tikatu | Entries tagged with hubby

Yeah, this isn't writing or fandom related but it's important!

Over the past couple of years, Hubby and I have backed a number of different Kickstarters. We backed two collected volumes of a favorite webcomic, Girl Genius, ending up with hardcover versions and a number of cool rewards for our support. Hubby has backed several games, most by his favorite game designer, James Earnest. He tries to choose games we'll play as a family, like Pairs, a new card game. With our shipment on that one, we got three different sets of cards (one with artwork from the Girl Genius artists, Phil and Kaja Foglio) and the extra game, Falling. We're still waiting on our copies of three different games from the Pack O' Games line published by Perplext, but otherwise, we have pretty much everything we backed last year.

Even though Hubby swore he wouldn't back any games this year, two have come up that we both felt we had to have!

( You know you want to read it! )

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: my little corner
Current Music: "A Thousand Years" by the Piano Guys

Part of last night’s conversation was in response to Boy #2’s suggestion that we watch The Scarlet Pimpernel (Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, and Ian McKellan, 1982). We finally bought a DVD version of this because our taped-from-my-parents’-TV VHS copy died. Hubby led off the discussion on “fictional gentlemen adventurers with secret identities”, with an eye to finding out if there was one older than Sir Percy Blakeney. I mean, the Baroness D’Orczy wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel back in 1903. There had to be somebody!

Well, we really couldn’t think of one! Zorro, whose pedigree is similar, wasn’t created until 1919 in “The Curse of Capistrano”. The Shadow, another “wealthy man about town” was 1930. Wikipedia suggests Sherlock Holmes to have or be a secret identity, but he was more a master of disguise – then again, so is Sir Percy! But, as Hubby put it, “he’s not going around under an assumed name in a more or less constant fashion”.

Tonight I brought up two old Disney favorites that I thought might be relevant. One was the Swamp Fox, who is a historical figure anyway and not at all fictional. The “old swamp fox” was a sobriquet the British gave him.

The other was the Scarecrow, or the Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn, who was a smuggler and pirate with a “secret identity” of a country vicar. Hubby brought out the fact that the man was not a hero, and a quick look at Wikipedia showed that his first appearance was 1915. Hubby mentioned a character in an operetta, that of an archeologist who had a secret identity of a freedom-fighter in Northern Africa. The operetta was The Desert Song, and was written in 1926. It was inspired both by tales of Lawrence of Arabia and a 1925 uprising in Morocco. The archeologist’s name was Pierre Birabeau and his heroic alter ego was The Red Shadow. (It had a really cool song: The Riffs.)

So, as far as I can tell, ol’ Percy is an original! Do any of my readers or friends have any candidates? (And don’t you just love our table talk?)

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: my bed, with my feet up
Current Music: Fred rattling at me, saying, "I'm gonna DIE!"

Within just a day, I’ve had the pleasure of hauling out my Thunderbirds knowledge (with all the attendant books and other paraphernalia) to help a couple of fellow fanfic writers and personal friends. It was certainly fun, especially all the stuff about Alan Tracy’s educational background. Add to this my posting the first chapter of one of my short stories (Burning Muses) at AO3 and uploading a new post to my RP, and I’m full of Thunderbirds at the moment. It’s given me quite a hunger for fic and for writing or editing what I already have up. I edited the first chapter of Burning Muses, making it tighter. In many respects it was like my edit of the little scene I wrote a few days ago. The changes I made brought forth Brains’s voice and made him less … poetic. (Because if Brains is anything, it is NOT poetic.)

Then, there was the chatter at the dinner table. We went from Gosford Park to Downton Abbey (which we have not seen) to Acorn (which streams Downton Abbey), and then to Netflix – where movies are more plenteous in DVD than in streaming. This led to BBC America (and how we could get it on cable), to other premium cable services, to Game of Thrones and whether or not the TV series matched the novels. That particular thought brought out movies that didn’t match their source material – Boy #2 brought up the Percy Jackson movie (The Lightning Thief). This brought the whole shebang back to … Thunderbirds! The Girl’s comment: “I knew there was another kids movie like that! ” Hubby brought up that Frakes had said in an post-film interview that he directed the movie that the producers wanted, even though he knew the fans would be “annoyed by it” (Hubby’s words, not Frakes’s.) I promptly chimed in. “Annoyed? Annoyed?” Which, of course, is far too mild a term to describe the old guard’s intense hatred of the film.

Maybe if he’d stayed closer to the source material, we’d have had another Thunderbirds movie. After all, there will be another Percy Jackson film, coming out this year.

Some fandoms get all the luck…

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: my own little corner
Current Music: the dishwasher running in the kitchen

Since Camp NaNoWriMo was such a bust for me (August is way busy at my house. Who knew?) I'm going to get myself back into the "writing daily routine" by doing a "drabble-a-day" challenge. If you want to join in, feel free. I'm using the traditional definition of a drabble: a story of exactly 100 words. I'm also trying to write fandom drabbles (mostly Thunderbirds as I know that best) using prompts from various sources -- particuarly

all_unwritten. Not all their prompts are in their prompt list; however, I went through and copied the list to a file, adding the ones that weren't on there. If you want a copy, poke me via email and I'll send it along.

So far, I've written a very depressing drabble and added it to Mosaic. Today I wrote two, one because a bunny bit for a missing scenelet and the other because I'd depressed one of my readers with yesterday's drabble. If anyone could give me some beta/feedback on them, I'd be much obliged.

thatgirlsix is currently swamped by real life (love, hugs, and prayers to you and yours, Six!) and

funkycheese has started back to teaching. (Girlfriend, you really need to update that name!)

Well, the Hubby is on his way home in our cute little 2006 Chevy Aveo (the Girl's daily commute to university really underscored the need for a second car, one with way better gas mileage and fewer repair issues. Credit unions are simply awesome at this loan thing.) I'll post pictures of it when I can pry them out of the Girl's camera.

Later!

Current Mood: determined
Current Location: at Sallie's side...
Current Music: the oscillating fan blowing in cooler air

We rented four movies and watched them over Saturday night and today. Here are the movies we watched, in order of watching them.

Detective Dee -- a Chinese action/detective movie set in China's past. We've heard recordings of the "Judge Dee" stories, which were based on a historical figure named Di Renjie from the Tang dynasty. So, to some extent, we were familiar with the character, though this took a lot of liberties with him. The sets were fantastic and the fight scenes were choreographed by Sammo Hung, who had an American TV detective show of his own some years back. The funniest part was the disconnect between the English subtitles (which we had on so my husband could understand the dialog) and the English dubbing. The subtitles were probably a more faithful translation of the Chinese, especially since the word "beetles" in the subtitles (referring to "fire beetles") was translated into the English dialog as "turtles"! (Believe me, when you finally saw these things, you knew they weren't turtles at all!) Lots of fun for us.

The Three Musketeers -- This was the most recent one, with airships and martial-arts style fight sequences. The dialog could be terribly corny with the French nobility sounding like a whole lot of modern-day Americans. Even Cardinal Richelieu says something as crass as, "Yep." Hubby was particularly affronted by Richelieu's swordplay in the movie, though he never uses it against the Musketeers. Not a bad romp, but horribly unfaithful to the story. Of interest: D'Artagnan's horse is named Buttercup, and Athos quotes from The Princess Bride.

Kung Fu Panda 2 -- Loved this film. So much I could say about it, but I'll just stick to this one thing: Po finds out about himself and who he is (and may actually be reunited with his father in the next one. There better be a next one.)

