Jamie went upstairs for a shower before work tonight while I was puttering around in the kitchen prepping for supper. I thought I heard him say something, but I wasn't sure since the AC was on. So I scooted around to the stairs to ask if he did indeed say something. When I got there, he was standing at the top of the stairs looking towards the bathroom and said, "There's a really weird bug in the tub."
So, I cautiously went in the bathroom and peered into the tub. Here's what greeted me:
Not much going on at Casa de Hyland. But I did take a few pictures during lunch at work today. They're uploaded to our Flickr album. Enjoy!
Here we are at Lowes' Motor Speedway in Concord, NC for the Nationwide Series Camping World 300 on Saturday, May 23, 2009. This was in-between rain showers where both times the heavens opened up and unleashed a massive flood. Needless to say, we didn't get to watch a full 300 mile race. More pictures from Saturday night are in our Flickr album.
We started off our Memorial Day weekend lounging around watching tv in bed. Luckily, the race wasn't until waaaay later in the afternoon so we didn't have to rush to get anywhere. We packed up our race gear and headed off to Concord after 3pm. We had plenty of time for a quick trip to Concord Mills before the race, where Jamie used some birthday/Christmas gift cards at Eddie Bauer. That was our first trip to Concord Mills and I think we'll probably go back again when it isn't so crowded with holiday weekenders and race fans. As we were leaving the mall, we noticed the very nasty clouds hanging off in the direction of the track. We quickly (for the race traffic) headed down the boulevard and got parked behind the dirt track (across the street from the speedway). I could hear that Happy Hour (practice for the Sprint Cup cars) had just started. We parked closer to turn 4 and our seats were just before turn 1, so we had quite a ways to walk before we got to our seats. About halfway through our walk we came to an almost dead stop. People were POURING out of the stands. We looked to our right to see that it was POURING rain outside. But we were comfortably dry under the stands, even if we were packed in like sardines and not moving fast. Finally we made it to our grandstand and stumbled up my folks. We all stood between the bathrooms and concession booths for probably about 45 minutes before we heard the big jet driers come out to dry the track. Our race started about an hour later than it was supposed to. Luckily, the drivers were able to race to just past halfway before the rains started again. The driers came back out on the track, but the rain was coming down way too fast for them to get much headway on the mile and a half track. Finally the race was called and Mike Bliss, who took a gamble to stay out during the caution, was declared the winner. That was really cool because Mom and I saw Mike Bliss win at her first NASCAR race back in 2005. In the pouring rain, we parted ways and headed back to our vehicles. Jamie and I were back home before 2am.Happy Anniversary to Us!
On Monday, we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We decided to take the day off and trekked to the zoo, one of our all time favorite places to go.
Here we are in the African Pavilion, which had been transformed into an oasis of orchids. The weather was perfect and the crowds were very minimal. We had an excellent day together wandering from exhibit to exhibit. We got to see ever animal we didn't get to see last time, and the ones that were sleeping last time were awake this time! The only lazy bones on Monday were the lions, but it was late afternoon by the time we got to that part of the zoo so I'm sure they were exhausted from a long day of being looked at by humans.
I've posted a few of my favorite zoo pictures (taken by both of us) to the Flickr album. More will be coming as soon as we weed through all 330 of them.
Mom and Aunt Gloria stayed over Sunday night after their weekend at Victory Junction Gang Camp. We had a good, but very short, time with them.
Friday afternoon (going through this past weekend in reverse order if you haven't noticed by now), we headed over to Reynolda Gardens to have a go around the nature trail since the afternoon was very pleasant and we both wanted to stretch our legs. I sneezed my head off the ENTIRE time, but still liked the walk very much. We took lots of pictures in the woods (it was very green) and took some pictures in the gardens too. This part of the season is sorta in-between for flowers. The spring flowers (tulips, daffodils, etc) are mostly gone, but the summer flowers (day lilies, roses, etc) haven't started blooming yet. All of the pictures from that little trip are in our Flickr album too.
In a few weeks, we'll be heading down to Charlotte for the Carquest Auto Parts 300 Nationwide Race. YAY! Fast cars! VROOOOM!!! Also another great place to take photos.
On Easter Sunday we headed over to Greensboro to visit the Natural Science Center. We saw lots of neat stuff, including TIGERS!! I took lots of pictures, and they're uploaded to our Flickr account.
Also check out the new pictures of my craft projects on the Jewelry page of Stylishly Crafty. I've been a busy bee. I even just finished with an attempt to marble some paper. It didn't work out too well. Out of about 10 attempts, only two pieces of paper came out looking like marbled paper. The rest looked like some kindergartner's messy fingerpainting page. OH well. I didn't have the right supplies so I was just winging it. My mom and I did a WONDERFUL job with a paper marbling kit when I was in middle school, but we had all the necessary supplies.
Today at lunch, since it was such a nice day, I snapped some pictures of the lovely garden on campus. Those pictures are on Flickr too. But here are a few of my favorites.
