Manual Labor

We've spent the past three nights til 10 pm laying the cement for our new front patio. We're almost done, so far it looks really good. Especially for the price, under $200 for a 14x8 foot area. Like the garden it's been another project we're doing together, that just shows how well we work together. I love tackling big projects like this with him. Meanwhile I've also stained and sealed four coffee tables the past few days. All things we're tring to get done before his sister and her family arrive tonight at midnight. I have to go home and bust ass to clean the house before they get there.

Plan on having a great weekend with them all here to visit. Lots of things planned, day at the park/pool, golf, hikes, movies, cook-outs, drinking.Been getting a lot of emails from my girlfriends in DC and GB. We'd gotten out of touch, so it's good to be in communication again. Meanwhile another gf is way down on herself lately and I need to make her quickly arriving b-day a big deal to lift her spirits.

Got another financial kick in the teeth. Grape-Ape needed a check-up, snotty cold and a mild rash that hasn't gone away. $225 worth of testing later, find out we might be looking at having to treat her for Cushings Disease. Which may or may not be caused by the Pred we have to keep her on because of her larger underlying illness, which is still in remission, thank god. At least she's really happy and full of energy, never know she might be ill. I seriously don't think we exagerate when we say she's a $10,000 dog.No posts til Monday, maybe pics of the weekend to come.

okedy dokey then....

This morning I stumbled upon this headline:
Robertson calls for assassination of Chavez, then clicked to read a bit further...thinking, 'what the hell?.......

Here's what he said:“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it,” Robertson said. “It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”

Huh? uh...I thought Christian meant you don't kill people, isn't it a commandment? Or wait, if I have "Special Forces" take out the chic in the cubicle next to me let's say, does that mean I still go to heaven, because I didn't actually do it? How is rhetoric like this any different from any other extremist religious zealot saying "We shall kill -insert name- in the name of -insert religious deity? Oh wait, cuz it's Christians. And we're better, whiter, and gosh darn it, people like me. Holy crap, is this what the Christian Coalition of America is preaching to people? Defending our Godly Heritage? To me that is scary. Right up there with the Crusades. Where in the Bible does it say "... and then you get the biggest part of that continent, I've set it aside just for you" Yes, I get that our founding fathers built our country with good values based on beliefs in god and country. But it was also based on escaping religious persecution. Didn't any of these people watch the School House Rock "the Great American Melting Pot?". Hello. Mother Earth to this idiot. We all have to live on this big blue marble. And yes, I know the other religions want to kill the infidels. I just think ideas like this are scary. The next big world war will be over religion. It's just wacked to hear someone who's a "Christian leader" calling for the assasination of someone. You know US news always shows terrorists making threats on tv, in their country do they show stuff like this and say "see!?"

Who' right, who's wrong, don't know. Just don't like this guy at all. Hat's off to the guys at SouthPark for making them look like idiots. Marklar.

DC vs WV

We've recently found out that Dan might be offered a short-term post in DC. From now til Dec/Jan. It could possibly be for a nice jump in salary, so even for just a few months it would be worth it. We're both really excited about it. I hope he gets it. For two very selfish reasons. One, the extra money couldn't be at a better time. And two, I'll get to go to DC a lot in those months to see friends and act like a tourist. I love walking around the mall. I think I miss that the more than anything from DC. I don't think I ever get tired of the museums. And then there are the restaurants. And the shopping. And it is nice to hear different dialects and see people that aren't all white-bread americana.

So the idea of Dan living in DC for a few months would be great. The best of both worlds for a short time. Get a nice injection of the rest of the world, come back and sit on the deck and watch the deer and bunnies eat our lawn. I just don't think I want to go back full-time. Even if let's say he got an offer for a crapload of money to stay there full-time. We'd live there for a year and then try to get the heck out again. I know we would. I think it's the old grass is greener idea. For emample the two nature related stories posted below. This is the kind of stuff I live for. Birds flying in the house and trying to identify giant catepillars in the garden. After about a month in the city I'd go crazy missing the openess and quiet. I like people watching and being around the business of the city, but right now I can let the dog out and walk around the front of the house in my underwear with a cup of tea and not worry about seeing people. Compare this to the flakes we had living next to us in Md, knocking on the door at 2 am asking if we "party".

