Lauren's my new hero...

If you liked our dancing elf video, then you'll love this. My niece created it, and it might just be the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Apparently this is the only time I'll ever see Jason dance to country music. Enjoy!

We're back... from outer space...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Jason and I are back in Tallahassee, and quite tired from all the driving. Here are some highlights from the trip:

• Driving from Tallahassee to Winston-Salem on the day before Thanksgiving... 15 hours awful hours, but we did get to stop at an REI outside Charlotte to winterize ourselves for our upcoming trip to PA.


• Thanksgiving: turkey and sweet potatoe casserole and tiramisu... oh my!


• Jason's nephew is talking a mile-a-minute. Being around a kid who will repeat everything I say causes me to use the phrase "Oh, shoot!" more in 5 minutes than I have in the last 5 years.


• The day after Thanksgiving was spent glued to a What Not to Wear marathon, watching Nate, throwing the football, and meeting up with my friend Matthew from grad school
  
• Saturday we drove from Winston-Salem to Franklin, NC. Along the way we...
  
  
  
  • stopped in Asheville to meet a faculty member of one of the schools Jason's applied to (Western Carolina). We love Asheville.
    
  • checked out WCU as well as Cullowhee, Sylva, and Dillsboro
    
  • saw Quantum of Solace in Franklin at a movie theater that was incredibly serious about forcing you to buy things from their concession stand.
    
  • wussed out about camping since it was raining and miserable. Instead we stayed at the Carolina Motel (but I still used my sleeping bag because it was so cold). They had the cutest stray cat that I wanted to adopt, but I figured that Hazel would not be amused.
    
  
  
• After our amusing stay in Franklin, we drove home yesterday, stopping along the way at Tallulah Gorge State Park. We stretched our legs on a rainy hike down to the falls and back. If you're ever driving near Atlanta on I-85 or I-75, but you don't have to go to Atlanta, here are our recommendations:
  
  
  
  • Use 129/441 between Macon, GA and Commerce, GA. These roads keep us sane since they maybe add 30 minutes to our drive, but allow us to avoid all things Atlanta (crazy drivers, weird interchanges, and accident-induced stand-stills).
    
  • Stop in Madison, GA which is just off I-20 and hour outside of Atlanta. It is a really friendly town with loads of charm. We had lunch here and were just about ready call it home by the time we got our check.
    
  
  
• By the way, I really, really, really hate these flower bullets. If anyone knows how to get normal circles and squares, please let me know.

Edit: Thanks, Blogger help pages. Buh-bye flowers!

Past, present, and future

Hi everyone. I figured an update was in order. Our water leak was fixed and the rain stopped... both pretty much as soon as I posted about them. So that's good. It's been sunny but chilly lately. I feel like we get a lot of wind in Tallahassee, and that's what makes it feel cold. Turtlenecks, scarves, and hats are my friends.

Today was beautiful and much warmer than the past few days. I went without a coat, and exercised outside in the evening in shorts and a t-shirt. I heard that a cold snap is coming though, so it will be back to winter wear for us soon enough.

We are both still in the job search. The juries are still out on the two Sandia jobs I interviewed for, so today I applied to a statistical software company that is based in Cary, NC where we used to live. It is a great company with amazing benefits (M&M Wednesdays!!!), and one of my friends works there as well. Jason is excited about a job posting at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC (Mountains!!!), and we're planning to check out the town on our drive back from his sister's place after Thanksgiving.

The cats are doing well. Jebo is still loud, but it seems like it has been good for him to have to take the stairs in our new place. His stomach no longer appears to drag on the ground, and I guess that's always a plus. Hazel is still pushy and stubborn (she's actually trying to lay down on my hands as I type this... I've pushed her off about 8 times so far, but she's still not deterred), but she does have a nice warming effect when she sleeps on my back during the night. OK. Enough of this topic... I don't want to freak Mom out too much. :-)

In other news, we've decided to test our bodies' ability to stand extreme conditions over the Christmas break. Since we have almost a month off we are going to travel... first to PA from December 16-22, then we'll spend a few days in Tallahassee (having Christmas at our house with our friends Stacey and Adam). And then... we're spending December 28-January 2 in the Bahamas! We are very excited. We're driving to Ft. Lauderdale, taking a cruise ship across to Freeport, Grand Bahama and spending time at an all-inclusive resort kayaking, snorkeling (my thinking is if I talk about the water sports, then the water will certainly be warm enough to do all those fun things), and generally enjoying the sun. Hopefully this trip will help Jason recuperate after a busy semester. He'll be teaching the same three classes in the spring, so he'll definitely need this break to be ready to do it all over again.

OK... that's enough for now. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you soon!

Love, Me

Too much water in Tallahassee...

Since arriving home from travel I've been greeted by walls of water at every turn. Recently we found another water leak near our water meter (you apparently did a great job "fixing" the last leak, friend of our landlord!). For the past two days we've gotten by with our water turned off for most of the day. Mr. Fixit was supposed to stop by today, but with the miserable weather we are experiencing I won't be surprised if our landlord somehow can't get in touch with him again today.

Last night it started raining, and it's been pouring ever since. We were hoping to go camping this weekend, but unfortunately it looks like it's supposed to keep raining until Sunday. So basically we are completely waterlogged, and will probably be this way until early next week. Yey! :-(

New Mexico

One down... one to go...
Hiking tomorrow... direct flight to CA on Sunday...
More later...

We're still here.

It may not seem like it, but we're still around. I've just been really busy with a lot of work meetings in October (CA, IL, and here in Tallahassee), and getting ready for travel during the first couple weeks of November (NM and CA). I'm looking forward to things settling down later on this month and for traveling to see family over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Today we heard Joe Biden speak on campus. That was our excitement for the day. Now I should get back to work. There's a bit more I need to get done before we go home for the night. I'll be sure to send an update more than once a month from now on.