Tailgating, Lots Of Fun. Unless You Get Caught.

No, I was not the tailgater - I have given up my Evil Ways as the last two bumper car incidents have cost me plenty and I don't need to add to the chances of it happening again. Also, I think as I get older all of the things that could happen tend to occur to me - and I take them under consideration instead of just blowing them off. BUT while I was driving today I saw the Lord Of All Tailgaters - he was poetry in motion, a jaw dropping sight. He was driving a big black Dodge Ram - perfect tailgating equipment I might add (my favorite weapon of choice was a 79 Lincoln Versailles with a six foot hood and low to the ground) and was targeting a little compact who was going 75 miles per hour in the passing zone - bastard!. He couldn't get around her so he started tailgating - I have NEVER seen anyone  go over 70 and stay so close - there were times when you could not have slipped your hand between the two bumpers. And he stayed on her bumper for a few miles, braking occasionally but never letting up. There was finally a space in the slow lane so he gave one last tailgate and zipped over and then back in front of her. You would've thought he would be flying - but strangely enough he was slowing down. Hmm. Mysterious? A change of heart? A State Trooper doing a big zippy U-turn from the other side of the highway and putting on his lights? And yes he did get a ticket - I know because I saw the state trooper on the exit ramp where he'd pulled him over and he did not have a Happy Policeman Face about him as he was stalking towards the the Dodge. Anyhoo, I'm doing pretty good at work, we're busy and I'm oncall this weekend. I already have two opens and visit lined up and I'm also on call for the holiday. Bastards.

In A Fog

The fog in this area is quite spectacular, it is literally as thick as pea soup and every other cliche you think of relating to fog. I don't have to leave this morning until 8:30 so hopefully it clear up before then. I took Pearl out this morning but she insisted on disappearing every three seconds and after last night I am just not in the mood. I was eating dinner outside so she could run around and looked up to see - no one. That's not unusual so I called her. And called her - nothing. David started to call her and she STILL didn't come back. I was trying not to panic -but as I've mentioned before we have about 200 acres behind us and I'm not sure what's behind that. As I walked towards the barn I could hear her crying, but not see her - that would be because she was standing behind the fence. I love how dogs can always  seem to get out of the yard but cannot get themselves back in. So David had to lift her over the fence while trying not to hit the rusty barbed wire. He was more than annoyed as he's trying to get the rock spread out around the pool - he's buying a wheel barrow today as it's too much to put down with a shovel. He pulled up all the cement tiles around the pool earlier this summer as they were all pitched too and fro from settling over the years. Andy from down the road went and got the stone so now David just has to put down black plastic, the stone and then replace the tiles. He started the roof yesterday and is still finishing the siding on the house. Busy bee.

Things Are Ok This Week. So Far.

Monday at work was horrendous, but it usually is. All of my problem patients spent most of the weekend being disobedient which made me spend most of Monday tracking them down and then being horrified by what they did - and didn't do. I told Susan I was no longer doing home nursing, just Damage Control at this point. But I made it through and hopefully today will get a bit better. Jackson has his first day of school and it went well, he has lunch with people he likes and is still in MTech. David continues to work on the house, he has the sides to do and then he's finished. He's starting a small roof job later this week and then has to finalize with the Porch People. He really wants to finish the house though and I've suggested he call the RE to discuss the game plan for the spring while he has a little time and the weather is still good. We aren't starting until April but I have a feeling that will come sooner than you think. My dry socket is finally resolved, I only took tylonol once yesterday when I went to bed so hopefully I'm done with that. I'm continuing to work on my shawl of course, it's getting bunchy on the cable needle so it's hard to tell how big it really is right now which is driving me crazy.

One More Day For Jackson

Yep, as of tomorrow, Jackson starts his senior year. He is completely full of himself and gives weekly updates on the Direction Of His Life which morphs and rolls depending on the day and mood. The Navy Seal thing is fading a bit since we found out you have to serve 4 years before they'll even consider you so he has some other plan of action waiting in the wings. We did a bit more school shopping - I've discovered over the years not to race out the week before school and do it - most of the time after the first week everyone is back in thier summer clothes and if you buy more than the basic school supplies you've obviously bought all the wrong stuff and will have to re-buy everything on the list they send home. It's just annoying that we're almost done with the school thing before I got that all figured out. The temps have dropped today and the grey clouds have rolled in so not much doing today. The grass is too wet to mow and it's too dismal to swim, it's getting to the time of year where I spend more time cleaning the pool than playing in it. David finished up the front of the house last night and is now working on the side and replacing the last of the windows. The front looks much better because the windows match each other - if you look in the first picture you'll notice one window opens across and the other up and down which always made it look off kilter. I'll be glad when he's done and gets everything to the dump - the mess part is the worst with all the old siding and so forth lying around.

