Move along.

New first tonight. I was asked to leave a restaurant. Raise your hand if you've ever been asked to leave a restaurant. Not because I was rowdy, or vulgar, or rude. Nope. Because I sat too long. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, apparently it is no longer acceptable to sit and chat leisurely at a restaurant.

After we had finished our meal, she brought us the check. In 5 minutes she came back and asked us if we were all set. I said no. She went away. In 15 more minutes she came back and asked us if we were all set. I said no. She went away. In 15 more minutes she came back and informed us that there was quite a long line of people waiting for a table and we would have to settle up and move on. We were there exactly 2 hours from the time we sat down.

Is that unreasonable? I'm offended.

How does your organic milk rate?

http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/Ratings_Alphabetical.html

The Cornucopia Institute conducted an evaluation in March 2010 rating many brands of organic milk to see who was actually practicing what they were preaching and who was bending the rules to make an extra buck on the organic trend.

As it turns out, the only organic brand my local grocer stocks (Horizon) was one of the lowest scoring brands in the study. Now I have to shop around for a new place to buy milk.

How does yours compare?

NCLEX

I PASSED!!!

Luck

While walking down the moonlit street tonight on my way home, I was overwhelmed by a giant yawn that seemed to come up from my very toes. At the exact moment my yawning mouth was at its widest, a moth fluttered into my cheekbone.

If that's not luck, I don't know what is.

U-Pick Michigan Peaches

Linda and I made a run up to Holland MI last Sunday (8/15/10) to see the Wolthuis' and stop by Crane's orchard to pick some peaches. We were able to get raspberries and blackberries (the size of walnuts!), but Crane's was closed, having been picked out on Saturday. Well, this is peak peach pickin' time, so I guess that happens, and the weather was great on Saturday, besides. But we couldn't let the peach season roll by without a chance to pick some, so we went back up today, 8/19, with another week of ripening to replenish for U-Pick. We hit pay dirt with All Star peaches ready for harvest, some the size of grapefruit and explosively juicy when eaten in the orchard! Trouble is, you eat one and you're full. Here are some pictures. We'll be sharing them with Caitlyn.

Passport Control

After a rushed application to beat the price hike for renewing a passport, I finally received my brand new passport in the mail. Now if I need to quickly leave the country, I'm prepared. Sadly, however, they did not return my trusty old one. That little guy saw me through a lot. All those pretty stamps, gone. My student visa for Chile, and more importantly the receipt showing that I had paid the $100 tax for Americans to enter the country, gone. Now next time I go I'll have to pay it again. I suppose once every 10 years isn't so bad.

Still, I'll miss that guy.

Upstairs

Moving upstairs, the office or second bedroom is directly to the right after you ascend the stairs. We still need to put the bulletin board up (but we have to borrow a drill first) and Mike is planning to put shelves above his desk. The office is also the sewing room, thanks Mom for sending the user's manual!







The 'master bathroom' is directly in front of you at the top of the stairs. It's not very big but it works.






Finally, the bedroom. It looks a lot bigger without all the boxes. Again, more art needed.













We had to invest in a few pieces of furniture but fortunately, there is a place about 15 mins away that sells refurbished furniture for huge discounts. They're donated and refurbished by inmates from the local prison (where the executions are held in PA, as Mike told me). Mike got the dresser in our bedroom for something like $25, there are some scratches and the drawers are a little stiff to open but it works. The piece in the living room is in great condition and was only $69. Today is our first pick-up with our CSA! I may need some creative recipes for things we, I'll let you guys know.

My new home

I know you all have been sitting at the edges of your seats, waiting for me to post pictures of our new place. Finally, all our pictures are up, I've organized 90% of our things and cleaned.

This is our living room, obviously we need some more art.
This is the kitchen; due to the lack of counter and drawer space, we had to invest in a kitchen island and a storage shelves.













And our 1/2 bath between the kitchen and living room.

A Horrendous State of Affairs

Fully aware that the majority of this blog's readers do not fit into the same demographic as me (namely: marital status), I am going to take it upon myself to serve as a both a representative and reporter on the HORRENDOUS state of affairs in the dating world.

For those who don't know, I joined e-Harmony a few months ago because, despite being a socially active person, I am experiencing a man-drought. By that, I mean that my regular weekly schedule (work, classes, church, friend-gatherings, etc) are filled with women. The few, sparse men around are either a) married, b) in serious relationships, c) not in my age/education bracket, or d) gay.

