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Archive for June, 2007

Zucchini Overload

June 27th, 2007 Comments off

The garden is doing awesome.. So far in about 2 weeks I have gotten a ton of fruit from the plants.. I
think there will be a massive abundance of fruit.. I love fried Zucchini, but does anyone have any awesome recipes that use Zucchini? I am not afraid to
try anything.. I’ll make Zucchini Ice Cream if you can convince me it tastes good..

There are finally fruit growing on everything else except the
cantaloupe (which has flowers).. Peppers, Tons of Tomatoes, Watermelon (They are about the size of a silver/Sacajawea dollar now), and carrots.. Well the
carrots may not make it.. The squash are starving them of sun.. Oh well..


Zucchini and a few Cucumbers – Not everything is
present either.. I ate some squash and cucumbers and left a few at Stacey’s..

Categories: Cooking, Gardening Tags:

Duke Lemur Center Photos

June 24th, 2007 Comments off

I didn’t get many photos but here are the few I got that turned out worth a crap..

Categories: Travel Tags:

Resisting the urges..

June 22nd, 2007 Comments off

to become one with the couch isn’t easy.. It’s hot as balls outside, and the AC is about to die in my
house.. So between being done working, abundant downloaded television, Sheila being far far away, and what not it’s been hard to do much useful
stuff..

I have plenty to do, but alas I screw around watching tv in the morning until it’s too hot to do anything, so I watch more TV to wait until
it cools off.. Maybe spend some time on the internet, blogging about being a bum, and then well it’s evening and it’s time to watch a movie or something..

I can do this for a week or so because it’s my reward for retirement right and it’s OK right? Or am i already slipping very comfortably into my
patchwork shorts.. Maybe I should make a list of shit to do.. It apparently is in my Scorpio nature..

Categories: Random Tags:

Out of the employment pool

June 19th, 2007 Comments off

Well I did it.. Today was my last day.. I turned in my badge, laptop, and that’s it.. I am no longer
in the employment pool..

Sorta scary.. Gonna celebrate tonight.. Dave says I’m retiring.. So I am having a retirement party.. We hew!

Categories: Random Tags:

This Old House Part 6 of 63453 – Patio

June 14th, 2007 Comments off

So the patio on the side of the house.. The weather isn’t cooperating, so since the ground is
saturated it sits again today waiting for dryer times.. So about a month ago Sheila and I found the stone we are going to use.. Fucking beautiful..

So all that is left to do on the patio is to put in the sand, tamp it down like crazy, then start laying down the stones and sweep in some soil..
The digging is all done.. It seemed like it would never end.. So in typical Taylor fashion here are some photos of the progress..


Here is how it started maybe 2-3 months
ago..


Partway through digging..


Digging complete..


Foundation of gravel laid down and tamped
down..


The stone we got.. It’s going to be rockin’
whenever I can get out there and finish it up..

So hopefully in a month or less I can have the whole thing finished up, maybe get some Adirondack
chairs and chill out on the cool side of the house reading a book..

Categories: Grayland House Tags:

Garden Growin’

June 13th, 2007 Comments off

Maybe I am super excited cause this is the first time I really have had a garden, but well I am
ecstatic.. Yesterday I harvested the first fruit from the garden.. It was a 3-4 inch zucchini, and I ate it before I had a chance to photo it.. The
cucumbers and zucchini are growing really well, and the tomatoes and peppers all have flowers.. The melons are starting to flower, and the carrots look
good..


Check out the cucumber..


Zucchini

Categories: Gardening Tags:

Sasquatch! Festival

June 7th, 2007 Comments off

So hopefully I haven’t forgotten too much from the trip out west to go to the Sasquatch! festival in
George, WA..

Day One – AA Cancels out flight shoves us on US Air instead

So Sheila and I drove to RDU to start our journey.. We stop
at Bojangles to pickup some Cajun Filet biscuits for Jake (which I will keep cold in my book bag) as the most awesome of presents from the Carolinas.. We
get to RDU with 2 hours to spare, and go to check in at the terminal.. Turns out one part of our flight to Seattle has been canceled so they try and see
who else they can book us on.. They are looking at all kinds of options.. Through Regan National, Philly, Atlanta, I even heard the lady mention
Anchorage.. So finally they get us re-booked on US Air.. Every time I fly US Air I hate them more and more.. This flight re-enforced my hatred.. The
flight to Philly was OK, then on the flight to Seattle for about 5 minutes at super loud volume they subject the captive audience to all of the benefits
of having a Bank of America US Airways Dividend Miles card.. It was so loud folks sleeping were woken up, the speakers were rattling in the housings, and
everyone was looking around at each other with “What the fuck?” looks on their faces.. i can understand a 15 second spin at the same volume as everything
else but a whole fucking monologue for 5 minutes? Yeah.. Nice shit.. Oh and there was no food on the planes.. Well you could pay 5 bucks for a “fun
box”.. I am pretty sure it isn’t my idea of a fun box..