One of these flew into our kitchen...

This is a Piliated Woodpecker (I did not take this photo) It's our favorite. Probably because it's the largetst woodpecker in North America. Almost the size of a crow. They have a funny call that sounds like a laugh, kinda like a kukabura (not spelled correctly) They're usually very shy. It's usually hard to see them, even if it sounds like they're in a tree above you. Yesterday, one flew through our open garage, into the kitchen. It could probably see thru the garage, out to the other side of the house through the kitchen windows and thought it could take a short cut. Dan was in the kitchen doing dishes -yes, he even does dishes - when he heard a "wham!". He looked over and it had flown into the screen on the window. It's bill put a hole in the screen the size of a nickel. Dan yelled at April to get out so she wouldn't scare it, then trapped it in the window, ran out side and pulled the screen off so it could fly away. He said it fell on the deck stunned, then got up and flew away. I think it's actually funny. Here this bird was trying to make a shortcut and slammed into the screen. Hoping no other birds saw him.

This is a before, or better yet, under construction photo of the front patio we're building. Slow going so far.

Bug Of The Week!

I'm not sure what kind of catepillar this is, but I thinks its a polyphemus moth. It's beautiful though. Should have put my hand up next to it to show scale, it's about 6 inches long.

My awesome eggplant, plant. I've got three off of it already. Such a pretty purple color. (also called an aubergine, which sounds funny to me)

This used to be a big bushy area of cucumber plants. The bugs got to them, that's why they looked wilted and pathetic. The one line cuc used to have a dozen more next to it.

The largest of our 5 pumpkins. Getting pretty big, I want this one to grow, so I've been spraying the bugs off of it as often as I can. And yes, now is the appropriate time for the "WV Pump Kin" joke.

A fuzzy photo of one of our three watermelons. It's so cute and little. I have a bad feeling for him though, think the bugs might get him.

Here is an updated photo of the garden.

Sun in Our Eyes

Here's a pic of Jenn, N, Me and Karen in the lot for the Coldplay show. The sun is in our eyes, making it look like we're all grimacing . Note to self, last concert I wear a do-rag to.

Coldplay

This has been the only concert I've looked forward to in awhile. We see Dave Matthews Band every summer. That's kind of a given. Not even a big deal anymore. We had a feeling the Coldplay concert would be great, and that the crowd wouldn't be that big. They aren't that well known around here, def more up in Pittsburgh, but the Valley tends toward Country and Southern Fried Rock. ick.The ride up. A group of us actually rode up in our friends Honda Odyssey mini-van. The ultimate 'mom ride'. To be honest it was really nice. Felt like taking a plane there. Cup holders, cooler in the back, lights and air vents above your head. All that was missing was the DVD player. We went with two Heathers, Ben and Karen, the married couple who own the van, me and D. Met up with even more people at Starlake, including N. Who I am so glad she showed up. She kept hedging about it. I told her to suck it up and quit acting like a soccer mom and get her ass to the concert. Other than only having Miller Light on hand to drink, I think she was really glad she came. I was!

I've said this before, but Starlake is the best place to see bands. Ok, it's actually the Post-Gazette Pavilion now, but that's too long to say or type. It's an outdoor venue, big huge grassy banked lawn area, with a large covered pavilion area in front of the stage. The parking lot is huge and kinda wraps around it. Woods run up to the edge of the lot on most sides. It's the only place I know if that still lets you tail gate. You can bring anything into this place and they don't flinch, except glass bottles. They used to ride around in a golf cart and supply people with plastic cups and take the glass so cars wouldn't be driving over the glass. There are plenty of port-o-potties, but the woods always seem like a cleaner option. It's amazing anything still grows out there with all the uric acid that's been poured into the woods, but you don't have to touch anything when you go in the woods. Worse case someone sees your butt. We brought a case of beer, several coolers and one of our friends grilled a large amount of shrimp kabobs. I didn't eat any, not because they didn't look yummy,but because I knew it irked him that I didn't. hee hee.

