The kitchen saga... the light at the end of the tunnel

So today I finished painting 99.9% of the kitchen (there are a couple of spots I need to touch-up). We decided to paint it the same yellow as the living room, which is admittedly a lot of yellow. We need to add a colorful backsplash behind the stovetop and some nice red curtains for the windows, and also we want to paint the door to the garage, but I'm fairly happy with the result.

In any case, I'm happy for now... there's a deck out back that needs to be finished!

Here's a meh pic...

Good news... better news... best news...

Yeah! What a happy weekend!

The good news is that I am finally painting the kitchen. As of this morning, I'm about 1/2 way done! All I have left is actually painting 1.5 walls and second coat on the other 2! Yesterday I primed all the other walls and I painted the area behind the hood/stove a bright tangerine. I'm not sure that it's going to be the final look... but it's final for now. I should be done painting the kitchen by the end of the day!

Better news.. last night I officially replaced the flower in my NBC! It was a big step in allowing myself to accept this car into my heart. We've driven a rough road together, and there are still some rocky patches ahead (I've got to get better at this stick thing) but when we're good, we're great!

Cool discovery - when I unlock the car in the dark, with the top down, the only light that shines spotlights the flower vase. Isn't that cool? Here are some not so great pics (this is my summer flower - I plan to get flowers for every season)




Best news... I got the title to my NBC in the mail from the Maryland MVA yesterday! It's mine (and the credit union's), all mine (and the credit unions)!

My first car mod!

I'm so happy, even though I haven't had the chance to drive my NBC for almost a week because it's been raining. Tonight I finished my first car "mod" - I added a license plate frame. It's cute and looks really good on the car. Here's a not so great pic (hey - it was dark outside!):



Aren't the ladybugs cute?

I hate being sick!

So today I am home sick.... suffering from some kind of godawful sinus infection or something. I lost an entire weekend day worth of work (I was painting the kitchen! Finally!) and couldn't help DH with the deck (although he seemed to be doing quite well on his own).

I hate being sick, and I've said it often enough - that I am the worst sick person in the world. Whiny, sniffley, cranky, tired.

I hope this doesn't last too much longer. It's just wrong to be sick in the summertime.

Shameless manipulative schlock

I have to admit it... I am addicted to shameless, manipulative schlock - at least when it comes to movies. I've already admitted to my three guilty pleasure movies: Family Man, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Dates, and 50 First Dates. Tonight I caught another one of those terrible, guilty pleasures: City of Angels.

There's something about a movie whose sole purpose is to dissolve me into an inconsolable pile of sobs and tears that I just can't turn away from. It's terrible.

And what's the deal with Nick Cage? Two of my guilty pleasure movies involve him in a doomed romance with cute, tousled-haired blonds. And I hate Nick Cage... he's so weird, and odd looking.

What's wrong with me? And the freakin' Goo Goo Dolls, and Sarah McLaughlin. God! It's just so wrong.

It's official!

Today, I spent way more time than anyone should have to spend at the DMv (1.5 hours) to register, tag and apply for a Maryland title for my lil' Bug. I've been driving her lately rather than George, trying to get more practice with the stick. It seems to be working, although on my way from the DMV to the dentist and back I stalled 3 times, but I'm feeling more comfortable with the stick every day - if a little nervous at times when I don't know what to do exactly.

In any case, we'll put her new Maryland tags on her tonight, and if I think of it I'll try and find a Michaels so I can get her her new flower.

I think she's mine once the PA tags are gone... I'll introduce her properly with some spiffy new pics in a later post.

Quick post!

Yeah! Another NBC first... I drove my car to the train station this morning! This was the first time I drove by myself on open roads (neighborhood roads don't count). Man was I crazy nervous/scared. I kept repeating out loud to myself "You are in control of this car. You can drive this car. I am driving this car." to keep myself psyched up rather than out. I even made a left turn across fast oncoming traffic (my worst fear - that I would stall out in the middle of the turn). I parked it far away from all the other cars, and didn't stall out pulling into my parking spot. As a matter of fact - I didn't stall out at all!

It took about an hour for the adrenaline in my system to work itself out. But I did it! Now, for the ride home... which will likely be much more challenging.

Update: I drove home without a hitch! Stop and go traffic the whole way - including a stop-and-go, uphill, two-lane-into-one merge! Again, shaking the whole way, near tears when I got home, but I did it. And, I even enjoyed racing up my little windy road!

