Date: 2009-11-05 22:33 Subject: birthday fun Security: Public

today i got lots of birthday wishes on facebook which was awesome. husband and i were going to celebrate with ice cream but then we decided to eat pudding instead.

Date: 2009-11-05 12:49 Subject: apartment hunting Security: Public

we drove down to look at apartments today. on the way we stopped by the pretty water and took some pics.

here's a lighthouse


and the beach


and a b&w lighthouse


and husband on the beach


and another pretty sunset beach


it was really pretty and nice and made me want to live near it. we saw this one house that we liked a lot - it was a 3 bedroom rustic house, near the water. we weren't 100% sure though and by the next morning they called and said that they had given it to the other couple that had seen it before us. oh well...

we also looked at another apartment in one area that i wasn't sure about but after we saw it we were pretty sure there was no way ever we'd live there. is that blood all over the carpet in the hallways?

Date: 2009-11-05 12:48 Subject: weirdness Security: Public

at work this week i had one of those paper-prop-up thingies next to my monitor as i was copying information off of it into word. except at one point i tried to drag a window onto the piece of paper. and then was disappointed when it didn't work.


we watched enemy of the state one night and then i was paranoid that we were being watched and stalked and tapped and video'd.

and i made a new mac and cheese recipe, which was different, but i liked it a lot. husband wasn't as thrilled.

also, the elevator at work is possessed. about half the time when i walk out of the main door, the elevator will open, on the second floor, as i'm walking by it. it's kinda creepy. it does it sometimes when i'm leaving too, and am on the first floor.. weird.

Date: 2009-11-01 12:48 Subject: halloweenie Security: Public

friday night after pizza and asparagus we headed off to western MD to hang out with jed. on the way down we stopped at tiff's house where she lent me her wench costume so that i could be an awesome wench for hallow's eve.

we were driving in this one area before we got to tiff's house and we were stopped at a light in a fairly decent pack of traffic. suddenly we heard a very loud meowing and wondered why on earth a cat was (a) that loud, and (b) in the middle of the 6 lane highway/busy road. we looked around to try to see where the cat could be and noticed people in other cars were looking around too. then i spotted it - an suv with painted dogs and cats all over it, advertising some kind of vet or humane society. and this suv meowed. yes. the vehicle. when it was stopped, it would meow. we heard it again a few lights later. seriously, it was about the weirdest thing ever.

we arrived late at jed's and hung out with lauren and chloe a little since jed was at work. we saw him saturday morning. he and andrew worked on jed's bike in the garage. apparently there's this kit of tools for replacing the alternator that gets mailed around on the forums. it was super handy and had some custom tools in it too. sweet idea. lauren and chloe and i hung out inside and watched all 5 editions of "magics greatest secrets revealed." yeah, whoa exciting.

later we dressed all up in our halloweenedness and headed off to tiff's, jed's sister, house. she was having a halloween party and had a buncha friends over. it was fun. she had all these cool halloweenie treats, like hot dogs dressed up like mummies.

here's jed in his mexicanness


and his baby tiger


and his mom's shark cupcakes - which were totally awesome


and then tiff was octomom. haha.


she also had an octomom quiz. i failed horribly with a 40%. i didn't know that octomom used to be a stripper, or that she has a degree in child development.

here's the mexican and the motorcycle chick


and macgyver and the wench


how about this one?


any guesses?


we played bling/bling/the game we've never given a better name, and had a blast with all off tiff's friends. it was fun.

on sunday i woke up with a super sore neck. apparently i slept on it wrong and it was superdedooper sore in the morning. we went to church with the whole fam. i haven't been in a church where people wear suits in a loooong time, so it kinda threw me off. heh.

then we went out to lunch with the whole family. it was quite tasty and we had a good time talking. thanks gregories.

through church and lunch my neck broke more and i couldn't turn my head to the left pretty much at all. it kinda sucked a lot. i am not an ambiturner.

back at home i tried to lay flat on my back and nap for a while to straighten out/relax my neck but i don't know if it really helped that much. plus, there was a fly that kept circling my face and landing on my face and it made me quite annoyed. eventually i decided that i would rather suffocate with a blanket over my head than have a fly land on my face. that kinda worked.

after the nap we drove back home, stopping by storage for a while and then getting home late because it took what seemed like for-ev-er to drive. oh wells.

