the big day

Today is the day folks. My movers will arrive in less than an hour to cart my stuff over to C'ville. Alas, I will miss my Museum District apartment in Richmond, but I suppose there are exciting things to come with the move. Like not driving 140 miles every day.

packing shmacking

This weekend was supposed to be the big packing weekend. I guess I got enough done. I didn't pack anything Friday, and I didn't pack on Saturday until about 8pm. Before that I got a haircut, bought water shoes, and went tubing down the James River. Then of course it was time for a nap. But books, nicknacks, and most of the kitchen were all packed up after that. Today I think I packed one more box, and then I headed to Deltaville with Josh to visit his grandparents. That involved a great Sunday dinner, lots of Rummikub, and a quick fishing trip in the boat on their pond.

Now I have Monday and Tuesday evenings to finish everything up. I'm not too worried.

last "normal" weekend in Richmond

In nine days I'm moving to Charlottesville, and while that's exciting and all I'm still a little sad and depressed about leaving Richmond. So I'm putting off packing until the last minute (next weekend), and spent this weekend enjoying Richmond.

Yesterday I went for a run, ate lunch with my family, and visited the VHS for their open house and to see old co-workers. Then I spent the evening at Allison and Sam's party, where I got to hang out with friends I haven't seen in a long time.

Today I ate at Millie's for the first time and went for a walk around Church Hill. Then I joined my family to see the play Driving Miss Daisy. Afterwards I browsed around Barnes and Noble, then saw Harry Potter.

It was a pretty good last normal weekend I would say.

I guess all I had to do was ask.

We've had another sighting ladies and gentlemen. My mom found a pistachio shell at work. She sent me this picture in a text message and wrote "On my office floor. Don't have a clue how it got there."



She had to say that because the last time she sent me a pistachio sighting it was from my dad's car and the "how it got there" part was pretty easy to guess. But I drilled her and she swears she hasn't eaten any pistachios at work recently. I guess she also found the other half of the shell down the hall, and she threw them both away.

I'll say this now: I've never thrown away any of my sightings.

whew

Don't worry, they're still around. Josh found this at work.

Science can be fun?

Yesterday I visited the Science Museum of Virginia for the first time. Well, I had been there for various events before, but never to actually go through the exhibits. Josh joined me and we headed straight for the shark exhibit. They had a pretty neat sand sculpture, and we got to pet a shark. We also pet a baby horseshoe crab. Josh claims he has pet many sharks before, but this was my first encounter.



The museum has other fun stuff, too.


Oooh, magic.


Somehow turning this spinning wheel on its side made his chair spin faster. I didn't catch the science of it all.

The museum also has this really fun Mindbender exhibit, with lots of puzzles to solve. You have to go around solving certain puzzles and learning clues, and then if you get them all right you get to have your picture taken and be in the "Mindbender Society." We made it.



After the museum we saw the IMAX movie about sharks. Did you know the manta ray (a relative of the shark) can be bigger than the size of a minivan???

All that shark action inspired us to eat some raw fish ourselves, so we had sushi for dinner. It rounded out the day pretty well I think.

three tidbits

1. Today I ate lunch at a burrito place in Charlottesville and as I headed for a table a girl stopped me and gave me a funny look and said "hey!" She's a girl from Santa Fe and we played in the Youth Symphony together and went to the same high school. Small world.

2. My dear friends Katie and Andrew have started a blog! I am very excited about this. I know that Katie keeps in touch with my life through this here blog, and now I get to keep in touch with her life back. Also, she and Andrew live very different lives than I do, what with all the growing of their own food and stuff, so maybe you guys will like to read it, too. I've added a link over on the side, so check it out.

3. Where are all the pistachio shells, huh? I mean, I haven't seen any in ages.

Why thank you!

My email service's spell checker is very nice. Rather than tell me there are no misspelled words, it compliments me with, "You have perfect spelling."

patriotic tat

So the beach trip was pretty great. Really it was one day at a water park and one day at the beach, which included the best fireworks show I think I've ever seen. Oh, and when I swam in the ocean I saw dolphins nearby, so that was pretty exciting. At least it was exciting until one dolphin appeared to jump toward me, and then I booked it for the shore.

fourth

I'm headed to the beach for the holiday weekend, but I thought I'd share some lyrics I always like to sing on the Fourth of July.

I see fireworks!
I see the pagaent and pomp and parade
I hear the bells ringing out
I hear the cannons roar
I see Americans - all Americans
Free!
Forever more

They're from 1776 the musical, of course, and are sung by John Adams. So remember to have a happy fourth, because John would want you to.