Checking In...

This past weekend was my last full class weekend. I presented my culminating project and handed it in. Although I personally didn't feel very good about it, I received lots of positive feedback from my "colleagues" and from the program coordinator (kind of like the teacher). So that was all good and it was nice to have closure on that, finally...

We had a busy Sunday beginning with Trav's softball game followed by his dad's birthday brunch in Danbury/Bethel. We came home and relaxed and napped for our big night out in Norwalk seeing The Samples. They were supposed to be playing on the beach but because of the rain, the concert was moved to a nearby elementary school, which was weird...All the tailgators were under tarps in the parking lot because you couldn't "drink" inside the school. It was great to be around music and get a little dancing in.

Aside from that, last week was fairly low key...I went kayaking with Jenn on Wednesday, caught up with Jen, Molly, Vicky, Becca, and Richie on Thursday, hung out at my mom's pool before class on Friday, and classed it on Saturday. As for Monday and Tuesday...hmmm...I think one of those days I went to a craft store to get inspired to make "stuff" to go in my soap related gift baskets, and another day I bought a new quilt for my bed to try to change the feel of our bedroom...I'm regretting the red walls and am not about to repaint them anytime soon! Today I returned the new quilt because I realized when I got home with it that the one I have is just fine...I don't think anyone returns things more frequently than me!

I'm just comfortably in summer mode...only 17 days left of it and not a whole lot to accomplish in that time...except maybe the wedding album...maybe next week!

Okay...and to leave you with a little link to hear The Samples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKZE-3lP8k4

It's not th show I was at, nor is it my favorite "Did you ever look so nice?" song, but it's a good jammy tune nonetheless:)

In the Summer Swing of Things...

Rainy Monday mornings are not nearly as bad when you get to stay in bed a little longer and don't have to get to work! After staying up late last night to finish my book, I deserved a little sleep in. After all I've been sooooooo busy here, I have all kinds of lists and things to accomplish and whatnot. Unfortunately, the busiest I've really been is to actually write the lists. It's much harder to accomplish and cross off when there's no real structure to my time. Then there's the procrastination piece...The two biggest things I need to do are to "fine tune" my final project and create a Power Point to present it to my class on Friday...(I'm so done with this schoolwork crap!) and the other is to pick 50-75 of our wedding pictures so the photographer can finally put together an official album for us (yes, I've put that job off for a year now!!! but, but there's like a thousand pictures from which to pick and I have to do it on the computer and you can't hold two pictures next to each other to see which is better...just a pain in the butt...) But I refuse to not have that done by the time I go back to school.

Please note...the blond gal with the sleek black dress is at the buffet even though her table number was not called yet...her husband took the photo as proof and I am now exposing the truth to the world!! They called 13, not 14, Marisa!!! (hehehe)

On Saturday, my cousin had a commitment ceremony in Long Island. Me and Trav, my parents, Jill, Lenny, and Abby all took the Bridgeport Ferry across the Sound to get there. On the way, we stopped at my dad's former boss' ice cream shop and everyone got a cone (well, Trav got a Rootbeer Float). It was fun having a little pre-wedding ice-cream party of grown-ups!

The ceremony was on the north shore at a pavilion that led down to the sand and ocean. So they had the white chairs on the beach and the little trellis thing with the LI Sound as the backdrop...Everyone who walked down the aisle was barefoot (except the parents of the brides:) Steel drums played for the cocktail hour and there was a beautiful sunset. It was a nice little adventure for us.

We're Home...

We had a great trip to the Cape! The first few days were overcast and chilly, but perfect for being lazy, just what we needed to unwind. During those days we kayaked around the pond right outside our cottage, read a lot, bicycled to the beach, played paddle ball or whatever it's called at the beach, and even caught a Drive-In movie (I haven't been to one of those since the original Superman). We saw Ratatouille followed by Pirates of the Caribbean (I fell asleep, just like during Superman...we didn't get home until 2 am...of course I fell asleep!) It was fun just being at the Drive in with the speaker in the window and all...

This is Travis crossing the bridge on our commute to get to the beach. We rode a bike trail through the woods to for just over 2 miles to get there...so nice...Below is our Anniversary picnic on the beach. We went to a beach that had live reggae/calypso music playing and hung around until the bugs were eating us alive!

The kayaks below are in the salt pond that lead out to a salt marsh. I, being the nautical expert that I am (sarcasm), thought it might be a good idea to put the boats in just before the official low-tide time so that we could easily get out into the marsh and then by the time it was time to return (after the official low-tide time) then of course beginning at exactly 6:15, the tide would then be coming in and therefore help us back to where we came from (I've had the experience of paddling against the tide with Jenn in the past and knew it wasn't a nice thing)...So we went out, paddling happily along and then we realized that the lovely pond and canal we were paddling through were only about 6 inches deep! It was cool though because we could see straight through to the bottom. I made lots of hermit crab friends, came across mussel colonies, lots of lettucey seaweed, and even saw a little white eel of some sort slither out of the sand! It was really cool. I did get beached at one point because I went to far out to where the water was even more shallow, but we never had to get out and pull our boats like another couple we saw literally walking their boats in! While I was busy watching the scurrying of creatures beneath the surface, Trav was busy watching the sky for birds and setting up his angle for the impending sunset. It was quite an adventure!

We also managed to get lost in a forest of trails trying to get to the ocean from a different pond we had gone to...that debacle ended up being a 9 mile hike!! Thank goodness the return trip ended at the beautiful clear kettle pond we had left from!

The cottage we stayed in was perfect for our needs, riding distance to the ocean, steps away from a pond, updated, with porch and lots of birds to watch, frog sounds at night (annoying...thank goodness for the window fan to drown them out!), definitely loads more to explore up there! Perhaps next year!

Cheers to one year of marraige and to many more ahead!!

Imaginings...

Imagine a photo of a cute little black Subaru Impreza Outback with two kayaks strapped on top, back seats down, two bikes stuffed in the back along with all of our bags, etc. for our week in Cape Cod...I meant to take a picture, but I didn't...

Okay, now imagine this, I know it's a little early, but I'll be away so you have to imagine a beautiful bride and a handsome groom, happily gazing into each other's eyes in the midst of a beautiful rose garden that only has a few roses in bloom because everyone knows that roses peak in June and a July 9th wedding in the rose garden means not so many roses, but instead of roses, that garden was filled with oh so much love:) Who needs roses when you've got love...hmm, maybe I'll write a song, "All you need is love..."

One year is almost here! Today Trav gave me an Oronoque Farms Strawberry Rhubarb pie to bring with us to celebrate our anniversary (that's the one we cut and ate at the wedding). So, on our anniversary we get to have yummy wedding pie along with a special Alsatian white wine that we brought home from France last year after doing a little wine tasting in the Alsace region on the Honeymoon. I'm looking forward to that:)

Have a fabulous week everyone! Those of you who are going to the beach to see Jen and Molly, have fun!

Grrrr....

Whose stupid idea was it to legalize fireworks in the state of Connecticut?...obviously not anyone who lives in a neighborhood with houses remotely close to each other...Do people who light these things realize how freakin' loud and obnoxious they are....Have some freakin' consideration! Do they have clocks? Do they know that 12:30 a.m. is a fairly universal sleeping time. It's only 10 now, so at least these dingbats making all the noise at the moment have a tiny bit of consideration. I'd be even pissed-er if there was a baby trying to sleep in this house. Sorry Vick...not seeing the bright side on this one!

Happy 4th!!

Yay for Fireworks!! Last night Trav and I headed down to the beach here to see the town fireworks show. But first, and more importantly, we stopped at a new little coffee and sandwich shop that opened nearby with a little sign out front that said, "We sell Dr. Mike's Ice Cream." While most of my readers can't relate, Amy, Marisa?, maybe you guys can because Dr. Mike's is so freakin' yummy. It so beats Dairy Queen which was the only acceptable ice cream place around here...So, ice cream in hand, we drove down toward the fireworks. The beach parking was filled, but we found a prime location in a parking lot just beside the old landfill where the fireworks were being launched from...PERFECT seats! Lots of loud booms! Overall, however, the show was unimpressive, but something to do on a Tuesday night nonetheless and it would have killed me having been home to just hear the booms rather than to actually be part of the festivities. The quote of the night came from a little kid watching the fireworks in the same area who just after one of the fireworks went off said, "That would have been even cooler if it looked like Queen Latifah." Yeah, kid, we were thinking the same thing...But alas, fireworks are fun and will always remind me of my engagement night:)
Today Trav and I went up to my parents for a BBQ. It was a bit on the chilly side, so no swimming, but we just hung out with Jill, Lenny, Chase, Abby, Mom and Dad...We had yummy ice-cream cake for Jill's birthday.
I'm supposed to go kayaking tomorrow with kayaking Jenn (from now on I will just say Jenn...she has two n's, versus Jen C-S who only has 1)...but it looks like it will be possibly rainy and cool. Maybe we'll need a plan B.
I think the washing machine decision is to just replace the washer with a used one. The reasoning is that a washer/dryer in the middle of the living space in such a small home is not practical...not to mention cost effective. We'd have to run pipes/water to the front of the house. It would be one thing if we were going to be here awhile longer and then might "bump out" a mudroom type thing, but we've probably only got about a year left here after which we'll either sell or rent it...So if anyone has access to a used washer for sale, let me know! Until then it's the laundromat (at which I spent over two hours on Tuesday---but actually, I never really minded the laundromat...it's a slow pace there, AND you get six loads of laundry done all at once)! AND on top of that, I treated myself to falafel from the falafel place next to the laundromat! AND I saw a "finishing school" in the same plaza after having talked about finishing school with my mother-in-law on Saturday night. AND I saw a man who walked with a cane and literally had to step with one foot and slowly and effort-fully dragged the other leg to catch up. Made me appreciate my health. See everything that comes from a broken washing machine!!
I too am sorry I missed my luncheon on Saturday. Go figure that our second game, when everyone was absolutely exhausted, went into overtime AND penalty kicks only to just lose...and on top of that, miss my lunch:( next time...
okay, movie time...