Today's Lunch

Cornish Rock Game Hens cooking on the grill! :))

The Continuing Crisis

Long lines of cars on the side of the highway. Two hours or more wait time. Only 1 gas station within 50 miles or so that has any gas (or so we were told by a Quick Trip employee at a station that was out of gas, again.) That is the gas situation around our local area. Help is on the way, they keep saying, but when will it arrive? Apparently the fuel tankers are having trouble getting refuel, or so they say, be it with the precious cargo they're designed to carry, or the necessary fuel to get that cargo out to the masses. The EPA has released the fuel restrictions, allowing the release and sale of the standard gasoline, instead of the summer blend most stations within the area are required to fill their tanks with over the hottest months of the year. But so far we've seen one station after another run completely out of gas. Or, a station will get a fresh supply in, only to run out a few hours later due to the long lines of cars queuing for a chance to refuel. We spoke with one man tonight, who had been waiting for over an hour on the side of Highway 41 to get gas from the local Home Depot, the only station around here that had any gas. He said that he'd run out of gas waiting to GET gas, had then had to walk to Wal-Mart (I think) to buy a gas can, then walk back to the gas station to buy some gas so he could walk back to his car and fill it up with a little gas to continue waiting in line to try and get a FULL tank of gas. That's just insane!

So when is this all going to end?!? I tell you...the terrorist organizations that are against the United States, and wish to do us harm, are probably sitting around right now, laughing their collective heads off, watching as we slowly work ourselves into a frenzy over our pursuit of a full tank of gas! Police officers have already had to be called in for a number of incidents where gas station customers have started fist fights (or probably worse in some cases) with each other while they were waiting for their turn at the pump. If things continue on the way they have been, it's only a matter of time before people start holding up fuel tankers at gun point, syphoning gasoline from any cars they find unattended (most likely already going on in some places), and putting other people's lives at risk, bringing about possible injury and/or death. All for a tank of gas. That may sound rather extreme, but things are rapidly getting out of hand! We need gas, and we need it now, before the stress of economic turmoil and the scarcity of gasoline cause the collective masses to just snap!

They say helps on the way, but will it get here soon, and will it be enough? Only time will tell...

Girls & Their Cell Phones

Heather & Monica relaxing on the couch, on her birthday. My first "official" mobile blog post. :)

Waterfall Picture

This was a test picture from my cell phone (No, I didn't take the picture, it came with the phone.) to make sure I have it set up correctly to where I can mobile blog again. Now, once again, I'll be able to post pictures anytime, from anywhere. Isn't technology wonderful! ;)

Monica's Birthday

Well, tomorrow is Monica's birthday. Supposedly Heather and Louise are coming up here to spend the day with her tomorrow, and her friend Amanda will possibly be coming in for a visit late tomorrow night, and will then stay with us a few days. Plans are likely to change though, what with the "gas crisis" at hand. It's getting difficult to find gas stations that actually HAVE gas to buy, and then when you CAN find it, the nearly $4 per gallon (or higher in some places) price tag makes filling your tank an expensive ordeal! Still, I hope everyone comes, because I know Monica misses her friends a lot, and would love to see them, and share her birth day with them.

Other plans are in the works, and things could change dramatically over the next few months. More on that later though. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you're enjoying this wonderful fall weather, and that you're able to walk down the path of life that was meant just for you. Peace.

Oops...They Found Out!

Here's something humorous I just came across:

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"I'm a PC," and I Was Made on a Mac

Microsoft's new phase of its ad campaign, aimed at renovating the image of Windows, which began with the much criticized Seinfeld-Gates ads (three of which were filmed but only two of which were aired), seems much better than the first phase.But it's also proven somewhat embarrassing for the company: images created for use in the campaign were created using not just a competitor's product (Adobe Creative Suite 3), but also non-Windows based PCs --- Macs to be exact.

