I am thankful.

This is my first Thanksgiving Day apart from my family, and I'm a little bummed about it truthfully. Thanksgiving with my family is no small affair. My dad is one of five children, and my mom's one of six; so no matter whose year it is, we're in a house full of people.

Lately, we've been having the Ellis Thanksgiving at my Aunt Mary's house. The spread will likely include family favorites: turkey, ham, canned cranberry sauce, stuffing, broccoli salad, sweet potatoes, green bean roll-ups, and numerous deserts. Yum! This year there's a new member of our clan, too.... Corinne, my cousin's new baby was born a few months ago; and I'm just sick I can't be there to see her.

Ellis memories:

-One year, my Grandmother Nancy made her 'famous' rum cake. I don't think she measured the key ingredient correctly, though, because no one under 21 was allowed to have a piece. (My grandparents are ARP Presbyterians = the temperate sect.)
-Half of this side of my family hail from Mississippi State while the other half call Ole Miss alma mater. This fact makes for tedious conversation about the upcoming Egg Bowl at the "kids' table" (at which the age limit gets mysteriously higher each year).
-Last year, my Aunt Martha Jane brought birthday cake so we could celebrate Joseph's (her adopted son) birthday. (His birthday is actually October 13th, but we had to have a big family party and take lots of pictures to submit to the adoption agency to prove that Martha Jane and Thomas are fit parents. And our scheme must have worked because right now they're in Russia getting a little girl - Julia. Maybe we'll have another birthday party on Christmas.)
-Washing dishes. It so happens that the responsibility of cleaning up falls to the Ellis women. After dinner, there are at least six women at the sink washing, drying, breaking (sorry, Mom!) and putting away dishes. This must be done by hand becuase we use the good silver, crystal, and china for these special occasions. The best conversation of the day comes during these dishwashing sessions while the men are all snoozing and/or talking about the football game(s).

The Skinner Thanksgiving is just as large an ordeal, but everyone is a little louder and more opinionated. (Ey, we're Italiano!) And while we always have turkey and dressing, one might see baklava, homemade raviolis, orange fluff, Jewish fruit cake (no, we're not Jewish), and any number of sugar-free desserts.

Skinner memories:

-One year, there was almost a riot because Grandmother Mary Ann didn't make her potato salad. (I think she just wanted to see what would happen.)
-Grandmother takes personal offence when someone won't try her cooking; and my cousin, Jenny, married an extremely picky eater (whose name always seems to slip Grandmother's mind). I made sure Sam knew about this, and then watched happily while he raved over her minced meat pie. "Oh, Mrs. Skinner, this is just the best thing I've ever put in my mouth!"
-Games of Balderdash, Taboo, etc. As I mentioned, almost everyone on this side of my family is boistrous; and no one is a very good sport. I don't have to elaborate about the fate of these 'family game times.' We since abandoned this tradition and, instead, all go see the latest holiday movie together. While the different features still raise some controversy, this activity is far less hostile than gaming.

Ahhh, there's nothing like family memories. I guess it's not all bad to have a year away. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

A Quick Anecdote

In April, Sam and I received a wedding present in the mail. We unwrapped it to find a small, personal heater.

This, I thought, is a great gift; we've just moved to (what I consider) the north, and I'm completely cold-natured. Come winter time, I'll take this little guy to work with me and plug it in under my desk.... and I'll never have to debate my coworkers over the thermostat setting again!

So Sam and I stored the box under the bed with some of our winter clothes.

(Fast-forward to two weeks ago.)

It's finally getting cold here, and I remember my little heater waiting for me underneath the bed. Sam gets it out for me, and I carry it triumphantly into the office (feeling quite like the boy scout I never was). I open the box and begin to unwrap the first piece, never thinking it bizarre that a heater would come in pieces. I gasp.

Trying to process the little ceremic lid I've just uncovered, I unwrap the second item in the box.... a tastful ceramic urn.

