Ahhh, Nature...

Seriously, I have an awesome manager. T comes running in: "Where is my camera?! You have to come see!"

He drags me outside, telling me that there's this amazing moth on the wall that Denise freaked out over but he thinks is beautiful.

In fact, it was beautiful...

Seriously, how cool is that?! Looks like a leaf!

He then proceeds to explain how disgusted Denise was by it and how he planned on sending her an email with the image attached with some nondescript message in the body. "Who does she like," T ponders, "P-Diddy! I'll tell her it's a picture of him naked!"

Honestly, this is why I love the people I work with...

Survived!

Well it was a full house this weekend with Chris visiting Julianne and Jason and his parents stopping in for a night (with Misty in tow) but we all survived!

The parents all seemed to get along. My mom was definitely a little flustered at the last minute meet up, but I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself once everyone settled in. All in all, I probably couldn't have asked for a better first meeting between the parents. Load off my shoulders. I have friends whose parents don't approve of their significant others or don't get along with the in-laws so the fact that my parents genuinely seem to like Jason and seemed to also enjoy meeting his parents is fantastic.

Today we all went over to my aunt's house to celebrate my cousin Dave's birthday. It's actually the 15th, but since that's the middle of the week and my grandma was in town Sunday we had cake.

Here's Dave and Jaclyn...not quite sure what the 'four' is for, but we like them anyway :)

My Dad had his new toy with him, I believe it is an Olympus E-30 but I could be wrong. Either way he had a lot of fun taking extreme close-ups of all of us while we weren't looking.

I myself enjoy being a candid photographer. I love my little Cannon Digital Elph because it is very discrete and I can take photos without people even knowing that I'm doing it. Some of my favorite photos are the candids of someone laughing or a tender moment that no one thought anyone had caught.

Dadoo's paparazzi camera...

...and the overly extreme close-up he was taking.

I've had a lot of fun over the years with photography and hope to expand my camera collection to incorporate a larger camera with interchangable lenses. My Godfather is a professor of photography so he's typically my go-to person when I have camera questions. It's something I'll have to look into over the next few months.

Clash of the Titans

Since Jason got the job down in Newport News I've been waiting and waiting for more details. Where will he live? What exactly will he be doing? What is his friend Brian up to down there? When can I visit? Typically though, Jason is a man of few words, and a man of fewer plans. Unlike me and my sister, Jason doesn't get a thrill out of writing down a list, or planning an event.

So when he called me the other day and asked me what I was doing this weekend because he wanted to stop by on his way down to Virginia I was definitely excited that A) he realized I am in fact on the way and he should take the time to stop in, B) he started making an actual travel plan, C) I get to see him! and D) holy crap on a cracker, his parents are going to be with him.

We've been together for almost three and a half years now. I've met a great deal of his family (all of whom I adore) and he's met a great deal of my family (and can't get enough of my crazy grandma), but our parents have never met.

It's not that I'm worried they won't get along. In fact I think that my parents will really like his parents. Jason's mom is super friendly and talkative and his dad has a silly sense of humor that my mom can appreciate. It's just that it's kind of odd. It's like a cataclysmic clash of the titans, two worlds colliding into one, and I just get to sit back and watch it happen.

I've never had a moment like this before.

I just hope there isn't any awkward conversations like, "So how many grandchildren are you looking forward to?" or anything about us getting married. That could be a really uncomfortable topic...

Come on People

The 10th is the response date for Jaclyn's bridal shower invitations and the verdict is still out on almost a quarter of the guest list.

I understand that some invitations were sent out merely as a polite "we're thinking of you and don't want to insult you by not inviting you even though we know you can't possibly make it", but HOW HARD IS IT TO REPLY?!

My aunt told me that one of Jaclyn's cousins will not be coming because she lives in Texas and it was only a "polite invite", but how hard could it have been for her to drop me a line and let me know two or three weeks ago when she got the invitation?

