ICE!

This past weekend I finally got to go to ICE!! I had been wanting to go for years, but everyone else had already been. So, when my cousin and his wife mentioned they wanted to go, I was on board!

It was so neat! I will say it is a bit overpriced, but we had a great time. It isn't very long, but I don't think we would have lasted much longer anyway. It is so cold (9 degrees) in there. I do recommend if you ever attend yourself, that you wear gloves and a hat. The coats they provide keep your "core" body warm. But I was convinced my fingers were getting frostbite by the time we got out.

Also, if you go be sure and ride the slide. It was so fun. Bear in mind though, there is a sign at the top that should be read and understood. The key points that I missed were:

You will experience extreme cold!
You will experience fast speeds!
You will experience an abrupt stop!

The last one seemed to be the most shocking. You are flying down the slide on ice and then suddenly you are on carpet and your body "abruptly" stops. Not recommended for people with back problems or pregnant. :)

Bobie Joe "BJ" Lunsford

(January 9, 1931 - November 12, 2008)

BJ passed away last night at the rehabilitation center. He had gone into the hospital on October 8th (5 days after this picture was taken at my birthday party) for Congestive Heart Failure and a Gall Stone. While in the hospital as he was being treated for the Congestive Heart Failure the hospital drained him a bit too much and he became severely dehydrated. He fought like the man we know and over came this struggle too and seemed to be on the mend. He had been moved to a rehab center last Thursday, November 6th and was undergoing treatment for his weakened heart and body. The fight just got too hard for our darling man! He will be severely missed and always loved by everyone who knew him.

I love you BJ!

Genevieve Taylor Arnold is Here!

Kelley Hogan Arnold delivered her 2nd child this morning at 2:13am! She weighs 7 pounds 7 ounces and is 18.5 inches long. Mommy and baby are both doing great. Little brother Aiden (3) is OK with Genevieve coming home to their house, but has no interest in holding or touching his little sister. Hopefully he will have a good transition from only child and only grandchild to sharing the limelight. :)

The picture is on Genevieve's actual birthday. Look at those cute cheeks. She is just so beautiful especially to be a new born.

Go Vote!

Have you voted yet? If not, you really should! Regardless of which way you vote, you really should vote for someone. Early voting is the way to go! I went last Wednesday and from start to finish it took me 15 minutes. The last time I voted on election day it took me 1.5 hours!

I finally got my shower fixed!

It’s only been a problem since I bought my house 5.5 years ago. I’m slowly getting all my issues taken care of. I’ve actually only been looking for a plumber since December. Yes, I know that it is now October, but I was patiently trying to find an individual to do the work. I hate dealing with companies and they are always trying to rip off the poor single “woman”. With individuals, you get better after hour support, they get all the money for the work they do and I don’t feel I get ripped off in the process. As much as I would like to say that I can handle all my issues myself, it just isn’t possible.

So, I had tried getting a hold of two other recommended plumbers and that was like an act of congress. I don’t know how people expect to get business if they only have a home phone, with no answering machine, and then are never there. I tried calling this guy for 5 months with not one success. J The 2nd man I got a hold of kept telling me he would swing by on Saturday. Five weeks later and 2 more phone calls, he had still failed to ever show up. So, I sent out another all points bulletin to my friends to find a plumber. As it turns out a past co-worker and also the neighbor of a good friend is married to an excellent plumber!

Mark Fant (number will be provided to anyone who needs help) came over to do a consultation on my day off a few weeks ago. He was a very pleasant and helpful man. I first had him crawl up under my house. You see, last December I was told I had a leak under my laundry room and I was already at about 40% rot on my foundation and I had a fungus growing under there. Keep in mind that I will not be crawling under my house ever! I seem to be growing opossums under there and who knows what else and I can’t physically bring myself to do it. Well, I told the Orkin guy that I wasn’t interested in paying $600 to have the fungus sprayed since I wasn’t allergic to mold and it wasn’t it my budget, but I would have the leak looked into. Now, I never had any symptoms (water bill stayed the same) of said leak, but I continued to worry that I had one. Fascinatingly, Mark couldn’t find any sign of a leak or that I ever had one! So needless to say, I’m looking very forward to my upcoming termite inspection. I would love nothing more for the inspector to try and sell me the same lie again. Could be a great blog post when that occurs.

Anyway, Mark did a fabulous job on changing out all of my shower hardware! I would highly recommend him to anyone that needs some assistance. Especially, if you live on the airport side of Nashville.

Critter Hotel

Just thought I would update everyone that I caught ANOTHER opossum this weekend. That makes 3 this month. I have caught a opossum each of the last 3 weekends! Apparently under my house is the place to be!

Anyway, i finally decided I could dispose of the varmit myself. I put it in my trunk (on newspapers of course) and drove it down to a not so quite finished subdivision. Well, it took a little longer than last time. The dang thing would get out of the cage. I finally got it dumped on the ground and it was still testing me. Anyway, I have blocked the hole under the house temporarily with the cage and hopefully, nothing can get in around it for now.

Daddy is going to have to get down here soon!! I need that hole closed under the house!

The Library

Do you live in Davidson County? If so, and you aren’t using the public library, you are really missing out! Davidson County has one of the best libraries around. Most of you are like myself and probably grew up with just an average library. Let me tell you what you are missing.

Our library has one of the most extensive collections of everything! You can check out books, CD’s, videos, and DVD’s. Our library has all the new releases and it’s all free! Now don’t get me wrong, you do have to wait a while for most of the new DVD releases. However, the cost makes it worth the wait to me. Our library usually has a minimum of 3 copies of all movies and all it takes is a few minutes to get on the waiting list. Then, you get to keep the movie for 7 days before the late fees start accruing.

The best part is the online reservation system. You can go to the public library’s website http://www.library.nashville.org/index.asp and do everything from there. Once you register your library card number online you can search the catalog and then request the item(s) you would like and have them sent to the library closest to you. When it is your turn, the library marks the book with your name and puts it on a hold shelf. Then you have about a week to go pick up the item and you can even self checkout. It is sooo nice!

Since I made this discovery I haven’t rented a single movie. Also, keep in mind the library is great for hobby books. In the past few years I have taken up cake decorating and knitting. The library has extensive collections on both of these topics. So, I check out 5 or 6 books at a time on either topic, and look through them for ideas. If I come across a book with lots of projects I would like to try. I just make a note to actually buy that book later. It’s a wonderful way to try before you buy. Happy Reading!!!!

Critter Update

Well, 7 days later I caught another one! I went across the street to my neighbor Brian's house to see if he would take me and the Opossum for a drive. Brian has a truck and I don't. I considered for one brief moment putting the thing in my trunk and quickly vetoed that idea. What if it pees in there? Plus, it smells like a dead animal!

Well, Brian agreed to drive us as long as he didn't have to touch it. :) Like I was going to touch that gnarly thing!

Any ways he drove us up the road a bit to a clearing and I got the cage out and opened it up. With me standing there, the critter just kept hissing and climbing further up the back wall of the cage. So, I sat it down and took two steps away. Just like that, the critter scampered right out of the cage and into the trees. At least it's gone now.

My neighbor who is apparently scared to death of my Opossum remarked that I must be some "country girl" I assured him most women from TN (he's from CA) had a little country in them. Especially when a family of opossum's moves in under your house!

Now the trap is reset again to see if there are any more critters under the house.

Daddy, plan your trip and get down here. You need to help me close up this hole!!!!

I caught the Opossum!!

Last night during the thunderstorm I caught the Opossum! I had reset the trap around 5pm and by 10pm I had him! Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of him. Cristi and I may borrow her husbands truck to drive him down the road a bit. I'm sure that will require an update on the blog. :)

The last time I caught one I called animal control to come get it. They did come remove the critter, but they took my trap with them. They also seemed a bit peeved when I wanted my trap back too. Obviously, I need my traps as I've continuously used them to catch the critters getting under my house. Just call me Cheryl, the Animal Catcher. :)

Buffett

Yesterday, September 14th, the McDaniels sweet Cocker Spaniel Buffett went to heaven to be with Beth's brother Christopher. Buffett had been struggling with Lymphoma cancer for the past 3-4 weeks and now has beat it by leaving it behind. Please keep them McDaniels in your thoughts and prayers as they get through this tough time. Buffett had been with Beth and Charlie since before they got married 11 years ago and he will be greatly missed by us all.

