A Recap

So the two V.A. sisters have been a little slow in providing updates to our life out east, so I will try to do a run through on what you all have missed!!! Image one: Mom J receiving her christmas gift from Lafa (note she is seating in the chair I recovered). Image Two: Poppa T receiving his gift from Lafa

CHRISTMAS 2009

Due to both Lafa and I having to work on and around Christmas we convinced the parents to come out here to celebrate....this unfortunately was a fatal error on our part. I must admit that after last Christmas (the one the whole family has titled The Worst Christmas Ever, which included Lafa's car getting creamed by a renegade deer) we really should have known that C-ville does not hold the spirit of Christmas for us. But memories soon fade with time and the miseries of last year did not seem to phase us as we picked up the folks from the D.C. airport. Since I have a lot to cover in this blog I will just recap the highlights from the festivities.

1. Lafa and I got into the only fight we have ever had while living together, ten minutes after our parents walked into the door. I believe the argument ended with myself stating that, "Well, I guess I will just move home with Mom and Dad!" (Tommy A. almost has a heart attack from the above statement) I should note that there may have been some door slamming and some stomping off to separate bedrooms (classy)

2. Christmas Day the only car the four of us have access to dies (this would be Lafa's car that was hit by a deer the year before). I am still a little hazy as to how the next part unfolded, but somehow it was decided that Lafa would buy a new car the next day, and, since she had (sort of) not gotten gifts for anyone, I would receive the broken car that was currently setting dead at the end of the driveway. I must admit that this gift bestowed upon me was better than the turtle she gifted to our father (on an i.o.u. card) and the hamster wheel she gifted to our mother (also on an i.o.u. card). But the fact that it would take three trips to the mechanic and over a thousand dollars to fix makes me question the generosity of the gift.

Post Christmas

It seems like time has been flying. Leslie has been working and busily filling her schedule with various random runs and triathlons that she would like to do. Our last race that we were supposed to do we were unable to get to due to weather, but would probably have been one of the favorite ones she has found thus far. It was called the Krispy Kreme Challenge and to be considered a challenger you had to run two miles, then down 1 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, and then run two miles back. The rules stated that you would be disqualified if you lost the donuts at any point in the race. She has also been busily researching our trip to Turkey, which we are taking in April. This was how Leslie wanted to celebrate her big 3.0. this year and I am super excited that we get to go together!

I have been very busy and just started a new position at Montpelier this past Friday. I am still working with the curatorial department, but I am focusing on archival. It is completely different than anything I have done before and I am really liking all the new research I get to review.

Last week I helped at my other job with the "Big Clean" at Monticello. Something the curatorial department does once, every year. It basically is a deep cleaning of the whole house and then all of the artifacts. I focused most of my time in the book collection and I was very excited about some of my finds. For those of you that have never been to Monticello I should explain that there is a rather large collection of books at the museum. Only a few are Thomas Jefferson's original collection (the others are at the Library of Congress), but the curatorial department has researched and restored most of the collections with the same titles and copyright dates as the originals. Anyway, as I am cleaning the books I would open and look at the inscriptions and the first one I opened said, " To Thomas Jefferson Randolph from Benjamin Franklin" and then the next book I opened was signed "John Hancock"! I must admit that I was pretty star-struck to think about who had touched these exact books prior to my handling.

One fun story to come from the big clean was during one of the mornings I was doing something in the greenhouse and I had asked another co-worker, Liz, what one of the plants was--to me it looked like a cherry tomato plant. Liz said that she had no idea, but thought I should just try one of the berries. This seemed reasonable since the greenhouse was filled with orange trees and lemon trees...and this had to be something delicious....so of course....I did!

Well, this was not a Cherry Tomato plant and after realizing I had no idea what I just ingested I decided that this might have been a seriously stupid move.....and I started to freakout, as did Liz. We then went on a search to discover someone who might tell us what that plant was. After several wrong guesses, a few minutes of me thinking I was lossing my eyesight and my hearing due to said mistake, we discovered it was an Isreali Cherry plant, which are toxic to dogs and cats, but only cause humans to have stomach aches. I must admit that I did receive a stomach ache later in the day, but I blame that on my co-workers taking me to Miche's Tavern (a local restaurant know for fried chicken and is Branson, Missouri Flare!)

I am also preparing for an ultra-marathon (50K or 31 miles) that I signed-up for in March. I realize this makes me sound like a complete nut, but I think the whole idea of running on trails sounds much more exciting than doing a really marathon--and seriously, think of the bragging rights :). Not only can I tell my kids that I walked to work, up hill (both ways!)...I can also tell them I once ran an ultra-marathon! Since there is a huge possibility that I will be unable to finish the race I have also decided to wear a shirt that has printed on it, "If found on side of trail please call 660-646-****" :)

You may have heard that we have been getting crazy amounts of snow out here (like multiple major snow falls...a.k.a. 30 inches). I should remind you that we live in the south, which means snow= armageddon. I believe the last snow fall Lafa and I went to the grocery store at 10:30 at night and not only was the place packed....there was nothing left on the shelfs! (Here is what people eat when they panic: produce, meat, canned sardines/fish, milk, bread, and beer.) I have included some photos from the snow, but I am not sure if they look any different from the last post we did just before Christmas.

Hope this finds everyone well.

Square.