The humbling of lil' miss NBC-lover

While DH and I were on our sailing vacation, our Alabaman companion who was also learning to sail remarked how jealous/envious/impressed he was that I seemed to pick up the basics and mechanics of sailing so quickly (I got only one question wrong on our keelboat test, and it was because I filled in the wrong circle - I knew the answer). Anyway, I told him that I am an instinctive learner... if something makes sense to me I pick it up really, really quickly. On the other hand, if I don't pick something up quickly, it takes a really really long time for me to learn.

That is the case with driving a stick shift. DH and I ran up to Lowes and Whole Foods to pick up some thing we forgot this weekend, and I stalled pulling into the parking spot and twice on the way home. I was near tears, I was so frustrated. It's not that I haven't learned how to drive, because I can drive the car. It's that I'm not picking up the technique to drive perfectly after only a couple of times out on the open road, with the stress of traffic upon me.

I think that DH enjoys this immensely - seeing me humbled like this. It's tough, but I am trying to stay determined to stick it out! (No pun intended).

How many grocery bags fit into the trunk...

... of my NBC?

Answer: 4 - if I left the boot cover and boot cover cover and weird solar panel thing in the trunk. Probably 6 if I had taken those out before we went to the store.

Yes, I broke my first commandment today by taking the NBC to Trader Joes. I freaked out halfway there because I was wearing inappropriate shoes and my foot was slipping off the pedals (no traction left on my old sneaks), so DH had to drive the rest of the way to the store - but I did drive home. I stalled abot 4 times - but remember I haven't driven the car for two weeks! At the end of the drive home I was doing okay, but whenever I get nervous I have a tendency to rush and try and get into first gear... but rushing = stalling.

I guess I'll just have to get more practice. I love driving the car though, when I'm not nervous about stalling, or when I'm not noticing that I'm driving 20 miles over the limit (oops!)

It's a miracle!

Or at least that's how it feels to me. Today, about 4 days late, the signed, notarized title to my new VW NBC arrived in the mail. I don't have the spirit to detail the drama of the week in getting this title back from box o' rocks, but allow me to say that I was completely mentally prepared to not have this resolved for weeks.

Thank the good Lord Almighty! I almost have my new car! I am not committing to it until I get through with the Maryland MVA (aka DMV).

Housecleaning

It's been a while since I updated the little info bits on the side menu. Over the summer, I'm not really watching any TV regularly. I watched some Top Chef over the weekend, which I have a passing interest in based on the TWOP recaps that it's not the normal reality competition show, that these people are being nice and supportive of one another. And I've found it to be interesting in that respect.

I finished my semester-long lecture on Oceanography 101 long ago. I haven't been listening to very much lately. Meh.

I just bought three books at Borders the other day. Right now I am reading The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. Well-reviewed, I'm less than 50 pages into the story - which starts from the end of the story with the round up of the mutineers in the Pacific island, but so far I am definitely inspired to sail around those islands sometime in my life, based on the vivid descriptions of Tahiti and the surrounding islands.

I probably should remove the "Presidential Management Fellows" link since I have technically fulfilled most of my obligations and have converted to a full-time employee at NOAA, but I have a couple more events to do associated with them, so I'll leave it there for now.

Not that this was supposed to be an interesting post, but whatever.

Hello Mr. Postman... uh....Postal Inspector, sir

So this afternoon DH calls me at work and says "Erika, there's a call for you from Mr. So-and-so who is a postal inspector from PA and he wants to talk with you about the VW."

"Oh boy," I think, "I guess I'd better call him back."

I called, left a message, and a couple of minutes later he calls me back at work. Thankfully, it isn't really a big deal, for me anyway. The NBC isn't going to be repo'd by the government or anything, he just wanted to ask me a few questions about the deal:

- Was I related to the guy I bought it from? Ha! Very funny, but no. Turns out the guy I bought it from (box o' rocks) told them he was going to transfer the lease to his sister. Whoops.

- Did I get a good deal? This was a tough question; the PI was concerned that the "victim" would question why the car didn't generate any profit to cover his/her losses. I answered honestly; I would have paid several thousand dollars more at a dealership, maybe a little bit more in a proper private party sale, but I thought that the price I paid was about what a dealer would offer if the car was traded in, which is why I bought it.

- Follow-up question: "Would you have paid $1k more for the car?" Probably not.