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How ironic...Microsoft is trying to improve its image...but to do that, they've had to use Macintosh computers. It's kind of sad really. ;)

Jacob Turns Two

Monica and I went to Commerce yesterday to celebrate Jacob's second birthday. It was a relaxed affair, with only immediate family in attendance. Mike and Kate made/cooked food, and we all hung out and had a good time chatting and catching up on each other's lives.
Here are a couple of pictures of the now 2-year-old Jacob.

Pound Cake - The Results

Okay, so here is how the pound cake turned out. We used our castle/cathedral bundt cake pan, and Monica managed to turn it out perfectly (she's so good like that. *s*) This picture shows it with 10X powdered sugar on it, but it also has an orange rum glaze on it now too. :)

So here you go...a post with a new picture. Enjoy! lol

Pound Cake & MP3s

Well, after a late night (in bed after 4 AM, BOTH of us), and a long lay in this morning (got up around noon), we are enjoying the day, just hanging out. Monica is chatting on her cell phone right now, while a pound cake she just made bakes in the oven. As for myself, I'm looking through some of my old files, trying to find The Big Chill soundtrack to load onto Monica's iPod. I know I have it somewhere, it's just a matter of locating it.

I've also been playing around with my new phone, and getting things set back up to where I can post to my mobile blog from it. The link on this page has a posting that I initially sent, but then deleted, so I have to upload something new to replace that one. I really missed having a camera on my phone, because I often see things I want to snap a quick picture of, and I couldn't, while using the Samsung Go phone that has been my standby for the last month or so. Still, I'm glad that we had it, or I would have been completely out of touch with everyone!

At any rate, I want to get out today and do some photography with my digital camera, but I don't want to wander too far from home, because I've been having stomach issues for close to a week now. It's not really stomach pain (although it does hurt from time to time), it's more that I feel somewhat "sick to my stomach" and it "churns" a lot. It was probably from something I ate recently, but who knows. Regardless, it's rather annoying. No big deal though! :)

I want to try and find SOMETHING interesting to put on my blog this weekend though, because I know that I'M tired of just seeing posts with words, so I'm sure the 2 or 3 others of you out there reading these things probably are too. I promise I'll post some new pictures (of something) soon, hopefully by this evening! *g*

Well, I guess that's enough text for now. Have a great weekend everyone, and keep safe. Peace.

Random Pictures of the Crawford House

Okay, so here are some (small) pictures of the house we MIGHT move to in Crawford. Just click on the link below, and then navigate through the pictures by clicking on each thumbnail at the bottom of the page. The images are basically grouped together, with between 4 and 6 pictures per room of the house. You can't really get a complete idea of what the house is like, without seeing it in person, but here are some pictures anyway, if you want to try. Enjoy.

http://www.fullmoondesign.net/gallery/

My New WordPress Blog

Well, I've set up yet another blog at a different blogging Web site (WordPress.com) to see which I like better. Right now, the new blog is set up as a "photo blog", so I don't know how much I'll be doing with it, but it's interesting to check out some new technologies.

At any rate, if you'd like to check it out, just click on the title of this post to link to the new site. Be patient though...there isn't much there yet.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and have a great Labor Day weekend. Peace.

I've Seen HOW MANY movies?!?

Well, the list keeps growing...I think I've seen at least 17 movies in the last 3 weeks now! (I think I need a new hobby.) At least Monica has been enjoying most of the movies with me, so I don't feel THAT bad watching that many. *g*

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I had a really long day at work today...an almost 10 hour shift, with no lunch, and no break. I guess I can't complain though. Monica works longer hours than me on a regular basis, so the occasional shift that runs 2 or more hours over my schedule shift duration isn't too bad (although they're becoming a lot more common as of late.) At any rate, I wouldn't mind the longer hours, if I had a chance to get a lunch in there somewhere, but all too often I've been working my shifts without a lunch break, because there hasn't really been anyone who could effectively cover the department, or who could be spared from the sales floor. Again, no big deal...I can always use the 30 extra minutes I get from NOT taking a lunch, although I get fussed at from time to time because it looks like my employers are working me long hours without a lunch break, and that doesn't look good for the company. lol

At any rate, today was a busy day, and one of my customers wanted me to print out some fund raising fliers for ALS research, for the ALS Ironhorse Foundation. They're having a golf tournament and are looking for sponsors to donate money that will be put towards medical studies and research on ALS (Lou Gherigh's disease, for those of you who don't know.)

