George Thorogood and the Destroyers

My head is a little achy this morning, and my eyes are a little tired, but last night was so stinking fun! J and I went to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers last night. We got to the concert venue at about, oh, 6:30 or so? We went in and found the box office and picked up the tickets for last night and for the ZZ Top concert that we're going to see in September, then he bought himself a t-shirt. He said he wasn’t going to buy a t-shirt, because he has too many, but of course he bought one. How can he resist? Then we went in right after they opened the doors.

We were shown to our table, and we had seats right up against the stage, with the speaker right behind us. We were there an hour or so before the show started, so we sat there and talked and then the guy showed up who sat next to me, and he smelled like alcohol and was pretty strange. Yuck. But then the women showed up who were sitting across from us, and they were in their 50s, I would say, and one of them at least was very much an old(er) rocker chick, and they were very nice and cool. I was happy to sit across from them. They kind of buffered the weird drunk guy next to me.

And then the lights went down and the band came out, and they put on an amazing show, they really did. I’ve always liked George Thorogood, but have never been a huge fan. Well, I had a blast. I didn’t know all of the songs that he did, but I knew most of them, and even then ones I didn’t know I danced along to. How could I not, when I was sitting right next to the speaker? The bass was reverberating through me, I could feel every note in the core of my body – seat dancing was not optional.

He did most of his more popular songs, and came out when the show was over to shake hands and he lifted a little boy who was wearing a Lil’ Destroyers shirt up over his head, almost giving his father a coronary because the little boy was holding their camera, so there is no photographic evidence of the fact at all. But it was cute. The little guy looked like he didn’t have any idea what was going on. (Also, I have to wonder at a parent who brings his roughly 8 year old son to a rock concert. I think I would have left him at home, if only to spare his hearing. Those things are loud!)

And then it was over, and we were driving home, and J was falling asleep in the passenger seat, because he hadn’t slept all day and had worked the night before, and we crashed as soon as we got home and got the animals taken care of. Yes, we are old people. But I loved every second of it.

Thanks, J. :) And I can't wait for ZZ in September.

Tired Eyes

My eyes are so tired today. It's not unexpected, really - I'm still adjusting to getting up at 6:00 to get ready for work, after ten days in a row of sleeping in until 8:15 or so. Plus, I have the new Harry Potter book, and have been obsessively reading it every chance I get. I haven't had a ton of time to read it since I started it the other day, but I'm over halfway through, and I have trouble putting it down. Last night I meant to put it down at 9:30 and get ready for bed, and somehow when I looked up, it was 9:55. Oops! Even then, I had to force myself to shut the book. Sigh. I love when a book grabs me like that.

So, my eyes are tired and I would rather be home reading my book, but instead I'm at work, staring at a computer screen all day. That should be good for my eyes.

Also, I forgot to tell you! I won $25 in the Pepsi transform your summer sweepstakes thing. I've been entering my codes whenever I have a soda (or whenever J has one), and normally I enter for the big screen TV and gaming system, but one time I entered for the $25 prize instead, and I won! So cool. I'm saving the money to add to some other money I have coming, so that J and I can go to the Outback for dinner sometime soon.

Okay, it's time for me to go do some work, and I am out of things to say anyway. Have a great Wednesday!

Vacation, Held Over

I liked my vacation so much that I decided to make it a day longer - it's Monday morning at about ten after 9:00, and I'm at home, playing the Sims and waiting for J to get up. Hee. :) No, really, what happened was that J found out he wasn't going to have to be at work until 11:30 tonight, so instead of going to work while he stayed home having fun, I decided to take another day off and spend it at home with him. Hey, I had the time coming, so why not?

Vacation has been fun, too. We moved a bunch of J's stuff to my house using my brother-in-law's truck on Friday. He is now officially moved in. :) He still has stuff to bring home with him, but other than a dresser that we forgot when we had the truck, it's all small stuff, like pictures from the walls. He'll keep bringing those with his car, and I may help with my car this coming weekend.

We did other stuff while on vacation, too, like go to the outlet mall and buy some jeans and go out to eat a lot. I love vacation. I just wish it didn't go by so quickly.

But hey, at least this one got held over until tomorrow. :) Woo!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me, happy birthday to me!

First Annual Dog Picnic

The setting: a mid-sized suburban backyard, belonging to J's Aunt.

The event: a family/dog picnic.

The cast: 15 various people of all ages, and:

Louie: a hyper, young Shih-Tzu.

Buddy: a young, hyper Golden Lab.

Montana: an older Retriever.

RJ: a young Black Lab mix.

Indie: a young, very spoiled Shih-Tzu puppy, wearing a shirt and a hair ribbon with a skull and crossbones on it.

