Not much relaxing

going on this weekend.

Two Funkle shows, then back home to do some major work.

That swing I said was going in last weekend didn't. But it did today. Not all by its magical self, of course, but with the unbelievably hard work of Dave and his dad.

Before...


That's where we were going to put it. But that was before Dave so handily found these lovely chunks of concrete with the post hole digger.


So, we decided to put it here


instead. Turns out, that was a much better idea. It's a shady spot with a view of the back of the house, not the side. And it seems to really bring the yard in somehow. We'll put up some laticework, and plant a flowering vine to finish it off. There's obviously some landscaping to do, but I absolutely LOVE our new swing.


Did I mention that Dave's dad built this? Happy early birthdays to us!

(Oh, and please ignore those lovely orange paintball spots. Those will also be dealt with shortly).

Comments Update

Thank you to Beer Pong for letting me know that I managed to turn on comment moderation in my last round of what I thought were minor changes. Not realizing I had turned that on, I didn't include an email address for blogger to send the messages, so I never knew anyone was commenting. Anyway, should be all fixed now.

Having a strange day today.

That's all.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

So do I need to pour my heart out or insult someone to get a comment on this blog? What about insulting people in the process of pouring my heart out?

New Bike

I meant to blog this before. Because I got totally burned out on mountain biking after riding this trail a couple years ago, I finally decided to take a little bonus money and get a road bike.

I picked this



up last Friday, and put 10 miles on it at Hilton Head. I love it! Hopefully, I'll be entering some triathlons with Dave and Brian as the bike rider of a relay team. Triathlon season is apparently coming to a close, but maybe we'll find one.

Online Gambling

I know that many of the bloggers on the roll here are fond of poker. You may be interested in this post from The Agitator about congressional efforts to outlaw (more stringently, I guess, since it's already "outlawed") internet gambling, and then in calling your senator and congressman.

Ah, the weekend

So this weekend will be pretty interesting, and hopefully we'll get some stuff done. Dave's out of town until late tomorrow night, so tonight and tomorrow, I'll be watching movies that I'd never watch with Dave. These movies include, but may not be limited to: Little Fish, The Castle, and In Her Shoes. What I will not be seeing is Pirates, since I've promised, of course, to wait and watch it with my dear husband (hopefully Sunday night).

I will also be going to the gym tonight for a swim, then a lovely dinner of leftover spaghetti. Yum!

Tomorrow will be cleaning the house, among other chores and duties. Then to see Fishtank with Stacy before heading off to the airport.

Sunday should be fantastic because Dave's dad is coming over to put up the incredible swing he made us as a birthday gift. And if that doesn't take too long, he may also help us fix our downstairs shower that hasn't worked since we bought the house.

I know it sounds pitiful, but I'm really excited about this weekend. Maybe I'll have pictures of the swing and fabulous bathroom soon.

Well

We're back from Hilton Head, which was nice, but too short. England lost on penalties after holding Portugal off with only 10 players - how depressing. Then the team that beat them lost to France. So it's France and Italy in the final game. Who would have picked that?!

Now it's time to catch up at work, and get some stuff done around the house this weekend.

Yippee.

Hopefully, I'll have something fun and interesting to post soon.

Weird mood

Not sure exactly why I haven't felt like blogging lately. There just hasn't been much to say, I guess. There's a lot going on, but at the same time, there's really not much going on. Does that make sense?

I'm starting to want to become much more of a homebody. There's a lot I want to do to our house, and for the first time, it's that I want to, not that I feel like we have to. So that's kind of cool. But it's also frustrating because I look at our calendar and in the next couple months, there are only a couple of weekends with nothing scheduled. Luckily, one of those is soon, so we're not likely to schedule anything else over it and can get some stuff done.

I don't know. It's just been strange lately.

Sorry for the lame post. Enjoy your holiday weekend. If you're in Hilton Head, come to the Wild Wing and watch the England game with us!

Blog Themes, Inspiration, and Great Songwriters

While Funkle Ester was busy winning the Flagpole Award for Best Cover Band (YAY!), Dave and I were at Eddie’s Attic watching one of my favorite songwriters perform. I must thank Dave publicly for being so sweet, patient, and understanding to go with me and sit four feet from the stage next to me while I swooned over Radney Foster. He’s a wonderful man, who puts up with a lot from me (Dave, not Radney) in the way of forced screenings of girly movies and country music, for instance.

I’m happy to say that Dave appreciates good music, even if it’s country. This is great for our relationship, because, though I pretty much have to introduce it to him, he’s open to listening. And he seems to have truly enjoyed the show last night.

This time around it was Radney and his acoustic, with another guitarist (Eric Borash) with an electric guitar.

What’s interesting is that I’ve noticed a few themes in Radney’s music as I’ve listened to it more and more. A big theme of his is taking chances. And in his most recent albums, he’s written a lot of songs about love and happy relationships. I know you’re thinking, but wait, didn’t you say he’s a country singer? Yes. I have to say, I’m impressed with his ability to write songs about great love and when things go right, or even sticking it out when things in life go wrong. He’s got plenty of love-gone-wrong songs, too, but so many love-is-great songs. It seems that most songwriters can only write when they’re miserable, so it’s nice to hear one that can write no matter what.

Good grief, I’m rambling here.

Favorite lyrics? Well I could probably quote from 40 different songs and count them as favorites. I’ll spare you and only include a few here:

If You Can’t Be Good (Be Lucky)(Foster/Morrou)
The title pretty much says it all

There are nights I own this town
Most nights it owns me
Play my guitar till it draws blood
It still won’t let me be
People think you know what you’re talking about
All because you wrote some song
I ain’t no smarter than the rest of these clowns
I’m just making it up as I go along
Making It Up As I Go Along (Foster)

Built that wall around your heart
So that no one could get through it
You must have missed a spot, baby
I walked right through it
Love Had Something to Say About It (Foster)

Now romance is just like money
You can always get more if you got it
And let me tell you friends
I’m a lot more handsome with a c-note in my pocket
Folding Money (Foster)

That kiss that you just hammered me with girl,
Is a staggering revelation
Drunk on Love (Foster/Brown)


And really, when it comes down to it, song lyrics are as much about the delivery and music behind them as they are about the words. So if you like country music (Texas country, storyteller stuff), get some Radney Foster. See What You Want to See (a little more pop/Americana, actually) and And Then There’s Me are both good albums to start with.

Yes indeedy

The English boys did it again today. They beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-0 today. They played a bit sloppy but closed the deal in the last 10 minutes of the game. Even better, both goal scorers play for Liverpool - with Beckham serving up a beautiful cross for Crouch to head in at the 83rd minute, and Gerrard scoring a blazing left-footed shot into the top left corner of the net at the beginning of stoppage time.

Good on ya!

Key West Pictures ... Finally

I'm sorry there are no captions, but I had captions and about 10 pictures loaded into Blogger earlier, and all was lost when I tried to save the draft and work on something else for a while. Grrr.

So, without further ado (or any real info), here are some pics.

Bringing a knife to a gun fight?

Not a problem if you are a Marine.

Stephens says one of the attackers had a shotgun and another had a pistol.

The suspects eventually caught up with Autry. But Autry — who managed to pull a knife out of his backpack — kicked the shotgun out of one of the attacker's hands. He stabbed a teenage girl who jumped on him and a man who attacked him.

I'm sure glad I didn't cancel

the comprehensive coverage on our 11 year-old Accord a couple of weeks ago...

Looks normal from here, right?


But take a closer look at the window...


Closer...


And then, the ignition...




What was in the driver side floorboard? Well, that would be what's left of the external bits of the ignition (now on the bed for photographic purposes).


It sure looks like someone tried to steal our car last night. Here are the keys we found in the front passenger seat. Odd, huh? All class with the Playboy symbol and the "support my habit" (those are little marijuana leaves) key chains.


And, yeah, this happened in our driveway overnight.

A politician who gets things done, apparently...

Maybe the governor of Missori should run for President.

Inevitable

Think the government's big now? Wait until they start trying to regulate the internet. It will happen.

So Sue Me

This game-night theme is absolutely fantastic!

In case you're wondering ...

why I haven't posted. Let's see:

I've just checked my last email from last Thursday, so now I can start on Friday's. There are two loads of laundry on our dining room table - folded, three loads of laundry on a chair in our living room - unfolded, and two loads of laundry in the washing machine and dryer - waiting. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, with a sink full of dirty ones waiting for space. And there's a ten foot (square) pile of tree limbs and brush in the back yard.

Since April 14, I have been to Charleston, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Key West, Orlando, and Murphy NC.

I will post pictures from Key West eventually. Maybe this weekend. As soon as I can.

See ya!

Flying here, driving over this to get here, staying here, all to attend a wedding here.

Talk to you late next week. If we come back.

Interesting

We’re getting fatter, and according to health alarmists and nannies, that means we’re all unhealthier, will die more often and earlier of cancer, heart disease, and stroke. The obesity “epidemic” is horrible for our collective health in America.

Really?

According to a recently released report:

ATLANTA - In what appears to be an amazing success for American medicine, preliminary government figures released Wednesday showed that the annual number of deaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 — the biggest decline in nearly 70 years.

The 2 percent decrease, reported by the National Center for Health Statistics, came as a shock to many, because the U.S. is aging, growing in population and getting fatter. In fact, some experts said they suspect the numbers may not hold up when a final report is released later this year.

Nevertheless, center officials said the statistics, based on a review of about 90 percent of death records reported in all 50 states in 2004, were consistent across the country and were deemed solid enough to report.

The center said drops in the death rates for heart disease, cancer and stroke accounted for most of the decline.

I know that lower death rates don’t equate to lower incident rates of these diseases, and that fewer deaths probably only mean delayed deaths from these diseases. I’d be interested in seeing how the rates of actual occurrences have changed over the last few years. It’ll also be interesting to see what happens with the final numbers.

Rent

I finally got the movie version from Blockbuster for a trip, and I will be buying it. Maybe it’s because of everything I was dealing with in the summer of 1997 when Stacy, Erica, and I saw this on stage. Maybe it’s the message. Or both. Definitely – both.

525,600 minutes. 525,600 moments so dear.
How do you measure a year in the life?

There’s a lot of this movie that I don’t agree with politically. But this is just one of those where the politics just don’t matter to me. It hits me somewhere many other things (music, movie, stage, whatever) don’t.

There is no future
There is no past
Thank God this moment’s not the last
There’s only us
There’s only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today

And the voices! Those voices. It just takes my breath away every time I listen to it. Yeah, I bought the Broadway recording immediately after I saw the show almost nine years ago. I still can't believe it's been nine years.