Hey Y'all,
-I'm Heather.
-I live in NOVA (which is funny because in college I was always disturbed by my friends who were from NOVA, not an actual place) with HokieEnginerd and our daughter MiniLancerHokie. She looks like me and acts like him.
-Went to school to be a teacher.
-Was at Tech weekends from February 2002 through December 2004 (Yay ldr)
-Attended Longwood from 99-03 as an undergrad and 03-05 to get my Masters (Hence the username Lancer married to a Hokie)
-1st Hokie Game Temple in 02
-Most memorable game: Tie between Miami 03 that was crazy. I was standing beside HokieEnginerd and couldn't hear anything he said the whole game. Other choice Belk Bowl vs Arkansas crazy come back and Hubby was seriously contemplating leaving in the 3rd.
-Ended up with a TKP account because my husband and friends are trifling.
What do you people want to know?
On Deck: DannyCoaleIsMySpritAnimal if he's not interested, I will come up with somebody else.
Comments
Favorite drink?
Favorite food? To make yourself, and to celebrate out with?
Mixed drink: Captain and Coke
Otherwise: Sweet Tea, Coke
That's hard. I like a lot of food. Love steak and seafood, especially for celebrations. I cook a lot, but I would say that one of my favorite things to cook at home is shrimp pasta, maybe fried chicken, and I like to make desserts.
I do know that by the end of fall I will HATE making marinara sauce.
I plead the 5th on why that will be.
I am not the one who planted 7 indeterminate tomato plants that are all heavy producers.
This sounds like it's definitely a euphemism for weed
No he actually planted that many tomatoes. I'm going to have tomatoes coming out of my ears by the end of the growing season.
Do you do 'canning' (ball) jars for sauce, stewed Tomatoes, and other things? If not, my wife can help with info on the process through me....
Nah, we did the canning just fine last year. We managed to can and freeze about 20 quarts of tomato products (marinara, salsa, crushed). Where she is getting a little bent out shape is most of that came off of 3 plants. I may have expanded it to 7 this year.
I just did water bath canning with the tomato stuff last year. Nothing too fancy. Thanks for the offer of help though.
Tomato's actually freeze pretty well as long as you are planning on making sauce from them later.
Fried green tomatoes is one solution.
Any chance you could share the shrimp-pasta recipe? I really do not like seafood in general, but shrimp is one of the few that I really do like. Particularly shrimp scampi and shrimp po boy.
4 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 lb. raw tiger prawns (or regular shrimp) rinsed and peeled—shells and heads reserved (I typically use a 2 lb bag of large/jumbo shrimp)
2 shallots peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped
1 habanero chili deseeded and finely chopped (can use ½ Tbs. dried red chili pepper)
Large handful fresh basil leaves
1 carrot peeled and finely chopped
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk trimmed and finely chopped
2 or 3 sprigs fresh parsley
2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper
¾ cup dry white wine
1 lb. ripe tomatoes roughly chopped (can use 2 cans diced tomatoes)
Juice of ½ lemon or to taste
1 box long pasta cooked and drained
Heat 2 Tbs. oil in large saucepan over high heat. Add the reserved shells and heads. Fry for 2-3 minutes until the shells turn pink and are lightly browned. Add half of the shallot, half of the garlic, the chili, half of the basil, the carrot, onion, celery, parsley, and thyme. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Pour in the wine and stir, scraping the pan often. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Pour in 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often and using a wooden spoon to mash the prawn shells and release as much flavor as possible. Lower the heat if sauce is reducing too quickly.
Strain through a sieve, pressing well to release as much liquid as possible, there should be about 2 cups of liquid. Pour into a clean pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently until the liquid is reduced by about half.
*I add 1 can of tomato sauce to thicken the sauce
*Dried herbs work fine
Heat the remaining oil over high heat in a clean frying pan. Add the peeled prawns. Season lightly and add the lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute, lower the heat and add the remaining shallot and garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add sauce and adjust seasoning. Cook until prawns are pink. Mix with cooked pasta and serve.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
or...to make something similar really, really fast and easy
peel and season shrimp (a little blackening seasoning will work), saute' very quickly (almost but not quite done) in a little olive oil and remove from skillet and set aside in a bowl. they'll steam and finish cooking on their own in the bowl...and shed a little water.
put paul newmans mild salsa in skillet and bring to a simmer, use chicken stock and corn starch to achieve desired consistency of sauce. then add a couple pats of butter to smooth the sauce and add shrimp back in, sans any water left in the bottom of the bowl. bring back to barely a simmer and turn off the heat
this basically makes a super quick shrimp creole-ish dish that can be served on pasta or rice or over garlic bread or whatever.
