Sometimes I miss Florida. While we no longer refer to Florida as "home" (Missouri has taken over that role since we've bought a house and lived here over three years), it's still "home" in a different way. Today an old friend, her husband, their adorable kid (who calls Cody and I "MisthyCody" like we're one word) and her parents (who I've known since I was two years old) stopped by to say hi. It was a short visit but it was still wonderful to see them. And it made me miss all the other people we're missing in Florida. Even though they left a while ago and were only here a week, there is still a feeling of emptiness since my Bonus Parents left - I keep thinking of things to go downstairs and tell them and they're not there anymore. One of our nieces turned six on Friday (which because I am a horrible horrible aunt I STILL haven't mailed her birthday card) and all I could think about all day was the party I'm sure she was having and us missing it. It's the same way when her sister was born - her sister is almost six months old and we've yet to meet her - she was just a little bitty thing back then and I'm sure she's already sitting up, crawling and eating real food by now. We've got two more nieces and a nephew that we miss birthdays, holidays (Halloween I especially miss their adorable costumes) and other random family gatherings. I guess it's actually the kids growing up that I miss the most. I was really really close with my extended family growing up and I hate that we're not there for them the way my aunts and uncle where there for me. Maybe one of these days we'll be closer and can drive over for the birthday parties and events. I can't wait until they can all read and write and we can send postcards and letters back and forth. When I was little I had an aunt in California and I will always remember writing back and forth with her so when she did visit it seemed like there was no time lost. I hope to at least have that with them - assuming they're willing of course (and if they're not I'll just chase them around until they are). :)
Hopefully we'll figure out this whole holiday thing here soon and we can start looking forward to seeing everyone.
p.s. I miss the grown-ups too but their just not half as cute as those kids. :)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Brrrrrr....
Where in God's Green Earth did summer go? Just yesterday I swear it was here and then I wake up this morning and it's forty-something outside and the high is 60! What is going on here? I guess winter has finally reared its ugly head and we are now going to just go steadly down until we hit two weeks of the highs in the 20s. We're quickly running out of time to wrap up all of those half finished outdoor projects - finishing the backyard fence, finishing painting the front porch, harvesting the last of the vegetables and putting in the fall ones (garlic, green onion), and mulching everything until spring. Unfortunately the one good thing about the cold weather skipped us this year - the leaves changing. Usually we get a spectacular display of reds, yellows, oranges and purples this time of year but apparently there was a late freeze, not enough summer rain, and too many late warm nights so the leaves are expected to just turn brown and fall off. Shucks.
The first snow is always fun - its come on November 30th three years in a row now - we'll see how that holds up this year. Every snow after the first sucks.
I'm lovin' the late change from Daylight Savings Time. I'm still not really sure why we ever go OFF Daylight Savings Time. It's a fantastic institution and I hate to see it go (though loving the few extra weeks we get from now on). Right now our sun is setting around 6pm - that means as of Nov. 4th it will be setting around 5pm - that's just sad. It's depressing to watch the sun set while you're still at work. I want to walk home in the sunshine and have a little bit left to run in (assuming I could run which I still can't - have ANOTHER doctor appointment for this on Friday) when I get home. But I walk to the garage in the dark, only to be sad and depressed when I'm home in the dark with no light to speak of. I guess I still have spring to look forward to. :) And Christmas - I love Christmas. :)
The first snow is always fun - its come on November 30th three years in a row now - we'll see how that holds up this year. Every snow after the first sucks.
I'm lovin' the late change from Daylight Savings Time. I'm still not really sure why we ever go OFF Daylight Savings Time. It's a fantastic institution and I hate to see it go (though loving the few extra weeks we get from now on). Right now our sun is setting around 6pm - that means as of Nov. 4th it will be setting around 5pm - that's just sad. It's depressing to watch the sun set while you're still at work. I want to walk home in the sunshine and have a little bit left to run in (assuming I could run which I still can't - have ANOTHER doctor appointment for this on Friday) when I get home. But I walk to the garage in the dark, only to be sad and depressed when I'm home in the dark with no light to speak of. I guess I still have spring to look forward to. :) And Christmas - I love Christmas. :)
Sunday, October 21, 2007
405 posts
Opps, I missed the 400 post mark, so I'll commemorate the 405 mark. :) I really can't believe I've ever had 405 posts worth of stuff to say. Most of it is babble and tantrums and thoughts and events, but it's good for me I think. I enjoy the time to focus - my life consists of constantly focusing on 100 things at once, so it's nice to sit down and type and focus on only one thing for a little while. I think this is an important exercise for me as I continually strive to slow down, focus and be a little less "keyed-up." Even when I'm on the internet, I can do 100 things at once with the whole "tabs" on IE and having the ability to have 100 applications open at once (back in the olden days if you had too many applications open at once it would slow the computer down too much). I do 100 things at once at work and at home - so this gives me a chance to focus, and think. Too often I go through a day doing this and that and taking no time to actually pause and think. Plus sometimes I guess people actually read this stuff - and that's sort of nifty too.
Too Old For This.
I used to think that life was boring if we didn't go out at least twice every weekend. What good was life if not for being fun? The word "bored" never crossed our lips. To be insanely and sickenly cliche, we worked hard and played harder. We used to think that anyone who sat at home for the weekend was just boring and old.
I guess I'm getting boring and old then. This weekend was a typical weekend for us for so many years - Friday night it was work happy hours, then party at a bar for friends moving to Chicago (the longer we live here the more friends move away). I drank a lot of wheat beer, which I absolutely love but it makes my sinuses hurt like crazy the next day. We somehow drank $89 worth of beer on Friday night and the only food on that tab was some $3 pretzels - either we drank too much or the beers were too expensive. So we drank probably too much, got home late and had to wake up decently early on Saturday (decently early means before noon). Saturday we stumbled out of bed, found some food and had to hit up Target for laundry sundries - I was all out of soap - regular soap, dark clothes soap and my favorite, Clorox 2 (I can thank my aunt for turning me onto Clorox 2). Then it was time to jump back on the wagon and head to Ozzie's for the Gator game - and more drinkin'. The Gators finally won a game, though at times it looked like they were trying to lose. The worse the Gators play the more we drink.
Then it was back home to put together some costumes for a Halloween party. I was . . . . drum roll please. . . . a pumpkin (the same costume I've used for 10 years). Cody was a _____ Leprachan. Fill in the blank - drunk, green, funny, silly, unlucky - pick any descriptor for "Leprachan" and that's what he was. So we went to the party, stayed out too late (though there used to never be a "too late"), probably drank more then we should and found our way home. Then we got out of bed at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon - not kidding. We woke up around noon, ate something for a few minutes and then went back to bed.
So, what did we really accomplish this weekend? The answer - not much of anything except a lot of beers and some wicked hang-overs. So as we went on our walk this evening, we really discovered that we're getting too old for this. I can't "hang" like I used to - I do not do well with no sleep and lots of beers for days in a row. For the first time (and this is probably the hang-over talking) I almost thought that having kids and hanging out at home this weekend would have been nice. I used to dread the thought of kids because they would inhibit weekends like this - now I think that might not be such a bad idea sometimes. I can see how people eventually grow out of the all-weekend parties. I don't think we'll ever grow out of it completly - we're both pretty social people - but I can see why the all night Friday, and all day and night Saturday stuff can begin to wear on you. We used to bounce back so much easier. Now it seems that I need more and more sleep and rest to bounce back. God, this getting older thing is really really complicated. On one hand you resist it like crazy because you don't want to get "old" and "uncool" and on the other you just get too damn tired to resist it anymore. So now we've had a day of sleep, the grocery store and laundry. You would think this incredibly boring, but it's been actually nice. :)
I guess I'm getting boring and old then. This weekend was a typical weekend for us for so many years - Friday night it was work happy hours, then party at a bar for friends moving to Chicago (the longer we live here the more friends move away). I drank a lot of wheat beer, which I absolutely love but it makes my sinuses hurt like crazy the next day. We somehow drank $89 worth of beer on Friday night and the only food on that tab was some $3 pretzels - either we drank too much or the beers were too expensive. So we drank probably too much, got home late and had to wake up decently early on Saturday (decently early means before noon). Saturday we stumbled out of bed, found some food and had to hit up Target for laundry sundries - I was all out of soap - regular soap, dark clothes soap and my favorite, Clorox 2 (I can thank my aunt for turning me onto Clorox 2). Then it was time to jump back on the wagon and head to Ozzie's for the Gator game - and more drinkin'. The Gators finally won a game, though at times it looked like they were trying to lose. The worse the Gators play the more we drink.
Then it was back home to put together some costumes for a Halloween party. I was . . . . drum roll please. . . . a pumpkin (the same costume I've used for 10 years). Cody was a _____ Leprachan. Fill in the blank - drunk, green, funny, silly, unlucky - pick any descriptor for "Leprachan" and that's what he was. So we went to the party, stayed out too late (though there used to never be a "too late"), probably drank more then we should and found our way home. Then we got out of bed at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon - not kidding. We woke up around noon, ate something for a few minutes and then went back to bed.
So, what did we really accomplish this weekend? The answer - not much of anything except a lot of beers and some wicked hang-overs. So as we went on our walk this evening, we really discovered that we're getting too old for this. I can't "hang" like I used to - I do not do well with no sleep and lots of beers for days in a row. For the first time (and this is probably the hang-over talking) I almost thought that having kids and hanging out at home this weekend would have been nice. I used to dread the thought of kids because they would inhibit weekends like this - now I think that might not be such a bad idea sometimes. I can see how people eventually grow out of the all-weekend parties. I don't think we'll ever grow out of it completly - we're both pretty social people - but I can see why the all night Friday, and all day and night Saturday stuff can begin to wear on you. We used to bounce back so much easier. Now it seems that I need more and more sleep and rest to bounce back. God, this getting older thing is really really complicated. On one hand you resist it like crazy because you don't want to get "old" and "uncool" and on the other you just get too damn tired to resist it anymore. So now we've had a day of sleep, the grocery store and laundry. You would think this incredibly boring, but it's been actually nice. :)
Took Long Enough.
Names are so weird. Some people love theirs. Others hate theirs. I've pretty much always been indifferent on mine. Melissa was the number 1 or 2 name in the year I was born, so I was never the only one - good if there are rumors or you're in trouble (no one knows which Melissa it is) or bad if you just get lots in the crowd of them. Speaking of "Melissa confusion," one of the funniest stories ever was in high school. Cody was sort of "hanging out" with another girl named Melissa. They weren't officially dating but they hung out. He took her to Homecoming, etc. - I was, of course, insanely jealous but it wasn't really my thing to butt it at that time. Well, I guess she wanted to date but he told her he was too busy with work and school and soccer and didn't want a girlfriend. Of course about a month later we started dating but it was pretty hush-hush. Turns out another Melissa (that makes three in this twisted tale) found out that him and I were dating and told everyone in school that "Cody was dating Melissa." Since the vast majority of the people I knew called me Missy and everyone had known Cody had been hanging out with the other Melissa, everyone assumed that Cody was dating the first Melissa. She heard that rumor and really thought they were dating (here's where I find her insanely dumb - who hears a rumor that they're dating someone and believes it without talking to that person!!!) so it turned into this whole drama thing because I, of course, heard that she thought she was dating my boyfriend. It eventually got worked out obviously because I have his last name and she doesn't. :)
So, back to the point of this blog - my last name. Before we got married I was all about changing my name. I couldn't wait. Before we got married I was Melissa Elizabeth-Ann - the Elizabeth got added in high school - a long story. Anyway, after the wedding I went through some serious name changing identity crisis. I had always been - my entire schooling and career - all my "connections" and friends - everyone knew me by that name. If I had been married at 19 it would have been different - but I'd had this name for a long time. To add to that, no matter what job I have my email will always have my last name in it- right now it's mflynn. My clients, co-workers and other people I encounter for work can all deal with that. They could not handle mraffensperger. I'm not discounting their intelligence, but I know when I have to email people with long last names, I always have to look up their addresses so they will be spelled right (it took me months to be able to email my friend Melanie from home because her email didn't pop up automatically on my home computer and her last name is 11 letters long). So I bounced back and forth. Hypenation? Keep my maiden name (which it's strange that all of a sudden the name I have had for years is now referred to as my "maiden name")? Drop the last name? Luckily I have smart friends and I talked with my friend Meghan and she said that she just added her new last name when she got married. No two middle names or two last names - just four names. GENIUS!
