When I look to the sky

Lilac festival changes

2008-12-18T21:20:00.001-05:00

One of Rochester's big events is the Lilac Festival, which happens in mid-May every year. It has a parade, lots of craft booths, yummy fair food, live music, and cheesy little kid rides. Of course the highlight were all of the deliciously smelling lilac bushes - I think they had 50+ varieties that grow in the park. Last week I even bought a room spray in lilac because it reminds me of the festival.

Bryan and I have made it to 3 Lilac Festivals in a row. I thought it would be fun to show how we have changed.

2006 - Bryan's first trip to Rochester, a mere 3 months after we started dating. I was going out for the inspection on my house, and he decided to tag along and come see the city. In hindsight, we clearly both knew at that point we'd end up getting married. We went, prepared for cold, and they had record highs in the 70's that weekend. Bryan is going to kill me for this picture, since he's +20lbs or so here.

From Lilac festival 2007

2007 - Our second year together, and he has lived in Rochester for only a couple of weeks at this point, newly in nursing school. We took Lani and Cassie, and Lani took this picture (hence the morbidly obese guy in the background - what else can you expect from a 6-year-old?). Again, it was remarkably sunny and warm.

From Lilac festival 2007

2008 - We returned from our honeymoon just in time for the last day of the festival and to see Ingrid Michelson. We had come from 80-90 degrees and sunny, to 40 degrees and rainy in Rochester, so we weren't too happy. We faked a smile for this picture though :) One week later we left Rochester for good. I just won a grant in Rochester, so maybe I'll have to make one of my 3-4 annual visits in mid-May this coming year.

From Lilac festival 2008

More funnies

2008-12-10T18:35:00.003-05:00

Bryan sometimes says to me sarcastically, "I bet you're going to put that thing I just said on your blog now." I think he secretly enjoys it. The one this morning was too good not to post.

Me (staring at the empty plate of brown crumbs on the table): Is a cupcake all you had for breakfast?

B: No. I had two cupcakes.

How the orthodontist ended up (and BB management is awful)

2008-12-08T00:42:00.002-05:00

Many months ago I ranted about my orthodontist in these 2 posts. Someone recently commented that I never gave the ending of the story. Shame on me, because it is a good one!

For those of you who missed the story and didn't click on the link, I waited a very long time at 2 appointments while I had braces, and I was getting them off 6-12 months earlier than they had predicted. I called them wondering if there might be a discount. I know you pay for straight teeth, but my treatment was significantly shorter than they had estimated.

While I was down in Florida for the wedding, I got a call the day before while I was on my way to get my wedding dress pressed. It was the bookkeeper at the orthodontist's office, and she told me she talked to Dr. Kaufman about my case. He decided to WIPE OUT THE REST OF WHAT I OWED. I asked her to say it again, since I didn't believe it! It turned out to be be about $1,900 that I didn't have to pay. Awesome!
-----------------
On a completely different topic, I have to make it known how much BB Management is an awful company. We decided to move closer into the city once our apartment lease was up. I happened upon condo conversions that weren't selling, so they were renting them. I was wowed by the granite counters, SS appliances, pergo floors, and new carpet. The owner who did the flipping had left some things undone and the units have been vacant for awhile, but we were assured that all would be fixed when we moved in. BB Management doesn't do walk-throughs with new owners (we should have said no then), but they told us all was fine. Here is what we found when we moved in:
- the place was filthy
- there was a HOLE in the OUTSIDE wall where there was supposed to be a built-in A/C
- 2 of 3 drains didn't drain
- the hot water on the kitchen faucet and the cold in the tub didn't work
- we weren't given a key to the deadbolt, a key to the mailbox, or the garage door opener
- the heat doesn't work in the master bedroom
- the linen closet shelves are missing
- 2 pieces of granite backsplash in the kitchen aren't attached at all
- the fan cover in the bathroom is missing
- grout was missing in the bathroom floor
- the electrical outlets were missing the covers in the living room and bedroom
- and more that I'm forgetting

The management company basically told us that we were overreacting and that all of this was "just cosmetic." They claimed it wasn't their fault, it was the owner at fault. I'm confused, since on their website it says "we make sure everything is ready BEFORE you move in." It was also now our job to schedule all of the repair guys and let them in since we are the tenants. Um, yeah. We couldn't live in the place because we couldn't heat it due to the HOLE IN THE WALL. We said we wanted out of the lease, and they threatened to sue us for the entire length of the lease. We spoke to an attorney who said we could win in court, but unfortuantely we don't have the time to do all of that. The time off of work would have cost us too much.

We were able to move in 4 days late, with most things fixed (still no bedroom heat). I met the neighbor when we moved in, and she said she had the same AND MORE issues with BB Management. Same with the downstairs neighbor. Had we known this info, we for sure would have sued them. It is clear the management company is knowingly negligent and they know the condition of these condos. They were flipped quickly and the owner ran out of money, so he cut corners wherever he could.

My one consolation in this is that my sister was using BB Management as the marketing company for her place. I didn't know this, nor did she know I was working with them. She figured it out when I told her about the whole situation. She has now canceled her contract with them, and she said they weren't doing anything to market her property. Looks like their crappy service has already cost them one client.

We are in the new place now, and the up side is the location. We're locked in for a year, and we're hoping that things calm down now with BB since we are in (the neighbor said she almost lost her mind when they moved in, but 2 months later it is much smoother). Wish us luck!

"I think this is my favorite day of my whole life"

2008-11-26T00:34:00.005-05:00

Those are some pretty strong words. Let's see what that day looks like in the world of Bryan.

Start here:

From Bend Nov 08

Step #1
Wake up in the king sized bed in this room:

From Bend Nov 08

Step #2
Open door to get the morning coffee waiting for you outside of your room.

Step #3
After enjoying morning coffee, walk downstairs for your custom breakfast. We both had a quiche-type thing with eggs, cream cheese, potatoes, cream, spinach and onions (me), bacon and mushrooms (him). He had a homemade caramel pecan roll, while I had a cinnamon roll. We also had a second cup of coffee, plus fresh grapefruit juice (me) and cranberry juice (him). Oh yes, he also had homemade white bread toast with local marionberry jam.

Step #4
Play a game of disc golf on the 9 hole course around the B&B

From Bend Nov 08

Step #5
After disc golf game, take a 2 mile walk in the sun around the B&B where you see this

From Bend Nov 08

Step #6
Head to spa for deep tissue massage and pedicure. Wait in this room while drinking wine in your robe

From Bend Nov 08

Step #7
Enjoy complimentary meal between services, which was a fabulous healthy treat after the gluttonous breakfast (with another class of wine).

From Bend Nov 08

Step #8
Head downtown to wander through the shops. End up at a happy hour and enjoy a local brew, tempura veggies with 3 dipping sauces, margarhetta(sp?) pizza, and cheese fries. Cheer on the Packers while said food is enjoyed. Declare day "the favorite of my whole life," even though more stuff is to come.

Step #9
Go back to B&B and grab fresh cookies and hot chocolate and milk waiting outside of our room

From Bend Nov 08

Step #10
Enjoy cookies and milk while watching DVD (Baby Mama) and relaxing on the couch with TWO footrests

From Bend Nov 08

Step #11
Sit in outdoor hot tub while gazing at the stars, unpolluted by city lights

Step #12
Crawl into king sized bed and feel so grateful for a weekend of relaxation and time to reconnect without worrying about moving, work, bills, etc.

Tomorrow

2008-11-08T17:06:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow, November 9, will mark 6 months since we got married. I can't believe it has been 6 months already. It has been a stressful 6 months:
- moving 2,700 miles
- finding a place to live
- house hunting (put on hold now)
- sickness (darn gallbladders)
- studying for the NCLEX
- 2 new jobs for B
- family drama
- car buying
and plenty of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.

We've done plenty of fun things to balance the stress, including a long-weekend trip to Vegas, a trip soon to Bend (bed and breakfast, spa, and showshoeing), lots of fun meals out, and hanging out with friends.

Despite the stresses, being married is the best. I have someone that makes me laugh everyday (even on a grumpy day), someone that doesn't let me take myself too seriously, someone to give me perfect advice, someone to make me feel special, and someone who shares my goals in life.

Maybe 2 weeks ago I popped by his office in the middle of the day and brought cupcakes for everyone. He caught sight of me through the door, got the biggest smile on his face, ushered me in and planted a huge kiss on my lips in front of everyone exclaming "It's so great to see you baby!" Yep, he knows how to make a girl feel loved. Of course, I'm wondering if I would have gotten the same greeting had I been sans fancy cupcakes ;)

I was reading on someone else's blog the other day that she missed her fiance while she was at work. Someone commented that she knew she had never found "the one" because she hadn't ever missed anyone that she lived with. I think about Bryan all the time while I'm at work, missing him, hoping his patients that day have good veins, don't need a full hive work-up, and aren't spaced 14 in the span of an hour. I'm in Denver right now on the last day of a 4-day conference, and I've missed him terribly. It's the first time we've been apart since we got married. I'm looking forward to getting a big hug tonight, but mostly I'm looking forward to having my human electric blanket back. It's cold sleeping alone!

I'm off to do a presentation on working with an IRB (props if you even know what that is), but happy 6 months my love! It has been a great ride so far, and I'm looking forward to more.

As heard in the kitchen just now

2008-10-24T20:16:00.002-04:00

For future reference, I like my meals to have two steps:

1 - microwave
2 - eat

Like this chai, that was perfect:

1- add water
2- drink

Ahh the simplicity of being a man.

Why we work

2008-10-05T23:59:00.003-04:00

- We both squeeze the toothpaste from the middle
- We both hate crowds and agree that 10pm is the BEST time to grocery shop
- We both consider a bowl of cereal a perfectly appropriate dinner
- We both value "doing and seeing" over "stuff" (which is why we rent)
- We both know the power of "I'm sorry"
- We both agree that every meal should end with at least a little bit of chocolate
- We both are okay with a little clutter
- We both find kittens to be a hilarious source of entertainment
- We both agree that spending a bit more and shopping at Whole Foods is worth it emotionally, nutritionally, and consciously

Jess and Torsten

2008-09-21T22:24:00.003-04:00

The blogging world is an interesting community. You "meet" people and become familiar with them through their daily musings. I found Jess through blog-hopping (Stacey to Emily to Kali to Jenn to Nilsa to Jess if you're interested!).

Jess and Torsten's engagement photo

Jess is getting married in a few short weeks, and some lovely blog friends of hers decided to throw her a surprise virtual bridal shower - since she didn't have a real one (good call Jess, I like you even more!). I thought this was a GREAT idea (so 2008) and jumped at the chance to participate since I love Jess's daily thoughtful, smart, and sincere daily blog posts. Part 1 was sending in some of our favorite recipes (I sent in my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and Bryan's low-carb tilapia if you're wondering). Part 2 was sending the recipes in a card to her real-life friend who is presenting them as a surprise with a beautiful recipe box and the cards at a lovely dinner (tonight!). Part 3 is to leave them some well-wishes on our blog for them to read when they get home from said dinner. So here goes (in purple, her favorite color):

Jess,

As a newlywed myself, let me tell you that marriage is wonderful. I love reading about the fantastic relationship you have found with Torsten. You seem to have all of the important parts covered - great communication, time for fun, a companion to work through hard issues, and an openness with each other that is vital for success. You clearly know that the important part isn't the wedding, it's the lifetime you have ahead of you. You are setting the stage for an amazing future, while having fun in the process (purple shoes! purple earrings! what fun!). I wish the two of you the happiest future, and I couldn't be more excited about your upcoming wedding! I eagerly await the pictures of you all beautifully adorned in your wedding gown, committing your life to your best friend. In a few weeks I'll welcome you to the married club. It's certainly a great club to belong to :)

Tia

The end of the wedding fun

2008-07-31T23:56:00.003-04:00

Last Sunday we had our belated wedding reception in Portland at the beautiful McLean House. I highly recommend it if anyone is looking for a party or meeting venue - inexpensive, all the supplies you need, and beautiful grounds and house.

We had a fantastic time, and we were SO excited about all of the people that came from far and wide to celebrate with us. My Aunt Trish flew out from Atlanta (I hadn't seen her in 5 years), Bryan's Aunt Linda and Uncle Bill flew up from Sacramento (some of the nicest people I have met in a long time), my friend Stacey was visiting from Salt Lake, Bryan's parents were in town, my cousin Kelli came down for the day, and lots of local relatives/friends/neighbors/co-workers came out. I think there were about 50 people there, which was great considering how many people were away on vacation.

The Russell Street BBQ was enjoyed by all, as was the Eye of the Bee wine that we brought back from our favorite vineyard in New York.

Here are a few pictures, although I'm sure more will come as others send them to me. Us with our cake - top layer was carrot cake, bottom layer was chocolate with chocolate and raspberry filling. My favorite part was the blue bow on top, which was entirely made out of chocolate.Theo was dying to eat the bow, so we let him try part of the ribbon. Needless to say, after this no one ate the ribbon. That certainly isn't a natural color! Theo was a cute kid though, and he loved it.

Me with my cousin Kelli and Aunt Trish.
My family. After looking through the wedding pictures our photographer took, we sadly realized we didn't have any pictures with my entire family. This hopefully makes up for it. Note Bryan with his untucked shirt and flip flops. You can take the boy out of Florida, but you can't take the Florida out of the boy. I guess this is considered appropriate reception party attire to him. Sigh...it was a battle that wasn't worth fighting. Well, I guess I did fight it and he agreed to tuck in and change shoes after set-up, but he coyly "forgot." He's lucky I love him anyway :)

So after many months, lots of planning, flying all over, moving, and moving again, the wedding festivities have come to an end. We managed to stretch it out over 3 months! Thanks to my mom for helping make sure the reception went out without a hitch, and thanks to her fantastic co-workers who pitched in and helped us set up.

Now we're on to "real life," whatever that means. For now it means a new job for Bryan (with another one possibly looming on the horizon), tons of fun new things in our apartment, figuring out how to balance work and play, and a trip to Vegas over Labor Day. I think we'd both agree that we love being married (watch for his snarky comment in retort!), and things are going great. Now if only we could figure out how to merge two totally different financial systems.....we're all ears if you have any suggestions!

Should I.....

2008-07-21T01:20:00.002-04:00

.....be offended when someone wants only one photo printed from my wedding, yet it doesn't include me in it?

Finally - proof is on my side!

2008-07-16T16:24:00.003-04:00

Bryan and I are very unsure about having kids. We know they are not in the "five year plan," and the more I think about it the more I lean towards never. Now, this doesn't remotely mean I hate kids. But you tell anyone with children that you don't want kids, and they instantly think you are a horrible person. How could you NOT want this screaming-pooping-expensive-restrictive-boring-biting-dirty ADORABLE little guy/girl????

We have plenty of friends and family members with kids, and I'm completely content spoiling them. I can play with them, giving their parents a break, and hand them back after a few hours. Win/win for everyone. I still have money, flexibility with what I want to do, and I got to spend a few fun hours with a child I like, sanity still intact because I actually get to SLEEP at night.

The most recent double issue of Newsweek has an article finally giving me data to support why I don't want kids. As a researcher, I love data! Here are some of the highlights of the article:

"In Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book 'Stumbling on Happiness,' the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child - and increases only when the last child has left home. He also ascertains that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008's 'Gross National Happiness' finds that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless."

"Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions, and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers."

Take that!

Good deed #1

2008-07-12T01:20:00.005-04:00

Sometimes I feel quite spoiled. I, along with my husband, grew up with parents who will still sometimes send us money to enjoy a nice dinner (which we are too frugal to go out for on our own) or they graciously help us furnish our new kitchen with some sparkly new items, because they know we will thrift hunt to save some money. We are very grateful to have fantastic sets of parents. I am also very lucky to have a great job that pays me pretty well. Because of our frugalness and amazing ability to bargain hunt, we've managed to furnish our apartment for the same amount we made selling our stuff before we moved. Wedding presents have filled in the gaps. Sometimes I'm brought to my knees when I realize how lucky we are to not worry about pennies anymore.

On Tuesday, a coworker mentioned in passing that she had accidentally gone WAY over in her cell phone minutes (totally unlike her, she's a straight-laced woman in her late 30's). She was feeling really stressed out about paying for it, because she struggles with money as a single woman. I've known her for about 3 years now, and she is a wonderfully kind woman that I just adore. It helps that she's really good at her job too :)

Unfortunately, she didn't know that she could beg them and they would probably reduce the bill, so she had already paid for it with her credit card. She said that she laid awake at night trying to figure out how she was going to be able to pay these new credit card charges because the interest would eat her alive. She formerly had a zero balance, so she usually lives within her modest means.

We aren't talking about a huge sum of money here, but it was fairly significant to her. I had a couple of checks lying around from my birthday, so I decided (with the okay of husband) to cash them and loan her the money so she could pay off her credit card and stop worrying about it. We feel extraordinarily lucky to not worry about money, and the loan to her wasn't enough money to make much difference to us.

I handed her the cash when no one else was around, and her jaw hit the ground. As she refused the money (which I knew she would), her eyes began to fill with tears. I insisted she take it as an interest free loan that she could pay back as she was able. $10 a month is fine with me if that is what she can afford. As her tears threatened to spill over, she reluctantly took the money and said she didn't know how to say thank you because this would make a HUGE difference in her life. She said she would pay it back with some interest, which I of course told her was silly.

She headed off on a planned vacation to see her parents the next day, and I felt really happy that I knew she could enjoy her trip and not worry about the stupid cell phone bill. She said it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her. I felt good about it, she felt relieved, and we were all happy. It was a nice win/win.

What good deeds have you done lately? Brag away!

2008-07-01T12:15:00.002-04:00

I long time ago, I talked about a rough meeting that I had where I left in tears. It was part of a long, grueling process in working with a school district on a grant application. I am an evaluator, which means my piece is the evaluation section. However, this particular high need district had been rejected for this grant THREE times before, so I was heavily involved in re-vamping it.

Yesterday, we got the news.

THEY WERE FUNDED!

This is super news for myself (as I got this project going all on my own with my own connections) and super news for my work. All that hard work paid off, and we will be the evaluators for the next 4 years.

My sweet husband took me out to celebrate at Pastini. It was SO yummy and nice to be able to go out together (especially with the likely gall bladder removal in husband's future). The restaurant is in a new outdoor mall, so after dinner we walked around enjoying the nice summer night (and I got a shirt on sale at JCrew). It was fabulous to finally have a night that wasn't 50 degrees or 100 degrees!

Sand ceremony

2008-06-30T12:54:00.004-04:00

Awhile back someone asked about the sand ceremony we had at our wedding.

A typical sand ceremony uses 2 glass containers filled with different colored sand - one for the bride, one for the groom. They each pour some into a third glass container separately, to represent their individual lives. Then they pour it in together, to represent the blending of their lives in marriage. The final container is then a nice keepsake from the wedding.

In ours, we decided to have our moms participate with their own colored sand, since they (and our dads) provided the foundation that made us who we are.

The vows that we used for the sand ceremony:

Bryan and Tia, today you join your separate lives together. The two separate bottles of sand symbolize your separate lives, separate families and separate sets of friends. They represent all that you are and all that you will ever be as an individual.

They also represent your lives before today. As these two containers of sand are poured into the third container, the individual containers of sand will no longer exist, but will be joined together as one. Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into individual containers, so will your marriage be.

There are two women for which words could never relay the gratitude in our bride and groom's hearts, their mothers. Audrey and Diane you have contributed so much to Bryan and Tia's lives and they wish to symbolically thank you by inviting you to join them in their sand ceremony. Please come forward.

Diane and Audrey, we invite you pour some sand from your individual vases into the container to represent you giving them life, as well as all of your wonderful contributions to their lives. Without the two of you, and their fathers, providing them with a foundation of love and support, they never would have been the people they are today.

Tia, pour some of your sand which will represent you as an individual. Bryan, pour some of your sand which will represent you as an individual.

Bride and Groom, now pour your remaining sand into the container together to represent the joining of your two individual lives into this union of marriage

This isn't the best photo (there are some better ones under the professional photos), but you get the idea here:

There are companies that have the kit made for you (etching on the glassware, sand, etc), but they are fairly pricey. We decided to make our own using supplies from Michael's, and one evening we did the etching together. I think our final cost was $34, vs the $70 they wanted online.

#27

2008-06-25T19:58:00.002-04:00

Today I officially crossed into my late 20's. Unfortunately, due to a husband who is still fairly sick, the need to work for a paycheck, and a new apartment to finish unpacking, we won't be doing much celebrating. My family is coming over with an ice cream cake, which will be d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. Hopefully we can finally give happy hour a try this weekend as a belated celebration.

Work is calling...more updates later!