I'd say the ratio is like 1.25 lbs shrimp to 3/4 jar of salsa.
if you want it spicier, add some red pepper flakes or go with a spicier salsa
this isn't quite as good as taking the time to cook things down and make my own customized sauces, but if the shrimp are peeled, I can make it in the time it takes to cook pasta (or rice).
The tomatoes have started!!!!! I just cooked 5 pounds of tomatoes and made and canned a quart and a half of marinara today. We have another 3 pounds that need a little more ripening. I will probably pick another pound every day this coming week. The vines are loaded. I already used one pound the other week as diced tomatoes when I made chicken cacciatore. So 9 pounds of tomatoes in a little over 2 weeks.
3 of Hokienginerd's tomato plants are over 8 feet tall. In addition to the crazy tomatoes, we also have a serrano pepper plant that has over 40 peppers, a jalapeno plant with 10 or more peppers (and we've already picked 3), a bell pepper with 7 peppers, a chocolate cherry candy cane pepper with 5 or 6 peppers, We have already harvested like 15 cucumbers and have more coming in....
My ex and I lived for year at father in law's small family farm- had a whole row of cucumbers- once they started coming in we picked a full bushel a day for months!
If we had space I'm sure we would have even more of everything. We live in a townhouse and have a raised garden bed that currently has 3 of the 7 tomato plants and a random potato. Early in the spring we had lettuce, spinach, dill, and sugar snap peas. The other 4 tomatoes, all the peppers, the cucumbers, and some pole beans are in grow bags/pots on our deck. We only have 3 cucumber plants..
In addition to all of the big stuff, we also have crazy amounts of basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and 3 kinds of mint---chocolate peppermint, pineapple, and mojito.
As one of the few females on here, have you ever had a problem with the level of sexual innuendo or comments by the men on here, i.e. 'she's qualified' or sex jokes, or the occasional pinup pic? What about when certain words have been used? If so, what are the things that have crossed the line for you, or do we tend to keep it from going too far?
In all honesty, it doesn't bother me. The innuendos and jokes are fine, and I have added to them at times. I'm not the "clutch my pearls and be offended" kind of girl. Sometimes I just roll my eyes and sigh and just accept the fact that y'all ain't right.
What other sports/leagues/teams do you follow/support?
If you drink bourbon, what are your top three favorites?
What are you reading at the moment?
If you could erase one other school from existence, which one and why?
NFL- Dallas I have bled blue and silver my whole life. Dad is a huge Cowboys fan and had me watching games since I was a baby. My maternal grandfather was also a big Cowboys fan, so I guess it's in my blood.
XFL- DC it was/is nice having a local football team that I can pull for and not feel like vomiting. It was also fun watching the beer snake.
Not really into any other sports besides football (other than Hokie Sports, but I was pretty excited when Longwood went dancing last year)
Bourbon is a hard HELL NO---- it gives me nightmares of a 1970's avocado green Tupperware bowl and getting in trouble... As others mentioned in one of the other AMAs, my parents also gave me homemade cough medicine. They used Wild Turkey 101. I prefer rum, but will drink other things that are NOT bourbon.
I have like 6 books going right now. I am actively reading The House of Eve. I also have Such a Quiet Place, The Moonshiner's Daughter, and Eve of A Hundred Midnights going in addition to a couple of others. The Fall of Numenor is on my summer reading list.
ECU or libertybiberty
What and why are:
Your favorite holiday?
Your favorite flower?
Your least favorite takeout food?
Your guilty pleasure?
Tie between Thanksgiving--- I like watching the parade (when we were younger, my best friend and I always said that we were going to go to the parade in 2026 for the 100th Parade), cooking with my mom, and watching the Cowboys game with my dad. Thanksgiving is the only game that I we 100% get to watch together and not on the phone. Christmas---I like the decorations, getting the 2 biggest trees that will fit in our house, making and sharing tons of cookies, watching all the Christmas specials from when I was a kid (especially Claymation Christmas-the camels are the best!), watching the Christmas movies, time with the fam.
Yellow roses
McDonalds- it's gross
Eating cake icing by itself with a glass of wine?
Hell yes to McDonald's. So Gross.
How many Snickers bars are in Snickers salad?
Why have you not made a Butterfinger salad?
Why have you not made a KitKat salad?
1 bag of fun size Snickers chopped up
I have made Butterfinger cake
KitKat would be good. You could replace the Snickers with KitKats
Are you actually going to come and eat any of my/hubby's food this football season?
Just one Hokie in SaladHokie though
But a whole lot of Jack Daniels.
