PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!

A little bit of my world


Me at the Cary Hibernian. The Great Marquise grabbed the camera and snapped this picture before I even knew what happened!


Hercules Mulligan at the Cary Hibernian. Same night as above. It was right before Christmas and there was a least one Christmas party going on. We didn't get our normal seats that night. We actually had to sit on the "other" side of the bar. (Ya kinda hafta know the place)


The great move! I helped the Marquise move some of her stuff last weekend. We were taking this to the swap shop and almost lost the load! My next vehicle will NOT be a truck! No more moving for me.


The Marquise's new place.


Beer and pizza after the move.


My puppy, AJ. He is a Goldendoodle! Half golden retriever/half standard poodle.


AJ's little sister, Ginger. Also a goldendoodle.


My socks!!! Yes, I have a picture of my socks. These are the first socks I ever crocheted. (so far they are the only ones also) I made them to go with my kilts, so they are basically knee socks. (the correct term is actually kilt hose.) I made them out of wool and I think there will probably be about 4 weeks a year when it will be cold enough here to wear them. I will probably make another pair out of cotton for the warmer weather.

I Got Camera

Watch out world. I have a camera! Yipee!!!!!! I can now bore you all with pictures as well as text. Oh, the power of modern technology. For those of you interested, it is a Nikon Coolpix LII. 6 megapixels and 3X optical zoom.

Below is a picture of a corner of my latest baby blanket. The colors are a little washed out. I am still figuring out the best way to use the camera. I'll post more (and hopefully better) pics as I get more accustomed to the camera. I may even be able to get a slide show going at some point in the future, just like my hero, the Marquise.

Graduation

I am off to my niece's college graduation this weekend. She is graduating from East Carolina University with a BS in Physical Therapy. Congratulations Courtney! You do us all proud!

Baby Blankets phase 2

Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water! I thought I had made it through all of the "its time to have babies" women and the "I'm gonna be a grandma" crowd at work and I could lay off the baby blankets for a while. Wrong. I had an ex-supervisor email me and ask me to make a baby blanket for one of her co-workers and if I could have it done by the 21st (yes, of December). And oh, by the way, could you have another done by mid February? Of course, being the push over that I am, I said yes. I informed her that since I had just finished Christmas I would have some free time and I would make her a couple of baby blankets. Actually, I had been wanting to try a couple of different yarns, gauges and hooks. I just needed a good excuse. Now this was actually about a week and a half ago. I have already finished one. I used one of the huge hooks (size p for those of you in the know) and some of the thickest, softest yarn I have ever come across. It almost crocheted itself, it was that quick. It took 2 days; about 6 hours total. I almost feel guilty giving it away. The second one is making up for it, however. On the second, I am using an afghan hook (a very long crochet hook). It is turning out to be a beautiful blanket, but is taking a lot longer than I had thought. Partly because it is a new stitch pattern, which I am getting a little faster at. I was hoping to have them both done by the middle of this week, but I don't think its gonna happen. Liz is just gonna have to make two trips to pick them up.
I may get a camera for Christmas. If so, I may have pictures up of the second blanket. We will see.

Back Amongst The Living

I had a really bad ending to a great night last Wednesday. As usual, I was out watching Hercules Mulligan with the great Marquise at the Cary Hibernian. We did our usual, I was there on time, she was late, I ordered and ate before she arrived, she ordered and ate throughout the evening, we both drank. Now I admit it, I drank a little more than I usually do, but just a little. (the Hercs were great, as usual) When I got home that evening, I was feeling a little queasy. I figured, it was just that "little bit" of extra Guinness. Well, it wasn't. At 1am all hell broke loose. The bathroom and I became close friends. If you haven't guessed by now, I got food poisoning. I know it was from dinner, and I also know it wasn't something rampant in the restaurant because the Marquise had the same meal as I did and she did not get sick. I was lucky, however. I only had to go through 24 hrs of hell and another 24 of purgatory before I started feeling better. Unlike the Marquise who went through about 36 hours of hell and another 3-4 days of purgatory when she underwent her gustatory dilemma earlier this year. It had been many years since the last time I had food poisoning and I had forgotten how horrible it makes you feel. Everything hurts. You don't want to move, but you have to get up every "so often" and make a bathroom run. Once all the fireworks stop and you think you are on the road to improvement, your GI tract reminds you it is still not happy every time you drink a glass of anything more filling than air. And then comes round 2 and you get to start all over again! YIPEE!

Well, my bacterial experiments are over, hopefully for another 20 or so years.

Rollergirls season ender

The great Marquise and I went to see the Carolina Rollergirls last bout of the season out at Dorton Arena last night. It was only the second game of the season that we were able to see (the first was the season opener) and oh what a game. The bout was against the Kansas City Roller Warriors who were last season's champs. We had a great first period and we were up by about 30 points at one time. Kansas City, however was not fazed at all. Over the next 2 periods, they gradually whittled away our lead to nothing. At the end of the game, we won by 1 point. I thought Dorton was gonna come crashing down with all the yelling.

There were some noticeable differences in the game. Namely, the refs were calling A LOT more fouls. It was not unusual to see 2 or even 3 girls sitting in the penalty box at any given time. From what I could gather, most of the fouls were about elbowing. There were a couple of instances where I think the refs went a bit overboard and really complicated the bout unnecessarily. There were a couple of occasions where it seemed that no one knew what was going on. However, given the emotions on the floor, it probably was a good thing the refs were so strict on this bout, otherwise, there surely would have been bloodshed before the bout was over.

