Another one bites the dust. Jen's engaged too :) Congratulations to the happy couple! People have been getting engaged left and right lately. Until now I've only been to 3 weddings, but I should double that by next year.

Our house is enormous. I'm not bragging- I'm complaining! There are sooooo many walls to paint, and we're doing 2 coats to get full coverage. I've been painting (or prep work for painting) for 6-7 hours for the last three days and we only have the kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and the trim in the third bedroom done. The kitchen is a pale purple, and it looks awesome. The bedrooms are all pale gray/silver, and look nice and dreamy, like sleeping in the clouds. Still on the list: finish last bedroom, living/dining room (huge), 3 bathrooms, hallway, 2 stairwells, and laundry room. And that's just the painting- we still have to move all our stuff. We've been moving things that will fit in my car with each trip over, then Ryan's dad is coming to help us with the furniture next weekend.

It's crazy to think that all the house is ours. I feel like "what did I do to deserve all this?" I finally get the nice house painted all pretty like I wished I had while growing up. It would be a very empty house with just me and Ryan, but the kitties will fill it up nicely with their frantic scurrying around. They're going to be so happy!

We has a housie! And I'm exhausted.

Neither Ryan nor I could fall back asleep this morning when the kittens woke us up at 5:30, so we got up and stayed up, which definitely has something to do with me being exhausted. The closing was at 9am, and since I'd been warned so many times to expect to sign a lot of papers, it didn't feel like that many. In fact, we were done by 10. And Brian awesomely gave us a thank you card with a $50 Home Depot gift card. We'll probably use him again when we sell in 5 years or so.

The one big annoyance was that the previous owner took the refrigerator, washer, and dryer with him, even though in the contract it said those would stay. Turns out he was confused, and he arranged to have them delivered back that day. The fridge has an icemaker, and since the door to the freezer had been off the hinges in transport, the tube for water got pretty beat up. We suspect that it will leak once we hook it up, although we haven't yet because we need to paint the kitchen.

So we went to Home Depot and spent $500 after a 10% discount on everything AND the $50 gift card. AND we purposely didn't get much of our paint (it will be on sale later this week), lawnmower, vacuum, etc. Oy. Then we came back and did painting prep. Our plan is to paint the whole kitchen and the bedrooms' trim tomorrow, plus more prep on other rooms. Pics later.

Gremlin, Choco, and Ryan say hi. Ryan's taken to calling Gremlin "Grem-Grem," whereas I prefer, "Gremlin from the Kremlin." Choco occasionally gets, "Choc-Choc," as his version of Grem-Grem. It's been 2 weeks and they are definitely much larger. Maybe 1.5 lbs instead of 1? Not much poundwise, but a big percentage. Choco is our sweetie pie. He likes to cuddle. Gremlin is always on the go and is too busy to cuddle.

We do a final walk-through of the house Thursday night, then close on Friday morning. After "basking" in the house for a little while, we'll probably jump right in to the painting prep and spend the weekend painting. We'll be back and forth between the house and the apartment for the rest of May. Can't wait!

Observations on Choco and Gremlin:
1. I can't believe how much we have to clean their 2 litterboxes!
2. I can't believe how much they eat! (see also #1)
3. I can tell at a glance that they're getting bigger.
4. Jibblies has attempted to lay the smack down a couple times because the little ones keep bugging him.
5. They are already very affectionate and meow incessantly if they want attention.
6. They purr loudly if you scratch their heads.
7. Gremlin has super-thick fur.
8. With the amount of cat hair we're going to have as they get bigger, someone should get us the Dyson from our wedding registry.
9. Three cats is too many for a 2 bedroom apartment, even if 2 of the cats are tiny.
10. They're cute!

We get the house one week from tomorrow! Yippee! Then I can go all Martha Stewart and paint, garden, and decorate. And the less fun part- move all our stuff. We bought new furniture for the guest room and it's being delivered, so at least we don't have to haul that upstairs. The guest room is going to be nicer than our room, in my opinion. But- we got a queen size for the guest room as well, so we can mix and match the beds/linens/mattresses. One comfy bed is too small for 2 adults and 3 kitties, so the remaining kitties will have a nice spot, too.

We've locked in the wedding date: May 31, 2008! I am seriously considering having Wegmans do our flowers. There's a full service floral department in our store and I loooove the arrangements they have every time we get groceries. In fact, that's where I first fell in love with all the spiky flowers. I practically have the entire wedding planned already. Although it hasn't all been ordered, I know where it's coming from and what it's going to look like. Now that we've got the date for sure, our save the dates will be in the mail soon. With them going out over a year in advance, people are going to think we're crazy, but we want to increase everyone's chances of being able to attend. And Ryan's a planner, plus uncertainty makes me nervous.

More kitty pics are up on Flickr. These ones Jen took. She had much more success getting the little ones to look at the camera. Plus an amazing action shot of Jibblies.

So I took them to the vet yesterday. Turn out that our little bundles of cuteness are also little bundles of FLEAS! Nothing that some Advantage can't take care of, but it cost us a little extra $. Otherwise they're in good health. Like I suspected, Gremlin is a girl and Choco is a boy. She was just under a pound (15 oz.) and he was just over (16.1 oz.). The vet estimated their age at 5 weeks.

3 kitties is quite a lot to keep track of. Maybe Ryan's right that we shouldn't get any more after this. Although once the kittens are more autonomous they won't need such vigilant supervision...

I ordered my dress yesterday! Now if Ryan leaves me I have something to wear when I'm an old lady and have hundreds of kitties roaming my house. It's the one I had my eye on since my first bridal magazine:

























I definitely knew when I tried it on. No hemming and hawing. Ryan went with me to the store, so he's seen me in it. I'm not superstitious like that.

Kittens make me soooooo happy :D They're much less skittish and more adventurous as time goes on. We've even let Jibblies mingle with them while we're around to supervise. Jibblies is a scaredy cat and is very timid around them. I think he's just confused as to where they came from and is getting used to the idea of sharing me and Ryan with other cats. We're not allowing unsupervised mingling yet, just to be on the safe side. I can't say that Jibblies wouldn't hurt a fly because he's been known to eat flies and other bugs :)

Jen visited yesterday on her way to Atlantic City. We had lunch, played with the kitties, looked at wedding magazines, went to try on wedding dresses (well, they only let me since she didn't have a separate appointment), and went to dinner. It was fun to hang out and do the girl talk thing.

Of the dresses yesterday, the one that stood out was this dress. I would definitely get it in white rather than ivory/off-white. I mainly like the plunging back- it was dramatic. The front was very flattering, and I liked that it was a more lightweight fabric. While I do like it a lot, I still haven't had a visceral reaction to any dresses. The only concerning thing is that there's a sale this weekend where I'd get $150 off if I ordered it then. I have an appointment at a different shop tonight (one that carries the va-va-voom dress I showed earlier), and if nothing there strikes a chord then I'll probably bring Ryan to see the above dress this weekend and possibly get it.

Being done with finals, even though they weren't very stressful, has improved my happiness level too. And we close on the house 2 weeks from tomorrow! Life is pretty darn good if my main problem is picking the best dress.

Fantastically wonderful news!!!!!!

The H0ffman-Dickers0n household got a tiny bit bigger last night.

Tiny times two!

Introducing Choco:















And Gremlin:














A couple less blurry pics:


























Ordinarily we'd have adopted adults from the shelter, since kittens at shelters usually have no trouble finding homes. But, I got a mass email from someone at school last night saying that there were cute stray kittens under their porch that needed homes. The rest is history! I'm not 100% sure what their sexes are, but they look different, so I think there's one of each. Probably Gremlin is a she and Choco is a he, but I could be wrong. Choco is short for Chocolate. S/he's a severe cutie with a striped little belly. Gremlin has a weird gray-orange mottled coat with white paws and a white belly. S/he's the "ugly" one but has the more outgoing personality.

They've done some cute pouncing on each other, but for the most part have just been eating and getting settled in. We're keeping them separate from Jibblies for now... when we first brought the cat carrier with them inside, Jibblies peeked in the front and Gremlin got so scared that s/he vomited! And then Choco ate it! That's some combo of gross and cute, which equals funny.

I'm estimating that they're about a month old, but then again I could be wrong. They're going to the vet in a couple days for shots and an exam. Then I'll have a better estimate of the age and a definitive answer on the sexes.

I was surprised- I actually had a pretty good time at the L0ckheed thing. The open bar didn't hurt :) Making small talk with Ryan's former co-workers wasn't too hard with the engagement, house, and Jersey to talk about. We ended up sitting with 3 other couples that were actually pretty cool (despite us being the young 'uns) and turns out they're big Idol fans, so I got to prove to Ryan that I'm not the only intelligent person who got sucked in to watching! Dinner was impressive: bacon-wrapped filet and salmon duo entree. It was pretty clear they don't throw this type of party very often.

