We're back. . .

Well, we made it back from Tallahassee safe and sound. We had a great time with everyone, though, as always, we regret not having more time, or "enough" time - though I don't know how much time it would take to be "enough" because whatever we have is never enough. Saturday, I got to hang out with my mom, run some errands, do mommy-daughter stuff, and work on the wedding planning. Not so much the planning per se, but the organization of my piles of crap and a discussion and brainstorming session. Saturday evening we hung out with Cody's family to celebrate his sister's 30th birthday. It really seems like just yesterday I remember celebrating her 21st birthday with his family. Boy does time fly. Anyway, we had a great time hang out, catching up, playing with the kids, discussing the wedding and watching old family videos. It was errie how Baylee is so much like Sara was in the videos. I can only hope and pray my kids won't be like me - I was a terror - or so I've been told numerous times. :) Anyway, Sunday we saw both families again, packed up the kitties in the kitty carrier (actually we borrowed a friend's doggie carrier), and stopped by to see some more family. We got to see Dianne (my stepmom), my step-grandparents (who are just like any real set of grandparents to me - there is absolutely nothing "step" about them - they are truly truly wonderful people - I really couldn't ask for anything more from a step-family then I already have), David and Kim, and Athena and Aurora. I know I'm probably prejudice but those girls really are gorgeous - I keep telling David he's going to have to beat the boys with sticks to keep them away. :) It was great to see them, even if for such a short time. Then it was off for another 13 hour drive home - but we made it.

As for wedding news, we sort of got the weekend of events roughly planned out. I'm going to try to post a ton more on the website coming soon, but tonight I'm just too tired. :) Thanks the to absolute genius of Cody's mom (who is the GREATEST wedding planner ever - whether she wants to or not, she's sort of been nominated - she's been AMAZING), we figured out our rehersal dinner deliema. We're doing the rehersal at the gardens but then for the dinner, since we wanted to invite all of the out-of-town guests (and in-town since we never see anyone), we're going to have a pool party at the hotel! We're getting my favorite restraunt (Sonny's) to cater it - should be a total blast! I love it - totally low-key and very "us"! We also finished asking all the bridesmaids this weekend but Cody's still working on his groomsmen. We also asked our three amazing nieces to be flower girls, David to play a song on guitar and Kim to read a passage at the wedding (actually I meant to ask her but haven't yet - plan to email her tonight - so I hope she doesn't read this before I ask her). :) I'm really getting excited!! Now I just have to find a dress and photographer ASAP! Well, no sleep last night so off to bed early tonight. . ..

I type about as much as I talk.

I just realized I type obnoxiously long blogs. People who know me know how much I talk. Now I think I type as much as I talk - but not as fast (though I'm still a pretty fast typer - I talk crazy fast). Anyone who made it through that last one deserves a cookie - and probably needs a beer by the time they're done. :)

What a whirlwind week!

What a crazy week. Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad - normal stuff - work, come home and go work out, clean the house. Cody's been working late lately because they're trying to finish up a big project so nothing too exciting those days. Wednesday everything was blown around, quite literaly.

First, I had an appointment with the otologist my ENT (ear, nose and throat) refered me to in an attempt to fix my ears. They did an audio test thing and my right ear was pretty good but my left ear has lost quite a bit of hearing since this bird flu thing. I basically can't hear much of anything of out it - the doctor described it as "substantial hearing loss." So he poked around in my ear, did some more tests and suggested one, possibly two surgeries. SURGERIES!?!? I just wanted some stupid eardrops to make it all better. I certainly didn't sign up for surgery, much less the possibility of two! Anyway, he wants to do the first one as soon as possible - it will basically fix the large hole in my eardrum (which while it has been there for at least 10 years, got much larger as a result of said bird flu and is causing said hearing loss - at least presumably) and then do another mastoidectomy (I had this surgery already when I was 9 years old). Then, assuming some of the loss is also due to otosclerosis (every female on my mother's side of the family has had it going back at least to my great-grandma), he wants to do a stapendectomy second (they can't do it at the same time because there can't be a hole in your eardrum when they do the second one). Fun fun. I'm not a huge fan of doctors to begin with, much less when they want to cut my head open. So, needless to say, this pretty much freaked me out Wednesday. In addition to the whole cutting at my head thing, these things are not cheap. I have health insurance, it's just not great (only covers 80% after my deductible), while Cody has rock star insurance. So now the deliema - wait until the wedding so I can get on his insurance (and live without hearing in one ear until and through the wedding), pay for the 20% (can't imagine that will be cheap), or go to the courthouse, get married and still have the reception next year. Too much to think about. . .

So, in the midst of all that stress, Marissa was nice enough to take me out wedding dress shopping Wednesday. The first shop (in a mirror of Saturday's excursion) was total crap and didn't have anything remotely wonderful. Most looked like nightgowns. Then we found another shop so I could try on two of the dresses I liked from Saturday. Well, I knocked out on of the gowns from Saturday but found two more. First, I love Watters gowns (www.watters.com). I'm not a big name brand person or anything, but seriously, every dress I tried of theirs was gorgeous. I'll put up pictures later with links to the website (I'm assuming Cody won't look because he's more supersticious then I am and it's unlikely he even made it this far in the blog). :) So on our way back into town from the burbs it started storming. Not just a summer shower, but I seriously felt like we were in a hurricane. To cut to the chase, this was the storm that's been all over the news. By the time I got home, we'd lost power. We still do not have power. It's been over two days now and they don't have an estimate as to when it will be back on - hopefully by Monday.

So, we arrive home to find no electricity on the hotest day of the year thus far (turns out Thursday would be an even hotter day). Cody and I hang out in the house, all windows open and candles burning and try everything we can think of to get the house cooler. It was no use. We finally managed to sleep a little Wednesday night in the heat, but we knew that wouldn't last. Since we were already planning a trip to Tally (still needed to pick up the fur balls), we just moved it up a bit. We went to work Thursday, came home, packed and got on the road. It wasn't even worth trying to take a nap in the house before we left - it was a sauna. We emptied the fridge and took anything still good in the fridge and freezer to a friend's house for storage and drove through the night.

So we made it to Tally today and have been checking the electric company website to see if our power is back on yet or if they at least have an estimate - no luck yet. I feel really bad for the fish because they're probably boiling by now, but hopefully they'll all make it since they're tropical fish. While it's great to be in Tally and not have to worry about the heat and no power, I hate to leave the house in such a state. Plus there was another storm today and we haven't had anyone drive by yet to make sure my car is okay and there is no damage to the house. I guess this is what we get for living in the midwest. Hopefully all will be fine by Sunday when we get home.

In other news, while in Tally today, I finally renewed my car registration (it was due in March). Yes I still register my car in Florida - so I don't have to pay the yearly personal property tax in Missouri on my car. Then I got a new cell phone because I pretty much destroyed mine - the hinge broke on this phone for the second time - I'm just not lucky with cell phones (I'm also not the gentlest with them either). It was also my mom's birthday today so we had a nice little party at my aunt's house - a good ole' seafood fest with crab claws and shrimp - oh, and of course cake. :) I think this is the first time I've been in Tally for my mom's birthday since I was probably 17 years old - I always ended up being out of town. Not this year.

Well, I'm beat from the 13 hour drive - time to sleep. Hope everyone in St. Louis is okay and is getting power back!!

Glitch fixed.

Just in case you all were wondering, the pictures that weren't working on the Germany pictures page of the website are now working again. Stupid FTP program.

Quick Update

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last. Usually that means either nothing has been going on or so much has been going on that I haven't had time to post. This time I guess I have no real excuse as I've been somewhere in the middle.
Last week was moderately uneventful. I went to an amazing ear specialist on Monday who actually had a clue what was going on with my ears. He gave me some meds for the acute problem (gross drainage stuff) and refered me to a specialist for the ongoing problems (large hole in eardrum for quite some time and hearing losS). So that was quite successful after several horrible experiences with my primary doctor who didn't even see the damn hole in my ear.
Wednesday we had a Partners v. Associates softball game at work. It all started because the associates have a softball team but haven't ever won a legit game (they have two wins via forfeits because the other team did not have enough players) so the partners "challenged" them. Turns out that was a bad idea since the associates won 19-7. At least they finally won a game. I was the creative coordinator for the game and came with signs reading "Partners put the SLOW in slowpitch" and "We'll show you who's boss."
Thursday I got my hair cut much shorter then it's been in a while. I was not kind to my hair while in Germany and it needed a cut anyway.
Friday we went to "Live on the Levee" at the Arch and saw Better then Ezra and Sister Hazel. The latter was pretty good, the former was an arogant Screach-looking fellow who's best songs were covers. The fireworks were amazing. I think everyone who is ever stress, depressed or otherwise unhappy, should be forced to watch fireworks as therapy, as they are incredibly soothing and make you really realize how small we all are.
Saturday, Marissa and I went wedding dress shopping. She was such a trooper and SO patient with my indecisive self. She was amazing at conveying to the sales people what I liked and didn't much better then I could. I think we found two possiblities. I'll put links for them up tomorrow. They wouldn't let us take pictures (thought the gowns are online) so I've got to go back on a non-busy day this week to take pictures and get everyone's opinion (not Cody's though). Saturday evening we went to Sabrina's husband's 30th birthday party. I think between Cody and our work friends they floated the keg by 10pm. :) A good time was had by all.
Today Cody had soccer, but it was so damn hot I didn't even bother to run. I was feeling very hot and lazy. :) We ran errands, did a super cleaning of the turtle tank and then hung around the house.
Now off to bed. . .

More Germany Updates

Okay, two weeks after we got back from our trip, all the pictures are finally posted. I finished narrating the trip as well as posting all the pictures Dude took. His camera has a crazy good zoom so he has some great pictures of the games and other stuff where I couldn't take pictures (inside the Louvre, etc.). If you are just insanely bored or have an amazing amount of time on your hands, check them out. :)
As for other news, I'm still sick, though have resorted to being sick of being sick so I'm at least back to running a little bit. I'm debating whether I have enough time to train for the Chicago marathon after 6 weeks of no running while recovering from stress fractures in my shins and then two weeks of no running because I was sick. I ran two miles on Friday and felt okay, but was just exhausted later. Today while Cody was playing soccer I ran a while, but still didn't feel great afterwards. Hopefully by the end of the week I can make a decision.