One question though.... who/what was the rollergirl cowboy/mascot/cheerleader? And more importantly, who designed his outfit/costume?

Christmas is done (almost)

I am just about done with Christmas. All the ornaments are made. The crocheted snowflakes turned out great. I have to get some in the mail to my other two brothers. My younger brother and his wife got theirs over the Thanksgiving holiday. His wife was definitely excited about getting them. She does,however, tend to get a bit excited about Christmas. I finished the fire place screen for my Mom. It was not exactly how I wanted it to be, but it was still really nice looking. I guess like any other "artist" (there's a stretch) I am usually not satisfied with my work. I can usually see ways that it could have been better. "If I had only done........" However, at some time, I just have to say "Uncle!" and finish up.

Now comes the really fun part. Clean Up!!!!! My room is a mess. It looks like a cross between Martha Stewart and Pigpen invaded. I have craft stuff all over the place. I am not sure where it is all gonna go. I realize most of it was already here, but I'm not sure where it all calls home! I guess I'll hafta reorganize as I clean. Yeah, my 2 very favoritest things to do; clean AND reorganize. ALICE, where are you!

I can now get back to my list of things to do/try/learn. I have definitely let it slide lately.

Raleigh Kodiaks Rugby and Hercules Mulligan

OK folks, my favorite rugby team, the Raleigh Kodiaks, is playing this weekend. They are just returning from a back to back victory in Nashville! (sorry, but waaaay to far for this fan, I missed the games). Yes, believe it or not, they played two games on the same day, with about a 20 minute break between. They are better men than I. They are playing this Saturday at 1p at the Raleigh Rugby League pitch off Poole Rd. I hope I got that right. Anyone in the area should try to make it out there.

It's also that time of the fortnight again. It's time for the Hercs to play at the Cary Hibernian. It is this Wednesday. The festivities start at 8p and stop somewhere around 10p. Come early and grab a bite to eat. I recommend their burgers, no salt on the fries.

Baby Blankets and Christmas Ornaments II

Well, the good news. I finished the baby blanket! (cheers from the masses) I finished up just in time. I finished on Monday and the baby shower was on Tuesday. I guess as long as you finish before the deadline, everything is good.

Now the bad news. The Christmas ornament idea I had flopped. Really, really flopped. I had this wonderful idea of draining some eggs and painting them and then decorating them. Something like Faberge eggs. The two test eggs I tried turned out horrible. I could not get a nice smooth finish with the paints. I tried a couple of different types of "finishes" and they turned out even worse. I ended up throwing those eggs out and coming up with a different idea. I am now crocheting snowflake ornaments. I am using cotton thread, about twice the size of sewing thread and a teeny, tiny crochet hook. They are coming along OK, but I may be blind and have carpal tunnel before I am finished.

you know your getting old when.......

I went out this past Saturday and had a blast. It started out with watching the Hercs play at Tir Na Nog. This is the first bar that I saw them. It has a great set up for bands, however, the food is not so good (although I did have the chicken kiev, which was pretty good.), so I have not been out there much in a while. The Hercs started at about 7p and played to about 9p and I, quite naturally started drinking at about 7p. Now, I have learned to pace myself, so I didn't drink a lot, but I drank pretty consistently, but I get ahead of my story. After the Hercs finished, I went to Flex, for their costume/ Halloween party. I met up with a friend of mine and since neither one of us were particularly interested in what was happening there, we decided to go to CC. We'll the piano bar at CC had my favorite singer (Greg) and a terrific pianist (I'll have to look up his name). I spent most of the night in the piano bar.

Now to get to the title of this blog. After drinking "slow and steady" through the night Saturday, I felt like crap all day on Sunday. Not part or some, but ALL DAY. I didn't get sick, I didn't feel particularly queasy, I just felt like crap all day. It was a good thing I didn't have anything important to do on Sunday. Oh, the "good old days".............

California Fires

Just a quick note to everyone out there to keep the folks in southern CA in your thoughts. My brother and his family live in Carlsbad. I have not talked to them, but they have talked to good ol' mom. According to momma, the closest fire to them is about a ten minute drive away. She says they are packed and ready to go, but as of right now, they aren't too concerned. The worst of the fires are north of them.

Mother nature never seems to tire of humbling us.

Baby Blankets and Christmas Ornaments

October is my busy month. It is when I start making my Christmas ornaments. I have found out through several years of procrastinating that if I do not start my ornaments by October, I usually end up in big trouble. Unfortunately, this year I have two problems. The first I am already working on. I have to finish up a baby blanket for a co-worker's daughter. I agreed to make a blanket when we first learned about the pregnancy, but due to some complications it looks like she could delivery extremely early. Any time from around the end of December on. She is due, I believe sometime around the end of February. I was going to start the blanket after I finished my Christmas ornaments, but that doesn't seem like a good idea now. The second problem is that I do not have a good idea of what I am going to do for ornaments this year. I have a couple of ideas, but nothing firmed up yet. I guess I'll think about it as I crochet. If anyone has any ideas, pass 'em on to me. I can certainly use them.

Bad Afternoon

Something happened yesterday that I thought would "never happen to me". I was helping a co-worker finish up his move. He just had a couple of things left to move and since I have my trusty little truck I agreed to help him. Well, we had just enough rain yesterday to make all the roads slick as sn**. There were accidents everywhere I turned as I tried to get to Craig's old place. I ended up having to go through town at 5p on a Friday evening. Needless to say, what should have been a 15 minute trip took almost 45. That, however, was not the "big story". Once I got there, Craig and I loaded up the truck with an entertainment stand, computer stand, a mattress and various other small stuff. The mattress and computer stand were tied down well and we thought the entertainment stand was OK. We were sooooooo wrong. I think I made it through 2 turns before the stand went ass over head and landed right smack dab in the middle of a 4 lane road. During rush hour! I stopped the truck in the middle of the road, ran around and pulled the stand out of the road to the corner and then quickly got back in my truck and found the closest place to pull over that was safe (a gas station). I have never had something like that fall out of the truck before. That stuff always happens to "other" people. Luckily, Craig wasn't too upset. He "said" he was thinking about getting a new entertainment center anyway. I am not sure if that was true or if he said it just to try to make me feel better.

Williamsburg Scottish Festival

Well, The great Marquise and I made it to the old homestead and the Williamsburg Scottish Festival this past weekend. We left on Friday around noon and had a really nice drive up there. The weather was perfect for driving and the traffic was good, until we hit 664 and 64. We ran into the normal 5 o'clock Friday traffic that started at about 4. All in all, not that bad. The original plan was to head on out to the Yorktown Pub for dinner and drinks Friday evening. Unfortunately, the Pub has had its liqueur license suspended for 30 days, so no drinking for us. We asked the server how much more time they had left and she said 27 days. They had just started their suspension. I kinda feel for them. The place was empty. We ate there and then walked around the Yorktown waterfront for a little while and then headed into Newport News to Keagan's pub. My mom had said that they have music every Friday night there. The place was busy. The beer was not so good. The Marquise and I both ordered Smithwicks. When they arrived, they were .....horrible. I don't know if it was old beer, stale beer, flat beer, or just plan bad beer, but it did not taste like Smithwicks. I am fan of Smithwicks, so I am familiar with how it is supposed to taste, and it should NEVER taster like a cider, or even remotely fruity. The Marquise kept hers, but I sent mine back and got a Guinness instead. The Guinness was a little on the "robust" side, even for a Guinness, but it was much better than the Smithwicks. Keagan's did have music. The band was good, the singer was not. All in all, not a stellar night out.

Saturday afternoon, we went back down to the Yorktown water front and walked around a little there before heading on up to the Yorktown Victory Center. I had been there before, but it was several years ago. I had not realized that they had expanded the facilities a lot. We went out to see one of the reenactments (firing a mortar cannon) first and then went inside to see the "museum" part. We went in through the back door and so actually started from the end of the exhibit. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why none of this seemed in the least bit familiar to me. It wasn't until about 1.5 - 2 hours later that I realized what was going on. Of course by that time, we were tired and heading out the door for lunch.

Just an aside, the next time someone says that previous immigrants were quick to learn English as their new "native" language, there is an exhibit in the museum praising the German immigrants of the late 1700's for managing to keep their native language and customs. There was even a German language newspaper that circulated throughout the colonies. Something to make us all go Hmmmmmm.

Saturday night, we meet up with my brother, his wife and my nephew to head on out to the music festival. One rule: if you drink the "harder" beers, don't order first, or at least watch what the rest of your party is ordering. I was the first to order and everyone else kinda followed along. I ordered a porter. I ended up finishing my brother's beer, my nephew only managed to drink about 3/4 of his and that was over about 2 hours. My sister-in-law finished about half of hers before throwing in the towel. We got there at about 7p and heard 4 bands. The first 2 were not very good. The would have been fine for "daytime" gigs, but I would have preferred something a little more exciting for the evening shows. I was worried that the rest of my family would not really like the experience, and I think that was true of the first half. They seemed to enjoy the second half a lot more. The last two bands, Rathkeltair and Albannach were very good. I had never heard Rathkelter before and was quite impressed. They have one of the most talented bagpipers I have heard so far. Albannach gave probably one of their best performances I have heard this year. Actually, it was the best by far this year. The only better was last year at Tir Na Nog when I first heard them.

Busy Weekend

I had a busy weekend, well actually, it was a busy Saturday. I already mentioned the Halfway celebration at Tir Na Nog. Unfortunately, the Marquise was under the weather, so she could not make it. The guys from Hercules Mulligan sounded great. I did, however, miss the bass. Zack was out visiting with family. We (the Marquise and I) had mentioned to them previously that we really wanted to hear them play on a weekend again. Don't get me wrong, they have a great set up at the Cary Hibernian, but there is a big difference between playing on a Wednesday and playing on a Saturday. Everyone is a little more relaxed on a weekend, since most won't have to be at work the next day. There was a good crowd at Tir Na Nog and everyone was in a festive mood (slightly drunk). We even got the band to perform "Alice". As good a participatory song as you are going to get. At least as far as a bar full of drunk people go.

I was, of course, the only one in kilt, which draws as much attention in a straight bar as it does in a gay bar. It's a little disconcerting for me to be hit on by a couple of women. I am definitely NOT used to it. Actually, it was disconcerting that I realized I was being hit on. Usually I am blissfully unaware of such things. But this time, the women were not particularly subtle.

Let me back up just a little and tell y'all what I did in the morning. I attended the Responsible Dog Ownership Day event that was sponsored by the American Kennel Club. It was held out at the Fairgrounds this year. It started at 10a and ended at 2p. I helped the dog rescue groups set up and did "crowd control"; I walked around and answered questions, greeted dogs and picked up poop. It was a really good crowd. Lots and lots of dogs. Just about everyone brought at least one dog. Surprisingly, there were very few problems with the dogs. A couple of them obviously did not like each other, but most were very well behaved. I found it interesting to note that dogs seem to make immediate decisions about other dogs. Sometimes dogs would pass each other without ever taking any notice, other times they would decide that they just had to meet this other dog. I tried to see if there was a male/female thing going on, thinking that might be the cause of the sudden attraction. I really couldn't tell if that was the case. It seemed like some dogs just immediately liked other dogs.

