Some photos for ya

I asked Brandon what I should do yesterday. I had a little cabin fever. He gave me some suggestions - drive to the coast, take some pictures. Okay. I did it.
Slideshow here

Sickpants update

In response to my query as to if he was feeling any better -

a little. I took a nap at lunch and had some hot rococoa ( It was chiarscurratastic).

The night we met, he worked "chiaroscuro" into the conversation. Obviously I loved him right away.

Ugly tomatoes

These heirloom tomatoes were identified as "Ugly Tomatoes" at the grocery store. Turns out they just needed some accessorizing with goat cheese and homegrown basil. Delish.

Flutterby

This little guy spends much of each day on this plant. The plant is a little challenged and it looks like the butterfly's had better days, too, but they seem to get along just fine.

Brandon has a cold

But he's remaining witty -

I'm all Sneezy, Dopey, Sleepy, Grumpy, and I need a Doc.

As I drive around the lush green that is Eastern North Carolina, I find myself longing for the rocky, scrub brush covered hills of the Santa Susanna pass. When I was driving to school in Northridge, I spent many hours on that road. My final semester, I made that trip as many as five days a week. On my way home after my very last class, I said outloud that I never wanted to make that drive again. Well, now I would love it. I would love to have the San Fernando Valley one county away. Not for the destination, but for the journey.

Thank you, NC, for showing me appreciation.

Today's spasmodic dance brought to you by...

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Arachna-itchy

I just took the kids out for a pee. I walked through a spider web. At first I didn't think much of it, then I realized it was more of an afghan than a web and that freaked me out a little. Then, I remembered the girl who works at the gym who was nibbled by a brown recluse last week. Then I remembered the spider bite currently calling my left leg home. That's when the spazzy flailing began. I tell ya, if anyone saw my outdoor antics and had the presence of mind to grab the video cam, America's Funniest Videos wouldn't know what hit 'em.

North Carolina fact

North Carolina is one of seven states where cohabitation is illegal. A sheriff's dispatcher here was busted for shacking up with her boyfriend. She was given the choice of marrying him, moving out, or quitting. She quit.

I wish my naps from last week were transferrable

Between work and staying up to watch the game, Brandon has had a total of 4 1/2 hours of sleep the last two nights. The wheels are coming off, as evidenced by these email excerpts from this morning:

I'm s;eepy I don't know what I'm doing.

Hreee hreeee hreee hreeeeeeeeeee and a
Duh duh duh duuuuuh

It's possible he typed that last one with his forehead as he crashed into the keyboard. At least he'd be sleeping.

Up all night

I am enjoying a little late night banter via email with Brandon right now. Yes, it's almost 6am there, and he's been up for a couple of hours. No, he's not working, he's watching the Florida - Tennessee game. For the dedication, I hope he is rewarded with a win. Goooooooooooooo Gators!

A glimpse of the trail

As my dad pointed out, this blog is finally living up to its name. I finally left the neighborhood today and spotted some hurricane evidence. There were a couple of trees toppled. I'm sure the people who live here are quite pleased the wind direction wasn't 90 degrees different -
More than gas prices are falling at the Fuel Market down the street. Note the topless pole by the pump. Notice the red canopy on the other side of the parking lot -
Closer look at the canopy. I am quite curious how that happened -

Power is back!

Our neighborhood was out of power for just about 24 hours. That's a new one for me. Pretty wild. Looks like we got just under five inches of rain in the last 24 hours with wind speeds up to 43mph. I don't know how far away we were from the eye, but we're twenty or so miles from the coast and I heard the storm was stalled near the Outer Banks. Whatever that means. Well, I'm going to take a hot shower now. Thanks for all your good wishes and thoughts. I made it through my first hurricane!

It's beginning to smell a bit like Christmas

The power is still out. I can't have any coffee. I have already had a two hour nap today. But other than that, we're fine. The rain stopped by the time I woke up - the first time. The wind is still giving it to us. We went for a walk this morning and, thanks to all the bits and chunks of pine tree littering the ground, it smells like Christmas. There's a hum in the air from the occasional generator running. I saw a neighbor siphoning gas out of his car to fuel his. I wonder if they have coffee?

Oh-Phelia!

Wow, who knew four and a half hours of power outage could be soooo long. That's how long it's been so far, who knows how long it will last. I finished a book by candlelight - so romantic. My laptop has four hours of battery life left, so I don't mind turning it on to check email, but that's about it. Oh, and since our cable Internet box is electricity powered, I'm dialing up. Oh, and since all the phone we have in the house are of the cordless variety, and also powered by the electricity, the only use I have for the phone line is dialing up to the Internet. Oh, and since this is dial-up connection, don't expect anything fancy like pictures. Although I do wish I could share the intensity of the moment.