Official wedding photos

2008-06-18T16:41:00.002-04:00

www.pictage.com/432163

You can see them all at the link above. Overall I'm pretty happy with them. You'll have to register to see them, but it's free. If you go look, let me know which are your favorites. We only get 10 for free, then we have to pay for any others we want.

The exciting news from the last post has been somewhat dashed. It's a long story and was about a job offer, but I'm totally over it since I have a job I really like with the most fantastic people. I hadn't even been seeking out a job, so I'm not disappointed in anything except the horrific way I was treated for no reason I can figure out.

We do have a new place to live, which is great. Buying new stuff together is so much fun, but requires a level of compromise that I hadn't thought about! We're just about done with the big stuff though, and once Bryan feels better we can finally move there for good.

Bryan's been really sick with unexplained GI issues, that a bunch of dummies have said is just GERD, even after being so sick he spent time admitted to the hospital. He's lost 14lbs since coming back to Portland, and zero food stays down. Thankfully we finally got into a GI specialist, and he's great. The abdominal ltrasound was today, and the endoscopy is Friday. Hopefully he'll get some answers then, because you all know how much we like to eat :)

More photos!

2008-06-11T18:22:00.002-04:00

We have lots of exciting news on the horizon, but I'll save all of that for a future post (and no, it's NOT a baby!). For now, here are more pictures. I've had tons of requests, and I know how much I enjoy wedding photos too. You can see in some of them how windy it was!

The handsome groom and my best friend and her baby.

Dad and I, walking down the "aisle"

Sand ceremony

Getting married, overlooking the ocean

Who knows what is going on!

Married!

Sisters in the sunset

Smoochin

Chatting with a stranger. That bald guy was so enthralled with us that after our conversation, he started walking with us, totally forgetting about his wife walking the other way!

Cake cutting

Dinner...check out Bryan's drink in a bucket. He managed to finish two of them.

I won!

2008-06-10T11:58:00.004-04:00

I seriously never win anything, but today I won a contest at NieNie's blog

My prize?? Some Orville Redenbacher popcorn! Yum! I won because I said I deserved it after going a year with no popcorn due to braces, which just came off in May. Yay for winning!

For all of you that have been dying for wedding pictures, here are just a couple to wet your palate. I'm STILL waiting for the professional ones.

OIP

2008-06-05T13:27:00.003-04:00

OIP= Only in Portland

We arrived safe and sound back in Portland Sunday evening, and now we're experiencing culture shock. I'm a Portland native, yet somehow being gone for almost 2 years (minus some time in the middle) was enough to forget how strange Portland is. People drive around here with bumper stickers that say
(as a small aside, in looking for that image I discovered there is an entire website for Keep Portland Weird).

Portland is weird. Yesterday we went to work/study at a local coffeeshop. There is only one table with plug-ins, so I shared it was a woman most likely in her early 50's. She chatted with me, at which point her gold tooth became so distracting I couldn't look at anything else. Her long grey hair was pinned back, and she was drinking some kind of hippy mint tea. She went on and on about how great this tea was, and shared it with me, telling me about her work with a local hippy organic store and the Oregon Country Fair (a hippy weekend long fair in Eugene, the hippy capital of the nation). She was really nice, just so "Portland." This is after being served my coffee by a dreadlocked server, while a big sign proclaimed "We now serve hemp milk." Hemp milk? I've never heard of it! OIP.

Fast forward to the drive to the realtor's office to make an offer on a condo. While waiting to make a left turn at a light, I come into the middle of a battle between a biker and a car. This is not uncommon in Portland, where it is hip to bike, but bikers are aggressive, nasty, hoity-toity people (for the most part). I don't know what had transpired, but they were arguing very loudly with lots of swear words. The driver got out and I thought they would fight, but they just screamed more. He got back in his car, the yelling continued, and the biker reached out and punched the guy's car with all of his might. The pissed off driver squealed his tires and took off. OIP.

We're happy to be back, and looking forward to trying out all of the restaurants that have opened in our absence. We've already got plans for our first "Back in Portland Happy Hour" this Friday. But getting used to this town again is going to take some time for sure!

Made it

2008-06-02T18:19:00.002-04:00

We're here, safe and sound at home, but very, very tired. Four LONG days of driving 15 hour days. Can't wait for the weekend already.

Still alive!

2008-05-26T21:44:00.001-04:00

Despite the lack of postings recently, I am still alive. Packing and all of the associated moving crap has kept me really busy. I don't see this changing much in the next couple of weeks, since we still have to drive 3,000 miles in 2 days, unpack, go back to work, and find a permanent place to live. I'll be back to normal in a few weeks :)

What's up with customer service?

2008-05-21T14:50:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am an 80-year-old woman in a young body. Where has customer service gone?

Exhibit A: Yesterday, I called to see if a local dealership had a Honda Civic Hybrid. She asked for my first name, and I gave it to her. She asked for my last, and I politely said I preferred not to give it. She then told me she couldn't give me any information then, and hung up on me. What?!?

Exhibit B: We went to Scion to test drive the tC. We walked in, the only people there. The receptionist paged a Scion rep twice, and no one came. She proceeded to ignore us, and 5 minutes later we walked out, having never been spoken to again.

Exhibit C: Went to the Nissan dealership to test drive a Nissan Altima Hybrid. 45 minutes before closing, and we're told "the gate is already locked, so you can't drive it today." Closed, 45 minutes, before you close??? At least the saleslady was really nice.

Exhibit D: Drop of my car today at 9am to get a hitch put on. Tell the guy I'll be back at 2pm, and he says that's fine. Come back at 2:20, and it's not done, with 2 cars still to be finished before he gets to mine. They close at 5, so it's unlikely they will even have it done today at all. What?!? Too bad we're screwed, because they are the only place in town with the hitch in stock.

All of these things happened in the last 2 days. What happened to nice people who give decent service to paying customers (or potential customers)?

Brief update

2008-05-21T10:39:00.003-04:00

I know you all are dying for wedding updates, but I just haven't had time to get photos from everyone, upload and organize the ones I have already, and write about it. Coming back from your honeymoon with a mean case of vertigo, a work proposal to write, many things to sell on Craigslist, an entire house to pack, a trailer hitch to have installed, friends to see, etc etc etc has keep me very busy. Suffice to say we did get married! For now, you'll have to be satiated with these two scanned formal pictures from our honeymoon cruise. Enjoy them, because they are almost surely better than our wedding pictures anyway (long hair + wind on the beach = just-got-out-of-bed look in every photo).

The end of me, the beginning of we

2008-05-06T23:18:00.001-04:00

We're off to do this:
Then to try this:

And this:

On this:
Wish us luck! See you the 18th.

Teeth!

2008-05-02T10:50:00.002-04:00

The before pics (left side, obviously) and the after pictures on the right. Excuse the angry red gums....they weren't too happy with having glue scraped off. Not bad in 13 months. Now to get used to this new retainer. Thankfully it's an Essix (the clear plastic kind), but I still talk funny and it is pretty painful. I've started using Crest Whitestrips too, at the recommendation of my ortho. I'll have to post some after shots of that if they work well.

Also, congrats to Bryan for passing his ERI test with flying colors! It was the last hurdle to graduation, and he did really well on it. Now onto studying for the NCLEX.

The name dilemma

2008-04-30T13:39:00.005-04:00

*EDIT: Thanks for all of the feedback! Keep it coming! I should have also said I'm not really a fan of the 4 names thing. That's just way too much for me to write :) For those who might be curious, my dad also votes for Tia Neely Kauffman. I also should have mentioned that Lorraine was my paternal grandmother's middle name, in case that influences any comments.*

Unless you live under a rock, you know that I'm getting married next week (NEXT WEEK!!!).

I'm debating with to do with my name when I get married. Bryan is fine with me keeping my name or taking his, although last week when I said I was keeping my own, he wanted to know why and said it made him sad. I really was just testing him out though, and I found out that he would really like it if I changed it.

So here's the debate. Many women I know have turned their maiden name into their middle name. My best friend didn't, but "only because I hated my maiden name."

My current name: Tia Lorraine Neely
Fiance's last name: Kauffman
Should I be: Tia Lorraine Kauffman or Tia Neely Kauffman

For the record, I hate dual last names or hyphenating, so there will be no Neely-Kauffman going on. If I keep Neely, it will be strictly my middle name, and I won't walk around like Catherine Zeta Jones telling everyone to call me by 3 names.

Too true

2008-04-28T12:54:00.003-04:00

Setting the scene:
Bryan is standing in the dining room eating a grapefruit, pouting because he just spilled grapefruit juice on his shirt.

Tia: "So I'm supposed to feel bad for you because you're surprised that when you stand up, right next to the table, and eat a grapefruit you get grapefruit juice on your shirt?"

Bryan: "You're supposed to empathize not because you think we [men] are less smart, but because we are less smart."

Ah yes, he's a keeper :)

By the numbers

2008-04-22T22:02:00.004-04:00

2 - days my work server has been down, making me virtually unable to work
3 - more pounds I would like to lose
4 - new pairs of shorts purchased for upcoming cruise (2 for each of us)
9 - days until the braces come off
10 - number of glorious days of vacation coming up soon
16 - days until we get married
17 - days until we go on the cruise
70 - amount spent on wedding dress
78 - amount spent on new 2 piece bathing suit for the cruise
500 - discount Nissan is offering new grads (Versa?)
1,000 - discount Toyota is offering new grads (Prius?)
2,713 - miles we have to drive to get back to Portland in 6 weeks

Atkins

2008-04-21T14:12:00.002-04:00

We're on day 4 (or is it day 5? the lack of carbs has slowed my brain) of our quasi-Aktins pre-wedding (18 days, holy lord!) slim down. And as I type this, I'm eating a burrito.

Here's what we've learned so far - we like carbs and sugar. They make us happy. When we don't have them, we spend 99.99% of our time together talking about carbs and sugar and how much we miss them. Last night on our way home from the outlet mall, we were discussing that we could not bear to eat yet another meal of eggs and meat. So we thought we'd stop at the grocery store and see how we could spice things up. The parking lot had 5,347,856 cars, and we DO NOT do crowded grocery stores.

Nearby was food heaven/hell row (depending on your outlook). Pizza Hut, Arby's, Wendy's, McDonalds. Bryan drove into the Wendy's parking lot so we could think about what to do. We sat there, like 2 drug addicts trying to score their next fix, debating what to do. In the end, we ate at Wendy's...after driving out, then making a u-turn at the bank to come back! Some genius at Wendy's headquarters decided to put the nutritional info of everyone on the menu posted right inside the door. That allowed us to make better choices, which we felt good about (and about the few carbs we were able to get....YUM! Bryan immediately wanted something with a bun, I wanted something with SUGAR). I allowed myself the child's size frosty (which is about the size of a thimble) and then PUT IT DOWN WITH HALF OF IT STILL LEFT. I know, I almost hurt my arm patting myself on the back.

The update is, me down 1 pound, Bryan down 3 pounds. I have decided that this miserable "diet" isn't worth 1 pound in 4 days. I think Bryan has slightly given in too, since he had a tuna melt for lunch. However, we can definitely continue some of the long-term positive changes we've made: more fruits and veggies, no more white carbs, avoiding carbs at every single meal, fewer desserts, no more fruit juices or non-diet soda. We go to the gym at least 3 times a week, and the other days we try and do something active. All in preparation for the gluttony of the cruise :)

Thanks for saying hi!

2008-04-17T11:30:00.002-04:00

For those of you that have been brave enough to say hi, welcome! I have to admit, I was most curious about my loyal Canadian reader, and she was the first to "out" herself. Hi Sarah, glad you think I'm different in a good way :) I like your picture.

Jenn - Nice to meet you. I'm now a regular reader of your blog too. I'm still wishing I was in Chicago for that Cupcake Crawl, whenever it happens. I'll be passing through around May 30th on my way to Portland, but that's as close as I'll get.

Tanya - I've heard a lot about you. It's funny to me that I think all of Bryan's "significant" exes read my blog! Sorry that it looks like we won't get to connect while we're out east. Time just flew by. I hear you're quite the talented pianist. My ex graduated from Eastman in Piano Performance, so I know all about how much work goes into being a pianist! If you're ever out west for a gig we'd be happy to show you around.

I know there are others of you out there! Fess up, and make a new blog friend today :)

Food porn (or Rachel Ray you are not)

2008-04-14T16:19:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure if it was Bryan or Krista I first heard it from, but "food porn" is a common occurance in our household. Food porn can consist of looking at restaurant menus online, watching cooking shows on the Food Network, talking about where to go out to dinner, discussing what you'd LOVE to be eating right that moment, etc.

So a couple of weeks ago Bryan and Krista were engaging in some food porn Rachel Ray style. I guess that day she was making Cubano Hash. The next day, they decided that they wanted to make it. Now it was maybe 11am, and NO preparation had been made to create this. Here is the recipe as Rachel Ray made it.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound ground pork
3/4 pound, packaged chorizo, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/3 palm full
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 bottle beer
4 Portuguese rolls or 2 sandwich sized English muffins, split and toasted
4 deli-cut slices Swiss cheese
4 dill pickles, chopped
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons butter
4 large eggs

So as they read the recipe together, this is how it went...me listening in hysterical laughter as this unfolded:
olive oil
- K: "We have that"
ground pork
- T: "We don't have that. All we have is frozen pork pieces"
- B: "That will be fine!"
Chorizo
- K: "We don't have chorizo, but I have some sausages and some strange hot sauce from Costa Rica, so that will be perfect."
Medium onion
- B: "We don't have a fresh onion, but we have frozen chopped onion with celery and red pepper in it. That should be fine."
3 cloves garlic
-K: "I have some in a jar, that will be fine."
Ground cumin
-T: "Yes, we have that in the cupboard"
Ground allspice
-K: "What's allspice?"
-B: "Beat's me!"
-T: "I think it's in the same family as cinnamon and nutmeg, but we don't have any."
-K: "Ooh, but we do have cinnamon and nutmeg. Good enough!"
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Yes, we have salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
-K: "I don't have any."
-B: "Neither do we, let's just use ketchup."
1/2 bottle beer
-B: "Oh, I have one beer left! How's a pale ale?"
4 Portuguese rolls or 2 sandwich sized English muffins
-B: "We've got wheat bread, how's that?"
4 deli-cut slices Swiss cheese
-T: "I just bought some swiss cheese yesterday, lucky for you guys. This might be the only thing you'll actually do right!"
Dill pickles
-B: "I think there is a jar in the fridge that isn't too old."
Yellow mustard
-K: "We don't have yellow mustard."
-B: "I have some brown mustard. Brown isn't that far from yellow, right?"
Butter
-Margarine will have to do.
Large eggs
-B: "I think we just have 4 eggs left."

And yes, after this discussion where they had less than half of what they needed, they decided to forge ahead. If only I could explain the HORRIBLE smell this recipe made. It looked even worse (I wish I had pictures). But the verdict from the college kids....................

IT'S DELICIOUS!!!!!

Much to their dismay, I refused to try it.

Brunch

2008-04-13T18:05:00.002-04:00

At Christmas we were given a gift card to a local Italian restaurant that has a very fancy Sunday brunch, which we finally went to today. The photo above shows the chocolate fountain, which has a caramel fountain right next to it. YUMMY! It was definitely my favorite part. There is nothing like fresh fruit in the winter, and the added bonus of chocolate was fantastic.

Here's the rest of the menu:

Made To Order Belgium Waffle Station with Fruit Toppings
Carving Station - Roast Beef, Lamb, Pork & Salmon
Create Your Own Omelet Station

Mario's Wheel-Homemade Fettuccine tossed in a Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Wheel
Grilled Chicken with Mushroom Sauce
Seasonal Vegetables
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Tortellini Alfredo
Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Marinara
Eggs Benedicto
Bacon and Sausage
20 Italian Antipasti-Caprese, Marinated mussels, Calamari Salad, Balsamic
Grilled Vegetables,
Grilled Mushrooms and Many More
Fresh Cut Fruit Display
Croissants, Danish, Bagels and Muffins
Lavish Array of Cakes, Tortes, Pastries and Cookies
Regular and Decaffeinated Coffee
Fruit Juices
Champagne Mimosas

Yep, tons of food. Some was a bit bizarre to be eating for out first meal of the day, but most of it was good. For the price ($50 for the 2 of us), we expected a bit more, but since it was free, we were more than happy :)

Who else is excited???

2008-04-10T21:52:00.002-04:00

Enjoying the sun, not enjoying the aftermath!

2008-04-09T19:13:00.002-04:00

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny, warmish day, so we decided to take a bike ride along the Erie canal. It is a nice paved path that runs for hundreds of miles and is relatively flat. We decided to ride from our town to the next town over, which has a really cute little village area that has some shops and ice cream. This is the canal.

So the problem is, we didn't quite recognize that our fairly regular trips to the gym DID NOT mean that we were in shape to ride our cheap-o Huffy bikes. We rode about 10 miles, which is short in the realm of bike rides, but our bodies later told us we might have ridden 100 miles. We both had trouble walking for a couple of days after!

In typical us fashion, while we were wandering around the village we just had to read the menus of the cute little restaurants along the canal. So instead of having ice cream we ended up having linner (lunch/dinner) at Aladdin's Natural Eatery, a little greek restaurant. The food was decent, and probably much better for us in the long run than Ben and Jerry's.

Us in our "geek hats" at the canal. Bryan HATES wearing a helmet, but when I assure him he only has to wear it because I love him and don't want him to get hurt, he gives in. Literally everyone I know that rides has been in an accident, and one person even cracked her helmet in half.

Although we were so tired and sore, it was so much fun hanging out together, outside, for a few hours. The bikes were sold today on Craigslist, so that will be the last ride for quite awhile.

The Story of Us

2008-04-08T14:07:00.006-04:00

A fellow blogger Emily invited people to steal this and fill it out...so that's what I'm doing! I thought it was a good time, since we're down to just a month before the big day.

Q&A on Bryan and Tia

How long have you been together? Dating 2 years and 2 months, engaged for 5 months, to be married in a month (!)

How long did you date? A year and 8 months or so before we got engaged. I guess he figured that this time he'd better really think about it before he gave a girl a ring to make sure I was truly "the one."

How old is he? 31 (although if you asked him he'd say 29, I think he's only gotten more comfortable in his own skin and more handsome in the 2 years I've known him, so I'm telling the truth :)

How old is she? 26, and there will be the 5 year gap when we officially tie the knot.

Who eats more? Definitely Bryan, although I eat more often than he does.

Who said “I love you” first? He did, although I can guarantee you he doesn't remember it. I remember him kissing me and saying "things are about to get really complicated." I thought he was talking about me moving across the country, but then he followed it up with "because I love you." Aww.

Who is taller? He is, by about 6 inches...just perfect.

Who sings better? I really have no idea, since all we ever sing to is the radio, and neither one of us is that good at it.

Who is smarter? Hmm, I'd say him, but I'm curious to know if he'd say me. Okay, I asked him and he said he'd probably best me on the SAT's (he did), but I've made much smarter life decisions and I've been very successful my career. I do know that Bryan totally blows me out of the water when it comes to math...he is awesome at math, and I frequently refer to him as my walking calculator.

Who does the laundry? We both do, depending on who has more free time. But neither one of us irons, ever.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? (Looking at the bed, from the foot of it) I do.

Who pays the bills? Right now we pay our own bills, and I pay all of the mutual bills like rent and electricity (oh, but he pays for food). We're still trying to figure out the best way to do it when we get married. I do most of the shopping, but he's the one who manages his checkbook to the penny. Me...I'm feeling really good if I'm within $100 of what I think I have in my account.

Who cooks dinner? We both do. I definitely am more adventurous, but I can count on him for spaghetti, tacos, or anything fairly easy to make. I for sure am the baker of the two of us. I love to bake.

Who is more stubborn? Me, definitely me. But he’s no picnic. (ditto to Emily)

Who kissed who first? He kissed me, although I have given him grief since the day it happened because he doesn't remember it. It was his birthday, and I had promised him he'd get his first kiss on the day we had planned together (yep, I'm a bit of a prude and made him wait a bit for a kiss). We went hiking (where he says it happened...it didn't!), then to dinner, and while we were standing in line at the movies (Walk the Line), he said "thanks for dinner, it was wonderful" and as I turned to acknowledge him he kissed me. It was just a peck, but there was a better one at the end of the night ;)

Who asked who out? In the modern society of today, you could debate who asked who. I posted the ad on Craigslist, and he responded. We emailed back and forth for a few weeks due to busy schedules, then met up one Saturday for an all-afternoon date. It was SO much fun and I was hooked right then. He says had we been in Portland, the proposal would have re-created that first date (meeting at Powell's books, lunch at a vegetarian Chinese place, old school video games at Ground Kontrol, and cupcakes at Saint Cupcake). How cute!

