A Fun Week

We had a fun week with Grandmeme and Grandpa Boz here. We went to the Va Beach aquarium and saw sharks, sea horses, crazy birds, crabs, sea otters, and harbor seals. We also went to the Botanical Gardens twice, rode the Paddle Wheel Ferry and went to the favorite Lobscousers for lunch. After Grandpa left we drove to Charlottesville and stayed with George and Karen and went hiking Monday morning up to Old Rag. Hallie is the best little hiker around. We figured that she hiked about 4 miles by herself, maybe more. She just kept going and going. We looked at millipedes, caterpillars, flowers, leaves and she drew maps in the dirt so we would know where to go.
We tried to go to the Va Beach, but it was too windy and the water was freezing...however later that day we went to the Chesapeake and found all manner of wildlife to catch. We held little crabs in our hands and found pretty shells.
One of Hallie's favorite things was riding the escalators at the mall with Grandmeme while Tobin and I tried to find clothes for his job. I hear that they got a few looks from the employees in the stores

A Job At Last

Tobin started his new job at the GAO on Tuesday. He seems to like it, although it has mostly been paper work and learning new things. I think one of the hardest things for him to do was to find clothes that are appropriate for work. We have been shopping over the past week or two and it has been a very new thing for us to find "business casual", but not too casual clothes. I must admit though, he looks very nice and very grown up in them. (that was a nice way of saying old) =).Guess we both need to update our look from 25 to 30 year olds. YIKES!!!! More updates to come on his job later.

Extortion

Today while we were at the Irvine Regional Park attempting to purchase a ticket for a pony ride, I noticed a sign on the window of the cashier booth that read:

"Exact Change, Please. (We're Really Low on $1's)"

This was really funny to me, because the price of the pony ride is $4. If you demand exactly four dollars from countless numbers of people all day long, doesn't it seem a little bit stupid to claim that you don't have any $1 bills? I would think that you would have nothing but $1 bills.

Tobin and the Beach

We had a great time at the beach this week. It was a little to cold for normal people to stay too long in the water, but Tobin was not to be deterred from using his new boogie board.

Ryan Family Update

It's been a while since we've had anything to say. Since the Allen clan left, we've been sick. Molly has had the worst of it: hand, foot, and mouth disease; a staph/strep infection; an ear infection; and two molars came in. So, I've had my hands full. But I thought that you might like to see some pictures of our little escape to the mountains.

remodeling is finished

Hello everyone!
Except for something on the wall of the bathroom and getting some furniture for the yellow room, the remodeling is finished. We are quite happy with how everything turned out. The junky area by Scott's room is quite nice now. I just don't see how a spider would dare move in! I forgot to take pictures of the new windows, so you'll all just have to come here to see them!

Mom

Goodreads Widgets

So, if you notice at the bottom of the blog you'll see that Ryan and I are especially conceited about what we're reading...

Actually, if you like the idea, we can use these "widgets" that hook into our Goodreads lists to share what we're reading. There are eight of our lists because there is a spot for everyone. I will need your cooperation and patience, but if you'll follow these steps, then we will only be updating our reading lists in one place, but we can check out (with pictures) what everyone is reading.

1. Open & Login to your Goodreads account
   
2. Click the 'My Books' tab
   
3. On the right side of the screen will be a line that says "Tools: Widgets / ..." Click on the word "Widgets"
   
4. Scroll down past the "Other Social Networks" section (logos of Facebook, MySpace & bebo), we are interested in the "My Books Section". There is a list of radio buttons with a button in front of "190 pixel wide (recommended)" That's just what we want, so you don't need to do anything unless for some reason something else is selected, in which case click in the button in front of "190 pixel wide".
   
5. Look for the 'customize your widget' section. Change the "select shelf" to "currently reading" rather than "read".
   
6. Click in the small window under the text 'Copy/paste the below html into your website.' When you click in the tiny window, it will all turn blue, copy in your prefered manner (right click and choose copy or use Ctrl + C)
   
7. Open your email and copy (right click or ctrl + v) the text that you just copied into the body of the message and send it to me. (If email is too complicated, you can also paste it into the comment section for this post.)
   

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you Mommy!

Aquarium of the Pacific

A little while back we talked about doing more fun family activities on Saturdays and today we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. All I can say is COOL. Papu was so excited about it all, but especially the sharks, "Dory" (from Finding Nemo) and all the different kinds of rays. I enjoyed the jellies a lot and of course the sharks. Papu and Scott even touched a shark -- how cool is that? Most of all I enjoyed the look on Papu's face each time he saw a fish swim right by him.



Afterwards we walked in the harbor a little and looked at all the boats. It was a fun place to visit and we'll definitely go back soon. Anyone care to join us next time? :)

One More Go...

One day I will figure out that running marathons really just isn't all that fun.
Until that day comes, Tsemppiä minulle! (Go me!)

A Long Time Coming

We just got back from our trip to Gettysburg, Antietam, Harpers Ferry, and Manassas. I just wanted to post the picture of me in front of the church at Harpers Ferry (even though it is a terrible picture) because I have been upset at Mom for nearly 20? years for not letting me climb those stairs to see that church. YEAH ME!!!!! I also got to see what Gettysburg really looks like, when we are not driving past it in pouring rain (if the boys remember that). And for fun, a picture of Tobin and Hallie on the Appalachian Trail....neener neener. I will post more pictures on our blog!!

Goodreads

At April's suggestion, I have created a group on Goodreads.com to help organize and facilitate our family's tendency to consume literature and/or lame books about sharks. The site is great for keeping track of what you and others are reading, what you want to read, and provide feedback on books you've read in the past. One of the great features here is that you can create "bookshelves" to categorize the various books you read. For example, this is my own personal page. You can see the list of the shelves I've made at the top, and then sort the books according those lists.

I sent each of you an invitation to the website, so please check it out and follow the instructions. The group is of course titled "Right In The Garden Spot". I also added a book and created a shelf for each of us so you can see an example of what I was referring to above.

O.S. Card vs. J.K. Rowling

Scott,

Which side of this fight are you on?

6 Years

Beatta and I had our 6th anniversary yesterday. We discussed it and came to the conclusion that we are the clear winners, because it only took us six years to reach this point, which is much faster than the rest of you.

East of Eden

Have you all read East of Eden? I'm about 2/3 of the way through it now. I think that no literary character has so terrified me as Cathy Ames. Scary stuff, folks.

(I was hesitant to post this...wasn't sure if sufficient time had passed and we're allowed to post non-China-related things again.)