Weekend Recap!

It was a fabulous birthday week weekend. Started off strong with a drive out to Durham (after breaking in to the Frazong's house to drop off the guitar and mandolin so Trent and Stephen could jam, and nearly setting the lab on fire while trying to finish an experiment while my boss chatted away. Whoops! And I got lost on the way to Durham, but that was expected. Finally made it and met up with Amanda by her office. She took me on a lovely, historical walking tour of the town and we made our way to Rue Cler for a delightful French dinner. I had moules frites with a side of asaragus and she had chicken coq au vin.

Quick stop to visit her office and then off to Raleigh. Again we got lost (I am an excellent driver) but managed to find Furbish, Jamie's store. And it was SO cute. Here are pictures she took, I spaced and didn't take any. I wanted nearly everything and was so impressed that she was making it work. Great to see her. After sampling some delicious cupcakes and wine, we took a stroll around the neighborhood, very cute. And then headed home to our sleepy, jammed out, husbands.

Trent was up early for "Class Day Races" where each year races the others. His freshman (dressed as frat boys) beat the sophmores and tied with the juniors. And did pretty great against the seniors (Star Wars themed). While he was off racing, I had a lazy morning and long run with Sadie. Felt great. Met Trent at Weaver St for a big breakfast. Then we just happened to stop by the Recyclery, where I got myself a new birthday bicycle!



Adorable. And way faster/lighter than my current bike. They threw in new tires and new brake pads and Trent fixed it all up for me on Saturday afternoon. I rode it to work today and it was terrific. Happy birthday me.

Then the day started to get crazy. We dropped off my pants to get hemmed, dashed home to start making the most amazing cookies (next post). I was running out of time, frantically wrapping the lab baby shower present. But I managed to meet up with an ex-lab mate to help her pick out a present and enjoy a little snack and conversation while Trent finished up the cookies. Picked him up and headed to the shower!


It was at my labmate's apartment complex and she did a great job of coming up with games and favors. Above, from the left, is Anne, the host in the foreground, our lab manager Pam, my Boss, mom to be Harmony, her husband Mike, Trent, and ex-lab mate Ashley. Here everyone is trying to estimate the yard needed to wrap around her belly. Trent nearly won, I was wayyyy off.


We guessed how many diapers were in the tupperware, filled out our guesses for recessive and dominant heritable traits based on their parents and their traits (nerds!) and tasted babyfood. Lots of fun silly games. Then we opened presents, our lab went in on a Pack n' Play, that of course we had to see if we could set up.


Very cute. We struggled for a bit but finally figured it out. Their baby is due right after Christmas and it was fun to socialize outside of lab together.


My boss's 4 year old daughter thought the whole party was very cool. And the balloons especially. We all headed out around 4pm and after a quick visit with the Frazongs, headed home and were ready to work. We raked and dug and cleaned up the yard. It was excellent. And Sadie was a big help.


We enjoyed a fire in the firepit as we raked, though I don't recommend trying to burn leaves... quite smokey!

Trent started to get all sorts of exciting calls about his Rhode Scholar successes, so we opened a bottle of wine and snuggled on the sofa to watch Big Fish to celebrate. Cute movie!

Sunday was supposed to be very stormy, so we started working in the yard early to get things done. After a quick trip to two hardware stores, where I had to get Sadie an early Christmas present. The new bed is SO fantastic, she loves it. And her collar was starting to get gross.

We worked on fixing up the drive way and Trent dedicated more space to my garden. We are slowly reducing the amount of lawn we have, which I am totally happy about. I mowed lawn and pulled lots of weeds. Here is my newest garden space.

Trent dug out a trench for a big railroad tie wood border on the driveway and we rearranged the gravel to finish it up. Looks great. I made some holiday decorations with plants I found around the yard. Sadie continued to be a great helper.


It started to get stormy, so we headed inside for hearty lunches and a bit of recovering before heading back to Raleigh to go to Crate and Barrel. We finished off our registry, got lots of frames for our amazing wedding pictures and were very very successful. Picked up some chinese take out and Trent joined me at lab. He did homework/Re-Neset/Unplggd posts while I tackled some experiments. Home, some cleaning, long showers, and to bed!

It was great to work on our house, there is still a daunting amount of projects we want to complete, but everyday it is improving and it is so satisfying to see how far it has come.

Birthday weekend continues! I've been enjoying lots of coconut lattes as extra treats. Love it!