Metal & 100

On Friday, Mr. Logical and I celebrated his birthday by going to see his favorite progressive metal band, Dream Theater, while they were in DC.  It was my first metal concert, and it was really fun.  If you have never heard of Dream Theater, Mr. Logical describes them as a cross between Metallica and Rush.  I think I embarrassed him when I told him I'd only been to folk rock concerts, and one time a Backstreet Boys concert.  We also celebrated by going out for crabs on his actual birthday.

In other news, this is my 100th post!  Go me!

Life List

From said road trip

I have been thinking a lot about life lists lately, also known as bucket lists.  My mom loves to know what is on people's life list, and she was asking people at my aunt's Father's Day crab feast.  I don't really have a life list, which is weird because I love making lists.  I did try and make a 101 in 1001 list, but somehow I never got into it.  Maybe my problem is that usually the best and most memorable things that I have done are things I haven't even thought about or considered doing.  Like prior to meeting Mr. Logical, I would never have thought about surfing, let alone surfing with a baby sea turtle.  Or taking a weeklong road trip with someone I had only dated for about two months, and one of those months he wasn't even in the country.

But there are still somethings that I would really like to do, and think about doing often.  I am torn on actually writing a life list though.  Something to think about this weekend...

Summer!

I have one more week of work left, and we kicked off our summer with a trip to my parents' new digs over Memorial Day weekend.  Last night we went to a minor league baseball game with Mr. Logical's alumni association.  Our team lost, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy baseball food.

I am really looking forward to this summer.  I need to rest and relax after this whirlwind of a year!

Walk for the Animals

Today Mr. Logical got to play around with two of his favorite things, ham radio and cycling.  We went to the local SPCA's Walk for the Animals, where our local ham radio club volunteers at each station to radio for more water or dog biscuits.  Mr. Logical got to ride his bike between all the stations, with a radio strapped to his handle bars.

Spock and I got to do the 5 mile walk, twice.  We went around once by ourselves, and then my sister came, and we went around again, plus down to the river, totaling about 11 miles.  Tired Spock out for about 2 hours after we got home.  He got lots of compliments on his backpack!

Odd Arrangements

We did some furniture rearranging this weekend, as we finally picked up the new bookcase we ordered last month.  It does help control some of the media we have, but our little home is rapidly becoming crowded.  We also had to acquire an industrial strength crate for what I can only assume is for large wild cats, due to our Houdini dog.  

We now have a very oddly decked out living room.  Super nice bookcases, a chair with a great story behind it (remind me to tell you tomorrow), a wild animal cage, and a couch with no cushions.  Mr. Logical told me three years ago that life with him would never be boring, and he was right (but then, he is never wrong).

Finished

I did it!  It only took me a year and four months, but I finished my brother's Aran sweater!  I am super pleased with how it turned out, and that it is finished.  Mr. Logical has informed me that the only reason he married me was to get such a sweater, so his is next (well, after I finish the three pairs of socks I have to finish).

Surprise!

All I asked for for my birthday was a dog, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get one.  Well, last weekend, somehow Mr. Logical and I got on the topic of dogs, went to the animal shelter, and picked one out!  Five days later, and Spock (what else would Mr. Logical's dog be named?) is home!

We are all so happy!

30

My thirtieth birthday looked like this today: donuts (2 I bought for myself, 3 my carpool buddy bought me because we didn't carpool today), state testing for my students, carb-o-rific snacks all day, lasagna for lunch, fall of the aztec empire video, extra recess (it was 84 degrees today!), sex ed class, new friend, driving home with One Direction up loud in the car, new tea kettle from Mr. Logical, and cupcakes (buttery goodness).

Even with testing and sex ed, it was a good birthday.  But now, tomorrow, I really need to get back on the healthy eating/exercising wagon in preparation for hiking this summer.

Cozy weekend

On Friday, I went to the doctor's office, because I have a nasty sinus infection.  Because of this, Mr. Logical and I had a pretty chill weekend.  We ran some errands, picked out some new furniture, and celebrated his new job, that starts the day before my birthday.  I also tackled the mountain of clean laundry that had built up over the past week, with the help of the trusty flip fold.

I'm pretty excited about the new bedroom set we picked out.  It has lots of storage, which was the biggest selling point. Now, I really have to decide on a color to paint the bedroom!

Popcorn

I have written before about my new found love of smoothies (here and here), and I think it is time to talk about my true love, popcorn.  I am not talking about a bag of microwave packing foam here, but honest to goodness popcorn made with oil on our Stir Crazy popcorn maker (ours was more 70s than this model, think orange).

We had one of these popcorn makers growing up, and my friends used to love coming over for popcorn because it was so different from what they were used to.  I think it was probably our third or fourth date when Mr. Logical and I went shopping for popcorn to watch a movie.  I tried to casually ask him what kind of popcorn he was going to make.  He shot me an incredulous look and said "The real kind," and that was the moment I really knew we were meant to be.  He had a Stir Crazy and everything, too!

Symphony

Last night Mr. Logical and I went to the Symphony.  I had gotten him tickets for Christmas, and we were pretty excited about going.  The feature piece was a piano concerto by Mozart, with a talented young pianist, but I really enjoyed Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.  If you have never been to the Meyerhoff in Baltimore, you should definitely make a trip.  We had a lovely evening, even if we thought it was a little stuffy in there.  Also, I am now lusting after a fur coat and sparkly sequined beret!

NASA Valentine

Me and my NASA swag

Mr. Logical pulled off the best Valentine's Day today.  We started the day by test driving a Mercedes.  Then we drove into DC to the NASA headquarters and attended a NASA Tweetup hosted by Astronaut Ron Garan.  It was so awesome, he answered lots of questions and we got to be on NASA TV.  @Astro_Ron (his Twitter handle) was such a wonderful speaker, and we learned so much about life on the International Space Station, as well as how important the space program is to our future both in space and here on Earth.  Mr. Logical and I also learned a lot about Tweetups, and how they work.  Next time we will be a little better prepared.  you can read all my tweets on my Twitter feed @LibraryGirl313.

Astronaut Ron Garan

We had dinner with our Hawai'i friends at their local hangout, Shelly's Backroom, which is our biannual Valentine's Day tradition.  Now we are watching Farscape with our house guest.  And Mr. Logical said I could register for Educator Space Camp in Alabama.  Don't know how Mr. Logical will top this Valentine's Day next year!

Out to dinner

Last night Mr. Logical and I met my sister, her boyfriend, and my brother in Baltimore for Ethiopian.  I had never had Ethiopian food before, so I was really excited.

Mr. Logical and I split a combination plate with four meat dishes and five vegetable dishes, plus cheese.  Oh and honey wine, which I loved and Mr. Logical did not.

All in all, a fun evening!

Tweetup

Mr. Logical put his name in for the NASA Tweetup with astronaut Ron Garan, and he was selected.  He gets to bring a guest, and lucky for him he chose me!  I am so excited to go to NASA headquarters in DC and meet Astro_Ron.  I admit, I am not the most avid Twitter user, but this tweetup thing seems pretty cool.  They had tweetups for the last space shuttle launches, and 150 Twitter users were chosen using a lottery system to go to the launch.  Tweetups take every day people behind the scenes of places like NASA and the Smithsonian.  The tweetup is on February 14.  I'd say Mr. Logical did good on his Valentine's Day plans!

Cheese

So, I love cheese.  I also love finding new cheeses to try.  A few weeks ago, Mr. Logical found a little farm where we could get fresh, grass-fed beef, and when we got there they had some local cheeses.  It didn't take much convincing to get me to buy a block of dill farmer's cheese.

This cheese, by Bowling Green Farm, is pretty delicious.  In fact, I texted my Maryland friend, living in Denver, about it.  I'm savoring every little bit of it.

Classics

Today I discovered something wonderful.  Netflix has The Cosby Show on instant streaming.  Finding that out made my whole day.  When I was younger, I got to stay up until 8:30 on Thursdays just to watch that show.  It was just such a great show.

One of my great pleasures in life is watching old television shows.  Mr. Logical and I both can watch seasons of shows over and over.  Some of our favorite old shows to watch are: Night Court, NewsRadio, Farscape, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Terminator; The Sarah Connor Chronicles, any Star Trek series, ALF, Murder She Wrote, Monk, and more recently Cheers and Law & Order.  We do watch some newer shows quite a lot, mostly Psych, Big Bang Theory, and Last Man Standing.

Shelly's Back Room

Mr. Logical planned an event last night, cigars and drinks at Shelly's Back Room in DC.  We had fourteen people scheduled to go, and we ended up with three of us: Mr. Logical, me, and my oldest friend Rachael.  We had a great time catching up, and when we left it was snowing!

Vacation Dreams

Pali Lookout 2009

Before I met Mr. Logical, I had no desire to go to Hawai'i.  Given the choice, there were probably twenty other places I would have chosen rather than Hawai'i.  But then I met Mr. Logical, who had lived there for five years and loved it.

Sunrise 2011

I first went to Hawai'i in the fall of 2009, to attend a wedding, in which Mr. Logical was the best man.  I was only there for four days (life of a teacher with very little leave), and we packed so much of Oahu into those four days.  Long story short, I fell in love with Hawai'i.  Last summer, we returned for two weeks, and got engaged on our last night there.  Four months after that we were married there, and honeymooned in Kauai.  Now, I'd jump at the chance to go to Hawai'i.  There is just something amazing about it.

Summer Palace 2011

Mini Cooper

Arthur and me

I had a meeting yesterday and I didn't get home until late, hence no post.  I spent a lot of time in my car yesterday, so it got me thinking just how much I love driving my Mini Cooper.

I have loved the Mini Cooper since they first came out in the US in 2002.  Unfortunately, when I bought my first car in 2005, I didn't have the funds to buy my dream car.  I settled for a perfectly nice midsize Saturn LS, which I named Bubba.  Bubba met an untimely end in 2007 when we ended up in a ditch.  I have not enjoyed jelly beans to this day.  After a few weeks of internal debate, I decided to go test drive Mini Coopers.  I wasn't sure if it was practical of me to buy such a little car, but it was truly my dream car.

After test driving both the Mini Cooper and another Saturn, I knew the Mini Cooper was for me.  I bought Arthur, a pepper white Mini Cooper and was very happy.  Then my sister backed into Arthur in the driveway in the summer of 2008, and he was never the same.  In the spring of 2009, a Mini Dealership near me was having a sale, so I traded in Arthur for my current Mini, Captain Hastings.

Captain Hastings and me

Everyone who has ridden in the Mini has loved it, even Mr. Logical who drives a BMW M3.  It is a pretty spiffy little car, great for commuting and good in bad weather.  Mr. Logical is already planning my next Mini (manual transmission!).  Best thing I have ever bought.

Folding

When we first started dating, Mr. Logical had a roommate.  She introduced us to the TV show The Big Bang Theory, which is now one of our favorite shows.  Mr. Logical is pretty much a cross between Howard and Sheldon.  Sheldon does laundry on Saturday night and uses a flip fold.  As a joke, Mr. Logical's roommate gave him a flip fold for Christmas a few years ago.

I don't think he has ever used it, but I use that thing like a beast.  It is seriously one of the greatest things we own.  I really hate to fold laundry, but I love using that flip fold.

And apparently, my life revolves around TV shows!