You never know what you are going to get...

The return of Summer... or so we thought!

2011-03-14T13:28:00.004-05:00

With all the changes abound, we thought we were headed towards spring and summer with a grilling party in shorts and t-shirts on Saturday. MMMM..... However, mother nature seems to have confused herself a bit. Woke up to 4 inches of snow today - not 2 days after hitting 70. Oh, and we're supposed to go back to 72 on Thursday. As they say, if you don't like the weather, just wait an hour. Definitely reminds me of the 52 degree 4 hr drop from a couple years ago that went from a warm sunny day to ice and snow. Nothing like being back in St. Louis!

Good things come in bunches

2011-03-14T13:21:00.003-05:00

New house, new job, and now, new car!

Moved!

2011-03-11T11:28:00.003-06:00

It's March 11 and my life has changed dramatically in 11 days. Joel took the bar exam. Joel got a job in St. Louis, MO in Clayton. We are renting a house in Kirkwood and are moving in on the 19th! I no longer live in Illinois or on a farm in a 160 year old house. I went newer, only 100 year old house in a great lively neighborhood. This is a little slideshow of the outside of the house. Bring on Spring!

2011-02-13T10:49:00.003-06:00

An inside/outside comparison. Feb 1st, a blizzard that stacked snow taller than I am and nestled the house in a beautiful landscape and inside, new life springing forth waiting patiently for sunshine and warm soil.

Standard winter crop of buttercrisp lettuce, black seeded simpson, spinach, leeks and various types of red and yellow onions.

Marked and ready to go. A new year, acres of dirt to fill and lots of varieties of seeds to plant!

How the tides have changed

2011-01-05T20:56:00.003-06:00

6 months ago, I lived in NYC in a small apt wondering when I might be able to live in a house, live in the country side, have a garden, get a pet, spend time outside... Today, I find myself in an entirely different position.

I'm sitting in front of a fireplace, burning wood we've cut. Eating 3 seed bread, which we made from scratch. Sitting next to a decorated Christmas tree, that we grew and cut down. In a house that we own... well, that we live in. Planting seeds for a garden that I hope to have this Spring and summer. Shooing out a cat that really believes she's an indoor cat, and thinks she's a dog too.

How much more different can life be from 6 months ago?

I'm pleasantly pleased with the changes and though we may not have a job, we're making do all right.

Pictoral updates

2010-12-12T21:26:00.004-06:00

Our stack of firewood and a front view of the house while it was just starting to snow. The red pump does still work when it is warmer out. Next is the Desi cat! This was before she was fed, so she wasn't interested in smiling. Then last is Joel scouting out and preparing to cut our tree for Christmas!

The Blizzard that never was...

2010-12-12T20:53:00.002-06:00

For a week, the only thing the weather channel or news weathermen could talk about was this gigantic storm that was coming... it was heading straight for us and was going to clobber us. Well, it came and went and we have 2-3 inches to speak of and wind. To be fair, about 12 hrs before it got here, they backed off from their initial foot predictions and said their blizzard predictions were solely based off of the 40+ mph gusts. Okay, 2nd most disappointing snowstorm ever. Top would have been about a week and a half ago. Similar to my location in STL, we are located right on a line that separates pressure zones. About 5 miles from here, they pulled in 8 inches, we... got an inch. GRR. Anyways, I'm hoping for better snows as the winter season starts.

Right about now, we're so grateful for the countless hours spent when we first arrived installing insulation, caulking, weatherstripping and cutting wood. As they say, every little bit helps. Every draft we feel as we walk about the house results in approx an hour job undoing the previous insulating and working to cut off the draft entirely. The news just reported that we're coming in at -13 wind chill with a possible -40 wind chill throughout the night. We've got the fireplace running 24/7 and are finding our lounging chairs inching closer and closer to stay warm.

Aside from a major production in churning out Christmas cards last night, we clipped the Juniper tree we found on the property to the proper shape of a tree and are planning on adding lights and ornaments tomorrow.

How is it that Christmas is only 13 days away? It has certainly snuck up this year. I ordered the first gift I plan on giving this year and already, it won't be delivered in time for Christmas. OOps. On the positive side, we are about a week away from the shortest day of the year! We'll be adding an extra minute to the evening every day starting somewhere around the 20th! I'm stoked!

As for other matters, Joel has been doing some contract work for a firm in STL the past few weeks and I think it's been very nice for him to get back in the game and keep his skills sharp. Good for him :) He continues to search for job prospects, but the leads and postings just are not panning out. I believe that all of this is happening for a reason and I'm sure our health has improved greatly since moving out here to the boonies. We are 10 min from the closest town and 25-30 min from the Quad cities. We're out here and I love it. Soooo much less stressful. It's just a known thing that we go to the city once a week and hang out with different family friends for entertainment. The past few weekends, there have been Christmas walks in the surrounding towns where you visit businesses from 3-7pm and they hand out cookies and refreshments and you sign up for drawings and prizes. It all ends in a closing ceremony or caroling/concert where you see everyone in town and the announcers refer to main public figures in town only by their first name. It's adorable. Everyone knows everyone and they all know that they don't know you.

So, life's been great. No complaints. Looking forward to spending Christmas in STL with my family and sending Joel up to SD again to play with the relatives.

Our cat continues to weather the weather outside. She mustn't be a big fan of the 'blizzard' like conditions of last night as she meow-ed at our bedroom window(this is a first) for an hour this morning. She really believes she is an indoor cat, and I'm really sure that she isn't. She's grown plenty of fur just for this purpose and we've started supplementing her food with excess fat from any meat we cook - she loves that. As it gets even colder outside, we'll just have to see how well we tolerate each other :)

Okay, off to watch the rest of Sunday Night Football and stoke the fire.

Snow is coming...

2010-12-03T11:44:00.004-06:00

It's around noon here as I sit to write a bit. We're expecting our first snowfall of the year starting around 3pm today. I've got all the window shades open so I can watch it fall. Being that is December and all, we should be quite ready for snow. We've been preparing for 3 months to the date. Country living, I'd say it suits me. The list of projects we've been working on is extensive and the list of projects to start and to finish yet is just as long. Our house is old, no getting around that. When I used to visit my relatives, they always used to talk about the weather and the big event that happened almost every day - getting the mail. I used to think how small their lives were ... I'm the same way now. I've started talking about our weather patterns in letters, emails and now this blog too. It's 15 degrees out now, if you're curious. I'm also sitting by the front windows and have looked at the mailbox 2 or 3 times even though I know the mail won't be here for another 3 hrs as well. I guess life has slowed down from my Greek neighbors and the incessant movement outside our Astoria appt. We might get 20 cars by here in a day. For awhile, it was a bit more than that as it was corn and soybean season and the trucks would come rumbling by quite often. We're likely now to just see local folks and trucks go by with everyone inside wearing orange - it's hunting season. About 2 weeks back was one of 2 weekends here in IL that are shotgun season and the span between them is bow season. I believe it goes through Jan or Feb. and I should really check it out before I think about hiking through the woods around here. It has been crawling with hunters - just yesterday on my way to town (30 min away), there were a couple of trucks parked off the road in the field with 2 deer being dressed. Of other country matters, our neighbor brought over 7 eggs as his hens had laid too many for them to eat, and we're going to a town 15 min away tonight to go on a Christmas walk. Now, this walk through a town maybe a 5 min walk long goes from 3-7pm and is slated to start at the same time as the snow. Do we dare go?

A few things we did manage to finish up are:

Driveway - we had a couple loads of gravel put in just yesterday

Attic Insulation - in the past two weeks, we've added blow in insulation to the attic (formerly there was only about 4 inches, not the R-35 value that is recommended for this area).

Floor Insulation - in our living room area with the fireplace and the thermostat, there were only wood floorboards and the sealant between them either was never there or has come out throughout the years. We added R-13 rolled insulation and stapled it up and that has made a huge difference in the warmth of the room.

Fireplace - Removing old mortar that was loose and then repointing or tuckpointing the joints that had no mortar left between them. In the corners of the fireplace after I cleared out the sandy debris, I found that cold air was seeping right between the joints as if straight from outside.

Caulking - Since the house hasn't been lived in in over 30 years, we had to add some sort of sealant around the outsides of all the windows.

Weatherstripping - in my research on how to seal doors, I found out that if you have an 1/8" opening around your entire door, it is equivalent to having a 6" square hole in your door. This has now been taken care of.

Now, many of our repairs/updates have taken place as we are here during the winter months. *Shiver* Joel's parents are exclusively here during the summer and there has been no need for this sort of work to be done. I can remember 3 years back though when Joel and I came to visit during the winter and vowed to never do so again as the house was soooo cold the whole weekend. I think perhaps we'd consider it again.

Perhaps we are even doing a good and effective job of warming the house as we've noticed others who also want to take shelter inside where it's cozy and warm. The cat that adopted us when we moved here has taken more aggressive steps to convince us that she is indeed an indoor cat and that we should believe her. My thoughts are.... over my dead body, but she doesn't seem to be taking that hint. She (Desi, which is short for Desperado - named for the state we found her in when she first adopted us, yes adopted us) will wait by one of the two doors we use and rush between your legs on to the porch and refuse to leave by setting her claws in the carpet. When you pull 1 paw up, she'll set the other back down into the carpet and so on. After a few rounds of that and you manage to get her up, a swift toss out the door and a quick pull on the screen door that closes all too gently finishes the battle until you realize that you need to go out again...

Another animal or group of animals that believe they belong indoors, are the mice. I've heard it from near a dozen farmers now that Dcon is the only way to get rid of them. Well, I must be the pied piper as it really just feels like I'm gathering them together and feeding them. I'm going through the bait boxes and bait pellets weekly and each one goes quicker than the last. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I certainly hope I won't be smelling dying and decaying mice in the attic in the next couple months.

Well, there is so very much to write, but it's time for lunch. About those pictures... hmm. Still waiting.

New Home, New style of Living

2010-09-29T09:14:00.004-05:00

Date of arrival: Sept 2.
Place: Rural Illinois
Occupation: Homemaker/House renovator

We arrived at the Samuels Farmhouse earlier this month with all of our possessions in tow.

Moving Out

2010-08-30T14:30:00.003-05:00

I chime in on here when big events happen. This happens to be one of them.
We're moving out of New York! It happens tomorrow.
Our new residence is a bit of a distance from here in a small town in Illinois.
Our new home... will be called Windsor Manor.

I'll have to put up pictures when we arrive and then others after we've settled in a bit. It is going to be a big change for us, and I'm quite excited. I understand it is likely only a temporary move until something else comes along, but I'll take it.

If only I could click my heels and have time advance to a week from now when we will have packed everything, driven the 800-900 or so miles, unpacked, entertained family for the holiday weekend and returned the truck. If only!

Also looking forward to 'opening' up the kitchen again. As of Saturday, we shut down the kitchen for cooking and I'm having severe withdrawal. Who would have thought that I would dislike eating out every meal? It has made it easier to make our last rounds to all of our favorites in the area.

It's looking a bit like a storage shed around here with the boxes everywhere and even the table and couch deconstructed for moving. Alas, it should make tomorrow a bit easier as the third floor to main floor moving of all of our possessions accompanied by 90 degree heat should be a pleasant experience... Ha.

Checking out from Astoria NY, it's been, um, Interesting. I'll have to post my New York Time Capsule information sometime this fall.

Bring on the open road, farm stands, bugs and wide open spaces!!!!

Ho Hum

2010-07-25T12:19:00.003-05:00

Pictures are of the group of us in the Catskills, my little friend (a red eft perhaps?) and the Kaaterskill Falls.

Just got back from a weekend up in the Catskills. I smell of fire and oddly like a short order cook at Uncle Bills. We had onions, potatoes, eggs and sausage cooked over a roasty toasty fire this morning, so at some point, I'll have to give up this lovely scent to a shower.

It's like... 97 degrees here and we're baking here in the apt. How much would it cost to buy a cool front? I rememeber near the Beijing Olympics they were creating clouds so it would rain and decrease the polution, couldn't we manufacture something like that here?

Get to pick a home grown red pepper this afternoon and another tomato. I'm so glad we have a balcony and can grow things... It keeps me sane.

I think the local pool is calling to me as are the chocolate chip cookies on the counter. Yum.

June 1

2010-06-01T10:45:00.002-05:00

Today, I think I will start writing again. I finally got fed up with receiving spam on one post from over 2 years ago and decided to look in to it to see how many comments I had received on this one post - 57 - all spam. So, I deleted the post.

It's hot out. Inside the apt here it is 81 and humid. We installed our tiny air conditioner from the last apt just yesterday and we may yet get another one for the bedroom to make it through the next 3 sticky months.

If there is one benefit to the hot weather, it is the wonderful things it does for my 'crops' out on the balcony. --- I'm back now as just the thought of the plants out in this heat made me think to water them in with a healthy dose of fertilizer and water. Will it ever rain? We were in quite a wet spell this Spring, but it has dried out entirely in the past month.

Looking forward to our anniversary trip next weekend! June 10-13, we'll be in @$@#$%@$. Well, I can't say yet as it is a suprise for Joel, but it should be exciting! I hope the weather is nice! Maybe I should think about packing... and actually reading through the Tour Book that I bought.

A few errands to run today and then out to do census work.

Side thought: Cherries are awesome.

Last Week

2009-07-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

Seems as if I'm missing a few updates... while this might not reflect all new things encountered on the right days, I did do a bunch of new things and likely 1 a day every day. Friday, I went to hang out with cousin Sarah and her Mom at Sheep's Meadow in Central Park. That morning, I had walked/jogged the inner circle of Central Park, a 6.2 mile feat. I was exhausted by the end of the day.
On Saturday, a group of us went up to the Cloisters along the West Hudson River, way up around 190th street. Nice park to walk and enjoy while taking in some churches reconstructed here after being sacked.
Monday, I went to the DMV... Yuck! Over 2 hours in line and all I get is a NYC license with my old name. Need a few more documents with my married name to get any further... grr. So, in a couple weeks, I might get a little farther. 6 points of identification!?!? !!!!!!! That's all I can say.
Tuesday - Found a donation center a bit closer than the 10 block walk - this one is only 2 blocks, so I trucked a few bags there, then a few more to the Goodwill and then to a Coinstar! Yay for getting rid of change in exchange for a certificate that I know I will use. Also, first sighting of a mouse in my apt. Actually, I saw it three times. Little bugger. Very Bold.

2009-07-08T13:13:00.003-05:00

Tuesday - I walked down 5th Avenue in all its' glory after having lunch with Joel at Yummy Sushi. Souvenier shops galore and all the way down to 27th (starting at 49th st.). Also for the first time, I went to Bryant Park. It is a large park adjacent to the New York Library - the one with the Lion Statues out front. I sat and read for an hour and thought how I'd like to attend one of the Monday evening showings of movies this summer. I also got my new passport photos taken at Walgreens. I thought they only had Duane Reed and CVS here in NY, guess I was wrong.

New tasks...

2009-07-06T16:23:00.002-05:00

Friday - First evening out at Donny and Abbys seeing their apt and have barbeque in new york! We had burgers and we brought chips/dip and a veggie platter with hummus. A yummy evening finished with cheesecake...

Saturday - 1st 4th of July Married! We spent it watching the Macy's Fire works on the 49th floor balcony on the West Side - Hudson river. 6 barges produced a pretty spectacular show. Met a bunch of new people and took another walk on Ward's Island, with Joel this time.

Sunday - We walked to the Northern end of Central Park and saw the pool up near 100th AV. It was quite a walk and it seemed as if everyone and their brother was out at the park today.

Monday - Today I went to give blood! If you are eligible, you should too... It is always in need. Probably should have eaten more sugary things before I went, but all's well that ends well.

New adventures!

2009-07-02T08:54:00.004-05:00

So this whole making me get out and do something new everyday isn't so bad. I might have lacked inspiration and ideas at the beginning and might be fighting it off now while wanting to get comfortable in a routine, but it'll be good for me in the end. I'll know better how to get around and will have seem some cool things along the way. So... let's see.
Tuesday: There are lots of things that I'm tempted to put here, but only a few of which are new. I could say I went to Goodwill and the Petshop as new things, but I did those with Joel before I lived here, so that's kind of cheating. I could say I met up with him for lunch, and it would be the first time I did that while Living in NY... but my conscience is too scrupulous for that. So, instead, I went to Old Navy and Godiva. Godiva was in the mall under 6th Ave (Avenue of the Americas) and I tracked it down and got my birthday truffle and some chocolate bars at 10% off - again, yay birthday! And because I was so close... like 10 blocks, I took my self down to the Old Navy Flagship store. I had it on my list of things to do as they had a sale going and while I was this close, and I had looked up directions last week thinking I might make it there some time.... So I got some shorts and meandered my way back home...
Wednesday was a good one. I went up to the New York Botanical Gardens... It was a bit of a trek, took about an hour to get there, but all on the metro card - $2.25 each way? The pass is unlimited...so I guess it is less than that. But anyway, it was pretty nice. If nothing else, it was a lot of greenspace all together. There was forested areas and the Bronx river flowed right though the park. There were big old trees, a vegetable garden, rose garden, and then some other stuff which you had to pay for. I did not go in those parts as it was Free Admission to the Grounds only on Wednesdays and Sat from 10-12. I would say that the botanical gardens in STL is better compared with this one. It was also in the mid 80s, no wind and high humidity, a bad combination for the pants that I decided to wear... what was I thinking? Alas, I enjoyed it and here are a few of my photos...

Saturday-Monday

2009-06-30T09:44:00.002-05:00

Saturday, Joel and I explored Roosevelt Island. We took the air tram over to the island then walked/road the red bus all around - to the Octagon, Manhattan Park Apt, the one and only Gristedes, and the beautiful riverwalk. It was a nice step away from the busy life of the Upper East side and it's nice to know that that green space does exist.

Sunday was two notable item - new tennis shoes from Easy Spirit, YAY! and... A hotdog and smoothie from Gray's Papaya. Maybe I didn't get the right thing, but I am so not impressed. Will have to try again at a different shop.

Monday - I explored Carl Schurz's park - beautiful flowers and then headed along a different riverwalk (running some) and walked over a bridge to Ward's Island. Once crossing the big blue bridge for walkers only, it is green and there are ball fields and people fishing. Closes at 1am. Would be a great place for a picnic if you didn't mind the walk. I also experienced my first 'missing store'. I thought I'd head out to Godiva and Walgreens. I took my notes on where these places were and set out. Passing walgreens on the way, I headed to my farther destination of Godiva. Once I arrived at the location, I searched and searched... to no avail. This is wonderful chocolate you understand and after circling the area a few times, I admit, I had to give up and say, it isn't here. I'm not sure Where it is at, but I will try and find another one on Tuesday.

Day 5

2009-06-27T09:58:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I encountered the DMV... and the RMV for that matter. I tend to think about an episode of 'Two and a half Men' when I think about the DMV and my encounter with them yestererday. In that episode, Allen gets in line early in the morning and waits all day and then gets duped in to giving his good spot away to some pretty girl. What I'm trying to do is no less than top Mount Everest with these guys. Getting them on the phone is a challenge in and of itself. I tried three times earlier in the week, including Thursday afternoon and was encountered with this message: if your call is not urgent, please consider calling back at a later time in the week. Isn't Thursday at 3 late enough. Guess not. When I actually heed their request and call at 5:00, oh no, they're closed. 9:00-4:00. Must be a nice place to work, well, minus all the grumpy people who have to stand in line to see them with the shoebox full of identification they must track down. Really???
I guess I shot myself in the foot when I wanted to do more than a 1 step process. Move my license from MA and change my name.
It could be as long as 2 1/2 months before I end up with my license as I tote the 14 pieces of credit cards/passport/misc. certificates/esc. over there to prove who I was and who I am. 14? Yes. 14.

Blah.

Days continued...

2009-06-25T13:58:00.002-05:00

Day 3 - It's been raining most of the day, so I stayed in until 5 working on more name changing shenanigans, it's a pain and also not new in NY. After the rain I headed out to Rainbow Hardware with a S hook in hand hoping to add some more hanging places in the kitchen. What I found out when I got there, was that I'd already been there with Joel! Foiled! Doubly foiled in that they didn't have any S hooks - Pots, pans, ice cream, shelving units, toiletries and a pharmacy, and more. That's a strange Hardware store. In my search through every aisle though, I did come across something super beneficial for the sink. It's a flow meter. While I'm not super concerned about how much water comes through the sink, it will at least assure me that it comes out in an even flow and downward - not some funky angle that always hits whatever is in the sink and coats the front of me... I like! After the 'hardware' store run, my new adventure took me up to the AT&T store. After a 25 min wait in line and almost getting turned away with a smug look of, honey, it's a setting on your phone, it isn't hard to fix... I can now receive MMS messages - pictures! Somehow it had gotten disabled on their system and Ha. Not. My. Fault. But that's it - that was my adventure for the day, I went to the At&t store.

Day 4 - Today I did something new and hopefully non-recurring. I woke up late (not new), decided to head out to Central Park and read (not new), picked up my phone and my book and walked out the door. Something in that last sentence is new. Phone - check. Book - check. Self - check. Keys - ? um. NOT CHECK!!! AGHGHHGH.... Things start swirling through my mind. It hasn't been even 5 seconds since the door has locked - can't we institute the 10 second rule you know? Like when food falls on the floor, you have 5 or 10 seconds to open your door again before you are locked out. I had no inspiration for what today's activities would be originally, but I do now. Today - I locked myself out of the apt. without keys or a metro card. So, new plan. I called Joel and met up with him at Rockefeller Center and made myself walk home too just so that maybe it'll sink in that it is a bad idea to walk out the door without ones keys. Bad. AKA, do not do again. On my walk home though, I got tired and say down in the park to read, so all was not lost. I even got my ~5 mile walk in for the day. Maybe I should put this day back to bed and take a nap.... :)

1 New thing...

2009-06-24T10:43:00.002-05:00

Perhaps I have let this little guy go too long, and perhaps not. It's been a pretty hectic last.... um, gulp, 9 months. Now, it seems a daunting task to update my 'life story'. I think that's why I haven't written as I'm not sure how to jump from where I was in September and properly do justice to all that has really happened and is currently happening... For heaven sakes, I got married - it's not official you know, until you announce it on facebook and on your blog. 2 1/2 weeks ago now and I can't say as it has really set in. For all I know, I'm just visiting New York like I have 5 or 6 times in the past 9 months - minus my stuff sitting all over... and the fact that I have to make lunch for Joel in the morning and dinner at night - that's pulling on the reality string a little. I can at least do that as I'm a homemaker now, stopped the job at the end of April. All the wedding planning and stuff is over, minus those darn thank you notes - I shall start them soon. In the mean time though, I've issued myself a bit of a challenge. We are in this apt. until Sept 1st at which point we will be moving to somewhere yet unknown (that's a tricky little unknown right there) in the city. Since it might not be in as ideal location as this Upper East side - 15 min from everything - I have got to take advantage of where I'm at, by force if necessary. So, starting 2 days ago on Monday June 22, I started my pursuit.
Day 1 - I went to the post office. Blah blah, easy peasy you might say. NO! USPS was holding a package for us while we were gone and with the address and hopstop.com, I found it. I then stood in a line for 20 min only to find out I was in the wrong one and needed to go through the doors to the right and then make two lefts, OH, and I needed my ID and his. Sure. Couldn't they have mentioned that somewhere? A sign or something...? That and the ID thing - who else gets the mail that only I have a key to. Bah. So, with nothing in hand, I headed to Central Park for a walk and a read.
Day 2 - Target. Remember the good old days of jumping in the car? Yea, no. Another visit to hopstop - which will be my best friend - showed the closest in Brooklyn, so there identified where I was headed. 45 min there, 30 min back and not a wrong train taken yet. I did walk around for 20 min in the Atlantic Terminal as there was construction and about 5 unmarked dead ends I managed to find... but I did find the Target. I bought up as much as I could carry and then walked around outside just a bit before heading back on a new route that I may have had to call Joel to get. What would I do without him? I must have been hankering for sweets as when I unloaded at home, I had 3 boxes of cookies.

And now I sit here on Day 3 uninspired. Old Navy downtown? New York Public Library? There has to be something... I guess I will have to decide by the time the FedEx guy gets here - waiting on a package today and tomorrow...

I like this style

2008-09-28T15:56:00.001-05:00

http://blog.blurb.com/index.php/2008/09/26/color-coordinated-books/

I tried to do this in the kitchen with the cookbooks. Why didn't it go over exactly?

Pictures Galore- Oahu here, Hawaii on Picasa

2008-09-17T22:36:00.003-05:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/itizzy/Hawaii2008

An Update on Life and Times

2008-09-17T22:26:00.002-05:00

Well, times go on. I posted a lot in the past, but I think I was more exciting and adventurous then. I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to change my sedentary ways. It isn't like I don't do anything-i scarcely have free time, but whether it is interesting enough to blog about, that is another matter... I do suppose I could mention a bit about Hawaii. We were there Aug 7-17 - this time visiting the Big Island and Oahu. Stayed close to Waikiki Beah and swam early in the morning before all the other vacationers made it out - you know, 9:30-11:00 sort of thing. The water was so full of salt! Saltiest water I've been in and you could just float in the upright position - definitely an odd feeling. We hiked Diamond Head and drove around 2/3 of the island throughout the day. In downtown Waikiki we were quite suprised at how many different cultures of people were there on the main drag. It was expensive, our pockets felt like they had holes in them. You walk down the street and you see name brand stores of every kind and English in Not the primary language - it is a tourist town and definitely the most 'un-hawaiian' feeling town I've been to thus far. It was more like New York City of the Pacific. Alas though, that was only the last 2 days. The week before was spent at Joel's folks house :) We drove up to 9,000 feet and watched the sunset over the ocean and through a beacon of clouds - it was gorgeous. AND! This time I got to see Lava - from a safe viewing distance I assure you. It was neat to see this swirling vortex of steam as the lava entered the ocean off in the distance...
As for other items of note - we got to see Joel's sister's third child - Robyn - a little boy. He was a cutie at 4 weeks old and the other two at 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 were adorable! Oh to think that this was only a month ago... Hmm. I seem to be missing some days. This is all I've got for now.

I'm reading the Omnivore's Dilemna at the moment and... it is calling to me. I do have a few pictures to show though!

A Tripping I will go...

2008-07-22T21:11:00.002-05:00

I'm going to Hawaii in 16 days! I'm excited. It's just about the best thing in the whole world to look forward to... besides the wedding. I'm looking forward to that too.

Work is going great. I'm learning lots and learning to be OK with where I work. I switched my hours so I now work 7:30-4 and have a shorter commute. I'm also making a difference where I work. My team of 3 is the most productive of the 5 teams - we're carrying the company through this financial down-time and I'd like to think that I'm a big part of that. I'm no salesman, but I keep people on their toes, I keep my two bosses accountable and have helped to keep everything in order much more than the last person who had my job. It's nice. I suppose I've settled in nicely in the last 8 months. It's hard for me to even believe that it has been that long.

As for this summer, it's been quite hectic. Joel got in in May and we haven't slowed down since. He's in the crunch time for the bar exam currently and takes the test next Tuesday and Wednesday up in Albany, New York. I hope that the past 3 years of schooling and 3 months of intense studying end up paying off. He'll be looking for appts. soon in NY and then moving for good in early September. After that, it'll just be me and my folks here at the house. He's been pretty helpful in re-vamping our house. We revived the front of the house, installed a new door for my room, and added a climbing trellis for my garden. There's more, but those are the finest works of art.

We've been working out in the Flower and Vegetable gardens frequently this summer, I should like to some of the photos. My favorites are the Cannas, Gladiolas and Zinnias this summer for their vibrant colors.

In other news, Joel's sister just had her third kid (the sister out in Hawaii). She is 22 and has a 2.5 girl Aurora, 1.5 girl Savannah and 1 month old boy Kekoa Robin. They're adorable and I've had lots of fun getting little baby and toddler gifts for them. These clothes look like they could fit baby dolls. :)

Reading an Omnivore's Dilemna now, it's a dense book, but good. It has some very insightful points and is quite making me re-think my eating habits.

It's finally turned summer like here. Our cool days have past this past week and now we're in the mid 9o's each day. One thing about the Midwest that I do love is the thunderstorms. About 4 AM last night, there was thunder that shook the house and so much lightening. It lasted about a half hour and just down-poured. I loved it-though it was a bit scary at first as it sounds like a freight train or bombs or very loud noises in a half-conscious sleep.

For all the praying people out there, I'd like to send a request out for my grandpa and brother. My Grandpa fell on Sunday and I was at the ER with him and though no broken bones, he was quite showing his age. I can't imagine that is an easy transition, getting old and losing your memory. Second is for my brother as his foot wound is seemingly taking steps backward and he will be preparing for more surgery this fall...

I still love to cook and if anyone wants to see St. Louis before I head out of here for NYC, I welcome you! Has anyone run across any good recipes recently?

I envy everyone's adventures these days and love reading about them, please don't stop posting!

A good luck to all who are embarking on new adventures...

Pics of my garden: http://picasaweb.google.com/itizzy/MyGarden
I'll have to get more up on here as the summer progresses.

Happy Day!

Farm Sightings

2008-03-30T20:47:00.001-05:00

A re-post from the topside blog:

Ok, since there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that anyone will just pop up on my radar down here in St. Louis, I have to survive on other bits of farm. Music. Day after day of listening to eclectic music chosen by different people in the kitchen has stuck with me. In the past week, I have had encounters three times that have 'transported' me back.

After getting over my initial paralysis at hearing something so out of place, I eventually came up with the names of the Bands, and a little more searching led me to finding out the titles.

Ben Lee in Kohl's - We are all in this Together
UPS commercial with the Postal Service - the first 30 seconds of Such Great Heights
Kohl's again - Wrapped up in Books

Seems as if we here in the Midwest are a little behind in getting the music, trends, and fashion, but I guess that isn't really a new revelation. I just liked the little slice of something... familiar.

A post devoted to the flood and Joel

2008-03-25T22:16:00.010-05:00

The water was not on this road below when I arrived.

Notation for Pictures 2 and 3 seen below: This was the road I was driving along to get to the part that was flooded and one of a few houses that we sandbagged during the afternoon.

A video of us working.

Just Joel. :)

Rain - From Mar. 19 - forgot to post... or to finish wr...

2008-03-19T20:59:00.002-05:00

It rained and rained the last few days. We got around 8" of rain in fact. That's quite unheard of for these areas. The last time I remember such a torrential downpour was back in Oct of '05 at the farm when Joel and I tried to go camping up in Maine. We started off down a road in MA having not checked the weather in advance and had to turn back a couple times from the road flooding out. We were off to check out the fall folliage and what we ended up doing was touring Maine in the rain and cloud cover and attempting to stay dry in a soggy tent. I remember, it let up for 15 min before we left camp and headed home where it started to rain again. Once we got back, we found out how much it had rained in Monterey and in Maine and saw the bridge was flooded and the roads had big gullies down the centers. What a memory. So, as it was raining hard all day long, I thought of the days of travelling. It inspired me to read ooold posts, ones from when I just started at the farm. I guess my nostaligia comes through here.

As for my life, Joel just left after being here for the week of his Spring Break. We did lots of things. I ended up losing a lot of sleep, we'd stay up late talking watching tv. When did I get to be such a junkie for tv? I don't even want to have one in the house, but somehow, from 10 until 11:30, I sit and watch the 'boob tube' as it's been called in my family. I don't have any idea how it got the name. It must be a midwestern thing too cause people around here use the term for the tv. 10:00 is Two and half Men, 10:30 is Everybody Loves Raymond and 11:00 is King of Queens. Around 11:30, I try to turn in

2008-03-14T21:59:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of www.offthemark.com
Days are going better, will write more soon!

Fun Stuff

2008-03-05T23:54:00.005-06:00

Snow from Yesterday

Spring Stuff :

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

I'm 49% Yankee, Barely a Yankee

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/yankee_dixie_quiz.html

What is your name? Sarah

2008-03-05T23:32:00.004-06:00

What is your quest? To find a purpose
What is your favorite color? Purple!

Ok. So, I have a job. I hate my job. I hate working for 'the man'. I hate corporate America. I can't even pretend to like it. I have a difficult time accepting my bosses who are money-grubbing fools. I don't like going to my job. I don't like my commute. I hate traffic with a passion. SUV's who think they are above the weather gods and can drive 50mph in 3'' of slush can go to hell quite frankly. You know what? Before the farm, I was fine. I was good. I was ok living in my world of naivete. I was okay with corporate America. Post-Farm, I suck at it. I hate it. It grinds on my very nerves. Every penny pinching job and action I do at work seem pointless. Yes, I'm doing my job, and I'm doing it very well. However, I get no satisfaction from it. I go home at the end of the day saying, yeah, good job, everything you didn't finish will still be there again tomorrow. It's getting to me. I find myself sinking into a funk, wishing it were time to quit this job and be on to the next... the next step of life. Hell, I'm getting married, that'll change things up. I'm ready for adventure and challenges. Instead, I'm in a job that believes in many things I don't appreciate any more, living in a house I grew up in, and in a city that I've outgrown. I guess you could say, I'm feeling a bit fruitless in my pursuit. I let things go that should have been finished long ago - Christmas cards - I still have 14 here that I'm going to send out... sometime. I just now cleaned my room to make it liveable after a few months.

I can go on, but I think I'm just whining. I think I need a new job. Has anyone else had a successful follow up to their job on the farm? Can really my best job in life be said that I was a cook on a farm?!!?

In other news, I'm getting over a 3 week long sinus infection reminiscent of my one from last Spring that landed me at the hospital and have thus been living in a haze for 3 weeks. Having a migraine for 2 of the 3 weeks made life amazing. Can you sense my sarcasm? * DRIP DRIP*

It just snowed a foot yesterday after a winter when we've had more snow than ever in my lifetime... hey, i thought I moved away from New England! It's Wednesday, and... it was also 80 degrees Sunday. In the happiest news of all, Joel gets here on Friday! He's coming in for his Spring Break, the last of his career as he is graduating in MAY!!! He'll be here in the 'Lou for the summer and then will be in NYC until I get there :) There we go, I feel like I'm in Peter Pan, that's my happy thought, the one that makes me float off the bed and fly...

Read some good books of recent: The Omnivore's Dilemna and I did just finish, Eat Pray Love. Both were pretty decent books, though oddly if you had asked while I was reading them if I liked them, I'd have said no. Odd... In retrospect, I enjoyed them, truly. I think the mood you go into a book with is often reflected in how you think about said book, or at least in my case it is.

Um, I've been reading correspondences from everyone, but with little energy to respond. I'm hoping to have that communication back up shortly. The meds are still tuning me out hard core.

I do miss cooking. I miss the big saucepans, 20 lbs. of beef and perfectly well done eggs in the morning. I miss the frangrances of the herbs, the chatter of our Argentinian Chef and the white board. I miss putting away stock, ducking in the fridge during the warm summer months and picking herbs out back from the garden. I miss the fresh veggies from Steve-o, the furtive glances of the hungry in the doorway, and the people. Nostalgia takes ahold of me every so often and I'm literally transported back into a time, a moment. A taste, a smell, a song even can take me there. It's special and I love those moments.

I just needed to put something, anything on paper. Now that the drought is over, I think I can write again more freely. BTW, I love reading everyone's blogs. It makes me feel like I'm talking to you. Peace.

December 23, 2007

2007-12-23T14:44:00.000-06:00

So, apparently you can ward off sickness, by wishing it away. Or so I'd like to think... I'm not sick for the holidays! That is something very few at my workplace are able to say. Therefore, I'm here at the family house and we're decking the place out. I put up the Christmas tree last Sunday and this week, siblings keep stopping by to wrap gifts and put them under the tree. Our gifts this year, instead of guessing, are based solely on what people need. It helps us control our excesses and focus on being helpful for sure. Right now, Aaron and Joel are outside putting up Christmas lights. That's right! Joel who got in town late last night after driving in from Penn State all day and Aaron who is up and walking now after his lawnmower accident. Aaron is cleared for all activities, still attends PT 3 times a week, and is doing very well. He has a bit of a limp and the surgeries will come, but not for a year or so. 500 days is the recovery time for this injury. Like in April, he has exercises and stretches and soreness to deal with in his foot every morning. I'm sure he's glad to be over the hardest part and living life much like his old self.

As for other little snippets of the past months...

Last weekend it snowed! It doesn't usually snow much or last long here, and the 8in. we got were the most since 2002! It lasted 4-5 days before the 50 degree weather crept in and melted it all at night. During the storm, we had an interesting phenomena happen in Thundersnow. There was thunder and lightening and it was snowing... Soooo odd.

Tuesday night, I went with some friends to see Wicked at the Fox! It was a great show and I'd love to see it again. I appreciated it so much having read the book and though it was changed a bit, I'm glad it had a happy ending.

Parties and more! Have been pleasantly surprised by the little pleasantries awarded at my new job. Little perks and giftcards, bonuses and 1/2 days as a matter of celebrating the holidays and encouraging employees to have a good time as well as rewarding folks for a job well done. It's working on me! I'm looking forward to having Monday and Tuesday off, then a three day week and then Mon and Tues next week for New Years!!!!!!!

Family time is nice htis time of year. My older brother and sister are coming in to see Joel and we're all going to play spades and drink tonight. Together time is really the focus here, the drinking is just part of the party. We got a few different bottles of wine we'd like to try out all in the name of finding a good wine for the rehearsal dinner for the wedding.

Dress finding! I've been out searching high and low for a dress for the wedding for me and one for my bridesmaids. I think the bridesmaid's one is set, and I'm 90% sure I've found mine. I'm going to put that one all on hold for now until Joel heads back to PA, which isn't for 3 weeks. YAY. It'll be like we're actually going out or something.

Reception.... We found a place! It's going to be great. I went to a tasting there last month and am going again this month just because. The food was amazing. The chef lived up to his reputation and experience from having worked at the Ritz Carlton. After my experience at the farm, I enjoy food and can say that I enjoyed the culinary tastes this chef has to offer!!! A feat, I wasn't sure I'd be able to find in a reception hall for sure.

Weight Loss Challenge. The end is coming to this challenge of 4 months. I'd have to say that losing any weight over the time period makes it an accomplishment and well worth the effort. I'm a little over 5 pounds down and that's probably more than I would have done had we not been in the competition. Others are down considerably more, Aaron for one, so we're not sure exactly how valid this competition really has been with a catastrophic event taking place during it. Half of us couldn't eat for a month, others couldn't stop eating in the worry. After a short break, we may start another one in all measures of fairness.

Family... It'll be sad not spending Christmas with friends at the farm and family in Hawaii. I feel like I'm wanting to be here, there and everywhere at this time of year to say hello to friends and family from all over.

This year and beyond. For Christmas, I've told my family that we'll reveal our plans for after we get married, where Joel will be come graduation and the date of the wedding, which is a secret to all but Joel and I. They haven't liked waiting for these 2 1/2 months, but I'm finding that it's been the best plan all along. We've had the luxury of being able to switch things around and adjust and theorize and such without pressure.

Anyways, it's been a quick and wonderful December. I've loved going out to buy gifts, write cards (which I'm still writing), and getting in the Christmas mood with Christmas music.

Happy Holidays!

Dec 20

2007-12-20T12:30:00.000-06:00

HI! I am not getting sick, I am not getting sick, I AM NOT GETTING SICK! No sniffles, runny nose or tickle cough. Off and away with you.

Here at work, realizing I've been meaning to do this for the greater part of 3 weeks. I'm working. Just took lunch here at the desk. Tonight is the work Christmas party. Tuesday was Wicked at the Fox - absolutely amazing, and thank you Joe M. for the soundtrack and the wine! I'm sooo looking forward to listening and sipping this weekend. Looking for some free time, as of now, I have none. Mon-Fri is work and a couple classes at the gym, misc. outings, parties, and events. Saturdays have been reserved for dress shopping and Sunday is Bill day and clean up the room. I can't imagine how much harder cleaning up a larger area is going to be. It takes all day to re-do just my room and it is tiny, and it gets that dirty in less than a week!. Oye.

Sitting here at my new desk in its' new location. 2 of us now work in this office and have a large nice new desk area, they just are revamping the entire office after 20 years here. It looks nice, we have variations of gray, blues, tans all over and in my office, a purple accent wall. It's pretty. Because our office is more prominently placed, we get new stuff too! A new chair, all the stuff on my desk - office supplies, ok, yeah, I'm a dork, small joys. I spend a good portion of my week here, I like nice things! So, things are coming together, I'm learning my job a bit more each day and every once in awhile something bigger clicks and I feel 5 times better about what I'm doing. I like those moments.

Anxiously trying to find time to finish my Christmas cards... let's face it, they'll be Holiday cards. Almost all through buying Christmas gifts... they may also turn into Holiday gifts.

Wishing everyone well and needing to get back to doing work. I will have to catch up sometime, right?

November 14

2007-11-14T19:51:00.001-06:00

Lesson 1: Post written posts when written less no posting of written posts later. Ok, so, I wrote another one, but forgot to post it, revise it, and finish my thought. It’ll get up here someday. It’s 4:50 and I’ve got 10 minutes until I leave work, my real job. My bosses all headed home for the day and since I’m watched like a hawk and given the ‘delicate’ treatment, I’m supposed to lie low until it’s time to head out. I guess… get the feel of what it’s like to work the whole day? I dunno. Anyways, I’m hitting the perks as I came in. We went out to lunch Mon/Tues and then Wed. just happened to be a company lunch (1x a month, maybe?) for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow, I’ll bring my lunch and do the usual eat in the room with everyone else thing. Oh! And we got appreciations for being the good employees that we are in $35 gift certs. to our food store. I guess I picked a good time to start working here. 8 holidays in the year and 5 are within the next two months. So, those are the pluses to my job. There are other minuses to my job, but I’ll chalk them up to being new, training and transition.

November 11

2007-11-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

Life is moving! I’m planning a wedding! It can be a bit daunting, but I’m having fun. I’m looking at dresses, bridesmaid’s dresses, looking at guest lists, reception halls, going to taste cake at some point, doing preliminaries on lotsa things. When is the wedding you ask? Not for some time, but I’d be totally content having things done for months – getting my first choice on things, not feeling rushed into making decisions, and not having to worry about anything right before. Oh, and I start my job tomorrow and I’ll have to start doing things ‘after work’. So, when? We have some tentative dates and such picked, but are not publishing them for awhile. Pretty much anything we have said to anyone thus far, has changed, and I’m just not going to put it out there just to have to recant it the next day. :-p
Tomorrow in the Earllly AM, I’ll head out for my job. I went on a bit of a shopping spree today and got some good work outfits, all Business Casual. It’s quite a different attire than what is currently required when I cut grass or when I used to work in the kitchen. Who knows, since I’m excited about my clothes, maybe I’ll enjoy wearing them more often and not always just a t-shirt, sweat shirt and gym pants. I’ll just cross my fingers and hope that tomorrow goes ok. It should, right? I interviewed with them and liked them and could the first day really be challenging? They hired me because of my skills in certain areas, my knowledge base, and because we got along, right? Ok. I can do this. Lil’ pep talk here. It WILL work out, for the time that I am here. I mean, eventually I’m getting married and eventually I may actually have to live in the same city, state, and appt. as Joel. Yes, I’m still getting used to that facet of this engagement thing.
New topic, that one is scary; there is so much change in so little time. Weather was beautiful out – all day long, starting at 6:30 in the morning on this particular Sunday when I happened to get up. I was woken up really, to a pug staring me in the face and begging for food and a walk. After 15 unsuccessful minutes of delaying the inevitable,

October 27, 2007

2007-10-28T00:11:00.000-05:00

My days these days go so quickly. I'm currently in the middle of a weekend where Joel has come in to visit and be the groomsman in a wedding of a friend of ours. It has been a packed weekend and he flies out tomorrow. So, again, I will have to keep my writing to highlight reels with the only hope that at some point I can sit and write something decent. The compulsion to write and to drain my thoughts and actions on here is so great such that, as long as they are written, then I can let them out of my immediate consciousness and think about something else. So....
Wedding at a parish called St. Joe's this morning, off to Buffalo Wild Wings for some wings before my arrival out in St. Albans at the St. Albans Country Club. Oh my, expense beyond what's normal. Nice dinner, fillet mignon, open bar, good friends, nice location, great time. Last night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Ate like kings there as well and got a chance to sit down with the groom a little bit and reminisce. Played Wii when we got home for a couple hours.

A phone interview, two in person interviews, an employee assessment test and a look through of my references takes me to where I'm at in my job interviewing process with a meeting on Tuesday and them calling me Wednesday with a possible job offer! That's the time line for that.

Been having some pain in my right wrist for a week now, wonder if it is from typing on the laptop and using the mouse. Will minimize those in the coming weeks to see if it'll work.

There's more, but really, I just wanted to post this that someone sent me.
It's Funny! A fellow blogger with a video of a funny parrot, you'll laugh too!

A little Fall story written by Joel

2007-10-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

It's story time!

Once upon a time, a certain girl met a certain guy during their senior year of college. They dated, then graduated. After a fun summer, highlighted by "summer lovin'", they both went their separate ways, one to law school, one to work in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. They remained committed to each other through different jobs, different cities, different apartments. Along the way they traveled countless miles via car and plane, saw at least 16 different states and one country. They hiked, swam, camped, snorkeled, canoed, fished, enjoyed numerous culinary cuisine, read, talked, and did a bunch of other adventurous things together. Through it all, they had a blast.

Fast forward a few years... This same couple decided to take an annual trip to "leaf peep" in the Northeast. After a plane flight to Philly and then State College, this girl and guy were reunited in central Pennsylvania. A day later they traveled to the Berkshires and spent time enjoying the leaves, the weather and friendship (and a game of poker) with old friends. The next day they traveled to a favorite vacation location, Cape Cod. On a perfect day, with the sun shining bright, they boarded a ferry to Martha's Vineyard. After a day of seeing quaint towns, window shopping, seeing Gingerbread Houses, Beaches and Lighthouses, they returned to Cape Cod. On the drive home, they stopped at a beach, Monument Beach. Amidst the cold wind blowing off the Atlantic estuary, the guy could no longer contain his feelings of love and devotion. After a brief verbal expression of these feelings, he knelt down on one knee, pulled a box out of his jacket and asked the girl for her hand in marriage. Between the chatting of her teeth, the girl in a moment of (some say romantic feelings of joy, some pity, others delusion), said yes. They both hurried to the car, turned on the heat, celebrated with a kiss, and then left to enjoy a delicious dinner. Later, they called, texted, or e-mailed their families and friends, informing them of the news.

And they are living happily!

If you haven't figured it out, Sarah and I became engaged this weekend while at Cape Cod. No more details have been decided, but we will definatley keep you in the loop.

October 9, 2007

2007-10-17T13:14:00.000-05:00

So it’s been awhile, but I have good reason, which most of you know. Aaron ended up staying in the hospital for 2 weeks with us being up there a good majority of the time and now he’s here, as of Friday. We’ve got crutches, wheel chair and lots of stuff from the hospital here. Basically, he should still be there, but they’re letting him be more comfortable here at home and he goes back in 2 weeks. He’s got this thing called a wound vac on and it’s an interesting contraption that is supposed to cut healing time in half. If he has it for 3 months, that would have been 6 months before. He may get to start putting weight on the foot around Christmastime. Then looking like a year after that before everything works closer to normal. Today we went on an outing to Home Depot, the bank, and St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera) and it took us 3 hours what with all the stuff we were doing. :-p darn cripples J

Other than that being a good portion of my time taken by that, I find time to do other things too. I’ve been on the job search for about 2 months now. Been through a couple of interviews with different places and I’m pretty confidant about an interview I had yesterday. It is at a place called FRI Resources. The job itself sounded pretty interesting and definitely high paced enough for my needs that I won’t be bored. I hope to hear back from them early next week at which point I would be set up for another interview with the president of the company and then a 50 question psychological exam. They have interviews two other days this week, and I hope that I wowed them with my abilities. :-p
I’m tired of filling out applications for jobs and then not hearing back, and I’m putting all my eggs in this basket and then I’ll figure it out if it doesn’t work. Oh well.

Tomorrow I’m headed out for a mini vacation. I am on an early flight into State College to see Joel and get there tomorrow afternoon. On Thursday evening, we will drive over to the farm, yay farm!, yay for visiting and seeing fun people! Saturday we will make a little jaunt over to Cape Cod and take the ferry out to Nantucket. I’m psyched about that! Sunday is another day at the farm and then back to State College. I fly out Tuesday. It should be a nice little break from being nurse/care giver here.

Weather has been perfect, if not, unseasonably warm. Been in the 80’s consistently all ‘fall’? long… We’re due for much more 70’s weather and then it could go up in the 80’s again for the last two weeks of October. Definitely unseasonably warm. I’ve been keeping busy ~4 days a week with grasscutting and misc. projects for the bro’s company. I’m now co-managing it with schedules and bills and such and that at least keeps my mind a little bit sharp.

Still taking an aerobics step class at the gym. It kicks my butt every Monday and Wednesday and I love it. It’s addictive and I have a great teacher. I will definitely sign up for one of her classes again, she’s great. We had a sub once, she was not so great. I’m even sad that I’ll be missing it twice while I’m gone on vacation.

I have been doing lots of house cleaning, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cooking and house tidying while the parents have been off-kilter with Aaron. I’m ready to pass some of that back to make it a little more evenly distributed. I helped my sister with grocery shopping and her Physics homework last weekend. Heck, I became the model citizen here. Hopefully everything doesn’t go to pot when I do have a job and less free time for helping people. As for volunteering, I did it once. I’m not planning on stopping, something just got in the way. Plus, since the population I’m working with is Bosnian and their religion observes Ramadan, we won’t be starting tutoring back up until after the 15th because they can’t eat from sunrise to sundown and it is hard for them to concentrate.

The garden outside is still growing. We are still eating tomatoes and there are little yellow flowers on the plants indicating continual producing. Our fall squash is in abundance and it’s amazing how the stuff out there just keeps on growing. The flower gardens look great and sadly, some of our bird population has started to migrate south. The hummingbirds left us about a week and a half ago. We had a good flock of them around here this year.

As for the cooking, I really got into it this past weekend. I made a great batch of chili, a salmon pasta salad with basil mayo (it was in a cookbook for all you naysayer’s), breakfast sandwiches, fruit pizza (divine), chicken salad, coconut curried lentils, a cream cheese and pepper and onion relish dip, some roasted potatoes with oven soup mix, and other random things. Anything I thought I might want to eat and with the general intention of making lots of food so no one else had to cook.

Been dealing with random things a lot too. Got a phone, which I may have written about awhile back, my pretty pink razr, and I love it and am waiting for a rebate. I have bought a couple of pairs of shoes recently that have not been to my liking and I’m hoping to get rebates on one of them – they’re causing me foot problems and so I’m happy to report I’ve just gotten a new pair of tennis shoes and after wearing them for a few days, there are no problems!!!

For the botanist in all of us, I’m attempting to help my mom’s orchids along. Those and the African violets are in need of some TLC. I’m trying. I am reading a book on caring for them as well. I guess within a few months I’ll know more about what’s going on.

I love my laptop still, it is so nice to have it and I’m not sure what I’d be doing without it.

I just checked in out there and they had me eat my yogurt, but took my snack pack and my pineapple. I guess they count as liquids or gels, but how the heck am I supposed to eat anything healthy and transport it if I can’t have it in a container. Stupid rules. I just was looking forward to having that later and am now disappointed. Being in an airport reminds me much of the movie Terminal with Tom Hanks and how he lives in it for 20 years without anyone really noticing. I think that would be a good movie to watch again.

Pretty sure that I got everything packed. Laptop detects that there are two networks available and that I should be able to connect to one of them, but it has limited connectivity. If I have to hear that one more time… been having the same problems at my house. It is now 6:27 and I think we are boarding at 6:50. By then, the sum total of what I need to accomplish is sit here and at some point give up my seat so as to fill up my water bottle with water. That whole 3 oz. bs. Looks like I’m flying with a bunch of businessmen who need to look nice and me in my tennis shoes, SLU sweatshirt and beat up rundown sweats. If I didn’t have books in my bookbag, I’d be hobbling over to the book store. I’m not sure why I’d be hobbling. My feet work just the same, I think the inconvenience of having my laptop and bookbag with me makes me think of hobbling. People all around me have their laptops out, are talking on their cell phones and so many of them have Starbucks. I think just about everyone fits into those categories, that is, unless you’re just sitting zoning out with a newspaper. I can’t believe she took them! If I would have had a choice about which I could keep, I’d have eaten the snack pack. OK, I’m done.

Favorites of Photos I've taken...

2007-09-17T20:23:00.001-05:00

September 17. 2007

2007-09-17T19:46:00.001-05:00

September already... where has this year gone? I keep turning around.. I'm getting quite dizzy now, and it's a new month! People are getting frosts for goodness sakes. Around here, well, it was in the 70's a few days and will go back up into the 90's for a few more days. Life is ambling along. I feel that my weeks are alikened to a musical piece accented by stacatto notes, little events, nothing melodious and flowing like I felt my weeks were at the farm, so scripted and predictable, so planned and dictated for weeks in the future. Right now, I do whatever comes up. I guess I used to think of this as intriguing, spur of the moment, exciting, something I wished to have. I am in it, and I don't like it. I like knowing what is going to happen and having a rhythm to my weeks. To know my week so well inside and out that I can cut corners to save myself time, squeeze in a little 'insert event' before heading out to so and so meeting. To have a framework that is essentially the same every week and only to add to it small events rather than having to plan out a new game plan each week. I guess I'm trying to work myself over to that end. I'm preparing my life for the eventual insertion of an 8-5 job by planning events that start after the end of the work day and are continuous and on-going. I've just this past week committed to Mon and Wed 6-6:55 workout class and Tuesday's from 6:00 - 8:30 working with refugees to help them pass their citizenship tests. Tomorrow is my first teaching lessons with Zehra (Zer-ha) and then Osman (O - s - mon). I find it quite exciting that my life will truely have a purpose to it, at least for 2.5 hrs a week when I'm actually doing something markedly good and not for myself. I guess we'll see how that goes. I just returned from my workout class at the YMCA. That currently is the highlight of my week. It is a step II class, an advanced aerobic workout. It kicks my butt and I love it.
So, that's how I've decided to add some stability to my musical piece and then the stacattoes attack. This week, I'm working Wed. - Sat. with my brother, 29 yards to cut and some landscaping. I love cutting grass. I really do. This Saturday, after finishing cutting, we're headed over to visit with the folks over at Carlyle Lake. They like to play on the jetski's and camping is key with my family. Sunday sounds like a day at the wineries. Down in Augusta, MO, about an hour away, there are about 6 good wineries that we get a group together and go visit and do all the wine tastings. Should be great fun and good to see people I haven't seen in ~2 years.

This past weekend though, was the best ever. Camping, with Joel, in Ohio. It was amazing. I really missed it and had to reflect why I hadn't been in so long. I suppose the answer I came up with is that the farm was very much like camping for me. It was secluded and cut off from outside communications and distractions - no cell phone, no fast internet, and to an extent - not really seeing anyone I knew out in public. It was in commune with nature - I can remember the infestation of Ants and misc. bugs in my rooms including mosquitos, moths and even the snake in my bathroom and the bear outside my window. I remember camping as eating well, which we most certainly did and then also for being outside in the elements - which walking up to all meals counted for while taking in beautiful scenery. Ok,... so that's how the farm is like it. Well, this weekend was just lovely for all those reasons. I got to go back to a total immersion in nature and got to hike, and walk the road to the pit toilets, to hear the crickets at night and the deer running and galloping outside the tent and sqeaking? I guess I don't know what the noise that deer make is called, but I heard it at 4 in the morning. I woke up cold in the middle of the night and heard strange noises. I smelled of campfire from burning a fire for 4 days straight. I made golden brown marshmallows, and hot chocolate by warming water over the fire. I ate the traditional camping breakfast of cooked bacon, eggs, onions and potatoes - amazingly good and yet an art to perfect getting all four done at the same time. We ate burgers and wonderful meals. We hiked along a gorge. We hiked down the gorge and peeked in at the wandering creek at 7:00 when the sun was shining at such an angle that you could look down and see 1.5'' long trout and other fish. You could see the clumps, pods, swimming and enjoying the last vestiges of warmth in the sun. People stopped all along the trail just to watch the majestic fish hover in place. We saw poppers! and ate the little blue seeds that taste of walnuts inside and remembered SteveS from the Farm and him saying that if you ever got lost in the woods that you could eat these and they'd keep you from starving, but that you'd need to eat a whole lot of them to be full. We foraged for wood. We learned how to light and love the Coleman lantern. We played Travel Scrabble and Boggle. We read our books and talked in earnest of the things to come, places we'll be and hopes and dreams. Of owning houses and land, of taking trips together and travelling the lands. I had a great time and I wish that that were my life, just living in a park and camping all the days of my life. I loved the rustic nature and the secludedness of the area we were in. Mm..... just takes me back.

So, that was about 20 min. out of Springfield, Ohio. I think we'll be making that trek again come the spring. As for the eventual living situation, NC, SC, Pitt PA, and NYC are on the list. The list grows and then shrinks. Those are the ones currently on tabs. I take recommendations from anyone on specific yays and nays for those listed. The job search continues with limited successes and some inevitable failures. I teeter totter between being ok with anxiety, being really ok with, and being sorely dissapointed in myself for not having something by now in a 30 - 15 - 55 ratio. I gots to do something about that. I'm making contacts and spreading the word and really trying to make this decision a Career path rather than a tide over job. Really trying.

Rewarding myself with small joys to keep the overall mood and tone of my life on a happy note. Rewards that are small and given only when something is over or attained. I ordered two books today by Gregory McGuire, I had to update phones because my last one stopped working. I got a red Sync and then upgraded it to a Pink Razr. Me, a pink girl? Yeah, why not? Show a little of that feminity every so often, even if it is just my phone. I got for it a MicroSD chip so that I can put a little music on it to listen to. I made some Mint/Spearmint tea today to aid in the weight loss challenge. In camping, I only gained 1 lb.! For as good as I ate, I'm pleased. Back on the veggie diet. Still doing paperwork from my car accident back in April. Can you believe new bills keep surfacing and it's 5 months later? Oh! And my driving is getting better. Driving you might wonder? Oh yes. I was soooo freaked out to drive in rain, high speeds, to an extent over bridges, in the dark, next to Semi's, but things have gotten better. I'm desensitizing to it from when I drive and from when I am driving with others. I'm sooo glad. Oh! And Also, my hand is doing so well these days. I don't have to handicap it any more, I'm able to do just about anything with it. It is only stiff when the weather changes... oh life being back to normal... :-D

I think I should stop for now, toodles.

September 12

2007-09-12T14:56:00.001-05:00

Well,
Life is going. I'm not sure that anyone is at the steering wheel.

Things are going ok. I guess I have my good moments and my bad. I'm looking for a job that everyone believes is what I need to be doing. I hear a lot, oh you don't want that job, you can do better and why would you want to do that? Oh... it would be so easy to take a job that I know I'm more than capable of doing, something easy for me, needed for others and somethign that would just be a job that I need. That's what I'm looking for right? A job? Well... I guess it's more, this time, I'm looking for a job that has a career tag attached to it and that makes all the difference. I told myself I wouldn't get into another 'tide-over' job and keeping myself held to that standard is pretty difficult. I'm good at clerical/secretarial stuff, I even enjoy it... so why then am I always told, You can do better than that, don't settle. I work from 8-12 each day on my job search and then tell myself that the rest of the day I've earned off. Any more than that, and it just gets tough. Tough because I'm not hearing the right answers and most often because I'm not qualified. I know I can do it, how can I convince them that I can. Most often I've been frustrated with being told NO by a computer rather than a person. A computer that scans my resume for certain words or a computer that gives me questions to answer and denies my application based on the answer to one question - a question that I'd addressed in my cover letter already. I'm frustrated. I don't like Corporate America at the moment, I don't want a job like that, I want to take the easy way out. And another beef I have with the system is job related experience. How can you get job related experience if all the jobs require 1 year of previous experience already... Or working with money, how can you have 6 months cash handling experience? I've purposefully shied away from jobs that just handle money as they didn't seem to have a higher dimension than stocking and running a cash register. I'm tempted to ask the places that denied me based on lack of cash handling experience if they'd like me to go work for Mickey D's and dumb down my resume for 6 months just so that I can have cash handling experience. AGBHHGHGHGHAWHG

Yeah, little frustrated.

Beyond that overlying pressure of not having a job, I get other things done. I'm almost to 5 lbs in my weight loss challenge. I have gone to the gym religiously since I joined over a month ago and started a step class on Monday - it is such a good workout. I broke my phone and got a new one, a pretty pink razer... me, a pink girl? Who'd have thought. I've bought a suit and dress shirt and shoes and then this afternoong, I got some new work out pants. I've recently printed my favorite photos and put them in a book - they are all ones of outside and are gorgeous. Makes me get the urge for going....

Just now got off the phone with a lady who I'm going to be volunteering with coming soon. She is a coordinater for services offered in the St. Louis Area and helps to teach English and Citizenship to immigrants/refugees who have their citizenship test coming up. I'm excited about it!

Reading currently:
Nineteen Minutes
The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales
101 Great Answers to the Toughtest Interview Questions

Favorite Things to do these days:
Tearing up old to-do lists/condensing 5 to-do lists into one
Step on the scale in the morning to see how well i'm doing!
Going to the gym, I love the endorphins

The last two days, it has gotten a bit cool in the air. Highs in the mid 70's and getting down into the 50's at night. Quite a different feel to it.

Tomorrow, after grasscutting, I'm headed out to Ohio. I was supposed to go next weekend, but we moved it up. Actually, if the long term forecast is right, we're avoiding being 4 for 4 on getting rained on the entire weekend while camping. This would be a treat if we can beat it. So, off we go tomorrow to meet about 1/2 hr. outside of Springfield, OH. Packed all night tonight and then just food and clothes tomorrow. Just smelling the lovely smoke smell on these items makes me long for long nights at the fire. A bit of work to prepare to go, but oh so worth it.

Step Class, Day 2 went a little better. I did most of the exercises without getting exhausted. I never would have thought they could be that challenging. Guess I should get some sleep if I'm going to be driving ~6 hrs tomorrow. SO, catch you on the flip side...

September 2, but in the earllllly AM

2007-09-02T01:29:00.000-05:00

So, Joel is here. We're in the middle of some pretty carefully planned and packed days. We're seeing anyone and everyone in St. Louis on a whirlwind tour along with every festival, since it is after all, Labor Day. There are many festivals this weekend. Muddy Blues Festival, Japanese Festival at our Botanical Gardens, Bosnian Festival, Greek Festival and the Fair and Air Show. We're hitting just two of them, but they were great. We had sushi, a sumo demonstration, ikebana - flower arranging, bonsai, a speaker named Liza Dalby - author of this book about geisha, and karate and other martial arts demonstrations. There were tons of people all at this festival and then we hopped from there to the Greek Festival for marinated kabobs, a greek appetizer plate and a baklava sundae. There is much more to tell about the dancing and music and running into festival goers all over ... OH! And the highlight had to have been the weather. 85 for the high with no humidity and cloudless skies. It was amazing. After both festivals, we headed over to my sister's place for a BBQ and drinks and watching the Cardinal's game. It was a great night, we just got in. Tomorrow is packed and yesterday was nice too. We went to the gym to work out together and play raquetball! and to St. Louis Bread Co - known to everyone else as Panera - for dinner and then to The Melting Pot for dessert. A somewhat ritzy to-do place in West County (High society area) where we had the flaming turtle dessert. A bowl of chocolate fondue with caramel and pecans mixed in and then an assortment of things to dip in as it sits in the warmer on the table. Cheesecake, brownies, pound cake, bananas, strawberries and marshmallows. It was pretty tasty, I'm not going to lie. And yes, still on the weight loss challenge - and that it is, a challenge. I hope the next few weeks go better than these first few.

No word on any jobs... I'm working on reviewing my resume though with career services at my old resume to at least make it more appealing. I can't say as though I thought it was dynamite before, but that is the goal to change it a little bit now. Spent 7:30-5:30 on Thursday working in one of my token days of work per week. Between the three of us, we cut 16 lawns and cut up and carted off a tree that came down in a power outage last weekend. A power outage that left us without it for 24 hrs - not that long compared to most times it goes out - but without a refrigerator that blew a circuitboard when the power surged.

So much more to write, but must sleep, tired...

August 23

2007-08-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

Why can't I just sit and write a post... I delay and delay, and then it takes me almost an hour to review everything that I like to write about. Yikes. I guess I can always run the highlight reel.

Joel gets here in 7 days, next Thursday, Woooo!!!!

I'm cutting grass a couple days a week to make some money. I cut with my little brother's company. I've become one with this little doll. The Toro Z-master. We have a good time together. Aaron, Matt and I cut 16 yards in under 7 hrs, with a lunch break.

I'm currently applying for jobs. I'll let you know if I hear anything positive. I'm sure I'll be so elated, I won't be able to stop myself from blogging. As of yet, no word. Guess I'm trying to get into a field where I was unaware there was such a barrier to if you have had no cash handling experience ever. Oh well. Perhaps one such place will take a newbie under their wings. I'm willing to learn!

Reading some books. NEED suggestions, please. I'm reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse... My book shelf is low on urgent need to read material. Just finish Death of a Salesman by Aurther Miller. I could really take to that book. It was a good read.

The contest is going well, I am almost tempted to start another contest. I'm impressed by what the simple competition environment for losing weight is encouraging us to do. It's amazing. Losing weight is much easier in a group than by one's self. I make it to the gym everyday - while I don't have a job, I figure that is the least I can do - and I'm eating healthy. Course, I would have never believed it, but in our 3rd soon to be 4th week of temps in the mid-90's or higher, it really cuts the appetite. I just can't eat. It just sits in the stomach, blech.

My redone room is amazing. Joel got this adorable cherry finish table for it with four little chairs. They look like miniature ottomans that slide under it. It's great for games and puzzles. Plus, the little ottoman chairs with the suede finish have storage inside! I must put a picture up sometime as it is hard to explain.

As described above, it's hot. 98 out today. Hot again tomorrow. We're in for a 'cool down' this weekend with temps only reaching 85-88 for a whole two days before it warms up again. Gosh, how lucky can one place be. There are large cracks in the ground outside and all of the grass is dead, just dead brown... which leads me to the question of why we cut the grass still. But hey, it's a job and some people do water their lawns.

With any luck, I'll post more tomorrow on some of the random things I've found out in my joblessness time frame. :-p

August 13

2007-08-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

Perspective changes:
I walked out today and was like, jeez, it feels great out here. It's 89 degrees. I guess a couple days of 100 degree weather will do that to you.

Yay! Tonight is Les Mis at the Muny.

Tomorrow is the start of a tournament for Joel, I, Laurel and Will - The Biggest Loser. Aug 14-Dec. 14th. We're going to see who can get to goal weight. For some of that, it means that we lose weight, for some, to gain. It should be fun. We each got scales to aid in the effort and progress will be updated as time goes along. It makes it a lot more of an incentive when others are doing it too, when there is a long enough time to make a difference, and when money is involved :). To the winner goes $80.

Joel leaves tomorrow, sad. But he comes back for Labor Day!

I'm joining the YMCA tomorrow! I hope to get in a few classes like Spinning and other things to keep me going. Should be lots o fun, maybe even get to swim and yeah, we'll see.

My refurbished room looks pretty, I'll have to post pictures.

Getting back into baseball craziness. I like to watch the games again :)

Found a great discount liquor place/ wholesale store downtown that makes me sad that I have ever paid so much for liquor anywhere else.

Doing some coin collecting - quarters. I'm trying to get a few full sets of the state quarters. By a few sets, I mean 5. They have people they are going to go to once I finish them. However... In total, 420 quarters - not 500 as the other states haven't come out yet, I'm about 140 shy. Those darn PA mints... There are Denver and Philadelphia mint marks and a full set has one from each state with each mint mark. Anyone want to help? I can exchange quarters!

Oh well, that's life for now.

August 12

2007-08-12T09:23:00.003-05:00

Hi,It's hot here. 102 today... same yesterday. Though it has been around a hundred for 2 weeks now, it is not supposed to end just yet. Scorcher out there. Been helping out my brother the last few days since he is on vacation in Florida. It's 115 heat index there, so that makes me feel better about being out in the hundred degree heat here cutting grass. Between three of us and some big mowers, we cut 9 lawns yesterday and 16 of them 2 days before that. That's some good hours in the sun there. Made some money to keep me on track and then yesterday I went out and spent some of it on an accent rug for my room. One of a few quality improvements to my room that will eventually graduate with me into my own appt. - whenever that is. As I was cleaning my room for 3-4-5 however many days that turned into, I noticed some apparent holes. New bookshelf and different dresser. Carpet had come out on top as the one I had was a cheapo one from 10 years ago that had faded in the sunlight, and become badly stained as there has been a lot of traffic coming in and through my room in the past 10 years. Joel, who was one of the three helping cutting grass, chose to take his earnings and turn them into a coffee table/games table with 4 little ottoman size seats under it. I must admit, the price was right and it is adorable. I think we both made wise decisions on how to use our money. You know how nice it feels to get rid of things... to donate them and know you won't have to dust, move, or look at something again. I can see how it might be stressful to some, but I have totally enjoyed boxing up item after item, not to mention, that I don't remember even owning half of this stuff until I see it. Yesterday evening, I took to the bookshelf. The bookshelf??!?! Oh my. Well, yes. When you see things on your shelf dating back to third and fourth grade, how can you not think it is in for a refresh. Plus, anything I donated was going to my mother's school's library and they would keep some and put the rest in a sale to benefit the library. How can you not say... away with it! to that. I was able to donate a very large box of books and now the books on my bookshelf only just fit instead of falling over, bulging, can't have one more book added sort of look. Joel leaves Tuesday, saddness. Will, my sister's boyfriend leaves for Huntsville, AL, on Thursday and I have to move out my brother and sister the following Saturday. It's going to get pretty quiet around here. I'm going to have to get cracking on that whole job thing if I want to stay busy. There is a job fair downtown on Friday that I should make it to if I know what is good for me. I guess until then, I can always supplement with odd jobs for 'Young Professional Lawn Care', the official title for my brother's business. I did a clearing job with them a little over a week ago and there happened to be poison ivy in there, oh did I not miss that stuff. Just a little dabbling on me and it spreads to over 20 places, about makes me want to take off three of my fingers. Gross. Itchy itchy itchy. Though I must say, I do enjoy not having to worry about ticks. Ok, off to morning endeavors.

August 8 - posted late

2007-08-12T09:23:00.001-05:00

Know what I’ve been doing? Cleaning my room. The last two days, I’ve been sorting, recycling, donating and pitching many things. It’s definitely a good thing. Did it really take two days, all day? Yes. I found a my little pony, stuffed animals, purses, and toys from throughout my childhood. High school and College papers, old floppy diskettes that undoubtedly have gone corrupt, shoes from high school dances, old crafts projects half completed and so much more. It was a trip down memory lane. The majority of the hours were spent in this room with the beaten down and faded purple carpeting and the purple colored walls. For relief, though it was short, I played Smash brothers with my brothers, sister’s boyfriend, and Joel. I now must take a moment to send a shout out to my dear boyfriend, Joel, whom I love dearly and who loves me, calls me a princess and treats me like one. Okay, back to the blog… I’m learning to play as this may have been the 4th time I’ve played in life and it’s mindless fun. Outside, since the weather has been over 100 each day for awhile now and will be through Saturday I think, we have a small 2 ft. tall, 8-10 ft. diameter across above ground pool that heated up to a wonderful temperature to swim in. Good for being outside and not getting to warm. I have also walked around the garden a little and surveyed the plants. Those were my extracurricular.

July 24

2007-07-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

Today is the day we leave. We have a 6:00 flight out of here over to Maui and then are headed home tomorrow morning. Sad...
The last pictures I put up are what we have been up to. The small baby is Savannah, Joel's sister's 9 month old. She's adorable. When tropical depression Cosme came by, it rained here from Fri-Sun. However, starting yesterday, the weather was beautiful and sunny again. We took advantage of the weather by hitting all the indoor hot spots including an orchid show/sale, and a winery up in Volcano, the town. In somewhat of a mist, we stopped at the Zoo on Saturday and one of our finer sites was this lemur, not pictured is the white tiger, the main attraction of the Pana'ewa zoo. We drove to the top to see the Kilauea and Halemaumau Craters but fought rain the entire way. We could see the devastation from the lava flows, smell the sulfur, and see the large craters in the earth known as lava chambers but through windows that were constantly fogging and a deluge to me at 5-10'' of rainfall on the day. Hilo gets 400'' of rainfall yearly, so this was nothing for them.
Also pictured is the 5 of us at Akaka falls.
We stopped at Spencer Beach on our way back from Kona and watched the sunset there and took some great pictures. Also at Spencer beach is a heiau, a hawaiian temple. There are two temples visible to the eye and a third is said to be in the water, a temple built to the shark deities. In the bay, there have been occasional shark sitings for years as they used to sacrifice people less than 200 years ago. Hence the picture with the four of us and the shark siting sign.
They were here for 5 whirlwind days and most nights we celebrated with Mai Tais, Pina Coladas, Mint Mojitos and Spades. Lots of cards. I think that all that might have led to the mask being worn one night, but I couldn't be sure.
It's been loads of fun. Today, we're cleaning cleaning cleaning. Lots to do. Up at 7 to get started on the place in hopes that we can finish around 10/11 to head out to the beaches here one last time before we depart. Have a nice day!

July 22

2007-07-22T17:30:00.001-05:00

July 19

2007-07-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

Of the pictures listed below, there are stories that go along with. The first two pics from the 18th have to do with our hike on the previous day. We hiked down and up that steep grade hill. 25% grade for 1 mile. I can’t imagine driving down it, but it was well worth the hike. The first and second pictures from the second post of pics, the one with joel and I and the overlook are also related. In that second picture, can you spot the sandy beach? We hiked to that from this overlook and back again. It took us around an hour to get down. While down below, we swam in the cool freshwater creek, played catch with the tennis ball and paddles in the water, tried to catch waves by body surfing, and saw wild horses! They are said to roam the valley freely. There are sections barricaded off down there as well as it is a burial site for kings. Our muscles all hurt so much that they twitched and trembled and we walked backwards and sideways, and created our own switchbacks on the road. We even took a picture at the top of the 5 of us, seen in the second posting, 3rd picture.
Back to the top is a picture of most of what we did yesterday. This is Laurel in her snorkeling gear. We spent 3-4 hrs at the beach yesterday snorkeling with the fishies, Joel went kayaking for a bit and then Aaron and Joel went out to catch waves while body-boarding. I think we all got a little sun. Update! Yes… I am peeling. Grrr. It isn’t stopping me from going out in the sun though. I just put on sunscreen. Yesterday morning, we went out to the market and the accompanying Hilo downtown stores and got some souvenirs. Laurel is the feature of the next picture. After beach time, we also went shopping and went to Hilo Hatties, a shop, and Laurel got to pick a pearl. She picked an oyster with 2! Joel in the 5th pic is showing what they planned on doing last night. Having a little island fun, making pina coladas and some island brewed beer with flavors of liliquoi. Down again to the second posting of pictures, is me sitting at the counter. I’m cutting up mangoes. On our way back from Waipio Valley, that gorgeous place above me in the picture, we found about 20 lbs of mangoes. That has been a fun thing about being here for sure. I’m turning them into lovely mango slices to go on cereal, ice cream, or just for munching. The 10th unexplained picture is a ½ way through the sunrise here yesterday.
It’s been a whirlwind having the family visit. I fell asleep at 9:30 last night as I was wiped. I think they might have lasted varying times from 10-midnight. We watched movies and played spades. Depending on when we all make it out of bed, we may head to Kona or it might be something else. We’re all sore yet again.
People are starting to wake up here. It’s now 7am and we’ll decide what to do. Catch you later :)

July 18

2007-07-19T01:38:00.000-05:00

2007-07-18T15:59:00.000-05:00

11 am and all is well

2007-07-17T11:05:00.000-05:00

My computer may say 11:06am, but it is really 6:06am... good job computer. I'm up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise, a little late I am, but it's pretty. My siblings arrive at 8:10 and we're going to make some fresh leis out of plumeria and feed through some flowers in the Ti leaf leis that we made the other day.
Yesterday afternoon, we stopped by a friend of Joel's family's place. He owns 620 acres about 4 miles out of town just up the mountain, just under a square mile. It is gorgeous. They've owned the property for about 5 years and use it as a place to tool around after work. They dapple in gardening, landscaping, have 12-15 trees of all different sorts of fruits including vivee which I hadn't had before, some on and off-season tangerines, the starts of mangoes, guavas, bananas and avocadoes, and lots of ornamentals, orchids and tropical plants I've never seen before to eventually landscape around the house they hope to have put in and finished by December. They have a little waterfall, and a gorgeous view of the city below. It rises to about 1,000 ft. and is the view you would expect from the airplane as you fly in. I enjoyed our 2 hr. tour of the small bit they he's had a chance to play with!
And now for the list of things we've done, perhaps with a bit of detail to them, perhaps not. May not seem interesting, but I need to write it down somewhere :)

Snorkeled in Maui and here at Richardsons and saw many blue, yellow, green, purple, white and assortments of those colors in fish as well as pipefish, 3 types of pufferfish, sea cucumbers, sea anemones and large turtles.
Made some good food here: sushi with tuna, a nice pasta sauce, lovely salads, purple sweet potatoes, mint tea, marinaded teriyaki and sesame chicken, fried rice with chorizo, and Hawaiian style hot dogs.
Have been seeing Joel's darling nieces each day. They are now 8 mo. and 22 mo. Will post pictures of the cuties.
Scrabble. Played daily. We're 8-0, I'll let you guess who is undefeated :-D
Sunburn is getting much better. Still red, hurts less in the sun, 80 % chance it will not peel, woohoo!
Line Drying Clothes - not so bad, takes an hour or two when the sun is out. Takes a day when there is mist in the air and it is high in humidity out.
Waterfalls are much nicer when you're not in a drought. Will need to re-visit Rainbow falls now that we had a little rain. Akaka falls and Kahuna falls were nice though. Every tourbus stops there apparently.
Maui is not that big. You can get to most places there in under an hour. I am not a fan of the mtv show, living Lahina, or whatever it is called.

Please comment!

July 16 - Hawaii!

2007-07-17T01:53:00.000-05:00

Big Island, Onomea Bay. Big Island, Onomea Bay. Big Island, my finds! Avocado and guava.

In Maui, a beautiful sunset. In Maui, sugarcane - Sugar in the Raw from HI is from here.

In Maui, Haleakala National Park - top of 10,000+ ft. In Maui, we watched wind surfers.

Big Island, orchids at a friends. Big Island, making a Ti leaf lei.

Post 4th of July downtown

2007-07-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

Yeah, lots to update. Throughout the night, we launched fireworks for 2 hrs and headed inside around midnight. Including family and friends of mine and my siblings, we had about 15 people here watching the fireworks. It was great. We watched from a safe distance, though we did have one instance where some flying paper chards zoomed towards us and struck us, specifically my friend joe. Nothing wrong, just gets you on alert. Ducks, Tanks, lots of fireworks. Up until 1 chatting and talking about everything. Around 2, while Joel and I were in my room watching the fireworks on this computer, we heard some very close fireworks outside. Wha? I saw one come very close to my front window and so we opened the blinds and didn't see anything wrong. We left the blinds open and a few minutes later, I looked out the window and saw a gold reflection in Joel's car. Huh? 2 in the morning and something wasn't right. I stormed outside leaving Joel to wonder what I was up to and found that someone had set out trashcans on fire! We only get trash taken once a week, so there was a fair amount out there. There were 10 ft. flames and all I could do was watch. Joel went in to wake my parents and we put out the fire. In the debris, we could see that someone had indeed put 4 bottlerockets around the trashcans and had thrown more into them. Strange. What indeed is this world coming to. Frazzled at the destruction, we walked up and down the street and found unlit fireworks all over, and then about 45 min. later, we walked up to the top of the hill and found another trash can on fire. At 2:45 in the morning, I met my neighbor for the first time and put out that fire too. We called it in to the police and called ourselves down around 4 to sleep. It was an interesting night.

4th of July

2007-07-08T11:58:00.000-05:00

4th of July Fireworks Finale

I have more videos, but this is the finale. If you'd like to see more, email me, and I will send you a cd of higher quality video.

Riding High

This is a video of Barbie having a ride... she isn't very aerodynamic. Barbie flies again. What did we learn? Use a cheap Barbie, they are less durable. Throughout the evening she road rockets and fireworks and her destruction wasn’t as good as last time. She is still in one piece. She is missing some clothes and has some singed pieces to her, but not the ‘into pieces’ look of the past.

Barbie on her first ride of the day.

A view of the courthouse from where we were

sitting waiting for the fireworks.

Me with the fireworks right there!

July 6, 7

2007-07-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Good morning, I’m sitting here at the farm. The Samuels Family Farm. Sounds like this house has been around since 1839 or mid-19th century, I get two different answers. It is a quaint old house with a sit down shower, black and white photos on the wall from men and women in black ties and 5 layers of dresses on. Old collections of books and antiques are in abundance. The farm here in New Windsor, IL is the old house of Joel’s Dad. He lived here as a child and is now in a family trust where any one of 7 children or friends of the family can come and ‘retreat’ here, stay for a week, come do improvements, live here if they really wanted to to make use of this house. There are cattle out in the field which is rented out year-round. There is an old well water pump out front which still pumps water albeit a bit brown. There are vestiges all about which are left here by each of the children that come – they are in their 50s. Paintings, small trinkets on windowsills, paperweights holding up books, and in each of the drawers are a great smattering of items. When one of the ‘children’ as they are no longer children, come here, they look for a precious item that was left here only to find that one of the other visitors to the house has moved the item and the search must continue. Other old treasured items are left here because someone is afraid they might break because of their ever-moving lifestyles. Every single item in the house has a story behind it. Things are only thrown out or donated by committee, or so it seems, a sign labeled – Throw out or Donate or Give Away need to be clearly labeled and present for over a year so it seems in order for said direction to happen.
I’ve spent the last 2 days here with Joel, his parents and last evening, his 45 year old brother Rolf arrived. We have been having long lunches and dinners to talk and catch up, lots of greens and eating from the land in lettuce, lambs quarters, milkweed blossoms, and vegetables from surrounding gardens. We all spend our time with the roofers. They start at 7am and go on until 7pm. Go ahead, ask me how restful that is. :-p I somehow manage to sleep until 9am and my dreams incorporate the bang, bang, bang of the nails and shingles meeting the roof. I don’t blame them for starting early to avoid the 95+ degree heat during the middle of the day with high humidity and blazing sun, but goodness, I would love to sleep a little later.
Yesterday Joel and I were walking down the lane and saw a dump truck and a pickup turning into the cattle field. Any ideas on what might have happened? Well, as we watched, they drove through the middle of the field and stopped at a grove of 5 Cottonwood trees in the middle of the field. More ideas? They hoisted up one cow with ropes and put it in the dump truck, and we thought death during child birth, they hoisted a second and we surmised facetiously murder suicide, a third and we thought that perhaps the crop dusting yesterday was poison. After they drove out, we found out that there were four dead cows. The cause of death? Lightening. They had insurance on the cows – life insurance – and were covered for natural disasters like lightening from the big storm that happened on Wednesday morning. Another herd around here lost 27 cattle on the same night.
All in all, it was a good weekend, it is now Sunday morning, the 8th. We went fishing on Friday evening and Joel’s dad caught a 4 lb. catfish. It was on the first cast of the afternoon and then between us, we caught a few more small catfish and a baitfish, a small fish that will be put into the freezer to be used as bait the next time. We ate bunches of black raspberries and blackberries and headed home. When we got in yesterday evening, we ate some sweet yet spicy chicken wings, and then headed to my sister’s boyfriend’s place downtown. He lives near a downtown place called Lafayette Square. Headed down there and had beer, amaretto and milk on the rocks – tasty!, chips and pomegranate salsa, spicy nachos and rainbow chocolate chip cookies. We watched Finding Nemo in Spanish – Buscando a Nemo J and played a few rousing games of Spades and finished with a round of Hearts. I have missed cards J We may resurrect Euchre and 500 this week yet.
It’ll have to happen quickly as Joel and I head for Hawaii on Tuesday. My three siblings follow next Sunday to Maui and arrive in Hilo, HI on that Tuesday. I’m excited! I am Really looking forward to snorkeling again, to taking everyone around, and perhaps getting to see lava and the possibility of good weather. Mmmm…

One bit of last week that I had no time to write about was the 4th of July. It was marvelous, great holiday to eat and be with friends and not work. Sorry guys, but I enjoyed it for a change, taking a holiday off and not having to work. Not that I am working anyway, but after awhile, it is nice knowing you don’t have to work on a holiday. Behind all of that was a family party here at the house with a meal at 2, then we left and made it to dinner at 4:30 at Joel’s Aunt’s Party, and then at 6:30, we had dinner again at Annie’s house, my roommate from college. At 8, we headed downtown for the firework at the arch. I’ll post pictures and try to find a way to put video on here of the amazing fireworks. It is somewhat like the video that the Monster Librarian put on her website from YouTube, it was a great show! After the 20 minute fireworks extravaganza, we headed out to my house for my family’s fireworks. We live in a place that doesn’t allow fireworks, but that doesn’t stop anyone from doing them. There are so many calls into police on that night for mischief, they can’t check out fireworks. In that vein, with the 4th falling in the middle of the week, I’ve heard fireworks for about 10 days in a row. Lots of fireworks. Each time I head out of my house and down the hill, there have been fireworks shows off in the distance, all the local counties have their own show. I love it!
Fireworks festivities in upcoming blog…

Festivities

2007-07-04T01:56:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the kitchen listening to my two brothers and Joel talk about our 4th of July plans. Not only are we going to go downtown and watch Cindy Lauper (oh boy. :-p) from under the arch, but we are going to see one of the greatest 45 min. music/fireworks display with 20,000+ other people. What I am really referring to is some very strange plans of their desire to blow up Barbie. As my good friend Brian said tonight, " i would expect nothing less from the youngs...yardwork and exploding barbies :)". There was lots of yardwork today, but they built a rocket this evening and bought $90 worth of fireworks to set off tomorrow. They got a barbie with minimal clothing - a bikini - for the purpose of sending up into space with not much drag. This conversation has lasted 45 min. so far. They are planning for next year already. This is year #2 on this endeavor. Be amused, don't be concerned or alarmed. This is just one of the strange things that my family does and I accept this.
Just finished playing a couple of games of spades. Spent 5 hrs working outside unloading a tree from the trailer (3 hrs) and washing the truck - it's a nice truck for the other two. I'm trying to account for my time and am failing miserably.
This is just a post to unload my mind on. 3 BBQ's, and the Arch to go to tomorrow! Wooooo... and then Thursday is off to IL.

Substance

2007-07-03T12:02:00.000-05:00

Complete thoughts aside, it's a whirlwind. How can I put two thoughts together to make a sentence or write words of substance (sp?) if I'm having a slight trifle figuring out where I am and what I'm doing next. Perhaps I need a calendar, a day planner, a schedule, a job, a guide, a pen and paper, receipt for my brain to exchange for a new one as this one seems to have something funny going on with it, a list, a routine, hm. Well, with the help of one of those, I shall put this life of mine to order.
Vignettes and realizations from Atlanta:

I'm not a country club person. Went to two of them, couldn't stand either. A full service bathroom that includes hair dryers, mousse, razors, shampoo and soap, pre-pasted toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and make-up stations are just not my cup of tea. No cell phone rules and dressing up being mandatory. The Dogwood Invitational - an Amateur Golf Tournament was taking place there this week too.
When you get to a certain age, repetition is inevitable. If I heard a story once, I heard it three times, within the week.
Buckhead is a suburb of downtown Atlanta, and you can only shop there if you have gobs of money that you want to throw away. Phipp's plaza specifically, where a tanktop is $350 and things that are 70% off are still about 3x too much more than I would spend on a good day. Phew.
No road in Atlanta is straight or flat. All roads must turn every few feet, go up and down 2-3 times in any given 1/4 mile, and the lanes must be tight, very tight. Atlanta has a lot of traffic and people use a lot of gas there. I don't like one way streets.
In the past two years, I have missed cherries, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, and fresh pineapple. I do not miss tea snack or having dessert/sweets all the time.
Palmetto bugs are gross. Their presence alone could make me averse to the Southeast.
Time change - Eastern, Central, Eastern, Central, Hawaiian, Central - drives me batty.
For as long as I live in my parent's house here, my room will be full of everything I own in life and thus have little actual living space available to me. I have a tiny trail that ends 2 ft. before my bed currently and I have to jump to my bed without going too far as the blinds for the window are just beyond the bed.
Private health insurance companies are bold, brazen, and scammers. In the words of my sister, "So they only insure healthy people?" Darned pre-existing conditions.
A stand up shower is a luxury. This past week, I had a sit down shower. Great! you might think. Well, it isn't really and I can tell you why. The tub only goes up to about 2 1/2 ft. off the ground. Plus, you have a hoselike device that attaches to the spigot and then ends in a shower head handle. When the device detaches from the spigot, it sprays water everywhere and needs to be reattached thus necesitating shutting off the water, reattaching, and then readjusting the water. You must sit the entire time. If you try to rinse while standing, other than it looking silly - no shower curtain - it splatters everywhere. I could go on, but that's probably revealing enough. I like modern devices.
Lunches and suppers can last longer than they do at the farm. 2 hrs is not a stretch for some folk.
Violette in Atlanta is an adorable French Restaurant. It reminded me a lot of the way I've learned to cook and the food and atmosphere were great. There was a piano player and the decor inside was perfect. A nice NY Strip Steak for dinner and Salmon Rillette with Capers for the appetizer was amazing. I had never had salmon rillette, but would have it again in a heartbeat.
Whole Foods has great taste testings on Saturdays, makes great sushi, is a good place to find cheeses - they have lots, including 20 varieties of goat cheese, and from there I found a yogurt called Brown Cow. Maple Yogurt, it was amazing. I'm going to have to see if they are here in my state, I'd eat it everyday.
I love hiking. Not a revelations, but rather a vignette. From Stone Mountain State Park, to Sweetwater Creek State Park, walking around Emory Campus, around their house in Druid hills, and just everywhere we hiked. Even on the way back at Old Stone Fort State Archaelogical Park for a viewing of a 2,000 year old wall. I'm inspired by the Monster blogger to link to sites to help demonstrate what I'm talking about.
Rummy is fun, but I don't like losing.
I need to create more time in my life to blog, as I like doing it!

9+1+3+2+x+y+Z= 24

2007-06-30T21:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday night in Atlanta and heading home tomorrow. It's been a quick week. I can say one thing for this week, we've been hiking! We've hiked stone mountain and then today at sweetwater state park - - - Insert 3 day gap - - -
Noonish on a lovely Tuesday afternoon.
Sleeping time: 9 hrs.
Blog reading time: 1 hr.
Time spent in PT, or doing PT: 3 hrs.
Hiking: 2 hrs.
And I wonder where my days go. Huh.

I love reading blogs, they are so personal. It is almost as if I'm having a conversation with someone but can't get a word in edgewise or alter the content. But I love it. Every person's writing has a style to it that if you have spent a considerable amount of time with that individual, you can picture that person. I'm not sure if you all do it when you read, but I get this little picture of a person using handmotions, facial expressions, and exclamations common to the individual while I read the post. It's fun.

2007-06-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

HI! Going to lunch, but then I'm going to work on this this weekend. I have waited too long to do this. Hopefully now, I'll get all my thoughts and links to blogs in one place... maybe?