Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in silberzauber's LiveJournal:

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Monday, December 7th, 2009
10:05 pm	Thanks for your help/feedback! Results of my informal (here and on Facebook) poll of which photo to post to the Flickr "Best of 2009" photo pool: Fish tied with Tulip at 6 votes each, and I picked Fish to submit to the Flickr pool. Final scores: Fish 6 Tulip 6 Lillies 3 Amy 2 Penguin 2 Fish with lillies 2 Nai-nai cooking 1 Fire 1 Thanks for your help & feedback, I appreciate it. :-) This makes me want to print a bunch more photos and hang them up around my house...that's one of my favorite things about photography, that you can keep doing stuff with it and duplicate it and share it so easily now that everything's digital. Current Mood: content (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
4:32 pm	Flickr Best of 2009 OK, so now that I have discovered the Flickr Best of 2009 photo pool (thanks, Patty!), I want to submit a photo. But I can't decide! Help me out here. :-) These are my candidates ( sorry there are so many ) Current Mood: indecisive (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 27th, 2009
12:16 am	Happy Thanksgiving! Also, my 2009 Christmas wish list Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. My dad woke me up, so I talked to my parents for a while this morning. Then I ran over the watch the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade for a bit, where I bought the most overpriced soft prezel EVER. Note to self: when prices are not posted, they are going to gouge you. But, I was hungry and I've learned my lesson, so oh well. Luckily it wasn't raining, but it was still a rather grey day. I ran into my neighbor Edde (my running partner Nicole's boyfriend) and his family, so it was also nice to catch up with him and see his nieces and nephews. Yay parades! In the afternoon, Eric and I watched a movie together, took a nap and had leftover turkey (from Sunday) for dinner. This was much more pleasant than it sounds, very sweet and relaxing. As I posted on Twitter: #iamthankfulfor my loving husband & family, our home, my fulfilling job, my health (yay running!), hot showers & mint fudge covered oreos! I had been planning to get up early tomorrow for some Black Friday melee shopping (which I actually consider fun, what with all the music and big festive crowds), but almost all of the deals I'm interested in are available on both Friday and Saturday. Since it's a regular workday for us and I didn't take a vacation day, I wouldn't be able to take a nap after shopping. I'm going to skip it and start my Christmas shopping "late." Here is my Christmas wish list so far: body pillow GPS lens hood for my camera tripod for my camera air popper for making popcorn my set of 4 Christmas records turned into .wavs or .mp3s I don't have a turntable nor do I really want one, I just want these four records, the soundtrack of my childhood Christmases, in digital format. They're not available on anything but records, and I tracked them down a few months ago so that I could have them for my own Christmases (my parents still have their own copy that they play on the record player every year). I realize there are turntables available for about $100 or less to semi-automatically turn them into mp3s, but that seems like a waste since I only have these four records, and also needlessly complicated since I'd have to clean and separate the tracks, etc (based on the reviews I've read, this is not terribly complicated, but not the easiest thing ever, either). I found a send-away service that will do it for me, so I'm toying with that idea, but I'm not sure I want to mail my records since they are not easily replaceable, and it's expensive...basically I want to find someone who has one of the aforementioned devices and knows how to use it, someone I trust and who is willing to convert four records for ~$30 (I'll supply the blank CDs, of course). The set is called "A Treasury of Christmas" and you can see a photo of someone else's copy here (bottom row middle): http://www.flickr.com/photos/neonspecs/2465071805/. (Note that it is not the "Time-Life Treasury of Christmas," which is available on CD, etc.) As far as the other items on my list, I do not have any specific products in mind; part of the reason that I ask for certain things as gifts is because I don't want to have to wade through all the options and choose. For example, in past years I have asked for and received a handheld drill and a sewing machine; my parents picked out really good ones because they know more than I do about which features are important in those things. I like having someone else decide and then I'm just happy with whichever one they choose and it's lovely. Current Mood: content (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
