Get your spin on

Last week’s experiment of getting up at 5:00am and going to the gym worked out pretty well, I did it successfully Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I thought I would sleep in on Saturday; however my body thought that it was definitely time to get up by 6:30 am.  Ok, so there might be a down side to getting up early during the week… it will make sleeping in on the weekend even harder to do.

Since the CFO is out of town visiting family, I decided to go to the gym’s “intro to spinning” class on Saturday morning at 9:45.  I’ve always read about spinning being a good winter workout for cyclists and the classes are included with our membership, so why not try it out?  After the instructor spent 15 minutes verifying that everyone’s bikes were adjusted properly for their size/shape, the she ran through the basic “moves” involved in a typical spin class.  Basically you vary the resistance on the machine to simulate hills/flats and then either sit or stand or (harder yet) “jump” back and forth from sitting to standing to sitting to standing.  They instruct you to vary your cadence, from a normal “resting” cadence to high rpm (around 110-120 rpm) sprints.  It all seemed easy enough to understand and I could see the potential for this to be a real a$$ kicker.  In the 30 or so minutes of actual spinning during the orientation, I covered about 6 miles.  The instructor said that she was teaching the 5:15 am class on Monday, so I thought it would be good to try a “real” class with her before going to a class taught by a different instructor.

4:45am on Monday my alarm went off… it felt way too early, but that was probably because I stayed up until 11:30 the night before, because I couldn’t tear myself away from the New England/San Fran football game.  I walked through the door to the spin room at the same time as another guy from the Saturday intro class.  The instructor was happy to see some returning new faces and we adjusted our bikes and started warming up.  After warm up, she commenced to running us through series of sprints and hills and jumps and more hills and more sprints and more jumps… I was very happy when the “cool down” finally came 40 minutes later.  Somewhat surprisingly, I managed to cover over 15 miles during the class.  I was whipped, though.  I attended another class this morning (Wednesday), with a different instructor… her class was a little more intense, with lots of standing climbs and a whole lot of jumps. 

With different instructors teaching spin each morning, the variety of instruction might be enough to keep it interesting and not become too monotonous.  I think that I might make spin class my mon/weds/fri workout routine, with weights mixed in on tues/thurs.  Now that I have my tentative plan set, all I have to do is stick to it.  The big problem is that we are heading out of town for the holiday; will I be able to get back on it after taking a week of for Christmas???  I sure hope so; I know that I will need it after being around dad’s homemade donuts and cookies!  I can’t resist eating those, typically in large quantities!

Keep It Simple Stupid

On Sunday afternoon I made a run to the grocery store to get food for the rest of the week, until we head out of town.  (The CFO is out of town visiting her family, so I’m solo this week)  Since I’m solo and we’re leaving town at the end of the week, I didn’t pick up much.  However, I did stop by the deli to get some meat to use for lunch sandwiches.  Because we won’t be home over the weekend and I won’t be making sandwiches then, I decided to trim my usual half a pound order down to a third of a pound so that we didn’t have to throw out any leftover meat before we left town.  I placed my order for a third of a pound of ham and watched the college aged woman work the slicer.  As the pile of sliced meat grew on the tray, I started to worry that she miss understood the amount that I requested.  She walked over to the scale, placed the meat on it and the scale read 0.66 pounds… twice what I had ordered.  She started to head back towards the slicer to cut some more so I spoke up and said, “I only asked for a third of a pound.”  She then replied, “I know, I need to bring it up to 0.75 on the scale.” 

I paused… told myself “don’t be a jackass,” (which we all know is often difficult [for me] to do when such an opportunity like this presents itself) and then tried not to laugh.  After taking a moment to collect myself, I said “a third of a pound would only read 0.33 on your scale; you are currently at two-thirds of a pound.”   She stood there and thought about it for a few seconds and then I could almost see a cartoon light bulb above her head switch on.  She started to turn red and get a bit embarrassed as there were several other customers standing around watching this unfold.  She then packaged up the quantity that I asked for and sheepishly handed it to me.  Lesson learned for me: just order deli stuff in half pound increments… none of this complicated “thirds” stuff.  Or, maybe, I should push the limits and go to eighths or even sixteenths, “Yes, I would like seven-sixteenths of a pound of smoked ham please.”  I can only imagine the response that request would get.

Blue Dawg Days

It took the better part of a week to forget about the University of Georgia’s heart breaking loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC championship.  Yes, UGA went into the game as the under dawg, but I still had hope that they could pull out a victory.  For those of you who didn’t watch the game, it was a series of ulcer causing, emotional ups and downs.  I went from standing up and cheering, to slamming my fist into the couch back to jumping around cheering many times during the game… The CFO just shook her head at me, un able to understand how I can be so “involved” in something that I am not physically involved in.  When the game clock finally hit 0:00, the dawgs were 4 yards and few seconds short of scoring a game winning touchdown.  Oh, the agony… So close, yet so far away.

Now that I have had some time to reflect on it, I am very happy that we (even though I wasn’t technically involved) gave Bama a run for the entire game.  Part of me was worried we that we were taking a knife to a gun fight, but the teams ended up being pretty equally matched.  It all came down to Bama being able to run the ball better than we did and us not capitalizing on turnovers.  We took the ball from them 3 times and only scored off of one of them, a blocked field goal that was run back for a touchdown.  I was a little shocked to see that we plummeted from 3^rd to 7^th in the final BCS poll, but that extra loss in the SEC championship hurt us.  Now I have a month to wait for the Capital One Bowl, where UGA will be facing Nebraska.  It should be another good game, too bad we can’t make the trip down to Orlando to watch it.

Illinois State, made it to the quarter finals game, but then lost… it was still a good showing for the Red Birds!

Say hello to our backyard neighbors... what a bunch of animals:

 

I am also starting to try out a new routine.  Today is day 2 of it:  I rolled out of bed at 5 am and went to the gym and exercised from 5:30 to 6:30.  Why am I doing this you might ask?  Because when I stepped onto the scale that was in the workout room on the cruise ship, I was not happy with what it told me…   Not quite "one at a time" but high for me.  I've got to get a handle on this compact spare tire that I'm carrying around before it becomes a full sized one!

Will this new routine stick?  It is way too early to tell, but I still feel pretty good this afternoon.  We’ll see how long I last in the evening, although I guess going to bed earlier wouldn’t be bad for me either. I typically go to be around 11:15-11:30, much of the evening spent plopped down in front of the TV at night.  This is why I need a new project car... to get me on my feet and away from the TV in the evenings.  Makes sense to me, however, I'm not sure the CFO will buy that reasoning...