There were several demonstrations that went on throughout the day. The flyball and agility demos were amazing. Flyball looks exactly like it does on TV. The dogs are going crazy and barking and running like mad to get the tennis ball and then get back to their owners. The agility demos were fun. It was very evident that the competitions on TV are the very best of the sport. The folks on TV make it look so much easier than it is. Several of the dogs were just beginning their training and did not quite make it through the entire course. We all cheered any way. If you ever get a chance to see a flyball or an agility contest, you REALLY need to go. They are a lot of fun.

Road Trip!

Here we go again!!!! My ever willing travel buddy, The Marquise and I are heading out to the Williamsburg Scottish Festival in a couple of weeks. We have not yet had our fill of our favorite Scottish band Albannach. (Davey! Woof!) This will make three times this year. The festival is the 28th - 30th of September at the Jamestown Beach Campground in Williamsburg, VA. Now since this is a trip to my old stomping grounds (I grew up down the road in Yorktown) we'll be staying at moma's place, lovingly referred to as Camp Garrett. I am going to try to convince my brother and his family to come on out. I may even try to get my oldest nephew on out there also. I'll even bring a couple of extra kilts for them, just in case. Pictures will be courtesy of the Marquise. Hopefully, it'll be a big family affair. If nothing else, I'll get to eat and drink at the venerable watering hole, the Yorktown Pub. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Halfway There!

Unbeknownst (is that really a word?) to me, this weekend marks the halfway point between St Patrick Day celebrations. I never realized that the halfway point was some milepost that deserved celebrating, but evidently, it is. My good buddies from Hercules Mulligan have informed me that they have quit a schedule set up and that everyone should strive to attend. They are performing their "normal" fortnight gig at the Cary Hibernian tonight. They are also playing at Tir Na Nog in downtown Raleigh this Saturday from 730p - 930p and again back at the Cary Hibernian on Sunday at 2p. Now, since I have been lacking in my irish responsibilities these past several years and have not celebrated any halfways, I will have to make up for lost time. Come on out and lend a helping hand!

Rugby

In yet another sign that my nearest and dearest friend is rubbing off on me, I took a little day trip yesterday. I went to Charlotte to see the Raleigh Kodiaks take on the Charlotte Royals. It was the first game of the season for each team and I thought my local team could use some support. I think there were three of us there that weren't directly related somehow to the team. The Royals, of course, had a much better turn out. We started out well, but we couldn't get the game going for us. The Royals had a really strong lead at the end of the first half. We made a good rally at the start of the second half, but again couldn't keep it going. If you hadn't guessed, the Royals won. Don't ask me the score, I'm still working out the basic ground rules. Hey, this is only my second game! Ever! Give me a break! I did notice one thing though. Even though rugby is predominately a running game, you cannot win without passing the ball. Kodiaks, y'all run well, y'all tackle well, y'all kick well. You don't pass very well.

You all played a game you love on an extremely hot day. You gave it your all. You are creating a fan. Thank you.

After the game, I went out looking for a bite to eat. I knew I was going to go out to the Eagle later that evening, so I started looking in that area. I found a really nice Irish pub called Murphy's Tavern. They have one of the best setups for a bar that I have ever seen. The main room is huge, with the bar off to one side and a stage up against one of the walls. You can see the stage from just about every place in the bar. I hope the management uses the facilities to their fullest. I had the shamrock calzone. (Yes, it is a little odd to have Italian food at an Irish tavern.) It was very good, but HUGE. It was large enough for two. They also have one heck of a good Hostess/Waitperson. Trina, you are the best.

After dinner, I had a couple of hours to kill before heading out to the Eagle, so I found a shady spot to park and snoozed in my truck. The Eagle was fun. Friendly men. Friendlier drunk men. Me in a kilt. You do the math. I knew I still had to drive home, so I limited my drinking considerably. But, oh, did the Blue Moon taste good. I left there at about 130 and drove about an hour and found a rest stop to catch a few zzzz's. After a good power nap, I was back on the road and home by 5.

Its Official

It is official, having a cold in the middle of summer sucks! Getting a cold period is not fun, however, it is especially annoying getting one when the weather is nice. One of the few saving graces of a winter cold is that you can wrap yourself up nice and cozy. You cannot "wrap up nice and cozy" when it is 90 or so degrees outside. No matter how low you turn the good old AC, it is just not the same. You either are to hot or to cold. Usually one right after the other. No coziness in sight. I am currently three days into my cold and should be on the downswing now. Since it started right after Labor Day (at least I had the holiday), I didn't start on any of my "stuff" I was going to work on. No Latin. No yoga. No reading. There is always next week.

I'm Back

I realize I haven't been blogging as much lately, but I decided to take most of August off. It was to hot to do much more than sit in front of a fan with the AC cranked. Luckily, the heat wave seems to have broken. We've had almost normal temps for the last couple of days. Hopefully, we will start getting some rain soon.

How bout an update on my list of things to do? My Latin is stalled out, mostly because of me taking a break in August (I know, nice rationale). I start back up again tomorrow. I'll see how much I remember. I managed to make an inroad on my list of books to read. Of course, I went to the library with a list of about 20 books and only managed to find 2 of them. They were Winnie-the-Pooh and Pillars of the Earth. I did find quite a few books on the deeper meaning of Pooh. I haven't read any of them, but I'll see if I can get hold of one or two of them. I am still working through Pillars of the Earth, but so far so good. I did get my bedroom cleaned and organized this weekend. I started Friday night and finished up on Saturday. I was surprised that it went as quickly as it did. Of course, its easy to clean/organize when you are throwing half the crap out!

One quick note on the rock tumbling. For something that sounds so cut-and-dried, it is amazingly frustrating! I left the tumbler on while I was on vacation and one of the parts melted on me. (I think it was designed to melt easily to avoid the motor burning up.) Of course, the parts are only sold by the manufacturer and the ONLY way to order them is through the mail. No Phone calls. No website. No emails. I have to get my order in the mail soon.

Back From The Beach

Well folks, I know its been awhile since my last post, but I have good reason, honestly. I was on vacation. And no, there was no easy Internet access. I went to the outerbanks of NC. Nags Head to be exact. In theory, they have free WIFI access throughout the town. Unfortunately, no one explained that to the cottage I was staying in. My computer could detect the signal, but it was to weak to do anything with. Oh well......
Except of the lack of Internet (actually not a big deal) the vacation was absolutely wonderful. The weather cooled off enough so that the days were warm and not hot and the nights were perfect sleeping weather. The surf was just enough so that most of the "big" people could enjoy themselves, but small enough so that we did not have to worry about all the "little" people. The water temperature was just warm enough so that you could stay in it all day if you wanted to. I was out there with most of my extended family and friends. There is nothing quite like breakfast for 20 or so people every morning! I did bring a couple of books and little projects to work on ( studying Latin), but didn't finish any of the books and did not even attempt to study Latin. I was the King of Doing Nothing.
One of the odd things about this year's beach week was that a niece and nephew both turned 21 this past year and both were present and accounted for. It is a little disconcerting when you have that first drink with a niece or nephew. I was happy to be able to share brew with them. It was a lot of fun to see people who were really enjoying their drinks simply because the "newness" hadn't worn off yet. Hopefully we old timers were able to show them that you really can have more fun when you drink responsibly. The old timers feeling, however, was not so much fun. It doesn't seem that long ago that both of these kids were scared to death of the ocean and would not even get close to the water. It seems like yesterday when I was carrying them out into the water because it was always over their heads. Oh well, what's one to do. Can't stop time.

Winnie-the-Pooh

I just finished reading Winnie-The-Pooh by A A Milne. It is actually the first time I have read the book. I have seen the TV shows, but I have never actually read the book. I chose the book because it was on the MLA (Museum and Library Association) list of 100 top books to read. (There were actually about 14 books on my list I took to the library. Out of the 14 books on the list, there were only two available at the library.) Winnie-the-Pooh is as endearing as everyone says it is. It exudes wholesomeness. You feel like a kid again when you read the book. However, there was one thing about the book that I couldn't quite figure out. The whole time I was reading the book, I got the feeling that I was missing something. I felt like there was some hidden message in the book that I was missing. Have you ever walked in at the tail end of a funny story and everyone is laughing, but you have no idea what the heck is going on? That is how I felt when I was reading Pooh. Everyone was enjoying the "hidden" message, but I had no idea what was going on. I am going to have to see if anyone has dissected Pooh; maybe there are hidden thoughts and ideas in the stories. Did A A Milne have a agenda with Pooh, or is it just my own flights of fancy? If anyone out there has any leads, I'd appreciate hearing them.

The Dog Days of Summer

I can hardly believe that it is already August. Didn't the summer just start a little while ago? August is not one of my favorite months. Mostly because here in Raleigh, it is to hot, to muggy and there are way to many skeeters out. You really cannot fully understand and appreciate the term "dog days of summer" until you spend an August and September in central NC. Most of the gardens are spent because of the heat. They are waiting for the cooler weather of October to pick back up again. The mosquitoes swarm around any body of water bigger than a soda bottle cap. They are just waiting for you to step outside to commence an unrelenting attack. Repellent works fine, but after using it May thru July already you get really tired of smelling like DEET. Even walking the puppy dogs is a chore. They are not very interested in walking around for an hour or so when it is about 90, but considering it doesn't really start cooling off around here until about 10p, we don't have a lot of choice. Some things just have to happen; a dog walk is one of them. It's not even comfortable eating at an outdoor restaurant in the evening. The heat and humidity simply hang around to long in the evening.

It used to be that February was my least favorite month because of the cold and short days. I think that is probably gonna change. August is probably gonna take the honors as my least favorite month. Can one hibernate thru a summer month?

Welcome to Monday

Usually, I do not mind Mondays. It may take me awhile to get out of bed in the morning, but that is usually the extent of my Monday blues. Today was an exception, a big exception. I do not know what it was today, but everyone wanted to argue, complain, piss and moan or need to be hand held thru everything. For those of you unfamiliar with me, I work in customer service. Specifically, I work in a call center doing customer service. Yes, I am one of "those" people that everyone loves to hate. I realize that EVERYONE has a horror story about their calls to this call center or that call center. I also realize that some of those stories are actually the fault of the customer service agent. But folks, let me explain something about our fair country, we have a lot of stupid people here. We have a lot of people who do not read (not cannot, that is a different story). Everyone has at some time done something incredibly stupid and then called to get it fixed. I can handle stupid people, you get used to them in my business. I can handle people who will not read; I have read more than one form word for word to them. I can certainly handle when otherwise intelligent people make really stupid mistakes. What really gets me is when people blame their mistakes on us. It is NOT bad customer service when I remind you that you were the one that sent in the wrong form to us, even though you insist you sent in the right form. It is NOT bad customer service when I tell you the form you sent in was incomplete, even though you insist it was complete, and I have a copy up in front of me. It is NOT bad customer service when I tell you we need certain information to complete the transaction. There is a reason we require that information and no, it is not debatable.