7:51 pm	post-marathon update So, I ran the Philadelphia marathon on Sunday, and the weather was perfect. I had a great race--I paced it evenly and finished really strong. My goal was to go under 4 hours, so I was very happy to finish in 3:56. I passed a bunch of people right at the end, when I was sprinting in the last 2/10ths of a mile, which is always fun! Even if it is kind of mean, since I also know how it feels to be dying at the end and getting passed; but it's super fun to be the one doing the flying past! And then I got some snacks and walked the 1.5 miles home from the finish area, hahaha. Luckily I had Eric bring me warm clothes for the walk home, so it wasn't bad, but the last block I was very tired. Monday I was stiff and sore, yesterday I was just sore, and today I'm only a little teensy bit sore. I ran 5 miles with Nicole this morning and got her recap of the half marathon, which she finished in 1:54. Our age-grades were both 57%, which is probably why we make good running partners. My sister and her boyfriend came and stayed the weekend with us to cheer for me, which was also nice; I really miss living in the same city as my sister. When we lived in Baltimore we got to spend so much time together, and I got spoiled! On Sunday night, the PGY2 surgery residents had a Thanksgiving dinner gathering so I got to rest and eat lots of good food on Sunday night. Apparently Eric and his cohorts are the only year in his program that get together with each other pretty regularly, but I like it that we get to spend a little time socializing every now and then. Current Mood: content (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
10:45 pm	Quick update I should be going to bed, but instead I'm going to quickly update lj because I have been a total slacker on this front lately. Marathon training is going decently well, last weekend I ran 20.5 miles in 3:18 (including walking/refueling breaks: 21 miles in 3:39) and managed to time it so that I was only rained upon a little. It was quite warm and humid so race day should be an improvement. I've got a busy weekend coming up so we'll see how far I feel like running on Sunday afternoon; that may end up being my longest run. Which is OK, since this is a new-to-me course so as long as I finish it'll be a course PR for me. :-) This weekend: my Mom is coming to town as a volunteer with Special Olympics, so I'm leaving work early on Friday to hang out with her for a bit and then hopefully Eric can come meet us for dinner. Saturday I'm shooting a mitzvah reception (first solo gig!) 11-4:30, then driving to Rockville, MD for Kate's birthday party. By myself, because Eric is on call again. He is also on call tonight, and while I realize it's not nearly as bad as if he were deployed or something, his being gone every 4th overnight is quite tedious as well as disruptive to my schedule/life. Dislike. Anyway, Saturday will be an adventure and I plan to make myself proud! Then Sunday I'll drive home and do my last "real" long run (anywhere from 15-21 miles, see above) since next weekend I'll taper back to 10 miles, and the weekend after that is the marathon. Kendra & Sam are coming to visit us and cheer me on for the marathon, and the residents may also be doing an early-pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner. Eric has given me mixed/confusing details about exactly when, but apparently we're bringing the turkey. Or something. It will be good to see Kendra since I'm not going home for Thanksgiving this year--Eric has to work (not overnight though) so I'm thinking of going to the parade by myself and just relaxing. Maybe I'll nap a lot and then hit a midnight sale or two. Next Wednesday I'm hosting "Beer Tasting" at my house for a group of friends, so that will be fun and give me a good reason to clean. The house is definitely trending in the right direction lately, and this weekend we finally got some blackout curtains for our bedroom in preparation for when Eric is on night float (working night shift at the hospital). They work OK but not perfectly because the windows in our bedroom are pretty large and the curtains cover them, but light leaks in around the sides. I put them up on Sunday afternoon and called Eric in to see, and he promptly fell asleep for 2 hours, so I would say that they work well enough! Next weekend Eric is taking Step 3 in Baltimore, so he'll be gone Friday night for that (it's a 2-day thing) and I need to think up something fun to occupy my Saturday afternoon. Maybe I'll start on my Family Newsletters so that they have a small hope of actually being mailed before the Holidays this year. Oh also! I forget whether I mentioned it on here, but I passed my CIP and consequently got promoted: as of yesterday I'm officially an IRB Analyst II (previously I was an IRB Analyst I--bet you never would've guessed). It's not a huge deal but it's a little more responsibility and a little more money and a definite