Home Improvements

swissdrunkfooltour, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

After receiving a tax bill that made our hair curl, and then looking at our maybe too ambitious home improvement projects slated for this year, Jon and I decided to cancel our 10 year anniversary trip to Puerto Rico. We are going to use the vacation time ( and money ) to help get some of these projects done.

We have all ready had the side fences in the back repaired. They look almost brand new! The bill = ouch.

The trim around the house has been repainted a darker color - I'm not completely sold on the color but it beats the worn out yellow it has been. The bill = not so ouch but still ouch.

The columns on the porch have been replaced. The bill = ouch.

The vines that covered the back fence in our yard have been completely removed along with some small trees and varying weeds. The bill = ouch in the sense of that poison ivy makes you all itchy.

We now have gutters in the front, hooray! And it was so rediculously non-ouchy I'm very sorry we didn't have it done when we first moved in. We paid someone to do it and it cost less than $300.

Still to do: Repairing the concrete around the pool (big ouch), replacing the back fence to something people can't see through now that the vines are gone (moderate ouch), adding a sprinkler system to the front lawn (moderate ouch) then sodding the lawn (a huge honking ouch).

So I took one of the saved vacation days yesterday and prepped the area in front of our house for new plants. I'm determined to have a damn hobby so it's going to be gardening.

First thing I did was attack the area ( 32' by 5') with a mattock. You want to get in shape? Swing one of those puppies for a couple of hours. I managed to loosen the very clayey soil and murder many earthworms. I then mixed the topsoil with about 12 bags of humus to make the area more hospitable for plants. That was a lot of raking and howing.

I know, you are saying why the hell didn't she just rent a rototiller? 1) Noise, and 2) it's my damn hobby.

After a quick nap I made my 2nd trip to Lowe's and tried to decide on some plants. I ended up with 2 gardenia bushes, 3 hostas (I love hostas) and a leland cypress tree. I still have to plant my hostas. The area, because of the bigassed oak tree in the front yard, might not get enough sunlight for the gardenias to bloom (and that would be a damn shame) but the hostas will be happy. The cypress tree is for the very end of the area and it gets plenty of sunlight. I still have to lay mulch down.

I should have taken another day off to buy and plant some more stuff, plus I have to lay down some mulch, but I decided to go into work today to get some rest.

This photo from Switzerland a couple of years ago is here because we have a houseguest. Mic, the dark haired gent on the left has been here for the last 2 weeks. He's helped remove some of the stumps out back and he's cooked dinner occasionaly. My kind of houseguest! He is one of the friends Jon base jumps with and he's here getting his skydiving tandem rating.

Photos of home improvements soon come.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I have admitted before that I like the original CSI. While television series I consider far better are being axed left and right, CSI TOS (and I wish that were original with me) is in its 9th season and I don't think it is suffering from the absence of William Petersen, Jorja Fox*, or Garry Dourdan. When Petersen left, Laurence (Cowboy Curtis) Fishburne came on board and to be honest, the series is just as enjoyable and as much a guilty pleasure as ever.

So my dedication to the series was rewarded in spades when I watched the last episode. Some t.v. producer was murdered, ostensibly because he had the gonads to take a beloved ancient science fiction series and re-visualize it into something more realistic and darker. The CSI team is viewing a video tape where the victim is premiering a clip of the re-imagined series to a bunch of geeks avid fans at a science fiction convention. The audience watches the clip and then there's a few moments of utter stunned silence. Finally one long-haired bearded geek gent stands up, points at the guy, and yells "YOU SUCK!!!" at the top of his lungs and chaos ensues.

The yeller is a cameo by my beloved Ron Moore, who was responsible for the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, and that was the best META MOMENT EVER and forever amen.

*Jorja Fox is involved in my 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon. Really! My brother (1) had a room-mate(2) who dated Jorja Fox (3) who was in Memento with Joe Pantoliano (4) who was in The Fugiti ve with Tommy Lee Jones (5) who was in JFK with (TAA - DAA) Kevin Bacon!

What I'm Watching

IMG_2618, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

The television season is winding down, if that even has any meaning any more. I saw the season finales of two of my three favorite shows, and in both the case of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Life, I most likely have seen the last episodes ever.

Spoilers below for these two shows:

The finale of SCC is a total mindfark, and I thought it a great ending if that's what it is. John Connor travels forward to sometime after the war starts, and meets both Kyle and Derek Reese and neither of them in this timeframe have ever heard of a John Connor. There's more to it but that was most painful and appropriate. Sarah is back in the past and she promised John before he disappeared that she would keep trying to stop the war. She failed again, obviously.