We love you Buffett!!

Critters!

As some of you know, I had a opossum under my house several months ago that I caught and had disposed of. Well, I never got the hole under the house sealed off and now I have another one.

I set my traps to try and catch the opossum over the weekend. Sadly, I haven’t caught a possum yet, but I did catch somebody’s pet this morning. I let her go and I guess I will be resetting the trap this evening.

Bristol was Awesome!!!

If you have never been to a Nascar race, you should definitely give it a try. I never dreamed in the spring that I would love it this much, but now I’m hooked.

Cristi and I drove up on Thursday night so we could beat some of the traffic and then spent the night at my parents house.

Friday we headed toward the track about 10am, stopped for Subway sandwiches and headed to my aunt’s campsite. We hung out there a while and then headed out for the track to site see a bit.

We spent part of the day shopping through all the vendors that come to the races. It’s amazing all the things you can see. There are trucks with strictly driver paraphernalia, general Nascar merchandise, Bristol raceway merchandise, radio and headset vendors, and then your random advertisers. We got freebies from Old Spice, Armour (beanie weenies), Duke’s mayonnaise, Sharpie, Heineken, M&M’s, and so many more I can’t even remember. Cristi, momma, and I all got matching Dale Jr. shirts with glitter.

The Nationwide (formerly Busch) race was Friday night. We went over at about 3pm to watch the drivers qualify and practice for both races. This was a bit long and boring, but worth going to at least one time. The most exciting part of this race was the Grand Marshall. It was none other than Paula Dean! She spoke for a bit and then got the race started with a super cute “Gentleman, Ya’ll start your engines!!!”” Then they were off! The “little boy” race is 250 laps. The winner was Brad Keselowski driving Dale Jr’s Navy car! Even more exciting was that he started 18th and then finished first.

Saturday we started out about the same time. Headed to pick up some lunch and then over to the campsite. We did even more shopping and then headed our separate ways. Cristi and I had seats in turn 4 that night and so we hiked to our seats. It seemed like a lost cause pretty early on as Kyle Busch took the lead for most of the race. However, Carl Edwards managed to get by him after the last caution and pulled it out.

The only downside of the whole weekend was that my big cooler got stolen. It seems there was a major underage drinking problem that weekend and some punks thought they had hit the morther load when they stumbled upon our camper. The cooler had been filled with ice and many beverages on Friday morning and then we just kept adding ice and drinks to it. When the thieves took it (during the cup race) I’m sure they thought they had found a cooler full of beer. In all actuality. It might have had 10 beers, 10 soft drinks, and two days worth of ice water. J

Smoke Alarm Update

After doing some research on the Internet I discovered several interesting facts.

1. Smoke alarms can malfunction in the presence of a bug infestation and where there are high levels of dust.

2. Smoke alarms that are wired into your home are linked together. This is a safety feature that causes your other smoke alarms to go off if one is triggered. Hence, my deafening noise. I will say however, that I know I won't sleep through a real fire. There is no way to sleep through that noise.

After examining my detectors for signs of problems, I noticed that the 2nd floor alarms was full of dust. So, I ran over to the trusty Home Depot and bought a two pack ($25) of smoke detectors and went home to install them. Installation went by without a hitch and now I am scheduling a vacuum of my detectors once a year. I sure don't want to go through this again. :)

Good Morning!

If anyone has any advice on this subject, please feel free to comment to let me know. I am now at my wits end.

As it turns out, I apparently have electric smoke alarms. How do I know this you ask? Well, to start with I’ve never had a battery run out in the past 5.5 years I’ve lived in my house. Secondly I had quite an experience this morning.

