merry nate & bri christmas!

so nate and i celebrated our christmas this morning :)  (much like the pennsylvania 'thanksmas,' we move the holiday to where it's convenient!)  we played scrabble on 'christmas eve' lastnight.  i thought our santa table decoration coordinated rather well with the scrabble bag.  doesn't it look like his bag of toys?

 

it was a tough board!  we were mostly confined to the lower corner due to some bad start out words (ahem... nate)  and my letters were atrocious!  at one point, i swear i had all i's.  and this rack, which totally made me want to spell hee-haw (but i doubt that's an acceptable scrabble word!)

then nate spelled 'pinna,' which i challenged, and lost.  apparently pinna is a long forgotten botany word.  i don't think he knew that though, i think he just got lucky!  :)

 

after christmas eve, we were excited for christmas morning to arrive!  we got up early(ish) and started with stockings!  (ours are new this year, i finally found some i really liked :)  cleo's has been around for a few years though)

 

then we had the dogs pose by the tree.  for those of you who don't know, benny is a dog we've been dogsitting for the past month and a half (his owner was injured and can't walk him at the moment).  he went home today, but not before he and cleo got their picture together.  you may remember that cleo doesn't like to sit too near other dogs. 

can you believe that pile of gifts in the back is all for us?  nate went a bit overboard this year :)  he even had a few adressed to himself.... from santa.  including this one, a book on tennis skills:

 

santa was all about tennis this year.  he also got nate and i a costco size supply of tennis balls, and a ball hopper!  i got all kinds of goodies including a new camera bag to hold all my gear, a really cool calendar of paris, cool photography books, a new outift, etc.  :)

after 'christmas morning' we had what nate affectionately calls 'mexican breakfast':  refried beans, fried potatoes, and tortillas.  it was super tasty if i do say so myself :)  

and the best part is?  christmas isn't even over yet!  lots more family time to come :)  hope your holidays are happy!

some new photos

finally posted ;) there are some new in october and november - and more to come!

included in the new are a bunch from our weekend in captiva with glen & family -- i took TONS of the sunset. and i posted less than half of what i took so... you're welcome! it's still a lot to wade through but we happened to catch a really pretty sunset. and i was drinking cocktails which tends to increase my 'number of photos taken' metric ;)

enjoy!

cleo says hi!

holiday blog neglect

haven't been posting much lately but holiday activities have been keeping me busy! :) we celebrated thanksgiving AND christmas in PA over the traditional thanksgiving holiday this year (as has become our tradition when we spend thanksgiving with nate's family). it's fun :) kicking off the christmas season by popping up the tree, drinking hot cocoa and exchanging gifts not only gets you in the spirit, but also crosses a bunch of things off of your list early!

since we've been back, we've been playing some tennis, getting together with friends, and finishing up christmas shopping. we bought our tree, 'santa the christmas tree #3,' and decorated the house. this year i FINALLY found stockings that i liked enough to buy, it would have been our third christmas without stockings (oh the horror!) but we're all set now :)

on the picture front, i'm stuck somewhere back in october but as soon as things calm down a bit, i'll get back on the wagon.

also, i really enjoyed the steeler's game last week (against the cowboys). usually i go with nate, but generally ignore the game by playing the bar video game, or reading a magazine, or whatever. this time it was an exciting game and i watched the entire thing. cassie thinks i'm crazy :) but there is really quite a bit of drama in the nfl (just like the commmercial. i'm such a marketer's dream).

happy holidays!

tennis, tennis, tennis!

we've been playing more tennis lately (and are now fully supplied with all the right gear thanks to some christmas presents from laura and drew!)

last week, nate and i played singles and as nate put it, i was 'dogging it.' i was feeling kind of lazy so i didn't exactly bring my A game. i did have a talk with nate about raising his arms NFL touchdown style every time he won a point though ;)

today we played doubles with some friends of ours and had a good time :) nate and i need to do some work on our doubles strategy though ;)

also this weekend, we saw twilight (nate HATED it, i liked it but then again, i read the entire book series and all the outtakes too), had sushi night (and i drank a bit too much wine), and decorated for christmas! more on that later ;)

back from indiana!

and it's a whirlwind week! we just got back from trivia (and lost) and had the worst service EVER. sample dialogue includes:

me: "will our food be out soon?" (inner monologue... it's been an hour)
waiter: "oh.. um.. i'll check on that. what was it you ordered again?"

ahhhh... we were there much longer than usual but ah well, at least we had some good friends with us to pass the time!

i'll blog more later, have some errands to finish!

my grandaddy.

although i tend to avoid blogging about more serious things, i didn't want to let such an event pass without acknowledging it here. my grandaddy passed away on tuesday. cassie and i were able to fly to arizona last week and see and talk to him. he was the best grandaddy anyone could ever want and i'll miss him very much. below is a slideshow of pictures the family put together for the funeral.

the sun sets on the gulf of mexico (and i forget to watch)

while we were in captiva, we watched a beautiful sunset and it reminded me of a poem i wrote years ago about when i was working on the oil rig in the gulf.  i've posted the poem before, but here it is again (with a picture of the almost gone captiva sunset) :)

The Sun Sets on the Gulf of Mexico (And I Forget to Watch)

He asks how long I think it will take the sun to disappear
after it touches the water. Thinking of a movie I saw once
where the sun seemed to disappear almost instantaneously,
I tell him thirty seconds.

