BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION 2010

SATURDAY - JULY 31

CONROE, TX - WILLIS, TX

**I am a swollen bag of food. My ruse didn't work and Grandma kept feeding us. I think I'm going to explode. Help Me.**

This morning I awoke with a lovely rash all over my face. Great. I see these people once a year, at most, and I wake up looking like I have some kind of flesh eating bacteria nomming on my face. At first I thought my skin was just having a bad day, but I didn't have pimples like this on even my worst adolescent moments, so I have no idea what is going on. I can only imagine what was said about me while we were at the reunion:

"Mommy, what's that?"
"It's called a leper, dear. In polite society, we shun them. Run along and play. DON'T LOOK IT IN THE EYES!"

Nice, huh?

After breakfast, (ugh) we got all dressed up and headed over to the big house where we had our family reunion!


For once it didn't come a flood while we were there, but the temperature got to be over 100. Needless to say, I stayed indoors almost the whole time. I spent most of my time talking to some lovely cousins about different places I could travel. They were older than me, so they've traveled more and I got some good advice. Now I have a few more places to add to my wish list! Yay!

After those cousins left, I sat in the living room and watched "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" with another cousin, who is 11 years old. His mom is either a vet or a vet's assistant, so he knows a lot about animals and told me all about the different kinds of animals on the movie and also about the animals that he has at home. I had to control my laughter when he happened to notice that neither the cat nor the dog in the movie had been neutered. He kept pointing testicles out to me! It wouldn't have been funny if he were doing it to be gross, but he was very matter of fact about it, almost as if he didn't think I knew what they were! :) I didn't laugh, though. Heehee!

After the reunion, we took a rather cheerful detour to look at Steve's grandpa's grave. Whee?

Then Grandma took us to this gigantic supermarket called H.E.B and it had a lot of interesting things in it.


We got a bunch of weird Mexican and Jamaican drinks. That should be interesting. Once we arrived back home, we had dinner, I did a load of laundry and now I'm writing this! We leave tomorrow morning, and so the adventure will then run in reverse. Onward!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION 2010

FRIDAY - JULY 30

CONROE, TX

Today is going to be a rather lazy day, thank goodness. This will also be kind of random because nothing of real note happened today.

We started out with another giant breakfast. It simply does no good to tell Grandma we don't need that much food. She wants us to be stuffed at all times. It doesn't even do any good to put just a little on your plate and tell her you don't want any more, because she will literally hold the serving plate in your face until you take something. I'm going to try an experiment at our next meal to see if I can fake her out, but she's a wiley old bird... She will probably see right through me. I'm going to gain 15 pounds this weekend if she doesn't stop feeding us so much. She loves us, so I'll keep eating. I'd never hurt her feelings.

I've spent the last 3 days with the song "Me & Mrs. Jones" stuck in my head because someone planted it there on purpose. It's driving me nuts! I thought I had it on my iPod and if I listened to it, it would go away, but apparently I took it out of my play list. I used to think that person was my friend, but I'm not so sure of that anymore. :P

We didn't do a great deal (besides eat) today, but we went to Grandma's favorite Mexican restaurant and to a bookstore named Hastings. We don't have a place like it in Huntsville, as far as the range of stuff they carry, so we always try and visit while we are here.

Poor Mr. Lee! While we were out this afternoon, Steve, Grandma and I were sitting in the van waiting for him to come out of a store when a similar blue van parked next to us. The lady left her two kids inside while she ran in, so there was a girl in the front seat and a baby strapped into one of the middle seats. Mr. Lee came out of the store and headed right for the other van! Steve said "He's going to the wrong van." So I started banging on my window and yelling "MR. LEE! MR. LEE!" He got as far as opening the door to the other van before he realized it wasn't his. I'm sure the kids in the van weren't pleased, but he finally came back over to us and got in. Bless his heart! :)

After that, we've just been relaxing. I've been crocheting while everyone else watches TV. Steve put his leg over on me while I was trying to do a stitch and he kept bumping my arm, which irritated me, so I grabbed my scissors and cut a big bald spot out of his leg hair while he wasn't paying attention. I don't know how he didn't notice what I was doing, but it looks hilarious! What makes it even funnier, is that all he brought to wear is shorts! That'll learn him.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION 2010

THURSDAY - JULY 29

METRAIE, LA to CONROE, TX

The first thing I did this morning was wake myself up by ripping my starfish necklace off of my body and screaming a curse word.

I was dreaming that I was being choked by a chain (for once, I'd like to be Slave Leia in this dream) and so I grabbed it and pulled as hard as I could, only to wake up and realize that I had ruined the beautiful silver necklace that Steve had gotten me from Tiffany's for my birthday several years ago. I didn't break the chain, exactly, but I stretched it over three inches and now I'm too afraid to wear it in case one of the links gives way. I started crying because I felt so bad! I hardly ever took the necklace off and I've never done anything like that to it, and now it's ruined. I also now have a "rope burn" across the back of my neck where I pulled the chain so hard. I don't know how I got it off without breaking it, but the clasp still worked when I hooked it back together. On the bright side, I can honestly say that Tiffany's Peretti collection has wonderful craftsmanship, so in case you were thinking about getting anything there, at least you know it won't break! Silver lining. :(

After we partook of the complimentary breakfast, I bullied the guys into taking me to the French Quarter of New Orleans! Well, I didn't actually bully them, but I did ask. I kind of felt bad because it was out of our way and in the opposite direction of where we were going, but they took me anyways! We didn't get to see much because A) It was a million degrees. I'm not sure that's even an exaggeration, it was grossly hot, and B) we still had a long way to go to get to Grandma's house. We walked down the south part of Jefferson Square and a short way down Decatur Street (I think). That was the first time I actually remembered to take a foot picture in New Orleans!

WHEE!

After that, we drove and drove and drove some more. We made a stop at a Store Outlet shopping center so that Steve could get some shoes and so we could have lunch, and then we went back out on the road.


I must really go into some kind of Zen place while crocheting, because before I knew it, we had crossed over into Texas. We stopped at the welcome center, per our usual, and I went out on the walkway over Blue Elbow swamp to take some pictures.


Mr. Lee joined me, but we didn't stay out long because it was really, very hot and humid out there. We didn't see any snakes this year, but we did see a big turtle! Amazingly, that was it for wildlife. When we went back inside, I SWEAR I saw George Lucas picking up maps. It looked too much like him not to be, but Steve said it wasn't. Oh, well, I'm going to pretend it was him. It makes a much more interesting story, doesn't it? :) On our way out, we got hit up for money from a man who "ran out of gas" and as usual, we gave him a bit. He probably didn't need it for gas, but it never hurts, I guess. Maybe it'll give us some good karma, right?

We got back on the road, and after a couple of hours, we finally made it to Grandmas house! She immediately fed us. I had to warn her before we actually made the trip that she didn't need to feed us so much, but she never listens. Oh well... After we visited a bit longer, I finally had to give up and go to bed. It had been a long, butt-numbing drive and I was just glad to be in bed.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION 2010

WEDNESDAY - JULY 28

HUNTSVILLE, AL - METARIE, LA

This morning, Mr. Lee came and picked us up at the crack of dawn so that we could, once again, drive across the dirty south to visit Grandma!

The first leg wasn't exactly eventful, really. We stopped for breakfast at Mr. Lee's favorite breakfast spot, Hardee's, and made our way to Metarie, Louisiana, where we would be spending the night. I spent most of my time plugged into my iPod and crocheting, which really made the time fly by. I didn't realize we were already in Louisiana until right before we stopped at the welcome station. That place is strange! Well, the place isn't strange, but the ladies behind the counter all but tackle you to get you to sign their book. Creepy! I was also chagrined to see that they had repositioned the state-shaped sign to face the parking lot because it meant that I had to practically lay in the street to take my foot picture. Yeah, I got some strange looks for that this time.

It wasn't far to our hotel, which I'm sure is lovely most of the time, but right now it's next to an overpass under construction, and it sounds like it's in a war zone. Not to mention the torn up roads made it difficult for us to get around at first.

We had gotten to Metarie early in the afternoon so that Steve could go by one of the branches of his company and install some equipment for their network, so after we dropped off our luggage, Mr. Lee and I dropped Steve off at his building and went shopping together. It was kind of weird, because A) we didn't know our way around the town and B) he and I don't tend to spend a lot of time shopping together without Steve. It was fun, though! We stopped by a couple of stores that we don't have in Huntsville. I almost got him to stop at a Whole Foods, which I'm curious about, but we didn't need groceries - so we passed it by. : ) Then we went to a mall we found and walked around. THAT really was kind of weird. Malls are very women focused, which I've never really thought of before, so trying to find stores that we could go into together was difficult. It was fun, though. We walked around, I bought some Godiva, and he and I had dinner at P.F. Chang's, where our waitress was juuuuuuuust on this side of ignoring us. I'm going to chose to believe that she was just really busy, though!

It was after seven by the time we got back to the hotel, and Steve wasn't meant to be done until later, so Mr. Lee and I hung around the hotel and watched TV. Steve didn't actually get done with his work until after 10, so by the time Mr. Lee went and picked him up and they got back, the day was over.

Today I had to run an errand across town, and since it wasn't so darn hot I decided to pull the top down on my car. I also wanted to pull the top down, because I figured that it would help get some of the dog hair out.

I keep forgetting to take Lois to the car wash place and use one of their vacuums, and our upright is not conducive for vacuuming out a vehicle, so needless to say, the inside of my car is a grassy, furry mess.

As I'm driving, the dog hair starts to levitate and fly all around me. It wasn't so bad at first, since I wasn't going very fast, but as soon as I hit the highway, dog hair starts pelting me all over the face and sticking into my lip gloss. Also, my hair has begun to fly all over the place (I had forgotten my hat, you see.) By the time I made it to my destination, I looked like this -

- but with furry lips. It was very attractive. Luckily, I had a fold away brush in my purse that tamed the 'do before I went inside the store.

Unfortunately, I didn't have anything to help with the furry lips.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I think I may have a very weird problem. I'm afraid I'm checking my mail multiple times a day without realizing it. What I mean by that is when I go out and check the mailbox, I get the feeling that I might have already been out there to check it that day. That in itself isn't weird, I guess, because lots of people go to the mailbox more than one time a day if they didn't find anything in there the first time they checked, but I'm starting to get the suspicion that I've checked the mail, actually GOTTEN the mail in some instances, and yet still go out there to check again later. You'd think I'd remember, especially if I've actually already taken the mail to the house, but almost every time I go out there now I get the feeling that I've been out there already. The only proof I ever get that I haven't checked the mail is when there is something in the mailbox, but I wish I didn't have a brain block when it comes to whether or not I've been out there already. What if I'm actually doing this? What if the neighbors see me walking to the mailbox and say "Wow, there's that woman again, looking in her mailbox. What is that, like, the 8th time today?" They probably think I've got some kind of crippling OCD and if I don't check the mailbox multiple times a day, I think the world will explode.

2) The other day Steve and I were heading home from church when we noticed a trashed up truck riding beside us in the other lane. There is nothing too weird about that, since we have to drive through a kind of skeezy area to get from church to home, but this truck was purposefully keeping up with us. Steve said "Uh, oh..." and I looked over to see the driver of the truck had the window down, his overly tattooed arm out pointing at the car and was staring in at us. I quickly turned my head forward, not knowing what the proper etiquette is for a situation like that and said to Steve "What do they want?" Because, of course, Steve would know, right? Anyways, I gathered up my courage to look back at the driver (because, if nothing else, I'd like to be able to give the police an accurate description of the man who drove us off the road and killed Steve with a pick-axe if it became necessary) and the guy smiled at me and yelled "NICE CAR!" and gave me the thumbs up, then they drove off. I simultaneously felt relieved and embarrassed for judging the guy in the truck. Obviously I didn't learn much in church that day. :(

3) There is another cat in our neighborhood, a giant Maine Coon, and it has begun creeping around our place. It won't let me pet him/her, and I don't know where it comes from, but I feel really sorry for it. I don't feel sorry for it like I did for Garry and Spot, because it obviously belongs to someone. I feel sorry for it because it is constantly, and I do mean constantly, being chased by 3 blue jays. I've never seen anything like it! The first time I noticed it, I thought that maybe the cat was near the jay's nest or something. But I can't imagine that is the case anymore, because I've seen that cat in three or four different places and the jays are always swooping down and chasing it! Steve's even seen it, so I know it isn't just me. It's so bizarre. What would cause three birds to constantly chase after a cat? What's even sadder, is that the cat is now so used to the birds that it doesn't even try and protect itself anymore. It just walks and lets the jays attack it. It's both funny and sad.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I did a little forensic investigating the other day and think I've figured out why so much of my neighbor's trash ends up in our yard! I happened to pass by their SUV the other day, and I saw that there was a trail of papers and things going from the back of it into our yard. Since I'm fairly certain they don't just sit in their vehicle and toss things out of the window, I am led to believe that they just have a junky car and they leave the doors open long enough for cross breezes to blow their crap into out of their car and into our yard! I mean, it doesn't account for everything we've ever found, but at least it explains some of it. They've moved down a few notches on my "List." Elementary, my dear Watson! (Just in case you are wondering, no, I'm not obsessed with the trash thing. I promise.)

2) Sara and I had a nice, girly day yesterday while she was hanging out on my side of town. We had lunch at Lynn's (which I recommend if you get a chance to go in. Yummy stuff!) We also went to the local farmer's market - which wasn't anything like I imagined it would be, and I forced her to go to Gigi's for cupcakes. Forced her, I say! :) Good times, noodle salad.

3) Steve and I recently bought a Sodastream. Basically, it's this gadget that allows you to make your own soda at home. It's been a lot of fun so far, and hopefully it will replace some of the bottles and cans we end up throwing away. Seriously, we have been a tree-hugger's worst nightmare with all of the glass and aluminum we throw away. The thing came with a sampler pack of soda syrups to try out, but most of them are kind of gross. They are made with Splenda, and I don't care what anyone says, that stuff is nasty. I don't like artificial sweeteners at all, and you can really taste it. However, some of them aren't that bad at all. My future plans involve learning how to make my own syrups and just use the machine to charge the water with CO2. If nothing else, it'll make soda water with no sodium in it, which is awesome. My favorite part of using the thing is the sound you get when you pull the bottle forward to unscrew it from the machine. It sounds like the space shuttle unhooking from the external tank! Very scientific. I am soon going to need a new kitchen just to store my gadgets, I think.

4) Speaking of impulse buys... I bought something the other day that is both sad and embarrassing. There was a night last week where I couldn't sleep at all and I spent hours on the computer just aimlessly browsing around. I was reading an article on Listverse (I think), and I followed a link to an "As Seen On TV" website. I promise you I wasn't looking to spend money on anything, and if I hadn't gotten to the point that I was getting kind of punchy and floopy because of lack of sleep, I wouldn't have even thought about ordering anything. Also, if the credit card hadn't been nearby, I probably wouldn't have used it either. It was like the universe pooled all of it's forces and tricked me into making this order. I ordered a pair of Pajama Jeans. *SHAME* It was like I was hypnotized! I opened up the link, and the video started playing, and my brain just, I don't know, took a leave of absence. I was like "Wow, they do look comfortable! They look like jeans, but they are made of DormiSoft (TM) fabric! Contrasting top stitching! They DO look like they were designed by some European designer! I need these! I need them now!" So I ordered them. Now that I've had sleep, I'm deeply ashamed of my lack of purchasing control. I have no doubt that they will be kind of cheesy, and probably end up being yoga pants with screen printed yellow stitching down each side, but darn it, I'm going to own my mistake. They haven't gotten to me yet, so I have to reserve complete judgment, but...Pajama Jeans? My hopes aren't that high.

5) I want to send out a request for prayers for my Aunt Brenda, if you please. She had a small accident and broke & dislocated her shoulder. From what I understand, she is doing OK, but I'm sure having a broken shoulder isn't pleasant. Also, we hope she doesn't have to have surgery to fix anything! Get well soon, Aunt Brenda!

6) I recently sent in a request to ITT Technical Institute for information on their Drafting program. It was the only place I could find in town that offers classes in AutoCAD, and I just wanted to see what was involved. Now the stupid recruiter keeps calling the house and I wish he'd stop until I get my brochure. You'd think that ITT Tech was more of some kind of cult than a school by the way they keep calling. Seriously, three times a day every day. Since I don't know what kind of questions to ask about the program yet, hence the request for a brochure, I don't answer the phone when they call, but it's getting really old. If they are this desperate for students, they are going about getting them in the WRONG way.

MY LAWN. GET OFF IT. NO SERIOUSLY. GET OFF IT.

This is a public service message: I am within an inch of becoming the crotchety old lady who wants the neighborhood kids to stay off her lawn. One day soon, I'm going to find myself out there, resplendent in a yellow rayon mumu, sitting on a ratty old lawn chair, and threatening children with a fly swatter while screaming unintelligible obscenities at them. This is my destiny. I can feel it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to become that person, but I'm beginning to believe that I live around some of the most disrespectful people on earth and they are MAKING ME THIS WAY! See, I don't usually try to hold a lot of importance on material things. I mean, I don't want people trashing my home, of course. Stuff is just stuff and if something got damaged I might be irritated, but I don't think I'd unravel. I say all of that to you so that you realize that the way I feel now isn't a knee jerk thing. I'm simply and totally done with the jerkfaces next door treating my property without respect.

This has been going on a while. It was bad enough when we had the people next door who were obsessive about their own yard. When I say obsessive, I mean it. The dude had this fancy mower with the leaf bags attached that I swear he used every three days. He mowed his lawn in a plaid pattern! PLAID! Like a golf course is plaid. I wouldn't have been surprised to see the man down on his hands and knees measuring each blade of grass to make sure they were all the same size. He had no problem destroying our grass by letting the company who sodded his yard drive through our back yard, but he once asked Steve to sweep off his yard after Steve accidentally drove the lawnmower the wrong way and blew some grass onto his property. When that guy moved, and the new folks moved in, I was so glad to see that they were just normal yard people. However, I soon came to realize that while they weren't obsessive about their yard, that also meant that they didn't give a rat's ass about our yard either.

I'm sure I've mentioned before how when their kids were little, they'd throw toys over the fence to our dogs. That was irritating, but not a huge deal. I like to think they were just sharing with our boys. Of course, stuffed animals led to toy cars (and I swear Butler actually ate one) then to hand tools that our dogs would destroy, all the way to really large things like the netting that went around the sides of their trampoline and blankets. That's when I realized that they weren't giving things to our dogs to play with, they had turned our back yard into their personal dump. However, they were kids and kids do dumb things. I could dig that. We threw away all of the stuff they put in our backyard, didn't say anything and soon the large objects stopped getting thrown into our backyard. The junk stopped, but the trash soon appeared in our front yard. At first it wasn't a big deal, just a candy wrapper or something like that, but it got worse. I probably wouldn't have ever noticed at all, if I hadn't started accidentally hitting things with the lawn mower. It's one thing to pick up a random ice cream wrapper or the occasional chip bag. It's another thing altogether to pick up a million scraps of paper that have shot out from under the LawnBoy! I probably should have checked the side yard for debris before mowing, but I swear, I'd never see the stuff in our yard until I was right on top of it.

Here is an illustration of the problem: Please excuse the crudity of this model,
I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it.

You can click on that to make it bigger, but that is the gist of what I'm talking about. I never see trash in their yard, only ours. I know it isn't our trash, because A) we don't eat or drink things in our side yard and B) it's just freaking THEIRS. Of course, there isn't that much stuff in our yard at a time, at least not unless I don't see the trash before I hit it with the lawn mower, and then it goes everywhere. I've also been hitting some pretty large limbs in our yard, and those are almost impossible to see if they are buried in the grass. As you can see in my drawing, we don't have a tree in that part of our yard anymore.

I know how I sound, and honestly, I realize that I shouldn't be as irritated as I am about all of this. I mean, kids are kids and they don't always think. However, it isn't just the kids, and I know this because I happened to look out of the window while the dad was mowing his lawn the other day. I kept hearing this terrible sound, but I didn't know what it was. I looked out and saw the dad pushing a lawn mower on the strip of grass next to our yard. Their giant tree (labeled Happy Tree) drops limbs and sticks like crazy and he was running over them with his push mower. I watched him as he walked around his lawn mower, picked up a big stick and tossed it into our yard. I was kind of like "What?" I know they are just sticks, but that is the base of the problem. Neighbor guy throws things he doesn't want in his own yard into ours, so I'm guessing that the kids think it's acceptable behavior. It isn't even really the sticks and the trash that make me mad. It's the fact that they seem to have no respect for our property. I'd no more throw a stick in someone's yard to get it out of my own than I would knock over someone's garbage cans. It's just trashy behavior, and that is what bothers me. I don't care if the kids come into our yard. Heck, they could have picnics and pony rides there if they wanted, as long as they clean up after themselves (and the pony) when they are done.

Of course, I'm not going to say anything because when it all boils down, it isn't a big enough deal to either embarrass or anger our neighbors. We don't really know them at all, and I don't want their opinion of me colored by a bout of hysterical weepings and raving about trash. I will continue to return the hastared soccer balls that wind up almost weekly in our back yard, and we will just keep picking up (or running over) trash that winds up in our front yard. Why? Because I'd rather not have some petty neighborhood Hatfield and McCoy type thing happen because our neighbors are slobs. I'm just going to "do unto others" on this and just complain about them on my blog! I'm allowed to do that here, right? :)

Now, I've just got to find a yellow rayon mumu and I'll be all set.

MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) The lights went out in our church sanctuary today. At first I thought that the lights were off for some actual reason, but apparently it was just a problem with the lights themselves. We had sound, we had video, we had air conditioning (thank goodness) but no lights. We had church services in the dark! It was difficult not to fall asleep like that, though. Two people actually had to leave before preaching started because it was making them sleepy. I didn't fall asleep, but it was touch and go there for a while. My mind kind of wondered off, I guess. It isn't as if our preacher is boring or anything like that, but I must have the attention span of a rubber band or something, because my brain goes off on tangents while he's talking. It isn't just when he preaches, though. A couple of weeks ago we had a guest speaker during the night services. He had arranged for a sort of worksheet type thing to be printed on the back of the bulletin so that we could fill in blanks and take notes while he was speaking. I thought that was great, because I figured that if I had something to follow along with, I probably wouldn't get lost and start day dreaming. Unfortunately, I somehow got behind whatever he was saying, and by the time the service was over, I had a quite respectable stick figure "Pirates vs. Ninjas" battle going on at the bottom of the page. :( That kind of thing is what happens when I'm required to sit still and quiet for too long. Someones going to have to put me on Ritalin before it's all said and done.

2) I have a Tumblr site brewing called White Owl Treasures. I haven't done anything with it yet except pick a template. I've got an idea that I think might be somewhat interesting, but it will be kind of tedious putting it all together. I have come into possession of a lot of really awesome antique things. Things I never bothered to look at closely until I wasn't working. My mom gave me a stack of old postcards that she had stored in an old White Owl cigar box. I have always known that she had them, but had never bothered to read them. They are all from early 20Th century (between 1904 and 1907) and they all belonged to someone named Eleanor Clements from someplace in New Jersey. This person wasn't a member of my family, so I have no idea why we have the cards, but they are interesting. I want to scan them and put them up for people to see! I also have a few other things I found in other cigar boxes, so it'll just be a curio site for people who like old stuff, I guess. I don't know, maybe it will be boring, but I'm going to try it out and see how it goes!

3) I finally learned how to pronounce "vuvuzela!" I kept reading the word in articles about the world cup and hearing the God forsaken sound, but never heard anyone actually pronounce the word until last week. Unfortunately, by the second or third day of knowing the word, my pronunciation of it had degraded to "vuvuzilla." After that, all I could picture was a giant, plastic horn trampling on Tokyo.

4) I can't sleep. I had a headache before church tonight and took some Excedrin. That was at 4:45 and I'm still wide awake! My body is tired, but my brain is not. I'd go to bed anyway, but I'd just end up tossing and turning and probably annoying Steve. Sigh.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I hate going to the gym. I hate it SO much...it's like flames, on the side of my face, FLAMES... I only go so that my doctor can say "Oh look, your cholesterol level isn't currently at DEFCON 1! Congratulations!" My cholesterol level is one of those hereditary things that diet won't do much to control, so exercise is my only option unless I want to take meds for it. Granted, swallowing a pill everyday is less daunting than going to the gym, but probably less damaging for my liver. My knees, my feet, my back and everything else will implode, but darn it, my liver will be pristine! If that is the case, at least the liver will be able to go to a good home after the rest of me is dead from exhaustion. Silver Linings!

2) Steve and I got the Lego Harry Potter video game and we are having a lot of fun with it. I don't play a lot of video games, but I love the Lego ones for some reason. They are just so silly! I guess we must be playing a bit too much of it, though, because the other night all of the people in my dreams were Lego people. It was weird.

3) Yesterday I found a corset I bought a couple of years ago and thought I might have finally found the first piece for my Steampunk costume! I was in the process of trying it on when I encountered a problem. I couldn't figure out how to close it. It wasn't an actual corset, like one you'd wear as underwear, it was one that I suppose is supposed to be worn as a shirt (gotten during a shopping spree of questionable taste at Hot Topic.) It doesn't lace up, it zips up. So I'm standing in my bedroom for a long time all but cursing at the stupid thing trying to figure out how to hook the thing together so that the zipper could be closed. Turned out that I had the stupid thing on upside down. :( This doesn't bode well for my Steampunk career, does it? Back to the drawing board!

4)This video makes me happy!

Hello, Sweetings!

I am getting ready to hit the gym for the first time in about a month (don't judge me) and I thought that while I was indulging in my pre-workout hydration routine, i.e. drinking a bottle of water, I'd tell you about our glorious long weekend!

Part of our wonderful Georgia family, the McGee faction (Hi, guys!), came to visit for the Independence Day holiday this year. They haven't been to our home in 3 years, as I've mentioned before, but it's been even longer since they brought the kids. In fact, their son had never even come to visit us, although their daughter came once when she was 1 (she is 9 now and almost as tall as I am.) They got here on Friday night and we spent a while visiting, but after a few hours of driving they were tired and needed some sleep, so after talking their ears off for a while Steve and I let them finally go to bed.

Saturday was set aside for the fam to visit the Sprocket and see the infamous Star Wars exhibit. I declined to join them, for reasons we all know and appreciate. However, I had some errands to run and Steve wanted to go and see it again, so they weren't bereft of a Pratt for the day. They said they had a lot of fun and enjoyed everything a great deal, and I'm glad. Sean got to first-bump Darth Vadar, which he was very excited about, and Katie (Kat, Kate) managed to construct a magnetic Lego car that completed the path without stopping. Steve and I had tried that when we were there together, but couldn't figure it out. Yay, Katie (Kat, Kate). Once they returned, we finished out the day with a cookout. Steve did us all proud. I think even the cows would have thought the steaks were delicious. :)

Sunday we took the McGees to Bridge Street, our local frewfraw shopping center. We knew that they would be having fireworks that night, so we planned to spend the day walking about and shopping. Unfortunately, we realized a bit late that we were way to early to stay until the fireworks, and there is only so much looking around and shopping that people can do! We had lunch, and after an unfortunate blue sno-cone incident, we went home for a bit so that Amy could change clothes and so I could fall asleep in my comfy chair. We finally headed back out closer to the time of the fireworks show and went to Steve's work, which had a great view of the fireworks. I LOVE watching fireworks! The bigger the better! :) The show was great and we ended the day at Waffle House, which is the way good evenings with friends should end.

Monday was the McGee's last day with us, so we went to lunch with Mr. Lee so they could visit a while and then they headed home. Steve and I went home and fell asleep! It was a great weekend and we were glad they could come and visit.