Sunday.

 I am sticking to my game plan of doing pretty much nothing this weekend -well,  I did do some stuff of course. Try as I might I do need to shower and eat - and I did clean the entire house from one end to the   other. David had left on Thursday back to WV to get some more stuff done, having  the two houses has gotten a bit difficult - the grass tends to grow whether we are there or not we've noticed. David also installed a white vinyl fence - he is a huge Craig's List watcher and manages to get some real bargains. The fencing he bought is very expensive new but used he got it for less than a third of the price, he met the guy in Washington and brought it back - once he gets it fully installed it's maintenance free. So I had some time to myself on Friday and Saturday - aside from the above mentioned cleaning I mainly read, knitted and watched TV. Hung out with Crybaby Pearl who seems to think I have nothing better to do than sit in the yard and watch her perform Squirrel Patrol. I didn't mind it, except for the mosquitoes and so forth - they are fierce and I am allergic, so now I'm all full of bug bites.  So now I'm old and lumpy, but my eyes are not pink so that's a bit of improvement. I'm currently watching Lion heart, an old Jean Claude Van Damme movie - most of his movies tended to have fighting scenes mixed in with amazingly lame excuses for him to run around in his underpants. Why the excuses? If I was a guy built like that all I would wear would be underpants, but that's me. I am almost done with the front half of the sweater I'm making, then the sleeves and then I'm done. I have a bit of a quandary for the next project - I bought lace yarn I love but it's only 450 yds a skein - I have two skeins for a total of 900 yards. Most shawls knitted in the round are 1200 to 1400 yards so if I want to make that my next project, I need at least one more skein. The yarn I love is $24 a skein. I have two skeins so I''m already $50 into a shawl I don't have enough yarn to make. So I am wondering if it's worth the Wrath Of The Yarn Hater if I sneak out and buy one more skein. Hmm. A conundrum. Hmm. Just putting it out there. The alternative would be to find a project that uses 900 yards of lace weight yarn and not buy anymore yarn. Hmm. That would not be my favorite choice.

I Spy With My Pink Eye

 Finally - Friday! It's been an interesting week, hasn't it? I started off stressed and worked my way down. I ended up  with a lovely case of pink eye early in the week too!  - I awoke with my lashes stuck together, itchy grainy snarky!- so I was out one day to get the antibiotic eye drops started so I wouldn't be passing along my new gift. Pink eye is one of the most annoying maladies, you spend all of your free time feeling like a four year old  with everyone reminding you to STOP TOUCHING IT. I declared several times that I had not touched it but apparently that was maybe not true. And all you want to do is touch it, give it one good hard rub, just enough to make it stop itching but you can't so you put your hands down and ...........well, you'd better go wash your hands again you are so immature! That was pretty much my whole day. But 24 hours on the eye drops and I was back in business. The weather has gotten pretty hot and sticky - with thunderstorms to go along with it of course. Last night we had a tornado alert and there was a brief period during the evening when I thought they might actually be serious. The wind took it to new heights and I was frantically trying to think of what people are always desrcibing -  a freight train? Shaking walls? I couldn't google it because the electric kept going off and on - so I figured in the event there was a tornado I would be on my own to identify it. It came to nothing - no flying cows, no munchkins, no winged monkeys. Just my annoying whining dog. As for the weekend I am doing - as promised - nothing. Maybe a little shopping, maybe not. We'll see. Jackson had his frocking ceremony and officially became a 3rd class petty officer today at 1pm California time - we are still pretty proud of him.  I'm hoping this weekend will have at least slightly decent weather, I'm also staying home because apparently this area gets the overflow of the horrible rude New Yorkers on vacation - and they are out in force!