I loved the season ender for Life and I will miss it. It still might be renewed but I'm not holding my breath. Not everything made sense or was neatly tied up, but it was emotionally satisfying ending. Charlie Crews demonstrating to Roman Navikov exactly how he survived 12 years in prison was especially whoop-worthy.

I still have more Fringe and Lost. There are rumbling that Fringe may be axed (no! I <3 mad scientists!) but Lost is guaranteed one more season. Don't even ask me about Dollhouse.

Gravity Wave! Plus non-sequitur photo

Chillin in the Wagon, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Sunday night the wind blew so hard (60+ mph) over 40 trees, all of them tall pines with shallow root systems, were knocked over at the park near our house. Two pavilions were destroyed and the park is closed until the guys with chainsaws can do their work. Since the park wasn't the only location with felled trees they have their work cut out for them.

We suffered one broken branch in our oak tree and I'm glad we had the thing cut back substantially last year.

So the weather phenomenon that caused the mighty wind is called a gravity wave, which sounds like something evil out of a cheesy science fiction movie. But here's a definition from the page I linked to:

What is an atmospheric gravity wave? Coleman explains: "They are similar to waves on the surface of the ocean, but they roll through the air instead of the water. Gravity is what keeps them going. If you push water up and then it plops back down, it creates waves. It's the same with air."

Kindle 2!

Kindle 2!, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm watching / reading:

On prompting from several people (including my brother Ed who assured me that the scriptwriters find excuses for Tahmoh Penikett to walk around shirtless every other episode) I finally started watching Dollhouse. The idea of people's minds being wiped and then implanted with skills and personalities to order is intriguing and there are lots of fun ethical ideas to play with, but the first episodes were kind of bland considering it is a Joss Whedon show. But with each episode I'm liking it better. I have only last Friday's to go through.

Which means I saw the episode where every one is affected by that hallucinogenic drug - there were some great Whedonisms in there, like Topher and Adelle sharing his stash of inappropriate starches. Speaking of Adelle I'm so glad Olivia Williams is in this show. The few movies I've seen her in she hasn't really been asked to act much (The Sixth Sense, Below, Rushmore), but now she really has a chance to show her stuff. And she gets to keep her accent! Nifty!

So we've met Sierra, Victor, and Echo, and we know there's and Alpha out there somewhere. Is there a Charlie, Mike and Romeo? Who is Juliet? Do the other dolls make fun of Foxtrot, Golf and Hotel? Have they avoided naming any of their African-American dolls Zulu? Or Yankee, for that matter.

But I digress: Lost is most excellent lately. Jack is still a douche, but I'm liking Kate's progress lately. And Hurley is the man, driving Miles batty with his total inablility to get time travel.

Life is down to one episode, and most likely the last episode ever. It has suffered lately becuase of Sarah Shahi's pregnancy - I joked with my brother that at least the writers didn't have her kidnapped by aliens, but since she was kidnapped and Roman seems to be involved it looks like I was wrong. Shahi's replacement, Gabrielle Union is a find. She plays well against Damian Lewis and if I get my wish of a third season, I hope they keep her around.

The last episode was great, or total win as the kids today say. A politician's wife is shot and some of the suspects are gun manufacturers. I detest gun-control screeds in television shows where someone gets shot in every episode so I was afraid. But the writers steered clear of any stupid gun owners = redneck stereotypes and in the end the story was about politicians who like to manipulate issues to get or remain in power.


I've kind of splurged on my Kindle: I read John Birmingham's first Axis of Time novel, Weapons of Choice. It's about a not-too-distant U.N. Navy task force that is going to do some operations in Indonesia when an experiment sends them to 1942 somewhere near Midway. I know, it sounds like a bad movie starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. I have never faulted someone for taking a good idea that someone used badly and re-working it as long as they do it well. Otherwise I would never have watched Battlestar Galactica. It's a fun, pulpy novel with some horrifying moments, like the fleet from the future (mostly American and British) fighting tooth and nail with the American Fleet on the way to Midway and both damaging the crap out of each other before they realized who they were fighting. Some of the 'character' moments were hilariously over the top, but still I ripped through the novel.

I finally read Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass and I can safely say though I already knew this that the movie version blew chunks.

Dad found a hot dog

Dad found a hot dog, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Sheesh, I had better update! Nugget time:

I am suffering BSG withdrawl. I don't, incedentally, think the BSG ending was perfect. Far from it, actually. It's wierd, the ending of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was more intellectually satisfying, when Buffy was freed from the Slayer curse without having to give up her powers. But I was emotionally meh. I have a huge intellectual problem with the ending of BSG but emotionally I was devastated. Odd, huh? At least it was better than the ending of the X-Files.