Date: 2009-10-25 12:47 Subject: new church Security: Public

on sunday we went to a new church and ended up meeting about a dozen people. seriously, it was the most welcoming experience we've ever had at a church before in our lives. after the service the woman next to us introduced herself and asked if it was first time there and asked about us. then she decided to introduce us to a million people there - but not in a "this is this person's name, ok, now this one, and this one, and this one, and this one" type way, but more of a "here get to know this person, here's something you have in common with them, you can talk about it and then we'll introduce you to someone else in a bit." it was almost kinda surreal to feel so welcome in a church. anyhow, so we left feeling pretty welcome, so we'll be coming back definitely.

back at home we were sitting on the couch listening to dave ramsey, and we kept hearing fire trucks. we wondered why houses kept burning down, and then i remembered there was a local parade. so we grabbed our bikes and rode out to the parade and stole candy from small children. (ok, not really, but we picked it up off the ground as it was thrown from the parader-people and had to clamor for it from the ground like the kids). it was fun.

Date: 2009-10-24 12:46 Subject: i love/like my husband. Security: Public

i love/like my husband.

Date: 2009-10-24 12:46 Subject: an uneventful week mostly - which is nice... Security: Public

an uneventful week at work. andrew played with zombies. we missed the lentil soup at the diner. talked a bit at work. that's about it.

oh, but i did sign up for some random promotion and got this in the mail today!


i was like, "whoa, why am i getting mail from lexis? that's strange..." and then i opened it and remembered that i had signed up for the think for a free gift card. haha. made me laugh.

also, we made a green pepper factory. we liked eating these stuffed peppers because they are simple and tasty and neatly contained within the peppers. yum yum.


and it became fall! i like my office because i can just sit and look out the window all day. yay!


on saturday we slept in nicely and then went to the library to get some books on business stuff.

oh, and we watched Up and cried.

Date: 2009-10-18 12:45 Subject: partain party weekend + windows 7 party Security: Public

so i spent the extended weekend with marm and my dad. on friday i tried to do some work but talked to my dad for a while. i also managed to steal wireless from the neighbors, so that was nice. i had to precariously balance my laptop on a chair in the dining room and keep it a certain distance near the window. it was tricky. then later i couldn't find the magic spot again so i had to go stand in the middle of the road to download some stuff.

on saturday we went to a state park nearby. it was pretty cool. we had to take a ferry to get to the park and that was pretty cool.


we found a nice spot for a picnic lunch


here are some sepia, b&w and lower-saturation pics of the trees. the first is my favorite.






then my dad became mr. wilderness man and compass'd and mapp'd it up.


oh man, and at one point we were just sitting there on the picnic table, talking, and then this GIANT bug, out of nowhere flies really fast/hard right into my face. smack into my face. it actually really hurt too! seriously, weird/creepy.

i took this shot to show how cool the island was across the river but then i also stepped in a giant pile of red ants and in about half a second they bit me 5 times on my toes. yeah, that was awesome.


later that night i went to my mom's book club meeting and they talked about a book and then *drumroll* began the windows 7 launch party. i'm not even joking. hysterical. i went to a windows 7 launch party. the lady wasn't quite as tech-loving as i was so it wasn't that indepth of a party.


but i did get some goodies - like this bag


here's my dad's laptop


we also watched some old videos of linda and me when we were young. in one of them i was trying to help teach her to read. they were cute and funny.

and we worked on tax stuff. and i fixed marm's computer, which actually wasn't broken all along but then maybe later i think it will be. anyhow..

then on sunday we stopped by a "gold stash for cash" thingy and made a small fortune off some gold and silver jewelry we had found. seriously, we're talking several hundred bucks. i'd highly recommend sending in any old jewelry you don't want that's not sentimental. www.goldstashforcash.com you can do it through mail too, which i've done as well.

anyhow, then back to jersey... except when i got to the airport my flight was delayed for 2 hours and then i got home late and missed my husband and just wanted to be home and i finally was, but not soon enough...

Date: 2009-10-15 17:22 Subject: trip in orlando with froggies Security: Public

we got home with enough time for me to throw together a suitcase to head off to orlando for the week. travel like crazy lately.

at the airport i saw this lovely sign - heh


then in orlando i grabbed some groceries for breakfast. i found this one car who had gotten a pull-through but didn't know when to stop. wow parking fail.


then at my hotel i found a little froggie out my window.


i really have no idea how he got here


since i was on the sixth floor!


we had a productive business trip in the middle here,but there's not much to talk about. we did go out to lunch and i saw this fantastic sign, clearly made by a digital immigrant.


later on i found out the little froggies are quite common and they can climb up glass.


yeah, that was pretty awesome.


i got a kinda close-up one on the other side of the glass too.


i also had dinner one night and ryan and sherry cunningham. we went to the local pizza bar and italian ice place and chatted it up. i haven't seen them for prob 5-6 years. we also learned that jesus has a mazda and that scooters are for cool kids. it was a good time.

