Its a beautiful day....

We just got back from Walk #2, and I actually thought to take my camera with me this time, so I could show you our little neighborhood.

The house on the corner is registered with the Historical Buildings council or whatever for the town... I'm not sure what it's exact significance is (I should probably read the plaque on the front of the house), but it is beautiful. This is the woman's backyard... around the side of the house, she has a Japanese garden. Oh, and in the front of her house, she has like a Samurai museum or something.... you can see all sorts of actual Samurai outfits and statues and stuff.... No, I wasn't peeking in her windows, you can see them from the street!

Our house is right across the street from a graveyard. Its really very pretty.

And.... we have basil!

Good morning

Its morning #2 with Duffy here, and still no accidents - yay! I was a little worried that I would find a 'surprise' waiting to be cleaned up this morning because he wasn't in the bed this morning when I woke up, but I looked through every room and didn't find anything. He seems to be doing just fine, as you can see from the pictures above... I took that this morning after our morning walk. This is seriously good. I think he's used to our 'routine' already - he knows which door to go to when he needs to go outside; he went for quite a few hours yesterday without begging to go outside (after the initial 42,000 times we went out first thing in the a.m.). So that's good.

The real test is going to be how he is when he's all alone. I was home with him all day yesterday, and Teddy's off work today (plus I'll be home since my Oceanography exam is at 8:30 tonight), but he'll be alone for a few hours tomorrow morning while I take my Hydro and Chem finals...I bought him a Busy Bone last night at the store, but I'm wondering if having a buddy would keep him better occupied...? There are tons of free dogs in the local newspaper.... (if my parents are reading this - you should check out the paper if you need a 'replacement'!!)

Well, its official.

We are all finally moved in!

I said "all" because, as you may have noticed, a certain fuzzy young man has come to live with us, as of last night. Hooray!

Today is the first day of Finals Week (but I don't have any finals today), so I devoted my day to acquainting Duffy with the new place, and continuing to organize/decorate/unpack boxes and totes. So far, so good.

It is soooo hot outside today. Duffy and I have already been outside about 42,000 times today (starting at 6:00 a.m.), but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'm thinking about taking a walk over to our old apartment (old roommate still lives there) to do some laundry... perhaps I'll take some pictures of the walk over. We really do live in the prettiest little town, especially now with all of the trees blooming!

I still have much to do, but here are a few little areas that are suitable for viewing:

My little workstation; a beautiful orchid my parents gave us as a housewarming gift; and one of my favorite little shelves in the whole house, displaying some shells Teddy found in the Bahamas a few years ago and an Ammonite orb.

Almost done!

Well, we're almost done moving. We got our couch yesterday (yay!), put the bed back together, got a bathroom shelf/cabinet thing.... yep, this place is starting to look like a home. Its just the little odds-and-ends now that we need to take care of, and then we're set!

I'm pretty busy this afternoon, with a presentation about my Curacao research at a colloquium this afternoon, and then I'm meeting up with some people from my Hydrology class to work on some assignments, but after that I'm going to try to get a few pictures of the apartment. I just need to straighten up some!

Busy, busy day!

Whew! I'm just popping in really quick because, honestly, I haven't sat down yet at all today. I woke up at 5:30 a.m., drank a cup of coffee with my mom, started packing up all of my stuff at 6:30 a.m. (that includes going through all of my bins out in the storage shed...yikes), had to be in Waynesboro at 10:00 for a road clean-up that I volunteered for, only stayed for 1 hour, dropped off 6 garbage bags (Read: SIX!!!!) of clothes, 1 bag of shoes, and 1 bag of books to the Goodwill, went back to my parents' house, loaded up my car with as much as I could, came to Shippensburg by 1:45 to meet up with my Hydrology class for a field assignment, just finished around 3:30, and came to the apartment to grab something to eat/drink, and sit down for just one tiny minute. Wow.

Now, I must go unload everything from my car (I figure its easier to move it between apartments in Shippensburg rather than from my parents' house 1/2 hour away all the way to the new apartment), then go back up to my parents' house and continue my packing rampage. Then tomorrow I work, then its the last week of classes. Hurrah.