Finally, Tintin -- We saved the best for last here. We have a huge selection of these books thanks to my BIL from Hong Kong (who knows what his brother likes). This script merges three different books: The Crab with Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham's Treasure. The motion-capture and CGI are really good here and the characterization is spot-on. I love Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock! Lots of action, adventure, flying bullets, and spunky dog sidekicks. I think one of the best scenes occurs near the end when Haddock and Sakharine (the villain) basically duel with dockside loading cranes.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: in my own little corner
Current Music: the oscillating fan blowing in cooler air

Lake wind advisory for our area means my windchimes in front and back are dancing while there's a God Almighty draft through the tatterered weather stripping on the side door (thank you very much, Inky and Kami). The kids are playing either Okami (PS2) or Pokémon (DS). I have a crockpot full of chicken corn chowder going in the kitchen. Hubby has the car so I don't have to pick him up. Fortunately for him, his thermal underwear was ready for him to wear today as I'm very sure he needed it.

More later if I'm in the mood.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: inside, where it's warmer
Current Music: my dancing windchimes and the whistling wind

Yes, hubby and I had a date today! It was his non-scheduled day (the USPS's polite term for "day off"); all the kids are back to classes--including the Girl--and he had a doctor's appointment this morning. He was gone when I got up, and didn't get home until nearly lunchtime. The doctor talked to him about his diabetes, and did a hemoglobin A1C test... and the number was in the normal range! Woot! Cause to celebrate! Which we did, at the Olive Garden, for their soup and salad deal.

On top of that, today was the debut of his comic strip on Comics Sherpa. It's a subscription website, as in I bought him a year's subscription so he could put his work up there. He feels that he'll get better exposure for his comic there than at ComicsGenesis, where he's had it posted for years. There will be fewer strips to compete with, and truthfully, I think his is one of the better drawn contributions. (Though definitely check out "What cats can and can't do". Very funny stuff!) He's writing and drawing some new strips for the new site, and is dropping his "Maximall" feature for now, concentrating instead on his comic space opera. He wants to put stuff up daily, but we'll see. It depends on what kind of time he has to draw in the evenings... and the rest of today.

So, here's introducing....

Space Time Funnies

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: at my desktop
Current Music: "The Donkey Serenade" by the King's Singers

Or just about. The TGIO party is tonight, and that's pretty much it. I'll write one more pep talk to send out.

All in all, it was a great year for me as an ML. There was a lot of excitement, especially from the newbies, and lots of things happening that we haven't had before. A Twitter, facebook page, google calendar, chat room--this last got pretty busy during the last few days as we helped some of our writers word war their way to 50K. We had 110 people post word counts (up from last year's 70+), and 39 winners from among that number. So many of them didn't come to a single write-in, party, nor did they post on the forums--which is kind of sad. They missed out on a lot of great cameraderie.

In other matters, I took the car to WalMart's Tire and Lube department for an oil change. The van really needed one. They changed the air filter, and told me there was some fluid leakage (probably something to do with the recall I got on the van last week. Need to contact the dealership to have it fixed.) I also got my hair cut.

I don't think I've been as dissatisfied with a cut as much as I am with this one. I had the majority of the length taken off, enough to donate to Locks Of Love once it dries. But the stylist gave me a "stack" cut, which is shorter in the back than it is up front. I thought the back was too short, and she didn't even up the sides, either. Probably would look better if the left side was as curly and fluffy as the right, but it isn't. The discrepancy is pretty obvious. I may go back and have her fix it. We'll see. At least it's only hair and it WILL grow back, even if I'm looking at 6-12 months for it to be long enough to cut again.

Well, I'm waiting for Hubby's call, though I may send the Girl out to fetch him. I feel like I've been in the car all day. And the doctor gave me a muscle relaxant and another script for naproxen for that pain in my side. I didn't mention the idea that I had about the kidney stone. He has also "prescribed" a pedicure.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: in my own little corner, in my own little chair

Gonna make this as quick and painless as possible.

