We're still here ...

I just really haven't been feeling the blog thing lately. Life has been both pretty busy and fairly unexciting, and unfortunately we've been letting all the stress get to us. We're probably not the only ones! Unfortunately things aren't going to lighten up any time soon. But even though we have a lot on our plates, life is good. I've made a little list to fill you in on the major happenings of the past few weeks ...

1. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was spending our MLK 3 day weekend (seems like so long ago now) with houseguests! My wonderful friend Rachel and her husband Ryan flew down from "the Buff" (Buffalo, NY) to spend the weekend with us in Baltimore. We had such a great time!!! Lots of laughing and sharing stories, eating good food, and trying to stay warm despite frigid temperatures. We spent Saturday in D.C., going to the Holocaust museum and checking out the scene set up for inauguration a couple days later. On Sunday we cooked up a fabulous Cafe Rio feast and on Monday we had a "snow day" - we stayed in our PJs all day eating hot homemade bread, playing scrabble, and hanging out. We are SO glad they came!! Seriously, we had a fantastic time. I can't wait to head up to the Buff once the weather gets nice ...

2. On the less exciting side of things, we've been getting more than enough time on the metro (ghettro if you will). I was getting used to having one day a week without classes to stay home and catch up on studying ... but not this semester - I am back to being on that thing with Joe every day. Several of you have probably heard the story of us getting "busted" for not using our passes ... yeah it was a little intimidating getting yelled at for 90 seconds in the middle of rush hour at Lexington market station. Oh, Lexington market, that is a post for another day. All I can say is that the cigarette companies seem to be doing well and my lungs are slowly but surely getting blacker ... thanks for that.

In addition, last month while I was having to buy my passes everyday I lucked out one day and won the lottery! I put a $10 into the machine and got back $8.60 in NICKELS. Yes that is 172 nickels that took about 4 minutes to clank down into the machine and for me to gather up in a plastic bag I happened to have. Needless to say I missed the metro, had to wait in the cold for the next one, and wasn't too happy about it. I mean what can you do with nickels?? I'm pretty sure someone isn't going to be very happy about counting out 100 nickels the next time I buy a sandwich ...

3. Another exciting event was watching the AZ Cardinals play in the SUPERBOWL! What a dream come true for Joey. Obviously we were disappointed by the loss, but it was fun to have an exciting game. We had great company, great food, and watched some great football. What more could you ask for?

4. One other thing to note is the startling amount of no-sugar-added hot chocolate being consumed around here. It is one of my staple items (along with cheese crisps, cereal, and fruit), and a day rarely goes by without us both having a cup to warm up in the evening. And, I wanted to show Mom and Katie that I absolutely love using the color-me-mine mugs they made me a long time ago, and Chad and Emily that we get good use out of the cute mugs they gave us for Christmas a few years back. Hot chocolate makes me happy.

5. Other than that, basically my life has been tax, tax, and more TAX. I guess this is just the beginning though, right? In case anyone hasn't heard, at the end of last summer I decided I wanted to be a tax attorney, and I accepted a job in the tax group in the Baltimore office of DLA Piper, to begin this fall (as long as I don't become another victim to big firm layoffs). But this semester I am getting into the advanced tax courses for the first time and it is freaking HARD. The number of hours I spend preparing for a single class is slightly out of control. Challenge is one of the things I like about it, but it still makes my head hurt! So in case you are ever wondering what I am up to, there's a good chance I have my nose in one of these:
Not as thick as the usual batch but much more dense. Someday I will be an expert! Ha.

6. As for Joe? He is as busy as ever - drilling teeth, laying flaps, shaving bone, cementing crowns, filling, cleaning, sewing, and hopefully not "perfing." Not to mention searching 4 floors to find supplies and dealing with occasionally unhelpful professors and other unexpected delays such as inconsiderate patients. Honestly, I would not want to experience a day in the life of a dental student ... I hear it's not all bad but any talk of slicing gums and laying flaps just makes me shudder. On our quiet 8:00 p.m. metro rides home (2 days a week) Joe will sometimes take out some paper and try to sketch out his most interesting procedure of the day. Here's a root canal for you (no, he did not draw this).

I think I can safely say that's about it for what we've been up to. Oh, and today is our 4 year engagement anniversary. Now there's excitement for you!