Savannah: Day 2 - Evening

Back to Savannah.

After a great morning and afternoon walking around on a beautiful day, we went back to the hotel.

I took a nap. The others enjoyed the pool and hot tub!

That evening we went out to eat - at this fun restaurant called Fiddler's Crab House.

And actually did not go down to the river front, but stayed by our hotel even though there was one near the river.

I thought it was pretty awesome - they had a waterfall coming off their roof. We all kept freaking out because we'd think it would be raining and then we'd realize that it was the waterfall.

Hey, there was alcohol involved.

Party of Nine

It was a fish place. The boys had to get some oysters.

Joel and Darin (with gross oysters)

Suz and Meghan trying them for their first time.

Thankfully I didn't have to do it because I had already tried one a couple of weeks ago with our friend Russell (Maggie's Dad) in Orlando. Phew. I have to admit though that that weren't that bad - all I could really taste was cocktail sauce.

The Group:
Darin, Del, Meghan, Joel, Josh, Janice, Suzanne, Christina, and John
How'd we get to know these great people?

Afterward, we went back to the hotel, took another cab downtown (same lady actually), and went to Kevin Barry's Irish Pub.

I had me a black and blue. Guinness on top - blue moon on bottom. Tasty.

And yes, I was (and am) a Guinness drinker. One person was impressed saying I was the only girl he'd ever seen drink one. I think they're great actually. Particularly with blue moon in them.

We listened to this great Irish singer - a man in in late fifties (I'd guess) was wonderful. He even sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads" sang by John Denver. Suzanne requested it because she was born there (so was Meghan) and the whole bar sang with him. Pretty fantastic.

"Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads."

To be a country girl - I guess living in the south for 12 years now kind of transformed me. I guess that's what happens when you fall in love with the land and sunshine and water.

Loved Savannah. Not as much as Charleston, but it was right up there.

Slightly Nerve-racking

We finally had time to spend outside on Saturday.

The bushes and trees were having growing spurts.

Yikes.

Ended up hedging like crazy and making everything look nice - except for flowers. Not sure if we'll do those this year because they tend to just die in our no-sunshine yard.

But while racking up the leaves, I found this little guy.

He/she wasn't our usual black snake - we liked him a lot and got excited to see him.

This sucker was something different. He/she was staring at me. I left it alone and went to find Darin to show him. The snake was very pretty.

Wanted to share. I'll try to get a picture of him/her next time.

(We haven't named it yet. If we see him/her again, we will give it a name and gender.)

Savannah: Day 2 - Daytime City

We went to lunch on Saturday in the City Center area of Savannah.

Ate pizza. It hit the spot.

Walked around the area before.

Girls with a frilly umbrella. It just happened.

Happy John, Del, and Darin.

Savannah was very historical.

Joel fought Darin. (And won, actually.)

Suzanne was watching for the other troops.

Unknown statue.

Walked back to the cars. Took some pretty pictures.

It was gorgeous.

But went went back to the hotel, and I took a nap.

Savannah: Day 2 - Daytime Walk

Next day we did the tourist thing - parked our cars and walked. And walked.

Savannah has total country charm. It's one of those places that you should visit.

(Just like Charleston, SC).

The trees. Oh, the trees. I took a lot of pictures.

We walked around and just looked. Saw the true charm of the city in the houses and squares. It was very enjoyable and the day was perfect to just meander.

The group - with Joel (but no Darin)

Beauty!

Darin and Del.
Don't we look like tourists?

Beautiful stained glass - from this church

The streets.

Stairs to the riverfront.

We walked forever and then so more. Ended up just having the best time though. Visit.

Savannah: Day 1

My friend Josh had this fantastic idea to take a group trip up to Savannah.

He's a smart guy, that Josh.

A bunch of us headed up last Friday to enjoy a beautiful city and a wonderful spring day.

Ended up staying in the Southside (whatever that meant) in a very nice hotel right in the middle of everything. Worked out great!

That evening we went to a brewery for dinner - the Moon River Brewery. Right on the river.

Heaven in Savannah.

The group:
John, Darin, Del, Janice, Josh, Meghan, Suzanne, and Cristina

The stars of the show. Seven types. Yikes.

It was a really nice place - great reasonable food and good beer. A lot of beer that was. Darin and I both got flights. I guess it was a good idea to get a cab to drive us down to the restaurant?

Perfect.

One year. One week.

After dinner, we wondered around the area and found this older bar with beautiful distressed wooden floors. The Bayou Cafe - cute in a rustic way.

The boys played manly pool. And the girls talked.

Foxy Josh and Darin

Suzanne, Cristina, and I

And we took a cab home. All eight of us in one minivan cab. Scary actually.

Suz, Meghan, Josh, and Janice.

But we made it back - and after a quick dip in the hot tub, we were sleeping like little lambs.

FIRST Competition

In case people didn't know, I was involved in robotics in college - we started the first ever women's robotics team at my school and at this event. It was pretty important to me my last year of school, and I really got excited about building metal things (compared to wooden ones) and working with others.

In graduate school, I became a mentor for Team #281 in FIRST - a robotics competition for high school students. I really had a great time working with the crazy high schoolers (yak) and participating in FIRST. It's a great organization for students interested in building/engineering/programing robots. And it's fun.

But it was a huge time commitment. Huge. During the season, I'd drive up to Greenville (like 45 minutes) every day after school to help machine the robot. Every night for like two weeks. Overall, I loved the experience, but ended up not joining a team here in Florida. Though the whole thing basically started here...

