Finally...an Update

I've been off the air for a while. No excuse, not even that busy. I just haven't made time to get on the computer and type.

After two weeks of suffering from the effects of my massive bug bites, I went to the Doctor.

They had started to fade been then came back. Susan has been concerned that we brought the bugs home from the lake with us and they were still visiting. I have the massive bites and she gets one or two and goes nuts.

Anyway, the picture above is from two days ago. The Doctor gave me a prescription strength ointment to apply as well as a series of steriods to take. I can see a huge improvement. The best part, I'm not as itchy as I was.

Susan's birthday was last Sunday and to celebrate, the city threw an elaborate concert with fireworks for her.

It was a lovely night after a hot day. We got down to the park around se7en o'clock after consuming the traditional Susan Birthday Meal of Cheeseburgers, Corn on the Cob, Potato Chips, and Cottage Cheese.

We saved the traditional Susan Birthday cake, which is Angel Food Cake slathered in Strawberries, for the park. Everyone joined in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday and she blew out her 39 candles in front of a sizable crowd.

The concert was the Royal Fireworks Concert where fireworks are set off to Handels Royal Fireworks Music for loud bangs and booms. It was well received and Susan had a fabulous birthday.

Unfortunately, we should have gone home after the concert rather than drop by a local watering hole located right by our cars. We all had a couple more drinks which made us feel small in the morning.

The Curse of the No-See-Ums

I had another bad night of the itches. I finally got out of bed around three and went downstairs to take a bath. I added two cups of Epsom Salts and stayed in there for about an hour. It was therapeutics enough to let me go back to bed and sleep until morning.

I went out to get the morning paper and let the cats out when I noticed this bird sitting in the front walkway. It was a kind of bird I have never seen. I was a young crow. I don't think I have ever seen a baby crow before. For that matter, a baby pigeon or baby sea gull are foreign to me as well.

It looked like it had fallen from its nest because it was dazed and kind of wobbly. It didn't make much of an attempt to get away from me. Its parents however had no problem squawking away as I approached it. They seemed to be quite upset with me. As much as I dislike crows, I couldn't see myself putting this little thing out of its misery so I returned the cats to the house.

Susan said it was no longer in the yard when she left for work. I thought it would have made a nice pet. I would have named it "Nevermore" or "Aticus".

Extended Weekend

We have just returned from three days up at Priest Lake. Let me start by saying that the Huckleberries are in season right now and they are everywhere. I have never come upon a patch of huckleberries as thick as the one we found on Monday. We finally had to stop picking because we ran out of room in our containers. We left lots of berries.

We were at Priest courtesy of my pal Arnie and his wife Hayley. They live in San Fran but come to town from time to time to relive Arnie's childhood of growing up here. They rented a great cabin near the Priest Lake Marina.

Susan and I drove up Sunday and stayed until Tuesday. The weather did not exactly cooperate the whole time we were there but we came home relaxed and refreshed...mostly. We also drank heavily. I especially drank heavily on Sunday night. I finally stumbled to bed around two-ish and woke up refreshed and ready for a rainy day around nine. Nobody would believe that I felt good. My advantage was to take aspirin prior to passing out...along with copious quantities of water. Sure, I had to get up a couple of times and pee but that wasn't until I had processed a great deal of alcohol.

The following night I had a run-in with some No-See-Ums. They are the kind of bug that eat at you ravenously but you never see them or know they were there until it is too late.

Seriously! I went to bed around midnight and felt no ill effects from the day, the night, the giant dinner we consumed or booze. I awoke around three and my legs were terribly itchy. It kept me up for most of the rest of the night. When I finally got out of bed around se7en, my arms and legs were covered with little bites that developed into little welts.

I went back to ask Susan if she felt itchy and she said that she didn't. If it was fleas or bedbugs, they left her alone. Of course, I had earlier basted myself with gin and grilled meat.

I am hoping this is not going to last too long. It is terribly uncomfortable. I'm going through a LOT of Epsom Salts.

House of the Rising Slime

We have spent the week doing little projects all around the house. We are repainting and slightly rebuilding our screen wall that hides the space between the garage and the carriage house where I keep loads of crap. It badly needed a paint job and some rebuilding.

Susan did some plastering in the back guest bedroom. We have a small access hole in the ceiling that lets me get into the attic. I pretty much tore it apart a couple years ago because it wasn't big enough to get stuff up there. I re-framed the hole and Susan put up some drywall and patched what was left. It looks pretty good now.

The rest of our time has been spent cleaning as we have some out of town guests arriving on Friday...and God forbid that someone might see the house in the usual sloppy style in which we live. Of course, I'm comfortable in our usual sloppy style and would allow it to get sloppier if not for someone who is not sloppy...or comfortable with it...who shall remain nameless.

Independence Weekend Day "C"

We have arrived into the New Millennium. We now have Satellite TV. We have been limping along on basic cable and the recent upgrades to digital transmission has caused us to loose a lot of channels. So, we decided to try Direct TV.I am slowly learning of the joys of Digital Recording. We have one DVR with out package and I have already recorded a few shows. Tonight we will be watching "Burn After Reading". It's a recent offering from the Farely Brothers., whose past films include 'Raising Arizona", "Brother Where Art Thou" and Fargo. I always have to watch their movies a couple of times before I get them. I hated "The Big Labowski" the first time I saw it but now it is one of my favorites.

I get a daily e-mail feature from Meriam-Webster Dictionary called Word of the Day. It is my feeble attempt to improve my vocabulary by looking at new words every day and then forgetting them.

Yesterdays offering was very good because it was a word I had not heard before and the pronunciation was nothing like I expected it to be.

If I were to use invigilate in a sentence, someone might misconstrue my meaning. Ya know?!

We went downtown on bicycles last night to watch the fireworks but this year we were joined by our friends Ron and Kelly and then later joined by buddy Mark.

Ron and Kelly came over about 6:00 and we put Ron to work on the grill with his pork ribs and bar b-q sauce. He pretty much ruined my grill and the inside of my Webber. It will take some major heat to remove all the baked on goodness. Man, those ribs were goooooood!We rode down to the park about 9:00 and had great seats to watch the fun. Then we hopped back on the bikes and avoided the mayhem downtown with nary an problem.

Susan and I spent today on some projects around the house and enjoyed a quiet afternoon puttering.

Tomorrow it is back to reality. What a drag! Oh well, you can't appreciate the good without the reality.

Independence Weekend Day Deux

The weekend is now well underway and we accomplished a few things as well as hung about. The big event of our yesterday was to go and see the arrival of an old steam locomotive. It's called the 4449 Daylight Special. It's home base is in Portland, Oregon but it is traveling to a big Train Festival in Owosso, Michigan. Yesterday was the first leg of its trip and it came through Spokaloo.

There is a website (http://www.trainfestival2009.com/) that allowed me to track the progress of the train. When it got to Cheney, we drove downtown. The GPS tracking system is running a bit behind the actual location of the train. I wanted to watch it cross the big trestle coming into town. Unfortunately, it was coming across the big trestle just as we arrived down there so I didn't get that picture. I was able to go right up to the tracks and get the picture above.
After it passed by, we drove to the train station to check it out up close and personal. I'm not a huge fan of trains but I like old stuff like this. The train cars it's pulling are all vintage cars as well. Vintage from 1949ish, when this particular train was built.

Susan made great progress on the wall in the kitchen. Her progress was so good that she actually finished. It looks much better now.

Now it is July Fourth and time to celebrate the arrival of Satellite Television to our house. The installer is coming today and then we will join the 21st Century of TV viewing.

We may even watch some fireworks.

Independence Weekend Day One

I think what we learned from yesterday's entry is to stay away from the computer after alcohol is consumed.

We have nothing planned for the three day weekend and so anything we accomplish will be bonus accomplishment points. Our first job today was to sleep in and we performed that task brilliantly. Susan is like a Sleeping In Savant. A true professional.

I'm going to work on some gardening, pond leakage repair, a little electrical work and some major hanging out. Susan is on a roll with the kitchen wall and will probably paint it today or tomorrow. It looks like she is going to have to buy some paint. we found a can in the basement that is a similiar color but it was so old I had to destroy the lid to get into it.

The hops have reached the top of the arbor and now have seemed to stop growing. The Hallertau is the taller more robust vine but it seems to have become an aphid factory. I sprayed soapy water on it but I can't tell if that is helping. The Sterling is just cruising along and appears aphidless. It is certainly interesting that the little buggers would prefer one kind of hops over the other.

I planted some tomatoes last week. They were starts that I got from mom's friend, John. He grew them rom seeds he dried out last year from one of his really big tomato plants. They are starting to overcome the transplant shock and hopefully will produce some tomatoes by October.

It's a Miracle

Let u say that from this p oint on, anything I say is a MIRACLe because of mee drunkeneth...or at least my aledgeded state of possibly having imbibdeded an alcoholic beaverage. YES! I said BEAVERAGE!!

It is late in the evening and it is the start of our three day weekend where I am not driving or leaving the house except to transport prisoners so,......DON"T JUDGE ME!

If however you must judge me,

FUCK YOU! They are low level parishioners. And they might have been at Abu Graib.

However, what do you know about the pain suffered by me and the...other stuff that might have made me suffer stuff that I don't want to talk about here cuz my typing ain't so gud...and other stuff that might have MADE me type this stuff that I dident want to type but was compelled on to type for the making of bad judgement on me. By the way! did you know that I am the Chairman of a major commitee in a major neopolitan city that would be totally embarasses by for me onto which I am trying to get the kicking off by me from the committee on which I serve so that eye don't hav to deal with dumbass situations where I might have crossed a line concerning some dumbass thing that nobody really cares about, Jaaaaaaaaay!? Was that a question!?...or just a really ebullient dissertation by someone who is pretending to be drunkeness...or is he../..she....also the cunning proprieter of a vast data base of wordage known as a rhinosaurus.

Also, what happens if I get taizzed?

Health Drinks

Susan is still working on the french door walls in the kitchen. I advised her to take a night of last night because her work would have interferred with my television enjoyment. There is nothing good on the telly tonight so I am allowing her to work.

I returned to work today and for the most part had an uneventful work experience. I had a little panic in the morning as I realized my heart was kind of racing and making me a little dizzy. I was a little taken aback by this because I have not had any such experience at all similar to this during my brief recovery period. I then remembered that I have not had a quad mocha espresso during my brief recovery period, a circumstance that had indeed occurred this very morning. Was it a coincidence, or could a four shot espresso coffee drink possibly make me a little jittery?

I choose to leave such speculation up to Health Care Professionals while I focus on ways of getting out of work...if I survive.