leavin' the 505

Dad came home from the hospital on Tuesday. I was planning to fly out Wednesday but when Dad asked me with big puppy eyes "do you have to?" I decided to stay an extra day. So we spent his first full day back home watching TV in our pajamas.

This unplanned trip to Santa Fe included lots of time at the hospital, but I also enjoyed a Mexican dinner, an afternoon with my grandparents hearing about their cruise through the Panama Canal, my first visit to the new New Mexican history museum downtown, and a fancy dinner with Ryan at a new restaurant. He and I also watched the entire first season of Breaking Bad, which is a television show that takes place in Albuquerque. Oh! I also saw where Robert Downey, Jr., is filming a movie downtown (they completely transformed a burrito place into a coffee place). I didn't actually see Downey, but I did see the actor who played scary Magua in The Last of the Mohicans.

hangin' in there

The doctor is now saying that maybe my dad didn't actually have a heart attack, which is good. He's still in ICU but should move down today, and hopefully he can come home tomorrow! When I finally got to see him last night he looked a little harried, but that was because right when he was going to eat lunch they snatched it away from him and told him to lie flat and motionless for four hours. Misery. He finally got to eat and then his family (mom, Ryan, and me) came to see him and he had the Nascar race on the television, so he perked up quite a bit.

history holograms, and a change of plans

This evening I thought I was at Disneyland, but I wasn't. I was at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. It looks sort of like Disneyland on the inside because they have big fancy recreations of Lincoln's log cabin and the White House, plus lots of mannequins standing around, like the Lincoln family, Frederick Douglass, and John Wilkes Booth. The best and most Disney-like part, however, was the "Ghosts of the Library" presentation. I don't really know how to explain it, but they bring the work of historians to life right in front of you on a stage using the combination of a live actor, holograms, and what must have been magic.

But now for a huge change of subject...instead of flying from Springfield to Richmond tomorrow as planned, I'm now flying home to New Mexico. My dad had a heart attack today, and while things are going well enough considering the situation (he had the attack in the hospital, which is a pretty good place I would say), I'm still going home to see him. Thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

It's cold in Springfield.

I made it to Springfield, Illinois. I've also now worn my winter coat and scarf for the first time this season. I visited Lincoln's house, which was nice. It's the only house he ever owned, and he lived there for seventeen years before heading to Washington to be president. The tour guide made sure to point out, about a billion times, that Lincoln did really well as a lawyer and thus could afford a two-storied five-bedroom house with nice furniture and a fancy stove in the kitchen. No log cabin here.


This evening I attended a reception at the Old Capitol, which has been redone to look like it did back in Lincoln's day with the courtroom, senate chamber, etc. There are plaques and signs on every block of downtown Springfield with something-or-another about Lincoln. He went to church here, he worked there, a guy in this building repaired his buggy, he bought some candy from that store, his son was bitten by a rabid dog near here, and on and on. I think it's safe to say Springfield is a little bit obsessed with Honest Abe.

Lincoln Land

I'm catching a flight at six in the morning (eek!) and heading to Springfield, Illinois, for a work conference. After spending time in Charlottesville, the land of Jefferson, it'll be interesting to see what the land of Lincoln is like. The weather forcast says it will be cold and rainy, but I still plan to walk to Lincoln's house and maybe a Frank Lloyd Wright house tomorrow before the first session of the conference. I'll let you know how it goes...

pea-brained

Yesterday I discovered the game "Big Brain Academy" for Nintendo DS. And by "discovered," I mean I played with a DS for the first time and the game happened to be "Big Brain Academy." If you're not familiar with it, it's a video game in which you answer lots of questions in five categories: Think, Memorize, Analyze, Compute, and Identify. I'm not big on video games (unless it's the original Mario Brothers or Tetris), but a game with puzzles and questions that measure the size of one's brain is right up my alley.

Or it would be right up my alley if I were any good at it. Instead, this game has turned into a giant ego-crusher (probably a good thing) because I have consistently been given C-ranged grades! Ak! I may not be in school anymore (for now...?), but Cs are definitely still not okay with me. I'm just not fast enough. I could probably answer all the questions if only I had more time! But alas, even practicing for two hours straight until my arm went numb from holding the game player wasn't enough to raise my score significantly.

Stupid game.

Weekend where? Richmond, duh.

Saturday evening I babysat Bobby-the-best-godbaby-ever in Richmond. But first I went shopping at the outlet mall in Williamsburg. Very often I have big plans for clothes I need/want and I go shopping for them but after hours of searching and grumbling over prices and hating myself for looking stupid and fat in the dressing room mirror I end up leaving without purchasing a single thing. But not yesterday! The trip was a success, and shopping at the outlet mall in Williamsburg came with the added bonus of hearing a fife and drum corps outside the food court.

