The Power is Out: What We're Learning

It's Day 7 of not having electricity.  Baltimore has been treating us so well!  (That was sarcasm, for any Sheldons out there.)  In 2009 we had "Snowpocalypse" (or "Snowmageddon" if you are of that school) when in snowed so much they wouldn't allow non-government vehicles to be on the roads and we lost our power for a few days (however I also got six snow days off of school, so I wasn't complaining too much), then last summer we had an earthquake (some of our pictures are still hanging crooked from that...don't judge me) and a few days later Hurricane Irene hit us and we were without power for 3.5 days.  Then last Friday (June 29) we got hit with some kind of freak storm and we have been without power ever since.  In a heat wave.   And it's very humid, which I think is the WORST THING EVER!  If you know me even a little you probably already know that because I complain about humidity all the time.  Anyway, our power company keeps giving us times that the power should be back on, the first being July 4 at 12:30 in the afternoon.  Then 10:30pm.  Then 6:30pm the next day.  Then nothing.  Then 4:00 today.  And now it's set for 6:30pm tomorrow.  Kelly and I don't believe them anymore.  We have also almost given up hope of ever having electricity in our home ever again...or at least until we move at the end of the month.  At the rate we're going, that might really be the case.

So, since I am now an expert at living through a heat wave (100+ degrees outside four 5 out of the 7 days so far) with no power for a whole week I will share ten things we learned.

1.  Some things you should definitely own in case of a power outage or emergency:
-flashlights (or even better a lantern; see ); at least one per person so you don't always use the buddy system in your own home.
-candles and matches in case your flashlight dies
-a cooler
-ice packs or a lot of ice in your freezer for your cooler
-car charger for your phone
-food that doesn't need to be refrigerated or cooked, because even if you have a gas stove, in the summer you will NOT want to turn it on, and eventually all your food in your fridge will go bad.  And if you need to evacuate, it's easy to take with you and eat on the go. Also, make sure you have adequate food and water stored in your house, and necessities like soap, basic first aid stuff, and TP in case of an emergency, because the grocery store could be closed or cleaned out. When snow is forecast here, the first things gone at the store are bread, milk, and toilet paper.  Also, we are lucky because we found out that some people in the area don't have water or electricity!
-books to help with boredom
-something to cook with if you don't have a gas stove, especially if it's winter, or businesses around you are also out of power so there's no where to go get groceries or go out to eat.
-it's always good to have warm clothes and a giant warm blanket on hand, in case you're left without power in the winter.
-lots and lots and lots of batteries, especially extras in the right size for your smoke alarm and flashlights.

Story time:  our smoke/carbon monoxide alarm's battery has died twice since the power went out.  Those things go faster than you think when it's entirely reliant on the back up battery instead of electricity.  The first night we had to go get a 9-volt battery at 3:45 AM because the thing kept chirping and we couldn't sleep.  It turned out to be a good thing, though, because we were able to get ice before there was a run on the bank, which leads us to the second thing we learned:

2.  Get ice early.  We actually learned this lesson in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.  When the power didn't come on on the second day, we got worried about our food going bad and I went to 9 different places trying to find a bag of ice.  I was lucky to get the very last bag at the gas station I stopped at last.  This time around the power went out at about 11PM on June 29, and we got ice at 3:45AM on our battery run.  The next day most places were running low or out, and the day after that there was none to be found.  Unfortunately, when you get ice the first day, and there is no ice after that to replace it with, after 7 days, all your food will be bad if the weather is very hot.  Case in point:

Although our power's not on yet, I cleaned out the fridge because it was as warm inside it as outside it and had been for a couple days, and things were stinking!  Even our pickles went bad.  That's how hot it got in our house.  And don't worry, I scrubbed out the whole thing after I took these pics.

3.  This one is only for summer, open all the windows at night.  If it is still too hot, sleep next to the one that gets the most breeze.  It's the only way we are still alive.  If you are in a super hot/humid place like Baltimore that doesn't cool down at night and you are on the top floor, go ahead and leave all your windows open all the time, otherwise it will be even hotter inside than it is outside, also you will not be able to breathe.  Seriously, the air feels heavy out here and even worse inside with no circulation.

This was our sleeping situation, next to our screen door out to the balcony.

