14 posts tagged “weekend”

As promised, here's our new girl, Tweety.

Lee did the "kiss me baby" part. He says her lips are always puckered up like she wants a kiss. In fact, we thought about naming her "Pucker" instead. But knowing how we are, I didn't want to give her a name we where we could so easily change one letter and entertain ourselves. Besides, "Tweety" is kind of a unisex name so if she turns out to be a boy like Sly did we're covered!

Speaking of Sly, this isn't a great pic, but it shows them together just so you can see how little she really is:

It has been a good weekend. Lee and his brother went fishing yesterday, and he came home with five big catfish. The skinning and filleting them part I could totally do without. I am such a squeamish girl that way. He wanted me to watch so he could explain everything he was doing as he went, and I was like "ugh. Fish guts. No thanks, babe."

He also brought home two box turtles he found on the road near the park. One had narrowly avoided being squished by the car in front of him. We put them in the backyard, and when I came out later they were making funky turtle love in my veggie garden! Later, I went out and the male had taken off. Guess he was a love'em and leave'em kinda guy. But the girl is still hanging around. We're calling her Shelly. I know, original, huh?

Earlier this afternoon we went to a local annual art fest with my mom and niece. One of the bartenders who works at the family pub is also an artist, and had a booth selling her paintings. We bought two matching seascapes for the bedroom. We each found a necklace we wanted too. We would have stayed longer, but it was cold and windy today, so after a quick duck into the beer garden to say hey to some friends, we headed homeward.

Now, I'm just relaxing and pretending that:

- Tomorrow is NOT Monday
- I don't really need to clean my bathroom.

Happy Sunday!

 

What was supposed to be my only real day of relaxation this week (We have a fix being applied to the system at work tomorrow, which means I have to log in and check stuff out, and as anti-work as I feel right now, knowing that kind of blows up Sunday even though it should only take an hour or so ...just the thought of the place makes my muscles tighten right now!) didn't start off so well.

That's because we woke up to this:

 

 

While we were sleeping, some idiot driving down our street banged into our van and left us with this holiday joy. Now, I'm a fairly understanding person, but not in this case. That's because they didn't bother to knock on the door and tell us what happened, or leave a note, or anything. They just drove off. This makes them asshats who, as I so kindly stated in my Facebook status update, deserve a serious case of inflamed hemmorhoids. The kind Preparation H is no match for, at that.

Accidents happen. Being an inconsiderate jerk and not doing the right thing about it happens too, but it shouldn't. 

It happened sometime after 9 pm (when our neighbor on one side got home, parked right behind us, and said the van was still fine) and 7 am, when our other neighbor was taking his wife to work and noticed the damage. We're almost positive it was friends of the folks across the street. No one really comes up or down this road unless they live here or are visiting someone who does, because we're a dead end street with nothing on it but residences. And this family has two daughters in their early 20's living with them, and there are always different guys coming over to hang out with them, and half the time when we run into them they seem like stumbling drunken idiots. That's a lot coming from me, the girl with a family bar!

So, instead of shopping and going to the gym today like we were planning, we sat around waiting for the police to show up so that we could have a report for our insurance company. I really don't expect they'll ever figure out who did it.

On the bright side, since we were stuck at home we had to find something to get into. That something was this:

 

 No, that's not Santa heading down my chimney. That's Lee decorating the roof, so that Santa can find our chimney!

We spent the day (well, Lee mostly ... I divided my time between helping out, cleaning and doing laundry) putting up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Like this:

 

He's supposed to be a reindeer, but I think he looks more like a drunk moose. We just can't get his head to stay upright, so I'm tempted to just put a bottle of vodka and a six pack beside him to finish off the look. What do you think?

By nightfall, our efforts looked like this:

 

 

And yes, that IS snow on the ground. It started falling just as we were finishing up. That's the second time we've gotten a light snowfall just as we were finishing with the Christmas lights - it happened last year too. It really sets the holiday mood, even when you do have asshats busting out your tail lights because they can't drive!

So, the lights are up, and that keeps the day from being a bust, even though it started out badly.

