![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellymellWe went home to rush around trying to find Chris' W2s so that he could get his taxes done. I still had state to get done as well. I'm getting back a total of $300 between federal and state. Not much, but nice to get. We dropped off our forms at the post office at about 7:30pm. Then we went out to dinner because we just didn't feel like cooking, or doing anything for that matter. We went home and watched Happy Gilmore. That movie is a lot cheesier than I remember it being (of course I was an easily amused 14 or 15 year old), but it's definitely got its funny moments.
We missed out on what we heard was an awesome get together at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
branflake's place. Still kicking myself over that one. I'm sure she'd be kicking me too if she were here. :P
Saturday, I got up early, took a shower and went to Attitudes in 5 pts. I had a consultation with Rachel (super cool stylist) about getting rid of the dreds. She seemed reluctant to get rid of them. Her boyfriend has dreds and she really likes them a lot. She made sure to communicate several times over the 15 minutes or so that I talked to her that I should seriously think about it before I make the change. Regardless, I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for the 30th. That gives me two weeks to contemplate it and either cancel or go through with it. Coincidentally, 4 people complemented me on my dreds over the course of the day Saturday. The cosmos is working against me it would seem. But I've got another couple of weeks to really think about it and figure out if this is the step I want to make.
After my consultation, I drove back home by way of Monte Sano Blvd. and took a side trip up to the lodge to take as many pictures as I could of the outside and the overlook where we want to have the ceremony. I took shots of the fixtures outside, the front of the lodge from up the driveway and from nearby, the two terraces, the loading dock on the left side, the sign at the entrance, the archway that leads to the front doors, the circle driveway, the view from the overlook, the overlook itself, the view of the lodge from the overlook, everything I could get. They were set up for an event, but no one was at the lodge so everything was locked down. I may go up some day this week (take a lunch break or something) and see if I can do the same for the interior. I've got a good group of shots so far to work from and the early morning sun was excellent lighting. I'd like to see the place in the dark, all lit up.
The rest of the afternoon, I lazily laid around reading and watched a movie (watched King Arthur, it's crap! that's another story for another time though) and a few cartoons, until about 9pm and then we went to meet Steff at Crossroads for Larry Keel.
I'm used to a small crowd there for him, but there was NO ONE there. At least no one I was expecting to be there anyway. Elizabeth was there with her fiance Cam, and so was dredy Dug and Evan of course. The band seemed tired, and rightfully so. They played Nashville Thursday, Asheville, NC Friday, then drove back down south for Huntsville Saturday. Their banjo player had a birthday in Asheville Friday night, so of course they were up partying. But they did manage to pull off a wonderful show. Just a little short I think. They did have to drive back to North Carolina at 1:30am after all.
Sunday started off to be an uber lazy day. But I managed to pull off some decent yard work before the day's end. I slept in until about noon, hung out reading and drinking coffee for another hour or so, then went down to play with the dogs for a bit in the yard.
Mogwai caught another mole and came proudly trotting up with it. It was still alive when he brought it up, but not for long. About five minutes later, he had killed it and was playing with it. Then, after about 10 minutes of watching him kick it around in the driveway, I had run up to grab some leather gloves to start working in the garden. As I ran back downstairs, I saw him as he was gobbling up the last bit of its head (or foot, I couldn't really tell). Not messy what so ever. He just chewed it up and swallowed it. I was a little surprised, but I guess that's what he's supposed to do naturally. And I'm not too worried about his health with those guys, because they're not known to eat trash like mice and rats (in fact, further research shows me their not rodents at all, they subside on insects alone). So, I made a deal with him. I told him he could be our mole exterminator for the summer, but he has to eat whatever he kills (reason being, I caught a strong whiff of the distinct smell of rotting flesh in a corner of the yard yesterday, explains the buzzards circling in the afternoon). They're an easy kill for him, once he gets them surfaced. They can't see him very well, after all. As I worked in the yard, I made sure to stomp down all the tunnels in the yard so that I know when and where they're making new ones. My research proves that we may, in fact, only have a couple of moles. They're not social creatures and once they're able, tunnel away from their mothers and pretty much live alone unless they're breeding. So the two I know he's killed (and however many more that I don't know he's killed) might be it. But I'll only know by watching the tunnel patterns. There are traps you can get too. But apparently, anything but trapping them isn't sufficient to get rid of them (no amount of poisons, gases, etc. are effective, there are no such things as humane mole traps either).