So now I guess Lost is my favorite series. I'm still watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Life, but I have a sense of doom about those two shows. I have yet to watch an episode of Dollhouse but I will get to them soon.

Jon bought me a Kindle 2! Photos soon come. I am addicted to it of course.

Last Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I had an allergic reaction to something I ate so severe that I went to the emergency room. That does *not* constitute an Old Person's Disease Bingo because plenty of young people have bad reactions to food. It was just wierd that I had one so bad! Usually I get a little itchy on the roof of my mouth at the most. I'm not sure if it was the tilapia or the catfish.

Thank you, Ron Moore (I promise no spoilers)

Galactica Cast 2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I just watched the end of Battlestar Galactica and yeah, I'm crying me a river. A big Ol' Mississippi River for people who never even existed. To quote Ron Moore when he and his team were trying to end the frakking show:

I went into the writers’ room the next day and wrote on the big dry-erase board, “It’s the characters, stupid,” and the writers laughed and we all sat back and said, “Who gives a [expletive] about the plot? Let’s just talk about these characters.”

So thank you, Ron. Thank you for Mom (Roslin), Dad (Bill Adama), and the twins (Apollo and Starbuck). Thank you for Saul and Ellen, and Baltar and Caprica, and Helo and Athena and Hera, and Chief and Boomer, and the 268's and the 145's and 3 and Dualla, Gaeta, Hoshii and Doc Cottle, and a frakload of other characters I've come to care about. Hell, thank you for Hot Dog, who I didn't know the character's real name is Brenden until I read the credits last week. That made me laugh.

I can't stop crying, Ron. Totally, extremely, awesomely, thank you from the bottom of my not so mechanical heart.

Some More Unrelated and Unimportant Things

IMG_2549, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

1) The Orlando Airport doesn't have a play area for children. How lame is that? The Manchester, New Hampshire and Tampa, Florida airports do! It's a great way to let the kidlets vent some energy (and find like-minded folks to play with). We had a four hour layover from the time the bus got to the airport to when our plane back home left. Keeping Brenden in check was insane.

2) No cruise ships in existence can possibly have better ship's horns than the Disney ships. Upon departure and 12 noon on sea days the Disney Magic (and Wonder) belt out the first 7 notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star".

3) Speaking of WYWUAS, I watched "Pinnochio" for the first time in forever. I had forgotten how terrifying a story it is, even the softened version that Disney produced! I also saw bits of "Finding Nemo" and "Fantasia" up on the deck 9 screen (see above).

I also had to sit through "Kung Fu Panda" just about every night on TV because that's currently Brenden's favorite movie.

Other Random Vacation Bits:

Magic and Dutchman, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

1. I enjoyed the cruise, and I would do a Disney cruise again. I'd love to cruise on their new ships which come out in 2011 and 2012. In 2010, however, I want to do the villa thing again on St. John. My small taste of Trunk bay left me wanting more.



2. The friendliness of the staff made it easier for me to overcome my shyness and dislike of crowds. They make it a point of learning your names and more importantly, your beverage of choice. Our dining room server knew to bring Jon an Amstel Light and me a Guinness Stout.



3. Disney thinks of everything! At least they try to. On Castaway Cay during the walk on the beach we discovered a group of pull wagons - available first-come, first-serve, and a freebie.



4. Brenden inherited a good dose of shy from me so that's why we only managed one set of photographs with a Disney character. There was NO WAY IN HECK he was going anywhere near Jack Sparrow.



5. About the beer: As long as it's in a bag that can go through the x-ray machine (and no ice), the security folks at Port Canaveral don't care despite the 'no alcohol' signs. Jon also bought 6 bottles of Cruzan Rum in St. Croix and was allowed to take it to our room. Cruzan pineapple rum and pink lemonade is actually quite tasty.

6. Your stateroom host / hostess tidies up your room twice a day, and at the evening service he / she leaves you chocolates (which B gobbled of course) and a cute little towel / blanket animal.



Our host was even nice enough to make up Beary Bear and Kitty Kat's bed. Those two spent so much time in the sack during the cruise I think it's safe to call them Life Partners.

The Rest of the Trip

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Wednesday was St. Thomas. Jon did a scuba excursion and brought back nifty photos including turtles. Brenden and I took a taxi to Red Hook (30 minute drive), took the Red Hook ferry to St. John (20 minute drive) then caught a taxi to Trunk Bay (20 minute drive) and spent 2 hours on one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere, then we went back the same way in reverse order. It was exhausting. I wanted to see St. John again, but the anxiety about making it back to the boat on time kept me from enjoying it as much as I should. We should have just found a beach in St. Thomas. Despite me going it alone Brenden was fairly easy to herd (for Brenden).



Wednesday night and Thursday were all ship days and kinda bumpy. It didn't bother us much which is a blessing. People more vulnerable to motion sickness most likely had problems. I can't remember what we did on Thursday but I remember during one of Brenden's stays at the Kids club Jon and I watched Bolt in 3-D. Now for me watching a 3D movie on a rocking boat was fun, but your mileage may vary. The movie, by the way, is enjoyable and should have done better at the box office.

Friday was Castaway Cay day, and the Cay in the Bahamas is a private island that Disney bought and Disney cruisers have for their exclusive use. In a nifty marketing move, Disney parked one of the sets for their Pirates of the Caribbean movies on a sandbar so the first thing you see when pulling up to the island is the Flying Dutchman.



We went to the beach, ate lunch, and then while most people were still on the island Brenden got almost exlusive use of the ship's pools. I walked around and took photos. We kind of overdid the photos - the digital age rules. We took over 300.



Saturday... I don't want to talk about Saturday. By that time I didn't want to leave the ship. Not because of the drinking or the food or the entertainment, but because it was great having someone else do the cleaning and cooking! Our stateroom host, a nice young man named Jojo, was fantastic and I wish I were rich enough to hire him away from Disney. I miss him. *Sniff!*

Hotel on the Cay

Hotel on the Cay, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

While we were in Christiansted this place intrigued me . I also remembered the name of the place we ate: Fort Christian Brewpub. The habanero hotwings and the honey wheat ale are nummy.

In the meantime I may have gout. My freakin big toe hurts like hell!

The rest of my trip report soon come.

Trip Report - St. Croix

Fredericksted Statue, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Tuesday we docked at Fredericksted in St. Croix, where Jon had reserved us a car so we went and got it and drove to Cane Bay for some sun, snorkel time, and sand. Afterwards we drove into Cristiansted and found a restaurant by the wharf and had some awesome Habanero chicken wings.



I'll say one thing for St. Croix - it has a 2-lane highway where you can actually reach speeds over 55 mph, something that is almost physically impossible in the other USVI's. I liked St. Croix. The people were friendly and while it doesn't have the money that St. Thomas or St. John has, you can find nice places to visit and to stay.



We returned the jeep and were back on board by 4pm - the boat left dock promptly at 6 and sloooooooooowly made its way to St. Thomas. St. Thomas was just next door so we went at a snail's pace.



Tuesday Night was Pirates night - a Disney Cruise tradition that involves dressing up like pirates and drinking like one. Brenden got to wear his pirate costume from Halloween and he was happy. He had taken a nap so we actually made it to dinner that night. He also managed to stay up for the fireworks. Before dinner we discovered a deejay playing kids music in one of the lounges and all the little folks had their boogie shoes on. Brenden didn't really dance, but he ran around like a maniac. If there's one thing that Disney is good for, it's finding places and situations for little kids to run around like maniacs.

Trip Report

Loading the Magic, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So we flew down to Orlando on the 27th, Friday Evening, while there were thunderstorms in the area. The Southwest flight had plenty of turbulence. Bleah. But we weren't late, and we had no problem getting our luggage and a trip to the hotel (a Holiday Inn Express).

On Saturday we caught the shuttle back to the airport and did a number of things to get on another bus to the port (Canaveral). Jon had bought some beer at a convenient convenience store and was stressing as we went through security at the port terminal but they let it through without so much as blinking.

We were let on board around noon but the staterooms wouldn't be ready until 1:30. I knew about this ahead of time and had thought to bring our swimsuits in our carry-ons. So armed with beer and swimwear we splished around in the pools for a while. Brenden, I might add, spent the majority of his time in the pools.



So we eventually made it to our stateroom, did the obligatory emergency drill, more swimming, etc and eventually ate room service because our dinner seating was at 8:30 pm and there was no way in heck we were going to make that (a common problem during the trip).

Sunday and Monday were sea days and are a blur. The highlight was a visit to the spa after we dropped B off at the Oceaneer Club (for 3-4 year olds and Brenden seemed to enjoy it). I had reserved the 'Rasul' room which basically is a steamroom / spa area where a couple can enjoy some alone time (nudge nudge, wink wink) (I know! On a Disney Ship!). I also recall swimming, drinking (a LOT - the case and a half Jon brought aboard disappeared a day and a half in), food, and not much else.

