End of Vacation

We took a trip to Atlanta on Monday. We headed down there to visit the Georgia Aquarium.
Getting there was no problem. It is only a few blocks from the interstate.

I don't have a lot of interesting things to tell you about the aquarium. It is a good place to visit if you are in that area. They have some great exhibits. I touched a shark, stingray, and sea urchin. Whale Sharks are HUGE. Lunch was expensive.

Let's take a minute to discuss lunch. Eat a large meal before or after the aquarium. Learn from my mistake and do NOT plan on eating a large meal there. Feeding two adults and two children a meal slightly better than McDonalds should not cost $50. It shouldn't, but it does at the Georgia Aquarium.

That's the only negative thing I have to say about the entire trip. It's a great place. When you go, when you get to the penguin exhibit, take a look for Cari and Meredith. They are on display somewhere in the middle.

Nonogram

A few of you asked what Picross is from my previous post.

Picross is a nonogram. A type of logic puzzle.

Here is a Wiki link that describes it and has pictures of it.
Using number clues, you fill in boxes to create a picture.

I came to know of it through Nintendo. They publish several picross games. Most of those were only released in Japan. Recently they released a new one for the DS. If you liked Suduko then, you will probably like a game like this as well.

Here's a link to a website that lets you play online for free. They get tough quick, so start with #1 if you try it.

Saturday

Lazy day.

What did you do today? Here's my day.

woke up late.
Played Picross.
Went swimming.
Built lego's.
played Picross.
watched tv.

What a rough day I've had.

You think I'm crazy?

Cari got home Thursday night at midnight. She was at an annual consignment sale. This sale is huge. This year it is being held at an old, empty, grocery store. The sale filled the building. Thursday night they allow the volunteers to have first go at the stuff. Cari went with our neighbor, who had been a volunteer.

She came back with a ton of stuff. . . at midnight. They had left around 6:30. Most nights, Cari can't keep her eyes open past ten. The power of shopping kept her going, I suppose. I told Cari I thought she was crazy shopping so late like that.

We got to bed around 12:30am. I was very tired. Within five minutes, Cari said, "Please take your shoes off."

Yeah. I was in bed, under the covers, dressed with shoes on. A little crazy maybe. The crazy part was I was so tired I didn't realize my shoes were still on.

I promptly took them off and fell asleep. Cari let me know that I can't say anything about her shopping late after that.

Growing a baby

May 13

Aug 6
Changes to the hormone levels not pictured but should be assumed.

Still Pregnant: UPDATED!

reposted. let me know if it still is broke. Thanks.

Protecting Your Investment

Cari told me to go get a vasectomy. I thought about it for about half a second before answering. Now that we will have three children, we decided we've had enough. After she asked me to go get fixed, I started thinking about having four children. If it means getting cut, maybe I can handle more kids.

"No.", I answered.

Most of my answer was related to the fear of being cut. I don't need to go to the doctor and have them messing with me. Especially there.

As our discussion continued, and she tried to pressure me into agreeing, she presented another reason for me to have it done. This is her logic.
"You don't want to do it, because you want a younger wife!"

WHAT?
She explained that in the future, I'll leave her as I search for a younger wife. If I was fixed, I would be less attractive to a young woman wanting kids.

I had never heard this before. Cari obviously heard of it and was certain that this was an argument for having it done. She cited two recent examples as evidence in her case to send me to the doctor.

She said she was at the neighbors house yesterday with three other women talking, and one of the women told this story about her friend.

The friend started dating a guy, and they were really getting close. A serious relationship had been formed. That's when she found out he was fixed. She stopped talking to him. He is useless to her future, so she left him.

Evidence number two:

Cari took the kids to the dentist. The young girl that cleans the teeth prior to the dentist coming in said that she had a new baby sister. This girl is in her late twenties. How did she get a new sister? You guessed it, her dad remarried a younger girl and they had a baby. Good thing he never got fixed or he wouldn't have gotten that younger girl.

Let's be clear. I have NO intention of finding another wife at ANY time, younger or older. This has no bearing on my decision to not have a vasectomy. My decision is based on a doctor taking a scalpel at my privates!

I'm just protecting my investment. Cari says she is as well.

I picked the winner!

Me and roughly 3,500 of my neighbors got together on Saturday night. That may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that the population of the city is approx 3,100.