Cruise conclusion

On Wednesday, we docked in Antigua, where we had already planned and pre paid for a zip line excursion.  I was worried that the harness and the sunburn wouldn’t play well together, but I wasn’t willing to miss out on the trip either.  The CFO, her brother and I headed out on the excursion and had a blast.  Nothing like a series of 9, 200-300+ foot long zip lines strung between big trees to get the adrenaline pumping.  The CFO was pretty nervous about stepping off the first ledge, but I think that she did really well.  The big question is if she would do it again???  I am not sure if she will, but I definitely would.  Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from this excursion because they didn't allow you to bring your own camera.  They would, however, charge you $20 to take your photo.  Since there was 3 of us, we decided it wasn't worth $60 for our zip lining photos.... I did buy a t-shirt though!

Busy day in St. Maarten, 4 ships in port.  Our ship, the Summit, is the one on the far left.

On Thursday, we docked in St. Maarten, a place where we visited on our honeymoon 6 years prior.  We took the water taxi to town and roamed through the various stores looking for souvenirs and gifts.  The one thing that really stands out at every port is the number of jewelry stores at each stop.  There were at least two dozen at this stop and possibly more.  I have no clue how they all stay in business, nothing that they sold seemed to be a “bargain,” at least not the items that the CFO liked.   Luckily for her, I had already bought her jewelry for an anniversary gift, so I didn’t feel obligated to make a purchase.  In fact, we didn’t buy much over the entire trip, just picking up the zip line t-shirt, a license plate (I collect them when ever I can find them when we travel), and a few Christmas ornaments.  (We try to get an ornament from every new city/country that we visit)

On Friday, our last port of call was in St. Thomas, another island that we visited on our honeymoon.  We did a little shopping, including the purchase of an SPF rated swim shirt for me, and went to the beach.  This beach was in a more picturesque location, but the feel wasn’t as nice as the beach in Barbados.  We spent a few hours in the water and sitting under the shade of some trees that lined the beach.  Then the reality sunk in… this was our last stop and we would have to get off the ship tomorrow.  A 7 day cruise sounds like a long trip, until you actually go on one…. Then you end up wishing you had booked the next week too, so you could do a two week, back to back cruise.

Our ship in port at St. Thomas, taken while riding in the taxi

Several people have asked how we liked Celebrity compared to Royal Caribbean.  Both cruise lines are owned by the same company, so there were a lot of similarities.  The crew and staff were very similar and the way that they wait on you was also the same.  The food was amazing, however I would say it was a notch higher on the fru-fru meter on Celebrity.  There were several items on each night’s menu that required additional explanations from the waiter… but what do you expect when the head chef is a Frenchman?  May be I'm just to simple of an eater, there weren't any chicken fingers on the menu! That being said, every dinner meal was amazing and no one ordered anything that they didn’t like.

Our ship... yes, she is "small" compared to some of the newer vessels.

What did we eat at night?  The dinner menu has two sides, the left side that is the same every night and the right side that changes daily.  At dinner, you would order an appetizer, salad or soup, the meal itself and then dessert.  Every night was like this.  At times people ordered two appetizers, or two entries, or even two desserts.  On the last night, I had this amazing chocolate cake with a chocolate gnocchi on it… after eating it, I flagged down our waiter, Nelson, and said, “There was a problem with my dessert.”  He responded, “Oh no, did I bring you an empty plate?” I responded, “Yes, I think you did.”  He then disappeared and came back a few minutes later with another slice, which I managed to inhale as quickly as the first. 

The part of her SECOND lobster tail that she couldn't finish because she was full.

I am going to start taking pictures of the menus and meals each night because I can’t remember what we ate.  Over the week I know that I had prime rib, grilled chicken, new York strip, turkey with gravy (on thanksgiving), beef wellington, turkey parmesan, ribeye and who knows what else.  The CFO hit the seafood pretty hard, having shrimp pasta, tuna, salmon, and lobster tails to name a few.  I know that other people at our table had veal, duck, pheasant, and many other things…. And that was just the main entries at dinner! 

Overall, it was a great trip, I can't wait for the next one.

 Another cruise ship sailing off into the sunset after leaving port before our ship.

Feel the burn

For the second year in a row, the CFO and I celebrated Thanksgiving on a cruise ship… a tradition that we could definitely get used to.  We Left Bloomington on Thursday November 15^th after work and drove down to St. Louis, where we spent the night before flying out at 5:55 am to Charlotte.  Since we would have to pay to park at the airport, we decided to pay a tiny bit more and get a hotel room that included parking, allowing us to get some decent sleep before the flight (Parksleepfly.com for the win!).   After leaving St. Louis, we had a brief layover in Charlotte before boarding a flight to San Juan Puerto Rico.  We were on the island by 2pm and, after checking into the hotel, spent the rest of the day roaming around the “old town” section of the city.  On Saturday morning, we continued exploring more of the city and the historic fort that sits at the entrance to the port.  I am always amazed by structures that were built hundreds of years ago.

On Saturday afternoon, we took a cab to the cruise ship terminal and waited for the CFO’s parents and brother to arrive.  After waiting for an hour and half, their bus from the airport finally showed up and we all checked in and boarded the ship.  Yes, even though we were leaving the country, we were still able to spend this holiday with family.  Our last two cruises were with Royal Caribbean, but this time we tried a different cruise line and we were on the Celebrity Cruise line ship “Summit.”  This ship is smaller than the ship we were on last time, it only holds 2100 passengers plus the crew vs. 3000 passengers on our last ship.  Don’t get me wrong, it is still a huge floating hotel, but not nearly as huge as some of the newer ships.

The ship set sail just as we were sitting down for dinner, her family looked a bit unsure as we started to feel the ship move around… probably not the best time for dinner.  Sunday was a day at sea, as we sailed south towards our first port of call.  The day at sea gave us time to learn our way around the ship and to settle into a routine:  Eat breakfast, sit by the pool, eat lunch, sit by the pool, eat a snack, roam around a bit, get cleaned up for dinner, pose for pictures, eat dinner (we always do the second seating at 8:30pm) and then end the evening in the theater for a show.  This food heavy routine was repeated daily, we should have weighed ourselves before and after the trip.  On Sunday afternoon, some of us took advantage of the opportunity to take a tour of the kitchen area for the main dining room… imagine a kitchen big enough to serve two seating of 750+ people per night.  The place was huge and, thankfully, spotless.

Yes, this guy was hand carving melons to decorate the buffet.

