Changtacular

Its been raining a lot.

I am now anti-rain.

Last night, Justin came in from the land of the amish and came out to dinner with me. We went down to PF Changs and Joe was working. We talked to him for a bit and had some yummy dinner at the bar and had a lovely time. It was good to see Joe again.

Not much else going on. Went to florida last weekend for some business stuff. It was warm there but not as grossly humid as up here. We flew back on the really early flight on standby. and we also got upgraded to first class. That was pretty super.

So the parking at the apartment is getting a little stupid. There just aren't enough spots for everyone. If you get home after like 6:30, you have to park like way far away. I'm considering buying a spot under the building, but I don't feel like paying for it.

Anyway...um...i don't have much else to say. So bye...

and in a land not far from Christiansburg...

What Do You Have to Do Around Here to Get Some Freaking Champagne?!

Employee: Can I help you find something?
Customer: I'm looking for a red wine.
Employee: Cabernet, pinot noir, shiraz?
Customer: No, I want a red wine.

1017 East Main Street
Radford, Virginia

via Overheard in the Office, Aug 4, 2006

Blog Blog Blog

So we're all moved in. Everything is pretty much set up. We have to install a shelf in the laundry room and then put stuff on that shelf and that should be it. And we need to hang up pictures and the like. And we finally got the HD set up. Football is going to be sweet. YAY football.

Vince (the roomba) can't get out of the kitchen once he goes in. And he has a problem with the bath mats in the ducky bathroom. He gets stuck. So we set up a "virtual wall" and now he doesn't go in the kitchen or the ducky bathroom anymore. Its wonderful.

Work is going well. Its work. Its cold in the office. Always. Which is nice cause its 192 degrees outside, but its a shock walking out of the building.

So I've been having an awesome time running tolls on the PA turnpike. PA does not like my EZPass. I guess we'll see how many thingys I get in the mail telling me I owe them $5K. YAY!

Not much new on the wedding planning front. Actually nothing new. I haven't had any time to plan anything else.

So I hurt my thumb...playing video games. More specifically, SSX3. I'm not really good at it. But its fun. and now i have a red thumb with a blister on it.

I need a new iPod. Someone buy me a 60GB black one. Thanks!

Its so quiet in here today. I want to take a nappie. I didn't get to sleep very much last night. And after work we're going to the gym. Yes...I'm going to workout. Yet another sign of the apocolypse.

And now we are going to the Melting Pot on Friday and it will be delicious.

I'm gonna go work now.

Less than 2 weeks!!!!!!!

And to answer these questions...

(I didn't feel like actually answering them in another comment...)

Rob Harford said...
I knew you couldn't stay away for long... you just can't leave the Delaware valley. So does this mean that Justin is doing some kind of internship thingy up here? Or did he drop out of doctor school? That would be a shame since he only has a Comp Sci degree to fall back on...

No, I couldn't stay away for too long. There is no Wawa here. There isn't much here. Justin is doing his 4th year rotations at a variety of hospitals in and around Philly. After the 4th year he will head into Intership/Residency thingy, at which time you can call him Doctor.

Joe Brescia said...
THAT"S SOOO AWESOME!!! Exton is right down the street from me. Score. You guys better be close so we can play. Ciao!

We're moving to Conshohocken. Hooray! And my MINI dealer is like right down the street from Chang's (still working there Joe?). So yes, we will be around. I think that puts us about 1 hour away from medford (no traffic), and a little less than 2 hours from Baltimore or North Jersey (not to mention, 5 minutes from IKEA and 10 minutes from KoP Mall....mmmmmmmmmmmmm). Hooray for Centrally Located.


So, we're moving in like 10ish days. I have like, oh, 4 boxes packed. Which is the equivalent to 1/4 of a room. Clearly its going really well. (note: Can you see why...? I'm sitting here blogging instead of packing).

So we bought a plasma. Its awesome. And somehow we even get a high def feed over the air from Roanoke. I didn't even think Roanoke stations knew what high def was. Thats besides the point. Its a pretty TV that will look especially pretty in the new apartment. Football is going to be awesome in a few months.

We went to one of Justin's fraternity brother's wedding over the weekend. It was in Blowing Rock, NC. It was gorgeous. The ceremony and the reception we both so pretty. We all had a great time. After the cocktail reception the night before the ceremony, we went swimming in a lake. Late at night. Pretty drunk. It was super. The bottom of that lake was one of the grossest things I have ever felt. It didn't feel like normal lake bottom. It felt like gross. I somehow am bruised from head to toe. I'm assuming it came from getting out of the lake. How I bruised the back of my knee is still a mystery. I'm still pretty tired from the weekend. I'm getting so old. So sad.

Lacey got a blog. It's called

I'll Blog You

Thats pretty exciting. I'm liking the name. Soon me and her will be able to go head to head on DDR on XBox Live (I would now, but I packed that), I'm pretty sure I suck at it now since I haven't played in like 2 months. Booooooooo!!! Anyone else as obsessed with it as we are?

So I'm gonna go now and spackle and paint and pack and do all the things I have been putting off since the end of April.

If anyone is around (in PA) on July 1 and wants to move boxes (cause, ya know, who doesn't?), give me a call.

Adios.

Update-a-maphone

Hi again.

So its been about 4 months. Thought I might send out an update. Lots o' crazy fun stuff has happened in that time...

We got engaged. YAYAYAYAYAY! We're getting married next june. Its exciting. Justin surprised me with the engagement. It was pretty awesome. So many details to plan though, so I will be busy in the upcoming months. We have a place and a photographer all set though. That makes me happy. We are taking suggestions for honeymoon locations.

We're moving back to normal-land, aka Philly area, in July. Also pretty exciting. I get to work out of the Exton office. Its gonna be weird going back to an office though. And, like, having people around (mind you, new office, haven't worked with these people for any extended period before). I'm sure it will be lovely.

Me, Lacey and Chris went to Austria, Germany and Switzerland. That was crazy. We had a great time. The kids weren't total demon spawn (so much better then I expected). We saw a lot of really amazing places and things. Oh we also went to Liechtenstein for about a half hour. It was super.

One thing I have affirmed...I am never, ever going on a ferris wheel again. Dear god. So freaking scary. Bleh! Anyway...Luzern was GORGEOUS!!! Everyone should go there. Between me and Chris, I would estimate we had well over 1,000 pictures. Funny thing...I left my camera on the nightstand in the hotel in Luzern. I'm the smartest person ever. Its ok, I called the hotel and they mailed it to me. I got it back about a week ago (1 month after we left Europe). Also the day we left, i drop kicked my cell phone across a street in Luzern...oops! And the British Airways lost my luggage. All in all, it was not a good day for me and my belongings. I got my luggage back shortly after that. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pants to wear for over a day (i wore jammies on the plane). If anyone ever wants to see pictures, let me know, I have 800 of them. YAY!




So that's about all. I'm back in the 'burg for the next month and then I'm outtie forever! I'll be busy packing the house and finishing my photo album (which has turned into a much larger project then I had ever expected).

Wooo Snow

Its a freaking winter wonerland here...

They actually had church closing listed on NBC last night. Apparently all churchs in like a 100 miles radius were closed so they had a broadcast of a service on this morning when I woke up. I have never seen that before.

Anyway, I'm bored. Someone give me something to do.

Norton is Worse.

Yes. Much, much worse. Seriously, there is nothing here. Nothing to do, nothing to see...nothing to eat.

We drove around yesterday before the game to see if there was anything around. Nope. UVA-Wise is here. Its like 2 big high schools stuck next to each other.

There's a train. Not for people to take. It carries like liquid asphalt and sulphuric acid.

We went out to some restaurants over the past few days. There are only a few here, so we figured at least one of them had to have something that wouldn't kill us. So far we are 0-2. Luckily, we made our own food for the Super Bowl. I don't think there are any pizza places here. Sure as hell aren't any places that sell wings (i miss you Pic's!!!).

There's a mexican place. Its called 'Mi Finca', which i thought sounded kind of dirty. Turns out it means 'My Property'. I haven't been there yet. Maybe that'll be tonight.

So yeah, I'm in Norton until at least tomorrow. We actually have cell signal here. Thank god.

I don't have much to say...

Hi there.

Yeah, sorry i haven't posted in like forever.

After we hung up christmas lights, we went home for christmas and then new years in philly (on a boat) and then Kristin and Tim's wedding the following weekend (very fun time!!!).
But, it was an unbelievably busy 2 and a half weeks.

I got home and Justin went to Marion, VA for his psych rotation. The weekend after i got home, we went to Charlotte, NC for a long weekend. Fun Place. We went to the discovery place and saw sciencey things and an IMAX. Had some yummy dinners. We got woken up one morning with what sounded like a jet taking off, like 15 times. A few hours later when we actually went outside, there was a nascar car racing down the one of the busiest streets in charlotte, which was blocked off, which was also the street our hotel was on. So we went the other way and got some lunch and when we came back to our hotel, we noticed a team getting off a bus and going into the hotel. I wasn't so much paying attention, and we got in the elevator and I noticed that i was, by far, the shortest person in the elevator. Yeah, we were in there with the New Orleans Hornets, ya know, the NBA team. That was weird.

I then took a detour leaving charlotte and went to florida. I met with clients and relatives and mickey (well actually, I didn't see mickey, but I said Hi to Stitch).

Now, I am finally back in VA. But I'm in Marion and I have been since Monday. We're going back to Christiansburg tonight and then this weekend we are actually going to take the christmas tree down. HOORAY!

