An open letter to the man driving the scary white van

Dear Man with the Scary White, Windowless Van:

Would you like to cut me off while driving on Brownsboro Road? Sure you would! Turn signal hand broken? Of course it is! See if I care, buddy- I'm too strong to be upset by your carefree and dangerous driving... my horn is reserved for emergencies only!

Take care out there on the road,
Laura

Dave's back

After a great weekend of tooth learnin' in St. Louis, Dave came back smarter than ever. He was happy to see Paul Ley, his buddy from dental school, who also attended the conference. Now he's reading a seemingly endless book of journal articles for tomorrow's Q&A at school. I cleaned the house from top to bottom today, and although I doubt the cleanliness will last long, I'm especially proud of the state of my kitchen. Perhaps I'll turn that into a monthly update- The State of the Kitchen....

Today's fact- Kentucky has 120 counties, third in the U.S. behind Texas' 254 and Georgia's 159. The original motivation for having so many counties was to ensure that residents in the days of poor roads and horseback travel could make a round trip from their home to the county seat and back in a single day. Later, however, politics began to play a part, with citizens who disagreed with the present county government simply petitioned the state to create a new county. The 1891 Kentucky Constitution placed stricter limits on the creation of counties, and we've held steady ever since.

Volleyball!

The reason you will not be seeing any pictures from last night's volleyball game is that it rained off and on the whole time and we looked ridiculous. Long story short- Jennie, James and I arrived at the game a couple hours early so we could kill the nerves with a couple of beers. We ran into a guy that James knows who was supposed to play right away and didn't have a complete team, so we offered to play with his team. So we played two full games of volleyball, which was a bit exhausting. Sadly, we lost both games, but we definitely have potential for greatness.

At some point in the game, I decided that the only way to please the Volleyball Gods was to sacrifice something- my body, namely. So I dove for the ball at every opportunity, landing once about two inches from complete splits- pretty impressive for my shorty soccer legs!

Today I am tired and sore, but feeling good about my performance. Jennie and I went to see the movie version of Hairspray, and it was fantastic! Now I'm going to settle in for a Cubs game and an early night. Hopefully I'll be able to walk a little easier tomorrow!

Oh, the dinner...

Last night our friends Jennie and James made a true southern feast for Dave, Brandi and me, as well as Krista and Jill, friends from college. They made: fried green tomatoes, salad, hot brown sandwiches, collard greens, and derby pie. It's a miracle we survived the night- the food was delicious, but certainly the kind that clogs the arteries.

I would like to focus on the hot brown and the derby pie, two things I'd never had before last night. The hot brown is Louisville's food contribution to society. It's the thing that you can only find here, and it was created at the Brown Hotel here many years ago. It's an open faced sandwich that it made of texas toast, deli turkey, melted cheddar cheese, a white sauce (like bechamel, but with cheese mixed in), tomatoes, and of course, bacon on top. As I told Jennie last night, if loving the hot brown is wrong, I don't want to be right.

The derby pie is fantastic, ooey gooey deliciousness. And Jennie gave me the recipe, and now I'll share with you:
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pie shell from the store

Mix all the ingredients, dump in pie shell, and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

It was the greatest.... Tonight, I'm going to play volleyball to work some of this meal off. Dave's in St. Louis, so if anyone wants to visit me, now's the time!

We need friends!

I've come to a realization. Dave and I are turning into losers with hardly any friends. We are thrilled to have Jennie here, and she's great to hang out with, but the poor dear has a life and can't possibly hang out with us every day. So we need to make more friends together, and I need to find people to meet for lunch during the day, because it's hard to lunch alone while working from home!

So I've been pondering some ideas- I think I'll start going to Louisville Young Democrats meetings and see if we can sign up to do some volunteer work for them. They're surely a rowdy bunch. And we've joined a beach volleyball league, so we should meet some people there. Clarification: by beach, I mean some sand that they put in the beer garden at a bar. We play volleyball, and the drunk people sit above and laugh at us. I hope they don't throw bottles!

So if anyone out there knows of friends for us in the area, please lemme know. We're pretty easy to hang with. And we know things about Kentucky! For instance, Kentucky has the nation's most productive coalfield. Between that and the bourbon, we're really serving America's health...

