Welcome to 2011!

Another new year, and already I'm way behind on my blogging! It is a bit harder to write updates when I no longer have internet at home. The girls upstairs moved out and took their wireless with them! But here is a glimpse of what I've been up to for the last month!

For Christmas I went home to Dad's and offered to re-do the guest bath. Back in 1996-ish, our dog Dakota dug a hole in the flooring (which you can see below) and it was never fixed. For years a slippery throw mat covered over the mess. And at some point after I moved out, Mom got very creative with painting the walls. I've warmed up to pink over the years, but not to the point where these walls would ever be soothing! So our deal was that I would replace the flooring if he let me paint the walls, too.


I guess I didn't really know what I was in for with removing the old floor. It took about 3 hours of non-stop pulling, ripping, scraping, and picking to get all of it up.

Not including time waiting for primer and paint to dry, the whole project only took about 12 hours and cost just under $200! Once I figured out what I was doing, it was actually kinda fun and sorta made me wish I had my own place where I could do these kinds of projects. And I am so very happy with the new finished product.


I can't remember exactly when I took this picture, but I found it on my camera and figured I'd throw it in for good measure. I think it may have been the Harvest Moon, with either Jupiter or Venus glowing brightly below it.

I was super lucky for New Year's Eve and Day, as I had both Brian and Dad with me! They even joined me for my annual "start the year by walking on the beach" adventure. This year was very foggy, but much warmer than last year.

Unfortunately, coming back from Dad's brought me home to an apartment with several stinky issues. First, cats had gotten into the air ducts and used them as a bathroom. I had to get a vent cleaning company to come and vacuum and sanitize them so my house would stop smelling like a litter box.

However, once the litter box smell was cleaned up, another odor took over. At first it seemed like maybe the cats were still going to the bathroom under the house, but the smell quickly turned to that of something dead. Lovely. I took pictures under the house, trying to find the offending source, but to no end.

After much back and forth, the dead rat was found and removed from the upstairs porch siding. That was the good news. The bad news was that all the goo from inside the dead rat had leaked into the wall of my bedroom. Thus I have been sleeping on the futon in the living room for two weeks. The odor is just now getting to the point where I can walk into the bedroom and not gag, but the room is still basically unusable. Good thing I have such a big apartment!

On a separate, but somewhat related note, my musings of having a house to be able to do projects is coming to fruition: Brian and I have started looking at houses! I'll admit, the gypsy in me is still a little wary of the idea of "home ownership." But having run the numbers and realized that we could afford a pretty nice sized place in a good area, I've really warmed up to the idea. We spent one weekend just driving around looking at neighborhoods and types of homes, and last weekend we actually walked through the first house (it was a good bargain, but not exactly what we were hoping for).

I'm a wee bit nervous about making such a big decision, but also really REALLY excited about the thought of having a home. Not just a place to keep my stuff, or a place to have people over. But a real home.

We celebrated the start of the process with some delicious fro-yo from Lovin' Spoons.

The Fabertids Come To Town!

A pictorial summary of a wonderful visit from the Fabertids (and the Faber-adults, too)!

Labor Day: my new favorite holiday

In the line-up of widely celebrated and much anticipated holidays, Labor Day usually is not at the top of the list. The biggies like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Groundhog Day are really the heavy hitters. Okay, I'm kidding about Groundhog Day, but you get the point.

However, I really have to say that my last two Labor Days have been, well, outstanding! Last year Joy and Dad and I had a great time exploring the area and catching up. I was visited by my dear friend Eric and his beautiful family and, though I wasn't really at the point of writing about it at the time, it was also the first week that Brian and I started dating.

This year, Dad came up for the long weekend again and, as already mentioned, we had fun visiting with the folks at his church, playing on the rail trail and making yummy frozen yogurt treats. We were planning a lazy Sunday evening of watching movies and lounging around when I got a surprise phone call from another very dear friend from my college days.

Fairlight's husband, Jonathon, had ridden his bike from Toccoa to Tybee while Fairlight and the kids followed him down in the car. Their planned accommodations hadn't panned out and they were wondering if I had room for them to spend the night. Anyone who has seen my apartment knows that space is one thing I have plenty of, so I was excited to have them all over!

