I'm thinkin about....

A weekend all to my lonesome. It's not something that I get often but lets face it, I'm not exactly a wild and crazy party animal anymore. Alright I never was but that's not the point either so shush. It's going to be another fabulous weather weekend in south central Texas so I think I'm going to limit myself to things I can do indoors. I may even clean the house a bit since I don't even contemplate cleaning on weekdays. I mean ew, work and clean on the same day? No thanks.

So I'm thinking maybe taking myself to the movies. Anything good out right now? I never pay attention to what's out in the theaters, that's the hubby's job. He's a trailer addict so he knows what he wants to watch months in advance. He just announces it to me when he wants to go see something and we catch a matinee or something. I don't like evening movies much anymore, too many people and they are annoying. Antisocial much? Yes thank you. I'm thinking something less action related and more girlie. I try not to drag the hubby to chick flicks so maybe if there's something sickeningly sweet out I'll hit that up. Any suggestions?

The Eagle has landed

You know the hubby always refers to his eyebrows as 'Bird of Prey' eyebrows so I suppose that phrase is really apropos. I sent him off this afternoon to go pick up the off spring in San Diego. He was so excited to be going back 'home' (for lack of better phrase) and get to see his baby girl (it's been a really long while) and then also get a chance to visit all of our friends. It's been almost 2 years since he's been back and the kid has been away for gosh, 7 or 8 weeks now? Awhile. I know he's going to have a great time, he needs a beak too.

I can't remember when he was able to take a bunch of time off from work but it's well over due. Hell I'm well overdue I think I have something like 80 hours of unused vacation time. Too much don't you think? I will finish my project at work and I will take time off then. The bad news is that they have no one to really do my job when I'm on vacation so it may be a bit harder than just taking the days off. Ah well, job security I suppose.

So have I told ya'll what he plans on doing while in San Diego? He has 2 things he wants to do. #1 Go play paintball with our friend Jason. He spent the whole day packing all of his paintball gear plus some since Jas sold off his own gear. We have enough stuff here to outfit at least 3 ballers so it was no biggie. #2 He wants to go out to eat mexican food. Actually a whole bunch of food because San Antonio food is nothing but lard in volume. No quality whatsoever. The perfect example of American gluttony. In San Diego there is no lack of awesome food. Actually I don't think I've ever lived in a city that didn't have wonderful food until I moved here. No place is perfect though so we make do with what we have. I still find it funny though, the man's priorities are food and paintball. Whatever...

In the meantime I am at home taking care of the multitude of animals we have shackled ourselves with. I really must get around to training the neighbor's teen age son to take care of these beasts so that someday we can all go on a trip together. I don't think we've done that in ages. Actually I don't think we've done that at all. Sad huh?

Going all girlie on him

I've never been much of a girlie girl. I am the one with the power tools and always driving a truck. I'm the authority in the household when stuff breaks. Like the sprinkler system, the garbage disposal, or the cable. I'm also the authority on the pets, reptiles included. What can I say, I was raised by my dad, the hubby was raised by his mom. And you can tell. We're in our late 30's now and he's just started to learn about cars. He changes the oil in both now and can do brakes too, I'm very proud of him. I learned how to do oil changes when I was 15 or 16, brakes when I was 21 or so. I think it'd be way cool to learn to drop a transmission or an engine but I haven't had the opportunity yet.

This past Sunday the honey decided to clean out the garage. We have very little stuff in our garage. It's not that big for a 2 car garage, you can barely open one side of doors on either car when they are both in there. We are big into the parking cars in the garage thing. This is Texas, it gets HOT outside. Most people in our hood don't, they fill their garage to the brim with stuff they will never ever use again. I don't get it but hey, it's their house. I had a 7 cu ft chest freezer in the back of our garage and we weren't using it so I sold it on Craig's List last week (LOVE Craig's List). This opened up a new space in the garage that we had been needing for awhile. You see the lawn mower never quite fit in there so it was basically left in between our cars and we had to squeeze around it to get into the house. Annoying as all get out.

So the freezer was sold and the hubby got all motivated on Sunday to 'clean out' the garage so we could rearrange. I say 'clean out' because, after all the reorganizing and deciding there was only one small trash bag of stuff to throw out. I told ya we don't have a lot of room in the garage after we put the cars in it. We did, however, relocate some of the stuff that was in there. When I say relocate I mean like from the right side to the left side, nothing exciting. What we did run into though was a little lizard, mediterranean gecko, whatever those clear-ish pink ones are. I wanted to catch it. My minion here at works collects them and feeds them to his snake so I thought we'd grab him one. Hubby was all game. He's a boy, it's how he spent his childhood I'm sure. Plus I'm also sure his mom wouldn't let him bring one into the house right?

