The Latest.

38 weeks today and no baby yet. We're not talking about that anymore. Must. Concentrate. On. Something. Else.

So, some pictures of what we've been up to the past month or so:


We saw Dave Attell at the local comedy club and he was high-larious. We love this comedy club because if you go and have dinner before the show you get priority seating...in a super small venue. So basically you get to sit a few feet away from the comedian. It's so much fun.


Teague & Mindy

The T-Bone and I

I have also managed to pack my bag for the hospital, but not without the help of our inspector Mortimer. He made sure I had enough socks and undies and that I wasn't forgetting anything.




Thaaaaaat's pretty much it. At all other times I can be found on the couch eating watermelon or pacing the house in the middle of the night wishing for an early labor. But we're not talking about that anymore.

Stop Thief!

Ted (also known as "Captain Obsession") has apparently been wanting to get a copy of an old board game that he loved as a kid. I wasn't really aware of this quest until his precious copy arrived on the doorstep, courtesy of some Ebay sniping.



He was very excited to play a round and we brought it to Teague and Mindy's last weekend to see if we could entice them. True to Ted's word, it's a totally rad game and I feel myself becoming obsessed with it as well. We played again this weekend and had a riot. I hope everyone else had a great 4th of July!

Depicting the Latest.

Here's an update as to what we've been up to lately...in picture form:

First of all, a few weeks ago Ted had a boys' trip to Myrtle Beach with his boyfriends from hockey. Those crazy cats decided that it was a "mustache required" event this year, so they all set out to grow a juicy 'stache. Ted hadn't shaved since the wedding, preferring to kick it with a full beard at work and then shave down to the mustache once he arrived in Myrtle Beach. Shave he did, and when he returned home on Sunday I couldn't help cracking up and snapping this shot. The 70's cop throwback sunglasses really complete the look, don't you think??



We rented a cabin in the mountains of Asheville, NC with our neighbors for Thanksgiving. It was rad--3 bedrooms, full kitchen, fireplace, big screen TV, and a hot tub. Sweet. We got up there Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday. No one wanted to leave and we even contemplated putting our deposit down for next year.



A view of the gorgeous scenery:




Sign on the door of the corner store:




We took a drive one day and came across this pretty overlook:





Ted enjoys reading the graffiti on signs and we all got a kick out of this particular nugget as we looked closer:



The weather was perfect fall weather...a sweater and light coat was perfect for being outdoors. We found a great place to hike and got some cute shots along the way:





When we weren't out exploring we were playing games. Board games? Yes. But mostly? Nintendo. Yup. Old school NES. Paul and I got to reminiscing about the old Power Pad and the Olympic Track Meet game. All that's left to say is that we happened upon a used video game store and I'm about $60.00 poorer. The Power Pad? 8 bucks. Deal of the century. It works like a charm too...except I think I've gotten a bit too old for these shenanigans as I seem to have thrown my back out doing hurdles...

The Married Couple.

Ted and I are settling into the married routine and enjoying the post-wedding experience. I'd like to say that we have a lot of downtime now that the wedding is over, but to be honest we are busier than we were in the months leading up to the wedding! I think once Christmas is over things will settle down again, but Ted is convinced that we will be busy for the next five years. Oh Ted.

Here's a recent picture of "the married us."

The Tournament

We had a Dr. Mario tournament on Saturday with our neighbors Stephanie and Paul. It was an absolute riot! Paul is pretty much the king of Dr. Mario, but the rest of us held our own.



We brought an extra TV downstairs to the living room and Paul and Stephanie brought over their NES and game. We set up two stations so that all four of us could be playing simultaneously. It was so much fun.








Once we had overdosed on Nintendo, we played a really fun card/word game called "Quiddle." It's a lot like Scrabble or Boggle, but you get cards with letters on them and need to make as many words with your hand as possible. Ted wanted me to be sure to get a picture of the score sheet for the blog since he was the big winner:



We were up until all hours of the morning talking and playing more Nintendo games. It was a blast and I hope we get to do it again soon.

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.

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.

Just Because I Can.

Our favorite comedian Brian Regan has a new special on Comedy Central (that we can't watch because we don't have cable...silly wedding). We love him. You will too. I'm all about putting videos in my posts lately. Good times.

Not Really About The House.