Hubby: The meds seem to be kicking in. For a couple of mornings this week, he had good bg numbers. The dietician says he should take his bg before bed, and not before supper. That way they can see if the meds are working overnight. He's got an appointment for a diabetic nutrition seminar on Oct. 15. I'm going with him as I could use the refresher. He's found that some of the McDonald's around here serve diet Dr. Pepper, which has pleased him no end.

The Girl: She still needs to buy some books for her classes. She's finding her design class to be tougher than she thought. She's also reconnected with one of her friends from church (who no longer goes there either).

Boy #1: He's been asked to join the academic team; I tell him he should join because he's smart. He's decided to do NaNo this year; his English teacher requires that her students enter three writing contests during the year. She says NaNo will count for all three. I talked to her about it and about the YWP on Open House night. Who knows, maybe she'll join up, too. She also asked him how he could do so well in his classes (his progress report is all A's with just 1 B) when he reads so much.

Boy #2: He's back to afterschool stuff on Thursdays. Legos Robotics and Math Counts. They're planning on fielding a Robotics team this year; I can hardly wait to see how this goes. His progress report was good, too. He's only getting Bs in his Honors classes.

Me: I'm trying to get back into a lower-carb lifestyle myself, but it's hard. Writing is coming slowly, which isn't good as I'll want to pick up the pace for NaNo this year. Put up the next chapter of The White Winds last night. This story will be a good 300K when it's finally done. Let out a little squee when I got my 500th review! I'm going to try and wrap it up in October and get it out of my hair before NaNo I also need to work on my RP posts; that's my goal for today.

Not much to say about the pets, except that Kami is doing things that both of our departed cats liked to do. She's killing snakes and trying to drink from the bathtub like Callie used to, and likes to come into the bathroom like Tika used to. Was quite the shock to find the present she left in the kitchen: a dead snake! Oh, and we lost one of the immortal striped danios. Down to two fish in the tank.

Rainy and cool today. Feels like fall. Wish it would stay this cool.

That's all for now. Over and out.

Current Mood: working
Current Location: at my desk
Current Music: the kids playing the PS2 in the background

I found a link to a site where new desktops and themes are designed for XP. Since Microsoft doesn't create new ones for XP, just for Vista (I'd guess), and I wanted something new, I downloaded and managed to figure out how to install a spiffy new theme. Now my windows have cool new borders and my start menu has a shiny new look.

With that done, I decided to change my lj theme, too. It's not much of a change, just basically new colors. I still have to go in and customize my links, but it's the same style as the old theme, with the tag cloud I like so much. I should go looking for new themes and skins for other sites, like my Thunderbirds site. The forum and the gallery could both use a face lift, if there are some available.

I've been trying, without a whole lot of success, to finish my latest chapter. I also have a post to write for my RP. The whole running around with my head cut off on Tuesday (Hubby had a doctor's appointment, so I had to ferry the girl back and forth to college and him to and from the apppointment.) really tired me out, as did the whoopie pie baking spree that night. Tomorrow, Hubby will likely not be called in, which is okay as he has an MRI scheduled. His hearing, which hasn't been the best for years, has gone sharply downhill lately. He is having extreme trouble hearing anyone. He says he feels like there's fluid behind his ears, and like it fills up in the afternoons. My MIL suggests he use a decongestant to see if that will help it drain. She thinks it could be a result of allergies, which is entirely possible.

His PCP gave him a steroid, which didn't seem to help much, and it's his ENT specialist that has ordered the MRI and a couple of blood tests, one of them genetic. It seems that the testing they did in the office just makes the specialist puzzled over my husband's condition. His hearing is flat across the range, instead of a curve, which is very unusual. The specialist did remark that he had the hearing of a 70 year old!

So, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we try to get to the bottom of this. Hearing aids are likely in his future, unless they can figure out what's going on and actually treat it.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: in my own little corner, in my own little chair

Now, I know after reading this, you Northerners will say, "Pfffft! That's nothing!" but for the South, this is something!

When I started writing this, the temperature was at 19°F with a wind chill factor bringing the temperature down to 6° F. For my European friends, that's -7°C, with a wind chill factor of -14°C.

Yeah. 6°.

That's bitterly cold down here.

No snow, just wind and sun. The mountains got snow, and I think some of the center of the state did, too. We took the kids to school instead of letting them wait for the bus. Inside the house it's 58°, and the heater is struggling to get us up to the programmed 64°. The Hubby says that it's better than 19°! Which is true, but still! It's going to make showering a bit on the chilly side. I think I might do some baking to help warm the house up!

Since Hubby is home, he's trying to find a way to get our HDTV antenna to catch the most signals. Right now, we get half the channels we did with our simple broadcast TV. But stations more than, say, 10 miles away, nothing. No channel 7 (which is out of Spartanburg and has the Girl's favorite, NCIS), or channel 13 (which is out of Ashville). No channel 62 (which is affiliated with channel 7)... Hubby is getting the idea that this HDTV isn't all it's cracked up to be! And that we might need an outdoor antenna if we want to watch the stations that we're used to. At least he'll have better weather to put it up with if we get it for next week: it's supposed to be in the mid to upper 60s by his next day off--which is Monday!

Well, as I wrap this up, we're at 25° and the windchill is 16°. A veritable heat wave! </sarcasm>

ETA: I found out that my story "Grandpa's Hat" has been added to the featured stories list on Fan Nation's homepage! Thank you, featured story committee for choosing me!

As a result, I've uplated my Fan History page to reflect this and to mention my new site, Thunderbirds Central (still under construction). Makes me realize that I need to write articles about IR Central and Tracy Island IR.

And to my fellow Thunderbirds fans out there: I'm looking for active sites and communities to list on my links page at TBC (hey, a joke name!). If you know of any, please email or add them to my post here (or at Tracy Island IR, Thunderbirds Central forum, IR:TNP forum, or IR Central).

I'm looking for fan sites, fanfiction sites, fan art sites and pages, forums, merchandise sites, and the occasional oddity (like the Gerry Anderson origami page I found last night). Doesn't matter if they're movie or TV oriented; I want them all - though it would be helpful if you could let me know which universe they fall in! I'm also interested in foreign language sites (I have a few Japanese fan art ones; I'll likely have to put their titles in as gif images for those who don't have Japanese language support). My only requirement is that they have been updated in the past year. Thanks much!

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: my chilly living room
Current Music: my wind chimes outside

( cutting for the weak of stomach... like me )

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Location: my desk
Current Music: hubby listening to a movie on the laptop

I've been in a baking for a couple of days now. Yesterday, it was banana bread, just to use up the very overripe bananas that were sitting on the counter. Two loaves, one a bit too heavy on the walnuts. Then I made chocolate chip cookie dough, which I baked up today (I'm of the opinion that cookie dough like this needs to congeal in the fridge in order to keep from melting all over the pan). Night before last I made batter for pumpkin pancakes (delicious!). I have molasses cookies planned, too, as long as we don't run out of sugar.

We finished up chapter 12 in the RP last night. Now we've started chapter 13, and I have three posts waiting to be beta'd, with two to write. Things look like they're going to pick up quickly, which I'm excited about. The Girl drew a very nice picture of one of the characters and his son. Very cute and I think she really caught the adult character's face and attitude.

Last night, I took Lacey out for her very last potty-break before putting her into her crate for the night. She wandered over to the neighbor's yard, just close enough to turn on the motion-sensitive light over their carport. And there, sitting on the top step, looking up as if waiting for someone to open the front door, was their beagle, Bo. Bo has the run of their fenced-in yard, but once in a while he manages to get out. I went down to the gate to see if I could figure out what happened. Seems there's a low spot between their driveway and the gate that he can wriggle out through. There's a cinderblock on the inside of the fence, and I know I heard him working away at it when we went to the back yard. There were a lot of leaves there, and he was rustling those around and making little noises as if he'd caught something to play with. Yeah. He was playing with that cinderblock!

So, I woke the neighbors by ringing the doorbell. I felt bad about it; it was late. But I figured they didn't want Bo out and about on his own. The husband came to the door and took Bo inside, and as I went back in, I saw the lights in their back yard go on and heard the cinderblock being slid back into place.

The kids have Friday and next Monday off, and the Hubby's non-scheduled days are Friday and Saturday. So, he should get a long weekend (unless he gets called in to work) and so should they.

I just can't get "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" out of my head...

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: my desk
Current Music: "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego" by Rockapella

Clear blue sky, temperatures in the low 70s... a fabulous, brisk breeze. Feels like fall in South Carolina. I have the side door open and both windows in the living room - with the AC unit off! The bugs aren't too bad at the moment, though I should find something to cover the doorway and keep more of them out.

The maples are already turning color. I hear there's a bumper crop of apples up in Hendersonville - I want to go there this year and get some good cooking apples.

Lacey has been very demanding today, seems she wants to go out every time I turn around. With the weather like this, I don't blame her, but it makes my day all the harder.

I think I'm going to turn off the other ACs tonight before I hit the hay. The one in back needs some cleaning out, and all of them should have their filters cleared. If the weather remains this good, I'll have Hubby put them up this weekend.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: my desk - right beside the open door
Current Music: the dogs barking and the crickets chirping

Ganked from the lively

darsynia.

They are watching TV, what are they watching?
Um, whatever DVDs of interest they find at the library. Most recently: The Prisoner

You're out to eat what kind of dressing do they get on their salad?
none at all - he eats them dry :P

What's one food this person doesn't like?
Chocolate - unless it has a lot of something else in it, like peanut butter (the infidel!)

You go out to the bar. He/she orders......
Bar, what bar? Oh well, if we go to a restaurant with a bar, it's always, always Dr. Pepper. Keep 'em coming.

Where did he/she go to high school?
Battle Creek

What size shoe do they wear?
12 wide, a half size more than our son now wears... yikes!

If this person were to collect anything, it would be......
Comic books, books on comic books, comics on books... I think you get the picture

What is their favorite type of sandwich?
Ooh, toughie! A Rheuben, light on the sauerkraut

This person could eat_____everyday.
Chili

Favorite cereal?
Raisin Bran... uh, yeah.

This person wouldn't be caught dead wearing...
T-shirts with rude sayings on them.

Favorite sports team?
Sports? What sports?

Who will he/she vote for?
McCain

What is their sign?
Aries

What is something you do that he/she wishes you didn't?
Spend so much time on the computer

How many states has this person lived in?
Three! MI, PA, and SC

What is his/her heritage? (correcting the bad grammar here!)
English and Irish, I think

You bake them a cake for their birthday...what is it?
Carrot cake!

Did he/she play sports in high school?
Sports? What sports?

This person could spend hours doing...
Reading

Current Mood: mischievous
Current Location: in my own little corner, in my own little chair
Current Music: the nature video Boy #1 is watching

Well, it's been a weird day... and a good one in a lot of ways.

We've been thinking about a laptop for some time now, and with the vacation coming up, the Hubby had expressed the idea that he doesn't want to see me go through computer withdrawal. So, we've been checking out some options to see what we can get for the least amount of money. We checked on Tiger Direct and Dell, first, but what I wanted cost more than I really wanted to pay. My brother got his through a "rent-to-own" place, so we were thinking about that option - though we knew it would be a monthly bill we really couldn't afford (and we'd end up paying a whole lot more in the long run). This week, a liquidation "show" was advertising laptops from $199. So we thought we'd check out the options a little more.

One of the rent-to-own places advertised some "cash and carry" computers with laptops starting at $299, so we went there. No laptops, just a desktop available. The liquidation "show" charged $5 to enter; with my kids it would have been $15. This was conspicuously left off their ads, on TV, radio, and online. It smacked of a scam to me, so we didn't go in.

