Ottawa & Mini-Christmas

Wow, I go from not posting in forever and ever and ever to posting like 3 times in the past month! I guess I was in a blogging slump or something. And this will be the last post that I refer to the above subject matter. I promise. This one has a lot of pictures, BTW.

So lets see, according to my subject, this post is about Ottawa and Mini-Christmas. On my last trip this past week, one of my overnights included Ottawa, Ontario, eh. They really do say that up there. Anyway, last time I was up there (March 2005), I only had a camera phone so I took our real camera this time.

The weather, as you'll see, was much more mild this time around. No snow, and the temp was in the 40's. The guys driving the hotel van said they've had a real mild winter so far. My small walking tour includes the Parliament house and surrounding areas, which is Canada's equivalent of our Capitol building in Washington, D.C. I'll do some comparisons of the cell phone pics from March '05 (snow) to the ones from this past week (no snow).




Here's Parliament. Pretty, but I'm partial the ours. :-)


Okay, no more comparisons.



Ah, the Great Canadian Teriyaki Bagel.
Okay, so the Teriyaki place is separate.



Ha ha! Caught a Canadian picking her nose!
Seriously, our hotel is the red brick high-rise
called "Cartier Place."



Here's my "apartment."
It comes complete with a mini-kitchen
which is just to the right of this view.

And of course, what work photo series would be complete without a few airplane shots. I've wanted to get some night time stuff and finally had the camera with me at the right time. Here's the flight deck of N820AS, ASA's very first and "oldest" CRJ, originally delivered in 1999. I used the metal arm the holds the jumpseat in place to steady this exposure.



This next one is our beloved Bluebonnet, N868AS, which I flew to Ottawa on my trip. At least I think she's beloved. My theory is that Delta/ASA is too cheap to re-paint 868 even though there is no Texas base anymore. Incidently, this aircraft was dreamed up by a DFW chief pilot out of severe jealousy for N849AS, honoring the Atlanta base & ASA's 20 years (1999) with the ATL skyline and Stone Mountain. It was like, "Hey! they have one. Why can't we have one?"



And now finally to the second part of this entries' subject,
MINI-CHRISTMAS!

Since we are heading to LA on the 22nd and we don't want to lug ALL of our gifts out there, Allison "convinced" me to open a few presents Friday night after getting home from Ottawa. As you'll see in the photo, one particular gift wouldn't have been very conveinent to take, as it barely fits in our living room.



Camping, anyone?



There's room for three!

Okay, that's seriously it for now. It's taken me about an hour to do this post, including photo re-sizing, etc, so I need to get off and do something else. Like work on Christmas presents for moms and dads. ;-) Mwhahaha!

Feliz Cumpleanos

I'd put the tilde over the N in cumpleanos but I don't have a Spanish keyboard nor do I feel like figuring out how to do it. So you'll have to live without it.

Anyway, Allison and I ventured out to San Antonio this past Saturday and Sunday to visit my Aunt Kathy for her birthday, which was on Pearl Harbor Memorial Day. Not only that, Allison and my aunt had yet to meet each other. All right! Double Prizes!*

We arrived around noon, dropped our stuff at her place, hung out with her cats for a few and then headed for lunch at Order Up. They have awesome baja style tacos with cilantro, onion and lime. After that, we drove out to Boerne, TX, pronounced "Burny," and is found out northwest of SA on I-10.

The girls got in some good shopping and bonding time as I followed along, finding my entertainment in other ways. There were antique and gift shops, a weekend market with all kinds of Texas collectibles, including one with cool wrought iron stuff. Some of the items included a key rack made out of the end of a metal rake and a snake made from a chain with the end of two spoons for a mouth/head. We also took a stroll through the historic Ye Kendall Inn which had a very Texas Hill Country look and feel.


"Hmm, what could we sell along with our antiques?
DUH! Pickles of course!"


The famous pickle ladies posing by their sign.

After a driving home and a rest, we headed for the famous Riverwalk with the intention of finding dinner. We ended up just walking around enjoying the Christmas decorations because the prices and wait times were a little too long. Lots of people on the river during the holidays.





After deciding not to eat there, we ventured back towards Auntie's place where there was a good Texas BBQ joint called The Blue Cactus Cafe. Included with your meal was slightly too loud live music that you had to shout over to talk. It was quite tasty.

