Christmas Wishes

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas holiday with family & friends & lots of cheer!

It's so nice to be home for Christmas and have time to relax and spend with family for another year.  It's great to have the same traditions from year to year to look forward too as well.  This year, J&I got to help decorate the tree with all our ornaments which we haven't been home to do in a few years.  Some of you know that our ornaments are all tokens from trips & travels or accomplishments, places we've been and things we've done.  There's a memory for each one and a wide variety of items that have been converted into ornaments.  This year was especially fun as we had to search hard for some open branches to tie on the ornaments!  

Snow has been falling all day, the city chicken is cooking, lots of 'elf-ing' to do away from prying eyes and even a surprise visit from my Uncle!  

Merry Christmas!

Southern Snow

This morning I woke up, hit the snooze and decided to sleep longer and go to the 11am Mass instead of 9am.  Once I actually got out of bed, I peeked out the window and to my surprise found this.

It's hard to tell how long it actually snowed because it has been blustery outside all day.  Seems to be mostly a dusting and the roads were passable.  Anyways, a couple pictures for the 1st snow of the season as I stay warm inside working on Christmas cards and sewing.

Notes from the Week

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, with every Christmas card I write"   -in the stylings of Bing Crosby

This week in the mail, amidst the coupon catalogs, sale notices and wrong tenant letters, I received my first Christmas cards of the season!  It starts to feel like the holiday season a little bit more with each card and it'll be nice this year as I won't be able to see all of my dearest friends over the holidays like usual.  This also means I have to make sure to get mine out soon so as to not be behind this year.

It definitely feels like winter here and there are some flurry images on the weather forecast so here's hoping!  >insert snow dance here<   I've pulled up my Christmas play list while in the car and at work (where we've been decorated since Halloween) and am thinking about buying a tree as well, but so far the only decoration that's made it out of the box is my Advent wreath.  

 Last weekend I went ice skating downtown which was fantastic!  It was super cold out, even with some hot chocolate, but I had a great time.  I got to use hockey skates for the first time and have to say I prefer those over the figure skates.  I always seemed to get tripped up *toe pick!* on figures, and didn't have much trouble with the hockey skates.  I didn't fall or run over any of the little kids zooming in all directions so I'll take that as a victory on ice.  There's still the matter of learning how to stop without using a wall or natural slowing, but we can save that for a later lesson right?  ;o)

Thoroughly enjoyed the Glee episode this week as well and laughed at & loved the fact that Sue rigged Secret Santa.  Genius!  Also great was Kurt & Blaine's rendition of "Baby it's Cold Outside" and Wham's "Last Christmas."  I have yet to find a station that is playing solid Christmas music on the radio though and although most of them have interspersed the normal with holiday tunes it makes for a refreshing change.  I drove through the holiday lights in the park the other night which are pretty and festive and free! 

I'll leave you to your warm cozy thoughts and dreams of white Christmases, pretty decorations, holiday mail and hot chocolate for tonight dear reader.  

   ......fa la la la laaa......

Thanksgiving Rewind

Holy Ice Skates Batman!  It's already December!  Well dear readers I'll have to give you the short version to catch up.  ;o)  Let's take it back a week or so to Thanksgiving and go from there.....

I took a couple days off work to go home for the weekend and Wednesday dawned grey and rainy as I trundled my way into work for a 1/2 day.  I could hardly sit & work - I was so excited to start the holiday.  I planned to drive my way through Illinois to M&D's and brought along an assortment of road tripping essentials: iPod, books on CD, GPS, water, chocolate & snacks.  It took about 7 hours and passed through a whole lot of fields, sky and fuzzy radio stations in the heart of IL.  The rain stuck around for part of the drive but cleared up as it got dark which I found to be a nice trade.  I ended up listening to the book "Dear John" on CD most of the way up & back and enjoyed it for the most part.  I tried to make fudge to bring with me, but it didn't cook long enough so it didn't set.  Bummer. At least I can use it to swirl in ice cream or with fruit for dessert.  Mmm.

