A Quiet Afternoon At Home

So I had my once monthly church marathon morning today - 8am until 1pm.

After church, went out to Ridley Creek State Park for lunch and catching up with some old friends.

Melissa is presently at her niece Rosie's wedding shower, so I planned on a nice quiet afternoon at home.

What did I forget to factor in?

That there's no such thing as a quiet Sunday afternoon here once the weather gets warm.

You see, last summer our lovely downstairs neighbor has a stereo set up on the patio in the back yard which he would blare bad 80's rock music through for the better part of every Sunday afternoon.

This year the stereo hadn't reappeared, so we figured maybe it was broken or something.

But last Sunday, the crappy music returned.

Still no stereo outside, though.

So where is the music coming from?

Well, it turns out that the stereo is now housed in the basement which is accessed through doors in the floor of the back porch of this house.

So in order to make the yard echo of hair bands gone by, he just opens the basement doors and turns the volume up.

Why is this awesome?

Because in addition to being able to hear the music outside, the frame of this old house makes the inside echo with distorted bass.

That's right, I can hear & feel the badness.

Of course, the stereo is just icing on the noise cake.

You see, our house also happens to be square in the center of lawn mowing land.

I understand that lots of people in the suburbs cut their lawns.

Heck, they probably have to do it on a somewhat regular basis in order to avoid fines and such.

But here, it seems like there is someone mowing their lawn just about every day of the week.

Loudly.

The neighbor next door cuts his at least twice a week.

So anyways, yeah, no quiet Sunday afternoon for Timmy.

Not unless I can find some earplugs around here.

Maybe I'll just turn the TV up and make do.

Word.

Separated At Birth?

I don't care who you are or where you're from... this girl looks like Shrek, and that's all there is to it.

boys and girls

Just wanted to share this picture. I think it's great: Timmy and I playing with Cora and Liam during our most recent trip to Ohio. No offense to the most adorable Cora, but the best part of the picture are the boys.



Look at Timmy impart his wisdom of superheroes to his intent and eager student. Way too cute.

Poker

I played poker at the Youngs' house last night. There were six people in the game, two of which busted out and then bought back in. If memory serves, I knocked at least 5 - if not 6 - of those players out of the game. And yet I came in third place and didn't win a bloody thing. This is what we call "dissatisfying" boys and girls.

10 years ago today....

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

one of those weeks...

Saturday night. 9:40pm. And I got a call from Mark. Shawna was wondering if I got the paper towels for the bathroom. I forgot. Sigh. Just one of those little things that make me feel icky. I just had a rough week in general. I forgot to buy the towels. I forgot to send out the volunteer schedule. I was an hour late to the management team meeting because I had the time wrong. These things make me feel blah. And I know it's okay. Mark has so much grace. The entire church has so much grace. But its the perfectionist in me that doesn't have much grace. It's the woman with very high expectations that doesn't have much grace. And I just hate letting people down (mostly myself). So, I just need to shake it off. Not let it get the best of me.

It's A Dog's Life

Ever since Dave and Kristine got their new puppy Moby my persistence in trying to get Melissa to okay a canine companion for us has increased ten fold. She knew it would happen the minute she met Moby, of course, but I don't know that she was really prepared for the task of putting up with me on this one.

In an effort to get some support on my side, I humbly present some pictures of the awesomeness I've come across over the past week:



This is Jazzy. She's a mix between a Belgian Shepherd and an Elkhound. This is, of course, intriguing because it would produce an animal remarkably close to Buffy the eternal. In fact, this is pretty much what Buffy looked like at that age. Believe it or not. Jazzy would require a name change.






This is Kahlua. She is estimated to be a mix between a Kai Dog and an Elkhound, though the person who wrote her listing said that was a total shot in the dark guess. Regardless, I think this is a fierce looking dog. The wild look in her eyes brings me to mind of the legendary Duchess. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I could be okay with the name Kahlua.









Now we start bringing out the big guns. This is Cocoa. She is a mix between a Labrador and a Doberman. And, yes, she resembles a chocolate Porkchop the Dog. This is obviously quite a trump card, but I also noted to Melissa, "Look, she's German and Canadian just like Erika. You love Erika, so you should love Cocoa too." It's true, this is probably either underhanded or ridiculous - or both. But such is my mania. I'm not entirely sold on the name Cocoa, but I'm sure we could come up with a suitable substitute that sounded similar.






And, finally, the coup de grace... Helena. Helena is a mix of Siberian Husky and Beagle and may be one of the most beautiful little dogs I've ever seen. She also resembles PCTD, though perhaps not quite as much as Cocoa. Those famous Husky blue eyes are what pushes her over the top, I think. She would probably need a name change. Helena is a cool name, but not really for a dog. She's only a couple months old, though, so I think she'd adapt to it pretty easily.


