7 days!

Seven days until we leave NC. I can't believe it is the end of July already. Our pile of boxes has grown but we aren't finished yet. Our bedroom and bedding still need to be packed. And all of Cali's things. But tonight we took a break and went to Yogurt Pump one last time.  It was delicious. 

100,000 miles

I bought my Honda Civic in June 2002 before I moved to NC. It had 3 miles on it.  Last night it hit 100,000 miles.  I thought that very fitting-my last week in NC.  Not all of those 100,000 miles were driven in North Carolina but probably 90,000 were.  And because the car has been in NC with mild winters and no salt on the road, she is in great shape!  I'm not sure how she will hold up in the cold, snowy winters-perhaps I'll have to wash her more than once every other year.  Speaking of which, I should give her (and Cali) their last baths in NC this weekend.  So many lasts......

Nice place to write

Not sure I am going to find this same atmosphere at my next job so I'm enjoying it while I can.

New Haircut

Girls Night Out/In

With our departure from North Carolina quickly approaching, I organized a night out with my Food Club friends.  These women have been a HUGE part of my life here and we've shared so many major life events together, ranging from graduate school defenses, bachelorette parties, weddings, baby showers, and just awesome dinners together!  Every food club night Mike knows not to expect me home until 11pm (the latest I can stay up these days) regardless of when I tell him I'll be home.  He knows me so well!

For my farewell we went out for dinner and then had a dessert Food Club and Art Party at Laura's.  It was so much fun and I think our paintings turned out pretty good despite the lack of instruction and pop-culture misinformation we got from the instructor.  Thanks ladies.  I'm going to miss sharing my life with all of you.

Eating the desserts before we began

Before

The sky is finished

Here is my grass

Adding flowers

My masterpiece!

The most awesome girlfriends ever!!

NC BBQ!

We couldn't leave NC without eating at Allen and Sons one more time.  We drove down to the Pittsboro store on Thursday for dinner and were not disappointed.  I was thinking back to the first time I had NC BBQ-it was at my interview for grad school.  Andrew Morris (I know, right) took me there for my faculty lunch.  Pat and Vytas were there with their recruits too.  They made me get sweet tea and it was disgusting but I did like the pork (although I still preferred tomato based better).  After 12 years in the state I can now say that I truly enjoy their vinegar-based BBQ, hush puppies and cole slaw and I'm really going to miss it.  I splurged and got fried pickles too!

No, Mike isn't upset here-he just didn't want me to take his picture.  However, I think he's pretty sad that this is his last plate of BBQ for a while.

Last NC beach trip...for a while

We knew we needed to hit the NC beach one more time and with weekends disappearing quickly we went today. There were a few showers right as we arrived but 30 mins later it was all sun for the rest of the afternoon. We went with our friend Katy, who was a grad student with Mike, and our beach buddy for many years. It was a perfect day with only minor sunburns and great burritos!