there is no greater email that one could receive from one’s boss on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. right before a Monday holiday than one that says, hey, thanks for the hard work everyone, we’re closing the office on Friday, take 4 days off instead of 3.

!!!

you should have heard all the buzz in the cubicles.

see what Frank found while we watched CSI on the DVR.

in his birthday suit present
(more…)

in the extended entry
(more…)

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

the vacationers…
(more…)

look how precious kitty cats can be. even Sydney.

now that my vacation is over, i think i need another one. nah, i’m actually doing quite fine.

we had fun. Thursday we went to Epcot, where no one got pooed on by a bird, and Frank and Bikermommy debated over whether nurse sharks are maneaters (for the record, they are labeled as dangerous to humans, and both parties insist they won the argument). after Thursday, my feet hurt soooo bad.

Friday we all went to Kennedy Space Center, and i laughed at the great pun that is the “Rocket Garden”. plus Frank bought me a t-shirt that says “i need my space”. oh, and we found out the next launch is set for July 13th so far. and on the tour bus ride, we saw lots of gators, and i think that our guide was getting a little annoyed from the lack of interest due to gator watching. on the bus back to the visitors complex, we had a funny tour guide though.

he pointed out a bald eagle’s nest (the space center is in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge) and then asked those who missed seeing it to raise our hands. then he told us he had really good news for us… “i just saved a lot of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO.” hahaha. he sounded a lot like Ducky, too.

Friday night we ate on the Pier in Cocoa Beach. i was fine until we actually walked out a little on the pier and i realized that “pier” means “over ocean”. not so happy about my surroundings at that point. but it was a nice dinner.

Saturday morning, B&P left. Frank woke up with his back all out of whack. we went to see Batman Begins, which we really enjoyed, then we went to El Chico for dinner and shopping at the mall after that. it was good and productive. oh, plus Pappy & Frank hanged my lovely tuscanish painting Saturday morning, and i put up a few things on the wall. so the house is clean and i continue to decorate and unpack.

i went to worship this morning without Frank, who was in bed with his bad back. this afternoon we watched Radio (good, made me cry, all that) and then both made it to evening worship. then the IMAO roundtable…

i think we had a packed 4-day weekend. and it was fun. and i have a ton of pictures, and they’re actually on the computer, i just have to resize them, and then i’ll be a good blogger again! and now that my mother is gone and the house is clean, i’ll actually get to read blogs again, and that makes me happy.

nighty night, musees!

i’m not dead, i’m on vacation. and before that, i was preparing to co-teach a CPE course at work, plus all that cleaning for Bikermommy & Pappy.

they got here Tuesday night, and the rest is a blur. Tuesday night we were up super late.

Wednesday Frank and i both worked. Wednesday night was Bible study, then we met B&P at Meg O’Malley’s in downtown Melbourne. B&P had been playing all day on the beach and eating good seafood. MO’M’s has really good food. and even though it was close to midnight when we got home and we were going to Disney World the next day, we karaoked until after midnight.

yesterday we went to Epcot. we got there around noon and were on our feet for the next 9 hours. except when we went in the Canada movie, which was nice, because we could sit on the floor. boy, were we whiny at the end of the day. we had a great time and actually got to do a lot.

today we’ll be on our feet again. all day. and my feet are still recovering from yesterday.

more later, and this time, lots of pictures.

… and preparing for a training class that i was tag-team teaching at work, i’ve been a bit unavailable as of late. the training class was today, and Bikermommy and Pappy finally arrived tonight. so you can expect me to be somewhat around.

and for the record, it took them as long to drive in their road-worthy truck as it took Frank and me to drive in a 24-ft U-Haul towing an SUV. the same drive, same # of miles, mostly same route.

silly Bikermommy.

really, i do. i wish i’d taken before and after pictures of Frank’s shower, because y’all would worship me as the Goddess of Clean. wait, i think i’d rather be the Queen of Clean.

you may kiss my ring.

it was so disgusting that i, fully clothed, showered along with the tile when i was cleaning the shower. i didn’t want anything from that shower staying on me. my sandals are still drying out.

