Great Weekend So Far

It's been a great weekend so far. Last night I basically spent the evening goofing off. After a great night's sleep, we headed out early to get some breakfast and then on to some shopping. We stopped at the vegetable stand to look at tool sheds. There's one that is nicely sized and really not too expensive. Time to start saving. While we were there I spotted this hawk on the post at the edge of the lot. He stayed there for quite some time. Giving me plenty of time to navigate around to get a good angle.

Walter was so sweet to go with me. I know it's not a guy thing, but he's real good to go shopping with, as long as I can take his herding me through the store. "You don't need that." "Just say no!" are just a few of the ways he keeps the shopping time to a minimum. I was in total awe today when he even suggested that I should get a new pair of shoes. I just about fainted.

Off to the eye doctor to pick up new contacts. I've gotten tired of dealing with the bifocals. I'm hoping that the contacts will solve some of the reading issues. I'm thrilled to be able to read my cell phone without digging out the glasses! Yippee!!

This afternoon I went to the Daughter's of the King Tea with Mom, Mamaw Stapleton, and Cassie at Swift Creek Baptist Church. The event was very nice and we all had a very nice time together.

The Weekend Thus Far...

As we began our weekend, I had my day in court which has been postponed until November. Walter helped out a friend install a new light fixture and she and her boyfriend took him out for dinner. It seemed that they had a great evening. Saturday we began organizing the yard for the big adventure with the limb chipper.

During the prep work we found one of the corner rods for the yard. Which totally changed the mission for the day. Tim came over to get some monkey grass and he and Walter went into action finding the missing markers. Turned out that the plot plan we had in our yard was the wrong one for our lot. But on a happy note, they were able to find the correct one online through the county. Armed with the correct information they attacked the yard. Of the six rods that were noted on the plot plan they were able to find four without any problem. Number 5 is somewhere in the ditch in the front yard, and the last one appears to have been dug up and discarded with the Verizon FIOS lines installed. But we have a great idea where it should have been based on the measurements.

We went out to Mom & Dad's for a nice very nice pre-Memorial day get together. It was nice getting together with all the siblings for a few hours. I could hardly believe how tall Andrew has gotten. It isn't going to be too long before he has sprout right up and over his Mom, Dad, and start closing in on Walter. All the kids in fact had done a bit of growing. Master Terry had had just enough of the festivities and slipped off to sleep.

Our big surprise came on Sunday morning when we went out to fire up the limb chipper. We turned the key and NOTHING. A saga that continued for hours. We thought it was flooded. We let it sit. We tried again and NOTHING. Of course having rented the darn thing at the end of the day (so that we could have it for the extra holiday days), no one is at the rental office until Tuesday, when it is due back. It has really been such a big help getting the yard into shape after all those trees were taken down. NOT.

Being optimistic about the the limb chipper we headed out once again today to try. Oh well, that didn't last very long. The chipper basically said, "NO" Back to square one, hopefully RentalWorks will be of some assistance on this tomorrow morning.

Mom & Mamaw Stapleton came by this afternoon to visit with us. We enjoyed some time sitting out on the deck. While there Carla romped through the yard chasing the neighborhood cats. She got into a stand off with one of the kittens from the yard behind us.

On the way to the car, we spotted this really cool, odd looking bird hiding out in the brush pile near the driveway. I've never seen one like it before. I was able to get a few shots while it was hanging out in the brush. We even tried a few more once it had flown into the tree, but it was too high up to get a clear photo. Mom's going to check it out in her birding book. Perhaps we'll have an answer this evening.

A Recap

The week has been hectic, surprising, and even frustrating at times this week.

On Tuesday, Foote, Dad, Johnny & Walter all descended upon the property to cut trees down. I wasn't here, but apparently the fellows went wild. The proof is in the 24 trees that were cut down that morning. They were and still are everywhere. It is going to take days to clean it all up. We're thinking about renting a chipper over the weekend to handle all the limbs and small branches.
The dog's issue turned out to be old age. She has a couple of vertibra that are beginning to show signs of arthritis. Pain pills and muscle relaxants have put in right on the road to drugged happiness. (She'll only have to take them for a little less than 2 weeks.)

