So, here is the master list...

After posting the last note I realized... "What a great opportunity! I could post my list of summer projects and see if I'm the totally insane person who has this much to do or if any of our family and friends find themselves in the same predicament!" So here is our list of things we need to do, want to do, have to do and WILL do over the course of the next summer. Maybe we'll update it as we progress. I'm definitely a list maker and checking stuff off often is VERY gratifying.

TO DO
1. Laundry- yup- it's been a while and Jonathan is just about out of the zillion white t-shirts he owns (his t-shirt army and my undies compete for the "Obnoxiously Large Supply" award in our household).
2. Spring Cleaning- we've started to clean out the flower boxes and do a full clean up of the house but we have a long way to go...
3. Repainting- The upstairs bathroom needs some serious work since we replaced the ceiling two years ago and it did a number on the paint job (which was fresh at the time).
4. Plumbing- Fixing the upstairs shower head and the kitchen faucet. Hmmm, might have to hire someone for this. Neither of us are particularly adept at plumbing and they've need some fixing for some time...
5. Househunting- I know, we're nuts. BUT!! We are going to look for a new place this summer so we can spread out a bit and, more importantly, have some storage space. I've told Jonathan that if our next home doesn't have an attic, a basement, a garage or SOME underground tunnel hide away for our extra boxes, decorations clothes etc... I'm going to jump off the back porch. (I realized that a "poke my own eyes out" there might have been overdueing it a bit so let's just say I'll express some serious discontent.)
6. Friends- Catching up with those I love and spending some time just having FUN! Can't wait for that.
7. Car Care- I'm about 3000 miles over the number at which I should have gotten my last oil change and tire rotation so that is an important one on the list along with cleaning out the inside and waxing. Phfew...
8. Furniture Shopping- We are beginning to think about what kind of dining room table we might like for the future house we we'll have. We also might try to find a different entertainment unit so we can put up the TV we bought a few months ago and haven't been able to use yet (Jonathan's a little fried about that so this one will happen sooner rather than later)...
9. Finances- No one really tells you how long it takes to organize all of this stuff after you get married. We still have lots of decisions to make and need to have a mini financial retreat (just the two of us) to make some real progress...
10. VACATION- Ummm, yeah... we need a lot of this. Right now we have Vermont, the beach and a few local trips on our radar. We also are looking forward to having a bunch of visitors this summer! Yippeee.

I'm sure I'll think of others, but this is a good start. Enjoy the day.

Happy Belated St. Patty's Day!

(Kimmy & I in Vermont two years ago... just liked the photo.)

Did you wear green yesterday? Yup, I did! Although I was told by my colleagues that it was turquoise so it didn't count. Whatever. Party poopers. I figure if I have a stepfather named Patrick O'Toole then I'm part Irish so I had a good time celebrating regardless. It was another long work day but lots of progress was made on the plans for our Day for Admitted Students event including the highly coveted arrival of the program's 1st draft. Our publications office does a great job at pulling it together quickly as the turn around time for when the plans are complete and when the program is needed in our office- goes by in a flash. Ahh, one more thing off the list.

It was a lovely day yesterday but the temperatures have dropped again so it feels like late winter (admittedly appropriately so) instead of the springlike days we were having a week ago. Hrrmphf. I can't wait until spring it here full time. It just lifts everybody's spirits. Our daffodils have now passed and the flox is just beginning to turn pink so lots of color and fresh stuff to look forward to.

Hee hee. Penelope is staring at me from her crate right now and wimpering in a way that I'm sure means, "Please take me out and play with me... I can see you RIGHT THERE... I know you are there and I can't believe you haven't seen my cute pouty face yet and decided that playing with me is better than ANYTHING you could possible need to be doing right now." Ahhh, me. Hopefully Jonathan will have some time to take her on a long walk at Waller Mill Pond today. Unfortunately she's become a bit of a weekend warrior when it comes to really lengthy and exhausting exercise because we simply haven't had time to take her out into the woods during the work weeks. When we do though, she LOVES it. I'll be at work today with a quick stop at 11 a.m. for some time with Emily and will hopefully be finished by 3ish as Saskia is coming into town (a good friend who I used to work with and is now in graduate school at UVA) and I'd love to catch up with her.

I must admit I'm not sure what the heck I will do with a whole weekend free after our busy season finishes up! Haaaaaaa. I just wanted to see what it would be like to type that sentence. Actually I have a list of about 500 projects I'm looking forward to doing when I have some time so there will not be enough days off to even tap the list...

Alrighty, I'm off to jump in the shower (yup, that is right folks, 7:50 a.m. on a Saturday) and to head to work for a 9:30 a.m. start time. Do you detect a little bitterness? We'll make it through but when you are in the heart of it- there are moments that STINK!!!

Happy day to you all!

Happy "Pi" Day

Morning Everybody! Today is officially Pi day. You know, 3.1415… Day. One our applicants wrote an extended essay about how she celebrates March 14^th in recognition of the esteemed number- for obvious reasons- don’t you? Hee hee. One of my colleagues decided to follow in the applicant’s footsteps and will bring in two different pies for us to share during our committee discussions today. Ahh, we must all be overtired, but having another reason to celebrate and get our minds off of all of the files we are reading is welcome. I really am lucky to work with a group of wonderful people. At this busy time of year I’m never more grateful to have well intentioned, fun, open, supportive folks here in the office.