Date: 2009-10-11 13:04 Subject: happy birthday annabelle! Security: Public

we headed down to southern maryland for annabelle's second birthday! yay. we arrived just in time for the party and started off with some tasty dinosaurs to eat.


it was quite the party with lots of friends of peter's and julie's over. afterwards we invited the lakes over to catch up. apparently they come up from virginia to southern maryland often (they were here a few other weekends that we were here and we didn't even know it).


so we chatted with them and found out about ben's new job and had a good time. then we accidentally said a magic chant and ben shrunk. and he was no longer a super tall monster! he was the size of all of us! it was amazing.


and here's proof that he wasn't just standing on a lower stair than us and only looked the same height as us. see - all our feet match up too!


on sunday we went to church and i had a bagel with old bay seasoning on it. welcome to md.

then on our drive home we saw this sweet old car.




and then this GIANT pumpkin


and this sweet pirate ship made out of hay. haha. it was so awesome.


then we looked at some apartments for us that we didn't particularly like/think would work for us. *sigh* oh well. then back "home" to jersey...

Date: 2009-10-09 22:39 Subject: please get me out of kansas Security: Public

today i got up early to try to catch the 7am flight out of kansas. i was first put on the standby list and then they told me that i made it and sorted me through security. then, as i'm literally standing at the door, ready to climb the stairs onto the plane, they tell me, "oh, sorry, actually there are extra seats on the plane, but it's too heavy so we can't take you." so that was great. so i went back to get my rental car, which i thought they'd just give back to me, but i found out 6 hours later that they'd charge me $84 for 6 hours. thrilling.

in the meantime i drove around kansas. i found a stupid sign.


and a dairy and poultry science building at kansas state....?


then i killed most of my day at panera since they have internet and you can get away sitting there for hours. i made it back to the airport where my flights were delayed and late and i got home at 1am i think. arg. i will say though, that the benefit of a layover is more delta biscoff cookies. i like those.

Date: 2009-10-08 22:38 Subject: my work in kansas Security: Public

so here's part of the device that i was photographing.


and i was taking it on the largest, fattest, heaviest, and fastest helicopter the army has.

i was supposed to take pictures of the components of this system uninstalled and installed. i was actually supposed to get video too, but more on that later. and i prepared to take these pictures of the outside of the aircraft, but it never made it outside the hangar so i wasn't able to even tho i had preplanned 2094029 for it. arg. everything was taking so much longer than expected and i spent most of my week standing around waiting. i did get to meet a lot of people and i learned a lot about the system though. that part was cool. but the standing around not too much. (and not even sitting around because it was just an airplane hangar so there weren't any chairs. one guy ended up buying a camping chair at walmart - haha).

here's the hangar and all the giant military aircraft


oh, at lunch one day i found out at the chinese restaurant that i will be "successful in an entertainment career." hmm...



i also was supposed to capture video and audio files on the boot up and test process but apparently in the rush to set up the video camera i plugged into the wrong jack and so i got no audio whatsoever. this sucked and i was pretty upset about it. i didn't know until afterwards that my setup had failed completely. *sigh* i had tested before leaving and thought i tested just before, but got a false positive. oh well. :( next time i'll label the stinking input jack so i don't get it confused with the other jack that looks suspiciously like an input jack.

in any case, here's me with the david clark's on, during the !recording.


so we finished "early" too - or no one bothered to tell us beforehand that the army had friday off and so no one would be there to help us and so we couldn't do anything that day. i sure am glad i didn't book my flight for saturday, as they had previously suggested. anyhow, thursday evening i bid my farewells to all the smart people i had met.

goodbye reflective thingy


then i drove out and had dinner with harry! i had forgotten that he lived in kansas and luckily he was free to meet me half way for dinner. that was fun and good to catch up. we even took a crappy picture of both of us together.