Day One – The Hooker at the Airport

So when we finally get to Seattle (only
an hour later after major re-routing) we go to get our rental car.. We are on the “courtesy bus” with a white girl in her early 20s with an older Japanese
guy.. I mean he looked old, so knowing how Asians typically age he had to be 50 or more.. This girl was all over him.. Holding his hand, sleeping on his
shoulder.. It struck both Sheila and I as odd, especially when we realized his English skills were pretty much non-existent.. So he goes in and rents the
car.. Well more like the girl fills out the paperwork, and makes him pay for it.. He gets in the car and drives to the parking lot, and then she gets in..
Hooker? Thats all Sheila and I could figure out.. I guess she was too young to drive the car, or didn’t want a paper trail.. I dunno.. How much would it
cost to take a hooker on a trip like that? I can’t even imagine..

Day Two – Shopping and the Drive to Sasquatch!

We didn’t do too
much Friday other than drive around Seattle getting crap to go camping.. Whole Foods for food, Target for a cooler, Anthropologie for Sheila to go
shopping.. We got stuck in Memorial Day traffic driving out to the Gorge.. I think it took us maybe 4 hours to get out there.. We get there right at
sunset.. Unlike Bonnaroo there was pretty much no line to get in, but there was complete chaos parking / finding a camping place.. Once we finally got
parked we had a massive area to camp in.. We setup our tent, have a beer, smoked a joint and went to bed.. I wanted to stay up, but I didn’t have the
energy and that was it.. Maybe I am just getting old.. Oh yeah it was also maybe 50 degrees outside and windy as fuck..


View from our campground..

Day Three -
Day One of Sasquatch!

So we get woken up at 7am by some fucking high school kids who the night before had gotten super drunk and kept talking
in French with a serenade of Reggae.. In addition to the sun blazing in the tent, we didn’t really need the Reggae blasting so much to wake everyone up in
a 30-40 foot radius.. Bastards.. Funny thing is they went back to bed at 8 after waking up everyone else..

So I don’t really remember what we ate,
but we have some wine at some point before heading over to the Gorge..

The “search” at the festival is quite the
joke.. Nothing like just holding my bag for a second or two and saying “your good”.. I really think I could have brought a pound of weed into the festival
and it would have been a-ok.. So the first day it’s hot as hell.. Not hot from the air temperature, but from the sun.. We get baked, and fall asleep..


The view at the Gorge is amazing..

I
wake up all sunburned with Neko Case on.. When we first sat down it was the Saturday Knights.. Some rapper kids from Seattle that really aren’t that good
but KEXP keeps pushing them.. “I’m on the dance floor; and the DJ dropped my 45; I was so hyped that I dropped my 45; and everybody just danced danced
danced danced..” I mean thats really creative since a 45 can be a record as well as a gun.. Wow.. Anyway so that night Arcade Fire was outstanding.. It
was by far the best performance of the night.. I also don’t know what the deal is with Mano Chau.. There were all these people dancing all spasticly
tossing tortillas all over the place.. Whats up with that?

Sara Silverman who was supposed to host the festival only made 2 appearances.. The
second one was a joke about doing lines in th bathroom.. Then she never showed up again.. Did she get so coked out they had to send her home? No one
knows, but I am sure there is an awesome story behind it..

So Bjork came on at the end of night one, and she is so well rehearsed that it was like
listening to the CDs, and the stage show was like watching a video.. Maybe I should have been more interested but after being burnt to a crisp we bolted
after a few songs..

We went back to camp, and passed the eff out.. Well there was some drunken ramblings from the guy next us about goin’ out and
killin some folks or something.. Yeah White trash is everywhere not just the south.. I forgot his name, but he was a high school drop out from Seattle
that seemed to ruin the trip for everyone in his group.. Anyway he sucked but that’s what you get camping at these kinda shows I guess.. I can say “we were
all young” and dismiss some stuff, but i can’t say “we all got wasted and talked about killing things”.. Enough of him..

Day Four – Sasquatch!
Day Two

We took our time getting over to the festival the second day.. I didn’t really have that much interest in the first bands so we just
cooked out, drank more wine, hung out with our cool neighbors from Portland who are moving back to Austin.. They were in a band.. The Twin Nites.. Their
band sounded like Tool sorta.. Cool kids..

Day Four – Runnin’ From the Law (If you don’t read anything else of this blog read
this part
)

So when walking to the amphitheater you get to a point where you can’t have alcohol anymore.. I guess it’s the property
line.. Well on Day One we pounded our drinks and then stood in line for an hour in the sun waiting to get searched.. So we decided on Day two we would
bring some beer along and just sneak it across the line.. So Sheila and I are walking over with our trusty cans of Miller Lite.. Sheila has a few more in
a bag.. We get to the checkpoint and the “security” folks (they looked to be younger than us just some college kids working for the summer) tell us we
can’t have our beers and we need to finish them.. Sheila says “What are you going to do?” and puts the extra beer in her bookbag right in front of the
security girl.. I notice there is a huge crowd coming which we could easily get lost in, and the security girl says to Sheila “I can’t let you go through
with that beer”.. I am about to suggest to Sheila that we just wait for the crowd and get lost in it and we’ll be fine, and she says “Lets run!”.. I am
about to say something, blink my eyes, and the streak known as Sheila is off running to save her 1/2 can of Miller Lite.. I decide I had better just stay
put.. There are 3 rows of security folks, and really it seems like she has no chance of making it anywhere.. The security guard immediately gets on her
Walkie Talkie and says “We got a runner.. Catch her” to which the third row of security springs into action and is in hot pursuit..

Now this is
where it gets even better.. Sheila makes a right turn down some other road, not the path to the festival.. Security follows her down what turns out to be
the driveway to the property owners house.. At this point the security girl who radioed ahead for backup turns to me and says “Looks like your friend is
gonna be in a lot of trouble and won’t get to go to the show now.. She has alcohol on private property, an open container, and now is trespassing”.. i
just reply back “Yeah OK.. We’ll see..” and proceed to walk a little bit toward the access road to see exactly what is happening..

Sheila by this
point has been caught (more tapped on the back from behind from the security guard who chased her).. She is being walked back to “The Trailer” for
questioning.. I at this point decided to just wait outside and not get roped into this mess and possibly have my bag searched.. Sheila is laughing
hysterically at this point and it is about all I can do to hold back my laughter as well..

I am not sure what happened in the trailer.. I’ll let
Sheila blog about that, or tell you in person.. Basically she said they didn’t give her a citation cause she was laughing the whole time, and some guy was
hitting on her.. After a few minutes Sheila is walked back to where I am sitting and the “escort” is laughing his ass off, I shake his hand, we have a
laugh or two, and he tells us something like “Try and stay outta trouble” cracking up the whole time.. The best part is they never searched Sheila’s bag
so we still had the beer!

Day Four – The rest of the festival

We freeze our ass off in the wind waiting for Spoon and Interpol to
show up.. Apparently the wind was so bad they had to cancel Spearhead and put them on another stage later..


Here are a buncha folks freezing their ass
off..

Spoon and Interpol were pretty good.. Spoons
set was VERY short I guess due to the wind delays.. We opted to skip the Beasties after having seen them a billion times before and skip town back to
Seattle.. We get back to Jakes around midnight, and crash out hard..

Day Five – Memorial Day

So we wake up late, Jake checks to see
if he has to go to work or not, and it turns out doesn’t have to.. Heh.. So we just hang out on his roof, and go on a quest for beer drinking.. Eventually
we go out that night and have a few drinks at some bar with Pool Tables and Shuffleboard.. Nothing to exciting, except hanging out drinking beers with
Jake is always a good time since I only get to see him once or twice a year..

Day Six – The Aquarium
We went to the Seattle aquarium
Tuesday since we had time to kill before the redeye at 11pm.. It was pretty small, and the only cool parts where the otters and the octopus.. We had some
chineese food at Pike Place, and then have the most awesome Sushi with Jake after he gets off work..

Day Seven – Flying Back (felt like 3 or 4
days)

Between delays, turbulence that really scared the shit outta me (I am normally fine on a plane, but I swear we dropped 100s of feet),
screaming babies, layovers at 5am in Texas, Driving to Greensboro, Park and Ride busses, it seemed to take forever to get home.. It did actually take us
20 hours door to door from Seattle to Greensboro.. So yeah that part sucked.. We made it home and started the frantic cleanup to prepare for the party on
Saturday..

Summary

I always love going to the Pacific Northwest.. I really want to go back.. Hopefully I can get Sheila to go to UW,
UBC, or someplace out there for Grad school instead of NYC.. I won’t complain about NYC, but something about the feel of the Pacific Northwest.. I guess
it brings out my inner hippie..

If you ever go to the Gorge bring your own food.. That was the worst part of the festival.. Your had pretty much
no food options.. It was just overpriced shit like Walnut Creek with hour or two long lines.. If we brought our own food in it would have been WAY
better..

Categories: Travel Tags:

OK so maybe there is some green in my thumb

June 6th, 2007 Comments off

I have so much to write about.. The patio.. Sasquatch!, Sheila’s Birthday Party, Brewing Beer, and the
Garden.. Today I guess i’ll bore you all with photos of the veggie garden.. Expect more blogs.. I’ll be Sheila-less pretty much until we go to the beach
in July so expect more writing, and me to get in much more trouble that normal..

Onto the garden.. After growing out of control for a while we
took off the big cage this morning.. I went to Lowes and got a ton of tomato cages, and some stakes to put everything up with since it was past time to
stake everything..


I got all of the tomatoes trained up in cages..
I put one of the larger peppers into a cage.. I also setup something for the cucumbers to crawl up on.. I also put up some string to keep the squash from
covering over the carrots..


We already got fruit/flowers.. Check out this
baby cucumber.. Mmm..


View from the backyard..

Categories: Gardening Tags: