Best. Candy. Ever.

It's that time of the year again. From the second Valentine's Day candy has been whisked away to somewhere I don't want to know about, until that Easter Bunny makes a visit to my house sometime in March or April, my waistband is in despair. All because of a solid milk chocolate inside of a crisp sugar shell. Why? Why, Cadbury? Why must you do this to me?



I can't be completely mad though. At least Cadbury has an idea about this nation's obesity problem, and has made the moral decision to make this a seasonal candy that can only be purchased for about a month and a half.

Conor broke the seal last night and purchased a bag of the goods. We haven't opened it yet, and I think it's haunting me. Everywhere I go in the apartment I either see it or smell it. "Just one, Cheryl. You know you want to."

It's a good thing I don't drink or do drugs.

Simpsons Sing the Blues

Holy blast from the past, Batman! Conor and I were sitting here listening to the 12 gents sing on American Idol and John Park started singing "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday. However, Billie Holiday wasn't the first person I thought of when I heard John Park. I listened to a certain yellow-haired lady sing that song many nights in my room, using my cassette player alarm clock.



Oh yes, I'm talking about The Simpsons Sing The Blues. It's pretty ridiculous how much I played that tape when I was a kid. I knew all the words to every single song, so when I started singing along with John Park, it caught me off guard a bit as to why I knew all the words. But I figured it out. Then I promptly kissed my internet-savvy husband for finding the song on youtube without having to ask. Go ahead. Enjoy. And feel free to listen to the rest of the album too.

PARANOID!!!

I've never had a speeding ticket (knock on wood). I've only been pulled over once, and I was 16. I'm a very good driver - in my family, I actually tend to drive everyone around when we're together, even though I'm the youngest. So why am I so paranoid when I drive?

Conor and I were in the car the other day, and a cop passed us with his lights on, and I of course got that awful sinking feeling in my stomach even though I knew we had done nothing wrong. That's when I started talking to Conor about what I do when I drive, and he almost ran us off the road he was laughing so hard - apparently it's just me. I thought I could use a cleanse and put it out into the blogiverse. Wow. Good word, Cheryl...

When I drive, I speed safely. Honestly - there is such a thing, and I do speed safely. 25 - 35 mph, I really don't speed much. When the speed is that low, it's for a reason, so I'm generally safe. Anything 40 and above, I probably go about 5-7 miles over the speed limit. That would be fine if that was the end of my cleanse, but that's not what made Conor laugh hysterically. When I drive, I am constantly figuring out what BS story to tell a cop if I do get pulled over. Constantly. Half the time I don't even hear what is on the radio, because I'm so paranoid of the fact that I'm speeding. Do I slow down? Of course not? Instead, I just concoct the perfect excuse. And it's not like I do it just when I see a cop - it's every time I'm on the freeway. Here are some common thoughts constantly running through my head while driving:

"Oh no officer, it couldn't have been me - it must have been a different Black Honda Civic, because I've been going the speed limit the whole time!"

"Oh no officer, it couldn't have been me - I had my cruise control set, and I was only going 3 miles over the speed limit!"

"Oh no officer, it couldn't have been me - did you see that other car that sped past me and almost sent me off the road?"

"Oh no officer, it couldn't have been me - I was just passing a car safely on the left, and after I got back over, I maintained the speed limit."

"Oh no officer, it couldn't have been me - I just pulled onto the freeway, you must be mistaken."

Why the guilt? I've never had a ticket! When I was pulled over at 16, I got off no problem because I was barely speeding, so why do I feel like I need to lie my way through situations I haven't even been put into! Was I catholic in another life, or has my best friends' catholic guilt rubbed off on me!?

Anyone else do this? No? Just me? Hello? Anyone?

Life size...

Today I received a package at work from a school I worked at last week. The teachers at that school had their students write me thank-you notes for coming to their school and doing the program "What's The Matter" with them. In that program we make ice cream and disappearing ink, I show them a plasma/lightning ball, and I do a really cool experiment called elephants toothpaste - the video below is the experiment on a much larger scale, but you can see why the kids all love me when I do this for them in the classroom.



