Thursday, July 01, 2004
"Breaking the Silence"
Wow - it sure is nice to have a computer again!! After much ado, I ordered and finally received my new PC yesterday. I feel like I sold out a bit, since I would have preferred to build a system myself, but to make it easier on the insurance company, I purchased a pre-built system. It's nice to have the newest technology for once - i never even had a cd burner on the old system (i used haywood's if necessary) and now i have a dvd burner :-) to test everything out, i christened the system last night by watching office space...how fitting. I am Michael Bolton. I'd much rather say that I'm Jennifer Aniston, but what is.. IS.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of trips and visitors. We trekked up to NJ for my 19 year old niece's wedding (wow - that sounds sooo young). They did most everything themselves and it was held at my brother's farm. And the great part is, the wedding was truly awesome - everything was gorgeous..the weather was perfect...the food was delicious (the groom's parents are caterers, so they did a wonderful job). And to top off the night, the bride and groom disappeared into the sunset for a one hour hot-air balloon ride. They are truly lucky - i know people who have spent tons of money and their weddings didn't turn out nearly as nice. So my new "nephew-in-law" is a math genius and has secured a job at the NSA, so they are moving down to DC this weekend to begin their new life together. Congrats to them!
After the wedding, my uncle, cousins and their significant others came to visit. Sierra is going to be a flower girl in my cousin Pam's wedding this October and she is very excited! Of course this will involve some trips up to NYC on my part for the bridal shower and other pre-wedding events, including flower girl dress selection. Should be a good time - i haven't been up there for several years.
During that week, Sierra finally had her golf lessons!!! It was a one-week golf camp with other 5 year olds. She had a GREAT time and learned how to putt, chip, hit with a 9-iron and a wood. Her favorite was the 9-iron and second was the wood - her short game needs a little more development, but I guess that's what putt-putt is for :-) I wish there was a chip and putt place around here - we went to one in the outer banks once and it was a lot more fun than a traditional putt-putt, albeit a bit more dangerous, given that you're chipping in a fairly small area and if you don't know what you're doing, you could potentially injure someone. Maybe I can add this to my list of business ideas - we've got plenty of farmland here - i don't see why we couldn't just shave off a little corner and build a little practice course.
We had time for a quick visit to Sierra's friend from the library before they left for a 6 week vacation and we inherited their hampster to take care of. So far Sierra has been so responsible and caring that she wants one too! I'm not sure about this - I keep having flashbacks of an episode of Nip/Tuck from last season, so I'm not sure if we'll be getting another pet anytime soon.
[Speaking of Nip/Tuck, I have been faithfully watching the new season so far...can't wait to see what happens. I have also been watching the standard fare...Real World, Newlyweds (I thought I was going to die when Nick kissed Maggie (his MIL's dog) - he hates that dog!), I watched the Ashlee Simpson show once..i can't believe how much she says the f-word in one show vs. Jessica in two seasons! - her dad must be mortified, and I'm also watching North Shore because you are basically forced to watch it if you watched the O.C. - it's insane how many recognizable characters there are... Richard from Sex and the City, Phillip from Days of Our Lives, Brooke Burns from Baywatch, Hailey from the O.C....etc. I haven't really been watching too much other TV these days and our TiVo is now filled with WWII fighter plane documentaries to support Haywood's new hobby of building model planes.]
Once my relatives left, then Haywood's brother came to visit from Ohio and stayed for a few days. It was during his visit that I finally experienced the joy of Xbox!! I must admit - Sierra kicked my ass royally on a game called Soul Calibur 2 (which is strange, because i used to be great at fighting games), but I had the honor of getting the first hole-in-one on Tiger Woods Golf since my bro in law has had the system. Even though I lost the round, i won the most money because of that. Also, I unlocked the St. Andrew's course for him, which he was happy about. We also played a game called Burnout 2. He said it was a driving game and I said - well, i suck at driving games... I always crash. So he tells me this game is all about crashing - that's how you win! So I'm thinking it's gotta be my kind of game. It was kind of fun, but also a little difficult because you have to optimize your crash time and angle to cause the most damage and trucks and buses are worth the most, so you must figure that into the equation as well. We didn't actually play halo, but he showed it to us and it looked cool. The graphics look great on our tv, too!