Who proposed? He did. It was a moment that was totally unexpected, although the proposal itself wasn't. I'd really been expecting it a few weeks earlier on a trip to Toronto, but he says there wasn't ever a right time (and I agree). My parents were visiting, and we went to dinner at a friend's house. Bryan stayed behind because he "had to study." Turns out, what he had to do was drive to the store, buy a pumpkin, drive to 3 stores to find a carving kit (and come up empty handed), carve the pumpkin with a steak knife, and clean everything up before I got home. I got home, ran to the bathroom with a horribly upset stomach, slightly ruining his romantic plan! When I came out of the bathroom I thought it was weird that I couldn't find him, and when I opened our bedroom door there he was, on one knee, in the dark, with the lit pumpkin behind him. I think he said "will you marry me." Now, in hindsight, I wish I would have turned on the light so I could actually see him! He says I waited a bit to say yes, which made him nervous (I was too busy admiring the pumpkin, which was such a cute idea).

Who has more friends? Both of us aren't the type of people who collect friends everywhere we go. We have plenty of acquaintances, and we both have a few very close friends that we would do anything for.

Who has more siblings? Well, I had 2, but since my brother passed away I have one sister. He has one sister too, so I guess we're even.

Who wears the pants in the relationship? I am the only income earner, so right now I have a bit more control, but as the researcher, Bryan controls a lot of what we end up buying. I'm sure it will be even once we both have jobs.

Combination of 2 great things!

2008-04-07T13:38:00.003-04:00

One of the things I love about Rochester is the Lilac Festival. This year, it is May 9-18th, just about the time we're getting married and headed on a fantastic cruise. Sure, I can't complain that we're missing the Lilac Festival since our other stuff is awesome. But today I read on the news online that Ingrid Michaelson will be playing. OH MAN, not only do I have to miss it, but I'm missing an up-and-comer that I really love :( (http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/ if you don't know her).

But then, I realize we're back late on May 17th. So I quickly flip through the music schedule...sure, what are the chances she would play on the one day we could make it? YES, 100% :) So not only can we make the festival our last year here in the snowy tundra, but we can hear Ingrid close out the festival, FOR FREE! WAAHOO!

Any opinions

2008-04-05T21:32:00.005-04:00

With only having one income for the last year, plus an upcoming wedding and cross country move, spare funds for weekend entertainment are lacking. We decided to take a cue from my parents and have a little free fun and went to test drive a few cars. Either here or at the other end we're selling the Forester and buying a smaller, more gas friendly compact car. Since we had a nice sunny day here, we thought we'd go check out our favorites.

#1 Nissan Versa

This car is the only one that we both drove. It was roomy, and drove nicely. The seats were super comfy. The steering wheel had a bit too much vibration for me, but I'm thinking the better CVT engine might fix that issue. The car salesman was very nice and took us on a 10 mile test drive on the freeway (no bitchy needed...see previous post). Nissan is offering some great incentives - $1,000 off or 1.9% financing, plus $500 off for BK being a new grad. This one is a front runner, but we'd need to go back and drive the one with the CVT engine. They have some nice upgrades, including a sunroof ($600) and an upgraded speaker system ($300). BK was especially excited about the latter. These seemed like a good deal, until I read the fine print which is the speaker system requires upgrade package A, which is stupid stuff like a leather wrapped steering wheel, bluetooth capable, upgraded keyless entry which doesn't require a key to start the car, etc. Package A is $700! If you just want the sunroof, it requires the stereo package, which requires package A. Now please tell me what a sunroof has to do with a subwoofer addition??? I was very annoyed.

#2 Honda Fit

I've driven the Fit before in Oregon, and liked it a lot. This car has a HUGE trunk/cargo area. I sat in the back, which had great leg room. I should have sat in the front so I could compare the seats to the Versa. It's a zippy little car. The bummer is that Honda has no incentives or good financing, so the price is quite a bit more. Honda's hold their value better though, so this one is still in the running. The salesperson (a very non-salesperson young leggy blonde) was super nice, so no bitchy needed here either. It was a very pleasant experience.

#3 Scion xD

We went to one dealership, wandered around the lot and in the showroom and couldn't get anyone to help us, so we walked out. We went to the other dealership closer to our house. Salesperson walked us all around the lot...."oh, I guess we don't have any others, I thought we did." So we waited for the one that was out on a test drive. It was only a couple of minutes, but enough time for him to also tell us they were "out of brochures." He lets us look at the car, and hands us his card saying "I won't bug you, you can look on your own" and starts to walk away. I say "Is it possible to test drive it" and he says "You know we close in 10 minutes, right?"

I've been to TONS of dealerships, and they have always stayed after, no questions asked. No, we didn't know they closed at 5, but come on! We could have had a short test drive and been out of there by 5. This guy was such a jerk that we just walked away. Looks like no Scion xD in our future.

So have any of you owned any of these cars, or know anyone who does? Any thoughts or opinions? Both the Fit and the Versa are recommended best picks by Consumer Reports, and both get fairly equal gas mileage.

Sweet nothings at the car dealership

2008-04-05T21:21:00.006-04:00

As we get to the dealership:
Him (getting out of the car): "I nominate you as our spokesperson, you're better at being bitchy."

Me: "Thanks for the insult."

Him: "That wasn't an insult, you're just better at being bitchy to car people."

Me: "Um, sure, that still sounds like an insult."

Him: "No way, and if my mom were here, I'd totally pick her over you because she's way better than you at being bitchy."

Trumped by the MIL once again. I think I'll let her win this one!

As we are walking back to the car at the dealership:
Him: "Is your knee still hurting from running outside? You're limping a little bit still."

Me: "Yes"

Him: "It's a good thing you aren't a horse, because with your hurt knee and sore hips I'd have to put you down."

Ah, the sweet words of someone who loves me. ;)

Stop in, say hello

2008-04-04T15:55:00.003-04:00

I know there are quite a few of you out there who check my blog regularly, even daily. Please, introduce yourself! What brought you here? Anything you'd like to discuss? How about spring (or lack thereof)? Or the joy of artichokes? Or the hassle of moving? Or why all self tanners make people orange? Or how the rage around here is for little girls to get facials and manicures and I think that's awful? Or anything else?

Maybe, just maybe, if I know that some of you actually read this silly blog, I'll be more motivated to post regularly.

I don't heart New York

2008-03-30T11:49:00.003-04:00

EVERYWHERE around here are those stupid I heart NY t-shirts. For a belated birthday trip a couple of weeks ago, Bryan and I went to NYC. A friend of mine from grad school is now living in NYC, so we had a free place to stay. While we had a fabulous time and she was a great host, I won't ever go back to NYC. It was crowded, dirty, loud, overwhelming, and just generally not the nicest place to go on vacation. But we got to see all of the fun sites, and it was so great to catch up with a friend of mine.

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry (which was free!).

Riding the carousel in Central Park. Central Park was the best part of the trip, even though Bryan refused to go ice skating with me (and he didn't want to go to a Broadway show...he's well aware that I'll hold that against him forever).

From BK 31 birthday

When you go to Central Park you have to get a hot dog from a vender. Note the ice rink in the background. The weather was downright tropical to us. It was about 20 when we left Rochester, and I think the day in Central Park was about 50. We basked in the sun, and Bryan actually managed to get a sunburn!

From BK 31 birthday

Trying out the first White Castle burgers we'd ever had (that's my friend Tana who hosted us). This White Castle was in the middle of Harlem (which she assured us was safe now...um, yeah...I'd never been so scared in the daylight in my life!). The burgers were G-R-O-S-S. I didn't even eat mine.

From BK 31 birthday

All in all, it was a fun birthday get-a-way. We saw Times Square, Greenwich Village, Harlem, Chinatown (yummy Pho), Little Italy (yummy desserts) and probably many other things I've forgotten. We walked until our legs were going to fall off, and successfully navigated the subway. Thanks to Tana for being a great host and not minding that we took up a good 300 sq ft of her 600 st ft apartment with the blow up air mattress.

Rest in peace my friend

2008-03-25T20:14:00.002-04:00

Even things you expect are unexpected.

Every time you pick up the phone, you think "thank god, it's good to hear your voice."

Then you get the call, and before you even hear a word, you know what's coming. Maybe if you don't hear it, it won't be true.

It is.

My dear friend Travis died on Sunday. I'm unsure of the exact circumstances, and I don't want to know them. I do know that he was safe at home in bed. His sweet roommate found him on Monday and has had the horrific job of calling everyone they know, including his parents.

Travis had a rough life and battled a lot of mental demons. He was much too young to go (26), but I hope all of his troubles are gone. Trav, I'll miss you.

Backwards birthdays

2008-03-24T11:51:00.003-04:00

A certain gentleman lives with me. That certain gentleman had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. Said gentleman doesn't like that he has crossed a certain age threshold, so that gentleman decide he's counting backwards now. So the gentleman had his #29 this year. Due to some yucky commitments (school for the gentleman, some very important grant deadlines for me), we were unable to party ala Prince (Like it's 1999) the day of. However, we were able to have an eating feast thanks to my mom. And if you know us, and you are a loyal reader of this blog, you know that we love to eat. love might be too low-key of a word. LOVE might be more like it. This was our first encounter with Edible Arrangements. Heavenly delicious fruit in the middle of winter. Hooray! It caused a feeding frenzy around here. It fed the 3 of us for a week solid. Ours had cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and chocolate-dipped apples. Although they are a bit pricey, they are worth every penny when all that is found in the grocery store is rock hard peaches and mealy apples. I highly recommend these as a unique gift that every fruit-lover will love.

This was the smallest basket of this variety available, and it filled up 3 GIANT tupperwares (after we'd already made a huge dent in it). The cute part is that the skewers are all stuck into a head of lettuce.

Shoot, work calls! More on our delayed birthday trip to NYC to follow......

Orthodontist update

2008-03-18T11:04:00.002-04:00

So after being so bitter at my orthodontist, I heard back from them the same day, and they squeezed me in the next day (Thursday) at 12:30pm, which was as late as I could do since we were headed to NYC for a long weekend. When the receptionist called me with the new appointment, she apologized and explained that Dr. K had been out for 2 days for a funeral, and 4 staff had been out that week with the flu. Okay, fine, but don't pull out the pity card AFTER I call to make sure you are running on time and you tell me yes.

Either way, my polite yelling at the receptionist clearly made an impact. When I went in on Thursday, EVERYONE was apologizing to me. The ortho assistant, 2 receptionists, and Dr. K himself. I ended up having Dr. K for the entire appointment, which was his lunch break, because he felt badly about how I was treated. He told me the funeral excuse, but also said "That's no excuse, and I sincerely apologize for you having to wait and reschedule."

So all is fine, and although I'm still pissed about how much I've had to wait lately, they were genuinely sorry and did everything they could to make me happy. I also talked to the head receptionist about getting a discount, since I'll be out of treatment WAY early, and she said she'd talk to Dr. K about it. A few hours later I got a call from her, and he's going to review my chart and discuss how much discount I can have at my next appointment. Yay! Even if it's $50 I'd be happy, since they normally don't discount at all (you pay for straight teeth, not time).

And the biggest news of all......

THE BRACES ARE COMING OFF MAY 1ST!

My hatred of my orthodontist's office

2008-03-12T13:31:00.002-04:00

Almost exactly one year ago, I forked over $5,600 (well, part of that, and I'm paying for rest) in the pursuit of straight teeth. Being one year older and one year wiser, I wouldn't do it again. But that's an entirely different post.

The point of this post is to state how much I hate my orthodontist, Dr. Kaufman in Rochester, NY (and yes, I sure hope this post shows up if someone does a search on him). I only have to go in generally every 8 weeks. The first few appointments were right on time, no troubles. They even squeezed me in with a tech the same day several times for poking wires, infections, etc.

Things have rapidly gone south though. 3 appointments ago, they were 30 minutes late. Okay, I figured it was a fluke and they apologized profusely. 2 appointments ago they were ONE HOUR late. Even when I finally was seated by a tech, the appointment was an hour and a half because Dr. Kaufman was still so far behind. To add insult to injury, 3 people were bumped ahead of me in line because they "needed less time with the doctor" (I was getting 8 brackets re-positioned). I spent a total of TWO AND A HALF HOURS there, for what was supposedly a 40 minute appointment.

I had an appointment today at noon. I called at 11:30 to see if they were running behind, since I had a lot of work things I needed to get done. The receptionist checked, and said everything was fine, come at noon. This same receptionist saw me walk in a half hour later and said "Hi Tia, I'm sorry to tell you that we are running behind now." I seriously thought she was kidding, since I had just spoken with her. She wasn't. I grab the latest issue of People and have a seat. I read it cover to cover, and they still haven't called me. I wait a few more minutes, until I'm fuming with anger. At 12:50, nearly an hour past my scheduled time (which was on time just 30 minutes before my time), I've had enough and I go to the receptionist and tell her I can't wait any longer. It took all I had to resist my urge to scream at her. It isn't the nice receptionist's fault that Dr. K can't keep up with his patients. She tries to reschedule me for a week from today. Um, NO, these are supposed to come off in 6 weeks, you're not pushing me off a week for my last adjustment, especially when it isn't my fault that it isn't happening today. She took my number and is calling me after she gets a chance to talk with Dr. K. Who knows when that will be, since he can't even manage to see all of his patients.

The moral of the story is that Dr. Kaufman is all about money and cares not at all about his patients. He has taken on more patients than he can handle, and I am suffering because of it. I'm no longer important, because I have already agreed to pay him, and that's money in his pocket. But I paid for 20-24 months of treatment, and I'm only going to end up with 12 months. You'd better believe I'm asking for some of my money back, and a nasty letter is coming his way.

Movies, babies, and movies about babies

2008-03-03T14:15:00.005-05:00

This weekend marked the debut of Adelaide Marie! Congratulations to Joe and Maria on the birth of their first baby. I was so excited when I got the call from Joe. Then Bryan says to me, "See, that's the difference between chicks and dudes. You're all excited about this, and I'm depressed. I really liked hanging out with them, and this baby means that we have to find new friends. People with babies can only talk about babies." Men! I guess he is right in a way, in the same way that single people don't generally have married friends, but I have faith that life won't be 100% baby for Mo and Joe, as evidenced by her heading off to a conference in 3 short weeks, and to our wedding in 8 weeks (all with Addy of course).

Bryan was really busy this weekend with clinicals and homework, so I spent the weekend movie watching. Last night I went to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Oscar nominated (I think it won for something?), and depressing as all get out! Based on a true story, the French editor of Elle magazine is an ass, has a girlfriend and 3 kids with her, but cheats on her all the time. Then he has a stroke and is "locked-in" and can only blink one eye. He blinks out the story of his life, with the aid of a charming woman, and dies 10 days after the book is published.

Next up, and BY FAR the best of the 3 movies I saw, was the documentary "The Business of Being Born." It was done by none other than Ricki Lake, but in this movie there are no Jerry Springer-esque moments. It was a fascinating look about how we medicalize births in this country, to the detriment of both women and babies. The picture below is an actual picture from the movie, where this mom delivered her baby at home, squatting (a much more natural position), and picked it up just before the baby hit the floor. This movie really showed the nasty cycle of pitocin-epidural-pitocin-epidural that causes fetal distress and leads to a c-section, all because doctors are impatient and won't let the body do what it needs to do.

The third movie was a total chick flick called "Definitely, Maybe." It was cute, and had some twists and turns as you waited throughout the movie to find out which girl he ends up with. NOt a high-class film, but it was entertaining.

Also to relieve boredom this weekend, I went to DSW, the best shoe-store on earth (okay, the best affordable shoe store on earth). I got some comfy walking shoes (Kangaroos, which Bryan says he had as a kid, but I've never heard of them) and some cute/comfy shoes for the cruise.

From March 2008

Yes, those bare legs you see are because I was wearing a skirt, enjoying the high of 67 degrees! No worries, the next few days were in the 20's and 30's with snow and ice.

We ended the weekend with a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Bryan felt bad about being so busy all weekend, so we had a lovely dinner and spent some nice time together discussing the political state of our country. A very heady topic for dinner, but we had fun.

Fruit crisp and general updates

2008-02-24T19:23:00.006-05:00

This is one of my staple desserts because it is easy to make and relatively healthy (as far as desserts go).

The recipe itself is designed for a 2 quart square baking dish. I like to make it in my ramekins, so I adjust the amount of fruit slightly. If you use the baking dish, it calls for 5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples, peaches, pears, or apricots. Now here is how I make it:

Fill 4 ramekins (mine are from Ikea) about 3/4 full with fruit.

From feb 08

For the ones in these pictures, I used 2 granny smith apples, about 1/3c frozen blueberries that I picked in the summer, and 1/2 of the big package of raspberries at the store (or an entire small one). I usually use a mix of peaches (again, frozen from the summer, but thawed first) and blueberries, but we've eaten up all of the peaches from the summer :( The only fruit I have used that was a failure was pear. It made it way too runny. Because I use fresh fruit (or fruit I picked), I don't ever add sugar to the fruit.

Once you have the fruit in the ramekins, you make the topping by mixing these together:

1/2c oats
1/2c packed brown sugar
1/4c flour
1/4tspn nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon (I've only used cinnamon because we like it the best)
1/4c nuts - optional (I've only used nuts once, since I'm not a big nut fan)

To this mixture, cut in 1/4c of butter until mix is crumbly. Divide mix over ramekins (about 1/2c per ramekin).

From feb 08

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes until nice and bubbly. They are best warm, and you can serve with ice cream if you like (Bryan likes his with whipped cream).

From feb 08

Our review of the raspberry, apple, blueberry combo is that is isn't the winner that the combo with the peaches are. We really like the sweetness and juiciness that peaches add.

If you like this and want to save time, I make a double batch of the topping (without the butter) and put it in a ziploc so it's all ready to go for the next time.

When I wasn't baking this week, I was taking care of Bryan, who was stricken with the evil flu. Of course, with his pre-existing issues, having the flu for him is really scary. Here is how he felt a few days ago:

From feb 08

Here's how he feels today:

From feb 08

He's still not at 100%, but he's much better and the gut-wrenching coughing is almost gone. We're both so happy that he's feeling better! I knew he was starting to feel a bit more like himself on Sunday when I heard him singing again. It is the cute way to judge his mood...he's always singing when he's happy. I was happy to finally get a kiss after a week of no contact in an attempt to keep me from getting sick (which worked!).

My sweet mom sent him cookies while he was incapacitated. Yum!

From feb 08

Markisa says thanks for the cookies too, as she loved the box.

From feb 08

And finally, if any of you are blog readers that haven't responded to your wedding invites yet, know you're in the dog pile! We are having a small affair with our nearest and dearest, and 6 of the 11 invitations have yet to be returned! Almost all of our non-RSVP-dependent planning is completed, and now we're really looking forward to the wedding and the cruise, especially since we're getting 8 inches of snow as I type this!

The terrible twos? No way!

2008-02-13T16:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. Two years since I met that adorable man in Powell's, and the first thing he said to me was "Darn, you caught me in the comic book section. I hoped you would see me reading some science book and think I was smart." I was already hooked! From there we went to vegetarian chinese food, played old video games at a funky arcade, and had cupcakes at Saint Cupcake. It was so much fun and was definitely the longest first date I had ever had. I never would have predicted that 2 years later I'd be living in the frigid east, preparing for my wedding!

Yesterday, like the romantic couple we are, we worked (Tia did) took a nursing school test (Bryan did), had spaghetti for dinner (it was too icy and snowy to go to the store) and watched 3 episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo. Tres romantique!

Yesterday, in other words, it was a pretty normal day. However, we did have a fun early celebration together on Sunday. After taking an early morning test (a 94, good job baby!), we went to breakfast at Simply Crepes, came home and relaxed for a bit, then headed off to the spa thanks to Sherri and my mom. It was so nice and peaceful. Then home to shower, off to dinner (oops, our favorite place is closed on Sunday, which we discovered as we drove by it). Dinner take 2 was a Vietnamese place. It was okay, but we were the only people in there and it was really cold! With it being a whopping 6 degrees outside, we were looking for warmth. After dinner we went to see Cabaret, with Portlander (and Rockstar Supernova finalist) Storm Large. She was great, but that musical is SO bizarre! We enjoyed it, even though Bryan asked me several times if I had slipped drugs in his dinner...that's how bizarre Cabaret is! The night was capped off with dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Yesterday I was reminded of my future. My future with a man who said, spur of the moment when we were being silly, "We are going to have the best marriage." And I knew he meant it. Baby, if you ever read this, I wholeheartedly agree and can't wait for May. Here's to saying goodbye to celebrating February 12th and hello to May 9th.

