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!