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5.30.2008

last post of may

Friday! I love friday, I really do. Especially warm, sunny ones.

Last night Trav and I went to Bennigan's for dinner, because we had a coupon. And I love that it was all simple and "hey want to go to bennigan's for dinner?" with no big planning beforehand. It made it even better because there was none of that analyzing that we always used to do about can we really justify spending $30 tonight? Can we?! I love that about where we are right now.
And it was good. Yummy food. Good conversation too... its nice just getting to sit and talk sometimes, with no distractions.

Plus, afterwards I had one of those little moments that just makes you happy. Trav and I had met there after work, so we were in seperate cars. We were making a right, then an immediate left to get to a store we wanted to stop at on the way home... Trav made it easily, but I got stuck at the turn left part because of a bunch of traffic. Someone turning left from the other direction pulled up in front of me in the turning lane, making it so I couldn't see who was coming... well the guy noticed (probably because of the huge frown on my face and the thundercloud forming over my head... lol), and instead of watching cars for when he could go, he watched his mirrors and signalled me when to go! So nice! I gave him a big smile and got the nicest smile back... it just made me very happy.

Anyway, the night continued with a VH1 countdown of the Top 100 '80s songs. That definitely put a smile on my face too! So many good songs. Like Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time... and this one:


Absolutely one of my favorites!
And this one:



And Pride (In the Name of Love) by U2. Did you know it was about MLK? I didn't until last night. So many good songs.

Today, I started my day by torturing myself with sad scenes from Scrubs. Love that show, but so dumb because I already made myself cry once. But it started out innocently enough! I wanted to find a song played over a scrubs scene and needed to watch the scene to find it... which I did:



Pretty, right?
I think its a gorgeous song. And now I'm just working my way through all my favorites (about a dozen pages worth) on youtube.

And I swear, when I opened this window, I had actual things to say! I did... but I've praddled on about music for so long now, its gone. Can't remember a damn thing I wanted to say.

Well, I guess that's all then! Sorry for the meandering, no point post! I swear I had things to talk about... but instead you get a bunch of videos. I hope you enjoyed them at least. And I hope you have a great weekend!!



Ps. One more, just because I love it:


Ciao!

5.29.2008

not so easy

I'm having a good day... its supposed to be warm and sunny, which is great. I'm wearing my new lovely dress, and feeling natural and pretty. But I'm having a morose morning, thinking about things that aren't easy.

There are the little things: like that it isn't easy staying off your ankle when you work in the city and are used to walking anywhere. But I've done my best so far, and I think its really paid off. Slowly getting better... hoping it will be enough.

There are the everyday things: like finding the time to fit in everything you want to do, and everything you need to do.

Then there are the big things: like the blogs I read about lost babies... Busted Babymaker (which is part of my daily read list), and Our Own Creation/Sweet Zoe which I just found today following a link from BB. I get sad and scared, and think "what would i do if that happened to me?" and "would I be able to handle it?" I always wonder about those big things... and right now, its baby things because that is what I'm reading and thinking about. What happens if we have trouble getting pregnant? Trouble staying pregnant? And on the flip side, obviously I'd be thrilled, but would I feel guilty if we would get pregnant right away? Would those I've grown close to, following their stories online, feel happy for me... or frustrated that it couldn't be so easy for them? Sometimes I overthink things. But it is scary. sad. painful.


In anycase, it is a beautiful day, so I'm trying not to think about these things. Instead I'm working on all the new things that have come up at work, looking up "warm up" exercises for my ankle, and enjoying the sun. That's all for now loves.



People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may try to cheat you.
Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

For, you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Theresa

5.28.2008

domestic bliss - having a child changes everything.

Real entry tomorrow or friday, but for now, something different.

This is a little silly, but I really enjoyed this article on Nicole Richie... it's amazing the difference a year can make. I think she looks great.

Nicole Richie's Domestic Bliss

Hollywood’s former wild child, Nicole Richie, on staying in, mellowing out, and having a child of her own, Harlow

Accompanying pictures here.

5.27.2008

a weekend in four acts

So here we are, last week in May... after a great weekend. I'm just going to take it day by day because we fit a lot in. (Warning: super long post... but check it out, I think its worth the read!)

