Chocolate Cake for Breakfast

When I woke up this morning, I heard Bill Cosby's voice in my head... "You're right, Bill, there ARE eggs in chocolate cake. And YES there's milk too! And wheat, Bill, don't forget about the wheat!"

Happy Birthday, Tim!

The celebrations in our house continue. Thankfully, this year Tim's birthday has been much less eventful than last year. He got up and finished up work for the day and then we spent a relaxing afternoon at home together. Instead of a boring-ole two layer cake, he actually got two one layer cakes this year - one strawberry and one chocolate.

And now, in celebration of his 31 years on Earth, I give you 31 random facts about my husband:

31. Every year we go through the same conversation on his birthday; I wish him a happy insert-number-here birthday and he claims he's a year younger than he actually is. After I show him the math, he concedes.

30. He has a collection of Calvin and Hobbes books which he can relate to almost any life event.

29. He makes himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch almost everyday.

28. Whenever I'm reading a Harry Potter book, he walks around the house for several hours saying, "'Arry 'Otter" in his best British accent and as loudly as he can.

27. He's very good at the guitar, self-taught, and can figure out how to play almost any song by ear. In college, friends used to sit around and name off random songs trying to stump him, it rarely worked.

26. He has one favorite dish at every restaurant we go to and he always orders it... for example, at our Mexican place he always orders the Enchilada Supreme; at the Loop he always gets a Loop and Cheddar.

25. He wears his knee brace almost all the time. I call it his Bionic Knee.

24. His favorite meal is steak with mushrooms and mashed potatoes. If you ask him if he wants a vegetable with that, he'll say "ehhh" so I'm guessing that's a no.

23. He has two 'man caves'. One has his weight bench and gym equipment. The other is filled with Star Wars and anime toys, most of which are unopened.

22. He loves watching The Penguins of Madagascar on Nickelodeon.

21. Every time we go on a trip, he uses the drive as an excuse to get fast food. Every. Time. It's like his reward for listening to my multi-hour-sing-along-marathons.

20. He'd leave every light in the house on if it were up to him. He calls me a vampire because I'm constantly turning lights off.

19. He purposely does things to embarrass me when I make him go shopping with me. He'll talk extra loud and say things like, "Did you see the lady eating Pringles in the middle of the isle back there?!" (to be fair, there was a lady eating Pringles in the middle of the isle).

18. He almost always forgets to turn his alarm off on Fridays so it wakes us up on Saturday morning (we need one for him that you can set for Monday through Friday).

17. He is a self-proclaimed WWII Aviation Enthusiast.

16. He can name almost any plane or helicopter that flies by.

15. He has a thing for cartoon women... Betty Rubble, Marge Simpson, Lois from Family Guy, anime girls, you name it.

14. He has a collection of almost 20 gray Navy PT shirts and sweatshirts.

13. His favorite band is Radiohead.

12. He actually enjoys reading text books. While I'm curled up with some good fiction before bed, he's reading about history or science from a text book.

11. He made most of the art in our house and especially likes making 3-D abstract pieces.

10. In college he collected candy wrappers for aforementioned art (everything from Starburst to Rolo wrappers).

9. His favorite video game on the computer is Civ.

8. His favorite video game on the xbox is Halo.

7. The clothes in his closet are separated by color (all the white t-shirts together, all the gray t-shirts together, all the jeans together, all the kackis together, etc).

6. He truly believes Disney is the happiest place on Earth and his favorite ride is the People Mover.

5. He does most of the dirty work in our house all by himself and without me having to ask - he changes the cat litter and also cleans up the occasional hair-ball.

4. He's a big history buff and actually tutored many people in college. Our friends would also invite him over before a big test and let him tell them all about whatever era they were studying. This was fun for him.

3. He's also a science buff - he can discuss String Theory for hours on end.

2. He's a cat person.

1. He's my total opposite, but also my best friend!

Impatience

I'm always happy when the lilies start blooming again. In fact, I get so excited that blooms rarely remain on the plant for long.

Festivities for the Fourth

Tim & I spent the better part of last week fighting off colds, but we were both well enough to go out and see some fireworks on Saturday. We headed to Fernandina to catch some of the Fourth of July festivities! They had a band and choir set up at the foot of Centre Street and fireworks were set off over the water. The fireworks were good, however we were in too much awe to catch the finale on camera. Oops! :o) The history of Fernandina makes it quite an interesting place. It's known as the 'Isle of Eight Flags' because it is the only place in the U.S. to have been under eight flags (France, Spain, Great Britain, Spain (again), the Patriots of Amelia Island, the Green Cross of Florida, Mexico, the Confederate States of America and the United States). It's also home to Florida's oldest surviving hotel (the Florida House Inn) and Florida's oldest continuously operating pub (the Palace Saloon).