Today is Nibblin's birthday! He's 2 years old. We got him a new cat teaser and tub of catnip. Pretty soon he'll be getting some friends, too! We've been visiting the animal shelter and have our eye on these two, if they're still available in three weeks:














Cute, eh?! They're not related, but they need to be adopted together because they've become such good friends. The one on the left is Walker, a 2 year old male, and when we saw him he was very playful. He and Jibblin can get into all sorts of trouble together. The one on the right is Isabelle, an 8 month old female. She was sleepy when we visited but they tell us she's very cuddly. We'd rename them- if Walker really is as mischievous as he seems, he'd be Gremlin. If Isabelle is as cuddly as they say, maybe a name like Cuddles.

Yawn. Just killing time before my open-note stats final. I love how grad school finals are so laid-back.

Ryan and I are going to Syracuse this weekend for an all-expenses paid trip courtesy of L0ckheed. Basically, while he was working up there, he was on a project proposal team. The government eventually awarded them the contract. This is the big victory party, held at the OnCenter (civic center), with open bar, dinner, and dancing. They're even paying for Ryan's mileage and a hotel room! How frivolous yet fun for us is that?!

Jen is visiting me next week. We're going to the bridal shop so I can get her opinion on dresses. Otherwise, the only person around to take shopping with me (other than school friends that I'm not super close to) is Ryan, which I may end up taking anyway. Superstition, smuperstition. But a female opinion is good.

Oof. Ryan and I biked 30 miles yesterday and I am beat. Even he was pretty tired afterwards, and he's been biking about 3x/week while it was my third ride of the year. It was a beautiful day and today is supposed to pass 80 degrees, but then by Thursday it's supposed to be back down to the 40's and raining.

All I want to do is plan house and wedding stuff. May 18 can't come fast enough. My summer plans are beginning to shape up. I think I will be in Maine for the first 3 weeks of June, then coming back for a week or two for Scott and Julie's wedding and spending some time with Ryan, the new kitties, and the new house. Fortunately it works out that the tides are bad that week, so if I were up in Maine I wouldn't be able to get much done anyway. After that, I'll be up in Maine until mid-August, and Ryan will join me for a week during July's bad tides. Since I won't be super busy, we'll have the freedom to take trips on the mainland if we so please.

I'm going to try to get the aquarium booked before we close on the house, because once that happens I'll be super-busy and then heading straight to Maine. So much exciting stuff, but it seems to be coming at a snail's pace.

I tried on wedding dresses for the first time today. I was very pleasantly surprised- I looked great in all of them (I tried on about 8). The women working there kept saying how everything worked because I'm "tall and thin." And yes, I realize they suck up a little because they're trying to sell me something, but I do agree that I'm well-proportioned. There were two dresses I really liked, and both were very much in my price range, but I've got over a year and it's fun to try dresses on (especially when they all look good!), so I'm going to visit a few more shops. Also, they only had a couple mermaid & trumpet styles, which I still like the best, so I want to try more.

Exactly 1 month until we close on the house!

We got the aquarium wedding tour yesterday, along with more info on pricing. Holiday weekends are considerably more expensive than regular weekends, so now we're thinking Saturday May 31, 2008. Any scheduling conflicts, other than bachelor/bachelorette party hangovers? We'll just be sure to drink lots of water to minimize the damage. So we didn't put down a deposit because we wanted to check with people about the date, but we're still 99% certain that we're going with the aquarium.

Tomorrow is my last day of classes. I'm so relieved. For a couple weeks there I was stressed beyond belief due to non-stop days where I was consistently supposed to be multiple places at once. In the next couple weeks I have one take-home final and one open-note final, plus lots of grading and a few miscellaneous assignments. But overall I can breathe again.

7:30 am, 50 feet behind my apartment:


Note the car. That's some crazy shit. Almost looks like Ryan's car, eh? And the boathouse than Dan commented about (my picture, not the AP's):

There's supposed to be a road between the foreground and the submerged bushes.

The water went down a couple feet (vertically) during the day even though there was intermittent light rain. I don't expect it will get as high again; it would take another day or two of really hard rain. We weren't inconvenienced much at all, which is good.

Whoa, the picture on the front of CNN.com was taken like 200 meters from my apartment! The river is pretty flooded. Fortunately the apartment complex is a few feet higher than the water and, if nothing else, our apartment is on the second floor.

Friday Ryan and I went shopping for the house. We used the Lowe's gift cards that his mom got us for Easter and bought gardening and painting supplies. We also went to the mall and bought a bedding set for the future guest bedroom.

Saturday we went for a 20 mile bike ride. Although I'd planned to go along with Ryan a lot, this is actually only my second ride of the year. I'm not too sore today, though.

Today it rained. We did our taxes and organized wedding stuff. We're meeting with the aquarium coordinator on Tuesday, and may put down our deposit if it goes well. Then we can start the official countdown.

Ok, I assume that those who've held their peace are fine with either date. So since it's unanimous (between 2:) ), I'll try for Memorial Day weekend when I meet with the aquarium coordinator. Either Sat or Sun would be fine by me, but the advantage of Sun would be:

Fri night: Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties (ladies- Atlantic City?)
Sat morning: hungover
Sat evening: rehearsal & rehearsal dinner
Sun morning: not hungover!
Sun evening: get hitched!
Mon morning: hungover, but can sleep in and guests travel later in the day

We're definitely up for guests staying at our house after the afterparty at the house, being that it's so spacious and all. You just can't be allergic to cats. Maid of honor has dibs on the guest room with real bed. We also have a double sized air mattress and 2 couches. I'm assuming we should give the best man one of those. After that, superabundant floor space for your sleeping bags and/or air mattresses.

It's gonna be the party of the century! Woot!

Easter was nothing too special. I guess it was good to get out of town for a couple days, maybe?

Ryan's dad did loan us some money for the wedding, though, so we can go ahead and put down a deposit at the aquarium soon, which means choosing a date! So, I want your input!

The two options we're considering most right now are May 17, 2008 (Saturday) and May 25, 2008 (Sunday of Memorial Day weekend). It will be in the evening. Basically, would the extra day of Memorial Day weekend make life easier for you, or do you think traveling that weekend would be a pain so you'd prefer a "normal" weekend? Discuss!

School had me quite stressed out there since returning from the conference, but yesterday I turned in my big paper that was due so I should be returning to a much more manageable level of school stress now.

Normally I wouldn't pay $6 for one pair of socks, but I couldn't pass these up:
They're pirate kitties! With pirate hats and eye patches and bandannas and treasure chests! Even I wouldn't have been able to dream that up.

We're leaving this afternoon to go to Po-town for Easter. It doesn't sound like mass is involved this year, which I'm relieved about. Just food and family gatherings, which means a new audience of people I can show my ring off to (after the first week post-engagement there have been very few showing offs). And there'll be plenty of conversation topics regarding the house and wedding, so I won't have to end up talking about fishing with Ryan's grandpa.

This weekend I went to a mini conference at Rutgers on Saturday, then Sunday was pretty much a wash except that...

I forced Ryan to go with me to the animal shelter so we could look at kitties. And there was a sign on the wall that said something to the effect of "Buy one kitten, get the second half off." We're still waiting until we move, but after more discussion it seems very likely that we'll get two more :) Ryan and I will each choose one independently (provided they seem to get along at the shelter). I'm sure Ryan will choose an orange one, but I could be persuaded within a few colors based on personality. The two I liked best yesterday were a black one and a brown tabby. We'll see. I really wish I could fast-forward through the end of the semester and get right to the new house and kitties.

We also went to Home Depot again to pick up more paint chips after having spent lots of time in the house for the inspection. After much consideration, the chosen colors are:

living/dining: pale blue
kitchen: sage green
upstairs hallway: pale yellow
office: purple
guest room: stays white
master bedroom: tan/taupe

I guess we haven't thought about bathrooms at all. Maybe I can still get something blue-green in there after all!

We spent three hours at the new house this morning with Brian and the home inspector. I put a couple pictures of the backyard on Flickr (along with the one interesting photo I took at Georgia Tech). As expected, since all of the mechanical systems and appliances are new, no major problems. The inspector pointed out a few minor things that need repairs, so it shouldn't be a problem to get the seller to fix them.

Upon a closer look, we need to paint to cover up some little blemishes, but that's no biggie since we were going to paint with color to customize anyway. Then there are several small Saturday projects that aren't high priorities, as well as landscaping/gardening. It'll be fun. I like accomplishing things with Ryan. It'll also be fun to buy stuff like furniture for the guest room and tools so we can build an enormous cat condo for our little furry ones.

