Merry Christmas

We hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!

I didn't submit a photo for it, but this weeks theme for the weekly photo challenge is Bokeh Lights - basically when you shoot an object in the foreground and the lights in the background go all blurry.  I played around with my camera some, but the lens that I have doesn't open up the aperture far enough for really good blurring of the background.  I think I hear an excuse to buy another lens for the camera!  Here is one shot that I did get it to work with my lens after some fooling around with the distance between the camera, the ornament and the Christmas tree in the background.

The F word

I seriously considered waiting a few days before writing this post, but then I realized that it might be more entertaining for the lucky few who follow this blog if I wrote it before all of this sank in and I came to terms with it.  I apologize in advance if you are offended by the F word, which I am using throughout this post to reflect my response to the day’s events.  If it really bothers you, just replace it with the word Fudge… 

What else can I say, the F word basically defines the day.  I had just settled into my chair at the office when my phone rang, it was Karen calling.  Strange, I just talked with her when I was driving to work, as she is currently out of town.  “Did you hear about what was going on at our house in Georgia?” she asked.  A bad feeling quickly settled into my stomach.    She continued, “Neighbor X said the police were at the house last night.” Then the day took a turn for the worse.  F…

I quickly went to the local paper’s website and… “You’ve got to be F’n kidding me” I said to myself.  Evidently, I didn’t say it to myself; instead, I said it loud enough for the entire office to hear.  I spent the next hour or two on the phone with neighbors, the local police and the insurance company.  Evidently our tenant was housing more than just herself and her two kids...  F… 

The local police thought that the other item that was being kept in the house was important enough to execute a “no knock” warrant on Monday night.  In case you were wondering, “No knock” means just what it says:  One swift application of force and a crew of armed officers swarmed into the house leaving a mangled door in their wake.  I don’t imagine they said “housekeeping” (use a high pitched voice) as they entered the house.  Who is responsible for repairing that damaged door you might wonder?  That would be us, the property owner.  Evidently, once a warrant is in hand, the police can do whatever they want.  F…

The big surprise that I found after all of my phone calls?  Our tenant was not arrested.  They have only arrested her boyfriend and his “business partner.”  A lot of their "merchandise" and other accessories were removed from our house and two other houses in town that were raided, but she is still there.  F…

Now we are left with a tenant that we don’t really want in our nice little house in it’s quiet little neighborhood.  What do we do now?  I read through the lease that the tenant signed and (fortunately) it does state that the tenant (or an acquaintances of the tenant) cannot use the property for illegal activities.  In our happy little peachy world, that is a rule that is pretty F’n easy to follow.  EVIDENTLY NOT. I am going to go out on a limb and say that if the police felt it was worth bashing in the front door for, then I can surely deem it as an illegal activity.  They don’t typically come knocking just to say “hello.”  Now we have justification for beginning the eviction process. F…

 Before I get into eviction, I just wanted to point out that eviction wasn’t something that we really thought we would have to deal with when we decided to rent the house.  “What are the odds that it would go so wrong that we would have to kick someone out?” we thought.   All we wanted was someone who wouldn’t trash the place and would give us enough money so that we could pay that mortgage each month.  It sounded simple enough, but evidently that house isn’t in Mayberry.  Now all I can say is F…

Since it is the holiday season, I am imagining the eviction process going something like this, “Merry F’n Christmas, now give me enough money to fix the door, gather all your $%&#  and get your sorry @$$ out of our house.”  However, that would be too easy and twistedly rewarding for me (FYI:  according to spell check, twistedly is a new, but I think appropriately used word).  Instead, eviction is a drawn out process that is definitely geared towards protecting the renter.  F…

I would say that this case is pretty straight forward:  You did something that was a clear violation of our lease agreement and the police damaged our house to gain access to it.  Therefore, you need to get the F out of our house.  Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple and now we have to start jumping through legal hoops so we don’t get sued.  That would just be our luck, getting sued for trying to throw out a single mom and her kids during Christmas time.  F…

Step one:  Ask the tenant to leave.  Problem A:  we live 12 hours away and she wouldn’t answer the phone calls, text messages or emails that I sent today.  I guess that I can’t say that I’m surprised that she isn’t answering.  Would you?  Perhaps she didn’t think that we would find out about the police knocking in the door?   We are 12 hours away, after all.  Now we get to do our part to try to keep the USPS afloat.  Hello certified mail; please let me know when she gets this letter. 

Step two:  If she doesn’t move out on her own after that letter (everyone, please pray that she does), then we have to start submitting paper work to the Magistrate Court.  Just the thought of that makes me think one thought:  F…

Step three:  The court reviews that paperwork, hopefully agrees with us (Police activity = lease violation) and then issues a notice to the tenant. 

Step four:  We wait for a specified period of time for the tenant to respond.  If she doesn’t respond, then it goes to step 5.  If she responds and wants to try to stay in the house, then we go to court.  F…

Step five:  Pay the sheriff’s department to supervise a crew to remove all the tenant’s belongings from the house, placing them in a specified location in the front yard.  I’m sure that the neighbors will love that.  There has to be a specific number of people assigned to this task and it has to be completed in 2 hours or less.  The sheriff is basically there to keep the peace.  Sounds like fun, right?  I say F…

Step six:  Decide if we are going to A: try renting the house again (what are the odds of it going bad twice?!)  or B: put it back up for sale, no reasonable offer refused.  I am leaning towards plan B and, unfortunately, I am pretty sure Karen is leaning towards plan A.  F...

New year resolution?

I am one of those people who likes doing a lot of different things, but isn’t particularly great at any of them. Yes, I do pretty well in the kitchen, but I wouldn’t consider myself an excellent cook. Yes, I enjoy working on our cars, but I am in no way a mechanic. Add in my interests in photography, sports, the welding and golf classes that I just took and you start to get the idea. The good news is that having a variety of interests makes making a Christmas/Birthday list very easy (except for the fact that everything seems to be $$$). The bad news is that since I’m not 100% focused on one thing, I never actually excel at any of them or acquire all the "accessories" needed for that interest.

Even my profession, Landscape Architecture, is that way: I know plants, but I'm in no way a plant expert, go ask a horticulturist about that specific cultivar of hydrangea. I can design basic structures and understand the terminology/theories, but if you want a building go see an architect. I can design low retaining walls, but if you want anything bigger than 3-4 feet high, I am going to bring in a structural engineer. The list goes on and on. I think “Jack of all trades, master of none,” or more fittingly “knows enough to be dangerous” are both pretty accurate descriptors for me.

By now, you are probably wondering “where the heck are you going with this?” Well, I bought myself a nice digital SLR camera a couple years ago; however, I don’t feel like I have been able to use it to its potential so far. I took it with us on our cruise and got a few great photos out of it, but I think that was more a function of luck than skill. I think that I need to do something that will get me to spend more quality time with the camera, preferably not on the auto setting. I learn best by doing, so I need to do some more doing.

While I am not typically a big fan of “new year resolutions” (seems like a hooky way to try to get yourself to change [which I would argue people typically don’t change much]), I am considering the new year as a good jumping off point for signing up for a “weekly photo challenge” website. The basic theory behind it is that they give you a specific topic/subject/theme each week and you are supposed to go out and shoot a photo that goes with the topic and submit it. If the theme is dogs, then you shoot something with a dog in it...  After everyone has a chance to submit their photo, the “members” vote on the winning photos each week. There aren't any prizes, just bragging rights for the week.
If I do this, I will try to post the weekly theme and my photo for it here… I am hoping that being “accountable” to the few of you that might be reading this will keep me focused on actually doing it. If I slack off, you can post some “where the heck are your photo challenge pictures, slacker” comments.  If any of you are interested in doing this too, it would add to the motivation to know someone else was doing it too.  Let me know if you are interested.

Speaking of this blog, I have been trying to make a definite effort to post at least once a week, even when there isn’t much going on. Personally, I follow several blogs in google reader (it is a nice, easy way to keep track of blogs, news, etc. since it pulls them all into one central place for you) and compared to them, my  rambling (writing) is definitely a very random collection of topics. Sometimes I think that I should narrow my focus down to a more specific topic, but then I realize there is no way I could narrow it down to just one thing… so this will continue to be a running recount of what I (and to some extent, Karen) am up to. I guess that leaves a bit of mystery for you, since there is no telling what I am going to be getting into from one day to the next. I do think I might have over done it on the curling posts, but that is where the “action” has been lately.

Speaking of curling, the PHD’s lost in the semifinals on Monday, so we will be playing for 3rd place (second loser) this coming Monday. We will be going up against the #1 seeded team, who was upset on Monday. The good news is that we beat them during the "regular" season, however they have already said they are out for revenge.  Our team has signed up for the January - March league (I know you are thinking "yeah, more curling!"), although we are losing at least one of our members to family/work/schedule conflicts. We might have to rename ourselves when the team is no longer full of husbands of doctors (Phenomenal ones, of course).

I did get our new artistic acquisition hung this week.  Due to the materials, it was a pain to photograph.  Shiny metal, mirrors and glass are not very photo friendly.  You will just have to come visit to see it in person to get a better feel for it.  It is modern and somewhat funky, yet geometrical too.   

Xmas time is coming

On Saturday, I took a trip with some friends north about 1 hour to Waltham, IL. Waltham, IL is a very small town, they don't even have a traffic light.  It is basically a grain elevator (the main part of a majority of these small farm towns), a restaurant, a bar, a bank, and (surprise!) a curling club. The Waltham Curling Club was established in 1884 (yes, eighteen eighty four) and one of the guys in our league is a member of the club. He invited us to come up and play at their facility, an old building with an old vintage feel to it. Here is a picture from the viewing room:

The viewing room is heated, so you can watch the play in comfort. They also have TV monitors that show what is going on in the house on the far end of the ice.  On the other side of the viewing window, it was a brisk 35 degrees on the ice and we were out there for almost 5 hours.  After playing, we went to the restaurant for a nice meal and then headed home. 

On Sunday, Karen and I took a trip to Springfield, IL. We received a post card from an artist that Karen had met at a festival last summer saying that he was closing his gallery.  Closing the gallery would allow him to focus on travelling to art shows instead of trying to spend time at the gallery. All of the work in his gallery was on sale, so we thought it would be worth the 1 hour trip to go see what he had left.  Who doesn't like a sale?  We visited the gallery and ended up coming home with a piece - it is a combination of aluminum, stainless steel and glass. I'll post a picture once I get it hung on the wall.

When we got home from our thanksgiving trip, our entire neighborhood was decorated for Christmas.  We suddenly felt like we were way behind.  Since returning, we have decorated a tree (white pine) and the inside/outside of the house.  If there is one thing we do not have a shortage of, it would be Christmas decorations.  We could decorate a house twice as big as the one we have now.  That being said, we kept it pretty simple, especially outside.  We just put some wreaths on the lights by the garage doors and wrapped the columns with garland and lights.  Once the tree out front grows some, I will probably put lights in it, but it seems dumb to decorate a tiny tree.

Many of my neighbors went above and beyond with the decorations.These people definitely like to decorate, possibly a little too much.  I often wonder if they truly think that what they did looks nice, or if their kids directed the work and they are just doing it to keep the kids happy.  In some instances, I can only hope it is the latter.  This is going to sound a little bahumbug-ish, but when driving around town, I can't decide what I hate the most:

1.  The stupid inflatable stuff people put in their yards, the snow globe being my least favorite.  These things make me want to buy a BB gun  so that I can do the rest of us a favor by putting these things out of commission.
2.  Randomly flashing lights that have no sequence or reason - I'm cool with them if the run from one end of the house and then back or something that makes a little bit of sense.  I do not like the totally random on/off/on flashing of multiple strands. Some old person is going to have a seizure from this.
3.  Mixing colored and white light strands or incandescent and LED at the same time. This theory is so simple, yet it gets violated all the time.  Just pick one and go with it, you can always do something different next year. 
4.  Flat out poor choices/execution of light placement.  For example:  putting just a single strand of lights in a tree that is big enough to have 3 or 4.  Do it right or don't do it.  While I'm on tree annoyances, why do people wrap the trunk of trees with lights but only go up to the first branch and then stopping there?  Are they worried Rudolph is going to run into the tree trunk if Santa decides to land in their yard?

The last two are probably more a function of the designer in me coming out, but (like I already said) if you are going to do it, do it right.  If you have done one of the things listed above, consider this a warning..

The S word

We woke up this morning to our first snowfall, luckily it was pretty light and I didn't have to shovel. If we were back in GA, today would be a snow day!

This makes it official, winter is here. I'm ready to head to the Caribbean again!

Is it Friday yet???

Not too much to report this week. My UGA bulldogs played a great first half followed by an incredibly painful to watch second half against LSU in the SEC championship game last saturday. It blows my mind that a team can look so good and then so horrible in the same game. Of course, no one expected them to win, but it would have been nice for them to pull it out. The broadcasters were so heavily biased towards LSU, it was getting pretty annoying by the end of the game. I would have loved for UGA to pull it out, those two dumb masses would have been speechless.
The PHD's ended up in a three way tie for the fourth seed in the curling tournament. After a coin toss and a couple rounds of rock, paper, scissors, we ended up in the 6th spot. That worked out well for us as the 6th place team plays the 3rd place team in the first round of the tourney. I was pretty sure we could take them after they barely beat us the week prior. Even better, 6th place took us out if the #1 team's side of the bracket; we won't have to face them unless we make it to the final round.
If you suspect that I put some thought into this prior to the coin toss and RPS, you would be correct. Once I lost the coin toss for 4th, I intentionally lost the rock, paper, scissors match. I realized the other guy was always going to throw rock, so I just threw a couple scissors and 6th place was ours, hopefully my plan works out. (Insert evil laugh here)
We then went out for that first game and whooped up on the #3 team who had beat us 8-6 last week. We won 12-3 after only playing 7 of the 8 ends. (No way to come back from 9 down with only one end left and a max of 8 points available) Hopefully my plan will continue progressing next week! (continue the evil laugh)
Posts are better with photos, so here is what i see for 8 plus hours per day x 5 days a week. Exciting, right? I will say that having the laptop display and the LCD monitor running together is quite nice. I can have a spreadsheet open on one and a cad drawing open on the other. It definitely comes in handy.

