Friday Quick Hits

I'm in a chipper mood this morning... maybe it's all the awesome stuff coming up?  I don't know.  But I was just browsing the news and since no one else is at work yet I needed to make a couple comments about some stories I came across and, GUESS WHAT!  You get to be my coffee chat partner. :)

• How awesome must it be to be LeBron James?  Or really, how ridiculous?  I don't watch NBA basketball, but I saw him on some Dateline show or something so I sort of pay attention to whether or not the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing well or not.  Heard on the radio this morning that they won last night, putting them down one game in their semi-finals series with the Orlando Magic.  And then CNN gives me this story, which says that for 11 minutes and 32 seconds, *every* Cavaliers point was either scored by him or through an assist by him.  What.  In.  The.  Hell.  32 points.  And I love this paragraph... where it says he looks tired.  Ya think?  "When my guys make shots, it makes it a lot easier because it allows me to go one-on-one with a defender,'' said James, looking tired after his triple-double of 37 points (on 24 shots), 14 rebounds and 12 assists in 46 minutes. "That's what I need from my guys. I don't add no more pressure on my teammates, but they know we're a very strong team when they knock down shots.''

• I totally need to use laodicean in a sentence today.  I love the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but I was too entranced by So You Think You Can Dance last night to watch it.  Still, in tribute, I *will* find a way to work that word into a sentence today.  It means lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics and religion.  I know some people like that, so shouldn't be too hard to sneak it in. :)  Congrats to Kavya Shivashankar, the 13-year-old winner!  
  

• Finally, this headline made me very, very happy.  Rihanna to testify in Chris Brown hearing, lawyer says.
  

Memorial Day View

So that's what my view was like for most of Memorial Day. :)

A few weeks ago, we bought a new toy. It's a 2006 Honda Goldwing motorcycle... or Bryan's "other wife" as one of his co-workers called it. While it mostly is something Bryan wanted, I actually really enjoy it too. Especially because the back seat is heated and unexpectedly comfortable. I wasn't able to post about it because Bryan's parents sometimes read my blog and he wanted to surprise them with it by us taking it up to visit them over Memorial Day, which we did. Bryan's dad had kind of figured that he'd bought a bike, because he knew Bryan was looking, but of course he didn't know for sure and didn't know what he'd get. When we arrived Friday night, his parents were asleep, and, knowing they'd be up before us, Bryan stuck a sign he'd made on the windshield that said "Happy Birthday, Bryan." His dad one-upped him by crossing out Bryan and writing DAD instead. :)

So anyway, most of the weekend was spent on the bike. Saturday we took a Klinger family ride, with Jan and Gary on one bike, Bryan and I on ours, and Bryan's brother Kevin and his daughter Katrina on another. We drove up to Lake Whompumupsidedahead (aka Lake Wallenpaupack, or something? I never could get it right, and Whompumupsidedahead really sounds about the same) to meet Kevin's new lady friend, who was there with her kids. The ride and visit were nice, as was Donna, but her damn dog BIT ME! She has two little yorkies, and even though I had been petting one of them in the house, I went to the bike to get something, and when I came back to the porch, he decided I was a stranger, and proceeded to jump and yip and generally freak out. In the process, the little punk chomped my knee straight through my jeans! I now have a half-dollar size bruise to show for it. Normally I love dogs, but this one really pissed me off. :)

Sunday we went to the extended Klinger family picnic, where I basically sat and ate all day while Bryan ate and worked it off playing volleyball. :) I get along well with my in-laws, so it was nice to see everyone again. Especially my adorable niece, Allie:


And then, Monday, more motorcycle riding. We had a nice ride home, in spite of running into a couple little rainshowers. I decided that rain on a motorcycle is a lot like turbulence on an airplane: a lot of it can be extremely uncomfortable, but a little bit just makes the ride more interesting. :)

A Stitchin' Time, Part 1: The Buy-In

I mentioned a while back that I've been taking a quilting class with my Grandma. Well, I have been meaning to tell you all about it, but I'll be damned if I've had any time to WRITE about it--I don't even have enough time to do all my quilting homework! Ironically, the lady who teaches the class suggested we keep a quilt diary, where we journal our quilting experience and what goes on while we're making our quilt. Uh, yeah, lady, I'm too busy cutting/sewing/measuring/quilting to do that.

But, let's begin. And what better place to start than the beginning, right?

So for Christmas, my gift to my Grandma was for us to go to a beading class together at Bangles and Beads in Carytown (which we did, and enjoyed, but, again, too busy quilting--no time for beads!). After she opened it, she asked me if I'd ever be interested in doing a quilting class. I said, sure, why not? It meant more time with my Grandma, and it meant I would finally learn how to sew something, a skill I did not have in my domestic arsenal.

