The end of the semester crunch

The CFO’s semester wrapped up last week, leaving finals as the only thing standing between her winter break.  That meant that the weekend was full of grading papers and preparing the final exams.  Despite that pile of work to do, shopping for a Christmas tree took top priority on Saturday morning.

Since we now typically travel over the holiday, having a real tree isn’t ideal.  I grew up with a real tree (often times one way too big for the room it was in) and I really, really, really didn’t want to go artificial.  I enjoy the “hunt” for a tree and love the smell of a tree inside the house.  Last year, we were really busy and we decided to try not having any tree at all, but it didn’t really feel like Christmas without one.  We literally had a pile of presents in the living room without a tree. 

So, I finally came around to the see the benefits of the artificial tree:  No watering and we don’t have to worry about it dropping all of its needles while we are out of town.  We went out shopping for an artificial tree and found a contender at our first stop.  We liked one that was on display, and it was on sale for over half off, so we went to see how many they had in boxes.  Zero, zip, nada.  I went and asked a sales associate if they had any more in the back and he said, “No, all of the trees that we have are right there.”  His manager overheard the conversation and said, “I think we got one more of those in last night, call to the back and see if it is back there.”  Sure enough it was.  We asked if they would hold it for us, but they said that they couldn’t hold it for us.

I told the CFO that we typically always circle back to the first thing that we saw when we go shopping around town for something specific, so let’s just buy it and if we find something better, we can bring it back and get a refund.  With that, we bought the tree, threw it in the back seat of the accord (the box just barely fit) and continued to shop at the other stores on her list of places to check.  After visiting the other stores, we agreed that we got the best looking, most reasonably priced option at the first store, so we took it home.  Surprise, surprise, we bought the first tree that we found.

We got it set up Saturday afternoon while watching the college championship football games.  We woke up to snowfall on Sunday morning, so I decided to run to the grocery store and do our shopping before the weather got too bad.  It was a wise call as it snowed off and on through the rest of the day.  The CFO stayed inside and did her work while I took care of a few tasks around the house and the garage… and a few hours later the weekend was over.

We woke up to cold temps on Thursday morning:

 

Turkey week

Since our original plans to go on a cruise for the thanksgiving holiday had to be changed when my mom broke her ankle, the CFO and I went with plan B: spend the holiday week in Georgia at my parents’ house.  We already had plane tickets to fly to Atlanta (we were going to drive to Tampa with my parents to get on the cruise ship) and delta wanted a whopping $200/ticket change fee to change our tickets (plus any difference in the actual fare price).  So, not wanting the tickets to go to waste, we headed south.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t much warmer in GA than IL, but it was nice to see trees, rolling hills and roads that weren’t straight for miles and miles.  While we were there, we had the opportunity to do some holiday shopping, eat at some of our favorite restaurants, and, more importantly, catch up with a few friends. On Sunday, the CFO dropped me off at a restaurant to eat lunch with friends and she went shopping.  After lunch, I went go karting with a couple friends at the new Atlanta Motorsports Park near Dawsonville.

Before we got in the karts, the guy managing the track told us that we could go flat out up the hill and into turn one… However, even after three 8 minute sessions, I could not  get myself to fly up the hill and dive into turn 1 without lifting off the throttle.  This was just one of the reasons that I ended up being a few seconds slower per lap than my friends, but I had fun none the less.  While I enjoy driving, there is a reason why I’m not a professional race car driver…

After karting, my friend dropped me off at the outlet mall to meet the CFO.  We worked on crossing some people off of our Christmas list and then went out for dinner at Macaroni Grill, a restaurant that we like but don’t have near our home.  Since our anniversary was the next day (7 years!), we said that it was our anniversary dinner. 

Of course, this did not stop me from giving the CFO a hard time the following night, when she met one of her Athens, GA friends for dinner on our actual anniversary.  “How could you go out to dinner with one of your friends on our anniversary?” I asked.  I am planning on continue to use this for many, many years to come: “Remember when you went out with a friend on our 7th anniversary?”

While in Athens, we also spent a lot of time hanging out with my sister and her family… most of that time was spent eating, playing games or wrestling with her two sons.  It is crazy how fast those boys have grown (turning 4 and 8 this month), but the fact that we hadn’t seen them since last Christmas probably amplified that.  I am usually very camera happy but I didn’t take a single photograph on this trip… I’m not sure what happened, I guess I wasn’t in the mood.  So, I don’t have any pictures to accent this post… sorry.

Bad breaks

The CFO was in Virginia last week for a conference and then she stayed through the weekend so that she could attend a wedding shower for her brother and his bride-to-be.  I had plans to take care of some small projects on Saturday and Sunday, but I didn’t quite plan for how the weekend played out.  Saturday morning started out very productive, I dropped off a pile of old electronics at a recycling event, went to the grocery store, ate a few donuts, and ran a couple other errands.  I got home in time to watch my bulldogs play auburn… and this is where the weekend started to get crazy.

First off, the game was crazy.  The bulldogs played horribly for the first 3 quarters and then woke up at the end of the game.  I'm not even sure why I kept watching it, but I did.  Then the dawgs came charging back and took a one point lead with 1:45 left in the game.  I couldn’t believe that they had managed to pull off such a comeback.  Now, all the defense had to do was stand strong for less than two minutes.  “Come on defense!!!” I yelled at the TV.  And for the first three downs, they did just that.  They actually forced auburn backwards and we had them at 4^th and long, just one more down to hold them…  and then it happened, the Auburn QB hurled a hail Mary pass towards a receiver who had 3 defenders around him. 

One of the bulldog defenders jumped up to intercept the pass and another bulldog defender knocked the ball out of his hands... and up into the air… and… the ball dropped right in front of the auburn receiver who bobbled the ball and then somehow managed to gain control of it and jog into the end zone for a touchdown.   (insert your best slow motion “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Sound here, because that was me yelling at the tv again) That score gave Auburn the lead with less than a minute on the clock.  Georgia did an admirable job of pushing the ball down the field but ran out of time before scoring again.  So close, but no cigar.

As if watching all of that unfold wasn’t enough, I received a text from my sister at the 1:45 mark in the above story, saying that she was at the hospital with our mom, who had fallen and hurt her ankle.  Like any good son, I am always concerned when I hear that one of my parents is in the hospital… but this time I was especially concerned because the CFO and I were supposed to be going on a cruise with my parents in exactly 1 week!  Was this a minor ankle sprain or was it something more?

It turns out that walking to the mailbox is very dangerous, as she managed to BREAK her ankle in two places.  My mind started to quickly evaluate the upcoming cruise trip… lots of walking (on a moving ship), lots trips up and down to different levels of the ship, and relatively small bathrooms and showers… this did not sound good for someone in a cast with a broken ankle.  Worse yet, we were well within the “lose 100% of the money that you paid for the cruise if you don’t go” period because we were only 1 week away from departure.  Oh crap.  I quickly understood why they offer trip insurance, which we have never purchased in the past.  Because, “What are the odds that something happens?” 

I decided to call the Royal Caribbean 800 number to see if there might be an option for us.  Perhaps there was a room with a tub available that they could move mom and dad into.  After a quick summary of what had happened, the phone rep started by checking if there were any handicap rooms or suites with tubs available.  Nope.  She then offered that we could change one person in that room, so Dad could bring someone else on the cruise.  I laughed.  I don’t think that would go over too well with Mom.  I asked if we could change both people, but she said no, at least one original person has to remain in the room.  Strange rule, but OK. 

I then asked if there was a chance that we could reschedule the cruise… She noted that we didn’t have the trip insurance, which didn't help my case.  However, she then noticed that this would be our 4th cruise with their company, so she went ahead and put me on hold so she could talk with someone else about it.  After a few minutes she came back with this offer, “We will give you 24 hours to pick another cruise of equal or greater value that leaves within the next six months and we will transfer 100% of what you paid towards that trip.” 

I’ll honestly say that I was shocked by the offer.  I figured we’d lose 25%-50% of what we paid if they let us move the trip.  It is nice to see that a big company like Royal Caribbean isn’t 100% set in their rules and that they realize that accidents happen. I told her that the offer was more than I could ask for and that we’d check back in with them on Sunday. 

I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of howling winds.  The online weather info said we had 35 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 50 mph.  I spent most of the morning researching cruise options and found a few options that might work around the CFO's schedule.  Around 11:00 am, it started to get really dark outside and the wind picked up even more speed.  Then the CFO texted saying that the ISU info system had just sent her a tornado warning text.  I turned on the weather channel and they were talking about central Illinois, pointing out several actively rotating storm cells within 45 miles of us.  I spent the next hour watching the TV and looking out the window at a serious line of storms moving across Bloomington, just to our west.

 

Yes, I probably should have gone to the basement, but I’m a bit of a weather junky, so I just stood there and watched the front pass through.  Luckily, we didn’t have any tornados in Blo/No, however Washington, IL, just 30 miles west of us, wasn’t so lucky.  This got me thinking that we really need to enclose a portion of our basement so that we have a safe place to go in the event that we need to take shelter.  Since our basement has 3 big, west facing windows, I don’t think that it is the safest place, but it is our only option right now. 

Then the power went out and stayed out for the next 5 hours.  I spent the afternoon on the phone sorting out the details of rescheduling our trip… which eventually sent me out into the garage so that I could plug my phone into one of our cars so it could recharge.  Note to self:  If the weather predictions say a storm is coming, make sure that your cell phone is charged!

This is a photo of a neighborhood in Washington, IL, just 30 miles from our town, after a tornado on Sunday...  Scary.

Happy Veteran's Day

A few weeks ago, the wind snapped the metal flag holder that I had attached to one of the columns on the front of our house.  It wasn't a huge priority at the time, so I didn't worry too much about it.  Fixing it finally pushed it's way to the top of my to-do list last weekend since today is Veteran's Day.  I had to be able to put our flag out on Veteran's Day!

I picked up a new mount Saturday night and planned on installing it on Sunday. As is typical on weekends, we got busy finishing other projects (things that had to be completed before the CFO heads out of town again) and I didn't get around to installing the mount until the sun was starting to  drop below the horizon Sunday evening.  The loss of daylight savings time sucks... I do not like it getting dark at 5 pm! 

Of course a simple task of undoing four screws and replacing the old with the new wasn't going to be that easy.  After taking off the old mount, I realized that the screws that came with the new one were smaller in diameter than the ones that I used on our old mount, so they wouldn't tighten up in the existing holes.  No problem, I thought, I'll just use the old screws.  Wrong... The new base plate is thicker than the old one, so the screws that I had used before were too short for the new base.  Seriously?  I quickly sorted through my container of extra screws and found that I didn't have 4 that were the right size with matching heads on them.  Of course the screw heads had to match, even if no one else would probably ever notice if they didn't.  I would know and it would drive me crazy. 

In need of new screws, I decided that it was time to run to make an evening run to Lowes.  I hopped in the Miata and dropped the top, even though it was below 40 degrees outside.  I got a lot of strange looks driving around with the top down when it is "cold" outside, but it isn't too bad with a hat on and the heater on full blast.  Not to mention that winter is closing in and I'll have to put the Miata away for the winter.  After returning home with the proper screws, I put on my headlight and finished attaching the new flag holder in the dark.  Mission accomplished.

Since today is Veteran's Day, I thought that I would mix it up by posting a couple pictures of the ship that my dad was on when he was in the Navy (images borrowed from the ship's website, a link is provided below).  He was on the USS Horne DLG-30/CG-30, a ship that was commissioned in April of 1967 (my dad was part of the original crew) and decommissioned in 1993.

Here is a shot from the commissioning ceremony, dad should be in there somewhere:

 

And here she is sitting in San Diego Bay, where the CFO and I were last week (we drove over the bridge in the background)

And here is a random crew photo from the website that just happens to have dad in it (in the back, in case you don't notice the resemblance):

 

The heading under the photo said that they were "punching tubes" in the boiler, so I did a little bit of googling to see what exactly that meant.  I found this explanation on the website for the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt:

 

Cleaning watersides required draining the boiler, isolating it from the rest of the steam plant (with two valve security, chained and locked) and then climbing into the big water drum and “punching tubes.” It is not for the claustrophobic or even the faint of heart.

 

“Punching tubes” means putting a circular wire brush driven by an air rotor down each tube as far as the apparatus would reach. It was dusty, dirty work and the sound was reminiscent of a visit to the dentist.

 

That does not sound like fun...

 

After being decommissioned in 1993, the Horne went into storage until 2008, when she was used as a target during a training operation. After sustaining multiple missile strikes, she eventually sank to her final resting place, 3 miles deep at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. There is a video of the missiles hitting the ship here: http://youtu.be/jCkf3ogkFxo  

 

If you are interested in reading more of the history of the Horne or want to look at more photos of the ship and crew, the ship's website is: USS Horne

Happy Veteran's Day!  Thanks to all of the veterans out there.

I "heart" S D

After many months of being stuck within the borders of Illinois, I was finally able to get away for a long weekend.  The CFO left Thursday morning to attend a conference in San Diego and I flew out Saturday morning to meet her.  

I much prefer to see snow out the window of an airplane than in our yard!

The CFO was presenting research with one of her co-workers on Saturday morning, so I was on my own to do as I please.  The UGA/FL football game was scheduled to start shortly after my arrival, so I hurriedly picked up our rental car, swung through the In-N-Out Burger drive thru for a tasty lunch and high tailed it to the hotel.  I missed the first 8 minutes of the football game, but was able to watch the remainder of the game while enjoying a burger and fries.  I hope there wasn't anyone staying in the adjacent rooms during the game, as I did a little bit of my usual yelling at the TV when my Dawgs tried to give away the game in the third quarter.  Luckily, they were able to hang on for the win!

I wish this company would expand to the midwest, their burgers are so good!  We probably would have never stopped here if a friend of mine hadn't suggested it.  Now we are addicted and look for them when ever we are on the left coast.

On Sunday morning, we got in the rental car and headed north along the Pacific Coast Highway to La Jolla.  We ate a delicious breakfast on the porch of the Brockton Villa Restaurant that overlooks the bay.  This has become one of our favorite spots and we have gone there for breakfast all 3 times that we have been in the area.  The CFO loves their fresh squeezed orange juice and the sweet bread basket and I always order their “Coast Toast” French toast.

The CFO enjoying the views of La Jolla

 

After we ate, we drove to the glider port north of La Jolla, hoping to watch hand gliders jump off the cliff and fly out over the ocean.  I guess that we got there too early, as there wasn't a glider to be seen.  We decided to continue north and ended up stopping in Encinitas to browse some stores and check out the beach.  While on our way to the beach, we found a modern house for sale that we both liked.  However, we were quickly disappointed when I found the listing on my phone… the  price was $2.8 million.  Even with the income from the rentable attached guest house, it would be difficult to come up with the $11,000 per month estimated mortgage.  Ouch!  Not to mention that if I’m going to spend 2.8 million on a house, I would hope that it would be on some acreage, not a postage stamp lot (albeit a postage stamp that was 1 block away from the beach!).

In case you are interested, here is the link with more photos:  House

One of the shop owners that we talked to told us that there was an art festival further north in Carlsbad, so we continued along the PCH until we found the festival.  Even though the festival covered at least 10-15 blocks, we didn’t find anything that caught our eye… it was more of a random stuff that we could live without show than an art show. After that, we headed back towards San Diego, stopping at In-N-Out for lunch (two days in a row for me!) and a few small stores along the way.

Of course I had to take a photo of a miata with a surf board riding shotgun.

 

On Monday morning we ate breakfast on the roof of the hotel before heading west across the bay bridge to Coronado Island.  Unfortunately, the morning started out a little cool and overcast (yet still better than Illinois weather!)

The view from the breakfast terrace on top of our hotel.

We spent the morning on Coronado walking along the beach and sitting on a bench while naval ships sailed in and out of the bay.  It is interesting to see the naval base where my dad was stationed when he was in the navy...  We also roamed around the shops at the Hotel Del Coronado, a place that the CFO would like to stay, but doesn't fit our current budget.  They have some beach front villas with fire pits on patios that overlook the beach and she thinks that would be a nice place to spend a few days… keep dreaming I say!  We spent the rest of the day roaming the island and downtown San Diego.

The CFO all bundled up in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

We flew back home at noon on Tuesday, arriving home around 8pm… leaving just enough time to go to Moe’s for “Two Taco Tuesday” before they closed for the night.  Then it was back to work on Wednesday… it was a quick trip, but well worth it. 

While we were out roaming the stores in San Diego, I kept seeing this shirt: 

 

 

After seeing it a few times, I pointed to it and told the CFO that she needed this shirt.  She looked at me funny for a second and then it clicked... while the SD implied San Diego, my initials just happen to be S.D. too...  Sadly, she still didn't buy one...

Getting saucy...

For the first time in a long time, I skipped last week’s post because there wasn’t much to write about.  There still isn’t a whole lot to talk about, but here goes the two week update:

Two weeks ago, the CFO and I had tentative plans to go to the UGA vs. Vandy in Nashville. Unfortunately, our ticket source didn’t work out for us, so we didn't go.  Perhaps it is our fault that UGA lost that game, since we didn't go?  Or it could be  our fault since that this was the first game all season that I haven't watched on TV.  Instead, we braved unusually cold weather and went tailgating and attended the ISU football game.  One of the CFO's co-worker's sons was playing on the visiting team, so we were cheering for ISU while also partially cheering for him.  

Supporting her son made the game kind of funny.  He is the long snapper for his team, so he is only on the field when they are kicking. Unfortunately for his team, they punted a lot during this game due to horrible offensive play.  Every time he snapped the ball and the punter caught it, a huge cheer would erupt from the 25-30 supporters that were there with his mom.  I'm sure all the people around us were wondering why everyone in the group was cheering at that point in the game, as it isn't a time when you would typically cheer. 

 The CFO tolerated the cold weather through half time, so that she could see the band (her favorite part of football games).  Since she was cold and ISU was up by over 40 points, we left shortly after halftime.

 

Early last week the weather reports showed that we were going to get our first heavy frost.  I went out to the garden and picked around 200 roma tomatoes off my plants, taking everyone that was fairly close to ripe.  This is, by far, the most tomatoes that we have ever gotten in one season.  The phrase "bumper crop" doesn't begin to describe it.  It is a good thing that I picked them when I did, as the plants were brown the following day.  At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all of those tomatoes, so I just spread them out on the counter so that they could ripen up a little more:

 

Last Saturday night, the CFO and I went to see Bill Cosby perform at ISU with some friends.  Yes, we just saw him last year in Peoria, but he was so entertaining that we wanted to see him again.  He isn’t getting any younger, so if he comes to your area, I encourage you to go see him.  He came out in an ISU sweat shirt and proceeded to spend 90+ minutes telling funny stories about growing up and having some interesting interactions with audience members.  I don't think that he repeated anything from the show last year.  He definitely has great "comedic sense," but his facial expressions are what takes his humor to the next level.  This photo doesn't do the view from our balcony seats justice, we could actually see him pretty well:

 

After church on Sunday, I spent a few hours peeling, seeding and cooking down all those tomatoes that had been laying on the counter all week.  By the time that I had finished the first hundred, I found a good system that worked and made relatively quick work of the pile... all while also flipping between the NASCAR race and an NFL game.  Having a TV within view of the kitchen is awesome.  And, yes, I understand that making home made spaghetti sauce and watching NASCAR are a bit of a strange combination. 

I ended up making two pots of spaghetti sauce, but after simmering for several hours, they both cooked down pretty far.  I would have thought that I would get a whole lot more sauce out of that many tomatoes!  Oh well.  We kept some sauce on the stove for dinner and put the remainder into bags and stuck them in the freezer.  They will be a nice treat to thaw out this winter.

After standing around in the kitchen all afternoon, I decided to head to the gym and take part in a “challenge ride” that they were offering.  It was basically a 90 minute spin class, double the length of a typical class.  My favorite instructor (the most challenging one) led the ride and I was joined by 6 other “usuals” from the early morning spin classes.  We had a great workout and the 90 minutes went by surprisingly fast.  After covering a computer estimated 39 miles and burning an estimated 1510 calories, I was hungry!  Good thing that I had a pot of homemade sauce simmering on the stove at home! 

I was some what disappointed when I arrived home after the workout to find out that the CFO didn’t have the pasta noodles cooked and ready to eat.  After all that work that I did on the sauce, I still had to cook the noodles too!  You just can’t find good help these days!  Although, I have to admit that she was working on grading student projects, so I guess I can cut her a little slack.  After all, someone has to bring home the bacon around here.

 

CFO's B-day

My stomach churned a bit this morning when I heard that Macy’s announced that they will be opening at 8pm on thanksgiving evening this year.  The black Friday creep is gaining momentum and the list of retailers that are going to be open sometime on Thursday is getting longer and longer.  What is happening to this country?  It is depressing to see that one of the few sacred days when most businesses were closed is slowly becoming just another day.  Christmas day is next, just wait for it… and then remember that I said that it was coming. 

The CFO celebrated her 34^th birthday last week and her parents came for a visit to celebrate with us.  Prior to their arrival, I spent several hours on Tuesday night making the CFO’s birthday dessert request, individual apple cakes with caramel and pecans on top.  While they turned out very well, I was quickly reminded why it had been 4+ years since I made them.  I enjoy working in the kitchen, but something that goes over 2 hours to prepare quickly falls to the bottom of the list.

I made 2 dozen of these, yes, they tasted pretty darn good.

 

Our visit with her parents was full of good eating and the ladies did a lot of shopping.  On Saturday, the CFO’s dad and I suffered through watching UGA fall to Missouri and then Virginia losing to Maryland.  After that mental beating, we all went out for pizza and watched ISU get run over during the first half of their game.  It was not a good day for our football teams!

Sunday afternoon, her dad and I went to see the movie “Rush.”  I have wanted to see it since it came out about a month ago and I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to see it in the theatre.  Since it had a racing theme (1976 Formula1 championship) The CFO wasn’t interested in seeing it, even after a friend’s wife highly recommended it.  In my opinion, the movie did not disappoint, it was very entertaining and I highly recommend it, whether you are a racing fan or not.

Family feud, college football style

Last weekend was the “family feud” football game with my UGA Dawgs playing against the University of Tennessee.  My dad and most of his family are all UT fans, so there is always some trash talking amongst relatives leading up to the game. This year, UGA was ranked and UT was not, but they always seem to play us hard so, in my mind, rankings don’t matter.  I usually make a small wager with one of my uncles, but he wasn’t confident enough in his team to bet on the game (fair weather fan!). 

One of my uncles sent this photo of himself in his UT attire to all the bulldog fans in the family...  I blocked out his face to save him some pride...

 

While I was pretty confident in my boys going into the game, what I didn’t count on was injuries happening during the game.  Before this game, UGA had already lost their #1 wide receiver for the season and the #1 running back for a few games due to injuries.  By the time the UT game was over, we had lost our #2 running back and our #2 & #3 wide receivers.  Unfortunately, they will all probably be out for the season.

Sometime during the 3^rd quarter, when the game was starting to look questionable for a UGA win, I received a text from my uncle, “Nervous yet?”  To which I replied, “Typical UGA drama.”   Which it was… UGA can’t ever seem to dominate a game from start to finish.  No matter who the opponent is, ranked rival or junior college practice squad, they always find a way to make the game close and dramatic.  While I don't enjoy them playing this way, I fully understand that the game isn't over until the clock reads 00:00.