So, after that, I got to work in the larger of the two gardens (the one with the big Japanese maple). I pulled about 4, 5 gallon buckets full of weeds out of that bed and still only covered about a 5 sq. foot area (well, maybe a little more). My composter is over half full now.
In the process, I started pulling up the rocks that make the border and uncovered some of the moles' holes (but no moles) and a really strange looking snake. It looked like a huge earthworm, and I thought it was one until I noticed it indeed had scales, not segments, and that it had a tiny hairlike tongue sticking out periodically. Definitely not poisonous, but very strange looking. Seems to live underground and is naturally a little slimy (like a worm). Mogwai thought that was pretty fascinating as well, but I made sure to keep him from playing with it. Snakes are good in my book. Moles and mice are bad, at least in my yard anyway. Moles tear up the yard and garden, destroying root systems as they search for food (insects and earthworms that do us a lot of good). Mice eat our grain for beer, and we obviously can't have that. Snakes, well, they eat both of the above mentioned pests and pretty much without causing some trouble of their own (as long as you stay out of their way, if they happen to be poisonous).
At about 6pm or so, I decided to call it quits. Chris was happy I got out and did something in the yard. Those gardens have been overgrown for years though and this is going to be a long, arduous task. He did say he'd help me though, so that's good. I'll probably go home this afternoon and do some more, as long as there's daylight. The small area I did cover looks really nice.
In the process, I found a little Lily of the Valley blooming. Just a single one blooming between two trees in the garden. I want to take really good care of our St. John's Wort bush this year too. I want to actually harvest from it this summer (starts blooming in about mid-June). Sure will be nice to have good looking gardens though. The rest of the yard might just fall into place.
We talked again at great length about the possibility of buying the place. Seems to be a regular weekend conversation for us these days. Again, there is a lot to consider and a lot of conditions to be met.
We missed out on what we heard was an awesome get together at
branflake's place. Still kicking myself over that one. I'm sure she'd be kicking me too if she were here. :PSaturday, I got up early, took a shower and went to Attitudes in 5 pts. I had a consultation with Rachel (super cool stylist) about getting rid of the dreds. She seemed reluctant to get rid of them. Her boyfriend has dreds and she really likes them a lot. She made sure to communicate several times over the 15 minutes or so that I talked to her that I should seriously think about it before I make the change. Regardless, I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for the 30th. That gives me two weeks to contemplate it and either cancel or go through with it. Coincidentally, 4 people complemented me on my dreds over the course of the day Saturday. The cosmos is working against me it would seem. But I've got another couple of weeks to really think about it and figure out if this is the step I want to make.
After my consultation, I drove back home by way of Monte Sano Blvd. and took a side trip up to the lodge to take as many pictures as I could of the outside and the overlook where we want to have the ceremony. I took shots of the fixtures outside, the front of the lodge from up the driveway and from nearby, the two terraces, the loading dock on the left side, the sign at the entrance, the archway that leads to the front doors, the circle driveway, the view from the overlook, the overlook itself, the view of the lodge from the overlook, everything I could get. They were set up for an event, but no one was at the lodge so everything was locked down. I may go up some day this week (take a lunch break or something) and see if I can do the same for the interior. I've got a good group of shots so far to work from and the early morning sun was excellent lighting. I'd like to see the place in the dark, all lit up.
The rest of the afternoon, I lazily laid around reading and watched a movie (watched King Arthur, it's crap! that's another story for another time though) and a few cartoons, until about 9pm and then we went to meet Steff at Crossroads for Larry Keel.
I'm used to a small crowd there for him, but there was NO ONE there. At least no one I was expecting to be there anyway. Elizabeth was there with her fiance Cam, and so was dredy Dug and Evan of course. The band seemed tired, and rightfully so. They played Nashville Thursday, Asheville, NC Friday, then drove back down south for Huntsville Saturday. Their banjo player had a birthday in Asheville Friday night, so of course they were up partying. But they did manage to pull off a wonderful show. Just a little short I think. They did have to drive back to North Carolina at 1:30am after all.
Sunday started off to be an uber lazy day. But I managed to pull off some decent yard work before the day's end. I slept in until about noon, hung out reading and drinking coffee for another hour or so, then went down to play with the dogs for a bit in the yard.
