Happy Days and Graduation!

Hey everyone!

Big news! But before we get to it, I first wanted to share this picture with everyone!

What are those? That's a very good question, and, unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea. But I figure that they must be important, as Dad sent me not only the above picture, but four others showing those objects at different angles! Apparently, it's a mystery we all must ponder together, since his email included nothing by way of an explanation.

So, on to the news! Shelly finished her last exam this past Wednesday (though she still needs to finish her clinic hours; I wouldn't point that out, except that she always adds it as an addendum whenever I congratulate her on her accomplishment)! She's gotten back three of her four letter grades, which are an A and two A minuses, so she's on track to do quite well for the semester. Now, if only she could receive an equally good grade on her Debtor/Creditor exam.

Next weekend is the big graduation day, and all four of our parents are coming into town. Mom and Dad, cast out of our apartment due to Mary's "Favored Parent" status (just kidding, guys!) will be staying at the Red Roof Inn in Chapel Hill, which (to give them the exact location), is just south of the 15/501 and I-40 interchange. We'll have quite a crowd that day, as Jenn Glass, Erika, Jason, Ashley, Stephanie, Carol Kuda, and the afore-mentioned parents will all be here. We'll be having a post-grad party at the complex pool afterwards, and if any Maryland buddies or siblings would like to matriculate down this way too, they'd be more than welcome.

Our upcoming move is now in the final stages; we've nothing else to do until we close on the 7th of May. I've lined everything up on the loan side, and gotten a firm commitment from Scott to come down the following weekend to do the tile work in the kitchen (though he did grouse a bit at being asked to install them in a diamond pattern). Shelly and I finalized our choice of tile yesterday, which will go in the kitchen, foyer, downstairs bathroom, and upstairs master bath. And here is a sample of it, displayed to great effect by me!

Geez, do my teeth really look like that when I smile?

Anyway, to celebrate, Shelly and I blew off our dinner budget and went out to Spartacus in Durham, where we coerced our hostess into taking this picture.

Oh, and before I forget, this is Erika's Facebook page, which I'll be adding to the link section momentarily. She dropped me the link this week, not wanting to be left off the prestigious list of who's who at the right. Oh, and ignore that link at the top right of her page- she's most definitely the Erika you're looking for!!

Not sure quite what I meant by that, but what's said is said.

In political news, Hillary Clinton really pulled out a big win in Pennsylvania! She'd been averaging about 6 points up going in, but I said to Shelly I thought she'd get ten, and by golly, she did! Seems people disliked being condescended to by her opponent, even if done in a very articulate, hopeful manner. Now let's see how Indiana and the Great State of North Carolina shape up! (I think I'll go to the polling place and hysterically assert that I'm a Democrat, dammit, and I've always been one, and how dare they not allow me to cast my ballot in the primary!) But anyway, if she does come out of the last race with a lead in the popular vote (as opposed to delegates; she can't catch Obama in those now), it'll be interesting to see what happens then. It'll make a big difference if she can claim that without resort to Michigan and Florida.

Alright, that's about all I have time for at the moment, so I'll sign off now. I'll leave you with this picture to carry you through the week:

March of Dimes

For those of you who don't know (which, since I didn't mention it, is probably everybody but Shelly), I had the March of Dimes this morning! Beautiful day for it, too- sunny but not too hot.
I'm one of the very few that jog the thing, and I did quite well this year, if I don't say so myself-of the SECU employees, I was tied for first, and in the top ten for all the groups, whereas last year I came in a disappointing tenth. I'd been keeping up with the exercise a little better in the run up this year, so that helped, even though I don't normally jog 3.1 miles in a session. Unfortunately, though, contrary to the promised windfall in $0.10 increments, I saw not one thin dime or any other denomination coin on the ground during the entire course.

