slow_triathlon

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WE get to go home today!!!!

THANK YOU for all of your concerns and wishes of good luck.

The electrical stuff is all back on the house. Some of it had to be moved due to changes in code but despite the evening storms and pelting rain Craig and Blake managed to get everything back on the house.

Now we have to wait for the permit to be processed, then we have to wait for the County inspector to come out THEN we have to wait for the power company to come out and reattach the actual power line. If all of this goes smoothly we could be home by Friday night. I think it's more likely we'll be in a hotel on Friday and possibly home on Saturday.

Blake and I have really been making the best of it. We're sort of pretending we're on vacation. We're still at my parents house which is about 40 minutes from Durham and we've both had to be in Durham every day. Their house is nice and it has water and power and all of the comforts of home. I always say that Graham is the best place for shopping but I've had to reign myself in because we don't know what our final bill will look like. (But I've still bought two dresses, 3 shirts, a skirt and two pairs of sunglasses!!)


The kitties are hot and stressed but we've been lucky that temperatures have been pretty low for July in NC. If it was in the 100s like it was a few weeks ago it would be a bigger deal. The house stays pretty cool because the storms cool it down every night.

We still have the hole in the roof but that will be a minor repair. What we are more worried about is not so much the giant oak in our yard but the giant sinister looking dead oak that is leaning towards our house. We think the slope the other oak was on washed away (soil erosion people!) and since this one is parallel to it.....well....I want that sucker gone. The nightly storms with 60mph winds and blowing rain aren't helping either. (My tomatoes look fantastic though!)

I've got to tell you....not only is my husband easy on the eyes but he is also great in a crisis. It has been so wonderful to have him around this week. He's out at the house dragging the branches off my roses.....he's out with Craig on a ladder in the pouring rain....he's giving me kitty updates.....he's buying me sugar free slushes from Sonic....I mean, really, he's incredible. I'm so lucky to have him. I don't think that this week would have been as low stress as it has been without having Blake to go through it all with.

Well, I'm gonna go straighten up a little now. We've got Gavin joining our adventure tonight (which will add a new level of complexity to the whole thing) and I want the house to look just like mom and dad left it when they get home on Friday.

My totally over the top and kind of tacky but fabulous new phone cover.



It makes me laugh...and that's what a phone cover should do. Well, that and cover my phone.

But......still.....

Ten Material Things that I Love Right Now


1. Roomba

    My Roomba, which is named Scooba cause that's what we all call it by accident, is the best thing ever. I turn it on, I go to the pool, and I come home to no fur and dirty and it's merrily charging on it's little base. It is soooo coool.....now that I'm 30.

2. Acne.org stuff
    When I was in high school I hardly ever had a pimple. All of that changed when I was about 20...no creams, gels or pills would work except for the very creepy Accutane. I've never had a ton of pimples, just one or two, almost always on my chin...but it was constant. After my doctor wanted me to go back onto the pill to see if that would help I decided to scour the internet for a solution and I found acne.org. I ordered the stuff and it's been like a miracle. I can't believe how cheap it was. I don't even get pimples when I'm pms-ing now. Holy cow.
   
3. Reel mower
    I had a reel mower when I bought my first house and it sucked like a maelstrom. Recently I saw one at Home Depot and I was gripped with the urge to buy it. I was worried that it would be the same thing all over again....the embarrassment, the tears, the pine cone missiles....but then when I was mowing with my loud, gas powered monstrosity I would find myself daydreaming about the simplicity of the reel mower. I got one and we tested it on 3  weeks growth of grass. It worked like a charm and made a pleasant clicking noise. Cutting grass smelled like fresh cut grass again!
                                     
4. Steam mop
    Argh. I'm so domestic. Look at this freaking list. Where are the diamonds? Where are the fancy shoes and extravagant hand bags?
I'm gonna make this brief. I don't mop. I used up all my mopping when I worked at Office Depot. The steam mop, while not a Scooba, mops my kitchen in 30 seconds waaaaay better than a real mop would. Case closed.

5. Titanium earrings
I got my ears pierced in October and they still haven't healed. Turns out I'm allergic to my earrings. Whoops. The good news is that they seem to be enjoying these titanium earrings.  Finally, some jewelery...but it's for my health!

6. George Foreman Grill with the plates that go in the dishwasher
    The plates go in the DISHWASHER!

7. Shades
 I am delicate and must sleep in a room that is as dark as a cave. I've been tolerating a diva eye mask since we moved rooms in December but I am blissfully relieved to have our new shades.

8. Ghetto Rain Barrel
So Blake built me a rain barrel and then he sold it to our neighbor. Since then I've been sans rain barrel. We've got this spot on the front steps where the gutters don't work so I've dragged a clean, empty, pre-rainbarrel garbage can there. Our storms tonight have almost given me 32 gallons of water! Hell yeah!