Mogwai caught another mole and came proudly trotting up with it. It was still alive when he brought it up, but not for long. About five minutes later, he had killed it and was playing with it. Then, after about 10 minutes of watching him kick it around in the driveway, I had run up to grab some leather gloves to start working in the garden. As I ran back downstairs, I saw him as he was gobbling up the last bit of its head (or foot, I couldn't really tell). Not messy what so ever. He just chewed it up and swallowed it. I was a little surprised, but I guess that's what he's supposed to do naturally. And I'm not too worried about his health with those guys, because they're not known to eat trash like mice and rats (in fact, further research shows me their not rodents at all, they subside on insects alone). So, I made a deal with him. I told him he could be our mole exterminator for the summer, but he has to eat whatever he kills (reason being, I caught a strong whiff of the distinct smell of rotting flesh in a corner of the yard yesterday, explains the buzzards circling in the afternoon). They're an easy kill for him, once he gets them surfaced. They can't see him very well, after all. As I worked in the yard, I made sure to stomp down all the tunnels in the yard so that I know when and where they're making new ones. My research proves that we may, in fact, only have a couple of moles. They're not social creatures and once they're able, tunnel away from their mothers and pretty much live alone unless they're breeding. So the two I know he's killed (and however many more that I don't know he's killed) might be it. But I'll only know by watching the tunnel patterns. There are traps you can get too. But apparently, anything but trapping them isn't sufficient to get rid of them (no amount of poisons, gases, etc. are effective, there are no such things as humane mole traps either).
So, after that, I got to work in the larger of the two gardens (the one with the big Japanese maple). I pulled about 4, 5 gallon buckets full of weeds out of that bed and still only covered about a 5 sq. foot area (well, maybe a little more). My composter is over half full now.
In the process, I started pulling up the rocks that make the border and uncovered some of the moles' holes (but no moles) and a really strange looking snake. It looked like a huge earthworm, and I thought it was one until I noticed it indeed had scales, not segments, and that it had a tiny hairlike tongue sticking out periodically. Definitely not poisonous, but very strange looking. Seems to live underground and is naturally a little slimy (like a worm). Mogwai thought that was pretty fascinating as well, but I made sure to keep him from playing with it. Snakes are good in my book. Moles and mice are bad, at least in my yard anyway. Moles tear up the yard and garden, destroying root systems as they search for food (insects and earthworms that do us a lot of good). Mice eat our grain for beer, and we obviously can't have that. Snakes, well, they eat both of the above mentioned pests and pretty much without causing some trouble of their own (as long as you stay out of their way, if they happen to be poisonous).
At about 6pm or so, I decided to call it quits. Chris was happy I got out and did something in the yard. Those gardens have been overgrown for years though and this is going to be a long, arduous task. He did say he'd help me though, so that's good. I'll probably go home this afternoon and do some more, as long as there's daylight. The small area I did cover looks really nice.
In the process, I found a little Lily of the Valley blooming. Just a single one blooming between two trees in the garden. I want to take really good care of our St. John's Wort bush this year too. I want to actually harvest from it this summer (starts blooming in about mid-June). Sure will be nice to have good looking gardens though. The rest of the yard might just fall into place.
We talked again at great length about the possibility of buying the place. Seems to be a regular weekend conversation for us these days. Again, there is a lot to consider and a lot of conditions to be met.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2005-04-18 03:19 pm (UTC)getting married should help boost your tax return if you get one next year. this year i didnt owe any state anything and i got 3.3k more of a return on federal than i was expecting. even VA is giving a return. woohoo!
gee, i cant imagine you without your dreds. but if you decide to go through with it (even when others are complimenting you) then you are very brave :)
i'm so glad abby hasn't 'caught and brought' me any presents that were bigger than a cricket. poor little moles!
no subject
on 2005-04-20 10:13 am (UTC)yeah, we can probably go ahead and file jointly next year (could have this year, technically we were married May 4th of last year when we signed insurance papers, but it wouldn't have helped us much this time), other complications prevented us from truly being able to file jointly this year, plus, it actually worked out better to file separately. This way at least one of us gets a return.
The "to dred or not to dred" is a tough question in my mind right now. I'm fairly certain I'm going to go through with it though. Just feels like it's time for a major change. And after talking to the girl, I feel confident she can do something cool with my hair while it grows out. I certainly don't miss brushing it when it's this length though and that's what I'm aiming for is to grow it back out to this length again and keep it that way for quite a while.