She's back!

The CFO is back!  After being gone for 17 days, she finally returned on Saturday morning.  She was greeted at the airport by me and my parents, who had driven up the day before.  It was great to see my parents, we hadn’t seen them since Christmas.  We had a low key weekend spending time with them, during which we ate a lot of good food, played some of our favorite games (in which the guys dominated the gals!) and my dad and I went on a couple bicycle rides in the Illinois country side.  Dad headed home Sunday evening (determined to drive through the night, which he did) and mom is staying with us through the week.  I hope she doesn’t get too bored hanging out at the house while we go to work!  We did give her a sewing project to do, so that should keep her somewhat busy while we are gone.  I’ll post some pictures next week.   

After a week of physical therapy, my wrist is still bothering me; however, I can rotate it further than before. (Taking a weekend off from yard work probably helped it some too) Hopefully the progress will continue because I want to get back out on the golf course! 

I realized yesterday that I didn’t have much to write about this week and then something happened this morning (Wednesday) that changed that.  I was driving (the CFO was riding with me) to the gym at our usual 5am time and I was, admittedly, zipping along an empty roadway.  I was totally focused on the stupid high gas prices at the gas station on the left side of the road (over $4/gal) and missed something on the other side of the road.  I was about to comment on the gas prices when I caught a glimpse of a dark brown vehicle that was sitting off the road on a driveway that leads to a farm field.  The sun was just coming up, so he disappeared pretty well there.  Was that a cop?!?!?

He obviously didn’t miss me, as he whipped out onto the road as soon as we passed and started to follow us.  He didn’t turn on his blue lights, he just followed us up the road.  By the time that he caught up to us, I had already lifted off the gas and coasted down to within a few mph of the speed limit.  Since he didn't turn on the blue lights, I continued to drive and he followed us for about ½ mile up towards the next intersection.  I signaled and moved over to the left lane and he followed.  I signaled again and moved to the turn lane.  He followed.  Crap.

I turned left at the intersection and he continued to follow, this was not looking good.  Nothing is worse than those few moments when you know that they are going to pull you over, but they just follow you, teasing you, making you think that “maybe they won’t pull me over.”  The further you go, the more you your hopes increase that they might just let you go... But your gut still says that there is a 99.99999% chance that they are about to pull you over.  You keep one eye on your rear view mirror, just waiting for the light show.

He followed us through the turn at the intersection and then turned on his lights.   I quickly pulled over into a business parking lot, rolled down the window and turned off the car.  He walked up saying that he had clocked me at 59 in a 45 and he followed that statement with the typical, “Any reason why you are driving so fast?”  Of course I had no good reason why, other than the fact that I believe that the speed limit along that road is way lower than it should be and that the speed at which I was driving was entirely reasonable for the time and conditions... (for reference, the speed limit on other sections of this road is 55 and the roadway is no different here... so why the speed limit is lower in this section is a curiosity)

But, saying that would appear argumentative, give him the wrong impression and would probably start us off on the wrong foot, so I replied, “Nope, we are just heading to the gym.”  What else could I really say?  With that he collected my license and insurance card and went back to his car, leaving me to deal with the CFO.  Surprisingly, she didn’t have too much to say, other than the fact that this was going to cost us $$$.  He returned to our car pretty quickly and, to my surprise, he said that he was going to let me off with a warning and that I should slow it down. 

I was shocked; I have never been pulled over without receiving a yellow souvenir (citation slip) to remember the event by.  Perhaps today is my lucky day?  Just in case it is, I’m going to buy a powerball ticket for tonight’s drawing; I’d hate to miss out on my lucky day. 

The good news is that, even with the traffic stop, I was still able to make it to spin class just as class was starting... I walked into the spin room and was greeted by a friendly, “you’re late” from the instructor.

Still raining

Since the CFO has left town, all it has done is rain.  Seriously, it has rained EVERY day since she left.  Evidently I’m not the only one crying about the fact that she left town.  LOL.  Despite the sorrowful weather, I tried to push on and do some of the stuff on my list anyway.  I have been keeping an internet explorer window on the radar map so I could capitalize on any apparent breaks in the weather.   I caught one such break after work on Wednesday and was able to mow the lawn, even though it was wetter than I would like for cutting.  While mowing, the mower tried to commit suicide by ejecting the oil fill tube from the engine.  I was ¾ of the way through cutting the yard when I looked down at the mower deck and saw a puddle of oil growing around the engine.

For your reference, the lawn mower that I us is an old lawn mower from the 1980’s that originally belonged to the CFO’s dad. He was going to discard it after the self-propelled part of the mower stopped working, so I took it off his hands because I wanted a bagging mower and didn’t need it to be self propelled.  After getting the mower home, I promptly removed all the broken self-propelled guts, which made it a usable un-propelled rear bagging mower.  That was 6 years ago and the mower has been running pretty well ever since, albeit a little loud because the muffler is rusted through and sears doesn’t offer replacement parts for it any more.  Sorry neighbors.