Friday already.

Siiigh. Well, it's Friday already. Everyone else on the planet loves Fridays, but I dread them. Friday means its the weekend, and the weekend means I have to work. I mean, I'm so glad that I even have a job, its just that my job is 40 minutes away from where I live (because I live at the apartment instead of my parents' house), and I have to pack up my stuff and stay at my parents' house for 3 days. Not that I hate going there, its just mentally and physically exhausting to do that every week. If I have homework (which I invariably do), I have to make sure I take my laptop, and all of the right books/binders/notebooks; and of course I usually leave something at their house when it comes time to pack everything up and go back to Shipp. So then, M0nday morning, I'm usually on the phone with my sister asking her to bring my schoolbag, the textbook on the table, a pair of socks, etc. etc. etc. I am so glad that next week is the last week before finals. Now I just need to put in a transfer at work and hopefully go to a store that's closer to here.

Ok, I'm done complaining for now. Sorry.

In better (but no-less boring) news, I worked on my huge research project poster last night. I don't know if I've mentioned this project on here before, but its been hanging over my head for like 3 months now. When we went to Curacao last January for class, we had to create an individual research project that we would present to the campus and community at a colloquium at the end of the year. Well, this Thursday is the colloquium. My poster isn't quite finished yet, but I'm really liking it so far. I forced myself to work on it last night around 7:30 (because I was bored and Teddy's out of town), and I got on-a-roll, so I worked until after 11:00 last night.

I'm actually pretty proud of my project... its about the historical and present socioeconomic differences of the population of Curacao, as evident through the different styles of architecture. On one hand, there's the influence of the African slaves in the rural areas, and on the other hand, you've got the rich Sephardic Jew merchants in the Scharloo district of Willemstad, and the result is a really interesting contrast in the buildings on the island. Many of the buildings have been there since the 1630s, which is amazing.

Top: Kas di Pali Mashi, a traditional kunuku ("rural house)- African-style dwelling with thatched room, wattle-and-daub frame structure, and a cactus fence to keep out feral animals. Bottom: A modern kunuku with corrugated metal roof. Its amazing that this style of house is still being built today, nearly 4 centuries later. These houses are EVERYWHERE on the island, and they're usually yellow and red.

The two pictures above show the historic buildings of Willemstad. They've been restored, but the row of tall houses in the bottom picture have been there for 400 years. They originally housed the wealthy Jewish and Dutch merchants on the island.

So, yeah. I think after the colloquium on Thursday I'll try to put up my research online...

Sunshine at last

Today is a beautiful day!

The sun was already shining when I woke up at 6:30 this morning (which is a nice departure from what we've been having lately). Teddy works all day today, then he's driving 4 hours north to his parents' home for the weekend. Its his best friend Ian's birthday on Saturday, and Teddy wanted to take a little something for Ian's 10-year-old sister (whom is quite fond of Teddy, I've heard ;). I told him he could take one of the big whelk shells I brought back from last week's excursion to Wallops Island. Then I remembered that they've been in a bag on the front porch, soaking in the rain all week. Ew. So, since the sun is shining, I set them all out to dry (and stop stinking). And then, I remembered that we have a huuuuge stash of shells from our trip to Florida in February that we still haven't set out to dry! So I set those out to dry (and stop stinking) too. I think Teddy may have already thrown away the sea urchins, because I can't find them anywhere, and they were the stinkiest. Oh well.

These are from Florida:

And these are from Wallops:

Notice, I have them all laid out on a barbecue grill. That's right, a grill. Why? Well, we won't be using it anytime soon, because...

Some starlings have decided it is perfect to build an enormous next, with 3 tiny blue eggs in it.

PS- how do you like my new banner? That's a photo my professor took in Curacao... and that is me, Teddy, and my friend Mary on top of Mt. Christoffel. Amazing.

Good news!

Today started out pretty messed-up, but its turning into a rather good day!

I heard back from the current tenant of the apartment we're moving in to; she's planning to be moved out by Friday! So we can start moving in this weekend. Well, Teddy will be out of town this weekend, so I can start moving in this weekend. Hooray!

And, miracle of miracles, I have started re-stocking ye olde vintage shoppe. No new items at this time, but I can guarantee that there will be plenty of new things once we're settled in to the new place.

Edited to add that the owl magnet pictured above sold today, hooooorayyyyy!!!! I'm really excited to have the shop open again, thank youuuu!!!

New things

I've been doing a bit of thrifting here and there lately, in anticipation of our move in a few weeks (and, by the way, we met the landlord and signed the lease last night, yay!). Here are some of the treasures I've found:

This is the coolest, creepiest piece of art that ever did exist. I spotted it a few weeks ago, but fought the urge to buy it. It was still there the other day, so I just had to make it mine. I love the colors (which you can't even discern in my crappy photograph) and because its a redhead. With a rabbit. Perfection.

I spotted this dish set last week and couldn't get it out of my mind. Again, I fought the urge to buy it, but yesterday it was still there, so I sent Teddy a picture message over the phone and asked if he liked it. He loved it, and for only $10 (for a 30-piece set!!), I just had to.

Teddy found this on craigslist last week, for only $40. We named it Bastian.

I'd say I've had a pretty good couple of weeks of thrifting. I love it that there's a big thrift store just about 5 minutes from where we live (and from the new apartment, which is only a few minutes away from where we live now). Its just off-campus, so I like to stop there after school sometimes. Plus it's run by sweet little old Amish ladies.

Today is a dreary, chilly day. My poor plants have to stay on the windowsill today instead of on the porch. I should really be studying for tomorrow's Chem. exam, and working on my poster for the colloquium next Thursday, and... plenty of other things. However, I can't seem to get my behind in gear today. Plus, I have this to do:

That's right, I'm baking some fish bones today. I asked my prof. exactly how I should go about preserving the skull, and he said I should bake it dry, then spray it with a polycrylic varnish. This is going to be fun.

Happy Easter Weekend

Hi everyone, happy belated Easter!

I had an awesome weekend. Friday I went on a field trip with my Oceanography class to the Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium in Chincoteague, VA. It was my first time there, and the weather could have been better, but it was still really cool. The best part of the whole trip was my 'souvenier' -

Its a Monkfish skull, and its awesome. Some girls in my class found it washed up on the beach, and I was the only one crazy enough to want to take it home. Its been soaking in a bleach solution in the bathroom since Saturday night. :D

Sunday, Teddy and I went up to my parents' house for Easter dinner. My sweet Mommy made me an Easter basket filled with goodies like vegan candies and gardening supplies! Hooray, I'm so glad its time for gardening again! I spent my afternoon planting seeds in my new little mini-greenhouse and potting some plants Grandma gave me.

I have some other neat things to share, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I have class at 5:00 tonight, then Teddy and I are meeting with our future landlord to (hopefully) sign some leases and get everything settled. *fingers crossed*

Happy Monday!

Living Room.

Oh yeah, I've got it bad... all this excitement about moving into a new place has given me the fever to decorate!! Luckily, between the two of us we have just about everything we could possibly need....minus a few small details. Its those small details (plus some extras, of course) that I get so excited about...

Let's go room-by-room. Today is the living room:

One thing we don't have is a couch. We have one lined up from a friend, but in case that pans out, I will have this one, and in my make-believe world, I would have this one:

Its pretty basic, but...look what it can do! Its convertible.

There's a big, blank wall that is just screaming for something along these lines...

These are pretty awesome, and would be great for extra seating

I neeeeeed this.

Oh, and I am most definitely going to get some of these....we have absolutely no shelving!

Of course, I can't afford all of this...but I did buy one little thing for the apartment...
This will go perfectly with my growing collection of ship pictures.

Well, that's all for today... next up, the kitchen!

Have a lovely Sunday!

New apartment!

(Edited to add that we haven't moved into this new apartment yet, so these pictures are of how the girl who currently lives there has it decorated...I think I didn't clarify that. Oops!)

