Haven't blogged much lately; I think it is because I am not sure what to blog about. Not much too horribly interesting happening as of late. My latest project is trying to figure out what to do with all the extra mulch I have. I ordered seven cubic yards of mulch which is actually only one extra yard than I ordered last year but for some reason it was entirely too much.

This is what seven cubic yards looks like:

I spread about 5 yards in the usual places like in the large beds in the front yard and around the tree in the tree-lawn or devil strip (that's for you Bev). I still had about 2 yards or so left. What to do what to do...............

I wasn't prepared to start a major landscaping project in the back yard just yet; although it is coming soon. I decided to dress up the area of trees that I have in the back yard. The end of our property line is designated as a utility easement and also intended by the neighborhood developer as an environmental buffer between properties. The houses on our street, actually our side of the street, are the only ones that don't back up to a lake. I think the natural buffer and the larger lots were the developer's way of making up for the lack of water frontage.

Anyway, this is what the area looked like before:





























And this is what the space looks like now:

Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of mulch left. Looks like I am going to have to get creative.

Last fall, the developers put in all the utilities and paved the road for the lots directly behind our house. When the lots were being leveled, additional trees were planted on the new lots. The wind whips through this area so strong that most of the newly planted evergreens were leaning heavily away from the prevailing wind. So the large clump of trees seen in the backround of the previous picture is the beginning of the landscaper's fix. I haven't the slightest clue why but the landscaping company dug up all the trees and planted them in the clump that you see in the picture. They are now one by one re-planting them in their original spots. Hopefully they decide to stake the trees this time.

Man my back hurts!!

Here's something pretty cool...these are all the states that I have visited even if it was just to pass through in route to somewhere else.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

As some of you know, Lisa had a scare about a month or so again where she lost eye sight three times in a span of about 20 minutes. At the time she was running a pretty high fever and she wanted to ignore the issue chalking it up to the flu. After a little coaxing from her boss and me, she went to the doctor and then had an MRI. The MRI report was less than difinitive so off to the neurologist. Of course Lisa and I were prepared for the worse case which everyone including our GP was leaning toward....M.S. Neurologist's diagnosis....Migraine headaches!!! Total relief; not that Migraines are any walk in the park but much more controllable compared to MS.

Well the neurologist wanted to absolutely make sure that there isn't any other issue and wants to completely rule out MS. Today Lisa goes in for three tests to measure brain reactions to different stimulus. She starts today with a BAER (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) then she has a VER (Visual Evoked Response) and then finally an EEG (Electroencephalogram). These tests should completely rule out MS, Epilepsy and other nasty problems. I don't know if she will get immediate feedback or we will have to wait to get results. We will keep you posted.

I went out and bought 7 cubic yards of mulch to be delivered on Saturday afternoon (guess what I am going to be doing this weekend?). If any of you want to come over an help, the mulch should be delivered around 3pm.

The drywall contractors that worked on our house are back fixing about a dozen nail pops and a large crack that has formed in the ceiling of Shawn's playroom where two pieces of the drywall meet. When they walked in the door, our usually very calm Dauber went into attack mode and was very protective of Lisa. Wow, wonder what got into him? Once Lisa said it was okay and the guys made nice, everything was back to normal. I guess that I didn't need to spend the money to install the extras on the alarm system.

Happy Easter!

We had a great spring day for the annual bunny visit at work. After the bunny, Lisa and I stopped by Wendy's for a late lunch before starting our typical Saturday work around the house. Wendy's now has four deli sandwiches that are served on the bread that everyone seems to have now. The bread was pretty good coming from a fast food joint but they really missed the boat as far as the rest of the sandwich. Here is this big piece of bread with two slices of lunchmeat, one slice of cheese, a tomato, onion and mayo. At over $3.50 a pop, there ought to be a little more meat and cheese....not overly impressed.

Once home, Lisa started cleaning the house and I cut the grass, weedwacked around the house and reshaped our flower beds. Around the house in the flower beds, the builders decided to terminate our downspouts three feet from the house and then directly into the beds. Not sure why they had their heads in their rear ends but they did. Everytime we get a rain, all the mulch is washed away from the area that is around the downspouts. Extensions on the downspouts are going to look ridiculous since a couple of them will need to be nearly 10 feet long so it looks like next weekend's project will be to fix the problem for good. I will connect the down pipes to 4" flexible plastic tubing and bury it. I will get the water discharge further away from the foundation and it will clean up the look of the house a bit. Hopefully this solution will help me keep the mulch where it belongs and not in the grass.

Went to BW3 last night for dinner and had wings in their new Habenero Mango sauce (may not be that new but new to me). I typically stay away from any sauce that has mango in the title because mango typically imply somewhat sweet. The sauce was suprisingly good. A little sweet at first but then finished with a decent kick (highly recommended).

Mudhens-7 Red Barons-0

Finally feels like spring. It's very had to concentrate on anything but being outside right now. We're going to our first Mudhens game of the season tonight; I sure hope that the rain hold off till at least 10pm.

I can't believe that we have been back in Toledo for almost a year now. Since we've been in our house for almost a year as well, I created a punch list of items that we want our builders to fix. Seems as though every new home has a one year HBA warranty and the jig was about to run out. I really couldn't find a whole lot to put on the punch list except for a few cosmetic items (nail pops, ceiling seam, etc) and some "pie in the sky" type items that I knew there was absolutely no way they would covered. This morning I had the walk through with the builders; no surprises there, all the cosmetic items are going to be fixed and the others aren't. I had to give it a shot!

Since we are going to the Mudhens game tonight and Lisa is such an American Idol nut, I made a stop on the way to work to the cable company to trade in our cable box for a box that has DVR included. The DVR will record up to 60 hours of shows and will allow you to pause and rewind live television as well. All the programming is done through our remote using the interactive TV guide. You basically highlight the program you want to record on the guide and bingo. The other fun feature with the DVR is that you can watch one program and record another or you can record two shows at the same time. You can even schedule to record a program when you are away from home via the internet. How fun is this going to be?

Called the morons at the refuse company today to see if they will pick up my old grill and they will.....for a twenty spot. Not sure why I pay for unlimited garbage pick up when they charge me for all the extras. What exactly does "unlimited" mean?

Only 5 more sleeps till the Easter Bunny comes to Town!!!!

It finally feels like spring! Today I did my first yard work of the year. Fueled up the tractor and the mower and cut the grass. There's nothing like the smell of the first lawn mowing of the year. I also went out to get the grill ready and it wasn't a pretty site. The grate, burner, defusers and regulator needed replaced so I decided it was time to buy a new grill. I opted for a Char-broil brand commercial series. Pretty cool huh!

Finally recovered from Opening Day in Cleveland. It was probably the best weather we have had for an opener in 10 years. A little rain in the AM and then pretty tolerable. This year I decided to dress in many layers and of course over dressed for the first time.

We started our day at 8am and drove downtown to our hotel's parking garage for the first beer of the day. Checked into our hotel and waited for the local gang to show up. The rest of the day pretty much played out like any other opening day in the past. Stopped by and waited the rain out at a nice Irish pub while sucking down Irish Car Bombs and Imperial Pints of Smithwicks (my favorite Irish ale). This pub is a lot of fun on opening day. The bartenders are easy on the eyes and the other customers in the bar are friendly (the food is pretty damn good too). Once the rain stopped, it was time for the game.

The game was a blow-out. Tribe won 11-6 and we stayed for the entire game this year. We had a beer vendor in our section that will more than likely lose his job soon though. Beers we going for $5.75 and when we asked for 6, the poor guy had to start counting on his fingers and toes and still couldn't get it right. He finally said $22......wrong again. We felt so bad for the guy that we couldn't even rip him off. The next time around, he told us that he could only sell two beers at a time. We had to buy our beers in two's for the rest of the game!!

Went back to the hotel and made it just in time for the "free" alcohol at the manager's reception. The reception is where we make up for the high room rate of the Embassy Suites. Each of us tries to drink our share of the $278.00 room rate. We usually end up doing pretty well seeing that the hotel probably charges about $6 per drink.

After all that drinking, we typically head upstairs to drink a few more beers and get ready for dinner. Dinner is actually a new phenomenon on opening day; we have only been doing this for a bout 2 years now. We ended up going to a nice little restaurant called The Waterstreet Grill. The food was pretty good and reasonably priced. I had a ribeye that was serve with mixed vegetables and pan fried redskins. I also had a side of peirogi that were nothing special but edible.

The rest of the night was basically spent trying to find a decent bar that was open. We went to the Flats which seem to be an area vastly different from 10 years ago. Most of the establishments have closed and there was nothing really going on. Even the nudie bar that we typically make a stop at was undergoing a renovation and name change. Had a few more beers and headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we tried in vain to find an open pizza shop. The Rascal House used to be open til 4:00am and had great pizza but for some dumb reason, they now close at midnight. The snack bag the hotel left as a thank you for returning would have to suffice. Hershey bar, peanut butter cups, Kit-Kats, bag of pretzels and an apple didn't quite fill the pizza void, but we settled.

The next morning, we all woke up and tried to make up for any of the hotel bill that we didn't cover with free alcohol at the hotel's breakfast and then head home. All in all, it was another successful opening day.

Only 3 more days till the annual drunken fest that we call opening day in Cleveland. I can't wait to freeze my rear end off and drink lots o beer while taking in the unoffical first day of spring.