We headed for Best Buy, stopping at the local computer repair and building spot to check their prices. Nothing appealed to me. In the car, we started talking about shoes, and how much the kids (and I) needed them. The road Best Buy is on was busy, so we took a sudden detour into a shoe store, where I found sneakers for all the kids (the Girl found her favorites, in her size, and on clearance! She bought two pair!!). Then we went to the New Balance store to order sneakers for me (I had a coupon!).

Then... we stopped in at Circuit City. Why not? It was right next to the New Balance store. Just to look, mind you. I wasn't seriously considering buying there; really I wasn't. But I found a computer without a price on it... and when I asked one of the sales people, he said, "Oh, that's the $399 one."

Ears perked up. He went to get the sign that should have been there. The specs were good: 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD... the things I wanted where there. A Compaq Presario. The deal was I pay the sale price and get over $200 in mail-in rebates. I talked to the kids... don't ever talk to the kids on a decision like this! They all said, go for it! In three-part harmony. With their own reasons (like two of them playing Runescape at the same time). So, I took a deep breath, and plunged in.

It's sitting on a chair, charging the battery. Vista will take time to learn, but I'm insisting on a mouse. Those little track pads and I don't get along.

Then Hubby came home. He wasn't upset at all about the choice, as long as we could still go out to dinner for our anniversary. Which we did. The Melting Pot - very classy fondue place. I'd made reservations, and when we got there, they'd left a cute anniversary card at the table for us. The food - particularly the cheese fondue and the chocolate fondue - was wonderful! Well, except for the jerk-flavored steak - I didn't care for that much. I loved the Greek Goddess and the Ginger Pear dipping sauces! Very expensive meal; far more expensive than we're used to. But it was worth it for the togetherness, and time alone.

So, an unusual and expensive day!

The rebates go out in the morning...

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: back in my own comfy chair
Current Music: the rumble of the air conditioner

Yes, it's our wedding anniversary today. Hubby and I have been married 21 years today. I can't say it's all been fun; we've certainly had our share of mistakes and troubles. But we love each other more than ever, and it's hard to believe it's been this long, really.

Plans for tonight... I made reservations at the local fondue place; it's been years since we've been there. Last year, things were so crazy that we couldn't go out and celebrate. I've also been looking for an inexpensive laptop so I don't go into computer withdrawal during our vacation.

Have things to do with my sites, so I'll get going on that. Also trying to create a banner. More later if the muse moves.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: in my corner of the living room
Current Music: a DVD the kids are watching

Yes, it's raining again!

We've had scattered showers every day since Saturday, which is good considering how dry we've been lately. The showers never last long - maybe 20 minutes at the most - but they're heavy and sometimes have thunder/lightning accompanying them. I keep telling my friends up north to send the rain down to us; looks like they've been able to send a bit here and there! LOL!

The Hubby is home today, and is playing chauffeur for a change. He went down to the Bro's house to get the Girl (and the Niece, who will be staying until Sunday) and then it was off to take Boy #1 to a friend's house for a few days. This isn't getting the fence finished, but I don't mind. The weather has been so hot that he's been drained at the end of the day. At least with the van, he's in air conditioning.

I've been working on TWW Ch 62. It's slow-going because I know what I want the characters to say, but they keep pushing things along faster than I want. So I'm doing a lot of rewriting as I go. I also have a bit of Overtures 27 done, and have a new scene in my head for my Tracy sister fic. On top of all this, I went through my bunny hutch file and found a plot bunny that made me write at least one little scene on it! Feast or famine in the land of inspiration these days. Sorta like the rain. Either we're dry or we're really wet.

Now the rain is done for the moment, and the sun is trying to come out and turn everything to steam. Yuck! Bring on more rain!

ETA: And we had more rain! A lovely heavy thunderstorm came through and pushed me off the computer for a bit. Drenching rain, thunder, lightning, a power blip... who could ask for more?!

