7.31.2007

It's getting closer...




They aren't kidding about flight delays.

We spent too many hours to count in airports on Sunday trying to get home. Flights were delayed and cancelled all day and ours kept getting pushed further and further back. But they weren't cancelled completely and we really needed to get home, so we stuck it out. In the Syracuse airport we found out at 4pm that our 5:15 flight was very much delayed. They gave us a "wheels up" time of 9:15pm. But you weren't allowed to leave the terminal, because if they got an earlier time they would leave without you. So everyone just sat there. For hours. They closed all of the eateries around 6pm, so you couldn't even get a beverage or some food. It was BORING. And, of course, we didn't leave until after 9:10pm. Ugh. We made it home in the very early hours of the morning. I guess we can be glad we made it home, but still. We were exhausted.

At any rate, Ted had a good time at his reunion and I had a riot hanging with the fam. It was gorgeous weather--perfect for hanging out poolside. I also got my trial hair run taken care of for the wedding and it came out a billion times better than I had imagined! So, that was cool.

Here's some highlights of my portion of the weekend:


I came home for lunch the other day and went inside my closet to change. Mortimer was sitting in this basket on the higest shelf in there...just looking at me like "What?"


A cute one of Mindy and Teaguer


Teague and Friends


Bella showing off, and quite possibly traumatizing, a frog she found


G.B. Dub basking in the glow of everyone together for the weekend

7.24.2007

When the Cat's Away

Ted is at a conference this week and I have been geeking out with my two latest obsessions:


The Legend of Zelda, NES


Dr. Mario, NES


If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. They just don't make video games like they used to.
Some Home Goodies:

I bought these fabulous additions to the kitchen today!



As most of you know, I have a strange affinity for roosters and chickens. To be honest, I'm not quite sure when all of this started. When I was younger I used to have a habit of callling people "silly chickens," so I think the attraction can be traced back quite far. At any rate, I do love them and have built up a nice little collection.

Now I just need to pony up the $18 for this to make my day complete. I love me some Anthropologie...why do they have to be so expensive??

7.23.2007

Delicious Fall Wedding Goodness.

Mmmmmm...the fall stuff is starting to come out. Saw these today and had to have them for the wedding. It's a sickness.

7.19.2007

J Crew Rocks.

So, did you guys know that if you see something you want in J Crew, but they are out of your size, that you can have them order it from the catalog for you and ship it free of charge to your house? You didn't? Well, you can. And they will.

And did you know that if said item is on backorder, they will search all of the stores in the states in 48 hours, and if they find the item you need they will ship it to your house for free? They will!

I saw a sweater on Monday that will really tie an outfit of mine together. But they didn't have my size and it was on backorder until sometime in August. But I want it now! So they apparently found one in Chicago and it was on my doorstep today. That's pretty awesome.

Just thought you should know.
Learning Sucks.

So, as most of you know, Ted is getting his master's in English. He started with a class in January. He also moved and started a new job and has been helping to save and plan for a wedding. He got an A first semester. Then his first summer session started. They only last a few weeks and are a whirlwind of information, reading, and projects. He pretty much had to come home from work and do more work. He was sad. I was bored. He got another A. We were happy. His second summer session started TWO DAYS after his first session ended. TWO DAYS. This is crazy. The first night of class he had piles of paper printed out and was going through a three page "check list" of items to complete for his first week of homework. I thought it was a bit much. I asked if his teacher was on crack and we had a good laugh. The following weeks brought more of the same, but he has managed.

Tonight, however, he didn't get home from work until about 6:30--an hour later than usual. When I asked him what he had to stay late for, he produced this:




This, ladies and gentlemen, is his reading assignments for the last week of class. That's just the reading. He still has projects and checklists and blog entries and chatroom discussions to complete.

I stand firm by my proclamation that his professor is on crack. I'm not sure I could finish all of that reading in an entire semester, let alone in one week of class! And go to work. And finish the layout of a magazine. And go to a conference in Nashville.

