And the Week Begins

As I was headed out to work this morning the mist had settled into the bottom field at the end of the road. Normally it's not usually this heavy and easily captured on 'film'.

Walter gave me a call this afternoon informing me of a few unexpected visitors in our backyard. It seems that one of the neighbor's cats had had a litter of kittens in between the two old woodpiles behind the toolshed. Nothing like trying to clean out old rotten wood, only to find five little kittens tucked in between them.

Not wanting to crush them, he left them where they were and I came home at lunch time with a box from the office. I was able to squeeze into the space and pull them out without any trouble. I spent awhile trying to find out where we could take them to get rid of them. I certainly don't want any cats, and especially not five of them. Carla would have an absolute fit! This evening, if the mother cat hasn't moved the kittens out of the box and into a new location, we are going to take them over to the neighbor's house and present him with his new kittens. Then they will be out of our hands.

It seems that Chesterfield County says that cats are able to run free within the county. Now I know that cats can't be kept on a leash, or in a backyard. But let's be real...does any one person need 17 cats! Let alone five more kittens. Get with the program and have your cats spay and neutered.

Miracles never cease, the kittens were gone when I got home. Yeah! No need to worry about how to get rid of them or where the mother had put them.

This evening I had a nice visit with Tim & Elda when they came by to pick up a scanner. They've got lots of stuff to scan. The scanner even automatically makes pdfs which is going to be a real blessing.

They also brought over Carla's doghouse. I'll get that put into the backyard this week, put up some wire around the base of the deck and Carla will be all set with her very own backyard playground. Then I can let her out in the backyard for hours on end to enjoy laying in the sun, without needing to worry about her wandering off or the neighborhood pit bull catching up with her on the front porch.

Let's Help Out the Special Olympics

Hello and good morning!

I am reaching out to you today because I am going to be jumping 30 stories (from The Suntrust Building in DT Richmond) in October and Need your help!

I am looking to raise $2000 for The Special Olympics. Donating through this secure site is the easiest and most efficient way to contribute to my fundraising efforts. Your support is greatly appreciated—and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might be interested in making a donation as well! Even a few bucks helps :) $5, $10, $25 (anything you can do!) will help me get to my goal of $2,000!

Your donation will assist Special Olympics Virginia in reaching our total fundraising goal of $100,000. And with your help, I hope to surpass my own fundraising goal and join other adrenaline junkies rappel down one of the tallest buildings in Richmond. It’ll be an extreme adventure that will lead to extreme community impact -- helping Special Olympics to inspire more INCLUSION, UNITY and RESPECT for 9,500 Special Olympics athletes across Virginia.

For those business owners out there, I am planning on wearing a sponsorship shirt and promoting those businesses through my website. If you donate $100 or more, I would love to include you in those promotions. This is a very exclusive event, reserved for 70 people (invited from across the country) so media coverage WILL BE PRESENT. Please help me and Special Olympics in any way you can!!

Please donate here: http://www.firstgiving.com/whitstyles

Best,

Whit
www.stylesbridebootcamp.com/
www.twitter.com/whitstyleswww.twitter.com/bridebootcamp
whit@stylesbridebootcamp.com
804-349-3264

Winding Up the Weekend

We've had a pretty quiet conclusion to the weekend. Kicking back and watching movies, fixing a couple of graphics and not much else.

Walt's been out and about a couple of times today. Hope he's having fun.

Hollywood Cemetery

I surprised Cassie by picking her up from her outing with her brothers this afternoon, to take her off on another weekend journey. Today we headed out to tour Hollywood Cemetery, but first a stop off at the Valentine Museum to pick up a map and guidebook.

It was a good thing that we started there. We found out that the Valentine Museum has free admission every Sunday through Labor Day. I know where we're going next Sunday afternoon.

The trip to Hollywood Cemetery was almost an adventure in and of itself. It seems that we picked move in day at VCU for our trip.

It was a very interesting trip. The headstone sculptures and monuments were amazing. Jeff Davis had a very commanding view of the city. Cassie was especially taken with the black dog.

Photos From Our Trip

We even took a side trip out to visit with Tim & Elda's family. We picked up Miss Abby, and I took the girls for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. They really enjoyed the afternoon treat. We had a very enjoyable visit, sitting out in the backyard talking. I've promised both the girls a 'Girl's Night' at the house one Friday night. Girly movies, polishing nails and just being goofy.

Walter got a bit goofy himself this evening. He found out that my cell phone would read the text messages, so he spent a good hour sending me strange messages to hear the phone read back. Some of them tickled him so much I thought he was going to split a side.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought for the Day: "It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government" - Thomas Paine

Kola
A koala was sitting in a gum tree smoking a joint?

When a little lizard walked past, looked up and said, 'Hey Koala! What are you doing?'

The koala said, 'Smoking a joint, come up and have some.'

So the little lizard climbed up and sat next to the koala where they enjoyed a few joints. After a while the little lizard said that his mouth was 'dry' and that he was going to get a drink from the river. The little lizard was so stoned that he leaned over too far and fell into the river.