So, Friday I went and finally got myself a Missouri drivers license (I tried to get the social security card first but they required I get my license first). I am now legal to drive in Missouri - 3.5 years after moving here. :) And my new name is . I dropped the Elizabeth, not out of choice per se, but because it wouldn't fit in the space they have. :) I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep it on my social security card or not. But I like the way this looks - I'm getting used to it. Now I can legally keep my maiden name for work - my kids won't be saddled with whatever I do with my career and my clients won't have to learn to spell Raffensperger. And Raffensperger will go on everything else - credit cards, bank accounts, etc. I really like the solution as it works for me. It's not for everyone - as already people are saying I'm insane - but it works for me. I do now, however, have more letters in my name then the entire alphabet. :)
So now I'm officially a Raffensperger - though I've considered myself one for quite a while. Now I can officially call Cody and I the "Raffensperger Part of Two" (this is an inside joke with me and Cody's sister). :)
So, back to the point of this blog - my last name. Before we got married I was all about changing my name. I couldn't wait. Before we got married I was Melissa Elizabeth-Ann - the Elizabeth got added in high school - a long story. Anyway, after the wedding I went through some serious name changing identity crisis. I had always been - my entire schooling and career - all my "connections" and friends - everyone knew me by that name. If I had been married at 19 it would have been different - but I'd had this name for a long time. To add to that, no matter what job I have my email will always have my last name in it- right now it's mflynn. My clients, co-workers and other people I encounter for work can all deal with that. They could not handle mraffensperger. I'm not discounting their intelligence, but I know when I have to email people with long last names, I always have to look up their addresses so they will be spelled right (it took me months to be able to email my friend Melanie from home because her email didn't pop up automatically on my home computer and her last name is 11 letters long). So I bounced back and forth. Hypenation? Keep my maiden name (which it's strange that all of a sudden the name I have had for years is now referred to as my "maiden name")? Drop the last name? Luckily I have smart friends and I talked with my friend Meghan and she said that she just added her new last name when she got married. No two middle names or two last names - just four names. GENIUS!
So, Friday I went and finally got myself a Missouri drivers license (I tried to get the social security card first but they required I get my license first). I am now legal to drive in Missouri - 3.5 years after moving here. :) And my new name is . I dropped the Elizabeth, not out of choice per se, but because it wouldn't fit in the space they have. :) I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep it on my social security card or not. But I like the way this looks - I'm getting used to it. Now I can legally keep my maiden name for work - my kids won't be saddled with whatever I do with my career and my clients won't have to learn to spell Raffensperger. And Raffensperger will go on everything else - credit cards, bank accounts, etc. I really like the solution as it works for me. It's not for everyone - as already people are saying I'm insane - but it works for me. I do now, however, have more letters in my name then the entire alphabet. :)
So now I'm officially a Raffensperger - though I've considered myself one for quite a while. Now I can officially call Cody and I the "Raffensperger Part of Two" (this is an inside joke with me and Cody's sister). :)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Makin' Deals with the Devil
One of the joys of owning animals (or kids if you have those) are the annual visits to the vet. Since I adopted the cats from a shelter in Florida and I'm generally relatively lazy about finding new places, I've been taking the cats to the vet for the annual shots every time we visit for Christmas. But I didn't get around to it last year because we just got plain too busy. So I decided I needed to find them a vet here - I made that decision in December. I just now got around to calling them, making an appointment and actually taking them in. A friend adopted a dog from the Humane Society here, they are right up the street from our house and I generally prefer to support those types of places when I can so I made an appointment with them. I made it for Thursday at 5pm because I figured Cody could go with me before school. But it turns out he "forgot" some school meeting he had to go to at 5:15. So it was me and three cats to the vet. He later admitted he didn't want to go because he thought the cats would hate him if he took them to get shots and he would rather them hate me and let me be the "bad guy." So he made a deal with the Devil - I'll take the cats to the vet to get their shots and they can hate me and he won't have to worry about them clawing his eyes out while he sleeps, but in return when we have kids he promised that he would take them to the doctor for shots and let me be the good guy. :) Yeah, I think I got the better end of this deal. :)
Anyway, the visit was relatively uneventful, other then the sheer acrobatics involved with me trying to carry three cat carriers into the vet, in the rain, by myself. When I checked in all the ladies commented that "Oh, you're the one with the girl cat named Mr. Pickles" (when I made the appointment I gave them the cats' information) Yes, yes. That is me. Then when I saw the vet tech - she asked if the front desk people messed up because they put that Mr. Pickles was a girl. No, no. Not a mistake. Mr. Pickles is a girl. Then the vet came in - again, more comments on poor Mr. Pickles. The moral of this story - never, ever let your husband name your cats.
They were all healthy. Wiggles and Mr. Pickles were about 8.5 pounds and Bumpis/Tubby/Fatty weighed in at an astounding 11.5 - they asked if she lets the others eat. Yes she does - there are three food bowls, she can't eat out of them all at one time. Wiggles, the "lap kitty," otherwise known in our house as "co-dependent kitty" tends to "over-groom" her belly so she is missing a lot of hair there but that is nothing to worry about - she just gets nervous when Cody isn't around and does it out of nervous habit (she hates me and could care less if I left - she'd probably like it since then she could have Cody to herself).
So that was all for Kitty Vet Adventure Thursday. :)
Anyway, the visit was relatively uneventful, other then the sheer acrobatics involved with me trying to carry three cat carriers into the vet, in the rain, by myself. When I checked in all the ladies commented that "Oh, you're the one with the girl cat named Mr. Pickles" (when I made the appointment I gave them the cats' information) Yes, yes. That is me. Then when I saw the vet tech - she asked if the front desk people messed up because they put that Mr. Pickles was a girl. No, no. Not a mistake. Mr. Pickles is a girl. Then the vet came in - again, more comments on poor Mr. Pickles. The moral of this story - never, ever let your husband name your cats.
They were all healthy. Wiggles and Mr. Pickles were about 8.5 pounds and Bumpis/Tubby/Fatty weighed in at an astounding 11.5 - they asked if she lets the others eat. Yes she does - there are three food bowls, she can't eat out of them all at one time. Wiggles, the "lap kitty," otherwise known in our house as "co-dependent kitty" tends to "over-groom" her belly so she is missing a lot of hair there but that is nothing to worry about - she just gets nervous when Cody isn't around and does it out of nervous habit (she hates me and could care less if I left - she'd probably like it since then she could have Cody to herself).
So that was all for Kitty Vet Adventure Thursday. :)
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Been a while.
