I Tattoo for You

I was worried that Aaron would forget all about me while he was up doing his very serious internship work, so while he was watching a movie and not paying very much attention to what I was doing I gave him a little tattoo to remember me by. He responded in kind and gave me the most beautiful unicorn tattoo I have ever seen. Yes, look closely, that's a unicorn with a rainbow and a heart. Aaron also paid special attention to the unicorn's smile.

I asked him if I was to die if he would get a tattoo of my name to remember me by. He said "No, they're ugly." I asked if he would if it was my dying wish, he replied "No, you wouldn't ask that because they're ugly." I asked, "Even if it was my dying wish? I'm dying in your arms and I ask you to get a tattoo of my name, you would say no?" Aaron's concession? Yes, but only the temporary tattoo, the type you put on with spit and only on special occassions, like my birthday or our anniversary.




Are you wondering what's up with the ugly hat? I found this hat at the SPCA sale and it made me think of Ignacius from the Confederacy of Dunces and couldn't resist buying it. It's irressitibly comfortable. I love it. Battle hates it. Anytime we leave it within his reach he attacks it.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday. Aaron and I celebrated by driving down and visiting my family in my home sweet home state of South Carolina. It was a lot of fun. What makes a better birthday than a great husband, a happy family, old friends, home made fresh peach-cherry ice cream and pounds and pounds of home made boiled peanuts? I am trying to resist eating them all in the first week but I've already devored three bags in the first day! (In my defense, I did have a little help)

When I returned to Charlottesville Steve, Amy and Eliza surprised me with a yummy ice cream cake and well wishes from Marty. The side says Happy Birthday. It was a good time. Just look at Eliza. See how excited she was.

My Wild Time Alone

When you are all by yourself it means you can do just what you want to do. I can take up the whole bed instead of being confined into a tiny tiny tiny sliver of the side. I can eat crackers on the bed. I can jump into the pool with my clothes on instead of changing into my bathing suit. I can paint sitting on the floor and wipe my brush on the rug or my pants instead of a paper towel. I can control the Netflix queue. I can listen to distractingly loud music that is not in Italian or French. While I enjoy this freedom, I miss Aaron's company more than anything else, even more than the crackers in bed which do taste better that way.
To pass away the lonely hours I draw and spend time with the handsome man above, Marty Stouffer, the creator of Wild America. I watched Wild America through all of my developmental years in the 80s and consequently have an irrational devotion to it. Devotion aside, it's a great show. It was made before all the wildlife "naturalists" wrestled down vicious predators but instead spent days stalking even small mammals like a mink to get natural behavior which for me makes it absolutely fascinating. Off the top of my head here are some of my favorite episodes:
Owls Lords of Darkness
Grasshopper Mice - A whole show on desert mice that turn out to be ferocious predators who howl after every kill. If you are wondering they usually kill grasshoppers.
Ringtailed Rascals
The one on Antelope
The one on possums
The one on Turkeys (which has two parts)
The one on swamp bears
The one on wolverines
Fishers in the Family - Marty stumbles upon a road killed Fisher, determines she is a nursing mother, tracks down her den in a snow storm, retrieves her kits and brings them to his house to be raised along side his two year old. Awesome.

Aaron and I stumbled upon the first six seasons (12 disks) at Sam's club and immediately purchased it. I'm saving up for the next box set, seasons 7-12. Hours and hours of fun are just waiting to be had.

What did you do this weekend?

Surprise, I had a baby! And you didn't even know I was pregnant, did you? Just kidding. This is my niece Eliza Mae Meldau Morrison. She has a new blog, run by her parents, that some of you may be interested in checking out. Being such a doting aunt, I am here and now providing free advertising. Her blog has been added to my link sidebar. If you would like to know what I really did this weekend check out Randal and Theresa's blog. (See link sidebar again.)
PS I am NOT a photogenic person as you can probably see (note the strained attempt to smile), that is why there are not a lot of pictures on our blog.

It Kills Me!

I have started to really love my bike rides to work. I still wheeze up some of the bigger hills and the helmet hair is pretty ugly but I've become much faster which makes each ride much more fun. And in just two weeks I've dropped a pant size. My conscience has also been enjoying the satisfaction of being "greener."
I've also been very proud that I've managed to not get killed by all the giant vehicles around me (SUVs, delivery trucks, buses, trolleys, bulldozer-yes, one was driving down the street a few days ago- etc). I even get to go faster than them a lot of the time. I was beginning to feel like I had triumphed but it looks like they might get the last laugh after all.
In the New York Times article "For Athletes, an Invisible Traffic Hazard" by Susan James, it turns out that athletes who work out outside are increasingly exposed to air pollution, putting them at serious risk for asthma, heart disease and other nasty life-threatening problems. According to the article, "athletes typically take in 10 to 20 percent more air, and thus pollutants, with every breath as sedentary people do" AND "during exercise, low concentrations of pollutants caused lung damage similar to that caused by high concentration in people not working out" AND women JUST living in areas with poor air quality were far more likely to die from heart attacks than women living in areas with good air quality. It just goes to show, as nice as it is to save the whales and the spotted owl and all those other lovely animals, which I am all for, we really need to save ourselves from ourselves.
You can read the article here.

I'm in Love!

I'm in love with Flight of the Conchords, a new comedy on HBO. Do I have HBO? No. I have the internet where I can watch it for free. On HBO and Youtube. They also have the first episode on podcast. All of which I highly recommend because it is HILARIOUS. Brett and Jemaine, both New Zealanders, try to make their way to folk band fame in NY. Sadly, New Zealand seems similar to Idaho in equipping young men for social situations as they both employee Napoleon Dynamite like skills to navigate their lives. For better or worse, the band has a manager, Murry, a hapless New Zealand bureaucrat who runs band meetings out of the consulate office. They also have one lone fan who is more stalker than fan, but you take what you can get, right?

I'll Stand With You and Marvel

Bill Cosby said something like you can tell you're in love when all the stupid pop song lyrics start to make sense. Listening to my music, every once in a while a song will stand out and I'll think that is JUST how I feel! And while this is probably pretty mushy, there's a song I've been listening to lately that reminds me just how much I love Aaron and why I want to spend the rest of my life with him. It's called Cast a Hook in Me and is by Laura Veirs. You can check her out and listen to the song here. She'll be performing at Black Cat in DC on July 21st, my birthday weekend!!!