Catching Up

Well, the last week has been pretty interesting and full of stories to tell! It didn't start until Thursday, obviously, but that night we had Strike Out which was a huge hit! The girls did a really great job organizing it (they did a bowling tourney) and it went off without a hitch. Lizzy and I went and hung out for a while, kept an eye on things, but bailed early since they obviously had everything under control and we had things to do in the morning.

Friday, I went out to Stone Mountain to meet with India, Becky, and Danielle to check out the potential venue for formal! I'm really excited, I can't say anything because we haven't announced it to the chapter (and I think some of the girls check my blog from Facebook, at the very least have the opportunity to!) but WOW it's going to be great!! I'll put up the picture of me, India, and Danielle with all the details as soon as it gets announced because I am super pumped. I do get the joy of checking names at the door, and imparting the severity of misbehaviour on our night of frivolity, but it should still be a blast.

We went out for lunch afterwards at Applebees (first time ever at an Applebees) where I had some not-half-bad hot wings. After that, I went to the PO and got all the rest of my baby presents shipped off and picked up postage for save the dates, which got dropped at the PO tonight. I also went by Target and found my wedding invitations! They're really cute, flat white invitations with a black ribbon that go in to little silver pockets. I'm very excited-- they're about $15/pack more than I originally wanted, but they're definitely the style I want. I'm really excited!

Saturday was the super exciting day-- it started with a Foundation breakfast at 9a (ungodly time for a Saturday breakfast, IMO) to which I drove in the pouring, nay torrential, rain that we got all day long. The breakfast was nice, and I met some really great women, and the food was tres magnifique!

After the breakfast, I went for brunch with some of my old high school friends who are still around. Emily (who went to Rhodes with me, we actually didn't get along at ALL in High School), Catherine, and Meg (who just had the baby) met me at Carpe Diem and we hung out for hours. Catherine and I got there first, and thought bottomless mimosas would be an awesome idea...

To the right, there is the regular mimosa Emily got... in the foreground, the first of mine and Catherine's drinks. We had four. And over at Carpe Diem, they make true to their name-- we probably drank at least a bottle of champagne each!! It didn't quite hit us until the third round that there was way more champagne in our drinks than OJ or peach (since I switched to bellinis) and we had about two to three times the drink Emily did! The food, of course, was freaking awesome. Carpe Diem's a little on the pricey side, but it's always worth it. I only had a biscut and some grits since I'd eaten at the breakfast, but I munched off of Catherine's french toast and Emily's head-sized omlette (Meg didn't have leftovers... that whole breastfeeding mom thing!) so I still had plenty to eat. We all felt like old ladies by the end of it because all we talked about was babies, birth control (Catherine's going to start trying to get pregnant in June!!), weddings, and toddler poop. We passed baby Vi around before she fell asleep, which she did quickly and quietly-- I know she's only a month old, but she's so easy, we were all impressed. Meg says she barely cries, just kind of chills out and eats like a good little girl! The waitress to a picture of us all for posterity, it's probably one of my favorite recent photographs!

After that, we went to Catherine's and met her puppy, Bruno, a miniature pinscher who is absolutely adorable. I mean, terrifying... yeah, terrifying, right Caq? She and Emily went to see her family and her old, sick cat, and I went home to take a nap.. thanks bottomless mimosas... I ended up sleeping for four hours and missing the staff meeting, but it wasn't that big of a deal. The only painful part was the champagne catching up to me... I don't drink it often enough to really remember that I don't get along with champagne... at all. Not even the really good stuff! Prosecco for me, thank you very much!

Sunday, I went down to Columbus, GA for a Foundation talk at the new chapter down there-- it was really exciting to meet a chapter who hadn't even taken their membership exam yet, I've never been to one that young! They also just had their first Strike Out and raised over $1100 for Arthritis Research!!! Gooooo CSU AOII! On my way back, I picked up an adaptor for my laptop plug so I could listen to music while I drive (since it's only $30 and a new radio/cd player is like $150+) and jammed all the way back up 85N!

Thursday morning, I'm leaving for Memphis to go to Heather's birthday dinner, and the hockey game, and see some of my friends up there. I'm really excited, as much as I dislike Memphis, I really do miss my friends a lot. Next Thursday, I head down to Florida to see Jeremy!! Yaaay! I'll have two good bottles of wine and I'm going to pick up some fish when I'm down there and make a delicious dinner for him.

Now, however, it's time for bed. I'm up about three hours later than I meant to be... I gotta stop snacking before I go to bed-- I spend too much time eating chips and salsa!

Ciao for now, dears!

Just FYI

I promise I'll update more tonight after work! I've actually been kinda busy this last week, which is good, so I'm going to briefly study for this beer quiz I know I'm going to get and then head to work... not entirely thrilled about it, but there's something to look forward to at the end of the week so I'm all for it!

Emma Kathryn Parry

Born Thursday, March 26 at 930a, 8lbs even! No pictures of her or Austin yet, but I'm so excited for Pat!

*adds to list of baby presents to send*

Baby Girl Parry!!

