3.06.2012
Objects at rest
After the last month and a half had beaten me down emotionally and physically — packing, coordinating home repairs, sending paperwork back and forth to various banks and realtors, working with packers and movers, squeezing in "last" visits and dinners with a lot of very good friends, emptying/cleaning our house and preparing to put it on the market, and then driving two VERY long days in the car while Jack drove the other car in a four-person-and-one-mewing-cat caravan — we finally arrived in Richmond on Sunday night. Our suite-style hotel greeted us warmly, with just enough space to be comfortable. I unpacked quickly to give us some semblance of feeling settled, of feeling at rest instead of in constant, frenzied motion. We each chose a drawer for our clothes, and I put away all of our toiletries and groceries instead of leaving them in bags and boxes. On Monday morning, Jack left for his first day at his new job, and Kent, Dean and I had breakfast and then walked outside to play in the snow. Yep, snow. On our first morning in Virginia. Virginia knew just how to say, "We're glad you're here."
We took a leisurely, chilly walk through the patch of woods behind the hotel, and then we wandered over to an intriguing little market called Tom Leonard's. Kent basically led us through the store, and I realized very quickly that I was going to need to come back prepared to shop, and soon. We had needed to find groceries that day anyway, and this place was perfect, so we walked back to the hotel for my purse and reusable bags. We stopped at the wishing well on the way in, and we tossed in a few coins for the charity that they give the money to each week. I taught Kent the very ancient tradition of keeping your wish to yourself if you want it to come true. This kid has so much trouble keeping secrets that I can't believe he hasn't told me about it yet. He's so funny with his new big secret. Kent and Dean also sat on the cow statue out front so I could snap a few pictures, even though I'm sure their tiny butts were freezing. They loved it.
This market has a lovely, colorful selection and great prices on produce, dairy, and meat, with fun extras like homemade mozzarella, pico de gallo, and ciabatta bread. I couldn't resist the promise of a lunch of mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, and ciabatta drizzled with the balsamic vinegar I had brought along with us. I also bought asparagus and shallots and pasta sauce, let Kent pick out his own apples, and turned the last corner to see beautiful bottles of wine and a beer cooler with (be still, my heart) some Abita beer, all the way from Louisiana.
Ordinarily, grocery shopping with both of my kids stresses me out. Like, so much that I usually refuse to do it. I either go with Dean while Kent is in school, or I wait until after dinner when Jack can stay home with them. Occasionally, when I pick up Kent from school, I realize that I *have* to get a couple of things for dinner, and he rolls his eyes and says, "Why didn't you go while I was in school?!" Yes, why indeed? We go to Target, and I buy them popcorn so they will eat while I dash through the store, determined to finish my errand before they finish their snack. But this grocery trip was different. See, we're in vacation mode. I'm in no hurry to be anywhere, and I'm a creative and patient mom right now. This is such a welcomed change from our frantic days as we prepared to leave Baton Rouge. The only exception to my new, infinite, vacation-mode patience was when I was carrying three heavy bags and a gallon of milk back to the hotel, and I was trying to urge a very reluctant two-year-old to walk faster through the snow... but for the rest of the time, I'm in no hurry.
My kids are usually in vacation mode, I've realized. I just need to listen to them more often and let them remind me to slow down.
After our intense month-and-a-half when we were getting ready to move, I am relishing this feeling of leisure and peace. Cleaning the "house" takes about ten minutes. On Fridays, they're going to clean for us. Putting the toys away means picking up the few treasured toys and books we brought in the car with us, then placing them into one drawer of the dresser instead of sorting them into multiple shelves, baskets, and bins. Doing the dishes takes about two minutes, because there are exactly two burners and three pans. No oven. This is hard in a lot of ways, because I do love ovens, and I have already assured Jack that once we're in our hew house, I will go into full-on baking mode and bake bread and cookies, roast vegetables, and make lasagna and enchiladas while we're unpacking. But for now, I have no oven. Who has an oven on vacation, anyway? Not us. We will eat sautéed veggies and pasta, fresh salads, bread from the market, quesadillas, risotto... and when the ideas run out, we might eat some weird microwavable foods on occasion.
If we can live in this sort of simplicity for a month, why not longer? Why do we surround ourselves with all the other stuff that those movers loaded onto the truck? Sure, there are justifications for all of the kitchen tools, the extra clothes, the books I can't part with, the other toys, the linens, the instruments, the CDs, the electronics... but there are also a lot of reasons to get rid of a sizable chunk of it. I had multiple friends suggesting that we use the packing time to weed out our belongings, but I was so busy with every other aspect of our sudden move that I couldn't make the time to take more than two carloads of stuff to Goodwill, figuring I'll have more time to go through things as we're unpacking. Purging mode felt SO good, and once I started, I found it surprisingly easy to part with some of the things that I had kept for years for absolutely no reason. I have to be even more brutal, though.
We generally live in clutter, and I'm eager for the opportunity to change that. Our new house will have dedicated spaces for a lot of the things that used to be jam-packed on top of each other, but I know that if we don't stay on top of the putting-away and the cleaning, we'll clutter this house just as badly as we have all the other, smaller spaces we've lived in. I'm taking this month to train myself to do better. I'm also trying to encourage Jack and the kids to do better, because I can't do it alone.
My first morning here, I started some tomato, watermelon, spinach, and pea seeds that I plan to put in the ground as soon as I can prepare a garden at our new house. I didn't bring most of my plants, but I couldn't bear to part with the two blueberry bushes I bought last fall and hadn't planted in the ground yet, so those rode in the car with us and are currently parked by the window here in our hotel room. Dreaming about our new space is so much darn fun. Thinking about putting down roots, both literal and figurative ones, is so attractive, and it helps me to feel like I actually live here already.
So far, Richmond is working out very nicely.
We took a leisurely, chilly walk through the patch of woods behind the hotel, and then we wandered over to an intriguing little market called Tom Leonard's. Kent basically led us through the store, and I realized very quickly that I was going to need to come back prepared to shop, and soon. We had needed to find groceries that day anyway, and this place was perfect, so we walked back to the hotel for my purse and reusable bags. We stopped at the wishing well on the way in, and we tossed in a few coins for the charity that they give the money to each week. I taught Kent the very ancient tradition of keeping your wish to yourself if you want it to come true. This kid has so much trouble keeping secrets that I can't believe he hasn't told me about it yet. He's so funny with his new big secret. Kent and Dean also sat on the cow statue out front so I could snap a few pictures, even though I'm sure their tiny butts were freezing. They loved it.
This market has a lovely, colorful selection and great prices on produce, dairy, and meat, with fun extras like homemade mozzarella, pico de gallo, and ciabatta bread. I couldn't resist the promise of a lunch of mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, and ciabatta drizzled with the balsamic vinegar I had brought along with us. I also bought asparagus and shallots and pasta sauce, let Kent pick out his own apples, and turned the last corner to see beautiful bottles of wine and a beer cooler with (be still, my heart) some Abita beer, all the way from Louisiana.