A crocodile saw this and swam over to the little lizard and helped him to the side. Then he asked the little lizard, 'What's the matter with you?'

The little lizard explained to the crocodile that he had been sitting with the koala in the tree, smoking a joint, but got too stoned and fell into the river while taking a drink..

The crocodile said that he had to check this out and walked into the rain forest, found the tree where the koala was sitting finishing a joint. The crocodile looked up and said,'Hey you!'

So the koala looked down at him and said,

'Mannnn dude...
How much water did you drink!?'
What's In A Name
A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. "You all have obsessions," he observed.

To the first mother, Mary, he said, "You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy."

He turned to the second Mom, Ann: "Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny."

He turned to the third Mom, Joyce: "Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child's name, Brandy."

At this point, the fourth mother, Kathy, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand, and whispered, "Come on, Dick, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. Let's pick up Peter and Willy from school and go get dinner."

The Window Through Which We Look

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast,
the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the washing outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said.
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry,
the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.
I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and
cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others
depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

Great Start to The Weekend

Friday was very good, midday I headed down to Techead for a Lunch & Learn on Photoshop CS4: Quick & Dirty Editing Photo Tricks presented by Sean Cooke. The class was great. I always bring back at least one tip that I can put into practice almost immediately. Sean always is educational and entertaining. Coming back from class the day just flew by, it went amazingly smooth and productive.

This morning I finished reading, the book I picked up last weekend in Williamsburg, 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. Interesting read. I've even added a couple of photos from the Williamsburg trip to the image scroll at the top of the page (one of a butterfly and a bee).

This afternoon, Walt's off to Patrick and Laura's wedding, and I'll be picking up Miss Cassie for another outing. We're heading off to Hollywood Cemetery. I found out from Alice that while Miss Cassie and I are out and about, poor Master Andrew will be mowing the lawn. Yike! I tried to get Sean to go with me as well, but it seems he's already out and about in Powhatan.

Much Better

Today turned out much better than yesterday. Much calmer and smoother. Oh there were a couple of glitches for the day, but nothing major at all.

I'm still trying to figure out how you can call an account manager and never get them to call you back. Especially when they send you an ugly notice that you might have done something wrong (but not really). Seems that they apparently just couldn't get it together at all.

Cool, I figured out how to get the date on these dang post, using the new template. Yeah!

Wanted: One Pick Me Up

August 12, 2009

Dang, I am sorely in need of a pick me up. The last couple of days have just been yucky. The last thing that I want to do is get into one of those funky moods that seem to just suck you in. I've been scouring through my email for the fun graphic feebies, but there really has been much to get excited about.

Work has been...well work. Create, revise, revise, revise. It's the nature of the beast. Frustrating at time.

Perhaps this evening will be better. I've got homework to do and maybe, just maybe I'll be inspired.

Could this be the day?

August 11, 2009

Could this be the day? Maybe, maybe not. It could have already happened for all I know. Danielle was due to have her baby last Wednesday. So... the big question is has he or she arrived yet? Perhaps I'll know before Christmas or not.

I really would like to be excited about it yet. I'm not, after being locked out of the their life for over two years, it's hard to be excited.

Sean had his own adventure this morning. He had his wisdom teeth removed. I asked him what he was going to do now that they had taken out all his wisdom. As groggy as he was I don't know if he'll even remember the question. I should have reminded him that he need to put those teeth under his pillow for the "Tooth Fairy" (wink, wink).

This evening I'm home working on class work and another little project. Seems like for the most part that's about all I do.

I did get an interesting report on my outing this past weekend with Miss Cassie. She has been able to taunt Andrew with it. For once she has had a better 'weekend' adventure than he has. She most likely won't be letting him forget it for sometime.

Walt's out and about this evening with his friends. Glad to that he's out enjoying himself.

Happy Birthday Alice!

August 10, 2009

Big Birthday Wishes to Alice!

Road Trip Day Two

August 9, 2009

Well Cassie and I had another full day. We headed off first thing this morning to Yorktown. We spent some time there at the waterfront. It was quiet and very nice. There had been some work done there since my last visit.

We were thinking of heading on towards the beach way, but took a few side roads too many and ended up in BFE. Turns out that it was lucky for us that we did we got some cool photos of a crane in the marsh there. After getting ourselves turned back around and headed in the right direction we started for Jamestown via the Colonial Parkway.

Once we hit Williamsburg, we found out that the Parkway was closed just about 4 miles before reaching Jamestown. We took the side trip and drove right through to the road closure, just to see what we could see. I was glad that we did. We saw oodles of Ospreys.

Onward to Jamestown, where we caught the ferry over to Surry County. Cassie was a little spooked about riding on the ferry, but got over it once we were under way. As we were going up Route 10 we spotted a fawn on the side of the road, I tried to get stopped and get a photo, but it just didn't happen.

We stopped at the Hardees in Hopewell to grab a milkshake. That turned into a real fiasco. When they handed them out the window, we were quite surprised to see those sad things. They were only half full, watery, and not even icy cold. I've never seen anything so sad. The manager did refund my money, but WOW.

