their "aunt"**. we had a great time though.




nicole and the kids dancing to somali music


khadija killing at connect four


if anyone hangs out in our back yard, there must be s'more making


our family (minus hamido). from left to right: hawa, mohammud, khadija, ikra, me, and baldman in the back

best of luck, guys! you'll be missed!

*you can't hang out with somalis without extra kids being around.

**hawa is not their biological aunt, as far as i can tell. but she has helped raise them at least as long as they have been in america. they all came over around the same time. hawa, sadly for them, is not moving to kentucky. so we will still go over to help her out some.

trash reading

having not had a completely free weekend in weeks and with the husband out of town, last weekend i had a million and one things i wanted to do. rake and weed the yard, clean the house, go to the farmers market, make and can tomato sauce...

but i nixed all that and sat like a lump while i plowed through twilight. i had received this book as a birthday gift more than 3 months ago and had almost forgotten i'd had it. until our visit with friends last weekend when sara was completely absorbed in finishing the second book and moving on to the third. so i thought, you know, i just need to read it.

and read it i did. all weekend long! i loved just sitting and being engrossed in a book. i've not done that in a really long time. and i have to say, i really enjoyed it! the first 1/2 of the book was a whole lot better than the second half. the dangerous romance, attraction vs. repulsion. all that stuff was great. really well written. once the book got on there were a lot of things that i was like, well now that doesn't quite make sense. but even still i found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next.

now i'm more than 1/2 way through the second book, new moon. and even though i'm not liking this one as much as i liked the first, i'm still really compelled to keep reading. but i find the main character, bella, to be awfully whiny and annoying. and it's totally predictable. but i still want to know what happens. so i'm off to read some more...

a hawaiian party, box stores, and africans

i'm just catching up a bit on posts. there's either been too much going on all at one time or not enough going on to really talk about. on the one hand it seems like our life is always full of stuff and we're always on the go. but on the other hand, it also always seems like i don't have much to say on my blog anymore. go figure.

but here are some fun things we've done lately.

this past weekend we went to charlotte to visit some friends. that was a good time and visiting them always reminds us that we don't get up there to see them often enough. we went to a hawaiian-themed party and watched a bunch of people get really drunk. can you tell your age when you enjoy watching other people get drunk more than you yourself enjoy getting drunk? perhaps. we picked up some styrofoam bras, lais and this cool hat as attire for the party. sadly, most people didn't notice the irony of my husband wearing a shark on his head.*



while in charlotte we also got to visit some of our favorite box stores that are not in our city. we spent like 2 hours walking around ikea (and we could've spent more!). and did a quick run-through at trader joes--enough to at least pick up some hummus and some other tasty treats. humm, good eatin' week!

this week we also went to a goodbye party for some of our international friends who have/will be leaving columbia soon. we've only known these folks for the summer, but they sure were great people. the party was a blast too. we ate some good food, listened to great music, danced, and played "big booty." you know it!


which one is the white boy and which is the african? their moves are so smooth, you can't even tell!


vieux and malik dancing


amina literally rolling on the floor in laughter while we played big booty


best of luck amina, jean mark, malik, vieux (sp?), and aigul!



*for those who don't know, my husband has a phobia of sharks. you read that right, not just a fear. a phobia. yet, at the same time, he is so often drawn to them as well...

one tomato

you may have noticed that i've not talked a lot about my garden this year. last year i took a bunch of pictures and talked a lot about it. but that's because we had a relatively successful garden last year. but this year's a whole different story.

this year i decided to do as much from seed as i possibly could do. so i used saved seed from fruits and veggies i'd gotten last year from the farmer's market and our farm share. and so far the only things that we've actually gotten fruit out of are the 2 things i bought as seedlings (banana peppers and green peppers). the rest (2 types of cucumbers, 3 types of tomato, watermelon and cantaloupe) have grown very well and given flowers, but they've not actually produced anything. this could be the seed, or it could be a lack of something in the soil. or because it's too hot. or because we've given it too much water. or too little water. you get the idea. the things i've read have basically said it could be anything. it's just so disappointing.

that is, until today. this evening baldman pointed out our very first tomato on the plant. so maybe things are changing? let's hope.

by the way, we've decided to move the garden next year to the side of the house where it will get a bit more sunlight. and we're also going to do it right this time by testing the soil. if we take a few bits of our dirt and bring it to the local extension agent they will tell us if our soil needs to have nutrients added to it to help the growing. so that should definitely help, i'd think.

weekend in nj/ny

baldman and i were fortunate to have been able to spend an extended weekend in new york/new jersey this weekend. the official reason we were in the area was to attend an international social work conference. but the bonus was that we got to see some friends and family.

the conference actually turned out to be a bit different from what we were originally anticipating. turns out it was mostly for faculty and staff associated with social work schools to network and see what each other is doing in terms of international research, international field placements, and other things like that. like the troopers that we are, baldman and i made the most of it, distributing our cards and talking to as many people as we could. i think we came out of with some good information and a little more guidance on what we want to do. if nothing else, it gave us a little "fire under our butts" to continue to pursue the international goals that we have.

the conference was held here in jersey city. the view from the hotel was spectacular!



the conference was also only a few blocks from where my sister lives, so we got to stay at her pad. too bad she was out of town the entire weekend. we enjoyed her facilities, though. thanks, rach! and her dog, oscar, was even manageable!



we had one evening in glorious teaneck, nj and had a nice visit with some good friends. plus we ate awesome crispy tofu at a scrumptious restaurant! sorry i didn't take any pictures of that. :( we also got to see melissa and tim and meet their new daughter, ann. oh my! is she cute! it was amazing for me to see someone i know so well all of a sudden take on an entirely new role, parent! they're doing a great job of it so far. here are some cute shots i took during the 2 brief visits we had with them.











and here's a shot of baldman knocking ghost skulls in the ms. packman arcade at the vince lombardi service area off the jersey turnpike. we were killing time before we had to pick my sister up at the newark airport.

vote for erica and parker

i'll write about our extended weekend in nyc soon. but for tonight i need to urge you, friends, to vote for erica and parker as the best roommate of the year!

i'll just quote her to explain it.

Team Gerdes entered a contest at Apartments.com for Roommate of the Year in the "Purr-fect Pet" category. We dressed Parker up in some (though, not all) of her amazing costumes, and made a cheesy fun video of the two of us being dorks. The grand prize for the contest is what they are calling the "ultimate bailout package"--$22,000 (a year's rent, plus $10,000). If we won that, we would be completely out of debt--HECK YEAH! See our super special video here.

I AM NOW A FINALIST!!

So I need your help.
The next phase of the competition is voting-- the final say is 60% vote and 40% judges opinion. To vote, you have to create an account, but then you can vote once a day every day til August 2nd. Even if I don't win the grand prize, the second prize is $500, and they are awarding 4 second prizes-one for each category remaining after the winner is chosen. There are only 2 finalists for my category, so chances are good!!

So please help us out and vote! I appreciate it so much!
Thank you!

Special thanks to Ken Barnard, who told me about the contest. You rule, Ken!

so please, friends! help my sister-in-law get out of debt by opening an account and voting for her every day between now and august 2!

welcome baby ann

june 3 at 2:00 AM
7 lb 1 oz
21" long

congratulations melissa and tim!

*update: i forgot to mention that this picture is courtesy of bella baby.