hibernating

I've heard rumors that it's cold outside today. The internet told me it was 51 degrees at like 10:00. That's cold for me now. In a month it will feel warm I'm sure, but I'm not ready for it yet. So Tabitha and I are hibernating like a couple of bears today. She's even been eating a ton all day like she really is fattening herself up to survive the winter. I have not eaten much, mostly because my digestive system has been mad at me and hurting me and making me nauseous since last night. It would have totally been a pajama day except a) Tabby spit up on her pajamas and then peed on them while getting her diaper changed so I was a responsible parent and put clean clothes on her, and b) I hadn't showered in 2 days and decided a shower was a priority today. So I took a nice, hot, long (aka 20 minute) shower during her first nap this morning and it was glorious. I am, however, still wearing pajama pants. Yesterday I was all ambitious and house wifey and made dinner and a yummy peanut pie for dessert. Today I'm staring down the dust under my coffee table and trying not to pee my pants as I sit in my glider all day while Tabby naps in my arms and wakes up to frantically nurse again every 20 minutes or so.

We were due for a lazy day at home. Our social calendar has been hopping for the past week! There was Thanksgiving of course (when Tabitha managed to pee on the floor while lying on her changing table), then we spent half of the next day at at a Mexican restaurant with Ilya and Mercedes. We got a wee bit drunk on margaritas, thank you for asking. Monday we had a lunch play date with my friends Lucy, Gara, and Mercedes, and Tabby's friends Ellie, Marly, and William. Monday I also had book club (anther Mexican restaurant=more margarita drunkenness) and coffee club the next morning. Coffee club is agroup of stay at home moms who meet once a month to discuss interesting, non-kid topics. For example, yesterday we discussed women in politics and why the US has never had a female president. Lucy (of bravofam.com fame) has been introducing us to various mom/baby activities. She's my social coordinator. Thank God, because otherwise I'd be going crazy here alone every day.

Ok, back to big important things like reading funny websites and doing Christmas shopping online.

unexpected hiatus

And suddenly, it's been a week since my last post. Not the best week of my life, though I suppose it could have been worse. Monday I had to work late, and then of course there was an issue with the register so I didn't get home until 10:00. Alfred made me a grilled cheese sandwich and chocolate milk for dinner though, so that was nice. He made me his famous homemade Caesar salad dressing for dinner on Tuesday, which was also very nice, and extremely delicious. We made the croutons with different bread though, and they weren't quite as good as usual. Ah well, live and learn.

Thursday we had some really nasty weather while I was at work. More specifically, we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warning sirens while we had 150+ kids in various parts of the museum. It was a little stressful. We got everyone into the most secure building (about 75 in one section and maybe 90 in another) and locked all the doors and all just hung out for about half an hour until the worst of it passed. Apparently one of the tour guides that was there with one of the groups saw a cloud drop down and start to spin about a block north of us. Luckily it lifted back up before it turned into a tornado. It's times like those that being in charge is kind of scary.

Friday was sunny and gorgeous, until about 1:45. At that point the temperature dropped about 15-20 degrees and thick fog rolled in. Not dangerous, just cold and kind of crappy. Just as I was about to go eat my lunch outside and enjoy the sunshine, too.

Oh, and we did get some good news this week: a signed lease and deposit from the people renting our house! So it's official, we'll be moving by March 1. I'll write about and try to post some pictures of the new house soon.

A note about the picture: it's from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. We were watching the movie Year One this week; there's a scene where they're in the desert, and at the end of the scene the camera pulls back and you can see mountains in the background. I said it looked just like White Sands. So we watched the credits at the end, and what do you know, filmed partially in New Mexico. It was kind of exciting.

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.

holy high water, batman!

Ok, I just spent a whole lot of time looking through old pictures and then in photoshop finding pictures to compare the water level today with water levels in the past. Cause it's been raining for days on end and the water's really high. So let's take a tour down memory lane, shall we? First, a picture from when we first moved in. Man, we still had a whole dock, roof included.

Now, here's a picture of the same area after Hurricane Ophelia, the highest we had ever seen it.

This one was taken this morning. It's a different section of the dock because the part in the last 2 pictures no longer exists. But it's close.

Another picture from awhile ago, from another angle.

Another shot of that same section after Hurricane Ophelia.

And today. If you look at the end of the beam that goes out into the water on the left, you can definitely tell the water's higher today.

Now a comparison of the shore line. The red arrow is pointing to the same tree in the next 3 pictures. Well, it's a tree in the first one, then a stump, then a shorter stump. The first one is from a few years ago.

Here's another picture of the same area when Mike was down here a couple of weeks ago and we were burning stuff. You can't see the water in this one but the angle is better.

And now, today. About an hour ago, actually. Because I went outside and took more pictures to match up with the ones I already had. That's my dedication to this blog.

