Catching Up

Sheesh, is it November already? What's that? We're practically half-way through November already?? I'm not sure if I should be excited that the holidays are so rapidly approaching, or afraid because I can't seem to keep track of time!!Ok ok, I'm way more excited than afraid! Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away! Like most, Heather and I are just nuts for the holiday season. Since we went to Bellingham a few weeks ago (read our last post about that trip if you haven't already), we won't be going home again for the holidays. We've done both Thanksgiving and Christmas day with just the two of us before, but never both in the same year.  I'm sure we'll come up with some fun stuff to do so expect a few blog posts in and around those days! It's been about 3 weeks since we last posted here. I guess you could say a few things have happened since then. Halloween came and went, Hurricane Sandy battered the Northeast, and Obama was elected to a 2nd term. For some reason, the national news only covered the storm and the election. So I'll go ahead and fill you in on our Halloween costumes!

This year, Heather and I dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oyl! Heather made me a sailor shirt and painted some anchors on my arms, and I bought a hat and pipe to complete the outfit. Of course, Heather made her costume as per usual! Not bad eh?

I just realized that we did a couple other things recently that never made it into a blog post. We went to the annual Nashville Oktoberfest celebration in Germantown. This is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone and we have a great time every time! This year we bought shirts to add to the authenticity of the thing! We both got quite a few compliments. :)

Another thing we did recently was that we went to a new gun range in town. Up until now, we've been driving out to Greenbriar or Hendersonville to go to Guns n Leather to shoot. They have great ranges and a nice store attached to each one so we don't really mind going there, but we've always thought it would be nice to have another option closer to (or in) town. One day in September we were driving down I-65 and we saw a building called Nashville Armory! Eureka! We checked things out a few weeks ago with high hopes. Unfortunately, the overall experience wasn't great. While the facilities were new, well lit, and clean, some staff was not well informed, prices were too high, and we got this persistent feeling that we were getting nickel and dimed at every corner. Also, this place was LOUD!!! I didn't realize the effect that the acoustic treatments at Guns n Leather have on the overall sound levels. 

Here's a picture of Guns n Leather. Notice the acoustic treatments on the walls and ceiling, the carpeted barriers between shooters, and the partial walls after every 3rd shooting lane. Even though the range has about 15 lanes, you really don't notice the blast from shooters that are outside your section.

In contrast, here's the range at the Nashville Armory. Notice all the hard reflective surfaces, plexiglass barriers between shooters, and lack of isolating walls between groups of shooters.

Here's an example of the nickel and diming at this place. If you click on the picture above, you'll notice the white spacer between the target and the track. They told us that if we shot the spacer, they would charge us $9/hole. Yikes! So much for going for head shots. I wasn't about to let one get away from me and cost me money!

Lastly, Heather mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she would like to learn to play the piano. She took lessons for one year in junior high, but has since lost her touch. I was so excited to hear this as I too have been missing the ivories. I quickly got to work shopping around for a good deal on a keyboard. So for the last week or so, Heather has been working through a great level 1 book that covers theory, technique, and lessons. At the end of her last lesson, she played Jingle Bells! Yeah, you can just imagine the size of the smile on her face after that one! Definitely looking forward to much more of this.

And that pretty much covers things for now. Hope y'all are doing well and are getting as excited as we are for the holidays!