minor_melody

Real post coming soon.

Until then, don't some of these recipes sound delicious?!

Yum!

Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving!  I often think of posting here, but then I never find the time and I lose track of whatever I was going to post anyways.  My thanksgiving was nice, got to visit with my family at my aunt's house and also with Vince's family at his grandparents'.  Wish I could have visited with my dad that day too, but I hope to get over to his place today.  It's hard having so many relatives I want to see.  I think I did a decent job this weekend, but Christmas will be a challenge.

I've totally succumbed to the Christmas season at this point.  I actually gave in the day before thanksgiving and went with Vince to the lighting celebration in downtown Fort Wayne.  The festivities were a lot of fun, complete with free hot chocolate.  The Santa, wreath, and tree were lit up in LED's this year and are glowing as bright as ever.  Yesterday we continued the festivities with a visit to the Embassy's Festival of Trees and Science Central's train display.  The trees were awesome and I hope to have pictures on facebook soon.  Also I am in love with the Grand Page Organ - hopefully I'll get a video up of the organist playing Eleanor Rigby. :)  The train exhibit was fun, if not as elaborate as we hoped, and Science Central was more fun than I'd remembered.  The main floor was mainly kid-oriented, but the basement had some more in-depth fun for all ages exhibits that we really had fun with. 


We hope to go ice skating soon, and we even got our first really decent snowfall today!  Made getting to church a bit crazier than usual, but it's nice to see wintry weather.  We've got all the Christmas decorations and tree up, both at my house and his apartment.


And in spite of the Christmassy surroundings, I have to say that I really love Advent.  Between all the shopping, festivities, and business of day to day life, it's nice to have a season to try and take time to wait patiently and prepare for Christmas to come.  I love the Advent songs, and even seeing the blues and purples and the Advent wreath in church inspire me into a quieter, spiritual mood.


Happy Advent, all!

Not that I advocate leaving your pets in the car, of course!  I hope he's a good driver!

Even though I don't like to post political stuff here most of the time, I thought I'd give my two cents on the election.  First off, I can't believe it's coming so fast already.  I don't like either of the two main candidates much, and over the years I've become disillusioned by most politicians.  That having been said, I do find the vice presidential choices very interesting.  I'm inclined to admire Sarah Palin, though I don't want to be a bandwagon jumper and I don't agree with quite everything she stands for. 

I don't claim to identify myself as either Republican or Democrat.  I find it disheartening that our two-party system forces me to pick between my beliefs and vote for the lesser of evils every time.  Even in the local elections I have a hard time getting excited about candidates who conform to their party platforms.  But in the end, I have to make choices. 

In the end, my vote probably won't be a surprise to anyone who knows me, though I might wish I could find a super-cool third party candidate to vote for.  I may try to learn about some of those options, but in the end I will have to live with either Obama or McCain as the next president.  I have to say that I personally don't believe that either one of them will be the most horrible or the most perfect candidate to ever assume the office.  No matter who wins, I will simultaneously like and dislike them for their decisions in office.  I will vote, but I will also know not to expect perfection.  I don't like having to vote for someone whom I disagree with half the time, but it is comforting to know that I will likely agree with the next president at least some of the time.

After all my deliberation, I decided to purchase the Canon 580, and so far I like it. :)
I just took a bunch of pictures today (actually Vince took some of them) at the Rose Garden, and you can view them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24812948@N04/sets/72157606639608225/

woohoo!

Hey all - I'm looking at getting a digital camera in the very near future, and I was just wondering if I could get any advice.  I've heard great things about Canons, and I'm also looking at a Sony Cyber-shot.  I'd like something that would conveniently fit in my purse or pocket, just to replace my broken-down point and click 35mm camera.  The Canon model I'm looking at, the Power Shot A580, is really nice but it is a little big.  The Sony is the perfect size, but I'm not sure how I feel about its using a memory stick instead of an SD card.

So, if anyone could tell me what kind of camera they have and how well you like it, that would be awesome.  I hope to get the nerve to spend the money soon, because I'm really behind in the whole digital camera thing and I'd love to post more of my pictures online, not to mention how much fun it would be, too.  

Today I was browsing my library's webpage, and I came across a link for a site called goodreads.  I signed up, and I hope to keep track of my reading there.  It looks like fun, and if anyone wants to suggest anything for my reading list there, it could be even more fun!  I've already begun adding books I've read and liked and entered in my upcoming reading list.  At the very least, I think it will be nice to keep track of what I've read and how I've liked the books I've read.  I know you guys love books, so come one, come all!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm loving my fourth of July weekend.  The extra day has given me so much time to relax that it just feels awesome.  The weather has been gorgeous, fortunately for the cookout we went to yesterday, and today we even visited the zoo.  I've even had time to pick up my flute twice, which seems to do wonders for my stress level. :)

In recap of the last few weeks, work has been going well for both jobs, but working so many hours has a tendency to be a little draining.  I'm working on prioritizing so that I can get things done and still relax, and this weekend has helped with that a lot. 

I am growing a tomato plant in my backyard garden this year, and yesterday I counted ten green tomatoes so far!  There is a bit of gardener in me that would love to grow all sorts of vegetables, but for now my mom just laughs when I tell her how many "baby beefmasters" are on my giant plant. 

I turned a quarter-century old just a couple of weeks ago; not that I really feel that much older.  It freaks me out a little that my mom was only a year older than I am now when she had me.  Crazy.  People always say I look young and the kids I teach even think I could pass for 18, but I have to say that I do feel quite a bit more mature than I felt at 18. 

Last weekend I took a much needed weekend vacation to Valpo and Indiana Dunes.  I camped out at the dunes campground with Amanda and a couple of her friends, and it was a good camping experience.  Aside from some backyard camping, it was my first camping trip, and I had fun.  We all spent a day at the beach, joined by Katie, and even explored a bit at Mount Baldy, even though you now have to use the trail on the side to reach the summit.  I ended up pretty sunburnt by the end of the day, but that didn't stop me from enjoying a nice dinner and reunion with Jerry and Joan in Valpo.  They made us lamb and shrimp kabobs and cake and we spent the evening in several rounds of dominoes.  Amanda and I joined them at St. T's on Sunday, and it was nice to see everyone there that we saw.  I would have liked to have said hi to more people, but it was hard as people were leaving before I had a chance.   But it was great to see everyone that we did see.  Once again, Fr. Kevin was absent and we had a substitute priest, but I can hardly blame him - seems he was taking a vacation as chaplain aboard an Alaskan cruise ship.  I guess his family has been going through a lot, so I'm sure it was good for him to take a vacation.  Following church, Joan and Jerry took us to visit another couple from the choir that we knew, and we got to see their one-year-old daughter that we didn't even know about prior to our valpo visit.  She was absolutely adorable and shy at first, but once she got to know us she even let me hold her.  What a cutie!  Wish I had pictures.

The short week this week following my mini vacation was great, and now here I am enjoying a three day weekend.  I have decided that someday I will take a much-needed Vacation Proper in which I will board a plane and head somewhere far away for at least a week.  I don't think I've done that since before college with my family (unless pep band road trips count, and even then that's been awhile).  But until then, I'll hang in there.  I did have several months recently where theoretically I could have gone away, but my financial situation was unstable.  Now that it's more stable, I just don't have the time!  Funny how that works.

So much for being brief!  I'm off to keep enjoying the weekend before it gets away from me.

I've just spent somewhere around 20 minutes reading my friends page, and I've realized how much time I haven't had to be posting, or doing much of anything on the internet lately.  My job isn't really structured so that I can use the internet there, and so far I haven't even figured out how to log on in the breakroom yet.  But I am enjoying both my jobs and the people I work with, and hopefully both jobs will last at least for awhile - it's looking good now.  :)
I'm just exhausted from all the hours, and especially from making the most of all the time I spend outside of work, which is a lot less time than it used to be.  Summer is crazy - as Vince says, we are "riding the expressway" of festivals until the fall.  The weather's been gorgeous, apart from a few nasty storms, and I hope to find time for swimming sometime this summer.  I've got a trip planned to the dunes with my old roommates and I'm very excited that Jerry and Joan have invited us up for dinner that weekend!   It's crazy how busy I really am, but I am enjoying it so far.
But since I once again don't have a lot of time for being online, the best way to reach me is by phone.  Email works, but I only check it once a day on average, and facebook is getting checked far less now - maybe only once a week.  So, just FYI! :) 

So far, the best part about my new job, besides the awesome hours and low-stress environment, is getting to know my co-workers.  We don't talk much while we scan, but we've been making a habit of all going to lunch together.  We're quite the diverse group - of those of us who've been eating together this week, I am American, one lady is Mexican, and one lady is Thai.  Maybe it sounds corny, but I find it fascinating that three of us speaking different native languages and with such different accents can all communicate and become friends.  It's like we're breaking the language barrier into pieces!  And we've been really having a blast together, too!  The lady from Mexico is a very friendly and outgoing person and she wants to cook food for us all sometime.  She seems like a really fun person.  The lady from Thailand is really nice too, and I can't believe how well she speaks English after only living here for three months.  Every day when she tells us about the beaches of Thailand and how cheaply you can buy things over there, she's got the other two of us thinking we ought to take a vacation over there!  We only get a short lunch break every day, but it's nice to have such a friendly group to pass the time with. :)