New Photos Posted!

Okay, with the time change came, well, time to put up all the photos we've been taking over the last several months! They're in the gallery.

Enjoy!!

A Successful Week

We got a lot accomplished this week! Here are a few of the highlights...

Last Saturday, as we cleaned the pool, we were lamenting about how the dogs are tearing apart the yard. Cubby likes to dig potholes everywhere, while the other two like to pee on every blade of grass. And of course, none of them have a "favorite" place to poop, so the backyard is enter-at-your-own-risk. The grass, what little there is, is dead. Weeds and clay decorate everything else. And I get the distinct feeling that the neighbors dislike our trashy-looking backyard.

Yet, we refuse to do anything with it until we accomplish other tasks first. Initially, we figured it would be several years before we got to the landscaping. This, of course, means having to deal with potholes, dog poop, the smell of dog pee (on the pool, because there apparently aren't enough trees to satisfy them), and clay and weeds for the next several years. And the little bit of landscaping we had already done had been destroyed by the dogs.

It was time to take back control. We decided that we could fence the dogs off from the backyard if we built a small fence starting at the back stairs of the deck and running across to the fence on the side of the house. This would allow us to work on beautifying the backyard without our efforts getting destroyed. Stefan had watched the guys with keen interest when they built the fence around our backyard, and he was convinced we could do the job ourselves.

Off to Home Depot we go. We did that Sunday. Mind you, neither of us have much experience with building things, and many parts of this project were completely new to us. I won't go into detail about the trip to Home Depot in the ghetto - it's too depressing. Just know that Sunday night, we came home with what we thought were all the supplies we needed to build a fence.

Monday evening, we covered up the pool and chicken-wired off the spaces between the stairs where Perry could get out into the rest of the backyard.

Tuesday, we used our new post-digger to dig the post holes and we set the posts in the holes.

Wednesday, we chicken-wired off all the other parts of the deck where Perry likes to get out into the driveway. We also poured and mixed cement for the first time, and we set the posts.

Thursday, we tried to drill the posts into the supporting post on the deck, but discovered we had the wrong tool for the job. So back to Home Depot we went where we wandered about for over an hour, with not a single orange smock in sight to help us. We finally settled on an impact wrench and brought it home, only to discover we neglected to note what size drill adapters it needed, so that meant more running around until we found what we needed. It took about 2 minutes to finish the job with the right tool. So we did that, and then we also assembled the supporting rails. Stefan also used a chain saw for the first time. He has all his fingers and limbs, I am happy to report!

Friday, it rained.

Today, we broke out the boards and our new miter saw and went to town. The job of measuring each board was given to me, and miraculously, I was able to measure them straight, thanks to the help of a measuring square. Stefan cut them, and used the nail gun to erect the boards. Then we set about the task of cutting the fence to make the gate. And by gosh, we have a fence that we built all ourselves!

I am so incredibly proud of us!! Yay us! We committed to doing something new, and we took a couple of hours each day to work on it, and our efforts really paid off. Granted, it would have taken much longer if we didn't have the right tools, but we didn't mind buying them, because we will use them over and over and over again. It will save us a ton of money in the long run, since we won't have to hire others to do our home projects.

All in all, I am very, very proud of us. It is so amazing to see tangible results, and it feels really good to accomplish something that as little as 8 months ago, we would have thought we couldn't do it. So much more is now within reach! And to think, all it took was a couple of hours each day!

Holly's Soapbox Issue of the Day

I read an article today how certain school recess activities are being banned in some school districts. Activities such as playing tag, touch football, or any unsupervised chase games.

An accident might happen and the parents might hold the school liable. Gasp! Oh, no! A kid falls and hurts himself! Or a kid might run head-on into another kid!

Pretty soon, jungle gyms will be outlawed, along with monkey bars, teeter-totters, slides, swing-sets and sandboxes. Seriously, aren’t those more dangerous than being chased?

Kids have a penchant for pushing things to the extremes. Who else hung upside down from the monkey bars? We could have fallen and cracked our head open or broken our neck. Kids are brutal on the teeter-totters. I think everyone has gone home at least once with bruised butt bones because our counterpart on the teeter-totter suddenly jumped off while we were in the air, causing us to crash to the ground with sudden force. Slides are dangerous, too. Someone could slide down and crash into you while you’re trying to climb up the slide. Who didn’t try to see how high they could swing on the swing-set and then jump off, to get the feeling of flying? We could have fallen, tripped, broken our leg or nose. And sandboxes are just gross.

Wow, I can’t believe I survived childhood with all those dangerous things around me! I thought I was fortunate to have grown up before the bike helmet law went into effect. To think that I used to ride my bike on the shoulder of a road with a 55 MPH speed limit without a helmet is just beyond reproach. Yet, I have a right to engage in risky behavior if I so choose, don’t I?

Half the fun of being a kid is trading scar stories with your friends. Getting hurt when you’re young is considered regular and customary, isn’t it? You need to push the limits of your body so you know what the limits are. You need to learn you are breakable. It is part of the learning process.

