Quick Update

Well surgery was done on Thursday. I'm recovering quite well. Still kinda sore, if I don't take my pain meds every 4 hours my tongue swells up pretty bad then I can't swallow and can barely breathe, so I'm pretty doped up. I'll blog the whole experience when I can stay focused and awake for longer then 20 minutes.

And yes Ann, I remember texting you!

Our Trip to the land of ONE grocery store

So, as my previous post revealed, we went to Tucson over the weekend for Mike's first UTA (military jargon for drill weekend). We left here Friday night at 9:30 figuring Gavin will sleep the whole 2 hour drive since it's late, dark and he had already been in bed for 2 hours. That plus Mike forgot he needed clothes and had to do laundry. So we leave, and Gavin is WIDE AWAKE the whole ride down there. Talking and dancing to music. Very cute but when he didn't go back to sleep during the ride down, I knew I was in for it. So we get to Tucson at about 11:30 and finally get to the hotel about midnight.

We stayed at the "lovely" Airport Hampton Inn. And I use the word lovely VERY VERY lightly. It doesn't look bad from outside as this picture shows.

it's behind Gavin in this one

We get the keys to the room and drive around back, to park since the room was on the 3rd floor in the rear of the hotel. We get all the stuff in the hotel and when we get into the elevator me and Mike look at eachother and gulp. The door was missing paint, and all dented. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but the camera was in the diaper bag and I forgot afterwards. Then the elevator starts to move. I swear I felt like I was on that thrill ride the Tower of Terror going up this thing. It was rocking back and forth and you could feel it bumping into the walls on the way up. Then it started making this odd grinding noise. I held on to Gavin with both arms so tight he pushed me off and said "mommy" in this real frustrated get off me tone, that I had to laugh. We thank our lucky stars when the door opens and it's actually at the floor not stopped half way between levels or anything crazy.

We get off real quick and go to our room, which lucky us is next to housekeeping's storage rooms. They had a pack-n-play in the room which I don't think I would use as a laundry basket it was so nasty. There was white stains all over it and what looked like soda spills on the plastic. I was thankful that we brought ours, I was afraid to fold up the hotel one and put it away for fear of getting contaminated. The funny part was who ever labeled them spelled the hotel name wrong. It said HAPTON all over it. Whoever did that must have skipped ESL.

And boy was I right about Gavin. He did not go to sleep until 4:30 that morning. And Mike had to get up and leave at 5:30 to be at the base at 6:00. Oh and I must also mention it's not at Davis Monthan, the some what normal base, it's at the airport. Where the Air National Guard station is. So the base is like literally 6 square blocks. Which I guess is fine for 1 weekend a month. So needless to say I don't get any sleep Friday night. Not to mention that I drove there (and back).

Gavin is finally asleep at 4:30 so Mike takes the Trailblazer to the base for inprocessing. Gavin gets up at 9:30 and we go downstairs for breakfast, no restaurant, just continental breakfast. Which is fine cause they had eggs oatmeal, cereal, bunch of bagels and donuts and juices. So we get food for me and him and go back to the room. This is Gavin eating breatfast in bed.



Gavin liked breakfast so that made me happy. The eggs had ham and cheese in them, and he had a biscut and oatmeal and apple juice. So he was good to go. Since Mike had the transportation we hung out in the room and played with the toys we brought until he got all types of cranky and needed a nap. I put him in his pack-n-play about noon and he ran around and rocked it back and forth until about 1:30 the passed out. Mike got back at about 2:20 and we ordered pizza since Gavin was sleeping finally. They delivered right to our room, which was nice. We ate and decided to go to "Arizona Factory Outlets" which the hotel book said was a good "shopping spot". Apparently whoever wrote that was in the same class with the person who labeled the port-a-cribs.

We drive around for 20 minutes trying to find this great place that's 3 miles away from the hotel. Finally go back to the hotel and Mike uses the computer in the lobby to Google it. And we find out it's on a road off the main road which wasn't even mentioned in the directions in the book. So we finally find it an hour after setting out to go there. It was off this road behind a run down building that looked like it used to be a warehouse. We pull into the parking lot and the building is reminiscent of the indoor swap mart. We get out the stroller and go in. The second the door opens I almost fall over from the smell. Imagine your in a bathroom that hasn't been cleaned in about a month and the toilets don't flush. That's the smell. Only add wet carpet smell to it. And there are 3 stores.


