We initially went out to Short Pump to go to the mall out there but, after realizing that they’d both been there before, I opted to head to Carytown for the afternoon.  On the way back into Richmond, I had to stop at Whole Foods to pick up some EO Peppermint & Tea Tree hand soap – because IMHO – it is THE BEST! and smells sooooo good.  While we were there I was showing Amber around the place and telling them both that if it was closer to Petersburg, I would probably shop there a bit more often (honestly their prices are not THAT horrible on their store brand stuff).  So, we also each got a drink (Ashley and Amber got Pomegranate soda and I got a TAZO Pomegranate tea) and then we each got a miniature tart/cheesecake and then piled in the car for Carytown.

After getting to Carytown, we parked and walked down one side, stopping in various shops along the way until we got to the end of the strip.  We stopped in Mongrel and I bought a card for Jeffrey and some really neat candles for Amber(pomegranate and something – she’s really into pomegranate now) and Ashley (pineapple, ginger, and tangerine) that they liked.  Ashley picked up a really nice pashmina at Bygones and Amber almost got a pair of sunglasses…except they were scratched up – and of course that was the ONLY pair that they had.  She did end up deciding that for her Sweet 16 that she was going to get a tiara – which I agreed too =).

Carytown shopping area of Richmond

Towards Cary Court Shopping Center

We crossed the street to Ben & Jerry’s to start our way back up the strip where we each enjoyed a small ice cream cup of delicious, yummy ice cream!

Ashley at Ben & Jerry's

Amber at Ben & Jerry's

After finishing our ice cream we headed back to the car but I, of course being the overgrown child that I am, had to stop into World of Mirth to show them one of my favorite stores EVER!  This place has the BEST toys and a lot of other cool stuff for kids of all ages.  Amber and I were playing with the sunglasses and the hats – seems I’m not the only big kid after all LOL.

Amber trys on a tiny, tiny hat

Me in H-U-G-E shades bein' "cool"

We continued back up the street, I showed them where we took Alex (my oldest nephew) for lunch at Galaxy Diner and extolled the glories of the ‘fried pickle’ and that they also offer fried Oreos and Twinkies too.  I think the only other store we stopped into was actually Ten Thousand Villages, a really neat store that sells fair trade items from around the world.  I saw tons of stuff to buy in many of the stores but alas, just coming off of the Christmas season, fundage was a bit on the tight side though, I’m pretty sure they both had a good time.  Then we rode around the Fan a bit and I showed them the various apartments I lived in – Floyd Ave., Lombardy St. & Park Ave., and Monument Ave. before we hit the road back to the Southside.

It was nice to be able to get Amber out and show her around ‘The City’ and I think both she and Ashley had a nice time.  I really don’t get to spend as much time as I like with the nephew and niece monsters and I HAVE to get better about that.  All in all though, I think we had a pretty damned good day!

Side note – I did get a bit annoyed when I uploaded the photos from the past few days only to realize that the date was $%#@& up on my camera so, even though these show 12/23/08, it was actually 12/29/08.

Yesterday Keith and I went to Richmond to have lunch at Bottoms Up Pizza with Ashley (our daughter), Ian (our son), Nicky (our daughter-in-law) and of course Audrey (our granddaughter) after we had our fill, we decided to walk up the street to see what was new at LaDifferance (LaDiff).  

Bottoms Up Pizza

Its possible to be TOO wired ya know!

'Pickle' playing with toys in LaDiff

After walking around the store for a while, it became apparent that Audrey was a bit overdue for her nap so we left but, I bought this neat little book called, ‘How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint 365 Simple Ways to Save Energy, Resources, and Money‘ by Joanna Yarrow.  

