Storks and Morons

Storks:

Good news! My brother and Shannon are having another baby. There is a bit of a family drama circulating about them not being married yet but tomato, tomahto, what can ya do? Kids will be kids. In the meantime though, we are getting another baby!!

Morons:

Read this in a NYTimes article today. It made me laugh, "The view is not the only thing that worries Mr. Thompson, 62. In April, he dressed up in a bird’s costume with pink Wellington boots to protest against the turbines and their danger to the rare pink-footed goose the region is also famous for." You tell em' Mr. Thompson!! Ah, heroes today... Where would we be without the "Mr. Thompsons" of the world?

Duplex...

well, updates from LA...

1. it is NOT fall here. so Im jealous of those in cooler places (which is everyone but maybe ellyn??...what's the forecast in egypt?). Today it is 88 but "feels like" 94 degrees. I swear I sweat all day everyday. So i'm looking real forward to fall!

2. Ashley, Austin's bro is here for a visit. which makes me want yall to come visit reallly soon.

3. you will neeeever believe what street I drove past today and totally did a double take cause I didn't even believe it--oh girl, you know it's poplar! When yall come visit, we are straight up going to steal that sign!

4. As I mentioned when girl's weekend was being tossed around that it was slim chances I'd be coming due to lots of things. Well good news and bad. The good- I start my job October 4th and will begin bringin in dat dough. The bad-- that means that I have NO idea what my schedule will look like/when I'll be scheduled to work. since girl's weekend will fall just a few weeks later, i wont be able to "schedule off" that early in my career..ha. aaand With the transition from days to nights, aka as mary put it- becoming "nocturnal", I will not be in attendance this October. However, I already am looking at flight costs for possible a spring trip!!


5. Our duplex is slowly "coming together" and yes, we are beginning to be "settled"-whatever that means. We are really loving it here although I miss/love all of you and miss the milder whether of athens (never thought i'd say that)...we are learning to be content here and not to compare BR to Ath which can be a struggle at times. I am finding cool little quirky places here and can't wait to take yall to some of these places...one is a sushi bar in the middle of downtown that is located on the roof of a tall building--we can go get drinks and sit out on the open roof. another is a sweet lil upscale agora type placethat has awesome clothes/jewelry/accesories from past eras--it's called time warp. anyway, here's a pic of our duplex... we love it!


MISS YALL SO MUCH.... COME VISIT... we are ROCKIN out this blog and i <3 it!

It is fall, officially.

So.  In the past couple weeks, I've felt a little more settled into life up here.  DC is still aweshome, I'm now in my second week working with Langley School (k-8 private school where I'm an afterschool program counselor), and there's just a lot to do/ things to get involved with.  I've reached a point where I feel like I still have so much to go explore in DC, but I've now been here a month, and I'm starting to know my way around better and stuff.

All that to say, things are alright.  Now for a brief recap through pictures:

This was the first attempt made at a roomie pic.  Needless to say, we will be trying again.

The last two photos are from Becca's surprise visit to DC!  We had a picnic lunch of tomato, mozzarela, and spinach sandwiches on good, fresh french bread from La Madeleine, in Georgetown.  Sidenote: the weather's been so nice; we spent a long time just sitting by the Potomac.

Whit and I wandered to the National Cathedral one day a couple weeks back.  It was really cool walking around inside, the pictures don't really do it justice.

Well, yours truly did turn 23 a couple weeks ago.  The important thing to take away from that is the fact that Al and Whitney made me a delicious meal (and y'all know about the cake already...which was so good and despite it's appearance, only took us about 2.5 days to demolish).  They made me margaritas that were a variation from Porch Parties cookbook, because we decided to make them with mango!  Yum.  Dinner was homemade Philly Cheesesteak and baked potato wedges.  Altogether, it made such a good meal!

I'm loving reading everyone's posts and I get more and more excited about Girl's Weekend.  I love and miss y'alls.

okay. you caught me. i'm actually eating egyptian food.

hellllloooo. so after skyping with mary and al and whit this weekend, it was brought to my attention that i haven't been a good steward of egyptian food for y'all yet. BUT today is a new day. and today marks my first experience with koshary. koshary could be considered like a national dish of egypt. it's cheap, filling, and everybody eats it. only seconded by fool. yeah, fool. it's a phonetic spelling. fool is like a chick pea paste type thing that they put in sandwiches, eat for breakfast, anything you could think of. once i have great authentic fool i'll post about that. but onto the koshary.



okay so for some reason it wouldn't let me upload a picture, but there's a link to one. so the deal is this. it starts with 2 kinds of pasta, usually spaghetti chopped up short and little disk pasta (i don't know the proper term), then rice, then lentils, then tomato-paste ish sauce and then fried onions (think the top of green bean casserole). it's all layered into a delicious bowl of hot goodness. it literally is one of the best things i've ever put in my mouth (that's what she said). they serve it with this SUPER HOT sauce that i can only handle like a drop of but it's worth it for a little spice.

so there's your lesson for the day. koshary=delicious.

love.

Dick 'n Nan Head North

A. Number One: I have really enjoyed all the posts. Kristin, that baby picture is freaking creepy. Almost as creepy as the baby monkey one from Apt 1. Al, I think the cake still looks delicious. I mean, we all know I would eat a cake out of a bowl mixed with icing soo...

Dos: I am finally getting settled in to my new apartment in Bean-town. My parents are incredible and drove up my furniture from Nashvegas as well as picked up furniture for my new roommate, Osub, in DC. Doesn't he just look like a happy camper!

(Nancye has sweet photo taking skills)

Upon arrival, we decided that it would be a good idea to unload all of the furniture for three hours after they had driven eight hours already. Let's just say that given a second chance, I might have chosen a different plan of action...

However! As a partial thanks to them, we went to go get seafood (Olivia, don't be jealous). Nance ordered the lobster and wore a bib, making the perfect photo opp.

Saturday we spent half the day at bed bath and beyond and the other half putting my room together. As Ellyn predicted, my dad and I moved and drilled things as my mom ironed the bed skirt and "supervised". Typical Feistritzer family move in. Anywhoozle, Saturday night we went to the North End and had dinner at La Dolce Vita. Not quite the one in Athens, but whatever. They tried to be all legit and stuff with an Italian waiter who pronounced all the food correctly. Lame.

Okay well this was a long post as well, but I miss you all. I love you all. As my granddad always says, "Over and out."

Lurve

so i've been flakey...

After Ellyn called me out in the last post, I decided it was about time I actually say something on here rather than just creepily stalking y'all and never posting anything of my own...so here I am!

Things have been fairly routine here in Nashvegas. Davey and I are just enjoying our last few months of normalcy before he leaves for boot camp mid-December (seriously? still can't believe he's actually going!). I keep picturing what would happen to me if I ended up at boot camp and really the thought of it is just plain ridiculous. Anyways, he's got some nice washboard abs these days though from training so I can't complain! (jk jkkkk)
Here are some recent pictures...


Flicking off the camera on our day trip to six flags ATL (note: the black guys in the back were not actually with us which makes this picture even more ridiculous)

Titan's game with good ole Kim and Jesse

I'm enjoying my job a lot these days- loving on some babies.

(For confidentiality purposes, I cannot post of a picture of my actual babies, but I thought this picture was really creepy)
Still about once every month and a 1/2 or so my mothering hormones kick in and I decide that I seriously want to have a baby. Then I go to work on Monday and our 9 week old, Katelynn, screams incessantly for 34 minutes straight and I decide that I'm doing just fine being a mom 40 hours a week. haha, it's come to a funny place but I do feel like I am these babies 3rd parent and (sadly) spend more waking hours with these peoples kids than they do. The babies often cry when I leave the room to go on my lunch break or what not and Cha's mom (Charlotte's nickname, she's one of my babies) actually calls me Mom #2. Pretty funny and flattering at the same time.

Since I know you all love Keeley love life updates, here's a big one for you: she's got a new boyfriend!
Grady has officially been left behind (which we are happy about, as you probably know) and now she's dating this guy Will. He seems really sweet and I've enjoyed him so far. He's cute, fit, has a good sense of humor, is a little goofy but not too goofy, and he loves Harry Potter. So I'm very excited about this development...They've been dating for about 2 1/2 months.