“No,” he says. “It takes three minutes.”
Silence lapses between us as fiery light falls
on black water between the breaks of the waves.
He is talking but I am thinking of what to say
next. My gaze is on the water. I hear him
pause, so I smile in what I hope is a valid response,
turn back to the sun on the water.
I forget to pay attention to his watch.

Instead I watch the water until the light fades,
fascinated by the way the sunlight
is carried back to us from the horizon,
dancing along the blackness.
Remembering the sun,
I ask him, “Is it really three minutes?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “Something like that.”

ooh.... ow... ahhh....arghhh!

i am super sore from playing tennis lastnight (and that's exactly what i sounded like during the game).  nate and i played each other and only got through 1 set (close game, i finally lost 6-8) and then i gave up 2 games into the second set.  i had a headache, and my ankle and my back hurt!  nate said i sounded like an old woman ;)

but we're going to go again today, maybe i'll get him this time ;)

also, cleo has developed some crazy allergies and looks like a 'puffer-fish' between gettng little bumps and hives all over.  i took her to the vet friday and she's now on 3 medications... 2 are pills and 1 is a twice-weekly shampoo.  but hopefully it'll make her all better!  nate has created a spreadsheet of the pills so we can check off each time they are administered (he's a total dork, i know ;) )  but also- he wants me to INITIAL it.  there are two of us that live here so figuring out who checked off the sheet shouldn't be that difficult ;)  he thinks that's a totally normal request, what do you think? :)

epcot mexico

a few shots from epcot mexico recently -- i had them and thought cassie might like them so i put them in a collage ;) (made with mcp actions)

paper and ink studio - giveaway :)

Paper and Ink Studio is having a giveaway on her blog, 50 'call me cards' and 25 matching notecards.  Her work is absolutely beautiful, and all you have to do to enter is comment on the post on her blog before tomorrow (saturday) night!  from her blog, you can also get to her site which has all her products.  i've ordered some of the custom notecards and loved them!

http://www.teamcarstens.com/paper_ink_studio_/2008/11/november-blog-giveaway.html

oregon trail!

did you ever play oregon trail?  i used to play it all the time as a kid and this imagined monologue from mcsweeney's is hilarious :)  you may not appreciated if you didn't play the game, but here's an excerpt from the monologue titled 'No Son of Mine Plays Oregon Trail Like That.':

I once completed the trail having survived three broken wagon wheels. It took me 10 days to find an Indian to trade with for the third wheel, and I still scored 6,000 points. The other day, I saw you quit the trail immediately after your wagon capsized in the Kansas River. You lost only an ox and a hundred pounds of food. I drank myself to sleep that night.
Speaking of food, it almost seems like you don't even like to hunt. When you do, you fire randomly at anything that moves. Let me make it simple for you, son: a bullet costs 10 cents, a pound of food costs 20 cents. If you're not averaging a half pound of food per bullet, you're wasting points. So I hope it was fun firing 10 times at that squirrel, which, I feel obligated to add, you never actually hit.

rock the vote!

okay, so that was a slogan from a few years ago, but i'm so excited to see how the coming years play out and i'm so excited to have been a part of the entire process.  now that all the election hulla-baloo is over, i feel like we should all break into a dance of a high school musical "we're all in this together" moment but maybe that's the disney cast member in me talking ;)  but seriously.. red states.. blue states... no matter, it's the UNITED STATES!

hello from captiva!

we're on the beach just outside of fort meyers enjoying a BEAUTIFUL weekend with glen, suzie & ben (jackson will be here tomorrow).  the weather is perfect and we're walking distance to the beach!  i want to hire suzy as my vacation planner.  they'll be here for just about a week and we're just joining them for the weekend.  we just finished playing tennis and it was so fun!  i haven't played in years and am excited to get back into it :)
hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

the new carpet!

finally wading through some long overdue tasks on the new computer -- here's some pictures of our new carpet. it was freakishly clean because we were having company, fyi ;)

we still need to paint in here!  and get a new window shade.. and put stuff on the walls... this room's on deck.

motown philly back again!