Wow! Pat's baby girl is here now, too! First Vi, then Austin, now BGP (who very possibly may be named Jane), Krystal-- you're next!

Austin Masters

My friend Kim (whose wedding we went to last summer) had her baby boy this morning!!

Born March 25, 2009 at 745a-- 7lbs, 7oz and 20 inches long.

Auntie Meg can't wait to meet him! I'm so very excited for them, I know Nick is just so excited he can't stand it!

In other news, my room is littered with baby things. I need to get Violet's stuff (oh, and Meg and Michael decided on Violet Genevieve) to the K's and Cy's stuff to Krystal and now Austin's stuff to Kim and Nick! WHOO Babies!

Yawn

Last night at work was really good, actually. I worked with Derek, a returning cook, and he's a really cool guy. We're a lot alike, literature freaks, stress problems, it was pretty awesome. Still makes Mondays my favorite day to work! Not that I don't like Ozzi, but Jon and Derek and I have more to talk about when it's slow.

Not much else going on, trying to figure out the travel plans over the next month since my calendar is quickly filling up! Next weekend I'll either be in Memphis or Daytona, the weekend after that will be wherever I'm not next weekend. After that, sisterhood retreat, then a free weekend, then we're in to May and formal week for the girls, Rhodes graduation, and all sorts of other stuff! I'm glad to have the distractions, but goodness gracious! I haven't heard back about the summer camp job yet, so I guess I'm going to start filling out applications tonight for other summer camps. I really like Palate, and I'd be sad to leave, but I really have to get something else going on.

Speaking of which, there's this really cool continuing education thing that Agnes has started up with Verb-- they have a course that's totally up my alley where you learn about writing critical reviews of food, wine/drink, and travel from the head critic at the AJC. It's $250, but when I hear about the camp job I may decide to go for it. It's Thursday nights at 6, but I might be able to work it even with the camp job. If not, I won't be working Thursdays, so it won't be a problem. Guess we'll see!

That's about all for now. I finished Six Feet Under (the finale for which was quite redeeming) and am getting my Dexter fix with season 2, and I'm about a season and a half away from finishing Angel. After that, thanks to Joe's magical number picking prowess, I start up with Desperate Housewives to see if it really did go downhill after season 1 (which was the only season I watched on TV).

Oh, and this week's waits: Role Models, The White Countess, NUMB3RS Season 2, Scrubs Season 4, Nick Frost's Danger! 50,000 volts!, Namastey London, Northern Exposure Season 1, Pineapple Express, and Quarantine.

Ciao for now, dear readers! With luck, more interesting stuff will come up later this week ;)

WHOOO ALPHA FAMILY!!!!

Just because I can't find my jersey (and haven't been able to for years-- I'm SO SORRY Martha!!!!) doesn't mean I can't show my pride for the bestest Alpha family around!! From my grand big Swiggett, to my big sis Martha, my AWESOME littles Lauren, Caroline, and Cate, and my grand littles Valisa and Jill! We're the John Deere Darlins and we ROCK!

I miss you girls! I can't wait to see you all again-- and to meet you, Jill!

Spring has Sprung

Daffodil outside Palate

Heee

The upside of the starter being dead is that I didn't have to take dad to the doctor this morning (he rescheduled for April anyway, for the eye embolism thingy) so I've been all over BSG all day long. The marathon goes straight through to the series finale tonight, so that's just about 12 hours straight! It's been fun because I have a few other friends doing the same thing so we've been talking all day and laughing at some of the funny little things they do.

Where my wisdom teeth were is hurting really badly, like it did before I had them all taken out, which was supposed to fix them. The oral surgeon was convinced it was my molars (all four of my back molars need to be crowned thanks to that horrible horrible dentist from back in the day) that were causing the pain, but it's more of an ache. It throbs and stays with me, I really dislike it. From what I hear, if it were something to do with the roots or nerves, it would hurt a lot worse than this, it would require major painkillers. This feels better when I chew gum or something, kind of like when you have an itch that feels better when you scratch it.

Also, there is a preview for Fast and the Furious (4) which will come out next month... I'm thinking Jeremy and I might have to break our no movies rule and go see it when I go down to see him at the beginning of the month! I did get my tax return today, so I'm going to let it sit and earn interest for a short while, then leave some there, pay off completely one of my credit cards, and buy my ticket to Austin to see Dill this summer!! Whatever's left will go back to savings to sit there for the wedding and moving.

Congrats for making it this far, I know my tooth pain and penchant for cheesy movies is totally what everyone wants to hear about. I have been considering going to grad school if we end up in Memphis next year. I don't know much about U of M's graduate programs, but if we're in Memphis it's because I couldn't find a job, so going to grad school would be something to do and it would help defer my loans further so we could pay down Jeremy's (which has the higher interest rate). I've been considering a lot of different graduate programs, but I think I'd really like to study linguistics. It's a subject that's always really grabbed my attention, something that I think is at the root of everything we analyze and are confused about in the world. I'm sure there are other things that would be fun, journalism say, but I think linguistics would really challenge my brain and I would really enjoy it.

Oh, well, off to make dinner. Ciao for now!