The kids enjoyed my library, craft supplies and the dogs. The adults enjoyed a chance to chat and catch up. And the dogs enjoyed cleaning the floors after meals. So a great time was had by all!!

Skye and Dad's Weekend of Fun!

What a wonderful weekend Dad and I have been enjoying! Friday night we went out to dinner with Jessie and had some great Indian food at Pakwan in the Oglethorpe Mall.

Saturday was a very busy day, but in a good way. Last week my dryer decided to break and being an avid do-it-yourself-er I decided to take the dryer apart and fix it. Luckily the Sears parts store was open so I was able to pick up a new belt for $20. Dad helped and we were able to get the dryer up and running in just about an hour.


Several months back Dad and I had some very yummy gelato at Mr. Koolz. He was really excited because they had sugar-free gelato, so he didn't even have to cheat. The vanilla tasted a bit like marshmallow, and that got him craving Rocky Road. So this weekend we picked up some sugar-free chocolate (which, surprisingly, actually does taste like chocolate!), mini-marshmallows and walnuts.

I whipped out the Cuisinart Ice Cream machine and blended up a batch of sugar-free Rocky Road frozen yogurt. It was delicious!

I even used a little of the extra frozen yogurt to blend with some mixed berries for a fruity frozen yogurt treat. What a way to celebrate the end of summer!

This morning the weather was so nice, fairly cool (for Georgia) and lowish humidity (again, for Georgia). So we laced up our walking shoes, slathered on some sunscreen, pulled on our hats and headed out to the McQueen's Island Historic rail trail! It was beautiful! Friends have been telling me about this place since I moved here, but I've never made the time to go until now. Altogether it is six miles from one end to the other. Dad and I parked at the mid-point and walked a mile and a half down the trail.

Along the way we saw a few really neat sights: herons, pelicans, butterflies, dragonflies, marshes and mudflats full of baby crabs. These cheerful morning glory-like flowers were teeming with yellow butterflies having brunch.

All this, and we still have the rest of today and tomorrow morning! Dad's been talking about getting a new car soon, so we may go out for a few test drives after lunch. All in all, it's been a pretty great weekend.

Yes, it was a Happy Birthday!

I'm not really a big fan of birthdays. It's not that I have a problem with getting older, I just don't particularly like all the attention that goes along with my birthday. Ironically, I LOVE making a big deal out of other people's birthdays...but that's because the focus is not on me!

This weekend I turned 31 and had a nice, relaxing, low-key time of it. Joy came to spend the weekend with me and we had a great visit! She went with me to my workshop for the awesome folks from the Statesboro Habitat for Humanity, we had yummy food, went to see the new Sex and the City movie, laughed and cut up as sisters should, and even went for a stroll on the beach. I think the walk on Tybee was my favorite part of the whole weekend (until it got too hot to think and I nearly melted into the sand).


The last time that Joy and I took a leisurely stroll on the beach like this was probably our trip to Block Island (which I think was back in 2006). We've been to the beach since then, of course, but not solely for beach walking. I prefer walking, while she's happy to roast in the sand...


Two very nice ladies offered to take a picture of us together, and asked if we were twins! It seems like Joy and I are the only ones who don't see the family resemblance (we must be in denial).


So, there are several things that I loved about this little beach trip:
1. I love to honor special moments by spending time in nature (my last stroll on the beach was on New Year's Day).
2. I loved spending time with Joy, just walking and talking and being outside on a beautiful day.
3. I love the way my new tankini top from Land's End fits (and I really love the fact that I got it on clearance!).
4. I loved to see what 8 months of Pilates has done for my health! Seriously, not to brag or anything, but I feel great!
When Joy and I got back from the beach, my new roomie had left these beautiful roses on the counter for me! Jessie is going to be my roommate for the summer and I'm so excited to have a crafter around to keep me motivated!

Second 5K in one month... what was I thinking?

I may have mentioned before that I'm not a fan of making New Year's resolutions. To me, it implies that I am somehow lacking and need to "fix" something about myself. I don't like this idea. I am hyper-self-critical most of the time anyway, so why develop a plan that will do little more than beat myself up even more?

