Alica's Blanket
Alicia has become a craftswoman with the sewing machine she got for her Birthday. Here is the first 'tag blanket' that she has made. It looks pretty good! See you all soon.
Alicia's Blanket
Alica's Blanket
Alicia has become a craftswoman with the sewing machine she got for her Birthday. Here is the first 'tag blanket' that she has made. It looks pretty good! See you all soon.
We built a fence ...
New Fence #1
Just thought I would drop off a picture of our new fence for you all to see. Alicia and I spent a whole 3-day weekend working on that fence! It was alot of hard work, but it is really nice to be able to let Biscuit roam free in the backyard. I hope you are all doing well. We'll see some of you at Thanks Giving, and are looking forward to it.
Jeff & Alicia
Still Adorable
How could you not love a face like that one?
Biscuit is still being a good girl. We have let her run around the basement for the last couple of days when we were out of the house, and she has been quite good. We just need to get her under control around other dogs. She behaves very well up next to them, it is getting there that is the part that needs some work. She gets WAY too excited by the site of other dogs, and it is very difficult to settle her down. We have been thinking about obedience training for her sometime. She is behaving decently, but does not have the obedient dog "fear" where she instantly does what we ask her. Labs are one of the most highly trainable dogs -- ranked up there with German Shepherds -- so I know she will get better.
Biscuit got spayed on Wednesday, and we had to leaver her at the kennel overnight. We were told to keep her very calm and isolcated for the next 3-5 days (yea right, a puppy calm). I'd say she is back at 100% and has been great -- we havn't seen her licking or pawing at her stitches once. She however did get a whining habit that she brought back with her from the kennel. I think she has forgotten it already though, which is wonderful :).
We are having some people over for poker and dinner tomorrow for the holiday weekend. We'll really get to see how she behaves around multiple people then :). I'm sure she will be barky at first, but calm down and warm up to everyone after a few minutes. That is quite standard for her. What a good dog.
Anyhow, I hope everything is going good for everyone! Hope to see you soon.
Biscuit is still being a good girl. We have let her run around the basement for the last couple of days when we were out of the house, and she has been quite good. We just need to get her under control around other dogs. She behaves very well up next to them, it is getting there that is the part that needs some work. She gets WAY too excited by the site of other dogs, and it is very difficult to settle her down. We have been thinking about obedience training for her sometime. She is behaving decently, but does not have the obedient dog "fear" where she instantly does what we ask her. Labs are one of the most highly trainable dogs -- ranked up there with German Shepherds -- so I know she will get better.
Biscuit got spayed on Wednesday, and we had to leaver her at the kennel overnight. We were told to keep her very calm and isolcated for the next 3-5 days (yea right, a puppy calm). I'd say she is back at 100% and has been great -- we havn't seen her licking or pawing at her stitches once. She however did get a whining habit that she brought back with her from the kennel. I think she has forgotten it already though, which is wonderful :).
We are having some people over for poker and dinner tomorrow for the holiday weekend. We'll really get to see how she behaves around multiple people then :). I'm sure she will be barky at first, but calm down and warm up to everyone after a few minutes. That is quite standard for her. What a good dog.
Anyhow, I hope everything is going good for everyone! Hope to see you soon.
It's a girl!
She weighed in at about 55 lbs, and 52 inches! Ouch. Okay, well -- maybe she's a dog, and 10 months old and she was already named "Biscuit". However, she has made her home with us very quickly. She is a full-bred labrador retriever, and as sweet as could be. We have been amazed at how intelligent and loving she has been.
Yesterday, when we picked her up, was pretty crazy. We went to see about getting her as a pet from some neighbors of one of our Jenn and Dan. She spent the first four or five minutes barking up a storm at us, but quickly warmed up and befriended us. I think she hasn't been very socialized with other adults. There was a young child in the family, and two other dogs -- so she is very comfortable around both children and other dogs. The family we got her from was very kind -- you could tell they just really cared for the well-being of Biscuit, and knew they didn't have the time and or energy to deal with their daughter and other dogs who had been in the family longer.
When we decided to take Biscuit home with us (we weren't actually definite what the plan was going to be), the child in the family who was about 2 years old was just bawling up a storm. She didn't realize her dog was going to be leaving. It was sad, but I hope she recovers from it quickly.
Before heading back home, we took Biscuit over to Jenn and Dan's house for a little company afterwards. She spent about an hour getting completely tired out -- running around with the biggest black labrador you have ever seen, "Jake". I'm not sure how you get a dog that big, I'd guesstimate he's about 120 lbs :) (Note: I'm bad at estimating). That worked out well, because Biscuit was quiet during the hour car ride we had back to our home. She has quickly adopted us as her family, and is being a real angel for us. I can't even believe how much so -- she is literally sleeping on my feet as I'm typing this :).
It is going to be a great experience having a dog -- I have always been a dog person, and we all know that Alicia is too. Throw those allergies aside, says I!
Missing you all! Love Alicia and Jeff.
Happy Independence Day
Hello all. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July Holiday weekend. Ours was pretty good. We played some poker at one of our friends houses on Saturday, and had a BBQ over there.
Alicia and I headed out to see the Oriole's play out at Camden Yards on Sunday. We got some really good tickets. We were waiting in line to buy the tickets we would usually get, and were approached by a couple that had some club-level tickets that their friends didn't show up for. They gave us the tickets for $25 each, which was great because we were going to buy $20 tickets otherwise. The seats were awesome, 4th row just left of home base. You could actually see if it was a ball or strike :) .. I think these were the best baseball tickets I've ever had. Not a bad deal at all.
Sunday morning we woke up early (reletively speaking) to play Volleyball. It was pretty nice outside, the sun was hidden by clouds, so we got to play for several hours. Later that afternoon we headed over to Dan's house for yet another BBQ. It was very tasty. Topped off the night chilling out and watching a movie and watching the fireworks from a distance. Ashburn actually had a very long show, Alicia and I almost went back inside before the finale :).
Overall, it was quite a good weekend. I hope yours was as good as ours. We hope to see you all soon!
Alicia and I headed out to see the Oriole's play out at Camden Yards on Sunday. We got some really good tickets. We were waiting in line to buy the tickets we would usually get, and were approached by a couple that had some club-level tickets that their friends didn't show up for. They gave us the tickets for $25 each, which was great because we were going to buy $20 tickets otherwise. The seats were awesome, 4th row just left of home base. You could actually see if it was a ball or strike :) .. I think these were the best baseball tickets I've ever had. Not a bad deal at all.
Sunday morning we woke up early (reletively speaking) to play Volleyball. It was pretty nice outside, the sun was hidden by clouds, so we got to play for several hours. Later that afternoon we headed over to Dan's house for yet another BBQ. It was very tasty. Topped off the night chilling out and watching a movie and watching the fireworks from a distance. Ashburn actually had a very long show, Alicia and I almost went back inside before the finale :).
Overall, it was quite a good weekend. I hope yours was as good as ours. We hope to see you all soon!
Nearly Vacation Time
Caribbean, 2003
Well, I was just playing around with the new version of Google's Picasa, and it has support for uploading images to your blog easily through an Instant Messenger like interface. Pretty cool, I'd say. So, I posted a picture of the Caribbean (not sure which island the paticular shot is from) since I am a near-vacation mood. One more week before Alicia and I depart on another Caribbean cruise! Woo hoo! We're really excited about the fact that one of the excursions available is a "Canopy Tour" where we get to go up into the jungle canopy on zip-lines and crazy stuff. Should be very cool.
Other than that, there should be some sweet snorkeling this time around. You know, considering it's not hurricane season and all. :). Anyhow, hope you are doing well. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Jeff & Alicia
Sometimes, The blog gets updated
Hello All. Wow, I have been a big slacker on updating my blog. I know that you know this :). So, since it has been so long I do have a lot to say.
First off, I am now an uncle! Well; A blood-uncle this time, not a uncle-in-law :). Alicia and I got to see Lindsay Madison over Christmas break. She is a little angel. A little angel with projectile vomit! Clearing a person and a half is quite a good hurl if you ask me. Go Lindsay!
New Years Eve was nice and relaxing this year. Alicia's parents came to visit us and we mostly played cards and a little poker all evening. We had dinner at the Sweetwater Tavern, and they have the best BBQ'd ribs ever. My first batch of beer, a Red Ale, was reading for New Years. It was pretty good, although slightly hoppy -- which is OK for the style of beer. Later on we had a little champaigne at midnight. Very nice.
On to the next holiday, Martin Luther King day. In honor of our Monday off, Alicia and I threw a poker-party with about 10 of our friends. We made Mom's BBQ'd brisket for dinner, and served some other side items. Alicia made a cheesecake, which turned out really good. Yummy. Btw, my batch of beer I made for New Years mellowed out by now after settling in the bottles for a few more weeks. It was excellent this time around :), less hoppy.
The weekend before last Alicia and I went to town on our guest bathroom. Since we had a Friday off we decided to try our skills at doing some ceramic tile. We removed the toilet, tore up all the old tiling, and layed out some nice light brown tile. It is currently waiting to be grouted. Hopefully I'll get to that before Alicia gets back home.
I guess that brings me to the present. Right now, I am home chilling after playing some racquetball. Alicia is in the UK! She got to go there with work, and will be back on Saturday. She has already been to seen Stone Henge, which is really awesome. I will definitely post some pictures when she gets back. The English are treating her very well, and she is having a good time.
First off, I am now an uncle! Well; A blood-uncle this time, not a uncle-in-law :). Alicia and I got to see Lindsay Madison over Christmas break. She is a little angel. A little angel with projectile vomit! Clearing a person and a half is quite a good hurl if you ask me. Go Lindsay!
New Years Eve was nice and relaxing this year. Alicia's parents came to visit us and we mostly played cards and a little poker all evening. We had dinner at the Sweetwater Tavern, and they have the best BBQ'd ribs ever. My first batch of beer, a Red Ale, was reading for New Years. It was pretty good, although slightly hoppy -- which is OK for the style of beer. Later on we had a little champaigne at midnight. Very nice.