Besides, how can you not laugh a little when you have a drunken moose in your yard?

Now, I'm debating whether I want to spend the evening at the pub with the family or curled up here at home with a movie, a book, the computer or all of the above. Lee is going to try to head to bed early tonight since he wants to get in some early fishing tomorrow (brrrrrr...no thanks!), so I'm on my own for entertainment after 8:30 or so. I'm torn between getting out and socializing and getting some me time in. I really need both. I wish the weekends were longer!

I'll leave you with two things. First, our Christmas wreath:

 

And second, a big "Go Steelers!" in case I don't make time to post tomorrow. Down with the Cowboys!!!!

In just under two hours, I have managed to:

- Go to Victoria's Secret and buy PJs for my mom and sister

- Go to a popular kid's clothing store and stock up on clothes for my niece

- Go to a board games store and get a game for Niece, along with a grown-up game for Mom and Sis

- Go to Borders and load my dad up on crossword puzzle books ... he's a crosswordaholic

- Go to West Virginia University's bookstore and deck Grandad out in some Mountaineers gear

- Go to another store and buy something for Lee, which I won't describe in as much detail because of all the people I bought gifts for today, he's the only one who actually reads this (sorry, sweetie ... good try!).

While I did all this, I wore my PJs and drank coffee and lost a game of Facebook Scrabble. Such is the beauty of the internet. Sure, the shipping makes things a little more expensive. But I figure that gets counteracted by not using gas to run to all these different places, and the fact that I'm not fueling myself up on mall coffee and snacks.

Lee's having a relaxing Friday morning too. He got up and went fishing, and just called to see if I wanted him to bring home something for lunch. I told him to surprise me. Twelve hours ago I would have sworn I'd never want to eat again, I was so stuffed. But the mention of a lunch I don't have to throw together made my tummy growl a bit.

In other happy news, my sister got a new job! She's been unemployed for quite some time, so this is a really good thing. And it sounds perfect - a very decent salary for part-time hours. It is at a college (not the one where I work), so she'll also be able to take some classes for close to free. Another thing to be thankful for.

Not sure what else is on deck for us today other than the gym and some housework. And probably a snooze for Lee since he got up so early this morning. Tomorrow a friend is coming to town, and we're hopefully going to meet up with another friend that we haven't seen in forever, along with her boyfriend, for dinner or drinks or both. Sunday is football, football and ..  um ... football.

Monday? We won't think about Monday just yet!  

 

 

So, we did go up to the pub last night for a bit of Halloweening.

I thought about dressing up. I was just going to throw on a ton of Lee's Ravens gear and go as a Ravens fan, which would have been both easy and a fun way to let my smartass side come out a little bit, since all my buddies there are die-hard Ravens fans who know my heart lies with the Steelers. But in the end, my day of cleaning up flood messes, shopping for a new washer and working out got the best of me, and I decided to just be lame.

Lee only stayed out for a bit, since he wanted to get up early and get some morning fishing in today. I stayed on for some girl-time with Mom. We ended up being the Halloween costume contest judges at midnight, since neithor of us were dressed up ourselves. (When people asked Mom about her lack of costume, she said "I AM dressed up - I'm being a nice person tonight!'). We picked a 'most original," a "scariest" and a "sexiest" and they all got gift certificates for free drinks at the bar.

Unfortunately, we didn't have too many costumed folks around at judging time. A bunch had come in earlier but left to go see and be seen downtown, and a bunch more came BACK from going downtown after we'd already done the contest. But there were enough folks to make it fun. We had a Beetlejuice, some vampires, a Geico Lizard, several sexy witches, a disco chick, cheerleaders, and a blood-covered surgeon, to name a few. My sister was the Swiss Miss chick and her boyfriend was a pervy priest.

Today, I pretty much lounged around at home, getting the day of relaxation I DIDN'T get on Friday. We're making corned beef and cabbage, Lee is playing Madden football, and we'll probably snuggle up for a movie after dinner.

