Not on the books

Am I invisible?  I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday, one I’ve been waiting for for 6 weeks, since that’s the earliest they could make my next appt.  I arrived on time to hear “Oh, it looks like your appointment has been canceled.”  Not by me!  They said they could see me at 12:30 (it was 10am and 45 minutes from my house).  I said that was unacceptable as I had a 1pm appt back in my town and they would just have to figure something out and see me.  So they did.

Then today the exterminators were scheduled to come between 1 and 3.  3pm comes and goes with no knock on the door or phone call so I called their office.  “Hmmm, I don’t have a record of your appointment today.”  Now they are coming next week and it’s going to be free.  This is such a pain.  I hate to be one of those bloggers who just complains about everything, but I shouldn’t have to confirm over and over again.  Ugh.

Oh and the 1pm appt on Monday?  That was a phone interview for a job I stumbled upon in my mom’s group forums.  I start Friday.  I was hired sight unseen over the phone to assist a financial planner at a little investment firm.  I’m a little nervous.  It’s been a while since I’ve worked, but I’m feeling so much better now and the extra money sure won’t hurt.  And the good news?  They have a no panty hose policy!  It’s a casual office.  Like I can wear my Crocs casual.  And that is awesome.

The longest day of my life

9 (plus) hours in the car

8 total in years of the ages of the 2 girl children of my friend Candice (I think that was the most poorly worded sentence I’ve ever written)

7 arguments (including one mean slap fight) that the girls had

6 dollars spent on hot dogs and slushies after shopping at IKEA

5 dvds viewed during drive

4 stops during the drive

3 hours of sleep the night before the trip

2 emergency pairs of shoes bought during trip

1 champ of an infant

0 pictures taken of our trip

Pipe dreams

I was doing a load of laundry last night when all of the sudden the toilet in the powder room and the kitchen sink started making all these gluggy noises.   CSP plunged the toilet thinking maybe it was clogged, but mid-plunge it started to fill up and he had to shut the water off.  Then this morning during showers the same thing happened with the toilets and sink.  CSP checked the sewer pipe thingy in the yard and it had overflowed.  Nice.  I called the plumbers today and they were here in less than an hour.  God Bless Them cause I had just put in a call to Candice to see could I go pee at her house since I couldn’t even use my own daggum toilets.  Turns out the sewer line was all clogged up with construction debris.  Just another nail in CP Morgan’s coffin if you ask me.  Punks.  Good thing we’re still under warranty and I didn’t have to pay.  There was bathroom tissue in my yard!  Ew!

In much better news…I’m going to IKEA tomorrow!!!

Presents & warfare

Look at all the cute stuff Ani sent me for my birthday! Click the pic to enlarge and you will see a cute ceramic plaque, a silver metal paper weight, and a lovely lotus flower candle holder. Thank you so much Ani!

In other news…we’ve been invaded by ants. It’s so dry and hot here they are coming in looking for water. Ugh. So I sprinkled corn starch around the perimeter of the house and the places we saw the ants. Corn starch smothers them, they breathe it in and it messes up their lungs or something. All I know is it works and it’s not dangerous for my pugs. But it is interesting to my pugs. Kiki got into it to, but tried to hide the evidence with a detergent cup (one of her favorite toys).

Kidding around

Today I was going to go help Shannon paint her nursery, but she was under the weather so we rain checked it. My nephews were spending the night with Papa & Gigi and Gigi invited me down for swimming and dinner and playing with the boys.
After swimming we went next door for dinner with the neighbors. Kristen and Chuck are my age (33 & 38) but I feel so much younger than them. They are super nice, but just seem older. Like their decor is more old fashioned and they even act older than me. Maybe it’s because they have an 11 year old daughter. Maybe I’ll feel more adult and older once we have our child. But you know, I don’t even feel 34. I swear, like mentally I don’t feel any older than I did at like 29. Except for that I’m more secure with myself, my marriage, my place in the world. And I know who I am. And I like her. Is it weird that I’m such a young 34?

Overachiever & closet sleeper

Lisa advised me that I should explain a bit about Jon sleeping in the closet.  First of all, he only sleeps there if he has to sleep during the day.  Our bedroom gets too much sun.  Also there is an a/c vent in the closet so it’s nice and cool.  Plus, it’s big.  I mean HUGE.  At least for a closet.  He takes the mattress of the futon and lays it on the floor and sleeps there.  I didn’t want y’all thinking my boy is cramped up sleeping in a broom closet.  That closet could totally pass for a room.  In fact, my neighbor Candice is going to turn part of her closet (which is the same size as ours) into a craft area because they just don’t have enough stuff to fill it up otherwise.  She’s buying a desk to go in there.

In other news and classic me style, I’ve filled a to do list to bursting.  I’m having a P@mpered Chef party here on Sept 22 and I want to:

• have the entire downstairs painted (dining room, hallway, entry, powder room)
• crown molding installed
• pictures and mirrors hung
• the guest room furniture moved from bedroom 3 to bedroom 2
• the guest room painted
• screened porch decorated
• guest bath painted
• master bedroom & bath painted
• bonus room painted

Yeah, that’s not all gonna happen.  Cause you know I can’t just paint a plain ol regular color in each room.  No, that would be too easy.  There will be decorative painting effects  and woodwork going in the all the bedrooms, the dining room, & breakfast nook.  I have all the paint bought and Jon bought the crown molding.  Now we just need time and motivation.  Good thing I work best under pressure!

Flickr shockr!!!