There must be single men out there, there must! I thought. And so I joined e-Harmony determined to expand my horizons. In the ensuing months, I did some soul-searching and went on a variety of dates. Most led nowhere. One led to creepy text-harrassment and an exasperated facebook post. After sorting through hundreds of profiles where 90% of men claimed that the things they were most passionate about in life were a) succeeding in their careers and/or b) working out and/or c) their loyalty to this or that sports team, a few well-meaning friends wondered aloud if I had answered a question wrong in the intake process.

Despite the aforementioned challenges, I've labored on. Tuesday I put in my time on the site (yes, it's started to feel like a job). Mike the Sailor got the ax after several email exchanges of rapid-fire interrogation. He finally said, "Is there anything else I haven't asked yet that I should probably know about you?" (We hadn't even met yet.) To which I replied, "Most likely, but isn't that part of the natural getting-to-know-each other process?" I was thinking, That's the kind of question you ask to a sales rep who's selling you an insurance plan or a vacuum cleaner. To which he replied, "What about you would make you difficult to live with?" Close.

Shortly thereafter, while filtering through profiles, I was horrified by this guy who's first photo was normal, but in his second photo he was making out with his dog. We're talking full mouth-to-mouth. I immediately threw up, and then closed.

Then the guy with a mike in one hand, a pint in the other, clearly wasted and a caption that read "Me singing drunken karaoke." Close.

Then the guy with the close-up artsy photo of his face at a side angle and the joint cropped out of the photo. Close.

Then I decided that since I wasn't having so much luck on e-Harm, I was going to try making connections in the real world. I challenged myself to smile at one man every day as I went about my day. Guess what happened.. no one will make eye contact with me! Everyone is in their own world, reading, with headphones on, intently typing away on their blackberries, etc. We are not doing ourselves any favors here, folks.

Next, I decided to look for a hiking/outdoorsy group to meet some new people with like interests. Guess what happened.. The majority of those folks are older, and the ones that are my age are... 75% women.

Where are the normal men? Where are they? And what ON EARTH has happened to the ones I've come into contact with? Is something going on with the men of my generation? Things are looking bleak. Very bleak.

Any theories/research are welcomed.

Shoe Update

The Merrells are great, though they are all black. (Good idea on the black/brown combo idea, Jen.)

Earth Shoes are a no-go. Sorry, Earth. Negative heel technology is not my thing.

Winter boots have not yet arrived.

My feet are happy. They are celebrating with red toenail polish.

Shoes.

I do not like shoes. I realize that according to Sex & the City and their whole following that as a 27-year old, urban woman I am supposed to spend the majority of my paycheck on, fantasize about, go into debt over, and otherwise go gaga for SHOES. But alas, this is not the case for me. Shoes stress me out. However, I have reached a cross-road. Multiple pairs of shoes are literally falling apart on my feet. I'm starting to feel like I should be embarrassed to be wearing them. Not to mention what kind of havoc they are wreaking on my feet.

It is time. Especially considering my new health care plan excludes any coverage for foot care. But where to begin?

First of all I feel overwhelmed by the conundrum of style vs. comfort. As someone who's been blessed with flat-as-a-pancake feet (thanks, Dad), I have a few limitations. The last few times I wore heels for an extended period of time (aka: a day), I ended up with the balls of my feet so swollen and painful that I had to ice them and sleep elevated. I came to the conclusion that heels are bad. Research supported this. And I threw away the shoes that resulted in ice/elevation.

So flats. My dream (I'm serious) is to have one pair of everyday shoes. However, I have determined that you have to have at least 4 pairs if you are a woman and have to dress up and down on a full-year basis-- 1 pair of winter boots, 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of fall/spring shoes, 1 pair of tennis shoes. I forgot about having black, brown, or maybe some other color. Now I'm up to at least 6. I already have tennis shoes. Thank goodness.

Considering my post from last winter about my duct taped boots, the fact that my dressy flats have holes along the seam of both heels, and the fact that my winter boots probably wore out because I wore them practically every day in the fall and spring too since I've never had a good pair of that season's shoes, I had some serious work to do.

I placed 3 orders tonight. Three whole pairs of shoes. I'm a little bulemic in the shoe department. I've been shoe-starved for so many years, that I have to binge now. Winter boots and two pairs of sandals -- Earth Shoes and Merrells. I'm exhausted. However, I am determined to give up buying cheap shoes that hurt my feet. Hopefully these new brands will treat me well. And then the next step is clearing out the closet of all those cheap shoes I never wear because well, they hurt my feet.

And I think it's official. My thirties are just around the corner.

NCLEX

I received my authorization to test today. I had to receive it before I could schedule my exam. I am set to take it at 4pm on Sat. Aug 21 in Pittsburgh. Fingers crossed that I pass! I'm already nervous.

How Toby Stole the Show

Toby's show stopping moment at the wedding!