.: bistan.net :.

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Philadelphia was visiting the Please Touch Museum.  It’s similar to the Imagine It! children’s museum in Atlanta, but on a much grander scale.  It is housed in a building that was constructed for our nation’s bentenial celebration in 1876.  The grand building looks like it belongs on the mall in Washington D.C.  You would never guess that it has a museum for children inside.

Philadelphia had many first class attractions.  I only wish we had arranged to stay longer and see more of them.

In case you haven’t noticed, I have blogged nearly every day this week.  And some days (including today), I have blogged multiple times.  I still have lots of things to post, including Mackenzie’s 3K graduation from last month.  I think I’ll go have a cookie now.

If it’s not obvious, I’m clearly avoiding school-work by blogging.  (I have two more projects to turn in before Tuesday.  One is 75% done and I haven’t started the other.) I’m also considering promoting this blog more to my friends, etc. via facebook and twitter, so I need to populate it with lots of content.

Next week, I’ll be blogging live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey.  Stay tuned . . .

This morning, after running a quick 7:30AM 5K, we met some of my colleagues for a trip down the Ocmulgee.  We went with Ocmulgee Expeditions, which is one of the best kept secrets here in town.

They put us in the river at Water Works Park and we paddled/drifted for about 4 miles to the Riverwalk.  The kids loved it.  It was amazing how we were right in the middle of town, but it seemed like we were out in the middle of nowhere.  Even when we passed by the trails, you couldn’t see anyone because we were so low in the river.

I highly recommend taking a trip sometime soon!

My sister got the opportunity to ask Clark Howard a money question . . . and get her two minutes of fame.  This was obviously before she had her baby.  Check it out:

Although the season ended weeks ago, T-ball officially ended Tuesday night with a party at Stevie-B’s.  T-ball is a mistake I will never make again.  We originally decided to put Tristan into team sports so that he would learn that you aren’t always a winner.  Of course, we ended up on a disfuctional team that couldn’t ever win.  Unless Tristan specifically asks to do team sports again, that chapter in our lives is over.

And yes, those are Silly Bandz that my kids are sporting in the first photo.

This morning, I had the opportunity to climb the clocktower at work to shoot some photos.

The clock is not currently functional.  In fact, it’s always 12:00.  That may change soon.

There are small household lightbulbs which illuminate the clock at night.  These could easily be changed out with some colored party bulbs to really add some awesomeness to the Macon skyline.

The old wooden ladder below is used to service the clock.  When my boss traversed up the ladder, you could hear it cracking.  I let him snap the first picture above.

When you are up that high, you have to walk out onto the balcony and check out the marble accents and the view of downtown Macon.  It is the highest point in town.  I usually take fellow staff members (and sometimes friends) to the roof, seen in the bottom left below.  The roof is an easy climb, the clocktower however, is much higher.

There are actually two levels above this.  This diagonal metal ladder takes you another 30 or so feet to another level with a balcony and then a vertical ladder takes you another 20 or so feet to the top.

Here is the entire clocktower.  You can see how much higher you can go than simply inside the clock face.  I wouldn’t want to be in there during a thunderstorm!

The balcony I went out on is actually in the bottom left.  It doesn’t look so high now!

Last week, we wrapped up our third year of swimming lessons with Bragg Swim School.  Tristan took lessons in 2008, both kids took lessons last year, but only Mackenzie took lessons this year.  She did MUCH better this year.

Now, it’s time to get our travel on and find some pools to put those new skills to use!

Back in January, we were going through some things in Mackenzie’s closet.  In the process, we discovered the carpet was soaked.  A few things were ruined, including the baby bed that I, my sister, Tristan, Mackenzie, and a few other kids in-between used.  Nothing, however, was as bad as the carpet and baseboards.

Finally after a few months, four plumbers from two different companies on three separate visits failed at determining the source of the water, I finally found the leak.  Next, I had to repair the shower and the wall.  I also added an access panel so that the source of the leak would be accessible in the future without more demolition.

Because the water had ruined carpet outside of the closet and the carpet was well worn, we decided to replace it with something else.  Here are a few shots of Mackenzie’s room before:

I set aside a weekend where I had no other obligations, and carpet removal began.

Every spring, Lowe’s reduces the price of their laminate flooring.  Three years ago, I pulled up the carpet in our living room, dining room (who carpets a dining room anyway?), and 2 closets.  While at Lowe’s, we also discovered these nice purple curtains on the clearance rack.  Below are the “after” pictures:

And finally, the closet where it all began:

(I actually finished all of this about two weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting it.)

You’ve probably seen the reports on tv about Coupon Queen, Coupon Mom, Southern Savers, etc. and how they play the drug store game to get tons of stuff for really cheap.  Those ladies should just hope that one day they are as good at it as I am.

Each Sunday, I wake up, grab the CVS ad and Sunday coupons, and map out my game plan.  I make it so that CVS pretty much pays me to take their junk.  What if CVS is out of something on my plan? No problem! There are 2 stores within 4 miles of my house and another 20+ stores within 15 miles of my house. 

I’m not one of those folks who usually blogs about how much I save, but this morning CVS paid me 3 cents to take a $10.00 razor, $4.00 to take $10.00 worth of body wash, and 55 cents to take $15.00 worth of cereal.

Over the past few weeks, we have gotten free deodorant, heat wraps, holiday stuff, toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo, expensive razors, body wash, feminine products, candy, cereal, air fresheners, and tons of other stuff.

We do use most of the stuff, but then some of it we don’t need, especially the soaps and shampoos, as evidenced in this previous post.  I don’t even know why I do it.  Maybe I’m addicted?  The razors in the center photo, for example, are some of the newest models out and retail from $10 – $15 each!

I just want to add a few thought on the oil spill:

• First of all, it is NOT a spill.   Nothing was spilled. It is a natural substance bubbling up from under the ocean floor.  God made oil, not man.
• Nobody intentionally caused the disaster.  It was an accident.
• Due to the complex distribution network of petroleum projects, it is NOT POSSIBLE TO BOYCOTT BP.  Oil is used in plastics, jellies, paints, detergents, film, ink, etc.  The gas stations are owned by small businessmen who are simply marketing the BP brand.
• We all share responsiblity.  BP would not be drilling at such depths if we weren’t so addicted to oil.
• Did they ignore proper procedures? Does it matter? We ALL ignore proper procedures at work.  That’s life.
• Do we owe the gulf coast anything? No. Their economies have been stimulated by oil companies for years.  That’s our money already going to support them.

If you look at company stocks in the years after disasters, you’ll see why I will be buying BP stock while the price is low.  Just look at how Exxon stock performed in the early 90′s after the Valdez spill.  Other disasters produced similar results.