Following UGA football will probably take a few years off my life, or at least give me heart burn and ulcers… I sometimes wish that I didn’t get so involved in the game, but I just can’t help it.   During the key plays towards the end of the game, I was nervously rocking back and forth in my seat (which the CFO says is a sign that I have some sort of disability [life with a special ed professor!]).  Fortunately, the Dawgs made an awesome last minute drive down the field and tied the game up with only 5 seconds left in regulation.  My uncle sent the text again, “Nervous yet?”  I mumbled “yes” to myself, but didn’t bother to reply to his text.

UT had the ball first in OT and drove down the field for what looked like a diving touchdown… except on the reply you could see that the player lost control of the ball before crossing the end zone line.  I was up on my feet, yelling at the TV, “that was a fumble! That was a fumble!!  That was a fumble!!!”  Luckily, the replay official heard me yelling from central Illinois and they ended up reversing the touchdown call. 

It was now UGA’s ball and they had a chance to win the game.  UGA’s offense screwed around with the ball for 3 plays, which incited more yelling at the TV, “What are you doing (coach) Bobo?!”  For the record, I am not a fan of UGA's offensive coach (Coach Bobo), so I always blame him for anything bad that happens when UGA is on offensive.  On fourth down, our kicker trotted onto the field and kicked the game winning field goal.  The Dawgs dodged a bullet and my text message back to my uncle stated my feelings pretty well, “Phew.” 

Now UGA has to regroup and some of the freshman players are going to have to step up and fill in some holes in our line up.  The good news is that we have a veteran QB to lead them, the bad news is that an undefeated Missouri team travels to Athens this Saturday… Somebody needs to add Tums or Rolaids to the grocery list.

The rest of the weekend was way less exciting, with cool and rainy weather. The low temperatures at night have dropped down into the 40's, the leaves are starting to change and the farmers have started harvesting the corn.  Like it or not, winter is coming to central Illinois.

Art + Football, a good weekend combination

I know, I know, art and football is a strange pairing.  On Saturday morning, The CFO and I headed west to Peoria for the yearly “Fine Art Show” hosted by the local arts guild.  No trip to Peoria is complete without a stop at Chick-fil-a, so we went there for breakfast before the show.  After a tasty chicken biscuit and hash-rounds, we were ready to enjoy the show.

There were artists from all over the country, including a couple Georgia based artists who were surprised to see someone wearing a UGA shirt and hat. Yes, I must represent my Dawgs on all football Saturdays.  The booths were full of paintings, metal work, glass, pottery and photography.  We walked through the entire show and then stopped to assess if anything had caught either of our eyes.  I guessed correctly that the CFO wanted to go back and revisit a glass jewelry box and I wanted to circle back to a couple other booths. 

We ended up picking up a few things, some for us and some for gifts.  It is nice to support these artists who are doing what they love to do and probably aren’t making much money doing it.  We estimated that by the time they pay to be in the show, travel there with all their stuff, get a hotel room and food, it must cost them over a thousand dollars to show up, not including what they put into materials for their crafts.  You have to sell a lot of stuff to make up that difference and, unfortunately, we didn’t see a whole lot of purchases being made.

We hit the CFO’s favorite pizza joint for the Italian trio appetizer that she loves so much before rushing home for the UGA/LSU game.  We ended up missing the first half of the first quarter (I was not happy about missing part of the game!), but saw the rest of the game.  What an up and down, back and forth game… happily, my Dawgs pulled out the win in the end.  They were the only team of our 4 college teams that won that day, the other 3 lost.  1-3 for the weekend isn’t very good.

I planted a few pumpkin seeds during the summer and didn't do much with them, I just let them do their thing.  Here are the first two pumpkins that we have harvested, there are a few more on the vine that I haven't picked yet.  Unfortunately, the leaves of the plants were attacked by a powdery mildew, so they didn't get as big as they might have otherwise...

Jerry!

This post was supposed to go out last week, evidently I forgot to hit the publish button:

I picked the CFO up after work and we headed west to Peoria to see Jerry Seinfeld.  I was a huge fan of his show when it was on TV and I often watch re-runs on TV if I find one while flipping channels.  Of course, we had to grab a bite to eat before the show, so we had a nice romantic dinner at Chic-fil-a… yes, I have a Chick-fil-a addiction!  My longing for their food gets even worse during football season because they advertise heavily during games.  Every time I hear that Moooo I start craving that sandwich.

We somehow missed the initial announcement about Jerry’s performance, but were still able to get some decent seats in the second row of the second balcony.  We were way up in the air, but could still see well.  His friend, and fellow comedian, Larry Miller opened the show and he was quite funny.  He went on a long rant about driving with his wife and the CFO started giving me the, “that’s you” tap on my leg.

 

Jerry came out next and talked for about 75 minutes before taking a short break, after which he came out and took questions from the audience.  A lot of the questions weren’t too good, especially the guy who asked, “will you go out for a beer with me after the show.”  Jerry basically said no, but applauded him for throwing up such a “hail mary” type question.  One person did ask if the character of George in the show was based on the co-creator Larry David.  Jerry said that while a lot of the things that happened to George came from Larry’s life, the character wasn’t based on Larry.

I spent Saturday morning getting our lawn ready to aerate on Monday, only to figure out later that I was a week early.  Our block of the neighborhood is renting the equipment as a group, but that isn’t happening until the following week.  I’m not sure how I got the dates mixed up, but I did.  Saturday afternoon was spent watching my GA bulldogs play what was supposed to be an easy game against North Texas.  In typical Dawg fashion, they let NT stay in the game with a blocked punt for a TD and a kick off return for a TD.  I hope the boys are more disciplined this week against LSU! 

Speaking of the LSU game, ESPN’s “Gameday” show will be broadcasting from Athens on Saturday morning.  I can’t wait to see pictures of my home town again, although I’m sure I’ll just watch it and wish I was there. 

On Saturday night, we went out to dinner and to the ISU game with a group of professors and spouses.  ISU just rebuilt half of its stadium and it looks really nice.  We were sitting in the old section of the stadium (the school gave faculty a cheap price for those tickets), but it was nice to look across and see the new structure.  The stadium now seats just over 13,000 people… a far cry from the 92,000+ at UGA.  The game was entertaining and the Redbirds won.  We should really go to more games, I’m not sure why we don’t.

