Farmer Chris

I hate the heat. 

Absolutely hate it. I have always felt that I can deal better with the cold. More socks. Layers. More wood in the fire. Space heaters carefully positioned so as not to set fire to everything in the house. Fleece blankets. Yes.

With the heat, there's nowhere you can go and nothing you can do. You can take off just so many articles of clothing before they put you in jail (if you're, you know, outside and stuff). You can aim a fan at your face. You can put a bowl of ice in front of that fan or make your own air conditioner/swamp cooler. You're constantly fighting the heat and trying to overcome it. Moving, going places, walking, being outside, these all become intolerable.

And then you die. 

DC area heat can be brutal. It starts early and goes long. Not like New England where there are 2 months of super hot heat, around here, it is a solid 5. 

I am not a good gardener. 

I like the idea of gardening, but I do not enjoy doing it. Kind of like the opposite of what Jim Gaffigan has to say here, I'll eat them, I just don't enjoy the work that goes into maintaining the garden. 

We have put in some garden plants just about everywhere we have lived, and I hate weeding, and Doug kind of believes in just letting the garden do its thing. So our gardens have always kind of sucked.

Last year, we put out tomatoes and peppers. Within 2 days some small critter ate our pepper plants, we ended up with one single solitary pepper as a result. 

It was nice. I appreciated it being there. 

But I told Doug then that I didn't intend to go out there and be Farmer Chris and take care of the garden, and it seemed he did not either even though he said he would.  There was a wooden swing in the yard when we moved in, and it was a rickety piece of shit, so we had taken the swing off of it and put the frame over where the garden would be. Doug said he was learning his lesson from past gardens,and would build a lattice of twine so the tomatoes could grow up. He'd said he'd weed the garden. 

He did not. 

And then the bastard squirrels came. 

They would pick tomatoes off the vines, which were growing down on the ground and out into the grass in the yard, and they would eat them while sitting on top of the frame of the old swing, looking at us in the kitchen window. Tauntingly. Nom nom nom look at me, loser! I'm eating your under ripe tomatoes! Oh And I'm basically going to eat about 1/3 of it, drop it, and go away. Bye!  

I tried to get Doug to avenge them by putting up that nice netting system over the frame, and do the twine lattice, but he said 'meh.' 

I think we were both, at that time, sick of being at home, cooped up, working. And the loving spirit of growing things was gone. 

This year, we put plants in again. 

The yard had 3 established garden beds. The previous tenants were avid gardeners it seems. We still get their gardening catalogues with super expensive seeds and implements for digging and cultivating. 

The family across the street are huge gardeners, too. They told us in the past they'd coordinated what they were growing with the people who lived here and behind them, and traded a lot. We didn't want to grow things like potatoes and corn, so Doug politely said that he was going to grow tomatoes and peppers and just see how we made out. 

The dad seemed disappointed. 

Doug spread out a ton of Cosmos in one of the plots, and sunflowers in another. He likes wildflower gardens that take little or no maintenance, and when we lived in MA he'd always put out wildflowers. The island we had in our driveway in the Brown House was always the greatest. People would stop to tell us how beautiful it was. 

And it was.  

He spread out a shady mix at the back corner along the fence, but barely anything has come of it. Possibly not enough rain, possibly birds. We were disappointed in that. 

We put in tiny sweet orange tomatoes, some Beefsteak and Better Boys, and 2 different peppers in the center plot. Once again the peppers were eaten overnight by another critter, probably the little bastard who ate the last ones we planted. Doug angrily replaced the peppers, and bought some spray to keep the little jerks away from them. He bought a zucchini too on that trip, so the zuke was planted late but seems to be thriving.  

We also planted herbs in pots, which is something we never have done. We'd had some hanging baskets in the shed when we moved, and he brought them here rather than pitch them. Doug's instinct to reuse paid off. I planted Greek oregano, parsley, mint, and thyme. Wish we had some rosemary because I like to use that on chicken and fish.  I'll remember that next year.

Left to right, oregano, thyme, mint, parsley. 

Doug pulled a ton of parsley off the other day and used it in a marinade and it was delightful.

I should note, I planted the veggies in the yard myself, talking to them and welcoming them to the plot. I have began actively weeding the areas around them. I started noticing that they really should be staked up, one of the tomato plants was getting yellow at the bottom and two of its lovelies were on the ground, bug eaten. We got the stakes after I told Doug I refused to let these bad boys die. 

While Doug took a nap last weekend, and I got to work. And things are looking pretty good out there right now, considering how much I hate this. Not as good as the super gardeners across the street but hell yeah, good for something I'm not good at. 

Here are some pictures. Sunflowers, Cosmos, Tomatoes. All the friends. More to come, I'm sure.

Some of the sunflowers are 8+ feet tall! Looking up, I always try to take pictures of them without the power lines getting in the way. 

Looking through the Cosmos, the tomatoes are behind them and then the sunflowers soar.
The cosmos are about 3ft high. 

I took some of the cosmos from the main patch and moved them to the fence. I thought they weren't going to make it, but they're doing well. I should have moved more into this bare spot on the fence! 

To the left and right of the cosmos, I've got morning glories starting up... late. 

I can't wait for them to start to get tall enough for me to coax up into the chain links and they can climb.

And yes, weeds. I have to go out and weed. 

These little orange tomatoes are delightful and delicious, and we discovered Phineas likes to eat them off the vine, so we have to watch him carefully.

Everyone is still so green. Please ripen so I can eat you!

Zucchini in front, I'm hoping it starts to vine and thread and grow, I'm going to encourage it through the tomatoes. And the peppers are to the left and right. And I do need to weed this too, but this is looking good compared to last weekend. 

We managed to score some firewood from some neighbors through the nextdoor app.
Not pictured, Doug cut down a small dead tree and pruned another tree in front of the house that was growing into the chain link fence, so we've got a bunch of wood from that adventure, too. It all needs to dry/season before it can be used. Some of this wood is too long for the fire pit, so when Doug gets his blade replaced for the electric saw, we'll have some perfect pieces.

And even with the heat, which I hate, I have done this kind of activity a few times this summer and didn't cry or die. 

After getting completely filthy and caked in dirt and sweat, the post garden-time shower I have taken each time has been a gift and a blessing, where I stand and watch all the dirt and grass pool up round my feet. 

It's exhausting, and then in the shower, I feel sleepy but very alive. Maybe that's why people like this?

We still have a lot of days of super high heat, and I'm keeping an eye on all the friends, watering with my new 75 ft hose (because, of course, the water spigot is on the totally wrong side of the house for the garden). 

Waiting for those green ones to ripen and be delicious. I hope.

Enjoy my filthy feets, I guess I am Farmer Chris after all.

July and the Second Half of 2021

After my last post, and looking at things where they were for a couple of days, I decided to move Lita's Likkah Cabinet to the other end of the room by the hutch. 

Closer to the kitchen, closer to ice and the sink, closer to more glasses. It made sense. I noticed how the sun was coming through the windows (which do need to be cleaned, yes) and a bonus Phineas sleeping on the dining room floor in the sunshine... So I had to take the picture. House is still coming along nicely. I have my puzzle table set up, and just have to move 2 more things to get stuff organized.

Managed to not get my legs and feet in the shot through some mad skill. 

The past week was kind of a rough one. Work has been insane, but when is it never insane? Doug keeps getting mad at me for working after dinner but my job is different than his. I go to a lot of meetings during the day and don't get to touch helpdesk tickets. So all the tickets that come in all day long, I look at them at night, answer them, send some to other co-workers so they can help. And usually put in 2-3 hours additional. I feel right now that if I can just do the meetings, or the tickets, one or the other, life would be better. Or if I had someone doing the ticket side of my life so I could do far fewer of them, that'd be great. My co-workers are taking a lot of the easier tickets (or the tickets for things I'm not sure of the answers to, but they do because they built the sites) but there are still so many tickets. 

The other night, my sister and I were going to facebook video chat, and she was delayed in getting to me. I had made an icy, pint glass sized vodka tonic and put it on my bedside table ready to drink while we talked, but she never got to calling, and I didn't drink the cocktail. 

I worked. Completely focused on answering tickets. 

I sat here with my cute little lap desk that I bought (it's perfect) and pounded through those tickets. Doug came in for bed at 10pm and I put the laptop away... perfect timing. We went to sleep. 

I woke up around 6:30am, the dog wanted to go out. Geoff had fed him and let him out at 5 but an hour or so after brekkie he enjoys another go-out. I reached over to the bedside table to grab the glass of water. I always have a glass of water there. 

Only it was not a glass of water. It was a room temperature, rather strong, vodka tonic. 

Imagine my surprise. 

And yes, I drank the whole thing. Hey Wednesday, how you doin?

It has been exceptionally hot. Not as brutally hot as the historic and deadly heat up over the Pacific Northwest. I talked to Aaron over on the coast and he said in his backyard it was 115 at the moment. Right on the river. Right at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The next day it was 66 and cloudy, but folks from Portland were all flooding to the coast to try and get some sort of reprieve. I felt incredibly bad for them. 

Here it was "normal" hot. DC hot: mid to upper 90s, tons of humidity. But we went about a week without receiving a cooling rainstorm.

Our AC was working extra hard, as I'm sure everyone's was. All kinds of people in the neighborhood were having AC guys at their house to fix. We all have Central Air - it's kind of mandatory around here. 

When we moved in, I asked the rental agent to please have a furnace and AC wellness check done in February (she did). We had just spent 4 days without heat at the other house (they got a brand new, super quiet, efficient and lovely furnace installed, we got to enjoy it for a couple of weeks before moving). I didn't want for that to happen again, and I wanted to avoid any AC nonsense on days like we had this week. 

With the cold, I can deal with fleecy jammies, slippers, blankets, and space heaters and stay comfortable.  I always feel like we do fine. 

But when it is hot like this, there's absolutely no escaping it. You can't sit in front of a fan enough to cool off. 

Yesterday we finally got the storms through the area. They were pretty rough! Thunder and lightning began here at about 1pm. I was on a Zoom call with a station and one of the attendees slacked me to say it looked like someone was taking pictures in my house. The room was very dark, and the flashes noticeable. It lasted all the way until about 6pm. We had our power go out twice while I was on calls. Luckily I wasn't the only one from my team on the call so we had someone fill in for what I was saying until I could log back in. 

We got another wave at about 9pm, and a tornado touched down near DC from what I understand. The overnight was quiet, but wow, what a ride. 

Phineas was kind of sick this week. Starting on Friday he just wasn't the Phin we've gotten used to. He stopped eating. Drank a LOT of water. Needed to go out pretty much all the time. Which was nice because yeah, it's hot a balls doggie. Come back in! All weekend he didn't touch his food, and all he wanted to do was sleep. 

And throw up. 

We couldn't figure out what was going on - did he eat something? I mean, he went through the whole Dogs Eat Cicadas phase during the Cicada invasion, but the brood had long finished and there have been no more bugs to eat. Doug said that a hungry dog will eventually eat. Which he did, but not with the exuberance and gusto of his usual brekkie and phinnertime celebrations. He'd nibble and leave, and go back to sleep. 

Starting yesterday he seemed back to his good normal self. Seeing him bound up the stairs to come back in after we walked around the yard together was a relief. Before that he took the steps so slowly, like a very old man, and I was afraid he was going to fall down. 

But we're on the mend, and heckin' cute.

Phin wishes you a good day.

It's the 4th of July weekend. We're entering the second half of the year. My early morning wakings will note a darker sky in a couple of weeks and the reality of the downhill slide to winter will begin. Still, it's incredibly light early in these parts for the morning rise to take the dog out and feed him.  

Doug is looking for places for us to go watch fireworks. I'm not really interested in going. My office would always open the 4th floor deck for employees and families to come and enjoy the view over to the national mall, but last year and this year the building is closed for that. So none of that for us. I'd kind of rather stay home. 

I have a feeling our neighbor across the street is gearing up for a party and fireworks. He shoots them off all the time. When we lived up the street it wasn't a big deal but now across the street we may be in for it. We'll see. 

Least a guy can do is invite the neighbors over for the shindig, am I right? 

Accomplishments

About this time last year I was flush with doing things that I called the Little Projects. Pandemic life made me look around and evaluate my lack of organization and all of my messes. So I commenced to cleaning up stuff, organizing things. I felt like I made really great progress on my life. I threw out things, I got things out of storage and put them up on shelves to make me happy while we were going to be home all the damn time. I ran out of gas a few months into the process. Brodie died, I think I was much more sad about that than I initially imagined. I was derailed.

In the fall, I tried to kickstart myself a couple of times but just could not get things done. Work got insanely busy. I got the Covid. I had to pack us to move, and I bemoaned all of the things I'd unpacked as I put them back into boxes. 

All those books. Jebus. 

We got here and this house is very much the same size and style wise as the other house with a few exceptions. The floorplan is slightly bigger, and it is laid out differently. And we have a whole huge finished basement downstairs to make a second living/working/office space. 

I got about 90% organized down there. Doug kind of messed up my flow when his office gave him 2 monitors and a new laptop, so he stopped working from the couch and set up downstairs. So that has monkey-wrenched my furniture and book placements but we'll make it work out. I am glad we have that space because otherwise I'd be trying where to force all the things I have into the living room, our bedroom, the guest room, places. I keep waiting for a truly rainy day to go down there and organize the heck out of everything.

