We're Back!

And we're in one piece! No unfortunate run-ins with lions, thank goodness. I'll tell more of the story as time goes on... for now I'm at home taking care of my body. I think I picked up a bug on the plane or something and have been ill in nearly every way in the last 24 hours. Today I got out of the house and went to the grocery as we had only peach flavored jello and who really likes peach? I'm feeling a bit better, though weak. I'll probably go back to work tomorrow. I went for two hours on Tuesday morning before losing my breakfast and heading home. I hate being sick.

Overall, Africa was amazing. To look out the window of the Landcruiser and see elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeasts, etc., was really neat. Unfortunately we took most of our pictures with our new little camera, which did not warn us that using the zoom feature makes the pictures turn out fuzzy. GRRR. So I'm waiting on the generosity of my family to send me their pictures and then I'll post some for you.

Ugh-- not feeling so well. Time for another nap. Love to you all!

November 17, 2006

I'm officially a freak of nature. I think I'm allergic to water. In the last few months my skin has become increasingly unhappy when it comes into contact with our water. Yes, we're on well water, but it's treated and filtered and not smelly or anything. A few months ago my hands started looking really dry. Fast forward to now and my hands puff up and get ultra super uber pruny whenever they get wet. Below is what happened after washing two or three dishes. Ugh.


This will be my last post for a few days. We leave for Africa tomorrow and will be back November 26th. In case we both become lion food, my life insurance policy goes to my sister. If she's lion food, too, it gets split between my mom and my dad. And I want to be cremated and sprinkled into Lake Michigan.

November 15, 2006

We've been cleaning things out in preparation for putting the house on the market. We recently cleaned out our bookshelves and I figured we'd sell the extras at our possible future garage sale. Brad had the genius idea of listing them on Amazon. We've made close to $50 on a handful of items that I would have put in a $1 bin! The only drawback is that we've had to dumpster-dive for clean cardboard, package up items in the evening, and stop by the post office in the mornings. This was my little load today.

Weird days lately

Brad and I have been getting up to walk sometimes. Now that we've turned the clocks back we actually have daylight at 6:30 a.m. and we enjoy that half hour together, touring the neighborhood and saying hello to the poor kids waiting for the schoolbus. On Monday we had the least relaxing walk I think we've ever had. We got about three houses down and a little dog ran out to jump on us and greet us. We looked at the guy in front of the house and he just shrugged his shoulders. That little dumb dog followed us for nearly our whole walk! The stupid thing kept running into traffic, making drivers slow down and glare at us. He peed on nearly every mailbox post and ran up to other dogs as if they were his friends. The big German shepherd was most certainly not his friend. We were so stressed that this stupid thing was going to get eaten or run over that we didn't really enjoy the time.

Then later, I stopped by the bagel shop I like to frequent. I've been in there half a dozen times, maybe every three or four weeks, for a sesame seed bagel with butter and a strawberry-orange juice. Delish. Well, the guy behind the counter has been getting more and more friendly. Three times ago he recognized me and said, "Hello! Haven't seen you in a while! What can I get for you?" How kind, I thought. Someone in this town knows me. Then two times ago he said, "Hello, beautiful! What can I get for you?" I blushed, I'm sure, not expecting this strong of a welcome, and ordered my bagel. Well, this time, on Monday, he said, "Hello, sexy! What can I get for you?" HA! I burst out laughing! After the stressful involuntary dog-walking just prior I was off my game and didn't expect that! Then he said the total was "Eight dollars because the person buying is very special. I hope her husband says she's special." I told him he'd better not say those things to me or my husband was going to get mad. And then I laughed and left. I called Brad to give him a laugh... but he didn't laugh. He just said, "I want to kick that guy's ass." What a morning!

Then yesterday I woke up and my big toe was bothering me. It bothered me a few months ago-- felt like an ingrown nail, then broke open (eww, sorry), and then healed again. Then the other foot did it. Then the right foot did it again. This time I noticed the nail looked funny under the polish. I took off all my nail polish and notice that there was bleeding under the nail. Terrific. Brad has been telling me that I need to take care of this and I keep putting it off. So I decided to go to urgent care and get it operated on. Except that I got Dr. Flakyflake who reminded me a lot of Chevy Chase's wife in those vacation movies. She took a look at it, said I should soak it and maybe see a podiatrist, and left. All that amazing advice for a $50 copay. I called one of the podiatrists she recommended and I'll get it taken care of after the trip. "Will it explode on me in Africa?" I asked. "No, the blood isn't anything to worry about. It will probably fester a bit and will be ready to see a podiatrist when you get back," she answered.

Have I mentioned how much I don't like Florida? Qualified people are really hard to find.

This week is a four day work week for us as we're leaving on Friday for Africa. We fly out of Miami and will meet up with the family in London before going on to Nairobi. Although I'm sure this will be an amazing trip, I'm really not looking forward to the flying. I have a prescription for valium and I'll also be taking Dramamine-- and maybe Claritin if my allergies don't behave. The combo of the three will probably keep me pretty out of it. I hope. We'll be back on the 26th, the day before Brad's 35th birthday. We plan to spend the 27th asleep.

So back to that "I don't like Florida" thing. You already knew that, I'm sure. I don't speak too highly of my townfolk or statefolk for that matter. So Brad and I are pursuing a move to Columbus, Ohio. It's in the early stages of development and in order for it to happen God will have to perform miracles. But I've seen him do it before, so I don't doubt it can happen. We've been asking him to make a way for us to get out of here, and we're seeing some evidence of him making our paths straight. I'll fill you in as things get more sure. For now, we're spending our free moments organizing, cleaning out, touching up paint, etc. I've started another blog for the house and we plan to take pictures and then post the house on Craigslist in early December. The first step in moving is to sell our house-- once that happens we'll look for jobs, etc. If I could make the plans I'd like to leave in early April. Mom has a flight down here for a week in March and I want to spend that time with her. Plus, after enduring a hot summer I feel I've earned one more warm winter.

So that's where things stand, friends. We feel quite swirly but also feel emotionally stable despite the imminent changes. Pray for us if you think of it-- for God to have his way in our lives.

And have a happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble!

November 14, 2006

We got to enjoy this sunrise on our morning walk. My favorite part of this pic is the silhouette of the palm tree. Sorry about the omnipresent power poles... kinds of detracts from the romance of the view.

November 13, 2006

Another morning walk = another amazing sunrise. I'm getting addicted to these.

And from the files of You Might Live In Hillbilly Country If...

...your neighbors fix their broken mailbox post with freaking duct tape.

November 12, 2006

Today we both woke up with lots of drive. Since we're trying to get the house in pristine shape we listened to a sermon online - Steve Nicholson on Simplicity, awesome-- and then worked like busy bees in the house all day. I reorganized our closet, which is a bigger job than one would think given my bad habit of entropy. Brad worked in the garage organizing tools and screws and all things like that. We also replaced the seat of my vanity bench. I've been just living with a big hole in the seat for, oh, like five years. Yeah, it's been a bit uncomfortable but I only sit there for a little bit in the morning and it encourages me to get up and get on with things. It's nice to have that fixed.

By evening we needed to get out of the house so we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then got shakes at Steak and Shake. The Altima needed gasoline so we got a carwash, too. We purchased the least expensive wash but the thing wouldn't work. We drove around and Brad went inside to inquire--- he was told that the least expensive wash was broken, but that we could get the next step up and they would pay the extra dollar. We did that. But it's all the same wash, so how is it broken, exactly? Puzzling. Anyway, the pic of the day is the view of the windshield in the carwash.

November 11, 2006

Today we visited the new Bass Pro Shop-- a really big deal around here. I heard there were more than 6,000 people at the grand opening. Here's Brad kissing a fish in their giant fish tank.


I appreciated the kitchen-y section. They had a whole display of food with ass in the name-- Kick Yo' Ass barbecue sauce, Ass-Kickin Spicy Peanuts, you name it.


This was after we had dinner at a new pizza place with Ralph and Chris. It's called Aurelio's or something like that and was started in Homewood, IL. I read it has won awards for best pizza in Chicago in a few newspapers and magazines. We decided we didn't really like it-- blah sauce and way too much cheese. It kind of kicked our asses later on. But it was fun to have dinner with Ralph and Chris. We talked a little about our plans to move. That part was hard. But they understand our desire to get out of here and are supportive and wonderful as usual.

November 10, 2006

Ooo- bad pic. It's the Outback Steakhouse blimp which flew? hovered? floated? over Fort Myers for the day.

November 9, 2006

We got a new digital camera at work, on my suggestion. My sister needed a new one in time for our trip to Africa next week, so I had done the research to help her out. I suggested a particular Sony 6 megapixel little number so my boss said to buy it. It arrived and I've been playing with it. Here's my office:


Here's me. I took about 47 pictures of myself. Because when one's boss tells them to learn to use the camera, it can't be done with less than 47 self-portraits.


And then when I got home, there was a surprise! They paved our street! Just yesterday on our walk Brad asked, "Why don't we get a paved road? We're important!" And then, poof, we have a paved road today!

November 8, 2006

We woke up early and went for a walk as we're trying to get ourselves in better shape. This morning there was a lovely sunrise over the foggy land.

November 7, 2006

So I thought I'd make a curtain for our bathroom window. For the last year we've had a small tension rod inside a pillow case covering most of the window, but it's time for a step up. I was a bit too tired to get all sew-y so I just put up the curtain rod. But I had a bit of energy left so I thought I'd try to be clever. So I used an old white towel thinking terry cloth could be cute...


Hmmm. Didn't turn out as clever-looking as I hoped. Looks more like... didn't have a curtain so put up an old towel... darn.

Confessions of a Cold Weather Lover

Dear L.L. Bean Catalogue,

Why do you insist on taunting me so? Your fleece half-zip pullovers, your corduroy pants, your neoprene-cuffed boots in numerous outfit-matching colors... they tug at my heart, beckoning me away to cooler weather when you know perfectly well I am stuck in hot Florida where their once-a-year-snow is actually soap suds sprayed from a dispenser-fan contraption mounted on a street light.

Now, you may have sent me some of the cooler weather we've been having just to appease me and keep me sane. If your intentions were noble, then I thank you. But maybe you've done that to remind me of what autumn feels like? Oh, you little... Your colorful pages inspire me to boil water for cocoa or tea, inspire me to buy canned pumpkin for bread or pie, inspire me to pull down my wool sweaters from the top shelf of the closet and cozy up on the couch with a fleece throw... but you know that I am stinking hot when I drink hot beverages, bread doesn't bake correctly here because of humidity? sea-level?, and I stick to the couch when I'm on it for more than five minutes.

I don't know how much longer I can take this game you're playing. I may have to cancel you altogether and forego the gadget joy you bring my husband. My heart can hardly take it.

Sincerely,

Kathleen

November 6, 2006

Today when I got home I had a very fun sight. See, with my birthday money I ordered some fun things for myself. And they've been arriving bit by bit. I got an electric teakettle with the money from my mom. And a huge, really nice body pillow and case with money from my dad. And a new CD featuring my former roommate, also known as the woman who sang me down the aisle at our wedding. She was part of the latest Club Vineyard worship cd, and if you ask me, she just rocks. I love her voice.

Anyway, today I came home and there was a big box-- my body pillow!!! And a smaller package... a surprise calendar from my mom! Thanks, Mom! It's a Susan Branch calendar-- we both like her cute designs and have enjoyed her calendars in the past, but she hasn't made one for a few years. This year she did, and Mom got one and sent it to me!

November 5, 2006

Bethany's birthday was Sunday. We had a lovely lunch at Lonestar, capped off by a singing group of servers and a large sundae for the birthday girl. She'll most definitely beat me up for posting this.

November 4, 2006

This was our sunset tonight.

November 3, 2006

Friday was family night to celebrate Bethany's birthday coming up and mine as well. Here's baby Kaya, getting bigger all the time, and below is Kena enjoying her first marshmallow. She calls them arshmellows and Chase calls them smarshmellows. Too cute. Chris and Ralph had a weenie roast so we roasted marshmallows over the fire afterward.

November 3, 2006

I hit a low. See, this picture-a-day thing sounds like fun, but my life is really dull and not so picturesque right now. Sam and Erika suggested taking pictures of my "views"-- view from my desk, view from my window, etc., so I'll try that next. Until I get inspired or have some more excitement, I have to apologize. Tonight I went to sleep without taking a pic and remembered as I fell into that half-sleep state. So this is what I've got. I'm really sorry.

That pic I mentioned before

When we went to Boston I told you that Brad and I tried to recreate a certain moment, when my sis and I were on top of the mountain and she was being goofy... here it is. Scroll down if you like and you can compare it with the up-to-date version.

November 1, 2006

We've had quite a few frogs around lately. Little tiny bitty ones. This one is next to a dime in our driveway.

Happy Halloween

Little B and Chase stopped by for a visit. B was a princess fairy and Chase was Mr. Incredible.

October 30, 2006

Pic of the day: a lovely reminder that bugs are plentiful.

Morning Trip to Sanibel

Last Sunday we woke up and took off for a morning trip to Sanibel. We had originally planned to do it on my birthday but were derailed a bit. We had a great breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe - whole wheat blueberry pancakes for me-- yum!-- and eggs and a pancake for Brad-- and then we went shelling. We were going to go down by the lighthouse where there is parking but instead decided to head to the other end of the island, where Sanibel and Captiva meet. We walked around a bit before hitting the jackpot-- just over the rocks was a whole beach covered with shells, and I mean covered! We filled up our bucket in no time and came home for an afternoon nap. Here are some photos from our day:

The bridge is being reconstructed-- used to be a low-rider with a draw bridge, and now it will be a much taller one with no need for the draw bridge. The construction has been going on for at least a year now and who knows how much longer. It will be really nice when it's all done, I'm sure.


The shells were everywhere and at least a food deep. There were about a dozen people sitting around filling up buckets and bags!


By the way, there's also a beach there with a name we've heard before...

Picture Catch-Up

I came across a stack of pics that I keep meaning to post... here they are, in random order.

This one is of the chicken sandwich Brad made for me a few weeks back. He has been experimenting with the George Foreman grill, and quite successfully I might add. He marinates the chicken breast in soy while it defrosts in a ziploc bag in a bowl of water. Then he grills it, chops it up, and toasts the buns as well! Quite a delish dinner.


A few weekends ago we went to a wedding of two friends of ours. Kubby is the drummer at Summit, our old church, and he and Brad played really well together. We've met Karina a few times, the first was just before they got engaged. They're awesome people destined for an incredible marriage. Plus, the wedding was really fun. I wasn't sure how things would be since we just left the church, but instead of awkwardness it was great-- the folks we knew acted like nothing had changed, and it was great to catch up with them.


This is the bag I made for our Columbus trip in September. I'm proud of the flap-- makes it feel closed without zippers or closures. I'm also proud of the strap-- I even embellished it with green grosgrain ribbon, just to be extra cute. The underside of the flap is khaki fabric, and the lining is just plain white.

For one of our last small group meetings I made bite size chocolate chip cookies. We then took little scoops of vanilla ice cream (Breyers, of course) and made sandwiches out of them. On our new little saucer-size plates. Too cute.

We had leftover cookies so we brought some over to Beth and Rico's house. Kena gnawed on it for a while until the gummy goodness was all over her hands and face, and then shoved the whole thing in her cute little mouth.


For Ralph's birthday we all got together and had family night at Ralph and Chris's house. Here's a great shot of Ralph and all the grandkids:


Tis all for now.

Ahh, Florida Wildlife

Let's play SAT analogies.

Small bird on truck :: small poop on truck
Large bird on truck :: ____ ____ __ ____?

We've had just the nicest Saturday. We woke up lazily at 10:30 a.m. and started our day late. Actually, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and had to tell Brad my dreams, for some reason. They were in crazy amounts of detail-- I went back to high school but had forgotten to go to a class all semester and today was the big test. And the staircases didn't have sides to them, just stairs and no railings and I am scared of heights. And I also visited my friend Renee in there somewhere and found out she had miscarried, but she wasn't getting married until March and I got confused-- should I be sad for her or disappointed that they hadn't waited until the wedding? Renee actually is my friend and actually is getting married in March, and both she and her fiance Bruce are leaders in our church in Evanston and I'm pretty sure she's not pregnant and really it's none of my business... but it was just a weird dream. And I don't have plans to go back to high school... it all made no sense at all. So we went back to sleep.

Later we ate some orange rolls for breakfast and snooped around craigslist and ask.metafilter.com for a while. Someone posted a link to the This Old House website this week-- it's a slideshow of homeowner do-it-yourself fixes that are horrible and scary. We were talking over breakfast about this house in Westerville-- would we ever put in an offer without physically going through it? After seeing this slideshow we pretty much agreed that we'd like to see the house in person.

We took showers and put in some laundry, started Roomba in the bedroom and took off for the flea market. I have a friend who owns a carpet place there and she had some leftover laminate that she said we could have for our metal table top. We're refinishing a metal table (last time I EVER refinish metal) and the top used to be old linoleum or rubber or something. There's a lip on the edge that is just less than a quarter inch tall, so most plywood or paneling is a little too thick. We're exploring options now for the table top, and we found out the laminate is too think as well.

Then we went to lunch at Firehouse Subs. A few weeks back I had a realllly slow day at work, so I decided to search for free birthday clubs. I got a free Firehouse Sub today as well as a free Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, which is huge and rich and made me a little sick. The sub was awesome, though.

Now we're home and just vegging for a bit. Tonight we made plans with Josh and Shaina to go to Steak and Ale where they're having live jazz tonight. I haven't seen live music in way too long-- should be fun.

Love to you all!

T.G.I.G.

Occasionally Brad's schedule is open and we get to have lunch together. This particular Friday Brad was working at a client's in Naples, which just so happens to be the home of Gatsby's Pizza, our favorite pizza place down here. Brad generously offered to bring a pizza up to me at work and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Well, actually, they got the order just a little wrong and instead of "extra crispy" they thought he said "extra cheese" and it was a little weird. But still pretty good.


Thank Goodness It's Gatsby's!

(And I think Brad is enjoying this picture-a-day thing less than I am. Really not much happens on a daily basis and I end up scrounging for photo ideas... you'll be seeing a lot of Brad this year.)

A Typical Thursday Night

Every Thursday night Brad plays World of Warcraft with some friends from Ohio. They use Skype so they can talk while they play-- it has been one of the few things keeping Brad sane here. This time is pretty sacred-- no other plans can be made on Thursday nights a 9 p.m. I'm just lucky that The Office is on at 8:30...


If you look to the left you can see another monitor-- this is for the old computer we have that just hasn't found the strength to leave us yet. Brad also has a computer for work. When my sister came to visit last year she took one look at the room and said, "Welcome to the computer lab!"

When Brad plays I usually blog, or watch HGTV, or sew, or go to bed early, or cook, or talk on the phone. This week it was talk on the phone time, and I got to catch up with Susan, my former roommate. I'll post her blog in the sidebar. She was a great roommate and is a good friend and I miss her much. It was really good to catch up and hear how Colorado Springs is treating her, even if we got disconnected when the power went out, again, from the 6 inches of snow they got.

Runnin' on empty...

How I feel can best be described by the photo of the day.


I got in the car to come to work and the tank was on empty and the idiot light was on. After a long weekend away, my tank feels the same way.

By the way

...the picture for 10/23/06 was the one of all the pizza on the table... scroll down...

Mmmmm...tasty

Here's the pic for today: Brad eating a breakfast of champions at the Cincinnati airport... a huge Rice Krispy treat chased with chocolate milk.

They say my picture taking skills will improve with daily practice...

And P.S.-- thank you so much for identifying yourselves, dearest readers. Some of you are still unknown, but I've decided to be ok with that. I hope my little life stories bring a moment of diversion to you, and maybe a little smile. And maybe you feel a huge debt of gratitude since you get to read my private-ish thoughts and you want to send up a prayer for us for guidance. Yeah, that sounds good and manipulative. Eek. If you think of us, mention to God that we could use his attention. And I really want that cute red house in Ohio. But not until, like, April or May. Because it's finally getting comfortable here.