Surprise!

I bet you expected me to forget to post tonight, didn't you?

Well, that was smart money, but sometimes you lose even with great odds. That'll teach you to gamble, though, won't it?

Anyway, what's new this week? A few things!

We had a wonderful visit from Miss Glass this week, although no pictures were taken. Fresh from kicking scantily clad Hooter's workers off her airline, Jennifer came by to have dinner with us on Wednesday. Shelly, having thoughtfully procured bacon-wrapped steaks from Target, sent me out to the pool-side grill to prepare them. During the grilling, I thought it wouldn't hurt anything if I took a 5-ish minute break to go feed my entourage of quackers. That probably would have been true had I not left the grill lighter on top of the closed grill cover in my absence. Fortunately, the resulting, relatively small explosion attracted no attention, and will only cost me about two dollars to replace the lighter. Live and learn.

Whisked away all too soon by the raptorous claws of a Boeing 737, Jen left us to our own devices for the rest of the week, which passed relatively uneventfully. Twinges in my surgically altered knee concerned me, and forestalled regularly scheduled running for the balance of the week, but it seems to have settled down this weekend. We'll see how the treadmill feels tomorrow.

It was with a heavy heart yesterday that I watched my trusty Ford Probe drive out of the parking lot under someone else's ownership. The aspiring owner brought cold hard cash though, so my melancholy was somewhat mitigated- I was really not looking forward to dealing with the whole "Is it a real check?" thing. But still- driving cross-country bonds a man to his car in a way that is hard to really put into words, and I can only hope that its new owner will treat it well. By the way, thanks for selling it to me in the first place, Danielle, it really served me well these last 3 years.

Also yesterday, Shelly and I attended dinner at the Hawkinses residence, once Charlotte was safely asleep upstairs. Erika was in rare form, exercising veto power on any playing of Pictionary, refusing to outfit Sonny in his new shirt, berating Jason and I for taking too long grilling the hamburgers, and, as additional retaliation for that last, eating all the french fries she'd prepared. Despite these provocations, we managed to have a nice evening.

Apparently, lotsa interesting events took place yesterday, even 300 miles from here at the ol' homestead!

And just to do a little product placement for Graco, here's a picture of my two most recent nephews (may they keep Mom and Dad's urge for new grandchildren satiated for years to come!):

Mathew Spencer is on the left, Charles Robert on the right.

Alright, all, goodnight! I've got precious little weekend left at this point!

Placeholder Post!

I've been recently informed that my sister checks my blog every Monday to see if I have anything new, leading to innumerable disappointments. Since I don't have much time to blog tonight, as I've been entertaining my parents all weekend, I thought I'd put something up quickly just to let you know I haven't forgotten my week-old commitment to spending more time regaling you with tales of my mundane life.

However, as I have only a few hours left to spend with them, it seems somewhat rude to spend them on here, typing out my weekend, especially considering there's March of the Penguins to be watched! Also, judging by the outraged shrieks emanating from the other room, my parents have again been thrown by the DVR technology, so I'd better ...no, wait, Shelly has been dispatched to quell the rising panic.

OK, not kidding, I now have to go take care of the second such emergency in as many minutes...

...Alright, everything now in hand, although for a moment it looked like we'd never know the ending of No One Could Protect Her.

Perhaps the movie will hold their interest just long enough for me to tell you a few snippets?

Anyway, after a late arrival Friday, we slept in Saturday, then ventured to the Raleigh Farmers Market, where we loaded up with fresh vegetables, though my parents declined to by more Hostas for the deer salad bar. I also bought some apple cidar (from Gala apples), honey (sold to me by an earthy young man who also thrust a brochure on bees into my bag, all the while doing a magnificent impression of Emma Thompson from the Harry Potter movies), coffee, and salsa (which prompted high umbrage, since Mom just brought me down twenty-three jars of her homemade brew). Here's a picture of the facility, replete with crowds:

Posted signs boast an opening time of 5 AM. Please, if anyone ever catches me at a open air bizarre of any sort before the hour of...let's say 8... go ahead and shoot me. You'll be doing me a favor, I'm sure.

Also, after the famer's market, we went to the NC Botannical Gardens. And here's a picture of that.

And now, I hear that the movie has gone off, so I'll be going now. I'll post something more tomorrow. Oh, but not before I post this picture of Mother Hawkins from a few weeks back!

A Weekend of Engorgement and Chance Encounters



First, in answer to the most obvious question, I haven't really been doing much of anything these last few weeks. That doesn't exactly excuse my lack of blogging, exactly, it's merely why it hasn't been first on my list of priorities. That said, I'll fill you in on the exciting occurrences of this weekend, then briefly fill you in on the previous...geez, has it really been four weeks since I blogged?