First, Friday night. Trav and I headed to Kohl's to check out their memorial day sale... Trav needed some new dress shirts, and I wanted to look for a new dress. We both ended up finding some good stuff. Trav got two nice shirts and a new tie, and I got three dresses (two formalish and one that I'll wear to work or at home). Pictures later, since I wore them all this weekend!

There were also these:

Which my sweetie-pie husband got me for no reason. I love that. :-)

Saturday! An old coworker of mine, who has since moved on to a different job, got married. It was interesting because I only knew her, and Trav... well he really didn't know anyone! But I was still looking forward to the day. Darby is such a sweetheart, I couldn't imagine not being there for her.

The ceremony was held at the old St. Augstine church in Philadelphia. It is a gorgeous church! Here's the bride walking down the aisle with her father:

Bride and groom sitting under the Virgin Mary during the ceremony:

The whole wedding party, it was big (9 people on each side, not counting the bride and groom)! The whole arch in front was quite beautiful for a backdrop:

Husband and wife!


After the ceremony was over, we headed down the block to Kildare's Irish Pub where the newlyweds were having an "Irish Reception" with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and an Irish band. It was a lot of fun. Here's the bride enjoying the festivities... she looked amazing!!

When we got home I made Trav stay dressed (see his new shirt and tie?) so I could snap this picture (it's a little blurry because I just used the timer and didn't focus as carefully as I should have first!):

I think we look great. :-)
And here is me about a minute after that picture:

Feels good to throw on the grubbies! ;-)

We also noticed that, apparently, while we were gone that day... our neighbors had their massive tree cut down! I'm torn about how I feel about it. Part of me is sad because it was a beautiful tree! I loved hearing the wind rustle the leaves, and seeing the first buds pop up outside our window in the spring. Not to mention, I just feel sad anytime I see such a nice tree come down. BUT I know it must have been a pain for them to have to cut it back so much every year (it would get too close to the power lines), and who knows what other troubles it might have given them... plus now our back yard has so much more sun!

Sunday we had Darby and Josh's reception. It was held at the Montrose Mansion, a part of the Villanova Conference Center... such a beautiful location! First were cocktails outside, on this:


They also had space inside that you could wander through... with cheese plates set up, and open bars, and even (best thing ever!) a philly cheesesteak station!! Awesome.

Once cocktails were over, we headed inside to take our seats. We had good ones right next to the dancefloor. The wedding party was introduced, and the bride & groom went right up to do their first dance:

They did this whole fabulous number... they started off with a typical first dance song, just doing a box-step... but then they broke into a tango, and did a whole little number like that.

It was really great... not just the number, but seeing how much fun they were having and how happy they were. They really are the cutest couple. Next there was a delicious meal, dancing, and after a few hours, the cake cutting. We left after that (it was already after 10)... but I had a great time. I'm so happy for the newlyweds.

Once again, when we got home, I made Trav pose (sorry about the blur, I got a glare off the thing I used to prop the camera):

Aren't we cute? And again, about 60 seconds later:

Monday my mom and brother came down to hang out for the holiday. They had wanted to see Trav around his birthday anyway, and it worked out with the day off. My dad wasn't feeling up to traveling, so he stayed home... but we had a really nice time. Trav cooked a great late lunch, and we relaxed and hung out for a few hours before they headed back home. We ended up with the best weather! It finally felt like May!



As you can (kind of) see, our neighbor went all out with the flags... they stretch all along the front of our yard and up the little edge that leads to our porch. We found this when we came home on Sunday night. We didn't mind though! What a cute Memorial day decoration.

I really do appreciate Memorial Day for what it is... not just a day off, but a reminder of those who protect the freedoms I hold so dear, of those that died protecting those freedoms. Though I might not agree with getting into the war we are currently in, I respect those that put their life on the line for it. My mom's parents met while they were both serving, and my dad's father also served... not to mention the multiple friends that I have now who are serving. I'm so grateful that they all came back from their wars, and its good to remember those who didn't.

William has a great post about it here.

In other news, and one last picture to share... I know I promised to take a break from the multitude of plant pictures, but I have to share this one:

I was just so happy to see my little azalea blooming!! Obviously it made it through the planting okay! :-)

Also yesterday, two neat things:
First, it was my coworker (work-mommy!) Jan's birthday! Happy Birthday Jan! Love you! I got her a bouquet this morning which she seemed to really like.
And two, I got some great great news from a close friend of mine... which was just such a nice way to end the day/weekend. I can't share yet because she obviously wants to pass on the news herself first, but it was just a really nice surprise to get this call from her.

