Susan let me do a guest post over on her blog about our farm stay visit. Check it out!
Misc
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We’ve had a pretty full, great weekend, and it’s only Saturday. Welcome, spring!
I took Friday off work and we took the bikes out to Conway-Robinson to try them out, and get used to clipless pedals. It was still a bit muddy and slow going, but we had a great time. Of course we are way out of shape so it wasn’t a long ride. Aaron did fall once, not being able to kick out of his pedals in time, but luckily he fell on grass instead of logs or rocks.
We were toying with going back out on Saturday, but we we both wanted to give our butts a break, so we went out to play tennis instead. Again, we are clearly out of shape so we didn’t stay out that long, but we had a blast. I was really impressed with how Aaron was playing even better than he had last year. He picks up new skills so easily, it’s crazy. He started off wristing his backhand and not taking full strokes, and after just a few tips he had it down and was passing me with topspin backhands. Crazy.
We went to get buffalo wings for lunch (soooo goooood) and stopped by the dog adoption event. I am a sucker for sad faced dogs, and we almost took home a foster dog who reminded us so much of Illy – just overwhelmed being at the adoption event, looking so sad and forlorn. We decided we really needed Illy to meet him before we took him home, so maybe next week we will go back and see him.
We stopped by Lowes on the way home, since I wanted to pick up some mulch and see if they had any flowers that caught my eye. Our front lawn is in dire need of some TLC, and since it was such a beautiful day, it seemed like the perfect time to do some gardening.
We also needed a new grill, since our old one was in pretty poor shape. And good old Lowes came through for us on all counts.
It took three trips of Aaron going back and forth, but we finally made it home with all our goodies.
While Aaron was putting together our new grill:
I was planting lavendar:
And the cats were caught snuggling:
It’s been a long, exhausting, rewarding day. And now it’s time to put the steaks on the grill!
Pandora just started playing Mad World (the Alex Parks version – very good) and this line always sticks out at me:
I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.
Normally I get a very melancholy satisfaction out of the line…but not this time. No, this time it reminded me of one of my dreams last night. Usually I don’t have recurring dreams, but I have had this particular dream a few days ago, too. And I made the same mistake again last night*. I guess I should pay attention to that.
Anyway, the dream.
Someone was knocking on the door, which is not an uncommon occurrence for us, since the delivery guys will usually knock and ring the bell when they drop a package off. So I ran downstairs to the front door and looked through the peephole. All I could see was some dude in black pajamas, and I was going to ignore him and go back upstairs when I realized the door was starting to swing open. I tried to slam the door shut and lock it**, but the guy was stronger and forced his way in.
As I stumbled backwards, I saw he was a samurai (well, really he was a ninja, but in the dream he was a samurai, no matter what he looked like. I guess I watch too much LOST - OMG SPOILER!!11!!). I yelled for Aaron, but I guess he couldn’t hear me. The samurai for some reason decided to strangle me – actually I think it was to shut me up since I lost my voice as soon as the wire touched me. So he slipped a wire around my neck (from the front, not sure how that worked but physics doesn’t really apply to dreams, right?) and started tightening it. This also happened in very slow motion. Well, not slow motion, he was just really slow about it. I tried to get my hand up between my neck and the wire, because I saw Jack Bauer do that once, and it worked for him.
Jack Bauer, I am not.
Even though samurai dude was taking his sweet ass time tightening the wire to the point where I wouldn’t actually be able to breathe, I couldn’t really escape. I tried hitting him, but my arm wasn’t really responding. When I finally did get it up to hit him, I had no power. And then he stabbed me in that side.
Then I woke up. I really don’t like getting stabbed.
It was 3am, I was wide awake, and it was raining.
And I was left wondering, what the hell did I ever do to the samurais?!
* I hope the next time I have this dream, I bring a weapon to the door, and instead of looking through the peephole, the first thing I do is slam the door shut and lock it. And if that doesn’t work, I unload on his pajama wearing ass.
** I have a big problem (in my dreams) with people trying to force their way past me when I’m trying to shut and lock a door. I guess it stems from when my brother and I would fight when we were younger. The bathroom door was the only door in the house with a lock on it, so that was the only place I had a chance of escaping him. I would barely beat him to the bathroom, slam the door and try to lock it before he could force the handle and push his way in. Since he was so much stronger than me, I couldn’t hold the doorknob and prevent him from opening it. I learned that lesson pretty quickly.
It was one of those pushbutton locks, so I would have to hold my thumb over it while he would take a ball point pen and try and push the button out from the other side through the little safety hole. I just had to hope my thumb wouldn’t tire out before he got bored, otherwise he would be able to get in, and only my screaming at the top of my lungs for my dad would save me from an indian rub burn, or a dragon twist, or whatever the torture of the day was. Man, that would hurt my thumb. But not as much as a nickel twist.
There is something I just love, love, love about a Christmas tree with presents piled underneath it. I like to get our tree up as soon as Thanksgiving is over as possible (and sooner, if Aaron wouldn’t veto the pre-Thanksgiving tree raising!) so I can maximize tree time. It also reminds me of college when we would string Christmas lights all over our dorm rooms so we didn’t have to use those God-awful fluorescent lights. They always seem so warm and cozy. It adds such a nice glow to the room.
I also love that our ornaments have meaning. Every time we go on vacation, we collect an ornament. And if we go someplace and can’t find them (I’m looking at you, all of Europe), then I order an ornament from Snapfish with a picture of us on that vacation instead. So it’s really fun to decorate the tree and relive all our trips. I took pictures of the ornaments but they didn’t turn out that great, so I probably won’t post them. Ditto the tree as a whole. I need to get out Aaron’s fancy camera and tripod and lens hood and flash whatever thingies he has to make pictures turn out gorgeous, I guess. Maybe one day…
I think the cats would also love the tree to be up all year, since they love hiding underneath it and tromping all over the presents. And eating the fake needles.
December always flies by, so I’m trying to suck as much enjoyment out of the season as possible. