Dave and Kara

The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider

A few weeks ago I was walking by my living room when I noticed a large black object on my floor. As I steeped closer I realized that it was pretty much the biggest spider I have ever seen... and it just so happened to be in my house. You can imagine my anger at this, not to mention the fact that my husband was gone camping, which in turn meant that I was either going to have to let the spider roam freely in my house or I was going to have to kill the thing all by myself!

After a brief moment I decided that the spider had seen its last day because he was certainly not allowed to roam my home any longer. I also knew I had to capture the thing on my camera to show my true bravery to my husband when he returned home. I quickly ran to grab the camera and I took the first image and reviewed it. I then realized that I was going to need my close up lens with the high power zoom because I wasn't getting any closer to the thing than I already was.

Once I had put the new lens on my camera I also noticed my goulashes by the backdoor and quickly slipped into those just in case I needed to act quickly! I figured they were added protection in case it decided to try and crawl up my leg. I took a few more photos, but the scale of the spider wasn't obvious. I knew I was going to have to put something near it that would demonstrate the monstrosity and size of the thing. I found a nickle and walked back into the room (each time a little more amazed that the spider hadn't moved). I didn't want to reach my hand down by it to place the nickle, but I certainly didn't want to kill it first because then it would curl up thus decreasing the appearance of it's size. With a shoe in hand I tossed the nickle as close to the spider as I could get it and took a few more pictures. I grabbed the shoe and with one big swing I smashed it.

As a side note, the spider was so large that as my flash on my camera went off his eyes would glisten. It is a wolf spider which is apparently harmless, but I didn't like the looks of him.

The Dog Days of Summer

Often times, we like to sit outside on our camping chairs in our driveway and enjoy the views. The dogs aren't allowed on our furniture and that goes for the camping chairs as well, but Dave and I thought this was too cute of a picture to pass up. Sadie (the German Sherpherd) is pretty convinced and has been that she is human. Her pose in this picture certainly expresses that!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

So we have survived a snow storm (or at least what the south considers a snow storm) on day two of living here. Within our second month in Arkansas we experienced what a sever tornado season was like, including one that was only about a mile from our home. We have survived the humidity and have quickly learned what the heat index means. I have seen the snakes and spiders. And I now can officially say that I have experienced a hurricane, or at least what was left of it when it arrived in Arkansas after hitting Louisiana the day before.

Tuesday was a typical day at work. The weather forecasters had been warning Arkansas about the impact Gustav would have on the state. The rain began around 6 that morning but didn't seem to bad. It became progressively heavier as the day went on. Dave and I had planned on going to a high school football game that evening, rain or shine. We got as far as the parking lot before we decided that we would be absolutely miserable and soaking wet. We traveled home in rain that was difficult to see through at times, but arrived safely. We hit the garage door opener... and nothing! I hit it again thinking maybe I didn't get it pushed right, but still the door did not open. It then dawned on me that we probably were with out power. Sure enough that was the case. Fortunately I was a little more prepared after experiencing the power go out during tornado season and had bought a lantern. I also learned that it was much easier to find candles and light them before you lost light outside and couldn't see at all.

We attempted to fill our lantern up with oil holding it to the backdoor window to borrow what little natural light was left and trying to read the instructions. What we didn't realize is that lantern's apparently have a fill line (this was discovered the next day in day light) and if you put oil in past that fill line it leaks out everywhere a makes a large mess in which you cannot see because it is pitch black. I later learned that it can also cause the lantern to explode, luckily we did not experience that disaster! We spent the rest of the evening in darkness and woke up to the same.

I shouldn't really say woke up because we spent most of the evening wide awake because the storm was so loud and not to mention the fact that our weather radio (it has battery power back up) went off four times with wind warnings, flood warnings, and weather statements. The weather seemed really bad and I didn't feel great about either Dave or I driving to work in it. We had no way of checking road conditions due to the loss of power. We weren't sure if either of our work locations had power. I tried to contact my boss but couldn't get a hold of him (keep in mind this is about 5:45 in the morning). I began to get ready just in case I had to go in. It was definitely a first getting ready in the dark. We did have a warm shower. Dave held the lantern up to my face so I could see to put my make up on. I couldn't blow dry my hair so I threw it in a pony tail. We couldn't really eat anything for breakfast because we didn't want to let the cold air out of the fridge, unsure as to when the power would be restored. I grabbed a bag of Cheerios's and we left for work (we carpool occasionally). Yards were flooded and trees were down everywhere, blocking roads and landing on top of cars. Many trees, which were up-rooted due to the saturation of the ground and high winds simply blowing them over, were landing on power lines and over 100,000 people in Arkansas were without power.

The whole time I am thinking... "Why am I going to work? It's not like any one is going to come into a showroom looking to by cabinets for their kitchen or remodel their bathroom on a day like today. What person in their right mind would even leave their house today?"

Needless to say, I dropped Dave off and I arrived at work in one piece. I immediately emailed him to inform him his truck was okay and that I was too (I figured he might be more concerned about his truck than me... just kidding!).

Everything was going along just fine until around 10 o'clock that morning I walked down the hall to the copy room and noticed large sums of water on the floor. I opened up the doors to our maintenance closet which stores 2 air conditioning units to find about 1" of water below them. It was pouring out of the walls and seeping through the baseboards. We grabbed a shop vac and mop and began to clean up what we could as it continued to pour out into other rooms. Not to mention that yes, there were actually people crazy enough to come into the showroom to discuss kitchen design on a day like this. Our plumber arrived to inform us that it was not our air conditioning unit but rather sewage! We then immediately called the city who informed us to open up the sewage pipe in the back of our buildings parking lot and release the raw sewage into the street until they could get there to asses the situation. So yes, we had just spent the last hour cleaning up what turned out to be raw sewage. The other designer had even gotten some splashed on her face and clothes. Our boss let her go home for the day and clean up.