Feel free to vote for your favorite, even though it probably won't go very far towards changing Melissa's mind.

Two for Two

Today Timmy and I went on a Monday Movie Date; this is our second time going on a Monday Movie Date. A few weeks ago, we decided to use our $6.00 movie coupons for Regal Cinemas from our Entertainment Book. We went and saw Amazing Grace. While we were there, we learned that on Mondays they have select candies for $1 if you have a Crown Card. So, normally two tickets, two candies, and one large bottle of water would total $28.50 ($24 if you go to a matinee). With our coupon and the free crown club card, our total was $18. Sweet. And then for the first time in a while, we saw a movie that didn't disappoint us.

Today, we went out again to the Regal Edgemont. Timmy said I was a more expensive date since my Sour Patch Kids weren't on the $1 list and we paid a full $2.50. Sorry, honey. We saw Reign Over Me and again we were not disappointed by the movie. I actually really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Amazing Grace but it probably isn't a movie I would see again. However, I could see Reign Over Me again. I would recommend it, but that probably doesn't mean much to most of you - I did just borrow Delta Force from my mom.

love those google guys

I do. I think they're so clever. I love my gmail account, and they have given me another reason to love them even more. Presenting Gmail paper!! Just by clicking a button, I can request Gmail to send me a hardcopy of my email. There is no limit to how many I request and there is no cost because they print ads on the back of the paper. They'll even print photo attachments, but I don't really care about that.

Now, why am I so excited about this? Because for almost two years now, I have been telling myself, "I need to get myself organized someday and print out all those early emails between me and Timmy." Remember that our relationship started one night when I couldn't fall asleep, so I sent this seeming nice guy from small group a really long, really random email and then he replied with an equally long and equally random email. The rest is history, but many of those early memories are saved in my mrolon gmail account. I have wanted to print them out, bind them, and save them beside my years of journals. Then our great-grandbabies can read about their how great-grandparents started to get to know each and fell in love. This is going to be so exciting if it actually works as well as they say. But how couldn't it - I mean, it is google!!

Now, I just need to figure out how to get all my IM conversations printed - gotta love mac which automatically saves IM conversations!! Maybe I'll just email them to myself and have Gmail send them to me too :)

Death Match in the Wildlife Refuge

I went for a bike ride yesterday down at Tinicum Wildlife Refuge. Halfway through my ride I stopped and sat on a bench for a while to read and contemplate life and such. About ten feet in front of me, protruding from the water, was a birdhouse place by the refuge. There were two little blue birds engaged in mortal kombat for this house. It was inexplicably captivating. They would hit each other in mid air. At one point, the one knocked the other into the water and tried to push it under by landing on it and fluttering it's wings. In the end, one of the combatants flew away and the other stood victorious upon the roof of his/her home. Here's to the champion.

southwest

So many of you know about our recent trip to Columbus and many of you heard about our annoying trip out there. Our flight last Friday, the 16th was cancelled because of the ice. We arranged to go out the next day. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20pm(boarding at 7:50). We didn't get on the plane until 9:30. We then sat in the plane fore 1.5 hours as we waited to go through the de-icing process. We arrived around midnight. It took us 6 hours to take a 52 minute flight.

This morning, Timmy and I each received a letter from Southwest. They were apologizing for the inconvenience of our missed flight and each letter contained a voucher for $150 for future traveling with Southwest. Sweet. Even sweeter - $300 is more than we paid for our tickets out to Columbus.

2057

I just read on a family blog that my aunt and uncle are celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary. All I can say is wow.

mi querido

My Timmy went back to work on Saturday after a two month healing period. Tonight is his first night shift :( I can't even remember the last time I slept without him. Now, I'm sitting at the computer with the tv on, even though I am exhausted. I have such a hard time getting myself to bed without him.

Spoooooky!

I was just checking out our bank account online, and noticed this strange alignment of automotive universes:

On Thursday, March 22nd I was driving Melissa's car and it was in need of refueling. So I stopped at the Wawa on Chester Pike in Folcroft and put $26.73 worth of regular unleaded fuel into the tank.

On Friday, March 23rd Melissa was driving my car and it was in need of refueling. So she stopped at the Sunoco on Baltimore Pike in Media and put $26.73 worth of regular unleaded fuel into the tank.

Ooooooooooh!!!!!

Two different cars made by different manufacturers and at different levels of needing fuel both take the exact same amount of petrol! C'mon, admit it, you're kind of impressed or something. Yeah?