Yeah, I know. It's been a while. At least I can say I've been having fun (for the most part). Plenty of more details to come (dead tired and cranky right now), but to briefly summarize, the Bonus Parents were in town last week. It was absolutely fabulous to have them here. It's so cool to get to spend time with just the two of them and have them come and see our home and show them around STL (yes, that was three "and"s in that last sentence). I really love having them here - I feel like I can really relax and be myself around them which is fantastic because that's a tough thing to do around family that you weren't raised with sometimes. They are absolutely wonderful people and I still cry like a baby when they leave. I'm getting slightly better, but not much. When we leave Tally I used to cry practically until we got out of Florida, but at least until we got to I-10, now I really only bawl until we hit Thomasville Road and then again when we exit Florida. When they leave here I bawl for a while but then Cody usually occupies me with sometime (this weekend it was we had to get ready for a party)- but then when I go to clean the house I miss them - like when I go to put up two of the placemats on the dining room table because now we're back down to two people. I miss them like crazy but am happy that the holidays are coming and we can see them again.
A brief rundown of the events since the last post. Thursday I worked on cleaning the house - since it was my one day after wasting a day working on Cody's car. Friday was my friend Melanie's Going Away Happy Hour because she got a new (and much better) job so that was a long night. Saturday we cleaned as fast as we could and then before we knew it the 'rents were here! We all went to Ozzie's to watch the Gator game - though they lost - again. Boo on the Gators- though yeah for being the highest ranked 2 loss team (plus I won $20 on the game because I bet the spread). Sunday we hung out and went for a tour/walk of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Monday Cody made us a great dinner of pork chops after his dad figured out how to fix our grill. Tuesday Cody had class so his mom made Cody's favorite meal while me and his dad carved my fake pumpkin (it was really hard to carve because it wasn't as hard as a real pumpkin so his dad was a great help!) - I'll have to post photos of the pumpkin. Wednesday we took them to the Season Opener for the St. Louis Blues (hockey team) and they actually WON (this is huge here). Thursday we took them to my favorite - the ZOO! Unfortunately the baby elephant wasn't out while we were there but they all humored me while I excitedly gave them the grand tour of the greatest Zoo ever! Friday we hung out (mostly dealing with my car) and went to the Science Center. And Saturday we hung out while I tried to keep myself from crying all day.
The greatest thing (besides just spending time with them) is that they come and FIX things!!! Things they fixed: piece of siding on the roof that was letting water into the roof (to do this they had to put a ladder on our porch roof - good thing I wasn't here to see it or I would have died), Cody's motorcyle (they had to rebuild the brakes and some other random stuff - but it works now!), my car - yes, my car was finally diagnosed by Cody's dad - all he had to do was mess with it for 20 minutes and he figured it out - next time the car breaks, forget taking it to the dealer, I'm going to just pay to fly his dad up here and look at it, the leaky toilet, the salt and pepper shaker (apparently Cody and I didn't even know the salt and pepper shaker had a salt part and we had the pepper grinder part upside down - we just thought it was cheap and the whole time we had it on wrong!), and . . . . the sewer. Yes, in the worst timing ever, our sewer backed up into our basement (love/hate basements!) on Saturday as they were getting ready to leave. I went down to get a movie to loan them and yelled "CODY!" about as loud as I could - everyone came running and I put him and his dad to work. His mom was in charge of keeping me semi-calm and keeping me from freaking out. Having them there for this "crisis" really made me miss them even more - they kept me calm - gave me a sense of being able to control the situation and basically just provided much needed support. So we called the plumber, he drilled out the pipes that run to the house (while our 100 year old house has been rehabbed and has all plastic pipes inside, the pipes going to the sewer are all clay tile - clay tile likes to grow roots) and got all the roots out and now things are perfect. So they were nice enough to stay for that ordeal.
Then they left and I was a basket case until I realized we had to get ready NOW to make it to a party on time.
We had a great time with them and can't wait to have them back again. Maybe if we hurry up and have kids we can talk them into visiting more often (and then we can con them into babysitting). :)
A brief rundown of the events since the last post. Thursday I worked on cleaning the house - since it was my one day after wasting a day working on Cody's car. Friday was my friend Melanie's Going Away Happy Hour because she got a new (and much better) job so that was a long night. Saturday we cleaned as fast as we could and then before we knew it the 'rents were here! We all went to Ozzie's to watch the Gator game - though they lost - again. Boo on the Gators- though yeah for being the highest ranked 2 loss team (plus I won $20 on the game because I bet the spread). Sunday we hung out and went for a tour/walk of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Monday Cody made us a great dinner of pork chops after his dad figured out how to fix our grill. Tuesday Cody had class so his mom made Cody's favorite meal while me and his dad carved my fake pumpkin (it was really hard to carve because it wasn't as hard as a real pumpkin so his dad was a great help!) - I'll have to post photos of the pumpkin. Wednesday we took them to the Season Opener for the St. Louis Blues (hockey team) and they actually WON (this is huge here). Thursday we took them to my favorite - the ZOO! Unfortunately the baby elephant wasn't out while we were there but they all humored me while I excitedly gave them the grand tour of the greatest Zoo ever! Friday we hung out (mostly dealing with my car) and went to the Science Center. And Saturday we hung out while I tried to keep myself from crying all day.
The greatest thing (besides just spending time with them) is that they come and FIX things!!! Things they fixed: piece of siding on the roof that was letting water into the roof (to do this they had to put a ladder on our porch roof - good thing I wasn't here to see it or I would have died), Cody's motorcyle (they had to rebuild the brakes and some other random stuff - but it works now!), my car - yes, my car was finally diagnosed by Cody's dad - all he had to do was mess with it for 20 minutes and he figured it out - next time the car breaks, forget taking it to the dealer, I'm going to just pay to fly his dad up here and look at it, the leaky toilet, the salt and pepper shaker (apparently Cody and I didn't even know the salt and pepper shaker had a salt part and we had the pepper grinder part upside down - we just thought it was cheap and the whole time we had it on wrong!), and . . . . the sewer. Yes, in the worst timing ever, our sewer backed up into our basement (love/hate basements!) on Saturday as they were getting ready to leave. I went down to get a movie to loan them and yelled "CODY!" about as loud as I could - everyone came running and I put him and his dad to work. His mom was in charge of keeping me semi-calm and keeping me from freaking out. Having them there for this "crisis" really made me miss them even more - they kept me calm - gave me a sense of being able to control the situation and basically just provided much needed support. So we called the plumber, he drilled out the pipes that run to the house (while our 100 year old house has been rehabbed and has all plastic pipes inside, the pipes going to the sewer are all clay tile - clay tile likes to grow roots) and got all the roots out and now things are perfect. So they were nice enough to stay for that ordeal.
Then they left and I was a basket case until I realized we had to get ready NOW to make it to a party on time.
We had a great time with them and can't wait to have them back again. Maybe if we hurry up and have kids we can talk them into visiting more often (and then we can con them into babysitting). :)
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Why I Think God Hates Me
Aside from the obvious - curly hair, living where it snows, ridiculous allergies (including to cats, of which I have 3), an inability to decide what I want to do when I "grow up," etc. - I have new reasons to belive God hates me - today is one of those reasons.
I had great plans today. Of course, with me, as always, the greatest plans never turn out - never. For instance when I was younger I thought I would be engaged at 23, married at 25 and have kids by 28, later I thought I would be living in LA or NY, I thought we'd only live in STL for 2-5 years, etc.- obviously my life has not gone according to "plan" but it turned out good nonetheless. Cody and I joke that we're not planning to have kids until he's done with school but that as soon as we make that our official "plan" then sure enough the next week I'd turn up pregnant - not cool.
Anyway, today I had plans. Wake up at 6:30, get Cody to work by 7:30 (we only have one car since mine wasn't starting yesterday), me to work by 8:00, in court by 8:30 for a settlement, leave work by 9:00, make it to Columbia around 11:00, leave work Columbia around 2:00, go to the chiropractor around 3:45-4:00, get Cody's oil changed, get home and clean clean clean before my Bonus Parents get here this weekend, then pick up Cody from work and while he's working on his final (due tomorrow), I'd do some more cleaning and working on crocheting him golf club covers (yes, I'm a total dork and my husband is cheap - so rather then buy $45 Gator golf club covers from UF, he asked me to knit/chrochet him some - so they are orange and blue stripes, look hideous (there are no patterns out there for crocheting golf club covers), but I suppose the clubs won't get banged up). Naturally, not one of those things happened the way I "planned."
Here's how today really turned out: Wake up at 8:00, yell "Holy Shit get up NOW" to Cody. Rush to get ready. Take him to work with me by 8:30, pick up my files, run to court by 8:40 to have the settlement approved, rush out of downtown, get him to work and get to Columbia on time. While this was hectic and we slept in, I still got the settlement approved and made it to Columbia - not so bad. Then I managed to leave on time, get to the chiropractor where he mashed the hell out of my poor knee for 30 minutes, all in the name of "medicine." Then on to take Cody's car to get the oil changed. See, he didn't even know I was going to do this - it was going to be a surprise from his super nice wife because I know he's been complaining that he needs to get it done but he's been so busy. So the first place I go was packed and wasn't taking more customers. So then I drive to Wal-Mart (this is my downfall here - as I have sworn never to return to Wal-Mart - especially the Maplewood one). I park the car in the oil change line and go sign up for an oil change. I go back to move the car and nothing - the thing won't start. So we think it might be the battery so we try to jump it - still no go. Then the car starts smoking - never a good sign. So I call Cody, freaking out, and he informs me that the starter has been going bad for a while and that must be it. WHAT!?!?!? Now we have ZERO working cars and I'm stuck at Wal-Mart and he's stuck at work! This is why it (sometimes) sucks to not live near family - if only this had happened in three day we could have called Cody's folks and had them come pick us up - but no - we gotta figure this crap out. Thankfully we live in a city with mass transit. So I walk from Wal-Mart to the Metro station about a mile (after my chiropractor said to go home, ice and elevate the knee and stay off it for 24 hours), ride the metro to the stop close to home and then walk home. THANKFULLY after crazy manipulation with my fuse box, I got my car started after about 10 tries (obviously this means my starter will be bad next) and then picked Cody up. Of course as soon as I pick him up, my insanely compassionate and caring husband, immediatly tries to find a way to blame the starter dying on ME (apparently he was convinced I tried to start it too many times - it was already DYING when I got the car - it's just my dumb luck I was driving when it happened!). Anyway, we went to Wal-Mart and putzed with the car long enough that we finally removed the starter. Then we took it to Autozone to get a new one - all this time every time we go to start my car it takes more tries to crank. So we went from 2 cars, to 1.5 cars (when mine was 50/50) to 1 1/3 cars (when mine barely worked) to 1/3 car (with his broken and mine barely working). Thankfully we got the new starter and eventually got it in - in the dark - in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It sucked a lot worse then it sounds on paper. I was not a happy camper. Needless to say, we came home totally greasy, hungry and having not gotten anything on the to-do list done - including his final. It's a good thing we are used to little sleep. :)
So, yeah, for today at least, I'm convinced God hates me.
I had great plans today. Of course, with me, as always, the greatest plans never turn out - never. For instance when I was younger I thought I would be engaged at 23, married at 25 and have kids by 28, later I thought I would be living in LA or NY, I thought we'd only live in STL for 2-5 years, etc.- obviously my life has not gone according to "plan" but it turned out good nonetheless. Cody and I joke that we're not planning to have kids until he's done with school but that as soon as we make that our official "plan" then sure enough the next week I'd turn up pregnant - not cool.
Anyway, today I had plans. Wake up at 6:30, get Cody to work by 7:30 (we only have one car since mine wasn't starting yesterday), me to work by 8:00, in court by 8:30 for a settlement, leave work by 9:00, make it to Columbia around 11:00, leave work Columbia around 2:00, go to the chiropractor around 3:45-4:00, get Cody's oil changed, get home and clean clean clean before my Bonus Parents get here this weekend, then pick up Cody from work and while he's working on his final (due tomorrow), I'd do some more cleaning and working on crocheting him golf club covers (yes, I'm a total dork and my husband is cheap - so rather then buy $45 Gator golf club covers from UF, he asked me to knit/chrochet him some - so they are orange and blue stripes, look hideous (there are no patterns out there for crocheting golf club covers), but I suppose the clubs won't get banged up). Naturally, not one of those things happened the way I "planned."
Here's how today really turned out: Wake up at 8:00, yell "Holy Shit get up NOW" to Cody. Rush to get ready. Take him to work with me by 8:30, pick up my files, run to court by 8:40 to have the settlement approved, rush out of downtown, get him to work and get to Columbia on time. While this was hectic and we slept in, I still got the settlement approved and made it to Columbia - not so bad. Then I managed to leave on time, get to the chiropractor where he mashed the hell out of my poor knee for 30 minutes, all in the name of "medicine." Then on to take Cody's car to get the oil changed. See, he didn't even know I was going to do this - it was going to be a surprise from his super nice wife because I know he's been complaining that he needs to get it done but he's been so busy. So the first place I go was packed and wasn't taking more customers. So then I drive to Wal-Mart (this is my downfall here - as I have sworn never to return to Wal-Mart - especially the Maplewood one). I park the car in the oil change line and go sign up for an oil change. I go back to move the car and nothing - the thing won't start. So we think it might be the battery so we try to jump it - still no go. Then the car starts smoking - never a good sign. So I call Cody, freaking out, and he informs me that the starter has been going bad for a while and that must be it. WHAT!?!?!? Now we have ZERO working cars and I'm stuck at Wal-Mart and he's stuck at work! This is why it (sometimes) sucks to not live near family - if only this had happened in three day we could have called Cody's folks and had them come pick us up - but no - we gotta figure this crap out. Thankfully we live in a city with mass transit. So I walk from Wal-Mart to the Metro station about a mile (after my chiropractor said to go home, ice and elevate the knee and stay off it for 24 hours), ride the metro to the stop close to home and then walk home. THANKFULLY after crazy manipulation with my fuse box, I got my car started after about 10 tries (obviously this means my starter will be bad next) and then picked Cody up. Of course as soon as I pick him up, my insanely compassionate and caring husband, immediatly tries to find a way to blame the starter dying on ME (apparently he was convinced I tried to start it too many times - it was already DYING when I got the car - it's just my dumb luck I was driving when it happened!). Anyway, we went to Wal-Mart and putzed with the car long enough that we finally removed the starter. Then we took it to Autozone to get a new one - all this time every time we go to start my car it takes more tries to crank. So we went from 2 cars, to 1.5 cars (when mine was 50/50) to 1 1/3 cars (when mine barely worked) to 1/3 car (with his broken and mine barely working). Thankfully we got the new starter and eventually got it in - in the dark - in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It sucked a lot worse then it sounds on paper. I was not a happy camper. Needless to say, we came home totally greasy, hungry and having not gotten anything on the to-do list done - including his final. It's a good thing we are used to little sleep. :)
So, yeah, for today at least, I'm convinced God hates me.
I'm a dumb geek.
I was in math club in high school. And Latin club. And if I thought hard enough I could probably think of some other embarrassingly geeky thing. But with all that geek, I could at least claim I was somewhat not-so-stupid. Not so anymore.
As a family of relative geeks, we get a catalog from Think Geek. If you've never checked out their website and you're remotely smart/geeky, then it's worth a few minutes - pretty funny/cool stuff. Anyway, as I was flipping through the catalog there were quite a few of the things I didn't "get." Again, boy has technology passed me by. I was one of the first people in Tallahassee to have an email address - mflynn@tfn.net. But don't try to email me there because I don't remember the password and I believe tfn (Tallahassee Free-Net) has since gone under and no longer exists. Back then I was all on top of this emerging World Wide Web thing - I thought it was great. And then it just passed me by - along with anything past Windows 3.1 (once we got Windows my brother ceased allowing me anywhere near the computer anymore as he was on it 24/7 - if only I was bigger then him and could beat him up and make him let me use it then I would have learned more and I would be the computer genius and he would be the disenfranchised corporate sell-out).
Anyway, I'm not even a good geek anymore. For instance I had to ask Cody, who apparently was bigger then his sister and didn't let her play on it while he sat learning crazy computer things all day, what the t-shirt that says "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" means - apparently the number thingy is the "home" thingy for your computer - he explained it but I already forgot. There are several others I didn't "get" but I won't embarass myself anymore by going into those.
For the record: I was NOT in the chess club (I suck at chess - Cody has beat me in less then 10 moves every time we have played when he was not drunk) or the band. :)
As a family of relative geeks, we get a catalog from Think Geek. If you've never checked out their website and you're remotely smart/geeky, then it's worth a few minutes - pretty funny/cool stuff. Anyway, as I was flipping through the catalog there were quite a few of the things I didn't "get." Again, boy has technology passed me by. I was one of the first people in Tallahassee to have an email address - mflynn@tfn.net. But don't try to email me there because I don't remember the password and I believe tfn (Tallahassee Free-Net) has since gone under and no longer exists. Back then I was all on top of this emerging World Wide Web thing - I thought it was great. And then it just passed me by - along with anything past Windows 3.1 (once we got Windows my brother ceased allowing me anywhere near the computer anymore as he was on it 24/7 - if only I was bigger then him and could beat him up and make him let me use it then I would have learned more and I would be the computer genius and he would be the disenfranchised corporate sell-out).
Anyway, I'm not even a good geek anymore. For instance I had to ask Cody, who apparently was bigger then his sister and didn't let her play on it while he sat learning crazy computer things all day, what the t-shirt that says "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" means - apparently the number thingy is the "home" thingy for your computer - he explained it but I already forgot. There are several others I didn't "get" but I won't embarass myself anymore by going into those.
For the record: I was NOT in the chess club (I suck at chess - Cody has beat me in less then 10 moves every time we have played when he was not drunk) or the band. :)
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
What I'm Lovin' Now
I love yogurt. It's a yummy food. And because I'm a self-proclaimed health nut, I try to substitute yogurt for an ice cream craving as much as I can possibly stand. But it's about 140-180 calories per little cup, so naturally I eat "light" yogurt. But "light" yogurt is runny and sort of mushy and not all that appealing or tasty. So I buy "light" yogurt, eat it because you're "supposed to" and go with life. Until now. Yoplait (who while they pat themselves on the back for donating 5 cents for each pink lid you mail them doesn't realize that it costs me 41 cents to mail the lids, so even if I mail them 8 of them at a time, there is net loss of one cent - why can't I just enter some lid code online and they'll donate money and then I won't have to give the USPS 41 cents only to have 40 cents donated) has now come out with "Thick and Creamy" yogurt - FABULOUS! It's about 100 calories, so slightly more then "regular" light yogurt at 60-90 calories, but delicious. It's totally, well, thick and creamy (go figure). I have no idea, nor do I want to know, what it is they finally found to make light yogurt thick, but it's wonderful and yummy. I'm sure I'm going to die 10 years earlier from eating whatever substance it is that makes it thick, but it will be worth it. At least I'm getting some calcium to go with my funky odd chemicals. :)
Places I Have Found Cody's Socks.
