Nice article on the St. Charles Public Library

From the Kane County Chronicle. I was sorry to hear that the building project has been put on hold for now.

Quiet for awhile

Hello folks - the blog was silent for awhile, due to high travel times. My high travel times, that is... been to Montana, Dallas and St. Louis in the past little while. Montana was for fun, Dallas for work, and St. Louis was fun/work. We finally put up a few pictures of Montana, although this is no where near the 4 zillion that we actually took (drat that limitation on the free Flickr site!). Montana was absolutely breathtaking (sometimes literally when we hiked up a mountainside). I got to see the St. Louis office while on break for Thanksgiving...extended my time there with a work meeting the week after Turkey Day. It was absolutely fantastic to be back on our home turf and see family.

Jason's doing well, pretty much business as usual. He's on break from his Tuesday night Bible study for now. In a few weeks, we'll have a Masonite intern (Cami) coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks while she gains knowledge of the business world. We're very excited to meet her!

Otherwise, we finally decided on a new car: a Scion TC. It is silver and extremely cute. I gave myself an unexpected shower yesterday by engaging the windshield wiper fluid while the sunroof was open. Yep, I laughed at myself too.

Love ya'll,
M

O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

Played hooky from work and went over to the Obama Rally across the street. Here's the photographic evidence.

Only 2 weeks to go!

Library Bliss

Stopped by our local public library to browse for some Montana-themed books for a bit of destination reading. Unfortunately, and perhaps logically, most of the books set in Montana are Westerns, not my favorite genre. So I skipped past those and figured that a visit to the Bozeman Public Library would fulfill my need to intersect place and literature.

The bliss part happened when I was steaming through the books on CD section and noticed "Barr" on a call number label. It was Nevada Barr's new book, Winter Study. Even better, Barbara Rosenblatt continues to narrate the books as the voice of park ranger Anna Pigeon. Barbara is the voice of Anna; when she narrates outside of this series, it's difficult and confusing to hear her voice as another character. I'm finishing up with Bill Bryson's trek through the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, and eagerly anticipating Anna's new adventure.

(A huge thanks to SueP for introducing me to the writings of Nevada Barr.)

Montana or Bust!

We're heading up to Bozeman, Montana in the next few weeks, with side trips to Yellowstone. I've never seen Old Faithful and am super excited. Other activities on the very loose schedule are horseback riding for me and fly fishing for Jason. Otherwise, we're going to sleep in and admire the mountains from our rental cabin. After a very busy summer, this will give us the chance to reconnect and relax. The only drawback about the trip is that Bandito can't join us, and so will have to wait another few months to experience colder weather. We'll post some pictures (maybe of wildlife, I hope?) once we return. Until then, westward ho!

Love,
M.

Weird Florida News

Giant Lizards Invade Florida Town

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/09/18/dnt.fl.iguana.invasion.wpbf

6 Miles & A Splatter of Rain

To explain the title:

I was at a training conference in Chicago this past week, and was talking to another participant, Somer, during the lunch. She mentioned that she was training for a marathon. When I asked her how long her run was the next day, she chirped, "Six miles! Want to join me?"

Um.

Well, sure, why not? Even though I hadn't run six miles (or five, or four) in one fell swoop since my time in Track & Field at Edwardsville Junior High School (Go Wildcats!), I decided to give it a go.

We met at 5:30 to run along the lake. It actually was not as painful as I imagined it to be, mostly because I was propped up by my pride (didn't want to die in front of someone I just met), encouragement from the other 500 healthy people running/biking/swimming alongside us, and the fact that if I stopped, I would have to take a taxi home and I had only $3 stuffed into my sportsbra.

The next day wasn't too atrocious. My right knee was groaning, but that's the price of getting older. That part stinks.

So I'm taking my running shoes and clothes everywhere I travel. I've found it's a fantastic way to see a city up-close (trust me, I don't run so fast as to miss the sights) and gets the lead out after sitting in a room all day. Haven't noticed a fabulous weight loss or major toning yet, but it does make me feel happy. (When it's all over.)

So.. the splatter part. TS Fay was bearing down on Tampa Bay when I left for Chicago last week. In fact, I rearranged my flight to get out of Tampa before it was supposed to hit. So after worrying that I'd return to a roofless house, Jason called to assure me that the week had been completely sunny and clear. So much for Fay.

Next up: Tropical Storm Gustav. Stay tuned.

Batten Down the Hatches

Tropical Storm Fay is on its way! It's headed straight for Tampa Bay by way of Cuba, and should make landfall on Tuesday. IF.. it doesn't peter out somewhere along the way.

I'm supposed to fly out to Chicago on Tuesday AM. At the moment it's sunny and clear, which gives me hope that it might still happen.

However we're packing up the hurricane kits (food, water, cage for Bandit, emergency toliet paper) anyway just to be sure.

We'll keep you posted.

Eating Healthy is No Fun

Friends from Morningstar Church have embarked upon the Six Pack Abs program, a healthy eating/exercise initiative. Jason and I have gotten sucked into the foray, and decided that we should change some of our rather junky eating habits. Not that we're chowing down on Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzards every night (we wish), but we could do with some changes. Due to our desk jobs and creeping ages, we've noticed a bit more of the squish. "Squish" is what I call areas of the body that aren't hooked up with your metabolism anymore.

More fresh fruits and veggies have made their way into our house. I'm generally eating 2 vegetarian meals a day, with chicken or fish thrown in for dinner, for protein. Our grocery bill has skyrocketed with the cost of fresh foods, but it's cheaper than a hospital bill due to heart disease or diabetes, yes?

The hardest part for me has been cutting out sweets. Oh how I love you, 3 Musketeers. How I miss you, York Peppermint Patty. With a few "cut me some slack" moments, I've managed to stave off processed sugar.

A colleague at work pointed me to a terrific calorie and nutrition tracking site (free, bonus!) called Nutrition Data. This week I'm shifting my meal tracking from a notebook to this site.

With this has been a pretty hefty exercise routine. I've started doing an athelete "boot camp" on Saturday mornings, which kicks my butt from here to the moon. Jas is running nearly a 5k every other day (to the public library and back) and his legs look great! I'm puffing through 2 miles of run/walk in addition to weight lifting. So far I haven't noticed quite the physical change that Jas is experiencing, dang that testosterone! It's so unfair.

So, as long as we can keep it going, it'll become a habit. I know we're feeling more energized and sleeping better at night. It's all worth it in the end.

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

New York Times article on internet vs. book literacy.

Series description:
The Future of Reading: Digital Versus Print
This is the first in a series of articles that will look at how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read.

Rest in Peace, sweet kitty

It's with a heavy heart that I type... our 16-year-old orange kitty, Ziggy, passed away about two months ago. I've dreaded putting it out on the blog, since that seems to make it more of a reality somehow. We were able to give him two more weeks through use of medication for his kidney failure, but at the end we knew it was time to let him go gracefully and peacefully.

He was our "travellin' kitty" and accompanied me, and then Jason, on every relocation that we made. He went from the farm bully to a fuzzy lapcat during his lifetime. Ziggy was my live heating pad while I read; he loved to curl up on Jason's chest at night. We never minded the marmalade "tumblefur" that invaded our house and our noses. Ziggy was Jason's comfort and good buddy when the two of them made the move to St. Charles, three months before I did. He was quiet (except for feeding time), dignified, and truly a family member.

We miss you, Zig.

Rocket... Family

Jason's parents were in town for his b-day (his 25th :) ), which was super cool. One of the highlights of the trip was driving across FLO to see the Discovery shuttle launch. This was the second launch that we've seen (the first was a nighttime), but far better to share it with family.

Last weekend, we went to our friends' wedding in Orlando. Rather, it was outside of Orlando (thankfully; the whole Mickey Mouse thing creeps me out) at a wonderful resort with a lazy river. We took full advantage of being lazy and just enjoyed the weekend. Here's us after the wedding, under the bride and groom's chuppa. We're pretending to get hitched again, Jewish-style.

So that's the big update. Otherwise I've been reading lots and hanging out with Bandito. Work is going better than it has with my transition to the new emphasis on the learning & training role.

Hope all is well~

Conference Fun

I'm so jazzed up... got into a spot in the She Speaks Conference, sponsored by Proverbs 31 Ministries. I saw it a year ago on their website, but when I checked again the site reported that the conference was full. Lo and behold, spots open up on the waiting list and I got in!! I'm taking the writer's track so I can learn how to write for magazines... my goal is to be published in a Christian women's magazine in the next year.

Jas has been incredibly encouraging about me going, despite the cost and the fact that it may take away from our vacation time together... I'm very fortunate that he's been supporting me in my effort in the last two years to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. This conference is one small step towards doing the things I want to do as opposed to baking in a cubicle all day.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for me at the conference....