- "Did I offer him any cash/money when getting the car or did he ask for any money when I went to pick up the car?" No... money went straight to VW; I didn't give him a dime.

After those questions were answered (as well as some others: did I know him before O bought the car, how did I find out that there was a situation with the car, yada yada yada) the nice Mr. PI and I chatted a bit about box o'rocks and what was going on. Turns out that the big charges are wire and mail fraud (the money-laundering thing equals small potatoes in comparison to mail/wire fraud) for which he'll likely be convicted in about 6 months (apparently he confessed some of his wrongdoing to stave off being caught, so I am not sure whether they are investigating to make sure that he confessed all of it or what). His wife apparently doesn't know half of what was going on; the PI told me that none of that part is technically criminal, but if she knew she would likely have divorced him in a heartbeat (after I shared that she was mighty P.O.'d when we were there). Also, interestingly enough, the guy is more or less a pathological liar, combined with being a complete idiot. Very interesting.

All in all it was a very congenial conversation that didn't make me nervous at all. I told Mr. PI that I was happy to supply any emails or anything about the car. I also asked if the Federal marshalls were going to be calling, and he said "Nah, I'll share this info with them and likely they won't care"

Honestly, I wasn't nervous at any point. I'm kind of glad that he called, actually, because otherwise I might have always wondered about that dangling loose thread of "The Feds!" and now, I have nothing more to worry about. Cool.

Thank you... whoever you are

Someone asked me recently if I was watching Discovery Channel's "Shark Week," knowing that I was a keen fan of the beasties. I let them know that no, I was not, because they persisted in portraying sharks as viscious human predators rather than the unfortunate victims of man's quest to dominate and rape the oceans of their riches.

I have no idea who Gilbert Arenas is (I think he plays for the Washington DC NBA team, whose mascot/team symbol I don't know since they changed it from the Bullets - hehehe) but he apparently has a blog, which I learned about on the Washington Post's Celebritology Chat with Liz Kelly, and on this blog he posted the following missive about sharks, with which I happen to agree:

"There Are No Such Thing as Shark Attacks
I know this is random, but I just want to clear this up for people out there.
There are these things called shark attacks, but there is no such thing as a shark attack. I have never seen a real shark attack.

I know you’re making a weird face as you’re reading this. OK people, a shark attack is not what we see on TV and what people portray it as.

We’re humans. We live on land.

Sharks live in water.

So if you’re swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that’s called trespassing. That is called trespassing. That is not a shark attack.

A shark attack is if you’re chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that’s a shark attack. Now, if you’re chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack.

When I see on the news where it’s like, “There have been 10 shark attacks,” I’m like, “Hey, for real?! They’re just running around? Sharks are walking now, huh! We live on the land, we don’t live underwater.”

He gets it right... so why does the Discovery Channel have to continue to garner ratings (which I've heard haven't been so hot lately) by using the pseudo-Jaws music and focusing on the rare cases when a man-shark interaction results in injury or death to the man? The opposite result - and Asian hunger for shark-fin soup - is emptying our oceans of these majestic creatures that have been in existence in some form since the time of the dinosaurs. I'd like to see them show the documentary that came out recently on the impact that the longline and shark-finning fisheries are having on shark populations (name I can't remember right now)

Man, if they just made soapboxes a little taller, I might not be able to get up on them so easily. Cheers to you Mr. Arenas, whoever you are, for your keen insight into shark attacks.

How sweet it is..

So DH and I are home from the crazy family reunion, and I have to say that I am glad that we went, but more glad that we opted to come home tonight rather than stay overnight with at my grandparents.

Most importantly - I DROVE - the entire 3 hour (normally 2 hour) drive to my grandparents! This included getting to the gas station, driving 270 and the Beltway, the EZ pass toll at the Bay Bridge, and, most intimidatingly, stop and go traffic for MILES on Rt 50 and 404 in MD and DE. I did stall 3-4 times, but recovered quickly and it wasn't a big deal. The car is SO much fun to drive, but a little dangerous, because all it takes is the slightest tap of the gas and WHAM! You're driving 80-85 miles an hour. I drove about 1/2 way home; my contacts dried out and my eyes were strained, so we had to pull over and let DH drive.

It started raining as soon as we exited 270 on the way home - and the top was naturally down with the cover on, so the interior got rained on a weee bit. But I had a towel so I dried it all off quickly.

Randomicity

This weekend DH and I are going to a family reunion in Easton, MD. It ought to be, well, interesting. It's my grandfather's family and they're getting on in years. I'm thinking that these events aren't going to happen for too much longer, so might as well do it while we can.

I found out today that VW is going to declare the title for my NBC "lost," which means that they are going to have to apply for a duplicate title, which is going to have to be sent to the guy from whom I bought the car, who then has to sign off on it and send to me, so I can apply for a MD state title. You know, this great deal isn't looking so peaches and cream anymore. I don't think that I am going to have the title for another 2 weeks at this point, which is rather ridiculous.

We're in desperate need of rain; for some reason all of the rain that has been in the area has passed south of us. I'd really like for my garden to get a good soaking, and I think that I need to fertilize or something because my Roma tomato bush is suffering from blossom end rot. The tomatoes aren't coming on as strong as I would like them to, either. I don't know whether its the weather or the two weeks of neglect while we were on vacation, but the garden is in a sorry state.

My feets are still aching from yesterday's activities. Poor things - and I wanted to wear cute shoes tomorrow, Doesn't look like that's going to happen now.

Oh what a circus!

Today I spent my entire day in Alexandria where the NOAA ship Thomas Jefferson is docked for three days, hosting public tours for VIPs and summer-camp kids and the general public. Needless to say I am beyond exhausted. I made a poor choice of footwear (heeled sandles) for navigating downtown Alexandria's hilly brick sidewalks. I walked from King St Metro down to the waterfront in those poor sandles and destroyed my poor feet (15-20 blocks...I was nuts, but this morning's weather wasn't bad). And this afternoon was hot and humid and I was not a happy camper. And the trip from Alexandria to Silver Spring (via Metro) was really, really long.

Ugh.

I did get a choco-vanilla twist frozen custard at the Scoop Grille on King St, and I do really like the area (when can we go guys?). I will, however, make a much more educated and intelligent choice in footwear.

Here are some pics I took:


Stern shot


Bow shot


Flag shot


Poor-little-kid-whose-parents-dressed-him-like-a-Nancy-boy shot

It's the pen-penultimate countown

If you're a fan of the CBS show "How I Met your Mother" (and if you aren't - catch up on this smart funny show PDQ!) then you know that Marshall has 3 slaps left in his slap bet against Barney! Thankfully, CBS has offered us this handy-dandy countdown clock to Slap #3 - the pen-penultimate slap.

Congrats too to Doogie Howser - a.k.a. Swarley - on the Emmy nod!

First SOLO drive!

So tonight I had an inkling to take the NBC out for a spin... solo. And I did it. My first solo drive - exactly three miles down to the lake, turn around in a parking lot, practice parking once, and then back home. I even did it with the radio on!

I stalled once at a stop sign at a fairly busy little intersection, but I didn't panic! I just turned the car back on and was on my way (although I think that I screwed up traffic a little bit), and one time I left my foot on the gas pedal a little when I put in the clutch, which caused the engine to rev momentarily before I lifted my foot off the gas. But that was okay too!

I'm so proud of me. And many thanks to the many people who have tried to teach me to drive stick over the years! It's finally working!

Yeah! Now if only the title would get here already!

First post-vacation weekend

Ahhh, the weekend. Everyone's weekly vacation - except when you've been on vacation. DH and I actually got quite a bit accomplished:

- Friday night, to raise our spirits, we got the ultimate happy-food - Indian. Yummy. Life just never can be bad with some yummy Tikka Masala (oh so yummy)

- Saturday morning we picked another 6 lbs of blueberries at Butler's Orchard. We were hoping to snag a few blackberries as well, but it looks like it's going to be another 2 weeks before they really come on

- Saturday afternoon we took the NBC (New Beetle Convertible) for a drive at Black Hills Regional Park. I drove a little, stalled out trying to avoid hitting some woman pushing someone in a wheelchair in the middle of the road (and avoiding oncoming traffic), and we tried to ascertain whether there would be enough breeze to sail a little Sunfish sailboat (maybe!!)

- Sunday afternoon we finished the structural part of the little raised section of the deck! Yeah! Now we have to order all the floorboards and start re-laying the deck. We also brought a whole ton of stuff to the dump!

On top of all that, DH got his much needed haircut, I watched Evita on On-Demand, and the assorted normal weekend chores.

NBC's title should arrive tomorrow! Crossing my fingers that it's all good!

