Happy Memorial Day! Its the first vacation day of the year from work. Its about time.

This is my friend John. He is moving to Maryland in a week, so we're having a going away party in his pool. (Laurie is in the back trying to hide.) I'm going to miss John. We met the first week of college, back in 1998. We've been friends ever since, pretty close friends at that. At least we'll still have IM.

And hanging out in the pool, grilling food, and relaxing with friends was a great way to spend the day.

I love ice cream. I could eat it in any season, not just summer. I especially love it with Pepsi poured over it (milk is also acceptable). This float was made with Pepsi Throwback. Quite tasty.

I like lists. I have a whole notebook of lists, as well as some spreadsheets and a few random pieces of paper. Sometimes I throw out the lists so I can re-make them.

Some of the lists are your basic grocery or to-do lists. Others are things I want to save up and buy, home improvement projects I want to do, things I want to do one day, etc. Oddly enough I don't have a list of all of my lists. Maybe its because thier so dynamic.

Jon told me he is a lister too, and that makes me happy. Tonight we are making a list of the gear we will need to go camping/hiking. We have the backpacks and tent, and I have a sleeping pad and he has a shovel, so we have a start.

Jon's cool aunt sent him a bunch of stuff she didn't want anymore, and the movers accidentally gave him an extra box. He called the movers and tried to get the box delivered to its rightful owners, but they didn't seem interested. Its been several months, so we decided to go through the box tonight.

It was a bunch of decorative type stuff, obviously from someone old. There were a few pieces from a tea set, some glass egg-shaped jars, a wooden elephant, a few ashtrays, etc. There were a silver salt and pepper set with the letter C monogramed on them, and a silver bowl engraved with some initials (none of them C), the name of a school, and a thank you for their years of service (1920 something to 1960 something). There were also some picture frames with family photos. It was kind of creepy looking at them. There were two little kids, Ellie and Harrison Holt (names written on the back of the photos), that we are guessing are grandkids. In the bottom of the box there was a sticky note that said "Holt @ Lexington Park, Maryland." We looked them up online, but couldn't find anyone. If you know the Holts of Lexington Park, we have thier tchotkes.

I got my frogJam materials today. So in addition to my 900 plus bird calls on my iPod, I now have 99 frog calls for the frogs of North America. As a celebration I am imitating a frog.

Have I told you about birdJam? Its pretty cool. You can upload CD's of bird calls to your iPod obviously, but birdJam will separate all of the tracks, removing the narration, providing the common and scientific name for each bird, and providing a picture. They also have playlists that organize the birds by region. Its pretty handy. The first time I heard a killdeer and knew what it was I was so excited. I realize most people do not see this as very cool, but to each his own.

Yo termine mi clase de espanol hoy. Recibi un certificado. Cuando comienze la clase, el colegio escribio mal mi nombre. Yo nunca les corregi. Para, mi certificado lee "Jennifer." Es ok.

Ese clase fue espanol comienzo. En dos semansas comienzo la clase de espanol avenzado. Es bien, porque necesito mas practica.

Chances are, if you name a movie, I haven't seen it. I just don't watch a lot of movies. One of my friends suggested putting me on a movie watching education program once, but I never got started. Sometimes I see a movie I want to see, but I usually don't make much of an effort to see it. I just have other things to do.

But tonight I am watching a movie. "The Nightmare Before Christmas." I remember when it came out, I wanted to see it. It sounds fun.

This is Karyn's kitty Bonsai. He is incredibly soft and silky. He is also an attention whore, and loves to climb all over you while you pet him. If he can drag himself away from the cuddling, he has been known to fetch. We think its because he may be part Abyssinian.

I hate laundry. I hate the folding of it, especially the shirts. It is my least favorite chore. I have a huge pile every weekend. Bleh.

And somehow I have managed to strain my back. I'm thinking it was the bike ride on Friday, I had poor posture. I resisted the urge to take some ibuprofren and go for my workout today, but I had better heal soon.

This is the meat counter at Central Market. I can't decide if I like Central Market or not. Its always crazily crowded, and I think Albertson's has more stuff. But the produce selection is usually better at Cental Market, and the flowers, and the bakery, and the cheese, and they have the cafe.

Jon and I are placing an order to have meats available for the Feast in June. :)

Jon and I went hiking at the Nature Center today. A walk in the wild is always fun. We saw a rabbit, two raccoons, a water snake, two "land" snakes, three turtles, and tons of mosquitos. One of the raccoons ran up a small tree, and tried to climb over to another one, and fell to the ground. He was only 8 feet or so up, and the ground was really muddy, so I don't think he was hurt. He got up and scurried away.

I love off-Fridays. We've already had so much fun this weekend, and we still have two days left. We also went to the movies tonight, and saw Wolverine. I liked it. Made me want more X-Men.

Jon and I took some friends to the lake today to grill out. It was great. We got a picnic area on the shore and grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken breasts, and portobello mushrooms. We played frisbee, watched the sun set over the lake, and built a fire to roast marshmallows over. We're planning on returning in a few weeks to go camping.

Recuerde tocar mi camara a la clase anoche. El profesor los hace hablar mucho. Es bien.

La clase es en TCC, antes de la trabaja. Afuera la ventana es un lago. Muy bonito.