Once home it was nice to relax and be with family again.  It's been a couple years since we'd had a family Thanksgiving so this was super nice.  We watched parts of the parade & football, cooked & ate lots of yummy food and had a grand time.  J & I even went running with dad in the cold as a pre-dinner workout to help make room for the pie.  We went to see HP7 again (sooo good) and helped dad bottle his Amarone wine too.  Mom & I went out to dress shop for a bridesmaid dress and I think I tried on all but a couple they had to offer!  A wonderful weekend home and a break from work and family and good fun and good times.

holiday quilt tree @ work

Then it was back home and back to work again, with December creeping up on me.  Wednesday the Yo-Yos brought in lunch and treats for the staff and it was delicious.  Baked ham &cheese sandwiches, veggies &dip, cookies, pumpkin cake, meringue bites, divinity candy, and more.  Such yummy food - I didn't have to eat dinner I was so full.  Then we had our volunteer meeting/luncheon and my department helped donate supplies for our decorations.  See if you can spot what we used: scissors, spool of thread, pin cushion, tape measure and more.  I'm also getting lots of mail at work as the entries for the School Block Challenge come in.  The blocks are creative and well done so I'm excited to see the rest that are submitted.

We're getting new carpet in at the apartment too so that's fun.  It's a darker pattern which I think looks much better in the hallway and won't show the dirt stains of people moving in & out as easily.  Our 2nd Saturday is coming up again and this month is Edible Quilts - we have sugar cookies for people to come decorate with quilt designs in icing and candy embellishments!  It means a lot of baking ahead of time but yum!

Phew, I think that's as caught up as I can be for now - stay tuned for more holiday fun!

Weekend Dabbles

And so dear reader I have recovered from the lack of sleep caused by the awesomeness that is Harry Potter.  I even managed to function quite normally at work on Friday until about 3 o'clock when my brain started to shut down.  the movie was fantastic and I definitely want to see it again! That afternoon I received a letter by owl (via the USPS mailman...) from SM that held some much needed Harry Potter preparation. Thanks friend!

It was fun this time to go with a friend, as I went solo to number 6.  It's much easier to keep yourself awake when there's someone else to help you!  Lucy & I watched Bones (so now I'm all caught up) and hung out until we had to head to the theater.  I was surprised to see a lack of costumes, but as we were fairly early, perhaps I missed them.  however, there was a guy dressed in black with a cape, with an actual broom and goggles  - obviously a Quidditch player.  Lots of stuffed Hedwigs, house scarves and then a girl in a pink bunny costume - we couldn't figure that one out.

It was great to sleep in on Saturday and enjoy the weekend.  I hit the library to pickup the 2 books I had on reserve.  I also got out a stack of books I'm sure I won't finish before they're due, but I couldn't resist.  I cleaned and savored the beautiful fall weather and colored leaves.  This past week was really great what with the hype for HP7. In addition to that, I received a letter from Sr. Ann Catherine *hooray!*, successfully taught another hands-on to school groups and tried some new recipes.  I've made stir-fry for dinner in the wok Mom brought down for me and it was so good.  Then, I made chocolate and chocolate-cherry pastry - delicious!  I also tried to make fudge but it didn't set right.  So now I'll have to make brownies or a cake and top them with fudgey goodness. (such a chore...)  ;)  While relaxing and clearing up clean clothes I caught up on Glee, Psych & How I Met Your Mother - which were all very entertaining.

chocolate pastry - yumm!

After all of this, I managed to put a label on a baby quilt I made for my cousin and get it ready to ship out.  I meant to mail it earlier in the week but wasn't coordinated enough for that.  Apparently, no one needs to mail anything after noon on Saturdays, because that's when the only post office open on weekends, closes.  Sigh.  Here's what the quilt looks like, and we sent it with a Curious George & Dr. Seuss book for baby Matthew to enjoy.

'Fishing Star'

 Hope your weekends were just as wonderful as mine! 

First Impressions

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I

Wow.  I am so glad they decided to make book 7 into two movies, because the first 2 hours was incredible and we've still got plenty to go through before we come to the end!  People in the theater were groaning in disbelief that part I had already come to and end!  I imagine at the end of part II, there will be disappointment that this series has come to an end.

The story followed the book fairly well and I enjoyed every minute.  While there are always differences due to the book-to-film translation and what my imagination has created, there weren't too many glaringly obvious changes in this film. *phew*   It definitely has set a good grounding for what's to come in part II and there's plenty of information uncovered.  I'd like to have seen more of Harry, Hermione & Ron traveling the country-side looking for Horcruxes as there wasn't a lot of time to build up some of the story/character developments.  The action was super as were the characters - Ron really got to step up a bit in this one compared to some of the earlier films where I think he gets a bit overshadowed by Harry & Hermione. Time-wise the movie was a bit short compared to previous films, but full of good things so it's well worth a trip to the theater at least once, if not twice.

Midnight shows are awesome and I'm still hyped up!  However, I'll close here and follow-up with more later as I know 7am will come early.

Wish You Well

The other night I got to meet best-selling author David Baldacci! 

He was in town to speak at the West Kentucky Community & Technical College about his book Wish You Well.  WKCTC has been promoting the book along with several activitites as part of the One Book, One Community project.  Basically, they hopd to involve the local community to read the book and to promote and encourage reading as an essential life skill.  The college had several essay contests for middle & high school students as well as within the college community, and they brought Mr. Baldacci in to speak to local students, talk about his books and of course, to sign copies of Wish You Well.

I got involved in September during the kick-off for the One Book, One Community event as it was held on the front lawn of the museum.  Since the novel is set in the mountains of Virginia in the 1940s, the event hosted various crafts and traditional arts of the period.  Activities included, basket making, caning, folk music, canning, rug making, clogging and, of course, quilting.  As for my role, I set up a community quilt - a large frame with cheater cloth (fabric with a pattern pre-printed on it) - so that people could come and try hand quilting some stitches into the quilt and see what it was like.  I sat outside quilting with JS for most of the morning, talking to visitors and encouraging them to try a few stitches.  We had kids and adults from all over - even a couple ladies from Belgium! - sit with us and add some quilting of their own.  It was a good event and it fell during BBQ on the River, which meant great food and music too!  I could think of worse ways to spend a Saturday at work.

I helped out at the VIP reception prior to his talk and got to meet him briefly.  He was very personable and he spoke well about how he became a writer, his stories and the Wish You Well Foundation which supports reading & literacy across America.

I must admit to you dear reader, that I have not actually read Wish You Well or anything else by Baldacci.  (oops).  With the push to have the community read the book, there were no copies available anywhere that I could find.  I felt a bit out of place listening to people talk about the book since I didn't have clue as to what went on in it.  However, I enjoyed meeting the author and contributing my small bit of help to the events and have added Wish You Well to my reading list.  :o)

Superman

Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. 

presto changeo!

 

Across the river lies the city of Metropolis - home of Superman!  In the summer they have a Superman festival, there's a museum, the city paper is The Planet and wall  murals around the town.  The big draw is the 15' tall statue of Superman - which is a great photo op - and the recently added was the Lois Lane statue. In the gift shop they sell anything & everything Superman. My favorite was the kryptonite - green painted rock!

 

spot the impostor!

Trial Run Complete

Last week at work I had my first group of school students come in for a tour & hands-on activity.  I didn't give the tour as I'm still learning that part of the job.  I tend to tag a long on tours when I can to soak up the information!  Back to the school group story.....

It was a group of 20 students and we did the paper folded star activity (see children hands-on).  It's a fun project as every star turns out different due to color choice & placement and the child's creativity.  I managed to give the right directions, keep the kids from going wild and even remembered to have them fill out the evaluation forms!  Yay!  :o)

It was fun to do and worked out well which is a good first run for me with these activities. We have a large group coming in later this month so at least I know what to expect and what I need to work on to keep it going smoothly.  Now I'm working on our next 2nd Saturday project for November - I'm thinking turkeys or fall leaves! 

BOO!

Happy Halloween!!

Jabba the Hutt

I spent a solid 2-3 hours carving the two pumpkins I bought this year.  I enjoy carving them and getting cool candle-lit decorations.  Having yummy pumpkin seeds to cook and eat afterwords is also a plus.  This year the pumpkins were more squat in shape so I had to find patterns that would fit accordingly. 

Here's what I came up with for this year!

Batman!

