Zach and Sharon's Blog Home

I thought I would retask one of the house cameras as a webcam to watch the dogs while on road trips. If anyone notices a problem please let me know.

Davinci's pizza – we knew that it had shut down a while ago but gone totally like wiped off the face of the Earth?????
New Tate center – Geez, we students of the modest Tate gone past are blown away and completely jealous. This is what happens when you graduate and start working. Your tax dollars help build a better student center that you do not get to use. This sucks, I had to share the study/quiet rooms with idiots making out in the corner.
The Women's studies/Old police station gone – why? I liked that building.
Two new buildings downtown near First Baptist Church – one is very modern looking but the other just looks like the church is remodeling
Hodgons moved! - blasphemy
Lunch Paper now a freaking martini bar!!! – the ever revolving door of bar/food businesses that keeps everyone guessing and coming to downtown Athens swings again.
All you can eat Ihop pamcakes. Who is this pam and how does she get turned into cakes that we should all hop for?
Old Mellow Mushroom downtown was turned into a Tokyo sushi bar. I would love to know what Murphy thinks about that.
I am still irritated about the loss of Blue Sky. I just don't care that Starbucks is supposed to be the better replacement. I liked the anti-chain Blue Sky coffee. I miss the funky art and affected holier than thou waitstaff who always served drinks exactly the way you wanted without charging you for the extra cup. And why is it so hard to study in the upper loft? I think its cursed

One of my favorite places in the world has been destroyed! I thought I would share some memories of the Georgia Theater in hopes that typing and sharing them would take the sting away...It was more than a club to me. The whole ambiance from the smells of stale spilled beer and cigarette ash on the floor to the torn and broken ceiling tiles falling from the roof. It was just dirty enough to be unimposing yet had enough history to demand the respect it gathered by all of us.
Unfortunately, due to its age it was grandfathered into not needing sprinklers for safety which ultimately led to its untimely demise.

My favorite memories
1.I got to see David Byrne in concert there, afterward talking and having drinks with him at the GA Bar next door. (One of my favorite memories)
2.I met my one famous girlfriend there. She has a smile that will always cheer me up.
3.80's dance nights in the late 90's with Laura. She looked so happy to be on that stage dancing her heart out and with the lights flashing above us.
4.Walking past the box office every morning on the way to my Jittery Joe's coffee breakfast and saying HI to Jennifer as she left for the night.
5.The REM shows with only 100ish people in the crowd. How could you not love that!

Yeah! We have tomatoes! Lots of tomatoes. So many tomatoes they're threatening to take over the garden and force us to eat salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner so the tomatoes do not go to waste. We're giving them away we have so many tomatoes. As for the kind of tomatoes we are growing, I wanted to try some heirloom tomatoes mixed in with the roma and BetterBoy varieties. Well at present we are inundated with the small roma and pear-shaped heirlooms but only a few medium sized brandywine tomatoes and one or two BetterBoys. Today we picked the first yellow heirloom tomato which is about the size of two large grapes squished together. Not forgetting the two decent sized yellow squash we are waiting to try. The vines are not producing like I am used to so I am going to have to research growing squash in south Georgia a little more for next year's crop. This year was totally experimental anyway so anything we get is a bonus! Especially all the tomatoes. Now all I have to do is keep Zach from eating them all before we can have them on our salads (he'll eat them whole right out of the garden and bowl!).

Sharon

Sharon's Grandmother stole/spilled most of my Mojito in her ice water glass to give it the right kick at CPK last Sunday night.

I was looking at picture of my Aunt, my mother and I(The kind you get out of the vending photo booths) that we took when I was around 2 or 3 the other day. It stays in my wallet where I can see their smiling faces when I need a pick me up. I looked at her fondly and thought of my childhood and how we played together. She would watch me as I would play in the tree house/fort my Great Uncle and Father built in the back yard.
It also reminded me of the walks she would take me on through the family property. She once told me that spruce gum resin tasted exactly like honey and if I gathered up enough she would make me candy form it. So she smiled as I went to the trees that make up a fence line behind the old cedar house. I pulled a long resin drop off and whole heartedly stuck it in my mouth. Belch! Oh god that was the most awful taste. It seemed as if my mouth turned completely inside out. She sat there on the stump of an old oak laughing and told me that someone (probably Papa Jack) had done the same to her when she was a young woman. So she had passed on the tradition to me. She took me back to the house and to cheer me up we ate frozen blackberries out of the freezer in the carport.

