I think I'll call him....

....Rocky.

Here is opponent number 1, measuring in at 13 and 3 quarters inches, thick, lush, wet and green....the current reigning champion.....The Unkempt Backyard.

(whooo hooo, yeaaaah-- try as he might, Rocky's operator is unable to sway the surrounding audience members to join in the booing and hissing)


And in this corner we have opponent number 2, with 10" wheels and 5 rotating blades and a 20" cutting width....Rocky!

(The boo's ring through the audience --Rocky's operator is the only one cheering. He abruptly stops as he sees a heavy shouldered man who looks disturbingly like Tony Soprano lift his meaty right hand--complete with pinky ring-- and taps his extended index finger on pursed lips.)



Battle ensues. Unkempt Backyard left no mercy for little Rocky's debut fight. Left. Right. Left, left, left. Hook. Slippery grass. Whhttsh, whttsh, whhttsh was the sound of Rocky's parry's and counter attacks. Whhttsh, whttsh, whttsh. Slippery, wet grass. Choked blades. Whhttsh, whhtsh.

The operator huffed and puffed with arms straining throwing Rocky into a towering opponent. Whhttsh, whttsh, whttsh. Rocky didn't give up. He fought. He knocked a path down and caught the deliquent blades on subsequent passes. Whttsh, whttsh, whttsh. His voice was stronger now, whttttsh, whttttsh, whttttsh as his opponent was beaten back against the ropes.

However Rocky grew tired, deliquent blades remained defiant. He was the little engine that could, whttttsh, whttttsh, whttttsh. Rocky fought and fought. In the end, Rocky was declared the winner despite the subprime conditions for his debut fight.



Above you can see Rocky stand tall, with his defeated opponent wailing for mercy in the background. Rocky retired to the shed for a few days off and hoped before his next battle he would receive some precious WD-40...however, lubrication or no, he knew he wouldn't be given an uphill fight like that again for some time.

whoomp here it is!!

shaka lacka shaka lacka shaka whoomp!!

I am now the proud owner of a 20" Scott's Reel Lawnmower!



Last night I was surfing the web looking at closet organizers thinking of ideas for Peanut's room and the spare room and I decided to check again and see what dear Mr. Google would bring me. I am so very glad that I did because I stumbled upon Craigslist and found this beauty for sale on the south side of town for 60 bucks; which is approximately 50% off of the regular sale price. Now that's a deal!

I'm not really one to say this much, if hardly at all, but God really helped me out on this one. I never would have found it his help.

I brought it home and Amanda even exclaimed how easy it is to use, but then immediately retracted that statement in hopes of never having to cut the grass. Not only that, but it's so light!


I spent some time testing it out here at our apartment and I am pleased with the results. It is easy to push and it really does CUT the grass! Finally, I feel like I'm doing something good for the environment.

And, the timing of this is all very good. We close on friday and when we stopped by our new house yesterday the grass wasn't cut....so we are wondering if the sellers are going to leave us with some hay to bale. Oh well, I will surely cut it with joy using my new lawnmower.

I'm elated!

I'm so elated right now. After church we got off our butts and drove up past our new house. Still looking good. Although I think they are going to let the lawn grow between now and the closing on friday. Oh well.

It was an excellent trip because we saw our new neighbor out and stopped and talked to her. She's a really nice lady and is the same age as us. Her and her husband both work and have a little girl who is probably less than a year and a half. So maybe Peanut will have a new playmate. She told us the neighborhood is really nice and a few things about some of the other neighbors. The nice part is she seemed welcoming, relaxed, easy-going and someone we can get along with. Not that we have problems with our current neighbors, but it's nice to know you aren't moving onto Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives).

We then cruised back through town and stopped and Sears and I checked out a reel lawnmower and Amanda checked out paint. This sales lady came by and asked if she could help with anything and I said "yea, can I test this thing outside?". So a manager came by and I got to test drive a reel lawnmower. I though it did a good job cutting, the clippings didn't coat my legs and it was easy to push. I tried to take a real careful look at it and see if there was a roller or some other part of it that would push the grass down before the scissor mechanism cut it, but there didn't seem to be one. I took it for what I thought was a good test drive and was very satisfied. So I went back it, looked and some paint colors with Amanda and then showed her my tracks outside and she seemed okay with it. Not that I was expecting some in depth lawn care tips from a girl who has probably never cut grass, but she was happy I was happy.

Not only that, but they have rechargeable weedwackers there too. So that's on my soon to get list as well.

do you ever....