Instead, I favor the idea of having positive intentions in my life. The concept of living my life with intent is very appealing to me. It means that I make positive choices to steer my life in a healthy direction. One of the intentions that I started working on last year was to make my physical health a priority. I started doing Pilates 6 days a week back in October and have, with only a few exceptions, stuck to that schedule. I picked up a punching bag to increase my cardio and build more upper-body strength (still working on incorporating that into the schedule on a regular basis). And I walk Harley 3 miles a day most days.

All in all, I've pretty happy with the progress I've been making. Most days I have an incredible amount of energy. However, last week I was dragging a bit. The biggest problem is that I didn't get to bed on time but once in the last 2 weeks. Granted, I only lost about an hour or so each night, but that adds up for me.

So I was a little disappointed that I was slow in the Preservation 5K today, but I can't say that it was unexpected. I finished in 40:30ish, and I know that I didn't push myself as hard as I could have. I'm okay with that, because I still finished and I'm at least out there trying. But I did realize that walking my dog 1.5 miles twice a day is not enough training for jogging 3.1 miles. Time to take a closer look at my schedule and see where I can fit in both some extra bag work and a few additional laps around the park. The Turtle Trot on Tybee is coming up in April, so I have a few weeks to prepare...

What happened to October?

I guess that I will never cease to be amazed at how quickly time passes. On October 1st I took my dinner out to Tybee and ate on the beach. It was such a perfect autumn day: warm sun, cool breeze, soft sand. I picked out a few neat shells, watched the minnows dart in and out of the waves and spent some time cleaning out the cobwebs in my head.

The beach has always been one of my favorite places to go and think. I'm sure this will come as no surprise, but I rarely just lounge in the sand. My best thinking, and meditating, is usually done while active, and walking the coast is a very therapeutic way for me to work out the kinks. On this particular day, I spent a lot of time thinking about how much my life has changed over the past year...and how much it is still the same. Earlier this year I spent several months feeling like my whole world had been torn apart and shaken to bits. I had a hard time feeling like myself, or even feeling like I knew what it meant to feel like myself. Lately, I have begun to realize that I am still me, I just have a few more experiences to tally up. I don't feel nearly as fragile or tender, like another emotional blow will break me to pieces.

On October 3rd I got to spend a few brief hours with Brian then went to Brunswick to watch Dad get installed as a Vicar in his church. I'm so proud of all the hard work he has put in so far and know that he is going to make a wonderful Pastor.

October 5th was Brian's deployment date. I got to talk to him while I was driving to Dad's, and he was kind enough to humor me by leaving a voicemail that I can listen to over and over during the next 12 months. I was actually doing okay with the whole thing until he mentioned that it may be a few weeks before he was settled in at his base and could email me. I didn't like the idea of "no news is good news" when the only way that I have to get news is from him! I didn't have to fret too much, though, because I got my first email from him on Tuesday, so I can start breathing again.

From October 6 through 10 I was in Rapid City, SD for the ACCE LIFE Conference. I had an awesome time and loved networking with so many other financial educators. I didn't get the weather memo before I left, so I wasn't completely prepared for the temperature dropping to the teens and snow. But it was still a great trip. We had a group outing to see Mount Rushmore and dinner at Prairie Berry Winery and I even sang a little karaoke at Murphy's. The only real complaint I had (besides constantly delayed flights) was that I was fighting a losing battle against a cold/flu/bug for the whole conference. I finally lost the battle on the flight home and have had a fever off and on since Saturday. Yuck.

Happy Autumn!

Wow, the first day of Fall is already here. It's a balmy 88 degrees here in Savannah, and it looks like potential thunderstorms are brewing in the clouds.

So what, you may ask, have I been up to since Labor Day? Well, I admired this beautiful flower that bloomed out of nowhere in my little back yard. I haven't a clue as to what it is, so if you know, please enlighten me!

I've been out a few times with some of the girls from work. We stopped by the rooftop bar at the Bohemian Hotel on Bay Street for drinks (chocolate martini: yum!) one afternoon, then hit Fannie's out on Tybee another night (mudslide: yum!). It's great to be out and socializing more, but it did make me miss my girlfriends back up north! This ginormous cargo ship came into port while we were sipping. It's amazing the thing can stay afloat!

