Sore What?

We went over to the Anderson Soiree this weekend. Essentially it is their "spring festival" but I suppose it is more interesting to call it a soiree.

It's funny to me that Soiree generally means "evening party" and on Saturday the event started up at 11am.
It wasn't very difficult to find a parking spot and begin our walk along Main St. There were tons of people in the street and three stages set up along the route. One end featured food vendors selling hot dogs for $4 each and the other end was carnival rides for the price of a hot dog. I quickly became more interested in the architecture and history of the downtown buildings.

With all the exploring that Cari and I have done over the past two years, I'm not sure why we continued to skip over a city so close to home. We decided we would find a day to come explore in the next few weeks.

A bit of history for you about Anderson is that the city, and the county, are named for Revolutionary war hero Robert Anderson. The city was founded in 1826 in an area of land that the Cherokee surrendered during a treaty from the late 1700's. Also the city of Anderson was the first in the South to have an unlimited supply of electricity.

As we walked along the festival we did a great job of avoiding the expensive rides and our kids' pleas for food. Near the end, we found a great little place on the side where they had childrens games for free. We spent some time letting the older two play while Cari and I took turns trying to keep the baby out of the sun.

On our walk back toward the car, Cari finaly gave in and decided that we couldn't leave the festival before having some funnel cake.

You wouldn't believe how fast the five of us can empty a plate of funnel cake!

We had a great time at the Soiree, but I still say it should be called "Spring Festival".

Me

Sponsor ME!

We took Brenna to the doctor for her 18 month checkup on Monday.  It was unusual for me to be home for work for the appointment, so I went along to see how the baby is doing.  

I generally don't trust doctors.  I think that a lot of people just blindly trust their doctor.  The problem is that the doctors rely on your business for their income.  If fewer people go to the doctor, then the doctor must make up those lost sales from those that do come in.  There are many abuses to our current medical system and doctors play a role in those faults.  

We walked into the small room where the nurse measured and weighed our baby.  It was like most doctor's rooms that I have seen before.  There were posters on the wall explaining various ailments and brochures available for various prescriptions on the counter.  Nearly everything in the office was badged with a drug manufacturer label.  The entire room reminded me of being at a Nascar race.  The pad of paper the nurse took notes on, the pen in her hand, the tongue depressors, everything was labeled with a sponsor.  If you have ever watched a Nascar event you will know what I'm talking about.  There is a sponsor for EVERYTHING.

Don't believe that the office only took that stuff for the free goodies.  These items influence your doctor.  The rep that brought them into the office influenced your doctor.  When you start to have symptoms and need a prescription, the best rep will win, not the best drug.

Imagine that I sell appliances and I have a rep from Whirlpool and a rep from GE calling on me.  The rep from Whirlpool is a nice young lady that brings me free pens every visit.  She answers my questions and is friendly to talk to.  The GE guy shows up once in a while to see if I have any questions but isn't overly friendly about it.   Later in the day, a customer comes up and asks for my recommendation.  Guess which unit I'm going to show.  

You don't believe your doctor would behave in the same way?  

I'm trying to find a way that I can get various companies to sponsor me and my house.  Maybe if I agree to have a party once a month so that all of my friends will be subject to the sponsorships I'll get someone to buy into it. 

Our kids have a lot of friends over frequently, perhaps toy manufacturers would be interested in signing a deal with my house.   "Hey kids! This snack break has been brought to you by Nabisco!"

After our doctor visit, we stood at the counter to check out.  I looked up at the clock to see how long we had been there only to find yet another sponsor on the face of the clock.  The clock in my house should be sponsored by Google.

Project Problems

Project number one was to install a new kitchen faucet.  Just a few nuts hold the old one on and two hoses.  Total job might take twenty minutes, but thirty minutes after starting I was still laying on my back under the sink.  I was trying to loosen the nut without the proper tool.  My hand was jammed between the sink and the the wall trying to twist the nut off of the pipe.  I had my headlight flashlight on and a vice grip in my hand.  The side of the sink continued to scratch my hand because of the sound-deadening insulation sprayed on it.  Once I got everything loosened up, I disconnected the water lines.  Unfortunately, I was still laying under the sink and the water landed on my face.   Cari came home from the store and asked why I wasn't done yet.  That wasn't a question I wanted to hear.

Project number two was to do maintenance on the lawn mower.   I changed the blade with no problem.  It seemed too easy.  I then decided to change the oil for the first time in five years.  I couldn't remove the plug in the bottom of the deck because I didn't have the proper tool, so I decided to turn it over and drain it from the fill tube.   I held the mower upside down while I had Meredith hold an old Gatorade bottle under it.  The oil was spilling and dripping in all areas around the bottle, and on the bottle.   Maybe next time we'll get more of it IN the bottle. 

Speaking of the lawn mower, the grass needs cut.  All the neighbors have cut their grass this weekend so now my yard looks even TALLER.  What could possibly go wrong?

Ugh. 

Cry Baby!

There are days she doesn't want to leave her mom's side. 

False Alarm!

Roughly half of my work days I have to be there at six am.  That means getting up at 4:45am would give me plenty of time to get ready, have some breakfast, and leave the house no later than 5:30am.  It would be the perfect start to a day.  

Too bad it never happens that way.   For example, I got out of bed at 5:15am today.  After I had showered, shaved, got dressed, made breakfast (to eat in the car), I was still only five minutes late.  I'm not always late, but I am always pressed for time.   

Over the past few years I have tried various methods to get myself up earlier with little success.  I have placed my alarm clock away from the bed so that it now takes two giant steps to reach the clock, hit snooze, and take two giant steps back to bed.  

My alarm clock is always set to be about seven minutes fast.  The hopes with that was that I would see 5:10am, freak out, and jump out of bed.  The reality is that as I take my two giant steps back to bed every ten minutes, I am also doing some basic math to figure out what time it is.  I still have no problem going back to sleep. 

I used to use a wind up mechanical alarm with the little hammer that bangs into the bells on top.  There was no snooze on that thing.  Once the hammer stopped, it was over.  Get up or sleep until the sun comes up.  I no longer use that clock.  

I used to set my alarm much earlier.  I figured, if I'm going to hit snooze three to five times a day, I'll just start earlier.  The result was hitting snooze five to eight times and it interrupted about thirty minutes more of my sleep.  I now set the alarm closer to the time I need to get up.  Cari likes this way better.

I'm also obsessed with the thought that I will forget to set my alarm.  I set it before I go to bed, check the time one more time, and then get into bed.  After about five minutes of getting comfortable, I lay down and start to doubt if the alarm was really turned on.  Every night, I set my alarm twice. 

These have been my habits for several years now.  I have realized that I can not force or trick my body into getting out of bed at the ideal time.  I will always wait until the very last second possible. 

The result has been the development of the most efficient morning routine in history.   

Easter Eggs

We had fun painting up our Easter eggs last week.  I heard Cari telling a friend yesterday that it isn't just a matter of dunking eggs in dye anymore.  Now you have to paint patterns and faces with markers, crayons, or stickers before you are done.  

It's true.  After a few solid colored eggs, Randy picked up some markers and started a master piece.  I noticed he was making a face and asked what he was drawing.   He replied, "an angry Mexican".    When I asked why he was angry, he told me he wasn't sure and then decided to make him with a smile.   

It seems that it is only the curly mustache that makes an egg face, a Mexican, so I tried one as well.  Meanwhile, Meredith and Cari were making much more peaceful and beautiful creations with their eggs.  I'll give you one guess which one in the photo above is Cari's egg.

On Easter, I dragged Randy out of bed at six to go to sunrise service downtown with me.  I was the only one there without a coat on and after fifteen minutes I regretted thinking, "40 isn't that cold".    After a great service, we headed home for breakfast and picked up the rest of the family for church services at our church.  

After church we did an egg hunt and took some nice family photos on the front porch.  
We ended the day with neighbors and friends joining us for dinner at our house.  The weather was great, the company was great, and the food was excellent!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Happy Easter!

We Found Food!

After returning from the swamps of Congaree, we repacked the car and headed North for a few days.

Our first stop was in Asheville, NC at the Western North Carolina Nature Center. They have a collection of plants and animals that can be found in the Carolina mountains. The park was a great place to walk around and learn about the animals around us. One of our favorites was the black bears. There were two bears playing below the elevated path. We saw one of them run over to a tree and climb it in about three seconds.Cari looked at me with amazement and asked me to remind her not to climb a tree if we are ever chased by a bear.

The last animal I saw at the park was a squirrel. He sat on a branch just above my head chewing on a nut. He was so used to humans that he allowed me to stand very close and capture some pictures of him.

After the park we drove through downtown and headed West toward Franklin, NC. In Franklin, I stopped at the visitor center and picked up an armful of brochures. We found a hotel and unloaded the car. It was still early and we started talking about dinner.

Eating out on our trips has not usually turned out well. Cari and I try to find non-chain restaurants so that we can eat at a local place. Most times our luck is not good. We have a good ability to find places that are over priced with horrible service and food below McDonald's quality.

We decided to try Willy's BBQ in Franklin. We walked into a pleasant looking restaurant as an older lady greeted us at the door and cheerfully seated us. Wood panelling covered with family nick knacks was on each wall and a large television in the corner had the news on. It felt like you had entered this woman's house. There was an older man wearing work clothes at a table near us. He was alone, watching the news while he ate, and I kinda felt sorry that we had just seated "Screechy" near him. Our waitress came up and chatted with our kids for a while as she took our order.

The food was great and the service continued to be awesome through the entire visit. Screechy behaved very well for the most part and even smiled and waved to the working man - who waved back with a friendly smile.

We actually picked a great local place to eat out!!! Awesome! Cari and I were excited that it went so well.

The next morning, we got up and got going to check out some waterfalls. This was the part of the vacation the kids didn't want but I was going to force upon them. We checked out a couple of falls that were road-side on our way to Highlands, NC. In Highlands, we took a dirt road for a mile to the trail head for Glenn Falls. It is listed as "very strenuous", but I wasn't afraid. I put Screechy in the backpack carrier and strapped her to my back. The trail was no more than a mile in one direction but was all downhill (until the way back). There are three tiers to the falls, but we stopped after the second tier.

Meredith had fallen once and if I had pushed her for much more hiking, it wouldn't have been fun for anyone. We turned back and headed into Highlands were we searched for lunch. We chose the local pizza place that was starting to get crowded. Guess what? We found a second GREAT restaurant in a row!

After lunch we headed home through Rosman, NC. That's where we saw some fat kids get off the school bus we were trailing. No kidding, this bus stopped at three houses in a row to let one kid off at each house. Couldn't the two on the end houses have walked to their neighbors house?

On top of all that, I made the trip over the mountain back into South Carolina without making anyone in my family car sick!

Spring Break was great!

Tall Tall Trees

The kids were really excited to begin spring break. That was until they learned that I had taken vacation for the week of their spring break. They knew instantly that we would be doing something, somewhere that would include some form of hiking.

On Monday we headed out to Congaree National Park. The park is located just South of Columbia, SC. This is a park that I initially learned about from reading Tom's blog. He has taken several boat trips through the park. For our trip, we were mostly interested in checking out the visitor center to learn about the area and then heading out to the 2.4 mile boardwalk trail. Yeah, hiking... in the swamp!

Roughly half of the boardwalk trail is low elevation, along the floor of the swamp. During periods of flooding, this portion of the trail will become submerged. It wasn't submerged while we were there, but in some areas the water was oozing between boards as we walked along. The forest was dense and the trees were huge. Bald Cypress trees lined the path with their "knees" poking up all around. Not only were these some of the tallest trees I have walked among, the diameter was impressive as well. Most of the trees, of all species, had a wide bottom and narrowed as it rose into the air. I read that this is found in wet, swampy areas where the tree needs a wider base to support itself in wet soil.

The other half of the boardwalk trail is elevated about five to six feet above the forest floor. This portion of the park is out of the swamp and will lead you to believe you have entered an entirely different park. There are very few Cypress trees in this area. Instead there are many varieties of hard woods and pine trees. Just as we were entering the elevated section, we encountered the largest Pine I have ever seen.

This tree is more than 200 years old. Some of the pines in this forest are the tallest known living trees!

The rest of the elevated section also provided homes to many birds. We had the pleasure of listening to some unique bird songs as we hiked along. Even the children weren't complaining through this. They were pointing out all the different bugs and unique trees that they could find.

Congaree is an awesome national park that almost wasn't. In the 1970's, loggers were clear cutting portions of the land when concerned citizens started fighting to get the forest protected. I am so grateful they did.

This was a great start to our spring break. More hiking and adventure to come!

Screechy!

Randy was a great baby.  He was quiet and happy almost always.  

When Meredith came along we learned that not all babies are quiet and happy.  Although, she was great when happy, she was incredibly loud when she became unhappy.  She was determined that the entire block would hear her complaint.  She was also very difficult at times and you would be unable to calm her.  Cari declared that no baby could be louder than Meredith.  (You see where this is going, don't you?)

Brenna is a generally a happy baby.  She has a cute laugh and now she is starting to babble on and on.  She has also mastered an incredible screech that will make a dogs ears perk up.  The sound is such a pitch and volume that if you are submitted to it more than once in a five minute interval you will have a headache.  The thing about it is that this isn't done out of anger or during a crying fit.  This is her mode of communication.  If she wants out of the high chair, she starts letting out these screeches until you get her down.  When she's thirsty, screeches.  Wants you to pick her up, screeches.  When she wants to get into the bathroom as you close the door, screeches.  

As your ears start to bleed, she smiles at you between screeches.  I have started calling her, in a loving way, "Screechy".  

April Pranks....reduced

I made a huge mistake this year on April first.  It was a week earlier when I had realized that I scheduled a meeting to be held on the first.  I made a comment about planning a prank on my team without paying attention to who was in the room.  

A few days later, with my plans starting to develop very nicely, people started approaching me and asking if I had something great planned.  It also came out that all the information was leaked by the same person.  Someone that was quietly sitting in the room that day I mentioned my prank.  After the third person approached me about a prank, I knew I had to cancel it.  A prank would not be funny if everyone was expecting it.  On Monday I decided it would be funnier to NOT pull a prank when they would all be expecting it. 

On Wednesday, April 1, I arrived at work about ten minutes early.  That alone is a great prank!

I removed the three office chairs from my office and replaced them with metal folding chairs.  

When one of my managers arrived and headed back to the office, I knew she would call within two minutes.   When my phone rang, I just started laughing.  She demanded her chair back and threatened to go home sick if I didn't comply within ten minutes.  

It took me forty five minutes to get her chair back and thankfully, she was still at work.  While I was back there I snuck into my boss' office.  I removed one wheel from his chair and stuck it in his desk drawer.  

When the boss arrived, he heard about the metal chair incident and said that it didn't seem like I did anything to him.  He was relieved.  After lunch, I got a phone call from my boss.   

He said that before he sat down, he reached over to get something out of the desk and saw the wheel.  He placed the wheel on the desk but didn't catch on that it was from his chair.  He sat down and started working.  The chair has five wheels, so it didn't tip immediately.  When his phone rang, he leaned to the left to answer it, the chair attempted to dump him onto the ground!  It was then, that he called me. 

My meeting that afternoon went along like a normal meeting with no prank.  I was a bit disappointed and I learned that when planning a prank, to do it in silence.  Sometimes a good prank will require collaboration with others and this year I learned of one person that can't be trusted.  He doesn't know it yet, but he just became the target for April 1st next year.  

Planning starts today. 

Camping in Vogel

Our camp out at Vogel with Rake and Candystick was a great time. Yes, it was cold and wet, but we had fun. Rake has already written a blog about the trip, so I will try not to duplicate too much of what he said.

Meredith and I left early in the morning on Saturday to head over to the Georgia mountains. It was a beautiful drive through some small towns. The GPS was desperately trying to get me to take the interstate, but I continued to defy the machine and force it to go MY way!