Thoughts that occur to me:

-Where's my HEATER?!?
-How funny that this has been under the bed for months, and Sam and I never knew what it was!
-Gosh, this'll look nice anywhere in our house.
-I wrote a thank-you note to someone I don't even know for a gift they didn't give me! And now I have to write another one explaining all this!!

My coworkers got a good laugh out of watching me discover all these things; and I did a little research and found out that the giver of the heater is a first cousin of Sam's mom, whom, she says, will think all this is very entertaining. So no harm done, I guess.

Etiquette tips for the day:

When one is prudent enough to save time and funds by reusing a box in which to give a gift, one must also be contientious enough to note this fact on the exterior of the box.

When a note of gratitude is expected in response to a gift, the recipient(s) must take every possible precaution in determining the actual nature of the gift.

It's not easy being green

As I type this, I know exactly how Kermit the Frog felt. My arms and legs are tinted the astro turf green of patio furniture, I smell strongly of gasoline and vaguely of tropical passionfruit bodywash, and I think I'm going to have a blister on my pointer finger. HELP!

How did I get myself into this mess?

A couple in our church sent out a church-wide email stating that they were giving away a set of 'slightly rusted' patio furniture and a 'working' toaster. As Sam and I have a patio that we've never really used because we didn't want to invest in furniture for it (due to our relatively short stay here and the fact that we'd have to move it back to Mississippi with us), I saw this as a perfect opportunity! We can just use the furniture during our time here and then have the option to give it away before we move. Brilliant.

I called the couple to tell them Sam would be by to pick up the set of furniture on his way home from class one day. (On a side note...... although I couldn't tell it from their email, this couple is from Holland; and they have a very thick Dutch accent. Think Goldmember in Austin Powers - "my fazsher!" Very humorous, I think.) I was planning to make a quick job of spray painting the furniture to hide the rusty spots, but I'd never really done anything like that before.

So I called Mrs. Bonnie (Sam's mom) who can pretty much do anything (except wear dangly earrings, of course) to get directions for spiffing up our furniture. She told me get some Rust-oleum paint and give it a once-over, rust and all. OR, and I quote, "If you want to do it the easy way, just get Sam to get a wire brush and scrape off all the rust and then paint it." Well, that would be easy! But as Sam is out of town in San Diego this week, I decided to pursue the more difficult way of painting it myself.

I went to Wal-Mart, per her instruction, and purchased Rust-oleum paint in the shade of green closest to what the furniture already was. Then, I put on some old clothes and flip flops and situated the pieces of furniture in our back yard. Ready, set, go!

To skip the boring part, the furniture is painted and looks pretty nice. I may need one more can of paint to do some touch-ups, though. Anyway..... after I finished and came inside, I realized I had paint on my hands. Hmmm, dish soap isn't working. I called Sam, who told me to use the gasoline he has for the lawnmower. That got the paint on the palms of my hands to come off, but (maybe I was doing it wrong) it didn't make much of a difference anywhere else. I figured that the paint would wear off eventually, and it's only on my hands.... I should just take a shower.

Imagine my surprise when I look down to see a flip flop stenciled in green paint on my feet. Next, I realize that I'm a sickly green all the way up to my elbows and mid-thighs! Now hopeless, I finish my washing. Even if I wanted to take a petrol-shower, we don't have that much gasoline left; so I think I'm stuck. And that's the story so far. I'll post a picture of our new furniture (and of me if I'm still green) when Sam gets back.

DMB, John Mayer, Aaron Lewis, Halo 3, Starkville, Floatin', Roomba, etc.

The mood to post to this blog comes along quite infrequently. I've got a lot to catch up on.

Katherine and I have gone to a couple of concerts lately (both free!). VT held a concert to start the year, and it was widely publicized. Phil Vassar opened up, followed the the rapper, Nas. Both of them were horrible. I like country, but Phil just doesn't cut it. Nas; what can I say, pathetic. Then came John Mayer. That guy can play a stinkin' guitar like it was his job (which it is). I was impressed to say the least, plus he's dating Jessica Simpson. Then came, get ready Heather, Dave Matthews. We stayed for a few songs of his, then left. He's ok, but I can only take 15 minutes of one song so many times.

The other concert was a couple of weeks ago. I called in to the VT radio station while doing lab work at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Supposedly, I was the second caller, but I have a hard time believing there was somebody listening to VT radio on a Saturday morning. Nevertheless, I won 2 tickets to hear an acoustic concert with Aaron Lewis, the lead singer of Staind, over in Roanoke that same night. He's pretty dark with his lyrics, as Katherine mentioned, but he's got some really good songs and a great voice. I put a video down below if you want to see.

Halo 3, the greatest game in the history of the world, came out a week ago. I beat the game yesterday. The multiplayer games are great, and I've gotten to play with my cousin Kurt (lives in Tupelo) several times. He's a bit better than me, but I will say I'm still getting back the feel for Halo after playing Battlefield 2 for so long.

This weekend, we're headed to God's country, Mississippi. We're flying out in a 4-seater on Thursday afternoon and should arrive in New Albany at around 4 p.m. I'm excited to get back. It's been about 4 months since I've seen the promised land. We'll head to Starkville Friday night, and partake in some MSU Homecoming festivities on Saturday. Sunday afternoon, we'll come back. Anyone who hasn't seen us in a while and plans to be in Starkville this weekend, let us know.

Katherine is in Minneapolis for work. Her company sends their employees there after they've worked about 6 months. Katherine flew out of Roanoke Sunday morning. After getting back from the airport, my friend Gaurav and I went to float down the New River on intertubes. We were the only 2 people who were out there all day long. The water wasn't even cold; it was spectacular. They give you an extra tube for your cooler, and you just sit back and let the water take you down. I've been fiddling with some video editing software, and this is what I came up with from the trip. Let me know what you think.

I've been getting some extra spending cash from advertising websites lately, and I've been trying to think of something to get for Katherine that we would normally not get ourselves. I found it tonight. It's called a Roomba, and it's an automatic vacuum cleaner. Some of you may have heard of them before; they've been out for several years. They just came out with a new model that claims to have fixed several short-comings from the previous version. Anyways, I'm a sucker for free trials now, and I really think Katherine will enjoy having this. She's not too big on vacuuming, and I would just do it myself, but she claims I don't get the floor clean enough. Who am I to argue? This is definitely going to be a cool gadget, though. I'm excited to see if it works. Supposedly it uses little sensors that go in doorways to know which room it's in. After it's finished cleaning one room, it automatically goes to the next. When it's low on battery, or done cleaning, it uses the doorway sensors to navigate back to a charging dock. It stops suction when going over rug tassles, it changes height when transition from carpet to hard flooring, it even slows down to clean really dirty spots. I'll let you know how it goes.

At last....

Some of you may have noticed that it has been quite a while since I contributed any nuggets of wit or wisdom to our blog. But as you may remember, I have been reading the Harry Potter series; and I admit that this venture did take over my life for a brief while. However, I am happy (and sad) to say that I have finished the last of the seven books and will now be able to blog more frequently.

I will not go into any details of the last Harry Potter book, as Sam has made it clear this is a subject I am NOT at liberty to discuss. I will, though, recommend the series highly to anyone looking for a good read and express my thanks to John Mark for getting me started.

Onto new news.... I (we) got an iPod!! This is a big deal for me, as I usually try to avoid new technology except on a 'need to have' basis. But I really like it!! It makes washing the dishes, folding clothes, ironing, etc. much more enjoyable. And it's certainly much easier to persuade myself to walk around the block for a little exercise when I know my friend Eminem will come with me. Which leads me to my next little tidbit....

As I've been out in the neighborhood more lately, I've had the opportunity to meet some more of our neighbors. In the middle of my walk the other day, a lady waved me down and I stopped to chat. We had quite a lengthy conversation in which she imparted to me her "wisdom." Not only did she drone on until it was much to dark for me to finish my walk, but she also attempted give me financial, spiritual, and political advice.

Lessons from my neighbor:

1. All you need is a roof over your head, food to eat, someone who loves you, and whatever spiritual entity you prefer. (Sound enough advice, I guess.)