Saladhokie would make a good AMA
Or you....
hit us with parenting advice
Dammit
This. So much this. I heard someone describe the evolving relationship with your kids like this:
I fully agree with the evolution of parenthood.
Also be a parent as in parent your child. Set rules and expectations for your children and have consequences when they are not met.
-Couple of stories about being a parent from my teenage years... I worked at a day care center with my mom. One day one of the school age kids was mouthing off to her. She looked at the kid and told them that her own child did not talk to her that way and they were not going to either. The kid was like "all teenagers yell at their parents." She called me over and asked me about this. I told the kid no because I knew that there would be
consequences for my behavior. I have a scar on my hand from where another kid dug his fingernail into the back of my hand when I was making him sit down. Obviously since it is a scar (although not big), he drew blood. When his mother came to pick him up, my hand was still bleeding. I told his mother that he scratched me hard enough to draw blood and showed her the mark. She looked at him and said "That's not nice." We had some really good parents, one in particular. When you told him that his sons did something he was always very polite to us. "Thank you for letting me know. I will deal with this problem. Let me know if it happens again..."
Since bar beat me to it...what would you tell 17 year old you if you could go back and impart some advice to yourself?
Have fun make memories.
Be glad you went to Junior Prom. Don't go to Senior Prom next year (it sucked, especially when my "date" left after the senior walk and was MIA for most of prom). If you do go to prom, go alone.
It's ok if you drift away from your current friends. You will have different relationships in life. Some people are just a paragraph in our story. Some are a chapter or 2. Some are there for the whole story and some come in later.
College is not just about your career.
Teaching can be great at times, but it is also a huge pain in the ass.
**Not to me but to my high school best friend----I know you really love smiley faces, but think really hard about getting one tattooed on your butt. It's not going to look the same in a few years...
This is more for my 18 year old self because it was played constantly senior year:
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99
Wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
A long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth
Until they've faded, but trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back
At photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now
How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future
Or worry, but know that worrying
Is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing Bubble gum
The real troubles in your life
Are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you
Saying, don't be reckless with other people's hearts
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours
Floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements
Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life
The most interesting people I know
Didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees
You'll miss them when they're gone
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the 'Funky Chicken'
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don't follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they're your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get
The more you need the people you knew when you were young
Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once but leave before it makes you soft
Travel
Accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too, will get old
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Respect your elders
Don't expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse
But you never know when either one might run out
Don't mess too much with your hair
Or by the time you're 40 it will look 85
Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past
From the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
And recycling it for more than it's worth
But trust me on the sunscreen
Lots of great advice here! I saved this and may share some (anonymously of course but attributed to "a TKP member) with folks I know.
So true! Life is too short to have regrets over NOT taking a chance on something/someone...brought home to me by a recent experience that starkly reminded me that we are not promised tomorrow.
Same at age 58 for me , though I've realized over the past few years that sharing the blessings God has given me in life is far better than hoarding them for a future that is at best uncertain. Not for any "credit" with others or God, but because knowing you have made a difference in even one person's life is a blessing in itself and one far more valuable than ANY material wealth.
As mine passed in 2004 (Dad) and 2011 (Mom), I can testify to this. They weren't perfect by any means , but I had a good childhood, and never doubted their love for me.
Didn't really have close friends in school or even college, and didn't keep up with them. But later in life I have found a few and know they will be here for me and I for them.
Thanks for sharing these insights!
Like I said this advice is fitting to our younger selves. This song (Everybody's Free.. to Wear Sunscreen by Baz Luhmann) was on the radio, VH1 and MTV (back when they actually played music on music television) constantly my senior year of high school so I figured that was good advice to my 17-18 year old self.
As a VT-trained PhD chemist who works in personal care/skin care cosmetics now, sunscreen is VERY important for skin health long term and proactive daily application in the morning will help you not look as old as quick
How did you and HokieEnginerd meet?
Oooh! This is my favorite story to tell since it involves Blacksburg debauchery.
OK, first some background. My best friend growing up was Heather's roommate at Longwood at the time. They had only met a few weeks back. My best friend's name is Amanda and she decided she was going to come to Blacksburg for a New Year's Eve party. Danny Coale is My Spirit Animal was hosting it and he had made some jungle juice with the good 190 proof Everclear from West-By-God. One thing happened after another and the party fell through. It was rescheduled for 2 weeks later but DCIMYSA had already made the jungle juice and we can't let it go to waste. So it goes to the back of the fridge for 2 weeks. Fruit in it and all.
The 2 weeks roll on by and I drive to Farmville on Friday to get Amanda. I call her room to find out where to park and Heather tells me to park at the McDonald's and walk up the street. I do so but the time I get to the dorm Heather has gone out to lunch with another friend I believe. Amanda has told Heather that since it is supposed to snow like 6-12 inches that night she wouldn't be back until Sunday I believe. Heather said it was no big deal since she didn't expect her back until then anyway.
So now we are back in Blacksburg and the Foxridge party is rolling and we have a full apartment. At some point early in that evening that Everclear jungle juice makes its reappearance. I am 99% sure that fruit is literally flammable at this point because one guy got shitfaced just by eating the fruit. I had one cup, finished it, stood up and immediately realized this was trouble. But Amanda? Oh no, she is in Blacksburg to let loose and have some fun. I still don't know how she did it but she kept up with DCIMSA drink for drink and this was in his drinking heyday and he had at least 50 pounds on her.
She was doing pretty good until we learned that there are many moods to drunk Amanda. The first mood was happy, dancing drunk Amanda. Who decided it was a great idea to dance on this hulking coffee table DCIMSA had in his living room. However, happy drunk Amanda has no coordination, falls, and comes maybe 2 inches from falling through the sliding glass door.
Now the second mood of Amanda appears. This one is the crying drunk Amanda. All of the drunk guys immediately converge to try to remedy the situation and quickly determine that we need to get her to the bathroom before this reaches its inevitable conclusion. Though only one of us, Joey, is sober enough to carry her drunk ass to the bathroom. Keep this name in mind. I stumble back to the bathroom with her to make sure she is OK. Joey gets her back there and the inevitable happens. She is alternating between sobbing and throwing up and apologizing. I tell her it is OK and we try to get her to drink water. But she is so bad she is head in the toilet, hair in the water type bad. I stay because we have literally known each other since kindergarden and I REALLY don't want to explain to her mom how I let her drown in the toilet. We keep trying to get her to drink water but none of us are sober enough to notice the water glasses are disappearing. The next morning we found a half a dozen hidden behind the toilet.
At some point DCIMSA's roommate (my future roommate) and another friend come to the bathroom and start giving her a hard time because our roommate knew Amanda previously as well. And of course, drunk college guys are going to give her a hard time. This is where the final mood of drunk Amanda makes an appearance. With a snap of a finger, she goes to belligerent drunk Amanda. To whatever dumbass comment they said, she screams "I'M GOING TO POP A CAP IN YOUR ASS!!!" Given that this is a small white girl from SWVA, this is even more hilarious to them and they laugh more. This angers drunk, belligerent Amanda more and she starts army crawling after them using just her arms because her legs no longer work. This does not lessen their amusement.
Finally, FINALLY, we get her to the couch and she passes out. The apartment basically looks like morgue there are so many passed out people around. The next day, me and the roommate go to campus to get food and Amanda for whatever reason in her hung over mind wanted a cheese sandwich. Not just a slice a cheese between bread but as much cheese as we can get them to give us. She ends up getting this enormous sandwich with 6 different kinds of cheese. But she is happy.
Eventually she decides she wants to go back to Longwood to do homework or something so I end up driving her back because it didn't end up snowing as much as they predicted. Since I had never met anyone at Longwood before, Amanda literally drags me around the dorm meeting everybody. I get drug into their dorm room and get "Hey, this is Adam. This is Heather. Let's go Ian." We got maybe 30 seconds to say hi before I was drug down the hall. Heather said they went out to dinner and she was going on how nice I was to keep her from drowning in the toilet. Heather made the comment that she thought I was cute not knowing what my and Amanda's relationship was yet (nothing more than brother/sister like). Amanda tells me that we gives me her AIM screen name and we end up talking for 3 hours. I came a few weeks later to Amanda's birthday party in Farmville and we went on our first date to Macado's.
And that kids is how I met your mother.
But why I mentioned to keep Joey's name in mind was Amanda went to his wedding because she was long time friends with his wife. After the fact she was talking to me and she said "I don't know why Joey kept looking at me the whole time. I have never met him before." I told her "Oh yes, you have. He was the only one sober enough to carry your drunk ass to the bathroom that night." The look of realization and mortification was hilarious. We talked to Joey later and he said he kept wondering "Why is coffee table girl at my wedding?" Because "coffee table girl" was the only way my group of friends could remember her for a long time. I am pretty sure DCIMSA had her as "Amanda Coffee" in his phone.
this is a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing
was gonna be annoyed that you commented instead of her, but after the reading the story i don't think she remembers much of it anyway
I was going to give him a hard time for answering my question (I probably still will because that's what happens when you have been with someone half of your life). But you are right he tells it well. As he said we didn't "officially" meet until he brought Amanda back to Farm-vegas but I have heard the story so many times and know the cast of characters and the apartment so well, it feels like I was there. He also go a few details slightly incorrect. It was Friday night when he got there so I was going out to dinner, not lunch. Amanda didn't tell me when she would be back. I assumed she was going for the weekend. She called me Saturday( after she became somewhat alive) and said that it had snowed and she wouldn't be back until Sunday. He forgot the part about Amanda hiding the cups of water behind the toilet though.
I inferred
I missed that part when I skimmed the response this morning before taking MiniLancerHokie to school....
Are you and Amanda still friends?
Are he and Amanda still friends?
How did Amanda take the juicy details when you would share things w her about her best friend?
Yes we are all still friends. We had to fly her from Australia (where she was doing grad school) for our wedding 18 years ago. She's back in the states now, and has been for well over a decade.We don't see her much due to distance, but still talk to her. Granted when I lived in the same dorm room as her, I could go for days and not see her. She is responsible for our whole family... Obviously our meeting, but MiniLancerHokie was our souvenir from Amanda's wedding. When HokieEnginerd's sister got married we were telling the story and Amanda was there. She was like "It's been x years! Why are you still telling this story?!" Because it's funny... It's also the how we met story. She just has to accept the fact that she will NEVER live that story down.
Misread the last part of the question-thought you asked how Amanda reacted to us telling the story of her becoming Coffee Table Girl.. She didn't really have too much of a reaction to me being with HokieEnginerd. We only lived together for a semester and like I said I would go for days and not see her because she was one of those ultra-involved people on campus. She was happy for us.
What is the best addition to cheesecake or should the humble cheesecake stand alone?
Plain cheesecake is always good. Strawberries are good. Chocolate cheesecake. Snickers cheesecake.... Salted caramel cheesecake...
Damn now I want cheesecake...
The best cheesecake I've ever had, and I wonder if I will ever have it again, is with a layer of white chocolate on top and a butterscotch swirl. One of these days I just need to figure out how to do it myself.
This one is so I can help understand my wife's perspective better .... what's it like being married to a Hokie Engineer? I mean I just can't imagine how great it is for the lucky women that lands a god among men with our awesome math skills and our charming charisma. What is the best part? Our ethereal love making or superior logic/arguing skills? Does our mastery of cooking come into play in your personnel ranking of how smashing we are or did it get lost in the fold since we have so many top notch qualities like our physical stature and humility?
Y'all are trifling (although I am not sure if that is a Hokie Engineer thing or just a male thing) but we love you anyways. It's super nice having tech support in the house. Math skills are great when it comes to helping MiniLancerHokie with homework. It is amazing to be married to someone with 3 Engineering degrees and 2 minors from Tech. In my own experience, I am super lucky to have someone with such charming charisma. There are so many wonderful parts. HokieEnginerd's meat is quite spectacular. I also enjoy his cookies. As you said there are just too many top notch qualities to rank and cover everything.
Although with all of the positive, there are some downfalls. I almost ended up being a widow once because HokieEnginerd almost came to a tragic end.
Here's my official question:
How did your husband almost die?
He almost committed wife-assisted suicide.
So when we were first married, we lived in an apartment in an okay complex, but there were some less than okay places nearby. The kitchen had a high counter on one side and a small doorway going into the kitchen. One evening in early December, I was in the kitchen cooking supper. I was running the dishwasher, had a load of laundry going, and I was talking to my mom on the phone. Needless to say I was somewhat distracted. So my genius husband comes home from work and sees that I am not paying attention. He thinks it would be funny to startle me, so he comes in and crouched down and crept around the counter to the kitchen door. So as I turned to walk out of the kitchen, he jumped at me and screamed to scare me. All I saw was a male figure in dark clothes jumping at me. I screamed, alarming my mom. Then she heard him laughing and knew that I was somewhat okay--at least safe. She wasn't sure about him. I had been cutting something with a rather large knife just before he jumped at me. Had it been 5 earlier and he actually walked into the kitchen when I had the knife in my hand I would have stabbed him.. Yeah I didn't speak to him for the rest of the night and the door was latched the next night.
Although I can say that I get the kill the husband because of his own stupidity honest. Early in my parents' marriage, my dad was in the Army. He was stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. At that time there was a molester in the area. Since my mom was by herself, he took her to the range and taught her how to shoot. He told his friends that if they ever had to go to the apartment when he was not there to tell my mom who was there because she would not answer the door and she might shoot. So one night my dad leaves and mom locked and chained the door. Dad forgot something and had to go back. He forgot to tell mom that it was him. So he unlocked the door and stuck his arm through to undo the chain. Mom had the gun cocked and ready and then saw his uniform and watch and yelled out my dad's name to see if it was him.
Note to husbands all over don't do stupid crap that scares your wife in situations that could cause bodily harm to you.
Yeah rule one is make sure my wife doesn't have anything that can hurt her or me I bher hand when I start to mess with her.
Smart man
It certainly wasn't MY fault that my self defense instincts kicked in due to your triflingness.
What's the dumbest thing you have ever done?
Whats the nicest thing you have ever done?
What's your favorite sound?
Whats the oddest/strangest thing you have ever seen happen, where you literally said to yourself: 'I cant believe that just happened right in front of me?
If you could remove one thing from existence in the world, what would be? It could be a person past or present, a thing, an emotion, .....anything.
Answers to the first two, based on earlier responses:
Almost killed hokieenginerd.
Didn't kill hokieenginerd.
Your first answer is slightly off... That may have been the dumbest thing HE did. Almost killing him was a result of his behavior.
Not killing him was very nice of me.
Dumbest thing: Hmm tough to say, but I will go with the 2 most random things that could get me a confused Cocker Spaniel look and a "How?Why?" 1. I got stuck on top of my desk in my classroom 2. I got my finger caught in a mixer
Nicest thing:Other than not killing my husband? Driving a friend to Syracuse for fertility treatment because her husband was out of the country.
Favorite Sound: The ocean. Enter Sandman
Oddest/Strangest thing witnessed: One of my students stuck a paper clip in the electrical outlet and shorted out half of my classroom
Remove 1 Thing: Cancer and stupidity
I've also been kicked out of TOTS by association....
Oh, no. She got us kicked out of TOTS at 3 in the afternoon at one of the spring games. She has the record for our group for getting kicked out of a bar that early.
She does it on purpose to get out drinking of rails.
Quite possibly. We all know her love of bourbon.
And Wild Turkey was the first thing I tasted. YUCK!!!
So here's the story. We went downtown before one of the Spring Games. We ate at PK's and we ended up having a discussion about someone in our group hating ranch. I blanked on this conversation. Then we went to TOTS and they forced me to have a rail. I started to drink it and got hit with WT. I did drink the horribleness. So one of our friends got the fried mac and cheese with ranch. I was eating and shared with the friend who hates ranch. Fried Mac and Cheese dipped in ranch. I was like here this is good have some. He ate the mac and cheese with ranch and immediately had to throw up. Because he threw up, he had to leave. Because we were with him, we had to leave too.
Oh no, this is not how that went. You shoved that fried mac and cheese in his mouth. He didn't have much say in the matter.
This spousal back-and-forth is very much my wife and me.
We have been together for 21 years and married for 18. It happens....
Is your wife on TKP too?
Unfortunately, no. She initially was going to share this account when I picked my username but she never caught the TKP bug like I did and I've never thought of a username I would change to anyway.
Fair enough. I ended up creating an account because of my husband and his friend.... I needed to respond to a post that wouldn't work as well if he were responding on my behalf.
How could he, with fried mac and cheese stuffed in his mouth? ;^)
Technically I was not the person that the TOTS staff told that they had to leave the establishment.
I want my kids to naturally be/become VT hyper fans.
I'm not sure how old your daughter is, but any tips on subliminally injecting VT propaganda into their minds without making them grow up saying "I'm a VT fan because my parents were."
Or do I just waterboard them with VT lore and fandom.
Well she was exposed to her first game when she was 2 days old. But yeah the drowning them in lore and fandom works great too. We encourage her to jump whenever she hears Sandman.
She's in middle school...
As my 3 year old says when she hears Enter Sandman "that's daddy's song! Go Hokies!"
I have a video on my phone of her when she was a little over a year old saying "Go Hokies."
I also have pics of HokieEnginerd lifting her to count points while we were watching THE anOSU game (the one we won at the Shoe) which is why I capitalized THE meaning the game not the team.
When my oldest was 2 to 3 (she's now 4) she was big into Cocomelon and there's a song about the hand/fingers. When she learned to do "Brother Finger", I started calling it "Little Brother Finger" and then when my UVA fan friends would be at the house, I would have her show them the new trick she learned...
That song, rainbow popsicles, and "I love the things at the beach" are still burned into my brain. I hear them in my sleep.
what is your favorite word, and why is it "trifling"?
Favorite word depends on the situation. When I am ranting about football, it's usually omnidirectional oophorectomy misidentified bunnies and a bunch of cuss words all in one string.
Trifling because it is a wonderful adjective.
Favorite Tailgate smoked food.
But he makes it all at home too.... So it;s not just "tailgate" food.
Big fan of the pizzas (especially the chicken pesto one)
Big fan of the chicken
Smoked queso is super addicting
Ribs and turkey legs are always good...
Which games are you coming to enjoy the smoked food?
Not sure yet. Since I'm coaching THREE all girls flag football teams next year I need to be back most Sundays by 1pm. So early games Saturday's or Thursday game would be best. Would like again to get older two up to a game each and may be just me up for a game. Got my SEZ seats and parking pass done Tuesday.
Being from Farm Vegas and married to a Lancer myself, what is your favorite memory of Longwood/ Farmville?
It would have to be memories. I don't think I can narrow it down to one
-Living on 1st North (Cunninghams) freshman year. I made some amazing friends on the hall. One of my favorite stories from my hall is about my friend Chris. Chris is a great guy-love him like a brother and he would do anything in the world for you. So end of freshman year I was moving home. I went home on Friday took a bunch of stuff, but couldn't take my big stuff in my 1990 Cavalier named Percy and my parents couldn't help me until Sunday. So I called Chris to see if he would help my dad with my loft and stuff. I left him voicemails telling him he could call my parents' house collect if he needed to but I really needed him to help if he could. Don't hear back from Chris. Sunday we drive up and get there at like 7 or 8 because we had to get back home for a family reunion. I go knock on Chris's door and he answers, agrees to help because that is who he is. So I thank him for getting up and helping. I tell him that I called several times to see if he could help us. He tells us that he never heard the phone ring. He was around most of the night but had gone to the movies. I told him that I left voicemails and he responded that he never checks them because nobody ever calls. He continues to think about not hearing the phone and all of a sudden he remembers that his roommate moved out on Friday and the phone belonged to the roommate so he took it home with him. Then Chris decided he should probably call his mom in case she had called. My other favorite 1st North memory is from the beginning of the year. We took the FAB to Wal-Mart (because it was freshman year and nobody had a car at that point) late in the day and Poochie, the crabby driver was driving. She told us that we better be out on time because that would be the last run. So we go in and make our purchases. I bought a flip chair, my suitemate got a bean bag chair and everybody else had bags of stuff. Poochie was not happy when we piled back on the bus.
-Chi Walks/finding Chi memorabilia-- I have 2 Chi Christmas balls that I still hang on our trees (I always wanted to be in Chi) It was always fun to see Joanie on the Stony wrapped in Blue
-Macado's
- Oktoberfest/Spring Weekend/Oozeball
-Bubbles in the fountain
-Using D-Hall trays as sleds
-And saving the best for last...... Meeting HoieEnginerd in my dorm room. Going on our first date to Macado's. Then having him recreate our first date 3 years later when he proposed.
** You didn't ask but my worst Longwood/Farm Vegas memory was April 24, 2001---Watching Ruffner burn. I was at the Alumni House when it happened and stood on the corner of Oak and High Streets for 30 minutes watching before I went back to campus. I didn't know where my roommate, suitemates, best friend were. I knew where Chris (from previous story) was because he and his roommate were on the Farmville FD...
Was there when Ruffner burned. My wife (gf at the time) lived nearby and we went when we heard. Was a very helpless feeling.
It was. After I got back to campus from the Alumni House, I was able to go in my dorm and I got my cell phone. I called home and said "Mom, the school's on fire." and started bawling. I stood outside with my roommate and best friend and another friend watching it until the wee hours of the morning. The next morning we went back out and looked at the the smoldering rubble.
Two cool things about everything, because I was an Ambassador, I got a brick from Ruffner. When they rebuilt Ruffner, I signed one of the beams. I am forever a part of Longwood. My picture actually ended up in the Richmond Times from the ceremony.
I see you're team cake, but if you have to have pie, what are you having?
In no particular order other than typing as they pop into my head:
Apple
My mom's chocolate with meringue
Derby (it tastes like a giant chocolate chip cookie)
Mom's Shoney's strawberry pie
Pumpkin
Peanut
German chocolate
Hey wasnick---you want to be next?
Or SoupHokie?
Paging wasnick or SoupHokie! Who wants to be the next participant?
Interesting sidebar- wasnick autocorrects to 'was icky' on my phone......
You want to ask me questions?
Sure why not?
I already have 2:
Why have you abandoned us? Why do you not love us anymore?
You forgot: "how dare you?".
How dare you abandon us??!! Whyyyy???? Why don't you love us anymore???
Better?
Because you catch more flies with honey... do you miss us as much as we miss you, big guy?
If either of those two don't claim it, I am open to other suggestions or volunteers.....
I'll nominate LittleBobbyTables if those two are not answering....we can always circle back to them......it's a long off-season!
Works for me!
Thanks for participating Heather!
Sure! It was fun.
Yes, thank you!!!
Truth! We've watched XFL, USFL, and now we're streaming Canadian preseason until their season starts next week. We will stream/watch on cbs sports
Seems to be all quiet on the western front.....how about you Kville Hokies?
Aw, darn, I was out of town. I'll be up for it, but will be out of town (on a motorcycle trip) Friday to Thursday.
You want to start do yours Wednesday?
Sure. I'll have Wed and Thurs to answer stuff.
Cool
You'll be AMA #9. Please remember to nominate someone along with your background info!
Thanks!
I think ltb will be #10. Soup didn't put his number with his and bar1990 is going tomorrow.
Oops...you are correct-
So I met and had a couple of beers with GGC after work today, and he'd be happy to be nominated if you don't have anybody else in mind....
GGC, do you want to go Thursday after Little BoBBy Tables?
The next two days are shaping up to be pretty busy for me at work. How about I just hold off until after I get back from this trip (next Thursday). If this is still going on, I'll sign up then.
Let GGC go tomorrow, and maybe I'll buy him a beer on my way back through the Garden State.
I'll fire one up tomorrow then
Did I kill the Summer AMA? Nobody is answering the call anymore?
Nah...people are just busy with finishing the school year, yardwork, vacations & stuff. We keep throwing names, someone will bite and other nominees can come back around later.
How about bar1990?
Bar1990 is on my shortlist. Would endorse
You were my next choice after bar1990. But it looks like Soup came back from lunch with SaladHokie so he's up now.
I'd do it. Should I just spin up a thread? I'm seeing this a day late, so I can wait my turn.
Start yours tomorrow.
My bad I was driving to the beach yesterday.
I can put something together if needed. Just let me know.
OK you are up then. bar can go next.
Looks like you're up buddy!
I'll write a brief thing and post it.
I want folks asking me questions instead of telling them everything about me in a bio.
Oh I miss out on asking a question 🥺
There's nothing stopping any of these threads from continuing.
Ask away. I am still here. What do you want to know?
I haven't seen this question yet. Favorite type of music/artist
My taste in music is random and eclectic. I like classic rock(70s/some 80s), 90s- early 2000s pop/rock (which can technically be considered "classic" at this point), country, beachy stuff like Buffett/ Chesney etc. i really like matchbox20.
An insight to my random taste in music-
My ringtones include:
Shania Twain
Rod Stewart
Chicago
Boston
Metallica
Tim McGraw
Guns n Roses (at one point)
Soundtrack to my life includes:
Forever and For Always- Shania Twain
Smooth- Santana & Rob Thomas
More Than a Feeling- Boston
Maggie May- Rod Steward
25 or 6 to 4- Chicago
One Week/ If I had $1,000,000- Barenaked Ladies
Enter Sandman
Livin on a Prayer
Unwell-Matchbox 20
Mustang Sally- Wilson Pickett
Touch of Gray- Grateful Dead
Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
Closing Time- Semisonic
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)- Green Day
*plus others not mentioned
Ooo Matchbox twenty 🔥
Love your tastes in music!
Thanks. It's all over the place.
Eclectic is a good word for that( but you already knew that!)
If you could have lunch with 5 people from tkp, but it has to be all at once, who would it be?
Hmmmm....
So I am assuming this question means 5 people other than the ones I am know in real life (HokieEnginerd, DannyCoaleIsMySpiritAnimal, FlippinHokie, magicrat, ArchonVT, wasnick--when he still loved us, AssPocketFullofWhiskey, Egbert, and the rest of the Lot 18 crew) and those who visit us in the illustrious meadow-- HokieFireman, DisneyHokie, HokieJeep.
Dining with 5 other tkpers:
KingJames and HokieTopher (so we can discuss Hokie and Cowboys football)
French, Joe and you.
If I get to add extra people since HokieEnginerd and I are together and we could have 10 people between us: Gobble Gobble Chumps, SoupHokie09, VTCC69, FernleyHokie
2/3 of those people you listed have been by our tailgate at least once and most are (semi) regulars.
I know VTCC69 has been to one. Joe has been to a couple. French came to a Spring Game. Anybody else?
My wife, daughter, and I tailgated at lot 18 for the Thurs night Miami game in 2014.
I was definitely not at that game. Unfortunately. My very first Thursday Night game was last year against West by God.
Was further down in lot 18 at friend's tailgate for that game where they had a cake with a burning couch on top of it!
Im flattered! Us Cowboys fans gotta stick together!
That's what I thought! Especially those of us who live in enemy territories...
Yay I made the cut.