Alores! I am a land owner!

Ok, so it's not like I'm landed gentry or anything, but as of Wednesday, I am the new owner of 13.28 acres of land in Limestone County! For those of you who ever visited me when I lived with my parents, you will remember this area as the big-ass, fenced-in backyard of the house I grew up in. The land has belonged to my family for many years and was the area where my father and his brother raised cattle until Papa died. It is still used to raise the cattle that belong to my uncle's brother-in-law, and I'm hoping to keep it that way for a while.

My mother decided that she would go ahead and pass on the land and house to my sister and I when she got remarried. She was going to move, and knew that Papa had wanted to will it to us one day anyways. My sister was deeded the house/plot and I was given the deed for the land. It could have gone either way, but I had no intentions of moving back to Athens, and Angie's family had talked about possibly moving into the house at one point. She has since decided that they are going to stay in Ardmore (why?) for the time being, and will be selling the house as soon as she can get it ready to go.

Me? I'm going to hang on to the land for a while if I can. Part of the reason is sentimental, because it meant so much to my father and maybe because I have a teeny bit more Scarlett in me than I thought I did. Part of it is because I may want to build a house on it one day and having land already makes that a lot easier, and the other part is that I hope I can hold onto it until property values go up and then maybe I can sell it to a developer for a lot more money than I could get for it right now! Of course, all of this depends on if the property taxes aren't too high for me to keep up with and if I don't have some kind of monetary emergency that necessitates its sale. I hope nothing like that happens, because I like the idea of having this land and keeping it for a while. I think my dad would like the idea of it still being in the family, at least for a little while longer. :)

On an unrelated note: My nephew, Seth, just turned 11! Happy Birthday, Seth! Guess what he wanted to do on his birthday?
I weep for the future.

Oy vey.

So far this has been the strangest morning! I ended up oversleeping after I had woken up, decided not to go to the gym, and gone back to sleep again. I had the weirdest series of dreams that had me all discombobulated as I was trying to actually wake up. When I finally managed to get out of bed I sat down at my computer to check the news and weather and managed to get caught up reading something stupid which made me late getting ready. After that I was late for work, whereupon I remembered that I had forgotten to finish a project my boss had given me to do, I missed our marketing meeting (and I just bet it will be the first one in a long time that had something important for me to hear) and I almost slammed myself into a wall while carrying a set of frames dowstairs. I am also dizzy and sniffy due to my allergies, I keep having hot flashes, and I think I may be breaking out in hives!

TA-DAH!

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to my happy place for a while.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) We managed to work on the yard sale stuff on Saturday with little to no spider activity! Yay! Actually, we didn't see any of the big bads in the house at all, but Steve got to murderize two brown recluses in the garage. He was so brave! :) He also went in and sprayed the house with the strong insect poison that we use at home. Only the bravest of the brave bugs will mess with that stuff! We have almost gotten everything done, except for some odds and ends in my old bedroom (turned into a storage room, no less) and the stuff in the attic. My dad loved to go and buy things at yard sales, and whatever he brought home he'd call his "treasury." :) We had a lot of "treasury" in the attic. We've also found quite a few antiques that I didn't know we had. I guess when you grow up around something, you stop thinking much about it. I know we priced them low enough to sell at a yard sale, but I hate that we couldn't find an antique dealer for some of it. Oh well, we can't keep the stuff, so hopefully someone will give it all a good home.

2) Yesterday was the first day that I got to run the sound board at the church! I was very nervous, because I didn't want to screw anything up. It's not a hard job or anything, but there is a lot to pay attention to. I did fairly well, I think. My only issues were that I turned on the wrong mic once and I accidentally turned the preacher's lapel mic up as far as it would go and he almost blasted the first row of people out the windows. :{ One other problem, that wasn't my fault, was that the program that we program to project the hymns bugged out on me. I still don't know what was going on, but the minister of music came back during the greeting time and helped me out! I also had to sing last night, so Steve and I did tag-team sound for the evening service. I think I'll do fine as long as there are few surprises!

3) While getting ready for church yesterday evening, I walked out into the garage and saw something move. I hollered (I don't scream) and ran back into the house. Since I wasn't sure what it was, I went back out and saw a very large, black snake slithering underneath the too-box. I don't like snakes, but they don't bother me as much as bugs do, so I ran and told Steve about it and then went back out to see it again. It was solid black, so I have no idea what kind it was. All I know is that it seemed very, very long! We didn't have time to do anything about it before we had to leave, but Steve's dad came back with us after church and helped Steve hunt it down. They found it behind the water heater and they killed it! Yay! I didn't see them get it because I was hiding in the house. Mr. Lee said it was about 3 feet long, which I guess isn't that big, but it seemed much bigger to me! I'm seriously tired of the wildlife getting into my houses! They are not welcome!

ARACHNID PARK

I can't even begin to explain the extent of the skin-crawlingness that I have been experiencing since last night.

As I've already told you, my sister and I have been getting ready to have a yard sale at my mother's old house. Part of the process has been to gather the things that my mom left in the house when she moved, price them, and gather it all together. There were a lot of clothes and chotchkies, mainly, and we've had to go through them all. The first day that Angie had gone over there to get started gathering things, she told me that she was changing clothes in my old bedroom when she picked up a t-shirt that had been in a storage box and a huge brown recluse spider ran out from under it. She said the back of it was as big as a grape! She was understandably freaked out about that, so much so that my mom had to kill it for her. Since then she's been much more careful. Of course, Tuesday night we found another really big brown recluse in a vase in the kitchen (the first one I'd ever seen in person) and that one had been giving me nightmares since I went back home that night! I don't like spiders at all, but I am more freaked out about brown recluses than most other breeds because they are not only seriously venomous, unlike most spiders they are also territorial, and they will come after you. If I had known what we would come across last night, I might have set the house on fire and just called it even. :{

Before I went over there, I stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some gloves and a can of Raid, just in case. We had started hanging up and pricing the clothes in the master bedroom last night, so we had things scattered hither and yon while we went through them. Most of the things were pulled out of the closet, so we weren't worried about them. While I was busy with mom's clothes, Angie picked up a jacket that had belonged to my mom's husband, Grant, and I heard her say "OH!" and the jacket dropped to the floor. She said "A big one of those frickers!" and she ran to get the Raid. I had been sitting on the floor, so of course, I jumped up and ran to the other side of the room! When she came back, she went over to the jacket and couldn't find the thing! We gently picked up one of the sleeves, and I kid you not, a spider the size of a half dollar skittered under a fold. At this point I was about to jump on her back and demand she carry me out of the house, but she reached over and flipped the jacket over again - and a nest of baby brown recluse spiders were crawling all over the coat!!!!! She sprayed the nest, the babies and finally sprayed the momma spider, but those hastareds are resilient! At least we slowed it down enough for me to gather what cajones I could muster and stomp the jacket. My skin tried to crawl off of my bones and run to the car, but I held on to it! I ran to get the gloves and made Angie put on a pair, too, and she ended up having to throw a whole pile of clothes completely away because of the nest in that jacket. If that wasn't enough, within two minutes of that, I reached over and picked up a bathrobe that had been sitting on the floor next to me, and ANOTHER one fell out of it! Angie did her Crocodile Hunter bit on it with the Raid, and we managed to finish cleaning out the room, but not without being seriously careful. I felt like a CSI agent looking for clues. We threw away anything that even looked like a spider was on it.

As we took the things out of the master bedroom and into the living room, Angie noticed another one that looked dead, curled up underneath a window. She didn't want to take any chances, so she sprayed it as well, and it came after her. I heard her screaming from the other side of the house! She did managed to kill it, though, and we decided then and there that we would bug bomb the place within and inch of it's life that night. We didn't see anymore for the rest of the night, but the whole rest of the time I was there, I kept imagining the baby ones crawling up my legs. *shudder* I still feel them.

I honestly believe we nipped a full blown infestation in the bud by killing the nest, but I have no idea how so many of them could have gotten into the house! My mom has always been a supreme housekeeper, so I know that there were no spiders there when she lived there, and they only moved out in May! It's like they were waiting on her to leave or something! Urg. Anyways, before we left last night, we set off a bug bomb and hopefully we have successfully neutralized the enemy invaders. Now Steve, of course, is completely wigging. He is honestly arachnophobic, and the main reason I set the bomb off was because I knew he wouldn't come to the house and help us if he thought that there was even a chance one of them could get on him. I'm not even making fun when I say that, he's not being a girl about spiders, he literally goes into vapor lock around them. Any other bug is no big deal, but spiders he can not handle. I think the only way I convinced him to come with me and help out was to tell him that the house is mostly empty rooms now, and he bug bomb combined with no hiding spots for the spiders, means little chance that one will come at him unawares. Of course, now he's probably afraid one will come flying out of a closet and attach itself to him Alien-Facehugger-Style, but I seriously doubt that's how even the worst spiders behave. *gulp* Right?

I know that over the past year or so, my life hasn't been all white bread and hummus. However, it is still possible for me to say that at least I'm in the half of my sister's family that is LEAST likely to end up on Jerry Springer.

Oy, I wish I could tell you the story I heard from her last night, but it isn't my place to tell personal stories about people I don't really know. All I can say, is that the whole time she was telling me about it, I kept hearing "JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!" in my head.

I spent the evening with Angie last night because we are trying to get ready for a garage sale. My mom's new house isn't as large as the old one, so she needs to get rid of a lot of stuff that she didn't have room to take, and Angie and I are adding in a few things we need to get rid of as well. I'm kind of surprised at the kind of really nice stuff that mom wants to sell, but she simply doesn't want it anymore. Some if it are things I made her when I was little, so that's kind of hurtful, but honestly, she can't keep everything and I understand. We had to clean out some old glassware and dishes from a cabinet, and Angie picked up a vase that had an enormous Brown Recluse in it. I almost wet myself, because I've never seen one of those in real life. That sucker was mean, too! I still have the heebs from that. She killed it, because I was too busy running across the room to do anyone any good. :P There is so much stuff! I had no idea that mom had so many things that she didn't use. I am taking a few things home with me, but the rest is going up for sale, and what doesn't sell will be taken to Goodwill or otherwise donated.

On a related note, I'm going to be getting my mom's console piano. My sister has always wanted that piano because she was the only one who stuck with lessons long enough to really play it, but her husband doesn't want it in their house. I still don't understand why he doesn't want it, but it is coming home with me. We have a place for it in the living room, so that's good. I feel kind of bad, though, because I fussed with Steve about getting rid of the old piano we used to have when we first got married until he finally did it and now I'm bringing another one in. I promise I'm not normally that irrational. I honestly never thought I'd have the option of having that piano. It's really nice and Steve is glad to keep it, I think. I just look at it this way, I'm keeping it for her until my brother-in-law changes his mind. Certainly he can't keep it from her forever.

Anyways, if you are in Athens on August 1st, come and buy our stuff! :)

RAoB REVISITED!

