The Christmas Cats

D and I made the trip to Virginia to see my family for the holidays and almost all of the photos we took were of the family cats. I'm sharing so you can see who we give love to these days.


Up first is Priscilla. This was taken just before we left for VA. As you can see, she was not happy about the fact that we left her alone for Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa (we often debate what holiday she celebrates...we're not sure of her beliefs). She was also mad that we missed the Wu-Tang Clan in Pittsburgh the day after Christmas. She has since forgiven us.

Next we have Timone, who inhabits my father and Vikki's house. D was quite taken with Timone and they became fast friends.

Finally, we have Madame, who inhabits my mom's house. Madame was my cat in VA, but I left her behind when I moved to Seattle because my mother couldn't handle the thought of the cat spending four days in the car with me during the drive across the country. Madame now hates me (see the second picture) because I abandoned her - this is her normal reaction to me these days. And she used to love me so much...I guess I deserve the hissing for being a deadbeat mother.










We hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

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WE ARE...PENN SOAKED!!!

Now that we're back on the east coast, I figured it was only fitting to take L to her first home Penn State game, complete with the requisite tailgating beforehand...

Unfortunately, the weather didn't quite cooperate and it was a bit of a rain out. Temps were in the low 50s and the persistent drizzle reminded us of being back in Seattle. We came prepared with freshly waterproofed jackets, ponchos, hats and gloves, but the rain definitely dampened the tailgating atmosphere that Penn State in known for - most folks were huddled around grills in their "easy-up" tents or even just sat in their cars (like L):

Nevertheless, I manned the grill and enjoyed a couple cold ones before the game (check out the award-winning mullet on the guy behind me):

Our seats were decent with a full view of the action, but I was disappointed to see that the weather had kept a lot of people away. I think the fans were still stinging from the painful loss to Iowa that ruined a shot at an undefeated season and a National Championship - the crowd (and the team) appeared to be less than enthused and seemed a little flat. Eventually the Lions (and the crowd) woke up, put some points on the board, and some festivity in the air with the win.

Maybe next year, we'll get tickets to a September game and hope for better weather! :)

LL & DL Attempt to Make a Home

We've been in our wonderful house for almost a year and a half now and we still haven't decorated most of it. Our walls are mostly bare and there's very little color (aside from my hideous green Ikea couch and "the ugly chair." Most of the time I tell folks that we don't have much because it's part of D' minimalist architect mindset. In reality, we haven't had time or enough money to decorate the way we'd really like. SO - we've decided to start chipping away at decorating, room-by-room. The first news is that we've booked a trip to NYC for our anniversary so that we can spend some time with our buddies at the SoHo Room and Board store. We've picked out exactly what we want this trip, so if all goes well, the living room will be done after that venture to the big city. In the meantime, we finally got a rug for our bedroom, which Priscilla loves. She's used to sliding around on the hardwood in our place (and in the Seattle apartment, where the floor resembled the Boston Garden), so the rug is a new adventure. In case you didn't see the "before" pics, this room looks completely different. The previous owners had eggplant walls and cream-colored trim. D spent his week of freedom between jobs painting this room and I like the way it's turned out. It looks kind of lavender-ish in this photo, but it's really a khaki-gray color. The rug and the painting are the same color red too...apparently we need a new camera!! And of course, the Vespa is with us!

We also got a run for under the dining room table, so that room is starting to come together. Now if I could just convince my mother to make us some curtains!

Lastly, if you choose to come visit us (insert guilt trip here because you haven't been to the 'burgh recently), here's where you'll stay. It's not much, but it's comfortable.

Come visit soon!!

Trip to WP…So Much for Crab Carnival

A few weeks ago, for the first time in our relationship, I dragged Darren to West Point for the annual Crab Carnival. I think I really just wanted to go so that I could see some old friends because I didn’t bother to go downtown and eat crabs or socialize with the Pointers. Eva decided to have an impromptu get-together at her parents’ house on Saturday night. 2008 also happens to be 10 years after our wonderful graduation, so she used the event as a way to get together some of our classmates. True to form (we were always lacking spirit as a class), most of our classmates bailed, so it was a pretty small gathering of just our close group of friends. We had a great time catching up and hearing how well everyone is doing. It was awesome to see the Feuchts and learn that they haven’t changed too much since the kids have grown. J I had a good time with my mom and it was awesome to see Cameron, but I totally flaked on the crab-related festivities. I guess my West Point spirit is waning.

(Me, Stephanie, David, and Eva...I don't think David thought I'd actually post this!)

In other news, my job is changing a bit. I’m going to be working with another business unit at work, which will prove to be challenging. I’ll be working in a much more clinical environment (anyone know any nurses?!?!), which will be a big shift from my current focus. I’m excited about the change and ready to put my nose to the grindstone.

It feels like Darren and I are spending all of our spare time talking about politics. We’ve had some heated exchanges with some of our family members because not everyone is on board with our vote for Obama (we’re not being “good Republicans”…don’t they know we’re Independents?!). My mother is on board with Obama, but I can’t seem to convince my grandmother. I wish we had enough time to campaign for him…the nasty messages from the McCain campaign we’ve been getting are making me mad. We actually got a message on our house phone the other day that said “Did you know that Barack Obama associates with domestic terrorists?” I was a bit shocked to have that crap coming into my house. It’ll all be over in three weeks though – hopefully the election will turn out well!

Fall Foliage 2008

Just got back from my parents and their town's annual Fall Foliage Festival. Perfect weather and the drive over from the 'burgh was packed with fall color. This year, dad entered his newly restored '73 VW Beetle convertible in the festival's car show and parade. Dad received a ton of compliments on the car and was asked to trade the Beetle straight-up for a '56 Caddy (which he turned down). Here are a couple more pics from the car show & parade...

Hiking at Ohiopyle State Park...

OK - so I hear that we've been getting some flak for not blogging very often...

Lauren and I decided to get off our butts and do some hiking over the weekend. So we headed down to Ohiopyle State Park. It was a nice, cool, and drizzly day - which reminded us a lot of being back in Seattle! The leaves were just starting to change, so I imagine that we'll try to head back in a couple weeks. Here are a few pics...

Towards the end of our hike, we encountered some "wildlife" hanging out by the river...

Getting Started

As much as I love Facebook, I realize that not everyone has an account, so I've decided to start a blog. Darren's much more apt to participate this way as well.

As for current happenings in the Lloyd household, there's not much to report. We've been in our house for a year now and are settled in. We've been repainting and working on the interior of the house, but haven't had the energy to do much outside. We did finally buy a new car last week, which is huge for us. We've been operating with only one for over 2 years now (Darren's car was stolen in Seattle and we decided not to replace it right away), but the impending Pittsburgh public transit strike was enough to send us to the dealership. Now I'm not sure how we lived without the second car for so long...

Darren started a new job about a month ago and is really enjoying it. The firm is larger and he's really enjoying diversity of the work. Right now he's working on a new YMCA and a church, both in the Pittsburgh area. The great news is that he won't have to travel to the west coast for work anymore! Additionally, he started teaching a third year architecture studio at Carnegie Mellon this week, which I think he'll really enjoy.

We made it to Seattle twice this summer. Darren and I went out in mid-July for Fig and Suzanne's wedding and I went back out in early August for Ellen and Craig's wedding. It was so great to be back in the Emerald City, but the traveling back and forth reinforced why we moved back east. The flights were gruelling! The weddings were both great though, so the travel was worth it.

Fig and Suzanne - July 12, 2008

Craig and Ellen - August 2, 2008

That's all for now...there will be more to come in September. - LL