Yesterday was my 20th anniversary. WoW. I don't really think I ever thought we'd make it this far. Especially not with the drama of year 8. But here we are and we're still having fun and long talks and all of it. It's really quite amazing.
I let him sleep in yesterday while I took care of some Amazon business. Once he woke, we went for 'brunch' at a local diner where the chicken fried steak was ACTUAL chicken and real honest gravy. The hash browns were made from potatoes and not a pre-processed version. We were basically STUFFED. We had to skip lunch, it was so filling. And neither of us finished the full meal.
Afterward, we shopped a little for the dog, who is pregnant. Stupid neighbor dog. Still, the dog is kind of getting along in years and I think I would like my dog to have at least tried to have puppies. We shall see. We drove the dog food home after and went out again to get some pictures DH took developed. This took us to a great part of town, but my stomach was so full I couldn't really walk around and explore it! Major suck. We came home instead.
Watched some TV, I did some online stuff, he did some online stuff. When it rolled around to 6pm, I watched Project Runway (at first I was really pulling for Kenlee, but she's a one trick pony who listens to nobody and knows everything, which I hate...get her off! And seriously...go Leanne! Local girl making good!) and then we went to dinner at our favorite local restaurant, La Isla Bonita. I had the siete mares (Seven Seas) soup. This is basically a broth stuffed with seafood. There was halibut, crab legs, abalone, clams, shrimps, scallops and calamari (octopus). DH said he was surprised at how enthused I seemed about the soup, like I was really enjoying it, and he thought I wasn't a big fan of seafood. I looked at him dumbly and went, "What?" "You don't eat much seafood." "You mean like smoked kippers (a favored snack), tuna fish, fish burgers (only at BK, tyvm), crabs, clam chowder, fried calamari...." "Oh. Good points," he says somewhere in the middle of that stuff. I could have gone on. I eat a lot of seafood. Crazy guy. Still learning after all these years.
Stuffed ourselves again (and jumbo margarita, natch!) and came home to watch Top Design and ANTM. (It was reality show night. Thank Artemis for DVR.) Tonight is Survivor (which I watch with my friend on Friday, so don't spoil me baby!) and I'm caught up on the new Heroes (Mohinder, what did you DO?) and "Terminator: Sara Conner Chronicles" (what are you DOING, River?). I am behind on "Sons of Anarchy", although I adore Peg Bundy's role. She's really quite amazing, that woman and this is a lush role for her. (I've decided to use 'lush' to mean anything posh and grand...although I think the Brit's use it mostly in conjunction with food. I like it anyhow. I love BBC America.)
Today is Vivi's birthday. She's two, officially. (She's been unofficially two for quite some time. The tantrums are terrific! The demands are demandy!) So I've two pictures for you to celebrate the occasion.
Taken by me, here she is wearing a hat my mother made for her. Her mother and I both list "orange" as our favorite color and it's really showing off her cute little face and those eyes. She's got a temporary tattoo on the side of her face there, not a bruise. LOL
This one was taken by DH. She's actually wearing a tuxedo cummerbund as her headband, and the tie. It kind of makes her 'skeleton' tee shirt more formal, don't you think? Still, she's grown a lot and is very cute.
Hope you all had as good a Wednesday as I did. If you didn't, well, hope you have a good weekend anyhow!
"Where are you going?" I ask. He's in the middle of cooking dinner.
Heavy sigh. "To go get Matt."
"Oh." Me.
Realization dawns that NONE of the FOUR children sprawled on my livingroom couch are MY CHILDREN. I know because I went in there earlier and saw the CRAP that my eldest said he'd pick up yesterday still there. Two of the kids there assured me they would be "kicking his ass" to make sure he cleaned it, but he was currently at work.
*sigh*
I live in hell.
- Music:Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog
At 7am, my fire alarm starts going off. This little fun device is right in front of the door jamb into my room, so it's nice and loud. Of course, in my dream-state I thought it was actually the alarm. When I realize what it is, I leap from the bed and look around in a blur. No fire. Well, that's good! Then I have to find something to reach the alarm, which is on the ceiling. I am 5'4" tall. I can't reach the ceiling from a chair, much less without one. The closest 'pokey' device with length? The deer antlers my husband bought off eBay. (Yes, antlers. I think he intends to carve them or something. I don't know.) They do the trick and the alarm shuts off.
And then it goes off again. This time, I went and got the broom and pushed the little button. Stayed off. So I'm looking around and...no fire. No smoke either. There's not even smoke SMELL in the house. I mean, was there an earthquake and it set it off? I have no idea.
So I've had 5 hrs sleep and don't want to go back to bed. Not because I'm not tired, I'm tired, but because it seems stupid to start my day and then go back to bed. Oh well. I'll just sleep in the chair later.
Wierd day so far.
Along with season 1 of Buffy, season 1 of Angel, Firefly, and various episodes from Young Hercules, ER, Emergency!, Starsky and Hutch, Barney Miller, How I Met Your Mother, and just a host of other TV programs and full length movies.
FREE.
Hulu is wonderful.
Then the kids descended.
Since last Wednesday, the babymomma, the baby and various other teen friends have been at my house. Non stop. Saturday and Sunday? There were SEVEN teens here and a fussy nearly 2 year old baby. Every single time I went through the kitchen, I had to stop and fill the dishwasher. They put everything in the sink. Of the nine people in the house (so DH and I and THEM), two were putting things in the dishwasher. One of them was NOT the DH. (It was my fussy, clean, younger son. I'm so proud!)
I should mention at this point that my sink does not have a garbage disposal. If food is tossed in, it plugs the sink up until someone reaches into the sick water and removes it. This someone is me. Visitors to the house can not understand the concept of not having a disposal and they put food in there anyhow. In the past week, I've pulled out a lot of food. I've also bitched about it. And about putting shit in the dishwasher. Know what I'm going to do after this post? Yeah.
So the Saturday before that I spent TWO HOURS cleaning the living room. This is where the pile of teens is sleeping. They are keeping their clothes, books, anime movies, anime costume parts (cosplay costumes) and peices and bits all over my newly cleaned living room. Again, I bitched and they picked it up...but I can see the stuff in the corners they think I'm not seeing, and the pile forming under the stupid chair.
To top it off...my brother called and he, his girlfriend and his girlfriend's daughter are all coming to overnight it at my house on Monday. This is the brother from Montana. I asked him to bring my mom, too. So I will have this weekend to clear out the stuff gathering in there and try to make it presentable for at least 3 overnight visitors. I have no idea what AJ is thinking...he's seen my house and I no longer have a fold-out couch, which I told him....but we'll make do. We always manage.
Besides, it should make for quite the blog entry later on. Hope my mother comes! :)
If you haven't seen it, please take a look. The whole thing was full of wonderflonium goodness (please, don't bounce) and Joss' quotable quotes. I have a new respect for Neil Patrick Harris, too. He was lovely. Of course, the Captain was shiny, too. If you'd rather see it a lot, you can download it through iTunes and keep it for yourself. I'm going to wait for a DVD I think. I have a lot of computer issues and am afraid it will dust before I can figure out how to burn it to disk.
All hail Joss.
What was I doing Ten Years Ago?…
1998? Geez. I'm kind of researching this and that was...before I put a Bravenet guestbook at my website (but only by a year). And almost a year before Themiscyra was founded. From that, I believe you'll find this is probably when I finally told my DH about DB and an 8 month separation began. I went and got a job -nothing fabulous, but it paid the bills and I was good at it. I also lived with friends while the DH had the kids and the apt and broke the car beyond repair. Gee, that was a fun time.
Five Things On Today’s “To Do” List …
1. Check the bank balance and decide what bills to pay so I know how very little money I have to make it to next week.
2. Check email and websites.
3. Post horror news story about a 10 year old bride from Yemen.
4. Go to work on the bus.
5. Get the hell out of work and come home so I can watch the 2nd installment of Dr. Horrible again.
I’m addicted to…
Reality TV, popcorn, water, TV, video games, my husband.
Things I Would Do If I Were a Millionaire…
Buy this house full on and fix it the hell up. This would include adding several feet to the back side including a porch and a second bathroom. There would also be a whole nother building just for DH and his projects. I would also do a little traveling, including some world wide places. Most of all, I'd finish paying off everything I could, including the back taxes (not much), the dentist bill, the hospital bills, and so forth. Then I'd give what was left to my Grandmother, who is a generous soul and has lost a fortune spreading it out to her family. I want to do that...starting with her.
Places I have Lived…
Hillsboro, Or.
Manzanita, Or.
Beaverton, Or.
Tigard, Or.
Portland, Or.
Sums it up. Told you the last one was boring. The most interesting bit was the move to the coast (Manzanita) and I hated every second of it because it wasn't the city life I was accustomed to. I'm much happier here in Portland.
But I'm a total geek.
- Music:Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog
Yesterday, I logged on before work. When I came home, I logged on and couldn't do anything. Somewhere in between something happened. Now what's wierd is that I couldn't find evidence of other web sites or anything else. PLUS-my DH's computer has the same virus on it also without a clue. Bizzarre.
Needless to say, had to restore and reinstall the universe. Stupid computer.
It still didn't mess me up and it kind of helped me.
How it didn't mess me up: Last week I got a 'newspaper' in the mail. This is one of those community things that are mostly ad's and like an article about the local restaurant's struggles against the big bad city. Well, there's also a "Multicultural Fair" at the park near my house today. I've been planning on going with the baby (kid activities! clown! live music!) all week.
Instead, I went with DB. The baby never showed up to the house today. She was here three days last week and the boy made her disappear on Thursday night and she hasn't returned. *sigh* All freaking day. She would have loved that fair. She's a huge fan of bubbles, would have loved a pinata, enjoyed a balloon and danced her little butt off. But...no. Still had fun with DB. Listened to some guy with an accordian and ate some Hawaiian food. (Specifically, fried spam and sticky rice wrapped in seaweed. MMMM) Returned home cause it was hot, and it was a little boring as there were honestly like six booths and three were food.
How it helped me: I believe I mentioned how I've been working really hard to keep up on the clean dishes/counter/sink situation in the kitchen. (It's not a clean kitchen. The floor is a horror still and I fear what lurks under the table, much less on top. Don't even think about the ceiling fan.) I've been thinking for a week now how I need to expand the 'clean' to another area and have been trying to decide. Back here has become a pile of crap, the laundry room has a pile of laundry, the bathroom is not presentable in the slightest and the livingroom is a pile of garbage.
Since I had all this time to not be on the internet, I decided this morning to clean the livingroom. Nobody was sleeping on the couch (amazingly) and everyone else was in bed so it seemed a good time. I gathered some little plastic grocery bags (from the floor) and started stuffing trash into it. Cleaning the living room took 2 hours. When I was finished, I had one of those big black trash bags full to the rim and had finally given up and started another. I had a sink full of dishes (which filled the washer, if this tells you how many) and I had a washer full of ONLY towels and baby clothes. FULL people. I also had a box full of baby toys, a couch full of crap, and a huge pile of clothes and shoes in front of the boys' room.
Yeah.
Some of the fun things: A bowl of hardened, dried on to the point where I couldn't get it off, top ramen. A broken bowl whose shattered pieces were within easy reach of the baby. The girlfriends panties. (Yeah.) THREE used up, disgusting, soggy diapers that had to have been from at least a month ago. A dried sandwich. McD's french fries that could have doubled as darts, they were so hard.
How to resolve some of the issues? Well, I literally changed the layout of the living room. I took both end tables and moved them OUT of the living room. One was in a corner and obviously someone decided the space between the back wall and the front of the couch where it lined up was the perfect place to dump trash. Also, it was being used as a staging area for the dishes. You know, under it. The other end table was just a gathering place for clothes, shoes, socks and that broken bowl I mentioned. It is still in the living room, but it is only for Vivi to sit at and draw. It is not for them to put things on.
I rearranged the furniture so that everything was flush against the wall. I am sure there will still be a pile of crap under the chair, but it will no longer be in the way of my getting to the restroom. Plus, if they want to move it all the time, they'll have to move stuff out of the way.
I also explained the rules. I will be touring the room and stacking crap in front of their doors, should I find crap. I have also decided to speak to the girlfriend (she isn't here and hasn't been all day) about her panties and so forth. MOST of that mess was hers. There was sewing stuff and drawings...and her original birth certificate which was wet...clothes, belts, shirts, pajamas, gloves, books and games and they were all hers. I have a little pull with her right now. Here's what I'm going to say. "Look, clean up. If you don't clean up you will be given ONE chance to clean up your act. If you continue, I will ban you from my house. This is not Son's house, this is MY house. I decide who lives here. Think I'm joking? Really? Because all I have to do to enforce that is to call your mom and mention your fabulous job. STRIPPING."
Yes, she lies to her mother. Her mother, who is a very nice woman possibly younger than myself, has been told that her daughter is working washing dishes at a restaurant. Her mother is also a very no-nonsense kind of woman. I believe that if she discovers the real occupation, her daughter won't stay in my house for more than twenty more minutes.
It's good to be the Queen.
Thus begins the campaign for a better house. We'll see how long it holds.
Ps: I do have photos, but due to the computer blow up, I'm not quite ready to post them. It's been a busy day.
Accent: My own. Yeah, I speak Northwestern…flat and without a real accent. I then tuck in some of the Queen’s English here and there and will adopt many others depending on who I’m with and who I’m talking to and about. This can include southern belle (which I do fairly well I think) and really pretty horrible Spanish. Wait until you hear me do Amazon. It’s a treat.
Of course, it's all me. Apparently some of my card purchases are 'credit' while some are 'debit' and the credit ones don't pull out of the balance. Which I sincerely doubt is true, but whatever. They also had me sign some waiver that said I understand that them moving money costs $10 so they're sending that volume in the mail. I doubt I signed that as I signed up under ACS's banking cooperative, but whatever. Send it along.
In other news....
Finally got my "Serenity" disappearing ship mug. :) It looks kind of funky when the ship is missing. I put it up on a shelf for now. I'm not using it until after many children leave the house. It can stay safe on my shelf. Of course, it came with another Buffy comics, which is good, and I notice even more Season 8 comics happening that I'm not subscribed to...but I'm broke right now so that's all right. I'm going to pretend I don't see it.
Happy birthday greetings to
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
theemdashtoday! She's already replied saying it's been a great day. Can't wait to see the blog of that. :)I also wanted to mention that since I posted the before/after pictures of my kitchen, I have been working like a dog to keep it clean. This basically means that I empty the dishwasher when I wake and put things that gathered overnight while I slept into it. Then when I get home from work, I put the pile in the dishwasher (because nobody here checks to see that it's empty, they just dump into the sink). Then before I go to bed I do that again, and if it's full, run it. I clean the counters and sinks and ... well, frankly, I still ignore the stove.
Night before last I asked DH to wash the cast iron that was gathering on the stove and he said he would. Came home and ...they were on the stove in the same pile. I commented and he says, "Well, I was busy!" Yeap. He was carving himself a knife. Instead of getting pissy, I simply washed them before I went to bed last night. Apparently this made an impression because when I woke...someone had finally wiped off the crap on the stove and I suspect that was him. That was a nice surprise. He must have felt guilty that I cleaned the pots. But they had been moved into my sink and I'm not going to bed with things in that sink. Oh no.
I'm also not paying anyone in this house an allowance for doing dishes they ain't doing. So there.
It's been about two weeks and the dishes have been kept out of the sink and the counters have remained clean. And still the dishes pile in the sink every day because nobody puts things in the dishwasher. This is a device located about 2 inches from the sink, by the way. Then again, I have grown men who can't throw away the packaging to Ramen noodles. Located about 2 inches to the right of the cutting board they left it on. It's not like this stuff is far away, people! This kitchen is one of the most cramped I've ever worked in. Reach your hand out and put it where it belongs. Yeesh.
Still good to wake up to a (mostly) clean kitchen. Nothing is growing on the counter and the sink is not full of spoiled pancake batter ew water. Its all good.
Finally, there is currently no news on the DB front. He has maintained a good distance. I will say that he had me approach some old flames of his...friends of mine since the 7th grade. This was actually a good thing as I hadn't talked to one in over a year (lost her number and things) and I never seem to call the other.
The first, Shadoe, was his heavy bf-gf in high school. Like for three years they went out. It ended really badly, although I don't remember how or why. I lived at the coast at the time and was far from the gossip of the time. I know she resented him. She lived with us for a while and he had a parade of girlfriends with no brains for a while and it just tore her up. Then he went and married our mutual friend...Ladyhawk. Still, a lot of time has passed and I know she's not the same woman. She's married and been so for 10 years, fairly happily. She has two daughters by the marriage and seems content. She agreed to contact by email.
Ladyhawk, his ex-wife, sounded as panicked as I did that day about a year ago when he appeared on my doorstep. Didn't want to see him, talk to him, not even through email. She was much happier when he lived far away and she knew she wouldn't run into him. I totally understand this point of view and expressed it to DB. He was disappointed, but conceeded defeat. I'm not sure if she'll come around and it's up to her. He did treat her like a disposable moist towlette, so it's hard to say.
That's about it for now. I'll keep updating with developments, if I get any.
Happy birthday, Em! :)
I am paid every Thursday now, which is still freaking me out. It's harder than getting a lump sum every two weeks because your check just does NOT cover bills, so you have to save some and use some for groceries. I dunno, it doesn't seem to go as far as when I was paid every other week. Maybe its just harder to manage.
Last Thursday was pay the water or have no water time. The water bill is an issue unto itself. The water is not a big expense, but the sewage KILLS me every time. Last time, the bill was $400. They hit me up once every three months, hence the cost. Most of it is sewage. Well, I paid the first half and then didn't pay last month, so it had stacked up. I go online and pay the remaining balance, nearly $250 with fees for reprinting mails asking me to pay (grr). This basically means my meager $100 leftover (I make $10/hr and work 40 hours and then...taxes occur) had to be the big funding for a three day weekend. This includes drop in teen guests, food, fireworks, babies, pets and all those other things you inevitibly run out of when you have no money....milk, bread, eggs.
I'm watching the bank account real close all weekend. Check it every time I know I need something to be sure I can afford it, that kind of thing. I see it dwindling down, move some over from my meager savings, watch it dwindle again, move more over...you get the idea. I moved money out from savings twice over the weekend.
What I'm watching is the 'available balance'. I don't write checks if I can help it. (Stupid car payment.) I use electronic means to pay bills and my card at the store and other places. When you use your card, especially at a store, it automatically takes away from the available balance right then. The upshot is, I know that while I'm watching that available balance dwindle I do know how much is in the account. Since there are no checks to account for, what I see is what I have.
Until this morning. Overnight, the bank processes all the transactions from over the weekend. It sees me in trouble or something and moves money out of my savings to cover it. $35 more dollars. Of COURSE, $10 is the fee to do that. --- Did the automatic computer need a tip? Why is there a fee to move money you have in your bank from one account to another? I can see that if it's covering some poor woman's salary to go into my account, figure it out, and move it by hand...but an automatic computer move in a virtual world? What am I paying for there?
I think to myself, "I had $51 in there and spent $9 on catfood. WHY did I need an overdraft protection move?" There was NOTHING outstanding. No bill was pending, they were all paid long ago. There was no automatic drafts from anywhere, I cancelled all but one of those accounts and the one I didn't cancel is $14 which when added to $9 still is NOT $51 as far as I'm aware. (New math?) There were no checks out there. Why did my available balance fall $35 dollars below (okay, $25. I keep forgetting the FEE) the $51 I had in there? How did I spend $85 on a $9 bag of catfood?
I've sent them a scathing email asking them what happened. Perhaps the 'available balance' is not really available? Perhaps the computer is a compulsive liar? It's an AVAILABLE balance. Not an available balance unless we want to screw you out of money.
I appear to be cranky. I think I'll go to work.
*grr*
theemdashreports that Don S. Davies passed away on the 29th. For those not in the know, he was Major General George Hammond, leader of Stargate Command for 8 of it's 10 year run. Reading his IMDB, he was in....everything, quite frankly, that had to do with sci-fi on TV. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0204493/You'll be missed, General.
Tuesday, DB came over for dinner. Thursday, he dropped over to fix a game. Tonight, he's called and IM'd me.
It's just ... wierd. There was 10 years of silence there. Couldn't call, couldn't visit...he'd moved to Montana anyhow...didn't email or anything. I won't say I was perfect the entire time, I wasn't. I did try to look him up on the net. Found information about his daughter and a poem he wrote her, but nothing else. Heard a bit here and there from friends of friends...things like that. Nothing concrete and nothing reliable.
That said, I knew someday he'd appear at the door. Used to day dream about it. What I'd say, what I'd do, what he'd say, etc. There were times where I slammed the door in his face, simply didn't open it, or stood there with a tiny smile and said, "Sorry. It doesn't work that way. You were right and we shouldn't see each other. Bye." There were an equal number of hugs, driving away in his car, things of that nature. Total forgiveness and then off we'd go into the sunset. Mind, the sun never comes up there. The whole time I knew the reality of myself - which is what DID happen.
Forgiveness. Friendship with a hysterical edge.
Oh, yeah. That edge is HYSTERICAL. There is funny shit and there is bat-shit crazy and there is non-function and denial.
Spend the day driving around with DB? Hysterical! What does he want? Does he want to 'talk' or does he want to TALK? What the hell do I want to say? I should mention this comes with real, physical reaction as well. Stomach rolling, instant headache, bowel clenching, inability to eat, a quietness of self that is beyond the normal...I nod a lot.
DH wants to be fishing buddies with DB? Hysterical! This one is funny shit. DH believes in the water-bridge thing and trusts ME. Should he? WHY? When did I prove that was a good idea? NEVER? It's okay to be friends with DB! This one comes with disbelief, a sincere reminder that I should be as trustworthy as I am trusted, and that my DH is a great, great man.
DB visits twice and during both visits touches me inappropriately? (Not that way, geesh!) HYSTERICAL. BAT-SHIT CRAZY! Tuesday, he did a subtle brush against my back leg and twisted his body into the chair across from me so that his leg was against mine....for a brief moment. (I moved.) Thursday, he stood behind me at the computer and pushed his hands into my hair across my scalp, gathered it up and pulled it into a kind of beehive thing, rubbed, then let it drop.....because DH walked into the room. This one came with a shiver up my spine that I could not control and sleep drugs as I could do nothing other than envision the conversation I will need to have with DB about his behavior. And then the conversation I had with myself because surely it was all imagined and DH was RIGHT there and he didn't say anything and he had to have seen the hair drop and maybe it's like rubbing someone's shoulders or something and I'm just FREAKING out over NOTHING.
I have decided to take a few DEEP tantric breaths and see what the weekend brings. DH works Sat & Sun, and I just have a feeling DB might drop over for a visit on Sunday. If the batshit crazy hysterical is NOT in my imaginings, then neither will be the conversation I have practiced. It goes something like: "Look. I know how it was. That's not how it IS. If you wouldn't feel comfortable touching me like that in front of DH, do not do it in private when he's not watching. It's not fair for him. It's not fair for you. And it certainly isn't fair for me."
We call that GROWTH people. 10 years. This was growth time. It's time to put those lessons into practice. Sal has taught me to smack down, Amazons have taught me to stand strong, TC has taught me to stay true, and my husband shows trust. I betray them all if I allow this cindered bridge to rise from the ashes. I burned it. I won't be crossing it again. Time for him to understand that, I think.
Sunday is a time of rest for me. I mean total rest. Sitting in front of the computer and TV in my PJ's, the only thing scheduled to happen is doing my laundry. I went to Hulu and watched "Buffy: The Pack", one of my personal favorite episodes. After, I decided to check out the "Young Hercules" area and turned on an Amazon episode.
I was maybe 10 minutes into it when someone knocked. It sounded like the neighbor at my door, so I sighed heavily and went to answer it. Pulled it open and it wasn't my neighbor. It was some guy in a black hat with a mustache. "Yes?" I ask.
"Hi, Deoris," he says.
I know that voice. It's unmistakable. The face suddenly swirls into place and I realize...it's Dream Boy. On my doorstep. While I'm in PJ's. "Hiya, Dream Boy," I say in a very quiet voice.
As you may remember, I had a panic attack the last time he was here, which was about a year ago. (I looked it up. February 2007.) This time, I had enough anxiety to bridle a horse, but I didn't panic.
Invited him in, was hugged, talked to him for a bit. Took him into the living room to talk to Pat and Vivi so I could get dressed. (Bad enough he's here, I can't face him without actual clothes on.) And...we had a day.
He got here about 10am. By about 11, we were on the road trying to find something for Donin's new computer. At about 2, we were in his new apartment taking a tour. At 4, he brought me home where I waited for Donin to get off work and then both of us went back to DB's apartment for chatting and memory lanes.
It was a good day.