My family is from Chester, and right in the heart of Downtown Chester there's a store called the Busy Bea. It's a quilt shop, and they teach all sorts of quilting classes (if you aren't a quilter, you would not BELIEVE how many different types of quilts there are). So I called them up, and Grandma and I got registered for the class. Class was starting the week after Bryan and I returned from our Valentine's Day cruise, and Ms. Bea, the owner, told me that Grandma and I would need to come in and pick out our fabrics before the first class. It was kind of hard to find a time to go, since Grandma doesn't drive and I have to work and the place keeps banker's hours, but we made it down there the Thursday before our first class.

I think Grandma and I both were thinking we'd be there for, what, an hour, maybe two? I think we were there for three and a half hours. Holy crap, it is STRESSFUL trying to pick EIGHT DIFFERENT PRINTS that go together in this thing you're supposed to have for the rest of your life and pass on to your children, who will pass it on to their children, and so on and so forth. What made it even MORE stressful was that Ms. Bea was very opinionated on the matter.

A brief word on Ms. Bea. Ms. Bea opened the Busy Bea something like 30 years ago, and just Monday she turned 85 years old. She is still sassy and knows her quilts, but she likes to talk. And not necessarily about the topic at hand. This tendency often extends the amount of time any given task takes at the Busy Bea. Not that you don't want to hear what she has to say, just that sometimes she has a lot of it to say, and you still haven't gotten done what you wanted to do...

So anyway, Ms. Bea sent her daughter Cathy off to the bank while Grandma and I floundered around the shop trying to figure out what kind of quilt we intended to make. We started gathering bolts of fabric, and Ms. Bea would give us the ol' "That doesn't match!" every so often. Finally, thank God, Cathy came back and whipped us right into shape, and in what felt like no time, we had 11 bolts of fabric each: 4 light patterns, 4 dark patterns, the stripping (the main color of the quilt), the accent solid, and the muslin.

Excellent! Now we were ready for class on Monday!

Except, not so fast. We were to take home all, like, 50 yards of fabric and put each piece through the washing machine with NO SOAP (big letters), then pull each piece out wet and iron it dry. Then we were to gently fold and HANG IT on pants hangers so there would be no creases. If parts of the fabric dried before we could get to them with the iron, we had to have a spray bottle full of water--NO WATER IN THE IRON--and re-wet it and then iron it.

I should have known when I spent about six hours ironing on the Sunday before our first class and didn't even finish all of my fabric that this class was going to be very time consuming...

Hello, Baltimore.

I'm in Baltimore for a conference. The company is good and there's lots of crab involved. I am a happy girl. :)

Sisterly Love

So, my little sister came to visit over the weekend. We had talked about her coming for her spring break, but since that fell over Easter, her dad nixed that idea for various reasons that reinforce the reasons he is on my short list of "people I really, truly do not like at all" but that I won't get into now because, well, I just won't.

Victoria came down Thursday evening after her soccer game. Friday, we went to visit Christopher Newport University, where she'll be spending the next four years. I had never been there, and was impressed! It was ranked #7 of up-and-coming public universities by US News and World Report last year, and they've done lots of renovations, so everything is sparkly new. Definitely different from the "traditional" accommodations at UVA. :) I really think she's going to like it there, and I keep trying to pretend that it's not totally weird that she's old enough to be going off to college. ;-)

After the college tour, we stopped in Williamsburg for a little retail therapy at the outlets, then had to boogie back to Richmond for some pre-prep for the Arthritis Walk, which was Saturday. I've been on the committee for the Walk ever since I left the Foundation, so as the Health Expo Coordinator it was my job to make sure I had enough tables and such for the sponsors to display their wares at the event.

Victoria had been gung-ho about going to the Arthritis Walk when we were planning her visit, but her enthusiasm plummeted when I told her I had to leave the house at 530am. :) Lucky for her, Bryan wasn't leaving that early, so he ended up on teenager duty while I went to get set up.
It was a perfect day for the Arthritis Walk, and, as always, I loved seeing everyone!

After the walk, we loaded in one car and headed up to Maryland to check out Mimi, and after many hours at the car dealership, left with a new addition to our fleet. The plan was to trade in my Eclipse, but they didn't want to give us much for it, so we decided to bring her home and sell her ourselves. Which means that now we have six cars. And two motorcycles. And a dirtbike. Um, yes, we need to get on the ball selling some of those. Anyone interested in buying a 2000 Eclipse, a 95 Saturn or a 93 Eagle Talon? :)

Between the Walk and our trip to Maryland, we were all pretty much exhausted by the time we got home, so the rest of the evening was spent hanging around doing nothing. We did watch Baby Mama, which I actually found funny. That was quite an accomplishment for me, considering the state of mind I was in just a couple of weeks ago about not getting pregnant!