Tired of being sick!!! Oh, and I hate my car.

Okay, this is getting really really old. I am so sick of being sick! My ear is still in crazy pain and my head just will not get uncongested! I finally went to the doctor and was told, gasp, that I have a hole in my eardrum. Thanks genius! I already knew that- goes to figure why there is stuff ozzing out of it! Enough gross sick stuff. On to other news. . .
So, for the second time since returning from Germany, I had to travel for work. Not to complain because I really enjoy my travel time - I love mileage checks and it's nice to get out of the office for a day. But for the second time since returning to Germany, my car gave out on my trip. Last week it was my car battery simply dying when I went to turn on the car. Today, I was on my way to Columbia, crossed the bridge over the Missouri River, and my right front tire blew out! At that point, I thought I must have done something pretty bad in a past life to deserve this karma. Anyway, I changed the tire, Cody game and met me, and we switched out cars so I could take his to Columbia. He, being the great guy he is, took my car to the store and got a new tire put on.
So, as I close out day 658 of my illness, all is still good in the world, as at least tomorrow is Friday. :)

Happy 4th of July . . . . hope you don't have bird flu

I hope everyone had a fun and enjoyable 4th of July. Typically this is one of my favorite holidays, not because I'm overly patriotic (with today's government, quite the opposite), but because it's about the pure joy of family, friends and fun. There is really no stress involved (New Year's is another fave but it's in the winter, which I hate, so that bumps it down on the list), just barbeque, beer, fireworks and good fun. Until this year. Until bird flu (again, I really do not have bird flu, but it certainly feels like it). I haven't written in a few days, basically because they've been the worst few days in recent memory and I've done nothing worth writing about. And I mean nothing. I was so excited for the weekend to get some things done and hang out with Cody, until I came home from work Friday feeling like a truck hit me. But while him and Dude played hours of drunk chess, I gathered my energy and worked on painting the dining room ceiling. I was doing okay for a while until I really started to fade fast. So I slept. Saturday I was awful. Awful. Awful. I woke Cody up, we went to Wal-Mart, stocked up on tissues, juice and cold medicine and I stayed in bed ALL DAY. Sunday was no better. I just sat in bed and worked on my scrapbooks (in the good news category, I at least got some work done on the ole' scrapbooks). Monday I went to work, felt absolutley horrible, so for the first time since starting this job 1.5 years ago, I left work early because I was sick. I came home and crashed. Last night when Cody called (he was working late) I was almost in tears with the pain and pressure in my head and ear. He came home, did everything he could to help, but sure enough I was awakened at 4am with my ear draining nasty stuff. My worst pain fear had arrived - my stupid ear gave out on me and the pressure ruptured my eardrum and was draining fluid out of my ear. Gross. Super gross and super pain. So I waited until 8 am to call the on-call doctor, only to have her call me in an antibiotic. Oh well.
Okay, enough about being sick. Bird flu sucks and I am the biggest baby when I get really sick. I am pretty good with normal colds and flus and I'm usually pretty tough, but once I cross a certain treshold I just melt and become 4 years old again. Anyway, with other news, Germany lost to Italy today. A tragic defeat. 119 minutes of scoreless soccer. Only one minute to go until the game is decided in penalty kicks. And Italy scores. And then with less then one minute to go, they score again. Heartbreaking. I can't even imagine that country tonight. Absolute sorrow.
Went and saw the fireworks tonight downtown. It was sort of raining/sprinkling so we watched them from our parking garage - too bad there was another building right in the way. Still got to see a good bit of them so it was still cool. No BBQ and beer though - doesn't go too well with bird flu.
I really really really hope this thing is over soon.

Germany pictures are up. . . at least some.

All of the pictures I took in Germany are now on the webpage - www.cody-missy.com. I haven't finished the commentaries yet (it's late and I've got the bird flu and need my sleep), but plan to do so tomorrow. Dude also took a ton of pictures, which as soon as I track him down and torture him, I will put them up as well. Enjoy.

Make sure to watch Germany beat up on Argentina tomorrow - 10 am central time, ESPN!

Papertowel Inspiration

I buy cheap papertowels. Sparkle brand I think. I buy them because in every 12 pack there is at least 3 rolls with frogs on them and I like frogs. The other designs are okay too - some strawberries, maybe some flowers or seashells. So my frogs ran out, I went to the basement, got a new roll and realized my cheap papertowels are now inspirational. On each sheet: "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." Okay, so I found that odd that my papertowels are now coming with inspirations. Maybe I've just had too much wine tonight. I should probably stop blogging now.

Why I love my husband-to-be . . .

There are about a zillion reasons, everything from the way he is so patient with my insane moods, my crazy way of doing things/going through life and my general nuttiness, to the way he puts the cap back on the toothpaste because he knows I like it that way. But on our trip one thing he said really stood out from the array of other things he does. It was warm out one day, but not particularly hot. A temperature that I would usually be quite comfortable with, but one that most people might comment on. Anyway, he said to me, quite nonchalantly, "Are you hot?" and I said something to the effect of, "Yeah, normally I love this temperature but for some reason I'm really warm." Feeling like that was a sort of odd question, I inquired, "Why do you ask?" He responded back, just as it were any old comment, "Because the hair on the back of your neck is curling and it usually does that when you get hot." For whatever reason, that really struck me. How in the hell does he notice me enough to know that the hair on the back of my neck curls when I'm hot!??! I don't even know that! You know that someone must really care about you to notice those little everyday things that no one else would ever take the time to learn or notice.

This trip also gave me a lot of time to think and really regroup - not only on Cody and our relationship (which I realized was even more special then I ever realized) but on live in general. Even with as hectic as things were and how much we were running around, being away from the US and the day to day grind really gave me a time to reflect. But since we're on the boy subject, I'll just note a quick thing on this topic and comment on the others as they strike me.

It's no secret that I'm not getting married at 21, or even 25 for that matter. Cody's not the first guy I ever dated. We've both lived lives, sometimes together and others separate, and had an opportunity to really see the world, sort to speak, in terms of what's out there in relationships. While on one hand, it would have been a great story to tell had we stayed together after high school and then college and then gotten married and had 3 kids by now, that's not what life had in store for us. On the other hand, we both got to really grow up and figure out who we really were as people individually and what we wanted from a relationship. This time around we really understood what it takes to make these things work, what works and what doesn't and most important, what we want and need to be happy in a relationship.

For me, that was not so easy to figure out. I had the sort of stupid Jerry McGuire attitude of wanting to find someone to "complete me." But in order for someone else to complete you, you have to be incomplete yourself. Only after being alone, being in good and bad relationships, did I realize that you have to be complete before you add another person. You can't (or at least I can't) need someone else to make you whole. And on that note, that's why I love Cody. He doesn't so much "complete me" as he does "complement me." He really lets me be me. And that's not an easy task. He doesn't expect to change me or want me to be someone else. The first time we dated I tried really hard to be what I thought he wanted and that just didn't work (obviously). This time around I'm me and it works for us. He lets me watch stupid cartoon movies (even if he hates them and thinks they're retarded, he accepts that's me). He understands when I get cranky and yell that it's not him but usually something else that's bothering me. He lets me dress like a stupid hippy and braid my hair into 156 braids and just understands that's me. He understands that sometimes I want him to come to Wal-Mart with me, not because I need help shopping or can't do it myself, but because I just want to spend time with him. I could go on and on and on here for pages and bore the death out of anyone who's even made it this far. But in the end, what I found (at least for me) is one of the most important things is finding someone who lets me be me, good and bad and the ugly. Thanks Cody for complimenting me.

We're back . . . now I have Bird Flu

Wow - what a trip. And what a few days back. Makes me really wish I were back in Germany. So we get back on Sunday, Glenn picked us up and brought us home and Cody proceeded to bed. I stayed up in an effort to try to get back on US time as soon as possible. So even though I was dead tired, I stayed up and cleaned a bit and did some laundry. Then I went to bed. Then I woke up at 5am (noon Germany time) and just couldn't get back to sleep. So I went to work. I checked my calendar and found I needed to be in Jefferson City for a mediation at 2pm. So I left work around noon and headed out. I stopped by the house to get a bottle of water, but then when I got back in the car it was dead. Totally dead. So I called the other attorney frantic, only to find out the mediation wa Tuesday! AGGG!! Now I had left work early to go to a mediation that didn't exist and my car was dead! So I waited until Cody got home and we went to Wal-Mart for a new battery - and four hours later we were still there. The good news we at least got some more cold medicine and Cody got a new watch (his old one broke somewhere in Switzerland). So we get home, both feeling like crap - I'm convinced we have the Bird Flu (for anyone who doesn't know my sense of humor, I'll go ahead and insert a disclaimer - WE DO NOT REALLY HAVE BIRD FLU - IT'S A JOKE!).
So yesterday I ended up at the mediation in Jefferson City and Cody worked late. I busted my butt when I got home trying to get the trip pictures downloaded but had hard drive space issues. I went through deleting everything I could think off which turned out to include my website creater, Frontpage. So when we finally got all the pictures downloaded I couldn't put them on the webpage. AGGGG!! Then Cody got home, fixed the disk space problem in about 2 minutes and I was an idiot for deleting everything. Now I can't reinstall Frontpage because I have a pirated copy and can't find my pirated key code!
So we get to bed after me wanting to throw the computer against the wall, only for me to wake up at 2am with the worst sore throat ever. So I take some medicine, get back to bed, only to wake up again at 6am when the medicine wore off and can't get back to sleep. So I go to work. I try to convince everyone I have bird flu but they don't buy it - though they did say if I infected them, they at least wanted a fun quarantine.
Now we're trying to figure out how to get the picture online while we eat our first tomato from our garden. At least there's a bright side. No sleep in Germany is way better then no sleep in St. Louis.

To the Germans . . .