Ordinarily, grocery shopping with both of my kids stresses me out. Like, so much that I usually refuse to do it. I either go with Dean while Kent is in school, or I wait until after dinner when Jack can stay home with them. Occasionally, when I pick up Kent from school, I realize that I *have* to get a couple of things for dinner, and he rolls his eyes and says, "Why didn't you go while I was in school?!" Yes, why indeed? We go to Target, and I buy them popcorn so they will eat while I dash through the store, determined to finish my errand before they finish their snack. But this grocery trip was different. See, we're in vacation mode. I'm in no hurry to be anywhere, and I'm a creative and patient mom right now. This is such a welcomed change from our frantic days as we prepared to leave Baton Rouge. The only exception to my new, infinite, vacation-mode patience was when I was carrying three heavy bags and a gallon of milk back to the hotel, and I was trying to urge a very reluctant two-year-old to walk faster through the snow... but for the rest of the time, I'm in no hurry.
My kids are usually in vacation mode, I've realized. I just need to listen to them more often and let them remind me to slow down.
After our intense month-and-a-half when we were getting ready to move, I am relishing this feeling of leisure and peace. Cleaning the "house" takes about ten minutes. On Fridays, they're going to clean for us. Putting the toys away means picking up the few treasured toys and books we brought in the car with us, then placing them into one drawer of the dresser instead of sorting them into multiple shelves, baskets, and bins. Doing the dishes takes about two minutes, because there are exactly two burners and three pans. No oven. This is hard in a lot of ways, because I do love ovens, and I have already assured Jack that once we're in our hew house, I will go into full-on baking mode and bake bread and cookies, roast vegetables, and make lasagna and enchiladas while we're unpacking. But for now, I have no oven. Who has an oven on vacation, anyway? Not us. We will eat sautéed veggies and pasta, fresh salads, bread from the market, quesadillas, risotto... and when the ideas run out, we might eat some weird microwavable foods on occasion.
If we can live in this sort of simplicity for a month, why not longer? Why do we surround ourselves with all the other stuff that those movers loaded onto the truck? Sure, there are justifications for all of the kitchen tools, the extra clothes, the books I can't part with, the other toys, the linens, the instruments, the CDs, the electronics... but there are also a lot of reasons to get rid of a sizable chunk of it. I had multiple friends suggesting that we use the packing time to weed out our belongings, but I was so busy with every other aspect of our sudden move that I couldn't make the time to take more than two carloads of stuff to Goodwill, figuring I'll have more time to go through things as we're unpacking. Purging mode felt SO good, and once I started, I found it surprisingly easy to part with some of the things that I had kept for years for absolutely no reason. I have to be even more brutal, though.
We generally live in clutter, and I'm eager for the opportunity to change that. Our new house will have dedicated spaces for a lot of the things that used to be jam-packed on top of each other, but I know that if we don't stay on top of the putting-away and the cleaning, we'll clutter this house just as badly as we have all the other, smaller spaces we've lived in. I'm taking this month to train myself to do better. I'm also trying to encourage Jack and the kids to do better, because I can't do it alone.
My first morning here, I started some tomato, watermelon, spinach, and pea seeds that I plan to put in the ground as soon as I can prepare a garden at our new house. I didn't bring most of my plants, but I couldn't bear to part with the two blueberry bushes I bought last fall and hadn't planted in the ground yet, so those rode in the car with us and are currently parked by the window here in our hotel room. Dreaming about our new space is so much darn fun. Thinking about putting down roots, both literal and figurative ones, is so attractive, and it helps me to feel like I actually live here already.
So far, Richmond is working out very nicely.
- posted by erica 3/06/2012 01:08:00 PM
- 3 comments
2.11.2012
Stretching, dusting
Returning from the ether to blog again feels like stretching before a run after I've gone weeks without running. Like making a lunch date with a friend I haven't seen in years. Or like dusting off an old recipe I haven't made in a while. Anticipation. Familiarity. A little self-doubt thrown into the mix. And once I get going, a wholehearted desire never to let myself go this long without doing it again.
I told myself that I was taking a break from blogging because I was more interested in concentrating on my life than in writing about it. I realized upon closer examination that that wasn't really true, though. I still spent just as much time on the internet; I just transferred my internet energies to Facebook. Bits and snippets instead of quality writing. Keeping up with 500 of my closest friends and family members and commenting on a small fraction of things that were happening in their lives, instead of reading the blogs of people who inspire me. Publishing hilarious/poignant/ephemeral choppy phrases here and there instead of making a concerted effort to communicate in a structured way.
There are things I really enjoy about Facebook. Where else can you get nearly-instantaneous polling data on which color of vinyl siding you should put on your house? Or recount quickly a ridiculously funny thing your preschooler said, or share photos from a birthday party for family who weren't there, and for most of the friends who were there? It has brought me much closer to people I never would have imagined having much of a relationship with. But then again, so did blogging. I just forgot that. And blogging works differently. It takes more time and effort than Facebook.
What I don't enjoy about Facebook is the feeling that there's always more to see, always more posts to read or friends to catch up with or photos to comment on. I stopped reading my news feed a long time ago because I never had time to scroll through it all, but I try to keep up with family and close friends as I have the chance. Yet I'm still always missing news, photos, and funny stories from the people I've forgotten to check in on. And I still feel a little jealous when I read posts where other people have commented in really sympathetic, knowing ways to something I didn't even know was happening. I think a lot of those people spend way more time on Facebook than I do... which leads me to wonder a bit self-righteously what they might be missing out on in their own lives. Or maybe they just don't have as many "friends" as I do. Quotation marks intended. So can we all agree that Facebook is great in some ways, and maybe not-so-great in others?
The main reason I wanted to come back, to dust off the old space I used to occupy here, is to give myself something structured to get me through a very major life change. We're moving from Louisiana, where we've lived for the past 8.5 years, to Virginia, where I've dreamed of living ever since I met Jack. So much about Virginia is exciting and beautiful, and I feel deep-down that Virginia will fit who we are while helping us become the people we want to be. Yet the thought of leaving this home we've made for ourselves, these friends, this school, this church, this bizarre state and way of living, and this tiny, imperfect house, is sometimes more than I can stand. I've needed to let myself get lost in writing about it, and the 420 characters to which I'm limited in a status update just isn't the right venue.
My advice for today is this: put yourself in situations where you can look around the room and realize that you love every single person in that room. This has been happening to me more and more since we found out we were moving. Honestly, I've never felt more popular in my life. I have all of these "last dinners" and "farewell get-togethers" to get through — time-consuming, emotionally difficult, but wonderful — and having numerous chances to appreciate all of these dear friends is a blessing in the midst of the crazy.
My dear old blog will be getting me through the next two and a half weeks as we prepare to leave Louisiana. I will need it even more when we're in Richmond and I'm getting acclimated, making new friends but missing the old ones, and making a new routine but missing the old one. Check back, and shoot me some words if you feel like leaving your mark.
I told myself that I was taking a break from blogging because I was more interested in concentrating on my life than in writing about it. I realized upon closer examination that that wasn't really true, though. I still spent just as much time on the internet; I just transferred my internet energies to Facebook. Bits and snippets instead of quality writing. Keeping up with 500 of my closest friends and family members and commenting on a small fraction of things that were happening in their lives, instead of reading the blogs of people who inspire me. Publishing hilarious/poignant/ephemeral choppy phrases here and there instead of making a concerted effort to communicate in a structured way.
There are things I really enjoy about Facebook. Where else can you get nearly-instantaneous polling data on which color of vinyl siding you should put on your house? Or recount quickly a ridiculously funny thing your preschooler said, or share photos from a birthday party for family who weren't there, and for most of the friends who were there? It has brought me much closer to people I never would have imagined having much of a relationship with. But then again, so did blogging. I just forgot that. And blogging works differently. It takes more time and effort than Facebook.
What I don't enjoy about Facebook is the feeling that there's always more to see, always more posts to read or friends to catch up with or photos to comment on. I stopped reading my news feed a long time ago because I never had time to scroll through it all, but I try to keep up with family and close friends as I have the chance. Yet I'm still always missing news, photos, and funny stories from the people I've forgotten to check in on. And I still feel a little jealous when I read posts where other people have commented in really sympathetic, knowing ways to something I didn't even know was happening. I think a lot of those people spend way more time on Facebook than I do... which leads me to wonder a bit self-righteously what they might be missing out on in their own lives. Or maybe they just don't have as many "friends" as I do. Quotation marks intended. So can we all agree that Facebook is great in some ways, and maybe not-so-great in others?
The main reason I wanted to come back, to dust off the old space I used to occupy here, is to give myself something structured to get me through a very major life change. We're moving from Louisiana, where we've lived for the past 8.5 years, to Virginia, where I've dreamed of living ever since I met Jack. So much about Virginia is exciting and beautiful, and I feel deep-down that Virginia will fit who we are while helping us become the people we want to be. Yet the thought of leaving this home we've made for ourselves, these friends, this school, this church, this bizarre state and way of living, and this tiny, imperfect house, is sometimes more than I can stand. I've needed to let myself get lost in writing about it, and the 420 characters to which I'm limited in a status update just isn't the right venue.
My advice for today is this: put yourself in situations where you can look around the room and realize that you love every single person in that room. This has been happening to me more and more since we found out we were moving. Honestly, I've never felt more popular in my life. I have all of these "last dinners" and "farewell get-togethers" to get through — time-consuming, emotionally difficult, but wonderful — and having numerous chances to appreciate all of these dear friends is a blessing in the midst of the crazy.
My dear old blog will be getting me through the next two and a half weeks as we prepare to leave Louisiana. I will need it even more when we're in Richmond and I'm getting acclimated, making new friends but missing the old ones, and making a new routine but missing the old one. Check back, and shoot me some words if you feel like leaving your mark.
Labels: blogging, Louisiana, observations, Virginia
- posted by erica 2/11/2012 09:50:00 PM
- 2 comments
9.07.2008
Refuge in the mountains
A few photos to get you started
Refugees from Gustav
I don't have my camera cord to connect it to my laptop, but Ron has snapped several good photos of us during our time in Virginia. I'll add to this album when I get home and have a thousand more pictures to sift through.
We're here in Virginia just until tomorrow morning, when we head to Winston-Salem, then Charlotte on Thursday, then Atlanta on Saturday, and home on Sunday. Again, tentative, but we're going to get in a lot of unexpected visits. It looks like Ike will be done with whatever he's doing by then and we can return home safely, but the plan changes every couple of days. Luckily I have AMAZING friends and family who are okay with all the up-in-the-air-ness. Kent has done beautifully with all the up-in-the-air-ness as well, so here's hoping the extended stay away from home doesn't take too much of a toll on him in the coming week.
Jack's doing great and is going back to a fully-powered office tomorrow, so he'll be feeling somewhat normal during the day again. He's gotten a lot of studying, yard work, and house cleaning done, and he cleaned out the fridge yesterday to get rid of all the stuff that went bad while we were without power. We miss each other, but things are still working for us individually where we are. It will be so nice to see him in a week, though. I know Kent will love having his Dada around again, too.
Refugees from Gustav
I don't have my camera cord to connect it to my laptop, but Ron has snapped several good photos of us during our time in Virginia. I'll add to this album when I get home and have a thousand more pictures to sift through.
We're here in Virginia just until tomorrow morning, when we head to Winston-Salem, then Charlotte on Thursday, then Atlanta on Saturday, and home on Sunday. Again, tentative, but we're going to get in a lot of unexpected visits. It looks like Ike will be done with whatever he's doing by then and we can return home safely, but the plan changes every couple of days. Luckily I have AMAZING friends and family who are okay with all the up-in-the-air-ness. Kent has done beautifully with all the up-in-the-air-ness as well, so here's hoping the extended stay away from home doesn't take too much of a toll on him in the coming week.
Jack's doing great and is going back to a fully-powered office tomorrow, so he'll be feeling somewhat normal during the day again. He's gotten a lot of studying, yard work, and house cleaning done, and he cleaned out the fridge yesterday to get rid of all the stuff that went bad while we were without power. We miss each other, but things are still working for us individually where we are. It will be so nice to see him in a week, though. I know Kent will love having his Dada around again, too.
Labels: hurricanes, photography, travel, Virginia
- posted by erica 9/07/2008 08:10:00 PM
- 2 comments
4.16.2007
Close to home
Jack's parents are fine.
I'm still glued to CNN for details on the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech (despite my growing annoyance with Wolf Blitzer). This is my husband's home. His dad works at VT, his mom works there part-time, and Jack worked there himself during several different summers. Blacksburg and the surrounding area have always seemed like just about the most peaceful place I could imagine, so it's pretty jarring all around. Plus, you know, I work on a college campus.
Keep the VT community in your prayers.
I'm still glued to CNN for details on the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech (despite my growing annoyance with Wolf Blitzer). This is my husband's home. His dad works at VT, his mom works there part-time, and Jack worked there himself during several different summers. Blacksburg and the surrounding area have always seemed like just about the most peaceful place I could imagine, so it's pretty jarring all around. Plus, you know, I work on a college campus.
Keep the VT community in your prayers.