Bryan had to work on Sunday, so Vic and I lounged around for a bit before hitting up Target and heading up to Short Pump to meet the friend she was riding back to Bath County with. I was sad to see her go... I don't see her (or my brother or my mom) nearly enough, and we had a great time!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

Lately, I am starving in the afternoons at work and have been frustrated because it's way easier to find junk food around here than anything remotely healthy. So when I stopped at the grocery store last night, I decided to pick up a few things to keep on hand. It wasn't until I put the bag down in my office and really looked at it that I realized I may have gone a tad overboard. :)

Meet Mimi

My new (to me) 2008 Saturn Vue! We found her online and she was such a great deal that we drove up to Maryland and bought her yesterday!

Wading through Memphis.

Mother Nature conspired against me this past weekend during my trip to Memphis, but I did not let her win! :)

Already my sightseeing time was short. I was there to give my opinions on certain advertising campaigns and such aimed at people living with rheumatoid arthritis, and that meeting was scheduled from 8am-5pm on Saturday. We also had dinner with the group on Friday evening. This left only late Friday night and Saturday evening for experiencing Memphis, since my flight left before anything opened on Sunday morning.

Friday I met several nice people at dinner, but everyone at my table decided they were hitting the sack early. I was a little bummed, because the night was still young. I called Bryan for a little encouragement, and he told me I needed to take my ass to Beale Street, particularly since it was only one block away. So I did. :)

Beale Street is the Bourbon Street of Memphis. There are lots of bars, clubs, restaurants, souvenir shops... that sort of thing. The street is closed off to car traffic so you can just wander around, and if you get stumbling drunk you don't have to worry about getting run over. I'm sure there's technically some other reason they close off the street, but I guarantee you this is part of the logic.

The first night I just walked up and down the street, only a few blocks, and took in the Memphis party crowd. They actually had a few bands playing in pavilions on the street, so I was able to hear some good blues without the awkwardness of going into a bar by myself. :)

Saturday's session was interesting. I'm fascinated by marketing techniques, probably should have been in advertising, so it was fun to see the campaigns this company is considering and hear and give feedback. Of course, I must admit I was a bit antsy for the day to be over so I could get out on the town!

I met a few people who were staying over Saturday night and we all decided to get together and go out. The forecast called for rain, and this time the weatherman was spot on. Our first stop we managed to achieve before the downpours set in. I headed to the Peabody Hotel with a girl named Jeni, who is from the Outer Banks. The Peabody is famous for its ducks. They live in a "duck palace" on the roof of the building, and every morning at 10 they parade them down to the lobby (via elevator) and they get in a fountain. They spend the rest of their day floating around this fountain, then at 5pm they parade them back up to their palace. Jeni and I got there at about 4:45, and already the place was so packed we couldn't really get a good view of the ducks. We did head up to their palace afterwards, though, and were able to see them up close and personal then. :)

As we left the Peabody, the rains began. We weren't sure where we were headed next, so we went to Beale Street for souvenirs and to see what was going on there. We walked around a bit, ended up at the Africa in April festival, which was plugging along despite the inch of rain on the ground, we picked up some souvenirs, and then kept on walking... we were not going to let this stupid rain impinge upon our tourism! We checked out a map posted downtown and realized we were near the trolley, so we went and hopped on. The trolley took us on a loop through downtown and down to the Mississippi River waterfront, and back up in time to meet our new friends for dinner. Along the trolley route we also passed the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and which now houses the National Civil Rights Museum. We were bummed that the museum had closed before our session ended, but were also moved to see the 60's-era cars parked in front of the hotel, marking where King was shot. Next time I'm in Memphis, that museum is a must-see.

We picked up the rest of our group at our hotel and headed to Beale Street to get some dinner and hear some music. Jeni and I both had to go back to our rooms to change, as we were completely and utterly soaked. (The next morning, the flats I had been wearing were still so wet I could squeeze water out of them!) I had only brought two pairs of shoes, and since I had no interest in going home the next day wearing wet kicks, I walked back over to Beale barefoot. Sanitary? No. Effective? Yes. :)

We ate at a restaurant called Pig, and THANK YOU MEMPHIS for your awesomely delicious barbeque. :) I had ribs, and just thinking about them is making my mouth water! Our concierge had recommended this restaurant because of the entertainment, and he was right... the guys playing were awesome!