The next morning with all got up and enjoyed a big breakfast courtesy of our host.


Notice our friend Sammy's head in the bottom right corner.

Then we were whisked away back to Atlanta for a friend's Christmas shindig. It was a very fine weekend.

*see Pixar's Toy Story

Ancient History

Some time, long ago in the past, there was a guy named Dave. Well, there still is that guy, he's not gone. But he hasn't really made his presence known out there in cyberspace in quite some time. But today, that all is going to change with a nice long, colorful posting.

What do I have for you today? Why pictures of course! And what will these pictures be of? Why recent things in our lives of course! :-) Okay, enough with the small talk.

To post everything that Allison and I have done between my birthday in September (see previous post) to now would take too long for you to read and too long for me to type about. So I'll tell you about the last week or so, which will take me long enough as is.

For Thanksgiving, Allison went to Boise, Idaho. Incidently, Boise is pronounced "Boy-See," not "Boy-Zee" -- from what I've heard, the locals are quite serious about this. Most of you reading this already know so stop rolling your eyes and going "yeah yeah!"

She stayed with John and Michelle & Reganne (who live there now) and visited with her parents and Patrick & Lydia who came in from out of town.


Michelle, our niece Reganne and John


Allison's fine photography work of some cool Xmas lights

So what was I up to while she was in Potatoland? Bet you'd never guess flying! Well you should. Because I was. Started out at 6:05am EST in Columbia, South Carolina. Flew to Cincinnati. Turned around and went back to Columbia, then back to Cincinnati. Are you getting dizzy? Then it was on to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where we arrived around 1:30 CST for the overnight. We had gorgeous weather and flew right up the middle of Lake Michigan for a nice view of Chicago. Check out our flight path and see for yourself.

Anyway, my crew and I really only had one option for Thanksgiving dinner, the Sheraton hotel restaurant. There was only one chef working and the bar food was really the only stuff available. I went with the sausage and cheese plate, seeing how I was pretty much in sausage and cheese central being in Chicago/Milwaukee area and all. The Captain got the same thing when he saw mine. We kept talking like the Superfan guys from Saturday Night Live. Good times. Yes, they actually had a Thanksgiving plate with turkey and all that other stuff I'm not really a fan of. But we did all get a free slice of pumpkin pie. Probably due to the fact that we were practically the only people in the place and they had to get rid of it.

This past weekend, I finally put my new mountain bike to good use and rode it on a mountain. Most everyone sent me money this year for my birthday so the bike was my big b-day present so-to-speak. Thanks again to those of you reading who were kind enough to send me a gift. :-) My old bike has been handed down to Allison. If we get really serious about this, which, after yesterday, looks likely, we'll probably get her one that fits her a little better. But the old one is just fine for now.

Anyway, it was her first time to ride off road like that and she really enjoyed it, despite a rough start. The first hill at the start of the trail was insane, even for an experienced rider, and she's there trying to ride up it, which was my fault. :-( After a mental slap of myself, we opted to hike up the first part of the trail to some easier, more beginner-level grades. These were lacking in the stupid wood beams that the trail people put on steeper grades to prevent washout in the rain.

It's been too long for me and I was in heaven on the trail. Even more so, Allison had a good time and enjoyed herself, instead of just giving up and being frustrated, which would have been easy to do. But I'm always amazed how athletic she is as long as she can get over thinking she can't do something. Mom and Dad, you know what I mean. Paddle tennis? :-)

So see the post below for a few pictures. This all took place yesterday at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area along the, you guessed it, Chattahoochee River, only about 5 miles from our apt.

Biking Pictures

Here are the pictures...


After loading the bikes onto the bike rack.


Allison on the leaf-covered trail.


Dave with his new toy.

Dave's Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday to Dave! A few days ago it was Dave's birthday. To celebrate I flew out to see him on his over night in Melbourne, Florida. (darn there was a beach) (o: We walked along the beach in the morning and he flew us back with a superb landing. Here he is with our hotel, The Crowne Plaza, behind him.

To continue the celebration we went with our church group to Big Canoe for the weekend. It's one of our group member's parent's house in the mountains of north Georgia. We had a VERY relaxing time and we had some yummy red velvet cake (that I made). (o:

New Vinny Pics

Isn't he a cutie! He's gotten a little bigger since the first few pics. I'm not sure if you can really see the difference. In person you can see it a little better. He's doing well and our allergies are being nice to us. So, everything is good.