this morning, my coworkers and i were goofing off (if any of my bosses are reading this, translate that to “this morning, my coworkers and i were talking very seriously about work-related stuff and accidentally stumbled on to a non-work related topic for a brief moment”), and we were talking about different fellas that Jamie met on her trip to the U.K. we mentioned one guy, and then Karimah said, “are you talking about the guy you met at the airport?” and Jamie said, “no, that’s a different guy.”

to which Marci responded, “what? are you collecting men?”

yeah, we laughed for a while. and then brought it up several times throughout the day. i keep trying to get Jamie to start blogging, and it would be a perfect name for her blog…

you’re a moron.

do not approach a woman at a gas station to ask for directions. especially if there are other men there that you can ask. and the second you start leaning out of your car window to ask this woman directions, if she’s in her car with the doors closed and locked before you can say, “excuse me miss”, don’t pull your car up in line with hers and say, “i think the lady inside gave me the wrong directions. i was asking you if you know where such-n-such intersection is.”

then, if she reaches for something in her car, don’t ask her if there’s a grocery store anywhere nearby, particularly if there is a Publix right across the street. and when she says, “there’s a Publix right there,” don’t say, “yeah, i know” and drive off in a huff.

and you’d better make sure you drive right into that Publix parking lot, park your car, go inside and buy something, because if you don’t, she’s at the nearest police station with all of the information about your car faster than the bullets from her favorite gun can hit the center of the paper target at her favorite shooting range.

seriously guys, don’t be idiots, and try to be a little considerate.

well, swolen, anyway. my eye got irritated last night, and i rubbed it too much, busted a blood vessel in it, my eye swelled up very badly.

today it’s still swolen, and i look like i’ve been punched, but don’t worry, i’ll just tell everyone Frank hit me.

i’ve never been on a jury, but did that one jury lady in her interview say that the tide turned for her in the Jacko case when the mother snapped her fingers at the jury?

i’m sorry, but did she hurt your feelings?* did she put her hands on her hips and yell at you too? did she raise her voice and say “bad jury! bad!”? really. your hurt feelings made you vote not guilty? wah wah, here’s your ba-ba, would you like me to strain your peas for you?

* yes, she was one of the worst witnesses ever and an even worse mother and should never be allowed around any child again. but NEITHER SHOULD HE!

ok, i haven’t really seen Aaron Tippin in years.
he’s gray now
with a salt & pepper mustache
and no mullet

well done.

Frank and i have now been to Disney World 3 times since April 16th. first we went to Epcot, then Animal Kingdom, and last weekend we went to MGM for Star Wars weekend and Frank’s birthday. i have pictures! and someday i’ll get a chance to post them.

oh, and i have pictures of Frank wearing his birthday present. he was so excited about his new holster for his Peacemaker that i was able to get him, with little coaxing, to let me take pictures of him in his PJs and the holster. with gun, of course. pics soon.

my coworker Karimah mentioned Subway for lunch, so i drove over there on my own (we weren’t actually going to lunch together, just discussing lunch) to see what else was around Subway. and i saw Pier 1 and the Rag Shop and couldn’t resist. there is a reason i don’t go in that direction.

i decided the Rag Shop wouldn’t take long, so i’d go there first and then hit Pier 1. right. so the Rag Shop (which is like a Joann Fabric) was having a 50% off sale on floral stems and a 40% off sale on greenery bushes. so i think all the kitchen plant ledges will be decorated, and i have everything i need for the master bathroom. all for $50. whee!

i, of course, called Karimah and informed her that it was all her fault that i was going shopping. she readily accepted the blame.

ok, now that she’s gone…

clean clean clean clean clean… sorry for being absent, i know you’ve missed me, i’ve been cleaning and organizing and cleaning and cleaning and unpacking and cleaning and such. Saturday Frank bought a really pretty bookcase from Staples (and cheap too!), so i put that together and started organizing books. i really like to build stuff. so the status on all the rooms:
pretty much all of the rooms need vacuuming, dusting, and i think i’m going to steam clean all the carpets.
2 closets and the pantry completely done, 2 closets half done.
kitchen = disaster, but all of the boxes are finally unpacked, and tomorrow night, i’m completely decorating the plant ledges, getting the rest of the cabinets finished, and finishing that room.
entryway is mostly done
great room is mostly done
den is mostly done
guest/sarah room half done
bathrooms all done except the cleaning part

and Bikermommy arrives in 7 days.

yesterday my bro turned 32.

77 years young, and doesn’t look a day over 57!!

(and many more…)

this has been a loverly week, yes sir. i’ve had migraines every single day since Monday, which makes it really hard to concentrate at work and makes physical exertion impossible. so no exercise, and when i clean and unpack, i am mostly sitting down.

plus there’s the burning behind the eyes and the stabbing in the temples. i’m not a big fan of burning and stabbing.

but anyway. the neurologist had given me samples of good migraine drugs, so Tuesday morning i called and asked for a prescription of the one that worked. ok, it’ll be at your Walgreens by the end of the day. i got to Walgreens, no drugs. there was a message on the machine at home saying to call. so i called Wednesday morning to tell them my dosage, they said they’d call it in right then, and i left work about an hour early so i could get the meds and maybe some relief. got to Walgreens, no meds. no message at home.

so this morning i’ll call again and ask them when they’re going to call in my drugs. if i can get them to call in the drugs right away, then i’ll just go straight to Walgreens and wait.

it’s getting kinda frustrating.

just now, Sydney was making a bunch of noise and really annoying me, so i turned around and yelled, “what are you doing?”

that reminded me of this one time at church camp. it was the first day of camp, and i was going with a new session, meaning i didn’t know any of these people. it was the same camp i’d always gone to, but all new folks.

one of the counselors there was walking next to me, on our way to the canteen, and he put his arm over my shoulders in a friendly gesture. we were all a big family at camp. anyway, when he was walking next to me, he was walking funny, like he was handicapped. and it made me really mad, because i thought he was making fun of handicapped people, and it really offended me.

so i turned to him and said, “what are you doing?” and as i was saying it, i looked at him and realized that he was walking like he was handicapped because he was handicapped. of course, i was thoroughly embarrassed, because the words were coming out of my mouth and i couldn’t stop them. and he asked, “what?” very nonchalantly, as if he knew what i was going to say, but he wanted to give me a chance to change that just in case i realized my error.

i was appalled, because really, i was just annoyed that he was making fun of handicapped people, not that he was handicapped! but how do you say, “i thought you were making fun of handicapped people, because you know, i’m at that age where kids do that, and it was making me really mad because it’s not nice to make fun of handicapped people. but now that i know you’re really handicapped, i just want to crawl into a hole and die because i don’t know how to take my foot out of my mouth, as it has been so craftily inserted.”

but glory, there was a way out. his arm was over my shoulder, and my hair was almost to my waist, so i said, “you’re pulling my hair!” and somehow he apologized for my foolishness.

Pier 1 sent me a coupon for $10 on a $50 spree. i have a $30 gift card from the Sizzle from Christmas.

i can spend $50 at Pier 1 and give them ten shiny dollars.

Sydney is known as the dumb monkey cat to those who know her best. Stupid Monkey Purr-Purr, Little Purr, Dumb Cat, etc. Minerva is the more cerebrally developed cat.

except when it comes to the cat door.

Frank installed a tiny little cat flap so the cats can come and go to and from the garage as they please, and we can keep the litter box out there. hooray, no more pooh in the house! so we’ve taught the cats about the cat flap and the joys of going into the garage at will.

Sydney learned right away that if she jumps head-first into the cat flap, the door opens and she gets to play with all those fireant traps in the garage. whee, peanut butter!

Minerva, on the other hand, who knows that in Frank’s house, you open any closet door by pulling on the bottom of it, insisted for about a week on trying to pull the cat flap open so she could go through in proper fashion. this resulted in her getting her claw stuck in the weather stripping around the flap.

so we did a little more one-on-one training with Minerva, the smart one, and she finally realized you can push the flap from either side and it opens the same. except she always pushes very gingerly so she doesn’t break any claws, and she pushes at the sides with her paw and waits for the flap to open before putting her head through. she’s a civilized one, that calico. it still takes the bebe several tries to push the flap open, and often, Sydney will go through first and wait until Minerva finally gets the door open, then jump up against it and slam it in Minerva’s face, because Sydney thinks they’re playing.

but Minerva has found a way to “play” with Sydney too. several times now, we’ve gotten home and found Minerva greeting us at the door, and a few minutes later, we hear a knock at the cat flap. Minerva tends to lock Sydney in the garage.

i know she wants us to think she does it by accident, but i know that as soon as we’re gone, Minerva tells Sydney, ‘hey! let’s go play in the garage!’ and Sydney says, ‘cool! ant traps! peanut butter!’ and as soon as Sydney is outside, Minerva locks the flap so she can have the whole house to herself.

my bebe is smart.

happy 26th birthday to my Sweetness. now i won’t feel so old when i turn 29 for the first time next month.

i love you!! and i hope you love your new cowboy holster. :-)

all these places that do weddings, they include bubbles. i’m adamantly opposed to bubbles. for all the brides out there who had guests blow bubbles at your wedding, that’s lovely and wonderful for you.

for me, way too girly, and i’m just not having it. most of these places won’t allow birdseed, and i don’t care to have it all in my ears and hair anyway, but bubbles are not for me.

so our guests may have to throw rocks at us. or maybe snap caps. just kidding.

and we’ve found a bakery that can make any cake we want, so it looks like we’re gonna get that 1911 grooms cake. :-D

if i never had to deal with people. i don’t much like us. not sure how God has put up with us for so long.

yesterday after work i got my head examined, seeing as i’m crazy and all. or maybe it was because of my migraines. the allergist said that they want to just make sure there’s nothing unusual causing the headaches, and i said, “right. you wanna make sure i don’t have a tumor.” and other things.

so i went for the MRI yesterday, and on the phone ahead of time, they ask you if you’re claustrophobic. i told them i’m only claustrophobic when i’m in enclosed spaces. they didn’t know what to make of that, so when they asked me again, i said no, i’m not.

they put me on the little table and gave me earplugs and warned that it’s going to get loud. i first put the earplugs in backwards, so after i got that fixed, she rolled me into the tube where all the magic takes place. okay. note to people administering MRIs: please, better warnings. “it’s going to get loud in there” means that the machine makes a lot of noise and sounds like it’s gonna fall off its hinges or something. it doesn’t mean that when the noise starts you’ll think you’re gonna die.

this isn’t shake rattle roll machine noise. this is “this is a test of the Emergency Alert System” noise, and when it started, i was quite sure that either we were having a hurricane (you know, those flash hurricanes) or the machine was malfunctioning and someone was going to run in and rescue me. but no, the noise went on, got better, got worse, and i tried to just ignore it.

then they pulled me out so they could inject iodine or something in my veins and run me through the whole thing all over again. i’ve never had a vein blow out during a blood-taking or an injection of anything. but she found the vein, and then when she tried to push stuff into it, my vein ran away and hid, then blew out and i was glad i was lying down and didn’t have to see it. she bandaged me up and gave me an ice pack and went to the other arm. when she tried to unfold my arm, i decided to tease her a little, so i resisted for a minute. she laughed anyway.

another lady was in there and administered the second try, and as soon as they injected me, i tasted something funny. “is this supposed to taste funny?” they said, “a few people taste something, but most people don’t taste anything. does it taste like aluminum foil?” “i don’t usually lick aluminum foil.” they laughed and shoved me back in the happy emergency tube.

my arm with the blowout hurt all night and went numb from time to time. today it’s just sore, so i think i’ll be okay.

Bikermommy asked me what they said. what do you think they said? we’ll give your doctor the results in a couple of weeks, of course. :-)