Boyz II Men was at Epcot tonight!  Nate and I headed out after work and they were AWESOME.  Well... I thought they were.  Nate thought the Ventures were better, but I was in junior high heaven!

pictures...

so i finally updated more pics!  i'm only up to august though, lots more to come! :)

and now we relax!

we hosted the 'ivey olympics' lastnight :)  we spent most of the week cleaning the house, the garage, buying food, buying beer, etc.  and now we can relax!  we had a good time, so hopefully everyone else did too.  we ended up with three events (out of a planned 6 events) flip cup, darts, and wii olympics.  nate bought some cool trophies from good will and had little plaques made for Ivey Olympics 2008- ha :)

today we're cleaning the house, eating chinese takeout, and heading to buy a flash for my camera- yay!  oh, and probably some football watching (sigh) because PSU is doing well this season.

have a great weekend!

yummy sherry vinaigrette

i've been all about this dressing lately.  i had to buy a bottle of sherry vinegar for something and used like... a tablespoon, so i searched for a salad dressing recipe that included it and ta-da!  here, for your culinary pleasure :)  i highly recommend it with spinach and goat cheese (although it's good on pretty much anything):

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place the vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, and garlic in a medium size bowl and whisk together until blended.  Slowly add the olive oil, whisking constantly until the dressing is emulsified.

great... someone else at work now thinks my name is ivey

it's always so awkward to correct them for some reason....

wii fitness

we bought a wii fit this weekend and it's awesome :)  nate and i have been using it both for fun and exercise (which i guess is the point, isn't it?....)  it both encourages and harasses you ("a bit too busy to work out yesterday, bri?)

as you do more exercise, you unlock more activities or reps on existing exercises.  i'm a pretty good hula hooper and ski jumper :)  definitely need to work on my balance though!

so krau-zones it is!

and the recipe is from marty's side of the family :)  apparently my german roots ;)

kraut-burgers!

so we had kraut-burgers while john and linda were here and i got a chance to take some pictures of them for this post :)  the ingredient list is quite short:

• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• jar of sauerkraut (i don't use the whole jar, but i eyeball the amount)
• 1 can of thin crust pilsbury pizza dough (or any pizza dough of your preference)

brown the hamburger in a large skillet and when it's mostly done, add sauerkraut until it looks like the amount of each are about equal (and drain the sauerkraut first!).  get the hamburger-kraut mixture nice and hot.

while that's going, roll out the pizza dough -- i usually divide the thin crust pizza dough into 8 squares.  place a square on a cookie sheet, spoon the hamburger-kraut mixture onto one half of it, and fold over, tucking in the sides.  essentially, it should look like a little calzone... but with sauerkraut.

then bake at 400 until they look nice and toasty... mmmmm.

serve with copious amounts of yellow mustard :)

we had them with sauteed green beans, and a salad.

so mom, who's recipe was this?  yours?  marty's?

and everyone else... should we rename this recipe to make it more appetizing?

disney disney disney!

we spent our weekend with john, linda and ross enjoying disney :)  well, actually... linda and i spent yesterday shopping :)  but the rest of the time was disney!

today we started off our day with some delectable french pastries from our neighbors (who make them and sell them at the local farmers' market).  here's a pic of them:

yum.  seriously yum.  those are almond croissants, pain du chocolat, and rasberry napoleons.  after breakfast, we headed to animal kingdom and it was HOT.  but we had a good day and hit all the attractions we wanted to :)  and hardly any rain, which we can't say about last week.  my highlight?  we got to see jiminy cricket!  and pocahontas.  we rarely wait in line for the characters, but the lines were quite short so:

nate took this picture of pocahontas and i and had trouble with the camera.  i ended up having to go back over to him and fiddle with it, so i apologized to pocahontas and she just laughed and said "men!"  :)  funny.

ross and john rode kali while the rest of us opted out (too wet!) but got to see them float by:

we had dinner at downtown disney and ended our evening at the california grill (at the contemporary resort) for wine and cheese and a fantastic view of the magic kingdom fireworks.  a very full, but very fun day :)

a little poetry for your weekend

by one of my favorites, sara teasdale:

I Am Not Yours

I am not yours, not lost in you,

Not lost, altho' I long to be

Lost as a candle lit at noon,

Lost as a snow-flake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still

A spirit beautiful and bright,

Yet I am I, who long to be

Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out

My senses, leave me deaf and blind,

Swept by the tempest of your love,

A taper in a rushing wind.

ah.... food & wine (and a little bit of rain)

we just got home from a night at epcot.  the rain held out long enough for us to see johnny lang who i really enjoyed.  definitely going to have some new music on my ipod :)  we tried foods from turkey, canada, greece, poland, and i can't remember the rest :)  it was tasty!  but it was also raining!  we stuck it out with ponchos and watched the fireworks from a great spot since a good lot of people had abandoned ship by then.

