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The WeatherPixie

Showcase of a Shattered Mind (2007)

brighten j'lynn's day with an

current rantings or rantings of days past... 2006 or 2005 or 2004 or 2003

Orlando
The WeatherPixie


friday - 28december2007 - 17:37
woohooo, it's the weekend! it's a four-day weekend! it's an "oh, crap, we've got to finish moving into our new home and start living in it" weekend! it's an "ahhhh! i've got to decide on and buy appliances" weekend! it's a "we really should think about deciding on and buying some furniture to sleep on" weekend! it's a "wooohooo! we're going to party like young whippersnappers this new year's eve!" weekend. so maybe i'll just go down and swim in the pool a bit...


thursday - 27december2007 - 13:42
well, it's about a week late but it's not like you expect anything timely from my site anymore. so CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR BETROTHAL, JENNY and SCOTT!!! also a belated merry Christmas to all. i hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. now to start making some new years eve plans!


friday - 21december2007 - 10:39
what a week! monday we spent all day moving. tuesday we spent all day painting. wednesday we had to go back to work and then spent all evening painting. last night we furnished the newly painted room. i'm so pleased with it. seeing as how it is the only furniture we have, aside from the living room, i was anxious to have it good and complete-looking before we leave for christmas. it looks fabulous. the only thing left to be done in there is hanging the curtains which just seemed like too much trouble last night since the curtain rods were down in the car still. we also decided to put up our new christmas tree and decorate a little. really, it was senseless to do that since we won't be back until after christmas, are not exchanging gifts ourselves, and have nothing else unpacked. but it felt good to have our brand new tree up in our brand new home and the living room looks semi lived in now. unfortunately, our lights are all missing so the tree is ornamented and starred, but not lit. and i really would have liked to have put some lights on the balcony but it will just have to wait. i'd really like to get some after-christmas-clearance led lights anyhow. i really don't care about energy efficiency or any of that crap but leds are just much prettier colors in my opinion. today i'll have to spend my lunch hour rummaging through boxes to find some warm clothes for the christmas weekend. we head back to al this afternoon (weren't we JUST there?!) and the festivities begin tomorrow with gma h's 97th birthday party. hope your holidays are fun and tiring too!


monday - 17december2007 - 21:03
it was a tiring weekend but we are moved in. well, moved in as in all of our stuff is in the new place. nothing is unpacked and we're staying in the rental until we are able to get settled. after the closing on friday, we drove to alabama. then we started loading up the truck in the pouring rain on saturday. it wouldn't have been too much of a problem if it weren't for the truck leaking and raining all over our stuff. we ended up having to go and buy a giant roll of plastic sheeting to cover everything inside the truck. i'm not really sure what the point is of having a covered moving truck if you have to buy extra protection from rain, but that's neither here nor there. we finished loading up from one storage building and headed back to the other one to finish. just as we got the truck backed up to it and the ramp going into the building, the dam on the clouds busted. it was a monsoon, i tell ya. so we closed the back of the truck and we stood in the storage building trying to see if it was going to pass and the ramp starts shaking. all of a sudden, a goat head pops out from under the ramp, followed by the rest of the goat shivering between us. then the ramp starts shaking again. another shivering, wet goat pops out and huddles between my legs. the rain was very loud on the tin roof and they were not happy. apparently, these two were raised by my sis-in-law so they were not used to being pasture goats. while all the other goats went in to the barn to get out of the rain, these two ran to the humans to protect them. maybe you just had to be there but it was freaking hilarious! when we decided that it wasn't going to let up and to go inside to wait it out, we kicked the goats out of the storage building, which they were not pleased with. a couple hours later we were able to finish loading the truck. we drove back sunday with randal driving the truck and me following in our car. it was a long day but not too terrible. i thought i would have a much harder time with the drive than i did. we unloaded all of our cleaning supplied and got the place cleaned up last night. this morning, we moved in. it took about two hours. everything went pretty smoothly until we got to the sofa. it did not want to go in the elevator. after cracking some of the framing, we took all of the feet off, prayed, and finally got it shoved in there. we have one room filled to the brim with boxes. i had wanted to start painting the only room we have furniture for today but we had someone come out to look at the kitchen and it ended up taking longer than expected so i'll have to start that tomorrow. more busy times ahead.


friday - 14december2007 - 15:51
woohooo, we're homeowners again! time to head to al to pick up all of our stuff. busy moving, cleaning, and painting extended weekend ahead folks. and such good timing since i'm going to miss the first two days of my not-at-all-looking-forward-to-it new job.


tuesday - 4december2007 - 08:27
well, we are doing a much better job of getting out into the community than we did in ga. last night was the christmas tree lighting ceremony in town. we went and watched the tree get lit, watched the local high school marching bands bring in the fire engine that carried santa, shook hands and talked with the mayor, listened to some elementary school choruses, and ate some christmas cookies. hmmm, if we get moved, maybe i can make some christmas cookies. it was not a tremendously exciting event, but it got us out an we interacted with our community. and it reminded me that i would really like to have my leather coat with me. the wind had quite a bite to it while we stood outside for the festivities.


monday - 3december2007 - 10:23
houston, we have a home! well, we have an accepted offer anyhow. i anticipate closing in the next couple of weeks. merry christmas to us! we both would have preferred the one that we made the offer on last week but they just wanted entirely too much. the one that we're getting is nice though. it's never been lived in so it's still brand new. and since the kitchen has some construction flaws to it, we're probably going to go in and gut it to make a much prettier kitchen. i'm very excited about that part (even though we swore no more projects and it's going to be a headache!). we'll have an awesome view. oh! and it comes with an outside storage unit which will be wonderful to have. i'm still not looking forward to moving again but i am so looking forward to having my own stuff again. it sounds so materialistic, but it really is hard living for months without your own stuff. like my new furniture that i haven't even paid for yet. and my sweaters for chilly days/nights. but mostly cooking/baking stuff. like my kitchenaide mixer. golly i missed that while preparing our thanksgiving feast. but it will all be joining me shortly. busy times ahead again. and my cousin is threatening to be our first true houseguests (yes, both the in-laws and my family have visited us already but they didn't count as houseguests since we were all in a rental - it was more like everyone meeting up at a hotel).


thursday - 29november2007 - 07:17
what a week! we got our hopes way up about being homeful but it didn't quite happen. they're realtor has been hounding us saying that if we offered $X, it would be a done deal. we've talked it over for several weeks and finally decided to go ahead and make the offer. turns out their realtor does not know their clients at all because they came back and said they would not take any less than a bunch more than that. i'm ticked she got our hopes up so high. we also went out this week to shop for new kitchens (counters, cabinets, appliances) in case we decide to make an offer on one particular unit that has a not-great-kitchen. that was a lot of fun. one day we'll have a home again.


monday - 26november2007 - 21:52
we had my sister's family and my dad and his wife with us for the holiday weekend. for the most part, the weather cooperated. they all arrived thanksgiving day and were able to get out and play in the waves and in the pool and hottub. i was presented with a custom-made apron that said "turkies fear me!" and "our aunt cooks" (wink, wink) with little nephew and niece size handprint-turkies on it. i love it and wore it every time i was in the kitchen all weekend. technically, piggies fear me since i've never personally made a turkey (i prefer ham) but i can certainly understand how it's easier to make turkies out of handprints than piggies. i cooked copiously. after a big piggy meal, we nine piled in around the living room to watch a holiday kid movie and then everyone went to bed. friday morning, i got up and made a very large breakfast for all and my dad left a while later. a cold front had moved in thursday evening (my brother-in-law was amazed to watch it crawl towards us - i love that you can see storms so clearly here) so friday was a bust for beach-play. after lunch, we seven went sight-seeing. i skipped with my nephew and niece on the docks of the marina. they're good little skippers but they are no match for their skipping aunt. we then went to the big new theatre just down the street to see a kid movie that was, uh, interesting. for dinner, we stopped at one of the old landmark beach-hangouts for a bit of local flavor. it's not my favorite one but it's practically right next store. it was a decent meal that i didn't cook. after sending the kiddies to bed, the adults stayed up way too late discussing early childhood memories. i'm not sure if it's because i'm the youngest or what but it seems like i'm the only one who has plentiful pre-preschool memories. saturday morning i cooked a large breakfast again and then we all went down to the beach for a game of flag football in the sand. it doesn't really matter that my sister and i were just running around with no idea what we were doing. we all had a great time. me, randal, and my younger nephew won. and i mastered the touchdown dance. after some late lunch, they headed out of town. i immediately headed to bed for a long nap. it was a great weekend and i haven't cooked since. my sister called me a little while ago to tell me about my niece's report. this morning, they went around the classroom talking about their favorite part of the holiday (they had the whole week off). my niece told the class that her favorite part was the big breakfasts that her aunt cooked. :-D my sister asked if she told them about playing football on the beach or swimming in the pool or the big boats. nope, just the awesome breakfasts. it's so nice to be appreciated.


wednesday - 14november2007 - 16:18
just a couple more days until my boy is back for good. and that means a couple more days in orlando. i've been having some problems arranging my last few visits but that's alright. i've had a great time getting to see my friends and family. it has been a good distraction for being apart from my hubby. come next week, we'll be back at the beach resuming our house-hunting and preparing for company. good times all around!


monday - 12november2007 - 11:47
wow, it really has been quite a while since i ranted. no wonder i've been getting yelled at. it's been busy and fun times. i've been in orlando visiting around for a couple of weeks while my hubby's been off working in another state. he came to visit me this weekend, which has been very exciting, but he leaves me again today. i was able to attend my cousin's annual halloween/anniversary party. a good time was had by all. i've gotten together with jenny several times. it's been too long. i've gotten to see my dad a couple of times and my brother and my katie. and, of course, i've gotten to spend tons of quality time with my sissy and bro-n-law and nephews/niece. it's really been very nice. yesterday we were even fortunate enough to have accompanied them to church, during which my younger nephew and niece decided to get baptized. it was a very exciting time for them and i was glad that we just happened to be there. i don't guess i've worn out my welcome around here yet since i've still got another week here and they're already planning on following us back to the beach next week for turkey day. possibly my dad too but i haven't gotten the chance to ask him what he decided on that. not much time for details and since our work computers are in serious lock-down, i wouldn't expect to be posting very much until we go buy a new home computer.


tuesday - 16october2007 - 09:04
it's a rainy day at the beach today. the thunder was rumbling while the alarm went off this morning and i just wanted to sleep in a few hours. stupid work getting in the way of my rainy day sleep. the good thing is with the air being so heavy with moisture, it seems to be supressing the red tide. i'm all for that. it was terrible again yesterday. i went down to the pool last night and choked and coughed the whole time. i like the foggy, rainy beach look.


monday - 15october2007 - 15:17
we had a going out kind of weekend. on saturday, we went to a local fair. the biggest draw was that john michael montgomery was playing that night. back in middle and part of high school, i listened to an awful lot of jmm so i was looking forward to a super cheap concert. we probably got there too early but, being our first time, we didn't know how big it was going to be. it wasn't big so we walked around all of the vendors several times. we walked around the carnival-type rides once. and we walked around the food vendors a couple of times trying to decide on a snack that would be not too terrible. we ended up walking around for a little over three hours before jmm's show. we stood and watched a couple of the other acts but they weren't much interesting. when the stage started getting set up for jmm, we walked through the sea of lazy people in chairs to get up to the front of the stage. we ended up standing about ten feet from the stage. turns out that jmm has aged a bit since i listened to him. he still has the adorable dimples but he must have gained about forty pounds over the years. he is not the adorable country guy he was thirteen years ago. during the first song, hubby and i looked at each other and simultaneously concluded that jmm was innebriated. he was slurring and swaying and looked like he just needed to sleep it off. overall, the show was good. the ballads were great - hubby and i even danced a bit. anything with a tempo was slurred and mumbled. the poor guy couldn't even spit out the chorus for grundy county auction. he tried, bless his heart, failed miserably, and let the crowd do them for the rest of the song. it was definitely worth what we paid to get into the festival but i probably would have been disappointed if i had actually paid concert prices. all in all, though, it was a fun evening out with my hubby. sunday night we went to the club we like for some dinner and music. it's nice how much more we get out here than we did in ga.


friday - 12october2007 - 10:40
the last two mornings have been cold, crisp, and beautiful. last night we left the sliding doors open to enjoy the natural air conditioning. i love open-window-weather. there's nothing better. this morning, the water is almost like glass. i've seen more waves on the pond behind my childhood home. i'm talking absolutely flat water. it's not even breaking at the shoreline, it's just gently rolling onto the beach. on the one hand, it does make it easy to see creatures swimming around in the crystal clear water. on the other hand, there's next to no sound. i like the sound of waves. either way, at least it makes for a different perspective. our old backyard didn't change much from day to day. the grass was long, cut, or dead. the leaves were green, colored, or gone. that's about it. don't get me wrong, as far as backyards go, we had a fabulous backyard - big and flat. but it's nice to have a backyard that is constantly changing. there was even a wedding down there the other day. how nice that other people like our backyard that much. the only part i haven't enjoyed so far is when the ride tide is in. we've had it onshore twice since we've been here. that stuff is terrible. i think next weekend we're getting our first visitors. of course, i can't really do a very good job of playing hostess since i don't have any of my stuff. i've barely got enough pots and pans to cook for two of us. not to mention that i don't have nearly enough food staples with me. even my pancake mix and syrup are back in alabama somewhere. i'll be much more comfortable when we've got our own home with our own stuff again.


