Last Week: Our first visitors!

By: Ryan

Last week we had our first visitors from back north. Well, unless you count Aaron and Tom, but they were more hired help than houseguests. :-)

My mom and Shanna flew down last week and we had a great time during their visit. We went to Aquatica, Seaworld, Universal Studios, and Islands of Adventure. Here are some pictures from their visit:

This is Shanna and my mom in the lazy river at Aquatica, Seaworld's water park. There are actually two lazy rivers, one that requires tubes and moves slowly, and one that is no-tubes-allowed and moves very fast. The faster moving one was definitely a hit. :-)

Here's Shanna, cruising up for the kill, apparently.

Here are Shanna and Shelsy posing in front of the Blue Man Group splashing TV. The show was excellent, as always, and afterwards, Shanna and Shelsy both got "autographed." :-)

(this and all of the following pictures have been shamelessly stolen from Shanna)

Here are Shanna, Shelsy, and myself outside Islands of Adventure. I look super happy to be taking another picture, don't I? :-)

And finally, here are all four of us outside Universal Studios. Definitely a quality place.

So as you can see, we totally had an excellent time during their visit. Here's hoping they can come again soon, and that we get more visitors in the near future. :-)

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Carter

Well, as most of you know, just over a month ago my sister welcomed her baby boy into the world. I had the chance to go up and see him just over a week ago. He's so sweet, as you can see from the pictures. He's the first grandchild for my parents and the first great grandchild in our family as well. So he's definitely getting a lot of attention. Ryan and I are his only aunt and uncle, also, so we plan to spoil him just a little. :-)

It was nice going back to PA and seeing everyone again, meeting the little guy, and just hanging out. When I was there I was almost always holding him, which I enjoyed immensely. :-) I also got to celebrate father's day when I was there, which was very nice. Here's a picture of Von and Carter on Von's very first father's day.


So it was a good week. I miss Carter and everyone else already. Hopefully Ryan and I will both be able to go up again soon. Maybe next time Carter will actually know who I am...probably not. :-)

Here are a few more pictures:

Carter with the block Ryan and I made for him.

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An update on the kitchen computer!

by: Ryan

Hey everyone, I posted two updates about our awesome new kitchen computer over on my blog, be sure to check them out! :-)

Kitchen Computer: Done!
Kitchen Computer: Video Tour

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My Container Garden

By: Shelsy


Even before we moved I had an idea that I wanted to try to have a small garden in this apartment. We didn't get any sun on our balcony at the old apartment and that was our only outdoor space. But knowing that we would have at least three outside entrances on the ground floor, I figured I should at least be able to grow something.

I found this book online called Bountiful Container, so I ordered it. It's an entire book about growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers in small spaces. So I figured out what I wanted to grow, and then we set out today to get everything. Then we came home and planted it all. You can see the fruits of our labors (heh, pun intended ;-) in the picture above.

So far, this is what we have (clockwise from top left):
Pot 1: A citrus tree. This should grow lemons, limes, and oranges, all on the same tree. Kind of weird, but saves space. :-)
Pot 2: Tomato, bell pepper, and hot pepper. In the fall I'll add nasturtiums.
Pot 3: Squash. I'll add lettuce in the fall.
Pot 4: No, it's not empty. I planted string beans as seeds, so we'll just have to wait for those. In the fall I'll replace it with peas and pansies. In the spring I'd like to add some tulips in there too.
Pot 5: Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (any Paul Simon fans out there?)
Pot 6: Lavender and basil. I'm going to add some mint as soon as I can find some.

Now, I'm not exactly a gifted gardener. I've actually never gardened before, really. But I'm hoping that with the help of this book and some TLC, I'll be able to have a nice little garden before too long!


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Top 10 Food Items We Miss

By: Ryan

I have a number of ideas for humorous Top 10 lists that I will be posting today and tomorrow. To start things off, here are the top 10 food items from Pennsylvania that we find ourselves missing on a regular basis:

10. On The Border - a super quality Mexican restaurant in Exton. The nearest one is in Gainsville, two hours away.
9. Wawa toasted raviolis
8. Wawa salads
7. Wawa breakfast sandwiches
6. Produce Junction - while we did find a cheap "farmer's market" style produce place, it's not nearly as cheap as the ever awesome Produce Junction. Alas.
5. Wawa chicken sandwiches
4. Wawa soups
3. Wawa hoagies
2. Genuardi's, Acme, Giant, or any other grocery store back north. Don't get me wrong, the big chain of stores down here is great and actually has better prices than any of the stores in PA, but I just don't like having to shop at a store with a name like Publix. :-)

And the number one food item we (or rather I) miss...

1. Wawa Iced Coffee - the closest alternative down here is McDonalds, which definitely makes a good iced coffee...but it's not the same.

So, um, yeah, we kinda miss Wawa. There just isn't anything even remotely similar down here. There are Seven Eleven gas stations and stores everywhere, and BP gas stations have their little convenience store that's not bad, but...but...sigh.

Anyone who visits us and wants to throw a hoagie or some toasted ravioli's into their bag might get preferential treatment when they arrive. :-)

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Two New Things

By: Shelsy

Well, I am happy to say that I have two new things to announce today. The first thing is already four days old, and that is my brand new little nephew! Mindy finally had her baby! His name is Carter Tyrone and he's adorable. He was born this past Monday night on the 19th at around 8:45pm. Mindy's been neglecting to send me pictures though, so I only have a couple. He's about an hour old in that one. Isn't he awesome?! :-D I can't wait to meet the little guy--hopefully I'll be able to soon, depending on the whole job situation.


Which brings me to my second new thing. As you all know, I auditioned for a singing role at Disney last Friday that didn't work out. I also auditioned yesterday for a character role. That also didn't work out. But, they say the third time's a charm.. I went into the Casting office today and applied for a regular castmember position. I got hired to work in attractions at the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland and Liberty Square. That means I'll be able to work at quality attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean--two of my absolute favorites. :-) Don't ask me about the pay--it's not really worth talking about--but I've heard that you tend to move up pretty quickly once you get in. We'll see about that. Even if not, though, it'll still be a fun, active, non-office job for me while we're in this season.



So I'm really excited. Especially after those two auditions I was starting to get a little discouraged. But the person who did my interview said I was only the second person to be hired that day so far and he had already seen quite a few. People were lined up for interviews, so I felt pretty good about it. :-) He said he knew right away that I had a great personality and that I would be perfect. I hope so! I have to go back tomorrow to fill out some more paperwork and then I should be starting very soon!

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Beach Visit!

We set off yesterday to pay our first visit to a beach on Florida's gulf coast. Rain was in the forecast, but we decided to chance it. Our destination was Fort Desoto Beach near Saint Petersburg, Florida. Fort Desoto was recently named America's Number 1 Beach by TripAdvisor, so it was a natural first choice for our trip.

Alas, not to be. When we got there, the rain was pretty steady. We got out and explored a little anyway, but with no sun, steady rain, and a strong breeze, it was just not good beach weather, so we got in the car and headed back north, hoping to drive out of the storm.

We found sunny weather at last in Clearwater, near Tampa. As an aside, the Philadelphia Phillies train in Clearwater during the off season, which I knew, but I still didn't expect to see signs with the Phillies Logo. A bit out of place that far from Philadelphia. :-)

The Clearwater beach was excellent. We both really liked it, even though the Gulf of Mexico doesn't produce the same caliber of waves as the Atlantic coast.

Overall, we had a really good trip, and like I pointed out to Shelsy, it was a fun opportunity to explore our new home state a little bit.

Here's a video of our day. Note the clip of the tiny, beach-dwelling fish at the end. This was all shot with Shelsy's underwater digital camera. Enjoy!



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