Happy Birthday R and A!

Today is a very special day for my SIL, Bobbin...and for my friend-wendy formally known as, Poopa (how does one spell Poopa? Pupa? HA!) Turn up your volume and pretend like I'm singing to you (only it sounds better....and like a man.) Happy, Happy Birthday! It's a shame that your both as old as you are. Gulp.

He didn't get out of the cockadoody car!

Sometimes I know why Annie Wilkes went left on Paul Sheldon. I will never, never understand how she could have the heart to snuff out poor Buster. Poor, sweet, geriatric Buster. But the sledgehammer to Paul's legs, ya know, I almost can justify her angst. Still, after days like today. Days where I am standing on my feet for 11 and a half hours.
At WORK for 11 and a half hours.
At a MIDDLE SCHOOL for 11 and a half hours.
Straight.
I dunno.
Open House.
Why is it called that?
It's not a house, for Corn's Sake.
How ridiculous.
Misery. Oh yes.
Misery.

The day rolls on.

Sophy's zinnia garden has reseeded itself for the third time and is looking sweet. Not sure how much longer it will last, but we're enjoying it. She spent all of last eve out there making houses for the fairies out of twigs, dead leaves and bits of grass.

We had a hectic morning of Sunday School and church. Things were weird, and I'm not sure why. PDaddy and I are in a new sort of book study Sunday School class at our pastor's house which is by the church, so it made getting to and from Points A and B sort of fraught with snafus as we tried to get the kids situated in their classes and get ourselves to Point B. After that, we picked up lunch at Chili's for the Pinkie's, my folks, my SIL, and my 2 nieces. We ate lunch here, and the girls stayed for a good bit to play. They left at 3 when Piano Girl arrived for lessons, and now Piano Girl has just wrapped things up and left (but not before Sam and Sophy made her go to their rooms and play "zoo." Poor, poor Piano Girl. Ha.) I have my weekend laundry humming, and I might (but don't hold me to it) clean the bathrooms. Then again...I dunno. PDaddy has senior portraits at a farm this eve, and Sam has math homework to finish up. Yes, he has math homework EVERY weekend. I would complain, but Jack went through the same drill in 2nd grade. It made a huge difference with him, so we take our lumps without too much griping. I think we're having breakfast for supper tonight, so that will be easy enough.
What else?
Hmmm.
Next week...oh yes, Open House for my campus. Oh, Gee. Let me go find a container for all of this joy I am feeling.
What next?
Uhm, dentist appointments times four...everyone except PDaddy. That should be fun. Maybe I'll put all of that joy in the Open House Joy Container?
No way. It would never fit.
After the dentist, let us see. We'll have our usual night of gym. PDaddy has pics almost every night, so I guess we do not have many other significant plans, and next weekend is shaping up to be absolutely unspoken for! I love those types of weekends! I may head to the Boardwalk then to pick up the boys some jeans and light jackets for fall/winter, since nothing we have from last year fits either of them. Then again, I can get them much cheaper on Ebay, so why don't I just do that? Good idea self.
Better skeedaddle. (What is the correct spelling for skeedaddle? Skedaddle? Sk'daddle. PAH!)
Hasta luego mi amigas.

Not-So-Professional Football

Hey, Jack. How about a friendly game of football?

Sure, Sam. As long as you don't pretend like you're the boss of me.

Should we spit and shake on it?
Blue. 22. Blue. 22.
He zigs. He zags.
He's a machine.

He rides the competition like a donkey.

He laughes in the face of danger!

Doodily Doo A List of Things I No Longer Have To Do

• We got a lot accomplished this morning, here is the run down:
• PDaddy's dad is in town, so we met them in Shreveport for dinner last night. PDaddy's stepmom's aunt (how is that for a family tree reference) came along, and we had a very nice visit and an awesome meal. I had grilled chicken with goat cheese medallions and a lemon butter sauce with sundried tomatoes, another grilled chicken breast with a port of wine reduction with figs in it, grilled asparagus, and some chocolate creme' custard thing for dessert. Very nice. The kids spent the night at my folks, so it was nice to have a meal sans kids. Getting a table took forever, so I'm glad the kids were not there.
• We're just kicking around here in Pinkieville today. The weather is so very nice, and we have windows and doors open with the cool, fresh breeze blowing through. We are now able to enjoy the niceness even more after having a Phantom screen installed yesterday. We have been on the calendar for 4 weeks because the company was so back-logged with work. In the past, we were unable to put a screen door in our master bedroom due to a low-overhang on our back porch patio. Opening our bedroom window has always been something that we love to do at night while we watch tv. Especially in the fall, but our master bedroom at this house does not have a window, only a glass door with side lights. So, this screen is amazing. It's very sturdy, the screen is absolutely invisible, and it's retractable and is mounted flush to the outside of the door--although I think they an inside mounting option. When we replace our heavy, old sliding door in the living room, we plan on installing a French door. The men who did the installation said that the Phantom screen for French doors is really cool, so it's something we'll keep our eye on. If you have a door anywhere that you do not like the look of a screen door for, this is certainly something that you should look into. It's not a cheap fix, but it's worth every penny. Very high quality construction.
• Speaking of construction, we made a visit to price counter tops, materials, etc. I want a vintage look, but I want to stick with something classic so my kitchen doesn't look dated in 5-8 years. I have throw-back tastes, so those materials are usually harder find and therefore more expensive. I'm hoping to have the kitchen under construction by Thansgiving. I'd love for it to be done by Thanksgiving, but that might be pushing it. After the kitchen, we plan on tackling the foyer, dining and kitchen flooring. The tile in that area is okay, but it's sort of dated. I think we're gonna go with a wood of some sort. I guess my dad and PDaddy could/might/hopefully will install that to save $. Take a look at this kitchen and tell me what ya think. This is the direction I want to take my kitchen. Sort of classic, neutral, etc.
• I also got Sophy's bunk bed ordered this morning. I think we are going to hold off having it delivered until her birthday, so I have time to get some bedding together. I'm having a cabinet/hutch that we have re-finished/painted by a friend in our neighborhood that is very talented at such things. Her collection of birthday Josef's is starting to need a new home, and I think the cabinet with some girlie paint embellishment will go nicely in her new room. I'm excited to finally get a mojo going in her room. It's become a mix of about 32 different style ideas, and they were all Sophy's. Which is frightening. And gawdy.
• In other news, we spent the morning at my niece's 6th birthday party. The kids had a good time climbing rock walls, riding super slides, mechanical swings, and amusement rides. PDaddy climbed the rock wall with Jack because he, apparently, wants to test out his metal-plated collar bone. (rolling my eyes) I am happy to report it held up nicely.
• As soon as I can find the outfits I'm looking for, we'll do the our Christmas card photos. We have a location in mind, so I'm trying to think of the outfits that I want to go with the location. Still have some thinking to do about that. P
• Speaking of PDaddy, he has a wedding to shoot tonight at a ranch outside of town. It's an outdoor wedding with a barn dance reception. This is the third daughter of the family that he has shot weddings for, and all of the weddings have been held at their ranch with a reception/dance following in the barn. Perfect time of year for such, if you ask me. The other weddings at the location were amazing, so I can't wait to see the photos. I had originally planned to attend with him as the family invited me, but my face is on fire with allergies, my eyes and nose are running and my throat is killing me....and I look way less than beautiful. Or presentable. So, I guess I'll skip.
• I think Sophy and I are about to go clip a zinnia bouquet for our sweet GrandNeighbor. We haven't seen her in a few days, and I think she may be housebound for some reason. We're off to go check on her. Happy Saturday!

Grey's Anatomy of a Tragedy

PDaddy is finishing up a bit of photo editing, and I'm sitting here in stitches over this episode of Grey's Anatomy. Mind you, I'm not familiar with the characters, so this is strictly an outsider's view of what is, apparently, a very popular story. Still, this girl did NOT just slip on the ice and then get impaled with an icicle..while a fellow nurse...a NURSE says "I'll go get help" while they're at the entrance of the E.R!!! Hahahaa. An icicle? I seriously just turned this channel on while I wait for PDaddy to come watch Survivor with me, so maybe this is a peyote dream sequence that I've missed some segment of. Amazing!
We ordered pizza tonight to celebrate our inaugural Survivor night, and Sam's Piano Girl came over tonight to do a make-up lesson for missing last Sunday. They counted and clapped and counted and clapped. I'm amazed that Sam will even work with her since she is a girl,and therefore has cooties, but he has really paid attention to her. She has scholarship offers to about 8 different universities (serious braniac), so I guess we'll have her for a year....sniff, sniff. After I took Piano Girl home (which isn't far-she lives in our neighborhood), we got baths and spelling tests practiced. Oh....gotta go. PDaddy has landed!

ABC's of my youth.

Ter tagged the world with this little diddy, and I thought I'd play along...although I'm going to have to really dig deep to come up with different answers, since she stole all of mine!

A - Alex P. Keaton & A Team (Am I the only person who was in love with Murdock?)
B - Barbie, Barbie House, Barbie Corvette, Barbie Horse & Barbara Mandrell (and her sisters), Brady Bunch & braces
C - C.H.I.P.S. & Cabbage Patch Kids
D - Dallas (the show, not the city) & Donkey Kong
E - Eric Estrada (you know...C.H.I.P.S.?) & Elmer Fudd
F - Field of peanuts (sorry, I couldn't think of an F....and there was a field of peanuts in my youth.)
G - gymnastics & my grandmother & Gilligan's Island (every day at 4)
H - hair barrettes & HeeHaw
I - ice cream (as in I still remember my first visit to Baskin Robbins)
J - jumping rope (I could jump rope in my sleep.)
K - kartwheels (I know it starts with a C, but I couldn't think of a K word.)
L - Leg warmers (sorry, HAD to steal that one) & Luke Duke (hunka-hunka)
M - Monchichi & Ms. Pac Man & Muppets & MAGNUM P.I. & Mary Lou
N - Neil Diamond (oh the love)
O - Oh man, I had a lot of crushes.
P - Pitfall & parachute pants & paper dolls
Q - Quincy (I had a crush on that old man too.)
R - Rubix Cube, Rainbow Bright , Ronald Reagan and roller skates...always on roller skates
S - Strawberry Shortcake
T - Trans Am (oh, how I just knew that would be my first car) & Top Gun
U - Up (the direction in which you rolled the bottoms of your jeans)
V - VCR (I remember renting one at the grocery store! How old am I?)
W - Wings (you know YOU had them too)
X - Xylophone (I dunno)
Y - YoYo's
Z - ZZ Top (Ok, so they came along after childhood, but I still heart them.)

You really must.

I am not ashamed of my love for Pepperidge Farms. I did spend some time on a peanut farm as a wee lass, after all. (How this translates into loving boxed cakes I have no clue, but roll with me here.) It is beyond me how long this particular flavor has existed without my somehow sensing it's aura calling me from the freezer section at Kroger. Maybe it has been there all along. Maybe I have been ignorant and deprived. Maybe. But no longer. You really must consume this entire cake at your earliest convenience.

10 Things Said Around Pinkieville This Week (and it's only Tuesday)

1. Turn. The. Tarantula. Off .

2. If you'd use toilet paper, this wouldn't happen.

3. No, I do not think police officers use biting gecko's to attack bad guys.

4. Stop eating the sock.

5. Mom, what are teets?

6. Do not drink from the orange juice container while you stand with the refridgerator door open.

7. French fries are not considered dessert.

8. Dad, you're a hunk.

9. Ok. So. Do you have to go to college to be the Queen of England?

10. Mom. I wish your food tasted like Olive Garden.

What I do best...ramble.

My mom informed me and SIL today that my dad had bought her a laptop for her birthday. This is humorous on so many different levels. The main one being that it conjures in my mind the picture of a caveman using a cell phone. Or, shoot...a laptop. Will wonders never cease? It's comical, if you knew my daddy, because he is notorious for gifts like fishing poles, rifles, tool boxes. For my mama. He's a cutter, that guy.

I've convinced PDaddy that it's time to update the kitchen. When we moved in here, we were pleased to see that all of the paint, walls, floors, etc. were blessedly neutral. Not anything we would've chosen, but definitely liveable until we could decide what we did want. I think I've decided. Ha. PDaddy has made the mistake of putting me off one too many times on one too many different topics that would involve his input. He is about to get a new kitchen! Without even knowing it!
Wanna know what else? He is planning a trip to Biltmore without even knowing it. Remember Biltmore? He was supposed to take me last Spring Break, but he conveniently never got that ball rolling. Then he promised me we'd go this Fall. Now, we're really going! Because I he is planning the trip! Teehee.

I walked one mile tonight. ((Feel free to applaud.)) It's something that has been eating at my conscience for a while now, the fact that I need to be healthier. Stronger. It's not really about size or weight, but I do know that I've lost muscle, strength, etc. over the last couple of years. As far as cardio goes, I am not even close to where I ought to be, in my opinion. Hopefully this is something that I will keep up for the rest of forever. It can't just be something that I start and then never do again. I'm not interested in changing my diet, but it does seem that my future health depends on my ability to be strong. With the ailments that have plagued my mom, I will be lucky if I escape the wrath of fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and loads of other fun stuff. Anyway, I am hoping to make a lifestyle change when it comes to my fitness level. We shall see.

The upcoming week is fairly tame, I think, but oh, how I usually live to regret making such proclamations. We have gym Tuesday night, and Thursday Sam will have a make-up piano lesson. Thursday night is also ((trumpet fanfare)) Survivor night! Oh yes, Oh yes. It's back! I can NOT wait. CAN NOT WAIT!! ARRGGH! Where was I? Oh yes, then Saturday we have my nieces 6th birthday party, and I think we are without plans after that.

Sophy is running a fever today. I'm not sure what is going on, but she seems fine other than a major case of the sneezles. Or as she calls it, The Schnitzels.

I have one last load of weekend laundry screaming at me waiting to be folded, so I better get off the duff.

9 Things I Did During My Summer Hurricane Vacation

Since I spent an interesting couple of days without internet or electricity, I thought I'd catalog the events of my life that transpired during this time.
1. This series was amazing, and I finished somewhere during the course of the power outage. I highly recommend it. There is a very good possibility that I will be reading it again soon to make sure that I did not miss anything.
2. PDaddy is happy to report that this little creation is as yummy as PW says that it is. Strangely, I was able to do it justice. Imagine that. PDaddy and I enjoyed our Egg in a Hole with pan sizzled summer sausage. Tasty, yes.
3. It brings me great joy to report that I was able to bathe and cook (see #2) while on Hurricane Vacation. Nevermind that it was black as pitch while taking said bath, but hot water is hot water.

4. PDaddy removed our GRASS GREEN shutters and replaced them with swanky black ones while I repainted our front double doors. They are now also a dramatic shade called Black Magic. Oh, it's so nice and so not green. It's amazing the things that you will do when you have nothing else to do.
5. I sat on my front porch wrapped in a blanket (it was darned cold) and fuzzy socks while reading a steamy romance novel and drinking hot tea until it was too dark to see the words on the page.
6. PDaddy retrieved a bicycle that a particular 8 year old ramped off of the diving board and into the swimming pool. While riding it. Have you ever wondered how one gets a bicycle out of 8 feet of water? Very carefully.
7. If I ever pick up a rake again it will be too soon. I have never before raked for 9 hours. I never wish to ever again.
8. The entire Pinkie family slept in the living room with windows and doors open. Once everyone stopped giggling, we mostly slept just fine.
9. I embarked on a long intended notion that I would start embroidering some linens for Sophy for if'n she ever gets to be a lady that wants such items. My first deposit into such a time capsule is a set of dish towels embroidered with kittens doing various household chores (too, too cute) with the days of the week on them. I started with the Sunday towel which has a sweet kitty sitting in a swing. If Sophy is lucky, she'll one day all 7 days and not just Sunday.

Finally!

After almost 5 days without power and more days than I care to recall without internet, I am back in business! We consider ourselves fortunate to have gas AND electricity AND internet all at the same time. It's been a rough utility month at the Pinkie house. Our area was hit pretty hard with the backwash of Ike, but we're coming out of it. During the storm, we watched trees fall through 2 houses across the street from us at two separate times. We were very fortunate to not have anything more than a butt load of limbs and debris in our yard. We certainly fared better than Galveston. Those poor folks.
I'll update soon with the latest. In the meantime, rest assured that we are emptying the hot water heaters just for the heck of it, burning every light in the house whether we are in the room or not, running the AC with the windows open, standing with the fridge door open, and running with scissors in our hands.

It's raining kitties.

(Remember the fall, door, floral thingy that I planned to make? Here it is. I believe I will make another visit to Hobby Lobby to get a few more doohickies to add to it. Maybe some pheasant feather? I dunno. I need to look at for a few days. )

The kids are in the living room playing a strange game called "It's raining kitties!" Every stuffed feline in the house (which I promise is more than you can imagine) has been rounded up and is currently being tossed from one side of the living room to another. I guess I should just be happy that the previous game called "Butt Skiing" is over. This is what happens when you can't go outside.

Up until now, our weather has only been overcast with very little rain. The sky has really darkened in the last half hour, and now the wind has picked up along with the rain. The lights started blinking on and off a minute ago, so this may be the end of electricity for us. But who cares?! WE HAVE GAS!! HAHAAA!!!

I have potatoes baking in the oven to make a pot of Baked Potato Soup for supper. I'm not a big fan of potato soup, but this recipe, from Southern Living, calls for sour cream, green onion, cheddar cheese and bacon. Uh, hello! I've been making it for about 9 years, well, not the current batch. I've only been making it for the last 20 minutes. In case you were worried.

We ordered pizza for lunch which we followed up with ice cream sandwiches for dessert. I mean, it's a hurricane people. These are desperate times. We must remain nourished.

A baby child that I used to babysit when I was a baby child is getting married this evening, so Sophy and I will brave the elements to attend. Uhm...serious wind storm happening, off to see if Toto is flying past.

Sing it, CCR.

I wanna know. Have you ever seen the rain? Oh. You have? Hhhm. Nevermind then.

The kiddies are spending the night with cousins tonight, and PDaddy and I met his mom/stepdad in town for dinner. I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things that I needed...ok, ok wanted. I'm attempting to create a fall, floral doohickey for our back door which is the door that 99% of our visitors use. If it works out, I'll create two more for our front doors. If it isn't a shameful mess, I'll post pics of it. I also picked up a few kitchen towels to embroider the cutest days of the week cats on. Again, if it's worthy, I'll post pics. Don't hold your breath.
We are watching and waiting to see if and when Hurricane Gigantor strikes. Lots and lots of trouble out there for so many people. I hope anything terribly horrendous passes over. I'll update if the power stays on; however, this is The Land of 12,ooo,ooo Pine Trees. And we all know that pine trees + wind=outage.

Ike, Ike, Ike. Tsk. Tsk.

We're in the line of fire again. We dodged a huge bullet last time, but since this bullet is 510 miles across and 70% larger than the average hurricane...well, the odds just aren't in our favor. My brother's family and PDaddy's sister's families are going to be right in the middle of it, so we're going to remember those guys in our prayers tomorrow. I'm on the dirty side of a migraine right now, so I'll keep this short and talk to you cats later.

Conversations with Sophy

While going through Sophy's first take-home packet of graded classwork, I was discussing the grade scale with Sophy as this is her first year of receiving number grades. All of her grades were A's except one math paper that was a 67. Luckily, her teacher had already readied me for this paper and had explained the reason for such a low grade. The reason being that Sophy, instead of finishing her math sheet like every other kid in Mrs. Dean's class, chose to moan and complain about her inability to work due to her spine rotting. Anyway, I stopped on the 67 paper to really drive home that a 67 was an F, and that F's were B.A.D. Sophy gets this fearful look in her eye, covers my hands with hers, and says (as serious as a heart attack), "Oh dear, Mom. Well, I hate to tell you this then, but well, I think I might have made some G's today."

Sophy informed us tonight when her daddy told her to brush her teeth, "Uhm. I already told you. I'm not brushing my teeth anymore, so I can get lots of cavities to finally get my teeth made into silver ones."

I think I've mentioned before how badly Sophy wants a sister. Tonight she asked me if we could please turn the guest room into a nursery. According to Sophy, "All you have to do is build a nursery, and then a baby just poofs into the crib."

I think the song says it all.

Turn up your volume and rejoice with the Pinkie family. Yay brethern, it was Tuesday after all.

Gas? What gas?

Or should I say, Bath? What bath? ((Please put your overactive imaginations to rest. We have bathed...just not in our own tub. At our own house. In our own bathroom. With our own water.)) Last I heard, we will have gas on Wednesday. Remember Tuesday? As in, we'd have gas on Tuesday? No, I don't remember that either. No. Wait. I DO remember that, but it was a lie. A lie straight from the devil.

Our new neighbors must wonder.

Our new neighbors just arrived this afternoon. Straight from Kentucky. I'm sure they are wondering why, at 7:43 at night, there is a little girl in the backyard of the house next door howling (yes, you read that correctly) at the moon. I can hear her inside of our house with the windows and doors closed, so I can only assume that they hear her as well. They might be wondering if it's too late to move back to Kentucky.

Gardening, Baseball, and Laundry Day

I was actually able to get a lot accomplished today! The weather was so nice that I decided to get the back flower gardens clipped, stripped, plucked, and pinched in time for one more growing season...gotta love East Texas. My zinnias that lasted all summer have reseeded and are about to give me another lovely crop that I hope to last well into October. The beds along my front border had grown so much that the lantana, which looked like shrubs instead of slight bushes, was choking out my Knock-Outs, so I attacked the lantana in hopes of having some lovely fall roses in a couple of months. We'll see how that goes.
The boys spent the late afternoon outside playing a very comical game of baseball. I'm not sure what the object of the game was, but I do not that the rules were not anything remotely resembling the ordinary ones. At one point they were doubled over laughing so hard that I thought one of them was choking while the other looked on in mock amusement at the supposed choker. I scolded Jack that it wasn't funny to laugh at his brother while he choked, and then I realized that they were both snorting. Goofy kids.
Tomorrow is laundry day, Sam's piano teacher is coming over for "Real Lesson #1", and I think I'm going to begin wallpapering Sophy's bathroom vanity area. Eek!

Saturday Plans

We may or may not be going to some friend's house for dinner tonight, but PDaddy has engagement pics. Not sure yet if we'll go or not. Speaking of PDaddy, he is across the street at our cul-de-sac neighbor's garage sale. They have 3 daughters in high school and college, and I'm interested in any type of girlie furniture they may be wanting to rid themselves of. I promised Sophy that we would re-do her room for her birthday, since we didn't do anything to it when we moved in. I think he is trying to save himself some $ by doing my shopping for her room re-do at local garage sales. Ha! My first two purchases are going to have to be a curio cabinet for her Josef Originals birthday angels and a white bunk bed. This is the bedding that she wants. It will interesting to see how close I can match the look without having to buy every piece of it. Buying a few strategic pillows, the bed skirt, and maybe the sheets and then plugging in pieces from a different source may save me, oh I dunno, about $17,000 from buying it all at Pottery Barn. Still, I love this too. It's precious. So, that's that.
I really need to get on the ball and figure out what to do about Sam's birthday. It's insane how fast they creep up. He has asked for a skateboard ramp and a trumpet for his birthday. Oy! See the difference between a boy and a girl? One wants her room made pretty. The other wants to break bones and make noise.
My tea is hot, so I'm going outside where it is so cool. This weather we are having is so strange, but who am I to complain?
Toodles to you~

When you can't bathe...or eat...

There isn't much to make a gal feel better than a hot, steamy bath....unless it's hot steamy chocolate. And since it appears that I'll be growing boils and a fungus before I'm actually allowed to bathe again, I decided that I would spend my late evening in the backyard enjoying the unseasonably cool air with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, and a cup of steamy chocolate. (By the way, the novel was recommended by The Pooh, and yes, I am enjoying the series immensely. Thanks for telling me about it!)
I've always wondered if I could've lived in a different time period, but it's safe to say that without hot, running water this chic wonders no more. I wouldn't even mind cooking supper at this point. I can't believe I'm saying this....but I miss my stove. I know. I know. I'm shaking my head in disbelief too.

Gas Meters. No, we're not talking about Sam.

So, we've had a bit of snafu on the self-proclaimed journey back to normal. I don't know if you can make this long story short, but I'll try to outline the basics:

• Smelled gas in Sophy's room, since meter is outside her exterior walls we thought we better investigate.
• Our particular gas company pulls the meter when there is a problem. They do not return it until you fix the problem.
• Turns out our problem was in a remote portion of the yard that has nothing to do with our house.
• The crooks The Gas Co., it turns out, took their little meter and went home. In case you are wondering, our stove and hot water heaters are gas users, unlike Sam who is a gas emitter.
• Enter The Code Nazis The Code Police of our little dink town. These crooks folks are serious about their money code enforcement and will not allow your meter to be reinstalled until you allow the abovementioned @#$#$@ group of men into your home to allow them to invent discover what is not up to their imaginary arbitrary undisclosed code. Once the alleged highly suspicious infractions are noted, you must pay to obtain a permit to have the @$@#$ fixed. Oh, did I fail to mention that this is where you contact the plumber to see if he wants your first born how much the pretend infractions are going to cost to fix? I did fail to mention that? Oh well, yeah, there is a plumber involved too.
• Where was I? Oh yes, long story short....well, we should have gas again on Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday. We should also be minus about $2000. All for a the correction of a valve that is worth about $45.00.
• In the meantime, we're taking strange French baths out of bowls and eating only the finest cuisine our microwave has to offer.
• Just say no. To gas.

Back to Normal

After a 3 day weekend, an almost hurricane, and various goings and comings, we were back to our normal routine today. Hurricane Gustav amounted to about 3,196 pinecones in our yard and little else, despite our local meteorologist's claim that we would receive 8-20 inches of rain. Overall, I think we received a whopping half inch. Oh yeah,baby! A veritable monsoon. It did rain today, but alas, animals did not arrive in sets of two looking for a large, wooden vessel.
PDaddy took the kids to gym tonight, and I piddled around trying to think of what it is that I always tell myself I would do the very next time I was home alone. I have yet to think of whatever that is. After gym, we vegged in the living room with the kids for a re-run episode of Wipeout. I am not ashamed that we watch, and enjoy, this show. It is hard to say who enjoys it more, the kids or the adults. Do not bother pointing out that it is a pointless show. Perhaps that is why we love it so much, but oh the laughs we have. It's rather great fun.
School continues to go well. The cafeteria served baked beans today, and well, that just makes Sam the happiest kid in 2nd grade. Speaking of beans, he then spent the rest of the evening passing gas on any unsuspecting victim he could aim at. Ah, boys. Such fun.