To further celebrate the holiday - I watched as zombies invaded downtown last night.  This was the 2nd annual zombie walk in Paducah and they march  amble down Broadway St. towards the river.  It was fun to watch and there were some very dedicated zombies!  My favorite was a family with 3 young girls under 6 dressed in princess gowns & tiaras, zombie face paint and the one had her hand up and walked around going "grrr!  look daddy, I scared them!"  So adorable!  

 

Anyways, we survived the invasion and have furthered the fun with It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and episodes of Buffy.  :o)

"zombies are were people too"

 

hahahaha

KY vs. MD :: Round 2

As I learned how to use the phone system here at the Museum and who I need to call for certain questions, I've learned an interesting tidbit I want to share with you dear reader.

When using the land line, I don't have to dial the area code for Paducah phone numbers!  

While making phone calls for work this tends to trip me up and about half the time I get the automated "this call cannot be completed. Please hang up and try again" spiel.  Even when filling out forms, people don't always write their area code if they live in Paducah and this complicated matters until I caught on, learned the Paducah area code and added it in to the contact info for my own sanity.

The last time I didn't need to use the MD area code and could just dial the 7 digits straight-up to chat with a friend was somewhere around the time I was in 5th grade. It's been a habit now to use the area code when dialing any number so this no-area code business is like a strange kind of time warp.  

It's such an interesting difference to note and when I mention that here, people seemed surprised that we use area codes in MD for local calls.  How fun it is to keep picking up on the local quirks so stay tuned!

Everyone loves Pancakes!

My love of pancakes was rekindled with the discovery of this blog: Jim's Pancakes.  If you haven't already checked it out - do it now!  He makes *awesome* pancakes for his daughter and they are truly spectacular.  He has made appearances on several talk & cooking shows as well.  I stumbled across his blog by chance several months ago and was wowed by his pancake creations. 

Star power

So I set about finding the right proportions for making good pancakes with the boxed variety of Hungry Jack.  Just as I nailed the water to mix ratio, I ran out of mix and decided I wanted to make them from scratch.   Food Network.com to the rescue!  There I found a simple pancake mix that didn't need much altering or cutting down as I am cooking for just me.  I even bought a condiment squeeze bottle to make cleaner shapes & lines just like Jim!

Last weekend momm and I ventured to the closest Target - found in IL - where among other things, I bought some new pots & pans and a griddle pan.  Hooray!  I was now prepared to take my pancaking skills to new heights!  Here, dear reader, are some of my creations.

tortuga

The turtle was taken from Jim's 'how-to' on the blog - it was super cute and super easy so it made for a good place to start!

 I had some trouble with the batter clumping up a bit in the squeeze bottle so the outer edges burned a smidge.  They were still delicious!

fishes & flowers

 

    Here's to more weekend mornings full of fun & pancakes!!

rocket ship @ Chrissy's

"if you like the way I'm thinkin' baby wink at it"

I meant to post this up early last week, but time got away from me this week.  Work was busy with planning Girl Scout programs and working out details for this upcoming 2nd Saturday craft.  Plus I was working to ward off a cold with Vitamin C, buckets of water and the occasional Tylenol.  Early nights were added into the mix and it seems to have worked - hooray!  The weather shifted to instant Fall last Sunday with cooler temps in the mid 60-70s, chilly nights and gusty winds.  Yesterday was a quintessential 'blustery day' with grey skittering clouds, patches of sun & shadow and constant wind blowing.  The neighbors across the back have new wind chimes and I can hear them all day long with all the wind.

The real update fun however, is that I went out to a concert last weekend to go see

Jason Mraz!  

He was playing at Murray State which is about an hour away.  I bought my tickets kind of late, but it didn't seem like it would cause a problem.  Little did I know, dear reader, that once I arrived at the will call desk - no ticket!  Apparently, Tickermaster had some glitch because the seat I bought was in a section that was sold out already and so I had to wait a bit for the guy to give me a ticket for the back bleacher seats.  Midway through the opening act, he popped up with my actual ticket and so I got to be closer to the stage and in the actual seat I already paid for!

The openers - Luc & the Lovingtons - were alright.  Upbeat sound and the lead singer had some fun dance moves.  One of their songs was about an elephant, which was very interesting!

Jason was pretty great live!  I don't have a lot of his music, though I plan on it soon (yay for iTunes).  I'll also admit that I wasn't aware the several songs I liked were actually his for a good while; ie: the Remedy, Curbside Prophet.  Anyways, he intro'd several songs kind of oddly - one for a son he hasn't had yet and one for his ''baby mama' that he hasn't yet met.  The songs were good, but his intros seemed weird for a live concert.  haha.  Lots of good music and some good instrumental brass as well. 

At one point during a song he announced that he 'had to pee' and would be right back.  Uhhh...has that ever happened at any concert you've been to?!?  So Jason left the stage, the band kept playing instrumental solos and then Jason came back and finished the song.  Quite entertaining!

Jason and the opening band

He even called up a girl who'd been rocking out all concert up on stage for a song to dance with him and that was pretty sweet.  I'm sure it made her week to be up there! If I could figure out how to add my camera video on here I would post the clip I have with her on stage but alas, I'm not sure how to manage it.

In between songs he mentioned he's recording some new music and consequently has nightmares about possible horrible reviews he'd get.  Some of his jokes fell flat, but my favorite 'nightmare review' was this: when you rearrange the letters in Jason, it spells Jonas!  ha!

He played an awesome Thank You song for the start of his encore which was sweet and funny.  Starting out thanking 'the boys who kicked his ass at 17' and continuing to include thanking the janitors & road workers & environmentalists & all who do their part to keep things running. :o)   Then, he concluded with I'm Yours with flashy lights and a great ending with All You Need is Love.

As an added bonus, here's a link to one of songs I enjoyed, even with the interesting dichotomy of listen to your mama and wanting to make some girl a mama as well.  Whatever Mama Say

PS- the title lyrics are from one of my favorites of Jason's -Geek in the Pink so check it out!

BBQ on the River

Each year Paducah hosts a 3-day festival of everything BBQ at the end of September - this year was the 16th ever.  In the weeks leading up to BBQ I had been told by coworkers what to expect: lots of food, limited parking, closed down streets, music and waves of people coming to use our bathrooms.  They were right of course, not that I doubted.  My office window looks out onto 2nd street and I watched Monday - Wednesday as the open parking lots downtown started to fill up with tents, smokers, piles of wood on trailer skids and booth fronts for the vendors.  Each booth raises money for a local charity and they raise around $500,000.  About 60 tons of chicken & pork are cooked during the event and it was really hard to work when our lobby started to smell like BBQ & wood smoke due to all the people coming in & out.  mmmmmm....

such a winning combo!

On top of BBQ on the River, we had a workshop running over the weekend and a Saturday event happening at work so there was lots to prepare for and plenty of excitement in store for the end of the week.  Thursday morning as I stepped out to my car ready to head into work, I inhaled and the early morning air carried a hint of wood-fired BBQ as the vendors prepared for the 11am start of the festival.

grilled shrimp

fried Oreos - so tasty!

In order to experience the fullness of the next three days, I headed out to the vendors for both lunch and dinner!  People at work were talking about their favorite places to get bbq and what I should try in my first go-round of BBQ.  I tried a good variety of food items over the 3 days and did a decent job of getting the most out of this delicious festival!

cheesecake on a stick!

Along with the awesome food, each afternoon & evening local bands played on the main stage.  Several that I heard were really good - mostly playing some classics from the 60s & 70s though there were some local/country-esque bands as well.  I explored Thursday night and window shopped along all the vendors - most sold jewelry or kid items.  That was the best plan because Friday & Saturday there were so many people that it was hard to walk and look at the booths without running into someone. By checking it out the first night, I had the chance to locate the booths I wanted to try food from and get a good look at the event.  There were some other entertainments ongoing - tug boat tours and riverfront activities.

Ohio river fish tank on wheels

I tried several BBQ sammiches from different booths of course! I did try one from the 2009 Grand Champs, and the pork was really tender and delicious.  They won again this year - making it 4 years in a row now so I'm proud to say I had a winning sammich!  I also tried the Cajun Corn as I'd been told it was wonderful.  It had just enough kick to it and was really tasty.  I think my favorite was the BBQ nachos.  It probably could have fed at least two people, but I ate it all myself anyways.  An interesting combination of the nacho cheese and BBQ sauce but it worked very well and they were super tasty!  Everything was wonderful and delicious and I certainly enjoyed this Paducah tradition!  :)

BBQ nachos - amazing!

local haunts

Brace yourselves dear reader.  What I am about to post is highly suspect of creating feelings of awe & jealousy!

