Big Doings

Kittens, it has been a busy week. This weekend is the big-time bridge event – the Ruff-n-Sluff Non-Life Master Tournament. Yes, even though I’ve been playing bridge for 12 years, I am still a NON-life master. Awesome. In any event, as Chairman of the tournament, I’ve been running around gathering gift cards, finding partners, and ordering cookies all so that everyone can come together this weekend in a concentrated effort to beat me. That’s why they all come, right? Just to give me low boards!

I’ve been able to accomplish a lot this week, even though I was exhausted from camping, Moon had a friend over, and I did an impromptu screening of Sense and Sensibilities – LOVE that movie. Despite all of THAT, you’ll be glad to know I have my bidding britches laid out and ready to wear tomorrow.

Speaking of my great big bidding britches, I’ve reached a high point on the scale. Because, as my friend John said, “At least you keep TRYING to lose weight,” I’ve decided on ANOTHER diet. This time I’ve ordered a 30 day supply of pre-made meals. I haven’t gotten the box yet, but I’ll be sure and keep you posted on how much weight I lose.

Stay tuned to see how many points I win, and how many pounds I lose. If either one is over ONE, I’ll be surprised.

 

Glamping It Ain’t

Shorthand for glamorous camping; luxury camping.
So, we went camping. Every time I pack the family and head to the lake for a few days, I come home with the same thought – my parents were saints. Also, crazy. There’s no other way to explain spending the night at the lake, much less two or more nights in a row.

 

We got to the campground on Saturday and began setting up the tent. We’ve gotten it down to a science and it really only took about 30 minutes. So far, so good! JD got the boat in the water, we found a place to secure the dog, the coolers were full – life was good. After a few hours on the water, we cooked dinner – (hotdogs) played a few rounds of bridge and at least one person enjoyed an adult beverage.

 

Then it got dark, REALLY dark, and we realized we hadn’t brought a lantern. Rookie mistake. With nothing else do do, we went to bed. At 9:45 pm. Do you know how LOUD it is outside at night? It’s like the nocturnals are throwing a party and they don’t care WHO knows it. I finally fell asleep about 11 for all of an hour before my stomach woke me up screaming “YOU ATE A HOTDOG!” Oh, yeah. For some reason, I forgot that whenever I eat a hotdog, I throw up. Without fail, every single time. You’d think that would be the kind of information I’d remember, but no. So I got up, not once, but TWICE, to stumble around in the dark and find a place to puke. Then I got up a third time to go to the bathroom because I’m old and the bathroom was a million miles away. The point is, I got no sleep. But my stomach wasn’t the only issue.

 

When we were packing for the trip, JD pulled out all of the blow-up beds that we own – 8. He blew them all up and found two that seemed to hold air. Moon had a cot, so we brought the two queen beds, blew them both up, stacked them, and went to bed confident that we’d at least be off the ground. HAHAHAHA! Of COURSE, they both deflated so that JD and I ended up rolled into the middle like we were sleeping on a rubber, taco bed. You can see why I was ready to go home the next morning. But then this happened:

 

lake3

 

lake2
You think you’re out, and they drag you back in!
Who can resist the happy smile of a child?

mekid

 

No one, apparently.

Farmer Tyre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After years of hearing me complain that we needed more fresh vegetables, JD planted a container garden around the pool. It was touch and go at first as every animal within 10 miles decided to eat at the Tyre Buffett. But now, things are going well.

watermelon

 

Our watermelon vine is looking good!

tomatoes

The tomatoes are almost ripe.

pepper

One green pepper is making its way into the world.

pear

 

Even the pear tree is cooperating. I guess the animals have figured out that we’re the boss and they need to leave our plants alone if they want to live.

sweetpotato

Or they ate themselves sick on my sweet potato vine, whichever.

 

 

 

 

Where the Wild Things Are

This weekend was the perfect blend of activity and laziness. Moon had a slumber party to attend Friday night, so JD and I got to have “date night”. We went to dinner and took advantage of the fact Moon wasn’t with us and ate Indian food. Have I mentioned that I’ve been to INDIA? It was great. We ate at a nearby restaurant named Taj Mahal (I’ve been THERE, too) and stuffed ourselves on Naan and Butter Chicken. Yummy. The only bad thing about the evening was when JD woke me up at 2 a.m. looking for stomach medicine, but all ended well when I was able to go right back to sleep. Whew.

Saturday morning, JD picked up Moon from her party, I picked up her BFF, Jemi, and we all went to a packing party. My dear friend, Carolyn, is moving away. She moved into our garage apartment 12 years ago when she was pregnant with her twins. Moon was 6 months old when her boys were born. They were her first friends, and are still her favorite people. Last year we got to spend a lot of time with them over the summer, and they went with us to my mom’s for a few days.

friends

 

 

We’ll keep in touch through Facebook but who knows when we’ll actually get to be together again. It’s all VERY sad. So sad that after we moved 120 boxes into the moving truck, I came home and poured myself 2 glasses of wine from the large bottle Carolyn gave me for helping.

Where am I going to find another friend who knows me so well??

 

Justice

This was one of those days where I spend all my time serving other because I am just that nice. First of all, I worked. Yes, TECHNICALLY they pay me, but since I’m unsupervised which we all know means I COULD just slack off, the fact that I don’t ought to count for something. Right?

In addition to working hard for my company, I met a friend for lunch and took the opportunity to set her up on Facebook, Linkedin and Google Plus. She’s starting a new business and needed to get online and since I LIVE online, asked me for help. So I helped her because I’m a giver. And she bought lunch.