now we're home, and in dry clothes ;)  looking forward to the weekend!

and we're back in business!

and since it's late, just a picture of cassie and mom from roanoke and our visit to virginia :)

pictures returning soon!

well our desktop PC stopped connecting to the internet a few weeks ago so that's why i haven't posted ANY pictures lately.  but our new one will be arriving tomorrow (yippee!) so pictures will be making a comeback soon :)

linda, john, and ross have arrived and we're getting ready to head out for some tasty mexican food :)

whirlwind couple of days!

man we were busy yesterday!  we worked outside all day and it was well worth it :)  nate pressure washed the patio and most of the house, i replanted the flower boxes with a flower i can't remember and some lantana (which i hope will trail down the front of the window boxes), we trimmed, we swept, we rearranged and are now pretty proud of our house exterior :)

tonight we've been working on the interior which needed some cleaning.  now we're (almost) prepared for john, linda and ross to visit although i need to make a trip to the grocery store, we're almost completely out of food!  although we do have beer... hmm...

also, an exciting note for this fall is that epcot will be featuring quite a few of my favorite musical acts from way back, including:  starship, en vogue, boyz II men, jon secada, sister hazel... the list goes on!  we'll be checking them out over the next few weeks :)  and hopefully doug's recommendation, cowboy mouth as well :)

you mean our sliding door is connected to a patio?

we absolutely love our patio but from about... may until now, it might as well not even be there.  it's way too hot!  as a result, we've not done too much along the lines of cleaning it, taking care of the plants, etc.  but now that the weather is getting beautiful, we're cleaning it up so we can do our usual (pretty much spend all of our time out there).  bring on the pressure washer, broom, scrub and wash the cushions, throw out the plants i killed (oops!), clip back the ones that survived, etc.

also in the name of beautiful weather, it's festival time in the central florida area, this weekend was winter garden's music fest.  they had over 20 musical acts playing all weekend starting friday night.  my favorite was a just a guy and his guitar (3 guitars actually), nate's favorite was a band we saw inside the mooncricket grille.  the drummer was the lead singer which i'd never seen before- that must be tough!  i think john and frank should get on the schedule for next year, they could definitely rock the crowd :)

register to vote!

register to vote!  cool video (with some profanity, if that bothers you) --

bottom line?  you can head here:  http://maps.google.com/vote and find out what you need to do to register.  by mid-october, they'll show you where to head to vote.

man i'm tired!

since nate and i get the benefits of being cast members, we never feel pressured to get our 'money's worth' out of the parks.  if we're tired- we go home!  if we're hungry- we leave, and eat!  but today we headed out to universal studios, our first time paying to head to a theme park in orlando since we've moved here.  it was fun :)  but nate definitely turned into the 'superdad' variety that paid to get in and now wants to make sure we eek every experience we can :)  he packed his cargo pants with granola bars and every time i whined that i was getting hungry, he handed me a granola bar and told me to buck up - lots to do before the parks close at 6!  he finally let me have a hot dog around 3 pm- whew!

:)  our favorite ride?  (we had the same favorite)  the first one we rode, the hulk, at islands of adventure!  it was awesome :)  full on rollercoaster fun and a whole lot of screaming loops.  we also really liked the mummy (dark themed rollercoaster) and the simpsons (brand new vitrual fun).

and now?  i'm home, collapsed on the couch- that was a whole lot of walking and a really long day for just being 9 to 5!  we had some kraut burgers and settled in to watch the penn state game (key feature for me?  the couch!).

oh... kraut burgers?  one of the weirdest things i make for dinner, recipe courtesy of my mother.  i'll post that recipe sometime soon- it's not too complicated ;)

hail hail to old purdue

all hail to our old gold and black!

i was at my old alma mater last week for a recruiting trip and really enjoyed the time.  it's been a long time since i was there (3 years ago for anna & rick's wedding) and even longer since i graduated (6 years ago now!).  it was interesting to remember who i was then and what i wanted out of life since you spend a lot of time in college thinking about where you're headed (or at least i did, i spent a lot of time writing in my journal in coffee shops!) :)

a lot has changed there, several new buildings and WAY more eateries and places to hang out than ever existed when i was there.  it's neat to see the progress and exciting to be part of an institution that continues to get better but part of me wants it to stay exactly the same as when i was there.  silly i know :)

but looking back on everything that's happened since i headed off to college:  has it all turned out the way i planned?  absolutely not!  but i'm 100% happy with how it has turned out and that's all that matters :)

a few photos:

freshman year, day one.  sarah m. and i were potluck roommates  :)

senior year, from the left, sarah s., cyndi, regan and me (we all lived together junior and senior year) :)

also senior year, anna and sarah m. -- they co-oped, so every other semester they were away for work.