The weather continues to be so oppressively hot it's unbelievable. It's even hot at night and the humidity is a killer. I had to do a long visit in a house with no airconditioning or fans - I don't know how anyone stands it! By the time I left my clothing was peelable and I had my face right to the dashboard with the air blowing on high. I didn't get into the pool yesterday at all, we needed to go shopping when I got home as we are out of everything. Jackson is a budget breaker as he will disappear for a few minutes and then suddenly appear with an armload of junk food. I've tried running off with the cart but the little bugger is pretty fast and rather crafty at times so it does no good. David has been residing the house all week but with the heat he was a Big Crabbypants when I got home and was yelling at everyone. I thought he was crazy for being up on the side of the house in this heat but what do I know. Anyhoo, the house looks great, we had the Tudor look going which was ok from a distance but upclose it's just boards and painted plywood. He also replaced the front windows so they both look the same now - I'll take pictures again when he's done. I'm off again this weekend but will be doing an admission possibly tomorrow. The poor nurse this weekend is on call for the first time and she is swamped. The patient I'll do if she comes home lives only a couple of miles from me so I said I'd do that. Other than that I'll be laying around and knitting. I'm plotting more yarn acquistion, since I lost my managerial position I'm thinking I might have to drown my sorrow in yarn! But I'm sure the Yarn Hater will try to stop me, bastard.

A Little Relief In Sight

Thank goodness my face has FINALLY stopped throbbing, I am down to taking Excedrin once a day and two Lortabs at night when it's the worst. For some reason laying down really seems to make it go straight over the top and stay there and it's rather unpleasant to wake up 2-ish with your face pounding so hard you wish it would come off. The fluid is coming off too, I lost a little over 3 lbs the first night I stopped taking Advil and now it's about a pound a day. It would be totally fun if it was Real Weight. My job is strangely enough going well - David had pointed out the other day that for the past couple of months I've been telling him I wished I'd never been made manager and wanted my old job back. He thought it was more upsetting that the decision had been taken out of my hands than the fact I'm back doing visits. And I'm not really "back", I'm "still" doing visits so it doesn't feel like too much has changed. I cleaned out my desk the other day, Deb was more upset about that than I was, I just told her it had to be done and could she please carry my plant - it was a pretty tiny amount of stuff all told. So there ends my adventures in Middle Management. My patients today were off the wall which had me in hysterics in my car - one told me rather emphatically I was going to DIE and pulled out an old Jehovah's Witness comic to prove it (WHAT! I'M GOING TO DIE? STOP THE PRESSES!!) the other one I had to call the doctor and and when asked if it would help if the doctor spoke the patient I had to reply only if the patient was willing to come out, stand on the very corner of the porch on a box and hang over the rail to get a signal so that would be a No. That had them laughing. David is residing the house and I'll take pictures - it looks really nice. He did tan on the front and white on the back, he just has to finish a bit more and he's done.

Back To The Mailroom

It's only Tuesday and the week sucks. Sunday my jaw started hurting even more and I spent the night up and down with it throbbing off and on. I woke up Monday swollen all over - one of the side effects of tylonol and advil are sudden weight gain and according to my scale I've gained 8 pounds in 5 days. So I took my dentist's phone number to work as Monday is NOT a day you can take off, unless of course Death has occurred sometime before 8:30 am. My boss had emailed me that she wanted to speak to me so I went there first, as we all know I'm bound to get things over immediately. She's hired a Director of Nursing who will be usurping my job - I'll be making the same pay but am back in the field for now. The problem of course is the paperwork which is way behind - and there's really nothing  I can do about it since I've been carrying a full load of patients all along and there appears to be no end in sight. I should be more upset I suppose. And I am, don't get me wrong,  but I'm upset to a point. But a lot of what I feel is relief. I can be a field nurse OR a manager but these past 4 months of trying to be both at once have been wearing me down and even I admit for the past month I've been just floating along, not even trying anymore. And the other thing is it lets me out of my contract which no longer applies. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, I did think about quitting but I would just end up taking the same job at a different place I suppose. And considering we're most likely going to move in June or so, taking another job for 7 or 8 months doesn't make sense. So I guess I'll just sit back and let it ride. As to my tooth or lack thereof, I'm on antibiotics and I have what they call "dry socket" - a charming condition in which all of the nerves below where the tooth was are exposed which is what causes the pain and throbbing. I have Lortabs for night time and am trying Excedrin for the daytime as I suspect all of this sudden weight gain might not be good for me. David continues to work on the house and has a job lined up for next week if it ever stops raining. Jackson is enjoying David being home as it gives him ample opportunity to take the truck out - by himself. Whoo hoo in his book.

Letting Go

This morning was a big event in the house - for me. We went out yesterday to go school shopping with Jackson driving - this morning he went to do a bit of shopping and get some job applications without me. It's hard for him to have any solo time in the car as we're both working so I planned for him to go out by himself this morning - it was a bit harder than I thought it would be. He's a very good driver and since my sister let him go tooling around Sunny Pennsylvania by himself there is no reason for me to go along  - but it was very hard not to. He's got a cell phone, David is over in Fairmont if he needs him, he even has a GPS in case he gets lost but I STILL wanted to go with him. But I didn't - he was trying to be blase` about the whole business, but going in the car by yourself is independence with a capital I, isn't it? He could not wait to get  away from the house on his own - and I was very good about it. I didn't change my mind and pretend there was something from town that I needed, I didn't chase him down the driveway yelling COME BACK WAIT A YEAR OR TWO, WHAT'S THE HURRY, I handed him the keys and told him to be careful. I did watch him drive away from the window, how strange was that. He'll be graduating this year, Adam is living 5 hours away and is talking about moving again, sooner than I think it'll just be me, David and Pearl - the cats of course too.

It Still Hurts.

Yes it does - it's the worst in the morning when I wake up, I hop out of bed and straight for the tylonol which I then take every 4 hours throughout the day. I guess because this tooth was a bit closer to the front is why it's more painful but it's not intolorable so I'll quit whining.I just hope it stops hurting before I shut my liver down with the tylonol. David and I are going to out to breakfast this morning with Susan and Roger at the new IHop at exit 7 which as we all know, is the Best Exit in the world. I was there yesterday scouting around Michaels again since boycotting was only hurting me and no large comglomerates were brought to thier knees in the past week so it was an exercise in futility in any case. I bought a new bag and two skeins of yarn on clearance which I thought I had more of at home and it turns out I must've used it all up. Hmm. SO  - either I need to think of a project that requires only two tiny balls of yarn OR I have to find yarn to match, buy it all up and then sneak it past the Yarn Hater which is near to impossible as he seems to have Super Yarn Detecting Skills lately and can spot an illicit ball of yarn from across the yard. My shawl is going very well, better than expected but I'm having problems seeing how it will be big enough. I've checked my needle and yarn gauge which seems to be ok so I guess I'll just keep plugging along and see what happens at the end of it. But the pattern called for 7 hanks of laceweight yarn, I'm halfway through and just started the 2nd hank which is what's got me concerned. I haven't been in the pool much this week between the pain thing and all the rain we've been having - but Claw was in it! While I was vacuuming it yesterday morning Claw was sitting on the edge waiting for me to let her in for breakfast - she was so concentrated on watching me that she didn't see Vincent The Heartless sneaking up behind her. It worked out better than even he thought it would - he gave her a poke and she got so startled she fell in the pool. Mayhem ensued since A) Claw is not overly fond of swimming and B) that's a $3000 dollar liner thank you!! EEEKK. She managed to get out without damaging the liner and Vincent spent the rest of the morning hanging out on the deck with a VERY smug look on his face. 

Ouch.

Vincent is being his usual pesty self - it's been pouring all morning but he went out anyhow first thing. I can't imagine why as when I called him later he was huddled under a tree by the pool, soaked to the skin - what fun could that possibly be? So I toweled him off and gave him breakfast, now he's harrassing everyone since he can't go out. I called in sick today, that would be my 3rd sick day in 2 and a 1/2 years so not a big deal. I had that final tooth pulled yesterday - thank goodness that's it. This particular tooth over the years has been drilled, filled, pinned,covered with porcelin, etc and after all of that - the root was so abscessed he couldn't even do a root canal. He had a bit of a time getting it out and I guess because it was abscessed it made it very sore. I've been taking tylonol steady and it's better this morning ,but I was up most of the night with it throbbing away. It'll be awhile before I can have the partial made - it has to heal pretty much completely or it won't fit right, but it's not too noticable and I don't care overly much in any case. David is planning on having my car inspection done today I think so I can get that over with - hopefully we won't run into any problems. He's done with that renovation so he's taking a couple of weeks off to get stuff done around here. He started siding the back of the house and is making a list of projects. He has a couple small jobs lined up and will stick with that for now, doing a renovation on his own was difficult but around here hiring help is not a good idea - you would be amazed at the abuse of workers comp, it's absolutely disgusting. David and I have both talked to contractors and they all have horror stories.

I Am Going To Puke.

When Jackson returned from my sister and Diane's he brought two dozen Dunkin Doughnuts with him because you can't buy them here at all and he claims Krispy Kreme just doesn't float his boat. I do agree with him, but two dozen? Jackson suggested I bring  one box into work but that wouldn't be enough to go around. Jackson then suggested I just give doughnuts "to the people you like" - which I thought was pretty hilarious but not a workable plan. So everyone is eating doughnuts which probably have little to no nutritional value until they're gone. Anyhoo, I will just work it off on the treadmill and pool, David was making some noise but since I've managed to maintain my weight for well over a year he can blow it out his piehole. As far as I'm concerned the dunkin doughnuts are a limited engagement, not a lifelong commiment and what's the point of diet and exercise if you can't enjoy yourself once in awhile? I was in the pool yesterday afterwork - the temp has dropped over the past few days and the problem with swimming that late in the afternoon is it gets quite chilly since by then the pool is in the shade. It was actually cool enough to wear a jacket when I took Pearl out for her first run of the day - I know we have some hot days coming but you can just start to feel a bit of a chill in the air. I have to find out when the Buckwheat Festival is this year so I can start bugging Ray but it won't be too much of a bugging as he very much enjoyed himself last year.

The Countdown Has Begun

We picked up Le Boy from the airport Sunday - I must admit I've grown quite fond of this flying thing. The airport is only 70 miles from here as opposed to the halfway point which is about 150 miles, most of which is through the mountains. Jackson came home very chatty - we heard all about the mall, Aunt Janet and Aunt Diane's friends who have a baby, Amy and her baby Alex who apparently still has more hair than anyone we know, Adam, the Lesters, etc... He also helped Diane rearrange her pantry which he informed us he knew how to do since he watches The Home and Garden channel a lot. He actually does as he's a bit on the strange side in his viewing habits. The night he came home I subjected to TWO hours of watching grown men hunting around for TWO years to get a picture of a giant squid on the discovery channel. He refused to let me change it even though there was a Graham Norton marathon on the BBC channel. They did get one blurry picture and we got to see various squid leftovers including a 20 foot tentacle that bore an alarming resemblance to an intestine as they are on the menu for sperm whales who have amazingly big teeth weighing up to 2 lbs each. These teeth apparently are just perfect for Squid Nipping. Vincent was glad to see Jackson and has not been far from him since he got home. School starts in a couple of weeks, that came up pretty fast - we're going shopping for clothes this weekend. There will be no more Hot Topic pants- he can't believe I even mentioned that, he would look ridiculous! (even though he was wearing them 3 months ago.....) so I guess that age has passed. We'll take him school shopping this weekend as I am not oncall - they also hired another full time nurse over in the other office so now oncall is only every 5 weeks -instead of every two.

What I Did Yesterday....

