Cold Weather, Cookies, & Christmas Celebrations

It seems to be time for another blog entry. Not because a number of exciting things have been going on out here but because I have recently been receiving demands from a few over eager followers for another post. I blame the decline in recent adventures on the weather. It's not my fault that when the temperature drops below 40 degrees I become incapable of leaving the couch, much less the apartment. In the midst of declining temperatures and increasing anticipation of going back to the midwest for Christmas, Gregg and I have been managing to keep ourselves occupied, including finishing all of our Christmas shopping.

A few weeks ago Gregg registered to run a marathon this coming Memorial Day in Burlington, Vermont.  He was inspired to run a marathon when he saw the one in Philadelphia a few weeks prior.  He then settled on running the one in Vermont because it would give us an excuse to take a trip and give me a chance to exercise my true calling in life as travel agent.  So far our plans are to drive through/visit Boston before heading to Vermont for the race.  We may also visit Providence, or just take in some of the scenic countryside as well, but it all remains to be seen.  We joined the YMCA a few weeks ago which has been a good way for him to start training and a good excuse to drag ourselves out of the apartment on cold rainy nights.

That's how Libby sums up the last couple of weeks.  I'll try to sum up this last weekend for you.  This last weekend, I learned a valuable lesson - never judge books by its cover.  After a failed trip to the symphony a friend of Libby's and the two of us went in search of some food in downtown Philly.  We went inside what we thought was a diner, only to find ourselves in the middle of a swanky hotspot in the middle of the city.  After some drinks and a giant mountain of fries later, we felt satisfied with our new find.  Sunday night, Libby brought over two girls from her school for some Christmas cookie making.  Thanks to my Aunt Pam, who sent us a giant box of Christmas cookie themed gifts, we were well stocked with equipment for the night.  The cookies that remained uneaten during the cooking, creating, and decorating turned out wonderfully.  I was able to show the 3 art girls a little thing or two about mixing good colors and decorating cookies.  Look for my new show on Food Network next fall.  It was a fun night, and enjoy some pictures below of that night and other.  (thanks again Pam!)

Libby and I are very excited to come home in just 3 days.  We'll be spending three days in K.C.  One and a half days in Tulsa, and 3 days in Dallas.  We're excited about seeing as many of our friends and family as I can.  In case we don't get to see you during our trip, have a very happy holiday!  

Can you find the ninja turtle?
Gregg, Chelsea, Rachel and I. I think we were trying to impersonate our cookies in this picture.
What happens when 3 art students decorate christmas cookies? More colors!
Me in my studio.
Recently one of my paintings was accepted into a juried art show at my school. That explains this photo.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

When does one officially become an adult? No, it's not when you graduate college, get a job with a benefits package or even get married and move across the country. You truly become a real live, functioning adult when you are able to successfully prepare a thanksgiving turkey with all the mandatory side dishes for yourself AND guests. What does this mean for Gregg and I? We did it! We can now join the world of adulthood. We cooked thanksgiving dinner yesterday (including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, fruit salad and apple pie all from scratch) for ourselves and two of my friends from school. Today we put up our 4 1/2 ft christmas tree. I hung my 57 ornaments and Gregg hung his 2. It's very cute and pretty in the corner of our living room.

Last weekend we took a day trip to New York City. My school had organized a trip to a gallery in NYC and with some luck I managed to get Gregg a seat on the bus. I knew he would be jealous knowing I was spending the day wandering through the galleries of Chelsea and he wasn't. The bus dropped us off at a gallery showing the work of NY artist, Vince Desiderio, who gave a lengthy talk not just about his show but an involved lesson in art history that Gregg had no trouble following. After the talk we got lunch with a few friends from my program before checking out the other galleries in the area. By that I mean we picked a street and 2 hours later arrived at the end of it. There are soooo many galleries in New York!

We can't wait to head back to the midwest for Christmas, only 3 more weeks!

Us in a gallery in NYC
Vince Desiderio's show
Our Christmas Tree!
Delicious apple pie

Our Thanksgiving meal with Olive and Rachel
One of the paintings I am currently working on
The other painting I am working on

6 People, 1 Bathroom - Philadelphia's Version of Survivor

Hey faithful readers!  It's been a while since I contributed to this blog, so I'm stepping up (although Libby's nice enough to do all the hard work of uploading the pictures).   We've had an exciting two weeks in November so far.  The first weekend, we decided to cram as many people into our apartment as physically possible - with 2 sets of married couples staying over in our one bedroom apartment.  It worked out really well and was a really fun weekend.  There were a lot of fun games played, large pancakes eaten, and the only temporary blip was a temprarily lost purse.  And the housing situation was perfect.  Of course, I didn't have to sleep on an air mattress that deflated in the middle of the night, so I can say that -  sorry Jenny and Spencer!  The Hellmans and the Marshalls were in town, and they got to experience life in Manayunk.  Libby is well on her way to becoming an independence hall expert with 3 trips in the past two months.  

This last weekend, Libby and I decided to spend all day Saturday downtown, and it turned into a bit of an adventure.  While walking by city hall, Libby and I ran into a pro-gay marriage parade that wrapped around an entire city block.  Libby and I passed by on our way to her school, and when we emerged over an hour later, the march was still going strong.  It was very cool to see all the support.  After that, Libby dragged me kicking and screaming to a musical (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).  We went to see Hairspray, and it was a lot of fun, although I could barely hear it with Libby singing the whole  thing next to me.  When it was done, all that was left was for Libby and I make the leisurely mile walk back to our car, but there was one simple problem - pouring rain and no umbrella.  Needless to say we swam back to the car.  

Last Sunday, Libby and I had yet another exciting experience as we were invited to a fellowship dinner through a church we had started attending.  The dinner was great, our fellow adults were very friendly, but the 10-15 yelling, screaming kids were kind of intimidating.  We felt a little out of place as we ate with a 2 couples who each had 5 kids, a couple who had a baby, and a couple who was expecting in February.  

Anyways, those are some highlights from the recent past.  Enjoy some pictoral proof below.

Someone's large head obstructing a view of the parade

Spencer being surprised by the Blair Witch

3 hotties in the park (careful boys, they're taken)

Trying to take a cute couple picture in Rittenhouse Square

The Phillies won the World Series... this is how I survived

Halloween costumes!

Very excited to be at the pumpkin patch!!

I think the pumpkin on the right looks like an elephant
The Great Pumpkin!

Our carved pumpkins, a scary ghost and a spooky owl.

It's time for another post because this past week Philadelphia has completely lost its mind. seriously.  It poured rain monday and tuesday delaying the 5th world series game and then Wednesday, oh man... Gregg and I went to see a promo screening of an independent film downtown and as we were driving home we knew the Philly's had just won because suddenly every car in the city started honking their horn and people began running into the streets screaming "PHILLLLLLLLLIES!!!!!!" When we got home we turned on the TV and watched helicopters footage of 5-10  thousand people crowding every major intersection across the city.  Seriously woah.

Yesterday there was parade downtown that I found myself swimming against the current in an overwhelming sea of red.  The trains were too full with people to pick up anyone from my station so I took an adventure on an unfamiliar bus stuffed to the brim with people heading to the parade.  Once downtown I decide to be a part of the mob for about 15 minutes before taking refuge in my studio for the rest of the afternoon.  Just long enough to see the Phillies mascot from a far, which by the way has to be  the weirdest looking mascot ever.  So what I'm saying is... the next time a Philadelphia sports team has a chance of winning a championship game I'm taking a vacation.

Gregg and I did a pretty good job of celebrating Halloween. We went to a pumpkin patch last weekend and carved awesome pumpkins.  The pumpkin patch wasn't quite as spectacular as we'd envisioned and was obviously designed for 4 year olds who are easy to please and have no prior knowledge of what a good pumpkin patch is like. Last night we went to a Halloween party in the city with a bunch of students from my school.  It was fun taking the train into the city on Halloween because every time someone got on the train it was like a costume parade.  I think Gregg and I had the best costumes by far.  He was nice enough to let me copy his brilliant idea of dressing up as iPod commercials.  We wore all black, iPods and taped sheets of neon colored posterboard to our backs.  From behind we looked like post-it notes but overall it was a very convincing costume.  

This is a picture of my studio this week. I've stopped collaging and am now making some abstract paintings.

The Past 3 weekends

Todd came to visit this weekend and made me take all these pictures of him...

Here he is infront of the Liberty Bell. He thought it was pretty cool.
Then we went to Independence Hall and he insisted that I take another picture.
Then I was like, I want to get in one! So here we both are at Independence Hall.

Here is the Wissahickon Park. Gregg and I like to go running here sometimes when we are feeling ambitious. It's my favorite place in Philadelphia and is really close to our apartment.
Todd thought it was pretty cool too.

Last weekend we took our first trip to New York City.  We took a bus in on Saturday morning and left Sunday evening.  The train dropped us off at Madison Square Gardens in the heart of the city (or one of them at least). We got off the bus completely disoriented and started walking without a clue where we were.  After 15 seconds we decided we needed to get a map if we were ever going to get anywhere.  We visited some galleries in Chelsea and walked through Grenwich Village (where our hotel was), SoHo and  Tribeca.  We ate bruschetta and basil and parmisian fettucine in Little Italy for dinner and took in the night life at Grenwich Village. On Sunday we went to the Met (!!!) and spent the afternoon in Central Park and strolling through the streets up the upper East side before heading back to Philadelphia.  

