a day of rest

the past few weeks have felt a bit overwhelming and stressful as i've been finishing up my current job and starting planning for my summer job. today i decided to take a day and do nothing work related, and it was wonderful

i spent some time reading my Dad's book that was recently published- it's excellent!i then went over to visit my dad (my mom's in CA) and he grilled some amazing chicken. he had marinated it in buttermilk and put some emeril's seasoning on it- he is quite the grill master

then i went fishing in "Lake Redfields" (the development my parents live in) with my brother. first he caught this little whipper snapper

and then i caught this one

and then he caught this bite-sized one! we're still trying to catch the elusive "Big Pappy"- which is a giant (prob 2 feet) bass we've seen in the lake. matt got it on the line last time we went but it broke the line. this time his rubber worm was eaten....big pappy??

it's been very hot and thunderstormy here recently, but tonight was beautiful. here is a picture of "Lake Redfields"- although this picture is much prettier than it actually is!i have one more week at my current job and next week will start full time on the next adventure. i'm looking forward to being able to focus on one job, but today it was nice to just take a day and relax!

the lost blogger returns!

speaking of lost, i recently discovered this:



now usually i don't watch 6 minutes worth of a youtube video in a row. but this kept me hooked. enjoy!

this guy

is coming back to charlottesville for two months!

he is coming home to work for a bit before going back to school in July to finish up his thesis. he's getting here on Sunday and i'm so excited!!

(for anyone who doesn't know this is my brother)

Brian Regan

Sunday night Karen and I went to see Brian Regan! Karen had won free tickets through a radio music quiz (she had to guess what song it was after hearing a one second clip- she's awesome) and asked if I would like to come. I of course said yes!!! The show was at a restored theater downtown called the Paramount, which was beautiful. There were hanging chandeliers and giant tapestries.

We sat in what we referred to as "the winners section" since there were some other folks next to us who had also won a radio contest. Our seats were "Orchestra Center" and they were awesome.We were pretty close and right in the centerHere is the man himself. Not a good picture (we couldn't use flash) but I promise it's him! He was absolutely hilarious. Even just watching him walk around was funny. He is definitely the most expressive person I've ever seen and it him even funnier in person. He had lots of new material, including a bit on the loud n' clear which was awesome, and took some requests for old stuff as well. I had heard people say that their jaw hurt from laughing after seeing him, and it's true! Mine definitely did!

outdoor activities

yesterday was a great day of outdoor activities. in the morning i went to the Heart of Virginia festival in Farmville, and it was awesome. the craft booths were excellent and i got a gift for someone and a sweet apron. (possibly a little known fact, but i love aprons. i try to wear one every time i'm cooking)
after saying farewell to Chris and Katie i headed back to Charlottesville where some folks had planned to come over for cornhole and our first attempt at grilling. my parents had a charcoal grill in their basement that wasn't being used (it was my oldest brother's back in the day) so i grabbed that and headed back home. with some help from those more experienced we got the grill going and it was a great afternoon. the evening was beautiful and we wanted to stay outside, so we had the idea of trying to watch a movie outside on the back of our house. we were able to get a projector (thanks dad!) and speakers (thanks Amber!) and rigged up a pretty excellent screen! we watched Maverick and it was like our own screen on the green!

here's karen modeling our screen (we tied the top with ropes through the top of the windows and the bottom to the water spout/deck)

as it got darker we set up all the equipment
the final product (not a great picture but you get the idea)we definitely want to do it again sometime!

the dandelion menace

when i got back from Texas the empty lot next to our house looked like this. when i saw it i said, "wow! it's so beautiful!" to which my dad responded "those are weeds." well i still thought they were quite lovely

but as time went on and the lot changed to this i began to understand why they're called weeds.

these things have been mowed several times (in the lot next door and in our yard) but they come back faster and taller every time! dandelions take over! so how do you get rid of them? do you just have to weed them all by hand?

the jenster goes to Texas

last week was my spring break and i had the opportunity to go to texas to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and my nephews and niece! it was a blast. along with just hanging out with them, we ate several amazing meals (including the best sushi i have ever experienced & fresh oysters!), walked around UT, and saw lots of Austin. here are some snapshots (mostly of the family side) of my trip:

dyeing Easter eggs on Easter morning before church

our Easter egg hunt after church- Joel and I hid all the eggs in the backyard and it was so fun. there's nothing like watching kids hunt for candy filled goodness! and then trying to remember where you hid all the real eggs....thankfully the kids found them all!

canoeing on town lake (which is really a river that runs through Austin). we had two canoes that Joel tethered together with a life vest, creating the "Thollander Barge"- we were a force to be reckoned with on the water. see the beautiful Austin skyline in the background!

we went to a dinosaur museum and outside practiced jumping for the camera. the kids really got the hang of it! (well Ben's got a good jump here, there's a series of about 15 of these)

i of course joined in some too

it was so good to see my family!