Wonderful night

Went to the wine tasting at Palate tonight which was an absolute blast. It was a dueling distributors kind of setup-- Leslie, Craig, and Jeff were there so entertainment was endless. Emily came and joined me, and we met a couple of nice older gentlemen (Bill and Steve) who joined us and taught us a little about wine and provided good conversation. Bill works for the Nat'l Park Service, which was interesting since he seemed to be OK with parks land being exploited for oil exploration, but he was very nice and there seemed to be a mutual move past the point and on to something more interesting so off we went. Craig ended up with the best wine, a Spanish varietal which was almost extinct. It had the nose of a sweeter wine, like a muscat, but an interesting, tangy, tart kind of finish to it. I can't recall the exact name at the moment, but it was really great.

Not much else going on. I took the battery to get checked and charged and that's not the problem, so it means the starter is gone. Thankfully, my tax refund should be in tomorrow or Monday, so I can get the starter taken care of this weekend. It'll be about $140, which isn't too bad in the big picture, and it's only the second original part that's been replaced that didn't have anything to do with the accident-- the other of which was the alternator two years ago. I went by Target today and picked up some new socks, though I was really sad about the clearance St. Patty's day knee socks-- they didn't fit at all! They were soooo soft, I was excited, but sadly it was not meant to be. There were some other little ankle socks like the kind I wear that were on clearance, so their softness will suffice for now. I'm considering getting some of the little knitted slippers they had on clearance, too-- I just want something to wear around the house/in bed. I still have the monkeys Jeremy got me, but they're not really bed-worthy slippers.

That's about all for now, off to watch some Angel and fall asleep. Ciao!

For old time's sake

Because everyone loves this stuff




Also, La Fheile Padraig!! Erin go Bragh!

To quote Paula Abdul

Two steps forward, two steps back.

I decided today that I would start looking at jobs for summer camp counselors-- I loved summer camp as a kid, and I love kids, I think it would be a lot of fun! I started by e-mailing First Baptist, where I went to pre-school and summer camp and was a junior counselor to see if they still had openings, and then went on to check out a lot of the Girl Scout camps since that was my other experience. I remember hating a couple of my counselors, but I loved the rest-- the ones that actually cared about us and weren't there (we found out later) just to steal all the a/v equipment... apparently they didn't do such great background checks 15 years ago!

Well, I got fantastic news-- First Baptist (which is right up the street) hasn't filled all their positions yet!! I'm going in probably Thursday morning for an interview, and I'm hoping that I'll totally ace it and they'll hire me straight up. I know you don't make tons of money as a counselor, but since most camps generally pay $7-10/hr I'm sure FBC will meet that standard and it'll land me $250-400 a week depending. I'm really excited, it would be a challenge since I've had a pretty sedentary life for the last nine months or so, but it would be a good challenge. There would be a good chance to get some physical activity in and make some new friends, and try to make summer camp as awesome for some of these kids as it was for me.

Of course, after this great news, I went out aaaand my car won't start. The starter is dead. Now, it's something David thinks he can fix, but it's still something else that I have to buy and even though I'm not quite rolling in it, I was getting to a point where I was managing things quite well! I shake my fist at you universe!

Work was actually good, even though I only made $1. Derek stopped by, who is really quite awesome. He works at Palate right now, but he's had a pretty varied history. Got his BA in English, went through and got his Masters and PhD as well, so we talked a lot about literature and different classes-- it was really awesome. When he taught, he did a class on literature and film, and he specialized in American Lit, specifically Faulkner who is one of my favorite American authors ever. Most nights that pull so low don't have such great company, but I really loved just hanging out with Jon and Derek.

Anyway, I'm off to try to go to bed. I have to get up and clean the stove, do some room stuff, dress up my resume, and get some festive socks for work....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!! Erin Go Bragh!

Sunday, rainy Sunday

The weather continues to be February-like here, which means drizzly and in the 40's. Easily my most despised weather pattern ever. Not warm enough to only wear a cardigan or a quarter sleeve shirt, but not cold enough to wear a coat. Bah.

Went to get my nose pierced and Melanie had left to go back to Macon, which nobody told Mark who informed Emily she'd be there later since she took MARTA. When we showed up, the other piercer had come by to grab something and was like, "Oh, you didn't know? She's back in Macon for family stuff." We hung out and talked to Mark for a while, then went to Ru San's and pigged out on sushi-- stuffed myself with leftovers for $10! I like places like that not just because I don't want to spend a billion dollars on food, but because I can leave a $5 tip on $10 and be a) generous, and b) actually help the establishment by eating there and treating the waitstaff proportionally well.

You know, unlike the people who come to see me and spend all their money on food and leave a 10% tip...

