Bring on the Embarrassing Pictures!

Inspired by my last post, where I posted embarrassing photos of Harry, I thought it might be fun to show some embarrassing pictures of both of us. (Yes, Harry will now have been hit twice, but it's all in good fun!) These will be those pictures of us when we were little that, when you look back at old albums, you hope will never see the light of day... let alone be posted on the internet. Check them out!

Here you see Clay and I doing the hula one day when we were home sick.
I think my knee socks are hot; and Clay is rocking those sunglasses.


Harry and I call this pose the "praying mantis". We don't know what he was doing, but it sure was weird.


I know what you are thinking... "What's weird about this photo? Mer, that looks pretty accurate." Well actually, those are bocce balls. Scary how this picture taken in 1986 could predict the future.


Now, this picture could make you feel sorry for Harry; but no, his parents didn't do this to him... he did this to himself. Yep, he enjoyed cramming himself into milk crates and making a cage.

I think more than anything these pictures make both Harry and I realize how lucky we are to have each other. I think it is pretty obvious that we are both freaks and it's amazing that we found anybody to marry either one of us.

I encourage our fellow bloggers to look back at some embarrassing photos and create a post similar to ours!

Fish Tacos and Improv

A weird post title, right? Well, weird or not, it is a perfect description of our evening here in Charlotte.

Tonight, Russ (Harry's cousin), Bobby (one of Harry's best friends since he was little), Harry, and I went out for a night on the town. We headed into Charlotte and ate at Cabo Fish Taco. I was a little sketchy about fish tacos. The name alone makes me giggle and I am just not THAT big of a fish fan. Lucky for me, they had other cuisine; but Russ, Bobby, and Harry all said that the fish tacos were awesome.

After dinner we all went to the SK Netcafe. It is a small coffee shop in Charlotte (near Central Piedmont Community College) that also doubles as a bar/comedy club on nights and weekends. Tonight there was a small group of 5 locals that work as an improv group. They were hilarious! My favorite part of the evening was when the comics took 3 ordinary tasks and changed 3 things about the tasks; then one person from the audience (a friend of the comics) had to guess the task and the 3 things changed. The comics weren't allowed to talk, only act out the changed tasks. The first task was curling. Instead of curling with a stone, they acted out curling with kittens (my suggestion), using a hockey stick instead of brooms, and on watermelon Jell-O (also my suggestion). The second task was rodeo roping. Instead of a lasso handcuffs were used, instead of lassoing a bull the comics had to act out lassoing Michael Jackson dressed as Santa Claus, and instead of this taking place in an arena it took place on an iceberg. The final task was spelunking using a stripper pole instead of a repelling rope, wearing Brittney Spears instead of a harness, and the comics were repelling into a cosmic black hole instead of a cave. Somehow, the comics were able to act this out with such accuracy that the audience member was able to guess all 3 tasks with all 3 changes in just 6 minutes!!

If you have not seen an improv group, I highly suggest it. Just be ready to throw out some great suggestions when needed.

We didn't get any pictures tonight, so I figured I would post some pictures of the guys when they were kids so you could see who everybody was (and embarrass them, too).

Here you see Russ (on the left) and Harry (on the right) having a gay old time, literally.


Here you see (from left to right) Harry, Trey (another one of Harry's friends from when he was little), Russ, and Bobby.

Ever Left Something at a Hotel?

While perusing fark.com today I stumbled upon an interesting article. It dealt with the annual press release of lost and found items from Travelodge. Check out the article below...

Travelodge: You Forgot Your Porsche Keys

Travelodge released their annual list of lost and found items for 2006 and once again, the list is shocking. Included in the survey of found items: a spy’s dossier, keys to a Porsche and Aston Martin, and a $30,000 racing bicycle.

The high-priced items aren’t the most interesting, however. How about these:

- false teeth
- six feet of snake skin
- a hollowed-out bible containing $400 cash
- Elton John’s sunglasses

Our hope is that the above items were left by the same person, and an incredible one at that.

