Austin Places

This week we went to Hill's Cafe on South Congress Blvd for dinner. I had seen the place a week or so prior when I donated food at the food bank on the same street. A sign read that it had been in Austin since 1947, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, I bet this would classify as an Austinite restaurant." The sign on the door read something like this, "If you have too high of expectations for where you dine, lower them before entering." Hill's Cafe is just one of those places where you relax, listen to music, and try to figure out who all the people in the pictures on the walls are.

Afterwards we went to Target to get Euro pillows because our new comforter set came with shams for two. Then we went to Amy's Ice Cream for dessert. I tried chocolate macadamia nut ice cream with peanut butter cups. How could that not be delicious?!

You Smell Like a Flower

Ban thom nhu hoa is Vietnamese for "you smell like a flower." A guy I work with named Du is expecting his son to be born in about 2 weeks. We talked about names. His daughter's middle name is Nhu, and I asked him what it means. He told me flower. The next day I came to him and asked, "Du, how do you say 'you smell like a flower' in Vietnamese?" I wrote it down on a sticky note and went to find Mr. Ngan, Du's father, who's in his fifties. He's an old skinny guy, but has a good sense of humor. I couldn't stop laughing to myself that I was going to tell him that he smells like a flower, but I finally got it out. I'm sure my accent leaves much to be desired, but he understood, repeated in English, and smiled at me before we both started laughing together. Since it is the only Vietnamese phrase I know so far, it's all I say, and the guys think it is hilarious!

Pumpkin Man

Pumpkin Man, summoned from the scariest of Halloween pumpkin patches, will be watching over the candy rations tonight as trick-or-treaters come in their costumes and ring our door bell. You can tell how frightening Pumpkin Man is by the look on the other pumpkin's face.

This our first Halloween in our own home, which we've had for 10 months now. Last year we were at the in-laws' house in Houston, and the year before that we lived in an apartment in Jacksonville; no little kids came to visit us there.
Marshall wanted purple lights, so...we got purple lights. He strung them up between the ballisters of our (remodeled) porch, then stretched spiderwebs across the front. Our 6 young neighbor kids next door that it was awesome!

#1 Two Months in a Row

I fulfilled my #1 task of donating food to a local food bank for October. I brought a couple boxes of cereal and two giant jars of peanut butter. I dropped them off in a large "drop off" crate on the side of the building. I like to give food that is out of the normal. I saw a lot of green bean cans in there when I peeked in. I really want to find a shelter where I can help prepare meals for the homeless, or better yet, bring in some baking.

We're up to 39 notes so far for Marshall. He still enjoys finding them and especially loves the sappy lovey-dovey ones. I need to see if Marshall is going to dress up for Halloween; it's right around the corner. I actually don't have any creative ideas for this year, so I'm going to be a "scholar" and wear my cap and gown from my graduation at UNF.

Sleep Speed and Family

I woke from a dream and started sneezing. I went to bed an hour early because I needed to get up at 5:30 instead of 6:15 to take my neighbor to the airport. When I woke up and saw that it was 3:40am, I thought, "Sweet, another 2 hours to go," but for some reason my body is up. Not my eyes mind you; they still feel a bit droopy.

I'm up so I might as well blog. The most recent activity in the Reeske household is that Marshall signed up for a speed reading course at TSU. It is for three hours on Wednesday nights for four weeks. Marshall came home yesterday after his first class and was stoked. He was very impressed with this comprehension level score of 85% and by the end of class, he clocked himself at reading 838 words per minute. This all started last week when he went to a free intro seminar for the course and was quite intrigued. He wanted to do this all on his own, and he's really excited.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on painting our porch, which includes the ceiling, door, door frame and trim. It's looking great. I finished up the blue trim last night, so today after work I am going to remove the tape, which has been protecting the areas I don't want painted. I really wanted the porch completed before Marshall's dad Jeff arrives on Saturday to spend part of the weekend with us.

I talked to Bermuda, Marshall's grandmother, on the phone last night as I was cooking dinner and waiting for Marshall to return from school. I wanted to know what she thought about her grandson Jacob and his wife being pregnant with their third child due in May. She hadn't heard about it yet, so it was news to her. I told her she'll have to poke at him and ask, "So, when are you going to give me another great-grandchild?" just to see what he says. I found out in his wife's blog.

Bermuda also shared with me that Marshall's cousin Lindsay, who is studying nursing at BYU-Idaho, is engaged and has a wedding date of 12-21-10. Apparently her fiance is a fantastic fellow, especially in Lindsay's brother Shawn's eyes. They are getting married at the Logan Temple then doing a very small reception nearby. Bermuda was excited because she will be able to attend this wedding, where she couldn't come to ours due to the distance.

Our new customer service rep Emily starts today. I'm excited, and I hope I get to train her, which I probably will. This makes two of us now besides the office manager. More importantly, my chances of getting the day after Thanksgiving off just shot up significantly. Once approved, we'll be spending a 4 day weekend in Cypress with Marshall's parents, whom we haven't seen since the wedding in July.

Update on 101 Tasks

I'm 30 days into my 1001 days to complete 101 tasks of my choosing. On Thursday, September 30th I made pizza dough from scratch. I made it at 10:30pm, but oh did we enjoy our pesto chicken pizza!

Last week I went to Capital City Food Bank and donated my $25 worth of non-perishable food items. I couldn't believe how packed that parking lot was! It always catches me off guard when I'm hit with the realization that even though I live in a great city and have a wonderful job that allows us to live comfortably, there are hundreds of people and families that need assistance just to put food on their table. I really think that this task is going to be one of my most rewarding on a personal level for me.

I've started to write a short story that I'm going to have done by Christmas. I can't say anything more until December 26th. Oh, and I've asked my mom to look for my old clarinet and to send it to me if she finds it. I really hope she does because I'd really like to start playing again.

My Ring!

I tried numerous times with my camera to get a good shot of my new wedding ring. I used the camera at work that has really good macro settings, and got this shot on the first try.

My original engagement was a 1 ct princess cut solitaire. Instead of doing a wedding band, I wanted to just add stones to my engagement ring. I've fallen in love with tanzanites, with are the purple stones in the picture.

Unfortunately my ring design did not turn out as planned by the jeweler who did Marshall's ring. It looked horrific. The Thursday before we left for Idaho and the wedding, we told the jeweler we wanted our stones back and he could keep the metal. We weren't going to pay for anything else. Of course I'm trying to hold back tears in the store because I've been waiting for my dream ring for a long time and this dude messes it up.

When we get home, Marshall and I discuss a back up ring. I have my great-great grandmother's wedding ring, which was a gift to me for me graduating high school from my great aunt Joyce. This ring would have been her maternal grandmother's. We decide to use it. It came from Denmark, is 14 ct gold, and very delicate. I'm very proud to have it by my wedding ring as well; however, I do want to keep it in the best condition possible. So, I'm wearing my "decoy" ring, which is actually my "other" wedding ring. We had it made in Jacksonville when we were back there in August. Allen's Jewelers did a fantastic job; I couldn't be happier!

So, here it is. I love wearing this ring everyday! That and I love how different it is from everyone else's rings. :P

Glue Puts It Back Together

This past weekend Marshall worked on fixing the horrible squeaking noise my car made when it went over bumps in the road. Turns out the struts are fine, but the rubber bushings were worn to dust. He did a great job getting my car working again. He's so awesome!

While he was finishing up in the garage today, I began preparing the ceiling of our front porch to be painted. I had never dealt with primer paint before, but it reminded me of glue--a bucket of white Elmer's glue. I taped off the areas I didn't need painted and went to town. I had to move the ladder a feet feet this way and a few feet that way, but within 3 hours, it was done. Should I feel up to it tomorrow, I'm going to finish priming some of the edges on the ceiling as well as the door trim. Then I'm going to apply the real paint (Alabaster from Sherwin Williams). Once I get all of the Alabaster completed, I'm going to do the door and "little trim" in blue (St. Bart's).

We are going to repaint the double car garage door and the triangle area above it up to the roof, but I don't know how we are going to get up that high. I'm really considering hiring someone who can do those areas for us otherwise I'm afraid it may take too long for us to do it.

I'm going to post pictures as soon as the front area is all painted!