The upshot is that he's divorced his wife, in some interesting circumstances there that I won't go into because that's his business, had another near-death experience where he was hit in the head repeatedly by a log jam in a river, and has moved back here to Portland. He's getting a roommate and has his youngest brother staying with him right now. He's interested in talking to Nikki, although he wouldn't blame her if she never spoke to him again, and Donin wants to go fishing with him.
It's very surreal. I have his email, his phone number and his address. He was over here last night for dinner. To know I can contact him and that he can contact me is just strange after so long a time. It's a change of a mindset that's been ingrained in me for ten years. That's a very long time. My youngest boy doesn't even remember him, and he was around a LOT when they were little, that's how long ago it was.
I just wanted to blog about it a little. I'm still uneasy with everything. I'll keep y'all updated.
Came home and had issues with dinner creation. It was freaking hotdogs and chili. This takes a grand total of like 10 minutes to cook fully. (Jeff finally did it at 7pm.) Anyhow, I decide that since nobody else will, I will make the chili. But...no pan. No...way to clean a pan as the sink is jammed on both sides. No...help.
FINE!
*cleaning begins* Here are a few 'before' pictures, taken actually long after I'd emptied one side of the sink and started on the other. They are behind the cut.
theemdash is TEH awesome and I know at least a couple of my readers might just enjoy it .... Fandom_grammar is looking for some hosts with knowledge. You know who you are. :) Don't want to host? It's a good way to get your grammar questions answered at any rate. They use examples and everything.In related news, I'm the Toasted Cheese Absolute Blank author this month. Check it and vote. It's short, I'll give it that much. (You know, when I wrote it, it was much longer. I cut a lot in editing. I tend to ramble. Then when I cut, I don't check to see how short it really is. Didn't mean for it to be quite that short.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deoris/?don
One of the perks of 'changing' jobs was that I now get holidays. Doesn't seem that big a deal until you have to work 4 Christmases and 4 New Years and 4 Thanksgiving's. I wasn't paid for the day, but I had it off as did my DH. We decided to do something we'd always wanted to do - chase down covered bridges in Oregon.
Jeff had discovered that there were many covered bridges in Oregon like 2 or 3 years ago. We just never seem to follow through as quickly as we might want. Well, we have a car and although gas is OUCHIE, decided to drive and find some bridges. After some extensive Google searching, we found seven bridges near a little town called Cottage Grove. This is south of Eugene, about 136 miles south of Portland. Took over 2 hours to get there and get back. We spent probably an hour total looking at bridges and about four looking FOR bridges.
There wasn't a map of the bridges that I could find online. I found some addresses or 'rough idea' locations like "so and so river" or "so and so road" and I kind of made my own directions. Two of the bridges were right in Cottage Grove and were VERY easy to find. One was south somewhere and then there were two on one road, one on the road to get to the two, and one over by a lake. Fairly easy, I thought. Well, reality was a little different.
On the one to get south the road I'd seen that went where I needed to go actually didn't. It ended in the freeway, so we went to the next town, Curtain*, and pulled off into a roadside park for a potty break. It was a pleasant surprise as the park had a big pond full of geese and goslings and several ducks. The ducks wandered right up to us as did all of the geese and goslings. Geese make a terrible hissing noise if you get too close to thier young. But they swarmed around us, so it wasn't our fault. It was a cool stop.
We followed a road we thought led back to Cottage Grove, hoping it would lead to the bridge. Well, we see this sign that says, "End of County Improvements" and there's this bizarre bit of pipe that we drove over. The second we got over it, it was a kind of blind corner, there were big signs saying "private!" and "monitored by video" and so forth. The road ENDED there. There was no dead end sign, no warning, it just stopped. We gave up and backtracked and went back to Cottage Grove to find the other four bridges.
Again, I'd decided from maps online which road was best to take and reviewing the trip tonight, I just went WAY too far. I missed the road branch by a LOT. So we wandered around in the toolypucks and did manage to find one more bridge, but not the other three. We couldn't even find the lake. Jeff tired of all the driving and seeking and we hit the road back home.
The pictures are of bridges, creeks, forest and trees, and ducks. Please enjoy.
*The trip was full of strangely named towns. Curtain, Drain, Shedd, Tangent, Goshen.
Profile
- fifthhouse
- Deoris
- Fifth House
Syndicate
