carrie and family

new site and new house

2010-04-21T16:09:00.002-04:00

Get ready for a new design coming! I am *almost* complete with my new site design. It took a minute to get familiar with how wordpress works, and to tinker with their stylesheets and php code... but it's almost done. I have to admit, I'm not loving it as much as I liked designs I've done in the past, but it will work. The archived posts work much better than blogger, and the ability to page through past posts is WAY more intuitive. I've just got to finish the flickr page to view the photo albums, and it's ready to launch! Just in time to meet the May 1st deadline that Blogger gave to turn off the old site. So sometime within the next two weeks, I'll make that push over.

Regardless of this site, we've been through A LOT in these past few weeks, not the least of which is our ever enduring house hunt. But I'm happy to report that we. found. a. house. That we both agree on. That's in a nice area. That's close to where we currently live. Drawback: it's a foreclosure, and since we are going FHA, we have to hope that we can handle any repairs the FHA appraisal requires since the bank won't do any. We made an offer on the house for a little above asking price, and we heard back in a week that they accepted our offer. So we have a ratified contract, the FHA appraisal has been ordered, and now we are in "sit and wait" mode while they schedule it, and send us a copy of the report. We're trying to remain calm since anything could still happen, and we need to be able to walk away without being too depressed. But we're still excited. It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath colonial, with a yard :) Has a basement and a HUGE attic, that could be finished off fairly easily. One of the bedrooms is definitely small, but could easily house a kid until we're ready to upgrade (or remodel to make it bigger). For a foreclosure, it's in GREAT condition, and our home inspection didn't find any major repairs, other than the stove not working. The floors are hardwood and in great condition, and the place has been really well maintained.

So we're crossing our fingers that everything turns out ok... and I'll definitely update once we know anything!

epiphanie camera bag

2010-04-07T09:59:00.002-04:00

PhatStraps is giving a way a new Epiphanie camera bag! I LOVE these bags, but their price tag is intimidating... so I'd jump for joy if I won this one (and I love the Belle style, which is what they're offering!). So if you are in the market for a new camera bag, check them out! I'm also ordering a PhatStrap as we speak... super fun!

http://www.phatstraps.com/phatstraps-giveaway

Time to upgrade the camera backpack :)

black bean brownies

2010-03-23T16:03:00.002-04:00

Black Bean Brownies... the thought SOUNDS disgusting, but apparently they are all the rave right now. And at only 2 pts (98 calories) per brownie (the recipe makes 12 servings), that's definitely worth trying!! And everyone keeps saying how amazing these are, and they just get better each day they sit out. So I'll post this recipe for anyone else in a baking mood, and wants to lighten up their dessert fare:

Black Bean & Avocado Brownies
carascravings.blogspot.com

1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 of a ripe avocado (60gm)
6 tbsp cocoa powder (30gm)
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons white sugar (75gm)
2 teaspoons instant espresso

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper.

Combine black beans, egg substitute, agave syrup, and avocado in food processor. Blend for a few minutes, until completely smooth. Add remaining ingredients and continue blending until fully combined, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Spread into parchment-lined baking dish. Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the brownies comes out clean.

These are best if you let them sit overnight before slicing and enjoying!

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 98.0
Total Fat: 1.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 134.6 mg
Total Carbs: 19.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.7 g
Protein: 4.2 g

online backup and healthcare

2010-03-22T08:36:00.002-04:00

I've been diligent about backing up my computer for as long as I can remember, and while I've only had a major crash once, it was one time too many, and I was SO glad I had all my files close by. However, I've gone through not one, not two, but THREE external hard drives, and quite frankly, I just don't trust them anymore. That, and I am running out of hard drive space with all the photos/videos we have of Ben... and I need to find a good solution to free up some disk space. I have burned DVD's of the photos, but I also have panic attacks about a fire, theft, irreparable scratches... anything that would cause me to lose those precious photos forever.

So I started investigating online file storage. It sounded so simple, just have a place where I can dump all my files to an online server, where someone else is backing up nightly, and maintaining their servers. At first the prices seemed steep, but slowly, more and more people are using servers and services in the "cloud", and voila, now there are plenty of options for storing files remotely. I found a slew that offered "sync" services, where I could designate a folder to "sync", and it would copy all the files to the server, where I could then access them from anywhere via the web, or via another computer with the same software. I have a "Dropbox" account (www.dropbox.com), but I don't use it as backup, rather, as a way to copy large files between home and work. Even though that would solve my "backup" file problem, it didn't let me create an "archive" where I could then delete some files on my local drive to free up space, without also deleting it from the server from the sync process.

So then last night I finally stumbled across "Jungle Disk", that uses Amazon's S3 service to host your files. You only pay for the storage you actually use via Amazon, and the desktop software is only a one-time fee. Then it shows up like a network drive on your computer, so you can just drag the files you want to save remotely to it, and voila! Instant backup and archive. Perfect :) After I use it a little more extensively I'll write another review, but so far so good!

And I did all of this research while Joe and I waited for Congress to vote on health care reform last night. I have to say, I'm a big fan of the "health care for all" initiative, and I'm still secretly holding out hope that they include a public option somehow. I don't think anyone should be bankrupt or in dire straits just because they got sick or injured. It's a broken system, and even if this effort isn't perfect, it's about time somebody did SOMETHING to change it. So kudos to everyone last night!

Now off to find an external hard drive for Joe... he's not quite at the "online storage" solution yet. I can find a decent external to clone his drive, in the event of a major failure, but he doesn't house photos or documents on his drive. His most important commodity is his music collection, which we can definitely store on the USB drive. We need to take his laptop into Best Buy to check on an earphone problem (whenever you disconnect the earphones, the onboard speakers stop working all together), and I know dropping it off warrants an automatic hard drive format, regardless of the issue. So we need to have it copied before we do that this weekend!

Wish us luck with THAT ;)

rtca dinner

2010-03-18T09:29:00.003-04:00

Joe and I attended the RTCA dinner last night, and we had a GREAT time! The food and entertainment wasn't near the caliber that it was last year (no JibJab, no Obama, and no Honey in the Rock) but it was still fun to see some newsmakers in person. We caught Joe Scarborough and Candy Crowley standing near us at the reception before dinner, then Donald Rumsfeld walked past us in the lobby. We watched Michael Chertoff and his wife introduce themselves to the new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and his wife, and even Miss America as she posed with folks for photos in her crown :) We didn't get to speak with anyone personally, but maybe next year :) And even though it was a weeknight, we loved having a reason to get dressed up in our formal wear... not many chances to do that with a toddler lately!

This weekend we are travelling on Saturday to visit with friends, and then Sunday begins Softball practice with our crew from the Argonaut! This marks our 5th season of playing, and it's always great to see new faces :) We lost of lot of players this year, but hopefully we can make up ground and win a few games :) With Ben at my side, I won't be playing, but I'll be dutifully teaching him the rules and how to cheer his Dad on from the sidelines :)

The weather has finally lifted and the past few sunny days have been WONDERFUL. I love spring in DC, and am looking forward to meeting up with my photography pals during the cherry blossom festival. I hope to snap some great shots of Ben while we're there, to get some classic "DC" shots. I'm trying to "earn" a new lens since I refuse to spend any more money on my hobby until I can get my skills up to par. Should be fun!

sad day for my blog

2010-03-08T16:32:00.002-05:00

Sad news today, as I finally realized there was a little "warning" message above my blog letting me know that Blogger has finally decided to let go of their FTP service. Since I have more than one blog at this domain, AND I do other things not blog related with the domain, I loved that they ftp'd the files over to my hosting server. Not anymore. They are going to allow "Custom Domains" to be hosted via Google, still using a personal domain, but no more hosting your own files. I don't want to create a subdomain (like baby.carrie.cc)... so I have no other choice.

For the next few weeks, I will be busily migrating all my crazy posts back from late 2000 to now... I guess I better get cracking on the new redesign. I have to check to see if my current host supports WordPress, otherwise, I have another domain hosted at a local Lansing company that does, and I'll migrate all my sites to that server instead.

I guess it forces me to finally clean everything up, but totally wasn't planning on spending my future free time doing that! And I've been a loyal Blogger customer since way before Google and Blogger Pro... I even have a "Blogger" hoodie that they sent me while I was in college as a thank you for my patronage. *sigh* I guess I'm part of the 0.5% that they won't miss leaving.

But I understand, and Blogger, you will be missed!

Now, on to Wordpress fun filled nights... as the nerd in me rubs their hands in excitement ;)

where have you been?

2010-03-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

Oh website, you poor, neglected soul. Life has been CRAZY with for the past month since the snowstorm, and ok, no excuses, I've been lazy about updates.

So to summarize, our household has been sick, work has been insane, and I feel like I'm going to lose my mind in my house if it does not warm up soon, and let us venture outside. Our last "adventure" to have lunch at a nearby restaurant ended in utter disaster when our sweet innocent child proceeded to puke his entire lunch all over the table, himself, the highchair, and the floor, and of course we were seated right next to the front door so that we could greet all the new restaurant people with the smell of curdled milk. *gag* I was so embarrassed, I am not quite sure when I'll be able to show my face back there. Even though the entire staff was super nice about it, we'll be looking for other non-eatery places to visit, so if sickness strikes again it won't be such a catastrophe. Oy.

House hunting... we're going on what, 2 years now? Well, after the last blow up about houses and not being able to agree on anything, I think it's temporarily on hold. I refuse to go on any more marathon house visit days until we can actually find houses that we are both excited about, and are in areas that if we like the house, we would actually consider putting an offer down. We've been travelling all over to "take a peek" at some of these properties, knowing full well that one of us does not like the area, and so even if we *did* like the house, it didn't matter. Silly, I know, so we're going to go at this more strategically from here on out... mark my words. I want to own a house this year!!! I seriously didn't think it would be this hard, but we really have different views on our idea of the "perfect" home.

And the excitement doesn't stop there :) We're expecting some visitors next week as Joe's parents drive down to stay with us for 5 days (Wed-Sun), and we're all excited since they have not seen Ben since the New Year. Then for St. Patrick's Day, we bought tickets to attend the RTCA (Radio Television Correspondents Association) dinner that evening (woohoo, black tie!), and then MY parents arrive on Friday to stay for a few days. This will give us a chance to visit some other friends on Saturday, and we're so excited!

So fun events, the weather is supposed to warm up to the 50's this weekend, and I was invited to go out with a few of the mom's this weekend for a "Mom's Night Out" :) Definitely need that, and hopefully that will allow me to de-stress a little.

More photos coming soon!

2010-02-07T10:41:00.004-05:00

Well, here we are after another record breaking snowstorm! I can't believe we had TWO in the SAME season this year! After last December's record of 16", this February storm decided it could do one better, and the official count at Reagan National airport is 17.4". WOW. I think we wound up with a few more inches over here on the other side of the river. It was a constant pour from Friday through Saturday afternoon... I took a photo of our street outside my door:

We stayed snuggled inside... I have been on sick leave this whole week taking care of Ben, and then taking care of myself after I caught his cold. Joe even got to come home early on Friday before the snow really started coming down, and we've all been trapped inside since. Ben and I are starting to feel better, but poor Joe just woke up this morning with a full blown cold, so he can't even enjoy the snow day today, now that it's completely stopped. Today is supposed to be nice and sunny... perfect for playing in the snow. I might try and brave putting on Ben's snow pants and dragging him out there for a bit on my own ;)

But Lily and I were out early, and I took my camera to catch some early morning shots. We are EXTREMELY lucky that we live in a co-op that hires snow removal crews... so our walk and back parking lot are already shoveled. It doesn't bode well for my poor car however, which is barely visible underneath all the piles. It should be an interesting next few days while we wait to see how it impacts the city, and fingers crossed for a snow day tomorrow! We could all use one more day to get better! :)

Here are the photos I snapped this morning:

My poor Focus is under there somewhere:

2010-01-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

Update on our housing search: we're still at square one. We can't agree on houses. Joe really liked a house in Hillcrest, but I hated the yard (it was on a steep hill and didn't have a lot of usable space)... and I loved a house in Bowie but Joe didn't like the location being so far away from everything, and not having a direct exit from Rt 50. In his defense, I wasn't thrilled that the nearest grocery store (and ANY other store/restaurant, etc) was 15 min away, and that it took 30 min with NO traffic just to get back to the Hill where our friends are... but the property was awesome. We even saw a deer in the woods jump away as we pulled up! Not to mention the house was in great shape, lots of room, and the street was a cul-de-sac, so the traffic was minimal.

