mrsivey.blogspot.com

coming soon ;)

wedding pictures!

knock yourself out! :) katie and mark posted their best on their website -- i'll post the others en mass on floridaiveys when i get the chance :) yay :) i'm so excited! they're both incredibly talented and we're very lucky to have them as friends and photographers :)

http://redturtlephoto.smugmug.com/Weddings

online scrabble rocks!

well since nately and i are sadly separated by several state lines, we found a new activity! online scrabble! :)
it's nice -- now we can play our favorite game even though we're far far away :) three cheers for the internet!

new blog address!

set you bookmarks to mrsivey.blogspot.com sometime next week :)
thanks for the suggestions and votes, i decided to keep it simple afterall ;) and joey you guessed it, the advantage to up and changing the address is i get to hold on to all of the blog history :) so there you have it...

quick update!

just a quick update :)

• work? good!
• florida? good! loved venice beach :) (our mini-moon, more on that later)
• nate? back in va- looking forward to his happy return!
• cleo? good! uber-watchdog since her daddy's gone back home :)

thinking maybe mrsivey.blogspot.com since neither of the two mrs. iveys i know have blogs :) and then, to my mother's point, it won't be geographically specific! thoughts?

url change :)

i'm changing my url! bmonteverde is no longer applicable :) i can't decide what to change it to though... and once i change it, the old address will be immediately unavailable, so i'll probably post the new one and then wait a week once i figure it out :)
i like floridabreeze.blogspot.com, but it's not available. here are a few others i'm considering:

• breezeflorida
• breezyflorida
• breezeinflorida

sensing a theme here? i'm stuck on that at the moment, so my creativity stops there, but i'm open to new suggestions if you have any good ones :)

a wedding pic!!

mark sent us a teaser :) and nate's got a much better florida update than i do :) check it out

tomorrow is the other 'big day'...

my first day of work! nathan and i have been busy busy since we got to florida -- will probably have more time to write and update once he heads back to VA... :)
sorry i haven't updated wedding pics on the ivey site! i have many to post but should have time this week to do it :) no professional pics yet, but many great shots from friends and family!

packing up the car today!

well, after a few days back in blacksburg, it's time to pack up again! i'm headed down to florida starting tomorrow (for the lion's share of the trip), and then arriving in orlando tuesday morning, getting the keys to the apartment, and welcoming in the movers! i'm so excited.
nate will quickly follow, he'll be on a flight wednesday evening and will stay for just under two weeks! it'll be nice to unpack and spend some time with each other.
as for leaving blacksburg, i'm going to miss it so much! to be honest, i've been trying not to think about it (which, so far, hasn't been to difficult with everything else that's going on!)
okay, better get packing - my little corolla will be packed to the gills tomorrow morning!

new blog!

http://spaces.msn.com/floridaiveys/

for now i made this to post pics as they come in :) haven't decided yet whether or not to maintain my breeze blog as well :)

i'm married!

everything happened beautifully :) call me brianna ivey! i'm so excited to have nathan in my life, for the rest of my life! more later ;)

and we're off!

there's so much from this week i haven't posted about, we've had a great many surprise goodbyes and lastnight we had a wonderful time celebrating nate, monica, and danny's birthdays!
and now, we're off into the snowstorm to drive to charlotte and fly to phoenix! let the week of weddings festivities begin! :)

delta, could you cancel my flight?

bring me your tired, your poor, your unsuspecting of february fifth as the day of the superbowl. well – sunday proved to be an interesting day for nate and i (or is it me and nate?). we headed out from the hotel on sunday morning and headed to the airport trying to catch a standby flight (our original itinerary put us in roanoke at 7:30, one hour past the superbowl start). we arrived breathlessly to the gate at 10:30 a.m. only to find the 11:30 was entirely full- as was the 1:15 we also hoped to catch. destined for our original reservation at 3:25, we had a leisurely lunch and lounged around at the orlando airport before catching a connecting to atlanta. after arriving in atlanta, we found our 6 p.m. departure was delayed until at least 6:30, putting us in roanoke at the earliest at 8 p.m. after a quick conference on our best course of action, we headed to the delta counter to plead our case. we figured: better to see the entire superbowl while in atlanta then to see only ¼ of it from home. thanks to a helpful delta employee, we were confirmed on a 10:50 p.m departure to Roanoke, clearing us to watch the superbowl in its entirety from an airport bar. we snagged the perfect table and cheered the steelers to victory while welcoming various travelers to our table throughout the game (seahawks and steelers alike). all in all, it was a lucky end to an eventful trip :) go steelers!

orlando - city of sun? or crime?

we’ve been in orlando since wednesday evening and we’re finally back with a few stories to tell!
we spent all of thursday apartment hunting, solo in the morning, and then joined by a realtor on thursday afternoon. turns out most the area has gone ‘condo,’ converting once affordable rentals into overpriced shoeboxes for sale! so we were confronted with an unbelievable rental shortage. it was a ‘rent now or don’t rent at all’ situation. our last stop on thursday evening proved promising, we were all set to rent a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment.
back on friday morning it turned out the prices had increased considerably since the day before. we were disappointed, but we still put down a deposit to hold the apartment and the newly quoted price and then headed back out on our search.
turns out, we found a great alternative, also 2/2 that we absolutely loved (and less than one block from our original location choice!). we spent the rest of the day double checking our choice around orlando, but didn’t find anything we liked more. so we placed a deposit on our new discovery and headed back to the original choice to retract our money.
long story, i know – but it gets longer! when we told the first choice of our new locale we were met with “oh no.” curiosity killed the cat, and we said: “what?” after much prompting, the guy told us to check the crime reports, and then elaborated for me to “carry my keys as a weapon and park in well lit areas.” well, needless to say we were sufficiently scared into questioning our decision, so we headed BACK to choice #2 to see what was so wrong with it – and we couldn’t see anything. gated community – beautiful landscaping, screened in balcony, lake with center fountain, pool, jacuzzi complete with waterfall – what’s not to love? we circled around the community and passed a cop car. oh great i thought… it IS crime ridden. on our second lap, we noted that there was no uniformed cop, just a guy who appeared to actually live there. while i was on the phone panicking with my mother, nate hopped out to talk to the off duty cop.
turns out, the cop said the community we chose is certainly no worse than any others nearby (and was actually preferable to our original choice).
point is.. we’re not in blacksburg anymore. no more leaving visible valuables in the car, leaving my door unlocked while i’m home, in general casually disregarding common sense safety precautions.
i guess it comes with living in the city. it’s part of access to great museums, restaurants, attractions, and the shining sun. and although there are places that more than meet the compromise, we’re still excited about our move. it was a bit of a reality check, but we’ve recovered! we spent saturday looking for aspects of the city to be excited about- and we found them. after a quick starbuck’s breakfast, we headed out for some grove fresh orange juice, a fantastic lunch in the heart of the city, wandered around an eclectic downtown bookstore, mused around a central market, explored a lakeside park, mini-golfed in the sun, and then headed to an out of the way mexican dinner with a live mariachi band followed by a trip to pleasure island, a short shuttle trip from our hotel. said in a few words, we found some redeeming qualities in the city that reminded us of our excitement in moving there :)

happy groundhog day from fl!

just wanted to wish a quick happy groundhog day to you all before we head out into orlando :) we have a nice view of the city (albeit flat) from where we're staying and are all ready to get out and explore! first stop? coffee!

off to sunny florida!

but just for a few days :) nately and i are headed to florida this evening to do some apartment hunting :) wish us luck! we'll be back sunday, hopefully in time for the superbowl*!

*go steelers! :)

cleo has left the building! (and state!)

well, after the shower, we decided it'd be best to send cleo on ahead to arizona with my mom since we'll be spending so much time out of town until we head to arizona ourselves. my mom and and i successfully drugged her and put her in a carry-on sized soft carrier- she was none too pleased with it, but my mom got her home! watching my mom try to stuff a drugged, but still unwilling dog back into the carrier post security check was amusing to both me and the rest of the airport! now that she's in arizona, my mom's sent a few pics of the spoiled spoiled thing -- she's made acquaintance with sadie (my parents' english bulldog) and has taken quite well to marty :) pics below of her trying to weasel her way on to sadie's bed in the car, and enjoying spending time with marty while he's working :)

i'm not dead, just busy ;)

i have a multitude of blog updates (wedding shower, cleo's latest adventures, leaving for FL today but not for good, etc.) stay tuned ;) i'll try to get them posted today!

wedding shower festivities

wow... if i spelled that correctly, the word 'festivities' has a considerable amount of vowels in it... anyway... cassie and others hosted a wonderful shower for me this past weekend! complete with a custom handmade shirt and a room filled with pictures of nate and i :) (oh, and mango mimosas... who could forget those? mmmm...) it was a fun afternoon with many friends and faimly - we even played a few games! pics below include the best of the toilet paper brides (laura was the hands-down winner, complete with bouquet!), sarah winding me up in tp, my lovely sister and mother with their very own bridezilla, our adorable cakes from our daily bread!

yippity do dah yippity a :)

yes, i know that's not actually how the song goes :)
so today, my mom and sarah s. and ashlea all arrive in town! i'm so excited -- can't wait to leave work and spend time with them :) cassie and my mom have been stealthily planning all sorts of activities for my shower tomorrow- i can't wait!

it's been a busy but very enjoyable week :) lastnight we headed to kabuki to celebrate the birthday of mr. lang - it was a great time! we were 18 strong, so waited forever for a table, but that just made us all the more excited about the food!
a few shots of saki and a birthday cake later, nate and i headed home to watch desperate housewives. last time he was out of town, i rented the first episodes and got addicted- now nate, cassie, mike and i all need an almost daily dose - we are speedily working our way through season 1!

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.

just a little bit blog crazy ;)

i've been quite the dedicated poster of late. i think it's because nate and i have high speed internet now :) no more dial-up! so i played around with the template again...and since this one has cool looking block quotes - here's a quote for you:

the future is pure luck. but once it arrives, it begins to seem explainable. not long afterwards, it could hardly have happened otherwise.

-james richardson

long posts overwhelm you people

*yawn* it's a quiet day at work today. the most excitement i've had is when maintenance came up here with the janitorial staff and argued over when to wax and strip the floors (they are big time dirty). oh the office drama.
nate and i had great company for dinner lastnight in celebration of our new living arrangement, if i hadn't soaked jilian in tomato dressing, it would have been perfect! (sorry jilian!) but she was a very good sport about it and dinner went on ;) nate makes a fantastic spaghetti sauce with hot sausage and habaneros - mmmm - looking forward to eating the leftovers!
this weekend? kicking off the weekend early tonight with a date (hint: he's tall, handsome and has a penchant for the steelers), then karaoke/housewarming tomorrow evening at cassie and jenn's, then hopefully not coming in to work on saturday, and sunday is katie's b-day get together :)
i feel like i need to make the most of all my time since florida is looming closer and closer - i'm going to miss blacksburg so much! (and 4 years ago, i never thought i'd say that) :)

long but worth the read :)

A Voyage Apart in the Same Direction
Everything I have learned about brides and grooms.

Since the author of The Spiritual State in June is overscheduled with weddings, this seems to me an appropriate time to tell you everything I know about brides and grooms. I have watched a parade of them enter my office, enter the holy state of matrimony and enter the world as its newest family. Marrying these people (and naming babies) has made every fractious and interminable committee meeting I have ever attended seem to be merely a minor annoyance.

At first, 33 years ago, I used to ask everything and listen to everything brides and grooms said as they gurgled out their love for each other. Now I ask less and listen and watch more. This is what I have learned. I am sure that other preacher folk have learned the same things from touching other springtime loves. Do they touch and do they laugh? This is the single most important question I ask about people in love who want to get married. They are all I look for now.

Brides and grooms who do not touch each other, hold hands, sneak a kiss, touch the other’s cheek or brush away a stray lock of hair, but instead sit apart as if they were riding on a bus alone, they have no chance. Of course I cannot know this for sure, but I am sure nevertheless. They may stay married for 60 years but they have no chance of ever having even a single day of true passion and true love. I am not looking for physical lust. What I am looking for is the sheer joy of touching the one you love. You can learn this lesson in death as well. We bury our loved one in the ground and put a marker stone on top of the grave so that we can touch the stone that touches the earth that touches the one we love. Touching is the way love begins and it is the way we try to keep it from ending even in the face of death. Once, at a funeral I was told by a couple’s children that they used to walk in on their mom and dad slow dancing together in the living room. I was entranced by that image because I know that in dancing with the one you love, it is never the music that matters, it is always the touching.

I also watch to see if the brides and grooms sitting across from me laugh at anything. I am definitely funny enough to deliver some sure-fire laugh lines, but even in the absence of my own humor, I watch to see if they find certain things about their wedding, or their relationship or the world in general so silly, so amusing, so ironic, so joyous that they just cannot hold back a giggle or a laugh. Unlike touching, which is an obvious consequent of physical passion, laughter is not. Laughter can be caused by many things, love is but one of them. But for me, laughter reveals trust and joyousness, humility and helplessness in the face of love. In older people who have not been Botoxed, I read their wrinkles for signs of laughter. A life of laughter puts laughter wrinkles at the corners of your eyes (crow’s feet be damned--they are laughter wrinkles). Conversely, a life of frowning imprints itself on your face with frown wrinkles between your eyebrows. You can pretend to be an optimist or a cynic, but your wrinkles will always give your real self away. When brides and grooms giggle and laugh it shows me that they are genuinely happy to be with each other, and that they are similar enough to find the same things funny.


I will marry people who do not touch, and I will marry people who do not laugh, but if they don’t touch or laugh I try to talk up the virtues of the other rabbi down the street or I tell them that on the day of their proposed wedding I suddenly realized that I will be in Patagonia herding penguins. If you are in love, or if you are watching your child or grandchild or friend fall in love, take my advice: don’t listen to anything they say about their love for each other. Just watch and listen and ask the only questions I ask: “Do they touch and do they laugh?” It really is all that matters.

One final thing. I always ask brides and grooms what they love about each other, and then I listen to their lists. If the list is filled with qualities that will not fade in time, I know they are OK. If the list is filled with self absorbed or outward attributes, I use the penguin line. And if anyone dares borrow the line from the movie Jerry Maguire, “he completes me,” I threaten them with bodily harm. Mostly, all brides know what they love about their fiancés. Mostly, all grooms know what they love but have no real ability to put it into words. That’s OK with me. Men are limited creatures. Except for David and Dana. When I asked them what they loved about each other, Dana said, “Once we were driving over the Triborough Bridge on a blazing hot summer Sunday. There was a guy at the approach to the toll booths selling newspapers. David bought all the guy’s newspapers and told him to go get out of the sun.” Then David said, “Dana teaches kindergarten, and one morning she was sitting on the bed naked working out some project with little stick-on letters for the kids. She would not go out for breakfast until she finished her lesson for her kids. When she was finally finished, she got out of bed and walked away from me to the bathroom. I saw that a little silver 'A' was stuck to her butt.” They both asked me why I was crying, and I just could not explain that in my line of work you just don’t hear perfect answers that often.

When I marry brides and grooms who have passed the laugh/touch test and who love things about each other that have nothing to do with their abs or boobs, I bless them. Rarely, and only if they are like David and Dana, I will share with them these unpublished words about marriage written by D. H. Lawrence from the Modern Library edition’s introduction to “Lady Chatterly’s Lover”:

So it must be: a voyage apart in the same direction. Grapple the two vessels together, lash them side by side, and the first storm will smash them to pieces. This is marriage, in the bad weather of modern civilization. But leave the two vessels apart, to make their voyage to the same port, each according to its own skill and power, and an unseen life connects them, a magnetism which cannot be forced. And that is marriage as it will be when all this is broken down.
And then, to myself, as they are dashing off to eat the little hot dogs with the crusts around them, I offer a personal prayer, also in Lawrence’s words: “May you have the courage of your tenderness.” That is my prayer now for all the brides and all the grooms who are just beginning their voyage apart in the same direction.

P.S. Please let me know where to send the gift.

June 3, 2005 by Marc Gellman
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

oh the things we do for love... ;)

check out nate's blog for more pictures of the steeler's latest mascot... :)

and...the... last... box...

is out! yippee :) we finally finished cleaning out our apartment at 10 p.m. lastnight, so that's done. thanks for the encouragement gram and julie :)
in other news, my mother has purchased her 10th mother of the bride dress and is still on the hunt :) so hopefully 1 in 4 of the recent batch will work ;) i've recently decided that dress is much more difficult to chose than the bride's dress- there seem to be a lot more rules involved. apparently, the only rule i have to live by is "whatever the bride wants." just kidding, i've been trying not to act like that ;)
my next task is unrelated to the wedding, it's finding a place in florida! :) very exciting - i have this HUGE metropolitan map of orlando and an apartment guide: let the games begin! i (and hopefully nate) will be flying down to FL in january to apartment hunt so that will be fun :)
okay, back to work! happy monday!

i've got one foot out the door

of my apartment, one foot in nate's apartment, and one foot in florida! oh wait.. that's more feet than i have! but that aside, i'm in the moving process! i've not even been able to sleep from worrying about getting everything packed, worried about what's left to do for the wedding, getting everything organized to move to florida, etc. but lastnight, we got a good portion of my room packed up and my wonderful fiancee found a storage spot to keep everything and is moving a few boxes out there this morning so i slept soundly lastnight. it's so incredibly rare that anything keeps me from sleeping, so i was pretty unhappy about it ;) but all's rolling now :)
happy thursday! this week is going by so fast!

merry christmas!

:) hope it's happy! :)

oh there's no place like home...

...for the holidays :) only a night's sleep, 8-10 hours of work, a 5 hour drive, and 6 hours of airline travel stand between me and my arizona! :) if you've read my love poems to arizona, you know how i feel about this. in fact, even if you haven't! today i am struggling with an urge to pack for my trip, pack my apartment, and tie up wedding loose ends that remain (ahem, invites). but instead, i'm blogging. shhh... don't tell anyone.
here's a poem for your holidays, i'm off to do something productive!
ps: i saw pride and prejudice and loved it! mmm....mr. darcy.

Christmas Dinner by Kenn Nesbitt

Fruitcake.
Candied yams.
Mincemeat.
Roasted hams.
Eggnog.
Turkey legs.
Aspic.
Deviled eggs.
Gravy.
Dinner rolls.
Take some.
Pass the bowls.
Jell-O.
Christmas punch.
Cookies.
Munch, munch, munch.
Stuffing.
Gingerbread.
Whoops, I’m
overfed!
After
such a load,
feel like
I’ll explode.
Guess I’m
gonna die,
so please
pass the pie.

nately and i are FL bound!

yippee :) i can finally post this on my blog since i let my company know last friday. it went better than expected- they were disappointed, but on the whole, happy and excited for me :) and telling them two months ahead of time was a bit of a gamble, but fortunately, they appreciated the advance notice.
so i'm moving in march, right after the wedding, nate is joining me in may/june as soon as he is able to wrap things up in blacksburg.
in other news, cassie headed out saturday for arizona (just a day behind due to weather delays).
nate took me out ot dinner for graduation on friday evening :) it was a great little restaurant in pearisburg with tasty tasty food called "The Bank." saturday, after i dropped cassie off in the wee hours of the morning, i headed to work and then nate and mostly laid around and relaxed. then holiday party, then sunday i started packing! cassie and i won't be roomies anymore, but we'll be neighbors instead! i cleaned out my closet and papers and whatnot to streamline the whole moving process :)
long post! but lots going on :) hope your week is off to a great start!