Tomorrow I get to revert back to my college lifestyle by bundling up our laundry and going to do it at my parent's house. That's what I did every weekend back in my student days, and it feels weird to do it again at 38! But our new washer won't be installed until Thursday or Friday at the earliest, and neither of us wants to have to go to work commando. I think we're going to just use having to do the laundry as an excuse to watch the game on my parent's big hi-def TV, since the washing machine fiasco means WE won't be getting one for a while yet!

Over my many years of blogging, I thought I learned a few lessons.

Watch what you say and show online. Don't write anything you wouldn't want your boss or your mother or your neighbor or anyone else in your life to see or know. It can and will bite you in the butt.

So when I started this blog, I said that one thing I would never do is use it to air my dirty laundry on the internet.

I lied.

 

 

I give you Vin Weasel, Laundry Lounger.

We can all learn something from this. Namely, that what to one of us is nothing more than a pile of dirty clothes and chores is another's happy place:

 

I plan to spend a lot of my weekend doing exactly what Vin was doing here - lounging about and relaxing. Only not in the clothes hamper.

There's a fun trip to a historical re-enactment and another steamed crabs extravaganza (this one in honor of the long weekend and my sister and aunt's birthdays) in the near future too. Good times for all.

I think I'll use Vin's clear attachment to these dirty clothes as an excuse to not waste the weekend on laundry.

Hope you all enjoy yours too!

I'm in a great mood this morning, because:

- It's Friday!

- We're having a blissful spell of weather in the low 80's with sunshine and no humidity. This makes me a very happy girl.

- My tactic of filling myself up with veggies and fruit to the point that I don't even want all the stuff I love like pasta and salty snacks and sugary sweets is working, because my clothes look better. I always think this is the best way to tell if a weight loss/toning up effort is doing what it should, even moreso than weighing yourself. If the shirt that two weeks ago seemed to highlight belly flab now seems to hang just right, that generally means the belly flab is receding rather than that you've lost a pound of boob or butt or leg or something you're less concerned about losing : ).

I probably won't blog over the weekend, since we'll be at my parents' place enjoying the pool and hanging out with Lee and my niece and my friend. So ya'll have a good one.

Sly plans to do just that, since he's decided that while we're gone, he's in charge:

 

- Friday ended up being one of those "it rains-it stops- it rains- it stops" days. Lee and I were undecided about the fireworks, but decided to brave them anyway at the last minute, since we were already out. We had a nice time just sitting with the hatch popped open in the back of the van eating our munchies and people-watching. The fireworks themselves ended up being sort of secondary. Oh, and it poured.

 

- Speaking of the people-watching, I know we can't all be brain surgeons. But really, if you ever need reminding that people are strange, go check out a fireworks show. Lee and I realized pretty quickly while we were watching the antics going on around us that we seemed to be a lot more worried about kids with fire-workish toys catching themselves on fire than the parents of said kids. We were also amazed by the family who parked across from us. The man pretty much slept in the passenger seat the whole time. The woman was dressed like a hooker, with her boobs ready to topple out of her tube top and her pants so tight I swore we were gonna see ass by the end of the night. She was wearing heels from hell - to see fireworks in the rain. She yelled at her kids when they wanted to walk to the concession stand for drinks, because she couldn't wobble that far in her heels and the guy was pretty much comatose in his seat. Someone came around selling those glo-necklaces, and she bought one for herself but none for her kids. Then when the rain REALLY started falling, she made the kids get back in their truck with the snoring dude and she stood outside by herself watching the fireworks under a dainty little umbrella.

Yep, people are strange.

 

- On Friday before we went out, I took Vin's cage outside for a good hosing. I was also washing his bedding, so afterwards I had the cage sitting out in the kitchen (which is where the washer is - my house is VERY itty bitty and doesn't have anything even close to a laundry room). I realized I hadn't heard Sly running around being destructo-kitty for a while, and went in search of him. I found him in Vin's cage, sort of half hanging in the weasel hammock. It was one of those damn-it-where's-the-camera moments.

 

- Saturday was my friends' surprise party. It started pretty early in the day, and continued late into the afternoon. My friend is a twin, so it was a party for both her and her sister. She burst into tears when she walked in the door, and her sister practically bounced up and down with joy. That's how it was all day. My friend has a very bittersweet reaction to these kinds of events ever since losing her husband, which I can totally understand. I did end up meeting some members of her family who have a daughter who is transferring to the college where I work, and promised to try to help them out with the process.

