These trees look like they’d be perfect to nap or picnic under.  Don’t You think?

I try to go for a walk during my lunch break a couple of times a week since my office building is located in a semi-rural area.  There are some wonderful views and plenty of plant life nearby.

These are some shots of dogwood trees located near the property.   Dogwoods are Virginia’s state tree and flower and I think they are quite lovely when they are blooming in the spring.

Happy Easter from Virginia!

For me, Halloween is about creativity.  Since I began working at VGT in the Fall of 2008, I have dressed up for Halloween every year since we are allowed and even encouraged to wear our costumes to work.  We even have a costume contest where our coworkers get to vote for the scariest, most original, and funniest costumes.  I’m not really an extremely competitive person, but I do like to get reactions out of people so I usually try to come up with something that is going to accomplish that goal.

I know it is nowhere near Halloween, but I dressed up for work today (a dress compared to my usual jeans and a sweatshirt) because I am meeting my dad and my brother at some fancy schmancy restaurant in Washington D.C. for dinner after work that has a stricter dresscode than my workplace.  Wearing something “unusual” to work got me thinking about the other times I’ve traded in my casual attire for something intriguing.

*Halloween 2008* I dressed up as the farmer in the dell…box!  I had just bought myself a new laptop so I took advantage of its packaging!

*Halloween 2009* I was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers.  I was especially proud of myself for reusing the GIGANTIC overalls from my farmer costume I wore the year before.  I never knew how difficult it was to find overalls, especially in my size and these were the smallest I could find!

*Halloween 2010* I decided to go with 80s rocker chick mainly because I had just gotten over Bronchitis and didn’t have a ton of energy to go all out on a costume.  I couldn’t find real legwarmers, so I made my own by chopping the bottoms off of a large pair of tube socks.  I used my guitar hero guitar as a prop to give the costume that extra edge.

I have to say that I think I’ve had more fun dressing up for Halloween in the past three years than I ever did as a kid.  Soon I’ll start thinking about what my costume will be for next year.  I know Halloween is still 6 months away, but I’m going to need alot of time to come up with a costume that will top the previous three!

This is one of my favorite spots in the world. I’m spending a weekend at the Island House Condominiums in Padre Island, Texas. My family has been vacationing here most of my life and I’ve been swimming in this pool since I was 4 years old. I hope my kids will one day come to love this little piece of paradise like I do.

If you’re reading this blog then you probably already know this, but just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, I’ll make the announcement:  Ben and I are engaged!  Finally after almost 5 years of dating, Ben proposed on Valentine’s Day.  So for the last two months, I’m been doing some wedding planning and venue searching instead of blogging.

We think we’ve found my venue and picked a date, but I don’t want to announce it until its finalized so I will leave you all with the pictures from our engagement night and a promise to update this blog as soon as our venue and date are official!

Today is a perfect day at the beach filled with waves, sand, sunshine, watermelon, and surf fishing.  I wish this vacation could last longer!

Well it rained all day yesterday here in Chincoteague, but the good news is that’s all the rain the forecast is calling for while we are here.

Above are some rainy day pictures from the first day of our summer vacation.

A few weeks ago, when I was in Dallas for my cousin Megan’s bridal shower and bachelorette party, we wanted to buy some wine to enjoy on Friday evening.  After browsing the wine aisles at her local grocery store we finally decided on two bottles.  One was named Little Black Dress, which we chose for its name, and the other, pictured above, was Mission de San Antonio Valero from Fall Creek Vineyards in Texas, which we chose for its label.

Normally, I don’t judge wines by their covers, and I usually purchase based on taste or recommendation, but I guess being in Texas made me feel a little crazy, and I decided to trust my instinct!

The wine was good, but the label was even better!

Why do I love the label you ask?

Well I shall tell you:

• First, I love San Antonio because it is beautiful, full of culture, and its where I spent my 4 years during college.  I miss it greatly!
• Second, it has an image of the Alamo on it and in GOLD no less!  The Alamo is only one of the most defining images of Texas!
• Third, the Alamo, pictured on the label, has much personal significance to me, besides the fact that it is a part of Texas history.  When I was a freshman in college, I got “stuck” in a semester-long class about the Alamo.  It was ALL Alamo, ALL the time!  At first, I was not enthusiastic about this class, as it had been my last choice.  But it grew on me.  I learned alot, met some great people in the class (some of my first friends in college), and had the opportunity to learn from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Linda Salvucci.  In addition, this class introduced me to genealogy.  As out final project, we had to write a 10 page paper on any topic relating to the Alamo.  I had a great, great, great (ok lots of “great”s) uncle named Edward F. Mitchusson from Kentucky who was the surgeon at the Alamo and fought and died for Texas’ independence!  I got to do research at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library where I read old letters from my ancestors and I compiled the largest document of facts on my relative.  Not only did I get an A in the class, I also learned alot about my heritage, genealogy, research in general, and Texas!  I also contributed to documenting my family history!

So now you know why I just HAD to buy the wine when I saw the label!

Yesterday, Charlottesville experienced what the meteorology world calls a microburst.  And it was the second microburst experienced by the Charlottesville area in less than three weeks!

I was driving from work to pick up Ben so that we could go to my Team in Training Batesville Store fundraiser.  Ben works in the heart of downtown Charlottesville which was the hardest hit area, so lucky me got caught in the middle of the maelstrom that came out of nowhere.

I was driving and chatting with my brother on the phone when I heard a message from the Emergency Broadcast System come on the radio.  I knew a storm was coming because I saw dark clouds and heard thunder, but I just expected it to be a quick passing summer storm so I didn’t pay too much attention.  Less than two minutes later, rain started pounding, large branches started beating my car, and huge tree limbs were blocking parts of the road.  I barely had time to turn on my windshield wipers when I heard a loud popping noise on my right.  There was a huge burst of flames from a power line in the field next to where I was driving.  I quickly put down the phone (the storm had already ended my call for me) and started to inch my way through torrential downpours, strong winds, and falling trees.

When I was almost to Ben’s office building, I heard another loud popping noise, this time on my left.  This one was even louder and came with a flash of blue light that scared the shit out of me!  I believe it was a transformer blowing.  When I got to Ben’s office parking lot, the storm was starting to die down, but the parking lot was covered in trees and a downed power line.

Ben and I spent the next two hours driving around Charlottesville trying to find a way to Batesville, and then giving up on the fundraiser and trying to get home.  Traffic was terrible because of power outages affecting traffic lights, trees blocking roads and intersections, and power lines down everywhere.  We saw one tree that had a root system at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter that had been uprooted and was leaning against a house.  We saw a light post that had been broken from its pole and was dangling near a power line.  We saw several trees and power line poles snapped in half.

I’ve never seen so much damage and I grew up were hurricanes and tornadoes are a common occurrence.

When we FINALLY got home, we were surprised to see the large poplar tree that is usually staring back at as through our fourth story windows on the ground.  We have worried about this tree falling and damaging our building many times in the past, but I am glad it is finally no longer a threat and did not hurt anything or anyone in its demise.

Here are some pictures of the tree’s final resting place:

I’m glad that everyone I know was not hurt and we all came out alive and safe, but I’m still wondering what is with all this crazy weather: 2 large snow storms in December and February each totaling more than 2 feet of snow, 2 microbursts in June that have caused tons of damage, and a June heatwave that I’ve never seen in Virginia!

If you’d like to check out more pictures from the storm, they can be found here.