The not so new News

I have not blogged in a long time because I have been busy at work and not able to get on the internet. When I was blogging more often it was because I was doing casework for 4 weeks straight and I got bored. This gave me more time to blog but got me in big trouble. Now I am busy and not complaining even though I don’t get to blog as much. I would blog from home but our internet hasn’t worked in a while.

Matt's Strawberry Pott

So Socal and I are very busy in the yard with multiple projects going on right now. We are trying to finish up the deck benches, planting tons of trees that Socal got off the Arbor Day foundation website, mowing grass a constant chore, tilling up the front flower beds, mulching the front beds, and putting down border around the front beds.

ACE presentation table

Members of our ACE team this year

ACE scholarship winners from our team

Tuesday of this week Cafra, another ACE mentor, and myself drove to one of our High Schools because they were being featured on Channel 4’s Cool School segment this week. They ask us all a question and we wasted 2 hours waiting on the reporter and driving to and fro to find out that they cut us out of the segment. How could they? Where do they get the nerve to cut me out of their news.

Yesterday everyone in my office packed up and drove downtown to one of our projects. It is a small renovation at Baptist hospital for the NICU. The project manager and interior designer from our firm did a great job on the design but it is giving the contractor fits. The hospital is huge and has a goal of 8,000 births for 2008 which sounds like a baby factory to me.

After that a few of us toured a site in East Nashville called 5th and Main. It is a housing development with underground parking, retail, town homes, condos, and a pretty price tag. They are selling for $250 a square foot… WOW…

After we all were drooling over the spacious condo’s the Young Architects Forum members that toured the residential site went to Three Crow Bar and had our first drink on a rep. that works for Ally-Cassidy Brick and Block.

Socal and I are planning a trip with my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew to Gulf Shores in May. Socal and I are going to stay with his family in Mobile to save money and drive to Gulf Shores to have fun on the beach with both families since it is only about 30 minutes drive I think.

This weekend we are going to go to this Tequila bar called Agave to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. They are having live Luca Libre Wrestling with Midgets and Mini Wrestlers.
For the next 2 weeks I will be attending Structures classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights to help me pass my exams. I have been going over the program that I will be using to take the Site Planning test just to get used to all the buttons and commands.

Spring in TN

Just some pics of my car ride home. I tried to capture the tunnel of white blooms that the Bradford Pears create. The city trims the trees over the road and they begin to form a perfect tunnel.

These are a few images that I took yesterday while waiting for my $44 in gas to pump into my car. I noticed this sign because the wind was blowing pretty hard and the sign kept rotating so it was fun to try and time it just right to get the word liquor in the picture. It makes me want a drink too. Mmmm.

I took these pictures on my way home. I saw this little dog in the back of this car and just had to take it's picture. I just laughed looking at it, it is one of those so ugly it is cute dogs. This dog made my day in the middle of rush hour traffic I was stopping trying to take it's picture so I could keep that happy feeling it gave me.

JPhotoshop Cowan

Well a guy at work always gets his head photoshopped on some funny picture or body and a few times by me. This past week he was bragging about how he saw himself on tv at the soccer championship game. He sent around a youtube video of his 2 seconds of fame and well I posted a pic of him up in the office of him at the soccer game.

Yes, I added the socks because no one would know it was J.P. without his argile socks; they were Cafra's idea.

I know this is office related but I chose to post it here because I am trying to keep the other site clean and strickly professional.

My husband is making me fat

Yes my husband loves to cook. I know all you wives and girlfriends are jealous of my man who likes to cook. I didnt say he liked to clean up after himself though so dont get too excited. Lets see what did we cook this weekend.


Friday night I stopped by the grocery store for 2 green bell peppers and for dinner Socal turned them into warm and gooey stuffed bell peppers. I had never had these so i took a picture of our kill (as you would say in Mississippi).


Saturday we slept in and woke up having sliced chicken on everything bagel's. We put a little sliced tomato and some baby spinich and topped it off with some french onion cheese spread.


Saturday night I requested we have Corned Beef and Cabbage because of the St. Patty's day weekend. So we did and I had never had it until I met SoCal but I love it. I even had the leftovers for lunch today.


Sunday morning we woke up and had brunch. We fried an egg and put in on an everything bagle with shreaded cheddar cheese. Mmmmmm.


Sunday night I was starving becase we had been working on the deck all day and didnt finish until around 8:30. So SoCal whipped up some cheese tortilini and shrimp pasta. He made a delicous salad and then ice cream for dessart. Oh and I have a new favorite drink too; Peach Snapps and Ginger Ale.



Sincerely


FATTY WIFE

New Blinging Rims

Well a few weeks ago I was having headaches everyday. My eyes would twitch and burn and I would feel myself squinting at my computer and even leaning over to get my face as close as I could to the screen.

I finally made an appointment at an eye doctor which just so happened to be the first time in my life that I had seen an eye doctor. The doc. does the puff of air test on my right eye and I am anticipating the left eye puff so I keep blinking but I guess it doesnt matter. Then the doc. checks my vision and says that I have astigmatism in my right eye and I am far sighted and I have allergies.

She gives me my prescription for my lenses, samples for dry tired eyes and tells me to buy this tiny bottle of $12 eye drops for my allergies. Then I got to go pick out my very expensive frames. For those who know me I only buy sunglasses at Target and Wal-Mart, if they cost more than $15 I dont get them. Well the cheepest pair they had were $50 so I thought I will be wearing these things 8 hours a day so I better get some that are confortable.

