still here...

I have so many pictures to share with you, but I'm editing them.

The husband is (finally!) home, and we're winding down from a full-day of activities. I hosted a baby shower this afternoon and we went to a friend's birthday party this evening. Another one of our friends is in town, so we've also been trying to catch up with her (a group of us even met at Papas & Beer last night to celebrate her return to Asheville.)

So it's been busy, yet fun. And it's almost time to get back to business - work on Monday.

I'm so, so glad that I finally have my husband home. I can't even begin to tell you how crazy this week turned out to be.

Anyway. Photos. I have a lot of details from the baby shower I can finally share now, and I have 40 pictures to sift through. Tomorrow I plan on posting everything!

Bele Chere = playtime

This week's You Capture theme was to focus on play. I did that at Bele Chere (for non-locals, Bele Chere is a street festival in Asheville focusing on art, music and a lot of food - it shuts down the streets of downtown for three days.)

I liked this wind sock creatures on top of a parking garage - they looked like they were playing above the crowds:

Balloon animals are a lot of fun too:

I wasn't expecting to see Spider-Man near Pack Square:

Nor was I expecting to see a girl playing the accordion:

This human statue played her drum when you tipped her:


I really do love Bele Chere, and didn't spend nearly enough time there last weekend (it was too hot!) I'm sure I would have had over 100 photos if I had spent just a few more hours downtown.

a birthday shoutout

I have to take a moment and wish my husband a happy birthday (before it's no longer his birthday.) I've talked to him a few times today, but this is really his first birthday we've spent apart since we started dating. He's away on training this week (and will have training next year on his birthday.) I plan on throwing a huge party for his 33rd birthday in two years!

So in the off-chance he reads this, happy birthday!!

What I learned about candy today

What I've learned about candy today.

-My brother mailed me macadamia nut Hershey kisses and I received them today. Five pounds of melted goodness. My first hint that this was not a good idea should have been when he told me last week he was re-purchasing the Kisses because they melted before he got to the UPS store. Um. Yeah. (The chocolates were for a shower I'm hosting this weekend, and I'm now moving onto plan B. Whatever that is.)

-I've been making blue candy for this shower, and it didn't go well today. The candy wafers melted, and couldn't be cooled off because then I wouldn't be able to re-melt them, so I had to mix the flavor in as soon as I got into the house, and pour everything into the molds asap. And then the bottle containing the melted candy exploded in my kitchen.

-I should have bought the bottle for the melted candy wafers three years ago. It only cost $1.99, but has made candy-making SO much easier. Why was I so cheap when making my wedding favors?

-Melted Hershey Kisses are so yummy - but don't refrigerate them and then try to get the wrappers off. They need to be at room temperature. Oh, and the wrappers on these particular Kisses say "aloha" on them. How cool is that?

quick trip to Tybee Island, Ga.

On our way from Savannah to Jacksonville (two weeks ago), we decided to make a quick trip to Tybee Island, before driving two hours to Florida. We had stuff for lunches (because we're cheap) and lucked out by finding the pavilion at the beach. So, a place with shade and a picnic table was exactly what we needed that day.

We went out onto the pier after we ate our sandwiches, and I took many self-portraits of us. I'm the queen of self-portraits (if I say so myself.) We always get to December and realize we have very few photos of us together, so I'm not going to make that mistake this year. (And see how I even got a seagull in the background? I so didn't plan that.)

Beachgoers:

A look back at the pavilion:

And on our way out of the small town, we found the lighthouse. It happened to be closed that day, but I wasn't going to let a chain keep us from taking photos:

Another self-portrait, this time at the lighthouse. I totally cut off my face, but this is better than the picture in which I was wearing my sunglasses.

Another take on the Savannah trip

Round two of our vacation photos, for your viewing pleasure. These were shot on our second day in Savannah. We walked around the historic district for over four hours - in the 100 degree heat. We walked to all of the squares, and just tried to take in everything we could. And now I have ten photos to share with you!

Self picture before we really started walking:

Squares, fountains and houses along the way:






Cemetery:


On the far right, you can see the entrance to Paula Deen's store (which is connected to her restaurant.) We went into the store, but didn't eat at the restaurant.

capturing in black and white

This week's You Capture theme was black and white. I shot the first three shots last week over our vacation.
Lighthouse in St. Augustine:

Downtown Jacksonville, as seen from a boat:

Church in St. Augustine:

This was my photo of the day yesterday. It's a part of a flower in my yard:

wordless Wednesday

Sunset in Jacksonville, Florida last week.

Miscellany Monday...random thoughts

I'm jumping in on Miscellany Monday again.

1. I ran 4 miles tonight. It felt awesome. Well, not really, because I can't run well after dinner or in the heat, but it was better than the night I ran after eating a steak dinner. So it was a success.

