funny, i shoot better left-handed than right-handed. and with my new Pop Pop, i shoot better left-handed than 2-handed too.

pics of our targets later, but Frank shot better than me on most guns yesterday (except my Mr. Shiny v. his Old Faithful). so when we left there i told him i’d have to learn to beat him at chess, because if i can’t shoot better than him, i have nothing.

so i beat him at chess last night.

episode 110 of CSI Miami is the first episode where Horatio put on his glasses then said something.

now i’m waiting for the first episode where he takes them off or puts them on in the middle of a phrase (with a long pause).

go Horatio!

Rachel sent me an email about soup, and i started this long dissertation on soups. i might as well share with all-a y’all. i’m going to start doing a lot more soups in our normal repertoir of dishes.

growing up, we had a lot lot lot of beef stew (and spaghetti with meat sauce, because we could make the sauce go far). we never ever used chunks of beef, because ground beef is cheaper. to this day, i don’t use chunks of beef in my stew, because every time i’ve had it with chunks, it just didn’t seem right. i think i just prefer ground beef. it doesn’t get in the way of a spoonful like the chunks do.

now growing up, we made things as cheaply as we could, so there were a lot of canned items (as fresh veggies tended to cost more) in our soups. i still prefer it this way. except maybe frozen peas in place of canned ones.

my favorite soups to make:
Chicken & Dumplings - i’ve never made them for Frank, and the only time he ever had them was at Cracker Barrel, and he just thought they were ok. but mine are way better. i usually use chicken breasts from the freezer (warehouse bulk purchase, of course) for it, but the next time, i think i’m going to use a whole or half chicken. i cheat on my dumplings. never ever use Bisquick, but i’ve used Pioneer Baking Mix (good stuff - i also use it for pancakes and biscuits), and i’ve also used Jiffy Pizza Crust dough. that makes the best dumplings. since i’ve never used a whole or half chicken, i always use chicken broth instead of water, for the soup base, as well as for mixing the Jiffy. i’ve made scratch dumplings a few times, but Jiffy tastes just as good and is simple to do. lots of pepper, salt to taste. a little parsley.

Beef Stew - ground beef, 2 cans each of green beans, corn, whole or diced tomatoes, can of carrots (or 2 or 3 sliced carrots), 1 or 2 potatoes, 1 yellow onion, seasoned salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, canned or frozen peas. and some tomato sauce. and paste if needed to thicken.

Turkey soup - turkey breasts (but next time i’m using a carcass and leftover turkey meat). large can or cans whole tomatoes. can or 2 of rotel. cans of green beans, corn, 1 can of veg-all (i know). seasoned salt, black pepper, good amount of cayenne.

Potato soup - buy Bear Creek can. fix like recipe says. add seasoned salt. put muenster cheese in bowl. pour soup over cheese. i know there are good potato soup recipes out there, but i’ve never made potato soup except this way.

bean soup - make with leftover beans from beans & cornbread. use all the leftover beans (mash them a bit), and in food processor or by hand, mix a can of whole tomatoes and a yellow or red onion. throw that in. i usually add a can of Rotel for good measure (i don’t think there’s anything that calls for tomatoes that shouldn’t have Rotel in it). throw in some diced ham, or a hamhock if you have one (is that a hamhock?). seasoned salt and cayenne to taste. yummy.

oyster stew - this recipe. the last time i made it, i used a pint of fully fat Half-N-Half and a pint of fat-free Half-N-Half (Land O’Lakes), and we couldn’t tell the difference. i don’t know if i’m brave enough to use a quart of fat-free HNH instead… usually i can’t tell the difference with milk, but FF sour cream is one of the foulest substances in history. so is HNH on the milk side, or the sour cream side? i dunno. anyway, i use way more than a pinch of cayenne, of course. and a lot of times, here on the coast i can’t find the fresh oysters, so i have to use canned.

i found a really easy chili recipe - i think Pampered Chef - and it takes very little time to prep. i think i’ve got it somewhere on my blog.

oh. have to go shower. massage day.

i never finished the Bad Example Family (& Friends) Reunion story. the high points i want to hit are everyone’s personalities, how nice everyone in that family is, stuff about Frank and martinis, Frank’s ninja dancing, the surprising absence of cussing and why it was surprisingly absent, and Johnny-Oh’s marriage proposal (to me). maybe i’ll get around to that soon.

i also never finished the U-Hell trip from Texas to Florida. main stuff i haven’t discussed is when we “lost” Minerva, when i found out Harvey finally blogrolled me (after a year or so of kissing up on my part), getting lost driving in the woods on a 2-lane tiny road, and finally getting here. plus the furniture that got broken in transit, so i threw it out. plus the hide-a-bed couch that wouldn’t fit thru the storage unit door, so i threw it out… so i could have had a smaller U-Haul had i known the big pieces that i’d be getting rid of…

i’ve never blogged the Jim/Rachel/Frank/Sarah trip to Epcot, nor the Pereira Halloween party.

still need to finish the wedding stuff.

and the honeymoon cruise.

so yeah, i have a lot of catching up to do.

but the cool thing is, i’m a housewife now, and i’m not going back to traditional work (have other money-making projects that i’ll be working on, and Frank wants a dog), and there’s no wedding to plan. so i’ll actually have time to blog all the stuff i want to blog and i’ll have time for working out (i start Curves Monday). and post pictures i’ve been hoarding.

speaking of the dog, Frank said last night he thinks we should wait on the dog until his busy time at work is over. as sad as that makes me, i suppose i can stand to wait a little longer. :-D

and i think i’ll be even better after my massage. get that lymph system flowing. i’m sure that’s why i’m sick anyway. after the noseeum attacks in Key West (see sirkisser? you just had the wrong horrible beast attacking us), i was covered in bug bites. since i take a while to heal, i still am, of course (seriously, a mosquito bite stays on me for months). but anyway, i figure that did a number on my lymph system, because i could feel knots clogging the system. and since the lymphatic system removes trash from the blood, i’m figuring that the trash was held in long enough to make me sick. blasted bugs.

me & my wacky theories, i know. anyway, i think i’m better. my head doesn’t feel like it’s gonna implode, and i’m not achy, and i can mostly breathe through my nose. maybe i’ll even feel well enough to go shooting today.

hmm. i need to clean the PPK so i can try it out and also clean my Pop Pop. it appears to have a funky residue in the barrel. i didn’t clean the P99 after the last outing, so i need to clean that one too. ok, so i have 3 guns to clean. i know the .45s and Frank’s Bang Bang are clean. cleaning guns is fun and relaxing, yay!

btw, when i told Bikermommy that i got a new gun for Christmas, she sounded apprehensive and told me that guns are dangerous. i told her guns aren’t dangerous, stupid people with guns are dangerous. and i’m smart, just to be clear. then i asked her what she got Pappy for Christmas. a new rifle. !!! after that, i laughed at her and told her that guns are dangerous. i’m sure she thinks there’s a difference.

Pappy said that my gun is just for shooting people. i said, no, i’ll only have to shoot people if they attack me first. what are you gonna do with your gun, Pappy? “i’m gonna go outside and shoot the first thing i see that moves.”

someone should warn the dog. she’s a sweet dog.

Frank’s going to go to the post office and mail my packages.
and go to Publix for my chicken soup.
and fetch his own lunch.

i’m going to nap while watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. though i’ll only watch during the brief wakeups. i won’t actually watch while i’m asleep.

up to 8 episodes of CSI Miami season 1. no sunglasses.

we saved $358 on the remaining pieces of our china, because we got a great deal on most of it at BJ’s Warehouse. $358!! and we ended up with 2 more place settings than we were going to get. sweet sweet deal. i don’t know why i don’t shop there more often. it’s always like a ghost town. they don’t seem to have quite as big a selection as Sam’s, but close enough, and even on Christmas Eve there was no line for checkout. on Christmas Eve!

now i just have to find a place to store all that china… eh. after i’m not sick.

we got a free trial of Amazon’s prime thing. i guess we order a lot. now we get free shipping even if our order isn’t over $25, and it’s 2-day shipping instead of standard ground. and it’s free for 3 months. yay.

i didn’t sleep well at all last night.

btw, does anyone out there actually use a whole can of water when restoring their condensed Campbell’s soup? i never use the whole can, because it’s way too watery that way. i use about 2/3 of a can.

i’m sick.