I immediately picked up a pair of really cool black frames that I have always wanted to wear. They looked very cool but I could tell they would get annoying always having to look at the black frame around everything and they felt heavy and tight behind my ears. So I tried on the rimless, the trendy, the name brand and finally picked up a pair of titanium lightweight bendy ones. They were of course more expensive than the really cool black ones but I could hardly tell they were on my face.

So I ordered them and one week later you are looking at the newest nerd at TMP.

Time on her hands

I want to have time to do this.

http://celticstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/02/work-sleep-knit-repeat.html

Find the white baby bunny hat it is too cute.

Weekend in Review

• Friday I got my test results back they said PASS in big black letters.
• My parents came up Friday and we went out to Pie in the Sky Pizza to celebrate.
• We watched the snow fall and the population multiply. Every table there had a baby I swear.
• We tried to watch Michael Crayton the movie but it was so boring for the first 45 minutes that we all fell asleep but Socal and he didnt make it through the whole movie. That was a waste of $4.
• Socal ran outside and tried to sled down the front yard but his make shift sled didnt work too well.
• Socal threw snowball at me in the living room.
• Socal had to clean up snowball.
• Saturday I signed up for tennis while Socal and my dad scraped the texture off our basement ceiling.
• Dust everywhere.
• Dorie got a spanking for getting on our bed with really muddy paws and face.
• Mom and I called my grandma and got names of family members to put on our Family Tree website that I have been working on.
• I have a Great, Great, Great grandpa named Cancel.
• Socal made leg of lamb for my parents for dinner and it was their first time eating lamb they are more acoutomed to wild game.
• Sunday Socal and I made white chocolate chip pancakes with white chocolate and fruit topping for breakfast for my parents.
• Sunday afternoon we stopped at Cozymel's Mexican Cantina in Coool Springs for lunch. We had been reluctant to eat there because we are Mexican food snobs from Nolensville Road and didnt want to be seen in a Mexican place named Cozymel's but it was suprisingly good.
• Next we took my parents to Achedemy Sports where I purchased myself a new tennis raquet and Socal some weight lifting gloves.
• Then we were on to Cosco, another first time for my parents. Socal and I cannot go in this place without spending $100.00 but my parents some how restrained themselves to only a few items.
• Next was back home to clean out my truck and put in my new floor mats that my parents got me for my birthday. My old ones were tearing up my high heel shoes and my high heel shoes were tearing up my carpet so I asked for new mats for my b-day.
• Socal and I then began putting up our new hardware on our kitchen cabinets. Very modern and sleak new cabinet pulls.
• Dinner was juicy burgers and pasta salad. Mmmm good.
• Turned on TV to see weird new shows. One was on the discovery channel about modern day lumberjacks called Ax something's. The other was the annual Sand Blasters Championship. Teams spend 2 days building sand castles and every hour or so they draw a number randomly to blow a sandcastle up. Weird.
• By then the time change had caught up to us and it was bed time.

F.U.N @ TMP

Well as everyone knows I like to have fun when I work and what is more fun than plotter paper hats or using photoshop as a weapon against your fellow co-workers. Hope you enjoy a few of our favorites here at TMP.

JD as Chicken Little with a spoon. He just so happened to flood the kitchen that week by putting the wrong dish detergent in the dish washer and he looks just like Chicken Little when wearing a hard hat and safty goggles.


PB a true Alabama fan made to wear an orange tootoo for UT


JD not photoshoped but wearing his red neck teeth and full sleeve tatoo



I had to photoshop myself so I guess I am not loved but I am the Queen of Revit



JP doing the truffle shuffle

JP is really loved and so is his fro.

Soul cleaning

This weekend Socal and I decided to do some much needed spring cleaning and when I say we decided I really mean I begged and pleaded for a few months and finally got what I wanted.
We started in the garage which is where the last tornado that went through touched down so more or less Ground Zero. I went through the x's stuff and chucked the trash, kept some things, and even found some of Socal's stuff mixed in. Socal put all his tools in the huge tool box that had before just been holding down the slab and now it is neatly organized. I swept up all the saw dust and random screws from the floor. I got some things together to give my dad for his yard sales this summer, stuff that was going to Goodwill but my dad insisted he would get when he comes up this weekend. I hung up some framed pictures that had been sitting in the floor for a while. They were pictures of our wedding and honeymoon that I just couldn't find the place to hand them and I found that place this weekend.
We also did some much needed errands this weekend. We bought some chalkboard paint for the BAR in our basement. We took my wedding rings to the jeweler to get re-coated in rhodium, which will hopefully keep me from breaking out due to the nickel that is in my white gold rings. We went to eye masters and Wal-Mart for me to get an eye exam but was out of luck both times. Socal's taxes got done but mine will hopefully get done tonight online. We shopped for Socal's dad a birthday present but came up empty handed there as well.
All in all it was a pretty productive weekend and thankfully since my parents and grandma are coming up this weekend I would like them to be able to walk through the garage without tripping. It really feels good to organize your house, it feels almost like I am organizing my life as well. A little less clutter makes me very happy.

Getting past the stressful, emotional, clutter that we had to deal with last week with Socal's job also help simplify our lives in the same way. Now we have put all that old stuff in the trash and can say goodbye to it and move on.