Partay

Last night we hosted our first party at our new house. Actually it was the first party we had ever hosted other than a couple of dinner parties maybe. It was quite the experience. We had planned and planned and planned this thing and I expected to be exhausted and half crazy after it all but that wasn't the case. We had a great turnout and the food was out of this world. We had some fantastic desserts and everyone brought out their top of the line culinary skills for the occasion. Ragged and I felt blessed and really lucky to have supportive family and friends. I'm looking forward to the leftovers of which we have many. Thanks to Pilot, Needles, and Jenny From the Blog, our weekend houseguests, and everyone for the gifts, love, and who came and made the party so cool.

Squeak

I think summer has reared its ugly head again as our air conditioner has been used the past couple of days. It should cool down in time for our party. Hopefully. Today I went to the dentist and got my teeth cleaned. I hate going to the dentist. I get paniced in that chair. But, the good news is I don't have any cavities. I didn't get my teeth cleaned for the open house, my appointment just so happened to fall close to the time. Just started readin "Q-Squared", a Star Trek novel for those not in the know. Other then that nothing going on but work. I have several chores to accomplish this evening including mowing. With any luck, this will be the last time for that until it's time for my next teeth cleaning. Fingers crossed.

One More Thing

I forgot to mention that I stayed up late and watched "28 Days Later". It was great. Ragged doesn't enjoy scarey movies, so I watched it alone. I didn't scream once. The way the film was shot was just awesome. You don't see originality like that coming from America.

Weekend is Over

Yesterday was nothing in comparison to the prep work we did today for he party. It's less than a week away and Pilot, Needles, and Jenny From the Blog will be hitting town prior to that, so there is alot to think about. We ran all over town getting stuff for the party and hopefully we have most of the errands done. I have not felt so hot the last few days. Of course there will be alot of last minute things to do, but I think Ragged has everything under control and will assign duties as necessary. At first I was kind of dreading the whole thing, but I've warmed to it. If everyone will behave themselves, it should all go fine. We'll see.

Prep Work

Ragged left out early today. I think the power outage caused by Ike is all but over. I slept in a little then got up and fixed some breakfast and immediately went out on the porch for some internetin' and relaxation. Eventually I got bored and decided to clean out the gutter. Then, I hit the streets to recycle and go by the lie berry. After picking up a couple of books, I headed home for some lunch and a little bit of work work. I also washed the bed linens which is our usual on Saturdays. When Ragged got home, we went in search of some tablecloths. Ragged had picked up some earlier at a yard sale, but we needed a few more for our upcoming party. We found two more at a local thrift store and then borrowed the rest from her mom. During that time, I saw somebody eating a Taco Bell taco, so naturally I had to have one, so we ran through the drive through. That restaurant employs some of the roughest looking people by the way. Anyway, we went over Ragged's parents house and walked down to a Catholic church picnic that was taking place at the end of the block. I scored some free apple cake. Finally, we went home where Ragged and I grabbed a brief nap before a telephone call woke us. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chilling out at home doing a bit of laundry. Ragged retired early and I'm trying to keep myself from raiding the fridge.

It's Friday

Friday I worked all day as do most people. It was a pretty good day. With the 4-day work week in full effect, the office is a ghost town on Fridays so you can get alot done without much distraction. Tonight Ragged and I decided to stay in and rest and work on some of our leftovers. We discussed the party and decided on some details. Ragged has to get up early so she has gone to bed. I am now sitting out on the porch listening to the crowd cheering at the nearby high school football game. We live two blocks from Ragged's alma mater and our street is lined with the cars of those attending the game. Across the street, our neighbors are having a get together which includes a fire, so the smell of burning wood is in the air. All in all not a bad night to be alive.

Missing Cards and Cats

Yesterday I was looking for my debit card and could not find it. My first thought was that some crackhead was out on the town having a big time on the $4 I have in my account. After coming back to reality and after a little thought, I realized the last time I used it was at Fazoli's the day before. If it wasn't there, I didn't know where it was. At 10 til 9 at night, I called and asked if they had my card. The manager, Virginia was her name, said that they indeed had it. Thankful, I zoomed uptown and picked it up. Crisis averted. This morning, as I do every morning the weather is cool, I threw open the French doors until Ragged and I got ready for work. When I was ready to leave, I checked for cats and then closed the doors. After being at work for four hours, I came home for lunch. I heard the cry of a cat as soon as I stepped out of the car. It didn't take long to realize I had left one of the cats on the porch. The high-pitched meow was distinctive, I had left Ike out there. He tends to sit under one of the chairs and I must have missed him on my hasty visual sweep of the porch this morning. He was obviously distraught being left out there so long and whatsmore I had left the screened door unlatched, so if he were a wee bit smarter, he could have pushed it open and gotten out into the yard and who knows what would have happened. I'm thankful that I didn't stay all day at work and I'm thankful Ike hasn't been blessed with the same number of brain cells as the brilliant Izzie. Ike was upset but after getting a few kibbles and laying down for a nap, he seemed fine.

Lucky Ones

The clean-up continues and with each passing hour more and more people get power back. I thought most people were back on but when I went to work today at least 5 people didn't have power and they lived in various locations around the city and I don't talk to that many people in a day. I could tell they were frustrated and who wouldn't be. The women had wet or flat hair as they probably didn't have hair dryers or curling irons to do their do I suspect. Also today I went and got us some groceries. We lost most of our food, so we were pretty much starting from zero. Ragged has been working her hind end off and there will likely be a whole other day before most of the people in our city have power and this all becomes a distant memory. At least the weather is cool. If it were hot, this would be a whole different ballgame.

Hey You Guys!

Yesterday Ike blew threw. No, not our cat but the hurricane. I don't think I've ever seen such a strong "remnant" storm from a hurricane. The winds were whipping around and if you were outside it was pretty scarey. I was on the porch when a limb from the next door neighbor's tree snapped. Anyway, after it was all over we were without power. It was a pretty new experience for us as at our other house we never went without power over 5 minutes, but then again we hadn't had such a strong storm in years, not since the tornado. At any rate, the first few hours of powerlessness was fine. Later on, it was getting old and I would have rode a bicycle to generate power to our house. Ragged had to go to work because she works for our local electric company so I was home alone. The first guesstimation was that it would be 72 hours before everyone had power back. There was no way to tell where within that time period we would fall. I was imagining the worst. Last night we got out lanters, candles, and flashlights to fend off the dark. It was kind of fun, like camping without the tent and mosquitos. Nevertheless, we went to bed early. Today, Ragged went to work early and I went to Panera Bread to do some work as my actual work place had power but not network capabilities at first. Around lunch time, I hunted down some ice and put some of our food in a cooler in an attempt to save it. I got two of the last bags K-mart had. Who knew K-mart had ice, but I remembered seeing it there before and it was the first place I tried. Anyway, I then went to work for awhile and discovered they had network connection at that point. After being there fore a couple of hours, I decided to come on home and found that we had had power for about 45 minutes. Altogether, we were without power for about 28 hours, maybe a little less. It's a damn sight better than 72 hours. So, I put all the food back in the fridge and I threw open the doors to enjoy the cool weather. It's back to business as usual at least at the Chez. There are still alot of people without power. I feel their pain.

Ike (not the hurricane)

Hot Saturday

After sleeping in, Ragged and I grabbed some breakfast and the day began. First, Ragged's dad came over to advise us on some touch up painting. He then took us to pick up our mattress. I won't go into our ridiculous experience in doing that except that when we tried to get the box springs up the stairs, it would not fit. We tried to turn it every way and we even took off the door to no avail. We ended up getting 2X8s for slats and plopped the mattress on top of them. It worked out fine and the height ended up being just right. We then went on a furniture hunt to the used and new furniture stores around town. We eyeballed a couple of pieces we liked but we weren't completely sold on them, so we're going to consider it until tomorrow at least.

P.S. Get well soon Copper

It's Sabotage

How do I describe Thursday? Well, it was the first day in awhile I felt like I knew what I was doing at work. I've been so overwhelmed with stuff that I was flying by the seat of my pants. Today, I actually felt competent and in control. It felt good. You don't want an attorney or judge questioning you and you don't have an answer for them. Anyway, I spent half a day at work and the rest of the day at home. Tonight I went to the fitness center and then later went to DQ for a sundae. I'm my own worst enemy. And did I mention that we are finished with the storage facility. I sent them the last check today. Tomorrow I have to spend the whole day at work. Tonight I organized all of my stuff so I could get alot of stuff completed tomorrow that have been lingering for awhile.

Catch Up

Is it Wednesday already? Geez. Not that I'm complaining because that means we are close to the end of the week which is always a good thing. This week I've been eating myself into a coma. It seems like I can't get enough to eat and I haven't been exercising which makes me feel like crap. I have been sleeping well, so there's that. Anyway, I think my job is about to change at work which I'm looking forward to but I'm sure I'll regret once it actually happens. More on that later. We are down to the last few things in our storage facility and I'm ready to get it all out. We have that pesky problem of not having a truck which is maddening. Also, for the past few weeks I've been dying to go camping. Last weekend would have been a great time, but there's always something else to do. This weekend it looks stormy/rainy and next weekend is the weekend before our party, so there's alot to do. Might as well sell our camping gear and forget it. Nah, there's always the spring.

Sold

The yard sale is over and I made $75 and I didn't have much in it. Actually this money was from one big sale. The sale was very organized and there were plenty of hands, so the work went quickly. The weather was good and we now live in a very central location in our town, so we had plenty o' customers. After that, we went out for a nice lunch and then back home to watch a movie. I slept through the whole thing, so I don't know what happened on "August Rush", so don't ask. Ragged can tell you.

Right now Ragged is snoozing and I'm watching home improvement shows. All the doors are thrown open and the cats are on the porch or in bed with Ragged. Oh, and did I mention we did some caulking today. Well actually I haven't done the bathtub yet. That'll be later.

Soapbox Derby

Tomorrow is the big day. No, not THAT big day but the day of the yard sale. We've spent most of the afternoon in preparation and I ran a couple of errands for it today as well. Considering I won't really be making any money, I'm not sure why I was involved other than to support my woman, Ragged Around the Edges (and Slightly in the Center, Too). In case you didn't know, that was her full online identity, but we had to shorten it for time constraints. At any rate, at the crack of dawn, we'll be up selling crap to people who already have too much crap but can't pass up a bargain on crap or are too cheap to buy crap at the Wal-mart. My participation in this will be minimal from here on out...at least I hope. I just want to sleep. Izzie puked all night last night, so neither Ragged nor I slept much. I did get in a 45 minute nap today, so I'm not hurting quite as badly.

So, Sarah Palin. What do you say? At first I thought McCain was crazy for choosing her. Now I realize it was in fact quite smart. She appeals to so many groups of people it's ridiculous. I won't be voting for her or McCain or in fact any Republican, but strategically she was a good choice. Of course, she will be shredded in the media and public opinion over the next couple of months. I can't help but think if she thinks teaching abstinence and nothing else is still a good idea, but that's just me. On a superficial note, I have the same query as David Letterman who asked if she looks like a model for Lens Crafters. Yes, Dave, she do. She looks like a naughty secretary or the high school teacher that strips at night. Like I said, those are my shallow thoughts, so sue me.

Working for a government has given me a litle bit of insight into political BS and I became disgusted with the whole thing a long time ago. I just want someone to tell the truth and do what they say they are going to do and try to help everyone and NOT try to force their morality on others and limit their rights. I'm not sure we'll ever get that. At least I have no faith that we will. I pray that whoever gets it will do something. We are hurting as a country in lots of ways. The list is long and everyone's concerns needs to be addressed. I said EVERYONE's. Not just white or rich or evangelical but everyone's. And for goodness sake, if nothing else, get us out of this war.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night..

Well not really because it's daytime, but if the weather continues it may be. We've gotten a considerable amount of rain today which was sorely needed because it hasn't rained here in any tangible amount for over 3 weeks. With this change in weather comes allergies. Today my head has been throbbing and I feel dizzy and nauseous. Fantastic. On top of that, I had a bad day at work. Lately my heart isn't in my work and I'm making dumb mistakes. I've got to get myself together...or not.

Two For Tuesday

Getting back to work after a 3-day weekend in a word, sucks. But I took it in stride and was quite productive...well at least for me. Anyway, tonight I got a hankerin' for Taco Bell. As a matter of fact, I was hankerin' for it at the beginning of the weekend and I just got to satisfy it tonight. Yum.

This weekend we are having a yard sale (boo). I may have three things in it. I just can't make myself go through my stuff yet again. I already did that when we moved. Ragged seems to enjoy going through her stuff periodically. I hate it. I'd rather go camping as the weather is supposed to be great. Stupid ole yard sale.

Laborious

Three day weekends throw me off. I have thought today was Sunday all day. Anyway, Ragged and I got up pretty early and cleaned out her car. After some breakfast, we got ready and went on the hunt for a mattress. After visiting four or five places, we decided on the one we wanted, but we had to get home to visit with my parents. After a brief visit with them, we were back on the road for some lunch down by the river and some shopping with Ragged's mama. I scored two pair of shorts to exercise in! Anyway, after we got home, we grilled some pork chops and I got some work done for work. It has been hot, hot, hot today. Can't wait for the Fall.