a february minimoon

believe it or not, the husband and and i have been married for 5 months as of last week. we're going to hit that 1 year mark before we know it! the past 5 months has been a lot of fun and pretty busy. we traveled to san francisco in november, we spent thanksgiving in ohio with family, we spent christmas with family in cookeville, we had dozens of people (literally) come stay with us over new years, and we've had some friends and family come visit us in between. also, we acquired a house guest in november, and while i'm more than happy to give him a place to stay for a while (not forever), it's quite an adjustment to share our house with someone else. even if he's not actively hanging out with us, he's still in the house, so it's like danny and i are never alone.

it has begun to feel like danny and i hadn't been alone in weeks, so we decided we should get away for a weekend, just us and soon. we decided on getting a cabin in a state park somewhere and to do some hiking (use some of the cool stuff we bought over valentine's day weekend). lucky for us cheaha state park had a cancellation for the last weekend in february, and we snatched it up! the cabins are just one room, but they look nice and woodsy.





i'm so looking forward to the trip. fingers crossed for nice weather!

v is for v-day

hope everyone had a lovely hearts and kisses day. danny surprised me with my first real biking jersey, & i got him a piece of art for his office.
the words are actually the words of our wedding ceremony put into a word cloud using wordle. i love it. so much, in fact, that i made one for myself. :) then, being the hardcore romantics that we are, danny and i spent the day spending all our money on hiking gear (we got new boots!) & ordered take-out for dinner.

the v-day events continued on into last night when we went to see the vagina monologues at vanderbilt med school in nashville. all of the performers were either med students or doctors. one woman was actually a dean.



the vagina monologues are amazing. every year around valentine's day, groups throughout the country put on performances of the monologues & raise money to help women. if you've never seen it, look for a production near you & definitely go see it. it shouldn't be missed.

but, this wasn't just some random production. this production was directed by my best friend, yamini! not only did she dream up the idea to do a med school production on her own, organize it from start to finish, cast it, and direct it, she also performed a monologue (all while being a 2nd year med student). she did such an amazing job! she couldn't see my face during the performance, but i was beaming the whole time. i am so proud of her and the work she did. yay, yamu!

have you ever....

here are the rules: bold the things you’ve done, add one more, and then post on your blog.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does Rock Band count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo...um, yeah, all the time
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch...i have to constantly reteach myself how to knit
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train...iowa to cali
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied...is this possible? ;)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke...proud to say my friends i were told we were the worst ever heard
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia...how about visited a russian?
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (helped)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (does leasing count?)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Married your best friend
111. Walked among the ruins of the Roman Forum

i tag jeri & my sister.

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!