2. Work was a waste for me today. I hate Mondays after a week out of the office. I dealt with hundreds of emails, most of which were questions I had already answered over and over again.

3. I'm considering taking a cake decorating class next month. AC Moore has their classes at 40% off, and it falls on a Monday, which is better than my last attempt (which they canceled, and were supposed to take place on Tuesday nights.)

4. I also got approval to take the intermediate programming class, following-up on the one I just completed. I should register tonight, but I am dragging my feet. IT would be perfect timing, as the husband has an extended work trip and trainings over the coming weeks, so it wouldn't take away so much time from us....

5. My dad and stepmom are in Hawaii right now. I'm extremely jealous.

6. I'm going to go eat ice cream. I ran 4 miles. I deserve it, right?

Picturing Savannah

This will be part one of a couple of posts - at least one more post - of photos. Text will be short tonight, but I've edited the first day of our trip down to 10 decent photos. Make that 11.

As we were walking to dinner, it stormed. A lot. I had seen this gold dome and it was very cool with the darker contrast of the sky behind it.

Then I found out that the cool dome was City Hall. I loved it!

After dinner, we walked around one of the squares and some neighborhoods, taking in the surroundings.



A couple of self-portraits (I had on a great strapless dress, but I look like I'm topless in the second photo.)


We then found ourselves back at our hotel, changing into more comfortable cooler clothes before heading down to the river.

Sunset over the bridge we drove in on:

Inside Wet Willie's - just a few of the drinks they offered:

And our final destination of the night...the fountain at Ellis Square. (This square was originally paved over and made into a parking garage. The garage was torn down a few years ago to bring back the "square.")

Savannah (continued) and some of Jacksonville

We spent Sunday evening, all of Monday and then most of Tuesday walking. On Tuesday morning, we did check out of the hotel (after breakfast and a visit to the fitness center) and drove to Bonaventure Cemetery. After a quick-ish visit around the cemetery, we drove to Tybee Island. I have an entire post about how we kept everything relatively cheap, but I'll at least mention that we took food for lunches (for when we were traveling during lunchtime) and ate sandwiches at the pavilion on Tybee Island.

When we were leaving, we found a lighthouse, and took some photos before escaping the heat of Georgia to drive down to the heat of Florida.

(I forgot to mention last week that we went to a place called Wet Willie's for drinks. We happened upon this place to discover they served my favorites - daiquiris. We were thankfully within walking distance (we left my car in the garage for 48 hours. It was awesome.) The drinks were incredible, and we hit up the place twice. I could go for a daiquiri right now, in fact.)

We arrived in Jacksonville around 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon, and within 10 minutes, we were in the pool. The temperatures kept reaching 100 or more, and we were miserable in that heat.

I think one of the funniest things from that day was when the husband realized that we have nephews. My stepsister has two sons, and I had never met the youngest one - now 9-years-old - until this week. The boys are 14 and 9, and were a lot of fun to hang around. There was a lot of swimming on Tuesday and then a drive over to the Navy base so we could walk on the beach.

I'll leave you with one photo from that evening:

our trip went out with....a flat

We left Florida this morning around 10 a.m., with hopes of being home by 6. The Garmin said we'd be home by 5 (if we didn't make any stops.) The husband had been talking about making a stop to break up the trip, but I pushed through.

And then 30 miles from home, a tire blew out. We were soclose to being home. And all of a sudden, I had a bad feeling, heard a weird noise and said, "I think we have a flat tire." I immediately pulled into the right lane, and a minute later, we were pretty sure that it was a flat tire. (I'd never had one, and the car wasn't pulling unless I was going uphill.)

When I pulled over on the shoulder, I said that I could call AAA when my husband said, "don't you have a spare in the trunk?" Stupid me. Of course I did. And why should I doubt my husband's abilities to change a flat tire?

After about 45 minutes on the side of the interstate, we were back on our way. We made it home around 6:30 this evening. I already have an appointment to get a new tire (or tires) tomorrow morning at 8.

I took around 800 photos this week and have a lot to tell you and show you, and to remember. It was a pretty fun week. For now, you get only the flat tire story, and the promise that I'll be back this weekend with a lot of updates!

Savannah, in a nutshell

We've been in Savannah for over 24 hours and I think I've seen the entire city. At least the historic district. Photos will have to come later, since my laptop doesn't want to pull photos from my card.

Last night, we ate dinner at Moon River Brewing. Seems like they had OK beer, but great liquor drinks. (I don't drink beer.) We bought a certificate on restaurant.com and saved about $10. It's still up in the air as to whether or not we saved money or broke even considering we also bought an appetizer. Reasonably priced food, though.

We found that Wet Willie's makes the strongest, best daiquiris. Ever. Well, second to mine, because I make some great drinks. They do, however, make the closest drink to a Bahama Mama we've found since returning from the Bahamas. And they're cheap. We've been there twice.

