Alan and I headed out on Monday around noon for our long drive to California. It's only Wednesday and that leg of the trip seems like forever ago. We got to Denver around 8 p.m. where we stopped at Alan's aunt's and grandma's house. We don't get to see them very often, so it was nice to be able to visit and stay the night. After a quick breakfast the next morning, we started out on the second leg of our trip. From Denver we headed north up to Cheyenne and then headed west. Wyoming is a really beautiful part of the country. Rolling hills and mountains off in the distance. In Wyoming, we stopped in Buford, which has to be the smallest town in the United States. Population 2. It consisted of a gas station and a house, where I assume the two live. Cracked us up.
It was another 8 hours to Salt Lake City, where Alan's cousin, his wife and their two kids greeted us. We went to Michael's little league baseball game and had a wonderful dinner. It was a great break from driving, and we welcomed a home-cooked meal. This morning we were up at the crack of dawn for the last leg of our trip. We drove through Utah and got to see Salt Lake. It was really pretty...and salty. It smelled like the ocean. Just west of that were the Salt Flats, which are fields of salt that look like snow. It was really cool. They have warnings posted on the side of the roads to beware of drowsiness because it's such monotonous, white terrain. I quickly fell victim to the flats, and slept through most of them.
Nevada is a desolate state. As soon as you cross the border you're greeted with casinos. Casinos, desert and scrubby mountains are all you see until you are in the very western part of the state. We hit Reno and shortly thereafter crossed the border to California where we decided to take a scenic route and drive along Lake Tahoe. It was an amazing drive. The lake is gorgeous and the drive itself is a lot like being in Colorado. It's very mountainous and just beautiful. It was a great detour, even though by the end of the drive Alan's hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard. After that drive, we decided to hit a hotel and stay the night, so we're currently in Folsom, CA. We'll only have a short drive tomorrow before we reach our destination and try to find a home. Wish us luck!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Full Nest
My mom is the greatest. She went from having a peaceful, clean house to having it invaded by Alan, Marti, me and EVERYTHING we own. All of our possessions have taken over the garage, and we have our more immediate necessities (luggage, toiletries, computers, clothes) taking over the rest of the house.
My workspace is a mess, mostly because we have a ginormous computer and we’re taking over the desk space with it and piles of my work junk. I didn’t put much effort into setting myself up very well because we’ll just be tearing it down and heading out soon anyways. I’m sure I can get through two more workdays in this mess:
If you look closely at the screen on the left you can see that I have my mom's monitor pulled up to the panda cam. I am truly so busy at my new job that I don't have time to hassle with the cam like I used to, but I figured while I had two screens available I might as well get my Mei Lan fix.
We moved out of our apartment on Saturday, and because Alan has a few more days of work to finish up at KU, we’re hanging out in Topeka for about a week. A good part is that when we drive out on Monday, our drive is about 30 minutes shorter than it would have been had we left from Lawrence! Although…doesn’t make much of a difference considering we’ll be driving for 24 hours.
We’ve been really busy over the last week though, which I think is a nice distraction from the chaos and the impending goodbyes we have coming. We celebrated all weekend after Alan defended his dissertation and officially became Dr. Whitehead (which truly deserves a blog of its own, but he’d be embarrassed). And so far this week we’ve been driving all over the place, hanging out with friends and family, trying to squeeze more time in. I’m looking forward to celebrating my brother’s birthday tonight in Topeka and not having to drive anywhere.
My workspace is a mess, mostly because we have a ginormous computer and we’re taking over the desk space with it and piles of my work junk. I didn’t put much effort into setting myself up very well because we’ll just be tearing it down and heading out soon anyways. I’m sure I can get through two more workdays in this mess:
If you look closely at the screen on the left you can see that I have my mom's monitor pulled up to the panda cam. I am truly so busy at my new job that I don't have time to hassle with the cam like I used to, but I figured while I had two screens available I might as well get my Mei Lan fix.
We moved out of our apartment on Saturday, and because Alan has a few more days of work to finish up at KU, we’re hanging out in Topeka for about a week. A good part is that when we drive out on Monday, our drive is about 30 minutes shorter than it would have been had we left from Lawrence! Although…doesn’t make much of a difference considering we’ll be driving for 24 hours.
We’ve been really busy over the last week though, which I think is a nice distraction from the chaos and the impending goodbyes we have coming. We celebrated all weekend after Alan defended his dissertation and officially became Dr. Whitehead (which truly deserves a blog of its own, but he’d be embarrassed). And so far this week we’ve been driving all over the place, hanging out with friends and family, trying to squeeze more time in. I’m looking forward to celebrating my brother’s birthday tonight in Topeka and not having to drive anywhere.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Alan Loves Marti
Before I got married, my mom told me that I had a lifetime of laughs ahead of me with Alan. I knew it was true, but in the last week, he has cracked me up more than usual. Maybe it’s because he hit 30, maybe it’s because of his soon-to-be-Ph.D status, maybe it’s because we’ve both been home a lot. Whatever the reason, I had to share a few of the laughs with everyone.
His birthday night began with him finishing up his dissertation. A very happy Alan:
A few drinks and a cupcake later:
During a movie, I fell asleep. Alan woke me up so I could take a picture of him and Marti...
…because his attempts at taking pictures of himself and Marti were unsuccessful:
The next day, I clicked through the camera to find about five versions of this hilarious picture:
I’d been asleep, so I had no idea that Alan was snapping all of these pictures.
Other funnies: After taking Marti out at the crack of dawn one morning, I came back to bed to find Alan sleeping with his head at the foot of the bed. After making him flip back around, I found out that when he’d come to bed the night before he went to say hi to Marti at the foot of the bed and fell asleep. I don't know which is worse: him falling asleep upside down, or me not noticing I'd been snuggling feet all night.
Being at home, I’ve also noticed that Alan can sleep through the alarm like a champion. I thought for the longest time that he was just a snoozer. Nope. He honestly doesn’t hear the alarm. It can go off for 5, 10, 20 minutes without him even blinking. Each morning I have to take a mid-morning break to make him hit the snooze.
His birthday night began with him finishing up his dissertation. A very happy Alan:
A few drinks and a cupcake later:
During a movie, I fell asleep. Alan woke me up so I could take a picture of him and Marti...
…because his attempts at taking pictures of himself and Marti were unsuccessful:
The next day, I clicked through the camera to find about five versions of this hilarious picture:
I’d been asleep, so I had no idea that Alan was snapping all of these pictures.
Other funnies: After taking Marti out at the crack of dawn one morning, I came back to bed to find Alan sleeping with his head at the foot of the bed. After making him flip back around, I found out that when he’d come to bed the night before he went to say hi to Marti at the foot of the bed and fell asleep. I don't know which is worse: him falling asleep upside down, or me not noticing I'd been snuggling feet all night.
Being at home, I’ve also noticed that Alan can sleep through the alarm like a champion. I thought for the longest time that he was just a snoozer. Nope. He honestly doesn’t hear the alarm. It can go off for 5, 10, 20 minutes without him even blinking. Each morning I have to take a mid-morning break to make him hit the snooze.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Puppies and Babies, Oh My!
It’s definitely not fair to call Kenny a baby anymore because he is definitely in the Big Boy category these days. Yesterday I had the good fortune to be able to baby sit for him during the day, which was a blast. As long as he’s got Thomas the Train, he is good to go for hours. He’s now at the stage where he’ll quietly play with his trains, moving them along, but then they have to have the big CRASH. He played with our alphabet refrigerator magnets, lined them up perfectly, and then knocked them all off with a big CRASH. It seems that everything ends with a big crash. Or at least with a big “All done!” when we finished with a book.
Marti, of course, was super excited to have a little friend over for the day. Kenny at first was not so excited about her. She’s a little over zealous for his taste, and she wanted to be involved in everything from his trains (“No no!”) to his juice (“No Mar-ee”). This little pug doesn’t take no for an answer.
When nap time came, I wanted him to sleep with the door cracked so I could peak in on him every now and then. I tried to put Marti in her cage so I could keep the door open, but the nap-time crying made her nervous and she was barking and clawing at the cage. So I put a kitchen chair up against the door to keep Marti away. After he stopped crying, I came in and settled down at the computer. Not a minute later, I heard the door creaking open. MARTI! I run in to try to wrangle her as quietly as possible, but wasn’t able to catch her before she managed to jump onto the bed and wake him up. The crying began, but then ended about 5 seconds later as he passed back out. Phew!
So, I had to build the Kenny Barricade for the remainder of his nap. You laugh, but trust me, the chairs alone are not enough to keep a determined pug out.
She even tried to get past all of this nonsense. The moment before this photo was snapped she had her face through one of the pillows and had her pug tail sticking up in the air.
But after nap time it was all fun again, as we watched Thomas and Friends for the fifth time (I now understand the “Continuous Play” feature on the DVDs), read his Thomas books, and even found the Thomas and Friends website. He even warmed up to Marti by the end of the day and helped me play tug of war with her, and threw her toys for her to fetch.
I know I had fun. I wonder if Kenny enjoyed it?
Marti, of course, was super excited to have a little friend over for the day. Kenny at first was not so excited about her. She’s a little over zealous for his taste, and she wanted to be involved in everything from his trains (“No no!”) to his juice (“No Mar-ee”). This little pug doesn’t take no for an answer.
When nap time came, I wanted him to sleep with the door cracked so I could peak in on him every now and then. I tried to put Marti in her cage so I could keep the door open, but the nap-time crying made her nervous and she was barking and clawing at the cage. So I put a kitchen chair up against the door to keep Marti away. After he stopped crying, I came in and settled down at the computer. Not a minute later, I heard the door creaking open. MARTI! I run in to try to wrangle her as quietly as possible, but wasn’t able to catch her before she managed to jump onto the bed and wake him up. The crying began, but then ended about 5 seconds later as he passed back out. Phew!
So, I had to build the Kenny Barricade for the remainder of his nap. You laugh, but trust me, the chairs alone are not enough to keep a determined pug out.
She even tried to get past all of this nonsense. The moment before this photo was snapped she had her face through one of the pillows and had her pug tail sticking up in the air.
But after nap time it was all fun again, as we watched Thomas and Friends for the fifth time (I now understand the “Continuous Play” feature on the DVDs), read his Thomas books, and even found the Thomas and Friends website. He even warmed up to Marti by the end of the day and helped me play tug of war with her, and threw her toys for her to fetch.
I know I had fun. I wonder if Kenny enjoyed it?
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Going Vertical
I have a problem with multiple-photo picture frames. They allow you to showcase a variety of pictures, but they always include one or two vertical images. And I never take vertical pictures. And we all know that Alan never takes vertical pictures. In fact, Alan never takes pictures at all. I just yelled at him last week for his photographic negligence when this was the only image I had to send for the Contacts page for my new magazine:
That's the only image I have where I’m not hugging someone or Marti. As Alan and I were discussing his neglect, I had to force him to snap this picture:
But I digress. The point of this post is that at a recent wedding, we were able to get a quality photo. Behold, the ever-elusive vertical shot:
That's the only image I have where I’m not hugging someone or Marti. As Alan and I were discussing his neglect, I had to force him to snap this picture:
But I digress. The point of this post is that at a recent wedding, we were able to get a quality photo. Behold, the ever-elusive vertical shot:
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