Traveling Gingerbread Man

On behalf of my niece, my sister-in-law sent me a gingerbread man made of paper who was "visiting" and I was supposed to take pictures of him and show what he did while he was with me. I guess this is in the tradition of Flat Stanley.

Well, obviously, living in Washington, DC, gave me a million options but I decided to stick with Arlington since that is where I spend 99% of my time. So, here are the pictures I took of Gingey... at the Iwo Jima Memorial, at Arlington Cemetery, at the Netherlands Carillon, looking over the river to the DC landmarks and then, amazingly, as I was walking past the gate to Fort Myer to go back to my car, s Santa appeared out of nowhere and said he saw me taking pictures and wondered if I wanted to have one with him too.

Seriously, it was crazy. But the pictures are kinda cute. It's a little tough to take a picture with my phone and hold a gingerbread man at the same time.

My First YouTube Upload

I know I haven't been online for a few weeks but I had my birthday, a librarian conference, and then a trip home for 5 days that kept me very busy. My trip home was okay. Perhaps the highlight was the Indians game I went to with my dad on Saturday night, where they had post-game fireworks that were completely awesome. I daresay they were one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. And, yes, I've seen those in our nation's capital a few times now. Anyway, I got the urge to record five minutes or so of the fireworks on my digital camera and then uploaded it onto YouTube. Voila! I know it's better to watch fireworks in person but it's my treat to you for my absence.

Christmas holiday 2009

Yesterday was Christmas with my parents and it was a good day. I got some clothes, a Nintendo Wii and a portable external hard drive, which will be great for my laptop.

Today, my brother and his family came over. My niece and nephew got a lot of presents (of course!) and I think really enjoyed themselves. Ben's playing with a robot on the left. On the right, Mia seemed to have more interest in my dad's cane than she had in any of her presents. But that's okay, she's only 15 months.

Surgery for my dad

Tomorrow my dad is going in for a knee replacement surgery on his left knee. I know it's a pretty routine surgery nowadays but I'm still worried. I know my mom is a nervous wreck and I feel bad I won't be able to be there for her and for my dad after the surgery. Hoping my brother steps up... Anyway, here's praying everything goes well.

Back from Vacation

Not that I'm sure anyone missed me but I am back from my family vacation now! We (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister-in-Law, Niece, Nephew) spent a week in Hilton Head sharing a home and living together like one large extended family. I will say that it went better than I expected. My niece seems to be a sweet, smiley, well-behaved baby. She seems to be teething but, even with that discomfort, really didn't cry too much. She's really adorable too. My nephew, on the other hand, is 3 1/2 and spoiled rotten and gets to do pretty much anything he wants but he was mostly bearable. But, also shrill.

It was pretty cold in Hilton Head, like low to mid 50s every day. Coupled with the wind, it was downright chilly, probably close to 40. And, of course, colder at night. There was one really nice day where it might have even hit 70. I mostly spent my time just vegging with the family and reading. We did go shopping a couple times, of course, and I happily got a few really cute tops for a good price. And I watched a few movies, including some kids' ones that my nephew insists on watching during dinner. But, as a result, I got to see a genre of movies that I don't typically see!

Although I flew down there and landed in Charleston, where my parents picked me up on their drive down, I rode home with my parents. The drive wasn't too bad at all. We got home Saturday evening at about 11pm, but I think that was pretty good time considering we really didn't leave Hilton Head until 12:30pm, plus we then stopped for lunch, went to an outlet mall, and then stopped again for dinner. But I'm glad I didn't drive the 10-11 hours by myself. My parents stayed in DC for Sunday so I hung out with them and they finally went back to Cleveland yesterday while I went back to work.

Surprisingly, things didn't get too backed up at work while I was gone. I think that it was a good week to be gone. Anyway, just wanted to fill you in on the basics and let you know that I'm back and might possibly post more often. And I might upload some pictures from the trip.

The kids at Christmas

Thought I'd share a pic of my niece and nephew from Christmas...

And here is a link to a few more pics.

Back in NoVa

I'm back in northern Virginia after a 4-day trip back home to Cleveland. In Cleveland, I did a little shopping with my mom (of course), visited with my brother & his family (including newborn power sleeper Mia), caught up with some old friends, saw the Browns beat the defending Super Bowl champs, finished my book club book, and worked my way around the mess that is my parents' kitchen while they remodel it.

Back in Arlington, I came home to:
1.) a kitchen light that has all of its fluorescent bulbs burned out. Thanks roommate!
2.) a book club that has been postponed for two weeks - to a date that I can't make. Thanks for making me read a book I didn't enjoy for nothing!
3.) the girl I manage back to her old ways of doing absolutely nothing. She was gone for about two weeks dealing with the death of her father and had a really productive first day and a half. Now she's returned to her useless ways.

More pictures of the kids...

My brother has two sites where he posts pictures of his kids... Ben's is here and Mia's is here.

Pictures of Mia

Here are the first pictures of my niece Mia! One by herself first and one of her seemingly already trying to get out of the grasp of her big brother:

I'm an aunt again!

My brother and sister-in-law now have a bouncing baby girl - two weeks early! She was born today at 6:02 pm and I guess although Melissa had been having contractions a little bit in the afternoon, the baby was almost born in the car and came really quickly. Good for her, couldn't wait to come into the world! Brian said she's 7 lbs, 10 ounces and has a full head of hair. And she snorts like a pig when she's sleeping, as I heard firsthand over the phone. If (when) I get a pic, I'll post it.

Hilton Head Kite Flying

I took some pictures of my family flying kites at the beach last week when we were in Hilton Head. Here is the link to the pictures in the album.

Hilton Head Kite Flying

Home for Christmas

I went back home for about six days for Christmas, but was able to use only two vacation days, which is good since I don't have a lot. Now I'm back in DC. Here is a picture of our family tree on Christmas Day, before the gifts were unwrapped.


While I was home, I slept in, did some laundry, watched some movies, did all of my Christmas shopping and also tagged along while my parents did some of theirs, helped babysit my nephew one day, hung out with my family, wrapped dozens of presents for my mom, and relaxed. It was nice and just long enough to make it tough to come back to DC. Now it's back to work for a few days and then a family vacation in South Carolina! Oh, also, on my flight back in to Baltimore, my pilot's name was Captain Morgan! That's calming. But actually I loved him because he got us there nearly twenty minutes early, allowing me to catch the earlier bus!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Today is my brother's birthday! Happy birthday to him! Here's a picture of him with his son from last August.

I'm dreaming of a White.... Easter?

So yes, we've been deluged by snow here in Cleveland. It's kind of insane that we have way more snow now than we did at Christmas. The poor Indians have had five baseball games cancelled this weekend, although two of those were makeup games to begin with. Personally, I'm not affected too much since I would be busily in front of the computer working on my paper regardless of the weather, but we did cancel our plans to have Easter brunch with some relatives. My brother got about 18 inches of snow at his house and it was still snowing there, which is where we were going to meet up before heading here for brunch. Instead, I went here with just my parents. The snow finally seems to have stopped here at my house, but I wonder how the other areas of town are doing. We are not in the "Snow Belt".

Anyway, I'm honestly kind of relieved to not go since this paper I have due tomorrow is turning out to be a mess. (see other post today) Thank God she gave us a one-day extension or I would be screwed.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today my mom turns 60! Happy Birthday to her! Not that she'll want her age broadcast over the Internet probably, but it's a pretty big birthday, so I wanted to acknowledge it. If only I were employed and could have thrown a huge birthday party for her or something.

Long time no see

Tonight, we saw a distant relative who was in town from the Boston area and who we rarely ever see. I guess she's just my mom's aunt but since we have so little contact with her, I always think she is a much more distant relative. She was in town for a wedding so we got together with her so she could meet my nephew Ben. She is in her late eighties yet still works about 3 days a week as a nurse. It's pretty amazing, although my mom thinks the last thing she wants to be doing at that age is working at all and I'm kind of with her there. The other nice thing was that she gave me her daughter's business card - her daughter is a library director in the Pittsburgh area. So now I need to network...

With my parents, I get lazy

So I've moved back to Cleveland temporarily while I job search, to save money and to see my family and friends, who I haven't really seen much of the last two years. It's been nice staying with my parents, although it's also kind of difficult because I miss having my own space and my doing things the way I want to do them. Not to mention that my Internet access is kind of limited. I am getting fairly laptop-proficient, however, which is a plus, I guess. Although it just makes me want one more and well, that's just one other thing I can't afford right now.

Anyway, my plan for now is to go on vacation to Hilton Head, SC, with my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and nephew next week and when I get back, go full-steam ahead with the plan to move to Washington, DC.

I think.

I REALLY need to send out some more resumes/cover letters because I've pretty much burned the bridge at IPS, where I'd already had a couple of interviews and where they seemed to really want me. Call me crazy but I get really turned off by my future employer constantly calling me 'Cindy,' even when I correct her. But that was just a small problem among the many reasons why I feel less than confident that it is the place for me.

Back in Syracuse

My ten days home went pretty quickly and now I'm back for my second full day in Syracuse. While I was home, I managed to see a few friends, hang out with my parents, see my brother, sister-in-law and nephew and celebrate Christmas, New Year's and an Ohio State Bowl game victory. All in all, a pretty good vacation. The one thing I did not do that I had planned on doing was apply for jobs, since my parents only have Microsoft Works on their computer. (Not that I find anything wrong with any of the Microsoft products at all, Mr. Gates.) But really that was just an excuse because I could have easily used that or gone elsewhere (like a library). I doubt that most companies do a whole lot of resume-viewing and interview-conducting during the last two weeks of the year, anyway.

When I got home Tuesday evening at about 7pm (after making AWESOME time), I went into ultra housekeeping mode and scrubbed floors, cleaned the bathroom, reorganized my closet, reorganized my kitchen cabinets and did some furniture re-arranging. I have NO idea what got into me, but it's nice to have a productive time like that once in a while. Yesterday, I had to work. I want to finish up those damn internship hours ASAP, I'm not even kidding.

Death in the family

My great-aunt Thelma passed away over the weekend. She was nearly 90.