Court was, what it was. Nothing was really totally resolved, so we'll be back at it in mid-November. Hopefully everyone will be back on track and we can just cruise right through the hearing. Nothing too terribly painful for anyone.

I took the opportunity to slip out and visit at Mom & Dad's for a brief while after court. Mom & I tried taking photos of some of the birds that were hanging around, but for the most part they were just out of camera range. I did get this one of a blue bird.

I'm still working on my Illustrator class. The instructor/professor isn't nearly as good as the one I had for my Photoshop class. He doesn't quite have the instructions in his lecture tweaked 100%. As soon as I figure out how to ready then, the class will be over and it won't matter. Oh well, time to pull out the alternate manual (that's been hanging around the house for a few months) to see what he's actually talking about.

The big adventure for the weekend is going to be getting up the cut logs from around the yard and into some semblance of a woodpile, topped off by the rental of the chipper to take care of all the limbs from the downed trees. In the scope of things the chipper could turn out to be actual fun.

Ya'll have a great Memorial Day!

The dog had seperation anxiety today. Who knew that she could suffer from that. More later...

A Very Busy Week Ahead

Here it is Monday and the week is already spinning almost out of control. I thought that I was going to be able to put my feet up and work on my classwork this evening, but little did I know that instead I would be yet again working on another teleconference. Tuesday promises to be full and long...a normal work day, followed by an in office Implant Seminar, followed by another teleconference. Wednesday, the normal work day, and another teleconference, plus and out of office meeting during my lunch hour. Thursday, work as usual, but with two, count them two teleconferences after hours.

In areas other than work, I've managed to get the day off on Friday, but I've got to go to court with the ex. Such delightful fun to anticipate.

Walter & Dad are going to be cutting down somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen trees on Tuesday. It'll be an interesting sight to come home to tomorrow evening. Thank goodness there will still be some semblance of daylight when I come home.

Speaking of What Were They Thinking??

Sean got a new haircut, a mohawk!! Then he bleached it blonde and colored it purple. Hmmm...what color next?

What Were They Thinking??

It has been one of those days that just wants you to scream, "What were they thinking?"

I've been battling software installation all morning. Yes, licensing keys are sometimes necessary, but come on...at least the software should work when it is installed. It has taken 3 days to get to this point and it still doesn't work. We've resorted to putting the licensing key on the bosses computer so he can work with it, while we wait on individual keys for all the computers in the office. Ugh!

Then to top off this entirely pleasant morning, I took one of the girls out to pick up her car from the shop. On the way we dropped into the KFC to get lunch for the both of us and one of the girls at the office. simple enough until I go to place my order. Its then that they tell us only 2 orders per car. I tried to reason with the order taker, but a rule is a rule. It wasn't like didn't already have to wait because the food wasn't cooked. Any way. Needless to say, I didn't buy lunch at KFC today, and can honestly say that I'll make the trek to Chic Fillet before even trying there ever again.

Here's hoping that the afternoon turns around.

I've Been Bad...

Here it's been over a week since I last posted to the blog, and so much has happened in the course of daily life that it just got away from me.

On Wednesday, Walter & I, went to see Kenny Loggins at Innsbrook After Hours. He put on a fantastic show. The opening act on the other hand was really lacking, if they had gone on much longer I don't think Walter would have stayed around.

Mom & I went out on Saturday to do the Spring pilgrimage to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, but ended up not getting to go. They had rented out part of the facilities for some function, which caused them to block off parking to the main building. They were also having a plant sale that morning, which we wanted to avoid. The only way to get in was through the sale, so we didn't. We backed up and headed off back across the river and to the Richmond Metro Zoo.

The zoo has expanded quite a bit since the last time that I have been there. They've added a number of enclosures beyond the camels and a whole African section. Mom hadn't been before and we had a great time photographing the animals. One monkey in particular seemed to be having a grand old time with his walking stick. He looked like a little old man out for a long walk.

You can see more of my zoo pictures by clicking here.

More later....