It sort of started off that way though. I was browsing Repro Depo for some cool new fabric. I came across this, which I thought was really cute:



Until I looked closer and realized that the racoon appears to be on fire. I immediately sent it off to Bek and Ted to confirm the weirdness. They in turn pointed out that not only does he appear to be on fire, he is also dead and bound in front of the house and drowning in water. Ted got on the case quickly and found that the fabric is based on a whacked out Japanese fairy tale about a "racoon dog" Tanuki that terroizes a man and his wife and is eventually tortured by the rabbit that is depicted. You can read all about it here.

So then Bek started talking about a character called "Gloomy Bear" which her friend who is living in Japan had told her about. I found some more information about it here. We've now been passing emails back and forth all afternoon about how crazy these characters are and making jokes about pimping out our babies nurseries in this stuff. I was cracking up over this whole Gloomy Bear character, so I did some more research and found this GEM over here. Go ahead, click on it! I know this post has been full of links and you might be tired of it, but FOR REAL. You've gotta see this.

Here's another good one Ted found. Watch it for a few seconds...

You can read more and see a few more links at Bek's site too.

Anyone know of any other crazy fairy tales or toys that are this violent? I mean, I know the old school fairy tales always had some strange violence in them (Hansel and Gretel is one of the best), but this Japanese one is CRAZY.

Anyway, it's been a MOST productive day, as you can see!

Weekend Events

We had a great weekend! We were invited to a BBQ at our neighbor's house on Friday night. There were 4 other young couples there and we had an absolute riot! We couldn't believe it when we looked at the clock and it was 11:30...it was sad to see the party break up. We met some great people and hope to get together with them again soon.

We've actually become fairly good friends with our neighbors Paul and Stephanie. They came with us to see a free concert in Raleigh on Saturday night and we had a great time. We have plans to go camping at the beach with them next weekend which should be a blast. It's fun to finally have some other couples our age to hang out with!

We spent some time in the yard Saturday afternoon. We've made a little more progress with the grass, but still have some patches. Ugh. It's rained a lot today, so we're hoping that helps things along a bit as well. I hooked up my little gnome sprinkler finally. I've had it for years, but have never hooked it up to a hose. I was pleased to see it works...so cute!


Click on the photo to see a larger view of the lawn progress

The gnome sprinkler!

Ted gets busy in the dust bowl...

And now for the gratuitous cat photos:



When we returned from Philly we found that Morty had developed an addiction. We are planning an intervention.

Inaugural Grill

We got the propane tank filled and fired up the grill for the first time last night! We had some delicious veggie burgers and some steamed corn. Mmmm. The grill is awesome. It heats up really quickly and is just plain adorable as it cooks our dinner. We've been tossing around all sorts of ideas about what we can grill next...





In wild animal news, we have two wild animals living with us in the house. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Ted has been dying to have cats that will go outside on leashes. This experiment failed last summer when he bought halters for the two cats and took them outside the apartment. They both cried and cowered the entire time, just hoping they would be brought back inside soon. Since we've moved to the house, however, they've changed their tune. Either one of them can be found staring out various windows throughout the day. We found some cute collars in their size at the store the other night and Ted insisted we get them and bring "the kids" outside again. Now they love it out there. They don't want to come back in. When we go to open the door, they run at it full speed hoping to escape into the fabulous green world they've only ever dreamed about through the window. Ted has now created a monster:


The view from outside looking in: Morty screams for freedom

AWOL

Mortimer cried and threw himself at the windows for a good half hour after we brought him in last night. Trying to reason with a cat is a challenging task, but I think Mortimer and I have reached an understanding. Going outside is a "privilege," not a "right." He needs to clean up his act if he wants to be treated to some supervised roaming time outside. He screamed "You're ruining my life!" and slammed his bedroom door in a tantrum, but he'll come around to the "As long as you're living under my roof, you'll obey my rules" mentality soon enough. His sister was smart enough to keep her mouth shut and let Morty take the fall. Sigh. Kids.

Zzzzz.

Being out in the sun all weekend has made me exhausted. Ted had a school project to work on today, so I was out in the yard solo finishing up yesterday's project. I think it has turned out pretty well. We'd like to find something to use as a border, but are both very picky about what to use, so we'll have to take some time to find the right stone or brick. It's amazing what a little landscaping can do for a yard though and I'm looking forward to tackling some more projects in the future.


Here's an old "before" picture



Here's a look at Ted's magazine holders all stained and being utilized! He did a great job! Next up, shelves for the garage??