wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

(inspired by an old friend who wrote a great book)

1. Running is hard - but oh-so-good feeling (and good for me)

2. My stress level is directly impacted by how well staffed my store is

3. No matter how overworked or stressed I become, I still manage to find time to support and encourage my friends

4. I miss golfing

4 b. I miss golfing with Tom

5. The more I reach out to communicate with my boss, the more inspired and encouraging he seems

6. My love for Scrubs… wasn’t just a fling

7. I think my dogs miss our afternoon hangouts

8. I feel more connected to Nashville than I ever thought I would… but that’s probably just because of my friends.

…not much of a post, sorry, but it feels good to get something on here.

it’s hot, and nothing much has been happening with life. it’s been in the 90’s the last few days…it’s kind of weird to drive to work at 8:30 in the morning when it’s already 80 degrees out. yuck, but nice at the same time. it actually feels good to walk outside after sitting in a cold office for a few hours…everyone runs their ac’s so cold here- i have to wear a sweater inside. seriously, people!

everyone also runs their ac’s so early here, wil and i were proud to say we went all the way to june 1st without turning ours on. leaving our house wide open was fun for a while…kind of warm during the day, but wonderfully pleasant in the evening and at night. and the dogs loved being able to just go in and out at will, although after two seconds outside they come in, dramatically panting and throwing themselves onto the tile floor in heat exhaustion…i think they play it up on purpose just to get more ice cubes*.

we are also excited to have seen the first firefly of the season. there are certain things i will miss if i ever leave this place…lightning bugs is one of them. so nostalgic of summer. i love it.

ok, you can tell i’m really reaching for something interesting to talk about…but there’s really nothing. wil and i go to napa next week for van’s graduation and family visit, so that should be pretty fun and a nice change of pace. i think wil’s ready for a break from work longer than 2 days…come to think of it he hasn’t had one since new years. maybe then we’ll have something entertaining for you to read or look at… 

*i have not had another sighting to confirm it has fully sunk in to her brain, but ava discovered the ice machine and that if she pushes it with her nose, either water or ice will come out! we had no part in this…one evening while cooking i heard the machine go on, and turned around and saw ava sticking her nose in the fridge door! i hope she tries again, and i have a camera in hand.

I’ve got 3 or 4 things I want to write about… but I don’t want to overload all of our faithful readers, so check back over the next week. I’m sure we’ll have some new stuff going on!

So, the other night, Kris and I went to Target to get me some new work clothes. Woo hoo! We walked around the store, picking out a bunch of stuff. I got 3 new shirts, some dress socks, some workout clothes and a new belt. All in all, I got everything I needed and wanted. The excitement, thought, was just about to begin.

We kindly declined our Target Visa offer and headed out the door. As we were walking out, we saw a bunch of people standing, looking to the left side of the lot. “There’s a car on fire!” someone shouted. My hear immediately jumped because everyone was looking right over where we parked our car! I looked over and saw a white mini-van parked two cars away from ours that was engulfed in flames! The flames were coming out the sides of the hood and from underneath. You could see some stuff falling off and dripping onto the ground below the car. The thick black smoke billowed up. This car was not overheated or anything… it was ON FIRE!

People were running around crazily yelling for people to call 911, even while there were about 20 people already on the phone with the fire department. A bunch of people darted towards the fire to get their own car out of the way. I started running for mine, then thought for a sec and decided that wasn’t the best idea. Funny thing about that: I didn’t think that I might die or anything, i thought, “wow… If that car blows up when I’m right next to it, I’ll look really stupid!” Luckily I thought quickly enough and didn’t end up looking stupid at all, yay!

We were sitting on the curb next to the entrance with a bunch of other people and a black car pulled up.  The driver got out and the lady in the passenger seat rolled down her window and started yelling at everybody, “That car’s gonna blow up!  Stay back everybody!  It’s gonna blow!”  She just kept shouting at everyone, warning them about the dangers of fire.  -Thanks ma’am, I don’t know what I would’ve done without your vast knowledge of what fire does to living people!

While everyone else was on their phone with 911 or the fire department, I pulled my phone out to snap a few pictures.  I was trying to get close enough to get some detail and thought about how big of a prick I probably looked like.  meh.

Here’s my car, you can see how close the fire actually was!

Another shot of how close our car was to burning to the ground!

“Hello! From the fire-y parking lot of Target!” -this should be a postcard

Here’s the black car with the crazy yelling lady… and the Fire guys doing their thing.  Luckily there was nobody inside.

This shot is from my driver-side door… they’re trying to get the hood open or something.  Anyone know a good great mechanic?