9. Minted Rose Lip Balm
If you don't have any of this stuff, and you're a girl, go get some. It smells like heaven.

10. Good Grips Microplane Grater
I've use this thing almost every time I cook.

julie- "Well, that's something you don't see every day!"
blake- "What is?"
julie- "Ummm that midget wearing the big sport coat and the giant shoes pushing a shopping cart across the street." *duh*
blake- *silence* "Are you hallucinating?"


I wasn't.

I'm pretty sure.

...they will not stay open and yet....here I am.

Oh no, that just made me think of this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kL7aYOFa8UQ

(speakers on...but not too loud...)


"I will never be free no no now baby!"

Dude. I got up at 6:30 this morning. I'm not that kind of girl. It was the first day of gardening camp, which is pretty fun, and I had to be there at 7:30 and that is not my style.

After camp I walked with Gabby.

After walking with Gabby I....got another hair cut. ..somewhere else. (I never understand how people can be brave enough to go back to someone who messed up there hair and ask them to do it all over again.) It was brought to my attention that half of my hair was longer than the other half by about an inch. I'm not really an asymmetrical hair kinda gal either. My new hair very "cute" which is a term I loathe but it's better than "lopsided." I'd post pictures but I'm feeling lazy and well, tomorrow I have to get up at 6:30 again.

My camp is fun but kind of random. Today was pretty tame but I'm confused about some of the things coming up. We shall see. The garden is amazing and all of the kids know so much more than you'd expect from the average American kid. We made a salad today and they all gobbled down 3 helpings.

Blake wants to go to bed but I can't go to bed before 11...but if Blake gets a head start then it's the fast train to Snoretown and I won't sleep all night. His neck thing is making him snore louder and more and it's making me mad.

When I was a baby I had to be fed on time and allowed to sleep. Not much has changed in 30 years.

So I got my hair cut. Here's the picture I brought the lady:


Obviously, I wanted the one on the right.

Here's before and after:


Ummmm.....Hey wait...that's the same stupid hair cut I always get when I get a hair cut and it looks nothing like the picture. Should I blame the lady or blame my hair? I have no idea at this point. Stupid, stupid hair.

Oh well, at least it's lighter. It's not like I hate it....but I'm just so bored with it already and I can't even put it in a pony tail.

<IMG SRC="http://images.oprah.com/images/tows/200711/20071102/20071102_070_430x320.jpg">

<IMG SRC="http://images.oprah.com/images/tows/200711/20071102/20071102_084_430x320.jpg">

These look nice on these ladies...I wonder if I could pull it off?

------------------------------

So if bad things come in 3s I'm all set for this round.


1. Blake's dive.
2. We figured out that I'm allergic to all earrings except MAYBE....just MAYBE titanium.
3. One of the tires on my car is totally as flat as a 5th grade cheerleader.


The good news? All of these things could have been disasters but really they are just annoyances. So....so there.

delight.com

it's like WOOT for girls......


Uh oh....

First of all, Blake is MUCH better today and after a standoff yesterday we're getting along much better too (I parked my car behind his car and hid my keys until we could settle on the "him going to work" issue.) He's still a little stiff and sore but it he took it easy today and may take off tomorrow so I'm satisfied.

In other news...this past weekend was the big trip to the River House and we had a blast. We stayed in a 4,000 sq ft house on the Neuse River that had one of those endless swimmer pool spas, a hot tub, balconies on every bedroom, a 40 ft sun porch, kayaks, bikes and a dock. It was so FABULOUS! Some of the other people brought boys about Gavin's age so he had a blast and practically went testosterone feral from the all boys all the time wildness. They had a wii and a basketball goal to add to the other amenities and stayed up super late every night.




Today I got a spa pedicure with Kerry which was OVER THE TOP wonderful and the whole place just fell in love with us. Then we had lunch with Gabby and it was the first time in months that all the Bad Girls have had an "Off Campus Meeting."

We decided that I need a hair cut.

I need your help with this. I kind of agree that I need some sort of hair do* because I have 20lbs of hair. Sure, it makes a nice swishy pony but I can't have it in a nice swishy ponytail every day. My hair is THICK and it thinks that it is curly sometimes and if it's too short it gets really big. It is problem hair. I can blow dry it straight but that is the extent of styling that I am willing to do.

I feel like my face is too round for short hair and that shoulder length hair makes me look frumpy. Layers can make it too puffy....Are you seeing the problem?

So here's a photo of me. Do I need a hair do? If so WHAT hair do? Send pictures!




* the word hair space do cracks me up....hair do.....not a hairdo...

This is all wallybat's fault.


If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

1. you must take between six and eight new photographs per day for 7 days.
2. your WITL must be consecutive. no skipping days.
3. you must post your photographs at the end of that day, sometime after the last picture is taken.
4. each photograph must have the time taken beneath.

This is going to be hard. Tune in tomorrow for the gripping tail of a prof on vacation.