Anniversary ATL BNA Vincent Andrews, NC Pt. 3

***WARNING!!! If you have not read parts 1 and 2 of this Anniversary ATL BNA Vincent Andrews, NC series yet, scroll quickly down to part 1 and start there, then read part 2, then this one as the 3 blogs are written as if they were 1 large blog broken apart into 3 parts and it won't make as much sense if you start with, say, part 2. Thank you for your cooperation!***



Part THREE!!

I took my mountain bike up with us since Amy and Brian are also bikers. Brian decided he'd rather stay with his parents' boat instead of riding so Amy and I headed out for the 8-mile loop trail. Just as we got going, it started to rain. And it rained for a majority of our 2-hour ride. Needless to say, the trail was a tad muddy in spots. But it was one of the best rides I've ever been on. Check out the clean feet compared to the rest of me in this post-ride shot:



And here's my bike after the mud dried out:



Then it was time to try our hand at water skiing on Lake Fontana. We both did really well for our first time according to the seasoned veterans with us.

Allison first...

And then me...

Finally, a dusk shot from the porch of the house, looking at Lake Nantahala. It doesn't get much better than this.



I figured out, here on the last post, that if I make the thumbnail photos small instead of medium like the ones in the other 2 posts, it lets me post more than 3. Weird. Oh well. We hope you enjoyed reading and viewing. Stay tuned for more cuteness from Vincent. :-)

Anniversary ATL BNA Vincent Andrews, NC Pt. 2

Welcome to the continuation of the post below.

The next morning after the ATL, we got up and flew to Nashville to visit with Patrick and Lydia for a day or so. We went to Opryland land where the original Gaylord mega convention center/hotel/miniature New Orleans inside/etc is. I thought the Gaylord Texan in Dallas was big. After that, we drove down music row where all the big Nashville recording studios are. Dinner that night at the Watts' was fantastic and was followed by a game of Cranium and a rather intense Uno match.



After returning to the ATL from the BNA Sunday afternoon, we went to our normal Sunday group get-together. Then, even though it was about 9:30pm, we drove 45 minutes west, almost to Alabama, where we picked up our freshly-weaned-off-of-momma 6-week-old kitten whom we named Vincent, or Vinny for short. Here he is the following morning, checking out the porch for the first time.



He is absolutely the cutest thing ever. Yes, I said that. There's no better way to describe it. We take pictures constantly.

This weekend, that's still happening for another few hours as I type right now, we took a road trip up to Andrews, North Carolina, just south of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. The aforementioned Sunday church group we meet with includes 3 other young kid-less married couples, one of which has parents that own a lake house in Andrews. Awesome! We all caravaned up Friday night and hit the lake Saturday. All of us have been married around a year except the host couple, Amy and Brian, who have been married 5 years.



If you're counting, that's picture number 3, so you'll have to scroll up to Part 3 to continue.

Anniversary ATL BNA Vincent Andrews, NC Pt. 1

Can you believe it? A post written by Dave? I know, I know, I'm amazed too.

Allison told me I don't have to go into major detail, just a summary, so here's our latest life happenings in summary form. This covers basically what we've done from our anniversary on July 23rd until today, August 6th, incidentally Dad Greene's birthday.

Happy b-day to him. :-)

So we anniversaried by going to dinner at Cheesecake Factory, Crystal Cruises-style. Appetizers, wine, entrees, cheesecake and coffee. After that, we had a drink at the Sun Dial bar/restaurant/observatory at the top of the Westin Hotel in downtown Atlanta, much like Reunion Tower in Dallas. We seem to have a thing for rotating stuff during romantic moments. Sorry, sorry, I'm getting out of summary form. Too many details.

Allison's folks came into town the next day. We ate our cake tops that were expertly stored and frozen by Allison's mom.



And in traditional fashion, we took them to the Georgia Aquarium, Allison's 3rd time to attend, my 2nd. I know it looks like we're at a strange Ikea, but this really is at the Aquarium.



