shhhhhh.........

i'm blogging at work, and i'm totally not supposed to...

i realized today that i never posted pictures of nyc or of the house. but the ol'laptop went off to the laptop doctor, and probably won't be back until later in august. i'm sure everyone's gotten used to me not posting. who knows--maybe i'll just get a mac-book and start a new .mac blog or something. maybe best buy just needs to give me a new laptop, even if it is another hp whose power charger something will melt and not charge. or whatever.

better go! you know how to find me, in the meantime...

coming soon...

wow. two months and ten days. elizabeth, thank you for still checking my blog.

a whole heck of a lot has happened since may 2nd, but i won't labor you all with the details. bought a house, in a wedding, moved into said house, unpacked a little, had a great housewarming party, worked a ton, paid some bills. that about sums it up. i think.

so here's what's coming soon: i'm going to new york! for work. for over a week! i'm going to the foundation center's grantseeker training institute for a whole week of grantwriterlearningship. and while i'm there, i'll be doing as much sightseeing and eating as possible. plans so far--sunday afternoon bastille day festival (be french for a day at a jam-packed street festival) tuesday night yankees game with some family that will be in town, thursday night ushering at a blue man group show (aka, seeing the show for FREE, thanks Dave!), friday night MOMA. other loose plans include bronx zoo, serendipity 3, going out on the town with cousins, museum of natural history, eating hot dogs and pretzels and ethiopian food.

also coming soon: pictures of the house. with stuff in it. maybe with painted walls. i have to clean some. i should have taken pictures at the housewarming, but i was too freaking frazzled and then it was too dark.

so here are some pictures to hold you over (or tide you over, as some would say)

i took a sick day wednesday, which provided me with the perfect opportunity to do a little photo shoot with miss june bug. these are my favorite two. don't worry, she's just yawning, but she looks so badass and ferocious.



















this next one is of two of the pieces ms. leah billings helped me select for our new house. we've bought a great couch, and leah helped us pick out this great table and lamp to go with it. no, that's not the couch in the picture, it's the old pooey one that's going in the other room once the new one gets here.

that's all i've got for now, people. that and my laptop is beelzebub (my computer actually spell-checked that word for me!)...the power connection is bunk, and earlier it was doing this: AC power on, AC power off, AC power on, AC power off, AC power on...you get the picture. it reminded me a little of wayne's world--camera one, camera two. only much less funny. keep it real.

huisje

well. here's the house! i know we haven't been keeping everyone posted on the process, but we looked at it twice, decided it might be the one (after lots and lots of discussion), and last night we had an accepted offer. today has been a whirlwind of phone calls, and we even got our inspection done already! it gets a pretty clean bill of health. we're supposed to close on the 16th. that's right, of may. i can't even believe it. we're totally insane. this month is crazy at work, and i've got something big every weekend--without all of this house excitement. anyway--to the pictures! this first one is, obviously, the front of the house. it's a good front porch, and there are hooks for a porch swing. the second is of the master bedroom. it's the only room with carpet, and i think we might leave it for a while until we can afford a big area rug to go under our bed--nari likes to crawl under beds, which is bad news for uncovered hardwood. this house has great hardwood! the second is from the front door looking back through the living room, into the dining room, and that door in the back is, well, the back door. the third picture is of the dining room. it's so big that i think we're going to put the table to one side and have a little sitting area on the other. the next two pictures are of the kitchen, which has plenty of room. trevor is pumped about the dishwasher. i'm pumped about the drawers and counter space. the next one is of part of the bathroom. i kind of don't like the tiling around the bathtub, but that's totally doable. and the last is of the garage apartment. yep, you read it right. once we get that baby fixed up, we'll be looking for a tenant. landlordship, here we come! not pictured: the guest bedroom/office with big picture window, and the big backyard with privacy fence, weeds, and a pile of cool old bricks.

so keep your fingers crossed that we make it over the finish line! no kinks so far...

let the househunting begin!

so we're not pre-approved just yet, but we are well on our way! it's so exciting! it could be a matter of months, weeks even (well, probably not weeks), before we're movin in to our own home. what a relief that will be! no more pet deposits, no more ugly paint we can't change, no more neighbors stealing our cable. of course, we'll be taking on heaps of responsibly, but it will all be worth it cause of a little thing i like to call "equity". and don't worry, that's not our dream house or anything. in fact, it's the huckster's old triple-wide! where we spent our "honeymoon". thaaaats right. now we just have to find a homey and pick out our mortgage product. go our team.