Folks, next time you talk to your friendly customer service agent on the phone, please remember that most of us are well trained, hard working people. There is a lot we can do to help you out, but we will not be able to fix everything all the time. And, please, don't blame us for your own mistakes.

The Dogs of War

As a bonafide, papered Hokie, I feel compelled to comment on the situation with Michael Vick and his indictment on dog fighting charges.

My first comment is that we have a responsibility to allow the legal system to proceed. Trying a person in the media may sell a lot of things, but it is not justice. The basis of our system is still that someone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Now, I am not going to get into a discussion about the state of out legal system right now, so if you have any comments about that, save them for a later discussion. My point is that regardless of all the facts, stories, innuendos, and interviews that are in the media right now, it is still up to the courts to determine his guilt.

My second comment is that dog fighting, or any animal fighting, is unnecessarily brutal and culturally unacceptable. I understand that some forms of animal fighting have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. However, societies and cultures change over time. This is one competition that is not acceptable any longer. If individuals want to watch a bloody, vicious fight, all they have to do is attend a professional wrestling match, a boxing match, or one of the new "ultimate" fighting matches. All of those sports (some more loosely termed sport than others) contain enough skill, blood, violence and betting potential to satisfy any person's blood lust. The one thing they do not regularly contain is the prospect of death. It is unusual for a contestant (combatant) in one of those events to die during the match. It is not so with dog fighting. If someone wants to participate in a violent event, they should learn to wrestle, they should learn to box, they should learn to fight. In short, the should have the balls to put their own blood and sweat on the line. Anything else and they are simply sorry-assed, ignorant couch potatoes.

A larger Perspective

Take a look at Galaxyzoo.org. It is a site where you can help astronomers categorize galaxies. That's right, the all knowing, all powerful Wizards of Oz need some help from the Munchkinlanders. We get the chance to assist in figuring out how all of "this" came about. Its actually pretty interesting to us amateur science geeks out here. OK, its interesting to me. I'm sure there are a lot more"me's" out there that a lending a hand with this. It'll be interesting to see how many people end up volunteering.



The premise is relatively straight forward. Advances in astronomy have led to a massive surplus of images that need to be categorized. There are not enough grad students with the time, nor professors with the research budgets to hire them to look at even a small fraction of them each year. That is where all us munchkinlanders come in. The people over at GalaxyZoo have developed an easy to use program that allows rank amateurs to categorize galaxies with a simple click of a mouse. They have simplified the categories to six options. After a short tutorial, we are turned loose onto the universe, literally.



It is actually quite a zen-like time. Can you think of better time to contemplate your navel than when you are looking at image after image of one galaxy after another? All you have to do is decide spiral or elliptical? Do your bit to further our understanding of life, the universe and everything (thank you Douglas Adams). Check out Galaxyzoo.org.

Rock and Roll and Tumble

One of the things that the Marquise and I did on our trip to Grandfather Mountain was to visit the Emerald Village. (It is not down the Yellow Brick Road from the Emerald City). It is this touristy place waaay back in the mountains where you can purchase a bucket of rocks and "pan" for gems and minerals. The buckets are "enriched" so that everyone will get something. The higher priced the bucket, the more it is "enriched". It sounds kinda gimmicky, but it is actually very enjoyable. Not the most exciting time, but its kinda like gambling, you never know when you might hit the jackpot.

Well, we brought our loot home and we had to decide what to do with all these rocks. Well, the Marquise and I are smart, talented (sort of) and fairly crafty (you decide which definition), so we decided to polish the rocks and see if we can make some kind of Christmas presents from them. So, to that end, I started researching how to polish rocks. Everything I found was that we would need a rock tumbler and about a month's time spent tumbling the rocks. The Marquise and I thought we could do better than that, so we bought one of those rotary tools and proceeded to grind and polish away. Sometimes, it is not a good idea to strike out on your own. There is a lot to be said about building on other people's experience. If you haven't figured it out, the rotary tool was less than successful. It was not a complete failure, but it would have been very difficult to achieve the results we wanted. We ended up buying one of the small rock tumblers at a local craft place and some of our gems are happily tumbling away right now. I'll let y'all know how everything works out in a month or so.

A Week Ago

A week ago, I was happily working away on my latin studies. I had progressed thru the major declensions for nouns (masculine, femine and neuter) and was getting pretty confident that I was progressing well. Ya know, it is really amazing how much information one can forget in one week's time. Because of the Highland Games, getting braces on, watering the flowers, and various other reasons, I was not able to study my latin for a week. Big mistake. Very big mistake. I looked at the next section in the text and I was , well, lost. I actually had to go to a different textbook and start over again to "refresh" myself. The primary text I am using does not have a lot of exercises and I felt that if I went back over the same examples, I would not have to think about the answers as much. So I am "starting over" again for the third time. Let's see how things progress this time.

Highland Games

Well, I made it thru the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games! It was quite an experience. Especially since I am not Scottish. I figured that since I am half Irish and since I was "adopted" by a member of clan Davidson and because I am just so much fun at a party that it would be all right for me to show up. We, the Marquise and I, really did not get a chance to see much of the games part of the festivities. Most of the events were held early/mid morning and since we were staying in Burnsville at the Carolina Country Inn, about 40 miles away, we did not make it to any of the morning events. We did manage to attend both of the Celtic Rock concerts (Fri and Sat nites) and a couple of the concerts at one or more of the Groves. The Celtic Rock concerts that were organized by GMHG were really phenomenal! I don't think I have ever really seen a concert/festival quite so organized or efficient. Each night, they had the bands set up on two or three stages right next to each other. As soon as one band finished, the next band was ready to take "their" stage and start right up. While the second band was playing, the first band was taking down their equipment and the next band was setting up. The only delay was listening to the MC give intros/instructions. Thanks to GMHG, we were introduced to several bands we had not had the pleasure of hearing before. The two I especially liked were Coyote Run and Barley Juice. If you ever get a chance to attend one of their shows, make sure you go. You will not be disappointed.



A quick note about beer. Several of the counties in the area are "dry". You cannot buy alcohol in those counties. The GMHG is in one of those counties. Getting a drink can be difficult. Let me tell you of our adventure. On Saturday, we left the games and went to eat dinner (at a wonderful mexican place, I'll get the name later (Los Arcoiris)). We had a beer with dinner. We decided to stop at the Solo gas station down the road from the restaurant to get a couple of beers for the evening concerts. That particular store did not sell alcohol because they were morally opposed to alcohol. We were OK with that. We got back into my faithful truck and headed on down the road to the next store. Well, the next store was also in the next county and the next county was a dry county. The overworked and tired employee explained the situation to us and told us that if we went 4.3 miles down the road, we would be in yet again another county, but that this one allows the sale of beer and that there would be a grocery store at the end of our little "yellow brick road". My esteemed traveling companion and I were at this point, naturally, quite determined to get our beer. We did find it a little odd that the employee knew that it was exactly 4.3 miles (I checked with the trusty odometer) to the closest place to get beer. I have a feeling that that particular grocery store makes a bundle by selling beer and alcohol to the good residents one county over.



Let me take a moment to give some kudos to the Carolina Country Inn and Burnsville. The Inn there is really, really nice. To be honest, I was not expecting a whole lot considering the price range for the rooms. However, the management have kept the rooms up wonderfully and maintained the atmosphere of the "mom and pop" motels that used to be so plentiful. If you EVER find yourself heading in their direction, check them out.



Burnsville is a another wonderful surprise. There are wonderful views all throughout the town. The people are extremely friendly. The two restaurants we ate at we very good. We had lunch at the Garden Deli on Saturday and breakfast at the Hilltop Restaurant on Sunday. They have a surprisingly vibrant downtown. We took a quick walk thru on Sunday (most stores were closed, of course) and only saw one, maybe two empty store fronts. Considering any downtown of comparable size in eastern NC would probably have a majority of the stores empty, that is a great achievement. All in all, my hat is off to the good people of Burnsville, from what I saw, they all have a great community.

Highland games and Albannach

Well, I am off to the Highland Games festival this weekend. The Marquise and I are headed over that way on Friday and we'll be back on Sunday. This will be the first festival for both of us and I am ready to get going. One of the main attractions this year (a repeat from what I can tell of last year) is the band Albannach. They are a group of 5 drummers and 1 bagpipe player. The first time I heard them was at Tir Na Nog last October. When we arrived, there was no table left except directly in front of the band. There was a reason it was still open. I was to naive to realize why: they are very (VERY) loud. Check out their website and you will see why. They play great, big, huge drums. I would say "manly" drums, but one of the band members is a woman, so "manly" is out. It took a couple of days for my hearing to get back to normal. I bet my hearing is gonna go about a year earlier than scheduled because of those folks!

One of the reasons I bring them up now is that they are currently in the middle of their US tour. I listen to a lot of Celtic music and I am a big fan of Highlander Radio. I have noticed in the past week or two that they are playing Albanach's music much more. I didn't really think about it until just a little while ago. About a nonth or so ago, I was wondering why I never heard them on Highlander radio and now I hear them at least once every time I tune in. They must be having a really good tour!

Well, I gotta go. I'll let ya'll know how things go at the Highland Games.

A Great 4th of July

Well, all, I had a really good 4th of July holiday. I was able to spend the day with two great friends, Meg and the Marquise.

I went over to Meg's place that afternoon. She recently adopted a very pretty kitty she has named Gustav (I'll see if she'll let me post a picture of Gustav). Her father is somewhat of a tinker and built her a kitty condo. Now, her father lives several states away so he dissassembled the **** thing and mailed it to her. It is my job as the resident testosterone generator and repository to put this kind of stuff together for her. So, I loaded my little bundle of joy, AJ (a 85 lb goldendoodle) and off we went to Meg's place. You kinda need to know that AJ's experience with cats is that he chases them and they run away from him. He has never gotten face to face with a cat before!!! (I knew this was gonna be fun) I really have to give Gustav a lot of credit, he (all 2 lbs) stood up to AJ very admirably. Needless to say, it turned out that AJ was relatively well behaved and Gustav finally decided he was OK and started to "stalk" AJ's tail. Well, in between AJ wanting to be petted/played with and Gustav wanting to play with AJ's tail, the kitty condo was finally assembled. I DO NOT certify that it will stay assembled, but it is assembled right now.

So after performing my responsibilities and assisting the damsel in distress, we went out for lunch and parted ways.

