kill the rabbits

i feel like such a grouch. i'm not certain if my southern roots are showing or if the rabbits are really as annoying as i think, but i'm ready to invest in a b.b. gun. the bunnies are cute an all until they eat my flowers. i'm just waiting for them to find my red bell pepper, squash and okra plants on the side of the house. they eat those and it's game on!

such a dork

for those of you keeping up, you might realize the url changed for the blog. that's because i let my shoelessruth domain expire last week without realizing. i've been updating the blog and last night it gave me a crazy error. luckily i figured out the problem and i just filled out the thing to renew it. hopefully no one has been waiting around to buy it from me.

if they do, what domain should i buy?

pennsylvania hills + new bike = sucking wind

i persuaded kelvin to buy bikes this past weekend. i've been wanting one since last spring and I finally got my way-- what was i thinking? these pennsylvania hills are killer.

fuzzy cat

hariett hates me. i've been getting these nasty furry knots out of the fur on her hips. at one point saturday i was holding her and using kelvin's micro-touch on her while kelvin was trying to talk her into not biting my face off. it worked. and then i've combed the smaller ones out. she's knot free now; we'll see how long that lasts.

miracles never cease

three days in a row. i'm not even sure anyone comes to read anymore since i'm pathetic and fall off the wagon so often. my goal is to blog all summer-- we'll see if that's too lofty or not.

i'm actually sitting on the back porch drinking one of kelvin's smirnoff things in the "ice" flavor he doesn't care for. i however, find it extremely refreshing. i have the dog on his run and he has it stretched to its fullest so he can snif the air for the faint smell of rabbit (smart dog doesn't see the one about 10 feet from him in the other direction). and hariett is perched at the back door sniffing out through the screen and trying to catch an odd looking bug that's crawling up on the outside. it's a rough tuesday night at the bentley household.

k actually works longer days in summer so he can be off on Fridays. i'm jealous but on the other hand it's nice for him to have fridays off alone. he can cut the grass or sleep in or play video games or work as he most commonly does on nights and weekends. it'll be interesting to see how he uses this, his first friday of the summer off. me, i'll be in an all day "retreat" for work. oh what i wouldn't give to have my summers back.

cranky monday

i remember now that the problem with having a fun weekend is trying to snap back to reality come monday. luckily i had three appointments with people i really like to work with, and i listened to an educause webinar.

something else happened today that makes me realize i need to find some new local friends who are in no way linked to work or people at work for that matter. i just want a friend who doesn't care that i like cheezy, non-intellectual movies and is willing to watch ridiculous reality show and listen to top 20s stations. basically, i wish i could move my friend S. here. i'm sad i missed her birthday this weekend and that i haven't seen her in almost a year. being an adult sometimes really sucks.

Summer beginning

kelvin and i just had our first summer party last night, and for some reason that seems to feel like summer is really beginning. i love that our parties seem to have a special guest stars attend-- it's always wonderful to have our local friends over, but we also feel so blessed to have friends who will travel from New York, Boston, and Alexandria Virginia. This parties special guest starts were Kelvin's friend Paul Snatchko from his NCSC days and his friend Erika and her husband Rob.

from Russia with love

i can't believe we've been home more than a week from our week in Moscow. i tried out yahoo! photos to post some of our pictures. you can view them by lookng at my album

Lee Gribbens & Ron White

i had a fun saturday. we went to emmaus to eat at Lee Gribbens on Main. we spent the week with Manny, one of the co-owners so we wanted to eat there. the food was some of the best i've eaten in the valley. we shared and order of manny's fries and then kelvin had soup and i had an amazing salad. it was mixed greens with green apple and blue cheese dressing with a little blue cheese on top. for my main course i had the chicken marsala which came with sweet snow peas and triple mashed potatoes. it was amazingly good, and although i was stuffed, manny brought us a chocolate lava cake which we forced down.

we left there and got to Reading, PA just in time for the Ron White show. it was pouring rain, but we found a metered parking spot right by the theatre. i love ron. he appeals to my white trash side, and i laughed so hard my face hurt.

i'm a mutant

i went to the eye doctor today for the first time in a long time. i love the reaction when they start looking in my left eye and find my coloboma. this doctor was so interested he took digital pictures of the inside of my eye and gave me a copy. so i share it with you:


Coloboma is a Greek word, which means mutilation. People with Coloboma are missing a portion of the structure of the eye. The human eye develops between the fourth and fifteenth week of pregnancy. As the eye starts to develop, a gap opens on the underside of each eye bud. This gap provides a way for the developing eye to be nourished. This gap, called the optic fissure, has to close before the eye is fully developed. Coloboma is the incomplete closer of the optic fissure. Gaps can occur in the eyelid, iris, ciliary body, lens, retina, macula, choroid and optic disc. It can cause from mild to sever vision loss. Coloboma occurs in about 1 in 10,000 births.

52 Cupcakes: Dark Dark Chocolate Holiday Mini-Cupcakes with Peppermint Bark Frosting...Yummie!

my friend c sent this to me today... doesn't it sound like a great way to spend a saturday morning?

52 Cupcakes: Dark Dark Chocolate Holiday Mini-Cupcakes with Peppermint Bark Frosting...Yummie!

wonder if i can coat my chocolate kelvin in pepermint bark frosting... i'll not blog about that though.

first flurries

as i was walking back to the library a few minutes ago classes were changing and flurries were scattering all over the quad. it reminded me that i forgot to mention that we got our first flurries yesterday morning. they were big flakes but of course they didn't do anything buy flutter around before melting a foot or so above the ground. it was nice to see real signs of winter though; i thought it would never get cold.

i've come to realize that dealing with the cold is all about the scarf. all those years living in the south we always used scarfs as added color to drape under the collar of a coat, and i didn't fully come to appreciate scarfs until i cut my hair off-- when you're necks cold there is no warming up.

december already?

weeks keep passing me by, and i haven't kept up as i would like. i did get the tree up last weekend after our quick thanksgiving trip to detroit. this weekend i finally made it to the moravian bookshop and bought what i would consider my first official christmas present of the season. we'll be spending the holiday here with the fury kids, and i seem to have a hard time buying presents when i won't actually see the rest of the family on christmas. of course, this year, we'll see my family soon after for c's big day.

just to sit on my couch with the dog

it's been a wild travel month which is precisely why instead of cleaning my skanky house i'm sitting on the couch with braut pressed as close to me as he can get. i packed a suitcase and drug it to Nanny's funeral in Nederland, Texas then to Dallas for Educause and finally to John and Fallon's wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (there are some pics in my flickr acct). i was home four whole nights before i left for Portland, Oregon. all such different experiences, but it's been a great month. i feel recharged and ready to accomplish things.

do you realize christmas is only about two months away? the thought of buying presents makes my anxiety level rise. why is that? i love buying things for people, but it's the decision making process that kills me. i did decide that i'm putting up our tree this year. i think we'll be here for christmas alone so it'll be entertaining to watch harriett climb the tree in search for all things shiny and ribbon.

lazy wednesday

it's been a lazy wednesday. the big storm last night destroyed the mail server at work and also left the campus without power. so it's like a snow day today, but without snow. it is pretty hot though so the kids and i have been chillin' with the a/c on. god knows what our electric bill may look like this month.

i keep telling myself i should work on some things, but just sitting her playing my DS and watching stupid television is good enough for me. speaking of DS, have i mentioned how addicted i am to this game Animal Crossing? it's nice to have a game to play that's fun and at the same time doesn't cause my blood pressure to boil or foul things to spew out of my mouth. i'm in the eighth world on the new mario brothers and it just makes me anxious to play it now; time limits, fire pits, dive bombing buzzards... who needs them?

so i'll continue holding down my end of the couch a bit longer i guess.

crossed off the list

I didn't realize until after my last post that i've completed or are in the process of completing some things on my list. number six obviously occurred (see 'first fruits'). we also got a second one on sunday that we ate with our dinner. feels so rewarding; and totally worth the 97 cents i paid for the seeds.

i also completed number seven. i just need to hang the new toilet paper holder and we're back in business completely. i probably should take some photos, but it's just a nice green color. my friend kelly helped me paint it. of course, if you talk to her she'll say she only held the paint and told me stories. i can't wait for her to get a place in NYC that i can crash at and also help her paint should she be allowed to do that.

and number nine should be done tonight. we're going bowling for rebecca's 30th birthday. i of course hurt my back sunday so i'm not sure how able i will be, but i'm going to try. enough beer and motrin and i'm sure i won't feel a thing...

