weekend trip to jax

This past weekend we went to Jacksonville to visit our good friends Austin & Ashley Henkel. They moved there about a year ago from Niceville. Lately Chip and I have been suffering from a case of the Henkel-withdrawals, so we packed our bags and headed east for the weekend.


Above is a picture of Austin & Ashley we took in front of the surprisingly polluted St. John's River. We forgot our camera this weekend (!) and took this picture with our cell phone. Hence the poor quality.

Austin and Ashley are doing well. Ashley is still enjoying being a nurse and Austin is getting closer and closer to his goal of going to medical school to become an ophthalmologist. Congrats to Austin for getting straight A's this semester!!

We had a great time with them while we were there, as always. We went down to the Jacksonville Landing and even went to the Jacksonville Zoo. I love zoos, and this one was pretty good. A few of the highlights were the giraffes, the monkeys, seeing an anteater (I don't believe I've ever seen one in person), the train ride, and the Hawaiian shaved ice.

Another thing I saw at the zoo was a century plant. I hate those things! They are like a giant, freak aloe plant. They are huge and ugly! After a bunch of years (25 I think), they grow a big asparagus-like stalk out of the top. The stalk gets about 20 feet tall. It blooms a few flowers and then falls over. Then the whole plant dies. Great, huh? I don't know why I hate these plants so much, but I do. I think they are disgusting in a way. It looks like it could lie in wait for a person to walk by and then swallow them up in its large "arms". Eww! (This century plant rant is for Stephanie)

While we were in Jacksonville we met up with one of my former college roommates, Lindsay, and her new husband Stephen (they have been married for 4 months now). I hadn't seen Lindsay since my wedding almost 4 years ago. It was great catching up with her and reminiscing about life in our old apartment. We also enjoyed meeting their dog, Bella.

While at Lindsay & Stephen's house, she showed me her craft table. I was way impressed with Lindsay's jewelry and other artsy projects she was working on. She is a music teacher by trade, but she could have a side career with all of her projects. I was inspired by a t-shirt she created for her sister for her birthday. It looks like something you could buy at Anthropologie, but obviously way cheaper and a one-of-a-kind. Maybe one day soon I'll try my hand at doing something like that. Thank you Lindsay for the creative inspiration!

Since we forgot our camera I didn't get a picture with Lindsay, so I dug through my photo albums from college and found these two. The first one is Lindsay and I at our BCM's State Student Conference. The second is Lindsay and I at our friend's "tacky mismatch" party. Good times!

After a full and fun weekend we had to leave and come back home, darn real life! Thanks to the Henkels and Kellers for hanging with us. Come and see us in Niceville anytime!

chocolate snuffs out life with gusto

Chip and I were on SNL's website tonight watching video clips (why, I don't know). I thought these videos were funny, but also kind of disturbing. "Chocolate" has this eerie clown-ish face painted on. It reminds me of a mime, which I find terrifying. But, the faces he makes at the end are really funny and the cartoonish jingle that goes along with it is funny as well. Here are the series of three videos for your viewing pleasure. FYI - they are pseudo-violent, comically...if that makes any sense. Please don't lose any respect for me as a person after watching them :)I have a weird sense of humor.

NYC Part III - Videos

Here are a few videos. The first is of Times Square just after we saw Phantom of the Opera. It was about 10:45 pm.

The next video was taken while we were at the Today show.

The last video was taken from the Brooklyn Bridge. The Staten Island Ferry and Statue of Liberty can be seen first. Next is the Financial District and southern Manhattan. To the right of the bridge is the Empire State Building and Manhattan Bridge. Brooklyn can be seen last on the opposite side of the bridge.

NYC Part II - Food, Glorious Food

I guess I should have mentioned in yesterday's blog about all of the sights we saw. I got carried away trying to get the slide show just right. Here's a rundown on the things we did/saw:

Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, Radio City Music Hall, Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Trump Tower, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Today Show (we were on TV), China Town, Little Italy, Chelsea Market, taping of the Conan O'Brien Show, Times Square, walked Brooklyn Bridge, Flat Iron Building, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park - Bethesda Fountain & Belvedere Castle, Phantom of the Opera. I think that is it...I know, it's a lot!

Today's slide show showcases the reason I gained 5 pounds in a week. As you'll see, I enjoyed every bite of it (I did over-indulge at Chocolate by the Bald Man and nearly got sick). NYC has a ton of different foods available and I wanted to try some of the most famous - pizza, cheesecake, cupcakes, hot dogs and soft pretzels, cannolis, and deli sandwiches. I did notice food portions are RIDICULOUSLY huge here. See for yourself...

NYC Part I - The Sights

We're back from New York City. It was an awesome time! We saw so much and did so much. I was thoroughly exhausted when I got home. We had a great time with our friends Bethany & Ben. We have to go on another trip with them soon.