During the pandemic, we managed to save a lot of money and went and got a nice living room set. Well, nice for a discount furniture company. It is nice, it's just not West Elm nice but nice enough. It is much nicer than the used Bob's Furniture Discount couch we inherited from my college roommate's uncle when it didn't fit in his house, and the IKEA couch we got for free from one of my coworkers who relocated to Spain. Raising kids, especially The Boy we just never wanted to get new furniture because we knew that he would wreck it relatively quickly. 

Once the furniture was placed in here and after two strong arguments about how far over the couch should be (I have given up) we started to get a good idea for other things which have been kind of crammed into the dining room or sitting in boxes. 

I set up the black glass-front cabinet that my friend Lita gave us when she moved to be our liquor cabinet, and put a 2x4 IKEA set of shelves under the window beside it. 

A few months ago we got a corner hutch for the glass and the china at a place called Community Forklift. They specialize in recycling furniture, appliances, all kinds of house and yard things. It took me forever to get Doug interested in going down, for as much as he's totally into buying used furniture and the shabby chic-ness of the style. 

We should have a camp cottage somewhere full of shit that we'd both envision having. But once I got him there, well. He's a big salvage fan now. 

The hutch needed some cleaning up. There was tape all over the glass, but a little windex and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser took care of that. Doug got some Howard's Restor-a-Finish and a couple coats later all the scuffs and mess were rubbed out and it was ready for living its next best life looking fantastic and shiny.  

It is full of our super expensive glass and our cheapassed wine glasses someone left behind at the cooking school. The Noritake china is down in the bottom, looking good, waiting for holiday dinners. 

We went back to Forklift yesterday in search of end tables and lamps which you can see in the living room shots. 

We scored exactly what we needed, and the bonus is the lamps match. We found one at one section of the warehouse, and then while walking around double checking to see if we missed any good end tables anywhere else we found a larger version of the same lamp. They were separated from each other for displays, but we reunited them joyfully. 

Geoff's bathroom in this house is huge, as opposed to the tiny assed shabby shitty bathroom in the last house, which was actually too small for me to even clean with success. 

I took an old table we'd been schlepping around since before he was born. I've used it in the bathroom before, I believe I have a picture of it here in the blog from our years in the Brown House. 

It is a perfect size for a couple of towels and hand towels under, a drawer for nail clippers and extra razors, and the top for anything you need like paper towel, cleaners, TP and stuff. 

Doug's grandfather used to get old Saturday Evening Post magazines at yard sales, and then frame advertisements that he liked. Kept him out of trouble, I guess. And we inherited a large box of them. 

There are four that we've used in the bathroom before, two from Kohler plumbing, one for Scott Tissue, and one for soap (Lifebuoy?) where "The Health Doctor" is credited for giving advice to women to wash with this soap and keep their youthful complexions. Thank you Health Doctor!

We have dozens of these, a lot of pipe tobacco or beans ads, but I wanted to find something in the collection for Geoff's bathroom once I got this table in there. I found two ads for bandages and gauze, and thought that my future X-Ray technician could appreciate them from the medical perspective (which he did). They are slightly askew in this picture but I did go back and fix them later. 

Our walls up here on the main floor are not drywall. In fact, I think Geoff's bathroom is the only room in the house that is drywall. Hmm. 

These walls are as hard as stone so I have to get special hanger dealies to stick stuff to them, hence in the photos you can see my four ads are sitting on the living room table to remind me to get this figured out.  

Carrie had shipped a bookshelf to me at the old house which I found I didn't have a good space for, so it sat in a box until today. I broke that open, and set that up. It has 4 lovely little shelves now full of glass knick knacks and paperweights, some small toys, Uno Cards, all kinds of things I have been waiting to stick out in public.  This helped me get rid of several boxes that were sitting in the dining room, taunting and annoying me. 

We still have a couple of things in the dining room that need homes, and I'm getting the itch to hang stuff up on these damn boring sand colored walls. But we are infinitely closer to actually like, living here.  

On that note, gotta get some more things done before I run out of gas! As it is Father's Day, either Geoff or I have to go to the market for good grillables. Geoff said to Doug "Seein' as it's Father's Day, how about I grill for you tonight?" Which I think is the sweetest thing he could say. 

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned things. Enjoy. 

Before I took the Restor-A-Finish to the hutch. 
And below, After but before the china and glass were put in.

the table to the left of the Lita's Liquors Cabinet is going to be the new puzzle table.

All the wee shelfy things I love. Ignore the dusty floor.

There was a bunch of stuff there before I set the shelf up, and I've since gone back to swiffer it nice. 

We have one box of things that I'm not sure where I stuck it. It'll turn up, I'm sure!

Everything does, right?

Thirty

I started this blog shortly after my 10th anniversary. June 1st we celebrated our 30th anniversary. How wild is that? 

Initially, we thought about doing something substantial to mark 30. We had a great trip to Canada for 25. We thought about going back and retracing the route of our honeymoon through Nova Scotia. We thought maybe we'd go to Denmark or Sweden, or an Alaska cruise. Covid and the Pandemic kind of changed any cloud talk plans that we'd mentioned to each other for marking the occasion. Plus, Canada is closed to us Yanks.

Doug suggested we go to Massachusetts, see my folks, see the kid. It sounded just about right to do something meaningful. My parents were ready for us to visit, and comfortable. Jess was not, but Doug was pretty determined we'd still visit. 

So that was decided. 

We left on Saturday, and on paper it is about 7 hours to my parents, in reality more like 9 with traffic around NYC. We got to our hotel and got takeout and beer Saturday night. Sunday morning we went to my folks' and hung out. We went to their favorite watering hole, and all my mom's favorite people were there, including Bert, who told me once he's marrying my mom. So I call him Step Dad. 

They have a lovely support system up there at their bar, people who take good care of them when they are not well or need help. It's kind of like a church family, only they are from the bar. The bartenders have our phone numbers (me and Linda) and can get ahold of us fast if there is an emergency. That kind of community is hard to come by for some folks in their late years so church family, bar family, it's family. 

I asked my dad to smile for the picture and this is what I get. When you are 81, you can do you. He's so damn funny. And look at that hair. 

We stayed at a hotel a town away, and we took my dad for a couple drives because my mom literally never goes anywhere and he doesn't get to go out as much as he likes. 

We went to the Canal, and took a walk. We drove around a little town on the bay with all kinds of great little water vistas. We tried to go driving down to a road that turned out to be private to go out where the water would be all around us. We had a lot of fun with my dad. 

During our trip, my mom and I went to see her sister, my Aunt Bea (Bevvie, Beverly, etc...) who is now at an assisted living facility on the Cape. My cousins got to the point where this was just the best option for her, for safety reasons. It is hard to be the caretaker for someone with memory loss. I could write a whole entry on that visit. I may just do that. 