i’m sure of it. i mean, Frank played hours of Prince of Persia today, and i wasn’t the slightest bit annoyed. and when he tested out the franchise mode on the hockey game, i just read and didn’t care. and we have a new hockey game! i was only good for 2 games, spaced far apart.

i napped with a comfort movie in the background. proof i’m sick or depressed, and i’m not depressed.

all i’ve wanted to do today besides sleep and whine is watch movies or TV on DVD. ok, that’s not incredibly unusual, but we were going to go shooting today. i didn’t even feel like going shooting to try out my new Pop Pop! i’m definitely sick.

oh how my face hurts. i think we’re going to have to uninvite our Friday night guests. i’m drinking gallons of grapefruit juice (so far, i’m up to 2 cups) and eating Rotel to clear the sinuses, but the ability to have guests is looking far fetched. this stinks.

btw, have i mentioned how whiny and pathetic i am when sick?

to the first season of CSI Miami, and still no sunglasses pause.
i’ll report when we have shades.

btw, whoever thought of TV shows on DVDs has my undying adoration.

and my head hurts. and my whole face hurts. blast you, sinuses.

Please chill with the pucker. I remember you used to be pretty before you started that ridiculous pucker. Also, put on some weight. You look like you’re dying. And stop getting cast in movies until you’ve gotten that pucker under control.

There are moments in Cinderella Man where you were not ridiculous looking. You were even pretty. Turns out, you weren’t puckering. You should try that more often.

Love,
SarahK

we went shopping with wedding money and gift cards today, and it was fun for me. normally i hate shopping, but it’s nice when you have a list (that the store prints for you, no less) and money to buy the list with. several things had to be ordered, so we’ll be getting shipments for a few weeks. yay!

i totally shopped out Frank and myself. now we’re watching Cinderella Man, which is soooo good, at least the first 1:13 is.

i’ve been wearing them on my finger since March 26, and i still pause to look at them every few minutes. still hold my tiny fingers up to the light and move at different angles.

people say my fingers are tiny, just because my ring finger is smaller than a 4.

Friday of the wedding was a very full day. mostly relaxing and fun, too.

Sizzle and i had a 4 hour spa event at 10 a.m., so we headed over and relaxed for awhile. i had a hot river stones “massage”, then got my fingers and toes done. Sizzle got some weird stuff done because the lady who does nail tips was busy, then she got her toes done, then her massage, then the tips lady was available, so she did that. then we went back to her place and to the mall.

the rehearsal dinner was that night, so naturally, we didn’t yet have outfits, though Sizzle had already dragged me out to Foley’s at 10:00 one night. so after stopping to pick up Kris, who had been shopping with Frank until he got shopped out and left the mall, at a place where she had french fries and i ate them, we met up with Bikermommy and went looking for clothes.

the rehearsal dinner was downtown at the Worthington at 7, so we needed to leave Sizzle’s at 6:30. i think we were all finally done at the mall at 6:00, but i needed a girdle, so Kris and i headed to Walgreens. supposedly, Walgreens was 1 mile from Sizzle’s house. make that at least 2. anyway, we got home around 6:20, and i jumped in the shower.

i think my Papa & Grama and Aunt Wanda & Uncle Robert had arrived by the time we got to the house, and i ran in and hugged one or two of them. i don’t think i hugged them all until after the shower, though.

i think we all arrived at the Worthington at 7:30. well, at least it was cocktail hour from 7-8 and we weren’t actually late for the 8:15 dinner… right before we got there, i was turning left onto 2nd street from Main, and some jerkface in a big truck thought he would be tough and act like he was going to hit me because i got stuck in the middle of the intersection when the light turned yellow, then red… dun dun dun. so Frank and Kris got to hear me mouth off at the big butthead. i was yelling quite vehemently at him (and he looked very shocked), and then he followed me right into the Worthington’s valet parking. and i continued mouthing off about punching him in the face if he dared mess with me, until i was out of the car. and i was pretty, so i turned up my nose and strutted right into the hotel with my sweetie and my good friend.

more later on this. i have to get my pictures together of the rehearsal dinner & karaoke.

ok, i’m still honeymooning, since my hubby doesn’t go back to work until next week, but i’ll blog when i can.

today we have completely vegged. Frank was up early playing his new video game, and i got up soon after. we ate lunch. watched Aliens, 2 episodes of CSI Miami (season 1), and now last week’s NUMB3RS. we played chess, Frank beat me.

later we’ll play the karaoke game and eat dinner.

and you know, we’re newlyweds. nuff said.

anyway, i think tomorrow we’re going shopping big-time. and sometime this week there will be shooting of guns. must test out my new Pop Pop. i think the mere fact that i call it Pop Pop proves i’m not ready for it.

in Aliens, Bill Paxton plays the whiniest marine in the history of the world. i’m pretty sure the Marines would kick his crybaby butt out.

it’s Kim’s birthday! hooray!

at least i think it is. btw, Kim sent me some Sap & Mush cds a while back, and i picked a lot of the wedding stuff from there. she has good taste.

you know what makes Christmas special?

my new .38 special!! (and he got me Hogue rubber grips!)

this is an awesome Christmas. because this is our first married Christmas, and we have our first tree, and we got back from our honeymoon on Christmas Eve. it’s kinda weird not seeing my family, but now i’m with my new family. :-) the kitties have even been all snuggly and stuff. we’ll go to worship this morning, as on every other Sunday, and when we get home, i’ll make jambalaya and fudge.

once again, Frank got me way better presents than i got him. i got my new pop-pop (with carry ammo and snap-caps), first 3 seasons of CSI Miami, Harry Potter 1 soundtrack, Iron Giant, and lots of cool stocking stuffers (including Preparation H, because he’s sometimes a pain in the pinkytoe and doesn’t want to change, haha). Frank got the Aliens 9-disc collection, Serenity (ok yeah, that’s more for both of us), Linkin Park cd, Prince of Persia video game, Simpsons season 7, and new hollow points for his bang-bang (but that was really penance for us having to give up the others at the airport). and i got him new ammo for home defense for the .45s (once again, penance), some great Christmas boxers, and other stuff. the stuff that’s lost in the mail is the NHL 2006 game (both of us), Animatrix, and Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison.

Frank says the gun he got me is more like an appliance than a gift. yeah, ok whatever.

from our parents, we got cool stuff too. Victoria’s Secret PJs (for me, super comfy, i wore them all week on the ship), Frank got new Curve cologne (he smells yummy), we got our new luggage (which is awesome, we used all 5 pieces on the cruise), a first Christmas ornament engraved with our names, and his mom sent us a gift basket of adorable gifts. plus, we got two awesome gift baskets from Joe Foo’ & Denise, who drew our names.

we’re going to start campaigning now for having Christmas at our place next year.

btw, we’re back!!

we got to port this morning around 7, had breakfast with our new friends one last time (i’m really going to miss them, but we have their addresses, so we can stalk them, yay!) at 8:15, were off the ship and through customs by 9:45, and home at 10:30 this morning.

Phyllis gave us good advice about bringing super-yummy food to the cats so they’d realize we’d just been out hunting for food for the week, and the kitties were happier to see us than they’ve ever been. all they care about is the food and the scratching.

60% of Frank’s presents that i ordered from Amazon didn’t arrive as they were supposed to. one shipment is UPS’s fault (error in routing), and the other one has unknown status. so i got to go shopping on Christmas Eve. it’s ok, he’s getting better presents than he was getting before.

so then i made oyster stew for dinner, and we played chess. we started doing this on the ship. we’re both amateurs, but we have so much fun playing together. so both times we played on the ship, Frank beat me, though the games were long.

tonight was fun. i captured a rook, a bishop, a pawn, and a knight. Frank captured every single one of my playing pieces except the king and the queen.

and i won! i beat him with a king and a queen against his whole army. we’re so proud of me.

ok, so we’re on the Disney Magic, having a magical time. we’ve just arrived back in our room after dinner at Palo, the super-fancy restaurant on the ship, and i notice there’s a message on our phone. so Frank plays it on speaker phone, and i hear this:

FRANKIE’S MOM: Hi Frankie and SarahK. Frankie, it’s your mom. I saw your rash on the internet–

ok, i just burst out laughing at this point, because i knew that this had to be the work of cadet happy. the message continues…

FRANKIE’S MOM: I hope it’s getting better and that it’s not keeping you guys from having a good time.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! i’m sooooo deducting the time for the phone call back to Frank’s mom from Kevin’s pay. that’s $14 just to say, “no, mom, i don’t have a rash. i suspect cadet happy.”