recognition of progress, so that's nice. :-) Despite at least two of my co-workers having H1N1 1.5-2 weeks ago, I have managed not to get sick (knock on wood), which I mostly attribute to copious use of hand sanitizer and a lot of good luck. I would really like to stay healthy long enough for the vaccine to become available to people like me around here. Eric already got it, due to being a healthcare worker, but CHOP isn't giving it to non-direct care providers because they don't have enough. Grrr. I <3 Daylight Saving, my mornings are so much lighter and happier now! :-) Maybe I'll sign up for some 5ks after the marathon--I'm glad I decided to do it, it feels good to be in better running shape, but in general I prefer something a bit shorter & faster. Or maybe I'll do my first-ever half marathon, we'll see. My sleep schedule is all messed up thanks to staying up late to cheer on the Phillies, though. Hence why I'm writing this now when I really ought to be in bed....GO PHILLIES (tomorrow)! Also all the Halloween candy is probably not helping. OK now I really am going to bed. Current Mood: content (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
8:14 pm	recap of trip to Durham, NC I flew from PHL to RDU on Friday evening to see Amy & Jason, their kitties Tigger (one of Penguin's daughters) and Tailey, and their awesome new house. ( Cut for photos ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
7:33 pm	solo movie night, missing Eric It's hard to come up with a subject line before I write the post, because often I don't know exactly where the focus will be (it is livejournal, after all) until I'm done writing the post. I ought to make a habit of doing it last, instead of first. ( Cut because it got kinda long. ) Current Mood: content Current Music: tv (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
12:06 am	Labor Saturday party photos on Flickr See, I'm making up for my prior delinquency by posting three in a row! And now, it's time for bed. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Friday, September 11th, 2009
8:06 am	Owww. I should have known better than to try to run this morning. As if the cold, rain, and wind weren't bad enough (they were a big deterrent to getting started, but not sooo bad once I got going), I tripped and skinned my palm and shoulder on the concrete sidewalk. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a nice bruise on one hip. Owwww. I guess it's not marathon training if I don't fall down at least once... Current Mood: sore (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
9:42 pm	delinquent blogging & happy swimming I haven't posted in a while due to a) my life being kind of boring, yet b) still busy. It was super nice to have my sister visit for Labor Day weekend and the party on Saturday went very well. I need to remember how much I love getting flowers as a hostess gift, and bring some the next time I'm invited to someone else's home! :-) Especially lillies, ahhh. I'm watching the Steelers game and I can't believe we're so far into the game and no one has scored yet. Eric is on call so I'm watching it alone; well, the cat is watching it with me. I started training for the marathon on Monday with my first long run. I would've started on Sunday, but I wanted to spend time with Kendra so we went to the outlets in Limerick and she got a great dress from White House/Black Market marked down to $20, and it's perfect for a wedding she's attending this fall. Anyway, after we dropped her at the airport on Monday I ran 8 miles, slowly. I enjoy running on holidays and seeing people out celebrating, although by the end I was starving from smelling everyone's BBQs. Anyway, that went fine although my knees were a little sore afterwards. I gave blood on Tuesday morning and I'd been thinking of swimming after work, but I was tired so I cut myself a break and just came home and laid down. I took a 2-hour nap, which was glorious. Wednesday I did my usual 5k morning run with Nicole, and my knees felt fine although we were both kind of sluggish for various reasons. FINALLY THE STEELERS SCORE, WOOHOO!!!! <3 <3 <3 So I finally got to use the Penn pool for the very first time this morning. I saw a stray cat and two kittens in our backyard and I tried (and failed) to catch them (clearly catching stray cats is NOT my forte. The momma cat scaled the chain link fence and the kittens went right through it), which delayed me a little bit so I only had 40 minutes to swim. Nevertheless, it felt great to get in and stretch out! Workout: Warmup: 100 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 100 free, 100 IM kick 6 x 100 free on 1:40 (aka about 10 seconds rest, I need to get my swimming muscles back! I wasn't killing myself though.) 5 x 100IM kick (fly & back w/o board, breast & free w/board) 100 IM (because it doesn't count if I don't do at least one length of straight butterfly, haha) 300 Warmdown, I forget what exactly but it involved drills. Total: 2000 yards Ahhh it felt so good to swim. And the Penn pool has awesome hours, practically all day except for 3-6pm, which I'm assuming is when the Penn team practices. The pool is nice enough (the proper temperature, thank God, nice and crisp, and with big digital clocks at both ends), and the locker room is very spacious and new-seeming. I need to remember to add lotion to my swim bag, though. Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
11:09 pm	Decisions, decisions I'm trying to decide whether I should sign up for the Philadelphia 1/2 marathon or the full marathon on Nov 22. Tomorrow is the last day before prices go up and I'm torn. If I decide to do the full, I know how much I'll have to train and I'm not exactly looking forward to it...but doing the half feels like wussing out, because I've done the full before. Also, I know I could run a half right now--it wouldn't be pretty or fun, but I could gut it out, so that makes it feel like it's not a challenge. I would train for a half, too, obviously, so that it would be fun to run it in November, but I wouldn't have to work as hard to get to that point, and I have a lot of other stuff going on this fall. Hrmmm. Also I am lazy. I'll talk to Nicole (my neighbor/running partner) in the morning and see what she thinks... Current Mood: contemplative (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
4:55 pm	nesting I'm rearranging things in our house (again) and I can't decide what to do about the guest bedroom. Here are the options, with pros and cons: 1) Original set-up was my sister's queen sized IKEA Malm bedframe with an IKEA mattress on it. She used this bed only for the two years she lived in Baltimore, so it's in good condition. The downside is that since it's MALM, it's low to the ground and hard for my parents to get into/out of. It has a larger footprint than I'd like, since the guest room isn't huge. Also, some people do not find it very comfortable since the mattress is semi-firm and it's on slats instead of a box spring. However, it gives couples the most room together. 2) Our previous bed: full sized metal bed frame with mattress and box spring. This would be the bed I used when I lived in Rochester, and then the one Eric and I used for the 2 years in Baltimore + 6 months in Philly until we bought our current, king-size bed. One major pro for this set-up is that we have several sets of full-sized bedding (although the fitted sheets can also be forced on the queen-size IKEA mattress, because it's not as thick, but still--we have a full mattress topper, a heated mattress pad, etc...). It's a more normal height = easier for my guest to get in and out of bed. It leaves more walking-around room in the guest room since not only is the sleeping surface smaller, there's also no wasted room around the edges. However, couples are kind of squished. 3) Fantasy set-up: this is completely impractical since we don't have any of these components yet, but I think it would be cool to have two twin beds. Then we could push the beds together, or not, depending on what our guest(s) preferred. We'd have to buy a lot of twin-sized bedding, though. 4) Current set-up: The MALM bed is occupying the guest bedroom with the IKEA mattress stuffed underneath it and the full mattress on top of it, and the box spring leaning against a wall in another room. I did this to make the bed more comfortable for M and K who each visited recently. The pro of this arrangement is that I'm hoarding all of the bedding options, allowing us to sleep the maximum number of people in our house. However, I'm concerned that it's not very practical since we also have a full-size futon downstairs, and a recliner. I'm not sure most people would count a recliner as an overnight sleeping option, but I did it a lot as a child at grandma's house, so I'm counting it. I guess I could just put the full sized bed back in "my" craft room on the second floor, but it takes up a lot of space and we don't host more than 2-3 people very often. Also, eventually my craft room will probably be where we put Hypothetical Future Child, so it might make sense to simplify now. Right? Grah. Maybe it would make sense to buy a higher queen sized frame with a smaller footprint and store the full mattress underneath. That would solve several of the problems, although I might still have to buy a mattress topper to make it softer. Hrm. My sister and her college best friend, Becca, are coming to visit for Labor Day weekend so I think I'm going to see if she wants to take her bed away, or our old bed, or if she has any better ideas... Current Mood: confused (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