As a last stop on the way home we went to Henricus, just getting in before they quit selling tickets. It has changed so much since the last time I was there with the kids. They've added several new buildings, livestock, and chicken! Outside of the settlement enclosure, they have added a dock at the base of the cliff with a paved pathway and handrail. We did get to see a large ship leaving out the James and passing under the Varina-Enon bridge, the photo has smaller boats in the picture as well to give you some sense of the size. Huge!

You can see more trip photos here.

Sean came over this evening to give me a look at his new haircut. Saturday he decided to shave his head. It didn't look as bad as it sounded, but then....he has found a hat to top off his new look.

The boys posed for a photo together on the porch this evening. Walter was barefooted with Sean in shoes and of course wearing his hat. I made the comment that they both would probably look a whole lot better if their clothing wasn't so loose. Walt's lost a lot of weight and Sean likes the baggy look.

Road Trip with Cassie

August 8, 2009

I started off this morning with a new haircut and color. Mom even posted a picture of the new cut on Facebook.

Then a trip out to visit with Mom, turned into an impromtu trip to Williamsburg with my niece, Cassie.

We left Richmond a little after Noon and made it to Williamsburg before 2:30 p.m. After getting Carla all settled into the hotel we headed off to Colonial Williamsburg to have a look around. There were loads of actors in period costumes. I don't believe that I've ever been here and seen that many.

We went to the Colonial Garden where we saw pomagrante and fig trees. They had planted gourds with the grape vines on an arbor. Very interesting to see the gourds and grapes hanging above your head. Cassie also got to try her hand at bring up water from the well in the garden. Then to top it off they had her haul the water bucket to the giant barrel in the center of the garden. The guide said that during the Colonial period they thought that it was bad to use well water on the plants, so they warmed in the barrel during the day before actually using it.



Cassie really enjoyed going into the shops. We stopped in the Barnes & Nobel, always a bad place to go, and Cassie got a couple of books and I picked up one for myself as well. On to Merchant's Square and we went through the Scottish store. I found a great pair of heather earrings and a cute braclet for Cassie.

We enjoyed a very nice dinner at Carrabba's. Cassie tried calamari and creme brulee. I do believe that she enjoyed them both quite a bit.

This evening I took her down to the pool for a dip. It wasn't too long after she got into the pool it started to drizzle. Oh well, she was already wet and it wasn't thundering, so we hung out until it started really coming down. The umbrellas next to the pool didn't do much to shield me from the rain. I ended up getting drenched.

It has been a full day. Who knows where we will end up tomorrow? The only real plan that we have is to take the Jamestown Ferry home. Up to then it's anyone's guess.

Alice's Haircut

August 7, 2009

Today is a red letter day, Alice finally cut her hair after 7 years. She gave us the word on Wednesday that she had scheduled an appointment. Not one to pass up the opportunity to offer moral support and get a few picture. I left work early enough to catch up with her at the salon.

I even was able to get video of the actual cut.

A Relaxing Evening

August 6, 2009

It has been a most pleasurable evening. Just kicking back and not doing anything. Very unstressful and relaxing.

I had Molly Maids come by today and finally get the house it's first deep down clean since we've moved in. They did such a nice job. Now I can focus on the other stuff that I want to get done around the house. It was surprising how much they did in just an hour. I was expecting them to take longer. I may just have to get them to pop by every month or so.

Walt had some company over for dinner this evening. We had a very pleasant dinner and conversation. It was nice having people over, even if it was unexpected.

Twitter & Facebook Down

August 6, 2009

I just heard on the radio (WRVA) that Twitter is down - they are experiencing a denial of service attack.

There may be something going on with Facebook as well. I haven't been able to login to the site. I keep getting this error message:

Transport error (#1001) while retrieving data from endpoint `/ajax/composer/attachment.php': A network error occurred. Check that you are connected to the internet.

1:45 p.m.

Facebook joined Twitter earlier today, apparently suffering from a denial of service attack. Connections at this time seem to be tenuous. All I have been able to do is get to the login window, after that nothing. Hopefully they will be able to get this issue resolved soon. With so many businesses now utilizing both Twitter and Facebook to promote themselves, this has got to be hurting.

Full Day of Events

August 4, 2009

It's been a busy day, full of magazine prep, burning CDs and DVDs, downloading & converting some video, handling order fulfillments and phone calls. And it's not over yet, I'll be working a teleconference this evening.

I've signed up to attend a lunch & learn on Down & Dirty Photoshop Tips & Tricks at Techead next Friday. Sean Cooke is going to be doing the presentation. I always enjoy his classes. He's even put together a book, Mr. Cooke’s Little Brown Book It is full of Adobe® Design Suite Tricks. It is a great reference to have right by the computer.

Whitney in our office is going to participate in an event to raise money for the Special Olympics. She will rappel 30 stories from the Suntrust Building, here in Richmond. She is gathering sponsors, if you would like to help her reach her goal, Click Here.

