Two Left Feet

We had a rather eventful long weekend.

Saturday, it was very spring-like here. Temps got into the 70’s which was a really nice change from the freezing temperatures we had been experiencing for a few weeks. We decided to turn off the heat and open the windows for the day. The Mister and I also tackled the task of cleaning out the garage. We had a ton of boxes that were broken down and needed to be recycled and a few packing boxes that were filled with packing paper that also needed to be recycled. Something that we had been putting off for a year and a half took only a couple hours to do and two trip to the recycling center. :/ Now the garage is 90% finished with only needing a little bit of organizing and a few totes of old toys going to charity.

We also got the girls’ hair cut on Saturday. Their hair was long enough, and they got it cut short enough, that they are both able to make a donation to Locks of Love. They are so very excited about being able to do this. And they got really cute haircuts.

Sunday evening, the girls were outside playing and the Mister and I were up in the office. Next thing I know, I hear loud crying and wailing through the open window and then I see the youngest running into the house. She comes upstairs and says, “You need to hurry!! My sister is on the ground!” She’s so funny. So we go outside and the oldest is all hunched over on the side of the street crying. Once I manage to get her to straighten out, I see she’s scraped and bleeding but at first glance, it doesn’t look that bad. So I tell her to get a grip and come inside so I can clean her up. I’m such a sympathetic mother, huh? After getting a good look at her, the child is scraped literally from head to toe. I’m all like, “What in the world were you doing??” I guess she had been walking along when one of the kids kicked a ball to her and she didn’t notice and tripped over it. I dunno. But her face is scraped in a couple places, both her palms, her elbows, her knees look like someone took a cheese grater to them, the tops of her feet, and we’re pretty sure she broke one of her toes. FROM TRIPPING OVER A BALL!! She honestly looks like she’s been in a car accident. Sometimes I just don’t know about her.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. The Mister and the girls had the day off due to MLK Jr Day. I, however, had to work. I had to get up early for a phone call with a potential new client. I’m pretty sure he’s going to hire me too. Then, I had work for my other two clients. It sucked being the only one that had to work.

Remember how I said we turned off the heat the other day? Well, it’s not Spring yet and we forgot to turn the heat back on. I woke up to a freezing cold house this morning. BRRRRR!!! Now I have to take the oldest to school. The Mister is still in bed snoozing because he has today off of work too. That’s right. He worked until noon on Friday and had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off of work for MLK Jr Day. Doesn’t he suck?

I Don’t Work Weekends

It was another slow weekend at our house. Friday the Mister and I did a bit of Christmas shopping. We also bought snack food for the Ohio State v. Michigan game on Saturday. We picked up pizza for dinner that night too. Real exciting, right?

Saturday we watched Ohio State beat Michigan for the sixth year in a row. Michigan fans want their coach fired, hehehe. The Mister wore his fuzzy buckeye hat and weirded out the neighborhood kids, lol. I think I’ve posted a picture of it before, but just in case, this is his hat:

I bought it for him for Christmas forever ago. He wore it to the grocery store one year in California. I did not go with him, lol.

Saturday night, the oldest child was invited to a birthday party. We didn’t let her go. It was for our neighbor who turned 14. She had a party that started at 8 and ended at midnight. The Mister and I don’t feel she’s mature enough (even though she’ll be 14 herself in July) to attend such a party. Funnily enough, she wasn’t even mad or upset. I don’t think she wanted to go anyway. This girl doesn’t go to the oldest’s school so she wouldn’t have known any of the kids there anyway.

Sunday, the Mister and I went to the commissary for the first time in about two months, maybe longer. We had been doing our grocery shopping out in town, but with all the Thanksgiving food we needed, we decided to hit the commissary, save some money, and stock up. It was a freaking madhouse. They didn’t have any eggs, chicken broth, allspice, and a couple other things. It’s annoying having to go two places for stuff. Add that to the crowds, the drive, and having to tip the baggers, is it really any wonder why we opt to shop out in town??

We also did some more Christmas shopping on Sunday. This is the earliest head start I’ve ever gotten on Christmas shopping. We are always very last minute usually. We’re also doing a red and silver theme on our Christmas tree this year and picked up these really neat LED lights for our tree. I can’t wait to try them out. I’m totally excited about Christmas this year. I’m really in the Christmas spirit and I’m looking forward to getting out my Christmas decorations and putting away my harvest decorations on Friday. Yay!!

Close Calls

When we lived in California, we did quite a bit of flying to and from Ohio to visit family. One such unforgettable time, we were coming in to land at the airport in Columbus. We were close enough to the ground that we could see cars and stuff below us. Then all of a sudden, the plane pulled up really hard. The engines were as loud as I’ve ever heard them on a  plane and the whole thing shook with the effort. As passengers, we had no idea what was happening. I don’t recall the captain or any of the crew making announcements to explain or being worried. We were all just curious. My dad was there to pick us up and it turns out that he saw the whole thing from the ground. This must’ve been before 9/11 because he wouldn’t have been able to see from baggage claim. Anyway, he told us that they almost landed us on top of another plane. When the plane pulled up at the last second, he said that black smoke poured out of the engines. That’s how fast and how hard we went back up to avoid what could possibly have been a deadly situation. It’s hard to be traumatized by something that I didn’t see or even realize was going on at the time, but that’s probably as close to death as I’ve ever come.

Since living here in North Carolina, the Mister and I have come extremely close to being involved in very bad car accidents. The head on collision with the Mustang that I blogged about a while back (Sorry. I’m too lazy to find and link to the post.) was extremely scary. This weekend, however, was the worst. Once again, we were on route 17 on the way to Greenville. It started raining pretty good just as the forecast had predicted. Suddenly, the car two cars in front of us hit water in the road and completely spun out. Ironically, it was another Mustang. The car spun and hit two other cars, her hood flew off and landed on the opposite side of the road, and she headed straight for us. I will never in a million years forget the sight of that red sports cars spinning so fast that we lost count of how many doughnuts she turned and watching knowing that she was going to hit us and there was nowhere we could go. Then, she hit the ditch and with the rain softening the earth, she finally came to a stop deep in the mud. The driver who was maybe 18 years old, got out of her car shortly after the Mister ran up to her and her passenger to see if they were okay. I was amazed that anyone could get out of that car on their own steam. I had told the girls to stay in the car and not to look because that was how bad the accident seemed. The other cars she hit, one was totalled and the other one had some pretty good front end damage but it had landed in the ditch too and can probably be fixed. Miraculously, everyone involved was not seriously hurt. The girl was eventually taken away by ambulance because her back was sore, and while I haven’t heard anything, I’m pretty sure she’s okay. She was walking around and stuff before she realized that she was in pain. I managed to hold it together enough to tell 911 where we were. That was my first 911 call too, by the way. It rang three times before they answered and it seemed like a lifetime. I felt so bad for that girl. Her car, what was left of it, was a mangled heap and she’s probably going to end up with a few citations. The funny thing, the 911 operator asked me if we were on north or southbound 17. I don’t know directions when I’m not shaking half to death, lol. Also, the lady whose yard we all ended up in, came out of her house in her pajamas and was worried that people would notice, lol. The things people worry about.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my weekend. Well, the oldest is grounded again,but that’s hardly exciting news anymore. She spends more time grounded than ungrounded these days.

Be Careful What You Wish For

You know how I said that I wanted a day where I didn’t have to do anything, talk to anyone, or go anywhere? Well, I got what I asked for but not in the way that I wanted.

Friday, the Mister and I took the girls to a baseball game. They had a blast. The youngest is a people watcher and her eyes were bright with wonder the entire game. I was afraid that she would get bored because she’s not exactly a baseball fan, but she loved every minute of it and asked when we could go back. We also stayed for the after-game fireworks which were pretty great. We thought they were over twice before they actually were. Great fireworks show.

Saturday morning is when it happened. I woke up about 6 in the morning which made me really mad, lol. That’s when I normally wake up during the week, NOT on a Saturday. As I tried getting back to sleep, I started feeling queasy and it soon became apparent why I woke up in the first place:  it was finally my turn with the stomach flu. I’m just today starting to feel normal. Either I was affected differently than the girls or we had different bugs because they were better in a day and it took me three days to feel better. The only good thing about it was that it happened mostly over the weekend. I don’t know how I would have handled driving the oldest to and from school if I had gotten sick during the week. AND, I lost about two pounds, heheh. Hey. I’ll take the pound lossage anyway that I can get it.

Due to being unpleasantly laid up in bed, I’m behind in my blog reading, Twittering, and responding to comments and such. So, thanks to everyone who wished me well via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc. It was very sweet and made me feel better to read all the nice comments. Like I said, I’m pretty much back to normal today. I just have some residual tiredness and not much of an appetite.