We walked this town like nobody's business. The historic district has squares throughout and there are 22. There are two additional "squares" that have essentially been paved over and now a monument stands in it's place. We found one of those. We saw all 22, plus one of the monuments in about 4 hours today. My legs ache.

The history behind Savannah is so interesting. It's been fun hitting up all of the squares and reading the plaques, and comparing the squares to one another. One has a basketball court, most are just green spaces. Several have different fountains, while most have benches. It's pretty cool. All have plaques so you can learn more of the history.

We've been staying within a street of the riverfront, which has been nice. I love the hotel we're staying at.

It was 100 degrees today. With a heat index of 106 or 107, but at that point, who's counting? I've mainly been drinking water, despite my diet Pepsi-drinking ways. (I've actually had one soda on this entire trip, and I'm going to see if I can go without the rest of the trip.)

We've done very little shopping, because we've been doing so much walking. We did, however, go into Paula Deen's store (connected to her restaurant) to buy a few souvenirs, and the guy asked what state we were from. When we replied "North Carolina", he said "Asheville?" And proceeded to say a lot of people from Asheville visit Savannah. weird.

You can drink everywhere here. I mean, everywhere. Open-container laws do not count in Savannah. I love it.

Tomorrow we're heading to a cemetery and possibly Tybee Island before driving to Florida.

working on our finances

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but when we travel, we tend to listen to a lot of podcasts. And one that we've really taken a liking to is Dave Ramsey's podcast. (My husband bought his book several years ago and got out of debt before we got married, and I've since gotten out of debt. Since our marriage, we've managed to build a pretty decent emergency fund.) On our (first?) trip to Lake Waccamaw this summer, Dave mentioned another book, which Kenny ended up buying a little more than a week ago. He's about halfway through the book, and last week he mentioned that he thought we should talk about our finances. I agreed, and we decided Sundays would be great days for us to schedule time to talk about money. Except for this week, I agreed to "meet" on Thursday since we're going to be traveling.

I don't recall being very excited about meeting on Thursday. I had a long work day, followed by a Rotary meeting, and I was exhausted when I got home. After dinner, though, Kenny said, "Are you ready to talk about finances?" I think I whined and sat back down. He then reached in the chair next to him and pulled out forms. He'd had them hidden all through dinner. He handed me the first form with our net worth and I immediately laughed. Across the top, it said "Our Last Name, Inc." (Except insert our real last name.) Um, so we're incorporated now?

We made daily, weekly, monthly, annual and lifetime goals for our finances. One of his daily goals is to stop buying the single sodas at gas stations/stores. One of my goals is to only go to Target once.

To which my husband replied, "HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU GO TO TARGET?" I said, "this week?" (Between me and the entire blogging community, I went to Target every day last week during my lunch hour. I didn't buy stuff every day, but I did go....to be fair, I did buy something at Michaels every day, and Target was next door, and it was a good distraction for my lunch hour.)

This exchange also happened to take place on a day in which I received two boxes from Amazon. Again, to be fair, I am an Amazon Prime member, so shipping is always free. And Amazon shipped my one order in two different boxes. But when Kenny saw the boxes, he walked back in the dining room and said, "could one of your weekly goals be to only shop on Amazon once a week, or even a month?" I agreed, leaving out the fact that I had purchased something else on Amazon that morning.

Apparently, I have problems. They can't be that serious, though, because I am keeping track of my spending (I have a spreadsheet) and I'm not in debt.

But I do love Target and Amazon.com.

(I plan on updating periodically on how we're doing. The goal is to increase our net worth by $7000 by January 2011.)

unexpected flowers

I'm such a beginner (flower) gardener. Last summer, I planted gladiolas and hostas in our front flower beds. Everything bloomed as it should, and then winter came and I forgot about the flowers.

Most of the hostas came back this year (one died. I need to replace it.) The gladiolas came back, but haven't bloomed. And my angel trumpet flowers came back - and even seeded and multiplied! I almost picked those flowers, thinking they were weeds. I forgot what I had planted last year!

I've obviously not been going out our front door this week (we have 3 entrances into our house, and most often use the side entrance) and almost missed one of the gladiolas blooming! One of the trumpet flowers also bloomed, and I found more pre-blooms on the trumpet flowers. I have about 7 other gladiolas that still need some time before their flowers start to show.

I shot these photos yesterday morning.






I think low-maintenance flowers are AMAZING. I can't wait to see what they look like when we return from vacation!

break time is over

I think my running rut is over.

Yesterday I made the decision to get back out - even for 2 miles. When I got home from work (and Rotary), I ate dinner, talked with the husband about finances (I'll get to that story another time - we're planning our financial future) and then really pushed myself to change into running clothes and get back outside.

It was still over 85 degrees when I left the house. And I had eaten steak an hour earlier.

