The perks to traveling

I went to Huntsville AL last month to try to figure out how to navigate government work. I left a little more than confused but at least I was able to visit with friends and get a couple of good meals out of the deal. I will give a nod to the Woodroofs who fed me a great meal the first night. My second big meal came in the form of a local place called Stanlieo's. I was told to try it out by a friend and it was an easy decision when I Google mapped the location from the seminar site (the Jordan Lane location). I went on a Friday which has the "kitchen sink" they are known for as the special of the day. I had that and the veggie sticks. I ate the veggie sticks (fried cream cheese with vegetable concoction?) promptly but I took the "sink" on the road for home. GET THE VEGETABLE STICKS! It was tasty and I ate it all. True I am not sure the next time I ate something else afterward, but I have eaten since.

To friends who have newly relocated to Huntsville, go check it out sometime. True the ambiance is a little lacking and some of the decor did come from Spirited Art classes but still...the food is good.

Cookie Day 2010

Cookie Day - A day where people that know the Covert's randomly drop in with pre-made cookies or the inclination to bake or decorate cookies OR the audacity to just eat cookies and socialize. Any way you get there you will leave the same...full and sick of cookies for a little while. I missed last year but made up for it this year with Cookie Day prep activities. It was fun and I appreciate the Covert's hosting it again this year. I snapped some photos to commemorate/document the day.

Another First...

...birthday party, that is. This one was for my nephew Everett. My Sister made the cakes and cupcakes and such. Who knew that she could not only work with animals but bake cakes like them too?


John had just come from the Fountain City Christmas Parade and he was distracted by a library book I had checked out for him. He spent time drawing comic book characters from the book and kicking the party favor balls around.


Everett just seemed to sort of go with the flow for most of the party. He did really like his own personal cake and was not happy when it was finally taken away. I think at the end of everything Everett was pleased with his first birthday party.

Angie, this one's for you

Ok, so the rest of you probably won't care about this post (barring Grandparents) but I am posting it anyway because it is kind of cute and Christmasy and it IS Christmas for a little while longer as I am posting. Here is a picture of John and my nephew Everett at the Fantasy of Trees event. Everett is so gosh darn cute! ...well John is too but....

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Fountain City Christmas Parade!

With my tardy posts you may have thought I didn't make it to the Fountain City Christmas Parade. You would be wrong. I can't miss the parade and I will drag John with me as long as I am able. This year it was cold and raining but that didn't stop us...or the parade either. What I found odd was that the parade was better this year than last year, even with the weather. I am thinking someone dropped the ball last year.

I was tickled pink because some of the old favorites were back (Candy Cane Queens) after last year's absence and new groups showed up (Austin East and Fulton High School Bands). Austin East's band was my favorite. I am a sucker for dancing while "marching" and playing an instrument. It makes me want to be a band geek...for a little while at least.

All in all, the parade was great and I tip my hat to all of the people in the parade that walked in the rain to entertain all of us passersby with umbrellas. I hope all of your colds were minor ones. Thank you Fountain City Optimist Club.

Christmas!

As I write this, it is snowing big fat flakes outside and starting to stick on the roads, everything else is already covered. Christmas is on it's way out but not without a show. I thought this Christmas would be sad since things are scattered but it wasn't. John and I had a good morning filled with surprises and monkey bread and then made the rounds to visit my parents. We came back home in the early afternoon and watched a Muppet Christmas Carol (I fell asleep) and Miracle on 34th Street (1st viewing for both of us). John even let me have a Christmas nap on the couch. Our Christmas meals were unorthodox but satisfying. John chose chicken nuggets and banana pudding for Christmas lunch and I chose pancakes for Christmas dinner. We even figured out some of the electronics that Santa brought. All in all, not a bad Christmas at all.

Lucy the mutt

I talk about my dog Lucy but not many people have met her. She is suspected to be a mix of terrier and catahoula leopard dog. The most common adjective from people that have spent more than 10 minutes with her is crazy/insane. My Sister, the Vet, has even apologized for encouraging me to adopt her. ...she is suppose to love all animals by nature! Anyway, I was organizing pictures today and ran across a couple I took this fall. You can see how I was duped into adopting her by the big brown eyes and quirky look.

Time to give Thanks

Ok, I am a little late on this post but things have been distracting me around here. This was the highlight of Thanksgiving. It was funny and cute and not quite right on the flavor enough to be enjoyed as pumpkin pie should. ...but it was cute, remember?

