Category: family

as you know last night was halloween. i love halloween. i know some people don’t like halloween because they are scared it’s all about satanism, witchcraft, sex, rock-n-roll, and drugs. yet i say to them the word of the LORD “to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.” (titus 1:15). so to me halloween represents two things: 1) the day before all saint’s day, and 2) a day where kids and adults act stupid and get lots of candy.

so of course, my family and i dressed up and part took within the halloween celebrations of my neighborhood. it was great. we had families pulling kids on small hayrides with trailers and atv’s, people sitting outside to hand out candy while surrounded by fog machines and ghouls and much more. some parts of shenendoah were absolutely amazing. my only complaint is that my street was a loser of a street. there were a few of us that were “open for business” but not many on our road.

my favorite part of the evening came when i was walking around the neighborhood with noah and montana, our basset hound. while noah was “trick or treating” someone asked me “what type of dog is she?” since i was in my elvis costume i responded in my best elvis laced toe “ah, she ain’t nothing but a hound dog!” it made my night even better.

our black cat (oreo) is the strangest creature i have ever been around. the stupid cat eats flowers. every time i buy flowers to bring home to pam the stupid feline begins eatting them. i found some gladiolus today while buying some contact solution for adam and i thought i would be safe buying them since they are four feet tall and tons bigger than the stupid cat. apparently the size of the flowers merely gives the cat more to chew on because she has already started eatting them. i have a scratch on the back of my neck right now because the pain in the rear cat tried to go after the flowers and jumped up on the back of the chair i was sitting on.

it’s things like this that have caused us to refer to oreo as “satan’s little helper” (with a nod to the simpsons).

every now and then you fall up (which means something bad happens and fixing it turns into an advantage for you). last week the fam and i went to go on vacation to stone mountain, georgia. we were real excited about the trip because 1) it would be fun, and 2) my parents had recently acquired a pop-up camper and we were going to get to use it. unfortunately our dream of a vacation at stone mountain ended about 70 miles north of mobile, alabama when the engine in my truck “gave up the ghost.” my truck threw a connecting rod and though this could be fixed it would cost more than putting a new engine in the truck. so we headed back to mobile and my dad started making a few phone calls some of his friends to find an engine for the truck. the engine he found has a hefty price tag to it … it’s free if my dad and mom will drive an r.v. to savannagh, georgia for the guy who owns the engine. so basically my parents get a free trip to savannah, georgia for a vacation and i get a free engine.

this was great but then the deal got even sweeter earlier today. this afternoon my dad called me and said that the guy who owned the “parts” truck that had my new engine in it is simply going to crush the “parts” truck after the engine is removed from it. therefore, the guy said i could have anything i want off of it. so my dad started listing things from the “parts” truck that could be put on my truck, such as:

• running boards – i don’t have these
• moon roof – i don’t have one
• driver’s side seat – the leather on mine is worn
• door hanndles – i have a broken one on one back door
• etc., etc., etc.

of course, all of this is possible because of my “wheelen, dealen” dad. thanks dad.

this is clive! he arrived today and has a temporary spot in our garden. i’ve still got to figure out the best location for him.

pam and i have tickets to see jerry sienfeld in concert at the baton rouge rivercenter ocotober 21.

the tickets don’t actually go on sale to the public until tomorrow (friday, october 26) but pam has been on the centroplex/rivercenter email list for awhile and they sent out a special notice for early purchase for those on the email list. i always knew that i married well.

jealous?

chipzilla

Originally uploaded by ratterrell.

this is noah with “chipzilla” the potato chip that noah promises is the largest potato chip in the world. actually, i should state that “chipzilla” was the world largest potato chip because it is now in pieces inside noah’s belly. thankfully, i was able to get a picture of “chipzilla” before noah devoured him/her (i’m not sure if potato chips have gender or not).

if you ask pam i think she would agree that i like hobbies that involve learning and teaching myself something. for example, along with my dad and brother i got into computers back when i was in college. i learned as much as i could about putting them together, basic programming, and doing as much as i could with them. i stil love goofing off with the stupid things. about nine years ago i decided it was finally time for me to learn how to fly fish. i read everything i could, talked to everyone i knew who did it, and finally taught myself how to throw a fly so that a trout would take it. after fly fishing it was learning to play the guitar, and then it was learning to tie my own flies for fly fishing, then it was blogging, etc., etc. it’s always something new and the old hobbies always stick with me (i.e I still fish, play guitar, etc.)

over the past year i have slowly but surely gotten into digital photography (mainly thanks to looking at alan’s and brad’s photos). i’ve been slowly learning and experiencing as much as i could concerning what it means for a photo to be “good.” after a year of really being into photography i have finally reached the point of convincing pam and myself that it is okay for me to get a good digital slr. of course, a good digital slr costs around $1,000 and that type of money is not considered “chump change” around the terrell household. $1,000 is about 1/4 what my truck cost and therefore i don’t casually go out and spend that type of money on a camera. so i’ve been coming up with ways to try and save the money necessary to buy a nikon d70s. i figure it will take me about 6 months to a year to have the money i need.

the problem with this is that i’m not sure that i can maintain a continual learning curve for a year without and photographic gratification. but that problem has been solved by the world of toy cameras. i have decided to buy a $40 lubitel 166 camera and take a decidedly “low tech” approach to photography while i am saving up for my “high tech” digital slr. the lubitel 166 is a soviet camera for the 1980s that has interesting optics and absolutely no technology to make taking a picture easier. there’s no auto focus, automatic film advance, automatic aperture setting, or any of those fancy new fangeled things. nope the lubitel 166 is a shutter, some film, and a button.

i’m watching the prices of a few of the lubi’s on ebay right now and i will buy one within the next day or two. it should be a blast and it will definitely give me something to “learn” until i buy a better digital camera.

btw, i just bought a light meter off of ebay for $5.

it was my wedding anniversary yesterday. pam and i have now officially spent 15 years together in wedded bliss. true romantic that i am i bought pam a lamp. sometimes i amaze even myself with how romantic i am (grin).

pam on the other hand went all out on my gift. we have a general rule of spending no more than $50 to $60 bucks for a gift no matter what the occasion. sometimes we go over a little but we stay pretty close to that range. it forces more creativity and thus the gift usually becomes more meaningful. case in point the lamp. pam quilts constantly. i once overheard her mention something about this particular lamp. i then remembered that random statement and went out looking for it. the lamp then becomes a physical reminder that i listen to my wife.

we do all of our money stuff together. i don’t spend large amounts of money without going through her and she does the same thing with me. about three months ago pam asked if she could dramatically go over the spending limit. she wanted to spend one of her whole paychecks on a gift for me. who am i to try and stop her from buying a gift? so she went to work on this mystery gift. she has been dying to tell me about it for quite sometime. everyone i know has known about the gift and would keep saying how great it is. the waiting has been miserable.

yesterday pam gave me the gift. it’s a two day trip to nyc to see the play “spamalot.” how cool is that? two days in nyc for picture taking and then watching david hyde pierce in spamalot. i have a great wife.