Well, that was my weekend. Long, full, and fun. Today started off a bit rough... last night I didn't really sleep. I got maybe a ten minute doze in from when we hit the hay at 10 until about 3:45 in the morning. After that I was finally able to fall asleep, but that's not really enough time! And apparently my body revolted because I turned off my alarm in my sleep and didn't wake until 7:45 (I leave at 8)!! Let's just say, that is one way to jolt yourself awake. I did manage to get out of the house on time... but I had to skip a real shower, which sucks. Hopefully I'll sleep a bit better tonight.

In one last bit of news... I did walk twice this weekend, but now I'm going to be taking the week off. I hurt my ankle a week or two ago... it was giving me pain when I walked, and this Sunday it was very bad. I looked up my pain and it appears I may have given myself achilles tendonitis... ugh. I wasn't being careful enough about warming up before walking... which in addition to the amount I was uping my milage, was a bad combo! So now I have to pay the price. I'm hoping a week off of it (well as off of it as possible!) will give it the time it needs to recover. And from now on I am going to be super-anal about warming up and stretching.

Well, time for me to get back to work. Hope you all had as nice a weekend as I did!!

5.23.2008

rainbow days

So Trav's birthday turned out really nicely. It was a little drizzly when I left work, but by the time I got home it had cleared up nicely. So when we went to leave for dinner... we got to see this:


(See it... the rainbow.) Nice birthday present, right?!

This is us after dinner when we are both in a virtual food-coma. We went to the Pearl (one of our favs) and ate too much sushi. Way. Too. Much. Sushi. But it was so good, and so worth it.

I think we look cute when we are half asleep and drunk on food.

By the time we got home, of course the rainbow was gone... but the clouds were really lovely.

As for today, well its a good precurser to a busy (but should be really fun) weekend, because it is empty and quiet. About six of my coworkers are out, and two haven't arrived yet... it is peaceful... so much so that I can practically hear my thoughts bouncing around this big empty office. It will be so easy to get done the two real things I have to do today, and then I'll be (I hate to say it because honestly, I don't want to jinx myself) all caught up! *knocks on wood* I know I have a few things coming my way next week, and all the normal day to day stuff... but I'm on top of it and that just makes life very relaxed. I'll probably take a walk around the block at lunch, and leave a little early so my walk to the trainstation can be leisurely.

Now, one last thing to leave you with. I was playing around online last night and watching So You Think You Can Dance (*blush*)... now really I was only half watching, I'd take in a little, then go back to what I was doing. But this guy... he was the last one of the night and he is AMAZING! I couldn't tear my eyes away, the things he can do with his body are just bizare. Watch for yourself:




And then one more because I found it and thought it was funny... and who doesn't love some Harrison Ford, especially when he's working for the environment?!:



Well, that's all I have at the moment... but I'm sure next week I'll have lots of pictures and hopefully some stories to share. Have a great weekend!!!

5.22.2008

over half-way there

Wowza's... what a long week already! It's been crazy... but today is a good day. Not only because it is Thursday, so the weekend is almost here (a three-day weekend at that, yippee!), but because today my wonderful, handsome, sweetie-pie of a husband is turning 28! So, a HUGE Happy Birthday to my amor, Travis!! Hopefully his day will be a good one... full of all the things he loves.

So, last night I finally got to finish the flower bed! I got home at my normal time and immediately got to work. It was looking a bit overcast and blustery out, so I didn't want to wait until after dinner, only to have it rain. That would be my luck.
So a reminder...

(Before)


(Half way, just after transplanting...)

And the flower bed now... Mulched! and sans ugly plastic edger! :-)



And just for fun... before & after:

I'm VERY happy with how it turned out.

I also got to pot my orchid on Tuesday night. It finally started to clear up around 7:30-8ish that night... after my drizzly walk, of course. But I was able to take all my stuff out onto the porch and pot away. I LOVE orchids... I was torn between putting it in our bedroom or in the living room. I decided on the living room for this one (more sun and get to show it off!), but might end up going back for another for the bedroom. LOVE orchids!!




Beautiful!!
And I promise, I'm done boring you with a ton of garden/plant pictures... at least for a bit.

What else did I do last night? Well, I washed all the dishes that had piled up in the last few days. There has been a lot of other things going on, and the dishes got neglected. But otherwise, we were lazy people. I felt a night of lazy was well deserved, especially now that the only thing left on my list of things to do this week (now that all the mulching/planting and other cleaning is done) is to mop the kitchen floor.

So this makes be feel like a dork, but can I talk about TV for a minute? I don't normally, but after this week... I don't know if I can handle anymore season finales! What a freakin mind-trip they are playing on us!! Skip ahead if you watch CSI, Numbers, Bones, House, NCIS, or Criminal Minds and haven't seen the most recent episodes. Here be SPOILERS!:

  • Warrick (CSI) presumed DEAD
  • Charlie (Numbers) no longer working with the FBI?!
  • Zack (Bones) a murderer! Locked Up!
  • Amber (House) DEAD!
  • Director Sheppard/Jenni (NCIS) DEAD!
  • Someone?! (Criminal Minds) Dead?! Injured? Blown up?! I think this might have been the only one with a real cliffhanger ending.

And this, this is all too much for me. I can't take anymore of my favorite characters being killed or otherwise done away with! Ugh!


Now, if you are easily grossed out... turn away now! Trav was letting his finger breathe a bit Tuesday night, san bandage, so I snapped a picture. I'm a bit facinated by it, but I understand some people are more... grossed out! So, don't say I didn't warn you! I'd like to introduce: Franken-finger!!



It's not too bad. He's sore, but its not killing him. I'm guessing he's going to have an interesting scar when all is said and done though.

Well, enough of that... time for me to get to work. Have a great day, y'all!

5.21.2008

love this...

Trees on the Trump building... love it!
All buildings should be so cool.

Pic by Jon at Blurbomat. He's cool too.


By the by, can't wait for my little, stick-like lilac to look like this... I can smell it already.
Now off to my busy busy day....

5.20.2008

rest of weekend, etc etc.

First... I completely forgot in Saturday's post (although I didn't forget on Saturday) to send out a big Happy Birthday to my former-roomie, Megan! The lucky lady got a gorgeous day to celebrate on, so hopefully it was a great birthday.

Obviously we've had some excitement since then (look below if you missed my post from last night), but I wanted to tell you about the rest of my weekend... because it was really good. So! Sunday!

Well, it started off nice enough. I got in another long walk (see Saturdays post), which was a great way to start the day. Then I headed home, ate some breakfast, and got ready for the Baptism party. By the time we went to leave though... rain! The party was still great... lots of fun people, a gorgeous baby, great food. And it cleared up a bit towards the end. Here are a few pictures:

The handsome and ever-growing Aiden (with proud Gram).


He was pooped at the end, poor guy.

Looking at these also made an exciting, strange, surreal thought pop in my head. This past Mother's Day, it may well be the last one I spend without a child on the horizon... like in my belly. Wow.

Anyway!

On our way home we stopped by the Home Depot to pick up some mulch and a shovel... and I also ended up getting a beautiful orchid (and orchid feed), plus the pot to plant it in. While we were checking out, it started storming like crazy! Torrential rains, thunder, lightning, the works! Obviously nothing got mulched that evening!
And thanks to our little field trip to the ER last night, nothing got mulched then either (nothing got done at all!)! But tonight, hopefully!

Thanks to Trav though, the whole downstairs, except for stove top and kitchen floor is done (he was very productive before his "incident"... he vacumned/dusted for me since he had some free time... and he also made Mac & Yeasty Cheese! Yum!). The boy had off because we got our roof redone on Monday morning. It was time for a fix so we won't have anymore winter emergencies. Our guy was great though and took these pictures for us:

(Before)



(After)


Much better!

Trav seems to be feeling okay this morning too... he took some Tylenol, cleaned his finger and rebandaged it. I think he's been having some trouble typing... and unfortunately he uses his left hand for the mouse, but otherwise he's not too much worse for wear!

Well, that's about all for now. I have to get back to work... there is a ton to do today. But I will leave you with one more thing... a quick video. This is humorous and the end is damn impress. Plus, these guys can truly say that, unlike the rest of us, they do not put their pants on one leg at a time:


Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pictures of a beautifully mulched flowerbed, and a lovely planted orchid!

Ta-ta!

5.19.2008

interesting evening...

So 2.5 hours, 6 stitches, and 1 tetanus shot later... Trav and I are home from the ER.