The baby gates by the window is to keep Libby from scratching the screen since it was installed brand new with the new windows on Tuesday.  Libby sits on our mattress during the day when she's not sleeping under the couch, which is where she's been spending the majority of her time as you can see below.

4. Again, only when it's really hot, block direct sunlight coming into your house.  We actually are moving in a month and the windows were scheduled to be replaced in our apartment this week, so we had to take down all our curtains, which would have done this job pretty well, but such is our luck.  We have a tree that shades the windows into the main part of our apartment, but nothing over the window in the bedroom, so we are keeping that door closed and try to not go in there, because it is at least 15 degrees hotter in there than in the rest of the apartment.  In the living room we have vertical blinds that block the light pretty well, and in the dining room we set our air mattress against the window during those hours when the sun is coming in.  This tip and the last one when I said to keep your windows open all day in certain situations are kind of opposites, so we experimented and figured out what worked best for us.  We kept the window open, but for a few hours when the sun was coming in blocked the light and then as soon as the sun passed overhead opened everything back up again.

5.  If you can, buy a battery-operated fan.  We only managed to scrounge one up yesterday evening, and it made all the difference.  When I walked into Bed, Bath, & Beyond and saw one left, I knew God saved it for me (sounds dramatic, but that's how it felt when I saw this little beauty waiting for me).  We actually slept last night, and this morning we agreed it was worth the cost of the fan and the 8 D batteries it took to run the thing.

My new best friend--tied with Kelly.

6.  A lantern is so much cooler than a flashlight.  It lights up 360 degrees instead of only where you point it. It has a hook so you can hang it on things.  It has feet so you can set it down and use both hands and it doesn't roll away.  Ours is made by Black Diamond and takes 4 AA batteries, and those lasted for 4 days, so keep your extra batteries handy, those sell out almost as fast as ice.

Our lantern, which Kelly's brother Ben gave us for Christmas a couple years ago.  THANK YOU BEN & HOLLY!!

See how we hooked in the shower?  P.S. get used to cold showers.  I have.  Kelly hasn't.  Guess who smells better. (Just kidding about the smell!  However, while I can take a quick normal shower, Kelly takes forever trying to wash his hair without the water touching anything but his scalp, and basically sponge bathing to keep out of the direct line of fire cold water.)

 

7.  Make sure you have a cooler.  They also sell out as fast as ice.  Fortunately we already had one, but during our quest for a fan that lasted about 6 days, we heard a lot of people asking for coolers and a lot of store employees saying there weren't any left.

8.  Don't live on the top floor of your apartment building in a summer outage.  I know you can't help this (neither could we) but I'll tell you ahead of time, it sucks.  When we get about half-way up the last flight of stairs, it's like walking through a wall of hot hot air.  I've never experienced anything like it in my life, except maybe the opposite version of walking into a restaurant freezer and feeling that super dramatic change in temperature from one step to the next.

9.  Find out where there is electricity and air conditioning and spend the hottest part of your day there.  If you have work, this is one of those rare times when you'll actually look forward to going there.  If you are on summer break like I am, find places you can loiter in air conditioning without getting in trouble like the mall or go to the movies or explore stores you always wanted to go to but never had time.

10.  Know ahead of time places with WiFi and outlets available for you to charge your computer if you don't have a smartphone (I don't.)  Out here Panera, Dunkin' Donuts, and Barnes & Noble are currently acting as second (and third and fourth) homes for me and Kelly.  I have discovered Panera has the most comfortable seats, best access to outlets, and the best food, but it's awkward to stay there very long since it's a restaurant, and also go after 2pm to get a seat with an outlet.  Barnes & Noble is okay to stay at for longer amounts of time, and you are not obligated to buy food first.  Dunkin Donuts is open the latest, but you will need to buy at least a donut or they'll probably give you dirty looks.  I haven't tried not buying something first, so that's only a guess. We've figured when to migrate from place to place.  For example, I started this post in Panera over lunch, and am now finishing it at Barnes & Noble with my new friends (I get more everyday) who also don't have power at home. 

Bonus tip: when you pass 5 trucks from your power company on your street and all the people are inside of them sleeping, take a video and narrate with the temperature,  how long you've been out of power, and general venting about your feelings on the situation. I tragically didn't think about this and Kelly told me I should have done that when I told him about it later.  For the record, it was 101 degrees and the power had been out for 6 days by that point.

So if you ever lose power for 7 days and running, go to Barnes & Noble and check out some tips from a survivor, albeit a whiney one.  Also, if you have a cat, don't try to move it to the coolest part of the house, because it will just run away again.  At least if your cat is as dumb as Libby.

**Update!  Our power came back on Friday night!  It was so hot we went to a late movie and when we came home as we were driving up to our apartment we saw the outdoor lights of our building were on!  At first we both just thought "why does this look weird?" and then at the same time we realized the power was on and did a seated-and-still-driving-happy-dance, which may or may not have included some happy crying and nearly jumping out of the car while it was still in motion and then running up three flights of stairs to our apartment so we could turn the light on. So, we all survived (except for all of our refrigerated/frozen food, minus three kinds of Tabasco (I don't know why we had three kinds, we just did), soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, an unopened jar of relish, an unopened jar of capers, and a Costco box of York peppermint patties...yes, all the Yorks are deformed now, but still edible.  I'm sure we could make some kind of meal out of that right?).

Also, at about 3AM Monday morning we woke up and the power was out again.  Kelly called the power company and they said it would be on by 6AM, but it's kind of hard to trust those guys!  Neither of us could get back to sleep because it was such a horrible feeling, knowing we had just gotten it back and had replaced a bunch of stuff in the fridge and now it was out again. When we got up at 6:30 the power was still out and I was on the verge of tears, but as Kelly was getting ready for work the fan in our bedroom turned on around 7, so there was much rejoicing. And the power's been on since then, so hopefully it doesn't go out again, or one of us (probably Libby) is going to need a padded room and a straight jacket.

Other than being terrified of the power going out again and an empty refrigerator, the only lasting effect has been forgetting to turn on both the hot and cold water.  Weird right?  When the power was out, we both just turned the hot water handle in the sinks and shower, but it doesn't work so well when the water heater is actually working!  We've both been surprised by too-hot water when we're washing our hands, or getting a gulp of warm water when we're expecting  cold.  Who knew you could get so lazy about turning on the water taps?

Crouches Come to Baltimore

Once again: I'm the worst blogger ever.  Now that I got that out of the way, here's some cool stuff I've been up to!

Okay, I haven't  been up to too much that qualifies for the category of "cool stuff" but that's okay.  I'll tell you about the boring stuff too! Lucky you!

So since February, which is the last time I posted, the thing I did most was teach the third trimester at school.  I had a few students who are pretty awesome people.  Then again, most stopped coming around the beginning of May, although last year only 12 students passed my class in the third trimester, and this year 36 did, so attendance was up a little from this time last year! Hooray progress!  Fortunately, each of my classes are only 1 trimester long, so many more passed US and World History during the 1st and 2nd trimesters so I'm not a complete failure of a teacher.

In other teaching news, we had our second graduation and that was nice to attend.  Some really amazing students graduated and are going to go on and do better things than high school.  It was fun to go and support the ones who really worked for it.


 Kelly turned 25 and graduated in May.  Fortunately not from high school (that would be ridiculous).  He graduated with his B.A. from Towson University, and now he's all good to go for teaching Spanish starting in the fall!  I hope his first year is 18 bajillion-trillion times better than mine.  Anyway, his graduation was long and boring and I had to sit all by myself since both our families live a few thousand miles away.  We decided neither of us are going to walk when we get our masters.  I should be done in August, so that will be good to be done and not have to do all the pomp and circumstance (ha ha ha I'm so hilariously funny!  Get it?  Because I'm talking about the stupid hats and ceremony, but that's also the name of the processional music.  Do most people know that?  Or just us Bountiful Elementary kids who had Music Start?)

Kelly's birthday cupcake.  A quarter of a century isn't that big a deal, I guess.

 

Towson University Graduation...well, the one Kelly was in.

Believe it or not, that blur is Kelly walking across the stage.

Kelly: college grad.  And tired and hot and ready to get the heck out of there.

School ended on the 13th and it was a bit of a drag to pack up everything in my classroom knowing that I would have to unpack all of it again in August.  I was hoping Kelly would get a job somewhere that is not Baltimore so I could quit, so most of this year I was thinking this was the last one...but alas, it wasn't.  Anyway, the best part of the last day of school was my parents and younger brother and sister flew in that evening! 