Sorry for the long post! I tend to blog in bursts as you probably know if you read my blog. I miss you all dearly. I'm so enjoying hearing about how everyone is doing and the exciting (or not so exciting- I am sorry to hear about Elton, Olivia, and the cake disaster, AlPal) things that are happening in all of your lives.

Love you all!

urm.

what. up. kids.

sorry this post isn't going to be super in depth or have cool pics of anything, but i just wanted to touch base with y'all. i've been laughing so hard and loving the memories brought up in the past couple of entries.

whitney: no call out on the lumina hugs. i never said i HADN'T hugged the lum before. and i'll hug it again. guaranteed.
alison: oh my laughing so hard. olivia, you missed out the morning of your wedding (get it, cause you were actually the one doing the really awesome thing that day) meanwhile, back at the ranch, your friends were being dumb.
mary: HAPPY BIRTHDAY. from cairo. i'm so sad this is the first bday of yours in 4 years i've missed but by golly, next year. i promise i'll be there to do something ridiculous.
ace: SO HAPPY FOR YOU! i know this isn't exactly what you were hoping for, but i feel like you'll rise to the challenge and learn so much!
kaylyn: i literally talked about your weather checking tendencies the other day with my friend. thank you for including it in your post. it made my heart glad.
becca: i miss the lum. i hope it's treating you well. i miss you. i hope you're treating you well.
kristin: are you even on this thing?! is this mic on?

i'm losing it over here, people. tonight though, you would all be proud. i had my first kind of transplant supper club in my apt. 3 of my intern friends came over and we made tuna cakes (like crab cakes..mmm) and cous cous with red peppers, potatoes, and onions. so good.

i love you all SO much and miss you everyday. i finally put pictures up so now people come over and i'm like oh, don't worry that's just me and my friends dressed up like 6 golden rings. nbd. we won that year.

hearts.

Goodbye Days...

Hey yall,

for those who I haven't had a chance to talk to yet, I'm officially/unofficially employed. I got a job (finally, Praise the Lord!) at Baton Rouge General. The location where I will work is like 2 miles behind my house. I will be working on a skilled nursing floor... it is like a nursing home-ish in the hospital---aka mostly geriatrics who are pretty sick and complicated patients. It is far from where I thought I'd be but God has provided this and Austin and I feel like this is where I am suppose to be. I'm actually excited and eager to begin! I go sign papers on friday (weird...). It's a night shift job so my sleep schedule is about to get screwy....love to all and thanks for your prayers during this process!

nurse ace (do we think that will fly??)

ps i miss yall
pss come visit

Andrew's a Murderer & other Assorted Updates

Well. I lose. I'm known to be a major blog stalker, but because no one here has any babies to post...i've forgotten to check it regularly. Seriously, somebody get on it.

I miss you all & had so much fun reading about everyone's livessss. Al, I'm so glad to see that you, too failed at making a caramel cake...isn't that what I made for yours last year & failed miserably? (See picture)

Well probably the biggest news (sadly) for the Terrells is that we got a fish 2 weeks ago! I've been wanting a dog so bad lately, but they're just way too expensive & our landl

ord won't let us have one anyway. So we got Elton instead. When we were buying him at the pet store, the teenage animalluvr (im just assuming this was her screenname--she was like kissing the snakes & stuff. it was bizarre) girl helping us asked us what kind of "tank set-up" we had. WTF. I just said we'd take a bowl if they had one. And they did. And that's where Elton lived for 2 weeks. On Sunday night, Andrew volunteered to do water-changing duty while I worked on some sketches. I noticed later on that night that Elton was kind of not really swimming & was pooping a lot. Andrew assured me he was fine...then at 5am the next morning as Andrew was leaving for work, he informed me that Elton was dead. How could we be such awful parents? Andrew finally confessed to me last night that he FORGOT to put the de-chlorinating stuff into Elton's water. I teared up a bit b/c not only had we lost our first pet (in the first 2 weeks) but my husband had murdered him.

Other than the Death O' Elton, I've just been living in the jewelry studio which is no surprise. I did get my own bench & studio space in the upstairs part of the building which is really nice...I wish you all could see it! I'm actually really enjoying jewelry more than ever mostly b/c I only have 1 other drawing class to distract me, so I'm getting to concentrate on what I love the most.

