Chris and Jen

Thank you Chris and Jen for letting us visit this weekend!

Happy Birthday, My Husband!

Today is Elliot's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, YOU LIVE IN A ZOO, YOU LOOK LIKE A BEAUTIFUL SUPERMODEL, AND YOU SMELL LIKE FRESH FRUIT!!!! (I modified the song as I saw appropriate.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As Elliot and I are both a wee bit Irish, let us wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day! (I hope you remembered to wear green!)

More Wildlife in our Backyard

This time: snake!  

Potentially Mundane.

But totally cute.

I like how seeing something as ubiquitous and potentially mundane as a snake in my yard gets me excited.  I am sure that they must slither on by more often than I realize but this is the first time I can remember seeing one.  I guess the real exciting part is realizing just how diverse my backyard's ecosystem really is.  Biodiversity!

Finally: Nielsen Ratings Come To Our House.

I have heard about Nielsen ratings since forever.  I even heard, when I was a little kid, that if you were chosen to be a Nielsen family, you got free cable for a week.  Having free cable and a chance to tell someone all about what TV shows were my favorite was a lot of what I was looking for as a child.  So imagine my great surprise and delight when I received a postcard informing me that I would receive a phone call and that the outcome of that phone call would determine whether or not I would become part of a Nielsen family.  

After all these years, I would finally get to tell them what I watched on TV and also maybe get free cable.  In reality it was even better than free cable: cash money.  They sent us enough money to buy a pizza delivery with tip, which I thought was awesome.  I guess it doesn't make sense that they would provide me with new viewing options and then ask what my normal viewing patterns are.  Here is the best part of the entire thing though - we don't watch any TV(At least not on the TV and for Nielsen internet TV doesn't count).  

I spoke at length with Nielsen representative on the phone and it turns out that it doesn't matter if you actually watch TV or not.  I made sure to record the several hours of Arrested Development DVDs that I watched, just so they know what's up, but I left the rest of the diary blank.  Maybe they will get the picture, maybe not, but I am glad that some research, somewhere, will show that we are not watching any TV except DVDs like Arrested Development.

P.S. We don't even have a digital converter box so we couldn't even get TV if we wanted, but in reality I think I should get one so that we could use TV as a way to keep informed in case of emergency.  Of course, whatever sort of emergencies are only brodcast on DTV and not on the radio probably aren't emergencies of the type that I would really care about.

College Baketball!

       We always have a lot of fun at FSU football games when we attend, so when Mary won tickets to a basketball game we though we would give it a try.  It was Clemson playing FSU and it was great.  It was a close and fun game and Clemson almost came back to beat FSU but didn't.  It made me want to experience more live basketball, that's for sure.  There was a colorful, humorous, announcer that would be difficult to describe here but I would highly recommend hearing a game if you can't see one.  A good time was had by all, especially this guy.

Go team!

To Animal Kingdom for Ben's Birthday

Last Saturday, in celebration of Ben's birthday, Elliot and I met Ben and Sheila and some of their friends at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was fun! Elliot and I got to see a lot of the attractions that we didn't have a chance to see when we went to Animal Kingdom this past November.

Ben and Sheila:


Elliot:


Some kind of cool bird:


We ate dinner at Boma, which is a restaurant in the Animal Kingdom resort area that serves African-inspired dishes served buffet-style. It was reeeeeeeeeally good. I definitely want to go back there some time.

On Sunday, we went shopping at one of Orlando's (many) outlet malls and found a lot of good deals. It was a very nice weekend. :)