Chainsaw Fun

Dan gave me a chainsaw for Christmas. I know it seems strange, and at the time I thought it was a little peculiar a gift myself. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how perfect it is. I love power tools, and destruction, and gardening as well. So it’s perfect.

Sunday was such a beautiful day that I decided to finally bring out the chainsaw and start cutting things down. Our first discussion centered around loud power tools and Sunday mornings. When is a good time to start making noise? We both decided that anytime after 10am is safe. It was actually around 2:30pm when I started cutting things down, as we had decided to clean out the garage instead. (It looks beautiful now! All organized and clean. Love it!)

The first thing I decided to cut down was the fence at the side of garage. This fence cut right across the middle of the yard and really made no sense. Originally I had started to try to dig up the posts, but that was impossible. So, I cut them down. (see video)

Up to the point when I had finished cutting down the fence, everything had gone really well. I was careful to wear my protective eyewear and position myself so that I wouldn’t be cutting towards myself. I was feeling pretty confident. That is probably why it all started to go wrong.

There is (or was) a dogwood tree growing behind the fence, next to the big oak tree. It was too close to the oak and was prohibiting the growth of a beautiful holly right in front of it. We decided that we should cut it down. Being confident (and stupid) we planned for about thirty seconds as to what would be the best way to cut it down. It didn’t look that big after all. Dan threw a rope around the top of the tree and we decided that of course it was going to fall exactly the way we wanted it to; the rope was just a precaution. “ZZZZZZZ” went the chain saw. “CRACK!” went the tree. “NOPE!” went Dan, and the tree fell…right onto my neighbors’ fence. It was bad enough that I had just dropped a tree on Norm’s fence, but when I looked over the fence I saw that Norm had been watching the whole thing.

“Norm, I dropped a tree on your fence.” I told him casually. He walked over to peruse the damage. His fence was holding up nicely under the strain. Only one slat had been knocked loose and was hanging to the side.
“Looks like you didn’t rope it off properly,” Norm told me drawing deeply on his Marlboro.
“Rope it off? Huh?” I thought. “Well, you know, amateurs with chainsaws!” I joked with him. He didn’t smile.
“Can I come over to your side so I can cut this tree off your fence?” I asked him and he unlocked his fence and walked away.

Dan stood on one side of the fence while I cut all of the branches off on Norm’s side and handed them over to our side. Finally, it came down to the last big branch. I cut into it and the branch fell off and the chainsaw connected with the chain link fence and the chain on the fence wrapped it self into the chainsaw. “Crap!”
I left the chainsaw hanging from the fence and ran around to the other side. The tree was off of the fence and lying, dismembered in the yard. I was really starting to hate this chainsaw. I got the wire cutters and cut some of Norm’s fence apart and pulled down the chainsaw. I was covered in sweat and sawdust and chainsaw oil.

The weepy stump of the dogwood made me feel depressed, as well as Piper’s admonitions that if I cut down one more tree she was leaving home for good.

The chainsaw is now cleaned up, tightened up (the chain had gotten stretched after wrapping itself up with the fence) and sitting quietly on a shelf in the garage. It looks so harmless and small.

Slacker

I have not been writing enough recently and that is not for lack of ridiculous events to write about. (I will write about last weekend in the next blog entry, I promise. Chain Saw Fun is what I think I'll call that entry. Stay tuned!) It is just so hard to leave work, pick up the baby. Go home, change, do the dishes (I have this compulsion that makes me wash the dishes before I can do anything else), play with the baby, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep, make dinner, eat dinner, and then I just want to do something really fun. And blogging is unfortunately third on the list of fun.

And then there are the other things, long term things that get in the way. Job searching, wedding planning, foreign service studying (if that exam ever happens), dreaming about all the changes I want to do to the house. It just never ends. I'm not complaining as such. I can't live unless I have tons of things to worry about. But things do seem to be weighing heavily on me recently.

