Official End to The Summer

Well, as far as I see it, the summer is over for me. Once the DCI finals week is over, life goes back to normal. Old habits die hard I guess. Well, congrats to Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps! They took 1st place last night, for the first time ever (without a tie). I saw their show, Spartacus, for the first time on Thursday night and was completely blown away. Definitely my favorite show ever. Also, big props to our own Carolina Crown, for their highest placement ever (4th). Link to the scores.

Speaking of Thursday night, I camped out in the local movie theater here to watch 5 hours of drum corps. Definitely a great experience (coulda been louder). 15 corps for $18. Pretty sweet deal.

On Tuesday, the Statesmen took a bus trip to Asheville. We were going to join the chorus up there for a joint rehearsal/workshop. The scenery on the trip was awesome. We had the unfortunate experience of watching the driver in the car in front of us go into a seizure and crash into some parked cars and a light pole....other than that, nothing really crazy going on.

There were about 80 guys there altogether, and we did some great stuff. One of the songs we worked on is one my quartet is working on. Go figure!

Here's a pic of Erin enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was outside trying to kill myself running in the heat. It wouldn't have been so bad if I weren't running on the new blacktop....I found miles of new roads in a new subdivision next to ours. A runner's paradise!
For dinner on Friday, Erin and I tried a new fish place in Simpsonville.

Look at the cool fish tank! There are some sharks with frickin' laser beams.

They gave us free hushpuppies.....yum!

...and a mystery bowl of ice. We never did figure out what it was. Erin hypothesized it was for possible shrimp or something. maybe?

The tables had gold compasses inside. Cool!

I had the Talapia...pretty good. The lady promised to bring me malt vinegar, but she didn't. I can never trust anything she says again!! Oh, and the food was okay. Nothing special...I'd rather have Long Johns for much much much much cheaper.

Erin and I joined the Chancel choir over at Mauldin UMC. There she is in the back.

Here's the sanctuary! I even arranged permission to rehearse here on Sunday afternoons. Something I have about rehearsing in large spaces. Thinking back to drum corps, I remember being on top of the world playing alone in big college stadiums, late at night. All alone. Just me and the buzz of the lights. Wow. *back to reality* Moving on!
Did anyone else enjoy the Olympic opening ceremonies? They were awesome! I've never seen so many simultaneous fireworks in me life. Erin and I always enjoy watching the summer Olympics. Most of the time, I have little interest in sports, but when they add the rings to the screen...I'm all like..."Ooooh! Look at the curling! Aaaaah look at the volleyball!"

Speaking of athleticism...it was time for a new pair of running shoes. These are awesome! Of course, I'm a New Balance junkie. I don't know why, but they're the only kind I like.

One last chance to sniff the empty box and get more of the new shoe smell. snnnnnnnnniiiifffffffffff ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
We finally painted our kitchen this weekend. Here's a before picture. Borrrring.

Tada! We're really happy with how it turned out.

The bakers rack is going to go, and in it's place, we got a nice wooden kitchen cart to go there.

One last shot. Nice, huh? Now, we have TWO colorful rooms!

One of our meals for last week was hot ham and cheese sandwiches. We were very happy with how these turned out. Just thought I'd share some of our delicious cooking with you. If you come out to visit, we'll cook for you, too. Otherwise, we will just eat it ourselves.

Not much else going on right now...work is still hard, the weather is still hot and sunny (though we have had a good amount of rain lately), the fire ants still insist on camping in my yard. Sam is doing well. He's not doing much, but still doing well at what he does. Have a great week!