 

This was the first Saturday all season that our 4 college teams all won… it was a good day for the University of Georgia, University of Virginia, James Madison and Illinois State.  If ISU and JMU keep winning, there is a chance they could face off during the playoffs!

Its in the bag

Last weekend was pretty quiet.  I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, until the CFO spent the beginning of the week preparing to start a research project at a nearby high school.  She is working on using technology to help people with disabilities live on their own and this project involves grocery shopping.  I don’t know all of the details of the study; I just know that I was asked to go to the store to pick up some products that matched products that we already had at home.  I did my part to help out and ran by the store during my lunch break and picked up the stuff on the list.

That night, she started dumping stuff out of containers into plastic baggies and Tupperware containers.  Evidently she needed a “full” and an “empty” version of each product for the project.  I didn’t really question it, until what I thought was only going to be a couple things exploded into at least 20 different items.  We now have salt, pepper, cinnamon and other spices in small baggies.  Bread, chips, pasta and other larger quantity items are now in larger zipper bags.  We also have Tupperware containers full of things like jelly and butter plus Aquafina bottles with honey and syrup in them.  “Good luck finding stuff,” she said with a laugh.

She then handed me a 2 liter bottle of sprite, “time to drink up, this needs to be almost empty.” Of course, I wasn’t about to drink a whole 2 liter bottle in one evening, so the remainder was poured into a water pitcher with plastic wrap rubber banded around it.  I doubt that will keep the carbonation in for long, but it was worth a shot… I’d hate to see it go to waste. 

This is a good example of how the two of us differ… I like a good plan, figured out well ahead of time and she is a last minute procrastinator.  I would have had a list of what empty containers we needed a few weeks ago and would have started saving containers then.  Over the past month, I am certain that we have thrown away many of the containers that she now needs… 

I continue to try to introduce her to the “Five P’s” (Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance), but she seems happy to continue with her last minute ways…

Just a sample of our new storage system.  Yes, that is honey in the water bottle.

The quiet before the storm

September through December always seems very busy for us and I have yet to figure out why.  I guess holiday travels have a lot to do with it?  I've stayed home through most of the summer, so I am looking forward to these things this fall:

-Seeing Jerry Seinfeld perform live.

-Going to the UGA at Vanderbilt football game in Nashville. (hopefully, if our ticket source comes through for us)

-Seeing Bill Cosby perform live. (yes, we saw him last year, but the show was really good and we’re going with some friends this time)

-Travelling to San Diego so the CFO can go to a conference.  (This just joined the schedule this week and there was no way that I would let her go there without me)

-The CFO will go to VA for another conference. (leaving me home alone)

-A cruise vacation with my parents combined with a visit to Athens. (yes, we are addicted to cruising)

-Christmas holiday.

-The CFO’s brother’s wedding.

I feel like I am missing something else, but can’t remember it right now.  Needless to say, we are going to be busy.  My co-workers don’t understand why I spend 80% of my vacation time in Nov/Dec, but that is how it always seems to work out. 

Last weekend was pretty much uneventful, the highlight being my Dawgs pulling out a nice win against the SC gamecocks.  Sadly, UVA and JMU both lost.  UGA is off this weekend, so my blood pressure should stay at a normal level all weekend.

Lowe's came through for us and had the replacement roman shades installed in the living room and kitchen.  Of course, this called for the side by side comparison photo above.  It is amazing what the correct backing material does, now you can actually see the pattern in the fabric.  The CFO is much happier, therefore I am happy too.  As some old man once told me “Happy wife, happy life.”  Although, I’d like to argue that an unhappy husband would make life unhappy too...

The Butler

Last weekend had all the ingredients for a great weekend… decent weather, the start of college football, fantasy football draft and Monday was a holiday.  It was all going well until Saturday night, when my Dawgs choked on their #5 preseason ranking and lost to Clemson by 3.  It was a very disappointing beginning to the season.  The silver lining is that it was a non-conference game so it doesn’t count against their chance to win the SEC Championship.  This coming weekend they play South Carolina, let the nail biting begin.

The CFO and I picked up some super sweet corn at the farmer’s market and I’ve been grilling them up perfectly.  I’ve found what I think is the best and easiest way to prepare corn on the cob… no more big pots of boiling water on the stove or trying to grill them in their husks.  Here is how I’ve been cooking corn on the cob this year:

1.  Shuck the corn and place each ear on its own sheet of aluminum foil. 
2.  Drizzle olive oil over each ear of corn and then sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper, kosher salt and garlic powder. 
3.  Roll each ear up in the sheet of foil and close one end of the foil.
4.  Pour in a couple tablespoons of water (to create some steam) into the open end and then seal up that end. 
5.  Throw them on a hot grill (350-400) for around 12 minutes, rolling them once or twice during that time. 

That’s it.  Very easy, yet quite tasty.

Sunday was the fantasy football draft, so I spent the better part of 3 hours on a conference call with the rest of the group (a total of 14 people).  Most of the group gathered at a house in northern VA, but a few of us called in and did it remotely.  I think I built a pretty good team; hopefully I can win some money again this year.

On Monday afternoon the CFO and I went to see the movie “The Butler.”  We walked into the theater and quickly realized that all the other people in the room were at least 2x our age…  Kind of funny.  About halfway through the movie, a beeping/buzzer sound started going off and it took a few beats for me to figure out that it wasn’t part of the movie.  It was definitely a more modern sound than the time frame being portrayed in the film.  When the projector turned off, we all finally realized that the fire alarm was going off.  Everyone in the theater kind of looked at each other for a few seconds, seeming to wonder how we should respond.  “I guess we should leave” seemed to be the unspoken consensus, so we all headed out the side exit and gathered outside of the theater.

Evidently someone pulled the fire alarm and, after about 40 minutes, the fire department gave the all clear.  We eventually found an employee who said he thought that they might restart the movies, so we headed back into the theater.  I was pretty happy that they restarted it; I would have not enjoyed being “left hanging” and not knowing how the film ended.   We were also given a pair of movie passes for a future visit for the interruption, so that was a bonus. 

