Rain

Not much going on lately, except RAIN! We've gotten around 8 inches so far, depending on what weather service you look at - some have us around 12 inches! That's nothing compared to Thomasville, GA, who got over 27 inches this week. That's a lot of water.


The rain really ruined my plans to do a lot of outdoor work, including cutting the grass. Since we don't have a lawnmover yet, we are having to borrow people's movers. With the constant rain I wasn't able to get a lawnmover over here, which didn't really matter because the grass stayed too wet to cut anyway. I did find time to murder our front bushes, though.


The problem was that the previous owners had let them get way to big and way to close to the house. They were over 8 feet tall - were being the key word. I was trying to hang the shutter that fell off the house. Since the bushes were so close, I had to cut them back. As I was cutting them back, some of the top areas had to be cut down. Not bad, since we wanted to trim them down as well, right? However, it was a big problem because of how the bushes grows. The top 8 inches or so is leaves that you see and the rest is the branch. If you want to cut it down more than 8 inches, which we did, you're stuck cutting the shrub at the branch and left with just an empty, decapitated branch. So, the top and back of the bushes are skeleton bushes. They are at least the right height now, but they sure look ugly (and you know it's bad if I'm saying they look bad.) Whenever the rain stops, I'll more than likely complete the trimming process and get rid of all the leaves. The good thing is that we didn't like them anyway (sticker bushes) and had planned to replace them. To our luck, the ideal planting season for shrubs is early fall. So, we're currently scouting different types of shrubs and plants to put there. I'll keep you updated on what we chose and when we plant, which will probably be early September.


Switching gears, the GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL SEASON IS LESS THAN 2 DAYS AWAY! How awesome is that?!?!?! I'm excited for the upcoming season, but sad that the only way to watch the game is on ESPN 360.com, which my cable company doesn't carry. I am contemplating going to the game, but the fact that it is late Thursday night is not good for having to go to work Friday. We'll see what happens with that.


As I write this, we are having another downpour and strong winds. Throughout the day there have been multiple tornado watches/warnings and some confirmed touchdowns in and around the area. Hopefully everything blows over and there is no major damage like the last time tornadoes came through the area.


That's all for now.

My kind of olympic sport

I found a new Olympic sport that I want to compete in. The sport: Armchair Decathlon! I'm looking for any people willing to challenge me! In case you don't feel like reading the article, here's the events:

• The Wonderlic Test
  


• 40-Ounce Sports Drink Dash
  


• Sports Movie Marathon
  


• "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith"
  


• NFL Fantasy Stat Line Quiz
  


• Name That Athlete
  


• Nintendo "Wii Sports"
  


• World Series of Pop Culture
  


• Hot Dog Eating Race
  


• "Madden NFL 09"
  

I also need to find a Wii and a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 to be able to complete all the events. Any takers?

Random Olympic thoughts

Random thoughts of the week.


I've been an Olympic junkie since 08/08/08. I've been glued to all the events that I could. Here's a few thoughts on the Olympics in general.

• 
  US Team Winners: Michael Phelps, swimmers, volleyball teams (indoor and sand), basketball, 400m hurdles sweep (congrats Angelo Taylor - former GT track hurdler and gold medal winner!), women's soccer (especially after losing their best forward before the Olympics), wrestler Henry Cejudo, Decathlete Brian Clay, Nastia Luikin, women's team gymnasts, men's team gymnasts, Stephanie Brown-Trafton - discus gold medalist, Dara Tores
  


• 
  US Team Losers: Men's and Women's 4x100 relay teams (both dropping the baton!), US Men's soccer, Tyson Gay, Women's softball not winning gold (although Japan had a stout team, this is like basketball winning silver and bronze - shouldn't happen), Men's baseball, US team being 2nd in gold medals, boxing team
  


• 
  Other winners: Chinese weight lifters (8 gold, 1 silver in 10 classes), China being 1st in gold medals, Usian Bolt, Jamaican sprinters (men and women), Japan softball, Rohullah Nikpai, Matthias Steiner, Zhang Yimou (director of opening ceremony)
  


• 
  Other losers: Chinese gymnasts - no way they were all 16 and IOC has FINALLY opened a formal investigation (but we all know they will be cleared because there is NO way they will strip China of their gold medals IN CHINA!), IOC for being so quick to dismiss the reports of underage gymnasts, Chinese government for trying to put on a good face but really showing how controlling and oppressive they really are (see banned cab drivers, No protest zone complaints approved (and some people arrested for checking on applications!) see also here, journalits facing internet censorship (which was supposed to be open as part of China getting the Olympics), and failed human rights promises.
  

