new lens!

so i sped home today (shhh.. nate if you're reading this, i'm just kidding- i drove 10 under the ENTIRE time) because my new lens was waiting on the porch! so far, i love it! expect crappier pictures from me until i get used to it though - it's a fixed lens meaning i can't just zoom in and out to change my outlook, i actually have to step forward or back ;) that'll take a bit to get used to.


also, it's capable of a really shallow depth of field meaning that i can get all fun and artistic with what's in focus and how blurry i want the background to be ;) here's one of the first pics i took.. and guess who? cleo!!

but i also got nately to cooperate when he got home from work ;)



also, nate's been a fantastic 'dog dad' lately and not only been brushing cleo's teeth but is also the only person that can get away with trimming her nails, as he did tonight. and here are the results ;)

oh! i also posted pics of our flower bed handiwork from this weekend, i'm sure nate will post in length about it soon ;)

my black but sometimes green thumb

so i've been successful keeping all of our patio plants alive. and we've had so-so luck with the flower beds we've been trying to keep up with. but for the life of me, i couldn't keep ANYTHING alive in our window boxes. then i saw some fake flowers on clearance at michaels... and i couldn't resist. so for $10, i now have festive looking flowers that are always in bloom ;) in fact the other day one our friends even complimented how nice my flowers looked outside. so maybe they don't look as cheesy as i thought :)

besides, most people see them from this vantage point:

not this one, which definitely makes them look fake ;)

and another one..

nathan wants to know how i can 'be taking any more pictures of the dog that [i] haven't already taken.' but i still think she's adorable and a great learning subject :) that... and a very willing photo model when i have treats handy!

rules of the red rubber ball

so nate and i saw the author of the book named above last week. he was incredible! very cool what he has overcome and done with his life. it's a message i've heard before, identify what your passion is in life and do it. but the way he thinks about and delivers it is awesome :)

the book is very creatively done as well. he talks about blending the lines between work and play so that it's difficult for someone else to tell which it is you're doing :) he also had us tender our resignation as adults:



Adult’s Resignation
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again. I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&M’s are better than money because you can eat them. I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer’s day. I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all you knew were colors,
multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset. I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again. I want to live simple again. I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor, bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones. I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So . . here’s my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K
statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this
further, you’ll have to catch me first, cause . .
“Tag! You’re it.”

"Somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."
-Walt Disney

photos posted!

so i posted all the az pics from my camera :) still need to post the ones from my mom's camera. instead of using the shotgun approach this time, i sifted through the many i took, post-processed them, and then posted them :) nate's not so sure about this plan, i think he thinks i'm over processing.. which i may well be! i can't decide. for example:

straight out of the camera

and after i played with it a bit

i'm not sure i guess... although the first is the picture i originally took, the second looks more like something i'd want on the wall and in my memory, seems like the colors were that vivid, so i'm conflicted!!

philisophical arguments about photoshop aside, these are a few of my favorites:

my dad :) my brother austin actually took this picture and i made it black and white and burned (darkened) the edges.

my mother's delicious looking snacks!

my mom spotted this hollow tree trunk while we were waiting for marty and nate to try and free a deer (long story..)

and nate finally let me take a proper portrait - lots to learn about taking good portraits but i think he looks cute :)

oh and joey is one of my dad's two dogs ;)

how cute is joey??

i forgot my camera charger!

so we're in az this weekend and at the cabin surrounded by gorgeousness! but i forgot my extra battery and charger so i only have pictures from a few hours on the first day, the rest are taken on my mom's camera-- oh well :) we're having a great time just the same, it's topping out around 75 degrees during the day here which is fantastic compared to phoenix (112 degrees) or orlando (in the 90s for both temperature and humidity!)

happy labor day eve!

life's a bowl of cherries!

yaaaaaaaaawn....

getting sleepy ;) random thoughts commence!

so i've been thinking about changing my e-mail. at first when gmail came out, i thought it was cool that i got a fairly common word (breeze) with no numbers as my e-mail... but i've since changed my mind. i get all kinds of genuine personal e-mails intended for others and i also get a whole lot of spam. although gmail is pretty good at figuring that out, i'm thinking about switching to firstname.lastname@gmail.com but we'll see! yes, i'm a big enough dork to write a paragraph about my choice of e-mail moniker. is that how you spell moniker?

in other news, nately and i have had a fun week :) we went to see superbad last week (did i blog about that already?) it was HYSTERICAL... although... if you don't have a high tolerance for extremely crude highschool boy conversations, i don't recommend you see it ;)

we also went to 'taste the nation' a benefit for second harvest (a charity for hunger). it was fun :) i got a new dress and we got to try food and wine from many of the area restaurants. they also had a silent auction on many items, but we didn't win anything that we bid on.

nate's also been hanging up several pictures that i framed so we finally have stuff on the walls! or at least more stuff-- it feels cozier already :) i'll have to take a picture of the living room, i think it can finally be considered finished!

this week's gone by incredibly quickly! very excited tomorrow is friday and that we're headed to arizona in the near future :) can't wait!!! sounds like we'll be spending most of our time up north since it's ridiculously hot in phoenix right now.

I Crave Your Mouth

by Pablo Neruda

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

the toilet saga continues (gasp!)

so if you read my below post, the story didn't actually end there, my post was premature ;) see the full story in pictures ;) and since the pictures could be considered less than interesting, i've captioned the whole thing for your reading pleasure.

http://FloridaIveys.smugmug.com/photos/sspopup.mg?AlbumID=3340993

my husband, the plumber

so when nate and i got married (and let me preface this by saying i love him just the way he is) i figured i was marrying a wonderful man, but that i'd be paying a repairman or specialist to fix most of the things around the house. because lord knows i'm not patient enough to do it, and nately didn't strike me as the handy type.
but lo and behold! since we've lived in our own home he's proven himself to be extremely handy and in possession of nearly limitless patience. he's done all kinds of little projects and is gaining skill with each one. his latest endeavor (if you will) was our leaky master bath toilet. 2 trips to home depot, 3 trips to ACE, and approximately 6 hours later- we have a repaired toilet! the man's skills know no bounds ;)

ah, home sweet home...

Angriest City in America?

"The winner -- Orlando, FL -- home of Walt Disney World, the so-called "happiest place on earth." Three other cities in Florida -- St. Petersburg, Miami, and Jacksonville -- make the top 10, with Tampa, FL trailing at 12th place.
New York City, infamous for its rude and angry citizens, ranks 57th.
Tha calmest city award goes to Manchester, New Hampshire. Portland, Oregon, the urban planning "Shangri-la", comes in at 96th place, just four above Manchester.
Men's Health magazine judged 100 cities on high blood pressure, traffic congestion, aggravated assaults, workplace violence and speeding tickets."

a collection of my favorite property photos :)

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.
-G.B. Stern

new blog title, new obsession

so lately i've gotten more and more into photography and it's got me thinking. seems like i'm always trying to get into something artsy. well, maybe not always, but if you recall the previous title of this blog (think back really far to yesterday) it was 'beware of poetry.' but i find myself reading and writing less poetry and taking pictures instead :) so state of flux it is for now.

oh i also recently got photoshop 7 (thanks drew!) which has contributed greatly to the blog changes :)

happy birthday to a whole lot of decade turners and more!

off to PA!

and a photo from last week :) makes me want to go watch the movie!

i'm in gryffindor!

i'm finally picking the harry potter series back up :) i'm almost done with book 5, then plan to read 6 & 7 right after that :) nate and i are also behind on the movies, we're getting ready to watch 4!

bloggity bloggerson!

cassie's here and we're all getting ready to head to the beach :) it's definitely hot enough! i've been posting pictures from all our adventures, most recently from last weekend, we went to mgm studios and epcot with ian, ben & sam. it was a good time :) sam even let me borrow her lens while we were at epcot, so if you're wondering why i took so many pictures of singular items with blurry backgrounds... that's why, i was playing with it :)

for example:



a few weeks ago, nate and got to go on a cruise for work (yes, i know how ridiculous that sounds) :) we were really excited to be able to go on the same one this time! we did quite
a bit of data collection and got some time in to have fun too :) we went looking for the queen's staircase in nassau, but unfortunately we thought we couldn't find it and stopped looking when were just a block away! we also spent time at nate's favorite, castaway cay- the beach we were on was almost entirely empty and extremely shallow! as evident in this picture:

that's pretty much the last few weeks :) AND... next week we're headed to pennsylvania for the Big O Party- a celebration with nate's family and all of those turning a decade this year. and my mom and my sister will be joining us so i'm really excited to show my mom around connellsville and pittsburgh (cassie's already been a few times). AND we're going to get to spend some quality ghoon time as well, we're looking forward to seeing little o and his ghoon parents :)

happy birthday gram!!

living green!

so nate and i have been trying to make changes in how we live to better conserve the environment. thought i'd share many of the things we found simple to do ;)

• we've been running our dishwasher on air dry and light wash and only when it's full


• we programmed our thermostat to better suit our schedule (i.e. let it get warmer during the day while we're working, and cool it down while we're home) and since we live in FL, 78 degrees has become the 'new cool.' to help out with the less cool air, we're using our ceiling fans more often.


• we're steering away from bottled water (takes a lot of resources to package it), we're lucky enough to have good tap water here.


• we're unplugging power 'vampires' like our TV or other devices that pull power even when they're turned off.

that's a start of our list so far! more to come :)

i'll take a coffee, black.

so i used to drink my coffee blonde (healthy dose of cream) but recently i've started drinking it black. like the ella fitzgeral song ;) nathan had poured me a travel mug but we were out of cream so instead of using milk (gross!), he left it out altogether so i could add cream when i got work. i drank it all morning before i realized i'd never added cream, so i thought i'd try it black.
seems odd i guess because the way you take your coffee (2 sugars, black, with cream, or even not at all, etc.) is in my opinion part of the basic description of someone. so am i a different person now? i guess no more than if i dyed my hair, right? ;)

hi!

i need to blog about our last couple of trips (nashville and sanibel were both fantastic!) but i'm currently preoccupied with painting :) john (nate's dad) is here helping us paint and nate and john have been busy! they've finished the kitchen and the dining room in a lovely green color of my choosing :) i updated our pictures page with the latest -- next is the living room :) i'm so excited to have paint on the walls! gives me a bug to decorate everything :) now i want to pick art for all our walls -- and i love this print done by rodney white -- but not sure if i'd be overdoing the green in my house!

in the details

i want to tell
her about the postcards under
my windshield wiper, the day spent
surrounded by books (my dictionary
too). the way your shirt sleeve
gets damp but i keep my hand
there for the whole movie anyway,
i want to tell her about mixing pancake
batter at 2 a.m. and how you send
me words, save me words, love
my words. she should know that when
you told me you weren’t leaving, you
tightened your hand on mine just slightly
and i thought how no one (not even
me) has ever stayed.

i wrote this in march after nate and i had just started dating :) i discovered it in a notebook in a box in the garage recently so thought i'd post it.

we're headed to nashville this weekend to visit laura and drew-- nate and i are flying out together on friday afternoon, then i'm heading home sunday evening and nate's staying for a few days for the iie conference. i'm really looking forward to spending time with laura and drew, and time in nashville :) the may trip has become a yearly pilgrimage for music and tasty american beer :)

other than that we are deeply in love with our screened in porch and have spent most of our waking moments sitting on it. the weather has been in our favor, nice and cool in the evenings. this past weekend we spent a lot of time in the yard/porch making it a nice little haven. nate's project was pavers for the screen doorstep, which he did a fantastic job with. my project was lots of foliage and flowers for the porch and reviving the flower bed that was almost entirely destroyed by porch construction.

while i was kneeling next to the reed grass in the flower bed i heard a rustling which i've gotten used to given all the lizards we have around, but then saw a 4 foot (at least!) black snake shoot our from behind where i was working. needless to stay i screamed bloody murder and ran in the opposite direction. put a serious damper on my gardening but after prompting nate to poke around with the end of the rake, i was satisfied he didn't leave any friends behind and finished off my planting!

that's it for now :) hope your week is going well!

summer in florida and the living is easy :)

our new porch is in! we've been out here every night since they built it on tuesday. i've posted updated pics on smugmug of the whole process :) i also posted pics from our trip to PA for music weekend which was a fantastic time- we were all sad to leave.
we did get to share connecting flights with laura and drew which was really cool :) we met up in cincinatti at the starbuck's airport, and one the way home, we flew through atlanta together, so that was a nice way to prolong the trip a bit :)
nate's dad will be coming to visit and help us paint at the beginning of june which will be great - not only for painting help, but also for a definite date to get painting! left unchecked, i think i would paint the entire house various shades of green, but i'm trying to branch out a little :) i think the living room will be blue, the kitchen 'asparagus' green, dining room undecided, guest room a goldish color to match reds and quilts, our bedroom a nice sagey green, the guest bathroom a bright green, the study.. no idea, the extra bedroom... maybe tan? and our bath i haven't figured out yet either!
i want to buy all kinds of palm trees this weekend to turn our porch into a tropical oasis :) we also want to catch a good sale on a chaise or double chaise lounge- we have a couple of chairs and a loveseat, but as we'll be spending a lot of time out here reading we want to be able to lay out :)
i think that's it really... work's been pretty crazy busy lately, but hopefully i can get that under control soon enough. tomorrow our department has an all day team building event scheduled at one of the parks so that should be a nice way to spend a friday :)
have a great weekend!

and congrats to jilian and todd :)

saving the earth...one piece of junk mail at a time!

so i just joined greendimes.com -- it's a service that aims to reduce the junk mail you receive by 90%. takes about 8 weeks to take effect, so i'll keep you posted. it's $35ish dollars per year but they plant a tree for every new membership and if i can save at least a few trees by not receiving ridiculous amounts of credit card apps, that would be awesome ;)

hi grandma!

i've been a total slacker on the blogging front... but i'll do better soon ;) i promise :)

We Are Virginia Tech

by Nikki Giovanni

“We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech. "

thoughts and prayers are with you hokies.

cassie's okay...

still getting updates on all the other blacksburgians... what a horrible tragedy.

been getting the most updates from this site: www.collegiatetimes.com - VTs newspaper.

pictures!

are up to date, even including some from our visit with john, linda, and ross :) as usual, i've overdone it when taking pics of events (this time spectromagic and the castle and fireworks).

popping in to say hi!

quick hello :) had a wonderful time with cassie and are now enjoying visiting with john, linda, and ross -- they're having a (hopefully) wonderful time pin trading and running around disney :) more later -- have a great week!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

The Evening Star

by Louise Gluck

Tonight, for the first time in many years,
there appeared to me again
a vision of the earth's splendor:

in the evening sky
the first star seemed
to increase in brilliance
as the earth darkened

until at last it could grow no darker.
And the light, which was the light of death,
seemed to restore to earth

its power to console. There were
no other stars. Only the one
whose name I knew

as in my other life I did her
injury: Venus,
star of the early evening,

to you I dedicate
my vision, since on this blank surface

you have cast enough light
to make my thought
visible again.

ghoons (and the baby) in ghoonlando!

we had a wonderful weekend visiting with dave and maureen and their adorable son owen ;) we spent time doing all things we hoped to do, visiting, cooing over the baby, seeing a bit of the parks, and just in general catching up :) and nate and i also got a parenthood preview ;) we were sad to see them go-- nate especially catches a case of homesickness when pennsylvanians come around, but we'll see them soon up north ;)
speaking of which, we have two trips planned, one to pennsylvania for music weekend (april) and the other to nashville to visit drew and laura (may) - i am really looking forward to both!
and visitors to florida continue with cassie arriving on friday (epcot, shopping, wine bars, oh my!) and linda, john jr., and ross arriving just after cassie leaves on the following friday :) we expect to be entertaining ross with a lot of disney and wii :) should be a great time!
also, the screen porch will become a reality hopefully mid-april, the permits are in process as we speak!
that's all for now i suppose :) don't want to jinx it, but nate and i have been pretty good lately about biking/walking in the evenings, especially with the recent DST shift (yes arizona, the rest of the country experienced a time change recently).
k, i'm off to play the sims for a bit ;)

my work anniversary

was march 6th :) i can't believe it's been an entire year! the day snuck up on me actually, and when all my co-workers piled into my office to congratulate me and present me with my one year service pin -- i was completely surprised!
annivesaries and milestones are a great time for reflection and since i started working here i've thought a lot about what's different in this role verus my previous role. there are many many differences on the surface, but what i have really enjoyed are the differences in how i feel about my job. i enjoy working for a company that makes decisions that i agree with, decisions i would make for myself. maybe i have a one year rosy view, but i really enjoy all of the intrinsic reward programs they promote. pats on the back and verbal praise are common and much appreciated from my end! so i guess what i'm getting at is that i'm happy with my decision to change career paths, and happy that it's worked out even better than i hoped it would :)

what exactly we do at disney..

i forgot to post this awhile ago, but our department made a video about what it's like to be an industrial engineer at disney and what kind of projects we work on :)

http://www.iienet2.org/media/disney/flowplayer.htm

it's a pennsylvania football weekend

well, sort of ;) lastnight we watched 'invincible' the true story of vince papale and how he earned a spot with the philadelphia eagles.
today, we're off to find ben roethlisberger (omg i spelled it right..you know how i know? it's written on the t-shirt i'm wearing at the moment) and hines ward at espn weekend at disney mgm studios :) we got to see ben yesterday filming nfl live which was pretty cool. today we're armed with all kinds of steeler's paraphenalia and a camera in hopes of getting an autograph :)
after that, helping out at the iie regional conference job fair, then we're hopping on a chartered bus for a dive bar crawl in celebration of several of our friends birthdays. should be a good time :)
tomorrow is a bowl-a-thon for charity and hopefully a bike ride if it doesn't rain! then we get to head back to work monday to get some rest ;)

just another manic monday...

just kidding, it's not manic :) we had a nice weekend -- cleo got fleas! so we spent saturday chasing down various products and banishing them from both dog and house. we're proud to say she's now flea free.
in other news, i think we're definitely building a screened in porch! nate's calling to give the go ahead today but it will still be 4-6 weeks for all the plans and paperwork and then building. we're really excited :) i think we'll enjoy the florida weather even more with a nice breezy bug free room to sit in.
that's all for now, have a great monday!

drive by blogging

on our way out the door to work, but just wanted to quickly say we had a great time on vacation, relaxed, etc. and then i came down with something but have now recovered :) happy friday!

and we're off! (well, almost)

we leave friday evening (tomorrow!) for our hilton head vacation :) i'm really really excited about it. we'll be staying on the island and i have an entire list of restaurants to try! nate and i plan to ride bikes, read books, stay in, go out and have a wonderful time :)
we're leaving right after work tomorrow and i can't wait!
hope everyone is having a good february (brrr!) hear it's much colder than here in most of the country. nate misses shoveling snow and curling up in a nice warm house, but i'm the one whining when it drops into the 40s around here ;)
check out the picture page for pics updated through last saturday and get ready for a whole boat load of pictures from hilton head ;)

just six days until my one year anniversary :)

just call me inspector gadget!

so for nate’s birthday, my mom got nate a pair of heart rate monitors, one for him and one for me (mine’s pink!) she had given my stepdad one for christmas (she had one already) and they kept track while we went hiking and other various activities. i admit, i didn’t understand what the fuss was about or how it could be a motivator, but it really is!
to try them out, nate and i headed out on the bike trail yesterday- what a gorgeous day it was for biking too! we strapped up, and headed out. my bike is now accessorized with the following: headlight and tail light, pink streamers, bell, mileage computer, and now the heart rate monitor on my wrist. seriously. so anyway, the monitor knows when i’m working too hard, not hard enough, or just right! and beeps accordingly. i lovingly refer to it as the little beeotch on my wrist. we rode 14 miles and i burned 820 calories! stats like that appeal to the industrial engineer in me, i’m hooked ;)

things i can't get enough of lately :)

1. my husband of course!
2. orbitz mojito gum... mmm...
3. looking at pics of beautifully decorated rooms
4. thinking about our trip to hilton head next week
5. family visits! bring 'em on :)

The Americans Who Voted For George W. Bush Wish to Return Their Television.

by Wayne Gladstone

AMERICA: Yeah, hi. I bought this TV here about two years ago and I'd like to return it.
BEST BUY CLERK: Oh, yeah. I remember you. You loved this TV. What happened? Is it broken?
AMERICA: Broken? Well, I'm not sure. It's just that ... hmm. How do I explain?
BEST BUY CLERK: Well, what's the problem?
AMERICA: Well, I've heard there are other TVs? Like a smart TV that knows when your shows are on and can record them for you? One that can be programmed with parental controls and specifications.
BEST BUY CLERK: Yeah, sure, but you said you didn't want a smart TV. I remember. I tried to sell you that. But you said it was "haughty." That it gave you too much information—like it couldn't make up its mind. You wanted a "simple" TV that you could relate to.
AMERICA: Yeah, I know ... but this TV. I mean, sometimes I'll put it on a channel and it just stays there. No matter what. No matter how bad the channel is or how much I want something different. I even changed the batteries in the remote control and banged on the side of the set, but nothing works. It's like it's ignoring me.
BEST BUY CLERK: And that's a problem?
AMERICA: Well, yeah.
BEST BUY CLERK: But I thought you liked that. I remember. You were all like, "I like a TV that knows what it wants."
AMERICA: Well, yeah, that's true. And don't get me wrong. Sometimes I like what's on. I'm a very spiritual person, so sometimes I like the religious programming, but that can't be all there is.
BEST BUY CLERK: But that's why you bought the set. We watched The 700 Club together right in this showroom. I pointed out that all these other TVs had that channel, too—they just don't show it all the time. And you said you weren't sure you could trust a TV that didn't show it all the time.
AMERICA: Yeah, I remember ... Well, it gets confused.
BEST BUY CLERK: Confused?
AMERICA: Yeah, like sometimes—and this is going to sound crazy—but sometimes I'll tune in to one show and it will show me another.
BEST BUY CLERK: What do you mean?
AMERICA: Well, like the whole fall schedule. Supposedly, there are options out there. I've been reading about all these new shows in my local paper, but I can't watch them. I'll ask for Heroes and suddenly I'm watching 24 again. Just like that. It switches one thing for another like I'm not going to notice the difference.
BEST BUY CLERK: How long has it been doing that?
AMERICA: Well, in truth, probably from the beginning, but I didn't notice at first. I'm a pretty big 24 fan. And, also, I only just started reading the newspapers. They're mostly opinion, you know.
BEST BUY CLERK: Yeah, but, you see, nothing's really changed. Your TV's not broken. This is exactly what you wanted. You just changed your mind. I'm sorry, you can't just—
AMERICA: Oh, I know! It uses way too much energy. My utility bills are through the roof! Wasn't there some warranty that this TV would keep those costs down?
BEST BUY CLERK: No. Not in the warranty. It was in the advertising. They're not the same thing. TVs use energy. That's just the deal.
AMERICA: So there's nothing we can do?
BEST BUY CLERK: Sorry. Nothing now. There was talk of building more-efficient TVs. Ones that are better for the environment. That would free us from our reliance on our enemies' resources. Technology that might even provide a new source of revenue for America and create jobs for its people. And then we ...
AMERICA: Whoa, whoa. Easy. You're giving me a headache with all that.
BEST BUY CLERK: Yeah, that's what you said in 2000.
AMERICA: Oh.
BEST BUY CLERK: Yeah. You take care, now. But mark your calendar. Big sale coming in '08.

