Better late than never

My birthday was about two weeks ago (Sunday) and I wanted to share what I did that day.

One Way had 24-hour duty the night before, so he didn't come home until 9 a.m., which gave me a relaxing morning alone.

When he came home, we went for a hike with the puppies:



Uncle Devo was in town and we went over the illustrious Golf Farms where the slogan is "We grow great swings":







Then I returned home for a romantic candlelit dinner! Thanks for all the presents and cards everyone!!! I'm glad to be a quarter of a century old!

What I do

I know I've told everyone a few times what I do. But I figured I'd let you see the new re-designed Web site for one of my publications, This Week. It is still a work in progress, but here it is: www.thisweekmag.com

Also, you can click to download the entire publication to see what it would look like in print. It isn't much, but I work hard at it (and don't forget I have another publication, Coastal Living Real Estate, and I write features for the B-section of the paper). Here's that Web site: www.carteretnewstimes.com

And what does One Way do? He goes on cruises ... phhhfff!

Halloween funnies with the Streets

I wanted to share our Halloween story for everyone:

As many of you know, we live in a neighborhood heavily populated by young families and a plethora of hooligan children. One Way -- for the first time since I've known him -- got really excited about scaring (scarring?) children for Halloween this year.

His original intention was to put on the Jason of Friday the 13th fame's mask, put dry ice along the outside of the garage, and jump out with chainsaw revving. This idea was laid to rest on a quick neighborhood query discovered another chainsaw artist down the road.

My idea was to be a shower murder victim. I wrapped myself in a shower curtain, wet my hair, and added stab wounds and plenty of blood.

With One Way in the Jason mask, I had him stand 15 feet behind me holding a knife. When I opened the door, the kids would see me and get their candy. Then, I would step to the side so they can see my killer. We got plenty of very scared kids. One Way stood there, knife held high, not moving. It was great.

So that's how the night went on ...

Then, we got bombarded by kiddies. About eight or so crowded the doorway, hands diving in for candy.

One kiddie dropped his candy inside the house. As he reached inside to pick it up, I said excitedly: "Watch out! Jason's in there; he killed me!"

Kiddie looks up and nonchalantly replies: "Oh, well, Jason's cleaning the floor."

I look behind me. Sure enough, there's One Way on his hands and knees, in the Jason mask, cleaning the floor.

"Well, he's scary good at cleaning," was all I could think to say.

So much for spooking that group of kids!

Welcome back and thank you, Brian

My brother-in-law, Brian, returned from Iraq a couple days ago. Like the rest of the nation, I have a wealth of gratitude and respect for him and our other soldiers. He has proven to not only be a good husband and father, but has also done something that not many of us would do. He willingly walked into harm's way to protect and aid U.S. soldiers, and the people of Iraq.

This Veterans Day, please don't forget to thank a veteran.

Yoda gets new Dagobah

Caring for our turtle Yoda has had interesting fallout. The first is that we (I mean "I") have had to learn about reptiles and box turtles. Next, we've ("I") have done research on the character of Yoda. Now, I not only know that Carolina Box Turtles enjoy water, but I also know that Yoda was exiled to the planet Dagobah in Star Wars ...

Most of you aren't surprised, are you? Dang ... dorky dork.

Well, after Yoda's lost battle against the Red Fire Ant Invasion, he recouped inside the house. One Way and I (I mean "One Way") went ahead and built him an ant-proof enclosure that had some of the benefits of the raised garden bed (outside, roomy).

We decided a porch herb box would do well as the new Dagobah for Yoda.



Here's One Way's shout out to Yoda:



And here is the final product:

Master bed/bath finally completed!

Well, I've been putting it off for a while, but I have finally completed decorations in the master bedroom and bathroom. If you've seen our bathroom, the only thing it has mastered is a unique smallness found only in doll houses, so it was a bit of challenge to decorate.

Also, in our bedroom, we had a huge expanse of empty wall that begged for creativity.

Both rooms got what was coming to them:



BTW, that wire macaw was custom constructed by me :)



Yes, those are our vows in the center of those photos! On the left is from our ceremony. The photos on right is from our wedding reception.

Hanna and more

Thanks to everyone who called worried about us and the approaching storm! Well, the weekend was certainly eventful, but it wasn't the 40 mph winds or the rains that made it so.

Let's start with Friday. I picked up some superworms and waxworms for Yoda at Petsmart because garden grubs and earth worms have been slim pickings for the last week. As some of you know, Yoda has made the transition to a full-time outdoor turtle in our newly-built raised garden bed.

I fed him a worm and, like usual, watched him kill it. Usually, at this point, I walk away because no one needs to watch a turtle swallow a worm. But, it was a new type of worm and I was curious as to how Yoda planned on using his Jedi mind powers to swallow it.

Suddenly, around 10 or so red fire ants attacked Yoda! I quickly scooped him up and washed the ants off of him inside. It is now Sunday and he is still pretty sickly. One got him in his left eye, poor turtle. He's eating, at least, but still feeling quite poopy.

He has been brought inside until he fully heals ... meanwhile, I opened a can of whoop-ass on those ants and now they fear our backyard.

Here's Yoda in recovery:



Here he is. That red stuff around his neck is the reptile bark. But you can see his left eye is pretty swollen and he looks pretty unhappy.



At this time we expect Yoda to make a full recovery, but have begun looking up exotic vets in the area just in case he needs some anti-biotics for infection. (Or eye removal)

One Way and his ship were sent out to sea and left me to weather the storm by myself. I took this time to plant our fall veggies and mulch it with leftover newspaper (of which we have an overabundance!). Naturally, I killed all the ants surrounding and in the bed before planting and mulching. I will diligently guard the yard from those invasive little suckers. Yoda will go back out hopefully in a week or less.



Hope you enjoyed your weekend!