Labels: family, husband things, school, Virginia
- posted by erica 4/16/2007 04:41:00 PM
- 1 comments
8.15.2005
There and Back Again
Well, I apologize for not chroncling our voyage sooner, but I had started to write a long post and then grew tired of the narrative technique I had chosen. I thought it was clever at first--sort of Lord of the Ringsy--but then I decided it was just dumb. So here's the story, simplified and without specialized narration, because I wanted to post the pictures and tell the story, but I couldn't make myself finish it the way I had started it at first. Sorry if it's more boring this way. =) And my apologies go out to those of you with dialup who probably had trouble loading this page. I just had too many good pictures not to include them!
Jack and I had been to the public library to look for a book on CD before we left, and we got Chocolat by Joanne Harris (like the Juliette Binoche/Johnny Depp film) and a Dave Barry book that we never really got into. Chocolat was fantastic, though, and now we want to see the movie to see whether they messed it up or not. Listening to the book made the time in the car pass much quicker, and we didn't finish it until we were driving from Raleigh to Charlotte on the return part of the trip.
Another thing that helped us pass the time was taking note of the license plates we passed on the road. Here's our completed map: 44 states and 2 Canadian territories, but no Washington (state or D.C.), Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, or Rhode Island. I could have sworn that I spotted a Rhode Island license plate just before we got to Winston-Salem, but we had found our exit and Jack didn't want to risk our lives by flooring it to catch up with the car. So maybe we saw it, but I can't confirm it.
Our first stop, besides the Panera in Birmingham (for lunch) and various gas stations and travel plazas, was Jack's parents' house in the Virginia mountains (near Blacksburg). We got there late Friday evening, and on Saturday, they took us to a street festival in Blacksburg, where a bunch of local artisans were displaying their crafts. For lunch, Jack and I made our very first trip to a hookah bar; one of Ron's co-workers had taken him there, and he loved it and now goes there fairly frequently for yummy Mediterranean food and a nice atmosphere. We didn't smoke any hookah, but they had a list of about 30 different varieties on the wall. Apparently, it's a pretty hopping place at night, but it was just like a regular local restaurant when we were there. I had the best panini of my life there (it had mozzarella, fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, yellow peppers, and onions). Before we went back to their house, they took me to my first LYS (Local Yarn Store, for all you non-knitters), and I found some fabulous celery-colored cotton yarn (suitable for the mild climate here), which I plan to knit into my first sweater as soon as I'm done with Ellis's quilt.
The next day, we got together with some of Jack's high-school friends for bowling and a cookout. Bowling was an embarrassment for me; basically, I hit my peak as a bowler at the age of 10, and it's been downhill ever since. I get especially nervous around others, because they have all these expectations that I'm going to blow them out of the water since I have my own ball, and it's all a mind game for me, anyway. The cookout was way fun, and Jack got to catch up with his buds and hear some stories about people he hasn't heard much from since he graduated.
Being around the other cats made us feel a little better about leaving ours at home. You wouldn't know it to look at this picture, but Cog, Jack's former cat, actually played with me for about fifteen minutes, marking the first time she's said more than two words to me (figuratively, of course). In fact, all three of their cats were extremely friendly to me, which means one of two things: (1) They've finally accepted me, or (2) They're up to something. I tend to believe the former, though I'm cautious in my optimism. =) Cats are tricksy.
On Tuesday, before we drove down to Winston-Salem, we ate a huge and filling breakfast with Ron and Ann at Gillie's, a vegetarian restaurant that Jack has always liked. Once we got to Winston-Salem, we visited with Granny for a little while, and then we headed to my aunt Irene's house so that I could raid her fabric scrap collection. I now have an enormous box of fabrics for future quilts and other projects, and there are a few I'm particularly excited to use! I loved being able to get my hands on fabrics that I've seen in other projects my grandmother has done, like other quilts she made for family members, and a particularly loud and ridiculous print that she used to make me some shorts back in the 80s. I'm saying it's ridiculous that I wore them, not that she made them. She was trying to make me happy. The 80s were strange. Granny also taught me how to make a pillow cover with a zipper, so I've made one of our four throw pillows and will get to the others after Ellis's quilt is finished. Do you sense a recurring theme yet?
On Thursday, we had a nice afternoon and evening with my friends from home. Tucker wore a t-shirt that cracked me up, though you can't really see it in the picture; it says "This is my party shirt."
We swam and grilled out at Nicole's parents' house-- you can see Jack enjoying his chance to relax in the sun after a whole summer of being cooped up in his office (except when he mows the lawn, which I gather isn't nearly as fun as swimming).
The party then moved to Nicole's apartment, where we played games and listened to music and generally became unruly and uncouth. Pictured here are Alice and Nicole, doing their best to look unruly. Anyway, we had much fun playing Trivial Pursuit (90s Edition), which the Nicole-Erica-Jack team won with little competition from the other side. Hehehe. We also played a new game of Nicole's called Loaded Questions, which is really good for a group of people who know each other well. In each round, one person asks a question from one of the game cards, everyone writes down a response, and then the person who asked the question has to figure out which person said which thing, and s/he gets to move forward one space for every correct match. Then there are some times when everyone has to guess what answer the question-asker would write down instead, and everyone who gets it right gets to move forward on the board. The one that was easiest for everyone was when Jack asked the question, "Which part of the newspaper do I read first?" and everyone except Katie, Tucker's friend (who was getting to know Jack for the first time), knew that it was the sports section. I think I came in last place overall, but the funness of the game made it okay. It didn't really feel like a competition-- just an excuse to ask each other questions and get silly.
On Friday, we left Winston-Salem and drove to Raleigh to spend the night with Joanna (my sister) and her family. We had met Nicholas in May, but we got to see him in his element, and he's a little older now, so he's doing stuff! He was laughing and smiling and wiggling a lot more, and we brought him some cute clothes (onesies from The Gap and a hat I knitted for him).
Of course, in this picture, he's sleeping, but he's a baby. He's allowed to get in some good sleeping time. He's growing fairly rapidly, so I hope the stuff fits him for a little while, at least! We also got to visit with more cats, since they have three, but only one of them (Grayson) was really sociable and insistent about being petted.
While we were there, we also watched the Lemony Snicket movie (A Series of Unfortunate Events). I've read all the books, and the movie covered the first three books. I had been sort of worried that the narration, which is my favorite part of the books because of the author's dry wit and great descriptions, wouldn't carry over into the film, but Jude Law played the narrator and did it really well. As the books progress, the narrator himself becomes more involved in the story (and the children age, meet new people involved in the plot, etc.), so I'll be interested to see what they do with the next movie(s). There are two books still to be written as well, making a total of 13, and they've been coming out at roughly the pace of one per year, so those, like the Harry Potter franchise, will soon be over as well. Anyway, the movie gets a thumbs-up from me. I was not disappointed.
The penultimate stop on our voyage was a lunch and quick visit with Annie Beth, a good friend from college who went to Nice with me, and her family. Their first-born, Ben, was catching up on his rest when we arrived, and so he missed the first portion of the photo chronicling. Annie Beth and Brad just adopted a little girl, Anna, who's pictured here with her parents.
We brought presents for both of the kids, which Ben was more than happy to open after he woke up from his nap. Annie Beth had told us beforehand that Ben loves opening presents, and he doesn't much care whether he gets to keep what's inside, as long as he gets to do the opening. Here's Ben tasting the plastic packaging that came with the stacking blocks we gave him. He liked the toys themselves, but he was also fairly fascinated with the packaging until we decided it was probably a bad idea for him to chew on sharp edges. =)
The last stop on our way home was Atlanta, where we stayed with Emily. When we got to Atlanta on Saturday evening, she whisked us away to Starbucks (her favorite hangout), and we played this really fun card game called Set that my mom learned from her AP friends and subsequently infected me with, so I turned around a few years later and got all my friends addicted to it. Jack and I don't actually have a set of Set cards, but we've decided that we must get some before Thanksgiving, because I can see us having a lot of fun playing with his family. It's a good game for people to wander in and out of if there's something else going on, because once you learn how to spot the sets, you can grab a couple and then walk away if you get bored or have to suddenly go cook something for the Thanksgiving meal, for instance. Anyway, it could be a fun addition to the traditional Mah Jong/wine tasting we do with Lisa and Joel's friends. =) We grabbed breakfast with Lisa and her mom on Sunday morning before we headed home, and we made tentative plans to visit Atlanta's new IKEA store at Thanksgiving. Apparently, the first time she went, she didn't think she'd need a cart, but she ended up filling one up before she left. We spent a rather tiny amount of time at the IKEA in Baltimore about a year ago, so it'd be fun to visit another one, since the closest one to here is in Houston.
Anyway, on Sunday evening, we finally got home! Driving had been really fun until we got most of the way through Mississippi, and then we started to go a little bit crazy. For the last hour and a half, we played the game where one person names someone famous, and then the other person has to name another famous person whose first initial is the same as the previous famous person's last initial (e.g., Grace Kelly --> Kiefer Sutherland --> Sal Mineo --> Marlee Matlin, etc.). I played a few times with my sorority sisters on various trips, but never for an hour and a half. After 30 minutes or so, we got to the point where I was naming fairly obscure movie stars Jack had never heard of and he was naming fairly obscure baseball players I'd never heard of. Fun times. When we jumped out of the car and flung open the door, we were very pleased to find that our cats had behaved well for Matt and Steph the whole time we were gone (or so they've led us to believe, anyway), and we ate some dinner and then crashed into bed. The next day, Jack went to work, and I set about packing for my trip to Lancaster, which I'll blog about later. This post has been way too long for me to continue it with the next chapter of my August visits!
Jack and I had been to the public library to look for a book on CD before we left, and we got Chocolat by Joanne Harris (like the Juliette Binoche/Johnny Depp film) and a Dave Barry book that we never really got into. Chocolat was fantastic, though, and now we want to see the movie to see whether they messed it up or not. Listening to the book made the time in the car pass much quicker, and we didn't finish it until we were driving from Raleigh to Charlotte on the return part of the trip.
Another thing that helped us pass the time was taking note of the license plates we passed on the road. Here's our completed map: 44 states and 2 Canadian territories, but no Washington (state or D.C.), Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, or Rhode Island. I could have sworn that I spotted a Rhode Island license plate just before we got to Winston-Salem, but we had found our exit and Jack didn't want to risk our lives by flooring it to catch up with the car. So maybe we saw it, but I can't confirm it. Our first stop, besides the Panera in Birmingham (for lunch) and various gas stations and travel plazas, was Jack's parents' house in the Virginia mountains (near Blacksburg). We got there late Friday evening, and on Saturday, they took us to a street festival in Blacksburg, where a bunch of local artisans were displaying their crafts. For lunch, Jack and I made our very first trip to a hookah bar; one of Ron's co-workers had taken him there, and he loved it and now goes there fairly frequently for yummy Mediterranean food and a nice atmosphere. We didn't smoke any hookah, but they had a list of about 30 different varieties on the wall. Apparently, it's a pretty hopping place at night, but it was just like a regular local restaurant when we were there. I had the best panini of my life there (it had mozzarella, fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, yellow peppers, and onions). Before we went back to their house, they took me to my first LYS (Local Yarn Store, for all you non-knitters), and I found some fabulous celery-colored cotton yarn (suitable for the mild climate here), which I plan to knit into my first sweater as soon as I'm done with Ellis's quilt.The next day, we got together with some of Jack's high-school friends for bowling and a cookout. Bowling was an embarrassment for me; basically, I hit my peak as a bowler at the age of 10, and it's been downhill ever since. I get especially nervous around others, because they have all these expectations that I'm going to blow them out of the water since I have my own ball, and it's all a mind game for me, anyway. The cookout was way fun, and Jack got to catch up with his buds and hear some stories about people he hasn't heard much from since he graduated.
Being around the other cats made us feel a little better about leaving ours at home. You wouldn't know it to look at this picture, but Cog, Jack's former cat, actually played with me for about fifteen minutes, marking the first time she's said more than two words to me (figuratively, of course). In fact, all three of their cats were extremely friendly to me, which means one of two things: (1) They've finally accepted me, or (2) They're up to something. I tend to believe the former, though I'm cautious in my optimism. =) Cats are tricksy.On Tuesday, before we drove down to Winston-Salem, we ate a huge and filling breakfast with Ron and Ann at Gillie's, a vegetarian restaurant that Jack has always liked. Once we got to Winston-Salem, we visited with Granny for a little while, and then we headed to my aunt Irene's house so that I could raid her fabric scrap collection. I now have an enormous box of fabrics for future quilts and other projects, and there are a few I'm particularly excited to use! I loved being able to get my hands on fabrics that I've seen in other projects my grandmother has done, like other quilts she made for family members, and a particularly loud and ridiculous print that she used to make me some shorts back in the 80s. I'm saying it's ridiculous that I wore them, not that she made them. She was trying to make me happy. The 80s were strange. Granny also taught me how to make a pillow cover with a zipper, so I've made one of our four throw pillows and will get to the others after Ellis's quilt is finished. Do you sense a recurring theme yet?
