We've been married for an entire AWESOME year!!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Snakes... In a Pond!
While walking along Pandapas Pond Trail a few weeks ago, we came upon an active nest of water snakes. Angela took several pictures of them, and we later googled them to discover their exact species of Northern Water Snake. We witnessed at least 15 snakes moving about in the afternoon sun, perhaps hunting, mating, or just swimming. We were only about 15 feet at most from them, but the tiny bridge was enough protection as the snakes were not curious of onlookers or aggressive.
This must be snake season in this area, as at work one day some coworkers found a timber-rattle snake on main street near the big ABC store. They boxed it up and took it out past Brush Mountain I assume... For those who don't know, I am landscaping for the Town of Blacksburg while I await a date to report to the Naval Officer Candidate School. I am a glorified horticulturist and have been busy planting perennials in all the town parks!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Yo quiero agua
We discovered that AJ has a huge tongue after a small walk around Pandapas Pond. Apparently AJ is not used to the heat, despite being a Texas native, and the weather really got to him. It is kind of disproportionate to his head, but so is his head to his body. He is still super cute though!
Yay Staff!
Every year, Virginia Tech throws a staff appreciation day for their staff members, and this is the first year I am a non-student staff…so I was invited! It was a lot of fun, and I greatly enjoyed being out of the office for a day.
There are only three staff members in our office, as everyone else is faculty, so me, Tabatha, and Cindy enjoyed a day off of work with David, Tabatha’s husband. We started off by taking a tour of the Lane’s new west end…which was freakin awesome! The suites go for about $50,000 a year, plus all of the tickets for each game, plus a 5 year lease. 
I’m pretty sure James and I will never be able to afford that…so this was probably the only time I will ever be in one of those suites. A more affordable option is to buy an inside seat for only $2,000 a year plus your season tickets, which we still will never be able to afford. Once you buy a suite you can decorate it however you would like, and one of the suites had one of the new Hokie Birds in it. 
Of course we had to get a picture with it. Steger’s suite was probably the most impressive, with large Hokie stone fireplaces, gorgeous views of the mountains, and plenty of catering spaces, as well as lounges, and over 200 seats facing the stadium. After our awesome tour, we enjoyed some great barbeque…I love Virginia! 
You are only supposed to be able to go on one tour, but we snuck in on the Hahn gardens tour. After four years of living on campus, I was shocked how huge the garden was! I thought it was just what you could see from the road, but really there is a waterfall, and a pond, and nice gazebos. If I’d known it was there, I would have studied there all the time! We ended the day at the greenhouses planting some cool plants, which is great because I got rid of a ton of mine when we moved from Texas.
Congrats Class of 2007!
Graduation this year was a special time, filled with both sadness and joy. Two of my dear friends, Cathy and Sarah James graduated, and I was so excited for them! I was so proud of them as they graduated, and kind of wished we had also been on a five year plan as well.
Festivities began on Friday afternoon as I went to the donning of the Kente ceremony for graduating black students on campus, to watch one of our sweet coworkers receive her Kente cloth, and Stack’s family receive his. 
(A Kente cloth is an African type of fabric made of interwoven woven cloth strips and is native to the country of Ghana.) Graduation was so stress free this year! It is AMAZING what not doing finals, having surgery, and checking out rooms can do for a person! 
Ha! I still don’t know how we got through it, nor can I believe that it has been a whole year since we’ve graduated. This last year has been full of learning, adventures, and finding ourselves. 
It’s a weird transition going from being a college student to not, and I hope that all of the new graduates make the transition well. They large ceremony was very nice this year, with Steger receiving two standing ovations!! He has done a great job…although he still makes me laugh when I look at him. It’s just funny that he only comes up to my shoulder…and he looks so goofy! But…I love him!
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