Finally made it to Charleston!

This is way overdue, but we went to Charleston a couple months ago and thought I'd share with you some of the nice pictures I grabbed.

There were beautiful alleyways and gardens tucked between the buildings.

MoonPies! My parents used to buy MoonPies from Sams all the time.

Lots of carriage rides available, and they practically ambush you on the street to give you a ride. It was kind of creepy and also annoying since you'd walk by the same ones several times.


Beautiful church!


Closeup. of the bell tower.


Erin and I stopped for lunch near the market. It was a nice little sandwich shop.


The food was pretty good. Not as good as some other sandwiches I've had, especially from Jimmy Johns.

Another shot of Market Square.

Lots of sweetgrass baskets for sale. $$$$$$$

They have these beautiful open air buildings with all of the market goods inside.

Here's a hotel lobby.

And heeeeeere's Erin! Aren't those palms lovely, too?

I love the old world streets.

Another alley.

Cobblestone roads. Nice!

Another church much further away from Market Square.

Here's a nice park.

Here's a dude. Let's call him "Frank."

I loved this church! Can you believe that my boss used to attend here?

Oldest cemetary in Charleston.

We stopped for some Ben & Jerry's!

I used to live on this in college. Well, that and Subway and Panda Express. Ahhh, the good ol' days.

A nice fountain by the bay. I really wanted to jump inside, but didn't have a change of clothes.

We walked out on the pier.

A look up the shoreline.

Happy couple.

Fountain again.

A beautiful waterfront walkway.

In the same park....lots of people around, walking, yoga'ing, eating, reading, etc.

Looks like a giant pineapple.

Nice condos along the waterfront.

Aircraft carrier Yorktown: my boss said her father helped to build that ship.

Awesome view of the bay bridge.

Interesting social commentary:

Off to the aquarium!

There's a "guy" inside the "country store."

Jelly Fish, but no Peanut Butter Fish anywhere in sight.

View of the large tank.

Couldn't help but think of Finding Nemo here.

These fishies got schooled, yo!

This pic is for my sister-in-law.

This pic is also for my sister-in-law.

That ends our tour, folks! If interested, we could go back the next time you come out to SC for a visit. It's about a 4 hour drive, and there's plenty of time to make a day trip out of it.

Things just got kicked up a notch!

I took a liesurely ride our to Gray Court and Laurens last weekend. It was awesome to go somewhere new. I pulled off in downtown Gray Court and snapped some shots of the fizzer. Here's my favorite!

I have some pretty cool news, even though most of you have probably already heard me blather on about it. I have been given the unexpected opportunity to get back into drum corps...on a very short notice. I had been looking into the two all-age corps (aka Senior Corps) in the Atlanta area. All-Age corps rehearse once or twice a month throughout the season, tour only on a handful of weekends. I submitted my name for more information with the two groups. The next morning, I received a phone call from the director of the Alliance Drum & Bugle Corps. He lost a lead baritone the day before and wanted to know if I'd be interested in filling in for the rest of the season through Labor Day. At first, I thought about it and figured with my schedule and fitness level, it would be out of my reach. Through the gracious support of my wife and friends, I can proudly say I am committed to marching that spot....and learning an entire show in two weeks. On my own. I have all of the music and drill and have been working out vigorously every night. It's amazing what a good goal will do for a person. I have no choice. In order to make this work, I have to go into emergency mode! The corps is a young one, organized to give anyone the opportunity to experience a junior corps mentality and show design on a limited schedule or budget. They've been on the field since 2005 and have grown every year. What an opportunity to become part of something awesome! Most of the members are high school and college age, but there is a smattering of people my age on the field and in the staff, so I'm sure I'm make some new friends.


Three years since they began marching, they captured the Division A championship title at DCA finals. This year, they moved up to Open Class and have already moved up into finals contention. Wish me luck! This is going to be a fast ride...




Speaking of drum corps, Erin and I went to NightBeat, in Rock Hill, SC. We went last year, when the show was held in downtown Charlotte. This is it's new home. Something funny was spotted on the walk to the stadium, though: a tiny tiny gentleman's club. What do you think this means about the men going there? Feel free to speculate.