Next, without explaining why we did this (there is one), Cindy, Drew, Allison and I queued the movie ATL. It's about these 2 inner-city brothers from "the ATL" (Atlanta) who are about to graduate high school, etc, etc. Here we are acting like thugs after the movie:



And now it looks like Blogger won't let me put more than 3 pictures in 1 post so I'll be breaking this up into pieces, which, as you read this you already knew since you probably read the post at top of the blog first where I instructed you to scroll down and read this one first. :-)

We've moved to Smyrna, GA

This pic is of Dave driving the truck that our friends let us barrow! They saved our lives! This was a pretty good sized truck with a diesel engine that Dave really enjoyed driving.

By the way our new home city is pronounced Sm-er-na. (o: We are excited about our new home (apartment). However, because we had to move so quickly after our trip we won't have internet for a little while. So... we'll catch up with everyone in about a week (or less) (o;

Let me just say... we are getting a moving company next time!!! Poor Dave had to lift sooo much heavy stuff with the help of some guy friends of ours. I was really impressed with how hard everyone worked. Also... I can't tell you how many steps we've walked. One flight from our old place and two for our new place. So needless to say we are TIRED!!! I started packing some last Wednesday and with breaks it took us until today - Tuesday June 27th to get done. In fact I'm getting ready to take a our last load in my car to our new place. Then clean, clean and we're done!!

As for our new information. I should be sending either an email or post card out to everyone to let you know it. Please email me if you haven't given me your new information. (o; Thanks!

Cruise Pics 1

Us on our Veranda on an informal night.

Here we are in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Here we are in London, England. Big Ben!

More to come... (o;

Official World Travelers

Here I am at 6:30am, wide awake and rested. Good old jet lag. It hasn't really been that bad actually, going or coming back. We woke up this morning at around 4:30am and I've been up ever since. Allison went back to sleep and is just now waking up again as I type this.

I wanted to let everyone know that Allison and I are safely back from our late honeymoon/vacation and will be posting stories and photos as soon as we can. We filled two 512MB memory cards for a total of around 850 pictures and you can expect to see EVERY SINGLE ONE. Just kidding. I'm usually pretty good at narrowing down through the smorgasbord.

Some of you may not have even known we were gone so here's a quick re-cap.

My dad, who works at Crystal Cruises, gave/gifted Allison and I with a cruise as our wedding gift last year and we finally cashed in as soon as Allison was finished with school this year. This was my 3rd cruise and Allison's first. We originally wanted an Italy/Greece cruise but it was overbooked so we ended up doing Scandanavia which turned out to be unbelievable. I've never been international except for Canada and Mexico so it was a first for me. Allison did 2 months of student teaching in Australia/New Zealand as well as Paris with her family when she was younger. So at least she's been on a long flight over an ocean before. But needless to say, it was still a big new exciting experience for both of us.

We'll post more details later but for now, here are the places we visited, some on the cruise, some while traveling to and from the ship:

Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmo, Sweden
Gothenborg, Sweden
Oslo, Norway
St. Petersburg, Russia (my favorite)
Helsinki, Finland
Stockholm, Sweden
Nykoping, Sweden
London, England

Overall, it was one of the best experiences of my life and Allison and I are truly grateful to everyone involved and that we were able to add another adventure to our travel log.

Last Day of School!

May 26,2006 was the last day of school for me! I had such a great year with great teacher friends, great kiddos, great parents, and great memories. I know it wasn't a perfect year but I still liked it. Some of the parents really were generous. We had chick-fil-a nuggets, chips, ice cream (with a ton of fixin's), and awesome goodie bags that were like thin beach bags with the child's name on it! Oh and I got one with Mrs. Greene on it. (o: One mom even bought a cake from Sam's and it had a picture of our class on it. (The kind of picture you can eat) I am very happy to see all of the children in my class grow.

I'm excited about teaching First grade AGAIN in the SAME SCHOOL. This will be my first time to do this. I have had to move from the past two schools, one because of funding, and the other because I moved to ATL. So I can't wait for the new school year to come. However, I also can't wait for summer!

June - We're going on a beautiful Crystal Cruise for our late honeymoon. (We'll post more on that later) Later in the month we'll be moving to our new apartment. (o:

July - Dave will be flying. (o: I would like to go on some of his overnights with him. I'll be doing some training and babysitting if everything works out. Also I might try to make a trip to Texas since I have the time. It will be harder to non-rev. there during the school year. The flights get harder and harder to get on.

August 14th - First Day of school again.

That is our summer in a nutshell. (o;

Our New Apartment!