The weird thing about it is, before Kim was stricken with ALS, we'd never really heard about the disease that much, and the only person we knew who had it was Stephen Hawking. Now, since Kim's passing, ALS seems to be popping up everywhere - the fliers at work today, various and random occurrences in discussions I've had with different people...even NASCAR has a car racing in the circuit right now that has all of the proceeds from its race winnings going to ALS research!

It seems that ALS is now one of the new "buzz words" in the medical community, and it's appearing more in the media each day. It seems that a lot of the troops who fought in Desert Storm are now getting ALS also, and they're thinking that there's a good chance the occurrence of the disease is related the troop's exposure to certain chemicals that were used during the war. It makes me wonder if that was how Kim contracted the disease...from exposure to chemicals she might have come into contact with on the farm, or at work or something. It's also interesting to note that many of the people who now have (or have died from) ALS were in peak physical condition. Kim was strong and in good shape from working on the farm; the lady I talked with at work today said that the people she personally knew who'd died from ALS were in excellent shape (one competed in triathlons); and obviously the US soldiers who fought in Dessert Storm (and in subsequent wars) obviously had to be in good shape to be in the military. So why is it that all these healthy and strong individuals are suddenly being crippled by this disease? So many questions, so few answers. I hope one day someone can make sense of it all.

Well, I didn't intend for this post to be this depressing and melodramatic, but there you go. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Labor Day weekend. Peace.

Ugh

Half a cantaloupe and half a pan of somewhat undercooked brownies...not such a good idea. I don't feel so good... Blah. :( Why do I do this to myself? Oh well, it will pass.....

Red Box Rentals

Well, today was another free movie day, thanks to Redbox. If you're not familiar with Redbox, you should check it out. Ours is in the local Wal-Mart, but they have them in various other stores, or so I'm told. They are DVD rental "vending machines." You search the movies that are in the box, add the ones you want to check out to your list, and then swipe your credit/debit card and rent them. They rent for $1 per night, as as long as you have them back before 9 PM the next evening, you'll only pay $1 per movie, plus tax. You don't have the selection of an actual video store, or a service like Net Flix, but hey, you can't beat the price. Well, actually, you can!

Every Monday and Wednesday Redbox sends out a code that allows you to rent 1 video per credit/debit card for free. If you return it before 9 PM the following evening, you'll owe nothing. If you have more than one card, you can rent more than one free movie. So that's what Monica and I have been doing over the past couple of weeks; renting movie after movie, and often watching them 2 or 3 at a time, back to back. So, needless to say, we've seen a LOT of movies lately! I have seen a couple more than Monica, because there were a few she didn't watch. Also, there are one or two movies on my rolling movie list to the right that I actually own, and that weren't rented from Redbox. The majority of them came from Redbox though.

If you have a cell phone that can receive text messages, go to redbox.com, sign up for an account, and you can have the free rental codes sent to you in a text message every Monday and Wednesday. Then you can pass them on to your friends, or whomever, and THEY can get free rentals too (it even says "Fwd to friends" in the text message you receive.)

Anyway, tonight I rented 10,000 B.C., which I just finished watching, and The Other Boleyn Girl, which Monica wanted to see, and which I will probably watch with her later, when she wakes up from her nap (those 5 AM starts at Home Depot on Monday mornings are killer!)

Most of the movies I've seen were pretty good, and some of them were excellent. Of course, some of them were horrible too, but you can't win them all. The point is, 99% of them were free, and even a bad movie isn't so bad if it's free!

So jump online, visit the Redbox Web site, and start renting your own movies for free! I plan to keep adding to my movie list as I watch more movies, and at some point I may start to list the ratings I've personally given them, on this site. If you want to know about any of the movies that are listed, just drop me a message and I'll get back to you. :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'm off to check on Monica. Have a great night, and check back soon to see what's been added. Peace.

Bring On The Breeze

Well, it was another enjoyable breezy and cloudy day today. There was a VERY brief sprinkle earlier, but it didn't amount to anything. At some point we're supposed to get some rain, but it's been looking overcast and stormy for the past 3 days, and hasn't really don't much, so who knows. Monica is on her way home from Kate's right now, but is stuck in bad traffic on I-85. I just got off the phone with her, after checking the Georgia Navigator Web site. There are 1 or 2 major accidents (at least) between her and home, so she's trying to get off the interstate right now, and find and alternate route home. This is one of those times when a high-end Tom Tom would come in handy. *sigh*

Anyway, not much to report at the moment. It's been a lazy kind of day, just hanging out and enjoying not being at work. This week is going to be busy at work for both of us (especially Monica, since she has inventory this week.) I hope the weather stays cooler and windy like this for a while, but I know it's going to change again soon, and go back to the miserable humid days of summer. Oh well, fall is coming soon...my favorite season. :)

That's it for now. Maybe I'll write more later. Have a great week everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

Indoor Camping

The weather was so wonderful last night! While we were driving home from dinner, I was talking to Monica about how it would be a perfect night to go camping. As it was getting on a little in the evening, we didn't have time to actually GO anywhere to go camping, but I jokingly said "hey, I could set the tent up in the backyard, and then we could put the air mattress in there and camp out!" Surprisingly, Monica was all for this, but by the time we got home, I really didn't feel like getting out my tent, going through the motions of setting it up, etc... However, we still had an easily inflatable air mattress that's pretty comfortable, and we have a screened in back porch that we've finally reclaimed (mostly) from the dog and cats and all the chaos (and fleas) that went along with them. So, seeing that it was a wonderfully cool (given the fact that it's the middle of summer) and windy night (thanks, Fay!), we decided to inflate the air mattress, move a bit of furniture around on the back porch, and sleep "inside outdoors." So that's exactly what we did, and it was a great, breezy night's rest.



Yesterday, when I got home from work, I wandered over to Lake Acworth with my camera to take some pictures, and do a little fishing. It was really overcast, so it wasn't the best light for what I wanted to do, but here are a couple of pictures I took.

Well, that's about it for now. I think Monica and I are going to eat a quick breakfast, and then we're off to see a movie! It is my PLAN to try and post something at least once a day, every day, here on my Blog, just to get back into the habit of writing on a regular basis. Some days I will post multiple times, and others, obviously, I will miss. But I am at least going to attempt to update this thing more often, so those patient couple of people out there who actually read this thing will have new stuff to look at on a regular basis.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend. Peace.

Clare And Esme

Some quick pictures of Clare and Esme from our visit to Dad's house tonight.

Buttermilk Fried Corn and First Quarter Moon Pies

Okay, so they're not really moon "pies," but I was on a food theme here, so bear with me. It felt so amazing yesterday evening/last night, and the moon was at a perfect first quarter, so I decided to break out my digital camera and shoot a few shots. (I know, you're probably tired of seeing pictures of the moon, especially when they all look more or less the same!) But hey, you're still reading this, so you must be at least SOMEWHAT interested! *g* Anyway, below are some of the pictures I took, with a couple different settings.

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Today I thought I would try out a recipe in one of my barbecue cookbooks. It was for "Buttermilk Fried Corn." Now I thought, "Hey, I love corn nuggets! I'll make some!" I should have taken a hint from the part of the recipe that said "can be served as a side dish, or sprinkled on a salad." Nuggets these were not! They were just corn kernels, coated in buttermilk, flour and cornmeal (with a little bit of salt and pepper) and deep fried. And they didn't really have any taste to them, so I added a bit more pepper and some seasoned salt to try and liven them up a bit. Apparently I went a little overboard on the salt... *sigh* At any rate, I now have a bag of somewhat salty "corn nuts" of a sort. They're kind of crunchy, kind of chewy, and rather salty. They might go well on a salad, but they'd go even better in a soup, or anything that needed some corn and salt added! lol So I didn't end up with the delicious corn nuggets I was expecting, but oh well, you live and you learn.

