So Much for Memories!

Really, what are you suppose to do with cute top section of your wedding cake?

We saved it. Froze it. Thawed it. Once. Twice. Three and four times. Shared it with our dog on our first anniversary. And finally, with the failure of our current freezer we have stumbled upon the probably the best use for the wedding cake top...

Compost!

We Finally Agree!

After 14 plus years of marriage, my wife and I finally agree!

I have long held that leftovers are ... well, of the Devil! I hate leftovers (with the sole exception of Aunt Nancy's Coleslaw!). I do not believe that God intend for there to be leftovers. Eat fresh or don't eat (OK, that may be a little extreme, but I feel strongly about the issue!).

The trouble for me is that my wife was raised by women that believe you should cook for millions--regardless if there are only two of you living in the house--just in case a spaceship of strangers should brake down in your front yard and need something to eat!

Well, I finally heard those golden words tonight; "NO leftovers. What we don't eat is getting thrown out!" and it didn't come out of my mouth ... this time!

Unfortunately, I am going to PAY for that simple (and undoubtedly short lived) moment of euphoric pleasure. See, a little over a week ago our ice cream began getting soft and the ice itself began to melt away behind the closed door of the freezer. The whole thing (including it appears our refrigerator) has become little more than a picnic cooler that only keeps things cool if you load and reload it with pre-frozen (elsewhere) ice packs.

I have done everything I am capable of doing to rectify the situation...I told my wife to call someone to figure out what was wrong and fix it! However, with the great frugality with which our family is so accustomed to, my wife suggested that I try to vacuum off the coils first, to see if that would help. Didn't, not one bit. Even seemed to get worse. She unpacked part of the freezer to uncover the "vent" to see if it might have frozen over as did her mother and this was the problem. It wasn't. The "Tim Taylor" in me made me think I must not have had a BIG enough vacuum for the coils. So I tried again. Got a "Coil Brush," a vacuum extension attachment and went at it again. Sure enough, a change. It DEFINITELY got worse! Then my wife gave the ultimate shot to the male ego..."why don't you just unplug it and see if it resets."

Don't you think I would have thought of that!

Now's the point in the story where you would expect that I humbly admit (and praise God) that all it needed was to unplugged. We are not there yet. I just unplugged it. So, don't hold your breath! I truly, from the bottom of my precious little heart hope that is how this story ends, but I really, REALLY don't think that is what is going to happen!

I write at this point because there is still a slight "silver...even golden lining." After 14 plus years of marriage, my wife FINALLY agrees with me on something...if only for today!

The Blob!

I don't know you have ever been "Blobbed," but if you have, you know the exhilaration and fear that it causes! If not, the Blob is an aprox. 30 ft. X 8 ft. X 6 ft. inflated rubber pillow that floats in the water under a high dive. One person jumps from the high dive onto the Blob, and crawls to about four feet from the opposite side. Then another person jumps off the high dive and lands with as much force as they can create on the end under the high dive, forcing the first person up into the air and plunged into the water!

Camp Kulaqua has one floating in there constantly 72 degree water. We were at Camp Kulaqua last weekend.

Generally, it is a good idea to be able to swim and well, if you are going to venture on the Blob experience. Additionally, you should be Blobbed by someone aprox. your own size. Occassionally, some studly young man will coerce a petite young lady onto the Blob and send her shotting into the stratusphere to the grunting amusement of all his buddies...the young lady rarely gets talked in to a second ... flight!

Having set this all up, I must ask if you remember when you were seven years old and liked to hang out with the "big kids"?

Toby heard someone say something about going down to the Blob. Mind you, he doesn't not know what the Blob is or what it can do. His mother tried to explain it to him, which of course sounds like a LOT of fun, and it is...if you are watching! She then sent him to ask me--what had just finished packing the car for our drive home after a four-day weekend at Family Camp--about going Blobbing. I really wanted to get home, and I really didn't want to dig through the magnificantly pack car (van is about to blow it's transmission, so we--all 5 of us--loaded everthing into the car, including 3 bikes and made the 3 hour drive to Orlando before continuing the 2.5 hours onto Kulaqua) for his swimming suit, much less the idea of having to take wet clothes back in my car. But to be honest, I have really kind of been looking forward to the day my boys got to experience the Blob. So, I told him he had 5 minutes, if he didn't do it by then we were leaving and I dug out his bathing suit.

He stood and watched for a good while, there were only BIG kids there blobbing. I was sure he would see the insane stupidity of doing it himself and just vicariously enjoy the experience through the others there. I knew I could be in trouble when he decided to take a test run off the high dive adjacent to the Blob...then began running back to the do it again. Finally, kid closer to his size (within 20 lbs. probably) came and we asked if he would Blob Toby....

As you may guess, he wanted to do it again. This time however, he blobbed the kid who was close to his own size, which left a bigger kid (at least 80 lbs. larger) to Blob him. You can hear the life guard asking if I was the father and if "this was OK." What is a father suppose to say? It was his last Blob for the day!

Bang the Drum, pt. 2

My wife would like me to point out to all of you baseball fans which hand our little "drummer"/future pitcher prefers.

I Don't Wanna Work...

Have you ever heard the song, "I Just Want To Bang On The Drum All Day"? I believe this is where the song writer most have gotten his inspiration!

Fun in WA

We're Moving...!

We don't know where, but we are pretty sure we will have moved from Port Charlotte before Spring Training begins next Spring, because we got the following announcement this last week....

Orioles move spring home to Sarasota

The Baltimore Orioles agreed to a 30-year lease with Sarasota County that calls for more than $31 million in funds for the renovation of Ed Smith Stadium. The move will happen immediately, starting with Spring Training 2010. Baltimore will play in Ed Smith Stadium without renovation for one spring and development will commence after the 2010 season.

Just before Charity and I moved to Florida, fourteen years ago her grandparents who had wintered in Ft. Myers for many years chose to move to Loma Linda full-time. That same year the Orioles moved their Spring Training sight across the state about five hours from where we were going to be living. A year after being in Orlando, the Chicago Cubs single A farm team moved out of town. The year we moved from Orlando, Ledo's opened a restaurant in town. This last year the Tampa Bay Rays moved their Spring Training sight to Port Charlotte and Cal Ripkin, Jr. bought and moved their farm team to Port Charlotte. Now the Orioles are moving their Spring Training within 45 minutes of our house!

It seems that everytime something good happens or is about to, we move!