let it ice! let it ice! let it ice!

or at least i think that's how that song was written in southwest VA, it's crazy weather today around here!

hot sausage and snow (or lack thereof)

good morning! it's monday, the first of three 4-day weeks that remain. actually...come to think about it, including my scheduled vacation, that means this week is 4 days, next week is 3 days and the following week is 3 days! yippee :) i graduate this friday (double yippee!) in wedding news, we have: site, ceremony music, dress, bridesmaid dresses, photographers (red turtle!), d.j., cake, wedding bands, officiant, invitations (designed, but not sent out)... is that it? still missing: florist, decor, specific hotel blocks....and tons of other things i'm sure. can't believe christmas has come so quickly! quick fact- i used to oppose the shorthand "xmas" because i heard someone say "it takes the christ out of christmas," so i always cringed a little at the abbreviation. come to find out, the abbreviation actually has christian orgins, representing the greek letter chi for the first letter in christ. i'll probably still write it out though.. most abbreviations bug me anyway!

earth to blog... are you there?

i've been neglecting my blog! :) mostly in favor of theknot.com. nate and i can't wait until we don't have a monstrous wedding to plan and can just be married! :) not that it isn't fun, because it really is! there's just a never ending to do list... so anyway, that's basically what i've been up to -- i'm graduating next friday (yippee!) and working most every weekend lately- this weekend, holiday party and maybe some scrabble and other relaxing activities :) brrr...it's cold outside!

freeze out!

this morning, on my way to work, i passed a guy driving a convertible with the top down. 9 a.m., saturday morning... 30 degrees? craziness! my mom grew up in indiana and as teenagers, they would buy ice cream in the winter then drive around in the car with the a/c blasting and the windows down -- they called it a freeze out :)

thanksgiving at the ivey's

cassie, nate, and i trucked up to connellsville, pa for thanksgiving this year :) we had a great time! we spent thanksgiving eating, drinking and being merry. the next few days we spent in pittsburgh and around the house. sunday we swung by staunton, va on the way back to have dinner with marty (my stepdad) since he was in richmond for business this week ;) pictures of our adventures below! :)

get your fork ready...

only today's presentation and one final exam stand between me and my degree! nate's taking me out for my graduation dinner to a mystery locale. i've been trying to guess, but can't!
wedding planning is coming along, i relaxed a little after we booked the site, but i need to get back in gear- less than three months to go! my wonderful and talented cousin volunteered to make invitations so i'm excitedly awaiting the samples in the mail :) i'm also anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dress in the mail...time will tell if ebay comes through on that one!

i just can't resist making websites :)

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/BriannaMonteverde&NathanIvey

we have a date! and a place!

february eighteenth at six o'clock in the evening at the tempe mission palms :)

a little poetry for your monday

Remembering Him Dying by Katrina Vandenberg

It was like his teaching her to ride a bicycle
in the driveway that fall, him calling out
*I've got you*, which meant he planned to let go
any moment. He made her try again,
again; she crashed the yellow Schwinn
into the elm, cried and called him names.

If she could have looked back and kept her balance
the last time he shoved her out of his hands,
she would have seen him griefstruck, still, shrinking
as she wobbled from his shadow, into the sun-dappled road.

every modern couple needs a cheesy website...

and here's ours!

winter weather makes me want to curl up on my couch

with company :) lastnight we had some tasty stew (concoction i'm told) for dinner which was perfect for the evening of wind and cold and some rain. nate and i did more wedding planning. i was teasing him because i looked up invitations and wedding favors while he researched luxury motor coaches and antique mailboxes :) it was funny. surprisingly, both of those items are relevant...
cassie (affectionately: maidzilla) has been off behind the scenes planning all kinds of festivities :) i'm excited to have all our friends and family together to celebrate- it's great fun :)
headed to charlotte on saturday to do some shopping- can't believe we're mostly through november ALREADY! craziness.

i may be inconsistent, but not all the time!

it's monday ;) wedding planning is coming right along, i have a dress, and i picked bridesmaid dresses, hoping to narrow down the reception site by tomorrow :)
in other news, i don't want to be one of those people who has nothing to talk about but their own wedding! cassie and i watched some great movies this weekend, an old favorite 'man from snowy river' and a new one 'sisterhood of the traveling pants' which i had read and really enjoyed. movie was good ;) need to watch it again since we watched it with a big group and you always miss stuff in that case.
had a tasty cabo fish taco lunch on saturday, it had been awhile and since it was unseasonably warm and beautiful all weekend, i tried to spend most of it in the sunlight! even it it's at bollo's in the window while i'm working on my research paper... ;)

last night's report

chicken peshwari: tasty.
bridal magazines purchased: 6 or more.. i lost count
actual decisions made on wedding: 0
votes for cleo as ring bearer: 2 (me and nate's dad) :)

bri owes the blog

the following items:

1. gram - the okra was yummy! i didn't quite do it justice though, it didn't taste quite like yours :)
2. halloween pics - i still need to post them! i will... someday
3. ummm... seems like i had more things...maybe not.

i'll stop numbering, it's too rigid for me since i can't ramble on and on like i can in a paragraph. tomorrow i'm the guest speaker for SME (society of manufacturing engineers) to talk about kaizens. should be pretty cool :) i have my presentation all set-up with plenty of pictures for show and tell :) oh yeah, and free pizza. nothing like bribing people with pizza to come listen to me talk. but SMEs bribing them, not me. what was i saying about rambling? :)
in other news, did anyone else realize it's november? yeah, no kidding! thanksgiving is in two weeks- this is absolute ridiculousness! i need to start christmas shopping!
on tonight's menu for dinner is chicken peshwari tikka masala- or something like that. bottom line, i've been looking forward to it since sunday when i bought the stuff to make it!

how it happened

check out nate's blog for his version, here's mine:

we'd been ring shopping and talking about getting married, but couldn't seem to find a ring we liked (i developed very strong opinions on rings and got pretty pick in just a few weeks!) so with all of that going on, we headed to daufuskie island this past weekend for the wedding of a friend of nate's. it was a beautiful island just off of hilton head, only accessible by ferry. saturday we were hanging out on the beach and nate and i were about to walk down to find dolphins :) he walked up and said "i brought scrabble in case you want to play." to which i responded "we're going for a walk! why would we play scrabble?" so he opened up the scrabble board and it said "i love you, will you marry me" and i was shocked since i didn't even think there was a ring and he had a little jewelry box in his hand. so after i recovered from shock i said "of course i will!" turn out the ring was his nana's ring and is very beautiful. shortly thereafter, we ran down the beach to tell nate's parents and call mine :) so that's the story :)

nina, john, me and nate

after we had cleaned up a bit...

i'm engaged!

pictures and details to follow :)

fall forward, spring back? spring forward, fall back?

that little saying never works for me because it seems to make sense both ways to me :) luckily, nate remembered about the clocks or i would have been an hour early to work this morning!

:)

The Silhouette Release Party will be held Wednesday, Novemer 2nd at 7:30 at the Easy Chair Bookstore. The bookstore is located at 101 Main Street (across from the Tech bookstore.)
The event will be a celebration of the Fall 2005 magazine for the staff, contributors, and anyone else that would like to come. So spread the word about the party!!
DJing live will the John Gaskins (www.boogieburg.com)
You are encouraged to bring friends....and your own beverage (if you wish!!!)
We hope to see you there.

pumpkins of the carved variety

so it's thursday :) all this cold weather makes we want to spend my evenings sipping hot soup, curled up on my couch under a quilt ;) which is what my plans are for tonight- staying in! lastnight, we had a great girls' evening carving pumpkins. walmart had them for a flat $3 each! cassie and i bought 2 for carving lastnight, and others to carve friday. cassie made scarface X, although we suspect she's lost count and he may actually be scarface XII. mine is a happy snaggle tooth pumpkin, with a heart nose and triangle ears stuck up on toothpicks :) we had a great time drinking wine and giggling as we were up to our ears in pumpkin guts. fun stuff :)

in other news, the silhouette release party is approaching! it's next week, on wednesday. anyone is welcome to come, will be at easy chair bookstore. i have 2 poems in the fall issue, so i'm very excited about it :)

"Poetry is the imagination. That's what you use to overcome the rational and the irrational. You can't live a rational life so you live a life of ritual; you live a life of routine. If you find no answers living in the routine, you find answers in the imagination, and the imagination creates forms for you, and answers you can live with. I am not the same person now as I used to be."
-David Ignatow

halloween festivities!

happy birthday cleo!

cleo is 3 years old today- which is approximately 21 in dog years- bottom's up! Seems not so long ago, she was just a baby!

did we skip fall?

it was sleeting and spitting ice here yesterday, and this morning, there was ice on my windshield! cassie and i had even had to put the heat on, and it's not even novemeber yet! craziness! but i have to admit, i did kind of miss that brisk cold feeling, AND i get to wear my cool new green coat, so that is also a bonus :)

after lunch amusement from dave barry

i love my daily calendar, even when i forget to change it for days on end :) here's today's jewel: "I have come to accept the truth: I am overweight. This is not my fault. My body, without consulting me, has been converting the food I eat into fat, as opposed to something I can actually use, such as toothpaste. The problem with human bodies is that they're based on a design that is eons old. Our bodies believe that any day now, we'll have another Ice Age, and there won't be any more food, so they need to store up lots of fat. So while our brains are in the twenty-first century, wanting desperately to lose weight, forcing us to eat salads and engage in bizarre cult activities such as 'Pilates,' our bodies are back in 12,000 B.C., thinking: 'I made six more ounces of fat today! Bring on the glaciers!'"

home again home again

jiggity jig! just got back yesterday from arizona, home to a midterm and group project! but the midterm's behind me now and the project is well underway. in other changes, i have a new role at work, still a supervisor, but at our other building (my home base actually, where i started out 3 1/2 years ago) for a different product line. should be challenging- new set of issues, new set of people. i'm excited to see what happens.
arizona was great. will post pics when i download them, but nate had a wonderful time (at least that's what he tells me) and my family loves him of course :)
short week this week for me -- have a good one :)

off to arizona!

where it's sunny and breezy and shopping abounds! back next tuesday... :)

and because i missed my dog on my trip...

here's a pic of her from a few weeks back :) cassie and mike were kind enough to let her hitch hike in their canoe ;)

photos from disney :)

nate and in the magic kingdom

the view from italy in epcot

the view from the hotel at night...

view from the hotel in the day time!

back from the happiest celebration on earth!

well we're back from a great trip to florida :) we spent friday running around the magic kingdom and epcot, i got to ride my favorites (pirates of the carribean and the haunted mansion) as well as some new rides (winnie the pooh and gm's test drive- very cool). we rode the monorail and drank wines from around the world. will post pictures soon :)
our hotel was beautiful as well, the "boardwalk," made to feel as if you're in atlantic city done in 1930s style. other highlights were a five-course oh so tasty meal and fireworks courtesy of the magic kingdom.

it's my birthday and the theme is food!

woke up with pancakes :) then some tasty chinese takeout

my birthday eve!

well my favorite holiday is approaching! no, not my birthday, halloween :) one of many reasons october is my favorite month. it's time for all things pumpkin. thanks to my early birthday present from mike, i have a new pumpkin candle, hope to soon have pumpkin ice cream too :) i also have a request in to nate to go galavanting out in the country and pick pumpkins off the vine. but aside from pumpkins, tonight is an unofficial fall kick off: libra fest! we had our first cold snap, got down in the 40s lastnight! felt good though to snuggle under warm covers with a cold draft from the window.
i used the word pumpkin no less than six times in this post.

edumacation

so i submitted my application for my masters degree this morning. and even though at this point, i've become fairly apathetic about getting my degree, i couldn't help but feel excited about receiving it :)

man this thing is accurate...

if i took it next week, would it know i was 25?

You Are 24 Years Old

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

What Age Do You Act?

i have a new bike!

thanks to my grandparents and other cash contributors :) thanks in advance gram! if you missed my earlier post about my new bike, scroll down a bit and check it out. now i only have to name it! i want to call it the blue stallion, but nate thinks it should be the blue phoenix (raleigh's logo is a phoenix). i rode my first five miles yesterday, and am taking it up to PA this weekend for some more riding time :) have a great weekend!

my stepdad is way cooler than i am

and he started a company that makes videos on how to maintain your very own dirtbike ;) so although i know no one who even rides them (and especially someone that not only rides them, but also read this blog) i had to brag on him a bit because i'm impressed ;)

American Smooth by Rita Dove

We were dancing — it must have
been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution as we moved
into the next song without
stopping, two chests heaving
above a seven-league
stride — such perfect agony
one learns to smile through,
ecstatic mimicry
being the *sine qua non*
of American Smooth.
And because I was distracted
by the effort of
keeping my frame
(the leftward lean, head turned
just enough to gaze out
past your ear and always
smiling, smiling),
I didn't notice
how still you'd become until
we had done it
(for two measures?
four?) — achieved flight,
that swift and serene
magnificence,
before the earth
remembered who we were
and brought us down.

it's a train! it's a plane! it's a comfort mountain bike!

so i asked for money for my birthday this year to pool together and get a new comfort mountain bike :) nate and i have been looking at them for months now, and i previously had my heart set on a gary fisher capitola with a step through frame-- but east coasters was being a bit of a pain. so we headed up to roanoke today to cardinal bike shop-- they had 20 times more bikes on the floor to look at. i looked at several, and tried two. the one below is exact color and frame and everything- what do you think? i've read reviews and it sounds pretty good :) and it's comfy with a nice big 'saddle' (when did we stop calling them bike seats?). it's a 2006 raleigh venture 3.0 (i wanted pink, but i'll settle for obnoxiously bright powder blue) :)

the ultimate in laziness

so nate posted pics from the wedding :) so if you just can't stand the wait for me to post some, go to his blog!

i'm boring my grandma...

...by not keeping up with my blog! so here i am again ;) school is clipping along -is this week 4 or 5? spent the weekend in PA to see laura (nate's sister) and drew get married :) lots of fun, beautiful wedding! it was a 3-day event complete with all the festivities, not complete of course without either a tube or canoe trip on the river (or both!) i'll post some pictures, and per my mother's request, they will not be "all piled up so i can't even see what her wedding dress looks like" (in ref. to anna's wedding photos). speaking of my mother, she's in hawaii -- she called me last night to inform me that her hotel room overlooks a 26,000 square foot swimming pool in the shape of a flower. you've got to be kidding me. but my time will come :) they sound as if they're having a wonderful time sunning and funning which they deserve :)
in other news, libra (extravaganda) fest is up and coming, so if you live in blacksburg or within driving distance, you shouldn't miss it :) five of us libras have birthdays within 10 days of each other, so we celebrate in style for the occasion(s).

hurricane nate!

well, i was waiting expectantly for hurricane nate to make headlines this year, as "nate" was the slated title for one of the atlantic storms to hit this year. but when i saw headlines go from katrina to ophelia, i realized nate didn't make too big of a splash ;) but here's his history and moment of glory (ending today on 9/10). in all seriousness, it's a blessing he expired at sea.

spam! and not of the mystery meat variety.

i had to add a "comment verfication thingy" (yes, that is in fact the techincal term) to prevent comment spam (which i've effectively deleted now on several occasions) sorry for the extra hassle when you leave your witty comments ;)

whoever said mondays were bad....

must never have been to free popcorn night at the lyric ;) below are some pictures i've been meaning to post from volunteering at the lyric selling concessions :)



me and nate - matching aprons - awwww.

mmmmm... popcorn.

nate, monica, marylou, me, and jamie.

last picture from that evening

don't they look spooky? :)

i'm pretty sure fictitional is not a word....

but my professor seems to think so! ah well, no point in telling her now. i'm flying through my week! only 2 more days to go, and then a 3 day weekend followed by a 1-day work week and a 5 day weekend! doesn't get any better than this :) nate's sister is getting married next friday, so we're headed to PA to celebrate. which reminds me, i have a lot of cookies to make! has anyone else (that's NOT from pennsylvania) ever heard of cookie tables at a wedding? gram? have you? curiously awaiting lots of cookie table stories, :)

i'm guilty...

of some serious blog neglect! as a result, i've given the blog a routine face lift and a new post! so let's see... there was a wedding, there was a long drive, there was a six month marker, a first day of class, second day of class, last performance, turn of a year... that might cover it! the more detailed version is that life has been a whir of activity in the past few weeks since nate and i came back from indiana. cassie and i went to see the skeleton key last week, which i definitely recommend. won't keep you up at night type scary, but definitely one i didn't figure out for myself! hollywood had to hand it to me :) work's been unbelievably demanding lately and school started this week! i'm taking two classes (last two!) which are: dynamics of organizational behavior and training system design. both seem very interesting from the initial class. i'm excited :) more later, headed to the cellar to see paul clark's last performance!

what an extra couple of dollars will get you

so yesterday, i headed to vintage cellar to purchase a bottle of wine for a friend of nate's. when i found the particular one i was looking for, it was one or two dollars more than i can buy it for at kroger, two doors down. i put it back on the shelf and was about to head to kroger when i thought, eh, no big deal, i'll just buy it since i'm already here.
turns out, they happily gift wrapped my bottle of wine in all it's glory :) so my extra two dollars was well worth the personal touch!

wedding photos

i'm too lazy to post these individually ;) but you get the idea!

everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

i'll post the wedding pics soon ;)

no really, it's friday

thank god i'm on vacation the next two days! don't think i could take anymore :) actually, i'm exaggerating-- knowing i won't be here for the grueling all weekend-long physical inventory is a comforting thought ;) thanks anna and rick for getting married this weekend so i have a reason to head out of town! :) nate and i are headed to purdue tomorrow. i'm very excited to take him to all my old haunts (read: the coffee shop). just a short 8 hour drive back to my old alma mater, and
in other news, i finally got to hold miss malayna :) very exciting ;)
counting the hours until i'm off for 4 whole wonderful days...

billy don't you lose my number!

still a bit skunky...

but getting better :) i've taken 4 or 5 showers since saturday night and i still get the occasional skunk whiff from my own skin while i'm sitting here at work! cleo is better as well, but she's in need of another bath (1 qt. of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 c. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of liquid soap) to battle the skunkiness. aside from that, i'm working on getting back into the swing of things! nate and i went for a looong walk yesterday, from my apartment to downtown and back. still trying to live a healthier lifestyle although my attempts are intermittent at best! the poem below (if you can make it through the entire thing!) touches on the subject :)
in others news, congrats to my mom who has a new job! she'll be setting up a new home office and selling baby shoes to boutique stores :) she's very excited!
okay, better get back to work :) i'll post more siesta fiesta pics later, there were some great ones :)

