ceiling spray

Ok - this is an odd one but since there haven't been any posts in awhile ...

Due to the roof repair we just had a small bit of ceiling over a nail popped out on the inside of the house, that is we had nice white ceiling except a single spot where you could see a nail head. I bought some Zinsser stain ceiling paint that took care of the problem. Anyway, now I have a whole spray can of the stuff. If anyone needs to use a bit of it, let me know, it's yours for the taking.

congratulations karen

Wow!!! Talk about a "Cinderella" story ... local girl makes good!!! Congratulations Karen.

fast food flash

The Top Five Cheapest--But Least Healthy--Fast Food Choices

The non-profit Cancer Project ranks the five most unhealthy items on these so-called "value menus."

At the top of the list? Jack in the Box's $1 junior bacon cheeseburger, which has 23 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat), 55 milligrams of cholesterol, and 860 milligrams of sodium and just one gram of fiber.

In second-worst place, the 89-cent Taco Bell cheesy double beef burrito, with 460 calories, 20 grams of fat and a whopping 1,620 milligrams of sodium.

In third-worst place was the one-dollar Burger King breakfast sausage biscuit, with 27 grams of fat, including 15 grams of saturated fat and over 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

Fourth worst went to the one-dollar McDonald’s McDouble, which contains 19 grams of fat and 65 milligrams of cholesterol.

Last, and least-worst, was the Wendy’s junior bacon cheeseburger, for $1.53, with 310 calories and 16 grams of fat.

talk to your kids

Please take some time to speak with your children about this very serious topic.

Great new restaurant!

If you'd like a new place to eat, try Wildflower Cafe in downtown Mason near the intersection of 42 and Kings Mill.  They do lunches all week, dinner on Fridays or other days with reservations.  Very tasty food, leaning towards locally grown and organic.  The half sandwich and cream of potato soup w/asparagus was delicious and the chocolate/butter pecan cake with chocolate ganache was yummy and quite huge!  I never made it to the Chocolate Morel or Tea Roses, but I made it here and I hope it is here to stay.  Surprisingly, I am not being paid for this review and do not own any shares in the restaurant itself.  I am just extremely satisfied after a fantastic lunch.

warren county fun

Looking for stuff to do in December. Here is the calendar of events for Warren County.

HOA Meeting Notes

Mason Fields Annual Meeting
Wednesday 12 November 2008

• The following items were covered and discussed at the annual meeting:
  Reviewed initial questions which included a request of the status of the amendments which had been routed for approval. It was shared that all amendments had passed, and in case it had already not been shared widely, that the HOA would try to include confirmation in one of the next letters to the neighborhood of the status of all passed and that they have also been filed with the city.
• As the amendments were discussed, a key focus area was the amendment which discussed general external home / lawn care, and it was confirmed that there is a standard for how outages should be managed.
• A power point presentation was reviewed which summarized the current financial status and budget of the neighborhood. It was shared that HOA due for 2009 would be increasing from ~$481 to ~$607 due to balancing the budget and no longer planning to use reserve funds. Based on this budget, future years should increase at a standard inflation rate.
• Some savings opportunities that were discussed as a group were:
• Merger with Village Lakes – previous HOA members shared that this had been evaluated and that Village Lakes did not benefit from a merger.
• Irrigation savings – through proper timing programming
• Irrigation – share with the waterworks that we should not be charged for sewage
• Electric – potential to winterize the pump on fountain vs. paying electric. Dale Rook shared that it would be better to just leave the fountain running.
• Evaluate what TR Gear is actually maintaining for neighborhood and determine what can be reduced / eliminated (ie. mowing strip behind path in back of homes if not required).

• Front of the neighborhood “beautification” was discussed. There are ~$10M reserve funds remaining to support improvements from city money. A decision was made to wait until all construction was complete before any additional money would be spent. In addition, the group leaned toward providing trees to people’s yards vs. the brim in the front since there is not an irrigation system. In addition, any trees planted on the brim are under the power lines and will be cut accordingly by Duke Energy as they grow closer to the lines.
• A group of individuals volunteered to investigate opportunities for the neighborhood to get together to do work vs. hiring it out (ie. laying bark, planting flowers, etc). This will be worked through the blog to get people to volunteer and communicate.