One Life Stand

Friday evening, hubby and I went out in search of cedar grilling planks.  We didn’t find any to our satisfaction so Sunday, we were forced to grill our salmon in foil. 

Saturday we had a coed baby shower to attend.  We drove all the way out to the SWATS!  The subdivision was nice enough (gated and all) but it was down the street from the hood.  For some strange reason (like a weak grasp on reality), I thought the place where we attended the shower was someone’s guest house.  The whole time I was gushing to hubby about how they had gone all out for a guest house so their real house but be something out of Home & Garden.  Hubby kept trying to tell me that WAS their house but I wasn’t hearing it.  I ended up asking the father-to-be afterwards and it was not a guest house.  Multiple houses sharing one driveway really had me confused.  LOL.

Saturday night, our neighbors two doors down invited us over to ‘party like a BaRackStar’.  It seemed a bit cultish to me (I’ve never heard of people being on fire for anyone but the Lord…) but we had a good time.  Plus, our neighbors can BURN in the kitchen.  We ate well and after their repeated insistence, we took home a big plate.  They’re a bit older than us but cool people nonetheless. 

We skipped church on Sunday and did all the things we would have done on Saturday if we’d been home.  The storm last week (?) damaged our gazebo and patio so hubby was working on that.  He finally restored the power out there too.  Thank goodness because it’s much too hot to sit out there without the fan.

This week will be busy.  Hubby’s basketball team has their playoffs this week.  (Last week they won second place in their division!)  Hubby’s parents are coming to town too.  Not to mention, my to do list is quite long.  I’ve promised myself that I will NOT sleep in on Friday and I will run all the errands that I need to so that I can relax on Saturday.  I actually want to check out the hiking trail at Kennesaw Mtn one weekend (shout out to Fergie).  How’s YOUR week looking?

That’s right, Cirque du Soleil has a new show that’s headed to Atlanta.  Hubby and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cirque and have been to every show that’s come to Atlanta.  We’ve also been to the permanent show in Orlando and all but one (not a fan of the Beatles) of the Vegas shows.  Yeah, we’re hooked and not afraid to admit it.

Pre-sales just opened last night so we’re going to get our tix today.  Hubby has gotten one of his friends hooked and he (the friend) and his wife got their tix last night.  I told hubby to find out what show they’re going to so we can make it a double date.  Dang, before I could even finish this post, most of the shows are sold out!  We couldn’t get the premium seats we wanted and had to settle for the lesser premium seats (in a 200 section instead of a 100 section).  Maybe they will add additional nights and we’ll be able to upgrade our tix.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Hubby’s birthday was on Friday so we had a weekend of festivities.  He’d been asking for an Ed Hardy T-shirt so on Thursday (or was it Wednesday), I relented and we headed to the mall to get one.  Most of the designs contained skulls (!) which I wasn’t digging but we finally find a nice one.  And it was half off, even better.

I had planned to take him to dinner on Friday night but we were still working on the patio in preparation for having some friends over on Saturday.  On Saturday, we were literally working until the 11th hour, putting the finishing touches on the patio.  We were expecting our guests at 6:30pm and hubby didn’t get into the shower until 6:15pm!  We kept it simple - putting some hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill - but everyone had a great time.

On Sunday, we slept in and skipped church.  Then we headed to see The Color Purple.  It was a wonderful performance and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Next we headed to Sam Ash to put up some new sheet music for hubby.  Now that the patio is done, he wants to get back to his piano playing.  After that we had a nice dinner.  Of course we tired after all the weekend’s activities.  So we went home, changed clothes, and crashed on the sofa.  All in all, I’d say hubby had a pretty good birthday weekend.

After much procrastinating, here are pics of our progress on our patio project.  Hubby has been working hard on an almost daily basis to get it done.

      view from the deck                            done so far 

        what’s left to do                         another angle

we moved all those bricks!             patio furniture being assembled 

          landscape lighting                     gazebo awaiting assembly

 last but not least, tiki torches!

We’re still working on our patio project.  Thankfully, the end is (somewhat) in sight.  The retaining wall is pretty much done and we’ve run the wiring for the electrical.  The gazebo has been purchased and is sitting in the garage awaiting setup.

So Saturday we went to Home Depot to buy the patio pavers.  256 pavers and one rented Home Depot truck (the pavers were too heavy for our truck) later, we were home.  And all those pavers (12" by 12" and HEAVY) had to be unloaded in less than an hour!  The Home Depot we went to (not our usual store) closed at 9pm vs 10pm.  Hubby called one of his friends who lives ~1 mile away and he met us at the house.

The three of us huffed and puffed to get it done.  I’ve never sweat so much in my life.  We got the truck back at 8:59 but we didn’t have enough time to finish unloading before doing so.  So we spent another 15 minutes in the parking lot moving the pavers from the Home Depot truck to ours.  What a workout.  I’m still sore today!

Though I’m sure we saved a lot of money by DIY, this was definitely an ambitious project.  Hopefully the effort will become a distant memory once we’re enjoying our new outdoor space.

That’s right folks, hubby and I took an intro to scuba class on Saturday.  (For the record, I’m the nervous Nellie not him.)  I’m not the strongest swimmer so I generally avoid water deeper than I am tall.  The class was supposed to last an hour but that quickly turned into two.  We had a fabulous (and patient) instructor.

I’m not saying that I will take the weekend series of classes and/or become certified but I did enjoy myself.  I even completed a ‘dive’ to the bottom of the pool at a depth of twelve feet.  I’ve never been that far underwater before.  I was nervous but it wasn’t at all hard and now I know how to reach the surface from 12′ feet below.  I definitely need to work on my breathing (still can’t figure out how/why I can’t do that right) but I’d definitely try it again in confined (vs open) water.

I’ve come to the conclusion that trying to keep track of my life using a combination of Outlook at work, a paper calendar at work and Windows calendar at home isn’t going too well.  Add in four personal e-mail accounts that I need to access (which I can’t really do from work) and trying to keep up with hubby’s schedule as well and it’s a recipe for disaster.

So I decided I’m going to get a CrackBerry.  Though the prospect paying $180 and signing up for a new two-year contract turns my stomach, I was going to do it anyway.  Except…that $180 listed on the website is the ‘lowest available price’ meaning only available to people who have jumped through multiple hoops, i.e. not me.  The lowest available price for ME is $525!  I think not.

So it’s time to come up with Plan B and C and D and E.  Plan B - buy an unlocked phone off eBay.  I’m leery of eBay purchases of anything more than ~$75, there would be no warranty and the going rate is more than the original $180 I thought I was going to have to pay.  Scratch that plan.

Plan C - Wait until February when Sprint deems me worthy of buying a discounted phone (and of course signing a new two-year contract).  I’m not feeling this one either.  I think my head will explode long before February the way thing are going now.  Bah.

So I’m down to Plans D and E.  Though inconvenient, I could buy a new CrackBerry ($200) or a refurb ($100) from AT&T with only a data (not voice) plan.  Then when Sprint looses their grip on me in April, I could activate voice service through AT&T as well.  It would mean carrying around two devices for the next 10 months but it would solve the current issue of keeping track of my life.

What would you do?

My favorite jeans are a pair of Earnest Sewn that I found at TJ Maxx over a year ago.  So it was much to my dismay when I heard a ripping sound as I bent over to put on my socks this weekend.  There is now a rip across the butt.  If it had been any other location, I might have been able to pass the rip off as the ‘distressed’ look.

Of course I knew I wouldn’t be able to find another pair at TJ Maxx but I checked anyway with no luck.  Then I went online.  I found a pair on Bluefly.com for $99 (plus s/h).  Ugh.  I only paid ~$65 for the jeans the first time around.  I’m always looking for reasonably priced jeans that actually fit and those fit (no pun intended) the bill.  So do I suck it up and live without my fave jeans or do I begrudgingly buy a new pair for $100+?  What a dilemma.

That’s right folks, two years ago today JezChill and I tied the knot.  Time flies when you’re having fun!  Last year, we spent our anniversary in Grand Cayman.  This year, we spent the weekend…camping.  You know that’s love (on my part).  LOL.  We had fun in spite of the fact that I was a little under the weather.

We agreed to do low-key this year.  Hubby said something about going to Ray’s on the River but I’m not sure if he actually called.  Wherever we end up, we’ll be exchanging cards and not much else.  If I have time, I’ll pick up his gift on the way home from work.  It’s nothing big and it won’t be a surprise but I’m calling it an anniversary gift nonetheless.

Two years down, sixty-eight to go and it only gets better each day!!!!