Happy Easter!
We haven't been up to much lately. The weather has been edging towards nice, though we have recently had some very chilly days. The past couple of days have been nice enough for me to get out to take some pictures of the pretty spring colors. I've uploaded a few flower pictures to the Flickr album. This set of pictures is the first that I've done some post-editing in photoshop. I didn't do any adjustments on the lighting, color, balance or anything fancy like that. I just framed the pictures a little better. It's amazing how a photo straight out of the camera can go from eh to wow with just a little crop work. Here are some examples:
Straight out of the camera:
Here is the photo cropped:
Straight out of the camera:
Cropped:
See the difference? The subject of the photo is a little more apparent. This bed of tulips is in front of one of the signs for our apartment complex. It happens to be at a busy intersection. I bet the people going by in their cars thought I was really weird there in a bed of flowers down on my knees with a camera. Enjoy the other photos in our Flickr album, and I hope we get to make some trips oot and aboot to take more pictures! I really hope we'll get to Grandfather Mountain sometime this spring. We're just waiting for a nice weekend to head off to the zoo. Plus we're going to the Nationwide race in Charlotte at the end of May.
I've been extremely crafty lately. Two co-workers gave me a TON of beads and stuff for my birthday. So far I've made four necklaces, a bracelet, and three purses. I need to get pictures of that stuff to add to my crafty page.
March blew in like a lion. A big snowy lion.
Needless to say, with 3 inches of snow on the ground, I didn't have to go to work today! YAY! Three-day weekend. I don't have to go to work until 10am tomorrow morning. The temperature stayed at or below freezing all day so most of the snow is still around or has turned to ice. For more pictures, see our flickr album!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
Today is my mom's birthday. Her best birthday present was having her last radiation treatment today. YAY!
This past Sunday was my birthday. Monday I came home after lunch and stayed home for the next three days with what I guess was the flu. I went back to work today. Ugh. It was awful. At least I wasn't stuffy and could breathe just fine. But I felt horrible and kept a fever for three full days. Now I sound like I'm trying to hack up a lung. I'm moderately better now. For the first day and a half I just sprawled in the recliner staring at the tv. I have no idea what I watched. My dear sweet loving husband took very good care of me.
I had a sunny little welcome when I got home from work this afternoon. Daffodils!
Maybe sunshine and warm weather are on their way! (Well...maybe after Sunday, when it's supposed to be cold and wintry again...bah)
It's finally February and it's time for Crazy NC weather! Two weeks ago this was the scene:
At roughly 4pm or so, it started snowing. By the time I got home an hour later, it looked like that. It stopped snowing by 6pm. We were the only school in the entire county that didn't have at least a 2 hour delay the next morning.
Last Wednesday, I had lunch outside with no socks on.
Today, I saw a few random snow flakes flutter by my window around 10:30am.
I either want a foot of snow or 70 degrees and sunshine. I'm tired of the in-betweeness!
HORRAY that race season has started! Now there will finally be something to watch on tv on Sundays!! YAY!
Jamie and I had a lovely Valentine's day. I made a superb Chicken Parmesan that got the following comment: "This is better than they have at Olive Garden."My favorite antique in our place is a cabinet that is probably at least as old as my grandpa, maybe older. The cabinet lived in the pantry of my great-grandma's (Grandpa's mother) house. When she passed away and the family was divi'ing up furniture from her house, I asked if I could have this plain jane cabinet. At the time it was white and I think the inside was painted green, but maybe I'm imagining that part and the inside was actually white too. But anyway. It was such a unique little piece and I wanted it. Mom kept it for me until I got my first apartment. Then she painted it for me to go along with the decor I was using for my kitchen/dining room theme at the time. Here's what it looked like:
Jamie and I have slowly been moving our kitchen colors away from pinks and purples to bolder, autumn colors. I didn't especially want to repaint the cabinet because it would take a lot of time and I had no idea what to paint on it. Then I had a stroke of genius last night. I got a set of fall colored scrapbook paper for Christmas, and wondered if I could just tape the paper on the door's panels. Here's how that turned out:
I took six pieces of paper, trimmed them to fit the spaces, scalloped the bottom edge of three pieces, and taped them in place. I am rather pleased with the outcome. I do keep wondering if I need something to go on the top paper in each panel, like a diamond or an oval in a different color. For now, it's going to stay like this.
Update on the family: Mom had her last chemo treatment on December 23. I think I forgot to mention that. This past week she started her round of radiation therapy. She will go for treatment five days a week for six weeks. Luckily the radiation place is close enough to where my grandparents go for their rehab that she gets to ride with them three days a week. But the treatment isn't horribly long or draining on her system, so she drives herself the other two days. My poor broken Mema is on the mend. Mom said Mema actually walked a full two miles last week at rehab.HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Over a week later....)
