Wasted Weekends

I've titled this as Wasted Weekends, but who really knows what I'm about to write about.
We have had the most unproductive weekend ever. I can't even say it was super fun. We bowled Friday night as usual. We didn't do horribly, but not great either. Mark's new bowling ball arrived Friday and we began the whole 'who should we get to drill it" routine. We have wavered between Ricky, who has done our bowling balls in the past, and maybe using someone new. Our search led us to Schrader Lanes in the West End. The pro was out at a tournament (one I was SUPPOSED to bowl in) but the lanes....oh the lanes!! There is a full bar, and I don't mean a shabby walk up bar, I mean a bar like in a nice restaraunt. Billiard tables and a game room. They have about 50 lanes too which is really awesome. The thing that stood out the most was that the tables behind the lanes were not separated by a wall of bowing ball stands, but rather were pulled up right behind the pit. Awesome! I can see that bowling in a league there might prove interesting. Mark and Steve are right THERE and Alex and I could meet them. It is of course a longer drive home, but really, it is such a cool place it might be worth it. ALTHOUGH; we went to Bowl America Southwest today, and were given two lanes without even asking, because they know us there. It is hard to give up that little tiny piece of small town feeling.
So, we didn't get the new ball drilled and came home and looked at it again. Mark decided he didn't like it. I said send it back and we had the whole conversation where I say do and he says no. We both went online and researched the ball. I think he will love it but it will be a new world of bowling for him.

I took Chelsea's friend Sophia back to WEAG to meet her mom and then came home and we all, including Connor, watched "Horton Hears a Who". We laughed ourselves silly. Who needs little kids to enjoy little kid movies!?
We bought a toilet repair kit for the downstairs bathroom. It did not get installed; who do you think will install this in the next couple of days...hmmm? you know it will be me. :)

So, did we go to church this morning? NO! Why? because we are slackers.
More to write but too much going on right now.

The cruise decision

Today, we woke to a strange and alarming sound from Princeton. Certain that something horrible was wrong with him, I felt around frantically for him as Mark was calling him. I couldn't find him so I flipped on the bedside lamp only to see him stand slowly up and look at us as if to say "What?" The sound he made can only be described as a sort of howl. Now, in ANY other dog, that might be a semi-normal sound, but not in a five pound Papillon. No, he screams and cries like a little girl and barks like some out of control dime store toy, but he has never howled. I don't know what it was unless perhaps he was dreaming...
So, wide awake way too early on our day off; we watched a little bit of the news on Fox and then decided that we really need a coffee maker in our bedroom. The lure of a steaming cup of coffee was too much to resist, so down the stairs we went. Over coffee and breakfast we decided that today would be the day that we shoveled out Mark's office. I think the word shovel is a bit optimistic, but we will go with it for now. We goofed off on our computers and talked with the girls as they got up for their days; Lindsay off to work and Chelsea to do her song writing and recording. The sounds of her music are the background of our daily lives; I only realized that when she wasn't here last week. Then, Mark says to me "So do you want to research cruises and pick something?" Well, duh! of course I do. Now I have to ask you; how distractable can two people be? We had discussed the Panama Canal when the idea of a cruise was first discussed, but then decided we really didn't want to venture into Mexico; so we were considering Alaska. From that point on we bounced from one location to another, from Alaska to TransAtlantic cruises! We looked at the standard cruise offerings and we looked at small ship cruising (something I think I would love because it is so specialized) discussed maybe just flying to England, went back to the idea of cruising the Panama Canal. WHEW. Then, once we settled on the fact that was truly what we wanted to do; we had to begin the tedious search for which cruise line and then.....the big question; When?
Well, we are pretty certain we have settled on Holland America Cruises and we will travel in November. I think.

Now, we realize we have literally sat in our kitchen the entire day, taking a short break to talk to Brittany about computer problems, talk to Mark's mom and dad as they travel today and to walk the dog. That is about it. Soon, we will leave to meet Steve and Alex at Don Pepe's for dinner and Dos Equis, then off to the bowling center to hopefully bowl better than I did last week.
So much for getting the office cleaned up.

What is this?

We have somehow managed to raise a generation of people who apparently have never seen vegetables! Well, at least until they took a job working for Kroger or WalMart as a cashier and now have to go through the pain of carefully examining each and every fresh vegetable for a clue to its identity. How did we do this? Well, that was probably a really silly question; we did it by taking our kids to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and to Chucky Cheese for pizza every other meal or worse! When I have this experience at the checkout; I always have to squelch the urge to ask the poor deprived cashier if they have ever seen that particular vegetable in its cooked state! I know the answer and I don't like it. So; if I gave in and asked the question; I'd have to then quell the even stronger desire to ask for their mother's address so I could have a chat with her! LOL

I get asked lots of questions about products I purchase in stores. The best one and the one that really started my rant on this topic, isn't even about a vegetable but about Half and Half.
Hold onto your hats for this one!

I am in Wally World, checking out and have purchased a pint of Half and Half. I cook with it; like cream sauces and so on. So, the cashier looks at the pint turns it over and looks at it some more then asks me..... What is this? Is it different than milk? So, I explain to her that it is half CREAM and half whole milk, thus the Half and Half name. She looked me straight in the eye and asks "Well, what would happen if a person drank it?" I promise you I did not laugh, not even a twinkle in my eye! "Well," I answered, "I don't know that anything would happen right away, but perhaps the next day or so, their clothes might not fit as well." She looked at me and said "Really?" I gave up on my humor, as much as this situation cried out for it, and had a more serious conversation about fat and calories and cream rather than milk.

