anniversary number one

The front planting bed today.

'Felicia's Woods' in the back yard.

April 27th, 1999 was the day we moved into our wonderful place here.





We closed and then rushed here with the keys to our first 'New' house!
On the way we stopped and picked up Chinese food, forgetting that we hadn't moved any silverware yet. We ate with our hands, and shared one plastic fork that Queen Felicia had in her purse.

Our yard initially resembled the Martian landscape. Red clay and weeds!

After several loads of "River Soil", gallons of sweat and sore muscles, and many, many trips to Lowes's Home Improvement (and considerable hard earned ducats!) the place is finally starting to shape up. So are we, hopefully.



One of our neighbors who is from South Africa said it
"looks like Hawaii!"
All we know is it is a lot greener, and more protected now.
Now that Soldier Boy is off at school and I have to do all of the mowing, we are planning to do some terracing and other landscaping to eliminate a good bit of the grass cutting chores.

Figures! I finally get it to spread nicely everywhere, and now I am talking about getting rid of it!

Outside work helps to keep us sane, and hopefully a little bit porcine around the middle.

Now, what time does Lowe's open on Saturday?

The original Bloggers

Queen Felicia visiting with Mr. Jefferson in Williamsburg.

As always, we think we 'moderns' are innovators.
In actuality, our founding fathers were the original 'bloggers'.
Benjamin Franklin is most famous for 'discovering' electricity, the Franklin Stove, inventing the lightning rod and Bi-Focal glasses, founding the first Fire Department and our postal service, etc.
But, his first claim to fame was as a printer and publisher.
Ever hear of "Poor Richards Almanac"?
Ben wrote under the pseudonym Poor Richard.
Witty sayings, homilies, advice "A stitch in time, saves nine", criticisms, and whatever may have crossed his mind on a given day were put to paper.
The medium of their day was the newspaper, and private correspondence.
The educated person of that time more than likely could both read and write classical Greek, Latin, and in some cases Hebrew.
And I struggle to coherently communicate in the Kings English!
Public debate after the Revolution often became quite heated.
Many of our noteworthy founders chose to use pen names or nom-de-plume in published debate.
This allowed them to be more candid and open, and it also gave them opportunity to be snarky and vicious with their opponents or enemies, without fear of retaliation.
Thomas Jefferson and President Washington were unusual in that they never availed themselves of this practice.
Jefferson stated in a private letter "I have never written anything without affixing my own name to it" He sometimes signed private letters "T.J.", but that was done as a familiarity, not an attempt to hide his identity.
Many of the best examples of 18th century blogs can be found in the Debate on the Constitution. We still don't know the actual identities of many contributors.
'Cato', 'Brutus', and 'Marc Antony' are still a mystery.
"A Citizen of America", in later years "Giles Hickory" is known to have been penned by Noah Webster. That's right, the dictionary guy!
'Publius' was known to be Alexander Hamiliton, but it was also briefly used by James Madison.
'Cincinnatus' was thought to be Arthur Lee, one of R.E. Lee's ancestors.
And there were others.
One thing I was reminded of, in going back and reading some of these important documents.
Compared to our Forefathers, I am a total idiot!
The person in our current Congress that could be considered our greatest intellect would not compare favorably to any of our founders.
Jefferson's personal diary had notes in Greek, Latin, engineering drawings, scientific and theological observations, and insightful comments on the affairs of the day.
On a good day, I can remember my own zip code.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Blog Jury, I rest my case!

The incredible, edible, pig?

Today I sponsored an old fashioned "Pig-Pic-N" for a customer.
Cue', or depending on which part of the country one visits, B-B-Q, BabaCue, etc, is a vital part of both the economy and the culture of the Carolina's.
Here in NC, two major culinary forms dominate.
Eastern Cue has a vinegar based sauce, and Western is a hotter, somewhat sweeter sauce.
In South Carolina it's a mustard based sauce.
And, boy howdy, people do like to argue as to whose is the best!
I grew up in FL on Memphis style Barbecue.
The Cue' in Texas where we lived for 14 years is also similar to that, and it is still my favorite.
Sweet sauce, brown sugar or some other base, and dry rubbed ribs and brisket typify it.
Here in Carolina, the Pig is King, long live the Pig!
Barbecue is thought to have originated with the Caribbean Pirates, who stole the idea from the Carobs, who were notoriously fierce cannibals.
When a Carob invited you to a barbecue, you were wise not to RSVP.
You were most likely to be on the menu!
Thanks to one of my favorite American authors for that info, James Michener, from his wonderful book Caribbean.
So now that it is spring, fire up that smoker (real Cue' is only cooked on either hickory or mesquite wood, never on charcoal, or the total sacrilege of propane!) and bring on the meat!