A Dollar Plus (nothing was $1, so they really meant the plus part) a Toy Liquidators, which had toys from the early to mid 90's for sale (pogs- remember them?) and you can almost see it in the picture a Vanity Fair. We did manage to spend $50 at Vanity Fair on like 4 outfits for Gavin and a $5 shirt for Mike. But we got out of there so fast, it was horrible.

We stopped at a QT for directions to Walmart (hoping they had one) and a good place too eat (again hoping they had one) and we were directed to Golden Corral, a buffet. Surprisingly it was very good. They had cook to order steak and popcorn shrimp. The 3 of us ate there for like $25. They had quite a few things to choose from and unlike Country Buffet we didn't get sick! And Walmart was right accross the street. Mike ran in and picked up a few things and when he came out he said he was the only white person in there and he felt very out of place. I cracked up. After our fun little outing we went back to the hotel to try and put Gavin to bed. He finally fell asleep at 9:30 Saturday night, so did we since I was exhausted from the night before.

Sunday I got my ID, Mike finished inprocessing and I had to pack up the room and check out by 2pm. So not much happened Sunday. After Mike was done we did go to Davis Monthan to check it out. Very small compared to Luke but you could fit a good 3 or 4 of the ANG bases on it. They are big on security compared to Luke too. They wanted to see everyone's ID and the had those tire spike strips in the ground so you couldn't go the wrong way. We got gas ($2.57 a gallon) and headed back towards home. Again with me driving, only this time it's 3:30 in the afternoon. Gavin and Mike both sleep almost the whole way back. Gavin needed it. We got home about 5:00 Sunday and boy was I glad to get home.

I DO NOT WANT TO MOVE DOWN THAT WAY!!!! Mike wanted to move out that way everyone from the base told him not to cause there is nothing out there. Boy were they right. They have 1 Food City and 1 Walmart. I think I saw 3 pharmacies and about 6 gas stations the rest is run down trailer parks, and abandoned warehouses and buildings. There was 1 area that had new houses going up, from the $130's which is shocking to see but that's cause there is nothing there and you have to drive 30+ minutes to get to anything. The closest mall, real mall, we found out is 30 minutes away. I would not be able to live in an area like that. The only nice thing was how close the mountains are to you compared to here.

Tucson

We're heading to Tucson for the weekend, Mike has drill. So I will be back on Monday probably with some crazy story about the weekend. This is also Gavin's first trip away from home! Wish me luck!!!

Mike's Birthday

So, Mike's 26th Birthday was this past Saturday (the 6th) and to
celebrate we went to Hurricane Bay, the club/Karaoke Bar we go to
whenever we get a sitter (which has been 2 times in the last 17
months!!!) We went with John & Alishea and their friend Tom, whom
we had never met before and would prefer not to again. He was a little
off his rocker, and for some of you that read this you know you have to
be pretty off for me to say that. This guy made wierd jokes about being
gay all night long and didn't say anything other then that until he got
up to sing a Megadeath song. Nuff said! So, anyway while we're there
this guy, Nunzee very cute very funny, one of the Karaoke hosts if you
will does this dance that my drunken self caught on video but stupid me
had the camera sideways so it looks even funnier! Here is the Nunzee
dance!

All in all we had a good night, and I got drunk (not loaded) for the first time since Korea!

THE DAM- Gotta love the government

THE DAM

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a pond on his property. It was sent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania. This guy's response is hilarious, but read the State's letter before you get to the response letter.



SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity: Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.


A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department's files shows that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.


The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations.


We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted.

The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2006.

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.. We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division.


Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries:


Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. Price,

Your certified letter dated 12/17/02 has been handed to me to respond to.
I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane, Trout Run, Pennsylvania.

A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials "debris."

I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic.



These are the beavers/contractors you are seeking. As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity.

My first dam question to you is:

(1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or

(2) do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request?

If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued.

(Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental
Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.)

I have several concerns. My first concern is, aren't the beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said representation -- so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the Department is required to protect. In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling them dam names.

If you want the stream "restored" to a dam free-flow condition please contact the beavers -- but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English.

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources (Beavers) and the environment (Beavers' Dams).

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2006? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality, health, problem in the area. It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! The bears are not careful where they dump!

Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.

THANK YOU,

RYAN DEVRIES

GOD LOVE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.
& THE DAM BEAVERS

Gavin's First Year