My mom has been reluctant to go visit her, and my sister has given her a hard time about it. I'm sure for my mom this is hard, to see her baby sister in a position where she isn't "herself" and needs pretty much round the clock care which my cousin John really could not continue to give her.  She frustrates my mother, because she asks the same questions over and over, and doesn't remember a lot of things. So my mom has been incredibly reluctant to go visit. 

This frustrates me and my sister, because ... well that's your sister. You should just cope with/deal with her in her situation and meet her where she is. Having mercy for both of them, I was more than excited when my cousin Billy offered to bring us to see her. We had to be added to his visitation, so he took care of that signup. 

I took a lot of photos on the trip that were not shared socially, this one chief among them. My mom is holding the pudding cup so Bea can get all the pudding out. "It keeps trying to get away from me," she said. Laughing, mom helped her out. 

Ages 78 and 76 or ages 8 and 6, there is your sibling helper. 

I have a lot of feelings here. I'm sure my mother has. I'm sure my sister does. I'll just say we had a really lovely visit. I hope I get to see her again, at least one more time. 

Here are a couple shots of my dad. I think we had more fun on this visit with him than we've had in a long time. With kidnapping him and taking him for a ride one day, and kidnapping him and going to the canal another day, he was full of stories.  

Here he is at the Canal with the train bridge behind him. I thought we would take a long walk here, but it was a short one, as he migrated towards the street, towards a bar. Like you do when you've escaped the house. My cousin Billy had told me to go to Buzzards Bay Brewing Company, next to the bar Bart was aiming for, as he knows we like craft beer. So I steered him to the right a little bit and we had a good time without a Keno machine or a TV. 

My dad is not a craft beer aficionado, so I always ask the staff "what's your closest beer to a Budweiser, or your lowest ABV ale?" 

There was a pack of cards on one of the table, so Doug dealt 21/Blackjack for us and we had a good laugh with those. 

On Memorial Day itself, we went up north. We realized that if we were going to see Jess we'd need to do it on the Monday. They weren't going to take time off while we were there, or come to the Cape. Jess is reluctant to do anything because too many people are not taking post-covid life (or somewhat post-covid life) with a seriousness of upheld caution. Even though they are vaccinated, they are not happy we (Doug and I) are not vaccinated. Side note: We've held the belief of science - that if you've had a disease, you don't get vaccinated after it (I know a lot of people disagree). And because Doug booked us in this hotel for a whole week, instead of a few days down by my parents, a few days up north, we knew it would be a day trip up there and our only real chance to get together. The forecast was for rain in the morning, and things held off enough for us to get in some time. 

We met Jess and their roommates and stood outside and chatted. They did let me in to use the bathroom (and pet the cat because I love me some Doyle). We took Jess to Salisbury Beach for a nice long walk, and then we drove up the coast through Hampton/North Hampton/Rye. 

I love this kid. So much mine. 

We realized it was getting close to dinner time, and Jess didn't want to go to a restaurant because of the aforementioned pandemic-is-still-going-on concerns. I realized we were very close to our friends Mike & Michelle's house, so we called them to see if we could do a drive by hello since traffic was insane (as it would be on Monday evening of Memorial Day Weekend for folks headed home from Maine/NH). They enthusiastically welcomed us to the porch, lit the gas fire pit, cracked open a new homebrew pony keg,

cheffed us up some dinner, and we had a great visit! I didn't get a chance for all of us to connect before we moved nearly 4 years ago, so this was a long time coming.  I'm so thankful they were comfortable to have us over. And would have been just as thankful for a driveway hello. 

We got Jess back home, and didn't have time to go visit anyone else on our tour of the north, which made me a little sad. 

Doug and I went to New Bedford, my parents didn't want to go. Well, my dad would have gone but he wasn't up to going through a whole museum. We hit the Whaling Museum, which I love but it also makes me sad at the same time. Great presentation, new exhibits that weren't open the last time we were there a million years ago with both kids. Here I am, inside the belly of the whale. 

We ate an early dinner at Moby Dick Brewing Company, walked down to the harbor and looked at all the fishing boats while soaking in Magic Hour as it got underway. We went over to Fort Rodman park and did more pokemon playing there. We watched a guy with VR goggles on flying his drone around while he sat in a beach chair on the hill by the fort and it was quite enjoyable. We got run out of the park by the cops as the sun was going down. Never had that happen before. 

Our plan was to hit the road to start our west and south bound journey on Friday. We had some time to play with, and I reached out to a few friends to see what they were up to on Friday night/Saturday during the day but people already had plans or were headed out of town themselves. 

We left after doing some gardening with my folks (which.... was dramatic and there was yelling) and headed towards Providence, RI to see what that town was like. It wasn't that awesome. A couple good views, mostly a lot of traffic. They close down a neighborhood for al fresco dining on Friday/Saturday nights and that's where we were parked, so we decided to get out of town before we got trapped. We drove down to Newport, RI to drive along Ocean Drive Historic District (since we've been to the big ass houses in the past we skipped that). We enjoyed views of the ocean, and went over to Brenton Point state park for some more great views. 

Driving west, we tried a couple restaurants along the way and there was too long a wait so we went further. Got to a town called Branford, found a little restaurant that didn't have a wait. It was raining (again) so we had to eat inside, and had a delightful meal. We booked a hotel just up the road, settled in to watch some hockey, and hit the hay. 

The plan was to check out the Thimble Islands via Stony Creek and the Thimble Island Cruise company. The 2 hour cruise around the islands was very nice, affordable, fun, and honestly... what a beautiful day after so much dreary weather. 

My only regret is we didn't stop at the Thimble Island Brewing Company on our way out of town to get some take home beer.  

The boat we toured on was the Sea Mist, and they have a beer named for the boat. We enjoyed one on the toodleaboot, and I would have liked to take some home. 

We never really have spent a lot of time in this section of Connecticut. Traditionally, from our time in the Boston Area and went to Pennsylvania, we'd travel down via the Masspike/84/Merritt Parkway, around NYC... and never touched the coast. If we went to my sister's, we'd either go down the Merritt to 95 to Bridgeport for the ferry, or go to Mystic for the ferry. There wasn't a lot of us meeting the coast where it lives. So this was a fun drive for us, checking out Rte 1 (Boston Post Road) and the towns along the stretch there. We'd always seen signs for the Thimble Islands, never went, and now we know and will go back again, I pretty much predict it. Getting to my parents' now, you kind of hug the coast on 95 and then go up to Providence to cut across to roads to access the Cape so the Thimble Islands and other shore points between New Haven and the Cape will be easier access.

We pushed through to head home after we grabbed a sandwich and got hung up on the Palisades Parkway in Fort Lee, NJ with no way to escape the highway closure due to a big huge fire that literally just started when we got a couple miles north of the location at Hudson Terrace.  

