Joyeux Noël des LeBlancs

We've had a very nice past three days!

On Christmas Eve we pretty much took it easy around the house for most of the morning and early afternoon and then Brian and I got serious and baked a batch of M&M Christmas cookies and some butterscotch brownies. Afterward, we headed over to Brian's parents' house for some yummy spaghetti and family time before midnight Mass. We were done with Mass at about 1:20 a.m. Christmas morning and then we went back to Chez Parental LeBlancs for a Christmas morning drink (we're Catholics--what can we say?) and then made it back to our house around 3 a.m.

Needless to say, none of us were really feeling a crack-of-dawn Christmas morning festivity, so Brian and I got up around 9 a.m. and let Gatsby open his Christmas present before we headed over to Brian's parents' house at 11:15 a.m. Gatsby got a *super stinky* cow hoof chew toy to munch on while we were away on Christmas and he was so very cute opening it. We wrapped it pretty loosely in pretty Christmas paper and it took him about 45 seconds to get the paper off. (We got a video of it and a few pictures of him "helping" us make our Christmas cookies that I will put a little bit later.) We then spent the rest of the day with Brian's parents, brother, and grandma. We had a bomb-diggity-dot-com prime rib for dinner and then concluded the evening with a rousing game of Life, where, if you're wondering, your intrepid blogger was victorious with no children and no life or fire insurance (Go me!).

Today we basically did nothing. Brian slept most of the day and I watched 9 DVR'd episodes of 17 Kids and Counting on TLC about the Duggar family. It was all great fun!

Tomorrow we're off on an adventure to visit my parents, Callie, and Clay in Ocean. It will be interesting to see how Gatsby does on the 2.5 hour car trip and stay in a different place!

Gatsby really, really likes Christmas cookies

Especially doggie Christmas cookies. In fact, I think if we leave any out for Santa, Gatsby will probably eat them before the jolly ol'guy comes down our nonexistant chimney.

I took this today when I saw him eyeing up the cookie container on the counter.

All afternoon he kept getting my attention and then running to the counter with the cookies and doing the best doggie sit ever so that I would be so overwhelmed with his awesomeness that I would reward him lavishly with doggie cookies. It's pretty hilarious.

I also uploaded a few pictures that we've taken of him in the past few weeks:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

Sick child only wants cards for Christmas

So, as I was watching WRAL's Noon News today, they did a story on a 7-year-old boy in Lumberton who has an incurable form of cancer. He told his grandmother that he wanted Christmas cards through the mail, so if you have some extra Christmas cards laying around, consider sending him one.

A brief story and Damien's address is available online:

http://www.robesonian.com/articles/2008/12/19/robesonian/news/2boy%20dec20.txt

Christmas Memories

This post is dedicated to my family, who are probably the only people who will laugh at some of these.

I was thinking today about how great Christmas is and how much fun it is to spend time with family and all the different traditions and memories:

• When Callie was probably 5 or 6, she got this totally awesome yo-yo from Santa that would light up red and yellow when it was yo-ing. Well, neither Callie and I knew the proper wrist action for the yo-yo, so my dad was nominated for the inaugural yo. He was on his knees and didn't really judge distance really well, so as soon as he let go of the yo-yo, it glided down with a beautiful, gracefulness; hit the carpet, and busted into three pieces and the batteries went flying across the room. What makes this even better is that we have it captured on VHS.
• As a child, my best Christmas ever was in 1986--the one right before Callie was born. Santa found my house and stayed for a while dropping off a million presents. I can remember getting a Barbie Corvette, a Barbie Hawaiian Adventure landscape (complete with jetskis and waterskis), a Barbie poolside and cabana, a Cabbage Patch doll, a doctor's set, a Madame Alexander bride, and quite a few other things. It was pretty sweet.
• The other funny things about that Christmas was that it coined two very cute things that I did and captured them on video. The first thing was when I opened up the Madame Alexander bride, I exclaimed, "SHE'S GETTIN MAEEHHREEEEEEEEEEED!" [married] in, like, the best southern accent ever. And then when I got the doctor's kit, I pulled out the stethoscope, walked over to my mom (who was 7 months pregnant with baby Callie), put the stethoscope up to her tummy and said, "Your baby's doin juuuuuuuuust fine." [I'm pretty positive I was the cutest child ever.]
• Watching our Lhasa-Apso, Snuffie, go hogwild crazy over his Christmas morning rawhide and then plowing through all the wrapping and tissue paper.
• Going to the family service at Mt. Olive in the early evening, coming home and eating mom's mini-ham sandwiches and chili, opening a Christmas gift (specifically selected by momma), and then going back to church at 10:30 p.m. for the candlelight service. I can also remember my papaw always helping me out of my coat once we got into the dark sanctuary with the pretty Christmas music playing.
• The sheer chaos that is opening gifts at my nanny's house Christmas night, which usually included about 20 people and at one point spanned 4 Bolick generations.
• Going boating in Seven Lakes at my granddaddy's house in December (IT WAS FREEZING!)
• When I was in high school, leaving my nanny's and heading over to Shannon's to meet up with all my friends to hit up the movie theatre.
• Callie and I fighting for on-air time on my dad's video camera, pushing each other out of the way, singing Christmas carols to the camera, and then the one shot of Callie holding the mechanical Rudolph on her head, glaring at the camera, and saying, "LAURA, LAURA, LAURA!! LOOK AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
• My nanny's incredible home cooking.
• Our tradition of decorating the Christmas tree as a family. My mom always cooked awesome appetizers--I can especially remember the shrimp cocktails. I also loved getting all those awesome Hallmark ornaments!!
• Santa Land presents at Clyde Campbell
• One specific Christmas, when Callie was still in her crib, and we were decorating the tree, gathering as a family to say the blessing. Callie was standing in her crib and mom and I were each holding one of her hands. As soon as the blessing was over, we both said Amen, and let go of Callie, who promptly fell backwards in her crib.
• "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, Can you see me? Can you see me, daddy? Am I on the camera? Daddy? Daddy? Am I there? Daddy? Daddy? DADDY???????"
• Mom and dad having to wake US up on Christmas morning because we always slept late.
• Christmas morning casseroles and, eventually, mimosas.
• Me saying, "Angel make noise" to the music-box-like-angel that my mom put in my bedroom at Fort Bragg.
• Harry Connick, Jr., Amy Grant, and Mariah Carey on the Sharp 5-disc CD changer.

I'm sure there are so many more, but those are some of the ones that I just thought of, off the top of my head...

Vacation!

Brian will probably kill me when he reads this because he has to work today and tomorrow. :-(

Gatsby and I have had a fantastic and relaxing first day of Christmas vacation. We were up pretty early because Gatsby likes to eat his breakfast at the same time everyday. Per usual, he had the same mix of chicken, rice, liver, wheat, and some other stuff. Afterward, we did our first chore of the day and watered the Christmas tree. (I watered and Gatsby helped drink the water as I poured.)

We then made an executive decision that we'd done too much work for the day, so he decided to play with his toys while I did the crossword puzzle and watched my DVR copy of Private Practice. Gatsby helped me with some of the hard crossword puzzle clues; with one human and one doggie brain, we got the puzzle finished.

Gatsby continued to play while I watched Rachael Ray, The View, and the noon news. I had a salad for lunch and lil G had liver treats.

We've spent the afternoon watching soap operas and Gatsby has been taking a nap in front of the fireplace.

I LOVE BEING ON VACATION and having a husband with a normal working schedule where he can actually take vacation too!

The rest of our holidays look like the following:

Monday, 12/22 - Laura vacation and Brian working
Tuesday, 12/23 - Laura vacation and Brian working
Wednesday, 12/24 - Laura vacation and Brian holiday
Thursday, 12/25 - Laura and Brian holiday
Friday, 12/26 - Laura holiday and Brian vacation
---
Monday, 12/29 - Laura and Brian vacation
Tuesday, 12/30 - Laura and Brian vacation
Wednesday, 12/31 - Laura working from home and Brian working
Thursday, 1/1 - Laura and Brian holiday
Friday, 1/2 - Laura vacation and Brian working

Outback, Southern Pines, Nutcracker, and FOOTBALL

This weekend, we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family. On Saturday night, mom, dad, and Callie came into Knightdale and stayed with us for the night. We went to Outback for dinner with my grandmother and then went back to her apartment for a little while. We had a very nice meal. I love, love, love Outback's blue cheese chopped salad with pecans and the ahi tuna appetizer (soooo yummy!). I was also able to convince my mom to trade one of my tuna pieces for one of her coconut shrimps (Also yummy...my family tells me that I often have entree envy, but I don't think this counts because we both had appetizers!).

Sunday morning, we were up and at'em pretty early and went to Southern Pines to visit my granddaddy and step-grandmother. We also met up with my aunt and her family and my uncle. We had a yummy homecooked lunch and then got to have some quality family time while we exchanged gifts.

My dad took some good pictures in Southern Pines, so I added them to our Christmas 2008 Picasa directory:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Christmas2008

Unfortunately, Brian and I had to leave early to come back to Raleigh.

Fortunately, it was because we had free tickets to the Carolina Ballet's Nutcracker. The show was totally awesome...I'd never actually seen it before and I'd never read the story, so I really enjoyed it. It's absolutely amazing how talented those dancers are. (Plus, it's always a good thing when the N.C. Symphony is playing!) Brian and I decided that it probably wouldn't be an annual thing for us, but we definitely want to see it again and maybe even a few other ballets during the year. We also need to hit up some symphony shows and I want to see a few plays in 2009. I just think it's so incredible how talented performing artists are.

So...long story short...if you're looking for a good show, we highly recommend the ballet.

Afterward, we hit up El Señor in Knightdale for some yummy Mexican food and then we've spent the evening chilling on the couch watching the Panthers/Giants game.

Gatsby, in turn, has spent the evening playing fetch and burying his rawhide bone in as many places as possible.

MORE NEIGHBORS!!!

We got some more neighbors this week. People moved into the house at the end of the street, which was the house built for the Parade of Homes.

Here's the updated graphic:


Legend
yellow: Laura, Brian, and Gatsby
fuschia: house under construction
neon green: lot sold, but no house built yet
red-orange: occupied
light blue: completely empty lot
dark blue: built, but not yet occupied

Triangle Business Journal Article

The other day I was thinking about the Triangle Business Journal article that featured Brian and (sorta) me and it dawned on me that I never put up a full copy of the article.

So I scanned it in tonight and since the page was a weird size, I had to use my nonexistant PhotoChop skills to splice together the two scanned images.

And then I went to find the original post that I made on the article for some background (http://our5percent.blogspot.com/2008/08/triangle-business-journal.html). And then, of course, I realized that, evidently, TBJ releases their full articles on the Web after they've been out for a while.

So, you can either read the badly spliced PDF at http://www.gribblenation.com/personal/laura/TBJ_article.PDF.

Or, you can read the full article online at http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/08/11/focus8.html.

New Neighbors!!

We got new neighbors on Tuesday! They haven't moved everything in yet, but they do have a little Christmas tree in their empty living room. It also looks like the in-progress house on our side of the street is very close to being ready for move in because they laid the sod on Tuesday.

Updated Map

Legend
yellow: Laura, Brian, and Gatsby
fuschia: house under construction
neon green: lot sold, but no house built yet
red-orange: occupied
light blue: completely empty lot
dark blue: built, but not yet occupied

My company! (I mean, "not-for-profit organization")

I love to read business stories and I was reading one tonight about this Bernard Madoff guy and the firm that "audits" his books. I say "audit" because evidently that firm has been telling the Institute that it doesn't do audits. So, anyway, it's a really short article, but it's pretty interesting because it provides a really basic discussion of what my people do. I've even worked pretty closely in the past with the Peer Review Program that the article mentions.

By the way, if you're curious, I'm one of the ones that either edits the auditing (and attest, and peer review, and tax, and ethics, and accounting and review...) standards [among other professional publications] that we promulgate or I'm one of the ones who makes sure that they end up in print for everyone to read. Kinda cool, huh?


Madoff's auditor... doesn't audit?
The three-person firm that apparently certified Madoff's books has been telling a key accounting industry group for years that it doesn't conduct audits.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/17/news/companies/madoff.auditor.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008121720

25 Reasons Why We Love Living in a House

1. Curbside garbage pickup
2. Two-car garage
3. A mailbox at the end of the driveway
4. No rent checks
5. Curbside garbage pickup
6. No pet deposits
7. No complaining neighbors that live downstairs
8. Bird feeders are allowed
9. No loud music bumping TLC's "No Scrubs" at 2 a.m.
10. Curbside garbage pickup
11. Getting to see all the pretty Christmas lights throughout the neighborhood
12. Having a nonhyphenated address (i.e., 6801-204 Highline Street)
13. Not having to carry groceries and Christmas presents up a flight of stairs
14. Not having to carry a Christmas tree up a hill AND then up a flight of stairs
15. Curbside garbage pickup
16. A kitchen with counter space
17. A refrigerator with an ice maker
18. Never having to buy stove drip pans again
19. Packages are actually left at door, rather than at the leasing office or post office
20. Curbside garbage pickup.
21. Trick-or-treaters aren't 15 years old ("Gimme yo' candy.")
22. No bright parking lot lights shining in our bedroom at night
23. Good insulation for low utility bills
24. A garbage disposal that doesn't sound like a Boeing 777
25. Curbside garbage pickup

Did I mention that we like having curbside garbage pickup? :-) Perhaps the greatest modern convenience ever.

Our Street

So, I had some down time this afternoon and I thought y'all might be interested to see how our street has filled out in the past six months.

Not really interested? That's fine...I also just wanted to play around in Photoshop :-)

So, here's the plot layout of our street:

Legend

yellow: Laura, Brian, and Gatsby

fuschia: house under construction

neon green: lot sold, but no house built yet

red-orange: occupied

light blue: completely empty lot

dark blue: built, but not yet occupied

The two dark blue lots on our side of the street have been sold, but no one has moved in yet.

Radon

As I've been working on a redesign of the blog, I've also been flipping through some of our old posts from May and June. (It is soooo much fun to go back and read through them all and remember everything that has happened). As I was reading, I came across the post that I made right after we got the results of our radon test (http://our5percent.blogspot.com/2008/05/21-pcil.html).

Recently, two of the houses on our street have sold (however, I never truly believe it until I see people with their moving truck), but we've noticed that both of those houses must have elevated radon levels because they have the radon-remover-boxes on the sides of their houses (they're very noticeable because they basically have a box at street level and then a square pipe that goes up the side of the house to the roof to release the radon). They're extremely unsightly and quite loud.

So, of course, we were pretty pleased that our house tested low for radon, but I think it may have tested low because of the time of the year. Evidently, radon levels are usually higher in the winter months. So we're probably breathing evil, Satan radon right now, but at least we don't have an ugly box on the side of our house :-)

Note to all: sell your house in the summer!

New Blog Layout

Today was a pretty lazy day around our house, so I took the evening to redesign the layout of the blog. I was aiming for something simple and streamlined, so I hope that I accomplished that much. :-) If you like it, let me know. If you hate it, let Brian know.

I also used the collage feature in Picasa to create the new header image. (As an aside, Picasa is like the best picture collector software program ever.) I thought y'all might be interested to know where all the pictures in the collage were taken.

So, from top->bottom; left->right:

In a golf cart at Put-in-Bay in Ohio (Oct. 2003)
Atop Mount Royal in Montréal (Feb. 2006)
SOLD sign for our house (Jan. 2008)
Appalachian football game (Nov. 2006)
Gatsby LeBlanc (Oct. 2008)
Before a Panthers game at BofA Stadium (Nov. 2004)
Bryson City/Great Smoky Mountains for our 1st anniversary (May 2007)
My master's graduation (May 2006)
Emergency drill on our honeymoon cruise (June 2006)
With the Stanley Cup (July 2006)
Niagara Falls (Mar. 2003)
Ice Skaing on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa (Mar. 2003)

A few things I noticed as I was putting these into the collage:

• I'm always on Brian's right in pictures, unless there is a huge hunk of metal in the form of a cup named Stanley between us or there are millions of gallons of water free falling behind us.
• We take a lot of pictures in places where it's cold.
• Brian and I have been together for a very long time.*
• I like my hair better short.
• Gatsby is really cute.

* Brian and I just realized that we've "been an item" for more than 6.5 years; we've been married for more than 2.5 years; and we've lived in our house for more than 6 months!

Life goes by way too fast!

Photos de Noël

Today around sunset, Gatsby and I treked around to take some pictures of our house with all the Christmas decorations. They're up in our Picasa directory:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Christmas2008

Christmas Poem

My dad sent this to me a few weeks ago and then I saw it on Robbie and Sara's blog, so I wanted to post it here because I think it's always important to remember those who fight for our freedom.

---

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

'What are you doing?' I asked without fear,
'Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!'
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said 'Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night.'
'It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,'
Then he sighed, 'That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.'
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue ... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.'

'So go back inside,' he said, 'harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right.'
'But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
'Give you money,' I asked, 'or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son.'

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
'Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.'

TIS THE SEASON!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Seriously (I'm the one person listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween).

Brian and I got most of the Christmas decorations out the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then we got our tree yesterday.

I am very, very traditional when it comes to Christmas decorations. I'm a firm believer in a white light façade and I've spent the first 2.5 years of our marriage convincing Brian of the same. :-) (And now he agrees with me!)

