Category Archives: Daily Discourse

Each week that goes by brings us a little closer to having a baby in the house. It’s gotten to a point that we know we’re pressed for time to get everything done that we need to get done. We’d started cleaning out the bedroom but ran into some space issues that required some creative thinking. Basically in the scheme of things, we needed to move a filing cabinet out of that room and into my “study.” However the study was already crammed to the gills with stuff to begin with and there was just no way a filing cabinet would fit without moving something out.

So, the big bookshelf (on the right of the TV in the picture) went into the living room, I put shelves on the walls to hold the books that were in that bookshelf and moved my futon to the opposite wall so the filing cabinet could go beside my desk. We also moved the shelf to the left of the TV from its past location which was behind the couch. We pushed the sofa and the love seat out some, giving us a bit more living room in our living room.

So in the scheme of things we (more practically “I” since Samantha cannot lift any meaningful weight at this point) moved about 7 pieces of furniture, installed shelves on the wall, and basically upended the house in order to get a filing cabinet in a particular spot. If I didn’t know better I’d be calling us OCD…but neat freaks we are definitely not.

Next stop, putting baby stuff in baby’s room. I’m not going to take any crappy cell phone pictures of that until it’s ready, then I’ll give you a nice 360 degree tour of the place.

In other news, Samantha is having odd dreams again. Night before last I was rudely awakened by a blinding light at what must have been around 2am. I’m thankful I wasn’t having an alien anal probe nightmare because I REALLY would have freaked out. Anyway, Samantha was standing by the door, light switch in hand saying “Ohhh…..shit!” I was quite flummoxed and had no clue what was going on.

Evidently she thought I was covered in ants and beat on me with her pregnant woman body pillow before throwing it across the room to smash into my bedside table lamp, absolutely pulverizing the shade (she did buy me a new one.) Wonder what other odd dreams I’ll be drawn into before this 9 months is up.

This post actually started out simply enough…it was going to be a short announcement followed by a hearty self congratulations and then I was going to pour myself a nice stiff drink and sit down and watch some TV.

However, I noticed that our photo album was no longer working so I figured I should probably fix it. It looked simple enough, the plugin had a new upgrade, some new features, it would probably fix what was causing the malfuction right? Wrong…it made it worse.

Long story short, I went into the actual code of the OLD plugin that was working some time ago, and found the error, fixed it, and continued using it. Viola, fixed…you can now see our photos again!

So, what was all the fuss about?

Samantha and I are going to be parents. Anyone who already reads this blog probably knows this tidbit of information but I thought I’d post it here for posterity.

Ah yes, and to show off the first picture of “the kid.” (Which happens to be more blob than anything right now.)

I haven’t come up with a catchy nickname for him/her yet…hrm so its an indeterminate gender…a “thing” if you will.

Very well then, I now dub the child blob in her belly “Thing 3.” You know, since Roxy is Thing 1 and Gizmo is obviously Thing 2.

Oh yeah, and sorry it’s taken me so long to post again. You know what they say about the cobblers kids right? I work on websites all day long, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is work on another one…but now that we actually have some news of import to uh…report that will likely change.

Not much has happened over the last few months, I’m still in school and Samantha hasn’t been fired yet, or killed any kids (yet!) So things are pretty much just SSDD around here. Hopefully it’ll stay that way for another seven months or so until Sam manages to squeeze a watermelon through a lemon and then we’ll have another mouth to feed.

Hope this finds everyone doing well, healthy, and happy. I’m going to seriously consider going to bed now, I’ll try to remember that this place exists and I need to fill it with content from time to time.

Shane and I got together last night for our normal jam session.  While normally these don’t result in anything spectacular, we felt our muse was on our side last night and produced some hillarious audio.  It is a parody of “The Happy Wanderer” which we turned into “The Horny Governor”

I hope you enjoy it, you can watch the embedded video, or download the song as an mp3. (download)

Samantha left Friday before last for Smith Mountain Lake, right outside Moneta, VA, leaving me to come back to an empty house after work.  All weekend as well as Monday and Tuesday I was on my own…and to tell you the truth, other than work at the office and class, not much got done!  I did mow the lawn, but besides that…

I departed Tuesday evening at 8:30 after class was over, arrived at half past midnight, and fell asleep.  Wednesday was just a lazy day of doing nothing, although we did go check out the new Mexican Restraurant (excellent Nachos Fajitas and Margaritas) before we went for a neighborhood walk with Roxy and Onyx.

Thursday we took a drive into Roanoke, VA to run some errands, and then checked out the AmRhein Wine Cellars somewhere off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

While there we tasted several different varieties of their wine, made from grapes grown on their property.  All were wonderful, but their Pinot Grigio was outstanding, as was their Petit Verdot.  The Melange was quite an eye opener, featuring a blend of one of my favorites, Syrah, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit. (They are also in the 2009 Virginia Wine Map if you have a chance to grab one.)

Friday was the big hike up Sharp Top Mountain, elevation 3875 above sea level.  It was once believed that Sharp Top was Virginia’s highest peak (an honor now bestowed upon Mount Rogers) and a stone from this mountain is actually in the Washington Monument.

The hike started off pleasantly enough, the temperature was perfect, in the high 60′s, I was in shorts and a thin sweatshirt with a t-shirt underneath.  After the first 1/3 mile, the sweatshirt had come off and I found myself picking my way through rocks scattering the trail.  The second 3rd got quite a bit steeper, requiring some rather large steps up to stay on the trail.  The last 3rd was almost all stairs cut into stone.  While I’m not sure how I feel about climbing steps complete with guardrails to get to a summit of a mountain (cheapens the thrill a little, aye?) the view from the top was nothing short of amazing.

The hike down went much faster than the hike up (3 miles round trip) and our feet were quite happy to sit down at the end.  We stopped and got some Mountain Peach Ice Cream for Samantha on the way back to the house (I had a Klondike)  where we rested for a bit before deciding to venture out and about with just the two of us.  Turns out to be a good thing we did.

Just down the road, couldn’t have been 10-15 miles from the house, we discovered the Hickory Hills Vineyards.  Let me tell you, these guys are absolutely amazing.  Not only do they produce some great wines (Try the HHVW Chardonnay, its amazing!) but they absolutely take the prize home for customer service as well.  We originially only planned to do a tasting and pick up a few bottles of what we liked, but the trip turned into a hour and fourty five minute tasting, tour, and lecture all rolled into one.  Being a homebrewer, I was absolutely ecstatic that they were willing to show us the working areas, the fermenters, and even let us taste an upcoming but unfinished wine (2008, still has a year and half left of aging)

Do not pass up a visit to this place if you are within an hour’s drive.  They’ll make it worth your while if you care more about wine than the end product.  Show some curiousity and you’ll be richly rewarded by the family that owns this wonderful vineyard.

Saturday came all too quick, and while the guys enjoyed a nice round of golf at The Waterfront, the girls found some lunch somewhere and went shopping.  We all met back at the house again before dinner at the Blackwater, right down the road, and finished our mini-vacation off with a sunset cruise with the dogs.

Quite a satisfying trip, and it’s always great to see family.

Pistol Pete, I know we did not always see eye to ankle, indeed I’m still unsure if you actually associated my feet with my person.  Regardless, to my knowledge you’ve lived through food poisoning more than any animal, or for that matter, any person I know.  If the trashcan containing the rotting chicken from the day before was your vice, your bed was definitely your throne.

You watched my sister go from a young girl, unsure of herself, her standing, and probably her friends, to a woman who offers by far more than she ever asks.  I’ll never know what secrets you two shared, but I’m unabashedly grateful that you were there for her regardless of her situation.  You were always happy to greet her, even when she had been away longer than you had ever known.  You warmed her feet, just as assuredly as you warmed her soul.

While I know you tolerated me and on occasion would actually listen to the things I said, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was only to have your ears scratched, or your belly rubbed.  Although in the past years as our family has grown up, moved out, I know that we never, and will never move on.  You were a large part of what made our house a home.

I know you would never want us to feel the sadness that we are feeling tonight, and if you were granted more years at our hearth, you would undoubtedly take it.  I don’t feel, or believe, that your life was cut short, nor could it have been richer for the experiences you shared.  It was your time just as surely as you told us “I’m going to lay down peacefully over there” and never rose again.

I’m sure that while my sister faces a sad trip home from the veterinarian’s tomorrow, she won’t be as alone as she feels.  While her humble abode feels empty and lacking, I know pieces of you will still be there.  Wherever we all may roam, there will be little bits of you that continue to float through our lives, through our hearts, and through our minds.

So long as we have the memories, you live on…forever.

Farewell Pistol Pete, you will be missed.