back in the dirty south

Ah, the warm, non-snowy, dirty south. Actually right now it's much cleaner than the north with all its salt and crap all over the roads. Alfred's car needed a bath when we got back, it was pretty disgusting. We got back Tuesday night just before midnight, it took us exactly 18 hours. That included stops for gas/food/restrooms, traffic in Charlotte and Jacksonville, an attempted beer run at 5:45am, and horrible weather in Pennsylvania. That's what this picture is from. This was a major highway, it hadn't been plowed at all so we couldn't see the road, and snow was blowing everywhere. Traffic was going about 30 mph. It was ridiculous.

Our trip was nice, except for the 3 cats that now live in my parents' house. Our allergies just love going there more and more every year. The new cat is cute, my nose and lungs just hate it. We saw lots of family, got some great gifts (including a bound book of our road trip blog, which includes all of our posts, pictures, and comments, it's really nice.) Most importantly, we played the new Mario Brothers game for the Wii. Alfred, Katie and I were the main players, though Dad and Uncle Ken helped out at times as well. We basically played for 4 days straight. And we beat the game! It was awesome. It's fun to play because when you play with multiple players you're all on the screen at once, so you can be nice and use teamwork or shove each other into pits and stuff. We also ate a lot of food. Like, a lot of food. But what else is new.

I'm a big dork

Like anyone had any doubt. But still. Here's more proof.

So I've been resisting reading the Twilight series. I did the same thing with Harry Potter. They're not adult books, I'll be bored by them, not worth my time, things like that. With Harry Potter, I even saw one of the movies before I read any of the books. I fell asleep in the movie, which only made me less inclined to read the series. But I did. And loved them all. Totally want to own them so I can read them again. I read them before the last book had come out, and was too embarrassed to get it out of the library. Luckily I was able to borrow it, I think from Robyn, and probably read it in like 2 days. Cause I just got so involved in the story.

Mercedes owns all 4 of the Twilight books. And we've been cat/house sitting for them while they're in Spain. And so, the other night while Alfred was busy on his laptop and I was bored, I started reading the first book. And have been sucked into the story ever since. I finished the third book a couple of hours ago (oh yeah, and I took today off of work since I had to work Sunday). I told Alfred it was a good thing I hadn't brought the fourth book home with me, because I'd totally still be curled up on the couch reading it. Luckily I'm going back up there tomorrow and can start on it.

So why the big dork revelation? Well, I'm getting to it. See, I've been reading a bit about the author and how she got the idea for the books. Apparently it all started from a dream she had. And that is something I would totally do, have a dream and get all obsessed by it and come up with some elaborate back story and imagine all sorts of ridiculous things based on that one dream. I was thinking that I should do that, come up with a crazy popular book and get rich off of my dreams. And then I realized that I sort of already do that (the overactive imagination part, not the rich author part). I do it with my characters from the Sims. (This is the very embarrassing, dorky part). I totally come up with back stories for each character, imagine how they respond in situations, imagine conversations between different characters... anyway, you get the point. See? Told you I was a dork. I just need to write a book (or books) and become rich and famous, then it won't seem so pathetic.

my big fat Thanksgiving post

Our drive up went well, we got to our hotel a little after midnight, got a decent night's sleep, and actually left on time the next morning. We got in a little after 7:30 Wednesday evening, giving us around 17 total travel hours. Pretty good.

The food: We did the whole turkey-and-pie thing, of course, and it was delicious. More importantly, we did a Wing Tour of Buffalo. We went to a total of 4 different places for wings to see where they were best. Our verdict: the Anchor Bar, where wings were invented. Well, where Buffalo style wings were invented. I guess wings were sort of invented by chickens. Anyway, Anchor Bar had the best regular wings, while the place right by my old high school has the best barbecue wings. We had some good pizza too.

We also hit up a local doughnut place, Tim Horton's. Those Canadians are pretty crazy, but they make some tasty doughnuts. We went through a total of 3 dozen over the weekend.

Sightseeing: We went up to Niagara Falls on Friday and went over to the Canadian side to get a better look. After sitting in a line of cars waiting to get over the bridge, we managed to do a bit of sightseeing.


It was really cold, especially with the mist falling on us. We were there right before 5:00, which is when they turn on the lights on the falls, so we killed a little time in a gift shop. Trying on funny hats, our specialty.

The drinking: we did a bunch of it. I'm not sure how many cases of beer we went through, but I'd guess 4 or 5. We did a casual power hour, intending to stop after 20 minutes, on Friday night, then went for the Century Club on Saturday. Most of us actually made it the full 2 hours. I'm being vague because honestly, I don't entirely remember. You know, cause of all the beer. And I was pretty wrapped up in Guitar Hero.

Mercedes did the first 15 minutes of the power hour with beer, and the rest with doughnuts, 1 bite per minute. I think she felt about the same as the rest of us when it was all over, though. After all, she let this picture be taken.

The drive back to FL sucked. It was rainy and foggy and miserable, plus we ended up stuck in traffic half a dozen times between Virginia and Florida. It ended up taking us 20 hours to get to Ilya and Mercedes' house. We got there about 1:15 am so we just spent the night up there rather than driving the extra hour to get to our house.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I'll have to look through the pictures again tomorrow and post some more, I know there were more funny ones. Ones of me playing Guitar Hero, for example. Oh, the excitement!

some random disconnected comments

I'm going to call in my first picture-free post here. Please refer to Monday's post if you're upset about this development.

Bush is on TV right now, talking about how screwed up the economy is. It's a little scary to think that things happening right now may make history books in the future, like the Great Depression. It's scary because of where we are in our lives right now: just starting out, getting ready to start a family, etc. Our lives could be very strongly impacted by this. There was a report on NPR this morning about how with the government taking over such big chunks of the economy (I'm sure there's a more technical way to say that) is making the US so much less financially free, and how Canada is much more free in many ways than the US. Bush just said "God bless." What the hell happened to separation of church and state? Honestly, I don't know if I just never noticed how religious the country/government was, or it's become more so. The whole shoving religion in people's faces really makes me dislike it more and more. I went off on a rant about it once to Alfred. I think he secretly thinks I'm going to hell. Bush is done. Thank God. Ha!

Speaking of Alfred, he came home tonight! This is his first night home in over a week. We get to catch up on some important TV, such as How I Met Your Mother. Ah, I love it. It's a good one so far. I love Neil Patrick Harris. "I caught feelings. I caught feelings bad."

I sort of accidentally finished the Legend of Zelda again. I was on level 9 and stumbled onto the last room, so I killed Gannon (the little bastard) and that was that. I didn't even finish getting all the stuff I was supposed to get in that level. I'm just that damn good, I guess. Gosh, I'm a wienie.

It's too hard to concentrate with a good show on. I missed our regular shows! So I'm out.

that guy I married

This is the kind of picture that belonged with my post from this morning:

Also, blogger is being stupid right now. I cannot be held responsible for any screwed up spacing or anything else that happens.

Alfred commented last night that it's like we're doing the long distance thing again. It's kind of true, we haven't seen each other since Tuesday, although we're only an hour apart instead of numerous states or time zones. We've talked on the phone a few times and emailed and texted, but not all that much, really. I have to say, it's much easier not seeing him for a few days now than when we were actually dating long distance. Now I can miss him, but appreciate having the whole bed to myself. (Just kidding, honey. I miss you like crazy and love when you take up 7/8 of the bed. Really, I don't need much space. I'm short.) It's kind of crazy to think that we've been together for 7 years now. Also, we've officially hit the point where we've been married for half the time we've been together. From here on out we'll have been married longer than we were dating. It's insanity. I guess.

In other extremely exciting news, my parents got a freaking Wii! I've only played with it once, when we went to Minnesota last spring. It was really fun, and there were only a couple games. It'll be awesome to try out new ones. I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

more ghosty goodness

Today's my parents' anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! 29 years, yo. Impressive.

I just watched another episode of Ghost Hunters while I exercised, it freaked me out a little. It was in a house, which is always a little creepy anyway, and Alfred's not home yet. So I'm watching The Soup to un-freak myself. Luckily I have never thought or felt like our house is haunted in the slightest. Billy's house makes me feel creepy sometimes, but not ours. So that's good. I was reading a book about ghosts in St. Augustine once when we were living in the apartment there, and had to stop when I got to the chapter about mean ghosts. It scared the crap out of me, although really I never thought that house was haunted either. What's with all these ghost posts lately?