 

my home away from home!  (once after a bad break-up, i said to sarah s.... "you know i really haven't been sleeping well since he and i broke up."  she said "do you think that's because you're spending ALL your time at the coffee shop?"  hmmmm.....)

and finally, graduation!  from the left, cyndi, me, and sarah s.

been mia!

sorry y'all, i've been an absentee blogger again.  and i was doing so well!!  i've been traveling, nate's been traveling, yadda yadda yadda.  also our computer is out of commission as far as the internet is concerned.  we still have the laptop but all my photos are on the desktop so no good!

in other news, is it fall yet?  i can't wait for the beautiful florida winter to kick in, when other people are jealous of our weather instead of vice versa!  our porch has been sorely neglected since it's too hot to even think about sitting outside for leisure purposes (although we have had a few cooler nights here and there).

the steelers have kicked off the season with a win, and game two is currently underway.  i'm in the market for a willie parker jersey, one that's cut for a woman so it doesn't go down to my knees like all of nate's jerseys :)  i saw a woman with a really great willie parker jersey that had glittery gold in place of all the usual gold, but i can't seem to find it online.  i'll keep looking :)

lunch break!

i had a late breakfast today so when lunch rolled around, i wasn't really hungry.  since i had no meetings today, that was a pretty long stretch at my desk to i took a shopping break instead :)  i listened to madonna's material girl and destiny's child independent woman on my way over to the outlets to get in the mood (yes, i really am that cheesy) and picked up a new pair of jeans and some cute t-shirts.  it was a nice way to break up the day :)

sorry i've been an absent blogger lately, our desktop pc has decided to no longer get along with the internet so that slowed down my internet usage.

in other news, we finally got cable!!  our phone/internet/cable company had a deal which ended up working out pretty well for us so we decided to try it.  we're enjoying the novelty so far.  tv you can pause?  record?  a guide you can scan through and search?  this is good stuff people!  :)

new blogger to the realm! :)

my lovely sister-in-law, linda, has started a blog :)  you'll find it off the the right, "hey mom, hey mom"

cleo protects me when nathan is gone :)

fay, fay, go away!

so it's been raining since tuesday, pretty much constantly.  last night the volume picked up quite a bit and this morning?  lake ivey!  our porch/backyard doesn't drain well so in continuous heavy rain, it creeps onto the porch.  but today it's practically watering the plants!

 

see how it's right at the lip of the potted plant? 

the rain is supposed to be stopping in a few hours so hopefully the water won't make a break for the house!

funny stuff from mcsweeneys :)

The Proofreader.
by Robert Cantoni

- - - -

Dear Emily,

I enjoyed reading the letter you left on my coffee table. You haven't shared your writing with me since the beginning of our relationship (was I too harsh?), and it's a pleasure to see more of your work. This one is a much better effort, and if I wanted to flatter myself I might take some credit for your improvement. In any case, I'm always happy to give you my feedback; this particular piece has a lot of promise, and I have some suggestions for revision that I think you'll find useful.

You make a strong start in the first paragraph. I particularly applaud your use of the dash. It's a tricky piece of punctuation.

You say you feel "like a zombie." It would be better to say you feel you are a zombie, rather than "like" one. The simile there takes away from the power of your metaphor.

Your mention of your neighbor Henry digresses from the topic of the second paragraph, your desire to "make things work." If you want to mention Henry, tell your reader more about him. What is he like? Where does he live? Is he oafish and unattractive? You hint at his homosexuality when you say he "knows how to talk to" women. Expand on this. Details like these will keep your reader invested rather than threatened by the mention of another man. On the other hand, you might want to exclude Henry from the piece (and your life?) altogether. As presented here, he seems flat and irrelevant.

I like your use of "But" to start a sentence in your third paragraph. It's OK to start a sentence with a conjunction for dramatic effect! Good work there.

Your fourth paragraph needs a topic sentence. You include many disconnected subjects: my "impotence" and "complete lack of sexual function," your "frustration" and "anger," my "pathological avoidance of conflict" (and can such a thing really "kill" you? Avoid hyperbole). Choose the most fundamental issue—in this case, the unreasonableness of your fantasy of "genuine intimacy"—and make that the subject. Forget the rest. Also, avoid the second-person address here—imagine a wider audience. What's really frustrating is the human condition; our collective "impotence" is a metaphor for social stagnation and the increasing disparity between rich and poor.

The ending is a bit abrupt. The last line—"I can't live like this"—is ambiguous and clichéd. Stronger is your postscript, "I'm sorry, for both of us," though stronger still would be the simple "I'm sorry." Say what you want to say with as few words as possible.