After many, many hours of hunting. Dave and I finally found our apartment that we will live in. Dave used to live down the road from it at Walton Vinings. So we knew that this apartment would have a great apartment and good staff to work with.
Walton Park

Here is our floor plan, check out the garden tub and HUGE kitchen!(o:
Two bedroom floor plan

Mother's Day Weekend

For Mother's day we sent home made cards to both moms. Dave's mom was going to be all alone on Mother's day so we decided to surprise her and come visit. We flew in on Sunday morning and wrote her an email basically saying, "see you soon!" We took her to eat at this local surfer joint called Neptune's Net and then walked along the Marina Del Ray beach. Also we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and Dave enjoyed some icecream. Pat and I had some Starbucks. Then we were off early the next morning for Atlanta. It was a quick trip but a lot of fun! We wish we could have seen my mom too but, Dallas is getting harder and harder to get to with our flight benefits.

Visiting Houston for Family and Angie

Dave was flying this weekend. He had an overnight in McAllen, Texas so I decided to go to Houston to see many family members and my friend Angie. It was really nice to see everyone! I saw my mom, dad, Patrick, Lydia, John, Michelle, Reganne, Pop, Polly, Great Aunt Jean, Cousin Patrick, Cousin Dan, Sheri, DJ, Chris, Cody, Great Uncle Dan, and Great Aunt Delle. We all met at Aunt Jean's house. There was a ton of yummy, yummy food! We talked, took pictures, and ate.

Then I headed to south Houston to meet up with Angie. She and I hung out with her friend Amber because it was her birthday. We had some yummy pizza and wine. Later Angie and I tried to stay up all night so she could take me to the airport around 4:00 AM. We ate Taco Cabana tortillas and cheese to help us stay awake. (YUMMMMMMM!! - we don't have Taco C. in Ga. - that I know of.) After that we took a two hour nap and then took me to the airport. I got home around 8am and decided to take a 2 hour nap again. I had an awesome time!

Arizona trip (in short)

Dave will probably post a more detailed description of our trip but, I wanted to share just a little while he's on a trip. After the wedding shower in Austin, TX I flew back to Atlanta Sunday April 2nd. Then Dave and I got all packed up and we left for Phoenix Monday April 3rd to go on a quick tour of Arizona and Vegas.

We rented a Saturn SUV for all of the mountain (and some off road) driving. Here are the places we went: Phoenix, Prescott (to see all of Dave's college places - and have In N Out and eat at the Prescott Brewing Co.), Prescott Valley, Jerome, Cottonwood, Sedona, Flagstaff, The Grand Canyon, Ashfork, Kingman, The Hoover Dam (where we almost got blown over the edge of it), Boulder City, and Vegas!

It was pretty quick for about a 3 day trip. We had a great time though! I had never been to that area of the US and it's one of Dave's favorite places. We have pictures of the trip and if you would like to see them just email us. (o;

Sarah's Wedding Shower

(In the picture - I'm running because I am still learning how to work the timer on the camera. hehe)
April 1, 2006 I helped host a shower for Sarah Holt. Even though I'm in Georgia I talked often with Sarah's friend Wendy to work on setting up a shower for Sarah. That weekend I was able to get Melanie Veatch to come fly with me to the shower and meet up with Katy Ellis. It was a great reuinion for us all. Sarah was so happy that we all could make it. The shower seemed to go great and everyone had a wonderful time. While I was there I got to visit some awesome local Austin places: The Oasis, Kirby Lane, and Trudy's. Plus it was nice to be back in Texas for a little visit.

Laura's Baby Shower

On March 11, 2006 Laura had a baby shower. The baby will be a boy and his name will be Noah Krey. The shower was great! Shelly had it at her house in Keller and it was a Noah's Ark theme. There were many adorible things that Laura got. The baby's room theme is Snoopy. She and Justin painted it and it looks adorible! Shelly is expecting her number 2 baby and she looked about ready to pop at Laura's shower! In the picture the people are as follows: Laura, Sarah, me, Selena, and Shelly. We are all sooo happy for Laura! Soon there will be cute Noah pictures to post! Auntie Allison lives too far away but I think I may have to make some trips to visit.

Allison's Birthday

Today is my birthday, March 9th! I'm so excited because I invited friends from work to hang out at Taco Mac after school to talk and eat. I've already heard that many of them can come and I can't wait. Plus Dave will be home so we can spend some time together on my birthday. (o:

In addition, we are going to Dallas this weekend to celebrate with my family. We will eat at Freebirds and Joe T. Garcias. Yea, Tex-Mex! I want to go get my nails done at the place I went to before I moved. Those ladys are so sweet. Another thing I will do is I will go to Laura's baby shower. She is having a baby boy named Noah Krey.

Yeah for age 25!!! Uh oh... 5 more years till 30!!!

The Big Winter Storm

Hear about the snow in the northeast this past weekend? I got to fly right into the lion's den! We arrived in Allentown, Pennsylvania around 11:15am. One leg to the overnight to sit in a hotel all day. Excitement city! I watched Olympics all day. Well, the skies were gray and threatening snow until around 4pm or so when it finally started coming down. And didn't stop until, well, I'm not sure because when I left for Atlanta it was still snowing. Here's what happened the next morning:

Overnight, Allentown got about 8-12 inches. Walking out the lobby doors at the Crown Plaza at 5am was intense enough on it's own. We were greeted with a blanket of snow between us and the van as well as swirling death winds b/c we were downtown amongst the tall buildings. Yes, they do have a few in ol' Allentown. None of the streets were plowed. Our top speed on the way to the airport was about 25mph; the driver spinning his tires a couple of times trying to get moving from stops. The Comair people at the ticket counter were like, "Wow! You guys are here!" At the gate, our passengers eyed myself and the captain suspiciously (he's 38 but looks 30). They're looking out the window at their snow-covered airplane. One man asks, "You guys are good, right?" I so badly want to say no when people ask that. Yes, I've heard it more than once when the weather is bad.

Down the jetway we go to our freezing metal tube. Zipped up snug in my leather jacket and gloves and a borrowed ear muff thing from the flight attendant, I ventured out into the cold to conduct the preflight examination of the aircraft. At one point, I had snow up to my knees while fighting the blistering winds and moderate snowfall. It was actually kind of fun. Trudging around in the snow with my flashlight. Needless to say, we had to de-ice.

We pushed back from the gate on time at 6:00am sharp. Now it was time to clean the plane. First, we have to de-ice all the snow and ice built up on the plane overnight. We configured the aircraft and the truck circled around and shot us with it's hose. One guy up on the cherry picker arm and one guy driving the truck. That took about 15 minutes or so. Now, since it is still snowing moderately, the wings and tail have to be sprayed with anti-ice fluid to prevent anything from re-freezing long enough for us to take off. Well, the truck can't get pressure for the anti-ice fluid so they have to call out a competitor's truck. In this case, Continental. One of the Comair guys has a buddy over there and he helps us out. But it takes a while. Finally they arrive and coat us up with green goo.

Off we go! The Captain carefully swings us around on the icy snow-covered ramp only to find he isn't getting very good traction, at least, not enough to turn us so that we can make the entrance to the taxiway. Now we're stuck. The crew that pushed us back from the gate comes back out to push us back about 20 feet with the tug so we can make the turn. This takes a while. While it's taking a while, we're looking at the clock and noticing that our window for taking off in icing conditions with our anti-ice fluid is quickly closing and finally slams shut. Like I said, depending on the type of precipitation, we have a certain amount of time before the fluid loses it's effectiveness. So call back the Continental truck. First they re-de-ice us with the Comair truck, then re-anti-ice us with the Continental truck. By now the sun has cast some light on the Earth, allowing us to see just how gray and dreary everything is in the constant snowfall.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, once again from the flight deck....I've finally got good news for you. Everything is set to go and we're going to be number two for takeoff once we reach the end of the runway. We do realize your frustration and appreciate your patience and we will do everything to get you to Atlanta as quickly and safely as possible."

At 8:15am, 2 hours and 15 minutes after pushing back from the gate, we are on our way to Atlanta.

January

It seems that in January there is this kind of "blah" feeling since all of the holidays and gift giving is over and it's BACK TO WORK.

Dave and I were feeling the "January blues" recently but we do have somethings that are going to make this month a little more exciting. Dave is getting a new car! He researched some different ones and found an awesome car for a nice price. It's the Scion TC. This will be nice for Dave because it has a bit more pep then his good trusty Toyota truck. We are still keeping the truck for now.

Also this MLK weekend Dave and I are going to go to Virgina. We are going to see some of Dave's old memories. Plus we will see my great Aunt Delle and her daughter Tony and her husband R.D. We will also go to D.C. for a quick tour.

