we will, we will rock you

how dare my sissy and bro-n-law keep me up until 0100 playing rock band! didn't they know i had to work today? sheesh. so we had a good visiting weekend. spent a nice afternoon with my dad saturday, relaxed saturday night, spent time with my brother and sis-n-law yesterday, and had dinner with my jenny last night. i also managed to make plans for the week last night like jenny and i are going to look for bridesmaid dresses wednesday night and i managed to invite myself to a free movie with my cousin for tonight. it's been forever since i had a girls-only night with my cousin. i feel a little guilty having two girls-nights this week when my hubby is going to be gone all next week but it's also nice to have friends around. i think him and bro-n-law are talking about a golfing man-date wednesday anyhow. oh, and you'll be shocked to know that my body has been vehemently disapproving of my run on saturday. my poor quads.

early to rise, work those thighs

after getting in to orlando late last night and staying up even later to watch some dog whispering (yep, my sissy has inexplicably converted to dog-person), i actually got out of bed early-for-me today and went running! no, you didn't misread that. i did two laps around the neighborhood (2.17 miles each lap) in exactly one hour. i know that's not great, but it's fantastic for me. i jogged every cul-de-sac once so i'm guessing that i jogged about a third of the total distance. that's really good for me. now that i'm showered, we're going to head out to visit my dad for the afternoon and maybe make it back for grown-up movie night.

rays of happiness

last night, whilst we sat on the balcony eating dinner, we noticed two four-packs of sting rays swimming right along the shoreline. i so enjoy watching the rays. they are delightfully playful. as we watched the two groups diverge in opposite directions, i commented how it was strange that i always see them in four-packs. then we noticed that a little further out, there were two groups of 12-15 each. rays everywhere, i tell ya! it was a great dinner-show. this morning, there is another four-pack again and another very large group again. have i mentioned how much i love our backyard?

brudder talk

i had the most wonderful conversation with my brother last night. not only did he call me (returning my call from earlier in the day when i left a happy anniversary vm) but he also talked non-stop for twenty minutes. not many of you know my brother but he is not a talker. at all. generally, when i call him (he never calls me) i struggle to carry a conversation and give up after about two minutes because he is king of the monosyllabic responses. calling my sis-n-law is much more fruitful if i want to know what's going on in their life. not last night though. he talked and talked about all kinds of subjects (including the topic that he has not broached with me at all in close to two years and i was so relieved to know that he understands it's not me). anyhow, never, i mean NEVER, have i had a phone conversation like that with him. and not since before i left home have we had any conversation like that. it was so nice to actually talk with him. he sounded great and was thankful that i reminded him of his anniversary. i was all kinds of happy after hanging up with him and told my hubby all about it as we walked on the beach. also last night it was decided that my boy has to fly north week after next so i'll most likely be in o-town for two weeks since it's cheaper for him to fly in and out of there. although being home to paint that room before the furniture is delivered would certainly be a plus, spending time with my friends and family is much more fun.

wii played

HAPPY 2^nd ANNIVERSARY, BRUDDER & SIS-N-LAW!!! funny for it to only be their second anniversary when they've been together thirteen years. kinda like how it seems strange that our fourth anniversary is coming up when we've been together almost nine years. and to celebrate our very special 4^th anniversary... you guessed it... dental cleanings for the happy couple! whew! do we know how to live it up or what? unfortunately, someone's work schedule has been a planning nightmare lately and i had to schedule something. i figured that week was the safest because we have furniture being delivered on the 13^th so we have to be here, right? so, of course, the only day that they had back-to-back appointments open was our anniversary. i'm not looking forward to this dental visit either. the only dentist in our relative area that is on our insurance AND taking new patients does not sound like someone i want to go to. yep, i know, that sounds horribly prejudiced. the thing is, with a doctor i wouldn't mind but i have had TERRIBLE experiences with foreign dentists. i'm not one to fear the chair but i'm just not looking forward to this. in other news, we broke out our wii last night and our miis got to play a little. we each did our little fitness test gigs to find out our mii's ages. no i will not say what my mii scored but it was an improvement over my previous mii's performance at my cousin's house. stupid wii baseball. after obtaining our respective ages, we each tried a little golf as we had not wii-golfed before. i actually liked it. i got the hang of it and even managed to birdie a hole. unfortunately, it looks like my poor boy is going to have to wait until almost july before getting his jam on with rock band. however, he will get to do some rehearsals ps2-style with my nephews this weekend. that's right, we've confirmed our reservations and we're headed to orlando. really, we are. and i've heard that the broken man-child has been working on his one-armed drumming à la rick allen from def leppard (hmmm, think he's ever heard of them?). anyhow, anyone wanna get together next week?

dusting off the old resume

i've begun posting my resume so we'll see what happens. it's going to be such a shame to leave a group i love so much. not to mention that i am so close to getting three weeks of vacation. yes, i am pretty bummed about the whole thing, thankyouverymuch. not much else going on today. still avoiding masking which is also a shame since i would like to paint. probably going to go for a nice long sunset walk with my hubby in a bit. and how about that mii creating?

