We're on the mental_floss magazine website!

Our friend Randy blogs for mental_floss and one of his recent posts, "Your Own Personal Yellow Submarine," features a picture from our honeymoon!

Here's the link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8228#more-8228

Yay!

Hey, Vern! Ernest is on my blog...

In honor of Elliot's profound love for Jim Varney and his Ernest character, here are a few funny shorts that I found on youtube.com:

New Recipes

There are a few new recipes up on our recipe blog, souperduper.blogspot.com. Taryn and Brendan sent us instructions for how to make homemade yogurt and Honey Granola, and Jen sent us the recipe for Pumpkin Curry Soup.

Yum!

I Heart Beethoven

On Friday night, our friend John invited us to go with him to see FSU's University Symphony Orchestra perform "Frenergy" by Estacio, "Songs of the Wayfarer" by Mahler, and "Symphony No. 5" by Beethoven. It was wonderful. Elliot and I both like classical music a lot, even though we don't know much about it.

We saw one other orchestral performance together several years ago when Kelli gave us tickets to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Reflecting on both of these experiences, Elliot and I realized how much we enjoy seeing live performances of classical music. We've made a decision to see AT LEAST one symphony orchestra performance every year.

Here's a performance of "Symphony No. 5" that I found on youtube.com:

September 2004

Here are two pictures taken on September 13, 2004, right before Elliot proposed to me. Look at how short my hair is... and I have braces!

The Rest of Our Honeymoon Pictures

Here are the rest of our honeymoon pictures, most of them from underwater cameras. On Saturday we got to go snorkeling (I saw a shark!) and rent PERSONAL SUBMARINES!!! It was sooooo cool and you'll see how strange they looked-- like underwater scooters with a big bubble over our heads that traps air so we could breathe normally. On Sunday we went snorkeling again and saw more cool fish and an airplane wreck off the coast of Cococay. We also went kayaking.

Elliot's Underwater Pics

Above-water Pics

Mary's Submarine Pics

Mary's Snorkeling and Kayaking Pics

5 Years Down, Infinity More To Go!

Last weekend Elliot and I not only had our honeymoon, but we also celebrated 5 years together as a couple. Yay!

Elliot and I had a WONDERFUL honeymoon. We spent Thursday night at Sweetwater Branch Inn in Gainesville, where Elliot had proposed to me exactly 3 years prior. Then on Friday we went to Port Canaveral and sailed off to the Bahamas on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas. We spent Saturday in Nassau (and driving across New Providence) and Sunday in Cococay (Royal Caribbean's personal island).

There's really just too much to tell you about all at once. We have more pictures on the way, but here are the first batch-- the ones we took with our digital camera. Most of these pictures were taken on the cruise ship, since we didn't want to take our digital camera where it could get ruined by the ocean.

The first few pictures are of our cabin, which I had decorated as a little surprise to Elliot. Then there are some pictures of the boat, then a bunch of pictures I took of Elliot rock climbing. The next pictures are of or taken in Nassau. The only time we took the camera off the boat was when we went into Nassau Saturday night to have dinner at a local restaurant. The last few pictures are of our towels folded into a stingray (one of the perks of taking a cruise to the Bahamas, I guess) and then a few more pictures on the ship.

There are about 140 photos. Enjoy!

Bahamas

Camera #13!

Yay! The c.d. for camera #13 has turned up. To view the pictures, click on the image below:

Reception Camera 13

Cameras #20, #21, #22, #23

Reception Camera 20

Reception Camera 21

Reception Camera 22

Reception Camera 23

State of the cameras:
I still need to develop cameras #18, #19, and #24. Camera #10 was taken from the party, #13 is somehow missing, and #17 had no pictures on it.

Camera #14

The c.d. for camera #14 has been found! So here are those pictures I promised...

Reception Camera 14

In Memoriam of My Little Sister

My mom sent me a few more pictures of Mittens:


Mittens sleeping.


Mittens waking.


Mittens and my dad by the stream behind my family's cabin in Georgia (rented for our wedding).


Mittens celebrating my marriage.

Cameras #15 and #16 (and #17, sort of)

The c.d.'s I had made for cameras #13 and #14 are currently M.I.A., but rather than keep the next set of photos from you all, I'm posting the pics from cameras #15 and #16 and I'll post the pics from #13 and #14 when they turn up.

Also, camera #17 didn't have any pictures on it at all, so there is no camera #17.

Here are the pictures from camera #15 (click to enlarge):









And here is the web album for camera #16:

Reception Camera 16

Another Sad Goodbye; I Love You, Mitzi

My parents had to put our family cat, Mittens, to sleep this morning. She was suffering from kidney failure and, unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done to help her. Mittens was 21 years old.

I grew up with Mittens and so I'm very sad about losing her. I know that she had a great life, and a long one at that. She is very loved.

The Story of Mittens:

Just before Christmas of 1987, our next door neighbors' cat, Mittens, jumped off their roof and hurt one of her legs when she fell. The neighbors were in the process of moving when this happened and they moved away without Mittens. We found her in our bushes a few days later, barely able to walk.

My parents told us (Sara and I-- Laura wasn't born yet) that we had an important choice to make. We could keep Mittens as our own pet and take her to the vet to get help but have fewer toys for Christmas, or we could have a regular Christmas with no Mittens. Needless to say, we picked Mittens. And she stayed with us for 20 years!

Mittens was the best Christmas present I've ever gotten. I'll miss her so much. :(



This really dark picture of Mittens is the only one stored on my computer. She and Radar look a lot alike.

Soup Blog Becomes Recipe Blog

Elliot and I have decided to change the soup blog to a recipe blog! So, souperduper.blogspot.com will no longer be limited to soups but will include desserts, sandwiches, pasta dishes... the list goes on and on.

Please send me your favorite recipes. Elliot and I love to cook not-terribly-complicated vegetarian dishes. And we looooooooove desserts.

Here is proof that I love eating, and that I sometimes can convince other people that they like to eat, too:




Elliot actually made the sauce on the pasta that Kelli and I are eating in this photo! He's a good cook.

Cat Depot

Three years ago, my sister and I adopted our lovely lady cat, Radar, from a no-kill shelter called Cat Depot.

In 2003, the people at Cat Depot rescued over 200 cats from another shelter that was mistreating them, and Radar was one of those cats. She had a very rough life living in a "shelter" where cats were being starved and dying from diseases. The people at Cat Depot have good hearts and their organization continues to take in cats that need to find forever homes.

I've decided to adopt Cat Depot as the charity that I will send donations to when I have a little bit of extra money to give to a charitable cause. They took good care of Radar and I want to make sure that other families can be as lucky as mine when they decide to bring a new cat into their home.

Cat Depot's website: http://www.catdepot.org/Info.htm

I have also put a link to the website on the right side of this blog page, below the list of labels.


(Mary and Radar, June 2007)

Camera #12

Click on the picture to view the web album:

Reception Camera 12

Fun time at tha Butterfly Rainforest

This time with John and Sheila!



And we saw this guy,

and this guy,

and this guy,

and this dude

and this bug!

It was pretty as always.