The wives come to curling

After the guys have been going to curling for over a year, the wives finally decided to come down and check it out.  We all went out for dinner and then headed over to the ice center.  I think they got bored part way through the match and I don't think any of them gained any interest in joining us on the ice during the next session.  I suspect that this will continue to be a 'guys night.'
Here we are at the beginning of the match, I am one of the two sweepers, the one on the right with the blue short sleeve shirt with the gray sweatshirt under it.  (we are the red stones)  We are "sweeping" in front of the stone to help it to continue moving forward towards the house.

Here we are later on in that end, you can see that the other team (yellow) has one parked right in the middle of the house (the rings).  We are standing to the left discussing how to knock it out.   It basically comes down to two things, strategy and execution of that strategy.  A good plan won't work if you can't place the stone where you want it.

Here I am lining up a throw, that is me squatting down getting ready to throw.  My right foot is on a rubber pad (called the hack) which is set into the ice.  That gives you a solid place to push off of when you go to throw.  You basically squat down, shift your body weight backwards and then propel yourself forward with your right leg.  You then slide along the ice and release the stone in the direction that you want it to go (you can also put a spin on it by twisting the handle as you release it).  You have to release the stone prior to the black line that you can see ahead of me.  You can also see my team mate in blue showing me where to try to place the shot.

As you can tell in the pictures, there are a lot of bodies on out there on the ice.  There are 4 matches going on, so 8 teams of 4 are on the ice.  We are currently in a 3 way tie for fourth place and the playoffs start Monday.

Thanksgiving at sea part 2

Our second stop was in Grand Cayman. We did an island tour that took us around the island, stopping at a rum cake factory, a new shopping area that had a lookout tower where you could see the whole island and then we went to a place called Hell. Yes, you read that right, we went to Hell. I have to say, I was disappointed with Hell, it ended up being a dumpy tourist trap shop. Evidently, the area got its name from a dead coral reef that is there (it is all black and jagged looking).  That area looked pretty cool and was definitely Hell’s only redeeming quality; this was a stop we could have done without.


After getting out of Hell, we were dropped off at Tiki Beach which is located on 7 mile beach. We spent a few hours there, swimming in the water and watching para sails fly by. The beaches and water were beautiful, it is nice to be able to stand in the water and watch all kinds of fish swim by. We would definitely go back to Grand Cayman, possibly rent a condo or something and spend a week wandering around the island and snorkeling. The only problem that I had with GC is that everything is very expensive; that is mainly a function of the fact that they import everything, from gas to food to building supplies. It is hard to imagine that everything has to be shipped in, but that definitely explains why it is so expensive.

Our third cruise stop was in Cozumel, where we went on an off road adventure to the jade cavern. As you can imagine, I selected this excursion. The excursion description said to wear old shoes and clothes that could get dirty. Dirty was the understatement of the year. Once we got to their facility, we hopped into what they called an xrail, but I would just call it a dune buggy. They took us on a bumpy/muddy/rocky road about 50 minutes to the Jade cavern. Karen drove first, however the lack of power steering made it a bit of a handful for her. There were several times where she yelled for me to reach over and help her steer… and at one point she did run off the road and stuffed us into the bushes. The buggy took the abuse and, to her credit, several others in our group had similar adventures. We hit some mud puddles along the way and got a little dirty, but we both had a good time.

Once we got to the cavern, we were able to swim in jade green water that filled most of the cave while bats flew overhead. Karen opted to stay out of the water and she watched from the shore. The guides also offered the opportunity to do some cliff jumping and I ended up jumping off 15 and 30 foot high cliffs into the water. We also swam through a tunnel to a “hidden” cavern that was pitch black and full of bats. It was cool and kind of creepy at the same time. I don’t think Karen minded the fact that she missed out on the bats.

On the return trip, I was driving,  hitting every puddle that I could find. Then the guides took a turn that we didn’t take earlier and we ended up on a different road. We continued down that road and went flying around a corner to find a massive (probably 40’ long) mud pool directly in our path. I floored it (of course) and we hit the pool at a pretty high speed. That created a wave that went away from us, but then returned to coat both of us in mud. It was awesome… Karen had been holding onto the grab handle at the front of the buggy, which left her shirt sleeve hanging down. That provided an ideal route for mud to flow up her sleeve and into her shirt. That did not go over well with her, I just laughed. This was, by far, the most fun we have ever had on an excursion. Unfortunately, we left our camera in the locker at the start (because we didn’t want it to get wet) so we don't have any pictures of the adventure.  We did have the guide snap this photo before we started to wash off:

As you might imagine, the clothes and old shoes that we were wearing ended up in a garbage can. The description should have said "bring clothes that you will throw away."  Once we got back to the ship, it took two more showers to get all the mud off of us and out of our hair. That night was one of the “formal” nights, so we went from muddy to suit and tie/dress. We definitely went from one extreme to the other.

Friday was another day at sea, filled with eating, pool time and more eating. We woke up Saturday morning as the ship was docking back in New Orleans. We took a bus tour of the city that ended at the airport. We were able to catch the end of the Georgia game before flying back home. It definitely was a great trip and we can’t wait to go on another cruise. It definitely will not be another 5 years before we do it again.

Thanksgiving at sea

We decided to spend Thanksgiving and our 5 year wedding anniversary where we spent our honeymoon, on a cruise ship.  We had talked about doing another cruise for a while, so we bit the bullet and signed up for a 7 night western Caribbean cruise on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas.  We booked the trip at the end of May, it seemed like such a long time until the cruse.

The cruise sailed out of New Orleans, LA on Saturday morning, so we flew down to NO on Friday night and spent the night.  We rolled out of bed early and walked down to the famous Cafe Du Monde for some Beignets.  Fried dough covered in powered sugar = breakfast of champions.  Mmm, mmm, good.

After breakfast, we roamed around the french quarter, walked back to the hotel to get our bags and then walked the 0.9 miles to the cruise terminal.  Karen wanted to take a taxi, I thought we could walk it (and I had read online that traffic gets bad at the terminal).  Walking turned out to be a good thing, as the cars were beginning to get backed up.  We strolled past all the traffic, dropped our bags with the luggage guys and were walking onto the ship 15 minutes later.  I got a laugh when we had to fill out and sign a health questionnaire.  Have you recently had a fever, sore throat, etc, etc?  Heck no...  who, in their right mind, would admit if they did???

