We are in the market for patio furniture now that we will have a balcony at our new apartment. If you would like to offer your opinion as to which bistro set (that's the fancy name for this type of furniture) we should get, feel free to do so!
We'll call this #1
This is #2
And here is #3.
Polls close Monday, August 14th! Results will be tallied and the winner named on Tuesday, August 15th.
While in Connecticut last week, my mother pulled off a very successful (and hopefully biannual??) girls-night-in party at her house. She came up with the idea a month or two ago and the more she talked about it, the more ideas we were getting, and the more we thought it could work. Well, it did. There were nine ladies in attendance: Mom, her mom, dad's mom, Ryan's girlfriend Yana, Nick's girlfriend Kristina, my cousins Heather and Megan, mom's friend Maria, and myself. Then, of course, there was Ewa our hairdresser. Mom originally started going to her about ten years ago and obviously she liked her. I think mom has brought her at least five new clients, so I'm sure the feeling is mutual.
Anyway, back to Friday night. Mom and I made up a dinner menu, she handled the invites, and before we knew it, it was 3:00 Friday afternoon and the hor devours were set out. Ewa arrived right at 3 to set up and took her first client at 3:30. The poor woman didn't stop until 11:00pm, without one break. Because my turn was towards the end of the night, I readily offered her dessert or a drink, but she declined. The person in "the chair" undoubtedly had an audience because chairs were set up for exactly that purpose. People ate, chatted, watched, complimented, snapped pictures, and all the other stuff you would expect to go on at a teenage sleepover party. Except it wasn't a sleepover and, honestly, we aren't teenagers, no honest. Everyone was required to take a before and after picture and let me tell you those before shots can be used for blackmail purposes. No one was happy about those, but the after shots were something to be proud of.
However, the best part: dad paid for everyone's haircut. At first I thought maybe perhaps it had to do with wanting to know what exactly we pay for haircuts nowadays, but upon further thought I knew it was my dad just being the generous man that he always has been and continues to be. Thanks dad.
I probably don't even need to say what a good time was had by all--but I will. Everyone had the best time, you could just tell by their faces. Some of these faces were captured in the above picture at the conclusion of our girls-night-in. In the back are me, Mom, Yana, and Heather; Kristina and Heather are in front. We were all saying how we hope this turns into a biannual thing...dad, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.
I had two opportunities to see my newest niece Ariana while vacationing in CT last Thursday to Sunday. She is quite adorable and the best behaved baby I've met. She just goes with the flow and doesn't care that she gets passed from auntie, to grandma, to another auntie, to grandpa, and back again. It was so much fun visiting with her, I hope we get to see her a lot. David was kind of bummed he didn't get a chance to see her again, but he enjoyed looking at the pictures I took...even though he said some were blurry.
Sadly, David's first medical diagnosis was on Douglas our guinea pig. I had brought him to school with me on Monday and Tuesday because we weren't going to air condition the apartment only for him, as cute as he may be. He enjoys coming with me, I'm pretty sure. The only clue that he may not like it is when I open his cage in the morning to transfer him from the cage to the box. It is then that he hurriedly jumps (ok, falls) out of his cage and proceeds to run under the table, couch, end tables, where I can't get to him. By which time I'm usually in a hurry and don't have time for such games, but what does he know? He just sits there, just out of reach, and stares. Just stares. At which point I usually employ the help of David and we tag team the two- (ok, probably three to four) pound rodent. Other than that, he loves going to school.
Well in between being passes around to the 20 or so campers, I noticed an unusual glint in Dougie's left eye. I compared both eyes and it was strange. The left one had a white, milky glint in it and the other one remained a sold brownish black color. Well on my way home I told David of this new turn of events and he told me that while he can't diagnose over the phone, he was thinking that it sounded like a cateract. Huh? Sure enough, after shining his penlight into Doug's eye, it was confirmed. How in the world did Douglas manage to get a cateract?!
Poor, poor Douglas. I'm of the mindset that if I slip him a few extra pieces of fruit that he'll be okay. Obviously I'm not the doctor of the family. But you never know, it could help.
I think one of my co-workers summed it all up very nicely, "Douglas has a cateract? Your guinea pig has a cateract? Yep, I've heard it all now, a guina pig with a cateract."