Build a crappy hotel in the middle of South Carolina and direct your marketing to middle aged golf fanatics and you will become filthy rich! I just survived one of these "you have to experience" trips.

The hotel was in a pretty decent size town called Florence, SC but it wasn't even worthy of being called a no-tell motel. The decor was described by one of the guys on the trip as early American Salvation Army. The pool was nice if you wanted to swim with the leaches (no-extra charge). The experience was strangely familiar to dorm living. Grown men, strangers to each other, all hanging out in their rooms with the doors wide open drinking beers. Mornings were the best; you could see 50 and 60 year old men running around outside in their tightie-whities getting their first smoke of the day in (come on guys, put on some clothes already). The hotel's population consisted of about 90% golfers, 5-7% construction workers and 3-5% unknown. I think that I did actually see one woman that looked like she was staying in the hotel the entire week I had the pleasure of staying in this 5 star establishment. She either liked looking at middle aged men in their underwear or she was a hooker.

With our paid stay in the fine Thunderbird Motor Inn, we received a free southern style breakfast and dinner in their fine establishment. If anyone knows anyone that works for the South Carolina Health Department, tip them off to this place. I have never seen anything so nasty called a restaurant in my life. Both meals were buffet style and breakfast was what you would expect: scrabble eggs, bacon, three different types of sausage, biscuits and gravy, grits, pancakes, french toast, cottage cheese, fruits, cereal and fresh hot pork skin strips (they may call them pork rinds). The food at breakfast was semi-edible if the surroundings weren't so damn dirty. If you tried really hard and closed your eyes, the food was decent a breakfast. Dinner was served in the same manner. If you loved fried chicken, this was the place for you. The day we arrive, there was fried chicken, baked chicken, chicken wings in some gravy looking stuff and shredded chicken stuff. Also on the menu daily was beef stew meat tips in gravy with rice, either mashed potatoes or mac and cheese, sausages (hold overs from breakfast), collard greens, green beans, cold baked potatoes, salad bar, ice cream, pies, cakes, a daily mystery meat and you guessed it more of those hot pork skin things. By the third night, I had to try the pig skin things and I am here to tell you that they were absolutely the nasiest things I have ever tried. Needless to say, we skipped the free dinner the last three nights.

The funny part about this hotel is that anyone that you talked to complained about the rooms and the food but everyone seemed to be coming to the same hotel for several years. There was one group from the Cleveland area that had been making the annual trip for 12 years and another from Pittsburgh that had been making the trip for 15 years. No one had anything good to say about anything having to do with the hotel.

The one bright spot about the Thunderbird was that it had a bar/club/restaurant attached to it. When you stepped into the club, it was like you were stepping into a different world as far as the decor was concerned. The place was clean and the food was really good. The club did provide some much needed comic relief.

We arrived Saturday morning after driving 10 hours through the night, we arrived at a pretty decent golf course and played until dark (36 holes). We checked into the hotel, ate at the chicken buffet and then stopped for a drink at the club. The club was packed with a crowd that was a little older (average age was probably 45). There was a band that was getting prepared to start performing for the night and a karaoke machine was providing entertainment while the band got set up. Karaoke John entertained us with classic country love songs dedicated to his honey. Karaoke John was your typical I can't sing but I think I can. He belted out those country tunes with his best twang and his girl was so very proud of him. He must have sung 4 songs until someone finally kicked him off stage.

The night we ate at the club, there was a sports talk radio show being broadcast from the bar. A few of the local cheerleaders from the indoor football team were in attendance promoting the new team. Then walks in Karaoke John by himself with two sets of nunchucks for our comic entertainment. John then dazzled the cheerleaders with his martial arts skills in an attempt to pick one of them up. Needless to say, John provided a lot of entertainment for a lot of people last week.

There are a few interesting liquor laws in South Carolina (at least interesting to me). All liquor must be poured from those tiny bottles that I have seen only on airlines and in hotel mini bars (no mini bars on this stay). If you want a weaker drink or a drink that doesn't use a full mini bottle, they have to throw the remaining booze away. Also, there is absolutely no alcohol sold at all on Sunday unless you are on a golf course it seems. The best of all alcohol laws is that you can bring your own on to a golf course. In Ohio, you get kicked off a golf course if you get caught bringing your own. In South Carolina, they allow you to bring your own cooler filled with beer and don't say a word...saves tons of cash.

Needless to say, we golfed 238 holes and drank (4 guys) a collective 240 cans of beer in 6 days. I don't think we would have drank so much beer but it was the only way you could handle staying in that hotel.

Overall, the golf courses were in pretty good shape for this time of year and the weather was warm and dry as well. Some of the courses will be really nice when the grass in the rough actually turns green but for the most part I was very pleased with the golf. And the beer was outstanding!!!!

It was really nice sleeping in my own bed on Friday night..........