Extended Pause

Apologies for the lack of updates here for awhile.

I've now been in Nashville for a year, and posted on this blog 49 times for almost weekly average. However, after that much time I may be past the shock and surprise. Or at least I have started losing my frame of reference.

So for now anyway, I won't be posting here any longer.

You can continue to find my acerbic wit on twitter and my personal blog as well as my thinking about design and customer & user experience at mightyoakes.com.

It was fun while it lasted, thanks for reading.

Ahh, 4H Club

The week we were finishing the home buying process (more on that later, maybe) we had to attend a class oh how to buy a home. Which is not what this post is about.

The classroom (wood-paneled storage room) featured plaques awarded to no one, as far as I can tell, for some odd life skills.

At the Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we took the kids to a "pumpkin farm" to pick out pumpkins and get in on the fall experience: manure, gourds, animals, hay, hayrides, being cold, rotting pumpkins. You know: fall.

Pumpkin Hill has nothing on the Avila Barn. I won't count the longer hay ride in the pro column for Pumpkin Hill; 40 minutes is an unsuitably long hayride.

But the real story is another family sighted at Pumpkin Hill. A middle-aged woman and her mother had brought a toddler to select a pumpkin. I presume the child was adopted because his ostensible mother was white like the moon and the child was dark like fine chocolate. This isn't, by itself, notable to me in any way. However, this is the South and Mom was controlling the child by keeping him on a leash.

They clearly didn't pick up on the subtext.

It's The Little Differences

It's the little differences between California and Tennessee that really get you.

For example, we don't have any flaming squirrels, and if we did it would mean companionship or hunting for food.

What Nashville Beer are You

I post this not because it is funny, or even remotely meaningful, but because I feel obligated. I am generally disgusted by the internet "quiz culture" and despite how asinine, narrow, and ridiculously panderous it is, I give you:

Which Nashville Beer are You

I'm just glad there is a flash app that can tell me which local beer I would like as long as I can tell it what kind of beer I like. Everyone who knows me knows that I hardly talk about anything else.

I Can't Get Away From High Gas Prices

The gas shortages have gotten better (not waiting in lines) but prices are still high here. I saw this article last week, Gasoline cheaper in California than in 15 other states.

We're only now getting notably below $4/gallon. Watching the lines, panic, and skyrocketing prices made me think about how these things are only the early signs of things to come when gas is sparse everywhere..

More Evidence that Things (or People) May Never Change

These were sighted on a car in Austin, TX last weekend when we were visiting family. Submitted without further comment for obvious reasons.