Sunday, April 25, 2010

Mom and Greg "Trot" to Columbus

What a great weekend!

On Friday evening Ryan and I had the opportunity to hear Sonny Trotter, a world-famous rock climber, speak at Independence Hall on OSU's campus. He showed a lot of photos and video from his last climbing trip to El Gigante in Mexico. It was a really neat presentation and free cookies and popcorn were involved.
On Saturday morning after work my dearest Mommy and Greggie came for a visit. They dropped off the dog at the kennel and drove on down. We went to Banana Bean. a Floridian Patina, for lunch. It was good food, Greg and I had Cuban Prok sandwiches and my mom had a salmon salad (what a shock!).

After lunch we headed to their hotel so they could check in. We hung out in the hotel for a bit until it was time for Mom and I to go to our salsa lesson, given by El Hiperactivo himself, Carlos Rubio.

I was so happy that my mom was finally able to salsa with me. I had been telling her about it for over a year, and could never do more than show her the basic step. She did great at the lesson, and caught on right away. Here are some pictures:
After salsa we met Ryan and Greg at Banana Leaf, Ryan and I's favorite Indian Restaurant. We all got the Grand Buffet, and they were especially accommodating to my Mom's gluten-free diet. The food was great. Greg said it was a bit too spicy for his taste, but he still enjoyed it. We all had lassi and Ryan and Mom had Chai tea to end the meal.
I went to work this morning, and afterward we headed to Greek Corner for some hummos, chicken-lemon soup, and a gyro platter for Greg. Poor Ryan had to stay behind with a stomach ache. Being the supportive future-wife that I am, I convinced him that it was a "Triple A," or abdominal aortic aneurysm. Then my mom pointed out that everyone has a visible/palpable pulse in their abdomen. Crisis/ER trip avoided! His stomach is fine now.

Greg dropped my mom and I off at Polaris so we could look for a bridal shower dress and...drum roll please... we found one! I really like it and I'm glad that all I have left is to come up with an outfit for the post-wedding brunch. (My friend is letting me borrow a dress for the rehearsal!)

I'm glad that they made it home safe after a nice visit. See you next time!

Oh - and my mom was the first overall finisher in a race this morning, she won a $300 SCUBA cert class! Way to go, Mom!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Security

I joined a swap called "Are You Secure?" The ATCS had to be made with the insides of security envelopes. I dug through our old mail to see what I could come up with.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Artiscape, Jen's visit, and Moonwalking


My cousin and maid-of-honor, Jen, visited this weekend from Youngstown. We were able to go to 2 bead stores, Byzantium and One-Stop Bead Shop (she likes making bracelets, and sells them to friends and co-workers.) Between the bead stores we had lunch at a place called Mac's Cafe, a Scottish place in the Short North. I had the veggie club, which was pretty good, and Jen had a sandwich with tater-tots as a side! I miss tater-tots, I haven't had them in years!

We also stopped at the Holiday Inn on town street to check out Artiscape, an art convention with a focus on altered art, mail art, stamping, clay, and the like. The weekend of Artiscape was filled with workshops and demos, but Jen and I just stopped in to see the vendor tables. The "marketplace" was kinda small, but there was a table of beads there from none other than the bead store we just came from! In fact, the owner who was manning the booth mentioned to me that she is currently hiring. I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider it for a minute. I wouldn't mind a bead store job on the side! However, I'm afraid I don't know enough about the many kinds of beading to help all the customers.

The highlight for me was meeting an artist who was regularly featured on the Carol Duvall Show. Her name is Barbara and she is a whiz at ploymer clay. She made me want to take up the craft.We stopped at DSW/Filene's Basement and I briefly looked at dresses for the bridal shower but came up empty.

After shopping we got ready for dinner with Ryan. On the way to dinner we stopped at Buckeye Corner so Jen could get a couple T-shirts, then we were off to Chili Verde, Ryan's favorite Mexican place. It was pretty good although they wouldn't take our coupon because it's apparently only valid M-Th. Boo!After dinner Jen and I rented "This is it," and got to watch Michael Jackson practice for his tour for 2 hours. It wasn't as good a movie as I expected, but it was still pretty interesting.In other news, I still haven't hot-glued my wedding hair things together - I'm too chicken! I need to be in the zone so I could make sure they are perfect. I don't want hot-glue everywhere and the flowers all crooked.

I haven't done much in the way of ATC's lately, but I plan on working on some today before Latin Fusion at 11.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

My troubles seemed so far away...

Yesterday. Not that I'm having any particular trouble today other than going to clinical in a few minutes.

Yesterday I was able to construct my hair thing for the wedding. All that is left to do is hot-glue it to the comb. I found some flowers on major sale at JoAnn's and filled the centers will faux pearl beads, and that's it! Now they just need attached. I'm making 2 just to be safe.
I also made a Robin Hood card for an ATC trade.
Yesterday evening I went to Latin Fusion at Lifetime. It was taught by a new instructor who I know from seeing at Martini Park a couple of times. She did a great job, and I'm happy that I have a dance option on Tuesdays now.
After LF I came home, showered, and headed out to Martini Park at Easton. I was there before the other LTers were, so I got a water at the bar and was sipping it while I watched the dance floor. A guy approached me and asked me if I'd like to learn to salsa. I didn't feel like telling him I already knew how, so I played dumb and said maybe later. He was like "After a few more of those, right?" pointing to my water. I was like...yeah, ha ha. He thought it was alcohol!
When everyone else arrived we started dancing. A ballroom dance instructor who had been working with a few of the girls danced a salsa with me, and it went really well. I left the dance floor feeling like a salsa pro, to the point where I insisted later on dancing a mergengue with him. Long story short - I should have ended on a high note with the salsa. The merengue was just not happening, and I felt like a total newbie dancing it with him. He kept trying to tell me about certain steps and directions he wanted me to do, but it was so loud in there that I couldn't hear a word he was saying, so I just said "oh, ok" every time and kept doing what I was doing! Ha! He probably thought I really stunk. Oh well. When Ryan and I are done taking lessons with Carlos I'd like to try some ballroom lessons with this instructor.