Finally getting through, we zoomed down the Turnpike, got some gas, and Doug thought we should stop for dinner in Havre de Grace, MD. I'd always wanted to visit there, and he wasn't in the mood for truck stop options. It wasn't too far off the highway, and I scoped out Tripadvisor for a foodrinkery while Doug was driving. 

The place I picked had a live band playing, and for as much as I miss live music, I have never once in my life wanted to walk up on a show and ask them to stop. They were atrocious. The lead singer had no style, the drummer was using those super heavy metal double bass pedals which do not work with Spin Doctors, Jimmy Eat World, or Collective Soul songs. No. Stop. Please. We could hear them all over town too. 

We found an indoor place to eat. Thankfully. They had a patio, but it was completely full and polluted by these dudes up the street wrecking a Harvey Danger song. We happily enjoyed a really tasty dinner, in air conditioning and peace and quiet. We noticed a DJ starting to set up out on the patio and were relieved to be done with the meal and ready to go. I guess I am An Old now if that kind of stuff just makes me want to move along. 

Happy to be home, feel like we could have done more up north as I said but thankful to spend as much time with my folks as we did. I look forward to doing it again sometime. 

Team Triscuit

Doug and I bought a new couch. 

We've never owned a new new couch, so we decided to dip into the giant amount of savings we had from the no-fun year, and treat ourselves to a couch.  Our current couch is an almost new Ikea couch that we bought from a co-worker of mine when he relocated to Spain and was not taking his furniture. We lucked out. New guest bed (and one of he most comfy mattresses I've ever slept on) and this couch, which has done fine for us.

New couch arrives June 8th. Can't wait.

We are going to set up a living/reading/TV zone downstairs, mostly so Geoff won't have to come up here to watch TV while we're trying to sleep, and there's something comfy to sit on down in Office Land. Geoff won't have to watch wrestling and Archer with the sound turned all the way down to a low level, to keep from bothering us. It'll be a nice extra TV room. 

The only big news is I went to Florida with C, enjoyed a girls' weekend. She has a new house and we were there to receive furniture delivery and ... chill. I regretted not spending an extra 2 days or something all to myself there. I had to work on Friday, I agreed to cover a meeting Friday morning so I got to do it from her kitchen counter. 

Work from home is work from anywhere. 

Maybe I'll plan another time to go, and I can work the whole day, or a week of days,and then just fall in the pool periodically between calls. 

That's the life. That first picture, that's the pool, at night. 

Nightswimming. Deserves a quiet night.

We went to the beach, C rented 2 deck chairs and an umbrella. The fact that we didn't have to schlep all of our own chairs and umbrellas and everything to pitch camp, this was just easy. Genius. 

We spent hours there, a lot more time than I thought we would. I thought we'd take a long walk but just being there in the sun with the water and the shade, chatting, and loving the breeze, it was so wonderful.

Swimming in the Gulf was delightful. 

Now I can say I've gone swimming in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Gulf. Kind of cool. It was lovely. 

And we should have gone back in one more time. 

I can't remember the last time I swam in salt water so it was really great. We should have sat there for another 4 hours, waited for the sunset. Oh I'm sure the gulf sunset is something to camp there for.

Next visit.... 

We watched birds dive bomb into the water, and children swimming without adults, which always makes me a little nervous. I knew where their adult was, but she was very sleepy and relaxed. I'll always be a mom deep inside. They were fine. But I watched and just ... watched.  

I ended up having a real nice chat with the mom and her friends. I made them laugh hard saying that this was the beach for me when I realized I wasn't the biggest one there, so I could feel totally comfortable. I can't do skinny girl beaches like Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. They were howling and they knew what I meant. I'm not fat phobic and I know that I am who I am. I just don't like being surrounded by thongs and really skinny chicks with perky boobs. So older women! Big women! I'm there. 

These ladies thought I was drop dead funny. One of them said I should do stand up. I'm not that funny. But it was a delightful time. They asked for dinner recommendations like I knew what I was talking about. I told them about a place we tried to go to the night before but they were booked solid so I told them to call NOW to check in on a table. C agreed. I told them I wasn't sure about the kid menu situation and they said that "we'll just give them water, they'll be fine." So then they were the ones who should be doing standup. 

I know she'll kill me for this. But I grabbed this shot of her, and I love her. I love this picture. I love that she humored me and stood here being silly for a minute. There is so much serious and so much work, and in the end, I look at this and I'm like for sure she's my angel. since 1986, a staple in my life. I can say anything to her, and she can say anything to me. Beach, pool, wine, grocery store, dry cleaning, laundry, fighting with the Rooma, swiffering, everything we did was just perfect.

She was telling me about another friend of ours who came to visit her in Florida, Dave, and we all realized we all love Triscuits. So we are now "Team Triscuit." If you aren't down with Triscuits, you can't roll with us. Go over there. Go. Bye.

There are fewer people I know as kind and generous. And funny. I'm so glad to have her as a friend and have so much fun with her. Looking forward to seeing her again, hopefully in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.

Finally, the above picture. 

In the guest room at her house there are some sheer curtains but not a solid blackout curtain. I sat up in bed the first morning around 7am, and caught my shadow and the window curtains, on the wall. It freaked me out for a second, but then I was incredibly impressed with how wild this was. 

I played with my hair, tried to take a bunch of selfies of the shadow, but this was the only one that came out to my liking. I picked up the glass by the bedside that I had water in, and held it up to make all kinds of crazy fractured light shine through. 

This is one of my favorite things. I love it. 

Anyway, a couple other posts to come. I want to go back to Florida just to work from the kitchen counter again. And to spend time with C. 

More to come.

Stays at home and beats back death, or debt, you decide

(title is lifted from Ben Folds "Where's Summer B")

We have a nice amount of money in our checking account for the first time in our entire relationship. For a lot of people, it is not a lot of money, I'm sure. But for us, it is pretty great. 

Since the pandemic came, we haven't traveled. We haven't had fun. We (ahem, I) have not bought concert tickets, paid for hotel rooms, dinners, bought all the drinks at the bar for 20 friends in NYC (yes I did, annnnnnnnnd it was expensive), not for a good long damn while. Not being a drunken octopus (which is my sister's nickname) helps not spend your money. 

While having zero fun is a down right drag, it's nice to have some cash.

Sidebar story: I had a dream recently where Doug and I went look at a condo that we were going to be renting, and the husband in the couple was Doug's boss (not in real life now currently for real). 

It was on a pier in a super hip and active seaside town. Maybe like Astoria, Oregon or something. The building had four units, it was humongous, and used to be a warehouse or cannery or something. It had been rehabbed to the studs, soundproof/weatherproof/waterproof giant windows with shades inside the window that you could move up or down.  Rough, worn wooden wide pine floors that were completely refinished, rehabbed, sealed and shiny. Exposed brick, rusty beams and pulleys for doors to rooms and pantry enclosures, but they glided silently and perfectly. Bookstore style floor to ceiling (12 ft) shelving with a ladder that glided along just like the doors. It had amazing skylights, and a beautiful gourmet kitchen with indoor gas grill, huge patio off the back on the second floor. It was very exciting and beautiful and everything I'd love to have in a place to live on the ocean.

We were signing the paperwork and the wife said "okay go in there and start boxing up our things, and you'll be moving the couch to the elevator and ..." She was giving us orders like we were the moving company. 

I looked at Doug and said "wait a second, we have to do the move too? Don't they have enough money to hire movers? We are hiring movers? Why aren't they hiring movers?" 

She heard me and turned around and said "oh honey, how do you think I got rich? It wasn't by paying for moving companies to move my things! Now go over here and wrap all these dishes. You can do the kitchen." 

How do you think I got rich. Huh. 

By not spending any money at all, being frugal, and sitting on anything you have. No buying rounds for all the friends at the NYC bar after a Guster rain out. 

So this past year, I guess that's been us. Only we did pay movers, but I packed our stuff.  (Still would have loved to move into this imaginary wharf warehouse thing. I think about the place often. Maybe it exists. It was that real in my dream. Well. Maybe someday). Sidebar story complete

Looking at our bank balances, it is nice to know we can afford to get some of the things we really need to upgrade. 

We need:

• A nice new sofa/sectional situation in the living room. We got a free Ikea couch from a co-worker when we bought his bed (also Ikea) when he moved to Spain. No one wanted the couch so he told us to just take it. I insisted on giving him money. It's the nicest couch we've ever had.
• A patio set instead of just camp chairs and a weird little wicker table thing Doug found while out for a walk when we lived in Massachusetts. It was in someone's trash.  But my patio dreams may have to wait until after the invasion of the Cicadas.  More on that later, I'm sure.
• A new bed. Our box spring/platform sucks and we've slept the hell out of this Tempurpedic over the last 20 +years. I would kind of like a king sized bed, but we should stick with a queen because the chances are it'll fit into more bedrooms in the future. But a king would fit into my fantasy condo.
• Other stuff and junk to make Chrissie happy. I have a stack of things to frame, I need pants.You know. The usual day-to-day living things.
• eventual travel maybe. Someday.

We have one credit card. 

We have had this solitary soldier for years. Right around the time we were about to lose the house, I rolled everything into this one particular credit card after trying to get rates lowered on like 3 others that we had. And they refused.  So I called this bank, asked if they could raise our limit, told them my plan to consolidate all my debt onto one card, and they gave me a really high credit limit in case I had to spend some money. They lowered my interest rate, and let me do what I felt I needed to do. 

I said kiss my ass to CitiBank, Discover, a BOA card, paid off those balances with the transfer from this bank, and started a journey to just pay shit off. That was 2008. I thought it was going to go much faster, but things happened, setbacks occured, and we did our best.

I had gotten it down to about 9k in 2017. I was on track to pay it all off, right up until Doug got laid off from his first job down here. We slowly ran that up again. Not all the way to the limit, but it was used. 

Gotta buy groceries, put gas in the car, feed that boy...all that happy horseshit. 

After his layoff, he worked for a while doing healthcare record audits, so they sent him all over the place. The only problem with that job was he had to buy all of his tickets, hotel, everything on his own dime and then get reimbursed. Doug would get his reimbursement for the trip, book the next trip with the card, we'd keep the money it in the Checking account for groceries and all that, and pay the minimum due on the credit card. Because the Credit card was the only thing hotels or rental cars would accept, he couldn't use the bank card we'd been using which was attached to our checking account. 

Things were balance and equilibrium, steady on, and then Doug got his job that he has now. Finances started to get better. We'd have 5-7k in the bank at a stretch. Hell yeah. We bought a car with cash, (not a lot -3k) because Doug refuses to get a car loan anywhere. "No bank is going to make a penny of interest off of me" says the man who got financially ruined by A Certain Bank. 

And I have to agree. 

We'd go to Massachusetts or New York. We would comfortably order dinner and not worry. Guster Tickets and the like. And I was happy with 5k in the bank, but realizing if he got laid off again, or if I got laid off, we'd start the cycle all over. 

Then the pandemic came to visit. With no travel, no fun, since December 2019 really, we've just been pulling down money. And we have been a lot healthier financially.

I have been throwing 800 bucks a month at that one credit card (minimum payment expected? 350.00.... ) this last year. We are back down to about 8,000 bucks, and today while I was looking at the account and setting up the online payment, I said "why the hell should I take 10 months plus probably another month with the (relatively small) interest charges to finish paying this off? I should just do it." 

I pointed this out to Doug and he agreed. Just do it. 

It felt wild to do, but, I paid it off almost in full. The system wouldn't let me pay 100% of the balance because math and computers and weekends and stuff. The payment will go through probably Monday, and then I can then pay it off in full the following day. 

And for the first time since about 1987 when I got my first credit card through BayBank in college (and I bought a scarf and an , I will have no credit card debt at all. Read that again. None. Zilch. Nada. Zero. Done. 

That 800 a month I've been throwing there I can shift into a savings account. I can just let it all pile up like Daffy Duck and I can scream I'm rich! I'm comfortably well off! 

I'll be reaching out to my local bank to set up that savings account next week. 

It's a nice feeling to not have to think about this like I have had to for so long. 

"You smell like piña coladas, and you are very green"

Doug went out to mow our lawn this morning. It should have been done sometime during the week but he let it go. Work was busy. He had to go into the office on Thursday (gasp) and we just both were straight out. In fact, I'm working, it's 4:45 on Saturday, and I'm taking a break. 

To share this with you.

The dog went out with him. He's very good in the yard and does not get in the way when Doug is mowing. After about a half hour of mowing the lawn, with stops and starts because the grass was long and thick and wet ("juicy" as he called it) I heard a knock on the door. Why the hell is he knocking on the door?

I opened it and he had a big grin on his face. 

"You need to get your camera, and come see your dog." 

So I did. And here is what I saw. 

Oh Dear. 

The dog is green. 

Mind you, I've never had a mostly white dog. I've always had mostly black dogs, and dogs that weren't super crazy about rolling in the grass. They would a little, but mostly, no. They just chilled. 

Phineas loves to roll in the grass. He goes out every morning, and rolls in the grass. We go for walks and he finds a bit of grass to flop over in, and roll about. At first I was worried he was finding poop or dead remnants to roll in and get it on him in order to get the smelly smell of something that smells smelly onto his person, but no. He just likes it. I guess you gotta like something.

Doug was too busy mowing to notice the changes in color as he saw him rolling about. 

We made some jokes about "It's not easy being green," and Doug said "you wouldn't like him when he gets angry," an homage to the Hulk. We tried to make bark and hulk work together but they didn't quite go. 

A little after our discovery of St. Phineas Green of the Freshly Mown Fields, we were expecting someone to come over and pick up our snow blower. We had moved it here from Massachusetts, and we have never used it. It does not fit in the shed. Doug just wanted to give it away. We didn't want to sell it because we didn't want someone haggling with us and giving us a hard time over things. So I put it on NextDoor.com and had 5 volunteers who wanted a free snowthrower that we couldn't guarantee would work since we hadn't started it for 2 winters. We started it the first winter to make sure it ran, but ... eh? It may not anymore. 

Dude's name was Grant and he was a riot. He saw the dog and had to take a selfie to show his kids. We had a great talk, he's about our age, retired military. He is from Oklahoma, and has been here 10 years with his family. We had a lot of fun talking about snow. And he said that if he gets the Barfer up and roaring, and we get slammed with snow, he'll come on by and rescue us. How nice. 

Doug finished mowing the lawn, and came in. We looked at the dog. And we were pretty convinced we'd have to give him a bath because this was not just going to wear off anytime soon. 

His former owner said he hates baths, so she would always smear peanut butter on the wall to keep him still. We talked about the tub, but we don't have a shower head that you can pull down and bring close like we did at the last house. It made giving Brodie a bath so easy. On top of that, I had just cleaned the bathroom on Friday, so of course the universe was setting me up for a laugh.  

Nice clean bathroom. Now let's wash a dog in it. 

"We can try the utility sink downstairs?" Doug suggested. I thought it sounded good - we wouldn't have to bend over, and could plug the sink to get some water surrounding him while we dumped more on him.

Overall the process was a success. Geoff gave him cookies to get him to sit still while Doug and I wet, soaped, rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed him.

We sang the piña colada song (in the title with our new lyrics) because the dog shampoo we had was coconut (and oatmeal) so it smelled nice. And we sang that it wasn't easy being green. 

Time to towel dry, and he got out and shook everywhere over and over and over. It was hysterical. So I had to mop the basement. Thank you doggo. 

Glad we didn't try this in the bathroom. 

He's still wet, 3 hours later. He was on his doggie bed and I covered him up to warm him, but he didn't seem to like being wrapped in a warm towel. It's just about his dinner time. So now that he's been through all that trauma, we'll feed him and love on him, and hopefully he won't go right out later and roll in the grass, again. 

Or he'll just have to stay green for a while. 

The poor traumatized thing.

Phineas and the Panic

 This could be the name of my new band. 

While we were out of town, Geoff was here with Phin. Phin is always exceptionally upset when someone leaves, I can see why his former owner felt it was unfair to him to leave him alone for 12-14 hours a day. 

Well, he's grown firmly attached to us. Probably a combination of hating to be left out of the going outside part of things, and the actual separation anxiety, Geoff said he went bananas for about a half hour after we left. Saturday night, he was confused as to why we weren't there to go to bed and cried a lot, so Geoff slept on the couch, the dog bed being right by the coffee table. 

Sunday, Phineas spent the day with Geoff down in the basement. Geoff moves from his bedroom to my desk through the day, studying at the big desk and using his computer in his room. Phin slept on the bed with him Sunday night. 

Please note, we've never had a dog who has slept with him. He has longed for this his whole life. None of the dogs wanted to sleep with the children - they want to sleep where Doug or I are because they know we are the "pack leaders" as it were, and the kids are always just puppies like them. I think Geoff was completely overjoyed by this.

Geoff then realized on Monday morning, he had class from 8-9:30 and then lab from noon to 2. So Phineas would be completely alone here for the first time ever. 

He pondered that maybe, well, Phin might get a little bit wild.

His realization was pretty accurate. 

Geoff got home at 3pm, and Phin had swept a bunch of paperwork off the dining table and coffee table, and he also jumped up to look out the window where we have a shelf for the microwave, and destroyed 3 boxes of tea in our large tea box outright. He also got into his own dog treats, which were sitting up on a bench by the front door. Geoff said there was plastic everywhere, and Phin had eaten about a full bag of wee oyster cracker sized treats, and 10 fake pigs ears, ones that we limit giving him due to the farts they produce. Vegetarian pig's ears. But damn if he doesn't love them. (By the way, the farting last night was extra horrible last night).

Geoff cleaned up the best he could (not the best at cleaning tbh) and Phineas was exceptionally happy to see him, and shadowed him the rest of the day. 

We got home and his sense of relief at us being here was palpable. 

This morning he woke me up at about 5 to go outside. I think is tummy may not be feeling quite right. I fed him, an hour earlier than usual and when I got up at 9 half the food was still there. The poor weirdo. 

I'm trying to think about what we can do (other than really put all the things away before leaving the house) for the times ahead where (maybe) all of us will be out of the house at the same time. There has always been at least one human here. Possibly a very very large dog crate? I just don't know how fair that is to him. doggie gates across places? Still pondering what will be the best for his needs, but also not make him feel trapped or punished. 

Open to suggestions.

Get Away - Skyline and Charlottesville

Yes we're still in a pandemic. And yes, I feel like shit doing any sort of anything outside the house. 

But what's the difference in going to the grocery store, and going to a restaurant. The grocery store people don't seem to socially distance. I don't see any evidence of cleaning after people go down the aisles anymore. 

Restaurants at least, well, they're still making a great effort. And supporting them to keep them open, I think I'm all about it.

Plus, I had the covid. I'll go out, still mask up, and act like this is somewhat more safe than going to Target. And Doug is feeling very well emboldened by the fact we've already had it, and is pissed off that the CDC isn't announcing or deciding or saying that it's okay. No one seems to have a solid answer to whether or not it's ok, so he's making his own decisions, I'm kind of going along for the ride. 

Oh, it's been 3 months, you can go back to not worrying. Oh you have to get a vaccine but no don't get a vaccine. Oh six people died from one vaccine so everyone stop getting a vaccine. Oh, yeah. Even if you get a vaccine, you're not safe but just keep social distancing and masking and handwashing. 

He's kind of like "what's the point in doing anything?" He's been a tiger in a bottle for a few weeks and it has been tough to handle. 

And unlike a lot of my friends who are flying to Barbados, or going to Puerto Rico, or drunk ass flat out on the beaches of Florida or Texas... we've kept a low profile and inside. 

Over the weekend we drove down to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. 

We started in the middle at Thornton Gap instead of the Front Royal location, because it's a long long drive. We have done the whole thing in the past, and it is exhausting. There are just so many waysides and pull-outs you can swing into, gawk, and move along out of to the next one. 

Our goal was Charlottesville, where we stayed for our anniversary weekend a couple years ago. 

Doug picked a hotel with limited bookings and no daily housekeeping (thank you, we appreciate that). You could get towels and shampoo at the main desk if you need refills of things. I like having a made up bed when I come back from doing a toodleaboot town, but this was fine. We put our towels up on the shower rail. We used them again (I usually do that anyway but Doug is more cavalier about it. "I'm in a hotel, I demand a clean towel!" Okay dude). 

We got checked in, got ready and ventured out to find somewhere to eat on the pedestrian mall. Downtown Charlottesville successfully converted the area to a walkers/eaters/drinkers/visitors paradise, people were seated in outdoor cafes with tables spread apart, plenty of dog walkers and bachelorette parties out painting the town. Everyone had a mask on. People were using the free hand sanitizer stations. 

It started to rain, and a woman had told me we should just go back to our hotel and eat at the restaurant there because it was a 2 hour wait everywhere. People were huddled in doorways next to the restaurant doors, hoping to get inside. 

We walked by a place called Miller's and there was no one on the patio in the mall, 2 tables by the door and both were taken. 10 people came out of the door so we knew this was our lucky day. Doug asked if there was a long wait for 2, and they said they could get us in immediately. A group by the door was a party of 8, so they were waiting for the other setup that had just cleared out. We got seated before them. 

It was a lovely little bar with great late night food and craft cocktails. The waitress was delightful, and we had a wonderful time watching people from our perch in the window as the rain came down and sent those drunken bachelorettes scurrying down the street in their sashes and high heels. 

Sunday morning Doug wanted to walk about the mall again, the weather was perfect. Low 70s, no humidity, and there were tons of people. We kept our distance from everyone, visited 2 bookstores that had basically only us, another patron, and the person working inside. I had been looking for a purse that was just a little longer than the one I currently use, with some compartments for separation. Or a new wallet, since the one I've been using for years broke the zipper. 

We stopped into a fair trade store, and Doug spotted a cute bag on the wall that fit the bill, made in India. A front section for the cards. Middle section for breath mints and lip balm. 2 main sections with one zipper, for the phone and a spare battery and cord, and a back section for whatever else. Turns out it was the perfect size for my little container of hand sanitizing wipes. Hot damn. It fit it all. Score. 

Another bookstore, walk around an art park north of the mall, and then walk down to the IX Art Park south of town. 

Doug's sights were set on the North American Sake Brewery,  which had not yet opened to the public last time we were in town. It is a cool little space, hardly anyone was there, again - a feature for us because I don't want to be around people. The staff were amazing. The food was good. 

The Sake? well. I'm no expert. We each got a flight and two of them were not very good in our opinions, but reminding everyone - we know shit about sake. I found them medicinal and not very drinkable. The other two were much better, and my favorite was the one named Moon Leap, which was almost like a champagne. It was light and effervescent. Absolutely lovely. Doug liked one called Serenity Now, which he also got a glass of. 

They were out of their 2 most popular brews, and the host who was chatting with us went and found a small tasting bottle of their very most popular - Big Baby. I think if they had not been out of that, we probably would have had it as a glass too. It was really good. We ate rice bowls, chilled with the host (I wish I could remember their name), talked about process and traditions, what Americans think Sake is, what our experience has been up to this point with it (limited) and had a really relaxing time there. I won't say we're "into" it, like wow, I'm totally into Sake and only drink Sake and now I have glasses and books and ritual about Sake. But it was a great time. Glad to be there and have the place to ourselves pretty much. Lots of take-out orders happening for the food, so that was nice to see on a Sunday afternoon. 

We skipped visiting Three Notch'd Brewing because we'd been there before, and, the patio was incredibly crowded so we didn't want to enter into that scene. We headed back to the hotel for post-sake naps.

For dinner we walked over to Monsoon Siam for Thai food. Again, very crowded patio but we saw three tables open up and they got us seated quickly. Service was very slow, they were pretty slammed, but the night was gorgeous and it was nice to sit and relax and just watch traffic and dog walkers and overhear conversations all around us. We were tucked into a back corner, which was somewhat unfortunate because we were a little bit overlooked by our server. Had he come by once or twice more I would have had a couple more cocktails while waiting. That's money, yo. Always look at the empty glasses on the table when you're the server. 

The food was outstanding and well worth the wait. And we did share a slice of Mango Cheesecake, with a blackberry compote across the top. Damn. So good. 

Monday morning we left for Monticello. Found out I've been saying it wrong all these years. 

There were too many rules, which I think Thomas Jefferson would flip the fuck out over. I wasn't allowed to bring my new, small, compact purse with me up the mountain to the house (it was TOO BIG) and the whole rigamarole of their schtick was just annoying as hell. It was beautiful though, and we did a self guided tour with the phones and avoided all other humans. The gardens were just coming to life, and they have a huge expanse of plantings, so many types of lettuce and carrots, potatoes and berries. And there was this adorable little brick shed at the edge of the center, which we hung out in and had a wonderful chat with the docent there. She was a hot ticket, and we called the little space Mr. Jefferson's Slacking Shed. I think that was my favorite spot. 

The woman we'd been chatting with encouraged us to be sure to walk to the back of the house for the ... "Money Shot." Doug wasn't sure what she meant and then realized it is the view on the nickel. Literally, had us laughing our asses off there for a couple of minutes as we realized she didn't mean Money Shot like... porn. Here it is. Laugh with me. 

On the way back down the mountain, we went to Carter Mountain Orchard where there was a tasting room for Bold Rock Cider. Doug had one of their ciders at Miller's and the girl told us we could go to Nellysville, VA to check them out if we felt so inclined. Doug found this a better option, since it was right on the road from Monticello. If you go to the website I linked to and look at that picture, that is so Before Times, and it makes me anxious just looking at it. 

We had that entire area to ourselves. In fact, that area is below where were sitting. There's a whole other terrace. This space can hold hundreds of people, and it was literally just us, some cider, some Apple Cider donuts from the farm store, and a beautiful view down the valley to Charlottesville. 

The drive home was long - the choices to get back up to DC are to drive East towards Richmond, or take the country roads due north eventually getting to like Warrenton and the highway to DC. We decided to take the backroads. Beautiful ride, lots of flowering trees and horse farms, and actually 20 minutes faster than if we'd headed further East to go North. 

I took today off and should be working on Aaron's website transfer. He started advertising on the local NPR station in Astoria, OR and discovered the phone number is wrong on his current website. So last night I managed to change all the references to the number, one of them was especially challenging because it was hidden  in a field I could not get to. Doh. So at 11pm I got someone I know to help me out, we got that last field ironed out. Huzzah. 

Now to figure out launching the site I built for him and get off of the first site. The dude who built it is not very supportive. Or kind. And Aaron's about to kick his ass, so best to get it done quickly. And he's impressed at how many people emailed him to let him know the phone number was wrong. 

Underwriting on NPR seems to work, eh? He was spending time answering the emails and semi-overwhelmed with the response. 

Anyway. Glad I have today off and am not thinking of work or anything. It's nice. Better get to Aaron's site and get that rocking.