A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend

Be prepared to weep and be moved. If you have 10 minutes, listen to this speech:
http://www.scatterstick.com/leespeech.html

I used to work with her husband and have been following her story. I am humbled by their strength.

If you are interested, here is the whole story. Start at the beginning and remember to carry kleenex:
http://luchalee.wordpress.com/

A blog for Todd

See, Todd, I told you I would remember the title.

It's been a while since I posted and it is not due to lack of activity, it's due to too much activity. Summer is upon us and the ice cap called Michigan has finally melted and I'm in love with this place. Don't get me wrong, it ain't the Rockies, but Ann Arbor is an amazing town.

We are totally consumed with the house, work and travel right now. All great but I'm ready for a long, long nap.

The Job
The job is wonderful. No complaints...well I do have one and I will gladly take this up with my boss...during the interview process, they failed to tell me that the gardens has one of the largest Masusaga Rattle Snake populations in Michigan. I'm told that they are more frightened of me than I am of them. I don't believe them and I'm freaked.

We had a stream of visitors come through and we took them to see the Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. See if you can spot a Batla in the peony garden below:
My favorite trail with my mom:
(This is my office - jealous?)

The House
The house is good. We were warned about the unforeseen expenses of owning a home, so we bought a newer house and within three weeks we have experienced these unforeseen expenses. This past month alone, we spent a decent chunk of change on the following: Lawn Mower off Craig's List. Water Softener from Loews. Potting soil and gardening tools. Lawn Mower repair guy because buying used ain't always bright and sunny. There is a broken air conditioner that needs tending too as well. I'm thinking renting was not so bad?

We did luck out with a professionally landscaped garden and didn't have to add much to it. We returned home from NJ last week to find these opened:


The Trips
Two great nights in NYC with friends and family

A wedding in New Brunswick (or was it east?)

Pete got a yamaka:

Todd got a blue candle holder:
Next Trip - our honeymoon - finally. We are going to Belize and staying at Caves Branch Lodge. I'm pretty excited about this. If you go to the site, check out the honeymoon package and you will see what kind of adventure awaits us. We have opted not to sleep in the cave. I'm all for diving around and exploring but the thought of staying in a cave overnight where an entire civilization vanished is not my idea of romantic honeymoon.

Why can't I get paid to travel? We would be so good at it.

Home, Sweet Home

Ladies and Gentleman - otherwise known as my three readers...we have moved into the new house. We have a few boxes to unpack and have taken four trips to the recycling center but it's over and we are home. I love the new digs and am looking forward to a summer of gardening and domesticity. As we were looking for houses, a yard was not on the priority list. In fact, it may have been considered a negative by my husband, but now we're enjoying the idea (I might be taking serious poetic license here for Pete, but you get the picture.)

On Thursday night we received a wonderful visitor. The Comcast Guy. Though we were "technically online" Thursday, it was not until yesterday that it actually started working. It was annoying but the end result is daily Internet. So, I will post more. Including some pics of the new digs, the new garden and the Midwesterners formerly known as the Coloradoans.

For now, I'm going to lift another box of books...speaking of books, when moving us in, a friend of Pete's said "the one crappy thing about moving a journalist is the amount of books he has." Little did the friend know that the journalist married an english major and the books are doubled.

Hasta

Gainfully Employed

I knew it was coming sooner or later...Although I was wishing for later rather than sooner.

I start the new gig on Monday and am pretty excited about it.

And if everyone can do me a big favor, please don't tell Pete who owns the Gardens. I know it wasn't written in the nuptials, but I'm sure in our "secret vows" (thank you laurie and chad) that we said "And I vow to never defame The Ohio State University."

So, goodbye Ellen and Oprah. Goodbye bizarre but delightful people in the coffee shop. Goodbye leisurely walks through TJ Max and Borders. Goodbye to reading a book a week, a magazine every few days and two different papers daily. Sigh.

Hello Alarm Clock.

Ice is Nice

As promised, some Ann Arbor photos.

Here are a few shots after the Ice Storm. Yes, Ice Storm, people. Actual ICE fell from the sky and I found myself in the 9th circle of hell. It turned our tree lined street into this Narnia looking avenue. Despite all my moaning, it was beautiful.

The house in the photo is the one we are renting.


And after the storm, we went to the movies...

My darling husband had a bit of an accident...he ran into a wall while we were at the movies. What you see in this picture is a rug burn. The wall was carpeted and he scuffed off the skin. It was one of those moments in your life that you have to choose laughter over sympathy. We laughed for days after this happened.

Getting Old Ain't Cool

Hello friends so far away...

I miss you guys. I miss Colorado. I miss the Bucks trips with the girls. I miss the DBG. I miss it all. Just wanted/needed to say that.

The job hunt is going well- hopefully gainful employment is on the not-so-distant horizon. Though I've grown accustom to watching my shows while Pete slaves away at the office. I cook three course meals and keep a tidy house. I spend hours in the coffee shop, trying to keep warm cuz this is the coldest place on earth. Antarctica has nothing on Michigan. Nothing.

But, all in all, I can't complain. We see each other every day - a novel concept for two people who spent the last three years of their relationship spending two nights a week together. So I shant complain because it's a very fair trade-off.

We visited Pete's grandparents this weekend. Pete's grandpa has dementia and so he does not live in the same wing as his wife, Pete's grandma. We took Grandma B over to see Grandpa B and he got teary when he saw his wife. He was so excited to see his beloved and to give her a treat. He had saved some pudding for her. It was stashed away in a drawer with the cellophane wrapper clinging to the bowl. The man can't remember much but he remembers how much he loves his wife and saves her pudding because she likes sweets.

I don't want to get old. But when I do, I know that I will probably be stashing bowls of cereal for someone special.

I promise to post some pictures of our new town soon. It ain't easy because we don't have internet at the house, so for now, all this posting happens at a coffee shop.

And we're here...

We made it! It was a long, long road trip but broken up by some great stops. First, it was Omaha to meet our adorable new nephew, Nathan. He is precious. Absolutely precious. He is a good mixture of Rachel and Dan. He has completely stolen my heart.

Then we were off to Chicago/Batavia to visit the Yoch's. On our way out of Illinois, we hit the Crate and Barell outlet. Their furniture is 50-80% off. Are you kidding me?!? Pete has no idea what beast has woken inside of me. Time to decorate in a big, big way. I will wait until we purchase our place in a few months (hopefully) but we will be making our way back to Chicago very soon.

We arrived in Ann Arbor on Friday night. Our house was there, in tact, and quite nice. We have spent the last few days exploring our new town, and its surrounding cities. It's a great city and Michigan is a lot prettier than I thought. I'm looking forward to finding more outdoor activities, but that might have to wait until the spring.

Our movers arrived this morning and only one thing broke: the big TV. No biggie, as it was from the mid-90's and needed to be updated anyway.

Now it's on to the great job-hunt. Though I could really get used to my new lady-of-leisure status. Perhaps. Perhaps.