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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Today was a sad day

Well, Kind of.

Today, we finished off our move by cleaning to old apartment. The cleaning process wasn’t at all bad… it actually went really quick. But… man… we’re going to miss the old apartment. We got our cat in that apartment. We got engaged in that apartment. We made our first friends in Boone in that apartment. We entertained, we relaxed, we cuddled on the cold nights, and opened the door to the back porch on hot nights to let the breeze come in through the screen door. I learned how to make perfect steaks in that tiny kitchen. So many good things happened there.

But, we’re in the new place now. We’ll be married in a few months while living here. We got new furniture here. Furniture together. Before all of the furniture we had came from either Virginia or from me. For the first time, we went and got furniture together. Grace is adjusting to the new place rather well, she spent the first day creeping around, trying to figure things out… But now, she’s gotten somewhat used to this place… We’re adjusting to our bigger kitchen, to having an extra room, to having a new couch, futon, a set of tables and a nice new book-shelf.

So, Come visit. Pictures will be coming reasonably soon… but I’m in no hurry. we’d love to have some visitors almost any time. Right now, we’re still getting ready for the wedding, so that means all sorts of planning and decisions, but visitors are a welcome break. As long as we’ll be here instead of in Lexington nailing down plans.

On another note, Virginia’s old phone gave up the ghost while she was at the beach. So. If she had your number before… odds are, she doesn’t have it now. So, give her a call, she’d love to hear from you; and save your phone number.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

July 1 Was my Birthday!

Picture album: Linky!

Well, another year has snuck up on me. I’m now… 28? So… that’s… neat. I dunno. I guess after a while, birthdays don’t mean too much anymore. I’ve been able to drive for 12 years, been able to vote for 10, legally drinking for 7 years and the 26th birthday resulted in slightly lower insurance rates. So… what do I have to look forward to now as far as birthdays? Social Security? That won’t exist by the time I’m old enough… Retirement? That’s a long way off. Oh well. It was still a good day.

For a while, I’ve wanted to go around and take pictures of some of the Church signs around here… Something about being in this area of the US means that churches normally have some really GREAT fire and brimstone messages on their signs. One of my favorites that I’ve seen recently is “Stop, Drop, and Roll doesn’t work in Hell.” So After Virginia made me a lovely pancake and bacon breakfast in the morning, we laid around for a bit, watched the latest episode of True Blood, and hopped in the car to go take some pictures. For the most part, the church signs were disappointing. As a reminder for next year, I shouldn’t wait until my birthday to do something like this. As we get closer to Independence Day, the church signs become less fire and brimstone, and more patriotic. The below church signs are about the best we saw.

Hmm… Jesus wants to spend the night? Did his mother say it was ok? As long as it’s ok with his parents, it’s fine with me. Will he be coming for dinner? Should I set out an extra plate?

Here’s my little sinner. She’s definitely adding up to be big trouble…

Since Church signs were a bust, we stopped off outside of Damascus and spent a little time on the Virginia Creeper trail… or, the Creepy Virginia trail… It is a rather nice trail, but to take full advantage of it, some bicycles will be necessary… so, an upcoming goal is for Virginia to learn how to ride a bicycle.

After taking pictures and driving around, we cam back to the apartment, where Virginia made me a lovely birthday dinner of pasta and shrimp, and then topped it off with my favorite… A plain pound cake. No icing, no craziness. Just plain. Man do I love a pound cake. One of these days though, I might have to try making the Paula Deen pound cake… I think it requires a bucket of butter, a pile of Crisco, and maybe some bacon grease. It was a good birthday though, nice and laid back, relaxing, just how I like it.

We’re heading to VA for Independence Day and Virginia’s Birthday. I should have some good pictures and stories to post from that.

As an added bonus… here’s a picture of a bird taunting Gracie… the bird must have been around the block a few times… Gracie would attack the glass, and the bird wouldn’t even flinch… This went on for a good 15 minutes.