A little teaser for Friday's upcoming post, Alice is getting a haircut. After seven years of letting her hair grow, she has decided that it is time for a change. She's all scheduled with a Friday afternoon appointment. I'm even taking off early to go with her and bring back photographic evidence that she did indeed get her hair cut. Be prepared for an awesome change.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought For the Day: A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart, stays in your mind, even after years apart.

Carl

Carl was a quiet man. He didn't talk much, but he would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake. Even after living in our neighborhood for over 50 years, no one could really say they knew him very well.

Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning. The lone sight of him walking down the street often worried us. He had a slight limp from a bullet wound received in WWII.

Watching him, we worried that although he had survived WWII, he may not make it through our changing uptown neighborhood with its ever-increasing random violence, gangs, and drug activity.

When he saw the flyer at our local church asking for volunteers for caring for the gardens behind the minister's residence, he responded in his characteristically unassuming manner. Without fanfare, he just signed up.

He was well into his 87th year when the very thing we had always feared finally happened.

He was just finishing his watering for the day when three gang members approached him.

Ignoring their attempt to intimidate him, he simply asked, "Would you like a drink from the hose?"

The tallest and toughest-looking of the three said, "Yeah, sure," with a malevolent little smile.

As Carl offered the hose to him, the other two grabbed Carl's arm, throwing him down.

As the hose snaked crazily over the ground, dousing everything in its way, Carl's assailants stole his retirement watch and his wallet, and then fled.

Carl tried to get himself up, but he had been thrown down on his bad leg, so he lay there trying to gather himself as the minister came running to help him.

Although the minister had witnessed the attack from his window, he couldn't get there fast enough to stop it.

"Carl, are you okay? Are you hurt?" the minister kept asking as he helped Carl to his feet.

Carl just passed a hand over his brow and sighed, shaking his head. "Just some punk kids. I hope they'll wise-up someday."

His wet clothes clung to his slight frame as he bent to pick up the hose. He adjusted the nozzle again and started to water.

Confused and a little concerned, the minister asked, "Carl, what are you doing?"

"I've got to finish my watering. It's been very dry lately," came the calm reply.

Satisfying himself that Carl really was all right, the minister could only marvel. Carl was a man from a different time and place.

A few weeks later the three returned. Just as before their threat was unchallenged. Carl again offered them a drink from his hose.

This time they didn't rob him. They wrenched the hose from his hand and drenched him head to toe in the icy water.

When they had finished their humiliation of him, they sauntered off down the street, throwing catcalls and curses, falling over one another laughing at the hilarity of what they had just done.

Carl just watched them. Then he turned toward the warmth giving sun, picked up his hose, and went on with his watering.

The summer was quickly fading into fall and Carl was doing some tilling when he was startled by the sudden approach of someone behind him. He stumbled and fell into some evergreen branches.

As he struggled to regain his footing, he turned to see the tall leader of his summer tormentors reaching down for him. He braced himself for the expected attack.

"Don't worry old man, I'm not gonna hurt you this time."

The young man spoke softly, still offering the tattooed and scarred hand to Carl.

As he helped Carl get up, the man pulled a crumpled bag from his pocket and handed it to Carl.

"What's this?" Carl asked.

"It's your stuff," the man explained. "It's your stuff back. Even the money in your wallet."

"I don't understand," Carl said. "Why would you help me now?"

The man shifted his feet, seeming embarrassed and ill at ease. "I learned something from you," he said. "I ran with that gang and hurt people like you. We picked you because you were old and we knew we could do it, but every time we came and did something to you, instead of yelling and fighting back, you tried to give us a drink. You didn't hate us for hating you. You kept showing
love against our hate."

He stopped for a moment. "I couldn't sleep after we stole your stuff, so here it is back."

He paused for another awkward moment, not knowing what more there was to say.

"That bag's my way of saying thanks for straightening me out, I guess." And with that, he walked off down the street.

Carl looked down at the sack in his hands and gingerly opened it. He took out his retirement watch and put it back on his wrist. Opening his wallet, he checked for his wedding photo. He gazed for a moment at the young bride that still smiled back at him from all those years ago.

He died one cold day after Christmas that winter. Many people attended his funeral in spite of the weather.

In particular, the minister noticed a tall young man that he didn't know sitting quietly in a distant corner of the church.

The minister spoke of Carl's garden as a lesson in life.

In a voice made thick with unshed tears, he said, "Do your best and make your garden as beautiful as you can. We will never forget Carl and his garden."

The following spring another flyer went up. It read: Needed - A person to care for Carl's garden.

The flyer went unnoticed by the busy parishioners until one day when a knock was heard at the minister's office door.

Opening the door, the minister saw a pair of scarred and tattooed hands holding the flyer.

"I believe this is my job, if you'll have me," the young man said.

The minister recognized him as the same young man who had returned the stolen watch and wallet to Carl.

He knew that Carl's kindness had turned this man's life around. As the minister handed him the keys to the garden shed, he said, "Yes, go take care of Carl's garden and honor him."

The man went to work and, over the next several years, he tended the flowers and vegetables just as Carl had done.

