Picking Fruit

Finally...a bountiful harvest! I finally had more than one tomato to pick this morning! Five of my small grape tomatoes were ready for picking this morning and should be great on my salad-in-a-bag salad tonight. It's really cool to be able to grow some things, but it's also disappointing that they aren't producing as much as I think they should. I water all of them regularly, but I think it's the lack of sunlight that's hurting them. Thanks to the evergrowing trees next to my balcony they only get a couple of hours of direct sunlight in the afternoons. I guess each growing season I'll learn new tricks and will hopefully grow a green thumb as I try more things.

Click here to see my photos in chronological order, like a scrap book for my plants: Porch Garden 2008

Juicy

One of the best things about summer is watermelon. Since I've been working and buying groceries regularly I've often thought it was odd that grocery stores no longer generally have full size watermelons, but recently I've broken down and bought two "personal size" seedless watermelons. I'd forgotten what I was missing. That's some good stuff and good for you!

Happy Independence Day!

Wanderings

So it's been over a month since I last posted. I think that may be the longest haitus I've taken since I started blogging my last semester at Tech in Spring 2003. Over the preceeding month I've been pretty busy with with life, work, and travel and I won't do the experiences justice by trying to narrate the past so I'll hit it all in bullet form with commentary. Photos are available for most of the events on Facebook and will probably be more interesting than my ramblings below.

• Softball season ended, we finished first in our league but didn't enter the tournament thanks to a unilateral decision by our coach. Not too pleased about it, but I had fun and am really starting to feel like I'm part of the team after three seasons.
  
  
• Attended a wedding for one of my friends from school and Scouts in Augusta. Drove down Friday afternoon and went out with the wedding party and my friend Mark for drinks that evening. I'm glad the ceremony was inside since it was the week of 100 degrees everyday! Had fun at the reception with friends I haven't seen in awhile. Ended up staying at B&B with my second family the Handysides on Saturday night and had fun out on the town after the wedding. Congrats to Michael and Andy (real name is Andrea)!
  
  
• My company's seventh annual conference was the following week and of the three I've attended it was by far the best. We had close to 300 developers, bankers, property managers, investors, and other professionals in attendance. The golf tournament which I co-organized went very well and received many complements, and hey, you can't beat free golf. Unfortunately my foursome didn't win first and the Ipod classics, but good times nonetheless.
  
  
• My dad came up Father's Day weekend with the intention of us taking my granddad to the WWII Memorial in DC, but unfortunately grandaddy wasn't feeling well. Saturday my dad and I went to Wilson for some tasty bbq at Parker's. Sunday we went to IHOP for a Father's Day brunch with him, my aunt and uncle that were in town too, and my grandmother.
  
  
• The most exciting event was the following weekend which was Mark and Megan's wedding in Jackson, TN. This was my first time in a wedding and I figured I might as well go almost all the way to the top and was honored to serve as Mark's best man. Thursday most of the groomsmen flew to Nashville, enjoyed the lively nightlife, and spent the night downtown. Nashville seems like a great place and I'd like to go back when I have time to take in the sights.
  
  Friday morning I went searching for a pair of dress shoes I'd found in Raleigh but unfortunately the store didn't have my size so I risked it and found the shoes at the same store in Nashville thanks to the wonders of the internet. After driving around and finding the Parthanon, we hit the road to Jackson 2.5 hrs away. Friday evening was the rehersal which went well and then the rehearsal dinner. At the rehearsal dinner I was to make my speech and I was pretty nervous. I know I stuttered some, but I think I got the gist of my message across (note to self, next time use bullet points on the note cards). Also I presented what took most of my evening hours for the past month, the newly traditional bride and groom growing up picture slideshow/movie. Building the show was a much bigger task than I realized going in, but it was worth it and I'm really glad to have those songs out of my head now after hearing them over and over for a month. After dinner the wedding party headed out to the Jackson hotspot, the bowling alley with kareoke and laser tag though I didn't know about laser tag until we left which kind of bummed me out. Mark, Daniel, and I, all Georgia boys, ventured up on stage to "sing" Chattahoochee and make fools of ourselves but had fun nonetheless. I'm sure I wouldn't have done that just a few years ago, it's good to lighten up.
  
  Saturday, the grooomsmen, Mark, and his dad and granddad all went to Longhorn for lunch and then I drove Mark around on errands while everyone else hung out until photo time later in the afternoon. The wedding started at 6:30 and went very well and thankfully nobody passed out. After more picture taking, the group headed to the reception where we had a great time in a former Carnegie Library in downtown Jackson. After the reception wound down, I hung out with Josh and Laura at the hotel talking. Overall a great day.
  
  Sunday, breakfast at Cracker Barrell with my dad and then headed back to Nashville and then Raleigh.
  
  FYI, use Priceline to bid on rental cars, you'll save big bucks.
  
  
• Less than 15 hours later I was back in the airport Monday morning for a 3 day trip to Kentucky. Monday was mostly a travel day and then dinner with developers in Corbin, KY (birth place of KFC, the museum isn't worth a special trip but make sure to stop by when you're in town). Tuesday attended the grand openning for one of my projects and did a little speach which I think went better than my best man toast. Dropped a coworker at the Lexington airport then headed to Ashland to visit an historic building that we're considering for an investment. Got back to Lexington around 10 PM. Wednesday met with the accountants for the recently opened project to go over some stuff then flew back to Raleigh.

Now hear I am. I love traveling, but sometimes it's nice to be at home and in the office.

One other noteworthy item is that I started running in the mornings about the same time I stopped blogging. Amazingly I've been able to keep it up which hasn't happened before and have noticed some fitness improvement! Unfortunately it's screwed up my long, long time morning schedule but I can deal. It's also probably why I haven't blogged much because I usually do it in the morning before work and have compressed my schedule with the exercise.

If you made it this far, congrats! Now go get a life! ;)