Aubade by A.R. Ammons

They say, lose weight, change your lifestyle:
that's, take the life out of your style and

the style out of your life: give up fats,
give up sweets, chew rabbit greens, raw: and

how about carrots: raw: also, wear your
hipbones out walking: we were designed for

times when breakfast was not always there, and
you had to walk a mile, maybe, for your first

berry or you had to chip off a flint before
you could dig up a root: and there were

times when like going off to a weight reduction
center you had a belly full of nothing: easy

to be skinny digesting bark: but here now at
the breakfast buffet or lavish brunch you're

trapped between resistance and getting your
money's worth and the net gain from that

transaction is about one pound more: hunting
and gathering is a better lifestyle than

resisting: resisting works up your nerves
not your appetite (already substantial in the

wild) and burns up fewer calories than the
activity arising from hunger pangs: all in

all this is a praise for modern life — who
wants to pick the subrealities from his teeth

every minute — but all this is just not what
we were designed for, bad as it was: any way

I go now I feel I'm going against nature, when
I feel so free with the ways and means, the

dynamics, the essentialities honed out clearly
from millions of years: sometimes when I say

"you" in my poems and appear to be addressing
the lord above, I'm personifying the contours

of the onhigh, the ways by which the world
works, however hard to see: for the onhigh

is every time the on low, too, and in the
middle: one lifts up one's voice to the

lineations of singing and sings, in effect,
you, you are the one, the center, it is around

you that the comings and goings gather, you
are the before and after, the around and

through: in all your motions you are ever
still, constant as motion itself: there with

you we abide, abide the changes, abide the
dissolutions and recommencements of our very

selves, abide in your abiding: but, of course
I don't mean "you" as anyone in particular

but I mean the center of motions millions of
years have taught us to seek: now, with

space travel and gene therapy that "you" has
moved out of the woods and rocks and streams

and traveled on out so far in space that it
rounds the whole and is, in a way, nowhere to

be found or congratulated, and so what is out
there dwells in our heads now as a bit of

yearning, maybe vestigial, and it is a yearning
like a painful sweetness, a nearly reachable

presence that nearly feels like love, something
we can put aside as we get up to rustle up a

little breakfast or contemplate a little
weight loss, or gladden the morning by getting

off to work . . . .

a mexican, a pinata, and a skunk

so i think it's fair to say that the mexican siesta fiesta was a success! the evening is better captured in pictures, but of course i'll also add my own synopsis. the night started off with more food that you can shake a maraca at, plenty of guacamole, shredded beef, bean dip, cheese dip, and tortilla chips to eat it with. offerings of other party guests included mas guacamole, watermelon margaritas (homemade!), 7-layer dip, and more! and of course, cassie, the birthday girl of the hour who had a tiara, but it wouldn't stay on her head. after everyone had arrived, we all headed to the garage to break the pinata! but after breaking the broom handle several times over, we broke out the big guns and used an aluminum baseball bat. after it STILL didn't break and the little plastic airplane bottles inside were breaking instead, we tore it open and all went at the goods. those with loot toasted and quickly consumed their prizes. after that we all headed back upstairs and cleo, the solo canine party guest, wandered outside and found something to chase. thinking it was the racoon that had earlier been on the porch, i went out to get her but just as she ran back to the porch and i grabbed her, cries of "what is that smell??" filled the house. turns out, cleo had rustled up a skunk and had been sprayed! her eyes were watering but otherwise it was just the HORRIBLE smell that made her the least popular party guest of the evening. after nate and i secured the walking stink bomb in the garage, we headed to the grocery store to gather all the ingredients from a recipe provided on the internet. nate patiently explained and re-explained why the situation was funny and not a complete disaster that my drama queen side was making it out to be! after we had washed up the dog and most of the skunk smell, my sense of humor returned and i watched an intense game of flippy cup take place. overall, it was a wonderul evening filled with lots of laughter and all things mexican (and a little skunk)! truly one to remember!

una otra dia en mexico

so far, my favorite things are the people and the food! i've had watermelon, papaya, and pineapple juice in the last few days, all deliciously tasty! lastnight, we again to the japanese consultant out to dinner, this time for chinese. and yet again, he terrorized the wait staff -- demanded a plate of vegetables used in the cooking and then gave instructions on how they should be prepared - received them, sent them back, and finally received what was considered to be on the borderline of acceptable! i also had a michelada, dos equis in a glass with a salted rim, mixed with lemon juice and some spicy stuff - i liked it :)
tonight, it's out in tiajuana, then tomorrow morning, just a few hours at the plant before we cross the border and head to the airport. nate's picking me up tomorrow evening and he'll be a welcome sight :)
again, can't resist plugging the mexican siesta fiesta for casita, it will be muy divertido y habra mucho cerveza! (yes, my spanish is still horibble even after 4 days in mexico, but i'm learning!)

happy birthday cassie!

feliz cumpleanos a mi hermana hoy! please join us this saturday at her mexican siesta fiesta! :) see me for details...

buenos dias!

well it's been an interesting first couple of days. i love it here- the people are very warm and friendly and the city is bustling and full of life! i'm probably pretty sheltered however to the poverty and lesser sides of tiajuana, but i've enjoyed my stay here so far. lastnight we took our japanese consultant to a sushi restaurant. yes, sushi i mexico, i live on the edge! the weirdest things i tried were: salmon eggs (gross, gross, gross, don't EVER eat them), octopus (better than expected), and then just run of the mill sushi type stuff, tuna and salmon, some dumplings, california roll, tofu, etc. nate got to hear all about it when i talked his ear off for an hour or so lastnight ;) but that's all the time i have to update for now :) more later!

Afloat by Lawrence Raab

After the interesting guest at the party
declared that Giorgione's The Storm
was the strangest painting ever made,
you flew to Venice to see it. And the canals,
of course, the celebrated light
on the water, all the churches
where someone might be playing Bach
or Vivaldi while off in a shadowy corner
another masterpiece begs to be seen.
So, for a while, yours is a life
of important surprises, which is what
life should be, and usually is
only briefly. You'd like to forget
that Venice is sinking, and no one
knows how to save it. But today
walking across the flooded piazza feels
almost instructive: the mortal
just touching our need for permanence.
So much, after all, is vanishing.
And still the doomed city is afloat,
the water you don't want to fall into
glittering cheerfully as you cross the bridge
to the Accademia, where at last you will find
the enigmatic Tempesta, a picture much admired
by Byron, who in general detested painting
unless it could remind him
of something he had seen
or some day might see.