Kids are full of energy, and if we take away all their outlets to release that energy in a healthy manner, we’re going to have a real mess on our hands. I personally hate video games for this reason. I don’t think video games do children any justice at all. Give a kid a fenced-in back yard and a friend, and tell them they can’t come in until dinner. They’ll find all kinds of ways to exercise their imaginations, brains and bodies.

I just think we are on a very dangerous trend by “banning” certain activities for fear of kids getting hurt. We are already trying to soften the blow of not winning by awarding trophies to the losing team. I wouldn’t be surprised if kids are no longer allowed to pick team members in gym class, because someone inevitably will be picked last, and their feelings will get hurt. This is a very socialist way of looking at things. The same goes for group projects. Don’t get me started on group projects. I was always the one doing the majority of the work so I could protect my high grade point average. And, as always, the other members of the group benefited from my work ethic, while I grudgingly toiled. I hated group projects.

That’s one of the reasons I’m so glad to be an adult. I can look at my resume, or my salary history and smile with pride. I did that. It was all me. Nobody else can take credit for my accomplishments of today, nor can they bring me down to their level. I am enjoying capitalism to its fullest.

So naturally, I am concerned about what kind of generation we are churning out. These kids will one day be my co-workers. Or my employees. And I’m going to be a hard-ass. I’m going to give the job to the person who is most qualified, or more importantly, most motivated. I mean, I hope I will be able to do that. It is possible that business will have changed to be more of a socialist environment, and I won’t be able to pick and choose by the ethics upon which I was raised. I’ll have to make a hiring decision based upon a lottery, so things are “fair,” and then I’ll have to move to a country that embraces capitalism the way it was meant to be.

That’s why this is a soapbox issue to me. It goes against everything I have worked so hard for, fought so hard for. I view it as a threat to my success and my liberties to meet and exceed my personal expectations. This is way more than a few concerned school board members, and I don’t think these folks are fully contemplating the repercussions of their rules. Frankly, someone needs to call out these trends before it’s too late.

Reverse Racism

Reverse Racism is alive and well.

Oh, yes, I'm going there!

I just want to get this off my chest...

So I was walking into work from the parking lot yesterday, when a co-worker asked if I could help her bring in some items from her car. I said, "Sure, I'd be happy to help!" She loaded me up with several bags of great smelling food - all in styrofoam containers. My goodness, it smelled awesome! Meanwhile she was saying as we walked in, "Thanks so much for your help. You're a lifesaver. I'd have had to make another trip out to the car if it weren't for you."

I said she was more than welcome, and made it clear it was no trouble for me to help out.

She put all the food in the refrigerator, and that was that.

Or so I thought.

A few hours later, a girl on my team came over to talk to me, and said co-worker's name came up (they are of the same race). The girl explained the co-worker loved to cook and this woman had cooked all this food for her birthday this past weekend, and she'd brought the left-overs in for her team. That was nice of her, I thought.

Imagine my surprise today when I saw my teammate, in the break-room with another woman (of the same race as her), eating lunch from the styrofoam containers I'd helped my co-worker bring in the day before!

So much for bringing in the extras for her teammates. So much for offering me a little something for helping her the other morning. Now she was sharing the left-overs with two other women, who were from two different teams. The connection? They were all the same race.

Glad to know I could help.

Yeah, maybe that sounds harsh, but it's not the first time it's happened to me. I've been treated differently by a boss who was not of the same race, and I notice how some folks tend to associate with others only of their same race. But that's not me and that is not how I think. I treat everyone equally. I try to treat everyone the same, regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, etc.

But when I see this going on, well, I wonder why some folks wonder why they don't get treated fairly and equally be everyone else, if their claim is such. It's no wonder to me. Yeah, I get it - our race treated their race poorly in the past - but come on. How long must I pay for the mistakes of our forefathers when that is not my beliefs at all? Why am I being judged before I've had a chance to prove myself otherwise? If others have felt what I've felt, then we're destined to keep repeating this vicious, prejudiced cycle and nobody will benefit.

Hmph.

Okay, soapbox session is over!!

My New Tattoo and Other Musings

So I got my second tattoo (finally!). It had been in the works since June, but I wanted to wait until summer was over so it could heal in peace. If I'd gotten it during summer, I wouldn't have been able to go in our pool until it had healed, which would have taken about 3 prime weeks out of summer.

Tom at Mystic Art tattoo created the piece from a picture (he does fabulous work, is underpriced, and I highly recommend him). He does all of his work free-form. I gave him a picture of a green turban seashell, and he went from there. Last Wednesday evening, I went in to have the tattoo done. I now have a green seashell on my right hip. And let me say, it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch! Too close to the bone, I guess.

What is the significance of a seashell, you ask? Simply put, I turned 30, and in the last couple of years, I have grown significantly as a person. Just like a snail, I outgrew the home I was living in, and had to go out to search for a larger home. The green turban seashell signifies the home I outgrew. It will be interesting to see what fruit the next ten years bear, and what symbol I shall choose as a tattoo representing the decade of my thirties!

On to other news....

I recently won an Ebay bid for a lot of 5 OPI nail polishes and I am very excited. OPI is used in many salons, and is known for their ability to withstand chipping. I remember when I had my acrylic nails, I could go for about a month without ever seeing a chip in my polish. And the shades, the wonderful shades! OPI has about a million different colors. For the money, they can't be beat! My shipment just arrived today, so one of the first things I did when I got home was to paint my nails. I'm wearing "Nice color, eh?" I'll update again as to when I get my first chip in the paint, or when I paint my nails again, whichever occurs first.

My new pet peeve (drumroll please)...

Customer service folks who engage me in conversation, and when I engage them back, do not acknowledge that I have spoken. Drives me up a wall!!! What is the point of saying to me, "Oh, I just bought those boots, too and they are so comfortable!" if, when I say in return, "Really? That's great, because my last pair was so comfortable I wore them for seven years and they finally wore out," if you are going to IGNORE ME. I'm only BUYING SOMETHING FROM YOU!!!!

It took me several years to train myself NOT to say "thank you" to the drive-thru person when they handed me my food with all the enthusiasm of a trained chimpanzee. Why should I thank you? I gave you money, I gave you, in essence, YOUR JOB. And you can't even acknowledge me???

Now I'm going to have to come up with a polite, yet effective way to bring attention to the fact that I am being politely ignored during the engagement of small-talk. Not sure how to do that yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with some catchy something-or-other...

The Virginia State Fair

Stefan and I went to the State Fair yesterday with our good friends, Sam and Dave. Let me just say, we had so much fun, we shut the place down! We didn’t get home until 1am this morning, so I’m wrecked today. But wrecked in that good way.

The weather was absolutely perfect. It had rained during the night, so the sky yesterday was completely blue, and a slight breeze kept the rays from getting too hot as we walked around. We visited the goats, sheep, pigeons, pigs, cows and rabbits. Stefan got up close and personal with a baby goat, and we took a bunch of pictures of the baby pigs.

Then it was on to the tropical animal display, where folks could get their picture taken with a boa constrictor. Sam, Dave and I chickened out, but Stefan went right up and got in line. For $5, they wrap the snake around your shoulders and snap a polaroid. Of course, I was right there with the digital camera, snapping away free pictures as well. Stefan has this huge grin on his face in the photos.

Stefan and I also went for a ride on a Monster Truck. There was this huge truck, all pimped out with wheels about six feet tall. Again, for $5, you could get in the truck and the crazy driver would go around in circles, making hair-pin turns. Where else do you get to do this?

We ate a corn-dog because I had never had one before, and we sampled a fried Twinkie, since neither of us had had one before. We probably won’t have one ever again, but it was a fun experience.

We walked around the exhibition hall for a while, and checked out this huge candy booth, where they carried vast amounts of all kinds of candy we used to have as kids that we never see anymore. Dave bought about 2 pounds of black licorice. I’d say he got enough to last him until about this time next year. We still couldn’t find the candies that Stefan’s grandfather used to share with him. They are molasses disks, and are two-toned. One half is molasses and the other half might be maple. If anyone has any idea what the name of this candy is, please let us know. It might help us to someday find it.

By this time, we were all getting pretty hungry, so we stuffed ourselves with over-priced, over-salted fried fair food. A huge cloud rolled in, and seemed to be sitting right over the Ferris Wheel, which we had purposely waited to go on until it had grown dark. So after we ate, we made a bee-line for the Ferris Wheel, thinking maybe we’d get a chance to on it before it began to rain. By now, it was dark, and lucky for us, the rain never made an appearance. A lot of making out and groping happened at the top. What’s a Ferris Wheel ride without getting felt up? Ahhhh, reminds me of when I was a teenager....!

Dave and I went on this ride called the Cliff Hanger. Sam and Stefan stayed planted on the ground. We had never seen this ride before, but the basic concept is the same as the swings, except in this ride, you lay down on your stomach, just as you would if you were to go hang-gliding. Waaaaay more fun than the swings!! Although, the prostrate position leaves you feeling rather vulnerable and your dignity gets a little tarnished and you wonder why you chose to wear your “nice butt” jeans, knowing all those grizzled fair workers probably fought over who got to run this ride. Have you ever noticed that the folks running the rides are some of the most grizzled people you’ve ever encountered?

Then we all went on a ride that is the equivalent of the Bobsled. This is the classic ride that goes at a pace suited for just about everyone, and it’s just not the Fair if you don’t go on this ride.

Then, Dave, Stefan and I went on this ride that is a smaller version of the Drop Zone at King’s Dominion. Basically, you sit in a seat and the ride takes you straight up, and then drops you to the ground with no notice. It happens so fast that it is a mostly quiet ride. There’s little chance to scream or think and it’s scary, scary scary! I, of course, break the silence and scream the entire 1-second down (the ride only lasts 1 second). Stefan can’t keep his eyes open to watch, and I can’t shut them. Just can’t do that. So I got the see the ground whooshing up, and our feet flying towards our face. We go on this ride again. I scream again. I subsequently have little to no voice today and my throat hurts.

We rounded out the night with a root beer float, and the purchase of several candy apples. Stefan bounced around like a kid, and it was great to see him so fully experiencing a childhood memory like the State Fair. That, right there, was worth the price of admission.

Can’t wait to go again next year!!