I hope someone is smiling with me. If I didn't summon up the humor, I swear I would cry.

I think I've hit a boring point

Well, my excitement for the day has been changing the filter for the heat pump. Mark took his Harley to the shop to get new pipes, and when he moved it out of the garage; I took advantage of the ability to get to the filter. Now, tell me that isn't exciting stuff.

I got it in my head to scrub and bleach my counter top in the kitchen, as well as everything sitting on the counter. I did that and didn't want then, to leave the cabinets looking less than spiffy; so I dug through my supplies and pulled out a spray bottle of wood conditioner. Perfect I thought! So I climb on my kitchen stool and go around the room, happily spraying and cleaning the cabinets, I took care to catch any drips with the cloth as I went. WELL. It appears that the sprayer was doing some serious overspraying or something, because when I finished, the cabinets looked really nice but there were spots of this wood conditioner all over my nice clean counter. So I had to wipe it down again. This is how my life goes usually. And I even try to look for things like that so that I can circumvent them.

I just talked to Mark, he is still at Colonial Harley Davidson but thinks he will be done soon. He tells me that he bought a cover for his bike. THIS because after months of talking about and shopping for a shed for the bike, which we agreed we would buy, we still don't have one. The bike is in the garage and the cats apparently have decided they would like to crawl about on it. There were claw marks on the saddlebags this morning when he got it out. That was unpleasant.

I think a shed would be my best answer. I really want more than anything at this moment in time to finish off the garage. I can't even begin to do that with the Harley sitting in there. It isn't like the powerwasher, that I can just grab and drag out when I need it out of the way.

So, are we boring or what? I usually have bunches to say, but really life is kind of swallowing me right now.

Debbie Miller and I had lunch last week and she asked me if Mark and I would consider starting a Table Group. We thought on this for about a week and decided we would. I haven't really moved forward on this yet, and seem to be having trouble doing so. I'm not sure why.
Well, maybe I do. You know; I always seem to lead stuff. I really just want to let someone else lead for once. I want someone to start a group and invite ME, because they like me or because someone told them they might or because they don't know any better. I want to just coast in one little corner of my life and let someone else drive. Is that too much to ask? I always tell people what a control freak I am, and maybe that is why I always lead.

Any thoughts, comments or therapy will be welcomed.

So, my plan for action, or rather my plan against inaction, didn't do too much for me today. I let myself be distracted by the pets. Actually, not the pets but rather their need for food and supplies. Chelsea and I went to Petco first, and got the dog's and the cats' food (because I can't and won't feed them junk, but that is another post.) We really visited the Sun Conure that Chelsea has a little crush on; his name is Peter. Hmm... Piper and Peter. I'm not too sure about that. Piper's food of course had to be purchased at PetSmart where we were lured into buying a snazzy little toy to keep her busy. It is a foraging toy, to encourage her to think. Well. She is interested in it, but wary. This is the bird who is afraid of WHITE things! She will come around, I feel sure she will.

After dinner tonight, I brought Piper to the kitchen where she stayed rather close to me and purred a lot. She seemed a little nervous and we took care to be a little less rowdy than usual. She was happy enough to go back into her own space after having a nutriberry and pooping on things a couple of times.

Lindsay came home from her baby-sitting job full of stories. We are encouraging her to write a book! I think it would be a best seller. We always said we should write down the stories of our days with Meah and Andrew and I never did. I shared a few with friends via emails, but after a day of those two the idea of reliving the antics through words on paper, or on my computer screen, was rather daunting.

Today is our 'little Friday'; Mark is off tomorrow and we plan to go to see the Watchmen, hopefully in the Imax theatre. I know Brittany and Derrick are going to be miffed. Sorry guys.

I have had a headache all day. I have been pretty useless. I'm completely incapable of coming up with anything of any value to write/blog about, so I'm going to have a glass of wine and play around on Facebook.

later...

A Plan to be sort of motivated

So, today I find myself strangely unmotivated. I was so happy to have today to do some things around the house that had been nagging at me and now; with that time available; I want to do nothing. The thing about doing nothing is that it carries with it regrets. When the motivation returns I'll look around and say "Why didn't I do that?" Sigh.

So, this is my plan and it usually works for me when I don't FEEL like doing something I should.
I will go get dressed. (shamefully I am NOT dressed appropriately for my day) Then I'll put a load of laundry in to wash and I'll set the timer. With the timer safely set to remind me; I'll pick up and tidy the kitchen from the morning's wear and tear and I'll start the dishwasher. Then I'll allow myself a fifteen minute reward time and play on my computer or read or turn on the news. By the time that break is up, the timer will be beeping and I'll move the laundry and start that routine all over again. The key for me on a day like this is to not be distracted by things that pop into my mind that I want to do. Things like a phone call to a friend or deciding to bake. Today though, I have to bake.

This usually works, for me; I hope if you have taken the time to read this, that it will inspire you to try it on one of your unmotivated days.