This article really interested me, for many reasons... first of all, I know that Harry wishes that he could raid the lost and found for the Aston Martin keys (hopefully with the liscence plate number written on them) and for the $30,000 racing bicycle. Secondly, (which Harry pointed out) if you can afford to drive a Porsche or an Aston Martin, why are you staying at a Travelodge? Third, who is traveling with 6 feet of snake skin? Finally, if you thought far enough in advanced to hollow-out a bible (which I wouldn't want to answer for later, if you get my drift) to hide $400; how can you possibly forget it??

My interests being sparked, I looked for the actual press release myself. Check out what I found below.


Where would you find Aston Martin car keys, a Spy's secret dossier, a wooden leg and suitcases full of collectable spectacles from famous people, including Elton John? Where else but Travelodge's Lost and Found office.

Travelodge, the UK budget hotel chain, today announced the mysterious objects left behind in their hotels in 2006. With over six million guests staying each year with the budget hotel chain, some other bizarre items left behind by its customers are false teeth, a pet dog, snake skin, a diamond, a bible containing £250 cash and a diamond ring belonging to an ex football player. The ten most bizarre items left behind at Travelodge:

1. Australian cycle racing team bike worth £19,000
2. Spys dossier
3. Pet dog
4. False teeth
5. Porsche and Aston Martin keys
6. A hollowed out bible containing £250 cash
7. A full six foot length of snake skin
8. Diamond ring belonging to an ex football player
9. 2 briefcases containing collectible glasses from famous people including Elton John
10. BBC ID card

The most common items left in a Travelodge room in 2006 include:

1. Mobile phone and chargers
2. Toiletries
3. Clothing items
4. Shoes
5. Books
6. Hen/ Stag Night accessories /adult toys
7. Jewelery /watches
8. Laptops
9. Electrical Gadgets Ipod, digital camera
10. False teeth /limbs

Making Ravioli from Scratch

I know, I know... Harry and Mer, you guys are just too wild; making homemade ravioli on New Year's Eve. What can I say, we live on the wild side.

So, Harry got me a ravioli maker for Christmas and tonight we decided to test it out by making some cheese ravioli. Here's how we did it...

Step One: Pour some wine (cooking is so much more fun when you can drink).

Step Two: Make the dough and roll it into thin strips. (Yes Harry did help with this part, but I ended up doing most of the rolling. It was a pain because the dough is really tough.)

Step Three: Place the rolled out dough on the ravioli maker mold and fill with cheese.

Step Four: Cover the mold with another sheet of rolled dough.

Step Five: Roll a rolling pin over the ravioli mold containing the dough and the cheese. (The mold acts as a cookie cutter that pinches the edges of the ravioli together and cuts them apart.) Harry really liked using the teeny tiny roller, he said it made him feel like a giant.

Step Six: Shake the ravioli out of the mold.

Step Seven: Celebrate freedom from the mold with your ravioli!

Step Eight: Boil your ravioli for 10 minutes. You should probably go ahead and make your sauce now too; otherwise your ravioli will be a little dry. Delicious, but dry. Oh, and check out my new stainless steel pots. Fancy, huh? (Also, see if you can spot the product placements.)

Step Nine: Plate and enjoy!

Our ravioli was YUMMY! You can really taste the difference between homemade/fresh pasta, and store bought/frozen pasta. We ended up making 58 ravioli and freezing 36 of them (some ravioli were lost in the transfer to the freezer, they will be missed).

Poor Phoebe was too excited about the ravioli and the New Year, she just passed out. Oh well, we will celebrate without her!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

WE ARE...

A lynch mob? Rioters upset about the McRib only being available for "a limited time"? Nope. Sorry...we were looking for "Marshall". Marshall.

Meredith and I saw We Are Marshall this evening and were quite impressed. While rather emotionally draining (I admit, my eyes welled up several times during the movie), it does a great job of retelling the tragic story. While in some respects it was indifferent from many other sports movies (the team overcomes adversity and wins the big game), the fact that it is a true story sets it apart from the crowd. They even managed to expose the little known tidbit that Bobby Bowden does in fact have a soul. We give this movie 4 thumbs up.

I do have one side note though: If I'm ever waiting to board a plane and I notice Matthew Fox is on the same flight, I'll take the later flight and free voucher in a heartbeat. He narrowly escapes a fiery plane crash in this movie, and on LOST he ends up as a castaway on a tropical island full of unanswered questions and "the others". I'm sure this scenario is bound to occur with my frequent travel, so I think it's good that I've developed an action plan.

Oh, and Saddam has been hanged. Please keep your celebratory gunfire to a minimum.

Tigers Flushed Down at the Music City Bowl

What happened? Kentucky hasn't been to a bowl game in how long!?!?!?! 8 years!!!!! COME ON! I'd like to blame this all on that joke of a quarterback, Will Proctor, but it actually wasn't all his fault (hard to believe since that nancy boy is terrified of getting touched). Could it be that Duane Coleman was too busy smoking the marijuana and forgot that Clemson actually did get a bowl bid? We really enjoyed the part of the game when Clemson was compared to Ohio State, I guess we were the only 2 teams in the nation with both our offense and our defense in the top 15. That's the similarity; the difference, Ohio State doesn't suck.

Well, congratulations Kentucky. You earned your spot at at the Music City Bowl.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Ok, so this post doesn't have to do with Kwanzaa, but today is the first day of kwanzaa (Phoebe is all excited, she won't shut up about it). This post will actually deal with images from our Christmas celebration.

On Friday, Harry and I went over to visit Martha, Edward, and Madison. Madison was really excited because she got to open even more presents early.


Of all the things that Harry and I got Madison, she seemed to enjoy these alphabet magnets the most. Here you see her filling up the tube the magnets came in and shaking them all out. Edward seems to really enjoy this.

Here you see Madison opening "Care Bear Tub Island". She has a unique present opening method. She takes off tiny pieces of wrapping paper and hands them to somebody. If you look to the left you see Martha's hand about to take the teeny piece of paper from Madison.

Madison really liked "Care Bear Tub Island". As you can guess it is a tub toy. The island has an umbrella, a spinning wheel, and a slide for the Care Bears to slide down. On Saturday (Madison's first day bathing with "Tub Island") she ran out into the living room (where Edward and I were sitting) naked, dripping wet, holding "Tub Island", and grinning. A true test that she liked the gift.

Here you see Harry unwrapping gifts just like Madison (handing the tiny piece of wrapping paper to me on Christmas morning). As you can tell by Harry's face he still wasn't feeling all that well.

These are my Christmas gifts from Karen, my Huffman family secret santa. A really nice Columbia fleece, a t-shirt that says "Smooth Like Butter" (cause I am), a picture of Harry and I (with Karen peeking around a tree in the background), and a Hershey Kiss fondue pot.

THANK YOU KAREN!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!


Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Luke 2:14
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Check out "Operation Christmas for Clay" on Karen's Blog.

Blogging tastes better with Cool Whip!

We've had some complaints about our lack of updating. Why not make up with it with 2 posts in 1 day? A 17mp record! (Yes, I realize the abbreviation is stupid...but if you keep complaining, we will go on hiatus again.) I thought since I've never posted a video before, I might as well give it a shot.

The Best and Worst of VB

Harry and I have compiled a list of the best and worst Christmas decorations in our neighborhood. We have noticed that MANY of our neighbors have really gone overboard with their decorations. Here are the best, and the worst, that Victoria Bay has to offer...

First off, here is our house... not the most elaborate, but we feel like it conveys the Christmas spirit. Harry's car in the drive helps, he has reindeer antlers on the front of the Passat.


Next, we feel this house has tastefully decorated using icicle lights, lights on the railing, and lights in the bushes.


We also enjoy this house which, again, has not gone too far.


Now, as you have probably noticed, we don't go for the really overboard decorations. We don't have any blow-up creatures, nothing moves or blinks, and we do not have a landing strip on our front lawn for Santa Claus. However, the people who own the following houses LOVE to really go wild with the decorations.

At this house, please notice the 10 foot polar bear wearing a sweater and cap sitting on the roof. You can't really see from the picture, but he is sitting on a teeny tiny stool. Why, because everybody knows that at Christmas time polar bears lumber south to sit on your roof.


Ummm, hello multi-colored lights thrown everywhere.


Yikes, what's the theme?? I think it might be "half off at Big Lot's".


This has been one of our favorites for the past 3 years. We just learned this year, via flier stuck in our newspaper box, that this next house is dedicated to the fight against breast cancer (I guess the red streams of lights are actually pink, I just don't see it). But hey mom, this P.O.S. is for you! (and yes, that is a snowflake bleeding the red, errr... pink, streams from the roof)


This one is fabulous because the back of their house is visible from our house. When we step out on our front porch we can see the reindeer and the tree that is light, up on the roof. I think that the picture speaks for itself.


And last but absolutely NOT LEAST, these people have really rocked out with the Christmas spirit. I don't really know what to say other than yes... those ARE 2 blinking landing strips of lights with a sign that reads, "Santa, Land Here!".


Oh yes... the side view, where the "Santa Land Here!" sign is visible on the left side.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A confession...

A year ago, I never would have imagined saying this, but I now like John Mayer. There, I said it. I know we made fun of Karen for posting one of his songs on her blog a while back, but after hearing that song a few days afterwards, I realized it is actually a good song. And there are several other good songs on his latest album (I'm particularly fond of "Gravity" and the "Bold As Love" cover). Please note that this does not mean that I forgive him for any of his work before Continuum, but it's a step in the right direction.



- Harry (I had to specify, as Mer has yet to turn the corner on the subject)

Dad -1 / Cancer - 0

Today Dad had his surgery to remove his prostate. Everything seems to have gone really well. The surgeon said that there doesn't seem to be any nerve damage or any muscle damage, which is really positive; and the cancer doesn't seem to have spread (we won't know for sure until the pathology report comes back). He didn't lose much blood during the surgery so he didn't need a transfusion, but as of a 6:00 conversation with my Mom, he was bleeding some internally and might need a transfusion later tonight. My Dad, always displaying a great sense of humor, told me that he didn't realize that he was supposed to be working of stopping the bleeding, so he was going to get right on that. He predicted that no transfusion would be needed. I hope he's right. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Dad vs. Cancer

Tomorrow Dad will have his surgery to remove his prostate and begin his fight with cancer. Cancer should know not to mess with this family... 5 years ago Mom kicked cancer's a** and tomorrow Dad is going to do the same. His surgery will take place a Duke medical center. I will not be going to work so I can be with him, Mom, and Martha after the surgery. I'm nervous for him, but I know he's going to be fine. Please keep him in your prayers. I will post an update on his status hopefully tomorrow.

The following picture represents what cancer will look like tomorrow after Dad is done with it.

More Snow for Afghanistan

Snow continues to fall on Clay's base in Afghanistan. As of Clay's last email there is 3 feet of snow on the ground! Clay also sent another hilarious picture; here you see Clay in the center of the picture surrounded by the ANA (Afghani troops). Clay is the one holding the AK47 high in the air and smiling... very typical Clay. I miss snow and I miss Clay, wish they both were here! :-)


PS... click on the picture to see a larger view.

Clay's Winter in Afghanistan

Winter has begun in the mountains of Afghanistan and Clay, being the a sledding expert, took full advantage of a foot of snow. Here you see Clay flying down the mountain on a medic back board (no sleds in Afghanistan I guess) towards a ramp. Clay loves to build sledding ramps; however, a lot of times they don't really work out that well. Clay can usually get one "jump" out of his ramps, and then he just ends up falling off the ramps. We are all just happy to see Clay having some fun during his deployment.

The Buckeyes did it, now it's the TIGERS turn!

Last weekend Harry and I held an Ohio State vs. Michigan party. We had a lot of guests, 12 to be exact, a lot of fun... and best of all, the Buckeyes won! Take that Michigan! Tomorrow, the Clemson Tigers will do battle with our biggest rival... the gamecocks (yuck). Harry and I can't wait to watch the Tigers smack the stuffing out of the gamecocks.

Harry's cousin, Russ, cheering on the Buckeyes... he's not even from Ohio!

My friends Megan and Joanne sit with Harry before the game... Megan's dad went to OSU and Joanne graduated from Ohio State.

Tomorrow, noon, remember to cheer on the TIGERS... Harry and I will be doing it here!

Blue Man Group

On Friday Harry, his cousin Russ, and I went to see Blue Man Group at the Charlotte Bobcat Arena. I really didn't know that much about Blue Man Group, I really had only seen them in commercials and of course Tobias on Arrested Development wanted to be a part of the group.

We sat all the way at the top of the arena, literally, we were in the last row. However, our seats were right in the center of the arena and we could see everything. I will have to say that it was GREAT performance. The theme of the event was how to be a superstar and Fred Armisen (from Saturday Night Live) was playing the roll of Ron Popeil's (inventor of the Showtime Rotisserie) brother selling a "How to Be A Superstar" DVD and the Blue Man Group was following instructions of the DVD. I would recommend Blue Man Group to anybody, they were great!

Shopping With the Girls

Before I start, this is a Meredith post. Harry thinks this topic is too girly so I want to begin by saying this was written by me.

Last weekend I went shopping with my friends Megan and Joanne. We went to lunch at Thai Lanna (yummy) and then headed to Concord Mills for some outlet shopping. One thing I love to do while shopping is try on hideous clothes. Last weekend was no disappointment. Check out the fugly clothes and shoes we found.

We started at TJ Maxx where I found this little number. The shirt (and I use the term shirt loosely) only cost $5.00. What a bargain for half a shirt, or maybe it's only a quarter of a shirt since the back is see-through.

Next we were off to Burlington Coat Factory, because they are more than great coats, to try on shoes.

Megan tried on the camouflage wedges and I tried on the leopard print wedges. Can you believe they make shoes this ugly? Don't worry Martha and Karen, I did get you both the camo wedges.

Next Joanne tried on the red satin cabaret inspired heals in an attempt to bring sexy back. I think it worked.

Megan found this treasure, a green snake skin leather sling back with netting (you know, to keep your feet cool). How great! Stylish and practical!

Last, but certainly not least, I found these fabulous gold clogs. I'd give them a gold medal for style, but they are so gold do I really need to?

Fight Tigers!

No seriously, fight! Last weekend Martha, Ed, Harry, and I headed to Clemson to watch the Tigers play. This is the second time this year that Harry and I have been to a Clemson game, but this was Martha and Ed's first in a long time. In fact, they hadn't been back to Clemson in about 3 years. Madison didn't get to make the trip, but of course L.C. did.

We were really worried about the traffic since it was a 12:00 game, but between the 4 of us we knew enough short-cuts and the best places to park that we got their with relatively little hassle. We parked in front of (what Harry called) the photography staple, the bridge in front of the Strom Thurman Center.


Here are Martha and Ed in front of the bridge.


Harry and I enjoying some tailgating.

One thing we noticed this year that we hadn't seen previously at Clemson games were crazy religious people. There were a lot of signs about the Devil coming, the end of days, and even telling us not to go to church but to worship Jesus (????).



And here... the most exciting 15 seconds in college football!


RUNNING DOWN THE HILL!

As you can see, our seats were pretty far up, but they were actually pretty good. We could see all of the action and we got just enough sun to keep us warm. The only problem at the game was apparently row R in our section was the BEST row in Death Valley because we were crammed in there! Some dumb witch decided that our row was better than the row in front of us with all the extra room. She was also TONS of fun yelling sweet comments at the players, coaches and refs. Despite our fun friend, we had a really great time.


Tiger Band spells out Clemson.

After the game we went downtown for some shopping and stopped in at Keith Street for some dinner (yummy!). Oh how we miss Clemson.

On the way back to the car we stopped by to take a beautiful picture of Tillman hall at sunset.



And Edward visited with some of the local wildlife. (Edward is the one on the right, an opossum is on the left.)