2) I don't know if 4,000 people were here yesterday, but it was close! It was crammed wall to wall with people. It would have been nice for the SpRocket if the majority of the visitors were PAYING guests, but that was a bit too much to ask for I guess. :P I didn't even get to hide up in my office like I wanted because I had two sign emergencies (and yes, apparently those actually exist). The worst one was that I misspelled the name of one of our guest astronauts! I was so embarrassed. To be fair, I'm fairly sure I just copied and pasted the text I got the request email, which means I didn't spell it wrong myself but still, I should've been more careful. I got a call asking for two replacement signs with his name spelled correctly. I asked when they needed to be done and the guy said "Um...now?" So I knew that even though they had these signs over the weekend, no one bothered to read it until they sat it next to the guy. I hope he wasn't offended, and I still feel really bad about spelling his name wrong. I did manage to fix, print and mount the signs in record time to replace the ones already at the book signing. I actually got cheered for when I replaced the old sign, and some lady from NASA hugged me, so it must've been embarrassing for everyone. *SHAME*

4) I did some checking, and I'm fairly certain that my moccasins are actually just slippers! No one noticed, though. It probably wouldn't have been a problem at all, but I had one mishap that has taught me that I should be smarter in my choice of footwear. My first sign emergency of the day yesterday was that they needed a sign with an arrow that pointed to the "Grassy Knoll" where MSFC had tents and free moon pies (haha) to give away. You'd think the big-assed tents and music would have made their location somewhat obvious, but alas, people still needed a sign to point the way. SIGN LADY TO THE RESCUE! Anyways, the sign is what we call a "real estate" sign, which means it is like the annoying signs you see on the side of the road during election time, and we have to stick a metal stand in the ground to hold it up. The stand is shaped like a capital H, and to plant the stand, you just step on the cross bar to push it down. Since my slippers didn't have any grip on the bottoms, I slipped while trying to push it down and almost impaled myself. Luckily I fell sideways and missed the pointy bits by a few inches. I live to fight another day!

--In an unrelated post: I learned to make Alfredo sauce from scratch yesterday! It was yummy, even if the cheese didn't melt all the way. It isn't for anyone wanting to watch their weight, but you don't have to eat much of it before it fills you up! Fear my culinary prowess. FEAR IT!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) My random acts of blogging are becoming the norm around here! I think I must have Adult Blogging ADHD or something. Don't be alarmed, I'll remember to take my meds. :)

2) Happy 40th anniversary of the moon landing to NASA! If you're in the area, you should stop by the SpRocket and catch the new movie about Dr. von Braun. I don't know anything about it but it's title: "Rocket Man." It should be very cool. If I'm understanding things correctly today, a great many people from MSFC will be here celebrating. If I could be a part of the celebration, that would be cool, but all that means to me at this point is that I'm going to have to sequester myself in my office and not go downstairs for any reason unless I want to get trampled by engineers. They are expecting as many as 4,000 people here just due to the day. That isn't counting the regular public. I'm afraid! :P

3) Speaking of the moon landing celebration, I remembered yesterday that when I was 16, I was at the 25th anniversary celebration running a coke booth with people from my high school band. I had almost completely forgotten about the event. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see Grass Roots perform live and all kinds of fun stuff. It also occurred to me that I should feel old. I refuse.

4) I think I might be wearing house slippers to work today. I got a $20 gift certificate for Plow & Hearth the other day, and I used it online to buy a pair of wool lined moccasins that were on sale. I love shoes that are lined with soft stuff, and they are beautifully made and embroidered by a free trade business. I received them on Saturday and fell in love with them immediately. The only strange thing I noticed, though, is that they are true moccasins - meaning they are all leather and suede without a rubber or hard sole. I didn't think anything much about that though. Well, I slid them on this morning to wear to work, and it wasn't until Steve and I were almost to work that I mentioned something about the shoes and Steve said "Wait, aren't they just house slippers?" It never dawned on me that they might only be slippers! Now I'm plagued with the notion that I'm wearing house slippers at work on accident. If I was doing that on purpose, I wouldn't care, but doing it on accident is embarrassing.

5) I went to do some shopping the other day and realized on my way home that I had a big silver earring caught on the smaller earring I was wearing. It was obvious that it didn't match the other one and that it was completely different kind of earring just sort of dangling there, yet no one said a word to me. People, please, I'm begging you...don't let me go outside looking like that again!

6) I was sick all day yesterday because I was too stupid to remember to take my allergy medicine before I went out to mow the lawn Saturday morning. I didn't go anywhere or do anything. I was a slug. It is weird to me how something like an allergy can make you feel so terrible all over. Anyways, I'm hopped up on allergy medication today and I have plans of getting some of the good stuff from Target this evening. They should already have my DNA on file, so it shouldn't be much of a hassle.

7) It's official: the house I grew up in is going on sale very soon. I'm going to be so sad to see it sold, but I understand why it has to go. If anyone is looking for a house in North Alabama, it's a really nice house and it is a lovely place to live! Yes, OK, my dad died in it, but he wouldn't haunt you, I swear. Keep a lookout for the listings. I hope a nice family buys it and takes good care of it. So many good memories were made there.

STUPID KELLY TRICKS

OK, for some of you (those on Facebook) this isn't a new story. Bear with me! :)

Last week was completely crazy here at work. We had a lot going on, because as I've mentioned, the departments that were directing one of the two huge events this weekend had forgotten that they needed signs. I had people e-mailing me all day every day adding to or changing things that they needed. It's not really a big deal, usually, but when we have the kind of events that require table signs, name tags or anything that is very repetitive, it gets tedious and confusing. The two events we had over the weekend, The Apollo/Saturn Reunion and the SC Hall of Fame event, each required individual table signs. Making a table sign is easy, but making a lot of them becomes a pain after a while.

To make them you have to A) set up each sign in Photoshop B) print batches of 6 on a large sheet of sticky-back paper C) cut them out individually D) stick each one of them down to plain sheets of copy paper E) trim the edges of the copy paper F) score the fold with a blade G) spray glue on the backs of the pages H) fold and press the signs flat and I) trim all of the edges again to make them neat. See, easy-peasy.

OK, so I was working like crazy trying to get all of these table signs done so that I could move on to the other signs that needed to be made. I was told in school that you should NEVER-EVER spray glue indoors because it is nt good to breathe and it gets all over everything. Like many of the things I learned about production in school, I thought to myself "Screw it." I didn't have time to run outside every time I needed to glue a sign because it would have slowed me down too much. So I pulled my big garbage bin over to my side and held the sign down into it whenever I needed to apply the glue. Of course, the glue didn't just stay in the can, but as long as it wasn't getting on my other table signs and messing them up, I was OK with that. Well, at some point I realized that I had over sprayed the can and accidentally sprayed the handset of the phone sitting on the shelf next to the bin. Yes, it was sticky, but I didn't have time to worry about it or clean it off because I was too busy. I promptly forgot about it.

Cut to a few hours later. I had finished the table signs and had started working on the signs for the silent auction. My phone rang, and when I answered it, it was my friend and former co-worker Ed on the other end. He will sometimes call and chat with me when he is driving to or from work on his lunch break, and since I was busy with my hands, I put the phone between my shoulder and ear while I was working. It actually turned into a longer conversation than I thought it would be, so I sat like that for a good 15 or 20 minutes until he had to go. It wasn't until I tried to hang up the phone that I realized that I had managed to glue the phone to my head. It was stuck in my hair! I probably should have called for help, but it wasn't my first reaction, so I ended up ripping the handset out of my hair. OUCH! It made a horrible sound, too. It sounded like slowly ripping a piece of thick paper. My head was sore afterwards, but I did manage to escape giving myself a bald spot. :)

So lets add this to my list: I've fallen down our stairs twice, stabbed myself in the chest with my exacto knife, laminated my head onto a big sign and now I've glued my phone to my head.

I'm fairly surprised my boss doesn't make me wear hockey pads and a helmet every day!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I almost died at the gym this morning. OK, well, maybe not died, but it felt like it. I have been doing the same elliptical training for months now, and when it was getting too easy, I thought I'd kick it up a notch (BAM! Sorry.) I didn't want to go in and completely push everything up too high, so I basically just adjusted the resistance a little higher. About 7 minutes in, I took a breath and nothing happened. I mean, I didn't die, but it felt like I wasn't pulling in any oxygen. My lungs felt hot and stuffed with cotton and my heart was pounding really hard. I had to stop for a second, but I didn't want to quit altogether, so eventually I just kept going. Eventually the feeling went away, but it was scary! That is the second time in the past week that I've had to stop early on during my workout to keep from passing out. I didn't have this problem before, so I'm not sure why it's happening now. What makes it even more frustrating is the fact that working out doesn't seem to be doing me much good at all, from a weight loss standpoint. Part of that is because I haven't been using my iPod program to count calories like I was before, but even without that, I have tried to eat better and I'm exercising, so you'd think I'd notice something! Darn my slow metabolism! :(

2) I didn't watch the Michael Jackson memorial show that they broadcast last week (or whenever it was). I wasn't really a fan of his, or at least I haven't been since I was in the second grade. Thriller was the stuff back then. Watching the "making of" feature from the Thriller video was what made me want to do SFX Makeup for movies, and I still stand by the idea that I'd be AWESOME at that, but there isn't much call for that kind of thing in Alabama. Anyways, I digress. I didn't watch his memorial service, but I did catch a clip of it on some website and it shut me down for a few minutes. I think it was at the end, and his daughter, Paris (?), said that she just wanted to say that he was the best daddy in the world and that she loved him and that she was going to miss him. Then she cried. Then I cried. I'm sitting at my desk boo-hooing along with this little girl. It was so sad. What made it even worse is that I knew exactly how she felt. I don't care how old you are, when a parent that you love dies, you are automatically a little kid again. If I had gotten up during my dad's funeral and had to speak, I probably would have said exactly what she did. Stupid YouTube clip making me cry at work!

3) I want to learn how to tattoo people. I know that sounds insane to some of you, but I think it would be an amazing thing to be able to do. I understand the process behind it, but I wouldn't even begin to know how to actually give someone a tattoo, and I wouldn't want to be that person who gave bad prison-tats or anything like that. Even if I didn't do it for a living, I'd like to at least know I could do it if I want too! Some of you would let me ink you, wouldn't you? Right?

(crickets)

4) I saw this year's Torchwood mini series and it was really good! I like that show a lot, but I didn't like the ending of "Children of Earth." I don't want to talk about it too much, in case some of you are waiting for it to be aired on BBC America, but I will say this one thing: I just don't see how they will be able to keep going on with the series with the way they ended the mini-series. If they don't, I'll be sad. I heart Captain Jack!

There is more, but I'll have to wait until later. I have to start making up for some of the projects that got shoved aside last week as we prepared for the two big events that happened over the weekend. Fun.

A QUICKIE

I'm not dead or anything, just really busy. I had all kinds of stuff to write about, but haven't had time. Of course, I've forgotten most of it, but I'm sure I'll think of something else later on. We have two big events here at the SpRocket this weekend, and as usual, everyone who needs signs is calling me at the last possible moment. I think there is a bet between them all to see which one of them can cause my head to actually explode! It'll be a photo-finish, I can tell you that.

I'm currently listening to the audio novel of "Midnight In the Garden Of Good and Evil" while I'm working, and so far I'm loving it. It's fun to listen to the guy describe places I've actually been. I have noticed, however, that a lot of lines from the book sound familiar, and I think it's because the tour guide from our trip to Bonaventure cemetery was quoting from it. Granted, a lot of the info in the book may be common knowledge to the people out there, but I doubt that the stories would all be told in the same way. I should have read the book first and done the tour myself! It would have saved some money! :)

Anyways, just a short note while I've got a second to let you know I'm still around someplace. You know, in case you care and junk.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) It's not even 8:30 on this lovely Monday morning, and I already want to murder two of my coworkers in the face! That's right, IN THE FACE! One of them is my boss, who I normally like a lot. I walked in this morning and my office was destroyed (again) because he's been using it to make banners for an upcoming event. I don't begrudge him using my office, but he moves things around and leaves stuff all over the place, so getting to my desk is like going through a boot camp obstacle course! The other is a lady who I am currently making a sign for. It is a sign that will have a list of all of the sponsors for an upcoming even on it. I told her last week that I wouldn't print anything until I was sure that we had a complete list of sponsors (because they are always forgetting someone or adding someone on at the last minute). She never responded to me. However, today, I was copied on an e-mail from her to my boss, who apparently told her the same thing, and she was all "GREAT IDEA!" I don't care that I didn't get credit for the idea, honestly, but I hate that she acted like she'd never even heard of the idea before he sent it to her. Boo.