My Christmas Present

Today my favorite Christmas present has been having both parents in places where they are safe, warm and being taken care of better than I could do. If you have been on Facebook over the past couple of weeks, you may have seen a status report on the craziness that hit my family in the last little bit. The craziness has subsided and now my Mom has a new home at Homewood Assisted Living and my Dad is in a rehabilitation center for monitoring and physical therapy for his heart attack. He should be leaving in a few days and is doing great given a triple bypass. For the past two days I have not had to dash around town to 10 different places to take care of things. The calmer days of just being able to visit have been a welcome change.

Architecture Never Tasted So Sweet

If you want to see the full story, head on over to Perspective Architecture's blog.

Oh the places we have been

We have been all over town it seems of late. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to...

picking up coffee at Javerde and letting John express his Halloween creativity

pumpkin contest at Ivan Allen

dog house dinner (ok so this one was at home and he was in the dog house to get away from the smokey fire pit)

Art Walk

Tonight we went on an art walk at John's school. There were a couple of areas where John's art work popped up so we made a point of seeing those first. There was a whole wall of military themed drawings which made me feel better about John's picture of a tank. It was their project for Veteran's Day. I was a little confused on why he was drawing tanks before...now I know. You may recognize the tank drawing from the post about John's art in my office.

The other art piece he had was really a report about animals and their habitats. His report was longer than the paper allowed for writing so he used one piece of paper for the report and one for the drawing. They had the report side on display with the drawing on the back side. As you can see, the handwriting is REALLY good for a first grader...in my opinion anyway. This is said by a left handed person that received "C"s in handwriting throughout elementary school.

We then checked out some of the other pieces on display from the other classes. We ended the evening with some music in the gym by older kids. I am sure the piece of paper they gave us at the beginning of the tour told me where they were from but I had recycled the paper by then. Anyway, the cookies and punch sugar rush made the music more than bearable. We listened to a few songs and then headed out for dinner.

Halloween

Good googly moogly yesterday was packed with activities. Halloween. John's 7th birthday. Birthday party.

First up was the birthday party and pre-prep. We rented the Community Building at New Harvest Park for the day which was great! I arrived in the morning and got everything set up before the party. Clay (John's Dad) picked up the balloons and ice and helped hang the pinata. We had snacks and activities for everyone. It was fun.

I do want to mention the pinata attack specifically. We first started the kids out blindfolded with 2 swings each but that resulted in no damage. Then we went to 5 swings each. Then 2 swings no blindfold then I think we wound up with 5 swings with no blindfold and it finally broke. No one was hurt, that part was amazing.

After the party it was time to head home for trick or treating. It was John's first trick or treating year in my neighborhood and he thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a couple of Star Wars battles when we ran into Darth Sidius along the way but no lasting damage to either character. John was very disappointed when I stopped his constant candy eating spree around the loop and said he had to eat dinner. After we got home and I got some moderately nutritious food in him, he helped hand out candy to the remaining trick or treaters.

It was a good day but a long day. We even got a nod from the "cool" neighbors for being the best decorated house on the street. That was like the cherry on top. The decorations are all down now and the house is back to normal from the outside. Halloween is fun.

Head on over to Perspective's Blog

I have been tinkering with this year's Ivan Allen pumpkin contest entry over the past few days and have the whole story over on the other side... http://perspectivearchitecture.blogspot.com

Another Skywalker?

John was very clear about what he wanted to be for Halloween...Luke Skywalker. I ordered the costume even though the reviews about how shotty it was were prevalent. After some repairs with velcro and some stitching to get the legs to be the right length, we were ready to go. I try to get some good photos of the Halloween costume since it also is a good marker of him turning a year older. This year we ventured over to the UT Gardens for photos. Here were a few of my favorites.

Art Wall

As some of you know, my office is a work in progress. I have a ton of frames drawn on two walls for when inspiration hits. Everyone is welcome to draw on it. John has taken this opportunity to show his budding art skills. A couple of weeks ago he drew in numerous frames and is now in the process of painting some of them. Here is what has been created thus far. I am quite proud of the little guy.

Up up and away

This past weekend, John and I spent some time outdoors at the Pellissippi State Hot Air Balloon Festival. I had passed by it years ago when I was taking a ceramics class one fall and made a mental note to go someday. This weekend was my someday.

