Memorial Day, pt 2

Yes, our memorial day weekend was so exciting that it necessitated two posts. Ok, maybe it wasn't and I just got tired of writing the last one, so sue me! To wrap things up, we returned to Maryland on Sunday, stopping at Laura's new house in Harve de Grace. Then, we went to dinner at Hunan Manor to celebrate Christopher's completion of his graduate degree. There, Kevin was reunited with his first love. I took a picture so he could stare at it and drool during their long seperations:




Sometimes I catch him staring off into the distance, and I know he's thinking of this chicken, dreaming of a time when they can always be together. After dinner, we accompanied Christopher for some furniture shopping. Here's the face he made when he found a winner:

All in all, it was a packed weekend, but a fun one!

Memorial Day Weekend, pt 1

We kicked off the summer travel season with a bang, a roadtrip to Maryland and Pennsylvania. But we didn't leave before adding a new toy to our bag of tricks. For those of you who don't know, the men in Kevin's family are genetically inclined to be obsessed with photography. The gene has been laying dormant in Kevin, but I think the new camera may have massaged a little life into it.

We arrived in Maryland on Thursday evening and spent the night at my parents house before continuing to Harrisburg, PA on Friday. My old neighbor Erica has called Harrisburg her home for a little over 2 years, and I was so excited to finally get to see her humble abode. Erica has been training for an olympic distance triathalon as a part of Team in Training, an organization that provides training for athletes who dedicate themselves to fundraise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She's been working so hard training and fundraising, so we were thrilled to see her in action for a sprint distance triathalon, a stepping stone to the olympic distance she'll be tackling next month. If you're interested in supporting her and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, you can visit her fundraising page here:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/cpa/cpaphly09/etindale

The spring distance is a 500 m swim, 16 mi bike, and 5K run. Whew, that's a lot of stuff! My inner nerd is wondering what the heck is up with them measuring each distance in a different unit? Regardless, it was a great race to watch as we were able to position ourselves to see her near the start and finish of each leg. She looked so strong and confident every time we saw her, I know she's going to do great when she doubles the distance. She totally made my day when she introduced me to one of her coaches by saying "This is my neighbor, Jacqueline, she lives in North Carolina"...which makes no sense, but it's exactly how I speak about her too :) 400 miles apart, yet forever my neighbor. Here are a few pictures of her from the race:

Chilling (literally, it was in the mid-60's) in the water before the start:



Transitioning to the Bike:



Finishing up the Bike:




And wrapping up the run:

After all the activity (in addition to her 4:30 am wakeup!), you'd think Erica would have been up for a nap after we went for a post-race lunch. Yet, it was her boyfriend Ryan who was ready to fall asleep on the job when we visited a local brewery after the race:

So, in that picture was Erica, Ryan, Brian, and Laura. I think I might need to give either Ryan or Brian a new nickname that doesn't have the "ian" sound to it so I don't accidently call one the other!

After this picture, I had to give Kevin a lecture on sharing:


And finally, we checked out downtown Harrisburg, which was having an art festival along the riverfront, which made for some fun browsing. Here's a picture of the "neighbors" with the river in the background:

More pets!

Our camera putzed out on us, which has made me very unmotivated to do blog updates since I can't share pictures of the deck Kevin stained, the wheels Kevin painted, the garden we're growing, and the various creatures that hang out in said garden. In the absence of our camera, I've gained 25 lbs, grown a hairy wart on my lip, and dyed my hair pink. Just kidding, but maybe I should take advantage of the absence of life documentation by doing something crazy.


We made a trip up to Md/Va a few weeks ago to attend Kevin's cousin Laura's bridal shower & bachelorette party. Well, I attended those events, Kevin hung out with the groom and other family that came to celebrate. Kevin's traveled to Memphis this weekend to do the bachelor party thing with JP, celebrating with a weekend full of beer and bbq. In a little less than a month, they will be Mr. & Mrs, and we couldn't be more thrilled for them!


I ended up a little short on my push to run a second 1/2 marathon. 10 miles short, to be exact. My knee started bothering me a few weeks before the race, and intensified to the point that I was unable to finish my last 10 mile training run the week before the race. Knowing that I couldn't push through 10, I realized that 13 was out of the question. I raced a 5K instead, and cheered my running partners Keri-Anne and Amy to the finish line for their 1/2. They did amazing, though I have to say I was a tad sad that I wasn't right there with them. And that's when I knew I was sick. Who gets sad when they can't run 13 miles? I think I'm an addict! Like any good addict, I was a total crankypants during a 3 week running hiatus, but I'm happy to say I'm getting back out there. I'm starting slow & short and hoping my body doesn't mutiny.


Kevin's job search has been...going. The job market sucks and we're trying to be patient, which if you know either of us, patience isn't something that comes naturally. Nonetheless, we're happy the summer is here with lots of weddings & weekend trips to look forward to. This is good news for the blog as well, since I guess I'll have something to talk about!

A month later...

Ok, so I'm not the best about updating this blog. I'm really good at other things. Like eating french fries or waking up 5 minutes before my alarm..sometimes. Oh well, I don't suppose being a bad blogger will sentence me to eternal damnation or anything like that, though I might have that fate covered with other habits. So, I suppose I should get to the "what we've been up to" part. For some reason the phrase "not much" pops into mind (as evidenced by the empty blog), but that's not really true. Here's a quick run-down of what we've been up to:

We got to show off our house when my cousin Jane visited at the tail end of a business trip. It actually fooled her into thinking I was a "grown up", which proves that I am truly a master of illusion. We enjoyed a weekend of 80 degree temperatures by taking a short trip to the lake with our good friends Christy and Chris. It was perfect weather to roast some weenies and lounge by the lake. Tehehe, I said weenies. See? Very grown up. It was a great preview for the summer to come and we're hoping we can convince Christy and Chris to join us again when it's warm enough to try some water sports. Last weekend, my parents came to visit and we didn't force them to do any physical labor, which probably made for a pretty decent weekend from their standpoint.


What else? I fell off the bandwagon on studying for my test because, lets face it, engineering is boring. Alas, I am trying my best to get back on the bandwagon, although I have to say that an increase in my studying also corresponds with an increase in alcohol consumption. This explains college a lot. Kevin has been busy around our house being way more ambitious than I would be if I were laid off. I can't even begin to list the projects he's completed, but everywhere I look I can see something that is better because of his efforts.

My job is going pretty well, and actually served as part of my inspiration for posting today. In order to inspect water systems, I have to do a file review for each system, looking through every piece of correspondence between our office and the system. Occasionally, there is additional correspondence with regard to specific customers of the water systems. This brings me to the gem I stumbled upon today, which I simply cannot keep to myself, it's just too good. This letter, written before I was born, is from the water system to a customer who apparently has not paid their water bill. Here it is, only edited to remove names/dates:

Dear Customer's Name,

Inregards to your water, I was by your home on (Date in early 80's) to talk to you concerning your late payment and you came out and asulted me by hitting me with your fisk and drawing your shot gun on meand cursing me for no reason, threatening my life by threatening to shot me if I cut your water off.

I want you to know that if you give me any more trouble concerning your pament of water use or cutting your service off because of your payment, I am going to seek permission to discontinue your service PERMANENTLY, because it is not worth facing a shot gun to collect a measly 5 or 10 dollar water bill each month.

I hope you know what permanent means, well it means when thatis done that your water will not be turn on any more regardless of how much you are willing to pay

Your considering about this matter is necessary.

-Provider of Water

Luckily, the provider of water is no longer in charge there, and there wasn't any new article enclosed in the file about shootings there. I think I'll need to play "Dueling Banjos" to get me in the mood for this inspection!

Slacker Blogger

Sooo, it's been awhile since I posted. Life has been pretty uneventful, but yet busy at the same time. I've decided to make the commitment to study for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, which will make me an Engineer in Training (EIT), a pitstop on the way to becoming a Professional Engineer (PE). Given the number of acronyms in the previous sentence, you can see that I've really taken to life as a government worker. The exam isn't until October, but it covers basically every engineering class I ever took. Seeing as how I can't remember anything about the last movie I saw, I have my work cut out for me to resurrect information from classes I took over 4 years ago. So, if you want to find me, I'll be snuggled up to this 5 pound literary masterpiece.


Aside from studying, I've been keeping up with my running and plan to do a 2'nd half marathon on March 28'th. Between the studying and running, the evening hours seem to pass faster than I'd like.

Kevin has been staying busy with job applications and house projects. It's a little mystery for me when I come home - trying to figure out what he's done in the house on that given day...it's always something! He's taken down several more trees, in hopes of letting more light onto our lawn so it won't be as muddy. He also put screens into our downstairs windows. We had the screens & frames, but they were the wrong size for our windows, so he had to re-size them to fit. He'll do the upstairs on a weekend when I can be home to make sure he doesn't do unintentional ladder acrobatics. I can't tell you how many times I've wished to open up the house to air it out (pretty much anytime Squirt farts), so it will be nice to enjoy once spring comes! Speaking of spring, our yard is confused and thinks it's here already. Our daffodils pushed up the week of Christmas and started blooming about two weeks ago. It came in handy since I could clip a few and have free flowers for Valentine's day :)

Sweet kicks

As a state employee, you don't expect too many perks with the job. So I was surprised when my boss said we'd be going out to get some boots. Since we are frequently in muddy & waterlogged locations, water-proof boots are a must. Oh yeah, and a coworker pointed out that it's a good idea to protect your ankles from snakes...yikes! Presenting the newest addition to my style:


They come complete with a steel toe so if anyone causes any trouble I can kick ass. Plus, I think this trendy shoe makes me totally runway-ready. Don't be jealous of the glamorous life I lead.

Life has been pretty unexciting otherwise. Kevin was down for the count with a nasty cold last week, but recovered enough to play lumberjack on Saturday. We cut down about 5 trees in our yard, but they were all pretty small so you can hardly tell the difference. Otherwise, our days have been full of work (me) & job-searching (Kevin).

N is for....

So, I've been tagged - thanks Jamie! The game is coming up with 10 things that start with a letter and Jamie gave me the letter "N".

10 Random things that start with N:

1. Nodding off - All the car riding I've been doing lately seems to make me want to nap!
2. Nachos Grande - Who doesn't love some Taco Bell? Me, that's who. Well, actually I haven't ever tried it. *horrified gasp*
3. Nicey- As in Queen Nicey. I gave myself this nickname at my old job when a coworker gave me the nickname of Meanness. We had fun giving each other a hard time.
4. Nest- The website where I met my running pals, I'm so grateful to have found a great group of ladies to keep pace with.
5. North Carolina- It was 70 degrees here while it was icy cold in Md yesterday!
6. Neener-neener- A phrase to rub in the aforementioned temperature difference.
7. Not Many - words I can think of that start with "N".
8. Neuse- A river that runs through the area.
9. Nearly Done- Seriously struggling here.
10. Nachos Pequito - I wonder if the Taco Bells in other countries have normal (smaller) sized portions and call the dish Nachos Pequito?

Yeah, that was a little painful at the end there. What can you expect when half my vocab is "thingie" and "whatchamacallit"? Anyway, now I'm going to pass on the fun and tag Kathleen
with the letter "S". Kathleen went to grad school for technical writing (or something like that?), so I'm expecting big thingies out of her.