On to the next holiday, Martin Luther King day. In honor of our Monday off, Alicia and I threw a poker-party with about 10 of our friends. We made Mom's BBQ'd brisket for dinner, and served some other side items. Alicia made a cheesecake, which turned out really good. Yummy. Btw, my batch of beer I made for New Years mellowed out by now after settling in the bottles for a few more weeks. It was excellent this time around :), less hoppy.
The weekend before last Alicia and I went to town on our guest bathroom. Since we had a Friday off we decided to try our skills at doing some ceramic tile. We removed the toilet, tore up all the old tiling, and layed out some nice light brown tile. It is currently waiting to be grouted. Hopefully I'll get to that before Alicia gets back home.
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I guess that brings me to the present. Right now, I am home chilling after playing some racquetball. Alicia is in the UK! She got to go there with work, and will be back on Saturday. She has already been to seen Stone Henge, which is really awesome. I will definitely post some pictures when she gets back. The English are treating her very well, and she is having a good time.
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween everyone! It is nice to have an extra "fall-back" hour on Halloween weekend; especially after being at two parties the night before. Alicia helped me put on all the make-up to become a werewolf, which was about an hour and a half. She did a good job, and I got lots of complements on it last night. She dessed up as a "One, Nightstand" (although you can't see her whole costume in the picture), complete with a lighted lamp top. She got lots of points for being clever with her costume.
We attended two parties last night. One with our friends from Volleyball, and also the group of friends we hang out with more often. The first was a full-blown event, with lots of people and events going on. Even Karaoke. It was pretty crazy. We didn't know most of the people that were there, so we didn't stick around too long. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and drinking with our other group of friends. It was a good time.
The trick-or-treaters have been kind of slow tonight, we have probably only gone to the door 10 times. We'll see if that is all we get. We are running low on candy anyhow :). Anyhow, I hope you all had a great halloween. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Jeff and Alicia
Motivated People
Alicia and I were motivated people over the last couple of weekends. We took it upon ourselves to finally get rid of the ugly "blue-jean" painted room. Since the previous owners had textured this room, we had to sand it all first (yea!).
After the sanding was done, one coat of primer, two coats of paint and a new window treatment .. it turned out pretty good.
Alicia and I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately we think it looks better than out master bedroom :). Doh .. now we'll probably have to end up tackling that one too. Hope you like it too! ;)
After the sanding was done, one coat of primer, two coats of paint and a new window treatment .. it turned out pretty good.
Alicia and I really like how it turned out. Unfortunately we think it looks better than out master bedroom :). Doh .. now we'll probably have to end up tackling that one too. Hope you like it too! ;)
Fully-Loaded Weekend
Well, the weekend is over .. it was a blink of an eye. We had a 6:00 am flight on Saturday, and had to wake up at 4:00 am to make it to the airport on time. That forced us to goto bed at 10 o'clock Friday night. Yikes .. that is super early for me on a weekend :).
We made it to St. Louis by 9:30 in the morning though, so that was good. Alicia and I got to hang out with my parents for a couple of hours before one of Alicia's sorority sister's wedding, which was good. The wedding was nice, and the service went by pretty quickly which is always a plus :). There was an oboe solo during the ceremony which was different, and sounded really good. As usual, the bride, groom and wedding party all looked very good. Overall a good ceremony.
After the wedding, we met up with our good friend Sarah and headed out to visit our shared friends Kerri and Joe along with their daughter, Hailey. Hailey is a cute little girl, and quite the climber .. anything she could climb she would. We were glad to see each of them. Joe is in the hospital but seems to be on the road to recovery. We wish him the best.
We had the reception in the evening .. open bars are always good! :) Alicia and I were so tired at the reception though because it started at 7pm, and we had been up since 3am St. Louis time. Ugh. Alicia and I didn't dance very much, but hung out with friends and talked a lot :).
Likewise, Sunday also passed by in a flash. We woke up early to visit my Great Aunt Maryan. It was good to see her doing so well. She seems to be doing very well recovering after her stroke.
After our visit with Maryan, we helped my parents setup the house for Kelly's baby shower. And soon we (the men) were taking off to hide from the women :). I got to spend some male bonding time with my Dad and brother-in-law, Jason :). I'm not sure how the shower went since I wasn't there, but Kelly did end up with a bunch of stuff. I know; I had to help pack it all up in Jason's car :P. It was nice having the shower there because I got to see a lot of my family that I wouldn't have otherwise.
After we recovered from the shower, and ate some dinner with the family Alicia and I got to meet up with our friends Kelly and Mikey. We wanted to go to get some coffee at Starbucks and just hang out for a while, but ended up at the Cheesecake Factory instead when (shocker) Starbucks closed at 9:00. It was really good to see them, and I'm glad we got the chance to hang out. Oh and, the Cheesecake was good too.
So, that was our weekend in a 'nutshell'. You all can thank me for the short summary. Hope to see you soon!
Jeff and the better half
We made it to St. Louis by 9:30 in the morning though, so that was good. Alicia and I got to hang out with my parents for a couple of hours before one of Alicia's sorority sister's wedding, which was good. The wedding was nice, and the service went by pretty quickly which is always a plus :). There was an oboe solo during the ceremony which was different, and sounded really good. As usual, the bride, groom and wedding party all looked very good. Overall a good ceremony.
After the wedding, we met up with our good friend Sarah and headed out to visit our shared friends Kerri and Joe along with their daughter, Hailey. Hailey is a cute little girl, and quite the climber .. anything she could climb she would. We were glad to see each of them. Joe is in the hospital but seems to be on the road to recovery. We wish him the best.
We had the reception in the evening .. open bars are always good! :) Alicia and I were so tired at the reception though because it started at 7pm, and we had been up since 3am St. Louis time. Ugh. Alicia and I didn't dance very much, but hung out with friends and talked a lot :).
Likewise, Sunday also passed by in a flash. We woke up early to visit my Great Aunt Maryan. It was good to see her doing so well. She seems to be doing very well recovering after her stroke.
After our visit with Maryan, we helped my parents setup the house for Kelly's baby shower. And soon we (the men) were taking off to hide from the women :). I got to spend some male bonding time with my Dad and brother-in-law, Jason :). I'm not sure how the shower went since I wasn't there, but Kelly did end up with a bunch of stuff. I know; I had to help pack it all up in Jason's car :P. It was nice having the shower there because I got to see a lot of my family that I wouldn't have otherwise.
After we recovered from the shower, and ate some dinner with the family Alicia and I got to meet up with our friends Kelly and Mikey. We wanted to go to get some coffee at Starbucks and just hang out for a while, but ended up at the Cheesecake Factory instead when (shocker) Starbucks closed at 9:00. It was really good to see them, and I'm glad we got the chance to hang out. Oh and, the Cheesecake was good too.
So, that was our weekend in a 'nutshell'. You all can thank me for the short summary. Hope to see you soon!
Jeff and the better half
What .. No Easter Eggs?
How has everybody been? It has been about forever since I have updated the blog. What in the heck is that all about? It's a question of motivation, really. I guess I just havn't had it :).
Everything has been going pretty well for Alicia and I. Wendy came out to visit over the long Labor Day holiday. It was good times. We even threw her a party .. and she got to meet two seperate groups of our friends. I think she had a good time, and we enjoyed having her come out and visit us. It was too bad that the Viet Nam Memorial was half-hidden due to construction. What can you do? It seems something is always being repaired down town. When my parent's came out to visit the reflecting pool was empty. See what I mean?
Anyhow, I have been trying to get serious again about racquetball. I have taken a lesson with one of the best player's out here in Virginia .. and I know I have alot to work on prior to needing another lesson :). Along the same lines, Alicia has been going strong with Vollyball. We have still been playing sand volleyball on the weekends, weather permitting. And tonight, she had her first game playing women's sixes in an A league. Their team performed really well together; especially for it being their first time. Needless to say, they rocked their match.
Other than that .. I have been experimenting with cooking some new recipes. I scored a non-non-stick (ha-ha) pan, so I have been adventurous with all of the things I couldn't cook with our non-stick pans (although I do love non-stick pans :)). So I have made some butter-milk fried chicken, and pot stickers. They both turned out really well. Also, I made hamburgers the other night and threw in some Worshestershire sauce along with other spices .. and they turned out really good. Yum. I think I'm getting the hang of this whole cooking thing.
Well, I guess that is good for my "back to blogging" first post. I will try to be more regular about it in the future.
Good Day! .. I say good day.
How has everybody been? It has been about forever since I have updated the blog. What in the heck is that all about? It's a question of motivation, really. I guess I just havn't had it :).
Everything has been going pretty well for Alicia and I. Wendy came out to visit over the long Labor Day holiday. It was good times. We even threw her a party .. and she got to meet two seperate groups of our friends. I think she had a good time, and we enjoyed having her come out and visit us. It was too bad that the Viet Nam Memorial was half-hidden due to construction. What can you do? It seems something is always being repaired down town. When my parent's came out to visit the reflecting pool was empty. See what I mean?
Anyhow, I have been trying to get serious again about racquetball. I have taken a lesson with one of the best player's out here in Virginia .. and I know I have alot to work on prior to needing another lesson :). Along the same lines, Alicia has been going strong with Vollyball. We have still been playing sand volleyball on the weekends, weather permitting. And tonight, she had her first game playing women's sixes in an A league. Their team performed really well together; especially for it being their first time. Needless to say, they rocked their match.
Other than that .. I have been experimenting with cooking some new recipes. I scored a non-non-stick (ha-ha) pan, so I have been adventurous with all of the things I couldn't cook with our non-stick pans (although I do love non-stick pans :)). So I have made some butter-milk fried chicken, and pot stickers. They both turned out really well. Also, I made hamburgers the other night and threw in some Worshestershire sauce along with other spices .. and they turned out really good. Yum. I think I'm getting the hang of this whole cooking thing.
Well, I guess that is good for my "back to blogging" first post. I will try to be more regular about it in the future.
Good Day! .. I say good day.
Happy Easter
Happy Easter Everyone!
Alicia and I didn't do too much this year for Easter; I think it sort of snuck up on us. I guess that happens :). However, we did decide to practice some of the family traditions: dying easter eggs ... (Alicia's note: Hmmm ... wonder why the red dye cup is empty ...).
I think they turned out pretty well:
However, neither Alicia or myself eats too much of the boiled eggs .. so they didn't last very long ...
Our end result was something yummy though!
We hope you all have had a great Easter! .. Sorry you missed out on the develed eggs! (not really; more for us :) ). We do wish that we were able to spend our holiday with you! Take care, and we hope to see you very soon!
Jeff and Alicia
Alicia and I didn't do too much this year for Easter; I think it sort of snuck up on us. I guess that happens :). However, we did decide to practice some of the family traditions: dying easter eggs ... (Alicia's note: Hmmm ... wonder why the red dye cup is empty ...).
I think they turned out pretty well:
However, neither Alicia or myself eats too much of the boiled eggs .. so they didn't last very long ...
Our end result was something yummy though!
We hope you all have had a great Easter! .. Sorry you missed out on the develed eggs! (not really; more for us :) ). We do wish that we were able to spend our holiday with you! Take care, and we hope to see you very soon!
Jeff and Alicia
Hello everybody,
This is my first time to write on here, Jeff usually does it. Things are going ok out here in DC. We're having a St.Patty's party this weekend which should be a lot of fun. I'm keeping busy traveling with work. I'll be in Nevada all of next week and it looks like I'll be in North Carolina the last week of March. I don't mind traveling, I just wish it didn't happen so often. Jeff and I hit 6 months last week as a married couple. We didn't do anything special, but I guess it's the year anniversaries that count more anyway. I think Jeff and I are going to join our racquetball leagues again this spring. I joined an indoor volleyball league too. It's on the same nights as my class, so that's going to make for some long Wednesdays for me. oh well
My niece is due with her first baby in June. I decided to make something for her, but I don't know if I will get it finished in time. We'll see. Well, my lunch break is about over. I hope you have a good day.
Love, Alicia
This is my first time to write on here, Jeff usually does it. Things are going ok out here in DC. We're having a St.Patty's party this weekend which should be a lot of fun. I'm keeping busy traveling with work. I'll be in Nevada all of next week and it looks like I'll be in North Carolina the last week of March. I don't mind traveling, I just wish it didn't happen so often. Jeff and I hit 6 months last week as a married couple. We didn't do anything special, but I guess it's the year anniversaries that count more anyway. I think Jeff and I are going to join our racquetball leagues again this spring. I joined an indoor volleyball league too. It's on the same nights as my class, so that's going to make for some long Wednesdays for me. oh well
My niece is due with her first baby in June. I decided to make something for her, but I don't know if I will get it finished in time. We'll see. Well, my lunch break is about over. I hope you have a good day.
Love, Alicia
Weekend Review
Hello All,
WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD, TOO!!! Seeing that Jason and Kelly were on their way to have fun in Disney World all by themselves; we thought they might enjoy some company. So we're joining them :). It will be our first vacation between siblings and in-laws; and it should be great fun. Alicia and I are very excited! We have already booked hotel and bought our tickets ... May can't get here soon enough!
Other than that fun news; nothing else too crazy has been going on .. just the normal routine. We went to see Mel Gibson Passion of the Christ on Saturday. It is one of those very graphically realistic and powerful movies that you really want to see once; but I'm not in a hurry to see it again. In that sense it was a lot like Saving Private Ryan. I can see why a lot of people have been so moved by this movie ... it would be hard to get through it without feeling something. I suggest if you have any interest in this movie; go and see it!
Last night we went to one of the local Mexican restaurants that is more of family-style venue than a chain restaurant. It was pretty good. Lucky for us, the waiter spilled half a frozen margarita on me, and the four of us that were there got our drinks for free :). I was wearing a sweatshirt that I removed; so it wasn't really that bad of an incident at all. Of course, I guess he could have dropped it on my head .. he wasn't that far off.
The weather has been great today .. we have had the windows open and got a chance to wash our car. It needed to be washed; badly. I can feel spring coming .. but when the temperature drops again I'm going to be hurting after the spoiling this weekend.
A new grocery store opened today, Wegman's, which is further than or usual store .. but not very far away. It was very highly publicized; and although we would have preferred not to go on opening day we went anyways. It was extremely busy .. hard to move your cart anywhere but was one of the nicest stores I have ever been in. It has an unbelievable amount of everything! It is going to be nice once the rush of people slows down!
Which reminds me; if you haven't tried the new Diet Coke with Lime .. you should! This is my new favorite soda of the diet variety. Alicia and I weren't that big on the one with lemon; however the cherry isn't bad either. It definitely has a different taste than Diet Coke .. but it seems fresher and cuts the aftertaste. Win-win situation.
Alright; I guess I've rambled for long enough. We hope you all are doing well and hope to see you all soon!
Jeff & Alicia
WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD, TOO!!! Seeing that Jason and Kelly were on their way to have fun in Disney World all by themselves; we thought they might enjoy some company. So we're joining them :). It will be our first vacation between siblings and in-laws; and it should be great fun. Alicia and I are very excited! We have already booked hotel and bought our tickets ... May can't get here soon enough!
Other than that fun news; nothing else too crazy has been going on .. just the normal routine. We went to see Mel Gibson Passion of the Christ on Saturday. It is one of those very graphically realistic and powerful movies that you really want to see once; but I'm not in a hurry to see it again. In that sense it was a lot like Saving Private Ryan. I can see why a lot of people have been so moved by this movie ... it would be hard to get through it without feeling something. I suggest if you have any interest in this movie; go and see it!
Last night we went to one of the local Mexican restaurants that is more of family-style venue than a chain restaurant. It was pretty good. Lucky for us, the waiter spilled half a frozen margarita on me, and the four of us that were there got our drinks for free :). I was wearing a sweatshirt that I removed; so it wasn't really that bad of an incident at all. Of course, I guess he could have dropped it on my head .. he wasn't that far off.
The weather has been great today .. we have had the windows open and got a chance to wash our car. It needed to be washed; badly. I can feel spring coming .. but when the temperature drops again I'm going to be hurting after the spoiling this weekend.
A new grocery store opened today, Wegman's, which is further than or usual store .. but not very far away. It was very highly publicized; and although we would have preferred not to go on opening day we went anyways. It was extremely busy .. hard to move your cart anywhere but was one of the nicest stores I have ever been in. It has an unbelievable amount of everything! It is going to be nice once the rush of people slows down!
Which reminds me; if you haven't tried the new Diet Coke with Lime .. you should! This is my new favorite soda of the diet variety. Alicia and I weren't that big on the one with lemon; however the cherry isn't bad either. It definitely has a different taste than Diet Coke .. but it seems fresher and cuts the aftertaste. Win-win situation.
Alright; I guess I've rambled for long enough. We hope you all are doing well and hope to see you all soon!
Jeff & Alicia
Another Good Weekend
Alicia and I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday, Alicia and I went looking at new TVs to replace the Sony Wega which should have lasted for a lifetime but died for no reason (I'm not bitter :) ). So pretty much I won't be advertising the Sony product line for awhile.
Like any situation, you can't just replace what you had; but you have at least take a tiny-step forward. So we got the same size television, a 27", but we got one that is HDTV ready. We bought Samsung, instead of Sony this time. It has been great so far. We ended up buying it at Circuit City, instead of Best Buy because of the difference in prices of their service plans. Best Buy 4 year (which is additional to the 1 year manufacturer's) costs $250, Circuit City's is only $150. Doesn't take much to do the math on that one.
The sales guy at Best Buy really made a point that we needed a progressive-scan DVD player; which ours is not. However, we watched a couple of movies on it this weekend, and I'd have to admit that it looked pretty good. I don't know how much of a leap it would be to upgrade to a progressive-scan player (which you can actually get starting around $40 :)).
We got around to four movies this weekend (is that some sort of record? :)). We watched: Under the Tuscan Sun, League of Extrordinary Gentlemen, Lost in Translation, and in the theater -- 50 First Dates. Lost in Translation was a little bit slow .. never really seemed to get anywhere; although there were a few humorous spots. "League ..." was alright .. nothing too special here .. typical action film. "Under ..." was okay; Alicia liked it.
Fifty First Dates was pretty dang funny ... good date movie. I like Adam Sandler movies .. which are usually funny as you would expect :).
Well .. I guess that is all the excitement. Hope to see you all soon.
Jeff & Alicia
Like any situation, you can't just replace what you had; but you have at least take a tiny-step forward. So we got the same size television, a 27", but we got one that is HDTV ready. We bought Samsung, instead of Sony this time. It has been great so far. We ended up buying it at Circuit City, instead of Best Buy because of the difference in prices of their service plans. Best Buy 4 year (which is additional to the 1 year manufacturer's) costs $250, Circuit City's is only $150. Doesn't take much to do the math on that one.
The sales guy at Best Buy really made a point that we needed a progressive-scan DVD player; which ours is not. However, we watched a couple of movies on it this weekend, and I'd have to admit that it looked pretty good. I don't know how much of a leap it would be to upgrade to a progressive-scan player (which you can actually get starting around $40 :)).
We got around to four movies this weekend (is that some sort of record? :)). We watched: Under the Tuscan Sun, League of Extrordinary Gentlemen, Lost in Translation, and in the theater -- 50 First Dates. Lost in Translation was a little bit slow .. never really seemed to get anywhere; although there were a few humorous spots. "League ..." was alright .. nothing too special here .. typical action film. "Under ..." was okay; Alicia liked it.
Fifty First Dates was pretty dang funny ... good date movie. I like Adam Sandler movies .. which are usually funny as you would expect :).
Well .. I guess that is all the excitement. Hope to see you all soon.
Jeff & Alicia
Hello All,
Just as you would expect it, I was surfing around the cable satellite networks last night on the internet to see about converting over from my local cable provider, and my TV died. Pop pop pop .. blank. Yea. Isn't that fun. So I am now trying to decide whether I should buy a new television or pay to have it fixed. I liked my TV .. but am not that impressed with the fact that it has only lasted for about two years. That really sucks. Seriously. If nothing else, I guess the cable provided benefits because I am in less of a hurry to switch my provider.
On a lighter note; I finally figured out what was wrong with my internet connection, and now I can upload files! How exciting :). Now I can finally post some of the pictures I have been meaning to for the last couple of weeks:
Alicia and I bought a table at Home Depot for our empty entry way. It looks pretty nice, also in the picture you can see the new color, "Summer Field Green", that we painted a few months back.
A weekend project Alicia and I finished just a few weeks ago was hanging the dartboard down in the basement. We mounted some hardwood to the wall so that we wouldn't damage the drywall. It turned out looking pretty nice. We plan on decorating it with wine corks when ever we get up the drive to work on it again.
Our latest project was to add some color to our living room. Being one of the rooms we spent most of our time in, it was pretty bland. We painted a pretty dark color, "Southern Beauty Red", shocking for us. We worked pretty hard on it: one coat of tinted primer, and three coats of paint. It turned out pretty well, but we removed the tape after the paint was dry, a mistake we won't make again. After a little touching up, it also is looking pretty nice.
I threw this one in it just for the heck of it. The on-off-on-off snow ice and rain that we had about two weeks ago made a nice little icicle on our wreath. We thought it looked pretty cool.
Alright, I guess that's enough for now. Hope you liked the pictures!
Lots of Love,
Jeff and Alicia
Hello All,
I have been kind of a slacker, and neglected by blog lately; so I figured it was about time. We have been having the same kind of cruddy weather that everyone else has been. It has been snowing and sleeting on and off for the last couple of weeks it seems. However, we finally got an improvement of weather today .. and it is actually quite warm.
We plan on bar-b-queing some burgers tonight with a spicy tequila bbq sauce we got for Christmas. It sounds good. I had to clear all of the snow off of our deck so that we could actually get to the grill :). It has been adding up with all the weather we have been getting. Kelly sent me the family recipe for hashbrown casserole, which we are also going to make (jelous yet?).
A week ago we decided to try out NetFlix which allows you to get unlimited movie rentals for $20/month (only 3 movies out at any time). It seems to be a pretty cool service because the movies are sent to you in the mail, and all you have to do is send them back when you are done ... no late fees or other hassels involved. Since it is monthly-pay service you can watch some of the movies you may not have been able to convince yourself to rent at blockbuster for $4 a piece.
Everything seems to be going pretty well .. we are rounding up all our forms and stuff to get our taxes done. It will be interesting this year; since I have to fill out 3 state tax forms for working in three different states. Ugh :). Hopefully we get money back though! .. I can't see how we wouldn't since both Alicia and I have been fairly liberal on the tax-deductions from our pay-checks.
I have a couple of pictures to showcase, but I guess I'll get to them next time. Take care All!
Jeff & Alicia
I have been kind of a slacker, and neglected by blog lately; so I figured it was about time. We have been having the same kind of cruddy weather that everyone else has been. It has been snowing and sleeting on and off for the last couple of weeks it seems. However, we finally got an improvement of weather today .. and it is actually quite warm.
We plan on bar-b-queing some burgers tonight with a spicy tequila bbq sauce we got for Christmas. It sounds good. I had to clear all of the snow off of our deck so that we could actually get to the grill :). It has been adding up with all the weather we have been getting. Kelly sent me the family recipe for hashbrown casserole, which we are also going to make (jelous yet?).
A week ago we decided to try out NetFlix which allows you to get unlimited movie rentals for $20/month (only 3 movies out at any time). It seems to be a pretty cool service because the movies are sent to you in the mail, and all you have to do is send them back when you are done ... no late fees or other hassels involved. Since it is monthly-pay service you can watch some of the movies you may not have been able to convince yourself to rent at blockbuster for $4 a piece.
Everything seems to be going pretty well .. we are rounding up all our forms and stuff to get our taxes done. It will be interesting this year; since I have to fill out 3 state tax forms for working in three different states. Ugh :). Hopefully we get money back though! .. I can't see how we wouldn't since both Alicia and I have been fairly liberal on the tax-deductions from our pay-checks.
I have a couple of pictures to showcase, but I guess I'll get to them next time. Take care All!
Jeff & Alicia
Hey Everyone,
Alicia and I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday, we visited one of our neighbors and played some Scrabble ( our butts got kicked ), and some Cranium ( we won that! :) ) with one of neighbors. It was fun, and good to bond with some other people in the neighborhood.
On Saturday, Alicia and I went out to the movies and got a chance to see Big Fish. I would put this one in a category with Forest Gump. It was a very well screen-played movie, that was a good family flick. It was a tear-jerker for nearly the entire audience. Alicia and I both enjoyed it, and I would suggest you see it.
