craigslist, part deux

Here's a picture of my second big craigslist find. I promise I'm done shopping on craigslist for a while. This is a piano from the early 1900's (I'm trying to find a serial # so I can find out the exact date). It plays pretty well. I may have a registered piano technician come check it out to see what it's tuning potential is. You would never guess what we paid for this! (Please excuse my slippers in the picture)And this is where we spent the afternoon. It was CROWDED (dang spring breakers!), so it was impossible to get a pic without random people in it.

I Love Spring

Today was just a nice, spring day. The weather was gorgeous, and this morning I went and got the massage and pedicure here that Kent got me for Valentine's Day/ dissertation defense. It was a GREAT massage and much needed. After I got back we went to a nursery (Floral Tree Gardens) that is right by our house. We had NO IDEA it was as huge as it is. They have golf carts there for you to drive around the place. It was a lot of fun looking around...they have every kind of plant/ tree imagineable We made a couple of friends while we were there:

Friday Lunch

Every Friday at work we take a 2-hour lunch and go somewhere different. Because the weather has been so beautiful, we decided to head down to "Crabs" on the beach for lunch today.

Here we are:

And this was our view:

Now I'm just trying to make it through the rest of the work day!

China Cabinet

So after Kent and I got married, we really needed (wanted) a china cabinet so we could take all of our china out of the boxes. We figured we wouldn't be getting one for a while since they're pretty expensive. Every now and then I'll check out craigslist to see if anything strikes my fancy. Well, last week I found this great china cabinet for super cheap. I thought it was too good to be true, but we decided to drive down to Gulf Breeze Friday after work and check it out anyway.

Now, I knew we were in for a long evening because the couple of times I talked to the seller on the phone turned into at least 30-minute long conversations and I found out that she was married 27 years, just went through an awful divorce, just kicked out both of her kids, lives on disability for her vocal chords, has a lab, ex-husband has a girlfriend, she's lonely and all she has is her dog. I really didn't care to know all of that...I just wanted her china cabinet. And no, I did not share with her that I am a psychologist.

So we headed over to her place and she was quite the character. Let me just paint you a picture. 52-year-old woman (she shared that with us), bleach blond hair, spaghetti strap spandex tank top with no bra, short shorts, 3-inch wedge sandals, and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. She has obviously spent way too much time in the sun and many years smoking cigarettes according to her voice, skin, and teeth. She referred to me as "baby", cursed like a sailor, and to be honest I was a little scared.

We ended up buying her china cabinet and turns out it is a solid wood Ethan Allen piece. We got it for $250...can you believe it! The one downside is that it smells like smoke (go figure). It has 4 boxes of baking soda in it as we speak...and I plan on washing it with Murphy's Oil Soap (thanks google).

On the way home with the china cabinet the lady called me and asked me if I have myspace (are you kidding?!). I knew there was a reason I cancelled my account a couple weeks ago...whew!

DONE!

No more dissertation!! (Well, except for a few revisions). Last Monday, I finally defended it and after all of my stressing and worrying, it sure was anti-climactic. After presenting and answering questions for about an hour and 45 minutes, they sent me out of the room to talk about me. They brought me back in, each gave me a hug and congratulated me. I gathered my stuff and left thinking "that's it?". It was a weird feeling. After visitng with former co-workers at the counseling center, my mom and I headed back to Holly and Derek's house and I was out until dinner. We ate at Caffe Capri (one of my favorites) and then went back home for celebratory cake that Kent's parents brought from Cameron (as you will see in the pic). Being back in College Station really made me miss Texas...but I'll be back for graduation!! (May 16th-2:00 pm) This weekend I've been very lazy and for once I don't feel guilty about it!

Stress-o-rama

This picture pretty much sums up how I've been feeling these days. I'm heading to Slidell today and then on to College Station with my mom tomorrow. I defend my dissertation Monday at noon. I'm a nervous wreck and my biggest fear is that I will be "that one" that is talked about for years in the program for not passing her dissertation defense. Don't even try to tell me not to worry about it...because I'm going to worry and stress. However, I am looking forward to (hopefully) celebrating with Kent's family after it's done.

I'm bummed that Kent and I will be apart for our first married Valentine's Day. In fact, we've NEVER been together on Valentine's Day. Ugh. But, he gave me my present last night, which is a gift certificate for a massage at a spa. Perfect gift for post-dissertation!

Family, Food & Fun

My parents came to visit this weekend. It was a nice weekend, and it feels like all we did was eat! Kent made his steaks on Friday night. I still remember the first time my parents ate some of Kent's steak and they were talking about how good it was for weeks! Saturday Kent had to go up to the university and stretch out/ warm up 540 Girl Scouts (can you imagine!?) While he was doing that, my parents and I went out to lunch in Historic downtown Pensacola. We went to Dharma Blue, which is actually where they took me for dinner when I interviewed for my job. After Kent was done, we all went to the Joe Patti Seafood Market. This place is amazing (if you like seafood). It was actually just featured in Southern Living. It's backed up to the bay, so boats just unload the fresh seafood right into the market. We got 7 pounds of shrimp and cooked it 4 different ways (boiled, fried, and grilled 2 different ways). Other than eating, we did lots of wii playing. I can't believe it's already Sunday night again...boo!