Sunday Walks

Sunday walks are just one of many things I will miss while Nate's gone this summer. 

We have a good little neighborhood, maybe not the most exciting neighborhood since we usually end up inspecting people's lawns, but a good little neighborhood. Yes, our walks usually turn into a quest to discover homes with good grass, the kind you can walk on in bare feet.

The Grass Inspector

We didn't even know it was possible to grow a nice lawn here until recently; even people with full, green lawns (not us), have Bermuda grass, which is tough and pokey and painful to walk on. But a few weeks ago, we found someone with what we can only describe as Utah grass. It was soft and deep green and beautiful, and made us homesick in a most peculiar way. As we caressed the lawn, it occurred to us how creepy we might look, so we stayed for just 5 more minutes and then walked on.


Our walks also usually consist of a stop at the AT&T facility, where we always ask each other "Why is this here, in the middle of a neighborhood?"

Smoke break

And finally, our Sunday walks usually include some amount of postulating as to what has changed about the neighborhood since our last walk. Nate thought this stop sign was new.

This Picture = Not Posed

I can only imagine the things that will change while he's gone, and the amount of head-scratching that will ensue when he comes back. Oh how I will miss this man!

April Showers

Take all the lightning, all the thunderstorms I experienced in my 29 years in Utah, multiply that by 10, and that's probably about how much thunder and lightning we've had here in the past month. I speak only for myself, since Nate spent two good years in Virginia, but the storms down here have continual lightning strikes, unlike any I've ever seen. There's a storm chaser that goes out and reports on all the storms for one news station, and I stole this picture from him.

This was taken on Sunday night, while the storm chaser was watching for a tornado, which thankfully never formed, but boy, did the hail fall. We were a little north of it and didn't have any property damage, but here are some of the hail pictures people submitted to the news station.

 

The first time we had a hail storm/tornado warning was around 11:00 at night, and I was not amused that Nate wanted to drive over to Sonic and park his car there overnight (under the awnings). I didn't want to have to follow him over to bring him back home, just to take him back over in the morning to pick up his car. After seeing these pictures, I think I will be more willing in the future to take some precautions.

Moth Infestation

As nice as it was to enjoy a warm winter, I'm now wishing the temperatures would have been cold enough long enough to kill a few million of the moth eggs (larvae?) that instead survived. Because that did not happen, we are now in the throes of the awful, disgusting, great moth infestation of 2012. For the past week it has become part of our bedtime ritual to walk around the house and annihalate the moths perched on the walls. Not that we ONLY kill them at bedtime; it is a day-long battle.

The Weapons

I prefer to kill them with the fly swatter and throw them in the trash; Nate likes to vacuum them up with the dustbuster, where they don't die. This is a close-up on the belly of the dustbuster. It was taken two days ago. There have been more casualties since then. Sorry for the disgusting-ness.

They say they'll be gone in a couple weeks. They better be or I might just go crazy.

Santa Fe (are ya there?)

Yes, Christian Bale, Santa Fe is there. We saw it for ourselves this weekend on our anniversary trip. And yes, we did have that song running through our heads all weekend long.

Even the train in Lubbock was excited for our trip

It was a 5+ hour drive, so we loaded up on sustenance. 15 points for anyone who can guess which beverage was whose:

Santa Fe is basically New Mexico's version of Austin, TX with a little Park City, UT mixed in. Mountain town, close to skiing, very artsy, kinda expensive, laid back, and hip. 

Our hotel was close enough to the action that we were able to walk all around, thank goodness, because we ate plenty and needed the exercise. I had never heard of New Mexican food, but apparently that's a thing (I think if it has green chiles it's considered New Mexican). We had some good nachos, and a delicious green chile relleno and blue corn taco our first night.  

New Mexican Food

We also found a great little French bakery called Clafouti's, where the beignets and coconut macarons were ahhhhhmazing, and because of that, the perfectly buttery flaky croissant was tragically neglected, but only for 10 minutes until we had eaten everything else.

He was in heaven

After we finally pulled ourselves away from the pastries, we headed to one of many art museums in town, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I first learned about Georgia from Pete Yorn, who sang about her. Then, last year I heard a piece on NPR about her love letters with Alfred Stieglitz, which piqued my interest about her life. And then I did nothing to learn more about her.

Those being the facts, when we got to the museum and learned it would cost $12 per person to look at her paintings, and we realized that neither one of us had any actual knowledge or appreciation of these paintings, we decided we would be better off saving our money and looking at the prints in the museum store.

We did, however, pony up the $3 per person to go into the Loretto Chapel and see the miraculous staircase.

Unfortunately, when we were packing I didn't realize Santa Fe would be so walkable, so I failed to bring real walking shoes. Nate offered to let me use a pair of his shoes so he wouldn't have to listen to me whine about blisters... I chose to suffer for fashion. But after a good morning of sight seeing, I was happy to spend the rest of the day hanging out at the hotel while Nate did homework. Thank goodness, because shortly after that it started to SNOW.

What the what?

On our way out of town, we dropped by the state Capitol building, just to say we'd done it.

The trip back home took us past the Billy the Kid museum, but unfortunately...

I wonder if the museum gets robbed sometimes by people trying to honor Billy the Kid's memory. The right way. 

Next time we take a trip through New Mexico, we'll be sure to plan better.

Year One

In some ways it's hard to believe it's already been a year, and in other ways it's hard to believe it hasn't been longer.  I love Nate so much and am grateful that he became mine forever one year ago today. I've loved the adventures we've had so far and look forward to the adventures to come.

Overwhelmingly Successful Wedding Photo Reenactment

We had a great dinner at Olive Garden and then broke out our wedding cake pops for dessert. And yes, they were still good! No sign of freezer burn. Wish we would have saved more!

Happy Anniversary, Darlin'!

The Masters

Apparently, this is how you're supposed to watch it.

Winning

Hi, my name is Allison and I’m addicted to gambling.

Okay, not really; I’ve been to Vegas many times and never sat down at a table, but Texas has not brought out the best in me. I blame it on my coworkers. They like to gamble, and sometimes I can’t say no.

I did have the sense to opt out of the office pool they set up in December for the college bowl games. Why would I waste $20 to prove that I know very little about college football? (This same logic could possibly apply to college basketball and March Madness, but it doesn’t.) Then when Superbowl time came around, the coworkers decided to put together a ten-liner, which means 10 people each put $10 in and draw a number, and something something something, if your number matches a part of the score at the end of the quarter, you win. Since they NEEDED 10 people to participate, I would have let them down if I didn’t go in on it. And what do you know, I won one quarter! $25 richer. Actually, $15 since I had to put $10 in, but I’ll take it.

Then when March Madness rolled around, obviously that bet was going to happen. Not because I know more about college basketball than I do college football, but come on, March Madness is just what you do! Everyone does it, the end.  Between the Bowen family pool and my office pool, Nate and I spent $40 on our March Madness brackets.  Possibly not the best use of our hard-earned money, especially when we’re racking up student debt, and ESPECIALLY when you pick Missouri to play in the final, and they lose in the first round. Which is exactly what I did. After Missouri lost, Nate turned to me and said, “well that was a waste of $20,” and I was offended, but he had a point. And then, somehow, I miraculously ended up placing 2^nd in the office pool with that very bracket. I actually tied for first but guessed too high on the tie-breaker points. 30% of $600 is not as good as 60% of $600, but it’s better than 0% (which, coincidentally, is what Nate got).

The lesson I’ve learned in all of this is that I’m a lucky charm. I can gamble and win. So when the Mega Million pot reached $500 kajillion dollars last week and my coworkers wanted to go in on some tickets, I did them the favor of throwing in $10, knowing that if we won, it would probably be because of me.  Plus, with 20 people pitching in 10 lottery tickets each, that is a whole lotta chances, right? You’d think so… but funny thing, we lost. I’m not sure what to make of it anymore. And by it, I mean life. It’s kind of lost its meaning to me. If I can’t count on gambling winnings, what can I count on (besides cookies and Diet Pepsi)?

I guess I won’t quit my day job yet.