Current Mood: restless
Current Location: by the spitting air conditioner
Current Music: the rumble of the air conditioner

Our economic stimulus check arrived yesterday! Hubby has today off, so he's taken it down to the credit union to put some in the checking and some in savings - if we can do that. Most of what we put in savings will go to our trip to visit the Hubby's family in August.

Last night we celebrated by hitting IHOP - where I had the worst cup of coffee I've had in a long, long while. Since before Chick-Fil-A changed over to their coffeehouse blends. Turns out that IHOP changed their coffee about three months ago, and since I hadn't ordered any at our last visit, I didn't know. The gal at the register asked if everything was okay, and I mentioned the coffee - she took the cost of the coffee off our charge, which was nice of her. She also said she didn't like it either, and she took hers black.

Now I'm sitting here with a good cup of coffee and hoping to get some actual writing done today once I finish updating my MSN groups.

ETA: Well, so much for getting any writing done. After Hubby finished at the credit union, and stopped at Home Depot, he suggested we get the new tires we needed for the car. They were nearly bald on the outside and the belts were showing. He also suggested we get some of the clothes that the kids needed - they've worn out or grown out of so much! So I agreed and we all piled into the car to head for WalMart.

Four long hours later, we're finally home. We got an oil change (badly needed), and two tires, and shorts for the boys... but four hours? The dog was sooo happy to see us!

Still need to finish up Tracy Island IR... then maybe some writing. Maybe.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: in front of my computer screen, where else?
Current Music: "White Night, True LIght" from DNAngel

And a happy Father's day for all the dads I know... including my own, my FIL, and my beloved Hubby!

As the title states, the Girl took the second of her College Board tests - the ACT - yesterday. She said it wasn't quite as hard as the SAT and she was glad she didn't have to write an essay. Hubby had Friday and Saturday off as his regular days off, and spent much of yesterday digging post holes for the fence, then repairing the spigot at the side of the house. Friday he went grocery shopping with me, which was nice.

Today we gave him cards and a gift: another Dr. Pepper t-shirt! It's getting to be a household joke - don't know what to get Dad? Get him a Dr. Pepper shirt! I think he has four or five of them now, including the long sleeved thermal one, and not including his sweatshirt style jacket. At least the one we got him today was different; it's two shades of gray instead of the sort of murky red that the others ones are. Next up: Dr. Pepper sleep pants...

Dinner was great! Boy #1 gets into cooking, and did the 5-cup salad for me yesterday, then heated the green beans (his choice of veggie). He also set up the skewers for our first try at grilled seafood: shrimp and scallop kabobs. Hubby did the actual grilling, but Boy #1 set everything up for him. Man, that was good! We used this seafood seasoning shaker stuff on the kabobs. Marvelous flavor addition. And since we thawed out ALL of the seafood, we get to do it again either today or tomorrow! Yum!

Now it's time for me to call my dad and wish him a Happy Father's Day. I don't know why, but both Mother's and Father's Days have just sort of crept up on me and caught me unawares. At least this time it was close enough to payday that I could get cards and gifts - and I put a little something in the packages for the moms, too. They probably should arrive by Tuesday.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: in front of my computer screen, where else?
Current Music: the PS2 being played in the living room

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tikatu

As My Muse Moves

November 2016

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Tikatu's Travels Through Time

Cats, coffee, chocolate ... life is good

Entries tagged with hubby

We like Kickstarters!

More scintillating dinner conversation!

A little fangasm!

Challenging myself

Mad Movie Weekend!

Windsday falls on Saturday.

A date!

It's over...

crazy life is crazy update

Been switching a few things around today.

Baby, it's COLD outside!

That was... unpleasant.

Odds and ends.

I could get used to this kind of weather.

Significant Other survey

The anniversary day

21 years and counting...

More rain! Yippee!!

Stimulating the economy....

Second test down...