Buried Treasure

Yesterday the plumbers were here to replace our cast iron waste pipe with PVC and put in a cleanout. What no one expected to find was a septic tank since we were told we were on city sewage. So now we’re the proud owners of a septic tank, which as you can tell from the photos was full. The plumbers called a pumping service who pumped it out. They said we’re good for another seven years.

Gross-Out Alert: The guy in the photo on the right was eating sunflower seeds while standing over the open tank - ooga-booga!

Mmm, yummy.

Hurray, we have a cleanout!

After the tank was pumped out and the lid replaced, Lago and I went furniture shopping while the plumbers replaced the waste pipe. The trip turned out a little longer than expected because the furniture store did not have the sectional sofa we wanted on the showroom floor. It was at another store in the north end of town. We were glad we made the trip, because the sofa turned out to be exactly what we wanted and we also decided to go with a different color. So, we then drove back to the other store and placed our order. Everything should arrive by the first week in October.

Today is Sunday and football is back - Booyah!

The New Lounge

Photo for the New Lounge.

Leapin' Lizards

Although I realize we’re in the south, I didn’t know we were far enough south to see these little green critters running about. I’m used to seeing them when we visit Florida, but I was quite surprised to be greeted at the back door by this little fella. I was heading back inside from cutting the grass today and there he was on the bricks right alongside the back door. He moved over to the window ledge by the time I took the photo with my camera phone, which is why the quality is not so good. I watched him for awhile and he seemed like he was used to seeing people. He acted differently than the lizards I see in Florida. His movements were slower and not as jittery as the Sunshine State lizards. As I watched him, he caught a bug and ate it. It was then I told him he could hang around and eat all the bugs he likes, just as long as he stays outside. Of course that’s more for the lizard’s sake since the cats and dog would have a fine time making a chew toy out of him.

Tonight at 8pm is our Booyah Fantasy Football League Draft. I look forward to this every year no matter how good or bad I did the previous season. I was thinking of changing my team’s name to something with Carolina in it, but couldn’t think of anything good. So for now, my team remains the Hoochie Mamas, or Hoochies for short. After seeing my little green friend I was thinking of renaming my team the Lizards, but we already have an Iguanas in our league. Booyah!

I have to say that I hadn't thought about Murder in Small Town X since 9/11. That was a great show!! Angel Rodriguez was the winner's name. What a shame. IT was so much fun to watch...you would get scared and then be able to go to commercial.LOL. I ate many bowls of popcorn over that show. It was really a smart program and much more tolerable than watching a bunch of wackos vote each other out of a house.

My new job is fantastic!! I am really enjoying my associates as well as the staff. We are extremely modern and progressive. I so needed that change, to be able to focus on cases and enjoy the challenge of obtaining a true diagnosis.

The Summer of X-Files

I bought the first season of The X-Files on DVD back in May or June of this year. I’ve been missing The X-Files since it went off the air a few years ago. Now you can’t even find the repeats on cable. FX channel used to air the X-Files episodes all the time, like catching Seinfeld or Friends that seem to always be on TBS. I think TNT or another network air it at 5pm and 2am, how am I supposed to watch that? The X-Files has been out on DVD for some time, but at $80 for an entire season, that’s a bit much. Finally, this year The X-Files season episodes have been packaged at half that price. I recently picked up the second season as well, but still working my way through the first season. The summer is a good time of year to catch up on an old favorite since most of TV is repeats. It’s great to have the X-Files back by just popping in a DVD. One of the things I liked most about The X-Files is that each episode was like a short scifi-thriller-mystery movie. OK, so I liked Gillian Anderson too, I'm only human :~)

Does anyone recall back in 2001, there was a reality series that aired that summer on Fox called Murder in Small Town X? IMDB.com describes it as “an unscripted drama series in which 10 ordinary people compete to track down a fictional killer in a town filled with improvisational actors playing the suspects and witnesses.” I started watching and soon Lago got sucked in too. We watched every week as an investigator (contestant) was “murdered” (left the show). Yep, it was kind of hokey, but I liked the mystery. The fictional killer left bizarre clues to his identity and some of the crime scenes were a bit gruesome. At the end of each show, two investigators were selected to each go to a remote location alone at night to either discover a new clue or be "killed." I remember the final episode where two investigators were left and one discovered the killer's lair where he had all the "victims" propped up in chairs seated around a table. I don't remember who the killer was, anyone out there recall? I was really hoping they’d eventually bring it back for another season. Unfortunately, the show’s winner was a NYC fireman who died in the World Trade Center that September.

A few summers before 2001 was the Summer of Frank. I remember that summer; it was my first since leaving the Coast Guard. I started listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra and other Rat Packers, and I even borrowed a biography on tape of Frank from The Monkey. I guess it was all leading up to HBO’s premiere of “The Rat Pack” movie that summer. How was I to know that Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" would eventually be the song I would sing to Lago on our first New Year's Eve together, and then be "our song" that we would dance to at our wedding. Kind of kooky, huh?

Audition Time

Today was an interesting day for me. I have known for about a month that I had an audition this weekend for Carolina Voices (www.carolinvoices.org). This organization has several different choruses that do everything you could possibly imagine! The Festival Singers are similar to Schola Cantorum, who I sang with in Waynesboro, VA. The attack mostly classical pieces. The Main Stage Choir sings mostly in English and more contemporary music. They also have an outreach choir that goes to nursing homes, etc. Within the Main Stage choir there is a Jazz chorus as well. Lots to do within this one group.

