Outdoorsy Work

I decided to grab a pair of work gloves and have a go at a bunch of dead stuff around my house. I may be a single guy who doesn't care about the way his stuff looks, but that doesn't mean I don't care about the way my stuff looks.

First off, here's a rose bush that's gotten severely out of hand. It was out of hand when I bought my house. I decided to hack away at some of the dead stuff still clinging to the rest of the bush and I still think it's out of hand. Ridiculous!

Behold my miracle tulips! I didn't do anything to make these babies grow. I don't even know who planted them, they're just a pleasant surprise. I didn't notice them last year because I didn't move in until June/July. It's strange to think that a year ago this time I was house shopping.
Most of the work I did today involved hacking up a big dead bush that you don't see in the upper-left quadrant of this photo. It's gone now.

This is Tommy's all-time favorite spot: on the back of the couch sitting in the window. Of course, he could see me outside taking pictures and I assure you he was trying his darndest to break my heart with all the whimpering and whining I could hear through the window.

Just a better shot of the tulips. Why not, right? Clearly I still have plenty of work, getting rid of a bunch of dead grass and whatnot. Want to come over and help?

Shameless photograph of Tommy.

Donut day

Today in the office we had a meeting to be introduced to our new head of office. I showed up to the meeting a couple of minutes early and there were plenty of seats to choose from, so I took one right in the front row. I figured the room would be packed and people would crowd around me out of necessity. I figured wrong. It was the slightest bit awkward sitting in the front row by myself.

On the plus side, this occasion was a good excuse for the company to buy an excessive amount of donuts. I got two and am calling it lunch.

VBlog - Ode to Tommy 2 Toes!!!!!!!

Weekend Review

Last weekend I didn't do nothing. Use of a double negative there was entirely intentional. Because I did do something. I merely stated it as such to emphasize that this past weekend was different from others, during which I may do absolutely nothing.
Saturday morning I drove to the city to take part in a ceremony for Wreaths Across America, an organization whose goal is to place wreaths on graves of those who have served in the American armed forces. My part in the ceremony: bugler. I was asked to play Taps along with a few other trumpeters/buglers during the ceremony as well as a couple other short military calls. It was a really interesting experience in that a) I had not touched my trumpet in a month or so, b) I had never played Taps in front of people...or loudly...or maybe I've never even played it all the way through, and c) I had never heard of the other calls before and thus have never played them. To top that off, we only pseudo-practiced before the ceremony. It was a real hodge-podge kind of deal, but we pulled it off and I think it sounded great.
Last night I drove back into town and went caroling with members of my church. There were a few reasons I went. I thought it would help get me in the Christmas spirit. I thought it would be nice to cheer up those for whom we sang. I thought it would help me get to know some people in the church, where I am still relatively new. Really, I just thought it was the right thing to do. I had a good time, but all that singing made me thirsty.

VBlog - Meet Tommy

VBlog - Weekend Review

Big, busy weekend

It's a big, big, big weekend, this one is. Tonight I have plans to go to Kristel and John's house to watch the 1980's Transformers cartoon movie on their newly constructed projector. After that, we are going out to eat with Anna, another friend from work, whose birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday Anna!

Following the food, we're all going to Wildwood, some bar where there is apparently a mechanical bull. We should be meeting up with Katherine, a high school friend of mine who I had introduced to my work friends when we all went out for my birthday.

Anna told me that she's not feeling very well today. I hope she gets better because going out for dinner is for her birthday. And otherwise we're just going out to dinner. Also, she'll be bringing her friend Paul. And without Paul, I will be swimming in a sea of estrogen, which isn't all that bad I suppose.

Tomorrow the fun continues as Kristel invited me and even more friends from work (and some of their friends who I don't know) to a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. I'm looking forward to spending time with work friends outside of work, but I don't know about the food. Like I told Kristel, "Usually when I see something I don't recognize, I just tell myself it's chicken and I'm ok. With your food, I know it's not the case." But I know her food will be amazing. Kristel is very skilled in the culinary arts.

Sunday (whoo! I told you it will be a busy weekend!) I plan to spend the afternoon with Natasha, a new friend I have made at my [still relatively] new church. We don't know what we'll be doing yet, but we might just end up watching a movie or something.

That's it. That's my weekend. Oh, tomorrow morning I will sleep in. And it will be awesome!