Home Sweet...AHHH!

Mandarin Oak Trees

You know all that talk about being 'inconvenienced' by going to that conference? Well I have a little confession to make - after being home all of last week with a healing eye, I started to get a little stir crazy! The first couple days I relished in my free-time and did little more than play with the cats, watch Oprah and read (I've actually read three entire books since getting out for summer). Then the decluttering bug hit. I spent the next few days doing things like washing curtains and table clothes, going through closets for donations, and filing away stacks of mail. By the time last weekend rolled around I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. This week I had a few objectives to complete so I was able to keep my sanity by getting out and about.

Hunting for Lizards

Thomas & Annabelle on the prowl.

Wild Weather

There was a waterspout on the St. John's River during rush hour yesterday. It never turned into a tornado since it stayed over the river, but there are tons of pictures here and here!

Photo by Lorishad

At Home with Annabelle & Thomas

Eye of the Pantha'

Meeting Sam

Samantha came to live with us back in December of 2007. We found her wandering the property at our friend's house. As the story goes, our friend had bought a bunch of plants from a nursery that was going out of business and brought them home on a flatbed trailer. This nursery had a little stray cat that they had been feeding for a while. Unbeknowst to our friend, that little stray cat had climbed on to the trailer and rode all the way across town including a trip over this bridge. Our friend called the nusery and found out that they had no plans for the kitty once it closed. Since our friend has two gigantic dogs, it was clear that she couldn't keep it. From the moment we saw her we knew she'd fit right in at our house. So began the taming of our wild kitty.

Wild Kitty

She came home and adjusted to indoor life pretty easily. At first she stayed in the garage, then she slowly began to roam downstairs, then moved up to the office and finally ended up claiming our room as her territory. Eventually she decided that the bed is a pretty comfy place to be. Now she goes to bed with us and wakes up with us every morning.

Relaxing at Home

It was during one of these cuddle-fests on Monday when things went terribly wrong. She was snuggled up on my tummy while I was reading in bed. She was completely calm and purring when suddenly thunder rumbled from an approaching storm outside (The only way you'd ever know she was a stray is that she is completely terrified of storms. If there is the slightest bit of rain or just a little thunder or lightning, she freaks out and hides). In the moment she heard that thunder, Sam did just that... she freaked out and turned into a ball of claws and hisses as she ran to take cover. Since she was tucked under the blanket, she apparently thought that there was only one direction she could run... that is, directly over my face. It happened so fast that I had no time to react.

The next morning

That's right, my cat gave me a black eye.

I need to wake up at what time?

This past week was suppose to be my first full week of vacation, instead it was spent sitting in a conference. Needless to say when I learned that I'd be there, I was less than thrilled (I actually had to wake up EARLIER than I would have for school). As it turns out, however, it was quite an inspirational week. The presentations were motivating, the content was tangible and the presenters were knowledgeable. Overall it was worth the sacrifice.

Some non-academic highlights from the week:

• Upon arrival on Day 1 we found baskets of supplies on each table. As each table explored their new-found basket of fun, you could hear gasps and squeals all over the room. This was in response to the new packaging design for Post-its. Instead of the "gum-wrapper" opening style, they now have a perforated line down the middle and you simply bend the pack which rips the plastic along the perforation. While this may not sound thrilling to you... we teachers were abuzz with excitement!
  
• Don't you just love swag?! I got free books(!), a lunch box, a blanket (don't ask... they had something written up about how teachers were like blankets), a flash drive along with some random office supplies, and a bag to carry it all. Score!
  
• Most teaching conferences don't serve lunch, and if they do it usually leaves much to be desired. This conference not only served lunch, but also breakfast... and it was delicious (and also vegetarian friendly). I was beyond spoiled for the entire week!! My first day home, I tried to convince Tim that I needed my breakfast buffet pronto and lunch should be served promptly at 11:15. He handed me a PB&J sandwich and mumbled something under his breath.

Catzilla Strikes

Tim picked up some beloved childhood toys the last time we went to his parent's house. This included his vintage Lego Monorail Transport System from the 1980s. To be honest, it never really stood a chance against Annabelle. She has, well, cat-like reflexes. It was knocked over within seconds and then she proceeded to roll around like a kitten.

"You're mine!"

"What? You didn't want me to attack it?!"

"If I just look cute they won't care."

No catnip was used in the making of these photos.

Togetherness

Tim and I don't usually play a lot of video games together. This is mainly because we each like our own type of game. He's a first-person shooter kinda guy and I prefer to bang away on the drums. Every once in a while, however, you'll find our avatars in a party together. Last night happened to be one of those times. After being in a workshop all day, I challenged him to a game of Catan when I got home. Naturally, I won (but I play way more often than him so I can't really brag too much, plus he always whoops me when we play the real game).