I'm OK with multicolored lights on other peoples' houses--just not ours :-)

So we have very lovely candles in our 20 windows (on an 8 hour timer from 3:30-11:30 p.m.) and a very lovely fake, prelit, white-light Christmas tree in our front window (in the study). We also have garland on our three front "square" columns. We bought some icicle lights, but they seem like a giant pain to put up, so those may have to wait until next year after we can research the situation a bit! :-)

Inside our front hall we have our nativity scene and my Christmas village (http://www.department56.com/content.aspx?cid=VLXC&ms=PRD&msi=58994&smenu=Products).

In our "great room" [lame name], we have our real tree and it's awesome this year. (I wasn't feeling well yesterday, so Brian went to get it by himself and he did a fantastic job.)

(To digress for a brief moment, it is wayyyyy easier to bring in a Christmas tree into our house with a flat driveway than to bring it into our 2nd floor apartment that sits on a hill.)

So, last night we decorated the tree (and by "we" I mean "me" for 45 minutes and "Brian" for 5 minutes). Because we're super compromisers, we have multicolored lights on our tree and I have to say that it looks quite pretty.

I'll try to get some pictures up later this week, but I'm not sure how the house pictures will come out because I'll need to take them at dusk.

Yay Christmas! (Oh yeah, and we have tickets to the Nutcracker and we're going to go to the Raleigh Boychoir's Carols of Christmas.)

BTW, Gatsby hasn't paid too much attention to the tree except that he doesn't like it much when his ball rolls behind it and he thought it was fun to drink the water when I was pouring it into the tree stand. He also likes the tree skirts on both trees, but he knows that it doesn't make us happy if he plays with them, so he's been leaving them alone lately.

He kinda looked at us like we were crazy as we were bringing in the "dead tree" yesterday.

Our horse finally caught up with the cart.

Yes.

Saturday was a very sad day, as Appalachian was defeated by Richmond in a quarterfinal playoff game. So...their season is done.

I would be lying if I said that it doesn't suck. It definitely hurts. It sucks because the games are just so much fun to go to, it gives us something exciting to look forward to each weekend, and it's an awesome chance to spend time with my family. I mean, seriously, how many 26 year olds get to see their parents in Ocean, sis in Wilmington, and future brother-in-law in Ocean (at least) every other weekend from August to December?? It's pretty awesome that we all get to spend so much time together.

We all knew that it would end sometime, but that doesn't make it any easier; however, the fact that we got four incredible seasons of football is pretty awesome. How lucky are we as fans to see THREE STRAIGHT Division I National Championships and FOUR STRAIGHT Southern Conference titles AND a win over No. 5 Michigan IN Ann Arbor?

In a way, it's probably good because it will make the team want it more next year and they'll be set for greatness. The players that were really young this year will have a lot more experience. It will be Armanti's senior season and they will be out looking for revenge. I am VERY excited for next season and it will be very cool to start it off at ECU. It should be an electrifying atmosphere! They'll be ready and we'll be ready. (Interestingly, App doesn't play one single game outside of the Carolinas next year!)

So, we turn toward Labor Day Weekend 2009 and we spend the "off season" cheering on the Panthers and watching hockey!

Anyone want 5 seats to the National Championship game in Chattanooga on Dec. 19? :-)

The Samuelses' Mantras

For those of you who don't know, my family has a long-standing tradition of putting the cart before the horse.

We do it pretty routinely and it usually works out pretty well for us. For example, last year when I was applying for my editorial job, I spent a lot of time on my now-company's Web site, reading about all of the employee benefits. As I read more and more about them, I kept getting more and more excited. Brian (being the nice husband that he is) was concerned that I was going to get my hopes up and then get disappointed. So, my dad, being the sage that he is, quickly pointed out to Brian that I was merely putting the cart before the horse and that all would be well. (Of course, it was.)

This is pretty much how most of us Samuelses live our lives. Mom and Callison are a bit more conservative, but Dad and I pretty much exemplify the saying. Basically, the bigger the risk, the greater the reward. Sure, you can have a great reward without too much risk, but you'll maximize your reward if you have a bigger risk.

So, during the 2007 football season, we pretty much started talking about going back to Chattanooga for the FCS National Championship game after we beat Michigan. So, we had made our hotel reservations in about late September. So, you might be saying to yourself, "Wow, that's really putting the cart before the horse!" But, truthfully, it just maximized the win (and trip) when App. pulled out the threepeat.

It should, therefore, be no surprise to you that we made our hotel reservations for this year's championship game in February. (Yes, February--we wanted to stay in a good hotel downtown!)

Of course, hotel rooms can always be cancelled, so perhaps we didn't go full-force.

Until this morning.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have now purchased 5 tickets for the game in Chattanooga. (Keep in mind, that App. still has 1 regular season game left and three playoff games to win before they make it to 'Nooga!)

Will it pay off? There's no telling right now, but if the Apps pull it out and go for the fourpeat, our victory will be just a little bit more sweeter than everyone else's. :-)

App. beat Elon on Saturday (in the rain, snow, and crazy whirlwinds) and we had a fantastic time! They've now clinched their autobid for the playoffs and at least a share of their 4th (in a row) Southern Conference championship. If they beat Western Carolina on Saturday, they'll have the title outright and a No. 2 seed in the playoffs (guaranteed homefield advantage until Chattanooga).

Also, for those of you who aren't routinely blessed with his presence, here are some more Jay-isms to get you through life:

"All you have to say is 'no thank you.' No other explanation is needed."
"You don't have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep."
"Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee."
"Prior planning prevents piss-poor-performance."
"Why wait at home when you can wait in the stadium?"
"CHEATERS!"
"Oh no! How will I ever get out of this parking lot with all these other cars?"
"Hell no, you're not cutting in front of me."

Oh, and how can I forget my mom's primary Ellen-ism:
"Well, I wanted to go to ___, but Jay decided that we need to go to ___ instead."

Change is coming

For those of you who don't know yet, I'm changing jobs...

...but not companies!

On Tuesday, I found out that I was given a promotion that I applied for. I'll be moving from content editor to content manager (managing content, not people).

I will be on the same team with the same supervisor, but my job function will be a lot different from what I'm doing now, but it will still use my editorial knowledge.

Simply put, I'll be processing changes in content in our content management system so that it's available for our online subscribers and I'll be managing various products (i.e. publications) to get them set properly for the printer by the book bound date. A few of our products have a tight timeline and don't have editorial review prior to publication, so, for those, I'll still be editing them as they're processed into the CMS.

I'm very, very excited. It's a lot more responsibility and it will be a challenge. I also will get to pull in a lot of my project management skills as there are a lot of processes that I'll be managing prior to print.

I will have to move cubes, but my new one will be by a window!! :-)

I start Monday!

Gatsby provides commentary on the election

At approximately 11 p.m. EST on November 4, 2008, Brit Hume on Fox News called the state of California for Barack Obama and confirmed that Obama was the winner of the election.

Simultaneously, in a single family home in a suburban neighborhood in Knightdale, N.C., Gatsby LeBlanc, 11 months, peed directly in front of the television.

After further review, we have determined that LeBlanc has a red collar and, therefore, is, indeed, a Republican.

***

On a related note, why is Obama considered president-elect right now? Technically, he can't be president-elect until the Electoral College votes in December. It's weird to me that the media has no problem using president-elect now, but only used presumptive nominee between the end of the primaries and the conventions. Why the difference?

I have to say, I always feel revived and refreshed around election time. We are very fortunate to live in a republic and have the option to pick our leaders and it's fascinating to me that this system has worked for hundreds of years. Our forefathers were pretty darn smart. I think it's also pretty awesome that the turnout was so good, especially for young voters. I hope that it continues into future elections.

Even though my team was red and didn't win (in, like, any race--feel free to e-mail me about how I feel about straight-party voting, I won't rant here!), I was very surprised about how I felt after the election was over. I don't particularly like his policies, but I do like Obama's personality and he's definitely a skilled rhetorician. I'm hopeful that he will do a good job and make our country a better place and I hope the media holds him accountable for his campaign promises.

Regardless of what happens, it will certainly be an adventure for the next four years!

Puppy Pics Added

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

A few cute pictures from last weekend of Gatsby at the window as he watched Brian talk to some people interested in the for-sale house across the street.

And a short video from tonight of Gatsby playing his his new four-pegged, rubber, squeaky toy.

If you paid attention in Organic Chemistry, it looks kinda like methane:

Are you ready for some football??

HELL YES WE ARE!!!

Because it's the best sport in the world.

Appalachian State University is having another dominating season en route to their fourth Southern Conference and National Championships.

After starting out 1-2 with losses to LSU and James Madison University, the Apps have roared to 7-2 (5-0 in the SoCon) and they are ranked second in the nation (JMU is first). Most recently they delivered a solid ass kicking on ESPN2 Halloween night when they walloped conference foe Wofford College 70-24. Wofford was ranked #3 in the FCS (probably not anymore!).

Additionally, Armanti Edwards had a highlight reel night and now leads the SoCon with the most career yards (passing former App. quarterback Richie Williams). Armanti is only halfway through his JUNIOR season, although he has played eight extra games during the past two years because of playoff appearances.

If the Apps defeat Chattanooga, Elon (also highly ranked nationally), and Western Carolina, they will be undefeated in the Southern Conference and be guaranteed (at least) a #2 seed in the FCS playoffs. If JMU were to lose, then the Apps would be ranked 1st. Either way, a #1 or #2 ranking would secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which is very, very important for Appalachian who has an insane home field advantage (all playoff games in the past 3 years have been played in Boone or Chattanooga).

Last night's game was electrifying and so much fun. We all took Friday off and drove to Boone Friday morning. We went to the book store and then ate lunch at Pepper's Restaurant (an awesome sandwich, soup, salad place). We checked into our hotel and then headed over to the stadium to chill at the Yosef Club Room where we dined on hotdogs, potato chips, sugar cookies, and rum and Cokes!

As always, we were in the stadium more than 80 minutes before kickoff where we enjoyed the sites, sounds, and smells (and all the awesome Halloween costumes!). Everything was rocking and it seemed like it was going to be a shootout when App and Wofford swapped touchdowns for the first four drives of the game. App scored on its third drive and it was 21-14 when we intercepted a Wofford pass and then drove to go up 28-14. It was all downhill from there for Wofford and all App State football for the rest of the night!!!!!

We're all definitely pumped for the rest of the season and we're dying to go back to 'Nooga for fourth National Championship (in fact, I've already taken off December 19th from work and we have our hotel rooms reserved...we haven't bought tickets yet, but we may just do that as things move along...). My mom and sister are already salivating about the fish tacos at Big River Grille in downtown Chattanooga.

Also, the band totally rocked at halftime, playing spooky, Halloween-themed songs! Their last song was "Thriller" and at the end of the piece the ENTIRE band (sans drumline) did the dance. It was one of the greatest things ever and it's available on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBDB7Ero0kI

(For best quality, click on "watch in high quality," which is at the bottom right of the video.)

You should watch it because the App. band is awesome and it's so much fun!

GO APPS!!!

A few pictures from the game that my dad took:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/AppVsWofford

(BTW, Clayton wasn't at the game because he was with the West Carteret Cross Country team, which was in Winston-Salem for the State Championship.)

But, if you're curious, Callie and Clay set a date for their wedding--Sunday, May 24, 2009 at the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores!

Gatsby Update

We really do still exist.

We've been super busy with Gatsby, work, hockey, and football!!

Things are going well. We are working with him on some basic training stuff (sit, down, leave it, stay, and walking on a loose leash.) He's a pretty quick learner, but he's not great at applying it all the time. In the mornings, he'll walk with me for about 20 steps right beside me without pulling and then when I stop, he'll sit so that I can get him a treat. It's very, very cute. He can do that about 10 times and then he's brain gets fried and he's just like, "Give me the treat, woman!" He's either thinking that or, "It's 5:30 in the damn morning, I'm cold, hungry, and want to go back to sleep." Interestingly, I'm usually thinking the same thing. :-)

Our typical schedule is that Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, we're up at 5:30 and we go on a 45-60 minute walk and then he comes back and eats breakfast. After breakfast, I'm back upstairs to get ready to work and Gatsby takes a nap. He's usually asleep when I come back down to leave and he usually just lifts his head when I say, "Bye Gatsby, have a good day, I love you." Brian leaves for work a little before 9 a.m. and Gatsby goes out with him for a quick potty break and then he gets the day to himself. I'm usually back home around 4:45 and we go out, he eats dinner at 5 and then we play until Brian comes home. He then goes outside a few times during the evening.

On work-from-home days and weekends, we sleep until 7 and then he goes out for a quick potty break and breakfast. And then he goes out at various times throughout the day.

He rarely has any in-house accidents when we get up at 5:30 and for the past two nights he's made it until 7 a.m. He's also good during the day, unless I'm not home by 4:45...he's basically at max capacity by then, so if I'm a few minutes late, then it's all over :-) On Tuesdays when I tutor after work, Brian comes home at lunch to take him out.

We have a "puppy" gate at the bottom of the stairs and he stays downstairs. He's always fine with Brian and I going up at bedtime and he's fine during the day if just one of us goes upstairs, but he is not pleased if both of us are upstairs during "wakey" time :-)

He loves, loves, loves any type of bone or chewy thing and he can chew on a bone for (literally) 2 or 3 hours at a time. He also loves his red "plush" squeaky bone and a rope "ball and loop" toy that he loves for tug-of-war or to "wrestle" with. He also seems to love his fleece bed, but only because he likes to tear holes in it and pull out all the cotton stuffing. He loves to either wrestle or run around with the bed, or spend time "dominating" (i.e. humping) it. It's pretty funny...we're just glad that's the only thing he humps!

He's good for the most part when my family comes to visit, but he doesn't really know how to deal with me not giving him 100% attention when he wants it. He's getting better, but it's still something to work on. He loves to climb up on my lap to be petted or to lick my face! (Evidently he likes my chap stick.) He's also (slowly) improving at his bite inhibition and "mouthing." But I've figured out that if I can convince him to just lick my hand, then he doesn't want to mouth it. He's also FASCINATED by anything electronic. He loves cell phones and wireless mouses, which makes me wonder if they emit some type of high frequency that he can hear.

He's also beginning to become braver when faced with new things, but if he's not sure about something, he'll stretch back from it as far as possible and if he's too skittish, then he'll just bark at it (he tends to do this when a toy gets tossed near something weird [fridge, dishwasher, etc.]). From the way he reacts to stuff, it seems likely that he had a pretty rough life before he came to live with us, but I think we're slowly getting him shipped into shape, but I think it will be a long process.

All-in-all, it's unbelievably rewarding and it's amazing to me how much we can love him so much in such a short time. He's absolutely adorable :-)

Oh yeah, and he's very proficient at being on his hind legs. He's just tall enough that he can look over the counter and even more so when he does a vertical jump, but he hasn't gotten anything off any counters....

...yet.

He's had two vet appointments and the only main concern so far is that he's too skinny, so we've been working hard at helping him to gain weight, but it's definitely hard to get him to gain weight. The first time we went he was 21 lbs and then the next time (2 weeks later) he was at 19 lbs. Although, we're not sure if the first time he stayed completely still on the scale. The vet first had us giving him 1/2 cup of food twice a day and then when we went for the second appointment we upped it to 3/4 cup of food twice a day. We're hopeful when we go back to the vet this Wednesday that he'll have gained weight. He definitely looks bigger to us and he's a great eater. He must have the world's most insane metabolism. The doctor said that really he should be somewhere around 24-25 lbs, so he has a way to go!!

It's obvious that he's beagle in the face, but we also think that he has some "big, strong" dog blood in him, like greyhound or something because of his skinny build, his unreal strength, and quickness. It is absolutely unreal to see how fast he can run when he's off leash. I'm hoping to get some video of it soon because it's CRAZY. :-)

When we went in early October, the vet told us that he was between 10-11 months old; initially, we thought he was a year old, but when we found that out, we switched him to puppy food to help him get more and more nutrients to gain weight.

Overall, all is well!

New Puppy Pics!

Added to the end of the album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

Evidently you can also upload video too because it added his dog park/doggie olympics videos.

(I plan to blog more later--I didn't forget about y'all!)

Training for the Dog Olympics

Also known as "no man shall come between Gatsby and his toy".

I mean, would you put him winning the high jump past him after you see this?

Gatsby goes to the dog park

You know it's a momentous occasion when someone other than Laura updates the blog...

It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to reward Gatsby for being such a good dog last night when Laura and I went to the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Raleigh Boychoir (probably worthy of a post on its own, but I'll let Laura handle that) by taking him to a dog park near our old apartment in Raleigh. As you can see below, he certainly made good use of his time...



But, as you might imagine, all that running (45 minutes worth!) tuckered him out, so this is what transpired about fifteen minutes after we came back home:

OK, OK, OKAY!

Everyone has been sending me nasty e-mails and Facebook messages, so here I am for an update! (Some of you need to get a library card or something and get some new reading material!)

Everything chez LeBlanc has been going really well, but we've been super busy. I've been really busy at work and we've been really busy at home actually having someone to take care of!

