he said. she said. a married couple's blog.

Monday, March 28

I forgot to mention, I finished typing up my journal entries from when we went to London this winter. They are over at the travelblog.

Sunday, March 27

disaster area

Our living/dining area looks like a tornado went through it at the moment. All the shit that was taking up space in the basement is now upstairs, under the dining table. We have been working on finishing off the basement -- painting the walls a nice yellow with a little texture in it. When we were mixing the paint with the texture it was the color and texture looked like yellow cake batter. Yesterday, we had our carpet put in. The guys were supposed to be here between 12 and 2. They called at noon and said they were running late and it would be closer to 2 when they got here. They got here at about 6. Bren was pissed. I'm just glad it got done.

Today I'm freaking out. The upstairs looks like total crap. There's a whole bunch of stuff up there and nothing to put it on. There's no furniture, and piles of stuff. It's like when we first moved it. We had two chairs a TV and one lamp. Right now, I'm at the point where I want to throw everything away. Half of it we have held onto because of sentimental value. For example, I threw away a big bottle full of movie stubs. Do I really need the last newspaper from my senior year in high school? Or my awards? My PSAT results? That I passed the Maryland functional math, reading, writing and citizenship tests. I will keep my high school diploma. It may come in handy. Most of it can just go. And I'm ready to get rid of it.

Wednesday, March 23

new photos

All the photos from our weekend trip to the OBX are in the gallery.

(The one shown here was out our front door.)

Tuesday, March 22

state of confusion

Florida is one messed up state.

One of my students this term is originally from Florida. His current employer is asking for proof that he graduated high school. Normally this is no big deal, you show your diploma. Well, his is lost, or destroyed or something, via a hurricane. Not only is his copy gone, but the official copy at the school is gone. The state has no record. The school's copy was also destroyed in the same hurricane. There is no master record in the state of Florida. How screwed up is that? So this kid, 8 years out of high school has to take the GED. It just doesn't seem right. What about the "permanent record" that's always waved about at high school students? Apparently, if you go to school in Florida you've got nothing to worry about.

Monday, March 21

surf

Went to the beach this weekend; being home sucks.

Thursday, March 17

green

I thought today would be a good one to revisit our trip to Ireland a while back. (You can see all the photos in the gallery.)

We made it up to Northern Ireland as well. Mostly, this was because the Beleek factory is there.

And to see the Giant's Causeway.

What we didn't know before we planned all this is that we'd be riding through the "Bible Belt". The very north of Northern Ireland is very Unionist. Meaning, they are big fans of the British and very Protestant. It was quite interesting. You didn't just enter a town, you would enter the Unionist town of X. The curbs were painted red, white and blue (although peeling just slightly). What was also very interesting was that their elections were happening while we were there. Apparently, all the campaining stuff is highly regulated. All the banners for one candidate looked almost identical to those for another, only a picture would be different. They were also hung extremely high. No one was going to mess with them.

We didn't go into Belfast, but instead went around it. It was slightly ominous. Barbed wire and rocky. It felt like we were somewhere we shouldn't be. I really wish now I had taken more photos and not been looking at the map so much.

Of course, Downpatrick is the burial place of Saint Patrick. So we saw both "extremes" if you will.

I do want to go back. So much we didn't see where we did go, and so much we didn't even get to. I'd like to explore the North a little bit more. It's always fascinated me. Brendan, too. When we were in Montreal we saw this film called Holy Cross. I think it was actually a TV movie in Britian. Anyway, it:

...tells the story of two fictional families caught up in the events of September 3, 2001, on the Ardoyne Road in Belfast. A dispute arose there concerning the rights of schoolgirls from the Catholic Ardoyne area of North Belfast to walk a few hundred yards past the predominantly loyalist area of Glenbryn to the Holy Cross primary school.

It was a heartbreaking film. We both cried a lot.

It all seems so relevant (again, unfortunately) given the current state of things.

