Pictures of Fixtures

Above you will see the first light installed, this one is in the foyer.

Above you see our new hall light, the cheapest of them all, $19.
















Above you will see the fixture over our dinning room table, it is sitting on a box because I have find a hook that matches, find a rafter, and then hang said lamp from said rafter on said hook. Good times





















Then this one is over the kitchen sink. It actually provides less light than the one it replaced but that will be compensated when the track lights in the kitchen are installed.

Fixtures and Such

Today was my day off, so I started it off at Lowes, buying some wire stripper/cutters and some electrical tape. This is a direct result of Amanda and I dropping $200 in light fixtures last night. I spent the rest of my day installing said light fixtures. The first one in the foyer took a while, I had to install it 3 times because the mounting brackets that came with sucked. I ended up using the old mounting bracket. Amanda came home and assisted with the hallway light with some light lifting. Then the third one was a bit tough because it was a hanging fixture over the dining room table and we had some work cut out for us. The fourth and last one this week is over the kitchen sink, not quite finished yet, we have to account for some mysterious length issues. I will be buying track lighting for over the kitchen bar shortly and installing that. Once you get the hang of it, it really is quite easy. It really changes the look of the house. I am going to buy some new outside lights in May or June. I want to redo the bathroom lights, we have the fresh from the 1980's vanity lights but both would require refreshing wall treatments. I will try to remember to post pictures tomorrow so you can see!

In other news, I showed my truck to a prospective buyer again today, the first guy never bothered to call back. I hope this guy buys the truck. Amanda did a nice job of selling Amanda and I as an honest all-American couple, at least we are all-American.

At work our Regional Vice President for Merchandising is in town. We are interviewing five people for Buyer-In-Training so we can staff up. The grand opening for the Gastonia store is roughly a year away and we need to have some backfill for the hub store. So my best work friend is back over at the South Blvd. store and I miss him around the office. I don't have a man-crush, but he is my greatest source of entertainment while at work. Another one of my co-workers is relocating for Duarte California, a suburb of L.A. I am about ready for a relocation offer. I still have my heart on Chicago or D.C., but I am not hopeful that it will happen within a year. My life will be different in the coming years, and the older I get the harder it will be to move me, Amanda, and all of the connections we have made in Charlotte.

offer good 7 days / 300 miles.

Big Week!!!

Big week as Amanda and I celebrated our 3 year aniversary. We didn't do anything special other than I sent her flowers at Smithfield. Now I don't give flowers often, and this was the first time I had ever sent a girl flowers. She got called up to the office by the secretaries and she had a nice big bucket (bouquet for y'all french types) of flowers.

Then on Saturday we went to Olive Garden to celebrate Amanda's first REAL job. She will be a teacher at Smithfield Elementry School for the 2006-2007 school year. We are not sure yet, but she thinks she will be teaching fourth grade. Go Amanda!!!!

High Five Easter Edition.

(B*, I hope these are more specific and varied and are completely devoid of softball references, except for this run on sentence you have just finished reading right..... now)
1. I enjoyed our church a lot this holy week. I am very sad that our Senior Pastor is leaving to be a superintendent in Greensboro, but good for him. We didn't make the Sunday Sunrise service, we did catch the second chance one though, 9:00am Sharpe.
2. We spent Easter with my friends Sara, Tim, Barbara, Rick, Richard, Vicki, Anna, Shay, and Kathy at Sara & Tim's house. It was very much like an episode of "Friends" where the people are all away from their families for a big holiday, only I wasn't. I miss my family on holidays like this. I don't think the whole family (by that I mean the Malady's) have been together in many years, if I had a house like my Uncle John's, I would host a Clark Griswold family Christmas, just to see what that would be like. Holiday's are very hard for divorced kids. On Christmas this past year, we went to 4 celebrations in 36 hours, I think I need to work harder at maybe hosting one and making everyone come to us!!!
3. Amanda's graduation party is coming up soon, I think May 13th, around 5ish. I am most looking forward to decorating her hat. This will be the fourth in the JB designer series of graduation caps. Sara and I partnered up on the color extravaganza that was Anna's hat in December of 2003. In December of 2004, Anna and I returned the favor and made the lighted spectacle (unfortunate by product is weight) that would be Sara's cap. Then in May of 2005 I completed the simple, yet colorful, also it was the hat that stuck to a theme, for Liz. For Amanda's I have a new partner, her best friend Marlies and I will be making quite the hat. I have many ideas, I want it to stand out but not be goofy, tacky, and worst of all, heavy.
4. Due to some recent events at work, I have really been contemplating my career and my goals. I love the company, I like the job, but I need to make sure I am able to address my personal needs while fulfilling my career goals. I sometimes think I would enjoy a more consistent schedule, being that my family and friends are VERY often neglected for my job, I think a nice 8-5er M-F would be more suitable. I also am trying to think of other industries that might interest me. My other issue is just that of fulfillment. I make the pockets of already rich men deeper. I do not help people learn like teacher, I don't heal the sick like nurses, I am not making the community better other than we don't rip off customers like 80% of the other dealerships out there. I do think that graduate school or maybe even seminary could be in the distant future for me. I would make a good pastor I think.
5. I do know that one of my five year goals is to complete disciple bible study at my church. I have a strong lack of religious understanding. I feel spiritual, but I would like to have more academic knowledge of the scripture. I quit bible school when I was 9, I never really went back to many Catholic Masses after that, I would go with Emily in High School and then in college I found protestant services and environments more appealing, later choosing the United Methodist Church to be my home. But I feel like I need to learn about my choice and broaden my faith.

Copy Cat Alert (Homage to B!@*%)

Random Factoids & Comments
1. Amanda gets mad girlfriend points for stocking the house with snack food yet also regulating me by serving size!
2. Happens to be the number of victories the Dilworth United Methodist Church Wise Men have, and zero losses. Our other team, DUMC Wise Guys, is also undefeated.
3. Also happens to be the number of hits I had tonight
4. In this many at bats
5. For those who cannot follow, that is 2-0 and I batted 3 of 4 tonight.
6. Amanda went to Maundy Thursday and I skipped to play softball. You know, I do think I will catch Tewsdy Friday or maybe even a little Windsdi Saturday if I can this week. We will certainly be making the sunrise Sondy Sunday service, unless we can't get up, then we will go at nine, unless we still can't get up, in which case we will go to the eleven, if we still can't get up, we are going straight to Pewter Rose for brunch.
7. This blog entry seemed a lot funnier when I was in my post-game shower, in retrospec, you have gained nothing by reading this entry. I hope I distracted you from dispair or at least from catching up on some work!!!!

Reading List

I just finished DaVinci Code, Dan Brown. I am in the middle of Freakonomics (great suggestion Ashley) and after that I will be reading The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman (I was 50 pages in before buying Freakonomics) to be followed by Al Franken's Truth With Jokes and Peter Gomes' The Good Life. Sad as it seams, this will take the remainder of this calendar year to finish this list. Thanks to Aunt Claire, Sara, and Ashley for providing books or reccomendations for my list. If you find any cool non fiction books that are missing a conservative slant, let me know, I am in.

Great Start!

Had a great start to the season tonight, we (Dilworth United Methodist Church Wise Guys) won 16-6. Our other church team in the same league is the DUMC Wise Men. They also won tonight! I played DH tonight, batting 2 of 3 in 4 at bats. I took a walk in the second inning, had a blopper single of the 2B head in the third. I grounded out on the fifth and singled to right field in the sixth. Nothing eventful happend other than the other team took our new bat, leaving us with our old ones. We couldn't find it until I walked over to their dugout and repo'd it, it was the only inning we didn't score any runs. I wonder if our bat is even legal.

I have to give Amanda props for tonight. She was tired, had a long day, I know she went to bed as I was leaving for my late night softball game, yet, the load of laundry I started at 8 was in the dryer and almost done when I got home at 11. Thanks Babe!!!

Weekend Excursion

We took off to Ashville on Saturday morning. We ate the best Bar-B-Q in N.C. at Bridges in Shelby on the way up there. We then stopped by Biltmore Village and shopped around a little bit. After that we took off to the hotel, checked in, and watched some of "Day After Tomorrow" on HBO. We are so sad but since we don't have cable, it was amazing. We struck out to downtown Asheville, despite its small size, I was impressed with the culture. The weather was nice so everyone was out and about. We stopped into some of the shops, browsed a bookstore, enjoyed some architecture. We ate dinner at the Bier Garden where I sampled some local brews (Catawba Valley Indian Head Red & Pisgah Pale Ale) and Amanda got drunk off of Original Sin Cider. The following is the result.



So then Amanda and I went to the mall. She bought some teacher clothes and I bought a new sweater. After that, we turned in early for the night and settled in watching some of that cable stuff, Law & Order SVU. We got up late Sunday morning and got some brunch. Then we took off for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We did some cruising there on our way to enjoy Hendersonville and Brevard NC.

After enjoying some Ice Cream at the entrance to the Pisgah National Forrest, we headed in to do some hiking. We also pulled over and looked at some cool waterfalls, I should say cold because the water was freezing.

After that, we did a small hiking trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway and sat around at a small waterfall, climbed on some rocks by the river, and enjoyed the works of some bandits of rock stackers. People would randomly stack rocks, one on one, very delicately. I wish I would have gotten a picture but we left the camera in the car. It was a fun and much needed relaxing weekend as Amanda has 6 weeks til graduation!!! ~JB~