 

- Saturday was rather swamp-ass, so when we'd get tired of sitting out on the deck being hot and sticky, we'd retreat into my friend's room and flop on her bed - a bunch of women sprawled out and worshipping her ceiling fan. Her dog, the most adorable little floppy furball ever and named Gizmo, joined us. Giz is the sweetest and most spoiled dog ever. Her niece told us that my friend gets up each morning and makes him scrambled eggs with cheese and pepper. One morning when the niece had spent the night, my friend slept in and the niece decided to make Giz his breakfast. Giz turned his nose up, because she made the eggs without the cheese and pepper. She also said he gets his water bowl propped up ON the bed at night, so he can sleep there and not have to jump down if he gets thirsty.

I told my friend that in my next life, I want to come back as her dog.

 

- Saturday night another girlfriend, Zen, and I went up to my parents' pub for a while. We were treated to one of the newer regulars describing in great detail, complete with a one-man stage act without a stage, his battles with the day-after-drinking shits. It was really disgusting, but kind of sickly funny. I told him he needed to go into stand-up. Andrew Dice Clay has nothing on him. I also found myself getting really irritated with another of the regulars. She went into histrionics over the fact that some guy who isn't usually in the bar had guessed her age at 35. She IS 35. As I'm creeping up on my 38th and pretty much totally okay with that, I found this just butt-stupid.

 

- Sunday I went with Zen to the store where I bought all my new clothes last week. She hasn't had much success finding stuff she likes lately, so I was hoping she'd strike gold too. She didn't buy anything, but I walked out with another new shirt, an anklet and a pair of flip-flops. 

Must. Stop. Shopping. Now.

 

- Sunday afternoon my mom had my aunt and cousin over for a cookout, so Lee, Zen and I went to the Parental Abode too. It was warm outside, but the pool was ice-cold. We went for a swim anyway. My aunt and cousin commented on how brave I was for just getting in and going underwater right away. I explained that with Lee, I had two choices. Get in and get myself soaked and frozen, or have him PUT me in.

"He's an asshole like that," Mom agreed. "But a GOOD asshole."

In my family, that's a ringing term of endorsement, and I think it made him happy.

And now it is Monday, and the work-wheels spin again. How did that happen so fast??  

  

 

 

And I feel like I've already had a happy, full day.

Growing up, Lee lived near a fleamarket that he remembers visiting frequently as a child. We've been saying "one weekend we'll go there" almost since we've known each other. Well, today, we finally did.

I've never been one to buy other people's "junk," and I'm not going to start now. With a tiny house like ours and two pets who can climb on anything, there's really no point. But it sure is fun to browse through all the collectibles and knicknacks and try to imagine what's gone on in the rooms where they sat on shelves, collecting dust and silently observing. People were selling everything in this place, from lapel pins to replica battleships to baby bunnies.

We did find a self-powered lawn mower that got Lee all giddy and excited. He hates the electric mower I had here when we got together. The sad thing is, I got almost as excited about a dirt cheap copy of Green Day's "American Idiot" CD as he did about the mower. That tells you which one of us is the practical one, huh?

So we left the flea market with a new mower in the back and Green Day blaring from the van stereo, and made our way to our next stop.

My mother and sister have been frequenting a used book store near where my sister used to work. They've talked about it so much that my curiousity has been mounting. That, and my sudden overwhelming desire to own everything Stephen King has ever written, whether I've read it before or not, and including everything he wrote as Richard Bachman. Can we say "hero worship?"

The Book Nook is a tiny little bookstore - long and narrow like old city rowhomes. They've crammed as many shelves as they can into the store, and the aisles are so narrow I don't think you could shop in them with a baby stroller and not get stuck. Books are piled at odd angles all over the place, mostly lying on their backs so that more of them can be stacked on the shelves. You can barely see the clerk, a tiny older woman, over the stacks of books lining the counter.

