Snakes in the basement

While on vacation the critters took over our home in the mountains. Walk down the hall and be confronted with spider webs. There are spiders everywhere. They think they own the place. The same thing happened when we were in Washington DC, the spiders took over the house.

Earlier this week I was at work when Kenyon called. He told me, "there's a snake in the basement. A large, black one. It scared me." He had gone down to do the laundry, turned around and saw it climbing the wall and wrapping around a pipe. What did he do? He ran upstairs and got the camera. Then he called animal control. They told him it is non-poisonous based on his description.

Later in the day some potential renters had come to look at the place. They wanted to see the utility room in the basement (a different room than the location of the snake). Kenyon took them down and what do they find? A second snake, this one smaller, coiled on top of the water heater. Yuck!

That night we were a little creeped out hoping no snakes made it upstairs. Luckily, we've had no snake sightings since.

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Tina and her girls

I wanted to share with you a taste of the Gonzales Family Talent Show. My mom is Tina, my aunts and I are the back-up dancers. Too fun!

visit to the District Attorney

I had to visit the District Attorney(DA). I know that sounds serious and daunting, but you must remember...I live in a small town. What was the offense? I got a ticket for my tags being expired. I'll spare you the details, but basically it was a major ordeal to get a North Carolina license plate. Kansas and North Carolina rules are quite different and my transaction was caught in the middle. It took months, and months, and months to get it all worked out. In the meantime, my plates expired, I got pulled over and despite my protests the cop issued me a ticket. As you may remember, the DA of my small town deals with traffic violations. When I got all the appropriate documentation and the process sorted out. I walked in to the court house and followed the bulletin board sign to the DA's office (yes, they announce the location of her office on the bulletin board). I showed my current registration proving the process was complete, they dismissed the ticket. I thought for sure I would have a court fee or something to pay. Nope, nothing. I turned in the signed paper for dismissal to the court clerk office and I was done. The whole process took less than 20 minutes. Wow! There are some benefits to living in a small town.

Beach vs Mountains

I've asked this question before: Do you prefer the beach or mountains?

I grew up in the mountains and love all they have to offer - skiing, hiking, camping, beauty. I'm also not exceptionally good at water sports so my beach experiences are limited. But, I still enjoy both and have never been able to definitively say if I prefer the beach or the mountains. Well...now I don't have to choose. I have the best of both worlds in North Carolina.

Kenyon and I spent the 4th of July weekend hanging out with my very good friend Fiona and her family. They came from China via Sweden. What a life! We had some fun mountain adventures - hiking, white water rafting, a visit to the mile high swinging bridge.

Just a few short days later Kenyon and I met up with another very good friend Angela at the beach in the outer banks of North Carolina. We spent the week there enjoying the ocean - body boarding, skim boarding, sitting reading a book and listening to the ocean.

Beach vs Mountains: In North Carolina it doesn't matter, we have both! The debate is solved, I want it all!

Piggly Wiggly?

Kenyon and I are driving through the State of North Carolina toward the beach. I'm looking forward to a week of relaxation. On our way we passed through a little town called Plymouth. I saw a Piggly Wiggly. I've only heard of these. Like my mom shopping there as a young girl, or the lady from Driving Miss Daisy driving herself to the Piggly Wiggly. I haven't seen one myself (that I can recall). I thought they'd all gone out of business...until today. Is this the only Piggly Wiggly or are there others? Why did they go away?

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