First fruits

We ate the first zucchini out of our yard last night. It was so pretty, and tasty. The yellow squash are slower to produce, but hopefully before too long we'll have some of those.

I feel so domestic. Last weekend we busted it getting the yard looking nice. Then while k was gone I cleaned and painted our bathroom, started sanding my breakfast table that's been out on the porch since we moved here, and bought comfy chairs for the back porch. Braut and I have enjoyed them.

I think this weekend is time to rest.

mulching

i don't think in explain to you how sore and sunburned i am today. i had 5 yards of mulch and 2 yards of topsoil delivered on friday that kelvin, zach and i spread yesterday. i also weeded, trimmed bushes and trees and watered grass seed we planted. i hurt today, but i have a fine looking yard.
i can't believe we were in Detrioit and Flint a week ago. we had a great time, and got to see tim, katie, tracy and brent and meet bella for the first time.

maradee called last night. it was great to catch up. now if only i won't be so lame and keep up better with people. i guess i get too caught up in life (and playing my new nintendo ds). maybe one of my goals should be to slow down and do more fostering of relationships and doing fun things. so a few goals for the rest of the summer:

1. buy a bike and ride it at least twice a week
2. save the princess on the new super mario brothers :)
3. send cards to at least: kl, jz, ar, sd, sw, mk, nanny
4. make a tie-back for the curtain on the front window
5. dust the shelves in foyer
6. eat squash from my mini-garden
7. paint my bathroom
8. cook something new from my weight watchers cookbook
9. go bowling with rebecca and paul
10. call one person each week who i don't talk to on a regular basis

we'll see how i do...

Sunny D

those of you who know me best probably are aware of my bitter hatred for all that is SunnyD. i know kids love it, but not this kid. makes me almost as physically ill as hawaiian punch. i try to be nice about it and not bad mouth the product but i'm putting that behind me as i find their newest commercial unbearable.

in the commercial, their new orange blends pour out of the glass two tone. little orange, little red, little orange, etc. what is that? no drink pours out two tone. with the execption of Sheridan's coffee flavored liquor that does indeed pour out as both light and dark out of two different spouts.

so i blame sunnyD for preventing kids from living in reality.

Fresh start

I love how I really stick to things :) I'm sure everyone's been clamoring for an update but unwilling to say it.

Things are going well. I can't believe it's summer again. How quickly time goes by. Here's the run down of the summer so far:

• Working.
• Went to Tampa with Kelvin to see Stacy. Got sunburned but it was totally worth it. I finally see why people love the beach; it's all about the cabana.
  
• Planted things in our yard. Currently trying to keep them all alive. I have a pot full of basil and no idea what to do with it. The squash put out it's first bloom yesterday so I'm hopeful.
  
• Created a website for my friend Michele who makes beaded jewelry. Check out CreatedbyChel.com; she has some great stuff.
  
• My friends Tim & Katie and Ken & Sue had babies. That isn't exactly of my efforts, but it's been part of the summer in a removed sort of way.
  
• Kelvin took me to Toronto for a surprise birthday weekend. Part of the surprise was also a Duncan Sheik concert in Waterloo. It was amazing.
  
• Finished a big CD project at work. Excited to see that done.
• Went to see Duncan Sheik a second time in two weeks with my friend Carrie. We're also working on her website so keep checking back there.
  

We have plans to see the in-laws for the 4th... Braut's excited at the prospect of a road trip. We also have our friend Kelly's grad party. Should be an entertaining weekend regardless.