Thursday night show

Thursday night Josh Ritter (my favorite) came to town. I wasn't sure I'd have time to see him, what with reading to do and the gym to visit and cookies to make for Retirement Day, but Josh (not Ritter) had actually showed some enthusiasm the night before about the show and I couldn't turn that down, since Josh (not Ritter) doesn't really like Josh (Ritter). So we went.

Josh (not Ritter) was feeling pretty sick with a cold, and we probably shouldn't have bothered going out, but he pulled through. After being fortified with pizza at Christian's on the downtown mall, we made it to the show at 10 just as Josh (Ritter) took the stage. It turns out the show was part of the same tour Josh (not Ritter) and I saw last summer in Richmond. But it was still good. Because Josh Ritter is always good. In my opinion.

Josh (not Ritter) said the vibrations of the bass helped clear his chest, and I say the music also cheered him up, and overall we had a very fun time.

on the road

Sheesh, I haven't posted in a month. Anyway, let me tell you about how I'm always driving all over the state of Virginia.

I live in Charlottesville (in central Virginia), I go to school once or twice a week in Fairfax (100 miles northeast), and I frequently visit Richmond (70 miles east) on the weekends. Recently Josh and I have also traveled to other places on weekends. One weekend in January we visited friends in Fredericksburg (65 miles northeast). A couple weeks later we had lunch with his grandfather in Fishersville (30 miles west). The weekend after that we visited his other grandparents in Roanoke (120 miles southwest) and then went straight across to Richmond to watch the Superbowl (or play board games during the Superbowl...) and celebrate Josh's birthday. Last weekend we had to go back to Roanoke so Josh could get his new Roanokian (?) car, and this past weekend we were back in Richmond to celebrate more birthdays.

When I lived in New Mexico it's true that I went plenty of places, but for the most part I just traveled between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. When I lived in Washington I went a few places, but I mostly stayed between Tacoma and Seattle. When I lived in North Carolina I mostly stayed in Raleigh, but traveled north to Richmond a lot.

I guess my point is, I like getting to know more of a state. I'm going multiple places, in multiple directions, for multiple reasons. I'm on interstates sometimes, but also frequently on two-lane highways. I see the countryside, I cross mountains, and I visit big cities. Its kind of nice.

Virus Buster

Over Christmas Josh let me borrow his Nintendo DS to play during my long layovers on the way to and from New Mexico. The game Brain Age 2 happens to have another game within in, meant for "relaxing" and not for trying to exercise your prefrontal cortex. The game is called Virus Buster, and is sort of like Tetris because pieces fall from the top and you have to line up four of the same color to get them to disappear (and some of the pieces already planted that you want to disappear are mean-faced viruses, hence the name).

I am addicted to this game, and could easily pass a four hour layover playing. The problem with the whole thing is that I also spent many hours (and many in the wee hours) playing while I was at home for the holidays, and I continue to play too much now that I'm back. In fact, yesterday Josh was going to come pick me up at a predetermined time and I planned to go for a run and get ready in the two hours leading up to his arrival. Only I wasted one of those hours playing the stupid game, and then had to run 4.5 miles, shower, and get ready all in one single hour. One hour! I believe that was the shortest shower I've ever taken in my life.

The whole thing was pretty out of hand if you ask me, and that's why I thrust the game at Josh as soon as he arrived to pick me up yesterday, and told him he needed to take it back. Apparently when it comes to Virus Buster, I just can't control myself.

Pie Day (Observed)

Yesterday was National Pie Day, so today at work we have nine homemade pies to celebrate. By 10:30 I'd already tried six of them...



I made a peanut butter and chocolate pie, the only one without a pastry crust.

drowned bugs

In case you were wondering, we are still infested with stink bugs at work. As you might imagine due to my Halloween costume and all those pictures I took a couple months ago, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with them. But sometimes they really drive me nuts.

Yesterday I decided to knuckle down, buckle down. A co-worker had a little plastic dish that she suggested we fill with soapy water and use to drown them. So I took the small tub of water and went around the office rounding them up. About sixty of them, in fact. Then I flushed 'em.

Of course that wasn't nearly all of them and they are still around the office today, but at least it made me feel a little better.

back at it

It's 2011, and Josh and I are kicking off the year with new gym memberships. The place we've joined is pretty hard core. How hard core? you ask. So hard core that we flip giant tires and swing sledge hammers. Pretty crazy. Of course there's all the other normal stuff, too. I might have to get myself a pair of those fingerless gloves, because Josh has this silly idea that I should be able to do pullups, but those hurt my hands. (And the rest of my arms.) I also need to keep up with my running, because I probably want to do the Monument Avenue 10k and the Montalto Challenge again. Oh, and of course there's a new semester of PhD school coming up, so I will have a packed schedule. Exciting stuff.

Holiday Recap

Christmas happened. It was pretty good. We had family and friends over to our house in Santa Fe.

Monday my family went bowling. I won one of our three games, and scored over 100 twice!

Tuesday I went with Dad to Albuquerque to shop for a new suitcase. After that we saw The King's Speech. It is very very good. You should all go see it.

Thursday we all had lunch downtown with my grandparents, then visited a special exhibit at the history museum that included lots of old maps and letters from Spain about early New Mexico and other Spanish-owned territories.

The first several days I was here were not very cold. But then temps dropped a whole bunch and it snowed and it's been well below freezing the last few days.

Friday, New Year's Eve, my family rode the New Mexico Rail Runner to Albuqerque. That is the (relatively new) commuter train that runs between Santa Fe and Belen. The best part? The doors "beep beep" at you when they are going to close, just like the road runner on Looney Tunes!




After the train ride we saw True Grit. Also a great movie you should go see. (And it was filmed in New Mexico.)

That night I went out with Ryan and his friend to hear the friend's brother's band at Second Street Brewery. That was pretty fun, but we didn't stay out late (well, I didn't stay out late, Ryan went out again after dropping me off) and I enjoyed a glass of Champagne with my parents at midnight.

Tomorrow we're going out for a nice lunch at Ryan's old hotel, and Monday I head back to Virginia.

It's been a good trip.

fuzzy but festive

It's Christmas Eve and I'm in Santa Fe, so you know what that means... my family had posole and tamales for dinner, then walked Canyon Road. Merry Christmas everyone!

not much heat, but lots of atmosphere

Last night Josh and his roommate decided to surprise their other roommate with a new fireplace, just in time for the holidays. Looks pretty awesome, I say.

Christmas festivities

Last week I attended two work parties and joined Josh for his work party (which was at a bowling alley and therefore automatically beat mine). Then I finished all of my Christmas shopping this weekend. It's pretty exciting to know that I don't have to run around frantically shopping when I get to Santa Fe later this week. Tomorrow I'm going to bake cookies after work, and Tuesday night Josh and I will have dinner and exchange our gifts. Then Wednesday I'm headed west!

woohoo!

I just submitted my last assignment, and I am now done with school work for the semester. (Well, I still have to go to class on Monday, but I just have to sit and listen.) It is officially winter break! Winter break with a full-time job of course, but now I don't have to do homework or feel guilty for not working on my homework. I think I will try to read a few history books over these several weeks to help flesh out some of what I learned in my course on recent U.S. history, and I want to organize my notes a little more so I can use them when it comes time to study for comps (way down the road), but I won't stress over that stuff until after Christmas.

We're getting festive in the office.

time flies

Sheesh, it's been three weeks since I posted here. Time flies when you're, uh, plugging right along.

I have two papers due next week, and then I'm more-or-less done with my first semester of school. It's gone pretty well. I'm hoping my little Corolla will last until at least the summer of 2012, but all this driving to Fairfax might shorten my desired time frame.

