And Still No Dinning Room Set

Currently Reading: Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card

Yes, you read that right, still no dinning room set. Not that such news, in itself, would actually be worth noting except for the fact that we did it again. Yes, we did it again. We went shopping. We're going to have to stop doing that.

No, I'm not talking about food shopping, though we DID do that this morning (and picked up a niec potted palm, sheet set and some more towels). This is about what we did yesterday. Yesterday we went to Costco .

Last time we were at Costco we saw this really nice keyboard. It's got all sorts of great functions, lots of different instruments, the works. VERY reasonable price. You should have seen CC's eyes light up. There could be NO doubt that she wanted it. Now, I know how things at Costco work. You can get some SUPER deals but the downside is that they might not have the same thing from one week to the next. Hard to say whether something you saw one week will still be there the next. I didn't want to put off getting this keyboard for too long and as it turns out, that was a good plan.

We went out yesterday, not long after CC got off work, and went to Costco, got that keyboard. It was the LAST one. Picked up a few other things while we were there, like about a 6 month supply of breakfast cereal :-). Then over to the bookstore (yes, I was forced) :-) to get some music books. CC spent all Friday night playing the keyboard, which I'm sure you'll read about over on her blog.

She's one happy camper today and that makes ME a happy camper today :-)

Oh yes, for those of you who asked, I am feeling a bit better now. Had a brief relapse Friday morning but I seem to be over it now. Time to get back to work on all that stuff I didn't get done the past few days :-)

Sick Days

Currently Reading: Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card

I hate sick days. I suppose everyone does but that hardly makes the experience any better. Being sick is one of those situations where misery does NOT love company. In fact, most people in my family prefer to just dig in somewhere hidden and not bother with anything public until they get better. It's also difficult to get sympathy out of them because no matter HOW sick you may be at any given point, rest assured one of them has been MUCH worse and lived to tell you about it over and over.

"Yeah, I'm down with the flu. Fever at 102, can't keep anything down. Just laying here drinking water and waiting for it to play out." Now, you say something like that to most people and they'll reply something like, "Aww man that sucks, you poor thing. Anything I can do for ya? You want me to refresh that glass of gatorade or grab a magazine for ya?" But in my family it's more like, "Just the flu? Oh well you're getting off lucky! I remember one time I got sick with the flu, had a fever of 117. I couldn't eat or drink for 3 weeks and when I did it came right back out. I had body aches for 2 months after that and the doctor said I was damn lucky I didn't suffer brain damage."

Mmhmm. Makes it tough to be sick. I guess you'd file that under one of the perks of moving into the new apartment. When I get sick now, the only ones here are my lovely wife and my faithful pets. I get plenty of sypathy from CC. She's really super at that. And the dogs, well they do their part too. They pitch in by cleaning up any bits of food that I may have left unattended around the house. No really, they're just trying to make sure we don't get roaches :-)

The timing of this was rather interesting too. Last night CC worked overnight. She went in at 7 and worked until 7 this morning. Such a trouper that one. She got NO sleep last night and I guess in a sort of weird sympathetic reaction, neither did I :-) Well no, that's not QUITE true. I got about an hour.

So there we were this morning, both of us, laying in bed, sleeping it off.

Now, even though I was sick, I DID manage to do a few productive things. Got that laundry done and the ironing too. Can't send my wife off to work in wrinkled clothes ya know. She's got to look pretty when she teaches :-)

Safe to say I'll be having something light tonight. Maybe some soup. Soup sounds good. Don't want to push myself yet. Soup and bread. Simple. It'll give me enough energy to get through the night and hopefully tomorrow I'll be all better.

Is it Monday already?

Currently Reading: Orion by Ben Bova

So how did it get to be Monday already? Seems like I just posted my last message here a few days ago. Seems like we just went shopping for food the other day. And yet, according to the calendar, all those things happened last week. I guess all this peaceful apartment life is starting to make me lose track of time :-)

We've really been enjoying ourselves lately. What's funny though is that we're not usually doing anything special.

This past Thursday, we DID go out to the botanical garden for a show and that was really cool. They had a display of Ikebana flower arrangments and kimonos as well plus a tour of the Japanese garden there. Had a ball feeding the koi :-)

We're still working on getting things just right here. Decorating is a bit tough when you're on a budget. Things have to wait. The biggest problem is still the HUGE white space over the fireplace. We've had several ideas as to what to put up there but nothing has been decided yet.

And no dining room table either yet. Actually we still joke about that. If you take all the money we've spent on OTHER things (things most people would consider less important) we could have bought that dinning room set 2 or 3 times over :-) And just between you and me and the rest of the world, there are probably a few other things we'll buy before we get the table. Right now we're just doing fine with TV trays and sort of ignore that big empty space over by the kitchen :-)

There are a few things that we still need to buy and areas that need decorating. The bedroom, for example, is pretty much done just for utility. The bed is in there. The clothes are there. The TV is hooked up but that's it. The walls are all blank and there's no other furniture or decoration in there yet. We still haven't decided on what theme to go with and since we only spend time in there sleeping, it's low priority.

Yes, things are going just super over here. Unfortunately that makes the blog entries a little less exciting. I realize that so what I'm going to do is try and stir up some trouble :-) Or maybe I'll tell stories about things I've seen here in the apartment complex. You really do see some funny stuff if you just watch what other people are doing.

Those stories I'll save for next time. Right now I think I'll just enjoy the peace a little longer :-)

The Holiday is Ending

Currently Reading: Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card

Well it looks like we all managed to survive the holiday season. Ok, well maybe it's only the 4th of July but that still means a 3 day weekend and lots of celebrating. Holidays are over though. Time to get back to work.

Not right this SECOND of course, but it is time to get back to work on things. Lately I've had quite a few items on my "to do" list and I've been less than eager to check them off. In theory, I suppose I could check them off without actually DOING them but that would be cheating :-)

Right now I'm in one of those situations where I have a lot of LITTLE things that need to be taken care of. So many little things that I'm not really sure where to start. And they're all just about as important so it's not like I can make it easier by ranking them and then starting with the most important. What happens is that I sit here trying to figure out which one to do first. Time passes. More time passes. Pretty soon there's not enough time to do some of those little things so I shorten the list to the ones I DO have time to finish. But by the time I've done that, more time has passed and I end up not having enough time to do ANYTHING. So, in short, I've ended up sitting here trying to figure out what to do first for so long that I got nothing done.

I've also been a bit under the weather the past few days. Maybe I'm allergic to work :-) Actually what I'm allergic to are these very pretty flowering trees that everyone likes to plant here in Memphis. They're certainly very nice to look at. Not a large tree, maybe 10 to 12 feet high on average. Every year they flower (some are white, some are pink) and every year they set my nose off something awful.

So, combine those two things and you've got a perfect recipe for inactivity and complete lack of production. Well no, not COMPLETE lack of production. I have managed to do one or two things but I'm hardly making good use of my time.

You know what's worse? Right now I'm sitting here trying to think of more things to say so I'll be able to stretch the blog entry and thus keep myself from doing some of the things on my "to do" list. Bad, yes, I know, I know. Bad bear! :-)

Oh alright, I'm going, I'm going. Maybe I can sort of ease back into it right? Start with some light chores, don't push myself too hard :-)

Ok.
Here I go.
Off to do something.
:-)

Episode VI: The Return of the Bear

Currently Reading: Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card

Ok, so I borrowed the title idea from George Lucas. He's got too much money to bother with a lawsuit over something like that :-)

Yes, I've been away from the blog for a while. Do I have a good reason? Well, no, not really. It's been rather odd this week. You see, I haven't much been in the mood for writing . . . anything! Not just the blog but also e-mail as well. Right now, all around the world, people to whom I owe letters are nodding their heads. Yes, I know, I haven't written and I am sorry. I still have the letters though and I WILL answer them . . . soon :-)

The apartment is shaping up nicely as I'm sure you've all seen over at CC's site. No need for me to go into details about that. We've still got a LOT of work to do but mostly it's a large collection of little things. We need things on the walls.

Currently we're trying to decide what to hang over the fireplace. It's a HUGE area given that the ceilings in the room are 12 feet high and the fireplace is about 5 feet scross. That's a lot of white space. We were thinking framed mirror but now we're leaning more towards framed prints.

Tuesday we did something that I've been looking forward to since last year: we attended a Drum Corps International show. If you don't know what DCI is, it's a collection of marching bands, only brass and percussion though, no woodwinds. The music they play is excellent and they march wonderfully. They're also supported by a talented (usually) colorguard that twirls flags, rifles, sabres, you name it. It's great entertainment, especially if you ever did time in a marching band in high school.

The Cavaliers: 06-08-05 Toledo, OH

The winners of this particular contest were The Cavaliers. I've enjoyed their work ever since my first DCI show back when I was 11 or 12. We even managed to trek out to Atlanta one summer to see the finals. What a great time we had too.

The other big news for the week is the addition of a wireless router for our home network. Oh we are both thrilled with THIS wonderful piece of equipment. Having a wireless router means different things to CC and I. To me it means I no longer have to share the modem and by that I mean switching the cables from her machine to mine. We can now both surf at the same time, no problem. It also means I can access the Internet with my PDA should I decide I want to check mail from the sofa or maybe do a little browsing. For CC, it means a WHOLE lot more. Her laptop has a wireless card in it so right now she can access the Internet from any room in the apartment, including from the balcony. For the past few days she's been doing HER work from the comfy chair over by the sofa. Yes, we are just LOVING it.

Three day weekend for us so that means visits to the family. Might not get to blog again until Tuesday.

Happy 4th of July everyone!