Anywhoo, I've been bumming around and trying to start some scrap book pages. It's going slowly, though, because I left a lot more of my stuff in Southaven than I thought I had. My pages aren't super awesome yet, but once I get plenty of stuff and maybe some stencils for letters, they'll be a lot better. I did a couple pages of Jeremy and I parasailing in NC, the first page is us up in the air, the second is the last part where they let us drop in to the ocean. I had some cute little beachy stickers from Target, so there are some fish, shells, a pair of sunglasses, and an inner tube floating around. I picked two different blue patterns, a plainer one for the up-in-the-air shots, and one that looks a little under-the-sea-ish for the second set. I'm waiting on some pictures from Snapfish to get here, and trying to find my ticket for the Terra Cotta Army show, so I'll have a page for that and can start on my Hawaii pages, too. I have to swing by Target, so I'm going to see if I can find some solid colors that would be appropriate for the MotoGP stuff that I have.

That's about all that's happened tonight; Jeremy's had a much more interesting one-- he got to watch the shuttle launch! Though, he has had to sit in traffic for a couple hours. If he's lucky, even though they were done with the launch by 815p, he'll be home at 11p!

Ciao for now!

A "Productive" Day

Got Analia's presents shipped off, so I'm very excited about that-- I hope everything fits and they look as absolutely adorable as I think they will! I bet that blue dress in particular is going to be cute as a button.

I also finally sat down with mom's computer and hooked up the printer and all that sort of thing, did up the save-the-dates, and got them all printed out!! I printed out about 20 extra since new addresses keep showing up-- I had the names on the original guest list but never got addresses to go with them, and since I won't be using these postcards for anything else in particular I'll just print them all up.

Watched all my shows, talked to Jeremy for a while, ate some Cheez-Its and am now fighting the urge to make red garlic curry at 2a and watching Angel. We'll see if Jon remembers to bring me the boxed set or not, I'm betting not. I'll remind him at the staff meeting tomorrow since we apparently decided to start those up again and I missed the memo... hopefully I haven't scheduled too much on Saturdays-- I know they're not mandatory in the strictest sense of the word, but they're not horrible meetings, and I like my coworkers and Jill, and I get to learn a little bit more about what I'm doing. However, since I don't work Saturday nights, 4p on a Saturday isn't the most inconvenient time, but it's not the most convenient time either... ah, well, c'est la vie.

Off to bed with me so that I can get up and finish off my save-the-dates and figure out how much postage I need to buy... that's the kicker, the darn postage!

Love those Gamma Sigmas!

My girls had a swap/mixer last night with KSig over at Tech, the theme was "Seven Deadly Sins" so being a good adviser, I was a little worried that it would look like Halloween at Rhodes where half the girls just show up looking like a prostitute and call it a costume. I am so proud and totally amused by them all! There were a few "lust" costumes, but they weren't too bad and pretty creative, too! My favorites were the following:

Gluttony-- some of the girls got inner tubes and decorated them like doughnuts and walked around offering snacks to people all night
Sloth-- several girls wore old terrycloth robes and bath slippers, and one girl went and got clever, tying Eucalyptus branches to herself to go as A sloth!
Pride-- India went as a self-loving prom queen/pageant queen, which is hilarious because it's totally not at all who India is!

Of course, when I think about it, I shouldn't have been worried-- we're all AOIIs and we do a pretty darn good job of keeping it classy!

And, for good measure, my Netflix waits for the week
Role Models
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Deadwood: Season 1
Pineapple Express
Quarantine

Not much change, though it's interesting Deadwood is on a wait-- great show, if you're in to the wild West!

I should know by now...

To not plan things when I'm tired! Turns out that BSG marathon I was so excited about is actually NEXT Friday! I'll have to wait even longer to find out the final Cylon!

Stayed up way too late last night, I'm going to have to try to find someone on Skype today so that I can see if my webcam works well enough to recommend it to Jeremy. I'm also not really thrilled with the new SunTrust Online Banking setup; my debits are 12 hours overdue to post but it looks like they were already taken out of my balance...

Since I won't be BSG'in it today, I'm going to go to the PO to ship Ana's clothes (Cy's will go next week-- I put up pictures of everything on Facebook), the pharmacy to get my Rx (still hate shopping with no insurance...), and will get back to cleaning my room and doing laundry-- everything kinda turned in to a mess while Jeremy was here since we didn't have any room (as the mattress was on the floor) to put anything in its "proper" place. You know, 'cause I have a lot of those... I also need to find the drill so I can finally hang up my purse hooks and the shelves in the closet for my shoes (I know, it sounds silly, but it's the only place I can put them!) so that I can clean some of that up off the floor. I'm also still trying to wrangle the layout for the save-the-dates, I don't have Microsoft Word, but I have OpenOffice which is supposed to be able to work like MW, but that's not working out too well so far... as soon as I figure it out, I'll be able to just plug in the printer and go with them which would be nice-- they were supposed to go out two or three weeks ago!

Oh, and Meg and Michael finally closed in on a name: Violet Genevieve Kavanaugh. I still love Vera, but Vi's pretty cute so it still works! They stopped by work the other day to see me, so I got to see the baby which made me very happy. We've had a lot of little people in this week, and they're all just so sweet-- hopefully this bratty baby trend is going by the wayside!