On Monday I was pretty bummed because I finally heard that I didn't get the big fellowship that I applied for way back in November. I did get an honorable mention, which is better than last year, and I have one more year of eligibility to apply. The reviewers seemed impressed and interested with my research proposal, but 2 out of 3 said that I should be doing more publishing. Uh, hello, I'm only in my first year! It's pretty crazy how competitive science is getting. It used to be that you just needed to have good grades/GRE scores and some research experience to get one of them. Maybe/hopefully I can get that paper I worked on some at the field station published by next winter, or at least "in press," but I don't know that my situation will be so much different next time around :/

I stopped moping about it yesterday, though. At least most other things in life are going well. I do have a term paper to write by next Thursday, which I've only today started gathering articles for, but it's related to my research so I have somewhat of an idea what I want to write. And the weather is suddenly summerlike (high of 81 yesterday!), so that has me feeling more positive, too.

This Friday is the house inspection, where we'll be accompanying the inspector for three hours as he examines every detail of the house. It'll be only the second time we've been inside, although we've done several stalkeresque drive-bys :) I'll try to remember to bring my camera along. Once my term paper is turned in, maybe I'll celebrate next Friday by going wedding dress shopping. Having no classes on Fridays is a glorious thing.

Holy crap are my new shoes tall. I've never had too much trouble walking in heels, especially since my "hypotenuses" are rather long, making the relative ascent less drastic than smaller sizes, but these shoes represent a new challenge. Fortunately I have over a year to practice.

Gearing up for the last day of the conference. It's been good to focus on research-related stuff without distractions from TAing and my classes. Yesterday was another jam-packed day of seminars and posters. I like the seminars more than the posters. The seminars are all 15 minute strict time limit, so even if you're trapped in a bad/boring one, the pain ends relatively quickly. The poster sessions have been at the end of the day, though, so my brain is already numb and I can't concentrate enough to take more than a superficial look at the posters. I tried to focus a little harder on the ones that apply more to my potential research.

I saw a very famous guy in marine eco (I know that he and my advisor go way back), and worked up the nerve to introduce myself and describe a little of what I was thinking about doing for my research to see if he thought it was worthwhile. Pretty much he said, "Yeah, we know very little about that process, yadda, yadda," so I felt good that someone so well-known agreed that my work would be new and interesting.

On the way back to the hotel I mentioned to the postdoc from my lab, well, basically what I said in the previous paragraph (but this time naming names). She seemed hesitant, and said something along the lines of, "This is all I'm going to say, but you have to be careful who you tell your ideas to." I didn't pry, but from what it sounds like, this guy who impressed me with his 100+ publications achieved them through sometimes questionably ethical means. Luckily I didn't give him my whole research plan- just the part that was most related to his work. Still, that would be pretty low if someone like him had to cherry-pick ideas from a first-year grad student like me!

It's interesting once you get more into science and discover the faces/reputations behind the names. Quite often intellectual disagreements turn into longstanding feuds. I don't think it's compelling enough for TV, since it moves at a slow pace due to the publishing cycle. I don't see myself as the type to start any feuds during my career, but who knows who will start something with me. If that guy from two paragraphs ago publishes something similar to what I told him in a year or two, I just may have to lay the smack down. Heh, we'll see.

I'm blogging from Georgia! Woot!

It's been a long day of talks and posters. I'm more motivated to go and get some data this summer though so I can give a talk or at least a poster next year (in Providence, I just found out).

My old evolutionary bio prof from CU ended up sitting next to me during a couple of the talks. I introduced myself (it'd been a huge lecture class) and we chatted a bit. Nothing like traveling to Georgia 6 years later to first talk to your professor!

Relaxing here a bit, then venturing out for dinner. I'm exhausted already though.

I'm leavin'. . . on a 5 o'clock plane to Georgia (leavin' on a 5 o'clock plane! leavin' on a 5 o'clock plane!).

Yup, going to that conference I mentioned earlier. I'll be watching seminars for the next 3 days and hopefully see a little of Atlanta as well. I'm bringing my camera along, so prepare for a Ryan-free batch of pictures! I'm sharing a hotel room with the postdoc from my lab. I'll have my lappy along, but I don't know if there's free internet at the hotel. With wireless I'm sure I'll find some way to add another state to my blogging list, though.

Supposed to be a high of 83 there on Saturday! Wowee!

Correction: life would be better if my midterm took itself tomorrow, and got an A. I have a lot of studying to do tonight.

The weekend was pretty boring. We did go to King of Prussia on Saturday night, because I'm obsessed with finding turquoise shoes ("something blue") to wear for the wedding . Which we haven't set a date for, but I needed to find shoes! I didn't at the mall, but I did end up ordering some off Amazon. I would've preferred satin because they'd look dressier, but I could wear these in non-wedding situations as well. And for $35, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I found better ones later.

We made corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots in the crockpot for St. Paddy's Day. It turned out well- I think it will take up residence in our rotation.

Yesterday Jibblies pounced at the window because there was a bird on the windowsill. It was adorable and hilarious. I'm trying to convince Ryan that we should get two more cats when we move into the house (brown and orange) instead of just one (brown). Then we'll have 200% more adorably hilarious events around the house.

We signed the contract today. The following link has tons of pics:

House

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful fiance and such a gorgeous kitchen-elect. And when we move in we're getting a second kitten. Life couldn't get much better unless the house was free and my homework did itself.

Holy crap! They accepted our first offer, no quibbling back and forth over the terms. We sign the contract tomorrow, and it becomes binding (i.e. $ committed) at the end of the attorney review period (next Wednesday). Closing date will be May 18.

A stock photo of the exterior:

We saw an incredible house today and Brian is putting in an offer on it tomorrow morning! There's absolutely no commitment in putting in an offer, but if all goes well we could be signing a contract next week and closing in May. We're actually offering the list price because it's priced low for all the amenities it has, and we don't want someone else to get it before we do.

Basically it's an older, colonial/Victorian style house that's been completely remodeled/renovated inside. 3 bedrooms (good sized ones), 2.5 baths (a full bath more than we were planning), gorgeous new kitchen (you know I love it), two staircases, porch, decent sized yard and a little breathing room between us and the neighbors, and brand new: heat, A/C, roof, windows, plumbing, electrical. I can't believe the quality for the money. Even little stuff like pretty wood trim around the windows rather than boring painted wood.

Between the guest room, office, bonus attic room, and couches, there'll be plenty of space for people to crash after the wedding after-party (not our prime concern in house-shopping, but good to know).

After Brian puts the offer in tomorrow morning, we could conceivably hear back from the owners' agent later in the day, or Friday morning at the latest. I'll keep you updated.

A couple slightly amusing stories:

On the shuttle bus from the rental car drop-off to the San Diego airport, the driver told everyone the following joke: A family of moles is sitting inside their burrow. The papa mole sticks his head above ground and says, "I smell pancakes!" Then the mama mole sticks her head above ground and says, "I smell bacon!" Then the baby mole, not being tall enough to reach above ground, stays in the burrow and says, "I smell molasses!"

After we boarded the plane, I was on one side of the aisle while Ryan was in the middle seat across the row. On the aisle seat next to Ryan was an 18ish year old blonde. Because he doesn't think about what things will sound like once they come out of his mouth, he says to her, "Excuse me, are you traveling alone?" She was sketched out and managed to say something like, "Uh, isn't that kind of a personal question?" I had to interrupt, "What he was trying to say is would you be willing to switch seats with me." She was obviously very relieved.

Ryan was so sleepy this morning that while in the shower he decided that he wanted to take a nap. So he leaned onto the towel rack and it snapped in half. I think that woke him up quickly.

House shopping this afternoon! Woot!

Ugh. Being back at work/school is lame. The weather hasn't been too much of a shock, but I have so much work to do between now and the end of the semester. Wednesday will be another house-shopping trip with Ry and Bri, and we're looking at somewhat more expensive ones, so hopefully they're in better shape.

The trip could be summed up as- lots of walking, lots of dining out, and lots of sunshine. Tuesday was my favorite day; Wednesday and Friday I worked on my grant proposal at the library during the day, and Thursday I walked around Balboa Park more, which got old after a while. If I'd had a car I would've gone to Sea World, but since Ryan's work paid for the car, I wasn't allowed to drive it.

In the evenings we pretty much walked around various places and ate big meals. Big, unhealthy meals. I don't think I gained any/much weight because of all the walking (I estimate 6-8 miles each day), but I'm trying to be healthy now so I can get closer to my wedding weight before dress shopping. We had separate flights home scheduled because I booked my trip after he did, but my flight was canceled due to mechanical failure two hours before takeoff. They were going to put me in a hotel and fly me the next day, at which point I was agitated almost to tears (btw, I have problems every time I fly US Airways; they suck big time), but Ryan saved the day and helped arrange for me to get on his flight instead, for no additional cost! We even got to sit next to each other after asking someone to trade seats. Stupid US Airways doesn't look into helping people get where they need to go in a timely manner, they just go with the easiest out. But it did turn out nice that I got to fly home with Ryan.

Jibblies has been big-time cuddly since we got home. It was cute at first, but he kept waking me up in the middle of the night, which is not cute. Especially when I'm already short on sleep due to the time zone and daylight savings both working against me.

Yesterday Ryan and I went biking for the first time this year. 15 miles and I was about ready to keel over. He's training for a 100 mile ride in July. I will probably join him for half of his training rides; if I weren't going to Maine in the summer I'd try doing the 100 miles too.

San Diego pics are up! Post later.

Pssst! The San Diego Public Library is old-timey. So are most of its patrons. I am working on a research grant that's due Friday. I don't really need to use the library, but thought I'd work here to see more of the city and get out of the hotel room. End Pssst.

I've now blogged from 5 states! In order: NY, WA, NJ, PA, CA! Yay for Ryan's work paying for internet in our room!

At this moment in Jersey: 24 degrees, feels like 12, snow advisory.

At this moment in San Diego: 72 degrees, feels like 72, should be a sunburn advisory.

From what I've seen so far, I like it here. It's very clean and cheerful.

The recap thus far: Ryan's rental car is a red Mustang. It's fun to ride around and pretend that we have a secret life where it's always sunny and carefree and we have a clean red sports car. Because in our other life the weather is back-and-forth, it's not so carefree, and the sports car is black and in desperate need of a wash.

The guy supervising Ryan at work over here asked if Ryan brought me, and when Ryan said yes, the guy was like, "Aww, man, you don't even get any time to do something fun. Don't bother coming in until 10 or 11 tomorrow morning." Since we woke up around 6am due to not being adjusted to the time zone, we drove to Mission Bay park, walked around, then went to breakfast. I was starving, and had an amazing eggs Benedict with turkey and avocado. Isn't it just the greatest feeling when you're soooo hungry and then you get an amazing and filling meal? Ahhhhh.

Then we drove to Balboa Park (the big park containing the zoo) and walked around there for a while before Ryan had to leave for work. I stayed behind and did the zoo today, then walked back to the hotel, where I am now. The zoo was huge, of course, and with all the walking today my feet are soooo sore. Don't tell Ryan between now and the time he gets home from work, but I got him a stuffed animal meerkat because they're his favorite animal but he didn't get to go inside the zoo (it's closed by the time he gets off work).

I took pictures of cute animals, mostly big cats, but don't have my camera cable here, so you'll have to wait. Oh, those Bird of Paradise flowers I mentioned for the wedding are all over the place here.

Tonight we'll go out to dinner and do more walking. I wonder how many miles I will have walked by the end of the day.

News!

We're also news in Cortland, NY, but they're not very technologically advanced.

Ryan's in the air right now. I'll be leaving tomorrow and meeting him in San Diego tomorrow evening. Yay!

Good news! Ryan's dad thought that the aquarium was a good idea and that it wasn't unreasonably priced. So, he was a little vague, something about "floating" us the money, but sounds like we're gonna go with the aquarium :)

Brian took us to 3 houses in our preferred price range yesterday. Two needed major remodeling and the third was good except for a cramped and outdated kitchen, which is a deal-breaker for us. Kitchens are really expensive to remodel, but the increase in resale value wouldn't recoup the cost. It really seems like we let the perfect house get away (the one that prompted us to go out and get a realtor), but it was a matter of timing. We really weren't ready a month ago, but now we are. If we come across a great one now, we'll know for sure. Brian is very helpful, especially because he knows what the fair market value for the houses is. In his opinion, all 3 we looked at yesterday were overpriced for their condition (even assuming we'd only offer 93-95% of the list price). So after San Diego we're going to look at our next tier of houses- the ones that cost a little more but hopefully are in better shape.

If we were planning to live in a house for more than 4-5 years, I'd definitely want to do this to at least one of the rooms!

Another fun link here.

Ryan's dad and stepmom are coming down tomorrow to take us out to a celebratory engagement dinner. We (mostly Ryan) are planning on asking about wedding contribution money this weekend. I'm sure they will help us out, but the question is how much and if it'll be a loan or gift. The good news is that Ryan's stepmom is obsessed with aquariums :)

I got a quote from the aquarium and it seems a little on the pricey side but doable. We're going to schedule a tour from the event coordinator after the trip. We would probably do the ceremony outside, with the Delaware River and Philly skyline in the background. As a rain location, maybe front of Irazu Falls. The shark tunnel is maybe the diameter of an airplane with 2 seats on either side of the aisle, so it'd be a little cramped for the ceremony. I had thought about it, though.

As for me turning into the type of girl who's been planning her wedding since she was 5 years old: no, no. no. I'm not trying to have a "fairy-tale" wedding where I "feel like a princess" and it's the "most magical day of my life." I just want a killer party that people will remember.

I thought about trying to keep my wedding ideas fairly hush-hush so that those of you readers who will also be guests would be "shocked and awed" upon arrival, but I'm sure I couldn't keep it all under wraps for over a year.

Before we begin, I'd like to throw out some words that relate to the effect I'm going for:
drama
glamour
sleek
colorful
modern
striking

#1, the most important decision: location. I'm really into the aquarium. Check out their evening rental site. I'm going back and forth by email with the coordinator there. Hopefully it works out. Once the location is set, the colors and style elements will fall into place. Sharks= sleek, dramatic, and striking (although not modern, quite an ancient taxon). At the GFS, it would have been peacock feathers galore, but at the aquarium I'd do blue and green with bright tropical flowers. Some I had in mind:

Heliconia. In fact, you don't see the flower at all. Those are the sepals. I like the spikyness factor. It's edgy (like my former hamster), high drama, sleek, striking, etc. You might wonder where I got the idea for this flower. Wegmans! They had two or three stems in a rectangular chunky glass vase with some stones in the bottom. I think that might be my centerpiece right there.

Bird of Paradise. Another spiky one. Still very cool, but its a little smaller, so not quite as dramatic. I think more affordable, though. I'm fairly certain I could make my own stylish centerpieces using wholesale flowers, but will probably go with a florist for the bouquets and boutonnières.

With all this "economical" and "affordable" talk, you might think it won't be the most awesome wedding ever. That would be where you'd be wrong. Excess money from stuff like flowers and DJ's (I'm going to get someone from Penn to be an iPod DJ) is going to a kick-ass location, super tasty food (filet mignon, anyone?), and full open bar. We just have very clearly defined priorities. Speaking of which, a very yummy chocolate cake as well. Chocolate cake, which I'll have to give up eating for a while if I want to look good in a dress that looks something like this:
Va-va-va-voom! I'd say it fits all of my adjectives except for "colorful." I'd like to drop 10 pounds/1 dress size, which is entirely reasonable given that I have over one year. I like satin, which can be hard to wear and not look rotund. By the way, this style of dress (fitted past the hips, then flared) is called a mermaid, which totally fits the underwater theme. Fortunately it has a normal bodice instead of seashells.

While Ryan is big on the planning details, it turns out he's not as into the decorations/attire. He just wants to dress like James Bond for a day. I guess that's good, though, as he won't interfere with my decorating and it would be a little too weird if he was psyched about choosing flowers.

On a completely unrelated note, my advanced stats prof asked me today if I'd like to TA basic stats in the fall. I'm in high demand!

Today, among other things, we went to a bridal show in center city. I couldn't believe how low-budget and totally not classy it was. I was really expecting something bigger and useful, but the main objective was for all the vendors to solicit our address. I felt bad for dragging Ryan there, so we only stayed for maybe half an hour. The experience strengthened my resolve to have as non-traditional wedding as Ryan thinks his family will not be shocked by. Mark my words: I will not dance the electric slide in a poufy dress!

We also went to another open house today, and by complete coincidence it turned out to be one of Brian's (although he had someone filling in for him because he was at a different open house). We're having Brian start to take us to houses this week. I'm more excited about houses than the wedding. We also stopped at Home Depot to pick up paint chips to start thinking about decorating the house. It will depend on the specific house we buy, but right now we're thinking cranberry red kitchen, blue living room, taupe master bedroom, a light blue-green for the dining room, sage green for the guest room, and maybe pale yellow for the office. We also plan to get a second cat right when we move in so that both cats arrive at the new house at the same time and thus feel more like equals. More kitties = more fun!

Things that sound more appealing than doing homework:

• planning sights to see in San Diego
• picking china pattern
• creating gift registry
• researching reception locations
• house hunting
• blogging!

I'm not very into the idea of a wedding ceremony. I don't want a religious aspect and I'm not big on poetry readings, singers, etc. To me the vows are the only worthwhile part. Our ceremony would last all of 3 minutes. If it were up to me, we'd have a city hall ceremony followed by a huge party. But since Ryan's family would probably object to no traditionalish ceremony, I told Ryan he can plan it. He wants Patrick Stewart (aka Capt. Picard) to officiate and it would be choreographed to the LOTR soundtrack.

Ryan's getting the ring insured today, so I'll be able to walk the streets of West Philly with confidence. That's one thing I love about Ryan- he's great at getting things done. I delegate and he generally ends up with more than half of the errands, but doesn't complain. That's the mark of a great husband-to-be :P

Ryan is going to San Diego for work March 4-9. I just realized today that is my spring break, so, provided that his work says that it's okay for me to stay in his hotel room, I'm going along! His plane, hotel, and rental car are paid for, so it's just my plane ticket for our mini-vacation. Ryan will be busy during the daytime, but the hotel is downtown, so I can explore solo on foot or stay at the hotel and get caught up on schoolwork. Then in the evenings we can go out for dinner and do a little sightseeing. . . Tijuana, anyone? Haha, probably not. This will be my first visit to California, so I'm really looking forward to the trip.

We met with the realtor and the mortgage person in his office for a combined two hours this morning. I feel much better about the idea of buying a house now. He's very easy to talk to and was able to explain everything clearly. In fact, I think I'll refer to him on a first-name basis in here. His name is Brian. Jersey seems to have a number of special real estate quirks, so it was good to have someone point those out. He put together a long set of listings for us to whittle down to those we want him to take us to. Brian also told us that the market around here is steadily appreciating, despite the national "bubble burst," so we could very well make a decent amount of money instead of just breaking even with renting.

My ideal time to move would be mid-May, after spring semester is over but before I head to Maine. Of course I don't have any definite plans about when and how long I'll be in Maine, but May sounds good. June might also work if I came back down for the move in between Maine trips. In any event, based on what was discussed with Brian, it wouldn't be ridiculous to make an offer anytime soon. And now that we're more informed, it's not as big and scary to make an offer either. Yay for Brian.

Thanks for all the congratulations, everyone. It almost makes up for my mom being not at all excited. But that's a whole 'nother entry.

Conversation with a student after the recitation section I ran yesterday:
Student: "When will we be getting our exams back?"
Cat: "Tomorrow after lecture."
Student: "And did you get engaged?"
Cat: "Yeah, actually it happened yesterday!"
Student: "I saw your ring sparkling and hadn't noticed it before, so I thought it might be new. And you seemed to keep touching it."

Then the remaining sorority-types in the room all gathered 'round and wanted a look. Then it was cute- this shy guy came over and asked to see because he's "shopping for one."

I have a cold. I'm on DayQuil, which is making my nose runny instead of congested. I have too many classes to miss today, especially since it's more of an annoying cold than something incapacitating. Having a runny/stuffy nose is 100 times worse when you're in class and don't want to call attention to your snot. Which I guess I just did. Sorry. But at least I'm going prepared with a ton of tissues.

Tomorrow morning Ryan and I have an appointment with a realtor that we met at one of the open houses. We pretty much picked him because he was the most easy to talk to of the ones we met and we know he sells houses in the area we're most interested in. So if after talking to him tomorrow we still think he's a good fit for us, then he'll officially be our buyers' agent. Then we can get more serious about shopping and have him set up private viewings for us.

I'm thinking that if the wedding ends up being quite close to where we live, we'll have an afterparty at our house (assuming we buy one). Completely casual, for a chance to hang out and get silly without me being self-conscious about the older guests. And everyone can meet Jibblies and the other cat/s that we get once we have the additional house space.

Ryan is going to get SCUBA certified so we can go diving together on our honeymoon.

Don't hate me for having my life going so well! I have a runny nose and classes until 7 today. And my mom is completely unenthusiastic about her only daughter's wedding. It's not all perfect.

Onto the detail post. I bought into Ryan's "not this weekend" claim because, knowing him, I knew that he wouldn't want his mom all up in our business. And that was his original plan, to wait and surprise me at Penn, but I kept whining about being impatient so much that he moved it forward to the weekend.

I wasn't suspicious at all on Saturday. We went to dinner and Dave & Busters with his mom and little brother. All was normal.

On Sunday Ryan talked to his mom on the phone to organize meeting up at the aquarium. I wouldn't have overheard anything, except she was on the phone in a noisy place and kept telling Ryan to speak up and twice repeat the phrase he'd been trying to whisper, "If you get there early, hang it up."

So I knew something was to be hung at the aquarium. As I cannot keep a secret from Ryan, I told him that I overheard something that I probably shouldn't have. He shrugged and didn't tell me anything else.

When we arrived at the aquarium, his brother was holding a poster tube, then his mom mysteriously disappeared with the tube for 10 minutes without telling us where she was going. It seemed quite silly to be involved in the charade, but I played along. After 10 minutes, still with poster tube in hand, she went up to the information desk in the lobby (30 feet from where we were waiting). Then an aquarium employee took the tube and scurried off upstairs.

His mom finally met up with us and said, "Peter really wants to see the sharks first, so let's go to the shark tunnel." She led us to the tunnel, rushing us past all the other exhibits as if the hippos weren't worth 10 seconds of our time. As we got closer to the tunnel, she said, "Peter's afraid of sharks, so we're going to let Ryan and Cat go through first to prove that the sharks won't eat you." So we went up to the tunnel but it was jam-packed with people. I saw the tube-toting aquarium employee off to the side at the entrance to the tunnel. Time seemed to be at a standstill because the line was literally at a standstill.

Eventually we made it just into the opening of the tunnel and the employee "subtlely" nodded at Ryan. He got down on one knee and the employee pulled out a poster that said, "Marry me, Catharine" with pictures of us on it (I'll post a pic later). Ryan pulled out the ring box, opened it, and said, "Cat, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

I was very embarrassed because of all the people around us, so I quickly said "yes, yes, get up!" and put the ring on. And then there was a little bit of applause from the crowd, then Ryan's mom rushed up to take a picture. I guess I felt especially silly because while a proposal in the middle of a not-crowded tunnel would have been ideal, we were barely through the entrance to the tunnel because that's where the employee stood beforehand. In addition, there were people to all sides of us so we didn't even have the "romantic" view of the tank. But my Ryan tried, and it's not his fault that his mom isn't as sneaky as he is.

She overheard all the women saying, "awww, how sweet," and all the men saying, "in the shark tank, how appropriate! har har har!"

Anyway, the aquarium in general was his choice of spot because 1) I'm gonna be a marine biologist, and 2) it's actually one of the sites we're thinking about having our reception at. We haven't looked into pricing yet, but it would be really distinctive.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I've been showing off my ring at school today. On one hand, I want to show it off, but on the other hand, I don't want to appear a gloating biyatch. The stones are a decent size, but not ostentatiously large- it's their high level of sparklyness that gives the illusion that they're even bigger. I'm trying to get good value in terms of $ per seconds viewed by looking at it constantly :)

It happened today!

In the Adventure Aquarium shark tunnel, which, if you're not familiar, looks like this:


Here is us right after:


And another couple views of the ring for good measure. . .



Details of the proposal later. All this excitement and I'm plum tuckered out.

Ack! The ring is hidden in our apartment and I'm expected not to hunt for it! Not fair!

Ryan spilled a little info tonight. He's picking up the ring tomorrow, but the proposal won't be this weekend because his mom is in town and he'd rather we have some privacy. But he promised it would be within a week from now, so he has a little window of time during which to come up with and execute something decent. So tired of waiting!

V-day was a nice, low-key evening in (other than a little grocery shopping at Weggies). I got a kitten card and Lindt chocolate, so I'm happy. I'm really getting antsy about the ring now. I would expect it to be done soon. I've been taking extra care to moisturize my hands because the air is really dry and I don't want my hands to be red and crackly when I show off the ring!

Ryan's mom emailed him a list of proposal ideas. #1 was: "dress up as a knight and rent a white horse." Ignoring the groan-inducing cheesiness of it, I don't think Ryan has any horsemanship skills. I don't think it would end well.

Stress has been getting to me lately. The imminent engagement is a happy sort of stress, but still a looming change. I've been able to accept that I don't need to plan an entire wedding ASAP, but it's still in the back of my head. School is busy to the point where it's time to start counting down to spring break (March 3). And we're house shopping, which had me very angst-y yesterday.

We went to 4 open houses, bringing our total of houses looked at to a dozen or so. Basically, we found the perfect house for us at an unbelievably reasonable price. I know, it just sounds awful, doesn't it? 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, big recently remodeled kitchen, recently remodeled bathrooms, spacious rooms, new roof, new central air and heat, new driveway, nice looking exterior, decent sized yard, relatively close to the train, and all for the price of a fixer-upper. (Dan, what's the inside scoop on Magnolia?) Both Ryan and I agree that it seems too good to pass up, but we really hadn't seriously considering buying soon until we saw the house.

The main obstacles in our way are our lease (not up until end of August, up to $4000 lost if the complex isn't able to find replacement tenants), and inexperience with the big, scary house-buying process. With the amazing house deal and likelihood that tenants would be found within a couple months, the lease doesn't seem major enough to pass. For the scary process, we're going to find ourselves a buyers' real estate agent soon (next 2 weeks) who can help guide us through the process and probably identify if there's a sketchy reason why the house is so cheap. So I'm hoping that the house isn't sold in the next couple weeks, after which we can return with our brilliant agent and possibly make an offer.

I have a real problem getting emotionally invested in things like wedding locations and houses. That's the main source of my stress, I think. I would not be a good businessperson.

What do you think?!?!?!









Hahahaha, just kidding. This is not my ring. Thought I'd play with you a bit. That ring is, uh, interesting, but mine is a little more, uh, classy. But not in my possession yet.

Engagement Watch 2007: Not yet!

Really, I don't think the jewelry store would be done making it by now, figuring that it's their busy season leading up to V-day and all. I'd expect later next week, probably. Of course if it was earlier, I would be surprised, which is one of the objectives.

Plans for the weekend: none, really. Maybe some house hunting. Shopping for major purchases is fun, like picking up a new hobby.

Ryan is currently entertaining proposal suggestions. You can send him your ideas at kalckid@hotmail.com

A few guidelines from me:
Not on Valentines Day. Too cliché.
Not in a restaurant, or in a glass of champagne. Also too cliché.
On the collar of a new real live kitten? Not cliché. Probably the best idea ever.

Also, a surprise would be nice. Ryan saying something like, "How about we go to NYC this Saturday. Maybe we could go to the top of the Empire State Building," would be a little suspect.

I think my initial surge of wedding-on-the-brain is over. Thanks to some "help" from my first midterm and a couple problem sets, I didn't look at a single wedding-related thing yesterday or today. Still really looking forward to the ring, but as I know it's too soon for it to be finished, I'm not too antsy at the moment.

So. Without wedding/engagement blabber, unless you want to hear about school, nothing interesting is going on. It's really cold outside. The apartment is about 10 degrees cooler than usual with the cold snap on (usually it's 78ish, now it's 68ish), so Jibblies seems to want to cuddle more. It's very soothing to cuddle a warm cat when it's cold. Warm boyfriends/fiance-elects (lame duck boyfriends?) are also cozy, although Jibblies has the advantage of silky soft fur.

Last weekend we only watched the first half of the Superbowl, as the commercials sucked and we didn't care who won. We also went to another open house after just driving around and looking for signs. It looked cute and small from the outside, like something we would be interested in, but once we got inside and picked up a flyer we quickly realized that it was beyond our means ($409K!). It was an older house that was fully updated and remodeled inside. That's what we've got to do: find a small older house and fix it up all fancy-like, then sell for a huge profit.

There was a funny bit of conversation between Ryan and the ring salesman on Sunday. As relayed to me by Ryan:
Guy: "How would you like to pay for the deposit?"
Ry: "American Express"
Guy: "I can let you put the deposit on the AmEx, but for the balance we only accept Visa and Mastercard. American Express takes 3% of the charge amount. Do you get frequent flier miles or something on it?"
Ry: "Cash back, actually."
Guy: "Oh really? Hadn't heard of that. How much do you get?"
Ry: "1.5%. So they're taking it away from you and giving it to me."

:) We went to the jewelry store again today, and Ryan put down a deposit on the ring! It's going to be gorgeous and I feel spoiled rotten. Ryan knows how long it's going to take for them to make it, but he's not telling me so he has more of a chance to surprise me. But soon, people, soon!

I wish I knew what more people thought about me and Ryan getting married. Like, "oh, I totally saw that coming" or "whoa, they're crazy" or "I'd bet $100 they'll get divorced within three years." Well, maybe you could keep it to yourself if you're in the third category.

Any more unique suggestions or ideas for the ceremony or reception? We want to have a non-boring wedding, so "unique ideas" doesn't mean getting monograms on napkin rings or anything lame like that. Something a little crazy that people will remember as representing our personalities.

“Cat people should marry cat people, and dog people should marry dog people.” -Danny DeVito in War of the Roses

I'm not just excited about having a wedding; I'm thrilled about spending the rest of my life with Ryan. We make such a great team. My favorite memories of things we've done together often involve times when we cooperated to make something, accomplish something complicated, or make major decisions together. Examples: gingerbread castle, Thanksgiving dinner, cooking in general, moving from Cornell to Syracuse, planning trips to St. Thomas and Washington, buying two cars, apartment-hunting, moving from Syracuse to Jersey, house-hunting, ring shopping, and now wedding planning.

The best aspect of all of this is how we are equals and when you love someone as much as we love each other, compromising to make the other person happy feels just as good as getting what you want. It's not all that often that we have to compromise, though, because we seem to see eye-to-eye on most things.

I got a good lesson on how a marriage should not work from my parents. My father rules the household by authoritarian means, and when, growing up, I told my mom that she should have as much say as he did in family decisions, she would always tell me that the Bible gives husbands the right to be "the decider:" "Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord" -Colossians 3:18. My mom always wanted me to grow up to be a good Catholic, but I don't know how she ever thought she'd be successful if I had that kind of marriage to "look forward" to.

So. Ryan and I are not at all like my parents, and have no intentions of becoming so. We're happy. We're the perfect team. We love each other more than words can express. It's going to be hard to write my vows.

I feel deflated. The GFS is out. Too expensive, plus they only rent one building, which is way too big for the size wedding we're having. There goes my whole peacock theme!

So, I'm procrastinating on schoolwork by looking for more sites. There has got to be a perfect location out there, and I'm going to find it! Or Ryan will, because he's a determined planner as well.

Ryan, Tessa, and I are the only ones who are showing any engagement/wedding enthusiasm. Hopefully all y'alls are just waiting until the official engagement so that it seems more of a big deal despite not being a total surprise. My mom didn't seem particularly excited either, although she was quite taken aback when I described my future ring. Hopefully the lack of excitement was just due to seeing it coming.

I called GFS yesterday and left a message with their event coordinator. No word back yet, I'll probably follow up with an email later today. In the event that it doesn't work, upon further investigation there are plenty of pretty garden type places around. None have quite the uniqueness factor of GFS, but it's not like we've even searched that hard yet. Ironically, of my favorite two others so far, one is in NY and one is in PA, despite NJ being the Garden State.

Ryan is quite into all of the planning. Not just "involved for a guy," and not just because he's worried about spending too much money (we will probably be paying for most of it. . .cross fingers for winning an NSF in 2 months). I guess that it's a good thing since I don't have other people close by to consult. I think it's just his personality- he does want to be a project manager at L0ckheed, one who keeps the team moving along the timeline and staying in budget. So far, I've had a lot of fun doing wedding scheming. If I didn't loathe talking to strangers on the phone, maybe I'd drop out of school and become a wedding planner.

The aesthetic I have in mind (and I'm pretty sure Ryan will agree with most of this) is streamlined and sophisticated. We're going for quality over quantity (good thing Ryan's mom isn't catering) and dispensing any traditions, frou-frou, or hoopla that doesn't particularly appeal to us. Therefore: small guest list (don't worry, you faithful readers who I know in real life will be invited), small wedding party, good food, good drinks, and naturally beautiful locations with little additional decor needed. For our unfussy yet classy affair, there will be no obscenely poufy skirts, flower girl, bouquet toss, or especially garter toss. We're not sure what we're going to do about music, but there will probably only be minimal amounts of dancing. We'll think of something to fill the extra time. Maybe we'll just have lots and lots of toasts in our honor. You might want to get started writing those.

Now I know what you're thinking. I am getting way ahead of myself. I'm not even officially engaged yet. But Ryan is going along with it, and without him to keep me in line, I've practically got the entire wedding planned already.

I was browsing Jersey ceremony/reception sites this morning and came across a very interesting looking place called "Grounds for Sculpture." It's between Trenton and Princeton, which is only a 40 minute drive from our apartment. It looked really neat while poking around online, so I suggested we drive up today. If we liked it, then great, and if not, then we just spent the day going to a sculpture garden, which is better than watching Simpsons DVD's.

To sum up the visit, I LOVE it. They don't list pricing info for events online, so I'm going to call tomorrow to see if it would fit in our budget, because I just have to know ASAP. It's cool and different and special, yet still makes sense for a wedding. Pics on Flickr, just keep in mind that we'd probably have it sometime between April and September, so the grounds would be much more green and/or flowery. We'd have both the ceremony and reception there; they have a perfect "altar" type place and a great gallery with courtyard for the reception. Plus there are acres of other neat sculptures and probably 50 or so free-ranging peacocks around the grounds. Peacocks are awesome!

Yesterday was a most informative and educational experience. Ryan and I went in to center city with the plan to 1) browse store fronts along Jeweler's Row (my idea), 2) see the Liberty Bell, and 3) go ice skating at the outdoor rink along the Delaware River.

Browsing the jewelry store fronts was fun, but outside the store that had the most engagement rings in the window, a salesman popped out and asked if we were looking for anything in particular. I tried to give us an out by saying, "Oh, just giving him ideas for later." But the guy, being a very good salesman, persuaded us to go inside the store so I could try some on and decide exactly what I wanted.

It was fun, and when we emerged an hour later we were both diamond experts and know exactly what I want. And it fits within Ryan's budget, taking into account that we're buying a house this year. And it's decadently sparkly, at least according to my standards. So I can't wait to get it. I'm not going to tell all y'alls what it looks like; someone should be surprised at some point in this engagement deal. But the chances of Ryan surprising me with exactly my dream ring without any guidance would be less than the chances of kitten growing wings and flying away.