I'm sure I missed several, but these are the ones that came to my head while writing. If you think I left any out, tell me in the comments! That's all for now. Check back for later updates!

Christi's 24th Birthday!

Today was Christi's 24th birthday! Today got off to a great start because when Christi was leaving this morning she backed into my car! Oops! Thankfully it was only a minor scuff and nothing is broken.


She met her mom this morning for a birthday breakfast. At breakfast, her mom gave her some cupcakes her and Mike had made to give to her students this morning. They had a little party later in the school day and ate all the cupcakes.


For her birthday, we took Christi out to eat at Taki, a Japanese steakhouse. It was very good and we ate so much food that I am now in a food coma. I had the steak and shrimp, Christi had the chicken and shrimp. Both were very good and came with a mound of rice, vegetables, and noodles. The chef was good and we all had a good time. Christi got several really good presents, the best being the gift certificate I gave her from the local Aveda salon where she can get massaged and pampered to her heart's desire. Also, I made her a birthday cake - yes, I actually baked a cake. No, it wasn't a box mix cake. It was a made from scratch, mix with the mixer and all the jazz cake. I made the icing too! I thought I did pretty good, except I was a little messy. However, noone was around to take pictures of me making the cake, so there is no proof I was messy! The cake is a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, which is Christi's favorite.


Below are some pictures of tonight's dinner. Enjoy!

Our chef in action








Look at all those candles! Someone call the fire department!

Blowing ALL of them out



Look at that marvelous piece of confectionery goodness. Well, what's left of it. All of those holes and marks in the top are from Christi's 800 candles

That's all for tonight. We stayed and talked for a long time with the family and it is late now so we need our beauty sleep. Ok, I need MY beauty sleep. Although I'm not sure if I will ever get enough to be considered a beauty...

Week at a glance

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. I didn't realize it had been so long between posts. What have we been up to? Here's a quick rundown of the week.


Thursday: After work, we spent most of the day working around the house. I watched a ton of Olympic events, which has become the norm for me.


Friday: We went out to eat with Christi's parents and then watched movies at their house


Saturday: I went to GT to watch the last day of fall football practice, which was a scrimmage inside the stadium. Overall it went well. Early on, the offense struggled and was showing sign of fatigue. However, about midway into the scrimmage they started clicking and began to get things going. That resulted in several big plays, including 4 long TD runs and 1 long TD pass. Also, it's worth mentioning to all the worried GT fans that our starting QB and 2 starting OL were out with injuries. However, it was noted that if it was an actual game that they would have played. Overall, we racked up close to 400 yards of offense on about 100 plays. Considering how awesome our defense it, that we are just learning the system, the injuries, and the fact that the defense actually knows what plays we are running - that's pretty impressive. Yes, we still have some work to do but we are light years ahead of where we were in the spring. It is very encouraging for the upcoming season. Being a realist, I'm thinking we have a good shot at going 7-5, maybe 8-4. Naturally, I'd love to be much better but I think we would be very fortunate to do that well. Some publications are predicting us to be LAST in the ACC. Yes, behind Duke. I don't expect that and think we will surprise a lot of people.

After watching the scrimmage, I went with two of my friends - Kam and Brandon - to eat at La Parilla for lunch. We pigged out there, which we regretted later. Why you ask? Because while eating we decided we would go play some sand volleyball back at Tech. So, we went back and the 3 of us were hitting around while we waited for some of the guys we called to show up. We were like sloths trying to move around. Fortunately, our food settled right as people began to show. Since it was move-in day at GT, there were a bunch of people around. One of them was a 16 year old guy name Alexis who decided to take a break from moving his sister in to come play. They were from Miami by way of Peru. After we played 2 games of 2 on 2, Brent Vokes showed up to play. He just got back from Chile so it was good to see him again. Also, he was the only person that we called that was able to come. Thankfully, another guy - Mike - decided he wanted to play after he got through moving into his apartment. We played 2 more games of 3 on 3 before we called it a day. It was a lot of fun and very hot. The sand began to burn our feet in the last game! Overall, my teams were 3-1 on the day. Kam and I played together in the 2 v 2, going 1 and 1. In the 3 v 3, it was Brent, Mike, and myself going 2 and 0 in 2 very close game, which has scores of 23-21 and 21-19. When we got done, I went to Kam's place to take quick shower, then headed back to Macon.


