Replete with many colored lights

...and a very sleepy kitty


November 28, 2011



Two doors and a tree

To all those who say that BB isn't practical, I ask you: what more does a girl need than two seats and the ability to get her Christmas tree home?

November 26, 2011

Extreme Kitteh Sports

When catnip, chasing ribbons and snuggling just aren't enough there's only one place left to turn: extreme kitteh sports.  Includes activities such as the one seen below:


November 26, 2011





Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I boycotted cleaning my house.  After several years in a row of hosting dinner at my house, admittedly for people who couldn't have cared less if I had cleaned but my Mama taught me better than that.  So this year, in an attempt to celebrate circumstances that may otherwise seem undeserving of celebration, I did not clean.   I slept in, I had some coffee and worked a little on my knitting but I did not clean. 

The day was beautiful: blue skies, white fluffy clouds and an abundance of sunshine. All on it's own it was a day to be thankful for but then you add in spending it with fun people, eating delicious food and drinking coffee sweetened with heavy cream after supper?  It was a good day.

The Hostess with the Mostest
November 24, 2011





That's how you do it bitches...

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, what's not to like about good food, good drink, family and a long weekend?  Especially when there's pumpkin pie to the be had!

Continuing the long standing tradition of baking pies with Erica the Wednesday before Thanksgiving ... beautiful pumpkin pies were made.

November 23, 2011

Murry...again

If I fits in it, I sits in it.   (I know - I'm turning into a shameless cat lady.)


November 22, 2011

My Mom's FAVORITE tree!

This is my mom's FAVORITE tree....

November 21, 2011

....right before it dropped all those beautiful leaves in the gutters. 

Div-UH

This adorable, attitudinal munchkin actually belongs to a friend of mine. 

They are in SO much trouble when she hits middle school.


November 20, 2011

Gator Love!

Two of my favorite people made a flying visit back to Gainesville for another faves birthday and yet ANOTHER fave's wedding reception. 

Dispite the very dismal football that was played, we are Gators and we wear our orange and blue proudly!

November 19, 2011

Andy and Jenny, Gator Love '08! 

nothing like enjoying on'es co-workers

...especially at a Friday evening Happy Hour complete with Blue Gill Coconut Cake!

November 18, 2011



Light the Night

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

All of the treatments that we currently have for these diseases started out once as research and were developed through clinical trials,  for this reason LLS is a HUGE supporter of heme/malignancy clinical research.  They have directly supported several of the trials (both purely research based and with therapeutic intervention) that I have been involved with over the past four years and are continuing to do so today.

Initially I decided to walk in LLS's Light the Night Walk mainly to raise awareness these cancers.  With my Mom and sister raising money for breast cancer by walking 60 miles in three days, it seemed a little pathetic to be hitting people up for walking a few miles around UF campus with a lighted balloon.  Still, remembering what my mom once said about how generous people are when asked, I sent out a fundraising email to my friends and family.  I expected that a few people would donate a few dollars here and there, hopefully I'd make my $100 goal.   All I can say is that I was beyond blown away.  My original goal was not only met but exceeded before twenty-four hours had passed and for days after, I opened my email each morning and stared in amazement at the donations people had made over the previous night.  The generosity shown by my friends and family was astounding and touching because this cause means so very much to me and every dollar donated makes a difference.  100% of what was donated goes to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's programs to support the families and loved ones of our patients. 

The cherry on this double chocolate, brownie sunday with whipped cream and jimmies??  While the fundraising for this event wasn't  technically a competition, please rest assured that with your support...I won!  Dooce would say that I am the Valedictorian of our teams fundraising attempts: WINNING!

So while I think I've managed to contact everyone to say thank you, I just want to say it one more time from the very bottom of my heart, thank you SO much for your support and kindness.

Cogle Lab and BMTU Clinical Research Team

November 17, 2011



Happy Birthday DPizzle!

Happy Birthday D-Pizzle!

November 16, 2011

I don't even know what exactly was being celebrated at this moment, I suspect it was catching a piece of food thrown by the Hibachi chef in ones mouth, but I just like that everyone is smiling.

Smiling is my FAVORITE. 

The nail in my quarter-life crisis

Quite a bit more vehement than I actually feel, but some strong words to make the single and childless among us giggle.

"This is the nail in the coffin for my quarter-life crisis.  A small part of me dies inside every time a baby in conceived.  The weddings I could take...open bar, good food...but the babies. It's too much. Babies turn normal people into bumper sticker, fold out wallet photo album, breast feeding weirdos."

-- A friend of friend

Challenge: 2 weeks on $200. Take 1

This past month I managed to accidentally double-pay my car payment. :-( While I probably could have called the bank and reversed the second payment, there are far worse things than being ahead on one's car payment so I decided to let it roll and just be a bit better on the budgeting these past two weeks. 

The Challenge?  Two weeks on two hundred dollars. 