We grabbed a quick bite at the buffet and then went to the theatre for a special Martina McBride concert that was given for those of us who had cruised with RC before (officially known as the crown and anchor society).  It was a great show (very private with only about 500 people in attendance) and a nice way kick off to the trip.  here is a photo I took of Martina (check out those shoes!):

After the concert, we headed up to the top deck to watch the ship push away from the dock and into the middle of the Mississippi river.  It is amazing how a 1000 ft. long ship can maneuver it self directly sideways away from the dock, spin 180 degrees in the middle of the river and then head towards open water. I had always thought that New Orleans was right by the Gulf of Mexico, however ships have to navigate over 90 miles of the river until they get to the gulf from New Orleans.  The trip down the river took about 9 hours, unfortunately it was dark so we couldn't see much.  After going to sea, we spent two days cruising in the gulf on the way to Jamaica. 
Here is a summary of our two days at sea:
Wake up, go to the main dining room for breakfast,  hang out by the pool, either eat at the pool (they grilled something pool side every day) or go to the dining room for lunch, take a nap at the pool or in the room, roam around the ship, eat a 5 o'clock snack at the snack bar (dinner wasn't until 8pm), roam around some more, shower and prepare for dinner, pose for pictures with the ship photographers (Karen's addiction), eat dinner at the main dining room, go to a show at the theatre, and then go to bed.  Wake up and repeat...  Tough life, eh?

As you might have noticed, our routine on board revolved around FOOD... which, of course, happens to be one of our favorite part of cruising.  Karen can have seafood when ever she wants and when we are done, we get up from the table and do not have to pay the bill!   On the ship, you have a few options for dining: you can either order room service, go to the buffet, the cafe, one of the specialty restaurants (more $$$) or go to the dining room.  We have found that the best food and service is at the dining room, so we go there for most meals.  At breakfast and lunch, you get sat with whoever walks in the same time you did, so it is always a different group of people.  Everyone that we met at a meal was really nice, and it was fun to "run into them" on the ship later on and hear how their trip was going.  For dinner, we were sat at a table with 2 other couples; the group hit it off right away and we had a great time together.
When it comes to the food at dinner, they will keep feeding you until you ask them to stop.  Seriously, order what ever you want.  Do you want two appetizers because the both sound good?  No problem.  Two entries because you can't decide between the two?  Sure thing.  Do you want one entree instead of an appetizer and then another entree for your meal?  No questions asked.  (I did that one night, the chicken entree for appetizer and prime rib for the "meal") Was something so good that you want another?  Coming right up.  On lobster tail night, everyone at our table, except me, had a second round of lobster tail.

The first night at dinner when I placed my order, I requested extra veggies instead of the potatoes (I don't like potatoes).  When the food came out, I had a plate with my entree on it PLUS a full size plate of veggies.  This became a routine, our waiter knew that I didn't want the potatoes and he always brought an extra plate of veggies.  I always got a laugh out of it, because it was a big plate of veggies.  At dinner, you always have the same waiter, so you develop a relationship with them during the trip.  It is like Cheers where they always know your name.  If you waiter sees you in the dining room during breakfast or lunch, he'll come over and chat with you.  We really enjoy that aspect of being on the ship. 

One night we all ordered the "trio" dessert plates, which, per the name, had three different items on it.  We all liked the chocolate cake the best, so they brought out another plate of the chocolate cake for us...

I don't want to think about how much weight I gained on this trip... 

We arrived at Jamaica and pulled into a new port that RC built in Falmouth.  We didn't book an excursion for this port and that ended up being our biggest mistake on the trip.  We thought that we would roam around the town some, but after exiting the fenced in port area, we walked about one block and then turned around and headed back to the safety/comfort of the port area.  We didn't feel exactly threatened, but people kept coming up to us wanting to braid Karen's hair, or show us something over there, or take us somewhere in their cab.  It was pretty overwhelming and I can see why RC has fenced in the port area.  There were a select group of stores in the port area, which we walked through and then went back to the ship to pick up the routine listed above.

Here is a picture of the ship towering over the buildings at the port there:

This post has gotten long, I'll post the remainder of the trip later... who's ready to go on a cruise with us???

Improving?

Things seem to have improved since last week’s post, starting with the quick trip to Athens, GA that Karen and I made over the weekend. Within an hour of landing in Atlanta Thursday night, my dad’s explorer was sitting in the chick-fil-a drive through… Dinner time! It was so nice to have a fresh, hot chicken sandwich, order of waffle fries and a tall to-go-cup of lemonade. I managed to drag Karen back there Saturday morning for breakfast too... Eat more chicken!

The main reason for the trip was so we could be at my sister’s 40th birthday party. The party was a surprise party on Friday night, so she didn’t know that we (and one of her friends that lives in Maine) were coming into town. It was good to see some people that we hadn’t seen since we moved AND there was birthday cake. I love cake. The party was another strong dose of birth control for me, as there were about a dozen kids, romping around in a birthday cake frosting induced buzz.

The big event in town on Saturday was the Georgia/Auburn game at 3:30pm. We went downtown around 10:30am and the place was already full of people dressed in red and black, with a few faithful, soon to be disappointed, Auburn fans in blue and orange. You just can’t beat the energy of a SEC college town on game day; it is one of the parts of Athens that I miss. Even if you aren’t going to the game, the vibe downtown is always really nice. Illinois States’ mediocre teams don’t create anything close to the draw; I can barely notice a difference around our on game days Saturdays vs. non game days. Ticket prices for the UGA game were in the $160’s and up (each!), so we opted to watch it on TV with my family. Georgia crushed Auburn and it was entertaining to watch my 5 year old nephew cheering and calling out the players by their names. However, don’t get all “see, kids are fun and great” on me because of that comment. That time with him was not nearly enough to undue the mental damage created by the dozen kids the night before.

On Sunday, my parents dropped us off in Norcross,GA and we had lunch with a few of my friends from the Atlanta area. This is a great group of guys that I have been hanging out with for years; we all share a love of cars, sarcasm and food. When I lived in Georgia, the first Friday of the month was reserved for meeting them for dinner. Every month, like clockwork, everyone showed up for dinner, followed by hours of hanging out in the restaurant parking lot talking about cars (unless it was too cold outside). It was such a monthly habit that Karen knew not to attempt to make plans with others that night, I already had plans. I have yet to find any people that come close to them up here in Illinois, Obviously they are also high on my list of “things I miss” about Georgia.

After lunch we were off to the ATL airport and were back in IL by 5:00. After landing in IL, we ran to the auto parts store to pick up some hydraulic fluid for my floor jack. I got it operational and then proceeded to pull the dead starter from the 626. I installed the new starter Monday night after work and the car is operational again (knock on wood). After fixing the car, I went to curling (busy night). Since we were on a losing streak, we reconfigured our team order and went out on the ice to face the remaining undefeated team in the league. The shakeup of our lineup must have worked, as the Phenomenal Husbands of Doctors pulled out a surprising upset by scoring 3 points in the final end to win 7 to 6. Everything is more fun when you walk away with a WIN.

