Since I Been Gone

Please don't take me off your favorites. I promise to do this about every week or so ... But everyone needs a break sometimes. It's not that nothing has been going on ... LOTS has been going on. Now I just have to try to remember what it all was. So, here's the catch-up (or as my dad says, "castsup"), but instead of a side of fries I'm adding heaps of photos.

January 17th: My friends Celeste and Jonathan had a baby girl. Elena Kamalei is one of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen. I've linked to their blog, but here's a cute photo of the little one. Aww!
February 2nd: As a reward for working on a particularly difficult project with a very tight deadline, my boss Patricia rewarded me with a free dinner at Colt & Alison for Joel and myself. It's one of the two fine dining restaurants at Sea Island, and it's beautiful! We had a 5 or 6 course meal that took us almost 2 1/2 hours to eat! I never thought you could spend so much time eating! But we did, and I have no regrets. My favorite parts were the Crab Maison appetizer, the Steak Au Poi main course, and the Chocolate Souffle with chocolate ice cream for dessert. We ate a lot of other things, but those were the highlights. I think it's safe to say we've never eaten at a nicer (or more expensive) restaurant in our lives! Here's a little picture of where we dined:
February 4th: I voted! This was my first time voting in the presidential primaries. During the last presidential election, there were already very clear front-runners by the time the Pennsylvania primary came around, and the election before that I was in Japan (no absentee ballots while a missionary). So, I thought this was really fun! I've been following the election more this time than any other, and for the first time I feel like it's exciting and fun instead of overwhelming and scary. For those of you who are interested, here's a little video that helped inspired me to cast my vote. It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I've never been anything other than a registered Democrat. Hope we can still be friends. Enjoy the clip!

February 12th: Some of you who have seen my hair lately know this already, but for others it will come as a surprise. I cut about 8 inches off my hair. I had been letting it grow for about 2 years, but decided too long is too long, and decided a nice short cut was just what the doctor ordered. I love it, and hope you like it too! Here's a before:
and an after:
February 14th: I thought I had finally cornered the market on cool presents when I got Joel tickets for us to see Ben Folds in Savannah in March, but Joel took the cake ... or should I say, the brownie ... when he got me this very thoughtful gift: A Bakers Edge Brownie pan. Love the edge parts of the brownie better than all the rest? Someone else does too! I've made a few batches of brownies in the last few weeks, and this pan makes the best brownies ever. Pretty cool, huh?

February 16th: We finished our first circuit of home-improvement projects. Joel built shelves in the study for more of his books, and I think it looks great!
We also re-decorated our master bathroom. When we first looked at the house, we really liked the space, size, and layout of the bathroom. See for yourself - it showed very well.
But then, with our hodgepodge of bathroom accessories from our long apartment days, something just wasn't working ...
So, because of my days working at the spa, I decided that this should be a spa-themed bathroom. We painted, removed the tacky wallpaper strip, got new towels, floor mats, and shower curtain, and also got matching towel bars and a paper roll (none existed previously). I never thought bathroom fixtures could be so expensive, or that I'd spend money on them, but a gift from Joel's grandma for Christmas convinced us we could do it and it would be nice. After a little elbow grease, we've reached the end of Phase 1 of the Master Bathroom Project. Hope you like it!

February 20th: My mom and grandmother came to visit for a few days at the end of the month and we really had a good time. I showed them around Sea Island, we went to Savannah, they helped me figure out how to get started on our big project for the summer: the backyard, and we did some great cooking. It's the first time my mom has been able to visit me down here, and it was the first time Grandmother has visited me since I moved away from home. It was such fun to see them and spend time together. I think they liked the warm weather ... we went to the beach when it was still 20 degrees and snowing in Kansas! Here's a picture of us in the kitchen on their last day. We made lemon curd (amazing) and also made shrimp scampi for dinner. Who knew delicacies like that could be so easy??
March 7th: The Ben Folds concert was amazing. He used a tin lid inside the piano to make a percussive blast when he played a certain note, he made up a little song about the potty-mouthed fans that were a little too enthusiastic about his arrival on stage, and he played all the favorites with more charisma and vigor than I would have thought possible. He's such a little guy, and banged on that piano so hard, there were times I thought he was going to break it. He played some new songs for his album that just finished recording and hasn't been released yet, so that was also a special treat. The new cover will show an x-ray of his head - an x-ray that was taken when he fell of the end of the stage in Hiroshima and got a concussion. He recorded us giving a rousing round of applause, then singing a little bit of the chorus ... hopefully we make the cut, and his new CD! Super cool! He played so fast sometimes that his hands looked blurry - check it out!
We decided to make a weekend of it, so after the concert on Friday night, we got a hotel room, and stayed in Savannah until Sunday afternoon. It was a very relaxing trip that both of us needed. We realized it's been more than 2 years since we had a getaway trip that was more than one night for just the two of us. We enjoyed our selves thoroughly,
taught Marilyn Monroe about modesty,
ate at the Paula Deen restaurant,
(Joel loves fried chicken ...)
... and I love hoecakes!)
and continued to learn our way around Savannah. We had a great time, and are just starting to think about getting back to real life.

I hope you enjoyed the monster post. I promise to be better about posting in the future... scout's honor!