Baby Jade visits, baby Dodge leaves…

Jonathan and Lisa came to visit with their lovely daughter Jade last weekend. We really just wanted to hang out with Jade, but I guess the parents still come with the kid as a package deal until a certain age. She, of course, is an awesome kid. Very quiet, very happy, and amazingly easy to please.

Look at how cute she is… I have no idea where she gets it from…

But, she’s a good time. She likes to laugh, and smile… she really doesn’t cry much at all, and when she does, Lisa has it figured out to exactly what she needs. Although, it seems like a pretty simple rotation… food, sleep, poop. In that order… and just repeating. But, Lisa was very good at staying on top of each of these functions before it was really an issue, so the result was very little crying.

Lisa gave the Snuggie some love … (for some reason, they thought 60 degrees was chilly… I suppose they’re not used to these Boone summers …) and then later on taught Jonathan how to tie his shoes.

We took advantage of a weekend full of nice weather and went on a walk on the Greenway trail. The trail, of course, is always a good time, but it’s amazing how many people love to stop and ask about the baby… I suppose it’s like having a cute puppy… I’m willing to bet that the same people that make “gootchie gootchie” noises at babies are the ones who wag a finger in dismay when the children hit two years old and become non-stop screaming terrors.

Here we all are on a bridge on the Greenway trail. We had a good little walk, and then came back to the house for some nice beef and veggie kebobs.

In other news… the truck left us… It said it was tired of the neglect, and just didn’t have to stand for this nonsense anymore. So, it grabbed its lugnuts and drove off into the sunset.

Actually, it’s going to a better place. A place where it’ll be driven. A place where it can dip its tire in saltwater, and watch the sunrise over the sand. It loaded itself onto the trailer and is heading off to sunny Myrtle Beach. If you happen to see it around that area, pet it softly, and feed it a set of platinum spark plugs. It always loved those.

That’s all for now, but the weather has been staying mostly nice, so we’ve been venturing out and taking afternoon walks and whatnot… Until next time… … …

Yay! May!

May is here. With the beginning of a new month, we’re finally getting some nice weather. So, as the school year is grinding to a halt, we took a nice little break today to go to Hebron Colony Falls; It’s one of the many areas around here that is just gorgeous. After a long, hard winter we needed a good reminder of some of the good points of this area. Below is a little taste of what it’s like at the falls. As always, click on the pictures for a larger version.

Looking at the scene as a whole, it really just looked like a mountain of rocks… but if you looked closely, in several spots, you could see waterfalls emerging from the rock. It was really a pretty amazing sight. So… we had a lovely little hike…

Climbed on rocks…

Played in the water…

Virginia soaked up some sun…

I hid from the sun…

And Virginia even chased a duck!

All in all… a very good day.

Beware visitors to Boone… the weather has turned nice again. If you come visit, we won’t just keep you in the house and fill you to the gills with food… We might make you go for a walk… or even a hike… But, it’ll be worth it. This is the time of year to stay up to date with the blog, as this is when we go out and enjoy the local sights… Hopefully, we’ll have some visitors to enjoy them with.

Another week of fun…

It seems like a lot happened this week… even though it really didn’t. The beginning of the week was normal as always…

I sold off a few camera lenses that I really didn’t use much, (50mm f/1.8 and 85mm f/1.8) and replaced them with a 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. Above is a picture of some freshly ground coffee… on a butter knife. I’m enjoying the new lens, and for food photography, it’s been letting me get a lot closer to the food. But, it also works rather well as a normal lens, not just a macro.

In other news, it was time to start getting ready for our weekend cookout. We had invited over some friends for a weekend cookout, but the weather decided it wasn’t going to cooperate. But, I already had 10 pounds of chicken and three racks of ribs in the fridge… so, we weren’t about to let the weather out-do us… it was time for some ingenuity.

2 - 5/16” hooks, a 8x10ft tarp, and some 1-1/2” PVC pipe and fittings. So… we then had a covered porch… for a while. Let me go ahead and tell you, PVC might be great for water drainage… but for wind… well, it doesn’t hold up too well. So, the wind blew a bit, and the PVC came crashing down. Luckily, the tarp was a bit shy of the depth of the porch, so we were able to just tie it to the railing, which still gave us a nice covered area to cook under.

Here’s Virginia all decked out of the party… It kind of had a theme, and that theme involved outfits that were purchased at Roses. Yes, there’s still a Roses department store around here. The place is amazing. You walk in the door, and leave modern day behind. The bestseller book section in Roses has “The man who would be president: Dan Quayle”. For real.They also had “The Heart of the Internet” … given the publishing date on that one… I’d be interested in seeing what it has to say. Looking for tacky outfits for a good prices? Roses. Looking for children’s toys with lead paint? Roses. Looking for glass topped furniture that was outdated in the 80’s? Roses.

But, the cookout / party was a good time. We ate, we laughed, we drank, we talked. Totally awesome.

The rain cleared off after a few hours this morning, so we decided to make the day productive by installing new brake pads and rotors on the Honda. Virginia helped with the whole process, and she says that if someone needs instruction on how to replace rotors and pads, she could totally tell you how to do it.

So, the CRV got treated to a set of Brembo cross drilled rotors and Hawk HPS pads. Virginia’s mom had just gotten the pads replaced not too long ago, but living up here in the mountains, the rotors saw a bit too much heat and were warped pretty bad. Slowing the car down resulted in the wheel shaking rather violently from side to side, and shaking everything else in the whole car. Also, because of the massive amounts of heat the rotors saw, the pads were overheated and cracked down the center. (Also, when you do rotors, you do pads. It’s just good practice.) So, the thought is that with the drilled rotors, they’ll be allowed to dissipate the heat a bit better than the stock solid rotors. First impressions, we’re impressed. After the initial “bedding-in” of the new pads a rotors, we did a few simulated panic stops from highway speeds, and the new brakes can bring the CRV to a VERY quick stop.

The month is winding down. I’ve got the truck for sale on eBay, and the auction on that ends Tuesday. I think I might shed a few tears when someone actually comes to pick up my poor neglected truck. We had a lot of good times together. This semester is also coming to an end. I’ve applied for several internships in the Charlottesville, VA area, and will hopefully hear from someone in that neck of the woods soon. I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on there…

Mid Month Update

The weather has stayed rather nice for the first half of the month… Even though Virginia and I were expecting some sort of insane storm to ruin the lovely start of spring. Something along the lines of the 12” of snow we got last year on April 16th… But, it’s been sunny and warm.

This past weekend, we went to Jennifer’s show at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Jennifer was in fine form, her artwork was outstanding as always, and those art people know how to have a good time.

The above is at the reception following the show, I didn’t manage to take too many pictures during the show… But you can view some of Jennifer’s work at her website. Feel free to contact her, and purchase everything she makes. We have a house full of Jennifer Wells originals, and we’re dang lucky to have them…

So, this was Friday night. Saturday, Jenifer made a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs, bagels, etc.

After a bite for breakfast, we were on our way back to Boone.

Saturday evening was uneventful, mainly just recovering from the drive. Today (Sunday) started off slowly. We woke up late, lied around the house a bit, then decided to wander into town. The school changed out some of the artwork this weekend, so we decided to go see what was new on campus.

So, this was a taste of the new exhibits around campus. To see more, bring yourself down to Boone.

More Mid Month Fun!!

Also today, we met up with Victoria while on our walk around campus. Victoria’s boyfriend, James, apparently does a bit of artwork in one of the tunnels on campus about once a year or so. (This is allowed. People paint in the tunnels all of the time)

So, we stuck around and watched that for a bit. … James’s buddy was also there doing another piece of the wall. We didn’t hang around until the very end, but when we left, this is what they had going on…

So, that was pretty cool. Watching them work was kind of mesmerizing. We didn’t intend on staying in the tunnel and breathing fumes for too long, but the more the more they painted, the more were became amazed… It might have been the fumes, but either way, it was fun to watch.

In other news, construction is still going on all around campus… They’re still working on the steam plant return lines, working on the location of the former dining hall, building a new Education school … all kinds of awesomeness.

Catch you next time…

Early April Update

Well, this month has finally ushered us into some decent weather… We both we up in Lexington for the long 4-day Easter weekend, and got to get out and enjoy the weather a bit. I put about 1700 miles on the bike, and Josh came up with us for some riding as well.

Josh and I left Thursday evening, and spent a few days at Jonathan’s house changing tires on the bikes, doing some maintenance, and playing with baby Jade.

Jade’s getting big, and getting vocal. She’s not talking quite yet, but she sings to herself, and she’s absolutely sure that she can stand up on her own, so when she’s on your lap, she’ll grab you by the shirt collar and pull herself up to standing.

Friday was the work day on the bikes, then Josh and I went for a quick ride to try to remember how to ride. Saturday was the main riding day, and some rather impressive things happened. We had a good time, put on a lot of miles, and Josh managed to drag about half of a footpeg off of his bike, AND drag a hole through his shoe and sock, but somehow had no marks on his skin.

Above is about the most natural that you’ll ever see Lisa. With a knife and a smile. She made up a pot-roast for us one night for dinner, and we sat around and did a good bit of talking.

Easter Sunday, we went over to Virginia’s folks’ house to hang out, and took a nice walk down a local trail where the flowers were blooming.

We did take a little time to stop and enjoy the playground for a bit though… For some reason, Virginia loves these bouncy things…

First thing Monday morning, the Taurus went to Jonathan for a oil change and adjustment to the transmission cables… I love taking the Taurus up there as the other mechanics tend to gather ‘round and marvel at a 1996 Taurus with 193,000 miles that really needs nothing.

Monday evening found us at Kendal, having dinner with Virginia’s grandmother, where we found this little gem of a sign on the way in. Really? 19? I could see how 20mph would be dangerous… but 19mph is just worlds safer. But, once inside for dinner, Kendal puts on a pretty amazing spread. We had fish, cous-cous stuffed quail, and some good assorted veggies. I was rather impressed.

In other news, with the warm weather settling in, we went out and got a grill yesterday. You can read about it on our Cooking Blog… but let me say… the guy who designed this thing… well… he should be punished.

Until next time… enjoy the nice weather.