But we decided our first house needs to be one we are both excited about, so we're letting both go. :( I feel like we'll never find a place we can both agree on, but it has to be out there! Good thing we're not in any rush to move. We don't have any future plans to go out again, but maybe next weekend we can find a few more properties. Joe wants to stick to DC for a while, and leave out the Maryland houses until we're sure we can't find anything we like in the District. I'm hesitant to do that because I feel like we might miss out on something great... *sigh* I'm glad we have a patient realtor ;) In the meantime I'm gathering all our paperwork, we got our pre-approval letter, and I'm making a list of lenders so that when we DO find the property, we can jump on it. I'm hoping the spring market picks up early this year, and hopefully we find something sooner than later!

I haven't made any progress on practicing my photography skills. I have a 12 week lesson from "two peas in a bucket", but haven't been able to even get through the first lesson and it's already week 3. There's no time limit though, so I'll just get to it when I can!

Ben is doing better at his daycare. He still has a rough morning, and dropping him off is torture because he's a big freak out teary mess. But he settles down and is all smiles when I pick him up, so I know it will just take a few more weeks until he feels better about drop offs. Poor little guy... the tears are heartbreaking.

We hopefully will have some visitors soon... our friends from New York may come down for President's Day weekend. If they decide not to, my parents have expressed their interest in visiting Ben again, so *someone* will be here that weekend :) Should be a fun time!

So for now, we're still scouting out houses, and keeping our fingers crossed we can find something we BOTH like!

2010-01-15T12:20:00.002-05:00

Let the house hunt in 2010 begin!! We are picking up where we left off (just before the big blizzard!) in our housing search and touring houses this weekend. We're still not focused on a specific neighborhood, so we'll be out in the Bowie/Mitchelville area, the Brookland/Michigan Park area, and the Hillcrest/SW area all day tomorrow. We have quite a few houses that look promising, so here's hoping we have some good luck! Our biggest problem with our decision is that we hate giving up our current location because we just can't afford the $600k+ houses in our neighborhood. When we try to compromise by staying in the city, we give up yard/house space with houses in our price range... but when we find beautiful houses with big yards we can afford, we're out in the boonies and away from all our friends. *sigh* Such is life near a major (expensive) city. But I have faith we will find something... 2010 is our year to be homeowners, I know it! :)

This weekend is also a holiday weekend, as the federal government is closed for Martin Luther King, Jr Day. I'm going to try and get our house in order (still haven't put away the suitcase from our holiday travels) and also practice some more with the camera! I hope to get some cute shots for a "Valentine's Day" theme with Ben. I found a new site for photography tips, at www.thebump.com. It's a pregnancy site by the same people who bring you www.theknot.com, and their message boards are great, and the photography sub-forum is fantastic. We mostly talk about shoots with kids/babies and people, but there are some pro photographers on there that can give advice on almost any subject. I've learned a few new tips and I'm anxious to put them to practice! It's about time I started really getting my photos to shine!

I've also been trying to make a concerted effort to get back into my weight loss routine since returning from vacation. I was down 14 lbs from Sept to Dec and on a roll... but then over the holidays gained back 3 lbs, and I've been holding steady for the past two weeks. So it's time to check back in and start the ball rolling again. I'm only 10 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm still 27 lbs away from my goal weight. So I've got a WAYS to go, and ideally I'd like to be there by summer! I've got 6 months, so that should be PLENTY of time to do it right! My work is planning a weight loss pool, where you figure out your BMI, and the person who after 90 days has the biggest percentage of loss wins. My goal is 12 weeks, 12 lbs... totally doable :)

So lots of things on my "to-do" list... cleaning, organizing, photos, website, and fitness... let's see how much I can get done in a weekend! ;)

2010-01-08T09:51:00.005-05:00

I really wish I had more time to play around with my digital camera, and to take a class or two. I have a few books, but free time is sacred around my house, and I usually use it to just RELAX and breathe for a second :) Anyway, as I figure out the best settings on the "manual" mode, I still have yet to perfect the settings for different lighting. If I remember to set the aperature right, I forget about ISO and my photos end up grainy. Or blurry. I think if I had a better lens it would help *slightly*... that and a good flash other than the one that is built into the camera. But I think it's more about me just making sure I've remembered everything, and I know they'd be turning out so much better. Case in point, my photos from Christmas of Ben... I completely forgot I had turned up the ISO to get the low light shots at my in-laws, so when I went to take outdoor shots of the snow, they came out super grainy. But I didn't notice until AFTER I downloaded them onto the computer and blew them up... there was no way I'd see that on the little preview display on the camera. Doh! They still came out ok, but could have been SO much better.

(My in-law's backyard, in upstate NY)

But regardless of the photo, I have to say, Joe's parents live on some beautiful property :) The snow scenes were timeless, even if it was frigid and scary to drive on. I just wish I could have caputured it better!

New York Snow Day

So I'm working on it... if anyone has some tips that they use to make sure they've remembered everything when they are shooting, send 'em along! :) Or if you have tips on some nicer lenses (for portraits, low lights, or action) let me know!!

2010-01-04T13:28:00.003-05:00

And since we're in the new year, new decade, some reflections on the past...

This past October marked the 12 year anniversary of this domain, www.carrie.cc. TWELVE YEARS I've had this address... and oh how it's changed. From simple html "about me" site, to webcam (which I started to enter and win a contest at Michigan State) to photo album to full fledged blog and family site, it's had its ups and downs. This year will actually mark the 10 year anniversary of the "blog". Before I hosted it at the new "Blogger" service, I was manually updating the text, and wasn't saving any archives. But since its beginning, I've used this site as a way to practice new development and enhance my programming skills. I'm no graphic designer, but I can hack my way around a CSS template :) I'm still working on the redesign right now, since I want to drop the "first baby" site now that Ben reached his first birthday, and incorporate a more "family" feel. This site has been and will remain the main source of news and history of myself and my family, and (from the emails I get) my far-flung family across the nation appreciates it :) Especially those who are not tech saavy enough to embrace the facebook/twitter world, but can easily find my website and check back every now and then. Hello, family :)

Aside from the site, this decade will bring a lot of new changes to my little family. On the social message board I participate in, someone posted a fun poll about where you were in 2000, where you are now in 2010, and where you hope to be in 2020.

In 2000, I had finished the majority of my classes for my degree at Michigan State, but accepted a full time position working for an internet start-up, and did not end up graduating for another 3 semesters while I finished part-time. I LOVED my job working for Control Room Technologies in Lansing, building web applications in Cold Fusion. My coworkers always inspired me, and I still keep in contact with most of them. I gained so much knowledge and skills, I could not be where I am today if it were not for my experiences there. I had planned on finishing school and continuing my full time employment with the company for many years to come. I was single, but dating, and had no plans on leaving Michigan for any reason. Late that year, I brought home my first pet, a cat named Bailey.

In 2010, from Michigan to Illinois, I'm now working for the federal goverment in Washington, DC. Still doing application development, but my skills have shifted from web apps to Windows Forms development, in a senior role, supporting volunteers overseas for the Peace Corps. I'm celebrating my 3rd wedding anniversary, and enjoying my 13 month old son :) We have a 6yr old yellow lab Lily, and two cats, 10yr old Bailey and 9yr old Poof. I'm absolutely loving my job, my family, and our life on Capitol Hill.

In 2020, I hope to still be in the DC area, but possibly off the Hill, with a home of our own (with at least 3 bedrooms and a yard). I'll be celebrating 13 years of marriage, hopefully with another kid and definitely with animals of some sort :) My career will stay in the technology field... I love this too much to stray. I hope to continue to watch this site grow and develop, and can't wait to see what's in store.

Happy New Year everyone! Can't wait to see what happens!!

2010-01-04T09:17:00.003-05:00

What a vacation. We had a wonderful time with friends and family... but I'm seriously done with snow for at least 10 years. If I never see snow again, I can't say I'd cry. We had clear roads and blue skies when we left DC, and our travels to Michigan were dry and easy. But our trip on Monday night from Michigan to NY was absolutely, hands down, the worst. drive. ever.

We had a fantastic Christmas with my family, spent some time with my sister and a few friends, and said a tearful goodbye to my childhood home. Since my parents were leaving bright and early Wednesday morning for Tennessee (they were packing up the last of the boxes as we left Monday night), I knew it was the last time I'd ever see the inside. I couldn't believe how many memories I was leaving behind... but gave it one last farewell, and we were on our way.

We left at 7pm, and headed to Jamestown, NY (half way) to spend the night. We took I-90, got around Ohio, into Pennsylvania, and the snow started. Joe and I chatted about what exactly "lake effect snow" really was, but really it was no worse than any other weather I've driven in before. A little windy, but the roads were still clear. Joe even mentioned that if I was tired, we could stop earlier, but we were less than an hour away from our hotel, and I was confident we'd be fine. Until we hit Erie, PA. All of a sudden, it wasn't just the wind... but it was the SNOW. And we hit it hard. We stumbled into an area that had already been hit by snowfall, and the plows had not been able to clear the roads yet. It went from ok, to "oh my god where's the road" in about 5 minutes. We were in 0% visibility, on a road that we've never travelled before. It was so bad that I literally could not tell the road from the shoulder. We crawled to the nearest exit which showed a "Gas" sign... only to find zero gas stations. Or hotels. Or ANYTHING. We were in the middle of rural Pennsylvania, south of I-86, east of I-90. Nowhere to stop, two lane roads that had not been plowed, it was a nightmare. I was terrified we were going to wind up in a ditch and stranded... so Joe took over driving and I desperately tried to navigate to anything that might still be open at midnight on a Monday night, in a snow storm. I used our GPS which also shows "points of interest"... only it didn't have ANYTHING within a 20 mile radius. So I turned to my trusty iPhone, searched for "gas" and "hotel" and even "food"... again, nada. We out of sheer luck stumbled across a BP station in the middle of nowhere (and it was NOT on the maps we had!), and even though it was closed, it was at least off the road.

We started to weigh our options. We had a quarter tank of gas, and while we WERE only about 30 miles away from our hotel, it was 30 miles of unplowed roads in 45 mph winds and lake effect snow. So Joe pointed out that the gas station probably would open early, and since it was already 12:30am, it was only a few hours away. So we decided that we'd stay put, with plenty of food, water, and blankets to keep us safe. Ben was sound asleep, and didn't budge the entire time (thank god for comfy carseats!), and while Lily wasn't too happy about laying in the back of the car all night, she was safe and warm on blankets and pillows.

So we spent the night in the car, alternating turning the car on and off to keep warm. The temperatures were also frigid, in the single digits, dropping negative double digits with the windchill. The coldest I have been in a long, long time. But we were still fine, bundled up and running the heat every so often. And Ben was nice and toasty and still sleeping like the angel he is :)

By 5am, the gas station still had not opened, but we noticed plows going by, the snow had subsided, and cars were starting to go by more regularly. So we decided to backtrack to I-90, and find the nearest gas station there. We made it, and decided to take the long way around Buffalo, NY, through Syracuse and south, hoping those roads would be better managed. The roads were better, but we were still fighting bands of snowfall with 1-mile visibility. And while 1-mile is better than 0 and daylight better than darkness, it was still really tough. We got to Syracuse and took a mini-break by going to Target :) Ben needed to get out of his carseat, and we needed a break from the stressful driving. So we recharged ourselves, and then headed back to the car to continue the drive. We FINALLY made it at about 1pm, and I've never been so happy to see my in-laws ;)

And it snowed the entire stay in NY. Santa was smart and brought Ben some snow pants, so on the day where the temperatures warmed to about 40 degrees, we gave Ben a first taste of snow, and he loved being pulled around on the sled :) The other days, the temperatures dropped again and the wind picked up, so we spent most of our time inside, watching Ben play with all his new toys.

Our way home was uneventful... once we got past the NY border, the snow lightened, and then we hit clear roads all the way to DC. All in all, we had a great time, but it will be a while before I'm ready for anymore road trips :) I was glad to see that the snow from our "snowpocalypse" storm in DC had almost all melted away... like I said, I'm done with snow for a LONG time ;)

So now it's back to work, and unpacking. I was able to get through a lot of our photos while we stayed buckled down inside over vacation, so I'll find time to upload those tonight. Here's hoping everyone else had a great holiday! :)

2009-12-21T21:36:00.000-05:00

We're getting ready to take off for the holidays this year... we'll be in Michigan for the Christmas celebration and then we're back up to New York for the New Year. 11 days of vacation, woohoo! We just got hit with the craziest snowstorm for DC... the official count is 16.4 inches! It's the worst we've ever had for a December storm, and #6 of the top ten worst storms EVER! Crazy! So we were able to stay in and get a LOT of housework done before we jump ship :) And of course, get cute photos of Ben :)

Speaking of the ship, we've been dealing with neighbor drama for almost two years now, and it really just needs to stop. Warning: this is a long story, but I just need to vent about the whole situation.

We live in the upper part of a townhome, after previously living in a one bedroom basement apartment of a townhome around the corner (same complex). Having been a basement apartment dweller, we are aware that you can hear your neighbors above you, and pretty much just chalk it up to one of the drawbacks of living in the basement. These buildings were not built that well (in my opinion), and they really didn't consider the noise filter between the upper and lower units. That said, we never, NEVER complained to the people above us that they were being too loud. Especially if it was due to their just living normally in their apartment. So we were really taken aback when someone new moved in below us and started to complain about our noise. And yes, the people that lived above us when we were basement dwellers had multiple parties, and had a dog that was even bigger than Lily. We still never complained.

Maybe I should start at the beginning. We moved into our current upstairs place in 2006, almost four years ago. Previous to the current basement resident, we met the downstairs renter and they were really nice. Never complained about us at all, and was quite friendly. But they moved, and enter new person. Immediately, we see she had posted a note on her trash can about not throwing dog poop in her can. So someone (probably one of the 101 dog walkers we see in our neighborhood) had obviously used her can to toss their dog waste. But I immediately felt defensive, and I told Joe that I bet she thinks it was our dog. But whatever, it wasn't us, and being a responsible pooper scooper, I always scoop and put it in our own can because I appreciate how disgusting it is when it's not your dog. But I had suspicion that they already had a grudge against us for that "offense".

Then came the floor pounding. Before even knowing her name, our neighbor downstairs made it blatently aware that whatever we were doing (read: nothing) was disturbing her, and she proceeded to let us know by pounding on her ceiling. Hello, neighbor, nice to meet you too. Now, if that were me, I wouldn't assume that my upstairs neighbors were TRYING to be loud... they probably had no IDEA that they were bothering me. So rather than be RUDE, I'd probably make a trip upstairs to give them the benefit of the doubt, and let them know that I can actually hear most things that go on in the apartment, and if it was anything that they could help. But ok, that's not her style. Strike number two for us. And I should mention, the ceiling pounds came at daylight hours... we're not talking about 2am wild parties here. And this was pre-baby, so we weren't even up before 8am most mornings, especially weekends.

Then came the Sunday afternoon visit. Joe was listening to music on his computer in the living room, and I went out to walk the dog. Now, when I left, the music was not loud... I could carry on a conversation with Joe without yelling, in the same room. It was 2pm on a Sunday. I came back, and the music was off, and Joe told me that our neighbor had paid him a visit, upset that we didn't seem to realize that she lived below us and could hear us. Um, what? It's Sunday afternoon. Seriously? But ok, I wanted to talk to her directly, so I knocked on her door, and apologized. I let her know that we were not in any way trying to annoy her on purpose, that to us the music was completely acceptable (and I should also note, with our windows open you could NOT even hear the music from the street). But that obviously it bothered her, so we'd try all we could to minimize the disturbance. She seemed ok with that, and I gave her my cell phone number to alert me if we started being too loud in the future. So I really tried to be nice, and we really did try to minimize our noise after that. I even wrote her before we had a big party for the Super Bowl, to warn her that we might be louder than usual, and that she was welcome to come up. She didn't stop by, but I was still making an effort to be nice.

Then came President's day weekend. We had visitors in from out of town, and they have small kids (a 5yr old, 3yr old, and 15m old). So yes, unfortunately they are early risers, it comes with the kiddo territory. BUT... they were only here for the weekend, and it was still not obnoxiously early. At 9am Saturday morning, we were talking in the kitchen, and I get the call from our neighbor downstairs. She requested that we not be talking in the kitchen this early. Um, if anyone knows the layout of our apartment, there's the living room, and kitchen, but it's one big open space, so there's really no place for us to go. BUT, I apologized and let her know that we had people in from out of town. We tried to be as quiet as possible, but like I said, it's one big room, and I'm not about to not talk to my friends that just drove 7 hours to be here just so someone can sleep late on the weekend. Especially for just ONE weekend, it's not like these were permanent guests.

Fast forward to Sunday night... our guests were still here because the Monday was President's Day, and so they were staying an extra night and leaving the following morning. We were watching movies around 10pm, and our friends were getting up to get snacks, drinks, etc from the fridge. I get a call from our neighbor that we are being loud, can we not WALK in the kitchen. Um, what? Now I can't walk in our own kitchen? Seriously? BUT, I told our friends to limit their travels, and when they reacted with surprise, I told them that we need to be considerate, and we do have to make compromises since we do have neighbors that live below us.

But then at 6am the next morning, my friend brought her 15m old downstairs to watch a video, since that's his normal waking time. She tried to keep him quiet, but then when he had to have his diaper changed, he let out a wail (typical 15m old behavior). My neighbor apparently has had enough at this point, and pounds on the ceiling, scaring us and the baby. Now, I finally lost it. After defending her ridiculous behavior and complaints, I stomped back on the floor, and that was the last straw for me. If she couldn't meet me half way and realize that there are sounds we can NOT control (aka walking normally and LIVING normally in our apartment), then I was no longer playing nice guy and trying to limit our activity. She made it clear she wasn't compromising even for one weekend, even for a BABY CRYING... so that was it. I was done.