A significant revision is in order, but don't be discouraged. If you're not married to all of your original ideas, I can see this going in interesting directions. And, regardless of the quality of your work, I will always be

Your faithful reader,
Bob

yawwwwn!

good morning!  well the hurricane turned out to be no hurricane at all (luckily!).  just a little more debris on the ground than your typical summer storm around here.

we had a great time in blacksburg :)  we were able to spend a lot of time with jeff, cassie's boyfriend.  we got to see the friday nite jamboree in floyd, headed to roanoke for the farmers' market (and hot dog king for lunch, roanoke's throwback of a hot dog stand), and of course no trip is complete without a trip to chateau morrissette :) 

here's a few pictures from arizona (that i still need to post!)

here i am yoga style on the mogollon rim ;)

 

and one of the many sites of our geocaching adventures! 

 

hurricane preparedness!

well it's just like a snowstorm in a way ;)  i headed to target after work with the droves of other floridians looking to buy milk, eggs, and bread.  well, actually i bought yogurt, wine, some new cute pajamas... etc. but it was the same in spirit :)

i moved anything lightweight off of the patio and moved everything else towards the center so it doesn't get rained on.  i also moved nate's lime tree (still potted) in from the yard.  i think that's the only preparation that's necessary for tomorrow (other than digging out our flashlights and weather radio).  we may/may not be going to work- so far the word is that we're on although schools in the area have been canceled.

cleo and i are settling in with a good movie and will wait and watch the storm roll in!

a few old pictures :)

nate and i were digging out some boxes from the garage awhile ago and i ran across an old photo album, one that marty actually gave to me when i was a baby (fun fact:  mom and marty knew each other in highschool and have just celebrated their 20th anniversary) :)

but anyway, i ran across a some photos i thought were funny :)  i must have been an aspiring photographer at a young age, i took several 'artsy' photos of my cabbage patch and other items :)  i like the following picture because you can see me with the camera in it (and dad & anita, you may also recognize your old bedroom in scottsdale!):

and unrelated to my photographic aspirations, but another one from the same album, taken in tennessee (that's cassie in front posing model style and me hamming it up in the back):

which one do you like best?

i'm back at editing the paris photos :)  which do you like better? 

the black and white? 

or the mocha one?

updated pictures!

unfortunately, it's still a work in progress, but getting much closer :) i've uploaded pics from our trip to nashville, brown's wedding, and a work team building event at hollywood studios.

still to come? crash-o-rama, the evolution of the office, canoe races of the world, and our trip to arizona!

here's a pic of nate and nina leaving the sweet sixteenth bakery, a few blocks from drew & laura's.

some exciting upcoming visits

to blacksburg and pennsylvania :)  it'll be nice to get out of the florida summer into a more pleasant summer :)

oh!  and we're getting new carpet.  i'm pretty excited :)  i think nate is having a heart attack over spending the money to do it but it's going to be AWESOME!  several areas in the house have really needed replacing since we moved in and since ari is safely back in virginia, no time like the present!

beans and cornbread!

ever heard of lime pickles?  well my grandparents make the best lime pickles ever.  they're tangy and sweet and super tasty and i've never seen them in the store, they can their own.  this year, my mom and grandma made a batch and i brought a jar home from arizona.  i haven't had them in years!

my favorite thing to eat them with (and i know this is weird) is soup beans.  soup beans are:

1 bag of beans (i like the 15 or 16 bean mixes)
1 piece of salt pork or ham bone
1 packet of lipton onion soup mix
1 crockpot  ;)

and a whole lot of water!  usually it's better if you soak the beans overnight, then drain them, and put the whole mess above into the crockpot for the day.

once you get a nice hot steaming bowl of 'soup beans,' i usually add fresh chopped onion, cornbread, and of course lime pickles.  cassie and i even used to pour some extra lime pickle juice into the beans for taste- sounds gross but it's so yummy!

if you're fresh out of lime pickles, soup beans are almost as good without them.  nathan's been eating them way for years  :)  he says he likes them and i have to believe him because he's pretty good and letting me know when something isn't to his taste ;)  we're having these tonight for dinner, so i'll add some pictures after that!

Concert was awesome!

sent with my cell phone...

my ipod library

is new and improved!  i had a lot of unorganized music, unidentified artists, song titles, etc.  but that's all in the past!  i've spent entirely too much time and now every song has a label :)  also, no more alternate spelling of band names or song titles.  whew!

now time to upload them all to my ipod so i can make my gym list :)  i'm newly dedicated to the gym after a stint of absenteeism.  i might even go to 'body flow' a class focused on tai chi, pilates, and yoga!  we'll see how that goes ;)

tomorrow, nate and i are headed to see wilco in concert!  this will be my first experience and i'm pretty excited to see them.  nate's seen them six times!

happy birthday cassie!

cassie's the big 2-9 today :)  and she's also started a new blog!  'chronicles of m&m' now on the blogroll.  i think she has it set to private, but send her an e-mail and she can add you to the list :)



this is cassie at her homeland, epcot :)  and in a few weeks, i'll be in blacksburg to visit cassie along with my mom and hopefully nate!

