So November totally flew by for us. Wow. Just said goodbye to my folks, who came up for Thanksgiving. It was great having them here — and not just because Mom insisted on washing the dishes after every meal (but really, who was I to disallow her that joy?). We introduced them to duckpin bowling, took them to Belle Isle, Ben gave us backlot tour of the Richmond airport, and we joined about 8,000 other people at the opening night of GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter. Oh, and of course there was lots of eating. Dad smoked a turkey, but I handled the rest of the cooking (my first time being Thanksgiving hostess!). I know it was a success because Ben gave his stamp of approval to my gravy (which I’d never made before). I think we have enough leftovers to last us til Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, holy crap it’s soon! I’m getting ready to pull out our stockings and hang the Advent calendar we made last year. We’ll probably go get a tree next weekend. Figure we might as well make our house as festive as we can, since it looks like we’ll have a Richmond Christmas. I may get to go to Florida next week for a few days but it’s pretty unlikely we’ll make it down there for Christmas itself — it’ll be sad to not be with all of our family, but a private Christmas is fun too. We’re trying to think of a new tradition to start this year…suggestions are welcome.

The semester wraps up next week (I’ve got one last 20-page paper to finish and turn in), which is exciting — then I have about a week (less if I go to FL) to prep for the Richmond Craft Mafia Handmade Holiday craft show. If this blog has any Richmond readers, I better see you there! I’m working on some rad Christmas cards and ornaments, plus my signature recycled silverware jewelry, and maybe even some cozy crocheted accessories. And on that note, I’ve got work to do!

Which means it’s almost Ben’s birthday, then it’s almost Thanksgiving, then it’s almost the end of the semester, our anniversary, and Christmas! This is always an exciting time of year for me. Yay for fall and pretty colors, too.

While I’m here, how’s about a quickie weekend wrapup-type update? Continue reading →

Best thing I’ve seen all week (found near Mechanicsville). Until this, that is:

I’m sure it would be overwhelming for both you and me if I tried to cover all the intricate workings of my life in the past month, so permit me to simply skim some of the highlights (or you can just check out some photos), which will most likely primarily involve weekends, because that is when I do more interesting things. (If you are truly interested in hearing me drone on about Composition Theory, workshop-speak, why I’ll probably never write another sestina, or the challenges of working with English-language-learners or unmotivated freshmen in the Writing Center, buy me a drink or something and I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about any combination of those things. But this doesn’t seem the place for that.) Continue reading →

I realize this is a paltry showing as my first post in nigh on a month, but I’m ankle-deep in drafting a 15-page paper for Composition Theory (yes, it’s a mind-numbing as it sounds) — of which paper I have thus far written the line “Good college writing is” — so I can’t stay long. I simply had to hop on here and announce the following: Gas in Richmond (specifically, at the FasMart on East Main) is below $3 a gallon! I don’t even need gas right now, but this seems rather monumental in my mind. I honestly did not believe I would ever see gasoline for less than three bucks again in my lifetime. But there it is. Yep. You probably didn’t hear it here first, but I felt the need to make note of it. For my next post perhaps I will break the space-time continuum.

Today Ben and I took our first real excursion into the wilds of Richmond. That is to say, we went somewhere that wasn’t VCU, the airport, the farmer’s market, Target/Kroger, or a bar/restaurant. We rode our bikes out to Belle Isle this morning, which was so much more incredible than I even expected it to be. Who knew there were places to swim, canoe, kayak, and rock climb just a few miles from our house?! Plus, it’s a great place to ride. I predict we will spend a lot of time out there. We spent close to 3 hours there today, just roaming around, taking pictures, wading in the river, and eating a delicious picnic. Aside from the unseasonably warm temperatures (90-something!), it was a gorgeous day well spent. (More pictures in my flickr.)

Tonight: Bollywood dance night at Cous Cous. I’ll report back to let you know whether it was amazing or SUPER-amazing. Happy Saturday!

