Smackdown

Sept. 30, 2012

JTC stumbled into hosting a pro circuit tournament--someone was in the right place at the right time and volunteered JTC as a locale when the other scheduled site fell through. This has been in the works for a couple of months and today the tournament started.

I intended to just stop by and see what was what, then go home, change into shorts and return to watch until Mike was done golfing. It didn't work out that way. There were plenty of shady spots and I got so interested in the matches I just stuck around for two of them.

I was too late to catch Sharapova's match--Daria Sharapova :)  Maria's cousin. I hope I get to catch a few more rounds throughout the week, so if she won maybe I'll see her.

I did get to see Ashley Murdock (USA) and Kim Kerwin (USA) win. Kerwin's match was grueling. She won in 2 sets but it was hard-fought against a girl named Cardenas from Venezuela. Murdock had an easy time against a girl from India, Tuli. I was surprised at how many players from other countries were participating.

Murdock about to rip a backhand

Winging It

Sept. 29, 2012

Mike was all excited that on his red eye flight home from Seattle he got to go into the cockpit. He texted me a picture and when he got home he showed me his wings.

There are five 8-yr-olds somewhere crying that they didn't get their wings

Moral Support

Sept. 28, 2012

My tennis team was playing at Jonesville Tennis Center again and with Mike out of town I was free to go and hang out with them for the match. It was so hot, I was glad I wasn't playing. We won court 2, lost court 3, and court 1 not only went to a 3rd set tie-break, but also went into a tie-break for that set. At 3-1 our favor in the 3rd set the other team went over to stand next to the court and cheer on their players. When it reached 3-2 we all decided to decamp and give closer moral support to our guys.

Carol and Jenny played their hearts out but narrowly lost it. The game wasn't over until 1:00 p.m.! My guess is they are still rehydrating.

Carrie: A Comedy???

Sept. 27, 2012

Saw this poster in Starbucks. It sounds morbidly interesting *chuckle* I told Mike about it and he gave me the strangest look. We've never seen a play at the Hippodrome, but we've talked about it for years. I hope our backs are up to seeing this. 

Red Sky At Night, Gators Delight

Sept. 26, 2012

I spent this day doing absolutely nothing other than clearing shows off the DVR. I hadn't been watching much TV during the remodel and the DVR was about to start auto-deleting. Anyway, I got outside long enough to catch this gorgeous sunset :)

Magic Mike

Sept. 25, 2012

I feel bad for this guy. He's been doing his magician routine at various restaurants for as long as we've been in Gainesville, but now there's that movie about male strippers. Now parents googling for him to do birthday parties are going to get the Wrong Idea!

Tower of Power

Sept. 24, 2012

I went to donate another load of stuff to the Humane Society and had that "being watched" feeling. I glanced up and saw this towering (literally!) over me. I'm not sure why it freaked me out, except for the fact that I never noticed it before. I assume it's a cell tower--it looks very cell towery to me--but if you know it's something else put it in the comments :)

Modern Art

Sept. 23, 2012

A few months ago I was trying to declutter the house and I kept finding pairs of sunglasses which I collected on a small table. I played around with positioning them, ending in this pattern:

Now that I've rediscovered this masterpiece (after moving all the surrounding stuff back to where it belongs) I think it looks like a Shadow vessel from Babylon 5. 

Special Delivery

Sept. 22, 2012

Mike was on the UF campus with some friends for the game vs. Kentucky. I got a phone call around 10 a.m. asking if I could bring them some beer at their tailgating site. Of course by the time I got there it was after 11:30 and the game was starting at 12:20 or something. They stashed it in another friend's RV for after the game. I think it stayed there I think, because the day was so blisteringly hot they left the game early, battling heatstroke. By the time they got home they just wanted to jump in a pool.

Almost Done With Remodel

Sept. 21, 2012

We were getting close to the end of the remodeling project. Ed Schroder and his crew did a great job and I was really looking forward to moving everything back where it belonged. Here's the newly tiled, newly painted toilet-less corner of our bathroom:

Covenant :)

Sept. 20, 2012

Mike and I were in the Publix plaza and walked outside to this beautiful double rainbow. I'm not sure the double part shows up on the photo. You'll just have to take my word for it :)

Rest. Rest. Rest. Rest. Rest. Rest. Rest....PLAY!

Sept. 19, 2012

Last week I was sitting out for this piece during rehearsal. This week the director changed how he wanted to run the whole thing and I was back on the roster! I'm playing A-4 and A-flat-4 (and if there's a more musician-ish way to type that I'm unaware of it so comment and educate me) and those don't appear until the key change on like page 9 or something. So for this rehearsal what I did was a lot of silent counting and page turning for my musical score partner :)

Nature. Enjoy It

Sept. 18, 2012

This turned out to be the only photo I took this day. It was prettier in person--it seems dark purple things always look worse in my photos than they are in real life.

I Need to Keep Working Out

Sept. 17, 2012

I was out running errands and saw this bumper sticker on a car in a parking lot. I thought it was funny :D

Babs-tastic

Sept. 16, 2012

We had hoped to try out Mary Mac's Tea Room for breakfast. Only problem is, they don't do breakfast. Another concierge suggestion was Babs and that was a winner. We got there early enough it wasn't crowded. We sat in the "Divine Shrine"--photos of Divine adorned the walls. The food was great and unique.

A Walk in the Park

Sept. 15, 2012

After overdoing it a bit the night before, we got a slow start on Saturday. After a brief walk past the Fox Theater to lunch, we asked the concierge at the Indigo Hotel (shout out to Eddie!) what was going on that day. He suggested the Atlanta Arts Festival in Piedmont Park. It was perfect. We got some exercise, some fresh air, and had a great time looking at stuff that we mostly didn't like ;)

This group of friends was also having a lot of fun :)

Back in the ATL

Sept. 14, 2012

We had to make another run up to the Google office in Atlanta for a G-thang. This time we planned on staying a couple of days to see some sights. Mike spent the morning getting his new machine, and in the afternoon we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was as good as everyone claimed. I loved the otters, the turtles, the penguins, the jellies, the dolphin show (where photography was prohibited), but especially the whale sharks in the big tank.

There were 3 of these babies in the tank, as well as many other species.

Later on that night we went to The Vortex for dinner and saw a comedy show at the adjoining Laughing Skull with Jimmy Pardo headlining. The other guys were good too, but Jimmy had me laughing so hard at times I couldn't breathe!

Um, GHFC? Got Something to Tell You...

Sept. 13, 2012

Several months back when GHFC started this whole new "X-Force" system, they had the poster of the woman just inside the women's locker room. Weeks later they moved the poster of the man out into the general floor area where I saw it for the first time. My immediate thought was the similarity between the two pictures. Let me know if you see it too:

X-FORCE GIVES YOU NECK PROBLEMS!

Alachua Wilderness Lodge

Sept. 12, 2012

I went out to the workshop/house of the man making our countertop just to see what his options looked like. His house is beautiful! And it's for sale--too bad we can't afford that. Someone is going to get an awesome place.

It's been over a decade since I was at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, but I remember it looking like this, ish

WTF?!

Sept. 11, 2012

I had a normal-type post all ready to go for this day, and then all the murderous craziness happened in Africa and Yemen. It seems like 1979 all over again. 

My prayers go out in sympathy for the families of the slain:

Glen Doherty

Sean Smith

Christopher Stevens

Tyrone Woods

Vanity of Vanities! All is Vanity

Sept. 10, 2012

Here's our new bathroom vanity cabinet (countertop to arrive later). So far I'm loving it. Can't wait for everything to be finished.

o-dark-thirty

Sept. 9, 2012

I made it. 6:30. *yawn*

It went pretty well actually and I got to see Sarah--her parents attend this church and she was in town visiting.

One of the stained-glass windows at Abiding Savior--the Luther Rose

Lumiere

Sept. 8, 2012

Over at our neighbors' house we debated if this was pewter or silver. We decided it was defina--hey look! The Gator game is on!

Pottery Barn

Sept. 7, 2012

More moving and un-organizing today. We had to empty more cabinets so the electricians could get behind them and replace our old, crappy, loose outlets. I knew I wasn't going to remember which order these things were in so I took a photo.

These are projects the boys did when they were at Talbot, in Mrs. Jones' art class :)

Added bonus: I also now know where the books and CDs were :)

Tennis/Book Club

Sept. 6, 2012

Some ladies on my tennis team organized a book club. There are 7 of us I think that were interested. This was our first discussion meeting. We decided in a flurry of emails over the summer that we would read _Escape From Camp 14_, which is a gut-wrenching account of a North Korean man born inside one of the harshest prison camps in the country. He miraculously escaped, and lived to tell his story to the outside world. You should read it.

On the lighter side of life, our meeting was at Claudia's house and here are her two dogs Comet and Prancer. 

Our next book is _Rainwater_ by Sandra Brown, and after that for our November meeting we are reading the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence--guess it's time for me to finish that Hillsdale class!

On the Bell

Sept. 5, 2012

I finally got up the courage to join the handbell choir at church. Til now I knew my back couldn't take it, but with all the work I've been doing with Charles I think I can manage it now. The choir is really good, and I knew I'd need to work to get up to speed, but I didn't realize how far behind I am. I'm in the bass clef for the first time ever, so that's a challenge for me--I don't read music, but have always just learned which notes were mine and played them; it should in theory work for the bass clef too :)

Art, the director, started out the first practice meeting with an announcement that we were playing as guests at another church in town, and we had to be there by 6:30 a.m. Ack! He took some pity on me and I only ended up playing in one piece. The entire bass clef didn't play for another piece so I wasn't the only one sitting out. It was stressful but by the end of the night I was getting it. The good news is I can only get better! :)

These aren't my bells but they were convenient for a photo

BIG SCREEN!

Sept. 4, 2012

Still trying to work out computer issues, but I have more photos to upload at least. It's been so long that Blogger seems to have tweaked how things look on the "new post" screen. We'll see how this turns out. Anyway....

When Mike was in Seattle he found a TV he liked and ordered it for delivery here. It arrived and he got it set up today. It's...big. It's also 3D, but we're just beginning to learn which 3D looks good and which causes blinding headaches (I forget if it's left-right or up-down. I'm sure I'll be reminded the next time I try one of them). Whichever one "Avengers" used, it looked good.

This picture if of the "Stars Earn Stripes" finale in 2D. The 2D looks pretty good too :)

Eve Torres and Grady Powell won a bunch of money for the USO--yay!

Labor Day

Sept. 3, 2012

Just spent a lazy day going from one BBQ to another :)  We ended the day at our neighbors' house watching the U.S. Open.

This is how we knew Seth was truly sick. He turned down a cup of coffee this morning :(

This mug was one of the giveaways to attendees of the MacHack conference when Mike served as Chairman. There was a typo on it--that the conference had run from 1818 through 1998! One of the attendees came up with this great slideshow (pre-PowerPoint) showing the long history of the conference. It was quite entertaining :)  Holy cow! I actually found a link to that presentation!

Sunset

Sept. 2, 2012
Tonight had a pretty sunset. When we're at the house we don't really see the sunset because of the trees. We happened to be out and about to catch this gorgeous view :)

Go Gators!

Sept. 1, 2012
Opening day of the season for the Florida Gators, and my friend Kelly wasn't going to use her tickets. Mike and I snatched them up and I went to my first Gator game. It was a beautiful day, the seats were awesome, and the Gators won--the trifecta :)

Bowling Green gave us a scare, but the Gators pulled it out. The highlight was probably Caleb Sturgis' 51-yard field goal. Too bad it was on the other end of the field from us.

Noise was made.

Some Gators got up and went.

You Know It's Bad When...

Aug. 31, 2012
...Rainbows are out of business :(

Receding Waters

Aug. 30, 2012
Strangely enough, after all the rain we had, the construction area at Gainesville Health and Fitness Club has less water in it than it did when they started the job. Charles and I were working next to the big windows upstairs and I had a good look at the smaller puddle.

