benjerin.com Blog

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i don’t know why i always wait until LATE LATE LATE on sunday nights to play with this kind of stuff.

At the suggestion of a co-worker and in honor of my age reaching quarter-of-a-century status, I decided to make a list of lessons learned.  I have written a lesson for each year of my life.  If any of you should choose to try this, I’d love to hear what lessons you have to pass along.

1. Take good care of your teeth, they’re the only ones you’ll get for free.

2. Honesty is the key to stress-free living.  Tell the truth AND speak your mind when needed.

3. Treat others as you’d like to be treated.

4. Pay it forward.

5. Tell your friends and family that you love them every chance you get.

6. Tell people the things you appreciate about them.

7. Give compliments, but only if you mean them.

8. Positivity and negativity are both highly contagious.

9. Buckle your seatbelt, and make your passengers do it too.

10. Dancing is the most fun when you stop caring what other people think.

11. If you make fun of someone who is dancing or singing their hearts out, its only because you don’t have the guts to do it yourself.

12. A person’s trust is precious and delicate…don’t lose it.

13. If you don’t test your limits, you’ll never grow.

14. The most restful sleep comes in a clutter free room on freshly washed sheets.

15. You should never pass up free food or a chance to pee.

16. You never know how you are going to think or act in a situation until you are actually in it.

17. Travel outside your homeland, and be respectful to the people you meet. ( Try to learn some of the language and customs before you go. )

18. Food always tastes better when someone else makes it.

19. How a person performs in school is NOT an indicator of how intelligent or smart they are.

20. Patience may not be a virtue…but it is a dern good trait to have.

21. You should always keep a good dictionary on hand.

22. Educate yourself on what interests you, not what other people think you should know.

23. “News” is scary and depressing, and one can live a healthy and productive life without it.

24. If you don’t talk trash about other people, then you don’t have to be so paranoid about them doing the same to you.

25. Weddings make people crazy.  (Not the actual wedding ceremony, but wedding planning seems to bring out the worst in some people.)  If it’s your wedding, do what makes YOU and your partner happy!  If it’s not your wedding, then butt out. (Luckily this lesson was learned before our wedding, and our family and friends were very respectful of our wishes.)

Thanks Daniel for tellin’ me bout this neato site.

http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/

Leah, you ever seen any of these around DC?

Benjy fell through our ceiling.

But truth be told…the rest of the Saturday was pretty great.  First of all, Benjy is OK.  Such an agile man with lightning-fast reflexes, he was able to catch himself on the rafters and suffers only from a few scrapes and scratches.

I went to renew my driver’s license, and it was QUICK and EASY and PAINLESS!

We had friends over for an early birthday celebration for Erin and we had a good ol’ time.  We played a few of our favorite games…bocce, trivial pursuit and catchphrase.  We were able to enjoy a fun evening with our friends in our lovely, leaky, holey home.

We say BOO to this Saturday!  Tried to get an oil change for the Camry…only to show up 10 minutes before the dealership service center closed.  Tried to go to the brew shop to buy yeast and barley for Benjy’s next beer brew…the shop was closed today because the owner was moving.  Then tried WalMart for oil change supplies for the truck…but were unable to find the right filter. 

Feeling defeated and like we had just wasted the last hour driving around town, we returned home just wanting to lounge and nap.  As soon as we get home, a nasty storm starts to brew.  Benjy worries that the tarp covering the shingle-less section of the roof won’t hold down in the wind.  He carries a few bundles of shingles up to the roof to add additional weight to the tarp.  It starts pouring and a neighbor runs over to help Benjy haul shingle bundles to the roof.  We were stunned, but greatful for his kindness…a very happy highlight to the crappy day.

Once Benjy feels the tarp is secure, we come inside to change into some dry clothes.  When we emerge from our bedroom, we discover that it is RAINING IN OUR KITCHEN!!! Water is pouring out of the register and the light fixture. Apparently our freshly-secured tarp is worthless and its hardly holding back any of the rain.  I start grabbing trash cans, laundry hampers and rubbermaids while Benjy jumps into the attic to assess the damages.  I hear screams and curses from above and start handing Benjy any object/tool/device that he requests.  Soon Benjy decides that his only hope to salvage anything requires a run to the store for a new tarp.

Benjy returns with a new tarp and hops back on the roof.  The rain has let up a bit, but I still see lightning.  All I can do is chew my nails as I watch from the yard.  After the new tarp is in place and the rain has let up, it finally stops RAINING IN OUR KITCHEN.  But wait! A part of the ceiling in the kitchen is starting to sag.  Benjy grabs his drill and pokes a couple of holes in the ceiling to drain the puddle that is weighing on the drywall.  (I’m in awe, because I never would have thought of that.)  All the dripping stops, we dry up puddles and then we just plop down and discuss how thankful we are because it could have been worse.  Just then, we start to hear a drip.  Benjy can’t find any water dripping in the kitchen so he figures it must be in the wall.  He jumps into the attic again to investigate.  He can’t really find a source of the drip, but he does discover a termite infestation in an unlikely place.  The infestation is small and won’t require major repair if we stop it right now.  So the mysterious drip stops, and as we finally sit down to lounge for the evening we start to wonder: was the leaky roof a blessing in disguise?  Not sure, but we do agree that overall it was a pretty sucky day.  

But we are hopeful about tomorrow.  We will wake up a little early to meet Angel and David for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  They are in town for a wedding and were able to pencil us in for a visit. Last time we met them at Cracker Barrel, we sat in rocking chairs and chatted for hours.  After breakfast, we’ll try to recover our house some more and maybe even squeeze in a visit to the dog park.