Jealousy Will Get You Nowhere

This is NOT my house, my house is a bleak, undecorated barren desert of despair. David has been asked repeatedly to get the decorations down - the attic door sticks something awful and I can just about dangle off the pull cord to no avail - and he has been doing the passive-aggressive thing. Saying he will get them down and then just simply not doing it. So Christmas is still in my attic even though both Halloween AND Thanksgiving have passed. The house in the picture is one on our road and I just about vomit with envy everytime I pass it - all we have for decoration is three stupid pumpkins which I threw in the woodpile yesterday in an effort to get Scrooge off his butt and up in the attic. In other news Adam has written and let us know he is most likely going to get leave after Christmas - but they're only allowing from Dec 30th to the 11th which is not enough time to do everything he wants. Right now the tentative game plan is him landing in Philly so he can see Aunt Janet and Aunt Diane and then here to WV for the rest of the time. We've been jiggering around with it, but I think in the end landing in NY and then attempting a 10 hour drive followed by a flight back to Japan might be too much. And we really want him to see our house and his old pets, especially Mr. Lee. But most of all I just want to see him.

My Fender Did Not Bender......

......but that didn't keep the yahoos in the car from hollering neck pain when I rear ended them .I got caught in stop and go traffic last night on the way home and unfortunately I Goed when I should've Stopped. I braked as hard as I could but bumped the car in front of me. I got out to make sure everyone was alright and the woman driving announced she was alright but her passenger was not. I called 911 right away for an ambulance and cop (they also sent a firetruck for some strange reason) - I was pretty shaken up. I had my head lights on her bumper and after I calmed down realized there wasn't even a dent, I couldn't have been going anymore than 15 miles an hour or so BEFORE I hit the brakes. The ambulance got there and both women refused EMS, then the fire truck came with about 4 or 5 firefighters (it's a small town). Then the two cops arrived and took all the information. They all stood around and gossiped for a few minutes with the EMS and then the ambulance and firetruck left.  The cop told me he had to include the injury on the report because they were both now complaining of neck pain, although he said since there was no visable damage he thought that was a crock. I didn't even get cited as there was no damage but I'm sure they'll get something. Everyone David has talked to sighs and says they will - even the insurance company wasn't surprised! And OF COURSE my camera was home sitting by the computer which is why there are only pictures of a fallen house which is pretty cool, isn't it? I had a bit of problem getting to it as it sits on the side of a highway with high steep ground. Getting up to it was less of a problem than leaving as it was steep downhill  so I had to be careful not to flop on the road on the way down.  I love these old falling down dilapidated houses, they're so interesting. I'm hoping to get out walking today - the temps are already warm (it's supposed to be up the 60's today) but it's also sort of cloudy and wet looking so Pearl-ine and I may be hanging out on the couch today

Is It Spring Already?

The weather this weekend has been amazing. And no one is visiting of course to see it. The sun is sunny and the temps yesterday were in the 60's with a warm breeze. I had one job to go to and then the dogs and I kicked back in the yard and relaxed. Charger has been back to stick chasing but we try not to over do it. Pearl of course over does everything without even thinking about it. We only went out to the grocery store for a bit and came back to a big mess, courtesy of Pearl The Destroyer. All the books say we need to be consistent with her, but I have to say she is NOT consistent with us. She doesn't always tear up the house, most of the time lately we come back to a good dog, but every once in awhile she goes crazy. We heard from Adam the day after Thanksgiving, he spent it with a friend of his - his ship is back by the way so playtime is over for him. He doesn't think he can come back for the holidays again this year, but we're used to that. I was kind of hoping he'd be able to though, it's been two years since we've seen him and I miss him a great deal. We have to start getting the decorations for Christmas down, our neighbors are way ahead of us - some even decorated the day after Halloween which I find a bit unsettling as the other neighbors still had jack-o-lanterns and witches out. I like one holiday at a time.

Did We All Have A Good Time?