anyway, we’re having a wonderful time on our 7-night western Caribbean cruise. right now, pirates are attacking the ship (no kidding), we have a monkey made of towels hanging from our verandah curtains.

today we were in Costa Maya, and Frank got his “Man With No Name” poncho, and i bought a $40 vase that would have been $20 at Hobby Lobby on a half-off sale, but i wouldn’t be able to say i bought it in Mexico. we also watched Chronicles of Narnia on the ship this afternoon.

yesterday we snorkeled with the stingrays in Grand Cayman. Frank even held one, and i petted it.

Monday we kayaked in Key West and had a great Sloppy Joe at Sloppy Joe’s. we also posed for pictures for this 3D cube, and we got that back tonight. so now our faces are laser-etched in glass cubes that we’re bringing home with us.

tomorrow we’re getting massages at sea, and tomorrow night is a semi-formal dinner (formal was Monday). we have great dinner mates. Phyllis and “Hank” are exactly the people we’ll be at their age (which is at least 10 years older than us), except that we’ll retire to Flagstaff instead of Maryland. and Will and Ashley are very nice, though i think i scare them with all my loudness. they’re freshly engaged.

we’ve been listening to Bobby Hamilton on the piano all week in this super-quiet lounge where kids are not allowed (yay!!!). right now we’re another place where kids aren’t allowed.

we’re on our honeymoon, so we’ve spent a lot of time in our room (bowchickabowwow).

we’re having so much fun. one more stop, the Bahamas, and then we’ll get to see how much of the house the kitties have destroyed while we’re gone. and we’ll get to see our karaoke machine again. oh yeah. we did karaoke one night too. we were good.

ok, my hubby is acting like i should stop spending $.75 / minute to blog, so i’ll talk to you musees in a few days. we’ll be home Saturday.

y’all be good.

i just listened to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Lost Christmas Eve” CD. it’s fantastic, like all their other stuff. i can’t find my other TSO CDs, but i did find a Mannheim Steamroller, so i’ll pop that in next. yay! cleaning and packing to music is fun!!

Tammi and T1G sent us these awesome sconces off our registry, and i love them sooo much. i was going to put them on either side of the big painting in the livingroom, but now that i have the comforter set on the bed, they’d look really cool there too. i’m so torn!

i think i’m still going with livingroom so everyone can see them. i’ll get something different for the bedroom. the metal isn’t quite right for the bedroom anyway, because that’s all wood.

btw, these sconces are the only ones i’ve ever seen that come with a paper guide for hanging so you don’t have to measure between the two screws, you can just use the guide and know you got it right. if only all sconces came like that! very helpful.

p.s. soon the whole house will be Sarah-clean (which is how clean i always want the house to be - closets, drawers, everything). right now, it’s guest-ready (as long as the guests aren’t staying overnight, but it’s drop-by clean). the kitchen, livingroom, and bathrooms are Sarah-clean. the rest are getting really close. including all the papers filed where they should be and decorations hung (except this one hanging tealight thingy). and the floors are mostly clean, though they need another vacuuming. think i’ll do that today.

sorry, been too busy with cruise shopping and packing to blog about Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (the day Frank used the bidet) of the wedding week.

whodathunk you can’t find a swimsuit in Florida in December? i really don’t want to go to Ron Jon’s and buy an overpriced one…

anyway, a few days ago, the evil fake one posted the Frank J./SarahKJ. performance of Mockingbird (warning, it is as painful as it could be). now he has posted three other performances:

me singing Valentine; that’s the first time I’ve ever done that one at karaoke — didn’t want to sing Independence Day at my wedding reception… you know, it being a song about a woman burning down her house with her husband in it…

Joe Foo’ and Kelly singing Ring of Fire…

and my husband singing One Week…

so y’all know about my thing with phones. how much i hate them and stuff.

i did so good today! my housesitter has better options than spending a week with our kitties (pah. going home for Christmas is better than snuggling Minerva??), so i needed to find a replacement; she said she’d do it if i can’t find anyone else, but i don’t want to keep her from time with her family.

which means a phone call. i have to gear up for phone calls, especially if the call has anything to do with imposing on the person i’m calling. i really have to talk myself into favor calls, because i hate imposing on other people (unless they offer first and i’m just calling to take them up on an offer). and i have to give myself deadlines. i have to say, “ok, Sarah, you have until 7:30 to call such-n-such. no later.” and then i wait until the deadline to do the calling. that provides me with relief at, say, 6:00, when i’m dreading the phone call so much that i’m starting to stress over it and trying to forget it’s on my list of things to do.

so today, i told myself at 6:30, “ok, Sarah, you have until 7:30 to call Sister such-n-such to ask if she can housesit for you.”

