Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

Our lack of recent posts to the blog has not been for lack of good material, but rather because our computer has been a bit under the weather. It still is, so tonight I post from Andrew and Melanie's computer. We have some new neighbors now. They moved in last Saturday while Aubrey and I were in Atlanta visiting Kim, Kristin and Ikea. Two little doves have staked out a corner of our porch and decided to call it their own. They seem nice enough. They don't do too much, mostly just sit, walk around a little bit, and coo. One of them walks with a limp, but Aubrey and I aren't yet convinced if its a real limp, or if he's just trying to play on our sympathies so we don't kick him off the porch. They don't fly very much. If you walk up to them, they mostly just walk away. They haven't built a nest yet that I've seen. Although they have plenty of material right at hand. In December when we trimmed the branches from our Christmas tree, I threw the extr...

Jeff and I just returned from our first ever trip to Ikea. Wow. That is about all I can say. Ever since my roommates, Maggie and Stephanie, talked about Ikea during freshman year of college, I have wanted to go and see one. But I had NO IDEA it would be like it was. There is so much stuff there!! First, you go all the way to the top floor, which is set up mostly in showrooms with all the different furniture in sets. The next floor down is where everything is sold individually - they have kitchen appliances and wares, all kinds of linens, photos, glassware, and obviously all kinds of furniture. Prices on everything seemed pretty reasonable. Jeff and I ended up getting a cute galvanized steel window box container. Check it out here. Jeff was also quite excited about some under cabinet lighting. I also wanted 2 of these for our back porch, but we decided to wait. I guess that just means there will be something to look forward to the next time I come down. And there will be a next time....

sprinting to the finish line

Finishing the swim 

My body markings 

my classmates and I, at the race 

My body markings are slowly fading from my first ever triathlon, and I didn't come in last! Overall I was 71st out of 103 total women, not too bad for a first timer. The oldest female to beat me was 53. And I did get beat by a 67 year old man. But I came in 7th out of 18 novice females. My total time was 1:27:24, with 10:59 on the swim, 46:18 on the bike and 27:18 on the run, meaning that I ran around a 9 minute mile, which is a fast time for me running. I even missed the last turn on the run, which added a few extra seconds to my time. I would like to do another one, hopefully getting some more practice on the bike, which was definitely my worst part. Having to borrow a bike that didn't quite fit probably didn't help that either. Overall, I was quite excited about my time, and racing is always fun, especially with my husband and mom there to cheer me on. I am looking forward to the next one. So enjoy some photos!

 

So Dick Cheney was in town this weekend. I'm not exactly sure what he was doing. I guess probably giving some speeches. While Mom and I were walking around downtown, a bunch of people were sitting across the street from this building, just watching it. I asked someone sitting there, and sure enough, Dick Cheney was in that building. Mom and I didn't want to waste time sitting around waiting for him to come out, so instead we kept walking. And even if we didn't see him, we saw the next best thing: His limousine. Cadillac 2. Or whatever it is actually called. And lots of secret service guys standing around, dressed just like in the movies with dark glasses and suits. And they were nice enough to let me get some pictures.

Soo....I will say that sometimes I do have a great job. I mean, I got to ride IN THE COCKPIT, while WEARING THE HEADPHONES. How cool is that?!? Our pilot kept on saying "6356 charlie." That was our name. Or handle. Or whatever it is called in the aviation world. The whole experience was great. We went to the Pee Dee center, a residential "facility" for adults with physical disabilities and mental handicaps. You always hear about people with disabilities getting put in "institutions" and the connotation is always negative. This place was way better than I would ever have imagined. The nursing staff does such an incredible job taking care of these people. They really become part of their family. The people who live there can have jobs and make money to buy things they want. I'm not sure why, but people there really seemed to respond to me. Maybe it was the bright green shirt I was wearing. We were walking through a building where the residents were wo...