Oatmeal chocolate chip banana muffins

2008-02-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I love to bake. Lucky for me, I live in a house where people love to eat baked goods. It's a win-win for all involved. My lastest find is from Allrecipes.com, my favorite cooking website.

These are just too good not to share the recipe. I've made them twice now, and both times they were fantastic. I used my new silicone muffin liners that my mom gave me. I'm not sure if they are the key to this, since I haven't made them any other way. I really like that you make this in just one bowl. No combining wet and dry required.

Directions:

Mash 3 very ripe bananas in a large bowl.
Add 1/2c sugar to the bananas and stir
Add 1 beaten egg and 1/3c apple sauce (I used cinnamon because it is what I had, and it was great) and stir
Add 1tspn baking soda, 1.5tspns baking powder, 1c flour, 1/2c quick cooking oats, 1/2tspn salt and stir
Fold in 3/4c chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

The end result:

You can see that just minutes out of the oven and many were already gone!

Updates for my mama

2008-02-07T22:29:00.000-05:00

Mom, this whole post is just for you. Don't you feel special?

Here is the re-sized wedding band. I'm sorry the pictures is so blurry, but my camera just doesn't do close-ups very well. It looks fantastic in person and I love it. Thanks for coming to pick it out with me.

Bryan's ring. Note that he put it on his right hand. The left hand was "too scary." He's funny. There was no way my camera would take a picture of the engraving, but it came out very nicely.

From feb 08

Check out the cool ring "box" his ring came in. My ring came in a vintage heart box with a neat little clasp on it, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

The veil, which is 150 times better than the crummy one from Target.

From feb 08

The beautiful flowers you sent that definitely made my day. Unfortunately, as is the issue with tulips, they don't last forever, so we had to finally throw them away today. We all really enjoyed them though, and the red vase they came in is beautiful.

A few pictures of our apartment.

The view from our window today. Although 3 days ago it rained and the grass was bare, 2 days ago we had freezing rain and today it snowed on top of the ice. I haven't even been brave enough to go unearth my car for 3 days now.

Hope this catches us up on all of the things I've promised. More apartment pictures at some point. I love you and miss you. Can't wait to see you in May!

Some days are just crap

2008-01-29T18:13:00.000-05:00

Some days I really miss having my girl friends spread out all over the country. Even many of the local ones have moved away. I guess it doesn't matter much anyway, as the only privacy I get on the phone is when I go sit in my car! And it's cold outside, and I've been forbidden from complaining via the phone, so blogging it is.

The day started off with a braces adjustment, which always makes for a crappy day since my teeth start to hurt a couple of hours after. They were running 25 minutes late, and then made me sit in the chair with those horrible mouth expanders in for 10 minutes while the dentist was running behind as well. They ripped off (literally) 8 brackets, filed down the glue that smelled so awful I started to gag, then replaced them and gave me ouchie new wires. Crappy thing #1

Today I found out a friend of mine recently got engaged. Is is terrible that all I could think to say to her (besides congrats), is "Be prepared for the hell of wedding planning"? Just don't do it. Get engaged, go elope, and be done with it. I can't even fathom being one of those women who spends 2 years planning a wedding. I would have become suicidal long before I reached the 24 month mark. Weddings really seem to bring out the worst in everyone, and it is a shame since it really is such a happy event. Crappy thing #2

I went to a meeting today for work. After the meeting I sat in my car and cried (my compatriot...we'll call her L...at the meeting did so as well, so it wasn't just me having a bad day). L and I have worked very hard getting a project going, and this nasty hag screamed at us for over an hour for absolutely no reason. I am NOT one to ruin a business prospect, but at one point I heard myself saying "there is no reason for you to be rude, that is inexcusable behavior." After the meeting L said she wanted to jump across the table and hug me for saying that. We have pretty much discovered that this group of people we were really excited to work with is using us (currently for free) with no intention of actually giving us business. They are clearly using us for our expertise and plan to screw us over right at the end. Thankfully we caught on now, but it makes it no less hurtful. The atrocities that have gone on are too numerous to list, but let's just say I hope a number of these witches lose their jobs soon (which actually is a real possibility). This town just breeds spiteful, angry, burned-out people. It's a shame, since the real losers here are innocent children, but it makes me even more happy to be going back to Portland. Crappy thing #3 (the meeting, not the going-back-to-Portland part)

I hold hope that tomorrow will be a better day!

P.S. Mom, I haven't forgotten about the pictures for you. I can't find my camera, but as soon as I do I'll take them for you.

P.P.S. The one bright spot in the day was I did my taxes and I'm getting a huge refund back! It helps make the loss from the house much more bearable.

A time, a place, a date

2008-01-16T10:03:00.000-05:00

Yes ladies and gentlemen, after much debate and Mitt Romneying (i.e. flip-flopping), we have settled on wedding plans! A huge thanks to my mom who recognized the mounting frustration, took the reigns, and just started planning things. Another huge thanks to random person at Audrey's (my future MIL) work who came up with the final winning idea which Brad and Audrey so nicely went to check and give the thumbs up for. More to be announced once the very few invites go out this week. The rest of you will be invited to the "reception" sometime this summer in Portland.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorites of the engagement photos we had taken back in November. I had to wait to post them since many were Christmas gifts to family. It was a very chilly, rainy day, but the park by our old house was a great location and the photographer and her hubby were great to work with.

From Engagement ph...

And our favorite, which will probably be used as the reception invitation:

From Engagement ph...

Stella (Tia) got her grove (Bryan) back

2008-01-01T15:27:00.000-05:00

Thursday, December 20th the school gods decided to give Bryan a break and make that his last day for the term. The pukeys made him miss 2 days of clinicals, but due to the laziness of his instructors, they didn't want to have to make up the days with him. It's SO nice to have him "back." By Friday he was his normal, silly, picking on me self which I had so greatly missed.

We've been doing our best to have tons of play time in amongst selling the house and working (me). To celebrate him being done, we had a really fun date night going out to see Sweeney Todd (bizarre yet good) and having dinner at this very "Portland" upscale pizza place with the most fantastic tiramisu I've had in a long time. In addition to Sweeney Todd we went to see Juno last night (great flick) and we've rented Waitress (not that good, but I was still entertained) and Eastern Promises (which I have no idea what happened because I couldn't understand their thick Russian accents). Bryan has also watched I Am Legend and part of The Bucket List online. Yes, we've been movie junkies!

The movies were interspersed between a few episodes of Six Feet Under (which we love) and lots of cable...namely marathons of Flip that House (we were sucked into this until 1am one night!), Say Yes to the Dress (okay, that was me that watched a pathetic FOUR hours of it, but I did at least unpack while I was watching), Stand Up on Comedy Central, and some marathon on TLC about people at this fat center in New York. We clearly missed having cable :) I'm not ashamed at all to admit how much TV we've been watching, since come mid-January Bryan will be back to school and the TV will stay dark just like it did last term.

Christmas was a low-key affair, since we had adopted a family for Christmas. However, our parents still managed to spoil us royally. I guess the "no gifts" thing is impossible for moms! Christmas Eve we went to Sherri and Kevin's where we had a fantastic meal! Appetizers of cheese and crackers, strawberries, cold shrimp, and a fig/feta/hazelnut thing that was so good. Dinner was lobster, risotto, homemade mac and cheese, a fancy salad with raspberries in it, and bread. Dessert was homemade lava cakes. Of course the champagne was flowing as well, which was delicious with a splash of the marionberry wine added in that we had brought. It was a scrumptious meal and it was really fun to be around young kids on Christmas Eve and remember the excitement.

Last night (New Year's) we had a fantastic meal that Bryan made which consisted of cheese and artichoke quiche as an appetizer, fruit he picked out just for me (fresh pineapple and raspberries), steak that he did an amazing job of cooking, butternut squash, and rolls. Dessert was eclairs with chocolate frosting on the top. After the late dinner, we went to see Juno, then came back to watch the ball drop and toast with some Eye of the Bee, our favorite wine from a local winery (expect it to make an appearance at our reception).

When we weren't eating or watching TV, we were unpacking. Supposedly, after a last minute panic by the buyer that cost me $100 because I was too tired to fight anymore), my house finally closed. That was the 27th, and I haven't heard from my attorney or my real estate agent that it actually did close, but I know if someone had gone wrong the bitch..err...realtor would have called. I still need to write to her boss and tell him what a horrible person she was. I'm just thankful it's all done.

The sea of boxes has been downgraded to a creek of boxes, which is at least moving in the right direction. I hope to have everything unpacked before the trip to Portland next week for my dad's 80th birthday! Can't wait to be back home where the high is higher than 18 (which is the forecast here for the next 2 days!).

The wedding is, well, frustrating to say the least. Still no date, no plan, and no location even remotely decided upon. Every idea is shot down by at least one person. We're hoping to make progress when we are back home.

There's no place like home (wherever that may be)

2007-12-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

I never quite know what to say when people ask me where "home" is. My heart considers Portland to be home, while my address and physical presence consider Rochester to be home.

Either way, I'm not at home.

Where am I? Oh, well THANKS for asking, because I was just going to tell you! Currently, I'm sitting in Penn Station in NYC.

My intended route was a flight from Portland at 7:20am, with a 3:30pm connection in Newark, ending in Rochester (and back with my love) at 5:45pm. Mother Nature didn't like that plan.

Everything was fine when I left Newark. By the time I got to Newark, all flights out to Toronto, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Boston, Albany, Portland Maine, and probably others were cancelled. They rebooked me for:

TUESDAY (keep in mind it was 4pm on Sunday)

Bryan the wonder finance (insert superhero music here) got his brain a-thinkin'. Renting a car wasn't an option due to cost and weather conditions. He found a train ticket that left from the airport at 6am Monday. Not the best, but better than Tuesday. Then he found out that Greyhound had a bus leaving at 6pm. The catch was that I had to get a cab and go to the bus station (which is also the train station), because they don't reserve seats (huh?). So I go. Turns out that the people he spoke to on the phone were morons, because the bus had been canceled to western NY.

So now I'm in Newark's Penn Station. To say it was scary is an understatement. Rampant poverty and homelessness, beggars, and a confusing, overwhelming system of trains and buses that only a native understands. But I put on my cute "help-me-even-though-I'm-dirty-and-smelly" face, and the very kind woman at the train took pity on me and walked me through buying a ticket to get to NYC ("you don't want to stay here overnight honey - no way") where I would need to wait 13 hours to get the 7:15am Amtrak to Rochester (an $85 ticket). She was so kind in a time when I really needed someone to be nice to me, lest I break down in tears in the big scary city. She had me come back near the time my NYC train was to depart and walked me to the right "line" or "platform" or whatever it was I had to stand on to catch my train to Hogwarts...er...NYC.

While sitting there a nice (yet scary-looking) African American man struck up a conversation with me, called me "mama," said that I was nuts to stay overnight in th NYC train station (a scary thought coming from him), and said I "looked like a woman with money....I know them braces ain't cheap." But he helped me get on the train, so I'll give him a thumbs up.

So now I sit at the NYC station (which is right at Madison Square Garden...cool if I wasn't so terrified to venture outside of the train station and get lost, plus it's cold). I'm 5 hours into my 13 hours. Thankfully they have internet (at 9.95, but totally worth it) to keep my occupied, and I bought some cheap headphones so I can watch some online T.V. I'm trying to stay under the radar because for some reason, even though I have a ticket and I'm in the special Amtrak area, you can only sit here for 2 hours. They have chased one sketchy looking guy out already, but I think as a descent (although yucky) looking woman, they will leave me alone.

What an adventure I would rather have not had! So overall I'm $105 and a day in the negative, but I should be home tomorrow afternoon (oh, it's today now!). Who knew that THIS would be my first time in NYC?

I heart Niagara Falls

2007-11-29T19:58:00.000-05:00

Niagara Falls is like a close piece of heaven. Okay, that is a little bit of exaggeration, but it is definitely my favorite place for an inexpensive, fun overnight getaway. It is like a smaller version of Vegas or any tacky tourist town, with it's Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not, wax museum, "house of horrors" and the like. But I love it because it's under 2 hours away and staying there is pretty cheap. Oh yeah, and the falls.

Last month (yep, I'm waaay behind), two friends and I met up in NF. One came from Pittsburgh and the other from Erie. We are friends from high school, and they hadn't seen each other since high school, and I had only seen them once or twice.

What a fun weekend we had! Seriously, we need to have girl's weekends more often! We just went overnight, but we managed to go to the spa and get facials, gamble a bit (I won $30!), go out dancing, and eat a 3 hour long buffet breakfast. It was such a blast catching up with them and talking about old friends and long-past high school days. We were out dancing until 1am I think (super late for Em and I, who might as well be old ladies now that neither of us are single), and then stayed up until 3am just chatting.

From Girls Weekend

Last weekend Bryan and I went to NF overnight just to get away from wedding planning, moving, and schoolwork. It was REALLY cold, but we had so much fun! We weren't so lucky with the gambling, but still only lost $20 between the two of us. Like the children that we are, we spent more time in the arcade. They have this fun mini-bowling game. I asked Bryan why he wasn't smiling in this picture, and he said "this is my focused bowling face." Hmm, funny to me that "focused" looks very similar to "deer caught in the headlights." He still hasn't figured out how the timer on my camera works, and it cracks me up.

We stood outside in the 28 degree weather to watch the fireworks over the falls. It was very cold, but neat. They also had the falls lit up and the entire strip had Christmas displays. The one below is my favorite.

From NF getaway No...

We went to the Hershey store and didn't buy anything since the prices were way higher there than at the grocery store. But we did get to take some tacky tourist photos there and at other locales.

From NF getaway No...

Tacky tourist photo #2

From NF getaway No...

Tacky tourist photo #3

From NF getaway No...

The shocker of the trip was going into Denny's for dinner, opening the menu, and finding out that no food item (including salads) was under $13! At Denny's! They had a special 3-course meal that was soup or salad, one of 3 entrees, and one of a few dessert choices. TGI Friday's (usually more expensive than Dennys) does this same thing for $12.99 sometimes. Guess how much it was at Denny's. $21.99. No joke! We ended up leaving and going to a lovely Italian place a few doors down. For $33 (including the 18% tax and tip) we got a yummy wood fired pizza, ceasar salad for 2, tiramisu, and drinks for both of us. A much better deal and much better food. To end the great overnight on a good note, we went to not one but TWO outlet malls and we sailed through the border crossing. Now that's my idea of a great getaway!

Friday Fall Foliage

2007-11-16T15:02:00.001-05:00

The view from my office window today.

Let it snow?

2007-11-07T13:32:00.000-05:00

Today, November 7th, I saw the first snow. Winter is officially here. I'm not ready for it, but I know it comes with the territory.

I am so behind in blogging, so here is my attempt at catching up and bringing everyone up to speed.

October 26-28 my parents came for a quick whirlwind trip.

Saturday we went to the Corning Museum of Glass, which I highly recommend!

From Oct 2007

I think this was my favorite piece. This dress is made entirely of glass. I can only imagine how heavy it is.

From Oct 2007

This wall was beautiful, but unfortunately doesn't photograph well.

From Oct 2007

Sunday my parents helped with house projects, and then we went to Ollie's Bargain Outlet (yes, my parents junk shop on vacation!) and then to dinner at Sherri's. The proposal happened after that, so my parents got to sort of be around when it happened (they weren't at my house, but I got to tell them about it in person). It was great to have them here, even if it was such a short time and I put them to work!

The weekend before that was a beautiful 80 degrees, so Bryan got to pick apples for the first time EVER! Shorts in mid-October is so strange, but it was so nice to enjoy the sun. We also picked fall raspberries. We're definitely going to miss the fruit farm so close to our house.

From Oct 2007

Finally there is happy house news. We've passed the inspection phase, after much arguing back and forth, and the bank appraised the house just fine. As long as her mortgage goes through, we'll be moving in about a month! Waahoo! Now we're apartment hunting. Man is there a lot of crap out there!

Braces are on my mind, since I just went for an appointment today. I'm now all rubber banded up, but my ortho is thrilled with my progress. He made such a fuss about it that all of the assistants had to come over and see my "before" pictures. He thinks I'll be done in time for the wedding...a full 7-12 months ahead of schedule! Yes!

Wedding plans are in the beginning stages, and we're actually both enjoying figuring out what we want to do. Plans for now are a small ceremony in Vegas in May, and a "reception" in Portland in June. Thanks for all of the happy comments from everyone. We are both so excited!

Carving on a deadline

2007-10-29T14:44:00.000-04:00

This weekend, my parents came to visit. Sunday night, we went to dinner at Sherri's, while Bryan stayed at home to "finish up a paper for school." I came home to mysterious darkness to find this:

From Engagement

Now, THIS is how much he loves me: our farm-picked pumpkin molded in the 80 degree weather we had mid-last week, so he had to go buy a new pumpkin. It was Sunday before Halloween, so all of the THREE stores he went to were out of pumpkin carving knives. With only about 3 hours to accomplish everything before I came home, he carved this with a kitchen knife! Have you ever carved a pumpkin with a kitchen knife? It is very difficult. Hence his oh-so-cute, (but totally unnecessary) explaination of "I really wanted it to say 'Will you marry me,' but I couldn't do that with a kitchen knife, so I hope this is creative enough." Yes, baby, it's creative enough.

Of course I said Yes!

I'm now the luckiest girl in the world, and I'm wearing this, which has so much significance to me it's a bit overwhelming, in the best way possible.

From Engagement

What can $2 getcha?

2007-10-20T21:02:00.000-04:00

Well, in Rochester, it gets you a pretty fun date night with some second run movies. Last week we saw this:

A friend said that I HAD to see it because it was great, and he was right. I was reluctant because I loathe Michael Moore, but this was an eye-opening look at the US healthcare system. While I knew our system was terrible, I didn't know quite how terrible it is. The movie left me feeling ashamed of being American and we left with comments of "when should we move to Canada or France?" I highly recommend this movie.

Last night we had a "boy" date night to do a little cheering up after a rough week. We had some yummy sushi (for him) and tempura shrimp and veggies (for me). Then we went to see this:

This was a movie that garnered the quote "That was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Sort of like a modern Princess Bride." I should note that I did not utter said quote, but it was an interesting and enjoyable movie. It had many plotlines that all eventually converged, and had many pieces of humor laced throughout. The concept of a star fallen from sky represented by Claire Danes was akin to Alanis Morisette playing God in Dogma, but an interesting premise nonetheless. It was a unique movie, and one we both enjoyed. For $2, it doesn't take much to entertain me!

Toronto

2007-10-11T13:46:00.000-04:00

The boyfriend and I went to Toronto last weekend, so I figure it deserves some pictoral updates and some witty (or, let's face it, not witty at all) banter.

Upon our arrival in Toronto after a lengthy travel time (45 minutes at the border crossing and 15 minutes figuring out how to get into our hotel), we changed and got ready for dinner at the top of the CN Tower, which is the world's tallest tower. The restaurant makes a full rotation every 72 minutes. It was neat because we had an early dinner (5:45), so we got to see everything in daylight and at night. But first, the scrumptiously painful (i.e. too much) menu for the evening.

Appetizer
WILD MUSHROOM AND VIDALIA ONION BISQUE
Quebec ash rolled goat’s cheese, cracked olive crostini, tarragon crème fraiche

From Toronto Oct 2007

Main Course
Tia: PAN SEARED FILLET OF ATLANTIC SALMON ON WILTED BABY SPINACH
Creamer potatoes, coriander sprouts, toasted pumpkin seeds, warm green tomato vinaigrette

From Toronto Oct 2007

Bryan: TRUFFLE SCENTED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM STEAK ON FRESH HORSERADISH MASH WITH ROASTED KING OYSTER MUSHROOMS
Grilled asparagus, morel mushroom cream

From Toronto Oct 2007

Dessert
Tia: NIAGARA PEACH AND STRAWBERRY CRUMBLE
Cinnamon crème Anglaise, vanilla ice cream

From Toronto Oct 2007

Bryan: DARK CHOCOLATE TOWER WITH SUMMER FRUITS
Raspberry vanilla crème Anglaise

From Toronto Oct 2007

Although it was quite the splurge for us, we had an amazing time and the food was delicious. A few shots from the tower.

Lake view:

From Toronto Oct 2007

Sunset:

From Toronto Oct 2007

The city of Toronto:

From Toronto Oct 2007

Us at dinner. We scored a table right next to the window!

From Toronto Oct 2007

If you look closely, you can see that this is the view below (to the street) from the glass floor in the tower. It was so scary to stand on, even though it is entirely mental!

From Toronto Oct 2007

The view from our hotel room:

From Toronto Oct 2007

On Saturday we walked alllllll around, for a solid 8 hours, mostly in Chinatown. It was great to be back in a city with some ethnic foods. For dinner we decided to go to a sushi-go-round, which we miss immensely from Portland. This place sounded so cool too...the go-round part was boats that were actually in water. Well, it turns out that the sushi was very expensive, and the soba with chicken that I got was so gross that I barely ate any of it. So we paid $31 for nothing, and walked to this great Irish Pub and had a great time while watching some baseball, hearing some nice live music, having some fantastic drinks, and getting dinner #2 (putine, which is a Canadian thing...basically fries with gravy. Sounds nasty, but it was really good). We were seated in this raised section and had it all to ourselves for the 3ish hours we were there.

From Toronto Oct 2007

We did a little shopping while we were there, but with the weak value of the dollar, we couldn't afford much of anything! Of course we did stop at Ikea and get a few little trinkets, including my favorite new striped apron. We also got some fun new stuff at Lush, including a blueberry mask and some shampoo that is in a bar form.

At some point during the weekend I was telling Bryan how he just isn't the type of guy to buy me flowers. It's totally fine, and he shows me he loves me a million other ways then buying me something that is going to die. I came home Tuesday after running some errands, and he said "come here, I have a surprise for you." He had hidden (in my closet, which I still think is really funny), these pretty pansies.

From Toronto Oct 2007

You can't tell from this picture, but this is a big heavy planter full of them. I guess I made him feel bad, so he went out and bought me flowers. Too cute! I think they will dress up the house nicely for the upcoming upon house.

For more pictures, click here

More next week after the Niagara Falls trip.

This Old House

2007-09-30T21:34:00.000-04:00

The lack of blogs lately is just a result of little worth blogging about. I know you all are waiting on the edge of your seat to hear about doing laundry, washing dishes, grocery shopping, and the like (dripping with sarcasm).

This weekend my fabulous other half helped me with the many house projects that befall us here, some so laden with ironicness (is that a word?) that we just have to laugh. While we were outside hanging the new side door light, Krista, dripping from the shower, appears holding a mysterious object saying "This fell out while I was in the shower." It turns out the object was the built in ceramic 1962 soap dish from her shower. It just randomly gave way and fell out. Back to Lowe's for the second time, where some fantastic men (one a shopper himself) talked us through how to reinstall it (plaster of paris and 100% silicone caulking). Lowe's is head and shoulders above Home Depot. So this weekend "we" (and by "we" I mean Bryan while I supervised and generally got in the way, unless I was being helpful and holding the flashlight):
- Put up a new outside light
- Re-installed the soap dish
- Mastered the rented carpet cleaner and cleaned the carpets and rugs
- Replaced 2 bulb fixtures that were broken in the attic and basement
- Tried to put new rails on a drawer (but we need one more Lowe's trip for a bracket)

We celebrated all of the successful projects with a yummy dinner at Dinosaur Barbecue. Just to sum up the house horrors, we also found out last week that the furnace has a crack in it and we need AN ENTIRELY NEW FURNACE. Please pray that this house sells quickly before more things break. It went back on the market with a new realtor on Friday.

On the up side, we did do some fun things this weekend. Friday night we did the Light the Night walk to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Bryan's best friend had non-hodgkins lymphoma in his early 20's (and is now doing well), and it's always nice to support causes that resonate personally. It's neat because it is done at night and everyone gets a lighted balloon. This is a horrible picture, but shows a couple of the lights in the dark.

From Sept 2007

Saturday Bryan, Krista and I went to the Hilton Apple Fest. Admittedly it was a bit disappointing as there were few apple things there. It was very odd! But they DID have Kelly's non-pasturized apple cider, which is just heavenly. Even better, it comes in these really cute little sippy things.

From Sept 2007

But despite the non-appleness of the Apple Fest, the weather was beautiful and it was nice to get out and wander and eat yummy fair food. Next weekend we're off to Toronto, so I'm sure I'll at least have some fun pictures from that.

The excitement of normalicy

2007-09-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

This weekend we had the house to ourselves and just enjoyed having our first mellow, low-key weekend in a long time. Very few discussions about where we are going to spend the next 8 months, and instead we focused on spending some fun time together. "Fun" to us even involves chores like grocery shopping.

Friday night we went to some friend's house who have.....CABLE! We are in the rapidly shrinking group of people that still use *gasp* an antenna. Cable is just too pricey for us right now, and with how busy we are we don't need the distraction. Five fuzzy stations, the internet, and Netflix provide us with plenty of entertainment. But MY OH MY how we love cable. Our friends DVR stuff for us, and every other Friday or so we hang out, eat pizza and beer, and watch 4+ hours of TV in amongst lots of chatting with our friends. We love it!

Saturday we went to our favorite local diner for breakfast, did a bunch of chores, and watched some episodes of Six Feet Under, the current Netflix series we are watching. A super mellow fall day. The weather is getting colder here, but I'm avoiding turning the heat on quite yet since by next weekend the high is 83.

Sunday...oh how we love Sundays during football season! We "studied" (Bryan for nursing, me for the eval class I'm teaching) while watching the games (and I mowed the lawn). My lone trip out of the house was to get pizza (shh, don't tell that we had pizza twice this weekend!).

October is shaping up to be a fantastically busy, fantastically fun month. The first weekend is fall break for UR (meaning no school Monday), so we are going to spend the weekend in Toronto. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, we got a 4.5 star luxury hotel in an excellent location for $99 a night! We are so excited to have a get-away weekend and to explore Toronto before it gets cold. The biggest dilemma is if we should cough up the $100 a ticket to see Cirque du Soleil while we are there. With our current financial shortage we'll probably pass, but it sure is tempting since it is the last weekend they will be there. Bryan has hinted that our weekend might have a special *surprise* associated with it, but we'll see ;)

The second weekend will be a trip to Niagara Falls with 2 friends from high school. One lives in Pittsburgh and one lives in Erie, so we're meeting in NF for a girl's weekend. It will be great to see them both and catch up. We haven't ever been together as over 21, so it should be a fun time!

The last weekend my parents come. Yipee! It's so hard to be so far from them, and I'm so excited for their visit. I think I'll take them to Niagara-on-the-lake for wine tasting one day, and maybe the Corning Museum of Glass for the second. We'll see! It is going to be a great month with lots of trips. October is nice here - the time when the air is crisp and the leaves are changing colors, but no humidity and no snow. I'm glad I'll be able to enjoy it before the long cold winter sets in. It always seems to come so quickly!

The end of summer

2007-09-06T19:24:00.001-04:00

Labor Day weekend is always sad because it is the unofficial marker of the end of summer. Here is Rochester, it is more the beginning of the wild swings in weather. Yesterday was overcast and a bit chilly, the first day all summer (minus the gym) that I wore shoes and socks. Today was 91 and humid.

To celebrate Labor Day weekend, we went wine tasting with some friends in the finger lakes. The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time. I think we ended up going to 6-7 wineries, but the hands-down winner for everyone was the organic winery.

The gang...Bryan, me, Kim, Anthony, Kristina, Nick

From Wine tasting ...

A winery/meadery

From Wine tasting ...

Bryan at Belhurst winery, Seneca Lake in the background

From Wine tasting ...

Our loot...the apple one is for our apple themed supper club on Saturday

From Wine tasting ...

Now it's back to school for Bryan and Krista, and working for me as usual. I'm also going to be co-teaching program evaluation at UR to grad students on Mondays this term, and I'm super excited about that. It's nice to have some thought-provoking evaluation discussions now and then. I think Bryan doesn't appreciate me saying "Please, before you go to bed, let's discuss the merits of RCTs as the gold standard" (and yes, I did that last night, and he was a good sport and played along).

I'm not sure of the last update here, but the condo is back on, hopefully to close late this month. No one seems to be able to do their job, so no one will commit to a firm closing date. The house didn't sell and officially went off the market on the 4th. I learned a lot of lessons in that process, but won't elaborate too fully since I don't know who all reads this thing. We hopefully have a renter lined up though (I'm still waiting for her check to arrive). We'll reassess what we want to do in the spring.

"That's hot"

2007-09-03T21:33:00.000-04:00

Yes, my friends, "hot" barely begins to define S. Florida in late August. It is a kind of heat I can't even fathom, which lies right up there in "things I don't understand" with swimming in the ocean. The idea of the ocean being 89 just doesn't compute to me. My brain's dictionary definition of "ocean" is: "thing that is too cold to get in, even in the summer, even just your pinky toe."

Our trip to Florida may have been unbearable hot for my tastes, but it was a beautiful slice of respite that Bryan and I so desperately needed. His mom spoiled us rotten with a trip to the spa, shopping, 3 days in Venice (gulf coast), wonderful food, and just an all-around good time.

While we were in Venice, we got to see some beautiful sunsets.

From Florida 2007

Venice is known for it's shark teeth. I sadly didn't find one, but Bryan and his mom found a few. His mom (on the left in the pic) also invite along a very nice friend of hers from work, Lynn, and we all had a great time. Especially at the bar watching some crazy 40-year-olds dance. I don't know what age it is when people lose the ability to be embarrassed, but everyone there clearly was passed it, to the great amusement of me!

From Florida 2007

A fabulous dessert I had our last night there.

From Florida 2007

Despite religious application of SPF 45, I still got a tan! Much to the amusement of Bryan, we discovered that when I am exposed to the sun, I get freckles. Huge, ugly ones! But at least I got somewhat of a "tan" (whatever that means when you start out a zero on the tan scale!) and my hair is quite a few shades lighter. Although I like the warm oceans and the sun, but I'll pass on the heat and humidity! I think I'm a northern girl at heart :)

Letchwork State Park

2007-08-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

This weekend marks the end of Bryan's two glorious weeks off from school. Last week we went to Florida (blog about that to be done soon). This week has been lots of lounging around and just taking it easy.

Today was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunny, so I decided to take Bryan to Letchworth State Park, about an hour drive from here. We hiked around, ate lunch, saw some beautiful scenery, and just had an all-around good day (which started with breakfast at Ezzy's, our favorite neighborhood diner).

From Letchworth

It was late by the time we got home (about 9pm). Ladies, feast your eyes on what happened next.

From Letchworth

Yes, this is my beloved voluntarily cleaning out the fridge (wiping it down, the whole 9 yards!). He just "wanted to do it, and I'll mop the floors too." I did not ask him to do this, nor did I even mention that these chores needed to be done. I bet you're all sad that he's already taken! :)

Let's Make a Deal

2007-08-15T20:54:00.000-04:00

Bryan and I were talking last week about how much we liked Let's Make a Deal. Maybe that is one game show they should resurrect. None of these stupid new-fangled primetime "game shows." Who in their RIGHT MIND wants to watch an HOUR of BINGO on TV???

If they brought back Let's Make a Deal, what do you think the loser prizes would be now? I don't think a donkey would cut it anymore. And what ever happened with those donkeys anyway. Did someone really take home a donkey?

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I just discovered the the GSN cable network currently broadcasts episodes of the classic Let's Make A Deal each weekday at 10:00 A.M. ET and late night at 2:00 A.M. & 2:30 A.M. It's a good thing I don't have a channel as wonderful as GSN, or I would never get anything done. I love game shows, especially old ones. I also just learned that the costumes were the idea of the audience, and not originally part of the show. People started to bring signs and funny hats to attract Mr. Hall's attention. It spiraled from there to the outlandish costumes they used to wear.

Anyway, the real point of this blogging episode is that no one seems to want to make a deal with us. On Monday the offer on my house fell through. I guess the husband lost his job, so they could no longer afford my house. We should have another offer coming in either Friday or Monday from another, so we'll see if that actually happens. Also, the deal fell through on the condo we were going to buy. The inspection "found" a faulty breaker (it popped FOUR times in the hour we were there, and got really hot. The scummy owner declared "that has never ever happened before." Right. Even my inspector said he had to be lying. The guy refuses to fix the breaker, or even get an estimate to fix it. Now, regardless of him being a jerk or not, this is a HUGE fire hazard that even he shouldn't want to live with. There also is a flue pipe that isn't properly connected and has asbestos tape on it. Estimate to fix - $315. The seller refuses to put a dollar into it, so we told him to take his condo and shove it (well, we would have liked to say it that way). Now we are out at least the $275 inspection and whatever attorney fees we have racked up to date with the offer...at least $200. But I guess that is all better than getting a place with issues. Back to the drawing board. We found another condo that we love, but the taxes are $3,864 with a $253 a month HOA. That's $575 before we even paid for the unit! For now we are thinking about just renting and deciding what we want to do when we are back to a two income family.

Nothing like a wasted day

2007-08-13T23:29:00.000-04:00

My work laptop froze today. Sure, that sucked, but what was even worse was that the proposal I had been working on ALL day was gone. Poof. No trace anywhere, even in a full system search. It turns out my computer ineptness bit me in the behind. The document was linked from another document. I saved it, but it turns out that unless you re-open that saved copy, you are working on some cyberspace version that doesn't really exist. So all the times I clicked on the save icon were for naught, and I have to start over tomorrow. Sigh.

In other depressing news, the condo we were all set to close on has now fallen apart. We are looking into suing for the lawyer fees and inspection fees that we had to outlay, but we are probably just out the money. It sucks that the jerk seller did this to us. All because he refuses to fix two issues that came up in the inspection because he is a cheapskate. He already hated us for making him pay the $50 for the HOA documents (duh, of course we need to READ what the restrictions are!) and $50 for a carbon monoxide detector (it's required by NY state, don't get mad at us!). Back to the drawing board. Can't wait for the vacation to Florida on Saturday. We are both SO excited for a real vacation! (even if I will be working part of it).

Lots to be grateful for

2007-08-06T21:05:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, when life is crazy and stressful, I think I get so overwhelmed in the "to-do" list that I forget all of the great things in my life. Buying and selling a house is one of the most stressful things one can do, but in the midst of it I am truly a lucky girl. Just a small sampling of those things I have to be grateful for:

- A mom who loves us enough to put together packages to make us smile...familiar treats from home, my favorite coffee, some new stylin' duds, and some coin so we can enjoy a relaxing vacation. We love you mom!
- A job with a fantastic group of people and the flexibility to work abnormal hours (early, late, normal, weekend, whatever) that fit my work rhythms better and allow me to spend time with Bryan when he has free time (which can be during the afternoon or morning sometimes)
- A boyfriend who, without saying a word, does all of the chores I reallllly don't want to do (like being the brave one to go vacuum up the flea power in the flea infested room....yuck!). He also is always grateful when I do something nice for him, always complimentary about my cooking (even if it sucks), patient with me as I learn tennis, and always is just a sweet guy
- Friends who let you come over with your pets while you are putting yucky poison in your house, buy you lunch, and let you swim in their pool, all the while feeling like they are the lucky ones since you are hanging out with their kids while they go see a movie
- A roommate who puts up with endless cleaning for house showing without complaining and who is willing to stick with us when we change the deal she signed up for
- The ability to go on a vacation! In 2 weeks we are going to Florida, and some days that is all that is keeping us going right now with all of the house/school stress. I am grateful for parents who help us out so we can take vacations without worrying about finances, and I am grateful for a job where I can work from anywhere, including Florida for a few days.

For those of you following the house saga, we are closing on the condo September 21st. The inspection was today, and most things were fine except for a small issue with the electricity that the owner was fine with fixing. My house has a contingent offer, but we still have regular showings, so we are hoping for a better, non-contingent offer.

Favorite things

2007-07-30T20:58:00.000-04:00

I figure if Oprah is important enough to broadcast her favorite things, then so am I. I also believe that people should share their favorite items, in case someone else has yet to "discover" them. Besides, if you buy them they are less likely to be discontinued, therefore benefiting me as well! I should say though that some of my favorite things are unique to me and are special to me because of their history, so you can't buy everything in this post. Without further ado, in no particular order:

I love these plants.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: The one on the left I bought when I got my first "real" job after college. I had my own office with a windowsill that begged for greenery. This guy was a little scraggly thing near death when I rescued it from my favorite rack at Fred Meyer....the plant reject rack. I think it was $1. Second from the left is the African Violet that Bryan bought me while I was just in Boston because he missed me and wanted a gift for when I returned. Skip over the Garfield chia pet...that's Bryan's. Next is the African Violet I won at my best friend Maria's wedding shower two years ago. I won for correctly estimating a bucket full of household goods from Target. I rocked at it because I am a faithful Target shopper. On the right is an aloe vera plant. This plant was started at Sherri's house long ago when Lani was just a baby...so about 6 years ago. She had a sadly neglected aloe plant, so I repotted it and all of the "sprouts." This is a world-traveler plant. It has been to Portland and back by car. Now parts of the first planted sprouts also reside at Bryan's sister's house.

From Favorite things

The top plant here was a gift from my internship supervisor Tamara when I was finishing up my master's degree. It had these beautiful purple flowers, then looked like a weed for the rest of the year. When I moved to Rochester I was going to throw it away (it had been a year without any new flowers), and lo and behold it had 5 just budding flowers. The bottom plant I "won" in the gift exchange my first year at PRE, about 4 years ago. All of these plants have been cross country with me, so I love them. Each one has a story that reminds me of something important in my life.

I love these Nike flip flops.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: These are the MOST COMFORTABLE flip flops I have ever worn. So much so that when Bryan borrowed them one day at a concert, he immediately wanted his own. Now I have 3 pairs, he has 2, and our roommate Krista has been known to slip on some of ours when no one is looking! I wear mine so much I have tan lines from them.

I love this scrub.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: I could sum this up with "I love Bath and Body Works," as you will soon see. This scrub is divine. A light scent of lavender, subtle scrubby stuff, in a creamy paste. Delightful! Even better that it was on sale for $4 when I bought it.

I love this shampoo and conditioner.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: Not only is this stuff cheap (on sale for $3 a bottle at B&BW), but it smells fantastic. The first week I used it Bryan was constantly saying how good my hair smelled.

I love this lip gloss.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: This gloss comes in many different shades and glides on smoothly with no clumps. But my favorite part is the mint scent it has. So fresh and soothing. Totally worth the $7.50 price tag, although I have never paid more than $3 on sale.

I love raspberries, hand picked

From Favorite things

Why I love them: I truly think there is nothing better in this world than a raspberry. Sweet, yet tart. Seedy, yet smooth. I love that in New York there are TWO picking seasons...summer and fall. These berries I picked this week, along with some blueberries and gooseberries.

I love tastycakes, namely butterscotch krimpets.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: My friend Travis introduced me to these in college. They come from his home town of Philly, so every time he went home I would give him money to buy me some. These light cakes have a sweet frosting on top. They are delicious, and at 6 grams of fat for 2 cakes, they aren't a terribly gluttonous indulgence. I hadn't had them in forever, and literally squealed in a grocery store in Florida on our vacation when they had them. Imagine the squeal I had a few months ago when I found out Tops has them RIGHT HERE IN ROCHESTER.

Saving the best for last, I love this man.

From Favorite things

Why I love him: There are a million reasons why I love him, but as of late, it is because he is my pool hero. Although he is stupendously busy with school, he has spent COUNTLESS hours skimming, filtering, and vacuuming the pool. He was the first brave one today to jump in so he could scoop the last stubborn parts by diving under and using the scoop. I think tomorrow I might just jump in myself. Man I wish I had a picture of the DARK green swamp we had just a few short weeks ago.

I think I'll go to Boston

2007-07-19T11:46:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, unlike the Augustana song, I didn't go to start a new life where no one knows my name. I went to see my best friend from high school (who lives in Portland). She was in Boston visiting another friend from high school and studying for her medical school boards. She was kind enough to invite me to come visit for the weekend.

I'd never been to Boston before. The first night involved a BBQ, where I learned for sure I have no interest in ever moving to Boston. Many of the people there, albeit nice, were SO typical snotty east-coasters. The Boston area is home to many prestigious universities (Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc), and many of the people were either former or current students (PhDers for the current ones). They couldn't talk about anything besides school. AT ALL. I don't ever want to be like that. The name dropping that went on was ridiculous. This was a group of argumentative "I'm always right and you're always wrong" kind of people. Sure, the copious amounts of alcohol didn't help, but I have never been one to understand that holier-than-thou attitude that seems to unfailingly go along with the more well-known universities.

The weekend really involved a trip to New Hampshire, which is a very pretty, green, fairly unoccupied state. Anne's (our friend who lives in Boston) boyfriend's parents have this very cute fairly rustic cabin that we stayed at overnight. We first went on a hike in the White Mountains. The day was perfect and it was very beautiful. It was a bit strenuous for a non-hiker like me, but the reward is that at the top is a lake and a cute little hut that serves food. They hike supplies up to the hut!

