I is for I Won!

The contents of my Geek and Sundry price package

Some days the topics just pops up all by itself! (Apologies in advance for all the !!!s today.)

I received an email a couple weeks ago that read simply “Congrats you won a complete set of Guild  DVDs from Geek & Sundry’s Arcade arms giveaway” and asked for my address information so they could send me my prize. The note was so nonchalant, but I flipped out!  I love Geek and Sundry! They’re a great collection of people and shows. And in case you forget, last year I won an X-Box from them! Geek and Sundry is something of a good luck charm for me.

In addition to the autographed DVDs covering seasons 1 through 5 of the Guild there was a nice selection of giveaways: a Plants vs. Zombies bumper sticker, 2 round Plants vs. Zombies window stickers. 2 Written by a Kid pens, a Geek and Sundry button, a Geek and Sundry lanyard, a Geek and Sundry wrist band, a Tabletop Day card, and last, but far from least, an Dungeons and Dragons Next button.

Edit: I also got a chocolate coin! It is so hot here today that I stuck it in the freezer because it felt melted when I opened the box. You can see Felicia Day show talk about and tasting the coins during this video.

Guess everyone knows what I’ll be watching for the next few days!

Safe travels,

Paul

Bonus: Link to the most recent episode of TableTop from the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel. Wil Wheaton and friends play Formula De. Time to add another game to the wish list.

H is for Home

Short one tonight:

It doesn’t matter if the house is neat, if the yard is mowed, or if there are dirty dishes in the sink. There really is no place like home.

Safe travels,

Paul

 

G is for Gardening

Some vegetables harvested from my in-laws’ garden last year.

This may count as part two of yesterday’s F is for Forestry post. As part of getting outside more and touching nature I’m going to start gardening.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I technically live on a farm. There are about 70 acres, and the family leases the land out to a local farming operation. In the five years I’ve lived here they have grown cotton, and soy beans, though they’ve also been known to plant corn here as well.

I certainly don’t plan on starting to plant even a significant portion of an acre. I’d like to begin simply with a raised bed or two, plus maybe some potted herbs.

Perhaps the oddest thing about my interest in farming is that I am not much of a vegetable eater. I’d like to grow some berries and peppers to begin with, and perhaps down the road grow some additional items like tomatoes and onions. Perhaps a few years down the road I will be able to grow everything I need for my own salsa and spaghetti sauce.

I’ve got a bit of a brown thumb, so I’m not certain how well it will work, but I’m hoping over time I can be successful enough to make the effort worthwhile. For this year, I think my definition of success would be harvesting enough of anything to serve as a side or desert for a single meal.

F is for Forestry

The back yard 5 years ago. This is the area we call the cutover. You can get an idea of how small the trees were on the left hand side of the photo.

Perhaps forestry is an exaggeration, but I’m trying to encourage certain trees in the area behind my back yard to grow by getting thinning the woods around them.

The property our house is on, and the area around us was once filled with taller trees, but many of them got blown over during a hurricane seven or eight years ago. Following the hurricane they cut and harvested all the large trees, but the land wasn’t fully cleared and replanted.

6 years ago 1 acre was cleared for our house, and some of the trees in the acre behind ours were cleared  to make room to push all the brush from our acre. I looked at some old pictures recently, and it is amazing how much the trees in that area have been growing, but almost all the trees are pines, and I’d like to see some of the deciduous trees thrive a little and provide us some fall colors.

The picture above shows the trees were mostly from 4-8 feet tall at that time, while the more recent picture below shows the current situation, with the trees in the 15-18 ft. tall range.

This morning I took an hour or so and opened up some breathing room for one tree. I’m worried it may already have been choked out by the surrounding trees, since it doesn’t seem to be showing any buds yet, but there’s another similar tree six feet behind it that looks healthier, so we’ll have to see how they make it through this year.

April 2013 image. Cutover is on the left edge of the photo. The tree I am trying to open space for is at the center of the photo, just left of the small gap in the shadows.