We're home!

sent from my cell phone...

florida bound

well after a lovely week in arizona, we're headed home today.  we ended up with a saturday flight which cuts our vacation a day short, but gives us time to get organized tomorrow so that's good :)  it will also give us a chance to pick up cleo who has been staying with a friend this past week :)  i miss her!
i read a ton of my mom's 'cooking light' magazines this week and copied tons of exciting sounding recipes so i'll be testing those out and will post some of my favorites! :)

categorize me!

so i've had this blog for quite a few years now - coming up on five!  lately i've been at danger of repeating myself, or trying to find something i know i posted some time ago, so in an effort to add a little organization, i've added categories!  to the right, you can now click on posts i've categorized and see anything i've ever posted on the topic.  i'll continue to go through old posts and label them so more should be appearing :)

geocaching and other arizona fun

so we've been up at the cabin almost all week. we landed on saturday morning and spent some time visiting with my grandma & grandaddy and my dad & family. then we hightailed it up north where the temperature is not north of 100 degrees! it's been a gorgeous relaxing week. we've been atv'ing around and hiking in search of geocaches, nate's latest hobby. my mom and i turned out to be pretty good 'spotters' of the caches.

if you have no idea what i'm talking about, geocaching is a ... game? sport? hobby? john.. help me out here! (john and ross actually introduced us to geocaching) but whatever it's category, all you need is a gps and willingness to explore. people hide caches, and post the latitude/longitude on the internet so other people can go find it, exchange token treasures (like a plastic dinosaur or state quarter) and write in the log book. it's a lot of fun and there are TONS up here to find. nate planned a trek for us yesterday and we traveled by ATV, stopping at the camp store, the lake for a picnic lunch, and following all kinds of scenic trails in search of geocaches :) it was fun :)

we'll be heading back to the valley either tonight or tomorrow morning so we can spend time with everyone else. it's hot, but that also gives us the chance to eat at every mexican place we can before we head back to florida! :)

tea stain?

who would name a paint color 'tea stain'?

despite nomenclature, that's what we ended up with yesterday after much deliberation (and 4 paint samples later). it's actually lighter than we originally thought and we keep wandering back in and confirming 'yeah!...i like it. i think we picked the right color.' i think once we get all the furniture back in we'll love it, but we'll see :) i'll post a pic when it's all said and done!

good morning!

it's painting day! we're still working on getting our office in order (nate's last day with disney was on friday and now he'll be working from home). yesterday we bought a few samples of color to splash on the wall, and neither works. although previously referred to as "cliveden gray morning" and "hopsack" we now know them as "greenish-gray cave" and "silly-putty." round two this morning, we've picked out another couple of hopefuls.

lastnight we had our celebration dinner for nate's new role and went to our favorite restaurant in town, k restaurant and wine bar. it was delicious. their menu changes everyday so it's always a treat to see what they have to offer. nate went for the 'porcini dusted filet' that came with truffled mashed potatoes and i had flank steak with roasted potatoes (there were more tasty details, but i can't remember them all!) we both had creme brulee for dessert - one lavender, one chocolate. mmm i'm making myself hungry just typing about it ;)

also last week we had the canoe races of the world. it's a cast competition to race a 10-person concrete canoe around tom sawyer's island. i'm still sore from friday's practice but we qualified for the finals! we compete for an 'oar' on wednesday- more to come :)

the big picture

so my latest favorite blog is The Big Picture (now linked on the right).  they post some incredible pictures from all over the world.  i definitely recommend checking it out!

thoughts on geography

if i had one wish (and an entirely selfish one) i would want to be able to visit anywhere i've ever lived just by passing through a door in my house. one day, i'd stop off in burlington, vermont and eat some of those really tasty dumplings i used to eat on church street. or i would head to purdue to see how the campus is looking these days. even better, i could pop in for breakfast with my in phoenix, or take a quick river cruise on the yough when the florida sun got to be a little too hot.

for that matter, i'd probably extend it to a door to anywhere so i could visit places that i haven't lived, but want to go to as well :)

wouldn't that be incredible?

our thrift/antique store find

so here's our new desk:



cute, eh? i like even more than i did when we bought it :) as nate keeps saying, "it's so sturdy!" and that's real formica on top kids, we're not messing around.



