It is a good day. Mainly because I am sipping an iced vanilla "java chai." Which, is the fancy name for a "dirty chai" from Java Baba's in picturesque Ludlow, VT. I was there this morning and I didn't have anything to eat before I left, and suddenly it was like noon and I was super hungry and I had been to this cute little coffee stop before, so I decided to head back over and get some coffee and a much needed bagel. Java Chai is very good! Bagel was good, too! I had a toasted onion bagel with veggie cream cheese. It was very onion-y.
So, what's new? Hm. Probably some stuff is new since last night we talked.
I am back on my old computer! Great news. I think I told you my old hard drive pretty much crapped out. It was a scary time. Well, we replaced the hard drive! And upgraded! Got myself a new, shiny 500 gig now! So, we replaced it just fine, but there was nothing on it. So, we had to take it back to the Apple store and have them load on the Yosemite OS. That was FREE and took about 15 minutes. Then, we had bought a "hard drive sled" on Amazon which we put to good use last night. You plug your old hard drive directly into the hard drive sled, and it extracts all the information onto the new hard drive. It was pretty cray. It's supposed to work a little better than if the hard drive was still in the computer because it doesn't have to go "through anything else" in order to get the data. It's like, right there. It's confusing, I know and I'm probably explaining it in the worst way possible. But, you just have to open your mind to all the spaces of the computer. Like, put on "Tommy" and back up your hard drive. Haha.
But! Now it's pretty much like I have a new computer! It's running great so far, so that's good. We didn't transfer over everything... just pretty much all my music, pictures and documents.
This morning when I hooked up my iPhone to the computer it was all confused because it wasn't the same iTunes as it had been connected to before... so, I had to erase all the music off my phone to re-sync it with the new iTunes. Again, I don't understand, I just do what the pop up messages tell me. But, I already had all my music in "the cloud," (wherever that is/whatever that means) so, it should be an easy re-download. It just means losing all my playlists. Which I hold very near and dear to my heart, so it's a tough loss. So far I have only uploaded the most important music to my iPhone: Taylor Swift, Crash Kings, Fleetwood Mac, and Celine Dion. Obvi.
SHEESH - enough computer talk, am I right?! I don't even understand half the things I am saying so whyyyyy am I talking this long about it?!?!?
Our house is being repainted! It's kind of a nuisance, but also kind of cool!!!! And it's lookin' great!
That's the half and half! OoOOOOoOOOOoooo it's gonna look so pretty once it's all done!!!!
That's Ted getting the front done. I have no idea how that thing is balanced...
Front is done!!!!!! I just love our house! Oh.. and in case you saw a glimpse of a floral summer wreath on the front door and wanted a close up......
That is the pretty wreath I made! I think it turned out quite nice. I like making wreaths! Maybe it's in my future again! Certainly for fall, at least.
Let's see. I'm still reading. I think when I last updated I had just finished In Cold Blood... and then I promptly moved onto another murder story, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Man, it's pretty violent. I wish I hadn't read two murder books right in a row. It's a good book, though. But just.... bloody. Actually it's overdue now, so I better finish it up and return it.
I started "running!" I don't know why I put that in quotes, because I'm actually doing it. It's not fake running. I just can't give myself too much credit because that's how I am. I'm not really sure what came over me one day talking to Kara, but she was telling me about running and I kinda thought, "I could probably do that." So, I downloaded the Couch to 5K app (it's free!) and have started doing it! I pretty much could't walk after doing the first day. MAN, running is hard! It's like really MOVING with all your muscles! Yeah the first day was hard but I kinda kept thinking, "this day is gonna be the hardest," and that kept me going.
The second time was better. I felt really good about everything. And I had done 35 minutes of yoga beforehand, so I was super stretched and everything. Which helped. Third day, still good. My quads were on fire afterwards. Fourth day - WORST!!!!!! Holy crap my ANKLES! I could barely walk. It was bad. So, I'm taking a few days of rest per Dr. Kara's orders. I need better sneakers. I'm just wearing sneaks I got at Target in New Orleans last January. Also, I need both my big toes cut right off. MAN that pain is bad. I blame 13 years of ballet for my 80 year old feet on a 29 year old body. It's a rare day when I don't get sharp pains shooting through my bunions. It's a nice image, I know.