Even as I sit here and write this, Shelly is in the final throes of frustration, studying for her Real Estate Finance exam, which is Monday. Moments ago, heaving a huge sigh, she picked up her book and moved from her desk to the living room, as if my mere presence was hindering the absorption of knowledge. In light of this, I'm making every effort to be invisible and soundless this weekend. So far, the sound of my fingers clacking away on the keys hasn't aroused her ire, but I fear I live on borrowed time.

You may have noticed I spruced up my blog a little bit this morning. I've added some links to some of my friends MySpace pages and changed my picture, so now when I mention someone, I don't need to link in the post anymore (this applies to Justin, Jen S, Kip, Kay, Heather, and Scott). And HAH! I just randomly found Martha's page!! I'll be adding that as well! Now if only a certain miniature greyhound owner/swanaphobe will send me the link to her Facebook page...

Well, that's all for this morning/early afternoon. Soon-to-be-formerly Law School Melissa will be visiting shortly to help Shelly study, and hopefully will be bringing lunch for us. Maybe later I'll get a picture from one of my coworkers of all of us at the March this morning, and if I do I'll post it.

UPDATE: As promised, here's that picture.

Inspection Report

Well, here's news: Apparently, the original roof, installed 21 years ago, qualifies as "just replaced". Our seller must operate on a geological timescale, in which case, the dinosaurs disappeared a short time ago.

As promised, the seller repaired all the items that her August '07 inspection reported. Actually, that last sentence isn't quite accurate... how to fix it? Let's see... just change "repaired" to "ignored", and then the sentence is totally correct.

One rather humorous inspection item was the ability of the hot water in the kitchen to reach a balmy 160° if left on long enough. This is up about 35° from the maximum safe level. At least we won't need to use the stove to do any boiling.

Obviously, Shelly and I have voiced the above concerns to our realtor, and we'll be submitting the repair request on Friday. Also, I have lots of pictures of the interior, but I find that they're mostly of floors, so my cousin knows what he's up against. But here's one of our new living room:

Well, it's almost midnight here, so I'm going to go to bed, just as soon as Shelly finishes watching Stephen Colbert in the other room. Oh, Melissa, I'm deeply sorry- I didn't notice the wine stain on your dress! I had thought all wine-related items had been poured safely down your esophagus during the course of the night! But I guess, given the volume in question, a little was bound to escape!

Oh, and I took this picture out on our lake tonight. That is one ambitious mother!

Good News, Everyone!

I'll jump right in, for those of you that haven't already been informed by my thunder-stealing mother. As of August, Shelly will be gainfully employed as a clerk for the Court of Appeals! And not a month too soon, as right around then we'll be teetering on the edge of financial ruin, with the loan money drying up and the crushing weight of mortgage payments and home improvements a'mountin'. Congratulationgs, baby!


To celebrate, we went out to Thai Cafe in Durham, where we were joined by someone I'd not seen since I'd nearly been knocked unconscious by her dance floor antics two months ago, Law School Melissa (who will soon need a new moniker, unless the exams go very, very badly, which we all can hope)! I didn't have a camera with me, so let me find one back in the archives... ah, here we go, this is pretty representative of the occasion:

(That's for laughing when that super-hot Thai sauce got stuck in the back of my throat, 'Mel-Mel')

Also in the vein of good (if somewhat inevitable) news, Jason (and lesser-known twin Jeremy) turned 30 this past week. On Friday, Shelly and I joined them and several other people we didn't know at Bocci in Durham for a "surprise" party that the birthday boys were mournfully aware of in advance. As a present, we framed that picture Jason requested two blog entries ago- which was no small thing, mind you, as we had to go to not one, not two, but three stores before we found one with a working Kodak picture kiosk. Here's a photo of the group of us, taken by our long-suffering waitress:

The next night, following a long day of recuperation from the stress-filled week at SECU (we can't all be law students, pharmacists, and out-of-work speech therapists), we decided we hadn't had quite enough of the Hawkins clan for one week, so we invited them over for hamburgers. This time, they brought Charlotte and Sonny over as well; the babysitter from the night before apparently needed 'pharmaceuticals' after dealing with Charlotte all night (happily provided by Jason), and was still a little shaky. Aside from dinner, though, not much especially noteworthy happened. Shelly did fill them on the specifics of Misty and Lerissa's lifetime ban from Tyler's Taproom (sorry, still can't give details!), and Jason and I almost blew ourselves up at the community grill, and through random TV-watching, we did find Sonny's magical twin (see below), but that's about it.

