July 25, 2007

Last week we spent a lot of time on the road between here and Bethlehem, PA in a Pontiac Vibe (nice little vehicle). It was a working vacation of sorts, perhaps even a working honeymoon. I was sent to Bethlehem by my boss to straighten out the office up there after our assistant director retired. She knew that with my OCD tendencies, I'd have the office neat and orderly in no time. I even got to do one of my favorite things of all time -- buy new office supplies! Our assistant director didn't have much of anything in the way of basic office supplies.

I uploaded some pictures to our Flickr account -- the office after I finished organizing it and our time at the New Market Battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley. We stopped at a local zoo in near Natural Bridge, VA on the way to Bethlehem, but we left the camera in the car. Dumb us. The zoo was MUCH fun. We got to pet camels and goats and llamas, and we came up close and personal with giraffes! Sadly, we didn't buy any food for the animals. There were lots of different animals (kookaburas, zebras, big camels, baby camels, bears, tigers, mountain lions, exotic birds, alligators, little deer, monkeys, etc). Most of the animals were in big cages or big fenced areas so you could get up relatively close to see them. We can't wait to go to the NC zoo now!

We spent four days on the road (4 hours each on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday) and only one day (Wednesday) not traveling. We both agreed that it really wasn't worth all the driving to be somewhere for just one day. Since work was paying for it though, it was nice to be out and about together.

We got back home on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday afternoon my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows arrived! HOORAH! I read it all by mid-afternoon on Sunday. I won't spoil the ending but I was very sad by the deaths of several characters.

This weekend we're going to my mom's to see my family from Oklahoma. Jamie's not too thrilled about the 3 hours there and the 3 hours back riding in the car after all the riding we just did last week. But I'd be disinherited by my dear uncle Duck (his name's Don, but he called himself Don Duck when he was younger because people asked him if he was Donald Duck) who wants to size up my new husband. Hehe.

Tomato Update: My little tomato finally ripened and I ate it. It was very good. However, his brothers and sisters did not survive. Two of them suffered a broken branch and died on the vine. Another fell off prematurely (probably helped by a furry critter) and a third was being happily eaten by a chipmunk the day we left for Bethlehem. Now I just have a tomato plant....just leaves and stems, no tomatoes. Sigh!