Happy Birthday To You! And Other Events ....

Okay, we know that we haven't posted in a long while, but it's been pretty crazy-busy, between work (mid-term time for Lauren), and work (ramp-up to being productive after training). Between dodging the winter weather and bad drivers, it's been a challenge simply getting up in the morning to make the near-2 hour commute down to KC and back. But it's been worth it; the new job is going wonderfully, and it's nice to finally be with a company that appreciates my skills.

So, in the meantime, what's happening with us? Well, we're planning to travel and simply do things, because March will bring with it our one year wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that a year ago, we were ramping up to March 17th, planning, sending invites, picking colors, setting up the hotel and venues. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

Anyway, we're not going very far, unlike a certain fellow friend and blogger who is going to India for 3 weeks. No, our trips will be a bit shorter this year: in April, we are looking at a weekend trip to Kirksville, MO for an SCA event (we're not members, but we thought it sounded cool to go to, so we're going), and then in May, we plan on heading up to Illinois around Memorial Day, where we'll do an outdoor memorial (now that it's warmer) for Pat, Lauren's mom. Somewhere in there, we hope to spend a weekend in KC to celebrate our anniversary.

Finally, in July, we are planning to go out to Blacksburg, VA, as a longtime friend of Lauren's is celebrating her 60th birthday and possibly (she should know by then) getting tenure from Virginia Tech, her current college. That will mean a trip out and back; due to the smaller size of the nearest airport at Roanoke, 3/4ths of it will be on regional jet (cramped, but reasonably priced). Still, it will be worth it; we hope to do some historical sightseeing and some local winery research, as well as the birthday and tenure celebration.

Speaking of birthdays, it was almost a year ago that we adopted Snowball, following the demise of Kitty. Here's a pic taken the day after we adopted her:










She has grown considerably, so we thought we would post a picture of her now:















The concensus is that she's a little odd looking in some ways, but she's still the sweetest kitteh we've owned in a long time.