Cody and I are not neat-freaks - very far from it. We don't pick up after ourselves at all - not to say we don't try - we always are thinking of new ways to "try" to be neater - so far none of them have worked. Good thing neither of us really mind - it's just embarrasing when others see your house. :) His worst habbit is leaving clothes lying around everywhere and mine is leaving food/dishes around everywhere. So he always jokes about the "Guess where I found a plate today?" game - this morning he found a plate on his dresser upstairs (no where near the kitchen or dining room - typical places to have plates) - but it was because I was eating my egg and broccoli omlett thing and I was eating it while getting dressed and I finished it while I was near his dresser so I put the plate there - makes sense, right?
So now I'm playing the "Guess where I found your socks?" game. Recent sock finds: dining room table (makes sense right? who doesn't take their socks off and throw them on the table?), living room couch, boy bathroom, upstairs bathroom (I can understand the bathrooms though), the kitchen counter (why not the floor? why the counter?), boy room futon, boy room coffee table, and staircase. Not that I'm complaining, because I've likely left food containers in all of those places. :) So my "job" is to gather laundry from the hidden crevices of the house and his is to gather dishes - since both of us obviously loath the other chore (I hate cleaning up dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - and trash).
Ahhh the joys of marriage . . . .
So now I'm playing the "Guess where I found your socks?" game. Recent sock finds: dining room table (makes sense right? who doesn't take their socks off and throw them on the table?), living room couch, boy bathroom, upstairs bathroom (I can understand the bathrooms though), the kitchen counter (why not the floor? why the counter?), boy room futon, boy room coffee table, and staircase. Not that I'm complaining, because I've likely left food containers in all of those places. :) So my "job" is to gather laundry from the hidden crevices of the house and his is to gather dishes - since both of us obviously loath the other chore (I hate cleaning up dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - hate dishes - and trash).
Ahhh the joys of marriage . . . .
What a day.
Some days I think I'm cursed. Yesterday I was dead tired -so tired I feel asleep reading "In Cold Blood" (after watching "Capote," yes, I had to go rent the book from the library). I was getting fantastic sleep - I'd done my Pilates yesterday and I always sleep well after Pilates. Until about 5 am when Mr. Pickles decided she wanted to hang out with me. First she tried to do this weird thing with my hair - like nursing or "kneading" - which was really really annoying since her claws kept getting tangled in my hair because it's curly and when you put things in curly hair they get tangled. Then she wanted to sit on my chest with her mouth on my ear/eye/nose/mouth. This would be fine except I am crazy allergic to cats (yes, go figure) so when they touch my face I seriously swell up - my lips will swell, I'll get a swollen mark on my face, or my eyes will honestly swell shut. So her sitting that close to my face was not a good idea - so I pushed her onto my stomach - and then she was back at my face - and we went in this cycle for a while until I just threw her off the bed (of course, then we had to go through that cycle a few times until she got the hint). So then I was awake - I tried laying there to go back to sleep but wasn't having any luck. I picked up a book thinking that would help - still no luck. So finally I got up at 6am (this is insane for me - my goal in life is to wake up at 8 am and get to work by 8:30) and just worked around the house.
Then I was all ready to get to work early, went to my car and of course, it wouldn't start. But this time no amount of fidgetting with the fuse box would help (this is the cure-all to my car problems). So Cody had to take me to work. Except when we went to leave the garage, the garage door opener/closer wouldn't close the door - it kept acting like there was something in the way of the laser thing. So that was a pain. Then Cody got stuck in traffic and then his air broke at work so he cooked all day - this happened to me yesterday - we have "air handlers" and they are either on or off and in October usually they blow hot air so they turned them off since yesterday was warm - well then it was 146 degrees in our offices so they found a way to turn the fans on with no cooling, but at least it got air moving.
Then I had to sit in a two hour "Management Seminar" at work on how to evaluate people for end-of-the-year evaluations. They have a problem with everyone giving their secretaries a 10/10 on everything - but they don't understand that if we don't give them 10s (which means they get a good raise) then they "lose" our work or are just plain horrible to deal with. So that was useless as we will all stay with the crappy status quo and continue giving obnoxiously high marks for no real performance to not rock the boat.
So, hopefully tomorrow will prove more rewarding.
Then I was all ready to get to work early, went to my car and of course, it wouldn't start. But this time no amount of fidgetting with the fuse box would help (this is the cure-all to my car problems). So Cody had to take me to work. Except when we went to leave the garage, the garage door opener/closer wouldn't close the door - it kept acting like there was something in the way of the laser thing. So that was a pain. Then Cody got stuck in traffic and then his air broke at work so he cooked all day - this happened to me yesterday - we have "air handlers" and they are either on or off and in October usually they blow hot air so they turned them off since yesterday was warm - well then it was 146 degrees in our offices so they found a way to turn the fans on with no cooling, but at least it got air moving.
Then I had to sit in a two hour "Management Seminar" at work on how to evaluate people for end-of-the-year evaluations. They have a problem with everyone giving their secretaries a 10/10 on everything - but they don't understand that if we don't give them 10s (which means they get a good raise) then they "lose" our work or are just plain horrible to deal with. So that was useless as we will all stay with the crappy status quo and continue giving obnoxiously high marks for no real performance to not rock the boat.
So, hopefully tomorrow will prove more rewarding.
MIA
We have two computers in our house - my laptop that I'm shamelessly in love with, and Cody's "Linux Box" that I still can't figure out how to properly work the internet. I hate to admit to being a slave to the Devil/Microsoft, but you have to give it to them for creating a user friendly set-up, even if it does only work 50% of the time. Years ago I would have described myself as pretty computer and technology savy - not these days - the tech world has just passed me by. I used to be good with computers, but then I got older and dumber and just do the basics these days. I still suck at text messaging on cell phones and our last "game console" is the Playstation One. But I guess I'm okay with that.