Ok, the other great thing about this venue other than the tailgating freedom is the tickets. I think we quit buying tickets for anything here about 5 years ago. The shrimp friend always does a brisk scalping business and mocked us forever for paying full price. We finally started waiting and buying "lot tickets". Every show has them, we've yet to not get tix to a show. Some stupid sod always gets stuck with a ticket they need to offload. It doesn't matter if they aren't together, we all meet up in the lawn anyway. My best transaction so far was $40 for two Sting/Annie Lennox pavilion tickets that had a face value of $70 a piece. For Coldplay we paid $10 a piece for $34 face value pavilion tickets. Saving money is great, but I also love the haggle.

The show. We didn't even watch the opening band, Black Mountain. As soon as they quit we went in. We waited at least a half hour after that before Coldplay took the stage. Stage went black, and a tall curved background video wall lit up with a white background and a digital clock display counting down then counting up. The sound exploded out as they opened with "Square One". It was THE loudest show I've ever been to, including all the metal shows I got dragged to in my previous life. Friggin loud but crystal clear. Chris Martin's voice was perfect. It all sounded so soooo good. They all might be asses in real life, but the way they joke around and pander to the crowd without seeming clichéd makes it seem like they're cool guys you'd like to hang out with. We listened to the first 4 songs from the lawn they listened to three more from the pavilion. I don't do justice to writing concert reviews so here & here are the links to two reviews describing the experience much better than I can. All the show did was solidify wanting to see them in Va in Sept. We will have to buy advance tix for that show. I wanted to post a few pics from the show, but I don't have any, so check this site out. I had N's camera phone but she hasn't sent me the images yet, so the close-ups of the band are from another site.

Coldplay
Forum
Easy To Please Coldplay SetList Site

SetList According to Someone Else: (basically every song you'd want to hear)
Square One
Politik
Yellow
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Speed Of Sound
Low
The Hardest Part
Everything's Not Lost
White Shadows
The Scientist
'Til Kingdom Come (Acoustic)
Don't Panic (Acoustic)
Clocks
Talk
-----
Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

Deck party

These are pics from a deck party we had a few weekends ago.

Lots going on in life

Seems like a lot is going on right now. All of a sudden D has several new job leads. And they seem pretty good. Very excited for him. Even if one means he might live in DC for several months. But the pay would be worth it.

We're going to see Coldplay tonight at Starlake. I've been looking forward to this concert all summer. I've liked them for a long time and never been able to see them live. We're going up with a good group of people so it should be a fun time.

I got a library card last night. From the St. C Public Library. This is the library I grew up going to. Summer reading clubs and little tables with tiny chairs painted in primary colors. The first card I had there was a manila card with a metal plate that they had to put in a machine and run a carbon copy sheet over every time you checked out a book. My new card is a scan card that I can attach to my key-chain. Gone are all the huge wooden card catalog cabinets, now its a bench with a few computers. But this gave way to more room for comfy chairs and a coffee kiosk. I was searching for books on canning and gardening. We have that big, huge garden, and suddenly we have big, huge bugs eating everything. It's very upsetting. Stuff is dying by the day. And I'm trying to keep it an organic garden, so there is a very narrow guideline of what I can use to kill the bugs. Anyways, I got a dozen books. Love the library!

The past few evenings we've walked the mile or so out to our neighbor's farm. She (the crazy neigbor) had been out of town and asked us to check on the animals, count the sheep to make sure they were all there and hadn't been eaten by coyotes. They were all ok. We fed them apples. Not sure what we would have done if something HAD been eaten by a coyote. She said to make sure and check on "Lambchop" who was an older sheep. Lord, turns out Lambchop is the most arthritic sheep I've ever seen. Poor things front leg joints were so stiff and swollen she had such a hard time walking. She got a whole apple to herself each night. Makes me sad to see animals like that. But the horses were gorgeous. HUGE dark chestnut mustang came right up to me for an apple. His neck was thick like a Morgan's. Hoping to ride him.

Last night we vegged a bit in front of the TV. Nothing was on. We actually flipped back and forth between South Park - and Red Dawn. God was that an awful movie. So Pro-Gun. We kept going back to watch it because it was so bad. It was kinda funny that Spike TV kept showing pictures of the action figure toys made for the movie when it went to commercial.

Today we're getting the information for this year's ski-trip deposits. Seems odd that every August we start planning for a ski-trip, but this is the seventh year we've all gone. Although I'm hoping I have to sit in the lodge sipping cocoa and watch. Can't ski if you're pregnant. It should be interesting as the group has changed a bit. New people coming. I could care less that they smoke a shitload of pot, but I hate being around coke or people on it, and I have a feeling that may make an appearance. Although I'm sure it's been there before, I'm fairly naive sometimes when it comes to drugs.

I gotta get back to work, someone here needs their Jeep jumped. Dead battery.
Details on Coldplay tomorrow!

My legs are too short

I'm 5'4" and I've alwasy thought my legs were a little on the short side. This was never more apparent to me than Friday night. The car above is the reason why.

Friday I went up to my friend N's house in Pittsburgh. Our friend K was coming thru town and staying with N for the night. I thought we were just going to hangout and catch up. N being a mom who doesn't get to go out with the girl's much, was like 'no, we are going OUT". Let me back up and say that N and her husband are well-off. To the extent that I actually can't comprehend. But you'd never know it because they're the most level headed, normal, act like middle-class, un-snobby people we know. The only thing her husband splurges on is cars. The have several nice cars. His baby being an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. This was a Bond Car. When he first got it he took Dan for a spin and I think Dan drooled the entire time. Apparently guys who like cars would think this is an awesome car. It's handmade. The engine is the loudest thing I've ever heard in a car. And I guess it's very. expensive. It's racing green, two seater with room for a tissue box in the "back seat".

So N says to her husband, 'hey, can we take the Aston out tonight?" He said "Sure, but only if JA drives it"........ oh shit. (This is because I could drive a stick, and he knows I'm as OCD as he is)

Other people, meaning guys, would probably leap at this chance. All I thought was, god that's an expensive car. I think it cost more than our house. So he gets it out, warms it up and has to show me how to set the parking break, use the push-button starter, etc. This is his baby and he acts like he's letting me drive a golf cart. He is sooooo nice. So we get in and pull out of the driveway. I decided to take a lap around te neighborhood before we went anywhere. Here's where the leg part comes in - at last.... I had to pull the seat all the way forward, and even then I was stretching my leg and clutching tippy-toed. I have to say I did fine, it was the SMOOTHEST ride I've ever driven. ok, also the most expensive car I've ever driven, but at least I never stalled it out. This is important, as people kept looking at us. But the longer we drove around, my left leg starts quivering from stretching. I was so worried about concentrating on driving, that it was hard to relax and enjoy driving it.

