We are going to be an Aunt and an Uncle again!!

My sister hasn't posted this yet on her blog, but I will! Martha and Ed are expecting again, sometime around April 27th! Harry and I are so excited!


Here is a picture of the expecting family. Edward, Madison, and Martha. Little did Harry and I know when we took this picture, but little LC was also here. (LC is what we are calling the baby. Luke if it is a boy and Lauren if it is a girl.)

WE CAN'T WAIT!!!

PS... Karen is awesome too (I didn't want her to forget that while reading about my other sister!) :-)

Pergola Project, Part II

Today we continued the great build behind our house as we put up the cross beams on our pergola project. It was quite a hard day of work. We had already prepared the 2x6 beams by cutting the decorative edges and staining the boards; however, today we had to notch the boards. There were 12 boards to notch with 4 notches in each board. My job was to cut the notches, while Harry and his dad hung them. Take a look at our progress.


Here I am cutting the notches in the 2x6's.


This was our pergola with half the cross beams hung.


Harry and his dad enjoy sitting under the not completed, but looking good, pergola.


Here is our pergola as it stands tonight. It is not done, but it's looking a whole lot better. Tomorrow we hope to work on the slats that will go on top; however rain is predicted. The slats are 2x4's that will form a grid on top of the cross beams. After we get the slats up, all we need to do is add some corner braces and we are done. We'll keep you all posted on our progress.

Pergola Project, Part I

Yesterday Harry and I began working on our pergola project. Harry took a half day off of work and cut all of the decorative ends and I stained the lumber when I got home from school. Today, Harry took a whole day off work, part mental health day, part work on the pergola day. Here is our (mostly Harry and his dad's) progress.


Here is our boring patio this morning. Harry had attached the post bases to the concrete at this point. (It was a very difficult task.)


After the posts had been attached to the bases.


Harry and Dad working on attaching the main supports to the bases.


Harry posing with our pergola (as it stands tonight). We can't wait to continue working on it again tomorrow!! Check back soon for more updates...

No, really?!?!?!

Web MD posted the top 9 jobs where bacteria thrive. Of course teacher is number one. To this I ask, really? Gee, I'm suffering from my second cold in 3 weeks; I guess it's not a coincidence! Here are the other 8...
1. Teacher
2. Accountant
3. Banker
4. Radio DJ
5. Doctor
6. Television producer
7. Consultant
8. Publicist
9. Lawyer
Here's something scary: janitor and garbage collector are NOT on the list. So, I guess that means that my 20 second graders have MORE bacteria than a city's garbage OR a building full of people. Excellent!
Another scary point: Teachers are number 1, but the worst paid. Well, as people always say, we aren't in it for the money. What I say, no we aren't, but it sure as hell would be nice to be paid for our hard (and bacteria ridden) work.

Finally, a website featuring cute animal pictures!

Today I came across a GREAT website! It spotlights pictures of cute animals, mostly baby animals. If you want to check it out you can visit Squiddo. Enjoy!

Carnivale! (ok, only the county fair...just go with it)

On friday night, we were in search of an exciting cultural activity. Mer suggested the Belmont drive-in theater, but considering that I could look forward to watching real athletes play football on Saturday and Sunday, I wasn't dying to see Mark Wahlberg in the "jockumentary" Invincible. I suggested the Cabarrus County Fair, because 1)My parents had never taken me to the fair; 2)I had heard several people at work talking about it; and 3)Corn dogs, funnel cakes, and cotton candy.

We arrived at the fair around dusk, and parked a good distance from the arena/fairgrounds. As we neared the entrance, we could smell the carnival food (not to mention the carnies...small hands, smell like cabbage, you know).


In addition to the food, the fair had many things to offer. We enjoyed several of the carnival rides, starting with the swings, which you'd think would be pretty calm and enjoyable, but the teenage girl next to us found absolutely terrifying.

