A wash out weekend

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, a holiday that the CFO and I typically seem to spend apart due to my lack of vacation time.  Ten days of vacation time just isn’t enough.  As usual, she spent the holiday relaxing sea side in North Carolina while I held down the fort at home.  I didn’t have a “honey do” list from her, but I did have a list of things that I wanted to accomplish over the long weekend.  Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans.

Before I tackled my list, Saturday morning started with me helping a friend move her stuff from her apartment to the garage of her new house.  Her lease is up at the end of the month, but their house won’t be ready for another month, so everything is being piled up in the garage of the new house until they can move in.  Please note that this is a task that the CFO volunteered me for before she left town, I’m sure she was disappointed that she didn’t get to help.  We were pretty much done with the move by lunch time, which is when it started to rain.  And rain. And then it rain some more.  My plans to pressure wash and stain the deck were washed out by the weather. 

The rain let up for an hour or so before sundown on Saturday, so I took advantage of the opportunity by grabbing my shovel and planting 6 shrubs that we had picked up at Lowe's earlier in the week (on clearance, of course!).  At least I was able to get that done, check one thing off my list.  I woke up Sunday morning to more showers outside... So the rain gave me an excuse to watch some good racing on TV… The F1 race in Monaco, the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.  I didn’t watch every minute of the races, but I caught a majority of each of them.

My weekend view above, hers below...

 

The rain continued into Monday, but I was able to watch the radar map and plan to take advantage of small breaks in the showers.  I tried to wash my car during the first break in the morning, and succeeded, even though the final rinse on the car was done by the rain.  Yes, I finished washing the car while wearing a rain coat.  (If our neighbors hadn’t figured it out before this, I’m sure they think I’m crazy).  I then pulled the car into the garage for a much needed detailing.  I checked the weather map just before lunch and saw we would have a 2 hour break in the rain from 1-3, so I ate and prepped my road bike for the first ride of the season.  It is kind of sad that it was my first ride of the season at the end of May, but I’ve been spending ever nice day working in the yard.

The good news is all the spin classes made me feel much stronger on the bike, the bad is that I was a little wobbly for the first couple miles.  You can get away with a lot of extra movement on a stationary bike, not so when you are on the real deal.  I road north about 9 miles and then circled back towards home for a total of 18 miles.  On the way home I noticed two riders about ½ mile ahead of me on a few rolling hills.  Still feeling pretty good and knowing that I was on my way home, I decided that I was going to catch and pass them.  Surprisingly, I reeled them in pretty easily, only to see that it was a husband and wife on hybrid bikes cruising along looking at the clouds.  It wasn’t the tough “chase” that I was hoping for.

Thanks to my weather map analyzing skills, I beat the rain home by about 20 minutes.  Maybe I should become a weather man?  I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Accord.  I used a clay bar on the whole car (it somehow magically pulls a lot of “contaminates” out of the paint and makes it feel super smooth) and then put on a coat of paint sealant and a coat of spray wax.  The car looks really nice now, so nice that and I don’t want to drive it.  Luckily, with the CFO out of town, so I can drive her car and let mine stay clean for a couple days.

She isn’t happy with my plan because that means her car has to sit outside.  Although we have a 3 car garage, we are now storing a 1971 Karmana Ghia that belongs to the husband of the friend whose stuff I helped to move on Saturday, we will have it for about a month until their house is ready.  That means that after the Ghia and the miata there is only one available space in the garage, so the clean Accord has claimed that spot over the newer CRV.  If I’m feeling real nice, I will be detailing her car next weekend and then my car will be relegated to the dirty outdoors.  Which leads into why I don’t enjoy detailing the outside of cars:  you spend hours painstakingly cleaning it, only to have it rain the next day or, worst yet, a flock of birds fly over and poo all over it, and then all your hard work is gone.  

It looks like I need a lift in the garage so I can store more cars!