While I was in Atlanta, Christi and her mom went and got a pedicure. Also, they went shopping with her brother to a some shops around town. While they were shopping, the got Christi's birthday presents (Christi's birthday is Wednesday and she's impossibly difficult to buy for!) Of course, she doesn't get them right away. She has to wait until her birthday dinner on Wednesday night to get her presents. In case you all were wondering, I have not gotten her present yet, but I do know what I am getting her and I am going Monday to pick it up.


Last night, we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel with my grandparents, Christi's parents, and Jason. It was a fun dinner because my grandparents really like Christi's parents and they always have funny stories to tell. Afterward, we went watched a movie at Christi's parents house. We watched The Family Stone and although it was definitely more a "chick flick" I thought overall it was a good movie with some funny parts.


Sunday: Today we went to church with Christi's parents and grandmother because they had dedicated the flowers in the sanctuary in honor of Christi's birthday. The people at their church (New Heights Baptist) are very friendly and it is always good to see them. Unfortunately, they don't have much to offer in terms of a young couples class, so we are still looking around different places to find something to that we like. After church we ate lunch at Johnny's Pizza and are now at home getting ready to get some things done. Christi is going to her school to do some things in her classroom and I am going to be doing some more things around the house. I know that seems like all we do, but we still don't have everything unpacked or decorated like we want.


I have to get to work on my chores for the day. Keep checking back for more updates!

New Family Member

Here's the newest addition to the family - Juliet Elise Watson


Congratulation to Lew and Leslie - proud parents! - and to Maggie, who is now a big sis!

Weekend Happenings

This weekend we actually got to relax - sort of. Saturday morning Blake (my brother) and I went and played golf. I actually played really well, especially considering that I haven't played for at least 6 months. I shot 90 and Blake shot 93 so I have the bragging rights until we play again! Our scores don't reflect how well we played. On the first 9 holes, I missed 5 putts from 6 feet out or shorter - all I should have made. The back 9 was better but I still missed putts I should have made. Blake normally shoots in the mid-low 80's so I was surprised he shot so high. On hole 2, he hit 2 bad shots that caused him to triple bogey and he also missed a lot of putts like I did. It was fun to be able to go out and play.


Christi has been busy this weekend. She went Saturday to another teacher's house to work on lesson plans for several hours. Today, another 1st grade teacher came over to work on the lesson plans - again. While she was working yesterday, I did some work in the yard. Unfortunately, we have some kudzu that borders part of our yard. I hate kudzu. We had it at my house where I grew up and you can't kill it. You can control it, though. Basically, you have to pull up the vines and roots - all of them. It's not an easy job, but it's worth the effort because it will save you a lot of trimming time in the long run. I only got halfway through yesterday. The heat got to me and I had to stop. I went back out later in the afternoon and it worked for a little bit longer but I still have some more to do. I had planned on finishing this afternoon, but I was lazy watching random Olympic sports. I will finish it Tuesday.


Why not Monday, you ask? Because tomorrow we are going to see the newest addition to our family! My cousin, Leslie, and her husband Lew, had their 2nd daughter this weekend and we are going to go see them. Exciting!


Well, we're trying to figure out what we want for supper, so I'll leave you with one of my favorite XKCD comics about my favorite food - bacon!

For more bacon goodness - check this out. Be warned - some of that stuff is weird...

Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

I liked the ceremony so much I wanted to watch it again and download it. Well, stupid NBC decided that the broadcast was "theirs" so they've been very busy thwarting any US based videos of last night's broadcast. However, they were not the only cable network to broadcast the games (up yours NBC!) and I've been able to find the Chinese CCTV videos. The only downside is that the broadcasters are naturally speaking in Chinese. But, I'm not watching for the broadcast - just the ceremony. I have to give credit to the individual who uploaded these videos, but I'm not sure who exactly he/she is!


Here's the site where I found the links to the videos on YouTube (which are cleverly tagged only as 2008.08.08 so no news networks can easily find them.) It's interesting that the site/blog is Portugese, so I'm unsure if he actually uploaded them. If you want to go straight to YouTube videos, here they are:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14

I recommend going to http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/ and downloading the YouTube video downloading software (note: YouTube account required.) From there, you can follow the easy to use interface to download the videos. Unfortunately, the initial downloads aren't in an easy to view format. So, you have to again use the YouTube download software to covert the files to the format of your choice (I prefer Quicktime, but Windows Media and others are available.) Also, I recommend using the high quality video conversion. I tried the 'optimal' setting and it was too grainy for my liking. Unfortunately, 'high' is the largest file size and takes longest, so make sure you have storage space and time!


Well, that's all for now. I'm watching various Olympic events. Another beef I have with NBC - quit skipping around! I get into an event and you go to your studio and change sports! I guess they are trying to cater to Americans attention span (or lack thereof.) I do like seeing the other events so at least I'm seeing multiple sports, but I'd like to watch something beginning to end.

Amazing

Wow. Just got done watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Amazed by all the work that went into the ceremony and the Chinese did an incredible job of pulling it off. All the fireworks, people, and technology - that screen above the stadium is awesome! I want one! Ceremony was... wow... Great. Gotta Love the Olympics!

Blah

The pretty much sums up the weather today. Very blah. Overcast and rainy here. At work we had a bad lightening storm and hard rain. On my way to the dentist is rained (and going to the dentist is also BLAH!) and on my way home from the dentist it rained some more as well as knocked out the power for a short while. However, my yard is looking good now thanks to the rain! This year there have been some really bad storms in Georgia. Thankfully today is was just thunderstorms. In case you were wondering, nothing major going on at the dentist. Just a routine cleaning. Thankfully I'm done going there for the year. Enough about me.


Christi's first day was good, although she stepped in an ant bed at recess and got ant bites all on her foot! I think she'll live through it. Today, she came home exhausted but she said she enjoyed her day and thinks it will be a good year. She has to used to getting up early again but I think she will survive. I know she really enjoys working with the kids and she is a great teacher! It's amazing how much progress they can make in a year, especially in 1st grade. She definitely misses her teacher friends from last year, but I know she will make some good friends here as well.


Well, I think that's all for tonight. Keep checking back for more updates!

Outclassed

I just got done watching FC Barcelona destroy the New York Red Bulls 6-2. In case you have no idea who I'm talking about, Barcelona is one of the world's premier soccer clubs and NY Red Bulls are a team from the MLS. It was an exhibition match and clearly the MLS has a LONG way to go before they can be respected worldwide. However, they have improved greatly the last several years and David Beckham is drawing more attention to the league. Also, it is rumored that Thierry Henry, probably Barcelona's most well known could be coming to NY to play for team he dominated. I enjoyed the match and it could have easily been 12-0 Barcelona if they kept up the intensity and played their starters the entire match. Living on this side of the pond I'm sad that I don't get to see the best soccer clubs play too often. I'm looking into getting the soccer package to get premier and champions league games, but so far haven't gotten it. Watching the game played at its highest level was entertaining and I hope the skill level in the MLS will rise. If we had a MLS team in Atlanta, I'd definitely go watch. Atlanta has a lot of soccer activity and does have the Altanta Silverbacks, which is sort of a minor league soccer team. But, watching the MLS would leave me wanting to watch the best teams (like Barcelona.) Yea, I would enjoy it and be entertained, but it would be like watching minor league baseball or arena football - it's entertaining, but not something you'd go out of your way to see. Hopefully the MLS will begin to attract some top tier talent from all around.


Ok, enough of my soccer ramblings. I know most of you could care less what I think about that. What have we been doing today you say? Not much, to be honest. I did some minor yard work, unpacked some more boxes (yes, we still have tons), and some laundry, among other things. Christi has been working in her room most of the day and also had open house at school from 2-7 (5 hours!!!) Afterwards, most of the teachers went to Outback to celebrate the beginning of the new school year, since the first day of school is tomorrow! Summer over.


That's all. Take care.

Blowout

On the way home from work today, I noticed my car was riding a little rough. So, I pulled off the road and looked my tire. What I found was disturbing - a chunk of my tire had ripped away. However, it was still holding air, which was surprising, so I chanced it. Thankfully I made it home. On the way, I texted Google's SMS service to find the nearest tire place to my house and used the phone number of one of the places they sent back. The tire place took forever but I got 2 new tires (I got 2 because my other front tire was low on tread so I went ahead and got both.)


Other than there isn't much else going on today. Christi did a lot of work in her classroom and has spent most of the night here preparing for the first day of school on Thursday. It was a busy day at work for both of us and we're headed to bed now. Good night.