Niki and I watching the dancers:


I met a guy from Mexico that was telling me where I could get the most authentic Mexican food (somewhere near the Westland Mall apparently, I will def be checking that out). We were dancing a salsa a little earlier when we got too close to another couple (happens all the time). The heel of her shoe hooked into the inside of mine and I almost face planted on the dance floor. Luckily I kept my balance, but when I looked down my shoe was missing! The girl bent her leg and I saw my shoe dangling from hers! She handed it back to me and I slipped it back on as gracefully as possible and finished the dance. It was pretty funny. On the up side he kept leading me into the same 3 salsa moves over and over during the song. It was good because it made me look like a good dancer since I knew what was coming, and bad because it was a little too repetitive.

My buddy Todd is always at every salsa event and I love dancing with him because he's great at leading and really knows what he's doing. We danced 2 salsas and a merengue and for some reason we were just not connecting last night. It was disappointing because I usually feel so good dancing with him. I think it might have been because I hadn't been out dancing in so long.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Let's get [a] physical!

This morning I couldn't enjoy coffee or breakfast with Ryan because I was fasting before my physical. I came home and ate my cereal so fast that a fiber flake got stuck horizontally in my throat. Ouch!

Also, on my way to Latin Fusion/Zumba this morning I stopped at work to be "weighed in" for our work weight-loss program. I'd like to shed at least 5 lbs before the wedding in September so maybe this will help keep me honest about my regimen.

Ryan and I worked on our registry a little bit more. While his parents were here on Easter his mom recalled that when he was young she'd let him pick out a pack of gum at the grocery store. Sometimes he was so indecisive that he would get frustrated by choosing a type of gum, and become so upset that he would leave empty-handed. I could TOTALLY see that in Ryan. We were trying to register for some new travel mugs and he had a bunch of websites open, comparing all these reviews, product specifics, etc. He was getting frustrated by the amount of mugs there were to choose from and actually said "This is exhausting." We finally decided on two pretty basic ones from BBB.

The most recent ATCs I've completed are for a swap titled "Naked Blue Man." Kinda silly, but here they are.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Dinner held for ransom

I've picked up the 7p-10p shift at work last night and the night before. Although I am grateful, because I could really use the money, this has delayed both the enjoyment of this weeks "24," and 2 dinners. Last night I was able to make a pizza and have a couple slices with Ryan before I had to head out, but its not the same as our relaxing dinners.

Hopefully Ryan and I can watch "24" tonight!

On my past couple days off school I made a few ATCs. Theme was "Ransom Note."

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Bison and Blossoms

After a productive and relaxing week at home, I am back in Columbus with my groom-to-be. Before I left home I was able to see my dad and Baba again and we went to Vernon's for lunch. Vernon's always delivers, then again I always order the same thing, hmmm.

My mom had everyone over for a pre-Easter picnic. It was my cousin Jen's 28th birthday! We had a cake for her. Jen and I played badminton (hm, never knew there were 2 "n's" in that word, thanks spell check) with our 2 younger cousins. None of us were very good, but at lest we burned a few calories running after the birdie. Also, the daffodils came up just in time for the picnic in our backyard! Daffodils and morning glories are my favorite flowers.

Badminton:
Mom and I by the fire:


The Birthday Girl and I:

On my drive back to Columbus on 71, I was behind a red BMW. I wasn't tailgating or anything, just minding my own business, when all of a sudden he sticks his arm out the window and gives me the finger! At first I thought he was making some sort of turn signal, but he was definitely flipping the bird. I've concluded that it was meant for another vehicle, as I passed his back and forth for the next 2 hours and he never looked over at me, although I was prepared with a "WTF" expression if he did.

Ryan and I had stir-fry when I got home with some new noodles from the New Asian Supermarket by our apartment. The only 2 ingredients in them are wheat flour and salt, they cooked almost instantly!

I worked over the weekend, and my goodness is it hot in some of the residents' apartments. Phew, I am dripping in sweat after putting TED hose on legs the size of tree-trunks in 78-degree apartments.

On Sunday Ryan's parents came down to celebrate Easter. We took them over to the outdoor wall for some climbing. There were about 2 dozen firefighters there climbing too. All of a sudden we heard the word "fire" on their radios and they all went running to the trucks. They were packed up and gone in about 15 seconds flat! They left one guy behind with the gear, and a minute later we hear "all clear" on his radio. One by one the trucks all came back and they were climbing again within a few minutes. They seemed to be impressed with Ryan's led climbing skills.

Ryan's dad did a great job on the wall. We can tell he really enjoys climbing. We tried to get his mom to give it a go, but she was having none of it. Maybe someday!
I was able to go to 2 Latin fusion/Zumba classes yesterday. Next week Lifetime is adding 2 more instructors so I will have a chance to dance 5x/week! Yipee!

Between my 2 classes my cousin Billy came down with his siblings and parents, as well as our grandparents to tour OSU. They seemed to really enjoy it, and it was perfect weather for a tour. They were able to meet me for dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. I was thrilled that everyone ordered bison instead of beef. Everyone said they really liked their burgers.

I start school up again tomorrow with a 12 hour clinical at Grant. 12 hours is a long day, but at least I have Monday and Tuesdays off to work on some ATCs :)

I'll sign off with a pic of little Winston through the porch screen: