More Photoshop

Alright, so I had some fun doing some "morphing", so here's some kind of funny pictures I came up with:

Barack Obama and Rodney:

Conan O'Brien and Rodney:

Gollum and Angela:

Michael Jackson and Angela:

Mona Lisa and Angela:

Brad Pitt and Rodney:

Reese Witherspoon and Angela:

And now.... Rodney and Angela. :)

Noshember

So, today is Halloween! Happy Halloween everyone! Rodney and I will be having a relaxing Halloween at home, handing out candy and watching scary movies.

With Halloween then comes... November. This year, Rodney has decided to participate with some of the other saxophone players in "Noshember," or "No-Shave-November." Argh... I'm dreading it. I've never been a fan of facial hair on Rodney, and he usually grows quite a bit of facial hair after just a few days. We've decided it will be funny to take some "before/after" pictures, so we'll share them on here (...because it's such a joyous occasion.) December 1st, Rodney will shave off the beard, but keep the mustache. I guess that's part of Noshember. I'm already picturing what I think Rodney will look like. Here's my image of what I see as "before" and "after":

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think that prediction will be pretty accurate. We'll see.

Swine Flu and 2 1/2 Hour Concert

Hello everyone!

This whole "Swine Flu" deal is crazy! The school absences are higher than I've ever seen before-- ever! The high school had 21% absent yesterday (which is extremely high, considering there are about 1,200 kids there), and the middle school had 22% absent. They're discussing whether or not they will close school for a day next week to give kids time to "heal" apart from each other. I've had to give about 5 passes a day to students who start to feel really sick to their stomach, and then I'm told they don't come back because they ended up having a fever. There are many kids walking the halls wearing surgeon's masks. They also have been "taught" well about the importance of hand sanitizer, because every room has that sanitizer smell from it being used so much. Scary stuff! Rodney is convinced this is how the world will eventually end... they try so hard to develop vaccines for things such as Swine Flu, and eventually a bad vaccine will get out and start infecting everyone... like an old-fashioned zombie movie. He's such a wonderful optimist.

Last night was a combined concert of the Symphony Band and the University Symphonic Winds at the Fine Arts Center.

Here's a view of the Fine Arts Center from the side (see the piano?):

From the back ^

And the front entrance. ^

Both groups performed full programs, with one intermission between them. It was.... long. I was really happy to see Rodney play, and the band really sounded great, but it definitely was.....long. I also was in a rush to get there from a drama with laundry (long story), but got there just before intermission.

I'm subbing today at the middle school for a science class-- they're watching Bill Nye the Science Guy! Remember that?? Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! It's great!

Pictures soon, once I get home. :]

Have a great weekend everyone! Miss you all!

Apartment Pictures

I realized that we haven't posted pictures of our new apartment on here! It's pretty nice-- the best part about it is the location, we live really close to downtown Amherst, and right off a bus route. We were then able to sell our other car before the move, so we pay less on insurance and gas. :) The management is amazing here-- you tell them a problem and they come fix it within the hour. It's really amazing. The place is pretty small, and we don't know how long we'll be here, so we haven't painted or really done much decorating, but here are some pictures!
Dining Room (with the back door)...

More dining room...

Kitchen

Pantry/Bathroom hallway looking into the living room

Downstairs 1/2 bathroom


Living Room


More living room...with our sweet cats to accompany :)

Front door-- staircase

Going up...

Upstairs bathroom-- not a good view, but oh well. :) It's also the "kitty room"... the litterbox is nicely fit behind the wall (you can BARELY see it), and food dishes set out.

Bedroom

More bedroom

So that's our apartment-- nothing special. :) At least now you can picture where we live! :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Outlining some fun entertainment / things to do in Amherst

Hello everyone! It's Friday! :D I decided that today I would post a blog that kind of shows you the fun things to do around this area, good places to eat, and just some places you'd see us during the week.

ENTERTAINMENT/PLACES TO GO:

• Well, first of all, the area is VERY artsy (or at least, much more so than what I noticed in Boise). There's always something going on at the university, or Amherst College, so it's nice being able to always have something to go do, or an exhibit to see.
  
• Atkins Farms: we have LOVED this place. First of all, it really does have some of the best local produce around (and if there's one better, we just haven't discovered it yet.) They have lots of fall activities going on, such as scarecrow making, festivals for PYO (pick your own) apples and pumpkins, and lots of unique things to see inside the store. It has a homemade ice cream section (with AMAZING ice cream), a Savory Suppers section (which is where you can prepare meals for your family by putting together ingredients laid out by the Savory Suppers staff to then be in your freezer until you're ready to pull one out for dinner that night. It's great! 10 homemade, delicious meals for a great price! Super easy for those days we just don't want to cook. :) Just generally a really nice place to be.




• Antonio's: enough can't be said about this place. Literally, the best pizza I've ever had. This is kind of the "big" attraction in the area, the first place people recommend to go. They serve tons of unique toppings on their pizza (such as baked potato, blt, and chicken bacon ranch), and have such an addicting crust, I am speechless. Honestly, amazing. Whoever comes to visit us next, we're going here first.





• ABC and Northampton Brewery Company: The ABC stands for Amherst Brewing Company, and the Northampton Brewery Company are fun places to go. They brew their own beer, and the atmosphere is very local and entertaining. This is considered "the hangout" for a lot of people at the University.
  


• Museums: Amherst has quite a few museums, but the ones that I'm the most interested in are the Emily Dickinson museum (in her old home), and the Eric Carle museum (remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar? That author lives in Amherst).



• Hiking: the hiking trails here are amazing. We haven't been on one yet, but apparently you have to go hiking at least once while you live here because of the absolutely gorgeous view when you get to the top.



• Northampton: Northampton is only about 10 minutes from our house. It's a great downtown area to walk in, with lots of cute shops and mini malls to roam. It's rained 2 out of 4 times we've been there (haha!) but just a truly wonderful place to spend a day.



• Yankee Candle Shop: The original Yankee Candle store is located in the area. Rodney and I haven't been there yet, but driven past it a few times--it's gigantic!



• Crazy Noodles and Bueno Y Sano: These two restaraunts are our other two favorites-- Crazy Noodles is a small place that makes fantastic pasta dishes. I'm always amazed at the quality of their food. Equally amazing is Bueno Y Sano, which is a mexican food place with AMAZING burritos.



• Hamilton Orchards: A fall activity only, obviously, but a really fun place. We went only once (with the saxophone studio), and it was really a fun place to hang out. CIDER DONUTS. That's all I can say. I've had more cider donuts within the last 2 months than I think I ever have. They're a big thing in fall festivals. You have to get yourself a cider donut. Ah-mazing.




• Here are just a few other images of Amherst. Enjoy!

(The last one is Town Hall)

So there are some things that we have available to us. :)

Saxophone Quartet in Performance

Tom Glassey
Kara Nye
Rodney Zuroeveste
Mat Schumer



Taken by professor Klock at the Multibands performance on the morning of 10/15/09

Columbus 3-Day Weekend

This weekend was a 3-day weekend in Massachusetts-- Monday off for Columbus Day. So, Rodney and I decided for another fun adventure. :) Saturday, we went to Saratoga Springs, NY so Rodney could drop off some instruments for the studio at UMass, so we browsed Saratoga streets (beautiful!) We got home Saturday night and went to a Grad Student Campfire party, which was also really fun. Then, Sunday morning, we got up early and left for Colchester, VT to have an enjoyable weekend with Rod and Glenna Copeland again (family friends on Rodney's side). We stayed there until Monday night, when we returned home. Great weekend! Mini vacation! :)

A wonderful store in Saratoga with fancy racetrack hats-- these cost $100-150 each!

On the streets of Saratoga.

Rodney LOVES antique stores so he can look for records.

Rodney remembered this place from when he went to Saratoga Springs with the other grad assistant last time, and remembered loving it. So, we came here again! :)

THIS place is the birthplace of the potato chip! Turns out, the first time the potato chip was invented was out of spite and anger. It's a restaraunt, and so a customer ordered the "potato fries", which were really thick potato slices that were fried. The customer complained, stating that he wanted it thinner, so the waiter took it back so they could redo the guy's potato slices. When he received the second order, the customer still complained, stating he wanted it even thinner, so at this point the waiter was angry at the customer's pickiness, so took the order back and asked the cook to please cut the potatoes so thin that it wouldn't even really be a potato slice anymore, but instead like a thin piece of grease and crisp. He brought those slices to the customer, the customer LOVED them, and all the other customers around him were crowding around to try this "new fried sensation." Isn't that great?? All this happened at this Potato Chip shop in 1858.

Our drive up to Vermont-- Vermont is called the "Green Mountain State", and I completely understand why. It's COVERED with trees-- a complete smattering of color, and just GORGEOUS. Here are some of the pictures we took from our car window (the first couple were taken in Massachusetts).

A piece Rodney is playing, composed by someone for Amherst.

The beautiful driveway to Rod and Glenna's house off Lake Champlain.

Rod and Glenna's house (the front)-- it's right off the lake (which is behind it).

These two pictures are great-- we're driving on a thin land mass that cuts through Lake Champlain-- the first picture (above) shows New York in the background. The second picture (below) shows Canada in the background. You look left, you see NY. To the right, Canada. It was great!

Some funny plastic "masks." haha!

This picture shows "Camel's Hump", the tallest (and most well-known) mountain in Vermont. It's named Camel's Hump for... well, obvious reasons. :) Some call it "crouching lion," but I don't see that so much.

We HAD to reenact this picture! We came to Vermont to visit Rod and Glenna about 4 years ago, and went to this cheese tasting place (Cabot), and outside there's this cow. We had NO idea it would still be there when we came this weekend, but it was! So, we reenacted the picture. :) The old one (from 4 years ago) is below.

Glass blowing. :) I liked this first picture because the flash makes it look like a lightning bolt is going through the oven to the man! haha

Pretty scenery!

THE VON TRAPP HOUSE!! Remember The Sound of Music? This is the Von Trapp family's house when they moved from Austria after the Nazis chased them out. The liked Vermont because it looked very similar to Austria. The two parents have died, but some of the children still live, and they have quite a few grandkids.

Rodney and me in front of the Von Trapp house.

The REAL Sound of Music crew-- the actual Von Trapps. :) Maria (the main character from the movie) is on the top right (next to Captain Von Trapp). The woman to the left of Captain Von Trapp is his first wife, before she died.

Another great weekend! :)