Right here in Paducah, KY is a brand-spanking-new Panera Bread.  Some of  you know how much I enjoy Panera and can imagine the many happy sighs of having one that's nearby.  This however, is not your run-of-the-mill Panera - no sir!  For starters, it has a Drive-Thru.  Yes, dear reader, a drive-thru Panera! In case you doubt the amazingness of this concept - behold:

1st Panera drive-thru sighting

I'd been waiting to write about this until after I'd been through the drive-thru.  An early morning, overcast with a slight drizzle and cool temps had me pulling through for a hot chocolate without a need to ever leave the car!  I've never seen a Panera like this before and am kind of amazed there aren't more of them around.  

Walking in to place a dine-in order is also somewhat mind boggling as it was the most high-tech Panera I've seen so far.  After placing my order at the register, I was handed a square pager usually reserved for crowded restaurant waiting lines.  I was able to find a seat, get a drink and wait for the pager to vibrate & light up indicating my order was ready at the counter for pick-up.  Crazy. 

Seeing as I drive-by to-and-from work each day, it's tempting to just pull in, or thru!, and grab a quick snack. So far, so good and I can't wait for some more brisk fallish weather to inspire more hot chocolate moments in the future.  :o)

Working in the City

"It's been a hard days night, I should be sleeping like a log" - the Beatles

The last couple of weeks have been work-heavy and super busy with events and the first event I planned and ran and survived.  After Labor Day I was busy preparing things for the Super City - Quilt City event.  

This is a joint effort between the museum and Metropolis, IL - the home of Superman!  Metropolis is just across the river and both places host some quilt activities, speakers, etc.  I had some hands-on demos to monitor and oversee - bow tie blocks, yo-yos and some local artists showing their own stuffs.  It wasn't too overwhelming which was good, just a normal day at work.  Except it was a Saturday but that didn't really register as odd once I was actually working.  I did get to see what they have on the Metropolis side as I went over with my boss so I could meet some people and see how they set up their quilt show & vendors and such.  It was a nice set up and decent turnout as well.

Saturday night I went to see the Paducah Symphony orchestra for their opening concert of the year.  They have a new conductor - Raffaele Ponti - and he was amazing!  He was very expressive with his conducting and had plenty of energy and excitement for the night.  I wanted to get up and play for Ponti - he was that inspiring to watch!  Reminded me of Dr. Naylor and how much fun he made the ensemble.

Sunday I had a pleasant morning going to Mass, sitting outside, and talking to both Liz & Chrissy! Hooray for phone calls and good friends!  I only needed to be at work for a few hours in the afternoon which went by quickly as we helped several people baste their quilts. 

This past week I spent with most of my focus on the Educator's Reception which was my first actual planned event.  Eep!  We invite local teachers/educators to the museum to see what activities we offer and provide for school groups.  Tours and hands-on things to help reinforce their curriculum points and expose the kids to creativity & art.  I had plenty of awesome helpers and the night went very well.  Had a good turnout and talked to lots of people about the possibilities open to their students.  Hopefully we'll get a great response for tours & field trips this year!

Now I've got a little bit of breather before the workshop this coming week, events on Saturday.  However, I'm also looking forward to this week as it is BBQ on the River!  Apparently tons of people come in to cook BBQ for several days and there's music and good times and no parking and lots of fun.  Should be tasty and exciting! BBQ on the river

So I've survived my first official events and duties and am glad to have those under the belt.  I'll be able to work more with what we have to develop some more projects and activities with more understanding of what is available.  I've also been feeling more settled in town and more knowledgeable about where things are and have ventured into some more shops and areas to see what's nearby!

Do Nothing Day!

So after a looong 11 days at work I once again have a weekend to call my own!  Tomorrow has been hereby dubbed "Do nothing day," so that I can relax and enjoy the weekend.  