Hope you all had a better weekend than I did. ;)

I Could Swear it’s Monday

I would give my left pinkie toe for a day of total nothing! I just want one day where I don’t have to see anyone, talk to anyone, or leave the house. Just one day. Today was not that day.

No sooner do I get the youngest child well and back to school than I had the oldest home and puking all day. Thankfully, she recovered faster than the youngest and is already feeling better.

That was today.

The weekend went by in a blur. Saturday, we were supposed to go to a Kinston Indians game. The Mister bought tickets on base and we were all excited to go. I don’t know about you, but I think minor league baseball games are way more fun than major league games. Anywho, during the coarse of the day, we discovered that the youngest child downloaded a game to her phone. This was expressly forbidden when she first got her phone. As a result, she got herself grounded and the Mister and the oldest child went to the game while I stayed home with a very angry ten year old. Fun times for me.

Sunday, we took her to a birthday party. I know. But I already told her friend’s mom that she’d be there and I didn’t want to disappoint the little girl. It was at the roller rink and we ended up dropping off both kids for the afternoon. The youngest is still grounded from her phone.

We also had to go to the commissary on Sunday. Remember how I mentioned that my tags were expired on my car and the DMV hadn’t sent me new ones? Well, we got pulled over on base for driving with expired tags. They didn’t cite us because luckily, I printed the receipt from where I had paid for new stickers so that I had proof. Monday, I called the DMV and they offered to mail them out again. Hello!! I already tried that. I paid for them on April 3rd and they still haven’t come in the mail. I told the lady I would just go pick them up at the nearest office which is only a block from my house, heheh. I’m driving legal once again.

Oh!! And I totally forgot to mention that I planted TEN tomato plants on Saturday. Yay!! I’m very excited to have garden fresh tomatoes. It’s been years since I’ve had them. I just hope they don’t die. I have a tendency to kill plants. I just don’t have a green thumb. I also planted four broccoli plants and the youngest brought a cabbage plant home from school that we are growing as well. I’m keeping all my appendages crossed in  hopes that they all grow successfully. Oh. And that the dogs don’t decide to chew them up. The only place in my yard that gets enough sunlight is the  backyard. :/

 

Fun Times in Georgia

We had a really good, albeit short, time in Georgia.

The trip down was uneventful. North Carolina to Georgia is VERY boring. The highlight of the drive was driving through Spivey’s Corner, NC. Yes. Spivey’s Corner. We laughed and laughed at the name. There’s nothing there either. It’s hard to tell it was an actual town. Anywho, we left our house around 5:15’ish and arrived at the hotel at midnight. I will never forget Jennifer bounding out of the hotel, very reminiscent of Tigger, in her too cute pajamas and slippers to greet us.

Saturday we got up as early as we could, grabbed breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, Jennifer’s first time, and then drove to a nearby outlet mall that we had seen on our drive down. That was way too much fun. We bought some clothes at the Gap and the Tommy Hilfiger store. Then we bought some new running shoes at the Nike store. I finally have good running shoes!!

After the outlet mall, we drove the rest of the way to Savannah. Savannah is a great city. So much history! The azaleas are in full bloom so there was amazing color everywhere you looked. We decided to take a trolley tour so that we wouldn’t constantly have to find parking and so that we would know what we were looking at. We got off at several of the stops for tours and pictures. We have never taken a formal tour of a city before but it was neat, informative, and something that I would do again.

After the tour was over, we grabbed our car and drove down to River Street for more shopping and dinner. At Pam’s recommendation, we stopped in one of the candy shops and tried the pralines. Oh. My. Gosh!! They were so good. Jennifer and I both bought some to take home. I also bought some caramel chocolate gophers which were also very yummy.We grabbed dinner at a seafood place that had the most excellent crab legs I’ve ever had. They were so juicy that Jennifer and the Mister ended up with butter down the front of them and I sprayed some poor guy as he walked by our table when I cracked a leg open, lol. Dinner was to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. Her birthday was yesterday but we couldn’t stay through the week so we took her out while we were there. I did the same thing last year in San Diego, heheh.

Sunday, we were up and off to the Shoney’s for breakfast and then we had to head home. :( The visit was too short but worth every minute. On the drive home we took a detour to Parris Island. I hadn’t been there since 1997 when the Mister graduated from boot camp. Parris Island has changed a lot but some things never change like recruits marching everywhere and drill instructors yelling at them along the way, lol. We didn’t stay long because the oldest child decided to pick herself up a bug while we were in Georgia. She was running a fever and right after we drove through the gate to the base, we had to pull over so she could be sick alongside the road. It was so not a fun ride home for her. She’s still home sick with a fever today.

So, that was our trip. I have pictures but I’ll have to post them later. My camera is still in the glove compartment of my car and I don’t feel like running out to get it at the moment. Stay tuned…

Title Me This

My weekend went just as planned…Do as little as possible, lol. Saturday without the Mister went just fine. Other than a minor skirmish with the oldest child (again) it was amazingly quiet. We had excellent weather so the kids spent most of the day outside. The turkey tetrazzini was awesome. For fun, we played some games, rough housed a bit, and watched Psych. It was a good all girls night.

Sunday, the Mister and I drove downtown to check out the supposed sidewalk sale that the downtown shops were having. However, we got down there and most of the stores were closed. Our downtown is suffering a bit because one of the main roads that leads downtown is closed while they replace a drawbridge. It’s sad because downtown New Bern has quite a few locally owned, one of a kind businesses. The Mister and I like to stroll down along the waterfront whenever we get a chance.

Anyway, that was all we did on Sunday and it turned out to be not so much fun. Sunday night, we had Southwest Pasta and Beans for dinner. It’s a vegetarian dish that is so very YUMMY and super easy to make. For my first week of dieting and exercise, I lost a total of 4.8 pounds. I’m feeling really good about that. This morning, I almost doubled my time on the elliptical and ran for 5.1 miles. I was pretty tired but it felt really good. My only thing is that my running shoes cut off the circulation in my toes. It’s uncomfortable and makes me want to stop before I’m even tired. I think it’s time for new shoes, lol.

I’m off.  Have a fab Monday.

Fizzle, Fizzle

Dinner last night wasn’t too bad. We had skinless chicken thighs in a lemon,garlic marinade served with roasted grape tomatoes and corn. The chicken was a bit bland, I thought, and NObody liked the tomatoes. It’s weird because we all like tomatoes when I put them with meat and veggies, grilled in a kabob. Oh well.

The Mister and I have also added in a multivitamin into our daily routines.I know. You should take vitamins even when you’re not working out but I hate taking pills. Vitamins are the worst because they’re huge, have a bad smell, and they make me nauseated. This morning was no exception. The nausea kicked in right as I was walking out the door to drive the oldest to school. There wasn’t anything I could do about the timing and I was seriously afraid I was going to puke in my car. I hate puking though and held it in valiantly, lol. I think that I’ll start taking them at night before bed. That’s what I used to do with my prenatal vitamins because they made me really sick and it worked for me that way.

My workouts are still going strong. I made it up to three miles on the elliptical today. Woot!! Jacki suggested that I buy myself cute workout clothes to keep motivated so I took her advice last night. I got one of those trendy tennis-type skirts and a matching tank top.

As for the oldest child, she handled her punishment way better than I would have ever imagined. She also did a great job cleaning out the garage. Aside from some heavy things that she couldn’t lift herself,  I’ll be able to park my car in there by the end of today. Yay! I’m excited about that. I’m tired of using my coat sleeve to clean off snow and frost off of my car in the mornings. We used to have an ice scraper from living in VT but I think we threw it away. I  really didn’t think we’d get much use out of it living here in N.C. Turns out I was wrong.

We don’t have much planned for the weekend. The Mister has duty Saturday night so the girls and I will be having our traditional “Daddy has Duty Meal” of turkey tetrazzini which is also a Cooking Light recipe, handily enough. He doesn’t like it but the girls and I love it so we have it when he’s not home. I’m really looking forward to it, lol. It’s sad that the highlight of my weekend is going to be turkey tetrazzini, lmao. Oh. And tonight’s episode of BSG. I’m totally looking forward to that too.

Old Friends

Saturday we visited with some friends that we hadn’t seen in about three  years. It was a really great visit. Both the Mister and I commented on how we picked up right where we had left off and that the three years didn’t make us feel awkward in the least.

We were originally going to have them down to our house because they don’t have a house of their own yet. But instead of staying in a hotel until they could move into their new house, they decided to rent one of the beach rentals on Camp Lejeune at Onslow Beach. We, of course, couldn’t turn down a chance to hang out at the beach for the day. They wanted us to come for the whole weekend but you’re not allowed dogs there and we had nobody to watch Hannah and Bailey on such short notice. Do you know how much easier it is to travel with kids than it is with dogs? With kids, they’re allowed most anywhere that you are. You don’t have to pay a non-refundable deposit for kids at hotels. People are more willing to watch kids than they are dogs because kids don’t eat your garbage, chew your furniture, pee on the floor, or dig up your yard. Anyway…

So we spent the day at the beach rental. We mostly just sat around and reminisced and caught up with what we had missed out on the last three years. We had dinner together and the girls collected lots of neat shells on the beach. Then we had to leave because we had to get home to let the dogs out.

About a block of two from our house, the Mister asked the kids if they had locked the door on their way out. I have no idea what prompted him to worry about the doors being locked at that point because it was way too late to do anything about it had someone decided to break in while we were gone. Then, he gets this look on his face because he had just realized that we took his car instead of mine which meant that we didn’t have house keys with us. See? We have four sets of keys; two each for the Rav and the Scion. My Scion key also has my house keys on the same key chain because that’s the car that I drive. Likewise, the Mister’s Rav key is on the same keychain with his set of house keys. Turns out that he’s been using my Rav keys for some time because he lost his. We had to take the Rav to Camp Lejeune because we had to take our friends’ huge boxes that they had sent to our house when they moved. We held out hope that that interior garage door was unlocked because we don’t always keep that door locked. Nope. No such luck. Then we checked all the windows which was no easy feat because we have solar screens on all the windows and we had to climb the privacy fence to get in the backyard, heheh. But alas, I’m a stickler for not getting murdered in my sleep and all our windows were locked up tight. What other choice did we have at 8:30 at night but to call a locksmith. I was afraid that it was going to cost a lot to have the locksmith out but it didn’t at all. I was pleasantly surprised. It also only took him like two minutes to get the door open with his lock picking tool. Through it all, I totally kept my cool. I sat in the car and surfed the Internet on my iPod, lol. Oh. And you know what else?? The locksmith didn’t ask for identification AT ALL and we paid in cash. I know we didn’t exactly look suspicious with two kids and all, but that would be a really good cover for breaking into people’s houses. He should have at least asked for a driver’s license, imo.

That was our Saturday.

Sunday, I didn’t do a darn thing all day. I didn’t even get dressed but stayed in my pj’s all day. Last week was rough and I just wanted one mindless day. The biggest thing I did all day was cook dinner, lol. It was wonderful.

How was your weekend?

Enjoying Our Weekend

When’s the last time I posted? It’s been a few days, huh?

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Nice and quiet. LOVELY! All the food turned out great. The turkey was juicy, the gravy was flavorful, and the pumpkin cheesecake was light and creamy.

Yesterday we didn’t do any Black Friday shopping. We got the bill from our lawyer in the mail which put a damper on the day. It must be pretty great to be a lawyer and to charge $25.00 to read an e-mail. In all, she spent 2 hours and 40 minutes on our case at $125.00 an hour. You do the math. AND, we’re not even done with her yet. Oh well. She was a necessary evil because without her, our tenants would have gotten away with even more than they already have.

Today, the Mister and I are going to check out a health food store we’ve never been to. No, we’re not health food nuts, but I like those stores nonetheless. They sell offbeat stuff you can’t find other places.

Oh. And I think my monitor is going out on me. I have these very faint bouncy lines that move down the screen and everything has a little shadow-like trail to the right of it. It’s annoying but not enough to where I’m going to spring for a new one yet. I’m going to do my best to deal with it until after Christmas. The weirdness is only a little hard on the eyes. I’ll have to make sure and wear my contacts or glasses whenever I’m working to minimize the eye strain but I think it’ll be okay. If anyone has any suggestions as to what could be causing this or how to fix it, I’d kiss your feet in gratitude. See?

You can click on the picture to make it bigger. The lines are at the top over the tool bar and the shadow trails are pretty obvious.

Anyway, I gotsta get ready to check out that store. Yes. That’s right. It’s 12:28 pm and I’m still in my pajamas. Deal with it.

A Dash of This, A Pinch of That

We’ve had a pretty busy weekend for us.

Saturday, the Mister and I bought game food for the Big Game and then watched OSU kick the crap out of Michigan. KICKED THE CRAP out of them. It was almost sad but not really. After the game, the Mister built me a box out of wood and then we played at being a chemist. It was fun and we learned stuff.

Today we had to go to the commissary. It’s been so long, I don’t even remember the last time we went. We bought us a fine looking turkey and most of the fixings. They were out of some stuff that I’m going to have to buy out in town. We also went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a handheld immersion blender. I burned out our other one. Did you know that you’re only supposed to run them in 50 second intervals? I didn’t. I ran mine for almost fifteen minutes before something popped and then a really nasty smell came out of it. Lesson learned. I was also shopping for a casserole dish because I accidentally left one of mine at the beach house and now I don’t have enough dishes to cook Thanksgiving dinner. They didn’t have what I was looking for and neither did the Exchange on base. Target and Walmart are next on my list.

After shopping, we came home for an hour and then had to take the oldest child to volleyball. All the girls are getting better at the game. Most had never had much experience outside of what little bit you get in school. It’s been fun to watch them learn.

Now, I’m getting ready to cook dinner. Chili is on the menu because it’s been so cold lately. I need comfort food.

Despite this not being such a relaxing weekend, it’s been pretty great. I hope everyone else had fabulous weekends and are looking forward to the short week ahead.

A Summary of My Weekend

Day 2: NaBloPoMo

We had a busy weekend which is very unlike us.

Saturday, we took the Scion in for an oil change, tire rotation, and its yearly state inspection. While we waited on the car, we went to the commissary for the first time in two weeks. No, we don’t go grocery shopping every two weeks normally, we were just too lazy to go last week. While we were in the commissary, I got a phone call from the car place but reception is really bad in there so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I thought they were calling to tell me the car was ready to be picked up so I had the Mister drop me off and go on home with the groceries. Turns out they were calling to tell me they were done with the oil change and were getting ready to start the inspection and they hadn’t done the tire rotation either. As a result, I had to sit in the shop with nothing to do but watch Dinotopia, or whatever that show/movie is called, on TV. Luckily, an elderly gentleman loaned me his landscaping in the south book to read while I waited.

Saturday afternoon we had to take the oldest child shopping for a birthday present for her friend and then to the friend’s house for a sleepover. Once we got her dropped off, we went and did some shopping of our own and then headed home.

Oh. And somewhere in there, we cleaned out the Mister’s car from all the stuff we had left in the back when we moved. How lazy are we? Funnily enough, all of our liquor was stored in the underneath storage compartment. We’re such party animals that I didn’t even realize it was missing. Good thing he never got pulled over for anything because that would have been a LOT of open container charges.

Today, I was repeatedly called by my tenants despite the fact that I told them not to call me anymore. I ended up turning off my phone for four hours and then when I turned it back on, they called ten minutes later which tells me they had been trying to get a hold of me that entire four hours my phone was turned off. My lawyer told me not to take their calls since I tend to be soft-hearted on the phone. Well, we’re to the point that the reason why I won’t take their calls is because I’ll end up yelling and cussing at them. Either way, I’m not talking to them on the phone anymore because it’ll end up being bad for me. Also, if I get everything in writing, they can’t accuse me of anything else like they did in their e-mail yesterday.

The oldest child also had volleyball today. The way it works is that they play two games every Sunday. Today, they won one and lost one. She had a couple good plays too. We were very proud parents.

Now, I’m working on my homework. The topics for my Lit paper have me a little stumped so I will be putting in some hard work on it tonight.

6 days until we leave on our vacation.

Our Weekend Version 1 Gazillion

I had an awesome Friday night. I attended my first ever virtual wine tasting. How’d it work? Well, at Twitter Moms, there’s a group of Twitter Wine Moms. A variety of wine was chosen for the group and a time to meet up on Twitter. We bought the bottle (or some of us bought whatever we could find. Luckily, I was able to find the suggested bottle.) and then we chatted about the nose, color, taste, etc. on Twitter. At first, I was looking forward to it. Then when the time came, Friday night at 8 pm for me, I was just tired and didn’t care. But once we got started, it was so much fun! It was only supposed to go from 8 to 10 eastern time, but when I signed off after 11, the chat was still going on. As the time progressed and wine was consumed, we totally got off topic and talk of boobs and such started up, heheh, but I still learned a little about wine and I made some new virtual friends. Welcome to Trisha’s Nerdville. I know.

Saturday, the Mister ran in his 10k. This was his second official race and both times he got rained on, lol. Despite being prepared, his right nipple didn’t fare so well, lmao. I wonder if women runners have this same problem since they wear bras? He ran a pretty decent time though and was happy with the results. It boosted his confidence a little as he’s starting to worry about the OBX Marathon in November.

Sunday the oldest child had her first volleyball practice. She had a good time and said that she did pretty good at the skills they were introduced to except for serving. Sometimes, and this is one of those times, I have to wonder how she ended up being my daughter. I hated, and still do, sports and joining in on stuff. She’s a social butterfly. I’m glad she’s not like me in this way. The rest of our Sunday was pretty much affected by my next paragraph.

We got bad news Saturday evening. A friend of ours from Ohio died Friday. It still shocks me to say it. I’ve known Ben since I was ten years old. More than half my life. He was only 36 years old and the cause is still unknown. Almost all my memories of Ben are funny. He told the best stories and could make you laugh no matter what kind of mood you were in. The summer I spent with my brother here in N.C. when I was 16, Ben was there too as he was originally a friend of my brother’s and his wife. We all went to dinner at this Chinese place in Jacksonville called Mai Tai’s. It was amazing that we didn’t get kicked out because Ben was doing this voice and telling these jokes (yeah, they were off-color but what the hell) and we were all laughing so hard that we were totally being obnoxious. I’ll never forget that. He also did a favor for me that summer for which I will always be grateful. The Mister knew Ben before he knew me. They worked together at Donato’s Pizza in Marion and they became friends too. The Mister has lots of his own memories of Ben making him laugh as well. Marion is a weird little town like that where someone knows someone who knows someone else and then they end up related or some weird thing like that. The last time we saw Ben was this time last year in Ohio at our brother-in-law’s funeral. They were also good friends and despite Ben’s profound sadness, he still managed to make us laugh. That was Ben. I’m really going to miss him.

The Past Few Days

We had a fantastic time at the N.C. Seafood Festival Saturday night. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was gorgeous. We had shrimp, funnel cakes, and salt water taffy. There was also a N.C. vineyard, J. Wesley Vineyards, that hosted a wine tasting at the festival so I tried I think five different wines and bought a pretty decent bottle of cabernet sauvignon.

The thing about these outdoor festival deals is that your choice of restroom is pretty limited. You have porta potties and restrooms inside of businesses which are usually closed to the public. Well, the youngest was in desperate need of a potty so we headed towards a bank of porta potties. I checked them out and HOLY COW!! Unfit for humans is the only nice way to put it. I wouldn’t even let my dogs in those things. But what do you expect from porta potties? By this time, the child was doing the pee pee dance and was looking pathetic. Our only choice was to head to a restaurant and pay for some food. We went to this restaurant called Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant. We didn’t actually want to eat there because we wanted to eat at the festival so we got salads and drinks. For the privilege of a clean restroom and a little bit of food, we paid $52.00. Oh well.

The wine tasting.

Heading towards the funnel cake vendor.

Looking down a street.

Sunset over the river or inlet or whatever body of water this is. I really like this picture though.

On the way home we stopped at Petsmart for some dog food and ended up buying Bailey her Halloween costume.

Heheh.

Bailey the ham.

Those pictures were taken with my digi camera not my phone.

Sunday we didn’t do a whole lot except for go to the commissary, the Mister ran 14 miles or something like that, and he mowed the lawn which needs watering.

Yesterday I was feeling quiet. Not depressed or grumpy, just quiet. I didn’t want to hear the TV, the kids, music, or anything. I dug out a book from one of the boxes in the garage and read it. It’s the first time in recent memory that I’ve started and finished a book in one day. I miss that. It was sort of like visiting with an old friend.

Today I’m still feeling a little bit on the quiet side. Unfortunately, both of my phones have been ringing off the hook and I’ve had to deal with rent issues again. My rent, not the Vermont rent. I first tried mailing the rent check on 9/22 and it was returned as undeliverable yesterday. Then, on 10/3 I tried doing an electronic transfer. I got an e-mail from the Mister this morning saying that they still didn’t have the money so I went into a bit of a panic and a lot of fury and proceeded to figure out what the hell. Turns out that it takes three business days for electronic transfers to complete when they are transacted between my bank and an outside bank. All in all, it took me 11 days to pay my rent. What a PIA.

Told Ya I’d be Back

I knew there was stuff from my weekend that I was forgetting about. I think I have mentioned in the past that I’m not much of a morning person. My brain doesn’t start to function until about 9 or so. Anyway…

Friday we drove to Morehead City to go to the Best Buy. Our old DVD player won’t work with the new TV for some reason. I thought that it just needed cleaned so we bought cleaner stuff and hooked it up to the bedroom TV (it was easier to test it on that TV rather than the living room TV). It worked just fine so I thought, “Cool! It just needed cleaned.” Well, when we connected it to the living room TV, the TV kept saying that it couldn’t detect it and when it did, the picture was distorted and garbled. Our thinking is that the component jacks on the TV are messed up somehow. A real PIA (that’s Pain In the Ass) considering the TV is brand new. The other sucky thing is that the DVD player is old enough that it doesn’t have an HDMI jack on it. So, we bought a new DVD player and hooked it to the new TV with an HDMI cable and it works great. We put the old DVD player in our bedroom and hooked it up with component cables and it works great too! I didn’t realize how cheap DVD players are these days and we bought one that’s a five disc changer too. Fun times. I know you’re not supposed to have a TV in the bedroom but you know what? I’m excited about having a DVD player in my bedroom, heheh.

While we were in Morehead City, I talked the Mister into driving to the beach. Atlantic Beach is only a few minutes down the road. It was a very nice night. There was a wedding on the beach too when we got there. That would be my dream wedding should I ever have one only I would want to go to the cliffs on La Jolla beach in San Diego. Here’s a pic of the sunset. I took it with my phone so it’s backlit and a little dark but you can tell what it is.

Sorta.

Today, I had an appointment with an accountant. You may remember back when we first moved here and H&R Block totally screwed up our taxes. Well, with my job, which turns out I’m a sole proprietorship, I decided not to take any chances and I consulted a real accountant. I’m really glad that I did too because he told me a story of a client that had an accidental business like me and ended up owing $10,000 in taxes without realizing it. Totally not a possibility in my case, but it could be someday. It is also handy to know all of the stuff that I get to write off at the end of the year as business expenses. We’re going to go to him in 2009 and have him do all of our taxes too. The older we get, the more complicated our taxes get. It’s crazy.

I think that’s it for real this time. I gotsta get to work.

My Productive Weekend

I actually got stuff done this weekend. I was amazed at myself.

I finally got the garage cleaned out. It was still full of our boxes from moving. I know. How lazy that it took us a month to go through the stuff. It also got me to thinking that if we could live without all those things for a month, do we really need them at all? The answer if probably no but we still unpacked the boxes anyway. My car is now parked in the garage! I wish I had taken before and after pictures because it really was an amazing amount of work and I did it mostly by myself. The house has suffered as a result of cleaning out the garage though. The crud had to go somewhere, lol.

My school work is also suffering. I find myself remarkably unenthusiastic about taking classes this semester. Both of my classes are on subjects that I was really looking forward to studying, but I have to force myself to do my reading and assignments each week leaving most of it until the last minute. I’m pretty sure that my job has a lot to do with it. When I started college, it was so that I could get a good job. I hadn’t worked since I was pregnant with the oldest child and I didn’t think that I had any marketable skills. Plus, I wanted the satisfaction of knowing I had my BA. That last part is still true. However, it turns out that I do have marketable skills, I’m good at what I do, and it’s an actual long term career and not just a job. This makes it very hard to want to continue with school. It would be really easy to take a very extended break. Don’t worry though. I have no plans on doing so. I’m smart enough to know that I can demand more money with a BA and it’s also something to fall back on should my current business fall through or if I get bored with it. I need some MOTIVATION though!!

I know there was more about my weekend that I wanted to talk about, but I’m really tired and drawing a blank. I may be back later on today, heheh.

Not So Bad

So, the baby shower wasn’t too painful. We only had to play one game and even that wasn’t horrible. It was baby bingo. The food was good and I got to meet some people that I actually liked. The only negative thing about it was that it lasted for forever. The guest of honor had to stop and talk over every single gift and it wasn’t even always about the gift, she just likes to talk. I didn’t even stay for cake because my butt was dragging. I’M SO OLD!!! I was home by 10 and totally ready for bed on a Saturday night, lol.

Sadly, that was the highlight of my weekend. We lounged around all day today and the Mister and I got caught up on our homework. We’re wild and crazy.

Oh, and if you’re interested, they made several arrests connected to the murder and kidnapping I posted about last week. Coincidentally, the suspects are all teenagers. Teenagers. If' I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, what the hell is wrong with kids these days???

Updated News Article Link.