Thursday, September 25, 2008

Third World Country

OK so the gas shortage is pretty bad. Hurricane Ike has made a bit of a mess here and continues to have a significant impact on gas prices and availability. On Tuesday on the way home from work I went to three gas stations before I found one with pumps open-that was in Spartanburg. It wouldn't have been a huge deal but for the fact I was running on fumes. Today we're in Atlanta (or Marietta near Atlanta) and I've just dropped Jane and Isabelle off at the hotel and I'm in line, on the street, to fill up. When we went out to get some supper we kept driving by all sorts of gas stations that were either closed or had huge lineups-the kind you see before a hurricane in Texas or something. Anyway, I decided I'd rather make sure I have enough to get home rather than take the chance on Sunday. You see it's not just about getting home on Sunday but also about catching my flight to Ireland. I have a business trip to Ireland for ten days and decided to fly out of Greenville so Jane and Isabelle wouldn't have to drive home from Atlanta by themselves. So for this weekend we had plans to explore Atlanta but we may end up staying closer to the hotel and Jane's stamp show. I had thought about going to the Zoo on Saturday while Jane was at her show, but we may not. It seems silly in some ways but the gas shortage here is much more serious than I imagined. At least the oil companies aren't gauging yet. Now the price here is nothing by Canadian and European standards. I keeps hovering around $4 a gallon, and has been as low as $3.50 a gallon a few weeks ago. It isn't bad for me but everyone else who got used to paying (and even complained about) $2.25 a gallon last year sure have a lot to say about it. As you can imagine it is a bit of an election issue here but nothing compared to the financial mess this country is in. Anyway, I have to move the Jeep and get pumping-at least the Jeep got 32+ mpg on the way here. It's not the hybrid I wanted but it's not too bad. Hopefully when I get back to the hotel Isabelle will be asleep and things will be quiet. I'll let you know about the aquarium...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

What the H*** is Monkey Joe's?

I'll tell what it is. It's this place where you take kids to get them tired. Isabelle had her first birthday party here. One of the kids from her class and her twin sister were having a party. They turned 5 and decided to have some friends over to Monkey Joe's. It turns out there was cake and ice cream, and everything else you'd expect. The venue was a bright building with several big inflatable bouncy toys. One was just for bouncing in, another two were huge slides, and the last one was an obstacle course.

Here is the girl and the layout along with a few action shots and some video for the grandparents.

Isabelle seems to have had a blast. I understand the rates to get in are a little high but for this occasion everything was included. The place has free wireless Internet and a wide screen TV for the parents. All in all a pretty cool spot. The birthday cake was even chocolate! Now, the grass... When we moved in we found a yard that wasn't as well maintained as we would have liked. In addition to weeds, dead trees, and lots of leaves to rake up, within a few months we had moles. The little guys may be cute bet they make a mess. To top it all off Maggie has developed an interest. At least five times she has gone out a dug up some of their tunnels. Needless to say it hasn't helped the lawn. In an effort to get rid of them without poison or chemicals (because of Maggie and Isabelle) I went out and got a couple of sonic deterrents. They seem to have helped since there are no new tunnels but the old tunnels remain...and Maggie keeps digging. The latest was the seeding, lime, and fertilizing. We had a local outfit come in and have a look and they decided we certainly needed some work. The interesting thing was the seeding. They asked us to mow as short as we could. This was supposed to give the new seed a chance to grow. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. It's been two weeks of watering three times a day and the grass is sprouting. Now that its cooler I suppose it has a bit of a chance. Another new thing with us has been the Y, that's YMCA. The workouts have started and I even started a running program. I'll keep you posted on the results. Hopefully there will be less of us around in a few months. Food and restaurants are also newsworthy with us. We've eaten at two new places in the last few weeks. One was Pho Noodleville on Orchard Park Drive. It was some of the best Asian food I've had in a while. The menu was incredible as there was so much to choose from. We had calamari and spring rolls to start. Isabelle had a grilled chicken that just melted in your mouth with all the usual fixings (vermicelli noodles, sprouts, carrots, cucumber, etc...). Jane had a curried chicken that was also very nice while I had their special beef dish. Mine was spicy in a good way while the curry was just lovely. We ate too much and didn't have any leftovers or dessert. In the end the price was right and the service fast and efficient. $$ for price, :) :) :)because we'll be back, and ***for the food. Next is Bucky's Bar-B-Q. We ate there Friday night and had a pretty good meal. It's the kind of place you order and pay and the guys behind the counter plop everything down for you on plastic plates. Barbecue here is nothing without the sides so we got green beans, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, sweet baked beans, and cucumber salad (next time there will be sweet potato crunch and maybe Mexican pinto beans). Isabelle had chicken, Jane had chicken and pulled pork, and I had ribs and pork. In the end the pork and ribs were the same and left a little to be desired. The sauces on the table were OK but to be honest I appreciated the beans the most. The price wasn't bad and we got there before the rush so it was fast but it likely won't be a regular stop. :) overall, $ for price, and * for the food (for now). Another new discovery on my part is Woodcraft. They are the Lee Valley Tools of the US, without all the garden stuff. When it comes to tools though, they are all that and more. I couldn't believe the woods they have in the store here on Woodruff Road. There was purple wood, red wood, and all sorts of crazy exotic woods. I need to do some research and get back into making kayak paddles. I think I could make some really beautiful stuff.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Another Weekend

Well here we go with another week. It's still hot here. We keep getting up in the 90s and there is very little rain. With all the hurricanes flying around you'd think we'd get a little something-but nothing. We have had the odd rain shower but nothing of any consequence. The drought in the Upstate has been upgraded to disaster status (mainly on account of the farmers-so they can get federal relief) but there is no talk of restrictions (some lakes are 15 feet below their normal levels). I haven't washed the car but have toned back the lawn watering. It still bugs me that I have to do it at all but I am trying to minimize it. One of the deals in the lease for the house is that I won't kill the grass. Isabelle is at school half days now and seems to really enjoy it. The Montessori School is very different than we are used to. The style of teaching is hands off and the children decide what they want to study. I think Isabelle has come in with a good base and is really enjoying having some structure in here days. I know she's been going to bed earlier and sleeping much better. Last weekend was a relatively quiet one. We put in a visit to North Carolina after stopping at Sunfrift Adventures in Travelers Rest. Sunrift is a great paddling and outdoors store and they were having their annual rental blow-out. There were about 200 kayaks on the lawn, along with 20 canoes, 100 bikes, and a field full of tents. Along with all the other gear and clothing it was a sight to behold. I didn't buy anything but had a good time just looking around. We did end up going to another outfitter in North Carolina called Diamond Outfitters and Jane finally found a pair of walking shoes she can wear. I bought a pair of day hikers. Finding narrow sizes for Jane and size fourteens for me is a whole lot easier here than in Nova Scotia. I can even shop the bargain bins and do very well. After a quick picnic lunch on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a quick walk through downtown Asheville (we're going to need a full day or two in Asheville later on to do it justice) we headed home. Isabelle promptly fell asleep in the car so the trip home was very quiet indeed, except for the snoring in the backseat (from both Isabelle and Maggie! On Sunday we headed downtown to the play ground in Cleveland Park. We took along Isabelle's bike, that way she could scoot along as we walk some of the trails with Maggie. On our route we stopped by what could be the cities only dog park. There were lots of dogs there cavorting and carrying on, but of note were two German Shorthaired Pointers. They were beautiful but one was very young and had a whole of growing to do before he fit into his paws. The last item of note is the family membership to the YMCA. The Golden Strip YMCA is located a few miles from home and hopefully will lead to a healthier and more energetic Melanson-Sodero household. They aren't a huge facility but have much to offer. I'm looking forward to getting back to my Canada Games weight if at all possible. I don't think the volleyball will be any good but I hope to get ready for the kayaking season (which seems to be most of the year down here!). Next post: Grass Woes :-(

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Business as Usual

I had my first business trip in a while last week. It was a road trip to Covington Georgia. I drove down on Tuesday and back on Thursday. The trip down was interesting because we drove through some of the remnants of a hurricane. There were flood warnings and tornado warnings everywhere (but people here treat those about as seriously as Nova Scotians deal with blizzard warnings). There were people on the road and a few accidents as well. Our trip was uneventful.
Covington itself is not much to write home about. We actually stayed in Conyers at the Hampton Inn there. It was very nice. It had a few extras that I really liked-cold water bottle on check-in, freshly baked cookies when you arrived at night, and a good breakfast. Restaurants there were good too although a little tricky to find when you don't know where you're going. The first night we ate at a small Italian place. I ate calamari to start and had a sampler plate of pasta (too much food!). A colleague choose the wine and I didn't like it but what do I know about wine? The second night we tried to find a little Thai place but in the end it was between locations and would open the day after we got back.
The real winners were lunch. One day we ate at a little place called Little Phillies which made the best Phillie steak sandwiches I've ever had. The second day we at the Butcher Block and had some fantastic sandwiches. I think one of the things I like best of all about living in the US is the abundance of small, independent, hole-in-wall type places I get to eat at. The food is amazing, the prices are always reasonable, and you feel like you're in the the middle of some classic Americana.
The other thing I learned on my trip is that The Dukes of Hazard and In the Heat of the Night were both filmed in Covington, the former in Conyers as well. I haven't been able to find out more about it but the sites above give you some information. I guess the people in Hollywood think Conyers and Covington both look (or at least looked) enough like the typical South to shoot the shows there. (If you're at all a fan some of the stuff in Wikipedia about the cast and cars in the The Dukes of Hazard is worth reading.)
The rest of the week brought a quiet weekend with a trip to Kings Mountain. We visited the Kings Mountain National Military Park. It is the site of a significant battle of the American Revolutionary War-The Battle of Kings Mountain. The British forces didn't do very well here against the American Patriots but the story of the battle, the people involved (including the British commander) and the events leading up to it were interesting. The park was hosting an encampment so there were people dressed in traditional costumes and tents and such to see. We did the 1.5 mile walk with Maggie and Isabelle and finished in time to hear (but not see) the musket firing. Isabelle still doesn't like loud noises.
The walk was lovely but Maggie thought it was a little warm. Isabelle was a little under the weather to but she managed.
The monument at the top of the hill was impressive. Isabelle did manage to fall off of it.
After a quick picnic lunch we headed home along some back roads and found a nice but very quiet little town called York. It was very pretty and had lots of historic buildings. Jane picked up some propaganda on it and the surrounding area and we may have to go back to have a better look. The ice cream place we found was good too!
Sunday brought a relatively quiet day. Jane took me up to a park where Isabelle had enjoyed herself with some other kids a few weeks ago. She, Isabelle that is, enjoyed showing me around. Now if can just shake this cold Isabelle seems to have brought back from school...