Do you ever get mad when people don't reply to your emails? I do. I have this imaginary timetable set up in my head that starts ticking after I send an email to someone and when someone exceeds their maximum allotted time to reply I get flustered. This lasts for about 10 seconds then I realize that the rest of the world doesn't sit in front of a pc all day with their email open. The rest of the world might actually be busy or have to think about a reply causing them to exceed my allotted 24 hour turnaround time or better yet, have a life!

The funny part of this is that I'm on one extreme, and my wife is on the other. I'll send her an email about the house, or bills, or a meeting, or a party we are invited to and I get nothing. Emails sent to her are lost in this black abyss of cyberspace. It's funny.

For example, I'm sitting here composing a blog in one tab and I have my gmail open in another tab and I noticed that Mandy posted a comment on a previous entry. What does a nut like me do? I halt the writing of my latest post and go reply to her comment. Like she's going to wait 30 seconds and refresh the page in hopes that we may exchange comments via my blog.

Speaking of posting comments...I heard on NPR this morning that these net nerds are coming up with a code of conduct for posting comments on blogs to enforce civility. Here is an article about it. That's a good idea. People too quickly read an entry, lose their cool and feel the need to 1-up the other guy by blasting them in the comment section. Is it that important to be right all the time? Is it that important to show everyone how much smarter you are by proving others wrong? How about trying to understand the situation from both angles instead of forcing others to understand your viewpoint? The Big Picture, ya know?

What I think is interesting is the cojones that people suddenly grow when they are online posting comments. I've seen it before on car forums and on the Muscle and Fitness magazine forum. On the car forums guys will brag that they removed the governor on the throttle and did 130 with only 3 cylinders working. Then some wise ass counters with 'no way man' and chaos ensues. Similarly on the M&F forum some twit logs on there and says 'I'm 16 and weight 145 pounds and can bench press blah blah blah'. More chaos.

What makes people do this? Combine the anonymity of the internet with no supervision, no repercussions, the poster has center stage, arrogant know-it-all attitudes prevail, the whole thing snowballs and before you know it death threats are tossed around.

It's a good idea, it has merit...but then it has to be enforced. And what qualifies as a hostile comment? Oh, I'm going to think myself into a tizzy...time for bed.

So I'm trying to do the best that I know how and do something good for the environment by getting a reel lawnmower. Less noise, no engine, no gas to buy, weights less, cuts better and so on. Of course there are faults to it, but at this point the rest of the world, although they've tried their best, still hasn't discouraged me, so I'm going to purposely avoid mentioning the faults (the Titanic could have used a good iceberg radar, pish posh, let's not focus on the negative!).

I mention this at work to a couple of co-workers how I am trying to single handedly start an environmental revolution one backyard with my desire to purchase a reel lawnmower. My boss mentions how his neighbor used to have one and if I sent my him an email he'd pass it along to his neighbor and see if he was willing to sell it.

So I send my boss the following email:
****
Boss,

In an effort to give my new neighbors something to laugh at, I'm looking for a cheap/used rEEL lawnmower. Talk to your neighbor for me, thanks.

C
****
My boss sends along my email, however he prefaces it with the following:
****
Neighbor,

C is this young engineer that I work with that is just starting out his career. He is married, has a kid on the way and is just about to close on his first house. As such, he is still young and naive about many things. One of which is the allure of using a reel lawnmower. We discussed this the other day and I mentioned how my neighbor once had similar feelings and went out and purchased a reel lawnmower. I mentioned that it might still be hanging up in his garage and he might be willing to sell it to a fellow purist. Do you still have that thing?
****
My boss's neighbor replies back with:
****
To be more accurate, they should market them as "Reel Inefficient Lawn Mowers". It may have been just the brand I bought, but I could never get it to cut well. It did flatten the grass very nicely, momentarily, while it passed over.

No, I don't have it any longer. I sold it to some glassy eyed young homeowner at a garage sale for $10.

He could probably pick one up at a garage sale if he's not in too big a hurry. They are the best places to go to buy stuff like shovels, rakes, original prints of the Declaration of Independence (usually tucked behind some mediocre painting with a gaudy frame).
****

So there you have it. Foiled on my first attempt.

I should ask what brand he purchased. If I remember correctly, I think I've seen one in my Grandma's barn, maybe she'll be willing to part with it? We'll see.

Day 5

Saved by the Bell - The College Years!

How did that show ever stay on?

We really didn't do anything. Just sat around, laughed at Zach Morris's cheesy lines and selfish logic, grabbed some Panera, did some crosswords and caught our flights home.

It was awesome. Great trip. Want a 3 or 4 or 5 day weekend getaway? Go to Charleston, just not in August.