We all met downtown for the final night of Liberty Idol. The final five contestants would sing, the five or six judges would give their opinion, and the crowd would fill out their ballots to be counted.



As the final five were introduced, I noticed that they were dressed to impress. The cheering crowd really identified their favorites to win. Henry had a huge crowd of family and friends up front. But he wouldn't win this year.The city put on a good show, with guest singers between contestants. After volunteers collected the ballots, a band down from Asheville entertained the crowd. They did a great job and were fun to listen to. The show was several hours long in total. Of course, Randy started getting a bit bored toward the end. He stated, "There is nothing to do but watch this grasshopper."
There was an injured grasshopper hiding under the chair in front him. Meredith was having more fun than watching a grasshopper, as she was dancing and sucking down some cotton candy.
The ballots were counted, the mayor got up and said some things, including an announcement that there will be another Liberty Idol next summer, and then the winner was announced.

The winner of Liberty Idol 2007 (the second year of the event) is

ADAM! The best thing about it is that I picked Adam on my ballot. I PICKED A WINNER!

Cari wants me to point out that we were all asked to select three out of the five on our ballots. This gave the contest a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize. She doesn't feel like it was such a feat to choose the winner when I had a 3 out of 5 shot to get it. I still argue that Adam was my favorite of the night.

He won a check for $2,500 and his winning statement, "Let's go spend some money!"
Yeah, boy! That's my kind of winner.

Saturday Night on the Town

I actually have several things to write about but I haven't had much time to sit down and get my words organized.

I worked all day today and was thinking that tonight may offer an opportunity to share some things with you.

That was until I realized tonight is the FINAL night of LIBERTY IDOL!
A winner will be decided by counting the votes of those in attendance.

We are headed downtown tonight to check out the event ourselves. Maybe I'll write something tomorrow. Or maybe Monday. Perhaps I'll get something written just after killing the bees.

OH MAN! The bees!

Our Day

Cari went shopping today, so the kids and I spent the day together.

At the park, the sprinklers were on. The water was calling to us.
Check out the boy running in the water behind her.

This last picture is really proof of how good our day was. I dare you to try and get a picture of my kids hugging any other day.
I should point out that the bees are still happily living at the bottom of my driveway tonight. A fact that Cari is less than thrilled about.

BEES! SAVE YOURSELF!

It's been a busy week and I haven't had time to post.

I did manage to get my grass cut and see the Simpsons movie a second time. When is the last time I saw a movie twice at the theater? Um. . . never. Cari and Meredith haven't seen the movie yet, so last night we all four went and saw it.

Cari has been complaining that we have some bees at the end of the driveway. She said they have a nest in the ground. She said they don't seem to bother anyone, but if the kids were playing around the area they may get stung. I was at work when she was telling me about this. She said she sprayed a can of hornet/wasp spray on them, but it didn't seem effective. A WHOLE CAN. I was told to buy more spray before coming home from work. I complained about wasting $3.00 on a can of spray and declared I would take care of the bees. This coming from a guy who spent $60 on the Simpsons movie this week. I came home without any additional spray.

My solution to the bees? Tell the kids to stay away from them. They don't seem to be yellow jackets, just some type of bee. I'm not sure, because I haven't actually gone near the nest area to investigate. Cari didn't seem to thrilled with my solution. In fact, she let me know that my solution wasn't acceptable.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take care of it. Maybe.

Simpsons Movie

BEST
MOVIE
EVER

Haircut

Getting a haircut shouldn't be such an ordeal. For most people it isn't. I guess I'm not most people.

First of all, I don't like getting my hair cut. I don't like to take time out of my day to do it. The other thing is that I don't like telling the barber how to cut my hair. I don't know how I want it. I guess I want it the same. Can I tell them that? "Same, but shorter." That is normally my answer.

When we moved to South Carolina, I found a barber and I have never seen anyone else since then. For three years, Mark has cut my hair. Even when he moved his shop to another town fifteen minutes away, I continued to see him.

About a month ago I drove out there to get my haircut. I got there at 5:45 and he was closed. The handwritten sign on the door said he was open until six. I guess it was slow and he went home. I was agitated for losing thirty minutes of my evening. A few days later, I had another chance to get my hair cut while off from work. I got out there a bit after lunch time. A sign on the door apologized for being closed due to illness.