So we had a good weekend, it was nice and relaxing. I actually picked up the branches that were knocked down by Fay already, generally we leave the branches around for at least a month before we get around to it. Our neighbors' branches were already picked up, of course, but there were some clumps of Spanish moss still on the ground. And the one-legged man that lives next to him went out in his kayak on Saturday. That man is tough. He's in his 80s and has one leg. That's why we call him one-legged man. I saw him in Publix once, it was the coolest. I felt like I was seeing a celebrity.

One more big development of the weekend: Alfred installed my Sims game for me on the laptop. Yes, I'm a huge dork, but you know what, I don't care. I'm proud of my dorkdom. Plus you all know I'm a dork, so it's ok. It's good timing, since football season is starting. Alfred watches his game, I play mine. It works quite nicely. So I was (and still am, really) a happy camper. God, I'm a dork.

happy (very belated) birthday, Steph!

I'm a terrible friend. Every year I think Steph's birthday is on July 23 or 24, then every year when it gets to those dates I think wait, wasn't her birthday July 16? And it was. July 16. Too bad I can't remember the right date before it happens. It's like I have a mental block. Last year I even put it into my computer to remind myself to remember in time, but of course my computer crashed and so my thinking ahead did me no good. Steph is currently off making the world a better place with the Peace Corps. What a good person. Happy Birthday!

I miss having girl friends nearby. There were 5 of us who became friends my sophomore year when we lived in the same dorm, and then we all lived together my senior year. The last time we were all together was for Rosemary's wedding last year. That's where this second picture is from, a few of us went wine tasting the day after the wedding. Someone else needs to get married or something soon so we all have an excuse to get together! We're scattered almost as far apart as possible right now, although we were farther apart when Katie was in Australia. Now she's only in Germany. I keep hinting for guests, but no one has taken me up on it yet!

In other news, we're staying at Ilya and Mercedes' house for a couple days while they're out of town for Ilya's job. Last night Alfred and I played super Mario brothers 1 and 3 on whatever game system they have that Ilya got from his brother. I was pretty terrible, but Alfred has some mad skills, at least on 3. Man, we're cool.

so, how was your weekend?

My weekend was just stellar, thank you for asking. I could have done so, so much around the house, but I didn't. I didn't even need to clean because we've barely been home to mess the place up since I cleaned last. I was saying to Alfred yesterday how I wanted the kitchen floor washed, the windows cleaned, the back yard cleaned up and weeded... but I didn't want to do a damn thing. That's not to say I didn't do anything. Here's my weekend in a handy bulleted list.

• Saturday I headed to the farmers market and picked up some delicious, healthy, cheap produce. All of this came to $10. I feel like that's a good price, but I can't really be sure because I've never bothered doing a comparison at the grocery store.

• I got hit on by one of the vendors at the farmers market. He was wearing a shirt that said "Let's flip a coin. Heads, I get tail. Tails, I get head." I was wearing my glasses and hadn't showered yet. He suggested we go to a strip club that afternoon (because he had to give me a bunch of singles as change.) Yeah, it was pretty awesome.
  
• Speaking of my glasses, I didn't put my contacts in once this weekend. My eyeballs thanked me.
  
• We had a delicious pizza Saturday for dinner. Toppings: pears, pecans, and gorgonzola cheese. I was inspired after buying the pears that morning.
• I beat levels 4 and 5 on the second quest of the Legend of Zelda. I'm a nerd, by the way.
  
• We worked on a new set of house plans. Alfred had gotten a whole bunch of books out of the library to look at for ideas and found a really good plan in one of them, so he drew it out and made some modifications to make it fit what we wanted/needed. It looks really good. The next step is to get it drawn up professionally so it can go to an engineer and get approved to build. Then we'll be ready to go once we get all of our permits.
• I caught up on all of the episodes of "so you think you can dance" that were on the dvr. The show where the top 20 all performed didn't record for some reason, so I missed that, but it's ok. I'll live.
  
• Our dvr decided to start to break. I think that's why my show didn't tape (see previous bullet point). It worked a few times this weekend, but not much. Someone's coming out to fix it next Sunday. Luckily we don't have much taping this week, so if it doesn't work, we won't miss much. But I think I'm going to ask Ellery to tape so you think you can dance for me though, just in case. Can't be too careful.

Non stop excitement, I tell you what!

exciting night, and Katie's craptastic morning

So, first things first. Last night I made a key lime pie with meringue. It's my first meringue pie, so I hope it's good. It looks good.


I also made a loaf of bread, but it wasn't pretty enough to take a picture of. And we made granola. It's like crack to me. Sweet, crunchy crack.

The other accomplishment: I beat the Legend of Zelda! Yes, I took a picture. We didn't get a picture of the last screen when I won cause it scrolled by before we grabbed the camera. I guess Link and Zelda had to go make out. No, I didn't have a mouse in my pocket, Alfred came downstairs to watch my victory. And offer some tips.


I started the second quest, but it's hard again cause I lost all the cool weapons and power I had from the other game. I'll probably start looking for websites for help/to cheat. Or give up.

And now for the exciting-in-a-bad-way news. Katie called a little after 10 last night: her car had died on her way home from work. So Alfred went to pick her up, and we drove her back there this morning (she got to sit on my lap, since our only car is a 2 seater) so it could get towed.


Turns out the timing belt is shot and with the potential damage she's looking at at least $2000. Not worth it, considering she/we bought it for less than that. So, Katie has no car. Luckily her classes are over, but 2 of her friends were supposed to be flying down next week and all three of them were going to drive back to NY for Katie to spend the summer up there. Not anymore!

The best part is, Katie called me a few minutes ago. Right after she got off the phone with my mom, her phone died. She was right next to a Radio Shack, so she went to try to buy a new charger, but of course they didn't have any. So she had to go buy a phone card, find a phone book, look up the number for the mall she works at, call to get the number for the store she works at, call there, get phone numbers for a couple of her friends, and then try to find someone who was able to pick her up and take her back home. I was just laughing. I mean, what else can you do? It could be worse, she could have broken down in the middle of West Virginia on her drive home. West Virginia sucks.

Easter

Not bad, huh? Unfortunately the color from the m&ms bled onto the frosting a little, so it looked like his ears and nose were bleeding. But he looked ok. Tasted ok too, for carrot cake. We spent the day at my in laws house, eating ourselves silly. It was fun. We ended up coming home with a huge bag of chocolate, so that's exciting.

Saturday we went for an 11 mile walk, I'm almost not sore from it today. I also made a loaf of white bread, it turned out really well, it looks and cuts just like sandwich bread!


We played a whole bunch of Legend of Zelda this weekend too. We got past the 4th labyrinth. Alfred's pretty good at it, I tend to get panic or just run into bad guys and get killed but once in awhile I do well. It's weird, I used to watch Mike play all the time so sometimes I can find stuff even though I don't really remember what it is. I'm kind of a dork.

busy weekend, part 2

I managed to duck just as Alfred took this picture, because I looked like ass and was not about to have it recorded for all eternity. This is where I spent all day yesterday. This was the mess by 2, and we weren't finished until about 10. It was a disaster area. But I made a lot of stuff. Almost 70 peanut butter filled chocolate eggs, key lime bars for dessert tonight (although I forgot about the green whipped cream I was going to put on top, oops), soda bread for tonight, pizza dough for dinner last night, some frosting, oh, and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. You know, it doesn't sound like as much as it was.

I baked 10 dozen cookies last night. Robyn is giving out approximately 20 Easter baskets to friends and work associates, so I am making cookies and candy to give out in those baskets. Which means that Katie gets to decorate 10 dozen cookies, and Alfred gets to deal with the insanity. Once we got going last night though it did go quickly, we got all of them baked in exactly an hour. We had quite the assembly line: I'd roll and cut out cookies and put them in the oven, when they came out either I or Alfred would put them on the cooling rack, then Alfred would transfer the slightly cooled cookies into a container to make room for the new ones coming out of the oven. Each batch was only in the oven for 6 minutes, so we were working fast.

Meanwhile, Katie was decorating, practicing the designs she's going to do on each type of cookie. She's going to work on them some today, them I'll help her tomorrow (hopefully we'll get home kind of early), and finish them up Wednesday. I also have to make chocolate covered caramel eggs. I made a new batch of caramel yesterday because my first batch was overcooked and hard as a rock. Let's hope this batch works.

I sustained a kitchen injury yesterday too, I cut my finger with the food processor blade. While I was washing it, not while it was running. It's on my middle finger, which is handy.

And, last but not least, look what we got! I've had the music stuck in my head all day.