Entry for July 31, 2006

I did not take a week off. Although I did not write a Blog last week, unfortunitely I had to work an 84 hour week to finish a proposal. Hopefully we are succesful in getting the project at the tune of $29mil. I eneded up missing my nephew's baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach as well as spending time here with Gin. It's all water under the bridge.

Last week I worked on recovering from the long weekend. I managed to work out every day and eat healthy all week. Friday night Gin and I stopped by Lowes for a box of siding so I could make some repairs to the areas where doors and windows were replaced. We ended the short trip with a few cold ones. That's right, we chugged a large bottle of YooHoo chocolate drink each and it was worth it.

Saturday I started out with the intention of making some siding repairs. First I cut some trim boards to go around the doors and windows. While Gin was staining them, I started pulling down the aluminum cladding and soffit boards on the front of the house. Most of the boards under the aluminum were rotten. They were an add on with the siding and are not part of the original construction. Once they were removed, the true archetecture of the house is exposed. I like the look of the roof rafters showing under the eve extentions. Unfortunitly for the wasps, their homes were exposed and a lot of them didn't enjoy the change.

Just before noon, an unexpected rain stopped all exterior work for the day. This left me no other option than to take a little well desrved nap. Stetson made sure I didn't sleep too long as he sounded the alarm to wake up after 20 minutes.

Sunday I started to work on the shed dormer at the front of the house. I managed to install the trim boards and was nailing the corner moldings when all of a sudden I was being attacked by some pretty angry (PO'd) wasps. I know I must have looked like I lost my mind as I swatted them away, threw my hammer off the roof (obviously to keep from hitting myself or breaking a window), scrambled to the ladder and maybe touched two rungs on the way down. I was stung once on my left arm and once on my right shoulder. Gin was sitting on the porch and heard the "S" word and a lot of scuffling and thumping above her head. I think she was waiting to see me hit the ground without the use of the ladder. Where is a video camera when you need one?

The picture above is of the nest I disturbed. They are living at the moment, I will take a contract out on their heads tonight. They will be taking a toxic shower later this evening.

Time to re-group and concentrate my efforts to the back of the house. Unfortunately, the wasps have friends back there plus a mafia. From places unknown, they kept coming out from little cracks in the siding near the bricks. The mofia I reffers to is the "Yellow Jackets" that decided to hang around my work area. That was it, I was done with that job until control and order is in place with the stingers.

Time to change speeds. I picked up all my tools and put away the siding materials. Cleaned myself up and fixed a nice grilled chicken salad and relaxed. Gin worked at Nachos all day, so I was in charge of the evening dinner. Patrick and Jessica came over for a turkey dinner. I must say the cornbread I made was the worst I had ever had. Gin's blueberry cobbler made up for the breaded misfortune.

After dinner, Gin and Jessica looked up recipes on the net. Patrick wanted me to play tennis across the street at the school courts. I managed to teach him three lessons. 1st I taught him how to hold the racket. Then the next two lessons were teaching him that Dad can beat him in a few games. He did pretty good for someone with no formal training. Thanks to Mom and her encouraging me to learn the game, I found out that I still have some of the skills I learned over 30 years ago. Good for me, bad for Patrick.

P@

Entry for July 17, 2006

Tuesday Gin and I enjoyed a trip through Western North Carolina for our 25th anniversary. I know it doesn't sound like a very exiting way to celebrate, but this is how we enjoy our time together. We headed out early Tuesday morning making short stops at several locations. The picture is from Dry Falls located between Highlands and Franklin. It was cool being able to walk behind the falls. Some of the towns we visited were Highlands, Dillsboro, Sylva, Waynesville and Brevard. We ate home made salads in Dillsboro and sandwiches in Brevard. The town visits involved walking the historical downtown streets and browsing the shops.

Wednesday we did some antique shop browsing from Tryon to Rutherfordton. In the afternoon we had to take Hoagie, our orange and white striped cat to the vet. Hoagie had an infected gum at the left fang. Unfortunately for him and our bank account,the fang had to be removed to the tune of $400. There goes the trip to Myrtle Beach. Hoagie actually had the surgery on Friday which included x-rays and teeth cleaning. We now have two cats with Bubba teeth. Ironically, Shelby had lost a tooth fighting with Hoagie last year. They are now bookends with opposite fangs missing.

Friday night Caris and Thomas arrived for the weekend. Saturday we set out early to take them to Dupont forest and a short hike to Triple Falls, High Falls and Hooker Falls. Hooker falls was featured in the movie "Last of the Mohicans" for the scene with a canoe going over a water fall. We had lunch at Hannah Flannagan's in Hendersonville. After lunch we drove over to Black mountain and browsed their downtown shops. I picked up a basket made from a red maple tree. The outside was left natural without the bark and the inside is carved out for the bowl and a handle. I might try my hand at making one sometime in the future. Caris picked up some accesories for her house.

Sunday was a day of rest for Gin and I. Caris and Thomas drove back to Albemarle.

P@

Entry for July 11, 2006

25 years ago today Gin and I were married in a little ceramony in Norfolk. I know there were some sceptics in attendance and maybe their thoughts were for what they thought was best. I have to believe now that we were right in our decision to stay together and become our own family.

If.... If could have changed a lot of things in the past 25 years. The word is powerful yet week. It has no truth in it's surrounding words until if becomes fact.

Is hind sight better than foresight? Anyone can say you should have done something different after what's done is done. I sit here this morning and believe that the foresight Gin and I had 25 years ago was right all along.

We will be the first to tell you, we made some mistakes both big and small. I know two things that happened in our marriage that are our greatest acheivements. Having raised Patrick and Caris and seeing them go through the cycle of life with their partners is the ultimate reward. We may never be financially rich, but we have the riches of family that fills us with joy.

I am happy to be married to Gin today as I was 25 years ago. Sharing our lives with each other and finding common interrests with each other makes the journey fun. We currently enjoy the same music, eating healthy, hiking and home renovation, design and decoration. These things we do with each other makes this marriage enjoyable.

Happy 25th anniversary Gin,
I love you,

Pat

Entry for July 09, 2006

Last week was nice. I worked Monday, then enjoyed the 4th at home, then 3 days of work. The big downside was the home office sent our paychecks to the wrong place. They found the checks Friday afternoon and we should get them Monday morning. It still sucks that they don't offer direct deposit to field offices. This is a sore subject with me and has been for a long time.

Enough about work.

Gin has had this idea to paint the fridge black ever since we replaced the range a few yars ago. Saturday she got her wish. Since there was no paycheck, hence no shopping for the week's groceries (see explanation above), we decided to paint it. Gin moved all the necessary items to the mud room fridge, tossed the unused and unwanted, and I moved the monster to the porch. Yes, we did look like a regular redneck family with the fridge on the porch. The doors were removed and stripped down to the bare metal. Gin cleaned everything and prepared for painting. I went to work making the wall cabinets at the sink.

Saturday ended with the base skelleton of the cabinets complete and mounted plus a black fridge on the porch.

Gin also had this great idea about making copper pipe handles for the fridge. We had made some trips to the home center several times prior to this weekend to aquire the appropriate pipes and fittings. I used a solderless glue to assemble the fittings and Gin treated all the parts to a thorough cleaning and special baked on clear coat.

Sunday we assembled the fridge with the new door handles. It looks like a brand new appliance (see picture above). The handles work great and the fresh paint works wonders for the room.

P@

Entry for July 02, 2006

Last week was pretty uneventfull exept for the heavy rain we received Monday and Tuesday. The work week was busy and actually went buy pretty quick. I managed to exercise 5 of the 7 days, which is a first in a while. I really slacked off since December and it shows. I am not anywhere near what I was this time last year but I know I need to improve. Looking back on last summer I spent a lot of time, during each day, outside in the heat supervising a project. This year I am in the office sitting on my butt.

Saturday, Gin and I spent the day in Albermarle with Caris and Thomas' family. We walked the downtown area shops to get a feel for what may be interresting to visiting family the weekend of their wedding. Not much was open, but we did not see everything. We will make a list after some future trips there. Like most small towns, Albermarle has an old town district and a commercial district on a busy highway. There are several national chain hotels in the commercial district which will help when we all get together next year.

We ate lunch at a BBQ resturaunt, which was a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10. After lunch we stopped at the church to see the inside and reception hall. They are leaning toward having Thomas' relatives handle the post wedding affair which is something they have done for several of his cousin's weddings. The church was built in 1908 and has a nice layout other than no center isle. Caris most likely will dress in one of the classrooms and walk around the side of the church before entering. The church has a video system that can record the event and also a closed circuit TV system that can show videos and pictures. Thomas has a cousin that most likely will put together a slide show of Caris and Thomas through the years.

After the church visit, the men split off from the women and visited different places. We went to one of the parks and drove to the top of a small mountain that overlooks some of the lakes. After riding through the park, we met back up with the ladies at an antique store, where Gin managed to get a copper serving tray with a set of copper cups.

Dinner was at a resturaunt with the theme of a B-52 bomber that, legends tell, flew over the pilot's parent's house to tip his wing before flying overseas to war. After the wing wave the plane went down in the lake. There were no witnesses of the crash and no sign of the plane. In recent years the Navy has found the plane is working on a plan to pull it from the water. By the way, we ate a wonderful dinner.

Today I got up around 7 and exercised for an hour to get rid of the cake I ate last night. After Gin was up and about, we went to the store for the week's grocery items. I took care of the grass after lunch. Later on, Gin and I watched a very slow slide show of Patrick and Jessica pictures via the DVD player. I made an egg skillet dinner with turkey bacon, veggie sausage and cheese. I know it doesn't sound like it would be tasty, but it was pretty good.

I'll work Monday and have the 4th off. I think Patrick and Jessica are coming by Tuesday for some grillin' and chillin'.

P@