To the Reenactor

My husband, The Reenactor, turns 40 today. He's out of town on a business trip, so in his absence I will discuss him on my blog.

We met when we were both photographers for a university that shall go unnamed, because we don't like the new name of it! I was working for the PR dept, he was working for the yearbook. We often were at the same place at the same time, waiting in bored patience for the grip-n-grin to occur so we could get our shot, and leave. We suffered through speeches, presentations, and really awful football games just to get enough usuable frames (pre-digital camera, folks!) to work with, and I soon found myself looking forward to his company at these occasions. The rest, they say, is history, and 16 years later (12 of those in wedded bliss) I still look forward to his company.

I'm proud of him for what he has done professionally...making chemicals we can all keep cool with...and with how seriously he takes his role in it. I'm proud that he has been given a whole new responsiblity at work, and that everyone who has worked with him recognizes that he is perfect for his new job...making sure that the process of making the chemicals is done as safely as possible.

I'm proud that he has taken his grandmother's pickle recipe and made it his own...taking something that was already good, and making it way better.

I'm proud that he probably knows more Civil War history than the average person, and in spite of the fact that all those CW books take up a lot of shelf space in our house, that he has actually read all of them, not just once, but multiple times.

He's not one to challenge at trivial pursuit...he has more obscure knowledge tucked away than the average person, and knows more strange facts than I'll ever know.

Anyway...here's to The Reenactor in a new decade. Much love from your bride!

sorry to be bore-ing!!!

It has been difficult for me to find inspiration for blog posting these last few days. I keep wanting to rant about how disgusted I am with the president and his hell-bent plans for keeping our young men and women in harms' way just so he can prove he's right, or at least he's the decider, or whatever. I am so unbelieveably frustrated with it all that I simply can't focus my thoughts into something coherent and understandable, and for what it's worth, I'm pretty much preachin' to the choir with you Campers, arent' I? No Rovians lurking out there are there?

So I'll latch onto something more fun...one of my new favorite televsion shows is "Living with Ed." No, it isn't about my brother (sorry Ed!). It is about the actor Ed Begley, Jr., and his wife, and their "green" lifestyle. It is on HGTV and is both funny and incredibly informative about ways the average household can limit their use of electricty, fossil fuels, water, etc. I said, average household...but really this season he has visited celebrity friends who have seriously gone green...some of them almost entirely or entirely getting "off the grid" --which is apparently the goal of folks like Ed. Some of these people have fabulous houses (estates really) that are powered almost exclusively by solar or wind power. In fact, Larry Hagman (yes, J.R. from Dallas) sells back some of the power his personal system generates to the power company, and I think I understood that he donates some of his power as well to low-income families. He said he went from having a $37,000 electric bill one year, to a $13 the next, after he installed his solar panels. Incredible. Of course the panels were plenty expensive, so folks like The Reenactor and I can't rush out to buy them, but it is impressive that this amount of power is possible from a unit like this. And it's CLEAN, folks!!!

On a smaller scale, they have installed numerous gadgets in their own home which I am really interested in...one is a switch that allows you to turn off all unnecessary power in your house when you aren't home....all the things that are on "standby" waiting for you to use them, and sucking electricty while they wait. You can be very specific about which outlets you want to include in this, and the energy savings was something like 25% per month.

Anyway...if you get a chance to watch it it really is good fun, and educational.

Cards vs. Cubs tomorrow...I've never seen the Cubbies before!

We'll lose, of course, but at this point, does it really matter?

I promise I didn't photoshop this....