and the chair is a ladder-back birch but his friends call him karl

Two weekends ago I got the honor to stand up and witness one of my oldest, greatest friends Steph marry her soulmate Jenny. It was an amazing weekend full of love, friends, family, and wonderful food! Congrats you two, you both looked amazing, and thank you for letting me be a part of your special day!

I've been working what seems like non stop lately, putting in at least the obligatory 48 hours a week, sometimes coming in the form of 11 or 12 hour days. It makes me long for 8 hour days, which seem like a vacation now. I've used a total of 10 hours of vacation this year, and can not WAIT for the holiday shut down for a week and a half of well deserved rest and relaxation (hopefully).

We experimented quite a bit with balcony gardening this year, and were pretty successful. Jack enjoyed many evenings of home grown cat nip, and we enjoyed many meals that included home grown basil, tomatoes, dill (I made pickles!), and parsley. We also had a rogue sunflower that chose to grow above the roofline of our building to find the maximum amount of sun exposure. I swear by the time the wind won out, the thing was 10 feet tall!

In August, Heath and I finally took a day and went to explore Block Island right off the coast of Rhode Island. We took the ferry from New London, CT and spent the entire day riding our rented bikes around the island seeing as much as we could see.

It was a beautiful day, and we figured out that we probably rode somewhere between 10 and 15 miles overall, but we had some great food, took some awesome pictures, and now we'll feel comfortable taking any guests we have there for the day! This was pretty much the only 'vacation' we took this summer, between my work filled weeks, and Heath's work filled weekends.

Now it's autumn, full of apple picking, cider, pumpkin in EVERYTHING, and crisp, cool mornings. The leaves around here have started changing, and my birthday is around the corner!! The big 25 this year, isn't it crazy? It's one of those ages that seemed so far off when I was in college, and now I'm here, it's no big deal, and life goes on.

If you need some new music, Heath and I discovered Jonathan Coulton. A mix of talent and nerd which makes for some great entertainment!! Listen to Code Monkey, it's my favorite (and a sad representation of my job....)