Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My last blog post!

Yes, it's true. After four years and 844 other posts, this is going to be my very last post on this blog. Since marieljohn.blogspot is not quite as accurate as it once was, and since I'm going to continue to try and get Jeff to write occasionally, I thought I'd better say goodbye to this trusty old blog. But not to worry, I'm just migrating things over to a new address (you can even get all of the older blog posts there). So from now on, you can read about our adventures through everyday life here:

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Honeymoon Video

Jeff and I took about an hour's worth of short video clips during our honeymoon, and I put a few of them together to make this short (about 2.5 minutes) video! Hope you like it!


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Before and After



Jeff's First Day of Work

So business-y!

I made him a special dinner to celebrate. (Stuffed portobello mushroom caps.)


And now he's got a blackberry!

The Last Space Shuttle Launch

The very last Space Shuttle Launch was on July 8th, and Jeff and I decided (kind of at the last minute) that we'd get a car and make the drive down to the launch.

We left Wednesday evening, spent the night in Florence, South Carolina, and got to Cocoa Beach in time for the official launch parties on Thursday night. We ran into friends at the parties and had a really good time. We were going to stay with our friend, Pete, in Melbourne Beach, but Stephanie offered to let us crash on her couch in Cocoa Beach. Since we were planning to be up by 5:15 the next morning to beat traffic to the 11:26am launch, that was much better.


The traffic in the morning was not too bad. Our friend had given us his tickets to the NASA Kennedy Visitor's Center (he'd gotten tickets to an even better viewing spot), and we didn't hit any traffic until the line of cars actually entering the visitors' center.

The weather had been really bad all week, and was forecast to be bad over the weekend, so most people (including us) were kind of expecting the launch to be scrubbed. But we parked and found a spot anyway.

At the visitor's center, there was a big clearing where most people had set up chairs and things. This made it possible to see the shuttle come up above the trees. The countdown just kept going smoothly and the sun kept peaking out until finally the countdown got so low that everyone started to get really excited that it really would go. Then there was a hold at 31 seconds, which definitely made everyone nervous, but they got the glitch cleared up, and the final countdown began!


We saw the shuttle come up above the trees - it really just looks like a very bright point of light - and then heard the rumble of the sound wave. It seemed like everyone there was teary-eyed. I was just holding my camera at my side (not looking through the view-finder), but I did manage to catch a bit of it.

It was pretty amazing to witness such a historic event in person. The last shuttle launch. I can't believe it.

Fourth of July

Jeff and I spent most of the Fourth of July weekend moving things back into our apartment, doing laundry, and generally getting settled.

But on the evening of the Fourth of July, we did manage to make it out to the National Mall to catch the fireworks. Our friend, Rocco, was in town for a conference, so he joined us.






Monday, July 4, 2011

How was the Honeymoon?


Jeff and I have only been back from the honeymoon a couple days, so we haven’t had the chance to talk to many people, but when we do, the main question people ask is, “How was the honeymoon?”

Well, it was amazing. And it’s really hard to describe beyond that without going into so many details! It was an adventure, it was relaxing, it was romantic. There were cities and beaches and historic tours and rooftop drinks and movies and weddings. There were breakfasts in bed, roadside snacks, gourmet meals, unrecognizable treats, and lots of champagne.

Looking back, I can’t think of anything I would change (except to make the whole thing longer!) – there is no location or activity that I would take out, but there weren’t any places I wouldn’t have lingered longer if we had the time. It was an amazing honeymoon.