Of Mice and Moving

A very exciting day to blog about! This morning at work Jason discovered a live mouse wedged between his file cabinet and cubicle partition. SICK. We all peered in to get a look at the scared little thing, and when I spied its beady black eyes I couldn't help but scream and jump from the counter I was standing on (nearly twisting my ankle landing in heels). Good way to get the whole office tweaked! Maintenace came a bit later on and clobbered it... I was in a meeting at the time, but those nearby reported trauma at hearing the terrible squeals and shrieks. Though general consensus was to donate our furry friend to one of the research buildings, I'm fairly certain he met a different end. First task tomorrow morning? Empty the orange peels and used yogurt containers from the garbage under my desk!

This evening I continued my moving efforts. Nooo, I'm not moving back to Minnesota - I'm only traveling two buildings away to a smaller (cheaper) unit on my current complex. Earlier this year the management office sent me the renewal offer on my current apartment at a much higher rate - and refused to negotiate. ARGH! The letter came the week I was on a big "I refuse to spend money on things I don't really need!" kick, so partially out of defiance and mostly due to frugality, I decided to downgrade to a one bed/one bath. The prospect of a little less space is forcing me to go through bins, boxes and cabinets to purge excess. It's been a good cleansing activity, and will culminate in one large haul to the local Goodwill. ;-) Movers are coming this weekend to do the heavy lifting and hauling. Starting Monday, I'll be in #308. Please feel free to update your contact information!

Jax = spring break for Minnesotans!

Earlier this year Kristi Jean the school teacher got to escape Minnesota while her students were escaping the classroom for spring break. We had a great time bumming around Jax while she was here for nearly a week in late March/early April! Fortunately there were enough nice weather days to do a lot of the things we had planned outdoors as well as indoors... We made it to the beach, pool, baseball game, an afternoon at the Landing and Main Library, a Dueling Pianos performance, and some fun dinners.

Cheering on the FSU/UF players at Jax Baseball grounds (and probably still a little elated from inhaling huge ball park franks with all the fixings. ;-)
Go Seminoles! Er, go Gators! I guess we wanted both teams to have a good game. Unfortunately a winner was never determined, because a huge storm hit at the bottom of the sixth inning, the game was cancelled and the park vacated.
Posing in front of the big blue bridge downtown.
An afternoon at the Jacksonville Landing...

...where we found some very cultured establishments!
Drinks and bruschetta at The American Cafe! Notice our opposing team shirts? We had a little fun with letting people think we were bitter sports rivals (when in reality we'd run out to Wal-Mart the night before and raided the clearance racks. ;-)

We had an indulgent four-course dinner at The Melting Pot... seriously, food has never been such an event. Uffdah.

Pretend it's 4/4/09...

... the day of Lucas's first birthday party! Unfortunately I didn't make it back to Minnesota for the occasion, but I did manage to snag some pictures from Mom's camera. A full house of family and friends came to help celebrate, and Lukie had a great day! Mom told me he didn't know what to do with his "smash cake"... they put it in front of him on his high chair tray, and he just stared at it. They tried to help him out by sticking his hands into it, but having messy frosting fingers made him cry! Poor little guy. He opened lots of wonderful gifts, but the favored item of the day ended up being a balloon-on-a-stick. ;-) Go figure.

Just before turning a year, Lukie gave his Mom and Dad a great present ... he started walking! He's cruising all around the house these days and is accumulating an impressive collection of little sneakers and sandals. I can't wait to see him -- hopefully there will be a couple nice trips back over the summer.

Enjoy the pics...