As a side note, one of my favorite verses in the Bible is from Proverbs 31. I wrote it on a post-it when I first started my job a year ago to give me perspective through the difficult days:

"She is clothed in strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." - Proverbs 31:25

Almost Sliced Bread

I know this site isn't new to most of you, but I am in love with CraigsList.com. We had our first experience with Craig's List when we put the Jeep Wrangler up for sale a few months back. Well I'll be darned if we didn't have 11 people call us within the first several hours of the posting. The second guy bought it for nearly asking price.

So now I'm on to scouring the classified ads site for lanai (patio) furniture and a picnic table. The joy of Craig's List is its simplicity and free posting status. Yeah, there's lots of junk, but I've never let that deter me from a good resale shop or flea market.

Don't get me wrong; I still have affection for eBay. Craig's List has just captured my fickle little heart for the time being.

Welcome Spring! .... Oh, Nevermind.

We had about 16 hours of Spring and then *poof* right into Summer. Some of you may dislike me intensely for saying this, but I do miss seeing the emergence of green shoots and Spring flowers after a long winter. Not that I long for the 6 months of cold and snow beforehand.

Jas and I have been out and about lately. About a month ago we took a mini-vacation to the land of the mouse, Orlando. One of my favorite bands, Third Day, was playing at the House of Blues. It was a fantastic concert and we both burned about 500 calories jumping around and waving our hands in the air. The second night that we were there, we had the opportunity to snag the last 2 tickets to Cirque de Soleil. It was amazing!

We were able to easily resist the Mouse activities mainly through sticker shock. It seems that families either have to use their home equity or their children's college funds to vacation in Orlando.

Otherwise, we're gearing up for attending a couple of weddings this summer. We already went to a beautiful one for our friends Kelly and Daniel at the Ybor City Museum.

I took a day of vacation last week and headed to the beach. I still can't believe the beach is a mere 20 miles away, as opposed to 1,000. It's a very odd feeling for a native, land-lubber Illinoisan to take one day off (as opposed to seven) and find myself with sand between my toes. One of my favorite beaches here is the relatively undeveloped Honeymoon Island.

Jas has been travelling quite a bit this month - to Chicago, Boston and Texas. His Texas adventure is at a hunting ranch that can't be located on Mapquest. (It's a sales meeting/good ol' boy retreat. I'm very, very frightened. I told Jas to run the other direction if he sees an orange hunting vest in the wild.)

So that's our lives in a nutshell here recently. Love to ya'll (as they say in Texas.)

The Passing of Miss Buns, aka "Chuck"

I am sad to report that Miss Buns, aka "Chuck", has passed into Bunny Heaven. She was a crazy little rabbit, although we loved her for her spirit and conviction that no human would ever hold her down. (Or, simply hold her.)

When we moved to Florida, we made the decision to rent, rather than buy, a home. Since Miss Bun's favorite pasttime was pulling up carpet with her teeth, we knew that we couldn't move her into a home that someone else owned. Through Jason's dad, we secured her a new, loving home on a farm. We quickly received reports that Miss Buns (renamed "Chuck" at this point by one of the daughters) was happily romping on the farm and had made friends with a duck.

A year and half of bunny bliss passes...we put her picture on our refridge to remind us of the interesting times that we had with Miss Buns... and then, we hear that she has passed. Miss Buns caught pneumonia. Any sickness can be deadly to bunnies, as their systems are very delicate. She rallied for a while, but then passed away.

While we're very sad to hear of the end of her life, she did live a good six years - which is quite a bit for a rabbit. She had free reign on the farm to run and play with the rest of the menagerie. And we'll always have fond, and sometimes a bit scary, memories of Miss Buns.

A Few Good Books

Jason is out of town this week at the International Builders Show, so I'm having a read-a-thon. Here's what I've read lately or am in process of reading:

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
The story of a Michigan beautician and a few Afghan women who strive to make their lives better despite oppressive circumstances. (J picked this one out for me at the Library - I keep teasing him that he's an honorary Librarian.)

Lineage of Grace Series by Francine Rivers
Five fiction books illuminating women of the Bible, in Christ's lineage.

If you need more suggestions of books to read, check out the new St. Charles Public Library Readers' Services blog - it's fantastic!

Fewer People Moving to Florida

... which is good news, according to one of my favorite authors, Carl Hiaasen. To quote:

"The mad stampede of new residents into Florida is finally slowing down, the inevitable result of high taxes, miserable traffic, overcrowded classrooms and other unappealing urban problems."

Beautifully summed up, Carl. The recent Sunshine State survey also reported that 1/3 of the respondents said they can't wait to pack up a U-Haul and make tracks for another state with a few less problems.