I'm on it

I have finally joined the Skype world! My Skype name is AOIIPanda (can you believe someone already had HockeyPanda?! Insanity!) and I even have a webcam set up! Jeremy said he would just go pick one up at Target next week, which I think is a cop out (as this was supposed to be his Valentine's present), but I guess since I spend more money on gas going from here to there than he does there to here, he can have it. He'll just get some extra tools next year.

In only slightly related news, I've caught the end of a Thrashers game on TV and startled my family greatly... I have to be quiet or I can't watch hockey anymore. Since when is watching sports (with the exception of golf and gymnastics) been about staying quiet? I'm quiet the rest of the time, why can't I have just a little bit of yelling?

I'm going to go try to root quietly for them, though-- OT against the Oil!

To quote Jimmy Cornfoot

March's weather is totally wrong:

March 1: 4-6'' of snow
March 5: 70 and sunny
March 9: 83 and sunny
March 12: 60 and cloudy

I think the forecast is 50's and rainy for the weekend. I know it's not the "snowmageddon" that Shelby's getting, but it's still nice and weird.

Also, I love Psych.

I continue to mildly dislike Laura Roslin

Roslin being the President of the Colonies. I am, however, quite amused by Baltar trying to explain religion to a centurion (basically pure machine) in an effort to try and get past him.

That's all the BSG I'll torture you with today!

Work was pretty decent tonight; Emily came to see me, which was nice. I wasn't in a very sociable mood, which I'm sure was evident, but for some reason I was totally exhausted. It really was nice to see her, though, and to have a friendly face. I'm excited because Melanie's back in town, so Sunday we're going to go get my nose pierced (which was my birthday present back in the day lol) and I'm so stoked! I also finally got a chance to get Bones back to her! They'd been sitting, lonely, in a Target bag on my door. I had re-watched them a couple times, my favorite episodes, but then I got BSG'd and we all know the end of that story!

Tomorrow, I'm going to do what I'm going to call my Thursday errands from now on because I'm realizing that I'm totally not going to do a darn thing on the days I work. Bank, Target, maybe the grocery store for something to drink, and swing by Palate to pick up the change I left (yes, literally change, but I think it's a couple bucks worth so why not?). And then come home and BSG myself out on SciFi.

I really miss Jeremy these days-- spring and summer is kind of our time, when we'd go for rides and be outside. Jeremy, of course, goes outside most any time of year because he's kinda crazy like that, but I hadn't thought about the fact that there aren't going to be any late night rides through backroads anymore. He sent me a text message tonight, from Ft. Matanzas watching the sunset, a wish you were here sort of thing-- it totally made my day, but made me sad because I won't see him for another month. Another one of those things where I tell myself that we'll have the rest of our lives, but it'd be nice if that could start right now! (Queue the Beach Boys!)

Alright, I'm gonna stop cheesin' you guys out and lock down ON THE FINAL CYLON!! Promise I'll post pictures when I get the nose done this weekend!

Final Cylon!

I'm starting the first half of season 4 today, so I'm generally on schedule to get all caught up by tomorrow night and then by Friday night! For those of you just joining the geek party, this would be Battlestar Galactica.

Finally slept well last night, it always takes me a couple days to adjust after Jeremy leaves. I'm glad I thought to move the mattress on to the floor this time, it was way more comfortable than my pilates mat-- though I'm not sure how Jeremy could stand to sleep on the futon mattress, it was super hard! Anyway, got up about 10 and have had a pretty decent morning-- talked to Jeremy, got out the strawberries, waited for the mail to come, and now I'm watching some BSG! I think once I see who the final Cylon is, I'll get some cream and sugar and do berries and cream.

Work the last couple night's been alright, no six dollar nights but no really amazing nights, either. Enough to squeeze by, I suppose. I find it really hard to go to work these days, I'm just really tired of being a waitress I guess. At least at the airline, when I was at the counter or the gate there was a solid routine and I felt like I was getting something done-- waiting on tables, I just bring food out, take empty plates away, open the patio, lock up the patio. A little pointless; I'm not really doing anything or making a difference or using anything I've learned in any real way.

But I'll stop moping; I'm trying to tell myself it'll only be for a few more months, or that maybe I'll land a better job, just to stick it out. Hopefully Jeremy will get an idea of where he'll be and I can start trying to find a job-- though it is a little hard doing it six months out... gotta start somewhere, right?

OK, I'm gonna go ahead and get the cream and sugar since I've almost eaten all of my strawberries! That would be almost two pounds, for the record.

Oh, Brent

Brent randomly sent me a text message just now with the lyrics to "Safety Dance" that old 80's favorite, which is kind of awesome because it was the one "classic" 80's song I didn't hear on my station tonight. And also awesome because it was just kind of funny and random.

I didn't really get anything done on my to-do list, but I did eat a little healthier which is a good start, I think. I made a yummy salad with field greens, baby portabello mushrooms and carrots and instead of eating more Reeses pieces this afternoon, I had a bunch of Quakes, which are the mini rice cakes Quaker makes. I had too many of them, but they're still better for me than chocolate and peanut butter! Tomorrow, I'm going to do oatmeal for breakfast, some of the Morningstar Farms "hot wings" and a small salad for lunch, and maybe some meatloaf for dinner to get some protien and some more veggies with the green beans and mashed taters. I also need to run a few errands, including finally mailing off the stuff for Ana-- last week just got so busy I didn't have a chance, which stinks because it also means I forgot to get Jeremy to sign a late birthday card for Valerie! C'est la vie, I suppose.