Dream Log #2

I have been having the most intense dreams. This last dream I am with Dad, Lois, Chad and Nate and Bronwen and Dan. We are at some sort of resort. I am sitting with Bronwen and suddenly everyone comes rushing into the room where I am sitting. “The Who is playing right now! We have to go,” everyone shouts at me. They all run off ahead and I slowly get out of my seat with Bronwen to follow them. I get to the auditorium and the door is ajar and I peak inside to see that most of the seats are empty. My family is sitting in a row to the right side of the stage. The first thing I notice is that A Prairie Home Companion is playing over the loud speakers and people are laughing at the jokes. The second thing I notice is that all of my family is doing something. Dad is reading a magazine; Chad and Nate are playing a game. Dan is working on a puzzle. I go to join them and there is no seat for Bronwen and me so I sit on a small table. Then the room is full of water and we are floating in our chairs. I am holding Bronwen’s arm tightly for fear that she is going to float away or sink. Lois floats over with a necklace making tray in her hands. She shows me a string of glistening blue beads and says she is going to make me this necklace that represents me and that the blue beads represent strength. She says my necklace will be full of blue beads. I look down on the necklace tray where the rest of the beads are laid out and I see the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen. It has hundreds of colors and intricate detail. I notice specifically a set of pink and green leaves made from hundreds of tiny beads the make up the bottom of the necklace. I am amazed that she would make that for me and that it is so beautiful. The waters start to rise and Bronwen slips below the surface. I have her arm and I pull hard to get her to bob back up to the surface. We swim over to the side of the room which is now the edge of a swimming pool.

My Mom's New Blog

My mother is brilliant! She has spent the last 34 years researching the first book of the Bible, Genesis and has not only developed a broad, cohesive view about what the stories mean, but also how kinship analysis of the story of Genesis can give insight to where these historical characters live, worked, married and died. She has started a new blog "Just Genesis" and I highly recommend that you read it, even if you may never have been interested in the Bible. It is fascinating stuff.

My snoring problem

I have become extremely self conscious about my snoring. Actually, let’s clarify that statement. I have become extremely self conscious about my snoring, but not enough to keep me from falling asleep (and snoring) in all sorts of public places.

A couple of years ago I was flying home from Seattle. I had been working for Krispy Kreme in Seattle for about four days and I was lucky enough to have scored first class seats on the way back. I must preface the story that I was very ill. I had been laid up in the hotel for a whole two days with the flu. On the flight home I slept the whole way from Seattle to Charlotte. When I got up out of my seat to disembark the plane the man sitting in front of me stood up, turned to face me and said, “Man, lady, you sure were sawing logs!” I was so shocked, and sick, that I just smiled meekly and left the plane. I think that was the first time I started to be self conscious about this problem.

At my present job, when we travel we are required to have roommates. The way that I started to deal with my self consciousness has been to talk about it obsessively all the time with my roommate. I guess I am looking for them to say something like, “Oh Ellie, you don’t snore at all. I slept perfectly all night!” but it never happens that way. I say something like, “I just have to warn you, I snore a lot! I hope you are not a light sleeper.” To which they always respond, “Oh, I am sure it will be fine.” Then in the morning I say, “Did I keep you up too much?” and they always answer, exhausted, “No, it was fine…” as they drag their ass to the shower.

Florida, Pt. 2? Orlando Airport

Back in Florida. This time I am in Orlando. I was on the fence about Orlando until tonight. Disney and Universal Studios are great, but the traffic stinks and the whole city is a strip mall. But it wasn’t until I was driving my minivan (yes, I have a minivan rental car) around town trying to find my way to the hotel that I realize the whole place is like another country. I looked around and half of what I saw was completely unfamiliar.

You know when you go to foreign country and you pass by a store and you have no idea whether it is a grocery store, a bank or something else? That’s what it is like here now. Maybe this is new because I don’t remember feeling so out of place the last time I was in Orlando. But it is strange. And not fun strange, uncomfortable and annoying strange.

The airport was insane. Lots of families with kids heading to Disney World. It made me think about Bronwen as a 5 year old getting excited about meeting Mickey and riding the roller coasters. It isn’t that far away!

It was impossibly hard to find the rental cars and I was extremely frustrated by the time I finally made it there. An hour later I was at the hotel.

Cheers!

Happy St. Patty’s day! We woke up today around 9:30, fed the baby and then packed up our things for an all day St Patty’s Day adventure. Dan likes to pack for any contingency so we left the house loaded up with baby food, formula, blanket, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, toys, cash… We decided to walk to Mcouls (it is a 2.8 mile walk). We stopped at the Spring Garden Bakery for coffee and a shared bagel with cream cheese, then back out in the brisk day. It was sunny, but the wind was cold and it was blowing!

We cut through campus which was filled with prospective students and their parents. Everyone was ogling Bronwen up on my back in the Kelti backpack.

We got to Mcouls just as things were starting to pick up. An Irish band was playing Irish folk songs (I am going to learn the fiddle!) and the Guinness was flowing. Bronwen and I shared a pint and we waited for Chris to join us so we could get lunch. When she got there, the whole place was filled to capacity so they wouldn’t let her in. So Dan, Bronwen and I hoped in Chris’s car and headed over to an almost completely empty Café Europa. After an extremely cuminy Cubano Sandwich and a few pints we headed back to the Mcouls block part to see what was happening. We had all paid $10 to get into the Mcouls block party so we figure we should spend more time there. By this time it was becoming blustery and cold. We headed into the music tent and watched a great band perform. Clarinet, flute, trombone, mouth organ, trumpet, banjo, guitar were all cycled through each song. So much fun to watch! I wish I knew what the band was called.

Willow Gone Bad (Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happens to Tara!)

Joss, you’ve done it again. I even knew that the death of a certain character was coming and I still was surprised and upset when it actually happened. This is why I love Buffy. Yes, there are moments of angst that border on soap opera cheese, but the whole Buffy mythology holds together so well (except for Spike and that is another entry) that you forgive those moments because you want to see what will happen next. I really loved Willow and Tara together; which makes it so much more painful when Tara is killed. But how can you not love Bad Willow! She is so much more powerful than Buffy. Since she gave up her powers in the first half of the season, Willow had turned back into sweet, cutesy Willow. But when she is bad, she is really bad. And in this case, you have to side with her. Wouldn’t you want to torture and kill the one who killed your beloved? Even though you know it’s wrong, there is something satisfying, albeit gross, with what she does to Warren.

Willow rounds out the trio in this episode of the three powerful women in this season: Buffy, Anya, and herself. Buffy, whose supernatural power is a birthright uses her power to protect humans; Anya, whose power is reignited through betrayal uses her power to avenge the jilted; and Willow, whose power is driven by pure rage uses her powers for revenge. Joss says that Buffy is an exploration of female power and it is no where better illustrated than in this episode.

Only two more episodes until the end of this season. Spike is gone (I was getting tired of that drama anyway) and I miss Giles; maybe he’ll come back? The previous two seasons had great season finales, so I am looking forward to this one. Hopefully, we will get to see lots more of Bad Willow.

Back to the diet

It is strange to begin to live in a world where everything you eat has a number value and the goal of the whole day is to eat under your self determined number. I don't think I like thinking of food as number. I ate half a granola bar and thought 80. That's 80 added to the 350 I ate for lunch making a total of 430, leaving me about 370-500 for the rest of the day. Weird...
But it turns out that I have to lose weight, not only because I want to look HOT in my wedding dress, but it will help my blood pressure to drop and my sleep apnea to dissipate; two very good reasons to start counting calories. I have spent the last two days obsessively reading lists of calories for food I like and have come to the realization that it is going to take some work changing the way that I eat. Fortunately, it is all input versus output, so the more I workout, the more calories I get to eat. Since I am not yet working out, I don’t really get to eat much. Bike a couple of miles and I might get a beer! Hooray!

My new plan

I have decided to start work on the upstairs room, despite the fact that I have very little money and no time. We were planning to just live with it until next year when, after the wedding, we could put more time and lots more money into it. However, I realize, after thinking more about it, that there are many projects that we can do up there that will cost very little if we put our manpower into it. I have put together what I think is a good design for the bathroom upstairs. I am going to have to take some measurements and make the drawings to scale, but I think it is going to be very cool. The rest of the room just needs those walls and floors fixed, and the banister around the top of the stairs needs to be fixed. Oh and the stairs need to be fixed too.

So that is the plan. Hopefully we can get it fixed up nice before the wedding as who knows who will be living up there during that week. I would love to come home from our honeymoon and be moved in! Always a dreamer…

Tuesday

I stabbed myself in the hand today with a small paring knife. Like a fool I was holding the avocado in the palm of my hand as I stabbed at the pit to try to remove it. A split second before the knife sliced through the pit and into my palm I thought, “what if this knife slices through this pit and into my palm?” It’s like I’m psychic or something…

Dan got me a band aid and it really isn’t that bad. It was just shocking and gross and my hand is a little swollen.

The weather is changing and it makes me happy. I love being able to sit out in the sun and drink a few beers and enjoy a game of cards or a good conversation. I can’t wait until Bronwen is running all around the yard.

I got off work early today to make up for the fact that I had no weekend (again) and I picked up Bronwen and we raced home so we could swing in the hammock and take a nap. We woke up when Dan got home and then we all cuddled on the bed for awhile. It’s good to be home.