This And That

The fun thing about working in an office is the conversations you end up having - The Tapeworm Diet came up with all parties mulling over Would They or Wouldn't They.  The Tapeworm diet has been on tv (as per Barbara who couldn't finish watching a show on the subject)  - and it's exactly how it sounds. You ingest a tapeworm and you (and you're new friend) can theoretically eat whatever you want. I did look it up and according to sources you would actually only lose one to two pounds a week. The tapeworms come in a jar - they are not little Cute Tapeworm Pills - and you have to somehow get yourself to swallow the damn thing AND the real kicker - as the worm ages sections (up to 4 feet) die off  and they fall out your butt. No, I'm not kidding. How embarrassing would that be at a party. The upshot of the conversation was no one seemed to be able to figure out how to swallow a worm without gagging, the idea is fairly icky and of course having large worm bits dropping out unannounced, well, that's just beyond nasty. So no one will be trying that one soon. Of course that 's not the only thing we do - sometimes we work and stuff. I had to take one of the higher ups out on a home visit today, I'm no good at that sort of thing - I got 100% but only after driving the aide on the case crazy, my co-workers crazy and spent the previous night on the couch because I was this far from Taking It Out On Others and figured that was a good solution to skipping the argument I was working on starting. Arguing is an excellent distraction when you're stressed but it generally doesn't work out too well. La la. I have been so stressed out lately, everything hangs and hinges, swings and sways, checks and balances. I take deep breaths, in and out - life is static, ever changing. Hard to forget - hard to hang on to. But I'm letting it all resolve one step, one issue at a time. “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” 

Bragging Rights

 We are so proud of Jackson - he made rank and is now an E4. It's a big deal, trust me. He's getting ready to head off to parts unknown - he'll be in boot camp for awhile and then off he goes. It's so strange when they come home now, since we don't see either of the boys much they seem to change instantly - and then not at all. David has been busy doing all sorts of things lately, he is going to Ray's one weekend or next to work on his stuff with him and then we have other pots boiling. Of course. I continue on with the blue sweater I'm knitting - I haven't been taking pictures of it because it's Navy Blue (of course!!) and it's hard to get the pattern to show up. It just looks blue and blobish. We're doing NOTHING next weekend at all - this past weekend was the Bayada  Weekend which was fun but overwhelming. It  was in Philly this year so I drove out early, got in my room and then ran all day from luncheon to ceremony to dinner to dancing. A manager from the other office was there so we were drinking most of the night - then you remember the hangover part and that is Not So Fun. I drove back Sunday morning as we had stuff to do - but I'm tired. I need a weekend of just nothingness and hanging out. So this weekend the doors are shut and the shades are pulled. Down tight.

Love Means Always Having To Say Goodbye.

 Everyone left at once today, heading in different directions. I took Jackson to the airport, he was reminiscing about his childhood and it was a pleasant ride - we laughed about Copper the Not Bravest Dog, Mr. Lee, friends, boats, fishing poles.  I always cry when I drop them off - not as much as I used to but it's hard - I know it will be months or even years before I see them again. We had a great time, Jackson saw everyone he hadn't seen previously. He very much enjoyed all the extra time he got to spend with the Aunts and Christine. He played with the dog and of course his cat Vincent pranced and paraded for him. David and I took alternate days off so we could spend time with him, he only had one day of real down time - but given there were video games, soda and a couch it was not much of a hardship. Ray arrived on Friday and they hung out for the day, then we went out to dinner. Saturday was like old times - we saw Priest in the little theater down the road, off to the bookstore and then out to Ruby Tuesdays - that's been one of our favorite restaurants and everyone loves it. As I said before Jackson's leaving is inevitable and as much as I love him and would love to keep him here, I know that's no good for anyone. I know he's going to Afghanistan and doing something very noble for our country - and he volunteered for it because that's what he believes is the right thing to do. But oh, when they go - I get a pressure in my chest that just won't let go and the sadness for the fact that their childhood never is long enough - to spend just one more week waking up in our own beds with the sun shining and the possibilities stretching out as far as the day will allow - that is the grief that overwhelms me at times. But I hugged him good bye and left him at the airport a few hours before his flight - we both  enjoy bopping around the airport shops and people watching - and turned and headed home.  Adventure awaits us both, but his adventures are his own now, aren't they? We are so proud of both of our boys.