We've been thinking & praying a lot about what we're going to do after May & we have a few ideas that we're getting more serious about, but i'll post about those things at a later time when there's more surety. AND i'm counting down the days til Halloween....yayayaya. Also are we doing Secret Santas? please say yes. AND congrats AC on getting a job! woohhoo!

Oh and the new High

wire is now connected to Trappeze and now the

mezzanine part is the new 1000faces coffee shop. oh its so great. Actually new highwire is kindof tacky...it needs some serious interior decorating help, but that's okay. And all of the bartenders have to wear white button downs and black skinny ties. I can't decide if they're trying too hard or not. Anyway, it's sad to me.

Okay sorry for the long post... I'm gonna stop spazzing & go, but I love you all and miss you greatly!! LYLAS.

Ace of Cakes

So, as is tradition within our group, no birthday is complete without a cake of some sort. Naturally, I made Mary skim through my baking bible, the Cake Doctor (throw it up UGA FACS alumna!!), and she picked out a rich chocolate delight of a cake and requested caramel icing. This seemed like an easy enough cake for me to bake. No fuss, I have baked tons of cakes and could make that caramel icing in my sleep...... well, you have probably figured out that the cake I am speaking of is pictured above and is quite the disaster. I tried to make the picture a tad artsy and recover some of the embarrassment (thank you inherently artsy and cool Grit cookbook). HOW AWFUL DOES THIS CAKE LOOK???

Sooo bad. In my defense for the crumbling mound also known as Mae's 23rd b-day cake: I started the process after I got off work Friday night and it was literally 2:00 am when I finished/ poured the icing on the already wrecking cake.

This was eerily similar to that fateful disaster of a morning I like to call 'Alison stares down the hole of a mental wedding cake breakdown'. Literally, I can still hear myself hysterically yelling at Ellyn in the Poplar kitchen to "open the freezer!! open the freezer!!!" and she is leaned down clutching her stomach about to wet her pants laughing at the absurdity. As we all know, that cake did not make an appearance at the Terrell Patton nuptials....

I love you all so very very much. DC is fabulous. Mary's birthday, decrepit cake and all, was so wonderful.

Supper Club Rulz

anyone need a painting?

so--

GO mary for surprising them... and whitney, I knew she was going to surprise yall so what does that make me?

and congrats to mary for her new job!!

i wish i could surprise all the supper clubbers in one place.

i'm missing yall!

just wanted to let you know, although no neighbors will ever beat the coopers... my neighbor is close in the running. 50 or so old woman, works at a po-boy shop but claims being an artist too... in one of our conversations in our shared front yard at 10:30 am while I unload boxes, she informs me from 20 feet away that she is eating crutons for breakfast, that she is a lazy, and that she does nude artwork... thought this was her self-advertising. so wanted to know if there are any takers??

ps. nice posts ladies.

I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it

What up, bitches! As most of you know, I AM IN SEATTLE! HORAY!!! It's so amazing! So it all started Friday before last. Jordan and I packed up the Penske truck, hooked my car on the back and started on the journey Friday, August 27 and didn't get to Seattle till late Tuesday night. We unloaded the truck Wednesday, dropped off the truck at Penske and went straight to dinner then a Sounders match (MLS). It was way too much fun!!! The next night we went to a Mariners game (MLB). And Friday, I BOUGHT A NEW COUCH!!! I guess it doesn't sound too exciting for some people, but I'm stoked!!! It's gorgeous; it is a 2 part sectional with a built in chaise and it is brown leather. Bah, I can't wait to get it delivered.

I don't have pics yet, but I will very soon. My apartment is still a wreck. At least I can walk around in it. The thing I have to remember is that 1 of my windows faces the other side of my apartment building. Well I have been known to walk around with out pants on, haha, so I just need to start shutting my blinds slash avoiding the windows while I am pantless. It's just the honest truth. Just thought I would give yall ALL the updates and not just some of them. My first night in my apartment, I felt like I was in the movie, Rear Window by Hitchcock. If yall haven't seen that movie you should. It's so good! But yeah, there are apartments all around me and the sounds are so similar... except the occasional fog horn from the ferries coming in at night, which is quite a lovely sound.

And to answer that statement... there is AMAZING Indian food here. There is a place called, Tandori Hut about 3 blocks from here that Jordan goes to every Saturday afternoon. This Saturday was no different. We got food to-go and came back and watched Footie (soccer) on tv. I'm becoming quite the sports fan. Haha, I never thought that would happen.

This post wouldn't really be from me, if there wasn't a weather update:) The weather up here is amazing!!! It has been in the 70's and 60's since we have been here. Yesterday was the first true Seattle weather day. It rained almost all day, and quite chilly. The only thing I am not enjoying is the fact that I FORGOT that the weather would be like this, and I packed all my winter stuff a long time ago, and can't find everything. But don't worry, I know where all my tshirts and tank tops are. I have been looking forward to this weather for quite awhile, and I can't even remember to pack the right clothes where I can get at them.

Now that I have written a novel, I will stop. Love you guys and need to talk to everyone soon!!!! Skype or Gchat needs to make something that we can all talk and video at the same time. Course then we would all have like 8 squares of faces on our computers. Does that make any sense? O well.

XOXO....

PS. I already looked at the Seattle Public Library, and they just got Gossip Girl Season 3 in stock. I will be checking it out soon.

H-U-G-S.

Ellyn Echols is officially called out. That is NOT the first time she has hugged the Lum. Please see evidence above.

Also Ellyn, Alison wants to know if you have ever heard the phrase "drunker than cooter brown" from your fine times in Rincon, Georgia.

Mary's a Skank Biatch

So I was called out. But now I am on the blog and making up for it. More importantly though, I AM IN DC! The animul is making the big trip to Boston (Bost or bust), and I stopped to visit these kids for the weekend.

(Ellyn saying bye to the Lumina two weeks ago. Sad moment.)

With Mary as my accomplice, I successfully surprised Alison and Whitney.

Can't you just tell in that genuine picture from the moment they first saw me?? It's totally not a recreation where they were told to look excited.

Well this was my first blog post ever. Quite enjoyable, I must say. I promise to blog more, especially when I bake. I love you all!

P.S. The title comes from what Whitney called Mary when she found out that Mary had known for the past few weeks that I would be coming to DC. Whitney only said it about seven times too. :)

Alison & Mary go on dates.

...........with each other.  Tonight I came home from a day of babysitting and Al Pal was mid-preparation of cooking up delicious things and packing a picnic dinner.  Such a good surprise!  The two of us headed over to the mall and sat down where we had a great view of Washington Monument.

 

We ate jasmine rice with salsa, spinach salad and cucumbers, and marinated bean salad, and drank raspberry soda -and yes, we packed real plates and silverware to eat off of.

Deciding that a picnic dinner was not romantic enough, we walked over to a frozen yogurt place that was delicious-- we may need to revisit this during Girl's Weekend.  The set-up is almost like a buffet- you go down the line and choose between a dozen different flavors.  We split (obviously, being on a date) a Poplar-sized cup (aka huge) with chocolate, strawberry, butter pecan, peanut butter, and coconut flavors.  It was the shiz.

 
We went back to our car, enjoying walking outside in the perfect not-too-warm not-too-cool weather.  It's so fun to wander around a new city and continually have the realization that this is our new home!
We loooove you all and miss you...which brings me to a shout-out to those who've yet to post.

Becca, if I can post on this biatch then I know you can be tech-savvy enough to figure it out.  Please join the blog.  Kk, Seattle pictures pronto and we hear there's good Indian food up there.  Livs, umm did Highwire move??  You should post and update us on the goings-on in Ath since we've been gone (cue Kelly Clarkson).....and that's all we've got.  Sleeeeeep.  Goodnight.

ZOMG.

so i'm about to go out and smoke some shiisha (i'm so arab) but i wanted to share this quick story. one of the other interns is someone i feel like i'm going to be good friends with anyway, but tonight sealed the deal. we're sitting in the fan talking about cheese (obviously) and someone says something about gouda. without missing a beat, madeline goes "my favorite's gouda" and i lost it. she loves She's the Man!!!!! we're totally going to be bff's.

also, its sad that i'm in egypt and i can post twice in the past 2 days. POST BETCHES. jk. love you allllllllllllll.



(sorry about the hyper post. i'm just kind of excited about my friend find.)