I just sat down after a really long day to look through the thank you notes, and they were all very nice - I took the names off of the notes, so here are a few of them - sorry for the crappy picture quality... (please keep in mind they are second graders, so spelling may not be perfect just yet!)





See, really nice, right? It's the last one that I have an issue with. A few of them were decorated with drawings of the experiments that we did, and the things we made, but this last drawing just went a little far. I'm all for an artist's rendition of the day's events, but did they need to draw scientist Cheryl to scale? What ever happened to stick figures? And I know I have a slight frizz problem, but did you have to make me look like I stuck my finger in a light socket? Highlighter yellow is NOT my color. This might be the picture I put on the frig so I stop eating.



Oh well, it's the thought that counts...

Valentine's Day 2010

Conor & I spent our 8th Valentine's Day together, and we had a great time. We used to go to concerts together all the time. I don't think I could even count how many shows I've seen live, but it's well over 100. I would say that 95% of those concerts have been attended by both Conor & I. I haven't seen a show in quite a while, and definitely not while I've been out here in North Carolina, so we decided to make a weekend trip out to Charlotte, NC for 2 of our favorite bands: Saves the Day and New Found Glory. NFG was actually my first concert at Graceland when their self-titled Album came out 10 years ago, and this show in Charlotte was the 10 year anniversary. Full circle, holy cow.

We drove to Charlotte on Friday night with the intent of getting there to see 3 out of the 4 bands that were playing that night. However, Mother Nature decided to play a cruel joke on us and snow while I was driving. Thanks a lot. The 2 1/2 hour drive took us almost 4 hours, and it was pretty white knuckle the whole way there because Gary the Go-Kart really doesn't like the snow... We made it there safely, checked into the hotel, and ran to the event just in time to catch the two bands we really wanted to see. Saves the Day came out first and they killed it. I've seen them at least 6 times now, and every time is better than the last. I of course forgot my camera, so you get no actual footage of me being there. Meh, you'll live.

Here's a Saves The Day song - it's not my favorite, but still a good one. This video was on MTV for a bit too. This is top 3 bands of all time material, so you should look them up, or let me know and I can burn you some of their cd's.



Next up was New Found Glory, and they played their entire self-titled album from start to finish, which was a lot of fun. I listened to that CD so much in high school, I'm amazed I can still play it today. Conor and I had great seats, the set was fun, and they even played some other songs afterward which was great. Below is the first music video I saw of them from this album - it's pretty dorky, but it all adds to the charm!



After the amazing concert, we went back to our hotel room to just relax - I was exhausted and tense from the drive, and now I had no voice from singing at the concert!

Saturday we slept in and then went out to lunch with Conor's best friend from 2nd grade! Conor and Alex haven't seen each other since 1990, when Conor still lived in Connecticut, and oddly enough, Alex now lives in Charlotte, so thanks to facebook they've been chatting, and we planned a lunch so they could see each other again. It was a lot of fun! After we left, I told Conor that I really did think that the two of them would still be friends if he had stayed in Connecticut, they hit it off and chatted about old friends from their elementary school and what they've been up to for the last 20 years. Alex's wife and I played the role of supportive wife, and had fun chatting as well - she's really nice, and it was fun knowing all 4 of us had the same taste in comedy and sports, the conversation was easy!


Cheryl, Conor, Alex, Erin

After lunch, we tried to go to a museum, but it was closed "due to inclement weather." Oh North Carolina. It snows 1 inch, and you shut down the world. There seriously wasn't even a little bit of snow on the ground by the museum on Saturday. Oh well. We drove around the city for a bit, and went to their carbon copy Bellevue Square mall before we went out to dinner at the Penguin Drive-In.



Conor was given the recommendation by a coworker that knows Conor's affinity for greasy dives, and he wasn't kidding - this place was small, PACKED, and the food was greasy! After that we headed back to the hotel and watched the Olympics and the NBA All Star showcase - dunk contest, three-point contest, skills contest. Sunday we drove home and I cooked a nice spaghetti and meatball dinner and we finished the night by watching Amazing Race.

Thanks for treating me to a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend Conor! Love you!

HALLELUJAH!

Top 3 Moments in Cheryl's life:
1. July 8, 2006 - Conor & Cheryl get married
2. November 23, 1995 - my 1st of 6 beautiful nieces and nephews is born, Madison
3. February 11, 2010 - CONOR SHAVED HIS BEARD!!!

Here is the photo documentation of the hour-long process. It looked pretty painful, but that's what you get for not shaving for 5 months...


Before. I'm beaming on the other side of the camera.


First hair-cutting utensil: Hair trimmer - it didn't work so well.


Second hair-cutting utensil: Scissors - a better idea.


Trimmed up and ready to go!


Third hair-cutting utensils: Razor - finally!


I couldn't help but take revenge.


Almost finished!

Now that Conor was finished, we tried our best to take a fairly normal after picture together. It took a few tries, but we got it...


Cheryl: "Wahoo!" Conor: "Durhh..."


Yay, nay. Mostly yay though.


This is almost a Jon Bean photo - open your eyes!


It's not my fault it took you an hour to shave it. Wake up - you're ruining my moment!


Easy tiger.


Scary...


FINALLY - a normal one!

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

The Lovins

The secretary from McAuliffe has two 6th grade children, Adam and Anna. Anna was in my 4th grade class two years ago, and I was lucky enough to be able to go out to dinner with them one night when they came to visit North Carolina. We had a great time catching up on all my old students and staff, but it was mostly just nice to go out to dinner with a familiar face! Thanks for squeezing me in Lovin family!


Adam, Anna and Mrs. Glassey (although, I did give Anna permission to call me Cheryl now that we've eaten dinner together outside of school!)


Anna & Cheryl

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 27 back in January, and since I'm SO up to date on my blog, I'm blogging about it more than a month later. Just remember that because of me, you probably had a 3-day weekend. What's that? It was Martin Luther King, Jr. day? No, no. Cheryl day. You're welcome.

Conor treated me to dinner at PF Chang's, and we both looked ridonculously hot. Just sayin'.


A Mountain man and his Wood Nymph.


A bumblebee and her pollinated flowers.

It was so nice to relax and hang with my lumberjack husband for my birthday weekend. Caitlin and Gillian, my scientist friends, came over one of the nights and I made dinner and dessert - porkchops & rice and mud pie. Yum. Dinner was great, and we had a lot of fun playing the New Super Mario Bros. game and Family Feud. Ladies - let me know when we're going to do it again!

27 is off to a good start - my sister Denise told me it was the best year of her life, so I'm looking forward to it! 28 will make me hyperventilate, so I'll enjoy 27, thank you very much.

A Mama couldn't be more proud

Peder is one of my oldest friends. We've been friends since the DOW days of 7th grade, along with his twin brother Martin. Our friendship in the beginning consisted mainly of Pedro practicing his wrestling moves on me, but he has always been there for me and I can't imagine him not in my life. Peder & Martin gave me the nickname "Mama Bean" and it has stuck - they even made me an apron in high school! I have such wonderful memories that include Peder, but I unfortunately missed out on one of those opportunities to make some wonderful memories - I had to miss his wedding, which was in Virginia on New Year's Eve (please click on "wedding" to see the professional photos from the big day in VA!)



Peder has gone and found himself an amazing woman. Macy is basically the female version of Peder: caring, kind, committed, "earthy", beautiful, and funny. I even know that Peder & Macy will take "earthy" as a compliment! It was even more heartbreaking that I couldn't be there for his wedding, because Peder asked me to be a part of it and stand on his side. What an honor - Peder is the best!