I can also understand that I don't even know half the guests I sent invitations to, and they might feel uncomfortable calling me to reply. But I gave them the option of emailing me too!

*sigh* People just need to be less lazy and more responsible about responding. I can't even imagine how it's going to be when they send out the actual wedding invitations, it'll take 4 weeks just to track everyone down AFTER the RSVP date!

Independence Day!

Julibean's boyfriend is currently in Maryland so we decided to go down to his house near Baltimore for the holiday weekend. Our friend Ursula came down from Albany to meet us and we drove down to MD Thursday afternoon.

Enter Coco.

Coco is Urs' 2 year old Dachshund and he is adorable. He's also just about as fidgety and wired as Ursula but he did very well in the car on the way down and we didn't even need to stop. He just sat pretty chill in the back seat and even wandered up front to sit with my sister as I drove.

We figured it'd be easier to bring the dog with us than to have Urs put him in a kennel for the weekend and waste her money. Especially since the house is already dog friendly and there's a fenced in yard at Chris' house.

Coco, meet Abby.

Abby is Chris' 14 year old mutt. I believe she is a Rottweiler, Doberman, Beagle, Dachshund mix. Abby is very set in her ways and enjoys barking at horses and chasing rabbits.

The weekend involved a lot of barking, and grappling, and chasing, and pawing. All in all both dogs came out unscathed, but seriously, it never got old to watch Coco run up to Abby and try to bite her and then Abby chase Coco out onto the deck, and then bark at him under a chair where she couldn't follow.

Check out that sweet pile o'crabs

On the 4th we got crabs! I've never actually had crabs before and although they were delicious, I think they're too much work for me. I prefer scallops and shrimp that's just ready to eat and delicious in a light sauce. The crabs were fantastic, but messy...oh so messy.

Seriously though, it was a nice long weekend spent with good friends, good food, good board/card games, fantastic homemade sangria, and the hot tub...does it get any better than that?

And of course when we got home we sat down and watched 1776, because what is the 4th of July without Mr. Feeny and Howard Da Silva?

For Patriot Dreams

i love my country
by which i mean
i am indebted joyfully
to all the people throughout its history
who have fought the government to make right
where so many cunning sons and daughters
our foremothers and forefathers
came singing through slaughter
came through hell and high water
so that we could stand here
and behold breathlessly the sight
how a raging river of tears
cut a grand canyon of light

Lyrics by Ani DiFranco

Review: The Last Rake in London

This wonderful Harlequin Historical was tucked in my sister's Easter basket and she passed it on to me when she was done enjoying it.

Nicola Cornick's The Last Rake in London was definitely a good mix of interesting characters and a fun plot-line. Jack Kestrel, the rake to out rake any rake, mistakenly thinks night club owner Sally Bowes is the vicious trollop blackmailing his uncle. That vicious trollop is actually her ridiculously childish and annoying sister Connie who attempts to weasle her way into Jack's wealthy family when she isn't working nights as a hostess at Sally's club.

Jack immediately wants to take Sally and winds up later falling in love with her despite his vow to never love again. Sally, who will do anything for vexatious Connie or her other sister suffreget Nell, winds up "selling" her virginity to Jack in order to send much needed money to Nell so she can take care of her children. This act both confuses and infuriates Jack and he decides to secretly buy out Sally's club and bankrupt it to get back at her and Connie for the "scam" they were running on his cousin/uncle.

Long story short Connie gets the shaft and Sally and Jack live happily ever after. But not before jealous fights, near-drownings, and wild goose-chases.

I found this story avidly entertaining and it was the perfect book to read while swinging in a hammock all day. The characters were extremely easy to relate to, even though it was set in the Edwardian era and I enjoyed it from cover to cover.

The ratings:
Raunch Factor: *****
Multiple corsets and dresses were cut and torn off...
Writing Style: *****
Well written. Very similar writing style to No Place for a Lady.
Ridiculousness: *****
It wasn't too ridiculous.
Actual Plot: *****
The plot was pretty interesting.