I finally finished the laptop cover that I started back in January! It's a felted wool sleeve lined in cotton with a bright yellow zipper (which you can barely see on the left side). I've been playing around with the knitting machine and wool felt appliques and have to say I really like the results!

Last night I bumped into this lovely Black Widow...in my kitchen! She was starting to spin a web across my back door and I almost walked right into it! After taking her mug shot, I relocated her to the other side of the back fence. I know they are toxic, but I can't bring myself to kill something that eats mosquitoes!

The Savannah Jazz Festival is going on this week, but I haven't had a chance to look at the schedule yet. I think there is a show in Forsyth either Saturday or Sunday, so maybe I'll be able to catch it.

That's all the little, day-to-day details. Now on to the real news. After much hinting and poking, um, I mean, encouragement from various friends, I took a stab at online dating with eHarmony. (Pause for giggling) I really wasn't expecting, or hoping, for much more than some interesting dinner conversations and maybe the chance to make some new friends. So I was just as surprised as anyone when I actually felt that "click" with the third guy I met.

That, in and of itself, was not as surprising as the fact that he's in the Army. Even people who just met me said that I didn't seem like the Army type. But I figured that dating self-absorbed, creative-types hasn't worked out so well for me in the past, so why not try something different? After just the third date I was promoted to girlfriend status and, by promoting him to boyfriend status, gave myself the awkward job of breaking it off with the two other guys I had been seeing (a small price to pay, really).

Unlike most of my past relationships, where I've known the guy for weeks or months before moving on to dating, Brian and I decided that we're both up for the long run and just jumped right in. Again, also not like me, but I'm OK with that. So things are going great and I'm walking around with that goofy "I've just fallen" look on my face. Couldn't be happier. Except...

You knew there had to be an "except" in there somewhere, right? Well, it seems that I haven't quite used up all my bad fortune from last year. See, just a mere five days after the "can I call you my girlfriend?" conversation came the "I just got my orders to go back to Iraq for 12 months" conversation. Yup. Oh, and he leaves in less than two weeks.

So, I could curl up in a pathetic little ball and bemoan my crappy luck. But I opted for looking at the glass as half full: I'm dating an amazing man and get to make him some really kick-ass care packages over the next year! Sure, it sucks that we will have to go through the first year of our relationship with him stuck in a desert, but things could be much worse. We'll just make the best of the situation and spend lots of time emailing.

However, I do reserve the right to curl up in a ball at any point, should the need arise.

Non-Laboring Day

Dad and Joy spent the weekend in Savannah with me and we had a GREAT time! I finally got out to visit Fort Pulaski, a Civil War era brick-and-mortar National Park. It was a beautiful day (clear, bright, warm and with enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away) and the park is really well maintained. I have to admit that the Civil War is not my favorite history subject, but I think I could easily get into reading about it!

My friend Jessie works at the fort on restoration and the cannon squad. I helped hem up and take in her costume, as she is much smaller than most of the other re-enacters. I didn't get to see her in action, but watching this other petite ranger if full Confederate garb gave me an idea of how the whole costume comes together. We wrapped up the outing with a late lunch at Huck-a-Poo's out on Tybee.

One of the best parts of my Labor Day weekend was getting to finally meet the rest of the Stiles family! I'd heard so much about Jenny and Christian that it didn't feel like I'd never met them before. It's such a blessing to have great friends that you stay close to, even though there are years between visits.

Since they are expecting another baby boy in December, I whipped up a cute Teddy Bear themed quilt. But I couldn't let Christian go home empty-handed: he got an actual teddy bear! The bear was almost as tall as him, and he tucked the teddy in to sleep on the couch with his brother's blanket, which was pretty cute. But the saccharine levels overloaded when he crawled under the blanket himself and pretended to sleep in the teddy's arms!

Stars and St. Patty's

I know I said I was going to write about the St. Patty's weekend, and I promise I will. But first I have to share a very exciting photo. This is a starfish. A real, honest-to-goodness, found it in the water at the beach still ALIVE starfish! This may not seem so exciting, but let me explain.

