hushed gray: the Kevin chronicles

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Weekend in review
And yes, I'm painfully aware that it's already next weekend. This has been a crazy busy week, but as we near the end of it I finally have time for an update. I think those most curious about how last weekend went have called, but for those I haven't spoken with...here's a review with a couple of photos.

Last Thursday after work I headed north to the airport where Sarah was already waiting, her flight having arrived mid-afternoon. We ate dinner at Renna's, a small local chain that makes awesome pizzas. One of the toppings you can order is fresh tomato slices...delicious. I'd only been there twice before, once with my family and once with Devon. (Good times, eh, my friend?)

After dinner I drove Sarah down to St. Augustine, where Teri and Ashley (the latter of whom was out of town) were kind enough to give Sarah a place to sleep for the weekend. I then drove back to Jacksonville.

First thing Friday morning--like pre-sunrise--I took the car in for an oil change. That gave Sarah a bit of extra time for rest, but I was still down there by 9. We then drove back up to Jacksonville to go to Fort Caroline (picnic lunch). Before lunch we walked part of the Willie Brown trail. We didn't know at the time who Willie Brown was, but we were to later find out. After lunch we went to the beach. There'd been a news report that several hundred high school kids (listen to me, talking about high schoolers being "kids") had been at the beach and sparked several fights earlier in the week. There was supposed to be an increased police presence as a result, but I don't think I saw any officers at all out there. We may have been too far south for that.

We drove back down to St. Augustine and Teri showed us around town--I'm slowly learning where things are, but I've not spent enough time down there to really give a guided tour. We ate dinner at the A1A Ale Works Brewery, which brews (among other things) its own root beer. It's pretty good--could use more carbonation, but it has a nice flavor and isn't too far on the sugary side. I recommend it to anyone who has a chance to try it. IBC is still tops in my book, though.

For what it's worth, I maybe got a little bit too much sun during all our walking outdoors on Friday. Actually, from this picture it looks like I got way too much sun. And I probably should have shaved, too. Oh well.

Photo of Sarah and Teri

After visiting for a while Friday evening, I drove back up to Jacksonville and got some sleep. Sabbath went well, Mr. S gave a very good sermon--he has given two excellent ones in a row, very good indeed. After services a big group of us went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. We stayed there for a while, Jon and Matt doing most of the talking but they have good stories so I didn't mind.

Saturday evening Teri, Matt, Amity (visitor from the Tallahassee area) and I played around on guitar and keyboard, then played some board games and ate tater tots. It was around midnight when Matt and I left out. I got a few more hours sleep that night.

Then on Sunday it was back to St. Augustine one more time to pick up Sarah. We went to the mini golf place, but it was closed so we decided to have a bite of lunch while we waited for the place to open. But before lunch I pulled over at Kmart (the parking lot being mostly empty) so Sarah could try driving the manual. She did a good job--I don't think we made it to third gear (although we did jump from second to fifth one time), but it's tricky trying to learn how to drive a stick.

We returned to the mini golf place which was all but deserted. The fellow at the counter said we could play as many games as we wanted to--I guess since it was early afternoon on Easter Sunday he didn't expect much business. We ended up having time for only one game, but that was okay. Here we are taking a break.

Photo of Sarah and Me

After the mini golf excursion, it was time to take Sarah back to the airport, so I did that. I also scouted out some parking possibilities for my May trip out west.

So, after that enjoyable weekend, it was back to work on Monday. And I got slammed. I mean seriously, there wasn't that much left over from Friday, but I've just been running all out all week long trying to get all the ducks in a row. The big project right now is plugging content into the yet-to-be-launched Web site. It's not at all unpleasant once I figure out where the marketing folks want various things. One day this week I took down (on request) a dinner ticket purchase page, and then a few hours of later had to put it back up (on request of the same person, not one of the marketing folks). I get to do a lot of stuff twice in my job, lol. No particularly funny tech support questions this week.

Some stamps I'd ordered from the USPS have arrived. The mail carrier jammed the envelope into my little mailbox. It's a wonder the stamps weren't all crinkled up, but I guess they plan for that given the number of cardboard stiffeners inside the envelope. For those who don't keep up with such things, we're actually looking at a dearth of new issues over the next couple of months. I guess the USPS wants to wait until the rate increase goes into effect in May before they start churning things out at the normal pace. There are some nice designs this year, though--I especially like the Thirteen Mile Woods stamp as shown by the Virtual Stamp Club. The St. John and Albert Bierstadt designs are nice, too--and even the "Flags 24/7" designs are nice, especially compared to those drab yellow things currently in use.

Saw a news story on the Internet earlier this week regarding those kids who robbed the bank up near Atlanta last year, I think it was. The caption with the photo had their names, then text indicating it was a surveillance photo of the girls "robbing a bank wearing sunglasses." That must have been one funky-looking bank, you know what I'm saying? Or maybe it was just poor sentence construction.

I had to do laundry on Tuesday evening, but every other evening of the week (starting on Monday) I've been able to get out for a walk.

At this point I need to finish picking some stuff up and putting it away, adn then maybe I'll get ready for bed. Congratulations to anyone who read the whole entry. Goodnight.

posted at 9:18 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel
Yes, this is an actual street sign here in town. I took the photograph, but have not altered it in any way. This is an example of your tax dollars at work.

Spelling Error on a Street Sign

posted at 9:05 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A Quarter Hour
I just had what may very well turn out to be the best 15 minutes of my week. After finishing the folding and ironing of clothes, I heated up some leftover chili beans, poured a glass of milk, grabbed a bag of corn chips, and parked myself in the doorway of my apartment. At that location I spent the next 15 minutes eating my humble dinner while an occasional shiver ran up my back thanks to the cool night air on my bare arms. I could hear the crickets chirping and the heating units running outside various apartments. And there was that wonderful odor of slightly moist soil and dry leaves that you only get with cool (not cold), somewhat humid night air. And I thought to myself, I should do this more often.

Now it's time to get back to it, though--there's a pile of dishes to wash and a bed on which I need to put some sheets before turning out the lights. Goodnight to all.

posted at 9:30 pm | permalink | 0 comments

Sunday, March 09, 2008

I'm back
Tiring weekend, but it all went pretty well and I'm back safely. And now I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

posted at 9:20 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Pre-dawn haze
This week has flown right by. Work has gone reasonably well, enough to keep me occupied which is all I ask. I think if I ever start a rock band I will call it Paper Jam.

posted at 6:32 am | permalink | 1 comment

Sunday, March 02, 2008

A productive day
And that's not to say there's nothing left to do, but let's take a look at the day's activities:

Cleaned out important documents/"catch-all" box (touching off a day-long sneezing marathon)
Talked with Devon and Amanda
Went for walk
Wrote letter
Requested credit report (no reason to believe anything will be wrong, but it's good to check occasionally)
Prepared stamp trade for collector in Belgium and soaked just a few stamps
Cleaned off top shelf of closet
Listened to race (props to Live 105.3 in Dallas for streaming the audio since no Jacksonville station is carrying the broadcasts)

There's some stuff that'll go to Goodwill or whoever wants it; most of that I've moved to the trunk of the car. And at this point I'm pretty well tired, so I'm going to retire for the evening. Goodnight all.

posted at 9:11 pm | permalink | 1 comment