As we checked the pipe outside before she had left, we discovered that it had released wads of toilet paper and some other fun surprises! I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day. The city arrived and said that there were about 4 other building on the street experiencing the same problem. The manhole covers were popping off due to sewage coming up out of them.

We did regain power at our home that evening around 4:30 and all of our food in our fridge remained cold so we didn't have to throw any away. It certainly gives you a different point of view living in this part of the country and being so close to so many natural disaster! I cannot imagine being in the heart of one of these storms! In a small scale, I have so much more of a greater compassion for the many who have been faced with such devastation.

In two days we had received 10.26 inches of rain! To put that in prospective Farmington, NM (where I grew up) receives an average annual rain fall of 7.5 inches. Spokane, WA (where Dave grew up receives and average annual rain fall of 16.67 inches. I can honestly say I have never seen so much rain in my life!

Hooray For Gardens

Fresh picked from our garden! Umm umm good...

Furniture Shopping in Arkansas

A few weekends ago I accomplished what I consider to be an amazing task... I talked my husband into going furniture shopping with me. We went to several different places, without much luck, before arriving at Cleo's Fine Furniture. Here is the thing... Arkansas' interpretation of what "fine" furniture is considered to be is slightly different than my perspective of fine furniture. We came across a forest camouflage love seat and recliner. Luckily, Dave had his handy dandy camera phone with him because the sight of these said blog posting all over it!

The purpose: The only thing I can figure as to why someone would feel compelled to purchase such a horrendous item for their home is of course... for the purpose of being disguised and going unnoticed as the Arkansas red neck holds his can of beer in his hand, watching TV, and dressed in his camo. His wife won't even notice he is there, and thus... no nagging! Maybe these rednecks are smarter than we give them credit for.

Things I Have Learned From Living In Arkansas

I received and email from a friend the other day entitled, "Things I have Learned From Living In Arkansas". I found it to be extremely entertaining because so many of them I have found to be true, especially the longer I live here. I am not sure if you all will find it as entertaining... you might have to be an official Arkansonian to appreciate the humor in it all, but I thought I would share anyways. If any one would like to experience the wonderful reality of these statements you are always welcome to come for a visit, there are plenty of spiders I would be happy to send home with you! We have great accommodations at lovely redneck resort (shown above) that I can reserve a room for you at... just let me know!

Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes on earth and 4,998 live in Arkansas .

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Arkansas plus a couple no one's seen before.

If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

Onced and Twiced are words.

It is not a shopping cart; it is a buggy.

People actually grow and eat okra.

"Fixinto" is one word.

There is no such thing as "lunch." There is only dinner and then there is supper.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

Backards and forwards means "I know everything about you.

"DJeet? is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"

You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

You measure distance in minutes.

You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

"Fix" is a verb. Example: "I'm fixing to go to the store."

All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car . . . for your OWN car.

There are only own four spices: salt, pepper, Tabasco and ketchup.

The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

The first day of deer season is a national holiday.

100 degrees Fahrenheit "a little warm.

We have four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.

Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time known as "goin' Wal-martin" or off to "Wally World."

A cool snap (below 70 degrees) is good pinto-bean weather.

A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop . . . it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor.
Example: "What kinda coke you want?"

Fried catfish is the other white meat.

We don't need no stinking driver's ed . . . if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

(If you need any further explanation on a particular one, just let me know)

Baltimore Trip

Okay, so this is delayed almost a month but the point is that I am still posting it! I do have hopes and dreams of one day aspiring to true bloggership when I am completely on top of my postings... but until then you will all just have to patient while the "disorganized Kara" gets her act together.

My job here in Arkansas sent me to a seminar in Kreamer, Pennsylvania. Now from the name I am sure you can assume it is a small town, but very charming and cute! The hotel I stayed at was about twenty minutes away in another town called Shamokin Dam. I have yet to decide which name screams "county livin'". I flew into Baltimore which was roughly 2.5 hours away from Kreamer. I was able to see my aunt and uncle that live there and they took me out for a wonderful meal before I departed for my drive.

Now I need to remind you that the drive was really only suppose to take 2.5 hours, but when you choose to follow Map Quest directions (mistake #1) it actually comes out to be around 3.5 hours. This is so because by the time you make a slight detour which takes roughly 1 hour to correct, in what is the middle of no where, and where the people have never heard of a town's that are 30 minutes away from where they live (apparently they don't get out much there) it takes a long time to figure out where you are suppose to be going! So here is the secret to Map Quest directions...south is technically north. Pretty simple, right? So next time Map Quest informs you that you need to go south on the interstate, it is my recommendation that you go north!

To say the least I did get to where I was going and had an enjoyable time at the week long event. I was able to talk the guy I do work for into booking my ticket for a day and a half later so that I would be able to see our dear friends, Merill and Kristy, and to see some of the sites of Baltimore! We even took a paddle boat ride (in a green dragon for that matter) for about an hour all along the inner harbour and watched the sunset! And I must say that although those paddle boats seem comfy, I woke up the next day with bruises down my spine from sitting in it (I apparently don't have enough meat on my bones).

The architecture is so wonderful there. It was one of my first times back east (with the exception of a trip to New York in 10th grade to sing in Carnegie Hall). I was extremely fascinated with all of the old churches and buildings. I could have spent a month there just photographing the city! In the west you simply (and for obvious reasons) don't see buildings from the 1700's or Row homes. I was only able to get a few pictures but it has inspired me to start a new photography project photographing architectural elements of old buildings. I want to do an entire series! And you all get the first sneak peak into the start of something great (at least in my eyes...).