Considering the subject matter of the film, I thought the movie was well executed and entertaining.  On our way to the car, the CFO and I both wondered aloud about how “true” all the connecting pieces were.  The movie clearly states at the beginning that it is based on a true story, but how much of it was really true?  

Unfortunately, after a little bit of lunch time inter-web research, it turns out that a lot of it was not factual.  In case you haven’t seen it yet, I won’t go into a lot of detail on what isn’t true, but a large amount of the 2 hour movie’s subject matter was ad libbed by the director.  This also helps to explain why I was also a little disappointed with the ending…  I thought that the film got a little political/preachy at the end when the subject became our current president’s election. 

After doing my research on the accuracy of the film, I am now somewhat disappointed by the movie. I’m pretty sure that the true story would have been entertaining enough on its own; I don’t understand why all the falsehoods were included.  I guess that was just Hollywood taking any opportunity that they could to make the movie more racially charged and to throw in their political opinion.  Oh well, I guess I should just stick to comedies, sci-fi and James Bond movies. 

And just like that, a “long” three day weekend was over.  It is amazing how quickly that extra day passes by…

Still Staining...

Will the staining ever end?  I’ve been working on staining the deck for a while now, working a few hours here, a few hours there.  Every time I think that I am getting close to done, I see more exposed wood that needs to be stained.  Ugh. 

Saturday was the sweet corn and blues festival in Normal, so the CFO and I went out early to try to beat the heat.  We did a little shopping at the artist/vendor booths and enjoyed a few ears of sweet corn along the way.  We found this cool colored ball that is lit by an internal light bulb at one of the vendors and decided it would be a nice addition to the ledge over our front door.  Finally, something to plug into the plug that we had them install on the ledge!

On Saturday night, we headed to downtown Bloomington for the Jaycee Criterium bicycle race.  I was really excited to hear that they were doing the race downtown, as they do Criterium back home in Athens, GA and it is always a lot of fun to attend.  I was seriously disappointed by the spectator turn out, a huge party it was not.  The men’s pro race started with 50-60 racers and ended with about half that amount.  The leading 3-4 riders were no match for the remainder of the field, they blew the doors off of them.  They basically set a really fast pace that a majority of the field couldn’t handle, leaving the four of them to fight it out for the win.  With about 2 laps to go, the winner stepped it up another notch and left the other three in his dust.

UGA football is starting the season with a huge game against Clemson on Saturday night.  What happened to the good ole days of starting off the season with an easy team for a definite win?  If you need me, I’ll be on my couch watching the game... For the CFO’s sake, I hope that I’ll be cheering and not cussing.  Go Dawgs!

A 4 year old is making me look bad

Our garden overfloweth with tomatoes... we have picked over 120 Roma tomatoes in the last week!  Someone told the CFO that we could freeze them whole and then use them for salsa this winter, so we are going to give that a try.

Monday morning harvest of 40+

I was sitting at work Monday morning when my phone rang, the caller ID said it was a friend of mine, who is the husband of one of the CFO’s co-workers.  I answered it expecting to hear his voice,  but I was greeted by the voice of his 4 year old son instead.  I immediately started to wonder why he was calling me.  Perhaps he was playing with dad’s phone and I was the person he ended up dialing after pushing random buttons.

However, as soon as he started talking, I knew this call was no accident.  He started rambling about how I needed to go to the store, buy flowers for the CFO and bring them to her at work.  When I got to the building, I should get on on the elevator and hit the 5 button to go up to the floor where her office was.  There was a lot of other toddler chatter that I wasn’t able to make out, but I got the gist of what he was saying.  His parents and the CFO all seemed to be quite entertained by his instructions, as I could hear them all laughing in the back ground.

I know that he occasionally decides that he needs to take flowers to his mom, so his dad takes him and his brother to buy flowers and then they deliver them to her at her office.  I also know that he likes to go visit the CFO in her office while they are there… he’s a sweet kid and, for some reason, he and his brother seem to really like us.  That is probably because we always (and I mean ALWAYS) eat pizza if we hang out with their parents.  If they have pizza and we’re not there, he asks wif the CFO and I are coming for dinner.  

He eventually stopped talking and passed the phone to his dad, who apologized for the interruption.  I told him to tell his son to stop making me look bad by bringing his mom flowers all the time.  I guess that I could start paying him to deliver them to the CFO too… However, I prefer to buy her live plants that we can put in the yard and enjoy for years to come, instead of buying cut flowers that will be dead in a few days.  There I go again, being all practical instead of romantic... 

 

We didn't do a whole lot over the weekend, the CFO was busy preparing for the first week of classes.  We did have some friends over for dinner, games and smores on Saturday night.  We introduced them to "Scott Style" Smores, which use two soft bake chocolate chip cookies to sandwich the toasted marshmallow instead of the traditional graham crackers and a piece of chocolate. It is WAY better than the traditional style.

draw the line

Just a few more weeks, I can't wait for this:



Last Monday I finally had an appointment with an orthopedic wrist specialist about my right wrist.  It has been bothering me since sometime in April and still hasn’t healed all the way.  He spent a few minutes poking, twisting and squeezing my wrist and then ordered x-rays.  After reviewing those, he decided an MRI was in order, so I did that on Friday.  This was the first that I have had an MRI, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The line of questioning from the nurse prior to it made me a little more nervous, but I guess they have to make sure that you don't have any metal parts inside before sticking you in the machine.

While the experience wasn’t horrible, laying completely still for 40 minutes inside a noisy box, part of which  is only a few inches away from your nose, is harder than you might think.  In fact, I am pretty sure that I have never been that still for that long… EVER.  Even when I’m sick as a dog I’m still fidgeting with things, so I had to constantly remind myself not to move.  Making things even worse was the fact that I had no idea how much time had passed or how much longer I had to go.  I was very happy when the technician finally came in and said that I was done.  I’ll be happy if I never have to do that again.

