Hey everyone,
It has taken us (me) a long time to get organized to post up some goodies. John and I had a great time in NC for the holidays, and we even got to see Wake Forest play in the bowl game in Charlotte. Check out Brian's blog entry about John's wonderful time watching the game. I stayed in NC for two more weeks to chill with the Goldstein Lab and to do some experiments that will hopefully help the paper Bob and I are writing find a nice home in a journal.
The last few weeks in AZ have been my Return To Routine. If anyone knows me well, this RTR is an exciting time for me; my obsession with my red daily planner and pages of to-do lists comfort me, while the chaos around holidays keeps me a bit unsettled (even if I am having an awesome time). I've heard that this part of me stems from my early childhood problems with potty training. Happy New Year, everyone!
I do want to share a bit of my joy with everyone. You may remember, a few posts back, that our house was burglarized. When talking with our landlord about making the house more secure, I mentioned the doggie-door in the back possibly needing to be closed off. This was sad to imagine Winston running into a wall where the door used to be, but I felt that someone could crawl through pretty easily (especially in the likelihood that would-be robbers could be thin from all the meth around Tucson). John quickly said, "That's ridiculous. Nobody could fit through there." I could smell the challenge before he finished his sentence. Some of you may have even weighed in on our bet over whether or not I could fit through there. Some thought my head too big (wrong! quite the opposite, folks), my shoulders too broad (really?!), or even my hips too wide (thanks very much, jerks). I'm writing about this, because you can only imagine the outcome......Enjoy!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Christmas spirit
Hey everyone,
We've had quite an adventure the last few days. We had a fantastic weekend up until late Sunday night. Sunday morning we had brunch with Somer and James at the very classy La Paloma resort, and Sunday night we did a 5k fun run with friends (and Winston) through Winterhaven's Festival of Lights where the houses completely deck out their houses for the holidays. Ben was even brave enough to wear a sparkly Christmas vest, which turned out to be a great way for us walkers to know where the runners in our pack were.
After having some snacks and drinks at Ben and Kara's house after the run, we got back home to find out we were burglarized sometime in the 4 hours we were gone...the front door totally kicked in. Fortunately, they didn't take everything....just things that could fit into my Jansport backpack. This included John's laptop (with all of his research), my Ipod, the Metamorph key from UNC (you science geeks will know how painful that is), and every single piece of jewelry I own(ed). The jewelry part stings a lot, partly because there were some very valuable pieces from John ever since we first started dating, and partly because all of Mom's jewelry was in there too....nice stuff as well as sterling/costume stuff that I would wear to channel Mom's good taste. Grandma's crystal necklace is gone too...fortunately, I got to wear that out on the town not too long ago. I'm devastated about the jewelry, and even more devastated about feeling so violated. These jerk-faces were in our home, snooping, touching everything.
The Tucson Police were fantastic, and given the dollar value of things stolen reached a certain limit, the Crime Scene Unit came out and were fingerprinting the whole house until 1:30 in the morning. They were terrific, and humored me every time I pointed to something and said, "They had to touch that! I didn't put that there." If you know me at all, you won't be surprised to know that when the Crime Scene Unit people commented on how spotless our house was underneath the mess of the burglars, I had a little moment of celebration inside. As mentioned before, Winston was with us while the burglars were here, so he was neither hurt physically or traumatized.
So, we've spent the day cleaning from the burglars and the fingerprinting dust that's everywhere, and dealing with police and insurance report stuff. We are totally spooked, and it will take me a glass of wine (or two) before bed to settle down, but I know that soon we'll be more confident about our safety. I should also say that our landlord has been super....he stayed with us the entire time cops were here, and was here again at 7am with a contractor to discuss the best options for a new front door, and he's now considering a security system. He's owned this house since 1971 and lived in the house the majority of the time since then, and this is the first break-in. Between those comfortable 36 years and the fact that we live on a busy, well-lit road in a house with a well-lit exterior, he's a bit shocked about this incident too....which means he is taking it very seriously.
I also want to mention that Ben and Kara have been so generous....when we told them what happened, within 15 minutes they called and insisted on bringing dinner for us tonight. So, Kara made her family's classic pasta comfort food (with extra for leftovers) and brought a bottle of wine for the four of us to enjoy together. I am so thankful that we have such terrific friends, and hope that they know how much it meant to us.
Sniff, sniff:
Fingerprint dust on cabinets:
We've had quite an adventure the last few days. We had a fantastic weekend up until late Sunday night. Sunday morning we had brunch with Somer and James at the very classy La Paloma resort, and Sunday night we did a 5k fun run with friends (and Winston) through Winterhaven's Festival of Lights where the houses completely deck out their houses for the holidays. Ben was even brave enough to wear a sparkly Christmas vest, which turned out to be a great way for us walkers to know where the runners in our pack were.
After having some snacks and drinks at Ben and Kara's house after the run, we got back home to find out we were burglarized sometime in the 4 hours we were gone...the front door totally kicked in. Fortunately, they didn't take everything....just things that could fit into my Jansport backpack. This included John's laptop (with all of his research), my Ipod, the Metamorph key from UNC (you science geeks will know how painful that is), and every single piece of jewelry I own(ed). The jewelry part stings a lot, partly because there were some very valuable pieces from John ever since we first started dating, and partly because all of Mom's jewelry was in there too....nice stuff as well as sterling/costume stuff that I would wear to channel Mom's good taste. Grandma's crystal necklace is gone too...fortunately, I got to wear that out on the town not too long ago. I'm devastated about the jewelry, and even more devastated about feeling so violated. These jerk-faces were in our home, snooping, touching everything.The Tucson Police were fantastic, and given the dollar value of things stolen reached a certain limit, the Crime Scene Unit came out and were fingerprinting the whole house until 1:30 in the morning. They were terrific, and humored me every time I pointed to something and said, "They had to touch that! I didn't put that there." If you know me at all, you won't be surprised to know that when the Crime Scene Unit people commented on how spotless our house was underneath the mess of the burglars, I had a little moment of celebration inside. As mentioned before, Winston was with us while the burglars were here, so he was neither hurt physically or traumatized.
So, we've spent the day cleaning from the burglars and the fingerprinting dust that's everywhere, and dealing with police and insurance report stuff. We are totally spooked, and it will take me a glass of wine (or two) before bed to settle down, but I know that soon we'll be more confident about our safety. I should also say that our landlord has been super....he stayed with us the entire time cops were here, and was here again at 7am with a contractor to discuss the best options for a new front door, and he's now considering a security system. He's owned this house since 1971 and lived in the house the majority of the time since then, and this is the first break-in. Between those comfortable 36 years and the fact that we live on a busy, well-lit road in a house with a well-lit exterior, he's a bit shocked about this incident too....which means he is taking it very seriously.
I also want to mention that Ben and Kara have been so generous....when we told them what happened, within 15 minutes they called and insisted on bringing dinner for us tonight. So, Kara made her family's classic pasta comfort food (with extra for leftovers) and brought a bottle of wine for the four of us to enjoy together. I am so thankful that we have such terrific friends, and hope that they know how much it meant to us.
Here is our bedroom, where most of the mess was:
Sniff, sniff:
Fingerprint dust on cabinets:
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving fun
Brian and Heather left our house a few hours ago, and all three of us at home are exhausted and already nostalgic about the awesome visit with them. We watched Dad carve their turkey via webcam, cooked a huge Thanksgiving dinner, played around Mt. Lemmon (very cold up at 8,000 ft), saw some great desert critters at the Desert Museum, drank prickly pear margaritas, and played Rock Band on Xbox360. It was so much fun having them here, and great to finally celebrate Thanksgiving with Brian!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Go Cats!
We went to our first UofA basketball game with Tim, Ben, and Kara, and it was against the ACC's own Virginia. It was a great game, even if the Wildcats lost. I meant to post this earlier, but things have been busy between preparing for Thanksgiving at our house, work in my lab, and an unhealthy obsession with the dog posted below.
I saw her while volunteering at the shelter, and her cute little face was screaming for a new home with us. Don't worry...we haven't adopted her (yet), but the inner debate between head and heart has been troubling. I mean, we want Winston to be our best buddy....we don't need to become a zoo. She is adorable, and her personality is sweet and calm....she is still available at PACC if anyone is interested in giving her a good home.
I saw her while volunteering at the shelter, and her cute little face was screaming for a new home with us. Don't worry...we haven't adopted her (yet), but the inner debate between head and heart has been troubling. I mean, we want Winston to be our best buddy....we don't need to become a zoo. She is adorable, and her personality is sweet and calm....she is still available at PACC if anyone is interested in giving her a good home.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Fun Week in the AZ Autumn
Hey everyone!
This was an awesome week. It started with a fun visit with Zach. We showed him our favorite Mexican restaurants in town and between the three of us, drained the Tucson supply of margaritas. It was wonderful to see a familiar face, and to show him our new home. And the week's fun continued with the annual CATwalk, a 5K walk on the UofA campus to benefit women's cancer research. The Hoffmans met us for a brunch at our house, and all four of us (along with Winston and Charlie) did the walk together. You can tell from the picture how excited Winston was for company.
This was an awesome week. It started with a fun visit with Zach. We showed him our favorite Mexican restaurants in town and between the three of us, drained the Tucson supply of margaritas. It was wonderful to see a familiar face, and to show him our new home. And the week's fun continued with the annual CATwalk, a 5K walk on the UofA campus to benefit women's cancer research. The Hoffmans met us for a brunch at our house, and all four of us (along with Winston and Charlie) did the walk together. You can tell from the picture how excited Winston was for company.
Friday, November 2, 2007
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