On Monday, we docked in Barbados and, since we hadn’t booked an excursion, we decided to make it a beach day.  I had read about a nearby beach called Boatyard beach where you pay a fee to access the beach and get a lounge chair, umbrella for shade, a drink from the bar and shuttle service back to the ship.  It seemed highly rated, so that is where we went.  As soon as I laid eyes on that crystal clear water, I was immediately drawn in and stayed in the water for 2.5-3 hours.  I’m not sure what it is about the ocean, but it always brings out the kid in me.  There was a pier extending out along the right side of the beach and they had a rope swing attached to a small crane that was on the pier.  Of course I had to do that a few times… who wouldn’t want to swing off of a pier and jump into the ocean?!  We must have picked the best beach on the island, as we noticed that the entire cast of the on board singers and dancers entertainment group was at this beach. 

Looks like fun, right?!

We decided to have a late lunch on the ship instead of paying to eat on the island, so we left the beach around 2pm and headed back to the ship.  Why pay for food when there is a buffet full of food waiting for you on the ship?  On the way back to the ship I thought that my back was itching some, but didn’t think too much of it.  I had, after all, been in the water for a good part of the day and it was probably just the salt making me itch.  We shopped at some stores at the dock and then went back on the ship to eat.  While viewing the selection of foods on the lunch buffet, I commented that my back felt really warm.  The CFO raised the back of my shirt and commented that my back was bright red.  Yes, I managed to get fried on the first island that we stopped at and the burn would haunt me for the rest of the trip. 

 Photos don't do it justice... this was taken on Tuesday afternoon.

After we ate lunch, we ran back off the ship to buy a bottle of aloe… aloe is supposed to make sunburns feel better, but it hurt like crazy every time she applied it.  It hurt so bad that I couldn’t even get comfortable at night and had trouble sleeping.  I was so uncomfortable that I ended up spending the better part of two nights sleeping in the chairs on our balcony because it felt better to sit up than to lay down.  Not fun.



She got a photo of me sleeping outside. on our balcony..

On Tuesday, the ship docked in St. Lucia, but I opted to stay on board in the AC, hoping that my burn might magically go away.  It didn’t.  The CFO, her mom and her brother went to a beach while her dad and I hung out on the ship.  The island looked really pretty; I wish I could have seen more of it.  I guess we will have to circle back to see it another time.  While her dad and I were roaming around the ship, we swung by the desk for the on board spa to see if they had anything for sunburns.  They asked to see how bad the burn was and, after seeing it, they offered to give me a complimentary trail of the milk bath to see if it would help.  It did help a little bit, but not enough to warrant the price that they charged for it.  I decided to stick it out with the aloe that we already bought.  (it has now been over a week since the burn and I'm now peeling like a reptile!)

To be continued...

I'm the new vice president

Yes, I was elected to the position of Vice President of our neighborhood’s HOA.  Part of me is still questioning why I even volunteered for the job, but there was a need and several neighbors thought that I could provide some valuable insight for the committee.  Our HOA is mainly responsible for maintaining common areas, enforcing a few rules about fences and satellite dishes and also representing the neighborhood’s interests on local committees.  Since I have a background in grounds and design, what better person to ask to be on the committee? 

The home owners just got control of the HOA from the developers, so there might be a lot of work for us to do.  There are rules that haven’t been enforced and other rules that should probably be created.  This could potentially make the next year very entertaining and/or frustrating...

How ‘bout them dawgs?!

The bulldogs put a hurtin’ on the Auburn tigers on Saturday, shutting them out 38-0.  This win allowed the dawgs to clinch the SEC eastern division, which means they will be playing in the SEC championship in Atlanta.  I wish I could make the trip down for the game, but I don’t see that happening.  It is assumed that the dawgs will be playing Alabama, but that could change if bama loses again this weekend.  The bad news is that every SEC team has at least one loss (because it is such a tough conference), so unless 2 of the 3 remaining unbeaten teams in the nation lose a game in the next two weeks, this will be the first time in 6 years that an SEC team isn’t in the championship game.  Fingers crossed that Kansas State, Notre Dame and Oregon lose a game soon!  I would love to see the dawgs play for a national championship.

I spent part Saturday getting the yard ready for winter, trimming back perennials that have already faded and did the final mowing of the lawn.  There were threats of snow for Sunday night, so I really wanted to get it all done.  I also prepped the accord for winter by installing a set of wheels with winter/snow tires on them that I picked up off of craigslist.  The OEM tires that were on the car weren’t really good on snow, so I’ve been in the market for a set of snow tires.  The CFO wasn’t totally on board with the idea, but when I found these for relatively cheap I jumped on them.  Now I am looking forward to getting out in the first snow to see how they do.

 

We also went out with some friends to discuss the process of buying a house with them.  They have been renting here in town for a year and have now decided that they want to buy.  After our bad experience with trying to sell the GA house, I wanted to tell them to “keep renting!”  However, I bit my tongue a bit and decided to let them weigh the pros and cons on their own.  I did emphasize that the taxes really suck around here (and there is talk of them raising them again) and that maintenance becomes their problem when the buy.  I’ve somewhat jokingly and somewhat seriously told the CFO that this is the last house that we are going to buy.  Unless we make a bunch of money off of it when we sell it, she is going to have a hard time convincing me that owning is really a worthwhile proposition.

After a horrible week on the ice last week, my team started out last night playing the same way.  After 4 ends we were down by 5 points and things weren’t looking too good for us.  We finally found our form on the 6^th end and scored 2 points.  We followed that up with 3 points in the 7^th to tie with one end remaining.  We got a stone into the house early in the end and spent the rest of the end defending that stone.  We ended up scoring 1 point and won the match.  We are now 3-2 and within striking distance of the top team.

I know it is a week early, but have a great Thanksgiving!

Post #100!

This is post #100?!  Can you believe it?  This is the one hundredth post that I have put on this blog… kind of hard to believe that I’ve written that many posts AND that people are reading them... 

The CFO and I spent last Thursday night through Sunday morning in beautiful, sunny San Diego, CA.  She had to go there for a conference, so I tagged along for a mini vacation.  It sure is a beautiful place to visit and I would be very tempted to move there… the only  things that scare me about living in CA are earthquakes, cost of living and the politics (although Illinois is just about as bad politic wise, so I guess I could handle that part of it). 

Unfortunately for the CFO, she had to attend the conference on Friday and present on Saturday, which meant that I was on my own for most of both days.  After dropping her off at the conference (we rented a car for the weekend) I drove out to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument.  This are over looks the naval base on Coronado island and downtown San Diego on one side and the Pacific ocean on the other.  It is an absolutely beautiful vantage point and I could have hung out there all day watching the waves crash against the cliffs. 

 I had told Karen that I would pick her up for lunch so we could go to In and Out burger… a west coast burger chain that we are absolutely hooked on thanks to my friend Shawn who recommended it a few years ago when we first visited CA.  Now we always look for them when we are on the left coast.  On my way to pick her up, I stopped and walked through the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.  It shared the beautiful views mentioned above and was a powerful reminder of how many people have served this country in the various branches of the military.  I can’t imagine a more picturesque final resting place than this.

After lunch, I dropped her off at the conference and headed for a golf course.  I found a local course that rented clubs and had reasonable prices.  Unfortunately, since it was reasonably priced, it wasn’t a beautiful “on the coast” course, but it was still a nice place to play and I enjoyed my 3 hour play time.  I also played decently too, which was a bit of a surprise since I was using unfamiliar clubs.  Perhaps clubs don’t have that much effect on how you play when you are as bad at it as I am!  We roamed through Old Town that night and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  By the time we got back to the hotel I was TIRED.

On Saturday morning, we hit the road early and went to La Jolla for breakfast at a place that we visited last time. We ate breakfast on a deck overlooking the seals that were lounging on the rocks.   After that, I dropped her off again and then headed to Balboa Park.  I had been told by some locals that there was a nice auto museum there so I went to check it out.  Perhaps I was expecting too much, but it was a bit of a let down and I ended up wishing I hadn’t spent the 8 bucks to get in.  There were a few interesting cars and trucks there, including the car that I had a poster of on my wall when I was younger:  Lamborghini Countach.  It is always fun to see these in person because they are actually a lot smaller than you might expect…  it looks huge in pictures.  They also had a first year mazda miata, which kind of made me laugh since I have a miata sitting in my garage.

After the museum, I roamed around the park for a while, checking out the architecture of all the museums and watching a lot of photographers taking pictures of kids and wedding parties.  Even though I was in a beautiful city, I couldn’t resist the call of UGA football.  I knew the UGA/Ole Miss game was going to be on TV, so I hit In and Out for lunch (AGAIN!) and then went back to the room to watch the game.  Happily, the Dawgs woke up from a first half lull and won the game in convincing style.  If they win this week against Auburn, they go to the SEC championship!  GO DAWGS.  Our other 3 teams all won as well, so we had a 4-0 weekend.  Go Wahoos, Redbirds and Dukes!

It is interesting to see how air travel is changing.  The airlines have decided to nickel and dime you for anything that they can. 

#1) What happened to at least a free packet of peanuts or cookies?  Now all you get is a drink and they charge for everything else.  Good thing we had packed our own bag of chex mix and other snacks.   

#2) On the first leg of our return flight on Frontier, every seat had a video monitor that was mounted in the headrest of the seat in front of them.  I thought to myself, “sweet, I’ll be able to watch football while we are in the air.”  WRONG.  Once the plane pulled away from the gate, the display shut down and asked for a credit card before it would show video.  $4 for flights under 2 hours, $6 for flights over 2 hours.  I guess if you aren’t going to provide free snacks then you certainly aren’t going to provide free tv?  Sure, it is cheaper than going to a movie these days, but come on…

It is also interesting to watch the other passengers on the plane… here are a few items that I have been noticing the last few times that I have flown: 

Mr./Ms. General instructions don’t apply me:  They say over and over that you are going to have to turn off your electronic devices once the plane moves away from the gate, yet there is always one or two who have to be personally told to turn them off.  I watched it happen on every flight that we were on.  That chapter of “shades of grey” or whatever you are reading on your kindle will be there when the plane gets up in the air, turn it off.  I have seen some studies that show that it probably won’t affect the plane, but I'd rather play it safe and not be on the flight where we find out that it actually does.    

Seat recliners:  There should be a switch on the back of the seat that allows the person in the row behind you to decide if they are ok with you encroaching on their already limited space on the plane.  If they are ok with you reclining, then they flip the switch and you can recline if you so desire.  If they aren’t comfortable with it, you are S.O.L.  At a minimum, people should ask the person behind them if it is ok for them to recline. 

Mr./Ms. Me First:  Once the plane lands and you get to the gate, everyone walks off the plane in order, row by row.  Yet there are always one or two people who, as soon as the plane stops at the gate, rushes to try to get two or three rows further up the center aisle before everyone else.  These people rarely get very far and look like total self centered asses once they get stopped in the log jam of people from the forward rows.  It drives me nuts, you aren’t that special, wait your turn.  Or, better yet, pay extra to sit in the front of the freakin plane if you want to get off quickly.  I can somewhat understand doing that if you have a connection to make, but then you should say, “sorry, but I have a connection to make.”  Everyone will understand if that is the case, otherwise, wait for your row's turn.

We're going to be flying a lot over the next couple months, I'll continue to observe these issues.

Girls weekend = football and action movies

The CFO headed to Ohio to meet some of her Virginia friends, so that left me home alone for the weekend.  I think she planned it for this weekend on purpose, I don't think that she wanted to be around while I watched the GA/FL football game, as I can get quite vocal and animated while watching games.  Especially when we are the under dog and everyone says that we are going to lose the game.

Friday Night I started with making a nice meal for myself:  spicy pork chops, wild rice and broccoli - Shake and bake is an ok way to prepare pork, however, mixing some Tony Chachere's Cajun spices  into the breading before coating the pork definitely kicks it up a notch.

Action movies I watched this weekend:

The Hunger Games:  Based on all the hype, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this one, but I did.  I didn't realize that it would be so action packed.  What I don't understand is why parents would let any kid under 16 watch this movie... it was pretty violent for something that I thought was oriented towards kids.  Maybe I'm just turning into an old fart.

The Grey:  I typically like movies that Liam Neeson is in and this one followed that trend.  It too was very action packed and I was on the edge of the couch during a lot of it.  I wasn't thrilled with how it ended, but I guess the ending was better than some predictable cliche ending.  I used to enjoy hearing the coyotes howling at night outside of our house, but after seeing this movie, I will have to remind myself that it is just small coyotes howling and not hungry, killer wolves.

Battleship:  What do you know, Liam Neeson is in this one too, along with two actors from one of my favorite all time tv series, Friday Night Lights.  FNL was a highly under rated TV show when it was on, but a great show none the less.  This movie was entertaining as expected, however they could have done a little more to set things up the character backgrounds before the visitors arrived.  If you like military action, stuff blowing up and aliens, this is for you.

My beloved UGA Dawgs faced the #2 Florida Gators Saturday afternoon.  As usual with UGA football, it was a nail biter involving horrible offensive play and amazing defensive play.  The UGA defense carried the team for the entire game... I do not know how we won a game in which our quarterback threw THREE interceptions and our team racked up over 130 yards in penalties.  The offense tried to give the game away, but the defense held strong.  I laughed when I saw this posting on one of the UGA sports discussion threads during the game:

 

I am glad I'm not the only one who feels this way...  ISU and James Madison both won their games too, so we were a cool 3-0 this weekend.  Virginia had an off week, so we didn't have to worry about them ruining our record for the week.  Since Georgia beat Florida and South Carolina has two loses, UGA can go to the SEC championship if they win their next two SEC games.  If the defense plays like they did against Florida, that isn't out of the realm of possibilities.  Until then, I'll continue to be a "basket of nerves" on Saturdays.

 

In addition to a lot of time on the couch, I also spent some time roaming the aisles of Lowes looking for a suitable material to mount posters on (as discussed last week).  I got a few good suggestions from readers, so I went to Lowes and looked at all of them.  I always get strange looks from the staff at Lowes when I am in full "Martha Stewart"/"Take something and use it for something that it wasn't originally intended to do" mode.  They all offer assistance, but then their faces glaze over when I try to explain what I am looking for and what I am going to do with it.  Now I just say, "just looking" and they typically steer clear.

 

I think I might have found a suitable solution to the problem:  Corrugated plastic signs.  They are plastic, so they should hold up OK.  The corrugation gives them a little bit of strength, but they are still light weight.  I bought one and experimented with it using something I got when I worked at the BMW dealership.  It was the cover off of a big desktop calendar, but I couldn't discard it because it had one of the cool custom BMW art cars on it.  Now I just have to figure out how to mount it to the all... Evidently I haven't thought it through all the way yet!

What I started with

What I ended up with after applying a little bit of spray adhesive.

 

In addition to finalizing my mounting solution, I am also considering spraying some sort of clear coating over the posters so they don't fade.  They don't see direct sunlight while in the garage, but I'd like to keep them looking good.



Chili Weather

The evening temperatures keep dropping and we all know that colder weather = time for chili and soup. Re-introducing chili and soup to the meal rotation is one of the great things about the fall season. I never think about chili or soup when it is hot outside, but as soon as the temperature starts dropping, I start craving them. We invited a few friends over last Saturday night and each couple brought a soup or chili. It was nice to have a variety of options to go along with the sweet cornbread that I made… nothing goes better with soup/chili than corn bread, but it better be sweet or I won’t eat it.

Since we had a house full of people, of course the CFO brought out a game for everyone to play… I’m sure these people have learned by know that if they come over, a game of some sort will break out. I am happy to report that when the final scores were tallied, the guys beat the ladies. Yes, for what ever reason, she typically likes to pit the men against women. The guys enjoyed the fact that 3 guys with bachelor’s degrees beat 3 women with PhD’s… Even better was the fact that we won even though I was distracted by the Georgia/Kentucky football game that was on the TV. Who knows what would have happened if I had put my full attention into the game!

I played golf with some friends on Sunday, but the sun beat us and we were only able to play 17 holes before it was too dark. Other than one of the par 3’s, I played like crap… but hey, I’m still learning. The guys I played with have been playing since they were kids, so it came as no surprise that I couldn’t hang with them. The highlight of my day was on a par 3 where I was the only one to land on the green in one shot. Then my poor putting kicked in and it took 4 putts to get it in… so I ended up with a 5 on the hole while they both shot par for the hole. All I could do was laugh at the fact that I was the first one onto the green and last one into the cup. Oh well…

After losing last week, my curling team bounced back with a resounding 12 to 2 win on Monday night. It was nice to be back on the winning side, I hate losing! The whole team played really well and I had a couple nice final throws that won us some points. The crowning shot for me was in the fourth end (a game is made up of 8 “ends”) when our opponent had a stone sitting in the middle of the house and their stone was surrounded by 3 of ours. As it stood, they would win one point since they were closest to the center with that stone, but it was all in my hands with the final shot. I managed to slide my stone just past one of ours and was able to knock theirs out without disturbing our other 3. We went from them possibly scoring one point to us scoring 4 points, a very nice turn of events for us. It was a sweet throw if I do say so myself.

The CFO is heading out of town this coming weekend to meet some of her Virginia friends for a shopping weekend, so I’m planning on catching up on some action movies that she wasn’t interested in seeing… After all the hoop-la over the Hunger Games, I am curious enough to want to see it. I know there are a few other movies that I have missed, so I will probably be making multiple trips to the redbox machine over the weekend. I am also trying to think up some entertaining projects for myself to pass some time… I have some posters that I want to put up in the garage, but I am trying to figure out the best way to do it. I don’t want to just pin them to the wall (too cheap looking, even for a garage), but I don’t want to buy frames for them either (too much money for me). I am thinking about just spray mounting them to some kind of board and then hanging that up. I was going to use foam core, but then I read that it might curl in humid conditions… what else is there to mount them to that won’t cost me a lot? Suggestions?

End of the birthday week

Yes, it was the CFO’s birthday this week and, as usual, the celebration has spread out throughout the month. We went out for Chinese food for her birthday dinner and she requested that I make a dessert with apples in it instead of a traditional birthday cake. As for gifts, she said that I should only spend $20 on a gift since we have recently bought her an iPhone and a new car. I’m not sure that she was really serious about that arbitrary spending limit, but I took advantage of it. I even went so far as to remind her that her iPhone was part of her gift by putting a bow on it… I considered doing the same to the CRV, but decided against it.

Unfortunately for me, the CFO isn’t a big fan of cake… that is bad for me because I am a HUGE fan of cake. I love cake and will jump at any opportunity to consume a slice or two or three, as long as it isn’t German Chocolate or Red Velvet. In a vain attempt to appease both of us (yes, I know it is her birthday, not mine!), I hopped online and found a recipe for an apple cake… She said a dessert with apples in it, so, even though it is cake I wasn’t technically breaking the request since it had apples in it.

Saturday was cold and rainy, so I fired up my trusty red kitchen aid mixer and made the apple cake while she was at work for a morning conference. The cake turned out well, although I have a few alterations that I’ll try the next time that I make it. Yes, I think that I can improve on the recipe. It was still raining at dinner time, so I ventured back into the kitchen and made some sausage and red bell pepper risotto for dinner… what can I say, I have mad kitchen skillz.

UGA’s football team had the week off, so I wasn’t stressed out over football this weekend. (Don’t ask me why I care so much, I just do!) ISU and JMU both won, while Virginia continued their recent losing ways… not sure why they are so bad this year, but it was painful to watch.

On Sunday, we went to church and ran some errands and then I hurried us home so I could watch the Red Bull Stratos jump live. For those of you who haven’t heard about it by now (it was all over the news after it happened), Red Bull was sponsoring a team that was trying to break the record of the highest jump which was set in the 60’s at around 105,000 feet. I’ll give you a moment to think about that… most jets travel at 30-40,000 feet and there are 5,280 feet in a mile.

The Stratos jump had been postponed a few times over the past couple weeks due to high winds that could damage the huge helium balloon that was going to take the jumper, Felix, in a pressurized capsule up to the planned jump elevation of 120,000 feet. He ended up jumping from about 128,000 feet or 24 miles above the ground. He was two miles short of falling a marathon's distance. That is absolutely crazy!  The jump was a success and he broke the speed of sound on the way down. I believe his top speed was around 820 miles per hour and his free fall lasted for almost 4.5 minutes before he opened his parachute. Can you imagine falling for 4.5 minutes?  Kind of like those falling dreams where you wake up in a cold sweat... or maybe that is just me.

I thought it was really cool to see happen live, the CFO wasn’t quite as impressed. Here is a link to one of the videos if you haven’t seen it, the view as he steps off the edge of the capsule is wild.

After the jump, I tried to plant some daffodil and tulip bulbs in the back yard, but I was chased back into the house by another heavy rain storm. The CFO said she didn’t know anyone else who enjoyed “working” in the yard as much as I do… and that she also didn’t know anyone who was disappointed when they couldn’t get out there and work due to weather. What can I say? I find it relaxing and like seeing some results from all my effort.

We also spent some time trying to nail down the details on our upcoming trips – we are going to be on the road a lot in November – January, stay tuned for updates. We’re going on some trips together and she is going on even more without me… so many total trips that I finally had to ask for her to write it all down for me. Yes, I need an itinerary for the upcoming months; there is that much going on. Not that I’m complaining about it, as I haven’t really been anywhere since we went to Denver in the spring… unless you count the trips to the Indy 500, a weekend at Indiana dunes or the Georgia game in Missouri…. Well, ok, so I have been some places this summer… heck I guess I am a bit spoiled when the trips listed above don’t “count” because they weren’t very far from home. That being said, I’m still ready for a dramatic change of scenery and the opportunity to dip my toes in the ocean!

November also means that we’re closing in on election time; I can’t wait for this one to be over! I’ve been biting my tongue a bit around neighbors and the CFO’s co-workers. Sometimes I really want to interject, but don’t want to get into a long discussion so I just keep my mouth shut. Heck, I was even pretty well behaved when her parents were visiting… her mom and I do not agree politically, so I do enjoy making political jabs at her whenever possible. I will say that election time has made me really miss my old co-workers in GA. A lot of my political opinions were vastly different from the majority of them and we had some very interesting discussions about them. I can still remember seeing their jaws hit the floor after some of my statements… good times indeed. I thought about stirring things up on this blog, but decided that I didn’t want to potentially alienate any of the few people who read this!

Bulldog Blues

What a strange week – Not a whole lot going on, but I still feel drained regardless. I spent a majority of the week out of town for work, driving an hour each way every day to observe the construction of a retaining wall. Exciting stuff, right?   Perhaps all the driving is what wore me out.


The CFO’s parents came into town to celebrate her birthday, so we were busy all weekend – She loves to play games, so when there are two additional people in the house, a lot of gaming will definitely ensue. We ate way too much and didn’t do much exercising… a typical week when we have company.

Football Saturday was particularly gut wrenching, with UGA getting their tails handed to them by the S.C. gamecocks. At least I don’t have any friends/family that went to S.C. so I didn’t have to endure being harassed by them. My parents usually call and check in with me during games, but they wisely elected to not call me about this one… I am not a happy fan right now. Losing always sucks, but getting whipped and hearing the crowd chanting “over-rated” (we were rated #5 in the country, they were #6) was painful. Maybe this will wake the team up and they’ll play better from here on out. ISU’s undefeated season ended on Saturday as well, not the way they wanted to celebrate homecoming! Virginia lost as well, leaving lowly James Madison as our one winning team for the week.

My father in law and I went to see the movie “End of Watch” on Sunday. I really wanted to see it and figured Karen wouldn’t so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go. The trailers were a little deceiving as to the depth of violence and language in the movie, so I felt a bit bad about taking him to it about 15 minutes into it. That being said, it was a great movie if you like gritty action movies and aren’t put off by the f-bomb. The cinematography was an interesting of hand held and “typical” movie shooting styles and I thought it was well put together.

The curling season starts tonight with an open practice session… it will be fun to get out on the ice again. We will be officially celebrating the CFO’s birthday this week too… even though she has opened up a majority of her gifts already.

Breaking news...

We got some good news today...  so good that the news needs some intro music..
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I decided that the best music to set the mood comes from the Mormons.. just the beginning should set the mood for you.

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Did you listen to it?
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Any guesses?
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Ready?
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WE FINALLY SOLD OUR HOUSE IN GEORGIA TODAY!  Yes, we've been living herer in IL for 26 months and we finally sold it!    It is a huge relief, even if we lost a bunch of money on it.  I'm just trying to forget about that little detail, however I did tell the CFO that the house we are in now might just be the last house we ever buy.  I am officially declaring that the old theory that says "real estate is a good investment" is a load of crap.

Yard update part 2

Another weekend of football and yard work is in the books.  All of our teams, except the University of Virginia won, so that means UGA and ISU are both still undefeated.  I keep telling the CFO that we need to go to an ISU game, especially since they are her employer.

I was out working in the yard on Saturday afternoon while this vintage 1929 Ford Tri-motor kept doing circles around the airport, so I got my camera and took some photos of it. 

Since I had the camera in the yard, I went ahead and snapped a few pictures of the yard.  As I expected, it looks a bit weedy, but that is how native looks a lot of the time.  The lighting wasn't ideal either, but enough with the excuses:

here is that same picture with some plants identified on it:

There are also some Forsythia in the back near the big blue stem, I planted them as tiny bare root twigs two springs ago and they have put on some serious size this year.  I'm hoping for a good display of early spring color from them in 2013. The purple cones have pretty much stopped blooming and I am letting them dry out and drop seeds to increase the quantity of plants in the area.  Unless the birds eat them all, which is a distinct possibility.  The side oats that are planted with them have quickly become my favorite, I like how the oats hang on the side of the stem. 

The little blue stem is starting to turn red for the winter, I think the red in the fall is definitely more prominent than the blue color for which it is named, but who am I to judge the people who named these plants?  Considering all the natives were planted from seed last spring, I think I am doing ok...

I took some cell phone photos of the front planting, but they didn't turn out too well... I will re-shoot that area with the real camera this week.

A yard update

After the previous weekend’s great UGA football adventure, last weekend was focused on minimizing expenditures, watching football and catching up on yard work. Our two Virginia colleges, James Madison and the University of Virginia both lost their football games, but UGA and ISU won theirs... so we have two teams at 2-1 and two at 3-0.  I also updated the title photo above with one of a recent sun rise...  The sun rises and sun sets are definitely really beautiful here.