When we were in college, I used to do my best friend Becky's homework for her Friday morning class so that we could go out on Thursday nights. I've offered my services to Ted, but so far he hasn't bitten.

Poor Ted. Learning sucks. At least we know he'll get an A. My boy's wicked smaht.

7.16.2007

Pushin' Forty.

We went to Myrtle Beach this weekend for Ted's birthday and had a blast despite the crazy weather. I don't know what it is with us and the beach, but we are destined to be rained upon whenever we go. It's been boiling here for the past 2 months and we've been in a drought. As soon as Ted and I get within view of the ocean, however, a tropical windstorm rolls through.

We got to the beach around 10pm on Friday night and after a slight debacle with our hotel involving not being able to find the check-in area, getting a room with no towels, no working phones, and beds that felt like sheets of plywood, we settled in with some much needed cable and a not-so-plywood-resembling bed. Deadliest Catch was on, so all of our previous frustrations about our arrival melted away as we watched the Time Bandit and friends navigate through Dutch Harbor.


View from our delightful replacement room





Saturday brought more hot and humid weather, for awhile anyway. We went down to the "strip" to replace my boogie board (a casualty in the beach camping disaster of 2007) and check out the junk in the stores. We then grabbed some breakfast at a pancake house just in time to see the rain, thunder, and lightning roll in. I was bummed, as I had been planning on "beaching it" the majority of the day. We watched the lightning hit the ocean from a parking lot and soon the weather began to break and the sun came out. We spent some time on the beach waiting for the all clear to go swimming, and then ran back to the hotel to get our gear.



It may not look it, but it was perfect beach weather. The sun wasn't beating down on you, but it was plenty warm, and the ocean was the perfect temperature.



T-Bone enjoys the surf


We ended up having great weather on the beach for a few hours, and had just started packing up when it began to rain again. This time there was some minor flooding as the rain cascaded down. It was so bad out that we decided to forego a nice dinner out and possible drenched bar hopping for some pizza and beer in the hotel room. We were both exhausted from the overdose of sun and salt and welcomed a night of just lounging around the hotel room and watching TV.


Ready for our wild night on the town


Sunday brought the sun again and we made a bee line for South of the Border so Ted could get his fireworks fix.


The happiest place on earth?


Ted's Graceland


The purchases


We also had some fun in the hat store.






True story: As we are getting ready to head to the car, a couple is standing near us looking baffled. They were your stereotypical yuppie-type couple. I think they were driving a Mini Cooper and had sweaters tied around their necks. Anyway, the guy looks at us all serious and says "This place is really cheesy, huh?" as if they had pulled off the interstate expecting to see Starbucks and a JCrew outlet. Instead they found "Fort Pedro Fireworks" and "Pedro's T-Shirt Shop," and it wreaked of urine and cheap hot dogs. Ted and I exclaimed "Yeah!" and sort of looked at them like "Were you expecting anything else?" They just looked really confused and got in their car and left.


It was a good trip.

7.10.2007

This one goes out to my brother...

Teaguer, if you're reading this, do you remember this game??




I got Ted this video game compilation for his birthday and let him open it early because I was bored and hoping he'd let me play it. He fired it up last night and we stumbled upon "Sky Kid" which I immediately remembered playing as a kid once I saw the screen and heard the music. We had a riot, and I won't tell you how long we played for, but I will mention that I can barely move my hands this morning from video game control overuse. I love it that these companies are bringing back the classics to play on the new machines! It makes your brain explode a little bit because you aren't using the old school controllers that your hands and thumbs remember, but you get the hang of it quickly. I've said it before and I'll say it again...they just don't make video games like they used to. Hit me with an old Nintendo classic any day.

Teaguer, if you're bored, I suggest you pick this one up!

7.09.2007

I was bored.