Peder has a lot of East Coast love from going to school in Virginia, his father living there, and Macy being from the area as well. But Peder has even more Left Coast love, so he threw a Redmond party as well, and I wasn't about to miss that!

I flew in for a short weekend trip and showed up at the Sammamish Valley Grange to help set up for the party - we turned that square dancin' hall into a beautiful Winter wedding wonderland.


Before...


Tien and Caroline lining the walls with pictures


After!


Cheryl, Tien, Corene and Martin


Caroline, Cheryl, Corene and Tien

After setting up, we all went home to spruce up and then made it back at 7 for the party! It was great to see everyone - Martin flew in from Maryland, Tien in from San Francisco, Caroline up from Portland, Horia, Corene, her fiance Dave (blog post on THAT soon!), Heidi, and Justin Kirk and his adorable girlfriend Annie. We snagged a table together and sat down to eat the dinner prepared by the Gordons - lasagna, salad, and bread!

Peder works with a group called YoungLife - if you're unfamiliar with it, click on the link above - it's basically the perfect job for Peder! Peder has met some wonderful friends through Younglife, and those friends put together some songs and sketches for Peder and Macy. I could tell that Peder and Macy really enjoyed all the skits their friends did for them! Afterward, there was music to dance to, dessert to be had, and catching up to do.


When you haven't been together for a while, it's important to document the event with some serious group photos.




See?


Do I often make this face? If so, why has no one told me to knock it off?


Peder may be an old friend, but Tien and I have been friends the longest - 22 years and counting, baby!!! By the way - thanks for letting me steal all your pictures Tien!


Conor wasn't able to come down for the weekend, but had he been able to, we would have taken one of these pictures.


I really like Caroline. She'll kill me for putting this picture up, but I love it.


I told you I like Caroline. Horia too.


I had wonderful plans to photoshop my face over Tien's because I can't believe I didn't take a Brakke sandwich picture. But Tien is too cute to do that. Oh, and I'm way too lazy. And I don't have photoshop. And I don't know how to use photoshop.

Peder & Macy - congratulations on the marriage - I think you two are absolutely wonderful, and I am so glad you have found each other! I can't wait to make it out to the Shire!

Ah Wilson.

Betsy Wilson works at High Touch High Tech. Betsy is fantastic. I knew this from the first moment I met her, but I didn't realize her utter fabulousness until a party at her house just after Christmas.

Betsy is an event planner. It may not be her day job, but it is her calling in life. She invited all of the scientists, her close friends, and her neighbors over for a get-together. Betsy had every inch of her home decorated in the Christmas spirit.

We had a great night filled with eating, chatting, feeding Simba, and for some, an impromptu dance party. It's always fun to get the Scientists out of the office - thanks for having us over Betsy!


If this is outside of her house, this should be a good indication of what the inside looked like!


He's such a tease. He still hasn't called.


Conor was a bit jealous. I assured him that he was famous, and that he was on my "list", so it was ok.


A candid shot of the group. I feel bad that I didn't get Betsy in this picture, but she was too busy playing hostess.


Scientist Jimmy and his adorable daughters!


This is my best friend Simba. Best friend.


We all wore gray sweaters, and it needed to be documented. I also apparently have a camera ghost on my bosom. Embarrassing.


Um, yeah. It was a really good idea at the time. Hindsight is always 20/20, ladies and gentleman.


A group of us were sitting in the family room chatting, when all of a sudden we heard "Don't Stop Believin'" in the other room. Of course it was this group. Sarah has her back to us, then L-R it's Gillian, Caitlin, and Richi!


Show-ty' got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low.


The girls got on their Apple Bottom jeans, and the boots with the fur. And in all honesty, the whole room was looking at them. And Betsy made it in a picture - that is her in the black and white top, halfway cut off from the picture on the left!

Thanks again for having us Wilson, can't wait to see your President's Day decorations!