So we left the house for a while today (went to the cafe and did work then) and when we came back, we saw this little guy in our hallway.  It's unclear to me whether he's out in the hall to spread holiday cheer or by accident.  This is the very same door that I knocked on to let the resident know that she had left her massive set of keys in the door.  Later that week, I realized that she does that at least a few days a week.  

another good paper writing and photo booth day...

I know you guys are checking, but you might as well leave comments to let me know that you care :-P  

Once again, I really do love playing with Photo Booth, especially the Comic Book effect on a day that would otherwise be comprised of nothing but work.  We almost took a walk today, but then we had Thanksgiving Round 3 (probably the penultimate turkey eating  of the weekend) and it got really dark and cold outside.  Maybe we'll go outside for a few minutes tomorrow - it'll be Ben's birthday!  Make sure to wish him a happy one.  He likes that. :)

Thanksgiving Part 1

In the morning, I woke up, started our 3 lb turkey breast brining, and wrote for a little while.  When Ben woke up, he worked on baking the apple pie (notice the B + J?  we're cute.) and I sat at the edge of the kitchen writing papers and reading him recipes.  Then we made the best stuffing ever (made with chicken sausage instead of real sausage 'cause I don't eat piggies), working on the paper every time I could let things cook themselves for a few minutes.

When that was done, we ate our first course (chicken soup I made a few days ago, and peanut butter and jelly).  I wrote and Ben printed articles for a couple hours, then we put the turkey breast in the oven. 

About an hour and a half later, I put the stuffing and mashed potatoes (store bought) in the oven and dropped some pine nuts, almonds, and frozen string beans into a pan, which worked out beautifully.

In the 10 post turkey roasting minutes, we popped some Pillsbury rolls in the oven, I made some mushroom gravy, we put our two cans of cranberry sauce in two separate bowls (I like berries. Ben likes no berries.)....

Thanksgiving Part 2

....and Ben set everything on the table.

I got out of my pajamas and into a dress and Ben got changed into some fancy clothes too and we had a lovely Thanksgiving together.  We missed our families, but were glad to have been able to make it such a memorable, romantic night, despite the crazy amounts of work we have to do...

When we finished eating, we took a series of silly pictures, which resulted in the breaking of a chair.  I mean, we knew that they were not the sturdiest chairs, but it was still a little bit of a surprise.  

Thanksgiving Part 3

Afterwards, Ben got sleepy and I cleaned up the kitchen, and now I'm back to writing (in a minute).  In a couple hours, we get to eat pie and watch an episode of Pushing Daisies (how appropriate! (because of the pie, not the bringing back of the dead -- that would be weird.))  It's seriously remarkable that I've gotten as much work done today as on my most productive days.  It's best when I can see the paper I'm writing as something to squeeze in between stirring rather than something I stare at a blank screen for hours thinking about..... hmmm....  Thanksgiving should be every day.  And on that note, I just wanted to give a shout out to the ingredient of the day (I think it made an appearance in everything we made today.) --- BUTTER!  

FINALLY!

I feel like I've been waiting forever to get my hair cut.  For the past couple weeks, I've been miserable with it.  Usually my hair doesn't even need to be brushed, but it's been knotty, frizzy, and I just haven't wanted to do anything but get it out of the way.   It's taking longer to wash, longer to dry... and refuses to look okay for a whole day.  So, yesterday I called my salon to see whether there was any chance I could get in for an appointment today.  Of course, they were booked solid and I figured I'd have to wait until next week.  All day today I whined about not having a hair elastic.  I seriously could not get past it.  Anyway, my salon called me at 4 to tell me I could come in at 4:30 and I was ELATED!  These aren't the greatest pictures ever of me.  Keep in mind, the first one is taken from the side/back. (I think it's a little hard to interpret the angle...) So yea.  I feel much better now, and hopefully it'll get me excited to write papers.    :-D

Ben's birthday is on Saturday, but I gave him his present early because I got impatient about 2 minutes after I got the package.  These Simple (that's the brand) shoes (His are in the back. The ones in the front are mine, I just included them in the picture 'cause I think it's cute that they match...) were on Steep and Cheap and they were kind of an impulse buy (as everything on SAC is...).  Ben quickly found out that I had bought them 'cause he looks over my shoulder at my email and I'm bad at keeping secrets.  Anyway, he wore them today and they look great on him!  Now I have to find something else to give him on his birthday!!!!!!!!