Oh yeah, then we walked to the Liberty Bell building and there was a decent line, and Ryan recalled that he had his pocket knife on him. I didn't want to wait in line if there was a possibility of just getting turned away at a security checkpoint (Ryan: "What am I going to do, stab the Liberty Bell to death?"), so we decided to save that for another day. Then we walked to the ice rink, but it was really crowded, and I've been spoiled in the past skating at Lynah, where there's no stumbling children, so we passed on that too. So the highlight of the day was definitely the ring shopping.

Last night Ryan called each of his parents to let them know what he was planning on doing. His mom suggested that even if it's not a surprise, he can still make it romantic (apparently that's what his parents tried to do). Ryan's still going to do some shopping around to make sure he's getting a good deal, and the ring will have to be custom-made, so I wouldn't hold your breath until late Feburary or early March. But considering how he told his parents and is currently feverishly hunting around online for diamonds, it's getting closer to a certainty. Yay!

I got an email today that began, "Dear Amazon.com science fiction fan." Obviously I need to stop buying Ryan so many freakin gifts!

Not engaged yet, but have done a little thought on the wedding thing. The bridesmaids dresses will be blue. That's a no-brainer. And the cake will be at least mostly chocolate. Ryan thinks fall is a good season, which sounds good since I'll be busy summers anyway. So fall 2008 or 2009, probably? Our anniversary is on a Sunday in September 2008, but people would be able to party more hearty on a Saturday. Hmm. I am definitely getting ahead of myself; hopefully the other half isn't too bothered that it's not official yet.

Time to go home and snuggle the kitten!

As I promised long ago, I present to you Jibblies the Sim cat.

How would you like to hear something interesting for a change?

Ryan and I discussed marriage this weekend, in a pretty specific, non-abstract way. While we're not engaged, it is highly probable that we will get married within the next 3 years. The main reason it isn't sooner is financial: it seems all the more clear after house-hunting yesterday that we'll be putting a lot of money and energy into a house soon, so other major life events will have to wait a bit. That's fine with me, because I mainly wanted to know if marriage (to me) was something he was interested in, because I feel that way about him. He's my favorite.

As for more house-hunting updates, we went to 4 open houses yesterday. After gaining more info, we're probably not going to get a townhouse/condo, because paying monthly association fees, although cheaper than apartment rent, is basically throwing money away instead of building equity. Also, since it's likely we'll be moving within 5 years, if we want to come out ahead buying versus renting, we will probably have to buy something fairly inexpensive. I guess our ideal house (within our limitations) would be a 3 bedroom (ours, office, guest room), 1.5 bath that's in need of a lot of cosmetic repairs but is structurally sound. Then we'll repaint, refinish wood floors, landscape, and make easy repairs to help increase the resale value. We need a constructive hobby anyway, and this hobby should pay for itself. Unlike weddings, which are ridiculously overpriced.

Wedding things I'm looking forward to:
Foxy dress
Cake (mmm, cake)
Open bar
Getting all our friends together at the same time and place with an open bar
Presents
Jibblies as the ring bearer (kidding, folks. we'd of course need a tuxedo cat for that job)

Wedding things I'm not looking forward to:
Family-related awkwardness
Ridiculously overpriced everything
Planning-related hassles

I didn't actually eat chocolate cake on my birthday. Ryan had bought me one, but I was too full from my petite filet AND lobster tail :) It was the most expensive and one of the more delicious meals I've ever had. Yay for, "order whatever you want."

Today we went to our first open house. The property was not far from our apartment and the house was on the small side, so I'd hoped that it was near our price range. Unfortunately, despite it needing much remodeling, it was $50K above what we are hoping to pay. We're just casually looking around nowadays, but will probably get more serious about shopping in March or so. If the stand-alone houses are all priced on the scale of what we saw today, that probably means we'll be going with a townhouse or condo.

We also stopped by Petsmart to see the kitties up for adoption. They're soooooo cute! The two best things about owning a house will be having a dishwasher and having no limit on the number of kitties we have, other than common sense, which tells me that the limit is somewhere in the double digits.

I got my present early (last night), and it's very pretty and sparkly and is, in fact, a ring, although it's a sapphire instead of "that big and gaudy Cartier one" (his words, not mine!):

Ryan's coming back tonight! Yay! Seriously, I don't know how people are able to handle long-distance relationships. Nowadays, I can hardly imagine not living with Ryan. The next couple summers are going to be tough, with me up in Maine and Ryan having a limited amount of vacation time to come visit. I guess I should just devise an ingenious research plan that involves several couple-week stints in Maine instead of requiring me to be there every day. As if designing a good experiment wasn't hard enough!

Thoughts on turning 25 soon:

• That's a quarter of a century!
• I can't say that I'm in my early twenties anymore.
• If you round up at the number 5, that makes it late twenties!
• I hope I get to eat filet and chocolate cake.
• The perfect present from Ryan would be a kitty with a diamond ring around its collar. I would, however, settle for either a kitty or a ring.
  
• Stuffed animals don't count as kitties under my definition.
  
• If a box of expensive assorted chocolates could somehow be affixed to the diamond-bearing kitty, I suppose that would be an improvement.
  

I lead my first discussion section today. I've made a pretty extensive outline, so worst case scenario is that I give a mini-lecture, but I'm hoping that the students are willing to discuss. Hopefully my natural "cool grad student" vibe will get them all interested in talking.

One plan for the weekend is outdoor ice skating at Penn's Landing. It was 19 degrees this morning, which is the coldest it's been here so far this winter. (You're probably not too interested in the temperature, but the blog is also a personal fact-storing device).

Instead of doing work, I will tell you about yesterday's shopping trip. The best part: through a combination of sales and gift cards, I only spent a total of $23 of my own money! The clothes were 75% off. . .I don't care if they're from last season, they're cute.

Silk chiffon dress. I have no idea where I'll wear it, but it was such a steal that I couldn't pass it up. And it makes my waist look teeny tiny, although you just know that the paparazzi will be focusing on its baby bump-hiding abilities :P

Silk/cashmere sweater on top of the new dress. At least the sweater I can mix and match and could wear to school without raising eyebrows (in a bad way).

Ceramic vase from Pier 1. The black/white matches our crazy swirly rug, and I plan to fill it with fake palm frond looking greenery. Thus, it will fit our existing decor yet also bring some color to the room.

Oof, I'm full. I was in my kitchen, cooking my foodz. With Ryan gone I decided to cook all weekend and stockpile meals in the freezer for later in the semester when we're too tired to cook dinner after work. Recently I compiled a list of main courses that we've made multiple times. It turned out to be quite extensive, although the degree of difficulty varies quite a bit. I'm keeping track of what we make every night in 2007 so maybe next year I could rank by popularity.

Chicken
Marsala
Piccata
Hazelnut-Crusted
Chicken and Ham Herb Patties
Matchstick Veggie-Stuffed
Satay
Apricot Curry
Spicy Peanut Soup
Apple Walnut Wraps
Phad Thai
Tacos
Basil Hazelnut Spirals
Pot Pie
Autumn Chicken Salad
Shake 'n Bake
Pesto Pizza

Beef
Bourguignon
Swedish Meatballs
Hungarian Goulash
Shepherd's Pie
Meatloaf
Beef and Broccoli
Pepperncorn Strips
London Broil
Garlic and Sage Rubbed Tenderloin
Pot Roast
French Dip
Tacos
Regular Steak

Pork
Tenderloin with Raisin Brandy Sauce
Flavored Tenderloin
Pulled
Sweet and Sour
Orange Stir Fry
Ragu
Pork with Leek
Escarole Sausage Soup
Ham Steaks

Seafood
Cashew Shrimp Stir Fry
Lemon Pepper Shrimp
Jambalaya
Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta
Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp
Triple Citrus Salmon

Ideally I'd like to eat more seafood, but Ryan mainly only likes shrimp. I have to respect his wishes, though, because he respects my wishes and we don't cook with cheese in the apartment (we even leave it off the tacos and pizza listed above). He's so nice to me. He usually gets something cheesy when we go out to dinner, but I'd be a total bitch if I didn't let him eat it then, right? I do make him brush his teeth before I'll kiss him, though. It's just a thing I have, but he's very nice and compliant with local ordinances.

I was thinking about my dream life earlier today. Ryan and I would live in a nice big house with 3-5 kitties and a super well-equipped kitchen. I'd have a cushy professor job with tenure at a well-ranked small college, and Ryan would be successful enough to be happy but not so successful that he would have to work insane hours. We'd be able to travel a lot, and would hopefully have nice neighbors who could feed the kitties while we were gone. Sounds good to me.