During that time, he went to college, got married, and became a prominent member of the community, but he never forgot his promise to Carl's memory and kept the garden as beautiful as he thought Carl would have kept it.

One day he approached the new minister and told him that he couldn't care for the garden any longer. He explained with a shy and happy smile, "My wife just had a baby boy last night, and she's bringing him home on Saturday."

"Well congratulations!" said the minister, as he was handed the garden shed keys. "That's wonderful! What's the baby's name?"

"Carl," he replied.

And We're Off

August 3, 2009

August has begun with a flurry of activity. Walter has been out working on the yard. We may actually be able to walk around the yard before the end of the month without tripping over a piece of split wood. He was able to more or less figure out the back property line over the weekend, with a compass and piece of string. Very interesting activity, especially when you are walking through the bramble in no man's land in the backyard. Please don't make me go in there again.

Last night Walter received an interesting Facebook contact, his cousin from North Carolina found him. They haven't seen one another since Walter was five months old. It is amazing. Turns out that he had done a Google search on himself and found the genealogy, which in turn gave him the name that he could search for on Facebook. So neat. I ran the same search and found one of the other cousins and a post that she had looking for family information. I'm going to shoot her an email with a link to the genealogy site this evening.

My day has been full of ripping audio from video, then a little bit of audio editing on top of that. Quite repetitive. I've even been able to get some work on postcards for one of the doctors in Minnesota.

Tonight's Clover Hill Alumni get together was a fabulous success. Jeff Creech came in from North Carolina and Joe Brame came up from Yorktown. It was great seeing so many people coming out. The group ranged from the Class of '79 to the Class of '89. Quite a mix.

Walter even met up this evening with a few of his friends from Manchester High School. We kiddingly told them that they had been sitting at the 'kids' table at the end of the evening.

August Begins

Fantastic Day! Slept until noon. Wow do I feel rested. I've been busy working giving the blog a whole new look. I found a great template and am really happy with the way that it looks. There are a couple of tweaks that I'm working on, for some reason the date isn't showing up on my posts. But on the whole it is really nice. Lots of ways to update and change things up.

The search box at the top right-hand side of the page allows you to search the contents of the site.

I'll be adding a box to the bottom right-hand side that where I will add links to neat tools that I find and use.

The items in the gallery at the top of the page are photos by me, designs by Alice Pettey, Photos by Tim Parsons, and Photos by Dorothy Parsons. I'll be adding some of my own graphics in the future.

This afternoon, Walter got a wild hair, and we've been out with a tape measure and twine marking off two of the property lines. We've got the one between us and our next door neighbors done with out any problems. The back line is a little sketchy, but Walt thinks he may have gotten it figured out. Thank goodness he is good at what he does. We are pretty sure that we have found where the line is suppose to go, and if it is correct, the yard is much larger in the back that I first thought.

Wrapping Up July

Where has the month gone? Here we are already at the end of July with over half the year gone. As of this writing, I could very well be a grandmother for the 2nd time. The little one is due on the 4th, but could possibly have already made his appearance. Time will tell.

This link to the video Arlington Rap was going around the office this week. It is a riot.

I've been spending some time this evening updating the blog. A whole new look.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought for the Day: "No one can walk backwards into the future." - fortune cookie

What's In A Name?
A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. "You all have obsessions," he observed.

To the first mother, Mary, he said, "You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy."

He turned to the second Mom, Ann: "Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny."

He turned to the third Mom, Joyce: "Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child's name, Brandy."

At this point, the fourth mother, Kathy, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand, and whispered, "Come on, Dick, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. Let's pick up Peter and Willy from school and go get dinner."

End of the week

Here I was all set to get up and get ready for work this morning, but was hit with a horrible migraine headache. I headed back to bed and figured I just sleep it off, but no such luck. The darn thing hung on virtually all day long. Between naps I had a throbbing head, with an added bonus of a slight temperature. The headache is abating, but the temperature is hanging on. It has made for a bad end to the weekend and even worse start to the weekend

I did discover today that our street must be the expressway for ambulances and fire engines. It seemed like they passed through here on quite frequently.

Walter has been busy getting his truck and the camper ready for a trip to the beach. The wiring harness was giving him a bit of trouble, turned out he had three blown fuses too! That will do it every time.

Happy 4th Anniversary

Happy 4th Anniversary to Danielle & Ben.

May your future be bright and joyous.

Fun Things

1. FaceBook, Twitter Widget on Verzion FIOS cable.
2. Free IQ Font from Toyota The video on the making of the font is very cool!
3. Every have one of those days when you delete something by accident, and are afraid it is gone forever. Don't despair. Try CardRecovery. It is a nifty little program for not a lot of money that can possibly recover those files for you in a jiffy. I've used twice with great success. Recovering a 15 minute long concert video and about a dozen photos.

Odds & Ends

We have had a busy day today at the office. Brian and I have been busily preparing a a new promotional video. As I left the office today, the desktop computer was humming right along rendering our first draft version. Should we be particularly lucky, it will be the final version as well.

Sean checked in with me this evening to let me know that his computer has had to make a trip to the shop. Poor thing he won't get it back to sometime around the first of September. He may suffer from withdrawl over the next few weeks.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought for the Day:

I received this Awesome Stress Relief kit in my email today. After careful review of the instructions, I'm sure that there are going to be days to come that it will come in handy.

Drinking with a Redneck Girl

A Mexican, an Arab, and a redneck girl are in the same bar.When the Mexican finishes his beer,he throws his glass in the air, pulls out his pistol, and shoots the glass to pieces.He says, 'In Mexico , our glasses are so cheap we don't need to drink with the same one twice.'

The Arab, obviously impressed by this, drinks his beer, throws it into the air, pulls out his AK-47, and shoots the glass to pieces. He says, 'In the Arab World, we have so much sand to make glasses that we don't need to drink with the same one twice either.'

The redneck girl, cool as a cucumber, picks up her beer, downs it in one gulp, throws the glass into the air, whips out her 45, and shoots the Mexican and the Arab. Catching her glass, setting it on the bar, and calling for a refill, she says, 'In America we have so many illegal aliens that we don't have to drink with the same ones twice.'

Flat Elvis

I finally made out to see Flat Elvis last night at Taella's Bistro in Midlothian, and I'm glad I did.

They put on a terrific show. Great tunes and showmanship. Can't wait till their next event.

Photos from the event are here: Click Here for Photos

A Change of Attitude

I have been keeping this blog now for over five years, and all that time I have been circumspect in my postings when I've really wanted to blow up and yell. Well, times are a changing. Beginning with this post I am changing my position on this. If you have royally pissed me off, chances are you'll know about it. If life is wonderful you'll know about that too. I may not use actual names, to protect the guilty or just for the sake of being nice, but situations will be real. Everyone has now been officially warned.

Dragonfly Trio

I snapped these fellows hanging out in the front yard around the woodpile. Mom told me that they loved being around freshly cut wood. I even saw a green one out in the yard today, but didn't have the camera handy. Maybe before the weekend is out I'll be able to snap one of him.

Work has been fine and dandy. Last week I had couple of good days working with one of the co-workers (who I don't usually spend that much time working with). It was nice getting together the project. This week I've been working with my usual partner in crime at the office putting together a website redo. It's coming together and looking pretty good. Hopefully it will ready to go live sometime next week.

The first of the week I was overcome with a 'grandmother' moment and purchased books for the granddaughter. Now I've not see this precious child in almost 3 years, not by my choice, but wanted to send something to her. I bought the books and proceeded to debate whether to send them or not. The last time that I sent something to her and her mother (things that I brought back from Italy for them) they were hand delivered by Walter. The resulting phone call from my son-in-law, left me in tears for weeks. So here the books sat and waited....I was mulling over just hanging on to them until Walter happened to be heading their way and just letting him give them to them when he saw them. I was happy with just letting it be this way.

Overnight on Tuesday, our mailbox became a victim of a drive-by. We're not really sure how the post ended up being broken off like it was. It was really strange when I went out for work. The mailbox was in the ditch and someone else's Duck's trash can in the ditch on the other side of the driveway. It appeared that the trashcan had flown out of a truck as it rounded the curve in front of the house. A call to Duck's found that the owner of the can was well aware of it's disappearance and had already reported it missing. Later in the day Walter replaced the mailbox, post and street numbers and Duck's came by to get the can. I'm still scratching my head over how it ended up like it did.

I had a wild hair on Wednesday afternoon and ended up taking Sean out to see the new Harry Potter movie. On the way into the theater we stopped by a Christian bookstore to browse around, at his suggestion, and I found the cutest preloaded mp3 player. Now, I had heard that my daughter was looking for one for the granddaughter to use. So when I saw it I immediately thought of her. It was preloaded with memory verses, Sunday School songs, and a few hymns and I thought that it was a safe purchase for the granddaughter. It too was destine to wait with the books for a future delivery.

The Harry Potter movie by the way turned out to be pretty good. Sean and I had a nice time together and I even gave him a bit of a hard time over all the texting he did with his girlfriend. He's a right speedy typist with his thumbs. It would make me crazy trying to type with my thumbs like that all the time.

Thursday morning I decided that instead of waiting to send the books by Walter, I would take a chance and send it to her by Priority Mail. I sent without a note so there would be no chance that what I said could be misconstrued. I didn't want to cause a big stink, just send a gift to my granddaughter. I wasn't expecting any acknowledgement of the package or any comment. It was just the fact that I had sent something to her.

Friday I received an email response to my package. Well, talk about getting your bubble (the little one that it was) burst. The email was very curt and nasty, telling me in no uncertain terms that they:

• do not need anything from me
• do not want anything from me
• do not want me to contact them
• do not want me to send any packages to them,
• do not want me reaching out to them.

I guess that was all designed to put me in my place. It threw me, but not really. I just wasn't expecting nasty.

Here's the rub. I don't know what I have done/not done that has caused such animosity. My biggest clue was given to me on New Year's Day, "You gave up your right to be a mother a long time ago." Whatever that is suppose to mean. I am clueless. If I had been some sort of monster, it would be understandable, but....

