Recent Activity

Well in contrast to Dave’s slacktivity I have been quite active! People often ask “What do you do to fill up your days?” Instead of telling y’all I will show you.

My good friend Amy encouraged me to embrace my crafty side. So while we were hanging out at a local coffee shop she taught me how to knit. I picked up the art of knitting relatively quickly and haven’t stopped since. I will admit I haven’t been to daring to venture into new patterns, I basically stuck with knitting scarves. (And gave them as Christmas gifts) I am finally Knitting my own scarf! This one I will keep.

Recently I came across a simple pattern for a poncho. It’s just two rectangles sewn together up to the point where you want the neck hole. Here is half of my project.

My next crafty projects also came from Amy! Wow is she ever creative! We made Marble Magnets. This was a really quick and easy craft. I looked through my millions of magazines and cut out small pictures (size of a quarter) and then glued them on to the back of a flat sided marble (often used in flower arrangement). Then I glued on a small magnet, let it dry and I was done! I also tried my hands at embroidery and found that I really enjoyed it. For Valentine’s Day Dave bought me a Stitch it Kit by Jenny Hart . In the kit was a few iron on patterns, an embroidery hoop, needle, and alot of thread. I spent the whole weekend stitching up this beautiful pillow case! but only bought one so there is no matching one for the other side of the bed! Once our new nephews Sammy and Simon were born (pictures to come soon!), I whipped up some one-of-a-kind onesies. I thought that I bought the wrong size and they would be too big, but hearing about Sammy’s eating habits, I think they will fit him just fine. Simon might have to grow a little bit more. (little pip squeek!)

Well, now you are updated on my daily goings-on. (I do do other things as well, but I’ll save that for another time!)

Recent slacktivity

Well, I have become quite slacktive* lately. I think I’ve finally worn myself down. ‘How can this be possible,’ you might be wondering, ’since you’ve been on summer vacation for nearly two months now?’ Well, in part, this is true; the spring term ended (for me) on May 11, which means I haven’t had any deadlines to meet in the last few weeks. But the end of the term did not signal the end of the work for me. Once the term ended, I took a couple days off and then dove headlong into my summer reading list (in preparation for writing my thesis in the fall), and have kept the pace pretty steady since then.

Until last Thursday, that is. The summer seemed to be clipping along fine (from a research standpoint), I was getting a lot of reading and writing done, until Thursday. Since then, any reading I’ve attempted has resulted in simply running my eyes past conjoined symbols on flattened tree pulp, meaning… I’ve gotten nothing out of it! Oh, I’ve still gone to the office a couple days and tried to get things done. But, in the last week, I think I’ve read a total of 80 pages (which is not very much when you consider that I spend all day, every day reading). Finally, my slacktivity resulted in some frustration, which has meant near inactivity! I guess 10 months of 60 hour weeks has finally caught up to me.

But this is ok in the grand scheme of things. I told Barb at the beginning of the summer that I would still go to the office, but that the pace would be slower, which would mean spending more time together. I (and she) found out quickly that I don’t have a slower speed. I only have two: full throttle or no throttle. (I think my parents would characterize my childhood days the same way.) So, summer time has not brought the drastic increase in quality time I promised at the beginning of the summer (although there has been a minimally noticeable increase). Conversely, my recent slacktivity has translated into much quality time together, which has been great. We’ve been able to start a new project together (you’re reading it…), hang out with some friends, go swimming, eat breakfast together (I’m usually out of the apt. by 7.00), etc., etc. A good trade-off for not getting much research done. The upshot (I expect) will be that all this relaxing (the last week, plus the 3 coming weeks we will spend in Canada) will translate into increased energy when I finally get back to the books.

Happy Canada Day to all! We’ve got big plans for our first Fourth of July, American-style. Check back for updates after the weekend.

*slacktive: a minimal degree of activity somewhere between complete inactivity (0) and full activity (10), probably around 2-3.

Now introducing…

… the cholomobile! (Thanks to Alejandra G. for the name.) Yes, we’ve finally managed to get our hands on a car. (For those of you who don’t know, we went the first 10 months here without a car. That may not sound like a big deal to some, but Bryan – College Station (B/CS) is not a place that can be negotiated easily without a car.) Some friends of ours from a supper club we were in gave it to us! It’s a long story, so to make it short: when Candace and Corbett (our generous friends) moved here, they were given this car. Now that Corbett has graduated and found a job, they bought a new car and, before moving away to Dallas in May, decided to bless us with the fine 1991 Dodge Spirit you see before you.

We know… it looks like it might have problems. (You should see the top of it!) But, after a $30 belt replacement to repair the A/C (you don’t drive down here without A/C… that would be cruel and unusual!), an oil change, and a minor hassle getting insurance, he’s on the road!

We don’t take him far… we don’t want to push the limits. But it is nice to be able to see a little more than the 2 sq. miles of CS to which we were confined for the first 10 months.

Here we go…

Well, here’s the first step of a new venture.

Maybe a bit of an explanation to start off. Why are we doing this? Do we think our lives are particularly important? Well, no. But, we do know that it’s always nice to know what family and friends are up to (at least that’s how we feel when we hear from people we love). And since we are so far from so many of ours, we thought this would be a good (and interactive) way to update people on our whereabouts and goings-on. Think of it as our cyberspace living room.

Of course, we could send out the standard ‘family newsletter’ or ‘mass emails’, but we think those aren’t as fun as blogging and they tend to be ‘higlight reels’ of people’s lives. Blogging gives us a chance to update you on the small stuff and the big stuff, post pictures alongside the words, and keep an ongoing record instead of an annual, bi-annual, or semi-annual report. It also saves us the postage expense and saves you the inbox space. Finally, blogging seems to be convenient for everyone. We can post an item when we have something worth posting (big or small), and you can check out the site at your convenience. If you don’t come often, you can catch up by rooting through the archives (in the right hand sidebar –>). Oh, and don’t forget to leave comments when you visit (at your convenience of course). We always love to hear from family and friends. (But, please, don’t comment anonymously; we’d like to know who we’re hearing from!)

So, here’s a quick rundown to catch you up to speed. We live here (and will be here for another 11 months). Our apartment looks like this:
Dave studies philosophy here and Barb babysits this little dude: (His name is Brayton) And we are both fans of the Aggies and are looking forward to football season (although Dave a little more so than Barb… ok, a lot more so).

Well, there you have it. The quick and dirty. Come back often (it might be worth it to bookmark the page), drop us a line when you get a chance.

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