Movies and Merlot

It was a movie marathon kinda weekend. No plans, we were just keeping with our theme of laying low this month. When I came home from work on Friday there was a surprise though.

Two dozen roses and a gift! Wow! Coincidentally it was our 3 year and 7 month anniversary but really it was a "just because I saw this and thought you might like it" gift. Swoon! And what was the present? A Cuisinart Chopper! Normally I wouldn't be so excited about an appliance, and would NEVER want one as a gift. But I absolutely hate cutting things. I am not the most coordinated and have had my first set of stitches cutting a bagel back in 2006... so this chopper is a welcome addition to our kitchen and such a cute just because surprise.  

For the start of the weekend, we did some shopping and picked up a half price North Face coat for J, drove around Chagrin Falls enjoying the snow, and had our traditional Friday night pizza this time at Panini's.

The rest of the weekend was filled with hair cuts, cleaning up the remnants of Christmas, organizing storage, and movies, movies, movies. And merlot... and a little champagne. I made a little Mexican fiesta with my new chopper and we watched Red, 50/50, For The Love of the Game and a few I don't even remember they were so bad. We even had a little FaceTime with Julie in NYC with Mom visiting.

Yay for weekends of relaxing and surprise gifts!

Laying Low

I've been laying low these past few weeks. Not much going on after the holidays and I'm always bummed about taking down all the decorations, missing family and friends and I practically go into hibernation until Winter is over.

So today I am going to try and change that. We are heading out tonight for Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon! And I am going to start planning more activities to get me out of this rut!

Furry Family Members

We have had some sad news lately about some of the animals we love. When we returned home from New Orleans Jared's parents called to tell us Harley, their 7 year old Basset Hound, had died unexpectedly the night of the Sugar Bowl. He had surgery recently and an infection afterwards but had been on the mend. The story about how he died was just awful and we were both crying on the phone hearing about it.

Poor Harley was a rescue dog that J's parents adopted and quickly became part of the family. J's Dad called him "our furry brother" and would tell us how much he missed us. Jared has grown up with Bassets and weekly talks about the day that we get a Basset, and I cringe. They just aren't the kind of dog I would prefer, but oh how those Storcks love them. We spent some time with Harley back in August last year at the cabin.

Harley, we know J's parents aren't the same without you and we sure will miss you!

A few days later we heard about Maddy from The Land of Syd suddenly becoming ill. Thankfully she is doing better and sounds like she is going to be just fine. All this sad news about our furry loved ones reminded me that I hadn't talked about our little cat that joined us here at ECGML about a year ago. She is just the cutest little kitty ever. And we are giant cheeseballs about her.

Every day she greats us at the door with a meow and a flop on her side for some back scratches. If she can get a treat from you, which Jared does every time, she will. Then there is the obligatory cuddle time where you must rub her belly. Most of her time is spent sleeping or lounging on the couch looking out the window or in J's chair. She loves chasing string or a laser pointer right around dinner time. Every now and then she will run through your legs while you are walking to try and trip you. My least favorite thing is when she is in "pounce mode" and will grab your leg and take a nibble when any delicious lamb chops walk by.

Recently she has started sleeping at the foot of the bed. Mostly because I put a small fleece blanket there for her to cuddle up on. And after she meows at the moon, or whatever she is talking to, she heads to bed with us.... and we both just love her to pieces.

Disconnected

That would be me. For an entire week, disconnected from the world by not having a phone. I broke it while at the Sugar Bowl. And no, sister dear, I did not sit on it like you thought. Who puts there phone in their back pocket anyway? It was in my vest and when we jumped up for what should have been the game winning overtime touchdown pass, the seat hinged and my phone screen was crushed in between the seat.

I feel naked. I literally feel like I am missing something all day long. I don't know how this happened to me. I hate how dependent I have become on this little piece of technology. And to tell you the truth, after I got over the nervous feeling like I was missing something, worried about my car breaking down or people not being able to get in touch with me, after about 4 days without it, it was kinda nice. I didn't realize how often I was sending texts, checking the weather, creeping on facebook, or playing games like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja.

This last week and a half has been nice to have just a little time to myself. And of course, the radio. Jared surprised me and uploaded this photo from our honeymoon and it made it just a little bit like my phone. Too cute!

Half Marathon

I signed up for the Cleveland Half Marathon run today. I know, I am crazy. I don't even really like running until after I am done. I guess it is just rubbing off... Army 10 Miler running, 10K running, Dad running marathons. For this race, my Dad will be running as well! And yes, he will kick my butt. But it will be so fun to have him visit and run around my city together but many (many) minutes apart!

Now I just need some new running shoes. Maybe these will do! 

