Emily's Random Thoughts

Happy Holidays

2010-12-14T18:01:00.001-08:00

Bright And Merry Christmas Card

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Drop Box

2010-10-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Beachouse with kids, Grandma and Aunt Dawn

2010-08-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

At Megan and Jay's wedding with sleepy baby girl and sunburned Dave

2010-08-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

chopped it off!

2010-08-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's hot! 95 again today, so I decided to chop off my hair again. Just as I have recently been able to get it in a ponytail, I unregrettably cut it all off and love how much cooler I feel already.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Dinner

2009-11-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

Local, vegetarian and delish!!!!!!!!!

David and I hosted thanksgiving again this year but with a different twist. We challenged ourselves to make it all vegetarian and as local as possible. So when choosing our side dishes, we used what is in season and what we could get at the farmer's market. Mom made the stuffing, which could not abide by the local rule and of course, cranberry sauce from the can was not local. But we made red skinned garlic mashed potatoes with kale flecks. Also, we had roasted butternut squash with garlic and pine nuts. The main dish (if you want to call it the main dish), that replaced the turkey was soy protein patties that resembled chicken I guess. But David made this awesome gravy that was the essence of thanksgiving flavor. It was a success and we had no complaints from even the most stubbon meat eaters among us.

So many next time we'll stick with all local to step it up.

I don't have dessert pictured, but we had pumpkin pie and apple/cranberry pie, ordered from Tidal Creek Coop- they use all local products whenever possible and holy yum they were too.

Thanksgiving diner complete with nursing baby. She never wants to be left out of mealtime.

Good and Bad

2009-10-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Good: popcorn and chocolate after dinner snack- that's popcorn and a bite of chocolate to quickly follow. Repeat. Rearranging successfully! Growing into super stinking cute clothes that are so so snuggly! (Fiona, not me) New season of Fringe. *Was ok with it.

Bad: New season of Grey's Anatomy. Max under my feet constantly! Getting needier every day. But I am not walking him twice a day like he's used to. Bad bad Mom. Growing out of clothes already. (Fiona, not me). Got a bad grade but... go above to *

Vegan Pesto

2009-08-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of nutritional yeast? Yes? Well, not me, but that's because I am a really unadventurous cook. Wish I wasn't but I'm working on it. So that is all you need differently to make vegan pesto and believe you me, it tastes exactly the same as regular pesto! Everyone is all down on vegan diets because it is so scary to imagine life without cheese-and yes, cheese substitutes rarely make the grade. But get some nutritional yeast at the store-I got it from Tidal Creek in their bulk bins. Any major grocery likely has it I guess. I've never looked. Anyway, so make pesto just like usual but add the yeast in place of cheese and voila! It's so yum and has no animal products in it. That's my dinner tonight that I will share with my friend Hole. And I plan on making a bunch to freeze. Apparently with upcoming baby I should have frozen dinner stuff ready...that's what they say anyway.

Get on Twitter!

2009-07-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Family and and friends,

David will be using Twitter to communicate updates and photos for Harley's entrance to the world. You don't have to be tech savvy to use Twitter-and it's free-and you can cancel it whenever if you are anti-social networking. But it's super easy to get info out to everyone this way.

So go to twitter.com and sign up. Then do a peoplesearch for David Grace and emilyrosegrace and click on the follow button for each of us.

If you have a smart phone, get the twitter app and it'll automatically tell you when you have a new posting. If not, go to twitter.com to see our postings.

It's also a cool way to get updates on what's going on in your community, in the arts scene and in the news and weather. But whatever. It's what my internship is about this summer, so I am totally engrossed in all things Twitter.

Let me know if you have any problems!

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - Trailer and Photos

2009-07-22T08:22:00.001-07:00

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - Trailer and Photos

I became a totally vegetarian on 7-7-07 after watching Fast Food Nation on the Live Earth Day. I hadn't eaten much meat anyway before that, but what little I did eat was just disgusting to me after seeing that movie. Not so much the animal torture and cows standing in ankle deep feces, but the images of meat packaging plant employees getting seriously injured on the job and even being killed by the dangerous machinery in the plants kept replaying in my mind. It's just not worth it. And the environmental impact of meat for consumption is unbelievable.

I live 2 hours from the largest slaughterhouse in the WORLD-Smithfield Corp. It's pretty much where everyone in the world gets bacon and pork products. And it is a poor poor community with horrific pollution from animal waste runoff. Good ol' NC.

So I am trying to lessen my carbon footprint in the biggest way possible by not supporting the meat industry at all. Some of my friends say they just can't imagine life without bacon. So be it. Eat bacon, but cut out something else. Anything. Even a little bit can collectively make a huge difference. I went to see Food Inc. last night with two of our meat eating friends who are gradually starting good environmental habits like planting a vegetable garden and using their own grocery bags. They are so cute and tell us every time they realize they can do something else and how it's actually pretty easy and fun. These are two of the bacon people who announced to me after the movie last night that yes, they actually do want to lessen their meat consumption and will stop complaining about how much it costs to eat locally and organically-it is worth the cost. Amazing.

The thing is that this movie was not like Fast Food Nation-it wasn't scare tactics and shocking images. (There were some very sad clips of chicks getting handled pretty harshly though). It was educational and talked about not just meat but about agriculture of all kinds and how huge corporations have their hands in politicians pockets (and are often the same people-CEOs and Senators and heads of the FDA) so deep that there is zero oversight and such a conflict of interest in what is best for citizens. We are kept ignorant about what is in food and where it comes from in order to protect the profits of these multinational food corps who have long since closed down family farms all over the world.

So I feel smarter, a little more empowered and pretty dang hopeful by the large turnout at this movie last night. I have a feeling the farmer's market will be a madhouse this weekend but I will most definitely be there.

It's only 90 minutes. Go see it. Or put it in your Netflix queue.

Jon and Kate Sighting in Wilmington

2009-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

David saw Jon and Kate plus all 8 walking down third street in Wilmington yesterday! Next time you see him, you can touch him and feel special :)

Atlantis, here I come...

2009-05-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

My doctoral classes ended last week and we started a new session this week. So much for a summer break! Two classes, one about technology, one about poverty-very cool but holy workload! They end in 4 weeks so major assignments are due constantly with a ton of reading and online videos.

I thought I had smartly planned out the assignments for this week so I would escape to Atlantis this weekend for our babymoon without the overhanging dread of having something due. I worked every day this week to prepare. I even scambled during commercial breaks of Grey's last night to finish a web posting. I slept soundly last night...

To only be welcomed with an email from one professor this morning asking where my assignment was that was due last night. Yup, I turned in the wrong one early. The one I finished wasn't due till Monday. Ugh. So I am already behind. But I just buckled down, focused little at work and just finished part of it.

Why am I doing this to myself? Why must I always be in school? I don't know. It's like saying why I run. It's frustrating, dreadful sometimes and I always feel great when I accomplish something. And it will give me a little pay raise when it's over. And I will be a doctor-that's just too cool. But I hope I can get it all done before 3:00 so we do nothing but relax this weekend.

David keeps sending me text messages every hour with a countdown to departure. :) This picture below says it all. It is really that beautiful there. Send us some sunshine and warmth! I can't wait to try on my maternity bathing suit! Oh, good news, speaking of my thunder thighs-no weight gain this week and I am where I should be weight wise now and measurement wise-just like my big sister...awwww.

Not Worth It!

2009-05-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was so proud last week to have grocery shopped last week for $99 with LOTS of stuff. I focused on the buy one get one free things-which really means buy one for half off and you don't have to get two (just learned this wonderful news from a friend and apparently everyone already knows this but whatever). So despite the fact that I have put on some baby weight a tad faster than recommended, I was eager to see what ice cream was on sale. Breyers? Edy's? Maybe some B&J's? Nope to all. The only one was Mayfield ice cream. Never heard of it? Yeah, me neither but they had a huge selection so thought it can't be all that bad. So I got some coffee ice cream, because how do you screw that up?

Later...

<---- fake flavor fine print

I took out my Mayfield coffee ice cream after dinner when I noticed some fine print on the lid-artificial flavors added---what? Why would anyone need to add artificial flavors to coffee ice cream? But whatever. So with the first taste I realized what a dreadful error I had made. It tasted like saccharine and radiation poisoning and coffee. So so sad! I would have done anything at that moment for some Breyer's coffee-and I felt foolish thinking that Mayfield would compare. So I did some research and here's the next thing I will try when I see it: Five by Haagan Dazs-every flavor has only 5 ingredients and it is all natural baby!

So, lesson learned- it was not so much the money I wasted on this BARGAIN but the major let down of being in my pjs with my mug and towel of nasty ice cream.

Space Cadet

2009-04-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

My friend Megan asked me last week if I have noticed myself becoming clumsy for more forgetful at this stage in my pregnancy. I am feeling lazy, yes-preoccupied, yes-but not clumsy or forgetful.

So we decided to get a yoga routine going to get motivated. Friday we did the AWFUL AWFUL yoga video that another friend Megan gave to me. Picture a porn star leader with Hilary Clinton and a teenage neice as the two other people in the workout room. OMG-it was so comical. But nonetheless, I guess between the laughing fits we had I still got in some good poses.

Saturday morning my leg was KILLING me-charlie horse pain that woke me up and then a sore leg all day. It felt worse Sunday, and still even worser today (Monday). I am walking like a penguin, waddling around but because of the leg, not the belly. How ennuiyeux!

So here's the forgetful part-it's finals time and everything is a dang GROUP project. Tell me, who enjoys group projects as adult students??? Nobody! We want to all make sure things are perfect and hate relying on others who might slow us down or bring down grades. Anyway, I was in charge of compiling every person's contribution and molding it into our final paper. I got lots of work done at school Friday and saved it to my flash drive. Then I left school to go home. Then I realized I forgot my flash drive. But hark! That's ok because I had emailed everyone the updated report. But when I check email later that night I learned that I emaield everyone, yes, but did not attach the report to it.

So I could not get into the school until Saturday afternoon but got that flash drive-yay! Then comes today. I got to school to realize I did not have my ID badge or room keys to school. So I went back home between students to search our clean as heck house but only because we shoved everything into drawers and closets to make it look clean this weekend. An hour later, no id, no keys.

I go back to school and succumb (SP?) to just fessing up that I lost them and need replacements. But a teacher told me that she found my keys and id in my office door knob-wait, how do you spell doornob, doorknob ??? I looks wrong either way-wow.

Tonight my group has to present our report to the class. What will I forget this time? Probably everything I am supposed to say. Because do I feel like preparing notes? Not at all.

Anyone have remedies for sore left calf? I ate a banana every day Mom!

And do I try yoga again this week? I did order the fitmama dvd as recommended by Dawn.

Waiting

2009-04-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

I had to stop watching 24, even though I LOVED it the first season, merely because I had to wait like 1.5 years for season 2 to begin. Same with Lost. Why all the waiting? I just don't understand.

My boyfriend in high school was very cool and had a pager. But it annoyed me to no end to page him and then wait for him to call back. Pagers, ha. How ancient those seem now.

I went to the eye doctor, you know those super bustling offices, recently and was made to wait for over an hour. For the EYE doctor! Then part of me was kind of annoyed that my eyes were just fine. All that waiting and no problems. Guess I should be grateful but you know what I mean.

For the last ugh, 2 summers, I have applied for every job possible and waited and waited for something to work out. Now I am trying a different approach by looking for a teaching job and contacting the director directly but I now wait to hear back from her. I seriously hope I won't have another summer of waiting.

I went to Mom's house yesterday and saw why I am the way I am. Her livingroom was completely taken apart with new walls and plaster and magazines out to inspire her on new colors for the room. She was curious about what was behind the old paneling and then suddenly she was knee deep in a huge project. But that's the fun part. The bad part is HAVING to wait.

I rearranged the livingroom and man room again this weekend. In the process I grew to realize how badly we need a new couch and rugs. But alas, that is not in the budget right now. How will I survive having to sit on this couch now that I hate it? I will just die!!

Sparkle

2009-04-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

1. Get a cat together.

2. Buy a house.

3. Get knocked up.

4. Go to jail and wed.

5. Get engaged.

6. What's next?

This picture does not do it justice at all to how sparkly it is, but here's the basic idea. I finally have it sized just right and hope the humid summer doesn't swell me up too much to keep me from being able to wear it. It's so stinking gorgeous!

Neighbors

2009-03-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

This week has shown me the need to have contact numbers for all of our neighbors. Last year when David's rocking chair was stolen off the front porch, we created an email list for the neighborhood to keep everyone updated on what's happening and if someone was going out of town or remodeling or whatever. That was great but has slackened. We even forgot to tell everyone about staying with friends for 2 whole weeks while the bathroom was getting redone. So now I will reconnect.

Sunday night an ambulance pulled up in front of our next door neighbor's house and the neighbor was of no help to the EMS guys who said they needed to get to the garage apartment behind the house. There is no access to the apartment from Castle street, even though that is the apartment's address and what 911 had. So we told them to go through our yard to get to him. Him is Willard, our wonderfully sweet neighbor who plays jazz on his trumpet and saxophone every day and serenades us when we are in the backyard. My heart and stomach tightened as I realized that EMS was going to him. He has had 2 open heart surgeries in recent years and no longer drives because he had a heart attack while driving last time.

The thing is that Willard lives alone and has risky health issues and we never once gave him our phone numbers. We felt really foolish and helpless as they went up to him and eventually walked him to the ambulance-apparently he also got kidney stones this time and tightening of the chest. So while we would likely have called 911 too, he may have called us way before symptoms were bad and we could have driven him to the hospital. Whatever, I don't know. But it was really wrong for him to go through that alone when we are 50 feet away.

Then Tuesday night David came home at 11:30 to find our next door neighbor's two American bulldogs on their front porch. These are GIANT dogs who are not socialized and are walked on tight leashes when outside. But here they were, outside, alone, at 11:30 at night. And barking their low pitch, rumbling, scary barks. Not thinking too much of it, David came in and went to bed. But in the morning I heard the barks once more. And to my shock, they were on the front porch, alone, completely loose. I saw them from the window and was scared to go over to their door to knock and tell them to put the dogs up. And hark! We don't have their phone numbers either. So we called a friend of theirs who didn't answer. Then we called another neighbor who didn't have the number either. We didn't want to get them in trouble by calling animal control or whatever, so we crossed our fingers that they would get them inside. And an hour later, they did. And I saw as I went out to my car that the makeshift barricade (sp) they had for the dogs was knocked over in the backyard.

So this weekend we will get everyone's phone numbers and reconnect. It never felt necessary to have to ever call people who live next to us but this week has taught us otherwise.

Monster Sandwiches at Dad's

2009-03-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

So every summer growing up, Mary and I would spend about a month in the middle of nowhere, NY at Dad's house. He would go to work every day and Mary would spend most of each day watching bad movies and going for wildflower walks. I would watch those bad movies too but would concurrently be windexing the smoke-covered walls and windows. It was Fantastic actually, and boy did it smell up the place with fumes.

And for lunch each day, Mary and I would make monster sandwiches. This is not every kind of lunch meat sandwiches, but really salad bars in between two pieces of bread. Celery, cucumbers, carrots, mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, meat whatever...but it seemed that each summer our sandwiches became taller and more yum. Today for lunch, I ate a cucumber, carrot, provolone, mixed greens and mustard sandwich that took me back to those days.

Don't get me wrong. We also ate our share of frozen pizzas and hamburger helper, but the monster sandwiches were always the best. AND, I think I recall that we would watch Days each day while enjoying lunch :)

Mom probably was watching it too, though she swears she just had it on occasionally in the background while working...

Pictures from David

2009-03-24T11:24:00.001-07:00

22 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Pictures from Emily

2009-03-24T11:01:00.001-07:00

40 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Thursdays

2009-03-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

I think Thursday should get more props than it does. It's near the end of the work week, and there are never faculty meetings on Thursdays. So staying after school is not an imperative. Usually open houses are earlier in the week too. There are three good days coming up, and all that crap you have to get done next week still has time to get done. By crap for me I mean schoolwork-not that my schooling is crap but it's still work to do and that cuts into my fun time. So, happy Thursday!

Thursday for me is one of my running days too. It's the day after the gym day where I have worked out my muscles just enough to be sore enough to keep me motivated to keep going. And

HELLO! It's Grey's Anatomy night, and we all know what a high quality show that is! :) Irregardless (as my vet says), I still look forward to it and still usually cry at some point in each episode. Lately it's been crying at how BAD it is. But didn't you all cry when Izzy hooked up with her dead boyfriend? Week after week after week?

Tonight I look forward to rearranging the bedroom furniture during commercial breaks.

LoTide

2009-03-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend I completed my third annual 5K run on St. Patrick's Day weekend called the LoTide Run, http://www.lotiderun.org/. It was a dreary, cold, drizzly Saturday morning as we (my running partners and love partner) made our way to Carolina Beach. David and Megan were attempting their first ever 10K for this race, but Deirdre and I stuck to 5K. We all finished in pretty respectable times, and though it was a chilly start, the weather was refreshing for a run. But the worst part of this race is that it ENDS with a stretch on the beach. Sounds pretty and all, but let me tell you- when the sand is soft, running is impossible. So we busted our butts for 3 miles (almost) and then hit this massive wall when our feet could hardly move across that sandy finish. So anticlimatic. But as always, breathlessly crossing that finish line is a wonderful feeling.

This popular race raises money for local folks who are struggling to pay medical costs associated with cancer, and started in memory of an avid beach runner named Steve Haydu who died of cancer a few years ago.

The best part about this race, though not for me this year, is that you get free beer afterwards. Yes, it's only 10 am but it's St. Patty's Day, so it's not too early. We listened to the Malone's, our friend Joe Irish band, after the race as we downed free muffins and bananas too. The day could not have been more Irelandish. David and Megan felt great, and David finished within his time goal at 1:05 37.

My results

37:58 2007

35:22 2008

35:43 2009

Though I ran this a smidge faster last year, I was a good 11 pounds lighter last year without a melon constantly pressing on my bladder. As my first with-Harley race, I am very proud and look foward to the next one in 3 weeks.

Even Steven

2009-03-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

You know how everything relates to Seinfeld or Friends? So today's is about Seinfeld when Jerry realized that no matter what he did, everything always balanced out for him. He lost $20 and then he found a 20 in his ski jacket. and so forth

So today I realized this big time as I was running really really late for work. I was scrambling to pack up the car with all the stuff we had accumulated staying at Meg and Jay's for 2 weeks. This is wishful thinking that the bathroom will actually be all done this afternoon. Anyhoo, so I am taking load after load of stuff to the car and realized that it is about 20 minutes later than I usually leave for work. And I never get to work early in this job. No need to prepare stuff for a class or make copies or prep anything really as an ESL support person. So as I am headed to work 20 minutes late, I have a the biggest craving for a root beer. I am about to pass a drug store and my instincts just forced me to drive into the Walgreen's parking lot to get an A&W. So I am now even more late. But I wasn't even rushing-didn't feel like I really needed to.

Anyway, there was no traffic getting to school (because everyone was already there), so it was super quick. And when I walked into the building, the bell just then rang. I STILL wasn't late after all that.

So now I am waiting to get something to balance out the financial burden of having to get a new fridge when we just had enough money saved for the bathroom. Hope that will happen soon!

But on a happy note, this A&W is so stinking good!

Speaking of root beer, back in college I was driving with my boyfriend Graham from Penn State to New Jersey to visit his parents. Or maybe it was from New Jersey to Boston...anyway, he was speeding in his Taurus SHO (he was very cool) and got pulled over. I was drinking a root beer, the kind that comes in brown glass bottles, and the cop totally freaked out on me that I was drinking beer beer. I have never been pulled over before (I am a good driver), and it scared the bejesus out of me having a cop yell at me like that. He took it and smelled it and should have laughed but totally didn't. Oh, this post also reminds me of Cesc. He has an A&W t-shirt.

Neverending Projects

2009-03-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

As we are winding up our 2 week bathroom renovation, the wheels in my head are spinning for what project to tackle next. David and I usually talk about what things we want to do to the house at times when we do not write anything down...then the list gets lost in our memories and we fail to prioritize. So in an attempt to get organized about what to do next, I have made a list. It was also a time killer during a recent test administration at school.

I am designating things that require gobs of money with $ and things that will improve our energy use with an E. I can't wait to start crossing things off. In no particular order:

$E 1. Insulate attic (David says under the house too). The insulation up there is about as old as the house-and the plumbing we discovered in the bathroom this week verifies our 110 year old estimation.
$ 2. Build a front coat closet in the livingroom.
3. Install a hallway attic access with pull down ladder and seal off existing access (which is in the baby's room right now!)
$ 4. Add a small second bathroom to the master bedroom.
5. Install real shelves in the laundry area.
$ 6. Build closet doors in front of the washer/dryer.
$ 7. Build a screened in porch on the upper upper deck.
8. Paint the front porch to eliminate the black rails and ceiling and change the front door color for variety.
9. Put weather guard over a/c unit..
10. Improve the side brick pathway.
11. Make compost barrel. (sp?)
12. Get gutters for shed and put rain barrel back there too.
$ 13. Re sod backyard with correct kind of grass. Yeah, boo, we got the wrong kind last year and it is patchy watchy.
14. Paint a cornhole scoreboard on the back of the shed :) but so it's not ugly.
15. Pine straw and weed front yard and by street.
16. Install iron gate at front of side pathway.
$ 17. Get tree trimmers to cut back oak tree branches quickly sucking all the sunshine out of the backyard.
18. Install interior french doors in hallway to block off livingroom when needed. (Habitat Store)
19. Put doors on shelf unit in the kitchen.
20. Fix/replace back bedroom window (holy drafty!!)
21. Install pet door somehow, somewhere.
$ 22. Finish hardwood floors.
$E 23. Add screen door to front door.
$E 24. Get a new fridge.

OK, don't know how to be fancy and cross off the list, but the last one is done. The fridge officially died this week. We don't know when, but it was many days ago as indicated by the amount of funk that was growing on things. We have been staying with friends while the bathroom has been torn up. That was fun tossing rotten food out of it last night. Bleah! The new one will be here in a week.

Nutty Bars

2009-03-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

So I have been really good about running at least 2 days a week with my running girls. We have even upped our game by running around Greenfield Lake (4 miles) lately. So to keep things going, my random conversation with Deirdre was me asking her to name all the things she ever brings for lunch. I have been uninspired lately about what to eat for lunch. Anyway, she names the basics-sandwiches, leftovers, fruit, yogurt, granola bars...then she says she eats a nutty bar (yes, little debbie negative nutrition bars) frequently too. I think she may have said daily. So that was all it took to begin craving these nasty devils all the time now. I did the stupid thing today of looking at the nutritional panel on the box and it was not good. Not a surprise, but it's like looking at the fat content of New York Super Fudge Chunk. You just don't do it.

And last night I thought of my brother in law as he is at home with a fever today. He loves strawberry ice cream like nobody's business. So I was good and returned a few items I got from Target last night, but I could not make it out of the store without ice cream. Cesco's favorite kind jumped into my hands. So I watched the Biggest Loser on TV last night and ate half of the pint.