Anyway we got a couple of plastic containers to round it up with and went at it. Those things are wiley aren't they? So there we were trying to catch it, it was in a bad spot so it had very little chance of getting away but it was trying it's damnedest, poor thing. The hubby hadn't caught one of these before so he tried to see of it was one of those that dropped it's tail right quick when you grabbed it. Sure enough, it was. Mind you I was never one of those kids that was all that fascinated with catching wildlife (yes, to me a lizard is wildlife). My parents were hippies and taught me at a young age to leave the outdoors the way it was when you got there. No killing or maiming of the wild life. So while I know that lizards drop their tails without hesitation I had never been privy to seeing it in real life. And can I just say I really don't ever ever need to see that again. I suppose what I was expecting was the tail to come off and just be this piece of tail. Sure, yeah that's totally what happened. NOT. That thing broke off and got all spazzy wiggly and flipped all over the place. And would not stop. It was disgusting! I got totally all girlie ew yuck gross on the hubby. He found it terrible amusing too. He was totally delighted. I don't think I've ever gone that girlie on him on the 20+ years we've known each other. And I gave birth in front of him for crying out loud. Those pics up top? No, not the one we busted. I was too freaked out to even take a picture. I think the hubby was having so much fun he was tempted to try and touch the tail to me. He would have died a horrible wailing death though so I think he thought better of it.

It was gross, that tail all wiggly and jiggly and no wonder boys love that shit, it's sooo nasty. I can handle all kinds of reptiles but no way am I ever going to go after a lizard again. Not until I buy myself a net. That's what I need for next time, a net....

How I spent my Saturday

The hubby went paintballing today which I am totally cool with since I was just in a not wanting to do anything of import kind of mood. He was putting some new music on my iPhone this morning before he left when it asked if we wanted to upload the newest software update. Sound benign? It usually is. About 20 minutes later he comes downstairs with my iPhone. It's locked up on him and he can even get it to hard boot. THIS is why I hate software upgrades, they are from the devil and I can't stand them.

So I wasn't wanting to do anything today. Well maybe have my nails done but really, sitting with a book and not leaving the air conditioned house was real high up there on my to do list. Going to the Apple store? Not so much. Do ya'll remember how bad it used to be when you had some problem with your cell phone and you had to go to the cell phone store and wait forever in a line? Yeah, Apple store, on a Saturday. Oh and low and behold I was not the only person in line with an iPhone with the same screen saver on it basically saying that the software upgrade had jacked it good. Apparently the iPhone doesn't like getting software upgrades from pc's as much as they do from Macs. Fancy that! The next time I get a spare few grand I guess I'll just plunk it down for a Mac so I can upgrade my iPhone randomly. Not. Stupid Apple. I love them to death but really, they are smarter than this. If the iPhone has issues this common they need to open small stores just for iPhone support. Seriously.

The line was so long and they were so behind I had to make an appointment for later in the day and come back. Nice. And it's not like I could just blow it off, it's my cell phone. How long has it been since we were able to function without the damn things? Not so long ago, and yet...

So I left there with an afternoon appointment and got my nails done. Went home, read for like 45 minutes, and then went back out in the heat to get the dang thing fixed. They basically had to wipe the whole thing and then install the updates. Like I gave a rats ass about the updates in the first place. I use it as a phone and iPod. Everything else it does is a waste on me. Sad no? Hey it was free and I like it better than the Blackberry Pearl I traded it for.

I don't think I'll be getting anymore updates for it and if I do I'll only do it if I take it in the store. Have ya'll spent a full day or weekend with out your phone? I realized I have very few phone numbers kept anywhere else other than my phone. I'm glad iTunes is a back up for me. My iPhone is presently plugged into this computer with "Sync in Progress" written on the screen. It's been like that for almost 20 minutes. Here's to hoping it syncs....

Comic Con, a legend in it's own right

I know I've mentioned this before, the hubby and I have been uber geeks for decades now, it's one of the reasons we met (under the guise of 'gaming', yes the Dungeons and Dragons kind). Comic Con was created in San Diego in 1970 (Comic Con time line in a slide show). It's a long weekend thing that happens once a year (for those of you that are not uber dorks). I mean geeks, sorry. I learned to read because my dad would take me to the comic book store on weekends and we'd spend hours there perusing the comics. I was 4 when they figured out I already knew how to read, real sharp parents I had. Too much pot. Seriously.

The fact that I cut my teeth on comics pretty much set me up to be one of those. And by one of those I mean one of those that comes out during Con. Fortunately my social skills are better than most of one of those people so I don't come off nearly as creepy as most of them. It's kind of a running joke, those people are hidden in their parent's basement for the other 361 days of the year. Only to crawl out and see daylight during Con. If you don't know what I'm talking about all you have to do is look at some of the pictures. It won't take you long to figure it out. I was sitting and waiting for a panel to start one time there and the couple in front of me (I don't know which one was the woman, sadly this is not unusual at Con) takes out a can of Chef-boy-ardee. Proceeds to peel the top off the can and spoon the contents into their mouth. Now I'm a mom, I'm all about bringing your own food to a convention since the prices of the food there are stupid expensive but dang, peeling open a can? Way to make your way up the evolutionary ladder. GAH! This is typical of what you will find at Con. Strangeness.

The people watching there is great though, seriously great. The fashion atrocities alone can keep you mesmerized for the entire weekend. Please note, there is a limit to the quantity of fat you should be allowed to squeeze into spandex. Really, it's a law of physics. It is also seriously broken a multitude of times at Con. There are a few bit of hot chicks scantily clad there too so there is an upside but the really big basement people (and no, not just women) seem to think it's their once a year chance for fame. The kind of fame you don't want to be known for. And yet....

I've been to my share of Cons, as has the hubby. They used to (I don't know if they still do) have rooms at the convention where they would run D&D games that the boys would play. Or run, I'm pretty sure the hubby ran one back in the day. We've taken our kid to Con, she loved it because it was nothing but a thousand things to buy and serious sensory overload. I have a girlfriend who has been working it for just shy of 2 decades. Her life is run amok every year when it comes around and they plan this Con with meetings all year round you know. Comic Con is the biggest thing that the San Diego Convention Center hosts. Insane you say? Yup, yes it is.

Technically it has outgrown the Convention Center. Every year the Fire Marshall is there and they will shut the doors if there are too many people inside at any given point in time. The newspaper says that they no longer do door registration, i.e. tickets aren't sold at the door anymore. Not exactly the truth. The truth is that you can buy tickets online and they sell out every year before Con actually starts. They would sell tickets at the door but there are none available. Now that is what I call successful.

We won't be going this year, the hubby goes to pick up the kid not 3 days after it ends and me, well I haven't been back to San Diego for going on 2 years now. I'd like to visit but dang it all if life just isn't cooperating like it should. Plus the kid has fully realized the concept of shopping. I don't think we'd survive taking her now. Girls + shopping = BAD. Maybe next year, who knows. Right now I have my sights set on a new camera anyway and I don't know about ya'll but I tend to obsess. Maybe net year I won't be obsessing and the uber geek in me will want to do Con. Who knows!

Comic books, people, comic books. Are you grasping the level of insanity? If you haven't figured it out yet, being a geek is cool now. It's only a matter of time before we rule the world and then you'll never be able to get a ticket to Con...

Because my Monday is hosed

I'd like to at least post something on an up note. And look forward to tomorrow since today is a total waste. We woke to the dog that had the upset tummy from hell. I will spare ya'll and not go through the gorey details. When I came in to work I found out my instrument was broken. Now I have to figure out something to do while I'm here. I wanted to call in sick today and stay home with the dog. I should have run with that instinct huh? Hell my back still hurts from Saturday's falling fiasco.
Still there is hope, I left the dog out side and I am waiting for the repair guy to call. Plus there's this nifty freebee for tomorrow....

Free Pastry at Starbucks Tuesday July 21st The catch, you have to buy a drink. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but I can usually find something on the menu that floats my boat. Plus many of the specialty coffee drinks have very little coffee in them.

Ends at 10:30 am. I think I'll be up by then. You?

It rained briefly this afternoon

I mention this because we have had NO RAIN of measure yet this year and every day this summer (and most of spring) has been triple digits. It didn't rain that much this evening, the cell was small and fast moving. Lordy though did we need it so we won't complain.