They timed it perfectly because the weather was so amazing the whole time they were here!  It had been either super hot and humid or very rainy before they came, and their last day it started getting really muggy and hot again, but the week they were here it was very pleasant and not too humid. (Humidity, if you can't tell, is my least favorite thing about living here.  Kelly keeps thinking I'll get used to it someday, but I never will.  I am meant for desert air, not the sauna I currently live in.)

I stole some pictures from facebook that my mom and sister (Cami) posted because I didn't take very many, I guess because I was too busy enjoying just being with my family (minus Kevin & Lindsey, sorry you couldn't make it guys).

The evening they got here we got burgers at Abbey Burger, which was tasty as always, and louder than usual on account of the O's game.  Then we came home and we ate crème brûlée Kelly was nice enough to make, and they met our cat, Libby.  I think Kelly and I need to have a baby because they way they played with and watched our cat is kinda like how Kelly's family is with our nephew Liam.

For some reason my family couldn't get over how fat Libby is.

  
The next day we headed up to Gettysburg and spent the day driving around the battlefield.  Kelly wasn't feeling very well, so he didn't come.  We had all done Gettysburg before, except my brother Bryan, so we didn't do the museum part.  My dad loves the Civil War and told us a lot of awesome things about the battle.  We packed sandwiches for lunch and watched squirrels and cardinals while we ate until a bird decided to break up the party by splattering the picnic table with poo.  Then we went to the cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.  When we came home we watched Catch Me if You Can because Cami is obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cami, Mom, Dad, me and Bryan on an observation tower at Gettysburg.

Cardinal at lunch.  Who knows, this could be the bird that pooed at us.

This is where Lincoln stood to give the Gettysburg Address.

The second day we split up.  We had planned to go to the second part of the Air and Space Museum, but Cami didn't want to.  She decided she wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum instead, so my mom, Cami and I went there, and the guys went to the Air and Space Museum.  I tried to tell Cami that while amazing, the Holocaust Museum is very sobering.  I don't know if anyone can really understand the feeling unless they've been there or somewhere similar.  It is amazing how there can be so many people milling around in there, and still be nearly silent.  There was a bunch of middle school kids there who had been laughing and goofing off coming in, but once they got into the main exhibit they were so quiet and respectful.

After that, we cheered up a little when we met up with Kelly, Bryan, and my dad at the National Zoo.  It is so fun in the spring because there are baby animals!  There was a tiny baby howler monkey and Bryan, Kelly and my mom saw a baby burrowing owl, Cami and I didn't because it was in the bird house, and we're both scared of birds, but upon seeing the pictures we both agreed it was adorable.  The tamarins are always fun, and how many people get to see a gorilla pull poop out of its bum with its fingers?  I think we were all worn out by the time we got home.

Somehow this is the only picture I got at the zoo.  Well, I tried to get some of the baby howler monkey, but they were all blurry.  Bryan has some of the baby burrowing owl, so ask him if you want to see it.

On Saturday we headed up to Philadelphia and went to Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell and went to Reading Market for lunch (of course we got Philly cheesesteaks!)  Then we headed to Longwood Gardens, which I've written about on here before.  We saw the fountains and the idea garden, which weren't open the last two times we went.  They had some really cool ideas for home vegetable gardens.  We also did the conservatory, of course, and then ended off the night with a fountain/light show.  Kelly and me and my mom enjoyed it (I liked the fact that the music was big band), but my dad and Bryan got bored, I think.  Cami didn't come because she was tired of museum and history stuff.

Bryan, Me, Kelly, and my dad walking to Independence Hall for our tour with the "saucy woman" national park worker, and a random guy walking to the Liberty Bell.

Kelly and me at Independence Hall

My parents and Independence Hall

Inside Independence Hall where they signed the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

My dad, me and Kelly at Benjamin Franklin's grave.  My dad and I got good luck for tossing pennies that landed on the headstone face-up.  Kelly's rolled back to us under the fence.  It was only later that I realized that sounded kind of mean throwing pennies at someone's grave, but the proceeds are used to keep up the grounds.

On Sunday, Cami and Bryan stayed in bed but my parents came with Kelly and me to church.  After church we went back to DC to drive around some of the monuments because Bryan hadn't been there before. (Cami, once again decided  not to come, but hung out in our apartment instead of the hotel, so she could watch movies and get online and play with Libby.)  We also went to the National Cathedral.  It is so huge!  There was some information about the damage it received in the earthquake last August, which was really interesting to learn about.  It is amazing how such a small quake did so much damage.   We did go into the Lincoln Memorial since you don't really get the whole experience without going inside, and then we went past the Vietnam War Memorial and found the name of a man my dad knew.   We came back home pretty early and Kelly showed off his cooking skills by making chicken marsala and cheddar chive biscuits.

National Cathedral, view from top.

National Cathedral

Me and Kel at the National Cathedral

 On Monday we finally did something Cami wanted to do:  Ocean City!  We drove 3 hours to the beach and just relaxed all day on the sand and walked up and down the boardwalk.  It was nice after all the walking we had done in the days before.  Then we hit some outlet malls to bought Kelly some "teacher clothes," and asked a local for a restaurant suggestion for dinner.  The Captain's Galley was not that great.  I got my first real sunburn ever.  I think the only part of me to every burn before was my hair part, but at Ocean city I burned my legs, arms, and face.  Kelly thought it was hilarious the next day when I was surprised that being in the sun hurt.  Joke's on him though, I'm already tan and he'd still red!

Kelly sleeping on the beach.

Cami and my mom at Ocean City, MD

Boardwalk at Ocean City (my mom took this picture)

Tuesday was our last full day with my family here, and nothing really worked according to plan.  We were going to go to Fort McHenry for the Sail-ebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  Fort McHenry is what Francis Scott Key could see when he wrote the National Anthem, so it's kinda Baltimore's claim to fame.  Unfortunately, it was apparently too full, because cops blocked the road so we couldn't get there.  So we went to Annapolis instead.  Kel and I hadn't been there before, and it's basically a tourist trap of a state capital.  So that wasn't great.  So we came back to Baltimore and tried to go on the Constellation, (it's a ship in the harbor) but it was too late, it had closed.  So we wandered around the harbor and cooled off in the Barnes & Noble.  That was probably the funnest part of the day.  Then Kel and I tried to take my family out to eat crab, but the place was closed.  So we came back home and watched Malcolm in the Middle on Netflix while eating steak and salad Kelly, my mom and me quickly whipped up.

Annapolis Harbor from the US Navy Academy

National Aquarium-we didn't go inside, but it sits right on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

 
Wednesday was sad because my family went home.  We met at the Towson mall since Cami wanted to go in there because it was across the street from their hotel, and we wandered through there, then let them check out the Trader Joe's since there's not one in Utah, and had brunch at Towson Hot Bagel.  Then we said goodbye and they got home safely that night.

Kelly and I had so much fun!  It was our vacation too, since Kelly starts his summer training next week and we're moving next month, so I'll spend the summer packing, moving, and unpacking.  We hope my mom and dad and Cami and Bryan had as much fun as we did, and we miss them a lot.  The next day we just chilled at home and rested.  Yesterday we went to Brave, but it was a letdown.  It felt like a second-rate Disney movie--definitely not up to Pixar's usual standards.  Think Brother Bear plus How to Train Your Dragon (but not as good at that one) plus cliche oh-no-I've-cursed-us-we-need-to-break-it-before-time-runs-out.  Not horrible, but pretty ho-hum.

So that's that.  Aren't you glad I haven't been posting for all these months since nothing happened until my family came?  You're welcome for being so considerate and making a super long post all at once instead.  Hopefully I'll post a little sooner next time with pictures of our apartment before packing stuff up, and some of our new apartment when we get there!  I'm so excited to move!

December through the Present

Get that play on words?  Because in December we get presents.....It sounds like a Richard Paul Evans book...I'm so lame.  I'm gonna lie and say Kelly pointed that out to me when he was reading over this for me. Ha ha Kelly's so lame.  So Kelly's (lame) pun notwithstanding, I (once again) am terrible at keeping my valiant readers up to date on my life.  I'm very very sorry, because I do know you live for this stuff.  No more delays; here goes:

So, way back in December I totaled The Mr. Darcy (my first car, and our only car) on the freeway (I'm okay!), then we went a couple days without one, which wasn't the most fun thing we ever did, and then we bought a new one, a 2009 Corolla which Kelly has dubbed Carolina.   I just realized we don't have a picture of our new car.  I'll have to take one sometime.

Poor Darcy.  The damage actually doesn't look so bad, but the airbags came out and that alone would have cost more than the car was worth to fix.

Then a week or so later I got pulled over for my first time ever.  So that was, well, kinda horrible, especially since I was in an area where a lot of my students live, and while I was waiting for the officer to write out my ticket I hear "HEY MRS. A! YOU GOT PULLED OVER!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"  Yeah...a few of my students were across the street pointing at me.  Laughing.  Saying inappropriate things like yelling at the policeman that I probably have illegal substances in my car (of course I didn't/don't, but they probably had some on them.  I kinda wanted to ask the police officer if he could let me off the ticket if I could tell him where he could arrest some kids with drugs).  It was about then that I decided never to drive again because apparently after 8 years I just started sucking at it.  But Kelly won't let me because I have to get to work somehow.  I tried to solve that dilemma by offering to quit, but he won't let me do that either for some reason.  There is no reasoning with that guy!


Then we went home for Christmas and it was so much fun.  We hung out with our families, and pretty much relaxed for the whole time we were there.  We had fun with our nephew Liam and went to SLC with my family, including my newlywed brother Kevin and his wife Lindsey.   We had a back-and-forth Christmas between my house and Kelly's house; it's pretty nice we haven't had to make any tough choices about where to spend any major holidays yet.

Kelly, me, and Bryan at the Tabernacle

Kevin and Lindsey with some lights on Temple Square

Kel and I attended an unofficial Juniper Reunion.  I saw a bunch of my old college buddies that I haven't seen in a few years, like Becky, Amy, Lindsey & Steve, Annette, Bryan, Nate, Blake, to name most of them.  And there was a guy I never met before who thought the fact that my name is Dani is the most hilarious thing in the whole freaking world.  I heard the quote from The Shining, "Come play with us Dani.  Forever.  And ever.  And ever."  come from his mouth about a bagillion times.  So....I'll just leave that there.

 It was pretty awesome when I walked in, though.  I think it's the closest I've ever come to feeling like a celebrity somewhat popular, though I believe that the actual sentiment was more like Hey-Dani-we-missed-you-a-little-plus-we-are-all-nice-and-somewhat-exuberant-people.   So that was really fun.  Later in the trip I also got to see my old roomie Janalee and meet her husband, Danny.  It was fun to catch up with everyone.

It was sad to say bye to our families and come home to Baltimore, and the all night flight was a killer, but we made it, and our apartment and cat were both fine when we got home.  Although our evil cat Libby was happy to have someone to play with again (I use the phrase "play with" loosely,  think more like "attack"), she didn't seem very happy when we took away her giant bowl of food.

When we got home we found that Libby had left a present in my shoe.  Fortunately not a typical Libby present, which tends to be poo.

We got her a Christmas present too, a crab in honor of living in Baltimore....

...which she subsequently ripped an eye off of.

In January I taught some more.  I have some pretty cool students this trimester.  Tomorrow is the last day of finals and I'm quite sad to have some of them leave my classes.  Of course there are a couple others to whom I say "I tried my best with you, good riddance."  I'm the worst teacher ever!!!  Although I missed school yesterday due to the previously-mentioned traffic ticket (I went to court to see if I could get probation, so I wouldn't get points on my license (success!))  and someone had scrawled "BEST TEACHER EVER" in blue pen on my desk.  It was probably meant sarcastically, but I haven't cleaned it off yet.

In other news, we were pretty convinced Kelly was going to get into Teach For America, and we were hoping for somewhere closer to home like Vegas or Denver, and we told everyone about it all excitedly and we waited and waited for January 17th to see where we would end up and start making plans....but he didn't get in.  I can't quite figure out why, but I guess there's another plan for us.  So we went about a month pitying ourselves and wondering what to do, but on Saturday Kelly got a job teaching Spanish here in Baltimore for next school year.  Hooray!  Not closer to home....but not any farther, either.  In celebration we went to Abbey Burger, which has a checkoff list of all the delicious stuff you want on your burger.   So tasty.  Anyway, I'll probably work another year and we'll pay off Kelly's student loans and probably a huge chunk of the car and throw the rest into savings for...future things...that I want very badly....right now....but Kelly says we have to wait longer :(

My parents gave us a puzzle of Las Vegas for some good vibes for TFA, I put it together and we kept it out until the 17th.  Needless to say we put it back in the box that night...not so good vibes I guess...