Anyways. I guess I like running so far. And it's kind of making me realize how powerful your mind is. Like, when I'm out of breath and sweating like crazy and wanna stop, I just tell myself, "no, you can keep going." And.... I do. It makes me think, 'why can't I use this mind-power on all aspects of my life?' Who knows. But, at least with running...... really the hardest part is walking out the door. For me, anyways. So, we'll see. My "goal" is to maybe run a 5k someday. Maybe someday at the end of the summer, who knows!
Let's see.
What's that? You want to see some pictures of Ruby, you say? Oh! No problem! That's a great idea.
This is photo proof she's the prettiest cat in the Universe. Did I tell you Ruby had a bad cold recently? Oh, it was so sad! She slept for pretty much five days straight! I barely saw her. No cuddling. She came down to eat, and that was it. We brought her to the doctor like on day 3 because I was so worried. They said it was really bizarre that an indoor cat would get that sick, but it's possible! Poor girl! She was so stuffy :( But, she was purring like a little purr machine at the vet, so that was good. The vet was like, "Her heart and lungs sound good... but she's purring so loud it's hard to hear anything else!" And then Ruby gave her a kiss on her eye. It was really cute. And the vet (I think her name was Dr. Meghan..) said, "that's the first kiss from a kitty all day!" They had a special bond. It's just because Ruby is the sweetest thing ever!
Here she is tending to her catnip plant. It's the really tall one. Ruby's mom (that's me) accidentally almost killed the catnip plant a while back... so then worked extra hard at bringing it back to life. Now it's growing quite well and has blossoms! Ruby loves it!
Aw. That was nice.
An update: we have a new coffee maker and it works quite well and as of yet, as not become overrun with an ant colony. Success!
I'll show you some more pictures if you want. If you don't want... well, I guess you can stop reading.
First of all!!!!!!!! KARA GRADUATED FROM RADIOGRAPHY SCHOOL!!!!!!!! She's an X-RAY TECH NOW!!!!!! So, you guys should head over to her and get some x-rays.
This is taken during the graduation ceremony. You can see Kara, directly under the arrow. She looks great!
Then, HEY!!!! It's a graduate! It was a nice ceremony. Although, it seemed like lots of weight was placed on GPA's which I did not appreciate cause those things are going out of style fast. But, the ceremony also included a celebrity.... the grandson of L.L. Bean was there! That was pretty cool! Apparently him and his wife have done a ton of work in the community college system in Maine and they received an award! Awesome!
Will you look at that cool grad? Congratulations, Kara!
#sisters #soulmates
That's my mom, Kara and me in Boston drinking cappuccinos! Duh! We went for an overnight for my mom's birthday! Girls' trip! So much fun! We rode the Swan Boats the next day!
Gotta love those swans.
Another exciting thing that has happened this summer is we saw Neko Case perform at Prescott Park!
She was incredible!!!!!! I would recommend her to ANYONE! Full of energy and she just has an amazing voice. I was a little familiar with her solo stuff but mostly familiar with her as being in The New Pornographers. They are a special band to me because I listened to their whole 'Challengers' record on a CD that Aliya made for me while I drove through the big snow storm of 2007. It was a scary, emotional day, but I got through it with their calming sound. And, to this day, if I have to drive through a snow storm, I put on that record. :) New England, folks, gotta get used to it somehow.
Okay. That's all for now I think. I'm meeting up with Emily and David tonight!!!!! They are in town and we are overdue for some good hanging out!!!! Can't wait!
Have a good rest of the week, friends! Hopefully you have a day off for either Canada Day or the Fourth of July. If you do, enjoy! We will celebrate by going to the Old Home Day Parade in our town. :)
Be well,
Julie
Goodbye, neighbor. <3
Just re-read your link to the snowstorm drive, wow! that was an incredible ride.
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