As a child we used to go to the beach often (one of the joys of growing up on the coast of New England). During these frequent trips, we often walked along the water's edge and explored the tidal pools. While poking around in standing water and scaring the brain-stemless wits out of periwinkles and hermit crabs, we also found masses of starfish. These amazing creatures always enthralled me. First, they are shaped like stars, and any kid will tell you how cool stars are. Second, if a leg was cut off, it would just grow back. Really! And they had all these cool tentacles on the bottom side and a really neat looking mouth. They were just awesome. But sadly, when I moved back to CT after college and finally went back to these tidal pools to relive some portion of this childhood wonder...the starfish were gone. I read up to see if there was some kind of major starfish migration. I fear that the changing environment in Long Island Sound probably had something to do with it (there is a spreading "dead zone" heading east from NY).

But here, on Tybee Island in mid-March, I found my first Georgia starfish! It had buried itself in the sand at the water's edge during low tide. The only sign it was there was a slight star-shaped pattern in the sand. When I gingerly dug my toe under the star-shaped pattern, out came the starfish. I felt like I was five again. I picked it up and felt the little tentacles wiggling on my hand. I set it back in the shallows and watched as it glided along the sand before beginning to re-bury itself. It was so neat. I also found two dead dollars and one that was still alive (but my camera batteries had died and I haven't figured out how to get the pictures off my phone yet...).

Okay, so now on to St. Patty's Day. I will preface this segment by saying "I'm not really a 'parade' kind of person" so forgive any lack of enthusiasm. I went because it seemed the thing to do in my new city.

If you didn't already know, Savannah has the second largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the country. Now, be sure that you read that carefully: second largest. Not to be mistaken for second coolest, or second best, or second most-amazing-glad-I-stood-around-for-4-hours-to-watch-it. I think it would be better described simply as "second longest."


Joy and I grabbed a piece of curb to watch the procession. It was a bit chilly to start, but by the middle of the parade I was glad I brought my hat and sunscreen!


There were several pipe and drum groups, which was neat except that they all kinda looked the same and I really have a hard time picking out whatever tune they're playing. To me, when there is more than one piper piping at a time, it strikes me as a great impression of what I imagine a herd of horny tom-cats on a hot tin roof would sound like.


The band of lil' dancers ranked pretty high on the "Ahhh, that's so cute" scale.


The rakish rouge on the back of Keller's Flea Market pirate ship was also not so hard to look at!



You know you're in the South when a drive-in restaurant has a float in the parade...and it's one of the nicer ones.

I've never really liked the advertising campaigns that have an animal trying to entice you to eat it. There are no lack of BBQ posters with smiling pigs on them and it seems very self-defeating to me. At least this little piggy went wee-wee-wee all the way to the Piggly Wiggly (did you know the grocery store has its own theme song? I've only heard it in the parade, but if you're bored at work try googling it and let me know what you come up with).

No city parade would be complete without the Mayor, Otis Johnson.

Okay, strike my comment from before. You know you're in the South when Jesus is in your parade. I told Joy that Dad would be excited when she told him that she found Jesus on St. Patrick's Day. When he walked by near the beginning of the parade I wasn't able to get a good picture of him. Lucky for me I had my camera ready for his second coming... (no need to get upset, no Jesus' were harmed in the making of that pun)

So, I saved this one for last because I struggled with how to clearly convey the essence of this event. I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase "Kiss me, I'm Irish." Well, apparently there was a group of women who took it to be their personal mission to kiss any man or man-child who paraded by in uniform (I did notice a few women in uniform sporting kiss-marked cheeks, but I obeyed the "Don't ask, don't tell" rule). I kid you not, these kiss-ninjas were armed with whore-red lipstick and a sense of purpose: as soon as a male appeared around the bend, they lubed up their lips and poised on the sidewalk like sprinters at an Olympic starting line. They dashed between rows of marchers like rodeo stars, branding cheeks of Army Rangers, Police Pipers, high school marching bands, veterans, and Coast Guards with Betty Boop-like smooches. The picture above shows a brave Marine defending the color guard from one such kissing bandit. The Marines, it seems, were the only ones brave enough, or perhaps even strong enough, to stand up to these formidable lip-lockers. They were the few, the proud, the clean-cheeked.