So I took my cousin Emily's quiz on her MySpace page. I bombed it with a 30%. I knew, like her middle name, and guessed right on a couple others. So sad.

So I made one of my own! Take it if you dare!(and if you feel like filling out all the crap required to take it...)

Testriffic Quiz Your Friends
Create your own Friend Quiz here

7.07.2007

New Art.

I've been collecting a bunch of different prints to frame and hang throughout the house, and finally got a few more put up the other day.

This first one totally reminded me of living and going to school in London. I finished up 3rd grade there in the 80's and the majority of our curriculum focused on World War II. We learned quite a bit about propaganda and the local war campaign posters that talked about how "Careless talk costs lives."


Poster from 1939 "Careless Talk Costs Lives" campaign


I have been fascinated with the World War II era ever since and even took a Nazi Germany course in college. While surfing the internet a couple of months ago, I ran across this poster at this bookstore and was reminded of my days in London studying the war. I immediately purchased it and hung it in our "old time tribute" hallway outside of the loft.



There's a little history about the poster at this site, along with other products for sale with the slogan on them.

Ted and I have sort of a "Japanese Art" theme going on in our bedroom, and were thrilled to find some pieces to add to our collection at a poster store in Philly. As soon as Ted saw this print, he had to have it.




I am totally in love with Matte Stephens' art and have been eyeing his Etsy shop for awhile. I finally decided that I needed to get myself one of his prints before he totally blew up and I couldn't afford them anymore. Besides, he had this one of the coolest owl, and as y'all know, I've been into owls lately. Love it! I want so many of his prints...I really dig his style.

7.04.2007

The 4th.

We finally took the bike ride we've been wanting to take for over a year! Ted got all crazy, I think it was last summer, and spruced up our bikes for us with the idea that we would take fabulous bikes rides together and get some good 'ol fresh air and exercise.

Then, we forgot or something.

When we moved into the new house Ted mapped out the local neighborhoods and found some nice bike riding areas that we could get to without crossing or riding on any main roads (people down south have no idea how to drive safely). We bought a bike rack when we were organizing the garage and our bikes have been neatly racked and ready to ride for months.

Again, we forgot. Or didn't feel like it.

A few weeks ago we took them down off the rack one night and rode down our road a little bit. It was dark, so we didn't go far, but it was enough to give us a taste of what we were missing.

We finally took a real bike ride today, for about an hour, all around our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods. And it was awesome. It was gorgeous out today. A bit on the hot side, but with a breeze here and there, and there are a lot of little hills around us, so once you got some speed you felt pretty good. We both had our ipods on and we just cruised around, street to street, checking out the local yards and homes. It was really fun. There were a couple of beastly hills on the way back and I actually had to sit down in the garage and catch my breath when we got back home. We were all excited about the fun and exercise we had and kept remarking how we were so glad we went and couldn't believe it had taken us so long.

Then we passed out on the couch.

It was classic.


Ted shows off the 'cycles


Ready to Roll


There were, of course, fireworks in our town tonight, so we grabbed some blankets, stopped for our favorite milkshakes, and headed downtown to catch the show. It was nice, as always, and we got the itch (as we often do) to set off our own fireworks show when we got home. During the beach camping debacle of June 2007, Ted had picked up one of those giant packs of fireworks that they sell in the grocery stores down here (you New Yorkers don't know what I'm talking about, but just imagine one of those cellophane wrapped display cases of assorted fireworks you can get at the roadside stands as you drive through the southern states). We set up the new camera that doesn't belong to us, moved the cars out of the driveway and got to work. It was a nice little show and we had ourselves a riot out there. I even had some morning glories and sparklers for nostalgia, and it went down pretty much as it did when I was young: I'd light one or two of them off, watch them burn, and then get bored with just one at a time and start lighting off a box at a time. Needless to say, our show didn't last long.

All in all, a wonderful 4th of July. Hope y'all had a good time too.