We're getting too old for this stuff

Matt and I had one heck of a weekend. We are big anime fans and this weekend was one of the biggest anime conventions in the country, Otakon. We picked up our badges on Thursday at 3pm. The heat index for Thursday was 110F, so it was more than a little uncomfortable waiting outside in the line. Luckily, the line moved pretty quickly, and it only took us about 45 min to get our badges.
After the badges were taken care of, we had to drive from Baltimore to Virginia because the National Symphony Orchestra was giving a performance of music from the Zelda video games. It was amazing. The venue is outside and in the middle of the woods. Matt managed to get us some really good seats, which were covered. It was still really hot and humid, even at that time (8:30 pm). Halfway through the show, it began poring rain. We had seen lightening off in the distance for a while. Sadly, by the end of the show, it was obvious that Matt was getting sick. He who is never ill, got sick right before our crazy weekend.
We got about 6 hr of sleep that night and got up early the next morning. I won't go into all the details of the weekend, I'm sure they aren't that interesting for non-otaku. We didn't get more than six hours of sleep each night. Matt helped me get the autograph of my favorite voice actor, j. Michael Tatum. We also got to see a panel given by one of Matt's favorite podcasters. There was a lot of grumpiness, a lot of waiting in line, and way too much of listening to irritating people. Even with those things, we had an amazing time. My body waited until yesterday to start getting sick, which was thoughtful. I don't know if we'll. Be going next yet, but I am really happy we went this year.

What's cooking Uncle Sam?

Matt and I made an effort to finish all of our errands this weekend so that we'd have Sunday free to have fun. Mission accomplished. We really haven't gone out yet since moving to our new place and we decided to go touristing. I listen to a lot of NPR as I go about my household duties and I recently heard about an exhibit at the National Archives that sounded right up my alley. It's called "What's Cooking Uncle Sam?" The exhibit is all about how the government has influenced the way America eats.

After church and some lunch Matt and I drove on down to the metro station. Being the well seasoned metro rider, Matt helped me buy a smart pass card. He is so cool he doesn't even take his out of his wallet, he just taps his wallet on the space and he walks through. We both read for most of the trip and I only got a little bit of motion sickness.

The exhibit was really cool and with a lot of interesting facts that neither of us knew. Did you know that back in the 30's butter was its own food group? Mmmm, butter. We also had no idea that it wasn't until 1965 that manufacturers had to start putting the ingredients on the food labels. Crazy. Another thing that didn't occur to either of us until we were in the building- the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are all housed at the National Archives. There were very few people there so we had a chance to look at then for quite a while. So, one museum down, a lot more to go :)

Post Thanksgiving quiet

Sadly, Thanksgiving is over. My favorite holiday of the year, gone again. We had a wonderful day though, so that's good. Little Keiko came over to spend the day with us. We haven't seen her in such a long time and it was nice to catch up. She even helped us cook our dinner since I'm not really awesome at cooking meat. Or at least trouble-shooting it. It's entirely possible that I made too much food for two people. We had Matt's 10lb turkey breast, a large pyrex of mashed potatoes, another of sweet potatoes, and a large pyrex casserole of stuffing. I also may have made pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, mini apple pies, and salted caramel. Oops. Everything was fantastic and we paired it with a nice wine that we'd been holding onto for a special occasion. We had thought that we might make it to a showing of The Muppets. Haha, that didn't happen. It was hard enough to get off the couch to go to bed.

My lovely new in-laws were sweet enough to come visit for the rest of the weekend and bring us a bunch of things we had left in Michigan. They even took us to Ikea to get a new dresser. Suzanne and I rearranged the kitchen while the men put together the dresser. On Saturday the four of us went to the Home Depot and picked out our Christmas tree. It's so pretty. After setting the tree up we went and has lunch with some of the Snee cousins. They were a riot and helpful to boot. It turns out that they attend one of the churches that Matt and I were seriously considering. We also managed to get them to divulge the names of their favorite area restaurants. I'm so excited to go check them out. Dan and Caroline and the pups stopped by on their way back to North Carolina, which was awesome. I love having family come visit. Zelda got to meet her new cousin and they got along quite well until he wanted to play. Then Zelda got all huffy. It was a very tiring but fun weekend. We're getting back on schedule an beginning to count down the days until Christmas. Our first married Christmas. Teehee

Getting messy

I am not sure why, but things always seem to get horribly messy when I organize them. Sure, eventually they get straightened out, but the halfway point always makes me want to run and hide. Matt and I used some of our gift cards this weekend to buy plastic drawers for the closet of spare'oom. Now I'm going about and organizing my craft things. Hopefully I can get it all put away in a way that makes sense and is usable. Plus, once they're all hidden in the closet we can make it look man cave-y.

We have been shopping around the area for a new church. There weren't a whole lot of choices back in NC but there are quite a few within a short distance of our new place. We've been to three so far. I think we're going to go back to the first and third a couple of more times before we settle down and pick one. The second was kind of scary. Not scary scary, but it was really dour and nobody seemed happy to be there. We're definitely not going back there.

I'm back (and married!)

It's been so very long since either of us posted. I do not understand how some brides start blogs while planning their weddings. This is a short post, and it's unlikely that any will see it. I thought it might be good to get back in the habit of posting.

I am diligently working on getting our new little home in order and usable. It's a little slow going but I'm chopping away at it. We need to get some new furniture, shelves mostly, and some lamps. I think our new dining room may fit our table at full size. I have to get some more things organized before we test my theory though. Matt and I have been like real adults and have been eating all our meals at our table instead of on the couch with tv trays. Pretty fancy. My goal for today is finish unpacking spare 'oom. Not necessarily having it completely organized, but at least all the boxes should be gone.

I have to start planning Thanksgiving dinner too. It's only going to be Matt and I for dinner but I'm still going to make some very tasty, tasty food. Plus lil sis Keiko is going to come visit on Thanksgiving day to hang out and chat for a while. I promised to make her a cheesecake. I think I'll go with a pumpkin cheesecake with graham cracker crust. I just have to find a good recipe. I also need a good stuffing recipe. Once I make out the menu I can write up a shopping list and look around and figure what stores we'll get things at.

The boxes are calling me, I must start actual work.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wiener Dog Fest 2010

Today was the annual Wiener Dog Fest at Weaver St. Getting that many dachshunds together at one time is always a site to see. Zelda met up with her good friends Baxter, Kreuza, and Zero. I think her visit's with the Steins' Montana and Wally are really paying off. Not only does Zelda have a puppy crush on Wally but she's been learning to play like a dog with him. Today went really well with our little girl. There was lots of sniffing, being sniffed, and absolutely no hiding from the other dogs. Zelda normally receives a lot of attention just because she's a dachshund. I'm not just saying this because I'm her mom but, even amongst a sea of doxies people are drawn to her. Today we can probably chalk it up to the fact that she was wearing an adorable costume. We lost the musical sit contest in the last round but we'll get them next year. On the plus side, we did win one of the raffle prizes that includes a new brown leather travel carrier.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Weaver St, Carrboro

Church is fun!

I'm blogging whilst Matt shops. It's a good system, when I "help" do the shopping we end up being here for two hours versus the forty-five minutes that it takes Matt alone. Anyways, a couple of things happened this morning during church that tickled me and I thought I'd share. Our church is chock full of kids, a lot of them are gingers, but that's another story. There are benches along the perimeter of the church which are often taken by parents with small children who can make a quick exit if they start to cry. Today there was a young family sitting near our pew on one of the benches. Matt and I are pretty sure that the parents had a conversation this mooring that went something like this:
"Did you see what she's wearing?"
"Yes but I'm tired, her brothers are fussy and it'll keep her quiet so I'm not going to fight her about it."
That little girl is definitely a kindred spirit. She was wearing a brown dress with blue polka dots and a tiara. Yes, a tiara. I wanted to hug her. Even better, every time the congregation sang, she twirled. It was so fantastic. Sadly, Matt says that I'm not allowed to wear my tiara.

The other thing that happened was that Matt and I got the giggles. This is not the first time this has happened to me in church and somehow I doubt it will be the last. I really blame Matt though, he started it. He always jokes with me that I should sing the Spanish lyrics whenever they have them. Today I did. I wasn't trying to be funny but the combo of my singing and the odd lyrics of the song struck Matt's funny bone and once he started I caught it. Don't worry, we didn't disturb anyone, we weren't making any noise and we got it under control by the end of the song so we didn't miss any of the mass.

Location:Target