The weekend

I had a full weekend for sure!

Friday evening Paul and I had dinner at The Pizza Grille to use his $5 birthday coupon, and we saw Dennis Owens with his wife a adorable daughter.

Bright and early Saturday morning my Mom picked me up, and we did the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. This was my kind of walk - no pomp and circumstance, just meeting up with some friends, making a donation, and munching on a free Panera Bread Pink Ribbon bagel while we chatted and walked around City Island, across the Walnut Street bridge, up Front Street, down Front Street, along the river, and back across the bridge. I was home by 10:00 AM with plenty of time for some relaxing and housework before lunch. Here we all are after the walk:


Then at 2:00 on Saturday Paul and I headed to Hershey for Hershey Park in the Dark, in our opinion the best time to go: it's under $25 to ride all afternoon (plus $6 for parking), we get to ride all our favorite coasters without waiting in ridiculous lines, the weather is gorgeous and cool, and we can do as much in 4 hours as we'd be able to do all day during the summer. It's so much nicer. Then we came home and popped the Turkey Loaf I'd made earlier into the oven, along with a few baked potatoes, and had a nice hearty fall dinner. I then went to bed very early because I had a headache, but it was still an awesome day.

Here's the best pic I took, Paul behind me on the Swings with the Comet in the background:

Our favorite coaster is still Stormrunner, with the super-acceleration at the beginning. Fahrenheit was cool, but no where near as awesome as Stormrunner. The feeling you get when it shoots you off at the beginning just can't be matched by anything else. The initial up-and-down of Fahrenheit was really cool though, and it was also amazingly smooth.

This afternoon at 4:00 I attended the two kids' choirs at Trinity to play piano for them, which was a lot of fun. I liked the younger kids better, they are so cute...but mostly I'm in awe of Amy's ability to keep them all going and not even get impatient the entire time! She seriously has a gift. I couldn't be that calm and creative and happy all at the same time for 2 hours straight even if I was on Valium or had a lobotomy or something. She has them marching and doing motions to help them remember the words and to stay engaged, and it's pretty amazing.

Paul and I were hoping to go to the Greek Food Festival for dinner, but we were sad to see that we missed it! It was only Friday and Saturday for their Fall mini-festival. So we missed that, darn. Now we'll have to wait until next Summer for all the yumminess. Ah, well - luckily we have lots of leftover beef stew that Paul made last week. Really really really delicious beef stew.

Looking ahead, this is my LAST WEEK working at SAIC! Then I get a week off, and I start with EDS on November 3. On October 25 I'm having some SAIC people over for a fall picnic and drinks, and I'm going to use the neat mini-pumpkins silicon muffin tray I got at JoAnn Fabric's going out of business sale. Still thinking what to make in them, but whatever it is, it will be cool. Maybe a few different things that I can have a whole variety tray full of when they arrive! Also plenty of alcohol, of course, and I have a packet to make spiced hot apple cider as well. Should be a good time. Incidentally, what liquor could I add to spiced apple cider? Rum? Brandy? Hmm...

Oh, and my indoor bike trainer came to convert my regular bike into a stationary bike! I got the same one Hannah has, and she's been using it every day with great results. So that's my exercise regimen for the winter, since Paul and I weren't using our YMCA membership. I quit that, and we're going to use the money we're saving to split off my family's cell phone plan and get our own. And I am totally getting a texting plan so I can text with Han, Sarah, Jeneane, and Twitter. I have to see who else has texting plans too. I haven't decided yet whether I'll keep my current phone, the Cherry Chocolate which I still really like, or get a new one with the new plan to have a full keyboard. We'll see. I really might just keep the same phone, especially if it will save me some money. I actually would really love a blackberry pearl and a full data plan, but I'm totally not willing to shell out the cash for that yet...we'll see.

And then on November 7 I'm heading out to Pittsburgh with Hannah and her best friend Susan to stay with our cousin Katy and go to the Handmade Arcade craft festival on Saturday! I am super excited to take a road trip with my sister, and to finally see Katy and Corey's house! We paid for the early bird tickets even though entry is free later on, because this way we can go in the morning, beat the crowds, and we also get a cool bag to boot! Then we will have the afternoon and evening free for other Pittsburgh fun. Paul has some motorcycle thing that weekend, so he won't even miss me.

Time for dinner, bed, and getting started on my last week at my first real job! I am so excited I can hardly stand it.