8:55 pm	Unclutterer topic I wrote about on Sunday http://unclutterer.com/2009/08/12/uncluttering-is-not-a-competition/ Today's Unclutterer guest blog post totally relates to the second half of my most recent post, on Sunday. Hahahaha. I actually think that Erin, the woman who runs the site, can be quite obnoxious to people whose comments she disagrees with, and I don't think I'd like her in real life. That said, the site often provides good food for thought for me. I particularly like this quote from the comments section, "If you want to see me, come over anytime. If you want to see my house make an appointment." I should have that framed and hang it somewhere prominent. Although like another commenter, I never don't ask anyone over because of things being messy, I just scold myself mentally for it... Here, have a photo of a Ema, a rescued kitten: Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
5:46 pm	Driving Skillz: I has them. I need a LOLcat photo to go with my caption. :-) I feel very proud of myself for all of the "optional" driving I did. Eric had to work all weekend. I entertained myself with a photography gig & S's birthday BBQ (yesterday) and crafting/drafting wedding invites with H (this afternoon). All of which I drove myself to, probably roughly 100 miles total. S lives in the burbs and H lives in the New Jersey burbs. I hadn't been to the photo gig neighborhood ever before, and I've only been to S's and H's a couple of times each, always with someone else driving (one of them or Eric). The point I'm making is that I'm not so much proud of my driving as I am of my driving in combination with navigating by myself to unfamiliar areas. On multi-lane highways. With bridges and tolls and construction. The more I do it the easier it gets and the less it stresses me out, and also the more I get to know the whole Philly metro area the less I have to worry about getting lost. First I could navigate, then I could drive, and now I can drive and navigate! I rock. I also need to do laundry and lots of other stuff. Especially cleaning so that K won't think I'm a total disaster when she visits me as the piece de resistance of her road trip tour (<--I just accidentally misspelt that as "toar" and I have no idea why). Luckily, since M spent the night for the SYTYCD finale, the guest room and guest bathroom are already semi-presentable. Why do I I freak out that people are going to think I'm a terrible person if everything isn't House Beautiful-esquely perfect? I guess because I was so messy in college (and parts of grad school) that I got teased about it a lot, and then our apartment in Baltimore was so tiny (and I'm such a packrat) that it was hard to keep it too clean, although I did a better job. Frankly, when other people's houses are somewhat cluttered/messy I feel relieved and I like them more! So I guess it's just a problem because I care enough to want everything to be perfect, but there's too much other fun stuff in life (see above) for me to actually maintain it. Eventually I will either stop caring (like the fact that I can't play any musical intstruments; I used to feel like I "ought" to, and I may have even written a college essay about it or something) or I will cross the threshold and care enough to actually do it (like with driving)... Current Mood: content (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
11:35 am	I'm on the Schmap! One of my aerial photos of Diamond Head State Monument was chosen to be used in this Schmap of Honoloulu: http://www.schmap.com/honolulu/activities_outdoors/p=106707/i=106707_3.jpg I think that's nifty, even if it's not a "real" publication. You might have to click through some other photos of the monument to get to mine, which is labelled with my actual name (they asked how to attribute it, and I chose that over my LJ/Flickr handle). Today is going to be busy. I spent the morning sleeping in and then editing/making suggestions for my mom's resume. I have a photography gig (wedding reception) to assistant-photograph 1-6pm, and then Sam's birthday BBQ 6pm-? Unfortunately Eric has to work so he will be missing all of the fun. Current Mood: productive (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
10:26 pm	Commas & other happy news Yes, I'm a dork who sometimes reads language-y blogs for fun. I just had to link to this post about adverb placement in British English (BrE) versus American English (AmE) because this tidbit made me laugh out loud: "In general, British readers find AmE writing too littered with commas, while overly-literate punctuation-dependent AmE readers like me (I presume there are less punctuation-dependent readers who aren't terribly bothered) find themselves having to start sentences over again because we assume that the adverbial phrase hasn't ended yet, but then it doesn't develop into anything bigger. So I read: At the time he... And because there isn't a comma to stop the adverbial, I wait for the he to develop into a relative clause that modifies time (e.g. At the time he ascended to the throne, he was only 17). It doesn't matter to my reading mind that a that-less relative clause is not a likely thing to happen after a pronoun after at the time, I HAVEN'T HAD A COMMA YET! THERE ARE NO BRAKES ON THIS THING! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP!!!" I laughed because I do exactly the same thing. There's also a great explanation of two different punctuation strategies in the comments section and how that sometimes leads to too many commas when the strategies are combined. -------- In other news, I had my annual performance review yesterday, which was a wholly pleasant experience. :-) Unfortuately the current economic situation means I probably won't get as nice of a raise as I would've otherwise, but at least it's almost certain I'll get a raise (Boss: I will fight for you, you deserve it. Me: Good, I agree!), so that's a positive. We identified a couple things I can work on improving, but nothing I'm not doing fairly well already. For the past ~5 months I've totally been kicking a$$, so I'm happy to enjoy my well-deserved pat on the back. :-) Actually I kind of feel like I've been kicking @ss (can't decide which symbol-censor I like better) at life for the past 5 months or so. I win!!!! Except housekeeping, where my aspirations continue to exponentially exceed my achievements, haha. Oh well. Lately I've been the right amounts of busy/work and social/friends and marriage/spending time with Eric (see how housekeeping is not on that list? yeah), which is probably why I'm feel so satisfied. Unfortunately that Happy Eric Time (June/July) is over now that he's started a new rotation with terrible hours again, and this year is going to be rough because of 2.5 months of night float. Since I'm such a good employee :-) I'll probably ask for some flexibility in my work hours during those months so that I'll get to see him at all, since I think his hours are supposed to be 6pm-6am and that means they'll probably end up being 6pm-9am and he'll be at work for all of the hours I'm normally home. Also, I looked super cute today for no reason. I just felt like putting in some extra effort and I got a lot of compliments, which just goes to show one of the many benefits of my general standard being hygenic & neat (rather than the higher standard of consistently aiming for "pretty & pulled-together"). Mwahahaha. Current Mood: victorious (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
10:55 pm	On Organizing I'm actually really organized in a very few areas of my life. And I'm quite good at sticking to a system once I come up with one that works, it's just tricky to find the right one. I think that right now all of my organizing-energy is going to my job, rather than my house or other areas of my life, because things at work are in flux and require a lot of effort to keep from snarling into disarray. On the one hand this is bad because I have Martha Stewart/Real Simple aspirations, but sadly tend more toward a Francis Bacon execution. Sigh. On the other hand, it's not so bad because I have a high clutter tolerance--aspirations aside, I can live with a pretty messy home (as long as it's sanitary--NO GROSSNESS, just disorganization). So I can use my organizing-energy for work and just resign myself to a temporarily mussed house, until I get the extra energy to care again. *shrug* Next week is the finale of SYTYCD, whoohoo! And this weekend (how is this weekend August already?!?!?) Eric has off so we're planning a trip to DC (red pandas!!) and next weekend I have a photography gig and S's BBQ, and after that K's coming to visit. Whee! Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Friday, July 24th, 2009
9:56 pm	I've been busy lately (summary: PA Grand Canyon, driving achievements, work, weddings) I am extremely proud of myself for driving from Philly to the "Grand Canyon of PA" all by myself (250 miles each way). Also, I survived the family vacation with only a little sunburn on my right leg. It was like dog heaven, and all three dogs (my parents', my sister's and her boyfriend's) had the best time and were adorable. I'll post photos eventually. So it was fun, but mostly I'm proud of myself for driving so much! Wednesday night I went to a bridal show in NJ with H, who is getting married next September. Tomorrow I'm going with her, her fiance, and another friend to check out potential ceremony/reception locations on the Jersey Shore. I love weddings! Work is busy because of missing three days for the family vacation, but otherwise the transition to the electronic system is going OK despite a variety of (not surprising, to me, at least) glitches. It's probably going to continue to be stressful for the whole next year as all of the studies are gradually converted into the electronic system, and then it'll hopefully be a lot nicer. Eric and I had a date night tonight: Chipotle and "The Ugly Truth," which was quite amusing. Eric is so much more fun when he's on a "good" rotation! Current Mood: content (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
8:45 pm	Back from Vegas Las Vegas was super fun, although now I am exhausted and will probably go to bed at 9:30. The time difference plus staying up late to party makes me really glad I'm doing this now and not when I'm older and grouchier! Despite being sleepy most of today, I actually feel pretty OK, which is surprising when I think about how much we crammed into a 3-day weekend trip and how little sleep I got (compared to my normal 8 hours; I'm sure it felt like extra sleep to the no-longer-interns)! It's so convenient to have a cat and be able to just leave her with lots of food and water for the weekend. She seemed pretty happy to see us, but I think it was mostly because she only had a couple bits of food left. Also we shut the door to our bedroom and she likes to sleep on our bed instead of on her own. Other than that, no problems. Anyway, super fun! On Friday night we survived an hourlong delayed flight, observed what I am pretty sure was a scene between two hookers, a pimp, and a john while we waited for Meera to pick us up in the white PT Cruiser she'd rented for the weekend, and then chatted with her back at our home base (The Jockey Club), where our view included the fountain shows and where there is free popcorn in the lobby (YUMMY), and started drinking the specially-home-brewed-for-this-event-by-Meera-and-Landi beer while we waited for Jess and Sarah's even-more-delayed flight to arrive. Then we talked a little more and went to bed around 3am Vegas time, which is like 6am in Philly. On Saturday morning Landi and Steve arrived; since they were the other couple they roomed with us, and the "single ladies" roomed together. We stuffed ourselves with brunch at the Bellagio buffet, which is right next to the Jockey Club (hence the fountain views), shopped and had Jell-O shots at Miracle Mile, laid out/napped by the pool, chatted in the hot tub, then prettified ourselves and went clubbing at XS, which was larger than life and AWESOME, and went to bed around 2:30. Well, Eric and I did, some of the others stayed out even later; I had a really good time, but my desire to sleep was stronger than my desire to keep having fun at that point. On Sunday I ate Froot Loops with the girls and watched "Overboard" (which we had almost all seen before, and thoroughly enjoyed) while waiting for the rest to wake up and get ready and while we decided on a game plan. We drove down the Strip and had a very late lunch at Pinot Brasserie, then shopped and took pictures of ourselves in The Venetian. We got dressed up again and went out to see The Beatles: LOVE Cirque du Soliel, then went to "Old Vegas" where I spent $1 in the slot machines at the Golden Nugget and finished with $3.50, and Eric lost $110 at Blackjack (I should note this was well below his $300 limit; also the other people in our group gambled but I don't know their amounts). Then we went back to the Jockey Club and packed, and on Monday morning Meera drove us to the airport for our flight home. See why I'm tired?! And of course my committee met today so I definitely had to go to work, and Eric got to sleep in and gloat, haha. Time for me to reset my clock by going to bed early.... PS Eric will never be an intern again!!!!! Woohoo!!! Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
11:05 pm	house update With some regularity, I wonder if I will finally feel settled in our house just when it's time to move. It's been almost exactly one year since we moved in, and I feel like we've finally made significant progress, but there's still so far to go! Progress *We now own and use a king-size bed and a dresser for our bedroom. *Eric's office has a desk and two tall bookshelves. *My room has a desk (acquired on Friday from Craigslist). *My room is somewhat organized (as of yesterday) and I have a plan for additional organization/rearrangement of items currently spread across my room, the guest room, and Eric's office. *Our bedroom has curtains. *The entryway has a bench (also from Craigslist, last month) to keep my shoes tidy and so I have a place to sit when I put them on and off. *The poison ivy has been reduced. *Plantette is flourishing despite having all her flowers knocked off by the thunderstorm. *Some art/photos hang on our walls. To Go *Refine and implement my reorganization ideas above *Install curtains on other windows *Eradicate the poison ivy entirely *Make a nice mowable grass yard *Planto is not flourishing and may need to be repotted. Or fertilizer, or something. *Hang the rest of the art/photos (currently sitting on floors, leaning against walls; need to plot arrangement of items first) *Finish reorganizing kitchen *Organize hall closet and guest bedroom closet *I'm sure there are more but those are the ones on my current to-do list Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)