no country for old men

this past weekend nathaniel and i went to the movies for the first time since before kendal was born. i remember just before he was born, 3:10 to yuma was coming out and we wanted to see it. i believe we were actually planning to go the evening i went into labor. i bought him the YUMA dvd a few weeks ago. we finally watched it saturday night. it is a great movie, even after watching no country for old men which is what we watched friday night. so anyway, back to my story. no country for old men is by the coen brothers. they also made fargo, raising arizona, and ladykillers. all great movies. this movie, though, is just amazing. the (and i don't know the right word here) filmatography was breathtaking (the way it was filmed, the scenes, not only what they showed but the way they were cut and flowed from one scene to the next, etc.) i HIGHLY recommend anyone who wants to go watch a triller, go see this movie ASAP. we were on the edge of our seats the entire movie. some of it i even had my hand over my eyes (because it was TOO suspenseful if there is a such thing!) its not that often that i watch an american blockbuster movie that i consider one of top 10 favorites of all time. no country for old men is definitely on in the top 10. 3:10 to ranks in the top 20. its funny that these movies have similar plots. most interesting, though, is no country for old men has NO music. none. how do you make a movie with no music? you need to watch it and see...

this is a test. this is only a test.

this is a test of the kendal broadcast system. this is only a test. bbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppp (by the way, this video is like 3 weeks old. he can't wear any of those clothes anymore. not even the socks.)

everybody clap your hands!!!

last night we went to the hockey game with amy and mark. this was like the funnest game i've ever been too. and i've been to a lot of them. before the clock even started, there was a fight. within the first 4 minutes, there were 3 fights and one person was removed from the game. it was awesome. anyway, they played a song there which reminded me of that new mcdonalds commercial. amy said she hadn't seen it so i'm trying to post it here. this little kid is so adorable. i love this ad. it makes me want chicken nuggets from mcds. speaking of chicken nuggets, i've been wanting fried chicken lately. this week at the grocery i got the morning star (or boca) veggie chicken patties (crunchy coating). they are AWESOME and have half the fat of regular fried chicken patties. they really taste like chicken, but better. just in case anyone wonders, i am NOT a vegetarian, but i do like some "meatless" products (like tofu). in the case of these chicken patties, i think this meatless version is better than the real thing! also goes for their sausage patties! YUM!

week 4: the diet

today was the end of week 4 and somehow i lost 1-1/2 pounds. we had pizza this week. and ate out several times. and beer. and wine. and cheese. so to date, ive lost 6.2 pounds. not much if you consider that my husband has lost 15.

sometimes life isn't fair.

customizing

for the last 4 hours, i've been trying to figure out how to edit the HTML and make myself a new "background" for this blog. so far, i've been quite unsuccessful. the closest i've gotten is changing the background to a starburst blue, except all the text disappeared. can't have that. so nathaniel keeps waking up, i guess the click click of the keyboard is keeping him awake, combined with the light. poor thing. he is such a light sleeper. so i'll cut this short. well nevermind, he decided to sleep on the couch for a while. sometimes, you just sleep better on the couch, you know? plus kendal is grunting and thrashing (he kicks his legs fiercely probably to gas in his belly). so, that is noise that keeps waking up N. so lastly, before i sign off for the night, kendal ate peas today. not many, just a few. and he didn't seem to mind them much! tomorrow, we will have more! (plus rice to fill his little tummy.) ok. so i'll blog again later. like, tomorrow when i'm procrastinating working on my project (work project).

true love, in the truest sense

tonight nathaniel and i went to eat at carolina ale house. we had burgers, FF, and beer. yum. i had a lot of ketchup on my FF. he had mustard. i'm not such a big mustard fan unless it is on a brat or a turkey sandwich.

yea, in case you were wondering, we used up all our extra weekly points in WW. plus tomorrow i plan to drink 5 gallons of water to help flush out that salt and fat.

so anyway, we were sitting at the table talking about fate (i.e., meeting each other at the right time, not a day too soon - because really, a day before we 'met' would have been way too soon for the both of us).

anyway, we got on the subject of my sister (melissa) and her husband (rob) and their newest pregnancy. we were talking about the fact that she'll have 4 kids by the time she is the age that i was when i met nathaniel. and about how we (N and i) were so "old" when we met, therefore we couldn't have had that many kids by then (and thank GOD neither of us had any). then i said "well she and rob had to find each other!" at which time nathaniel said the most truest thing in the world about melissa and rob. he said "they had no trouble finding each other, at least 4 times!"

lol. congrats melissa and rob. you've made it to the 2nd trimester. looks like we'll have a baby in about 6-1/2 months!

i think it is a boy!

to stream or not to stream?

before christmas, one our neighbors had a tree cutter and an excavator in his backyard excavating a stream/ditch. this ditch he dug was in an area indicated as a blue line stream on the USGS topo (which means... it is subject to buffer rules intended to keep pollution such as sediment OUT of our streams and rivers). the folks that dug the ditch cut down numerous trees and did not replant any disturbed areas. which means that water flows more free and faster down the ditch (thus moving more sediment into the tar river basin).


as the good environmental steward i am, i asked my favorite buffer specialist (chris) about what i should do. although our S/D is outside of his regional (he works in washington), he pulled maps and told me that it appeared it MAY be a buffer violation, to contact the raleigh office and have their person take a look at it.

a month has passed, i've seen the neighbor burning stumps in his back yard (after the burn ban was lifted of coarse), but other than that, we haven't seen or heard anything about the incident.

today we got this email from this neighbor:

To all of our Neighbors in [S/D],

We would like to let everyone know that our recent project to remove standing water from behind our house has been approved by the North Carolina Department of Water Quality. This project was undertaken after extensive research to insure that all EPA and other requirements were met. In addition, geological maps were studied, long term local residents were consulted and several excavating contractors reviewed the project.

What disturbs us is whoever had concerns about what we had done, didn’t think it was important to ask us, what and why. Instead, someone decided that the best thing to do was “drop a dime” and see what would happen. Where we come from, we expect that when someone has a problem or concern, that person will simply come up to us, face to face, and ask what’s going on.

So there is no confusion about this project, several years ago a stream ran though the back of our property. During a major ice storm, many trees fell down and this blocked the natural flow of water downstream. Whenever it rained, water would pool and become stagnant, which led to mosquitoes, snakes and other creatures. For the good of the community, at considerable expense, it was decided to fix this problem.

In the future, if you have any questions please feel free to stop and ask.

comments about his email:

1. uh, the DWQ personnel that investigated this incident stated that she could not find a stream channel up or down stream of the excavation site. which means this stream would be "exempt" from the buffer rules. therefore, DWQ would not need to "approve" it as is stated in the letter. plus, if they had exempted (approved) it before he did it, then they wouldn't have needed to go to the site and investigate. right? (this indicates to me that he is pulling shit out of his ass to "save face" as my husband put it.)

2. what in the world does the EPA have to do with it? unless this is federal land (which it is not), then they really don't do anything with buffers. so, i wonder why and or who approved anything with EPA! (again, "saving face.")

3. here is my biggest peeve. it is not the "department of water quality" it is the DIVISION of water quality. department of environment and natural resourses. idiot.

4. "geological maps"? huh? what does the geology matter? how about TOPOGRAPHIC maps!

5. "long term local residents were consulted" as opposed to short term local residents? who are those folks? people that have been here for a while? well before this S/D was a S/D, this was a tree farm. did the trees talk?

6. and "several years ago a stream ran though the back of our property" uh, so now he's admitting it WAS a stream (although it isn't now). uh, if it WAS a stream, the the rules DID apply, and you'd think he would have gotten that "exemption" before he did the work!

7. "Whenever it rained, water would pool and become stagnant, which led to mosquitoes, snakes and other creatures" as chris said in response: "if it's a stream, wasn't it still flowing, even if there was a ponded portion? Isn't there a Newtonian law about inputs equaling outputs that would apply?"

8. lastly, just to clear up why maybe i didn't talk to him about it, he is like the most UNAPPROACHABLE person in this neighborhood. you may can tell that from his email, but maybe not. he's from "the north" and has his "almighty" personality to go along with it. i haven't really a problem with him, just his attitude. (attitude i saw at several of the HOA meetings previously blogged about by my husband.)

anyone else have any comments???

What's the point of this bullschist?

Since yahoo 360 is going offline, I figured it was time to start a new blog. So, here we go...