Todd is here this weekend, He and Gregg are currently playing Wii baseball on either side of me.  I'm super excited he's here and I know we're going to have lots of great sibling bonding time.  

In other news, Gregg's job is going well, he thinks he is going to really like it especially once he has been there a little while longer. I'm still liking school.  On Wednesday a group from my table have been going out to talk about critiques, etc. Yesterday we got student rush tickets and went to the Philadelphia Opera.    

What $160 will get you in the City- 6x6ft of sleeping space

What Gregg might look like if he were a pregnant student - A pregger Gregger

Do you know the difference between Gregg and a car?  One has a lot of junk in it's trunk and the other is used for driving people around.  

Awwww...

Central Park is pretty much exactly how it appears on TV.  It's a beautiful place.

The great lawn - A great place to be on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Dave and Mallory came 3 weekends ago...

MMmmm...Pancakes!

Mal's first cheesesteak! Not Dave's, he's a pro

Look we're still alive!
Ugliest cake I hope I ever make

Gregg and I have been having some busy weekends recently, First Dave and Mallory came to visit us during the weekend in between our birthdays (Dave's and mine).  We celebrated with the world's ugliest birthday cake, made and frosted by yours truly. Mallory tried to salvage it but too much damage had been done. I also made Morgan's giant pancakes (first time ever with out her supervision) and we took Mallory to get and authentic Philly cheesesteak.  We toured Independence Hall also.  I don't think I will be allowed back anytime soon because for some reason when we visited the original senate hall the lens cap for my camera jumped out of my hand and rolled halfway across the floor, in between the desks of our forefathers. Our tour guide had to crawl across the floor and maneuver her way through desks to retrieve if for me since I was not allowed to cross the red velvet barrier.   

Lessons Learned in Philadelphia

1)  Patience is a virtue - If you wait around long enough, you'll finally get what you want.  I finally got a job!  (more on that to come)

2)  Life without an oven is difficult and often calls for desperate measures and creative cooking techniques.  (see #3)

3)  Frying cookies is a difficult endeavor (see pictures below)

4)  Talking with people can often lead to social situations outside of our apartment, which might possibly even lead to friendships.  

5)  Eagles Rule!! (not really, but we have to say it legally since we live here).  Also, giant inflatable eagle's players in your front yard makes a statement.  

6)  Green TV's lead one to miss the other primary and secondary colors, even if they are better for the environment.  

7)  Alcohol makes a 17% grade hill much easier to hike up, contrary to what one might believe.  

8)  Soapbox derbies are a dangerous and deadly endeavor, especially in the rain.

9)  Menonites can use electricity - hence the shocks given by touching their fences.  

10)  Giant burgers stuffed with peppers and onions, while delicious are too 

11)  "House husbands are the best!!  I haven't done laundry in two weeks!" - Libby

12)  "I'm bored" - Gregg "house husband" Williams

13)  Life is so much better with dishwashers.  Not having one is slowly driving us crazy.

We have been in Philadelphia almost 6 weeks, and the unthinkable has happened - I've gotten a job offer that I'm going to accept.  I will be working at a company which provides thermal oxidizer systems.  So if you're in need, let me know and I'll see about getting you a good price.  My official title will be an application engineer, but because the company is kind of small, I will at times play the role of a project manager, structural engineer, estimator, designer, or any other duty that needs to be filled at the time.  Needless to say I'm excited.  I'm ready to get out of the house every day and make a positive impact on society.  

Libby is doing well at school.  For only 3 weeks of classes, she has produced a staggering amount of work.  She has also found a direction that she might want to go towards with her artwork.  She's enjoying getting the chance to take the train downtown every morning, even if currently she does it while I'm sound asleep in bed. I can let her tell it to you better than I can.

Ahem... lets see, I'm loving having my own studio, an art space that I don't have to clean each time I finish working and worry about getting in someone else's way.  I've been working on a variety of things so far and am enjoying my classes, seminars and getting to know the other students in the program.  Here are some pictures I took of my studio on Satuday:   

What in the hill is going on?

We have been in Philadelphia for almost on a month and I'm finally getting used to walking down and up our 11% grade hill to the train station each day (that's actually a lie but it's what I tell myself). I'm getting used to opening a cookbook and trying to extend my repertoire of entrees past chicken-alfredo pasta, plain chicken with ketchup(or BBQ sauce) and frozen pizzas. I'm getting used to walking past a long line of "customers" checking in for their parole at the court house and then patients loitering in front of a mental retardation clinic on my way to school each day. I'm getting used to going to my studio every day hoping to generate and idea out of nothing and create enough artwork to impress my professors at weekly critiques. I am not however, getting used to life WITHOUT A DISHWASHER! Seriously. Sometimes I think our sink grows dishes when we aren't looking. They never go away. But I guess in the scheme of things its really not that bad and I shouldn't complain.

