Stripping, Swimming, and Traveling

Somehow, despite being off work for almost two weeks, I haven't had much time to blog. Hopefully this post will catch you up a bit on my recent adventures.

My last day at my old job was Monday the 23rd. I had planned to work until Friday the 27th, but they said when developers leave, they usually ask them to leave immediately. I guess they're afraid of sabatoge or something. I would never to that (clearly!) so I was a little shocked when they said that. But, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I thought "Cool, more paid time off!" (they're required by law to pay out the full two weeks). They let me stay for a week after I gave notice, but I did get four unexpected days off. I originally planned to use the time to do fun things, but I've been planning to strip the wallpaper in my dining room and then paint this summer. I decided I'd much rather strip wallpaper when I'm off work than after a long day at the office. I did go blueberry picking with my cousin one morning (super fun and super cheap! I'm looking forward to eating the berries I froze all year long), but then I started the wallpaper job. The first picture is "before". It was taken a couple of years ago.

Stripping wallpaper is definitely not my favorite chore!! My back and shoulders begin screaming pretty much as soon as I pick up a scraper. Fortunately, this room was easier than the hallway that I did last summer. It only had about 2 layers of wallpaper on it, instead of the 5 or 6 that the hallway had. And occassionally, I was able to grab a piece and rip off a huge section of the outer paper and the backing! That made the chore go pretty quicky! Unlike last summer, the walls are actually in decent shape. I should be able to avoid having to do a skim coat of drywall mud before painting! Yay! I'm totally excited that my house is finally wallpaper free!! WOO-HOO-WOO!! The picture below is of the wallpaper-less walls. Once I get the paint done, I'll post a picture of the finished product.

After finishing the wallpaper project, my mom and I headed to Omaha for the swimming Olympic Trials! Oh my gosh! It was a blast!! We saw tons of world and American records! Swimming has gotten so fast in the ten years since I retired! But, it was cool for me because I still know a few of the swimmers that made the team and still just love to watch the sport! I jumped up and down with excitement when a fellow Northwestern grad made the team in the men's 100 back. Imagine me excited and then multiply that by about 10! That's how excited I was! This picture is of the awards ceremony for Michael Phelp's 400 IM. Notice the Micheal in yellow letters behind him? That was some cool sort of falling-hologram-thing (that's a very techincal term!) that spelled out swimmers names, events, USA Swimming, and even did a picture of the Olympic Ring logo. Very cool!
After four days in Omaha, my mom and I drove back to KC on Thursday and then turned around and flew to Hartford, CT with my dad first thing Friday morning! I got up at 3:15 a.m.!!! I'm used to getting up around 5:15 or 5:30, but anything in the "3s" is EARLY! After arriving in Hartford, we rented a car and I drove four hours north to Middlebury, VT, where a good family friend of ours, Erica Hill, got married. Mark drove up from Philly for the weekend and we had a GREAT time!

Middlebury is a picturesque quaint New England town, nestled in the mountains of Vermont. It's so green up there. The Middlebury campus has a big "green" in the middle, with old stone buildings around it. The wedding was lovely! Good food, great company, and fun dancing made for an awesome evening!

And then yesterday, I started my new job! It's going well so far, but I'll share more about that in a future post.

This might be the best family photo we've taken in a while!

65 Years!

Today is my grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary! Can you believe that? A lot of people don't even live to be 65, let alone be married that long. The met at the University of Kansas, where they had an accounting class together. She was one of the few female accounting majors. He called her one night to ask for the homework assignment...despite the fact that he lived with at least half a dozen people that could have given it to him! He knew what he really wanted! Somehow a date resulted from the phone call and the rest is history. Early on in their dating, he asked her to make him a pie. He's a pie lover, you see, and he needed to make sure she was up to the challenge. She passed with flying colors and has been making pies for our family ever since! They married after graduation and a little over a year later, my mom was born. My uncle was born three years after that. They have been an example for how a marriage should be: love each other, take care of each other, stay committed to each other. I love you, Gran and Grandpa!!

Better than the Book!

I finally saw Wicked!!! I gave my mom a ticket for Mother's Day, which considering she'd already seen it twice, might have been more a gift for me than for her. Regardless, I finally got to go and I loved it!!!! When I read the book about four years ago, I seriously disliked it. I have a rule that I never stop reading a book I've started (Moby Dick is the only exception), so I kept reading it even though the first 3/4's were really hard to get in to (and it's not short). By the last 1/4, I finally cared about the characters and wanted to find out what happened, so it read a little quicker towards the end. But, when I heard that it was a musical, I was shocked. My first thought was "oh, it's so terrible, who would want to see it?". But people who had seen it, and whose opinions I trust, told me it was fabulous and that I would love it. I had a hard time picturing this...the book is long, and philosophical, and not entertaining. I just couldn't picture how it could be a great musical. I sure was wrong!!

The music is fun, fast-moving, and up beat. The story also moves along quickly. I feel that a lot of musicals have random songs that serve absolutely no purpose. They're just there to be another song. That isn't the case with Wicked at all. Every song advances the plot in some way. Plus, all the philosophy which bogs down the book is touched on and presented in the musical, but without having to suffer through a long-winded author's preachiness. The viewer can think about the issues and come to his own conclusions. Plus, it's cool to see how some of the elements from "The Wizard of Oz" tie in or came to be. Overall, it's one of my top two favorite musicals of all time! If you ever have the chance, go to Wicked!!! And tell me, so I can go with you!!!

Australia Bound

I leave Tuesday for Australia!!! My mom and I will be there for about two weeks. I'm competing in the Masters Swimming World Championships for five days. I'm swimming the 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 200 back and a 3K open water swim. We'll be sight seeing and having adventures the rest of the time. I'll try to post pictures/updates frequently. I'm not looking forward to the 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney and THEN a 5 hour flight from Sydney to Perth, but hopefully we'll be able to sleep a lot of the time. Down Under here I come!!

National Champs!!!

NATIONAL CHAMPS!! ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!

What a Game!

Thanks to my totally awesome brother, who scored us some fabulous tickets, I am currently in San Antonio, celebrating the Jayhawks amazing victory over North Carolina in the Final Four!! What a game! I usually think I'm pretty relaxed during the game (certainly the most relaxed person in my family), but last night's game was exciting from the get-go. I was jumping up and down and yelling and clapping and woo-hooing!! And then when KU let UNC back into the game in the second half, I was so nervous. But KU extended the lead again and oh my gosh!!! The excitement!! Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU!!!!