Strange thoughts

I find myself counting the strangest things, now that Scott is gone. I go through my daily life and routine, and wonder how many of these things Scott's going to miss.

For example:
- how many bottles of hand soap will I go through before Scott gets home?
- how many tubes of toothpaste will I have to buy before Scott gets home?
- I wonder how many bags of dog food will Bear go through before Scott gets home?
- how many bottles of cascade will I buy before Scott gets home?

I have been doing this for the past couple of weeks, but only realized it today when I was washing my hands in the bathroom and the bottle of soap is getting low. And I don't think these things about the smaller items that I buy often. I don't think "How many cartons of milk will I buy" - it's more those things that last a while and that we don't replace all the time.

Since we've moved into this house, I think we have gone through 2 bottle of soap in our bathroom, and maybe 3 or 4 in the kitchen. I wonder how many items will I,just me (one person), go through in the next 6 months? I'm strange, I know.

I am heading to the post office to mail my first package to Scott. I hope I don't have any hassles about the way I packed it, and I hope I did everything right. I ordered a bunch of flat rate boxes from the post office, and they delivered them to my house. I think I have enough boxes to last us 10 years.

Hon - I thought of somthing for your B'day present - so be on the look out for my package and I hope you like it! I miss you sweetie.

What do you do?

I am currently reading Jimmy Carter's book "Our Endangered Values". This is a book that Scott bought and started before leaving, and now I have gotten quite a bit through it. He makes a lot of good points, that I agree with, but he doesn't seem to be offerring any solutions to the issues that he points out. It doesn't seem productive to me, but it is making me think about my beliefs and opinions. Maybe his solutions are yet to come in this book.

So what do you do when your husband is doing something right now that you morally disagree with? And I have had this opinion for a long time now, but reading a chapter in this book has put my thoughts on paper and backed it up with facts.

Part of me thinks - well, he doesn't have a choice but to be doing this. But really, he does. It was his choice to joing the military. And it was the American people who made the choice to put this president in office, and re-elect him. And it was my choice to marry Scott, and become a part of all this.

So what do you do?
- I guess right now we don't have a choice that Scott is deployed, but he does have a choice when he comes home. So I deal with the days and nights right now, and just hope that the time flies by quickly. I would be very interested to take a poll of the younger people in the military and see if they know and understand the history of the US, the treaties that were made by previous presidents, and see if they really understand what they are all a part of and what it could potentially do to this country. I bet they don't have a clue.
- We all have a choice to educate ourselves on current events and public policy. I admit I am not very up on it, but reading this book has sparked my curiosity and I will continue to read about it and form my own opinions.
- We all have a choice to vote for the people who are in office, and vote for the people that will represent you and your beliefs
- And I guess we all have a choice of what country we live in and what we support. This may be a little drastic, but I do have concerns about the future and American sentiment throughout the world. Maybe buying that vineyard in Canada isn't too drastic of a thought, if we can just get the Canadians to stop hating us.

As soon as I actually make up my mind...

OK - On Saturday, I ended up hanging out at the pet shop for about an hour, SAD - I KNOW! But there was this really cute little Chia Rat in there, who was literally the size of my hand. They said she was the runt of the litter, and that they don't expect her to get over 8 lbs. I just watched her, and tried to play with her (she was more interested in looking at the other dogs and barked a little when a spazzy one came up to her). She was so cute - yet seemed so delicate. So I went home that night debating whether or not I should grab Bear, take him to the store that night before they closed, and be done with dog hunt.

I got home, and then thought - I really need to think about this. I will think and sleep on it, and on Monday I will take Bear in to the store and have them meet. All weekend, about every half hour, I changed my mind.
- I really want this dog, and it seems to be "THE" dog that I am looking for
- I really don't want Scott to miss the puppy stage (not the poop, but the cuteness), and I want him to feel like he was a part of this
- Bear really needs a friend because I just don't really make good friend material these days
- What if Bear eats it?
- I've looked at every add for months, and have not found another dog with this personality and size, and it may not present itself again soon
- I don't want Scott to come home and have to meet our new dog. It doesn't seem fair
AND THEN AGAIN - What if Bear eats it?

So today, I finally decide - OK, I'm getting it. If Bear and "daisy" get along, I will bring it home and it won't be bad. I finished work up early, and even decided to shower before 5pm. I then called the store, and they said she was sold on Sunday.
Of course - that is how my life works. Always.

