So I've been off the blog radar for a while, kind of got tired of people using it as a means to keep in touch with me. Basically I'd call someone/email them telling them what's new and the typical response was, "Yeah i know I read the blog..." so I went on strike in order to give people a reason to email me or call me... well after a few months and about oh... no calls or emails, I figure I'd just blog.
Also another reason me not blogging is I guess I should be on Atlblogs since I'm no logger a chattian. Though as Josiah pointed out I technically never was a chattanoogan.
Life's been good and busy down here in Mableton. Our house has been a lot of fiascos after another. Anyone who thinks new construction equals no problems has another thing coming. Though I've talked to most of my neighbors and we pretty much are the only ones on the block to have the amount of problems we've had. And two of our problems have been with our Kenmore applainces, so that's really sears not our builder... granted he bought them from sears.
The biggest problem was our downstairs turlet was clogged with a big ball of concrete. Thus anytime a number 2 commenced we had a nice bit of a surprise in the tub downstairs... But the fixed that a few weeks ago and now number 2 can begin to flow freely without impediment... unless its a huge load or something, but at least now concrete stopage.
Other than that a lot of little things here and there that the builder will fix via the home warranty, but its still a hassle to deal with it all. Though in the end for all our hassles we coaxed the builder to upgrade all our faucets and bathroom fixtures to a nicer brand which in the end is huge. We were going to do it after market when we bought the house but I soon realized how much it would cost and how much of a pain it'd be and regretted not paying the upgrade cost.
Other than that, I put in a garden in the back yard for janelle. One of the stipulations we agreed upon when we bought this house is I would turn our hill in the back into a garden. So 1.8 tons of Middle Tennessee River Rock later, janelle has a garden as well as our house having a cool back yard that our neighbors don't. I'll have to put up some pictures some time, but as its dark now it will have to wait. It was a grueling project that took a good whole day but so far the garden looks great and hopefully the wall will hold. Its only about 2 feet tall so there's not too much pressure behind it, and that pressure is mostly Georgia clay which tends to stay put. I've noticed some settling here and there so I may have to go back and fix it here and there, but so far so good.
Other than that we just got back from a vacation to Destin with the crabbs. A good time was had, much seafood was eaten, but I must say traveling with children is very tiresome. The best part of the trip was getting to spend a lot of time with Janelle and Anna-Kate. The very close second best part was getting to play golf for free. the Condo we stayed at had free golf every day, so one day I played, the next crabb, and then we played together and split the cost one day. It was great, though my game is in dire need of work and practice. I've been hitting plastic golf balls in my backyard some to help with my swing, but my main problem as always is my short game. 3 putts killed me on every hole. Especially the second day out I had a few shots for par, 1 or 2 for birdie that were ruined by 3 putts.
We also had free putt putt where janelle mastered the hole in one, she sunk about 4 of them. Though I got her back at go carts by taking her out of the track. She tried to cut me off so I took her out Jeff Gordon style and proceeded to jam us both against the wall. Luckily we were the only ones on the track so the guy who freed us didn't care that much. I then took the checkered flag, did donuts in the middle of the track, and chugged a pint of milk.
We had some amazing seafood. My favorite was probably the Back Porch, mainly because they had the most amazing crabb cakes as well as fantastic shrimp and scallops. Pompano Joes was also awesome and across the street from where we stayed. I got an ok dish of seafood pasta and firmly established that I do not like Mahi Mahi. The pasta was good but I just don't like fish, too bland. We also found some good italian place, which was ironic. The clincher for them: They bring out an entire roasted garlic and smush out all the good stuff and put some olive oil in it and seasonings and you slop it up with bread... they had me at garlic, and then the baked seafood manicotti sealed the deal.
Anna-Kate loved the beach, though she tried to eat a lot of sand.
As vacations go it was a great time though its good to be back home and adjusting to a bit of a routine again.
Adjusting, because I was on a business trip the week prior to the vacation so I felt like I'd been gone for nearly two weeks. I'm on a new project and learning new things that will help me in my career. They're keeping me busy and I'm still enjoying it, the sumatra helps. I've been to two other Deloitte offices though and ours by far seems to be one of the best. We're the only one that I've been to that has free diet coke/soda. Also we're the only ones with good coffee. Though other regions have free parking at least in Texas they do, which would free up an extra 100 bucks a month which could buy me tons of coffee and diet coke.
Other than all that, Anna-Kate's big 1 year birthday is coming up in two weeks. Should be fun, I'm going to dress up like a clown and make baloon animals... yeah right. No daughter of mine will like clowns... i'll see to that. Evil It....
anyway, to bed i go.
Posted by holtonian at May 7, 2007 11:24 PM | TrackBack