This shouldn't have been hard, there were times in college that if I'd had two hundred dollars for two weeks I would have considered myself to be living large.  So if you're sitting there thinking, "two hundred dollars for two weeks?  pshaw! I can do that!"  Well that's what I thought too, then I got to Tuesday and had to make the choice: stick to the budget or go buy some veggies to eat for dinner.  And I ask you, if you had to make the choice: ass or bank account?

I decided in favor the best interest of my ass and relegated ten bucks to adding tomatoes, zucchini and asparagus to my dinner of chicken fingers.

November 15, 2011

So I didn't stick to my budget successfully and will probably come out about $40 over my goal. (I say this with the expectation that I will not have to purchase anything between now and midnight tonight.) So I'll just have to try again this week, starting tomorrow morning: how far can I make $200 take me?

Mini Madness

I fought the idea of buying BB for a long time.  A BMW engine seemed excessive and ridiculous and a two door car is the epitome of impractical.  Excessive and impractical as she might be though, I smile every time I get into her and know that she is mine.  I love BB even more when I can pick her out of a line-up of Mini's and say, "yup, that one is mine!"
 

November 14, 2011

Angry Boids!

November 13, 2011

Gator Game Day

People outside of Gainesville like hate on the Gators and claim that Gators are fair-weather-fans, think what you like but we're here every Saturday cheering on our team. Even when the level of play makes our eyes bleed, they bleed orange and blue, and then we come back the next day to cheer on Tim Tebow in Denver. Because that's how the Gators do it.

November 12, 2011

Veterans Day 11/11/11

Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11th to symbolically tie it to the Armistice that ended World War One, which was signed by Germany in 1918 on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 AM. 

So this year on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2011, Laura, Leslie, Baby Olivia and I "ran" a 5K to support the Fisher House in Gainesville. The Fisher House provides support for the families of wounded or ill veterans by giving them a place to stay during their loved ones hospitalization. Our veterans give so much of themselves to our country, it's nice to support an organization that helps our country to give back, even just a little bit.

November 11, 2011

Please also note that my race number adds up to 11.  This is poetry in action people.

My friendly neighborhood Starbucks

Some days when I'd really rather not leave the house, yet staying on the couch seems counter productive, I hit up my neighborhood Starbucks.  Coffee and a book yet it still counts as getting out of the house!

November 10, 2011

Happy Bachelorette Party Gretchen!

A very lovely friend of mine recently got engaged, an occasion like this deserves recognition and last Wednesday night I joined a rather charming group of ladies to wish our Gretchen well as she leaves the rank of single ladies.  

November 9, 2011

Congratulations Gretchen!  I adore you and am so very happy to see this kind of joy come into your life!

Kittehs vs. Bars = no contest

 Right now I kinda love my couch.  I love my netflix, the kittehs and this giant pair of sweatpants that I've had longer than just about anything else.  The idea of "getting out there" and meeting new poeple just seems inordinately terrifying and just plain exhausting. But to be honest, if you had this snuggled up against your leg, would you want to get up and go scmooze with douchey guys in a smokey bar?

November 8, 2011

I spent a couple of weeks beating myself up over this but recently (and probably associated at least a little bit with the end of daylight savings time) I decided that maybe I could cut myself some slack.  I know that I can't hang on my couch forever but maybe right now its a-okay. 

Monday morning perks

My favorite part of working in the hospital:

November 7, 2011

the availability of good coffee at all point of the day. 

When I started drinking small vanilla lattes on my way to class with Ashleigh in 2003,  never anticipated the love affair that was beginning.  I think I've clearly documented here and elsewhere my love for my Ashleigh (and if I haven't, please let this serve) but I'm talking about my love for coffee.   I really love coffee. 

Really.  Love. Coffee.

Hey Gurl! (That's a wig bitch)

Just when you thought that Disney movies couldn't get any better, the Honey Badger Narrator Guy (I think his name is Randall?) took a swing at it:




Seriously though, who has this much time?

Operation Organization version 1.0

Also known as a brand new toy for the Mur-Monster...

October 11, 2011

Face Hole

After about a billion football seasons of playing Corn Hole, we've improved upon the game. 

I bring to you: Face Hole. 

October 5, 2011

Please note that this is a game that should not be played with baseball players, softball players or sober people.  

Trust in life

"To those who have given up on love, I say, trust life a little bit."

                                                                                                  - Maya Angelou

Class of 2001, Ten Year Reunion

Despite a clear and present wish to not have to do so, I have been doing an inordinate amount of learning over the past few months. Apparently a not so joyous yet unavoidable side effect of large life changes is a certain amount of reevaluation, things like who I am versus who I want to be and what I want out of life in general.  One of my more recent realizations came this weekend and it is the importance of keeping expectations low.  I'm not talking just reasonable, I mean on the floor and if possible down the stairs to the basement kind of low. How might this help one in life?  I'm glad that you asked. 

Case and point: 10 Year High School Reunions. 

With my reunion looming last week, I may have temporarily reverted to my spazzy 16 year-old self for a few hours...um days.  As a familiar sense of self loathing and uncertainty settled over me, the expectation became that the reunion would be high school take two, which translates directly to a terrible idea. Apparently though, the expectation of re-experiencing high school via my ten year reunion was FAR worse than actually doing so as I had failed to factor in important changes like vodka.  It was...dare I say fun?  Now if I had held normal expectations of the evening like balanced and mature people not suffering from self-inflicted retrospective high school PTSD,  I wouldn't have been so pleasantly surprised.  It's all about the low expectations. 

It also helped that the last time I saw about 90% of the people at this event, I was unfamiliar with makeup, hairbrushes the ability to speak to the opposite six without stuttering and falling all over my self.   With a baseline like that showing up wearing makeup, my hair brushed and possessing slightly improved social skills....I appeared straight up, impressively improved. One word: divuhhhh!

November 4, 2011

Top 3 Highlights of the Night:

First and foremost, just seeing most of these people again.  As hard as high school was, these people knew me before any guy came into my life and I learned how comforting (or difficult) it can be to have a partner, to have a person.  I can't go back and I definitely wouldn't if I could, but it was nice to be around people who just assumed that I am whole and functional on my own because that's the only way they ever knew me. 

Completely wasted Cookie Monster John came out to play.  Two words:  seven cupcakes.  I wish that I had pictures of this but I'll have to settle for the mental picture I have of him swaggering around the bar smeared with cupcake frosting and with red wine spilled down his sweater.  Vodka (or in this case whiskey and diet) DOES make reliving high school better.

My Meredith.  I know I've more than seen her in the between times but it's always a good night when I get to spend some time with my Meredith. Plus, she brought her equally hilarious boyfriend Rob who ingeniously impersonated a classmate who hadn't attended, thus re-creating the illusion of high school awkwardness when you can't remember who someone is even though you think that you should be able too.  Thanks Brian Salgado, for making this scam possible by not showing up.

Heels vs. Flats

I've been told that I won't catch a man wearing flats but after one day in heels at work I've begun to wonder: will I catch a man with funky callus' and permanent dents in my toes?

Sadly, this picture has now led to feel rather insecure about my tootsies - maybe I should work on more regular pedicures before embarking on the false advertising campaign of wearing high heels.

and the ladies dined on a sausage fest

We are not the kind of broads to turn down a German beer hall that features a smorgasbord platter of sausages and sauerkraut so very delicately termed: The Sausage Fest.

November 2, 2011

Who says living in a college down doesn't have it's perks?

View from the sunroof

November 1, 2011

Last one of foliage, I promise, but I've just been reveling in the beautiful weather and driving around in BB with the windows down. 

Happy Halloween!

As I came around the corner in my neighborhood on Monday night, fresh off the high of scoring four bags of halloween candy at the very last minute, and stumbled up on this:

October 31, 2011

Autumn in Florida is generally straight up disappointing in only the way that sweating while sipping a latte in October can be, but once in a while it surprises me.

Diet Coke drinkers go to heaven



October 30, 2011

Just in case you can't see it, that would be a touch screen coke machine...

Club Fun has breakfast

Club Fun has breakfast:

October 29, 2011

The Center Street Nook does breakfast in Jupiter like Satchels does pizza in Gainesville.  It's not fancy schmancy (seriously, I drank water out of a plastic IBC rootbeer mug) but the coffee was good, the food was OUTstanding and the waitstaff was sufficiently impressed by the snugglesome Captain Jack who, having sufficiently breakfasted earlier, napped through most of meal.

Big Sky



October 26, 2011

 View from the BMT clinic....I love the sky.

Oh Snap!

Falkner: He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to       
             the dictionary


Hemmingway: Poor Falkner.  Does he really thing that big emotions come from big 
                      words?
 
 
ooooooh SNAP!

Found: Brilliance

October 26, 2011

Found: Brilliance.

"Rick Scott: Teabagging Florida's Future"

Found Grossness

When I come to work in the morning, I'm pretty well prepared for all manners of grossness.  There are discussions of how to accurately describe certain symptoms and side effects (a la "fatty turds which may float"), bodily fluids that need to be processed in the lab and in the absence of all others, there's generally a myriad of unexpected smells emanating from the hospital itself. It's part of what we do and I'm okay with that.

The kind of grossness I am not prepared for however, is what was sitting on the floor next to me during Tuesday morning Beating last week:

October 25, 2011

I've come up with several hypothesis as to exactly what kind of grossness this is but being entirely unwilling to come in any kind of contact with it, its exact nature remains unknown.  Just wanted to share in my horror.

You're welcome.

The definition of a first world problem

First World Problem (n.) - problems from living in a wealthy, industrialized nation that third worlders would probably roll their eyes at.

October 24, 2011

 I'm pretty sure that there's no "probably" about the rolling of eyes and dismissing of this problem as not a problem at all.

I swear, sometimes I think all that I do is buy kitty litter. Admittedly, the upside to this constant purchasing of litter means that my house rarely smells like kitty poo...I think.