Howl-o-ween

Darin and I will be in Destin, FL for Halloween as my cousin Gina is getting married.

Decided to show you Jake's costume early.

Janice and Tony are watching him for us. I'll let you know whether he is dressed up or not. (They have a new house and are unsure whether there will be kids coming...)

And he tends to not move much with his costume on. (It's because he's a bit chubby and is currently on a diet.)

So he might change into his puffy vest.

Let me introduce, Jacob Tiger - the Squirrel.

:)

Visiting Gators

One of my best friends, Kucku, moved up to Gainesville like over three months ago. And being the bad friend that I am, I haven't yet visited her.

I swear, every weekend we would try to get together, there would be a Florida football game. And I didn't want to deal with it. The traffic. The kids. Yak.

So we decided to get together when Darin was away at the Neuroscience Conference. In Chicago. Eating pizza and Portillos. Sigh. (In actuality, he doesn't eat this food. It's not good for him and he tends to get sick. Kind of funny because that's all I can think about while he's in Chicago - what food would I be eating?)

I'm all excited to being seeing her new apartment and where she works, etc. when she emails me that this particular weekend was Homecoming.

Super.

But I decided to go anyway. I mean, I don't know when I could have gotten up there for the next two months (you should see my calendar...). The plan was to get there on Saturday during the beginning of the game. And it worked out great.

Jake and I headed up and hit basically zero traffic. Hurray!

And then for some reason I took no pictures of her. Or myself. Or Jake. Oops. But I did get some random ones.

Beautiful fall.

But we had a great time. Went to this fantastic German pub in the main area of Gainesville and watched the game with like four other people. We were the first people in this place. Crazy. But we got to watch the game and drink really great beer.

Oh dear. Beer list.

Beer (Kucku's on top and mine on the bottom. My second that was...)

Right about the end of the game (Florida came back in the last minutes to win), we left the bar to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic. Phew! It was a ball though and I can't wait to go back to ahh try more beer.

The next morning we (and everyone else) went out for a fabulous breakfast at this place called the 43rd Deli or something like that. Should have taken a picture... But we had a great great home cooked breakfast - she had a Greek omelet and I had a breakfast burrito. So good.

Afterward we drove around campus so I could see her building, her to be new building (they were almost finished with it), and all the sights. Pretty snazzy. Florida was a real college campus. UCF doesn't have the college campus feel. Just my opinion, but whatever. It was beautiful! And of course we drove up sorority row... and guess which two houses were right next to each other?

KD House

Tri Delta house

Hahaha. My mother was a Tridelt and I was a Kappa Delta! I didn't find the Alpha Phi house (my sister), but I did see the Delta Upsilon house right across the street from the stadium (my father's frat). We were Greek yo. And so was Darin - he was a TKE.

And that's the trip. Jake and I had to get back home (boo), so we said goodbye.

AND we'll be back. Scratch that. I'll be back for a girls weekend soon!

Sweetest of Sweet

Though I'd share these adorable pictures.

On October 3rd, Darin went with friends to the UCF game. We had gone before with them, and I decided not to go because it was too hot!

The two girls he hung out with.

C. and H.

Here's Darin with his little sweetheart, C.

So so sweet.

"Can you sing at the same time in more than one key"

On Wednesday night, I dragged my friend Janice to see one of my all time favorite musicals, Cats. I love Cats. Not cats, but Cats.

It all started when I was in middle school. My parents took my sister and I to London (spoiled, I know) during Christmas break, and one of the special things we did was go see Cats. In London. Come on people.

It was terrific.

I got the CDs for it over fifteen years ago. I know every word. I know the beats, the pauses, and I love it.

Practical cats, dramatical cats
Pragmatical cats, fanatical cats
Oratorical cats, delphioracle cats
Skeptical cats, dispeptical cats
Romantical cats, pedantical cats
Critical cats, parasitical cats
Allegorical cats, metaphorical cats
Statistical cats and mystical cats
Political cats, hypocritical cats
Clerical cats, hysterical cats
Cynical cats, rabbinical cats

And it was here in Orlando, so we went. I got super cheap tickets and got fantastic seats. We were about seven rows back and on the far right side of the stage. (Sorry for the dark pictures.)

The auditorium.

The Stage.

Though we were a little bit close to the speakers, we were right next to where the cats would come walk to interact with the audience.

And though the play was slightly more erotic than I remember it being, I was just so happy/excited/awed/overjoyed in seeing it again all these years ago.

Poor Darin will probably get suckered into going to more musicals because I've realized how much I miss going to them and happily singing along to the music.

Aloha

I keep getting these text messages from my sister, and I wanted to share. She is (not sure about right this second, but was a couple of days ago) in Hawaii.

And I want to also go to Hawaii.

This was a video I got earlier in the week. It's cruel.

And this was a picture of Diamonhead she sent the other day. Sigh.

My family went to Hawaii when I was in high school. Far too long ago. I can't imagine though how long it would take Darin and I to fly to Hawaii if it takes us eleven hours to fly to Seattle. Kind of puts a damper on things. That and we can just hop on a cruise boat and go to the Bahamas.

Yet, I still want pineapple and macadamia nuts. Mmm.

Fifteen Pots and Mugs

I had my last pottery class on Thursday night. This class we got to glaze our pots/mugs/containers that we had previously made. It was actually very exciting, and I had been looking forward to it all week long! Hurray!

Anyway, I had fifteen pots and mugs.

Mine - on the far left side of the table.

Aren't you impressed?

Here were some I made up close:

We first had to wax the bottom of the pots because they'll stick with the glaze on them.

Barbara, our teacher!

Next we had to try and be creative and come up with different designs and colors to put on our pots. There were six different glazes to choose from and their combination made other colors as well. But not like rainbow colors, more like we have no idea what colors they will become.

It made things exciting...

This 'red' was actually a dark midnight blue. Makes sense.



Here's my Halloween ghost. So proud.



Last one!



Ayesha and I on our last day.

We really had the best time in this class. Can't wait to show you the final results!!

A Hot Corn Maze

We went on a pretty fabulous adventure this weekend - drove over to Tampa to see Kevin and DJ. And the kiddos. Then drove north to a Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch.

I have no idea where it was exactly. Somewhere in Florida.

Got there about lunch time, had a great picnic lunch prepared for us by DJ, and then just wondered around.

Pretty! How was it October?

They had all of this old corn equipment. You put the ears in and out popped the kernels. You could also make corn meal.

B., DJ, Darin, and Kevin watching C. grind the corn!

And they had all these hay sculptures. It was actually very fun and creative.

Darin and S. on Top of the Hay Mountain

And then there was the tricycles. Sigh.

We were too big.

B. was a little bit too big.

And C. was perfect!

B., Darin, and S. We're evil.

And then there was the corn maze. Ohh. You scared?

The evil clouds were coming, and we were actually excited because it was very hot. Like over95 hot. And we wanted to be cooled off. But weren't. We just decided to go walking among tall corn stalks in the warm warm sun.

You walked around to a number where there was a clue on which way to go. Very easy clues, thankfully! C. read them all and got us out of the maze!

B. and C. lead the way!

Darin and Kevin, at the end.

And then we were silly and played for awhile on all of the hay things.

A spider!

Afterward, we hopped into the nice air conditioned car and drove back to Tampa. And went swimming! Phew!

Great time had by all - highly recommend this place if you can find it!

Breakfast Attack

Sunday after church, we went out to breakfast with some friends. For some reason I didn't get a group picture - I think I was focused on my french toast. But when we got our food, Darin attacked Peggy for her breakfast.

Peggy with Darin

Previously, we have gone with Peggy alone, and she ordered the eggs Benedict. Much to Darin's surprise, he loved the dish after trying and basically licked Peggy's plate clean. And the next time we went (two times ago) he ordered them himself and they were both happy.

But, this time he decided not to order them. I don't know why he did it. I mean, look at it.

With home fries.

Mind you, I just like the hollandaise sauce. Not the biggest fan of eggs runny like that. Or soggy English muffins. Moving on...

Darin attacking said meal.

And because Peggy was such a wonderful person, she shared a little bit of her meal with Darin. And I might have stolen a few home fries (they use regular potatoes and sweet potatoes). People.

So good. Next time I'll take more pictures.

Just About Jake

Was just cleaning out the pictures on my phone and found these cute ones.

*Please note, no Jakes were harmed in the taking of the photos.

With sock on head.

If you notice the black little nose sticking out of the sock? This would be from where Jake had previously eaten a hole out of said sock. Yet, Darin still wears them. (We'd have no socks left!) Yes we're mean to our dog. He likes the attention.

On bed, surrounded by pillows.

Both Darin and I have two pillows each on the bed. When we leave for the day, the pillows just congregate towards the top part of the bed in whichever order they may be. Jake then comes up and makes himself comfortable during the day. It's definitely his bed.

On his bed. Again.

On the weekends when we're busy around the house cleaning or doing whatnot, we will go into our room to see this. Jake sleeping on the bed. Like it's his bed. (Mind you, he had two beds in the house that are his - one in the bedroom and one in the living room.) He'll look at us annoyed because we're waking him up from his nap. It's quite amusing.

And that's the weekly Jake update.

A Party Outdoors

Wednesday night, we had some people over to see Kerry and Edith - and to drink/eat as much as possible in one setting.

:)

Kerry, Edith, and I slaved all day (maybe like for 30 minutes) to get some quick food ready (me - cheese fondue, guacamole; Kerry and Edith - pasta salad) for a bunch of our combined friends' visit.

And we ate.

Paul, Mercedes, Tony, Craig, Janice, Edith

And we talked.

Nazelle, Raji, Darin.



Frank and Mercedes.



Del and Kucku.

We begged for food from Frank.

Jake.

We drooled over the cake Janice and Tony brought from here.

I love you.

And then we got tired from all the people and went to sleep on Kerry/Edith's bed.

Jake, again.

People were over for some time - just talking and drinking beer/wine. We had too much food (can you say, pasta salad?) which will be eaten this weekend by Darin and I. We had too much beer (blasphemy). Perfect amount of cheese. Too much cake which will be my dessert/breakfast soon. Times were good. Like always.

Then everyone went home, and we realized a little critter got into the house because all of the sliding doors were open because it was such a beautiful night.

And he was hunted down. And smooched. It was entertaining. And we cleaned the kitchen and then we all went to sleep.

The end.