I was raised in a drought area, all of So Cal is basically a desert. Southern California pays to have their water piped in from out of state and has been ever since I could remember. Water restrictions have always been a way of life for me and the hubby so the fact that we moved to yet another hot city with no water is no big change for us. We are at stage 2 water restrictions right now. We can only use our sprinkler system once a week and only between the hours of 8pm-12am and 3am to 8 am. Cars can only be washed at these times too. Your day of the week depends on the last # of your address, no watering on weekends. This means while the temps have been out of control our lawns have turned to serious fire hazards. You are allowed to hand water at any point in time but when it's 10 bazillion degrees outside who the hell wants to stand around with a hose in their hand? I hand water my roses at 10 pm every other night. It's only in the upper 90's by then and the sun isn't beating down on me. Now you know why even the slightest bit of rain is welcome here.

I know there are a bunch of you out there that have water in abundance and have never been in water restrictions and don't know about the water police. The water company keeps a tab on how much water you use month to month and how much your average neighborhood household water usage in you neighborhood is. If you go above you will get a phone call. If they find your sprinklers on during non-allotted hours you will be fined. And you neighbors will turn you in. Seriously. I don't like bermuda grass (the kind we have in our lawn) so watching it die is no skin off my nose. Maybe if I had a nicer grass that wasn't so darn invasive I'd like it more. Good thing I don't though, it's all dead. Well except these nice green rings around the mulch circling my roses. My dogs tend to roll in the dead grass though, they tend to come in the house covered in hay. It's annoying.

This past rain would not be much of anything to mention except for one thing. We were out running errands, Costco to be exact. I was in flip flops (hey, it's still hot out) and the hubby was trying to move quickly and get into the store. I was following but not as quickly (my legs are much shorter than his). Once the asphalt ended and it turned to flat smooth concrete I was in trouble. Flat smooth newly wet concrete. It want south very quickly. I took maybe 4 steps when my feet went flying out from underneath me and I fell flat on my ass. HARD. There were at least 5 people waiting (all men) there that watched it all go down. And when I say all go down I'm talking about my ass. It wasn't pretty, no it wasn't pretty at all.

Sadly I should have been totally embarrassed but I was in too much pain to bother. My hubby was all bent and yanked me back up. I was in pain and wanted to be left on the ground and really didn't (still don't ) see why he had to yank me up off of the ground before I figured out whether or not I had broken my spine. He then proceeded to chastise me on my footwear like 5 times. I speak English, repeating the same thing to me 5 times only pisses me off. We've know each other over 20 years now, you'd think he'd figure this one out. For the record I am ok, my back has a crick in it but it's mild. I hit the ground damn hard, I'm considering myself lucky. My let palm is a bit chaffed too, again, no surprise there.

I'm still amazed that I wasn't embarrassed at all. At least 3 men I walked pass commented on my fall to me. Like "Damn that looked like it hurt". Really just the memory should make my face turn red. The pain in my spine makes it impossible for me to give a hoot. I swear, my coordination sucks. Did I ever tell ya'll about the time I was in a restaurant having pancakes and I dumped and entire warmed jar of syrup on my lap? The whole thing, warmed syrup. It was the strangest felling let me tell you. Falling on my ass and soaking my shorts in the rain? Whatevah. The only question that the hubby asked me after yanking me up was "Please tell me you don't have the camera in your purse". Hell no I didn't have my camera in my bag. Good grief I know myself better than that. My coordination sucks and I am smart enough to not carry delicate stuff in anything less than a Pelican Case.
(Yeah I wish this was my case...)

Perspective

I was having a not so great Friday last week. Had an incredibly hectic, not horrible, just hectic day at work. I was wrapping everything up at 5pm and got a call from a girlfriend who wanted to bring her family over for dinner at our house. Which is ok, we host them all the time. Sadly though, we don't have our kid with us so it's not really the same. They, on the other hand, have their normal 2 plus 2 more from a previous marriage with them. It's a full house and I allowed things to go on that I normally don't tolerate (dude, WWF and boxing on tv is verboten in my home) and I only lost my patience with their terrorist daughter once. Which is a miracle because as much as they'd like to think their daughter is just like ours they are wrong. I was ok with making dinner but when they all gathered up to go to our community pool I opted to stay and clean up. I needed the time alone, it was Friday for God's sake. Some peace please! I had to stay almost an hour later at work to get stuff done and they were already at my house by the time I got there. Yeah I stayed and cleaned up because that was the way lesser of 2 evils. I had another lovely little realization that night too, my friends pointed out a spot in the ceiling of my dining room (which we never ever use), apparently my master bath shower has a severe leak somewhere and it's ruined the ceiling. Not pleased at all.

