updates

the apartment:
it's coming together. we've hung a few things. the second bedroom is still a disaster. i have so many ideas on how it could look better but have no money to buy the things to make it so. it's hard not being able to get what you want rightnow. kari and mark are going to visit this summer - hopefully there'll be enough room for them to sleep in there by then.


my mental state:
i'm far less crabby today. in fact - i'd go so far as to say i'm not crabby at all! (period going away = happy michelle) slightly frustrated with myself for not completely a workout dvd but the squats and lunges i did yesterday have made my thighs want to run away and hide....


christopher:
still amazing. still incredibly awesome. still love him an insane amount. still amazed that he loves me (and all my craziness)!


my job:
see previous post. nuff said.


crocheting/knitting projects:
i think i mentioned that i finally finished all of my christmas presents(!!!!!) i even finished the two burp clothes for my co-workers baby! now i just have to manage actually getting those things in the mail/delivered (this is the part where i usually fail). i am desperately trying to find a cute way to organize my yarn - having it neatly stored but yet visable (ideas? i'm thinking crates....)


my fat:
still (annoyingly) here. i'm working hard to make it go away though. according to the scale at work i'm down one pound. only 34 more to go......


minerva:
suprisingly more likable. as soon as i wrote that post about her she changed her tune. she will now tolerate you getting close(er) to her face and petting her. she has even taken to sleeping right by my head and also jumping into the sink whenever i'm in the bathroom doing anything in front of the mirror - kinda cute.


albus:
he's still incredibly strange. lick. lick. lick. lick. lick. lick. lick. lick. lick - you get the picture.


my hair:
it's getting long - but not cute long. it's that inbetween stage - neither long nor short. it's driving me insane and i desperately want to cut it but i'll give it a go until the end of may.


my stomach:
not hungry but chris is making dinner so i think i'll go chat with him :)

Lost and Stuffed '07 : Day 7

I'm back! After some sickness, some computer putziness, and just plain laziness on my part - the vacation blog train rumbles on.....(that was rather dorky....)

Anyhow - Day 7!

Where should I start? At 12am of Day 7? Nah - I'll save the fun details of that until Day 6 :) Are you in suspense? Don't be - it's not really that exciting.

We woke up in - what would later show up on our hotel credit charge as Fort Wright KY. When we called The Radisson to say that we had been double charged for our room later on they would claim not to have a hotel in Fort Wright - or not really even knowing where Fort Wright was. The bill mess up eventually got taken care of but I'm still not sure what city we woke up in. It was very late when we arrived and we were incredibly cranky.

Moving on - we left The Radisson in Buttfucksville, KY and headed out to pick up my Grandma for lunch :) I love my grandma and only wish I lived closer to her - seeing her once a year is just not enough! Luckily I got to see her more growing up and I least I'll always have that - but I'd still like to see her more. We picked her up and headed over to Frisch's (Big Boy's) - her favorite restaurant. It was alright - the onion rings were good. Chris had to go and order a salad - I think he tries to make me feel fat sometimes! (Kidding Chris - I'm kidding! :))

After lunch we headed back to her apartment and chatted it up for a bit. I love listening to her stories! We took this lovely picture - I have to remember to print it out and send it her way soon! Maybe as a Christmas gift....

My Grandma and I

She gave me some records to take home with me - one of which I find hystarical but I don't have a picture of it so I'll save that story for another time. The record itself isn't funny - it's just the fact that I got it from my grandma :) She's a pretty hip lady! Involved in protests, a writer, an incredibly strong woman! I cried when we left. I hate leaving her. It's making me tear up now just thinking about it. I really wish we lived closer together :(

After leaving Chris and I went off in search of a coffee shop - we found a Starbuck's. Not a huge fan of the chains but it's reliable and I LOVE their strawberries and cream drink. Mmmm! Chris was extremely happy to have his iced coffee - as you can clearly see :)

Wahoo!

I on the other hand was happy for him but off in my own world - as you can clearly see :) Did I mention that hands down we are the dorkiest couple around and that we enjoy every blessed minute of it? Well - we do! :) Ha....sigh....

Who Knows.....

In the photo below Chris points out our 'Drive from Hell.' As the title might suggest - it sucked. It sucked ass. But as it happened on Day 6 you'll just have to wait unti I blog about it to get the details - oh the suspense!

'Drive from Hell'

After the coffee and after the map looking - it was off to Cincinnati to meet Kari at the Museum Center (I always want to spell 'center' 'centre' - the same with 'theater' and 'theatre'). It was a beautiful day - not too hot. Just right. We got there before she did - none of us actually looked up directions we just wung it (is that how you spell 'wung'? is 'wung' a word?). Luckily we all ended up at the right spot. The Museum Center used to be a train terminal but now houses the Cincinnati History Museum, The Children's Museum and The Museum of Natural History and Science - along with many other features.

Union Terminal (built 1933)

Chris spots Kari in the parking lot!

Hi Kari!

Before heading into the Museum we had to have fun in the beautfil fountain! I absolutely loved the green color! Isn't it just gorgeous?

Chris decides to take a dive!

Kari and I contemplate a dive...

Unlike Chris - we go for it! Chris is kind of a wimp :) (Unfortunately Chris cuts Kari's head off)

Close-up

After playing around in the fountain we headed inside. You have to buy tickets for each museum (which kinda sucked). We wanted to see the Pirate Exhibit so we bought tickets for that and also the Cincinnati History Center. The pirate exhibit was....it was good. It wasn't great but it was good. Was it worth $16? Eh... I did learn things about pirate ships that I never knew before - which was interesting. It was (as always) fascinating to see all the artifacts and imagine the last time they were used and by whom and so on and so forth though.

The ceiling inside the intrance - the picture doesn't do it justice

Inside the entrance

I seem to be well known for my souvenier buying. I see nothing wrong with this. I think getting funky dinky tokens to remember your trip by are fun! (We did not buy the hats in the picture below - even I wouldn't go that far....) On Kari and I's trip last year I decided I wanted to start collecting snow globes. There is a slight problem with this - no one really makes the anymore! They are incredibly hard to come by - at least for me. I only came away with one for the entire trip (not from the Museum) - so that kinda sucked. We had fun looking though. They had taken anything and everything you could possibly imagine and made it pirate. Even rubber ducks -as you'll soon see....

Arrrrrr Matey!
(Although we do look rather fetching - perhaps I should have bought them...Kidding! Only Kidding! :))

Kari and I ride the train!

After getting out of the Pirate exhibit and Pirate gift shop we realized we had a mere 20 minutes to get through the History Center! Ack! We didn't really bother with most of it but instead concentrated on the awesome miniature Cincinnati they had made. It was incredible! I am a sucker for all things miniature - love them! (Unfortunately I never did have a doll house...) The glass panaling around the exhibit was tall and hard to take pictures through - luckily Chris is tall and got some good pictures :)

I told you they had Pirate duckies!

(Miniature Union Terminal)

Fire! Fire!
These are not the only pictures of fire trucks we have!


Miniature Cincinnati Zoo

This is what it looked like in the early 1900's - the building shown above is still there though


Minnie Cincy


Kari and I and Minnie Cincy

I mentioned that we only had 20 minutes or so to look through this exhibit. Well - take into account my obsession with souveniers and we had about 13 minutes. I ran off to the gift shop and frantically tried to find something to purchase! I left with a lot of magnets. A lot. Maybe one of you lucky readers will end up with one as a gift - you're excited aren't you? I knew it :) That's why I bought them!

After the shopping extravaganza we left the Museum Center. Below are pictures of this exit - just in case you didn't believe me and thought we were still there.....(I blame the fact that I was again sick today for all the stupid commentary.....)

The View as you leave....




I did mention we were dorks, right?

but Happy dorks :)





I loved this fountain!



Chris and Kari

They really did like each other - despite the faces :)



Goodbye Union Terminal!

(Is it just me or does the font function give anyone else trouble? It's a major pain in my ass and I have no doubt that upon publishing this post the fonts will be anything but what I picked and at sizes of their own fancy. Argh)

Moving on! After the Museum we headed off to Porkopolis - a restuarant I've been wanting to eat at for a long time! The reaon for this you ask? As many of you know I used to work at Glensheen up in Duluth as a tour guide - I loved that job! If you've ever been there you probably remember the breakfast room - aka The Green Room. The tiles used in that room were made at the Rookwood Pottery Factory in Cincinnati - which has now been converted into a restaurant. You can actually eat in the kilns they used to fire it! If you go the website I linked above it gives you more of the history - very intersting :)

We ordered some appitzers and drinks which were very good. Then Mark joined us for dinner. I had selected a nice little sandwich and then at the last minute decided to order some pork - was I not in Porkopolis? I saw a special they had on ribs with sourkraut. I love sourkraut. I ordered a slab of dinner. A slab. (1/2 a slab if that makes it any better. It doesn't? Sigh...) It was good but WAY too much food! We did get some funny pictures though....(some of them are not show below. Maybe you'll see them at a later date. I haven't decided :))

Mmm! Nuttin' like licken the bones from your slab of dinner!


One of the kilns

I didn't so much care for the decorating choies that were made - but that's just me. We didn't eat in one - they were meant for larger parties.

Porkopolis

I'm not trying to look pregant in this picture. I was just full. Did I mention I ordered a slab of dinner?

Chris is excited!

Our wonderful and gracious hosts: Mark and Kari!

Aren't they cute?

Chris and I - I totally admit to trying to look pregnant in this picture :) Kari saw what I was doing and was laughing - poor Chris had no idea. I'm sure he's going to love me posting this! (I love you Chris!)

After leaving Porkopolis and Mt. Adams (where it's located - more photos of that later on) we headed down to the Ohio River to have a look about. Our camera had eaten it's last pair of batteries and so Kari let me use her camera. Unfortunately it didn't like me and took blurry pictures. Ah well....

Downtown Cincy as seen from Newport KY

The Bengals Stadium - game in progress.

The Happy Couple

After exploring the river we headed back to good old Hamilton. I think we stayed up for awhile and chatted but we were all pretty tired and turned in earlier than usual. It was a good day. Oh - and least I forget - don't think I left Porkopolis without souveniers! We are now the proud owners of 4 pretty jar glasses that have the Rookwood label on them. Chris laughed at me but we've used them every day since our return :)

And that is that. Day 7.

Wow - that took a long time. I'm scared to hit 'publish'. I know it just screwed the crap out of my fonts...argh!

Lost and Stuffed '07 : Day 8

Hmmm.....

It appears as though I have no pictures from Day 8! This is due to the fact that we through almost a pair of AA batteries a day! The camera was making some wierd crunchy noises - I think it ate the batteries. Or maybe I have something that sucks the energy out of them (Carrie - didn't we have a conversation about this at one point?) Whatever the problem - the camera always died and always when I was using it! So I think we just let Day 8 slide by without a photo. Seems strange though - I think Chris may have some phone pictures but as he's not here at the moment I can't get at them.

Anyhow - on to Day 8!

This was our last day (on actual away-from-home-vacation) of vacation. We got up and had breakfast with our hosts Kari and Mark - she made us all a wonderful egg souflet (the second one that week!). Chris and Kari are both morning people - they seem to have no problem getting up early and actually being awake. Mark and I on the other hand...well...we sleep...hard. I wake up when Chris nudges me and tells me to get up - but I pretend I'm still asleep and ignore him. So it takes awhile. Mark just doesn't wake up - or if he does it's a half awake/half asleep type of thing. I don't feel bad for Kari when she tries to get him up! :) But I guess it's good we're paired up the way we are - if it were the other way around and Mark and I were together - we'd never get out of bed!

After breakfast Kari had to head to work so Chris and I got ready and then headed off to Kari's place of employment to say our goodbyes. (Kari and Mark have promised to come up to MN next year! :)) Then it was off to find Chris some coffee (this was an ongoing struggle throughout the vacation as you'll find out in later posts). Having found the coffee we were off to Oxford!

Not New Englad Oxford - Oxford, OH :) Home of Miami University - the school I attended for all of 1 semester! It's everything you imagine a college campus to be - old brick buildings and all. I loved it - but for stupid reasons transferred to UMD (although I don't regret it looking back - although I still think the reasons for doing so were dumb...moving on...). We walked by the dorm I used to live in and around the buildings where I had class. One building - Upham Hall - has an archway through it. The legend goes that if you kiss under the light in the arch that you'll get married. We kissed :) (Sorry Chris - was that too much information? :))

After Oxford (and another coffee shop) we headed up to Dayton to catch our flight. We opted to fill up the rental car upon return - I thought it would be difficult to run it to empty. Turns out the light for gas came on right as we reached the airport! Argh! So we paid an arm and a leg at the gas station across the street to fill up the car (Jeep Liberty - NOT cheap :( ). Then we went through security. I think I may have mentioned how security at airports drives me batty? So maybe I'm repeating myself - sorry. I understand all the regulations and such but all the airports seems to pick and choose what ones they want to follow. Or how high they set their metal detectors. The woman at this airport royally pissed me off by tossing my wallet, shoes, and face creams into another mans tote! Thankfully he was polite and asked if they belonged to me - otherwise he could have just walked off with them! I wanted to go smack her (or at least be bitchy to her) but I figured that might just delay us - I might be considered a threat. Thinking back - I should have made a complaint though. Ah well....

Anyway - I got distracted - stupid airport check points. Hmph. We got on the plane and were delayed. I think it was a new pilot (not extremely comforting when you're prone to panic attacks). We kept getting delayed and taxing back and forth because he couldn't get his paper work in order. Finally we took off - I panicked of course. Had we taken off at the correct time I would have been asleep but unfortunately the announcement of our return to the terminal startled me awake and it was downhill from there.

Actually - I made it through just fine (after the first attack that is). It's wierd - I get panicked at first and then it's like I'm numbed on drugs - I could care less what's going on. I think it's just your bodies natural reaction - it can't take those jumbled nerves and just shuts em down.

We got home and realized we didn't have a ride! Kristin was supposed to be the ride but it turns out she thought we were returning on Sunday and had tickets to a concert Saturday night! Luckily Chris' brother Nathan was able to come and get us :)

We got home - did some grocery shopping as we had no food. Then I think we just kinda sat around and vegged. Watched TV. Played cribbage. Unpacked. Cleaned for Megan and Carter's arrival. That's about it.....

And there you have it - Day 8