Great little book - very worth reading

I have to say, I read a good deal of it last night just before bed – some of the things in just seem like common sense things but others are like ‘Wow…REALLY?!?!’  I was really happy to see that some of the things Keith and I have recently started doing were in the book.  Like changing out the incandescent bulbs for CFL (Compact Flourescent Lights); installing a programmable thermostat; putting an insulation blanket on the water heater; composting kitchen scraps; installing weather stripping and draft protection and other little things.  There is still more that we can (and plan to) do but, it’s a start.  It was really sort of eye opening when the book explains that

“the average European emits around 11 tons of CO2 per year while the average American emits over 22 tons – more than 5 times the world average (4 tons).  In contrast, in sub-Saharan Africa the average footprint is less than .08 tons per person.”

that was pretty sad, in my humble opinion.  I was also amazed to read that every two (2) minutes the sun gives the Earth more energy than we use in a year.  Why aren’t we doing more to take advantage of this free energy?  Keith says the big two should really be solar and wind because on days the sun isn’t out, its typically windy and on days when there is no wind, its typically sunny.  He REALLY wants to, as he says, ‘go off the grid’ to the point where we even give back energy and get credit for it – that, I don’t think, will happen here in Petersburg – least not in this house LOL.

I’m also reading the third book in the Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini called BRISINGR.  

3rd book about Eragon & Saphira

I really liked the first two and this third/final chapter in the series is proving just as good.  I’ve even got my nephew, Alex, reading the second book in the series – Eldest, he said they’d read the first book -Eragon in school and he wanted to read the next book.  If he likes it I’ll make sure to let him borrow Brisingr as well.  I cannot imagine having all of this stuff (the material for the 3 books) floating around in my head at the age of 15 when he wrote the first draft of Eragon.  Wow – what a talented young man and a really good auther.  If you like fantasy, it is definately worth the read.

*Edit:  Thanks to Courtney for letting me know the guys that created the Mountain Dew Tree have a website, check it out here and be sure to check out the video at the bottom where they describe making it!*

Staring with the base

Working your way up

Some Mountain Dew cans, wire, and PVC pipe

Tree is taking shape

Finished product

Mountain Dew Tree Lit Up

This morning I recanted last nights adventures with my cousin Allen and my aunt Joey to Keith.  We had a really good time – my only regret was it didn’t seem long enough and most of the catching up was done in the car riding around but….was fun none-the-less.  We went to Stony Point - to see the snow show and such and so Allen could use his gift cards only to find out the mall does the snow promptly at 7 PM and then, for only 15 minutes – CURSES!  It was fun to see the little kids ice skating in the mall – man, if I tried that, I would be flat on my butt!  We walked through the stores and talked and caught up – it’s amazing the things that Allen remembers.  Things I couldn’t recall if I had tried but, as soon as he mentioned them it was like *light bulb* OH YEAH!  I remember that!!  We rode around downtown and I showed him our first house on W. 28th Street; we went by the James Center to look at the lights; and rode down Monument Ave. to check out all the huge houses and their lavish and very festive displays.

8:44 PM continued -

Well, my folks and sisters and nieces and nephews have gone.  We all had dinner and exchanged presents, I think everyone was happy with what they got.  Dad got me a circular saw – w00t! – now I (or Keith) can work on the wainscoting and crown molding for the bathroom and various other projects.

Ashley called and her train my not be into Richmond until around 11:30 or so….wow….3 hours late – nothing like a slow boat instead of an Amtrak eh?

It’s warmer than I would have liked so I guess that means we get no snow =(

I remember Christmas Eve used to be the night we would go to Grandma Mary’s house for dinner and presents and then go home.  I swear, I tried to stay up late to see if our pets could actually talk….somewhere I remember someone telling me that animals were given the gift of speech at midnight on Christmas Eve – something about the Baby Jesus or something I think.  I have YET to hear anything from ANY of my animals…..dammit!

Well, time to go, A Christmas Story is on so we’re switching between that and a James Bond movie!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

For the person who has everything … or for the person you just DON’T know what to buy, instead of getting something that will be forgotten in a matter of weeks or months, why not consider Changing the Present – in more ways than one.

This past week has been a blur getting ready for the annual Winter Closing here at the university.  After today, we don’t come back to work until January 5, 2009 – and only have to use 4 hours of our own leave to cover the two weeks off.  Pretty sweet eh?  I would gladly trade the two weeks off for my raise though.  State workers were supposed to get a raise November 25 which was put off until July 2009 but, after Governor Kaine’s last conference regarding the economy and budget shortfalls, we were basically told ‘Don’t hold your breath’ for that July raise either.  All-in-all though I guess I’ll drink the ‘Would you rather have a job or a raise?’ Kool-Aid, now if only the UAW workers would learn to embrace that mantra. 

We had to get the brakes on my Passat fixed…to the tune of $272 bucks which, to some, may not be a lot but, just before Christmas…..SUCKED.  I don’t know if I believe that Merchants was fair and square with the issue either.  Normally rotors on cars can be turned/machined one time before having to be replaced and they said mine were too thin and could not be turned.  Now, when I bought the car it only had 20k miles on it so I doubt the original owner had to have any brake work done (I could be wrong) and I KNOW that I never had any problems since I bought the car with brakes.  Oh and my $99/axle coupon for Merchants didn’t work – my car, it seems, did not qualify as “Most Cars & Light Trucks”.  I shouldn’t be surprised though, any time I have a coupon for them, my car NEVER qualifies – I guess I shoulda bought a POS Ford Focus or Chevy Cavalier, maybe then I could use their coupons.   So, Keith said ‘Merry Christmas’ I’ll pay for it – YAY just what I always wanted, brake pads and rotors….whooo hoooo!!!  This after we’d said we were NOT going to exchange gifts this year to save a bit of money.

Let’s see….what else….I heard about this on NPR on the way to work this morning and I’m ticked about the fact that the United States has refused to sign the United Nations Declaration to decriminalize homosexuality.  Also the Vatican protested the declaration – isn’t that just too funny?  I mean as Nathan Lane said in Jeffery, “Maybe you didn’t hear me. I’m a CATHOLIC priest. Historically, that falls somewhere between chorus boy and florist.”  God forbid the US join the other civilized nations of the world in taking the stance that it is not some horrid sin to be gay – way to go!  

I made my batch of Amish Friendship Bread – Kristy gave me the starter for it last week – and I have to say it turned out very tasty.  I took the better looking of the two loaves to work to share since everyone was bringing in all kinds of cookies, cakes, and various and sundry sweet things and folks liked it.  I ended up giving two of the starters out to co-workers (yes I asked first instead of surprising them with it) and keeping one for myself, because I REALLY liked this bread.  I would have had another but Ollie apparently decided to eat one of the bags yesterday that I mistakenly left within his evil sneaky-dog reach.  I think I like baking – although I’d probably look for some healthier alternatives to whip up.

This was my second week going to Snap – I went Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Today….GO ME!  I would have gone Wednesday too but I woke up with a WICKED sinus headache and figured the last thing I wanted to do was exercise.  I’m actually kind of proud of myself for hauling my ass out of bed at 4:30 AM to go to the gym – I know me, if I tried to do it after I got home, I wouldn’t go.  Once I’m home.  I’m Home.  That’s just the way it is.  Anyway it’s fun in the morning, I get it out of the way.  Usually there are only 2 other people in there when I go, I’ve seen the same two ladies all week – well today I was the only one there from 4:40 to 5:30 so….

The house next to us had a For Sale sign in the yard when we got home from work yesterday and I confess I was very taken aback by what it said.  I don’t understand how the Petersburg Assessor’s website shows Federal National Mortgage Association bought the house on 10/21/08 for sale price of $119,892 and now some other realty company is listing the house for $88,000.  I mean WTF…..$88,000 – that is half of what we paid for our house 3 years ago!!!  Eh though I did tell Keith I thought it would be cool if we had enough equity in our house to buy it and then rent it to Ian and Nicky for the mortgage payment – I mean it would be half of what ours is (I imagine) and that is I think less than what they are paying in rent out in Brandermill for their apartment though I doubt they would want to live RIGHT NEXT to us *shrug*  Yes, I know that rule, never do business with family or friends because it only leads to bad feelings but, it’s nice to think these things in my head LOL.

Tonight we’re going to hang out at Minerva’s for a bit with Kristy – theres a reading and book signing by Emily and John Salmon which should be fun – maybe we’ll get a gift out of it for Ron and Debbie.  Keith said an autographed coffee table book of Richmond or Virginia would be a good gift and it would help out our friendly neighborhood purveyor of books at the same time!!  WAIT!!  We get stamps on our frequent shopper card for that – cooooooool.  Now I wonder how I’ll act if a certain someone is there….my poker face is totally bad.  Ah well.