It's really a huge bummer that I took a blog picture at the beginning of my day and not the end.  I spent my morning in this room doing work.  It's one of the counseling rooms with two-way mirrors that we use when we do our triads.  In other words, I use the same room to sit and do work at school as I use to counsel and be counseled.  

But at the end of my day, I hung out with some cool horses and some cool people and learned about and experienced some equine therapy.  It was such a cool experience that I forgot to get my camera out and take a picture for you, my dear readers.... so.... Sorry?  You get a boring little room that I spend a few hours a week in instead.  Enjoy.

Now that we have new kitchen stuff, Ben wants to cook all the time!  This is part of the dinner he made to try out our new stir fry pan.  It was YUMMY!  (I'm hoping I'm still allowed to cook sometimes...)

Ben had a WFA course going on today, so he had to be at work to make sure everything was all set for the people teaching and taking it and that he got all the appropriate money from the participants.  Anyway, as a result, I started my day working there (as I often do).  My plan was to get the library at some point, but it was just sooooo cold outside that I couldn't make myself move.  In any case, I think I got a good deal of work done so far today, and in (hopefully) half an hour, we'll pick up and go home (and maybe go on a date!!!!).  Meanwhile, I thought I'd take a picture to show you all the view I have while I'm working on this paper.  (Sorry you're in the picture, Ben.  You were in my way and seemed to be working too intently for me to ask you to move.)

On a side note, the paper I'm working on today is an assessment of myself, using results from such personality tests as the Kiersey Temperment Sorter, 16PF, Big 30, PAI, CAD, VIA Signature Strengths, and maybe some others.... How I love writing about me and how I'm an intellectual, enthusiastic person who loves people and life and works really well in with others, but is also indecisive, conflict averse, and a lazy procrastinator.  Ok, back to writing rather than doing more to prove that last statement true.

Ben and I, as former teachers, know that when you make a threat, you really need to follow through with it.  Once in a while, we forget that and we do silly things like threaten to pour water on someone....  Neither of us ends up happy with the result.  

Dear readers, 

  I'm not sure that I ever let you know, but Ben and I do, in fact, have the same computer as one another once again.  I think I now understand why both my old computer and his old computer decided to die promptly after he bought a new one.  They didn't want us to suffer the embarrassment of going about our lives with non-matching computers.  I guess we should thank them....

I like to play with photo booth when in the library.  I REALLY like to play with photo booth when I'm in the library.  

Main Street is two ways again!  (as of Thursday.... this announcement is a little delayed)  Anyway, it's weird not to have to take the detour and that the cafe doesn't shake while we're in it anymore, but it's nice!  Also, the new sidewalks are HUGE!!! I feel like I'm on the Champs-Elysees... well, not quite, but you know what I mean...

we bought new stuff!   most exciting to ben, of course, are the knives.  when he saw the box, he grabbed it and ran home to make dinner.  he made a fantastic dinner which, unfortunately, did not actually involve any cutting.  

We spent a couple hours today visiting with a baby friend of ours and her parents at the cafe today.  It was lovely to take a short break from writing.... Here is ben hiding behind H (those are his hands, not hers), and her mom E looking a great deal more excited than her.  

We stayed up really late last night doing this.  Ben printed and organized all of these articles for his annotated bibliography, whatever that is... and I put all my stuff for all my classes into binders.  (The stuff had previously been in a massive mixed pile on the couch.)  These binders were salvaged from somewhere, explaining the random things on the covers...  I'm pretty sure that next semester, I will motivate myself to put stuff in binders starting at the beginning of the semester. That way, I won't spend hours doing it, and everything might not be thrown in in a random order... So yea, starting binders for classes when the classes start will be key.  Anyway, when I finished, I figured it was around 8:00 and time to do some writing.  (I need to be writing 10 pages a day for the next month in order to get everything done by the end of the semester without having like 50 page days.)  It was actually 11:00. Then I realized I was tired.  We ended up going to sleep around midnight, and then leaving the house again for an hour around 12:30 to try to find a 24 hour pharmacy so that Ben could take some NyQuil.  Note to future self: meds that are taken at night should be purchased far in advance and kept in the house.  Driving around in your pajamas in the middle of the night is not as romantic as it sounds.  

p.s. I just posted the picture from October 17 today and I want you all to look at it (unless you're Ben), mostly because it has a really good story to go with it.  

LUNCH.  I went to observe at a place where I will probably do my internship next semester and I brought this lovely lunch with me.  Home made chili, home made bread, and a chunk of cheese.  I found that I brought much too much, but was able to eat it when I got home, and that was nice.  Anyway, my chili would be amazing if I hadn't thought it was too bland and then added too much salt.  I kind of had a "salt accident" as I sometimes do... but it's still good. really good.  Oh, and the observation was good too.  Crazy busy day, but good.

triple picture day

I poured laundry detergent directly into my eye today.  I'd rather not even try to explain the stupidity that caused this unfortunate accident.  Something about those detergent dispensers that work like coolers where you just press the button and the liquid comes out, but ours was so close to empty that the liquid wasn't really coming out, and it lives on top of our stacked washer/dryer, so I looked up to try to wiggle it so that it would come out faster... and it did... into my eye...  It was so incredibly painful that I couldn't speak to let Ben know what had happened and I just stood at the sink running water over and over it.... When Ben came in, he told me to just get in the shower so that flushing it out would be easier... and I did.... but it was AWFUL.  By the time this picture was taken, it felt much better... and by the end of the night, It only burned a little bit... But yea. I'm not so smart.After that unfortunate incident came chili making (not pictured here) cookie baking (Can you tell which four cookies are mine?  If you were listening to our vows, maybe you can...) and bread baking (see perfect looking loaf below).  The chili was me, and will be done some time tomorrow.  Cookies and bread were Ben and are AMAZING.  Very domestic night overall, but I'm never doing laundry again.    

This book is apparently the bible of my graduate program.  Every time I ask a question, I'm told to look in it for the answer.  I've already lost this book once and gotten it replaced.  I think I've decided that it's time to start carrying it with me everywhere.

First gas we saw under a two dollars.  Every day, we've been shocked by the fact that the gas just keeps getting cheaper...  This was $1.99 on the way to school (at the gas station that also sells falafel, grape leaves, and baklava).  On the way home from school, I think it was $1.93 somewhere (and on Thursday (which is in the future), we saw it for $1.88!!!!)

Our bed with our new big kid sheets, duvet cover, pillow covers, and fiberbed.  It's kind of like sleeping in a cloud.... a fancy cloud.....

Ben called me from the conference on Thursday night for my pants size and inseam.  I wondered (among a group of his friends) what he was getting me. Later in the evening, the subject of red ants pants and how much I was pining after them came up.  I never connected the two.  So..... Ben came home tonight and here's a picture of me in my brand new perfectly fitting RED ANTS PANTS (thanks to the best husband in the world)!!!!

felt sick. made soup. lots of soup.

took a shower. feel half human, though not even a little awake... this is how many papers/projects i have to finish this weekend to be caught up with things that are already overdue.

this is a picture my computer took of me after i passed out for 4 hours on this couch in the student center.  

in the morning, i had had to take the antihistamine that the nurse lady had given me because i forgot my benadryl at home.  she had been really surprised that benadryl hadn't made me drowsy, but prescribed this instead because she was sure it would make me LESS drowsy.  i seriously almost fell asleep at a colloquium and could think of nothing but how i could safely get to a couch to get to sleep.  it felt terribly embarrassing.  

Trying to dry out my bouquet.... not sure what I'll do with it if it works.... 

I am of the opinion that something really cool happened tonight, and I helped make it happen:)

So, this allergic reaction thing made my face turn all different shapes.  When we went to the ER I had one of those faces where the chins go straight across because the bottom of my cheeks were so puffy, and this morning when I woke up, I had a long chin, big forehead and huge upper cheeks (to the extent that my eyes were closing).  I got my prednisone prescription filled and by the end of the day, I was fairly presentable.

Ben and me (with swollen face) after a night in the ER.  Yay for allergic reactions!!!  The really funny part is that the wedding was so amazing that even a night in the ER didn't put me in a bad mood.  (A big thank you to my face which decided to wait to swell too much until after the reception.)

Although we were exhausted, we stayed at our venue until our last guests were leaving, so we could have some nice, relaxing fun time with friends.  Ben remembered that he had the kite we had gotten off our registry in his bag and we went out and flew it (in a field that had very very little wind).  It was lovely!

WEDDING DAY!!!

Beautiful calligraphizedated explanation of our new last name, done by a calligraphy artist (the creator of our invitations) who is also a friend.   Check her out: www.astridelizabeth.com