My last post before we leave Germany is for Cody's German relatives (hopefully they'll read it).
. . .

Thank you all for EVERYTHING!! You have been so wonderful to us! We are so thankful to have such wonderful family in Germany and can not wait to come back to see you again! Thank you so much for taking us to the train station, picking us up at the train station, for all the food and beer, for all the wonderful gifts, and more then anything for all your time! You are all so wonderful and we had such a wonderful time in Germany with you! I am so lucky to marry into such a great family! We hope to see you at the wedding and on our next trip to Germany!! Thank so so much for everything! Viele Dank!

Back to Cody's family . . . back to internet

Wow -so many stories to tell! As much as I love to travel, I really can't wait to download all my pictures at home and have a chance to write up all the stories to go with each crazy adventure. :) Well, we're almost done. Almost back to our own beds and our own food (I hate schnitzel and if I ever see another Döner kabob it will be too soon) and our own pace, but at the same time I absolutely hate to say good-bye to Germany (and vacation). We're back at Cody's family now after spending a great few days in München and Berlin. We saw the fairytale castle that Disney modeled Cinderella's after, Neuswantein (that is most definitely spelled wrong), and the concentration camp, Daucau. After seeing Daucau (near Munich) we saw the Checkpoint Charlie museum of the Wall and a Jewish memorial in Berlin - talk about three depressing, yet very moving experiences. Now we're here, plan to watch the Germany game tomorrow (in case you are stuck in a hole or just hate sports, Germany made it to the second round with three wins and the US did not with 2 losses and one tie (which was given to them by an Italian own goal)), and catch our plane in Brussels on Sunday. Then expect in the near future a fantastic (as least I'll find it interesting) recount of the trip on the website. :)
So much to write about as there has been so much to think about and so much time to just let your mind wander rather then think about the laundry, the dishes, the bills, work, cleaning the house, working in the yard, working out, etc. Good times.
Hope all is good!

Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Lichetenstein . . . ROCK

Quick update. After leaving Cody's folks place we headed to the Rhine River valley where we spent two days going up and down the river on a boat and climbing mountains to see cool castles - quite cool. Then we took a train down to Switzerland, went to Basel, Interlachen, and some other city I can't remember. Then took a sight-seeing train through Lichtenstein and then stayed in Innsbrook (Austria) overnight. Today we arrived in Munich (yes, again - it rocks that much) where we spent the day mostly watching the World Cup games and touring the various beer gardens. Fun fun fun! I'm dreading going back to work on Monday already . . . .though I am looking forward to the wicked scrapbook I can make out of this trip!

Environmental Policies

One more thing - their environmental policies are awesome here! I'm sure I will write much much more about it when I get back, but just wanted to let anyone who was wondering know that!

German relatives ROCK!

Well, it's about 1 am here in Deutschland and we had a great day hanging out with Cody's awesome German relatives! We first went to Norbert's (not sure that's spelled right, but he's also known as "Mr. Blister" for the time he came to the US when Cody was a kid and got terribly burnt at Panama City beach) house and hung out with him and his wife and kid (cute four year old) for a while. Then we headed to Klause's house and had a fun family BBQ (in German style we had brats and pork chops (I think that's what it was)). Great time was had by all! I absolutely love his German relatives!! They are so wonderful and even though I speak very little and very bad German, they are so patient with me and really try to understand me and try to speak English with me as much as they can (their English is way better then my German!). Tomorrow morning we are off to the Rhine River to see some of the old castles down there and to take a boat on the river for a while. I do insist on finding a place to watch the USA v. Italy game tomorrow though - don't miss it!!! I believe it's at 9 pm here so that would be about 3 pm in Tally and 2pm in STL. Also, if anyone happened to tape any of the games we saw (mentioned in previous post), especially the USA v. Czech game, please let me know because we had great seats and during the USA the Czech guy who scored ran right in front of us (we had first row tickets to the right of the goal) so I'm thinking we might have been on TV. :) Now that we'll be leaving his relatives, I'm not sure if I'll be able to find internet again soon, but I'll try. Take care!

Deutchland ist sehr gut!

Greeting from Germany! I have finally found internet at the same time that blogger is working - no small miracle I tell you! Anyway, we have had so many crazy adventures so far - too many to possibly post right now, but all is good. As some of you may know, American Airlines totally screwed up our flight out of St. Louis so we didn't actually arrive in Paris until the day after we were supposed to - that left us with about two days to do all of Paris - not a possible feat - thanks to crappy American Airlines (who by the way did nothing at all to compensate us for losing an entire day of our trip). Upon arriving in Paris it took us almost 2 hours to get out of the airport because none of us speek ANY French and we couldn't figure out these stupid machines or then how to get change (we got Euros but needed coins instead of bills for the machines). Anyway, we got out of the airport, onto the train to Paris, got a hotel and saw as many of the sights we could in two days - The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Sacre Coure, St. Sulpice (yes, Jason and I both recently read The Da Vinci Code), etc. Then we were off to Köln (Cologne for American's) where Cody's uncle (actually just an older cousin, but an uncle of sorts) picked us up and took us to his home in Marl. We hung out with his family that night and had quite a little party.
The next day the madness really began! We woke up (after sleeping a ton since we got no sleep on our crappy airplane ride and were still behing), went to The World Cup Fan Fest in Gelsinkirchen (not spelled right), and then we were off to our first World Cup game - US v. Czech Republic. In case you've been stuck in a box for a week, we got killed 3-0, but the experience was AMAZING! Most games we follow in America, the teams play for their city - in the World Cup they are playing for their entire country - and while in America we might not find that too intriguing (not great soccer fans), in the rest of the world that is HUGE! Great game nonetheless. That night we were on a train to Berlin for our next game - long messed up train story goes here but not enough time to write it all out. We finally arrived in Berlin the next morning, met up with Cody's family who had driven there (because his cousin Patrick was going to the game with us in Berlin) and were off to see the sights of Berlin. Great time, but everyone's feet were hurting like crazy by the end of the day. Seeing the Berlin Wall in person was quite an experience - as was Brandenburg Tor (that's the Brandenburg Gate). The game that night was Brazil (reigning World Cup winners for those that don't follow such things) v. Croatia (not a great team but their fans were amazing). The energy in that game was palpable (especically compared to the relatively lame and subdued US fans). Brazil, of course, won. Then we were on our second night train in a row to Munich. At least this one was over four hours so we got a few hours of sleep. Munich was a much different city, but still very neat. They are VERY into their beer gardens. :) The game that night was Tunisa v. Saudi Arabia. Another great set of fans who were really into the game and loved their country's team. After this game, we hung out at a beer garden watching Germany win their second World Cup match in the last minute. The entire country shuts down when their team plays - quite an amazing thing to see. Then we were on yet ANOTHER night train - this time to Hamburg. The train was booked solid so Jason and I actually slept on the floor under the luggage racks (we have great pictures of this). While that may sound pretty crappy, I must admit is was more comfortable then sleeping in the train seats (even though we have a first class train pass - not by choice though since we're now all too old to get the second class passes - good thing though since second class has been booked on every train we've been on and first has been relatively easy to get seats). Our last game was Costa Rica v. Equador in Hamburg. Another great stadium, more great teams and spirit, but by this time we were all dead tired - we were just simply beat after having slept so little on the trains. Off we were after the game for one more train ride - this time to Essen where Cody's cousin/uncle picked us up and brought us back to his family's home in Marl. We ate and then passed out, not waking up until 14 hours later, more because we were hungry then over our tiredness. :) So that's where we are now, hanging out with his family, trying to figure out where our adventures take us next. So many more adventures to tell of, but they'll have to wait until I'm back on an American keyboard and have more time.
Hope all is well back in the states!
Oh - one more thing - I'm actually learning a bit of German -this from a person who took YEARS of Latin and learned nothing and who lived in France for two months and learned no French! I'll impress everyone when I return with "Das is gut" and such! Take care!

Officially Gone.

We're heading out. Have fun out there while we're gone. I hope to post blog updates while we're gone but we'll have to see how that works out for me. :) Take care - many stories (and random pictures) to come. . . . . Don't hold your breath.

Website Update

FYI - New pictures are now up on the website (the last update B.G - Before Germany) - some of my backyard project, my birthday weekend and other random stuff. Enjoy. About 24 hours left until we take off and we have about 48 hours worth of stuff to do - though we do have the preliminary packing done. :)

100th POST!

Why the insane number of posts tonight? Well, when I logged on to blog, intending to write a quick Germany blog, I realized I was at 96 posts. So I posted away until I hit 100! Yippee! I have written a hundred entries, posted into cyberspace, about not-a-hell-of-a-lot. Anyway, I'm going to try to stay updated as much as I can while overseas but it's all going to depend on the availablility of internet cafes, my willingness to take time out to use them, and my general disposition of the day. :)

Germany here we come!

Well, about 38 hours until we hop on the plane for our World Cup adventure! I just realized that I've yet to post our tentative itinerary here so here goes: Thursday: leave STL, fly through Chicago to Paris. Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Paris. Sunday: train to Essen to see Cody's relatives. Monday: drive to Gelsenchirken with Cody's cousin (Patrick) to see USA v. Czech Republic that night, then drive to Berlin. Tuesday: Berlin - watch Brazil v. Crotia - train to Munich. Wednesday: Munich - watch Tunisa v. Saudi Arabia - train to Hamburg. Thursday: Hamburg - watch Costa Rico - train back to Berlin. Here's where it gets more speculative. The rest of the trip we're going to try to hit Berlin (again, because one day just isn't enough to see Berlin), then Krakow (Poland for those asleep during geography class) and Auschwitz, possible Prague and Vienna, then back to Munich (again, can't see this one in the one day we'll be there for the game) and Neuschwanstein (the castle Cinderella's castle at Disney was modeled after), then up the Rhine River to see the castles and wineries, only to arrive at Brussels to eat some chocolate and waffles and fly out. This WAS our plan until we realized that of the 18 countries on our Eurorail pass, Poland is not one of them. So it's stupid for us to pay to go there when there are 18 other countries we can travel by train to for FREE (well, not free but we already paid for them). So now we're back to square one - where to go in the eastern portion of Europe that will take our passes and still be cool? Humm.... Things to ponder on the plane ride over. Good thing no one we're going with is really up on the planning thing . . . .

Myspace

So there's this thing called Myspace apparently. According to 60 minutes it leads to kids to be abducted, raped and killed. Deserted allies? No longer an issue. Myspace is the new deserted ally- or so says 60 minutes - and it will ruin your kids. Good thing I'm not a kid. :) Anyway, point being, I signed up a while ago but never bothered to check it. So, my brother David (formerly known as Jack and even more formerly, known as David), sent an email the other day and in his signature block was his Myspace account. So I checked it out, added him as a friend and now I'm up to FIVE friends! I have FIVE friends! And they're all people I know - not just the guy named Tom that everyone automatically gets as a friend! Anyway, I think it's going to be pretty cool. It has a blog feature but since I have this blog I'm just going to find a way to feed it into the myspace blog - easier said then done. Anyway, if any of my five friends are reading this - welcome to my blog!

Birthday Weekend

Wow - been a while since I blogged last (yes, I suppose "blogged" can be a verb, as I realized "Wikipedia" can also be a verb today - as in "I don't buy that crap, let's Wikipedia it.")! Since last Wednesday, I had my very own "birthday weekend" - I figured since it seems all of our STL friends celebrate their birthday's for obnoxious amounts of time (the best was Jeffy's "birthday month" - NO FAIR) I could too. Anyway, two of the things I love the most I hardly ever get here and that's the sun and water - so we went to Greg's pool and hung out. Cody, of course, neglected the sunscreen and got burned, I sported the baby oil and got just a darker shade of my new midwest pale (in Florida I always enjoyed my skin - here it's an odd shade of yellow - midwest pale, I call it). Fun in the sun is always good. Then we went out.
On Sunday, Meghan, Danny and the baby came over and we went to the Botanical Gardens (one mof my top three STL places, along with The Zoo and City Museum) so I could check out the Chihuly (glass sculptor dude) art stuff around the garden. Quite cool (I'll post pictures on the website later). Elizabeth actually seemed to be enjoying the gardens until the end and then she got tired and just did nost want to be there anymore. So we left, had a yummy veggie lasagna and cheese cake (courtesy of the Meghan kitchen), and hung out.
Yesterday, on the actual b-day we hung out, went to The Shafly Brewery with Marissa and Cassidy and hung out at home working on getting together for Germany!
Thanks to all who sent their birthday wishes and made it special - much appreciated!

Corn Country

As most of you know, I fondly refer to my current residence as Corn Country. In the winter, it's Cold Corn Country. Yes, I live in a state where one of the biggest income producers is corn. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Anyway, I've been working in my yard a lot lately (instead of running) trying to finish this raised bed I'm building and planting a bunch of stuff - today while I was planting some bulbs, banana trees and elephant ears I was frustrated by the utter hardness and dryness of the ground. It was like rock -the ground was impossibly hard to dig in. Now, you figure a state that bases so much of its income on crops would have good ground. Nope. I don't know how anything can grow here. So that means a lot of mulch and purchased top soil.
On another, much sadder (I know, it's hard to imagine anything sadder then my crappy dirt) note, Andrew Thompson died this weekend in Tally Town. He is my neice's dad and a family friend. He was only a few weeks away from turning 26, so that just adds even more tragedy to the pain. I can't even imagine what his family is going through and can only wish them my deepest condolences. I am so thankful that I have happy and healthy family and friends.
To end on a happier note, Cody and I made some more awesome salsa tonight and I bought a new hose. :) I wish everyone the safest and happiest of days. Take care of yourself!

Crazy Weekend

I didn't even realize this picture was on my camera until I downloaded the pictures tonight, but I realized it tells the story of the entire weekend.

As most know, we went to Tally this weekend to take the cats to my moms so she can watch them while we're in Germany (we decided that 18 days was just too long to leave them by themselves) and to finalize some wedding details. Needless to say, it was quick and busy. We intended to leave as early as possible on Friday, but of course we ended up heading out much later then anticipated. After arriving in Florida Saturday morning we did some sleeping, checked out our wedding reception site, the wedding ceremony site, did dinner with my mom's family on Saturday, Cody's family on Sunday, and then drove back today. This picture was taken Sunday night at Cody's sister's house. She gave me a bunch of bachelorette stuff for my birthday so I was wearing the veil and just crashed (I was beat - after the 13 hour drive and then not getting enough sleep). The cutest part of the picutre is that Baylee (our ADORABLE three year old niece) brought her blanket over and covered me up. How cute. Lots of news from the weekend - will write more on it tomorrow.

Accomplishment!

Here's a picture of my newest project - a raised bed in the backyard! I've been bummed about not running this week so I've sunk myself into finishing this project. And it's almost done - at least the frame for the bed is built - now I just have to dig up some more dirt in the high part of the yard to transfer to the bed and then buy some good dirt from the store for the top. Yipee! See, the yard is a crazy slope so I flatted out the top of the yard for the veggie garden and took the dirt and moved it to the bottom of the yard to fill in the deep part of the raised bed. Then I took a ton of landscaping ties and built them level so the bed is level and stacked them to compensate for the slopped yard - that's why one side is crazy high and the other is level with the ground. Anyway, now I just have to get the dirt set up and I can plant it all up. My goal is to get it done before we go to Germany so when we get back I'll have all sorts of pretty plants instead of a dirt pile. :)

FYI

Lots of new pictures on the website. There's (1) International Gator Day where our UF Alumni Club volunteered at the St. Louis Area Food Bank, (2) Maifest in Herman - a whole blog in itself - tons of random pictures because I got bored and just took random pictures of everything, and (3) The Many Faces of Dude - a collection of pictures of Dude (pretty self-explanatory).
Enjoy. I'll have to tell the whole Maifest story later - including the part where I got pulled over as the designated driver without a Missouri license (I refuse to give up my FL one) and had to convince the cops I wasn't drunk -I guess I just give off the vibe of being intoxicated.

New Shoes

I finally got new running shoes (actually this weekend)! I've been wanting new shoes for quite some time but nice running shoes aren't cheap. I justify the expense by not spending hardly anything on shoes otherwise. Plus I think it's important to have good running shoes when you run a lot to prevent injuries and such (I swear my shoes are the reason my knees got better last year). Anyway, when we travel for work we're reimbursed for mileage and in the beginning of May I went to Columbia, Jefferson City and Rolla which gave me a huge mileage check. Cody and I have worked out a deal with my mileage checks that I get to keep half of it to "blow" on whatever I want (not that I ever really blow money - Cody and I are both rather frugal most of the time) and the other half goes to savings. So this check I got my new shoes. Sweet! They're Saucony's - which before I started running I had never heard of but now I'm in love with - they're light and quite cushy. I'm excited about the shoes - too bad I can't run right now (I can barely walk without crazy shin pain - I see another orthopedist tomorrow morning 8 a.m.). But I was missing running so I thought I would write about my new shoes . . . in case anyone cared. :) Hopefully I'll have happier news after my appointment tomorrow.

She hits. . . . she scores!

Well, not really. . . . again. I guess I'm in the new sports mood lately because tonight I played my first game of softball. Let me preface this with some understanding of St. Louis and softball. This town loves softball. Not really sure why. My guess is it's a rather unathletic game and you drink a lot of beer. Nonetheless, for whatever reason, this town loves the game. I've never played because it just wasn't a big thing in Florida (I've never really known anyone who's ever played, much less for a "league") and I'm not really a team sport person. So I decided to give it a try at the insistent pressuring of our GM. Let's just say softball didn't go as well as soccer and soccer didn't go very well. Sorry to say this for anyone with a love for the game, but softball is not my thing. I'd come right out and say it just sucks but I might get my car bashed in tomorrow, so I'll leave it with it's just not my thing. Another girl didn't want to play either (we both got roped in by the persistent and guilt-tripping GM) so we alternated positions and she batted and I played on the field (right field - which Cody informs me is where they put people who suck - like me). For one my shins hurt like hell so it was crazy painful to even walk out on the outfield and two, there just isn't much to the game. To win you need to pitch, hit and catch. I'll end my tirade now by just saying this is not my game. I will come watch to drink beer though. :)

More Pictures

Here's a picture of some roses I picked from our rose bush in the back yard. I thought I killed the bush in the winter when I cut it all the way to the ground, but I guess it lived since it's now full of red roses!







Here's a picture of an iris in our front yard. Since I don't know too terribly much about flowers, I looked it up online and it's actually named a "Mother Earth Iris." Kinda cool.

A hard pill to swallow

I like to run. I really like to run. I listen to music and clear my head. I get to spend some time chatting and bouncing stuff off Marissa - kinda like my own little therapy. Problem with running is that is sometimes hurts to run.

Last year it was my knees - some kind of patellafemoral syndrome crap. Basically my knees don't come forward right over my toes like their supposed too, but instead come inward. I got some great physical therapy and some new shoes to fix the problem (overpronation it's called) and now my knees are great.

Now it's my shins. But it's not as easy as some new shoes and some physical therapy. I actually have stress fractures (tiny fractures of the bone) in my shins. Quite painful and not an easy thing to fix. Basically the fix is to ice them and STAY OFF THEM. Anyone who knows me knows how damn hard it is for me to sit for any extended period of time. So basically I've been running on them for a few months now thinking they might go away - until last week I ran and they hurt so bad I thought I was going to cry (just ask Marissa). So today I talked to my doctor and the general consensus is - STOP RUNNING! Not forever - but he recommends 6-8 weeks. Well that's just not going to happen (since I really want to run the marathon in October), but I have decided that I'm going to stop running and start back up when we get back from Germany. So I agreed to give it basically five weeks. So now I'm faced with five weeks of no running. While this may sound strange, it's actually quite a depressing thought. I really like my running. Now I'm stuck with becoming totally deconditioned and only able to bike, swim and possibly the elliptical machine (which I like but am only allowed to do if pain free). It's a hard pill to swallow, but hopefully it will be worthwhile and I'll be all better soon.

Kitties on the Pickle Post

Kitties just love it when the window is open and they can perch on the oversized window sill (otherwise known as the "Pickle Post"). They all cram on the sill and watch the world go by outside. How cute.

Random Object Seen in the Alley

You might be asking yourself what in the world is this thing? Good question. We have no clue. Cody passed it every day in the alley after exiting the garage (I don't drive in the alley since I park on the street) and this weekend I was with him when we passed it so I just had to take a picture. Turns out it was gone this morning. One mans trash must be another man's treasure. Too bad we have no clue what that treasure actually is.

A New Look . . .

(1) The Blog. Yeah, there's a new look. Not really on purpose, but sort of stumbled upon it. I was trying to mess around with the Java script on my template (with my basic (read: non-existent) knowledge of computer programming) for the old one and somehow messed up the side bar thing so it didn't line up right. Well, since I had no idea how to fix it I just kept changing the template until one finally worked the way it should. I'll give it a while, see if it grows on me and if not, change back to the old dark one.

(2) The Cardinal's Stadium. A new look here as well. The new stadium actually opened with all its newness back in April but all games are sold out so I hadn't gotten to go to a game yet (Cody actually went to his first game at the stadium last night) - until today. My boss has season tickets and wasn't able to go to the game so he gave us four tickets to the Cardinals v. Mets tonight. It was pretty cool - and pretty good seats (behind home plate on the third level). The stadium is really nifty - very new. I wanted to take pictures of all its newness but left my camera at home. :( I still felt hesitant walking around the place after watching the crews build it so quickly (I can see the stadium from my office) - I didn't quite trust anything that can be built that quickly - I just know they had to have cut corners here and there and since the city wanted that stadium so bad (and for it to open on time) I'm sure any "inspector" would pass just about anything.

That's it for new looks. As for other news, Cody and I talked to his sister tonight and got some information on an officiant to marry us. Larry was great enough to call the guy who married the two of them and he said he would be available to marry us as well. First, it would be cool to be married by the same guy as his sister and Larry (sort of a good luck thing since they're such a good couple). Second, that takes any pressure off us to find someone, because yet again, we just don't care that much about who it is as long as it's legal and they're not a total moron. :) Third, we would have no clue how to even go about finding an officiant, much less one in Tallahassee. And finally, the guy is nondenominational so he will let us keep as much religion in or out of the ceremony as we want and let us pretty much make our own ceremony - definitely good for us.

That's all the news for today. Thanks Sara and Larry - you guys ROCK!

She shoots . . . . she scores!

Well, not really. But I did shoot. Well, almost at least. To get to the point - I played both my first and second games of soccer this weekend!
Cody has been playing soccer since he was a little kid. He was on the State Championship team in highschool. Since moving to St. Louis he has played both indoor and outdoor. Cody knows soccer and he's good at it. I don't even know the rules of soccer (though I do plan to learn them before going to Germany to watch The World Cup - I thought it would be useful)! Well this winter/spring he was in charge of setting up the indoor team in Brentwood. Part of this includes having enough people at each game and since they play co-ed, he needs at least three guys and three girls at each game (more is ideal so they at least have a few subs). Well, this past Sunday was their play-off game and they were a girl short, so rather then either forfeit or play with only 5 players the entire game, I filled in. It was awesome fun and I certainly have a newfound respect for soccer (even if I did totally suck at it). I always figured it wasn't that hard because when I run, I run for about an hour or hour and a half and when Cody plays soccer usually they have subs so he hardly ever runs for over 10 minutes at a time. Boy was I wrong! Soccer is hard! And that doesn't even count the kicking the ball part!! The running is so much! You sprint up the field to be an extra man on offense (not that I was any use on offense since I seriously have no idea how to kick the ball) and then the ball gets turned over to the other team and all of a sudden you sprint down to the other goal to block your man and then all over again - up and down the field, back and forth. And since it's indoor and there are walls, no one can kick the ball off the field to give you even a 5 second break - just run back and forth and back and forth. Anyway, it was crazy fun but I am just too bad to possibly plan seriously. I'm going to try to get Cody and Marissa to teach me how to play and then maybe take a baby soccer for adults class and then maybe I can play on a baby team next year. But we'll have to see. In an event, I had a great time in my first two soccer games!
p.s. The reason there were two games was that we played our game and then the team that played after us didn't have enough players so we played for them. One game of soccer is hard, two in a row makes your legs hurt like hell the next day. :) Good fun though.

Weekend Update

Can't really claim much productive, unless you call drinking a productive activity. Friday I had a work happy hour for one of our associates who is moving to Virginia, so that began the consumption. While I was there, Cody was playing golf with the boys so you can only imagine the drinking that occurred there. Then we met up, ostensibly to figure out details for the Germany trip (which has now become a Eastern and Eastern-Western Europe trip) with Dude - such as getting some train tickets (at least between World Cup games) and figuring out cities to visit (my list is: Paris [where we fly in], Gelsenkirchen [first game city and where Cody's folks live], Berlin [game 2], Munich [game 3], Hamburg [game 4], Krakow, Auschwitz, Prague, possibly Austria, castle city in Germany, possible wine country in Germany, and Brussels [where we fly out]). Anyway, we met up at The Drinking Horn, the most dive bar around. Needless to say we didn't get a darn thing done for the trip, Dude managed to spill half a pitcher of beer on the floor and we had to leave Cody's car in West County.
Saturday my goal was to start painting the dining room - I really want to get this room done so Cody's parents can see it when they come up (I have to prove I've done something since they were up here in July of last year). :) Well, I caulked around the ceiling where it's "shifted" but then got tired of looking up so I gave up that quest for the time being. Then Cody had soccer practice out in Creve Couer, so he did that while I ran with Marissa. Then we ate dinner with Marissa and Cassidy at a cool Chinese place - Jade Garden. I was quite excited that they had steamed dishes instead of just the typical fried fare - quite impressive. That night we celebrated Kyle's girlfriend, Cashelle's, arrival in STL at Kilkenny's (she moved here about a week ago). As odd coincidences go, she went to FSU (in Tally where Cody and I are from) for her Master's before moving here. Small world sometimes. Anyway, a good time and great amount of drinking was had by all. :)
Sunday actually deserves it's own post, so I'll do that one later. :) Happy Monday everyone!

Rare Occasion

It's 8 o'clock and we're "done" for the day. On a typical day, this either never happens or happens around 1 a.m. As you can see from the previous post, the weather probably had a lot to do with us already being "done." We thought today was going to be one of our typical busy days, where we try to fit 30 hours worth of life into a meager 24, but thanks to the weather man, it wasn't. On our perverbial plate for the day was: I needed to run, Cody had soccer practice out at Creve Coeur, and there was Parties in the Park in Clayton. Our plan, as usual, was to try to fit everything in. Since soccer practice was near Cody's work, I was going to ride with Marissa (who is on the soccer team) out to Creve Coeur, run while they practiced soccer, then ride back into town with Cody, come home and change clothes, hopefully all in time to run out to Clayton to meet up with everyone for Parties in the Park. But, alas, our day was lessened by the rain. All three of the above were cancelled. So Cody worked late, I worked out at the gym (Cardio Kickboxing kicked my butt), we made dinner (salsa and chips for Cody, left-over salad from lunch for me) and now it's only 8 o'clock and we're "done" for the day. Mind you, I still have the dishwasher going and some laundry to sort, wash and fold but that can be done after being "done." So now we're going to relax.

STL Weather

I guess this means soccer practice, running and Parties in the Park are cancelled?

The Countdown Begins

30 days until we leave for Germany! We got our World Cup tickets in the mail - very cool - and very expensive. Oh well, gotta love eating tuna fish until the wedding. :)

More last week/weekend update

Two very important updates since the post before the last post. So important they deserve their own post, not just a lump into the "week update" post. . . .
First, last Monday my friend, Kari, from law school just happened to be in St. Louis! It was the weirdest of coincidences since no one I have ever known has even known where St. Louis was on a map, much less had any connection to my new city (though on a side note, I guess I can't call it my "new city" anymore since as of last Wednesday I've lived here 2 years). Anyway, Kari's husband, John, has a sister who lives in St. Louis and just had a baby boy (on another side note, they named him Noah, which after I told Cody he is obsessed with naming our future, not-yet-conceived kid Noah - not after the arc guy, but after the Florida basketball player) so they were up here visiting the new nephew. Even though they were only up here for a short weekend, they were kind enough to take time to have breakfast with me Monday morning (worked great for me since it was only a block from my office). Kari, might I add, is one of the greatest people I've ever come across in my entire life - she's incredibly intelligent, one of the nicest people around, is strong in her convictions, fun, yet pragmatic, and now pregnant! Yup - she and John are having a baby girl! I am so excited for the two of them. They really are going to be wonderful parents! She even looks great pregnant! Anyway, we had a great visit, albeit too short. :( Hopefully we'll be able to keep in better touch (I've been lacking in this category) and be able to hang out again. I can't wait to see pictures of the baby when she finally arrives (August) -hopefully they'll be able to make it up for the wedding with her next year so we can ohh and ahh over her!
On another, totally different, note - we saw They Might be Giants on Saturday. Another weird coincidence, Kari and John had a TMBG song on their wedding CD (Birdhouse in Your Soul - one of my favorite songs of all time). Anyway, they played at The Pageant and were great! They played a lot of the new stuff that I must admit, I was not too familiar with, but they were great nonetheless. I was somewhat disappointed in the crowd, as every other time I've seen them in concert (more then a few times) the crowd has been very excited and energetic and this crowd was more mellow. Maybe it was St. Louis. Maybe it was the fact the band has been around for over 20 years and most of their huge fans are now in their late 20s early 30s now and not teenagers anymore. Maybe every other time I saw them it was a younger town (Tally, G'ville, Tampa, etc.). Who knows, but it was still a great show - I even got John Linnell's set list at the end of the show!!! For those of you who may be interested, they started with the Malcom in the Middle song, played the Sun song, Birdhouse in your Soul, James K. Polk, New York City, Istanbul, Song #3 on the first album, and some other stuff I can't remember because the set list is in Cody's car (also the songs were not in that order). All in all a great concert!