In other news, Shelly and I have out inspector going out to the townhouse tomorrow, where we'll be joining him and our realtor to give the place a good going-over. Hopefully, he won't find anything too awfully wrong with it, but keep your fingers crossed. If nothing else, it'll enable me to take a long lunch on the busiest day of the year for me at work, so that's something. I'll undoubtedly post a quick update on that tomorrow night.

Also, for any who may have gotten excited: No, I'm still a Republican. The deadline passed on Friday to be able to vote in the primary, so I won't be able to cast my strategic vote for Hillary. Alas! I guess I'll just have to cling to my guns and religion a little while longer, no matter what Obama might say to the contrary...

Alright, folks, on that happy note, I'm going to sign off. Blogger's quit on me twice tonight while I've been writing and I'm sick of fighting with it. I'll leave you with this picture of me and Shelly, which is one of the better one's we've taken lately.

A Crush of Charlottians


Actually, that works in two ways. There was a crowd from Charlotte here this weekend, as well as a crowd induced by Charlotte. Either way, lots of estrogen was involved.


Misty and Lerissa came in on Friday, interrupting my wholesome schedule of planned Bible readings and household chores. Instead, I was forced to entertain them all weekend, playing Apples to Apples, watching Superbad, and going to Tyler's Taproom in Carrboro on Saturday to watch Carolina get absolutely blown out by Kansas.

Somewhere in between all that, Erika came over with Charlotte and Sonny (no Jason though; someone around here has to work). Upon leaving, Erika wondered aloud why I'd been so quiet, apparently forgetting that I was the only guy in a roomful of females. Darlin', if I could have gotten a word in edgewise, I would have!

Speaking of Mr. Hawkins, it's his birthday today! I know this because Shelly and I called to wish him a happy one yesterday, only to be informed of our mistake. We blame Erika (as is convenient for most of our woes) since she had asked us to babysit last night, leading Shelly to think that was his actual birthday. I comforted Shelly with the knowledge that I'd be lucky to guess the month of Erika's birthday, much less the actual day.

On to house news. We have our inspector going in on April 15th, which is the next thing on the calendar. It's at 1:30 pm, so I'll need to take my lunch hour to attend, but as that day (tax day) is the busiest SECU day of the year, it'll likely be a welcome reprieve for me to get out of the office.

In other news, I'm thinking of becoming a Democrat for the next month, since North Carolina is actually going to matter in their primary. It's the least I can do to let my voice be heard... and keep them bickering until the convention in August. He he he! I just hope this doesn't manifest in some sort of weird "Fight Club" scenario in which I split into two personalities and beat myself senseless. It could happen.

Oh, I stumbled onto this link over at Keepandbeararms.com. It does have a bit of explicit language, but I must have laughed for twenty minutes straight (true, those of you who know me best know that that's not totally unheard of). Shelly finally muted Idol to yell at me to shut up, and even that didn't totally squelch my giggles. My favorites were numbers 6,5, and 4, which nearly had me doubled over.

Jen, just to let you know (since I'm terrible about emailing you back), June 7-8 are fine. Hopefully we'll have our townhouse in some kind of shape to receive guests by then!

Jason- yes, I'll give you a full-sized picture of that. And here's one of Charlotte and MIIIIST-EE:

OK, I know it's been another short entry here, but not a lot's going on, and sheer Puritan sensibilities forbid me from describing the Lerissa/Misty weekend in any more detail (let's just say they put the 'tap' back in 'Tyler's Taproom'!), so I'll have to leave it at that! See everyone again soon!

And Erika? Just kidding! I know it's August 12th!