As much as I like to say I am done looking - you know I will not stop. I'm addicted to the Pets section in the classifieds. SAD - I KNOW.

And they are off

Today was hard, but not as hard as yesterday. Watching Scott pack and knowing that this was his last day here was really tough for me, and I found myself moping around and tearing up a lot. As much as I wanted to be in a good mood, it was hard to be in a good mood knowing that the countdown was coming to an end. We ate such fatty and horrible things all weekend - but my consolation was that this was our last In N'Out burger together, our last pizza together, our last Hawaiian plate lunch together - before he left!

This morning we got up bright and early, and I drove Scott to base where they loaded buses to take them to Riverside to fly out. They are going through Maine, then Ireland, then into Iraq. It was kind of nice seeing all the families and the dogs out there, and sad to see some of them with no one there to see them off. I held up ok, I think. I figure: Scott takes such good care of me and doesn't let me get into stupid situations, that I know he's going to take care of everyone and himself out there. I just hope the time goes by quickly and they return with the same enthusiasm that some of them had as they boarded the bus. There were a few that were not deploying for some reason or another, and I was surprised to see how emotional they were to say goodbye to their team and not be there with them. It's not all relief when you find out you can't go - I guess. I wonder if they feel like me - saying goodbye to someone that you see day in and out and the mystery of what life has in store for you without them.

We had a good weekend though - We started it off by going to Roy's Restaurant (Hawaiian Fusion) in La Jolla. The meal was amazing, probably the best meal I have had since we moved here. We are going to have to keep this place in mind and try it out on special occassions. On Saturday, Scott did some repair work and cleaned out the garage. I can finally park my car in the garage - woohoo! We BBQ'd our last steak - no way am I grilling on my own, I'm sure I would set the dog on fire. On Sunday, we took the dog for a bath at Petco, saw an adorable Chia Rat (Chihuahua/Rat Terrier) which may become a part of this family in the next couple of weeks, and went out to dinner with my folks. Monday night was spend with Scott on the phone with his entire family and friends, call after call after call....

I forgot to mention that we saw Eric, Billy and Amy on Thursday night in Laguna Beach. It was nice to see them, and they wished Scott a safe and quick deployment. I think these are the friends that Scott is going to have for the rest of his life, no matter what county, state, or planet we all end up living in. It's nice to see him feel so at home with them. People you can just be goofy with.

Here are a couple of pics - one Scott took of me as he was packing with his 50 lbs. of gear, and one that was taken right before he got on the bus this morning.

Honey - I'm going to miss you like crazy - I love you.

What a week..

This week seems to be lasting forever, although many things have happened. It's a strange feeling.

We had a pretty chill weekend. We started out by getting together at our friend's house for a goodbye party to Virgil, who deploys to Iraq next week. But it really felt like a goodbye party for Kara, who left the following day for Spain. She is over there for a 4 month study program, and I am so jealous. On Sunday, we went to see my grandfather in the nursing home, and he didn't look good at all. We all knew he was in the last leg of his life, but it was a shock to me when my mom called and said that Grandpa passed away on Monday morning. All I could think of was - I am so glad that I got to see him the day before. And I hope he knew that we were there with him that day, if only to say goodbye.

My parents and I had made reservations to go whale watching on Tuesday, and we decided to still go. It was nice, and I would have been happy just getting out of the house and getting on a boat for a couple of hours. But we did see some whales, which was cool. These are the CA Grey Whales, and they are on their annual migration to Baja. We followed 2 whales for about an hour as they kept moving South.

I wanted to also attach an article that Scott sent to me. I know it sounds like something I would tear out of my Newsweek and force him to read, but he was the one who brought this home one day. I thought it was interesting and it's a good piece to spark conversation - I will allow ours to remain in our kitchen, only for Bear and the Cookie Monk to know what was said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,3682678.column?coll=la-util-op-ed

Happy New Year!

Wow - I have been keeping this blog for a whole year now. This year, I think I am going to use this more as a place to write to Scott, and keep him updated with the things that I am doing and thinking. I am going to write the things that pop into my mind, and the emotions that I am feeling - even if I know that Scott won't want to hear/read them. I would hope that he would feel comfortable telling me things that I know he wants to protect me from, and tell me things that I don't even want to hear - but I think I need to in order to keep myself sane while he is gone and keep things in perspective. Otherwise, I will become even more bitter than I currently am - and honey, I know you know the extent of my bitterness and I am really trying to keep those feelings at bay. I love you and as pissed off as I am at this situation, my love for you will not change.

