Or….Adventures in House/Pet Sitting.

So I’m house sitting for my best friend Ben and his husband Tim while they are in Phoenix visiting Tim’s parents, not a bad gig at all.  The house is great, tons of movies, the dogs are easy, takes less time to get to work than driving from P’Burg, etc. but, this morning the house alarm starts beeping at 3:30. 

Now, maybe … just maybe, watching the extended uncut version of  The Strangers was not my best idea last night.  When the beeping starts all I can think is “OMG WTF do I do now there might be someone in the house!”   I cannot explain just how weird it felt to have the fight or flight thing kick in and the adrenaline rush.  Let’s quietly open the bedroom door and see if we hear anything downstairs in the totally dark 3000+ sq. foot house.  Out onto the landing I creep and turn on the foyer light still listening – what if they are in the shadows?  I summon my inner ‘butch’ and yell out “Hey, is someone down there?!” (Yes, like the criminale’s are gonna answer me?)  No answer.  I start realizing that if the alarm had actually been set off, surly the alarm company would have called by now asking if everything was okay, right?  Next I decide I shall pull a Montgomery Burns and order Smithers to ‘Release the Hounds!’ (Said hounds being a teacup Chihuahua and 2 small Cockapoos).  They don’t exactly go charging downstairs either….nice.

NOT what I wanted to see.

I decided to butch it up even more and try to find something to bash possible intruders with – now Ben and Tim have lots of nice things, a collection of ruby glass, various pottery pieces (yeah I’ll throw a piece of Roseville pottery…NOT), and other decorative objet d’art but nothing really usable as a weapon.  I finally settle on a metal finial/obelisk that I could use as a club…I guess and start downstairs with telephone, alarm fob (panic button FTW!), dogs (even remembered that I had to carry Lucy – the Chihuahua – downstairs).  Wow if a burglar had been there, imagine the site…..white guy in t-shirt and sweat shorts with pockets bulging from stuff; a chihuahua in one hand and an artful club in the other – I could disable the intruder with fits of laughter maybe?

Walking around turning on EVERY single light in the house and checking all doors and such didn’t take much time and I started to calm down.  Maybe it was a power surge/outage – nope, the clocks on the stove, microwave, dishwasher, etc. were not doing that flashy thing.  I did, however, draw the line at creeping around outside to see if anyone was out there but, surely a brightly lit house would deter them if they were still lurking.  Certainly the alarm company would have called if someone had set off the motion detectors or one of the window/door sensors.

Now I was wide awake sooooooooo let’s get the girls breakfast and make coffee … since we’re already up (I doubt I can convey the sarcasm strongly enough).  I guess this means that I will get an early start to head to the ‘burg to visit with Keith, my pups, and my bed today.  Tomorrow, he’s going to come up to Richmond and spend the day with me here. 

So yeah, that’s my day so far and it’s only *looks at clock* 5:41 AM now.  YAY the coffee is ready!

But, is it art?

 So I think (read as hope) that today’s visit at Davis & Nyczepir will be my last follow-up visit.  It has been about 2 years since my braces came off and I’m tired of the whole ordeal.  I mean it’s like any other doctor appointment – you wait for about 30-45 minutes or so, you see the doctor for maybe 5 minutes while he looks at the retainer and yer done. 

I have absolutely no regrets about getting the braces and I’m kinda glad that I didn’t have them when I was a youngster.  The 2 years FLEW by as an adult – though I can tell ya, I cursed the metal brackets MANY times when I wanted to eat out.  There really is no delicate way of trying to pry food out of those things and you hate to excuse yourself from the table every few minutes.  Leafy green things (spinach, kale, turnip greens, collards, salad) were the absolute WORST for me, not to mention 2 years of no popcorn or chewing gum.

My big thing now is remembering to wear my retainers at night when I go to bed.  One of the three of them is fixed so no worries there and putting the other two in my mouth really doesn’t take any effort – it’s just REMEMBERING to do it.  I need a little night time check-list like a 5 year old I guess.

As I said, I have no regrets about doing it – it is really amazing the amount of confidence it gave me.  I don’t cover my mouth like a little Geisha girlwhen I laugh anymore either which I REALLY like.  Now I have to work on making them super, uber white (I guess about 40 years of tea, smoking, and coffee do tend to take their toll on how lustrous your chompers look) – maybe one of those Zoomlaser whiteners?  Then again….lasers…..in my mouth…..mmmmaybe notsomuch.

I swear, yesterday we noticed that the house behind us is now for sale.  So – the house directly across the street; the one diagonally across from us; the house beside us (although I believe this has FINALLY been closed on – at the bargain basement price of $72, 500) and now the house behind us – all for sale.

It’s like those Verizon commercials with the creepy folks saying, “It’s a dead zone” *squinty eyes*

I’m not sure if it’s just folks not being able to afford their houses or if they are just leaving the ‘burg.  The folks across the street had maintained a condo in Richmond for many years and finally said they needed to have one household so they sold the Petersburg house.  The house next door to us has been vacant since the young lady that owned it got killed in a motorcycle accident in October 2007 and her parents figured they would just let the bank repo the house. (Kudos to us for maintaining two yards!)  Not sure what the story is with the folks diagonally across from us, they sort of keep to themselves and Cheryl (behind us) and her husband are an older couple – figure they just don’t need that much house (3100+ square feet) for just the two of them.

Sooooo I doubt it is us – no, really, we’re pretty cool neighbors.

My Heaven on Earth.

I know that sounds quite unappetizing but to me it is/was a WONDERFUL combination.  This time of year I start reminiscing about Easters and Spring Break in the Outer Banks (OBX for those that know) of North Carolina.  When my sisters and I were young, our paternal grandparents would take us to Nags Head for Easter.  I remember thinking at the time it was a HUGE deal because, if I recall correctly, we usually got out of school a day or two early.  I just remember thinking how neat it was that we got to miss school to go to the beach.

We would always stay at Travelers Inn, which was right across the street Jeannettes Pier (which was MUCH more impressive back in the day – before a hurricane took most of it away), and it had a swimming pool so we thought we were just the cat’s ass – hey we were KIDS what did we know.  My grandmother would hide those individually wrapped Brach’s marshmallow eggs out in the sand and shrubs around the hotel and the kids would hunt for them – making sure we didn’t step on or grab those evil little spinney seed pod thingees. *shudder*  I would always, ALWAYS try to wake up extra early to run across the street and see if, over night, the tides had brought any cool treasures to the beach that I could collect.  I was usually rewarded with bits of driftwood, some mermaid purses, broken shells and the like but, I vividly remember finding a conch shell that was only slightly chipped.  I don’t know what happened to that shell but, for the longest time, I had it in my bedroom while I was a boy at my parents house.

I think those initial trips to the Outer Banks were what started us on – well my – life long love of the place.  Some people like Virginia Beach; some like Myrtle Beach; some like the Florida coast – me….I’ll take the OBX over all of that.  I know my mom loves the place as much as I do.  Eh, I even remember our very first beach house that we rented in Salvo it was the Wimbledome.  We actually were repeat renters at this particular house but then as the years went by, we tried different homes.  The last one that we rented was the Idler – Keith and I rented that for mom because she had always wanted to stay at a house “on the beach” not 1 lot back, not ‘Ocean Side’ but, ON the beach.

We usually prefer to go down a bit further than Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, and Killdevil Hills to places like Salvo, Waves, Rodanthe (yes the recent Richard Gere movie is about this place), Avon etc..  No matter which house we stay in there are 2 prerequisites for a week long vacation in the OBX, we HAVE to go to The Blue Whale or Jobobs Trading Post- it’s in the rules…we just have to – and it wouldn’t be a summer vacation in the OBX without to me (or mom).

I need to start planning for one or more 2010 OBX trips.  I want to take more trips with my nieces and nephews and my parents and such but, I also want to take vacations with “My” family – us, our son & daughter-in-law and of course our granddaughter.  I’ve decided that it’s going to be part of Audrey’s life too once she gets a bit older – going to the OBX.  I hope she falls in love with it as much as I did.

In the meantime I’ll just wax sentimental with my childhood memories of sun, sand, and easter eggs.

Sand and Eggs and Sand

This morning, the “National Organization for Marriage” launched a disturbing ad using actors to push lies claiming that marriage equalty threatens personal freedoms. The ad is going up on the airwaves across America — eight times a day in California — as NOM seeks to build what they are calling a “rainbow coalition” against equality.

What is REALLY laughable is that they say the people in the ad are not actors but, here are the audition reels – wow some people will do anything for money I guess.  What a bunch of asshats.

Audition Tape 1:

Audition Tape 2:

I guess with the passage of legislation in Vermont and the new same sex ruling in Iowa coupled with MA and CT and the potential for CA to go to same-sex marriage these wackos are getting desperate.