So a few months later, Joe starts having a busier schedule, and his normal work ending time pushes later and later. We move eating an already late dinner together from 8pm to 9pm... leaving me to do the dishes around 10pm. So after two nights of running the dishwasher at 10pm, I get a phone call from our neighbor asking us if we could please not run it at that time, since that's her bedtime (and no, she's not an 80yr old woman, she's a young girl in her late 20's), and her room is right below the kitchen. Now, if this had been BEFORE the President's Day weekend nonsense, I would have been more than happy to move it to the next morning... but I'd had enough. So I ignore her calls... and the 3rd night she knocks on my door. She asks if I had gotten her voicemails about not running the dishwasher, and I told her I had. She asked if I could please not run it, and I said flatly, no. She was suprised, and tried to figure out why on earth I couldn't wait, and at first I tried giving excuses about needing the dishes for the morning (half true), etc... and when she sarcastically offered to buy me extra dishes, I lost it. She argued that we live in a "community" and that we need to be respectful of other people's schedules. I had to stifle a laugh because I could have said those exact words right back to her. Joe obviously did not have her same work schedule, so shouldn't she mind her own words and be considerate of our schedule? (seriously, what if I was a nurse working midnights or something?) I finally told her that since she had not been willing to compromise, neither was I, and that I could not help that she could hear us. That I was sorry, but she was going to have to put up with hearing us living above her. She left in a huff, and mumbled that she "would see what she had to put up with".

Things were quiet for a while... I found out I was pregnant and actually laughed that if she thought we were loud NOW, wait until we have a screaming infant that needs to be fed at 2am. If she thought I was going to tiptoe around while he's wailing, she was dreaming. But after Ben was born, he was actually a very good baby, and we didn't have too many 2am screaming matches (lucky them)... but he was (and still is) an early riser, which means early (often before 6am) trips to the kitchen to make his breakfast.

Then we had Ben's baptism party, which started after the 9am mass on a Sunday in June. We had people over (about 15) and one of the kids was playing with a ball in the living room. All of a sudden we felt a familiar "boom boom" on the floor, and it was our friendly neighbor reminding us by pounding on her ceiling that she still hated us. So we apologized to our guests who were really taken aback by the noise, and just laughed it off.

Now, if you haven't noticed, I'm fairly involved with online communities, and yes, I have a twitter account. I am always searching for nearby people I know, and low and behold, I stumbled across our neighbor downstairs, and her twitter account. And why, look there, her boyfriend that lives with her (we think he moved in after the dishwasher episode) has one, too. I saw that they commented when they were out of town, so I began watching their feeds to see if a) they complained about us and b) when they were leaving so we didn't have to hold our breath when the dog ran after her ball too loudly in the living room. I'd laugh at the ridiculous things they would complain about, but mostly it was harmless chatter. Until last month, when "the boyfriend" complained that he should nominate us for Biggest Loser because we are both "obese" and walk like Godzilla through Tokyo, waking him up before 6am. At first I laughed, but then I couldn't let it go. I replied to his tweet that, again, it was NOT our fault that they lived in the crappy basement apartment, and yes, feeding a baby before 6am trumped giving a shit about the downstairs assholes (in shorter, twitter conversation, of course) :) Silly? Absolutely. Petty, probably. Immature, definitely, but I never said I didn't have my moments of weakness :) But so was his comment.

So that's where we stand. He watches my tweets, and still complains about us being too noisy. I'm sure Ben's jumping in his jumper and Lily chasing toys really sets them off. They still just can't fathom that we have every right to LIVE and WALK in our apartment. That it's not our fault that this place was built poorly. Honestly, if it really bothers them that much, they really need to live in a place that doesn't have upstairs neighbors, and let someone else less sensitive enjoy their space (like the person before them). It's not our weight... I won't claim to not have some extra baggage left over from my pregnancy, but I'm only 5'1 and certainly not obese by any means. If they can hear us WALKING and just a ball bouncing, I don't care how much you weigh, you shouldn't be able to hear that level of noise from the upstairs apartment. Again, not our fault, and we are NOT going to tiptoe around our own house, during NORMAL DAYLIGHT hours, just because they can hear us. And do we have 2am parties, and blare our music constantly? No. Of course not. That's what is so ridiculous. Everything they've complained about is from normal living. And Ben isn't even walking yet. :)

By the way, look out neighbors... you think WE walk loudly... you haven't heard anything until you've heard an 18 month old barreling around. Soft isn't in their vocabulary, and I'm not about to restrain him in his own house.

But as much as I am annoyed by their ridiculousness, I really wish we could have gone about this in a different way. I am not a hating kind of person... and I was really hoping we could have called a truce and figured out a way to make things civil for both sides. But I'm pretty sure we're passed that point, and I don't get the impression that it's their way of handling issues. Oh well... some day one of us will move and we'll both have peace again. I will say that I avoid laundry and the dishwasher after 10pm... I'm not TRYING to piss them off. Too bad I can't say the same thing about them.

Ok, off to dinner (yes, it's 9pm)... and back to making neighbors crabby!

In the meantime, Ben's about to start walking, so I hope the neighbors enjoy the "peace" they have now :)

2009-12-05T14:52:00.002-05:00

Jill is giving away a Dyson on her baby rabies blog... definitely check it out! :)

I'm hoping to win, since I think our Oreck's day is numbered. They just don't seem to pick up as much as they used to, and they have no attachments so that we can get things like the couch. Even though it's not the Animal Dyson, which is what I really lust over, any Dyson would be an improvement over what we currently use. My not-yet-walking toddler would appreciate it, I'm sure :)

2009-11-23T21:56:00.004-05:00

It's heeeerrreeeee.... :) This post coming to you live from my new MacBook Pro! It's awesome! Within 10 minutes I had downloaded over 100 photos from my camera (SUPER quick by the way), and started a slideshow for Joe. Then opened them, edited them, uploaded them to flickr (straight from iPhoto), and voila, here they are!