Ever stumble upon something that literally made you gasp aloud?  I sure did this week.  Ok, so a while back I started a Flickr group called FlipFlops.  Cause I like flip flops and think they can make for interesting photo subjects.  Membership started to grow and people submitted lots of fantastic photos.  Go join!  Anyway, the other day I did a search for some flip flop photos cause I wanted to draw some new members.  I found some amazing photos and invited lots of people.  I also found this one photo that came up in the search, but didn’t have flip flops as the main subject.  It was mainly a pic of this girl’s dirty feet.  I glanced at the comments and people were commenting that they’d love to lick her feet clean!  I had somehow stumbled upon some foot fetishists.  Now, I don’t care what you do in your bedroom.  I really don’t.  But I was amazed and shocked that this kind of thing was on Flickr.  Who knew?!  And then I got a contact request yesterday from someone who marked me as family.  But I have no idea who he/she is.  So I clicked on their profile and they only have one photo.  Then I clicked on a couple other “family” contacts….P0RN!  OMG.  I couldn’t believe it.  Who knew there was p0rn on Flickr?!?!  I thought Flickr was just a bunch of pictures of flowers, landscapes & families!

I was on the phone with Lisa last night and I told her the story.  By the way, Lisanne, you might wanna check your contacts.  I see that my new “family” is one of your admirers too.  I think he likes your feet.  Ew!

So anyway, Lisa and I were on the phone while we were shrieking as we looked up all the p0rny pictures!  There are actual Flickr groups like “big c0ck$” and “dirty wives” and all these pictures of men holding their wieners.  Who knew there were men walking around this Earth with peenies that reach to their knees??  And there’s this girl who’s avatar is a picture of her tootie fruitie!    Ooh and we saw pictures of old men sticking vibrators up their butts while out on their patios and this one set of pics that showed women putting vices on men’s balls!   Oh and women sticking bananas and juice cans up their openings.  Could NOT believe it!   Oh, and there’s this one guy who takes pictures of his drunk one night stands and posts them.  Be careful out there ladies!  Also there’s a guy who posts pics of him getting oral pleasure and having sex and captions the pics with things like “gag” and “yep yep”!  And men posting pics of their wives, I really don’t get that.  And they caption the pics with things like “here’s my wife’s ass, please comment!”.

So, if you wanna piece of this action just go to search, then click advanced search and click  SafeSearch Off.   You will be amazed.  I’m still emotionally scarred!

Extreme play

Today Candice, her kids, Sara, my nephews, and I all went to this ginormous indoor inflatable play land called Extreme Play. It was a lot of fun, but man it can wear a girl out running after all those kids! At first the boys were scared then they were all into it. There were tons of slides. Afterwards we went to McDon@ld’s for lunch so the kids could play some more. Then home for naps! It’s cool to have a place like that Extreme Play to take the kids that’s indoors. It’s been over 90 degrees here for over 3 weeks straight, some days over 100 degrees. Heat like that means playing outside is out of the question. Man I can’t wait for Fall.

Snow White to the creepy crawly set

Wow, you’d think a Tuesday would be just another regular day right? No. First of all I forgot to show you the cutest tea pot that Lisa sent me for my birthday. It arrived on Saturday and I just love the way it looks in my lime green kitchen! Y’all know by now to click on all photos to enlarge. On the Flickr page you can click “All Sizes” to see the really big ones. OK so most of today was normal except CSP had to work 3rd shift tonight so his sleep schedule (and therefore mine) is all screwy. I spent a good part of the day painting on Monday. I’m forcing myself to finish painting all the neutral color downstairs before starting on the fun lilac 1/2 bath and raspberry dining room.
So Jon headed off to work then about 11:30pm my phone rang. Candice’s husband Devin was driving to work when some punk rear ended him while he was slowing down to turn. It totaled his car. I went next door while C went to pick up D and take him to the hospital. He’s alright, just sore. Thank goodness.
I got home around 2:30am Tuesday and opened the back door to let the pugs out. Some crazy flying creature came screeching into my house over my head. I didn’t see what it was. The pugs did their business then we came back inside. I could hear the creature making odd noises but couldn’t see it. It had gone up to the top of my kitchen cabinet and since we have crown molding on them it forms a lip that I can’t see over. I went to bed with one eye open, hoping I wouldn’t get pecked or stung to death in my sleep.
Jon came home around 9am and saw the creature on the kitchen counter. It was a cicada. Whew. Those don’t kill you.
I woke up and found the little guy stuck in the drain of the kitchen sink. I held him with my right hand and tried to take a couple pics with my left. Here’s his underbelly: This one you can see his wings:
He was still alive (thankfully) so I took him outside to release him. I put him on the ground where he just spun on his head. So I picked him back up and put him on a fence post. He flew away home I’m thinking. No idea why I’ve been targeted by insects & reptiles over the last few days (grasshopper, praying mantis, snake, frog in my mom’s pool filter that climbs all over me when we swim there, and now this guy), but I’m glad I can help.
So then Jon woke up from sleeping in the closet (it’s darker and cooler) and came downstairs. A thunderstorm was brewing so we went out and watched it from the back porch. I took some cute photos of Miss Molly and you can really see her bald spots in a couple. Molly snuck some of her Dad’s beer:
Kiki was too scared of the thunder to come out. I love the look on Molly’s face in this one, she’s like Mom! Stop. Taking. Pictures! Looks like Molly’s a light weight.
On an unrelated note I’ve been organizing and backing up my photos. I’m approaching 7000 on my Mac so we bought an external hard drive and that’s working fabulously. I’m also in the process of saving them all to discs and putting the discs in a cd holder organized by date. This is a long and boring process. But our last computer died and took all my photos to the grave. Damn you G@teway! The only ones I still have are the ones I uploaded to sites like Snapfish etc. This was before I was a Flickr girl. Candice wanted to see pics of the house we sold last year so I put them in a set on Flickr. If you’re interested you can go here
to see them. C’s interested in going to IKEA for her first time so I tagged all the IKEA stuff I could see in the pics. It’s a lot. Who knew?

Vl