Catching up
2007-12-11 - 4:29 p.m.

I don't have any excuse for not writing for so long, so I won't try to make one up. I can't say I've been real busy or anything unusual's been going on. We've had maybe two people come see the house since I last wrote. Wait a minute, I need to read my last entry to see what I've already mentioned and what I haven't....

Okay. Well, B had a birthday since I last wrote. I offered to take him out to eat and I tossed around the idea of asking his ex-coworkers to come too, as a surprise to B. I finally decided to do it, but I probably waited too late becasue no one was able to make it except B's brother D. You may recall that B doesn't exactly love D's company and in fact, he's one of the reasons B decided to leave his job there at their framing store, so I wasn't exactly thrilled that it was only going to be the three of us at B's birthday dinner.

Fortunately, it turned out okay because B hasn't seen much of D in a while, so seeing him at this dinner was kind of nice for B. They were able to catch up and talk about some family stuff, plus D ended up paying for the dinner. I was planning on paying, so that was a very nice surprise for me, though I wouldn't have gotten those two really expensive specialty martinis had I known.

Strangely, the dinner I had (beer battered fish and fries) did not agree with me at all. I guess because it was so greasy. My stomach started rumbling around before we went to bed that night, and then I was up between 1:30 and 2:30 with awful intestinal cramps. Hopefully that kept some of those calories from being absorbed. :)

The last people that came to see the house came while we were gone. We were able to take a walk around the block, and when we came back, at first we thought no one had been here because the front screen door was latched. People usually don't shut it and latch it when they leave. But we found out later that people had in fact been here because we got feedback from the realtor online. These people said that the neighbors yard was trashed so they weren't interested. But what neighbors are they talking about?? Not one of our neighbor's yards looks trashed. WTF? I don't know if they're referring to the unfinished shed out back or what.

B called our realtor and asked if she knew, but she didn't have any information for us. It's just maddening. Why are people so picky?

Since E and P weren't able to make it to B's birthday dinner, they were supposed to come over last Friday night, but P ended up not being able to make it because she's so tired from her pregnancy. Did I mention that she's pregnant? Anyway, she's due next March and apparently this pregnancy has been really hard on her. E came by without her and gave B some homemade chocolate chip cookies, which was great timing because B had been saying how much he wanted some, and she also gave him a gift card to a local grocery store that we shop at. B used that right away and has probably eaten half the cookies, with a little help from me.

We put our Christmas tree up yesterday and put some outside lights on the house the weekend before last. I was really, really trying to get in the Christmas spirit yesterday, but I just wasn't. I put on Christmas music while we decorated the tree, and I guess that helped a little, but I was feeling crummy yesterday.

This 13-year-old from down the street came ringing our doorbell the Saturday before last asking if we needed our leaves raked, which we did, so B put him to work. B said he'd give him $20 or $25 to do the front and back yard. He got most of the front yard done on Saturday, then came back on Sunday and did maybe 90% of the backyard, but he never quite got it all done, so B decided he was going to finish it this past weekend. I wanted to help, and I knew I wouldn't last long, but I didn't know just how pathetic I would be. I managed to make several piles of leaves in the backyard and bring one pile around to the front before I pooped out. I got a giant blister on my thumb even though I had gloves on and I'm still sore today. I think I pulled a groin muscle. How sad is that? I'm supposed to be 35, not 85.

The kid who did most of the raking came back several more times during the week last week to try and finish up, but he didn't come until it was almost dark, so he didn't get much more done. He was about to give B an aneurysm, I think, because he rang our doorbell at least a half dozen times when he was here on Saturday and then another half dozen times the next day. We were both trying to work and B had to keep getting up to answer the door. The kid had a bazillion questions and then when B told him he had to get back to work, it was like he didn't even hear him, because he just kept talking.

I just got my work for tomorrow, so I need to download that now and see how much they gave me.

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