meet the june-bug

here's our new gal, june-bug. she's a cutie, and she's fitting in just right! she's had some health problems this week, but we're getting her all fixed up.


that's her on the left sharing food with tarzan, who is happy to have a kitty girlfriend. no, we didn't leave the food bowl there for long...
it took us about 20 minutes before we finally found her in the closet sleeping on trevor's sleeping bag.

she blinks more at the camera than tarzan tends to. before long it will be too hard to tell them apart.

the waiting.

gosh! so i've been sitting here for almost half an hour with all of my crap ready to do an over-the-phone mortgage application. the chick said i could call anytime this evening. now i'm worried to get caught up in making dinner. and what if she doesn't call until after 8. that would be a real problem as it's thursday.

this is the lamest post ever. maybe i'll download my camera pics to my computer and come back and post pictures from the past....um....couple of months.

this is just too much!

i don't know if this is old news, but this is one of my new favorite sites ev-er. it's the bible done lego-style. i think there are over 3,000 images. whoever did this is an artistic genius! i wish i had ideas like this...

that ho stole our cable!

um yeah, so i hate it that i'm starting off my first blog in a looooong time with so much negativity, but seriously. we've finally gotten our cable/internet back today. the verdict on why it was out for a WEEK to begin with: our little duplex ho of a neighbor STOLE IT! that's right. trevor said the cable dude came out and couldn't find anything wrong inside the house, so trevor took him downstairs to the "storage" basement that we share with the prostitute (i am actually pretty sure she's into something shady like that--pimp and all) and found that the line on our side had been cut and run to her side. it takes a freaking key to get in that room. i mean, come on, it's one thing to steal from the cable company, but it's quite another to steal from your duplex neighbors who are PAYING good money for the effing cable! whew. that's a lot of rant.

in the news: we had a great time with everyone at the oyster bar on saturday. thanks a ton for helping me surprise trevor with some birthday love! and sorry we never showed up, elizabeth, we kind of crashed when the last of the folks left our place (sad that it was only 11).

sunday (trevor's actual bday) was spent doing chores and running errands. one of those errands was to go to petsmart to get nari a prettier collar and to get tarzan some cat treats. well, we got those, but we also managed to come home with a cat. a real live one. a little pretty kitty. i know most of you are icky about cats and may never come over again, but she's precious. and nameless, at the moment. no, we are NOT naming her jane.

today was ex-hausting at work! we moved from the third floor to the fourth in the train station, and i am pooped! i'm getting all new office furniture, and today i put together my awesome rolly chair and bookshelf.

more to come later. must figure out wireless internet and move laptop to "office" instead of holding it in my lap in the bedroom.

em-ployed

hey folks. i'm employed! got the grant writing job i was hoping for. we're all moved in to the duplex (but far from settled), and we don't have internet yet...trying to figure out how to make it happen...no dialtone=no dsl. so, i'll be a bad blogger for quite a while, i suspect, as i'm probably not allowed to do such things from my grant writing computer...boo.

anyone watching the super bowl this year? trevor's kind of obsessed with the fact that the bears (as he would say: thabears thabears thabears thabears) are in it. so i'm making him hot wings.

un-employ-ment

yes. today is my last day at asyr. last time to post at work. because i don't have a job... well, sort of. i STILL haven't heard back about that grant writing thing, but i'm calling dude TODAY if i haven't heard by 4pm. i swear. seriously. how can they leave me hanging like this???

but we're moving anyway. saturday. so if you're feeling extra-friendly, give me a call, cause we will probably need some help unloading the freaking u-haul. that i am NOT being the one to drive this time! and if i don't hear from you, i might call you anyway (as is becoming my fashion--see above).

so...the last day at the office. nari came with me today. just wrapping things up here and there.

and one more reason i'm glad to be moving back to the big lr (by the way--we'll temporarily be in a duplex off of university and h)--underground houses are want to let water in when it rains four hundred inches. and ruin art and other niceties. yeah, lovely.

just keeping it real.