Here's my latest creation:
I got this little bowl in a set with a matching spreader (like for cheese or dip, I suppose). I knew I'd probably never use the set as it was intended. This morning while I was dozing I had the brilliant thought that maybe I could paint the little bowl and use it on the table on my side of the bed. The above picture is the nearly finished product. I'm putting several layers of glue over the paint to help seal it in.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
We have had a great Christmas! Last night we went to a Christmas Eve Lovefeast at my boss's church. Since she invited us especially I knew we really needed to go. Plus, who can say no to a free lovefeast bun? Mmmm. It was a very lovely service. My boss sang in the choir and they did a wonderful job. When we got home we each opened one present from each other. Jamie got the Futurama: Bender's Game DVD and I got a new pair of slippers.
This morning (or rather....early this afternoon because we didn't get up until after noon) I made Orange Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast and we opened presents. We had presents from the West Coast folks as well as our presents to each other. Today's haul included: 3 bags of coffee, tons of candy, gift cards to Eddie Bauer/Walmart/Starbucks, cash, Ironman on BluRay, slipper socks, I Heart My Geek tshirt, isotoner gloves, a violin shoulder rest, a Post-It note cube, a 4gb thumb drive, charger dock for Jamie's Zune, Playstation 3 remote, James May's Magnificent Machines book, Penny Arcade Bird's Are Weird comic book, tooth brushes, and a chocolate orange.
After presents we played Warhammer for a while together. On Sunday of this week we bought a new montior so we could set up a second computer for playing games together. While we played Warhammer, we put a London Broil in the oven to cook. Christmas dinner was very tasty. We had beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, collards (thanks Mema!!!), deviled eggs, parkerhouse rolls, and sparkling grape juice. For dessert we're eventually going to have some chocolate pie, but we're still stuffed at the moment.
It was a very good Christmas for just the two of us. We missed our families, but we hear they had a pretty good time without us.
We hope your Christmas was just as good as ours!
Update on Beth's sickly family: My dear Mema who is taking care of two sick people right now got her feet tangled up in her laptop cords the other day and fell flat on her chest on the living room's concrete floor. Mom said they thought Mema probably cracked a rib or two, but she won't go to the doctor. Mema had to putter through Christmas Eve preparations with a very sore abdominal area. Mom had her last Chemo treatment the day before Christmas Eve and had her last Nuelasta shot on Christmas Eve. Luckily, the side effects of the treatements usually take a day or two before they kick in, so she felt plenty well enough to help Mema in the kitchen, especially since Mema couldn't reach for things up high or down low or carry heavy stuff. Mom starts her radiation therapy on January 7. That treatment will be everyday, 5 days a week for 32 days.
Here's what it looks like right now where Jamie used to live:
Brrrrrrr!!!!
Added more holiday pictures to the Flickr album. Enjoy!
Happy Holidays from the Hylands!
I've uploaded a few pictures of our holiday decor to the Flickr album. I need to take a few more!
We've already gotten a bit of our Christmas. We exchanged presents when Mom, Mema, and Grandpa came up for Thanksgiving. So far our Christmas haul includes: drill bits, a box cutter, clothes, a heavy duty staple gun, a tripod for the camera, Yahtzee, Rummykub, playing cards and a playing card holder, new sheetmusic, scrapbook stuff, a new door mat, a nice pen, a neat radio/flashlight that can be cranked up for power, Santa burner covers, a Christmas bell, and a cutting board.
Then this past weekend, we went shopping for Jamie's grandma's gifts to put under our tree. We bought four new pillows, new sheets for our still new bed, pillow shams to match the new quilt for our new bed, a Playstation game for Jamie, new shoes and a new shirt for me, kitchen towels and washcloths, and a spacious camera bag for our camera and all its accessories.
Even with all the stuff we've already gotten, we still have a massive pile of presents under the tree!
I get two full weeks off of work starting next Monday! I haven't gotten that much time off during the holidays since I was in school! Awesome!!! (This isn't vacation time. This is free holiday time!!!) I have no idea what we'll do to while away the hours. I'm sure there will be much video gaming and even more lazying about.
At work tomorrow I'm looking forward to stuffing myself silly at our departmental Christmas lunch. I'm taking green bean casserole and a yummy cornbread casserole (is it tacky that I totally just spooned up a corner of the casserole for a taste and now there's a hole?!). On top of the food, I'll also be providing the musical entertainment with a co-worker who plays the guitar.
Merry Christmas!!!
I've been tagged!
Seven days till Thanksgiving and look what we woke up to this morning:
First snow of the season up here, though Mom said they had snow on Tuesday. Well pffffft on them. More snow pictures are in our Flickr album.
I've done all the Christmas shopping I was planning to do except for the gifts we'll ship out to people. Those gifts just have to be finished and mailed. There's a pile of lovely presents in one of the closets in our guest room (that now has a bed!).
I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!
They're alive!
My poor little mum that was chewed to pieces by a squirrel has survived to bloom again. YAY!
Oh, and we have photoshop again. :)