just a quickie before i go to bed. i slept like a rock last night, and probably will tonight too. side effect of kent working night shift! i let him sleep today until 330, when he got up i fixed dinner, hamburgers, corn on the cob, and brussels sprouts on the grill. it was delicious. he ate less than i expected, there was enough to send with him for overnight lunch and theres actually one hamburger left in the fridge.

we rode around tonight for a bit, stopped by to see black bob and find out if he can fix the mower for us, he may have a blade we can use, im hoping so, i couldnt find one to fit the mower at wally. he will come by monday and put it on if he gets lucky. kent chose to ride around in some of the worst areas of hampton, i chose not to complain, after all, its always me who does the driving, i was trying to enjoy being able to actually look around. kent pays no attention to street signs and turned into a really bad area, full of young people looking like they were itching to beat someones ass. i wondered aloud where he was going, it was only after he turned the corner that he read the sign that said dead end. *eyeroll* we continued on, and eventually had connie tell us how to get back to the beach. she did well, she remembers the route from the house, knows every street name i turn on, trying to come from another direction was tough, but she managed. kent discovered after we parked that we picked up a huge screw in my tire, it didnt flatten it, but i will need to add that expense to future expectations, and truck tires are not cheap. we need tires anyway, these are mismatched and you can feel it when you hit the interstate. we sat on the sand for about an hour, Connie didnt want to be in the water for long, she expected me to entertain her, i think. we did some talking about goings on, and kent lamented the fact that he still has to go to work tonight.

tomorrow will be like a day off for him, i hope he views it as the blessing it is.  i told him how id like to see things go once this garnishment is done, and how i feel about his inability to drive crusty to pay her half. hes such a wuss. there, i said it. its probably why i married him, subconsciously LOL  i dont expect a dime to come from her, and so if any money comes ill be socking it away. im trying to get us back to where we were headed before we were derailed 4 weeks ago. 

we got home and watered the peppers, and all my bedded plants. kent moved the maple seedlings weve been nursing in the front beds to a spot we picked out on the other side of my truck parking spot. im hoping the neighborhood mini-hoodlums leave it alone and it does well; if not, there are 4 more seedlings still in the bed that will be waiting to replace if need be.  

i have to hold my tongue while outside, i want kent to say something about how the grass hasnt grown back so much in a week. i lowered the mower without him knowing it, and of course i know damned well thats why i bent the blade. wont have to worry about future blades, now that he has a weedeater, i can just leave the stumps and roots for him to fret over. the height of the mower made me crazy, hed mow and it would basically just knock over the grass, not cut it, and the next day it would all spring back up and the lawn would look like a hayfield again. for a week now the grass has barely grown, i think its in shock from actually being CUT. i found that he hadnt put the weedeater together right, told him about that this morning, and he will be doing yardwork happily tomorrow. hes going to weedeat and probably weed my flower beds too.im going to press him to get that engine totally dismantled tomorrow too, robins due home tomorrow or monday, i told him he had 2 weeks, he was actually given 4, and its still not done. procrastinators annoy me, today.

well its late and im tired, and my time magazine is calling me. hope everyone in my circle is well tonight, i am thinking of each of you.

lets see, i got the bathroom cleaned. i watched the womens sabre, i took connie out for a mini shopping trip. boy what a disaster that almost was. interesting how i check the credit limit on my macys card before i leave the house, and so i have a budget to work within to get connie a few new clothes. i shop, i compare, i only amass half of the open credit i have (or thought i had) only to be stopped at the register with a 'declined'. ended up talking to a nice lady on their phone who found a screwup on their end where they decreased my credit line instead of increasing it. so now i actually have more available on their card than i did before i left the house! well, its good and not so good. i get discouraged everytime i go in there, particularly with their plus size clothing. it tends to fall apart with 1 or 2 washings. but i couldnt beat the deals i got today, connie got 2 shirts, i got a tank for myself, and a new santoku knife which was 5 bucks with a lifetime warranty.  i already hated dealing with their credit department, they were no help in explaining why cash payments made in store take 3 business days to be credited, and i already was debating paying it off and closing the account. the lady at the bank told me its better to pay it off and leave it open for a bit, so thats what ill do. i buy more stuff at yule from macys than any other time of year, but this recent credit BS just cinched it for me.  the balance will be paid in full in september, and then ill put the card in my lockbox until i need it.

im doing a load of clothes, connie made herself lunch, we are waiting for kent to get up and then i guess we will head to the regatta. the weather is nice, not too hot, and definitely not humid at all, great day for a boat race.

sad day for volleyball, with the stabbing of family members in china, and sad day for comedy too, cant believe Bernie Mac is dead! that man nailed middle class america, black and white. and he was a riot. he will most definitely be missed.

I should be more productive today than I was yesterday. My bathroom needs a scrub, and I need to sort through the pile of papers on my desk and straighten it up. Im going to put Connie to work on some exercises this morning, her math suffered this week, as I focused on world stuff. Kent just got home, and in a few minutes will be out of the shower and on his way to dreamland. Once again, as I told him it would be, his guaranteed doubles aren’t going to materialize. He worked one last night, but tonight he simply does night shift, no double. I don’t get my hopes up any more, ive learned that these people change their mind every 15 minutes, so why bother planning around them?

I went in there to play with the weedeater a little bit, only to realize that kent didn’t put it together fully. Good thing I hadn’t planned on using it!  He may get to mow this afternoon and weedeat. Since I am having to revamp my plans for my garden, I am now exploring what to do with my window boxes. I certainly cant plant glads in them! I may get out there today and put the wires up where I want them, since I got a box of thingys to affix to the siding yesterday.

Did the beach with Cece last night, she stayed through part of the Olympic opening ceremonies, which was a bit annoying, she talked when I wanted to hear the tv, which makes me nuts. This time around, Connie was glad to see her leave, I felt the draw on my spirit yesterday, I think she was having problems with her husband when I offered the beach trip. I’ll have to start thinking twice before I invite people anymore. I needed the waves. Not the noise of someone talking to me.

And on the opening ceremonies: man was that a show or what! I couldn’t help but think, had it been this country, we would have used machines to move all those boxes up and down in an intricate pattern, instead they used people, albeit forced labor, probably. But it speaks volumes about the way the Chinese do things. They don’t have the level of obesity and disrespect that we do, maybe we should learn something from it. Plus I thought they did an amazing job hiding the secret service from around bush and his wife. Sarkozy’s guards were very evident, but bush appeared to be surrounded by normal people. I found that interesting.

Don’t really have much planned for today, just gonna let it flow.

well my morning has come full circle. i arrived back here at my desk a few mionutes ago, in the same condition i left, penniless. however, much has changed. my truck runneth over; kent has a new toy, which loosely translates to no more excuses for not weedeating now, and its electric, and so he cant use the BUT BABY I HAVE NO MONEY FOR GAS FOR THE WEEDEATER line on me.  we have groceries, and all the toiletries we need. i paid back the friend who lent me money, i paid on other bills and so ive appeased everyone. i originally had planned on putting a bit in my pocket, but i chose to fill up my truck which was much less painful than i thought it would be, gas having dropped 60 cents a gallon here. i gave kent all the cash i had left over, making sure he saw that i was dumping out all my change into his hand. i have to be dramatic with him or he just doesnt get it. i can make money in other ways. no big deal.

he has already informed me that he is working a double tonight and tomorrow night and trying to work over on sunday night as well. i am grateful that hes showing this willingness now to take care of business, but i am prematurely mourning it, because he has a tendency to give up in the middle of battle. id love for him to surprise me just once in this arena.

i wasnt going to head to the sand today, but i have changed my mind. with the heated discussion i had with kent in the truck earlier, where i thought i had screwed up my money, but really i hadnt, i blew off some steam about the stupid weedwhacker, and i dont think he saw it coming. more importantly i guess i reminded him that he married a freakin perfectionist. 

i went by the theater to watch the mandala while i was out paying bills and was told that there was a 3 hour wait to get in : (  as much as i want to see it, i equally am not willing to stand in line that long with a child and a husband who dont want to stand in line for anything. i need to be more on top of these things, had i known about it earlier this week id have gone by myself,  and enjoyed a wait no matter what. today i cant go by myself. ive been so consumed with my own money troubles that i stopped reading the logs of happenings locally, and now i kick myself.

so ill stop here and get motivated on hot dogs for my family.

Man seems like forever since I sat down in front of my computer! I know it hasn’t been though, just been trying NOT to sit down. Connie and I went to cece’s last night, it was surreal, Connie got her fill of Pixie, the new kitten, and left with some war wounds even. And yet she still says she wants a kitten. We aren’t getting one, for other reasons, but youd think after this child got scratched up like crazy that shed change her mind! We came home and I did dishes, I have been putting off cleaning my fish tank, tonight I HAVE to do it, kent needs some of my empty jugs for oil disposal. He is breaking down this old bike engine and will be carting it off to the recycler, I’m still hoping for it to be gone by the time robin comes back. I had to re-scale my plans for my garden, making it a triangular theme. John nearly killed my peppers, spraying even though I told him it was edibles that were planted there. I cannot plan on planting anything on the ground at fenceline, not even my glads : (  so kent is going to make me some hangers for my window boxes and we will mount those on the fence.

I got a nice warm feeling after the mail came today, and I can now plan on some groceries tomorrow, without depending on handouts, yay!

Cecelia came down this morning and we made a few trinkets. She has a major bead collection, we didn’t have enough tools to go around, I was telling her to get crafty with all the stuff shes collected and put things on etsy. Shes unmotivated though, I suppose if I could be her 24-7 cheerleader, shed get things done.

Tomorrow in the midst of our travels we are going to stop in to the American theatre here in Phoebus, and see the Tibetan monks working on a mandala. I cant wait! I just found out about it today, so I was a little upset that I missed 4 days of them preparing it. But we will get to see them work tomorrow and then we will head over to the hampton cup regatta. And tomorrow night I plan to watch the full Olympics opening with Connie. Cant wait for that either!