ANYWAY, back on track and off the random babbling - we have two computers - mine moves, his does not. Mine is downstairs (where, since we own an ancient house, it is cooler) and his is upstairs in what we fondly refer to as "The Oven." So Cody has two final papers due this week - one today and one on Thursday - and has been using my computer - pretty much 24/7 - so I haven't had a chance to steal a moment to blog. All that writing - just to say that. Wow I can be long-winded. :) So that's why I've been lost lately. On to an update:
As I briefly mentioned before we were in Memphis a few weekends ago to hang out/see the town and then drive down to the illustrious town of Oxford, Mississippi for the UF v. Ole Miss game. Oxford, Mississippi is not a place you want to spend a great deal of time in - the campus is absolutely gorgeous, but the rest of the city. . . well, I don't think there is a rest of the city. If you think Alabama is bad, you haven't been to Mississippi. So we barely beat a crappy Ole Miss team (for heaven's sake, Missouri beat them - we should have killed them!) and hung out in Memphis. We spent two nights just hanging out on Beale Street, people watching, drinking our "Big Ass Beers" (that's what they call them), and enjoying the atmosphere. It's like a wannabe New Orleans - and you can't replicate New Orleans. They give it a valiant effort but in the end, it's not New Orleans (they even have a Pat O'Brian's). On Sunday, Cody and I toured the rest of the city - mostly a to-scale model of the Lower Mississippi River - I'll post pictures but it was really awesome. It's literally a concrete, five-block long, to-scale model of the Mississippi - complete with water level changes and running water - and of course at the end was a big pond for the Gulf of Mexico (though Lake Pontchartrain was almost as big at the Gulf in the model). Anyway, that was fun.
Since, I've been working dilligently on the house in preparation for a visit from Cody's folks. I'm quite excited - they haven't been up for a year so it will be good to hang out with them, catch up (we haven't seen them for 6 months), and show them what we've done with the house (which isn't half what I thought we'd have done by now). I've been trying to finish painting the porch - got a lot done on Saturday but then I got tired of going up and down on the 20 ft. extension ladder - so now only half the front of hte house is painted - classy, huh? There is a house for sale in our little neighborhood so we need it to sell as high as possible so it will make our house value go up. Other then that I spent all last night cleaning and reorganzing the basement. We have one of those old, creapy basements so I tried to make it a bit less creapy. :)
Last weeked, of course, we watched the Gators dismal loss to Auburn. I still don't think it's set in that we actually lost - it happens so rarely that it's a hard pill to swallow. Even Kentucky is ranked above us now (though we are still confortably ahead of Missouri - always a bragging point)! The good news is, even if we lose to LSU, they're in the West so we'll still be in control of our own destiny in the East - though we'd rather beat the snot out of LSU.
Sunday we got a group of friends together, and their adorable children, and went apple picking. Over in Illinois they have a pick-your-own farm and this time of year is apples - so we gathered the troups and picked some great apples. It was good to hang out since we so rarely get to see our friends with kids since you really can't say "Hey, you free? Want to hang out at the bar in 30 minutes?" - that would just be mean. :) They are in the same boat we would be if we had kids - (though now with Cody in school this is not a viable option anytime soon) - in STL with kids, without family, so they don't get a lot of breaks or time to themselves so we try to help out though I'm sure we could do a better job. If we had kids, I'm sure I'd be begging for our friends to take them even for 30 minutes just so we could have a break! :)
So that's pretty much the update. Same old.
ANYWAY, back on track and off the random babbling - we have two computers - mine moves, his does not. Mine is downstairs (where, since we own an ancient house, it is cooler) and his is upstairs in what we fondly refer to as "The Oven." So Cody has two final papers due this week - one today and one on Thursday - and has been using my computer - pretty much 24/7 - so I haven't had a chance to steal a moment to blog. All that writing - just to say that. Wow I can be long-winded. :) So that's why I've been lost lately. On to an update:
As I briefly mentioned before we were in Memphis a few weekends ago to hang out/see the town and then drive down to the illustrious town of Oxford, Mississippi for the UF v. Ole Miss game. Oxford, Mississippi is not a place you want to spend a great deal of time in - the campus is absolutely gorgeous, but the rest of the city. . . well, I don't think there is a rest of the city. If you think Alabama is bad, you haven't been to Mississippi. So we barely beat a crappy Ole Miss team (for heaven's sake, Missouri beat them - we should have killed them!) and hung out in Memphis. We spent two nights just hanging out on Beale Street, people watching, drinking our "Big Ass Beers" (that's what they call them), and enjoying the atmosphere. It's like a wannabe New Orleans - and you can't replicate New Orleans. They give it a valiant effort but in the end, it's not New Orleans (they even have a Pat O'Brian's). On Sunday, Cody and I toured the rest of the city - mostly a to-scale model of the Lower Mississippi River - I'll post pictures but it was really awesome. It's literally a concrete, five-block long, to-scale model of the Mississippi - complete with water level changes and running water - and of course at the end was a big pond for the Gulf of Mexico (though Lake Pontchartrain was almost as big at the Gulf in the model). Anyway, that was fun.
Since, I've been working dilligently on the house in preparation for a visit from Cody's folks. I'm quite excited - they haven't been up for a year so it will be good to hang out with them, catch up (we haven't seen them for 6 months), and show them what we've done with the house (which isn't half what I thought we'd have done by now). I've been trying to finish painting the porch - got a lot done on Saturday but then I got tired of going up and down on the 20 ft. extension ladder - so now only half the front of hte house is painted - classy, huh? There is a house for sale in our little neighborhood so we need it to sell as high as possible so it will make our house value go up. Other then that I spent all last night cleaning and reorganzing the basement. We have one of those old, creapy basements so I tried to make it a bit less creapy. :)
Last weeked, of course, we watched the Gators dismal loss to Auburn. I still don't think it's set in that we actually lost - it happens so rarely that it's a hard pill to swallow. Even Kentucky is ranked above us now (though we are still confortably ahead of Missouri - always a bragging point)! The good news is, even if we lose to LSU, they're in the West so we'll still be in control of our own destiny in the East - though we'd rather beat the snot out of LSU.
Sunday we got a group of friends together, and their adorable children, and went apple picking. Over in Illinois they have a pick-your-own farm and this time of year is apples - so we gathered the troups and picked some great apples. It was good to hang out since we so rarely get to see our friends with kids since you really can't say "Hey, you free? Want to hang out at the bar in 30 minutes?" - that would just be mean. :) They are in the same boat we would be if we had kids - (though now with Cody in school this is not a viable option anytime soon) - in STL with kids, without family, so they don't get a lot of breaks or time to themselves so we try to help out though I'm sure we could do a better job. If we had kids, I'm sure I'd be begging for our friends to take them even for 30 minutes just so we could have a break! :)
So that's pretty much the update. Same old.
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