Well, Wednesday turned out to be a down day….most all of the day was spent indoors not doing very much. My Mom stopped by for dinner, but otherwise we were pretty recluse. 

Thursday brought some sun and a little more action from our house. I was on the mend, and Ezra seemed to be a little better, Ahna still feeling pretty good, but expressing concern over a possible sore throat. Unpacking (yea, we didn’t get to it until today), grocery store visit, and a trip to the mall. We decided that we needed a video camera, so after some quick research through the library and Consumer Reports, we headed up to Best Buy, gift cards in hand, to get a camera. We settled on a traditional tape camera – mostly due to it’s cost – but also due to the fact that it records in essentially RAW format, thus allowing the most editing capability once it’s on the computer….at least that is what the salesman said. I’m not sure that I believed him that the digital cameras compressed the video quality, but we couldn’t afford them anyway. I am hoping to give it a shot soon and possibly post something to the blog over the weekend. 

Now to the big event of the day: Ezra tried rice cereal for the first time! The Dr. had suggested it during the last visit, and we had been waiting for the right opportunity to give it to him. Last night was it. We sat him down in the Bumbo, put the tray on, applied a bib, and went to town feeding him. He did great. It was hilarious. At first, he didn’t know what to do with his tongue…..he kept taking the food in, then moving his tongue in a sucking motion, thus pushing the food back out. He would try and try to accept the spoon into his mouth with pursed lips, each time resulting in half of the spoonful not making it in. He played with the food, he smiled, he ate, and he wanted more. Overall, we were very pleased (along with very amused) with his performance, and are looking forward to doing some more with him soon. We conveniently scheduled a bath for after the feeding, but didn’t plan on the amount of other things that would need some cleaning….oh well, it was taken care of. Back to the title: this stuff is crazy sticky. I think that double sided tape, gorilla glue, JB Weld, contact cement, and duct tape could all take a lesson from he current King of the Mountain: rice cereal.

Special Florida Edition

On Saturday we drove to Savannah and Tybee Island to meet up with Kari and Nora, to explore the city some, and to hang out for the weekend. Kari and Nora made the trek down from Atlanta early in the am, and we left Jacksonville just after breakfast. 

The 2.5 hour drive from Jacksonville was uneventful, if you ignore the constant rain (that nobody seemed to be able to predict…I think that there are only two weather computers in the country, and all weather people feed off of just those two) and the construction-caused traffic. We encountered what has now become probably my least favorite roadside sign: “Construction for next 32 miles.”

Despite coming on a 2.5 hour drive from the south, and a 5 hour drive from the northwest, we all arrived within 10 minutes of each other and met up at The Sentient Bean, a coffee shop in downtown Savannah. It was a cool place that was a center point for a lot of the political action that surrounded the G8 summit there a few years ago. Since it was raining when we finished our drinks and lunch, we decided to head out to where we were staying on Tybee Island – a beach community about 12 miles from Savannah. 

We had been looking into places to stay in Savannah for a little while, and discovered that attempting to stay in the historic/downtown area of the city was going to cost about as much as a new car. We were left with a decision on where to go, and instead of an interstate hotel, we hit up an inn on Tybee Island called The Hunter House. It was a good price for a two-room suite with a bedroom and a pullout queen couch, so we made reservations. We had read about the place in a few travel books, and figured that we had a good find. 

Then we got there. The island isn’t the quaint little place that we had envisioned, as we discovered by the billboards on I-95 advertising Tybee as “Savannah’s Beach.” But we held out hope until we saw all of the typical touristy places: t-shirts galore, lame restaurants, and cheesy painted homes. We pulled into the inn and were taken down to the suite on the first floor. It was run-down, had old crappy furniture, a questionable bathroom, a 15 inch TV (which may have been nice in 1986, but isn’t now). The bedroom was sparsely furnished, and the pullout bed was terrible at best. The place was livable for a night, so we decided to make the best of it and tough it out….but if you are ever looking for places to go on Tybee Island, run fast from The Hunter House.

We went back into Savannah for dinner, then returned to the place for the night. Ahna, Ezra, and I spent the night in the living room; and pulled the mattress off of the couch and slept on the floor. It wasn’t a terrible night of sleep, but it was far from good. Anyway, it certainly makes for good stories.