2. Why buy a house when you can rent? This way, you don't have to do any home maintenance yourself. (The economist in me was begging to mention the multitude of holes in this belief, including the little problem of EQUITY; but, as I said, it was getting dark.)

3. Spend all your money while you can because, when you're old (and I quote) 'If you have it, they take it away; if you don't have it, they take care of you.'

And on that note, I dismissed myself from her lecture, bewildered and wanting to return home to my Republican (with a capital 'R') husband. We concluded that her little corner of the neighborhood must not be in the same country the Hardin's share with Dave Ramsey.

I'm a walking infomercial.......

I've discovered something about myself in the last few weeks: I love to get stuff for free. I don't mean the dime (the coin, not the bag) you find on the ground or the garage sale where you get 5 shirts for a dollar. I mean do-nothing, cost-nothing, hey thanks, scott-FREE. Among the latest things I have gotten for free in the last couple of months are, in no certain order, an X-Box 360 Elite (with a game and a 1 year subscription to X-Box Live), iPod Nano, iPhone, Outrage (book about gay marriage), and 'The Goonies' DVD. I also got, for free again, a lifetime supply of watermelons, but that's for another post altogether.

How did I do it? Two things: a pyramid scam on the internet (it's free, so it's debatable if it's a scam) and calling in on the radio to win contests.

Somehow every time the conversation comes up about this website that gives away free stuff, I start sounding like a 3 a.m. infomercial. Statements like "That's it, there's no catch"; "It's just that easy"; and "It's totally free" are common utterances. But really, it is.

Katherine's wasn't a big fan of the X-Box 360, especially since picking it up made us late for the theatre, but once she figured out that I wouldn't be sitting in front of it like a zombie for 4 hours a day it wasn't so bad. Still, I think my best strategy is to get her to enjoy playing it. On a more serious note, Halo 3 is coming out next month and I can't wait.

I'm jumping around, keep up. I don't know if you people read it, but Jim Beaty's blog is one of the the funniest things on the internet. I check it every day, and I really am disappointed when I don't find new posts. There goes my advertising streak coming out again.

Hmmmm, what else. Oh yeah, I cracked the screen on my cell phone. I was crawling under the house with it in my pocket (you never know when you'll need your phone) and it cracked when I rolled my hip over it. No fat jokes, please. Luckily, I had insurance and they replaced my phone for $50 (that's not free) with one that I hate. Then Samsung customer service gave me the run-around trying to sell me some cable to hook my old phone to my computer so I can get the phone numbers from it. Nevermind that they 'forgot' to put the option on their phones to copy your address book from the phone to the SIM card (it works fine the other way around). I bought it, and now I'm hassling them for a refund because I found a way to get my phone numbers to my computer without the cable. Maybe they'll just let me have it for free.

Quidditch, anyone??

Okay, I'm officially hooked on Harry Potter. I've seen a couple of the movies, but the books are so much more fun! This past weekend, I began the first book; and today I started the second one. The third is, of course, on reserve at the library. (John Mark, I'll be done in no time, and we can have our literary discussion on the deeper themes in this series.)

I'm beginning to feel like a real Roanoker (as we are called) now, due to my daily exploration of the area of downtown near our new office. No longer do I get lost on the third floor of my parking garage (it is, actually, quite tricky). On my lunch break, I sat on a bench in the park and read a little HP (while I casually ignored the bum three benches down). And I'm considering getting a pedicure one day at this little salon I pass daily. What a city girl I am!

Up until now, I've been a little apprehensive to mention anyone except Sam and myself in this blog for fear that one of my subjects might read about him or herself and take offense. But this encounter is really worth the risk.....

At church on Sunday, Sam and I sat next to a friendly-looking lady whom we had never seen before. During that weekly (and painfully awkward) meet-and-greet time (which I have always secretly dreaded), we learned that she was visiting because her husband was speaking at an Environmental Engineering conference at Tech. What a coincidence!....Time for the hymns.

We continued our conversation after the service. She was pumped about engineering! The following are all direct quotes:

"I just love being married to an engineer. They are really the salt of the earth.!"