 

With that, the long holiday weekend was over and it was time for me to go back to work… while the CFO continues to sit on a deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean… 

The Graduates

We had a good weekend, which started off with a trip to Krispy Kreme for breakfast on Saturday.  Totally unhealthy, but so tasty.  Nothing beats seeing them roll off the machine fresh–n–hot.  They are pretty good the day after too, as long as you warm them in the microwave… yes, we bought a dozen. 

After getting our donut fix, we hit 3 local nurseries in order to use "free plant" coupons that we received in the mail.  We made small purchases at each location and were able to get freebie plants at each one.  As usual, the CFO fell in love with a hydrangea, so we have added another one to our growing collection.  I am sure that, if she had it her way, the garden would be full of tulips and hydrangeas and probably nothing else.  While we were out, we also picked up a new vacuum, not an exciting way to spend money, but necessary none the less.  After having been plant shopping, all I could think about was how many plants I could have bought with that vacuum money!

On Sunday morning, we rolled out of bed and went to church.  I had a serious “What the Hell” moment (not a good thing to have at church?) when I was reading through the bulletin while we were waiting for the service to start.  This was the Sunday when we celebrate graduates and, on the back of the bulletin,  there was a list of several high school and college graduates, along with a few sentences about their accomplishments and future plans.  Below that, at the bottom of the page, was another heading “Other Graduations.”  Under that was a listing that I couldn't believe... I read it a second time, just to make sure I had read it correctly and then pointed it out to the CFO.  Seriously?  What the @#$%&?!  

I should have taken a copy of the bulletin home, but I didn't.  Fortunately, the church posts it on the website, so I was able to get my hands on it for you all.  Take a look at this and see what got me fired up:

                                           

(In case you can't read it is says:  _________, child of ___________ graduated from Prekindergarten-will attend LeRoy Elementary School.")

That's right, little Jimmy managed to persevere through that incredibly tough  Pre-K program and he is moving on to Kindergarten.  Thank goodness!  I know that we were all really worried that he might not be able to make it through that program... 

SERIOUSLY?!  WHAT THE @#$%&!  Is this really the direction in which this country is headed?  First of all, there shouldn’t be any graduations until you complete high school.  I do not understand why, over the past few years, people have begun celebrating getting out of each grade or moving from elementary to middle or middle to high school.  It doesn’t make any sense to me. 

Secondly, (and more importantly!) I can’t believe that the parents had the audacity to even submit this “achievement” to the church to go into the bulletin.  Do they really think we care?  I wish I knew who the parents were so I could smack some sense into them.  (Part of me hopes that they saw me point it out to the CFO and saw my "what the..." comment about it)  

I would really, really like to ask our minister about it, but know that I can’t.  I can imagine his eyes rolled when the secretary showed it to him after it was submitted... but he probably didn’t want to rock the boat so he allowed it to go into the bulletin.

This goes right along with my beef with one of Target’s current TV ads, which publicizes the fact that they contribute money to education systems.  The ad states that “every child DESERVES to go to college.”  Um, excuse me, but the word deserves is a little strong.  I know that I didn’t feel like I was entitled to go to college, I knew that I would have to work hard to make the grades needed to qualify to go to college.   I also knew that my parents were expecting me to do well enough in school so that I would be able to go to college, but it was on me to make it happen.  I, however, did not deserve to go to college, I EARNED the right to go to college.

To teach today’s kids anything less is setting them up for a rude awakening later on in life.  Not everything is handed to you on a silver platter.  It’s like kids playing in sports where they don’t keep score so there aren’t winners and losers.  Or, when every kid gets a trophy or award, just for participating.  I’m sorry but in everyday life, there are winners and losers and you don't get a participation award at the end of the work day. That will never change, so we might as well get them used to that fact. 

Of course, I don’t have kids, so what do I know?  

Its a habit

How do you know when you’ve officially made going to the gym a habit?  No, it isn't when your body wakes up at 4:39 just in time for you to watch the numbers on your clock flip to 4:40, when the alarm goes off.  It’s not when your evening routine involves laying out the next morning’s workout clothes while you are brushing your teeth.  You know it has become a habit when the people at the gym’s front desk greet you by name when you walk through the door. 

