off to pittsburgh!

we're headed out to PA today to kim and steve's wedding. also in our plans is my first trip to punxsy (yay!), eating italian food (mmm..), visiting with dave and maureen and baby owen (who's probably now considerably bigger!), going to the 'O' (Original Hot Dog Shop) for my birthday, and getting to see John and Linda's house for the first time :)
on the house update, we've turned in our apartment keys, but still have many many boxes to unpack! loving the neighborhood though :)

A Marriage by Michael Blumenthal

You are holding up a ceiling
with both arms. It is very heavy,
but you must hold it up, or else
it will fall down on you. Your arms
are tired, terribly tired,
and, as the day goes on, it feels
as if either your arms or the ceiling
will soon collapse.

But then,
unexpectedly,
something wonderful happens:
Someone,
a man or a woman,
walks into the room
and holds their arms up
to the ceiling beside you.

So you finally get
to take down your arms.
You feel the relief of respite,
the blood flowing back
to your fingers and arms.
And when your partner's arms tire,
you hold up your own
to relieve him again.

And it can go on like this
for many years
without the house falling.

hip hip hooray!

we spent the weekend with cassie and mike, had a wonderful time :) cassie and i did some dress shopping (sorry, those pics are passworded until after the wedding!), we of course spent time in the parks, and even were able to take them downtown orlando and to winter park! it was a busy busy weekend, but it was so great to see my sister- i wish all our families could live so much closer! i'll just keep holding out for a "beam me up scotty" machine for christmas i guess ;)
in other news, we have our house!!! closing went off without a hitch (thanks sarah!) and lastnight, nate and i celebrated by using the new grill (thanks john and nina!) for a tasty dinner of hot dogs and beer :) is there a better way to celebrate? i think not.
i can't even describe what it felt like to back down the driveway and think, wow... i live here!
john (nate's dad) will be here tonight to help us pack and move which will be a huge help. tonight, nate's going to cut the grass while i clean the house - tee hee :)

escrow: e-s-s-c-r-o-e

when i was in 5th or 6th grade, i was in a spelling bee (as i'm sure many of us were!) in my memory, i was doing pretty well.... until ... they rolled out with the word "escrow"
.
.
eh? es-wha? i'd never even heard of the word and i certainly didn't know how to spell it. turns out, i overcomplicated it. it's quite phonetic. (i don't think the above is how i spelled it, but i know it was incorrect!)
with that in mind, we close this friday, which is incredibly exciting :) escrow and all. cassie arrives on wednesday, we're headed to a better than ezra concert wednesday evening, wedding dress shopping thursday evening, mike arrives on friday morning, then nate and i will sign more papers than we ever thought possible! we're planning a minimalist bbq on friday evening with mike and cassie before showing them the orlando sights all weekend :)
next tuesday, nate's dad arrives to help us move- which is going to be an incredible help! we're trying to get organized to he doesn't arrive to a total mess! :)

my new favorite travel website

is www.kayak.com - it searches all the other sites and i love the search functions :) try it out for your next trip :)
in other news, we had a wonderful time in PA! i posted pics a few days ago. if i could spend every morning of my life on the porch of the river house, i would! it's so nice waking up there- and this weekend, it felt like fall! kicked up my pumpkin cravings again (i was just starting to get into a key lime groove down here in florida!)
more later, but right now, i'm going to bed!