Otherwise, I do have my cell phone should I need it. I am keeping it off to reserve the battery. But I can totally turn it on if I need to call someone. But please, feel free to email, I will check in periodically.

Okay, that's it for now, we're inside, the outside is outside, and that's the way we hope it remains.

Wet

View through living room window .We are certainly getting the rain and wind of the storm. I've been watching a piece of siding on a neighbor's house flap around all day. The biggest thing I saw in the air was a small piece of bark that flew into the living room window as I looked out. It was kind of like a 3-D movie, I was startled.

The dogs aren't concerned with the weather yet, not loud enough I suspect. I walked them this afternoon and as the wind was at our backs, Shane turned to look at me and the wind picked her ears straight up. They don't prick up like that normally so it had the effect of making her look very surprised. I laughed out loud.

The lights have flickered a couple of times this afternoon and I anticipate we will have a power outage sooner or later. Luckily I am a girl and have plenty of candles. And, thanks to Brandon being a boy, plenty of flashlights.

View from front door.

I'm listening to an interview with Elie Wiesel on the radio. He said something that I feel we all would do well to hear in these reactionary times. He said he does not believe in group guilt or group punishment, only the guilty should be punished. He was speaking directly about Germans and the Holocaust, but I believe that statement can be applied to so many other situations. When I've tried before to express similar sentiment, I've used a lot more words and probably a lot less impact. I guess that's why he won the Nobel Prize.

Ophie

Some of you may be watching Ophelia and noticing her projected path is into the coast of North Carolina. I've heard she could hit the Outer Banks and track along the Pamlico Sound. We live off the Pamlico Sound. But, according to reports, we should be fine here. Schools in our county and the county to the East will be closed tomorrow at noon. I've moved the potted plants to the sheltered entry and, if winds get stronger, I'll move the table and chairs in from outside. Other than that, I don't know what to expect, so we'll be sitting tight and keeping an eye on the news. So far, we've had strong breezes and a few minutes of rain. I mean, along with our usual Eastern North Carolina excitement.

As you know, we live on a golf course. Nearby is the course's club house. I'm not really sure what goes on there besides the Friday dinners which are posted on a board down the street - mmmm, liver. Well, two night ago there was singing going on there. The dogs and I headed out for our bedtime walk and heard the music. At first I thought it might be a dj, then perhaps a band, but by the time "Satisfaction" came on and I didn't recognize that that's what it was until the chorus, I realized we were suffering thought a karaoke experience. Thankfully, I couldn't hear anymore once we got back inside.

As much as I love massages...

Another moment from my drive back from Florida -

I stopped at a gas station in Georgia and visited the facilities. This was no ordinary gas station. It was a truck stop. They have way more stuff than regular gas stations. Often in the restrooms you will find coin-operated cologne spraying machines. Well, as I walked down the hall to the restroom, I noticed a sign with a directional arrow, pointing the way to massages. This was one instance where I really felt okay passing up the opportunity and didn't even feel compelled to go around the corner and check out exactly what this was all about. Mostly I didn't want to know who would want to rub long-haul truckers. To be fair, maybe there is a complimentary shower offered pre-rub down. Yes, I feel better thinking that's the way it was.

Strange sight

Last Thursday, as I neared the end of my long day's drive home, I saw something I had to give a second look. A group of probably 20 golf carts, practicing a synchronized routine in the parking lot of a medical building. Hopefully there's a parade coming up and that wasn't a regular weekly meeting. No. I didn't get a picture.

Lessons in service

How to make the customer's day:

Ring up item marked with regular price. Tell customer item is on sale! Be rewarded with an over exuberant and far too telling about the life of the customer "OH GOOD!"

How to take it all away:

Announce to customer that if she had come in Monday, she could've had another 25% off. Smile at customer.


Grumble, grumble.

Man at Work

Here's a very recent pic of Brandon - in theater, as they say. I think he looks thin, what say you? I also say he looks mighty good to me. No need to comment on that one.

I was surprised by a call from him this morning. Surprised and really glad I was home. We hadn't set up a time for a call this week, so I surely didn't expect it. I do know to answer all calls, though, even if it might be (probably is) a telemarketer. Something about the calling card calling routing has a new, unidentified number showing up on Caller ID each time, so I just have to suffer through the offers, at least until I can politely interrupt and assure them I don't want or need it and make sure they verbally acknowledge they will NOT be signing me up for anything and will NOT be charging anything to my credit card even though I know they are truly. just. trying. to. help. protect. me. (Sorry, channeling William Shatner) Got it.

Brandon's been working some insane hours the last several days. I like it because we can email several more times a day. He doesn't like it because his system is all thrown off and he has worked as many as 20 hours in a row. He told me that he worked through the night and left his office at 5am to visit the loo. When he walked outside he was surprised to find it still dark. Dark there is really, very dark. He described walking with his hands extended to try to not run into anything. He said it is a darkness your eyes cannot adjust to. I think that's scary. He said he's not afraid. He's tuff after all.

Must've been the sand

Brandon cracked a tooth while eating an English muffin. If he wants to come home early, I don't think that'll do it. Anyway, the dental office was closed yesterday when he did it, so he went today and got a filling. He'll need a crown when he gets back. Hopefully the filling will hold and he won't be facing a root canal.

He had an interesting exchange with someone yesterday when he attempted to get assistance with something else.

Them: "uh..there's no one here to process that right now. Can you come
back later today?"
Me: "You have got be kidding me. Where are they?"
Them: "It's their day off"

Blink. Blink. What?

Wanting to be smart about it

We want to give, but we want to do it smartly. I found this site to help evaluate charities. You can see what percentage of their money goes to helping and what percentage goes to administrative costs. Each charity is rated so you can compare. You can also see how much the CEO "earns." I'm sure this is one of many resources. Don't throw good money after bad, take an extra day and check 'em out.

I asked, he answered

I wanted to know about the dust. Here's what he said:

You want to know about the dust? It's like moon dust, I would imagine.
Super sooooooper fine dust. It gets on everything. We haven't had a dust
storm/sand storm yet. Not looking forward to one either. It's supposed
to be quite a show...

Imagine that getting in your toothbrush. Ewww.

I'm here to announce - PROGRESS!

Yes, progress visited just a few minutes ago. I gave Shane her second bathtub bath and I am only half-drenched. She managed to stay IN the tub the whole time and I managed to get her MORE than half clean! Yes, that's right, despite her cries and my fear than she would snap (figuratively and the other way), 'cause we just don't know her that well yet, we got it done. I also discovered that when I took the bathroom door down to paint the frame, I somehow re-hung it poorly and it won't latch. A new project!

puppies

I picked the kids up. Stopping to fill my tank on the way, lest we all run out. All the gas stations around here are at $3.49 a gallon and some are already sold out. Gas is cheaper on base, but that was the other direction and I'll bet they're out anyway. So, I paid the bail and got two pups pretty happy to see me. Or at least to be out of jail. They offer a complimentary bath and nail trim with stay, so Quentin got that. Shane, on the other hand, only got a nail trim. She's no good with bathing and apparenly they weren't willing to wrestle over there. I'll have to get her somehow. Wish you were home, Baby, if only for the extra pair of wrangling hands. So, we got home, they checked the whole place out, each had a ton of water and a Greenie, and were asleep within a half hour. There's one on either side of my chair in the kitchen as I type. I'd take a picture, but getting up to get the camera would disrupt them and I think they need their sleep. So cute.

Ouch! Ooh! Yikes! Dah!

That's the sound of me flogging myself for not posting for a week. I am sorry. I have no good excuse, really. I had access, I had my own computer, I had time. I won't waste your time with weak attempts at explaining.

My drive down last Friday was relatively uneventful. I had a trucker boyfriend for a little while. I finally had to accelerate beyond my comfort speed to breakup with that guy.

I got to Jacksonville in reasonable time and began the eating frenzy. I spent the weekend with Jason and Tami and Aiden and we had pizza Friday, sushi Saturday (yay!), and BBQ Sunday. I went from their to Chris and Rob's and straight into Sunday dinner at a Mexican place. From there we had dinner at home a couple of times and ate out: Italian, Greek, vegetarian. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. It was all so good. I was very happy. Of course that's not all we did, just the best part. Chris took me to the fine art museum, theCummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Sadly, many of the exhibits were closed while remodeling, but we saw a nice collection. They had a room full of Meissen china - an impressive collection to be sure. That was the day we went to the vegetarian restaurant. I had their carrot hot dog. It's a cooked carrot in a bun with ketchup, mustard, and cole slaw and if you didn't know better, you'd think you were eating a hot dog. Seriously.

I'll write more later, gotta shower and go bail the mutts out of jail. I'll leave you with Scout. She'll keep you company.