Started watching "Lie to Me" tonight, which is a pretty cool show actually. It's about a guy who is, in essence, a human lie detector-- he's a scientist who studies facial expressions and body language to tell if people are lying. Of course I'll admit I like anything that could be considered a crime drama, but the premise is nifty and the cast is great.

Time for tea and sleep, so more later. Ciao!

So much to say

Jeremy left a few hours ago to head back to Daytona after a very fun-filled week, the greatest accomplishment of which is that my car is finally legal!

He came in Wednesday, and we went and hung out at work (which was a total loss, with two tables) and after work went out to pick up the exhaust manifold from an AutoZone in Lilburn which was an adventure in itself... It wasn't just in Lilburn, it was out in like NORTH Lilburn (which is a big haul, for those of you who don't knwo) and we ended up getting home at like midnight. We were home around 1230a and went straight to bed.

Thursday, I had to go out Ptree Industrial to the Hyundai dealership to pick up the last gasket we needed and then ran all over the place on the way home to pick up other stuff. I spent so much money this week, and even though I needed to do it, I'm just still kind of in shock because it was a great feeling having a cushion! But, I won't have to pay any tickets, so I guess it evens out :D

Thursday night, we went and got Jeremy fitted for his tux and got the wedding party set up after a trip to Sears to look at tools and multimeters; I got an idea of what I can buy him for birthdays and Christmas and Valentine's for the next few years, which is kinda nice since he's so hard to buy for. I'm hoping I have enough money left to get him a gift card to Target for the webcam-- he misses talking to Valerie, and I know he's dying to talk to Ana, too! After Sears and Men's Warehouse, we came back in to town for a Single Malt Scotch tasting at Palate. I'm not big on Scotch, so it was more for Jeremy. I had a glass of wine and a snack. The tasting was a lot of fun, our distributor (Bill) is very educated on the industry and has been doing this for years. After that, we went to El Tesoro to try and catch Bo and grab one last snack before we went home, and had the Oaxaca with serrano peppers and other spicy things-- I was very happy Jeremy said it was the spiciest thing he'd had in a *long* time! He loves spicy, but he's still stuck on this green chile pizza he had in India, so I keep trying to find something that has comparable spice! We came home and watched the season finale of Burn Notice, which wasn't quite as action-packed as I'd expected, but it set up a really interesting premise for next season, which thankfully starts in June! This is why I love watching shows on USA!

Friday was a little less hectic. I went to register the car, where I dealt with this woman who wouldn't give me the sticker for my plate because I didn't have the same address or the same last name as my mother! GAH! I've been doing the registration for both of our cars for the last seven years, and never in my life have I had the same last name as my mother. We went through this ten minute thing about how I needed to be her power of attourney or have the same last name and address or get this paper notarized saying I had permission before she finally admitted I could pay for the tags, get the receipt, and they would mail out the sticker on Monday-- yes, this means that the car is registered. The sticker is a formality so that the cops don't have to bother with looking it up if they have better things they can do. I was waiting to get pulled over so I could say, "Sorry I don't have the sticker, officer, but I don't have the same last name as my mother." Ugh. You would think by now, people wouldn't be stuck in that mode. I mean, there are women who don't change their last name when they're married (like my mother, who was a published author and poet at the time), there are divorced parents, there are parents who have re-married after a divorce or death of a spouse-- it's just not uncommon to find a child who doesn't have the same last name! Plus, does that mean if I found someone with the last name "Sizemore" I could waltz in there and take their registration?

When I got home, we killed a few minutes, and then hopped on the bike (Jeremy brought up a helment for me) and went to lunch with my godmother, Gail, who's going to be doing our wedding service. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was really great not only to have her meet Jeremy, but to hear a little about the old neighborhood and how everyone's doing. We went to Top Spice, which was sooo yummy-- they do Thai and Malaysian food, and the lunch is way more affordable than dinner. Jeremy had, I think, the Spicy Basil Leaf, and I had the Beef Rendang which looks a little unappetizing, but was very good. Plus, we got to knock off another restaurant in town for Jeremy!

After that, we came home and got in the car and went to little Fernbank, where we briefly went through the exhibits (they're pretty old and kinda small-- they do have one of the Apollos, though; I think it's VII which was the last unmanned mission?) and then out in to the Forest and Nature Trail which was greatly expanded from the last time I was there with Dill! The chickens are still there, and they have a beautiful black and white rooster who looks very French countryside and prances around, and the old rust-colored hen was still there chatting to herself. We went on about a 30 minute walk, which was very pleasant and quiet and it was very beautiful outside! Post-Nature Trail, we hopped up the street to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History where we saw their cool new exhibit on fossils and the dinosaurs, which included fossils you could touch and moving models of how they think the dinosaurs would have moved! The exhibit was really cool, especially if you're a geek like us!

Around 7, we headed out to the ASO for the first time in I don't recall how long! I used to go with Gail all the time, but when I started having my own performances I stopped being able to go to theirs. I said something to Valerie that night about how happy I was Ana liked music so much, it reminded me of the ASO for Kids program they used to do (still do!) on the weekends. We went to all of them, even right after my mom had Casey. He was about seven weeks old and she'd tried to get rid of the tickets but couldn't, so she went thinking that since it was a kids concert, she'd just step out if he started crying. Instead, when the first violin started their warmup note, he turned his head around and watched the entire thing in complete awe. I think babies and small children are naturally drawn to music, possibly because of language, and if you really encourage that connection they'll grow up close to music. I played an instrument, but I was always more of a dancer-- Casey can listen to anything once and play it.

Anyway, we went to see Jennifer Koh, who is a really extraordinarily talented Korean violinist-- apparently she's being billed as the Korean Midori. The ASO was as fantastic as I ever remember them being, and we were second row orchestra right, so we were right in front of the low strings (which was kinda cool since Jeremy plays cello). The first piece was absolutely perfect, they played the intro to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and it was just stunning. The second piece, which was the one written for Koh, was... interesting. She was stunning, the orchestra sounded fantastic, and the ASO singers (several of which are church friends of my mother's) sounded great, but I just don't take well to choral pieces written for music (if that makes sense) especially when it's modern English poetry put to the music. The third piece was another special commission, more poetry to music, which was supposed to be "celebratory" according to the composer and ended up more like a joyful dirge. Thankfully, there was a solid turn-of-the century piece at the end and we all left feeling good about the night. We went and got some late night snacks and then went home and finished Lucky Number Slevin (which was fantastic, by the way) and hit the hay.

Saturday, we rode the bike up to North Georgia and rode through Red Top Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, and through part of historic Marietta. There was a little confusion on the way back, and we ended up halfway to South Georgia, but we weren't too far gone before Jeremy finally figured out I was trying to get him to turn around because he'd missed 20E! It was a nice day out, though, so neither of us was too put out, it just took a while to work my shoulders back in to place after nearly five hours on the bike!

Last night, we just went and picked up a pizza at Kroger, and ran through Krispy Kreme, and then came back and packed and watched some HGTV and FoodTV. Oh, we also watched The Relic, which was supposedly based on a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book and pretty much NONE OF IT was related to ANY book I've read by Preston/Child, much less Relic or Reliquary. It was also made in 1997, but looked like it was made in '91, with Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller looking all sorts of mis-dressed and running around yelling and screaming. It was good for cheese, but nothing terribly special-- I wouldn't recommend it.

Ridiculously Awesome!!

This is going to revolutionize education on so many levels-- whether it's your every-day variety, or helping kids who have special needs and/or learning disabilities, the ability to work with things like this is absolutely mind-blowing! It's a 7 minute video, but worth every second. Joe, you especially have to watch until the end to see what he does with music.

Eenterestink

So I know not everyone is as big of a nerd as I am, but MAN I love Battlestar Galactica. Aside from being one of the most amazingly produced shows ever, they do such an amazing job of relating the very sociopolitical dialogue they want without being forceful about the issue. Obviously they're debating a monotheistic versus polytheistic system of religion, a Democratic or Socialist or Trotskyist system of government, the very essence of human nature in chaos and crisis, but they just freakin' rock at it! Plus, it's just hilarious to watch them slowly make Baltar look like the classic image of Jesus (for those of you who are not familiar with the show, Baltar is first assumed to be the saviour of the human race, but becomes a central figure to the Cylons, and then bounces back and forth between the two) because he wears it surprisingly well. James Callis has very pretty hair... point is, the show is amazing and never ceases to dazzle me. This is why I am embarking on a ridiculous spree of Galactica watching that will end next Friday when I am fully caught up on a season and a half plus the new season that I've missed and the brand new episode on Friday night!

Valerie's post about her trip to Phuket inspired me to look up a few things about the resort they stayed at and start looking at plane tickets and start feeling out the price. We've decided to wait on the honeymoon for a while because we want to do something really fantastic and we don't want to have to cancel it (as I know several couples getting married this year who have had to cancel their honeymoons due to a lack of funds). Jeremy's parents are being incredibly generous with their gift to us, so we're going to put it in the high-yield savings account and let it sit for a year (and save up some vacation time) and go on a crazy awesome Asian honeymoon. If I could have my way, we'd hit up Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. Surprisingly, the cheapest flights are actually from Austin to Singapore! How random is that? The resort Valerie stayed at is pretty inexpensive all things considered-- $600 for three days two nights including private limo ride to/from the airport, massages, dinner for two, sea view room, and all sorts of other crazy stuff! I know it's expensive for regular folks, but you're supposed to do stuff like that on your honeymoon, right? :D Besides, I think everything else in Thailand isn't too expensive, we'd probably want to crowd Matt, Val, and Ana in Singapore, and the train in Japan is cheap, so it'd be the biggest expense most likely. Man, the next year and a half can't come fast enough!!

OH MY GODS THEY DIDN'T! FRACKING RIDICULOUS, BATTLESTAR, FRACKING RIDICULOUS! (sorry, they just revealed four of the final five Cylons hiding in the fleet -think sleeper agents- and it's sooooo... just wow. I'm going to go crazy waiting to start Season 4 after Jeremy leaves!!!)

Now that I'm done dorking out on you... I think it's time to go to bed. I tried going to bed earlier last night and it really didn't end well! I kept waking up and then they cranked up the heat a little bit and it was awful. I'm calling the heating and air place first thing in the morning to see when they can come fix this stuff. I need to get my lazy butt up and take the futon out from under the mattress so Jeremy and I both have a place to sleep this week! Need to make sure he's nice and rested so that he can fix my car-- it's been a long time coming, but I did finally get a written warning about my tags tonight, and since I actually have the money to get it all registered today it needs to happen! I certainly can't afford to get a ticket! That being said, I totally forgot what it was like to live somewhere that has a nice police force! In Memphis and Southaven, they were just horrible and harrassed you at every chance they got (as those of you who know about my lone and totally unwarranted speeding ticket may have heard) and didn't seem to care about your safety-- the guy who pulled me over tonight was totally nice and relaxed and was like, "You know, just because you're working on it doesn't mean you should drive it... since you're fixing it this week, I'm giving you a warning. Have a safe night and take care." Totally a non-issue. If they'd pulled me over in Southaven, they would have tried to search my car for drugs or something.

Well

I don't have much to say for myself tonight, really. Ended up making enough to make the weekend worth it, and didn't do tooo badly tonight. With luck, tomorrow and Wednesday will go well, and next week and I can head up to Memphis to do some visiting between the 12-24. This is also hoping that all goes well with Jeremy and David fiddling with my car this week... cross your fingers, pray, send happy thoughts, or rub your lucky charm-- I can really use all the help I can get with this one to not end up spending just an insane amount on this exhaust dealie!

I keep getting confused when looking at Facebook-- I may have said it before, but there's a Valerie Clarke who's an AOII at Rhodes (she's a junior now, I believe) and though I'm slowly getting away from it, my first thought is always Jeremy's sister! Different kind of sister, Meg brain! Valerie did go to Phuket last week and put up a few pictures on her blog-- it looked like a really beautiful place, and since they're going back next week with Matt's family, I'm hoping to get a full run-down! I don't mind researching things, but if I can start putting places to go together in a little honeymoon planner with reviews from people I know and trust, that would be really great! Especially since we're hitting up Asia and I haven't been in, oh, 8 or 9 years? And then, it was just Korea and Japan, not in to Southeast Asia.

The snow was fantastic, and since it's melting away pretty quickly we got all the fun of 5'' without the nasty, icy roads and such! There are photos on my Flickr page; the best was when we let Belle out-- she had no idea what to do with it, I guess she'd forgotten since it's been a few years since she's seen snow. After a few minutes of sniffing and daintily walking around, she decided it was OK. Probably mainly due to the fact that it was edible. Belle likes anything she can eat. I know everyone thinks it's silly that we're this excited about snow, but we only get it every few years (most of the time we just get ice storms that knock out the power) and almost never in March! Just because it was only 01Mar doesn't mean it doesn't count as being in March ;)
Off to bed with me, though. My neck has been absolutely killing me lately and I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm not sleeping any differently, my pillows are all the same, and I'm not sure I really lifted anything heavy enough to pull a muscle out of whack this weekend. I took half a muscle relaxer, so I'm going to stretch a couple minutes before I hit the hay and see if that'll loosen it up.

Ciao for now!

Why am I still up?

I have no idea why I'm still up, I'm exhausted and had a looong weekend at work, but I made some decent money and will have some to try and fix the car and to put away in savings! Yaaay!

Jeremy's coming on Wednesday, which is exciting (yaaaay), and I found mom's Fernbank card so we'll get to go for free, and I'm thinking we'll go to El Tesoro on Thursday night. I need to ask him if there are any movies he wants me to put on the Netflix queue. It would be nice if he could be here the whole week, but Bike Week's a pretty big deal down there and he's convinced he needs the brownie points for helping out at the school-- I'm sure it doesn't hurt, but if anyone doesn't need them, you know it's Jeremy!!

The Wine Crawl was fun this afternoon; I saw a lot of people I knew, some I hadn't seen in almost 10 years! There was a couple from my old neighborhood, Liz and David, who were always really fantastic people and I found out what happened to our friends Cindy and Ray (Ray was a musician in Atlanta back in the day)-- they're in New Hampshire and trying to get out, but currently their car is buried under several feet of snow ;)

On an absolutely unrelated note, I always get a kick week to week out of what has a wait on it on my Netflix queue-- this week it's Heavenly Creatures (though I suspect any and everything with Kate Winslet will be on a wait), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which has been on a wait for like a month now), Pineapple Express, and Quarantine. The last two are new releases, so it's not a big surprise, but there are some funny ones every now and again. For like two months, the Twin Peaks movie was on "very long wait" for some odd reason.

I suppose that's all the rambling I'll do for now, more as I see fit!