Oh, and at the Newark airport, 2 regular servings of Ben and Jerry's ice cream costs you 7.70. Seriously, don't they make enough on the parking? You should have seen how small the small was. It was more like a shot of ice cream. Seriously. The large just had 1 more scoop that what we got, but it was good. It's ridiculous the prices you'll pay for food while traveling.

Day 4

Saved by the Bell - Hawaii!!

We made it downtown again and took the ferry out to Fort Sumter. That was pretty cool. It was also pretty darn coincidental that we were there on the 146th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. I didn't remember from school that the Civil War started right there at Fort Sumter and what a big role Charleston played. I found the history of the city that day fascinating. It's funny how now that I'm an adult I enjoy walking through a museum and reading all of the information on the walls, whereas when I was a kid I just ran through there and wanted to go swimming or ride my bike.

Then we made our way over to The Citadel and drove by that. It looked pretty dumpy. I though it was going to be this jewel, but it looked pretty run down. Maybe we just drove by the ugly side. Maybe we were too hungry to really look closely and appreciate it.

Grabbed some lunch and then went on a carriage ride. It was pretty cool. The funny thing is, all of the horses and mules that pull carriages through town wear diapers. Not like what you are thinking, but it's like a pouch that is fastened around the rump of the beast of burden and below it's tail. There was some evidence in the street that it wasn't 100% effective. Now that only takes care of #2. To keep the streets clean from #1 we saw a pickup truck with a little tank of water and a pressure washer on the back that would spray it into the gutter. Now that's a dirty job!

Then we tried to go and see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, but the power went out 5 minutes into it. D'oh!

However, back at the hotel we watched the HBO show 'Big Love' which is about a modern day Mormon family that practices polygamy and it was pretty good. Better than the Sopranos, that's for sure. And if it is any indication of what it is really like to have more than one wife, then no thanks! No way.

Day 3

Can you think of a better way to start your day on while on vacation than to watch re-runs of Saved by the Bell? We couldn't, so that's what we did.

The weather was drizzly which wouldn't work well for walking around downtown again, so we decided to do some shopping. Maternity shopping. However, all that we could find was some crap at Wal-Mart, so that made purchasing nothing easy.

The weather cleared up a bit and we drove up to this swamp that we grabbed a flyer for back at the hotel. We drove way out into the boonies and didn't know what to expect, but really got our money's worth. We paid 7 bucks each to take a 1 and 3/4 mile boardwalk stroll through a swamp to a lake and back. It was great. The wildlife was awesome. We got great photos and video of a Yellow Crowned Night Heron and a couple of Water Moccasins. Yea, I was scared, but we were 2 feet above them so it wasn't that bad.

Here is the Yellow Crowned Night Heron:



Here are some other videos I took, so check them out too.

Day 2

We don't have cable, but our hotel did! We woke up and both of us were too lazy (busy enjoying vacation) to do anything so we laid there and flipped through the channels. This allowed us to reminisce our pre-teen years by watching re-runs of Saved by the Bell. They showed at least 3 episodes in a row daily. I was disappointed because it was the episodes without Kelly and Jessi. I was so let down. However, the rest of the trip I would randomly sing the theme song which was good for a laugh.

We then got our butts moving and went downtown and walked around. There was an open air market that we shopped around at and bought a couple of pictures for our new house. One is of one of the huge mansions down by the water. The other is a different version of the Last Supper. I've never seen one like it, I really liked it, we don't have one (do you know what people say about Catholic households that don't have one!!), it was expensive, we were on vacation and so we got it. I don't think I could do it justice by describing it here for you, so you'll just have to come over and check it out yourself.

Went back to the hotel and watched 'Take the Lead' with Antonio Banderas, which is a great flick. I recommend it.

Then we drove out and got some awesome sunset pictures and had dinner at this cool place called TBonz. We made a little rule that we tried our best to follow that we wouldn't eat at places we knew (Ruby Tuesday, Arbys, Applebees etc) unless we really wanted to keep it cheap or unless Amanda played the I'm-pregnant-and-don't-want-to-put-up-with-the-sight-or-smell of whatever I might order. Which is fair.

We're back!! Day 1

We are back from Charleston! Boy that was a great trip and we'd love to do it again. I uploaded all of our pictures onto my public photo album sorted by day, so go take a look and see what a great time we had. Hugs and I took some notes so we'd (I'd) remember to blog about all the highlights from it. So here's day 1:

Our flight was so so...we had a connection in Newark. Man, is that airport huge! I'm sure there are others larger, but for a bumpkin like myself, it's pretty huge. We landed alright in Charleston and got a free upgrade from an economy car to an SUV! Score! We went from a Geo Metro type vehicle to a Ford Escape...that was great.

We first went to the hotel and relaxed for a bit then drove down into Charleston which was about 20 minutes south. We just drove around and looked at the awesome houses. They were just spectacular. The whole downtown area is well taken care of, all the buildings were just beautiful to look at and we were only panhandled once our entire trip.

Then we were walking down by the river and saw dolphins, pelicans and some crazy looking seagulls. Yea, believe it or not they have dolphins in Charleston. And we saw them everyday that we were there! I was blown away.

Went to dinner at a barbecue place called Sticky Fingers and they asked us if we wanted to sit in smoking or non-smoking. Huh? Yea, sorry, we are tourists and Gestapo (The Children of the Light) back in Ohio outlawed smoking in restaurants. Not that either of us care, we can't tolerate second hand smoke, but it was just a surprise.

New Year's Eve Party

So I finally got my lazy butt around to uploading the New Year's Eve Party pictures....

Sorry it took so long Mandy.

C

Home inspection

We had our home inspection today. It went great.

Here is the backyard...



The back room. I think we are going to make this our study/den area. I think. I've never been at such a loss as to how to arrange our stuff in a room until now. It's Peanut that's messing everything up. Not in a bad way...I guess I'm just looking for a way to place things and keep them there for 15 years. I have to remind myself that it doesn't need to be that way.




The kitchen. It's no Cadbury, but it's darned fine if you ask me. The refrigerator dispenses ice and water. Oh, and in the foreground are our $250 counter-offer barstools. I didn't get to enjoy them much yet, but Amanda and her parents seem to approve of them.



And, we got our loan application in. We are happy with it, we can afford it and I don't think we got hosed by the bank. We didn't go through a mortgage broker, we ended up going through our bank and we feel really comfortable with it...and that's what matters.

Now, onto the things we need:
1. Lawnmower
2. Weedwacker
3. Push broom

Then the first question is, do I get a reel lawnmower or not? It seems like the right choice, but is it as simple as all the tree huggers say it is? We'll see. I'd like to get one just so I save my hearing for a few more years.

Then I guess I'd have to get an electric weed wacker too, instead of one that uses a combustion engine. Might as well be a full blown tree hugger and get the electric one so not wimp out. Or I could just get some sheep.

Speaking of sheep, Amanda will rant about the sheep border in this house we are trying to buy. But in the meantime, the pictures must suffice.

Oh, and I finally got a video of Min barking at the birds.



C

this is why...

This is why we cover the toilet paper on the roll in the upstairs bathroom with a washcloth and why we keep the toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom under the sink. Last night, after our exciting club adventure, Sergey stayed at our place. He left the toilet paper on the sink. We went to 8:30am Mass and returned to find this:



Min carried the roll of toilet paper from the downstairs bathroom, across the living room, up the stairs and to the far side of our bedroom where she proceeded to demolish said roll.

Along with the destroyed tp, we found one of Amanda's footies in the living room, and another carried all the way up to our bedroom from the basement! What is with this cat!

She could have worse habits.

Whrrrrrrrrrrrr

Maybe I'm a big sissy, but working 60+ hours these past three weeks has wore me out. I'm beat. It doesn't help stressing about finding the right mortgage for our home either. Oye.

We went out to a club last night to celebrate a co-workers birthday. It was a pretty good time. Our waitress will certainly give us something to remember--because she was drunk or high as a kite. Slurred speech, bad motor skills and a terrible memory. She would more or less demand a tip as well. A friend we were there with ordered a drink and gave her a tip. Later, that same person ordered a drink and the girl stood there and our friend said "I tipped you last time I'll get you on the next one." To which our gem of a waitress replied, "Are you *---ing serious?".

And I've never been so paranoid about getting the wife virgin daiquiri's. Hugs is going through the whole "I can't have it so now I crave it stage." So now if we go somewhere and I get a beer she has to have a virgin daiquiri. But that's fine with me. However I keep having the need to double check with the wait staff, "this has no alcohol, right?". No, I'm not paranoid.

We are headed west this afternoon for the in-laws 30th wedding anniversary party. Sssh! It's a surprise! It should be a real good time hanging out with the family.

I (we) keep having the urge to go and drive by our new house. Is it still there? Did it change? What's it look like today? Are the current owners there? Can we chat with them? (is that allowed?)

We just had a minor emergency here at our place....Ainsley was up in the window here with us and stuck her face to close to a stink bug. It was pretty funny once we figured out what the problem was. It was gross though because her salivary glands went into overdrive and she had drool coming out of both corners of her mouth. Gross!!

Anyway...