That evening, I met up with the Marquise for dinner and drinking and Hercules Mulligan. We decided to eat at Carraba's Italian Grill (mostly because it was next the Hibernian). Neither of us had been there before, so it was a new experience. I was not the brightest bulb in the restaurant that night. I have mentioned before that I am in the process of getting braces (read the post below), well, my teeth still hurt. Friends, do not eat a house salad with carrots and celery when your teeth hurt. Very Bad. Very, Very Bad. However, the entree was great, the salad dressing was much better on bread than on the salad. The sangria was good (a bit expensive) and the Marquise made damn sure that every drop was poured from the pitcher.

After dinner we walked down the road a bit to the Cary Hibernian to cheer on our favorite band Hercules Mulligan. The beer was good (Paulaner Heffe-Weisz), the band was even better, the irish carbomb (Guinness and irish cream) sucked. The beer is not something I would really want to drink all the time, but it was good for the evening. It didn't get upset that it had to share a room with sangria, if ya get my drift. The band was really good last night. We had a really responsive crowd and Chris K. was determined he was gonna have a good time and determined the rest of us were gonna have a good time also. He started off with a rousing rendition of "Star Spangled Banner". I can honestly say that I have never been in a bar before when the anthem was sung. It is a lot more intimate than at a ball game with 50 or 60 thousand of your closest friends. And finally the carbomb, oh the carbomb. Just say no! Every once in a while you come accross a concoction that just doesn't work. A half/quarter pint of Guinness and a shot of irish creme just don't mix.

This Wednesday, July 4th

For those of you in the Triangle area that don't want to put up with the heat, parking, and crowds of the public fireworks display (please do not have your own fireworks display due to the lack of rainfall) come on out to the Cary Hibernian restaurant and enjoy Hercules Mulligan. They are the best Irish-Bluegrass band with an upright bass in the Triangle!!!!

Braces

I have decided to get braces on my teeth to correct some major overcrowding and crookedness. I didn't decide just now, its actually been a rather long drawn out affair. I contemplated, I hemmed and hawed, I talked to my mom. After much deliberation and my mom agreeing to pay for them, I made the decision to get braces.

I went to my friendly orthodontist for a preliminary check and the first thing she said was that the "preferred" treatment for my condition was surgical. I.E. they would break my jaw. It did not take to much thought to rule that option out. So I am now at the beginning of option two. I have already had 4 teeth removed. Yes, 4 teeth. I knew I was in trouble when the dentist extracting the teeth told me I had "really dense bone structure". Well, i made it thru the extractions with the usual and customary discomfort. After about a week, my jaw was pretty much back to normal.

I am now waiting for the bands to get put on my teeth next week. I had to go into the office today to have"spacers" put between my teeth. They look like tiny blue plastic washers. They went in OK. However, they are annoying as all get out. Imagine having 6 pieces of (insert food remnant of your choice) stuck between your teeth and NOT being able to get rid of them for a week and a half! I have had them in for not quite 12 hours and they are already driving me crazy. I keep telling myself that all of this is actually worth it. I'll let you know in 2 years.

A new mantra for me: I will look good with straight teeth. I WILL look good with straight teeth. I will LOOK good with straight teeth.

Oh Noooooooo!

All that stuff I said before about my latin coming back to me? Well forget I said that! I got 19 pages into the text, yes 19, and became completely and totally lost. I could not rember any of the vocabulary, none of the declensions and could not rember what the dative case was used for. I had to scrap everything and start over from scratch. This time, I have taken things a little slower and I am actually writing (yuck) stuff down to help me remember. The keyboard sure is quicker, but the information does not travel from the keys to my brain the same way information travels from the pen to my brain.

It would be interesting to see if anyone has done a study about that. Is there a difference in the retention of information that is hand written versus typed? If there is one, I bet you would find a big age difference between "computer babies" and "pre-computer babies". That is people who had/use computers at a very early age would probably retain information better that they type in versus us "older" folks that didn't really use computers until college or late high school. Since computers were just entering the high schools when I was a junior/senior, I am probably about the last generation that had to take notes completely by hand. Heck, we still had typing class! With typewriters!!!!! We were such philistines.

Salve!

I started working on another of my things to do, learn latin. I found this interesting site, http://www.textkit.com/ that is dedicated to helping people learn latin and greek (ancient not modern or biblical). Its a seems a pretty good site or at least it has a lot of resources posted. I will see how good the site actually is as I go through my lessons. To be honest I feel more than slightly geeky when I go that website. However, there are about 1300 people that have listed learning latin as one of the things they want to do, so I have at least some company. I also have to be honest, I am cheating slightly. I had 2 years of latin in HS. However, that was a LOOONG time ago. (or at least it seems like an eternity now) It is funny how things actually do start comming back after looking through the lessons. Unfortunately, my memory likes to get things all bass-ackwards from time to time. Its a little strange having something pop into my mind and thinking my memory is really better than I thought, only to realize that my synapses short-circuited and I have things all jumbled together.



If you hadn't guessed by now, I am taking a break from my "studies". Maybe my synapses just need a beer. I'll talk to ya'll later.

Carpe Diem

OK folks, here I go. I can officially cross the first item off my 43 things to do before I die list. Although I haven't actually MADE the list yet, so I am not sure I can cross this off. Well, once I make my list, one of the things that will be on it is to start a blog.



I am not real sure where all of this is actually going to lead. A good friend of mine has been blogging for some time now. One of the links from her blog goes to 43things.com. Now, I have seen that link for probably over a year now and we have discussed it off and on. I actually went to the site for the first time the other day. After perusing the site for awhile, I thought I should give it a try. So here I am, whether you are ready or not. You will hear about my trials and tribulations as I try to whittle away at my list, as well as some commentary on current events that make me go "Hmmmmm".

Time to go and make my list..