I still can't believe how fast everything is! I love being able to hold my computer in one hand while I walk around the living room, and now I can actually sit next to Joe on the couch and do stuff, instead of moving to the desk all the time. I'll have to test out the videos and Photoshop tomorrow night, since I have some work to get done before tomorrow... but oh yeah, this is AWESOME :) Another big thanks to my husband Joe, for letting me geek out a bit over this whole thing. Ok, maybe geek out a LOT, but hey, it's worth it! :)

2009-11-23T15:20:00.003-05:00

Well, the MacBook has been delivered to Joe's office, so I have to wait until he comes home from work tonight to unleash it :)

This past weekend was hard... and not just because I'm anxious about the laptop :) Ben woke up at 11pm on Friday night screaming, and cried for 3 hours, once so hard he ended up puking all over me. Did I mention that I'd had a fever, complete with chills, headache and tiredness that evening? UGH. We both felt miserable. I had the sneaky suspicion however, that it was another ear infection for Ben. He was exhibiting the same symptoms... crying for no reason (that we could tell), especially after burping or yawning. So after we pumped him up with some tylenol to kill his pain so he would SLEEP (hey, four hours is four hours, I'll take it!)... we took him to the dr. on Saturday morning, and they confirmed the ear infection. Ugh. But, after a power nap for him on Sat and me on Sunday, now we're both back to feeling 100% :) Just in time for the holiday, thank goodness! I can't imagine the hell that would have been travelling with him in that state. And needless to say, we didn't go house hunting this weekend. So that's on pause until after the Thanksgiving break.

So we're all set for our travels, and I just ordered a carrier for my eagerly anticipated MacBook. The Waterford Design sleevecase:

Silicone Pop Culture: Waterfield Designs Sleevecase (his review was on the VAIO, but it's the same sleeve for the MBP)

Waterfield Designs

I can't wait til it gets here! In the meantime, I had ordered a neoprene case, but in my haste, wasn't paying attention, and accidentally ordered the one for the MacBook Air instead of the Pro. Oops. So I'll just return that one, and take care of it gingerly until my cool new sleeve arrives. I'm so stoked!

My first priority will be to get Win7 up and running via Bootcamp or a virtual machine, so that I can port my Photoshop license over there while I wait for the Mac version. Then I can play with photos that I take over the weekend, as well as the videos I've been meaning to download off the video camera... fun fun!

Argh... can't wait to get home! :)

2009-11-19T09:15:00.055-05:00

Well, I can take down my referral link below... because I got a new MacBook Pro for my birthday from Joe!!! Woohoo!!! I ordered it on Monday morning, and it arrives this upcoming Monday, in time for me to take it with me over Thanksgiving break :) It's a 13" 2.26 Ghz MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM and a 250GB Hard Drive. I got the smaller one because I wanted it to be more portable, and I want to set up an external monitor at home, which is where I do most of my heavy work anyway :) I'm so excited... I can finally burn movies to send to the family, and really fly when I'm editing photos (and no longer pray that my laptop doesn't overheat and just shut off when I'm in the middle of a project).

So it's a great birthday so far... I'm 31 years old today, and couldn't be happier. We're still house hunting... nothing has screamed out as us yet. We are going out again this weekend to see a few more houses, but the inventory list is starting to get shorter, as more people wait until spring to put their houses back on the market. But the houses we have on tap for this weekend look promising! They all have basements, with a decent yard, 4 bedrooms, and in our price range... so hopefully one of them will really catch our eye!

We are off to Thanksgiving in New York next week, and Ben gets to meet his Uncle Mike for the first time! Then we have our family portrait session for Ben's 1 year birthday, and then we will be in Michigan for Christmas. My parents were not able to sell their house by the holidays, so we get to stay there one last time :) Next year, we'll probably spend the holiday in Tennessee, which should be fun!

Anyway, things are going great, I'm enjoying my birthday today, and still waiting for that perfect house to jump out at us.

In the meantime, I just have to put a shout out for the bakery that I love out in Columbia, Maryland. It's called "Touche, Touchet", and we get samples of their work every week. It's AWESOME, and they've won contests for their cakes!

Carrie Nelson is a fan of

Touche Touchet Bakery & Pastry Shoppe

I may be a little biased, but seriously, their cheesecake, brownies, parfaits, cookies, cupcakes, pies, you name it, has been fabulous :) Definitely worth checking out if you are in the DC area!! :) You can also follow them on twitter, at twitter.com/touchetouchet

Ok, that's it... I hope to post my next entry from my new MacBook!!! :) :)

2009-10-26T12:34:00.002-04:00

So, I sold out and signed up to do a referral program for the MacBook Pro. Basically, if I can get 27 people to sign up at the site and complete an offer (the Video Professor offer you pay $3.95 S/H and then just return the cd's right away), then I get the laptop for free. So, if you want to help, great, click below:

http://Laptops.Megafreebie.com?referral=13872

Otherwise, just laugh at me and wish me luck ;)

2009-10-26T11:56:00.002-04:00

Phew... what a month this has been. Joe and I got back from Labor Day, and I feel like it's been CRAZY since then. I have a constant list of things to take care of, and I feel like my head is spinning. There's baby dr. appointments to take care of (flu shots, sick appts and regular checkups), getting his photos, Joe's birthday, holiday plans, house hunting, getting help with Lily via a trainer, bill paying, weight loss, work assignments... GAH. All happening at once. I feel like I need a personal assistant just to keep track of all this stuff! Wish I was a celebrity so I could afford one ;)

The house hunting is going ok. I think it works for us and against us that we have no rush to move out anytime soon. FOR us, in that we don't have to compromise on something that we really don't love. AGAINST us, in that because we are not settling, we haven't found a house that has ALL of what we want. We found a house (that I posted on facebook) that is VERY, very close... but it's out in the suburbs in Maryland, and Joe isn't convinced that it's where he wants to be. I love it, and I think it would be great for us... the house is in beautiful shape, pristine condition, has a gorgeous in ground pool, neighborhood is great, good location... yada yada yada... but the one item it's missing is a room to "entertain" in... or just hang out. There's just a dining room and a living room... and the ceilings are only 8ft (standard, but for Joe that's the lowest they could go). So it's not his ideal setup... if we have people over and the kids are in bed, there's no place for us to go... OR if the kids want to play, we can't send them downstairs or what have you. So, it's kind of a minor detail, when thinking big picture... but it may be a deal breaker for us. We'll see. I'm still holding out hope that this may be the one for us... but no decision has been made. Still talking it through and weighing our options. So like I said, the "no rush" factor has its pros and cons :)

In the meantime, we're enjoying our place. Joe just got a new Dell laptop for his birthday, since his old one was 5 years old, and on its last leg. Now he's got the new Windows7, and doesn't have to wait forever to do anything on it :) I'm still chugging along with my HP laptop... which the DVD drive no longer works. I'm saving and scouring for a Macbook Pro, and determined to get one within the next year.