From Boston 2007

After the hike, the four of us (Maria, Anne, her boyfriend, and me) had a very fun "date night." It started off with dinner at a local pub in whatever town we were in in N.H. They had some unique beers. Of course, I liked the raspberry one :)

From Boston 2007

Then we went to a really neat putt putt course. I took a respectable second, although the most fun part of the night was the combination of Anne's VERY powerful swings (many went off the course) and her boyfriend's utter seriousness about the game. He did not appreciate the razzing that was going on. After all, putt putt is a serious game. Riiiiight :)

From Boston 2007

After putt putt, we ended the evening with some delicious ice cream at a local place. Sadly, Maria's camera fell off the table and broke, so the pictures of the weekend end here! Luckily there isn't much more to report except a yummy pancake breakfast the next morning.

All in all, it was a really fun weekend and great to see some familiar faces from home. But, when I came home to this, I was glad to be right back where I belong.

From Boston 2007

P.S. For those of you who are wondering about the house, don't ask. It's just better that way.

26 must suit me

2007-07-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, so the first incident was 4 days before I turned 26, but that is just a minor detail! I already posted about the bagel guy telling me I was beautiful. Then on Tuesday I went into school to be Bryan's guinea pig for his nursing assessment final exam. I met one of his classmates while I was there, and she apparently told Bryan later that day "She is pretty, you guys make a really cute couple." While being prodded during the final exam, Bryan had to "catch" my kidney. It was really easy for him, and he cutely exclaimed, "oh, that's so cool!" to which the instructor grading responded "that's what happens when your patients are thin." So in less than 10 days I have been called beautiful, pretty, and thin, all by total strangers (two of whom were women). I think I could grow to like 26 :) I hated 25 though, so I'm very happy to be movin' on up.

I'm sad to say that my 4th didn't involve fireworks. I've come to learn that Bryan just isn't into holidays. New years, birthdays, July 4th, Halloween...they are all just days to him. He thinks (and I tend to agree) that it is because he doesn't have the traditions around holidays that I do. July 4th was almost always spent in the cul-de-sac. My brother would spend hundreds on illegal fireworks, as would some of the neighbors, and everyone would come out for the show and a big bucket of ice cream. It was so much fun! Here in NY you can't even buy any fireworks. Not even sparklers! We did see fireworks last week though. we live ~2 miles from Lake Ontario, and they had Harborfest. We rode our new bikes and had a funnel cake, walked around, and saw the fireworks over the lake. For just town fireworks, they were really impressive. I learned though that cameras don't take very good pictures of fireworks!

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

2007-07-01T21:12:00.001-04:00

I have been so busy lately that blogging has fallen by the wayside. But I am a faithful blog hopper daily, so I'm doing my best to remain an active blogger myself.

First off, check out the braces progress! Sorry the first picture is blurry.

This is day one. Note the overlap in the front teeth.

From Braces over time

Day 20. Already the teeth in front are a bit less overlapped.

From Braces over time

Just shy of 3 months in, with one adjustment so far. Check it out! My bottom teeth are finally moving now too, and I've noticed a lot of progress over the last week or two.

From Braces over time

Since I last posted, I had a birthday. I must admit, a late June birthday has always been the pits. When I was in school, it was just after school got out. Not only did I not get a fun classroom birthday, but everyone scatters on vacation right after school gets out, so my friends were rarely around. As an adult, I've had boyfriends who just don't get that my birthday is MY day to be spoiled. I always do fun things for their birthday, but it often isn't reciprocated. This year was no exception, although to no fault of the boyfriend. We have a severe lack of income for weekend get-a-ways, and my birthday fell on a Monday when he had a test from 8-11am and class from noon-7pm. Although I woke up feeling sorry for myself, a lot of people did a great job of making me feel special.

Krista, the roomie, got up early before the 8am test to make "Happy Birthday monkey bread." It was really yummy, and so sweet of her.

From 26th birthday

My mom and dad sent me these flowers, along with some yummy chocolates.

From 26th birthday

Then Sherri invited me over for an afternoon swim (it was 90 degrees on my birthday, a far cry from Portland birthdays!) and BBQ with she and the kids. They bought me cupcakes and were so excited to sing me happy birthday. Sherri made salmon, green beans, fresh strawberries, and potato salad. Awesome!

From 26th birthday

While I was at Sherri's, Kim and Anthony called to invite me to a birthday dinner. I obviously couldn't go, so they came over for cake that Bryan and Krista had bought for me. I love love love ice cream cake.

From 26th birthday

Lest it seem like the boyfriend did nothing, I should mention that he took me out to dinner Sunday night to Carabbas. It was delicious!

From 26th birthday

He also, the week before, got me a bike (and one for him) for my birthday. So far we have ridden to the beach a few times, and I'm hoping that once school calms down a bit for him we might take some longer rides.

My old co-worker also took me out to dinner on Park Ave on Wednesday for my birthday. It was great to see her and catch up on all of the old work gossip. We are definitely gossip buddies. I think we indulge each other in our guilty pleasures!

Thanks to Audrey and Brad's birthday generosity (Bryan's parents), this Saturday we went out to this new bar I had been wanting to try called The Chocolate Bar. They serve fancy martinis and fondue. There are 4 kinds of cheese fondue and 5 kinds of chocolate fondue. Kim and Anthony went with us, so we got 2 cheeses (spinach artichoke and southwestern). The awesome part was that the fondue and dipping items were unlimited. Here is the cheese one:

From 26th birthday

THEN, came the part that makes me drool just thinking about it. The CHOCOLATE! We got chocolate raspberry and chocolate peanut butter. But almost as exciting as two huge pots of chocolate was the tray of dipping items: fresh strawberries, pineapple, graham crackers, pretzels, bananas, little cheesecakes (strawberry and chocolate), oreos, and peanut butter cookies. Seriously, if you believe in heaven, this is it!

From 26th birthday

At $15 a person, this really wasn't a bad deal. But, with drinks, it would be something entirely outside of our budget, so THANK YOU Brad and Audrey. It really was the best time I had had in quite awhile. There was also a musician playing who looked like Chris Daughtry from American Idol. He sang pop cover songs, and he was pretty good. All in all, a really fun night.

From 26th birthday

The final possibly exciting news is that Bryan and I made an offer on a condo closer to school, and we finally came to an agreement with the guy today, after 3 rounds of offering. There are some pictures here:

Highland condo

Owning my house has become quite the financial burden. The condo is significantly cheaper and is within walking distance (more likely a bike ride) of school for Bryan. It will also be perfect if I go to grad school at the medical center. We will be able to pay more towards our student loans and have a bit more "play" money. While we aren't crazy spenders, we have recently come to see that having no money to even go to the movies really doesn't give us the break we need in life to feel rejuvenated from the stresses of work, school, and life in general. We'd also really like to travel (and see our families who are spread far and wide), and living in the condo would allow us to do that.

I should say though, that this is by no means a done deal. It is contingent on the sale of my house. I hope to get it listed this week with Anthony, so keep your fingers crossed for a quick sale and a great offer!

And finally, a few pictures of our "babies." Both Bryan and Krista are quite in love with Reesey, the fuzzy black one with the orange triangle on her head. I told Bryan if we move to the condo he can keep her, since we won't have the room to foster anymore. They are all doing fantastically well and are long done with bottle feeding.

Kitten love...it is not uncommon to see him loving on the kittens. Kissing them, holding them, talking to them, playing with them. So cute he is!

From Kittens

Are you talking to ME??

2007-06-21T13:06:00.000-04:00

Today I went to Manhattan Bagel to do some work and get out of the house. Inside, I had to keep wearing my sunglasses so I could read the menu (they are rx sunglasses). I told the 30ish year old guy helping me "I promise I'm not a weirdo, I just need the prescription in my glasses to read the menu." He responded "Oh, I was hoping you were actually a weirdo, that would make for a better story." He got me my chocolate chip bagel (not nearly as good as Noah's) and my mocha freeze (delicious!), and as he's cashing me out he says, "If it makes you feel any better, you are a beautiful weirdo." It wasn't creepy or anything, just a genuine compliment. I have NEVER in my life been told by a stranger that I am beautiful. Strange that it comes on a day when I walked out of the house thinking, "man, my hair is frizzy today." But it made me smile (and blush), and it was a nice thing to hear. Gotta love the kindness of strangers. Thanks random bagel man for making me feel beautiful today.

DO NOT buy a house, part deux

2007-06-19T20:18:00.000-04:00

In the ongoing saga of home ownership, today the shower/tub stopped draining. Now all women know that hair is usually the culprit, but that generally gets worse over time. This was all of a sudden. Plunging did nothing, and there was no hair to be seen. A walk to the basement proved that what water was escaping was going straight into the basement in a waterfall.

Thankfully, in the 6 degrees of separation game, my friend/realtor Anthony has a wife, Kim. She used to work with Jess, and Jess has a boyfriend John. John, in one of his jobs, is a plumber. So I tracked him down, and he came over a few hours later(with a crew of 3 very entertaining trainees). Turns out the stopper in the tub had just broken, but that required putting in a new section of pipe and a new stopper. While he was here, I also had him fix the leaky faucet. MAN I'm glad I didn't try that on my own! It required lots of parts to fix, along with many statements of "why would anyone ever put XYZ together like this?" Yikes! I have yet to find out what this little escapade will cost. He said he'll let me know on Thursday at the concert. Hopefully I get the "Friends and Family" discount. Either way, I'm SO grateful he came over. John was my hero for the day, and I now have a bathtub with many new parts (that doesn't leak through the faucet, AND the bath now actually holds water!).

Despite this, it has been a good day. Bryan played hookie from his first (insanely pointless and boring) class today. In exchange, he took me out to a fab breakfast at Mt. Hope Diner. Yum-o-licious! It was just nice to spend some time together. On the way home, we stopped and got us new bikes. He got me mine for my birthday, and I didn't want to ride by myself, so part of my birthday gift was a bike for him too. I'm hoping for a fun ride this weekend!

We've had some crazy weather today. Thunder louder than I have literally ever heard in my life. This Oregon girl isn't used to crazy storms! The temperature has vacillated from 82 at 8:30am (you can imagine what a hot stuffy night it was), to 70 at 2pm, and back up to the 80's now at 8:30pm. Crazy!

I hope to get more pictures up here soon. I just realized that I've been slacking with the photos lately. We all know that those are what we really read blogs for! :)

Would you still love me if I were a gay bee?

2007-06-18T16:35:00.000-04:00

Yes, I was asked that question this weekend. Yes, that about sums up the weekend! It was uneventful, but at least ended with a nice picnic at Charlotte Beach in the perfect summer weather while I quizzed Bryan about things that I couldn't even pronounce. Oh well, I learned some stuff along the way (notably that BK doesn't give himself even one iota of the credit he deserves for being SUPER SMART). I think after this year I might just do the nursing program myself. Between what I already know and what I'm learning from the roomies, I'd probably do pretty well!

Not much else to update. Psyched about the Kenny Chesney/Sugarland concert this week (in part because it's with some fun friends that I haven't hung out with in waaay too long). I will have to miss out on my new beach volleyball league this week (which is super fun, and I'm one of the better players on the team...doesn't speak very highly of our team!). It's getting hot here finally...ugh! I dislike the winters here, but I think I like them better than the hot part of summer. We're still trying to get the pool running...it looks more like an odd Jones soda color now rather than a black swamp, so I *think* I'm making progress!

DO NOT buy a house!

2007-06-15T14:43:00.000-04:00

Okay, for all of you who don't own a house, DON'T buy one! They call it a "house," but really it should be called "Sucks away all of your money and your free time." Don't get me wrong, it's nice to own one, but I'd give everything I own to be back in a condo. Today it cost me $150 to have someone come and replace the wheels on the garage door. 45 years of wear and they had finally fallen apart to the point that the door wouldn't open anymore. Yesterday, I spent $35 fixing things on the pool, and 2+ hours repairing it and cleaning it out, with more to do today. Three weeks ago, I spent $550 getting new electricity put upstairs, since we didn't have enough power to even run a small window A/C without blowing a fuse. I guess along the way I have learned how to fix many things, or who to call to fix them, but it is just so much work. Our next place we have already agreed will be a condo or a townhouse.

A few weekends ago I spent the entire weekend watching my friend's 3 kids (who are all over this blog). They are 6, 4, and 7 months, and really good kids, but at the end I was SO glad to come home! I learned that 3 is too many. I never wanted that many anyway, and now I certainly don't! Two is more than enough, and maybe just one is plenty. We had a good time though, and stayed very busy. First, we had to make tie-dye shirts for the girls to wear to camp. Of course, I was terrified at the idea of dye and little kids, but they were so great and listened to me carefully (it helped that I threatened them beforehand by saying "If you don't listen to every word I say, we will not be doing this"). We didn't get a drop of dye on anyone! I couldn't believe it. Just in case though, we did it outside in the grass in our bathing suits. Check out the final results:

From June 2007

I made the one that Peter is wearing, and the girls each made the ones they are wearing. Cassie had to find out the hard way that she should have taken my advice to add more rubberbands, since those are what cause the patterns. It still came out pretty well though.

We also read this book Pinkalicious about a girl who turns pink from eating all pink foods, and made pink cupcakes to go along with it.

From June 2007

I thought I'd share this picture of the latest visitor to the feeder. We thought this position was pretty funny.

From June 2007

The rest of our free time lately has been spent with these little rugrats:

From June 2007

We got them last weekend at 4 weeks old, and they are still being bottle fed. It is a decent amount of work, but they are bottle champs and super fun. We're not sure what happened to their mom. They were turned in to the animal shelter alone at 3 weeks. One had a pretty severe neuro issue going on, but it seems to be improving miraculously.

That's about it in Rochester land. The weather has been beautiful. I am slowly learning to play tennis, and we have gotten to spend more time taking breaks from school/work by going out to eat, watching Planet Earth (our new obsession), and just hanging out. It has been great.

Lots of catching up!

2007-06-10T21:44:00.000-04:00

I haven't been a good blogger lately, but I have still enjoyed reading all of your blogs! I figure I'll start in reverse chronology updating everyone.

Currently, I am playing "patient" for Bryan as he practices his musculoskeletal system examination. For me, this means I get to help him learn and study, while I get something akin to a massage as he rubs my temples, checks my fingers, and sees if my spine is in line. All of this is great, until he tells me to touch my left ear to my left shoulder, then do the same with the right. I do it as best as I can, and all he says is "hm." I look at him quizzically, and he says "is that really all you can do?" and I tell him yes, I'm being a genuine patient. I guess I have extremely limited motion in my neck. When I ask "what does that mean?" he replies "I don't know. We don't ever talk about abnormal patients." Wow. Comforting. If I go see one of them as a totally healthy patient, I'll be fine. But if anything is wrong, they will have no idea what to do! I'm sure they will learn, but for now I've told him he has to go as his lab instructor what it means about my neck. So much for "helping" him. Now I'm just worried (and it helps oh-so-much when he says "I'm worried about you too.").

But before this assessment, we had a fantastic weekend. Lots of fun time, including trying out the diner by our house that we can walk to (cheap and a really yummy breakfast), trying out the local disc golf course (TONS of trees, but short fairways), getting our free ice cream cones at Friendly's, trying out the local China Buffet (can you tell we like to eat?) returning a few things at the mall, and getting some fun new products at the sale at Bath and Body Works. I love their sales!

Things are definitely calming down around here as I now work at home and Bryan is getting settled into a routine with school. Bryan makes me smile with his constant singing. You never know what song he'll bust into. It might be "Sweet Caroline" or some obscure rap song. Sometimes, when it's just he and I, it is accompanied by whatever silly little dance he makes up on the spot. If I'm standing to close to him, I get roped into the "dance." It's always a way he knows he can make me laugh. His singing reminds me so much of my dad, except my dad is a whistler. My dad constantly whistles, and even to this day, 3,000 miles away, if I hear a man whistling in the store I automatically look around to see if it's my dad. I guess Bryan sings instead though, because he can't whistle! That's right, not at all. I joined the club though when I got braces. I can no longer whistle.

Updates about my weekend with 3 kids later. Now, I really should be working!

One more day to freedom

2007-06-07T21:33:00.000-04:00

I've realized that work is the equivalent of being a kid in school for an adult. Although instead of getting a summer break and looking forward to being one year older, you have to quit your job. I have one more day left at my current job, and I might, just for old times sake, sing "School's Out for Summer" when I leave tomorrow.

Life there has gotten worse and worse. I was there until 6:30 tonight, which put me at 9-10 hours today. And this isn't surfing-on-the-net-for-6-hours-and-actually-working-for-three kind of work. I'm trying to get a survey out, which requires extensive rounds of survey testing, emailing with clients, emailing with survey programmers, and emailing with project coordinators. I was so busy all day, and I'm growing more and more frustrated that my manager is nowhere to be found. This leaves just me to figure out how to do all of this stuff, with no motivation to learn since I'm leaving tomorrow. In the meantime, I have managed to piss off just about anyone in the company that I've had to deal with, because I haven't done anything on the "company approved timeline."

Today was supposed to be my first beach volleyball game. I joined a league to get to know some new people and get out of the house sometimes. I had to miss the game due to work. I was so upset by the time I left work that I had to drink when I got home. To the point of difficulty remaining erect. I NEVER do this. I rarely drank before I got this job, but it has gotten to the point of 3ish times a week. I can't be done soon enough.

I'm so excited to be back at PRE. It's familiar, it's interesting work, it's a normal pace, and I can have my life back. Sure, working from home might be isolating, but being back with a company I love is such an uplifting thought. One more day. I can do anything for a day.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get the pictures uploaded from last weekend with the kids and you can see our killer tie-dyes! For those of you who are following the exploits of the murse (since he is slacking with the witty blogging these days), he is doing fantastically. He happily declared the other day, "I finally think I'm learning something and actually understanding it." I can tell you that I've already had to start saying "what does that mean in English," so I know he is adapting well. To date he has all A's and B's, and I am super proud of him!

The 3.5 mile 5k

2007-06-01T13:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, for the first time since high school, I ran a 5k. Now in any real world that would be 3.2 miles, but, we all know Rochester is messed up (see the post about li-locs), so their 5k is 3.5 miles. The run is called the Corporate Challenge and in Rochester over 10,000 people participated from 411 local companies! It was a really neat event that companies do, so I ran as a Harris employee. Although my time is an estimate (there wasn't a clock at the beginning, so we don't know how much time to shave off before we actually got to the start line), I think I finished in about 43 minutes. I'm thrilled about that, since it was 85 degrees, even at 7pm, and I hadn't trained for it at all.

While I'm thinking about the crazy way Rochestarians say lilac, here are a few others for you:
Chili - "chai-lie"
Charlotte - "shar-lot"
Denise - "duh-nice"

Portland has some too:
Couch - "cooch"
Willamette - "will-am-it"
Tigard - "tye-guard"

I think this week I'd get a solid B+ as a girlfriend, so I think I'm moving up :) I'm happy to say Bryan got an 87 on his first test, and the class average was an 83 (range of 71-95), so he did well. We're having a date night tonight (dinner and a movie) tonight, which I'm excited about. This weekend from Saturday morning to Monday morning I'll be watching the 3 little indians that are regulars on my blog (Lani, Cassie, and Peter), so I'll keep you all posted on how my first solid weekend with 3 little ones goes!

Not always the girlfriend I want to be

2007-05-27T12:24:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a very patient person. Although I try really hard to be a good girlfriend (and friend and daughter), I'm not always very good at it.

Saturday I was a GREAT girlfriend:

I had really wanted to go to D.C. over the long weekend to meet some of Bryan's longtime friends, one of whom is moving overseas in a few weeks. That didn't end up happening due to the rigors of school, so instead I decided to treat us to some time at the salon. We both got manicures and pedicures. Bryan had never done it before, but always said he wanted to. It was very relaxing, and it was nice to just sit and do nothing for 2 hours. I also got a haircut. After seeing the haircut results, Bryan declared I was having a "pretty Tia day" with the blow-dried and styled hair, and freshly painted fingers and toes.

From May 2007

After the pampering, we went to Sinbads, a yummy Lebanese restaurant on Park Ave. We were having a good time just hanging out, so then we decided to walk around the local mall. We managed to make it out without buying anything (except an iced latte that we shared). Of course, for us a fun day together always involves a trip to Target, which we did :) Then on to Big Lots, which we left empty-handed, but still enjoyed hunting through the junk. I did find some of those cool stick-on tiles, which I think I might use to remodel the upstairs bathroom while Krista is gone. More pictures to come if that actually happens.

