More vacation? Yes please!

We've finished up our time in North Carolina.  But our vacation is only half complete.  We've headed on to Virginia to stay with my parents.  But we did take an extra day in North Carolina to go spelunking and whitewater rafting.  As you can imagine, we were unable to take pictures of the rafting and we didn't take a camera into the cave, but we had more fun than we've ever bothered to have.  

Before we left, we did take a few good pictures of some interesting junk.

Here is Jen striking an elegant pose at an outlook off the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway.  There used to be a sign where she is now.  I think she looks better than some stupid sign!

This is Cindy and Paul.  They own and operate 1902 Turnpike House bed and breakfast, pictured below.  They were incredibly nice to us and their doggy Bella was also very accommodating!  Thanks guys!

This was, more or less, the backyard.  Really it was up the street a little but someone not afraid of poison ivy could jump down a short cliff to get back to the Turnpike House.  I'm not much of an outdoorsman, so I don't know what those crawling vines might have been.  Anyway, the trees were huge and ancient.  The forest was a neat place to run and play!

Enough North Carolina, let's move on to Virginia.  Actually the last couple are in Washington DC.  The above picture is a trumpet man.  The below picture is The Albert Einstein memorial, which is a bit tricky to find.  But we found it alright!  I Einstein is a personal hero of mine and I was compelled to climb his lap and give him a big hug.

Expect more pictures of Virginia and DC.  But I have to go now.  Lunch is ready.

North Carolina

Hey all!  It's been too long since our last post.  I would love to have done Mothers and Fathers Day posts but. . . too late now.  At any rate, I know all (both) of our fans are far more interested in our adventures!  So here you go:

We are currently high in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.  As illustrated above, we are far from everything.  Except bears.  And deer.  And a couple of trees.  We haven't uploaded Jennifer's photos yet, but they ought to be much better than this one I took with my phone.

Jennifer came here ahead of me to attend a retreat.  I had a whole day to myself to roam the mountains and look for adventures!

My favorite thing so far has been my tour of the Biltmore, the largest home in America.

As you can probably assume, this place is supposed to be haunted.  A little bit.  The builder's wife can be heard in the music room consoling her dying husband.  Why she haunts the place and not him, I don't know.  I think the rumor was constructed just as a marketing thing.  I heard no ghosts and saw nothing paranormal, although the gargoyles were pretty creepy.

The mansion contains 250 rooms including 43 bathrooms.  That's impressive for a time when most homes did not have indoor plumbing at all.  There is an indoor heated, lighted pool, built at a time when electric lights were little more than a novelty.  There are servants rooms and even the servants had servants who also had rooms!  There are four acres of floor space within.

The first picture was taken from the left side.  Stage right.  The second picture is the view from the back porch.

One of the house's many gardens.

And this fountain is my favorite.  Grotesque isn't it?  Doesn't it conjure visions of horrors from beyond the deep?  Yes. . .

That's all for now.  In an interesting turnabout, Jennifer is urging me out the door.  We are going to walk around and look at cute shops and stupid crafts and junk.  Hopefully tomorrow we will have more adventures here in Banner Elk.  Stay tuned!



Two Years!

Hey there super fans!  Can you believe we've been married for two years already?  I know, it's flown by!  We didn't do a whole lot on the day of our anniversary.  We both worked, then went to a nice dinner.  However, we plan to stay for several nights in a nice bed and breakfast in North Carolina in July, then a few nights in Virginia atMom & Dad Long's, followed by a nice resort escape in some location yet-to-be determined.  Maybe the Virgin Islands?  Maybe we'll see. . .

Anyway, to celebrate our milestone, I thought I would post a few pictures from the occasion:

Look at these two crazy guys.  Which one seems more nervous?

The Little Chapel in the Woods was perfect for our wedding.  Quite lovely.

And, speaking of quite lovely, here is the blushing bride!  Or should I say the burping bride?  No, probably the first one.  Any way, she's looking hot!

Ah, the dancing.  Let me tell you, getting hitched is nerve-wracking enough to begin with.  Okay, now throw in some choreographed dance routines and tell me how you feel.  Terrified?  Yes.  A wee bit. 

Ol' Andy Pants here caught the garter.  Some time later he got himself married off.  Could be a coincidence.  But that was indeed a magical garter.

And let us not forget the star of the show!  The Nintendo cake was delicious and edutaining!

Here we see the bride - um - doing . . . like, I don't know.  Some kind of Donkey Kong dance or something?  Anyway, she's having fun.

I had a tough time deciding which pictures to include in the blog.  There are so many to choose from, and a lot of highlights that some of you haven't seen and that others may have forgotten.  I guess I'll have to update next year with different photos. 

Two years later and we are still every bit as in love as we were that day.  We are planning big things for year three!  Well, not really big things.  Fun stuff, though.  Not kids.  Kids now?  Are you crazy?  We've got things to do! 

Your friends,

The Two-Year Longs

College is hard!

Here's UTA's impressive new Engineering Research Building.