So. Red Bull Soap Box Derby went out with a bang this weekend, literally, Tropical Storm Hanna showed up for the event. Fortunately for Gregg and I the event took place in our front yard and we could watch from the window as 35+ different teams threw themselves down the steepest hill in Philadelphia, aka the same 11% grade hill that I walk up and down each day. To "protect" the teams' riders Red Bull put hay bails up and down both sides of the street to "cushion" and impact should a team lose control and slide to their doom. I think by some miracle most of the teams made it down relatively unharmed. I say most because at one point in the race a team member was carried up the hill bleeding on a stretcher. It was disturbing to say the least. By 4 o'clock the event was over and 1,000 sopping wet die hard soap box derby fans headed home. That was the Red Bull soap box derby. I will be holding my breath until the next one. We may post some pictures that we took from our windows.
The pictures were taken from our apt window.

Art school is going really well so far. I am quickly getting used to having my own studio and loving it at the same time. This semester I am enrolled in an MFA Drawing and Painting class, a figure modeling class, a seminar with the 16 other students in my program and have weekly individual critiques with professors. I spend most of last week being intimidated but I am off to a great start this week and am really excited for this year. It's funny going to a school where the "campus" is an 11-story building with four elevators and everyone I see is an art student. I'll try to post pictures of some of my artwork as it gets created, I'm always up to input, ideas or title suggestions. Hope everyone is doing well.

Libby

Allow me to get on my soapbox for a minute

So Libby and I have discovered that this weekend, right in front of our house, there will be a Red Bull Soapbox derby. It's apparently a big deal as there are signs for it all over the city. Libby and I live on the top of a hill that is called "the wall in Manayunk". Needless to say it's a steep hill. Well this weekend, people are going to fling themselves down it in their man-made vehicles, and Libby and I are in a prime spot to watch. Should be a good time. I keep hearing from people how it's nothing but a huge party. We'll see if we're able to get any sleep that night. It should be fun though - hopefully we'll have pictures to follow.

Washington, Washington, 6' Tall, Made of Radiation

Libby and I just got back from a 3 day adventure in Washington DC. We visited our friends Dave and Mallory, who recently went through the same adventure that Libby and I went through (marriage, honeymooning, moving). Needless to say, DC kicked our butt. After a night of seeing the Univ. of Maryland campus - where Dave and Mallory both are going to grad school - we walked around the National Zoo, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and Arlington National Cemetery. We followed this up with a day of extreme hiking (more details to follow) and tennis. If I don't walk again for a while, I'll be happy.

Libby and I both agree that the coolest thing we saw in DC (other than our friends of course) were the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum. We had both come to the museum before, but we both had dinosaur-bone-amnesia (a very common disease that affects 1 in 6 humans). We couldn't remember seeing the bones, but were blown away by the shear awesomeness of the life-size recreation of dinosaurs. Then we made our way to the hope diamond, which was a lot smaller than I remember it being.

So about the hiking... we made it out to this very beautiful national park to get out of the city and do a little hiking. For a while we kept mostly to the paved trail but then one of us, I can't remember who, veered off course and started following a "rockier" trail. One hour later, after edging around the sides of cliffs, balancing across jagged rocks and scaling 30 feet cliffs we found a sign for the trail's emergency exit and bailed. Driving home we read a description of the portion of the trail we'd discovered, "Billy Goat's Trail." I can't remember exactly what it said but phrases such as: "tretcherous", "extremely difficult terrain" and "should be attempted only by well prepared and experienced hikers" are what comes to mind...

If Libby and I learned one thing this weekend, it's that we cannot be stopped while playing spades. With the exception of one mishap during a shoe-kicking game, Libby had the world's greatest and farthest reaching winning streak going on for herself. And when her powers were combined with mine in the game of spades - well, the results were disastrous for Dave and Mallory.

Now that we're back from our mini-vacation, the next thing to do is plan for our next vacation! For Libby's birthday, we're going to spend 2 days in NYC, something we're both really excited about. We've never been, but we're both ready to be surrounded by urban building stretching as far as the eye can see. We're staying in a cheap (relative to New York) hotel in Manhattan, and are going to do our best to see as much as we can in 2 days.

On the home front, Libby started school on Thursday, and will have her first full week this upcoming week. She's excited and ready to go into serious artist mode. I'm still looking for an engineering position. I got an offer on Friday, but due to some issues, I am turning down the offer and will continue my search.

That's all for now. We miss everyone a lot, and would love to hear from everyone as to how everyone is doing. I hope everyone is doing well!

Gregg

Stay tuned for a soapbox derby themed blog to come in the near future!