Weekend Fun

This past weekend, after paying some bills, I got to go on a date with the wife. We went to dinner at Red Robin ('yum!') and then walked around the shopping center for awhile...doing some birthday shopping for my sister. Its dangerous when I do this because I get in 'find a gift mode', where everywhere I look, I automatically ask 'can I get a gift for her there? would she like it?', etc. Good when you're in stores like Barnes & Noble or Francesca, but beware if you pass say, a Victoria's Secret, as asking 'can I get a gift for my sister here?' is a horribly wrong thing. Kinda gross. No one EVER needs to be buying their little sister lingerie. EVER. For ANY reason. This rates fairly high on the heebie-jeebie meter, see the previous post on that.

We also went to our favorite candy shop, where they make the most awesome homemade truffles. My favorites are the dark chocolate razzleberry and the milk chocolate bananas foster. Honorable mention to the 'Sunday Brunch', which is milk chocolate with pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon. Have I blogged about this before? I feel like I have. Anyway, we went there, and then the wife dragged me into girly stuff stores like Francesca and Charming Charlie's until I started foaming at the mouth, then we went and got a drink at, and those of you who know me will love this, a bar where we are REGULARS. Oh yes. The bartender knows us on sight, knows our name, knows our usual drinks (I can order 'the usual'...that is AWESOME...) and so on. She's great too. Always in a good mood, friendly, good with the drink-making. Spells her name weird though. Lyndsie. Not Lindsay, but Lyndsie. Odd. Oh well. I'll not hold it against her.

Sunday I worked on the yard...mowed, seeded, raked, fertilized, weed-killed, edged...it was looking good by the end. Also got the components to fix the hose spigot for the back of the house, except as per home repair law, I have to make at least TWO more trips to Home Depot before I can think about getting it done. Went once yesterday, and today will be twice. I thought I had everything, but the copper pipe I have that I pulled out of the wall is about an inch too short. So I need to get another one. And then I'll get everything in place, and either something will break, or I'll need some glue, or SOMEthing, and will have to go a third time. Three times per home repair to Home Depot. So it is written, so let it be done.

For my next upgrade of the man cave, I'm thinking of, in addition to painting the room red, adding a hammock. Not sure how that's going to work, yet, doubtless there will have to be loops screwed into the studs, and strung diagonally across the room, but I'm not sure how to get it to swing without hitting bookshelves or whatever. Plus it needs to be an all-cloth hammock, so as to be easily storable. Hmmm. Plus I need a bearskin rug for the floor. Or a jackalope head. :)

Yay, only 2 more hours to go...I'm ready for another weekend. Work on the bucket list progresses. I feel sorta bad putting things on it I've already accomplished, though, like 'get married' and 'buy a house'. Thoughts? Comments?

Clothing Update

In addition to getting the first pair of new shoes in 5 years, recently I had to retire my first pair of boxers after 16 years of comfortable service. We shall miss thee, green plaid cotton boxers...

My SHS Marching Warriors t-shirt is still in good shape and is part of the regular wearing rotation, however. That is a HIGH QUALITY piece of clothing, let me tell you!

Bacony Goodness

I just ate a chocolate bacon bar. It was quite tasty, actually. Imagine a chocolate bar with toffee bits in it...then make those toffee bits salt-flavored instead of toffee-flavored. Yum!

This week I have begun the annual battle with nature. Let the games begin! I have laid down chemical defenses against ants, done the same for weeds in the lawn (ah, I love the smell of chemical warfare at dusk), and have procured some new offensive weaponry…an edger, with which to delineate the borders and keep chaos in check. Next will be a new spigot for the back of the house, so as to have hydro-attack capabilities. After that, seeding, dirt, and the attempted bending of nature to my will; i.e., making it grow MY plants. A daunting task, indeed. Then begins the next wave in the neverending struggle against the pine trees in all their nastiness. They MUST be brought under control, for the good of the land.

Yesterday, there were like, 50 vultures circling lazily around our little neighborhood...and nothing dead, as far as I know. I know a bunch of them nest on a hilltop nearby, and wonder if the proximity to the area's landfill, or land glut rather, as it is now the size of a small mountain, is the cause of this. And they are BIG scary birds, too. Note to me: buy some sort of projectile weapon, such as a roof-mounted ballista, with which to defend from aerial scavenger birds out to steal my small puppy.

Things are slow at work right now...we're in a lull between the beginning-of-the-year rush and the end-of-the-school-year rush. There'll still be things coming in, but it won't be late nights or whatever.

I'm already looking forward to our vacation in July, as well! Should be a lot of fun. Going to Hilton Head on the shore. Have a nice house rented, and are brining the dog. We are DYING to see how she likes the beach.

Yesterday I had 'Three Little Birds' stuck in my head all morning. There are very few things more weird in appearance than a super-quiet extremely white person walking down an office hallway singing reggae. But since I'm supposed to "don't worry, about a t'ing", I don't much care. Plus its a good song, am I right?

Blog Once More...

So yeah. Its been a really hectic 6 months since last I blogged. I really want to keep up with it, but just don't seem to have the time, plus everyone's on facebook or twitter now, blah blah blah. To my credit, I am fighting the flash-in-the-pan fad that is Twitter. Thanks to the stalwart efforts of people such as Signe and myself, e-vite has dropped by the wayside, so I'm sure with time Twitter will suffer the same fate. D.T.T.!

Anyway, yes. Six months. We got a dog. Still loving our house. Got more snow than Maryland. Went on a cruise. Enjoyed Christmas Day in 3 different states spanning 600 miles. Lost Behtia's dad shortly before Thanksgiving. Are talking about having kids. Getting raises and promotions. The stuff of life.

Recently, the wife sent around a boiler plate fill-out bucket list...I've done a LOT of the things on it. I think out of 50 or so things, there were only about 10 or 15 I hadn't done. So go me. And some of those were things I have no desire to do, like bungee jumping or hang gliding. I really SHOULD make my own bucket list...Miss Write Again Soon is putting me to shame with her commitment to blogging and bucket listing and book reading. I'm going to work on it, though. And I HAVE accomplished a few things on her list that she hasn't. Word of advice if you're reading this...owning a library room is overrated. They look wicked cool, and are fun to be in, but having to shelf and sort and alphabetize and categorize a few thousand books is a PAIN. Plus I constantly worry if the weight of those shelves on our 2nd floor is going to make the floor collapse. Its 3 or 4 tons, easy. But still, it makes a nifty man cave.

In the next weekend or two, the wife and I are going to have to do a home-improvement-great-debate. I married someone who is anti-curtains. Who knew? I like curtains. Our house looks weird and cold without curtains. Plus the kitchen floor is presenting issues...I'm entirely capable of doing it myself, but we have to decide on what we're putting down, first. The good news is we'll probably leave the laminate that's already installed down as a vapor barrier, since there's nothing wrong with it other than it is scuffed and discolored and cheap-looking. Hardwood would be nice, but it would be tough to get something that would work with the wood in the kitchen cabinets, the kitchen table, AND look ok if seen from the living room, which has a 3rd type of wood. Tricky. Or we can do a tile of some sort. Or we can just put down flagstones, which would be AWESOME, but would also be INSANELY cold to walk on in the winter. Like, you could get rid of your fridge and just keep your food on the floor kind of cold.

Which, incidently, leads me to my recent issue with going outdoors without shoes in the cold. You can do it, but as you get older, and especially if you do it repeatedly to say, take out the dog, it will cause the muscles and tendons in your feet to cramp. I woke up the other day and I could barely walk because my foot hurt so bad (I just tried to write this as 'furt', which I think makes a good word for pained, cramped feet). NOT cool. It went away after a few hours though.

Also, my current crop of favorite shows are Big Bang Theory, Community, House, and Chuck. Until they bring back Firefly. I DREAM of that day. Best show EVER.

That is all. Time to go eat lunch. Or rather, second breakfast.