My Girls Rock!

Backing up a few days I abosultely have to blog about how great my friends are. Not just okay or somewhat great but drop down fabulous great. So here's the story. . . .
Friday was a co-workers last day (we've known this for two weeks), so a lively happy hour was planned at Jack Patricks (a favorite dive downtown). Weeks ago when said happy hour was planned, the girls sent out an email saying essentially, "since we'll already all be out together, let's do a girls dinner night." This is not unusual as we've done Girl's Nights Out before. So we all decided to go to this fabulous place, Sen Thai after the happy hour. Reservations were made and plans were solidified.
So Friday comes around, we ditch out of work around 4pm (it was cold that day so I don't think I got into work until 9 am so you can tell how much work I did on Friday) to hit up the aforementioned happy hour. Happy hour was as happy hours go - beer, drinks, fun times. So we hung out, I had myself my Heffewiesens and we headed to Sen Thai in the freezing cold. Seriously by the time we walked there I was concerned my nose had fallen off four blocks earlier - but alas my nose was still attached. So we walk in, the four of us, and the girls don't even stop at the hostess station. I found that quite odd until I looked up on this raised seating area and there were more of my friends - non-work friends - friends that don't know the friends I was out with. Was this some really strange coincidence or something else? It was something else.
My girlfriends (spearheaded by the lovely Marissa) had put together a surprise Bachelorette Party!! Yes, they somehow managed to break into my computer, get my other friend's emails (friends they didn't even know), email them all an invitation and set up this great party! Yeah, they rock. Why a surprise party you may ask? Because every time Marissa would try to set one up with me involved I would just say (honestly), "we have absolutely no weekends free between now and the wedding" and just drop it and leave it at that. And seriously we didn't/don't - but this weekend our "plans" only included the Super Bowl on Sunday so they managed to find the one weekend day I was free and set up this great party.
I'll post all the pictures later (I know, I still haven't posted Christmas pictures), but needless to say it was a blast. They decorated the table with all sorts of paraphernalia (most of it modeled after a male body part) and even got me a boa, a sash and some sort of tiara/crown with a fake veil on it. To top it all off they had set it up for everyone to bring a bottle of wine to the party to stock my wine collection. And what a wine collection I now have! Anyone who knows me knows what a wine freak I've become - not a wine connoisseur by any means, just someone who likes to drink a lot of wine - good wine, bad wine, purple wine, blue wine, white wine, red wine - I could care less, as long as it's wine. I was on a beer kick but I'm over that because I was tired of the air buildup in my tummy. As for booze, most of the mixers are too many calories, so I stick with wine. Anyway, this was a fabulous bonus to the whole party.
So we had a fantastic dinner at Sen Thai and then headed out for a night of drinking. Needless to say, a good time was had by all (okay I can't vouch for "all" but I can say I had a great time!)!!!
Thanks to everyone who came out - you guys all rock! I owe you huge!!

Why Old Navy is Stupid

Okay, they're not usually stupid - I really like this store - just ask Cody about my credit card there. :) Cheap, relatively classic stuff, if you stay away from the uber trendy items. Anyway, so I go in there tonight because I have some free time (okay, I'm lying I really didn't have free time I was just avoiding all the things I REALLY need to do by going shopping - is that wrong?) and Cody was skiing at Hidden Valley (yes, Missouri really does have a ski "resort" - it's basically a man-made mountain of ice so I refuse to "ski" (meaning, slide down the mountain of ice out of control) there) so he wouldn't get on me about spending money at Old Navy instead of saving it for the all consuming wedding. Anyway, they have an ENTIRE wall of flip-flops! Let me add that it is about 17 degrees outside and SNOWING! Yes, it's snowing outside and Old Navy is trying to sell me flip-flops. I can see this in Florida where spring is probably only 2 weeks away - but we live in MISSOURI!! Spring doesn't really come here until mid-May (it snowed during my half marathon last year in April)! Anyway, a funny little tidbit from my shopping adventure. Oh, and I didn't spend much money - tank tops for working out and some cute t-shirt type things that I may be able to get away with wearing to work.

We Did It!!

FINALLY!! We finally picked AND ordered invitations!! Those who don't understand our huge problems with decisions (read: Missy's huge problems with decisions), just don't understand how horrible this was for us. Hense the reason we STILL don't have bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, real wedding colors, or just about anything that requires a fashion/decorative decision. Anyway, we finally picked one we liked and then sat down to order them. Simple process you would think. Well, think again! First there was the invitation: Should we put "Together with their parents, Missy and Cody . . . ." or "Missy and Cody, together with their parents. . . ." Then there was the wording - oh, holy cow we had to have looked at hundreds of possible wordings from the ridiculously overdone religious to the downright silly to plain bad taste. Then there was the time - what time do we start this damn thing? No clue how to even start down that road - so we didn't - we called for help - Cody's mom pretty much walked us through the timing thing - from when we should have the wedding to how long things will take to what time we should list for the cocktail (thanks to her also for noticing that I spelled cocktail wrong on the reception card) hour and dinner. Then there was the decision as to whether to put the address to the garden we're marrying at. Then we were done with invitiations - a good 1.5 hours later. Then it was on to the reception cards - more wording, more timing, more decisions. Then finally the reply cards - okay, those we're that terribly hard wording wise, but we looking for a good hour on the internet trying to find out the "proper" time to give people to respond and how far in advance we should get the RSVPs back - never did find it - so we just made up a date. By the way, anyone who doesn't return the reply cards that I put a stamp on for them, I will personally hunt down and beat. Love you too. :)
So yes, we now have invitations. They should go out next week but we'll see how long it takes to get them back from the printer, gather the addresses, and then writing them out. Fun fun. We're moving towards making more decisions!! Good thing deciding to get married wasn't this hard or we'd never be walking down the isle (oh, yeah, never mind - it did take us forever - somewhere between 7 and 10 years). :)

I am the stupidest person alive.

For many reasons, but one in particular right now. Yes, it's wedding related. You think I'm crazy about the wedding now, just wait until I have kids and see how much I blog about them. :)

Anyway, I have spent hours of my life looking for wedding invitations. Hours. Probably that add up into days. I've been looking for slightly over 14 months now. I've looked forever and only found a handful of invitiations that I even considered. So today I think I decided on one. So I sit down at the computer this evening to fill out the pages of stupid questions they ask to order invitiations. But before I really commit to this invitation, I decide to browse around a bit. And in my browsing I find tons that I think are cute or possiblities - after months of looking and not finding any! I'm insane - I have a fear of commitment of invitations!

I love the water company.

Well, I guess it's a love-hate relationship really. But right now it's all love! Last week I was cursing up a storm when they cut off our water (we're convinced they haven't sent bills since November 05). So the next morning I marched myself down to the Water District, paid my money to the lady with 2 feet of floss hanging out of her mouth (I think she must have thought it was some sort of fashion statement but it wasn't - it was gross) and went on my way. When I came home that evening, sure enough we had water again. But it wasn't our normal water - it was our water with our full water pressure back! Not only did we have our water back but we had amazing water pressure!!!! Yes, this may seem trivial to some, but when you have as much hair as I do to rinse shampoo and conditioner out of, water presure is a big deal! I'm so excited! So, life is good again.

Fun with utilities.

First it was our electricity - we lost if for 4 or 5 sweltering days in July then lost it for 5 very cold days in December. Then it was our gas company - we don't have an automatic reader (and our meter is in the basement) so they "estimate" our bill every month. The problem is the "estimate" is WAY over what we use in gas (Cody is stingy with the gas and heat). So we finally called them, told them our actual meter reading and now have a $800 credit on our gas bill. Yipee- free gas for the winter - though the gas company has had that money for over a year and we haven't.
Anyway, now it's the water. We first had water problems after the big storm in July (yes, the one that took our power) - somehow a huge water main broke, flooding our street and The Science Center down the street. They've been digging up holes deeper then our house all over our neighborhood since then. We randomly come home to find a note on the door saying we have no water until 9pm that night - this has happened at least a few dozen times - they're working on the main STILL and they needed to cut the water. Other then that the water main thing hasn't affected us greatly except the water pressure is about 1/2 of what it used to be.
Then there's today. Cody came home first, worked out and then realized we had no water. Curious but not terribly unusual. I was working out at the time, got home and Cody informed me of the problem. I asked if there was a note on the door and he said no. So I asked him where the most recent water bill was so I could call them - he brought me the sewer bill. I said "No, not the sewer bill, I need the water bill." He responds with "We don't have a water bill - it's run through the sewer people." "Nope," I replied - "there is an actual City of St. Louis Water Division that we pay bills to - those are the trucks constantly working on our street and surrounding streets on the big main problem." "Oh. I didn't know that. I don't think I've ever paid a water bill" was his response. Sure enough he was right. I called the water company and found out there was no maintenance on our main though our water WAS turned off - we had not paid our bill for a very long time and owed money. WHAT!?!?!? YOU TURNED OFF OUR WATER?!?!? AND DIDN'T WARN US? Don't you have to tell people before you cut off their utilities!!! Isn't that a constitutionally protected right or something??
Apparently Cody took over bill paying about a year ago and seriously hasn't paid a water bill since then. They only come every 3 months so we're not sure if we just managed to lose everyone one of them (I can see us losing one since every other bill we have it auto bill pay, but not all of them) or they weren't sending them to us. We found one from November 2005 and it was sent to "New Resident" - no other name. So we're thinking since we never "registered" with them they stopped sending bills. Go figure.
Anyway, since we were both dirty and sweaty we went to a friends house and took showers and hung out. We figued we can still brush our teeth in the morning with the water in our water bottles and then I can wash my face at work - right after calling the water company and paying the bill. The adventures in life. . . :)

Melissa Raffensperger?

Today I got the first of two sets of address labels I ordered for Cody and I - the first is for our wedding invitations with our names as they are now and the second is for our thank you cards, with our names as they will be in 10 weeks and 4 days. We got the second set in the mail today - it is TOTALLY weird to see us as Melissa and Cody Raffensperger - I'll be Melissa Raffensperger (I think I messed up four times before even typing that correctly - imagine having to write it every day). Wow. I really can't believe it. I'm excited - to be Melissa Raffensperger and have this whole thing over with.

On another note, I think wedding planning has imparted upon me a perpetual state of PMS - and I don't even have periods - (it's a medical medication miracle - sorry boys if you're reading this)!! Anyway, I'm moody, cranky, stressed, antsy, weepy and all over just emotional for no good reason. NO I am NOT pregnant!
I'm scared out of my mind one second and thrilled out of my mind the next. Don't worry it has nothing to do with Cody or my complete confidence in this relationship/wedding/marriage - it's just the wedding part. If something goes wrong at the wedding, something isn't done right, it's my fault. If something, including me, is ugly or looks stupid, it's my fault. The pressure is all on me - and if I screw it up it's not just some keg party that I forgot to buy extra nachos for - it's my damn wedding - presumably a once in a lifetime thing.
So therein lies the quandry - on one hand trying to make it your one big day and that whole once in a lifetime thing and all that crap about how you only do it once it better be perfect, and on the other just making decisions and moving on and realizing it's only one day in an entire life with someone - no matter what happens, in the end you'll be married and that's the point. So there's this dicotomy swirling in my head constantly. How ever to deal with them both?
I love throwing parties - for other people. I adore throwing Cody a huge birthday party every year (if you're in STL and reading this you better be at his birthday party this Saturday or I might go getting all emotional on you) - I seriously love it. I loved throwing four of our friends a big birthday party in September - loved it. I get to do all this fun planning, yeah it's a lot of work getting everything and getting the house in order, but in the end it's fantastic and we have a fun party. But the wedding is a whole 'nother ball game - it's our big party. The center of attention won't be on someone else - it will be me (and Cody I guess too :) ). That FREAKS me out! Yes, I talk a lot and can sometimes be known to monopolize a conversation - but that's in groups of less then 5 when I'm comfortable with those people (so if you're reading this and nodding your head about how, yes, I can monopolize a conversation, at least know that I feel comfortable with you). The wedding is a whole new ball park - tons of people all judging me. Me! If the chairs look like it's a funeral (Cody wanted to get black chairs for the wedding instead of white because they were cheaper but I said no because then it would look like a funeral) people will wonder why I would ever try to make my chairs look like a funeral. If I forget to get a guest book and just get everyone to sign a napkin, people will wonder why I"m an idiot. All sorts of dumb things like that. All swirling in my head at once. Damn I can't wait for this to be over. I think I need a drink . . . Ta ta for now!

Weekend Fun.

This weekend we had fun with home improvement. More painting the downstairs bath - finished even the trim!!! We bought and put up a new light fixture (I hated the old one) and cleaned the bathroom all spick and span. We finished painting the door today so now that can go back up and we can have a door to our bathroom again. Now we just have to fix the leak in the toilet that developed after I took it apart to paint behind it. :)
We hung around, had the normal fun, and got to relax a bit. We got a few inches of snow but by the time we woke up on Sunday it was too warm (around 35 - wow!) that it was melting and no longer sled-able. Next time we'll have to get on it earlier so we can get some sledding in on our new sleds.
I had a nice tumble down our stairs Saturday night as well. I was running and slipped on my fuzzy socks and the carpet, tumbled, skinned up my forearms and twisted my ankle. Always a good time. Now I'm stuck on the bike for work outs for a few days - I hate working out on stationary bikes.
Well, that's the news that's fit to print for now. As usual, the wedding planning is moving along - tonight we researched honeymoon destinations (the best part of the wedding as far as I'm concerned - when it's all over!). Oh yeah, and we're having a big party for Cody on Saturday for his birthday - it's his "golden birthday" - he'll be 28 on the 28th! Pretty cool! So that's the whole motivation with the painting - getting more done for the party. So this week is going to be busy, busy, busy. I even had to pass on going out with the girls tonight so I could work-out and do party prep! Hopefully we can get it all done in time!

Girls Night Rocks!

I guess my last post was Wednesday so I'll catch up from there. Thursday was soccer. Cody had to play goalie because our goalie was out and he'd been sick so he didn't want to do a lot of running around. The team we played was alright but not spectacular - but we still lost 8-2. Such is life. I actually had two shots on goal (very rare for me) but both of them went right into their goalie's hands.
Friday rocked! A few girls and I decided to get together and have a girl's night - just us girls hanging out. It was quite convenient as Cody was also having Poker Night - which while technically isn't strictly boys, I don't think a girl has ever shown up. Anyway, for our evening of fun, we started at P.F. Changs. For those of you without such a restaraunt (hello Tallahassee people), it's a "China Bistro." What that means I don't know, but the place is insanely crowded, they serve typical Chineese fare, but no one that works there is actually Chineese, albeit quite good. I don't think I've ever been to a "Chineese restaraunt" where no one is actually Chineese so that was a first. They even have an item on the menu something like "Vegatable Fun" - does that sound Chineese? Anyway, we had a great time chatting and eating.
Then we moved on to the Chocolate Bar - it just sounds like girl heaven, doesn't it? Well it is. Everything on the menu is chocolate chocolate and more chocolate - chocolate martinis, chocolate coffee, chocolate soup, chocolate sundaes, brownies, banana splits, mousse - anything you can think of making with chocolate they had it - not kidding. It was fabulous. I had some warm chocolate thing with vodka, but it turned out more vodka then anything else. Everyone else had fabulous desserts. We sat outside on the heated patio and had a great time talking for hours and hours. The waiter probably hated us because between the four of us we spent less then $30 and we took the table for probably four hours, but sorry buddy, we were having a great time.
It was really nice to go hang out with girls and get to just chit chat. We are all about the same age, but come from such amazingly different backgrounds. It's so much fun to hear about how others grew up and how they lived there lives and how that effects our families as adults (some fledgling and some not so new). We are all lawyers but all got into law different ways and for different reasons. And everyone brought something different to the table. For instance, I had an amazing time learning all about European royals and how titles pass down and all about Queen Elizabeth and her family and who is related to who. It was great - even though I took AP European History, I learned nothing in that year long course and learned more during that conversation then I ever did in school. So much so that I want to go buy books on American History, European History and Religion. I could literally sit for weeks and learn from those girls and still not learn half of what they bring to the table. There is so much knowledge out there and it's so nice to get out, talk to other people, who know other stuff, and learn fun new things. Anyway, I had a fabulous time and can't wait to do it again.

Been a while.

Wow. It's been a while, so instead of one big long blog I'm breaking them into smaller, more manageable ones. FYI. Oh yeah, I know I still haven't done a year-in-review for 2006 or my New Year's resolutions (though like most of the world, I've already blown most of mine). I'll attempt to do that before hell freezes over, or my head explodes. :)

Sick as a Dog.

Cody, not me. After our fun filled weekend and our "date night" out to the movies, we returned home and Cody said he his stomach didn't feel good. Admitedly, one thing I lack sometimes is compassion - I thought he just ate something that didn't agree with him so I told him to take some Mylanta (this stuff is amazing - I swear by it) and go to sleep. Not 20 minutes later he was throwing up. And throwing up. And throwing up some more. Until about an hour before I had to be at work. So basically he threw up for the 8 hours we should have been sleeping. Yuck. Poor kid. Needless to say, I was more compasionate after that, and he stayed home from work yesterday and today. Today he's been experiementing with eating again - bananas, popcorn and the like. It seems likely it was just a food poisoning but we can't figure out what it might be. I thought it might be the minestrone soup I made since he was the only one who had eaten any, but I had some last night and I'm fine. So go figure - could be anything. In any event, he's getting back on his feet finally after all that trauma and he lost 10 lbs. in two days! No fair - not that I would want to go through that to lose 10 lbs. - some things just aren't worth it. :)

Not much out of the normal in my crazy life. Work. Working out (I've been really good about this lately - totally dedictated now that the wedding is officially 11 weeks and 3 days away - damn!). Cleaning house. Laundry. Painting. Preparing for the party next weekend. Fun times.

Movie #3

Oh, I almost forgot - Cody and I had a momentous occassion tonight. We actually went out to see a movie! This may seem like an ordinary occurance for most people but not us. It's not like there are never movies we want to see - it's just that by the time the movie comes out and we find time to go see it, we always find it's already left the theaters. I've lived here almost three years now and until today we had only gone to two movies at the theater - TWO. The first was "Team America - World Police" and the second was "Fehrenheit 9/11." Obviously, you can tell my political leanings. :) So anyway, tonight we finally saw a movie before it left the theaters. Cody is a HUGE Rocky fan so we went to see "Rocky Balboa." Given that the fifth in the series was so bad, we weren't expecting too much out of this one, but it was awesome. It was really quite a good movie. If you at all liked the other Rocky's (except #5) it's worth a trip to the theater. Though, I must comment, that damn have prices gone up since we used to go to movies 10 years ago. We still use our student IDs and it's still $7.50 each! DAMN!! Aside from the time issues, now you know why we don't go to more movies. :)

Slumber Party

What a weekend - we had a slumber party! Unfortunately this one came out of the "winter ice storm" and not some ingenious planning we can call our own, but it was fun nonetheless. Cody's friend, Dude, and his brother, wife and two kids (ages 18 months and 2 months) all lost power in the "winter storm," which luckily this time we were able to avoid most of and keep our power for once. So we invited them all over and had a slumber party of sorts. It couldn't have been more fun if we had actuall planned it ahead of time! We had a wonderful time hanging out with the kids, playing games and watching TV. The kids were just wonderful - especially given that they were out of their element and in a strange house with strange people. I even got to make food for people which is always fun because cooking for two just gets old sometimes. Unfortunately we tried to make little pizzas on Saturday night and ran out of cheese so we were using sliced cheese and string cheese on some of the pizzas. :) Sunday I got to make my enchilladas that I really love but that Cody hates, so I never get to make them. :) All in all it was a great time hanging out with everyone, even if it was under such crummy circumstances.

In other news, I also painted our downstairs bathroom (otherwise known as the "Boy Bathroom") today. I wanted to get the rest of the downstairs finished before our party on the 27th for Cody's birthday. The room isn't too big but what a pain to paint - taking down all the fixtures, the mirror, the lights, the towel rods, and then taking apart the toilet to paint behind it - yes, I became intimately familiar with our toilet today - fun. :) Oh yeah, I had the day off work - Cody still had to go in (cry me a river Boeing people- you get 7 free days at Christmas time!) so that was my project - paint paint and more paint.

Wow!

Wow! Wow is really the only word to described the crazy elation that is going on in "Gator Nation." We cannot believe the Gators not only pulled off a win in the National Championship Game, but pulled off such an amazing win! Wow! I'm seriously still numb. I can't even believe it yet. Since December I've heard nothing but how Ohio State is going to kill us - EVERYONE - not one person I know (that's not a Gator fan) even gave us a chance! Guess we showed them. A collective "kiss my butt" is in order. :)
A few random thoughts while I continue to collect mine:

The University of Florida is the first school EVER to hold both football and basketball championships at the same time. (There is argument as to whether they were won in the "same year" since technically the football one was "won" in 2007 but it's the 2006 season - in any event, no other school has ever come within 8 years and there are only 6 schools EVER to have won a football and basketball championship). Quite an impressive accomplishment!!

Favorite quote regarding the football/basketball championship comparison:
"How do I compare them? Both have confetti landing on my head," athletic director Jeremy Foley said.

The Heisman curse continues. Heisman QB, Troy Smith, threw only FIVE completions the entire game - and one of those was to a Gator defender (yeah, that's an interception for those football challenged). Pretty impressive defense Gators.

Off to read more articles on ESPN. Good night to all in Gator Nation - another National Championship!

p.s. This caps off the best sports year of our lives - first the basketball championship in April, then the World Cup over the summer, then the Cardinals win the World Series, then football wins the National Championship - add to that we're getting married and this is quite possibly the best twelve months EVER!

Holding our Breath

Right now we, along with probably 1/2 the state of Florida, are holding our breath. In about 24 hours the game should be over/ending. What game you might ask if your head has been stuck in the sand for the past month and a half? THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! THAT THE GATORS ARE IN - AGAIN! Yes, last time it was the basketball one, but we're in another one now. If the Gators manage to beat Ohio State tomorrow, they will be the first team to ever hold the basketball and football national championships at the same time. Aside from all that jazz though, we just want to win. We haven't had a championship in 10 years and it's time. So tomorrow, about this time, we will either be inconsolably upset or exorbantly estatic.

Go Gators!

Life is good.

Yes, life is good. Busy, but good. We had a wonderful weekend here in Cold Corn Country.
Friday, I worked late (until about 8pm) because I waited forever to start on a brief for the trial I had before Christmas. Cody was sort of burnt out from the week so we decided to stay in Friday night and just hang out. So we did a few chores here and there but otherwise, watched some movie on TBS (we don't have cable, and thus don't have HBO, so the best we get in terms of "movie channels" is TBS - don't laugh) and got to bed relatively early.
Saturday was uber productive! We got a boat load of work done around the house. Cody changed the brake pads on my car while I took down all the Christmas stuff, including Christmas tree, packed it up and moved it all into the basement. It was actually quite sad taking down all the Christmas stuff, not only because I worked so hard to put it all up, but because it signifies an end to the "holidays" - now it's just winter. Stupid, cold, winter. No more fun. No more cheer. Just winter. Anyway, we got all the Christmas stuff cleared out, the kitchen cleaned, the boy room cleaned, the living room done, etc. It was great - I even got started on the depths of the mess in the spare room - paper hell. Paper and junk everywhere - all the random stuff that still needs to be gone through from the move (1.5 years ago). But I got a good start - at least got some stuff organized and others thrown out.
Saturday night we had some friends over for a laid back evening sitting around the fire outside. It's been a rather mild winter so far (knock on wood) so it was a nice evening to sit outside by the fire, drink and make S'mores. Yes, there was plenty of S'more making - good fun with good friends.
Today we ran errands - we braved the world of shopping (not our favorite pasttime) and got most of it done. Got all sorts of fun stuff - cat food, ziplock bags, picture frames, brake fluid, antifreeze, etc. Being grown up is so not fun sometimes. :) Then we did more work around the house and hung out. Cody even got to watch three movies while I worked this weekend that I would have never watched with him - Deliverance and Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2. I had/have no desire to see any of those but now I know the basic premise of them all so I can at least chat about them.
Then of course I spent hours of my life on this wedding. We have exactly 12 weeks and 6 days to go and I can not wait for them to all be gone. I just want this thing over with. Thankfully for Cody's mom and sister, we at least have a chair rental place picked out now (you wouldn't think this would be hard or a huge pain - think again - it was - Donna and I called about a zillion places to try to find ones that wouldn't charge an extra $200 to pick up the chairs on Saturday because Maclay doesn't let you leave them overnight). We also sent the deposit to the photographer so that is out of the way - that was a huge one. Then I spent hours tonight looking at invitations. I found ones I really like - for $7.90 each! Yeah right - not a chance in hell am I spending that much money on invitiations - sorry friends and family but you're not getting $7.90 invitations to our wedding that will end up in the trash as soon as you write the date on your calendar. So now we're on the search for affordable invitations. I did get the flower girl dresses while in Tally so now we just have to figure out the bridesmaids dresses and tuxes. Fun with wedding planning!

I guess I'm no Martha Stewart

When people live together, its bound to happen that certain habits or mannerisms will rub off onto the other (mostly voluntarily, though some mandated). For instance, since living with Cody I have become a Gator fan, have learned to hang my towel back on the rack in the bathroom and have occassionally eaten potato chips (only Lime Tostidos with our great salsa - otherwise I still avoid them). Cody has picked up some habits as well, for instance eating a larger variety of food, mostly vegatables. He's taken to agreeing that all meals need to include some sort of vegatable, and not necessarily a meat (though he still loves his meat).

Anyway, so one of my New Years resolutions (which I've still yet to blog about) was to cook more and try new things. I'm not a cook (though my brother and Erica are great ones) but I'm trying. So I found this great reciepe in the Boeing Health Newsletter for Orzo with Spinach and Feta. Sounded great to me and I thought Cody could at least give it a shot.

Basically you cook the orzo, sautee some garlic with green onions, then add frozen spinach, then toss it all together with feta and lemon juice. I think it was delicious - it has so many great flavors that I love! Cody took one bite and said that it made his top five list of worst things he's ever eaten. :) He even went and ate a ton of the salsa we had just made just to get the taste out of his mouth. I guess you can teach a guy to love his veggies but there are definitely limits. I guess I shouldn't make the first reciepe out of my Rachel Ray cookbook (courtesy of Bo and Erica for Christmas) for Cody - it's an omlette reciepe and I still can't convince him to eat eggs.

In other news, I've now gone two days without sugar! No one can truely understand what an accomplishment this has been for me unless they are an equal sugar addict. I did already bust on one resolution - to only drink on the weekends - by having a beer yesterday - but it was only one and I ran three miles afterwards. :)

In actual news, more exciting at least, our niece Baylee, started her first day of preschool this week. I hear she had fun but then said she didn't want to go back. She is such a hoot! She's be one of those kids that knows every kid in class by the second week and all of them will be her best friend - she's so personable and outgoing - not to mention cute. :) Good luck to her and whatever adventure you may be embarking on as well (as long as it's not wedding planning, then you don't need luck - luck will be of no help - you need lots of lots of powerful drugs). :)

It's a Girl!

I'm not sure if I posted about this already or not, but my brother (David/Jack) and his wife (Kim) have been expecting their third child. Right now they have two absolutely gorgeous and wonderful girls so it was quite a build up to what the new one would be. Well today was the 20 week mark and we found out it will be . . . . drum roll please . . . . a girl!! While it's not a boy some might have hoped for, we're all thrilled beyond belief. All anyone really cares about is that she's healthy. Plus now they don't have to go buy a ton of blue stuff! :) They are really wonderful parents and will raise this girl, as they have the other two, absolutely great! I'm so excited for them and can't wait to meet her sometime around the end of April! I'm sure the other two girls are going to be great big sisters!

Congrats guys!!

The 12 Days of Christmas!

The 12 days of Christmas rock! I was talking to my friend Meghan today, complaining about how I had not had time to take down my Christmas tree, as I ususally try to do before the first, and was informed of something quite interesting. My thinking behind taking down the tree by the first is that it's nice to have Christmas packed up and out of the way to start the new year fresh and with a clean, less cluttered house. Well, Meghan (who knows a great deal about a great deal of things) informed me that actually I don't have to take down my tree, and that actually I shouldn't take down my tree, until January 6th. Apparently that is when the 12 days of Christmas are over and when you should take your tree down. And here I was all concerned that I was behind and late and all that, and I actually have a few more days to enjoy the lovely tree. Yippee!!!

Not much going on in other news. Another busy day trying to catch up on life that we missed while in Florida. I was in Columbia for work and while there used some of my down time to run some much needed errands. This evening I spent working out and cleaning the clutter that is my house. Fun fun!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, yeah, it's the second already. I know. As usual, we're late on everything - even The New Year. Technically I suppose it started yesterday, but we spent the entire day driving so we didn't get to do any of the New Year things until today - like make resolutions or eat the requisite New Years' meal. Meal? Yes, black-eyed peas, cabbage, and ham (it's supposed to be hog jowl I think but 1) I don't know what it is and 2) it doesn't sound good or healthy so we substitute ham instead). I believe it's either a Southern or Irish thing and since I'm both, I've had to eat it every New Years' my entire life. Cody is neither so he's never had to partake in the tradition - until we moved in together and I force him through it every year. :) Supposedly the cabbage is for money and the peas are for luck and the meat is for health or something like that. So we had that for dinner tonight, late as usual since it's now the 2nd, but hopefully it was enough to appease the Southern/Irish deity in charge of those things. :)

So much more to write - about the trip, life, resolutions, etc. - but it will all have to wait as I must get some sleep tonight so I can drive (safely) to Columbia in the morning.

Happy New Year to everyone!

What a blast!

Cody and I had our very first wedding shower yesterday and it was amazing - we had a blast and it was so wonderful to see everyone! Yes, I mean we both had a had shower - how many guys can say that? :) We had almost decided not have a Tallahassee shower because the only time to do it would be the week of Christmas and we figured everyone was just too busy (and broke) with the holidays and everything, but Cody's mom and sister thought it would be a good idea. Boy, was it ever a good idea! We decided to do a couples shower so we could both catch up with friends/family instead of just the female ones and it turned out great. His mom and sister (who both should be nominated as saints for putting up with me during both Christmas AND wedding season) put together the whole thing and it was a blast.
We had the shower at Dorothy B. Oven park in Tallahassee, a beautiful park in the middle of the city (sort of the middle at least) and had both sides of my family, his family and friends too. We had great food, some hilarious games (a newlywed sort of game where we both had to answer questions by what we think the other would say) and of course, cool presents. I hope to have the pictures up shortly (when we get back home). Thanks everyone for coming - we really apprectiate it! And of course, a special thanks to Sara, Rick, Donna for all their hard work putting it together!

Merry Christmas!

Wow! What a crazy and hectic last few days - I couldn't even remember what day of the week it was today! Well, here's the condensed version (at least condensed for me):
Thursday: Well, we were planning to leave for Florida on Friday so Thursday would have been our last full day in STL to get all the rest of our shopping, wrapping, cleaning, packing, etc. done before the trip. So our plan was to come home, do all that jazz, go to soccer and try to get some sleep - until we came upon some hockey tickets. :) A friend at work couldn't go to the game and of course we can't pass up sports tickets of any kind, so we ditched our Christmas "duties" to go to see the Blues v. Kings. Well I guess the Blues got an early Christmas present because they actually won a game! Yes, the Blues, arguably the worst team in the NHL, actually won a game and we got to see it! So that was exciting. Then we had a soccer game at 11.15 pm (of course we'd have to have the super late game the night before we were supposed to leave), which was fun and amusing (especially after Cody had a few beers at the hockey game). We lost, but it was fun. That night we stayed up super late working to get stuff done for the trip, only to fail miserably at accomplishing all our tasks. :)
Friday: By mid-morning on Friday we both realized there would be no leaving that day. So much to do and just not enough time. Once that decision was made the day was fantastic - we felt like we had all the time in the world - and since Cody had off work, I got off early and everyone else was out of town we had time and we had it to ourselves. So while I was at work, Cody got his hair cut, got the oil changed in the cars, and did some errands. Then we actually got to hang out together, go to dinner together (a sit-down dinner, not even Subway) and have a relatively easy going evening together. We took all the pictures I wanted to with the tree (to be posted on the website shortly) and went to bed early.
Saturday: Cody woke up at 3 am (yes, Cody waking on a Saturday in the AM!) to build the kitties a little kitty condo for their borrowed carrier (thanks to Marissa and Cassidy the cats no longer roam the car when we drive them to FL, they sit in their huge dog carrier) - it was out of an old milk carton - he turned it upside down and cut out a side of it so one cat could sit up top and another could sit underneath - like a bunk bed system - how nice of him. After he was done doing that and loading most of the Jeep, I got up, helped with the loading and then we got on the road around 5am. Since I DO NOT do mornings, Cody had to take the first shift. He drove until about 9.30 (while I slept) and then I took over for him to sleep. I then drove until about 1.30 and then it was his turn - so we stopped at a gas station to get gas and switch but Cody accidentally closed his door hard and the power window fell into the door. Well then we had two crummy seats - the driver or the passenger with the window stuck down. So I chose the driver (I got to chose because he broke the window) while Cody tried to hold a pillow up in the passenger window to reduce the noise from the wind. We even had to cover up the cats because all the wind was really bothering them. So I got stuck driving the rest of the way into Tally. So we finally arrived Saturday evening in Tally Town. Cody went to his folks and I went to my moms - he helped bake cookies and I helped my mom START her Christmas shopping (yes, my mother put off her shopping until December 23 - apparently she did not get the memo that Christmas is on the 25th EVERY YEAR). So we shopped and hung out and had a nice evening of wrapping presents.
Sunday: Christmas Eve! More shopping with mom for me. We pretty much ran until the stores were all about to close but we got most of it done. :) We always spend Christmas Eve with Cody's family so we all went out to eat and then went back to his parent's house to hang out. Because we all have so much already, in leiu of getting each other presents this year we each chose a way to donate to charity. Cody's parents adopted a family from a woman's shelter and bought those kids presents. We donated money to both CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), an organization that assigns an advocate to abused, neglected or abandoned kids stuck in the court system (similar to Guardian ad Litem in Florida, for which I worked in law school), and the March of Dimes -they're the ones that help premature babies and birth defects -and they send out rocking address labels. :) So that took a lot of stress and pressure off of Christmas. While it was nice, I think next year I would like to do a bit of both - a small present exchange - either pick names or keep it under $20 and then still donate. Anyway, we had a great time hanging out with them and playing with the kids. The kids got a ton of toys, including Hubabaloo, a really cool game that I loved to play with Baylee. Unfortunately, poor Baylee got sick and had to end her Christmas Eve early. :( Nonetheless, we all had a great time hanging out and spending time together- and eating lots of sweets.
After the Raffensperger Christmas (of which I will officially be a Raffensperger next year), I went back to my moms and wrapped presents all night. Yes, all night. My brother was supposed to come over and help decorate the tree but never showed up so we actually had a tree up with absolutely no ornaments on it - not one light or ornament - maybe a few pieces of tinsel that didn't come off from years past, but that was it. That of course bugs me since I'm all into Christmas trees, but I guess that's life.
CHRISTMAS: This morning Cody woke up early (at his parents - not sure how we're going to do this sleeping/living arrangement in Tally when we're married or have kids) and did Christmas with his family and his niece and nephew and then came over to my mom's. We did Christmas at my mom/grandma's house and had a great time - always a riot - in all senses of the word. Always good fun. Then we drove out to Sopchoppy to my dad's house to see that group (my dad, stepmom, David, Kim and the kids). Again, a great time. Kim is actually pregnant again with their third kid and we all couldn't be more excited - they've got two (absolutely gorgeous) girls now and they find out on Jan. 3 if the next one will be a boy or girl. We're pulling for a boy but will adore whatever they have, of course. We had a great time playing with the girls and catching up with everyone. We missed seeing the Fountains (our grandparents- Dianne's parents) and Aunt Frances Ann, but hopefully we'll get to see them shortly at the wedding - they're always good people to see and hang out with. After my dad's Christmas we went back to Tallahassee to my aunt and uncles for our third (Cody's fourth) Christmas of the day (yes it was exhausting)!
:) Always a riot there as well. My Aunt Cookie was there so we got to see her - she's fantastic and funny as hell (hi Aunt Cookie if you're reading this). We had a great time laughing hysterically and hanging out - let's just say my family is pretty insane. :) After all the fun was over we came home and have just been cleaning up and hanging.

Hope you had a great Christmas!!!

My Newfound Christmas Spirit

In case you haven't clicked on the link in the last email already, do it. It's hilarious! But you need to have sound on to make it work properly. Not sure where Cody found a picture of me at work, but I guess he has one on the computer.

Anyway, today was Day #1 of my newfound Christmas spirit - okay, so I'm sort of late for this bus considering Christmas is in 6 days, but better late then never, right? Anyway, tonight I was a total domestic godess and finished Cody's Christmas stocking - it turned out 100 times better then I thought it would (with my sewing skills). I'll have to take pictures and post them on here. Then, even after I decided I just couldn't do baking this year with all my stress and hoopla, I decided to do baking. Christmas just isn't Christmas without obnoxious amounts of baking. :) But I figured out a way to make it easier this year - enlist the help of the significant other! Yes, it actually works if you give very specific instructions. So while I mixed, he got out the different ingredients I needed and measured things. And then while I was mixing another batch he would clean the utensils from the first, so in the end when all I had to do was drop cookies onto the pan, the kitchen was relatively clean because he had been keeping up with that while I did the mixing part. Works wonders and goes a ton faster! So I guess Cody was a domestic godess today too!

Hope everyone has found their Christmas/Holiday/Chrismukkah spirit!

The FUNNIEST Thing EVER!!!

This is an email I got from Cody this evening:

You look happy! Looks like your real life dance moves!!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=4d3619a1c408bdd5f6b0cccG06121916

Cody's Stocking

So, tonight I was a little Susy Homemaker. I actually sewed - not hemming pants or fixing a shirt cuff, but actually sewing. When I was younger I used to sew a lot more - I could make an entire dress or something pretty complicated but I've been out of it for a while. Well, when we were in Florida for Thanksgiving I got my Grandma Flynn's old sewing machine from my mom (my folks are divorced, not sure how my mom ended up with my dad's mom's old sewing machine - I suppose my dad doesn't sew much :) ) because I had some things to mend and fix and I wanted to cover some pillows for our couches. But most importantly I wanted to make Cody and Erica (my brother Bo's girlfriend) Christmas stockings. My mom made Bo and I stockings when we were little kids - his was red, mine green and hers red and green. So I wanted to make Cody a green one to go with mine and Erica a red one to go with Bo's because they're both part of the family now. So Cody and I (yes, I actually dragged him to Joann fabrics - twice - poor boy) looked everywhere for similar fabric to make these insane stockings - no luck. My aunt actually ended up having some left over fabric that was identical to the stockings so she mailed it up for me (next day air - thanks Aunt Barbie!!). Unfortunately there wasn't enough red for Erica's (I'll have to find her some other fabric) but there was plenty of green for Cody's. So tonight I got out my sewing skills, polished them off and began the sewing of a Christmas stocking. It's a neat adventure, a cool production and a great story, but I think when I have kids we're going to buy them stockings. :) The picture is me at the sewing machine (I'm pretty confident it's older then I am).

Flowers

I may have left the card at work (to help me through the next few days) but I didn't leave without first taking a picture of the flowers. Check them out - GORGEOUS! And they make my office smell like Christmas tree - who wouldn't be more cheerful and less stressed smelling Christmas tree???? The files behind the pretty flowers are just a taste of what I have to do the next few days. Oh, and note the silly putty on the left side of the photo -that also gets me through the day. :) I love my pretty flowers!!!!

Why I Love My Future Husband #863

I know this really isn't in his control, but one of the reasons I love him and find him so incredibly easy to get along with is his wonderful family. And I don't just mean that they're nice people and tolerable. They are seriously wonderful. Seriously. Just listen to this story . . . .
For instance, they say a guy with a good mom is going to be a good husband. If that's true, then I have myself one of the best men to ever walk the earth. Yesterday (and the day before and the day before and the day before, pretty much backing up to when we lost our power for FIVE days - yes, I'm still bitter) I was incredibly cranky. I seriously have a million things to do - all before we drop everything in our lives in four days to drive ourselves 13 hours to Florida to be away from home for over a week and run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Okay so maybe I get a bit worked up. :)
Anyway, with Christmas, the wedding (this next week is our last chance to do everything that needs to be done in Tally for the wedding because we likely won't be back until right before the wedding), work (I have a HUGE trial on Thursday - my biggest since I've started this job), and everything (the stress of whether or not we're getting bonuses at work and what our raises will be), I was a bit over the top. I even gave up baking this year because "I just couldn't do it all." Yes, I am "that person" who stays up to 3 am doing Christmas stuff only to wear herself down so much that she is sick all through Christmas because she's been so stressed.
Anyway, back to my story - I was stressed - and Cody's mom knew it - from talking to Cody, I'm sure, but also talking to me. So today at work I was sitting there stressing about how late I would have to stay (along with the other dozen things to stress about) to get everything done with I got a call from our front desk - I had a delivery. That makes even the most stressed person happy, so I bounded upstairs to find a flower delivery! I thought it was Cody sending me something (no such chance), but an even bigger (and better) surprise, his mom had sent me flowers at work!!! I left the card at work (to show off to everyone - and remind myself of her message all week), but it basically reminded me that we should all enjoy the holiday season, remember what is most important (not cookies or presents or gas prices or ornaments or lights, but family and friends) and good luck on my trial! HOW INSANELY SWEET!!! She is by far one of the nicest, sweetest, most thoughtful people I have EVER met. Seriously - I thought I was just raging stress at everyone and no one even really noticed - but not only did she notice but she took time to listen to it and totally made it melt away.
Just ask Cody - I'm a new person this evening - I forgot about wrapping presents (because if worse comes to worse I can do that in Florida) and worked on making a stocking for him (long story) for my family (actually this is really important to me) and sang Christmas songs all night (maybe I switched some of the words around to include Mr. Pickles but they were still songs with Christmas tunes). :) We had such a nice, enjoyable evening because I really kept reminding myself that this "season" isn't about being stressed, doing everything, or making our significant others scared of us, but being together, laughing and enjoy all the season brings. I know that sounds incredibly cheesy and corny, but it's oh so true - just ask Cody who's had to live with me the past few weeks. :)
Anyway, one of the many things I have to be thankful for is my future husband (only about 3.5 months to go!!) and his wonderful, thoughtful family. I really couldn't ask for a better gift then that. Thanks for the flowers- they're gorgeous!

It's that nutty time of year. . .

Wow - a week has gone by already since I posted last! Almost a full 7 days! I swear there is some cosmic force that actually makes days in December last less then 24 hours - I just can't seem to ever keep up in December - the days are seriously shorter (and not just the daylight part - though that's certainly short enough living in Cold Corn Country where the sun sets at practically 4 o'clock these days). This past week seems to me to only have lasted about 2 days, but instead I find almost a full 7 have passed.

Anyway, enough whining about how short the days are. I have finally finished almost all of my Christmas cards, gave up on Christmas baking (I usually like to bake and deliver baked goods to friends and family - not this year - too much going on), finally started Christmas shopping on Saturday night, and still have about a month's worth of stuff to do before we drive to Tally in a few days. :) Fun fun. Add to that I have my biggest trial of the year on Thursday! Oh, yes, I could have had this huge trial any day of any month this year but no, it's four days before Christmas! This should be fun.

I feel like I'm rambling but not really saying much (like that's unusal or something), so I'm going to go back to doing some work for work tomorrow.

Happy 10 Years (plus a day)!

Yesterday was Cody and my 10 year anniversary from our first real date. Our first sort of date was to a movie that Cody had to see for extra credit in English class, but we don't count that one. Our second date was also to a movie, some movie about a lion or tiger or something - it was a horrible movie but a good date - hense we're still here 10 years later. :) Anyway, to celebrate our 10 year anniversary we went and bought Cody's wedding band! It was actually easier then we expected - aside from the jewelry store being packed with Christmas shoppers - but we did good, especially since both of us hate shopping in general and really hate shopping around Christmas. It's a nice simple titanium band - it's more gray/matte then the white gold ones so he really likes it - he even wore it around most of the day yesterday. So it was quite a fitting tribute to our ten years to get a wedding band.

In other events, we've just been busy busy busy. Friday night we went out with friends to celebrate a friend getting a job in California. Aside from shopping for a ring yesterday we also worked on our registry (that's a whole other post - registries are nightmares) and went to my work party. All is all it was a pretty nice weekend - with power.

New Website Photos.

I've been so awful lately about keeping the website updated - sorry. I'd blame it on the power outage, but I hadn't updated any pictures since October. Anyway, tonight I got the rest of the October pictures up. Hopefully I can get November and December up by the end of the week. Enjoy - most of them have to do with either Halloween or the Cardinals World Series.

Christmas Tree

Here's our Christmas tree!!! We're not quite done tying all the orange, blue and white ribbons on but we got a good start last night. Lots of stories behind all those ornaments.

Ice on Tree

I tried to take a ton of pictures of the ice on the trees but most didn't come out too well. Here's one where you can see how thick the ice is on the itty bitty branch.

This is why we didn't have power.

Note the power poll with transformer on the ground. Yeah, usually that's up on the poll with the rest of the wires. Then comes wicked winter storm, weighs the trees down, they snap and take my power lines, power poll and transformer all with them.

House Pictures

The picture on the right is what our house normally looks like - check out the nicely shapen tall bushes on the outside of the photo. On the left you have the house after the wicked winter ice storm. Note my large front bushes and how they are pulled over onto the ground by the heavy ice.

It's Back - Again.

What a whirlwind of a week we've had. We have power again - hopefully this time for good. I just can't take this whole no power for 5 days, on for one, then off again, and now on again. At least we're in the "on" stage now. That at least makes me very happy.
So I guess life is slowly but surely returning to normal. We're still down to one car because mine is in the shop, but at least they think they figured out what is wrong with it (the fuse box - go figure) and can now fix it. It's the lovely holiday season so we've already been inundated with events and parties. We had one Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and today with others scheduled for Saturday and next Friday. At least it's free food and booze. :) So far they've all been pretty fun.
Now that we have power again, we're just trying to enjoy it (before we lose it again) - we've done a zillion loads of laundry and dishes, set up the Christmas tree and actually slept last night without a hat. :) When I get over the being angry about not having power, I'll have to blog about all the funny things that you notice and/or do without power.

Don't even ask.

We got power back yesterday. I was the happiest I've been in ages. Then we lost it again this afternoon. We had power less the 24 hours before it went out again. Obviously, I'm in no mood to blog. Plus, I'm sitting at work at 7pm because at least it's warmer then my house.

Power outages suck

Well, I haven't posted since Thursday. Wanna know why? We've had no power since Thursday evening. Yup, that big "winter storm" in the papers that beat up on the Midwest, hit us square in the chin. We got a massive ice storm, leaving everything beautiful winter wonderland - for about five minutes - until you realized that ice was incredibly heavy and was bringing down trees and lines all over the area. So as of Friday there were 1/2 million people without power. Obviously, we were one of those. This morning there were still 300,000 without power - we're still one of those. The house was a balmy 38 degrees this morning. We're done staying there - it's just too damn cold and it's already killed all but 3 of my fish. The turtles and cats are okay for now. As for when we'll get it back, no telling. The tree in our alley that was covered in ice took down all the wires, a transformer and an entire utility poll so it's not looking promising. Forecast low for tonight is 11 degrees. I've written some other random musings about this whole ordeal on the laptop but until we get power back and internet back they will have to stay on said computer. I'm really tired of being cold.

We're still alive.

So as most of the world knows by now (with my big mouth), my stupid car doesn't work. The damn thing won't start. So today I spent my entire day calling auto shops, to finally decide to take it to the dealer, 15 miles away. But then I called my insurance (who by now hates me and will probably drop me) and found that my "emergency roadside assistance" will only pay to tow my car around 5 miles in the city because there are shops everywhere - too bad a lot of them are ghetto and you don't want to use them. Anyway, so then I search for a closer shop - only to find one but they're booked until Monday and have no where to store my car. So I have to chose whether to pay to have the car towed to the dealer (all but 5 miles which the insurance will cover - hopefully before they drop me) or sit over the weekend in the garage where it was just broken into - just what I need it to leave it there and get stuck with another $500 deductible when it's robbed again. Cody said I should just leave the windows down (then they can't break them) or put a note up that the car is unlocked (they can't steal it because it won't start) so they won't bust up everything.

Anyway, we decided to pay the extra and have it towed today. So I called to have it towed - only to then have work cancel before the truck got there. So I canceled the tow and got a ride home from work from a co-worker. Unfortunately this co-worker, who I will not name because this whole thing is not his/her fault, had rear-wheel drive and it was insanely icy outside, not to mention we have to go over a significant number of bridges to get home (for those southerners, bridges are bad in the winter because they ice really bad really quick). So, as we were pulling onto the interstate and go to accelerate the car starts spinning and spinning and spinning. The whole thing probably took about 30 seconds but it felt like minutes. Anyway we spin all the way from the right lane, across at least 4 lanes of traffic, into the far left lane of traffic, heading the opposite direction and plow into the bridge wall. Everyone is fine. We're all okay. No one is hurt. It was just scary. The worst part of it was spinning and then knowing we were going to run into the side of the bridge on my side. I swear I thought we were going to hit the bridge wall and go over the side of the bridge - and then we'd really be dead. But the bridge wall held up and we didn't go over the side - it was just a bit scary for a while.

So, now we're home for the duration. With any luck work will be cancelled tomorrow and I can do even more wedding planning - but that might be just a bit too optimistic. :) Tonight we might try to run out and get a tree once/if the traffic dies down and we can have a cozy night setting up our decorations. I love Christmas time, but man do I hate snow/ice/etc.

Three years running - pretty impressive!

November 30th 2006

November 30th 2005

November 30th 2004

Check out these weather pictures above- note the dates, specifically the years. This is my third winter in St. Louis and every year since I moved here we've had our first snow on November 30th (which also happens to be my friend Mike's birthday - happy birthday). Kinda weird, huh? Not first real snow or first big snow, but every year we have had the first snow flakes on November 30th. What a coincidence. I really think this is incredibly strange.

We're in the white now.

Yes, I am obsessed with the weather. I seriously check weather.com at least 15 times a day - less so in the fall and spring when the weather is nice and relatively predictible - but at least that in the winter when I need to see exactly how freezing it will be each day. So today the "winter storm" finally arrived. See the white stuff over us now? Around lunch it was just freezing rain. Then they told us all to leave work at 2 pm (the ONE perk of living where the weather sucks - you may just get to leave work early - but then you can't do anything because the roads are a mess and well, the weather sucks) and there was funny baby hail coming down everywhere. It really stung when it hit your face but it was cute baby hail. By the time I got home from work around 3 pm (yes, I only live 5 miles away but see next post for an explaination) it was full fledged snow and the roads were a mess - really a mess - slushy and gross. We're supposed to have soccer today (at 10:30 pm) but hopefully they cancel it so we can just stay in - though I would like to go get our Christmas tree so we can put that up while we're stuck in. :)

The pink stripe has arrived!

We're right in the middle of the pink stripe now. Nice and icy outside - they're already putting salt on the sidewalks outside our building. The white is coming our way now - the forecast says 8-10 inches of snow tonight. Maybe they'll cancel work . . . . not a chance.

The pink stuff is coming our way!!!

Yup - that's ice! Rain is okay. Snow is annoying. But ice is horrible. You can't walk, drive or do just about anything with inches of ice everywhere.

Today I purchased a wedding gown.

Yup. Everyone thought it would never happen, but today I FINALLY purchased a wedding gown. One more thing off the list of wedding-crap-to-do. :) Too bad I'm not telling which one it is. :)

In other news, I have my car back, again, and now the dumb thing doesn't work. Yup, that's right - we took my car in yesterday because it wasn't fixed right from the break-in and got it back last night - yippe - until this afternoon when I got to the garage (in a rush to make my wedding dress appointment) and found that the stupid thing won't start! AGGGG!!! Stupid stupid stupid car! I HATE this car! I can't wait to get a better job so I can afford a better/different car! I'm so tired of dealing with this thing breaking on me all the time (so far this year - O2 sensor, new battery, 3 new tires (thanks to nails), clutch slave cylinder and now random thing wrong causing car not to start (it's NOT my battery)). I'm so tired of dealing with this car. Oh well.

So much to write about -Thanksgiving trip, wedding dress, etc. but not tonight. Tonight I sleep and try not to have nightmares about my broken car and it sitting in the same garage it was broken into last week.

Why boys are like cats - or vice versa.

So tonight I cleaned the cat litter boxes since we're leaving tomorrow and I noticed something I've noticed a hundred times that I always forgot to blog about. Boys are like cats - or vice versa. We have three cats and thus three cat boxes because one of them (The Fat One -that's not an insult to the cat, it's her name) decided that she got angry when we only had two. Anyway there is one "igloo" one with a lid (they walk in and you can't see them) and two open ones. Sure enough, just like boys, they have no problem peeing in front of each other, or us, but they always go poop (yes, I just said "poop" in a blog entry) in the igloo one - apparently they like their privacy when they poop - just like guy bathrooms. Hmmmm.....
I'm not saying I spend a lot of time in male restrooms, this is all hearsay. :)

Car is back - sort of. . .

So yesterday evening I was FINALLY able to pick my car up from the repair shop. $500 later (that's my deductible) I was on my way home in my own set of wheels again. I was thrilled - finally I can drive again and not have to hitch rides all the time. Until this morning . . .
So this morning I was on my way to work and I kept feeling this cold draft in my ear. Seeing that it was about 32 degrees when I went to work this morning, that was not a fun feeling. So I put my hand up to where the wind was coming from, only to realize that while they replaced all the trim and sealants around my window, they apparently didn't do a wonderful job of it because I could practically stick my finger out the window from inside the car - with the window up. Why can't anyone these days do anything right the first time?
So as if that wasn't annoying enough, I later discovered that when you shut the passenger side door you can hear the broken glass inside the door. Yup - not only did they mess up the sealant but they forgot to vacuum all the glass out of the door when they put in the new glass. So, we were considering taking my car to Florida this weekend (better gas mileage and it goes faster - at least when I'm driving) but it looks like instead it will be going back to the shop tomorrow. I just don't get why places can't just do good, guality work the first time around.

On another note, we're going to FLORIDA tomorrow! Growing up in Florida you don't think much is special about the place - Disney is no big deal and you see the ocean enough to love it but also find the annoying things annoying (like sand and wind). But now that I live in Missouri, Florida holds this almost mystial quality that I never apprecitated before - it's Florida. Sort of like Hawaii is Hawaii and California is California. Sort Nebraska just doesn't hold the same mystical quality. :) Anyway, in addition to it being Florida, and thus at least theoretically warm (at least warmer then our frozen tundra), there's family. It's funny how as you age you appreciate your family more. When you're under the age of 13, family is everything. Then you hate family and want nothing to do with them for several years. Then you move away and realize that you're really lucky and you were a selflish brat back when you didn't appreciate them more. And then you get even older and move even farther away, and realize that when it all comes down to it, family is really all that matters in the world (and when I say "family" I also include close friends that you consider "family") and that if you lost them or even lost touch with them your life would never be the same ever again. Oh, and somewhere in there you meet a boy who you fall in love with and you become part of his family too. Bonus points if he also has a family that you cherish and love - and miss when you're away (like me!).

Anyway, we head to Florida tomorrow - a long, relatively boring 13 hour drive. I bitch and moan about the drive for weeks ahead of time - I bitch about how our entire "vacation" is spent running around and not sleeping and then we just have to drive back - I complain about how we always end up sick when we come back because we're so run down - but you know what? I wouldn't trade it for anything. Absolutely nothing. The mere thought of getting to see our families makes it all worthwhile - because there will come a day when we won't be able/willing to make the drive anymore (I assume we will probably never end up back in Tally -sorry to burst anyone's bubble) and we'll be happy for the memories we make now, visiting our families and seeing our nieces and nephews as they grow and visiting with our folks.

Can't wait to see you all!!!

Music Download Question

Okay, I'll admit - I have about 5000 songs on my computer and the vast, vast majority of them (okay, all but about 15) were downloaded for free. I'm not specificially admiting to downloading to pirated music for fear that those psycho record labels will one day use my blog against me in a civil suit. Anyway, as a maturing adult, I've decided I want to at least make an attempt to get some legal music downloads. The only problem is it's driving me crazy.
So I downloaded a few songs from Walmart.com since it was the cheapest I could find (88 cents), but then I discovered the songs downloaded as WMA (Windows Control Monger Format). So I figured that wasn't the end of the world - even though my ancient cheap MP3 player doesn't support WMAs, only MP3s - I would just convert them to MP3s - then I could use them in my MP3 player and burn them on CDs to use in my car (as WAVs). Nope - can't do that either - there is some stupid anti-piracy lock on the song (DRM or something) so I can't convert it to MP3 or WAV! Okay, so I OWN this song -I PAID for it - but I can't use it except on a new MP3 player or on Windows Media Player (which I hate and had thus deleted from my computer and had to reinstall just to hear my song). I want to listen to it in my car - but I can't because it won't convert to WAV. I want to listen to it in my crappy MP3 player - but I can't because it wont' covert to MP3!
So, my question is, after incessantly babbling, is there a music service where I can download songs that I OWN onto my computer that I can then convert to either MP3 or WAV for personal use on other devises other then Windows Media Player??? I looked around and could only find sites where you could get WMAs -but do they all have this lock on them? How can I just download my song for a buck and do whatever I want to it??? Any ideas? I don't want to stream music or listen to the radio - but actually download and own a song that I can then burn to listen to in my car. Thoughts?

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, Cody proposed. We had decided to go paddle boating at the lake in Forest Park since it was actually above 50 degrees (which it was not near today) so we rode our bikes up there to get some exercise. We paddled around the lake, all the way to the Art Museum and Grand Basin and were on our way back, checking out all the bridges, when he leaned over, got the ring out of his pocket, sort of got down on a knee, and asked me to marry him. It couldn't have been more perfect - outside, on the water, having fun. So, here we are a year later, still planning this damned wedding. :) We've made major strides though lately - we have the officiant down, got the engagement annoucement in the paper in Tally, I think I picked out invitations, I got the first round of Save-The-Dates out (if you don't have yours yet, don't sweat it -but let me know because it may have gotten lost in the mail or I have a wrong address), we're working on a photographer and DJ, and I'm down to two dresses. :) Hopefully we'll get some final details worked out with the hotel/reception site over Thanksgiving - menu, rooms, etc. Fun fun. I think I would enjoy wedding planning a lot more if my life were not already totally full with fulfilling things I enjoy (besides work -don't even get me started on this mess), but alas, we do what we can and then the next day comes and we do some more. :)
So, yes, it's official - we're going to Tally for Thanksgiving. We're hoping to leave here by 1 or 2 pm on Wednesday so we get to Tally around 3 or 4 am. Then on Thursday we hope to see my dad and his family in the morning, then Cody's family in the afternoon, and my mom's family in the evening - what a day - good thing we don't have kids to drag around to all this - they'd be even more exhausted then we would. :) Friday I hope to look at dresses, meet with the hotel/reception guy, work out some more wedding details, and work on registering - I still have to blog about what a disaster that was. :) Saturday is FSU v. UF which we hope to find tickets for and Sunday we drive back. If you're reading this and either live in Tally or will be visiting, please let me know where everyone is planning to go out or meet up - I'd love to see everyone!!!
In other news, we did a great job this weekend of getting the house cleaned pre-Thanksgiving. One of my biggest pet peeves is leaving for a trip and the whole time knowing you're coming back to a dirty/messy house. If we can keep it up for two days we'll be comign home to a pretty clean and tidy house - for once! :)
And no - we still don't have my car back - it still wasn't ready on Friday.
Have a good Monday!
p.s. I still think I like green on the blog.

Why Women Rock

I think women are amazing beings - and not just because I am one. They manage to juggle careers, homes and self seamlessly day in and day out. Tragedy hits, crisises occur and more often then not women take the hits and keep moving forward. Anyway, today one particular nugget occured to me.
Women can stand at the top of a set of basement stairs and can tell from about 40 feet away if the washer is running, even if the dryer is loudly spinning - we can tell the difference between the way the washer and dryer sounds from 40 feet away and can even tell, on occassion, what cycle the washer is in. I think that's amazing. Sorry, guys, but there's not a chance in hell you can stand at my basement door and tell me if my washer is running over the sound of the dryer. Pretty cool.
We can also tell you, while standing at the grocery store, just about how much milk and bread and cheese we have left, even without going home to check first.
I'm not being sexist, I'm just sending a props to all the women out there that manage to take care of everything in their lives so wonderfully - and I'm not talking about me, just all the ladies in general. :)

Still no car.

Yup - still don't have my car back. Supposedly it should be ready tomorrow afternoon after 4pm - the only problem is they're only open until 5pm - which gives us an ever-so-inconvenient ONE HOUR in which to pick up the car or miss it until Monday - oh, and add to that we only have one car right now for the both of us and I will have it in Poplar Bluff until about 7pm (I have to go there to take a deposition tomorrow afternoon and it's 3 hours away). Ahhh... the joys we go through just so some dumb thief can get a kick out of breaking into my car.

In other, not so bitter news, not much is going on. Yesterday I was in Mexico . . . . Missouri. What a place. I was up there for work and got to drive Cody's baby, the Jeep. It's odd driving an SUV when you're so used to a tiny car. And boy does it blow with the wind. I was quite concerned that it might tip over, but it didn't and I made it home safe and sound in our one remaining vehicle . . . because the thief messed up our other one, leaving us with one. Lest I digress.

It was supposed to snow yesterday - 2-3 inches at least - but it didn't. Just lots of cold rain. For the past two years I've been here the first day of snow has always been November 30th - we'll see if that holds true again this year.

Yesterday I got to babysit the most amazing one-year old (almost one - next week). My friends were going out so I got to baby-sit their adorable one year old daughter, Elizabeth. We had a blast. I seriously had a great time with her - and no, that does not mean we're going to be popping out babies any time soon - it just means that I got very lucky to be able to spend a decent amount of time with such a great kid. I have no pipe dream whatsoever of having a kid half as good as she is, as I'm convinced I'm going to be cursed with the worst demon child ever - since I was one myself - seriously, ask my mom, I was a serious demon child. Anyway, Elizabeth was wonderful. We hung out on the couch playing with cloth letters and books for about an hour. Then we crawled around on the floor a while - playing hide and go seek (sort of - the one-year-old version) and chase. Things were going great and she started to get a bit fussy - not bawling or anything - just fussy. It took a few minutes to figure out what she wanted since at first I thought she was just getting tired - but then she didn't want to lay down - her diaper was clean - and she didn't want any juice. But then I hit the jackpot -Cherrios. She was in love - and happy. She had the greatest time eating those Cherrios - it was almost the most fun part of the evening watching her pick them up one by one and shoving (not placing, but shoving) them into her mouth. Then she would debate putting one in my hand for me but would always take it back and eat it. She was adorable. I had such a great time with her and could only imagine how great it must be to have a kid that good (again, I will never know because my kid will be a demon child). But again, no we're not having kids any time soon - too much to do first!!!

In today's news, we had our second soccer game of this "season," or better termed, "session." We lost 5-1, but it should have been 5-2. The other team was good and we had a good time playing. Cody really rocks - I wish I could play 1/2 as good as him or the other folks on the team - but I'm learning. It's fun nonetheless. Unfortunately I thought it would be a good idea to get in a quick work-out before soccer so I rode the stationary bike for a while - bad idea - my legs were like lead weights during the game. :) That was the lesson learned today.

Well, off to bed to wake up, take Cody to work, go to work and then to the metropolis of Poplar Bluff. :)

Tuesday's Gone.

Well, I got my CDs back today from the parking garage. Sure enough, the moron thieves didn't take any of them. So today at work I listened to Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along songs all day - needless to say I got little work done because everyone kept stopping by wondering what in the world I was listening to. Apparently "Puff the Magic Dragon" isn't on the popular radar these days. Maybe it should be. :)
In other news not much happened. I FINALLY mailed a portion of my Save-The-Date cards. Not all got mailed - because not all addresses have been compiled and not all cards have been made -but I got at least some made. I've been majorly stressing over this wedding thing lately, thinking about Vegas more and more every day. My biggest concern is keeping the guest list within reason and keeping the amount of people within the space we have - this is much tougher then one would think because so many of our guests are from out of town. It sort of goes like this - anyone who wants to come I would love to have - nothing would make me happier then to have everyone I care about want to be there and for us to share the day with them - on the other hand, I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come and make the trip if they can't afford it or don't care to make it. I'm just guessing it will all work out. :)
In even other news, we're forecast for snow tomorrow. I hate the winter. Snow is beautiful but it's a pain - not to mention cold. I hate it getting dark at 4:30. I hate feeling like my eyeballs are going to freeze. I hate not being able to dial my cell phone because my hands are covered in mittens. I hate the way my hats/caps mess up my hair so it's not even worth it to bother to do my hair. I hate getting into my car with 10 lbs of clothing only to crank the heat and be burning up in five minutes and trying to wiggle my way out of hats, gloves and a huge coat while drving down the interstate. I sure can't wait until spring -and this wedding is over.
In other news, I found out today that Cody really hates buggers. I mean, really hates them. Just news for thought.

Green.

Ask Baylee (our cute three-year old niece) - I really have no favorite colour. She's very into whose favorite colour is what and has memorized the entire family's favorites. Very impressive since I certainly couldn't remember that. Anyway, whenever she asks me mine, I always tell her "the rainbow." I really do like all colours - they all have their purpose and place. I'm not sure I ever had a favorite but if I ever did have one it would have been blue or black. I tended to like groups of colours - like earth tones. But lately I've been attracted to green. I've never really particularly liked green before - certainly no more than any other colour - but lately I have a thing for green. I even bought my first real green shirt last week. I'm experimenting with green lately.
The reason for this green tirade? I'm trying out a green blog to see how it fits. We'll have to see.

I'm a statistic.

I'm now a statistic in the lovely City of St. Louis. They say St. Louis is the "most dangerous" or "least safe" or something like that, city in the US. Okay, I can buy that if you're in certain parts of the city - parts we don't live, work, play or travel into - so that has never been a huge worry for me (knock on wood).
We're also number 1 for car related crimes. This I totally buy. Until now, Cody and I have been lucky - we have not had our garage/his car broken into, nor mine messed with while parked on the street (I park on the street because I drive a clutch and they are less likely to be stolen). That is, until this weekend.
Friday night we had a rousing happy hour after work, one in which I drank the better part of a caraffe of maragritas. Being the responsible citizen I am, I called Cody to pick me up. So we left my car in the work garage downtown and he drove home. We never quite made it back downtown to pick up my car over the weekend(we only live 5 miles from my work/downtown but we were just never heading in that direction) - usually this is not a big deal. I leave my car in the work garage when we go to Florida for Thanksgiving or going out of town for a long weekend - it just seemed safe.
So this morning Cody drops me off at work at 7:45 and I sit down for a long day at work. Then I get a call. It was our garage saying my car was broken into.
So I rush down to the garage (only 1.5 blocks away) and find my car completely assaulted. The moron thieves had apparently tried to break in the front driver window but didn't manage to actually bust out the entire window - only tear up my weather stripping and chip at the window all along the top. Apparently the geniuses then moved to my back driver window which, in a sporty car with two doors, is only about a 1.5x1.5x1.5 foot triangle. They busted it out, only to discover there was no way to unlock the door from that window - left glass everywhere though. Moron then moved to the passenger front window and finally hit the jackpot - glass everywhere, car open. The thief person then ransacked my entire car, thowing everything around, emptying the glove box and console, climbing into the back seat, messing with the trunk, etc.
All in all, he remained an idiot. The two most expensive things in the car where my new jacket (the warm one I blogged about) and Cody's Gator coat - together over $200, though not a ton of street value, I suppose. Next was my parking pass which could have gotten him in and out of the garage whenever he wanted - nope, left that. Then there was my building pass - he left that too and that would have given him unlimited access to a 22 story office building 24-hours a day. He really blew that one. He DID take my owners manual to my car (go figure) and all my non-burned CDs. He left the four packs of ripped/burned CDs and took the one pack of real CDs I had. His only problem was he robbed the wrong car - my CDs have ZERO "street value."
For instance, all day we were joking that some thug is driving around St. Louis listening to the Peter, Paul and Mary Campfire Sing-Along Songs (yes, I really own that CD - it has "Leaving on a Jet Plane" on it and I really like that song). We were joking that he was riding around singing "Michael Row your Boat Ashore." And then he's going to try to sell my Alladin soundtrack - good luck with that one buddy. And he's not going to know what to do with half the CDs in there - a ton are obscure bands no one in STL has heard of so the only person he could possibly sell them to would be ME! Then there's the entire collection of Bad Religion and They Might Be Giants CDs - good luck selling those on the black market too! What a moron thief!
Anyway, so after the police reports were filed and the insurance was called and the half dozen body shops were compared, Cody picked me up in his car (I had a doctor's appointment so I needed his car) and he took mine to the shop. The thing that really gets me is that he might have gotten $20 worth of stuff but did $1200 worth of damage to my car to get it! No one wins here except the body shop - thief dude loses because he got a bunch of lame CDs, I lose because I pay a ton of money and have no car now and the insurance loses because they pay out (though I'm sure they'll raise my rates for it).
I think I'm going to either (a) put a note with $20 on the car and just say to take this rather then break in since there are no guns, drugs or cash in my car - EVER or (b) leave the doors unlocked and windows down so if they want to fish around they can be my guest but it won't cost me a week with no car and a ton of money for breaking all my windows - good luck finding anything of value in my car.
So of course now I have to file a claim, because my back window alone is over $500 (which also happens to be my deductible). This is now the second claim I have ever filed and NEITHER were my fault - the first is when my car flooded at FSU parked in the bowl during a heavy rain. That's insane! Not only do I have to pay $500, my insurance will have to pay $1100 but my rates will go up - all becasue this moron wanted some CDs. . . but it gets better.
So, after all day joking about how this guy is a moron for stealing the worst street value CDs ever, I got another call from the garage and apparently the guy broke into another car and left my CDs in that guys car! So the theif figured out that my CDs were so bad that he wasn't going to get any money for Peter, Paul, and Mary and Aladin that he LEFT them!!!! So I get my CDs back tomorrow! All that damage to my car for what? An owners manual??
So what a Monday! Now Cody and get to carpool for the rest of the week and I get to deal with the body shop to get all my windows replaced and the weatherstripping fixed. AGGGGG... This week had better get better.

Sorry to offend any male readers for refering to my thief as a "he" but no woman would be that stupid to break into a car as messy and dirty as mine - she would have known I had nothing in there - just a bunch of shoes and trash. :)

God hates the Gators.

So here we all, good Gator fans, patient and loyal, but this week I'm done being patient. As everyone knows we have a RIDICULOUSLY hard schedule. And thus far we have managed to make it through with only one loss. So we fell in the polls after our loss and have slowly been working our way back up.
The week before last we made it up to number 4 - only Ohio State and Michigan (who still have to play each other and since one will lose presumably the other will drop below us) and West Virginia were above us. And then West Virginia lost! Yippee - we got to number 3, right? Nope. We won our game vs. Vandy and stupid undefeated Lousiville jumps us to #3 (they were the team that beat West Va.).
Okay, so we pouted a week but moved on. Then Louisville losses on Thursday! Yipee- we should go to #3! And to top it off, #5 Texas, #6 Auburn AND #8 Cal all lose too! We should be set for #3. So we play South Carolina (coached by our old ball coach, Spurrier) and barely sqeak out a win but a W is a W. We should be set!
Until we checked the polls today and we're number FOUR! What??? Who in the world does these things? USC (last week #7 to our last week #4) JUMPED US!! That's insane! I swear God hates the Gators.
So now we need to win big, need Cal to beat USC and then USC to beat Notre Dame (just in case some pollsters vote them to jump us next!). Football season. Gotta love it. Gotta hate the voters.

Dedicated to Chris

What a weekend - and it all started with a great night out with our friends Chris and Rachel. Yup, that's them in the picture at our party a few months ago - unfortunately I forgot my camera Friday night or I'm sure I would have had more photos. :) Anyway, Chris mentioned that for some reason he has never made the blog so I promised that I would put him and Rachel on the blog and rave about how great they are and how wonderful they are as a couple and as people. Good things it's all true because I'd really hate to lie on my own blog. :) Anyway, we went out to the Central West End, which is lovely, in addition to being close to our house. We had a great time hanging out with them and had fun meeting Rachel's sister and her gang (her sister's getting married in January in Key West - only a few more months to go for her). Can't wait to hang out with them again.

Insane.

It's been a while since I last posted. As usual, things have been insane. I won't bore you with details, but we did have a great trip to Nashville last weekend to watch the Gators beat up on the SEC whipping boy, Vanderbilt. I swear there were more Gator fans then Vandy - it was almost like a home game. Good fun was had by all - pictures will be up soon.

Upon returning to STL it was time to get serious on this wedding. When we got engaged I thought I had all the time in the world to plan the best party of my life. Then we spent the entire spring planning the Germany trip. Then we went to Germany and I came back crazy sick so that took almost a month. Then it was full blown summer which you just can't let slip by you here - you have to enjoy every sunny moment of it. Then it was fall and trips. And now it's winter - and less the FIVE months from the wedding! Needless to say I'm freaking out. But this week we've gotten quite a bit done. Cody has been working on the DJ situation and the officiant and I've been hard at work on the photographer and Save-The-Date cards (which I thought was funny has an acronym of "STD"). The cards are almost done but I still have to finish up some addresses, put on stamps and get them in the mail. It's coming along slowly but surely I suppose. I made out a master list of things to do so that should streamline things a bit hopefully.

In other news, we had our first soccer game tonight of the new season. We have some really nice (and good soccer player) new people which is always nice. I'm getting better - slighty- still not good but just not as crappy. I'm enjoying it though.

We decided we are going to try to make it to Tally for Thanksgiving this year. It's an insane trip - absolutely insane - 13 hours on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, three Thanksgiving meals in one day, a super busy Friday, hopefully FSU v. Florida on Saturday and then drive back on Sunday. And while it's insane and I bitch and moan about it there's just somethign about being home at Thanksgiving that just can't be replaced. Plus there's wedding stuff we need to do there. :)

Sorry for the break in blogging -blame it on the insaneness - now that the internet and computer are all working great I should be back to normal with blogging. Take care.

It's Alive!!

We finally have internet back! I haven't been able to do any blogging, emailing or looking up of websites all week because our stupid cable internet has been down. When I talked to them yesterday they actually admitted that "It looks like the problem might be on our end." Wow! Amazing - the first time I've ever heard a cable/tv/phone/internet/water/electricity/gas/etc. provider say anything was THEIR fault! I was shocked. Anyway, they sent someone out and we now have internet back. Yipee.
Now that I'm home from work to wait for the cable guy, I should go pack, as we're leaving for Nashville in a few hours to go watch the Gators play Vandy! It should be a blast! The Music City Gator Club puts on a huge party tonight for a pep-rally type thing. It's quite a good time - I'm sure I'll have lots to post about it on Sunday. :)