I did a whole lot of bending over backwards to keep others out of trouble. In return, I've been cut off from my daughter and granddaughter, and all future grandchildren at this point. Some day, perhaps they will decide I am not the demon that I apparently am in their eyes.

Enough of that...

As you may know, I've been enrolled in the Graphic Design Masters Certification program at Sessions.edu since about mid-May. I've already completed Basic PhotoShop and Basic Illustrator. I'm currently taking Basic InDesign and Color Theory.

I received the nicest thank you e-card yesterday from one of the doctors I work with in Ohio. I had burned a DVD for him from a video file that he had. Not a large project at all, but the card was an absolute riot and really made my afternoon. I had to share it with just about everyone in the office. Dancing chimpanzees are something to smile about.

Sean sent me this picture of a mushroom that he took while he was out in Powhatan. How bright and colorful. It reminds me of the cartoon Smurf houses. Not bad for a cellphone picture.

Well, I'm done ranting and raving for now. Time to get back to my classwork. This evening I'm heading out Taella's Bistro in Midlothian to see Flat Elvis perform. One of my classmates from high school, is in the band. Should be a fun evening.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought for the Day: Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History! -- Lee Milteer

11 PEOPLE ON A ROPE

Eleven people were hanging on a rope, under a helicopter. 10 men and 1 woman.
The rope was not strong enough to carry them all, so they decided that one had to leave, because otherwise they were all going to fall.
They weren't able to choose that person, until the woman gave a very touching speech.
She said that she would voluntarily let go of the rope, because, as a woman, she was used to giving up everything for her husband and kids or for men in general , and was used to always making sacrifices with little in return.

As soon as she finished her speech, all the men started clapping ....... IDIOTS!

Happy Birthday Walter!

Here it is another year down and Walt's another year older. He's growing up so fast, before I know it he'll be a Marine (if he has his way).

I did manage to get him to hold still this evening long enough to get this picture of him and his new haircut. A little different from the usual.

What a day

Today seems to have become a day of mourning across the country and locally. This morning I heard of that the pastor of Tomahawk Baptist Church, Clay Thornton had passed away. This afternoon it was announced that Farrah Fawcett had died and now they've just announced that Michael Jackson has died. All three were fixtures of my years in middle and high school.

June Over Half Gone Already?

I looked up and finally took note of the date on the calendar. How can it be the 24th of June already? I suppose it is the by-product of being busy, however it would be great to actually have savored a few more hours over the last few weeks.

Business has been busy. I've been involved in two conferences within three weeks. They have been terrific. I really enjoy meeting with the various doctors and their staff members from all over the country.

Walter has been busy continuing the deforestation of the yard. Last month 24 trees fell and just Tuesday eight more came down, followed today by three more. For now I think we are on hold for taking any more down until all of the logs are neatly stacked at the back of the yard. Click here for before and after yard pictures.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

Thought For The Day: "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." -- Thomas Jefferson

Proof That The World Is Nuts
In Lebanon , men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death. (Like THAT makes sense.)

In Bahrain , a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination.. He may only see their reflection in a mirror. (Do they look different reversed?)

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times. (A brick?)

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation. (Much worse than 'going blind!')

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry. (Let's just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?)

In Hong Kong , a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband's illicit lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired. (Ah! Justice!)

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool , England - but only in tropical fish stores. (But of course!)

In Cali , Colombia , a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act. (Makes one shudder at the thought.)

In Santa Cruz , Bolivia , it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time. (I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)

In Maryland , it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only 'in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.' (Is this a great country or what?
Well, not as great as Guam !)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Who volunteers for these tests?)

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. (From drinking little bottles of?) (Did our government pay for this research??)

Butterflies taste with their feet. (Ah, geez.)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.)

Starfish don't have brains. (I know some people like that, too.)

And, the best for last?

Turtles can breathe through their butts. (And I thought I had bad breath in the morning!)

Medical Breakthrough

A French doctor says 'Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks A German doctor says 'That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.The Russian doctor says 'In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person,put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.An American doctor, not to be outdone, says 'You guys are way behind. We recently took a man with no brains out of Illinois , put him in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work.

Blonde Window View...
Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy efficient kind.

Today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago, and I still hadn't paid for them.

Hellooooo...just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid. So I told him just what his fast-talking sales guy had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!

“Helllooooo? It's been a year!”, I told him.

There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up. He hasn't called back.

I bet he felt like an idiot.

Mid-week Madness

Here we've arrived at the middle of the week and Walter has finally gotten his sunroof fixed. It has taken him since Saturday evening to get the darn thing to work. The first one he picked up locally wasn't even the right one. After a weekend of frustration, and a productive call to North Carolina. He found the right part out in Orange County. He made the road trip all the way up to Orange County to a used parts store there. The first one didn't work out, so he had to go back for a second one. This worked like a charm. Just in time to keep the rain that is predicted for tomorrow out of the vehicle.