For those of you who are familiar with Chritiansburg and think its boring...um, there's nothing here. Literally (unless you count 15 fast food places as "something"). And I can't understand anything anyone here says. We have warped into an alternate universe.

I can't wait to see what Norton is like.

Mmmm Lights

I thought everyone might like a look at our Christmas lights this year!

Its fun to feel like poo for 2 weeks.

Bleh.

I lost my voice and I've gone through about 3 boxes of tissues. It's pretty fun!!!!

I'm finally on Season 4 of the Sopranos (its only taken a few months...). Does anyone know when Season 6 starts?

So I was up in Philly last weekend. In 3 days, I spent about 32 hours in my new office. Some of us moved out to an office in Exton, PA. I actually have an office (ya know, like with a door). So thats cool. Its nice. Its new. Its pretty.

Its snowing here, so thats going to make driving home tomorrow super fun. And no matter where I go, its already Christmas...music, decorations, santa. People around here already have their christmas trees up and illuminated at night. Meh! Its not Thanksgiving yet!!! Though we did go any buy icicle lights and crap like that last night. At least we didn't put them up yet.

Know what the coolest thing ever (that happened last weekend) is? Lafayette beat Lehigh. WOOOOOOOOO!!! We watched the game on an internet feed. The one on Yahoo isn't bad.

We also found a pizza place that isn't OHMYGOD gross. HOORAY for not gross. Well at least found that to be pretty exciting.

So I'm gonna go pack so we can come home tomorrow. I hope everyone has a super duper thanksgiving. Don't go into a massive turkey coma or anything...

Look Look!!!

YAY Justin fixed my blog. Hooray for Justin.

I tried to fix it for like a minute. I suck at stuff like that.

So I went up to The Homestead on sunday. My "office" had an outing there and I met people for dinner (parents and others). Its in Hot Springs, VA. You have to take some interestingback roads to get there. It was pretty. The resort is GIGANTIC!!! I wanted to go bowling there, but the lanes closed at 6.

The road to go up there (US 220)...a little scary. Very twisty and sharp curves and scary stuff. I liked it.

Anyway, so that was fun.

So we went to Sonic tonight for milkshakes. SOOOOO COOL. We pulled up to a menu and then it talked to us and it took my credit card and then girls on skates brought food. Its like I was in an alternate universe...with milkshakes.

Me and Lauren are going to florida in October. We're going to a doctor convention thing. Otherwise known as "I'm going to Disney World" Yay disney.

Ok, I'm going to sleep now. Peace out.

Is it broken?

I think I broke my blog.

Does anyone know how to get the "sidebar" back to the side and not at the bottom?

Anyway...I'm all moved in now!!! We only had a few minor setbacks (the closet collapsed, amongst a few other little things) but pretty much everything is where we want it. The move in process actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

So working from home has been good too. I actually like it a lot. The days go by much faster here. I have been pretty busy here too. Its been easy to communicate with people up in the office in Jersey, as well as clients. We just got the fax machine to work properly with the answering machine. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! Its kind of cool. I like it here.

Justin is doing his first rotation. ER. It sounds interesting so far. He works some crazy hours though. 12 hour shifts. A few of them have been overnight. 7pm to 7am. Luckily there aren't too many of them.

Me and Lauren went to the DMV the other day and got our licenses and got our cars registered and stuff. Me and my car are now legally residents of VA. Weird.

I'm gonna start taking more classes again. I'm still kind of scared of the classes. They are hard. I think they would be less hard if I were more motivated with my studies.

My parents are coming to visit next weekend. They have a company trip to The Homestead Sunday to Wednesday. Since thats not all that far from here, they're coming from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. It will be nice to see them.

Also, I will be home in the middle of October. For the cranberry festival. It should be rather festive.

So I'm gonna go back to sleep now. I still have a hangover from last night, yes its 4:05pm. Ouchie!! I would watch the Eagles game, but I can't we don't get that here. So sad.

Just so everyone knows, my cell # is staying the same, so feel free to give me a callY

I'm almost Outie!

Well, this will probably be my last official post as a NJ resident. Its a little weird. I mean, I have lived out of the state before...with that whole college thing, but I always had my badge of jersey-ness...my license. The only license that looked like a fake but sadly (until senior year) always said I was under 21. Since the Jerz finally caught up to the rest of the country and decided to not just have laminated construction paper, I saw it fitting to move.

So here I am, sitting at my desk for my last 3 days working in an office (oh god I hope I don't have to come in on monday). I have an entire side of my wardrobe that will soon be rendered obsolite. So many cute shoes that won't be worn on a regular basis. But the weird part is really not coming to an office everyday. I kind of got used to it. As much as office life sucks, with the no consistant A/C system...the weird people...the stupid copier...the foam lined cells (also known as a cubilcle)...its gonna be weird. I'm gonna get up in the morning and walk to another room.

Also...my apartment is naked. NAKED! We left one pot and one pan out of boxes, just in case we might need to make something warm before next monday. But my garage is full of stuff. The little MINI doesn't fit in there anymore. But there's always more stuff to move down there. Yeah...I have a lot of stuff. I've been told too much stuff, but I like it.

So thats about it. I cleaned out my desk (i have just enough stuff in it to be able to work for the next 3 days). I have underwriting to finish up and then thats it. But no matter how weird it is to be leaving here, I am really excited. I can't wait. I really am going to miss everyone though (It was great to see everyone at Chris and Katie's wedding!!! Congratulations!!!). Feel free to come visit us in Southwest VA!

This is a new post. Are we all happy now?

By popular demand (ahem...rob!), here is a new post for all of you people that want to know whats going on in my life.

1) I'm moving to Virginia. I'm excited. My last official day of NJ residence is August 31. I do have to say though...SO MUCH EASIER TO MOVE IN-STATE! Wow. The big evil ones are establishing residency and changing the car insurance. I'm in the middle of packing now. It looks like a very large bomb went off in my living room. Its kind of scary. Boxes and stuff everywhere! So, if anyone wants to come over on August 30th and put boxes in a truck...that would be greatly appreciated (Thanks Chris and Lacey already! You guys rock!)

2) I have been at work WAY too much. I've generally been in early and stayed late about 3-4 days a week...and the occasional Saturday or Sunday. My job is taking a new direction (you guessed it, still working for Lincoln in VA) so, in theory, I should be learning a lot of new stuff. In general, I have just been way busy with already existing client work.

3) The MINI is back and fixed and pretty (yes, I know i got it back like 4 weeks ago). And now it doesn't go EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE for 10 seconds when i first put the car in reverse. Now, the parking sensors actually work properly. Its nice. But who would have thought a bumper would cost $2100. Impressive.

So, thats about all I got...

Between figuring out moving stuff and working 50-60 hours a week, I don't have too much else to tell. If I think of anything else, I will post again. I hope you enjoyed this.

Everyone have a Happy August!

Sorry...I'm Slow.

I'm kind of surprised its June.

I'm not even sure where I was for May. I know I wasn't really here.

We went to Vegas at the end of April/beginning of May. Neither of us lost too much money. Had a great time! I recommend the Mexican Restaurant in the Venitian on the canal. Good stuff.

I had yet another class at the College. I have no idea if I passed...results aren't here yet...but I have to say, it was a bitch.

My car is getting fixed next Wednesday. I get a rental. YAY rental. I should have it back within 2 weeks. Stupid bumpers. Stupid people running into me. Boo him.

From late Thursday night until Saturday, Justin and I were in Willis, VA. We stayed at this adorable little cottage in (literally) the middle of no where. The cows woke us up. No kidding...several hundred cows woke us up as they moo-ed past our window at 7:10am. We also went to a winery that had some pretty yummy wines and horrid wines. Dinner at the winery was also quite yummy. I had a great time.

So, now, I'm back and its June and I really don't have too much else going on. My parents and brother and his girlfriend are in Hawaii. Work is quiet. That is good...I can get a lot done. YAY.

YAY Drinkies

Bacardi 151
Congratulations! You're 146 proof, with specific scores in beer (80) , wine (166), and liquor (113).


All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient.

YAY a new post!!!

Hi again.


Well its been a good month, as you can probably tell from the pictures. I was proud of myself for not falling and crumbling into a ball of owwwww on a mountain in CO (Although those pesky knees and they inability to function properly did get in the way a few of the days).

As you can see below, I got my new, adorable car. (And no, I am not afraid of getting run over by a larger car).

I also passed the first test of the ChFC, CFP, CLU program that is going to have me reading for the next 2 years of my life. YAY!!! I am proud of me for not failing.

I read Condon's blog today, and it reminded me that soon, I too, will be able to be in the running for free lunches. I was approved to order my first business cards. YAY! I don't think I got promoted or anything, but maybe sometime soon. That would be nice.

So me and Justin are going to Vegas in about a month. I was going for a conference and taking a couple of vacation days to go out early. And now I have decided to just got for vacation. Screw the conference. YAY.


So onto the less fun thing that happened recently.

I fell down a stair.

No, not the stairs. A stair. and when I did that, I sprained my ankle. I can walk on it. Thats about it. Can't wear shoes (I am condemned to a month of flip flops) and its purple. Now, purple is my favorite color, but I think I like it more on clothing and such than my foot.


So, I have decided to have a "Name my MINI" contest. The person who comes up with the best name gets baked goods of their choice delivered to their door. Feel free to leave your suggestion in the comment section.

Say hi to my new car. Hehe. 

All of us, up near the top. 

Liliya, Mark and me.