Here's where it gets better. N wants to catch up on going out all into this night. I thought we were going just up the road...no we have to drive around Pittsburgh bar hoping. First stop is Mount Washington. There is nowhere to park, so she said, let's valet it at Le Mont. ok. So we pull up, everyone outside stops to watch the car. I have to fumble a bit with the parking break. I stammer something to the attendant that it was 'my friendshusbandscarandonlyidrivestick'..this car so obviously did not belong to me. We get out, we all have on jeans and basically t-shirts. we are now obligated to go into the restaurant we valeted at, even though we wanted to go to the pub down the street. When you enter this restaurant,it is marble walls, gold-crusted everything, crystal chandeliers, black-tie waiters. I'm like, what the hell....we suddenly revert to 14 year olds trying to pass for college girls buying beer, turn tail and walk out. The valet guy stops us and says, 'hey, do you think there's a dress code? There's no dress code, c'mon, I'll take ya in". So e shows us to the oppulent bar. Full of guido's and Botox. We are the youngest people there by 20 years. Like the game, "which of these things doesn't belong in this picture". We do have a drink, we can watch the fireworks going on all over the city from the view. Mt. Washington overlooks the city, so the view is amazing. The city alllll lit up - very cool. But then the piano player starts letting the old ladies sing with him, and we decide one drink there is enough of an obligatory purchase to warrant the valet service. So we leave and head to the next bar. Don't stay long, go back get valet checked. As the fireworks were over, everone is streaming out of the restaurants, so again, I'm concentrating so hard on making a smooth pull-away.

Now N wants to head down to Carson St, then cooler, younger, bar-hopping singles area. I love this part of town. Normally. Because normally I don't give a second thought to parking my rodeo in a back alley because there is no parking around this area. Carson is a slow drive, full of redlights. First gear the whole way, riding the brake and clutch so I don't stall. Get to a newer developed area, park on a well-lit street and go to an Irish pub. Very quiet bar, boring actually. But at least we can talk and catch up.

On the drive home I finally can relax, actually got it into 6th, enjoyed the car a bit. But I was so happy when I pulled it into the garage. This was good exercise in the fact that at least now I know when we win the lottery I won't be spending money on a car for myself. And the fact that it doesn't seem like I could pull of acting wealthy even if I had the chance.

April the theif

Every morning after I feed her breakfast, I let April outside. She has time to go walk-about before we leave for work. Since it's warm out, I just leave the door open for her to come and go. This morning, as I was getting ready, I walked thru the living room and looked over at her on her dogbed. She's sitting there gnawing on a huge, flavored rawhide bone. And her nose is all scratched up and she's got dirt under her paws. Somehow she has figured out where our neighbor's dog "Newt" has been burrying his bones, and stealing them from him. Last week she drug home a huge bone. Like a beef knuckle or something. She really was dragging it along it was so big. It's funny cuz she's so proud of herself, but then we have to take it away from her. She can't eat the whole thing at once. But she seems to be getting better at this. I feel bad for the neighbors dog.

Stoned out of her mind

Sunday night we took a walk out the farm road. We went farther than usual, right up into the farm. I wanted to pet the ponies and donkeys. Dan hung back with April so she didn't get kicked. He started whisper shouting 'she's coming!' Dude - who cares, she doesn't mind we come up her. Remember, we're the ones she likes. She being our somewhat "crazy neighbor' who most of the neighborhood doesn't really like. Cuz she's crazy. But she seems to have taken a shine to us. Anyways, she walks over to where we were standing by 'Tickles' the short, fat, white pony. She was stoned out of her mind. Wasted. Took several attempts at talking before she really got used to it and could carry on a conversation. She's somewhere in her 50's, thin, wirey, hipppy, college professor. But we like her just fine.

Weekend Highlights

• Humble Reunion Friday night at Andy Hogan's farm in Brooke co. Great night, beautiful farm, good to see a lot of old friends, listen to some friendly tunes, lots and lots and lots of stars in the sky.
• Babysat my friend's little girls Sat. night. sweetest, prettiest little girl and so easy to watch!
• Bookclub Sunday evening - really enjoyed it. Felt good to hang out with girls and have actual stimulating conversation. Oh, and eat lots of yummy Indian food!
• Being around married friends that bicker and argue all the time drives home how much I love my husband and how lucky I am I've got him

Lowlights
• found out the hard way Sunday that I have to get the dye test done this Thursday on my fallopian tubes. Not looking forward to it, but at least it will be one more step towards answers. Just heard it could be painful afterwards. Dye makes you cramp I guess.