Jamie Danford

Three more reasons why working in a shipyard is FUN...

1.) It's totally okay to drop the 'F-bomb' at any time, in any context.

2.) There are only TWO females in the entire complex... less estrogen = less DRAMA (Sorry fems, it's true.)

3.) US Coast Guard dudes in uniform... really, need I say more????  

 

Crampin' my style...

Ya know... there was a time in my life when I stalked the dark streets of Dhuland as a fearless teenager. No flashlight, no mace, just the occasional streetlight to light the way to whatever kind of trouble I was lookin' to find... which was usually my boyfriend's house a mere 2 miles from my bedroom window.  

Fast forward to 2012, and this girl does NOT feel so fearless.  

Now that I'm working again (yep, the temporary week-long gig turned into something a little more permanent for the time being) I've been relegated to running in the evenings.  This sucks.

How bad does it suck?

Oh, let me count the ways...

First of all, there's the dinner obstacle.  We eat early... like 4:30.  So there's the required digestion time, and then there's the risk of TOO much digestion, which in turn begets the unfortunate 'pinch walk' home.  

Tonight's ten miler ended in a walk, but thankfully it wasn't because of any prairie doggin.  I had to walk the last half mile or so because it was so stinkin' dark I couldn't see the roots and cracks that run across the asphalt on my street, and I was scared that I'd end up on my face.

Oh, and by the way... my ten miler, turned into a 9.44 miler because I'm OLD and BLIND in the dark and I couldn't remember which button to push for the light on my Garmin, and I thought it said 9.99.  Um... no.

Yep, this running in the P.M is not for me, but what's a girl to do?  I've gotta get a serious attitude adjustment... SOON.  

But for now, I'll revel in my {almost} ten miler and be happy that I got out there and did it.  

Phew!

:)

 

Wish list...

Well well well... looks like somebody around here is turning FORTY in a little over a week.  Yep, this Labor Day baby is hittin' the big time on September 4th.  

This makes me REALLY happy.  I love the idea of turning forty.  No... seriously, I didn't just fall down and bump my head.  I mean it!  Every year that I'm a step further away from the stupidity of the teens and twenties is seen as a success in my book.  

So, with that in mind, I think I'll make me a little birthday list... heck, a girl can dream right?

~Bondi Band , headband... LOVE them! I want this one...

~This cute charm necklace from There She Goes...

~This TIDE spirit flag for the DHU...

~This bad ass skillet for the stovetop and oven so I can make pork chops like Mendy the Hottie Neighbor...

~A gift card for The Melting Pot

Nom nom nom... damn that place is expensive!

~A bottle or twelve of my favorite wine, Zen of Zin

~A gift certificate to A Perfect Touch Massage

 ~Any OPI nail polish... YUM!

~Pretty much ANY Yellow Box flip flop ever made...

~A Fleet Feet Savannah gift card...

(I'll take one of everything in the photo... drool.)

And while I'm dreamin'... I sure would like a fancy schmancy road bike...

...or my dream machine, an elliptical machine for my own personal enjoyment and massive sweat production...

But...

BUt...

BUT...

I know that I've got my birthday cruise coming up (mid October) and THAT is my big present... and THAT is awesome enough!  (Thanks Big Dave I love you!!)

But, just in case anyone wants to drop off that $2000 elliptical, give me a head's up so I can make some room... 

;)

 

 

 

Cock~A~Doodle~OOPS!!

Remember those two baby chicks we got a few months ago?  Precious Eloise and the Lovely Miss Betty?  Well, we've had a bit of a development in recent weeks.  

It started when I thought I heard a scratchy, gurgly sound coming from the chicken coop one morning.  'Hmmm... that's a strange noise,' I thought to myself.  

I told Big Dave about the sound, and we wondered if perhaps we might have accidentally gotten a BOY chicken instead of two girls.  But then the sound kinda went away and we let it go.  

Fast foward six weeks.  Big Dave made a comment this past weekend that Eloise sure did look like she was getting thick feathers around her neck... a sign he's noticed in male turkeys.  "I bet that chicken's a rooster," he said not even two days ago.

And then last night as I was helping Lizzy with her American Government homework (gag... BORING)  I heard the telltale crowing of a big bad BOY chicken.  Cock~A~Doodle~DOooooOOOo!!

We rushed outside and sure enough, it looks like Eloise is really Theodore.  Which of course means that Miss Betty is now Eloise.  (We named the chickens after the elderly woman who sold us our house and her daughter, but now we're changing them to the woman and her husband... yes, it's a frickin chicken soap opera around here.)

And without further ado, I present...

Theodore~

 

Lord help us!

Back at the Shipyard...

While lying on my bed reading

yesterday, I got a text from my old boss Cory (from the shipyard.)  He asked if I would be willing to come in to help with pricing a big bid that they're working on, and I was like, 'heck YES!'  It's only a week's worth of work, but I'm digging the paycheck since I just had to pay the final balance for my BIRTHDAY CRUISE.

So I dropped the kiddo at school this morning and headed to the NEW shipyard.  Yep, my peeps moved from the far side of the river to the Pt. Wentworth side, into the old Colonial Oil facility on the Ga. Port.  Talk about a step UP in the world!!   The guys went from a shotgun office on a dirt road on Hutchinson Island, to a multi story office building complete with elevator, WOMEN'S restroom (yessss!)  

and drydocks worthy of much bigger vessels.... which means BIGGER contracts!  (And maybe an additional employee???? I guess we'll see.)

And as usual, as I was going through the 1100 pages of specs, the world of ship repair brought me a couple of double entendre gems to share (why is marine work SO dirrrrty?)

Uh oh... looks like somebody's gonna be hurtin!  

And my personal favorite...

I'm not real sure what a 'pet cock' is, but I've got a couple of theories.  

Chuckle~

 

Rollin' on da Southside: A Bicycle Safari...

This morning found me staring at the training plan with a grimace... TEN miles?  Um, hell no.  Yesterday my hiney/leg pain brought me to a shuffling halt after only three miles.  What's a girl to do?

Mount up and get rollin' to give this gam of mine a break!

 I decided that it would need to be a looooong ride to give me the right calorie burn, which meant either riding circles around my 'hood, or... or... OR... heading out onto SCARY Coffee Bluff Road... NO bike path, hardly any shoulder to speak of, and PLENTY of traffic going 45 mph.  My mother would KILL me if she knew I did it.

But off I went.

I'd been dying to explore Vernonburg, an unincorporated little 'town' three miles up the road, so that's where I headed first.  (With my crappy phone camera tucked in my boobs.)

The Coffee Bluff area is eat up with Civil War history, and Vernonburg has it's share worthy of boasting...

Ooooh, the Capture of the 'Water Witch'... cool.  Who said excercise can't be educational? 

Vernonburg was beautiful, such an eclectic mix of houses... small bungalows overlooking the Vernon River, stately Mediteranean estates with pools and private drives...

(Oh you know I'm the first person to throw a bitch fit when someone rides a golf cart or four wheeler down our private drive, but lookit me cruisin' on the Huffy through somebody elses... what a rebel.)

And there's even a couple of horse barns speckled here and there...

I found myself at the end of the road, where the new Truman Parkway construction is about to connect White Bluff and Whitfield over the Vernon...

It was creeeeepy.  I bet a hobo lives there. I snapped the pic and hauled booty outta there, retracing my route back for another three miles until I got back to White Bluff.

From there, I headed up into my old stompin' grounds, Windsor Forest.

Took a cruise through my old high school...

Go Knights!

There were a couple of cops on horseback, and I wanted to get a picture of them for my safari, but I was scared they'd say something to me about not wearing a helmet so I just pedaled my chickeny behind right on by and headed to Tribble Park...

It's SO pretty, and quiet, and... um, well, park-like.  I sweated out a lot of miles on this .6 mile track when I lived over here.  Honestly, if you live on the Southside, you should check it out, it's so peaceful.        (Unless you have an a-hole whizzing past you on her bicycle, of course.)  

I stopped at my old house, where Kristine lives now, and rang the doorbell 'til I woke her sleeping teens who, despite being roused from their slumber, managed to be lovely hosts and fed me lots of water... even though I'm pretty sure I was stinking up their kitchen and dripping on their floor.  

Thanks A and T!

Then it was back on the bike...  I stopped by Coffee Bluff Marina, just to round out the safari...

When the safari was over, I'd wheeled through 20.3 miles of my beautiful, Southside community, landing back in the DHU in a little under two hours.  I'd had so much fun snapping pics and discovering new places that I'd barely noticed the miles ticking away... what a great day!

Hmmm... where should I go next?  

I've got nuthin'...

It's been a terribly mudane week here in Dhuland... yep, no wild chicken chases, no nekkid swim parties, no amazing scrapbooking endeavors.  Nope. Nuthin'.

However, there have been lots of little things floating around that could probably be added up to make one big lump o' loveliness, like:

~We got Lizzy's official "Welcome to High School" letter from SCPS.  Whoa.  Of course they didn't put her schedule in there b/c that would be too stinkin' convenient, and I'd actually be able to BUY SCHOOL SUPPLIES on our tax free weekend, which happens to be... um... NOW.   So we'll go to her Freshman orientation this Tuesday where she'll get her schedule, probably throw a shit fit because she didn't get a class with her bff and get a tour of the school.  EEEEK!

~I hit my longest mileage mark on Wednesday.  FIFTEEN frickin' miles.  Good LORD.  This week's schedule calls for a sixteen miler, but I read a really good article about having a 'drop down week' every few weeks, which is supposed to help reduce the risk of injury, so I'm gonna drop down to a ten miler.  SO funny... um, when did a ten miler become a short run?  I've lost my mind.

~Big Dave's started playing league softball again. YAY!  There's something so damned sexy about a man with a bat in his hand.  Just sayin'.

~My new friend Chris came over today for a treasure hunt.  He brought his friend, the metal detector expert dude, and we walked around our property listening for beeps that would indicate buried goodies in the hallowed grounds of the DHU.  He found a few WWII era bullets and a couple of chunks of unidentifiable metal, but nothing else.  Still, pretty cool.  

~Lizzy had her end of the Summer youth group lock-in last night.  Of course she had a BLAST.  Our church's youth pastor rocks and goes all out when it comes to getting teenagers to let their walls down and just have good old fashioned fun and fellowship.  They had a Spaghettio slip n slide, yes... they actually had to roll around in Spaghettios... chuckle... then they had to get in baby pools filled with SPAM and pick it up with their feet and pass it to a teammate.  Each team then had to choose their smallest member (those poor little sixth graders!) dress them in a swim cap, lather the cap with peanut butter and dunk them in buckets of Cheerios to see who could get the most.  Holy crap, that is SO funny!  Lizzy said she smelled like a ball of vomit by the time it was over, but of course she LOVED every minute of it.  

The rest of the week consisted of minutiae...

I gave the dogs their flea pills.

I read a FILTHY book.

We bought school shoes.

Thirsty Thursday hurt me.

I got $320 worth of groceries for $170 thanks to some creative couponing.

I ran the stadium for the first time in three weeks.  I nearly died, but I burned 659 calories.

We (yes WE) cleaned/purged Lizzy's room. (NIGHTMARE.)

I reread Train Like a Mother.

I started reading Life of Pi. (I read a lot.)

We got caught up on Big Brother (I {heart} Dan!)

Like I said... it was a boring week in the DHU.   The calm before the storm,  I guess, seein' as how we start high school this Wednesday.  {Shudder}  

I'll try to do better!  :)

Is that my brain rambling? Or my belly rumbling? Random thoughts WARNING~

I ate two turkey polska kielbasa dogs with mustard and extra onions and now my tummy feels... um... not good.

I believe I might be suffering from a case of rot gut. 

So before the real action starts, let's have a bit of cerebral diarrhea.  A splash of this, a splutter of that.

Random rumble #1~

My mom's never had a Sweet Tart before.  {giggle}  Lizzy shared one with her while we were on the road trip last weekend, and this is the face she made.

 Apparently Judith does NOT like tart stuff.  Ha haaa... Lizzy was supremely proud of herself and we pretty much chuckled our asses off.  (Don't worry, Mom laughed too... then she asked for another one.  One of the lessons we've learned about living with alzheimers... laugh when you can, ALOT.)

Random rumble #2 ~

I just finished reading this:

SO SO SO SO good!  I love a clever, well-written tale with characters I can invest in.  This one was sorta creepy (hubby kills wife kinda creepy) and there are plenty of f-bombs, but it's definitely worth checking out.  I'm about to start Life of Pi. I've always heard good things about it but never read it.  

Random rumbling #3~

How 'bout those Summer Olympics????  WOW!  Here's what I'm sayin'... thank GOODNESS they only come around every 4 years because I'm frickin' exhausted from staying up til midnight every night cheering our athletes to victory.  

I even have my Olympic GOLD toesies to help...

The other night we were laughing about how nobody has a clue about half these Olympic sports, but by the end of the two weeks, we're expert judges crying out in disgust if someone's toes aren't perfectly pointed or a horse's ears twitch the wrong way.  Love it!  

And every time that darned gymnastics team comes on and they play that Phillip Phillips song "Home" I blubber like a baby wanting a tit. 

And speaking of blubbering... have I mentioned my tummy hurtssssss. I think I'll go rummage around for some Pepto.  Or an enima.  

I've put off this week's long run for two days... I'd like to blame the late night Olympic coverage for my truancy, but I think I'm just full on DREADING it.  Maybe tomorrow.  

~rumble~rumble~

Maybe not.

 

Slim Shady's New Trick...

Oh sure, she looks all cute and sweet and innocent.   

And then I walk into the living room and find this...

Really Shady?  You're gonna eat my calendar?  (Apparently she saw that she has a flea pill scheduled for next week... thought she'd get rid of the evidence.)  

We had a talk.

I thought we understood each other.

And then...

Somebody dug through my totebag and found my unopened box of road trip candy.  And somebody ate 90% of the contents.  Oh but somebody left it laying on her bed so she's totally busted!

And did she have a caffeine induced heart attack and keel over dead? Nope.  Not even flaming diarrhea.  Nothing.  Same ol' Shady, with her grizzly dog poots.  

A few days before these two crimes, she ate a piece of paper I left laying on the couch with a web address I needed.  Ripped it to shreds.  

So what's the deal?  Why has my mild mannered pointer turned rogue after twenty months of living with us?  She's clearly targeting my stuff.  Is she mad that I didn't give her a piece of shrimp the other night?  Holding a grudge because I gave her a bath after she rolled in dead raccoon guts?  Anxious about thunderstorms?  Does she have a vitamin deficiency only corrected by eating paper products?  (Side note, I used to eat paper when I was a kid.  Swear.)

I don't know what her deal is, but she's about to get put in the penalty box, ie. the laundry room, if she doesn't chill out with the chewing.  I've explained this to her, and she says it won't happen again.  And to make sure, I think I'm gonna leave some bait, laced with cayenne pepper to teach her a lesson.  Uh huh... we all know who's the alpha bitch up in heah!  

Damn dog.

 

My Kiddo... in the realz~

I was inspired by a fun post on Cathy Zielske's blog where she photographed her teenage daughter with her messy bedroom in the background.  After years of trying to get the perfect setting for photos, I thought it would be cool to do the same, and since we all know that my kid's room rivals a toxic waste dump, why not go ahead and do a little photo shoot with her in her element?

I too was a dump dweller as a teen, and I still have some photos of me in my lair, they bring back such good adolescent memories.  I'm betting these will do the same for my girly one day.