a few favorites

I didn't get these up as soon as I was planning on, but here are a few of my wedding pictures. I seriously have hundreds and hundreds, so I tried to be selective and show a variety. My photographer took some fantastic photos!

another reason why my husband is my favorite person in the world

Last night I was going to make dinner. Jared and I share this responsibility. He actually loves cooking, and he's more talented in the kitchen than I am. Well except for baking. He doesn't bake. I do. Back to last night--I was going to make pasta and asparagus. Very quick and easy. Jared was working on his thesis and also had to leave for a meeting at 7:30, so I was going to have it ready by 7. At 6, I told him that I needed to lay down and close my eyes for just a couple minutes. Fast forward an hour, my husband wakes me up and tells me that dinner is all ready. Wasn't it so nice of him to let me sleep and make us dinner? Thank you, honey!

Stay tuned: I now have all my wedding pictures on cd's!!! So I'll be posting some of my favorites either tonight or tomorrow.

a wordless wednesday (in other words, I'm lazy)

I took this in September at the Raleigh Temple.

analytics revealed

A few weeks ago I discovered Google Analytics. It's pretty darn amazingly cool. I now have the means of knowing, not only how many people visit my blog, but where they are, how fast their connection is, how long they stayed, what pages they looked at, how they found my blog, etc. It's fun to see that someone in Sweden has checked out my blog, even if they only stayed for 20 seconds.

But all this cyber people watching also made me realize that other people probably have this too. And those people are probably seeing that I check their blogs like 5+ times a day to see if they are updated! Uh oh! I confess, I'm a blog stalker. I sit on a computer all day long at work. I have to pass the time somehow. So yeah, if you have noticed that someone from NC visits your blog an absurd amount... that's me. And thanks for keeping me from going crazy at work.

vanity

So I happened to go check out my wedding photographer's website the other day, and he had redone the design. And guess who is on the first page? Moi! Made me feel special. Have I told you I'm a dork?

affirmation

This afternoon I watched What Not to Wear as always whilst eating my lunch. In the final reveal, the makeover recipient wore a little ditty from H&M that I in fact own. I guess that means I know what to wear.
Check it:

fire

photo by nivex6

There was a fire in our apartment complex last night. It wasn't our building and we are okay, but about two dozen people are without a home right now. The above picture was taken by another resident. The journalist in me is kinda disappointed because I missed all the action--I was asleep!

I came home from work and wasn't feeling too swell so I took a nap. In my sleep, I kept hearing sirens but being asleep and not thinking coherently, I didn't make much of it. Plus we live fairly close to a highway. My darling husband was working on the computer and didn't think to look outside either. So I wake up, we eat dinner and I was watching the CNN YouTube Republican debate, and it's not until about 9:00 that I look out the window and see tons of firetrucks and police cars and stuff! We couldn't see what was going on, only all the trucks and cars. We called our friends who live closer to where all the action was and they told us about the fire.

According to the news reports the fire started about 6:30 and took an hour to get under control. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. But the building is unlivable right now. Some people lost everything. There is no word yet on how the fire started. I'm so glad it wasn't worse though. There are a lot of trees around and it could have been very bad had it spread. I feel so bad for those people who don't have a home right now. I can't imagine. It really makes you think about what's important.

*Update: So we went to go check out the damage for ourselves. Pretty crazy. It's even worse than I was expecting. The entire top floor is destroyed. It was getting too dark when I got home to take any decent pictures, so I stole this one from online. It was taken by Jonathan Stotts for WRAL. I wish we could see the other side of the building. I think it's more damaged on that side. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see it bigger.

Copyright 2007 WRAL

reclaiming my former self

Image from www.julianadupree.com

That title sounds all deep and dramatic doesn't it? I doubt this post will actually live up to that impression, but I can suck you in with the deep and dramatic title, right?

I used to be a dancer. For most of my life, dancing took up a major chunk of my time. From the ages of 2 to 18 I defined myself as a dancer. For several years there I even thought that's what I would be "when I grew up". But at some point my extremely balanced and practical self won out, and I realized the crazy lifestyle that would entail wasn't for me. But dancing remained a huge part of me.

My favorite was always ballet, although I did tap and jazz as well. But I loved ballet's grace and discipline and strength. I loved using my body to tell a story. I loved feeling so connected to my body. I loved the feeling of defying my body's natural tendencies by stretching it higher and further. Of almost defying gravity by lifting and jumping and standing on my toes.

Then about halfway through my senior year of high school, I needed a break. I had injured my foot the spring before and gotten a bit out of shape, and then I just couldn't seem to get excited about it again. I stopped taking classes. And I haven't taken a ballet class since.

In college, I took a few ballroom classes here and there. I flirted with the idea of taking other dance classes, but I never made room in my schedule. And here I am, 6 years after I quit dance, dreaming of dancing again. Do you know what else? All these years I have dragged my dance stuff around with me. I still have my pointe shoes and ballet slippers and jazz and tap shoes. I still have leotards and tights and cozy dance sweaters. They are all in a bag that I have kept with me for six years. Because in my body, I am still a dancer. I've just been ignoring it. But I really do miss dancing. I'm sad that I let it go for so long. I feel like I've lost a part of who I am, even though I know it's still in there somewhere.

So can I still do it? How far have I regressed? Will my body remember what it was once able to do so easily? I have looked into taking an adult class around here. But it's expensive, and I'm not sure that I'm ready for people to see my body in a leotard and tights again! So I'm going to try to get a feel for my dancer's body again. How? With a little dvd called New York City Ballet: The Complete Workout, Vol. 1 and 2. I have requested it for Christmas. Do I expect to miraculously reclaim my 17-year-old dancer's body? No. But I'm hoping to feel strong and limber again by doing some plies and arabesques in my living room. And heavens knows I need to exercise more! It's a start, right?

Do you have dreams of reclaiming your former self?

a glimpse of the future

Have you seen those commercials for Honda's new fuel cell car? If you are like me, you stared at disbelief at the TV when the voice-over guy said it's only emmissions is water. Water?! How is that possible? So last night I did a little google search and checked out Honda's press releases. Earlier this month, Honda unveiled the FCX Clarity at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It will be for sale only in the LA area starting summer 2008. Of course, if things go well, it will be available more places.

So here's the deal: Instead of using gasoline, the car runs on converted hydrogen. "Hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen in the fuel cell stack, where chemical energy from the reaction is converted into electric power used to propel the vehicle. Additional energy captured through regenerative braking and deceleration is stored in the lithium ion battery pack, and used to supplement power from the fuel cell, when needed. The vehicle's only emission is water." How freaking, amazing cool is that?

The next obvious question is where does one get the hydrogen? Well they of course have an answer to that too. Honda has come up with the Home Energy Station which uses a home's existing natural gas supply for production of hydrogen, while also providing heat and electricity to an average-size home! "Compared to the average U.S. consumer's home with grid-supplied electricity and a gasoline-powered car, a home using Home Energy Station IV to help produce heat and electricity and also to refuel an FCX Clarity can reduce CO₂ emissions by an estimated 30 percent and energy costs by an estimated 50 percent."

I think that is pretty darn fantastic, don't you? Wouldn't it be so nice never to go to a gas station again? And the efficiency is astounding. It can heat your house! I'm not a car geek at all, but this got me really excited for the future. I think this is a fabulous step in the right direction.

holiday weekend

I wanted to take a few pictures in the restaurant, but I felt too conspicuous. We were already the only white people there after all. So I settled with these outside shots in front of the restaurant.


We are dorks. I think the people inside were probably wondering why on earth we took pictures of each other in the parking lot.

Together

Our non-traditional Thanksgiving turned out to be really great. We had our Thanksgiving feast at this great Indian restaurant where they serve this awesome buffet. Man, were we stuffed! We were also the only white people there most of the time. Then this other couple came in with their son. You know it's good ethnic food when the vast majority of the customers are ethnic. Plus, most white people are having mashed potatoes and turkey on Thanksgiving. But I liked our dinner better!

After dinner we went to the movies to see August Rush. It was pretty good. I would recommend waiting until it's out on DVD though. It had it's touching moments, but they just didn't quite pull it off. And they really stretched believability at several points. But the cast is good which made it likable. It was fun to see Keri Russell in something again. If you want to read a good, honest review click here.

Friday morning I actually ventured out into the mayhem that is Black Friday shopping. It was my first time doing so. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond because we have store credit there and needed some things. I got a hand mixer, a popcorn popper, a duvet cover and shams, and a full length mirror. Everything was 20% off before 10 am. Then I went into Kohl's which is next door to scope out some clothes for Jared for Christmas. They had some seriously awesome deals, and I'm having a hard time not showing Jared what I got him! In fact, I caved and gave him one shirt early. Just a plain long sleeve t-shirt though.

Saturday we mostly just hung out at home. We watched two installments of The Up Series. It's a documentary started in 1963. The filmmakers have followed the lives of 14 British school children from the time they were 7 in 1963 until now. They go visit the kids every 7 years. We only have one more to watch. The latest film was made in 2005 when they were 49 years old. It's really fascinating to see how they have grown and changed over the years and what they've made of their lives. Very fascinating. We have really started to care about these people.

Sunday, Jared and I actually sang in Church together with two other people. We sang a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount. It was so fun to be able to do that together. Jared has a really nice voice. It went well. If anyone is interested, here is the arrangement we sang.

All in all, it was a lovely, restful holiday weekend. Tell me, how was yours?