I admit that have been eyeing the shiny new mowers at stores... (I would really like a new mower with the mulching feature) So, when I saw that puddle of oil, a little devil appeared on my left shoulder and said, "I wonder how long it will run without oil in it?”  Yes, the little devil on my left shoulder saw a perfect opportunity to run a scientific experiment that would result in me “having” to buy a new mower.

As I continued to mow and watch the puddle grow, I heard a whispering from my other shoulder, “You better stop the mower right now... the CFO will certainly accuse you of sabotage if the mower breaks while she is out of town and you have to buy a new one unsupervised.”  I mowed another strip before deciding to stop the mower and investigated the issue.  It turns out that the screw that holds the oil fill tube in place had worked its way loose.  I tightened it, but it wouldn't tighten down all the way, the hole was stripped.  I didn't have a screw that would fit, so I rolled the dice and tightened it as much as I could and hoped for the best.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it), it held long enough for me to finish the yard.  The old mower lives to mow another day. 

The following day, I ran to Lowe's while on my lunch break to get a larger screw to fix the mower and decided to take a stroll through the garden section while I was there.  No trip to Lowe's is complete without a visit to the garden section, even if it is raining!  I was greeted there by a sign that read, “All trees 75% off.”  Lowe's, you have my attention.  I was in the CFO’s vehicle, which wouldn’t accommodate trees very well, so I decided to return in my car after work.  I ended up picking up two dogwoods and a small willow oak, all for 21 bucks.  Bargain.

 The Honda Accord makes a great tree hauler

 

The trees sitting in the garage waiting for a break in the weather, not bad for the price.

On Friday, I broke down and went to the doctor because of some pain in my right wrist when ever I try to rotate my hand.  He poked, prodded, and squeezed, but couldn’t identify anything… which is pretty much what I was expecting.  He sent me downstairs for xrays, in case I was suffering from a hairline fracture. Those xrays came back clear, so he is assuming that I strained/pulled/tore a ligament and it needs some therapy and time to heal.  If that doesn't help, we might have to do a more expensive scan and/or surgery.  My unprofessional opinion is that it isn't that bad, since it hasn’t slowed me down much.  Unfortunately, I can’t swing a golf club right now and while doing other tasks (like spinning a wrench or applying shaving cream to my face), I twist my hand without thinking and the pain goes shooting through my arm.  Good times.

It rained off and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but I was still able to manage to get outside to plant those new trees and do some weed eating.  Some friends pulled up in the driveway after I had finished weed eating and they invited me to join them for dinner... They did, however, require that "I clean up first."  How rude.  On Sunday, I finally got the deck pressure washed and ready for staining/sealing, however I finished the process in the rain. (the recently recurring theme) 

Due to the rain keeping me inside, I was able to catch up on some movies that the CFO wasn't interested in seeing (that typically means action packed/gory/sci-fi):

1.      Django Unchained – A Quentin Tarantino movie, so you know it is going to probably be a little gory for people like the CFO or my mom.  It had a lot of famous faces in it including Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leo Dicaprio and Samuel L. Jackson.  I thought that they all did really well in it but Samuel L. Jackson stole the show, I thought he was hilarious in the film.  I really enjoyed this one and kind of want to see it again because I’m sure there were some subtle things in it that I missed the first time around.

2.      Jack Reacher – A Tom Cruise action-ish movie about an ex-military homicide investigator.  Some of the acting wasn’t all that great, but I still enjoyed the movie.

3.       Kill the Softly – A Brad Pitt movie… a little dark, sort of twisted and kind of slow.  Save your $1.20 at redbox and rent something else.
 

I almost forgot a funny story from Friday:  When I returned to the office after my lunch time Lowe’s run, there were two police cars parked up the road with their lights on.  A riding lawn mower was parked on the street in front of the police cars.  Interesting.  I went into the office and continued to watch the action through the window to see what was going on.  I figured out that the guy leaning against the police car was in hand cuffs and the officers had their clip boards out and were giving the lawn mower a thorough inspection.  Interesting... what is going on here?

There is a trailer park that backs up to the "small business park" that our office is in and several of the residents often drive their riding lawn mowers to the nearby store and McDonald's.  As I continued to watch, the cops talked with him some more and then put him in the back of one of the squad cars which then drove off.  Hmm… I wonder what they are going to do with the lawn mower?

My question was answered a few minutes later when a flatbed wrecker pulled up to the scene and backed up to the lawn mower.  I started laughing because it looked like they were going to impound the mower.  Within minutes, the mower was loaded up on the flatbed and away it went.  I found the whole thing entertaining, I only wish that I knew the whole story.  Existing warrant for arrest?  DUI?  It probably would have made for a good episode of COPS... It isn't every day you see a lawn mower get impounded.

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...)