Despues la clase, como en Wendy's. Tengo una hamburguesa con solamente el lechuge, el tomate, y la cebolla. Tengo las papas fritas tambien. Me gusta Wendy's mucho.

I usually set my alarm for 5:00 am. Ugh. Disgustingly early. I may not like getting up early, but I'm productive in the mornings. I ususally work out before going to work, either going to the weight room or going for a run. This is why I like to go to bed around 9:00 pm.

I have been watching the Atlanta Braves since I was in the sixth grade. I started watching baseball because the cute boys liked it, but it didn't take me long to get hooked on baseball. I love it, especially the Braves. Because my formative baseball watching years were during the 90's, its no surprise that I'm a big fan of pitching (remember Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz?). Greg Maddux was my favorite player. Tonight the Braves are playing their division rivals the Mets, who are also the favorite team of my friend John. The Braves won. :)

TBS stopped showing Braves games. Its horrible. I no longer watch TBS.

Jon and I played disc golf this morning. Z Boaz park is only a couple of miles from our houses. We like to go early, because the park gets very, very crowded. Disc golf is pretty fun to play. We just started, the first time we played was last fall in Virginia with my brother. We are getting better, although I obviously missed this put.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Today Jon and I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. Its the third or fouth time we've done this. Its nice to share our home improvement skills with the community. We also learn some things. Today we painted a garage. Jon has been painting all week, he did his living room.

Previously we've done framing on a house and put up siding. The first time I did Habitat I was very nervous. Then I saw people measuring and using the tools, and I new they were doing it wrong or the hard way because my dad taught me the right way to do all the stuff. Like Jon says, I know more than I think I do.

I took a day off from work today because I have so much stuff to do. This is what I accomplished:

went for my run

mowed the grass

pulled weeds from the flowerbed

did some of the trimming

got more gas and oil for the trimmer

got a new phone to replace my broken one

went to the pharmacy

cleaned the bathrooms

cleaned the kitchen

vacuumed the living room

cleaned the litter box

I still need to dust, vacuum the hall and bedroom, clean the fishbowl, do laundry, and finish the trimming, but I think I did pretty good for one day.

This is me and Karyn. Why a pic of me and Karyn? Someday I may tell you.

Hoy es miercoles, pero no tengo mi clase anoche. No se la razon. Tengo la clase la semana proxima.

Tengo las lentes de contactos. Son OK, pero la izquierda es incomodo a veces. Una dia quiero lasik, pero es caro.

I subbed on my friends' sand volleyball team tonight. I subbed a few times last year too, and had a blast. I played indoor JV volleyball in high school, but it wasn't as much fun as sand. I'm not the best athlete, but I still try and have fun. Tonight was my first sporting event with my new and improved shoulder (and I'm not sure if volleyball is actually on the "don't do this" list or not), but it was ok. I got good and sandy.

You may or may not be able to tell, but this is a Hawaii state quarter. Jon gave it to me today. This quarter completes my collection of the 50 state quarters. I have them all in a nice little book. I'm not a coin collector by any means, but it was fun to get the state quarters. Its surprising I did, since I never use cash. So most of the quarters are donations by my friends and family. Thank you!

I am curious, why did the mint need to make money more interesting by mixing up all the desings? Its money, why does it need advertising?

I love books. In high school I was the only kid in my humanities class with their own library card (and I'd had mine since elementary school), and when I moved to Texas I got a library card before a driver's license. I love bookstores too. I buy books like most girls buy shoes. My favorite is Half Price Books. They have a great selection, and its very well organized for a discount store. Whenever I want a book, I go to Half Price first, then check out the other bookstores.

We went to a Dave Matthews' Band concert tonight. It was awesome. I like Dave's music, and Jon knows all the words to all of the songs. This was my second concert ever (the first was Aerosmith in high school). I had a ton of fun, and am so glad we went, even though it was outdoors and raining. We had rain ponchos and boots, but my pants got wet and the water wicked up my legs and down my socks. It poured before the concert, but stopped for most of the show. On the last song, the rain started pouring down again just as they broke into an instrumental, and the lightning added to the light show on stage. It was great, but after that we ran to the van instead of waiting for the encore.

I haven't taken enough pictures of the wildflowers this spring. Texas is great for wildflowers. My first year here, I was shocked at how beautiful it was in the spring when they all started to bloom. This year was a very good year for them, probably because of all of the rain. The primroses came first, then blue flowers, lots of blue bonnets and some purple gayfeathers. After the blue colored flowers come the yellow ones (that I don't know the names of), and then the reds (lots of indian blankets and some wine cups). So pretty. FYI, that's a primrose in the pic. Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to pic wildflowers. It is illegal to stop on the interstate just so you can take some pics of them. I didn't pick the primrose.

This is my spiffy new bike rack for my car. Its awesome. A whole new world of bike routes is now opened up to me. I was getting bored just riding around my house. Karyn and I rode the hills on the Chapin Loop today. Ugh. I need to do that more often.

Hoy es el meircoles, y cada el miercoles voy a escribir mi blog en espanol. No recuerdo tocar mi camara a la clase, pero estoy en mi carro antes de la clase. Esta lloviendo y hace frio. Hay solamente tres estudiantes en la clase anoche, porque tienen mieda de la influenza tocina. Esta tonto.