Jeremy Herndon

For several years now Dean has been talking about how much he’d love to move to Philadelphia.  He had a college professor who was from Philadelphia and the professor kept talking about how the people there were so nice.  He kept saying that it really and truly earned its nickname of the “City of brotherly love.”  Since that time Dean has been looking for a job that would allow him to live in Philadelphia.  Since he is still young and single it really would not be difficult for him to move there if he got the chance.

I’ve suggested that while he is looking for a job there that he should also be taking a look at the options in Philadelphia apartments.  Knowing how much it will cost to live there should have an impact on what kind of job he should be looking for, in terms of wages.  And since this would be Dean’s first experience living away from his parent’s home, I’ve advised him to plan on a lot of things that he probably never even thought of before, in terms of living expenses.  He needs to find out if the rent includes the utilites, if it includes admission to any gyms or pools, what the neighborhood is like, how close it is to public transportation and grocery stores, and health care.  All of these things are important to consider when looking for a place to live.

 My wife asked me yesterday what I’d like to do if we could get a loan to do anything we wanted to do.  I gave her a funny look and told her that the only loan we could get right now would be one of those emergency loans that we see advertised on television that I’d really like to stay away from!  She sighed and said, no I’m talking about what would you want to buy if we had the money to use for fun!   She said the sky’s the limit!

After the first blush of buying a new John Deere tractor and a new Corvette, and a new wide screen television, I think that I’d like to build a custom made full sized storybook style castle.  Of course it would have to have modern amenities and be energy efficient, but I’d love to have a full moat and drawbridge, turrets, courtyards, and great halls for entertaining and dancing.  

Of course the castle would have the most modern professional commercial kitchen, with propane range tops.  I’d love to have windmills nearby to generate power!  It would be decorated with gold leaf thrones and lush purple velvet. Only the finest tapestries and carpets.  Inside the castle would also be an atrium with a wonderful spa pool to relax in.

Of course no castle would be complete without stables and fine horses and coaches.

Then I’d like to host Medieval Renaissance Fairs there every year.  I’d love to see some jousting tournaments in my very own courtyard!  And we could make some money by renting out the halls for weddings, parties and events.  Maybe even turn it into a Bed and Breakfast!  What a hoot that would be!

My wife has been talking about redecorating the guest bathroom in a fishpond theme.  She has found a nice looking Glass Vessel Sink that is a translucent crystal that she wants to buy and do her decorative painting technique on it to make it look like water lilies and goldfish in the sink.  She plans on doing a reverse painting technique on the backside of the sink.  We were looking online for prices on that kind of sink and found some very reasonably priced on the mrdirectint.com website.  I was really surprised to see so many different styles and colors and sizes of bathroom sinks!

I didn’t believe the weatherman yesterday when he said that we were going to get a snowstorm today. He has been wrong about our weather so much over the past couple of years! There have been so many times that school has been cancelled because the weatherman said it might snow (and it didn’t) that I just laughed when I heard yesterday that we were going to get at least an inch of snow today. Well, the joke is on me because we really are getting the first snow of the season today! And it is a beautiful storm; the flakes are very large and fluffy. It has been snowing for at least the last four or five hours now, which is very unusual for around here. We usually only a dusting. And yes, we have over an inch of snow. It is very pretty, and it IS making me think about Christmas being right around the corner!

We have been inundated with fruit flies over the past couple of weeks.  They started out in the kitchen, around the compost bucket.  So we’ve been emptying and washing the compost bucket every day, and put all of the fresh produce in the refrigerator, thinking that would get rid of them over the course of a few days.  Well, those little buggers have continued to multiply and are now in the bathroom as well as the kitchen.  They are driving me crazy!