I’m glad we got out of the store when we did.  It would’ve been really sad to miss it all!

i’m not one to have any interest in politics, but while looking for cookie recipes online (that’s definitely what i tend to be interested in more…) i came across an article about tennessee and i thought some facts were pretty interesting to pass along.

a while ago i heard on the radio that lobbyists were trying to get tennessee legislature to pass a law allowing grocery stores to carry wine. i’m not that much of a drinker…maybe a glass every week or so, but this little tidbit of news really intrigued me when it first came up. it seems kind of silly that tn is one of the remaining few states to not sell wine in grocery stores, and it would just be so nice to not have to make a special trip to a liquor store and instead be able to grab a bottle during a normal grocery trip. so i was quietly rooting for it to pass as i continued to hear a snippet or two every few weeks about it on the radio in my car. but tonight, i think i’ve found out that it probably won’t pass.

“This year’s effort to put wine in grocery stores got stuck in the mud. Despite the support of thousands of voters who e-mailed, called and signed petitions; despite more than 200 news clips, the bill was shipped off to a summer study committee. Which is legis-speak for it needs CPR this session.” ok…so no wine this year…

in explaining that since it was popular this year, it will be brought back again, and possibly again for a few years because tennessee just does things at their own pace. a slow one that is. here are a few things that makes us that way:

• it took 20 years for a lottery to pass (just started a couple years ago). WOW, ok.
• adults were not required to wear seat belts while driving until 2004. WHAT!?!
• legislature has been debating on banning open alcohol containers for almost 20 years…unbeknown to me, i guess drinking alcohol in the car isn’t such a big deal because “people like a beer on the way to football games, so state law allows everyone but the driver to legally quaff”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

where do i live? what the heck? i was physically laughing while typing the alcohol one because of the absurdity. but with all that said, the article did end on a good note…that because trader joes is coming to green hills in the fall (WAHOO!), the chain probably wouldn’t have made that commitment if they weren’t confident that the bill would pass soon enough.

bring on the two buck chuck!

…while sitting on my porch.

this is sure to be one of my favorite summer pastimes.  the other night, it was about 60 degrees outside so kris and i (and of course, the beasts that are our dogs) decided to spend the evening sitting out on the porch enjoying the warm air we all miss so much.

i decided to grab one of my new pipes and light it up.  this was the first time i had a chance to do a little smoking since christmas… the weather has been so poor this winter.

so, kris was snapping some pictures, and i was smoking away.  the dogs were meandering around, sniffing the smoke, wondering what the heck it was that i was putting into my mouth.  it was a pretty enjoyable evening.  hopefully i’ll have many more opportunities this year to enjoy one of my favorite birthday presents i’ve ever received.

man, it has been stinking hot the last few days…yesterday it was already up to 90 degrees on my way to work at 8:45! the ac’s are running wild, the bugs are humming and everyone is trying to stay cool. two minutes outside and you’re already glistening with sweat! i don’t know how wil managed to mow the lawn in the midday heat yesterday, without keeling over. bleh!

We’re making progress on the house… sort of.

Tomorrow was supposed to be our closing day. We took the day off (so did the homeowners) so that we could attend and get it done! Too bad we are having problems with our underwriter and won’t be able to close until wednesday, thursday or friday!

Apparently this lady (the underwriter) has a reputation for being the most stubborn person ever. She keeps changing her mind on what documents are needed and can’t keep track of the ones that she already has. Because she is doing this, there was no physical way for us to get all the documents to her in time to close tomorrow.

We are bummed, the homeowners are upset and it’s all kind of a mess right now. I spent the entirety of my day (even while at work) working to find out what was still needed and getting that taken care of and sent in so that we could close before the end of the week (when we leave for hawaii).

To make things more complicated, kris will be gone in atlanta with her work from wednesday through friday…the tuesday closing worked perfectly until we were unable to close then. All of the sudden we had to get a power of attorney drafted so that i can sign for kristen when we close on wednesday (or whenever it may be). We get to wake up early tomorrow to have a notary witness us signing this contract, before kris goes to work.

Last i heard, we had all of the documents needed and we will be able to close on wednesday morning (at my work since i will be there). I will call our broker tomorrow morning to make sure there is nothing left.

I want to send out a special thanks to Shiloh for getting the 3rd copy of my verification of employment together for the lady; and thanks to my family in oregon… who graciously spent much of their time (on vacation) helping kris and i out.

It looks like we’ll actually have a house soon!

Kris and i have done a lot of planning when it comes to things we want to repair/upgrade, and where we are going to put everything. I’ll let her post info about that… considering it is what she does for a living and everything…

-wil