EDIT: My boss is off the hook. He isn't the one who moved my office around. Apparently someone needed roof access this weekend and came through my office to get out there. They didn't clean up after themselves, though. :P

2) My holiday weekend was kind of a washout because I was sick pretty much the whole time. Friday wasn't bad, but I didn't do anything useful that day and it made me feel like I had wasted the whole day. I hate having a day off and feeling like the day flew by before I got a chance to do anything productive! Saturday I was OK until just after lunch, and I got really tired. I was going to take a quick nap, but I fell asleep on the couch for several hours. When I woke up I felt horrible, so I drug myself around until it was time to go to bed. I didn't even watch any fireworks, although I did hear some. There are a few big displays not far from where I live, but none I can see from the back yard or anything. I didn't really care. I wasn't feeling well, and quite honestly, all of the stuff that happened last year around this time has kind of taken away my taste for celebrating the glorious fourth. Sunday I went to church in a complete daze. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I overslept and missed Sunday school, and when I actually got to service, I felt like I had taken a huge dose of NyQuil or something. I had to bow out of lunch with Mr. Lee and everything. I think I slept most of Sunday away because I didn't go back to church that night and I went to bed again around 9:00. I'm feeling a little better this morning, but I'm still really tired. If I hadn't already had mono in the 8Th grade, I'd think that is what is wrong with me now! I'll just have to try very hard not to nap at work today!

3) I've been watching a new show lately that I really like. Well, it isn't a "new" show, but it's one I haven't watched before. It's another forensic procedural called "Bones" and it's really good! It drives Steve crazy that they have some kind of computer 3D viewing aparatus in their office that doesn't exist in real life, but I think it's funny. It's also kind of disgusting. Steve and I were eating Friday while it was on and even though stuff like that doesn't usually bother me, it almost put me off of my food! It probably wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been eating Chinese food that had sauce on it precisely the color of the liquefied human remains that were on the show. Bleh. I don't want to think about it.

4) I didn't go to the gym this morning and I'm feeling kind of guilty about it right now. Why is it that I feel guilty for not doing something unplesant that is completely self imposed? I can't really say that I like going to the gym, but I know it's good for me to. It's like eating vegetables you don't like when you really, really don't want to and then feeling bad when I find a dropped piece of broccoli. I don't understand myself sometimes.

5) The Harry Potter movie is almost out! I shouldn't be as excited as I am, but I don't care. I've been waiting months and months for it. I don't think we are going to show it this year at the SpRocket, so that means I have to pay to see it, and that stinks, but at this point I don't care! Don't worry, I won't dress up when I go and see it or anything. Maybe. ;)

I'm going to live in this one! Well, someday.

WHO'S YOUR CRAWDADDY?


This was part of the ill fated lunch I had a The Crab Shack. I named him Eric.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) As I was getting the mail the other day, I found an envelope from the DOT of Savannah! Apparently, the sneaky traffic cameras caught me running a red light. Well, to be technical, the cameras caught Steve running a red light, but since the car is registered in my name, I'm the one who got the ticket. It had pictures of Lois completely blowing through an obvious red light, but I don't remember that happening at all. Sometimes Steve drives like a crazy person, but he doesn't do stupid things like run red lights on purpose! We must have, since there is proof, but I don't remember it. Sigh. Big Brother is watching us, indeed. He is also watching us more closely than we are watching ourselves!

2) My mosquito bites are almost gone, thank goodness. I don't get them very often anymore, since I don't go outside as much as I used to. I forget how much they itch! I had one on my ankle that looked like three or four bugs got together and shared a vein, it was about two inches in diameter! That one was the worst, but the others were just as ugly. Seriously, bug bites on a pale person look like measles!

3) I'm finally back at work and making signs again. I didn't think I'd miss it that much, but I'm glad to be back and doing something constructive. I mean, it's not that I didn't like the napping, catching up on the laundry or vacation, but I'm glad to be back!

More later. I've got work to do!

If you want to read about my adventures in Savannah in chronological order, scroll down a few entries. If not, read away! :) There are no pictures included because some have been saved on the laptop and the rest are still in my camera. I'll post a few of them as soon as I can!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 24, 2009 - Not much to talk about today. We got up, are packing and soon will be headed on our way! Thanks again to Kenny and Lauren for including me as their wedding guest so that I had a reason to come out this way!

I'm going to miss you Savannah, but if I possibly can, I promise to come back and see you again! :)

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 23, 2009 - This morning I woke up early, determined not to waste our last full day in Savannah. I had a list of things I wanted to do, so as soon as we got ready, we left. The first place we went was the river walk. Most things ended up being closed because it was so early, but we did manage to get a few souvenirs. We left there and went to Broughton Street, where we visited the Savannah Bee Company Honey Shop. We tasted honey and bought several things! I actually wanted one of the signature bottles of honey, but they didn't have the kind I especially wanted in a bottle like that. We did, however, get several small bottles of honey and half of a mason jar of the Black Sage honey (my favorite). We are going to have a LOT of honey at our house for a while, I believe.

We left there and had lunch at the Moon River Brewery, which had really great food, but since we don't drink beer, we didn't get to try any of their specialties. We didn't care, though, because we just wanted the air conditioning, really. We had several other things on our list, but we didn't do them for one reason or another. I was really afraid we'd just end up wasting the rest of our time, but we didn't. One our way back to our room, we almost added a new ghost to the "Most Haunted City In America." Don't worry, it wasn't us who almost joined the astral plane, it was the dumbass bicyclist who thought that his Schwinn was a match for several automobiles. We had just made a turn to drive along the edge of Forsyth Park, and I saw a guy on a bicycle riding closely beside us. It scared me because I thought that we were going to hit him. When we didn't, I thought that he was going to get on the sidewalk and ride, so I didn't think much else about him until I saw him whip around the car from the driver's side and get in front of us. He was really booking, so I figured that he was out of harm's way, but I don't guess Lance Armstrong was being too careful because he wiped out in a major way right in front of the car! BAM, the guy hit the pavement. I'm glad Steve was driving, because he was able to slam on the breaks in time to not hit the guy. There was also a car in the other lane who was able to stop in time, but it was almost creamed by a truck that was speeding along behind it. We heard a squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel of breaks and tires, but no impact. Thank goodness! The guy grabbed his bike and hauled it off of the roadway, but we didn't see if he was hurt. We probably should have. Hmmmmmmm. I don't think we played the good Samaritans, but it's kind of hard to do that when you are screaming obscenities at someone. It comes across as disingenuous.

We had to come back and drop some things off in our hotel room, and since it was still early, I asked Steve what he wanted to do. He hemmed and hawed for a long time and asked what I wanted to do, but since I had already told him a thousand times that I didn't know, I finally told him to just PICK something so that we weren't just sitting in our room all day. He did a bit of looking on the web and said that he wanted to go back to Tybee Island and go to one of the bigger, more popular public beaches. I was all for that, and I actually wore my entire suit so that I could go swimming! I didn't like it, but I did it. When we got to the beach, the place was PACKED to the gills. Streets were blocked off and there was absolutely no places to park. I couldn't believe that there were so many people there on a Tuesday afternoon, so we kept driving to try and find a place to park. We couldn't even go to the shops along the beach, which is one of the things we wanted to do! We finally pulled down a street and saw that it was blocked off at one end! Boo! We were going to have to turn around and Steve noticed that there were cranes with lights all over the place. I had totally forgotten that Miley Cyrus is somewhere in Savannah this week filming something. She was at the beach, and that was why so many people were there! CURSE YOU, HANNAH MONTANA! We finally drove back a little ways and found a stretch of beach and a parking space that wasn't covered by squeeing tweens and curious teenage boys. It was nice and quiet, and the water was as warm as a bath. It was very nice. I didn't swim for long, but I spent the couple of hours we were there reading and relaxing. After we left there, we went to one of the cheesy beach souvenir shops and then came back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, watching TV, and ordering room service. Sadly, this is our last day in Savannah and we have to go home tomorrow. :( I really like this place. I just feel very at home here. I've also decided I'm going to live here one day. I'm going to buy one of the houses along Forsyth Park and be old, sassy and southern among the Spanish moss. That's my goal.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 22, 2009 - Today was our designated beach day! We went to Tybee Island and just had a lazy morning. We actually went to the quiet beach in front of the big light house, so it was not crowded and we just kind of hung out. Steve actually dig a hole and made a "recliner" in the sand, so he was happy. I didn't wear the bottom half of my suit (I know what you're thinking, and I just mean I wore shorts instead. Pervert!) so I didn't swim, but I waded. There weren't any shells to speak of, but I found a couple. There was also a large horse shoe crab that someone caught, and it scared the crap out of me. It was huge! I mean, if someone took the shell off of the crab, Steve could wear it like an army helmet, that's how big it was. They saw me recoil from it and laughed. Buttheads. Let me wield a humongous prehistoric sea creature in their faces and see how they like it!

We didn't stay out there long, and we decided to go to The Crab Shack for lunch. I've heard wonderful things about the place, so I was excited about eating there! They said they weren't seating inside yet, but they sat us outside in a place surrounded by fans so it wasn't so bad. I am really not fond of seafood, but I didn't want to come to a place called The Crab Shack and eat anything other than seafood, so we ordered a big platter of stuff for two. They brought out this enormous platter with potatoes, corn, crawfish, giant spider-looking crab legs, stone crab claws, steamed mussels, and sausage, all covered in butter and spices. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't a fan. I hate to say that since I've heard nothing but good things about the place, but it was gross. The crab legs were good, which I wasn't expecting, but everything else I tried was bad. Not only that, but flies began crawling all over our food. FLIES! We couldn't keep them off, and even though I tried to look past it, I know that flies are disease carrying carrion eaters, and they were walking and licking the food on the platter and that made me gag. I gave up and just ate crackers. I also played with the crawfish. Shut up, they were cute. I was disgusted about the flied, though. Steve doesn't get disgusted as easily as I do, so he ate what he could hold. I felt bad, but at least I tried. If I ever go again, I'd like to eat inside and only order crab legs. Otherwise, I just won't go back. It was gross. Also, there were bugs flying around outside and spiderwebs all over the place. I didn't tell Steve until we were back home, but there was a giant spider in a web behind him. If he had known, he would have died. Seriously, he would have died. He would have screamed like a girl first, but his heart would have stopped. I was glad to get out of there. Look, I know I sound like a snob, and trust me, I'm not squeamish about trying new foods or eating in out of the way places, but I draw the line at eating food covered in bugs. Until I'm a missionary living in the jungle and I actually HAVE to eat food covered in flies, I'm going to pass, thanks. GROSS! BLEH.

We went back to the lighthouse to visit the gift shop, and then we headed home! We were burned, tired, and covered in crab juice. We came back to the hotel and took a shower and then slept like dead people. I don't even think we meant to sleep as long as we did, but we were so tired. After we got up, we went to World Market and bought some candy and then to dinner. We didn't go anywhere interesting, because we just didn't have the energy, so we just ate at a Mexican place across from where we were staying and came back to sleep some more.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 21, 2009 - This morning Steve and I went on a tour of Bonaventure (which I keep wanting to call Bonaventura for some reason) Cemetery which is a huge, old and unbelievably beautiful place. We had arranged a tour with the same people who did our ghost tour, and it turned out that Steve and I were the only ones to sign up for that day. At first we couldn't find our tour guide, but we finally located him waiting on us. I felt kind of bad for him, because it must be kind of a drag to give an elaborate tour to only two people, and I could also tell that he had the actual tour down to a patter that wasn't as effective to just the two of us. We also had a very strange vocal tic where he kind of hummed after everything he said. It was kind of weird, but he was a wonderful guide. We walked a long way and learned a LOT about the people buried there. I wish I could have spent longer looking and taking pictures, as I am an avid taphophile, but it was just too damn hot out there. I don't remember how long we were out there, and it was a LONG time, but we were hot, dirty, sweaty, and thirsty by the time we were done. That has to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries that I've ever seen, and the headstones were amazing. If I ever get a chance, I'll go back and do some grave rubbings. When we left, we tried to find a Target because we needed some essentials, but the stupid GPS must have gotten mad at me for abusing it the night before, because it took us WAY out of town. I'm not sure where we ended up, but it certainly wasn't Target. We had to find a way back into town, because we had made reservations for that night at a fancy, historical restaurant called The Olde Pink House. We heard it was (possibly) very haunted on the ghost tour last night and we wanted to eat with some dead folks.

I'm not sure how long we were actually gone, but I was in quite a state by the time we were able to rest and get ready. I apparently didn't hear Steve right when he told me what time our reservation was for, because 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there, I still wasn't ready. I still stand behind my belief that he told me 7:30, but he said he told me 6:30 (he didn't, I swear) we had to call and push our reservation back until 8:45. Luckily we were able to do that! Yay!

We did have another small problem while getting ready, and I should probably be ashamed for thinking it's funny, but I'm not! When I got out of the shower, I walked back into our room and saw Steve looking distressed. He had been ironing his dress pants before getting dressed, but now he was just standing there staring at them on the board. Bless his heart, he hadn't payed attention to the setting on the iron before he got started and he had burned an iron-shaped hole in his pants! He looked so pitiful, but I couldn't help but laugh! I've never actually known anyone to do that in real life! Poor guy, though, it was the only pair of nice pants he had brought, so he had to wear jeans. He looked handsome anyways!

After we got ready, we decided to try and find that elusive Target again!
After driving a considerable distance, and being miseld by the stupid GPS again, we finally did find a Target on our own and we bought a new GPS holder, which made me happy because I was having to hold the dumb thing up the whole time we were driving. I also had to buy a new pair of shoes because none of the many pairs of shoes I brought with me were doing my feet any good. At this point, I had blisters, wounds, and hurty spots all over my feet: in short, my feet hurt. A lot. I got a pair of Chucks and a few other things and even though it was a little early, we finally made our way to the restaurant. I'm glad we decided to go early, because it took us a LONG time to find a place to park. We finally found a spot about a block away and walked over. They were able to seat us immediately, so that was awesome! The restaurant was wonderful and the food was spectacular. I had pecan-crusted chicken with some kind of sauce on it, whipped sweet potatoes and collards. I know the food was good because I ate the collard greens and I usually HATE them. We also got dessert, which I can't exactly describe because there was a lot going on with it, but I will just call it Awesome with Fruit and Ice Cream. I could eat one of whatever it was every day for a year and still think it was good! *drool*

As for ghosts, I didn't see anything. Trust me, I looked. The Olde Pink House is supposed to be one of the 7 most haunted locations in the country, and I didn't see or feel anything. Steve, on the other hand, did! BOO, I'm jealous! He and I were talking and he kind of jumped a little and looked weird and asked if anyone was behind him. There wasn't anyone there, not a server or even a table with people at it, so he looked kind of funny when I said no one was there. His chair had slid away from the table, and he didn't do it! He even tried to do it and the chair wouldn't move like that when he pushed it! No fair! :( I got nothing.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 20, 2009 - Savannah is hot. I only say it that simply because there are few words to describe the drowning-on-dry-land feeling that I encountered today. Steve and I were woken by a shaft of light so bright that for a moment I thought that the sun had gone supernova. Apparently, we haven't quite figured out how to close the curtains all the way! Something to work on later! Our first adventure this morning was a trip to Forsyth Park. I have seen tons of pictures of the park, but none of them did it justice. The place is beautiful! I'm really falling in love with the live oaks and Spanish moss. We saw a farmer's market, which was kind of interesting. There were also lots of dogs out today, but I only got to pet one of them. :( We walked the perimeter of the park and looked at the beautiful houses all around. I would love to live in one of them! I love old houses, and a lot of these were just so interesting! We also located the famous fountain, which was just a nice in person as it is in the pictures. By the time we had gone all the way around and then some, we were both dripping sweat and kind of feeling gross, so we stopped at an antique store to get out of the heat for a few minutes, and we ended up in a place where we could afford nothing and it was housed in a crumbling, old mansion. I'm not exaggerating about that, it was really crumbling. We walked through four of it's five floors, and I think the house would be beautiful if it were restored, but it was kind of scary. We were beginning to be afraid that we might fall through the floors, so we left and went to have lunch at Clary's. It was small, and reminded me of Aunt Eunice's, and the food was great! We had some trouble getting the car out of the tiny lot, but we finally managed it and did a couple of errands before returning to the hotel.

I made sure to get back to the hotel in abundant time to get ready for Kenny and Lauren's wedding! After holding up the dinner the night before because I was late, I didn't want to take that chance again. I almost made myself late again, but I managed to get ready and use the GPS (for the first time) to successfully locate the Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was so beautiful! Since I don't understand valet parking and didn't want to embarrass myself, I found a place to park on the street (that is an important tid-bit for later, so pay attention) and went into the hotel. I immediately found a very handsome Kenny who didn't look at all nervous. :) I spoke to him and had someone take our picture, and then I got out of the way of the bustle. As the guests arrived I found that another guest, Elizabeth, and I had on the exact same dress! We have never met in person, we live in different towns and we bought them from two different places, but they were exact down to the bow on the sash! We just have very good taste! Heeheehee! The wedding was outside (gulp) but under a nice tent in the courtyard. It had a chandelier and everything! The actual ceremony went over without a hitch, and Kenny and Lauren are now married! I think my heart grew three sizes that day. :) I had a tickle in my throat at the absolute worst moment, the "does anyone have any reason to object" moment, but I managed to keep in on the DL. I didn't feel like getting beat down by the bride! The music was beautiful and everything was so lovely. While the bride and groom were off taking pictures, I got a chance to talk to more of the people whom I've only ever heard of in stories, and I found them all to be lovely people.

We moved to the restaurant next door to begin the reception, and had drinks and nibbly foods while waiting on the dining room to be prepared. I got to know a guy I've heard about for years, Stephen, an old friend of Kenny's. He's a lawyer, and in spite of that, a lot of fun to talk to! :) I also got to meet the lovely Elisabeth, Kenny's unofficial sister, who I liked a whole lot! I finally got to meet Rick, Bonita's husband and Kenny's Step dad, Lauren's parents, her god sisters, and there were so many others! They were all seriously great people. It took a little while, but as soon as the newlyweds returned, the reception dinner finally began. The dining room was very beautiful and I was afraid I was going to break something or knock something over, so I found a seat at the very end of the table and parked myself. I sat across from Wendy Brown...ahem, I mean WENNYBROWN! (exclamation point is a part of the name, not punctuation.) I'm fairly sure she is a kindred spirit of mine. She was a hoot! We were also sitting next to Lauren's God parents and one of her family's neighbors. We had so much fun with them, because they were bonafide, dyed in the wool, Connecticut Yankees! We spent the whole dinner discussing the differences between being from the north versus being from the south. It led to very, very entertaining conversation, and I'm seriously afraid that I laughed entirely too loud. Seriously, I actually laughed like my Atnip relatives, and that involves throwing the head back and pretty much shrieking. I'd like to apologize to everyone at 700 Drayton, Lauren, Kenny, their collected friends and family and the state of Georgia for my behavior. The lady who was sitting beside me kept saying "She's like this and she isn't even drinking!!" At least I kept them laughing along with me. I had way too much fun! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and everything was fancy and lovely. I didn't spill anything or knock anything over, so score a point for me! Unfortunately, I was going to have to leave before the festivities were over because Steve had gotten into the "spirit" *ahem* of things and made reservations for us to go on a ghost tour through the city! I figured out that if I left by 8:30, I'd have plenty of time to make it back to the hotel and change before we had to meet the group, so at the appointed time I stood and said goodbye and hugged a series of very wonderful people who I had spent the evening with! I even managed to hug Emo Waiter Andrew, because he looked like he needed one. Miss Bonita caught me at the door and we talked for a few minutes and she asked me if I could wait until the cake was cut, and I hated to miss that, so I agreed! I'm so glad that they didn't smush cake on each other, because I really hate when people do that! :) I stepped into the foyer, and Bryan caught me to hug me good bye and talk for a second, and at this point I completely lost track of time. I kept hearing a weird noise, but I didn't think anything about it. When he walked back into the reception, I realized that this annoying noise I kept hearing was my new phone ringing! Oh, Crap!

I looked at the time and nearly fainted! I saw that it was Steve trying to call (he didn't know how long I was going to be gone and had gotten worried about me) but by the time I figured out how to answer the damned thing he had hung up. I tried calling him back, but I couldn't figure out how to send a call! I kept looking at my phone and yelling "CALL DAMNIT!" which I'm sure the host at the desk behind me found amusing. I ran out of the building yelling at my phone and trying to find my keys. It was a disorganized mess. I had my hands full, things were falling, I was shrieking and running and trying to get the stupid phone to make a call. Oh, and I also had to pee really bad. I didn't have time to run back in, so I figured I'd just do it when I ran into the hotel to change clothes. I finally got to my car, and two cars...oh, friends and neighbors...two cars had me trapped in the space I was parked in. You wouldn't think that could happen on a curb, but these numbnuts idiots had parked within about 7 inches of each end of my car. I don't know what they were thinking when they parked where they did, but they were way too close for me to just pull out. So there I was, still yelling at my phone, trying to get things organized enough to actually drive, freaking out because I thought I was going to be late for the tour that I was looking forward to, needing to pee, and add to that I was trying to start the GPS and hook it into the holder! Of course, in about 30 seconds of trying to affix the GPS to the holder, I managed to snap the hinge off of the holder. I screamed an explicative at it as it fell apart in my hands. Then my phone rang again, and it was Steve, asking where I was. I was having a small scale come-apart, but I managed to answer the phone this time. I had to throw the GPS aside and try to pull out of my parking space without plowing into one of the cars, all while trying to give Steve directions on the clothes he needed to get out for me so that I could change when I got back to the hotel. I went in reverse, and immediately bumped into the car behind me. My only saving grace is that I was going less than 1 MPH since I had pretty much only let my foot off the brake when I rolled back. I figure that anyone who parks THAT close to another vehicle doesn't care much what happens to their car, so I didn't even get out of the car to look. I pulled forward about 6 inches, then reversed, back, forth, back, forth...ect. I was finally able to get out of the spot without hitting anyone else and began my ride back. Luckily I had at least set the GPS before I broke the holder, so it helped me get on my way. Steve was worried that we weren't going to make it, so I just told him to meet me outside with my flip-flops (I NEEDED to ditch the shoes I was wearing, because it was a walking tour) and that I would run in and go to the bathroom while he jumped into the drivers seat. I would just wear the dress I wore to the wedding.

We made it, just barely. We did end up waiting a few minutes before our group set off, but it wasn't long. I was severely overdressed, but at least my feet were comfy! I really, really enjoyed the tour! We had an awesome tour guide and she told a lot of great stories of ghoolies, ghosties and long leggedy beasties. We walked two miles, and my ankles and legs were a buffet for mosquitoes the size of seagulls. We also took a lot of pictures, as the tour guide suggested, to get "Spirit Orbs" and ghost photos. We got a lot of orbs in our pictures, but I generally follow the TAPS rule that orbs usually mean dust. Of course, I did a have a couple of orbs in my pictures that looked different than others, so maybe I got a spook after all!

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost midnight and my feet felt like they had been beaten with switches. They were even bleeding in places! However, I wasn't worried because I'd had a wonderful day. I was also exhausted and I will soon be passed out asleep.