This evening we have been peeling lemons to for our first batch of Limoncello. Yum... It only takes 90 days to prepare and another 6 months to age. It will be worth the wait. Ah...Italy.

Email & Newsletter Gleanings:

THE "MIDDLE WIFE"
I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant: "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday."

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."

She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.
"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!'" Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'" (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)

"My dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my mom to lie down in bed like this." (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

"And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)

"Then the middle wife starts saying 'Push, push" and "Breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another "Middle Wife" comes along.

The Garbage Truck Rule of Life
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Garbage Truck Rule of Life.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

Ponderables
Sometimes we ponder over life's interesting conundrums. Here are a few for you.

Can An Atheist Get Insurance Against Acts Of God?

If Man Evolved From Monkeys And Apes, Why Do We Still Have Monkeys And Apes?

I Went To A Bookstore And Asked The Saleswoman, "where's The Self-help Section?" She Said If She Told Me, It Would Defeat The Purpose.

What If There Were No Hypothetical Questions?

If A Deaf Person Signs Swear Words, Does His Mother Wash His Hands With Soap?

If Someone With Multiple Personalities Threatens To Kill Himself, Is It Considered A Hostage Situation?

Is There Another Word For Synonym?

Where Do Forest Rangers Go To 'get Away From It All?

What Do You Do When You See An Endangered Animal Eating An Endangered Plant?

If A Parsley Farmer Is Sued, Can They Garnish His Wages?

Would A Fly Without Wings Be Called A Walk?

Why Do They Lock Gas Station Bathrooms? Are They Afraid Someone Will Clean Them?

If A Turtle Doesn't Have A Shell, Is He Homeless Or Naked?

Can Vegetarians Eat Animal Crackers?

If The Police Arrest A Mime, Do They Tell Him He Has The Right To Remain Silent?

What Was The Best Thing Before Sliced Bread?

How Is It Possible To Have A Civil War?

If One Synchronized Swimmer Drowns, Do The Rest Drown Too?

If You Ate Both Pasta And Antipasto, Would You Still Be Hungry?

If You Try To Fail And Succeed, Which Have You Done?

Whose Cruel Idea Was It For The Word Lisp To Have 's' In It?

Why Are Hemorrhoids Called Hemorrhoids Instead Of Assteroids?

Why Is It Called Tourist Season If We Can't Shoot At Them?

Why Is There An Expiration Date On Sour Cream?

Conference Surprises

Our conference has started out terrifically, everyone is into the topic being presented by Dr. Martin and everyone seems to be taking away a tremendous amount from it.

I received a big surprise at from one of the doctors at the conference this weekend. Dr. Paul Grussenmeyer, also a talented carver, brought a number of his carvings to share and let me pick one out. I picked out this beautiful necklace it is a morphed butterfly carved in black pearl with black onyx eyes, hanging from a stainless steel cable necklace.

Glancing around at some of the other pieces that he brought I found this beautiful pearl carving of a butterfly on a Greek leather cord. Not in the picture are the carved leaf ends on the cord. Well, of course, I couldn't pass this one up.

You can check out some of his non-jewelry carvings on his website PGCarvings.com.

I'm looking forward to spending some non-conference time with a group of the doctors and their wives. We are going to have some fun later on. What a great group!


The evening turned out wonderfully. A group of nine of us had dinner in the hotel resturant. Lots of laughter and fun. While waiting for the entree to arrive, I noticed a Civil War reenactor in the bar area, not wanting to miss the opportunity for a picture I immediately headed in to get a photo and ask him to come out and visit with the "Yankees" that I was dining with.

It turned out that he was Robert E. Lee (aka Bob Moates). He was so gracious to come out and speak with the group. He was so amazing, completely in 'character'. It made for a great end to a fantastic evening.

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....

Saturday

With temperatures soaring into the mid 90's today, Walter & I finally tackled the bagged leaves in the yard. We borrow a pickup to make several runs to the dump. Now as I use to remember it, you could drop leaves off without charge, or it a minimal one. Now the it runs $8.00 a trip! Then to add insult to injury, since I can't burn leaves at my house (we're in the NO burn zone). You can't dump leaves in bags! They make you take the leaves out of the bags! It's ridiculous. Grrr....

We made three runs to the dump and ended up filthy messes from splitting open the bags and dumping them. They had only been sitting in the yard since mid February, when our leaf guy started work. He quit on us in March and we finally were able to get a truck to get them away from here. I had even begun sitting them out with the trash for pick up five bags at a time, but they didn't take any bags last week.

In the midst of the leaf fiasco, as we drove into the backyard to load leaves we noticed that the tree beside our driveway, near the house, had been backed into. Someone had apparently driven into the drive while we were out and somehow managed to back into the tree. It took a good chunk of bark off . I would presume that it did some damage to the vehicle as well. Serves them right. But why is a whole other question, that I don't think that we'll get the answer to.

Double Rainbow

I was out with Walter this evening just at sunset. On the way home we saw this great double rainbow just off Hull Street.

The contractor is finally FINISHED at the house! Yippee!

Breaking News!

Good Fruit Turns Bad!