Good News, Everyone!

I'll jump right in, for those of you that haven't already been informed by my thunder-stealing mother. As of August, Shelly will be gainfully employed as a clerk for the Court of Appeals! And not a month too soon, as right around then we'll be teetering on the edge of financial ruin, with the loan money drying up and the crushing weight of mortgage payments and home improvements a'mountin'. Congratulationgs, baby!


To celebrate, we went out to Thai Cafe in Durham, where we were joined by someone I'd not seen since I'd nearly been knocked unconscious by her dance floor antics two months ago, Law School Melissa (who will soon need a new moniker, unless the exams go very, very badly, which we all can hope)! I didn't have a camera with me, so let me find one back in the archives... ah, here we go, this is pretty representative of the occasion:

(That's for laughing when that super-hot Thai sauce got stuck in the back of my throat, 'Mel-Mel')

Also in the vein of good (if somewhat inevitable) news, Jason (and lesser-known twin Jeremy) turned 30 this past week. On Friday, Shelly and I joined them and several other people we didn't know at Bocci in Durham for a "surprise" party that the birthday boys were mournfully aware of in advance. As a present, we framed that picture Jason requested two blog entries ago- which was no small thing, mind you, as we had to go to not one, not two, but three stores before we found one with a working Kodak picture kiosk. Here's a photo of the group of us, taken by our long-suffering waitress:

The next night, following a long day of recuperation from the stress-filled week at SECU (we can't all be law students, pharmacists, and out-of-work speech therapists), we decided we hadn't had quite enough of the Hawkins clan for one week, so we invited them over for hamburgers. This time, they brought Charlotte and Sonny over as well; the babysitter from the night before apparently needed 'pharmaceuticals' after dealing with Charlotte all night (happily provided by Jason), and was still a little shaky. Aside from dinner, though, not much especially noteworthy happened. Shelly did fill them on the specifics of Misty and Lerissa's lifetime ban from Tyler's Taproom (sorry, still can't give details!), and Jason and I almost blew ourselves up at the community grill, and through random TV-watching, we did find Sonny's magical twin (see below), but that's about it.

In other news, Shelly and I have out inspector going out to the townhouse tomorrow, where we'll be joining him and our realtor to give the place a good going-over. Hopefully, he won't find anything too awfully wrong with it, but keep your fingers crossed. If nothing else, it'll enable me to take a long lunch on the busiest day of the year for me at work, so that's something. I'll undoubtedly post a quick update on that tomorrow night.

Also, for any who may have gotten excited: No, I'm still a Republican. The deadline passed on Friday to be able to vote in the primary, so I won't be able to cast my strategic vote for Hillary. Alas! I guess I'll just have to cling to my guns and religion a little while longer, no matter what Obama might say to the contrary...

Alright, folks, on that happy note, I'm going to sign off. Blogger's quit on me twice tonight while I've been writing and I'm sick of fighting with it. I'll leave you with this picture of me and Shelly, which is one of the better one's we've taken lately.