Sadie: an older, very spoiled Yorshire Terrier, wearing a shirt and a hair ribbon.

Stella: an older, very spoiled Pug.

Bernie: my super calm, relaxed Bernese Mountain Dog Mix.

McDuff: J's super sweet, totally adorable West Highland White Terrier.

Rosebud: J's older, not wanting to put up with any young dog antics (this means you, Louie) Basset Hound.

It was fun, it was crazy, and I wished that the backyard had been fenced in, so that I could have let Bernie loose to play with one of the Labs. But it wasn't, and there so many animals there that I just kept him on the leash for safety sake. We had chips and barbecue sandwiches and frosted brownies and the dogs had cupcakes and chips and more ass smelling than they could stand in one day. I didn't take my camera (I forgot it, then remembered it partway down the road but didn't want to go back for it - someone else will send us pictures, I'm sure), so you'll have to imagine the chaos.

Oh, and there were party favors! The small dogs got stuffed toys, and the bigger dogs got tennis balls and frisbees. And they all got a first place ribbon - Bernie's was for being the most placid, Rosebud's was for having the best nose (she sniffed that barbecue out right away) and McDuff's was for being most independent - he wasn't on a leash and behaved himself very well.

Willow couldn't go, because she doesn't like other dogs, so taking her would have been asking for trouble. Instead she stayed home and enjoyed not being around the other three dogs for the afternoon. She did get to play with one of the toys today, though.

She isn't interested in fetching it, and she doesn't quite get how to catch it, but she is very intrigued by it.

And she doesn't want anyone else to have it. :)

The Toy Monster and Bath Time

So, apparently J created a monster when he taught Willow to play with toys. Also, she didn't quite get the idea of toys - instead of playing and having fun with them, she obsessively holds them and growls at anyone who comes close. My silly Will. He bought her this green toy last week when we got groceries. So far it hasn't gotten chewed up.

She likes the green toy, but she loves the blue one, which is just like the yellow one she tore up before. We're keeping it for the little dogs, but she keeps stealing it. Hee. My little Will. She isn't quite right, but she sure is adorable.

J and I are taking three of the dogs to a dog party at his Aunt's house on Sunday, and in preparation, I gave Rosebud and Duff a bath tonight. I love watching dogs after they get a bath - they run around all energetic and act like loons. Isn't Duff cute all fluffy and wet, though?

Rosebud looks very pretty, too. And she doesn't stink anymore!

And if I missed any spots on her, Duff will take care of them for me. He's such a cutie. I'm going to give Willow and Bernie a bath tomorrow morning before I take a shower - they get me soaked, so I won't bathe them unless I'm going to shower immediately after, so tomorrow morning makes sense. Of course, I'm bathing them to take them to a dog party, where they'll probably get all dirty again, but at least they'll smell pretty when they get there.

Willow isn't going to the party, though. She doesn't like other dogs much, so it wouldn't be safe to take her there. J's dogs and Bernie should be great, though. I'm going to take my camera, so if I get any good shots, I'll share them.

Oh, and guess what? I'm on vacation! Woo! :)

Vacation mode begins...now!

I got this promotional white board from the company who makes our name tags here at work. I hung it above my desk today, and it is announcing my imminent vacation joy. Woo! I can't wait for this week to be over, so that I can be off for a whole week. Vacations rock.

So, I think it's been a week since I updated, hasn't it? Oops, that's very bad of me. Things are going well, though. We're having orientation at the college where I work - today was day number two of four. Yesterday was horrible - it had to be 90 degrees in the gym where I was sitting for half the day, and there was a steady stream of students through from 8:00 until 11:00. I was exhausted by the end of the day - and dehydrated (and stinky) from sweating so much. Sigh. Orientation sucks. Today was better, because it was slightly cooler in the gym (probably in the high 70s or so) and there were way fewer students, which was nice, too. I was out of there and back in my office by 10:45 or thereabouts.

Anyway, so I'm in vacation mode already, and I still have two days to work. I'm planning on doing the bare minimum this week, but even the things I want to do are killing me. I just want to go home and be on vacation! Ugh. I'll still get everything done, though.

J and I are actually going to be pretty busy during vacation, considering we're not going on a trip. We're going to be water sealing the porch, painting the back wall of the porch and the picture window frame in the front of the house, moving J's stuff from his house to ours, going to an outlet mall for a day, having lunch with J's parents, going to my brother-in-law's 50th birthday party - busy, busy, busy. And of course we're celebrating my birthday one week from today. Woo! I love birthdays. They rock the most.

And okay, I'm out of stuff to ramble about, so I guess I'm going to end this and call it an update. Oh, and Sarah? I REALLY miss you at orientation. I mean, I'm sitting and working with Debbie, so it's good, but I wished you were there to chat with and play online scrabble with. Sigh.

Independence Day 2007

Happy 4th of July, Americans!


I celebrated my 4th the normal way - shopping on the green this morning and then sitting on a blanket on a curb in the rain to watch the parade go by with my sister and her family. It was fun. The rain was just over a sprinkle during the parade, so it wasn't too bad, plus we had umbrellas, so we didn't get soaked. And the parade was fun. Of course, I wish J could have been there with me, but he had to work from 6:00 last night to 6:00 this morning, and then he had to be back in from 7:00 tonight until 3:00 tomorrow morning. So, as you can imagine, he was home sleeping while I was out celebrating the 4th. I hope he gets to go next year.


After the parade we went back to Donna's and had a cookout, but of course we sat inside because of the rain. And I hung out with the family for a little while and then came home. It was a pretty good day. And I'm not going to the fireworks tonight, so my celebrating is officially over for this year.


And then after I got home tonight, the most exciting thing happened! My dog, Willow, has been intrigued with the idea of playing ever since I adopted her from the SPCA, but she didn't seem to know how. We'd try to play with her, and she would just not know how to respond, and she didn't know what in the world she was supposed to do with toys. But J has been working with her, trying to get her to play with some toys that are here for his dogs, and tonight she finally did! It's an Independence Day miracle. (Yes, that was corny.) Here, for your enjoyment, is photographic documentation of the first time Willow has ever played with a toy in the almost two years that I've had her in my life.

This is when she first started picking the toy up and playing with it. She didn't throw it around or anything - she just held it and growled at anyone who came too close to her so that they'd know they couldn't steal it.


And here's the aftermath of her taking the toy into her crate. She tore the leg right off that poor little animal! J and I were very happy to see her finally start to play, and told her she was a good girl. Aww, my adult dog is finally learning how to play with toys! How great is that?

Because I was bored (and had the work camera in my hands)

Leftover breakfast:

Cheshire Cat grin:
Me and Mom, circa 1987:
Spiderman wants you to celebrate my birthday this month:
Hawaii on the wall:
Bulletin board butterfly:

Souvenir from Sarah:
My phone says this entry is done, so:

Monday, Schmonday, I hate Mondays!

These weekends of mine have to stop going by so fast. How is it Monday already? Sigh.

It was a pretty good weekend, though, for all that it went quickly. J and I got to hang out a bit on Saturday, which is always a good thing. He worked on painting his room upstairs to get it done. We had water pump problems again, but they fixed themselves (temporarily) again, so we weren't without water all weekend. And that afternoon we went to see Live Free or Die Hard, which I really enjoyed a lot. I give Bruce Willis credit, given that he must be in his 50s by now - he still rocked the action movie stuff. There were a LOT of special effects, some of which really made me work hard to suspend disbelief, but over all it was a great "escaping reality for a couple of hours" kind of movie, which is just what it needed to be. I recommend it.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way back home to get some milk and eggs, and J got a couple of dishes of mashed potatoes from their deli/hot foods section. (This is important for later.) Then we went home and watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on DVD, which was really funny, but really long! I wasn't in bed until almost Midnight! Oh, the horror. :) Yes, I am an old person who is usually in bed by 10:00 on weeknights, and not much later on weekends. Hee.

Anyway, so we went to bed at about Midnight, and at just after 3:00 in the morning, I heard J getting sick. He seems to have gotten food poisoning from the mashed potatoes (which had turkey gravy with chunks of turkey). He didn't have a fun night. And then he was pretty much laid up all day on Sunday recovering, so it was a quiet Sunday.

But! My water pump repair guy (who I guess I should just call a plumber, ha!) came out on Sunday morning and took apart my water pump, and removed some rust that was floating around causing our water problems, so we should be good on that front now. I hope. It was good of him to come out on a Sunday like that.

J called me a little while ago, and we're going to meet for lunch, which is always fun, and was a nice surprise. I'm looking forward to that.

Also, the 4th is this Wednesday, which means of course a holiday for those of us in the U.S. I was looking forward to sharing my favorite holiday with J, but now he's going to have to work until 6:00 in the morning, and then he has to be back at 7:00 at night, so there goes that. He'll be sleeping in the middle of the day, so he'll miss it all - the parade, the cookout at my sister's and the fireworks. Sigh. I'm going to be missing him all that day, now.

Anyway. I'll still do the stuff with my sister, and he'll sleep, and we'll both survive. Stupid work, though.

And now, back to the Monday horribleness. Later!

p.s. For those of you who care, I posted chapter ten of my Sims 2 legacy story on Saturday! It's sitting there, waiting for you to read it! :)