My Poopy Voicemail

Thank You Very Mulch

So, Saturday I started working outside on a little project I've been meaning to take a stab at for a few weeks.

The dreaded swing-set landscaping project.

Well, I marked off an area that was roughly 16'x24' as I had originally planned on using some simple landscaping lumber to create an edge. Well, after removing all that sod (nearly 400 square feet of the crap), I realized the simple rectangle wouldn't work. So I consulted Yvonne (who was shopping in town at the time) and she agreed to not use an edge. Something everyone else seemed to think of well before me.

So I curved it out around the slide and see-saw (as those areas were a little too close to the edge) and began to spray the weed killer. I doubt it will help much, but hey, every little bit counts. From there, Dad helped haul the first 15 bags of mulch to the site. That went down after installing the weed fabric. More mulch. More fabric. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Multiply that by Sunday's re-mulching the flower bed next to the swing set.

In the end, I removed close to 600 square feet of sod and weeds. I put down about 200 linear feet of weed fabric. I put down 43 bags of Norfleet shredded hardwood mulch (3 cubic feet per bag). And I spent way more money than I wanted.

What was fun about this project? Seeing Elizabeth play on the slide, pick flowers, and working outside with my lovely wife. While I'm sore today, I'm glad I can cross it off my list.

Sonogram scans

Here are the latest sonogram scans from last week. You can see some of them are "3D" but they look kind of wierd to me. Well, they all do I guess.

Anyway, here they are.

And no, none of these show the sex of the baby. Click here if you want to see that.

A hand.

A "3D" profile.

Another "3D" profile.

Another hand.

A foot.

Baby and Weekend Update

I'll start with the update from this weekend first just to keep everyone in suspense (keep your pants on cinda.....I'm working on the post right now).

Saturday the three of us (well, three and a half I guess) did a lot of shopping. Yvonne and Elizabeth went to swim class while I did a few loads of laundry. Then we went to town to get some lunch at Goolrick's (one of Elizabeth's favorite places to eat). From there we went to the Chocolate Extravaganza, a fundraiser for the local SPCA. Local companies bring in their chocolate desserts and sell them to raise money. Items ranged from brownies to chocolate covered strawberries to huge pieces of cake. Lots of good food.

From there we went down to the fire station to climb on the fire engines. Well, just as we got on one, they got beeped out so we had to leave. Yvonne and Elizabeth went back to the van while I went to the antique book shop and bought more ephemera (a whopping $8 worth).

After that, we all drove over to the mall where Yvonne ran in for a quick return while Elizabeth crashed in the back seat. She woke up to go into the Dollar Tree for more clothes for her Barbie. Then we went to Best Buy and bought a new vacuum (Hoover Wind Tunnel 2 if I remember right). Then grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and a stop at Carl's for a shake on the ride home.

Woof.

Yesterday was just about as busy. We cut the grass, put down new mulch in the flower beds (after they got weeded), and burned more brush. I also broke the weed eater just as I was finishing. Great. Elizabeth's sandbox (or "sand turtle box" as she called it) also got moved and opened, just to make sure nothing was living inside. Yvonne and Elizabeth also went through a bunch of clothes, trying to sort them out and get them boxed in totes (still working on that one). And that was about it.

Oh, yeah, the sex of the baby!


Don't read if you don't want to know the sex of the new baby. And, yes, there are people that do not want to know. Right now, Yvonne's parents don't want to know, so don't ruin it for them. Please.


Spoiler Warning ahead!






















Are you ready? It's a boy.

Now, I'm sure there's a lot of you out there that are thinking I'm very happy. Well, I am, but not as happy as you think I'd be. Maybe it hasn't set in yet, but it really didn't matter to me if we had a girl or boy. I just wanted the baby to be healthy.

But I am dreading the potty training already. I must be a wimp.

Oh, and the next post will have photos.

A vote for William is a vote against Jake Ryan

Vote now!

Please support my cause. My wife is trying to name our next child "Jake Ryan Richard" after the esteemed actor, Michael Schoeffling. Well, Jake Ryan is NOT my hero, nor my high school crush.

No matter how much the ladies think he's cute, I don't want my wife to use that dreadful line "Jake? Jake's my boy!" (from that classic 80's movie, Sixteen Candles). It's bad enough she wears socks that say "I love Jake." Come on, she's a married woman carrying our second child!

I myself would rather name our child "William." It's a good "classic" name that is seen throughout my family tree. And I think it would match Elizabeth (our 3 year old daughter) quite well.

So, vote now. Should it be William or Jake?

* Caution - we do not know the sex of the second baby at this time. Expect updates Friday.

It only takes one idiot

...to ruin people's lives.

Early this morning, the normal routine on the campus of Virginia Tech was rudely interrupted by gunfire. As of this afternoon, over 20 are dead with another 20+ injured.

The worst thing I had to fear in college were exams until the fire we had. That was pretty traumatic. But I was shocked even more when we heard about the school shooting down the road from us (April 24, 1998). We didn't know what to think.

I still get goosebumps thinking about the night I heard the sirens going down the road.

In the end, it only takes one idiot to ruin people's lives.

My Ephemera Album

So in my previous post I talked about my new ephemera collection. Albeit a small collection (a few letters), it was very cheaply acquired (less than $7).

After some initial research, I found notes relating to a Mayflower (as in the ship) family (not mine, but passengers on the boat).

Pretty cool.

But it gets better. I got a letter from one Marcia Davenport that, according to some preliminary research, could be worth about $50. Not a bad investment.

For those interested, I've uploaded the photos to my Picasa album. Enjoy reading (assuming you can decipher the handwriting).

Will I ever get back to writing?

I seriously hope so. I finally had enough free time today to edit War Wagon. The good news is I only have about 3 pages left to edit. The bad news is I have two major plot points that need to be worked out. The really bad news is I don't have the time or energy to write.

So I'm seriously hoping after the tax season monkey gets off my back, I'll be able to meet my goal of 3 pages a day. In looking at my overall goal of 100,000 words, I'm only at 17,000 words. That's 17%. Not a bad start, but I'm just too short on time to add much more at the moment.

Oh well.

In other news, by the end of this month:

- I'll be done with tax season
- I'll know the sex of our second child
- I'll be preparing to move to a new team, coach, and program at work
- I'll be preparing to have the roof replaced on the house

In short, I've got a few things on my plate to deal with. But I don't want it to impact my writing.

NIMBY

Some of you may know that NIMBY stands for "Not In My Back Yard." Well, we have one of those battles going on in King George (the county where I grew up and currently live). The Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail group has been hit hard by many citizens of the county, well, hating them and their supporters. The group is trying (and essentially has already completed) to convert an old railroad bed to a hiking and biking trail.

The land was taken from the original owners by the Federal government back in the day and was used for the Naval Base in Dahlgren. Well, times change, peace arrives, and it's no longer in service.

Enter the current owner, Joe Williams and "trail boss" David Brickley. They teamed up to make this great conversion that has the potential to be a great attraction for the county. Aside from having one of the only bridges across the Potomac River and a large Naval Base, we don't have much to offer. Well, there is the dump that takes in garbage from the entire east coast.

Anyway, the guys are just trying to do right by the trail in creating a place for people to bike, hike, run, walk, etc. in peace.

Now those opposing this have done some damage. They've cut trees, fired shots, the list goes on and I won't glorify their stupidity. In the end, they hate (or at least strongly dislike) the trail folks.

Enter DC and the Railroad Realignment Feasibility Study.

Oh? What's this? Homeland Security wants to re-route dangerous trains through King George? And they might use the old railroad bed?

Can you say IRONY!!!

While I'm not too keen on have trains loaded with dangerous things traveling through my county, they can't be any more dangerous that those trucks on the road. But part of me really wants the trains to come through these assholes backyards just so I can walk by their house and say "See? You could have played nice and had people going by on bikes. And look what you have now. A huge train, blaring it's horn, roaring through your back yard at 3 am. Happy now? I am!"

Just cross out the little hiker on this map and put in a nice large CSX engine or two.

Ephemera

You can start here with a definition.

Why do I mention this word? Well, I've always been interested in the stuff. It's very much like people-watching (something I've always enjoyed). But with ephemera, you can only see what's on the page. Which means you need to look at their handwriting, tone of voice, content, punctuation, everything gives you a little glimpse into their life at that one moment.

So far, my hardest part has been finding a reason to go buy the stuff. There's a store in old town Fredericksburg that has a nice little stash of it and whenever I get the chance to go there, I always take a peek. Granted, they also sell some nice antique books (another interest of mine) but my collecting in that genre has drastically dropped.

So today after eating breakfast with Dad, I walked down the street to have a peek. I didn't even look at the books, but did buy some handwritten letters, most dating back to the early 1900s. And yes, I did come up with an excuse. RESEARCH!!

Same reason I picked up a book on the American West. Research for War Wagon. I've already read the letters and have a few things that sparked ideas. Most of which I'll likely find a way to include in my story.

