The Epitome of the Chick Flick

I rarely--VERY rarely--see movies on opening night, but tonight, I did. I just got home from seeing "Sex and the City" and it was totally wonderful. A few thoughts on seeing the ULTIMATE chick flick:

1. Sold out theater full of women = noisiest movie theater EVER. But, oh, so fun.

2. Must. Shop. More.

3. I love love. And this movie reiterated that, like, a lot. Made me yearn for my husband (who didn't decide he wanted to come until it was already sold out and who I found on the couch, asleep in his work clothes, when I got home at 9:50pm).

4. When you go to an action flick that's exciting, you can take a potty break with that giant-ass Pepsi hits your bladder half way through during a fight scene that you know will last a couple minutes, so you won't miss anything. When it's girly action where what people SAY and DO actually matters, you can not pee.

5. Unbuttoning your jeans and unzipping them halfway buys you, oh, a good 30 minutes in your quest to avoid missing any part of the movie to use the bathroom.

6. It's a little awkward if you don't get your pants done back up before the lights come up (do they usually turn them back on that FAST?).

7. Oh yeah, and us women? We ALL seem to hold it so we don't miss anything. I believe the line to the ladies room was a good 30 women long after it was over.

8. Go see it. It's good. Real good. :)

Hard Workin' Man.

Sometimes, Bryan gets REALLY dirty working at the power station. Like today.

I'm no Annie Duke.

So we spent a couple days in Atlantic City.

And we lost our money.

Do you know how freaking ANNOYING it is to play poker and either not get a freaking hand to play, or to get great cards and be winning all the way 'til the LAST CARD when some IDIOT has stayed in with a freaking 3-5 suited and catches his effing flush on the river?! UGH!!!

Yes, that's how the three days went for me, and I apologize to all you non-poker players, since you probably have no idea what the hell that means. The point is that Lady Luck was not standing behind me, or beside me, or sitting in my lap. Obviously she prefers the men, because they're the ones whose chip stacks kept growing and growing and growing... Bryan had better luck the first night, but after that we both just died a slow chip death.

The good news is that the Borgata is an awesome hotel to stay at, so we did at least enjoy the amenities a bit...

And besides, in just about three weeks, we'll be in Vegas, where we'll win it all back.

Reason #1247562 why I love my husband.

Last night, my husband actually did not complain about me watching American Idol. He let me sit there and watch the WHOLE thing without ONCE saying, "Can't we watch something else?!" I was entirely impressed and must admit I sort of sat there thinking, "Come on, Davids, hurry up and sing before Bryan thinks it's time to go to bed!" (Okay, that may make it sound like I have to jump as soon as Bryan says so, that's not the case. What is the case is we enjoy being together, and we have DVR to record our (my) shows, so if Bryan's in a tv-watching mood, I usually postpone viewing whatever I'd be watching otherwise because I'd rather find something we both enjoy and spend time together. Just wanted to clarify that. :) )

Anyway, American Idol was good, but I'm pretty sure Archie's going to win. He wanted it more if you just go by last night. David Cook will be bigger though. Mark. My. Words.

So, this post is NOT about American Idol. Let's get to the point, shall we?

About 10 minutes before Idol ended, Bryan called down to me from upstairs, "Do you want to come up here with me after that's done or should I come downstairs with you?" I debated... upstairs probably meant in the bed watching TV. I flipped through the guide on the tv, didn't see anything particularly exciting coming on at 9pm, then realized if he came downstairs I may be able to talk him into watching last week's episode of LOST (the one show we watch together all the time). "Come downstairs!" I told him.

So he waited until Idol was over, and came downstairs and headed straight to the DVD player. I asked what he was putting in, he said porn. Of course. He's a man. But don't worry, he was lying.

The DVD loaded and onto the screen came something I had never seen before. It was US! On our WEDDING DAY!!! On VIDEO!

Now, shortly after we got married (a year and eight months ago), Bryan made a photo slideshow onto DVD, but there were two friends who brought their video cameras to the ceremony and recorded it, but we had never figured out how to get the tiny camera tapes onto a DVD (we didn't pay a videographer, and never regretted it, for the record). (Now that I think about it, I think I was supposed to figure that out... oops.) The first Valentine's Day after we were married, Bryan borrowed the video camera of one of the guys who had recorded for us and brought it home so we could watch the tape for the first time, and that was the sweetest Valentine's Day gift ever. I have to say, I had sort of forgotten about those tapes even being here, so that DVD popping up was the most randomly romantic thing EVER.

What's even crazier is that I had not even an hour before this been reading Dear Abby and the letters were all about women who were writing because some other person had said her husband didn't buy her jewelry so he wasn't romantic. Yesterday's writers were giving examples of how their husbands were romantic and jewelry played no part in it. After I read those, my first thought was, "Oh, my husband is romantic! This makes me want to find our wedding vows and read them again with Bryan." And then, wouldn't you know, the man reads my mind and pulls out of thin air a DVD with us reading our wedding vows.

People, how did I get so lucky?

The greatest sports injury ever.

A few weeks ago, I began having horrible back pain... I talked about it a bit, I think. Well, on recommendation from my rheumatologist, I got an appointment with a physical therapist, and my first appointment was today.

So I have a sports injury. And yes, it is a BELLY DANCING INJURY.

What the hell. Only *I* could be injured by doing something as non-strenuous as BELLY DANCING.

Basically what appears to have happened is that when I moved up to the advanced class and my instructor started pointing out ways for me to sharpen my moves and do them more correctly, I overdid it a little bit. Muscles that I've never used were asked to not only work, but to do things they had never even CONSIDERED doing. And to retaliate, those muscles squinched themselves up in a little ball and have not un-squinched. So I basically have a tight ball of muscles on one side of my spine, which has also caused those joints to go all wonky. But the wonky joints can't get fixed until the tight ball of muscles gets undone.

And so... I get PT twice a week for several weeks, until it gets all straightened out. At the low low price of a $35 copay each visit. And I thought we were saving our "economic stimulus" check. Not anymore!

Well, we're going to Atlantic City on Wednesday for a couple nights, so I guess my new goal is to win enough money to pay for all my physical therapy.

Dominion Family Reunion

There are a few guys that Bryan works with that he has become close to, and for the past several years, we've gotten together with these guys and their wives/girlfriends/families every couple of months. Usually we sort of rotate houses, and sometimes we go out to a restaurant instead, but we haven't been the "hosts" since our wedding, which was September of 2006. Needless to say, it was our turn. So this past Saturday, we had everyone over to cook out and have a few beverages. We also invited a couple of our non-Dominion friends that we hadn't seen in a while... if you're having everyone over, might as well take full advantage of the socializing opportunity, right?

The weather was PERFECT for a party, and Bryan had even gotten off of work early the day before and cut our grass, so we actually got tons of compliments from our friends about how nice our yard was. HA! If only they knew that just over 24 hours before, it had been waist high! :) I love having people over... it gives me a great excuse to clean and cook. Ironically, the cleaning part I *hate* to do, but know it needs to be done. The cooking part I *love* to do, but it's sometimes ridiculous to cook things like buffalo chicken dip and a big batch of chocolate chip cookies for just Bryan and me.

So what I didn't stop to think about when I planned a nice afternoon get-together is that most of these guys had been working non-stop (like, 60-80 hour weeks) for the past several months, and they were ready to unwind, AKA drink. Luckily we had plenty of beer and margaritas to keep everyone's thirst quenched. And so by 9pm, we had a full blown party on our hands.

By 10pm or so, I convinced everyone to play Apples to Apples, a VERY fun board game. I love playing board games, but usually I can't talk people into playing them unless they're drunk. Apples to Apples is easy enough that it doesn't matter how many you've had, you can figure it out. I'd explain it to you, but, unless you're playing it, I'm sure you don't care. Just know that it can get pretty hilarious. Once we had a winner, well, then it was just crazy. By then the tequila had been opened, AND the Captain Morgan's, and then somehow a roll of paper towels became a dance partner, and... well, it was fun, that's the main point of all this. :)

NKOTB: Reunited and it feels so... weird.

Oh my god. I just watched New Kids On The Block's performance on the Today show this morning. God, this brings back some memories. I looked at the females in the audience and thought, "wow, look at those grown-ass women screaming like little girls." And then I realized, THEY'RE MY AGE! Holy hell.

It was my dad's birthday!

I got super behind on my blogging this week and didn't post the Mother's Day update 'til Tuesday, then Wednesday was crazy, then yesterday the Rita's incident, and somehow in there, I forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY here to my dear ol' Dad!

Dad's birthday was Monday, and I stopped by for a little while to visit with him and Neener (my stepmom) after work. I had actually ordered his birthday present (and my Mom's Mother's Day present) online and was very careful to order them to be delievered in time for Mother's Day/Dad's birthday, but there was a big ol' snafu and I *still* don't have them. Arg!

Anyway, I just wanted to send birthday wishes to my Dad here, since I know he reads this nonsense. I love you, Daddy! Here's to, what is it, "39" more happy b-days! :)

One track mind.

Last night Bryan had softball at 6:30. Since my back is still all out of whack (especially after demonstrating the move I think caused it to a co-worker yesterday), I skipped belly dancing again, so I hopped off the bus, hauled it home to change clothes, and met Bryan at the movie theater so we could continue on to softball without being late.

The game was alright... they lost to some young dudes twice, but I got to chat with another wife that I like a lot. Afterwards, we decided that it was DEFINITELY a Rita's night, so we pointed our car in that direction.

If you aren't familiar with Rita's, I suggest you go to their website and find one near you and go there. They call it water ice, but I think that's kind of like italian ice. Really what it is is a thick slush of heaven. You can get just ice, or you can get a gelati, which is ice with custard. And you can get other concoctions, too, but those are the best. They come in all kinds of different flavors. Bryan introduced me to this glorious delicacy in Pennsylvania, as we never had Rita's where I'm from. But praise the lord, one opened up about a year and a half ago less than a mile from our house! We quickly became regular customers, eating Rita's like twice a week. Yes, it's that good. We've since slowed down our rate of consumption, because we both are getting to that age where when we eat something, it tends to put down roots somewhere in the region of our belly buttons.

All that said, it's been a few weeks since we had Rita's, and we were excited. So we got there and got our treats and headed home, shoveling colorful goodness in along the way.

We pull up to the stop sign across from our house and Bryan says, "Uh oh." To which I reply, in, like the dumbest tone of voice ever, "What?!" I look around trying to figure out what his problem is, and finally land on the driveway. I recognize something's off with the driveway, but it takes a few seconds for it to register...

We forgot about my car.

DUH!!!! We were so one-track-minded about Rita's that we both completely forgot we needed to pick up my car at the movie theater, a few miles back down the road. Of course, at that point all we wanted to do was go in the house and focus on finishing our Rita's, so we looked at each other and said, "Oh well!" And left it there. :) No worries, Bryan took me to the bus stop this morning (which happens to be the movie theater), and I'll just get my car when I get home!

Hooray for Moms!

Well, Moms, I apologize for not wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day on ACTUAL Mother's Day, but I was busy... with my mom! :) So, first and foremost, a belated Happy Mother's Day to all of you maternal types. You are all amazing and I hope you had a great day.

So, my Mother's Day was excellent. Except for one thing--I FORGOT MY CAMERA! Dumb. I had it in a pile with all the other things I needed to take with me, and somehow that was the only thing I didn't bring with me. And I'm pissed about that because me, my mom, my brother and my sister all looked HOT. Anyway.

My overworked husband had to work YET AGAIN Sunday morning, so I got up and headed up to the mountains by myself to meet up with my mom and siblings. Because we're scattered all over the place, we couldn't remember the last time all three of us were together on Mother's Day. I know, criminal. So we headed to Lexington (ooh, metropolis!) for lunch. None of us are too familiar with the town, and I hadn't done my research, so we drove through downtown, didn't see anything appealing, and ended up at Ruby Tuesday. Really, a pretty good spot for a Mom's Day lunch.

The thing about Ruby Tuesday, though, is that I used to work there. For two years in college, I was a hostess at the RT in Charlottesville. Believe it or not, I really liked that job, and I was damned good at it. I also luuuuuuved Ruby Tuesday food and soda--seriously the best fountain sodas anywhere... as a side note, we got free drinks while we worked, and I took advantage something serious... so seriously that I ended up with some DREADFUL kidney pain that I totally attributed to them being clogged up with Coke. But I digress... The thing about this Ruby Tuesday yesterday is that they had about five tables open in the bar area right behind the host stand, and about 40 people standing there waiting to be seated. BAD FORM. Obviously they didn't have a server in that section, but that's the sort of thing a good hostess fixes--put a server there so people don't get pissed they can't sit down when there are five open tables right in front of them. Bet you never knew there's an art to hostessing at a restaurant, did you? The other rant about Ruby Tuesday: the food was really good, but I was bummed that they've taken some of my old favorites off... they've exchanged fries and fried onion straws for mashed potatoes and broccoli. YAWN.

Anyway, once I reminded Vic & Zech that it was MOTHER'S DAY and perhaps they shouldn't BICKER like brothers and sisters apparently do all the time, we had a great lunch. We laughed and talked prom and school and all kinds of fun stuff. I sense that Zech kind of expects that next year he'll be Prom Prince, so let's all keep our fingers crossed for Mr. Blue Eyes.

After lunch, we came outside to torrential downpours. Ah, lovely. We had to go over to the Wal-Mart to pick up the photos Victoria had dropped off, and Vic & I dropped Mom & Zech off at the front door and parked the car. We had an umbrella thankfully, but Victoria still plastered herself to me like my Siamese Twin to try to shield herself from getting soaked. Unfortunately for both of us, there was no escaping the drowned rat look. Thank god we were going to Wal-Mart, where that look is the norm. (I kid! I kid!)

Anyway, we picked up the photos and did a little shopping, then it was time for everyone to head home. Or for me to drive everyone home, that is. First, though, a Mother's Day good deed (we held the umbrella over an older lady pushing another older lady in a wheelchair for them to get to their car) and then another drenching jaunt through the Wal-Mart parking lot with my little sister.

It was really a great afternoon, in spite of the monsoon. I love getting together with my mom and little sibs! Again, sorry I'm a moron and don't have any pictures!

Dag'gone Duggers Done It Again!

Holy crap. The Duggar Family is expecting again... baby number 18!!!

If you haven't heard of this family, they're worth checking out. You can read the article about their latest announcement here. I have known about the Duggars for a few years now... I guess I first saw a special about them on TV when they had 15 kids. And they're of the faith that God will give you as many children as he wants, and you better accept all of them. They actually appear to be incredibly normal and well adjusted when you watch their specials, although really, don't they have to have a screw loose to have that many children?! (Or wait... I guess "loose screw" is perhaps too appropriate here... oh, lydia... you did not just say that on a family blog!)

Anyway, even though I think they're a little crazy, I actually kind of admire the Duggars. Or maybe it's not admiration, just amazement. Who knows. But I like their story and I like reading about them. They claim to be debt free, they all built their gargantuan-ass house together, the kids all learn violin and piano, they take care of each other. I mean, seriously, if we had more Duggars in the world, it might be a nicer place. More crowded place, for sure, but at least people would be more kind.

Uh, who the hell am I right now? Promoting 20-person families and building your own house by hand? Yes, sure sign it's late on a Friday and I am delirious with the desire to go home.

Anyway, all of the Duggar children's names start with the letter J. They are: Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah and baby Jennifer. It shocks the hell out of me that it took SIXTEEN children before they got around to Jennifer. I mean, how did they decide on Jinger (pronounced like ginger) before Jennifer? Weird.

So the next one... Jodie? That's a good J name. Jillian? Jacob? Holy crap, they haven't named one Jacob yet?! Jemimah? Jezebel? HA! Yeah, Jezebel it will not be. Any other ideas?

I'm picky about my potties.

I'm not what you would consider a germophobe, butI do have a low tolerance for gross bathrooms. And somehow lately, the one on my floor has increasingly disgusted me. From The Tinkler who leaves her yellow abstract watercolor all over the seat, to the woman having her "time of the month" who missed the bowl somehow (true story), to just the general nastiness of toilets that often don't flush on the first try: it's truly barf inspiring.

A couple of months ago, just before the medical school was set for accreditation, they redid the bathroom on the first floor. It is now a state of the art ladies' room, with like SIX STALLS (versus the usual one or two), bright lights that don't make you feel like you have jaundice, and it even has paper seat covers! Obviously, it is inconvenient for me to go down to the first floor from the twelfth floor every time I need to do my business, but lately I find myself sensing the need to visit the little girls room and subsequently thinking, "Oh, I need to go out of the building to do such-and-such, I can use the first floor bathroom on the way!" Because, really, it is just so much more pleasant to use a bathroom that doesn't render you nauseated.

The best thing about the first floor bathroom:

The Xlerator hand dryer. Holy crap, have you seen these things? I was first introduced at Buffalo Wild Wings a while back. It's a hand dryer that actually DRIES YOUR HANDS! And it doesn't just dry them, it dries them FAST! You put your hands under that sucker and it is like your own personal wind tunnel. The water droplets just fly away like you're standing behind a jet engine. It is AWESOME. I am always confused when I'm in there and a lady in the restroom with me chooses the paper towels instead of the Xlerator. I want to say, "Lady, seriously, you gotta try this... you are SO missing out."

The worst thing about the first floor bathroom:


Lysol. Some genius decided they should put some in there so that it didn't end up stinking like the rest of the bathrooms in the building. What they failed to recognize is that LYSOL IS JUST AS STINKY AS NORMAL BATHROOM STENCH! Ew. I hate it. It is the funkiest cleaning spray smell ever. I remember my Nana used to keep Lysol around when I was little, and I hated that stuff then, too. I mean, I'm not opposed to some sort of air freshener in there, just anything but THAT! Ooh, maybe I should just take it upon myself to swap it out with some Oust or something... hmmm....

Even so, I'm willing to suffer through the bitter sweetness of Lysol to actually go potty in a nice, clean, bright bathroom. Small sacrifices. And hey, it's better than the rat poop smell you get at the OTHER bathroom on my floor!!

Motivation: I gots none.

more cat pictures

Ladies and gentlemen, I have hit a wall. I ate WAY too much for lunch and there's no one around and the items on my to do list are not pressing and my back hurts and all of that is culminating in my eyelids waging a serious campaign to close for an hour or so. And so to fight against the urge to wander over to the couch in my office and take a lil nap, I figured I'd blog.

After my rant yesterday, I heard back from my rheumatologist. The verdict is I need to go see a physical therapist. We don't know what the hell is wrong with my back, but it's gone on too long and it is affecting my daily routine and that just ain't cool. (Note to cousin Cassandra: Don't worry, it's not kidney pain! :) ) So hopefully that'll help. Until then, I'm taking Aleve and sitting on a heating pad. I've always been an Advil kinda girl, but the Aleve actually makes a difference, whereas the Advil did not.

So this morning my highlights caught up to me: I had a TOTAL blonde moment. My bus was about 15 minutes late to downtown because traffic was AWFUL again, so I was a little thrown off schedule. I did my normal coffee/email/voicemail routine and by then it was 9:05. I go to my calendar to see what's on my list to do today, and WHOOPSIE DAISY! I was supposed to be at a training at 9am. So for a few seconds I battle with myself... "I'm late already, I can't exactly take my heating pad with me, maybe I shouldn't go, but I need to go and I don't know when the next training is and I'll only be like 10 minutes late, so..." And so I went. I took a quick look at my calendar to see where I was supposed to go, and noted that the room was Main Hospital, 4-122.

The thing about MCV is that there are crosswalks between the buildings, but because Richmond is so hilly, you can be on the 2nd floor of one building and when you cross over, you're on the 4th floor. And then you can cross over to another building and be on the 2nd floor of that one. So I went to the floor that I thought would take me over to Main 4, and ended up on Main 2. No prob, except I gotta wait for the elevator and that takes forever. (In too much pain for the stairs today, peeps.) So now I'm easing towards being 15 minutes late. I get to the 4th floor, and do some good observational work to learn that the 4-low number rooms are on the left. I head left, I pass 4-202, 4-200, 4-157, 4-135, then there's 4-105. Uh, wait a minute. Where's 4-122??!

So I'm wandering around, KNOWING that I am where the room should be, but it is not there! And now I'm annoyed. Those dummies sent me the wrong room number! At this point I think maybe they mixed up the number, but I might know where the room is. So I go down to the 1st floor and head towards where I think it might be, but then I realize that I am heading to AD Williams and it DEFINITELY said Main Hospital!

Finally, I get pissed and go back to my office. I mutter to myself the whole way (internally, of course... I'm not talking to myself out loud, although I'd fit in fine around here if I did) about how annoying it is when someone sends you the WRONG room number for a training and how I should have just stayed in my office and rescheduled to start with and now my back hurts more and ARG!

I get back to my office and sit at my desk and pull up my calendar, still cursing the person who sent me the confirmation email under my breath.

And what do I see? Main 1-422. Not Main 4-122!!! I had TOTALLY read the number wrong!

*sigh* I hate those idiot moments.

One of THOSE mornings.

Today started off really poorly. I have had awful lower back pain for about a week and a half now, and for some reason last night it decided to reach that peak where I have no desire to move once I find a position where I'm not in dire pain and this morning it was at that place where I had no desire to move AND I wanted to vomit from the pain. Yeah. That bad. I chalk this up to arthritis pain, but really, who knows. (I emailed my rheumatologist this morning, don't worry.) But when it gets to the point where 800 mg of ibuprofen doesn't make a slight bit of difference, you know it's bad.

So I laid in bed a little longer this morning and decided I'd drive to work. I contemplated not coming in at all, but I was going to be in just as much pain sitting at home as coming to work, and my boss was scheduled to come by today with her new daughter, and due to various illnesses this year, I've already used 3/4 of my sick leave. So to work it was.

I finally got ready in about twice the time it usually takes me, and headed out. I get two miles from my house, and traffic is at a standstill on Hull Street. Lovely. Luckily, I know a little shortcut around the traffic, so I took that and wasn't delayed TOO much. Then I get on the Powhite Parkway. And I go about 4 miles, and guess what happened next. MORE STANDSTILL TRAFFIC!! Jesus H.! Keep in mind the whole time, I'm in pain and just want to get to work where I can plug in my heating pad and get a little relief. I creep along for a few miles, and decide, screw it, I'm taking a detour. Again, thank God I know my way around this city. I hop off the highway and onto Jahnke Road and take Forest Hill into the city. On the way, I called Jodie and she allowed me to rant and throw the F bomb around a few times. That made me feel a LITTLE bit better, but everything was still crappy.

So I come into the building all brooding and crabby, and determined that today is going to get better. Somehow. I get up to the 12th floor where my office is, open the door, and all of the sudden, everything was better.

Standing behind my office door was the cutest two year old girl you could ever see, who looks up at me and then immediately down to the floor with this lovely shy little grin... you know, that look where they sort of tuck their chin into their chest and then sort of look up at you smiling?

Now seriously, how could anyone be crabby when a child has just MELTED YOUR HEART?!

And now... Tuesday will be alright. :)

Soccer and Prom and Mountains, Oh My!

On Friday, Bryan and I headed up to the western part of the state to spend some time with the sibs. Victoria & Zechariah had soccer games that evening in Salem, so that was our first stop. I don't know how it works in the "big city," but in the mountains, girls & boys play on the same night. Considering the school they were playing was two hours away, that makes sense, right? So we got there just a few minutes into Victoria's game. Victoria had missed a practice last week (tsk tsk) so she got her playing time cut a bit because of it, but it was still cool to see her out there. I know very little about soccer, so I couldn't shout anything really meaningful... but "Go Vic!" was good enough!

After the girls were done (they lost, unfortunately, 4-0), it was time for the boys! Zech is a starter, and I was surprised to see that he NEVER got a break! Two 40-minute periods, then two 5-minute overtimes, he was out there the whole time! He's very athletic and had some great plays. He plays defense, though, so he didn't get to score. He did manage to get down to the goal with the ball once, and BARELY missed a score. And the boys ended with a tied game, so that was good!

We stayed Friday night at The Gristmill in Warm Springs. It is a great little bed & breakfast, and we stayed there a couple of years ago when we went up. This time we stayed in the Silo Room, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was really cool to have round walls!! I want a round room in my house. :) And then breakfast: the picnic basket filled with fresh, hot breakfast breads and coffee and OJ... I love that part!!

Saturday was PROM DAY!! Got up early and went and picked up Victoria to take her to get her hair done (the place was an hour away... EVERYTHING up there takes FOREVER to get to). Her friend Sabrina's mom is a hairdresser, so she did Victoria's do and Sabrina painted her nails. I just watched and took pictures--I enjoy seeing the transformation! Of course, I was called away in the middle to help Bryan. My air conditioning went out in the fall, and he hasn't had a chance to fix it. Driving around with the windows down was fine, but that was not going to be acceptable once Vic's hair was done! So he decided while we were in the salon he'd see if he could fix it. In the street in Clifton Forge. With no tools. It was a sweet gesture, but the end result was a pissed husband with greasy black hands. Oh well! Luckily it had cooled down from the heat of the morning by the time we headed back to Bath County!

When we got back to Victoria & Zech's house, our mom was there to help Vic finish getting ready (and of course see the date!). Zech, Bryan and I walked down to the creek behind their house and Zech showed us where they swim and their little "beach." When I lived in Bath County, our house was on another branch of that creek, but I spent countless days on a pool float traveling down that thing... there's not much else to do there! We spent a few minutes skipping rocks (well, Zech and Bryan did... I tried, but am not so good at it.), and then Zech took us down to the old house (the one I lived in) and showed us some old cans and bottles and things he has unearthed with his metal detector.

Finally, it was time for Victoria to head off to Prom!! Her date, Michael, had arrived, and of course we had to stand them in front of the fireplace and take a thousand pictures. Poor Michael. Later, my mom asked me if I thought he looked nervous. Hell yes, he looked nervous! There were five of us standing there STARING at them!!! :)

They headed off to the Homestead for prom, and Bryan and I headed home. Yesterday, I got a phone call from a very excited sister: She was named PROM PRINCESS!!!! You go girl!!

Zero was never before such a beautiful number.

I know this is none of anyone's business but mine and my husband's, but dammit, I'm proud.

As of today, we are (I am) officially debt free except for our mortgage!! Woooohooooo!!!!!

I paid off my car a couple months ago. It was truly all I could do not to have a Mary Tyler Moore moment outside First Market Bank on Hull Street after I handed them that last payment, and I have been toying with the idea of framing the title... every car I ever had was either given to me (Laverne = 1981 Honda Civic, Shirley = 1988 Oldmobile Cutlass Calais) or I never finished paying off before trading it in (Kira = 1999 Nissan Sentra, traded for my current darling, Sabine = 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse).

I knew my student loan balance was getting very low, so I decided to just go on and pay it off. Well, the thing about my student loan is that my dad and I have tag-teamed it since I graduated from college--we've each made a payment each month, so we both have access to the account. And he beat me to it! My dad had already gone on and paid the rest off! And that means my debt is ALL GONE! Holy Jesus.

I'll let you in on a little secret. After a series of piss-poor credit card decisions, four years of education that were worth every penny, some chin surgery, and a penchant for newer vehicles, I found myself in over $50,000 of debt about five years ago. As Bryan and I got more serious, and as I saw his parents retire before they were even sixty and Bryan's very smart financial habits, I decided that I had to get rid of this crap. And so, with the help of dear old Dad and dear old Husband, I did! Or WE did, I should say!

I have to take this opportunity to thank my Dad. (Do I sound like I just won some sort of contest here?) He was as committed to my education as I was from day one, and he committed to helping pay for it. There were no big college funds in my family, but we worked together to make sure it happened, and it did! So, thanks, Dad, for believing in me, and for investing in me! :) I love you!

Man... $0. I need to go out and charge something!! ;-)