This was 28 years ago and I still remember it as if it was yesterday. Miss you mom.
Now I don't have kids of my own to pass this on to yet. But I do have a great nephew!
Look out Braxton.

Zach's hostas on the front porch are flowering! Pretty little purple flowers. I have never seen a hosta flower so this is kinda cool for me!


Sharon

At this point, Zach and I have almost completely demolished the hallway on the back of the house that connects the kitchen/office to the bathrooms/utility room/sewing room. All of the drywall, floor and ceiling molding is gone and now we are left with removing some old wooden beams that need to be replaced. Once we get new beams up, then we can redo the ceiling and walls with new drywall, insulation, paint, and molding. We are also going to put in more lighting so it can no longer be called the "cave" and redo some of the electrical outlets and switches. Then we can pull up the awful black & white checkerboard linoleum (I just don't like it!) and put down some old-fashioned stained hardwood flooring to match the rest of the house. Check out the wonderful crack between the backdoor and the hallway frame!!!


 
 
 
 

I have a great friend that flies UAV's more specifically a "removed". He and I were sitting on the back porch having a few drinks / "chillaxing" the other day. When all of a sudden he had the idea to fly his plane down Peachtree around the Hyatt and under the Marta curve in Atlanta. Now we were just having a good time so I just laughed and went on. So anyway, this morning I just had to see if it was even possible to fly through a tunnel at such speeds, while avoiding traffic, and the rubberneckers. As it turns out, this is not a new idea there are many people that have tried it.

Mark, this is for you.

Four summers ago in a town three hours from Cochran, I worked as a sales associate (cashier/stock girl/crafting advice giver) for JoAnn Fabrics in Athens, GA. I loved working there for lots of reasons (people were nice, got a neat discount, loved being around my hobby of sewing & crafting, on the bus route, near a Jittery Joe's, in Athens....) and unfortunately like an alcoholic exposed to alcohol, being too near my favorite hobby materials was like a siren song and so I usually wound up getting something as soon as my shift was done. One of those siren song items was a pair of Star Wars fleece pillow kits where you cut the fleece and tie the ends around a pillow form. I was unable to actually make the pillows though until this last April when I finally procured two pillow forms of around the right size and took the time (2hrs at my sewing table and then my kitchen table due to lighting issues) to make them. I was rather pleased with the result and both my husband and the dogs seem to agree. Zach often uses them to nap on or use as a prop on the floor when he plays video games or watches TV. For now they live on the futon but they will probably very soon live in my hobby room when we get new furniture (crossing fingers) for the living room.

Sharon

Well today I finally decided to get a much needed haircut but not possessing any hair styling talent and not having a ton of time to devote to hair do-ing, I opted for a simple bob. I looked up donating what was cut off but apparently since I did not braid it and since it is not at least 10in long, my 2lbs of dead keratin cannot be used for a wig. I'll send it anyway to http://www.locksoflove.org/ as they can make money to support what they do off of my hair.

When Zach got home from his trip this evening he and I also started demolishing ("demo" as the lingo goes) the badly dry walled hallway (We will continue in the morning). We are pulling everything out so we can repair the roof, put up insulation, improve the electrical outlet situations, wainscoting, wall sconces, decent overhead lights, paint and put down real hardwood flooring. Then we can tackle all the other projects around the house like the bathrooms, the kitchen, lack of ceiling fans, lack of insulation under the floors & in the ceiling, new tin roof, the yard, etc.....

My mom and I at Broadway at the Beach near Myrtle Beach on Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

My great-aunt Marie and my mom.

Zach and I went to visit my mom for mother's day and my "Uncle" Dennis (my mother's cousin by her mother's sister) happened to be there helping her make invitations for the Barnes family reunion. I managed to snap a picture of Dennis and my nephew when they were not looking.