We arrived at camp, and after being guided to the site by Rake, we all met at the rain protected picnic table.

After our trip to the "town with no Walmart" we headed back to camp and started a fire. Meredith lounged in the chair and took off her wet shoes and socks. Rake saw a job that needed to be done and got right to work tying a clothes line over the fire. This was a great idea but we had no idea that it was going to rain again in just a few hours and re-soak the socks.

After getting sugared up on marshmallows, we went for a walk around the lake. Along the way, I noticed a large wasp nest hanging over the lake. When I pointed it out to Rake, he smiled and picked up a few rocks. I just kept walking away. He made a couple of direct hits but the rocks were too small to knock the nest down. I don't believe anything came flying out of the nest because Rake didn't come running past me screaming like a girl. Speaking of girls, our daughters had a great time back at camp singing Hannah Montana. I hadn't heard most of the songs previously, but apparently Rake has, because he was singing and dancing along with most of his "favorites". No video or photographic evidence was allowed during his song and dance, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Sunday morning was COLD. Rake said it was in the 30's and I believe it. I was awake every other hour during the night listening to the pouring rain. At 6:30, I had to get up. The rain had stopped and Meredith followed me out of the tent and I started working on a fire.

I only had a roll of paper towels, a box of matches, and a bag of dry firewood. I got something going a few times, but couldn't get the large chunks of wood to get hot enough. While I worked on burning up the last of the paper towels, Meredith sat in the chair shivering. After a few moments, one of the neighboring campers came over and offered help. She was carrying kindling (which I didn't have) and a propane blowtorch! After a few minutes under the torch, all the wood was burning and warming us up. Thanks neighbor!

Forgetting kindling was typical of my packing for this trip. I brought a gas table top stove with no gas. I brought bacon, with no pan, and now I brought matches with no fire wood.

After our breakfast and clean up, Rake and I gave in to the girls' desire to do some gem mining. On the way I begged the group to take a short hike in the cold to see lower Desoto falls. I was happy that everyone agreed to take the short hike and see some great falls.

Both of the girls had fun gem mining and then we headed to our separate homes.

For a weekend that was full of cold and rain we had an outstanding time. At one point earlier in the week, Cari asked if I was going to be camping in the rain. I even doubted for a moment if I would go. Then Rake emailed me on Wednesday night and told me he would be going up a day early. Well, if he can do two nights in the rain, I can certainly do one. I sure am glad I did and Meredith was thrilled to be there as well. Thanks Rake and Candystick for a great camping trip!

Blowing Bubbles

We were sitting outside last week teaching Brenna to blow bubbles. 

She decided it was much more fun - and tasty - to eat the bubbles.  Initially, we were all laughing, but by the end of making our little video Cari became a bit concerned.  She headed inside to look up the health hazards of eating too much soap.  

I stayed outside playing with the kids and Brenna seemed fine.   It was about twenty minutes later when Cari came running back outside and started telling me that eating soap has many health BENEFITS.  Seriously!

She said that eating soap will dissolve gum that you have swallowed (no more waiting seven years), it will cause your feet to smell lemony fresh (a huge improvement), and that no more showers would be needed because the soap cleans you from the inside - out.  

Cari has already created several soap recipes and said she may put them together as a book.  Almost every dinner recently has had some soap dish and I have to admit it isn't too bad.  I even poured a bit of Dawn on my salad last night.  

It turns out that while we were all laughing at the baby eating soap, she is a genius!

New math? Nascar math?

#1. We got internet back late today as Cari fought and argued with three people that don't have a clue.

#2. Pictures from the camping trip won't be ready to late this week.

#3.  While driving home on Sunday I was listening to some of the Nascar race on MRN (motor racing network).  They interviewed a driver, Kurt Busch, who has been doing better this year compared to last year.   They asked him what he and his team have done differently to get the better results. 

This isn't a direct quote, but this is what Kurt said:

There are ten componants to being good in Nascar and we have improved 10% in all ten.  That's a 100% improvement over last year.  

Waaaaahhhh?  Try again Kurt.