After we ate, Jeni and I and another girl from Marion, VA named Dana sat around and chatted for a while before we began hittin' the clubs. :) We had a great time chatting with strangers on the street, dancing, listening to a great R&B band... I even found a dude wearing Kanye West sunglasses and convinced him to let me wear his glasses and to take a picture with me. :)

Finally we headed back to the hotel, where the lamborghini from my previous post was parked. It was actually still there when I left the next day... wonder whose it was?

You can check out all of my pictures from Memphis here.

THIS is Memphis.

More about my trip to Memphis later, but check out these dudes with their grills. They were hanging out next to this Lamborghini, which was parked in front of our hotel.

I first noticed that two of the guys had grills, and asked if I could get a picture of them by the car. As soon as I said, "I wanna get your grills with this car," ALL of them pulled their damn grills out of their pockets and flashed 'em! Awesome. :)

What's up with me.

I feel like I've neglected this blog to some degree. I really don't have much explanation for that besides the fact that I haven't really felt like myself for a while now. But some stuff has been happening, so...

• Had an awesome weekend this past one. Bryan's new position (since the fall) has allowed him to actually have a few days off during outage season, as opposed to the past 7 years where he was lucky to have even *one* day off between the beginning of March and the beginning of May. We did a lot of hanging out snuggling on the couch, went shopping (although I think we didn't buy ANYTHING now that I think about it), had dinner out, went to see Tracy Morgan at the National, went to Monument Ave. Easter on Parade, saw my friend Kim... I hate to sound cheesy, but I really love spending time with that man. I mean, I love HIM, period, but we have so much fun together and I'm still grateful and surprised on a daily basis that I was lucky enough to snag him as my husband. :)
• So the shopping... the time has come for me to get a new vehicle. Sabine, my 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse, has served me well, but she seems to be approaching her last leg. Also, when we eventually start a family, there is no way in hell I'll be heaving a car seat in and out of THAT tiny little thing, so I need to upsize. We went out Saturday afternoon to browse and see what exactly I *want,* since there are so many different options! I like the crossover SUVs and the small SUVs, so that's what we looked at. I think we have decided what I'm getting, but now we're stalking ebay and Craigslist like fiends until we can pounce on an awesome deal. I'll keep you updated. :)
• I think a lot of you who read this know this, but for those of you who don't, we've been trying to get pregnant for quite a while now. Luckily for me, I know quite a few women who have struggled with the same problem, so I know I'm not alone, but it's been hard. I haven't wanted to talk about it too much for fear of jinxing us, but since we seem to be jinxed anyway, screw it. I'm not going to get into it too deeply right now, but that's why I haven't been myself. I'm used to setting my mind to something and being able to achieve it, so this trying to conceive (and NOT) business is foreign territory in a lot of ways for me. I reached a low point a couple weeks ago where I decided that I was going to stop putting my life on hold in anticipation of the enormous changes that come with becoming a parent and do the things I (we) want to do. And that decision has made a dramatic change in my mood. Yay for coming out of a slump, even if just for a while!
• Although, I must admit, there's one thing in particular that has done wonders for my state of mind. I said we decided to stop putting things on hold, and one of those things is our next big trip. My boss was the one who said to me after we didn't get pregnant last month: JUST BOOK IT. Well, since she's a smart lady (and a doctor), we took her advice. And... WE'RE GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Yes, y'all, for two weeks in June we'll be trekking across South Africa in a six-passenger van, going on safari, checking out the beaches, seeing ELEPHANTS! (my favorite), ostriches, whales, penguins, riding a train... I mean, people, this is a trip of a lifetime. We've been talking about doing this sort of trip before we have kids, meaning going to some continent that we will likely not have the money to take our whole family to, and we finally picked a place and a time and we booked it. More details later... :)
• Finally, I'm headed to Memphis this afternoon! My old boss from the Arthritis Foundation contacted me a couple weeks ago and told me that a pharmaceutical company was looking for people my age with rheumatoid arthritis for a focus group they were doing in Memphis. I told her I was definitely interested, and after a couple phone calls with the company, I was booking a flight! The drug company is footing the bill for all of my travel expenses, and in return I have to sit in a room all day tomorrow and give them my opinion. If you know me, you know this kind of thing is right up my alley. :) Plus, I've never been to Memphis, so I'm excited about that. The only bad thing is that I don't think I'm going to have a chance to see Graceland, because it's closed when I actually have free time. And that is about as tragic as Elvis's death, you know?