Well it is official! I've been at MGC 3 years. My third year was punctuated by MGC's 80th May Graduation Ceremony. Zach took the picture from way up in the stands before everyone filed in to fill the seats.

The MGC anime club, Koryo Fox, that I advise had a last hurrah spaghetti dinner at our house Wednesday night. The kids devoured the spaghetti with meatballs (thanks Zach), cherry vanilla ice cream and the garlic bread. Zach and I were glad to be able to give them a night of fun during finals. We are firm believers in the fact that every college student should have at least one spaghetti dinner (cheap & easy) and a break during finals. Some students watched "Shaun of the Dead" while others played piano and looked up Facebook (I do not have a Facebook account. I guess I'm behind the times. Now I feel old). Some of them will be back next year but some of them are moving on (graduating, transferring, next step of their lives). We'll miss those leaving as this was a good group but we look forward to helping those staying become well rounded indiviuals while maybe watching some good anime!!!

Sharon

Sorry folks,

Sharon and I are still alive.
My loving wife has been pestering me to add to the blog lately but the house and work have been taking precedence over a growing list of honey do's.

Up-date:
January 1st
I noticed that there was a water spot on the ceiling of the hallway. That led me to the crawlspace above where I discovered that there were in fact TWO ceilings! The previous owners "PO's", in all their wisdom had built a false ceiling over the original. There was a leak above the office door as well as the storage closet. As I inspected the roof above these two spots I realized the tin roof seam had been folded over pooling water beneath. How ever many years ago this happened caused a rust line along the edge. So, I decided to take down the drywall that was ruined by the water and discovered that the PO's had cut studs on a bias to follow the cedar tongue and groove paneled ceiling slope. As I swung my hammer to remove the first stud I heard a low groaning and saw the other studs falling away as the old ceiling started to bow away. Being under the impeding doom I saw the back door calling my name. As I ran debris fell around, in front, ON me. Showered in 130 years of dust, wood, blown cellulose insulation, and owl poo I fell out the back door.
After the roof is fully repaired, we will be reconstructing the hallway roof at the same height as the foyer. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a contractor in the area that has any real experience with new plaster. So Sharon will be helping me redo the electrical, drywall, and put down new hardwood floors this summer. She has been planning what she wants in there since the day after it happened. The silver lining is I now have not been trusting the PO's "renovations" and have found many problems that have now been fixed.


February:
I removed the god awful medicine cabinets in the bathrooms. Since I already had the walls opened up a friend and I rewired the lights on the ceiling and added vanity lights over the sinks. After the hallway is completed we will be adding exhaust vents to both in hopes of one day being somewhat in code.







Sharon got the antique piano she always wanted as a valentines present this year. It started life as a choir piano from the Catholic parish in Macon. She did not know she was getting it till the day of and only then because I could not get in the house alone. The only people available in the area was a professor and an instructor from MGC. Hopefully we will be able to have it restored int he coming year. At a party last night some of our guest played it and it sounded beautifully.



I promise I will post more but actual work calls.

Zach

A great friend of mine asked if I could come up with one new law, what would that law be without any provisions. My response: Students are responsible for their education. Period. No one else.

Sharon

Providence Canyon (17)
Originally uploaded by league of evil geniuses.

Zach says he took this picture but I'm not sure. Whoever took the picture did a really good job. The lighting and composition are nice for a mushroom picture.

Talluha Gorge Camping trip
Originally uploaded by league of evil geniuses.

Thanks to Tina, we hiked Black Rock Mtn and Brasstown Bald on a beautiful, crystal clear fall day.

Halloween 08 Cochran GA
Originally uploaded by league of evil geniuses.

Zach's Pumpkin for 2008 - really scary!!!!

Halloween 08 Cochran GA
Originally uploaded by league of evil geniuses.

Well we decorated the house for our first Halloween as homeowners in Cochran. This was actually our third Halloween in Cochran but so far it turned out to be the best. We had a good number of costumed and properly spirited trick-or-treaters and we actually got to meet some of our neighbors. Thanks to Zach the fog machine delivered as usual some much needed spookiness but I must say the luminaries turned out nice as well!

Boo !!!

Our new puppy Murphy found our house welcoming and warm. He is a Bernese Mountain Dog and a dignified lapdog.