On Thursday, we had a nice afternoon and evening with my friends from home. Tucker wore a t-shirt that cracked me up, though you can't really see it in the picture; it says "This is my party shirt."We swam and grilled out at Nicole's parents' house-- you can see Jack enjoying his chance to relax in the sun after a whole summer of being cooped up in his office (except when he mows the lawn, which I gather isn't nearly as fun as swimming).The party then moved to Nicole's apartment, where we played games and listened to music and generally became unruly and uncouth. Pictured here are Alice and Nicole, doing their best to look unruly. Anyway, we had much fun playing Trivial Pursuit (90s Edition), which the Nicole-Erica-Jack team won with little competition from the other side. Hehehe. We also played a new game of Nicole's called Loaded Questions, which is really good for a group of people who know each other well. In each round, one person asks a question from one of the game cards, everyone writes down a response, and then the person who asked the question has to figure out which person said which thing, and s/he gets to move forward one space for every correct match. Then there are some times when everyone has to guess what answer the question-asker would write down instead, and everyone who gets it right gets to move forward on the board. The one that was easiest for everyone was when Jack asked the question, "Which part of the newspaper do I read first?" and everyone except Katie, Tucker's friend (who was getting to know Jack for the first time), knew that it was the sports section. I think I came in last place overall, but the funness of the game made it okay. It didn't really feel like a competition-- just an excuse to ask each other questions and get silly.On Friday, we left Winston-Salem and drove to Raleigh to spend the night with Joanna (my sister) and her family. We had met Nicholas in May, but we got to see him in his element, and he's a little older now, so he's doing stuff! He was laughing and smiling and wiggling a lot more, and we brought him some cute clothes (onesies from The Gap and a hat I knitted for him).
Of course, in this picture, he's sleeping, but he's a baby. He's allowed to get in some good sleeping time. He's growing fairly rapidly, so I hope the stuff fits him for a little while, at least! We also got to visit with more cats, since they have three, but only one of them (Grayson) was really sociable and insistent about being petted.While we were there, we also watched the Lemony Snicket movie (A Series of Unfortunate Events). I've read all the books, and the movie covered the first three books. I had been sort of worried that the narration, which is my favorite part of the books because of the author's dry wit and great descriptions, wouldn't carry over into the film, but Jude Law played the narrator and did it really well. As the books progress, the narrator himself becomes more involved in the story (and the children age, meet new people involved in the plot, etc.), so I'll be interested to see what they do with the next movie(s). There are two books still to be written as well, making a total of 13, and they've been coming out at roughly the pace of one per year, so those, like the Harry Potter franchise, will soon be over as well. Anyway, the movie gets a thumbs-up from me. I was not disappointed.
The penultimate stop on our voyage was a lunch and quick visit with Annie Beth, a good friend from college who went to Nice with me, and her family. Their first-born, Ben, was catching up on his rest when we arrived, and so he missed the first portion of the photo chronicling. Annie Beth and Brad just adopted a little girl, Anna, who's pictured here with her parents.We brought presents for both of the kids, which Ben was more than happy to open after he woke up from his nap. Annie Beth had told us beforehand that Ben loves opening presents, and he doesn't much care whether he gets to keep what's inside, as long as he gets to do the opening. Here's Ben tasting the plastic packaging that came with the stacking blocks we gave him. He liked the toys themselves, but he was also fairly fascinated with the packaging until we decided it was probably a bad idea for him to chew on sharp edges. =)The last stop on our way home was Atlanta, where we stayed with Emily. When we got to Atlanta on Saturday evening, she whisked us away to Starbucks (her favorite hangout), and we played this really fun card game called Set that my mom learned from her AP friends and subsequently infected me with, so I turned around a few years later and got all my friends addicted to it. Jack and I don't actually have a set of Set cards, but we've decided that we must get some before Thanksgiving, because I can see us having a lot of fun playing with his family. It's a good game for people to wander in and out of if there's something else going on, because once you learn how to spot the sets, you can grab a couple and then walk away if you get bored or have to suddenly go cook something for the Thanksgiving meal, for instance. Anyway, it could be a fun addition to the traditional Mah Jong/wine tasting we do with Lisa and Joel's friends. =) We grabbed breakfast with Lisa and her mom on Sunday morning before we headed home, and we made tentative plans to visit Atlanta's new IKEA store at Thanksgiving. Apparently, the first time she went, she didn't think she'd need a cart, but she ended up filling one up before she left. We spent a rather tiny amount of time at the IKEA in Baltimore about a year ago, so it'd be fun to visit another one, since the closest one to here is in Houston.
Anyway, on Sunday evening, we finally got home! Driving had been really fun until we got most of the way through Mississippi, and then we started to go a little bit crazy. For the last hour and a half, we played the game where one person names someone famous, and then the other person has to name another famous person whose first initial is the same as the previous famous person's last initial (e.g., Grace Kelly --> Kiefer Sutherland --> Sal Mineo --> Marlee Matlin, etc.). I played a few times with my sorority sisters on various trips, but never for an hour and a half. After 30 minutes or so, we got to the point where I was naming fairly obscure movie stars Jack had never heard of and he was naming fairly obscure baseball players I'd never heard of. Fun times. When we jumped out of the car and flung open the door, we were very pleased to find that our cats had behaved well for Matt and Steph the whole time we were gone (or so they've led us to believe, anyway), and we ate some dinner and then crashed into bed. The next day, Jack went to work, and I set about packing for my trip to Lancaster, which I'll blog about later. This post has been way too long for me to continue it with the next chapter of my August visits!
Labels: eating out, family, felines, friends, IKEA, travel, Virginia, what to read, what to watch
- posted by erica 8/15/2005 08:34:00 PM
- 1 comments
8.06.2005
Jack and I are here in Virgina. Woohoo! We got in around 10:30 last night to cool temperatures and fun parents, dog, and cats. =) We're going to head into downtown Blacksburg in a little while for some sort of street festival with local artisans and bands and stuff, so that should be fun. We're going to try to get in some tubing or hiking while we're up here, and tomorrow evening, Jack's friends Mandy and BJ are coming over for a cookout. The weather is so pleasant, and even though Jack's parents don't have air conditioning in their house, it's lovely. It's a really nice change to be away from oppressive humidity and THE SUN that envelops the entire sky in Baton Rouge. =)
The excitement of the morning was that a random little wire-haired dog came into their yard and introduced himself, so Ron walked over to the neighbors' house and discovered that the dog seems to belong to someone who was up here camping. Ann was hilarious; she said, "Wow, I've been thinking that I wanted a little puppy just like this!" It's too bad the dog has a tag and a family already... hehehe.
Anyway, it's time to go take showers and enjoy the sights and sounds of the downtown festival. There are rumors of funnel cakes there as well, so we may partake of some tastes. I ♥ vacation and family visits!
The excitement of the morning was that a random little wire-haired dog came into their yard and introduced himself, so Ron walked over to the neighbors' house and discovered that the dog seems to belong to someone who was up here camping. Ann was hilarious; she said, "Wow, I've been thinking that I wanted a little puppy just like this!" It's too bad the dog has a tag and a family already... hehehe.
Anyway, it's time to go take showers and enjoy the sights and sounds of the downtown festival. There are rumors of funnel cakes there as well, so we may partake of some tastes. I ♥ vacation and family visits!
- posted by erica 8/06/2005 10:35:00 AM
- 2 comments
4.06.2004
The Flaming Ball of Sugar
Today was an excellent day. Ann, Jack, and I took Hero (Ron and Ann's golden mutty dog) to the nearby pond for a long walk this afternoon. It was sunny and 60ish, which was just perfect for walking around in jeans and short sleeves. I had the brilliant idea while we were there, in the spirit of sun and outdoorsiness, to grill out for dinner, so we went to the grocery store to get some hot dogs, portobellos, and pineapple to grill. (You've never had grilled pineapple? You're missing out.) Ron came home early from work, because I had requested to ride in the sidecar of his motorcycle sometime while we were here. Jack decided just after I asked that he wanted to go too, so we got to take turns riding. Ron took me down VA highway 42 for a while, which was mostly 55 and a bit curvy, and I had a great time! I could have done without starting on their gravelly, uneven road that leads out to the highway; I thought the sidecar was going to disconnect itself from his bike because it was shaking so much, but everything held together. Once we got going on even road, I had a really cool time leaning into the curves and looking out at the gorgeous spring scenery. My neck got cold from all the wind, but the rest of me was covered up, and I adapted to the helmet much quicker than I thought I would. (I tend to be claustrophobic, but this was open at the bottom, so I was okay.) The only thing I really didn't like is that the part of the helmet that clicked down over my face got stuck down, so Ron had to pull the helmet up and off my head, rather than my being able to remove it comfortably. I felt like a dweeb until he told me the hinges were weird and that it wasn't just my inability to operate a switch. I had fun waving at all the people we saw, including a large group of cyclists from VA Tech. We had to stop for gas on the way back, so we were gone for about 30 minutes total, and then it was time for Jack's turn. What fun! I'm sure that when both of my grandmothers read this, they'll be slightly freaked out, but I'm fine! I have the best father-in-law ever. He's the coolest.
While we were preparing dinner, Ron and Jack set a controlled fire in their backyard to get rid of the brush and sticks they had gathered since last fall. That heated things up enough that we could eat dinner outside, which always makes grilled stuff even better! The bonfire was still going after dinner, so Jack and I decided we'd better find some marshmallows to take full advantage of the situation. Well, the ones we found in the pantry were a little stale. Even though we each ate two, we decided they had seen better days. Jack was just going to throw them away, but I thought it would be more fun to take the marshmallows out of the bag and toss them on the fire. They came out in one crystallized chunk, so I just plopped the whole thing on the flames and watched it go up. Therein lies the secret to my title today. It became black rather quickly, and then we were both rather surprised that it kept smoking for about ten more minutes. Interesting, right? Also interesting is the fact that the moment I came inside and sat down to write this, Amber found my lap and is being soft and purry again. Yay cats.
While we were preparing dinner, Ron and Jack set a controlled fire in their backyard to get rid of the brush and sticks they had gathered since last fall. That heated things up enough that we could eat dinner outside, which always makes grilled stuff even better! The bonfire was still going after dinner, so Jack and I decided we'd better find some marshmallows to take full advantage of the situation. Well, the ones we found in the pantry were a little stale. Even though we each ate two, we decided they had seen better days. Jack was just going to throw them away, but I thought it would be more fun to take the marshmallows out of the bag and toss them on the fire. They came out in one crystallized chunk, so I just plopped the whole thing on the flames and watched it go up. Therein lies the secret to my title today. It became black rather quickly, and then we were both rather surprised that it kept smoking for about ten more minutes. Interesting, right? Also interesting is the fact that the moment I came inside and sat down to write this, Amber found my lap and is being soft and purry again. Yay cats.
Labels: family, felines, kitchen adventures, travel, Virginia
- posted by erica 4/06/2004 09:44:00 PM
- 0 comments
4.05.2004
From the road
Hi-dee-ho! Jack and I are on our spring break jaunt through Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, and it's been fun fun fun so far. I'll tell it backward, since that's easiest.
First of all, I have a cat on my lap, so the laptop is off to the side of me. Jack's parents have four cats with varying degrees of amicability toward people, but Amber is my new best friend and is being quite sweet despite her tendency to dig her claws into me when she's happy. Go figure. I just played ball with Hero, Jack's parents' dog, for about 20 minutes outside in the cold Virginia mountain air. Before that, we ate dinner, and before that, we spent a lazy afternoon watching baseball, napping, and doing computer things (interestingly, those are probably Jack's three favorite activities, and he was able to squeeze in all three). Before a wonderful lunch at Macado's (featuring my favorite broccoli soup with a cheese bread dunked in it), we visited Jack's dad at Virginia Tech so I could FINALLY see where he works! I've heard horror stories about its being a dark, leaky cave, and it wasn't much better than the descriptions. They house the campus servers in there, and he actually had to have a makeshift roof built over it with a gutter so that the leaky ceiling wouldn't cause campus-wide pandemonium every time it let loose a bit of moisture! Jack and I slept until 11 this morning, which really surprised me, but we got to bed after midnight last night, so it was obviously something we needed to do. I was up late because I was participating in Sunday Chat with my buds from home (our weekly appointment is for 9:30 p.m. Eastern), and Jack was up late because he didn't know what else to do. His parents have a wireless connection, so he was on his dad's laptop wreaking havoc on the internet, no doubt.
We got here around 6 last night after our drive up I-77 from Charlotte. In Charlotte, we ate lunch at Mert's (a really yummy soul food restaurant in uptown) with Heather and Casey (a good friend of ours from college and her new husband) after we went to church with them. We were hardly hungry for lunch, because Casey made us wonderful strawberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday morning before church, so our day got off to a good start. We watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday night, which Casey and I had seen but which Jack and Heather had not. It's one of those movies I've found myself making frequent references to, so I had wanted Jack to see it for some time. I think he enjoyed it, though it's not really a happy, feel-good movie to most people.
Casey demonstrated his ridiculousness and, therefore, his compatibility with Heather by giving us a taste of his Muppet impressions, which were awesome (especially Kermit). Heather made us some great stir-fry for dinner, and before that, we played Conga, an offshoot of Cranium. It was so cool to get to know Casey, since we had missed their wedding and never met him, so I'm so glad we were able to stay with them, even though it was only for one day. We got to their house around 4 Saturday afternoon because we took our time leaving Atlanta in the morning, but we had a lovely, low-key drive and stopped at a peach stand, attempting to get peaches but actually only being able to procure some jams for Heather and Casey and Jack's parents (peaches are apparently not yet in season).
I made Jack and me a great breakfast of eggs with green peppers and cheese, half a bagel, and half a banana each. I am very covetous of Lisa and Joel's cookware (Jack's aunt and uncle, who we were staying with), because the eggs came out REALLY well and the pan was great to use. They have a set of that stuff that's titanium and ceramic, so it's very durable and heats evenly. Anyway, Lisa and Joel had a rehearsal to go to in the morning, so we were on our own for breakfast since they had left around 9.
Oh, by the way, Amber says hi to everyone. I've now perched the laptop precariously on the ends of my knees because my back was starting to complain about being contorted, and since she's taking up the better part of my lap, she's reading everything. Well, now she's rested her little head on one of my wrists, so it's making me type a little more slowly and more controlled. Hehe.
I wish we had gotten to visit with Lisa and Joel a little longer, because we got into Atlanta late Friday night (roughly 11 p.m., I think) and we were basically ready to go to bed the minute we walked through the door. We downed a bunch of coffee at Cracker Barrel, where we stopped for dinner around 8, because we knew one or both of us would have to drive the rest of the way to Atlanta, and we were already ready to be asleep! We had a fun but rather long drive from Baton Rouge; we got to leave town around 1, but we spent a lot of extra time trying to take a "short" cut, which will NEVER happen again. Don't ask what we did. I don't want to talk about it. We were stupid, and now we understand the depths of our stupidity. Anyway, Jack picked me up from school and we left from there, because I had him drop me off in the morning so we could save time later on (it would have been an extra half-hour or so for me to drive home and then for us to leave from there). He dropped Patti off at the vet while I was at school, and though I'm sure she was sad, Jack says she's getting better about being in her box. Perhaps she's simply resigned to her fate. We won't be going on any more trips for a while, and she'll have to deal with a new kitten next month before she has to get back in her box. We'll see how she deals with that new circumstance, but I have faith in her ability to adapt, since she grew up for the first bit of her life with three other cats and various other pets in one house.
I'm now completely smothered in cat hair, and Amber just reached out and dug her claws into my arm. I started saying, "Ow, stop it, let go, ow, cut it out, ow, ow, no claws, ow," and Ron immediately said, "I'm SO glad you're here!" LOL. They love their cats, but they like to make fun of them and pretend that they're a pain in the butt. Okay, time for strawberries and yogurt for dessert... yum! We won't be home until Saturday, but I'll try to make another update before then about the rest of our trip!
First of all, I have a cat on my lap, so the laptop is off to the side of me. Jack's parents have four cats with varying degrees of amicability toward people, but Amber is my new best friend and is being quite sweet despite her tendency to dig her claws into me when she's happy. Go figure. I just played ball with Hero, Jack's parents' dog, for about 20 minutes outside in the cold Virginia mountain air. Before that, we ate dinner, and before that, we spent a lazy afternoon watching baseball, napping, and doing computer things (interestingly, those are probably Jack's three favorite activities, and he was able to squeeze in all three). Before a wonderful lunch at Macado's (featuring my favorite broccoli soup with a cheese bread dunked in it), we visited Jack's dad at Virginia Tech so I could FINALLY see where he works! I've heard horror stories about its being a dark, leaky cave, and it wasn't much better than the descriptions. They house the campus servers in there, and he actually had to have a makeshift roof built over it with a gutter so that the leaky ceiling wouldn't cause campus-wide pandemonium every time it let loose a bit of moisture! Jack and I slept until 11 this morning, which really surprised me, but we got to bed after midnight last night, so it was obviously something we needed to do. I was up late because I was participating in Sunday Chat with my buds from home (our weekly appointment is for 9:30 p.m. Eastern), and Jack was up late because he didn't know what else to do. His parents have a wireless connection, so he was on his dad's laptop wreaking havoc on the internet, no doubt.
We got here around 6 last night after our drive up I-77 from Charlotte. In Charlotte, we ate lunch at Mert's (a really yummy soul food restaurant in uptown) with Heather and Casey (a good friend of ours from college and her new husband) after we went to church with them. We were hardly hungry for lunch, because Casey made us wonderful strawberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday morning before church, so our day got off to a good start. We watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday night, which Casey and I had seen but which Jack and Heather had not. It's one of those movies I've found myself making frequent references to, so I had wanted Jack to see it for some time. I think he enjoyed it, though it's not really a happy, feel-good movie to most people.
Casey demonstrated his ridiculousness and, therefore, his compatibility with Heather by giving us a taste of his Muppet impressions, which were awesome (especially Kermit). Heather made us some great stir-fry for dinner, and before that, we played Conga, an offshoot of Cranium. It was so cool to get to know Casey, since we had missed their wedding and never met him, so I'm so glad we were able to stay with them, even though it was only for one day. We got to their house around 4 Saturday afternoon because we took our time leaving Atlanta in the morning, but we had a lovely, low-key drive and stopped at a peach stand, attempting to get peaches but actually only being able to procure some jams for Heather and Casey and Jack's parents (peaches are apparently not yet in season).
I made Jack and me a great breakfast of eggs with green peppers and cheese, half a bagel, and half a banana each. I am very covetous of Lisa and Joel's cookware (Jack's aunt and uncle, who we were staying with), because the eggs came out REALLY well and the pan was great to use. They have a set of that stuff that's titanium and ceramic, so it's very durable and heats evenly. Anyway, Lisa and Joel had a rehearsal to go to in the morning, so we were on our own for breakfast since they had left around 9.
Oh, by the way, Amber says hi to everyone. I've now perched the laptop precariously on the ends of my knees because my back was starting to complain about being contorted, and since she's taking up the better part of my lap, she's reading everything. Well, now she's rested her little head on one of my wrists, so it's making me type a little more slowly and more controlled. Hehe.
I wish we had gotten to visit with Lisa and Joel a little longer, because we got into Atlanta late Friday night (roughly 11 p.m., I think) and we were basically ready to go to bed the minute we walked through the door. We downed a bunch of coffee at Cracker Barrel, where we stopped for dinner around 8, because we knew one or both of us would have to drive the rest of the way to Atlanta, and we were already ready to be asleep! We had a fun but rather long drive from Baton Rouge; we got to leave town around 1, but we spent a lot of extra time trying to take a "short" cut, which will NEVER happen again. Don't ask what we did. I don't want to talk about it. We were stupid, and now we understand the depths of our stupidity. Anyway, Jack picked me up from school and we left from there, because I had him drop me off in the morning so we could save time later on (it would have been an extra half-hour or so for me to drive home and then for us to leave from there). He dropped Patti off at the vet while I was at school, and though I'm sure she was sad, Jack says she's getting better about being in her box. Perhaps she's simply resigned to her fate. We won't be going on any more trips for a while, and she'll have to deal with a new kitten next month before she has to get back in her box. We'll see how she deals with that new circumstance, but I have faith in her ability to adapt, since she grew up for the first bit of her life with three other cats and various other pets in one house.
I'm now completely smothered in cat hair, and Amber just reached out and dug her claws into my arm. I started saying, "Ow, stop it, let go, ow, cut it out, ow, ow, no claws, ow," and Ron immediately said, "I'm SO glad you're here!" LOL. They love their cats, but they like to make fun of them and pretend that they're a pain in the butt. Okay, time for strawberries and yogurt for dessert... yum! We won't be home until Saturday, but I'll try to make another update before then about the rest of our trip!
Labels: eating out, family, felines, friends, travel, Virginia
- posted by erica 4/05/2004 09:10:00 PM
- 0 comments