I spent last weekend in Richmond with family for Thanksgiving. My mom flew out, so it was nice to hang out with her. It was also nice of her to go to the outlet mall in Williamsburg with me on Black Friday (afternoon).

Some day I want to go to New York for Thanksgiving and see all the parade floats in real life.

I can't believe it's already December. It's cold outside. And dark. I don't think I will put up my little Christmas tree this year, since I'll spend the holiday in Santa Fe, but I'm going to hang up the chili lights Josh's grandma gave me last year.

I'm contemplating trying to fit some mosaicing in between the end of school and Christmas, but I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet and time is flying, so that might be wishful thinking.

random bits to share

I just learned that the brontosaurus and triceratops didn't really exist. (Well, I guess I was late on not knowing about the brontosaurus, and the verdict on the triceratops might still be out.) Crazy.

On October 31st a bunch of New York City librarians and library supporters dressed up like zombies and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest budget cuts. They had signs like "Better Undead Than Unread" and "No Libraries No Brains." How awesome is that?

I also just learned about the Random Acts of Culture project, and *may* have teared up while watching this video.

Halloween

This year for Halloween I decided to dress up as something that has been on my mind a lot lately. So I dressed as a stink bug! Josh made the main component of my costume, and it. was. awesome.

I wore it to work on Friday:



Josh dressed up as a zombie, and on Saturday we went to Richmond so he and Jay could be in the Zombie walk:



Josh was the tennis player and Jay was the plumber.



Sunni had fun watching the zombies.




Saturday night Josh and I went out dancing in Shockoe Bottom.







Sunday Josh and I carved a jack-o-lantern at my grandparents' house and I passed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Jay brought Bobby over in his dinosaur costume. His "Raawr" was pretty cute.

I went to Philly.

Hi guys. I know it's taken me a week to tell you, but last weekend I went to Philadelphia for a conference. Josh joined me for the trip, and we took the Amtrak train straight from Charlottesville into Philly. It was pretty great. I haven't traveled on a train in the states like that, but it was way better than trying to fly. No security or baggage fees, bigger seats with much more legroom, the ability to get up and walk around whenever you want, and more interesting scenery.

We got into the city around noon and checked into the hotel, then had lunch in Chinatown. Next I headed to a conference panel, but was informed I needed to go run an errand for work at the American Philosophical Society, so I grabbed Josh and we headed over there instead. It's a neat place, and from there we walked around the historic area a little and visited the printing shop by Ben Franklin's no-longer-existing house. That evening we went to a reception, then Josh and I wandered around the city for a billion years looking for the perfect place to eat. We finally found it, even though it turns out they only accepted cash and were a bring-your-own alcohol establishment. So we didn't drink or have appetizers or dessert because they either didn't serve it or we didn't have enough cash to cover it. But the food was delicious.

Saturday I was busy with conference stuff all morning and for part of the afternoon, minus a lunch break during which Josh and I wandered around some more and ate sandwiches. That afternoon while I was busy he visited the Academy of Natural Sciences, then we met up and did a whole lot more walking. We visited a brewery for beer and appetizers, then walked across the river over by the university and ate dinner at the White Dog Cafe, which a co-worker had recommended. The food there was also delicious, but we ordered way more than we could handle (we should have skipped the appetizer at the brewery) and pretty much rolled ourselves out of there. There was no way we could have walked all the way back (over twenty blocks) being that full, so we took the subway (or "el") back.

Sunday I spent the morning in the conference again, and as soon as it was over we hurried to the Franklin Institute, a science museum. We spent a couple hours there, and then had to hurry back to get our bags and head to the train station.

The weather in Philadelphia was perfect, the conference was good, and it was fun doing touristy stuff with Josh. I also look forward to another train ride some day.

Stink Bug Invasion

We are currently experiencing an invasion of stink bugs over here. I don't actually smell them, but other people do because apparently they spray some kind of stink. Hence the name. They are an invasive species not native to the U.S., and while they don't actually bite or hurt or anything (well, I think they hurt crops), they are quite a pest. Thankfully I have not had a problem with them at my apartment and the two or three I've seen have been easy to get out right away. But they are going crazy at work.

Let me show you.

Here we have a stink bug on top of a cubicle divider.



And here is one climbing the blinds pull.



This one is on my chair.



These are actually outside my window, but still unpleasant to see.



They can be clumsy, so this one flew over to my window but landed on its back. It turned over eventually. They make a whirring noise when they fly, and you can often hear them thumping into the window or wall or wherever they are headed. They startle me every time.



This guy (see him on the corner of the folder?) tried to climb down on my pom-pom, but had to rethink that plan.



This gang hangs out above the door to our offices. I'm always sure they are going to drop on me when I walk through, but they haven't so far.



Sometimes they even go inside the folders. Not a pleasant surprise.



They are all over outside, too. When I go to my car they are all over the place, including inside the little gas door and once under my door handle. This one was outside my window while I was stopped at a light.



But this one was inside.



I haven't seen too many while driving, which is good because they freak me out and make the driving part dangerous. But obviously they are in my car, because in the back under the windshield I have a sort of stink bug graveyard going on. I plan to leave them until it gets cold and they go away, then I'll get some poor kid at a car wash to vacuum them out for me.



Josh had an invasion in his apartment, and about 80 came into his bathroom through the vent. He put most of them down the toilet. I'm glad I wasn't there.

The whole thing is pretty gross.

One space?!

Three weeks ago I learned something shocking. Well, shocking to me. And maybe to you, too, if you're not in the know either.

Apparently, you are only supposed to put one space between sentences.

How did I not know this? When did this happen, and why did no one tell me? Where was the PSA, and how did I miss it?

I like to think that I'm still relatively young. But I did learn to type on a typewriter. I took a semester-long typing course in the seventh grade, and we were taught to put two spaces between sentences. Which was correct, because we were typing on typewriters. I haven't typed on a typewriter in a long time, but I have always kept two spaces between my sentences.

A few weeks ago a friend on Facebook posted a link to this, and it blew my mind. That was the first time I had ever heard about the one space rule. In fact, it was probably the first time I'd heard about any spacing rule since the seventh grade. Then on Monday night a professor at school also mentioned the one-space-for-word-processing rule, so I'm convinced it's official.

Now I just have to tame my eager right thumb.

State Fair

Today I went to the fair with my cousin Jay and his son Bobby.

We saw baby animals and big animals, looked at big produce, drank cider and tasted honey, watched a mechanical pig sing and play the guitar, visited an Oregon Trail camp, walked through a redwood tree house, cheered for racing pigs, and ate a little fair food. Good times.

this and that

I apologize for not blogging lately. Nothing too exciting is going on around here.

School is going well. I'm not overwhelmed (yet?) and I enjoy having reading to do again. Of course that means I always have reading to do... The drive up to Fairfax isn't too bad. It's not fun to do it two nights in a row, but that only happens every other week.

Last weekend Josh and I joined his grandparents in Lexington to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops perform. It rained so they had to switch venues at the last minute and the sound wasn't very good in the new place, but it was still a fun time.

In case you were wondering, I'm not running another half marathon any time soon. I know I talked a lot, but training takes so much time! I still run a few times a week for exercise, but only about 3-4 miles. Someday I want to do another half marathon, but not right now.

My parents sent me a fun fall package with lots of goodies to eat, including caramel corn, cookie and scone mixes, Girl Scout cookies, gummy bears, and gummies that are made to look like boogers (hehe). They also bought out the sale bin of glass tiles at a craft store, so I have plenty of tiles to work with for another mosaic.

A few months ago Josh and I read To Kill a Mockingbird together while on long drives. Now we're reading Of Mice and Men. It's like a book on tape only no tape! Sometimes we even do the voices.