Ben is rapidly approaching his first birthday, and I'm trying to decide when/where we should have his first birthday party. I found a studio nearby that I think will take great photos to mark the one year milestone, and I hope we get a nice family portrait from there. He's doing great, but still no crawling. Just scooting forward on his belly, and rolling everywhere. His language is doing great, and his fine motor skills are good... just the gross ones that seem to be giving him trouble. I have a feeling he's going to just start doing stuff overnight... but we'll see! He's still as happy as ever :)

Work is going great, we've moved onto a temporary project using SharePoint and workflows. It's fun to do something a little different for a while and learn something new.

So work is good, house hunting is going, and baby is great... nothing to complain about! :)

2009-09-09T18:49:00.002-04:00

We made it back! I have 500+ photos to download off my camera, and we had a great time! Before I left, I had been messing with my DVD burner, trying to FINALLY get my camcorder movies off the hard drive and onto a media to share... and failed, miserably. So I put them on the portable hard drive, and tried to do the same thing on my Dad's laptop (who also has an HP). Wouldn't you know, his works. So over the weekend we were able to burn everyone DVD's of the baptism and of Ben's delivery day. But in doing so, it made me realize how broken my laptop is (3 hrs of render time to convert my videos vs. the 14 hours it took on mine). Since we are still saving for the house, I of course can't afford a new laptop, and will use this one til it dies completely. But in the meantime, I'm now lusting over the MacBook Pro's... and saw the refurbished ones going for $1299. *sigh* Almost there! I'd want to upgrade the memory myself, and possibly the hard drive (if that's easy to do)... but even out of the box it kicks my laptop's ass ;)

But in the meantime, this one will have to do, and I can keep on dreaming. Who knows, maybe Apple will launch some crazy new notebook this fall before Christmas, and drive the price down for all the others ;)

Off to download photos!!

2009-09-04T09:35:00.008-04:00

July 20??? That's the last time I updated? Oy! Well, in my defense, the baby site has been getting more frequent updates... someday I'll find the time to combine the two, so that the updates don't seem so far and few between :)

House news = no news. We're still saving, and looking online. But no tours of open houses or anything yet. We're still waiting til the end of October/November to really get serious. And even then, we're still in no big rush!

Travel news, I'm off to NY tonight to meet up with Joe who left last Sunday. He took Lily with him, so it's just been Ben and I all week! We've had fun, but I miss the Bean and Joe. My parents are driving from Michigan to meet us in New York, and we are really looking forward to the annual Labor Day party on the lake! It's always fun, and it's Ben first! :)

Computer news, my laptop is ready to bite the dust. The DVD-RW drive no longer works, and the computer still randomly turns off if I try to edit more than 10 photos at a time via Adobe Bridge. Forget trying to run ANY video software. The DVD-RW drive reads cd's and dvd's, but won't write anymore. Which means my fancy cool HD Camcorder now can't be transferred to any media to watch on the DVD player. *sigh* I really need to replace it, and I will never, ever buy an HP laptop ever again. I had my eye on the Lenovo ThinkPad's... but I also really wish I could afford a Macbook Pro:

Yes, I would convert to Apple if I could afford it! I do more multimedia work on my personal computer than I do .NET programming, and even so, I can still run Parallel and install Visual Studio to do anything Microsoft related. But they are about $1000 more than any PC that I'd get... and there's no way I can justify that cost. :( Anyone have a Macbook they'd like to sell me? Or know of a leprechaun that grants wishes???

Other news, work is great, health is great, still working on losing the last 20 lbs of baby weight by Ben's first birthday. I'm still half doing Weight Watchers, and have successfully maintained my weight for the past two months. So now it's time to kick it into high gear, to get back on the losing wagon :)

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!

2009-07-20T10:59:00.002-04:00

So this weekend was fairly uneventful. Joe and I started our beginnings of house hunting again, and this time we have finally come to terms with the fact that we can't afford to stay in the city (well, in our neighborhood, which is where we'd love to stay). So we branched out and started browsing the suburbs of Maryland, ideally so Joe can still commute at a decent time. I will most likely always work downtown, so no matter where we move, I'll have a commute if our house is not in the city. We took this weekend as an opportunity to drive and visit the suburbs, and checked out Hyattsville, Ft. Washington, Oxon Hill, and Bowie. I liked the community of Hyattsville, but we actually wound up liking the neighborhoods in Ft. Washington and Bowie better. Granted, they are farther out from downtown, but it's almost worth it to me, to get a bigger yard (and even a POOL) :) This is the house we currently really have our eye on. It's got 4 bedrooms (2 upstairs, 2 on the main floor), 2 full bathrooms, updated kitchen and bathrooms, and an inground pool :) We'd have to put up some temporary fencing until Ben is old enough to swim, but it's a GREAT house from what we could see outside, and we really liked the neighborhood:

We unfortunately are not in a position to really buy a house until we have the downpayment saved... but we're really close, and plan to have it by October. So here's hoping this house is still on the market! If not, then I guess it wasn't meant to be... but we're really excited about it anyway :)

Joe's finishing up his softball season this weekend, with the end of the year playoffs the first weekend in August. Then the following weekend we head up to NY for the annual Lobsterfest party on Long Island, and then our next big trip is Labor Day weekend, back up to my in-laws. We're excited for both trips, and can't wait to see everyone!!

2009-07-16T10:48:00.004-04:00

Google voice took over Grand Central (which is the service I used when travelling to Illinois, to get a local number there).. and I'm interested, but not super convinced it will catch on. I've had my number for too long to switch it, but I do find the "call from the web" feature interesting. Want to leave me a voicemail? Try it! Enter your name and your number in the box, and Google will call you, and then connect you to me, free :)

I do find the voicemail transcribing and conversation recording options cool...

Billy Joel and Elton John woohoo!!!

2009-07-11T19:48:00.001-04:00