I ran just over 2 miles. And I felt like I was going to die. Note to self: Steak is not a great pre-run food.

This morning, I somehow woke up at 6 (I went to bed REALLY late after sending the husband to the store after 11 p.m. to buy contact solution.) I again dragged myself outside, and I ran 3 miles. I felt awesome! What's crazy is that my abs hurt all day following this morning's run. Crazy.

Morning running is totally my thing. I cannot exercise, much less run, in the evening. I'm hoping to get up to 4 miles either tomorrow or Sunday, but we'll have to wait and see how the weekend goes. It's currently raining (finally!) and I have a lot of cleaning and packing to do. If the rain lets up in the morning, I think I'll make it out.

So I guess I'm back? Or, rather, almost back. Let's give it more than two days to make it official.

Independence Day captures

The You Capture theme of the week was America and I had no problem with that on Sunday.

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I'm all about putting our flag out. If I could put our flag out every day (and remember to take it down when the sun set), I totally would. :)

This one happens to be at my mom's house, looking up (obviously.) I just thought it was a cool angle.

On Sunday night, some friends joined us on the roof of my workplace to watch the fireworks over downtown Asheville. This is what I managed to capture:

unmotivated runner.

I admitted to someone (well a few people, really) on Twitter today that I'm a lazy runner. And it's true. I haven't really run longer distances since the 15k I ran in May, and that was a total fluke since I didn't really train for it. (I'm still exercising - weights and workouts with Jillian Michaels, so I'm not going to turn into one huge pile of mush.)

I kind of miss running, but I don't miss the pain in my legs. I miss the feeling after I finished running. I kind of miss the big races. I have no big races planned for this year, which is nice when I think about all of the Saturday mornings I get to sleep in, but dumb when I realize I'm still not really sleeping in on Saturday mornings.

The temperatures have been in the 90s this week and we've had alerts for poor air quality, so I've used that as my excuse to not run a few more days. Sad, isn't it?

My goal for the week is to get out and run at least 3 miles. I'm thinking it'll be a good Friday or Saturday goal. We're going to be in Savannah and Florida soon, so maybe I can venture out for a few short runs.

I'm so tired of being the unmotivated runner.

SATC Tuesdays!

A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned wanting to watch the 'Sex & the City' series from start to finish. Well, as luck would have it, I happen to own all of the seasons of SATC, and the movie. Let's also add that 'Lost' is over and we kind of miss having people over on Tuesday nights.

So let me introduce to you 'Sex & the City' Tuesdays.

I'm excited. There will be at least three of us, possibly four, and my husband if he finds nothing else to do. We've scheduled it to start after my ceramics class. And we're starting tonight.

This could all change to SATC Mondays if one of the girl's boyfriends decides he wants in on the fun (and he only has Sunday or Monday nights free.) We shall see what happens.

I think this is going to be better than any book club, because I suck at book clubs.

miscellany monday. July 5.

I've seen Nicole take part in this and it seemed like a good excuse time to pull out a list of everything we've done in the past week.

So here goes.

1. I can't remember half of what we did this weekend. That's how busy we've been for the past few weeks.

2. I do remember I went to a Fourth of July part on Saturday (the third.) As I was leaving, I tripped near my car. I happened to be my on phone, and it went flying, landing under my car. I cracked the screen and now my beloved phone is dying a slow death. It really makes me sad, which makes me realize I shouldn't *love* technology as much as I do.

3. I bought a lot of remnant fabric yesterday at Hancock Fabrics. 75 percent off. I couldn't beat the prices. I even found some really great eyelet fabric. I've been dying to buy an eyelet dress, but I can't shell out $400 for a simple shift dress. And I am a few inches shy of making my own dress, but I think I might go for it. This pattern is exactly what I'm looking for.

4. We're leaving for Savannah this weekend. I'm not prepared. We don't know what we're going to do once we get there....except maybe sleep.

5. I cut fabric to make an ottoman today. It wasn't until I had the pieces cut out, that I realized just how large 24 inches really is. That's going to be one large ottoman.

6. I've been planning a baby shower for a friend. I'm really excited about all of the pieces that I've thought of (with the guidance of a friend). I can't wait to share everything with you, but I need to keep it as secretive as possible...until July 31. I dropped the invitations in the mailbox today.

7. I have yet to take the final exam for the online course I'm taking. I have this week to do it. Maybe I should do that tonight?

8. I really want a new deck on the back of our house. Anyone want to come build one for us? For free? Yeah, I didn't think so.

9. Chloe has been SO affectionate lately. I think she is afraid we're going to leave her alone again. Sadly, we'll be leaving her for one more week this summer, and then the traveling is over for a while. Poor, sweet kitty. At least we have friends and family who look after her.

Happy Independence Day

Hope your day is fun and safe.

Today I'm thinking a lot about the men and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families that are missing them right now.