 Hmmm....anything else interesting I feel like writing about? Um...Our cat has been trying new tactics to try to let us know she REALLY wants to be fed.  We give her dry food for cat breakfast and cat after school snack, but before we go to bed she gets half a packet of wet food.  She lives for the stuff and starts letting us know around cat after school snack time that she wants her good stuff.  The best attempts recently have been jumping into the refrigerator where we keep the uneaten half-packet of food in a ziplock bag, licking her empty food bowl, licking the outsides of her empty food bowl, licking the floor around her empty food bowl, and the best so far is what we like to call the "dying of hunger" approach.

Libby's dying of hunger approach

 When we go into the kitchen, she slowly makes her way to her food bowl, as if she can barely stand, and right before reaching it she collapses.  It's quite a performance and she seems quite pathetic...until you leave the kitchen and she trots after you.

Oh, for an early Valentine's Day present Kelly bought me a bench and I loves it.  It's great to come in, be able to sit down to take your shoes off, and not track outside stuff onto the inside stuff.

This is the present that was on the bench.  It was for my friend Cara and her new baby.  I took a picture of the card for my mom, because I made it while I was on the phone with her so I was telling her about it.

Now for some other pictures of random stuff...since November, I guess...

Our Thanksgiving feast of chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, dressing, and peas.  And the chef himself.

Ahern self family portrait Thanksgiving 2011

I made this for our nephew Liam for Christmas.  It's made of washers and I got the idea from Pinterest.

Our Christmas tree! We called it Baby, because we didn't put it in a corner this year.

Libby LOVED this tree this year.  She would sit under it, hide next to it, stare at it, play by it, etc.  She was sad to see it go.

It's pretty sad when you upload your pictures from your camera and 75% of them are of your cat who is a pill and really does poop on the floor sometimes.  Kelly...we need something else cute to take pictures of...hint hint.

 So that's the update into the meaningless drivel we participate in everyday.  Aren't you glad I update you on the exciting comings and goings of the Aherns?

Longwood Gardens

(After writing this whole thing, I thought I should let you know that as usual, I went off on a tangent in the beginning.  So if you don't want to hear about me having a cold for a week, skip down to the part that says "Longwood Gardens" to read about why I actually wrote this post.  That's right, my tangent was so long and off-topic I had to put another title in there.)

Kelly and I went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago.  I meant to post last Saturday when I had time, but I ended up coming down with a sore throat and fever on Friday night and spending most of this week feeling sick and overall just completely worn out.  Fortunately now I just have a dry cough and I'm starting to get my energy back.  If I have what the doctor said I have (a nasty cold virus that's going around) and so far her symptom progression prediction has been correct, it should turn into a wet cough in a couple days and then go away.  AFTER WRITING THIS I DECIDED TO ADD A WARNING FOR PEOPLE WHO GROSS OUT EASILY TO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! I have to admit when snot-like substance was coming out of my eyes that was the worst.  But I just stayed home all week and avoided contact with Kelly and every other human being and washed my hands and slept a lot, so I could say it wasn't the worst week ever.  But it wasn't necessarily a good one, either.  Wow! TMI.  I bet you all liked the eye-snot part.  Don't worry I went to the doctor and it was just the same virus attacking my eyes.  That sounds so creepy.  But I'm blind now, so nothing worse can happen, right?  Just kidding Mom I can still see just as well as I always could.  So still not very well.  The worst thing is I have to wear glasses for a few weeks, which if you know me is even worse than eye-snot.  I just keep going with this thing...sorry, I'm done. 

I should add a warning up there for all persons squeamish.  ... Okay, it's up there now. (I'm thinking of you Bryan.  Remember that time at dinner when Dad said something like, "We bought the new toilet for our bathroom remodel."  Or something like that completely non-gross with the word "toilet" it in and you freaked out and refused to eat anymore?  That warning up there was for you.  If you read it and can never eat again, it's your own fault that you'll be fed through an IV from now on.)

Now I'm thinking that if Longwood Gardens ever Googles themselves, they won't ever want to read about what I thought of their beautiful gardens and plants and exhibits and stuff.  They just think I'm a nasty person who had a cold.  It's a weird habit of mine to go off on tangents before getting to what I really want to write on this blog, isn't it?  Okay, I'm starting with the real point of this post now.  I suppose I should put the title down here:

Longwood Gardens

A few weeks ago Kelly and I decided to go on a day trip and we thought about all the places around us that we still wanted to visit.  We narrowed it down to Mount Vernon and Longwood Gardens.  Then we got on Longwood Gardens' website and read about it and decided it sounded really cool.  We were also excited to head north, because we figured we could keep driving another 40 or so minutes and have dinner at Chifa in Philadelphia again because we loved it so much when we ate there over the summer.  We planned it for one weekend, but something came up so we moved it back a week.  Of course it ended up being the only time it ever snowed in October out here, but we went anyway.  We got most of the way there before it started snowing and it didn't really start sticking to the ground until we were there, so no problem there.  (Somehow we still passed 3 car wrecks in the 15 minutes we were on the road when it started snowing.  I don't know what happens to people out here.  I mean, they can drive in the rain.  Why not snow when it melts into water as soon as it hits the road?  I suppose that is a deep philosophical question for another time.)

Kelly and I were smart and brought our coats, hats, mittens, scarves, and umbrellas, so we were prepared for the weather.  We also decided that since we each got $10 off the entrance price for being students, we could stick to the conservatory this time and come back in warmer, or at least drier, weather to see the rest, which, by the way, includes an Italian fountain garden, three giant tree houses, a topiary garden (I have to admit I called it a "bush-sculpture garden" for a placeholder until I could look up what it was actually called.), an idea garden for home gardeners, a garden railway, a flower garden walk, an open air theatre, a waterlily display, and even a cow lot!  The conservatory is enormous, so we spent over two hours just exploring in there.  Basically it was just a giant building with a lot of glass, completely full of plants.  We also happened to go during the chrysanthemum festival, so that was all in there too.  We watched a short intro video when we first got there and they have different a different focus or theme all year round, like orchids, a Christmas theme, spring blooms, and even a few months focus on the fountains.  I think the best way to explain the coolness of the stuff we saw there is with pictures, so here we go:

As you can see, when you first walk into the conservatory it is beautiful!  I think it is amazing that gardeners can create this! I just realized this is from the opposite point of view, though.  You come in down at the far side.

This is one chrysanthemum plant! You heard me, ONE!  There are over a thousand blossoms on this thing!

These are gigantic plant-spheres hanging from the ceiling.  I don't know how they do this, but I would love to try this someday when I live somewhere with windows that will actually support plant life.  Hey, me and my black thumb can dream, can't we?

 So you thought that one chrysanthemum plant was amazing up there?  This also is ONE PLANT.  They grafted in a whole bunch of different types of chrysanthemum onto one plant and thus we have THIS:

Kelly was so excited when he saw this tree.  He said they were all over in Uruguay.  

Come, take a closer look.

Dun dun DUNNN!!  Don't crash your bike into that thing.  Neither you nor your bike will survive.  Actually, I'm surprised Kelly never did trip into one of those when he was down there.  He's pretty accident prone.

These are nectarine trees!  They train them to grow flat against a trellis, cool, huh?


Like I said, there was a chrysanthemum festival. They were everywhere!  Part of it was people could enter a contest with their own arrangements, so we took a look at that.

Here's a closer look at the ceiling-o-umbrellas.  For some reason I love this.


Now for a bunch more pictures of flowers and stuff!  I'll try to tell you what they are.

Spider Mum.  Kelly thought these were the coolest flower ever.

Yet another room in the conservatory.  There were so many I couldn't even tell you the number.

Kelly and I giant ball of flowering plant.

Birds of Paradise

 

Another room

It's as big as his head!

I'm trying to remember the name of these...Chinese something...I think hyacinth?

 


As you can see, we had a really fun time seeing all of this beautiful stuff.  We kept thinking about how God must have the most amazing imagination to create so many different kinds of plants and flowers for us to enjoy.

When we left, the snow was sticking a lot, so we held off on the rest of the gardens, which were outside.  We also decided to not risk driving the rest of the way to Philly for Chifa, which was very sad for both of us.  Instead we got hot chocolate and headed home.  It was a little nice to get the rest of our day at home when we hadn't been planning on it, though.  Anyway, thanks for the fun afternoon Longwood Gardens!