Kaboom!

That's the noise that is coming out of the server hosting this blog... Somehow, we managed to crash our blog site a month or so ago. You may have (or maybe not) noticed that we haven't posted in a while... Now you know why. At any rate, instead of going through recreating another blogger site, we've switched our blog to WordPress!

We're leaving this site up for now, but will only be updating the WordPress site. Please come find us here! http://anneandbrian.wordpress.com/

See you soon! Brian

This is a test...

So a few months ago, I got a new program called Adobe Contribute.  I knew that it was designed to help work with blogs, but I had no idea that it would work with the Blogger site.  It's actually totally integrated with other programs (IE, Adobe Bridge, etc.) to make it easier to publish content.  I guess you should expect more out of us in the near future since I just got it to work!

I sold my house!

The first big step in merging our lives is to live in the same place... While we're not doing that just yet, we took one giant step forward today. I sold my condo, and I'm moving into a short-term lease apartment for the next few months. Fortunately, this gives us some liquidity, and will let us move my stuff to Anne's easily. Farewell pictures of my place, and pics of the new apartment will follow soon!

I'm 25 and there's less than 3 months to go!

Last Friday marked the 3 month countdown for our wedding! We celebrated it and my birthday with an evening at "Art on the Rocks" and a celebratory bottle of champagne. Saturday was spent with friends for a relaxing birthday party complete with a delicious dinner by Brian, a dip in the pool, and my favorite birthday cake (angel food filled with sherbet and fresh whipped cream). My mom arrived Saturday night and helped me celebrate my 25th birthday on Sunday with a quiet evening at home and a yummy home-cooked dinner, then we forged straight on into "Wedding World" for the remainder of her visit. We tied ribbons on bubbles, we tapped into our crafty sides making bouquets, boutonnieres, pew markers, and corsages, I modeled my wedding dress and my mom cried as we picked out a veil, the girls came over to stuff the invitations and sample wines for the reception, and my mom countless stops to take care of other wedding details while I was at work... It was a busy week, and all I can say is I can't wait 'til October when I become Mrs. Anne Dranka!

Jealousy

So Anne is off in Colorado for a week proving that she is in fact a top scientist (not that I ever had any doubt). Though many people apply, Anne was one of only 100 or so students and post-docs that got chosen to attend this year's Pathobiology of Cancer workshop in crummy Aspen, CO. I don't know why I can't go to some cool place with cool people and learn all about the absolute cutting edge in my research field too. Jealousy rears its ugly head...

Anne's Dress

So I answered a phone call in the lab a few days ago, and the caller asked for Anne. I turned and gave the phone to her, and after a very brief conversation she hung up. It turns out it was the guy from the bridal shop calling to inform her that her dress had come in! Exciting huh?

Who wants to tell me what it looks like?

After reading Kelly's Blog and seeing that the neurotic test worked so well for her (sorry Kel, it really does describe you to a T), I decided to take it as well. See below:

Your Score: The Geek
You scored 20 anxiety, 57 awkwardness, and 52 neuroticism!


You stick out like a sore thumb, with your social awkwardness and mildly neurotic behaviors--but you don't let it get you down! You are The Geek, and are here to prove that people who know the first 1000 digits of pi and try to woo dates by talking about calculators can be happy too! You have friends...and they are probably just as odd as you.

Your low anxiety score implies that you are able to relax, can enjoy the here and now, and have a healthy amount of self-confidence.

Your high awkwardness score implies that you are socially inept, probably stick out from the crowd, and perhaps feel uncomfortable in large groups of people, such as at parties. Your high neuroticism score implies that you exhibit neurotic behaviors--probably fanatic obsessions, counting compulsions, or other geekish tendencies. You may know every word to LOTR, or draw anime of all your friends.


I totally disagree! I may be a geek, and I may be engaged through the love of nitric oxide, but I don't have counting compulsions or anything crazy like that....And I only stick out like a sore thumb because I'm tall. Well, at least that's what I think...

Thoughts?

Fresh Vegetables

I have to say, I really enjoy this time of year. The last few weeks we've been getting fresh vegetables and fruits from various local and/or organic sources, and have mostly eaten fresh whole foods everyday. I highly reccommend the Pepper Place Farmer's market for anyone in the area that wants some local veggies.

Wedding Bands

Went shopping for Wedding Bands last night. I had no idea that the price of Platinum can increase so much! The lady at the jewlery store we went to said that it's up to $2000/oz. currently. That makes for some expensive rings! Anne's engagement ring is platinum, and the same setting at the place I bought it is now nearly double the price! So I checked out the year-long price history for platinum, and it's gone through the roof lately. Who knew?? Stupid housing market....I think it's affecting even this.

Lots of Parents in Town!

This weekend, Anne's Dad and Stepmom drove to Birmingham to visit us, so my parents drove up from Mobile to meet them and hang out with everyone. We both really enjoyed having everyone here for a while, and even though we didn't do anything too big in terms of wedding planning, it was great for everyone to get to chat for some time.

We did get the tuxes picked out, which was one of the major things that we had left to accomplish. While I'm still mostly in the dark about what Anne will be wearing, I do know that the gentlemen will be dressed to the nines......

Oh yeah, and it turns out that my Mom is a great bowler.....she beat us all hands down in two games on Saturday afternoon.

Weekend Warriors

Brian and I have been working hard to finish updating his condo before we put it on the market (our goal is April 1st). Here's some of our progress!

Dining Room


Living Room




If anyone knows anyone in the market, send them our way!

Half Marathoners

Last spring when Brian and I started a "Couch to 5K" running program with the Birmingham Track Club, I'm not sure I really believed I could finish a 5K, but last weekend we ran our first half marathon! After deciding to officially train in September, we put in many long hours on road, wore out 4 pairs of tennis shoes, and suffered through our fair share of aches and pains, but WE DID IT! We finished the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham with a time of 2:21:01. It's time for a little break and some cross training, but we're definintely setting our sights on a repeat performance later this year.

Wedding Planning

With Anne's Mom as well as my parents in town, we spent the entire weekend doing wedding planning things. It was really fun, and actually quite productive. Of greatest note is that Anne bought her Wedding Dress! Unfortunately I don't get to see it. Well, not until October at least. I'm thinking it will be well worth the wait!

Congratulations!

To Anne for passing her qualifying exam! For the non-scientists out there, the qualifying exam is a grueling rite-of-passage for every PhD candidate where they display their knowledge about their research, and prove that they can think on their own two feet. There are two parts: a long paper that essentially outlines everything she wants to do for her thesis, and an oral exam where she discusses that paper with the group of faculty who determine when she graduates. Anne of course passed with flying colors, and is now officially a candidate for the PhD degree!

Whirlwind Holiday

While I headed to Iowa to celebrate the holidays with my dad, Lenny, Kate, and the step-bros, Brian took off for Mobile with Bentley to see his family. After Christmas, we regrouped in Birmingham for a day then caught a flight to Denver to spend a week with my mom, Marto, Kate, Gina and Ray in Winterpark, CO.

We skiied...

We sledded...

We snowshoed...

and rang in the New Year...

before heading home!