Picture this. It’s between 3 and 4 in the morning. Bailey (my beautiful and rabid Cocker Spaniel) are sleeping peacefully, when suddenly a horrific noise wakes us both from our slumber. Now, horrific noise doesn’t begin to describe this sound. It is the most ear piercing, shrill noise I believe I have heard to date. As we both jump from the bed in a complete panic, I discover this could possibly be my smoke alarm. More panic ensues, since typically an alarm of this nature would lead one to believe that a massive fire was burning our house down around us. After taking a quick breath and discovering no smoke, I move towards the one smoke detector I have noticed before and begin climbing a chair to try and take it down. This is definitely the culprit since the closer I get the louder this sound becomes and I begin trying to get it to turn off or off the wall. This is where I discover that my smoke detectors are hard wired to the electricity in the house. So, I rip this device off the wall and still there is sound. You can only imagine my surprise at an unplugged detector that still seems to be screaming at me. Keep in mind, it’s at least 4am and it takes me a minute to discover that the one in my hand isn’t screaming, but I have a 2nd detector. So, off I go in search of the other heinous noise. I find this one at the top of the stairs and start looking for another step stool. At this point, poor Bailey is crying because the noise is killing his ears and mine and all I can think, is MAKE IT STOP. So, I rip this one off the ceiling and suddenly collapse to the floor.

Then my imagination takes hold as I climb in bed. I figure I’ll clean up my mess today sometime, but I need sleep. Of course, now I can’t sleep because so many other things are running through my head. Have aliens landed on my house, is this the 2nd coming, have burglars somehow triggered this reaction remotely to see if someone is home and lights might come on. I know, I’m a freak!!

Anyways. At this point the only thing I have discovered is that one or both of my detectors must be malfunctioning (duh!) and when they are hard wired they are also connected to each other for a more powerful alarm. So, if you have any ideas or solutions for me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Happy Friday!

I Cut My Hair!

Bristol Baby!!

Gentlemen, Start your engines!!!!!

Cristi and I are off to Bristol for the big race. I'll post pictures and more of our adventures when we return!!

Go Jr.!!!!!!

Cristi's Birthday

The birthday party was a success and I believe everyone had a blast. At final count we had 13 people in attendance. We started the night out at the Brentwood Sports Grille to hear Barry Coggins perform. It was the birthday girl’s special request for the evening and I couldn’t let her down. We ate, drank, sang, and danced the night away. Some of us were dancing a bit more than others.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Barry Coggins. He performed at the Courtyard Café in Antioch, TN until they closed a few years ago. He is a great mix of Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor, and is always a lot of fun. I hunted him down via the internet and found out he played some Fridays in Brentwood and off we went.

The cake was a big surprise for Cristi. I made it as a giant Bud Light bottle as you can see and she just loved it. It was actually one of the easier cakes I’ve made and I was thrilled with how it turned out. It seemed only logical since it is one of the birthday girls favorite things in this world, and it was very befitting of the bar atmosphere too.

Gracie is Here!

Yesterday Gracie Lynn Harris made her appearance into the world. Her official information is as follows. Congratulations Robin and Chad!!!

Birthday – August 5, 2008 4:02PM
Weight – 4 pounds and 13 ounces.
Length – 19 inches

Public Transportation

Ok, so as a state employee, one of our benefits the past few years is an Easy Pass for the MTA bus system. Like a lot of people this didn’t appeal to me very much until the recent gas crisis. The last thing I figured I would ever want to do is ride a smelly bus with a bunch of strangers to and from work every day. However, after noticing that my gas expenses had almost tripled in the last few months I decided it was time to give this perk a shot.

So off I went to fill out my state application for a card. This card is electronically created for each individual and allows you to ride the metro buses to and from work for free. They can’t be used to run errands or anything like that, but I figured cutting out about 34 miles a day in commuting wouldn’t be so bad.

Monday was my first day on the bus and I rather enjoyed it. The people leave you alone and it doesn’t smell at all. I have already ridden the bus twice this week and actually missed it today when I had to drive to work because of an Dr.’s appointment. It is so relaxing. You get on the bus and read. Yesterday there was even a traffic accident that didn’t faze me since I didn’t have to drive and pay attention. It’s also extremely stress free. I get to work and I’m not stressed from traffic and I get home with the same results. Plus, I’m only putting about 4 miles a day on my car!! The only down side to my experience is that I’m the first pickup in the mornings and the last drop off in the afternoon. It’s doubled my commute time, but there is always a little give

I guess when you are trying to save money.

So, in my opinion if you have the time and patience for the bus, Go For It! I’m finding I’m much more relaxed and I’m not spending as much on gas.