Fact o' the day

We had another great dinner with Brandi tonight, followed up with some Singing Bee. If you haven't yet checked out that show, you should... you can sing along with the fools who don't know the words!

Today's fact- Kentucky is home to the world's longest cave system. We'll have to go see some of those soon.

Brandi's here!

Our dear friend Brandi is here from Indianapolis for the week. She's here for some work training, and is staying just a few miles from here. We're so lucky to have a buddy to keep us company all week, and we had a great time with her tonight.

In other news, I got a new cell phone today, which was free because I was due through my plan. It looks like the photo, except it's bright orange, and it opens to become a keypad that you can use to e-mail. And there's a cool camera! I have to say, it's pretty cool, and I've been messing with it all night. Dave's just glad that my ringtone is no longer Blondie's "Call Me"- although I'm sure he'll get sick of the Copacabana soon...

Factoid- Kentucky is the 37th largest state in land area and 26th in population.

We're back....

We had a great time in Cincinnati- Mollie and Bart were excellent hosts, and we got to hang out with lots of buddies we met at their wedding. We went out Friday night and had a great cookout last night at the house. It is great to live so close! The trip down there from Chicago, as you can imagine, was less than pleasant.

Here are a couple pics from our trip- the first one is of Danielle, Julie, Mollie and me from our night out, the second is of Dave with Bart and Mollie when we arrived .

Here's the factoid of the weekend- While the origin of Kentucky's name has never been definitively identified, it likely came from an Iroquoian word for "meadow" or "prairie."

We're off to Cincinnati

Dave and I are going to Cincinnati this weekend to visit our awesome friends Mollie and Bart. We're very excited, and I promise lots of pics when we get back. But for now, a few pics from our last visit with these two hooligans... As you can see, the boys like to make silly faces when they're together!

Pukin' Rally!!!

So, today Dave and I had a very adult moment. We were sick of our nasty carpets, so we had Stanley Steamer come and clean them for the low, low price of $84. Sylvester, however, decided that the carpets were a bit too clean, and decided to vomit on them. Twice. Our expense was all for naught...

Today's factoid: Kentucky has the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the US.

Today's factoid

Brandi suggested that I expound on yesterday's fact. Some info about commonwealths: The difference between commonwealths and the other states is in name alone -- they elected to call themselves commonwealths, a term drawn from political theory. There is no legal difference, however, between the two. There are four commonwealths in the US: Kentucky, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

So basically they want to be different for the sake of being different. So there!

Little Cabin in the Woods...

Little man by the window stood. Saw a rabbit hopping by, knocking at my door.... Remember that song from camp? Well, my brother Craig and Dad are building Mom's dream- an addition to the Pip family compound. Before you know it, we'll all be living there, stockpiling ammo and drinking Kool-Aid.

Really though, the cabin has come along quite quickly, and while I'm sure it's strange for Dad to have Craig (who's a contractor) as the boss of him, it looks great and they're having lots of man bonding.

Dave and I can't wait to go home to see this puppy. Great job, guys!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!!

So, it's my sister Sarah's 28th birthday today, and we wanted to wish a big happy birthday to her! Pictured is not my sister, but rather another Sarah Whaley that came up on Google. Since I didn't have a picture of my own, I figured that this was the next best thing!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

Pray for Rain

I don't own a lawn or any livestock, but I'm hoping it rains so that Jennie can skip softball and have dinner with us. For those of you who don't know Jennie, here's a pic. She holds the esteemed position of being our only friend in L-ville, and therefore the person we bother most on Earth these days. I know, Mom, you think we bother you a lot, but you're a close second to Jennie! As you can see, Jennie likes beer, and so we were fast friends.

Anyway, I'm gonna go outside and do my rain dance. I've also decided to post a daily factoid about Kentucky for you yankees. Today's fact: Kentucky is not a proper state. It's a commonwealth, and it joined the Union in 1792.

Update on kitty mutiny

Earl has crossed the picket line! Here he is, climbing all over me as usual. I'm glad to have Earl's company, but Sylvester is now extra grouchy that his buddy has jumped ship. We're having tuna steaks for dinner- I'm betting that a few leftovers will go a long way back into his heart.

I'm a bad mother...

So the cats have only been here for a couple of days, and things have been going great. Until this morning. I got back from the gym at about 8:30 am, and while I was pouring my cereal Sylvester crept up behind me and I stepped back, right on his little kitty foot. I didn't get him hard enough to hurt his paw, but his feelings are damaged irreparably. He yelped and went straight under the bed in the guest room. He persuaded Earl to join him, and there they still sit, 4 1/2 hours later.

I've begged, pleaded, demanded, cajoled and threatened, but they appear to be protesting my cruel ways. I'm sure when Dave gets home they'll shower him with kisses and tell him all about me...

The Kitties Are Here

We were so pleased to spend time with Pam and Keith (Mom and Dad Pflum) this weekend. They came yesterday, bringing lots of goodies in the van, including our two long-lost felines, Sylvester and Earl. For those of you who don't know the drama, the little darlings weren't welcome by management in our Chicago apartment, so P&K stepped up and housed them for more than a year. This left them with a total of 5 cats and their little energetic bundle of joy, puppy Daisy. Despite being labled by neighbors and friends alike as "Crazy Cat People," they took care of the boys like loving surrogate parents. Thanks Pam and Keith!

So the kitties seem to be adjusting well, though we're sure they miss their animal and human buddies in Lafayette. We had a great time with Pam and Keith, playing some serious late night Wii and cooking beer can chicken on the grill. We were sad to see them go this morning.

Tonight we're going to see Harry Potter. Dave continues to allow me to drag him to these films, despite his general lack of interest. The things we do for love...

Enjoy what's left of your weekend, everyone. Think good thoughts for my friend Kristin, who is about to burst with her second baby and feeling a bit uncomfortable. Hang in there, Kris!

A Birthday Poem For Uncle Ron

You are the greatest Uncle
To us you're number one
So on your big, big birthday
We wish you lots of fun!

Ok, so I'm not a poet. But we'd really like to wish Uncle happy birthday many times. 70 times, to be exact...

We HATE the dog next door!!!

An open letter to the lady who lives next door...

Dear Lady Who Live Next Door:

I know that you enjoy your enormous, scary dog, but some of us have concerns. Your dog is really, really loud. So loud that it would probably bother you, but you're fortunate enough to go to work during the day. You can't hear your noisy dog throughout the afternoon while it barks at every passing car and every person who walks by. But I CAN hear your dog. Sometimes I'm downstairs working and I hear what sounds like a loud knocking on my door. I go to see if it's the UPS guy, but no! It's your stupid dog!

We have lived through the worst neighbors ever in Chicago. We had a neighbor whose alarm clock played the Nutcracker Suite every morning. We could hear it at 6 am, but he didn't seem to hear it till at least 7:30, at which point we were wide awake, knocking and swearing. That same neighbor had an infant and a 2 year old that cried at different times, pretty much covering all of the night and day.

But nothing, Lady Who Lives Next Door, is more annoying than your dog! Because we know that if we walk outside while you are taking out the dog, it will likely bark and thrust at us as though it wants to kill us as much as we want to kill it. I spend a good deal of time thinking of ways to knock off your dog without being caught. I would recommend that you send your dog to doggie day care before I get out of control.

Sincerely,
Laura and Dave (We hate your dog!!!)

Here's our blog!!!

Welcome! Dave and I are all settled in down here, and while we miss all our friends and family, we're having a great time. Note the pic of us in front of the giant Louisville Slugger. Some quick observations about the town we now call home:

• People don't use their turn signals. That's annoying, but they're also unlikely to run you off the road with rage.
• Southerners call us "honey" and "sweetie" with alarming frequency, never noting that we're not that sweet.
• The food here will kill you quickly, but it seems like a great way to die. Some examples of the things we've seen since we got here are: cheddar grits, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits and gravy, fried green tomatoes, fried dill pickle chips, black eyed peas, burgoo (a Southern specialty made of roadkill), and a one and a quarter pound burger.

We're going to a reception for Dave's new classmates tonight. Hopefully they'll serve beer and let us take their pictures, because we need to post visual references!