Trav had the day off and was preparing some food for dinner when he cut his ring finger separating frozen burgers (which we hear is VERY common this time of year... that and cutting bagels). Luckily I arrived home about 5 minutes later, just in time to drive him to the hospital... it was a bit gross, but he was sweet and didn't bleed on my car. ;-) Now his finger is numb and we are finally eating some dinner.

A slightly more eventful evening then either of us were hoping for!!

5.17.2008

Tired, but happy.

Well, its Saturday night... not quite 9 o'clock, and I'm exhausted! But happy!

Lets start with yesterday, because it was the polar opposite of today. It was disgustingly moist... raining most of the day, windy, humidity out the wazoo... and chilly to boot. Work was actually nice. Five of my coworkers were out, so it was damn quiet! I got caught up on a bunch of work... and I got to run a few errands (I need to retitle my car, renew my registration, and change my name on both... I needed a little help figuring out the best order of attack... now I have a plan, thanks AAA!). Unfortunately after running my errands I got to spend the rest of the day feeling slightly damp. Not so pleasant (though I did get to leave early!), especially since I was finally starting to feel better from my cold, only to spend the day feeling uncomfortable anyway. Plus all this was on very little sleep, since once again I could not fall asleep... this time until about 2am.

Now today (watch out, being proud of myself to follow...). I woke up feeling refreshed! I had actually slept great! And it was sunny, warm, beautiful out! I was a happy happy girl... so I decided to make up for my week of sick/weather-induced sloth and head out for a nice long walk. I hit up the state park, even though Ro wasn't around to walk with me... and I brought my camera again. I got some even better pictures, and did 6.5 miles. I'll admit, I huffed and puffed a little at the beginning. Its amazing what a week of not walking and not being able to breathe through your nose will do to ya.

So here we go... a little tour. When you first get to the trail, you have to pick left or right, up or down.
I always pick left... up... its gradual at first, but right past was looks like the peak there... well it turns a bit, and gets steeper and it goes on for over a mile. Hence the huffing and puffing.

But it does get the hill out of the way!



These honeysuckles are everywhere... and they smell so damn nice!




Once you've gone around the far side of the trail, then you start back towards the beginning, but this time you are running along the creek... which is a really nice place to walk. You can listen to the water and sometime see some animals there. First it starts off small...
Then it veers away from the path for a little, and when it comes back its been joined by a few more little streams/creeks and looks like this:



A little different, huh? Especially now, after all that rain. It is a big creek... and full. (And honestly, at the moment, muddy... but still beautiful!)
And remember the waterfall I showed you before?

Well, this is it now:

Also a little bigger! I took a little video of it too... its so loud!

Once you get to the waterfall, you are done! The little, gravel parking lot is just past that and off you go.

On the way home I stopped for a Baptism card for Trav's cousin's son (tomorrow! pictures I'm sure!) and ended up also getting a hydration pack. Finally! It holds a 20 oz. bottle and has three little pockets where I'll be able to stick my keys, ID, and once I'm doing really long walks - some extra socks. I'm very excited to try it out.

Travis, in my absence, had been a chore machine (and he had Chinese food waiting for me... love him!)! He washed our sheets, mowed the lawn, vacuumed the upstairs, and cleaned the bathroom! What a guy. Our house definitely needed a spring cleaning, so it was great. I started on the downstairs before dinner... cleaning my way through the kitchen. After dinner, I decided to take advantage of the last of the nice day and did the gardening I've been wanting to do all week.
First I transplanted two of the flowers in the front bed over a foot or two, so they were even with the two on the other side. Then I took the one in the middle out and transplanted it to the backyard. Finally I planted my currently tiny (but hopefully soon to be flourishing) azalea in the middle of the front flower bed. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Before (flowers, beautiful, but haphazardly/unevenly planted):

After!:
And here's my little flower transplanted to the back:

Obviously I left lots of room for my little azalea to grow, but I'm really pleased with it. Tomorrow Trav and I are going to stop at the home depot and get some mulch... and hopefully a new "border" to go around the bed. After all is said and done, I've done more gardening this week then I have the rest of my life put together! And I still have mulch to put down, a border to replace... and the next time I head to my parents, a yucca plant to put in the back yard!!

So now its the end of the day and I am tired, but oh so happy. :-)

Now I'm off to play some Wii with Trav, then hit the hay. Hope you are all enjoying your weekends as much as I am!