So although D.C. didn't happen, we still had a very fun day together. It is rare now that we get entire days together of fun, with the demands of school, housework, and work. I agree with Bryan that 3 day weekends are great because you get a "throw away day" where you don't feel guilty if you get absolutely nothing accomplished :)

Sunday I was an OKAY girlfriend:

I left BK alone to study most of the day. Our time together consisted of grocery shopping and buying the stick-on tiles, but that was okay with me. He made a yummy mish-mash dinner (leftover steak things that were rolled with carrots, spinach, and cheese, a bit of steak-ums, sauteed onions, served on a hoagie roll with cheese on top) while I put the groceries away. I happily started on the bathroom remodel while he studied.

Monday I was a CRAPPY girlfriend:

After declaring in the morning that "4 hours of studying was the goal," I was upset that I had to go to a friend's BBQ alone (in the afternoon). Not only was I alone, but I was the only person there sans their S.O. I pointedly avoided telling people that he choose the gym over having a good time with us. I left the party early (just as an awesome game of kickball was starting), in hopes that the now 6+ hours of studying would be over and I'd get some time. Not to happen, the studying went on all night, and the next thing I know it was 9:30pm and he was already sound alseep in bed. It sucks getting no time on a day off. So of course I was bitter and angry, as only Tia can be. Of course though, he's no dummy, and today I get a sweet text at work and immediately feel guilty that I would even feel remotely upset about him working hard to do well in school. Maybe I'm just upset because I think he's smarter than he thinks he is, so I don't know why he'd have to study so much!!! Heck, if I had a brain like he did I'd be over 100k right now :)

Anyway, in an effort to keep myself busy and stay out of his way, I did get the bathroom done.

Before:
Nasty green paint and ugly 1960 floors.

From May 2007

After:

From May 2007

I'm really happy with the way it came out. I already had the paint, and the "tiles" were only $30. A pretty cheap remodel if you ask me! Too bad the yellow tile has to stay.

So maybe the moral of the story is a)I can do a pretty quick and cheap "design on a dime" and b) I can be a great girlfriend only 1/3 of the time :) Hopefully that's good enough for him, at least for this year ;) After school, maybe I can bump it up to at least 50%!

Li-loc Festival

2007-05-24T12:54:00.001-04:00

People in this town don't know how to pronounce lilac. They all say it like lie-lock. I thought the word was lie-lack. Anyway, we went to the Lilac Festival last weekend. It was beautifully sunny and the girls came along with us.

Bryan's first visit to Rochester (for my house inspection) was during the Lilac Festival last year. He'd probably kill me for posting this, but here is us exactly one year ago. Who knew that now he'd be living here!

From Lilac festiva...

Us this year....6 year old Lani takes some pretty good pictures!

From Lilac festiva...

The girls and I went on this silly little train ride.

From Lilac festiva...

Bryan went on the slide with Lani

From Lilac festiva...

All in all, it was a fantastic day. Sunny, flowers that smelled amazing, fun with the girls, and that night we had dinner at Sherri's with a former nursing student. You NEVER turn down dinner at Sherri's, and we were not disappointed...flank steak, corn on the cob, crab cakes, salad, fresh bread...yum!
This week the "kids" started school. Here is them on their first day.

From Lilac festiva...

Although the nursing obsession that has overtaken our house (books on every solid surface, 24/7 talk of class/teachers/schedules/classmates that starts the minute we wake up and ends the minute we go to bed) I'm proud of both of them for trying something new and jumping into this wholeheartedly. From their talk already, I know they they are both going to do fabulously and be awesome nurses! The quick overview is that things are going well so far, but they both have some adjusting to go with being students again and catching up on some new lingo. I didn't realize how much they were fish out of water until last night they asked me what q12h PO means (every 12 hours by mouth, for those who are wondering).

In other news, I have already turned in my notice at Harris. Steve called me about 2 weeks ago out of the blue to make sure I wasn't moving back to Portland. Although I'm not, I did bring up the idea of working from Rochester, and last week he called and said that would work out! So starting June 11th I'll be working from home and telecommuting. I'm excited to be back with them. My co-workers at Harris are amazing, but they are sending more than half of them to another location as a part of the restructuring, so my team will no longer be a team. I was also working on a project I hated, with no end in sight for at least a year. It is nice to go back to work for a company that is familiar and that I loved. I have learned the hard way - if you find a job you love, DON'T LEAVE IT! It will be a bit isolating to work at home alone, but hopefully it's not a long-term thing.

My mom gave me a bird feeder for my birthday, and we finally hung it up over a week ago. I'm known now for squealing with excitement in the morning while making my coffee and seeing what new creature has found the feeder. I LOVE seeing new kinds of birds there! Who knew how much wildlife is living in the suburbs. The list to date:
- sparrows (the main eaters)
- starlings
- goldfinches
- doves
- cardinals
- squirrels
- chipmunks
- mice

Back to Black

2007-05-22T20:27:00.000-04:00

Yes, I really like Amy Winehouse. If only I hadn't read that she is a jerk in real life then I'd really like her. But for now, since I'm driving BK's car, I'm happy to have a CD to listen to that isn't "angry driving music" from his days in Portland traffic.

I've been so busy that I haven't had time to catch up on blogging in a long while. I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs so much that I figured I'd better get cracking. My picture uploading skills have been lacking lately, so for now you'll just get the update on the drive cross country.

For those of you that have done the drive, I highly recommend the "northern" route (Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin, etc). It is much prettier and much more populated than the more central route. While I wasn't thrilled to be taking a week of vacation to do this drive (which now will end up being a $1000 vacation, since I'll owe it back to Harris), it was the least painful of the trips I have taken, which was due to the combination of a happy relationship, nice spring weather, and not having pets in the car to constantly worry about overheating.

We got to see Mt. Rushmore. It was really neat, and nice to get out of the car for awhile and walk around.

From XC drive

The town near Mt. Rushmore was probably the worst shit hole I'd ever seen. Every building was either a pawn shop, a check cashing store, or a casino. Dingy hardly covers it. While staying overnight there, I was "treated" to a night at the Motel 6. Let's just say I know why hotel numbers only go UP from 6! Smoky "non-smoking" room, filthy shower, bed that sloped to the middle, so we ended up basically sleeping on top of each other, no hair dryer, and no shampoo. It was awful. Now I know that ALL Motel 6's suck. When my mom and I stayed in one in Chicago, the shower had blood in it. Yes, blood. A Motel 8 is only $20 more, and SO much nicer. Needless to say the girlfriend won out, and the next night we stayed in an 8.

From XC drive

We also tried to go to this corn palace. I don't even remember what state it was in. Unfortunately, it closed at 5 and we were there at 5:15. It does look like it's made from corn at least on the outside.

Bryan at Custer's Last Stand. Okay, so the truth is this is at the kitchy little gift shop outside of it. We were too cheap to pay the $10 to actually drive into the Custer's park area. C'mon Mt. Rushmore was only $8!

From XC drive

The last day we decided to muscle through and drive for 21 hours.

From XC drive

With the help of our Starbucks we're showing off here that we got around midnight, we drove and drove and drove and drove and got to Rochester at 4:45am. Wow you find some really random things to talk about at that time of morning!

Now we're getting settled and I'm learning how to adjust to having people in the house all the time (Krista moved in now too). The kinks seem to be pretty small though, and mostly consist of me saying "Bryan, where did you move the ________" I swear he is obsessed with moving things around, or throwing them out (mom, he reminds me of you!).

Click here for more pictures of the drive and the lovely trip home.

More life updates soon, as there actually is quite a bit to talk about. For now, at 8:45pm, I have to get back to work. :( I worked late tonight, and now have to work from home. I hate it. But updates about that will be soon to come!

Productive weekend!

2007-04-29T19:58:00.000-04:00

I got SO much done this weekend, and now, at 8pm on Sunday, I'm tired! Here's the rundown:

Saturday I cleaned like a mad woman! I realized I'm not the best housekeeper when I thought "I should take a picture of this!" I do generally keep things clean, but this weekend I also mopped the hardwoods and the kitchen. Here's my room (soon to be Bryan's room too) all clean.

From April 2007

In these pictures you can also see his new Ikea dresser and the newish curtains I bought. I tried to make some to "save money" and then ended up at Target, spending way less.

Sunday I got up bright and early (8am, early for me on a weekend!) to wash and wax my car before the day of fun with Sherri and the kids. Here is what happened when I dragged out the hose for the first time this year :(

From April 2007

Yes, I had kept it in the garage, so it didn't freeze. I have no idea what happened, but I quickly felt like the smart homeowner. "I'll just use my handy duct tape on it and it will be good as new." Here is the result.

From April 2007

It's a good thing my dad knows nothing of the internet, or he would be shaking his head at my stupidity! For now I just used it leaking, and the wash and wax are done. It was a beautifully sunny day and was nice to be outside.

Then I went to Sherri's, and she, Lani, Cassie, Peter and I went to Simply Crepes Check out the menu. It was fabulous, and Sherri kept saying "this is my new favorite place."
My food (after I started cutting it up!)...nutella, raspberries, and grand marnier sauce.

From April 2007

Lani got a traditional fruit one:

From April 2007

It was really good, although mine was technically a dessert one :)

Then we walked along the canal, and Lani and I fed the ducks (Cassie refused because she thought I would throw her in the canal!).

From April 2007

We then had ice cream, where I realized with much chagrin (and much too late), that I cannot eat a cone with braces :( It is just too painful and I am unable to bite anything like a cone (or a clif bar, or rice krispie treats, or just about anything!). I can eat them if I tear them into little pieces, but that wasn't going to happen with a cone full of ice cream. Oh well, Lani happily took and ate the rest.

I then felt the urge to get some plants, since it was so nice and sunny today. Here is the result so far. I clearly didn't buy enough mulch!

From April 2007

For now, the white picket fence had to go, since you couldn't see the new mulch and the flowers. I'll put it up once everything dies. In the new section are some annuals, and two rose bushes that I bargained down to 50% off of each of them :) There are also some mysterious things that are just sprouting, so I'll give them a chance and see what they are, and the bushy plants were already there. On the right is what I just learned is a forsythia bush. I'll plant a few more plants over there and mulch it soon.
Anyone who really knows me knows that I have always wanted a magnolia tree. I think they are so beautiful. I finally bought one! It will wait for Bryan to plant it in the back yard though. It is going to need a decent sized hole!

From April 2007

In a tribute to Portland, I also bought a rhododendron, a purple one. It will be planted on the side of the house soon. I ran out of steam, and my plastic hand shovel doesn't really do the job very well!

From April 2007

That's the update on my weekend! Next weekend is home to Portland and then the drive out here, so there won't probably be any more posts for a couple of weeks. I'm so excited to go home and see my family and the dogs, and to see my new "nephew" Sebastian Bradley who was born April 23rd!

I should also add that Bri (and her boyfriend Rich and his friend Donnie) left for Portland today. I wish them the best of luck in my favorite city, and I will forever be grateful to Bri for stepping in and taking care of my house and my pets so I could put my thoughts and energy towards my dad. Even though she wasn't around much, I'll miss our sometimes VERY long chats, and I hope her mom sees past her anger of Bri living with a boyfriend and gets to know Rich for the good guy that he is.

Spring part 2

2007-04-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

I was motivated to put together the swing today (it also folds down into a bed). I'm loving the 78 degrees today!

From Spring

Spring!!

2007-04-21T19:39:00.000-04:00

Last week snow, today sunny and 70! It was so nice. It also means that the lawn mowing has begun...belch! I did at least get the back done today.

I put together the new furniture I got for the Florida Room. I love it! I got the pillows and the enormous candle at Pier One today. They were having a great sale, and those 4 pillows retailed at $30-40 each, and the candle was $50. I paid $25 for all of it! Now to decide where to put the new 3-person swing. I think that project will wait for Bryan though.

From Spring

We also got new bikes today. I was going to get my old one all fixed up, but the bikes were so cheap at Target. These were only $53 each, and I negotiated 10% off of one of them because it had a slight chip in the paint. Yeah! Now to just convince Bryan he can't ride without a helmet :/

From Spring

For those that have been asking, I'll be heading out to Portland May 5th, spending the 5th-8th at home, then leaving Tuesday around lunchtime with Bryan for the drive back to Rochester. I guess I feel I need to do this drive annually! Bryan was smart though and suggested we take a different route so I can see something new, so we'll be going more northern (Washington, Idaho, Montana, one of the Dakotas, Wisconsin, etc). May will be a nice time to do the drive though, and we'll have lots of good tunes. We should start taking bets about how long it takes before we run out of conversation! I'm excited to have him out here though, and I know he's ready to get school started. But first, I need to continue on with my cleaning and organizing to make room for him!

Sun and Wegmans

2007-04-19T20:37:00.000-04:00

Today was sunny and 60. Hallelujah! I wasn't in the mood to go to the gym today, so instead I decided to walk to Wegmans (3 miles RT) to get a few groceries. The walk was beautiful, and I was jammin' to my iPod (still quite possibly the best gift I have ever gotten!).

Wegmans recently won the best grocery store award by the Food Network (it was up against Trader Joes and Whole Foods). As a side note, while I do like Wegmans, I don't miss it in Portland. However, I do long for Trader Joes when I'm in Rochester.

While I was there, I got this, which Bri eats all the time:

Pesto Bruschetta Chicken Breast
Boneless chicken breast cutlet topped with Pesto, 3 cheeses, and roasted & fresh tomato.

Holy divinity it was good! I had that with some steamed asparagus and broccoli in a hollandaise sauce, and some strawberries. Yum! I felt so healthy that I decided to have a Coke :) Probably the first soda I've had in a month or so.

Nice weather, lovely walk, yummy dinner, new Grey's Anatomy tonight, finished up a report today for a bitchy client, and tomorrow is Friday. Life is good. Not long until home!

Easter!

2007-04-08T17:36:00.000-04:00

First off, this is what I woke up to Easter morning! I'm beginning to think it snows here year-round.

From Easter 2007

Saturday I was dragged out of bed (at 10:45am :) by a phone call from Lani. "Miss Tia, when are you coming over to color eggs with me?" Although I hadn't originally understood that I was invited over Saturday AND Sunday (for Easter brunch), I quickly decided a day with the Lauver-Biglan family was way better than my planned day of cleaning.

Here is us coloring eggs with the stuff my mom sent. The kits are SO much cooler than when I was little! You can see I wrote my name on one with this wax crayon that makes it so the dye doesn't stick. I like Sherri's with the polka dots!

From Easter 2007

That afternoon also involved making necklaces (after I asked Lani if we could do something else when she asked me to play Barbie's. I'm just not good at pretend!). I put the one I made in Lani's Easter basket, and when I went over this morning she ran to me and said THANK YOU FOR THE NECKLACE. She was so excited. It was quite cute. We (Sherri, Lani, Cassie, and I) also had a hilarious time playing Go Fish. The girls understand the idea of the game, but not the subtleties of it. After Cassie asked Sherri for a 2, Lani says loudly, "You should have asked me, I have a 2" and then doesn't ask Cassie for her 2 when it's her turn. We'd tried to explain it, but I don't think they quite got it. It was funny nonetheless.

From Easter 2007

Peter and his trademark smile. He is the happiest baby, just over 6 months old now.

From Easter 2007

Here is the gang in their Easter getup

From Easter 2007

I can't figure out how to post a video on here, but Peter has the latest craze in baby toys called the "Jumparoo." I think it is so funny to watch him jump around in it. This link will take you to a short clip. I do have to say that it's much funnier in person. He looks like a little kid on a bull ride!
http://picasaweb.google.com/tia.neely/Easter2007/photo#5051174790132639202

Today I also took over these bubble things on a stick that I used to have as a kid (mom, you'll have to show this to dad because I remember doing this with him). You take this goo stuff and put it on the straw and blow it up. Elena LOVED it and squealed with glee every time she made a bubble. Good times!

From Easter 2007

In non Easter things:

The flowers my ortho office sent me at work. Creepy! How about you just take the $40 off of my bill???

From Easter 2007

Speaking of ortho, my mouth still hurts, but it's getting a tiny bit better and I can now eat solid soft food (I had a fritatta today at Sherri and Kevin's, and muffins. Soft fruit is okay, but even cut-up apples were not doable yet). I also went to get a wire fixed that was poking me, and the stupid lady broke off the entire bracket :( It doesn't go back on until the 16th because the dentist is out of town. I'm starting to get used to seeing myself with braces though. Two more co-workers didn't even notice I had them, and even Sherri didn't notice (and she knew I had gotten them) until 2 hours after I got to her house! They must not be as horribly ugly and obtrusive as I feel that they are.

From Easter 2007

I got a patio set! Yay! Sherri recommended Big Lots, and I got this:

From Easter 2007

Regularly $199, on sale for $149, and it is really comfy.

And no one else cares about this except my mom, so mom, this is just for you :) My new shoes from last weekend. Marshall's here has an entire shoe shop. I'm now in love with Liz Claiborne Flex, as all 3 new pairs of heels are those. So comfy! And at $34.99, they didn't break the bank. Here are the two new pairs.

From Easter 2007

I guess that's all the news from out here. Four weeks until I come home. I'm so excited!!!!

It's the end of the world as we know it

2007-04-05T14:03:00.000-04:00

Braces....not much more to say except my mouth hurts like hell and I look like I'm 12. I must be good at hiding them though, because 3 co-workers didn't even notice until I told them. Three cheers to my co-worker Katie who said "I can see them a little bit when you talk, and you look cute in them." I wanted to hug her!

Me the morning before:

From Braces

Me the evening after:

From Braces

This morning I woke up to this. It's APRIL for crying out loud! It was 25 degrees on the way into work.

From Braces

No baby yet!

2007-03-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

I guess people actually read this, so lest you all get excited, there isn't a baby yet! She was sent home and is doing just fine. Actually, as I type this she is at a baby shower at her husband's work. She "officially" has 2 more weeks to go.

I blog when the shows are a rerun

2007-03-29T21:46:00.000-04:00

It is a sad Thursday when The Office is a rerun, Scrubs is not on, and Grey's is a rerun. But it actually turned out to be a good thing. I stayed at work late to get a report done in the quiet hours when everyone has gone home, I had a lovely time at the uncrowded gym since I was there later than usual, and I baked :) I like to bake, and my coworkers love to eat any kind of goodies, so it's a win all around! Since we're talking about baking, here is what I made (if you click on the pics you can see them larger):

This was something new. Phyllo dough (hard to work with!) filled with nutella and raspberry jelly. The one I sampled was just okay, but we'll see how they taste tomorrow with some powered sugar added on top. They look pretty though :)

Today I got my first organics delivery here, similar to the one I did in Portland. The closest place here is in NYC though, so they actually overnight UPS it to anyone in NY not in the NYC area.

It came in a cardboard box, which then had this plastic bag in it.

These are the goods. Let's see if I can remember it all:
4 apples
4 pears (you know it's been a long week when I had to look up how to spell pear! pair? pare?)
2 grapefruit
4 potatoes
a box of cherry tomatoes (they accidentally sent, since I said no tomatoes)
kale
spinach
dandelion greens
4 bananas
something that looks like a lettuce variety
4 bananas
a bag of carrots
broccoli

I just had an apple, and it was SO good. All of this produce is organic and delivered right to my door, every-other-week for now (how can I eat ALL of this!?!). We might do it every week or get the bigger size box when both Bryan and Krista (the new roomie) are here. Bryan thought this box was expensive at $38, but I think for organic produce shipped to my door it is quite a bargain. All of that food, non-organic, in the grocery store would probably be close to that price, and I'd have to do the shopping!

And the most exciting news......last word was that Bryan's sister was on her way to the hospital in labor!! She's still 2 weeks early, so who knows if it is the real-deal yet, but I'm so excited to meet my "nephew."

Springtime and a pleasant surprise

2007-03-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I have updated, mostly because life has been relatively mundane since Bryan's visit. Last weekend I went out with some friends for St. Patrick's Day. Regretfully I forgot my camera, but we had a great time. Our bartender was completely wasted, so probably a $300 bar tab between the 5 of us ended up only being $20 each. Not bad! I also went over to Sherri's and hung out with the kids, which was fun. We went out to eat at Red Robin, which was very yummy.

This weekend was nice and relaxing. I went to see 51 Birch Street at the local artsy theater. It was a good, thought-provoking movie. It is a documentary about a couple married for 54 years. She dies, and 3 months later the husband moves to Florida to be with his secretary from 35 years before. The movie is filmed by the son, who finds 35 years of his mom's journals when he is cleaning out his dad's house. It was an interesting movie, but the cool thing was that his sister (who was interviewed throughout the movie) was in the audience, and she did a Q&A after the movie! It was really cool.

I bought some new shoes this weekend. As Bryan says, I have to wear my "grown-up" clothes to work, and I was feeling the pressure to buy some heels. These are SO comfy (for heels!). I think they are pretty cute.