So after the bro-in-law left last Saturday, we spent the day at the Nelson County Summer Festival - we heard one of our favorite (now disbanded) bands from college, Baaba Seth, play two sets. I have known the lead saxophonist for about 11 years when we met at All District Band. I was first chair, she was second (for the record, she was waaaaay better than I was - she must have totally screwed up on a scale or something) - it is so funny to think about that when she is so awesome at playing and has multiple cds out (http://www.hopeclayburn.com) and I have done absolutely nothing with my music in several years. So then later, we met again in college - Haywood played sax in the UVA Jazz Ensemble and Hope was a member of that as well. That's when they formed the band Baaba Seth, best described as "world music" and they were such a hit at parties and local music spots that after graduation they released 2 or 3 cds and went on tour until they broke up about 4 years ago. They get together for the occasional reunion concert, which is what we attended on saturday. Haywood and Sierra made the local paper, with a picture of her sitting on his shoulders and enjoying the show. Later that night, we decided we still hadn't had enough of them so we went to a party/show on the Downtown Mall to see them play for several more hours. On the way out, the funniest thing happened... we ran into one of Haywood's old apartment-mates from college. He was there looking just the same as he did 7 years ago right down to the backpack. He informed us that he never actually graduated and is back at UVA right now for the summer finishing up his last three classes to finally get his degree. We exchanged emails and stuff so we can get together sometime to reminisce about all the fun we used to have (they lived right below luann and me in college). In fact one of our favorite stories involves Dave bouncing a basketball on his ceiling (Luann's floor) in the middle of the night...she was pretty furious and confronted him about it and I don't think it happened again after that.
After that, my niece and her husband came to visit on the way back from their honeymoon. I made them a video cd with all of their wedding pictures and they really loved it, so I was kind of excited and it made me feel a little more creative again, so I may start doing a little more freelance work until I start working again. Incidentally, call me CRAZY, but there is a teeeeeensy chance that I may be back at my favorite telecom company and yours in the future, details to come...
So the past few days, other than anticipating the arrival of my new pc, i've been gardening, finishing up the details for our insurance claim - i can't tell you how many phones i have bought and returned trying to find something i like. I even bought a cool bluetooth phone, but sadly, it sucked and I had to return that one too. I must be going deaf, but no speakerphone ever works satisfactorily for me... time to start using a headset again, i guess. Oh...one more thing and I have GOT to get something done today...I taught Sierra how to eat a crab yesterday!!! She is very patient - I apologize now to any future boyfriends, but yes, you WILL get stranded at All You Can Eat seafood buffets with this girl - she's a natural at slow, but thorough, crab meat removal. Anyone who has ever been to a seafood buffet with me can relate...
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Wow - it sure is nice to have a computer again!! After much ado, I ordered and finally received my new PC yesterday. I feel like I sold out a bit, since I would have preferred to build a system myself, but to make it easier on the insurance company, I purchased a pre-built system. It's nice to have the newest technology for once - i never even had a cd burner on the old system (i used haywood's if necessary) and now i have a dvd burner :-) to test everything out, i christened the system last night by watching office space...how fitting. I am Michael Bolton. I'd much rather say that I'm Jennifer Aniston, but what is.. IS.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of trips and visitors. We trekked up to NJ for my 19 year old niece's wedding (wow - that sounds sooo young). They did most everything themselves and it was held at my brother's farm. And the great part is, the wedding was truly awesome - everything was gorgeous..the weather was perfect...the food was delicious (the groom's parents are caterers, so they did a wonderful job). And to top off the night, the bride and groom disappeared into the sunset for a one hour hot-air balloon ride. They are truly lucky - i know people who have spent tons of money and their weddings didn't turn out nearly as nice. So my new "nephew-in-law" is a math genius and has secured a job at the NSA, so they are moving down to DC this weekend to begin their new life together. Congrats to them!
After the wedding, my uncle, cousins and their significant others came to visit. Sierra is going to be a flower girl in my cousin Pam's wedding this October and she is very excited! Of course this will involve some trips up to NYC on my part for the bridal shower and other pre-wedding events, including flower girl dress selection. Should be a good time - i haven't been up there for several years.
During that week, Sierra finally had her golf lessons!!! It was a one-week golf camp with other 5 year olds. She had a GREAT time and learned how to putt, chip, hit with a 9-iron and a wood. Her favorite was the 9-iron and second was the wood - her short game needs a little more development, but I guess that's what putt-putt is for :-) I wish there was a chip and putt place around here - we went to one in the outer banks once and it was a lot more fun than a traditional putt-putt, albeit a bit more dangerous, given that you're chipping in a fairly small area and if you don't know what you're doing, you could potentially injure someone. Maybe I can add this to my list of business ideas - we've got plenty of farmland here - i don't see why we couldn't just shave off a little corner and build a little practice course.