"Engineers are such solid people."

"There just simply aren't enough young people going into engineering."

Despite the fact that she was a very nice lady (who all but offered Sam a job in California), I had to get her to stop with the hype so Sam's head would have a chance to deflate. (It has returned to close to its normal size now, by the way.) Although I am certainly enjoying being married to Sam, I have to say that his engineer-hood is not my favorite attribute. The salt of the earth? Really???

We're getting a dog this Saturday!!!

Yep, that's right. This Saturday morning a dog will be delivered to our door. 'Her' name is Leroy. She's a mutt, but she's a nice dog...... laid back and easy going. Ok ok, we're just keeping her for a week for some friends, but I'm looking forward to it. Our house is always a little more interesting with a dog around. We've kept her before, and except for a little puke on our new rug everything went fine.

One thing I like to do is mess with her when we're gone. I setup Katherine's laptop in the kitchen hooked up to a webcam. I set it up so that I can view the webcam and broadcast sound from the Virginia Tech laboratory. That way I can check on her while I'm gone, and if I get bored I say "Here Leroy!" and watch her run around the house looking for who's talking...... simple entertainment I guess.

On a different note, most of our readers (all 7 of you) might not have seen our house in Virginia. I put up a picture below. Maybe we'll take some of the inside sometime soon.

This is a test.... this is only a test....

Is blogging for me? I'm really not sure. But Sam seems to think it is.... and if there's anything I've learned in almost seven months of marriage, it's that doing something someone else's way isn't necessarily bad. (Sam's learned that too, of course.)

My life doesn't really seem that exciting to me, but maybe some of you will get a kick out of it.... or at least learn what 'third party logistics' is. That's what I do. I help people move things, but mostly I talk to truckers all day. And don't knock it; things stay exciting.

ME: "Sir, what company do you drive for?"
DRIVER: "I om de drivah."
ME: "Yes, sir. What is your company's name?"
DRIVER: "De drivah!! Go California!"
ME: "Anyone want Foreign Trucking, line three?"

That's right, my language skills come in pretty handy sometimes. I've learned a whole new Spanish trucking vocabulary. But the biggest news at C.H. Robinson's Roanoke Branch is our new office. Last Friday, we moved from Salem into downtown Roanoke! It's really awesome. I get to park in a parking garage, eat lunch at cool places, and walk through the farmer's market everyday. (I hope I'm not the only one who thinks parking garages are cool.) I'll be sure to blog more about it when I've discovered more. Right now, I know there's a library, a coffee shop, a YMCA, a lot of little cute boutiques, and numerous restaurants (including a marginal-looking Thai place) within a seven minute's walk of my office.

Oh, and the theater! The Mill Mountain Theater is right across the street, and Sam and I have tickets to several upcoming productions! And I didn't even have to twist his arm.... true, one features the music of Hank Williams; but I know we'll both enjoy them all.

And my brother has convinced me to begin the Harry Potter series.... My friends know I have a tendency to pick up a book and never finish, but I'm determined to finish all these books. Quite a feat for me, I know. So if any of you bloggers/readers out there know how this much-hyped seventh book ends, please don't tell me. Really, even if I ask.

Now it's bedtime, and I still don't feel like I've written anything of interest to anyone. But Sam assures me that people don't read blogs for excitement. (That's why they ready Harry Potter, right?)

Mall design: Creating a man-friendly environment

Last night, Katherine and I made a trip to the New River Valley Mall. Let me begin by saying it was a pleasant experience overall. Never before have I seen a mall which mixed guy stores and gal stores so well. Beside Victoria Secret there's a Dick's Sporting Goods and Radio Shack. Over near Belk there's a game shop with X-Box's and Wii's setup to play...... amazing! You can also watch kids learning karate through a big open window. The karate school is called "The One." I think Jackie Chan works there......

