I was looking at my hair in the mirror today. I was grinning at the lines of grey coming in... right next to the streaks of green.

Of course this led to getting a Ned's Atomic Dustbin song stuck in my head.

Grey Cell Green

when your desire has been found,
you'll be running far away
you're telling me it's in the trees, in the trees
it's not, it's ( Read more... )

Pip makes a mess when he eats. He has some issues about order and chaos and how things must be placed just so. Food goes in dish. Pip pushes food on floor while eating. Pip waits until he is omg starving to DEATH before he will eat the food on the floor.

He makes a mess.

My solution to this was to put his food dish in a box top. The food still ( Read more... )

Our last full day in SC.

Of all the culture shock that SC has ever inflicted on John, I think the hunting culture hits him the weirdest. I'm not implying that CT lacks a hunting culture. Though a part of this state may be an extended suburb of NYC, much of his state is crazy beautiful wilderness... with an over population of deer crying out to ( Read more... )

Off to Alcolu, where Cristal's father's family lives. We get to her dad's house, only to discover that we've missed him. He's off to see his younger daughter in a pageant.

Yeah, a pageant.

But while we were standing around outside his place establishing this, two things caught my eye. First, I'd like to state that South Carolinians think they ( Read more... )

After our stroll though the park, we drove about 20 minutes to head back into Manning proper.

Witness the idyllic tree lined streets.


( Read more... )

We had food in our bellies, it was time to face the town. Well, the town and the surrounding areas.

First, we headed out to Cristal's mother's home. Given that Bunnie had managed to come out of a head on collision with no worse injury than a purple boob, the family warranted a visit. We sat, boy girl along the couch. John, me, Wes, Sarah, as ( Read more... )

We finally get to Manning. There's the high school. And the truck stop. And hey, there's a new huge Wal-Mart, along with a new huge strip mall. And oh, there's the big, ugly vacant strip mall where Wal-Mart used to be. Yay. Ick.

Our business there was simple. To get good BBQ, visit Cristal's family, take some pictures, and get out. And really ( Read more... )

Our first night in SC passed uneventfully. In a good way. We sprawled around Cristal and Shane's tactilely yummy home, weaving in and out of conversation. We met the puppies and heard many stories of their stupidity and loveability. We had an awesome, late dinner. (And OMG Bunnie, hurry up and post the recipe for your BBQ Chicken Pizza!) It was ( Read more... )

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Off we go. The first order of business upon leaving the airport is to pick up Cristal's rental car. The people pretzels we had become inside of Shane's AC-less sports car are in favor of this move. I'm not expecting anything grand, but I'm betting there will be air. So we're driving...

And here's a thing to know about Columbia. It is the ( Read more... )