Zoo Pics

Finally getting around to posting a few of the pics we took at the zoo a week ago. A completely random assortment of animals, really. And conspicuous by their absence are the most glorious animals in all of the Philadelphia Zoo - the giant river otters. They were just too fast to snap a decent picture of. But if you have the means to go observe them, I highly recommend it. I could sit there and watch those critters all day long, to tell you the truth. But I digress. Onto the pictures....








Freaking peacocks. They're overrunning the place.


















Scottish highland cattle. (They look like extras from Star Wars.)
















Some kind of monkeys. About the size of my fist. Fascinating.














Meerkat, on watch duty.
















Obligatory flamingo photo.












Lioness at the new "Big Cat Falls". (The reflection of Missy's leg in the glass kind of ruins the illusion of closeness.)













And lastly, an elephant. The elephants are all leaving the zoo this year. I'm not entirely sure why, but they are.












fin.

Woo Hoo

Timmy and I just got back from Columbus. We had a wonderful time with the Crawfords. We are now both sitting at our respective computers catching up on three days of missed computer time. Three days rest from Snood must have been a good thing because I just smashed my top score on the puzzle level by 35,000 points. I got to level 20 ziggurat; that's like three levels that I have never experienced before. It was great! But now, it may become frustrating to play again if I don't advance as far. But for now, I will enjoy my moment.

i forgot...

So last night Timmy and I went to the Flyers game. Unfortunately, we got stuck walking back in the rain after the game and our car was at the Lincoln Financial Field's lot. When we finally got into the car, we sat there for a few minutes to delay our entering the mass exodus of cars. As we were waiting, I saw something very disturbing. There was a man; our guess is that he was about 20 feet in front of us - not far at all and nothing obstructing our line of vision. I saw him unlock his car, but before he went in, he undid his pants and starting urinating on the parking lot. Eww. It was so gross. I turned to Timmy, "Ew. He's peeing." It was disturbing and even more disturbing is that he really must have had to go because it lasted a long time.

I don't know. Would he have done this if it weren't late at night and it wasn't raining? Why couldn't he have gone to the men's room at the center? Not like he was avoiding the rush. Or why couldn't he have used one of the port-a-johns out in the parking area? And who was he talking to? Is it better if it were a man or woman? I don't know.

Reminds me of this time that Ashlie and I were driving back from a doctor's appointment. There was this heavier woman along the side of the road that bent over and exposed her backside. And I'm not talking just crack, I mean the whole thing.

my dream

Was anyone as upset as I was when they found out that Claire and Peter are related? I had a Heroes dream last night. I was both a participant and an observer. Lots of hiding, chasing, secrets, you know. At the end, Claire and Peter were hiding in some underground safe house. They were sitting on the floor, legs crossed, looking at each other. They were exhausted, having gone through some adventure I can't remember. And in a sweet moment, they looked into each others eyes and gently kissed. Que emocion...until I woke up and remembered that Peter is Claire's uncle - grrr.

Reminds me of a couple years back when the Crawfords hosted a Star Wars night - the original three. I had never seen them. Shortly into the first movie, Dave made a comment about "yeah, she's your sister." A few people laughed and someone (maybe Erika) told him that I had never seen the movie. Oops. Everyone was then told not to spoil anymore of the plot. Although it was disappointing to receive that plot twist before the movie had really started, I'm also glad that I did. I totally would have been rooting for Luke and Leia to fall in love only to be devastated that they were brother and sister.

a full year

Que emocion. Today is our first anniversary. We have kept the day very laid back: slept in, lounged around, watched a movie. We went to Stephen's on State for dinner, courtesy of Mom and Dad Kaiser and an offer Timmy found online that allowed us to buy a $25 gift certificate for $10. And can I say: mmm, mmm, mmm. I had the lobster and crab ravioil with roasted tomato and spinach ragout, wild mushroom cream sauce, and shaved parmigiano reggiano. Oh my goodness. I actually cleaned my plate, which is impressive considering I don't really eat vegetables and I hate mushrooms. Timmy had jumbo lump crab cakes with shrimp and corn croquettes, asparagus salad, and lobster cream sauce. He also spoke very highly of it, but not as highly as I spoke of my dish. Then again, I am very dramatic when I enjoy a good dish. For dessert, I had a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake - so good. Timmy had chocolate lava - warm fudge cake with chocolate ice cream - you can imagine. Now, we are back to lounging around, resting for tomorrow - we're going to the zoo :)

my mama

I spoke to my mama yesterday. After the hi-how are yous, she said, "so, you have news for me?" I guess she was just waiting a year before she started the baby questions.