Below is a slide show with some of the many pictures we took. I'm new to the whole slide show thing and can't get the captions to work right, so if you want to know what's going on in the picture just click on it and the description will come up. Also, if you want to speed up the slide show, click on a picture and in the top right hand corner there will be a speed adjuster. Enjoy! Tomorrow I hope to post a slide show of all the tasty, and huge, food we ate so check back in.

spring break relaxin' - day 2

Today was day two of my Spring Break. Again I enjoyed another morning of not being awaken by a screeching alarm. I did have to get up by 7:45 am so I could get ready for my dentist appointment. Luckily it was just a 6-month check up and not drilling. I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes.

I had a few minutes to kill before I headed over for my bread making lesson so I swung by the local Methodist church's Bargain Box. I hadn't been in a while and hoped to find something great, but I didn't. Oh well! Off to bread making I go!

I went over to my coworker Becky's house for my lesson. Her sister Sammie is in town from Houston, TX. Sammie is the yeast roll/cinnamon roll queen and I was hoping to glean some bread making wisdom from her...and some freshly baked rolls :) My other coworker, Carla, joined the bunch.

Bread making is quite a process - more than I originally thought. You have to "proof" the yeast and then add the rest of the ingredients. Then you mix that together and then turn it out onto the counter to knead the dough. Then you have to let it rise for an hour and a half. Now comes the fun part...making the rolls. Here is a picture of me, Carla, and Sammie forming the rolls.

Voila! Here is our finished pan of rolls. Now they have to rise again for another hour before they can be baked.

We saved half of the yeast roll dough to make cinnamon rolls. We mixed in some cinnamon, sugar, and butter chunks and kneaded it into the dough. We then took golf ball-sized pieces of dough and pulled it into a 4-5 inch log and rolled in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Here is Carla and I getting our hands dirty in the tasty mixture.

Here is our finished pan of cinnamon rolls. Again, they had to rise an hour before they could be baked (and devoured). That hour was torture...the smell of melted butter and cinnamon sugar was filling the air and driving us nuts! And yes, I thought about licking my fingers when I was done rolling the dough. I didn't though, Sammie said that would be gross.

So after the hour of rising and then 20 minutes baking time, I got to savor the sweet taste of success!


I ate 3 yeast rolls and 2 cinnamon rolls! What can I say, they were good! I had a great time with Becky, Sammie, and Carla. It was fun to spend time with my coworkers outside of work. Thanks to Becky for opening up her home to us and thanks to Sammie for sharing her bread making wisdom :)

Another blog entry...two days in a row!? I'm on a roll! Wow, free time is a glorious thing. Can you tell I'm really glad to not have to go to work this week?

spring break relaxin'

Woohoo - I'm on Spring Break! The college I work at was closed all week for students, but staff had to work Monday and Tuesday and then got the rest of the week off. So today I enjoyed a day of relaxing. Let me tell you, it was SO nice not having to get up and go to work this morning!!

Today I got my very first facial. Chip bought me a gift certificate for one for Christmas (yes, I'm just now using it in April). It was pretty good, though I don't think it is something I would do on a continual basis since it costs a lot and it was just "ok". It's not that I didn't enjoy it - I would just rather use the money on a massage. I enjoy those more. Plus my skin isn't so bad that I need it deep-cleansed frequently.

Facials are relaxing. You lay on a table in a dimly lit room with soothing music playing. Then they use like 7 different sprays, cleansers, scrubs, and masks on your face. My favorite part had to be the warm, damp towels they put on your face. That was very soothing. Each product had a different scent - cucumber, fruit, and cinnamon. So you also get a little aromatherapy, too. The whole facial lasts about 40 minutes. It seemed kind of fast, but it was still nice - especially since I could have been sitting at work!

Later on this afternoon I went to Sonic for "Happy Hour" with my neighbor Stephanie and her baby Addison. Sonic has half-priced drinks and slushes everyday from 2-4 p.m. We sat outside at one of the tables on the patio and talked. It was a good time. Plus we scored free refills on our cherry-limeades. We just asked one of the carhops if they did free refills and she said they didn't, but that she'd bring us one anyways. Nice! We did a double-take and had a good laugh when we saw the nametag of the girl who brought us our refills. Let's just say it was a part of the female anatomy. Since this is a "G" rated blog I won't say what it was. I'm sure that wasn't actually her name - which begs the question why anyone would put that name on there in the first place.

Anyways, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first day of Spring Break. Tomorrow I get to have my teeth cleaned - woohoo! After that I am getting a lesson in making yeast rolls and cinamon rolls from my coworker's sister. I've had them before and they are really good, so I'm looking forward to that. Plus I am getting ready for our trip to New York City. I'm kind of busy, but at least it is with fun things to do so I don't mind.

Oh, as promised, here is a picture of me from my church's Passover Easter production. No, I'm not angry, this is just a scence I'm in. You can find the rest by clicking here -> http://gallery.mac.com/thepianostudio#100083