Little Gatsby has been adjusting pretty well. He absolutely hated the crate. We couldn't get it to work and all he did was completely freak out when he was in it. I've been around dogs barking, so I know what's pretty normal and what he was doing wasn't the least bit normal. He was shaking and panicking and doing other nonnormal doggie things. So, on Sunday when he had a major freakout before church, we decided to let it go and since then, he's been a lot more normal and he's been very good.

We've put up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, so now he just stays downstairs 24/7. He hasn't torn anything up and he's had very few potty accidents. (And when he has had an accident, we've pretty much realized that it was our fault and that we didn't take him out soon enough! "Oh, so that's what that means when he does that! :-))

He absolutely loves raw hides. It's a bit ridiculous. We give him one and he won't rest until it's been destroyed. He's like a super-duper chewer. (At least it's his toys and not any of our stuff!)

He's also an unbelievably fast runner. I usually let him off the leash after our morning walks (from about 5:45-6:30 a.m. on the days that I go into the office) at the beginning of our cul-de-sac and he just takes off flying to the house. He's so fast that he can run to the front door, look back and realize that I've only taken (literally) 5 steps and then he runs around the house 3 times as fast as lightning, realizes I'm only about half way up the cul-de-sac and then comes flying back running to me, and then runs back to the door. It's pretty freaking cute, but it's unreal how quick he is. I think he's going like 20 mph. Hopefully, we can get it on film some time.

In the house, he's really calmed down quite a bit. Last week, I taught him "sit!" and he's sooo good at it. When we say it (even without a treat) he sits immediately. If we have a treat, he'll hold the sit for as long as we hold the treat. It's pretty impressive. Sometimes we'll be getting ready to get him a treat and he'll already be sitting! On Tuesday, we start our beginner doggie training class at PetSmart, so we're really excited to see how that goes. I think he'll be an A+ student! He's basically motivated to do about anything for food.

He's pretty timid around new people and dogs at first, but as soon as he warms up, he gets very excited and loving. He's already had a playdate with one of the doggies down the street (Hudson). And he's been pretty good when my family has stayed with us on the weekends. We think that he'll continue to improve as we go through the doggie classes.

On the house front, we finally have a green front yard! Yes, we actually have sod! (Ironically, it arrived a few days before the Parade of Homes started! How convenient.) We've watered it pretty frequently and it's looking really good. They also completely redid our backyard and laid more hydroseed, which is also coming up quite nicely. It seems to have a bit fewer weeds than the first "yard." The other nice thing is that we haven't had to mow for quite a while! (And by "we," I mean "Brian," but you probably already knew that.)

I am COMPLETELY loving working from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is so nice, I get so much more done, and I only have to get gas every two weeks.

The mighty Apps are 3-2 on the season and are actually playing away for the next two weekends, so I'm going to be in town! Saturday's game is at Samford in Alabama (who suck) and next week is at Georgia Southern in Statesboro (who are usually pretty good, but only fair this year). This week's game isn't on TV.

Next week is on SportSouth, which we used to not get, until I Internet-ed up DirecTV and added the sports pack ($12/month) and now we pretty much get every sports channel in the country; see, for example:

• FSN Ohio
• FSN Rocky Mountain
• FSN Houston
• FSN Wisconsin
• Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
• Altitude Sports and Entertainment
• NESN
• FSN Cincinnati
• YES
• FSN Arizona
• The MTN.
• SportsTime Ohio
• NBA TV
• TVG--The Interactive Horse Racing Network
• The Outdoor Channel
• CBS College Sports
• ESPN-U
• Fox Soccer Channel
• GOL TV
• FoxSports en Espanol
• Comcast Sportsnet New England
• MSG
• MSG+
• MSG2
• MSG - Buffalo
• SportsNet NY
• FSN Pittsburgh
• Comcast SportsNet Mid Atlantic
• Sun Sports
• FSN Florida
• FSN Detroit
• Comcast SportsNet Chicago
• FSN North
• FSN Southwest
• FSN Midwest
• FSN Northwest
• FSN West
• FSN Prime Ticket
• Comcast SportsNet California

Yeah, that might be a bit excessive, but it will be awesome to watch the Apps play on SportSouth (the only channel that we really wanted [and by "we," I mean "me," but you probably already knew that]) and we kinda like sports (in case you hadn't noticed), so I'm sure we'll find some stuff to watch.

Oh yeah, and a lot of those have HD feeds, so we really get two channels for a lot of those.

AND, we got Center Ice, so Brian will never miss a hockey game again.

All is well in the world.

And the gold medal for hurdles goes to...

GATSBY LeBLANC!!

Yup...he's totally London bound in 2012. We bought Gatsby this neat-o pen to use to contain him during the day, so that he'll have enough room to walk around and play with his toys, but not be able to scratch up the walls.

Unfortunately, it won't be here until next week. So, to help keep him under control, we put him in our spare room that doesn't have a bed in it and put up a baby gate to keep him in.

So at lunch Brian went home to see how he was doing and make sure he didn't need to go on a short walk.

Therefore, he was quite surprised when he walked in and Gatsby was chilling downstairs. Yup, he totally scaled the 26 inch baby gate, completely unscathed, and spent the rest of the morning exploring the house. Brian quickly realized that it was futile to put him back because he'd just jump out again and might hurt himself (remember: he still has stitches from his surgery). So, instead, Brian put the gate at the top of the stairs and just let Gatsby chill downstairs all afternoon.

When I came home, he was laying on the very top stair beside the baby gate taking a nap. He then got so super excited and spent the rest of the early evening going crazy and playing. Very cute. Not nearly as much humping today, but he's a bit rough when he plays, so we're working on taming that down and playing nice (it should also help when we start our PetSmart obedience class in a few weeks).

He also stayed by himself for about 3o minutes when I went to pick up my dinner. I tried to take him with me in the car, but he freaked out and didn't want to ride. In hindsight, I realize that it's probably just too stressful to do any driving for him right now because he has no idea where he's going and if he'll get to come back home.

Gatsby and I also had a very nice walk this morning, for about an hour to help burn off some energy! (Oh yeah, and he slept really well last night! He cuddled up between us in bed and slept the whole night through except for a few minutes around 4 a.m.)

Now you're probably thinking...if Gatsby could scale the baby gate, he can probably scale the baby pen too. Yup, that's what we're thinking too. So, it will be going back to Amazon when it arrives :-)

And we've decided that we're going to crate train him. After reading a lot about it and getting recommendations from people, it seems like a good idea and really appeals to dogs' native "den" instincts. If you don't believe me, google "crate training" and there are tons of recommendations from many reputable organizations (SPCA, Humane Society, etc.). It's been a hard thing for Brian and me to accept, but we've pretty much figured out that we have to think about it like a dog and not like people.

Fortunately, next week I start working from home twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), so there will only be two days in a row that he'll be home by himself. On the other days, he can run around and chill while I work. We just want to make sure to eliminate any temptation for him to get in trouble and we want to establish ourselves as in charge and him as not-dominant. In doing so, it should help him chill out a bit when he plays and stop the humping :-)

BTW, he's now destroyed a second toy.

Toys - 0; Gatsby - 2 (although he does have two toys that he hasn't destroyed yet--we'll see how that turns out after tomorrow)

Oh yeah, and we're getting sod tomorrow! They came today and dug up our yard and all the weeds (even the back yard where they had previously seeded) and put the hydraseed down again in the back. This is good news because we've pretty much sucked at the yard thing so far, so it's nice to start anew.

The bad news though is that they cut our phone line with the back hoe (not so good!), so if you need to call us, call our cells until you hear otherwise. Hopefully, BellSouth can get it fixed quickly. Centex will then reimburse us for the wire reconnection.

And, finally, Shaba Shabu has really good sushi...but they have the absolute hottest wasabi paste that I've ever had (not the stuff the put on the side--the green liquid-y stuff that goes on a wasabi roll). I was literally crying so hard. It was fantastic! (I love that quick, unbearable pain that ends immediately.) :-)

Oh yeah, and some new Gatsby pictures are up and linked on the left side of the blog.

Fetch!

Hmm...turns out he knows how to fetch.

This is very cool.

Gatsby's Here!!

Yay!! I got a call this morning that they were able to do his surgery yesterday, so he was available to come home today. He's all up to date on his shots now and the animal shelter gave him a little microchip. They also removed the dewclaws that were on his hind legs.

Brian and I picked him up around 6:30 p.m. and he's been really awesome ever since. He was very, very, very excited to see us and did a lot of running around in the parking lot at the animal shelter. He saw a couple dogs out there and basically just sniffed them out. No barking or growling and he didn't show his teeth.

He was all over the place in the car and very, very excited. He stayed in the back, but he did demonstrate a behavior that we're now working hard to nip in the bud. We took his bed with us for him to have in the car and once he saw it he started humping it like crazy!

When we got home, we took him on a walk to explore our yard and then eventually brought him inside on the leash and took him around to show him the place. After he calmed down a bit, we took him off the leash and we've let him run around without it ever since. He won't go off away from us and he's following me around everywhere :-) We played with him for a bit and then Brian went to pick up dinner from Applebees. After he left, I sat down to read the paperwork we got from the animal shelter and he crawled up on the couch beside me and took a nap. When Brian got back, we ate our dinner and pretty much ignored him so that he wouldn't beg for food. He basically just walked around the table a couple of times and then chilled at his food bowl and drank a lot of water. We gave him some food and he's been eating it a little at a time.

We've pretty much just been chilling since dinner and Gatsby has been doing the same. We've taken him outside twice since we brought him home and he's really liking his exploration of our cul-de-sac and empty lots. :-)

He hasn't gone to the bathroom inside at all and the only issue has been that he likes to hump the pillows. So we've just taken them away and given him a toy for his aggression. The first toy we gave him was a cute little turtle...but evidently it wasn't really the right one for him because he chewed up the little turtle arms in about an hour. So now he has a new (stronger!) toy and a tennis ball and he's been really happy with those.

Currently, he's taking a nap between us on the floor. On Saturday, he has an appointment with the vet (free of charge from the animal shelter) to get his routine checkup.

Yay for good dogs! (But, if anyone has any good tips to eliminate the humping, let us know!)

We haven't taken a ton of pictures tonight, but I added the ones that we took to our Gatsby album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

He's a very happy dog!

One thing's sure and nothing's surer

The rich get richer and the poor get—children.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

OK, so we're definitely not rich and, therefore, can't get richer (I mean who can in this economy?!)...so we're doing what ol'F. Scott said and getting a child!

But not a human child...

A super, wonderful, cute-as-all-get-out, one-year-old-dog child. I may be a little biased, but I think he's totally awesome.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our new part-beagle, part-(some-type-of) terrier mutt:

GATSBY LeBLANC



We're getting him from the Wake County Animal Shelter and we get to bring him home next Thursday. On Wednesday, he's getting neutered (poor guy!). He's a total bundle of fun. He loves to play and sniff about, but he also seems to be pretty good at laying down and chilling. The only time he really barked was when all of the other dogs were going crazy because we were giving him attention.

His original owners had to give him up because they couldn't afford to keep him any longer! :-( They also gave him the lame name Baileys (like the adult beverage), but he didn't really seem to recognize it today, so we're renaming him.

He's getting a new lease on life and a brand new name to go along with it. :-)

He actually attached to us pretty quickly today—he started jumping around like crazy to keep our attention when we had to leave...it was really sad. I was pretty much fighting back tears (I think it even choked Brian up a little). But we're soooo super excited to bring him home on Thursday. So excited, in fact, that we went PetSmart and got him hooked up with all the essentials. I'm sure he'll be the most spoiled dog on the planet.

A few more pictures from today and his animal shelter "mug" shots:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby

And, yes, he's named after the book because it's the greatest book ever written; I couldn't name my first-born son Gatsby; and we're English nerds.

Yay funniness!

I got an e-mail last night from this guy Jeff, who stumbled across my blog. He is a cartoonist and puts out a comic strip, Deflocked.

He has some samples online and they're pretty funny: www.deflocked.com/samples.html.

He's also in the running with the News and Observer to have his comic strip included in the paper; so if you like his samples, you should vote for him online at http://share.triangle.com/comicsvote.

Holy moly it's cold!

Brrr!!

I miss summer! :-(

Also, why does it ALWAYS rain on the day that the trash and recycling bins sit by the road?

ISFJ

Today at work we were talking about personality types. I took one of those tests a really long time ago and I had a pretty good idea of what I was, but I wanted to take one again to confirm.

So I did: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

I have no idea if that's like super legit, but it's good enough for me.

So, anyway, I am an ISFJ (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) and my little blurb is at the bottom of this post. I'd appreciate it if y'all all would read it and then use it in your every interaction with me for the rest of your life. :-)

It's actually pretty right on, except for the part about not being able to deal with chaos at work. I'm actually quite good at that. Oh and the part about being a good interior designer...yeah, not so much, but, otherwise it's really quite accurate. Very interesting.

Also, Brian is the same as me, but not with the same degree of percentages.

The Nurturer

As an ISFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you takes things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system.

ISFJs live in a world that is concrete and kind. They are truly warm and kind-hearted, and want to believe the best of people. They value harmony and cooperation, and are likely to be very sensitive to other people's feelings. People value the ISFJ for their consideration and awareness, and their ability to bring out the best in others by their firm desire to believe the best.

ISFJs have a rich inner world that is not usually obvious to observers. They constantly take in information about people and situations that is personally important to them, and store it away. This tremendous store of information is usually startlingly accurate, because the ISFJ has an exceptional memory about things that are important to their value systems. It would not be uncommon for the ISFJ to remember a particular facial expression or conversation in precise detail years after the event occurred, if the situation made an impression on the ISFJ.

ISFJs have a very clear idea of the way things should be, which they strive to attain. They value security and kindness, and respect traditions and laws. They tend to believe that existing systems are there because they work. Therefore, they're not likely to buy into doing things in a new way, unless they're shown in a concrete way why its better than the established method.
ISFJs learn best by doing, rather than by reading about something in a book, or applying theory. For this reason, they are not likely to be found in fields which require a lot of conceptual analysis or theory. They value practical application. Traditional methods of higher education, which require a lot of theorizing and abstraction, are likely to be a chore for the ISFJ. The ISFJ learns a task best by being shown its practical application. Once the task is learned, and its practical importance is understood, the ISFJ will faithfully and tirelessly carry through the task to completion. The ISFJ is extremely dependable.

The ISFJ has an extremely well-developed sense of space, function, and aesthetic appeal. For that reason, they're likely to have beautifully furnished, functional homes. They make extremely good interior decorators. This special ability, combined with their sensitivity to other's feelings and desires, makes them very likely to be great gift-givers - finding the right gift which will be truly appreciated by the recipient.

More so than other types, ISFJs are extremely aware of their own internal feelings, as well as other people's feelings. They do not usually express their own feelings, keeping things inside. If they are negative feelings, they may build up inside the ISFJ until they turn into firm judgments against individuals which are difficult to unseed, once set. Many ISFJs learn to express themselves, and find outlets for their powerful emotions.

Just as the ISFJ is not likely to express their feelings, they are also not likely to let on that they know how others are feeling. However, they will speak up when they feel another individual really needs help, and in such cases they can truly help others become aware of their feelings.

The ISFJ feels a strong sense of responsibility and duty. They take their responsibilities very seriously, and can be counted on to follow through. For this reason, people naturally tend to rely on them. The ISFJ has a difficult time saying "no" when asked to do something, and may become over-burdened. In such cases, the ISFJ does not usually express their difficulties to others, because they intensely dislike conflict, and because they tend to place other people's needs over their own. The ISFJ needs to learn to identify, value, and express their own needs, if they wish to avoid becoming over-worked and taken for granted.

ISFJs need positive feedback from others. In the absence of positive feedback, or in the face of criticism, the ISFJ gets discouraged, and may even become depressed. When down on themselves or under great stress, the ISFJ begins to imagine all of the things that might go critically wrong in their life. They have strong feelings of inadequacy, and become convinced that "everything is all wrong", or "I can't do anything right".

The ISFJ is warm, generous, and dependable. They have many special gifts to offer, in their sensitivity to others, and their strong ability to keep things running smoothly. They need to remember to not be overly critical of themselves, and to give themselves some of the warmth and love which they freely dispense to others.

Jungian functional preference ordering:

Dominant: Introverted Sensing
Auxiliary: Extroverted Feeling
Tertiary: Introverted Thinking
Inferior: Extroverted Intuition

B! I! N! G! O!

Yup.

I listened to 151 games of BINGO! being called this weekend. I kid you not. Brian called 150 games and his dad called 1.

Our former church has a big fall festival/fair thing each year in September and Brian has been in charge of the BINGO! booth for the past few years. Usually, I'm away on the weekends because of App. games, but because they were on a bye this weekend, I was at home to help.

Brian, being the highly trained radio professional that he is, is rather good at calling BINGO! numbers and has it down to a science. He was averaging about 6 minutes per game (including the time it took between games to collect money). This year, we did something a bit new though and we created a spreadsheet and macro to track our earnings. The way it works is that half of the pot is paid out in winnings and the other half goes to the church. Well...we made $1,979 for the church. Pretty sweet, huh?! Our little macro was banging...it quickly calculated the amount per pot and per church (with any odd quarters going to the church) and then recorded all the earnings on another sheet that was time stamped so that we could see how we were doing per hour. Since Brian was on the mic, I was pretty much in charge of all the money...for every single game. He charges 25c/card and $1/5 cards for regular BINGO! and then charges $1/card for coverall games, which are the ones that pay out the best. Brian's mom won $68 during one game and we gave away two pots on Saturday night that were more than $100 each. Very cool that it's all going to a good cause.