I may head back tomorrow for more browsing, but I feel good with the stash I have so far. I've already back-tracked the one sheet of genealogy info to an original passenger on the Mayflower. And while the book I got is a bit cartoony at times, I'm probably just as excited about it as I am the letters from a stranger.

So, that's my adventure for today. Ephemera.

For my Russian readers

Right, like I have any of those.

But if you know Russian, well, maybe your ears won't bleed as bad as mine.



via Fantent.com

Viral Video Genius Vilified Voraciously

Kevin "Nalts" Nalty, a native of south-eastern PA (we'll keep his exact location secret), is a self-proclaimed Viral Video Genius. I've seen him do stupid bits (like how to kill an animal) to pure comedic genius (think candid camera of a kid with a fart machine).

In no way do I feel my videos "measure up" to his. But I do take on a sense of pride seeing as my wife (and family) are from PA (including a sister-in-law in Macungie).

Anyway, for all those Nalts fans out there, I think we need to start a Pool of our own. Kevin has been getting progressively more and more "ballsy" with his videos. He's escalated from the video of Spencer stealing fries (but he told the employees) to crawling through an airport (with no notification to local law enforcement).

I can totally see Kevin doing his best to talk his way out of a hairy situation with camera in hand (or sitting unseen on a shelf). But when will he get arrested? When will the cops finally say enough is enough, you've crossed the line, put these silver bracelets on?

So I open this pool to you the fans (like me) who think Kevin has one a step beyond his normal routine and is now "officially" pushing the envelope.

Simply reply with your best guess when Kevin "Nalts" Nalty will end up in the back of a squad car having his Miranda Rights read to him.

Thunder leads to Starbucks

Oh yeah, I've lost it. Completely. After sleeping for a good 3 hours last night, the dog decided to shake and quiver from the approaching thunderstorms.

Which meant he ended up spending most of the night in his cage.

And after an hour of finally getting comfortable enough Elizabeth decided to wake up, scared to death of the lightning and thunder.

Which meant a couple of hours of laying in bed with a kid kicking and tossing around.

Not fun for anyone.

After finally getting her back in bed, we were able to sleep. For an hour or so.

Then the alarm clock sounded the end of my slumber.

How did this all lead to Starbucks?

I had to resort to drinking one of their frappuccino drinks to get a boost of go juice (aka caffeine).

I write like I puke

I write like I puke.

The title says it all.

It was one of those epiphanies I had yesterday driving home that I don't write. I just puke up a bunch of words. They pour out of my system in a rush all mixed up and scatter all over. And, like vomiting, there are earthquake-like after-pukes that stem from the first one. Smaller, not as violent, but there's still an out rush of words, pouring out, scattering all over.

Well, I may have heaved my last this week. In looking over what I've written so far, I pleased with the story, but not the progress. It's like I've gotten the poison peanut out of my system, but I can't quite get rid of that queasy smell.

So in an attempt to make things flow better, I've decided to set aside the outpouring of words from my fingers and instead focus on organizing the story. A pre-planning of puke if you will. Like a teenage girl with an eating disorder, I need to focus on puking these words up everyday. I need goals I can achieve.

So my daily writing goal is going to be 3 pages.

And I've failed already. It's like the dry heaves. Nothing comes out no matter how hard I try.

So my new goal is to organize what I've already puked up. Which is like trying to re-assemble that slice of pizza after it's been in your stomach for a few hours. The pepperoni might be easy to spot, but the pizza sauce is going to be hard to pick out.

But in the end, I should have a decent outline. Something I should have done to start with according to nearly every doctor I've spoken to and read. Plan the puke first, then puke, then polish.

So I'm hoping to take a vomit vacation of sorts and get my ideas in a neat little outline.

Maybe then my daily hurl won't hurt so much.

Anyone want spaghetti?

* I take no responsibility for loss of appetite resulting in the reading of this post.

I'm a bad, bad boy-edited-

Today, my wife and I committed a crime.

Nothing too serious, especially considering we haven't been caught yet.

What was the crime? Well, let me start with last Tuesday to keep you occupied.

-edited-

-edited-So I stayed at home, wrote and edited in War Wagon, put Elizabeth's swing set together, and pulled some weeds. Not very productive, but the weather was great (in the 70s).

Which brings us to today's crime.

-edited-

I love my partner in crime. I really do.

Now I need to find something nice for her birthday.

PS - I didn't find a new car, but I'm looking at another one tomorrow morning. Two actually. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And my toes for the second one.

Why aren't you at your post?

Yes, I copy.

And yes, I'm still here.

