A Quiet Afternoon At Home

So I had my once monthly church marathon morning today - 8am until 1pm.

After church, went out to Ridley Creek State Park for lunch and catching up with some old friends.

Melissa is presently at her niece Rosie's wedding shower, so I planned on a nice quiet afternoon at home.

What did I forget to factor in?

That there's no such thing as a quiet Sunday afternoon here once the weather gets warm.

You see, last summer our lovely downstairs neighbor has a stereo set up on the patio in the back yard which he would blare bad 80's rock music through for the better part of every Sunday afternoon.

This year the stereo hadn't reappeared, so we figured maybe it was broken or something.

But last Sunday, the crappy music returned.

Still no stereo outside, though.

So where is the music coming from?

Well, it turns out that the stereo is now housed in the basement which is accessed through doors in the floor of the back porch of this house.

So in order to make the yard echo of hair bands gone by, he just opens the basement doors and turns the volume up.

Why is this awesome?

Because in addition to being able to hear the music outside, the frame of this old house makes the inside echo with distorted bass.

That's right, I can hear & feel the badness.

Of course, the stereo is just icing on the noise cake.

You see, our house also happens to be square in the center of lawn mowing land.

I understand that lots of people in the suburbs cut their lawns.

Heck, they probably have to do it on a somewhat regular basis in order to avoid fines and such.

But here, it seems like there is someone mowing their lawn just about every day of the week.

Loudly.

The neighbor next door cuts his at least twice a week.

So anyways, yeah, no quiet Sunday afternoon for Timmy.

Not unless I can find some earplugs around here.

Maybe I'll just turn the TV up and make do.

Word.

Separated At Birth?

I don't care who you are or where you're from... this girl looks like Shrek, and that's all there is to it.

boys and girls

Just wanted to share this picture. I think it's great: Timmy and I playing with Cora and Liam during our most recent trip to Ohio. No offense to the most adorable Cora, but the best part of the picture are the boys.



Look at Timmy impart his wisdom of superheroes to his intent and eager student. Way too cute.

Poker

I played poker at the Youngs' house last night. There were six people in the game, two of which busted out and then bought back in. If memory serves, I knocked at least 5 - if not 6 - of those players out of the game. And yet I came in third place and didn't win a bloody thing. This is what we call "dissatisfying" boys and girls.

10 years ago today....

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

one of those weeks...

Saturday night. 9:40pm. And I got a call from Mark. Shawna was wondering if I got the paper towels for the bathroom. I forgot. Sigh. Just one of those little things that make me feel icky. I just had a rough week in general. I forgot to buy the towels. I forgot to send out the volunteer schedule. I was an hour late to the management team meeting because I had the time wrong. These things make me feel blah. And I know it's okay. Mark has so much grace. The entire church has so much grace. But its the perfectionist in me that doesn't have much grace. It's the woman with very high expectations that doesn't have much grace. And I just hate letting people down (mostly myself). So, I just need to shake it off. Not let it get the best of me.

It's A Dog's Life

Ever since Dave and Kristine got their new puppy Moby my persistence in trying to get Melissa to okay a canine companion for us has increased ten fold. She knew it would happen the minute she met Moby, of course, but I don't know that she was really prepared for the task of putting up with me on this one.

In an effort to get some support on my side, I humbly present some pictures of the awesomeness I've come across over the past week:



This is Jazzy. She's a mix between a Belgian Shepherd and an Elkhound. This is, of course, intriguing because it would produce an animal remarkably close to Buffy the eternal. In fact, this is pretty much what Buffy looked like at that age. Believe it or not. Jazzy would require a name change.






This is Kahlua. She is estimated to be a mix between a Kai Dog and an Elkhound, though the person who wrote her listing said that was a total shot in the dark guess. Regardless, I think this is a fierce looking dog. The wild look in her eyes brings me to mind of the legendary Duchess. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I could be okay with the name Kahlua.









Now we start bringing out the big guns. This is Cocoa. She is a mix between a Labrador and a Doberman. And, yes, she resembles a chocolate Porkchop the Dog. This is obviously quite a trump card, but I also noted to Melissa, "Look, she's German and Canadian just like Erika. You love Erika, so you should love Cocoa too." It's true, this is probably either underhanded or ridiculous - or both. But such is my mania. I'm not entirely sold on the name Cocoa, but I'm sure we could come up with a suitable substitute that sounded similar.






And, finally, the coup de grace... Helena. Helena is a mix of Siberian Husky and Beagle and may be one of the most beautiful little dogs I've ever seen. She also resembles PCTD, though perhaps not quite as much as Cocoa. Those famous Husky blue eyes are what pushes her over the top, I think. She would probably need a name change. Helena is a cool name, but not really for a dog. She's only a couple months old, though, so I think she'd adapt to it pretty easily.


Feel free to vote for your favorite, even though it probably won't go very far towards changing Melissa's mind.

Two for Two

Today Timmy and I went on a Monday Movie Date; this is our second time going on a Monday Movie Date. A few weeks ago, we decided to use our $6.00 movie coupons for Regal Cinemas from our Entertainment Book. We went and saw Amazing Grace. While we were there, we learned that on Mondays they have select candies for $1 if you have a Crown Card. So, normally two tickets, two candies, and one large bottle of water would total $28.50 ($24 if you go to a matinee). With our coupon and the free crown club card, our total was $18. Sweet. And then for the first time in a while, we saw a movie that didn't disappoint us.

Today, we went out again to the Regal Edgemont. Timmy said I was a more expensive date since my Sour Patch Kids weren't on the $1 list and we paid a full $2.50. Sorry, honey. We saw Reign Over Me and again we were not disappointed by the movie. I actually really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Amazing Grace but it probably isn't a movie I would see again. However, I could see Reign Over Me again. I would recommend it, but that probably doesn't mean much to most of you - I did just borrow Delta Force from my mom.

love those google guys

I do. I think they're so clever. I love my gmail account, and they have given me another reason to love them even more. Presenting Gmail paper!! Just by clicking a button, I can request Gmail to send me a hardcopy of my email. There is no limit to how many I request and there is no cost because they print ads on the back of the paper. They'll even print photo attachments, but I don't really care about that.

Now, why am I so excited about this? Because for almost two years now, I have been telling myself, "I need to get myself organized someday and print out all those early emails between me and Timmy." Remember that our relationship started one night when I couldn't fall asleep, so I sent this seeming nice guy from small group a really long, really random email and then he replied with an equally long and equally random email. The rest is history, but many of those early memories are saved in my mrolon gmail account. I have wanted to print them out, bind them, and save them beside my years of journals. Then our great-grandbabies can read about their how great-grandparents started to get to know each and fell in love. This is going to be so exciting if it actually works as well as they say. But how couldn't it - I mean, it is google!!

Now, I just need to figure out how to get all my IM conversations printed - gotta love mac which automatically saves IM conversations!! Maybe I'll just email them to myself and have Gmail send them to me too :)