this is nate pretending to be a pottery barn model (still need to paint- anyone having any inspiring color ideas?):





i expect cleo to be laying there each and every day while nate works away at his desk :)



oh! i finally updated some pictures on our smugmug site -- added photos from my dad's visit and a few from molly's farewell. i'm getting caught up!

lazy sunday

nate and i are having a nice lazy sunday :) i've been editing pictures, nate's been doing his usual sunday routine (reading the west orange times, the pittsburgh news online, and listening to wyep).

yesterday we bought a desk for the office since nate will need something larger than what we had - more work surface, more drawers, less particle board, etc. we've been looking at some furniture stores but have also been meaning to check out the antique-ish store right around the corner. we finally got over there yesterday and she showed us a desk that will completely satisfy all of our functional needs for about 1/15 the price of what we've been looking at. after 15 minutes of careful deliberation (do we want a circa 1965 walnut desk?) and then decided we'd take it! today we're giving it a little murphy's oil love and nate fixed one of it's broken legs. i'll post some pictures once we get it all settled into the office, we're still working on getting the old desk out ;)

next? a super ergo chair and some paint!

happy birthday gram!

happy independence day!

well we made it without incident to pennsylvania (and if you're at all familiar with our travel debacles, that's quite an accomplishment!)

it's a rainy day unfortunately, but we're busy preparing for a day of indoor fun :) happy 4th of july :)

yes, i'm way behind on pictures

still to come are:

• Dad & Co. visit
• Cassie's visit
• Work team building
• Amy & Greer's wedding and our weekend in Nashville
• Crash-o-Rama

better get caught up before the 4th eh? in the meantime...

breakfast with the characters

tomorrow, nate and i are headed to ohana to have breakfast with lilo, stitch, mickey & pluto! stay tuned for pictures :)

tostadas!

so our meal of choice lately has been tostadas. they're extremely tasty and don't require much cooking (which is key during the summer in florida!)



first, it's important to have lots of fixins' as show here (tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, avocado) also helpful but not pictured: shredded cheese, sour cream, cholula. although lately i've been leaving off the sour cream and cheese and haven't even missed it! the cilantro is a must though!





then just spread some refried beans on a tostada shell (i warm mine first in the oven), add spiced ground beef if you want, and then voila! tasty easy summer meal :)

not to brag...

but is he the cutest, or what? :) (i know cassie... "gag!") but seriously :)

redecorating, and slacking on the blog!

happy weekend! we're doing some groundwork for redecorating our 'office' this weekend. it's one of the only rooms in the house that's never been painted and could certainly use a little sprucing up. we might go with plain ol' tan, but now i'm thinking maybe a color? i'm always drawn to blues and greens, but i probably shouldn't have the entire house in those 2 colors ;)

last weekend was good times. we went to the crash-o-rama (pictures to come!), had a nice lazy saturday at the farmers' market and even took naps! saturday night we saw a couple of cool bands at an orlando bar called backbooth - it had all kinds of neat alcoves and places to see the stage. i liked it :) we saw a band called 'look mexico' that we both really liked and also 'the sugar oaks' (who were headlining). we had a few more activities with molly for her last weekend in town (brunch at dexter's and a few $2 mimosas) and then we FINALLY cleaned the house!

we have some upcoming trips to PA and AZ so we're pretty excited- our vacation use this year has been pretty slim up to now so we're happy to be flying the friendly skies again ;)

Ponce de Leon

by George Lober

Now that I am fifty
I look at you differently,

I let the scent of your skin
wash over me at night,

I bathe my face in the red
spray of your hair,

and cling to your back
in the dark like a man

both afraid of the jungle
and certain as Ponce de Leon

that my last and only hope
of remaining young

is to discover you
again and again and again.

breeze through the car window

tonight reminded of me of when it's nice and cool outside and we leave the windows open and curl up under the covers! of course, i love the long days of summer and wearing a tank top and shorts to a late night outing and not worrying about being cold. here in florida, some mornings when i leave our air conditioned house in the morning, my glasses fog up! just rambling about the seasons and what i associate with them i guess. random i know.
in other news, i downloaded a bunch of new music including: the weepies, crooked still, catie curtis... and did you know that lisa loeb wrote a song about groundhogs??? so of course, i had to download that as lisa loeb is a long time favorite of mine (the first CD i ever purchased in fact).
nate and i have leisurely plans for the weekend, our good friend molly is moving (!) to cali so we have been participating in a string of farewell activities. this weekend we're headed to see school buses race on a figure eight track- crazy, eh? nate's pretty excited so i'll be sure to share some pictures :)
other plans? check out the winter garden farmers' market, the new whole foods (yipee!), go see some live music downtown, enjoy the weekend!