But tax season is kicking my butt again this year. Stress is neither a good friend nor a good enemy.

After a very long week last week, I had both days off this weekend. Which meant catching up on everything at home. In other words, my weekend wasn't long enough. I need a day off from my day off.

The good news is, most of the laundry is done. The dishes are done (for now). I got to see Bye, Bye Birdie at the Riverside. I'm still re-reading the last of the Seventh Sword series by Dave Duncan but eagerly awaiting a new book for a change. Maybe something Star Wars.

Elizabeth's birthday is coming up (she's already saying "I turn three in April" -- smarty pants) as is Yvonne's. We (the grandparents and in-laws) got her a swing set, which means I'll be putting that together.

I just watched Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, The Departed, and Children of Men online at work. And The Departed was the best. Casino Royale was a junk hand, Blood Diamond was decent but heavy on the blood and gore, Children of Men had a decent firefight scene but lacked a strong story, and The Departed had so many double and triple crosses I didn't know who was going to die next.

The list goes on.

And in the end, there's always something to add to the list.

So here's to crossing off more than you write down.

And that's why I'm not at my post.

PS - I'm looking for a good, used, Chevy Suburban. Leather interior. Captain's chairs in the middle row. Drop me a line with any leads in the local Fredericksburg area.

Bald Eagles

For those that don't know, I live in the Northern Neck of Virginia, specifically King George County. We are the home to several bald eagles, most reside in Caledon State Park.

I've seen them fairly close at the Denver Zoo, but never that close in the wild.

Until today.

I had just pulled out of the driveway and was no more than a mile from the house when cruising in the opposite direction, at about 20 feet above the road surface, was a huge bald eagle. The white head and tail was very distinct. After trying not to swerve and brake right off the road, I composed myself and continued driving to work.

I think I would have pooed my pants if I wasn't in a car. Those things are BIG!

Another War Wagon Update

It's been a while since I've updated everyone on my "top secret" story. Guess it's that time.

I wrote about 1,000 words today, not much, but I wasn't really feeling it. I'm approaching 15,000 words total (that's 36 pages mom) and I'm quickly finding that I have a lot more to write. I just need to find the time and motivation to get it on paper.

I've also been getting some very impressive help from Epheros. He's been kind enough to take the time to not only read some rough drafts of my story, but has taken it a step further and given great feedback around my content, writing style, and so many other things I didn't think about.

In other news...........

I seemed to have pulled something in my back. Usually my lower back hurts from time to time, depending on how I sleep (we have an insanely soft mattress that I hate). Well, somehow I did something to my shoulder/upper back. Painful enough that I've considered taking something for the pain, but bearable enough I only cringe in pain when I get into or out of the car.

In other news...........

I caught a pretty good show on TV (for a change). BBC America (BBCA) has a nifty show called Robin Hood. While I see Errol Flynn or Kevin Costner as the best Robin Hoods ever made (one old and one new), this is a pretty good show. Granted, I've only seen one episode so far, it's good enough that I want to watch more. Maybe I'll get the DVD (due out tomorrow).

And that's about it for now.

Boring lives lead to healthy imaginations.

Another Meme

Yes, thanks to Epheros I've another meme invading my brain. I saw the original over at Erik's Live Journal, but decided to skip it. Guess my luck ran out.

The "getting to know you" meme.

1. Can you cook?

2. What was your dream growing up?

3. What talent do you wish you had?

4. Favorite place?

5. Favorite vegetable?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. What zodiac sign are you?

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?

9. Worst Habit?

10. Do we know each other outside of Livejournal?

11. What is your favorite sport?

12. Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15. Tell me one weird fact about you.

16. Do you have any pets?

17. Do you know how to do the Macarena?

18. What time is it where you are now?

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21. Would you be my partner in crime or my conscience?

22. What color eyes do you have?

23. Ever been arrested?

24. Bottle or Draft?

25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?

26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?

27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?

28. Do you believe in ghosts?

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30. Do you swear a lot?

31. Biggest pet peeve?

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33. In one word, how would you describe me?

34. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

Now the ultimate test is to see how many people respond. My bet is 1, maybe 2.

YouTube Ganks User

Well, I'm not too terribly surprised, but I am disappointed. A particular user on YouTube (pillar93) had their account toasted due to their continual uploading of Jericho episodes. Full episodes. Copyrighted episodes. A big no-no.

But I don't see the big deal. CBS offers full episodes (for free) online and I'm grateful they do that.

But now I have nothing to watch at work.

Stupid streaming videos don't work, despite my being on a T1 line.

Oh well. You can read the back story here if you'd like.