So many things...

I have so many things to share hopefully I will get around to all of them before going back to work next week. Here's just one of them.

Julie's Bachelorette Party...
First we went to a roller derby - did you know Indianapolis has their very own Roller Derby Team? I know how cool is that. They are super good too they outscored the other team by like 140 points. Anyhow it was a first for all of us and I'm sure we'll go again as it was a good time. Here's a few pics (sorry most of the shots I took were blurry I should have brought the bigger camera).
And from the little party at the hotel. Katie and the bride (who by the way isn't getting married until April).
All the girls I think we have 4 Amandas pictured here how fun is that.
And what night would be complete without you best friends requesting you a song and making you go up on stage and be serenaded I'm pretty sure Julie wanted to kill us but I'm sure looking back it was worth it.
More soon.

Newly Remodeled Marion County Library

We went to see the newly remodeled Marion County Library this week. We were very exicited because the little libraries just don't have many books but the big central library has a large circulation. Well while I do enjoy modern architeture I'm a little sad about the remodel. They've taken the old Central Library which I think is a Carnigie Library and cut the back out of it and attached this uber-modern huge building to the back of it. The two are like night and day they seem to be an odd match. You think they would have just made the new building be similar to the old but it's not in anyway it's almost appauling how odd they look together. Anyhow I took a few pictures to share. I couldn't really get a good shot of them melded from the outside as there was a giant crane in the way but you'll have to invision this. In addition to this you can feel the floor slightly give in the new building as you walk across it in spots I'm not entirely sure if this was just me or if it was in fact moving but I felt it more than once so I'm thinking that it does (hopefully it's not cheap construction). However on the good news side - they have a large section of Jay's favorite books, a very large section of craft books, a fancy check-in system complete with a conveyor belt, escalators to ride, giant computer labs, lots and lots of staff to assist, a cute cafe and they are offering a class I want to take. So it's not all bad.

This is the old library the portion which they have perserved.
And the west wing of the old library I love the grand ceilings.
The main room of the old builing, most of the original fixtures are intact and well preserved.
And here we have some of the new library this is the childrens book room.
Here's the best shot I got of where the two meet. If you look closely you can see where the limestone of the old library meets the steel and glass.
And the new portion of the library.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa!

I don't know if you still read this or not but Happy Birthday grandpa! Hope you have a great birthday with the Wagners.

Merry Christmas from Katie and Jay!

Tis the Season...

For holiday get togethers. Unforunately I like an idiot didn't take any photos friday night. But here's some from a work lunch on Friday.


Me, Brett, Amy. Me and Jill
The whole lunch party. I don't know why some of these people won't line up like I asked them too. Oh well.
I've been making Christmas gifts like a crazy person (some will be late since there's just one more shipping day). I'm almost done though.

Merry almost Christmas!

Christmas cupcakes

red velvet with a touch of 7-up, cream cheese frosting and green sprinkles. Ready for a little christmas shebang tomorrow.

I love me some Christmas lights...

What's not to love? I thought for a second this was floppy. But it's not he's snuggled up in bed. Who doesn't love a plastic santa, especially one who drinks coke.
Led lights keeping global warming to a minimum and they are real pretty in real life.
A little house.

Nothing about this says funny to me...

However Jay thinks it's hilarious.

Tuesday 10 - 10 Great Love Movies

thanks for this weeks topic Jeanne. This is a list of 10 great romatic movies, in no particular order because that's too hard. So if you have some spare time this holiday season perhaps you'll enjoy a good movie.

1. Gone with the Wind
2. Terms of Endearment
3. Life is Beautiful
4. Doctor Zhivago (sp?)
5. Anne of Green Gables
6. The Notebook
7. Pride and Prejudice
8. Brokeback Mountain
9. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
10. Bridget Jones's Diaries

Oreo Balls!

We love us some Oreo Balls at the Shrum house today. Here I am about to eat one. Yum Yum.

Here's the recipe for the one we ate. Seems there's other variations of the same recipe but we enjoyed this today.

Oreo Balls
1 Package of Oreos
2 packages of Cream Cheese
1 Chocolate Candy Coating
Crush Oreos & Miz with cream cheese and form into balls. Drop in melted Chocolate and let set on wax paper. Store in regridgerator.

Happy Christmas!

More Fun Christmas...

So it's not Christmas yet! Matching Pajama's and a Christmas Tree Guerilla Art Ornaments Fortunes - We did a little Guerilla Art adventure last night, complete with Chritsmas ornaments and fortunes. We left them all sorts of places. On the newspaper box. Mailboxes.
Wreaths. And more.
We are having a lovely time. I'll post more later.

Home again.

A few fun pics from today.

DC airport. I love the background there. Here we have random crew guy and the washington monument.
Kim and I with our new purses Stephanie made us.
A visit with Santa! I love that we are 3 grown ups and 1 child! Santa was great about it. Sammie did inform me several times this was the real santa as he knows her name and all sorts of stuff about her. They do it right at the Metropolis.
Kim and Sammie. It was so cold out there.

Sometimes even the Virgin Mary can't make my flight leave as planned...

At least not today! I went to the airport around 11 today to try and catch an early flight to Charolette to get out of beantown before the snow. Well I was #4 on Standby and of course they didn't get to my number. So I figure I have an hour or so to kill I might go see something other than planes coming and going that aren't mine. So I get to the cab stand and ask how much it is to go to the Virgin Mary Shrine (BTW I already know it's like less than a mile from the airport having seen the signs when I drop off my rental cars). He tells me about $4 (which is almost unheard of for a cab ride from any airport). So I say it's a deal and hop in. And he takes me there it's like in the middle of the projects if he hadn't been with me I think I would have stayed in the car. We pull up to the shrine which is under construction or at least partially taped off like it's under construction. And there she is inside the gates. It reminded me of memorial in DC which I guess it kind of like what it is only it's a memorial to the Virgin Mary. Anyhow there's a little church and a shop and the whole place was kind of deserted. But I did light a candle, snap a few photos, and say a prayer (I won't go into all the details but I did ask that the snow hold off so I could selfishly celebrate Christmas with my friends tomorrow, but I wasn't entirely selfish). While I was there it began to snow as you can see in the photos. They had a nativity set up too which I always enjoy but no Baby Jesus and shame on me but I thought perhaps someone stole him as it's a rough neighborhood like that. Although the route down the hill was a little less rough.

I hopped back in my cab and went back to the airport only for my flight to be cancelled and the later flight to be cancelled but I was thinking as I booked a hotel before I knew my flight cancelled. So perhaps the virgin mary has no influence over the snow. However she does influnce cabbie Natihsh (or however it's spelled) because he stopped the meter while we were there and the whole adventure only cost me $8. And I know that if the meter was running it would have been more.

Anyhow there's at least 6 inches of snow out there now I'm on a flight to DC and then to Indy tomorrow hopefully I can make it in time for some Christmas Extravaganza although it's still coming down I can barely see I-93 from my window and it's still gridlocked so hopefully those people don't run out of gas.

Dear Santa

I've been a good girl (I promise anything you heard about me is so untrue). I saw these and I think I need them! Of course I also think I need these. I know they aren't polka dots and I only put polka dots on my list but something about sitting in airports and riding city buses draws me to these. Oh and can I get some world peace too?

Thank much!
Love Katie

Today was much better for me although not so much for that lady who passed out yesterday. In a meeting today someone mentioned and that she died on the way to the hospital yesterday. it seems she had some kind of brain anurizium (sp?) and it caused bleeding of the brain. OMG! Poor thing. Can you imagine just going to work one day and then dying before you even got to your desk. I feel horrible for her family she's probably somewhere in the range of 35-45 apparently she had a few kids too :( Sending them good thoughts.

After work today I thought I would be adventureous and go to the JFK library which is like 2 minutes from my hotel. So I google directions (which are slightly written by someone on crack) just follow the signs if you are ever in the area. Well it's right next to UMass - which I'm not sure why anyone would go to school there I didn't see a single bar near campus it's just out on this pennisula with all these big offical building and dorms and apartments ;). People must be getting their learn on there. Some of the buildings have some neat architecture to them though. Well I arrive at the JFK Library which as at the tip of the pennisula and there's like 2 cars in the parking lot so this trip is not looking so good. Seems they close at 5. UGH! Don't they know that some people who want to go to the presidental libraries want them to be open after work? So anyway I walked around a bit out front of the building careful not to slip on any ice. (see photos below they are none to fabulous with the haze/rain going on outside but still documentation that I was there).
After that I came back to my hotel room and I ordered chinese food.

Here we have what Stonehenge must look like if it was in the foreground of the JFK Library.
And the library amongst the haze.
This was probably the best shot I got of it. I must learn to use my camera in the bad weather.

Sometimes Tuesday can't come fast enough...

I should stop this blog post right there but I'm not going to. Here's how my day went...

3:30 am alarm
Snooze
3:45
No more snooze
shower
Rush around
leave for airport
forget laptop cord
return to house
4:30 arrive at airport.
check in for flight.
already ready for a nap.
notice that hair is a little flyaway
my hair seriously needs less static
5 am flight leaves on time
Nap begins
landed early
nap ends
slip on ice coming off the plane
why didn't someone tell me it was icy
clearly in Katieland it is not yet winter
somehow the plane wasn't slipping though
no damage done except pride
proceed to the baggage claim
wait at the wrong claim don't find bag
get a little worried
panic sets in
FLOPPY!
someone gets me in the right direction
find my bag
phew
find rental car shuttle
oh I love enterprise
those cute little guys can carry my bags anyday
get car drive to the office
arrive at parking garage
scan once
nothing
scan twice
still nothing
scan three times
third time is NOT the charm
ring the buzzer
the guard let's me in
thank goodness
find spot
walk to the door
notice weird trail of food to the door
can't help wondering if Hansel and Gretal beat me to the office
leaving their bread and apple crumbs behind them
open door to office
lady passes out cold
she hits her head pretty hard on the side of the wall
I thought guts might spill
they did not
dropped my bags to help her
holler at the guards to do something
they rush over to help
EMTs arrrive fairly quick
lady is still out cold
they take her away on a stretcher
I go to my desk
yet again my badge doesn't open the door
WTH
find my desk
see my new pc
happy smiles
plug in my laptop log in
no email
no email
no email
it's broken
seems we have new security firewalls
no more chat :(
find out I had expired
thus the badge issues
fast forward a few hours
a few more weird
and monday occurances
arrive at hotel
ready for the day to be over

One Crazy Christmas Lady!

I'm not afraid to admit I'm turning into a crazy christmas lady. Please note I however do NOT own a appliqued christmas sweater for every day in December in fact I don't own one and I don't plan on owning one. Tis the season to be cheery!

PF Changs Goes Best With

Old fiends! Of course I look like a goof in the three photos we took! But everyone else looks super cute! Left to right Jason, Jenny G who likes to be called Jennifer, Julie, Russ, Me, Scott (although we still call him Fog). I'm sorry we didn't take a pic before Lauren and Kyle left. Oh well.

We got Snow!

And we love it. We couldn't resist running out on lunch break and checking it out. Here's some of what we saw.

Oh and this house is crazy lawn ornments this photos can't really capture all of it. I wish we had an ariel view so you could see them all together.

And I got a few more ornaments for the RVA swap these are from Bridget in MO. These are the worlds crappiest photos these are cute.