Scott flew back to CA today (we were in DC this past weekend, more details to come in the next paragraphs), and for some reason it made me very sad to say goodbye to him. It's almost like every day that comes to an end is just one day closer to the time that he leaves. I'm going to have to work hard to not get down, and make the best of this next month. We might as well get this hurdle over, and move on with the rest of our lives which will hopefully not include any more time apart.

We had a great Christmas and New Years. We started the festivities on 12/23 with dinner at Aqua Al 2 (Thanks Kelli and Chris - the meal was amazing!) After dinner we went to the San Diego Civic Center to see The Lion King. What a great show, and it's neat how they stuck to the dialogue that was in the movie. The costumes were the best part - and seeing them all parade into the stadium onto the stage was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eves with my parents, with a whole lot of good food and quality time together. We then went Snowboarding at Big Bear on Christmas Day. Kinda strange to be out in snow (man made, of course) when it's warm enough to be out there in a T-shirt. We came home with lots of bruises.

On 12/30 we flew to upstate NY to spend a few days with Scott's family. There were 21 people in the house for 3 whole days - cozy, but fun. I can't believe how fast the kids are growing, and Megan is absolutely adorable. We took Jordan snowboarding, and she was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. Scott got really good, too - I guess it's just going to be me on the bunny slope next time. I need to work on my toe side - it intimidates me so much. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in NY, knowing that the next time they see Scott will most likely be this time next year. Of course there were tears, and Theresa also had to say goodbye to Mike as he heads to training until March in AL. We drove him to Bingamton on our way out of town - so it felt like we were stealing him from his family. We then went to DC for my cousin Mark's wedding - which was an entire weekend affair. The rehearsal dinner was on Fri, the wedding on Sat (which was beautiful and interesting, as it was a Jewish ceremony), and then brunch on Sun. I had not idea that Erica's dad was an NPR show host, of "All things considered". I am not an NPR junkie, but I am now very intruiged to listen to his show. He was very captivating to talk to, and thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. Of course, Scott was the popular guy at the wedding. Everyone wanted to talk to him about his work, his upcoming deployment, and of course tried to get him to talk about his opinions. You're captivating hon, face it!

This year, I am not going to make any resolutions. I have some good intentions, which I am not going to commit to writing, and will do my best to follow through with them. I think we have a lot of challenges this year to get through, without the added pressure of resolutions. But I am confident that at the end of this year, Scott and I will be a stonger couple, and hopefully better people individually as well. Happy 2006!

Meet Juanita Yoshida Zelesnikar

The other night, we went to Dave and Busters, the Chuck-E-Cheese for adults. I rock at the first person shoot em up games. I kicked Scott's butt on Ghost Machine and made it up the ranks so much faster than he did - ha! I need to buy one of these machines for our dream house.

There is another game in there called the Gene Machine. It takes pictures of 2 people and spits out what your kids will look like. This is kind of scary, but it was so much fun. Our friends (who are both very fair, and blondish) ended up having two children which they named Pedro and LaFonda. It's amazing how race has nothing to do with what your children will look like! We have fondly named our daugter Juanita Guadalupe Yoshida Zelesnikar. I'm just glad this child didn't get my egg shaped head - which I swear is not like that in person!

A little visit, and off to Sea World

Last weekend, Theresa and her family came to visit (Scott's sister). They are leaving their assignment in Hawaii and moving to upstate NY. I just can't imagine the shock their bodies will go through from living in Hawaii's climate for 3 years, to deplane into 6 inches of snow. I don't think I want to ever leave California after only 6 months here. I like having the option to go to cold weather and snow when you want it - not having Mother Nature force it upon you. We are planning on going snowboarding for Xmas - that's what I mean - go to it when you want it.

It was nice seeing everyone, and the kids gave Bear a full weekend. Actually, I think Bear behaved wonderful with the kids. He was so gentle and patient with then, even with the tail pulling, the teasing, and the occasional kick - which Jessica got in biiiiig trouble for. It's amazing how much I often say I hate the dog, I'm tired and frustrated with him - but when someone does something mean to my dog I go into protective mode. "DO NOT be mean to MY dog". But all my fears about how Bear will react with little kids have been alleviated. Once we break him completely of the jumping on people, he will be perfect with kids.