Wednesday, March 16

crazy australian

Yesterday there was this show featuring what you might call the Steve Irwin of the insect world. Where Steve likes his crocs and snakes, this guy was all about insects. He wasn't interested in just your garden-variety insect, that wouldn't be crazy enough. He was going around finding bugs that bite: ants scorpions and what not then letting them bite him! On purpose.

He found a pile of fire ants and they started biting him to the point where he had to run and take off his pants.

He went up in a cherry picker to get a bullet ant. This thing is called a bullet ant because when it bites you, it feels like you got shot. He brought it back to ground level, then got it angry and let it bite his arm. Then he proceeded to keep us updated over a 24 hour period as to what exactly it felt like.

I had to leave for class before he got too far into the scorpions. I've got to say, I wasn't watching to learn anything about insects. I was watching to see this guy get bit then scream and run around.

The frustrating thing is, the show title didn't show up. Anyone know what it is?

Tuesday, March 15

myth

Yeah, global warming sure is a myth. Don't you think?

The snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro has melted away to reveal the tip of the African peak for the first time in 11,000 years.

The glaciers and snow which kept the summit white have almost completely disappeared.

welcome

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to the world of Northern Virginia traffic to my Dad. He's started his daily commute from B'more to Reston this week.

Sunday, March 13

fresh

The basement is slowly being "renovated". It's was already semi-finished when we moved in. There was dry wall, and some peel and stick parquet flooring down; however, the dry wall wasn't done very well, and Brendan isn't a big fan of the floor. We've finally had the time to paint (with a texture to hide some of the shoddy work), put in a heating vent, and just the other day we ordered carpet. Once that is in we can move the big ass TV down there and make use of the space.

Today, I put a coat of paint on the downstairs bathroom. I only had a quart of the paint that I wanted, and according to my calculations, a quart should have been able to cover it. We've got about 130 square feet of wall space, and a gallon does 400 - 450. It was a bit of a stretch, and I'll probably have to go to the store and get another quart to fill in some spots. This paint was a reject from back when I painted our bedroom. Damn. I really wanted to get it done without going to the store. Again. For the millionth time this week.

Monday, March 7

weighty

Last night I caught up on the last episode of The Real World. Short synopsis: skinny girl with history of eating disorder's mother tells her she needs to go on a diet.

Now, I neither have an eating disorder nor a super-controlling mother, but it got me thinking. Every girl has those friends -- the really skinny ones with the "high metabolism" who eat butterscotch krumpets and french fries for lunch, but still look like twigs -- and I had two of them. We'll call them J and E for simplicity. They could both shop in the girls' section if they wanted, easily fitting into size 14 or 16. I had, and still have, some serious hips. Plus, I was more than head and shoulders taller than them (still am). There's this one photo I have of the three of us, J on my left and E on my right, and my waist is at J's shoulders and E's armpits.

As thin as I was, I still despised shopping with the both of them. Inevitably, I'd end up in the dressing room between the two of them, and they'd be talking back and forth about needing a size 0 because the 3s were too big. And there I was, struggling to zip up the 11s. One time I remember vividly even now, was probably my junior year, and we were all shopping for homecoming or prom dresses or something, and E says, "Damn! All that's left are fat girl sizes." I responded by picking one of them up and taking it to the dressing room. It still hurts my feelings, and it's been about 10 years!

After high school, I didn't really see either of them much, if at all. E more than J. I realized after a while that E just really isn't a nice person. Anyway, the three of us actually all went to the same college. Still, since I'm a year older than E and two years older than J, and we were all interested in different things, there was very little contact. In fact, the first time I saw J on campus, and the last time I saw or talked to her was my very last day. I was driving out of the parking garage and she was driving in. We stopped said hello, I showed her my brand new engagement ring, and then we said goodbye.

The last time I saw E was at a wedding. Now I realize that this is totally snarky and bitchy of me, but I can't help it: she's put on a little weight. She's not fat by any means; she's certainly not the beanpole that she once was. It gives me a little bit of satisfaction to know that she's probably in a double-digit size now. Like I said, I know it's awful of me, but I can't help it.