OK I'll admit it, I was all ready to have my own little pity party. Me, a book, the couch, and maybe a dog or two up there with me if I was feeling generous. No such luck. They were not gone for 10 minutes when I got a phone call. My girlfriend from San Diego was calling. On the brink of tears. Oh so not good. In a nutshell? Her marriage has been falling apart for awhile now and her husband has now emotionally separated himself from her and their 3 kids (2 are his, young ones). Their house was in the process of being foreclosed upon and they have until the 30th when it goes up for public auction. She's been battling depression so she has no job (lost it when she was on medical leave) and her husband worked in construction, a career that died when the housing industry died a horrible death in California. She's not eligible for government help because they tried and the list goes on. Again, short story, she's alone with 3 children, 2 dogs and a cat as of the 30th of this month. No job, no home. Talk about ruining my pity party of antisocial-ness on a Friday night.

I gave her several suggestions on exactly what to do about the dogs. Do not criticize me for helping her try and organize the dogs first. Other dog owners understand this (get on board with me here Trailboss). If she can get that under control it will give her the confidence to get the rest of her life together, there is a method to my madness. Once she takes that first step I think she'll start getting on top of things rather than waiting until it's too late. Which it is dangerously close to being anyway.

I did not ignore the fact that she needs to find a place to live either, sheesh people there, are kids involved here. We are too far away to give any help but there are people out there, people we have been friends with for many a decade, that would never leave them homeless. It's not ideal but really, how in the world can you leave your friends totally high and dry? I don't think I could even imagine doing that. Don't ask me about what the hell her husband is thinking because I have at last 2 friends with 'husbands' in their lives that treat their wives and children with less respect than something they found on the bottom of their shoe. It says as much about them as human beings as anything else. Plus I was always raised to take care of myself, if anything came down I know for a fact that I could hack it on my own, if I can do that and help take care of a friend I would not even hesitate to help out. Dis ones spouse and children? I don't freaking think so. Unimaginable.

So my Friday, which I was all down about not being left alone to lounge after a long day at work, which has a huge house downer of a ceiling/tile job, where I had wanted to sit and be left alone, had a homeless friend thing thrown at me. Priorities, perspective. The universe was telling me to suck it up, don't you think? I here ya universe, I got the message. At least I have a home to do repairs on. It could be way hella worse right?

And sometimes you just move on

That's Valerian, isn't she pretty? Yes I name my paintball markers. I name my cars too. My present Jeep is Trick and the Honda is 'the beater car'. It doesn't do the Honda any justice but it is what she is. My husband's marker doesn't have a name, it's not my marker and he changes markers often enough that I don't bother. The 2 he has now though he's had for years. I'm not going to count the Angel, she's on the way out. I bought him one as a birthday present and although people have offered to buy it off of him he wouldn't dare. It was a present from his wife and he falls asleep before she does. Pissing her off at that level is not good for his longevity. I take that back, we did name one of his markers. She's Jurassic Ooze, it's the name of the paint job. All right all right it's not a paint job it's an anno. An electro chemical treatment really so I should get it right. It's a pain to do and as I understand all the people who knew how to do Jurassic Ooze are no longer in business. So the hubby is keeping that marker. His other marker is electronic and was out of commission for years. I finally made all the arrangements necessary to have it fixed and did it for him.

Another long intro to a story you all still have no idea what it's about other than maybe paintball markers. Sorry I digress. I used to play paintball with my hubby. It's a fun fun sport mostly played by men. Why? Because, just like tattoos, you don't really have to ask. It hurts. It hurts a lot. And damn those bruises last for months sometimes. It's still a kick ass sport though and totally worth the pain. Plus I get to hang out with a bunch of guys all day and just be one of the guys. I really do prefer that more than hanging with girls at a spa. Yes I know what you're thinking, there's medication for that I'm sure but really, I like paintball.

Here's the thing. 2 years ago (and I'm sure you all remember this fact) I had brain surgery. Specifically they cut out a large chunk of my skull located in the front half of my head. You can barely see the scar since it's just inside of my hairline but it is right there. They put the skull piece back in but it's still an indented soft spot that will never be as secure as a solid skull. Such is the nature of something that was once one piece and is now 2. I'm ok with this, I'm alive and my brain functions as well as it had before. I am also careful of the fact that I should not do stupid things that would put this soft spot in danger. Like go horseback riding (falling would be bad, worse than for normal people) or play paintball. Those balls move at 350 feet per second. If they hit a bare cheek or an eye they would break the bone or destroy the eye. They move hella fast and hit hella HARD. That's why we wear full masks. The mask, however, does not fully cover the forehead. I know, I've been tagged there before and it HURTS LIKE HELL. No way my bone chunk wouldn't suffer and hit my soft brain with one of those hits.

Consequently I knew from the get go that my paintball career was over after the surgery. It's ok, the only people that really lament it are the boys (like my hubby) that really like girls playing paintball. It's a novelty and all paintballers want a girlfriend that plays. It does it for them. Even though most women who play paintball suck, they just aren't aggressive enough. Something I found terribly annoying, being a kind of overly aggressive female. Not that ya'll knew that already or anything. Right? Yeah I thought not.

This, of course, leaves me with Valerian. I was going to keep her as a back up for the hubby but now that I got his Excal (electronic marker) fixed he doesn't really need 3 markers. And ya'll remember how I have this camera conundrum right? Just need a spare grand or so to get a set up that I want. Do you have any idea how much Val is worth? About $1200. Yeah getting my ass on the paintball field was expensive. I had to have just the right marker with just the right barrel kit and they all had to be annoed to match. Red. It's my power color. Seriously, all my paintball stuff is red. I wasn't going for subtle on the field. I was a back player, if you didn't always know where I was at I wasn't doing my job right. Sorry, I'm sure that makes no sense to you guys. I was like the umpire in back, screaming to let everyone know where everybody else was at and where they needed to go. And dumping paint like it was going out of style, back players never stop shooting. So yeah, they're not the sneak up and shoot you type on the filed, that's the front players job. Red, it's not a color for front players.

All this to let the world know that I'm moving on. Getting rid of the old to move on to the new. I could say that I'm getting old but that's not entirely true. I am getting old but I'd still be on the paintball field if my brain wasn't at such risk. Oh and if it wasn't 104-105 degrees outside every day. Oh my ever loving god it's hot out this year. We're breaking records ans just waiting for some raging fire. No green out here anymore, it's all burnt to a crisp. One good spark and I swear this whole state is going up in smoke. I'm not sure I could handle the heat on the paintball fields right now. Good thing I can use my frontal lobotomy as an excuse right?

And then there were books....

I have not been posting a lot lately. You see I have this problem...and by problem I mean it in a very "I'm an addict" kind of sense. I like to read. It is all time consuming really so like probably isn't the word. Again, the word is most likely addiction, but lets get past that shall we? The first step is admitting the addiction right? Too bad that doesn't help much.

I'm not sure how many pages have been read by me since I delved back into the land of books, I had been on a self imposed hiatus. Broken only because I decided it was time to start the Twilight series. Which I did. Finished all of them, in like, a week. See? Problem. I was on the fence about it. I enjoyed them but not as much as I wanted to. So me being me I went so far as to read Meyer's other non vampy book, The Host. I must say it is very good. I enjoyed it a lot and totally recommend it. I then moved on to more sci-fi/fiction (because that's what I read, bubble gum for the brain) and was delighted to stumble into another author that I had to read everything she has ever written (Patricia Briggs). Oh and it had been so long since I've sunk myself into reading some of my other fav authors had published more books. Yes, my addiction is so bad that I had been out of it for like a year. Charlaine Harris had published the latest in her Sookie Stackhouse series, I highly recommend it. And YES I read all of her books before True Blood came out. So many people don't even know that it was a written series long before it was an HBO show. I passed on my Harris books to at least 3 people years ago and they all loved her stuff. Great brain bubble gum. Not anything that is so amazing that you'd want to put it in to some hall of fame but making it a classic with a HBO series is perfection.

Now might I mention that there was a book mentioned in an incredibly sweet blog I like a lot (no this doesn't mean I'm warming to religion) This is Reverb. He mentions a book he was reading in his men's group, Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and this terrible funny anecdote about how he was trying to be adventurous and just ended up puking. Hey, it happens. There was that last time when I thought the roller coaster my kid and hubby were on didn't look that bad. I don't do roller coaster rides. I barely do windy roads when I'm driving, I'm the motion sickness queen. It was Tony Hawk's Big Spin. Don't do it people, trust me on this one. It looks ok but no. I got on and I swear I was going to DIE.

But the book! I was mailing something off at work and the mailroom guy is a nice religious guy and we chat whenever I see him. He was talking about how he was reading this new book and dontcha know, it was Wild at Heart? I asked if I could borrow it from him when he was done. Apparently it had a big affect on him too and I just want to see what it's about. It really is a 'man' book (not geared toward women at all) but I don't care. I was raised by my dad and have never been able to live with a woman much less relate to most of them. I really am geared more towards men. Such is life but I suspect I'll enjoy the book. So happy to find someone to not only loan it to me but we can discuss it too!

Total book dork I know.

Be cows it needed translation...

As most of you know my hubby is presently working in a max security prison. He was able to change from regular horrid shift work and make a move to a 8-5 job at the prison, working in their law library. The prisoners are whiners, he comes home with some of the most insane stories I just could not even begin to tell you. Last week he brought home a letter written to the law library, it was a prisoner complaining about something. I can barely tell what, the spelling is so bad it took no less than 4 people to decipher out one of the words. There is a scan of the letter here on my hubby's blog the Recalcitrant Beagle. Click on it to make it bigger (legible) and you'll get the idea.
Here are some translations

Labarey = Library
eney = any
mall = mail (he makes this same mistake no less than 5 times in this 1 page)
Petorcens = Peterson (the woman in charge and she, like all the other CO's, wears a name tag.
nuw = new (seriously, it's a 3 letter word)
recev = receive (I'm going to cut him some slack on this one. Not everyone learned i before e except after c)
gith = get (come on now peeps!)
thosday = Thursday
be cows = because
wensday (and I'll give him this one, people have trouble with Wednesday)
Detator = this is the one no one could figure out, best we can tell he was trying to say dictator
wat = wait
falt = fault
Shey = she
or = are
alowd = allowed
mor = more
wot = what

He doesn't use periods but as far as I can figure this is one page long and 6 sentences. 6 SENTENCES. With 16 miss spellings repeated several times. Whoa man, we've got some serious issues in our scholastic system don't you think? A few that slipped between the cracks maybe? I had some trouble with his miss spellings too, a lot of them didn't make sense. Even if all you had to go on was sounding a word out dictator wouldn't come out as detator. Who knows, maybe he meant something entirely different but even the other prisoners were laughing their butts off at this pathetic writing. It's not as if he hasn't had the opportunity to better his reading and writing skills either, he's been in for over 3 years. They have a library and lets face it, time...

I NEED a housewife

Or a house husband. I'm not picky or gender biased. Today was an off day for me, as in I was off. OK not really off so much as called in sick. If you want the gorey details at around 7pm last night my gastrointestinal system staged a coup. It decided that it was no longer willing to be part of the team and went all bad on me. I managed about 4 hours of sleep last night and just did not feel the need to in today. It happens, you take life as it comes.

This did not mean I wasn't ok today, I just wasn't ok enough to get up at an early hour and drag my ass into work and be productive. Instead I dragged my ass out of bed at like 10 am and was productive with home stuff. No, I did not clean the house. I was not feeling that energetic, please. I took care of things that needed to be taken care of. The dogs slept. When someone is home the only difference is that they sleep on the couches rather then their crates. Lazy bums.

Which leads me to the topic at hand, I need a house wife. Seriously folks I had a list of things that needed to get done.
1. Pick up package from the post office
2. Make a birthday card for my dad
3. Mail birthday card and letter the hubby wrote to the kid
4. Get gas for the hubby's car (which he left for me so I could do #5 and #6)
5. Get the hubby's car it's annual inspection/smog thing done
6. Take said proof of inspection and register the hubby's car

It took like 3 hours and this was all stuff that had to be done asap since it's the 1st of July and that's when it needs to be done. Well the package thing, that's just because I don't know how long the post office will hold something before they send it off into no man's land. This is the hubby's paintball gun returning from the repair shop, I know he'd be pissed if that got lost.

And all this got done only because I was at home 'sick'. Good thing I felt better today huh?

PS: don't ever, as in DO NOT EVER Google image the phrase 'housewife'. It's all porn, swearsies. Just do me a favor and don't do it.