june 30

@ 9a | 2 cents...

Last night after peeling and sanding more backing paper off the wall in the bathroom, I finished putting up Eric's photos from Tucson and added a few more shots to our garden gallery.

june 29

@ 3p | 2 cents...

I'd like to take a moment and clarify/defend my "C" rating for Mansquito, the newest movie on our recently viewed list. I will not tell you that it is a good movie, but then again, you can probably guess that from the title! It was, however, a mindless, silly movie that Eric and I enjoyed making fun of for an hour and a half. You see, Eric has this friend from high school and they have a tradition of trading bad "B" movies as Christmas gifts. And sometimes we find ourselves watching these films year round. You know, to scout out possible gift ideas.

Our latest round of license plates pertain to UNC-CH and NC State Universities:

HEELSGAL (UNC Tarheels)
WE4R4UNC
I'M4UNC
WOLFPAQ (NC State Wolfpack)

june 27

@ 10p | 2 cents...

I am very happy that I didn't embarrass myself at all during the golf outing this weekend. In fact, we were playing best ball and my drives were used quite often (female tees help)! It felt good to get out and hit the ball around and even though my shoulders are a bit sore, I can't wait to play another round.

Eric's flight arrived two hours late on Saturday night/Sunday morning (1:15a), so after church on Sunday we hung out with some friends and generally relaxed, not feeling guilty about being lazy.

june 23

@ 11p | 2 cents...

So Eric's been gone for a few days and I have been trying to get some work done in the hall bathroom. I've finished taking down the glued paper and now I'm sanding the walls before I start with the primer, hopefully tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow morning I am playing golf for the first time in years for a church fundraiser. Unfortunately, this means having to get up at 6:30a on a Saturday morning, but it's for a good cause, right? Then at 2p, a friend of mine has organized a Kenyan-themed party featuring roast goat and other Kenyan food. Should be interesting!

I ate my first cherry tomato this evening from our heirloom plant and it was absolutely delicious!

june 17

@ 11p | 2 cents...

It's been a crazy week, but here are some photo highlights...

Eric ordered this orange kitchen scale as a surprise for me off my wishlist, thanks honey!

This guy was hanging out on our living room window on Monday evening. I had to look him up, I've never seen a stonefly before.

Sometimes I wonder how the post office even functions. This was forwarded to me at our new house. Not only is that not my name, but that's not even my old address. "Simpson" was my maiden name, um, almost four years ago now.

june 16

@ 12p | 2 cents...

For those of you that like this sort of thing, I joined flickr, which means you can check out (and comment on if you wish) photos that I've uploaded from my new camera phone. I've added a permanent link under the "more about me" section to the left (on the front page).

@ 9a | 2 cents...

YAWN!

Our couch was supposed to be delivered "between 10 and 2" today but the phone rang at 6a (!) this morning. Our brand new sectional was in place by 7:30a and Eric snapped this photo of it before we headed off to work:

It's comfy and big and we love it. :)

june 14

@ 9a | 2 cents...

Our couch is going to be delivered on Thursday! :) We came up with an office plan that will allow the futon to be moved upstairs as another potential sleep area and to make room for our new sectional couch in the living room. We also picked out a beautiful orange color for the office that should certainly keep Eric awake while working on our finances!

I was up before six this morning to take the truck in for an oil change, soooo sleepy now.

More license plates:

IRIE MON
1BIGBABY
FLAPNTAP
BOUT ME
LUVLEIGH

june 9

@ 2p | 2 cents...

I went to this wonderful place yesterday to pick up a few things and stumbled upon an annual clearance sale. !!!! I found myself unable to resist purchasing this ceramic serving bowl and matching appetizer tray...

june 7

@ 9p | 2 cents...

Photos from our Virginia coast trip are here. Also, new photos have been added to our backyard page.

@ 3p | 2 cents...

Just got back from the blood drive. My first (and last) experience with blood donation was about 10 years ago when I was a freshman in college. I was volunteering at a children's hospital once a week and made a friend there by the name of Kevin. Kevin, you see, was one of those people that donated blood every 56 days and he convinced me (dumb dumb dumb) to come with him to donate blood while he was donating platelets.

Even so, I volunteered to be a donor escort this morning to try and make other brave blood donors comfortable. I'm glad I did and I would do it again, just don't get anywhere near me with a needle.

In other news, I was delightfully surprised to see the following when I checked the status of our new couch online:

Yahoo! Our couch will be delivered sometime next week, I cannot wait!

I've noticed that I am particularly amused by license plates that reflect something about the type of vehicle driven. And I don't mean 'JENSLEXUS'... see below:

-CHARGE- (on a Prius)
ALTIMAMA (on a Nissan Altima)
SORYKIDS (on a huge RV)

I worked on the photos from our recent trip last night and hope to have them up tonight. I also plan to post more garden photos. We have baby green tomatoes and tons of cucumber and pepper blooms!

june 6

@ 11a | 2 cents...

Our trip to Portsmouth, VA this weekend was wonderful, the weather was nice although a bit on the 'terribly warm' side on Sunday. We got up to the marina around 2pm and greatly enjoyed the yacht tour (my best friend and her boyfriend's boat). We hung around and chatted then had some dinner at the marina restaurant (not that great, but then again Portsmouth isn't a culinary destination). Sleeping on the boat (granted, in harbor) was completely comfortable, and much quieter than the camping last weekend.

On Sunday morning after Jess made us waffles, we drove into Norfolk to visit the botanical gardens. We had lugged our bikes with us so after we said our goodbyes, Eric and I drove to Virginia Beach to ride along the boardwalk for an hour or so. We meant to take a bike ride here in September when we drove up for Alyssa's wedding, but circumstances made us skip it. Parking and traffic near the boardwalk was challenging, but we found a good street parking spot and enjoyed the exercise and people watching quotient of the adventure.

We curbed our growing appetite with a raspberry lemonade Slurpie until we found a suitable restaurant on the way home. Our appetizer meal at Applebee's took way longer than expected, so we skipped dessert (I really wanted a Maple Butter Blondie!) and rolled in tired after 10pm.

Sitting here at work, I can't believe I was on a yacht eating homemade waffles this time yesterday. I hope we get to see them again very soon! Pictures of our trip and the botanical gardens will be up later this week.

june 2

@ 10a | 2 cents...

Before I managed to contract a yucky head cold we had a wonderful weekend with Andrea's visit and some camping in the mountains. Andrea came over on Friday and we had a relaxing dinner capped off by the movie Sideways (I was drinking zinfindel). Our Saturday trip to the Raleigh farmer's market yielded more plants and some fresh bread, spring onions and veggies that made for a tasty lunch and grilled dinner later that evening.

On Sunday morning we packed up the VUE and headed to Stone Mountain State Park for some waterfall hiking. Then we picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway for some great scenery and one more waterfall before camping for the night. As a side note: I am investing in earplugs because when fellow campers are talking and laughing loudly well past 2am, I simply cannot get to sleep and that makes for grumpy second day hikes. The next morning our legs were a little sore, but we managed 6 more waterfalls before heading home for some much needed rest in our own bed. All photos from our road trip are here. Check out the new waterfall photos (with directions!) over here.

Eric has a bunch of new things to plant and our veggie garden is looking great... as soon as it stops raining, I'll have more garden photos!