I can still hear BINGO! numbers in my head.

On Sunday, we went to church and then pretty much vegged out all day, going to Brian's parents' house for dinner and the Steelers/Browns game Sunday night. Sadly, the Browns were not victorious. However, the Panthers were victorious Sunday afternoon and, in fact, are starting 2-0 for the first time since they went to the Super Bowl. This is a good thing.

In other news, we also have a new neighbor. We haven't met him yet, but we know that he exists.

Yay for neighbors.

Whereas

football freaking rocks,

tennis totally sucks.

Football Season is the Second Greatest Season!!

(The first best is Christmas!--only 108 days away!)

So, Brian's mom was chastising me at dinner for being lax on blog posts, so here I am!

We had a very lovely weekend. I worked from home on Friday and spent some time in the afternoon bringing in all our "blowable" objects. No fear, though, as soon as the winds were safely under tropical storm force, Brian set the birdfeeder back up and all of our birds are happy! Mom, dad, Cal, and Clay came in Friday night and went to dinner at the Lonestar in Knightdale. Cal and I had a very yummy Portabella Steak Salad. The highlight of the dinner was when Brian looked over at the TV over the bar and saw Jim Cantore in Atlantic Beach. Not cool.

Fortunately, in K-town, all we had was a lot of rain and some wind. It was really a good event for us because everything is nice and green now. In Ocean, mom, dad, and Clay had no damage and only some high winds--they actually had very little rain from the whole storm.

Early Saturday morning, the five of us were up and at'em and en route to Boone. It was pouring rain from Raleigh->Winston; gorgeous and sunny up US-421; and chilly, cloudy, and sprinkly all day in Boone. No worries for the Apps, though, who polished off Jacksonville University 56-7. For those of you who don't know, Appalachian is undergoing a major stadium renovation and it is looking awesome!! The stadium won't be finished until next year, but the visitor's side is now finished and it's very cool. I snapped some pictures while we were there and I'll try to get them up later this week. Next weekend, App will be playing Bye and the following weekend they're going to be Harrisionburg, Va. to play JMU (which is a big-time-serious game in the world of FCS action). So, I'm actually going to be completely in town for the next two weekends. Crazy, huh?

We got back to Knightdale pretty late Saturday night, partially because we had an awesome supper at Ishi Japanese Restaurant in Winston-Salem. I had this totally banging Rainbow Roll and the Friendly Pyramid Roll (don't you just love the names of sushi rolls?!?). Anyway, the fish was super fresh and it was all very delicious. If you like sushi and you're ever in Winston-Salem, I highly recommend you check it out (if you have a sushi-phobe in your group, they also have yummy hibachi).

On Sunday, Family Samuels + 1 was back off to the east and Brian and I were off to church. We served as Eucharistic Ministers and found out that OLL has a new music director--a very accomplished guy, who has studied under Marie Claire Alain in Paris. It's pretty exciting; I think I may have to join the handbell choir, which I've kinda missed over the last few years. After church, we met up with Brian's parents at TGI Friday's for lunch. The food was good, but the service definitely left something to be desired...

We were back home for about 45 minutes after lunch and then headed out to meet Brian's dad and brother at Blinco's to watch the 4:15 NFL action. Normally, I prefer to watch football games from the awesomeness of my own couch and our HDTV, but today was a bit different because both the Browns and the Panthers were on for the late-afternoon games. The Browns' result wasn't too hot, but the Panthers totally rocked the house, winning the game on the last play.

I totally love football. It is seriously the greatest sport ever. It's so much fun to have games to go to on Saturdays and others to watch on Sunday and Monday nights!

In the world of fantasy football, I'm playing Brian tonight in the Road Geek league, so I'll report tomorrow on my victory :-)

Speaking of football--did you know that Brett Favre is out of retirement? Who knew?

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

As I mentioned at the end of last night's post, despite the hurricane drama, we had a really good time at the game and in New Orleans.

Friday night, Brian and I headed to Bourbon Street and we were able to have a really good laugh when we saw a whole bunch of male "preachers" protesting gay sex. The signs were hilarious. We were totally cracking up and were able to snap a few shots (us and lots of other tourists).

Brian and I had the best dinner ever at La Bayou Restaurant on Bourbon Street (http://www.labayourestaurant.com/). I had the "Taste of New Orleans," which had three specialties: Red Beans & Rice, Jambalaya, and Chicken Andouille Gumbo. Brian had the Cajun Burger Po'boy. And we both shared a piece of chocolate cake. All of which were un-damn-real awesome. The next time that we're in New Orleans--we will totally be dining there again. With my dinner I had a Hurricane drink. I think they must have been trying to get rid of all their alcohol pre-Gustav because it was one of the strongest drinks I've ever had. Seriously. I was totally buzzing, even after eating all that fantastic New Orleans cuisine! My trusty DD husband had a Diet Coke; no surprises there! :-)

After dinner, we walked around Bourbon Street for a bit and I bought a shot glass. The shot glass has all of the famous streets in the French Quarter and it's really quite cool looking. One funny thing, though, was that they also had the exact same shot glass that I bought in New Orleans when I was there 10 years ago. I guess there isn't a big market for new shot glass designs! :-)

Saturday morning came VERY early. A few months ago, dad signed us up to tailgate with Appalachian's Alumni Association. When the game was starting at 4 p.m., this was awesome because we would be tailgating around noon and eating awesome Cajun cuisine.

Well...when the game was moved to 10 a.m....they still had all that food ordered, so that pushed tailgate up to 7 a.m. and, of course, we were there. My dad is (well, let's just say...) regimented when it comes to arriving at football games on time (and in his defense, I agree with him because I want to experience everything [like the band marching in, pregame festivities, etc.]--not be stuck in traffic or walking to our seats at kickoff).

So, anyway, we were up and at'em at 6 a.m. and we were on our way to the game and tailgate by 6:45 a.m. We got to the tailgate at 7:30 a.m. and we were "mangez-ing" gumbo, jambalaya, stuffed sausage, crawfish etouffée, and seafood alfredo! (Oh yeah, and we were washing it all down with Bloody Marys, beer, and Diet Cokes.) It was AWESOME!!!! Even though it was so early--the food tasted soooo good!!! I might seriously be changing my favorite foods to Cajun cuisine. App.'s Alumni Association did a really good job. They had long picnic tables that were under these huge oak trees and a local Cajun band. The music was good and the atmosphere was very festive and fun (even though lots of people had driven through the night from Boone to make it to the game on time).

After the tailgate, we started making our way to our seat and, of course, we had to walk completely around to the other side of the stadium to get to Gate 18 (which was NOT well signed) and then we had to walk up a series of 50 billion ramps (OK, more like 20) to make it to row O in section 641. I seriously think that we were at Boone elevation (3,333 feet) by the time we made it to our seats.

Oh yeah...and it was hot...and humid. Did I say humid? It really gave "Death Valley" its name. We were all soaking wet for the entire game (but, fortunately, not too sunburnt). It was to the point where I couldn't even rest my arms on my legs because they kept sliding off. I think each of us drank at least two liters of water during the game. It was still completely awesome. I say if you're going to experience Baton Rouge, you might as well experience it to the fullest!!! It was so very cool to experience a game at Tiger Stadium--that place is HUGE!!! Even though Michigan has about 20,001 more seats, due to the stadium design, LSU's stadium looks so much bigger. We were probably 50 feet ABOVE the scoreboards. However, even though we were so high, you could still see the game sooo well. There was nothing obstructing our view and we could totally see the entire field and all the plays unfold perfectly.

It was awesome. I LOVE FOOTBALL! :-)

The outcome wasn't the best ever for App, but that was pretty much expected. LSU is definitely not Michigan. Their o-line is HUGE and strong (same for the defense, which totally shut down Armanti Edwards and Coco Hillary). I can't wait to cheer for them for the rest of the year. Their fans were great and Brian said that their radio crew was giving App. mad props all broadcast!

It's hard to get a read on how App will look this year because LSU was so dominating. I think they'll be strong and national championship contenders, but we'll definitely know more when they play Jacksonville on Saturday in Boone.

I also wanted to briefly discuss our rental car--a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Although Hertz rocked, the car was pretty lame. It didn't ride too smoothly and the gas mileage sucked (20 mpg on the highway--a far cry from the 40-45 mpg that we get in our Civics). Not to mention, the car just looks stupid and Brian looked like a total nerd driving it. :-)

The fun pictures from our trip are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/NOLAFunAndLSU

and my dad's pictures are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/samuels.jay/NewAlbum91081020AM?authkey=G-VYyuvbpK4&pli=1&gsessionid=dLjlrJhJpwDKeFbjGL3nzg.