Doubly agitated, I drove home. Not his fault he was sick, but what a waste of my time.
The next day I got my hair cut. It took three trips out there for one hair cut.

That was a month ago. Last week I went for a haircut after work. I work thirty minutes South of my home and the barber is fifteen minutes North. Left work, drove past my home and to the barber shop. You already know where this is going, don't you?

It was roughly 5:40pm. Closed. The sign still reads that he will be open until six.
I sat in the parking lot and called Cari. She suggested I go to one of the other barber shops downtown. "But I will have to explain to him how I want my haircut.", I told her. I do not like to break my routines.

So frustrated, I decided I would go visit the barber shop downtown. The one with the red and white barber pole out front. I walked in and looked around. This was an old building with creaking wood floors. The room had a lot of character. There were three barber chairs. One chair was occupied with a customer the barber was working on. There was one young man sitting in a chair along the wall. The rest of the chairs were empty.

The barber said hello to me as I took a seat to wait. An old television sat unused in the corner. There were old, sheet metal posters for hair products hanging on the wall. A heater sat on the old wooden floor. There was a hat rack in the center of the floor holding about ten hats. The guy waiting mentioned to the barber that he was wanting a particular hat off the rack. The barber told him he could have it. I listened to the barber talk with the customer about their families. They knew each other.

The barber was a woman. Besides Cari, I can't remember the last time a woman cut my hair. It's not really a problem. It's just an image I have in my head. You go to a barber shop where an old man cuts your hair. Not a middle aged woman. Being in this old railroad town, in an old shop, only exaggerated that image in my head. This woman was out of place.

The customer that sat a couple chairs from me was next. I listened to them chat as he got his cut. Like the previous customer, they also knew each other.

My turn.

"How do you want it?", she asked nicely.
Dang! I knew this was coming. I gave her the standard answer. "Same but shorter."
"Scissor cut or shaved on the side?", she asked.
This woman just needs to cut my hair I thought. Where is Mark? With Mark, I sit down and he cuts. We talk about what's going on around town. He knows what to do. I thought about telling the woman to call him. Instead I answered, "shaved on the sides."
She continued with her inquiry. "How short?", "What size guard to use on the shaver?", and when I told her I didn't know what size guard, she offered several options. "2? 4?"

I was going to start crying. Just cut my hair!

I told her again, "Same but shorter. Not so short it sticks up." She put together her shaver and took a couple of swipes against the side of my head. Then she stopped and held up a mirror. "A little shorter.", I told her. She made her adjustment then did the same. "I think that's good.", I told her. She agreed and said that would be the best length to blend it with the top.

When she told me that, I thought that if she knew that much, why did she make such a fuss at the beginning?

I finished getting my haircut, paid her and gave her a few dollar tip. It really did look good. She invited me back. I drove home thinking I would never return to Mark's shop. He wasted a lot of my time the past few trips. Now that this woman knows how to cut my hair, maybe I'll always visit her. Even if it is a woman.

We'll find out in a month.

What he did yesterday.

Randy had a friend over yesterday and they played outside for a while. I was at work, so when I got home, I asked Randy how his day was. "What did you do today?", I asked.

He answered that he and his friend planted a tree. He must have really liked my surprised expression, because he had a big smile. I asked where he planted the tree and he told me it was in our back yard.
I walked out there to find out what was planted and where it was planted.

As I got out there I realized I wouldn't have to ask him where it was planted. What I found was a lawnmower killer. Maybe some sort of strange sacrificial temple.

He was proud of his work, proven by his expression as I examined his work in the CENTER of our back yard. "It's a fence.", he said, smiling.

Good work, I thought. He was protecting his sapling. They had planted an acorn from the nearby oak tree.

After I took a few shots of it, I went inside. I left the fence and the acorn in place for now.

This was better than the two boys' project a few months ago. "Digging a hole to China". The hole started in our yard.

Maybe I should just put the shovels away.

Meeting

Just met with another bride, groom, and bride's mom to talk about doing photos at their wedding.

I had written on my board behind the desk the date and time of tonights meeting. I also wrote as a reminder to myself :

"Be professional and stuff."

I almost forgot to erase it. About fifteen minutes before they came over, I looked back at the board and saw it.

I showed them some of the photos from the first wedding I did and we talked a little about their plans.

Then they told me they want me to do their wedding!!!!!