I made it especially hard for them since I don’t go by my first name, which is printed on my card ID card that they scan every time I enter the building.  After over 4 months, we are now welcomed by name when we walk through the door at 5:05 am (mon-fri).  This is nice, but it is also bad.  If one of us shows up without the other, we are questioned about where the other is.  If we take a day off, we are asked where we were yesterday.  When I took last week off because of my sore side, I was welcomed back this Monday.  The CFO hasn't been able to roll herself out of bed this week and every morning I have been asked where she is.

The CFO hosted the neighborhood Bunko game last Thursday, which meant that we were scrambling to make sure the house was extra clean for the guests.  This group of 20 ladies goes to a different house every month, so the CFO wanted to put on a good showing.  Since the game required 5 tables, we ended up moving most of the furniture out of the living room to make room for three tables.  I was not going to stick around for this hen-fest, so I rounded up some friends and we went out for dinner and then bowling. 

Before I left, I switched on the AC to cool down the house prior to the invasion.  I heard the compressor outside cycling on and off, but it was only running for a few seconds and then shutting off.  It didn't sound right, so I went out to investigate and saw that the fan wasn’t turning on with the compressor like it should.  I went back in the house, switched off the ac and told the CFO to open the windows because the AC wasn’t working.  We had a service visit on Monday and evidently a group of field mice decided the compressor unit outside would be a great place to spend the winter.  The little bastards couldn’t leave well enough alone and they chewed through 3 wires inside the unit, which cut the power to the fan.  Too bad they didn't get zapped when they did it.  I am now researching ways to keep this from happening again… oh the joys of living on the edge of a field.

Our vacuum also died during the preparation for the event, one of the ends of the spinning brush broke off, causing the brush tube to grind up a bunch of the slot where the end should have been.  The vacuum spit out more plastic bits than it was able to suck up.  I bought that one when I graduated from college, so it is almost 14 years old.  We are now in the market for a new vacuum, if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.  The catch is that the CFO doesn’t want a ‘bagless’ unit, she doesn’t want to see all the dirt (and her hair) swirling around inside the vacuum.  This seriously limits our options, as a majority of them seem to be bagless these days.

We went out and looked for vacuums at several stores and while we were at Lowes looking at vacuums, we took a detour and walked through the plant section.  We ended up finding an oak tree that was 40% off, so we got that.  We have been needing to plant an oak because every house in the neighborhood is supposed to have one (there is a grove of oaks in our common area and they wanted oaks planted throughout the neighborhood).  We also checked out the clearance rack and the CFO spotted a couple pretty spireas that were marked down from $17 to $5.  They have pinkish red blooms on them, so she was immediately drawn to them.  There is always a hidden gem on the clearance rack!  While owning a truck would be nice, we have perfected the art of hauling trees in the accord.  Slide the pot into a trashbag  to catch any soil that falls out (I always keep a few in the spare tire), and slide the tree into the trunk pot first.  Grab some bungee cords (always kept with the trash bags) to tie the tree so it won’t slide around and pull the trunk lid down with another cord.  We don’t need no stinking truck.

I spent a good bit of time outside over the weekend, continuing my battle against the dandelions, cutting the grass and working on our fountain.  I finally got it pretty level, added water and plugged it in.  It doesn't make as much noise as I would have liked, but it is a nice addition to the garden.  We really need to decide on brick or stone for the patio, I'm tired of it being gravel!  We  "free perennial with purchase" coupons for three different local nurseries, we will be cashing those in this weekend to get plants to put around the fountain.

Rabbit, Rabbit

Last Thursday night, the CFO went to see Carrie Underwood at the coliseum here in town.  It sure is nice to be able to drive 10 minutes to see a national star perform live.  Her opening act was Hunter Hayes, a young performer who is just getting himself established in country music.  It was quite obvious, due to the high pitched screeches when he took the stage, that his target audience is young and female.  He was a little “boy band-ish” for my taste, but he is definitely a talented musician.

I found it interesting to see the big differences between this crowd and the crowd at the Kenny concert the previous week, even though they are both country stars.  Kenny’s crowd was definitely older, more evenly mixed males to female and a little bit more of a party crowd.  This concert there was heavily skewed towards the ladies, probably 6 females to every 1 male.  There were also a lot of young kids at this show that weren’t at the Kenny show.

Carrie’s show was entertaining, although I felt the numerous outfit changes were unnecessary.  At least the band continued to jam while she was off stage changing.  You definitely get more songs per show from a performer who doesn’t do outfit changes (ie most male performers!).  I have also come to appreciate singers who also play a musical instrument while they perform.  Other wise, I feel like they are trying to do too much running around/dancing to make up for the fact that all they are doing is singing.  Carrie falls into the latter category.

Her crew deserves a lot of credit, they definitely put a lot of effort into the lighting and effects.  Between the three big, movable LED displays and the rolling platforms that the band members were standing on, something was always moving/changing between songs. 

When we first took our seats I pointed out to Karen that there was a rig hanging from the ceiling that looked like it would carry her out over the crowd.  What we didn’t know at the time was that they would actually attach the front section of the stage to that rig.   Carrie and a majority of the band members got on the platform and it lifted them up and out over the crowd.  They performed several songs as they it slowly carried them across the length of the arena and then it rotated and took them back to the stage.  It was an impressive bit of concert engineering and pretty cool to see.  However, I was glad that we were in the stands and not sitting in a floor seat with the stage passing overhead!

 

As the previous three weekends, it rained most of Friday night and was supposed to rain all day Saturday.  We woke up Saturday morning around 7 am and I noticed that it was cloudy, but not raining.  I hustled down to the garage, gathered some tools and the vegetable plants that we  had bought and ran down to the garden to plant them.  I managed to get them all in the ground before it started to rain again.

After that, we went to the gym so that the CFO could take a class with one of her co-workers.  I did my usual Saturday cardio and leg routine and on the last set of leg presses, I was feeling good, so I decided to up the weight a bit.  Big mistake.  Evidently I dipped down too far on the third lift of the set, because I felt and heard a pop in my torso when I started pushing the weight back up.  It was definitely a strange sound/feeling, especially since I was working my legs.  Since I wasn't sure what happened, I ended the work out.  An area on my right side just below the side of my rib cage was a little sore, but I didn’t think too much of it.

After church on Sunday, my side was still a little sore, but I decided to go outside and work in the yard since it was nice outside.  Yet another mistake.  After working for four hours, I went inside and sat down, which is when my side really tightened up and started feeling real sore…  I did some research online (why go to the doctor when you have the internet?) and, evidently, this is a fairly common occurrence with leg presses if you dip down too far and I probably just pulled my intercostal muscle.  In my non-medical opinion, it is either that or I cracked a rib.  Either way, there isn’t much the doctor can do except charge me to poke around.  It looks like I just need to try to take it easy for a couple weeks and give it time to heal…   I’ll give it until next week and see how it feels.  If it still hurts badly, then I'll go to the doctor.

On Tuesday night, despite still being sore, I went back outside to cut the grass. This is peak grass growing season and I have to cut it every 4 days to keep from having to bag it.  While mowing along the east side of our house, I scared the occupants of a nest dug into the ground near my hostas. We have at least 3 young baby rabbits bedding down in the area.  They are still fairly small, smaller than my hand.  While they are cute hopping around, I’m also concerned that they are going to mow down my plants as they eat and grow.   I am not sure what to do with them, so for now I just took a couple photos of them. 

Kenny!

Friday night after work, I drove to campus and picked up the CFO for a westward trip to Peoria, about an hour away.  We enjoyed my favorite driving food, McDonalds, along the way. (I know, not healthy, but I burned 920 calories at spin class that morning, so I probably zero'd out) We parked in our usual, top secret parking space that is free and has extremely easy access to the interstate and walked over to the arena to see Kenny Chesney.  He had two opening acts, Kacey Musgraves (a country music newcomer who reminded me of Sheryl Crow) and the Eli Young band, both of which put on good opening shows.  After they were done performing,  a huge dropped curtain around the stage so they could set up for the main show.  The stage set for Kenny ended up being pretty basic, which made it seem strange that they bothered to lower a curtain during set it up, but the show itself was awesome.  As usual (this is the 3^rd time we’ve seen him), Kenny put on a great, high energy performance.  He was on the stage for over 2 hours and never took a break, he just kept throwing out hit after hit. 

 

  Even though our seats were off to the side, almost directly in line with the front of the stage, we could still see everything and there were speakers and a video screen aimed right at us.     I maybe repeating myself, but nothing beats a well put together live musical performance, especially when it is LOUD and you can feel the bass kick in your chest.  Each time we leave a show and get back in the car to drive home, I turn on the stereo and think, “I really should get back in touch with my high school/college days and put a subwoofer in this car.”

The Flag for Kenny's current tour.  I thought it was cool and wanted to buy one to hang in the garage, the CFO vetoed the idea (she's no fun)

 

We also found out that Kenny is about to launch his on Rum line, his “Blue Chair Bay” rum will be available in May.  Evidently they had a tailgating trailer set up that was giving out samples, but it must have been on the other side of the venue because we didn’t see it.  I knew that rocker Sammy Hagar had his Cabo Wabo Tequila and Rum, but evidently there are a lot of celebrities throwing their weight behind these products.  It is kind of interesting to see celebs are shifting from trendy fragrances and clothing lines to booze.

We rolled out of bed Saturday morning at 8:15 and headed to the gym.  I weighed in and I am officially below 170 lbs for the first time in probably 2 years… albeit only by 4 tenths of a pound.  169.6 is still under 170, as long as you don’t round up!  After exercising, the CFO started lobbying for driving to the outlet malls and a day of shopping.  (Blah!)  Seeing sunny skies and temps in the 50’s, I pushed back and said that she could go shopping, but I was going to spend the afternoon in the yard.  She was not happy with the response but didn’t put up too much of a fight.  I offered her several outdoor tasks so she could join me outside, (pulling dandelions, cleaning the stones that are going to be used in the fountain, etc.) but she opted to stay inside and do who knows what.  I spent about 5 hours outside, even though it was a little windy and enjoyed every minute of it.  I am so tired of being inside after staying indoors all winter.

Sunday was supposed to be similar weather wise, with a “slight” chance of showers.  Unfortunately, we awoke to rain and it continued to rain until about 3pm.  To the CFO’s delight, we did go roam around the mall for a while after church, so she got a little bit of shopping in.  I was determined to get some additional work done outside, so once it stopped raining, I braved the now soggy soil and went ahead and mixed in two and a half wheel barrow loads of compost (from my compost pile!) into the raised garden beds.  Considering the fact that I used the "so-so" quality soil from the yard to fill the raised beds (from when I dug out the dry creek bed), a couple years of adding compost is starting to making a noticeable difference in the soil.  The fact that I was able to generate all of the compost myself from yard and kitchen waste is even more rewarding.  We all know that I like "FREE."

The daffodils are blooming in my native grass areas.

I was also able to run the power supply wire for the fountain and have it securely attached to the underside of the deck.  Out of sight, out of mind.  I am hoping to get the fountain installed and running this weekend, however it is starting to look like the weather is going to be working against me, AGAIN!  I’m still holding out hope that the forecast will change; you can’t trust it more than a day out anyway.  For two weeks in a row, Monday and Tuesday have been the prettiest days of the week.  That is not how it is supposed to be.

They have built a foundation on the vacant lot adjacent to us... not sure when the house will be done.

Fresh cut flowers from the yard = Husband of the Year? (but not good enough to justify a  flag for the garage...)