Karen and I are closing in on our 5 year wedding anniversary… in a way it seems like it has gone by fast, until you consider that in that time period she has earned her PhD and we moved halfway across the county. I guess those two events themselves are a lot for 5 years! If you have trouble reaching us around our anniversary, it will be because we will be relaxing here:

I miss Daylight Saving Time

Outside our house this morning it was dark and the temperature was below 32 degrees. Neither one of those are good motivators for getting up out of a warm bed when your alarm goes off in the morning. At 5 pm, when I leave work, it is dark outside. Not a good motivator for going outside to work in the yard or get some exercise. Basically, I am blaming the DST change for the sour mood that I have been in this week.


On second thought, there are a few other reasons:


Karen’s car, a 2001 mazda 626 with 174,000 miles on it has been copping an attitude lately. Evidently it wanted to go visit its friends at the mazda dealer, as it lit up the check engine light. I pulled the codes with my scanner and it showed a transmission issue. I don’t mind attempting most auto repair tasks, but the transmission is one of the places where I draw the line. After two visits to the dealership, they said she was good to go. Karen doesn’t quit trust it now, so I am driving it. After work Monday night, I parked it in the driveway because I was going to head out to curling later. (see update below)


After dinner, I got into the car to drive to curling and the damn thing wouldn’t start. GRRRRR. To make matters worse, it was sitting in the driveway, blocking the Honda that was parked in the garage. I had to put the 626 in natural and roll it down the driveway enough so that Karen could maneuver the Honda around it and out of the garage. Now it is parked halfway down the driveway and I have to work on it outside. Great.


If I had parked it in the garage after work on Monday, instead of “saving” a couple openings of the garage door by parking in the driveway when I knew I was going back out, it would probably be fixed by now (or at least properly diagnosed). Unfortunately, it is now dark outside after work (see rant above) and it rained on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday night’s effort to get the starter pulled out of the car was thwarted by:


a. A floor jack that wouldn’t lift the car like it is supposed to (You guessed it, something else to fix)
b. A bolt holding the starter to the engine/transmission that won’t come loose.
c. Outside temperatures near freezing with a cold wind thrown in for good measure. Neither of which are good for finger dexterity when working on a car.

As of right now, the 626 is still sitting motionless in the middle of our driveway. Any normal person would have called a tow truck by now, but not me… I’m bound and determined to fix it myself. Self-inflicted torture, I guess?


As for curling, we lost AGAIN. As you might guess, I am quite disgusted with (and tired of) losing. Next week, we are going to shake up the order in which we all throw to see if that helps things.

Amongst all of this bad crap, at least I have a vacation coming up (very soon) that I am looking forward to. I am going to have to focus on counting down the days in order to try to remain positive…  Sorry for the "downer" update.

Fire! Fire!

Yesterday was my last welding class.  After 8 weeks of class, I am not sure what I am going to do with myself next saturday morning.  Everyone else in the class made a cute little wind chime for their last project, I went out on my own with something bigger.

Karen and I met this artist several years ago who made artsy fire pits with a pattern cut into the top of them.  Since we first met him, his price has increased 3x, to over $1500.  I figured out that his pits started with the half dome end cap off of a chemical storage/LP tank, so I decided to make my own instead.  It took some searching, but I finally found a local chemical supply company that had a few end caps piled up behind their building.  After a few phone calls, I finally found someone there who was willing to sell one and help load it into a truck. 

This thing is pretty big, 42" diameter and is heavy too since it is thick steel.  I drew out a pattern to cut, based on the artist's design that Karen liked, and hauled it to class in a work truck.  I had already told the instructor what I wanted to do for my final project, but he seemed to start having second thoughts on the project when he saw it.  He said that I probably should have brought it in weeks ago to start working on it.  It was obvious that he didn't think I'd get it done in 4 hours, I remained positive and thought that I could at least complete the cutting.

Here it is with the pattern drawn on it:

In hindsight, I should have ground off all the paint when I got it.  I quickly learned that as soon as a lot of heat was applied, the paint curled up like crazy, taking the pattern with it.  Not good!  I ended up basically free handing the cutting, so it didn't turn out quite as consistant as I would have wanted.  However, since it is the first time I have tackled a big cutting project like this,  I think it turned out pretty good. 

It ended up taking the whole class period to cut out the pattern with the torch and plasma cutter,  but I was able to finish.  I didn't have time to use a grinder to clean up the edges, I will have do that at home later on.  We were having some friends over for dinner last night and Karen was planning to do smores for dessert, so I threw a quick coat of black high temp paint on it to clean it up the outside.  Here it is out on the gravel pad that will eventually be a brick patio:

I picked up some fire wood and got to entertain my inner pyro last night... Fire! Fire!

PHD’s aren’t undefeated anymore :(

Yes, the title says it all… our win on night 1 was followed up by a loss. Based on my previous posts, you can probably guess that I wasn’t happy about it. To make it even worse, we got totally blown away in the second game. We just couldn’t buy a good shot and all the “bounces” went in favor of the other team. This is unacceptable!


This past Monday, our third game started with us giving up a point in each of the first 4 ends, so we were down 4-0 halfway through. This too is definitely unacceptable! We showed signs of coming to our senses in the 5th when we scored 2 points. Our mojo showed up after we took the lead with 3 points in the 6th. Starting the 7th end up 5-4 we were in full swagger and were able to tack on three more points, giving us an 8-4 lead going into the 8th, and final, end. Then one of my team mates said something along the lines of “it’s almost impossible to give up five points in one end.” He’s right about that, you usually score one or two points, maybe three. Five is pretty hard to pull off and I can’t recall seeing it happen in my vast one year of experience.


Halfway through that last end, the other team had 4 stones in the house (scoring circle) and we had 1. Gulp. The middle was wide open when I went up for my first throw and I was able to park a stone right in front of the center of the house. It was a very nice throw (can I say that about my own throw?) and it positioned us to limit them to 1 point. The other team’s skip threw his first stone and it slid wide, leaving us in in that same good position. For my second throw, I wanted to park my second stone about four feet in front of my last stone.  That position would protect the previous stone so they couldn’t knock it out easily. The throw started out on line, but as it slowed it turned and slid a little wider than we wanted it to go. I just left an opening about 1.5 stones wide, leaving an opportunity for them to knock out our center stone.


I knew the other skip would have to throw a perfect throw to make it through that gap, so I wasn’t totally concerned, until he released his stone. As it got closer to the house, my concerns grew, but I knew we had 2 stones in the house, so worst case they would get 3 points, leaving us up by one. His stone wend down the ice and slide right through the gap and into our center stone (my first throw), clearing it out of the house. Worse yet, it managed to some how take out our other stone that was in the house, leaving them with 5 stones in the house. (Insert your favorite explicit adjectives here) They beat us 9-8 on that last throw. I was too stunned to say much, looking back I guess we jinxed ourselves a bit by thinking that we had it in the bag. You know the saying, “it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.”


Other than that, there really isn’t much going on here. I have a project in the works for my last welding class this Saturday. If all goes well, I’ll have an update and photos of that next week. The farmers are finishing up the harvest, making it looks a little bleak outside. When we gaze out our windows, all we see is the brown stubble where the corn stood tall just a few weeks ago. Add to that the fact that the sun is setting earlier, the wind is picking up, and (to top it all off) we have had to switch on the heat in the house. Winter is coming soon.


I attended a meeting last night between the developers and those of us who live in the neighborhood. I don’t recall writing much about it before, but our house is in a very young subdivision. As of now, there are around 210 houses occupied and another 100 lots ready to be built on. That sounds like a lot by itself, but it is just the beginning. There are several phases that haven’t even been started yet; farmers are still raising crops on them. This is going to be a big development when it is done, it will have 985 houses in it when completed. Yes, that is a lot of houses.


Unfortunately, the neighborhoods around here don’t have the amenities that I was used to seeing in GA, like pools and tennis courts. The term “swim/tennis” neighborhood doesn’t really apply around here. Instead, the city has several pools that the people go to. The center piece of our neighborhood is an 80+ acre preserve area that is being restored from farmland to prairie/wetland plantings. Considering my background, you could probably guess that this area is one of the reasons why I liked the neighborhood so much. The developers, the city and even the EPA have sunk a lot of money into restoring this area. I can’t wait until they get the paved trails installed so we can bike through it, enjoying the wildflowers that have been seeded and the creek that runs through it. In addition to the prairie area, there are plans for some soccer/football fields in the future and we also have an elementary school that was built to serve the neighborhood. There is a playground and basketball courts there at the school for the families that have rug rats. I think it is going to be a really nice place when it is done, as long as the quality of construction in the neighborhood meets or exceeds its current level.


The big news for the night was that the developers want the neighborhood to take over control of the HOA starting January 1. From what I can tell, there are a few residents who have been pretty active in raising some funds for the neighborhood and taking care of random tasks like installing flowers and mulch at the entrances. So far, everyone seems to be willing to maintain their houses/yards and there isn’t much else for the HOA to deal with. I’m a little leery of the concept of HOA’s, as I have heard some horror stories of power hungry individuals getting involved and taking things to extremes. In an attempt to get a feel for how this HOA is going to operate, I volunteered to be a part of the grounds committee. With my background, it only makes sense and I definitely did not want to go for treasurer or president. Part of me thinks that this could be a big mistake; the other thinks it could be something that I will enjoy…

Indy 2012

Have you ever received good news from your online credit card statement?  I wasn't sure that was even possible, until I was reviewing my charges last week.  I noticed a new charge from Indy Motor Speedway.  Could that mean that my request for 2012 Indy 500 tickets was granted?  I hurriedly opened the email account that I only use for bills and online orders.  Situated below the cell phone and power bills was an email confirmation from the track.  SWEET, I will be able to cross going to the Indy 500 off my unwritten bucket list. 

Excited about knowing that I was going to be at the 500 in May, I sat down on the couch to watch the final 2011 Indy race on Sunday.  I turned the race on at about lap 10 and reached for the lap top to balance the check book while I watched the race (Multitasking at it's best).  A few laps later disaster struck with a multicar pileup.  There were cars flying through the air, cars on fire and parts scattered everywhere.   As you have probably heard by now, 2 time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in that wreck.   It is very sad news indeed, especially when you think about his wife and two young kids.

 As a fan, I have always been fascinated with close, side by side racing.  Side by side racing creates a lot of passing, lead changes and, unfortunately, some wrecks.  I'll be totally honest with you and admit that part of me is drawn to racing because of the wrecks.   I can't explain why, I just am. Today's safety technology has come so far that we pretty much assume that the driver is going to walk away from an accident.  I have seen so many big wrecks unfold and the drivers all typically walk away ok or have only minor injuries.  

All race cars are built to do 2 things:  be the fasted around the track and protect the driver.  Obviously, Sunday's accident was a bold reminder that these guys (and gals) that entertain us by pushing the racing envelope are putting their life on the line every time that they strap into a race car.  They are all well aware of the risks, but there is some inner drive/need that pushes them to do what they do.  They must all feel pretty confident that they are protected in the car; otherwise, I do not think that that they would do it. I would imagine that most of them would rather die doing what they love instead of some other random death? 

In that regard, I can relate in my own little twisted way.  After graduating from college, I was looking for a way to feed a burning need for an adrenaline rush.  I found a steady supply of that rush after I took a weekend introduction to whitewater kayaking class.  For several years after that, a majority of my weekends were spent sitting snuggly inside a small whitewater kayak running rivers.  Before every run, I would sit there in the relative safety of the river bank and ask myself if I was ready to do this.  The answer was always a definitive "hell yes" and I paddled straight into the rapids without a second thought.  Sometimes I got flipped over, thrashed around and occasionally slammed helmet first into rocks, but I always came out at the bottom wanting more.   Sometimes it seemed like more fun if you got unexpected flipped over in a rapid.  The holy $%&@ reaction that having to recover and roll back up mid-rapid caused really gets your blood pumping. 

As my skill improved, the rush reduced, so (logically?) I started running more difficult rivers/rapids in order to regain the rush.  There were definitely opportunity to die on the river; water is a very powerful force that does with you whatever it wants.  Get in the wrong spot and it can flip you and hold you under longer than you can hold your breath or keep your wits.  BUT, in my mind, the fun/rush way exceeded the risk.  Looking back now (am I old enough to say statements like that?!), I wonder what I was thinking because some of those runs were really gnarly.  

Not to say that my years on the river were all roses.  I had a few close calls where I could have gotten injured pretty badly, but I managed to make it through in one piece with just a few deep scratches on my helmet.  (Thank goodness for kevlar reinforced helmets!) Chalk it up to skill or luck, I'm not sure which.  I also witnessed some things that eventually made me reconsider my weekend hobby.  I saw my share of accidents that left friends and strangers with various injuries.  Some minor, some more serious.  I was also there on the river bank one sad day as a group of good Samaritans worked feverously to rescue a teenager who got swept under an undercut boulder and was pinned underwater by the force of the water.  Unfortunately, by the time he was finally pulled out of the water, it was too late to revive him.   After many years of paddling, I decided that the risk was becoming too big on the difficult rapids and the "easy" rivers were too boring and not worth the time.  I made the decision to stop paddling, sold all of my gear and haven't looked back since. 

Anyway, where I'm going with this is that I understand why these drivers do what they do.  I understand the risk vs. reward decision and the rush that they must get from it.  I am also sure that if the risk becomes too great, they will take a step back and re-evaluate and/or implement any changes that should be made to reduce the risk in the sport.  That being said, I can definitely understand the theory of dying while you are doing what you love.  I would much rather die while doing something I enjoy (hopefully with a big grin on my face), instead of, for example, dropping dead from a heart attack while folding the laundry.  

