Taylor’s Blog

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

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..

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..

Well I am in Columbia, SC today for work.. Yeah I still have a job.. I am finally done with the man
June 20th.. I talked them into letting me take all my vacation and with 28 days left and working part of the time it ran me until the middle of June.. I
guess I can’t complain at all.. I had all of last week off, and I will never work Friday again.. Well until I get another job..

I spent Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday of last week working on replacing my downspout drains.. My wrist hurts like a bitch.. I guess I am not used to digging a ditch 50-60
feet long.. Anyway the thing is done and doesn’t leak.. All I need to do is backfill the ditch and then I can get started again on the patio.. I ended up
digging out 46 sections of pipe plus about another 8 feet or so of pipe..

The garden is starting to pop up now..
Carrots are coming in, Cucumbers, Peppers, and well I still forgot what else we planted but there are little buds popping up everywhere..

I have
one class this summer for school.. MBA 613 – Economic Policy and the Global Environment.. I was given a conditional acceptance to UNCG which require me to
have a 3.0 after 12 credits.. Right now I have a 2.95 and 10.5 credits.. I have to get a B+ in that class to hit a 3.0.. I don’t know what they would do
if I had a 2.97 or something at 12 hours, but I would rather not find out.. I really wanted to get an A in my Communications class, but alas I ended up
with a B+..

When that class is over all I have to do this summer is work on my house, go to the beach, and brew/drink beer.. I can’t wait for
June 20th to roll along..

So this weekend there was some progress on the many projects around the house.. Like most projects
there always is something unexpected, like that loose thread on your sweater you know you shouldn’t pull but you do anyway..

Before I get to the
project in a project an update on the garden.. Everything was sewn on Saturday.. Raised beds are well quite easy to plant in, all you really need to use
is your hands the soil is so loose.. Sheila and I bought another 2 tomato plants, and a red pepper plant.. We planted the some seeds (carrots, some kinda
squash I already forgot, etc) and the peppers and tomatoes that we raised from seedlings..

It still looks like a bunch of dirt, but
here she is.. We shall see how the garden grows in a few weeks or so..

My rabbit cage I don’t think is overbuilt now.. One of the little
fuckers hopped right up close to Sheila and I and started eating the weeds in my yard.. I am OK with him and his 100 future offspring if they stick to my
weeds, but you know they will want the garden..

And now for the sweater thread.. The part of the project that forces you to start on a whole new
project.. Another 5 trips to Lowes/Home Depot/Hardware Store.. You know.. The thing that makes you curse owning a house, much less one that is older than
your grandparents..

So Sheila and I start digging next to the house for the patio foundation (You have to dig down 8 inches you know) and I hit a
ceramic pipe.. Interesting I think.. I dig a bit more and realize that it is next to another pipe.. Turns out it is the original drain pipe for the
gutter.. The pipes have nothing between them anymore.. All I can surmise is that they were originally held together by something similar to tar paper.. On
the side of some of the pipes there is stuff that looks like the remnants of tar paper.. The inside of the pipes are filled about 2/3 of the way up with
sediment, and are most likely barely carrying any water to the catch basin in the back yard..

It’s like cholesterol for drain pipes..

So now I have found out why the north side of the house is always so wet, but that has opened up a new project.. Replacing the drain
pipes on the north side of the house.. So far I have dug out about 2/3 of them, and will be putting in 4″ PVC pipe.. It won’t cost too much, but it is
still a shitload of digging.. I also need to get the drain all done soon in case it starts raining.. i don’t need a mud pit 6 inches from the foundation
of my house..

That’s what i have gotten out so
far..

I don’t know what I will do with all of those yet.. Sheila and I will probably plant some flowers or something in them.. We shall
see.. I suspect I will end up with 30-40 of them when i am done digging them all up..

The trench so far..

The
rain has always been a problem at my new house.. One side of the house (opposite the patio side) all the roof water just turns into a river and runs into
the backyard since the drain pipes are all concentrated at one exit point.. I have a simple solution to that.. A Rain Barrel.. The city of Greensboro has
a rain barrel program where they subsidize it so I can
get a 65 gallon rain barrel for 80 bucks.. I am going to call the folks today and see what I need to do to pick one up.. They are made by a company in
Raleigh..