In other words, I went to the flea market and heaven today. One of my versions of heaven, anyway. The other is a beach with a reclining lawn chair and a fruity beverage. We puttered around in there for a while, and I left with armloads of King paperbacks.

So now I've got American Idiot playing the background, and I'm armed with enough reading material for the whole summer. I call it keeping in touch with my writerly side. Just because I'm suffering a serious case of writer's block when it comes to my own fiction doesn't mean I can't get a spark of energy here and there from reading or re-reading a writer I only dream of being.

Oh, and for lunch? Big fat strawberries dipped in caramel. Gooey happiness.

Weekends rock.  

So I worked from home yesterday, and when Lee got home we had an early dinner and then took a glorious 2-hour nap. Naps are a luxury for me, but boy do I love them when I get them!

Then we stayed up till 2 a.m. watching movies (would you believe I'd never seen 'Gladiator' all the way through until last night?) and now he's off at Home Depot and I'm hiding out in the computer room because I'm still all yawny and stretchy and snoozy and Sylvester is having none of it. He wants to fly across the room and land on my head, wrap himself around my legs and climb them like some kind of demented squirrel, and generally drive me bonkers.

The truth is, first thing in the morning that cat is both faster and smarter than me, so I'm avoiding him until after the second cuppa joe.

I did stumble out onto the deck to take a picture of the tree limbs taken down by the storm before we hopefully do something about them today:

 

Nothing major, as you can see. The big one was in the front of the house, and we had to move it right away so we could use the stairs.

Anyway, time to get Saturday started. It is already muggy and gross outside. I feel a swim coming on today for sure.

The weekend flew by, as they always do.

All in all though, it was a good one. Friday night, we just kicked back and watched "I Am Legend." I can't decide if I liked it or not. I mean, I thought Will Smith did an amazing job, I guess I just found parts of it really heartbreaking.

Saturday was a trip to the MVA for Lee, and then we had lunch out with neighbor Tom, and then in the afternoon my darlin' friend Jenn came over so that we could catch up and she could check out the new weaslet. Jenn is the first friend I actually met through blogging, back in 2001. I had gotten one of my closest girlfriends into keeping an online journal too, and Jenn did the same, and the four of us have been at it ever since, although Jenn and I are the ones who keyboard-scribble most regularly.

It's amazing how much we've all been through since then. Two divorces, quite a few job changes, new or remade homes, new relationships, medical issues, and all sorts of fun things too. And the fact that I'd never have known Jenn and H if it weren't for our little online journals is one of the major reasons I think the internet rocks.

So, weaslet and much-needed catch-up time, and then Jenn was on her way. After she left, Lee and I went to get some wine for the house, and ended up passing what for me is one of the best signs of summer:  the most awesome carry-out steamed crab place around here, open for business. We didn't stop or go inside. I couldn't even smell the crabby goodness coming from inside. But just the sight of the place made my mouth water.

The craving got worse in the evening. Lee wanted to get up early and go fishing on Sunday, so he planned to get to bed early. I was still wired for sound ... every once in a while I get like a zoo animal let out of a cage on the weekends, and I just don't want to sleep away the time I don't have to either be going to work or preparing to do so. So I went to The Pub with my parents, and two of the girls who hang out there regularly had just finished eating steamed crabs they'd gotten from the very place that got me craving like a crazy person.

I have the feeling there will be steamed crabs covered in Old Bay in my very near future!

On Sunday, Lee headed out kind of early for his fishing trip, although not as buttcrack-o-dawnish as he would have liked. I thought about going along, but it was a chilly morning and the sky was dumping that misty rain-crap it seems to have been unloading on us for the last week. So I opted to stay home, take a bubble bath, do a little blog-reading, and then settle in with another movie - "American Gangster." Lee was back in time to watch the last part of it with me. I really liked this one, although it is quite long. A good rainy day movie for sure.

We didn't do much else yesterday, unless you count a trip to the store for coffee, creamer and milk that also resulted in a new coffee maker, coffee cups and glasses. Funny how that goes.

And now it's Monday, it's raining, and I still want steamed crabs.