We had time for a quick visit to Sierra's friend from the library before they left for a 6 week vacation and we inherited their hampster to take care of. So far Sierra has been so responsible and caring that she wants one too! I'm not sure about this - I keep having flashbacks of an episode of Nip/Tuck from last season, so I'm not sure if we'll be getting another pet anytime soon.
[Speaking of Nip/Tuck, I have been faithfully watching the new season so far...can't wait to see what happens. I have also been watching the standard fare...Real World, Newlyweds (I thought I was going to die when Nick kissed Maggie (his MIL's dog) - he hates that dog!), I watched the Ashlee Simpson show once..i can't believe how much she says the f-word in one show vs. Jessica in two seasons! - her dad must be mortified, and I'm also watching North Shore because you are basically forced to watch it if you watched the O.C. - it's insane how many recognizable characters there are... Richard from Sex and the City, Phillip from Days of Our Lives, Brooke Burns from Baywatch, Hailey from the O.C....etc. I haven't really been watching too much other TV these days and our TiVo is now filled with WWII fighter plane documentaries to support Haywood's new hobby of building model planes.]
Once my relatives left, then Haywood's brother came to visit from Ohio and stayed for a few days. It was during his visit that I finally experienced the joy of Xbox!! I must admit - Sierra kicked my ass royally on a game called Soul Calibur 2 (which is strange, because i used to be great at fighting games), but I had the honor of getting the first hole-in-one on Tiger Woods Golf since my bro in law has had the system. Even though I lost the round, i won the most money because of that. Also, I unlocked the St. Andrew's course for him, which he was happy about. We also played a game called Burnout 2. He said it was a driving game and I said - well, i suck at driving games... I always crash. So he tells me this game is all about crashing - that's how you win! So I'm thinking it's gotta be my kind of game. It was kind of fun, but also a little difficult because you have to optimize your crash time and angle to cause the most damage and trucks and buses are worth the most, so you must figure that into the equation as well. We didn't actually play halo, but he showed it to us and it looked cool. The graphics look great on our tv, too!
So after the bro-in-law left last Saturday, we spent the day at the Nelson County Summer Festival - we heard one of our favorite (now disbanded) bands from college, Baaba Seth, play two sets. I have known the lead saxophonist for about 11 years when we met at All District Band. I was first chair, she was second (for the record, she was waaaaay better than I was - she must have totally screwed up on a scale or something) - it is so funny to think about that when she is so awesome at playing and has multiple cds out (http://www.hopeclayburn.com) and I have done absolutely nothing with my music in several years. So then later, we met again in college - Haywood played sax in the UVA Jazz Ensemble and Hope was a member of that as well. That's when they formed the band Baaba Seth, best described as "world music" and they were such a hit at parties and local music spots that after graduation they released 2 or 3 cds and went on tour until they broke up about 4 years ago. They get together for the occasional reunion concert, which is what we attended on saturday. Haywood and Sierra made the local paper, with a picture of her sitting on his shoulders and enjoying the show. Later that night, we decided we still hadn't had enough of them so we went to a party/show on the Downtown Mall to see them play for several more hours. On the way out, the funniest thing happened... we ran into one of Haywood's old apartment-mates from college. He was there looking just the same as he did 7 years ago right down to the backpack. He informed us that he never actually graduated and is back at UVA right now for the summer finishing up his last three classes to finally get his degree. We exchanged emails and stuff so we can get together sometime to reminisce about all the fun we used to have (they lived right below luann and me in college). In fact one of our favorite stories involves Dave bouncing a basketball on his ceiling (Luann's floor) in the middle of the night...she was pretty furious and confronted him about it and I don't think it happened again after that.
After that, my niece and her husband came to visit on the way back from their honeymoon. I made them a video cd with all of their wedding pictures and they really loved it, so I was kind of excited and it made me feel a little more creative again, so I may start doing a little more freelance work until I start working again. Incidentally, call me CRAZY, but there is a teeeeeensy chance that I may be back at my favorite telecom company and yours in the future, details to come...
So the past few days, other than anticipating the arrival of my new pc, i've been gardening, finishing up the details for our insurance claim - i can't tell you how many phones i have bought and returned trying to find something i like. I even bought a cool bluetooth phone, but sadly, it sucked and I had to return that one too. I must be going deaf, but no speakerphone ever works satisfactorily for me... time to start using a headset again, i guess. Oh...one more thing and I have GOT to get something done today...I taught Sierra how to eat a crab yesterday!!! She is very patient - I apologize now to any future boyfriends, but yes, you WILL get stranded at All You Can Eat seafood buffets with this girl - she's a natural at slow, but thorough, crab meat removal. Anyone who has ever been to a seafood buffet with me can relate...
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