Hopefully all of my drainage problems will be resolved shortly, but we shall see..

Until next time this is Taylor for This Old
House.. Be sure not to miss our next episode where Taylor uncovers another project he had no idea he would have to take on, curses the PVC gods, throws
rocks at rabbits, wishes he never had even wanted to make a stupid patio in the first place, and in the end sits down happily with a beer..

So I have been working on the most awesome garden Sheila and I will have this summer.. Here is my
progress so far.. I can’t wait to have some fresh veggies..

Here are the seeds
we have started so far.. Peppers, Tomatoes, Basil, the usual shit..

So for the garden we are building some raised beds.. It’s pretty much a bunch
of 2×6′s and 4×4′s.. We got some treated lumber, sealed/stained it, and then I built the boxes/beds this afternoon.. We have a 4 foot by 4 foot herb
garden, and then 4 foot by 8 foot one for the veggies..

Here is the wood drying in the
backyard..

Here is the herb garden being set
into the ground.. What a pain in the ass digging holes.. Uggh..

Here is where they
are at so far.. I gotta re-level out the smaller one, get dirt and well a ton of other stuff..

So yeah that’s it.. I think this year I am going to
live off the land and live up to my real hippie potential.. See hbomb I am admitting I am a hippie..

Well I did it.. I turned in my resignation today.. It went much smoother than I expected.. I still
have to talk to HR, and some of my bosses bosses.. I am sure there will be offers of more money and things of that nature.. Now I just need to get my ass
to a dentist and doctor before I am faced with the decision to do cobra or be insuranceless..

So here’s to getting my degree by Fall of 2008 instead of forever in the future.. If anyone needs some part time web coding done or knows someone who
might let me know.. I can send you my resume.. Whenever I find out if I can keep my phone number or not I may be getting you guys my new number..

Man I still have butterflies in my stomach and it’s been 3 hours since I made the call to my boss..

Well i don’t have much to blog about, but Sheila and I went to the National Zoo (in DC) today.. The
main reason was to see Tai Shan (baby panda cub) before he gets shipped back to China in the middle of this year.. Tomorrow we are going to see the
holocaust museum then Ikea.. Yippie! I can’t wait.. Hopefully the snow here won’t cripple 95 tomorrow..

So I guess with that said I’ll let the
photos flow.. All I can say is yeah I love narrow depth of field photos..

Here
is Tai Shan going to town on some bamboo

Hippo who seemed to be pretty
depressed and in quite a small cage/pool..

Lemur!

This still photo doesn’t really give you any idea how trippy the invertebrate house was..

Why go to Bonnaroo to see the Flaming Lips when you can see them in Raleigh April 18th? We all know
disco rodeo sucks ass as a venue, but it’s the Flaming Lips.. OK so I remember saying that seeing the Pixies would be awesome regardless of venue but that
show sucked ass cause it was 130 degrees inside.. I think Frank Black was having a heat stroke.. Not quite sure.. Maybe the “rodeo” will have some air
conditioning this time.. Lord i’m breaking into a sweat thinking about that show.. So anyway anyone else interested? Maybe even to offer me and Sheila a
couch/floor to crash on?

E-Tix Link

Hopefully that link works.. if not go to etix and search for flaming lips..

Thanks Caleb for the text message heads up!

So the Sasquatch! Festival Lineup was announced
today.. Screw Bonnaroo.. Coachella would be a pain in the butt to co-ordinate.. Sasquatch it is.. Jake says the venue is awesome.. Music festival on the
Columbia river.. Talk about rad.. I just got plane tickets.. Buying the event tickets on March 3rd when they got on sale.. American has some seats for 200
+ tax out there (RDU->SEA) at least right now..

Anyway I am excited.. Should be fun.. 20k people is WAY less than the stinkin’ 80k for the ‘Roo..
Screw Tool (yeah hbomb you can like em, but I don’t)..

Well that’s what i’m doing for Memorial day.. Who wants to give us a ride to/from RDU, let
us ditch a car for a week?

So this is where Sheila and I
will be..

Until next time..