Anyway, five years ago I started volunteering for the Regional here in Orlando. Not only do I get to experience this great event, but I have also met some fantastic friends.

Fantastic ones!

So this year I helped again - as my evil role as Lead Querer (getting the robots in order and ready to go on the field).

I'm evil. I'm efficient. Some of the kids like me, others not so much. Oops. But I am fair, and I feel that I lead a good example to these kids by being strict, but friendly. Ha.

This event allows for my evilness to come out for a weekend. It works out well for everyone involved.

Anyway. Here are some photos.

The field.

Maggi and Steve (her Dad)

The event was on March 11th-13th. For some, ahh, reason I missed it last year. And my wonderful husband let me go this year instead of a fun, relaxing cruise we were thinking about going on.

I enjoy myself every year and look forward to the next. The people who volunteer were amazing as ever, and I couldn't have been more evil.

Bowling P.R.O.

I'm sitting here trying to think of something clever for P.R.O. to stand for.

Pretty Random O.

What the heck are some nouns that begin with the letter O? Orphan. Oreo (I think it's because I want chocolate). Oklahoma. Orange.

I am left at a blank.

***

We went bowling with some friends a week or so ago, it was fun. This post is not about that. This post was/is 100% about my bowling score.

I got a turkey.

In the last frame. (Which I have done before, I do believe).

I called to tell my Dad what I did (you have to share bowling scores with fathers, it's what you do) and he was interested in my final score. Sigh. If you look above it was 95. Oops.

I told him and he laughed at me. Mean father. :)

We were bad bowlers. Darin was even bad (he's freakishly good at bowling with his own ball). And I came in second. Go Del.

B-Balling

We finally made it to a UCF basketball game - it's sad really how I used to go to all of the Tulsa basketball and Clemson football games, yet can't really get to the UCF ones at all.

But we went.

Met some friends (Malita and Matt) out for dinner at H@ulihans - woo hoo, Ladies Night on Thursdays and I got free all you could drink Long Islands (which was only two, thank you) - and then went to the game. They had season tickets so we scalped ours (oh yeah!) and got front row on the same side as them but different corner.

UCF ended up losing. But that's okay. It was fun and we were right in the action.

They played ECU.

Yikes. Super clear photo. How'd I do that?

I decided to share the bad pic of the two of us.

I kept forgetting my beloved camera at home and was forced to us my phone camera (which was actually pretty good - 3MP, better than my first digital in 2001!). And I have to stick my hand out to take the picture, and I'm shaky, so the photos tend to not be very good. Darin took this one.

I was meaning that I look awful in the photo. Maybe it was the two LIITs. Oops.

New Bookshelf

Got this little beauty a while ago.

Yep. It's pretty awesome.

It was hanging out in the garage for awhile, but we finally brought it in and put some cute stuff in it! What do you think?

In the family room.

Close up.

I love shelving because I can put all of the special things we have on it!

St. Patty's Day - Green Beer Negative

By now, everybody knows I volunteer every week. I used to be a Thursday person, but have recently switched to Wednesday because someone else couldn't do that day.

I was actually pretty excited to go in on St. Patrick's Day because the meal providers (it's called Share-A-Meal) are very good about bringing holiday appropriate dinners - so I was expecting corned beef and cabbage (of which I would have maybe eaten the corned beef and hopefully some potatoes if they would have brought them too) and at least some cute green shamrock cupcakes.

For example:

But the people who were supposed to come didn't (bad people), and we had leftovers (which is normally fine actually), but were afraid there wouldn't be enough for everyone in the house...

So we went to McDonalds. It's Irish, right?

And I got a Shamrock Shake. And a Big Mac. Bad Del.

But it was good. Much better than the corned beef and potatoes I would have had. Though the cupcake would have made up for it. SO maybe a close draw.

And it was a great night, as usual.

And Suzanne and I found some fun knitted things (we have a knitting club donate things all the time) which we enjoyed making fun of.

You can sometimes be a little evil - it's okay.

So no green beer, but a green shake! That makes for a great St. Patty's day in my eyes.

One Year

Yikes.

Does the title say enough? Neither Darin nor I could believe that we have been married for one year - but we have. And we succeeded.

A. Whole. Year.

Many thanks to all of you who wished us a happy anniversary. You all mean so much to us!

Re-Visit: Gainesville Part II

Finally, the second party of our Gainesville trip.

(Been a little busy...)

On Sunday morning we awoke to happy faces - I think all but Anu slept very well - and went to breakfast where Kucku and I had gone before: 43rd Street Deli and Breakfast. So good. I got strawberry pancakes. Love pancakes. Love 'em.

Then Kucku took us to Lake Alice in Gainesville - which is right off of campus. They have a walkway and we spent our time searching out alligators.

No luck. Damn things were probably sleeping. Sigh.

Lake Alice on a beautiful fall day. Ahh summer day.

Del, Anu, Suz, and Kucku

And we went also on a tour of Kucku's new building - I had previously seen her old building. This new one was new! Crazy new. With orange floors. Orange people - very Clemson. Yet Florida too.

And then we went to search for the Gainesville Ronald McDonald House. Though it took awhile and we had to ask for directions, we eventually found it. To me, it's amazing how different the houses are from each other. That and the different activities they do within the house. Strange. But this house was big and spacious. They had a great playground - which we wish we had, and two kitchens. Crazy.

With Donald.

And then we drove the long way home (it's only 1.5 hours people). And slept because we were all tired from such a fantastic weekend. It's fun to visit with friends who live a little bit away because it feels like a real trip!!