When we bought our house, the fact that it was brand new gave us an opportunity to make a lot of decisions about it, especially when it came to the yard. I am now 2 growing seasons into it and I decided that it was time to start documenting what I had planted and where it was located. We probably won’t be in this house forever, so I thought it might be appreciated by the next owner. Here is a copy of that initial hand drawn plan that I did as the house was being built:

The most obvious omission on this plan is the fact that none of the plants are labeled. If I was preparing a plan like this for a client, every plant would be labeled. For our house, I basically used this as an initial concept and I’ve been “winging it” ever since. The only things that are pretty much like the plan are the sod lines and the patio and garden locations.

Plant selection for our yard has been heavily influenced by a couple things: 1) Plants donated by one of the CFO’s co-workers and 2) plants that catch the CFO’s eye when we are roaming through one of the many local nurseries. She identifies a plant that she would like to add and then I figure out the possible locations where it can be integrated into our yard. I never know what is going to gain favor with her, so there is no sense in labeling the plan. I refer to this process as design by committee.

I took the plan to work so that I could scan it and start tracing it in autocad. It will be a lot easier to label the plants in cad, even if the drawing won’t have the same hand drawn feeling to it that my sketch did. The other item that is missing from the initial plan is the dry creek bed that I built to handle the rain water from our uphill neighbors. Since I have no idea where I actually built it, I decided to pull the house up on goggle maps and use that image as a basis for tracing the dry creek bed. I knew that they had an image from last summer, you can see it below:

It looks like I did a pretty good job of laying out the sod lines for the landscape crew that installed the sod...  the final outline of the yard looks pretty close to what I drew on the plan.

To my surprise, they had also flown over the neighborhood this past summer and shot the images at an angle. Unfortunately, this photo was taken at the height of the lawn’s summer dormancy (because I am too cheap to spend money on water for the yard [and I think heavily irrigating lawn is wasteful]), so it doesn’t look that great. I wish they would shoot it now, as the grass has greened back up. Who do I need to talk to at google to discuss scheduling their fly overs?!

The two green spots in the rear yard are where I place the sprinkler to do my once every 2 weeks “keep the grass roots alive” watering that I do. I knew that area was staying green, but had no idea how funny it would look from the air!  I think that the dry creek bed is more "curvy" in person, these shots don't seem to show it very well.  The photos also don't show the plants that we have planted very well, I'll have to take some photos around the yard before everything goes dormant for the winter.  You can't really make out the swath of native grasses that has come in pretty well in the rear mulch area, hopefully they will show better the next time they fly over the house.   Temperatures dropped into the high 30's last night and the sun is setting earlier and earlier... here comes winter!

Road Trip!

Wow, what a crazy, busy and fun weekend. The CFO picked me up from work on Friday afternoon, I hopped into her new CRV and we headed south towards Missouri. It rained off and on during the drive and three hours later we were crossing the great Mississippi river and entering the city of St. Louis. We quickly navigated our way to the hotel and I ran in to get our room keys while she stayed in the car out of the rain. We unloaded our bags into the entry way and she waited there while I parked the car. Yes, even though it was raining, I’m still too cheap to pay for valet parking!

After finding my way back to the street level (I got a bit disoriented in the maze of an underground parking deck), we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the room and were greeted by a huge room with a living room (with a wet bar) and a separate bedroom. It was the second largest hotel room I’ve ever stepped foot in, the first being the Suite my friend had when he got married in Vegas. What made the big room even better was knowing that we were only paying $70 per night to stay there, thanks to Priceline. According to the Hyatt website, the cheapest room in the hotel was going for $169 per night for the weekend we were there! Yes, the name your own price ads on tv are dumb, but you can really get a good deal on rooms in nice hotels. However, based on our experiences with them, we have determined that you really only get great deals in big cities where they are probably never fully booked.

Saturday morning, we walked down to the arch, checked out the baseball stadium and noted that there weren’t many restaurants or stores in the down town area. When travelling, we typically spend more time shopping and eating than anything else, so the downtown area wasn’t going to cut it. Not surprising, the CFO had already identified several nearby communities of interest (read that as places with local stores, art galleries and restaurants), so we got in the car and headed west, stopping at two small communities to roam around, shop and eat. After that, we continued west, stopping at my favorite, Chick-fil-a, for an early dinner. It was so good… I wish we had one in Bloomington! While we were out roaming around, it seemed like every time we turned a corner we would run into someone dressed in UGA attire. Every time that happened, we received an enthusiastic “Go Dawgs!”  from them.  It is funny how something like a football game can bring together complete strangers from all walks of life.

The Arch in shadow

We finished our westward trip and arrived in Columbia, MO about 1.75 hours prior to the football game kick off. We were happy to see a good bit of UGA red and black mixed in with the Mizzou black and gold. We spent the better part of half an hour driving around looking for a parking spot and found one on campus at a lot where no one was charging for parking. Sweet, free parking! We didn’t see any obvious “no parking” signs so we parked next to some other UGA fans and started the 1.25 mile walk down to the stadium. The energy on campus was high and the locals were talking a little bit of smack… I decided to take the high road and just responded with a “we’ll see” and a polite “welcome to the SEC.” (for those of you that don’t know, this was MIzzou’s first game as a member of the Southeastern Conference and they were hoping to prove that they were worthy of membership by beating UGA)

We got to our seats with about half an hour to go and were happy to see that we were nestled right in the middle of the biggest group of UGA fans. We watched the teams warm up and before we knew it the game started. The first half was a blur of bad plays and missed opportunities and there was a serious sense of unhappiness growing in the UGA section. I would say that most UGA football fans are not supporters of UGA’s offensive coordinator, we all think that he is a horrible play caller.  No one is really sure why he hasn't been fired, but every year he shows no sign of improvement. The first half of this game was definitely chocked full of his signature collection of poor play choices, repeated plays back to back and stupid screen passes on third down and long plays. We did not travel all this way to see this crappy play calling!

The packed stadium

During half time I went on what turned out to be a grand adventure trying to find a restroom in the stadium. After walking what seemed like halfway around the stadium, I finally located one and was greeted by a line that wrapped around itself several times… evidently the mizzou facilities might not be sufficient enough to support sold out football games. They definitely need to add some more restrooms to the stadium. Georgia finally woke up in the second half and the mood in the UGA section improved tremendously. Then we jumped to a 14 lead and you could almost feel the entire section take a deep breath and enjoy being at the game. Once we hit the 21 point lead, we all started laughing as the Mizzou fans started streaming out of the stadium before the game was even over. Suddenly, all you could hear inside the stadium was the sound of chanting UGA fans.

What were we shouting you might ask? Well… last week one of the Missouri players made some twitter comments that watching georgia’s first game was like watching “Old man football.” Evidently he wasn’t impressed with their play. As you might imagine, that got the fans and the team all stirred up and “Old Man Football” became the chant of choice at the end of the game. I’m sure that mizzou player was wishing that he had never typed that. I saw an article online that said that he apologized about the comment to UGA’s coach after the game. Georgia ended up winning by 21, giving the Missouri Tigers a fitting “Welcome to the Southeastern Conference” beating.

Game over!

The walk back to the car was filled with groups of Dawg fans chanting “it’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog” and much more humble Mizzou fans. We got into the car, battled our way through poorly directed traffic to the interstate and headed east back to St. Louis. We decided to Stop at a McDonalds about 20 miles outside of Columbia and were surprised to see that we weren’t the only ones in need of snack. The restaurant was full of UGA and MO fans, even though it was 11:55 and they were supposed to close at 12:00. When we finally got our food and left, it was about 12:25 and the place was still full. We got back to the hotel around 2am and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.

Seriously old fashion donut shop

Sunday morning, we used our iphone to locate a highly rated “mom and pop” donut shop and went there for some breakfast. The owners were a couple who had to at least be in their 70’s, but still working very hard. He was in the back rolling out dough and she was filling orders and keeping track of the prices in her head. The donut pricing made me laugh: caked donuts for 49 cents, glazed for 51 cents. I guess you have to pay for that extra sugar in the glaze somehow! We took our donuts to the Missouri Botanical Gardens and spent the morning walking through the gardens. It was a nice and peaceful end to the weekend, happily interrupted by a few more “Go Dawgs” when we ran into other members of the UGA family.

Here are a couple shots from the Garden:

 Cool wooden garden gates topped with Dale Chihuly glass.  We are huge fans of his work and have a glass piece that was made by someone who studied under him.  Maybe one day we'll be able to have an original by him!

 A view across the pond in the "Japanese" style garden.

A feeding frenzy of asian carp in the pond shown above.  This photo was taken at the bridge where a coin machine provides fish food.  These things were positively huge, look at the normal sized ducks in the upper right for a sense of scale.

Hurricane Party

Last week started out with a phone call from my 6 year old nephew, he wanted to warn me of the severe weather that was headed our way (the hurricane that was still spinning in the gulf at this point).  It was nice to know that he's concerned about us!

Friday evening that weather finally hit, however the 4.5-5” of rain that we did get didn’t even make up half of our deficit for the year. It is strange to think that we were so excited about the storm and didn’t want the rain to end, while those who were first hit by it along the coast were feeling the exact opposite. Of course, if I lived in an area that was at/or below sea level, I would be nervous every time that it rained, let alone when a hurricane was on the horizon.

------BEGIN RANT------

Oh wait, you couldn’t pay me to live in an area that was at or below sea level or in a low area that was prone to flooding. Sure New Orleans, Biloxi and other coastal cities are necessary hubs for shipping/commerce and they are beautiful to visit (well, I wouldn’t use the word beautiful to describe New Orleans, mainly because the streets in the quarter always seems to reek of stale beer and vomit), but I would never live on the coast. I still don’t understand why people constantly (and unnecessarily) put themselves and their belongings at risk - and why the rest of us have to pay higher insurance rates and taxes to bail them out every time a storm hits. If you need a man-made structure to hold back potential flood waters from your neighborhood, perhaps you are living in an area that shouldn’t be inhabited?

Last time New Orleans got hammered, I argued with friends that while the commercial/historic areas could/should be restored, I think that the majority of the residential areas (and their residents) should be relocated to higher ground and not restored in their current locations. It is only a matter of time before the area gets hammered again, why do we keep constantly rebuilding? It is just wasteful – a waste of natural resources, money, materials, and labor.  Here we are years later and now many areas are flooded again...

We toured New Orleans last fall after our cruise vacation, it was amazing to see that damage from Katrina was still visible and how much effort people had put into rebuilding houses that STILL weren’t taking into account what just happened to them. Most of the houses were still built at grade, not elevated over potential flood waters. Did they not learn anything from what just happened? The levy didn’t hold last time, do you really, really, really think that it won’t fail again? I was very surprised that they didn’t at least take a page from the east coast beach house builder’s handbook, which says that you should elevate your structure on piers to allow flood waters to pass under it. We’re not building rockets here people; we just need to apply some common sense if you are going to build in an area that is prone to flooding.

Before being developed, the outlying coastal areas were marshes, sand bars and islands. These natural barriers are excellent at absorbing the initial blow and tidal waves from storms, protecting the inland areas. Even though I am in a design field that seems to constantly develop and reshape the ground, I fully understand that no matter how much engineering thought and design goes into it, sometimes man just can’t compete with nature. Sometimes you just need to call a hole in the ground a hole in the ground and not encourage over 300,000 people to live there.

------END RANT------

Other than the rain, our Labor Day weekend was uneventful. We went out for pizza with friends Friday night, followed by running errands and watching football (and the rain) on Saturday. I am happy to say that all four of our teams (University of Georgia, University of Virginia, James Madison and Illinois State University) all started out with wins. It was nice to be able to write a W down for each team on the 4 team schedule spreadsheet that I printed out and stuck on the refrigerator. Yes, we have so many teams to keep up with that it requires a spreadsheet to know who is playing who when.

On Sunday, I had the fantasy football draft and then we went to a dinner party at one of Karen’s co-workers houses. I think I was able to draft a decent team; hopefully I’ll be in the running to win some money this year.  The draft can sometimes be complicated, requiring a lot of info and last second decisions.  This year I used a combination of the laptop, ipad and charts that I printed out.  Crazy, right?

My fantasy football draft headquarters

On Monday, some friends of ours exposed us to something that I wasn’t familiar with since I grew up in the south where unions don’t rule everything, the Labor Day parade. I will save you by not delving into another opinionated rant for the day (one is probably enough for you), but the tour-de-force of labor unions in the parade was a pretty crazy sight for me. Did you know that bakers, confectioners, grain millers and tobacco workers are all members of the same union? Seems like a strange combination… I could go on, but I’ll just stop myself here and won’t discuss my feelings towards the overlying theme that was “collective bargaining is the American way.”

My favorite float in the parade was the “don’t beat women” float. My main reason for selecting it was that there were a bunch of “bad ass” looking motorcycle guys on it; they were all wearing their leather vests with their motorcycle club crests on the back while holding hand painted signs that said things like, “hug’em, don’t hit’em” and “real men don’t hit.” While I obviously approve of their message, I just found the whole scene very ironic and humorous. I regret not taking a picture of it with my phone so I could share it with you. Please forgive me. The kids that were standing along the parade route all made out like bandits, as every float/group was throwing out candy to them. The kids in front of us each ended up with a shopping bag full of candy, definitely enough to carry them through until Halloween.