In other news: work is work, and Douglasville is Douglasville. (o;

Christmas Holiday

For Christmas, Dave's family (Pat, Tom, and Ellen) came to Atlanta for a whirlwind tour of the best the city has to offer. Here's what we did in no particular order:

Stone Mountain: There's a lot to see and do there if you want to go all tourist-out. We decided to take the cable car up to the top and then hiked down, one of several hiking/riding combinations possible. There were many names and dates carved into the mountain by previous visitors. Because we are all so ridiculously silly, break time during the hike included a fun shadow puppet show. Once we reached the bottom, we saw the confederate generals ("the dudes") carved in the side of the mountain. It was a gorgeous view and we enjoyed the fresh air.

Also we went to the new Georgia Aquarium. We saw beluga whales, penguins, otters, all kinds of fish, and many more creatures. It was quite the aquarium.

Hmmm...let's see....We hiked in Sweetwater Park, which is just around the corner from our apartment. The view was nice and the weather was perfect for a hike.

Allison had heard of a great restaurant from her friend Melaine and we wanted to take the family. So we ate at the Flying Biscuit. We all chowed down on the "towering" buttery flaky biscuits. No, that's not all we ate, but they were quite buttery and good.

While Allison took the GRE downtown, everyone else explored the Georgia capital building and saw MLK Jr.'s church, childhood house and grave.

After the GRE was over, we all went to a downtown market with fresh produce and "meat." Interested in a whole ox tail? Or maybe some pig ears? How about cow stomach? Naturally, we ate lunch there and had some excellent desert of red velvet cake, caramel cake, and sweet potato pie. The lunch did NOT include any of the above meats.

For our official Christmas night we opened many presents. Plus we played Shanghai, Scattegories and Scrabble. Hmmm...all S's.

Each evening, we got a recap of pictures from Dave and Tom. And everyone thought we were annoying with just ONE camera!!! Mwahhahahaha! We took many pictures throughout the holiday and we got to see ALL of them. (o;

We were both so happy to have had everyone to our new place. Plus it was great to see them again since the last time we saw them was the wedding!

On the real Christmas Eve/Day Dave and I just spent some quality time eating fondue, watching cheesy Christmas movies, playing games, opening our presents to each other and just enjoyed our first Christmas together.

We will email out an email (o: when we get the pictures up on Shutterfly.

Turkey Day

To celebrate Thanksgiving Dave and I went to Ohio. Pop, Polly, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Lydia, John, Michelle, Reganne, Uncle Don, Stephanie, her boyfriend Ryan, Aunt Jeannie, Uncle Dennis, his daughter, and her family. I think that was everyone? Gee there were a lot of us.

We flew in Tuesday (first class). Wednesday we went to the Airforce Museum so Pop could tell all of his stories to Dave and Uncle Dennis. We will be sending out the pictures in an email. If you do not receive one in the next week or so and you'd like to see the pictures please email one of us and we'll send you one. That evening we met up with Ryan and Steph to play pool with them.

Thursday morning we met Dave's relatives Barb Marriot and George Marriot. They live right down the street from Pop and Polly! Then we met the family at the Officer's Club for a Thanksgiving feast. It was super! Later that night we went with Ryan and Steph to see Harry Potter!! It was excellent! Steph and Dave said that it had some great similarities to the book however there were some differences.

It snowed a little in Ohio and my mom hit me with a snow ball! Oh and I got Dave with one. hehe (o; Reganne tried out snow for the first time and she looked soooo cute all bundled up!

Friday we flew home kind of early and made first class again. (a benefit we may not have for long)

Overall we had a wonderful Turkey Day! Also we wanted to let you know that we are very thankful for our friends and family!

Idaho Tourism

The state legislature of Idaho has issued an official commendation of the creators of Napolean Dynamite. Apparently they are sighting them for the "increased tourism and economic growth" the movie is creating. Here are some of my favorite direct quotes from the bill:

"The Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention"

"...tater tots figure prominently in this film, thus promoting Idaho's most famous export..."

"Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics..."

"Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation..."

"Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships..."

"Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools..."

Think I'm kidding? Go check it out for yourself.

Dave's Roots

This past weekend, Dave and I went to Houston on his overnight. He was able to show me his old house, High school, Randall's, and other old memories. We also got to eat lunch with Raj (his bestman / best friend from high school)

Then we went to Galveston and saw another old house of Dave's and his old school. Plus Dave was noticing things that had changed there... like a huge building that isn't there anymore right on the seawall.

After all that we met up with Angie (my friend from Baylor) and her boyfriend Matt at Bennigans. We needed to catch up. I miss Angie!

Overall it was a great trip! Gosh Texas is hot!! It was nice to see "home" again.(o;

Allison vs. 50 Cent

Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Hmmm. For those of you familiar with pop culture, you are also likely familiar with the rap artist, "50 Cent." That's 50 CENT singular, not plural. Even though there are multiple cents involved once you go over 1 cent, he chooses not to use proper English.

Recently, this entrepreneur has taken the obvious next step in a "music" career that many "musicians" do: Movies! Yes, that's right folks, it's the long-awaited 50-Cent film, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. What is this movie about? From what I understand, it's basically his true life story about doing whatever it takes to "make that paper" so you can have fancy cars, big houses and lots of bling-bling. Whatever it takes involves lots of wonderful selfish criminal acts with no regard for anyone but me Me ME!

In addition to a new movie, he also has a new video game coming out called, "50-Cent: Bulletproof." The cover features a computerized version of 50-Cent's mug looking all sinister and intimidating. The goal of the game is to use your gang of followers to kill as many people as possible in order to gain power, respect and most-importantly, CASH baby! Target even has a sweepstakes where you can win the new game and a bunch of gansta loot, including my favorite item, a life-sized cutout of 50-Cent himself. I'm peeing my pants I'm so excited! Oh and don't forget the bling. It literally says that. Go look at the website.

Who is going to see this movie/buy this game? More importantly, what kind of message does all this crap send? And who really teaches our (proverbial) kids this days? Is it Allison and the under-appreciated group of teachers that have to put up with kids who's parents send them to school after letting them be exposed to this sort of junk, therefore undermining any concept of morals and respect that kids should have? Or is it 50-Cent and his G-Unit?

You decide.

In a recent interview, 50-Cent was asked if he was planning on continuing with a movie career or sticking to music. "It's a big thing making a jump to movies, but I took a HUGE PAY CUT to do this film. Let's say I had an album that sold 6.5 million units. If I had been touring for three months, I probably would've made maybe $15 million. That's likely more than I'll make for this." Man, that must suck, huh? Less than 15 million in 3 months. Life can be rough sometimes but you just have to keep that chin up.

How much does Allison make?

I rest my case.

Halloween weekend

Dave and I went to Murphy's restaurant in Virgina Highlands for (My twin friends from Texas that live in GA too) Mel and David Veatch's birthday celebration. It was a fun time to eat and chat while being all dressed up.

Mel was in a bright orange wig with a flashing pumpkin necklace and a crazy/glittered orange mask. I told her she was the spirit of Halloween. Her boyfriend Danny was Tom Cruise from Top Gun. Mel said she was Katie Holmes dressed up for Halloween. (o;

Dave was dressed up like a cowboy wearing a HUGE belt buckle. (It was really our Texas Trivet) Very creative and funny! I was a pirate with jingly coins on my boots.

David Veatch was a priest with a walking stick. The food was great and the conversations were much needed. This was the first time in awhile we have all been able to hang out. Happy 25th Birthday Mel and David! Happy Halloween everyone!

Wedding things are getting wrapped up.

We have worked hard to finish Thank you notes but, we appogize about the last few that took so long to complete. Finally... a few weeks ago we finished our last documented thank you note! Yeah!!!! (all you married people know what I'm talking about)

Plus we were able to take the (traffic filled - weekend construction issues on I-20) trip to downtown ATL to get some final William Sonoma and Crate and Barrel gifts. Thank you for the gift cards!! We enjoyed searching out things we really wanted and didn't get. Plus we got some fun random things like little funky cheese knives from Pottery Barn. (o:

** Did you know that Crate and Barrel gift cards can be used at Pottery Barn? Well they can! **

The only other wedding thing that I'm not sure will ever get wrapped up (until we move) is that the apartment kitchen just doesn't fit some of these wonderful appliances that we have! So we are finding that this second room/closet is great for storing things! Everyone who said, "You'll need a lot of room" you were right!

Salmon?

Check out Alaska Airlines' new special paint scheme:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/933358/M