Today’s Farm Gym Workout

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Installed a fence to split the pasture (so half can rest and grow back) – with lots of help from the girls (yay!), gathered up wood scattered across property, planted a huge maple, hung a couple bird houses (one on the back of the tractor barn), took down Christmas decorations, filled a big hole in the pasture, and cooled down playing fetch with the dogs. World’s best gym. :-)

Y’all make sure to get your exercise too. :-)

The Amazing Race 19 contest

Amazing Race returns, and let the next contest begin!

  • Pick the team you think will win, and pick the team you think will be eliminated next.
  • If your winning team is eliminated, you have to pick another. Least picks wins!
  • If your losing team is eliminated, you score, and get to pick another. Most scores wins!

The two prizes will be huge Trader Joe’s Belgian dark chocolate bars, or better if I get creative! Good luck, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

Team Symbol
Andy & Tommy – snowboarders S
Laurence & Zac – father/son Z
Kaylani & Lisa – showgirls K
Ernie & Cindy – engaged E
Liz & Marie – twins T
Jeremy & Sandy – dating D
Bill & Cathi – grandparents G
Justin & Jennifer – siblings J
Amani & Marcus – married A
Ethan & Jenna – survivors U
Ron & Bill – domestic partners P

PICKS

Viewer Ep01 E/(G)
Ep02 S/U&P
Ep03 S/K
Ep04 S/(T)
Ep05 A/T
Ep06 S/(A)
Ep07 S/J
Ep08 E/Z
Ep09 A/?
Ep10
Ep11
Ep12
Larry U/D A/D
Jane S/J S/A
Andrea Z/D G/D
Mike S/G
Wren S/K S/D
Reiley S/D
Nick U/P S/K S/D
Legend
Winning choice won this leg of the race (used for tiebreaker)
-1 Winning choice lost this leg of the race (pick again)
+1 Losing choice lost this leg of the race (pick again)
+1 Winning choice won, and losing choice lost – PERFECT!
-1 * Selection change
-1/+1 Winning choice lost and losing choice lost (double elimination!)

9.0 The Scarlet Pimpernel

Andrea and I, and her book club, read this short classic recently, and I told them I was sending a copy to Guy Ritchie, it was so tight. If you can get past the anti-semitic language… I excuse it only because it ends up being the fatal flaw that… well, I’ll leave that for you to discover.

Reiley throws a bash

Reiley had a very belated birthday party this weekend – 24 people total including Wren and Olivia – all playing Just Dance at the same time, whoop.

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A really nice group of kids – they rode horses, we had a bonfire, pizza, ping pong, basketball, all under a heavy mist reminiscent of our days in Scotland. Even the parents had fun. :>

Earthquake, seriously?

I’m on the 10th floor in Progress Energy’s TPP building in downtown Raleigh, and we were SHAKIN’ for about 7 seconds today around 2pm. It felt like maybe a big truck hit the building or heavy equipment was operating on a nearby floor. Totally surreal… Everyone popped up out of shortcubeville like gophers. A few of us headed outside for a bit, and confirmed with spouses and kids that they felt it too. CNN reports the center was near Richmond, VA but was felt in NYC. An hour later we were back to work, but certainly on edge! Strange…

9.0 The Island

The Island

A visually delicious action movie with a surprisingly solid scifi storyline. I didn’t expect much and had to keep picking my jaw off the floor.

NOTE: From here on out I’m trying to keep my reviews simple and spoiler-free. Even rating the movie invites the Heisenberg principle, and I won’t abide further spoilage. In this case, this also affects the screenshot I chose – there were better ones but they violate my ten inch that you enter the movie with a clean slate. Critics suck! You be the judge! :P