Bailey’s Haircut!

Poor Bailey hates to get baths or let me brush him. Sadly, when it’s time for him to get groomed, we sometimes have to shave him down completely. Ultimately he should feel much better now with his new “Summer Do”. However, now he looks more like a Beagle than a Cocker Spaniel. For those of you that haven’t met Bailey or don’t remember, I’ve included one of his more glamorous shots to compare with.

Boy I wish I could have seen this first hand!

Last weekend our good friend Kelley had the great opportunity to go to the her Sister-In Law’s wedding. I had heard plenty about the upcoming nuptials but never dreamed it would go quite so far. In the pictures you can see that the bride wore a beautiful dress of black and white that did not quite cover her full back tattoo. J She also sported some black fishnet stockings with satin, knee high converse tennis shoes. I must say, I did not even know such things existed.

The groom as you can see was sporting a dual tone Mohawk that several of the attending friends were fashioning also.

To add a bit more glamour to the wedding you will see that all attendants in the wedding were white males sporting the trendy “Zoot Suits”

Then finally we come to the cake. As you can see it is topped with the “General Lee” and Marilyn Monroe to symbolize things they must love the most. Then the rest of the cake is adorned with cooking utensils, the infamous skull and cross bones and black belts to tie it all together.

I have also included one of the pre-ceremony pictures where the bridesmen (brothers of the bride) actually dropped the bride on the ground during the photo session. I just could not help myself.

I do believe it was all summed up when another attendant of the wedding pointed out that “a wedding just is not a wedding until you have heard Waylon”

Corn Vol 2.

Well, Wednesday night brought the final stages of the corn saga. That evening I spent another 5.5 hours cutting all of the corn off the cob, creaming the cobs (scraping the cobs with a knife to pull out all the juices), blanching the corn, putting the corn in the newly washed containers, waiting on it to cool and then putting it all in the freezer.

For those of you that don't understand blanching corn. In small batches you bring some corn and water to a boil and then cut the heat off. It's a very long, slow, and tedious process.

When all the corn was finished I ended up with 13 quarts and 10 pints of yummy home grown corn!

Corn

Ok, so my grandparents have a garden every year and I'm always wanting some vegetables in the summer. I especially love the "Silver Queen" corn my grandfather grows each year. However, they are in Knoxville and it's sometimes hard for me to get up there when certain vegetables are ready for picking. So I don't get veggies every year because I just can't stop everything to go up there on a moments notice.

Well, yesterday morning Grangraw calls to tell me her and Pepaw are on their way from Knoxville with about 125 ears of corn that they are going to leave on my front porch. Wonderful news right? Except for the fact that now I have to figure out a way to get this all "put up" and there is only a few day window before it will start rotting. Plus, I don't do so well with "surprises" and I didn't even get to see them. They drove down here (at a max of 55 mph I'm sure), dropped off the corn, turned around and went home. Crazy huh?

So, I rush home to make sure the vegetables actually made it to my front porch and not an unsuspecting neighbors and then I start the process. For 5.5 hours last night, I shucked and cleaned corn. :) Now I'm left with the task of cutting it, creaming it, blanching it, and freezing it. I may be done by the fourth if I'm lucky. Of course I will have very yummy corn for the next year, but I'm already exhausted from the first leg of this journey and I'm not even half way there.

Wrist Bands!

Ok, so does anyone besides me get car sick? I get car sick whenever I am not the driver. For years I have struggled with this and therefore I drive almost everywhere I go. I've tried the Dramamine and ginger and various other products with varying results. But, who wants to take pills every time you need to ride in a car down to Wal-Mart?

A few years ago, my mom introduced me to these wristbands that she uses for long car rides when she wants to read. They are just small elastic type bands that you wear around your wrists. Each band has a small plastic bubble that presses a pressure point on the inside of your wrist. They are wonderful! I wear them anytime I get in a car, on a bus, on a train or anything. I can even read when I have these on and I don't ever get sick.

I'm including a link to the manufacturer's website because they have saved my life. I will tell you that the only places I have ever found these are at Walgreens though. All Walgreens seem to carry these though. I've bought sets in TN and even a set in CA on a recent vacation.

http://www.sea-band.com/seaband.htm