Addiction

I got my haircut again today. That's the 5th or 6th time this year. Considering that I didn't get my haircut at all last year, that's a pretty big deal for me. I think I'm becoming addicted to the thrill of the cut.

Something I'm definitely addicted to is diet Coke. I've been saving the tabs off of the cans that I drink at work and putting them in a little container on my desk. I had some free time today, and I dumped the container. 170 tabs in three months. Each tab represents 50 cents. Holy crap- that's a lot of aspartame and acid and money! Think of all the yarn or books I could have bought with that money..... So starting Monday, no more sodas. I'm quitting them. (Unless I'm sick and in desperate need of a sprite or ginger ale.)

Last Sunday was my 2 year mark for being smoke free. If I can quit smoking, quitting sodas should be a walk in the park.

Besides, I can still get my hair cut if I need a rush.

The Short Moon

Listening to my local NPR station today, I learned that the full moon in June is called the short moon. I guess the full moon in December is called the long moon, but I had to turn my mind back to work and didn't really hear the rest of the information. Neat, huh?

Also, in case anyone was worried about our dietary health, I did go to the grocery Thursday. I filled up the fridge with some yummy stuff- lots of fish and vegetables. Healthy stuff.

Thursday night we rented a bunch of movies. We watched 'Meet the Spartans' which was very funny in the vulgar, spoof way. (Everything is funny but the penguin. That's just WRONG!) Then we watched 'P.S. I Love You'. We both really liked that one. Definitely see it if you haven't. Friday night we watched 'Lions for Lambs' and 'Superbad.' They were both good, but we didn't love them. 'Lambs' makes you think, so don't watched it if you are tired or in a non-thinking mood. It's the wee hours of Saturday morning now, and we're watching the last of the movies- 'Jumper.' I saved it for last because the woman at the rental store was raving about it. Last time I listen to her. It's very slow. I'm not engaged.

I watched 'The Good Earth' on Comcast On Demand the other night. That was surprisingly good. I trudged through the book earlier this year. I thought it was time I read Pearl S Buck, having gone to the same school as her and all. I'm really glad I read the book first; it gave me a better understanding of the movie. And the movie gave me a better appreciation of the book. I love when that happens.

My birthday was last Sunday (Father's Day). On the Friday before, we had cake at work for Kelly and me. (She's three days older than me, and I remind her nearly every chance I get.) The woman who wrote the words on the cake wasn't very good at spelling. Vicky said the woman was very apprehensive about spelling my name. So the cake came out saying "Happy Birthday, Loro & Kemy." But it was an excellent tasting cake, so Loro & Kemy weren't complaining! Jason & I saw 'Sex and the City' that night, and that was really wonderful. One of the husbands in the theater would say "That's hilarious" after everytime he laughed at something. Now that was hilarious!

Saturday, Jason & I went canoeing with Delayna, Phil, & some of Delayna's friends. We went on the Blue River in Indiana. Yeah, it soooo dangerous. I think the first half of the trip, the water never got deeper than halfway up my thigh. And hardly any current at all. There was a snake in the water at one point, and that was a bit unpleasant. We left him alone. He left us alone. We also saw a deer fawn on the shore, and it wagged its tail when I talked to it. It stayed close to the river long enough we probably could have hurt it, and I was a little concerned that maybe momma deer was going to come flying into the river to attack us. We never saw her. Or the 15 cows that had been chilling in the river according to some people we caught up to. Gotta love nature.

Then we came to the category 5 ripples where Delayna and I bottomed out. I hopped out and pulled us along. Something was really funny about it, because I remember laughing so hard I could hardly pull. Then we got to that thigh-deep water so I started to climb back in. Imagine the next part in slow motion because that's how it happened for me. I got my left leg in, and my right foot slipped on a mossy rock. I fell on my back into the canoe. It started to roll to the side, but I managed to stop the rocking. Unfortunately, I also cracked my head on the crossbeam. I saw stars, for real, and a little bit of blackness. The 20 or so witnesses on the shore called out to see if I was okay (but didn't offer us any help at any point, thank you), and my pride was dented enough that I said I was fine and then we paddled like crazy to get away from them. The rest of our group was so far ahead that Jason didn't even know it happened until 4 hours later. My head is still sore!

I did feel well enough to try out the kayak that the canoe people insisted we rent. I loved it. I don't think I would like one that covered my knees, though.

Sunday Jason, Dad & I went to see the Indiana Jones movie. It was okay. It was really nice to watch a movie with my dad where we didn't have to cringe because we couldn't believe we were watching something cringe-worthy with each other (like, The Black Dahlia or Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). Then Mom cooked steak and scallops and couscous for dinner. She baked a cherry pie for Dad and a birthday cake for me. And I actually lost 4 lbs over the weekend. Hahaha! Happy Birthday to me!

Hernz 59

I'm still playing blog ketchup, I mean, catch up. (I know, that's soooooo bad, but I couldn't pass it up!)

Cat, Cren & Kiersten came to visit the first weekend in June. Well, "visit" is a slight stretch. They had been at Camp Rudolph and Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana with his family, and stopped here for the night on their way back to Texas. We took them out to the park, of course. I think they really enjoyed it. We toured the museum, too, which is something we didn't have time to do with the Killians. Then we went to the squircle so they could see the Lincoln statues.

The new one- Boy Lincoln- was unveiled the Saturday before when we were in Glasgow. So it was the first time Jason and I had really looked at it. I'd like to give an opinion about it, but I don't have one. Sorry.

We ate dinner at Gondolier in Etown. Jason & I could have cooked dinner for them, but we don't cook the way other people do. We're very bare bones in the kitchen, and that's not much fun for guests. Currently our fridge consists of a ton of condiments, wine, beer, Kraft singles, Cren's leftovers from two weeks ago, and diet Coke. The freezer has flavo-pops, spinach-cheese-chicken sausages, crab cakes & vodka. The only difference between my fridge now and my fridge in college would be the sausages & cakes! Bare bones as it is, Crenshaw still found something to tickle his fancy- my bottle of generic Heinz 57 sauce (saved $2 off the name brand)....

I Can't Believe I Forgot to Take Kandice With Me!

So one of the downsides about waiting two weeks to blog about an event is that details are forgotten. Then again, if I could blog in the moment, this would be one catty and scathing blog. And since I gave the blog address to the entire HR department at work, catty and scathing probably won't be a good idea. (I guess I should point out to the people I don't work with that the entire HR dept at work consists of three very lovely people- Susan, Wes, & my fellow Bunco-mate, Christy.)

The last day in May we went to the Glasgow (KY) Scottish Festival. I found two new subjects for my photo collection. I like to call it "Camouflage at Scottish Festivals." Here are the two latest pics plus the one that started it all (the fanny pack- oh yeah).

The 17 year cicadas were out in force, and swatting them off our clothes and out of our hair made for a long day. They were especially attracted to Mom and Jason. Probably because they are so sweet!

Catch Up

Meli & I had a very productive noontime texting session. We have come up with the names for our firstborns. I picked Germeca from a list of names at work. (I'm thinking it's a combo of Germaine and Tameka?) Meli picked Frodo, but I said it wasn't a shem name- Frodo is definitely a boy! She settled on Frodwyn. That has a nice ring to it. Germeca & Frodwyn.....

I haven't blogged yet about Jason's & my trip to Texas or our day at the Glasgow Scottish Festival or our recent houseguests because Facebook is sucking up all of my time. And the only thing I ever do is mess with my green patch. I know it's for a good cause, but I think my green patch is going to have to go. I spent an hour last night accepting plants. An hour. That's an hour I could have used to blog. Or to actually email one of my friends who I never talk to or see (which is the whole reason that I joined myspace and Facebook in the first place!).

Now let's get down to business and turn the calendar back to Memorial Day weekend. I came home after work on Friday and immediately went to bed. I got in a good 6 hours before getting up, packing up, and heading to the Watts-Lamb-Crenshaw House in Wylie. Jason snoozed, and I drove until about an hour outside of Memphis. I wasn't too, too tired, yet, but I have a fear of bridges. And dark water. So driving across the Mississippi at night is only done by me in extreme emergencies. Jason took over, and I slept to Little Rock. Then we had a yummy breakfast at one of my favorite places- Waffle House. Mmmm.... With a full belly, I took back the driver's seat for the rest of the journey.

The drive took about 12 hours. Kiersten was waiting by the front door for us, and she had put a welcome sign out, too. Uncle Gib stopped by before heading out of town for the weekend. Then Jason & I went to Cren's shop so I could get my toetats redone. I knit while I waited for the pain, er, art to begin.

Then Cren got down to business. Um, it had been awhile since I had a tattoo, and I am not ashamed to admit that it really, really hurt this time. I believe what came out of my mouth was something like this: "Mother f$%^er! That hurts!" This one kid, Hulsey, said my tattoos were gangster (or would that be gangsta?). Ha ha, I have gangster toes!

Sunday, all of us except Grandma headed to the mall. My brother had requested a Texas belt buckle. Wow! It was really hard to find one! There was a Texas store at the mall, but it only had stupid buckles, like one the size of my behind & surrounded with rhinestones. That just wasn't going to do. Then we went to a western-wear store. They were in the process of "packing up" and "moving." I use the quotes to denote my skepticism. The store was huge and jam packed with boots and clothing and Texas-themed purses and Makers Mark accessories (uh, wrong state). But. Not. One. Belt. Buckle. Apparently, the only products that had been "packed" to "move" were the belt buckles. We finally came into luck at Cavender's. They had quite a selection of buckles and also some of the coolest boots I've ever seen!

We left Monday night around 11. We weren't too far from Rockwall when we saw four cars on the side of the road, 3 of them were cops. Jason pulled into the left lane, like he was supposed to do, while we went past them, and I made the mistake of making eye contact with one of the cops. (It was like a slow motion scene in a movie.) Then Jason got back into the right lane. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not one minute later, guess who was pulling us over. You betcha. Jason pulled so far over, my side of the car was in the weeds. Guess which side of the car the cop came to. You betcha. Guess why he said he pulled us over. Give up??? He said it's against the law in Texas to drive in the left lane unless you're passing someone. So Jason said, "Well, we're from Kentucky, and in Kentucky it's the law to pull into the left lane when a cop has someone pulled over. It's for your safety." And then Cop said, "Well, that's the law in Texas, too. But you didn't get back into the right lane within a reasonable amount of time." Then he went back to his car to do cop things with Jason's license & insurance card. Meanwhile, I watched all of the cars pass us, in the far left lane, not getting back into the right lane for quite awhile. Then I got mad and teared-up. Cop came back and I said, "I'm not trying to be a smart-alek, but what is a "reasonable amount of time"? Because nobody who has passed us has pulled right back over." So he pointed out a van, and said, "You see where the van is? That's where you were." So why aren't you chasing down that van, I silently wondered. Anyway, we didn't even get a written warning. Cop just wasted our time, messing with Jason and ogling my chest. And he wasn't even a state trooper. He was a city cop. Can they pull people over on the interstate?

Things were uneventful for awhile, and I fell alseep for a bit. I woke up to rain lashing the windowshield in nearly opaque sheets. Could hardly see a thing. I told Jason (because I am a bossy you-know-what) to pull over at the next exit. Like 10 miles later, we came to an exit called something Hill. The first thing that came to mind was "Silent Hill." (I haven't played the game, but I really like the movie.) There was nothing at the exit, and we could only see that by the strobe-like lightning flashes. We were there with fellow stranded motorists for about 30 minutes. Jason was searching the internet on his phone for the next exit with a bathroom. Naturally, we both had to go. I can't describe how intense and scary the lightning was. It seemed like it was almost constant. The thunder was so hard it shook the car. I think the storm added an hour to the trip!

We finally got home at 1 pm on Tuesday. We immediately passed out in bed! I got up at 5 to go to my 80s-themed Bunco, but I was just too travel-weary to get back in a car. Oh well, we'll have another game in a few weeks.

Speaking of falling into bed.....It's time for me to end this blog installment. Stay tuned!

Fingers Crossed

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that I have more than three readers- Meli, Barb & Delayna. If all 4+ of us could turn our thoughts to house-signing, maybe Meli & Other Jason will get to sign on their house soon and no longer have to squat at Kate's house. It'll kinda be like the Carebear Stare. Only we'll call it the House-Signing Thought. I can't come up with a snazzier name. It's just not in me today.

My creativity was used up crafting a knit-kit for Meli. I think she'll find knitting relaxing and enjoyable. And she can threaten Other Jason with her new, shiny, sharp knitting needles. The kit's going out in the mail tomorrow, so maybe she'll have them by the weekend???