I picked John up from daycare on Friday and we trucked on over for the festivities. We did all sorts of things like watching the dog show, coloring hot air balloon pictures, visiting the lego table, and grabbing dinner at a couple of food vendor booths. We procured a funnel cake for dessert and went to find a spot on the lawn for the "balloon glow".

I had packed like we were going on vacation so I had pretty much everything we could possibly need. We spread out our blanket and our spread and chowed down. It was John's first funnel cake so I captured the moment with the camera. We couldn't finish it. I tried really hard though.

The balloon glow was cool. They had all of the hot air balloons lined up and played a series of song snippets and it was up to the balloon pilots as to when they would light up their balloon. It was random but still very cool. The funniest thing to me was that most of the out of state balloon pilots refused to light up during the rocky top medley. Ah, football.

As if that wasn't enough, we went back for more ballooning fun Saturday morning. John didn't necessarily want to go and see the balloons again in daylight but I figured if he was going to wake me up at 5:58am on Saturday then he deserved to go out in the cold and watch hot air balloons. The win/win part for both of us was that we went to Long's Drug Store for breakfast afterward.

So the morning was spent mostly inside a car waiting for the balloons to take off. What none of us knew was that the balloons escaped and went down the road to take off and that they were then suppose to float back over a field on campus and toss two colored markers near a pin to win a prize. I am assuming this is what happened because no one was allowed at the top of the hill to see the pin or where the markers actually landed...but my theory seems pretty solid to me. Some were close and some were way off the mark and one just floated above my head. It was all in all a pretty cool way to spend a crisp fall morning.

How you feelin' ?

Hot hot hot! That was the theme song to the weekend at the England abode. The A/C went out Friday afternoon sometime and the temperature kept climbing on Saturday. By about 9:30pm it was 89.5 degrees in the house. It was in the low 80's outside. It is amazing how many people will tell you to open the windows at that point in time. Windows were open and ceiling fans were in high gear. Poor little John endured the heat with me.

I am evil and decided to follow through with the plans we had made to make cookies as well. We couldn't decide on just one so we made 3 kinds...oven...no a/c. I know, not the brightest idea I have had. We did it though and I have all sorts of cookies to prove it. I even gave some to the HVAC repair guy that came yesterday to fix the problem. I am now with cooling capabilities...for a little while at least. My heat pump is 18 years old. It was suppose to konk out years ago. Here's hoping it decides to try to break a longevity record.

New post over at Perspective

Oh, you know you are jonesing for a new post to read...head on over to my other self at Perspective Architecture and see what silly thing I did today.

Core Values

Yesterday when I was visiting my Mom in the nursing home, the employees asked me a few questions about Mom's background. They wanted to know what she had done for a living. They figured it had to be something dealing with kids or being outside since she seems to respond best to both of those stimuli now days. I filled them in on the fact that she was a bookkeeper/receptionist for a union for 35 years. She did always like to garden and she had to put up with three kids.

It is funny how when you strip away all of society's pretenses you are left with the core principles and values that make you you. It makes me wonder what things I would pick to carry through to the end of my days.

Girl Power!

I have a couple of friends that were laid off last year, both female and both architects. They weren't planning on having to "go out on their own" but under the current economic circumstances that is what they are doing. They joint ventured on a Knox Housing Authority "Request for Proposal" recently and came in second in the selection. There were four firms short listed(my current firm did not make the short list)and all of the other firms were ones that have been established for years. They came in above all but one! I am very proud of them. I know they worked hard on the RFP and learned a lot in the process. It is encouraging to see people exceed their own expectations.

The Pink Eye of Doom is upon you!

Easter 2010 will go down in the record books for me but not for some Eastery reason but instead as one of the most painful days I have had in my life. For the past week and a half I have been under the weather so to speak. I have told this story to a lot of doctors and have it pretty much down to the bare facts. Sunday before Easter I came down with a cold that included sore throat, headache, body aches and low fever. I picked up various symptoms on the way like sneezing, runny nose, congestion and the like. I woke up mid week with pink eye. I made an appointment with the doctor and did a little online research on pink eye/conjunctivitis. I figured it was probably viral due to the preceding cold but decided a trip to the doctor would still be good just in case...wrong.