Weekend Happenings

I intended to write this yesterday, but I was feeling lazy. Plus we went to the grocery store after work and did some other things. It seems like there isn't enough time in the day to get things done. I propose we switch to a 28 hour day. Check it out, it's pretty interesting.


This weekend was like the past few weekends - busy. Christi was in Acworth/Woodstock/Canton this weekend visiting friends and I was at the home doing work. Sounds fair, right? I know, I know, I'm just kidding. I've already given her plenty of grief. She did help out Kim (hey Kim!) in her room and they did a lot of stuff for school. As always with them, she came back with several hilarious stories - including one with a fork, but that's all I'm gonna say :)


As for me, I did a bunch of things around the house. Nothing really exciting - cut the grass, installed new flood lights outside, setup our DVD player and other things in the entertainment center, and other non-interesting things.


When Christi got back Sunday, we went to her school for a meet-and-greet with the other teachers and their families. There was a bunch of great deserts and sweets to eat and meeting the other teachers was good (although Christi had already met most of them.) After that we worked in her room getting things together as well as went shopping for random things.


That's pretty much our weekend in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more happenings.

Dining and Living Room Pictures - Finally

As I'm posting this, I'm watching 300. So it will probably take a while to get it posted since I'm distracted. However, I'm going to get these pictures posted - finally. The previous pictures of the rooms before we got furniture can be found here. To give you an idea the size of the room, the tile is a little larger than 12"x12".


Here they are, in no particular order. (click to enlarge) edit: Some of the pictures look funny because I constrained them all to a certain size to keep formatting the same. Enlarge to see true dimensions. Thanks!

View of living room area



Couch



Chair and Ottoman (and fireplace decoration)



Coffee Table



End Table (one on other side)



Detail of woodwork on couch (also goes below front and on sides)



Entertainment Center (sorry for blur, best I could get for some reason)



Entrance Table



Close-up of Table shows cool vase, wedding album, and picture



Dining Room Table



Close-up of Dining Room Table



Chair from Dining Room Table



View of rooms from end of dining room table

We are really enjoying the furniture. The couch, love seat, and chair are all VERY comfortable. They are all slightly oversize - just like we wanted. The dining room table is taller than your standard table and is a butterfly design (no removable leaf - it folds underneath butterfly style.) As you can see, we like the larger furniture that is big and comfortable. Although the dining room chairs are wooden, they too are comfortable and are just the right height (admittedly, whenever we have children it may pose a problem while they are young - however we have a smaller breakfast table for that.)


Well, that's all for tonight. There will be more pictures to come soon. As we add more decorations I will post updates.

Busy Week

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We've had an incredibly busy week. Essentially everyday this week we've been at Christi's school getting her things organized and arranged like she wants them. After that, we've gone out to eat with her family, friends, or co-workers. That has caused us to be getting home late and when we get home we don't feel like doing much. There hasn't been too much to write about lately, either.


One thing I did do was fix the dryer. Our dryer started knocking really loudly and also taking numerous cycles to dry a small amount of clothes. I finally had time to investigate the noise Thursday evening. After some poking around, I determined it was the rear bearing. Unfortunately, getting to this part requires essentially disassembling the entire dryer. So, I did just that on Thursday, which turned out to be a lot easier and quicker than I thought. When I finally got to the part, I was relieved to see that my hunch was right by seeing that the bearing was bent. Yesterday, I went to a local parts store (Fox Appliance) and got the part I needed. When I got home, I installed the new part without much trouble - although, reattaching the drum to the bearing was difficult do to the size of the drum. Thankfully, the dryer works as good as new and there are no more problems (and I didn't break anything!).


I'm not 100% sure what will be going on tonight. We need to go to the grocery store and get some more things, but I know we both would like to be lazy for the night. Christi is supposed to be going to Canton/Woodstock/Acworth tomorrow (maybe tonight) to visit some of her former co-workers. Even though we have only been back in Macon a few months, we both miss our friends a lot, so I know she's excited to go back and see them for the weekend. We'll figure it out sometime soon.


I'll keep you posted. Speaking of posting, I finally got around to upload the living room furniture pictures. I plan on posting the pictures tonight. Bedroom will come soon. Stay tuned!


Edit: Christi will be leaving tonight. If anyone wants to come over and party I've got the house to myself! Kidding of course, but you all know you're welcome to come over whenever.