I have this vague undefined feeling that Aubrey's job is just a bit more exciting than mine. Today at my job I had checked the clock 3 times by 9:16. Yes, we opened at 9:00. But around 10:15, someone actually came in, and I got to help them. That made the next minute go quickly, then they were done. I spent the rest of the morning emailing with my friend Cy. This was generally fun. For the afternoon I tried to prepare for Bible Study in between reminding people of their PIN numbers and explaining how you can only write checks for the amount of money you have already deposited. That was my day. Aubrey's day began by driving to the airport to meet the private jet which was waiting for her. She got to ride in the cockpit as the jet took off, and whisked her away with a team of doctors to go serve a clinic in an underserved area of South Carolina. She worked with Nuerologists, and took care of people in important and significant ways, helping to improve their quality o...

my bagels

Over the weekend I was in a rather crafty mood. I haven't made anything recently and I also didn't cook last week. (Not even once - sheesh, I'm a bad wife) So this weekend I was really needing to get some creative juices flowing, and decided to make bagels. Well, I really wanted to make doughnuts, but Jeff and I have also been trying to cut back on the calories lately and doughnuts do not really fit into that scheme. Sadly. But bagels seemed like a fun replacement. I was surprised at how easy it was. They are very similar to normal bread dough, so I used my kitchenaid mixer, and then rolled them out into bagel-shaped...well...bagels. I learned that bagel comes from either german or yiddish and means either "stirrup" or "round loaf of bread." Or according to the Southern Living cookbook "water doughnut." "Round loaf of bread," though, is not a very creative name, and I'm not sure I trust the fact checkers at Southern Living since ...

Jeff and I just got back from visiting the nicest house I have ever been in. It is even better than the Zeller's lake house, which is kind of hard to imagine. (sorry, Kristin) The house was 3 stories, with a garage on the bottom and then two floors of living space. There were: 2 full kitchens, a game room with a bar, lots of bedrooms, including two master bedrooms, one of which had a separate sitting area, a formal dining room (which could probably seat 25), a casual dining room, plus a large kitchen table. One of the bathrooms had a huge tub, a separate shower with two shower heads, and a sofa and TV. So there's really no need to ever leave the bathroom. Outside was a hot tub/infinity pool, where it looks like there's no edge to the pool and the water falls over the side and is pumped back up into the pool. This house sat facing west on the Stono River, part of the intracostal waterway. You can sit on the back deck and watch the sunset over the marsh. They also had a long ...

Many of you who read this blog will immediately recognize the above picture. Its a picture of strength. A picture of nobility. A picture of steadfastness. Yes, its a picture of Junior. Junior is my beloved truck. Junior is a 1986 Nissan Pick-up, which means this year he'll be turning 20 years old. I don't know his exact birthday. He didn't become a part of the Tell family until he was 8 years old, in August of 1994. That's when I moved with my parents to Colorado Springs. It was too far for me to walk to school, and my parents surely were not going to drive me everyday, so I ended up with Junior. Oh, the places Junior and I have been together. Several trips to San Diego, across the Mojave desert in the summer with no air conditioning. Through the Colorado mountains, crossing Vail Pass in the snow, valiantly using 3rd gear to get up the hill. At least 16 seperate trips across the expansive void which is Kansas(one with Bro snoozing in the passenger seat). S...

Right after Jeff and I started dating, he and his roommate Peter had signed up to do a triathlon. Jeff asked me to come and watch him in the race, which was in Columbia, MO, about 2 hours from St. Louis. My very nice friend Kristin, being very nice, said that she would come with me, since we were going to have to spend the night near Columbia as the race started early in the morning. And since we were all poor graduate students, we figured we would camp. Kristin and I didn't get to leave St. Louis until 8 or 8:30, which meant we didn't get to Columbia until quite late. Thankfully, the boys had already set up the tents. Kristin and I got to sleep in the large spacious 4-person tent, while Jeff and Pete snuggled in the little 2-man one. That night was probably the loudest thunder storm I have ever camped in. It rained, the wind blew, and thunder was crashing all around us. No one got very much sleep, and then we got up and Pete made a fire before we went off to the starting ...

For those breathlessly awaiting the results of my sentencing this afternoon, I am happy to report that the tickets were all waived, and I have saved myself $928. This is a good feeling. Not only that, but the whole process at the courthouse took about 4 minutes, and most of that was going through the metal detector. I was suprised, I thoroughly expected to be frustrated by the mindless beauracracy. But no, Charleston County is running ship shape down there at the Public Services Building. Good work, County.