A gorgeous night for drum corps! The stadium was packed.

Opening ceremonies.

First up were my folks from Pioneer! They really showed up tonight, with a great show and great performance. I wish they would have moved up in the ranks this year, but the competition is fierce this season.

Jersey Surf...wow, where did they come from? They sounded great, I love to see new faces on the field (well, not a new face, but new to me in the World Class.

Crossmen looked and sounded great, too. The drum major was pretty, it didn't hurt.

Colts were up next, they were fantastic.

Scouts ripped our faces off with a show about a super hero...pretty neat!

Cadets ditched the voiceovers this year (thank you!) I even didn't mind their implementation of electronics. It actually enhanced the show, which is more than I can say about all of the others.

Here's a neat shot with some slower shutter speed.

Phantom, Phantom, Phantom. The show was gorgeouos, but didn't pack all of the punch that you had last year. The conductor was superb. You can just see the energy in these shots.

Another action shot. Awesome!

Cheering for the home team: Carolina Crown! They may not win it this year, but they have been a crowd favorite for the last couple years.

Tony grabbed a funny picture from one of the fire stations in Greenville which made me chuckle.

I found a similar one in our office. I almost got stuck in the room, what do I do??

We've had some nasty storms roll through this year. This one looked like it was going to pack some punch, but it went right past us.

Late one night, Erin and I ordered some breadsticks from the Papa. We had to order at least this many to qualify for delivery.

Look closely at that label. Do you see who managed our pizza experience? Click to enlarge.

Erin and I went out to P.F. Chang's for her birthday. Yum! Because the dinner was a gift, I didn't mind overpaying for their food! The chocolate cake "Great wall of chocolate" didn't dissapoint, though.

I spotted this sauce at Target last night. I think it's a way to sneak around the liqour laws in our county.

Well, that's it for now. I'll keep y'all updated on the Alliance, work situation, quartet, motorcycle and everything else that's going on for me right now. At work, things are crazy. We are helping to train the new city IT employees, and I am being pulled between the city and CAT sites like a rag doll. I can do it!!!! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We can't wait to have some guests down in SC. We're making new friends, but it's not easy! I'll always have the voices in my head to talk to.

Burrito Overdose!

Yesterday, Moe's had a deal going on in the afternoon were they sold any burrito for $2. Since Moe's is like my favorite (okay, second favorite...sorry Jimmy!) I decided to take advantage of this spectacular deal. These usually sell for $6 each, so I thought I'd grab the max of 5 Joey's and throw em in the freezer for delayed consumption. Since there was a limit of 5 per person, Erin stopped in separately and grabbed some Art Vandelays for herself. That means we bought TEN Moe's burritos. It's kinda funny and sad, now that I think about it. It's only been 24 hours, but I only have 3 of mine left. I'm done with burritos for a little bit, especially after the big lunch I had today, which I'll tell you about later.

Took the Fizzer out for a nice ride on a new road last weekend. Rode past an old, delapidated building that screamed to me for a photo op. So, I turned around and parked so that I could grab some shots. I wish I would have had a better camera with me....or a new iPhone 3Gs :P Otherwise, I liked the shot, so I hope you enjoy!

I'm working in Newberry this week, covering for Mike at CAT. So, as usual, I have a rental car to save some wear and tear on my aging beauty. I usually don't do car reviews on here, but I feel I must. Dodge Caliber. What a horrible, horrible car. I wonder sometimes, if the people that build and sell a car like this actually sit behind the wheel and drive. Here are my complaints, including, but not limited to: The console under the steering wheel sits too low, so my knee has to be sideways to use the brake. The center console is so big, that the same leg can't be sideways, either. The engine lurches when you brake or accelerate at any speed. If you're on the highway (like I am the entire time), the car will lunge towards the next lane as you pass someone if you use the gas. The suspension seems to be attached to the frame via rubber bands: it wobbles up, down, left and right most of the time. It's a constant struggle to keep it in a straight line. There's ugly black plastic on the body. I'll spare you the rest. I cannot wait to climb back into my own car!!!