Date: 2009-10-05 21:35 Subject: almost lost forever in kansas Security: Public

i had trouble getting on the fort this morning. i had been previously told i could just go to the visitor's center and get a week's visitor's pass. i was early so i had to wait outside in the chilly kansas air 10 minutes until they opened. and then they said they didn't do visitor's passes anymore and so i waited around for 10 minutes for someone to make some phone calls. and then it ended up that i could just show my license at the gate to get on post. yeah, thanks for telling me that 20 minutes ago.

then i had no idea where to go. i found the building i was directed to, only i really didn't know who i was looking for. i had one contact who conveniently had his blackberry off this morning. luckily i had printed an email that had some other guy's office on it. so i found his office and someone nearby was able to tell me he was probably in another hangar and luckily i was able to find the original contact there. sheesh. i almost feel like i was lucky to find them and like i could have spent the week in kansas wandering around, trying to find whom i was meeting.

anyhow, then i got there only to find out that the job before us wasn't finished and wouldn't be until the next morning at the earliest. so i'm really glad i flew out here on a sunday in order to be here monday. anyhow, so i met a buncha bae people there and some army people too.

around noon we all left and agreed to meet the next morning. i went back to my hotel where i got to hear the neighbor's dogs bark nonstop for 4 hours. that was wonderful.

then i went out to eat with some of the group that i had met this morning and the place we went had a 2 lb. burger. unfortunately no one ordered it.

then i went home and did some ljing and paid some of a loan and then updated our budget and then went to bed late. the end. there are no pictures today because i really didn't do anything.

Date: 2009-10-04 10:54 Subject: off to kansas! Security: Public

andrew and i ran some errands this morning. we found out our local bank has this super awesome atm that does deposits by optically reading a check fed in through a feeder than can handle up to 30 checks at a time. it automatically reads the amount and then prints a mini-image of the check on the receipt. omg awesome. i love it. i was literally jumping up and down with excitement about this machine. it's so awesome and i think i'm going to make all my deposits there from now on.

we also mailed book-presents to several friends. and we used another machine i love - the automated postal center! :)

oh, and we went to walmart to pick up a few things and we saw this one lady, completely decked out in "ny giants" apparel. she was walking towards the sports section with a friend and said, "giants stuff! giants stuff" in this really excited tone. it was pretty ridiculous and hysterical because obviously she was pretty obsessed.

then we headed to the airport where we got lost in jersey, which is pretty much a right of passage. and then we found the airport and i forgot what airline i was flying and i couldn't get online to check my work email and it wasn't in my personal email and i realized that if you don't know what airline you are - you are pretty screwed. luckily i vaguely remembered what airline it was and i was right. but i made andrew wait outside just in case he had to drive me to another terminal. heh.

the girl in front of me in the security line had just walked out of starbucks with a fancy drink when she got into the line. i helpfully reminded her that she had about 2 minutes to finish her drink or they'd make her throw it out. in those 2 minutes, she took about 2 or 3 sips from her $6 coffee drink and then threw it out. wow.

then the lady next to me in the plane starts pulling out all these gadgets from the massage place at the airport telling me how she got a massage and then all these toys and all i could think of was, "omg you got ripped off." her little $15 dollar store neck pillow sleeper thing didn't even work either. maybe i'm super cognizant of how people are (openly) blowing their money because we're so focused on saving ours but it just seems like some better judgment could be used (or less impulse).

anyhow, so when i arrived for my layover, they changed the gate just as i arrived. so everyone walked in a giant pack to the new gate. when we arrived at the new gate there was a decent sized line up to the service desk that was shared by the gates 8 & 9. so.. the majority of the people on my flight, who had walked over to the new gate, stood in this line. and they stood in line for 20 minutes until they started boarding our flight. then they all realized that the flight at gate 8 (we were 9) had been cancelled so all these people were standing around in the line to figure out what to do with their luggage and then try to get a flight tomorrow morning. sometimes i wonder if people actually employ their brains.

i half-apologize for the people hating, but ignorance and brain-wasting annoy me.

on a lighter note.. (but still a mocking tone), how about those arbitrary measurements...? do people all walk at the same pace?


anyhow, my flight went well and i was attacked by mysterious disappearing ice crystals falling from a crack in the overhead thingy. but.. i did get to see a sunset on one side and the moon on the other, so that was pretty awesome. and then the rental car people were nice enough to leave a car out for me even tho they had closed several hours before my arrival.

Date: 2009-10-03 10:54 Subject: in MD again Security: Public

we went to MD again, arriving late, driving two cars and sadly, without the walkie-talkies. (they are in my car, with out 2930092809 other things that we keep remembering, "oh crap, they are in my car!). we went mainly to give peter back his car (unfortunately mine's not done yet, but fortunately it's been properly diagnosed and fixed by a good mechanic) and also to pick up some equipment for my trip next week.

we stopped by the office where i got to see a lot of the actual equipment that i've only seen in simulations in work. but it was really awesome to see this stuff that i work with every day in real life, physical form.

here's a cool sensor


and a workbench with all kinds of stuff on it


and me in an eoms!


and then a floppy disk measuring tape!


we stayed in md only several hours - andrew changed the oil, i fixed a willow tree angel, and then we headed off for an exhausted, argumentative and cantankerous (on my part. sry patient husband) drive home.

Date: 2009-09-29 10:53 Subject: random pictures of the week Security: Public

saw this gem in traffic. holy crap.


also this brilliant contradictory sign


and this uber creepily excited work out lady


and these things - which always makes me feel bad for moles. do we really have to kill them? it just seems kinda mean.

Date: 2009-09-28 10:53 Subject: tracking our progress.. Security: Public

so we brainstormed up a good visual way to see how we're doing on our loan paying off... :)

Date: 2009-09-27 10:52 Subject: shopping in jersey Security: Public

today we learned that there is no sales tax on clothing in new jersey. and we also, one again, didn't realize what about the jeans on old navy's clearance rack is different from the jeans in the regular priced rack, but when a new pair of "nice" husband jeans are $16.99, you don't really care that much. woo hoo.

we also saw that walmart has smartened up and has the aldi-quarter deposit thing for their carts. we think this is a great idea.


here's how they work - all the carts are chained together. if you want to use one/release the chain, you put a quarter in the slot, which releases the lock. then you shop around the store, buy your crap, take it to your car, etc. then, if you put the cart back into the coral and plug it into another cart, the little plug goes in and it releases your quarter and you get it back. this is brilliant because it probably significantly reduces the need for cart boys running around gathering carts strewn all over the parking lot/taking up spaces/getting hit by carts. (and hoping for a free quarter we thoroughly canvased the parking lot for any abandoned carts and i will assure you there were none to be found).

also, we found some sunglasses in a cart so i cleaned them up and gave them to my rockstar husband

Date: 2009-09-26 10:50 Subject: MD for a home? Security: Public

today we traveled to MD to look at a place to call home there. we saw a few places but none were particularly promising. the biggest problem, i think, is that one was downstairs, and the other was upstairs, and i really don't feel like moving all our beastly heavy furniture into either of them (+ tight corners and small doorways - not going to make it...)

then we were going to take the motorcycle down to southern maryland to visit the family. we took a while to charge the bike (dead battery) and get stuff out of storage, drop off the car, get our gear on, re-jump the bike... and then it started raining. and the engine on the biked didn't sound quite right, so we figured enough things were pointing towards us not going.

so instead we treated ourselves to qdoba. oh how we have missed you qdoba!


smile for qdoba since there are none in jersey!

Date: 2009-09-25 10:50 Subject: gmail.coom Security: Public

work is getting exciting. i'm going to be taking over managing part of this project and it's really cool. :) yay. by the end of the year i should mostly be running it. that's cool to me - to be able to be responsible for something and feel accomplished in a really big thing that's benefiting those fighting for our country.

in other news, andrew and i played our going for broke game, where you try to lose $500k by gambling and such (winner goes broke). anyhow, one of the rounds is roulette. and wouldn't you know, 3% chance... i won. (which is bad in the game, ha)


we also went for a bike ride one day to the library to get new books. when we got there we found out they were having a latin american festival night, with latin american food. so.. we stayed for the presentation and dined on some really good (free) food at the library. it was one of those awesome, random, unplanned nights. i also helped this lady named lisa send an email she's been wanting to send for 3 months but didn't know how to remove the header that showed she had previously forwarded it to her husband for a proof. it was to another woman who had lost a child like her and it was very long and heartfelt. i was glad i could help teach her the internets.

also at the library we found out that we had 60¢ in late fees and we also found out why i wasn't getting the email reminders. my email was recorded at gmail.coom. AND, they also had trouble looking up my records at all because my last name in their database was 9ralon. yes, with the number 9, NINE, in front of it. i've never had our last name misspelled with a number before. heh.

but we had a great random night with bike ride + free library latin food + moar books + we fixed my library email address and last name which we wouldn't have done if i hadn't forgotten my card and they had to struggle to look it up manually. yay random night of awesome.