As in tradition we made way too much food, ate way too much food and will continue eating leftovers until we never want to see them again. Even though there was just three of us we did the whole sha-bang - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, whipped sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, glazed carrots and gravy for David to drown it all. And last but not least the Cranberry Sauce, the kind that slides out of the can and maintains the can shape to the very end. Jackson had made some tiny noise about going over to Becky's but that didn't fly as it would've killed off a full third of the guest list. I also made him drink a little red wine even though he was announcing he only likes white and then we toasted to bad parenting....in the event you're wondering Jackson is allowed a little wine with company if he wants it and he usually passes. David built the first fire of the year which was nice but he had to let it die down in the afternoon as the sun came out and then the temps went up. I took Pearl for a 7 mile hike first thing in the morning (and yes we really did walk that much, the trail we use has markers) but she was still very excited by the whole turkey thing. Charger took it in stride and horsed down as much turkey as he could get quietly so Miss Thing wouldn't horn in on his action. So it was a pretty nice day for us. I have to go to work today, I hate holidays in the middle of the week because being off makes it feel like Friday and then going to work the next day is an unpleasant surprise. I'm on call this weekend and hope it doesn't get too hairy....

No Cats On The Table!

That's what I say when we have company and then I act surprised when they are prancing about on it - I pretend they never ever do that and I just can't believe it! Works for me. Anyhoo, we are eating IN for Thanksgiving this year, can you believe it?? David finally rebelled after all these years of chinese and japanese food (that's what's open on the holidays). When I mentioned which restaurant I wanted to go to he was like AARRGGHH!! and then had a little turkey related meltdown in which he declared he did NOT want a Thanksgiving dinner that involved soy sauce. So we went thanksgiving dinner food shopping where he indulged in all of his Fowl Fantasies - carrot glaze, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and CoolWhip. He was like a Holiday Whore getting two of everything and shopping like best of them. So we have too much food - of course - and he has his turkey defrosting in the oven. Charger is looking foward to it - he's doing so much better now that we have him on pain medication - who would've thought? He takes one in the morning ( we were giving him one at night too but it made him too sleepy) and he's good for the day. He's back to chasing any stick you toss and romping around the yard. He also secretly goes on Deer Poop Eating Missions at night when he thinks I don't know what he's doing, we just give him a biscuit to decrease the "bouquet" and ignore him as best we can

Deja Vu

Yes, I know you think you've seen this picture  before - eerie, isn't it? Oh alright, I just didn't get a chance to take any pictures this weekend, I kept leaving my camera where ever I wasn't. And when I did have it the weather was just too crappy, however  despite the fact that none of this was recorded for posterity, we did have a very good time. Saturday it rained off and on so Cooper's Rock or walking around town was out, so David took Kim to the gun range and I took Sue and Grace to the number one attraction, Gabriel Brothers. We went to the new one and they loved it so much I thought I would have to call security to have them removed. I turned my back on them for one minute and the next thing I knew we had a cart full. They both made out very well and that killed off most of the afternoon. I wouldn't let anyone eat, only tiny things because we were taking them out to the Golden Corral Buffet which is a good place for groups as you can get your own stuff and not have to wait. You can also feed six people for under $70 which is also attractive. We did the book store after and then home as they were planning on an early departure this morning. They were very stressing about directions, they made it to Sheetz before calling the house and getting back on thier way. They just got home a few minutes ago, they stopped at Cabela's in PA and then promptly got lost upon leaving. But they're home and we were glad they came to visit us finally.

A Full House

Well, I guess I was off on my timing - I didn't think they would get here until at least 4 pm but they made it here by 1. I was working so David gave them the short tour, they were pretty tired from thier long trip so no one was looking for anything to do. I had made dinner the day before - lasanga, garlic bread and apple pie for dessert so all David had to do was throw it all in the oven. I had an infusion yesterday afternoon so David was the host again, they had a great time - David drove them all over, they went to some of the shops and out to the Boston Beanery for a late lunch. I got home around 5:30 and no one was hungry so we all had tea and then out to the movies. We saw Borat which was way funnier than I had thought it would be - we laughed all the way home! That was good because Pearl was very angry at being left behind and made a HUGE mess in the living room. She's actually been pretty good lately, she was down to just taking one or two things and leaving it in the livingroom but last night! She found a 20 pound bag of potatoes and threw them all over the living room and foyer, she ripped a roll of paper towels up, found my knitting bag and chewed up a pair of $25 knitting needles (WHY DON'T YOU JUST RIP OUT MY HEART YOU LOUSY HOUND DOG) and chewed up the hat I'd started, arrgh! And all in front of the company! No one was amused and Pearl spent the rest of the night hiding under the dining room table. Today is supposed to be nice so David is taking Kim to the shooting range and Sue, Grace and I are heading off to the shops - Gabriel Brothers of course and I might take them to Cooper's Rock to take pictures if the day is clear.