The next morning I woke early (not because it was time to rise, but because my back was on fire from the night’s sleep) and headed to the lighthouse to take some pictures while everyone else was waking up. It was cold that morning – 52 with a strong wind – so the pictures were taken fast since I only brought along shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and flip-flops. 

Following a good and greasy breakfast a some local establishment, we ran down one block to the beach so Nora could play in the sand. We stumbled upon a local surfing competition and watched that for a few minutes. Afterwards, we headed back into Savannah to wonder around. The weather broke overnight and presented us with a very pleasant day. We walked around the historic district, through some cemeteries, through lots of squares, around lots of horses and buggies, down River Street, and next to all sorts of cool and old buildings. We ended the time together with some coffee and snacks in a park and headed off in our different directions.

Special Florida Edition

Yesterday we headed down to visit with my cousin Amanda at the University of Florida. When we were looking at the map with my grandparents on how to get down there, they warned us of a little town called Waldo (yup, now I know where Waldo is…roughly 1 hour southwest of Jacksonville, Florida…no need for anymore books asking the question) and the speed traps that they set up along the road there. There was even a story that someone had put up a billboard as you approach town that warned of the speed trap to be (confirmed…the billboard exists, just as advertised). Funny thing is that we never saw a police officer of any kind in Waldo, but we saw lots of others on the drive to and from Gainesville. I came to the conclusion that everyone in the state of Florida is a perfect, law abiding citizen in every regard of their lives except for obeying the speed limit…because there is no way that there were any cops left to do regular police work after the number that we saw on the roads today. 

We met up with Amanda at a fun restaurant/bar aptly named The Swamp. It sits on University Blvd right across the street from campus, so we were able to enjoy the people watching, the rather lovely afternoon in the shade, and some really tasty food. It was really nice to hang out with her in her element. Every time that we have seen her in the past 5 years it has been with family around, so it was good to have an adult-to-adult conversation with my cousin for the first time. PS – Go Gators.

Last night we took my grandparents out to dinner at a great little seafood shack near the Navy base. It’s a dumpy little joint that happens to serve delicious food for a great price – highly recommended (I can pass on the directions to the place if you ever want, but I have already forgotten the name). 

By the way, will someone please make Joe the Plumber and all references to him go away?

Sorry that we haven’t made a posting in a couple of days, but we have been singing and dancing in the streets. Okay, that’s not true, but we have been really busy.

On Friday morning, I had to take a ‘psych test’ for the department (I am testing for an Acting Lieutenant position…which you have to be before you can test for Lieutenant). It’s called a ‘psych test,’ but it’s pretty much an attempt to melt your mind. 800 questions (10 of which were oddly math/vocab), a 20 minute interview with a Dr., and 3 hours later I walked out of there feeling somewhere between a terrible person and a confused soul. It’s weird that they never really ask you any questions about what good you have done in your life…just things like: “have you ever felt like hitting someone?” Yes. “have you gotten pains around your body for no reason?” Yes. “tell me about any written reprimands you have received at work.” Where do I begin? “do you feel angry when someone cuts in front of you in line?” Who doesn’t? On and on it went…I am supposed to get results from the test through the department sometime next week, so keep your fingers crossed.

On a brighter note, Friday night brought the family dinner to our house in celebration of my birthday. Ahna spent a large portion of the day on Thursday and Friday preparing food….two cakes, salad, green beans, and a favorite of mine – Moosewood Pot Pie. It was a lot of fun to have that release after the morning, and it was a lot of fun to be able to spend some non-pressed time with the folks that came down.

By the way – I ordered my season ski pass to Arapahoe Basin on Friday. And it snowed in the mountains all weekend long. Right now it appears like they are going to open this week, which is unfortunate for me since I will be out of town…and would miss opening day for the first time in 7 years. Oh well.

I worked on Saturday…and normally I don’t share much about work…but this time I will share one thing. If your job requires that you have any certification of any type: make sure that it stays current. No, nothing happened to me (that’s another story from a previous time), but something did happen to another guy at work. Do yourself the favor and don’t run into that problem.

Yesterday we headed down to my folk’s house for some breakfast and conversation. It’s been cloudy and cold here all weekend, so the afternoon consisted of us watching some football and chillin’ on the couch. We had a nice time just lounging around for the day and spending time with each other. 

Here are some pics of the latest festivities: