Friday, the biggest party night of the year, we did nothing.

Brett fell asleep on the couch ’round eight; I read and listened to my iPod and wandered around the house amusing myself and probably fell asleep sometime after midnight. I really don’t recall.

Saturday, with the PlayStation on the fritz and his paycheck burning a hole in his pocket, Brett talked me into going to Walmart to pick up a replacement PS2. There wasn’t one, of course – the entire nation is out of PS2s this soon after Christmas. But somehow we decided to go to Iowa City, to Best Buy, where Brett became the proud daddy of a Delphi XM SKYFi2, a stereo connetion kit for the Hillbilly Boom Box, and a lovely quarterly subscription to satellite radio. He installed it in the parking lot outside Best Buy, where it was getting dark and raining heavily.

He loves it. HE LOVES IT. The man spent two hours Sunday morning sitting in his truck playing with his SKYFi.

I got a cigarette lighter power cord for the iPod, and a CD – Todd Rundgren’s Liars, his first all-new album in over ten years. (I went home and immediately fed it to the iPod.) I love Todd. Todd is Godd. The track “Soul Brother” is fucking PRICELESS.

On the drive to Iowa City, I knitted my iPod a cozy. Yes, I know this is totally gay but I don’t care. (And neither do these people.)

All in all, a furiously fun day, and a good augury for the year to come.

Sunday we went and bought groceries at (ahem) the Super Walmart in ScrOttumwa. Now, I realize Walmart’s disgusting and that I shouldn’t give them my money. But. I got a cart so full of groceries it was difficult to steer around corners and it only cost me $125.00. There’s no way in HELL all that stuff could have been produced for $125.00… the cardboard, plastic, shrink wrap, ink, printing, die cutting, transportation… not even counting the actual FOOD ITSELF. How the hell will the economy survive if goods sell for less than it costs to produce them?

Or does this price trough exist only to kill the competition? Will prices go back up as soon as there’s nowhere else to shop?

Either way, the old kitchen is stocked with yummy foodies. I don’t know if I should feel elated or shitty. *shrug*

Monday I cleaned, listed a tool to sell (on eBay) for Brett, chatted heavily with Keef over IM, got wood (and kept the stove nearly closed down to conserve it since we’ve only a few days left) [CALL ME IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO GET A LOAD OF SPLIT WOOD, WE’RE SO ALMOST OUT IT’S NOT FUNNY.], made tea in my new Nissan thermos and drank it, and made a killer meal for my beloved: Italian sausage, pesto, and a killer baby spinach-onion-carrot salad with lemon vinagrette and bleu cheese.

Ah shit, I need to fix a customer’s web site. (Yeah, I’m at work.) Ciao!

. . . . .


Song: Soul Brother
Album: Liars
Artist: Todd Rundgren

Yesterday was Hell Day.

Hell Day is what we call the day every year when we go last-minute Christmas shopping at the Hell Mall (aka the Coral Ridge Mall, Coralville IA) to spend hours trying to find parking places and rubbing elbows with a million zoned-out Coneheads and getting testy with each other. Snort!

Mr. Brett was already in overwhelmed-and-grumpy mode before we’d even found a parking place, because I’d wanted to eat first and the parking lot at Olive Garden was full to overflowing, and then he’d driven us to Mondo’s which had parking places but a half-hour wait. We’d already started to bicker before we even got out of the truck, and I’d suggested that he go sit in Bennigan’s while I hit the three stores I needed to go to. He capitulated and had almost decided, I think, to slog through the shopping with me. He’d even made me repeat three times what my list contained and what stores I wanted to go to!

Less than five minutes after entering Target, we ran into Misty! Halleluia! She said Steve was at the bar, that she was going there soon, and that we should meet them. Brett went off to see Steve immediately (since I’d basically called him a name for being so uptight about shopping) and I bought some things and went over to meet them. I had a cocktail on an empty stomach and it really took that shopping edge off!

We all agreed to meet at 4:00 and have an early dinner at Olive Garden. Misty called to make a reservation, but they weren’t taking any. Misty took a picture of Brett and me with her trick new cell phone and I had her email it to me – so that’s us at Bennigan’s.

