Family Night

Last night we went to Pepe's in New Haven with the C side of the family. It was a lot of fun and the pizza was yummy. Then we went next door and had gelato, Italian ice, cheesecake, canolis, etc. (I had cappuccino gelato).

(Left to right: Daniel, Sue, Lisa, Dyllin, Devon, Shannon, Theresa, Marty, Grampy, Joyce, Nancy, Adam)

It was really great seeing them all again. We hadn't seen them since the wedding! The occasion last night was that Rod's Aunt Sue was visiting from FL. It was the first time I met her and her partner, Lisa. I was so glad to finally meet them!

Now that Rod's weekends are on actually weekend days, we're going to try to plan a cookout so everyone can finally see our (not so) new house. :)

Retirement Party

Yesterday afternoon was my dad's retirement party.

It was really nice. The weather, however, was not.

It poured rain and thundered, but everyone still had a great time. By around seven o'clock, the rain stopped and a beautiful rainbow appeared!

We all went geocaching for a "special" geocache that Emily and Cary hid for my dad. It was a lot of fun.

It was so neat to see how well liked my dad was (and is) at work. He was given several awards and certificates and many gifts, it was really impressive. You can definitely tell how much everyone is going to miss him.

The weirdest thing happened, too! There was a woman there who I thought looked extremely familiar. When I heard someone call her "Gina," I suddenly thought, "I think that's Cheryl's cousin!" After gaining my courage and going over to her with my mom, we asked if she knew Cheryl Main. She looked at me, screamed, and hugged me. Turns out she's known my dad for years! At first, she asked how I "knew Sandy." When I said I was his daughter, she was even more shocked and my mom told her, "...and I'm the other mother!" Gina commented more than once how happy she was that they were "the great parents" that raised me and how it's just so much better when you find out that not only were they great parents but that she really knew my dad and what he was like, so it was just even more amazing.

Cool, huh?

Rod took a zillion pictures with our new camera (as you could probably tell by now). It was nice to meet everyone my dad worked with, especially Cary who threw the party and really looked up to my dad.

All around, it was a nice evening! We're so proud of Mr. P! (:

What is it that I love about July 4th?

It's about waking up to a beautiful, warm, summer day in Connecticut and having arrived at your much-anticipated favorite day of the year.

It's about the picnic on the farm with your family, and all you do all day is pet horses, look for four-leaf clovers and take turns on the tree swing.

It's about throwing on a bathing suit and sundress and heading to Westbrook at noon. (It's about not wearing make-up because it will block the sun from your skin, and who wants that?)

It's about reuniting with friends, family and neighbors that you haven't seen in days, months or even years. It's about the pang in your stomach when you remember the old times. It's about wondering where the years went and realizing how much different and yet the same everyone is.

It's about going out on the motorboat and tubing. It's about getting over the fact that a jellyfish stung you in your rear end.

It's about potato salad and cheeseburgers and hot dogs on the grill. It's about being seventeen and sneaking upstairs with your friends to sip your first Corona.

It's about the sun beaming down and kissing your shoulders until they're pink, red and then finally brown. It's about the first time a boy ever asked for your number, and how bummed you are later that you didn't have time to give it to him before his parents whisked him away.

It's about karaoke, and never having the guts to participate.

It's about fighting with your high school sweetheart all afternoon until the first firework when you immediately forget everything negative and curl up under the stars. It's about him whispering he can see the glow of happiness in your eyes as you watch the fireworks. (It's about realizing that's the nicest thing he ever said to you, and now thanking God for not answering your prayers back then that you'd marrying him. (;

It's about looking left to right and seeing the hundreds of townspeople and their friends lined up along the seawall. It's about everyone facing up at the sky with their mouths partially opened saying "ooh" and "ahh." It's about gazing across the coastline around you and across from you, counting to see how many dozens of private firework displays there are along the Long Island Sound.

It's about lying on a blanket on the beach, laughing with friends and squealing when a sand crab scampers across your bare foot. It's about your neck becoming sore from turning from left to right, left to right to see fireworks close, far, and everywhere around you.

It's about trying to take pictures of the fireworks and ending up with little squiggles of color on a black background in every photo.

It's about listening to the waves rippling along the shore in between every burst of gorgeous, colorful light. It's about the line of smoke that streaks across the moon above you.

It's about clutching your husband's arm as a firework is set up ten feet away from you and you're convinced it will tip over in the sand and shoot in your direction. It's about ignoring every gnat that bites your ankle, and it's about accidentally knocking your heads together and realizing you just killed one of those gnats in between your foreheads. (What weird team work!)

It's about after the firework display, someone yells, "GO!" and all the kids run to collect the little parachute soldiers that soared down from the fireworks.

It's about the sound of Montgomery Gentry singing "This is My Town" as a little boy skips by with a sparkler. It's about Kenny Chesney singing "Back Where I Come From" as you wish every day could be this amazing.

It's about our country's freedom. It's about realizing how far we've come since that miraculous day we won our independence. It's about efforts to decrease global warming, the first African-American president of the United States of America.

I'm in love (with our camera)

Our camera arrived on Tuesday, and it is amazing!!!!

For example:

(Click on the thumbnails to view larger version.)

Obviously, I need to become a better photographer now, but isn't the camera spectacular?! (;

Cholesterol

Today I found out that I have extremely high cholesterol (in the 300s).

Well, I've known I had high cholesterol since the pediatrician told my mom when I was three years old. I was born with it...it's in my genes (just another reason why I should adopt!)...and although it's been made worse with lack of exercise (not diet because I don't eat bacon, I use skim milk and margarine and probably eat eggs and red meat once every six months) I'm not supposed to be hard on myself because no matter what I did, it would still be relatively high.

Dr. B had given me a couple months to try dieting and exercise before he checked my labs again to see if anything improved, and it didn't. Granted, I missed my "daily walks" once every few days, but I was eating lots of veggie soup, NO fatty foods, NO fast food and very little of anything bad at all. I even ate oatmeal.

Oh well. Better safe than sorry...better to be on medication than having a husband worrying you'll have a heart attack, or worse - dead, that's for sure!

Money money money

Less than a month ago, my dad found out he'll be retiring as of July 1st; which to some might seem like a joyous occasion....not so much for my dad. He loves his job and loves working. He works in computer mapping with UConn. Unfortunately they're ceasing to receive grant money (or enough grant money), so he's decided to "just retire" instead of worry about whether he'll have a job in a few months.

It's pretty clear it's not exactly what he wants; I think he doesn't know what he's going to do with his time, although I hear my mom has quite a long "honey-do" list going. ;) They've been talking about spending the whole month of September on Martha's Vineyard, and he and Rod keep talking about walking the Airline Trail (the whole thing, not just the little bits and pieces we do on weekends...that place is SO peaceful and gorgeous!! I can't wait to have our new camera to take pictures there...oops, shh, that's news for later..)

Earlier, we received this e-mail from my mom:

"Cary asked me to ask you and Rod to join us for Dad's retirement picnic if at all possible--I know you work. His coworkers are really nice and, besides, I would be there (big draw I know). I think it would mean a lot to Dad, maybe even stopping by after work for a little while."

(She then said other things irrelevant to my blog post.)

After the message was this e-vite:

We're going, of course! I love my dad...I hope he starts to feel better about all of this soon. It's a huge life-changing process and I'm sure it's not easy.

Today Rod and I broke our bank. Honestly, we probably did with the amount of money we spent. You might even begin to think that we aren't under 25 or have a hefty mortgage - HA! Here are our purchases:

1) Kenmore dishwasher (model name escapes me--called "Best Buy" by ConsumerReports)


2) Canon EOS Rebel XSi SLR camera (takes amazing pictures with 12.2 megapixels and 18-55mm lens)


3) Lenovo (IBM) IdeaPad S10 (extremely durable mini netbook).


We already have a computer that basically doubles as a TV in our office/future nursery. It's enormous and somewhat unnecessary but Rod loved it and really wanted a desktop. It's actually really great, except for those nights that he and I both have school work due and decide to do our assignments/exams at the very last minute (which is more often than not) and have to take turns. Last week I was late on an assignment, so I figured it was about time to get another laptop. This time I decided to go for one of the minis (the IdeaPad screen is 10.2"). Lenovos are apparently the most durable aside from the uber-expensive MacBooks, and it'll be great for portability seeing as I'll be carrying it everywhere with me, and much less expensive than regular 15" screen laptops. Plus, I don't need much memory or hard drive space when I'll just be using it to browse the internet and do schoolwork. Pictures, music, movies, games, etc. I can do on our desktop.

Computer we have now: the HP Touch Smart.


We got the dishwasher at Sears. I got the camera and the netbook from Circuit City because they're much more reasonably priced than the main manufacturer websites. Together, the camera and the computer were just under the amount of money Rod plans to spend on a new gun in the next few weeks (doesn't need it for work but wants it for work and it will enhance his abilities at work). It's actually a rifle...but I won't go into details.. not everyone enjoys information about guns or is used to it like I am by now. :)

We're saving the rest of our accumulated "pleasure money" for our vacation at the end of the summer. We're spending 4 nights on Martha's Vineyard with my parents and from there, 5 nights in Southwest Harbor (Mt. Desert Island, Maine) with Pop, Rod's grandfather. We're pretty excited, this is a tradition for us that we've had since we started dating but didn't do last summer (much too busy with the wedding, job changes, town and house hunting, etc.). It's going to be strange going to Maine, I think, without Rod's grandmother there. :( But I know we'll have fun, and while we're on MV we'll be having our 1 year anniversary! I cannot WAIT to share with you what I'm getting Roddy for a present (first year is paper, and this paper I'm giving him is going to be very well received).

Daniel (my brother-in-law) will be staying here with the dogs and probably with a friend while we're away. So don't even think of breaking in. ;) Not only will we have two young men and two vicious dogs (haha...although I shouldn't laugh because they would probably be vicious with break-ins - for those of you who have ever knocked on our door and not taken our advice to just walk in, they go nuts when they think people are intruding) but we also have a central security system and have already had the police come to our house once when I was too tired to remember to turn it off before I let the dogs outside one morning, so take my advice and stay home. ;)

Speaking of Daniel, did I mention he got his license earlier this month?! Very exciting. Even more exciting is that yesterday, he got his first car! It's a 2006 Chevy Cobalt.


Yes, I'm aware that it's orange.

Oh well. He loves it, it's safe, reliable and good-on-gas, so that's what really matters!

Famous tragedy

Today, two legends passed away... Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

Fawcett had been battling cancer and Jackson apparently had a heart attack, although an autopsy will be conducted tomorrow to determine exactly what happened.

Just wanted to make a note of this. Very sad day...