NFL Draft

Well football fans, the event you've all been anticipating with baited breath is this weekend!
That's right, the annual snoozefest called the NFL draft is just around the corner.
Two entire days of watching pampered soon-to-be millionaires on remote cable links, sitting in their living rooms with all of their extended families, waiting to see which team is willing to give them half of the annual income of Brunei before they have played their first down of professional football.
You'll witness moments of almost unbearable tension such as "The Minnesota Vikings have traded their 9th round pick to the Miami Dolphins for a corny dog and an order of nachos"
The nachos were stale, and the corny dog had been on the floor, but the Vikings won that one.
The only moment in recent memory worth watching was Eli Manning (Peyton's baby, in more ways then one, brother) making the same face he undoubtedly made when his mama tried to feed him strained Rutabaga at 12 months in age. Why, you ask? Because the 'wrong' team, in this case the San Diego Chargers made him their number one draft pick, and threw him millions of dollars, three Ferraris, and the Chrysler Building to play ball for them.
Little Eli wanted to pway for someone else, and he acted like the jersey and hat they gave him to wear was radioactive.
Last laugh on him, last time we noticed the team he was traded to, the New York Giants have gone nowhere with him. Philip Rivers, who went to the Chargers in that trade has already taken his team to the conference Championship.
Should have eaten those Rutabagas, Eli!
The crap shoot that has become the NFL draft typically shows the futility of expecting to win a Super Bowl because of one or two hot draft picks.
Witness the New England Patriots, winning three recent Championships with moderate to low draft picks, and trades for players no one else wanted.
It's coaching and front office skill guys, not 40 yard times!
A few teams have that, most don't.
The curse of the clueless struck again last year.
Houston spent their number one pick on a very good defensive player, but passed up Reggie Bush. All he did was take the Saints within one game of the Super Bowl.
Can you say "Duh, Y'all" Texans fans?
So what will be the big story this year?
Which number one pick will be seen on all of the cable news networks leading the police on a merry chase down the Santa Monica Freeway, wearing Rayban's and Smurf underwear?
Who will blow out his knee in training camp, and play not down one in his Rookie Year?
(with a guaranteed contract!)
Stay tuned!
Me, I've better things to do. Give the dog a manicure, mow the yard (with scissors), or something equally productive.

Pictures, pictures!

Posting pictures has proven to be cumbersome, to say the least!
Definitely a work in progress.
Stay tuned sports fans!

Thanks to my buddy Phil for encouraging me to continue!

This is a catharsis for me, but it's nice to know someone appreciates it.

The Queen likes it, so life is indeed grand!

Never too old....

Queen Felicia, Soldier Boy and AppDaddy

Both of my lovely nieces have inspired me. My lovely wife Queen Felicia and I are now hooked on reading their (almost) daily musings on their lives. Both of them live in lands far away, so it is a great way to keep track of their young families during their growing up years.

Where did the name Dinosaur Notes come from, you may ask?

Well, I am a Red State, Red Neck, Right Wing Christian 50 something Reagan Conservative, married to the same wonderful woman these past 25 years and counting.

Our son is a Reservist in the United States Army, and is just now finishing up his Sophomore year in college. ROTC is the core of his college experience. He is a history major, which also happens to be my passion. I must have imparted something of value to him, in between yelling at him to pick up his clothes, clean his room, mow the yard (which he may have successfully completed two or three times!) etc .

Hence the name Dinosaur. Those of us who have manged to find a woman who will not only tolerate us, but still hold true the "old" values that most of us in my 'Boomer' generation were raised on are a dying breed.

My father was literally born in a log house, and lived there until his junior year of high school.
During his lifetime, he lived to see and fly on jet aircraft, own a color TV and air conditioning, and witness our astronauts walk the surface of the moon.

He would probably have a hard time accepting some of the other changes that have occurred since his far to early death in 1976, both for the good and for the bad.

Cell phones, MRI scans, cars that talk and park themselves, P.C's with more power than main frame computers had in his day, etc.

The bad? Idiots that talk on their cell phones (loudly!) in church, put on their make up while driving said intelligent cars, Rap music, 24/7 news media, "Stars" who tell us how to live, all the while outdoing Solomon himself in wealth and self indulgence, etc etc.

I don't know that I will have the time or discipline to post every day, as my niece the Mistress of Wazoo farm does, but hopefully this will inspire me to get off of my rapidly aging posterior and exercise my talent (at least I had some degree of that in my youth) for the written word.

My little clan consists of Queen Felicia, who defies time and normal aging, Soldier Boy, our officer in training and defender of all that is right and good in our all volunteer military, and three charming but typically useless four legged critters.

Rebel the Cat (give me a break what else would you call a musty Gray southern Tom Cat?), Bonnie the Shelty, fourth in a long line of lovable but loud and comical Sheep Dogs, and our newest addition, Csonk the Black Lab, now 7 months old.

In case you are wondering Dear Readers, he is named after old Number 39 of the Miami Dolphins, Larry Csonka. Fullback on the greatest football team of all time, and a favorite of mine on that great team.

He is goofy, (the dog, not Larry!) full of energy, head strong, and we think he has great intelligence lurking beneath his canine teenage antics.

When I figure out how to fully utilize all of this new-fangled technology, I may even post some pictures.

Welcome to Jurassic Park North Carolina style!