Sigh. I'd much rather hang out at home than be back at school. I haven't been working very hard this week, though, so I shouldn't complain. My classes seem to be similar difficulty as last semester's (straight A's, my favorite), and I'm really into my TA assignment (sitting through animal behavior lectures again is infinitely better than sitting through intro bio lectures again). But I'd still rather be snuggling with a kitten right now.

Ryan's annual ski trip is Saturday-Wednesday, so I hope there's lots of shows on TV that he generally doesn't enjoy watching with me, like "What Not to Wear."

The weather has been all over the place. On Saturday, when we went to Baltimore, which is admittedly a little south of here, there was a high of 70 degrees. We were comfortable walking around in short sleeves. Today I saw a few snowflakes, but we still haven't had any real snow. I like the mild winters on a day-to-day basis, but it would be nice to have a couple real snowfalls. Just a few, so that it's novel enough to bother going out for a snowball fight or to make a snowman.

The Baltimore waterfront area was very nice. We had lunch, watched a band perform outdoors, and went to the national aquarium. The aquarium was okay, but I think the Jersey one in Camden (15 minute drive from our apartment) is just as good. There were also ridiculous numbers of screaming children, which everyone knows is not my favorite thing.

Back to the schoolwork...

Lunch: peanut butter off a spoon; Bailey's on the rocks. Maybe I'll add some carrots to up the nutritional value. . .

My cold finally disappeared yesterday. I went for a walk but have otherwise just been bumming around the apartment watching TV and surfing l'internet. Ryan and I will probably take a day trip to Baltimore tomorrow, hang out near home on Sunday, then it's back to school on Monday.

Redheads have more fun. 2007 is a little spicier than 2006 ;D

Kitten is behaving a lot more like a grouchy old cat than a cute little kitten these days. He's less shy about getting bitey. Guess it's time to get another, younger cat. I told Ryan that I either want a kitten or one of these for my birthday, but it's probably not a good idea to hold my breath!

When I worked at RL, "New York" from VH1's Flavor (Flava?) of Love ate in my restaurant (though not at one of my tables). She's apparently from Syracuse (not NYC). The commercials for her new series "I Love New York" are revolting, but should give you a feel for some of the entitled personalities our restaurant got as customers!

I dyed my hair yesterday. The color was called "warm medium brown" but it turned out almost auburn. I like it a lot though- it's just the change I needed. Ryan really likes it; he's got a thing for redheads :) I also bought a straightening iron and it's crazy how straight my hair can get. It even behaves like straight hair; just blow-drying straight doesn't compare. I'll only straighten occasionally (it took a half hour to do), but the difference in appearance is quite striking. Check Flickr to see what I mean.

Ryan and I have both had colds for the last week. They just won't go away. Most of his family caught it from his brother over Christmas. So we've been fairly blah feeling, with the exception of New Year's, where we felt improved for a little while and had fun playing Wii at Dan's. The next day we were back to feeling sick again, and it's still not completely gone. Ryan went back to work yesterday anyhow, although I have off until next Monday. We've been watching a lot of TNG (his present from me), and I have to admit that I've really come to like it. It's quite good for the drama and comedy aspects even if I'm not as into the sci-fi.

I reposted most of my Fortunately, Unfortunately entries on a new site (link in the sidebar). I left out a few, mainly the meme-type ones or short, meaningless ones. And I took the liberty of correcting a few spelling errors, but I didn't rewrite history. That's your late holiday present.

So...Christmas was good with the exception of getting sick. Ryan got me a bunch of small stuff, including: jewelry box, laptop cover, America the book, and the new flavored Bailey's in both caramel (yum!) and mint chocolate (I thought I'd like this one better, but it tastes too artificial). His mom gave him a hard time for getting me an empty jewelry box, then later that day his aunt also gave me a jewelry box. So then he got more grief because I have two "empty" jewelry boxes. My birthday is coming up, though.

In 2007…

1. Will you be looking for a new job? My TA assignments will change each semester, but the money's coming from the same place.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship? No.

3. New house? Yes! Right now a townhouse/condo seems to make the most sense.

4. What will you do different in 07? I will be slightly cooler and smarter than in I was in 2006. And hopefully write something publishable.

5. New Years resolution? I definitely wouldn't keep one.

6. What will you not be doing in 07? Competing in the Iditarod.

7. Any trips planned? Research in Maine during the summer, possibly Atlanta for a conference.

8. Wedding plans? Going to Scott and Julie's.

9. Major thing on your calendar? End of March- results of NSF released.

10. What can’t you wait for? See above, and my birthday.

11. What would you like to see happen different? Actually get an NSF this year.

12. What about yourself will you be changing? Maybe my hair, I'm getting bored with it. Blue? Purple?

13. What happened in 06 that you didn’t think would ever happen? I moved to New Jersey.

14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about? I hope to keep in touch with them more.

15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 06? Yes, I do not plan to wear the same exact clothes that I did in 2006.

16. Will you start or quit drinking? I will start and quit many times, with each bout lasting 1-5 hours.

17. Will you better your relationship with your family? That's a lost cause.

18. Will you do charity work? I have thought about volunteering at Petsmart as a kitty caretaker.

19. Will you go to bars? Most likely I'll go to a few.

20. Will you be nice to people you don’t know? As long as they are polite.

21. Do you expect 07 to be a good year for you? Yes.

22. How much did you change from this time last year till now? A decent amount, with the move, going back to school, and such.

23. Do you plan on having a child? Hellz no.

24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now? Yes.

25. Major lifestyle changes? No.

26. Will you be moving? If we find a suitable house.

27. What will you make sure doesn’t happen in 07 that happened in 06? Missing Valentine's Day with Ryan because I'm waiting tables.

28. What are your New Years Eve plans? Party at Dan's.

29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight? I'm thinking Ryan would be better than Dino.

30. One wish for 07? I can't tell you or else it won't come true.

I'm not usually too big on memes, but now that I have time galore, what else am I to do? :) The first sentence of my blog entries from each month of 2006:

Jan. My first day of work back at the station actually hasn't been that bad.
Feb. Money in, money out.
Mar. I am in a very odd mood right now and basically want to capture it before it's gone.
Apr. What's that?
May Another week begins.
June For info on last weekend's trip to Boston, you can read Liz's blog.
July Now that I can't even get comments I have even less motivation to blog, but I will try to put my hands to the keys.
Aug. Fortunately, Unfortunately is closing shop after 3+ years.
Sept. I've wanted to update for so long, but have had absolutely no internet.
Oct. I HATE my car.
Nov. I've still got it.
Dec. Ryan and I had a very nice weekend.

Pretty boring, huh?

I'm done with my first semester of grad school, making me ever-so-slightly closer to my degree. Woohoo!

You're getting something in the mail this week. And it's something that has a kitten on it! Just wait and see. I have a sixth sense about these sorts of things.

Ryan is still pretty busy finishing up his end of semester final projects. Hopefully he'll be done by Saturday (the last isn't due til New Years, but he wants to get it over with). Then he only has one semester left until he's Master Ryan, with a degree from a school that he's never even been to (GA Tech) that has a bee as a mascot. Bzzz.

Ryan has let me open some of my presents already, because remember we're not any good at keeping secrets from each other. He already knows his big present from me (a continuation of his anniversary present). So far I got the hand-held 20 questions games (regular and music versions; I like the regular better because it's harder to stump), a mousepad with kittens on it, and the Sims Pets expansion pack, which is awesome. Ryan says it's so I can simulate having many kittens instead of having our house turn into a crazy cat house. I still want 3 real cats, but it's fun to pretend to have 6. I'll post a screenshot later, but I even customized one of the Sim Cats to look almost exactly like Jibblies!

We're driving up to Po-town on Saturday and staying until probably the 27th or so. Ryan goes back to work on the 2nd, and my stuff starts back up on the 8th. I should spend the second week of my break working on that research paper that I'm submitting with people from the field station, which pretty much went on hiatus during my semester.

I'm TAing Animal Behavior next semester, which is awesome. It was one of my favorite CU courses, and it's kinda cool to be TAing a non-intro course as a first-year. Also, it has discussion sections, which are much shorter than labs, so that should be nice. Now if only I could get away with bringing in Jibblies and having the students observe and comment on his erratic behavior.

We had Dan over on Saturday and made more cookies, although we didn't take pictures of them this time. Thanks for the wine, Dan, I had a good time drinking it. Ryan had a couple sips :)

Ryan and I had a very nice weekend. Saturday we went to a tree farm to get a Christmas tree, decorated it, and baked cookies. Sunday we decorated those cookies and went shopping for gifts, including stuffers for Jibblies' stocking. Pics on Flickr. And Dan, if we can ever get ahold of you, we want to invite you over to decorate more cookies!

Last week of classes, and I found out today that my only final is a take-home! I dunno, I feel like my first semester of grad school was actually too easy. Maybe I'm not doing enough intellectual thinking on my own time, but I certainly had no problems keeping up and doing well in my classes. I guess I can blame it on my CU education, which was apparently too rich and sweet to spoil my dinner/grad education.