We went to Sea World on Saturday with everyone. It was a good day. Our only regret was waiting until the end of the day to get on the roller coaster, which got us completely soaked and frozen. We drove home in wet clothes. The neatest part of the park was being able to touch and pet the animals - like dolphins and sting rays. The shows were entertaining - here's a pic. I wish I went to Sea World as a 5 year old, and had the brains to look up the job posting for Sea World on the internet and base that on what I chose to major in school. I think I am going to push my kids to pursue their interests as careers very early on. Hmm, you like playing with legos, that's what architects do!

BNL is still the best

On Tuesday, Scott and I drove up to Santa Monica for Barenaked Ladies concert. It was the best BNL show I have ever been to (and this one makes 5, I think). The show was amazing - it was their Xmas concert. They did a lot of xmas songs, in the BNL style, of course - as well as some of their classic hits and one new song that is coming out shortly on the new album. These guys are just so much fun to watch live, and they had us both smiling and laughing throughout the whole thing. Once of these days, I would really like to be up front for one of their shows.

The opening band was a group called the LeeVee's. They were hilarious - they get together every holiday season and perform songs they have written about Hanukkah. We ended up buying one of their CDs as a present for a gift exchange we are doing some friends this week. The band then went out in to the hall and signed autographs, so she's getting a copy signed by 4 band members! That's a keeper! And it makes no sense, but we are exchanging Xmas gift this week with our Jewish friends. And this was their idea!! AND, Kara want to come over to help us decorate our Xmas tree!

While standing in line for autographs, guess who walked right by us and hung out waiting for her friend to come out of the bathroom? Tiffani Amber Thiessen!! Saved by the Bell, in person 2 feet away from us. I was kind of shocked that in the 10-15 minutes that we were standing next to her, no one said anything or approached her. Then again, neither did we. But that was kind of neat, right after Scott said during dinner "I wonder if we'll see anyone famous?".

And I really like the Santa Monica Civic Center. It was small, a great place to see a band perform. And we were able to park at the Center, walk down a few blocks onto Main Street where there were lots of little shops and places to eat. We then walked back to the Center for the show. It is neat how it is such a walking and small community, and it was 2 blocks from the beach. This beats driving to the metro, taking the metro to MCI, fighting the crowds and waiting in line for any type of food, and having seats so far away you only see the color of shirt the band members are wearing.

Overall, a great BNL experience - see you next year!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone - I wanted to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, and thank you for being such a huge part in our lives.

Here are some pics of the airshow that we went to down at Miramar (these are the Blue Angels, not the Hell's Angels as I always want to mistakenly call them), and really cute pic of the boys at Billy's wedding. The wedding was beautiful.

I'll write more soon - and Scott is finally getting back from 29 Palms next week. It'll be good to see him (I miss you, hon).

Welcome to the Kirby family

Ok - Yes, I am a sucker. Anytime an infomercial comes on TV, I always end up believing that this is the greatest product invented, and that I have to have one. Fortunately, my lack of motivation of actually picking up the phone and ordering something usually wins. Except for that one late, lonely night that I ended up ordering the Double CD set of 80's Monster Ballads - although it is a rockin' album.

Well, as cliche as this is going to sound, I had a vacuum salesman come to the door last week. Actually it was a woman, who said that they are doing a promotion and will vacuum and shampoo one room in my house for free. This is a promotion, and there is no obligation to buy anything - they just want to spread the word about their product and cleaning services. Then Joe, a really nice college guy looking to start his own business comes in and cleans the stairs. This vacuum is amazing!! In hind sight, amazing might be exaggerating a little, but it is a really good and multi-functional vacuum, shampooer, sweeper, and hardwood floor buffer. So 3 hours, a trip to go pick up Bear at the kennel, and $1600 later, I was welcomed to the Kirby brand family. Scott wasn't at all surprised when I told him I bought a vacuum (I have been eying the Dyson for months) but when he heard how much it cost - I could hear his eyes pop out of his head. Oh well, maybe this will be the motivation I need to try to have a sparkling clean house!

This darn PC

Ok - so when I bought this thing, I thought it was the coolest damn thing on earth. I would load all of my pictures on here, be able to edit videos that I take with the digital camcorder, store all of my MP3 files and learn to use my ipod... Endless possibilties, right?

Last week, the thing crashes. I am not doing a single thing - it' is basically just sitting there with the desktop up and no applicatons running. All of a sudden, I hear a pop and the thing turns off. Then it magically starts up again, then before Windows even boots up, it shuts itself off then starts back up again. I watch in horror as this cycle continues 5-6 more times. Then I turn it off, let it rest for a little bit, and try again. The cycle starts over.

I had to completely do a recovery on the harddrive, meaning that I lost all my pictures (which of course I deleted off my camera when I transfered them to the PC), and didn't have a back-up. Thanks to Brian who helped me find a way to get all the music that I had on the iPod back onto the PC - but still - I am pissed!

I have learned the lesson of backing up. The stupid eMachine didn't even do this in the 4 years that I owned it. Hmmmmmm....

Coronado - an island or peninsula?

This past weekend Scott and I decided to take a weekend for ourselves and have a little getaway. Scott was out in the field all week, and I was out most of the week in DC. We had to kennel the dog, and decided to let him stay the weekend and enjoy ourselves.

We went to Coronado Island for the weekend (which is really a peninsula). I cashed in tons of points and got us a nice room at the Marriott resort and spa for the weekend. It was right on the water (bay side, not beach side), and backed up to a trail that allowed us to walk along the water, walk to restaurants and bars, and a little shopping area. I booked us both appointments at the spa - thinking that Scott could use a massage after a strenuous and sleepless week in the field. Little did we know that the masseuse would be a large lady who liked to use elbows on his back. The poor thing looked more weary coming out of the massage than going into it!

All in all, a very nice weekend, and the dog got to spend a week at doggie camp. He was very well behaved the night we brought him home - but now he's back to his usual antics. We did get him into a 6 week group training course that starts this Saturday - so we'll see how that goes!

And they go round and round

I had another great time this trip back to DC (although the monthly meetings are starting to get old and pointless, and this flight is way too long to do every month). I came in a couple of days early to stay with Tricia, go to a Nascar race, see my family, and go out to dinner with friends. Other then the work stuff, it was a very productive coupel of days!

The Nascar race was in Dover, Delaware - the Monster Mile. Tricia was able to get great tickets, which allowed us to go into the pit area and our seats were in the suite. Nothing beats watching the race from an air conditioned room with free food and beer! So this Nascar experience was completely different from any other race I had been to. There was no tailgating, there was no paying $20 to park in someone's lawn and then walk a mile to the track, and there was no sitting in the sun wishing the race was 100 laps instead of 400. I still think the greatest part of the race is the flyover by the airforce planes. Another very neat part was being in pit row. We were there for the first part of the race, and were there when they yelled "start your engines"! We stayed there for about 20 laps or so, and got to see a tire change from right behind the stands.

Here are a couple of pics, and thanks to everyone for another great trip home (yes, VA is still what I call home).

So you wanna be a rock star?

Is anyone else addicted to Rock Star INXS? Scott and I are completely addicted, and we find ourselved having conversations about the show during dinner. Is this what married life is?

I do not want the show to end - what are we going to do on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednnesday nights now? We are going to have to fill the void with something productive, I guess.

Here are our thoughts on this - Scott and I actually agree:
Marty is going to be the big winner. (JD is too "fly by the seat of his pants", and Mig is too nice for them)
Jordis, Suzy, Mig and JD will all get record deals or start their own bands.
And honestly, if INXS chooses someone that they end up not liking or working well with, they can just fire them!

I do think Marty will win, but Mig is my favorite.

On to more practical topics! I am volunteering with our local humane society, and this past weekend we had a pet adoption at PetSmart. I was in charge of a little chihuahua mix, and he is so darn cute - I am tempted to adopt him myself. He is older - maybe 7-8 years old, but he is well trained and so cuddly. He sat on my lap in the car, and he seemed to really bond with me. He wouldn't walk with anyone else unless I was with them, and he kept looking up at me asking me to pick him up. There was one couple that was interested in him, and hopefully they go to the shelter and get him. Otherwise, maybe we'll take Bear and see how thy interact with each other. :-)

Labor Day weekend

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.
Here's a guick recap of what we did:
- we did not buy any more cars this weekend! yippee!
- we went to the "conert on the green". This is an annual orchestra concert at my parent's community. It was fun, and they played the exact same songs as last year. There was one song, that as they were ending I wispered to Scott "I think they are going to play Tomorrow from Annie next", and sure enough...
- we went to the San Diego Zoo. Scott says it was much more impressive when he was little, but we had a good time and it was nice to get out of the house and do some major walking
- we broke in our new patio fire pit. I love this thing. We took down the gazebo siding on our back patio, and now we have firewood for at least 5-6 burns :-)
- Bear got his first ride in the Xterra, when we took him to the dog park

Stay safe everyone - and I'll talk to you soon.

In fond memory of the F150

Well, we made another purchase and this one came much earlier than we expected. Scott and I have been talking about trading in his truck for an SUV since we moved out here. We were thinking that with the MINI, we needed a more practical car for the dog, especially since I would be driving it when he is deployed. A couple of weeks ago, I read a very good review of the 2005 Nissan Xterra, and we test drove one on Saturday. We went home liking it, said we would do some research and look into our finances, and the dealer would get back to us.

On Sunday, we decided to go see what the Nissan dealer down the street from us had in stock. We were just going to look. Well, we ended up going home to get the truck and have a trade in appraisal done, and then having the car that met the exact specs that we wanted brought up from the San Diego dealer's lot, and we went home driving our new Xterra.

We really like it - obviously. They have gotten so much bigger and sturdier than when they first came out. It's dark gray (called Knight Armor) and 4x4 with an Off Road package. The back is so cool, because there is no carpet and it wipes down easily, for muddy dog moments. There is a hidden storage compartment in the back, which is seamless, so we could even fill it with ice and keep our beverages back there :-)

Scott is going to dearly miss his F150, which has been good to him and brought us cross country. Who knows, we may see it again - apparently it is going to find it's way to TJ, Mexico and is going to be sold down there! I'll post a picture of the new car when I get a chance...

Mission AIRPORT, accomplished

I have drive to the airport and back, all by myself, and without rolling into any other cars. Mission accomplished.

I had to go back to DC for a work meeting this week, and I decided that I would try to drive the 40 miles to the airport myself, rather than take the shuttle that I have used the past 2 times. I was a little nervous, because I still don't feel like I know my way around, and because of the big hill I had to tackle on my way home from the airport.

I made it home - but I think I got lucky. I was fortunate to have a red light at the bottom of the hill, and when it finally turned green, I made it to the top of the hill for my next red light. So maybe I didn't achieve anything, but my mission was still accomplished!

PBR - no, not the malt liquor...

We've had the opportunity to do a couple of things these past 2 weeks.

First, we went to a Professional Bull Riding Tournament (PBR). It was actually lots of run, and this is so much more of a big deal to people than I thought. The one we went to was part of the PBR network, which is the national competition that is shown on TV. Everyone was decked out in their Western wear (hats and boots), and there were rodeo clowns and all. The overall winner of the night was the first to "ride" the bull in the bull's career, meaning that the bull threw every rider off and this was the first 8 second ride of his career. It was also neat to be a the DelMar racetrack, which is where Seabiscuit became famous. We need to get to a horse race one of these weekends.

Last weekend we finished off our bedroom (painting and putting the new furniture in), and treated ourselves to an evening out at the Carlsbad Art Festival. There were vendors selling art, photos, and other craftwork. Nothing really caught our eye, so we came home empty handed.

This past week, Scott was out in the field for a training excercise, and I had my first taste of being home alone with the Bear. He had his ups and downs, and Tuesday was the worst. I had to give him a bath twice that night beacuse he found a muddy hole with about 2 feet of water and tried to go "swimming". I also had a traumatic experience at the dentist that afternoon - 1 piece of advice, don't get a deep cleaning if you don't have to. It is miserable!

I've finally got some pictures to post! This new computer has taken me a while to actually break in. Here are pictures of my mini (which I am still thinking about putting bonnet stripes on), you can see the front of our house, and one of my silly husband!
Talk to you all soon.

Pirates - oh my

Friday, Scott cooked a wonderful meal for my first night back home from VA. Truly experimental, but it came out great - homemade guacamole, homemade pepper salsa, breaded pork, yum. The best part was the homemade (well, not the wine) sangria - I am addicted to this stuff!

Saturday, we went to see the Pirates of Penzance. We knew nothing about the play and what it was about, but the actors were very good and very funny. We saw it at a place called the Moonlight Theater, and they have shows all summer in the evenings in an outdoor ampitheater. It reminds me of a very small Wolf Trap. So we brought a bottle of wine and dinner, and sat on our blanket watching a play.

I'm glad we are finally going out and trying out some of the things this area has to offer. I am still feeling rather homesick and unsure about liking it out here, but we have our good days and our bad days. There is a bull riding rodeo this weekend that we need to check out!! yeehaw.