(Note: Giorgione's La Tempesta, from RAI International)

run for the border

exciting work news: i get to go to mexico to help with a week-long deal. i also get to train some of the associates there, so i'm very excited ;) seeing other faclities of ours is always interesting. even more exciting, we're flying in to san diego, so i may get to see the ocean (if only from a plane) for the first time in a long time! we used to take all our vacations to san diego since it's only a hop, skip, and a six hour drive from phoenix. in other news, nate and i finally weeded the garden and staked up our tomatoes. i sat and weeded while cleo ran up and down the fence trying to keep up with nate's nifty mowing pace.
this weekend so far, i've taken a deep sleep nap, been to the cellar, and now am at work! later today, the massive cleaning effort will begin in preparation for my mom's visit!

take a dip in the french dips you dip

we're having french dips for dinner tonight -- yum. i'm really looking forward to them. lastnight nate made salmon and cajun shrimp skewers on the grill. it was tasty. add in a little gardening (and whoa, did our tomatoes take a beating in that last rain!) and some SNES mario, and the evening was complete. tonight, we're getting a group together for the pub slam poetry reading, then headed to christine's birthday bash! should be fun :) now all i have to do is leave work... suppose i should stop blogging so that can happen!

reminiscence

hard to believe i've already been living and breathing in blacksburg for three years now. when i moved here, i knew no one. i hardly had any furniture, save a bed that was my graduation gift, and a few lawn chairs in the living room, faced toward my tv that sat directly on the floor. eventually, i decided they weren't comfortable at length, and pulled the twin mattress from my extra room in. a big night for me was stopping by kroger after work to purchase a frozen pizza and a bottle of wine. and since i didn't have cable, the guy at video update thought i had nothing better to do than rent a movie every day of the week. i did love my little windsor hills apartment, the first residence of my very own. i kept things freakishly clean, for at least two reasons (1) i had all kinds of time on my hands (2) there was no furniture to move!
i did some random things though that i enjoyed and now, would probably never find time for! i wandered blacksburg, took pictures of anything and everything: lyric, farmers' market, golf course, barns, ellet valley. i drove to pulaski one weekend and wandered around, lured by the furniture company there, but figured out it wasn't my style and ended up just kind of wandering through the sleepy downtown. i drove up to roanoke, down the parkway, went to every retail store in the county. it's funny now to think back on all that, as most times i am surrounded by great friends and keep a pleasant running pace outside of work :) it only took about six months for several things to occur: my sister moved here, we started hanging out with our neighbors, my company hired several more people my age, etcetera. all resulting in my quite happy existence now :)

if i had cake, why wouldn't i eat it?

yum. a beautiful piece of chocolate cake and a side of ice cream just arrived at my desk. so i not only have cake, but i'm eating it too :)
did anyone else realize that it's already july 18th? this is craziness! i have to go back to school in a month? booo. i'm enjoying my carefree, obligation free summer!
on the bright side, as time moves along, the time when my mom's coming to visit comes closer! she'll be here starting next tuesday, july 26. events in the running are: virginia creeper, dinner at cabo, farmers' market, dinners at home, wine, dog show, and much much more!

you can't have everything, where would you put it?

today i feel like melanie griffith in working girl. well...actually there's not many similarities at all, other than (1) i'm a girl (2) i'm at work. but, reason enough! monday morning is off to a busy start and i'm enjoying the rapid pace at which the day is passing by.

rainy days are here again!

but it's all the same when you're inside the building ;)

betelgeuse! betelgeuse! betelgeuse!

cassie found the beetlejuice dvd yesterday at walmart and was compelled to buy it. we spent a good portion of our childhood years watching this movie over and over again. ah, what a classic. i have to admit though, i forgot just how bad those sandworm graphics were, but the movie's still great :)
here's my public service announcement for the day: if you're at all skeptical about the wonders of rainX, don't be! that stuff is the best thing since sliced bread! i retreated my windshield recently and have been waiting not very patiently ever since for it to rain.
tonight, we're headed to the cellar to see maggie's wishlist, a band managed by the bass player of paul clark and the lonesome drifters (the 'honky-tonk' band that plays at the cellar every other thursday). apparently, the cellar has a monday night blues jam (new), tuesday night jazz, wednesday night i think is usually open except for this week, thursday night alternating blues and paul clark. that's a good lot of music!
while i'm plugging local events, easy chair bookstore is having two that i'm excited about. one is the harry potter launch party at 10 pm this friday, the other is the pub slam poetry reading at the underground on july 21.
products and events endorsed by this blog are in no way affiliated with this blogger ;)

the cow whisperer!

so this weekend, nate and i went on a walk down ramble road. the road passes by several cow fields and since we had the camera, i stopped to take a few photos of a distant cow through the fence.

apparently, he saw us by the fence, and ambled on over.

and then all the cows starting coming over! not just one or two, but the whole field. it started slowly and suddenly...

ALL the cows came over. the sweet looking brown cow was my favorite. anyone have any idea why all the cows came to see us? they had plenty of grass to eat... so it didn't seem like food would be a motivation. we tried walking away, and they formed a single file line and followed. when we walked, they walked; when we ran, they ran:

as soon as we'd stop, they'd all gather as if we had called a meeting. eventually, i had to give a speech to they wouldn't feel as if they'd gathered in waste ;) it was funny. but seriously though, anyone cow savvy enough to explain this phenomenon to me?

on a sidenote, we also discovered more blackberry bushes than you can shake a stick at! well...i suppose you could shake a stick at them, but most likely, you'd be too busy picking berries like we were! we gathered a handful and had them with ice cream after dinner. yum yum.

look ma, no hair!

happy birthday joey!

now you're old ;)

whoa wine...

oh cellar...why did you have bottles of wine for 1/2 price lastnight? ah well, i had fun ;) although, i think i was overly talkative if memory serves. no pictures to post of my hair yet, but will do that tonight :) i'm glad it's friday, even though it was only a 3.5 day week for me, it's felt long. oh i have a new title now, it's way fancier even though absoluting nothing about what i do has changed ;) no longer a "coordinator," i am an "area manager" - isn't that fancy? aren't you impressed? i work in a dilbert cartoon...

words from around the world

taken from cnn

If you walked through London yesterday, you would have been surrounded by screams of joy and laughter and songs of jubilation because of the surprise win of the Olympic bid. This evening as you walk through London there is an eerie silence; the only noise that can be heard is the putter of footsteps on the sidewalk as hundreds of commuters try to make their way home. Somewhere along the way the screams remain, but this time they are screams of pain; screams of sorrow, screams of anger and screams of anguish for those who have lost their lives and those who were injured when all they wanted to do was to get to work this morning.
Stella M; London, United Kingdom

We utterly condemn those atrocities. We condemn those responsible. Islam is a peaceful religion and it teaches peace. Those who are responsible must be brought to justice, no matter what religion or what country they belong to. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have suffered in this atrocity. We the Scottish Muslims stand United and our prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been killed and all those injured in this atrocity. We appeal to the authorities that those who are responsible must be brought to justice.
Tahir Mohammed; Glasgow, Scotland