14 Days

Two weeks...that's it...only two weeks until I am on a plane to Turkey. Yippee! I'm getting excited and nervous all at the same time! :)

What a great weekend...we were supposed to have our annual Spring movie night on Friday, but due to some inclement weather, we were forced to reschedule for the beginning of May. Instead, we went bowling with Jim, Jeanne, and the kids. Had a great time just hanging out and drinking some drinks while we bowled. I'm still getting used to my new bowling ball...Chuck assures me that I will get better with this one, but I'm not too good to begin with, so I'm not holding my breath! :)

Saturday night, we went to see Brian's show at the Tin Angel with Reuter, Jim, and Jeanne. The show was a lot of fun...even though we had to get there amid a veritable downpour!! It was the first time that Reuter and Jim had seen him play, and they were both pretty impressed! They really enjoyed it and Jimmy ended up buying a few CD's before we left.

Sunday morning, (yes, after having been out the night before drinking at Brian's show!) Reuter, Chuck, and I got up to run the Dash for Organ Donor Awareness 10K at Kelly Drive. After the great parking struggle, I ended up parking at CCP and jogging down to the museum for the start....it was a good warm up! :) The weather was really pretty nice...it was cool and a bit drizzly at first, but that actually was ok. The run went well, although as of this morning, they still do not have me posted in the results!! I swear I was there! :)

All in all...fun weekend. Now, it's back to work and all that good stuff!! :):)

The Countdown Begins

18 DAYS!!!

In 18 days, I will be on a plane to Turkey! Wow...I am beginning to get a little nervous. I have spent the day looking into details that I have not looked into so far...insurance, visas, ect. It's so much more complicated than you think when you're traveling that far away, but it's so very exciting, too!

The images above are from the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. This was the palace of the Ottoman sultans, built around 1450 and used until 1850. Today it is a museum, and is on our list of sites to see. Can't wait...it should be absolutely gorgeous!!!

Whirlwind Weekend

Another weekend flew by...this time it flew by while I was happily in the company of my mom, dad, Grams, and brother and his family. It was quick...too quick...but great! So awesome to see my dad looking good and feeling better. I finally got to see my new nephew, which was also nice. He's a cutie...looks a lot like my brother when he smiles, which is nice! All the photos are in the gallery, including a great one of my dad and Noah.

We didn't do much over the weekend...we ate a lot of food, played cards, drank some good wine, talked a lot, and just enjoyed the company of everyone! Honestly, I didn't even leave the house on Saturday, but I was really really ok with that.

I ran into Dave at church on Sunday (hi, Dave! :)) That was quite a surprise as neither one of us had told the other that we would be in town. Too bad I didn't know ahead of time, or we could have spent some time together on Saturday. Oh, well! Anyway...that's about it...the new camera worked really well, although it does have a bit of a tendency to eat batteries...I'll have to look into the lithium ones. All in all though...great time! :)

Keester on the Way

Keester (also known as Easter) is on the way! Normally, I get very excited about this holiday....if only for the fact that I get to annoy my husband by hiding eggs and easter baskets around the house and forcing him to find them! This year, however, I am heading to Michigan to visit my Dad. Of course, I am still looking forward to this...it's just not the same as annoying Chuck! :) Anyway...

Dad actually had another surgery on Monday night. He had a build up of fluid around his heart which was causing a bunch of complications. They relieved the pressure and drained the fluid, but at the moment, he is still in the Cardiac Care Unit at the hospital. Hopefully, he will be out for the weekend. Otherwise, I'll be spending Keester making him hunt for eggs in his bedpan! :) Just kidding! (He doesn't have a bedpan!) I'm just happy to be getting home to see him...it's been very hard to be so far away and feel unable to do anything. Even if anything just means visiting him.

That's it for now...I finished the bedroom last night. We now have furniture and it looks great! Check out the photos in our gallery. They aren't great because it's hard to take a great photo of the room, but you'll get the idea! :)

Stupid People Stories are the Best

Just had to show it...stupid people stories:

MSNBC

On a side note...and thankfully a not so stupid one...in the world of crazy celebrity children names like Pilot Inspektor and Kal-El, it's nice to see someone go biblical on our butts (or is it?). Thank goodness Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin has the sense to avoid another fruity encounter...they chose the name Moses instead. Phew...thank goodness that kid will never get teased!

Wild and Wooly Weekend

Well, here we are and it's Monday again! Whoa...where did the weekend go? It seems like it was just yesterday that I was looking forward to my weekend off...now it's Monday again!

Thursday was Coldplay...Friday, Chuck and I went to First Friday. This is when all of the galleries in the Olde City section of Philly open up and have drinks and snacks and welcome visitors. It was pretty neat overall. Lots of the work was kind of repetitive or not overly original, but there were a few particular shows that were really good. I particulatly enjoyed the show at the Artist's House Gallery. A handful of artists - each wildly different, but really phenomenal. It was cool.

Saturday, we decided to forgoe a trip to the beach in order to...shop at IKEA???? This was Chuck's idea...if you can believe that?! We went there looking for a new coffee table for the living room and came home with a brand new bedroom set, complete with two bedside tables, two dressers, an armoir and a bed! All of this, of course, needed to be put together!!! Anyway...we spent the rest of Saturday night putting together the two bedside tables and the armoir. On Sunday, we put together the bed and I put together my dresser, leaving his dresser for sometime this week. (You can see photos in the link on the left)

To top it all off, we also went to Wissahickon to run on Sunday morning. I know that I personally logged somewhere just under 6 miles! :)

We both zonked out pretty badly last night on our new bed, and while I'm feeling pretyt good, I am a bit tired today.

I set up a Yahoo Photo Album this morning, so I will be adding to that over time. For now, it includes some of our home improvements and a picture of our niece Ava. Man, she's cute!!! :) I'll update it soon...take a look again later!

Coldplay

Well...the bad news about last night's concert was that Jeanne was unable to go with me! She found herself a bit under the weather, and just couldn't make it out. Which meant that, despite my attempts to find myself another "date", Chuck had to go with me. Problem...he is neither a Coldplay fan, nor much of a concert-going fan! Nevertheless, he humored me by going along!

The good news was that the show was really good! They are a dynamic group of performers...Chris Martin spent the majority of the show running (or rolling) around the stage or jamming at the piano. I must acknowledge however, the Bono-esque entrance with Martin in front of a huge TV screen a-la Zoo TV tour in 96. We also got an impromptu song from the guitarist, which was great. All in all...I enjoyed the show and wouldn't mind taking them in again in the future...if they ever return to the US! Philly was apparently their last tour stop "for a long while" (which prompted cheers from the crowd....hmmm...people were happy that they weren't going to be back???). While it was no U2 show...it was really pretty cool.

I would add a photo, but unlike the rest of the world that came packing their digital cameras...I just enjoyed the moment! I found it hilarious that people all around me were watching the show through their cameras so that they could video tape it instead of actually watching the band. I guess they figure they can always watch the video later...kind of removes the significance of being at a live show though, eh?

Turkeys and Tunes

Ok...so here's an interesting story...

I was out running the other morning...around 5 am or so. As I turned a corner to head back up a hill to our house (mind you, I am in the middle of a subdivision), I see a curious sight. Walking across the front lawn of a house that sits about 2 blocks from ours is...a TURKEY!!! A wild turkey. She walked up to their front porch and behind some bushes and proceeded to poke her head up and look at me a few times before I continued on my way. I just could not believe it...a wild turkey...in NEW JERSEY...in my subdivision! It was funny! Anywho...that's my interesting story.

Jeanne and I are heading to the Coldplay concert tonight. Should be a lot of fun...everyone I know who has seen them says they're great! We'll see.

Yali

This is a yali on the Bosporus. Beautiful old homes once owned by the upper-class in Istanbul. Now, many of them are in disrepair, although there has been a city-wide movement to buy them, fix them up, and return them to prominence along the water!

Merhaba...Hello

Facts about the Turkish language...which I have been studying for the past couple of months, in preparation for my upcoming trip...

- Turkish is the 7th most prevalently spoken language in the world (out of almost 4000)
- Turkish is spoken by over 200 million people
- About 90% of the population in Turkey speaks Turkish...probably not a surprise, but what about...
- over a million speakers of Turkish live in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece
- more than 1.5 million speakers of Turkish live in Germany and near half a million live in other European countries.
- Turkish was originally written using the Arabic alphabet. In 1928, Kemal Ataturk changed the alphabet to the Latin and traveled around the country teaching the new alphabet to his people, who were now predominately illiterate!!
- The Turkish language continues to evolve today and students in primary schools throughout Turkey learn new vocabulary words (to replace foreign words that often inhabit the language) every year!!

As you can imagine...it's a tough language to learn! I am doing my best and just hope to be able to haggle in the marketplace and politely say hello to our contacts and colleagues in Istanbul!

We had a meeting last week and went over the itinerary briefly. We'll be visiting Hagia Sophia on our first day, which should be pretty incredible. This, for me, is an iconic symbol of Istanbul and since I teach it every semester, will be great to actually experience. I'm sure that my comprehension of the site will be greatly improved through interaction with it.

Most of the rest of the week is not set in stone, but we will be spending our mornings in meetings and our afternoons wandering the city and seeing the sights. We will be taking a boat trip around the Bosporus (Bogaz in Turkish), which will include visiting the yali, which are the old houses that line the Bosporus.

On our last day, we have an optional trip to Ephesus, which is an ancient city built by the Romans. It is a beautiful city...although Suzanne and I are considering hitting the baths for the day and relaxing there instead of going to Ephesus!! We're looking into it! :)

That's it for now...

Spring has Sprung

Spring is here in Philadelphia, finally!! It seems like it has taken forever to get here, but the trees are finally in bloom, the warm weather is here, and if you look at the image of downtown, you can just catch a glimpse of the pink water that is currently flowing from the fountain in Love Park. I spent Sunday at the museum...it was really a nice day to walk through the city and just enjoy being outside for a little while.

Out like a Lion...

Well, March is certainly heading out like a lion with all of the excitement in our lives lately!!! Dad is doing better everyday (despite the rough one here and there) and Noah is also doing well, although my brother is sick at the moment!! On another exciting (and equally frightening) note...I have made the decision to return to school in the fall. As of September 2006, I will be a Doctoral student at Temple University working toward writing my dissertation on 19th century American art...most likely focused on images of children and family portraiture. I say frightening, because I'm going to do this while working full time at CCP and keeping the rest of my life in order! It's going to be a crazy few years, but I really think I'm ready for it. Better yet, so do my professors at Temple, which makes me feel pretty cool about it.

Turkey is now only a month away. Wow...I still am having a bit of a hard time dealing with the reality that I am going to be in a country half-way around the world in a short time. It's very exciting, and I am really looking forward to going! I have been studying my Turkish, which is a really tough language, but I can introduce myself, ask how someone is, and count to 10!!! :) I'm working hard...we are having a language lesson on Friday, so I hope to be able to learn some more!

News from the past couple of days:

Friday, March 24, 2006
10:32 am
Noah Christian Rieder was born
9 pounds 1 ounce and 19 1/2 inches long, he is described by his father (my brother Aaron) as short and fat! Hopefully, not forever! :)
Noah and Liz are both home and doing well. Emma and Aaron are adapting to life with another body around the house. Wow...amazing to think that they have this whole family! We're not quite ready for that...one day.

Monday, March 27th, 2006
7:00 am
Dad went in for Open-Heart Surgery to replace his aortic valve.
Quite a few hours later, we hear that the surgery is over and he is doing well.
Several more hours later, he is awake, breathing on his own, and showing no signs of complications from surgery. One of the major complications is stroke, but he appears fine.

That's the big news from our neck of the woods for now. Hopefully, this weekend will be far less exciting! I think that I might go down to Wildwood and do a biathalon, but we'll see!!

To be Digital or not to be Digital?

Well, I dropped some negatives off at the Camera Shop the other day in order to put some photos of Ireland in my new Irish-green kitchen. While I was there, I began to oggle a few cameras. Yes, I think it is a sickness of some sort to want desperately to have a new photographic toy once in a while!! (I also continue to look on E-Bay for darkroom equipment so that I can turn our unfinished basement bathroom into my own little studio!)

Anywho...I have been fumbling with the idea of buying a new digital camera. The one we have was a gift from my Dad, and is very nice, although a bit out of date. It only holds about 19 photos at a time, and the program that it uses to download the images to the computer is somewhat clumsy. It would be nice to have something streamlined...quick...and easy.
But then...at the Camera Shop...I saw the Canon Rebel K2 and the Canon Rebel T2. Ahh...REAL cameras!! They use FILM!!! :) I just had visions of myself running around Istanbul with one camera (my Nikon that I got as the BEST GRADUATION GIFT EVER) filled with color film and the other chock-full of Black and White! Oh...the joy! And so the battle wages on...do I succumb to the evils of the digital photography age...or do I put my foot down and say...hey it's film or nothing?!?! Or...do I just keep my debit card in my pocket, pick up my enlargements, and leave?! :)

Kitchen Remodeling at its best!

Well...not exactly remodeled...but refinished. I spent my Spring Break working on the house. I'm so glad that I did...I feel a sense of accomplishment and I actually can look at my kitchen now without thinking, "EWWWW!" :)
The top two photos are "Before" images...the rest are "After" images. Well, then there's the Tuga as Mom's Helper image! As soon as the drawers were out of there...she was in! :)

21st Century...huh?

Well, I have finally joined the ranks of millions who own iPods. Chuck bought me an iPod Shuffle today because he was tired of hearing me complain about my old MP3 player that only has 20 songs on it which I have been listening to over and over for about 2 years!! I haven't used my new toy yet, but I am planning a LONG run at Forbidden Drive tomorrow, so I'll certainly get to try it out...how exciting!

I'm Really Going!

Wow...it is really official!! I just purchased my ticket to Istanbul! I can't believe that I am actually going to Turkey! How totally exciting!

I am on a flight leaving on the 8th (my 2 year anniversary) arriving in Istanbul on the 9th and leaving there and getting home on the 15th. This is pretty crazy, too...on the 15th, I leave Istanbul at 1:55pm and arrive home at 10:32 pm. Impossible since my entire trip will take 15 hours and 37 minutes!! which means that in "Sarah-Land" on that day, I am going to be getting home at 3:30 in the morning! Oh, the JET LAG! :) I can't wait! :)

I will be spreading more good news in times to come, I am sure...but for now..it's really real! I'm headed to Istanbul. Hooray!

Busy, busy, busy...

As the new semester begins to come into view, I find myself immersed in the plethora of meetings, talks, workshops, and preparation of Professional Development Week!!! I am currently awaiting 3:30 to go over to my afternoon meeting of the minds, so to speak! I will be back tomorrow to have another meeting about Istanbul. I have received confirmation of my hotel reservation and expect to purchase my plane ticket relatively soon...just waiting for some fund$ to come my way.

I'm sure that I will have more interesting things to report after my meeting tomorrow...but I did get some interesting books and language CD's for Christmas that I will be continuing to put into good use over the next several months. Now all we have to do is keep the Bird Flu out of Istanbul! Don't worry mom...I'll walk around with a gas-mask on if I have to.

Thanks again to my family for coming out to visit over the holidays. It was excellent.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, I know that I have been a bit lax in my contributions to the site, here...but it has been a tad bit busy around these parts. The 'rents have come and gone...and the visit was great. We had a wonderful time playing cards, visiting the new and improved Camden city Aquarium, going to the Art Museum, and eating, eating, eating!!! It really was grand to have the family (although we were missing Aaron, Liz, and Emma) out for the holidays. Who knows where we will end up next year! :) Only time will tell!

Last night, we went to the waterfront to watch the fireworks. They were beautiful, although I should have taken earplugs...holy LOUD! :) Tonight, we are just relaxing at home enjoying Chuck's last few days off and getting ready to head back to the grindstone! We hope that everyone across the nation had a fun and safe holiday season. See you all soon!!

Christmas guests begin to arrive...

Well, although I have not seen them yet, my sister and Scott got into town last night! They are staying with his mom in Fort Washington. I will be seeing them and Mom and Dad tomorrow, so I'm putting the final touches on my house (cleaning, I mean!)!!

I am also finished with my semester! As of 5 minutes ago! I just finished grading my final final and am about to leave my office, not to return until 2006!!! Wow, you know we'll all be writing the wrong date on everything! Anyway...it has been an interesting semester. The next one will prove to be even more so! I'm sure that it will be great. I'm already looking forward to it.