Here's a picture of the dock across the river from us, also from when Mike was here last.

And about an hour ago.

And finally, Alfred sitting on the couch, waiting for me to come back inside so he can unpause the show we were watching.

Now, wasn't that fun?

hurricane-esque

I feel like that picture I posted from my phone is weird. My feet look weird. And you can't really see Alfred, he's in the pool with a beer. We had a good Saturday, in other words. Lucy, Phil, and baby Ellie came over for lunch and to hang out for awhile. We cooked some burgers on the tiniest grill you've ever seen. I got lots of baby time in, too. Good stuff.

So, this deluge of rain we're having. That's what weather.com is referring to it as. It's been raining almost constantly since Sunday evening. It's been windy too, rather reminiscent of hurricanes and/or tropical storms we have been through in the past. Thus, this post's title. This morning, the water in the intracoastal was as high if not higher than we'd ever seen it. The camera was in Alfred's car though (I think) so no high water picture. So, here's a completely unrelated picture!


Aw, we're cute.

So we've been catching up on our TV the past couple of days. Season finale time is a very sad time. We always run out of good stuff to watch on our DVR over the summer. However, I must say I'm quite pumped for the beginning of So You Think You Can Dance. Oh, how I have missed it! Oh, and I found this very convenient website today. Just in case you were wondering about the status of any TV shows for next fall. You're welcome.

as promised

Pictures of the new museum. We moved the store to the new location last weekend. (I say "we" like I helped. I most certainly did not.) So first, a couple of pictures of the old place. First, the view from behind the counter, then the view now with nothing in there.


The view of the counter, then the same empty space.


By the way, both of the "before" pictures were taken on my phone. That's why they're kind of crappy. Here are a couple of pictures of the new store. It's flippin' huge! (That's what she said!)


It just so happened that we moved the store right before the busiest week we'd had so far, i.e. last week. The combination of the newly massive store, plus all the groups, made for quite an interesting week. There was one point where we had 3 full coach loads in there, which is about 150 people. It was crazy. Hence my 55 hours. I wonder how many times I'll break that record between now and the end of May.

Just a couple more of the programs. First the school house. This is half of it, the left side looks the same. Except with a shelf instead of the desk and blackboard.

Also, archaeology. I thought I had posted one before, but I couldn't find it after a good 2 minutes of searching, so here it is.

I have a picture of the new Spanish house, but it doesn't have a roof yet so I'll wait until it's more done to post a better picture. The whole no-roof thing may cause us some problems tomorrow, as there appears to be 90% chance of rain. Thursday, 80%. Should be fun. (It literally just started raining as I was typing that sentence. Pouring, in fact. At least I don't have to worry about watering my azaleas this week.) Also, I discovered during my search of previous posts that "museum" is my most commonly used tag for posts. As in, I refer to the museum more than any other individual thing that I write about. Despicable.

my poor little toes

Today was an interesting day. It rained absolutely all day long, and the temperature dropped steadily from about 8:00am on, neither of which I was expecting at all. I was completely unprepared for such crap weather. And the really fun part was that we had groups all day! Yay! I was completely drenched from the legs down by 10am. My top half was only pretty wet, as my poncho was doing a valiant job of trying to keep me dry. But it was pretty hopeless. The worst part was my feet. My boots and socks were soaked, since our parking lot turns into one giant puddle when it rains, and 2 toes on my left foot were actually numb for awhile. I don't know why exactly, because it was probably in the 60s and 50s most of the day, but try telling my toes that. They've been enclosed in warm fuzzy socks for the past 20 minutes, but they're still cold. I hope my shoes dry out by tomorrow.

Another thing that made today interesting: I did my first archaeology program today! I was nervous. I've only watched about 2 1/2 programs total, but I've read all the stuff Lindsay put together and wrote the script that we're going to use to train the guides. I think it went well, actually. The kids seemed interested at least. I'm looking forward to being able to do it again and try out a couple of changes to make it run smoother.

One last interesting thing: Alfred took his state exam today for the real estate class he took last week, and he passed! He was nervous too, but I knew he'd do great. He even caved and had carbs (an entire tortilla!) for lunch today. See, carbs are brain food!

brain dump

No pictures today, far too lazy to go upstairs and turn on Alfred's computer. And no post yesterday because I was far too cranky. Luckily that's not a problem today, I was way too busy at work to get cranky. We had a school show up 90 minutes before their tour was scheduled. They had to eat lunch and go to the bathroom, which left them with about 60 minutes to kill. They let the kids run all around the parking lot, playing football and soccer with empty water bottles, they were roaming the museum, driving us crazy. But not shopping. When we go to (finally) start their tour, their guide tells me they want to shop at the end of the tour and that we have to cut their tours short. So they're going to cut out part of the tour that they're paying for to go shopping, rather than utilize the extra hour they had beforehand, because they don't want the kids to have to carry their stuff around. Fools. Oh well, we were their first stop so they spent a decent amount. But that one school made my entire afternoon nuts. I ate my little tupperware container of overcooked pasta for lunch at about 12:30 while on the phone, then had a piece of cold pizza (the one benefit of having them eat lunch at the museum) at about 3:45. Very healthy. But we had a super healthy and delicious dinner, so that made up for it.