Frak you, Ron Moore!

No, this isn't a spoiler, it's a spleen venting. 3 hours away from the end of Battlestar Galactica, and Moore gave me exactly what I wanted IN THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY!

I envision 3 solid hours of crying in my future.

Back From the Cruise

IMG_2787, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We returned yesterday evening from our 7-Day cruise aboard the Disney Magic. I'll blog more later but I'll say this: Disney does it right -down to little details up to the design of the ships. The Magic wasn't the biggest cruise ship in port, but it was the prettiest. The Carnival ship parked next to it looked like a garbage scow compared to the sleek, old-time look of the Disney ship.

My pride and joy

IMG_5371, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Just wanted to share.

What Boykins do Best

What Boykins do Best II, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Finally! Anyways: not much is happening so not much reason to update. One nice thing: we had a reputable concrete contractor come out and look at the pool. His price estimates were eminently reasonable plus he showed me samples and we are going to be able to get the pool & patio looking nice. Right now it looks like an abandoned section of an industial park.

What I'm Watching / Playing

I finished Fallout 3 and it's very good except I didn't much like the ending. At least there was a Giant Freakin Robot though. An expansion is due out in April but now what do I play?

Battlestar Galactica: Again no spoilers, but okay maybe a teeny one. After the disappointment of Earth, Gaeta found a way of bringing out the very best in mom, dad, and the twins. Being BSG it was of course the worst possible way.

Life: Is back! Hooray! Charlie is getting ready to slip to the darker side of things again - he shot the FBI guy who shot him. But then they had a nice chat so maybe there's hope. The first episode back came dangerously close to spouting some skydiving nonsense but fortunately it was kept to a minimum.

Lost: Yes, with each episode there are more questions, but answers are starting to show up too. Also: YAY JIN!

24: I spend every episode worrying that Tony is going to die (again). I hope they give him a better send-off than the first time he died.

Fringe: Between this, Lost, and BSG, I'm having an acute case of overloaded answeritis. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Cloverfield: I had not seen this re-invention of Giant Monster movies yet. It was good! People had complaints about the hand-held camera aspect but I thought it worked well and I never got seasick. I also heard people saying they didn't like the self-absorbed, yuppy characters. I liked them. They were still in harm's way because one of them couldn't leave without the woman he loved and the rest were friends who didn't want to leave without them. What's shallow about that?

Also, no children showed up anywhere at any time in this movie. When it comes to horror, all movies should ignore that children exist!

Doomsday A combination of The Road Warrior, 28 Days Later, and Resident Evil and it sucked. It had plenty of cheese, but there was a nasty attitude about it that left a scummy feeling in my mouth. Peh! Hey Sean Pertwee dies again, but that's just normal.

Mustang

Mustang, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Is this thing working?

I'm still here. Flickr is being flakey so my predominant means of posting has been disabled.

*This* is where we were

IMG_2402, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Here's a really good idea of what a real snow storm does. I enjoyed it so much, and enjoyed not getting frostbite. I may be talked into trying skiing when Brenden is old enough!

What I'm Watching:

I'm being inundated with television! Whee! Besides 24 and American Idol, I'm watching:

Battlestar Galactica: No spoilers, I promise, but AUGH!

Lost: Yay, it's back! The remaining losties on the island are unstuck in time. Nice! Poor Hurley. Accused of murder and having visions of Michelle Rodriguez. At least his mom loves him. And believes him!

Fringe: Haven't finished this week's ep, but it's nice to see Olivia show some emotion.

Lie to Me: I haven't had a chance to watch this, either. I almost hope it's not good, despite my Tim Roth love. Why? Because Lost is on at 8pm on Wednesdays and so is Life (when it comes back in February), and this show. My damn TiVo only has 2 cards, dammit.


What I'm Reading::

Despite the plethora of books I left every one of them at home, dammit. Fortunately my brother has similar reading tastes to mine so I was able to finally read Watchmen, the acclaimed comic book graphic novel. I can see why it's held in such high regard as it has a compelling story with complex characters. I didn't much like the women in the story, but to be fair, every one of the main characters are messed up.

I'm looking forward to the movie - Zack Snyder directed it and he did 300 and the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Alan Moore, who wrote the book, refuses to have anything to do with the movie and considering that he wrote League of Extraordinairy Gentlemen and V for Vendetta I can't rightly say I blame him. But still I geeked when I saw the trailer so I'll give it a go.