I DID IT AT 7:00! i was so proud of myself i might’ve peed my pants if i hadn’t already peed recently.

and then i even called in our sushi order. i never call to order takeout. i always make Frank do it, because i hate calling for takeout. in fact, the people at the Indian food restaurant asked me about him before, because they knew he always called in the order, but they’d never seen him. when i took him into the restaurant to eat, they were so happy to finally meet the man on the phone.

but Frank’s working late tonight (and sounds very stressed), so i didn’t even hesitate to call for the sushi.

yay me! y’all should applaud!

i was in Walgreen’s, buying stuff for the trip and picking up stocking stuffers for Frank. ok, i bought a stocking stuffer for me, too. anyway, there was a child in there screaming bloody murder.

full-out tantrum screaming. at first i thought the child was maybe sick, because i was in Walgreen’s. poor baby. then i heard what the child was screaming.

“I WANT THAT TOY!! I WANT THAT TOY!!”

i thought it would die down soon enough, as the mother would surely discipline her child. unfortunately, i had to get near the mother and child in my quest to find sunscreen. she was crouching down, child on her hip (child was 2-ish), browsing the DVDs. child continued to scream. one time, i heard mom say, “quit that” in a very non-urgent, non-forceful voice.

so i moved away and continued shopping.

twenty minutes this went on. twenty minutes, and i am not exaggerating. mom and child at the front of the store the whole time so mom could casually peruse.

finally, mom queued up and stood behind the 5 other people in line, child still screaming, “I WANT THAT TOY!! I WANT THAT TOY!!” at one point, mom pointed at child and said forcefully, “stop screaming.”

by this point, i was through being polite, so i just stood in place, where she could see me, and stared at her, mouth open.

she never once considered coming back later (maybe she considered it and dismissed such a silly idea). never took the child outside so everyone else could have a breather. and just kept right on smiling and pretending like there was absolutely nothing strange going on. i felt really bad for the people standing on line with her and especially for the clerks working the registers and the photo counter. they couldn’t even move away like i did.

to the mother’s credit, i’m 100% sure she didn’t succumb and give the child the toy, because child was still screaming when they left. and when she did finally say something, she didn’t yell or scream at the child. but twenty minutes is so excessive. she should have come back later, because she didn’t have any meds, and nothing that looked like essentials when she checked out. DVDs.

it’s possible that she was having her worst day ever, and she was really just trying to cope and hold herself together, but still. i don’t claim to know how to parent a child, but i do know a little about discipline, as i was once a child myself, and i know a lot about common courtesy. shame on her.

here’s my boring list of things i’m doing today:

the post office tried to deliver Frank’s birth certificate while i was taking a nap to get a break from my shoulder. i thought i heard someone knocking, but they didn’t ring the doorbell, and by the time i got to the door, they were gone. oops. so i’m going to the post office to get it myself.

then i’m calling Frank to confirm that i have the package so he can stop freaking out.

next is dropping of Frank’s tux (Pappy sold it to Frank for super-cheap) and my black dress from the rehearsal dinner at the dry cleaner. i’m glad we don’t need formals or semiformals, we have all that stuff.

then i’m taking my laptop to Circuit City so i can use that warranty before it runs out in 21 days. then i have a couple of stops to make for Frank’s Christmas presents.

after that, i’m shopping. i don’t have a swimsuit. or a coverup for a swimsuit (think i’ll get an actual coverup this time instead of using a t-shirt). or a good hat for keeping the sun off. neither of us has many pairs of shorts. we need a lot of supplies, like sunscreen…

then i’m having lunch with Jamie. we used to work together, and it’s been a while since we’ve had lunch, so she and i have much to talk about. i expect it will be a long lunch.