Also, this weekend we bought the game Scene It with some of our Christmas money. We looked at 4 stores before finally finding that we could buy it in the board-games section of Walmart. We were guessing it would be at Best Buy or one of the other technology stores since it is on a DVD. Nope .. Walmart is where you get it. It is pretty cool, there are plenty of movie scenes that take part in the gameplay, which is great for any movie buffs.
Alicia has to go on travel with work this week, and will be gone all week :(. I will be all alone :(! However, the following week we only have three days of work due to the holiday :)!
We hope you all have a great week ..
Alicia & Jeff
Alicia and I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday, we visited one of our neighbors and played some Scrabble ( our butts got kicked ), and some Cranium ( we won that! :) ) with one of neighbors. It was fun, and good to bond with some other people in the neighborhood.
On Saturday, Alicia and I went out to the movies and got a chance to see Big Fish. I would put this one in a category with Forest Gump. It was a very well screen-played movie, that was a good family flick. It was a tear-jerker for nearly the entire audience. Alicia and I both enjoyed it, and I would suggest you see it.
Also, this weekend we bought the game Scene It with some of our Christmas money. We looked at 4 stores before finally finding that we could buy it in the board-games section of Walmart. We were guessing it would be at Best Buy or one of the other technology stores since it is on a DVD. Nope .. Walmart is where you get it. It is pretty cool, there are plenty of movie scenes that take part in the gameplay, which is great for any movie buffs.
Alicia has to go on travel with work this week, and will be gone all week :(. I will be all alone :(! However, the following week we only have three days of work due to the holiday :)!
We hope you all have a great week ..
Alicia & Jeff
Hello All,
Well .. Our cable modem didn't work at all while we were on Christmas break, which I guess wasn't a big deal since we weren't here. However, we came back and it still wasn't working. Not cool. I called up Adelphia and they told me they wouldn't be able to get any assistance with the problem for about 10 days. This made me decide to race: Who would win, the cable repair guy or the DSL equipment.
Verdict: DSL wins!
So that's cool. I needed to switch anyhow, if we decide to go to Satellite Television (pretty likely). So, I guess my cable modem sucking turns out to be a motivating factor.
In hindsight, removing the Y splitter in the loop allowed me to reconnect the cable modem to the network. But why shouldn't it work with the Y splitter?.. It had for three months. My guess is my neighbor decided to get cable modem and it degraded my signal enough so that I couldn't connect with the adapter.
DSL also wins, because it eliminates the 40 foot cable that was running from the cable jack to the office where all of the computer equipment was. So that also is a good thing :).
Oh well .. enough ranting. Take care.
Jeff and Alicia
Well .. Our cable modem didn't work at all while we were on Christmas break, which I guess wasn't a big deal since we weren't here. However, we came back and it still wasn't working. Not cool. I called up Adelphia and they told me they wouldn't be able to get any assistance with the problem for about 10 days. This made me decide to race: Who would win, the cable repair guy or the DSL equipment.
Verdict: DSL wins!
So that's cool. I needed to switch anyhow, if we decide to go to Satellite Television (pretty likely). So, I guess my cable modem sucking turns out to be a motivating factor.
In hindsight, removing the Y splitter in the loop allowed me to reconnect the cable modem to the network. But why shouldn't it work with the Y splitter?.. It had for three months. My guess is my neighbor decided to get cable modem and it degraded my signal enough so that I couldn't connect with the adapter.
DSL also wins, because it eliminates the 40 foot cable that was running from the cable jack to the office where all of the computer equipment was. So that also is a good thing :).
Oh well .. enough ranting. Take care.
Jeff and Alicia
Hello all,
Following the lead set out by Kelly and Jason, I decided to create a blog also. I suppose this is less invasive than those huge group emails, since you have the choice whether to look at it or not :).
Alicia and I have been doing well. We are both pretty busy at work. Alicia has been travelling a little more than she would have liked; but I guess it is still a lot less often then some people have to.
We had a great holiday together at Alicia's parents house in Indianapolis. Her parents are always great hosts. It was good to see Kathy and Nancy, and we caught Wes for a couple hours before he took off on his vacation which was good. I think everyone was very kind to us this year and we had trouble transferring all of the presents we got back to Ashburn :). Our families are too great.
Well .. I guess this is enough for my first blog, but since I just started I'm sure I'll probably have more to write very soon :).
Love to all our families and friends!
Alicia and Jeff
Following the lead set out by Kelly and Jason, I decided to create a blog also. I suppose this is less invasive than those huge group emails, since you have the choice whether to look at it or not :).
Alicia and I have been doing well. We are both pretty busy at work. Alicia has been travelling a little more than she would have liked; but I guess it is still a lot less often then some people have to.
We had a great holiday together at Alicia's parents house in Indianapolis. Her parents are always great hosts. It was good to see Kathy and Nancy, and we caught Wes for a couple hours before he took off on his vacation which was good. I think everyone was very kind to us this year and we had trouble transferring all of the presents we got back to Ashburn :). Our families are too great.
Well .. I guess this is enough for my first blog, but since I just started I'm sure I'll probably have more to write very soon :).
Love to all our families and friends!
Alicia and Jeff
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