Sunday, lovely Sunday

Wow. What a week. I drove home from Wilmington yesterday to meet Dan so that I could take care of Piper and Bronwen while he ran his annual Oyster Roast fundraiser for work. Chris came over to hang out, we stayed up until 12am (which was soon to be 1am as we lost an hour last night) when Dan came home. I woke up at 1:45am (or was it 2:45am) to feed Bronwen (so much for sleeping through the night) and then again at 7:45am for good. But the rest of the day was fun.

Brunch was bacon, eggs and potato scramble with hot black coffee. Then I headed out to Home Depot and bought supplies to make my Cactus garden and some trees for the front yard. I got home and Dan was crashed out, so Piper and Bronwen and I headed out into the beautiful sunshine to relax and play in the dirt. I made my cactus garden, and dug out the steps in the front yard (see pictures at right) and Bronwen and I napped in the sun.

Later, I made chili for dinner and we bathed the girls and put them to bed. I can’t say I mind being domesticated. Two years ago I would have had a fit, but it is a pretty good life.

Okay, here is where it gets yucky. I get to get up at 3:30am tomorrow to drive back to Wilmington to run two classes from 9am-1:30pm and then 4:30pm-9pm. I was contemplating driving home after class but I think I will spend the night and drive back Tuesday morning. It will be nice when I get to have a lovely day and not have it ruined my having to pack and say goodbye the next day.

Un-lasting Impression

I just had the strangest experience. A woman that was in my class for 9 hours yesterday approached me just now. She looked at me with a confused look and asked me “were you the one who taught us yesterday?” I have never left such an un-lasting impression. Was I really off my game yesterday? Maybe I finally do look like everyone else…Weird.

(Later)We went to a terrible restaurant tonight. I am not even sure what it was called, I think it was Wild on Wings. We walked in and the whole place was smoky and loud. I mean ear ringing loud. The TVs were turned up as loud as possible and everyone eating and drinking were screaming. We were seated in the back in a corner, and were further squashed as a table of 6 was pushed in besides us. After being ignore by an apathetic waiter wearing a t-shirt that read Got id? we finally ate dinner and got out of there. My ears are still ringing in protest.

wilmington

The drive to Wilmington was uneventful. When I got here I was met with the smell of the ocean and about a ten degree increase in temperature. I always feel more relaxed when I feel the ocean near. Unfortunately, I got a wicked headache and had to go to sleep around six. But at least I got eleven hours of sleep before I had to go to work this morning.

I have been doing so well with the evil diet. I have even been working out in tiny hotel exercise rooms. Hotel exercise rooms are strange places. There is usually a treadmill, an exercise bike and a step machine. The TV has the volume turned all the way up; there is spring water in the corner, and a small basket of towels.

I don’t mind being in there alone, but the rooms are always so small, if someone else shows up, it is too crowded. Tonight I got a good workout in (45 minutes) before anyone showed up. I watched Charmed and worked on the step machine. Then I drank beer and ate fries for dinner.

I can't think of anything more frustrating than sitting at work and thinking about all of the things I could be doing that would be so much more fun and satisfying. I could be gardening (it is a beautiful day), I could be baking, crochetting, playing the guitar, watching Buffy, playing with Bronwen, drawing, planting trees, playing snood, working on Dan's ridiculously hard Sudokus, mowing the lawn, driving around town, swinging in my hammock, taking a nap, playing Guitar Hero, and the list goes on. Oh well.

This morning, for the first time in all of my traveling around the world and the country since 2001, I looked into the hotel bathroom mirror after my shower and truthfully asked myself, "where am I?" I had to laugh out loud...and then get kind of depressed. Oh well.

Nashville, TN

I have been on three flights in two days and will embark on two more tomorrow. That’s my life; I am the ultimate jetsetting mommy!

I arrived in Nashville around 9 pm tonight and called the hotel to find out info about the shuttle service. The overly cheery desk clerk gave me a number to call and told me how happy she was that I was checking in this evening. I called the number and “Shandel” answered and told me to go out to the hotel shuttle stand and keep an eye out for a white Cadillac. I picked up my luggage and followed the signs and found myself with a crowd of people waiting for transportation to their hotels.

I was staring off into space when a mini van pulled up and a very friendly black man got out of the van and approached me. “Are you going to the Homewood Suites?” he asked me. I nodded yes and as he took my luggage and opened the side door, I caught a glimpse of the name of the shuttle service printed on the side of the car, Driving Ms Daisy. As we drove through Nashville chatting about country music and rap music, I couldn’t have felt whiter sitting there in the back seat.