Catfish-Sand Gnats

Nothing better than a great baseball game. Chrissy and I went to the Columbus Catfish game Friday night. Despite the Fish taking a loss, we had a great time. The weather was beautiful. The game was interesting. I wish I went to more games.

Last Birthday Hint

Alright,

So Chrissy figured out that one of the cities we'll be staying in is Monterey, California. We'll be staying close to Cannery Row, the setting for one of Steinbeck's books. I told her she might be able to find some of her Dad's cheese (Monterey "Jack" Cheese).

She still isn't sure about the other one, so I'll give her a couple of pictures that are sure to give it away:

We'll definitely have to ride on one of these through China Town:

I love bridges, kind of an engineering dork thing. I'll definitely want a few pictures of this famous bridge:

Happy Birthday Chrissy. I love you!

Hints part 4

I told you Friday that you'll have no problems finding good chinese at the second place we'll be staying. You might be able to find some of your Dad's cheese at the first place.

We'll probably go looking for a few of these at the first place as well:

Our vacation just wouldn't be a vacation if we didn't spend some time here:

hints part 3

You better pack a jacket because the average lows for the month of July are in the low 50's. The average highs are in the mid 70's.

Yesterday's hints were for the second place we'll be staying. Today's hints are for the first place. It would be a good time to pick up a Steinbeck novel since one of our destinations was the setting for one of his lesser known books.

Here is one of the hotels we'll be staying at (The other one isn't quite this nice).

We'll probably go visit this place, but I don't think we'll do any swimming.

Birthday Hints Part 2

In one of the two places, you will probably see a record set or broken!!!

Good chinese will not be hard to find.

Happy Birthday Chrissy

Its birthday time again for Chrissy! I went ahead and gave her part of her birthday present, but she has only received a little piece of the puzzle that is her birthday. I gave her the confirmation ticket for the trip we're going to take in July, yet misteriously, some of the important detailed were missing. She knows she's leaving Atlanta on July 9, 2007, and she'll be arriving back on July 14, 2007. Somehow, the destination was left off.

I like watching her squirm, and I like keeping secrets from her (good ones, not bad ones). So this is how I've decided to tell her about her birthday present. Over the next few days, she'll be receiving hints on the blog to help her figure out where she is going. I already gave her one hint, that a passport will not be necessary (sorry, no Scotland or France). Now its time for a couple more.

We'll be staying in two different cities!!!!

Here is a place you might see

More to come later. Stay tuned sports fans

Chrissy's New Friends

We found a nest on our back porch a few weeks ago. Chrissy wouldn't let me get rid of it, and now she has some new friends.

The Momma

The Babies

Feelin' a Bit Drafty

I don't understand what is so great about the NFL draft. I love football. I love the Pro's, college, high school, and even arena league; but I don't understand the hoopla surrounding Selection Saturday. My friend Jim said he would be in front of the TV all day watching it. I on the other hand, had better things to do. We even had a list of things we were going to get done. Nothing better than a productive Saturday right?

Well, then the draft started. We figured we'd wait around to see who the first pick would be, then take off to do our errands. LSU's Russell got picked first. Then I thought I'd like to see what happens when Calvin gets picked. He seems like such a good guy. Then, I wanted to know where Brady Quinn would end up. 4-1/2 hours later, we quit watching; not because we wanted to, but because we had promised another couple we'd babysit for them. Do I understand why I enjoyed it? No. Was I completely entertained the entire afternoon? Yes. Will I watch it again next year? Nah, I'll probably just see who gets picked first then go run some errands.

In other news:

A-rod just grounded into a double play with the tying run on first in the bottom of the eighth. Hee Hee Hee

The entire defensive line of Florida got drafted. Even the guy that got kicked off the team half way through the season for drugs.

The Patriots just picked up Randy Moss for a 4th round pick. I'm worried. I think it was a great deal, but I'm still worried. I'm afraid Moss is a time bomb, but I'm continually amazed by Belichick's ability to take trouble makers and make them model citizens.

My 2 favorite teams (Sox and Braves) are in first place in their respective divisions.

Papelbon just got another save. The empire has lost 7 of their last 8. I'm giggling inside.

Sick of Being Sick

I'm tired of being sick. I woke up yesterday puking and doing other things. After not being able to keep any food or drink down for over 24 hours, I went to the emergency room. The doc gave me an IV and did some blood work. Turns out, I've got a virus called gastro-something-or-other (thats the medical terminology). I'm not allowed to eat until Thursday. I'm drinking liquids now. I feel much better, but I sure would like to eat something.

Say it aint so Papi

Funny sportscenter commercial, but makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espntv/espnShow?showID=SRDA

A Tree and an Awkward Date

Last night, Chrissy went to a scrap booking party with her friends. Me and one of the other husbands (Mike) decided to go to a movie to kill time while they were doing their thing. We went to see the movie Number 23 (great movie, highly recommend it, but not good for kids). The theatre has a combo called the couples combo which consists of 2 tickets, 2 cokes, and a large popcorn. I felt a little funny asking for the couples combo standing there with a guy, but being masculine, hetero looking guys, I figured nobody would say anything. I figured wrong. The girl at the food counter sure didn't mind giving us a hard time. When I handed her our receipt, she said "awe, what a cute couple". I got a diet coke and Mike got a regular. When she handed us our drinks she said "here's a diet for the one watching his figure, and here's a regular for the one who appreciates it". I don't think my face has ever been more red. That is the last couples combos for me and Mike. I think we might even walk in at different times. We can still talk from a couple aisles away right?


Here's a picture of the Japanes Maple in our back yard. I can't wait for it to get a little bigger. It makes me feel old though, caring about things like yard maintenance and trees.

Easter 07

Had a great Easter today. Went to church, went to lunch with friends, Columbus Catfish game, and played games with our homegroup tonight. Something happened at the Catfish game that struck me funny. When the organ played the little tune that makes everybody says CHAAAARGE!!!, nobody said charge. Its sad that in Columbus, Georgia the hockey game draws more of a crowd than a baseball game.

A few things have happened since the last update. When we were leaving Wilmington, we stopped by the U. S. North Carolina on the way out of town. I found out it would cost $15 a piece. We decided we'd get a nice enough view from the shore. My niece Knucklehead a.k.a. Olivia came to visit us and joined us at the Easter Egg hunt. Chrissy kicked butt on the egg-in-a-spoon race. Knucklehead found the golden egg. By the way.... does anybody know the story behind the Easter Bunny or the eggs?

On to the picks:

Be VEWY Quiet. I'm hunting wabbit eggs.

The battleship North Carolina

One of Chrissy's many Teacher Appreciation Week presents. When's Project Engineer Appreciation Week?

Maggie enjoying her new fence

Andrew

The hotel we are staying is an old train station so there are a few trains around and a railroad museum to visit. We saw this train and it made us think of Andrew since he loves trains so much.

Thoughts about the Cape (Chad)

1. There are no hush puppies in Wilmington. NO HUSHPUPPIES!!!!!

2. Irish pubs are everywhere. Lots of fun.

3. Restaurants I'd recommend: Fat Tony's, New York (I wish I were Boston) Pizza, the Trolley Stop, and Elijah's.

4. I've always wanted to live in a downtown area like this. I don't see ever getting to do it though because of my job. Where we're staying is similar to 5 points in Birmingham, or 5 points in Jacksonville. Everyone wears black and looks like their struggling art students that don't eat meat and hate W. I like being able to walk to restaurants. I like sitting outside at cafe's watching the sunset. I'm sure I'd be bored after a few months and want to move back to the sticks; but I'd like to try it for a little while.

Good times.

Wilmington

So far our trip to Wilmington has been nice but not as nice as Savannah. It was very cold Sunday and Monday so I didn't do a lot of sight seeing those days. Yesterday I had to go get my oil changed, it was supposed to be done a few weeks ago so this was the perfect time for me to get it done. Thankfully I did because 2 of my tires were about to die, Wal-Mart was not legally allowed to rotate the tires because they were so bad. Wal-Mart did not have my tire size in stock so off we went to Sam's. ( Thankfully Christina bought me a Sam's membership just last week for teacher appreciation week. It saved us $70 on the tires. ) Once the new tires were on the car Chad and I came back to the hotel to walk to the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper is a fondue restaurant, I had never been to one before. It was a neat experience, but it took forever to eat. You only get 2 skewers and each piece of meat takes about 2 minutes to cook, we didn't finish supper until 9:15 and we started at 8. We were too full to get dessert. It sounded delicious cheesecake, berries, and chocolate--yummo! Maybe we can stop by before we leave and have dessert then. Tonight we will be either trying a seafood restaurant or a place called Circa 1922.

Cape Fear?

As some of you know Chad and I are in Wilmington, North Carolina. Our hotel is right on the lake/river (or whatever it is) which is Cape Fear, we are even next to Cape Fear Community College. I am curious though as to who would name this place Cape Fear. It doesn't sound very inviting to me, I would even think that people would be deterred to move here because of it's name. It's pretty here and doesn't invoke fear at all, unless of course you are walking the streets late at night and pass a dark stinky alley but that would be scary anywhere. I need to research this but it's about time to go meet Chad for lunch. I'll write more about our trip a little later.

Columbus Cottonmouths

Friday night Chad and I went with Mitch and Jawan to watch the Columbus Cottonmouths take on the Jacksonville Baracudas. I have never been to a hockey game so it was a new experience for me and thankfully not as cold as I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it even though I didn't really understand what was going on, it was nothing like those Mighty Ducks movies. There were a few fights but most of them seemed to happen for no reason. Also, I didn't understand why they would pass the puck against the wall where the opposing team would get it instead of passing it to their own teammate. ( That part was explained to me last night so now I get it.) The coolest part about the game was that they had a special guest, John Snyder, and he drove out in the General Lee. Actually, the best part was watching Luke dance every time the music played and just hanging out with our friends.

The New Fence

Look at what a great job Chad did on our fence, he is such a handy man. I know this isn't the best picture of the fence but it is the only one I have and it's too dark to take a new one now.

Birthday fun in Jacksonville

We went to Jacksonville for my Dad's birthday. We had a great time visiting with everyone except for the fact that I've been in pain all weekend with a toothache. I got my 3rd wisdom tooth pulled on Thursday. He tried to pull #4, but after 20 minutes of jerking on it, he said I needed oral surgery to have it removed. The 3 that have been removed don't hurt at all, but the one he didn't remove is killing me. In other news, I should run out of vicatin tonight. Woo hoo!!!

Here is a picture of the birthday cake and the birthday boy. We ate this orange and blue cake right before watching the Gators get beat by Vandy. I hope they play them again in the SEC tourney. And I hope Noah "accidentally" throws the ball out of bounds and hits Vandy's idiot coach in the head. On with the pictures:

Loosing my wisdom

Why do they call them wisdom teeth? I think its because if you get them taken out, you'll truly understand what misery feels like. I got 2 down, 2 more to go in a few weeks. They were taken out yesterday afternoon around 4:00. I figured by now, I'd feel much better. I've still got gauze pads in my mouth making me look like Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's huge long lost brother. For some reason I'm incredibly tired too. I'm still swallowing blood too, though no where near as much as last night. I had aspirations of doing some computer work from home today and maybe working in the yard a little bit, but I haven't felt like doing anything. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go look pitiful for Chrissy so she'll make me a bowl of chocolate pudding. It sure is tough.