thanks for the memories kevin

This video could be the death of me but who could resist! Hopefully Kevin will be mature enough to let this go.

For those of you who don't already know, in 1997, while on a road trip, Kevin smacked me in the face with a sweet dance move. I was really annoyed. To make matters worse, he later got me with the reverse. What is the reverse? Dave was on one side of Kevin, while I was on the other side, anoxiously waiting to see Dave get hit in the face. While I was watching with glee, Kevin reversed the move and got me good. He then tried for a third time but that was a bit too much. So, if you are keeping score, it was Kevin 2, Laura 0. I almost got him back in 1999 but I got too excited and a giggle fit gave me away.

So, as you can see, I got Kevin back on my wedding day at the Green turtle. He is technically still up which will hopefully go some way in calming his oncoming wrath.

super secret special suprise

it's coming, stay tuned...

Honeymoon - Day 12

to be updated

Honeymoon - Day 11

to be updated

Honeymoon - Day 10

Reading, Ghost Show and quick trip to Bar Harbor

Honeymoon - Day 9

Hiking in New Hampshire

Some Comments About My Fantasy Football Team

Things are quickly going south with my fantasy football team but that hasn't broken my spirit. As I sit here watching my ghost shows, I'd like to take some time to reminisce about my team names and team spirit. I'm not sure I can remember all of them.

- team kichak - I couldn't figure out the darn controls on the website

- for real undefeated - my brother was defeated and his team name was "team undefeated"

- yo mama the lama - I just really liked this picture

- mos humble - I had my first lost and realized that I was not invincible, I had a picture of a praying nun but I can't find it now

- last week: dan's boss - self explanatory, I married dan, thus becoming el president, I added a picture of my favorite boss

- this week: you suck - I like this because I am playing phil and his team name is "great job"

Honeymoon - Day 8

We woke up today at the cottage in New Harbor, Maine. This place is beautiful. It is right on the water and has gorgeous views. There isn't a lot of stuff near by so we packed it up and drove about 20 minutes to find Damariscotta. This town is so cute. We had a great lunch and the waitress was really old and cute. She used a lot of friendly terms like "deary" and "hon".

We left the diner and walked around to view the display of enormous, decorated pumpkins. Check out the photos!



grrrr!















frosty!









Then, as we were about to head back something caught our eye. People were gathering around the doc and there, people were driving their pumpkin boats!












How awesome is that!?

The rest of the evening was spent in sloth mode with me finishing a book I had borrowed from Phil's roommate, Eileen and catching up on some blogging.

Honeymoon - Day 7

This day, we woke up early in Boston and went out to find breakfast about 9am. We ate at the olive tree, a little cafe and got a big traditional breakfast.

We then went walking around Newbury street which is a trendy Boston area.

Around 11am we went to the MIT museum which was free before noon. While there, Dan looked lovingly at the robots, wishing that he could quit his job in the DoD, go back to school, and save the world. Apparently, he is under the impression that working in the DoD is a waste of time and his time could be better spent serving humanity by working on robots that do the following...



This robot dusts the strings of a violin.








This robot makes an artichoke leaf look like it is walking.


This robot moves a bicycle chain.

After the museum, we walked about 2 miles to see the Boston Oktoberfest. We we got there, we found lots of food and vendors but no NO BEER! We were really confused but decided to call it quits and find some real beer and football. Thank goodness. We found the John Harvard Brew Pub were we proceeded to get tipsy and watch Cincinatti play the Jets. I have to say, for a moment, I felt proud to be from the DC area where we have beer at our Oktoberfests. Those yankees have too much schooling and not enough beer!

We headed back to our hotel which was a nice, sobering walk to get the car and then drove to New Harbor Maine.

Honeymoon - Day 6

To be updated - Salem and Boston

Honeymoon - Day 5

To be updated - Martha's Vineyard (day 5)

Honeymoon - Day 3 and 4

To be updated - Spankys and Minigolf (day 3) Newport castle (day 4)

Honeymoon - Day 2

Since Dan has already blogged about this, I am going to make a place for the next couple of days and come back to update these days later.

Provincetown and Whalewatching

Honeymoon - Day 1

Dan has already posted about the honeymoon but I am going to give my point of view and recap also.

Day 1
- woke up at 4:00am for 6:45 flight from BWI to Providence
- arrived in Providence and drove to Plymouth Rock
- learned that the story of Plymouth Rock was made up a hundred years after the Pilgrims first landed
- Dan became obsessed with taking photos of the gnomes
- drove over to Newport which has amazing mansions
- hiked on the cliff walk
- I saved Dan's life by convincing him not to eat everything that looked like a berry that he found along the path
- had some okay chowda
- made an appointment to see ghosts in Newport on Wednesday
- found the guest house, which was decent but nothing extraordinary

the next warren buffet

I am not a stock guru like the kirchhoff but everyone says, "you need to be brave to participate in the stock market". I had this crazy idea. My thinking was that the stock market had gone down so far already, that it couldn't possibly go down any more.

This must be a good time to buy! Stocks are on sale. I decided to buy a small amount of IVV, a stock that is essentially the same thing as the S&P500.

So I tried to put the trade through online but the account was having some problems so I called Fidelity. The person who was helping me on the phone sounded downright depressed. "Oh yeah", he said, "things are taking longer given the current situation". This economic downturn is a "situation". "So, will we be buying or selling today"?, the broker asked me. "Buying," I said with confidence. "Buying?" he asked, skeptically. "Yes," I was very brave.

So, I bought my stock and the market responded buy promptly dropping almost 8%.

No Crazy Cat Lady Here! I'm Married!

Yeah! That's right, I'm married.

I'll keep this post brief because there have been some other fabulous blogs about the "Laura and Dan Wedding". We are a popular topic. Thanks Dan and Kevin!

The wedding was fast and flew by but it was great seeing everyone. Here are a few memorable moments...

1. Groomsmen singing along to our first dance
2. Having extreme emotions during our vows (I alternated between crying and giggling)
3. Dan taking a shot immediately after we walked down the aisle
4. Some compliments on my awesome font choices
5. Lots of people mistakingly thinking I was now "Mrs. Robinson" (sorry folks, I am keeping my last name)

Now I plan on finding new ways of spending my free time other then "wedding planning".

new fontiers

I finished making a seating chart that shows people where they are sitting at the wedding reception. It took a ridiculous amount of time. This is because I take my fonts very seriously. Most people think that I am a missile defense engineer but really, I am a power point engineer.

I estimate that I have spent 100 hours discussing fonts with people. This is because people like to be annoying and complain. They often do not understand enough about my analysis to comment on it so, they complain about the font. These comments have greatly decreased over the years because I have become a font savant (look, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!).

A good font selection adds to the story you are trying to tell. Here are a few samples of my work...

I AM ANGRY!!!
i am timid
i am a robot
I am gay
I AM SHRINKING

See how a few changes to the font can add interest to you statements?