SHARK!!!

i saw my first SHARK today! i was very excited when i looked down from my balcony and saw the large, dark, angular sea creature swimming in that very defining zigzag pattern. i wish my hubby had seen it too but he was down at the pool swimming (i had just gotten out of bed). unfortunately, i was so enthralled with watching it for the short time i was able to that i did not run back in to find my camera and shoot it. you can, however, take my word that it was SO COOL! happily, my wii hubby did come home to me late yesterday afternoon. we mostly relaxed last night and not much on the schedule for today. i think we're going to walk to some stores to see if we can find my boy a new kite. the wind broke his last time he was flying. i should do some masking and painting but i've been cooped up all week so i'm ready to get out a little. the paint will still be there tomorrow, right? and maybe we'll get around to building our mii's sometime too.

fed up

sometimes, i really just don't know why i bother and it's all i can do to muster up the restraint to not quit.

lovely day

it has been a simply gorgeous week here at the beach. all of the windows/doors have been open since sunday... in mid-april... in florida!!! it is absolutely fabulous! and the water is crystal clear. i've been enjoying all of this on my own as my hubby left me tuesday morning. he had a business gig for a couple of days and then went last night to visit his folks for a couple of days (yay! our wii is coming home!). so i expect he'll be home saturday sometime. which i guess means that we won't be going to orlando this weekend. and bossman still hasn't given hubby a clear date for his next big trip which is supposed to be in the next couple of weeks but heaven knows when so we can't very well schedule a visit to orlando. in other news, i'm very dismayed by the fact that not only can i not sleep at night (nothing new there) but i have lost my ability to nap. i can not tell you the last time i tried to take a nap and actually fell asleep. i'm exhausted, ya'll. i guess that's why the bathroom is not painted yet and i really, really want it painted.

in-home, over-night babysitting success

we had a sleepover with the three chilluns friday night which went well. saturday late morning/early afternoon, b&j came back and we all went down to the pool for a while and then went to lunner and then they left for the long trip home. we rested for a few hours and then went to our favorite hangout to listen to some music until the wee hours of the morning. we got home a little after 0300 and crashed. i really enjoyed the band that was playing last night. they were a birmingham band called within reason. they had a good sound to them and the covers they did were actually current, which was cool. there are several bands we've seen there multiple times that we enjoy but most of the covers are the usual covers. it was refreshing to hear something different for a cover band. they also gave out free sample cds and i can definitely appreciate their sound. anyhow, i just got up a little bit ago and made some brunch while my hubby hung some decor in our bathroom. now we're getting ready to head out to town for some shopping and returns.

miscellany

wow, been a while, eh? alright, some bits of randomness then, shall we?

• we did make our tv purchases. we ended up choosing a 50" plasma for the living room which would not fit in the car. of course, we did not do enough up front research to know that we also could not lay it down in the car and, therefore, would have been better off with a smaller lcd for ease of transport. luckily, my hubby is a social person and when he went back into the store to re-measure the display model to see if it would fit in the car out of the box he met a man buying the same tv who happened to live a couple miles from us and had a truck but no straps. well, it just so happens that we never are without straps in our vehicle. so a deal was struck for this very kind gentleman to follow us home with our tv. we also got a 26" lcd for our bedroom. we don't much watch tv in our bedroom but i prefer to have a tv in there when my boy is out of town because i watch tv until i can't keep my eyes open when i'm alone and being in bed is more conducive to that sleep behavior than having to get up from the couch and walk to bed by which time i'm awake again. insomnia sucks, ya'll.
  
• i love my tvs. they are so shiny and pretty and clear. the living room requires a sound system though as the tv's sound is insufficient and very directional.
  
• we had company part of last weekend. our great friends b&t and family came to visit again. they are doing vacation two beaches over this week so they came down a couple days early to stay with us. they enjoyed the entertainment system upgrades since their last visit. next time we'll even have beds for the chilluns to sleep on. we went to play and have dinner at their rental wednesday night. tonight, we are giving them their anniversary gift by letting them drop the chilluns off for the night and then tomorrow they are headed home.
  
• we spent ten or eleven hours glued to the couch last sunday watching the lotr trilogy on our pretty, new tv. the rest was much needed but that is a long flippin' trilogy.
  
• i got a call from my sissy last saturday letting me know that the man-child went and got himself broken at the very end of spring break. they were at the beach (apparently our beach is too far, how rude!) and the boys had just gotten a skim board and poor man-child wiped out and broke both bones in his arm and had to have surgery to pin him back together. they were on the way back from the beach hospital when she called and he was in the back of the van half asleep and drooling from the pain meds. my poor nephew. it's been a rough and painful week for him with no guitar hero. i just want to hug him and squeeze him and take away his pain.
  
• we're trying really hard to get down to orlando before the end of the month because it's been like forever since we visited and i miss my friends and family and need to hug my little man-child ferociously. unfortunately, one of us has been working rediculously crazy hours lately and has to go out of town on a moments' notice so it's really hard to schedule a non-work trip.
  
• we got a wii! well, my mil got it for us because we have had no luck finding any. we got close the other day when we saw a man purchasing one in a store and he informed us there was another one back there but by the time we made it to the electronics department, it was gone. so next time we go to al, we'll have a wii. in case we find one before then, in which case we'll have a wii for sale!