Out of all the crazy things to happen in Farmington. D and I were sitting here suffering through the extreme heat last night. There wasn't much more we could do than sit, so the phone call we got did help to liven the evening up. Mom was on the other end and she told us that while all of these people, cousins, girlfriends, grandparents, etc., were gathered at the house some suspisious activity was detected...which is saying a lot in Farmington. This wasn't just any old suspisious activity, it was bear activity. As pictured below, a nice-sized bear decided to wander into the front yard, smell his way over to the side of the house, empty out both trash cans full of trash, and wouldn't have left the party so soon except that Dad started beeping the horn of my grandma's car! We've never seen such an animal around, sure deer, rabbits, chipmuncks, and the like, but certainly not a bear! However, the police and animal control were not so impressed, even though the police made an appearance at the house. Mom said the police were totally bored with their story...but we weren't.
Yay! We have made it through two years of marriage and live to tell about it. I get a kick out of people who get married and then separate within a year or two. They should have big signs posted on their backs, "I'm not a team player" or some such warning. That, I would say, is what I have learned these past two years with my husband-be a team player. Then everything else falls into place. Oh, you're working late, ok I'll make dinner...or... Don't worry, I'll pack your lunch for tomorrow...or...Sure, let's go to Reading Terminal Market for my favorite pretzels. Oops, that last one just slipped in. We've already made so many memories these past few years, it's hard to believe there is still room for more. This year also marks the half-way point of our time in Philly. Actually we're more than half way through our time here because D will graduate in May 2008. Crazy, just crazy.
With our busy fourth of July weekend, the ninth sort of creeped up on us. To take the pressure off of Dave, and because it is his anniversary too, we each had a weekend day to plan. I planned Saturday's events and D planned Sunday's. This worked out quite well.
We started our anniversary weekend with a lazy Saturday morning that turned into an afternoon at Reading Terminal Market. Even though it was technically Dave's special day, he was the one who suggested we go and who was I to argue?? We got our usual items: coffee, pretzels, and a smoothie. After resting up from our exciting afternoon, we got ready for a dinner out at a new restaurant called Kildare's. Dave, I guess, was in the mood for a little Irish food. It was actually quite a nice restaurant with authentic Irish music, food, and flare. All the decorations were flown in from Ireland...and so was the chef. Their website http://www.kildarespub.com/main.htm is also interesting. We didn't linger too long at the restaurant because we went to an outdoor Blue's concert in nearby Rose Tree Park. We spread out our blanket and listened to the music of Leroy Hawkes and the Hipnotics until dark. It was such a beautiful summer evening, reminiscent of the weather on our wedding day.
Then came Sunday. We got many happy anniversaries and inquiries about what we would be doing from our church friends. It was Dave's day to plan and he started it out right with a stop at Cold Stone Creamery. We weren't due to have dinner until 4:30pm, so he said this was to hold us over. Around 3:30pm, we started making our way into the city because the restaurant we were going to was a little Italian bistro in Center City. (Insert a little plug for restaurant.com here: David bought a $25 gift certificate from the website for this restuarant for only $10. I guess there are a number of restaurants offering this deal on the website. It explains everything if you're interested). The food was delicious, the atmosphere was unforgettable, and the service was great. Well the service had to be great because we were the only patrons. Actually this kind of freaked me out because I had visions of Mafia members lurking around waiting to... kidnap us? I'm not sure what exactly I was thinking but the whole open kitchen, no one else around, and are those bullet holes I see in the wall type of feeling made me question whether Dave was actually happy about arriving at our second anniversary. However, this funny feeling didn't keep me from eating my penne. And, wouldn't you know it, we made it out of there fine and in one overstuffed piece.
What an enjoyable weekend we had together. 
Today, I got a frantic call at work. By frantic I mean he had to sit and talk in his car because he couldn't drive and tell me the information he was about to divulge. The information Dave wanted to tell me, and anyone who would listen, was his USMLE score. I'm sure he will tell you the entire story from start to finish in his blog, but I am so proud of him and I know he won't brag, so I will!
Trying to understand the score is a bit confusing. Take my reaction for example. Dave said that he got his USMLE score, so I obviously asked what it was, and he told me. First I said, "Woohoo, that's awesome, you did so good, great job!!" Then I said, "Umm, well is that a good score?" What a bit of a let down for my poor David, but he just laughed and then explained what it all meant.
A passing score is 182. The most you can score is 267. David got a 232!!!!!!!! In the two-digit scale, his 232 score is converted to a 94. You can draw your own conclusions, but it is quite obvious that I have one amazingly smart husband who is well on his way to becoming a very fine doctor!
You may assume that since we were at the Franklin Institute we were being nerdy and touring the museum with its Giant Heart, Animation Cartoon Network, Franklin Air Show, the Train Factory, and Space Command exhibits. However that would be an incorrect assumption because we went to the museum after hours. We were there for their IMAX presentation of Superman Returns. The show started at 7:45pm and didn't end until 10:15pm, so you can imagine the neck strain we experienced. It was a really fun experience being in Center City Philadelphia at that time of night. Some city lights were stilling shining red, white, and blue, so that together with the lighted fountain of Logan Circle (or Logan Square, depending on what street sign you read...don't even get me started on the education level of the city's politicians) and the beautiful weather made it a memorable evening. By the way, for those interested, we gave the movie a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.
We had a happenin' weekend. For weeks prior, we didn't know if this was going to be the case because we had to find out if D could get Monday the third off before we made any final plans. As it turned out, he asked his resident if he could have it off because his sister was going to be induced Sunday night and he said yes. 
Very cool, we had a four-day weekend to look forward to! We ended up leaving Saturday morning around 11am and didn't get to CT until 5pm - YUK. D had to do post-call at the hospital so we couldn't do our usual 4am departure time. Oh well, we made it there safe and sound.We were invited to dinner at his parents' house so we got to meet our two-month old niece Olyvia and we also got to see Sara, his sister, the day before she was due. We were all excited about the pending birth and couldn't wait to meet little Ariana. She was born on Monday morning and we were there Monday afternoon to see her at the hospital. HOW CUTE is she?!?! I'm told 8 lbs. 4 oz. isn't a tiny baby, but she sure felt tiny when I was holding her. I really wanted to see her with her eyes open and didn't get a chance to, but who could blame her.... she was still the cutest little baby.
In between visiting our nieces, we had time to go out to breakfast, get some yummy water ice at Rita's, go out to lunch in Hartford with my auntie, and go food shopping with Dad to prepare for our Fourth of July Picnic. Okay, so I did those last two things without David, but that was because he was hanging out with Ryan at some boring place called The Mac Store and doing other such stuff.
When Tuesday finally came around, we were all ready with the picnic stuff: food, atmosphere, guests. The weather was perfect, the company was entertaining, and the food was DELicious. Olyvia was quite a hit at the party. She was passed around to just about everyone there and she was just taking it all in. Everyone loved holding her and I kept getting reminders about how there hasn't been a baby in the house for a while. Just a reminder to those people, no we won't be "popping them out" in the near future, to use the eloquent words of my dear friend Keegan. We had such a nice time visiting with everyone. D was even brave enough to get in the pool with my crazy cousins. Olyvia enjoyed watching all this action, my left arm can tell you how much she enjoyed watching them because it had to hold her for a good half hour in a certain spot so she could see everything! Too cute.
Then the inevitable came and we had to leave. We were dreading the ride back because of the ride up. However we made it home in 4 hours and 10 minutes, including stops for food, gas, and a fireworks show. Around 9:30pm, we started getting a huge welcome home celebration--fireworks were going off all around us until we got to our apartment. We stopped in Bucks County, the county directly north of Philly, when we saw a fireworks display going on right off the main road. We wedged our car in between some others, got out a blanket, took Dougie out with us, acted like we belonged, and sat for what we soon found out was the grand finale. Some of the people told us that we had to get there about 45 minutes earlier for the full show. Little did they know that we couldn't, we were still in North Jersey.
Overall it was an incredibly memorable weekend, especially getting the chance to see Ariana only hours after she was born and seeing D hold her. I've never seen him hold a baby before. He assures me that it felt natural, but he likes it being just us right now. Yes, I would have to agree with him: it felt natural, but us is nice.
visits