I think you can tell by the gap in the shadows on the ground where I cleared out a few trees. It was actually funny because while I felt like the area I cleared would be obvious, but when I stepped back from the trees it was harder to see than I expected.

I’m also hoping to create some shady areas near the edge of the woods that are open enough to perhaps be useful for just spending more time outside, or perhaps if the kids wanted to set up a tent out there and camp out.

And the last thing I’d like to do related to trees is plant some fruit or nut trees, though I’ve been trying to think just where on the property they should go so they don’t cause problems down the road. Need to do some more research before making any final decisions or purchases.

I’m not Paul Bunyan, but I’m not Johnny Appleseed either, but I’m trying to learn a bit and enjoy the land around me. Not quite sure where some of these desires are coming from, just feeling like I want to be more in touch with nature.

E is for Elizabeth

My wife, the love of my life.

For those who don’t know, Elizabeth is my wife. Long ago she knocked some sense into me (as described yesterday in D is for Driving) and I haven’t looked back.

We met on a blind date, arranged by another couple. Apparently I did not talk very much that night, and my friend who arranged the date didn’t think much would come of it, but the friends who set up the date got me her phone number about 2 days after the date and I caller her that night.

I don’t know if it was love at first sight, but it certainly didn’t take long. The first time I said ‘I love you’, it slipped out while leaving a message on her answering machine. I was quite nervous waiting for her to call. We laugh about it now, but I was extremely nervous, and wondered if she would even call me back. Obviously she did, or this would be a whole different story, probably involving tears.

Within 2 years of our first date we were married. Though I’d lived in North Carolina for about 18 months before we started dating, she happily introduced me to the culture of rural North Carolina. Her family included me in family reunions, and pig pickings. They taught me barbecue wasn’t just a thick ketchup-based sauce.

Last week we celebrated our 15th anniversary, and I could not imagine my life without her in it.

Elizabeth, I love you!

Everyone else, thank you for reading!

Safe travels,

Paul

 

D is for Driving

If my wife and I are driving somewhere together, I almost always drive. About the only time I don’t drive is if my wife is picking me up from someplace, or if I am sick.

It may go back to the day I met my wife. It was a blind date, and she was driving. At one intersection there was a bit of a hump in the road, and she drove over it fast enough that I hit my head on the roof of the car. We frequently joke that she knocked some sense into me when she hit that bump.

I used to be a bit of a speeder, and a visit home to New Jersey a couple of years ago proved that I can still drive aggressively when needed, but as a rule I drive within 5 MPH of the speed limit. I know it sometimes bothers drivers who apparently are willing to disregard the speed limit by an even greater margin. In fact while driving today, the classic little old lady passed me while we took a little shopping trip, but I maintained my speed at 5 miles above the limit and let her speed ahead.

Occasionally because of the way schedules go with kids activities, the kids will get the choose with which of us to ride. They’ll almost always pick my wife because they know she’ll usually get them home a little faster.

Bonus: One of my favorite songs about Driving:

C is for Cake

This is one of my favorite, and very simple cakes. My wife usually makes it for me on my birthday and other special occasions. I hesitate to call this a recipe since it is made from a packaged cake mix and 2 cans of store-bought frosting.

Make the cake mix per normal directions in a 9 x 13 pan. After it cooks use the handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the cake, in about a 2″ grid pattern. Take the lid off of the frosting, peeling the foil seal off. Warm the frosting in the microwave (start with 30-45 seconds depending on your microwave) until the frosting can be poured over the cake, try to pour and spread evenly. Let the cake cool to room temperature, and then move it to the refrigerator and let it fully cool. While you could eat this warm, or even once it hits room temperature, the frosting becomes almost fudge-like once it gets cold in the refrigerator.

Also, the photo shows it made with a yellow cake mix, but as a chocolate fiend, I like it even better with a chocolate cake mix.

Safe cooking!

Paul