arboretum and wedding

In September I flew back to Minnesota to attend my cousin Richard's wedding. The day before his wedding, my mom and I took a tour around the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was really a great afternoon and I appreciate the gardens much more as an adult (I was probably under the age of 15 the last time I visited).

My cousin's wedding was really nice and of course it was fun to see my extended family. I also performed on piano for their wedding and it gave me a great excuse to practice again. I wish I had more opportunities to play!

Here's Richard and Liz during their first dance as a married couple.

And more family:

five years

Last week marked 5 years that Chris and I have been a couple. Half a decade in and we're still having fun...

durham fair and paradise hills

Chris and I decided to check out the Durham fair in September. We had no idea what it would be like, but after reading that there would be bunnies and goats, I was convinced we needed to go. When we got to the "parking lot" and saw that it was actually a gravel pit, we were a bit unsure what we were getting into! But, we got on the bus anyway and were soon transported to the land of fried foods, prize vegetables, and far-too-expensive carnival rides.

You can't go to the fair without getting something doughy and fried. Apparently mini-donuts are only a thing in the Midwest, so Chris and I settled for fried dough.

How many goats do you prefer? 1?

2?

or 4? Aren't they cute!

After only about two hours and a big bag of kettle corn, we grew tired of the fair. Luckily, we had spotted a new winery along our drive, so we decided to retreat there. It was a new place called Paradise Hills and the wine is really quite decent (for Connecticut). Most people there had picnic baskets with them and were enjoying their wine with a nice little spread. So, we convinced Megan, Sylvan, and other Chris to join us there the next weekend to join in the fun.

bed in a box

And why not start with Vlad the cat? He has been loving the box that my boots came in, as it is the perfect size for him.

Come play!

catching up

Lately it seems like life has been controlling me and I've just been along for the ride, holding tightly to my seat. Well, hopefully I can change that a bit.

Regarding this blog, yesterday I said the words "I don't write in it anymore" and then a little pang of disappointment washed over me and thought, WHY?

There's really no good reason, except that I haven't made the time. Sure, I'm busy. But the time is there, if I use it wisely. The only logistical problem had to do with not having a photo editing program on my new computer. I've solved that, at least for now.

So, I'll be doing some catching up. Let's see what happens!

a quick survey

Overall, Hurricane Irene didn't do a ton of damage in New Haven, and its widest-felt result is the loss of power (which I will take ANY DAY over a flooded basement!). I decided to move my car to a parking lot on a hill and while that was not actually necessary in the end, it helped me to rest a bit easier without worrying about rising waters ruining it. (In fact there was no significant flooding here, yay!) The storm knocked out our power at about 6:36am on Sunday (literally one minute after I emailed family to let them know things were okay so far) and we just got it back tonight around 8ish. Thankfully certain awesome friends took pity on us last night and tonight and cooked us delicious pity dinners. It's great to have good, generous friends who live only blocks away!

So, without further ado, here are the few photos I took while we walked around town to survey the damage. The first photo was the most typical: lots of downed branches in the road.

This was also pretty common - a single large limb broken from the tree.

There was also a lot of water in a nearby park, but thankfully this was rare.

Some unfortunate person parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. We only saw this one instance of a smashed vehicle, but various trees and wires were down all over the neighborhood.

Finally, these people were actually pretty lucky, given that the tree did very little actual damage as the window didn't even break! Chris learned from neighbors that these people have lived in 3 houses and have had trees fall on all 3 of them!! They weren't too shocked, then, I suppose.

Crews worked to remove said tree today. I can't help but think that Chris' brother Gabriel would have really enjoyed seeing this process unfold.

We actually didn't need to spend that much time in candlelight, but I enjoyed what time we did. Yes, that's Chris checking the web on his phone. Life never stops with a smart phone! ;)

Lastly, and unfortunately, there has been significant damage to properties on the shoreline, including the community where I work. The opening of school has been delayed until next week, so I have a few more days to soak up summer vacation. I wish it was on better terms, though...

preparedness

Hello! Did you hear that a hurricane is on its way? Well, either way, here's a peek into one corner of our kitchen:

(In case you can't tell, each of these vessels is filled with water, just in case...)

(old) apartment tour

There's something really bittersweet about moving out of the first apartment that Chris and I ever shared together as a couple, but I will admit that I am really excited about the new place, too. We begin moving in tomorrow! However, I will definitely miss the great views of East Rock from our old bedroom windows and the well-lit living room and spacious kitchen in our first very humble apartment together. And, since I don't believe I've shared very many photos of our current place, I'll bid this apartment adieu by sharing with you a few photos I took of it last year. It has constantly evolved but there aren't any more up-to-date photos unless you want to see all of the boxes we have been packing!

The kitchen view upon walking in the door:

It was not a fancy apartment by any means. That pantry door NEVER could be shut completely.

The bathroom (left) and bedroom (right) doors:

Our big bedroom:

Mismatched furniture galore:

A more recent perspective of the livingroom:

All of the books we've been working on packing:

The huge windows with a sunny view to the South:

Of course these photos don't really show any of the annoying details such as rickety old windows that let in a veritable breeze, broken door handles, clicking oil baseboard heaters, chipped floor tiles, and many, many other little things that got on my nerves. But, I recognize that not many young couples get to have amazing first places together and so we really tried (and succeeded!) to make the best of what we had. It has gone from barely furnished with no art on the walls to a much improved but constantly evolving expression of us as a couple. Despite all of its flaws, I will always look back fondly on this place which, overall, was a very happy first apartment for us, a fun space to welcome friends and family, and simply a place that the love of my life and I could share and call home.

Now we are on to bigger and better, too! I look forward to sharing photos as our new apartment takes shape. I just hope that Vlad can handle all of the excitement of moving...

rehearsal dinner

For those of you who don't know, my computer died! So, I haven't really been able to do anything with the blog. Luckily, I backed up my computer about 2 months ago so I shouldn't be missing anything terribly important and luckily many of my photos from Amber's wedding weekend are still on my camera. So I can at least share a few more photos that I uploaded to picasa last week (thanks go to Chris for letting me steal his mac momentarily):

Amber watches during the wedding rehearsal:

Later, we went to the nearby park for a fun, outdoorsy rehearsal dinner. Here's the building it was in:

Steve shares his homemade brew:

Later, Amber and Steve's fantastic photo slide show nearly made me cry. I bet her grandpa (seated near Steve) felt the same way!

Claire and Amber were probably discussing their last-minute brass quartet arrangement ideas.

Steve's niece, Kenna, is the cutest 3 year old and totally loves to socialize. No wonder she and Amber get along so well! ;)