After that lovely cocktail, we split up and finished our shopping. I hit two more stores, and Brett hit two more stores, and then he called me and drove the truck over to the front of the store I’d ended up in. We called Misty and told her we’d go and get a table, and went to Olive Garden.

We ordered drinks and an appetizer, and then our dates showed up and we proceeded to have a wonderful fun meal! (We never go out to dinner in IC with friends. Never. It was freaking awesome.) I had so much fun! We brought home leftovers that we ate at about one in the morning. Yum!

Brett told me he’d gotten me a Christmas present, and after I’d asked him about six times what it was he said he’d bought me a tiny ladies’ handgun at Sheel’s. Argh! HE’S SO TERRIBLE! I wanted an iPod or a new digital camera, but I didn’t think he had enough money for either so I didn’t know what to expect!

When we got home he finally gave in and gave me my present, a blue iPod mini, which is making me so very happy and which is so very fun and wonderful. (No, I didn’t get him anything because, well, he bought himself a new truck a few weeks ago. Which is back from the body shop, by the way, and looks fantastic!)

All in all, a not so bad Hell Day! And now I’m off to get my baby to take me to town for a latte. Ciao, lovies!

Tahmi & Jason got a new bed, so they offered us their old one. Never being ones to avoid an amusing bout of moving random shit across town in a truck, we accepted.

Their old bed is, believe it or not, a king sized Sleep Number 5000! It may be made primarily out of foam rubber and Legos, but has a very deep quilted pillow top that I have unclean feelings for. (Pillow top. Yum.)

Putting the bed together actually required a look at the directions, and it got a little confusing due to the fact that T & J gave us more pieces of foam than were shown in the illustrations, but we made some executive decisions and got it all zipped up. (Yes, you have to place all this stuff inside the “mattress” and ZIP IT UP. It’s freaking awesome. When you’re done, it LOOKS like a mattress, but it’s really foam rubber and air bladders ZIPPED UP to LOOK like a mattress… a mattress with catheter hoses sticking out of it!)

I think… I think I like it! I slept great! I was expecting to hate it because it seemed all bumpy when I was rolling around on it last night, but it truly was a comfortable night’s sleep! And Mr. Brett thinks he might not hate it either!

How cool is that? God, I love an exciting hand-me-down! (Especially when it replaces the diveted, rumply, bumpy, and wholly mean back-breaking piece of shit we WERE sleeping on. Man.) Are you getting sick of exclamation points?!

I got up at nine this morning.

No, wait. That’s not true. Let me back up.

…
Brett woke me up at 4:30 or 5:00 this morning and was weird and passive-aggressive (it’s hard to explain, but when you’re with someone this long you can tell the intent behind the way they cross your ankle with theirs or move the blankets around or exhale or whatever, and I could tell he was feeling grumpy and passive-aggressive although probably no one else would have noticed) until I finally made him cuddle with me and stop being a freak. He responds well to cuddling and was soon purring like he normally does.

He said he was agro because he hasn’t been sleeping well (I think he’s actually experiencing a little light insomnia now that he’s 31). He complained about the bed and his back hurting, and I did too. Finally he got up to get ready for work around 7:30 and I was able to get some damn sleep.

…
I got up the second time at nine this morning.

I made coffee. I put the leftovers from Brett’s birthday dinner at Regina’s into the fridge (he’d left them on the counter all night). My cleaning schedule said today I’m supposed to clean the entryway and laundry room, so I did that – I swept, cleaned the window in the back door, organized the pile of garbage that needs to go out into the dump truck but which I ain’t haulin’ up there in the damn rain, thank you, and washed the dog bowls – and then I did the dishes.

It wasn’t even noon yet, and my official chore list was already done. I started some detail cleaning in the kitchen.

I washed the set of 6 Depression-ware cordial glasses that my grandma sent me a couple of years ago for Christmas, and I rearranged the knick-knacks on the windowsill above the sink so I have something nice to look at while washing the damn dishes every day for the rest of my life.
Continue reading The final Matrix is… Hindu? →

This is a picture I took in the cab of Joe’s truck as we drove to Rutledge recently:

I didn’t know until today, when I downloaded the image off of my digital camera, that my DH had stuck his tongue out! Silly stinker.

He’s really and truly the cutest thing in the world.