Happy Valentine's Day

 OR

Happy Birthday to Keith

Actually, it’s BOTH - that’s right!  Today is Valentine’s Day AND it’s Keith’s 51st birthday!  For his birthday, I got him 3 David Austin ‘Jude the Obscure‘ roses – which REALLY do smell like guava – I have NO idea how that happens but, they really, truly do smell like a lush tropical fruit.  I also got him some new Green Pans which are sooooooooo freaking amazing!

Miss America pose with Birthday Princess crown!

So, this past Sunday was my 40th birthday – I have officially entered ‘trolldom’ well, at least that was how I used to view it.  Now….not so much – I’m actually very happy with my life.  I knew I was having a party (well, if Keith knew what was good for him that is, I was going to have a party) and up until last Saturday, I thought the party was going to be Sunday.  My best friend, Ben, had invited us to his house for dinner Sunday evening and I figured that was the same ruse as I used to get Keith to Ben’s house for his 50th so he must have been using the same thing for my 40th.

So Saturday I bought some new jeans, a new shirt and said I was going to run out Sunday morning to get some new shoes so I could be all dolled up for my ‘surprise party’.  Later that night I asked what was for dinner and Keith said we were having Tomato soup  and grilled cheese – a little lackluster but still….yummy.  My phone rang and I didn’t recognize the number at first so, I ignored it then the same number called again and I thought it looked a little familiar but still didn’t answer.  I checked the number and it was Kristy’s – now since Keith had told me I was not allowed to talk to anyone because I’m one of those naturally nosey people who try to worm details (say about an upcoming party) out of folks – so I told Keith he might want to call her back.

Keith called Kristy and I ended up on the phone – it seems she’d bought a load of books (she owns Minerva Books – a great new & used bookstore here in the ‘burg) and couldn’t get anyone to help her unload them.  Her partner Beth was at reserves for the weekend and no one else was available to help.  Since I like her I had no problem helping….she offered to take us to dinner for our trouble but, I wouldn’t hear of it, after all, what are friends for, right?

I had already settled into my flannel lounge pants, grubby t-shirt, and house slippers for the evening so, I just threw on some dirty pants and slipped on my shoes – after all, I was just going to be hauling boxes of books, right?  During the short drive to Minerva’s Keith was chattering away and in retrospect, I think he was doing it to take my mind off of my birthday.  We pulled into the lot and after getting out I thought,”Wow, that BMW looks like Terri and Kartik’s car and wait a minute, that’s a Mazda 5 like Shannon and April have.”  Kristy met us outside and as we were walking to the door, I could see the balloon bouquets – too late I realized what was going on and I had no choice but to go on in.  Me….who won’t go to the mailbox without fixing my hair was being delivered to my surprise party without having bathed, without deodorant or cologne; with my hair a mess; and wearing a dirty shirt, pants, slip on shoes and a wind jacket.  OH the inhumanity of it all – for documented proof —–> Click Here

All in all I had a wonderful time and was actually surprised.  It was so nice of my friends and my family (well my Aunt Joey and Uncle Leon) to celebrate a milestone birthday with me!  I felt bad that my mom had made it about a block away but, got confused since she doesn’t really drive at night or in Petersburg and went home.  I sort of fault my father for not coming with her but, what the hell I had a good time even if my parents, sisters, nieces, nephews, son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter didn’t show – nope…not the least bit bitter.  Yeah Right! LOL.  

Hey, it’s all good – I got my Wii and I got to spend time celebrating with many of my best friends and family!  I especially liked the ‘Birthday Princess’ crown LOL!!

From the Associated Press:

A judge has issued New York state’s first ruling that the survivor of a legal same-sex marriage is entitled to inherit a dead spouse’s estate.

Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen ruled that J. Craig Leiby was “the surviving spouse” and sole heir of H. Kenneth Ranftle.

For the full story clicky linky

I had heard that New York was going to recognize foreign same sex marriages – I don’t understand how/why they would do that but would not allow same sex marriages in their state.  Oh well….the times they are a’ changin’ and changing for the better (but then, I guess THAT depends on who you ask – LOL) 

Oh no, I like gay people I have a few friends are gay and my mom LOVES to watch ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’!  I’ll never forget that one as long as I live….

Well, it wasn’t quite the blizzard that my uncle has been having in Halifax BUT we did get a wee bit o’ snow this morning! 

Snow from back deck at 6:30 AM

Snow on my Passat!

It was actually enough to have several schools opening 2 hours late but, then again, this is Virginia….we panic when it rains hard, let alone a little snow.  As much as I hated dealing with the snow in Syracuse, I really would LOVE to have one REALLY, big snowstorm….at least 1 per year….that isn’t asking too much is it?