Having enjoyed the mechanical amusements for the moment, we switched our focus to another attraction - pig racing. Pig racing? Yes. Apparently instead of chasing a rabbit around the track as dogs would do, or having a jockey (not that I wouldn't pay to see that), the pigs race for the Oreo cookie waiting for them at the finish line. Here they are going down the backstretch:


Behind the pig track was the livestock arena, where the area FFA kids could show off their prize animals. There were cows, mules, bunnies, and various fowl, including this chicken,

who won 1st place in what I would consider a rather unusual category:


After enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of the livestock arena, we headed back outside for a few more rides. We enjoyed a somewhat nauseating ride on the Ring of Fire:


And then a more peaceful journey on the ferris wheel, where we got some nice aerial views of the experience.



I would consider my first trip to the fair a success, in fact, I even made a new friend in this nice little farm girl.

EWWWW!

I found an article on Fark.com about a python that ate a pregnant sheep and couldn't move. It was nasty! I figured I'd share the picture for others who don't read Fark.

FYI... Conservationists were still deciding whether to keep the snake in a zoo or release it back into the wild.

A Trip to Blockbuster

Last night Harry and I took a trip to our local Blockbuster to rent a movie (yes, we are one of the few people left in the US that does not belong to Netflix). While we were there we found some very interesting movies. I really think the following movies could be classified as great bad movies; however, we did not rent them. :-(

First off...

Harry was horrified at this movie.

Oh yes, it's "Snakes on a Train". Harry speculated that this movie would not be as good as "Snakes on a Plane". He doesn't believe that SOAT would have the plot development to tell us why the snakes were on the train, so we didn't rent it.

Next we found this little gem...

"Komodo vs. Cobra" which reminded me of the hit "Python vs. Boa". This movie looked way too scary (a woman even stopped me and told me so as I took the picture) so we did not rent it either. We did guess that in the end the komodo dragon and the cobra would both end up killing each other, also like "Python vs. Boa", to prove their equal strength.

We did end up renting "Inside Man" starring Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster figuring that with Jodie Foster in it, there would be some real freaking out. We were not disappointed with the movie.

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin Dies

Today, Harry and I woke up and discovered that Steve Irwin had been killed. It appears that it was a freak accident involving a stingray. Steve was filming with his daughter, Bindi Sue, for a new show they were doing together when he came across a stingray buried in the sand and a stingray barb pierced his chest.

What a sad event. Harry and I both loved watching Steve and I know that both Martha and Clay loved Steve. If you want to read up on this tragic event you can see the article on CNN or on Animal Planet.

When dorks collide...

Found this on the internet today. I should photoshop an "artist's rendering" of this too.

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_4282323

Snakes on a Plane!!

Tonight Harry and I saw "Snakes on a Plane" starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianna Margulies (formally a star of "ER"). It was AWFUL, and we LOVED it!!! I have made it no secret that I love horrible movies. I actually own "Deep Blue Sea" (another Samuel L. Jackson train wreck) and have been know to watch really bad movies on Sunday afternoon ("Anaconda" or "Python vs. Boa" just to name a few). I am so happy to say that "Snakes on a Plane" did not disappoint my craving for really bad movies. Many people do not appreciate my love of horrible movies. Mostly I don't think that they understand what makes a really bad movie great. When bad movies are a quadruple threat, then they are GREAT movies. These are the requirements for a great bad movie... First, it must include horrible acting. Second, it must have an impossible plot. Third, it has to be filled with scientific inaccuracies (or historic inaccuracies). Fourth, it needs to have pathetic computer graphics. If the movie you are watching includes all four of the above, it is a GREAT bad movie.

Some of my favorite scenes from "Snakes on a Plane" would include: First, the couple in the bathroom joining the "mile high club" are the first to get attacked. The woman is actually bitten on the nipple. Second, the man going to the bathroom gets bitten by a snake in a "sensitive area" by a snake coming out of the toilet. Third, the annoying jerk from first class that feeds a dog to a python, then himself gets attacked by the python and swallowed in a matter of seconds (BIG scientific inaccuracy, it would take a snake hours to devour a human, and the snake would be of record size). Finally, when Samuel L. Jackson rallies the passengers and says he's tired of the mother f***ing snakes on this mother f***ing plane and devises a plan to get the snakes off the plane. What a great bad movie!!