So, right now I’m getting ready for a meeting and thought I would write a short post on our day yesterday. We woke up to another almost 80 degree morning (gorgeous) and a puppy who was READY TO PLAY. We found someone else’s kickball in our backyard and after promptly popping it with her puppy teeth Penelope decided it was THE PERFECT TOY. She and Dad have enjoyed it on several different potty trips since. She had her third Vet trip at 5 p.m. last night and Dr. Mangelsdorf thinks she is doing very well! She’s now up to 29.4 lbs from 18 at our last appointment (holy cow) and after one more set of vaccinations (which will be complete in the next two weeks) we’ll be able to take her to the dog park for some play time with other dogs. Yahoo! We also set up her spay appointment for May 17^th and got her starter Frontline medication (to ward off flees and ticks). Now- we also learned that this time of year is the time when typical puppies root out spring bugs to munch on which can lead to upset tummies and vomiting. Ugggh, I’m praying she’ll be grossed out by 8 legged friendsJ. All in all, things are fantastic with her. We are noticing some welcomed behavioral changes with the puppy play biting (our hands are noticeably less scarred) and around other people she now promptly SITS in a perceived effort to be polite when she greets them. It is VERY sweet. She still seems a little unsure of herself around other dogs (especially ones that are larger than her) but we expect that will change with more exposure and time. She met a handsome yellow lab at the Vet yesterday (Brodie) who was only one month older than her and he wanted desperately to play and she just sort of flirted with the idea. Jumping around a lot but never close enough to let any touching occur. Admittedly he had a loud bark and the owner didn’t seem to have a whole lot of control over his jumping yet- AND he HAD to have been at least 20 or 30 lbs larger than her… but, we were hopeful that she would think he was fun. In time. After the vet appointment Jonathan and I picked up our online grocery shopping order, unpacked at home and then, you guessed it, headed back to my office.

I had some clean up work to do on the files I’d been working with throughout the day and some phone calls to make regarding the upcoming Day for Admitted Students event I’m coordinating on April 8^th. It was nice to have him with me for the evening. If I was really honest I’d tell you all that we stopped at Brewsters for ice cream AGAIN (yup, two days in a row) on our way home from my office, but I hear white lies are o.k. sometimes so I’ll avoid sharing that little embarrassing tidbit with you. (We are addicted.) It was an early bedtime for us and now… here we are again! I think we are going to make a curry chicken dish for dinner tonight –YUM. More later! Have a wonderful afternoon.

Posting Via Email!

This is so neat! I can post to the blog via email which will allow me to update it with far greater frequency than if I had to go to the website and deal with all of the technical jargon:) I may not be able to include a lot of pictures when I'm posting via email (well- until I figure it out) but I'm psyched that this is possible! Oky doky... so, this is the test post. We'll see what happens.

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Yahoo! Mail
Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.

Declaring Today- 1st Official Day of Spring

Today was the most wonderful afternoon. It was 80 degrees outside (which is officially amazing in March) and after a morning of spring cleaning, working on files for work, and getting our lives back on track (you know, the normal weekend stuff), Jonathan and I went for a long walk in Colonial Williamsburg with Penelope.

I swear walking Duke of Gloucester Street is like a doggy coming out party every day:) She met an adult yellow lab named Charlie, a boxer named Jackson and a baby beagle who was the exact same age as her AND was named Penny- funny eh... She is doing very well with other dogs and Jonathan and I can't wait until she's had her rabies shot so that we can take her to the Waller Mill Pond dog park. I'm also officially convinced that all single people should own dogs. We've met more wonderful people just by walking with her... Phfew- gotta get the word out to Kimmy Kim- wink wink. After our walk in CW we visited some of my colleagues who were still slaving away at their desks (this is our busy time of year, but it IS a Sunday folks so they needed a reprieve...). She did super well with all of them (Henry, my boss, riled her up with a game of ball in the office hallway- but she loves him so it is o.k.), and THEN we hit Brewsters for our official "first day of the ice cream season " ice cream. I chose key-lime-pie and raspberry sherbet while Jonathan chose coffee-chocolate-chip and nutty-coconut- all were PERFECTION. Ahh, sigh. Life is great. I mean what more is there than our health, a sunny day, some time to enjoy the sky, some time together and opportunities to meet new folks! That's it for now! Happy happy warm weather to everyone!!

Blogging Babe & Bodacious Buddy Hubby- start, "The Scott Scoop"

Well hello! Here I am starting an official blog for our new family. Jonathan and I are now eight and a half months into our marriage and things are wonderful! Life has its up downs and in betweens and we just thought a blog would be a great way to share those moments with those we love on a more frequent basis than our calls and emails allow. So, here we go! We'll try to include pictures, quips, short stories and just random pontifications at the end of each day. Please forgive the obvious stream-of-consciousness nature of the blog but I think that is really the nature of the beast. Sort of a diary-esque journal online. Once we've worked out all of the kinks we'll hopefully have an opportunity for guest bloggers to come join the fun (hopefully ya'll won't think this is too geeky:). Onward and upward!