buying the cow

so...we're back. the wedding was great fun, and everything went smoothly. i don't have any pictures, so if you're reading this (ahem, leah, elizabeth), and you have pictures on your camera, be prepared for me to stalk you at some point...trevor's dad took tons of pictures on his film camera, which is apparently not working so well, so all of those "free" pictures i was counting on getting...only getting a small portion. i'm pretty bummed about that. i should have assigned my camera to someone...but my camera kind of sucks at taking pictures in dimly-lit rooms.

the "mini-moon" was alright. we spent most of the time in the car. driving to the degray campus. driving to hot springs for dinner (german food.mmmmm). driving back to the triple-wide (yes, as in huckabee's infamous). then back to hot springs for lunch (argentinian food.mmmmmmm). and then back to the big l-r to house hunt.

we've found a duplex off the corner of university and h. it's cute on the inside, and totally temporary. we're hoping to get ourselves situated and start looking to buy a house (that is, with the salary i currently do not have), or to move into one of the loads of houses around little rock that force you to commit to a one-year lease. geez, people. not everyone wants to rent for-ever! either way, we'll be getting back to having high-speed internet at home, which should lead to better blogging. well, more frequent, at least.

one freaking week!

i don't really know what else to say. . .

fully licensed...

...to be married!

so we got our marriage license yesterday. we could just go get married today...tempting, for sure, but i guess since we're in the home stretch of this whole wedding thing, we might as well go for the gold. just two and a half weeks! that's totally crazy. but exciting.

in other news: i've put in 5 applications for jobs in tennessee, and i had a phone interview yesterday for a grant writing job in little rock (thank you mattyp). i still haven't heard anything yet from the governor's office (that is, the governor-to-bebee), but i've got my fingers crossed for a policy research job. not counting any eggs before they hatch, though.

the office threw us a really nice wedding potluck/shower yesterday, and we got tons of goodies...some of which will certainly have to be returned, but it's the thought that counts, right? i feel a little guilty about turning in my notice after such a nice do, but then i remember that everyone brought chicken dishes even though most of them know i don't really eat meat, and we were given a wal-mart gift card (i'll admit, we've been a few times, but really...).

so that's your update. if i had faster internet at home, you'd be seeing pictures of erica's baby, pictures of our 4-foot chrismas tree and other goodnessess. alas, i do not...

does blogger hate me?

i can't get it to let me post comments on other blogs! first, i couldn't post yesterday on leah's blog. then, this morning i couldn't post on kristen's. and now leah's again! what's the deal, i wonder? my username and password are right (otherwise i wouldn't be writing this), and i get those scrambly letters right...hmmmmmm. it's like it doesn't want me to make comments.

not much news to report. need to get on applying for jobs. and wrap up wedding plans. sheesh.

WPWT

that's the pinkslip i'm giving myself: wrong place, wrong time. i've messed up. not supposed to be here. not now, at least. i'm almost to the 6-month mark at my job, and i'm coming to the full realization that it's just not the right fit. so now i'm in some sort of an existential crisis. what to do? where to go? what do i even want to do? i have almost no idea. and the ideas i have aren't realistic at the present moment.

so i'm looking for jobs. possibly any time of job. so, seriously, if you know of a job opening (almost anywhere, for real), pass it on, yo.

5 weeks and counting!

yes, just 5 weeks from tomorrow. it's totally creeping up on us! but i think we've got most of the details straightened out. i think.

i've actually got my bridal portraits tomorrow. i'm a little nervous about the weather...i'm supposed to leave home by 8:00 tomorrow morning, and we're supposedly going to have 1-3 inches of accumulated ice/snow overnight, and i'm not sure if it'll be clear enough that early for me to go down the 2 big hills that separate my house from the "greater batesville area", let alone all the hills i have to navigate between batesville and the rock. not to mention that all this rain can quite possibly equal disastarous hair for little brooke. that's the true downside to the curly hair--you just never know how it's going to turn out until it's dry, and by then it's pretty much too late. so i just cross my fingers and hope for the best!

i'm also having my meeting with the cake folks, and i STILL don't know what i want the cake to look like. i'm stumped! any ideas? ooh, and if you've got any clever ideas for first dance songs, i'm game to hear it.

venez t'ici, dinde

oh, man. if i could just get nari and tarzan to do something like that... i'd be set.

happy turkey-day, folks. tomorrow trevor and i are heading down to little rock to have thanksgiving, france family style. we're having a whopping record 45 people at our thanksgiving dinner!!! usually it's just around 30 or so. my aunt is maniacally amazing. i'm actually making a food contribution: vegan "spicy green rice" casserole. i've got a vegan cousin, and other people acutally enjoy the casserole as well.

friday will probably consist of lying around and scrounging for leftovers. i'll probably be ready to hit the booze by friday night, so i may give you little rockers a call. saturday we're off to a chili-cookout in honor of the to-be-wed joel and ashley. i'm super excited about getting to see them. and hopefully i'll get to see erin m., but you never can tell...

to all of you traveling: safe travels.

and for you non-francophiles, that's "come here you turkey". try it out on your mom this weekend. good stuff.

26

yeah, that's what temperature my car said it was this morning. a whopping 25 minutes ago! burrrrr. and after much trying, trevor and i FINALLY got one of our propane heaters to light. the gas people are gonna have to come out today and light the other one. we're weenies. i'm also glad that someone is going to come out and check out the BLACK MOLD problem we seem to be having in the masta bathroom--yikes. i just hope we don't die or something scary like that firefighter man. so all of this means nari is at the office with me all day long. fun stuff! she's finally learning to loosen up around my coworkers a bit. she even went right into marty's office without being invited. shame on her, but horray for slightly less shyness. now, she wouldn't let him pet her, but we're making progress. slowly but surely.

and woohoo for thanksgiving. and a three-day work week. not as awesome as elizabeth's 1.5, but still... i'm excited for turkey and mashed potatoes and corn casserole and aunt cathy's green creamy jello stuff and spaghetti. yes. spaghetti. it's a traditon at our house, for those of you unlucky enough not to already know and tasted. leah, you know what i'm talking about. remember leftovers in the dorm? those were the days.

lots of wedding progress has been made. the dress is at aunt margie and uncle gene's house, the engagement portraits are done, bridals have been scheduled (december 1st for anyone wanting to be helpful around 4:30), groom's cake pretty much squared away, bridesmaids' dresses in, tuxedos ordered, bridal shower fabulousness (and thank you cards on the way), rehearsal dinner mostly planned. that might be it. still no dj. brooke=lazy and forgetful on this one item. has anybody heard anything, good or bad, about the arkansas dj people? they seem good, but i'm a little nervous to use someone without a reference...

and i guess that pretty much wraps it up. i'm in for another bor-ring day at the office.

oh, and here's a thought: what if i applied for a rotary scholarship and we went overseas for a year? awesomeness? eh?

boil water order

well, i'm back and with trevor in tow. horray!!! and i can make my camera hook up to my work computer. horray!!! but we came back to a boil water order. boo!!! gotta love living in a place where sometimes you have to boil your water for it to be potable. it could definitely be worse, though. anyway, so here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment.

this is what i look like without my glasses. and standing next to the executive director of the women's foundation of AR...this is after the luncheon...what you can't see is the check for the grant we received. great luncheon. awesome "party favors" from b. barnett.

here's a picture of us with two of trevor's sisters and their boyfriends. from left to right we've got greg and chanda, trevor and me, jeff and hannah. we're just missing gwen and ben.

and here's my lovely family. nari and tarzan were just as glad as i was to have trevor home. horray!!!

the wedding countdown: less than two months. yowza!

longest day ever

yes, today promises to be quite the long one. it's my last day to be at the office before i get to see trevor again. hopefully i'll find enough to do to keep me busy...i am going to pick up nari at lunch and bring her up to the office. i'm tutoring this evening after work, and sarah wants nari and me to come in costume (we're party animals). so that should be pretty fun.

tomorrow i head to little rock for the women's foundation of arkansas "power of the purse" luncheon at which i will be awarded the check for the grant proposal i wrote. go me. and i've got a fun coworker as a "date", so it'll be good even if the luncheon is boring. it's at the peabody, so the food should be pretty good...just hope there's a meatless option...

thursday is the greyhound day. 14 hours on a bus. yuckola. but not as bad as 24, as it was when i "moved" to denver. thank goodness for that!

booo on blogger!!! i was going to post a picture of what trevor looked like before his trip, but it's not letting me...and i'm even on my office computer. booo! maybe i'll come back and try again later.