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Next up for this evening/this weekend are some dishes that can be eaten for several meals. I plan on making egg noodles with either Alfredo sauce or Garlic and Parmesan sauce, maybe with some grilled and diced chicken added in. And I have my Dutch oven now, so I plan on utilizing it for a few different meals. I think the first up (unless I find something else that appeals to me) will be some pulled barbecue pork. Yes, I know, I made that a week or two ago on the grill, but it's really easy to make, especially in the Dutch oven, and it will feed us for several days (and we can always freeze it if there's a lot, and enjoy it at another time.) I have a lot of recipes in my barbecue books that call for a Dutch oven, so I'm going to have fun experimenting with them. If any of you out there have any good Dutch oven recipes, I'd love to hear about them! Over the next week or so, I'm also going to cook some Cornish game hens, a large baking hen (a big chicken basically, but the taste is quite a bit different), and anything else I can cook on the grill and not heat up the house. I'm looking forward to doing some trout fishing soon, and having some fresh fish on the grill too! So many recipes, so little time... :)

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Finally, as Clare mentioned, please keep our Dad in your prayers, as he's having his heart checked out at the hospital on Wednesday. Also, Monica is really in a depressed state at the moment, seriously missing her mother, and not really wanting to do much of anything, especially not go to work. If any of you can give her a call once in a while, and just chat with her, I think it would help a lot. Losing her mom has been really hard on her (as it was on all of us who've been there), and she's not doing too well. Please pray for her improved mental and physical well-being. Thanks.

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Well, that about wraps up this post. Enjoy the pictures, have a great weekend, and keep in touch. Peace.

Cold And Slimy

Well, I went to the doctor this morning to have my echo cardiogram. I won't know if there were any problems detected for a couple days, but I think everything went well. It was cool watching my heart on the monitor, seeing the blood flow in and out of it, and watching and listening to the rhythm of my heart. If only the technician didn't have to jam the probe into your ribs so hard to get the images! lol

They check the heart from 3 different locations. Two of them they didn't have a problem with, but when they tried to take an upward shot of my heart from around my stomach (just below my solar plexus), they couldn't get a clear shot so they took a "clip" of the image and then entered in "some type of scan" attempted. They said that a lot of guys have a thick wall of muscle and/or fat that often makes viewing the heart from that angle difficult.

Anyway, she finished up, and then handed me a paper towel to wipe of the lubrication gel (and there was a LOT of it!) The paper towel couldn't handle all of it, so they handed me a hospital gown, telling me to use that instead because it would absorb the gel better. I felt like Peter Venkman from the first Ghost Busters movie...I'd been slimed! That was some pretty thick gel, and I hadn't realized they'd used that much! lol Females going for ultrasounds when they're pregnant deal with the stuff all the time, but most of them (hopefully) don't have copious amounts of chest hair to contend with, which made getting the goop off that much more difficult. Still, it was no big deal, and other than some briefly sore ribs, the procedure was painless. I now have to wait and see if they found anything to be concerned about. I'm a little worried because the technician kept zooming in and focusing on one particular area of my heart, but they're not allowed to give the patient any results, whether they be good or bad. She basically said, "Well, it works!" which was good to know (although rather obvious given the fact that I was sitting there alive. lol)

There was one time during the procedure though, that one of the electrodes kept pulling away from my chest (the uncooperative chest hair again.) I was laying there on my side, watching the monitor, and the erratic line that was my heart beat suddenly went flat. The technician didn't notice it at first because she was chatting with the other nurse who was in the room, standing behind me on the other side of the gurney. The other nursed reached over me from behind, and pressed the electrode firmly against my chest, and my heart activity was once again apparent from the twitching line. She said something to the effect of of "Thanks, I didn't notice that, I was busy chatting" to the nurse who was holding the patch on, and I was like, "Yeah, I was wondering about that. Usually that means you're dead." No big deal though. It just meant that I had 2 nurses poking and prodding me for a little while instead of just the one.

At any rate, it was a fascinating procedure to watch, and I hope the results will all be positive (or negative, depending on how you interpret the situation.) Nicole, the doctor came in towards the end of the procedure, thanked me for the "organized" chart of blood pressure readings I'd taken myself at home, and recorded for her, saying that she wished all of her patients were that organized, and she said that they'd take my blood pressure one more time before I left.

So a nurse took the reading, once on my right arm, and then again on my left arm because the right reading was suspiciously high, and I can skip the visit to the doctor that would have been scheduled for next week, because my blood pressure seems to be slowly coming down. She told me to keep taking the HCTZ diuretic pill I'd been prescribed, filling both the refills, and then come back in 3 months (when the meds run out) for another check-up. So that's it for now...unless they find something on the echo cardiogram. I'm just glad those migraine headaches I had to live with for 3 weeks have gone away. That was the worst part about this whole situation so far!

Anyway, that's about it for MY doctor visit. If I find out anything else, I'll keep you all posted. Thanks for taking the time, once again, to peruse my disjointed ramblings. Have a great weekend, and take care of one another. Peace.

The Week Ahead

Well, today I decided to try a bit of fishing at the lake behind our house. I ignored the fact that it was 94 degrees outside, and that the smog level was at "Code Red", and dangerous to people with breathing issues like me (I have bronchial asthma, but not chronic thankfully.)

Anyway, after a brief jaunt through the woods, I arrive at the lake shore and proceeded to work my way around the cove, looking for a decent spot to fish. The water isn't really deep enough where I was fishing, but I cast out a few times here and there, moving around the cove as I went, watching all the boats and PWCs go by. The humidity was INSANE! I was just standing there, dripping with sweat, looking like I just got out of a shower, and really feeling like I needed one! Shortly after this I decided that I'd had enough fishing for today. Not because I wasn't catching anything, but because I was afraid I might end up throwing my fishing rod into the lake one time while I was casting, due to the fact that my hands were slick and slippery with sweat. I honestly thought that if I kept it up, I'd end up swimming to recover my rod (a thought that was only SOMEWHAT unwanted, because the water was warm, and a swim might have felt good. Not it jean shorts though. *sigh*) So I slogged back through the water and mud at the lakes edge, squelched back up through the woods in my wet sandals, and retreated back into the dark coolness of our home.

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Okay, so this is the week that I go for my echo cardiogram. I go to work at 7:00 AM on Thursday, work until 10:30 AM, and then leave for the doctor's office. I'm not sure what they're going to do exactly; whether they're going to put me through a stress test or just administer the ECG, but I have the rest of the day off from work, as I have a feeling I'll be needing a shower, either to get all the gel stuff they're going to use off my chest, or because I'll be hot and sweaty if they do the stress test. At any rate, I have to go back to the doctor again at the end of this month/beginning of next month, for them to check my blood pressure again. I've been taking a diuretic for the past month or so, and I've been testing my blood pressure at home, keeping a log of it. The next visit to the doctor, after this Thursday, will be to see if my blood pressure has come down any more. I know that I'm getting a lot lower readings at home than they've been getting in the doctor's office, but I don't know if it's because I'm using a wrist cuff instead of an arm cuff, or because the automatic/digital gauge is more accurate than the manual ones the doctors and nurses use, which depend on the hearing of the person administering the test to determine when to stop inflating the cuff, and decide what the reading is. Who knows? These are some things that I will discuss with Nicole on my next visit.

Well, that's about it. I'm at work early every day this week, except Tuesday or Wednesday which will be my normal 8 AM starting time. I can't wait until we get our 4th key carrier at work again. Then I'll be able to go back to my 8 AM start time on a regular basis again. Anyway, thanks as always for taking the time to read my ramblings. Take care, and have a great week. Peace.