Father Daughter Date.

Tonight I had the honor of taking my daughter on a date. She's 15 years old and becoming a wonderful young woman. We took the Mazda MX5 with the top down. We haven't gone a a date for quite a while so it was long overdue. When she was about 6 years old and we were living in Minnesota we would take my old convertible to the to the local pastry shop for dates. We would dress up and she would tell me about the important things in her life. Now the important things in here life have changed and I'm more pleased than ever that she still tells me about them.

We went to the Ruby Tuesday just down the street. It's become our new family favorite and we've gone there often enough that we get noticed as regulars. Just after we were seated my daughter mentioned how much she'd like one of the strawberry ice cream deserts as one was being carried out of the kitchen. To our surprise the waitress brought the desert to our table and asked if we'd like it - apparently it was supposed to be for a carry out order (which doesn't get the ice cream on it) but was made with ice cream. My daughter jumped at the offer so we had desert first - on the house, and then enjoyed a delicious dinner. I'm looking forward to our next date and more fond memories.

Back to the DMV

Upon closer inspection it looks like I'll be going back to the dmv too or perhaps I'll change my name to timothty - it may be easier.

TGIF - not

After a few hours at work I decided to seek out greater challenges so . . . Today we went to do battle with the South Carolina DMV! I have to admit compared to the California DMV this was a walk in the park; the line moved quickly and wasn't long to begin with so we got to their first line of defense pretty quickly. We'd prepared for this encounter and had already filled out the required forms so we were ready to move on quickly - not so fast; South Carolina doesn't accept other states drivers licenses as proof of anything other than driver qualification so after a quick scan of the acceptable documents I dashed home to pick up passports or birth certificates to prove we were really who we said we were and a utility bill to prove we actually lived here, as opposed to it being our hobby to visit various state DMVs and exchange our drivers licenses. While I was collecting documents Elizabeth worked on task 2 - vehicle registration. When I returned, passports and utility bills in hand she had secured the coveted "In God We Trust" version of the South Carolina license plate. The greeter recognized us and reviewed our documents - Passports, check; Utility bill in Elizabeth's name, check; Utility bill in Tim's name . . . frantic searching . . . check; military and dependant ID cards, check. We received our line numbers and took our seats. A few minutes later we were called up and paperwork in order paid my $25 and was sent to get a picture. Elizabeth was not so fortunate; as an identity theft protection measure her ID card didn't have the requried social security number, and the original issue reciept in her maiden name - even when accompanied with a marriage license was not a suitable replacement; she'll be making another trip to the DMV. On the positive side, the lines are short and the people are nice.

The Big Drop

This afternoon at work I received a nervous call from home when our daughter stepped off the walk and fell through the attic into the garage. She ended up straddling the garage door opener lifter track. OUCH! After several X-rays and once over by the doctor we determined that she was bruised but not broken.

The garage ceiling required some serious work, so much for unpacking today! Fortunately Mike next door had some extra Sheetrock in just the right size for a patch.

Father's Day Weekend

On Saturday we noticed that the grass was getting a little long so we set out on a lawn mower shopping trip. After a quick stop at Consumer Reports we decided on the Toro Recycler Personal Pace. The nearest Toro dealer no longer stocked mowers since Toro had required them to take on more inventory than they were willing to. We stopped at an Ace hardware that had only a few small mowers and a Sears that had a couple of good looking mowers and a lot of hornets. We stopped by Lowe's and still no Toro. Our last stop was to Home Depot where we found the sought after mower. The kids were anxious to get mowing and by the end of the day we all really liked the new mower. It started easily on the first pull and the personal pace feature made the large yard a breeze.

That evening we battled through picture hanging with only a few mishaps.


After church on Sunday a band of thunderstorms rolled through putting a damper on a planned outing so we opened more boxes and I put together a couple of wall racks for the garage. A few more racks and we may get both cars back in the garage.

For dinner we adventured to Daniel Island and Queen Anne's Revenge. The decor was great, the service was fantastic and the food was wonderful for both the adults and the kids. It may be the new family favorite.

More Stuff

The "overflow" shipment of our stuff arrived today after being stored in a warehouse, packed in crates shipped across the country and then mis-handled during the unpacking. The stuff that came on the moving truck that we pretty much had oversight of during both the packing and unpacking process had a fighting chance and we really had minimal damage to that shipment. The overflow was a different story - the delivery crew that the local United office sent over were pretty shady and they managed to break a light fixture among other things while unloading. Keeping them on task was a major chore.

On a positive note the heat wave that had been with us since we arrived has weakened and both this evening and last were very pleasant. The Whitehall neighborhood is a great place for evening walks; especially compared to our very hilly neighborhood in California so hopefully we can keep this new healthy trend going.

There are 3 large frogs that have taken residence in the pond in the front yard; one of them has grown quite large and can no longer get out of the pond without assistance (I think they're eating all of my mosquito fish).

I stopped by the library and now have a library card - I'm starting to feel like a Charlestonian. The rest of the family got their cards yesterday but I'm not falling too far behind.

Unpacking the computers

Finally found the box with the computers and associated accessories. The movers arrived with the first load on the 3rd of June, the second load arrives tomorrow (June 10th). More about the whole moving process on a follow-up post. At this point the kitchen and the kid's bedrooms are complete. The dining room is fully unboxed and is only wanting a few pictures on the walls. The family room was finished a few days ago - again except for pictures on the wall. We were able to get to cars in the garage after a few hours putting away garage related supplies. Tomorrow will bring a new wave of boxes. We're starting to see all those little things that we didn't notice the first few times in the house.