Resistance Is Futile

Aug. 29, 2012
I had made so much progress while cleaning out the bedroom with cleaning stuff out and sorting things, I decided to tackle the kitchen cabinets. I knew there were a lot of things we never used and I wanted to get rid of them. By the time my knees could not handle one more time up and down the stepladder, I had gotten a boxful of things ready to be donated. This one however, I'm keeping:

This is the top of a big cup, and the straw was supposed to stick out of the Borg head. I don't recall what happened to the cup and straw; all that was left was the head in the corner of the cabinet. I moved it to my desk, next to my Yoda :)

No Isaac

Aug. 28, 2012
I don't remember what happened this day, except that Isaac did not hit us. It turned to the west and headed straight for poor New Orleans.

Link of NOAA's tracking of the storm.

Isaac?

Aug. 27, 2012

Still Tropical Storm Isaac at this point, but we were getting prepared to get hit with a lot of rain. We had candles at the ready, enough bottled water for a few days at least, and food that didn't need to be microwaved :)

Gray skies

Welcome Back

Aug. 26, 2012
First Lutheran held a church picnic and festival this afternoon after the late service.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Rest In Peace, Neil Armstrong

Aug. 25, 2012
One giant leap for mankind.

3 in the morning is a good time for bongos

Aug. 24, 2012
Mike heard the story of Occupy Eastside, and found a music store in Seattle that sold small drums. Maybe we should have pushed Seth into being a percussionist in middle school :)

Deconstruction

Aug. 23, 2012

Schroder Construction arrived to start the remodel of our master bedroom/bathroom. Step 1: rip out a bunch of stuff. Step 3: Profit!

This used to be Mike's closet. Now it's the extension of the bathroom where his new deluxe shower is going to be.

Ok, there is a Step 2, but it's more like a bunch of sub-steps :)  This will be nice when finished. Then we can start saving and planning to redo the kitchen--ugh.

Might Want to Build That Ark Soon

Aug. 22, 2012

I made it over to the sinkhole in the afternoon. The rain started spitting again when I got there, but I figured the tree canopy would keep me dry enough. The trail around the sinkhole was flooded just enough to keep me from walking that way, but the stairs were ok.

After making the first turn, I saw what looked like a dumptruck-load of sand dumped down the side of the sinkhole. As I got closer, I could see that it was mud, and it was still flowing down the side. I figured it had to have happened recently. All the rain softened the ground, and a large portion just slid. One large tree was snapped off a few feet above the ground, and the massive body of the tree was also slowly sliding head-first toward the bottom.

At the bottom (or close to it), I could see how much water had gathered so far. I'm probably wrong, but my estimate is that this water is about 8 feet deep. There was another extremely large tree that was simply swept off its roots and was upside-down in the water.

I spoke with one of the rangers on my way out. The mudslide had just happened the day before and they were all very interested in how much more was going to give way. We're all hoping it doesn't go as far as bringing down the staircase.

Hurricane Isaac was on its way and if it dumped a ton more rain on us, things could get dicey.

No Ark Needed, Yet

Aug. 21, 2012
The rain finally changed to on and off sprinkles instead of constant steady rain. Seth had gotten as far as spreading all the sand over his parking spot, but hadn't covered it with the gravel. Here's the lovely result. It could have been worse. Most of the backyard is a pond now--all according to the mosquitos' plan :(

First Day of School

Aug. 20, 2012
Here's Seth leaving for his first day of Senior year!

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

Look Out My Window...

Aug. 19, 2012
...it's still rainin'. It rained and rained and rained today. I started thinking it would be good to go back to Devil's Millhopper State Park after all this rain and see the waterfalls, but the park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Had to wait until Wednesday. In the meantime I enjoyed watching frogs eat bugs :)

By the way, I fell a few days behind, as usual, and then my laptop died :( Had to wait for Mike to get home and get me back online and then try to recover my harddrive. I'm still using this jerry-rigged setup, but it works.