Week Update

Wow - it's been a while since I last blogged, but I have a good excuse - my mommy has been in town visiting!! We had a great time hanging around St. Louis and working in the yard. The last time she visited she helped me landscape our front yard and this time our goal was the back yard. Well, we didn't get it finished, but at least we got a plan as to how to lay everything out. Here's a quick run-down of our adventures.
Saturday - we picked Mommy up from the airport and headed to Bandana's for lunch. We planned to do a bunch of stuff in the afternoon, but we all ended up falling asleep as soon as we got home. :)
Sunday - We started at a huge book fair in the Famous Barr garage. It was awesome - all the soft cover books were a $1 or less and the hardback books were all under $5. We found at least 20 books, though couldn't find the one I was looking for - Of Mice and Men. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find it used somewhere. Then we headed out to Augusta to the wineries. It stormed on the way there but by the time we got there it had cleared up - it was still a cloudy day so the wineries were pretty empty. We went to Montelle, Mount Pleasant, and Augusta wineries and got to taste all the wine. We had a great time! Sunday night Cody had an indoor soccer game, so we went to watch that and then I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs.
Monday - I went to work but got off early so we could go shopping for Mommy some new clothes for her new job. We found her tons of great skirts and tops at Kohl's and then headed to Target. We had yummy Crazy Bowls and Wraps for dinner.
Tuesday - We played in the yard and made my specialty, enchilladas, for dinner. Cody hates them so we made them while he was at German class. :)
Wednesday - We went back to Kohl's to try to find some matching tops for some of the skirts we got for Mommy's work. Afterwards we went to my friends, Meghan and Danny's house for dinner. I've known Meghan since I was a small kid so she's known my mom the same length of time. I missed her birthday dinner last week so we did a delayed birthday celebration. It was great to see Elizabeth again -she's growing up so fast. She's getting great at sitting up!
Thursday - We worked out in the yard some more and then went to The Loop. We walked the Walk of Fame, ate at Blueberry Hill and then had root beer floats at the Fitz's bottling plant.
Friday - I took off work so Mommy and I could play in the yard all day. :) We dug and planted and dug some more!
Saturday - Not much to report here. We got ready and went to the Airport - of course, even with the utmost planning we still manged to leave half of her new clothes here. :)
All in all, it was a great visit and we can't wait to have her up here again! Now we just have to talk the rest of our family into visiting!!!!

Finally Friday!!

Geez - I thought this day would never come! Some weeks seem to go fast, some seem about 5 days long, but some, like this one, seem to last at least a month! All week, I've been waiting for Friday and it just seemed to take forever to get here! Yippee - it's finally here! Now what am I going to do with it? For starters I'm going to clean the house before my mom gets here tomorrow from Florida - vacuum and sweep the living room, clean the dining room, pick-up the Boy Room, do laundry and dishes, finish cleaning the kitchen, see if I can get at least one bathroom clean and at least part of upstairs. We'll see. . . . maybe I'll just have a beer and take a nap instead. :)

Not Quite. . .

One more post. Remember when I said on Monday we had our plane tickets to the World Cup? Turns out we didn't (thanks a bunch you-know-who!). After deciding on dates and specific flights we all argued over whose credit card to put the tickets on - oddly enough we were all arguing to have it put on our own card. That's the beauty of cash/bonus back deals. Cody gets Discover 1% cash back, I get Amazon.com points and Person #3 (who will remain nameless for this post) gets a bit more then 1% cash back, so we all agreed we would be best putting it on his card. So he agreed to get the tickets Monday. But didn't get around to it - figured what's another day when we've waiting this long (not to say I wouldn't have done the same thing but since it wasn't me I have someone to "blame" - the beauty of responsibility). So, as our luck goes, the tickets we were going to get were $200 more on Tuesday. So since then we've been frantically searching every airline, search engine and major airport in Europe for some decently cheap flights. . . and there haven't been any. Cheapest we could find was $1200. We finally found some we had settled on this afternoon - they were $150 more then our original tickets and crappier flighs but they would get us there. But then Cody on a whim decided to check the "Multi-destination flights" - I hadn't even looked at them thinking they would be way more expensive - turns out they were cheaper! So he got me searching those until I found one for $900 (cheaper then our original tickets) that flys into Paris (leaves STL at better times too) and flys out of Brussels (better times). Only one lay-over each way (in Chicago) and no changing airports in NYC (like the old ones)!!! The great thing is now we can fly into Paris, see it, do the World Cup thing, travel some more, and then go to Brussels, see it and fly out of there. No going back to where you started to see a city you've already seen!! PERFECT! Okay, so Person #3's not in so much trouble with me anymore - though I might just give him another bloody nose just for kicks and giggles. :) GERMANY HERE WE COME!!!

Website Update

Okay, I figured that while I already had the ghetto computer open and propped up, I might as well get as much out of it as I could in it's working moments, so I went ahead and updated our lovely website. There's a wedding page update (though if you read the blog you already know the update) and three new event/picture updates - the Half Marathon, Easter and the Water Tower. Nothing momumental but some cool pics nonetheless. Enjoy.

Ghetto Computer

Check out our ghetto comptuer! The stupid hinge broke - not just not working properly, but the top of the computer (where you see the duct tape) physically broke off from the hinge. So, in the interest of saving money (to spend in Germany and on the wedding) and prolonging the life of the computer until we can afford a new one (which could be a very long time), I hot glued the hinge back on the frame and then put enough duct tape on the darn thing to even impress my brothers (Bo made himself a wallet completely out of duct tape and I think David made a pair of shoes out of duct tape - I guess we're a duct tape family). The only problem is that it really doesn't provide enough support to open and close the monitor much or hold the screen up so we have to prop the monitor up when we want to use the computer (Cody uses a big jar to prop it open when it's on the table and I just put a big pillow behind it when I'm sitting down with the comptuer on my lap). Ghetto? No, Ingenuity. So that's why the updates have been sparse lately on the website and the blogs have been fewer - harder to use the ghetto computer (not to mention the constant business and lack of sleep). 

Exciting Developments

Two rather exciting developments today, in no particular order:

First - We finally picked (and bought) our tickets to Germany. We've been debating this for months now -when to leave, how long to take off, what airline to fly, when to best buy tickets for cheap prices. Well, we finally bit the bullet and got the tickets. . . . and boy were they not cheap. Granted, you expect to pay a lot to go to Europe in the summer. . . . but this was just ridiculous. We could fly over there any time last month or this month for about $500, which I consider expensive for the spring since I paid about that for a summer ticket a few years ago. This summer, we can't find anything under $1000. I don't know if it's the economy, the gas prices, general inflation of maybe The World Cup, but that's insane. Most tickets were around $1300, but we managed to get one of the $1000 ones. We fly out of here, into New York LaGuardia, then out of New York JFK (yup, we have to change AIRPORTS in New York - they give us 5 hours to do this though) and into Brussels. At least that's another city we'll get to see. Now we just have to mull over all the possible city options and pick our top few to really concentrate on (top of the list right now are Auschwitz, Krakow, and Prague)- outside of our whirlwind World Cup tour of Germany, of course. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of Ramen Noodles until we leave and a lot of tunafish sandwiches when we get there. :)

Second, we think we finally found a place to have the wedding! I must admit I can't take any credit for this one, considering if it were left to my devices we probably wouldn't have gotten around to picking a venue until sometime in November. We have Cody's mom to thank 100% for this one. She has been an absolute gem with this whole wedding planning process. When I finally realized that I can't do everything and certainly can't do all the planning from 800 miles away and finally got around to asking for (and accepting) help, she has so graciously stepped in and been such a help! She's taken so much of the stress out of this whole ordeal - I'm thankful because I'm not stressing and Cody's happy because he doesn't have to deal with me stressing! She's been on the phone calling the places we were already considering (Armory, Women's Club, Mary Brogan Museum) and even found a new one that we never considered or would have even ever known about - Homewood Suites. I guess it's owned by Hilton and relatively new to Tally (at least it wasn't there when either Cody or I lived there). Anyway, none of the places we had found so far really fit what we were looking for or our budget - until she found this place. It's in hotel so all our friends and family can stay there and be together - a real plus for us with so many people from out of town. They do their own catering, which while it may seem more expensive at first compared to finding your own caterer, everything is included in the price, rather then charging extra for dishes, servers, linens, salt and pepper shakers (no kidding - one of the caterers we found make you rent salt and pepper shakers). The big thing is they let you bring your own alchol and bar!! That saves us a ton of money off paying per drink at the other hotels or reception places! Anyway, his mom and sister went to look at it and took tons of great pictures to really show us what it looked like (I'll put them on the website later for everyone to see). From the photos it looked great and it seems that they liked it so the deposit was placed! The great thing is you can still get your deposit back within 90 days so before that we'll try to make a trip to Tally to check it all out and make final arrangements (not that we forsee having to move it at all)! How exciting!! I really can't explain how grateful we are to them for their help - I keep telling everyone I'm marrying into one of the greatest families ever! Too bad I can't talk them into finding me a wedding dress. . . . I trust their style more then mine any day. :)

Weekend Update

Another fun filled weekend in Missy and Cody Land. Thursday we checked out a Guinness "Legacy Event" thing at Growlers. Cool - if you like Guinness. I think it's the nastiest beer known to man and Harps and Smithwicks are right behind. So, all you can drink free beer - if it's one of those three. The guys made use of the promotion while I had to make a concerted effort to finish one Harps.
Friday we just hung out - I ran (5.65 miles), Cody changed the oil in the Jeep and the motorcycle, and we worked in the yard. Saturday I went to the Soulard Farmer's Market and cleaned house while Cody helped a friend with his sink. We, of course, ended up going out - to Harry's. Good time though a bit chilly on the patio.
Sunday we had lunch at a cool 50's diner with a friend and then went up in the Water Tower (the old on on Grand for you STL folks). Very cool! I took tons of pictures (shocking, I know) so I'll try to get them on the website as soon as possible. Great views of the city! Afterwards, more cleaning, and then soccer. Won the game 5-1! A great victory - though Dude ended up with a bloody nose - I told him I'm going to spread the word that he got hit by a girl. :)
All in all a good weekend, a nice mix of work, play and relaxation. Next weekend Mommy comes to town to visit so that should be nice to show her around the things we haven't seen yet and hang out.

Weekend Update

Another fun filled weekend in Missy and Cody Land. Thursday we checked out a Guinness "Legacy Event" thing at Growlers. Cool - if you like Guinness. I think it's the nastiest beer known to man and Harps and Smithwicks are right behind. So, all you can drink free beer - if it's one of those three. The guys made use of the promotion while I had to make a concerted effort to finish one Harps.
Friday we just hung out - I ran (5.65 miles), Cody changed the oil in the Jeep and the motorcycle, and we worked in the yard. Saturday I went to the Soulard Farmer's Market and cleaned house while Cody helped a friend with his sink. We, of course, ended up going out - to Harry's. Good time though a bit chilly on the patio.
Sunday we had lunch at a cool 50's diner with a friend and then went up in the Water Tower (the old on on Grand for you STL folks). Very cool! I took tons of pictures (shocking, I know) so I'll try to get them on the website as soon as possible. Great views of the city! Afterwards, more cleaning, and then soccer. Won the game 5-1! A great victory - though Dude ended up with a bloody nose - I told him I'm going to spread the word that he got hit by a girl. :)
All in all a good weekend, a nice mix of work, play and relaxation. Next weekend Mommy comes to town to visit so that should be nice to show her around the things we haven't seen yet and hang out.

The End of an Era

Well, it had to end at some point. As sad as it is, I suppose I must put myself back together and move on. They finally took my ufl.edu email address away. Mind you I last graduated that school in 2003 and you're supposed to lose the address after 6 months, but after begging them not to delete it then, they are finally done hearing my pleas, and have deleted my email address. I first realized it on Saturday when Cody's mom was trying to email me a recipe and it wouldn't show up on in my inbox - nothing would. So I tried WebMail and it said my email wasn't working - mind you, this has happened before and it was just a ufl glitch - so I waited and waited and still this morning I could not get onto my email. I finally emailed them and was informed they have once and for all deleted my address. Problem is, that's the only address anyone I know has ever known. I've had the address since 1997! So, now I have to have it forwarded for a few months until they even delete the forwarding capabilities. On the bright side, that email address was getting about 150 spam messages a day so now at least I can start fresh again. Right now I'm signing up for a alumni.ufl.edu address which will forward to any address I pick so I can change it over time. I think it's going to be missy@alumni.ufl.edu. Anyway, I must go back to my mourning now.

Thankful

Okay, I know it's Easter and not Thanksgiving, but today was one of those days where I realized how lucky I am and how many things I have to be thankful for. First I'm thankful for finally having green leaves and spring. I never realized how great spring is until I lived somewhere with such a miserable winter. It's just amazing watching green leaves pop up on trees and the grass coming back.
I'm thankful I have friends and family to give me recipes and that I have the ability to make the recipes (though maybe not as good as they can make them). I'm thankful to have to ability to make a big dinner and have friends to come over to eat it. I made a huge lunch/dinner this afternoon and we had some folks over to eat - great people, decent food, and good times. I'm so thankful that even though we live over 800 miles from our families we have friends that have become our St. Louis families.
After the meal (and two deserts), Cody and I played a game of chess - I lost again, but I realized that I'm thankful to have such a smart guy and thankful that I can almost hang with him in chess - I haven't beat him yet.
Then I ran around the park and watched the leaves, the ducks, and felt the cool spring breeze -I'm so thankful for all those things and the ability to run. Just being able to be out there and run fast (for me) in the breeze and watch the scenery is amazing.

Happy Easter!

Easter morning. I thought I would be spending this time in Tally after looking at wedding reception sites, but my weekend has turned out remarkably different. First, obviously, I didn't go to Tally -for a myriad of reasons, the first being Cody found a nail in my tire when changing my oil Thursday night (he's a oil change Nazi, which in this instance was great since he found the nail). So instead of fretting about the wedding and stressing out, I've put aside the event for the weekend to concentrate on life as it is, now and today. I even managed to ask for help with the planning of said wedding - a hard thing for me to do since I've been a "do by self" person since I was born (that's what I used to say when my mom would try to put on or tie my shoes - hence the reason I wore velcro shoes until quite late because she didn't want to wait around for me to tie my shoes - I was slow). So I asked Cody's family if they could check out some wedding reception sites for us. They are wonderful folks who we know we can count on and I trust them completely. I really couldn't be getting better in-laws. At least we've narrowed it down to 3 or 4 places. :)
As for this weekend - yesterday we got some of our chores done (taxes, laundry, cleaning, etc.), went grocery shopping for Easter lunch/dinner, cooked a great dinner together (pork chops w/ onions and mushrooms, scalloped potatoes and broccoli/cauliflower mix), got the bikes down from the garage and went on a wonderful bike ride in the park and then went out with friends. I really couldn't have asked for a better day - both weather wise and clear-your-head-and-relax wise. The bike was really cool - we just rode around Forest Park checking out new trails and routes - we even found some new things we didn't know where there - even though we live across the street from the park - mind you, it's a few times the size of Central Park in NYC.
Well, back to preparing lunch/dinner - we're having ham, two types of sweet potatoes (w/ marshmallows and w/ nuts), mashed potatoes (because Cody doesn't like sweet potatoes), green beans, asparagus, rolls, deviled eggs, strawberry shortcake and lemon-jello cake. YUMMY!

On second thought. . . .

Okay, maybe I do want to be just a little bit of a princess. :)

Crazy Person

I think wedding planning makes people crazy. At least it does me. Why can't these things be simple? I have a few comments to illustrate.
First our biggest dilema - the element of ourselves. We want a casual, laid back, fun wedding. Did you get the "laid back" part of that? Because every wedding place in Tallahassee wants to put us in this little box of "semi-formal" - not terribly ritzy but not what we really want either. I'm not a ritzy, fancy, froo froo person - neither is Cody - for God's sake his favorite outfit include an obnoxiously large red animal print pimp-looking hat and velcro shoes! It's literally painful for me to "dress up" for work - I can't wait to get in jeans and a t-shirt. I have no desire to be a "princess" or any of that stuff. Some people love it - but it's not me. I don't want a "semi-formal" wedding - I want our wedding our way but Tallahassee insists on fitting you in this box - the reception places do it, the caterers do it. I don't want an elaborate layout of shrimp and something else I can't prononce - I just want some food that tastes decent. I have a perfect rehersal dinner planned - Sonny's outside (in either a park or backyard), paper plates, a big Moon Walk thing for the kids, a keg and a good time. For the day after since it will be Easter, I would like to do an Easter Brunch in my mom's backyard. But it's the wedding part that's driving me crazy. Agg...
Second, I don't see why everything is (a) so expensive and (b) there are so many hidden charges. One caterer I talked to even charges for salt and pepper shakers. They're like little varmits picking at you everywhere and before you know it a $15 meal is $22 with linens and plates, etc.
Okay, enough of that. Off my soap box. I promise to write more happy stuff about how life is good, rather then about my utter frustrations with the wedding industry! :)

Numbers

6 - number of my scarfs found around on the floor (in various rooms) while cleaning
1 - number of scarfs on the coat rack (where they belong)
2 - number of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers I went through wiping our cabinets, walls and stair rails (only where needed)
2 - number of milk cap rings found while sweeping the dining room (where Cody eats cereal every morning)
2 - number of dining room chairs without paper stacked in them, before I started cleaning
0 - number of dining room chairs without paper stacked in them, after I was finished cleaning
2 - cans of wet food I had to give the cats to keep them off the floors I was moping
3 - number of cats that couldn't resist walking on my still wet, cleanly mopped floors
12 - days worth of mail currently stacked on the dining room table
6 - number of tax returns we have to file (one each for federal, state and city) -yes, Florida people, we pay a lot of tax in Missouri
1 - number of tax returns we've finished (my federal)
4 - days until Tax Day
One not number related point of interest:
Air Bear - Cody's name for his new golf club (his 3 wood)
109 - Cody's first golf score last year (on 9 holes)
49 - Cody's goal this year in golf (on 9 holes)