Yesterday we had a family with 10 kids and one on the way at the museum. 9 boys, 1 girl. And the newest addition is a boy, too. Poor girl, she's never going to be able to date because all her brothers will scare away any potential boyfriends. They ranged in age from 17 to 2. The parents homeschool them all, too. Alfred and I decided that's what we want to do, we're going to move to 1000 acres somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, pop out a bunch of kids to help with the chores, and live off the land. I'm excited.

Tonight is hopefully the last night that it's going to go below freezing here. It dropped below freezing a couple of times last week, and the last 2 nights. The wind chill yesterday morning was supposedly about 18 degrees. Holy hell! Best of all, our heat wasn't working at the office yesterday morning, and our power was out entirely this morning. Not the best mornings to not have working heat. Luckily I've been wearing 2 pairs of long underwear under my costumes, so I lived to tell the tale. I have to go back outside and cover up my azaleas again soon. Being a gardener is so taxing.

return of the jogger

For the last 3 weeks the weather has been freaking gorgeous. Sunny, in the 70s, getting into the 80s a few times. All, of course, while we had no school groups at the museum and I was stuck in the office or store all day long. This week we have groups again, and of course it's goddamn freezing and rainy outside. It sucks! This isn't why we live in Florida. Also, speaking of work, I just realized this morning that I never took out my hoop earrings that I put in over Christmas and am not supposed to wear at the museum. Oops. Ha!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I also went jogging this weekend! I knew I did more productive things than cook and take down decorations! I wasn't even all that sore afterwards. It's been a long, long time. Someone accidentally broke the mp3 player that I got for my birthday last year, so I hadn't gone in a long time, but then Alfred got me a new one for my birthday this year, so I have no excuse anymore. I sort of enjoy it, I guess. I don't exactly love it, but I do it. Slowly. It's funny that I ran track in high school. I only did it because a) I wanted to hang out with my friends, and b) it was the only sport (indoor track, not outdoor) that I could do along with dancing. I didn't take it very seriously. Whenever we had Saturday morning practices, we'd run to my (parents') house and eat doughnuts and watch tv until we had to run back to check in at the end of practice. Anyway, I always wonder what I look like when I jog, I see people jogging as I drive to work and some of them look stupid. I hope I don't look too stupid.

gettin' ready

We took a big step towards being ready for Christmas this year: we got a new grill!

The burners on our old grill were shot, so we haven't been able to grill for a couple of months now. It kind of sucks, we weren't able to use the grill for part of the summer, and we usually use it a lot. Luckily Alfred found a good deal on one, but unfortunately we had to put it together ourselves. But we're a good team. It went pretty smoothly, but made a big mess.

Look, my mom's in this picture with me.

Sadly, the inaugural meal on the new grill was sort of a disaster. We made beer can chicken, but left it on the grill way too long. It was all dried out and the skin was completely charred. Disappointing.

The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful. We sat around and relaxed, which was nice. We did clean the house a bit, so we weren't total bums at least. It got freaking cold this weekend. Last week it was in the 80's, today's high was supposed to be in the mid 60's. Sucks. In another day or 2 we'll both have colds. Then we'll go to NY for Thanksgiving and get colds again. Yay!

cold snap

The high today was only 62 here. It got into the 40s last night and will again tonight. We actually had to turn the heat on last night. In other words, it's our equivalent of the first snowfall of the year. Seriously, I saw someone walking outside today in a winter coat and hat. Yeah, it was cold this morning when it was 40-something, but it wasn't that bad, especially in the sun. Crazy Floridians.

Man, I spent so much time trying to photoshop this damn picture that now I'm all worn out. And honestly, I can't really think of anything interesting to say. So look at the picture again, please. Thank you.

hurricane's a-comin!

First, we did get the truck out of the fountain. The limestone got scratched, but the truck was fine. It could have been much worse.

So we've been under a tropical storm warning since this afternoon. The governor declared a state of emergency on Saturday, and the northeast FL red cross is preparing supplies and getting shelters ready. I feel like this is all being blown (ha!) out of proportion a bit. I mean, I can see the Keys being worried, since they're islands and all, and I guess the west coast could be concerned, but really. It's only supposed to be a category 1 when it hits, which isn't all that bad. And as my buddy Jim Cantore has taught me over my years of watching the Weather Channel, it will weaken as it goes over land, so by the time it gets to us it won't even be a hurricane anymore. Like one of my coworkers said today, it'll be like our typical afternoon thunderstorm, only all day long.

Of course, for my first hurricane I totally bought into the hype. I think my first was hurricane Charley though, which hit as (I think) a category 5. Worthy of my attention. I stocked up on bottled water and canned food. We still have about 2/3 of the food I bought, 4 years later. Oops. We did lose power for two of the other storms that summer, and between that summer and the following summer I got lots of hurricane practice. Here's an action-packed video of hurricane Frances.



Not as exciting as when the weather channel shows it. And for some reason when I try to put the slideshow in this post it messes everything up. I need to find a new photo hosting site to use for slideshows. Anyway, below this is a bunch of hurricane pictures. I love this stuff!

hurricane slideshow

order completed

It hasn't rained in months. When does it start to rain? Just as our shipment was being delivered. Of course.

It went pretty smoothly, all things considered. I've had to make way too many phones calls because of people bitching at me and other people screwing things up, but (almost) everything has been delivered, and part of it has even been paid for. And we got to spend a good chunk of the day out of the office! We didn't get here until about 3! Awesome!

So it was kind of funny, the house these were being delivered to is literally next door to a country club. Across the street is the golf course. You can actually see a golf cart in the background of this picture. So this huge flat bed truck has to back in, through the country club's parking lot, and then park on the 1 lane road that leads to the 15 or so houses that are back there. I swear, every single person who lived back there drove in or out in the 2 1/2 hours or so that he was there. There was also a lawn service, a bug service, and UPS. Alfred was directing traffic for awhile, he got bitched at a couple times, but what do you really expect from Republicans?

In completely unrelated news, Robyn made blondies (brownies without the chocolate, kind of like cookies in bar form) for dessert last night. They were slightly undercooked, so the insides were all gooey and warm and delicious. I didn't even want to know how many sticks of butter the recipe called for. Oh dear Lord they were delicious. (Disclaimer: this picture is not of Robyn's blondies. But they look good, eh?) We were there for lunch today too, let's just say that I single handedly ate about a third of the 9x13 pan between the two meals. I could have kept going. I may not have much willpower, but I at least scraped up a little. But I didn't eat breakfast today, so that makes up for it, right? And we went to the gym this morning. (Speaking of which, the main trainer there has been wearing jeans the last couple of Fridays. He's in his 40s maybe, really short, but dang he looks good in those jeans. Sorry Alfred.)

let's go to the beach!

So I had part of an easter cookie and split a piece of cake with Katie last night, and this morning I had lost 1 1/2 pounds! I can work with that.

We dropped Katie off at the airport this morning, she's going home for a long weekend. Apparently it snowed there last night and is only supposed to get into the 40s the whole time she's there. The whole time we were in the car they were doing weather reports like every 5 minutes, saying how it's going to be a gorgeous weekend, 80s every day, clear skies. Man, were they rubbing it in! By the way, for all you cold weather people, this is the beach by our house. Doesn't it look nice and warm? If you came to visit, you could go here. Katie is going to be back home for the summer, so if you come then, we have a great place you can stay!

I meant to mention this yesterday, when we were driving to work (with our windows open since it was so nice out, of course) we kept smelling this very particular smokey smell on and off. We suspected the car in front of us had something to do with it, but when we passed them at one point we didn't see anything. Then they got in front of us again and we smelled it some more. Finally we passed them again, and the driver was holding a rather distinctive little cigarette. I didn't know people actually did things like that, at 10am no less. I don't understand the appeal of driving, wouldn't you rather be at home on your couch, all comfy? Not that I would know personally, of course. I'm far too pure and innocent.

why you should move to florida

Because the high today is 83. In March. That's awesome. Never mind that the high tomorrow is only 66. Actually, that's pretty good too, compared to New York or Minnesota. Weather.com says it's only 74 right now though so we'll see. Moving to Florida would also mean living near me, which means you'd get to see things like this more often. I'm awesome. You know you all miss me.

The only problem with it being warm out is that when our building's AC kicks on, it kicks on hard. Yesterday it was in the low 70's outside, and inside it was 72. Today it's going into the 80's, and right now our office is 69. I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt but I'm cold. (Maybe if I got off my ass once in awhile I'd be warm, but who can be bothered to move around.) Really, this is a problem most of the year. If you dress for the weather when it's 90 and humid, you're wearing shorts and a tank top, but any building you go into has the AC set to like 60. I end up carrying a sweatshirt with me everywhere I go. I'm like a little old lady.

The other problem with warmer weather is the damn mosquitoes. I'm not looking forward to them returning. They love my sweet northern blood.

At lunch today I ordered the Stromboli for Two (I had no choice, there was no Stromboli for One.) The waitress gave me a funny look. I told her I really like leftovers. About 2/3 of it is currently in the fridge at the office. It's big and long (that's what she said!)

P.S. Need a movie? These people can help!