THEN I went to an estate sale and bought some jewelry for my mom. I made the mistake of telling my friend John about it. He strolled up 30 minutes late, saw something I had bought, and begged until I gave it to him. I totally wanted to keep the Kappa Sig paddle from 1936, but I decided to give it to him since we’re friends and he’s my boss, but mostly that last one.

Finally, I came home and took Moon shopping. She’s going to a birthday party and we picked up a couple of things for her friend, but Moon just had to have a new outfit, too.

 

shirt

pants

 

Soft camouflage jogging pants and matching exclamation shirt – of course!

At least I had something to occupy my time. I gave up on Lost. I saw through 3 seasons, but the fourth was making me crazy with the future flash-forwards, blah, blah, blah so I just went straight to the finale and watched the last 12 minutes. Fast-forwarding to the end saved me from enduring a lot of boring stuff.

I should get one of those for this blog.

My Sister – the Holy Spirit

HStania

What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit – truth, conviction, encouragement? Tania-the-Mad may just give Him a run for His money. Case in point, she called me yesterday before work, as per her usual, and we started talking about my latest blog post. I mentioned that I’d taken down that terrible Facebook picture and she laid some truth on me –

I wondered why you posted it. It wasn’t particularly flattering.

Okay, then. She didn’t, however, explain why she had LIKED the photo. Unless she “likes” that I’m ugly. Hmmm.

As we continued talking, I asked if she’d ever watched Lost, cause, you know, I’m addicted. She said, no and then threw out some conviction:

I don’t have time to watch TV. There’s always something to do, like clean the house.

Okay, then. Perhaps I ought to push a broom around, is that what you’re saying??

Finally, as we prepared to hang up, she offered encouragement:

Two out of three ain’t bad.

Facebook Folly

Here’s the truth about Facebook: People will like any picture, no matter how fat and stupid you look. I know this from experience. I went to a concert this weekend with JD, Moon and my friend John and decided it’d be a great time to use my new phone and snap a “selfie”. Because my arms aren’t long enough to fit all four of us in the photo, I did two – one of me and John, and one of me with the fam, then posted them both online. The one of John and I was better, but I could hardly post just THAT, like some kind of weird co-worker date night, so I uploaded both. WHY, I don’t know. I could have just not posted anything and allowed the world to wonder what we were doing, but no, I was at a CONCERT, the world must KNOW. Imagine my glee when I got home and saw that the photo on my phone looked 1000x worse on a computer screen and apparently everyone on the internet saw it. Anyway, I deleted the photo. 🙂

Saturday, I spent the whole day lounging, writing, reading and watching Lost. I’m about half way through the 3rd season which is quite the accomplishment considering there are 25 episodes in each. Afraid that I might run out of things to do, I bought 2 books at the bookstore and received a 3rd one in the mail. I only managed to finish one between the napping and the tv watching.

I love my weekends so much I plan on continuing it right through Thursday.

 

Finally, A Lisa Day

The biggest question on my heart tonight is, “Why can’t every day be like today?”

First, I slept until 8:30 a.m. Not too early, and not too late to get anything done. I woke up, did some exercise, had a little coffee, and caught up on a show I’d been meaning to watch.

Next, I opened my computer, answered a few emails, checked out what was happening in the world, and wrote a couple of pages in a novel I’m working on.

As I was putting the finishing touches on my story, my co-worker called to say he was at the Verizon store and if I wanted to upgrade my phone, today was the day.

5s

Say hello to my little friend! I got the phone, a cool case that will protect it from snow, dirt, falls from 6 feet, and even dips in the pool, a couple of chargers and headphones. All for the sale price of ZERO dollars, at least zero dollars from my pocket. Self-employment is for the birds, Kittens.

THEN, I got an email from my editor with some preliminary sketches of my book cover and it is going to be awesome. I can’t wait for it to be done so I can show you! I’d be all giddy if I wasn’t freaking out about it all.

Finally, a sales rep called and gave me four FREE tickets to Chastain Park to see The Goo Goo Dolls and Daughtry tomorrow night. Since they don’t seem like the twerking type, we’re taking Moon to her first concert.

I don’t see how this day can be topped, but if you’ve got something to offer, I’m willing to give it a try. If you know a good RV dealership, or travel agent, that might be a great place to start.

 

I’m Lost

My brother just came in and sat on my couch and asked, “Did you blog today?” Of all the nerve. Didn’t I SAY I was going to blog more? I’ve got all kinds of things to say, just wait!

Yeah, I’ve got nothing. I slept late today and it threw off my whole day.  I did manage to exercise and grab a quick shower, then it was out to the office for work, work, work. Most of what I did today was time-sucking nothingness – answer an email, forward a proof, wait on a phone call. The only bright spot was when I was waiting on a couple of people to call me back, I snuck in an episode of Lost.

Yes, I am binge watching Lost, a series that was very popular 4 – 10 years ago. I don’t know WHY I find a show about really attractive people lost on a deserted island with something called a “smoke monster” interesting, especially when my own reality is so freaking awesome, but I just do.

Moon  cleaned house for me, and JD went to WalMart so I didn’t even have the fun of that added excitement to get me through the day. The only bright spot was when Baby A came to visit for a few hours. We filled her up with watermelon and peaches, then introduced her to a Wii game featuring Barbie and a horse. Best. Aunt. Ever.

She really seemed to like the game, so we sent it home with her. Of course that means my brother will have to go home and hook up his Wii game, then spend several hours a day helping her outfit her rider, tack her horse, and watch her ride the trails. He might even be so busy, he won’t have time to question my blogging schedule again.

If he does, I’ve got a Pet Shop game that’ll keep him busy till A’s in middle school.