Notival

It's not that I want it to stop raining. I don't. I just want one or two days every now and then that are free of rain. Times when I can mow my yard and not get rained on, like yesterday. I made it 3/4 of the way before the rain hit. I finished in the rain.

Afterwards, I just stood in the rain for a minute, then went upstairs and sat on the balcony in the rain for a while. It was actually pretty nice.

Ninsi and I did eventually make it out of the house yesterday. Went and ate and picked up a few things at Home Depot. I finally have enough shelf space in the garage now to put things away properly.

Of course it rained more last night. The yard has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I have about an inch of standing water in a couple places. Should this weather pattern continue, I will definitely have to look at a couple of French drains to assist with drainage. It is nice that we haven't hit 100 degrees yet though. I could live in Texas with this much rain being the norm. It really isnt that bad.

Ninsi and I sat on the balcony last night and watched the fireworks. We could see some from Dallas, and some from Arlington. Eventually LoneStar Park started theirs, and we were able to see those as well. The best show we got, though, was from our neighbor on the back. They set off a few hundred dollars worth of fireworks. The kids got up on the carport which abutts our backyard and were setting the mortars off from there. So, from our balcony, we really had the best possible view since the fireworks were exploding directly over out backyard.

Good times, and no digits lost.

Before it got dark, Ninsi called me out to the balcony to show me this guy. He's taken up residence in one of the Basil plants we have. I believe I have seen his ilk before on my roses. I think I name him "G-man."

You give away $30 billion dollars of your personal fortune to your charity, and eventually it will catch up to you. Reports are starting to surface that Bill Gates is no longer the richest person in the world. It's a Mexican named Carlos Slim. Telecommunications mongol.


the article

I heard about this guy a couple months ago, and mentioned it again to my brother after he made a $50 collect phone call from Cancun. Told him he was contributing to the wealth of Slim. Not that he had a choice of carriers from where he was calling.

Found this little guy on the steps this evening...

He's a couple times smaller in real life than in this picture. On the steps, he's less than an inch and a half long.

Ninsi and I went to the gym last night. We go two or three times a week. She generally works out with her trainer. I run a lot. Though I have finally started using some of the machines.
While we were on the way last night, as we were at a stop light, a fire engine pulled out of its station and lights a'flashin took off down the road. It was heading the same direction as us, but got to skip through all the lights. When we finally made it to the gym, the same fire engine was there.

Comforting.

But, there was no fire. No accident. No one had passed out or anything severe. One woman, however, had done something foolish, though purely on accident. She had locked her small child in the car, with the keys. We drove in just as they were popping the lock and the woman was in panic about her baby. The kid was fine. It happens.

I do believe the Squid was once locked in the car with the keys. She's no worse for it. I did not do it, of course. I always made a point to get her out of the car even if I was going to run into the store for "only a second." I think the woman at the gym just had a brain fart though. She wasnt planning on leaving him in the car while she worked out. Or it's possible the tot locked the doors while she was walking around to get him out. /shrug

Possibly back to the gym tonight. Definitely going to the grocery store.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out last night. Started at about midnight at most theaters. Ninsi had an inch to see it right off. So we went. I'll not go into the details. It was the longest of the books, and one of the shorter of the movies, so a lot was left out, or glossed over. And some things were down right wrong from the book. But, whatever, it's a movie. It was better than number Three.

Of course we didnt get home until about 3 am, and so I've been mostly draggin' ass today. And probably wont get home til almost 11:30 tonight. And tomorrow I have to work late for some testing. And Saturday is the party. I'm not sure when this week got so busy.

Getting the A/C on the Mustang repaired today since it decided to just quit working yesterday. Nothing makes you feel quite so good as unexpected automotive expenses. Joy.

Oh! But this is very exciting! I think FJ may have creamed when I sent her the link to the baby mammoth.

We are having a dinner party Saturday. We have a total of fourteen chairs in the house. Today, the number of guests jumped from 13 to 18. Four of those new ones are kids.

It will be interesting to see if we can actually get everyone seated. Reptile is going to bring Zero's folding chairs, so we should have enough actual space for butts. However, that doesn't mean we have enough table or floor space for everyone.

I'll be working on the logistics of seating arrangements on Saturday while Im cooking. I have a turkey. It's only 16.67 pounds. I fear it may not be quite enough. Granted, there will be more than ample supply of desserts. But I will probably go and buy a small ham to augment the turkey anyway.

Or I could just get a small chicken and put it on the rotisserie. hmm. That might not be a bad idea. Though, I think if I get a ham, I wont have to actually cook it. And it will probably be hot on Saturday.

Sunday, we clean.

What's tacos got to do with it?
Bout as much as love.

I can not comprehend why someone would need to employ the services of the Google search to figure out the conversion of Pacific Time to Central Time. I'm staring straight at you, Mo.

The mind boggles.

Possibly way back in the archives I mention the wall built by my neighbor. I had a wood fence between us, but when they moved in last March, they had a brick wall built. The concrete runoff from the footing poured onto my side and destroyed chunks of my fence. The neighbor never even talked to us before starting the wall.

Fast forward. Ive been working on cleaning up the back yard completely, and it is pretty much done. But for the concrete that was still on my side. A couple weeks ago when I was busting up the small amount on my side in the front yard, I saw my neighbor outside and talked to him. Turns out, I wasnt talking to the neighbor, but a friend or relative instead. But that guy went to fetch the actual neighbor, so I talked to him and explained the problem with the concrete and rocks.

A couple days later, he came over while Ninsi was home and busted up the excess concrete and put it all into a nice pile in my yard. It sat there for about two weeks until Friday evening while I was mowing the yard, the neighbor came over with another guy and they proceeded to throw all the rocks over the wall into his yard. So now that part of the back yard is done.

I think I'll plant some monkey grass or something along the length of the wall to cover up the footing somewhat. But it is way better already than it was. And it seems like maybe the neighbor isnt a such a bad guy after all. Just someone that didnt want to talk to us before he built the wall. Though, I dont really expect to talk to him much more now. But at least the backyard is clean.

Barley came close to becoming an outside dog last night.
The dogs like to sit downstairs by the windows and watch outside. Barley went down at some point and just randomly started huffing. Not quite a full bark, but every few minutes, he would huff loud enough to be heard. It wasn't so bad once I got up and shut the door. But a couple times, both dogs just started barking at something outside.

Turns out one of our neighborhood dogs, either one of the random strays, or possibly one of the neighbor's dogs, had gotten into the neighbor's trash. And dragged it across the street into our yard. So this morning I had a whole lot of someone else's trash in my yard. Fucking dogs.

I called animal control, but I doubt they do anything. There are at least half a dozen dogs that are off-leash at any given time on our street. They need to be all rounded up and taken to the shelter so that maybe the neighbors will learn to lease them, or keep them in. I dont care if they are just chihuahuas or terriers. About half of them are. The others are larger dogs. Lab mixes and golden retrievers. Ninsi thinks it was the retriever that got into the trash.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the city will manage to catch a couple of them. Although, Im not sure they actually do anything. On the website it says they will 'investigate' strays and off-leash dogs. That isn't exactly promising.

Had a doctors appointment this morning. All is well. Mostly.
The nurse always takes your vitals before you see the doc. Blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, etc. She took my temp this morning, and I knew something was wrong from the way she was looking at her digital readout. It took her a really long time to say "96.4 That's really low. Too low." So we did it again. It came out to 97.8. Still low, but better. I told her that maybe she needed a new thermometer. Otherwise, all is well.

Last night, Ninsi and I sat down in the living room to eat dinner. The TV had been recording something on SciFi, and so it was still on that channel when we flipped back to live tv. They were doing their Tuesday night wrestling thing. And as we watched for thirty seconds, the announcer said several inane things. He mentioned the martial arts training of one of the combatants, and then called him a 'mafrican' and a 'looner.' He then went on to say that he "beat to his own drum lord."

It was completely crazy. The SciFi wrestling may suck as a show to watch, but there's much humor to be gained from just listening to it.

Tomorrow I am going up to Oklahoma to pick up the Squid. That officially starts my countdown to going to Alaska. She will be here in Dallas for two weeks, and the third week we will be on the big boat.

After Alaska, Ninsi and I really have nothing planned for the rest of the year. We will have the normal family stuff as the end of year gets closer, and I think we are planning to host a White Trash Halloween party, but that's not much. It will be nice to relax and not have anything coming up on the horizon for a while.

In a few months, we'll start planning our next vacation. It was going to be Europe, but we may take a year off from the big vacations and just go on a little cruise out of Galveston instead. Easier on the pocketbook, and the mind.

I went to see the doc last Wednesday. That afternoon, I had blood taken for testing. Thursday, the doctor's office called and said the doctor wanted to actually speak to me. Usually the nurse just tells me the INR and what new dosage to take. Instead, the doc said that my INR was too high (3.7). So, he told me my new dosage, and also said:

"And if you notice any blood in your urine, go to the emergency room right away."

Thanks, doc. I dont think I would have thought to do that otherwise. Because, you know, I piss red as a general rule.

I've been lax. I know. But I've also been busy.

A mere four days until we jet off to Seattle to embark on our Alaskan cruise. Nothing left to do but pack. And that may be quite the ordeal in itself. Im not going to worry too much about that though, I figure Ninsi will worry enough for both of us.

Painted the Squid's room over the weekend. A mighty pink! It's bright. It looks good. We still have to do the doors though. They will be a nice lime green when we are done. And probably the baseboards as well. Depends on if Im feeling my oats or not when we get started.

Finished Harry Potter 7. Havent got much to say on that order.
Saw The Simpons movie. It's well worth watching.

Three days.

Went to Wendy's for lunch today, because I was in a bit of a hurry. Wound up behind two elderly ladies in line. They were well into and beyond their eighties. Possibly mother and daughter. Slow moving. Slow speaking. I was praying they would order together from one of the two registers. No. They had to each go to a register to place their order. The line behind them immediately started growing geometrically. They both had to ask questions about the stuff on the menu. "What's the difference in the Spicy Chicken Sandwich and the Homestyle Chicken Sandwich?" "What is that two and a half pound burger for $4.99?" (It was Combo number 2: a 1/2 pound burger, but she didnt want a combo...)

I aged significantly waiting behind them in line.