following lunch will be more shopping.

then home for more laundry and cleaning and packing. i hardly have anything packed. the laundry is in good shape, because it was mostly done before we left for Texas, so i’m mostly washing the dirty clothes from the trip.

btw, someone told us to only put dirty underwear in the outer pockets of our suitcases when we give the luggage over to the cruise people the night before disembarkation. i’m a bit partial to my undies, so i think i’ll leave those pockets empty instead.

after quite a few misses at church, what with our trip to Texas and all, we finally got to go to Bible study tonight. we were so happy to see everyone (not to mention all the Bible studying), and as the preacher was making final announcements, he noted that we were back and asked us about Texas.

of course, i had to tell him that everyone keeps saying it was the best wedding they’ve been to. :-) and that everyone kept saying i looked beautiful. :-D (some people said it!) and then:

SARAHK: and we had karaoke at the reception, and Frank and i sang a duet.
FRANK: it was horrible.
SARAHK: it was horrible.
MCCOY: Frank! Frank! you’ve been holding out on me!
FRANK: no. i’ve been sparing you.

it’s so different from all the congregations i grew up in, where women didn’t dare speak to the congregation at large. we won’t get to see them again until Christmas Day, though, so that’s kind of sad. but we got plenty of hugs to last us awhile.

this being my very own super-boring blog (ugh, did you even read my airport security story or the Grand Canyon stuff?? that’s funny right there, i don’t care who ya are), i get to make the rules. i get to decide that no one’s comments automatically get approved until after i’ve approved a first comment. and i also get to decide that if you come to my blog only to troll the comments and insult me, your comments don’t get approved. i also get to decide that every comment you ever make on my precious blog goes straight to moderation for approval. i’m so evil that way. there is no free speech at mountaineer musings, as i pay money to blog.

also, please note that intelligent comments that take issue with a point i make or a story i tell are tolerated.

so thanks for stopping by, thanks for playing, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to say this out loud:

Bushitler isn’t forcing you to read my blog. you have a choice in it. if you don’t like it, if it’s just too boring for you, you are free to not read it. but since you made four attempts to get your poor little comments posted, the third one being something to the effect of “wah! my comments got eaten by the comment monster! me sad! i’m spending a lot of time in this boring blog that i hate so much!”, i’d say you must enjoy it enough. either that, or your life is even more boring than mine. oh the horror you must experience. how ever do you get up in the morning knowing the life you face.

btw, for those interested in such mundane things, i plan to go into the kitchen to heat up leftovers after we get back from Bible study.

the other night i slept on my shoulder funny, and when i woke up, it ached… and it still hurts. if i turn my arm funny, move my arm across my body, or lift anything, it really bothers me. feels kinda like a pulled or sore muscle, kinda not.

last night i tried heat on it all night (Minerva loved how warm i was, she slept directly beside the heating pad), and that helped none. i wonder if cold would help?

they’re dirty. i don’t care what anyone says, there is only one reason you have squirrels to advertise something other than nuts themselves — so you can talk about playing with nuts in an “innocent” fashion.

dirty.

i love it love it love it. i took some pics of Frank this morning as he was getting ready to walk out the door, and i played with some of the in-camera editing features. Frank had red eyes in a picture, so i took them out and zoomed in and cropped it.

before:

being a goofy goof

after:

still a goofy goof

we watched Monday night’s Arrested Development last night (i’m watching it again this morning). George Oscar has decided he’s not going to do infomercials next time he’s in prison… he’s going to podcast. i laughed so hard at that.

we also watched last week’s Boston Legal. i’m absolutely through with it, will not watch another single episode. it was heavily implied that “we let” people in New Orleans die because they were poor. oh, and we owe poor people great sums of money if they assault the non-poor first and the non-poor assault back. a homeless guy threw a rock and hit a rich lawyer in the back of his head, and the rich guy shot him with a paintball gun. so the guy who first threw the rock was owed $75,000 because he was only throwing the rock to get attention. bullcrap. and of course, the Republican was made to look like a complete wacko, saying that the poor in this country are everything that’s wrong with this country. because you know, all evil Republicans hate poor people. David E. Kelley: bite my lily white butt. i’m through with you and will never watch another one of your ridiculously ignorant shows again.