Even after the horrible events of last weekend, I am still excited about going to the Indy 500 in May.  I will  be amazed by the drivers' skills and the technology that goes into their cars.  My heart beat will quicken when I hear that initial roar of the engines after some random celebrity says "Gentlemen start your engines!"  I will probably say to myself, "holy crap," the first time that the cars go bombing into turn one at full speed.  TV doesn't do any justice to the speed, power or performance of a race car, you have to see it live to fully appreciate it.  In addition to those "usual" reasons why I like to attend races, I will be able to be there for the ceremony, that I am assuming they will do, to honor Dan Wheldon's life.  After all, Indy is the site of his last racing victory, the 2011 Indy 500. 

P.H.D.'s

Another weekend is in the books and the fall season has definitely started to set in.  Leaves are changing and the farmers are harvesting their corn and soybean crops.  I can tell that winter is right around the corner and the weather people are predicting a winter as bad as or worse than last year.  Of course, I have learned that you can't always trust what the weather people predict.

Sunday was Karen's birthday and we celebrated it with her parents, who drove over from Virginia for the weekend.  She received some very nice gifts, we went out to eat, and we enjoyed an ice cream cake from the DQ.  What doesn't go well when there is ice cream cake involved?

My Monday night curling league started up last night; I've been looking forward to this for weeks.  Who would have thought that something like curling could be so addictive?  Seriously, it is a lot of fun.  Last year, the league was pretty informal and we only had 4 teams playing at one time.  We did several short sessions, but the ice center didn't officially kept track of who was winning.  This year, the ice center has a new manager and things have gotten a bit more serious.  To start, they reworked the layout of the lanes on the ice and we now have 4 lanes instead of 2.  That allowed the league size to double and, surprisingly, they were able to fill all 8 teams of 4.  Yes, there 31 other crazy curlers out there on the ice with me!  The manager also stepped up and created a 12 week schedule that has each team play all of the others over the first 7 weeks of the league.  After that, teams will be seeded (based on points) for the "playoffs."  
 
For those of you who aren't familiar with the sport (most people aren't) here is a quick summary of it:  Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy (44 pounds!), polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice.  The sheet is around 150 feet long.

Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the center of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of eight or ten ends.  Only the team with the stone that is closest to the center gets points for that end and they get points for any stone in the house that is closer to the center than the opponent's closest stone to the center.  You might get 1 point, you could get 5 or more, it just depends on how the stones land.

The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly spin as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone.  A great deal of strategy and teamwork goes into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. In our case, we are all still learning, so while our strategy is pretty strong, our stones don't always go where we want them to.  There are a lot of "oh well, not exactly what we wanted" statements during the game.  But when you throw a stone just right, it feels pretty good.

My team, composed entirely of husbands of college professors, adopted a new team name for this season.  We are the P.H.D.'s – Phenomenal Husbands of Doctors.  We should be proud that our wives are so well educated and, as husbands, we're really awesome.  Right?  Since I organized the team, I was the "Skip" of the team for our first game.  The Skip is responsible for calling the strategy for the team:  where they should aim to throw the stone, whether or not to sweep as the stone slides down the sheet, etc.  The Skip also has the final 2 stone throws for the team, which sometimes comes with additional pressure.  You might have to save the end by knocking out one of the opponent's stones or try to slide one in closer to the center of the house.  My aim/technique is improving and I actually had a few really nice throws last night. I am happy to report that we ended the night victorious, beating one of the strongest teams from last year with a finally score of 9 to 6.  Hopefully that is a sign that we are going to do well this year. 
 
Some of the players are just out there to have a good time, but as soon as we start playing my competitive side comes out (and the score keeping mentioned above is also fueling it).  I just can't stop it from happening.  Of couse, this would explain why I don't understand this new age that we live in when it comes to kids and sports.  It frustrates me when I hear that they don't keep score at games and all of the kids get trophys for participating.  What lesson does that teach the kids?  Life certainly isn't like that, we don't get trophys just for showing up.  Sometimes you are going to win, other times you are going to lose and sometimes it will end up in a tie: no winning, no losing, just another day.  Hopefully you will win (or tie) more than you lose, but you might not.  We have all hit a losing streak at some point in our lives, that is just how it is in life and love.  (I should go tell that to all the "Occupy" protesters that have been in the news recently, but that is an entirely different soap box and I try pretty hard not to include my polictical views in this blog [but couldn't help including this comment anyway!]).  Second place is, and will always be, the first loser.  Therefore, I want to win!  Go P.H.D.'s!!!


--
Scott Douglas, RLA, ASLA, LEED AP

2 Karens

Karen's friend Karen came to visit for the weekend.  She flew out of Chicago Sunday evening, so we spent the day roaming around downtown Chicago.  Here are a few pictures from our first (after living here for over a year!) exploration of the city.

The popular bean at melennium park

The Landscape Architect in me couldn't help but snap a picture of two hand rails leading down steps to... plants?  Not sure what the design intent was here.

Our first Chicago Deep Dish pizza.  I wasn't wild about the crust, it was a little crumbly for my tastes.

The Karens and the Marilyn Monroe sculpture.

And, of course, you can't have downtown pictures without a skyscraper photo

Shepard's hook

I'm sitting on the couch watching the University of Virginia football game and the Petit Lemans race at Road Atlanta.  A bunch of my friends are at the race today, too bad I couldn't make the trip down there for the race.  It looks like a beautiful day to hang out all day watching a 9 - 10 hour long race!

The Georgia Bulldogs won their game today, so I am happy about that.  I was able to watch the second half when I came home from welding class.   Technology is amazing, you can access a lot of games online this year through ESPN3 (watchespn.com).  I can stream these football games online to our laptop via our wifi and take it with me as I go do stuff around the house.  Now, if I just had a big screen TV that I could hook the computer up to...

In welding class today, the instructor gave us a project.  What started out as a single 10' long piece of 5/8" round steel was turned into a shepard's hook for hanging flower baskets.  We had to cut the pieces to length, heat them up until they were glowing red and then bent them to shape.  Once all the pieces were cut and shaped, we welded them together.  We used the MIG welder today, I am definitely getting more comfortable with it.  The welds aren't perfect, but it will definitely be strong enough to hold some flowers out in the yard next year.  All it needs now is some paint.  I felt like a kid coming home from camp with my new project that I made...

Automatic for the People

I forgot to post this earlier, but ISU did a nice simple memorial for all the people who were murdered by the hijackers on 9/11:

In other news, it was announced last week that REM was disbanding.  While I haven't been a huge fan of their later stuff, nothing can beat their 1992 album, Automatic for the People.  Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon and (my favorite) Nightswimming are a few songs that take me back to those high school years (I'm getting old!).  When ever people people hear that I'm from Athens, GA, it is typically associated with REM or the B52's.

Not much else is going on, I'm still taking welding classes on Saturdays and we had our third golf class last night.  I am amazed at how much effort and thought goes into a good swing.  You have to get in the right position, hold the club properly, the list goes on and on.  Each night, we get a bucket of around 100 balls and we practice and practice.  Next week is going to focus on putting.

We have another guest coming to visit this weekend.  She and Karen both have birthdays in October and they have adopted the concept of the "birthday month."  Instead of just celebrating on the day of your birth, they say you should celebrate the entire month.  The theory hasn't caught on for others, but Karen definitely tries to exploit it around the house as much as she can.  "It's my birthday month" becomes the universal excuse to avoid doing dishes and other household tasks.  Of course, I don't typically give in on these things, but she gives it a good effort anyway.

A quick update

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Not a lot going on here this weekend, between having a 4 hour class on Saturday morning and the college football season being in full swing, it is hard to do much else.  Not that I'm complaining, it sounds like a good way to spend a day to me.

Last weekend, we had a weekend guest from Virginia.  After my  welding class, we piled into the car and drove east to Bloomington, Indiana. Yes, we went from one Bloomington to the other in order to go to the University of Virginia vs. University of Indiana football game.  Considering the fact that Indiana is a basketball school, they had a nice football facility.  Too bad they couldn't fill it!  UVA took an early lead, only to blow it in the second half.  Then, out of no where, they drove back and tied it up with 1:30 left.  We thought we were headed to overtime when a UVA play stripped the ball from the IU quarterback and UVA kicked the winning field goal as the clock hit 00.  It was a great ending and made the long trip worthwhile.  We got there a little early, this was the pregame warm up for UVA:

Karen and I had our first golf class last Monday night.  It was pretty interesting, I had no idea so much went into a good swing.  I guess that is why everyone isn't playing on the PGA tour...  Our second class is tomorrow night, I hope we both see some improvements in our technique afterwards.  I could see myself getting hooked on this sport, just what I need, another expensive hobby.

Speaking of hobbies, the welding class is going well. I was nervous the first week because we were doing oxy-acetylene gas welding. Basically using a flaming torch to heat the steel to 2000 degrees and melting it together. Very cool. This week, we did MIG welding, which uses electrical current to instantly melt the filler wire and the metal you are welding together. The process produces a very bright arc of light that you can't look at with unprotected eyes, you have to wear a welding helmet. Here is a picture of the classroom that the welding class is in:

And here are some pieces of steel that I welded together using the torch, insert your best Tim Allen grunt here:

Where were you when?

Everyone is probably tired of stories about this event, but what the heck.  As the 10 year anniversary of September 11th was closing in, I have been watching documentaries on the events from that day.  Watching those shows has got me thinking about where I was that day and I  I also decided to pull out some images that I saved from back in 2001. 

Considering the fact that I have a bad memory when it comes to most things, I remember exactly where I was that morning.  I was living in Dunwoody and working at Reece, Hoopes & Fincher at the time.  For some reason I was working on a residential landscape design in one of the Principal's office instead of at my desk.  A coworker stuck his head in the door and said that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC towers.  We walked up to the conference room, where the live video was playing on a small 13" tv.  Soon the room was full of co-workers, and we watched with disbelief when the second plane hit.  None of us could believe what we were seeing.  We just sat there watching in silence, then suddenly the first one fell, and then the second.  It was mind boggling.

I went home and sat in front of the tv all evening.  The next day we all tried to go back to work, but I am sure everyone was having trouble focusing on work.  That night, I spent the evening glued to the tv again.  That pattern seemed to go on for days, until all hope of finding survivors passed.

I look at all the political bickering that is going on right now and I wish the United States could get back to the way the country was right after 911 happened. Everyone put aside their party loyalties aside for a while and focused on rebuilding the country and finding the people responsible for the attack.

I could continue on the political track that I just got on, but I might offend some people, so I will stop myself now.

Where were you that day?

First week of the College Football Season

I was very excited for the start of the college football season, and very disappointed with the outcomes.  Out of the four teams that we follow, only one won.  Illinois State, James Madison AND Georgia all lost.  The University of Virginia was our only shining light, and they were playing a team that that they were pretty much guaranteed to beat.  Not a good start, it could be a long fall, especially if Georgia doesn't get their act together.

We didn't do much over the holiday, just took care of some errands and misc. projects around the house.  One of Karen's friends is flying in this Friday night for a weekend visit.  (In case the rest of you didn't know, we're always happy to have visitors!)  We are going to drive to Bloomington, IN  on Saturday for the University of Virginia vs University of Indiana football game.  At least one of our teams is playing within a reasonable distance, hopefully they will give su something to cheer about.  The bad news is that I will miss the UGA/SC game.  However, if they play like they did last week, I might be better off not watching it!

Welding class starts this coming Saturday and golf on Monday.  I'm sure I'll have some stories to share... 

Never too old to learn?

Now that I'm not slaving away at the car dealership on nights and weekends, I (and Karen) have signed up for some classes through the local community college. Class #1: Intro to welding. Ever since I started tinkering with cars and trucks, I have wanted to learn how to weld. For one reason or another, that has never happened. A lot of people say, "just go buy the equipment and teach yourself." Since my ultimate goal would be to build parts for my vehicles, and either restore an old car or build a kit car, I would rather have someone teach me the proper way to do it. Plus, I will be able to play around with someoneelse's equipment before I have to get permission from the Chief Financial Officer to buy equipment. I've also always been interested in metal yard art that people make, but (of course) I'd rather make my own. This should be interesting.

Class #2: Intro to golf. This is the class that Karen is taking as well, which will add another twist to learning. Will one of us be better than the other, possibly. Will it get competitive between us? Probably will. Surprisingly, she can get pretty competitive when it comes to games, so I foresee this being that way too. In case we decide that we really like it, I have already identified locations in the backyard for a putting green and chipping pads to hit from. I know I'm jumping the gun on that, but hey, we have a big back yard with lots of room to fill up.

As my previous post stated, Karen's parentes were in town for the weekend. Lots of good food (restaurants and cooked up by yours truly) and many rounds of Karen's current favorite game, Marble Pursuit. Here is a link for those of you who might be interested: We were introduced to it by one of Karen's friends and we've spread that interest on to others. You can often find the couple who makes the game selling boards with "defects" at discounted prices on ebay. That is what I bought and the board just had some minor scratches on it. Well worth the savings.

To top off their visit, her parents brought me frozen Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits! I know, it sounds sad and somewhat twisted, but I really miss Chick-fil-a! We learned this trick from one of my college friends who lives in Boston and misses the food as well. Her parents developed the frozen chicken-n-biscuit trick and we have passed it along to Karen's parents. Sure, it is thawed and re-heated, but it is better than waiting until our next trip south and 10x better than what micky d's can do fresh.

The Change Up

We just went to see the new movie, the Change Up. It was a funny movie, but the content wasn't ideal for sitting next to my mother in law. AWKWARD!

Sorry for the short post, just had to get that off my chest. I will have to see the movie again just so I can fully enjoy it.