Hello all!  Steven Long here.  For those few parties interested to know, UT Arlington posted my final grades from the Spring semester today.

Now, to really grasp the significance here, one must understand the full situation.  You see, I am attending UTA thanks to a combination of federal grant money, loans and a scholarship.  All three of these items are dependant upon my maintaining a GPA greater than 2.0.  Unfortunately I was met with disaster last Fall and managed to fail both classes I took.  The reasons for this are many, and I will spare you the gory details, but the main point is that I thought re-taking a course would replace the previous failing grade.  At UTA this is not the case.  I only have a thin window of time in which I can appeal to have a grade dropped from my GPA.  Are you following this?  So my GPA is abysmal.  Furthermore, I am stuck with the confounded grade until the next Fall semester starts.

Long explanation abbreviated, I need to bring my GPA up to par in order to continue receiving my scholarship and grant.  Also I need a certain GPA to register for classes next semester or I am on "academic probation."  In other words, they think I need to chill out and get my junk together.  But when series of calculus classes are involved, taking a break is a bad idea. 

At any rate, My grades are as follows:

Class Description Units Grading Grade Grade Points CE 1104 INTRO TO ENGR 1.00 Graded B 3.000 ENGL 2309 WORLD LIT 3.00 Graded A 12.000 MATH 1426 CALCULUS I 4.00 Graded C 8.000

Let me translate:  World Literature:  Great! Engineering:  Good enough! Calculus:  Eh. . .  I think it is important to note here that Cal I has about a 30% pass rate.  Therefore a C in calculus is exceptional and I am happy with it.  However, I needed a B in order to bring my GPA up.  So what shall I do?  Now I must submit a formal appeal to the powers that be and the long paper trail continues.  Sigh. Alright, enough of this!  We do other stuff too, you know. Here Jennifer is modeling a lovely hat from the Scottish festival we attended.  Looking good! And this is Jennifer showing her sensitive side.  Aaaw!  Yes, she is still working at the animal clinic and yes she still loves aminals!  And this birdie loves her back. And as for me?  Well, I am still frollicking and running.  I am running in another wacky obstacle race on June 16.  I am working hard and feeling swell and Ellie is my personal trainer.  Thanks Ellie!

So you're probably thinking: "Don't these guys have anything better to do than post pictures of their animals?  Why don't they get a life?"

Excellent question!  And one to which I have no answer.  But you know, it's different when they're yours.

 Anyway, so here's a great action shot of Ellie licking her nose in the wildflowers.  Turns out there is a protected expanse of native Texas grassland behind our neighborhood.  There are walking trails and a playground and all kinds of fun stuff.

Would you believe these pictures were taken about one mile from our house?  Just a few minutes from downtown!  Wonders never cease here in Fort Worth.

Photos, of course, are courtesy of Jennifer Long.  Nice work!

Jennifer snapped this adorable candid picture of our Kitty-Girl, Ashtray.  Ashtray?  Yes.  Steven named her.  Suits her, don't you think?  We also took Ellie for a romp through the wildflowers, but those photos aren't ready yet.  We also also attended the Scottish festival in Arlington at UTA, but not too many photos were taken.  They had a lot of free beer though.  Steven thought free beer would be a good way to forget about his calculus final.  Instead, he ended up missing work the following day.  Bad idea, Steven.  Bad idea.

Didn't we tell you we wouldn't update very often?  Well you need to listen to us because we aren't just making this stuff up!  At any rate, we've been up to a lot since last update.  Obviously we got married and are still married.  We bought a house.  Jenn started taking pictures of stuff.  I got a baby degree and moved on to University of Texas in Arlington.  Jenn has become involved in the not-for-profit organization the Art of Living and making all sorts of new friends.

Yes, we've been quite busy!  Another thing that happened is that our computer died and we lost a lot of pictures.  Well, they aren't lost exactly.  But they're on the laptop and the laptop is slow and I'm kind of lazy so they just sit there for now.

Last Sunday Steven decided it would be fun to run a muddy 5K obstacle course called the Warrior Dash.  The Dash is a charity event and so far for the year they've raised over $100,000 for St. Jude's Children.  If anyone is interested, Steven placed 498th out of over 5000 with a time of 36:26.  That's minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes.

Here are a few highlights, courtesy of Jenn's photo-snapping:

As I was signing my life away, a volunteer rushed into the waiver tent and told one of the other volunteers they needed help with a runner who had fallen from an obstacle and probably broke his leg.

Wacky costumes are encouraged at the Warrior Dash.

This is me and my friend Cameron, pre-mud.

Shootin' at the Walls of Heartache?  We are the warriors!  Remember that song?  Ugh.

Here's Steven in the final stretch.

After you finish, they give you a muddy banana.  Yum!

. . .And here's the team with mud.  Lots and lots of mud.

Alright gang, that's it for now.  We're doing some more interesting stuff this weekend so maybe we can find time to post some more and ramble some more.  Time will tell.  If not, maybe we'll post again in two more years? 

Good night and Good day!