Friday is my no-school day, thank God. Studied a bit, returned some stuff to Ross, did some early bday shopping for Ben, got groceries and had to go to no fewer than THREE stores to find tahini because I decided $9 a jar at Ukrop’s was beyond ridiculous. (Finally found it at Kroger on Broad Street for less than $4.) Braved the rain to check out First Friday. We ended up only really exploring one gallery, which was super crowded and sweaty. But they had some interesting exhibits. Drinks at Penny Lane Pub, then home.

Saturday, as mentioned, was the day of non-stop rain. After Ben got home from work we went to get our composter, buy him some duck shoes for work, and of course we had to stop at a frozen custard stand we saw. Dinner of polenta and Italian spinach while watching season three of The Office.

Sunday Ben had to work. I spent the morning studying, biked to the farmer’s market, did some housework and almost finished organizing my craft room. Started to wonder what was up when Ben wasn’t home from work by 3 (he usually gets here around 2:30) and wasn’t answering my calls or texts. Tried to chill and reminded myself that it’s not uncommon for him to be so busy he can’t even look at his phone. Couldn’t remember him telling me he had to stay late, but thought it was plausible that he did, what with all the extra billionaires’ planes they were having because of the race (the NASCAR Chevy Rock & Roll 400). Forgot about going to church because I was trying to figure out where my husband could be. Kept busy with some more studying and flickring til about 5. Started making dinner. Dinner was ready around 6. Still no Ben. Decided I should drive to the airport and see if he was still there or if I should start freaking out. Figured if he was still working, he’d be starving, so I fixed him a bowl of food. He was there, and he was hungry, and I felt pretty silly for all my worst-case scenario imaginings. Poor guy didn’t end up getting home til almost 8. That’s a 14-hour day. Stupid race.

Well, I may have killed my dear little Tommy-Toe (you might say he was an unfortunate casualty of the move), but at least my avocado is alive and well (with a debt owed to Jess):

Also in the vein of planting/growing/fertility, yesterday we bought a composting machine! We got it for a steal thanks to this post that I just happened to spy while perusing the Church Hill People’s News for interesting happenings yesterday. I can’t wait to set it up and start making dirt.

In other news, we survived Hanna unscathed (although there were some pretty bad car accidents in Richmond during the rain, but thankfully no major flooding or other damage that I know of), and it looks like we’re out of the path of Ike. Yesterday was non-stop rain and wind, but it’s gorgeous out today, so I’m gonna ride my bike down to the 17th Street Farmer’s Market and pick up some veggies before church. Then it’s back to more delightful reading about stanzaic forms in poetry and theories of teaching composition and rhetoric. Hope your weekend was happy!

Howdy, dear readers — if you still exist. I do apologize for the dearth of posts in the last month, but hope my reticence will be excused and perhaps partially made up for with the following summary of the many happenings in my life since we last spoke. This is my first post from our new digs in Richmond! Here we are, sassy new homeowners, mere hours after closing on our first home (also mere hours after the previous homeowner was still dragging piles of junk out of the yard):

More stories and suprises after the jump! Continue reading →

I realize I haven’t been posting much in the past week or two, but I have a good excuse (beyond the fact that I’ve been super-busy packing everything we own into cardboard boxes, trying to do and see all kinds of things for the last time, and generally takin care of business): My blog was actually down for a couple of days. I think. I blame the fact that I was slow to update my version of the WordPress software. And the fact that when I tried to do so, everything went all buggy on me for a day or two. Should be all functioning properly now, methinks.

Anyhoo, hows about a quick catch-up? Things that have happened since my last post:

• The house got inspected
• The seller agreed to fix everything the inspector recommended fixing (including the A/C, woohoo!)
• We bought new (used) bikes because our new house is actually close enough to things (like school and work) that we can bike to and fro
• Made two trips to Jacksonville so Ben could get dental work done at my mom’s office
• Decided to throw ourselves a going-away party this Saturday
• Did NOT sell 90% of the stuff we listed on Craigslist
• Began to feel frantic that there isn’t enough time to do everything we need or want to do in the next week

Here’s a picture of our rad bikes (taken with my lovely new iPhone (: ).

Now back to the endless packing!