That's What Jenni Said

Joy Another productive and fun week. So far, my early 30s, have been the best period of my entire life with more days of happiness and internal sunshine than cloudy despair. Everything seems so orderly and pleasant; the universe seems to make sense in a way that just wasn't within my grasp during my 20s. I wonder if it only gets better from here and I'll love my 40s as much or if this decade is really the peak. We shall see. Theology We enjoyed a really good fellowship discussion with our new associate pastor over dinner on Monday evening. We explored the ins and outs of Calvinism, missionary work, and the Christian approach to taking risks and decision making. Jon and I are both fond of this new guy and think he is going to be great for our congregation. Guns In the past week Jon and I had the pleasure of trying our hand at gun sport. Anna and Ron invited us as well as Danielle and Clayton out to the range in Alexandria to shoot for sport. Within the group we had a 22 rifle,...

Ok, so now Jon and I have added a Paris trip to our Calendar for the winter. Christmas day specifically! There is about $1000 savings per person by flying during the low season (winter) and especially on the slowest days of the low season. We fly out Christmas, late in the evening, spend 6 nights in Paris including free breakfast and a riverboat cruise tour, and fly home on New Year's Day. All that for just $1499 a person. Take a look at summer trips to Paris and you will see they are easily $1000-$1500 more. Gotta know when to time these things. We are opening up the trip to our NoVA travelers group and I wanted to open it up to you readers as well. If you fly out of NYC or DC airports the price is the same; other airports may be slightly more ($100 or so). Let me know with a comment if you're interested in tagging along. People will be put 2 to a room. It's the perfect Christmas present to give yourself!!!

So finally summer 2008 has officially shown up for the party. Fantastic! What's In: ~Traveling! I started a new meetup group this week. NoVA Travelers. We've already got 45 people signed up the first week and growing. Our first two trips on our calendar are a Dewey Beach, DE weekend retreat Aug 15th and a NYC Culinary Tour I'll be leading Columbus Day weekend. Looking to put some more weekend trips on the fall calendar and a cruise in the winter. If you're local and interested you can sign up for the group at http://travel.meetup.com/1256/ . It's nice because it allows me to travel frequently and brings in a little extra spending money each month. I think Jon is worried I'm going to quit the IT world and become a travel agent, but he has not nothing to fear- its no fun planning OTHER peoples' trips. I wanna go on them too or I don't want to do all the planning work. ~Traveling part deux: we're headed to Savannah, GA for labor day weekend this yea...

Life continues to be pretty good, despite a few minor annoyances. I lost six pounds this week. A lot of exercise (3 walks with my walking group on top of my regular cardio/weight lifting AND a focused effort on watching calories). Plenty of fiber (this has been my biggest secret to weight loss so far - loading up on high soluble fiber foods), and remembering to take my multivitamin every day (which is also making my skin softer and my hair glossy). Getting everything in place for the big party on Saturday. Expecting 30+ people to descend upon our house. I'm cooking up a 4 course buffet with a lot of food and I hope it will be a success. It's going to included smoked salmon and ribs, duck quesadillas, and baked Alaska, among other items. Annoyances include a speeding ticket (78 in 55 - $177 fine ouch!) and a strange conversation with a woman in my walking group. We were chatting about work - hers - and she mentioned she is struggling with her new job and not getting along wi...

Jonathan and I have traveled for each of the past two weekends and we're just a bit tired now. Two weeks ago we drove up to Davis, West Virginia for a romantic 12th anniversary celebration. We stayed in a cozy bed and breakfast - the Meyer House- and had a great time. The home was appointed with lovely antiques and our hosts made sure our suite was just perfect with a welcome basket of cheeses, chocolates, and sparkling beverages. Each morning a delicious breakfast awaited us downstairs. Saturday morning we were presented with eggs benedict served alongside seasoned skillet potatoes and grilled asparagus. Sunday we were served stuffed french toast with fresh fruit. Our hosts have an extensive DVD library so we took the opportunity to watch a movie during our stay. We chose Little Miss Sunshine and laughed the whole way through. It's a zany yet touching comedy about family life that we both enjoyed. I highly recommend it to you. When we weren't enjoying our suite at t...

I've been reading the news articles this week on the famous family from Arkansas that has 18 kids, and now a new baby on the way. (Mom is 41). More interesting than the articles are the comment chains on discussion boards and blogs about the news. So many people are so very critical of this family's choice to have a large family, despite the fact that they are debt free, contributing to their community, and have had zero trouble with the law or authorities [i.e. so far all of their kids seem well adjusted and good little citizens]. This family is also not living off govt welfare. One argument tossed out against chemical birth control during its development was that the widespread use of it would pivot society toward devaluing human life. And this seems to have happened, based on the comments expressed by people on the internet about this family. They are derided viciously for their decision to have so many children. Liberals have tagged them as selfish, mentally ill, oblivious ...

It's not everyday that fantastic artistic talent comes across your desk. Today was a lucky day. http://www.austinkleon.com/category/newspaper-blackout-poems/ I LOVE this guy!!!