i am in love with kate winslet

i am. plain and simple. she's gorgeous, and she seems so real, down to earth. she doesn't play into the "i have to weigh 80 lbs. to be hot" game which is a wonderful example for all women. women have curves & it's not a bad thing. kate really knows how to show hers off too. her recent fashion choices have been perfect. on top of all that, she's an extremely gifted actress, as the recognition for her work this year clearly shows. i'm dying to see"revolutionary road" and "the reader." i guess i shouldn't say after just admitting that i haven't seen the movie yet, but i'm pulling for you, kate! let's go oscar!

the ground has shifted

as of noon eastern today, we have a new president. i have so much confidence in president obama. he knows that he's not perfect & that he will make mistakes, but he is smart enough to try things and if it's not working to adjust his path (unlike our previous president). his inauguration speech was full of hope but also reminded americans that we have to do our part too:

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies..."

"...What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship."

one of my favorite parts:

"As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."

*cough*....unlike our previous president. as i'm rereading his speech, i realize that i could keep pulling quotes out until i will have actually posted the entire speech, so i guess i'll stop. you should read/watch it again. it's good.

so, to sum up...i can feel the change. there has been a shift & if we all work together & support our new president, i think our country can be a better place. i have never been prouder to be an american.

here's scarlett's version of obama's hope poster. she's excited too. :)

HUG @ Hudson

the HudsonAlpha institute for biotechnology is located right outside my office window, so i basically watched it go up & have been dying to go inside. friday i finally got my chance. every quarter the salesforce huntsville users group (HUG) meets at different area businesses and this time it was HudsonAlpha's turn.



when you enter the buildling, you walk into a full height glass atrium.



did i mention that there are offices that jut out into the atrium & that some of their own private balconies?


a major focus of the institute is collaboration, so you will find sitting areas and chairs throughout the entire buildling. there are, also, white boards on random walls in hallways where someone could put up a problem & the next scientist who walked by could contribute his/her ideas or maybe the answer. the front of the atrium has multiple chair groupings and these fabulous white floorlamps that look like oversized table lamps.



the back of the atrium has tables and chairs for eating after you grab a snack from their cafe which btw, is open to the public. i grabbed lunch there after the meeting & it was pretty good.



the first floor also has a library named after mark smith (founder of adtran) and meeting rooms which is where my meeting was.



HudsonAlpha is a pretty amazing place and not only architecturally. the building is divided into two parts. the left side of the building houses small for-profit biotech businesses while the right side is the nonprofit portion which is home to labs and research.

there are about a dozen for-profit companies currently housed within the institute. (all using adtran ip phones, i should mention). we got a tour through open biosystems. they sell genes, dna, antibodies, and blood to researchers & they deliver within a couple days. they have a room full of huge freezers kept at -80 where the different strains live until they're needed.



education is extremely important at the institute. they have an education center where they have classes for all ages, from little tiny kids to adults. the institute works with area elementary schools, high schools, colleges, master programs, and community colleges to host on-site programs, distance programs, & internship programs (with a for-profit business or non-profit). they have teamed with calhoun communicty college to develope a 2 year program to earn an associate's degree in biotechnology. their point is that biotechnology affects everyone, is accessible by everyone, and is career path anyone can go down.

so, the research side...amazingly, the institute is the new home of rick meyers. meyers was a professor and chair of genetics at the stanford university school of medicine and director of the stanford human genome center. yeah, stanford. he's now the director of the institute & doing genomics-based research to discover new treatments and tools for improved human health.



other investigators are working in personal medicine while others are studying it at the population level. and, you've gotta love the signs outside each of the labs...



it's really really interesting stuff & it's all right here in little ol' huntsville, alabama.

p.s. april 25th is dna day (in case that's not already marked on your calendar) & HudsonAlpha is going to be giving tours of the facility.

home improvement: a work in progress

way back in december, i bought curtains for our bedroom. well, we finally hung them up, and we love them! they instantly made our room feel cozy and warm. we also picked up some drawbacks for each window but haven't gotten them up yet....so no, danny, the curtains will not always be drawn to allow for maximum sleep-in time. and yes, i realize we need bedside tables. and a headboard. i know.

i guess maybe i had been watching too much hgtv, but i decided last weekend that our master bath needed some minor improvement. nothing major. just a few little tweaks. danny successfully replace the old faucets with new ones (below).

and the rest....well, we're not quite finished yet, but maybe tomorrow?

apparently, i'm in the wrong profession...

according to the jung career indicator (yes, i am working hard), i am most suitable for the following occupations:

counseling
psychology
education
management
politics
science
computer programming
physician

a look back at 2008

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
marriage

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? i don't remember if i made any resolutions last year...i can't remember any in particular. for this year, although i hate to use the word resolution as it seems to doom you not to do what you plan, i'd say i'd like to continue to be healthier, eat better food, less laziness, and more blogging.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
yes! on december 7th, jennifer & jm welcomed baby kaya into this world. she's adorable!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
no which i am very thankful for.

5. What countries did you visit?
aruba!

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
clothes from anthropologie

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
guess i would have to go with that whole wedding thing for obvious reasons

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
successfully planned a ceremony & fabulous party for 100 people.

9. What was your biggest failure?
failure is a really harsh word. i don't know if i'd rank anything i've failed to do as a failure...unless someone would like to point something out to me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
no, nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
danny's wedding gift. a beautiful, warwick bass.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
scarlett

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
sarah palin

14. Where did most of your money go?
please see #5 and #7

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
lots of excitement this year...when my clothes were too big for me, wedding & all the family/friends/fun that came with it, honeymoon, marriage.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
golden by my morning jacket

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? thinner
c) richer or poorer? richer (joint assets ;)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
reading. mountain biking.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
work

20. How did you spend Christmas?
danny and i went to cookeville & spent time with our families. we had a big christmas eve dinner at my parents' house with his parents & sister & brother-in-law and my family. it was wonderful! then we spent the rest of the time eating and sleeping.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
i fell in love with mighty leaf vanilla bean tea & bandito's fajitas and veggie taco salad.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
tough question...i'm not sure if i could pick just one...i guess my top 2 are the office & 30 rock

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
hate is a waste of time.

24. What was the best book you read?
the secret life of bees

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
over the rhine

26. What did you want and get?
an extremely happy year

27. What did you want and not get?
a part time job that pays me a full time salary

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
let the right one in

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
we have a lot of june birthdays: 13 - danny, 14 - me, 16 - andy, 17 - dave, 18 - stef. so every year we do a joint birthday celebration of some sort. this year we had a june birthday party (complete with ice cream cake) at drew & stef's. i turned 24.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
if the people i love lived closer to me

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
boho chic?

32. What kept you sane?
danny - he's very good at it.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
jeffrey dean morgan

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
gay rights. right to choose. the whole presidential race got me pretty stirred up.

35. Who did you miss?
papa

36. Who was the best new person you met?
kaya. she's definitely the newest person i've met.

37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Watchin' a stretch of road, miles of light explode.
Driftin' off a thing i'd never done before
Watchin' a crowd roll in. out go the lights it begins.
A feelin' in my bones i never felt before...
Mmm... people always told me. that bars are dark and lonely
And talk is often cheap and filled with air.
Sure sometimes they thrill me
But nothin' could ever chill me.
Like the way they make the time just disappear
Feelin' you are here again. hot on my skin again.
Feelin good a thing i'd never known beforeWhat does it mean to feel?
Millions of dreams come real
A feelin' in my soul i'd never felt before... mmm...
And you always told me.
No matter how long it holds me if it falls apart
Or makes us millonaires. you'll be right here forever.
We'll go thru this thing together
And on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads.

wedding recap: friday rehearsing

after the trip to the courthouse, we headed up the mountain to the lodge where the wedding and reception would be held the following day. some key wedding party memebers were still in transit, so i went over the details with cheryl, friend and coordinator extrordinaire. i gave charlie her flower girl basket;she collected leaves and nuts, so she could practice dropping things on the ground. eventually, everyone arrived & we were able to do a couple run-throughs...i won't say that everyone really knew what they were supposed to do, but at least they had a general idea & cheryl took good notes.

while we were doing the rehearsal outside, a group of people were setting up for an even being held at the lodge that night. the lodge was full of autumn decorations including mums which was a key item we had yet to purchase. my sister spoke with the woman in charge & asked if we could have the mums and a few other things for a donation to her charity (can you tell she negotiater for a living?). deal!

by the end of the rehearsal, i was reaching my wit's end. i knew the questions and answers were important, but everyone was asking me some kind of question..."what time do you want to cut the cake?"..."what time do you want to leave the reception?"..."what time should i get here tomorrow?"..."when do you want to do the first dance?"..."is it okay if i wear this?"..."what should i wear?"..."you asked for a wooden sign, do you still want that?" i couldn't take any more. i was tired of being the only one who had answers, so after that moment, i was done with questions. i told people if they weren't sure of something to either ask someone else or make it up. i honestly wasn't a bridezilla kind of bride, so i was fine with whatever they came up with. that moment was my only "freak out," and i was totally fine once my no-more-questions decision was made.

from the lodge, my maids of honor, flower girl, and mother of the flower girl, and i made our way down the mountain to the small nail salon i go to to have our nails done. yes, even charlie. she picked a fabulous shade of yellow for her fingernails & gabbed away with while the rest of us took our turns.

next on the schedule was the rehearsal dinner which was held at a local mexican restuarant, casa blanca. we convinced them to let us reserve the patio for the 50 or so people we were expecting. it was so much fun! we had our closest friends and family there, & they were there to celebrate us. it was wonderful.

















one favorite moment that was not at all embarassing was when my dad made everyone (yes, everyone) stand up and introduce themselves & explain who they were in relation to the bride and/or groom...there was speech giving. some of which was helped along by some margaritas beforehand. my little brother gave a very sweet speech that even got him a little choked up.



my sister gave one too, in the style of a lawyer presenting to a jury.



an unintentional effect from her speech was that part of it made danny's grandmother feel like she had to stand up for her family & me a little taste of the threats my siblings (who really love danny) had been doling out to danny...oops. my maid of honor, natasha, gave a wonderful speech that i'm sure was lost on some family members, but it meant so much to me.



all in all, a basically perfect night. from there, it was off to gather all the stuff we needed for the next day & head to the hotel to rest up for the big day!

wedding recap: friday legalities

friday was a very very full day. it started with a trip down to the court house to make this whole thing legal! you see, the state of alabama does not recognize wayne as someone who can perform a legal wedding, but it was very important to us to have someone who realy knew us to perform the ceremony. we didn't want some random judge or minister, so we decided that we would get legally married the day before our ceremony.



i don't know how many people couples getting married usually take with them to the court house, but we had a crowd of 10 people plus us. danny's dad was, of course, in jean shorts and a heather gray t-shirt, my brother-in-law was on crutches, and there were about 4 cameras going around. our group felt that every moment had to be documented...including filling out the paperwork. :)



my sister was the first to burst into tears and demand a tissue during the legal ceremony. parents soon followed.



what would a wedding be without a reception? we headed across the street to sam & greg's to celebrate with some pizza and gelato. yum!

wedding recap: thursday

our wedding weekend began the thursday before the wedding. my parents, little brother, and "aunt" brenda (my mom's best friend since childhood) were the first to arrive. we immediately hit up bandito, a diet staple in our world, & then spent the afternoon finishing up last minute projects. my sister, her husband, my 2 aunts, wayne (our friend and officiant), and brett came into town that evening, and it was so much fun to have everyone together and feel the excitement building.


kevin, aunt jeannie, & aunt lady


dad, brenda, & mom


me & wayne


jim, sister, & brett

i am in awe

i have been out of town this week for business travel and then vacation, so i have had the chance to write about the political happenings of the week. i was going to post something the night of the election day, but i fell asleep watching cnn into the wee hours of the morning (yes, i am officially a news junkie). so, wow, i am in awe. despite the fact that i have been incredibly hopeful and the polls assured me i was right to be, i was still surprised when obama won. when things have been going the way they have for the last 8 years, you just get to expect to have the rug ripped out from under you whenever you start to feel like change might be coming. but, this time, change did happen. barack obama is our new president.



this is such an exciting time in our history. i had never been so excited to vote. i could actually feel the change when i voted. it is huge that we have finally elected our first black president, but i also think we have to make sure this doesn't turn into a completely racial thing. obama would have won even if he hadn't been black. he won because of his ideas and the change he represents. i am so proud of my country. we have embraced the future & i truly believe things are going to get better. america will be better.

there are still a couple issues that i do feel the need to address.

#1 - despite having an uncommon name, obama is an american citizen. believe it or not, someone's status message on facebook was calling this into question. this floored me; i thought i was missing out some joke. i wasn't. for the record, obama was born in hawaii which is a us state. in fact, he could not be elected president if he wasn't born in this country.

#2 - proposition 8 passed. other propositions banning same sex marriage were passed in other states this actually makes my heart hurt. these propositions are culminations of hate. HATE. why do people want to deprive people from their right to be happy? gay americans are entitled to equal rights as citizens of this country which means the right to marry whomever they chose. this is a constitutional issue. it IS unconstitutional to not allow gay citizens to get married. there is no question about it. none. your beliefs about whether being gay is a sin or not or if gay people make you uncomfortable is not the issue.

have we forgotten that fifty years ago it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry? this is the same kind of mistreatment. i hear people use the argument that if the majority of people believe in a ban, then that's what we should do, but they seem to have forgotten that it is the government's job to protect the rights of minority. 150 years ago slavery was legal & the majority of people in the country believed it was right. should we have therefore not had the emancipation proclamation? black people were treated like second class citizens and that is how the country is treating gay americans now. if they want to marry, f'in let them! it does not affect anyone else besides the two people entering into the marriage.






#3 - this is related to #2, but if i hear about protecting "traditional marriage" one more time, i'm going to throw up. protecting traditional marriage? really? do heterosexual couples really protect marriage and make it sacred? are they really such good examples? half the heterosexual couples who marry divorce. is that protecting it? if britney spears can get married, then why can't the gay couple who has been committed to one another for 50 years?

#4 - arkansas passed a proposition that denies the right to adopt to unmarried people. this prop was created to target same sex couples who wish to adopt and raise children. i actually heard the argument that gay people shouldn't get married because they shouldn't have children because a child has to have both a mother and a father. so, according to this argument, when a heterosexual couple divorces or a parent dies, we should take the children out of the home because they shouldn't be raised by only a mother or only a father. that is ridiculous. families come in all different sizes and shapes. a family is love, not specific roles for each member.

we have some work to do, but we're on the right track with a new president. we can do it, but we all have to work together. we are the united states of america.