On a different note, we're shocking this weekend. I'll explain. For my master's research, basically what we're doing is running a lab-scale wastewater treatment plant...... 3 actually. The treatment plants run all at the same time, and I put toxic chemicals into only 2 of them. Out of the two with toxic chemicals, one is operated normally while the other is run differently in a way that hopefully minimizes the harmful effects of the toxin. The 3rd, unshocked reactor is a control (shows what the plant would be doing if there were no toxins). Basically, I wake up every morning and go play with sewage. We pump raw sewage from a man-hole into our 55-gallon drum that lasts one day. Right now we're running all three the same until we 'shock' 2 of them. That's tomorrow. I'm not expecting much sleep. We pretty much take samples and analyze them using different lab experiments. By the time we're through with the experiments, it's time to go get more samples. It slows down after the first 2 days though.

Well, I have to get to work........ with poop.

To Market To Market...........

First, in my last post you'll notice the comment that Katherine would likely have little direct input to this blog. Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" made it to my blog playlist (not without a fight I might add), quickly proving me wrong. Still, there should be enough Texas Country gold to convert even the most stubborn haters.

Today was a relatively active Saturday. We went to downtown Blacksburg to see the farmer's market. Amongst the peppermint, sage, and basil jellies was a nice woman affectionately referred to as 'Nanny' by the regulars. Being somewhat of a jelly connoisseur I tried several of her strange formulas......... not my thing. I'll stick to plum, muscadine, and fig. Walking downtown, we browsed through stores with nice, over-priced stuff ranging from gong chimes to flasks adorned with fairies. The best shop, by far, was a gourmet cooking store. I love cooking and I love gadgets, and it would have been easy for me to spend another hour in this store. I didn't want to end up broke, so we bought a sushi recipe book (we're going to learn), a petitfour (guess who that was for), and fresh scallops (we just ate them...... delicious).

Did I mention the high today was 84 with no humidity?

How Does Any Respectable Document Begin?

With an introduction, of course. Following the lead of my two sisters, I am hereby officially opening this Blog. While I have always considered myself extremely knowledgeable (at least compared to them) when it comes to the internet and electronics, I have no problem admitting that I am completely behind the trendy custom of reporting my life to both friends and strangers. Even though the title suggests it, I doubt Katherine will choose to have much direct input. Still, she will no doubt be the subject of many entries that follow.

If you know me and are reading this, you may have wondered where the nickname, Smoke, came from. If you didn't, then you are no doubt lacking in attention to detail and should work on being more observant. It all stems from 1st semester, freshmen year at Mississippi State (cue me thinking back to the past):

My roommate, Bryan, and I were both taking Chemistry I. It wasn't an easy class, but I realized in graduate school that I actually remember more than I thought I did. The class had about 150 people in each section. It's just not feasible to call out names when handing back tests in that situation. So the professor had the clever idea of posting the grades online. To protect the kids that got 30's and 22's on their tests, he let us have ID's that our grades were posted under. That way, while every student can see every grade in the class by looking at a website, the student only knows which grade belongs to him. His instructions on the first day of class were, "write down on a sheet of paper what you want your ID to be, followed by your name." Most of my friends put down their SSN or campus NetID (e.g. sch54). I wrote down what I wanted my ID to be, and I turned it in. I didn't tell any of my friends what I wrote (I wasn't sure if I would be the guy with the 22). Six weeks later, our first test was graded and posted online. Suffice it to say that several of my dorm-mates (probably 3 or 4)were in the class with me and Bryan. We were all sitting in front of the same computer to find out how we did on one of our first tests in college. As we went down the list of ID's, there were several "Oooooo's" and "Ahhhhh's," followed by laughter and tears (mostly expletives). At the end of the list everyone knew everyone else's grade except for me. They asked me what my grade was, and I sheepishly replied that I didn't remember what my ID was. I only recalled that it wasn't my SSN and was kind of random. The only logical thing to do was pick through every ID. As I worked, everyone was curious as to both what I made on the test and what ID I picked that I couldn't remember. Once we hit the 'S' list I immediately had a clear flashback of my hidden identity....... "Smoke! That's it!" No one laughed, they all kind of looked at me funny and said, "Smoke?". Every now and then it still comes up.