I found this cute skirt too that match so perfectly with the shoes. It looks grey here, but it is black.

This is my new swing for the sun porch! It's too heavy for me to bring in it, so until Bryan gets here it will live in a box in the garage :) It is a 3 person swing that folds down into a bed. How fun to sleep out there in the summer.

And then I made banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I had some bananas to use up, and people at work love it when anyone brings in treats. They turned out to be super yummy and very moist.

Grass, what's that?

2007-03-13T19:56:00.000-04:00

So I'll start with most recent events and work backwards.

Today was a REMARKABLE 66 degrees and absolutely beautiful. I quickly decided heck no to the gym and went for a run outside. It was lovely! As you can see, that kind of heat melted almost all of the snow today.

From Bryan's 30th

Never fear though, the weatherman says it will snow again over the weekend!

Last week Bryan was here to visit. He attempted to come on his birthday, but suffice to say JetBlue is absolutely the worst airline and I would encourage everyone to avoid them at all costs. Here is a quick rundown:
-Flight #1 is supposed to leave PDX March 3rd at 11:59pm
-Flight is delayed 2.5 hours, which misses the connection at JFK. The option? Wait at JFK for TEN hours on his birthday. He decides to just move the trip back a day.
-Flight #2 is supposed to leave PDX March 4th at 11:59pm.
-Flight #2 delayed 2 hours, so he'll miss the connection again.
-Smart Tia realizes JetBlue goes to Buffalo, so he gets re-routed there.
-Insert TERRIBLE snowstorm that makes a treacherous drive to Buffalo. On the way, there is a jacknifed semi on the thruway with about 5 semis and 10 cars involved. This SHUTS DOWN the thruway. I sit for 2.5 hours PARKED. Bryan gets in and is stuck there for 2 hours waiting for me.
-Bryan finally gets in 1 day and 6 hours late.
-March 11th flight out of ROC at 5:10pm.
-Online says delayed until 5:30pm (no biggie)
-Flight actually leaves at 7:30pm. Connection to PDX leaving at 7:15pm. Luckily, that connection was delayed as well, so he did get back to PDX, an hour late.
YIKES!

Onto better things :) We had a wonderful time together! We spent 3 days at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Unfortunately we both aren't big picture takers, so I don't have a ton to share. We went wine tasting and got to try Icewine which was good but very sweet. We did end up buying 2 bottles of other wines that we really liked. Only one made it home to drink later :) Wednesday was spent at the spa. It was amazing! We each got a facial, then sat in the hot springs together, then had a yummy lunch, then got a couples massage, then used the gym, then sat in the hot springs again. The entire day was spent in robes and slippers. Ahhh! I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was so relaxing.

In the evening we went into Niagara Falls. It was really cold (about 10 degrees), so we didn't walk around too much, but Bryan got to see the falls, so he was happy.

From Bryan's 30th

We got some dinner at a sports restaurant and had some drinks.

From Bryan's 30th

We discussed going to the casino, but instead were wooed by our childhood and decided to spend the evening in the really cool midway attached to the restaurant. $20 and we got 3+ hours of fun...way more then we would have gotten at the casino! AND, we came home with a sheep that grows fur (we didn't add the water before he left, so you'll have to remain in suspense for pictures of that) and a Niagara Falls shotglass. Score! The bummer of the evening was this crappy parking ticket because we stayed too long at our meter. Luckily it was only $13.

From Bryan's 30th

Thursday we went to IKEA and bought a bunch of stuff, and Friday we lazied around and then had a fun dinner/games party at night. I should also mention the amazing food that we had at the B&B. Nikki made us the most scrumptious breakfasts. The first day was coffee, OJ, fresh fruit, bran/pineapple muffins, yogurt with syrup and poached pears, and these tart-type things with egg, bacon, and cheese. It makes my mouth water thinking about it! Day 2 was coffee, OJ, homemade croissants, fruit platters, and french toast with real apples baked in. Nikki and her husband Ben were both very sweet and fun to talk to. Ben used to run a hotel in Dubai which is the wealthiest country in the world, and Nikki is from Sri Lanka. They both were very smart and very cultured.

Overall it was a fabulous week and it was very sad to see Bryan go. But I'll be back in Portland May 5th and we'll be driving out here shortly thereafter. For now it's back to the grind at work. Thankfully work keeps me very busy, so the days fly by. The company did get restructured in the week I was away, but I don't think it is going to impact me immensely, and it won't fully take place for 8-12 months.

Another weekend flies by

2007-02-25T17:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry I never got a chance to add some text to the last posting! I'll sum it up in a few quick sentences. The flowers are the dead ones I got from ProFlowers from my mom for V-Day. The snow is just that...lots of snow! From the side door there are usually 2 steps, and from the front door there are 3. As you can see they are both level with the ground.

Onto this weekend, which has been pretty mellow. Housecleaning and movie watching (Shut Up and Sing was a great documentary). Here are the replacement flowers from ProFlowers. They screwed up, so I got two bouquets. Beautiful!

From February 2007

A good chunk of Saturday was spent unburying my desk in the office. There is also now a nice sitting area for when Bryan needs some space while he's studying (or during football season he can come watch up here). For those of you who came to my condo, you know I loved the lights in the kitchen. I found some at Target last week and had to buy them!

From February 2007

From February 2007

From February 2007

From February 2007

What a difference a week makes. While there is still snow, the steps are visible again and so is the driveway!

From February 2007

I also spent part of today with Lani and Cassie. I wanted to take them to the mall to get a snack and ride the carousel, but they wanted nothing to do with that idea and wanted to just play pretend instead. I'm no good at that, but I played along for a few hours. Now I'm off to dinner with Kim and Anthony, who are the sweetest people I know here because they always invite me to go places with them.

Not sure when the next update will be. Bryan comes next weekend (YAY!), so I'll be busy getting ready for that, then we're off to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a few days, and we're having a party that Friday. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures and updates after all of that fun.

S-nooooooo-w

2007-02-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007

Ahh, the taste of freedom

2007-02-13T09:22:00.000-05:00

My first weekend without worrying about homework was fantastic. I had free time to go get a haircut, go out to dinner with Kim and Anthony, and go see a movie. The haircut was great and cheap (see below, ignoring the fact that I look terrible!), and dinner at Bugaboo was so yummy with possibly one of the best drinks I have ever had: Raspberry Lemonade Rush (A refreshing mixture of Dekuyper® Razzmatazz® raspberry liqueur, Minute Maid Lemonade and Bugaboo's own Moose Juice made with Grey Goose® vodka. Garnished with a fresh lemon wedge). They give it to you in this huge shaker which is 2+ drinks. Sadly, I was the driver, so I had to stop drinking after a little bit into glass #2. It was so good though! The movie (The Queen) stunk, but it was still refreshing to have time to go see a movie. I thought the woman who played the Queen did a great job, but the movie was really boring.

Sunday night found me taking Snowflake to the ER vet for anaphylactic shock. Who knows what she got into, but she was really sick...lethargic, dilated pupils, quick shallow breathing. I swear she did it all out of spite. I didn't get home until midnight and had to leave her there. Monday I had to get up early, go get her (right next to my work), take her to the day vet in Greece, then come back to work. She is fine now though, and will be going to her new foster home on Wednesday.

Monday night marked the one year for Bryan and I. Fairly uneventful since we both had to work and are 2,700 miles apart, but I did get fun new PJ's and a bunch of new bath stuff which I used last night. I am loving the jetted jacuzzi tub! I just need to master the art of patience with bubbles. I put in a bit and it doesn't froth quickly enough for my liking, so I keep adding more. It's fine then, but once you turn on the jets it makes the bubbles multiply 1000x. I frequently end up buried in bubbles!

The new job is still going well and I really enjoy it. I'm working long hours, but it doesn't bother me when there is actually work to do. Speaking of work, that is what I should be doing now :)

New haircut

2007-02-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

For only $11! What a deal!

A weekend of thankful

2007-02-06T22:06:00.000-05:00

This past weekend showed me that I have so much to be thankful for. So in random order, here we go:

1) I am thankful for neighbors who randomly snowblow my driveway anonymously, not looking for any sort of thanks. I finally figured out who it was, thanked him (promising him banana bread as a thank you) and I come home tonight to see that he had done it again. Bless him, especially since this has been the temperature here lately! Coupled with me being sick, I did not want to be out shoveling.
From February 2007

When I finally did shovel some of the ice on Sunday, these are just a few of the chunks I chipped away at and had to pick up with both hands because they were SO heavy!
From February 2007

2. I am thankful for heat, since it has been so cold here lately. As you can see, Snowflake likes it too.
From February 2007

3. I am thankful (my biggest thankfulness of the weekend) for friends who come and bail me out of a crappy situation. I somehow managed to lock my keys in my car while I was looking at laptops at the mall. Anthony and Kim went to my house, got the spare car key, and came and brought it to me. Of course, I had to sheepishly show up at their house an hour later for the superbowl party. I definitely owe them dinner for their help! The superbowl party was fun though, with lots of yummy food! I gave homemade guacamole a try for the first time, and it was a huge hit.
From February 2007

From February 2007

4. I am thankful for sun, even if it is followed by the scariest, snowiest driving that night that I have ever been in. It's hard to see from the picture, but the road wasn't visible at all, and the lights you see are right in front of me, even though you can barely see them.
From February 2007
From February 2007

5. I am thankful for some free time and some extra money for a nice manicure :)

From February 2007

6. I am thankful for cookie making fun with some of my favorite people in the entire world! Lani and Cassie keep me constantly laughing and I have such a great time with them. They helped me make these cookies for Bryan (sorry to ruin the surprise!), all the while threating that they were going to "tell him Tia made the messy ones." I think you can judge by yourself that they all came out really well. We had so much fun. I was also hilariously informed by Elena (who said it in total seriousness) that "Unicorns are from Russia." When asked how she know this, I was told, "I just do. Knights are from Russia too." Keep in mind that she is 6. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe!
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007

7. Last, but certainly not least, I am thankful for a fabulous new job. I absolutely love it! The people are great, the work is interesting, I'm learning new things, and I am busy! I think I am really going to be happy at Harris, and I fit in well with the team. I am already working on projects, so it is clear that the boss has high expectations for me.

In the final piece of news, I made the decision today to quit school for now. It turns out that education is just something that I am not interested in at all. My program is 95% teachers and administrators, so the things that are taught in class just aren't relevant to me. I am completely bored and disinterested, and I was dreading going to class. After much thought, I decided to quit and just focus on the new job for now. I'll pay down my debts and think about school in the not-so-distant future. I really need to do a health focused program, as that is where my interests continue to lie. UR has one at the medical center, but it is a day program...totally incompatible with work. I'm going to keep my eyes open though and see what programs around the country might interest me. For now, I'm just happy to have some "me" time back. I was thrilled tonight to be able to clean without guilt that I should have been studying.

Hugs to everyone at home. I miss you all!

My lucky day!

2007-01-29T23:10:00.000-05:00

I have no idea who is responsible, but some kind soul used their snowblower on my driveway today!!!! It was the nicest thing I could have come home to after a verrrry long day of a new job and late class. If anyone knows who did it, let me know so I can properly thank them!

The new job is good so far. I'm too tired to write much now, but I'll keep you all posted.

Weekend update

2007-01-28T17:57:00.000-05:00

This weekend was spent being a bit sick with a sore throat and a cough. Hopefully I'll get over it soon since I start at Harris tomorrow! Speaking of Harris, I guess the weekend update should start with them. Any PRE people reading this will appreciate this story :) So out here people like to have holiday parties after the holidays. I have no idea why, but they do. Harris's Healthcare holiday party was Saturday, so I got to go to the party before I even started working there :) It was at a bar-type place where we had the basement to ourselves. The food was buffet style, and very good. Fried artichoke hearts, meatballs, breaded chicken, a spinach/croissant appetizer thing, quiche, fruit and veggie trays, salad, and cookies. Here iswhat I learned at this party: MAN MY CO-WORKERS CAN DRINK!! The alcohol was free, and they sure took advantage of it. No one on my team is above their early 30's, and many of the women are in their early 20's. No joke, some of them must have pounded back 6-8 drinks. A card game of ass hole started (I didn't participate), and I was appalled when a co-worker of mine started trash-talking our boss (fuck you, I'm going to come to your house and kick your fucking ass...etc) in a very loud voice. I guess this is the norm for her when drinking. The boss didn't seem to care though. I did meet some very nice people though, but it's clear to me I have way too much going on in my life to join their every weekend drunkfests!

I guess that was the extent of the fun part of the weekend, unless you count driving to the big mall for some retail therapy. The nice mall here is about 35 minutes away, but it's a great mall. I got a bunch of new pants for work, since many of my existing ones are either too big or too lightweight for the ROC winters. Limited had a great sale going on, so I was happy.

From Janu ary 2007

For those of you who commented to me about the huge icicle, the longest piece of it has now crossed the 4 foot line, at a whopping 50"! Friday got just above freezing, so it melted slightly and refroze over a foot longer. Today was 22 when I went out a 4pm, and I doubt it was ever warmer than that. Still snowing as well, and it is forecasted to keep snowing all week.

My dinner tonight was so yummy that it was worth sharing. I went to Target today to get my ink for my printer, and ended up buying way more than planned, as usual! I had been looking at electric blankets for weeks because I'm always cold here at night, but I had no idea it would cost me $100! Finally today I gave in and bought one. I decided to just get the twin size a) because it was only $32 and b) I know Bryan is never going to want a heated blanket on his side of the bed! Surprisingly, the twin size covers almost all of the bed, so it was a great decision.

Anyway, back to food. I found these boxed meals on the preprepped aisle that were on sale, and I decided to try one (the most healthy one of the group). It was delicious, and I highly recommend it!

Now I feel a bit like those people on Allrecipes.com that rate something 5 out of 5 stars and then say "This was the best recipe ever. All I did different was cut the milk in half, add one more egg, add cinnamon and nutmeg, and eliminate the banana." Huh? How can you rate it 5/5 if you changed it around entirely? Anyway, so I took this box of Mushroom Cavatappi, added some steamed cauliflower and broccoli, and pan fried a chicken breast and some fresh spinach. It made for a bit more nutritious meal and was really good! It made an enormous amount. Here is the finished product, in my huge mixing bowl.

From January 2007

And more in the food category. Last week I stumbled upon this lava cake mix at Walmart. Decided to give it a try, and darn they are good! Bryan, this is the closest I've gotten to chocolate melting pots. I'd have a picture of the finished product (it made 4 cakes), but I ate the one a few days ago when I made them, and I froze the other 3. I'll thaw one out tonight and see if it tastes as good as it did straight out of the oven. At only 3.5 grams of fat, they aren't too bad for you either.

From January 2007

I think that's all the news from around here. UR ended uneventfully with my head boss not even bothering to say goodbye. The 3 women I work closely with brought me a cookie cake though, so that was sweet. I'm sure I'll stay in touch with them, as they have all said they want to do lunch next week. One even just interviewed for a position at Harris!

Hugs to everyone at home. I'd kill for sun and 50 right about now!

Snow

2007-01-26T09:06:00.000-05:00

I've had a lot of people ask me about the snow out here, so here are some pictures for you. First, we have the rather impressive icicles hanging off of my sunporch.

In case you can't tell how long those actually are, I measured them :) Just a little over three feet!

A view of the backyard. The tape measure went down about 7.5", but that's not to say there wasn't a solid layer of frozen snow below that. It was too cold out for me to care about finding that out!

Blogger is not working well today, so if you want to see the others, you can see them added to the January photos.

Last day at UofR today! I don't have to go in until 2pm, since I have to lead a training until 9:30pm.

The winds (or snow) of change

2007-01-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am now in the thick of winter. Kevin (Sherri's husband) laughed at me over the weekend when I told him that not only did I not have a driveway plowing service (*gasp* how impoverished of me!), but I didn't own a snow shovel either. Being the great guy he is (and spoiled grown-up with a plow service), he promptly loaded 2 snow shovels into my car. I had to use one today...it was equally as terrible of a chore as mowing the lawn. In fact, it is the winter equivalent of lawn mowing. I hated it. We got about 5 inches today while I was at work, and we're expecting more. I'm thankful my car has a roof rack on it, because it's the only way I can find it in the massive parking lot when it is covered in snow. I big thank you to mom too for helping me get the car with the heated seats, heated mirrors, and heated windshield wipers. Mom, not a day goes by that I don't thank you out loud! I'd have pictures of the snow here, but a) it's dark and b) snow is so ho-hum to me now that I never think of taking pictures of it. Another thank you to Bryan and Amy who both got me hats for Christmas. Now I have a rotating hat collection of three :)

Last weekend I got to babysit "the girls" (Lani and Cassie, and new addition baby Peter). I just adore them and felt silly getting paid for it. We had such a fun time. They were so excited to have me over and had planned an entire night with a movie (Aristocats), pizza ordered in, and fresh baked cookies. To that, we ad-hoc added a dance party to the disco channel on digital cable.

From January 2007

Lani and Cassie dancing. The pillows were part of a "hot lava" game where you could only step on the pillows because the carpet was hot lava.

From January 2007

Lani showing off her strength!

Once the girls knew I had a camera, that made them ham it up!

From January 2007

This odd position they both called "peanut butter sandwich," I think from them making layers like bread. Kids are so strange! Of course I got roped into this too, so then it was a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

From January 2007

Of course when girls get together there is always a hair and makeup party. They LOVED this!

From January 2007

Of course I wouldn't want to forget Peter. This picture cracks me up, as clearly this is a reaction to the flash (he had been sleeping, woke up to be fed, and was on his way back to bed).

From January 2007

A slightly better picture. He has the cutest smile with a dimple in his cheek, but it was so hard to time it right.

My sweet mom also sent me flowers, as she knew I was having a very hard time deciding about the new job offer. They have definitely brightened up the house, as flowers are a rare expensive luxury for me.

From January 2007

The rest of the pictures, uninteresting as they may be, can be seen here

On the job front, my last day at UR is Friday. Things have gotten even more crazy there since I turned in my notice, all reaffirming that I made the right choice. Monday I'll be starting at Harris Interactive as a Senior Research Associate in Healthcare Market Research. I'm hoping that it will be a challenging position and that I will learn a lot of new skills. I'll still be going to school 2 classes per term (more about the classes in future blogs, suffice to say this term is one terrible one that is minimal work, and one interesting one that is a lot of work). UR is determined to make my life difficult in terms of school since I'm leaving them, but where there is a will there's a way! Speaking of school, the time I'm spending on this blog is cutting into my homework time. Hugs and kisses to everyone at home!

When I look to the sky

Lilac festival changes

More funnies

How the orthodontist ended up (and BB management is awful)

"I think this is my favorite day of my whole life"

Tomorrow

As heard in the kitchen just now

Why we work

Jess and Torsten

The end of the wedding fun

Should I.....

Finally - proof is on my side!

Good deed #1

Sand ceremony

#27

Official wedding photos

More photos!

I won!

OIP

Made it

Still alive!

What's up with customer service?

Brief update

The end of me, the beginning of we

Teeth!

The name dilemma

Too true

By the numbers

Atkins

Thanks for saying hi!

Food porn (or Rachel Ray you are not)

Brunch

Made To Order Belgium Waffle Station with Fruit ToppingsCarving Station - Roast Beef, Lamb, Pork & SalmonCreate Your Own Omelet Station

Who else is excited???

Enjoying the sun, not enjoying the aftermath!

The Story of Us

Combination of 2 great things!

Any opinions

Sweet nothings at the car dealership

Stop in, say hello

I don't heart New York

Rest in peace my friend

Backwards birthdays

Orthodontist update

My hatred of my orthodontist's office

Movies, babies, and movies about babies

Fruit crisp and general updates

The terrible twos? No way!

Oatmeal chocolate chip banana muffins

Updates for my mama

Some days are just crap

A time, a place, a date

Stella (Tia) got her grove (Bryan) back

There's no place like home (wherever that may be)

I heart Niagara Falls

Friday Fall Foliage

Let it snow?

Carving on a deadline

What can $2 getcha?

Toronto

This Old House

The excitement of normalicy

The end of summer

"That's hot"

Letchwork State Park

Let's Make a Deal

Nothing like a wasted day

Lots to be grateful for

Favorite things

I think I'll go to Boston

26 must suit me

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

Are you talking to ME??

DO NOT buy a house, part deux

Would you still love me if I were a gay bee?

DO NOT buy a house!

Lots of catching up!

One more day to freedom

The 3.5 mile 5k

Not always the girlfriend I want to be

Made To Order Belgium Waffle Station with Fruit Toppings
Carving Station - Roast Beef, Lamb, Pork & Salmon
Create Your Own Omelet Station