crash-a-rama

last night hugh and i, along with about 40 of our friends, witnessed the most magnificent display of redneck rivalry

from figure-8 schoolbus races (about 20 buses) ... to pac-man shaped races with vehicles possessing only the front 2 tires... to a loop within a loop and one car pushing another... to the grand finale of vehicles (about 20) each towing a boat or camper... and everything in between. it was a hilarious, destructive, ridiculous event that was honestly well worth the $20 ticket. you really can't accurately describe the craziness.

oh, did i mention that it was 40 degrees outside? coldest day of the year and we were outside for almost 5 hours not moving. you'll note the progressional change in attire :)

so here are some pics.






note that there is a car under the truck and another boat under the big boat

F.O.T. gala

another busy weekend! an organization that i'm a part of, the junior league of south brevard, put on a great big christmas festival- the festival of trees.

here are a couple of pics from the kickoff gala on friday night. (note the tree behind us. a group of girls and i decorated it and donated it for auction and we won Best Of Show!!)

the cinque terre

(sorry for the delay in summer holiday photo posting. one of these days i'll have the whole vacation up! it's more interesting, though, to have it drawn out right! haha)

congratulations jess and marcus

one of hugh's closest friends, jessica, got married this past weekend and we were so happy to be a part of the celebration

neighborly fun

our good friend and neighbor happens to be a nebraska alum and thus huge fan. even though baylor has a hard time beating them, we have fun whenever they play each other. a couple of saturdays ago we came outside to see this on one of our cars

so this is what he found when he got home

baylor homecoming 2009

last weekend, hugh and i went out west and spent a lovely long weekend in in the happenin' metropolis of waco. more importantly the home of the fabulous baylor university :) an overnight stop in dallas with the caudle family :) and we made our way to homecoming!! i LOVE homecoming... and baylor really does it well.

the weekend in pictures:

(hugh thought he was getting sunburnt)

thank you!

:) this weekend was wonderful... temps in the 70s (and low in the 50s this morning!!)

and with the setting sun just right, it almost looks like the leaves are changing!

dear autumn,

please come to florida. please. please.


hopefully,
me

p.s. it's october, not july

ha!

i came home to find this guy confidently sitting directly on top of the feeder, happily eating all the peanuts.

unfortunately i wasn't quick enough with the camera :(

(sorry for the poor quality of the pics - i was inside the house, shooting across the living room, through the back window and the porch and the screen)

and H thought that moving the feeder out into the open wouldn't bring any fellows out (he has 'scared' 2 of the dumb little guys off so far, though)!

squirrels

so hugh's been busy lately working to slowly eliminate the squirrel population in our backyard.

at first we thought that they were cute.

they'd run and play with each other all over the place, in and out of trees, you name it.

well then we started getting water in our bathroom wall and had to bring in a contractor to fix the roof and water-logged walls (thankfully not too badly, though, dont worry). turns out that the lead pipes that stick up out of the roof and act as air release for the plumbing had been completely eaten by the dumb squirrels. did i mention that they're made out of lead!? ugh. so we had them fixed and went on our merry way... only to have it start leaking again 2 weeks later! the contractors came back thinking that they'd missed something. oh no, it was the squirrels again. they actually pulled me up on the roof to check it all out (and then held a pow-wow trying to figure out what to do...)

a thousand dollars later (ugh!) and some nice little aluminum houses built around the pipes and we're still fighting the annoying creatures.

we've had offers to borrow dogs (thanks malia! wish you werent so far away), an electrical shock apparatus, and a pellet gun... guess which one he chose?? haha.

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the carefully placed 'feeder' that H and F made

sleep

you'd think they'd grow out of this 'fall asleep while playing' bit...

notes

a dear friend of mine just started a new business, personalized paper products. please check it out if you're in the market!

Nuts About Notes

(click for link)

O

... to be a fly on the wall today
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note: this post is mostly for me. it may be interesting to you, but is mostly therapeutic on my part.

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the very short version...

as i was making our delicious afternoon tea, a champagne bottle that apparently was on the top shelf of a nearby cupboard rolled out of the cupboard and make contact with my favorite lovely teapot and granite countertop ... and then exploded all over me and the kitchen.

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as we were cleaning up the first round, and i was sorrowfully holding my badly beaten teapot, it suddenly broke apart and itself shattered on the tile floor, leaving me holding a sad little handle.

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for the second time, hugh had to pick me up and take me to a chair in the breakfast nook to have a little cry ...and pick glass out of my feet and arms.

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it's amazing how much debris a glass bottle and favorite ceramic teapot can make. my sweet husband helped me clean for an hour.

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the kitchen still smells like a strange mixture of champagne and swiffer wetjet juice...

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:(

i am sadly mourning my lovely teapot

-

monterosso al mare,
cinque terre


the best concert ever. in a cave right on the mediterranean. think dave matthews band + pearl jam with waves crashing behind you. amazing.