vacation?

can you tell me what kind of "animal" this towel-creature is?

as you may have noticed, i have been absent from blog-world for a little while. while this is partly because of how busy work was, it is mostly because we've been on the other coast. apparently we're making annual trips to california...

last year it was for mark and emily's wedding, this year it was for my brother's college graduation and a cruise to mexico! or not to mexico! you know, whatever ::ahemswineflucough:: if you want to see more pictures, go to my flickr album. but i'll give you a brief overview of the trip.

we woke up at 6am on friday of last week to pack (yeah, we're slackers), dropped lillie off at page's house, dropped the car off at andrew's mom's house, met my parents at the airport, and hopped on the plane at 10. we made a pit-stop in chicago to change planes, and then arrived in ontario ca (close to claremont) at 5pm (california time). we rented a car, checked into our hotel, showered and changed clothes, and met matthew and his girlfriend for dinner. the next few days were a blur of pomona events and eating... eating is a theme for the vacation. and it made me happy...

matthew and the professor who hit him with a book:

touring the campus:

matthew reenacting history:

"class day" awards:

matthew's a cappella group singing in the fountain:

the cool "toilet paper" decorations at the actual graduation:
monday we got up early enough to eat breakfast, repack, check out of the hotel, drive the rental car to the dock on long beach, and then stand in LONG LINES and wait several hours to get on the cruse ship. once on it, we enjoyed endless food, drinks, entertainment, and anything else our instant-gratification-society could desire. we were supposed to go to catalina and ensenada while on the cruise, but instead we went to catalina, cruised over to ensenada and had a "fun day at sea" (code for: we weren't allowed off the boat), and then had a couple more fun days on the ship. the closest we got to mexico... we kayaked on catalina, sang karaoke on the ship, enjoyed endless (and i mean endless) amounts of food, and hung out in the sun... mostly on the adults only deck of the boat called "serenity". other than andrew having a cold that rivals typhoid, it was a pretty good time!

our fabulous waiter, mario, and his little napkin-pet:
friday morning, we woke up early again to carry our luggage off the boat at 7:30am, catch a cab to LAX, sit in the airport for a few hours, hop on a plane to atlanta, sit for another few hours, take the short flight home to RDU, get our bags from the baggage claim, meet andrew's mom, pick up the car from her house, drive home, and get into bed a little after 2am.

yay for vacations!
so other than the obscene amount of traveling we did, no big deal! on a sidenote, i would take airtran's ticket/seat policy, satellite xm radio, and clientele over southwest's, but i would take southwest's chairs anyday.

The Bain Project

Last weekend Emily and I went to the old E.B. Bain water treatment plant to see the Bain Project. The idea is that a group of artists wanted to you the space for a site specific art installation that used found objects from the building. I was into this because I love the old abandoned buildings and the photography. I took a lot of pictures and so did Emily. She was actually really getting into taking them with the DSLR. Here is the flickr page of what we took. They aren't labeled yet so you'll have to guess what stuff is and who took each picture. So for those of you who have not seen this I definitely suggest you check it out if it sounds interesting and you're in the Raleigh area. It is only open this coming weekend from 1-5 on Saturday and Sunday. Oh and if you can catch the "tub" performance at 2 or 4 I would reccomend that too.

work weary

today was my day off... so i paid bills, balanced the checkbook, and spent my morning calling what felt like HUNDREDS of fencing people to get estimates for the yard. we were going to fence it ourselves, but i'm just sick of having this huge yard and not letting my dogs run around in it all the time (for fear of them running off in search of the neighbor's pet rabbit). therefore, my afternoon was spent walking and rewalking and rewalking the proposed fenceline with no fewer than four different fence companies. each of these estimates took at least 30 mins, and the surveyors showed up about 30 mins apart for the entire afternoon. yaaaaay for owning over 2 acres of land to walk :-P

additionally, i called and scheduled water purification companies to test and suggest solutions to our water problem. for those of you who don't know, we have umm... i think the man called it "a severe, almost unbearable" problem with our water. it is full of dissolved iron. according to the culligan man, a measurement of 0.3 on the iron scale (no idea what units here), will cause staining. ours is 4.6 - i repeat again: yay for homeownership!

so as soon as i get the finalized estimates back, we'll be in business for fencing the property and having clean water! ...it's only taken a year. hooray for tax refunds!

fyi: there are some companies more together and personable than others.

• for water issues, i'd recommend redding water company (out of wilson)
  
• for fences, we used allstar fencing (out of clayton) for  the dog pen earlier this year; they did a cheap, but sort of sloppy job. 
• for this fence job, pending prices, i'm now between fence deck works (willow spring), and fences unlimited (from garner); they both had friendly, knowledgeable people.

also, see this past entry for recommendations regarding chimney work and tree services.

but! the reason i am so work-weary isn't the scheduling of other people to do work, it's my work schedule this week. i had today (monday) off, then i work tuesday morning, wednesday morning, thursday all day, friday all day, saturday morning and saturday after-hours. bleh. i guess you gotta pay all these people to make your home improvements for you!

home improvements

today, andrew and i went over to the former choir director's house, and it was a very beautifully outfitted, which encouraged us to do a little work on our house!

they're small changes, but they make me happy:

a functional toilet paper roll dispenser


matching towel racks


handtowels too! (no, we haven't removed the wallpaper yet...)


new switchplates in the bedroom


outlet covers (finally)

and la piece de resistance...


outdoor driveway lights!


little ones and big ones, they really do look like little tinkerbelle twinkle lights!
and best of all, they're solar-powered!

stuffed peppers

tonight i made some really yummy stuffed peppers from scratch, so i thought i'd share them with you!
this picture is pre-oven, but andrew thought they looked the same, so didn't take a post-oven pic.

ingredients:
bell peppers (usually green, we used red because they were nicer at the store)
lean ground beef
canned white corn
white rice (we used long grain)
fire-roasted diced tomatoes
italian stewed tomatoes
tomato paste
diced onions (i prefer sweet ones)
minced garlic
seasoning salt
italian seasoning
paprika
fresh ground pepper
olive oil

directions:

1. cut tops off peppers and clean out inside seeds.
2. make white rice - cook almost completely (since it will cook longer, it's ok if you turn the heat off a few minutes early) and set aside.
3. put olive oil in a saute pan, add onions and saute until transparent. add ground beef, seasoning salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic. cook until most of the pink is gone. add fire-roasted tomatoes, and corn. season to taste.
4. in a separate pot, mix stewed tomatoes, tomato paste (we substituted tomato soup, minus the water, because we were out of paste), italian seasoning, and other spices to taste. heat to bubbling.
5. combine equal parts of beef mixture and rice, ladle a few scoops of sauce mixture, and fill peppers. 
6. place peppers in a high-walled casserole dish, cover with remaining sauce (which will fill up the sides of the dish as well), place aluminum foil over top, with a few holes for ventilation. place in 350 degree oven for 20 mins. 
7. remove foil, return to oven for another 10-15 mins. serve and enjoy!

we chose to eat ours with cheezy texas toast, but we didn't need to add anything else, since it had veggis, beef, and rice... all major food groups covered ;-) for you plant-eaters out there, i'm sure you could substitute some marinated tofu... but it'd probably be gross. hehehe.

my "days off"

i had two of them, supposedly.

the first one was spent, almost entirely, doing things for work - trying to find a computer so that i could finish on a vaccine brochure, going in to work for an obscenely long and stressful staff meeting, rushing to kinko's, waiting at kinko's, missing all but 20 mins of the time i was supposed to be catching up with monica, dinner (ok, not work-related), going back to kinko's to pick up the final product, taking them to oberlin (at 10:30pm), and finally going to bed.

so today, i said to myself, i will SLEEP IN! HAVE MY EYEBROWS WAXED! JOIN A GYM! maybe GET A MASSAGE! but what did i do? dishes, cleaning, yardwork, grocery shopping, laundry (and more laundry, and more laundry), and all of this without sleeping in thanks to my overactive brain.

but there was one highlight!

hunter and emmie came over to hang out with me and the girls while i worked :-)

busy bee!

mom used to play me a song on my "wee sing" when i was little that talked about busy bee... and i have been one!

andrew and i were heavily involved in the easter production at church, with multiple practices this week, which all came to fruition this today! the easter musical went really well, and i was glad to see so many people there hearing the good word.

also keeping us busy were a few events this week, like my coughtwentysixthcough birthday... i haven't felt negatively about a birthday - ever - until this one. i feel bad, like i'm on the downside and the rest is a slippery slope to old. i already feel like i've lost my college physique, and many of my lifelong hobbies because i'm too busy being adult and grown up, what will happen now that i'm on the way to the dreaded... 30?! i know, i'm being dramatic. i had tons of people celebrate with me for the day - my work bought me ice cream, my mom sent flowers, and the next day i went out with some friends for indian food. i am one lucky girl.

we also managed to make it out to "help" some friends with their new house. i would say help without the air-quotes, but we really didn't do much. it was a comedy of errors with the fence post hole busting their water line, the ditch witch getting stuck in the mudhole they were digging to fix the water line, the bobcat getting a flat tire while trying to pull the ditch witch, and maddi having an incapacitating hangover... not much was accomplished, but it was good to see friends again and laugh over the joys of homeownership once again.

finishing off the weekend, we went to a post-easter service lunch at the nc museum of art history with my aunt and cousins. the food was ok, but the company was better.

here's to another year with loved ones, and another workweek... hopefully a more relaxed one!