The babysitting went fine. Josh and I took Bobby to the mall, where he rode a coin-operated speed boat (which he did not enjoy), and a race car, (which he did enjoy). He also looked at lots of books at Barnes and Noble.

Today after lunch with the family Josh and I went to the Richmond Folk Festival to hear some tunes. Sunni went with us, but she found a friend from school to hang out with and decided to ditch us old fogies. Which was fine. As for the music, I heard a little bit of a lot. There was throat singing, French fiddling, reggae, a trombone band, western yodeling, and New Orleans jazz. There was also cotton candy and limeade. Fun times.

Did you hear? Pistachios are sexy.

Loyal readers here will know that I've loved and followed pistachios for a while. So I cannot be accused of jumping on the pistachio bandwagon, because I started that parade a long time ago.

But pistachios are catching on. Have you noticed the new pistachio commercials with celebrities and not-so-subtle innuendo? Like "newlyweds do it five times a day," "Levi Johnston does it with protection," and "beauty queens do it without a clue."

I don't know what any of that has to do with pistachios, but I'm glad to know I was finally ahead of the times on something!

g-ross

I'm trying to enjoy making good meals out of vegetables. Not that I don't like vegetables, because I do. I'm just trying new things I guess. Last night I baked beets and apples together. It was okay, but I shouldn't have bothered mixing it with bland cous cous. Overall I was disappointed.

And tonight was a billion times worse. Someone at work had an extra spaghetti squash, so I brought it home. I don't think I've had spaghetti squash before, but I thought it would be fine. I found a simple recipe for cooking it and eating it like basic pasta, with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and Parmesan. Now I don't know if I overcooked it, or what, but it was nothing like spaghetti and adding what I did sure didn't help. It would have been better with brown sugar, like an acorn squash. As it stands, I don't think I can even finish eating my bowlful.

We know this must be serious because I always clear my plate.

Oh! I just remembered that I tried Spaghetti squash once at a restaurant. It was a nice place, and I had high hopes for the squash there, but now that it comes back to me, I remember being super disappointed with it then, too. I guess me and spaghetti squash just aren't meant to be friends.

planted pistachio

Today all my old Richmond colleagues took a field trip and came to visit my new Charlottesville colleagues. It was fun to see them again. My supervisor asked if it was weird being with my old crew, but I said no, it felt like things were back to normal.

The Richmond group knows all about my love of pistachios and fascination with finding them, so not only did one of them make me (or "us," since I'm supposed to share...) chocolate candy with pistachios and dried cherries, but someone also left this little token on my desk:



It doesn't count as a true sighting, because obviously it was planted there, but it was nice to see it after they'd all left.

apple pickin'

Friday afternoon Josh's grandma went to the Carter Mountain Orchard here in Charlottesville and picked apples with her two other grandkids. But then she forgot to take the apples home. So today Josh and I went to retrieve her apples. The timing worked out, because this weekend also happened to be their Apple Harvest Festival. So we walked around the orchards and picked a bagful of apples, drank some cider, ate apple cider donuts, and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

sunburn in October

Today I went to the Virginia State Fair. I saw expo booths of crafts and stuff for sale no one wants or needs, I saw lots of animals, and I rode some rides. It turns out I also got a sunburn. But the main reason for this post is to rant for a second. Remember when it took me forever to get home from the U2 concert Thursday because we were stuck in a parking garage and traffic didn't budge? Well that sort of happened again today. While leaving the fair we sat at a red light for well over fifteen minutes. There were tons of police directing traffic, and they made us wait a quarter of an hour just for a turn to turn. I'm not saying I was way in back and it took several turns before I got to the front and got to go. I'm saying they didn't give us a turn! Aaagghhh! I understand there were billions of people trying to get into the fair and maybe traffic was backed up on the interstate. But we still deserve a turn to leave! Plus, if they don't let us leave, where will all those new people park? It blows my mind. It's time like those that I *might* have a touch of road rage.

Bono loves TJ, too!

Last night was the U2 show. I have mixed feelings about the whole event. On the one hand, the show was awesome. And not just because Bono came out asking if Thomas Jefferson was in the house. On the other hand, we sat on the interstate for an hour before the show just to move TWO miles. And after the show? We sat parked in a garage for forty-five minutes while no one could move a single foot. By the time we got out of that garage the city was a ghost town. In fact, I just learned my cousin Leslie, who drove to the show from Richmond, made it back home to Richmond before I got home in Charlottesville. The show was in Charlottesville! Ugh.