A post in which I feel yuckky*

I had terrible insomnia last night, and woke up feeling crappy.

I did do a good bit today though.

I did laundry, which badly needed doing. I made a batch of egg salad out of the rest of the eggs. I also finally set up a profile on "manhunt". Everyone I know is already on there, so I figured why the heck not. When I got on and started looking around, it wasn't as trashy as I figured it would be. Trashy, yes, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Lots of young guys though, and about 80% of them are tops - just my luck. Still, it was interesting.

I also watched Elizabeth with Cate Blanchette today. It had been on my "to watch" list for a while, and I noticed it on the free section of Charter On Demand the other day. Miss Kat should get royalties from them. That is so the only reason I still have them hooked up in my house. The movie was excellent. Very dramatic and dark. It wasn't sugar-coated. Joseph Fiennes is so beautiful he made my teeth hurt. I am petty enough that there was a part of me that found his character's humiliation gratifying. I'm not proud of it, but it's true. Maybe I'm turning into a bitter old man. At any rate, he certainly is leading a charmed life in real life, so it isn't like he was really hurt or anything. He's pretty enough to be one of Angela's husbands. I wonder if she's ever dated him? I hope that I'm not turning in to my dad. Please God, don't make me need to denigrate something just because I can't have it.

It was raining yet again this morning, but cleared up by the afternoon. I turned out pretty. Maybe we'll have some pretty weather, although it's supposed to rain Sunday on the hat party.

A post with the latest picture of sweet Ava

My darling angel baby niece Ava in her flower hat. She usually wears it as a necklace.

A post in which I think about hats

I shopped all the way home today. I was looking for hat stuff, but I didn't find anything inspiring. I don't know how much of that is me, and how much of that is the fun kind of being sucked out of stuff by drama.

I did go in the "new" (for me) Old Time Pottery. I hadn't been in there before, because I thought you just went in there to paint your own ceramics. James had told me differently. He made a beautiful mug there, but told me there was a bunch more stuff too, which was true. It's kind of like Garden Ridge, or the old Waccamaw that closed. I did find some good stuff, but not what I was looking for. I didn't buy anything, but I took notes.

I also went to Michael's, WalMart, the Dollar Store, and Hobby Lobby. By the time I got home I was famished and tired. I didn't eat out though. I had some remnants of egg salad, along with some other odds and ends, and went on to bed.

A post in which I have a late lunch out*

I woke up when Terry left this morning. I said good bye to him, ate a sandwich, and went back to bed.

I woke back up a bit after 11. My phone was making the text noise in the kitchen. I saw that a buddy had texted me, and wanted to come over. He got here, and then spent a half hour in the bathroom. After he left, I surveyed the carnage. Between him and Terry the bathroom was trashed. I remember some of the downsides to living with someone now. Apparently the simple twisting motion of wringing out a washcloth eludes the average North American male. Products were strewn pretty much where they had been dropped, and the cat litter the cats had tracked out in the night had been mixed with water and ground into pasty smudges stuck to the linoleum. I just didn’t have the fortitude to deal with it for the moment though.

I made a spot of lunch, checked my email, and turned on telly. I actually got dressed to go out and run some errands, but the couch sucked me in and I never made it to the door. Since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came on, I ate my Easter chocolate cross. It only had 400 calories in it, and that is less than two Reese’s eggs. Or so I rationalized.

I was lying on the couch, dozing in and out in between watching parts of the movie, when Miss Kat called to ask me out to lunch with them. Did I really need to eat more? Hell no. But I would have to eat at some point anyway, and it would get me out of the house. I loaded up the car with a bunch of errand stuff and headed out.

They were actually a bit late, but it was such a pretty day it was nice to just sit on the porch in a rocker and wait. I called Dad while I waited and asked him about some ammo that dana wants. Of course he asked me a hundred questions that I had no answers for. He and Eve have apparently pretty much lived at church this week with all the Easter stuff going on. They went to Wilkesboro today to get Grandma Shumate and take her to church. She was so excited she was up at 5am to get ready, but then she got sick with her inner ear and had to go back to bed. She wasn’t able to go. I know she was really disappointed about that. Bless her heart. So they ate the lunch they had brought to her house, visited with her for a while, and headed for home.

We ended up eating lunch around 4:30 or so. Afterwards, Miss Kat charged me with getting my errands done, and I was happy for the extra motivation, which I sorely needed. I ran some errands, picking up a new dish drainer en route, which was long overdue. It did go down in the sink (after some persuasion), but it’s pretty crappy quality. I can’t find a good one that will fit in the sink, and it’s pissing me off.

I had been to the grocery store, so when I got home I started laundry, and got the bathroom up to code for a human residence again. By the time I got all that done, I was pretty wiped. I had a snack, and called Mom and talked to her about how Poppy is doing and how her weekend went. Then I turned on some Charter on demand and turned in. I was too tired to be annoyed by Monster Quest.

A post in which I have friends in, and am delighted

I woke up this morning at 8:30, unbelievably. But I wasn’t very happy about it. Despite the fact that the need for sleep was hanging on me like a tired child, I had to get up and go to the flea market. The yard is disgraceful, and I don’t even own a lawnmower at the moment. So I hauled myself out of bed and got dressed. I walked around while I was there, but didn’t see any glass today, except for one small Fire King ramekin in the Sapphire Blue that I collect. It was over-priced, but I bought it anyway.

When I got to the lawn mower guy, he had two left. And they had gone up from $60 to $70 – I suppose that is the price of procrastination. I bought the mower, loaded it up, and got it home and unpacked without too much trouble. Then I went back to bed.

I woke up a bit after 1pm, ate something, and headed reluctantly to the yard. I was as awake as I was going to be. I mowed the lawn (mowing the dog lot for the first time since I lived there, thanks to JB and Rick), trimmed up the bushes, and did a half-assed weeding job on the bed beside the front walk. By that time, I was really dragging. But my yard looks about as good as it ever looks. I had some tea, did a few house things and took a shower.

After that though, I decided I didn’t want to stay home tonight. I don’t know why. This would have been the perfect at home evening. I was tired. Terry was coming at 9 when he got off work to stay the night. But I haven’t seen Billy in several weeks. I called, but they are at Frolicon this weekend in Atlanta. I called dana to see what she and Miss Kat were up to, and they were free. So I mixed up a big bowl of (fabulous) egg salad (all I was missing was celery), had supper, and headed their way.

They are having problems with Jack. He is one barky Westie, and he’s driving them crazy. He’s a nice enough dog, just barky and noisy all the time. He’s worse when there’s company over. We eventually decided to go to my house.

That turned out to be a great idea. Terry came in, and we all got to visit together. Surprisingly, Terry and Miss Kat had an acquaintance in common. I got out some wine, and we had a bottle of Pinot Noir I had gotten from Total Wine a while back. It wasn’t as good as the red I had last weekend, but I am developing a taste for reds.

It was so good to have some people in the house! It has seemed so empty for so long. It felt great to have friends in and get some good energy in there. After they left, Terry and I stayed up and talked until about 1:30. I haven’t had a good visit with him where we just talked in a long time. He actually picked up some stuff on me (Terry does Tarot readings, and sometimes picks things up on people). He’s seeing me meeting a dark-haired guy named Randall or Randy, but who goes by a nickname, within the next 3-4 weeks. He says this is someone with whom I have the potential to get serious. It would be nice to have a date at least.

Eventually, we reluctantly headed for bed. He had to be up for work in the morning, and I haven’t been very kind to my body this weekend.

A post in which I attend and egg-dying party

I had my meeting with my boss today to go over my major accounts, only to have him tell me he now wants detailed status on every account. Grrr. I got to work. I had planned an easy day for myself today, and it was really hard to stay motivated. It was rainy and gray, and half the office was out for Good Friday. But I kept plugging away and made good progress.

It was also hard to focus because I was really excited about the party tonight. I hadn’t seen James and Jeff in a while, and I wanted to see Amanda again too. I like her even if she is a picky eater. Plus Anna was going with me tonight, and I was looking forward to that. It does me good to see her out and about with people. We talked twice today and she seemed really stoked.

I had brought half the house with me to work today. I had workout clothes, shower stuff, party clothes, the salad, my lunch, my briefcase, and I dished up some of the red jacket potatoes to take up for Amanda. It was quite a production coming in. But everything was set up to run this evening.

I got off work, hit the guy, showered up, changed, and then headed to Anna’s to pick her up. As usual, we talked our heads off all the way to Spartanburg. It seems like we just always have so much to say. She is so smart and funny. She is getting less self-deprecating as well, which is good.

When we got to Justin’s, he and Amanda had obviously been waiting for people to arrive. Amanda was unexpectedly subdued the whole evening. I wondered if Anna being there had anything to do with that? I also found out when we got there that Amanda doesn’t eat potatoes (who the f*(&^ck doesn’t eat potatoes??), so that effort was for naught. Justin had all the food laid out. We sat around and talked for a while, then started eating when James got there. The asparagus was perfectly cooked, and my salad turned out really good. Everything was good. There was ham and cold turkey, pasta salad, rolls, and two kinds of fruit salad. Anna had made a delicious mai tai fruit salad. All of course served on vintage 60’s dishes. Anna fit right in with the group, seemed comfortable almost immediately, and settled in to enjoy herself. She and James pretty much fell in love with each other.

James is investigating the possibility of using the egg dye package as a feedbag here, I think

Jeff trickled in..

While we were eating and talking, Jeff trickled in. We talked for a while longer, and then decided to start dying eggs. I hadn’t done that in years and years, but it was a lot of fun, even if my eggs didn’t turn out that great. Amanda was unexpectedly meticulous and spent a lot of time on hers. They turned out really pretty. James’s seemed to turn out pretty by luck rather than good management, and Anna’s were nice too, and very interesting. There were prizes for everyone though. Amanda won the top prize, which she really deserved. I got the prize for “best attempt”, which is pretty much like the "participation" trophies they give you at special camp, but I got a chocolate cross, so I wasn’t complaining.

Justin getting ready to dye eggs

I have no idea what the hell Anna was saying here - note Amanda remaining demurely in the background, no doubt quietly plotting key egg strategy

There was a big discussion about what to do with the eggs when we got done. Justin was trying to get people to take them home, and they didn't seem to want to. James didn't know what to do with his. I just stepped in. I am not proud. I love egg salad, boiled egg sandwiches, etc. I ended up taking several dozen eggs home, but I don't think I'll have a problem using them. I don't usually eat that many because of the cholesterol, but I couldn't stand to see them go to waste, which makes an eggcellent rationale to indulge in huge amounts of egg salad.

Egg judging begins

Serious egg evaluation going on

Jeff and James at home

After the eggs were done and the prizes awarded, we went down to Jeff and James’s apartment to visit. We got to see their dogs, and the painting they had done in the apartment. We listened to music and talked some more and ended up watching funny youtube videos on television until late. I got home at 4:30! It was a great evening though, and I really had a good time.

A post in which I spend an evening in the kitchen

My boss was out today. It was kind of like a little vacation. It seems as if he’s always looking over my shoulder now.

I got my work done for our meeting tomorrow, worked out, and headed for the library. I picked up a book I had ordered and then went to the store. I had to get salad fixings. Justin kind of sprung on me that he wanted me to bring a side dish for tomorrow. He’s having ham, but I couldn’t bring potato salad (the official Easter side dish for ham) because he doesn’t eat anything with mayonnaise. I decided to make a couscous salad I copied from Garner’s back when they used to sell food. It’s really good.

I got home and started cooking, stopping briefly to throw some dinner down my throat. Justin called while I was cooking to ask what I was making and then told me that Amanda wouldn’t eat that (&^%$#!! picky eaters!! Makes me nuts.) I guess she can eat a ham sandwich.

By the time I finished up the salad and cleaned up the kitchen, I was bushed and it was time for bed. Still, nice to spend an evening in the kitchen cooking for other people. I haven’t done that in a while.