While I was in Newberry today, I had to stop at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. Can you believe that all of this food is $5? That's enough for two lunches!


Erin and I met some new friends last weekend, a nice couple about our age, who also live in Simpsonville. We all met at the Mellow Mushroom, which is a pizza place in Greenville.

Here you can see some of the many mushrooms decorating the restaurant.


They had a nice mural, too.

For starter, I got some garlic cheese bread. Erin got some hummus and chips.

The pizza was pretty good, not the best I've had, but not the worst. The best part was the price, this was their small, but it was bigger than some other smalls I've seen. The place was extremely noisy; it was difficult to hold a conversation. Luckily, we had an opportunity to do that while waiting 45 minutes for a seats. The entire experience was ruined by a very poor waiter. He was also working the bar, so we couldn't get any help at our table or even a check. I bet we were there an hour, just waiting for refills, checks, etc before we finally got out of there. Sorry Mellow Mushroom, I will not be returning.

I held a garage sale with our next door neighbors early the next morning. 6:30 on a Saturday?? That was after staying up really late to sort our items and get stuff labeled. I ended up taking a nap that afternoon....ahhh...We made like $50, though, just by selling a handful of last minute items.

Where were you at 123456789?? I was at my desk, when I realized (on my own, thank you) that I was about to witness something very special: 12:34:56 on 07/08/09. I snapped a picture so that I would never ever forget what I was doing on 123456789.

For the 4th of July, we went downtown. We grabbed some Liquid Highway and caught some free music, courtesy of an Army Jazz Band. I think we saw them last year. They're still good!

Here's what things look like down on the river at dusk.

Here's what the Palmers look like down at the river at dusk.

One Saturday night, we decided to make a special Chocolate Run! down to Bloom. Here, you can see the chocolate and liquid nourishment to go with the chocolate. That's fabulous!

Last month, my chorus presented our annual show in Spartanburg. Our theme was about doctors, so we dressed up in scrubs and jackets. That's Dr. Palmer, thank you very much!

Since we remodeled our bedroom, we kicked Sam out of the bedroom during the day. Since he has no bed to lie on, he has had to improvise on the comfy spots. He has taken a liking to the pile of laundry that is normally in front of our washer.

Speaking of bedroom, here is a before shot of our bedroom:

As you can see, we paid little attention to our room. It was the place where all the things ended up we were too lazy to find homes for.

I didn't think it was bad until I started looking at the pictures after the change...

And drum roll.................

Ta-Da! Isn't it just lovely?? I even helped pick everything out. Check out the curtains:


Here's a view from the back of the room. You can see that we swapped out the hutch for a smaller mirror on the wall.

Part of the "remodel" was that I got to pick out a new (smaller) tv. It's HD!! I'm so excited to watch our favorite shows in 1080i. Sad, right?

Well, that's all I have for now. Here are some other tidbits: Erin's birthday is coming up next week, and so is the local DCI show in Charlotte! I've been singing with a new quartet for a few weeks, I'm really excited about the potential there. Erin and I are entertaining some dinner guests this Saturday, so that means we need to start cleaning... NOW! until next time, keep it real.

Antwatch 2009...UPDATE

I have waited a loooong time to bring you the news that I am about to share. It's special enough to deserve it's own blog posting. I just finished mowing our lawn, and for the first time .....ever....in the history of my residency in South Carolina......there are no fire ants on my property. I know, I was as shocked as you are. Even though I kept looking on the ground for ant mounds, I never found any. The lawn was so clean and flat!

The big chemical product winner for this year has been Orthene, by Ortho. It's a white powder (stinky white powder) that you sprinkle on the mound. You don't even have to water in in like some other worthless products. Every time I put some down, the mound died immediately. Well, ok, maybe like 24 hours later, but that is pretty fast in fire ant battles. You should come on down and take a look while you can! I'm sure they're plotting their revenge and resurgency as we speak.