by Jenny Roane
Do you often find yourself with too much time on your hands? Is there just too little to do with too much time? I have a great way for you to blow it off! Let's say that you need to have a document notarized. We'll even keep it hypothetical. So, hypothetically speaking, you just bought a car and need to have it titled in your name, but you also got a good deal on it and need a notarized affidavit confirming the purchase price. Easy enough, right? Wrong, my friend.
Where could you go to have this notarized? A bank? Sure- banks have notaries, right? One might think to oneself, "Banks are open until noon on Saturdays, so I'll take my spouse with me Saturday morning and we can have it notarized together!" Well, hypothetically speaking, if your bank is Wachovia and you went to the branch by the Fair Oaks Mall, you would be wrong again. It's not open on Saturday at all. You might then assume that a nearby bank would let you pay a charge or fee to use their notary. Again, hypothetically, if that bank happened to be Bank of America, they would tell your spouse, as he went in to check first, that you COULD use the notary without an account there, only to discover once he came back out to get you and you got the baby out of the carseat and went back inside that you are not permitted to use their notary after all. Fabulous.
To keep this story rolling along, let's say you remembered that a grocery store, oh, say "Giant", had another bank in which you have an account. You travel to the nearest Giant only to discover that that particular grocery does not have a bank at all. You then decide to travel five or six miles down the road to the next nearest Giant, which you know for a fact DOES have a PNC Bank. That bank, once inside, may just happen to tell you that you may only use the notary for PNC Bank related documents. Then, that banker might even tell you that the FedEx across the parking lot does in fact have a notary.
You'd naturally make the trek over to the FedEx/Kinko's. Upon entering, you discover that there is no notary there, but only after waiting in line for a few minutes behind some people who make a big to do out of packaging whatever 'treasure' they're shipping off to who knows where. Frustrated, you barely find the strength to resist the Dunkin' Donuts next door and decide to walk over to another bank in the lot, BB&T. You may even happen to wait in line there, as well, to be told that yes, there is a notary. Oh, what's that? You don't have an account here? Sorry, you can't use the notary. Not even for a charge. But the banker knows that the library two lights down for sure has a notary available for the public's use. You've always hated BB&T. Looks like that isn't going to change any time soon.
You may decide to give up at this point. You may be whining about how stupid bankers and notaries and everything else is at this time. Or, you may pack everyone back up in the car and trek it on down to the library. You may even find a parking spot in the crowded parking lot, though you cannot think of a single reason why so many cars are parked there. There certainly aren't that many people inside ever. You may find yourself going inside to learn that there is no notary at the library and never HAS been a notary at the library. But the information desk librarians tell you to try to UPS store by the 7-11 and the yucky Chinese takeout back at Greenbrier. However, while you're at the library go ahead and snag a few of the Fairfax County publications for the ad inserts- coupons are awesome. At least this portion wasn't a complete waste of time. All in all, though, what a hypothetical mess!
You may decide to make the trip back to the UPS store. 'Why would it have a notary?' you may ask yourself. Who knows. But soon enough, you may find out that it actually does have one. And ninety some odd minutes and five dollars later, you have your required documentation. Hypothetically, that is.
We were invited by our friends to meet them out at an orchard and go apple-pickin'! It was just a straight shot down I-66, and traffic was a breeze. We really did have a good time and the apples just looked so delicious! We purchased half a bushel, and worked out the price (even including the ride there and back in gas money) to be around $ . 80 a pound. Not too bad! And it was a great experience, too. I can't wait to go back and pick more things once Mason gets a little older and can have a little more of an interactive experience with it.
This is a cool tractor that was on the farm. Tony wanted me to take a picture.
Mason reaching into an apple bin at the end. I think these were Golden Delicious. Or maybe Greening. I have no idea, really. They all looked pretty similar to me!
Gotta cheese the pose for the camera. Do you like how the other apples in the tree are all green? Nice.
This has everything to do with Tony and nothing to do with me. Obviously. But Mason loved it, all the same.
Trekking around with our weapon, I mean, apple picker. Sara and I almost took each other out with it a few times. It's quite a skill to effectively get the apples down with that sucker. Though, personally, I think the wives did a little better than the husbies.
This was definitely the stupidest of our strollers to use on the uneven grounds of the orchards. Unfortunately, it was the one that was in the car and we were too dumb to think to bring one at all.
Mason's started motioning things with his hands. A lot. Not really sure what this is here above. Taking note of the expanse? Examining the world? I like to think he's really thinking in his head something more like "To Be or Not To Be..."
He was also just so much help picking apples. But he got to check out Roxie and lick all the apples his little heart desired, so it ended up being a fun trip for him, too. And now we have half a bushel of apples to decide what to do with. Please note any suggestions, because goodness knows I'm at a loss there!
