Toadfrogs and Elephants

I spent most of the weekend studying for the huge test I have to take – the patent bar. It’s sad, I almost miss the painting I normally do on the weekends. In among the studying, we watched two movies – Pride and Prejudice (very good) and Rocky (um…interesting). Wade and I went to Newspring Church on Sunday and heard a talk on the DaVinci Code (didn’t like it), made cookies (they came out a little flat) and then went to a host team meeting for our new church – Catalyst church.

The blog title is a random quote by Apollo in the Rocky movie.

We are now a family full of Spaniels. My sister and her husband adopted a six year old cocker spaniel over the weekend. Taylor was hit by a car and now only has three legs, but apparently gets along just fine. Sadly, I won’t get to meet her until late May.

My neighbor Danielle called yesterday and asked if I would be interested in going to the Soiree downtown. I had no clue what she was talking about, but Wade and I agreed to go. It was an art festival downtown, but by festival I mean a few pottery stands, a glass blowing stand, a few jewelry stands, one wood stand, and a painting booth. Wade has pictures up on his blog. There were a ton of food stands and kid activities. Danielle’s daughter, Emma, liked the clowns the best. We ran into some friends from Wade’s work and ended up going out for Mexican. Before we left, I did make a purchase for my office:

I was supposed to go into work today to meet with Brook. His wife had a doctor’s appointment so he told me not to come in till after lunch. I made lunch plans with Carol for Mexican and figured I would get a haircut and then be around to meet with Brook.

I left Anderson at 9 am and stopped in Commerce, GA at the outlet stores. I shopped at J. Crew with my birthday money and bought a few shirts at Gap. Then I went to lunch with Carol, got a haircut, and did some work. At 4 pm, Brook still hadn’t returned to the office so I carried on with my shopping. I stopped at REI (new jacket – I love jackets). Then I went downtown to IKEA to see if they had in my lawn chair – they didn’t (sadness). Next I went up to Perimeter and made a stop at Old Navy (little boy t-shirt reading “My Imaginary Friend Just Beat Up Your Imaginary Friend”), Container Store (rubber feet for my shelving unit – don’t want to scratch the new hardwood floors), Sports Authority (new work out clothes), another REI (they didn’t have the flip flops I wanted either), and J. Crew (ordered a new bathing suit). Just as I was finishing up, Jamie and her boyfriend met me for dinner at American Cafe (they have my favorite chips and dip – a close second to El Chico).

The only bad part of the day was having to drive back to Anderson. Wade was out of town and Madison was not happy to have been left outside all day.

A lot of Wade’s projects at work seem unrelated to Home Depot power tools. One of his next projects at work is thermostats. I think the idea is to make them more user-friendly. To get started, the research people wanted to watch normal people buy and install a thermostat. Somehow Wade and I qualified as normal people. Wade’s coworkers wanted to observe us buying and installing a new thermostat. We came home with a seven day touch screen programmable thermostat and an old school one for the heat pump upstairs. Wade did the installing and programming and decided the touch screen one was way too complicated. There is another one on order for us to try. At least the new ones are pretty on the wall.

After a day of studying and some cleaning around the house, Wade suggested a movie. We had a movie we both wanted to see – shock of shocks. Our local theater gives free popcorn on Tuesdays so off we went to see Lucky Number Slevin. We both liked it! It was one of those “Unusual Suspects” type of movies that really makes you think. Even when I figured out a few things, there were new twists at every turn. I liked that it was fast paced, had funny dialogue, and most importantly – a happy ending. I hate movies like this that in the end have a bad twist. Then I wish I hadn’t watched it.

The blog title is a random quote by The Rabbi’s father in the movie.

While Wade and I were out gallivanting for the weekend, Madison had to be boarded. One place in Anderson was full and the other two wouldn’t return my calls. I ended up dropping her off at Petshotel in Greenville on my way to Rockingham. I also arranged for her to be groomed. Brittany Spaniels don’t normally need to be groomed, but Madison has been looking very shaggy. The woman told me that was because her puppy fur was growing out.

I’m not a very frilly person so imagine my surprise when I saw Madison after having been groomed:

The nerve of some people! Putting pink bows in my dog’s hair!!

Courtesy of www.competitionplus.com here is a more detailed account of my dad’s wreck. After looking at the car and talking to other drivers, it has been decided that the car was not accurately set for the very bad track conditions. Or something to that effect that was over my head in racing talk.

Dad also used his computer to calculate he was going 4.6 G’s when he hit the wall. He’s lucky a bruised rib is all he had.