The Sound Of SIlence

 David and Jackson had made plans to go out to NJ to visit our friend Ray - we are only an hour and a half from him so it's not a bad ride. I didn't go because it would be too long of a day for the dog and I didn't want them to have to hurry back - and quite frankly, I had stuff to do - cleaning stuff. I don't know about you but when I want to really clean I cannot do it with someone else in the house. It's just too distracting and I start off trying to clean the bathroom and the next thing I know I'm at the bookstore. Go figure. So they set out in my car about 7 am so they could have breakfast and hang out. They got home a few minutes ago and had a great time, I'm glad Ray got a chance to see Jackson before he heads back. They went to Ray's house, did breakfast and early dinner out and went to the park with Ray. As for me I CLEANED, I scrubbed the bathrooms, emptied out the fireplace, did the wash, washed up the dishes, vacuumed, mopped,dusted took out the garbage, sorted out my books (again),cleared off the counters and the tables and washed them all down. I took a million breaks playing Zuma Blitz (I confess - I am totally addicted!) and went outside with Pearl so she could do the Daily Squirrel and Chipmunk Patrol while I read my ereader - for my birthday I got the entire collection of the Sookie Stackhouse series which I'm super enjoying.. In other news Jackson finished up his antibiotics today, taking the very last one when he got home, I know he's glad to be done with that! Claw seems to be recovering from her injury - she fell off the table a few days ago - she wasn't supposed to be up there in the first place but she glossed over that - and really hurt her back leg, limping and all. This becomes a major issue as the only time we've ever managed to get her to the vet was when she was so bad off she was totally incapacitated - and unable to slash vital organs out of our bodies while we loaded her into a cat carrier. Unfortunately it was her BACK leg that was injured, there was nothing wrong with both of her front legs - so we decided to wait til morning. She was able to put weight on it - even looking at it brought on a fit of hissing, swiping and spitting so it was a true once over! - and it's improved over the past few days, disaster averted. Jackson enjoys her and her random hissing - he was standing in the living room and Claw sauntered by, stopped and looked at him, then hissed, flipped her tail and continued on. It's fun to be Claw I suppose.

Home For Awhile

Jackson had a wonderful time at Janet and Diane's - AND they gave him a Kindle to take to Afghanistan, lucky boy that he is. He's still recovering from his Strep/Tonsillitis Fiasco, he's got a few more days of antibiotics to go but he's over the worst of it. We didn't do too much on Monday - we took him out to the Chinese buffet and then watched a B-movie at home, my version of The Perfect Evening. Tuesday we went to the mall, stopped home and then went to the little theater down the road. I actually wanted to go to the Regal which is super huge but they were only playing kid movies and a garden variety of crappy stuff. The little movie theater was playing Hanna - ONLY at 4:45 but whatever. Watching a thriller at 5 pm on a Tuesday, well, let's just say you don't need to fight the crowd. We sat and munched on our popcorn for a couple of minutes and then I yelled to the projectionist "you can start the movie now, we're here!" - and he did indeed start the movie for me and Jackson.  Nerdiness has it's privileges. I had to work Wednesday and Thursday but as luck would have it, David got rained out on Wednesday and had a dentist appointment at 1 today so they got to spend some time together. I took half a day tomorrow and I think they are going to see Ray this weekend. I am taking off Thursday next week and I'm pretty sure Jackson's looking forward to just hanging out before heading back to California and then overseas. David and I are busy - he's making plans to go back to WV to mess with the house, right now friends will be taking care of the lawn mowing and so forth until he gets down there again.  I have to say I've only been 50 for a week, but so far so good -actually it's been pretty great!

Back From The Wild West (Virginia)

 The trip was fun - and overly eventful. But that's not always a bad thing, is it? The house - so far, so good. It's the first place we've bought that hasn't smelled of cat pee, been infested with bugs or garbage - or both, that things worked as they were supposed to - what a lovely little house. We went to visit Cecil and Bertha yesterday afternoon and then off to Tommy's for dinner. His house is off road, no cell phones, no internet - and his garage is literally twice the size of his house. He said no women participated in it's design and he likes it  so that's that.  I took off this morning about 6 am to head off to Janet and Diane's. It was raining (of course) but since it was Sunday I made good time and got here around 11 am. Jackson looks great despite being deathly ill just a few days ago and is back to being his normal self. Janet is still recovering from shoulder surgery but everyone is doing well. We went out to a mexican restaurant for my birthday (you can never have too many birthday dinners!) and then to the book store. Their newly adopted dog is cute but it's hard getting used to a 6 lb dog when mine is nothing more than a big palooka. We are heading back to East Stroudsburg in the morning to spring Miss Pants from the pokey and then off until Wednesday. It's been a good week.