...Pretty much just goofed around .You have to do that once in awhile. I did get a few things done, but have still not addressed the giant zucchini on my counter. Lately we've been getting overwhelmed with vegetables - I don't mind the normal sized ones, but why on earth do people have to grow things like zucchini the size of baseball bats? What' the point - you can't possibly eat something that large and since it's just me eating it, eek! And then after people grow these freakish things they lurk around trying to palm them off on unsuspecting victims by asking if you want some zucchini, tomatoes etc without mentioning that carrying it into the house will give you a hernia. Then it's up to you to either eat it til it's gone or find another home for it. David and I went out for lunch yesterday to Bob Evans - we usually end up having pancakes or french toast - it was way too filling but lots of fun. I got my hair cut again yesterday too, so it now looks like I wanted it to in the first place. This hair dresser had no problem cutting it short after I explained what it was that I wanted. The weather was very nice yesterday, Pearl and I went swimming (of course!) and then walked the property. David has let the lower two acres go back to woods and just mows a path through it - with all the rain we've had this summer he's  had no break from mowing. Some of the nettles which I hate (they're huge spiky plants) have bloomed and now I'm glad we have them. First off, if you let them be they get really pretty purple spiky flowers on the end - and they attract butterflies! I was out trying to get a picture of them but it's not as easy as it looks to take a good one. I finished watching the entire Lord of The Rings trilogy last night, Jackson and I had tried to watch it all in one shot a couple of years ago and after 6 or 7 hours (we have the extended version) it stops making sense. So I've been watching one disc a night and last night I watched the last one. Jackson will be coming home today, I'll be glad to see him. And so will Vincent The Troublemaker.

Varmits Abound

We have two deer that keep sneaking into our yard lately, I'm sure thier mother is around somewhere since they both look very healthy but they're proabably weaned at this point and are starting to forage on thier own. They were out in side yard last night so I got my camera. The one closest started stomping it's foot and huffing at me - that's a Deer Threat - but I wasn't deterred at all. It was actually pretty cute as they're only a few months past being fawns. The bad thing is they drive Pearl crazy, she's comsumed by Deer Hate and would like to give them a run for thier money so she had to stay in the house and hate them from the french doors. I was glad Vincent didn't see them as he is VERY bad with the deer and enjoys annoying them - they would dearly love to step on him. He's been fairly bad anyhow since his roommate has been lounging around Aunt Janet and Aunt Diane's for the past two weeks - he has no one to play with so we've been subjected to Random Attacks and Sneaking About. He comes flying out of nowhere and then proceeds to bounce around the bed until you throw him off. He can repeat this process until he either tires of it or drives you deep into a dangerous psychosis and he's forced to go bother Claw. Work has been busy - and of course the weather hasn't been co-operating . The one thing I love is some of my patients don't have phones and they tend to live deep in the country. This means I have to use my cell phone and have found myself on occasion  on a rickity back porch in the corner, standing on a box, in the rain - and when they ask if they can put me on hold -that gets a resounding NO (I have one doctor's office that they just immediately put me through since they know they have about 3 minutes before I lose the signal). I still do enjoy the driving the back roads, now that I'm management it's much reduced but I do enjoy the fact that I get to play both sides of the fence. Not much planned today, I might get my haircut again, I hate the one I have now and David says he doesn't want to hear another word about it.

The Weekend Is On It's Way

The weather has taken a decidedly icky turn - it's already hot and muggy. The dampness this time of year makes everything feel limp and soggy - the air went on and will remain on until this is over. Yesterday when I was cleaning out the pool I found we had a rather unhappy visitor clinging to the side - a bat! It took me a second to figure out what it was as it was completely drenched and hanging onto the lip of the pool. I took it out with the scooper and it just laid on it's back gasping. Bats in real life are not like Disney Movies. It was not grateful at all, it didn't look at me with dewy eyes or break into song, it didn't even have the common decency to be quiet. Instead it hissed and snapped it's little mouth at me, flapping it's soaked wings which made things difficult on my end. First of Pearl The Pest seemed to feel she should have first dibs on the new toy so I was yelling at her since I knew someone was going to get nailed if she didn't stop. Then I had to try and get the bat off the edge of the pool with the scooper without it falling in again - it was a bit trying to say the least. I managed to roll it off and then rolled it under the edge of the pool so the cats wouldn't see it. When I came back later it was gone so I assume it dried out enough to leave. And no I didn't get a picture - I didn't even think of it til I went out back to see how it was doing. You would think that bat's having that super sonar it would've seen thirty thousand gallons of water, wouldn't you? I doubt we'll be seeing again though!!

Better Than A Boyfriend!!

I did my first visit fairly early - it was a blood draw so I wanted to get it to the lab fast. I had to use WVU lab and they are not the best, especially on the weekend. They have a habit of lollygagging and then will call you at midnight to report a critical lab value on the blood you drew at 1 in the afternoon. This is wonderful as then you get to wake up the doctor who pitches a fit - for good reason despite the fact it's not your fault. Even more fun is calling the patient who will cheerfully go back to bed no matter what you say and you can't blame them - obviously they've been like this all day so trying to convince them it's an emergency now is so much wasted air. So I rousted the patient and got it in before 10, then off to the Clarksburg area to do my admission. That went well, shockingly and it left me more than enough time to go to my TOTALLY FAVORITE PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE! Even better was the large semi-annual clearance banner, I got two knitting books half price and 10 skeins of yarn for $12 -ha! try and beat that. Now, I don't really need anymore knitting books (or magazines for that matter) and certainly yarn is not an issue, but who can resist? Of course it didn't help that when I got home my package from Knitpicks was sitting on the kitchen table, but the Yarn Hater has been trading guns all month so he hasn't got much to say for himself. His point is he buys and sells guns so he sort of stays "even" while I just buy buy buy. My response to this is Tough Cookies. But I think I might have to slow down as it's even getting to be a bit much, even for me. I didn't get any of the framing stuff as I keep forgetting to measure the picture.I heard from my Mom last night, Grandpa is doing much better, he's been home from the hospital since Thursday and she's hired a 24 hour aide to help him until he gets better. The boys are doing well, they went to the local carnival the other night and are visiting my Dad's side today and then back to Pennsylvania. Jackson will be home sometime next week and I suppose Adam will be starting his life.

All's Quiet On The Western Front

It's interesting here with just David and I, a bit quieter I suppose. Not that Jackson is a noisy boy -not by any stretch of the imagination but with less people in the house there is a stillness that's not normally here. Of course we still Have Pearl The Pest and her Merry Band of Cats to contend with so it's not all that quiet!. Vincent is at a loss without Jackson, we keep his bedroom door open at night so he can go sleep on his bed. But he comes up to our room occasionally during the night to stare at us as if we'll finally confess as to what we've done with his boy. I'm on call this weekend, but starting next week the other two nurses will be in the rotation, what a relief that will be! I'll only be oncall once a month instead of every other week. I have an admit in the Bridgeport/Clarksburg area, but that's ok because I can go shop my heart out at AC Moores - I am boycotting Michael's at the present time due to their sneaky ways. They have a habit of having a yarn clearance bin and it's all $2 a skein except for one or two bins. I found a yarn I liked in the bin and brought it up to the register - it totalled almost $50!. The cashier sent a worker back to look and sure enough it was all $2 EXCEPT that one bin in the middle. I asked where it said that and neither of them were able to tell me so I told them to keep the yarn and left. Since I have enough yarn at this point in my life to knit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until I either die or expire from Carpel Tunnel, that I have yarn stuffed to the brim in my grandmother's dresser, spilling out of the closet in the guest room and in various drawers and baskets, my Standards Of Yarn have been raised. Slightly. In order for me to buy yarn it either has to be exceptionally good looking or a cheap date. The other reason I need to go to AC Moores (as if yarn is not enough...) is I need a frame for the picture I bought at Bubba's Garage last week when Ray was out. We were poking around the back when I found this picture - the frame is cracked, the backing is warped - but the subject matter is fascinating. It's painted on the glass I believe, not on a canvas - and it's a picture of a woman hanging on the front of a cross facing it, looking skyward. It matches a life sized grave stone in Doll's Run Cemetery so it has to have some sort of significance. When I get a chance I'm going to retake a picture of the gravestone. Ray looked at it and seemed to think I could replace the backing and the frame which I hope I can. David of course LOVES this picture, haha

It Is August.

July just flew by this year, didn't it? I guess it's like that every year, June and July disappear before you know it, then August comes along, slogging and dragging it's feet, never going to end with it's hot relentless days and sweltering nights. Usually, at this time of year everything is starting to turn brown and dry - not this year. We've had quite a bit of rain lately prompting David  to mow the yard once again. I'll do around the edges this weekend I suppose with my little push mower. We're definately going to sell next year, as beautiful as this place is, it's overwhelming between the yard, the pool and the house and when Jackson graduates next year it'll get worse. He and Adam are having a good time at my sister's, David called last night and Jackson said they're going to LI for the weekend. We're still working on getting rid of the Stupid Hot Tub, someone was supposed to come look last night but didn't - I'm getting tired of bailing it out and it just being there. We're giving it away for free, but it's so huge it's going to be a monster to move. The weather has been hot and sunny lately, I've been in the pool every evening after work as has Pearl The Uninvited who now has figured out that by dropping her toy in the deep end and racing around to the steps - she can actually play fetch by herself. She is such a goose.