More to come, I promise… but right now it’s the guest’s last night and we are going to start the drinking fest. After a full day at the beach—where all of us got a little too much sun, lol—we have now reconvened at the insider apartment for drinking and games.
Off to make a martini! Ta ta..
Here’s the thing about weekends. As children, we learn that weekends equal freedom from school, i.e., weekends are gold. No alarm clocks, no rules and no bedtimes—as we age, that also includes no rules about liquor consumption.
What am I babbling about, you ask? There was mad drinking last night people, mad drinking. I have a giant martini glass a friend of mine gave me as a gift, and it was put to good use last night. Parrot Bay Coconut Rum and Coke—a lovely drink.
Of course, that was prefaced by numerous martinis, double vodkas and rum and cokes… lol.
This is the first weekend get-together for the Insider’s View of Life blogging team—the friend who came in last night is the guest, here from Minnesota, visiting the outsider and I.
The pictures are going to be a riot, as we three went camera-happy with two cameras… and did I mention the massive quantity of alcohol consumed?
There was a Starbucks run this morning.. and the guest made omelets. (Excellent ones I might add!)
Shall we auction him off? Highest bidder wins a weekend with the guest…. 😉
That’s all I wanted to say. A friend of ours is coming this weekend, so the outsider and I are eagerly waiting for 5:30 to roll around.. 🙂
We three are going to mad party, so there shall be very entertaining pictures up here on Monday!
There is truly no greater invention than the air conditioner.
See, I’ve thought about this for the past two days, as my apartment is now a comfortable 68 degrees.. sigh. (My landlord.. the greatest man on the planet—he came and installed it while I was at work yesterday.)
But I have compiled the following list of the other great inventions… feel free to add to it.
Toilet paper—seriously, need I say more?
Lighters—I can’t light a match to save my life, forget about building one with flint and whatever the hell else you are supposed to use.
Laptops—Joy. Unmitigated joy.
Tampons—sorry guys, but it’s so true.
Takeout—I’ve been unpacking for four days, nothing is being cooked.
Cable TV—I’ve been unpacking for FOUR days…
Blogs—I love blogging.
Gas Power—I have a hot shower now, AND my stove works—bonus!
Dental Floss—Nime chow gets in the crevices, which is highly annoying.
Nail Files—Somebody tell me, what did they do before these?
RSS Feeds—love, love, love.
Printing Press—I love books.
Shoes—Dansko’s.. if you don’t own a pair, you should. These are the greatest shoes on earth.
Starbucks—Howard Schultz is a brilliant, wonderful man.
Microwaves—and with that in mind, frozen dinners and frozen waffles.
Coffee Makers—electronic wonders that make my day.
ChapStick—I could not live without it.
Remote Controls—for anything, air conditioners, TVs, radios…
iPods—and Bang and Olufsen headphones… they get me through the day.
iTunes—instant music at my fingertips.. joy.
CoverUp—lol, another girl thing.
Deodorant—I seriously wish the movers had used some.
Underwire—ladies, you know what I’m saying.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got right now.. any suggestions?
You know how some times you just have a really obnoxious day? The kind of day you didn’t expect to be bad, but ended up that way just the same? Y’know, your morning is going relatively well, but then a series of minute events compound to form a giant migraine?
I just had that kind of day.
The gas company won’t come until tomorrow—so I started the day with a cold shower.
I still haven’t managed to go to the grocery store, but it doesn’t matter because my kitchen is still packed—so I started the day without my toast.
I had no cash—so I started the day at the ATM in order to get my coffee.
My coworker wasn’t at work when I got there—so the air conditioner wasn’t on yet and it was hot and nasty muggy.. at 9 a.m.
A new hire at our main office needed my help for a couple of hours—so I was delayed getting the issue started.
My coworker had a bad weekend—so we had a bad Monday.
We found more problems on one of our sites—so we had a bad Monday.
It was hot and muggy and rainy and cloudy—so we had a bad Monday.
Did I mention… we had a bad Monday?
The new landlord brought me breakfast. 🙂 And her husband said he’d install my air conditioner.
Very nice people, so that’s positive.
Do you know how much stuff people accumulate? Stupid stuff—knicknacks, trinkets and an abnormal amount of kitchen accoutrement—anyone need a fondue pot or a set of martini glasses (I have three… they were gifts. So what does that say about me…?)?
This morning I realized that I needed to contact my landlord… but I surprisingly did not have her number. No matter, that’s what whitepages.com is for—although my mother informed me that getting cable and internet access the hour I moved in, and not getting my landlord’s number, was quite telling about my priorities… hehehe. 😉
As it turns out, I should’ve checked to see if my stove was working… why, you ask? Because the hot water heater is neither broken or turned off. No, it’s the gas. So I have to call the gas company tomorrow to turn it back on.. until then, cold showers. Argh.
Other than that, the only other obnoxiousness is that the air conditioner is not installed yet. Sigh. Oh well.. at least I haven’t broken anything this morning, unlike the guest who emailed me this picture…
With this subject line: “My life sucks today because..” And this picture caption: “She’s gonna be pissed”
Subsequent emails have uncovered… the guest hates soap scum. LOL
“There was some soap scum I couldn’t get to, so I lifted the glass out to clean it. It just shattered in my hands.”
Ah, good times…
It’s 10:30… I’ve been up for 15 hours, packing, moving, going up and down lots of stairs, unpacking… it’s very, very sad. And my feet hurt… my hand too, because I’m a bit of a klutz and I cut it. I despise moving. And July.
Oh, and just for kicks.. I just now realized the hot water heater is turned off and I want to take a shower…. 🙁
It hasn’t been the greatest day ever. And it doesn’t look like tomorrow will make the books either. Stupid July.
It sucked. The movers ripped my couch, my air conditioner isn’t installed and it’s INSANELY hot.
Oh, the old landlord.. the woman who kicked me out? She wants one week of rent… for last week. Is no one nice anymore? I mean, come on, you asked me to move out and I did… quite quickly, I might add—spot me one week of rent! Grrrr.
Whatever. I have to go back there to clean and pick up the cats. Her nephew’s coming over tonight—he’s going to paint before he moves in. I think I got hosed—nephew has problems my ass. :I
More later..
OK, so I’m sitting here eating a jar of olives (you know, the Mediterranean kind) thinking about the rest of my weekend up north.
First of all, I should mention that it was great to get away. With the divorce going on I just needed a break from being in the house and everything. On the other hand, having such a great weekend made me feel a little sad because it made me realize how much I wish I could share it with someone really special.
The next day we went on a 20 mile bike ride through Itasca State Park. It was really sunny out, so Ken recommended that I put on some sunscreen. I’ll come back to this though.
About 15 miles into the ride we decided to stop at a little lodge for some lunch. Now it’s bad enough that I’m losing weight from the whole divorce situation, but I figure that a 20 mile bike ride isn’t helping. So for lunch, I order three turkey sandwiches.
For the record: these turkey sandwiches were small. Why do people give me so much crap for being a good eater anyway? Three sandwiches later we were back on the trail and then we decided to take a swim.
For me, swimming after you eat is like running with scissors—there’s nothing wrong with it.. It was so hot out the cool lake water felt really good, but there’s something about the heat that makes mosquitoes and horseflies go crazy. Swimming in the water kept them away, but once we got out and started biking again, they were on all of us.
Three horsefly bites later I tried (unsuccessfully) smacking one. I look at my palm and it’s orange. “the sunscreen†I think to myself. I show my palms to Ken who explains that his sunscreen has a bronzer in it. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to wash your hands,†he exclaimed. Yeah, where in the Port-A-Potty did you see a sink or soap? There isn’t a bathroom for miles—and this stuff is waterproof.
Twenty miles later I’m still staring at my orange palms wondering how long they’ll be orange. Then Ken’s brother, Robert, announces that we’ll be going scuba diving at their parent’s cabin.
Thirty minutes later, we’re at the cabin and looking at the most spectacular view of what must be the cleanest, bluest lake in Minnesota. Shane’s going to go diving first, so I opt to snorkel a bit. Amazingingly the water is just as blue under the surface.
Shane’s done, so I dive to find myself surrounded by sunfish. They’re all looking directly at me. I explained to them that they weren’t a food item so long as I was scuba diving and they proceeded to follow me around. Some of you may ask how I communicated with the pan fish—I’ll explain another time; I’m almost out of olives.
The day ended with another fantastic meal (of course). While we were waiting for our food, we had to feed Robert’s tame chipmunks. Yes, Robert has tame chipmunks. They like to be petted and love it when you feed them sunflower seeds.
We ate pork steaks with Jim Beam BBQ sauce. Pigs are tasty animals. We didn’t bother with the bonfire as the mosquitoes were even worse.
The next morning we decided to try fishing one last time. We were heading back in when a 2 – 2 ½ pound northern took my line. Finally! I caught my first fish of the weekend.
I was so excited when we walked back into Ken’s cabin. Now we just need to clean up and get ready to go home, but as we walked through the door… It smelled like his dog’s ass, but now it’s ten times worse. It’s Jasper, somehow his anal gland condition had gone from bad to severe.
Great, I get to ride home with this dog for 3 ½ hours today in 95 degree weather with no air conditioning.
We finish cleaning up and on the way back we hit the halfway point and neither Ken or I could stand the smell. We pull over to a gas station.
How do you know that you’re far away from civilization? When you go to the magazine rack in a gas station and they ONLY have a porn section. Wasn’t really expecting that, but I guess it gets lonely in these parts.
OK, I’m out of olives and I’m falling asleep sitting up.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz