Thursday, September 27, 2007

we need an update

it seems that i have taken over the daily show with jon stuart. this blog no longer features me... i think i might change the name.. haha!! any suggestions?

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

school and shea

these past couple weeks have not allowed for much extracurricular activity. jon is pretty much always reading... sometimes he takes a break from reading to translate some greek (not my idea of a break!). he goes through a couple of books every week almost. i cannot sit still long enough to read like that. luckily his job at the library has some down times, and he can get some good reading in there while he is on the clock.

for me, this semester has been a lot more hands on and practical learning, which i really enjoy. although, it does wear me out. thursdays are my least favorite day for sure. we have clinical rounds starting at 7 am (so wake at 5 to get the bus at 6), then 4 hours of class, lunch in the car on the way to delmont crs (my clinical), which lasts from 1 to at least 7... sometimes later, then a 45 minute drive home, and i arrive hopefully before 8 pm. whew! thankfully jon has dinner ready when i get home, so we actually have a little down time together before i am in bed! tuesday is the same, except no clinical rounds (that extra hour really makes a difference!)

we are both home on mon, part of wed and fri afternoons, so we are really enjoying being at home together on those days!! we are usually too tired to get out and do much, but it is just nice to be at home!

our weekend outings have not been as eventful, but lots of fun none the less. last weekend we played tennis and grilled out with some friends from my school (vanessa and her friend catherine) on friday. saturday we got organized around the apartment, watched football, of course, and tried to study in between all that. late afternoon we decided to get out for awhile, and we strolled around schenley park. imagine starkville's sportsplex with a nice track around all the soccer fields and add an ice skating rink, a pool, some tennis courts, a frisbee golf course, and lots of wooded areas around with hiking/biking/running trails weaving in and out... it is pretty sweet! we lingered around the soccer fields to catch the end of a geezer league game. all their wives brought out coolers of drinks... just like our moms use to do for us in little league. the only difference is that our moms brought capri suns, and they were cooling off with a bud light.... hahaha!! it was quite a funny sight to see.

we have been studying up, so that we can take a lovely break from everything to welcome shea to pittsburgh!!!! we are pumped that he is coming saturday and staying until wednesday!!! it might get a little crazy... he might just want to move in!

i am going to visit jon at the library now... byebye

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

hello grill, good-bye chair

we would like to introduce you to our newest family member that we keep chained up outside on the porch!
it's the new grill!! early christmas present from the parents. our last apartment did not have a porch, so we never grilled. now we are making up for lost time and grilling quite often. it is GREAT... especially since it is about mid 60s here in the burgh. it makes me feel like i should go to a football game! whoo-hoo!


a screw here, a washer there... and BINGO! we have a grill.


jon is glad to have a big grill so he can try out his grilling man tools... haha!


i made yummy strawberry-lemonade slushies to celebrate the new grill.



jon was thinking twice about his decision to have a second helping of chicken when his bum busted right through the chair... HAHAHAHA!!! thank goodness someone stuck their gum in between the two poles holding the busted side together so it did not completely crumble. did you catch that... SOMEONE??? we have no idea how that gum got there. it had to be strategically placed in this spot to stay there. so SOMEONE had to crawl over the railing and on to our porch. they probably used to grill too while sitting in our chair. so tonight we would like to say good-bye to a chair that held many a bum while studying on the porch!

that is all for now.

e l i z a b e t h

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

promised pics

here is part two of the camping trip. i am ready to pack it up and go again!











jon did not know he was in this pic... haha. top right: bad lighting... that is the water pump where we pumped our arms off to get way a sorry excurse for clean water. we had water purification tablets, but i think i would have rather stuck them in the river. it was quite cloudy and spiked with some chunks every now and then, ya know to make it interesting.

bottom left: this pic of jon climbing does not do his effort justice. this was a very hard trail.
bottom right: i think we walked over a thousand of these little bridges. i was always excited to see one.


i like these parts of the trail. i am not a fan of the deep woods where you cannot see for miles and let the sun shine all around. this trail was mostly deep woods... that was my least favorite part.















this is a mushroom lovers trail for sure. i have never seen such awesome mushrooms. i became a little obsessed on the way back... making sure to capture them all for your enjoyment! the top one was huge! i tried to scale the size by the leaf, but i will clarify anyway. it was the size of my hand, with fingers spread out! yee haw!!! the rest of them were small but interesting none the less!

















we sat for a time out with only 2 miles to go. i managed to lure this lovely bug to climb on to my shirt. i can assure you this bug does not have a sense of smell. otherwise, he would not be near me after 12 miles, 2 days and no shower. i think he is quite attractive, so i made jon model him for the pic... haha!



thats a wrap.

e l i z a b e t h

p.s. i had lots of trouble getting the text and pictures aligned. they are taking on a position of their own after i publish the blog, so it is out of my hands.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Abby - Psalm 23





you have to watch this!!! watch it more than once... it gets better the more you see it. don't miss the drool... hahaha!


e l i z a b e t h

Thursday, September 6, 2007

take a hike



well, we had quite the adventure labor day weekend! we had a fun filled trip planned to hike and sleep on the trail and hike out the next day. sounds like a blast right?... being outside all weekend with BEAUTIFUL weather and nothing to do but relax. little did i know that jon, being the backpacking junkie that he is, selected a trail scoring 4 out of 5 on the difficulty scale. oh boy, were we in for it.

i must say it was fun but we were really, really sore. after hiking straight up hill or straight down hill (i think up is better or my toes like it better anyway) for 7 miles into the trail shelter, we were drained. we found ourselves deep in the woods on the laurel ridge trail. there were adarondak style shelters scattered through the camp area, but they were far enough apart that you did not know the others were even there. first thing, we set up the tent. the second it was done, we were in it for a nap!

we woke up and decided it would be nice to eat dinner by a fire since it gets a little cool at sun set. each shelter had its own fireplace. so jon was in charge of keeping the flame going... blowing on it and using a whole book of matches was his strategy. meanwhile, i am running around camp like a crazy lady looking for stuff to catch on fire. i was good at finding very flammable items! we had a little trouble starting the fire because the chimney looked like it had not been clean since it was built. anyway... with our efforts combined we did it! next, was cooking our mre's. those things are delicious, and you just never know what kind of goodies you will find in there. if you ever have a chance to eat one, you should not pass up the opportunity. cooking them is like a magic trick. i just love everything about them!!!

after all that fun, it was easy to fall asleep. however, we were not excited about doing it all over again the next day because we were already hurting from the first 7 miles! to our surprise we felt really good the next morning. a lovely poptart breakfast, a quick pack, and we were off again. it was better the second day, until we got to the last mile of the trail. we had forgotten that we hiked straight down hill on the way for a whole mile, so the return trip was up and up and up! it was not fun to climb and see no end to the upward journey. we were very excited and proud to see the trail head once again!

here are some of the pics...







this was a really cool view point about 2 miles into the trail. jon's shirt is glowing, haha!












this red bug is pretty













this is my favorite!








yay for 6 miles!















the shelter








lots more pics. stay tuned.


e l i z a b e t h

Monday, September 3, 2007

a little teaser

below is a little teaser pic from our 14-mile backpacking trip this weekend. it is great to finally live near mountains! more details to come...



cheers,
jw

the secret of their freshness

we finally discovered the secret of krispy kreme's fresh, delicious donuts. they have unlocked the mystery of time travel!! examine exhibit a:



look closely at the date on my watch. it is correctly showing that it is the 17th of august. now, look closely at the date on the package. that is actually labeled "8/18/07." that is not a sell by date. it is a packaged on date. if you notice the top of the label reads, "delivered fresh." yeah, i'll say! the donuts were made the day after they were sold. i don't know how they do it, but it is very interesting. very interesting, indeed. maybe even more amazing is that these donuts have been reduced in price like they are old. imagine that? they were made tomorrow, but they have already been reduced to sell like they should have been sold yesterday.

all i can say is, "keep it up krispy kreme!"

cheers,
jw