St John vs. Grand Cayman - no contest

To be fair and in the interest of complete and honest disclosure, DH and I have spent 3 wonderful vacation on St John, USVI, and one vacation on Grand Cayman. Being so enamored with St John has clearly colored the lens through which I viewed Grand Cayman. They are two completely different islands, with different histories, cultures, perspectives on tourism, etc. Nonetheless, I'll go ahead and compare them with my thoughts since it is a question commonly raised on travel boards.

Topography/geography - Winner: St John.
Grand Cayman is generally flat, with few distinguishing geographic features. It's like a tropical version of Delaware, and if you have ever driven a distance through Delaware, you'll understand how boring it is. Sadly, Grand Cayman was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and has not fully recovered in terms of foliage or in infrastructure, which leaves bits of ugliness in full view.

St John, in contrast, has been lucky not to have been struck by any hurricanes since I believe Marilyn in 1995. It is a lush and green island, and more importantly, mountainous, which makes driving both challenging but also interesting. It also offers superior choices for non-water based activities like hiking. It's a common statement that the mountainousness of St John makes the water less clear than Cayman because of the runoff - but we've never seen that to be the case. St Johns many coves are actually much better protected from wave action (gosh, I don't think we saw any wave action on any beach with the exception of Drunk Bay on St John) whereas Caymans beaches are mostly exposed, protected only by the barrier reef ringing the entire island, which dampens but doesn't quell most wave action. This silts up the nearshore areas on Grand Cayman more than any runoff silting we ever saw on St John.

Beaches: Winner - St John (with a caveat)
My ideal beach is secluded, ringed with tropical green foliage, and private. Size is not an issue - the beach could be just a couple of yards wide across and to the waterline. This describes St John's beaches perfectly. There are several places where you could potentially be the only person at the beach at any given time. Because most of the beaches are inside of the National Park, there are not towers of condos and hotels lining beaches - eradicating all traces of palms and sea grapes from view.

In contrast, Cayman's signature beach is 7 mile beach, which is beautiful in its own right - powder white sand, gin colored water, etc. But it's so darn crowded - whether it be by beach toys, people, buildings, stuff in the water to mark swimming areas seperate from boating/motorized areas. Just not my style. Now some people love the idea of a perfect sand beach with all these amenities there to entertain you, but that's not me. I'm entertained by quiet, and good snorkeling.

The East End of Cayman is the closest one gets to a comparable St John experience. The big "but" here is that it is really challenging to find those great spots. There are no signs marking anything but public beaches, and there is so much water front development either there or in progress you're never really sure whether you might be intruding on someone's private property. Not fun. The closest we got was on the beach near the Queen's Monument, where there was fantastic snorkeling, a secluded little beach (somewhat) and very few other people to be seen.

Tourist Services: Winner - St John (hands down, no doubt about it!)
While I think that accomodations on St John might be more expensive than those on Cayman (much more competition on Cayman, only two real resorts on St John) the restaurants on St John are much more reasonable in price, value, and quality (in my opinion). I just felt like we had a lot more choices for reasonably priced meals on St John, and they were far more accessible regardless of where you were staying. Now, I'm not being fair in that Grand Cayman is 22 miles end to end vs. St John's 8 - but it's not my fault that Grand Cayman hasn't done a better job of locating some of it's tourist infrastructure on the East End to compensate.

One huge disparity was the ease of finding beaches and neat places to explore. On St John everything is marked with a sign - from trailheads to beaches. This is mostly because these places are within a National Park, which provides the basis for marking all these places with the ubiquitous brown and white signs. It really made it so much easier and less stressful for us on our first trips to have all those signs, so we could match our research with our location.

I can't think of a lot of other things to compare the two on. Driving on St John might be a lot more challenging because of the hairpin turns, hilly roads, and unexpected beasties wandering around (donkeys and goats and cows, oh my!) There isn't a lot of "entertainment" infrastructure on St John, like clubs and jet ski rentals and parasailing and whatnot. Of course, that's why we prefer it. Cayman can't do anything about it's topography and it certainly caters to a different kind of tourist - but they could appeal to the St John crowd by making those secret spots a little less difficult to find, limiting the amount of waterfront development to keep secret beaches and pretty little coves from feeling like someone's private property, and spreading out some of the basic tourist infrastructure (like places to eat) to the East End to help people who want to stay out there.

Different strokes for different folks. Thank goodness for that. Now I'm just wondering how I can get back to St John!