trying to fit in with them young whippersnappers

last night we tried out the concert in the park gig. i was a bit disappointed. it was a great venue filled with groups of people picnicking and having a good social time. it was terrific people-watching. but the band was pretty awful. it was supposed to be classic rock but it was just a bunch of tone-deaf geriatric guys. seriously, it was sad. even the couple of songs that i knew were barely recognizable after being butchered by a tone-deaf singer. of course, the girls were bored out of their minds a quarter of the way through the first song. they immediately asked for the iphone and stared myspacing. we stayed for about an hour, until a break, and then left before they could come back and butcher some more. i'm sure hubby and i will try it again because it really could have been much more fun with slightly better musicians. and a picnic. we should have picnicked. i'm not sure if we'll be doing the cinema under the stars tonight or not. they're doing bee movie which i never really cared much for seeing but i love outside movies and i think we could have a good time if we picnic and do it right. anyhow, after the first set, we put our chairs back in the car and walked around the mall a bit. i ended up getting a new outfit that i was coveting the other day when we were there. i love the shirt. and i love the idea of the shorts but they are outside of my comfort zone so i'm not completely sure yet. i don't think my hubby likes the shorts but they are what all the "kids" are wearing these days and i'm trying to stop looking like the curmudgeonly old woman around here. stop judging me! anyhow, after stopping in a few shops, the girls wanted to go to target so while they were shopping around in there, we headed to the electronics department. kids, i cannot tell you how pained my husband was when he saw rock band for wii sitting right there, just as pretty as could be. he paced back and forth in front of it for a good two minutes. then he put his head in his hands and walked up and down a couple of aisles. then he picked it up - just in case - since it was the only one there. he found a cart to put it in and walked around the store asking what was wrong with him. finally, he ended up at the register with it and told me to do the deed while he went to retrieve the car from the other end of the plaza (honestly, i think he just couldn't bear to witness the purchasing). it was quite amusing. he has been dying to have this game though, so i was glad that he decided to go ahead and get it. it's only money, right? the girls were pretty happy about the purchase, even if a little disappointed that we deemed it far too late on a work night to be opening the box to set it up and play. hey, i said we're trying to be young, i didn't say we were succeeding. so, regardless of whether we make it to a movie in the park tonight or go walking down the strip, there will definitely be some rocking going on around our house!

the sound surrounds us

i'm finally feeling not totally like crap today. it was a rough weekend with me being sick and so much needing to get done. we went shopping and erranding after work friday. i started out feeling not so bad but by the time we got home at 23:00 i felt awful. i did give blood, which may have been a bad thing but it makes me feel better about myself and i needed that. i got hubby to give blood too. i was pleased to set a new personal record for bloodletting of four minutes flat. beat that, cousin! we then went out to town where we bought groceries, window treatments, a home theatre system, a bookcase to house it, and new dinnerware. very exciting (and expensive) purchases. when we got home, hubby immediately started playing with his new toy. there were speakers all over the floor while he got it all hooked up to see how it all would work. i started loading the new dishes (they're so pretty!) and flatware into the dishwasher but didn't make it too far until i collapsed. saturday, i layed on the couch and supervised while hubby assembed the bookcase, put up the window treatments, and hooked up the theater system (on the bookcase). we then had more errands that had to be run. while waiting for the elevator, a little blue fly landed on my foot and i shooed him away. when we got back home, i resumed my couch position and took some more meds to kick the cold. sunday, i woke up to find my ankle swollen to roughly three times it's natural size. yes, that stupid little blue fly! i spent the whole day coating it in hydrocortizone and downing antihistamines. it was swollen so badly i could hardly walk because i couldn't put any weight on that foot. i really don't understand why i'm having such severe bug reactions lately. it wouldn't have anything to do with my thyroid, right? it's so strange. as you'd guess, sunday turned out to be another watch the hubby work kind of day. yesterday, we had dental appointments in the morning and stopped to pick up the sheets which finally came in and get another bottle of antihistamines. the swelling was down to about twice normal size. last night i was able to get some stuff done - general straightening and preparing for company. today, i'm feeling mostly better, no more congestion and swelling is mostly gone (ankle still hurts though), but i'm exhausted. i guess it's just from my body having so much to fight the last few days. it's just worn down. nevertheless, i have to do some more cleaning tonight. i have to finish cleaning our bathroom and clean the floors throughout. if i could just get a bit of a nap first...

knobs, stripes, and lights

i AM NOT getting sick, thankyouverymuch. it was a tiringly productive weekend. we did go out and have some fun friday night and had a little down time saturday, but mostly the weekend was about getting things done. copious quantities of family coming in t-minus-ten days. saturday we did some shopping. i don't know why the economy is in such poor shape these days, i think we've been spending more than we ever have. when we got back from errands and purchasing, we took a bit of time to check out the upcoming neighbor. there is a 53 acre planned community that is slowly coming in next door. yesterday was the first time that we really got the chance to go over there and get information about the overall plan and progress. we were really impressed and i will be thrilled when the get the next phase done, which should get started late this summer. that phase will be the "main street" area. it should be a great shopping/dining area within a five minute walk of home. after we were through with that, we walked down to the waterford-like plaza a mile away and grabbed some dinner and then walked back home along the beach. when we got back home, we could not actually get home because they had a wedding set up in such a way that they completely blocked off the beach access to the building. i was ticked. i have no problem with people getting married in my back yard but it is unacceptable for them to block public walkways. while i quietly fumed, we took a seat on a beach lounger and watched a wedding. i love weddings. when the ceremony was finally over, the entire wedding moved down to the water's edge where they all lined up with the new mr & mrs to throw pebbles into the surf. that was our chance to use the walkway and head home. i was happy to get back to my air conditioning since it was insanely hot out running errands all day. it's bearable at home because there's usually a gulf-breeze, but if you're not directly on the beach, it's awful. i provided minimal assistance to the hubby as he finished installing the cabinet hardware in the kitchen and bathrooms and we got to bed at a decent hour. yesterday, we lounged around a bit in the morning and then got into full swing just afternoon. i masked and painted the stripe in the bathroom. it was appalling that it took ALL AFTERNOON to get that one little stripe painted but i am very pleased and proud at how it came out. a little touchup around the ceiling in there and the bathroom will be ready to be reassembled. i'm looking forward to getting another room crossed off the list. while i was working on the bathroom, hubby added some shelves to a closet in our room and installed a new light fixture in the kitchen (the old one got fried a couple weeks ago when we had constant power flickers all day long). it looks better than the old one (which just looked like a big hospital light) but i still just don't really care for the look of the big fluorescent ceiling lights. i would have preferred a nice looking fixture or track lights or something but that would have required drilling new holes in the concrete ceiling which would have just been too much work. at least this light has some aesthetic design to it and some satin nickel elements that help it to match with everything else. anyhow, all of the projects kept it from being a very restful weekend and my body thinks that's its queue to get all lousy feeling. it'll be lots of oranges and cranberry juice for me today.

home work

i've actually been busier this week, off the phones, than i was on them. not complaining though because i will take busy over answering phones any day! i'm still having to make a good bit of customer contact but that will change over time as the people answering the phones learn the type of information to gather before escalating issues to me. i'm so excited to be phoneless. i swore i would never be on the phones. i BEGGED not to be on the phones. my job is once again tolerable. around the home, we did a bunch of shopping over the weekend. bought the futon mattress, ordered the sheets (remember that thing about nothing being easy in this place? the sheets i wanted that i have seen countless times in the store are no longer being carried in the store. we bought the one set they had, went to the other store to get another set and were denied. so i've returned the one we bought and ordered both sets online), and bought a storage box for the balcony which is very helpful. sunday, i painted the bathroom. it looks fabulous. i'm letting it dry a few days and this weekend i'll tape it up and add the stripe i want and it should be complete and ready to reassemble. we also bought some cabinet hardware which hubby has started installing. it's amazing how a little knob and drawer pull can make the plain, ugly, white cabinets look so much nicer.

no comforting me

why do i always put things off until it's too late? we finally found a comforter set for the bunk room that we can agree on and we both like very much. i gave it a few days to look back a few times and make sure that i still liked it. this morning, i went to buy it and they only have twin and king sizes now. aaargh! any chance that i'll look back in the next few days and the full size will be back again? yeh, i doubt it. stupid, stupid, stupid me. such is life, right? on a brighter note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNY! i'm looking forward to celebrating with her and her friends/family tonight.

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!
  

happy easter!

last night turned out to be somewhat of a bust again. we decided to just try walking to some of the closer places but were disappointed to find most of them closed. on the way back we ended up stopping at the place two doors down that we don't enjoy eating at but never tried the nightlife before. it wasn't great but it is close so i'm sure we'll go back again sometime. i had thought about trying to find a church service to go to this morning but as i crawled into bed sometime in the 3 o'clock hour, i knew that wasn't happening. surprisingly, my husband's goal was to buy some tvs today. in the mid-afternoon, we made our way to town towards that end. we discovered, however, that everything is closed on easter. who'd've thunk? the mall was closed. well except for sears (big surprise) which we did go ahead and look through but there is no way in hades that i will ever give that store another penny of my money! (sears SUCKS!!!) walmart was closed. so odd. but luckily the walmart near the beach was open so we were able to get food for me since my husband is taking the car and taking off for the week, leaving me alone and stranded.

coming together

we have furniture!!! yesterday was an expensive day. we purchased our mattress set and our bedroom furniture, which will both be delivered by next thursday. i am looking forward to having a bedroom that looks like a bedroom. and a new, comfy, non-springy bed to hopefully stop my tossing and turning for a while. we almost got a bunk bed but we were shot down at the credit card handover with the pronouncement "out of stock". dagnabit! it could never be that easy, eh? the only thing that we actually came home with was our dining room table. it's very purty. we got the table and two chairs put together (after we finally took down the christmas tree and put it away). those chairs were a beast; it might take us the rest of the week to get the other six assembled! we also attempted to buy the elbow for the dishwasher installation. unfortunately, the one little piece we need is the one piece they don't seem to sell so we had to buy the whole hose. of course, even that was too easy because we got home to realize we had dramatically underestimated the length. funny how we might actually get our stove (mythic purchase that it apparently is) and install it before the dishwasher that has been here all week. such is life. luckily, my husband is all the dishwasher i need. what i am looking forward to, aside from my matress, is my stove. tomorrow is supposed to be the day. i'm not holding my breath but i sure will be excited if it happens to show up. slowly - excruciatingly slowly - this place is starting to look and feel like home.

normal? what's that?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SANDRA!!! the good news is that good things are happening finally. today, we were the happy recipients of a microwave and dishwasher - only thirty-eight days after we bought them! we got the microwave installed and it looks very pretty. we started on the dishwasher but we seem to be in need of an elbow so it will have to wait a few days for us to go out again. we are told that our stove and stacking kit for our w/d will arrive friday. keep your fingers crossed for us. it sure will be nice to have a complete kitchen again and not have to decide on dinner based on what will cook in a toaster oven (or now microwave). saturday we went on a furniture shopping expedition and i believe we found the mattress set and bed that we want. hubby will be calling to haggle prices make purchases tomorrow. (i am so not a negotiator) we also found a bed for the bunk room that we love but we're unsure that it will be a good fit in such a small room. it's so cool looking though. unfortunately, the dining room table that we hearted so much that my boy almost bought it without any prodding from me last year is gone. there is a similar one at a slightly higher price but we're not sure we like the two-tonedness of it. the only other one we've found that we like though is $500 higher for the same setup so we'll likely get over the two-tone dislike. we have also taken the time the last two days to remind ourselves why we moved here and that all of this is worthwhile. we've been playing frisbee and football on the beach and we've been utilizing the pool and hot tub. it's been wonderful. we also started back into the gym this weekend. life is starting to take on a semblance of normalcy. i'm ready for normal.

happy new year!

welcome to the year 2008! we celebrated by officially moving in to our new home. we rang in the new year in rare-for-us whippersnapper style and then spent our first night here. we went out to a club for dinner and dancing and live music and left there around 0200 to stop in at another party. it was 0400 before we got to bed. i really can't tell you the last time that i stayed up all night like that on purpose. and i felt it yesterday. i slept in until noon, moved to the couch and napped until 1730 when the hubby got a burst of energy and insisted that we attempt to unpack some. he accomplished much. i sat back on the couch to make my new years phone calls. i did get part of the kitchen unburried. today i got enough of it dug out to actually cook dinner. we've had multiple obstacles in the new abode, mostly network issues which tried to give us an extra vacation day. i think i've counted that i've moved ten times in the last nine years (pretty impressive when you consider that we lived two years in our first apartment and almost four years in our house) and this is by far the hardest move i've had. not only does it feel like it's just dragging on, what with us moving out of our house four months ago, but i just can't seem to fight the discombobulation. we moved all of our stuff in from storage over two weeks ago and yet there is still more in boxes than not. and the boxes are EVERYWHERE. i've never spent this long boxed up. i just can't seem to wrap my arms around it at all. but on the bright side, we spent a fortune this past weekend (enough that we both received calls from discover's fraud protection people asking if we were aware of all of the large purchases on our cards). when we get back from orlando in a couple of weeks, we'll have all new kitchen appliances delivered and a washer and dryer (which will be very much needed since we do not have a w/d at all right now). i'm very excited about my very pretty new appliances. next step is a bed for us. we've got it narrowed down to three. i'm hoping to have that when we get back home too. the air matress just isn't holding air like it used to. so much still to do. will it ever slow down??? anyhow, i hope that 2008 has good things in store for all of us!