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

We headed down to New Orleans on Monday to "Let the good times roll"! and see the Hokies play in the Sugar Bowl. I was nearly 100% back to normal after being sick on NYE. We had a great flight to Houston, watched "Money Ball" while we were delayed in the air counting the minutes and hoping we wouldn't miss our connection. With a lot of running and a bit of luck we made our plane just in time.

The last time I was in New Orleans was back in 2000 for the National Championship Game against Florida State while we were in college...  

Jared and my sister had won tickets to the game in the school lottery. He wasn't going to go to the game but I insisted. We got a group together of our Greek friends and had a blast during our visit. Little did I know that this is where I created the football fanatic husband I now have.

Twelve (OMG how is that possible?!?) years later we are back in NOLA where we met up with Steve and headed straight for the French Quarter for some food and of course a few beverages! We stayed out late catching up with sorority sisters (Amy and Jess) and fraternity brothers (Todd & Preston) from VT and anticipating a Hokie win!


I love that after all these years we can just pick up right where we left off with friends from our days at Tech. It does make me miss living in Virginia though. I know Amy and I would be close if I only lived nearby. We just think alike and she is the sweetest girl with a lovely husband. They are just good people. And of course, my roommate from college Courtney. There just never is enough time with friends.

Tuesday was game day! We hit up the French Quarter again for beignets and muffalettas! I ran into my big sis from Alpha Phi, Leslie at Cafe Du Monde...

And then it hit. The sickness that we thought was done, we thought had been left in Virginia, left in last year, caught up with us in New Orleans. Jared was sick. He had been fooling us all morning trying to ignore how he felt, hoping it was just a hang over after all. But no, he was sick, sick, sick and at about 1pm we had to go back to the hotel. I watched over him, and some TV, while he tried to sleep through the chills, praying he felt better. A Gatorade and 7 hours later we were off to the game and I honestly don't know how he made it. Sheer will to see his favorite team. If only those Hokies knew what it took for him to be there, maybe they would have won the game.

It was a heartbreaker. We really should have won... and it was painful seeing our victorious overtime touchdown catch overturned.

And just like that, our trip was done. A 4am ride to the airport and first class back to Cleveland where Jared was finally starting to feel better.



12 Days of Christmas - Part 2:Virginia

Our Virginia trip began after Christmas since Jared was on call for the holiday. Thankfully, my family was waiting until we arrived on the 27th for our gift exchange so I wouldn't miss Christmas! Instead of Mom only planning one event, she had Christmas dinner on the 25th as well so family members that had work during the week would still be able to celebrate. The plans were going well... that was until the early morning hours of the 26th when 4 members of the family got sick with what we thought at the time was food poisoning. I get a text from my sister describing how ill so many people were. Possibly the first time I was glad not to be home.

So this changed our trip completely. We had plane tickets this year, flying from Cleveland to BWI and we took our first train ride together to Union Station and I wore a silly engineer hat...

Instead of arriving to presents wrapped, brunch and celebration, everyone was drained and still not feeling well. Bummer. And they weren't sure which food made them sick. Was it the ham? Whatever it was, we couldn't trust one thing to eat in the house. UGH!! So we just hung out and caught up a bit with the family and had a late dinner out just the two of us at BoneFish using a fantabulous gift card from my in-laws.

The next day we heard of more people being sick. Grandma and Uncle Connie the day we arrived and on Wednesday Uncle Robert. Sickness was rolling through the family... our "Christmas" moved to Thursday the 29th, and we hoped that would work out and not to catch what was obviously not food poisoning.

So Wednesday we stayed out of the house and caught up with some friends. After a always too short visit with the Milans for lunch we did some shopping at Tysons. I love that mall! And the sales were great!  We topped of the night with happy hour with Laura, and dinner with Daniel & Lauren.

Thursday it was finally Christmas!

And I got photos of everyone except Great Grandma Connie! That stubborn lady just has to be in the right mood to snap her picture. So annoying but what can you do? She is 94!

On Friday we had part 2 of our Virginia Christmas. This time with Jared's sister's family. That is after I went a little crazy and changed my hair color to red... not so sure I like it.

I just love seeing these kiddos open presents. Makes me so excited every time. We were supposed to meet up with them again the next morning for a movie date. That is until I woke up at 5am sick. I had caught the bug. Whatever was lingering around the house finally caught up with me and I was sick the whole day....  New Year's Eve.

Luckily by around 11pm I was feeling much better. I actually could get up and shower. I made it upstairs just in time for the ball drop and to visit with the family while they enjoyed their Chinese food and champagne.

And just like that, it was time to leave. It was a new year, and we were leaving Virginia in what seemed like such a fast trip with not enough time to do what I wanted. With entirely too much icky sickness all around.