I would like to try to take Alex, the Twins, and Amber down to the James Center to see the lights this weekend and film them some (now that I’ve gotten my camcorder back from Canon – which I must say was a SUPER fast repair and I was VERY impressed with the service) down there playing amongst the trees, reindeer, etc.  That would be fun!

James Center, Downtown Richmond at Christmas

Since I’m off for the next two weeks I should be able to write a bit more – yay!

Anyway there was an AP story that goes into more detail and such - Foiling December pranksters, GPS systems and hidden cameras protect mangers and menorahs

Pilots from the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Program will be giving children, ages 8-17, free aircraft rides during the Christmas Toy Airlift on December 13 at Virginia’s Chesterfield County Airport (FCI).

As ANN reported last month, the state’s Ninety-Nines chapter will be collecting new and unwrapped toys for families of military and wounded veterans during their annual Christmas Toy Airlift. Toys will be collected at airports around the state until December 13, when volunteer pilots from each location will fly them into Chesterfield County Airport from 9:00 am-4:00 pm.

Those who drop their donations off at FCI will have an added incentive. Airplane rides will be given from 10 am-3 pm, weather permitting. Children must have parent or guardian present.

Santa will fly into Chesterfield Airport at 10 am and greet children inside the terminal until 2 pm A rain date is scheduled for December 14. The National Guard will also be on site to receive the toys and transport them for distribution.

There’s still time for donations to be dropped off at the following locations: Hanover Airport; Chesterfield Airport; Dinwiddie Airport; New Kent Airport; Virginia Aviation Museum adjacent to RIC; Boulevard Flower Gardens, 2100 Ruffin Mill Rd.; Colonial Heights; Batters Choice Sporting Goods, 3105 S. Crater Rd., Petersburg; and The Hopewell News, 516 E. Randolph Rd., Hopewell.

It was nice to spend the day with my folks and nephews and niece and such – even if I was sitting in front of a computer from about 10 AM to 7 PM – wow…like work, only not paid LOL.  I got the DSL up; installed a spare wireless router I had sitting around; put a Linksys wireless cardin their other PC so they could pick up the DSL signal on that one ; and spent some time showing mom, dad and Alex how to navigate without having to go through AOL.  *shudder* just SAYING that word – though technically, I guess it really is an acronym – makes me feel dirty and cheap! heh.

As much as I would love to say I did it for the wee kids, I think I mostly did it for mom in the hopes that it would help foster increased communication with her siblings.  Eh, like I’m one to talk about that – I know, I know I really need to get better about that myself.  ANYWAY….I can’t wait to show her how to blog, upload pictures and video to the web so she can share them with Tommy, Joey and Kathy.  I have to admit I was a bit tickled at how new this seemed to my parents too – they were just so used to AOL.  ‘You mean we don’t need to have the phone plugged in?’; ‘We can use the phone AND the computer at the same time?’; ‘We can both be on it at the same time?’ and so on – it was cute and it made me feel kinda cool that I could help usher them into the high speed world.

When I think about it though – I wonder if we are losing something becoming SO connected to the net.  I joking said that I could TOTALLY be Sandra Bullock in The Net and just do everything on-line from home and probably be a very happy person.  Isn’t that a little sad that people are forgoing actual human interaction for cyberspace friendships?  I remember Keith used to mock me when I played Mechwarrior or City of Heroes that I wasn’t playing with “real” people.  That playing with those “computer people” was more important to me than getting out of the house and socializing with “real” people.  Eh….maybe…maybe not.

So I wonder if my present was a blessing and a curse.  Good because it will help them interact with people far away, help alot with the kids school work, enable them to do more in less time but….bad because the wee little ones could end up held prisoner by the High Speed Gods and glued to my generations version of the ‘boob tube’.  Guess we’ll see but, in the mean time *Chucky waves the Green Flag* ‘They’re OFF!’