that time of year (PI-5)

pre-allergy spring and pre-allergy fall are my 2 favorite seasons. unfortunately, we are now into full on allergy mode Spring which is my least favorite season. close second is full on allergy mode Fall.

but this isn't a post about pollen, sneezing or itchy/watery eyes. if you've read this blog at all, you know the only things i post about with any frequency are barbershop and poison ivy. my last post covered barbershop, so there's your clue.

it's spring, as in "plants spring to life after they laid dormant all winter and fall and you thought they were dead and never coming back". that's right. i've been scouring the yard for poison sprouts...and finding them. sometimes they come up singularly, with their tiny, bright red leaves. other times, they are apart of a 10 foot vine running along the surface of the yard. either way, i've been on a mission all spring to eradicate all things poison ivy from the yard without infecting myself in the process. so far, so good.

yesterday, i decided i was tired of looking at the remnants of last years battle. the vines are dead and dry, the branches brittle and ugly. check it out:




i figured it was time to find some things out.
1. are those dead, dry poison ivy vines still capable of infecting people?
2. just how many of those vines can i rip down with my bare hands?

my goal was to answer the 1st by doing the 2nd.

saturday, after Andrea, the dog and i did the annual Mordecai yard sales, Andrea went to a baby shower, so that was my opportunity. she hates when i mess with the poison ivy, b/c i usually end up with it. assuming i would get it from head to toe, i thought a "before" picture would be prudent:



you can see i'm already in a bad mood.

our neighbor Matt and his little girl were in their back yard shed (you can see it in the pic below). when the 30 foot long "vine" came crashing down on the fence that separated us, it sounded like the whole tree to which it had been attached came down, instead. he came running out of the shed, "are you alright??". i was just standing there, a little shocked and making sure i hadn't just destroyed the fence, which it turns out i hadn't. he threw the the several feet of death-wood that had landed in his yard and i went about my business. it looked something like this:



there was all kinds of dust and bark falling down into my face and sticking to my body as the vine was coming off the tree. the good news is, i think i found the answer to question #1, which is "No". the answer to question #2 is "2". here's what the 2nd one looked like:



now, with the dog thrown in for scale:



i eventually removed my gloves and bare-handed the vine-wood. with loppers in hand, it cleaned up into about 3 piles, similar to this one:



you know how you can count the rings in the cross-section of a tree to estimate its age? check these babies out:

the 1st 2 are from the vines i ripped down. it's hard to distinguish after 17 or 18:




this is near the base. i would like to cut a cleaner cross section with a saw and get a better count. it looks to be about 18 or so rings, as well.


are there any botanists out there that can back me up on this? is this the largest, most disgusting poison ivy you've ever seen? i'll make you a deal: you come out and remove it from my pecan tree and in return, i'll let you study it and what not for as long as you need, provided it's less than a week. and you pay me.

that was yesterday.

today, i went looking for new growth. "new" as in, growth i hadn't seen before, but not necessarily "new", you know? along our back fence is no-mans-land. it's where the dog takes dumps and i dispose of charcoal ash. it's overgrown and i knew there had to be some poison ivy lurking back there unnoticed. my job was to find and neutralize it. and did i ever find it...

i didn't see much growing on the ground, so i looked up to scan the trees and what i saw horrified me: a very healthy poison ivy vine with long branches and very large leaves, probably 30 feet over my head. i was so pissed, i got my gloves on and started tugging on it. most of it came down, but the vine snapped and a large chunk was suspended in the air. Andrea was home by this point and stayed to watch the rest of the show. to get the rest of this new vine, i had to go after it. so up into the tree i went. at one point, the dog was on the ground below, barking and whining, i was about 8 feet up in the air with my right hand firmly grasping a freshly severed poison ivy vine, the majority of which was over my head and threatening to come down on top of me and i was imagining the worst case scenario of me falling out of the tree and landing on the dog...both of us strangling on the vine.

long story short, i made it out with only minor brushes of leaves on my ankles and right arm. as soon as i hit the ground, i ran into the house and showered. let's hope it was enough. behold the fruit:




Nice Flowers


click for super-high res. aren't they beautiful??? my eyes itch just from looking at this picture.

i look forward to the day when little white children can play with little black children in my back yard and not get infected with friggin' poison ivy!! i feel like the whole property should be condemned sometimes. it's not safe. how long am i going to have to put up with this stuff?

When it rains, it pours

this guy just schooled me:

Ween sighting - spicy food

Andrea and i went to IKEA near DC last Sunday. it was an all day trip and we had a great time. got a lot of cheap furniture designed by the Swedish and packaged by the Chinese. i really loved the store. it was designed and layed out very efficiently and intelligently. read Andrea's blog for more details.

while there, i'm pretty sure i saw Claude Coleman, the drummer for Ween. i whispered to Andrea "i think i see Claude Coleman!!". she was like "who??" and i said "the drummer for Ween. RIGHT THERE!!". she answered, "take a picture...oooh! look at that bookcase" or some such thing. the 1st stop on their East Coast tour is in on the 25th in, you guessed it: DC. it was totally him. i have now seen "Ween" 4 times in the past 10 years and Claude Coleman 5.

tonight Andrea was in the mood for something spicy, so she made this kung-pow chicken that certainly fit the bill. she put it over rice in our bowls and warned me it was spicy. i licked a spot of juice that splattered on my hand and coughed for the next minute or so. you know how when you swallow something exactly the wrong way? maybe it's just me, but it was as though the fire-juice went directly from my hand to the back of my throat. misery. it was a sign of things to come.