The CFO travelled to Virginia for a long weekend, so that she could attend two wedding showers for her brother + fiance.  That left me home alone again to do as I pleased, so I did some yard work (yes, the Dr. said it was OK as long as I didn’t do anything too crazy), watched some movies and went on a long bike ride.  I watched 3 movies over the weekend: Star Trek, Gangster Squad and A Good Day to Die Hard.  Out of the 3, Gangster Squad is the only one that I would recommend watching if you haven’t seen it.

As is tradition, when the CFO goes out of town, I cook things that she doesn't like to eat.  I threw the smoker box full of wood chips onto my grill and slow cooked some tasty honey garlic wings.  They were damn good if I do say so myself.

 

On Sunday morning, I went for a bike ride with one of the CFO’s co-worker’s husbands.  He rides a lot and every time that we see each other at a social function, we say that we should go for a ride… and then we never do.  This time, we finally did.  We ended up doing a 36 mile ride, riding down to a small state park and then taking a longer route back to my house.  I haven’t ridden that far in probably 10+ years, so I was happy that I made it.  I definitely felt it at spin class on Monday morning, though.

The CFO is sad that her summer is over… but, unfortunately for her, she won’t get any pity from me.  I just laugh when she says, “I don’t feel like I even got a break this summer.”  I try to be a supportive husband, but this is where I draw the line.

Race cars!

Bike wreck!

Thursday morning, while driving home from the gym, I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car.   I was pulling up to an intersection where the light was red and he was riding on the bike trail, approaching the intersection from the right. There was a lady in a Chevy sitting in the right lane with her right turn signal on, intently looking to the left for a gap in traffic so she could make a right on red.  She never looked to the right and when her “gap” in traffic opened up, the cyclist was just starting to enter the crosswalk.  

She hit the gas right as he rode in front of her in the crosswalk and she popped him pretty good, sending him over his handle bars and onto the road.  Ouch!  She stopped and immediately got out to see if he was OK.  I put my car in park and got out and saw that he was trying to stand up.  Phew, he’s not dead or seriously injured.   The guy was in his late 50’s early 60’s, evidently the theory of “older and wiser” doesn’t apply to him since he wasn’t wearing a helmet.   He gingerly stood up, declined any help from the driver, picked up his bike and continued to cross the intersection on foot.  She asked him again if he was OK and he said he was fine, waving her away.  I asked him "are you sure" as he walked by, he just kind of waved and nodded, seeming to be more embarrassed than anything. 

If it had been me, I would have been seriously pissed and yelled at the driver for five plus minutes, but hey, that’s just me.  After he made it across the street on foot, he slowly got back on his bike and started pedaling up the trail again.  I really hope he was OK, as I know from personal experience that the adrenaline rush from being knocked off your bike by a car blocks a lot of the initial pain.  Only to have the pain sets in a little while later…  While he had the right of way, I’m sure he’ll slow down next time he pedals into that intersection and make sure that the drivers SEE him before he crosses in front of them.

Indy bound!

On Friday morning, I rolled out of bed extra early (3:40 am to be exact) and headed towards Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day full of race cars.  The NASCAR series was racing at Indy and they brought the Grand-am series as the “opening act.”  I really enjoy the variety of vehicles that run in the Grand-am series, so it was definitely worth burning a vacation day to go see them (the CFO didn't agree).  Grand-am races have Daytona prototype cars and production based GT race cars racing at the same time, so it gets real interesting when the dramatically faster prototypes catch up to the slower GT cars and have to dice their way through traffic.  From this spectator's point of view, there is no better racing and I don't understand why the series doesn't have a bigger following.

The CFO's favorite NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards

 

A typical Daytona Prototype car

 

A GT class Audi R8

 

I left home really early because I was hoping to get a pass to one of the day’s NASCAR autograph sessions and they were handing those out at 8:30 eastern (7:30 our time).  What the online information didn’t say was that they were only giving out 125 passes...   I was probably #200 in line, so I left empty handed. In talking with some people around the track later in the day, the people at the front of the line got there at 6:30 am when the gates opened.  There is no way that I could swing that, so now I know that I shouldn't even bother with trying to get there early next time. 

I spent the rest of the morning roaming around the track, watching the NASCAR cars go through tech inspection and watching the Grand-am series cars being prepped for the afternoon races.  NASCAR is uber strict about keeping fans out of the pits, while Grand-am is the exact opposite.  You can walk right up to the trailer/canopy where the crew is working on the car and take photos from a few feet away.  Sometimes they even say, “come on in and take some close ups, just watch out for the guys with the tools.”  How cool is that?  I know there are safety issues with having fans that close to the pits, but NASCAR should really take note because it makes the fan experience so much better when you can get that close.

Crew working on a Daytona Prototype car

 

Lots of teams running Porsche 911's in the GT class

 

Brakes on a Porsche Cayman, yes, I was this close to some of the race cars.

 

The NASCAR cars were running the traditional oval course that the Indy cars run, while the Grand-am series was running on the road course, which uses part of the oval and then winds through the infield.  There are lots of corners in the infield section so you have many options for viewing the race.  I walked all around the track, watching from many vantage points and searching for photo opportunities that wouldn’t force me to shoot photos through the safety fence.  Stupid safety fence, great for protecting spectators and for ruining photographs.  I was able to find a couple spots where I could get some clear shots and I managed to max out the memory card in my camera while taking photos. 

 

The Grand am cars diving into turn one

 

A view back to the famous Indy Pagoda Tower

 

 

I spent a good bit of time playing around with settings on the camera, as I am trying to find the best settings that get the car in focus but blur the background as I pan along with the car. I really want pictures that show a sense of speed in them…  however, it is much harder than I thought to get the settings and my panning speed synced up. I will have to keep practicing until I get it right because they look so much cooler when the background is streaked and the car is in focus.

Blurred background

 

I also spent some time roaming through the infield parking lot taking pictures of spectator's cars, there was definitely some cool cars in attendance.  Here are a few of the "dream cars" that I was drooling over:

Porsche GT3 RS

Lotus Exige

Dodge Viper GTS