I have been sort of stressing about this because I didn't know what I was going to sing and my music wasn't all unpacked until Thursday. I have only been practicing since Thursday night. Mostly because I have been studying for the state board exam.
I thought my audition was today and I have been getting very nervous. So I went to the gym and warmed up on the ellitpitcal and then did the stair climber for 40 minutes. Did you know that the correct way to use the elliptical is with the knees bent, leaning back so the back is completely straight, and moving only from the hip? You shouldn't move up and down at all on the elliptical! Anyway, that really helped with my anxiety level. So after returning home and showering I called Voices for directions. My audition was tomorrow, but there were openings the afternoon, so I took one, I just needed to get this over with so I could concentrate on the Board exam! Cathy was kind enough to get me an audition at 340PM.

Anyway, I went today just hoping to do my best and not be so nervous that I screwed up the music, which I have been known to do in the past. I had to prepare at least one piece in English and then 1 piece in another language to audition for the Festival Singers. So, I sang Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again From Phantom of the Opera and Nel cor piu non me sento, an Italian midrange piece that is short but pleasant to hear. So I sang the first piece from Phantom. I felt like I was singing effectively to get the feeling across. My ears were clogged, so I couldn't really tell how I sounded. I watched as the 3 directors just sort of watched and were responding to the music. When I was finished they asked me to sing the Italian piece because it was such a different choice from the Phantom piece. I was promised I wouldn't have to sing the entire thing but the piece is short and the director was sort of swaying and waving his hands some as though he was conducting. Before anyone knew it, the piece was over!! LOL!! He apologized...but none was necessary as I could tell he really enjoyed my rendition of the piece.
After that I was asked to sight read, with accompaniment, an Irish Blessing. I actually did that really well, with dynamics and everything.
Next I was asked to sing My Country Tis of Thee a capella to see if I could start and end on the correct note. That went quite well also.
The next challenge was a voice range check. Bill brought me from mid range down and then up. He basically had me sing a little more than 2 octaves!! I was shocked because I thought those days were long gone!!
The final task was to repeat the tones played for me. I had some trouble with this. I'm not really sure why. I had trouble with the second tones in each 4 tone sequence. But, I was able to identify and correct my mistakes. The tones to be repeated were fairly dissonant but I suppose that's not really an excuse.
So after that they all proceeded to tell me what each of the choruses sings, etc and I was basically given an invitation to sing with whomever I wanted to and I don't have to pick just one chorus, I can sing with as many as I want!! I am in complete shock!!
I have always known that the Lord gave me some talent and ability to sing His praises so as to inspire others to sing, also. He has afforded me with the ability to entertain others, which can be huge and inspirational for some. But, I am in utter and complete shock!! And of course I am grateful for this opportunity. I was expecting them to tell me that I would hear from them in September, not for all of them to tell me that I had my choice!! What an honor and how humbled I am to have such an amazing group of professionals respond to me in such a way!!
I emailed Maureen, director of Schola, to tell her the good news and to thank her for everything, as I learned sooooooo much under her direction.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to the Fall and all that Charlotte has to offer us!

Rainy Day

Rainy day view from the office.

It’s raining here, supposed to rain all day. At least it’s a break from the sauna-like conditions we’ve had for the past few weeks.

Football season is under way with pre-season games and I’m really looking forward to watching the games this year on our new 60” big-screen TV. It’s HD and I hooked up the DVD player with an HDMI cable and the movies look just like they do in the theater. I also hooked up the HD DVR cable box with an HDMI cable and football and baseball games look amazing in HD. The HDMI cable sends a pure digital signal to the TV.

We’re still looking to get some furniture for our “theater room.” It’s kind of funny, we’re watching this huge TV sitting on lawn chairs. We got rid of our old sofa before we moved and haven’t shopped for new furniture yet. We’d like to get some sort of sectional sofa for the theater room and we still need to get furniture for our other living/sitting room. That’s where we have Lago’s piano. We’re really looking forward to the holidays - and when we have some furniture - that room will look great with the tree. We also have something we didn’t have before and that’s an actual dining room off the kitchen.

We still have lots of boxes around and one room is almost nothing but boxes. We finally got our cable almost straightened out. Three different people have been out here. The first two were sub-contractors and didn’t really know much. Finally, Tuesday an honest to goodness cable guy came and got us wired throughout the house for cable. He needs to come back and do some slight modifications, but everything works. One of the problems was a signal amplifier in the attic was not connected.

Lago and I had dinner last night at the Bonefish Grill. As the name suggests, it’s a seafood restaurant. It’s a chain here and the one we went to is right next door to our new favorite place, the Total Wine store. The food was good and their slightly different take on the mussels with a cream sauce was very good. Lago had twin lobster tails and I had a filet with gulf shrimp stuffed with crab meat. The food was very good and so was the dessert and cappuccino. We’ve eaten twice at another chain restaurant nearby, Carino’s Italian restaurant. The food is very good there also. They have an excellent lasagna and Lago enjoyed her eggplant parmesan. The have big portions so there’s plenty left over to take home for the next day.

The one place we’re really impressed with is the Total Wine store. It’s a huge store filled with wine, beer, accessories and gourmet snacks. Aisle after aisle of wines are grouped by style/grape and by region. They have some wines grouped by other categories like Easy-Drinking Reds and Elegant Whites. They have sections for Virginia and North Carolina wines, but some of our favorites were missing from the Virginia section. I think we can order these online though. One of our new favorite wines is the Clos Du Val Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. This wine is great with a steak or just for sitting back and enjoying. We first discovered this wine a few years ago at Smith & Wollensky’s in NYC. We didn’t see it again until we had it this year at a restaurant here in town. This wine is little more expensive, but the prices at Total Wine are great.

The beer selection is just as amazing with beers from all over the country and around the world. They had the Harpoon Brewery’s seasonal beer which I haven’t seen since I lived in Boston. Can’t wait to go there next month when they start to carry the Oktoberfest brews.