I have a short list of acceptable do nothing day activities and they are as follows:

 Sleep in! [with no alarm clocks!]

     Lounge around and watch a movie

         Catch up on the last episode of Psych for the fall

              Sit out on the deck or by the river

                  Visit the ice cream place

Yes, that means I am in fact doing something during the day, but the term 'do nothing' can be easily translated into 'do whatever I want to relax' for the day.  :o)  Obviously, I make up my own rules for the day and can easily adapt them to suit my fancy. 

Some weekends I tend to make a list of things to do around the house, errands to run or new places I should check out and see, but in the end tend to not complete it or feel unproductive when I side-track away from the list. Of course, I'd like to get out and use the free time to explore a little bit more in the area and find some great places but that will have to wait for another weekend.

Who knows?  Maybe once I wake up tomorrow I'll be full of motivation to get out and do things, so we'll have to wait and see what the day will bring. 

Catch you on the flip side!

and the winner is......

Me!

Door prize basket

 I'm the winner today dear reader. :o)  I was invited to a lunch meeting with the Business Professional Women's group, which was interesting.  Good food over at Whaler's Catch and I have some information to look at to see what all they do and are about.  Anyways, they have people put in their business cards and draw a winner for the door prize.  At the end of the meeting, my card came out of the basket!

Hooray!  How fun to be a guest and win the prize.  It's a basket of University of Kentucky things (Dan - you should be ecstatic!).  So now I can blend in with some Wildcat spirit and have some fun desk accessories too.  

t-shirt, travel mug, mints, sticky notes!, paper, UK sticker

go team go!

We Are Family!

The much anticipated looong Labor Day weekend lived up to the hype!  Awesome.

M&D came to visit and when I got off work they were waiting at my place.  I took them out to the 'local' favorite - Flamingo Row for dinner and we had a fun night in watching one of my favorite Psych episodes - "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable." 

hummingbird dive bomb!

Saturday we shopped for washing machines and worked around the house for a while.  Mom brought me a hummingbird feeder that we set up out on the balcony.  Instantly, I had several hummingbirds coming in for a quick refueling.  They are such fun to watch as they flit * zipp around the feeder but I discovered that they are pretty territorial.  Only one can sit at time otherwise they'll dive bomb each other which is entertaining because when they do, their wings sound like lightsabers!

4 hummingbirds at once

Mom & I worked on emptying boxes and sorting through some more of my schtuff and really whittled it down.  Major shout out to Momm for the help!  Now I have some more space to play and can find things a lot easier!  Meanwhile, Dad was fixing & re-gluing my dining chairs so that they aren't wobbly. Obviously, I get my fix-it gene from Dad. M&D also brought down a dryer & installed it so now I do laundry without a supply of quarters in my pocket.  Sweet!

Sunday we got to play and traipsed out to Land Between the Lakes for some biking.  Such fun to be out on a trail and biking through the sunshine - though it was a little more hilly than what I usually did at home so I'll have to work on that.
 
I'm looking forward to getting back out there! We also had a cheesecake-champagne toast for the new apartment. I got to pop the cork off the deck as per tradition so that was fun too.  We watched Tomb Raider (which hadn't seen before) and I really enjoyed it. Interesting story and great adventure. 


All of this and still Monday to come! More play time and family fun that continued through to Tuesday morning for a stop at the river before I headed to work and M&D headed home.  

Such a great weekend that will have to last me through the rest of the month as I will be working some weekends for events and things.

cheers!

 

Monthiversary sounds so middle school

Time sure goes by quickly when you look back on it.  Today marks the one month mark of being in KY dear reader - can you believe it?  It's been a busy several months leading up to the move and then settling in here post-move.  Lots of official things need to be dealt with when uprooting and transplanting elsewhere. I'm fairly certain that I've figured all of the major ones out by this point and can start bringing the fun stuff forward again!

Part of the checklist went as follows:

New job? Check.

Place to live? Check.

Find a new bank? Check.

Obtain KY plates before MD's expire? Check!

Get driver's license? Check.

So now it's official and I'm a resident of the state of Kentucky through & through.

These of course, were the major changes that had to be accomplished.  I told myself I would first check off all the important things before getting a library card.  Mostly because that was the fun change and the aforementioned items were high priority.  As I was getting antsy for some new books to read, I spent a couple evenings haunting the bookstore to read & re-read some books.  :o)  As of this week however, I now own a library card and can check out books and movies to my heart's content.  Ya'll will be delighted to hear that the library card is hot pink by default.  I guess this is so I can't misplace it in my wallet/purse.  How fun!

first books checked out in KY

Becky's night in

The other weekend I went out to rent a movie and just relax.  Redbox is in the Walmart here and I think this might be the most interesting combo of items purchased in one night that I can recall at the moment.

Obviously, one can never go into the store 'just for milk.'  I ended up getting "The Lightning Thief," which I had seen in theaters with some awesome girls!  It was good the 2nd time around as well and makes me want to re-read the books.

There's more updates to come so stay tuned!

Looong Weekend!

I am super-excited for this weekend for several reasons:
1 - It's not just an end to the work week (which is always nice), it's also a holiday weekend and I have Monday off!
2 - M&D are coming to visit!  Yay!


Labor Day & I have an interesting history, so here's the short(ish) version.  :o)

In college, Labor Day didn't really exist as a holiday.  On my way to class that Monday, I got a phone call form Mom asking if I had plans and all about the holiday - and all I could say was "what holiday?" 12 years of school days marked with Monday off for any & all holidays suddenly came to a standstill.  At first it seemed to strange to have class as usual when other friends were off and enjoying the extra day, but then I didn't really even notice it as the years continued.  It was discovered that Snaps' college also had classes on Labor Day so at least my school wasn't alone in this non-holiday mindset.


Upon finding a job after school, it was a pleasant shock to discover that I once again had Labor Day off as an actual holiday!  The glory of having an extra day to relax, party & enjoy!


Last year, I took an impromptu trip to see M&D for the weekend, and by impromptu I mean I came home Friday around 4pm and by 5:15 was out the door, boarding pass in hand as I headed for the airport and a fun weekend with family!

This year will be just as fun as I count down the hours until I'm released from work for the next 3 days!  Especially since September will be a busy month at work with events & workshops and all sorts of new things to learn & do.


Have a wonderful weekend! :o)

Through it All

"Hold on, hold tight
If I'm out of your sight
And everything keeps moving on, moving on" -"Breathe in Breath Out" Mat Kearney

me & my quilt 'Shattered Chaos'

 I'm really enjoying the new apartment and am slowly getting things put where I want them and where they'll work best.  I have yet to put anything on the walls aside from hanging one of my quilts by the front door - it makes me smile every time I come through the door. 

 One thing I love about the apartment is the balcony!  I can sit outside and stare out at the parking lot & other building.  haha.  Though true, it's not so depressing - there are trees and greenery around.  It's also fairly quiet which is rare for apartments.  Some of my neighbors have wind chimes that make the most gorgeous tones.  On particularly windy days the chimes are reminiscent of the Harry Potter theme.  Other times they sound just like those in the movie August Rush.  It cooled off some last week and I could open the windows and listen to the chimes at night. *happysigh*

There are also a number of hummingbirds out here - many balconies/porches have a feeder out.  They just zipp around, occasionally hovering within arms' reach, and are fun to watch.  One Saturday morning was overcast and rainy so I went out to sit and watch/listen to the rain and spotted a brave hummingbird flitting through the rain from one tree to the next.

While I'm all moved in, I have no washer/dryer in the unit.  There is a closet with the hookups which mocks me, but so far no actual laundry facility included.  This meant I got to trek out to the laundromat and re-live the college days of lugging laundry & quarters to the machines.  Oddly enough, I enjoy laundromats and come prepared with book, iPod and trusty camera.  

at least it's festive - though I doubt people actually claim these items!

It's fun to watch other people wait for laundry and it was sort of nice to just have to sit and wait for my clothes to finish.  I couldn't rush off anywhere else and could enjoy sitting with my book.  In the background was the VH1 movie about the Temptations so there was good music as well.  :o)  I waited until everyone else had left before snapping this picture as it hung above the door. I didn't notice until afterwords the security camera was right next to it - oops!  

No pants!

There's not much that can follow that so I'll leave you with this final thought dear reader:

Pants are always optional!!