I exaggerate- it hasn't been that big of a weekend, but it started with us (Shelly and I) going to dinner with my coworker Carola and her husband Michael. Originally set to partake of the Townhall Grill, we sadly found it closed due to an unforeseen UNC dinner. Since there are more eatery-type places in Southern Village than you can shake a stick at, we merely walked a quarter block to Merlion. Contrary to the medieval wizarding images that spring naturally to mind, the restaurant is more in the line of Thai food. The conversation inevitably turning to spicy foods, I allowed myself to be goaded into ordering a spicy dish called Beef Curry Basil. I spent the rest of the meal with flushed face and watering eyes, but I'm not a bit sorry.

Following a night of vivid, curry-induced dreams and even more vivid, curry-induced midnight nature calls, Shelly and I got out of bed and did the same thing we've been doing the last four-odd weekends: Watched episodes of Lost. We're past the midway point of season two and still going strong. We're so hooked on the show that the normal, two-day delay of sending a disc back to Blockbuster and awaiting another just isn't working. We've had to make three trips this weekend to exchange discs and get the next four episodes. Fortunately, turning in the mailed copies allow us to do this without spending anything, thus making this addiction slightly less ruinous than most others. But I'm sure, should I pay a scientist to look, he'd find a gene that would make this someone's fault other than ours.

Anyway, four episodes later, Shelly discovered that,whilst 'Lost' in the oblivion of our addiction, we'd allowed our food stocks to deplete. So, two showers and a mad scramble for a set of car keys later, we embarked on a run to Target, where, in the first chance encounter of the weekend, we found Emily, Arturo, and Lisa, who all seemed taken aback by the presence of actual groceries. No kids, this is not your mom's Target, merely boasting affordable prices coupled with finite stocks- no, this is a Super Target, with every need at your very fingertips, provided you have fingers 300 feet long to reach across the store.

Following the Target Triumvirate, as it came to be called, Shelly and I returned home and passed a quiet evening. This morning, however, we were back in action, by which I mean that Shelly slept until 10:30, after which we watched more Lost. Anyway, once the subject of lunch came up around 11:30, Shelly dimly recalled we still had another coupon for Spartacus in the CH/Durham/Raleigh coupon book, so we clipped it and ventured over to lower Durham.

Arriving shortly after noon, my ingress into the restaurant was arrested by the muffled, eager shout of my name. Looking around, I spotted coworker Laura climbing out of a nearby SUV. After brief pleasantries, we parted ways in the lobby and took separate tables (though 'pleasant' might not accurately describe Shelly's mood; I failed to hear her question as to my colleague's identity three times, after which she assumed I was deliberately ignoring her and stormed into Spartacus without me).

Incident forgotten, Shelly and I both ordered the lunchtime buffet, which, before our arrival, was untouched. I don't know what half of the stuff I picked up is called, but all of it was incredibly good.

Appetites satiated, we departed for the U. Mall, where Shelly browsed Southern Season, having received a $25 gift card for her birthday two months prior. Spending a mere twenty-five in that store is on an order of difficulty right alongside finding an interested party for all my waterfowl news or staying awake during a speech by Al Gore or having little Charlotte over without uttering a plaintive, ear-splitting syllable, but somehow my girl managed it.

Leaving there. we made a quick stop by Blockbuster (if you have to ask why, you haven't been paying attention). My inward progress again was interrupted by an eager "Chris!" Turning, I saw Heena, a loan officer at my branch. Since, in my near year of working at SECU, I've accidentally run into someone exactly once before today, this seemed like a very odd coincidence. Anyway, after another brief exchange of pleasantries (this time unbroken by any Shelly histrionics), we picked up our next Lost disc and went on our marry way.

And that's today, really. Hope all that was interesting to you!

Oh, and just when you thought it was safe to go near the water... there's an amusing waterfowl story to tell! Today, while I was leaving the gym, several mallards, recognizing my bright yellow workout shirt, sprinted over to sidewalk and started trailing me. This is understandable, as there's been very little rain and food is probably getting scarce, but still mildly embarrassing when you're walking through a busy apartment complex. Stopping and feinting towards them did little to break their unswerving devotion, to the point where a random girl leaving the complex laundry mat finally laughed and wondered what I'd done to attract such attention. I mumbled something about 'occasionally' feeding them, and then sped back to my apartment. But, unable to resist such cuteness, I returned several minutes later with an old bag of hamburger buns.

By the way, while on the subject of cuteness. If you're reading this, Erika, Sonny didn't just "happen upon" that UNC shirt you found him wearing when you got home! Just thought I'd solve that little mystery for you!

Well, lo and behold! Blogger has a new feature! I can now put movies up on my posts! It used to be you had to post them on Youtube, which I was loath to do, but now I can apparently upload them directly here! Let's try it out now...

Sadly, every single one of them has since moved on...

Alright, on that note, goodnight everyone!