You can see in my dad's pictures how tired I was Saturday morning in the pregame pictures.

Also, we're definitely watching Hurricane Hanna (I added Weather Underground's five day forecast tracker to the left side of the blog). With my grandmother's house in OKI, Callie in Wilmington, and my parents and Clay in Morehead, we have plenty of coastal interests. Not to mention, the storm could track into Knightdale or farther west and completely drench Boone for the football game on Saturday. If it goes NC coastal, we might have four house guests who are fleeing their second hurricane in one week! :-(

Evacuation

Truthfully, I was really and very deeply affected by our experiences in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

When we landed on Friday, it wasn't too terribly noticeable that there was a hurricane en route. There was coverage on the radio and a lot of traffic on the roads, but it was also nearing rush hour, so nothing seemed out of place. After we checked into our hotel in Baton Rouge, we decided to head back to New Orleans for the evening to eat dinner and check things out. When we got back to New Orleans, we saw a few boarded up buildings, but there were definitely plenty of people about. Not nearly as many as normal, but definitely people milling around. Our restaurant on Bourbon Street wasn't crowded at all, but there were plenty of people walking up and down the street. While in New Orleans Friday night, we also saw quite a few National Guard troops on foot and in their vehicles. Very unsettling to see members of the military armed and standing guard in an American city.

When we were heading back from New Orleans to Baton Rouge Friday night it became very apparent that things were changing. Traffic was very heavy on I-10. We were moving between 45-60 mph for the most part, but we had to slam on the brakes a ton! There were so many people pulling trailers or in cars completely filled up.

Saturday morning we were all pretty isolated from news reports because we were at the football game, so we weren't really getting much news until we made it back to the hotel. Once we returned, Callie, Clay, mom, dad, and I all convened in mom and dad's room and we called Brian to put him on speakerphone (he didn't go to the game and he was out driving around in Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi). We spent a good hour discussing the possibilities--drive home on Saturday, drive to New Orleans Saturday night and spend the night in a hotel or in the airport to fly out, or wait until Sunday morning to drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to fly out Sunday morning. After talking through everything, we decided that we would rather drive home because then we all were completely in control of our fates. Additionally, none of us wanted to wait until Sunday morning to drive from BR to NO and that in the 12-18 hours that we would have spent overnight in New Orleans, we could already be out of the line of fire and safely in Alabama.

So we took off pretty quickly after we made our decision and since Brian was already farther east in Mississippi, he found a place off I-12 in Slidell, LA to wait for us, until we made it that far down the road. When we met up with Brian, Slidell was very eerie. The Shell gas station was completely out of gas and all the buildings (including a Wal-Mart and mall) were closed and boarded up. The only thing that was open was a Wendy's and it was only open at the drive thru. We later found out that they're expecting possibly 6-14 feet of storm surge where we met Brian in Slidell (south of I-12).

As we got back on the road, traffic was very heavy as we had crossed a junction that put us on I-59 with many other New Orleans evacuees.

Now, this is where it really started getting scary.

We're all very, very familiar with Interstate driving, but it was very clear that many of the people who were on the road with us were not familiar with the Interstate. There were many elderly drivers and so many cars that were completely packed down or pulling trailers with numerous possessions. People were constantly slamming on their brakes, pulling off the side of the road, or being forced to pull off because of car breakdowns, running out of gas, switching drivers, etc. There were also numerous people driving way too slow (like 45 mph) and at one point we had an elderly couple get off an exit and completely stop on the exit ramp. It was very dangerous.

During this time, we were listening to the local news/talk station--870 WWL AM in New Orleans. At this time, Mayor Nagin was giving his now-famous "monster storm" speech and it all started sinking in that all of these people were leaving their homes, belongings, and memories and they had no idea if anything would be left when they returned. And most of them were doing it for the second time in three years. People had everything from dog crates to mattresses to grills to four-wheelers and coolers in their cars/trailers. Essentially, all their most important things or the things they needed to survive were all displayed for the world to see.

According to preliminary estimates, some 1.9 million people evacuated from southern Louisiana.

At one point, our two cars got separated and Brian and I continued on to the hotel in Birmingham, but my parents' car stopped for a few minutes at a rest area in Alabama. I wasn't with them to see it, but they said that it looked like a refugee camp. People were sleeping in their cars, there were dogs tethered to tailpipes, and everyone was clearly exhausted.

With all the people who were breaking down on the highway, under all the stress of an impending storm and evacuation, it's really clear how violence or other problems could quickly escalate. We never saw anything like this, but you could really sense the tension on the road and none of us would have felt comfortable stopping to help someone on the side of the road.

We were all very relieved and exhausted when we we made it safely to our hotel in Birmingham. As Brian mentioned last night, the hotel was completely sold out through Wednesday night. Just as an FYI, Birmingham is 353 miles (or 5.5 hours) away from New Orleans!

The drive today definitely felt more normal, but we continued to see many filled up cars with Louisiana license plates as far north as Atlanta.

All-in-all, it was a very powerful experience for me. We met so many wonderful people in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and en route to Alabama. All I can really do is pray for them and their safety, but it was definitely an experience that I will never forget and really can't fully explain.

I did take some pictures that I put up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/NOLAAndEvacuation.

I can say that we did have a great time at the game, despite the outcome, and I'll post about it a little later and post some pictures, but it doesn't seem right for me to do so until Gustav has passed.

We're also closely watching TS Hanna, which is possibly threatening Wilmington and Morehead City...

We're safe in NC!

We got back to RDU around 9 p.m. and returned our rental car to Hertz. As Brian mentioned last night, Hertz is absolutely awesome! They waived the mileage charge for us and only charged the daily rate! (Of course, they did the same thing for my parents' car.) So, even though, we drove the car an extra 959 miles we only paid $139. When we arrived in Raleigh, we actually got a receipt without the mileage waived and it was about $450. A considerable difference! Hertz really treated us wonderfully and we'll probably always use them forever now...

We were also treated really well by the Best Western Suites in Baton Rouge, which is where we stayed Friday night and were planning to stay Saturday night. We decided to flee Baton Rouge between 2-3 p.m. on Saturday. Once we decided to leave, my dad called the front desk to let them know so that they could rebook to rooms to evacuees. Even though we were still in the rooms at 3 p.m. (taking the fastest showers known to man) the hotel didn't charge my parents for the two rooms Saturday night. Really, really classy on the hotel's part.

Now, if US Airways will refund my dad the frequent flyer points for our return flights, everything would be really wonderful!

BTW, thanks to Brian for updating our location on the blog last night. I was absolutely exhausted and fast asleep by the time we arrived in Birmingham.

Checking in from...

...Birmingham. Yes, we are officially now hurricane evacuees!

This will be short, as we're all exhausted after a long day. We decided around 5:00 to leave Louisiana and drive home, as the traffic going out of town wasn't getting any better and the governor had decided to push contraflow back to 4 AM rather than the originally planned 6 AM. We weren't entirely sure we could make it back from Baton Rouge to the New Orleans airport, as part of the route involved using a section of I-10 that would be reversed, and even if we could make it back there were no guarantees of getting into the airport at all, never mind actually catching a flight out (and if we couldn't do so, we would be stuck at the airport with nowhere to go, as everywhere around New Orleans has ordered mandatory evacuations and curfews to go along with them).

So we decided to just say the heck with it and get a head start on driving home -- us and a heck of a lot of other people. When we got to Hattiesburg, Miss., we heard this press conference live on the radio and immediately decided that we made the right decision. (I can only imagine what it will be like tomorrow after people have been preparing to leave all night.) Traffic has been consistently heavy all the way to Birmingham, and the hotel that we're staying at has signs on the door saying that they are already completely booked through Wednesday. In other words, we got out at the right time.

We'll check in again tomorrow from home (hopefully), and while I don't have time to get into specifics right now (Laura will do it later), you should always rent cars from Hertz.

11 hours until kickoff!!

The rest of my family is here at the hotel in Baton Rouge!!

In anticipation of a speedy departure, we've moved our flight to around 11 a.m. CDT on Sunday. As long as we can make it back to New Orleans (against contraflow) and pending no storm-track changes, we should be OK to fly out. MSY is expecting the last flight to leave at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Brian and I had an AWESOME dinner on Bourbon Street. Brian had a hamburger po'boy and I had a New Orleans sampler with red beans and rice, jambalaya, and a creole stew. It was one of the best meals that I've ever had!! (Oh yeah, and a tall, strong hurricane in honor of the occasion.) We also had a super awesome chocolate cake dessert. There were a million App. fans on Bourbon. We are definitely well represented!

GO APP!!! HAPPY WEEKEND!