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!

Sweat equity

For those of you who are familiar with our house saga, you know about the infamous crater. Our perfect little starter home was handed to us in a fleece: the gas fireplace does not have gas logs, but real ones; and the backyard came equiped with its own pool-shaped crater (from the above-ground pool we had removed in the contingency contract).

This crater has stared at us every time we visit the backyard. It doesn't just sit there; it looms. It has even gone so far as to laugh at us -- which we don't quite appreciate.

Dealing with the crater has been on our to do list since we discovered it (naturally, after signing the contract for the house, site unseen). But like most things on to do lists, we never thought we'd actually get around to it.

For the last week, One Way and I have been busy at work finishing our raised garden bed which will double as a large terrarium for Yoda. After filling in the dirt Friday night (instead of going to temple ...), we decided that on Saturday we'd go to the garden center to look for fall/winter planting seeds for the garden. Though we went to the center on Saturday, what we came home with was three truck loads of top soil -- and stoic determination to fill in the crater.

It was kind of hot -- not Charleston-hot, mind you, but hot enough for me to decide this would be a perfect opportunity for me to document One Way filling in the crater, and sit in the shade. So, I took some photos.

In the photo, you can see that One Way and I have filled in much of the crater, which I have now dubbed the Black Sea.



When One Way notices I'm taking pictures, he decides to show off a little.





Here is a nice photo of the Black Sea.



Here we can see that the crater has indeed been vanquished. Hip hip hooray! (One Way is talking to his mama on the phone about his accomplishment)



Then, I got distracted by our pretty Zinnias in bloom.



One Way seeded the Black Sea.



And then our Black Sea was transformed into the Straw Sea.



At the end of the day, Ana was exhausted, which baffled both One Way and me, since she sat inside while we worked.

Cheyenne's bachelorette party!!!

(Shield your eyes, Gramps ... this post has girls having fun and gratuitous pictures of depictions of male appendages)

Well, 700 miles and back from Charlotte for Cheyenne's last hoorah as a single gal. The weekend also comprised Cheyenne's bridal luncheon, which was very classy and very unlike Saturday evening.

Because unclassy pictures are more fun, I have decided to post the pics from the bachelorette party (yes, One Way, I took my million dollar camera out to the bars and dancing ...). Can you find all the penises on this post?

To kick off the evening, we decorated and had champagne.





Before opening presents, Ms. Francie held story time for all the gals. She regaled us with tales of her youth (though curiously withheld her old nickname of "Miss Cheese").



Then, on to presents. Here, Cheyenne examines a present closely and determines it must be a shirt ...



No? Not a shirt ... hmmmm ... well, I'm sure she'll get some good use out of it anyway.



What's this?



Incredulously, Cheyenne tries to be coy around her mother.



Now that we are sufficiently red-in-the-face from champagne and penis-talk, we get ready to leave the house (look, I'm actually in a picture on the blog!!!)



After a harrowing cab ride (our cabbie had just finished playing Grand Theft Auto, hijacked this van from a poor old lady -- her license picture still donned to windows -- and nearly ran over all the "extras" on the sidewalks ... sweet ...), we arrived at Zink's in downtown Charlotte. Delicious. Plus, they gave us crayons and let us draw on the paper. What did we draw? Well, at least one of us drew a penis. The rest did classy things like "Cheyenne and Marson = love." We all know who drew the penis but she's not in THIS photo...



After dinner, we gave Cheyenne her mission list for the night. She had a lot of tasks to complete. In this photo, it is the end of the night after every single one was completed (OK, most).



We then went every where our fearless Bachelorette wanted to go.



... And took a lot of shots.



... And then, of course, we danced. Here Chey fulfills two of her list obligation: dancing with a bald guy and dancing on a table (which is actually a stage, but we counted it):



And, here, the gals get on the balcony and shake their stuff!



We ran into Moraccan man/Flav-A-Flav/who the hell was that guy?



Some of us kept on wanting to live out our single-hood ... Cheyenne?



That's all for now folks. How many penis did you see?

Like Buddha under the Lotis tree

She's got the belly alright! And for those of you wondering, that "tree" is a holly bush that has been modified to look better in our yard, compliments of One Way and his hedge clippers.

Just call him Captain One Way

Well, the pressures of seeing happy men fishing independently on their personal watercrafts finally cause old One Way to snap. He was haunted by the need to have a boat. It filled his every fiber.

So, he went to the boat dealer and decided to make the purchase. Naturally, I would like a boat too ... so after being very angry at him for not consulting me on my opinion before making a decision, I was happy we got a boat.

Here are some pics of One Way enjoying "our" new boat. By the way, we've caught three edible fish off the boat in the last three weeks. To my estimation, each fish cost us around $3,333. MmmmmMmmm that's good eating.