would somebody shut her up?!
February 12, 2007
Okay. Continuously horrid weather notwithstanding, I am going to try, once more, to go all �pull your bitch-ass out of the doldrums� on myself. Wish me luck!
And lots of it. Spouse is working the training schedule for the next three weeks, so I will get absolutely NO me time. Between all that I have on my plate at work, and him working the day shift, it�s adding up to three weeks = zero life. For one thing, I�m going to be cooking dinner pretty regularly, which means dishes, and cleaning up, and before you know it, your evening�s shot. For another, he�ll be pissy and pouty if I�m on the computer all evening.
Last Thursday, I came out to go to work and had a flat on my right front. I called the office to say I�d be late, and the Spouse got up and put the spare on, so I could go to the tire place when they opened at eight. No fuss, no muss�they did their usual �under ten bucks, under ten minutes� tire repair, and I came to work. No worries.Until I was headed home from work on Friday. Wubbawubbawubba went the tire, and I pulled off to the shoulder of the tollway. I peeked out my passenger door, and was greeted by the sight of an ugly bulge, like my tire was blowing a bubble. I sat back, sighed, called Spouse, and jumped about a foot when the damn tire went POP.
Spouse leaves work, and heads south, I sit there with the blinkers on and cringe every time a semi blows past me. And pretty soon, I was treated to a welcome sight in my rearview�A H.E.L.P. (Highway Emergency Lane Patrol) Truck. Or as we call them around here, a Minuteman. He changed my tire and got me on my way, and out of harms way, and I drove home on the spare. When I called Spouse to let him know I was rolling again, we decided to meet at the house and go right away for new tires.
After an abortive attempt to get some service at Wally�s, we popped down the road a piece, and went to the Farm and Fleet. A few bucks more a tire, but what good is cheap if they can�t install �em, right? It was going to take a while to get the old hoss re-shod, so we cruised around the wonderfulness of the �Farmandbarn�, as Spouse calls it.
A mega-general-store, where you can buy car parts and horse chow and candy and veterinary antibiotics and very nice clothes from Alfred Dunner and Sag Harbor and cooking spices and pretty candles and rat poison and new sneakers and riding lawnmowers and�yeah. What a place!
Since I�ve long known that F&F is the only reliable place for me to buy jeans, I strolled over to ladieswear to see what they had. Score! 2 pair of my fave brand, my size, my length. $24.00. FOR TWO PAIR!!!. Love that place. Love it.
Then I scoped out the clearance rack, and bought a couple of fine-gauge knit sweaters at fifty percent off. A cute moss-green textured knit with short sleeves, and a Sag Harbor shell with a cable detail around the neckline�also short sleeves.
And I bought pig ears and 50 pounds of birdseed and a calendar and windshield washer solvent and�why are you looking at me like that?
You can take the girl out of the country, I guess�
After we got back to K-town, Spouse and I were starting to feel the effects of skipping both breakfast and lunch. The good news was, Spouse knew what he wanted�fish fry.
The bad news? We recently lost our fish place, and no other option pleased him. He wanted to get take out, he didn�t want to go to a bar, boody hoo hoo hoo what a whiner.So guess who made fried fish at home Friday night? No biggie, really�apart from the mess. And I have to admit it was freakin� awesome, considering that I just used frozen cod fillets and boxed batter mix. And frozen French fries.
We had lots of running around to do on Saturday morning�the bank and the tax lady and the post office and such, and then it was time to play a bit.We headed to Gurnee, because Spouse wanted to hit Borders to pick up Ralph Steadman�s Thompson memoir.
And I was revved and ready for some purse shopping. Since I already knew pretty much what I wanted, I should have been doomed to miserable failure, right?
Well, fate is a wonderful thing. There I was, $50 Kohl�s gift card in hand, and there it was�my brand, a favorite style, the color (RED!) I wanted. And 50% off, baby. Oooh, come to Mama. Nine & Company tote-style in the red mini-logo print. And because it was on sale, I was able to update my wallet as well�and still have 15 bucks on my gift card. Spouse was dumbfounded that I was able to get a purse and wallet I loved and be paid and out of the store in less than ten minutes. But when it�s right, it�s right.
So. Sexy red purse & sexy red wallet,(to go with my sexy red day planner)�and the same cell phone from 2001?
Nope�We hit the sprint phone store at the mall, to see what could be done in the way of upgrades. Since I�d been eligible for a $150.00 new phone credit since 2002, I could walk out with a brand new camera phone for free. And so I did. Upgraded my plan while I was there, too. Oh, and that new phone? It�s RED!
So I had a new phone, new purse, new wallet�new outlook on life. And I hadn�t spent a cent of my own money. Time to celebrate. Let�s go to lunch�on the Chillis giftcard!!
Now that took a lot of effort on my part, actually. Not only was it the first time I�d been to Chillis since I caught the Norwalk virus there five years ago, it was even the same damn one! And I have to confess, I just picked at lunch, because my associative nausea was so strong.
In fact? I�m feeling queasy right now, just thinking about it.
But hey�free shopping, free lunch, life is good.
By the by, anyone want to guess how long Spouse lasted after I got a new phone?
No?
We didn�t make it all the way through lunch before he had to have a new one, too. And not a free one, either. He had to have the model that was $30 more than the new phone credit. Cripes, that man is spoiled.
Pushing my luck further on Saturday, I decided I couldn�t live another moment with the filthiness of my car. Spouse stopped to fill up and ran it through the attached wash. Pushed it a bit too far, apparently. My antenna snapped off. Snickumfrackumgrmph. He�d better fix it tonight, because I�m mighty cranky if I don�t get my twice-daily dose of NPR.
We were both pooped when we got home from all that, so we settled back and played with our new toys�I changed out my purse and wallet, and we programmed our phone numbers into the new phones. Spouse wiped all the data off the old ones, and I got all the chargers and manuals together for them, to donate to the women�s shelter.
Then we ordered Italian takeout from the Pizza Place in Another State. Which was great. We went the parmiggiana/spaghetti route. Spouse had the veal, I had the eggplant. Better than Sazio, in my opinion.
Since I played on Saturday, Sunday was housework day. Although I�ve been plagued with an agonizingly painful neck/shoulder fuckupedness, I managed to do 5 loads of wash, straighten, vacuum, dust, breakdown my vacuum for periodic maintenance, make my duty call to my parents, clean the kitchen & wash dishes twice, and clean out the fridge.But he made dinner (mostly)�so everything�s even, right?
You would have thought that a broken antenna was an adequate price to pay, clean car karma-wise. But apparently, the additional fee of one bitch of a winter snowfall is also being charged. It started snowing yesterday, and it isn�t supposed to stop until Wednesday afternoon. The K-town forecast isn�t quite as bad, but since I have to drive almost to Cook County, Illinois every day, I have to deal with the shit that�s hitting the Chicago area.
Reading: �The Second Rumpole Omnibus�, (containing �Rumpole for the Defence�, �Rumpole and the Golden Thread�, and �Rumpole�s Last Case�). Just a small part of the faboo haul I made last week at the University Women�s used book sale.
Listening: I�ve been watching�and listening to--a lot of obscure clips from old variety shows, courtesy of all that is YouTube. My current favorite is a special effects trio number from Julie Andrews�Julie, Eliza Doolittle, and Mary Poppins singing �Supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous� together�all Julie, and all brilliant. But Bea Arthur and Rock Hudson singing a duet about drug use was pretty friggin� cool, too.
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