Looks Great, Less Filling

For the loyal Thaxtonfam blog readers, I changed the look today to set this site apart from the templates provided by blogger.

• What do you think?
• Do you like the old one better?
• What am I missing that you would like to see?

Hokies Eatin' Corn for Dinner

Following Em's birthday party, we fired up the big screen tv at home to prepare for Virginia Tech traveling to play Nebraska in prime time. This was the first time the Hokies have EVER played in the cornhusker state. I still had flashbacks to the whoopin' they gave us in a bowl game over ten years ago on New Year's Eve.

Prior to the start, Michigan pulled off an incredible come from behind win over Wisconsin. Tim was so excited, he roped my properly dressed Little Hokie into the action.

Troy was wondering why they weren't wearing maroon and orange but was happy to give out a high five or two.

Troy missed the Virginia Tech game and miraculously didn't wake up with all the yelling Nadya and I were doing at the tv. Seriously, sometimes I think the players can really hear Hokie Nation yelling. In case you didn't know, Virginia Tech WON. All is well for another week.

Em's Birthday

Whenever you plan on going to a place willingly that you know involves children having free range, there are no noise restrictions and in general, no rules other than socks required, Look Out. On Saturday, we attended my good friend Kim's daughter's birthday party at Kangaroo Jac's. Here's Em's parents, JPK and Kim.

Troy had a great time along with all the other kids in the place.

We were happy to make it seven for seven in attending Emily's birthday parties. We look forward to number eight next year.

When it's Bedtime, it's Really Bedtime

It was almost bedtime and Troy started to relax laying on his Dad's chest. What we didn't realize that this was directly tied to holding the golf ball securely in his hand. It was inadvertantly dropped and things got ugly for a brief second.The transition to bed went smoothly. Checking on him later, he was sleeping soundly and obviously quite comfortably. There is his beloved Teddy "sleeping" as well.

Time to Make the Donuts

Remember that old commericial with the Dunkin Donuts man, Fred the Baker, who always got up before the sun to go in and make fresh donuts? The line would was, "Time to make the donuts!" I think about that every Monday when it's time to get up to go to work.

I took a few pictures of Troy when he first woke up this morning. Here was the only one where he smiled. This was mainly because he had thrown Teddy, et al. overboard to the floor and was quite amused with himself.Otherwise, every other picture I took looked something like this below because I had a camera in his face and wasn't getting him out of the crib and ready for school.Twice in the last week when I didn't get in there fast enough, he has climbed out of his crib. I hope this doesn't become a habit.

Friday Night Lights

We went to my niece Taylor's softball game on Friday night. Troy enjoyed jumping off the bleachers.Later that night, to celebrate the cooler weather, we had a fire out back in the "fire tumbler" with our friend Jay. Sandy is a relentless retriever who never stops hounding you (pun intended) to throw a ball. Here was the next picture and notice her patience and stare down tactic.

Here's Sandy's face on full alert earlier in the day.

I couldn't leave out Sydney even though this picture was taken awhile back before the new deck was stained.

Troy was curious again about his reflection in the door plate. He looked too cute in his new frog face pajamas, that I took yet another picture.

Tim got a new hard hat for his trips to the job sites. It must have been a good omen because Virginia Tech pulled out a stunning win over UNC.Here's my self portrait du jour.

Troy's Face Du Jour

I'm experimenting with photoshop and all the elements to enhance photos that I have never known how to do but knew existed. Here is a picture I just took of Troy out on the back deck. I love this goofy face.

The Mirror has One Face

Now that the weather is getting cooler, we opened up the windows and the front door. Troy was quite interested in the reflection he saw in the door plate.Here was another take on his reflection.

Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Star...

For the last few months as I put Troy to bed, I hold him in the partial darkness after we said our proper goodnights to Teddy, Rhino, Blue Dog and Brown Bear. (I'm not very creative with the stuffed animal names yet.)
As I stand and rock him for a few minutes, I sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Well, two days ago he decided to push off my chest and stare at my mouth and try to sing with me. Here is how our harmony went...
Deb/Mama: Twinkle, twinkle, little star....
Troy: Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle...
Deb/Mama: How I wonder what you are...
Troy: Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....
Deb/Mama: Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky
Troy: UPPPPPP! ................... Sky!!!!
Deb/Mama: Twinkle, twinkle, little star....
Troy: Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle...

It makes me laugh so hard that he has the tempo down but not all the words. Plus, in Troy's version he wants the star to use the restroom. Maybe that's a good omen for the dreaded day we start potty training?

We had an encore performance last night and I hope for another tonight.

Chuck E. Cheese

Aunt Tricia and cousins Taylor and Dylan along with Aunt Ana took Troy to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time yesterday. In the hamster crawl.
Trying to drive fast and take chances.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I look forward to the Sunday paper and browsing through the advertisements. Troy decided he wanted to look at it too but in his own way.With two laptops always laying around, the temptation to hit the buttons is too strong.

It was a college football Saturday. Virginia Tech pulled out a win over Georgia Tech but unfortunately, Tim's Michigan fell at Notre Dame. Troy's face sums up the loss.

Swim Michael Phelps! Swim!

Like everyone else in the United States, I too, am in awe of Michael Phelps. I saw this cartoon and thought it was too cute not to share.
He seems to post regularly to facebook and is quite the globetrotter these days. No, he doesn't play basketball too. Ha!

One Plate or Two?

As I was driving home this afternoon I saw a big SUV with a VT on its front license plate. I passed it and craned my neck to see what state the car was from since it didn't have an official plate on the front.
It got me thinking....
The governor of Virginia was quoted as saying he's going to be cutting state jobs by ten percent this year to make up for the budget deficit. Virginia is one of 31 states that require two state issued license plates on registered vehicles in the US. Why not just issue one, charge us the same registration fees, annual vehicle taxes (which are High) and redirect the savings back into the state so workers can keep their jobs?
So, I did a little homework (and I mean little) and the cost of manufacturing plates varies by state and I couldn't find the exact number for Virginia. I did find that it costs approximately $5 per plate to manufacture (which is the average in the range I found). I don't do math but $5 times the number of registered cars in the Commonwealth would add up quickly. I looked and it's almost 7.5 million registered vehicles in Virginia.
Deb Math: $5 X 7,500,000 = $37,500,000 Savings Over Time
Yes, I realize that some people keep their plates between vehicles but Virginians love to personalize plates. One thing I hate is what I can't figure out what some of them mean. I'll blog about that some other day.

Drinking Jenga During Tropical Storm Hanna

Friday night we went out to celebrate Christine's birthday at Tim's favorite restaurant, Applebees. What can I say? The man loves their boneless chicken wings.

Anyway, Nayda, Christine, Tim and I decided after a game or two of pool to play Drinking Jenga! I have two versions that were created over ten years ago. You can see it in action in college here.

One is more drinking oriented and one is more fun. For those of you who have never played, you pull out a block without knocking over the tower and put it back on top. The twist is that every block has something written on it that you don't see until you have selected it.
We had many people writing blocks so the creativity varies per block.
Here are a few of my favorites:

• Sing the alphabet song and drink two. (Surprisingly, as the game progresses, many have screwed up singing this song.)
• Cluck like a chicken for five seconds and lay an egg. (Typically, the "egg" is the block pulled.)
• Change shirts with your neighbor and both drink two. This is why Tim is wearing my shirt in this picture (shown above). Christine had been wearing it previously.

So this is how we prepared for Tropical Storm Hanna to arrive in Virginia Beach. We woke up Saturday to gloomy skies and at times, heavy wind and rain. It was a gloomy day but not much of a storm at least at our house. We had lots of sticks in the yard and lost one branch on a crepe myrtle.

On Sunday, since all we did was watch college football on Saturday, we pulled up the carpet in our living room to expose the hardwood floors. We rearranged the furniture and the room seems twice as big. One of these days, we'll get the floors refinished since they've been covered up for almost forty years.

Hanna Heading Towards Virginia Beach

Tropical Storm Hanna is heading our way.

Of course there are many recommended ways to prepare for a hurricane. Having lived in Virginia Beach for ten years and suffering through Hurricanes Bonnie in 1998 and Isabelle in 2003, here is my list of things to do before the storm strikes:

1. Buy beer and ice. If the power goes out, which it ultimately will, you won't care so much with a nice buzz.
2. Buy gas. If power is still out after several days, you will need gas for your vehicle to get out of town or to fill the generator to keep the fridge running and thus beer cold.
3. Have friends gather together to suffer in the heat together. After a hurricane, the heat and humidity is dire and with no A/C, it's terrible. Having friends around (who bring their own cold beer) is a good distraction.
4. Be prepared to eat whatever is defrosting first. One year, we grilled pork, steaks, hamburger, chicken and sausages and then made a great gumbo with the leftovers.
5. Have batteries for your flashlight. You never realize how fast it gets dark until you're trying to read a book by candlelight at 7:45 p.m. It's always an easy way to realize that it's not ten steps from the bed to the bathroom but nine. Bam, the doorframe hurts when you hit it in the dark.
6. Utilize the car charger for your cell phone. This is time when I celebrate the fact that I downloaded spider solitaire on my blackberry so if push comes to shove, I can at least play a game while I hold my beer and sweat in the heat.
7. Try to remember that no matter how bad it seems at your house, some sucker had their house blown away or flooded. It's just not that bad, really.

Shoe Tossing

I was driving Nadya to Bunco last week (see below) in the Ocean View part of Norfolk and commented that you just don't see anyone's sneakers tied together and hanging from power lines anymore. Why is that?
When I was a kid, I felt like I saw them all the time and always snickered that some poor joker mouthed off to the wrong person and next thing you know his sneakers were hanging out of reach.
So I googled shoe tossing to see if I could steal, I mean, Borrow, a photo for this blog entry and I read in Wikipedia that shoe tossing has multiple meanings.
For some the tossing of shoes on power lines may be to mark someone's death, for others it may be to indicate a crack house (called crack tennies), for others, the end of the school year or a forthcoming marriage.
Wow, I simply thought some kid got bullied and lost his converse to the power lines.

My Trip to Margaritaville

Well, I didn't blow out my flip flop at Jimmy Buffett this past Saturday in Northern Virginia but I did manage to lose my new camera. After a fun RV ride, we parked, got settled and had a few beergaritas which got the party started. We walked around to see other people's tailgates which is always entertaining. There were more cars than I remember with homemade "fins" on the tops of their cars. Since I'm without a camera, I'm waiting on my fellow parrotheads to share theirs so I can post them.
Mike did take a picture of me doing a shot on the ice luge. It gave me flashbacks to the party at Rutherford in Blacksburg many years ago. Good times...