our dining room.. before & after :)

so i put some pics on the picture page of nate installing a light (actually, three lights!) one of those was a new dining lamp, complete with dimmer! the pics below are of the house with the seller's stuff (on the left), and how it looks now -- we still need to paint, but don't know what color just yet.

happy groundhog day!

phil did not see his shadow, which means spring is just around the corner! news that doesn't have quite the same impact down here in FL... ;) we'd maybe rather have 6 more weeks of winter, but i'm not complaining! :) nate and i made the traditional groundhog cookies lastnight and brought dozens in to work to share- here's some pics of us making all the little groundhogs!

it may be a small world, but i wouldn't want to paint it!

well we've been having a wonderful time with nate's family, the arrived this past weekend after spending a weekend running around disney with us, they've headed to venice beach to hopefully catch some sun :) the house seems too quiet without them around!
the weather in florida has been beautiful, sunny, and warm until this week- it actually frosted lastnight and we had to turn the heat on this week! they've been calling it "the big chill" - that's right, bundle up your children, the high is only in the 50s this week! :) but i have to admit, i'm spoiled, i really didn't appreciate that 40 degree weather as i ran from the car to work this morning!
cleo is spoiled as ever, snuggling with all the family members that will offer a lap and ruling the household. she's warming up a bit to florida grass but is still pretty wary of how high and thick it is.
nighty night everyone ;) and glad to see everyone is blogging again, missed the updates!

what's a wii?

wii is a video game system :) but it's way cooler than the usual one because the controller is motion sensitive -- meaning you can wave it like a tennis racket when you're playing the tennis game. it's awesome ;)

wii got a wii!

so for nate's birthday and each of our valentine's, we are now the proud owners of a wii! definitely lives up to all the hype. we've been playing it since we got it sunday morning and it even inspired us to finally setup our wireless router. which is why i'm now blogging from the living room watching nate play wario smooth moves. it's pretty entertaining ;) we've been playing golf, bowling, tennis, etc. all from our living room and really enjoying it :)
our party was a great time- at least, the two of us had a great time! we were up late and drank and ate until our heart's content.
friday nate's family arrives, beginning with alan, mickey, dan and hopefully matt! then satuday, john and nina arrive :) it will be a fun and activity filled week for sure :) we're looking forward to showing them all the things we've discovered around property since the last time they were here.
speaking of things we've discovered, we had some great italian food lastnight at a new place called Guso's- i only mention it because we've found great italian food is harder to come by then you'd think around here!
that's all for now! hope you're having a great week so far :)

happy birthday dad!

saturday... and the living' is easy...

good morning! so after having a great time in blacksburg, i came back to florida, and guess what? (this part's exciting) i missed florida while i was gone, it was good to be home! i always gauge how well i'm adjusting to a new place by how i feel when i come back from a trip. for example, last spring, after spending weekends in atlanta and nashville, i was all but depressed returning here. but this time, i missed the balmy winter weather and the latin music spilling from nearby car windows, it was good to be home :)
in other good news, nate and i accomplished some things around the house! we can now fit no less than 1 car in our garage! AND we also replaced some outdated light fixtures in the house for what we think is a world of difference in the entry, dining room, and hallway :)
in celebration of all our housework (that is to say... work around the house) we're having a bunch over tonight for a party :) all the more motivation to make it loook like we've lived here for four months now! :)

in the 'burg :)

so i'm in blacksburg! well, technically i'm in radford at the moment (in a morning sun brightly lit coffee mill). here to see cassie and everyone else (call me!) :) lastnight, we went almost directly to the cellar (did not past go, did not collect $200) but we did stop by boudreaux's first for a little 1/2 price wine. mmmm... wine tastes so much better when it's 1/2 price.
it's odd being back here- both in that when we were wandering around downtown lastnight i feel like i'd never left and also because i've been gone long enough for changes to spring up all over the place. new buildings, new faces. there's someone at the counter at the moment that i recognize and he recognizes me too because he said hi but i can't rememer.. ah! he just came over, he's the owner of my favorite restaurant, sal's :)
psst.. sal's has a new high class restaurant downtown roanoke called nico's so if you still live in the area, check it out ;)
coming back to somewhere you've left always spawns some level of ...well pondering i guess. reflection... thinking about why you left and where you've gone since then. and i have to say, i'm quite happy :) which in no way negates the incredibly soft spot in my heart for this part of southwest virginia. but it's been a big year of moves and new starts and a new name ;)
more later!

An Open Letter to My Blogger Friends Who Have Seemingly But Not Definitely Abandoned Their Posts (pun intended).

Dear Blogger Friends Who Have Seemingly But Not Definitely Abandoned Their Posts (pun intended):

I know we've all been busy lately, but c'mon! Are you really leaving me to read nothing while on the internet but cnn.com? Checking my bank balance? Reading theknot.com when I got married almost a year ago? This is disgraceful Blogger Friends Who Have Seemingly But Not Definitely Abandoned Their Posts (pun intended)! Some of you haven't updated your blogs since last summer! Your URLs are wasting away in cyberspace, longing for an update... where have you gone? Have you opened up a myspace.com page and left me in the dark? Dedicated your time to macrameing pairs of denim shorts for next summer? I've not been that great about my own blog but I need entertainment from you people! We're down here in Florida with no link to your lives! I'll be forced to write personal e-mails in order to get updates! What is the world coming to??

Okay Blogger Friends Who Have Seemingly But Not Definitely Abandoned Their Posts (pun intended), quit reading my blog and go update your blog! I need reading material! I don't even care if it's good reading material so long as it's an update! Maybe post a new website to keep me busy with all this freed up time?

Sincerely,
Bri ;)

happy new year from bri and nate!

off to arizona!

nately and i celebrated christmas for the two of us tonight - it was great :) we wrapped all the gifts yesterday - santa brought me all kinds of good stuff (photography books, poetry books, 600-thread count sheets, a football, a bunch of random disney whatnots, and more!) i am totally spoiled this christmas and it's not even over yet!
our flight is tomorrow afternoon which gives us a bit of time to get organized (read: do laundry) and get cleo all packed up for her big trip to arizona! i'm excited to spend time in AZ, haven't been home since the wedding! big plans to take nate hiking, to rito's (our favorite mexican), maybe even sedona and/or flagstaff.
since i never post pics anymore on this blog, thought i'd include one from castaway cay- disney's very own island in the bahamas. as we were disembarking from the ship, they handed us eggnog and had carolers and fake snow -- it was pretty entertaining ;) so here's me with my eggnog and a gorgeous blue sky (i'm a bit blurry, but you get the idea). happy holidays!

my life in short

went on a 7-day cruise, loved it but missed nate like crazy! christmas for nate and i on friday, headed to arizona saturday, christmas with my family on christmas. work's busy but pleasant, FL is warm for this time of year!

back to junior high...

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

it's thursday already?

how did that happen? and it's the last day of november too! well our christmas tree is up -- he's so cute! we decorated with our joint collection of ornaments and it's lovely :) i need to amass wayyyy more holiday decorations than i have though, barely fills a room in the house!
tonight i'm making dinner for nately and then i don't know what we'll end up doing -- probably cleaning the house because the termite inspector is coming in the morning!
oh and i posted more pics -- TONS from our thanksgiving/christmas weekend in PA :)
i guess that's it... our weather here lately has been gorgeous -- it's even supposed to be in the 80s tomorrow! and tomorrow's an all day team building event, so should be a good day for it!

santa, the christmas tree

will be decorated tonight! nate and i got a real tree this year, which i haven't done in years :) i'm so excited! it's a little 4' baby - tonight he'll be all lit up and christmas beautiful!

take a look at the five & ten, glistening once again

with candy canes and silver lanes agloooooooooooooow! it's beginning to look a lot like christmas... :)
as always, we had a wonderful time in pennsylvania, filled with family, food and fun! i have many pics to post. we had thanksgiving on thursday (well, duh!), a little black friday shopping and put up the tree friday, and had christmas morning on saturday! it was great ;)
i have all kinds of wonderful christmas gifts to play with- and expect more pics from the new camera as i now have a bag to tote it around in!
all for now, i'm trying to blog more often -- stay tuned ;)

bri's list of exciting news

1. we're off to PA for thanksgiving (and christmas!) i can't wait!
2. i'm going on a 7-day carribbean cruise in december!
3. we're going home for 10 days to arizona in december!
4. it's the holidays :) i love the holidays!
5. the ghoons are planning a FL visit in '07!

have a wonderful turkey day, i'm thankful for so very much this year :)

Butterball Help-Line Help-Line

By Alysia Gray Painter

Q: A caller just said she forgot to baste every 10 minutes. I advised her to serve the turkey anyway. Was I correct?
A: Not at all. The turkey is merely the vehicle for the basting. In a recent poll, nine out of 10 people would rather sit down at the table and suck on the end of a baster full of buttery juices than gnaw at some dry old wing. Bad call.

Q: I just overheard my co-worker advising a home cook to truss the bird. I arrived late at the "Talk Turkey" seminar last week and missed the trussing segment. Can you advise?
A: Trussing, while not the chef's best friend, is that pleasant acquaintance you see about once a year and always have a compliment for. Trussing is legal in every state. Trussing comes from the word "truss," which means to truss, or tie string or put pins in a turkey to help it stay in a pretty poultrylike shape that is pleasing to the eye. Cooks must remove pins and string before consuming. If a caller wants to know if she should truss, you should tell her you only go around this crazy world once. Trust truss.

Q: Cinnamon or nutmeg?
A: Cinnamon is a nice spice people are comfortable consuming throughout the year, sprinkled either on toast or in a delicious coffee beverage. Nutmeg is a nasty, gritty substance that wants nothing to do with us in the spring or summer but demands our favor come November, only to disappear to the back of the shelf for another year. Why do we continue to accommodate this so-called seasoning? Nutmeg is a stupid jerk.

Q: I just hung up with a caller with the words "gobble gobble" instead of "goodbye"—was this appropriate?
A: No. Make sure you note that in your report to your supervisor on Monday.

Q: The vending machine on the second floor is broken and we're starved. Should we call maintenance?
A: Maintenance is home eating a proper dinner with family and friends. Go to the office kitchen and look in the cupboard behind the fridge. There will be a half-eaten box of Triscuits there, because every office kitchen in existence contains a half-eaten box of Triscuits in the cupboard behind the fridge. Triscuit dust is an acceptable snack when poured into a small paper cup and drunk in the manner of water. Do not use a straw.

Q: My boyfriend didn't care if I worked the holiday. Is our relationship in trouble?
A: Perhaps your boyfriend wanted to watch football unencumbered and without you fussing around with gravy boats and miniature marshmallows. If your boyfriend is a fresh-faced soap star who wants to move up to Broadway, look for him tap dancing his heart out in front of Macy's around 10:35 a.m.

Q: I've been answering calls from perplexed home cooks all day and I still don't know why we bother, really.
A: Everyone talks about the bickering relatives and the burnt yams, but few talk about taking a weekday to eat and nap and gossip with a sibling about another sibling. No one owns it. No focus group studies it. Just you and a mostly empty bowl of stuffing and no clean utensils, so use your fingers already.

pictures galore!

i posted tons of pics for you to feast your eyes upon-- enjoy :) they're in the october and november folders.
nate and i had a great weekend -- we spent saturday running errands and then at beer fest which was great fun :) then we went to see "the prestige" -- i liked it...but i don't know - it was odd.
sunday we had a tasty breakfast (thanks chef nate!) and then worked in the yard- pics of our developing herb garden, coming soon! we watched the steelers win a very exciting game (go willie parker!) and then had yummy hot sausage in spicy marinara for dinner and FINALLY got caught up on desperate housewives. all in all, an unquestionable success ;)

poem

we spent our first years
flying away so often. pulling
away from the earth together.
i want to be at home
with you. i want to soak
in the waters of our new life
together until our skin
is filled with wrinkles.

if dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts...

hola! como estas? i'm good -- and need a weekend from my weekend! we had a fun activity filled weekend :) friday we had some of nate's family and even extended family over for dinner... exact count? 16 people counting nate and i! satuday morning we spent with nancy and dick and granny and pappaw :) got to show them around winter garden a bit and eat at our favorite greasy spoon for breakfast.
the rest of saturday and sunday we spent with the glen sandusky family and had a great time :) water parks, epcot and animal kingdom, followed by a great seafood dinner :)
speaking of dinner, nate's home from work so time to eat!

cleo was a pumpkin this year!