smugmugginess

what does one do when they are doped up on drugs and can't muster the energy to leave the house? well, in my case, among other things, one modifies and plays with various features on their photo hosting site.

i've added the google maps feature which pinpoints the locations of photos you identify. since you can't do this in bulk, i've only done it for those in my 'favorites' album. i've also added the 'friends' section which, right now just includes corey. if any of the rest of you are closet smugmug users, let me know. also thought it was time to try a new color scheme for the summer, so i hope you enjoy.

to see all the changes (and all the albums), go to http://tva.smugmug.com/

belated birthday wishes

on a quiet thursday evening in northern virginia, two masked men entered the home of our beloved martha. a hood was placed over her head and she was dragged from her refuge, her sanctuary, if you will, uncertain what fate was to befall her.

she was put in a vehicle and driven to a warehouse type location nearby, where her hood was removed and she found herself surrounded by friends whose sole purpose was to wish her a happy birthday in style. yes that's right, a bunch of semi-grown-up-adults met at the place where a kid can be a kid--chuck e. cheese.

it was there that my former skee ball addiction reared it's ugly head, and i learned that i would be a terrible truck driver. but despite those two snafus, we all enjoyed our childhood regression.

after giving our love to martha, and our money to snowmobile video games, corey and i headed around the corner to take advantage of the gym before calling it a night.


friday morning i went to the dentist for my tooth extraction. my 'normal' dentist is out of town but the tooth needed to be pulled before he would be returning, so i found myself in an unfamiliar office, where i began to get a bit nervous. dental assistants kept speaking of 'recovery' and people were being rolled out in wheelchairs. what kind of little shop of horrors was this?!

eventually, 45 minutes late, my name was called and i was beckoned into the 'shop'. after that my nerves began to settle. i was given a local anesthetic and the tooth was pulled. it came out easily and shortly thereafter, i was on my way. i stopped in at work to take care of a couple of things, then headed home to get my prescription filled.

the rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping. on tap for friday night was corey's mini-golf birthday party. unfortunately, i was so hopped up on drugs that i had to miss it, but fortunately, corey, jill, and anne brought the party to me after their atypical mini-golf outing.

today has me still feeling a bit out of it, but the painkillers have kicked in again, so i'm doin' alright.

happy birthday corey!!

corey and i celebrated his birthday tonight by first, joining gold's gym, and second, enjoying a rich and delish dinner.

happy birthday to one of my favorite men!

sonic. not the hedgehog.

colby made it out of the grocery store, and grilled us up some awesome steaks. of course, much of anne's ended up on her clothing, but the rest of us enjoyed actually eating them, while enjoying the weather on the deck. saturday evening was topped off by more downtime, and a screening of 'casanova'.

after the movie, we made our first sonic attempt. for those in the northern virginia area, you know that the fast food chain 'sonic' is advertised all the time. the commercials tempt us with tasty drink concoctions, among other things, yet there is no sonic nearby.

clearly a misue of marketing dollars. however, upon learning that there was a sonic very close to julie and colby's, it was not a question about whether or not we would go. i had called to see how late they were open, and was told midnight. so imagine our shock and dismay when anne, colby, and i pulled up to the joint at 11, only to have all the lights shut off on us. attempt thwarted.

sunday morning we got up and got ready for church, and anne and i made a mad dash to the sonic. they were open. we both at strawberry limeade and brownie blasts, and it was sheer yumminess.

after arriving back at julie and colby's, we headed over to church. anne and i stayed for sacrament meeting, then got on the road. we made it back in record time. that was the last best thing about the evening, however.

i called it a night at a reasonable hour, but woke in the middle of the evening to the most horrible pain i have ever experienced. it was my problem tooth. the one i have been trying to avoid fixing until next year. i knew it would likely have to be pulled and an implant put in. and implants are expensive.

i got to work late, and my co-worker suggested that i might have an abscess. i called my dentist and they were able to squeeze me in. he confirmed that it was indeed an abscess and that it would need to be pulled.

at this point, the swelling was fairly minor, but by the time i woke up this morning, i looked as though i were sucking on a couple of golfballs. and again i was still in a lot of pain. i was able to schedule an early morning appointment with the specialist to extract my tooth, but when i arrived he told me that he could not pull it until the swelling had gone down, and the infection localized once again, to the tooth.

i have an appointment friday morning and am praying that the swelling goes down and that the painkillers keep working.

compare and contrast the pics below. the first was taken by anne at duke gardens on saturday, the second, only moments ago. i told corey i wasn't confident enough to post it, but who was i kidding, of course i am! needless to say, i will never be ungrateful for my 'normal' smile again.

indigo girls: the road trip

i don't know why i was so looking forward to a weekend away, it's not as if i haven't been 'away' recently, but my guilt in being a poor pet owner was overridden by my excitement in going back to north carolina--a place that will always own a piece of me--and in seeing julie and the fam...not the least of which is riggins, the pit bull i lived with for two years, and perhaps the sweetest dog i have ever known.

after work on friday i headed over to anne's to pick her up for the ride.

she was up for a road trip, and i was up for some company during the 5 1/2 hour drive. i was tired and anne was giddy, and that made for a quick and extremely entertaining journey, including exchanging of secrets, singing of songs, eating of waffle house, and frantically searching for my registration at the dwi checkpoint.

yes that's right, i said dwi checkpoint. and not just any checkpoint. this was an all out full scale assault on the irresponsible and thoughtless drunks of the world (or apex, nc). we were notified of this checkpoint via signage that was about 30 minutes into our stop and go traffic nightmare. fortunately, there was still plenty of time for us to throw out the case of beer we had in the car before the coppers saw us. okay, just kidding, but apparently someone else thought that was a good idea...and they were probably right.

i have never seen anything like it. the construction lights, the rv sized police vehicles. they take their dwi's very seriously in this neck of the woods. but apparently two giggly girls who wanted nothing more than to be stopped by one of the bazillions of uniformed men, were not enough of a threat to warrant a 'search and seizure', or for that matter a second glance. we were waved through with no additional holdups.

we made our way to julie's and amused ourselves with the random street signage we passed. our personal favorite; stickleback.

not to be confused with nickelback.

the drive ultimately ended up being over 6 hours, and we crashed on julie and colby's doorstep after midnight. we called it a night quickly, and i attempted to sleep with anne, the cover stealer. other than that, i have no complaints about my evening.

this morning, anne, julie, madison, and i headed over to duke gardens. it was a beautiful day, (albeit a little warm and humid) and we wandered around the expansive grounds, taking advantage of the photo opps the surroundings afforded.

after the gardens, we headed to the mall, where i had the score of the century. many moons ago, bath & bodyworks introduced my favorite smelling lotion of all time. it was available for one summer only, and i have often longed for the days of smelling like strawberry lemonade. and in a bizarre and twisted turn of events, bath & bodyworks has brought back some of the favorites of the past, for a limited time only, and a seriously discounted price. i bought three lotions and three shower gels. does that seem dramatic?

we also found a cute little store with a variety of products, not the least of which was the letter keychains i have become obsessed with, ever since seeing anne's. so i picked up a couple. she picked up a ton, and we were on our way home.

we've spent the last couple of hours doing nothing, and it has been glorious! nothing is my favorite thing to do right now.

the evening promises grilled steak--that is if colby makes it out of the grocery store alive, and some quality down time.

for more pics (and there are even more to come), click here.