Monthly Archives: September 2009

Well, it is after 4:00

Family, Fun, WV, ,

We took a trip to PA this weekend to visit with family and help with some home winterizing projects.  I used to dread the trip from WV to PA (and even worse when we lived in TN) but as the kids have aged, we have found that a few movies, books and video games save lives.  The kids travel very well and it’s become a non-issue for them to pack up and go.  Emily and I count on a bunch of caffeine though as we always drive at night after we get out of work.  It’s a 6.5 hour drive so that usually puts us in pretty late (especially when you consider that it follows a long work-day).

caffeine moleculeequalsIt's good!

Anyhow, we count on caffeine and the groovy tunes to keep us going and it usually works very well.  We headed up I-79 and drove until we got hungry.  Subway usually agrees with our tummies so we pulled into one and ordered the usual.  Emily ordered an un-sweet tea (she isn’t truly a Southern girl apparently).  The feller at the counter said, “We don’t serve sweet tea after 4:00.”  Emily said, “that’s nice, but I want UN-sweet tea.”  They went back and forth several times saying the exact same thing.  We were still in WV so one would think that we spoke the same language, but it was pretty clear that communication failed early on.  Finally, the guy told her that they don’t serve ANY tea after 4pm.


(We got this one stuck in our heads!)

A lot of places in WV and elsewhere still have blue laws.  I am familiar with them and couldn’t really care less as they don’t affect me.  My wife without caffeine on a trip, however, does endanger my life.  Green (tea) laws in WV must be overturned!  We were in prime dinner time hours so I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t have sold their tea.  And heck, they waste tons of food at Subway (as in all restaurants) so I can’t imagine that throwing out a bit of tea at the end of the day would have caused them much distress.  No, no, I think there must be some moral reason why tea is banned after 4pm!  If anyone can enlighten me on the issue, please feel free.  My life may depend on it!

Hats off!

Fun, Thoughts,

I was browsing through the old pictures and I found a few from our beach visit this summer.  First of all, I have this thing for licking bells.  I am not proud of it, but it’s my vice.  I am slowly dragging my family into my addiction as well.  The kids will occasionally join me in the…uh…culinary experience.  Add more ketchup and Isaac will lick anything.

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Anyhow, we went to the beach at Tybee Island, GA this summer and we always visit the Tybee Island light house.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I spotted my new friend!

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Part of what makes this so fun for me is the opportunity to embarrass Emily.  Well, that day, I had the opportunity.  You see, there was a troop of Girl Scouts who had just unloaded ahead of our arrival.  I walked right up and planted a big one on the bell, right in front of them.  I undoubtedly gave the leaders a topic for discussion around the evening campfire so it was a pretty good day in my book!

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On the way back from the lighthouse, we spotted this sign which struck us as really funny…I am not sure that folks want to think of their congregation as “the slow church” in most cases, but one church, at least, was proud of it!

I say hats off to people who do whatever it is that suits them, be it licking a bell or going to slow church!

I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I…

Thoughts

I am writing a post over at Not Dabbling in Normal today.  I’ll be posting there the first and third Thursday of every month.  If you can’t think of another way to waste some time, come on over and have a read.  It’s all about me this time.  I am my own favorite subject matter afterall.

In the meantime, I took a survey on facebook about me last night:

I have 117 friends, 3 less than average. 45% are male, 55% are female. 10 are single, 85 are dating or married. If I contracted a deadly variant of flu, I would likely infect 9 people, 1 of whom would die. If I died today, an estimated 358 people would try to attend my funeral. Based on my Facebook profile, I have a 89% probability of getting married. I am likely to earn US$4.5 million and have 2.1 children over my lifetime.

And before anyone says anything about it, I am not the only one who wants to talk about me:

Vanity…at my age?

Thoughts

I got my braces a few weeks ago and a ton of people have asked my why, at my age, I bothered (I am all of 37).  Lots of folks felt compelled to comment on my vanity and how foolish I am.  At first, I apologized, “Well, I just felt like I needed to keep my oral health in check”, and so on.  I quickly got tired of that and decided that, at my age, I don’t care.  If I want to be a little vain, by granny, that’s ok.  In reality, I am pretty vain,  but I got braces because I wanted my teeth to remain in my head into old age.  My front teeth are so crooked that the top teeth sometimes hit on the bottom teeth.  Eventually, that’s gonna leave a mark, as the kids say.  So, I decided to get braces both to save my teeth and to indulge my vanity.  Afterall, at my age,  why not?!

Ok, so I got to thinking about vanity and self esteem.  I think there is a fine line between being content with yourself and vanity.  Folks might argue that outward appearance doesn’t matter, that what’s on the inside is all that matters.  That’s a nice thought, but reality says that both matter, I think.  Of course, one can take it to extremes and that’s where it becomes vanity, in my opinion.  I am not sure that getting braces is about vanity.  Am I wrong?  (You can tell the truth..remember, I don’t care!)  Heck, I have had these crooked teeth for 37 years (minus my years in baby teeth)…I have grown bored of looking at myself.  The change will be good!

I have no real point in any of this rambling mess. Thanks for playing along like you care…it’s good for my vanity.  Speaking of vanity, I was walking across the parking lot the other day and saw a fantastic vanity plate on the back of an old car…

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I sort of got a kick out of it.  Now that Warren, he’s the vain one!  Anyhow, it will show up in my blog header from time to time.  By the way, the header for this site changes every 10 minutes if you want to see other “versions” of the website.  You may have to refresh your browser once or twice to see it…