13.1 in 2:07

I finished. In 2 hours and 7 minutes. In my last post I said I ran a 2:15 last year - I double checked that online and it was actually 2:18, so this year's goal was to simply run 5 minutes faster. I actually ran 11 minutes faster - which, while it's still not incredibly fast (I think it's a 9:45 pace), is almost a minute a mile off of last year's time. That's pretty substantial, especially considering I typically run a very tight 10 minute mile on my training runs. I was pleased, but beat by the end. I don't think I could have run another 2 feet since I really pushed it at the end. Currently I feel like I was run over by a bus - a very large bus full of very heavy people. But it's worth it I suppose. I feel accomplished - now on to the marathon - after I let my sprained ankle and shin splints heal from my current training regime.
A few notes (more for my personal record and log book then reader enjoyment):
It was cold, but once we got downtown (always hotter in the city), in the group of people and in the sun it actually warmed up quite a bit. I ran in lined track pants and I really could have gone for shorts - I didn't necessarily overheat, but I would have been more confortable (and faster) in shorts. I started off with a long sleeve running shirt, a t-shirt and sweater, with gloves - by the time I saw Cody at about the 1/2 mile mark, I handed him the t-shirt, sweater and gloves. After seeing Cody at the 1/2 mile mark, we ran through Soulard, to the Brewery and back - over the bridge on Tucker (bridges not fun = big hills). After being converted to the joys of Gatorade at the race last year, I opted for Gatorade at all the water stops. While it was energizing and refreshing, I think it was the new Gatorade Endurance which is more syrupy then the regular stuff - syrupy not good on tummies (at least not mine since I don't drink soda which I think is syrupy). I ran the first mile in 9 minutes and realized I needed to seriously slow it down if I was going to finish. I was much better at hills this year after training in Forest Park instead of Creve Coeur park - I actually powered up them and passed a lot of people there. After looping the brewery, I passed Cody again at about mile 6.5 near the starting line. It's always encouraging to see people you know - you look forward to it and it really mentally helps you through a while afterwards. After that it was a long stretch out Market Street all the way past the interstate, to Taylor (a few blocks from our house). I swear the entire way out seemed uphill - no joke. Which made the run back easier but really wore me out going out. I was doing pretty good by mile 9, I knew I was going faster then I expected. At mile 10 I started to pick it up a little since my goal was to finish with nothing left. Last year I felt so great when I finished I could have run a few more miles - the goal this year was to give it all and finish with nothing. By the time I hit 11 miles, I was no longer watching the crowd and totally ignoring water stations, I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other - and quickly. About mile 12 a crappy song came on my mp3 player and I didn't even have the energy to lift my arm and hit "next." I was going for all out. Cody met me at mile 13 and run with me as I sprinted towards the finish line. I though I was going to fall down after stopping. I was spent. I got my chip cut off my shoe (instead of just doing the race clock they put a chip on your shoe so your "chip time" doesn't actually start until you cross the starting mats - and since I didn't cross the starting mats until the three minute mark it gives you an accurate time for those not in the front (there are 8000 trying to cross the start line at the same time - I was in the middle of that bunch). I was excited to get my bagel and cookies at the end (they were great last year), but the bagel was hard and the cookies were not present. I, of course, was disappointed since I had just burned approximately 1300 calories and I wanted a cookie! :)
So that's the story of the race. Now it's nap time and then go to Cody's soccer game at 11:20 pm. That's the latest game he has this year - of course it just has to be on the day I run my race.

Pre-Race Jitters

Well, it's finally here. The half-marathon is tomorrow morning - and I mean morning. Starting at a bring and early 7am I run 13.1 miles. I don't even wake up at 7am on a work day - much less wake up at 5am, eat breakfast, get dressed and shower to leave by 6am and get to the starting line by 7am!
Not that I'll be at the starting line anyway - in marathons and half-marathons you sort of line up by the time you expect to finish. Since there are so many people (thousands) they don't want the 5 hour marathoners up front slowing the 2:30 hour marathoners down. So I'll be towards the back of the pack because I run slow. They actually have pace teams with signs up so you can run together with a group that expects to finish around the same time. This year they're even starting the walkers after the runners as opposed to last year when the walkers started an hour earlier and we were dodgeing then for the first half of the race - walkers like to walk 6 across and won't move for anyone -so this year they start after the runners to avoid frustration.
So at 7 am I start running 13.1 - I shouldn't even call it a "race" because I'm not racing anyone - I'm just trying to beat last year's time. It's more of just a run then a race. Last year I ran it in around 2 hours 15 minutes. This year's goal is to shave 5 minutes or more off that time. Since last year's goal was only 2.5 hours, I was doing pretty okay by my standards. This year will be much harder though - I'll thank the weather for that.
Last year the entire run was partly sunny with some clouds and in the 60s - I wore a sweatshirt to the race but left it with Cody before the run so I actually only had to run in shorts and a tank top. Perfect weather to run. Tomorrow at 7am the temperature is forecast to be 32 - at 9am around the time I expect to finish the temperature is forecast to be 34. That sucks. That really sucks. All year I haven't run in temperatures that cold. My general rule is not to run outside if it's below 50 degrees - for my long runs if it's cold all weekend I would just leave work early and run on a weekday when it was warmer. Not only do I not like to run in the cold but I really don't know how to well - over dress and you get overheated and sweat and then get really cold - under dress and you're cold and uncomfortable the entire time. I really believe there is no way to be comfortable running in those sorts of temperatures. But I paid for the race, so I'm going to run it - maybe not as well as I'd like but I'll at least try.
Thinking about the run tomorrow has me excited about the marathon this fall. I'm determined I'm going to finally get the training done to run the Chicago Marathon in October. It's one of those "things to do before I die" type of goals so might as well strike while the iron's hot.
Well, off to sleep so I can wake up at FIVE AM and run in the freezing cold. Speaking of, did the weather guy not get the memo that it's APRIL and winter is over. Oh, one more thing, all week the weather has been perfect - low to mid 70s and sunny - all next week we are forecast for the same - it's only today and tomorrow that are forecast to be cold. Go figure.

Quick Pre-Weekend Update

Not too terribly much going on here lately. We started German 2 on Tuesday. Went and saw our Florida friends Meghan and Danny on Wednesday and got to see their absolutely adorable baby girl. She does this cute noise by pursing her lips together and blowing - almost like if you stuck your tongue out and blew but without the tongue. It's funny - I think she knows it's amusing because she giggles when everyone looks at her. Yesterday we did some wedding planning - more discussion then planning, but at least a move forward. I just don't know how poor people have weddings. Everything is so damn expensive - if it's for a wedding it's 50 times the normal price. That's just crazy. We just want something casual, laid back and fun with our friends and family. A casual spring party is our ideal. I don't need a string quartet or a diamond tiara or white fluffy doves or anything remotely fancy. Just a nice gathering of friends and family. I would be happy with Subway or Sonny's catering it but everyone says that people expect more from a wedding - I would think anyone who knows me would know better to expect more but I guess the word 'wedding' just changes everyone's perceptions and expectations. I love my friends and family and want them to have a good time and enjoy themselves but I figured if they love me then they would prefer I not spend $50 per person to feed them and go into debt for years to come and not be able to do other things I love just so I can feed them all one very expensive (and usually not particularly good) meal. Go figure. Enough of my wedding soap box.

Gators are National Champs!

GATORS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! Yep, we did it - we drove back to Indy on Monday for the Championship Game. Yep, we're crazy - especially after I had to be in Columbia at 9 am (and Columbia is 2.5 hours away - to the west). So I woke up early, did my cases in Columbia, drove back to St. Louis, picked up Cody and we were off to Indy for the second time in as many days. But man was it all worth it! The Gators were awesome, the game was awesome, the atmosphere was awesome - it was in a word, awesome. Watching them tear apart UCLA like that and watching the fans just go crazy the bigger the margin got and as more time passed was just amazing. It's Wednesday and our throats are still insanely sore from all the yelling and screaming we did! After the game the confetti came down and they handed out the National Championship trophy - then we got to see the players cut down the net. We're so used to watching all this fanfare on TV it was almost surreal watching it in person. I felt like pinching myself because it was hard to believe we were actually there and actually watched the Gators win the National Championship. After the game, walking the streets of Indy and randomly yelling "Go Gators!" and having everyone cheer and then chanting with hundreds of people you don't know "It's great to be a Florida Gator" is just indescribable. I apologize to all the non-sports folks out there that won't understand a bit of this madness, but the best I can analogize the experience to is watching your favorite band live for the first time (like when Breeze and I skipped out of high school to watch Bad Religion in Jacksonville). It was just such a priceless, wonderful experience. . . . Until we had to drive the four hours home in the middle of the night. :) Luckily Cody was able to take off work on Tuesday and I didn't have any cases set until 10am, but we're still dead tired and catching up on sleep from the festivities.
On another note, we had our first German 2 class last night (precluding my plan of coming home after work and going directly to bed). It seems likes it's going to be a really good course. Hopefully we'll learn a lot and have at least some understanding of the language by the time we go over there - I don't believe it's only two months away!!
In closing, it's great to be a Florida Gator (at least in basketball). :)

This is us at the game! While our seats we're great (we were in the George Mason section) they weren't as bad as those "distant viewing" seats in the back of the picture! :)

Priceless

Well, in case you haven't gleaned by now (either from the news or my prior posts), the Gators made it to the Final Four. Well, Cody and I, being the mildly insance couple we are, decided to drive over to Indianapolis and see if we could find tickets to The Big Dance. Turns out Indy is only 3-4 hours away so it wasn't going to be too bad. So, here's how adventure goes:
Well, I'd better start with Friday. . . . that's when the rest of our friends left to go over there, but we had hockey tickets so we hung around to watch the Blues stive for the worst record in the NHL and #1 draft pick. As usual, they lost - but it was a fun game, nonetheless.
So Saturday morning came (a bit early for Cody who I woke up at 7:30 am - but for a good cause) and we headed off to Indy. A drive across the entire state of Illinois, a quick trip for gas and Arby's and we had arrived. Goal #1: See the games. Goal #2: Do it cheap (we're poor because we're saving for the big Germany trip). Parking was obnoxious around the stadium ($30) so we managed to find a free metered spot a few blocks off. Score 1 for us. We met up with friends at a Gator Gathering hosted by the Alumni Association. Score 2. After that fun, it was off to make posterboard signs for the game. Mine said "I 'heart' Noah" (he's a guy on our team who I fondly refer to as "Fuzzy Head") and Cody's said "Corey Brewer Show" for CBS. Score 3. Then it was off to find tickets. After an incredibly long saga, ending in us buying tickets (which we later realized were not together), then selling those tickets (to a ticket broker who I then got in a rather heated verbal altercation with - he called the cops on me [who sided with me] and then treated to sue me - bring it on buddy), and buying better tickets together (for cheaper since it was close to game time and there were may more sellers then buyers out there) we made it in the game!! What an experience!!!!
There is something to be said about watching your team in a game as important as the Final Four. Something comes over you and it's as if the rest of the world doesn't matter for those few short hours. I was so nervous I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Well, of course the Gators won by a pretty significant margin and are on to the Championship game. We stayed for part of the LSU v. UCLA game but it was such a blow out we decided to leave early to get back on the road. Unfortunately we had a ton of stuff to do today and I have to go to Columbia on Monday for some cases, so we drove back last night - have soccer for Cody and running for me today (and I have to go into work) - then tomorrow Cody's going to work and I'm going to Columbia for my cases - on my way back from Columbia, I'm going to pick up Cody from work and it's back off to Indy for the final game!! After the game, it's back to STL that night for work on Tuesday. Like I said, we're mildly insane. . . . but I wouldn't have it any other way.