The doctor's visit was a downward spiral in my ocular health. I was given antibacterial drops which worsened my eyesight and sent me home Thursday afternoon. Friday I was doing worse and could only keep my eyes open for a second or two before I had to close them. I headed back to my doctor (their emergency clinic anyway) at 5pm on Friday. There the doctor went with the same diagnosis as the one on Thursday which was bacterial conjunctivitis. They gave me a shot of antibiotics, new antibacterial eye drops and a neosporin-type steroid cream to put in my eyes.

I should pause here and explain that I am HORRIBLE about anything going into my eyes and drops are hard for me to deal with much less a salve. I did it though, all on my own. The trick I was taught was to pull my lower eyelid out a little to form a pocket and put the drops in there and then blink. I did the best I could. The second set of drops were milky and my eyes felt gritty.

I suffered through all of that on Saturday but when I woke up Sunday morning I couldn't open my eyes enough to even get the drops in. My eyes were in constant pain and felt as if coated in sand. I squinted and concentrated hard enough to redial the doctor's phone line (seeing had been nearly impossible since waking up Friday). The recording on the doctor's line said they would be open in the clinic at 1pm. Bear in mind, this is Easter. I tried waiting but was in too much pain and resorted to calling my friend Donna who had driven me to the doctor on Friday. It was around 9am, I think, when I broke down and begged for a hospital.

We went to Parkwest ER and it was great because it was small and not many people were there so I was seen in less time than it takes at the regular doctor's office. They numbed my eyes and it was the best thing I could have hoped for...no more pain. They then stained my eyes and looked at them with different light/colored lenses. There were 2 “chunks” missing from the center of my corneas. The doctor said they were symmetrical and oval and directly centered. He had never seen anything like it. He figured the drops were doing more harm than good but couldn't figure out the injury. I thought it was because the only relief I could get from the "sand in my eye" feeling was to pull my eyelid away from my eye ball. I know, it sounds odd and gross but I was desperate and didn't do it for very long. I figure that is what caused the tear though. I asked how long the numbness would last and was disappointed to learn it would only be for 30 minutes. You can't keep numbing your eyes either because it will burn them. The doctors at the ER said to stop the current drops and salve and go back to the first drops and see an ophthalmologist in the morning. They gave me a prescription for percocet to get me through the pain.

After a comedy of errors with the prescription we got the drugs and I was dropped off at home again. I am losing trust in doctors. I couldn't see anything and one doctor gave me a medication meant for another person and the ER didn't sign theirs so we had to go back for a signature. Really people, be more careful! I couldn't double check anything....I couldn't see.

Somehow I was able to get “wait wait don't tell me” podcasts going on my computer and listened to them for hours over a course of days. I also found out that one percocet does nothing for me but 1.5 (which the perscrption was for 1 to 1.5 pills every 4 to 6 hours) does at least keep me in bed, although it didn't make me drowsy which was a bummer. So there I stayed on Easter. I also just ignored all the drops since the ER thought it was viral as well which meant the drops weren't going to do any good anyway. I woke up Monday without much pain. I could see a little better too. Donna took me to the ophthalmologist and my tears were healing up ok. He said I should be much better by Wednesday night. He agreed with not using the drops and said to just keep my eyes lubricated really well and they would heal. I didn't have any signs of pink eye and just needed to mend.

Not having eyesight made my head spin. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't watch movies, I couldn't do anything that involved reading. Monday people from work emailed and tweeted to me but I couldn't read it. People I spoke with while things were going on didn't seem to get the severity of the situation. I was feeling for corners of walls and openings to get around. I ate more bologna sandwiches than I can remember because it was the easiest thing for me to make and eat blindly. I didn't get to do anything with John all week, including camping.

The last thing I did before the whole pink eye thing was put the tent up in the back yard. We were going to camp in the back yard for a few days. It was sort of a dry run of camping for me. Could I put the tent up by myself? What was I missing from my camping arsenal? I did at least find out I can put the tent up by myself and that it is a much calmer event if I just do it alone and take my time.

John was disappointed that I couldn't pick him up and camp, go to Easter egg hunts, dye eggs and make cookies like we had planned and so was I. I was even chastised a bit for telling John throughout the ordeal that I would hopefully get better enough to pick him up. I was told that he would be hopeful and then disappointed. Talk about adding insult to injury.

It was a horrible week. I am happy to have non-painful, although blurry sight back. As for Easter? I am thinking of egg dying and Easter dinner on Sunday with John and friends since I missed out last week.