Yayyy!! We found an apartment! I just got home from looking at a 1 bedroom place, and I LOVED it. I talked to Teddy (who is at work and didn't get to see it, but I took pictures for him) and he said to take it; so I just called the girl and sealed the deal. Woo!

The place is beautiful... its wayyy bigger than I expected, with lots of storage space, and I can have my dog!!! I am soooo excited.

Here's the kitchen, which I love because it has soooo many cabinets. This is good. Oh, and I love the wood floor.

The next room is a sort-of work room, computer room, office, gym, whatever. There's a nice big closet in there, so that's exciting.

Walk through that, and you end up in the living room, which is nice and big. The bathroom is off of the living room, and its small but that's fine.

The bedroom is past the living room... there are sliding doors, but apparently they're really loud so we'll probably just hang a curtain or something....

My favorite part is that there is a large front porch (shared with the neighbor, but still huge), and a private back porch...and even a little place for a garden! Its pretty quiet, away from "downtown", with a nice yard and plenty of places to walk my dog... its perfect. I am so excited. I'm ready to move in, like, tomorrow!

The apartment (for now)

Its funny; I've been slowly getting the apartment (at least our room) to where I wanted it... I feel like (and I think Teddy feels like, too) the room really reflects us, both individually and as a couple. Its nothing fancy... since we're moving into our own apartment in a month (1 month from today, actually) - right now we share an apt. with Teddy's friend Shawn - we haven't really done too much decorating or 'sprucing up'. Just a few things here and there, but I really love our room.

That's my bed from my parents' house. Until very recently, we didn't even have a bed here.... just Shawn's old (twin!!!) mattress, on the floor. After I quite literally woke up unable to stand because my back hurt so badly, we finally brought the bed here. Why didn't we bring my bed over before, you ask? Well, its kind of a long story, but basically: during the week I live here in Shippensburg, and Friday-Sunday I go back to my parents' house to work. Its very, very taxing, but the semester is almost over; once we move into our new apartment next month, I'm going to either transfer to the store here or else just find a new job. Anyway, I digress. Moving along...

The ship picture on the wall was a thrift store find from a few weeks ago... $3!! Its woven linen. Its probably my most favorite thing EVER.

OK, so... notice the hanging rack on the right side of the room... that exists because of the unfortunate part of our room, which I won't show you until a few pictures down. Let's concentrate on the good parts first. Anyway, I kind of like the hanging rack. Sometimes I wake up at night and think its a person standing over me because of my hat hanging on the corner of it, hehe.

Here are some things on our table: fossils and rocks from...North Dakota, I think? Teddy found them. He likes rocks a lot, haha. PS - he didn't find that fossil.

This is my other favorite thing in our room- we need a much bigger shelf, but this will do for now. Teddy (accidentally) ran that mink over, so he had it stuffed. The fossil is Ammonite, I bought it in FL last month.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for nice jars and the such at thrift stores to house our rather extensive and growing collection of sand and beach relics. We found the corals that are in the bell jar in Curacao, where we met. Just to the right, there's a snail shell I found 2 weeks ago when we went hiking to a reservoir not far from here; and behind that is a baggie filled with my horseshoe crabs that I guarded with my life from FL.

The jar on the right has sand and shells we brought back from Curacao; the jar on the left currently only has sand (from Sanibel Island, FL) in it; we haven't gotten around to fully cleaning all of the shells we brought back from FL...they're still kinda stinky (especially the sea urchins...ew)

And here is the unfortunate part of our room.... I mean, its nice that we actually have a washer and dryer in the apartment, but.... that means we don't have a closet. And, because they stick out too far, we don't have closet doors, either. So its a bit of an eyesore.

At least the shoes are on the backside of the door, so they're hidden most of the time. The little chest of drawers is the "school corner", where I keep all of our textbooks and my schoolbag.

So that's it. Its really kind of cozy. I like it, but I am super-excited to move next month. It will be nice to get ALL of my things from my parents' house, and have our OWN apartment.