sunday - 07october2007 - 08:17
week one of beach living has me convinced that this will be a good move for us. unlike our other "scouting" trips here, this week was all about keeping up our normal routine. eating/cooking in, watching tv (well, me anyhow), and working. we've also gone down to the gym a couple times (hopefully this week we'll be able to get back into our lunch-gymming) and we've gone down to swim laps a few times (talk about tiring). we've even climbed stairs (fourteen floors) instead of using the elevator a couple times. we have not been to the beach yet, but i'm okay with that. other than walking on it (generally at sunset or later), i'm really not a hang-on-the-beach kind of person. but i love sitting out on the balcony to watch and listen to the water. my new pets come by at least twice a day so i get to enjoy watching them swim and play. it's wonderful decompression. we've also made some time for some home shopping so hopefully we'll have a permanent residence before long. i'm ready to be settled here with my own stuff.


monday - 01october2007 - 21:11
we're officially floridians again. homeless floridians, but floridians nonetheless. hee hee, we're beach bums - literally! so if anyone has any spare cardboard boxes, i'm looking to build an addition off the back. :-) it was a long, exhausting weekend. friday night, some of our coworkers took us to andretti's for some fun indoor kart racing and dinner. it was a good time. we left from there to take a uhaul load to 'bama. we got there about 02:00, got a few hours of sleep, got up to unload the uhaul, and headed back to pack up the rest and clean the house. when we got there, our next-door neighbors made lunch for us and not long after we got back to the house to resume our packing, our across-the-street neighbor came over and asked if she could go get us some food. i'm really going to miss having such wonderful neighbors. as for the packing, i am absolutely astounded by the amount of crap we have. we didn't finish packing and cleaning until almost 22:00. we completely loaded the car down inside, top, and back hitch-hauler (we didn't want to have to take the uhaul back and pay the very steep one-way drop charge). even then, we ended up having to leave at least another full car load in our neighbor's garage. re-dic-u-lous. so by the time we finished loading and carrying the leftovers to the neighbor's, we ended up getting to 'bama around 02:00 again. we went ahead and unloaded into the storage building at that insane hour and then we went and unloaded our perishables into the parents' fridge and freezer. sunday morning, we got up much earlier than i would have liked and my dad, on his way back from a road trip, stopped by to see us. we spent a couple of hours touring him around wedowee and when they left, we went to visit gma h and then headed to the lake to see niece-the-eldest get baptized. it was an interesting event and, surprisingly, a moving one. after the baptizing, we went back to the house, loaded all of our need-now stuff and headed to florida. we got in at a semi-respectable 21:30 last night but, for whatever reason, i never could fall asleep. not one wink all night after such an exhausting weekend. it's just not right. made for a very long monday. but here we are. after work, we ate dinner on the balcony while the sun set and the dolphins played. i think it will all be worth it.


wednesday - 26september2007 - 11:24
apparently, the price for one night of truly restful sleep is to not be able to sleep past 03:00 ever again. i'm not entirely convinced it was worth it now. on the bright side, only three days until we leave behind our not-our-home.


tuesday - 25september2007 - 17:00
four days. not too much left to do. most of the kitchen is boxed up. tonight i'll start boxing our bathroom. i wish we were having better luck selling stuff but that's just part of it. what matters is that by this weekend we'll be at the beach for the long haul. hopefully we'll even find ourselves a home there. funny thing about homes right now is that there is all of this doom and gloom news about how the housing market, especially resales, is so far down. it astounds me that we sold ours on our own in three weeks. here we were listening to the news thinking there was going to be plenty of time to find a new home before ours sold. not that i'm complaining. i have complete confidence that we'll find exactly what we're looking for once we're down there. and it's going to be a wonderful change of scenery.


friday - 21september2007 - 14:57
eight more days until we leave the house that used to belong to us for good. it's practically empty now. last night we moved all of the living room and master bedroom furniture out to the garage to be loaded on the uhaul tonight. next weekend should be a fairly easy move. what i wouldn't give for a weekend of sleeping in and not moving from the couch.


wednesday - 19september2007 - 10:31
last night was beautiful. we actually opened the windows when we got home from work and then went to bed with the bedroom windows open. i don't know if it was the fresh air or what but i had the most restful sleep last night. i really couldn't even say the last time i woke up feeling so good and rested. it sure does make for a much nicer morning. the packing process is moving right along. monday night i got everything out of the upstairs room and bathroom and got it all packed. last night i packed up my duckie bathroom. i even went through everything and made a throw-away pile of duck stuff that just won't make it in storage since that stuff will not be accompanying us to florida. yes, you read right, i'm parting ways with my duckies. i'm sure there will be a few floating around the new place, but overall it will be a duckless home. it had to happen sometime. i figure if we are ever crazy enough to have kids i'll bust it all back out but, for now, i guess i'm ready to grow up a little bit. such is life. as far as moving, we're in pretty good shape. i think we'll have all but necessity stuff in storage this weekend. next step: find a new home.


monday - 17september2007 - 17:24
*sniff* my house is no longer mine. *sniff*


thursday - 13september2007 - 09:56
4 days until our house is no longer ours. 16 days to homelessness. we made our first offer yesterday. we don't expect it to get accepted but at least we're starting the process. i've had a near-migraine since yesterday morning. i've been popping motrin, which i think is what has kept it from going migraine, but it hasn't relieved the headache. i'm tired and worn out (although i did next to no packing last night) and generally down. the good news is that the packing is progressing (last night, thanks to randal). the iron room has been disassembled. the garage is mostly boxed up. i've started craigslisting stuff that we don't want to move like big, bulky tvs and my treadmill (that i still heart but don't want it to die in storage over the next few years). here's hoping we have some luck with that stuff.


wednesday - 12september2007 - 12:56
i was very disappointed last night. my plan was to go home and watch 9/11 specials while packing. i flipped through the channels and even sat through a full cycle of the tv guide channel and there was nothing on. i found it very saddening. in other news, my husband called me friday at lunch time and said, "i'm getting an iphone. is that okay?" i laughed and told him to go ahead, happy birthday, merry christmas, joyous kwanzaa... his phone was about five years old and in terrible condition (not to mention that it didn't get a signal anywhere). and, though he is really not a technofile at all, he's wanted one since they first started advertising. i've told him before to buy him one, he deserves it. the $200 price drop was enough to finally make him give in. well that and group dynamics. turns out that all five of the guys at work that day bought one. when he came home, he was very eager to show off his new toy. he shamefully told me he was going to buy one for me too but that the data plan would be separate so it would be another $20 a month. honestly, i don't need one, although i did appreciate that he thought of me and felt badly about not getting me one. but the fact is we're almost always together. if i want to play with it, i can. and play with it, i have. when the commercials first came out, i thought it looked pretty nifty. i did not expect it to be this darned slick. i surfed the web, watched youtube videos, and checked and wrote emails all the way down to florida. heck, i surfed the net in wedowee faster than his mom can (they only have dial-up since there is still no dsl in their area). i am so pleased with my new little toy (he only thinks it's his). so how about those google phone rumors?


tuesday - 11september2007 - 10:16


wednesday - 29august2007 - 10:59
let the countdown begin. we are one month from homelessness. we shopped for homes last week and narrowed it down. we haven't started any offers yet but we've got a shortlist. now if only i would quit dreaming up projects for the new home before we even have one.
14:46 - woohoo, two more pounds!


tuesday - 28august2007 - 17:23
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!!


tuesday - 14august2007 - 13:24
i am absolutely overjoyed to announce that i have lost eight, that's EIGHT, pounds since the last time we went to the gym. that was roughly seven weeks ago. apparently, next to no exercise and a pizza diet works for me. or maybe the thyroid medicine is starting to make a difference. either way. actually, i've probably sweat it all off this past week. 103°?! this is georgia, not the freakin' sahara! well, that's all beside the point, isn't it. current mood: ebullient!


tuesday - 07august2007 - 11:11
we made it home yesterday. i may or may not finish the travel log. there are complications. lolla was fun but tiring. the highlight of the weekend was the two visits i had with my messie jessie (girl i babysat growing up who i haven't seen in 5.5 years and have missed tremendously). she is such a gorgeous woman now. when we got home after work last night, it had been thirty-six hours since we had last woken up (even that was after only four hours of sleep). i laid down to take a nap so i could get some stuff done around the house (apparently we need to pack!) and woke up this morning in time for work. boy did i need that twelve+ hours. today, i feel more human but i could use a nap.


monday - 30july2007 - 16:43
bring on the cardboard boxes, we need a place to live. we have a signed contract and earnest money in hand. anxiety to set in in 3...2...1...


thursday - 26july2007 - 23:36
we're practically homeless!!! so saturday before last, some folks look at our house and then call us at 22:30 that night to make an offer. we spent the next two days counter-offering and negotiating. we got pretty close but came to a stalemate. this past weekend, we get a call from the neighbor who has been kindly showing our house while we're gone and he says that the same people came back with more family to look at it again. the next night, we get a call from the woman's cousin-in-law saying that he keeps telling them to quit talking about it and just do it so he discusses some terms with randal and they seem to have come to an agreement. tuesday we got a written offer with all of the terms that they agreed to over the phone. last night we sent them a contract and they are taking it to an attorney and then, hopefully, overnighting the signed original to us. how exciting/sad!!! i love my cute little house. i am glad that this woman seems to have fallen in love with it too. hopefully she'll treat it well and keep it a happy home! if things go right, we'll have about forty days to get home, pack up, and find us a new home. busy times on the horizon. i'm sure richmond could give me some good pointers.


wednesday - 18july2007 - 17:58
i finally got a travel log started for this trip. first ten days are up so far. check back for more days to get posted until i get all caught up.


friday - 13july2007 - 16:25
i think building sleep deprivation and copious amounts of stress are making me an emotional wreck. i'm sitting in a hotel lobby, finishing work for the day and suddenly i'm crying. i'm looking at the front desk, thinking about the night of the robbery. she knew something was wrong. out of a sound sleep, in the middle of the night, she just knew. God, i miss my mom.


wednesday - 27june2007 - 10:22
today marks one year since our relationship became non-existent. most days i don't dwell on it too much. then there are days i miss her so much it aches. i miss her and i love her but i have given up hope that this can ever be mended. i just don't see how - especially since she has no desire to try. i believe in forgive but not forget. how do i forget all of the tears that i have cried this past year over her? and i will never understand why. or how. and i get absolutely furious when someone tells me that i need to try harder. for four months, i gave it a fierce effort just to be rebuffed every time. it finally got to the point that it just hurt too much to keep trying. i honestly never thought she'd do this to me. *sigh* i think i'll go sit in the bathroom and cry a bit now.


monday - 25june2007 - 15:54
well, a "for sale" sign went up in our yard saturday. today we had our first real call and showing. it was great fun. the good thing about them was that they are definitely moving to the area (job-related) so it's not like people just out looking around. they had very positive things to say about the house (particularly our brand new bathroom and my master) but they did a pretty quick walk-through so i'm not sure they were tremendously interested. you never know though. there were also five fliers missing from the "take one" tube. i think that two fliers went to these people so three other fliers were picked up throughout the morning. it could just be nosy neighbors that wanted to see what we had going on while we weren't there (like we do when we're walking around the neighborhood and see a "take one" tube). or it could be three other interested parties that will call us later to schedule a showing. either way, it's fun to have something going on. and i always LOVE showing off my house. i'm really so proud of my little house and all we've done to it. and if that wasn't exciting enough, after said showing, some rain moved in and has been providing a slow, soaking rain for the last two and a half hours now. hopefully we'll continue to get slow, soaking rain until our grass looks like the lush, green grass that i photoshopped on the fliers/web page. 8-D


friday - 22june2007 - 10:44
we are the proud, official, legal owners of a third bathroom. inspector signed off on it and will file the papers this afternoon. now if only we could get that friggin towel bar.
15:57 - looks like it's going to be a mass exodus in our neighborhood. we're getting ready to put up a sign in our yard. the nextdoor neighbors are getting ready to list theirs and the neighbors across the street from them are working on getting theirs on the market too. might be harder to sell our house with all the houses around it for sale. here's hoping we get ours going first and someone swoops on it!


thursday - 21june2007 - 11:44
ding, dong, the bathroom's done! well, mostly. we actually finished 98% of it saturday. we hung the mirror, shelf, toilet paper, and hand towel ring. i cleaned and decorated. last night, we finished another 1% by swapping an outlet with a gfi outlet (we failed our inspection tuesday because the guy didn't do his job on the first inspection and didn't look at the outlets. apparently they all need to be gfi even if they are nowhere near the plumbing so the one out of four that wasn't gfi had to be swapped). here's hoping tomorrow's inspection is our FINAL inspection (it really ticks me off that we're being held up by something that he should have but didn't bother to look at last time). anyhow, the very last 1% that needs to be done is the towel bar. for the last two weeks, we have been trying to get the stupid towel bar and it has stayed out of stock. quite frustrating. so, if we ever get the towel bar, the bathroom will be completed. since that project is more or less wrapped up, we've moved on to fixing up and cleaning up the rest of the house. we've already packed away five storage bins. we've repaired cracks and nail holes and touched up paint. we're just about ready to put up some for sale signs! i have such mixed emotions about selling my house. this is my first house. and we've put so much work into ameliorating it. i'm so proud of our new bathroom and we may never even get to show it off. i love my little house, but i'm ready for a change of scenery. although, after reading all about richmond's house selling stresses (i couldn't figure out an easy way to find the relevant posts to link to), i'm a bit skeered. not to mention that i've always thought moving was an odious task (seven times in nine years!) and we have accumulated a lot more crap to move since living in this house! oh well, i guess things will work out they way they need to.


friday - 15june2007 - 14:38
can i get a whoohoo for the few little rain showers we've gotten in the last twenty-four hours? hey, we'll take what we can get right now. although i'm not sure there's enough rain in the clouds to resurrect most of our grass. the bathroom will be completely finished this weekend and we'll have the final inspection by the county next week. all that remains is putting in an a/c vent, touch up paint, and finishing touches like a vanity mirror and towel bars and such. it's actually a nice looking bathroom. i'm super impressed that my fabulously skilled husband was able to transform empty attic space into a bathroom that almost looks like it was original to the blueprints. i've done all kinds of running around the last few days in order to get things done before our upcoming trip out west. doctors have been visited, prescriptions have been filled, new glasses have been ordered. time for a change of scenery.


tuesday - 12june2007 - 13:35
i'm so disgusted. after all of my exercising and refraining from junk-food-binging last week, i've gained two pounds. how the !#&$ does that happen? there is no way on this earth that i did not create a calorie-deficit (through exercise, not starvation) last week! so i ask you... what's the #$%*!^% point???


monday - 11june2007 - 10:19
what a weekend, after that long ordeal at the airport, my husband finally returned to me around seven thirty saturday night. by the time i got him home and we ate dinner, it was time for bed. then we got up at seven sunday morning (that's just wrong!) to drive to wedowee for a memorial service for his cousin. after all of that time missing my husband, there just hasn't been any good quality time for us. yesterday we were both tired and cranky so after visiting with the two gmas, we went back to his parents' and ended up taking a three hour nap. today, he will be going with his gma from one hospital to another for tests. please keep gma m in your prayers as she has, once again, been in the hospital all week and things aren't looking great for her.


saturday - 09june2007 - 15:07
michigan is holding my husband hostage and they're never going to let me have him back! i haven't even received a ransom. i'm so very bummed. he was supposed to be home around seven last night. after putting him on three different flights, all of which got cancelled, they informed him that he would not be getting a flight out of there that night. so they put him on a noon flight today. i woke up and checked the airline's website and saw that it was already delayed to one. after my treadmilling (i put twenty-four miles on my treadmill this week!) , i checked again and saw that it was delayed to three thirty. i've now checked once more to see that it's delayed to five fifty. i'm never going to see my husband again! :-(


friday - 08june2007 - 14:16
my husband loves me and misses me as much as i miss him! he called me last night and sang calling you by blue october to me. i love my husband so much! and i love that he's coming home to me tonight!!!


thursday - 07june2007 - 09:42
what a lonesome week it has been without my hubby. how have i been coping? believe it or not... exercise. i've been treadmilling, gazelling, and jump-roping. wherefore am i not yet svelte? will i ever be svelte again???


friday - 01june2007 - 10:38
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEPHEW!!! and also, though unrelated, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR RELEASE, DR K!!!


thursday - 31may2007 - 11:16
between being down lately and being busy, i just haven't had much to say. there is progress occurring though. the bathroom upstairs really looks like a bathroom. the commode has joined the shower in being officially installed (it flushes and everything). the sink is in place and ready to be installed. there are baseboards everywhere. the doors are painted white along with the door frames. the light fixture is centered over the sink. i don't know, we might just knock this thing out within this lifetime. i'm very much ready for this project to be complete. it's been a long, arduous, sweaty project. i will be sad to leave this house. we've done so much to ameliorate it since we moved in. anyhow, on the off-chance (ha!) that i don't rant again tomorrow, HAPPY one-day-early BIRTHDAY, YOUNGER-NEPHEW!!!


friday - 25may2007 - 12:13
i don't understand how a mother can cut her children out of her life for no good reason at all (or perhaps only a dulusionary-perceived reason). but then again, i'm not a mother; maybe it's easier than i think.


monday - 21may2007 - 17:44
home again, home again. we had a very nice long weekend at the beach last weekend for our anniversary. and then we had a short but good visit with friends and family in orlando. and now we're back home and ready to get back to work on the house. isn't it about time to move?


thursday - 17may2007 - 16:05
alright, so this has been a fun meme at other blogs today. i figured i'd give it a try, even though it's not going to be quite the same on my pseudo-blog sans commentability. anyhow, here it is:
Pick out ten favorite movies, then look them up at IMDb. In the overview at the top of each movie’s page, there are “Plot Keywords,” usually five of them. (Plus more, if you click the link.) Take the first five, and post them. Then the rest of us get to play movie buff and see if we can guess them.
  1. Gossip / Nostalgic / Resort / Forbidden Love / Teenager - dirty dancing
  2. Door Broken Down / Avant Garde / Father Son Relationship / Stephen King / Writer's Block (that one is just too easy) - the shining
  3. Corrupt Prison Officials / Falsely Accused / Narrator / Maine / Shot In The Head (that’s easy, too) - shawshank redemption
  4. Transv3stite / Her0!n / G@y Couple / Apartment Eviction / Video Camera (okay, so i'm not providing much of a challenge) - rent
  5. Graphic Violence / Long Take / Gasoline / Aftermath / Tip
  6. Vomit Scene / Dream Sequence / Repression / Black Humor / Manic
  7. Father Daughter Relationship / Golden Gate Bridge / Helicopter / Gothic / Mississippi River - interview with the vampire
  8. Teen Movie / V!rg!n / One Day / Suicide / Teen Angst
  9. Animated Title Sequence / California / Candy Striper / Overhead Camera Shot / Half Sister
  10. Advice / Music / 0r@l S3x / Rock n Roll / T0pl3ss Woman
so there it is. since i don't have comments, i don't expect many guesses, but feel free to me if you care to play along. i'll update with correct guesses.


wednesday - 09may2007 - 16:01
please say a prayer for gma m. she's been doing pretty poorly the last couple of times we visited. she hasn't been able to eat for several weeks because everything makes her sick. monday she was staggering around pretty badly and we left town with worry. tuesday, she was admitted to the hospital. they say she is in kidney failure and her lungs are filling with fluid. they want to put her on a feeding tube but they're not sure how much longer she'll last. it's sad. she's been suffering for a long time, on and off. she's gone through emphysema from second-hand smoke, leukemia, chemo, radiation, et cetera. i don't want her to suffer but it's sad to think of her leaving us.


thursday - 03may2007 - 12:12
it's been a down kind of week. and extremely migrainy to boot. they happen. on the up side, though, i'll be seeing my brother and sis-n-law briefly this weekend. that's always a pleasant surprise. and it also seems that we will be visiting o-town sooner than expected. let the poking commence week after next?


monday - 30april2007 - 15:14
we have a shower! it's starting to look like a bathroom. tile is all layed and grouted. walls are all colored. shower is assembled and, presumably, showerable. that daggone thing was a pain in the rear. it probably took us a good five or six hours saturday getting it all put in. i think our next step is baseboards since those need to be done before the sink and commode can go in. i'll likely be stuck painting the doors and door molding while baseboards are getting cut and installed. i'm not looking forward to painting the door moldings. it is sure to be a battle between painting them and touching up the walls and then touching up the door molding again and then the wall and so on. i am no good at trimming around textured surfaces. as it is, as careful as i was with the trimming of the walls, i've got to go back and touch up the ceiling in several spots. well, that's all i've got for today.


tuesday - 24april2007 - 15:16
HAPPY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, T & JULIE (sunday)!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAYMAN!!!
that's about all i've got to say. been busy at work lately. been productive at home lately. we are getting closer and closer to having a third bathroom. r's about half done with the tiling, i'm about half done with the painting. we'll have fixtures in there in no time. except that i did something that my lower back didn't like and i'm out of commission for a couple days. so it goes.


monday - 16april2007 - 16:06
so. much. sadness.


thursday - 12april2007 - 14:36
happy thursday the 12th! i've decided good things happen when company comes. we had our cruise friends from the tahoe area come to visit us last weekend. we did all kinds of fun stuff, but the highlight was walking to the car to go home friday night. we had spent the day at six flags (not so great during spring break) and then we took them to our favorite little nightlife hangout (which we found out is being torn down in two months to be made into upscale shopping boutiques). about quarter of one in the morning, we headed out and started up the block to the car. and then it happened. right there in the middle of buckhead... in the middle of the night... in april... it snowed!!! it was coming down in great big clusters of flakes, hitting me in the eyes, clinging to my fleece jacket. it was a veritable blizzard (hey, this is atlanta). i was beaming. sure, i knew that there was no chance of it sticking, and i was pretty sure it wouldn't be happening up toward our house, but man-oh-man it was SNOWING!!! (please stop glaring at me, richmond; not all of us are fortunate enough to be sick of snow.) me, i was excited. our tahoe friends didn't seem as impressed although they did appreciate us putting forth all the extra effort for them. why can't i pull those strings with mother-nature more often? we ended up having four+ great days with our company, but that was the highlight in my book!


friday - 30march2007 - 16:13
why bother?


friday - 02march2007 - 14:20
i find it very disconcerting when someone searches for my name (and i mean full name - middle initial and maiden name - making it impossible to be mistaken identity) on the web, finds my page, spends a great quantity of time loitering, and doesn't me. i suppose i should be pleased that someone from my past is apparently thinking of me, but if their intent is not to contact me it just brings out my paranoia.


thursday - 01march2007 - 14:25
we didn't get quite as much accomplished last weekend as we had hoped, but somehow my boy managed to hurt himself anyhow. tuesday morning, he literally could not get out of bed. he had to push himself over the side of the bed, fall to the floor, and crawl to the bathroom. he stayed in bed all day tuesday. that night, he was able to walk around a little with the assistance of a cane. yesterday, he was able to walk around pretty decently for short periods but still could not sit upright. today, he is walking fine and able to sit up for a while at a time. my poor boy. i'm a little worried that he may not be able to drive or even sit in the car for the seven hour trip to orlando tomorrow night. we're not sure what he did, but he did it good. i hate seeing him in pain. he's been pitiful and it makes me very much sad that i can't make him better. my poor guy. and speaking of poor, pitiful creatures, i feel so bad for the dog nextdoor to our office. we all know i'm not a dog person; downright hate them, more or less. but i also can't stand to see anything mistreated. these people nextdoor have had up to 9 dogs in their backyard and they keep them staked in place with no water dishes most of the time and no shade/shelter. the guys at work have taken to buying dog food to sneak over to them and a couple have talked about merciful dog-napping missions. today is a very rainy, haily, thundery day. apparently, there's also tornado watches or warnings or something in effect all day. the hail we got this morning was quite impressive. it was only small marble sized but it piled up an inch high out in the parking lot. as far as i can tell, there is only one dog out there today, a big lab mix, but i have been watching him all day with an aching heart. he looks cold, wet, scared, and miserable. he is tied to a tree with a metal chain (hopefully no lightning strikes the tree or the chain) that is only about six feet long. the only shelter he has is a little pet carrier about half his size. i've only seen him go in it once and only for about thirty seconds before he ran back out of it. i have watched him try to climb on top of it but i'm not sure why. mostly, he has sat on his bottom with his front legs pulled in as close to his body as they can get and his head hanging down. every so often, he gets as close as he can to the tree, like as if it'll give him some relief, what with its bare winter branches. and i swear he keeps looking up at me through the window. poor little mongrel. even mongrels don't deserve to suffer.


friday - 23february2007 - 15:09
WELCOME TO THE WORLD, CAITLIN! our newest neighbor was born yesterday. last night was a productive night in the holloway house. randal got about half of the bathroom ceiling sheetrocked. i got the bottom half of the foyer painted last night. at lunch today i bought the paint for the top half. after work we've got a huge shopping list for home depot and a trip to kohls for some baby gifts. i'll have the foyer painted tonight and tomorrow we'll put up the chairrail. we'll have a very pretty entrance in twenty-four hours. i love quick beautification projects. it's so nice to have nearly instant amelioration/gratification. the good news is that my shoulder isn't hurting quite as badly today, but my poor boy's isn't happy after all of that overhead sheetrocking. isn't it great that we share our pains?


thursday - 22february2007 - 15:35
i'm so zapped. really, just stick a fork in me. last night, i fell asleep during one of my tv shows, which i never do. i was out. i honestly don't remember getting up and going in to bed. i was out. the bad part of that is that somehow, i managed to do something to my shoulder during the night and it is killing me today. but all the griping aside, there is some good news. we had our first inspection this morning on the upstairs bathroom. really, it was kind of a joke. the guy stepped into the room, gave a look around and said it all looked good to him. didn't get up close to check the plumbing or electrical or anything. the only thing he said was that the fan needed to be vented out of the house but he'd just check that at our final inspection. it was good news and now randal can start sheetrocking. we should be able to have a fully finished third bathroom by april. honestly, my part will take the longest. we're not going to worry about smoothing the sheetrock seams this time because we're going to texturize it the same as the room. and the tile won't take more than a couple of days. but painting those textured walls takes forever. it took me two or three weeks straight to get the room painted. i'm guessing it'll take more than a week to get the bathroom. although at least i know what i'll need to do this time so maybe just a week. i also have a project i've been wanting to start all week downstairs. maybe tonight. probably not if my shoulder doesn't quit hurting. have i mentioned how proud i am of my extremely talented, tremendously handy hubby?


tuesday - 20february2007 - 10:48
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY and BRIAN!!! hope it's a good one for you guys. how about this unique little cutie for your gift?
14:53 - redemption points for walmart - for those of us who generally don't like walmart (no, cousin, just because i don't boycott them does not mean i actually like them), they have been lifted in my esteem a bit. daniel worked at walmart. they are now accepting donations in his name and they will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by the nine walmarts in that region. 100% of the money going to his wife and kids. this means that if one person donates $100, robyn gets $1,000 to help raise their children. not only are they accepting donations at the store he worked at, but they also rented out the national guard armory and they will be holding a benefit there on 3march and all proceeds will be included in the fund for matching by the nine stores. i don't know about anyone else, but this just really surprised and impressed me. seems like i've never heard anything but horror stories from people who worked at walmart; i never would have expected such altruism out of them. they definitely get brownie points from me. i'm so pleased that our small contribution will be able to end up providing so much for those kids.
15:44 - wow, i think this is the most rants i've ever done in one day. i just got a call from the friends we made on the cruise back in september (yeh, yeh, one day i'll do a travel log for it). they are coming to visit us in april. how exciting that we made friends from way across the country that actually want to see us again! i'll have to start planning some activities. we might even have another bathroom by then. randal finished all the plumbing last night so tonight we're turning the water on and, if no flooding occurs, tomorrow he'll be calling to get the first inspection out of the way. my husband is so gosh-darned skilled.


monday - 19february2007 - 14:33
WELCOME TO THE WORLD, LILY MADYSON! congratulations to sandra and tony on their special anniversary present! turns out, she entered the world on thursday. i guess as one life ends, another must begin. i'm very happy for them and wish them the best of luck. she's a gorgeous baby. as for us, it just wasn't a good weekend. it was downright terrible. and now we're exhausted. we got home around 16:30 yesterday afternoon and went straight to bed and didn't get out of bed until this morning. i wonder, if i'm this drained and i was just a peripheral family member, how must the immediate family feel? leave the mourning out; how long will it take for them to recover from just the exhaustion of it all? friday night's visitation alone was über-tiring. we were there about five and a half hours and there were at least a thousand people that came through the funeral home. the entire time, people were lined up all the way through the parking lot and to the street. when randal's ex-in-laws came in, we asked how long they had been out there and they said they were in line an hour and five minutes to pay their respects. oh, and it was 27° out there while they were all standing in line. what a testament to the kind of man daniel was and to his family. i was truly impressed. i would think you could get all of my friends and family in and out in under an hour. anyhow, the only good thing that came from the weekend was that it inspired randal and i to have a thorough conversation on our way home yesterday about our final arrangements. i always knew that i wanted to be cremated but that was about all i had ever thought about. i now know that i am opposed to flowers. i want one nice coffin-spread of tulips in every color available, a single fringed tulip (purple or white) in my hands, and maybe about five potted plants. that's it. everyone else can just donate to a charity in my name or, if i have young kids, contribute to a fund for them. and since people will be scrutinizing me to see how much i look like me, i want eyelashes too. not cheap-looking falsies, but realistic and natural-looking eyelashes. it's bad enough looking like a mutant alive, i don't want that to be how people remember me. i also never thought about the logistics of it geographically. if i were to die on my own, i would want my funeral in orlando for all of my family but i would want at least part of my ashes burried at my headstone in wedowee. however, if randal and i were to die together while traveling, we would want a joint funeral in wedowee and all of my friends and family would have to travel up there, which would be inconvenient. anyhow, i fully intend now to write up a detailed plan for my final arrangements and add it to my advanced directives, which i keep online for easy access for those who may one day need it. it just seems that having your wishes known ahead of time takes so much cumbersome decision-making out of the hands of those who are mourning. i've tried over the years to convince randal that we should go ahead and purchase our plots and such now since the place he wants to be burried is already almost full. understandably, he's not ready to go that far with his planning yet. maybe i'll talk him into it one of these days, but for now i just feel so much better knowing that we understand what each other wants. /macabre rant


friday - 16february2007 - 11:44
please say a prayer for randal's family. we got a call while we were finishing dinner last night that his cousin, daniel, had died. he's thirty three and has a wife, robyn, and three kids 9, 7, and 1. he started having seizures a couple years ago and they were never able to figure out what was causing them. what broke my heart was that his younger son found him. he couldn't wake his daddy up. i'm crying again just thinking about it. the kids were taken to some friends' house when the ambulance was called but they weren't told what actually happened (he had been taken to the hospital by ambulance after his first seizure a couple years ago and came home fine). when robyn finally was able to collect herself last night to go get them and tell them the news, she said that the oldest came out of the house and took one look at her in the car and started crying. it was terrible watching the kids come home. their whole life just turned inside out. please keep the whole family in your prayers while they go through this terrible grief.


thursday - 08february2007 - 15:14
it is so nice when one simple thing can suddenly make your job worthwhile. after asking for more details concerning a case that came my way where a customer was complaining that our software was directing them to a pr0n site, i received this response:
Well his initial complaint was “It is directing me to a pr0n site and there are no pictures”!!
so my question: is the customer upset that our software is sending them to a a pr0n site, or is he upset that there are no pictures on said site??? this is by far the best case i've ever worked. and, just so you know, we were not sending them to such a site. it was actually a site that used to be a valid business site and has now been made into a junk advertisement site. nothing pr0n-like about it but we did go ahead and change it to what it needed to be.


monday - 05february2007 - 11:10
i'm proud to say that this is the second week of me tracking my home-treadmill time. two weeks at three and a half hours and twelve+ miles. my goal when i got a calendar to keep on the treadmill was to get in no less than three hours and 10 miles a week. and the calendar, so far, seems to be working since i was very headachy this week but i got on there just because i needed to get my three hours in. assisted accountability. saturday i got up and got straight on my treadmill. i just walked but i did ninety minutes at varying inclines. between lunch-gymming and better home-cardio accountability, i hope to start seeing a difference in the next month. yesterday, randal managed to drag me out of bed at the crack of oh-my-god-it's-early to go skiing. it was well worth it when we got there and it started snowing. i'd say probably four inches fell in the four hours we were there. it was very exciting and beautiful. we took our time coming home, making a couple errand stops, and then held down the couch for the superbowl. the game was actually pretty good (go colts!) but i was highly disappointed by the commercials. there were less than a handful that really made me lol. and judging by the ample number of cbs ads, i'm guessing that they had a hard time selling time this year. who's going to watch the super bowl if the commercials keep going downhill like that?


wednesday - 31january2007 - 17:17
for the first time in 26 years (or at least since i moved out 9 years ago), i did not get my most special of birthday calls. i wasn't really expecting it. but i'm also much more disappointed than i expected. i suppose the good thing is that my brother did get that call for the first time this year and he was very excited about it. i guess it's his turn, which is good. all of that aside, my birthday was a very nice one. technically, it started sunday when we went to the ga aquarium. we made a pretty full day of it and took our time going through the exhibits. we even took a second tour around our favorites, the tropical stuff and the arctic stuff. it was a good day. last night's dinner at the melting pot was every bit as yummy as i remembered. when we got home, we headed over to the neighbors' for a game night. it was a very late night, but quite enjoyable. i also had an old (significant) friend contact me out of the blue today. i always find it very strange when that happens because i generally feel like the only weirdo who reminisces about people from the past. he didn't mention anything about my birthday so i'm sure it was just a coincidence that he happened to think of me now. afterall, he never remembered my birthday in three years of whatever we were. it was good to hear from him and see that he is doing well since he used to have some poor luck with happiness. the shocking thing was seeing a pic of him. i recognize him not at all. even knowing it's him, i don't see it at all. what a difference ten years can make. unlike me, i mostly look exactly the same as when i was a toddler (except that i was far cuter then).


tuesday - 30january2007 - 16:25

happy birthday to me! thanks to all who have sung to me today. also, let it be known that i work with a danged fine group of boys. this is what was waiting for me when i returned from lunch-gymming. the roses were from bl who asked me if i knew why they were yellow. friendship, i replied. no, he stated, it's the color of ducklings. the cake they all got me was sinfully yummy. good boys, one and all. as for my boy, he has made reservations at the melting pot again. let the sinful yumminess continue! oh, and if you've been trying to figure out what to get me for my birthday - i really, really want this girl.


wednesday - 24january2007 - 16:45
there is a mystery noise in the office that only a couple of us can hear. it is one of those high-pitched electrical tones that only lasts about two seconds at a time. it does not sound at regular intervals, more like every five to fifteen minutes, and it doesn't happen every day. we heard it a few days last week (for some reason, more people could hear it last week than today), it went away the last two days, and today it is back with a vengeance. it is driving me absolutely berserk!!! i wouldn't be surprised if my ears are bleeding. and my teeth hurt everytime it sounds too. i put on my headphones and turn the volume way up and i still hear it every time. it's that piercing. great effort today has been put into finding the source to no avail. i'm about ready to start indiscriminantly bashing things with a hammer. eventually smashing something will make it stop right? right?!


tuesday - 23january2007 - 08:51
here's an interesting news article. for those playing along at home, that is where we got married. if you were there, you might remember it as the gigantic house back behind the pond. while i feel terrible for the magnuses, as i am sure that is a night that will remain with them forever, i was amused that the police officer who declared it self-defense was a strickland. the wife is a strickland. no, i am not in any way whatsoever saying that i doubt the veracity of the story. i have no question in my mind that things happened like they said. their estate would easily make them a target, being the only estate of that magnitude in the area. i was just amused by that small detail. personally, i say go doug! if more criminals were shot on sight, this would be a much better world. and "justice system" might not be an oxymoron anymore. don't even get me started on brian nichols. my blood overboils everytime i hear them talk about his "alleged" shooting spree on the news. why the heck is he even getting a trial?! this is one case where there were so many witnesses that there is absolutely no reasonable doubt in sight. what a waste of my tax dollars! /rant.


monday - 22january2007 - 16:22
what a fun weekend! friday after work we picked up our new living room furniture. it took a long time to get it unwrapped and all the feet on, but it was so worth it. saturday, we each stayed busy with our respective cleaning; me in the house, randal in the yard. (no, cousin, the yard is not always a jointly owned responsibility. our yard is almost entirely randal's. the only claim i have on it is my half ownership of the backyard, because i laid half that !#%!#!%&^ sod, and my very mighty little dogwood tree that i planted.) later in the afternoon, we went to buy a shower for the upstairs bathroom and ended up finding some really cool lamps that we thought might work in lieu of end tables. after getting home and putting one together, i was quite pleased and also very upset that the other one was broken. no instant gratification for me. so we exchanged it yesterday when we went out to buy cement backerboard for the tile in the upstairs bathroom. we also bought some trays to keep on the ottoman for catch-alls and drink placement. we even almost ended up with a new dining room this weekend too. and i'll have you know it was randal who stopped to eye it and gave serious thought to taking it home without me even asking. he wavered at the last minute but if i work on him a little... in any case, i'll be honest - i am thrilled with my new, tableless living room! take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.


friday - 19january2007 - 09:03
HAPPY three-day-late BIRTHDAY, BRUDDER!!! in all fairness, i did call and talk to him ON his birhtday. it's really been a busy year so far. my cousin, her husband, and their friend came up last weekend. we took them to nc for a little skiing. i'm pretty sure my cousin enjoyed it but i'm not sure about her hubby. all in all, however, i would say it was a good visit. when they left for home on sunday, we headed out to order our new furniture on the way to wedowee. i am so excited that we finally found something we could agree on and ordered it! we visited and worked in wedowee monday and tuesday and then made our way back home tuesday night because i had a dentist appointment wednesday. wednesday night, we moved the old, out-dated, furniture that i have always disliked out of the living room. it took some major doing to find a place to stick it all that wouldn't look like crap. by the end of the night, we had the sofa and loveseat repositioned; the chair and ottoman were sitting in the dining room awaiting a home; the living room was empty, but for the piano, and vacuumed. it's been a long time since we've laid on the floor watching tv. thursday was supposed to be the magic new-furniture-pick-up-day. mother nature decided it was not to be. she decided to spoil my fun with an overhyped ice storm. it was 30° and raining (no, not snowing, not sleeting) all day. i like the cold, but i am very much of the opinion that cold and rain do not mix. if it's not snow, it's not welcome. by the time we were done working yesterday afternoon, it had mostly quit, but there was still a lot of moisture in the air and the trailer was all wet and nasty anyhow. so now today is the day. and it looks like it's going to stay a nice day. which is good because two nights of laying on the floor watching tv is more than enough. i'm so excited that i'm getting new furniture!
15:40 - i had forgotten about this until i just overheard randal relaying the story to a coworker. it's along the lines of familial hinting. for christmas, my mom-in-law was thrilled to have found a couple unique ducks for me. one of them was a little sculpture thing of a BABY sitting on a yellow ducky commode. cute, but very nursery-esque. she insisted that this was not a hint of any sort. uh huh. so this past weekend, we're sitting there and dad-in-law tells me i need to get him an 8x10 of us to put up on the wall with the rest of the family (i have actually given them one before but it got lost and never made it up on the wall; more recently, i've been hounding my cousin-in-law for my wedding pics so that i can give them one of those to hang). mom-in-law then chimes in to ask where the 8x10 is of us and our kids. i told her i'd have one made for her. i suppose i should be thankful that the hints are really just starting now. i've had seven hint-free years.


thursday - 04january2007 - 16:59
another year and still slacking with the rants. so it goes. there's been so much to rant about too.