i dug into mine with a nice big bottle of cold water...and boy did i need it. i was sweating and my mouth was numbing but it was great! Andrea ate a couple bites and had to fix herself something else. it was just too hot for her, which worked out great for me b/c i ate hers, too. she was upset with herself b/c she followed the "extra spicy" directions on the box by crushing the dried red peppers into the mix. haha. i ate all mine, hers and all the leftovers on the stove. my stomach is currently gurgling and i do not look forward to tomorrow. i'm hoping the ice cream i had for desert will hook me up, but i doubt it.

job's going good. marriage is going good. dog's good.

let it rain

Bangladesh

we got to relieve the people...

a lot going on

most of my blog titles are something like "it's been a while" or "overdue update", etc. i like to do my blogging in a batch style, as opposed to the more traditional (and effective) "little bit here and there" style. engage stream of consciousness:

the biggest news is probably that i resigned from CSC. having spent 4.5 years there, it was time to move on. the contract is coming up for recompete, which nobody feels to good about, and there are a lot of changes going on there which made my decision to look for something else easy. what made it even easier is that i got an email about my future job, applied, interviewed and was made an offer in the span of about 2 weeks. the company is Peopleclick, Inc, located in downtown Raleigh. they do online careers pages for a lot of companies out there. the position is Operations Engineer, which means for about a year i'll be learning how the applications work, troubleshooting, etc. eventually, i'll be productive and they'll give me a pager every now and then. with a full staff, which they have for the 1st time in a couple years, it will be every 2 months or something. not bad.

the job is really good. i'm excited for a lot of reasons.

1. i've been there for 3 weeks and have been busy all day, every day: very big change from CSC. i had to look for stuff to do there.
2. there seems to be upward mobility, or at least the potential for increased responsibility as i gain experience. also a big change from CSC, where i maxed out a while ago.
3. it's downtown so i can ride my bike! it's about a 6.5 mile round trip. it's just now getting cold, but i rode the entire 2nd week and enjoyed it greatly.
4. feeling that i'm really doing something, as opposed to trying to look like i'm doing something. i used to feel like i could skip a week of work and nobody would miss me. now, i have a few things i'm expected to do and if i slack off, they won't get done and it will be noticed right away.
5. i could go on and on.

my sister, Monica, has been with Peopleclick for a couple years now. maybe 3 or 4, i need to ask her. anyway, she kicks ass and has set a high bar for members of our family who work there, so i need to hold up my end of the bargain. so far, so good. i just need to really pay attention and take good notes so i don't need to be told things more than once (or twice).

as excited as i am about the new job, it is tempered against my sadness for leaving friends behind at the old job and my concern for their well being. i wish i could bring them all over to PC, but most of them live out in Durham/Wake Forest/Chapel Hill which isn't a desirable commute. probably at least an hour. so, if you're reading this and you know i'm talking about you, shoot me an email! i want to hear from you.

Andrea and i continue to settle into our life together. we both feel like we have so much catching up to do, in terms of just being married, but we need to be patient and just let it happen. that last comment pertains mainly to me since i've been the one to gripe about how we're not doing enough of this or that... we analyzed why that seemed to be the case and decided i came home from my old job everyday bored and unfulfilled and tried to get fulfillment from working around the house. now, i get home and i'm tired! so i've definitely slowed down a bit. but giving credit where it's due, it's a lot easier to slow down when you have a wife who picks up your slack every day. Andrea's been great about cooking every night and helping me clean up afterward, and just doing a little here and there, instead of both of us waiting until the place is a mess and needs a big cleaning. that is a huge deal to me b/c a lot of Saturdays i've felt the need to clean (FUN!!) and today, she's out doing errands and i built a fire in our new Chimnea and mowed the grass since the house is already clean!

my new hours are 9 - 6 and with the time change, it gets dark so early. last night Andrea had set up a little date night for us, but i'm always a baby about coming home and leaving right away. this is b/c i hate getting the dog all fired up that we're finally home and then leave him hanging. so, long story short, she called and asked if i wanted to meet her somewhere straight from work b/c she gets home a lot earlier than i and could take care of Krust for a while. that sounded good to me. she had me pick up a pizza and meet her at Fletcher park. when i got there, she had a little pick nick blanket set up with candles, beer and the dog!! it was a nice surprise. she totally knows how to make me happy. i need to try harder to do that kind of stuff for her. she deserves everything!

photos of the past month or so

The Dog

Old Man Stuss wants to know, "where's your Halloween spirit?":




here he is after destroying every room in the house after a thunderstorm. "destroy" is a bit extreme, but the fruit couch might argue that point:



note the guilty head tilt. i put him in a "down-stay" and walked out of the room. he hates that. we eventually made up, but this whole thunderstorm destruction cycle must be broken...or his legs will be. maybe i'll start with his teeth, then move onto the legs. i haven't decided yet.

Squirrel Patrol '07:



he actually caught a baby squirrel a couple weeks ago. if not for me intervening, it would surely have suffered a chaotic, less than desirable death. lucky for the tree rat, i was feeling soft hearted and commanded him to let it go, which he did. i will live to regret the decision.


OHIO

we went up to OHIO last weekend for my Dad's 60th Birthday. it was a surprise. we left around 6:15am Saturday morning, spent the day at my Aunt Linda and Uncle Jerry's and left Sunday after brunch. we had a great time! i have a lot of wonderful childhood memories from spending time at their place. here are a few pics:

My Homeland:



Robby, Alison (sibs) and me and my baby:


Hayride!!



on the way to the farm, we went through McConnelsville. my Mom's Mom (Grandma Glenna) lived there. Andrea shot this at a stop light. there's one in the middle of the town square, too. i had never read the plaque before. it's a WWI monument. neat.




group photo:



my Dad and his wife (Karel) on the front row with his parents, Grandma and Grandad, in between. back rows: Dad's kids/kids-in-law on the left, Karel's kids/kids-in-law on the right.

The man: Uncle Jerry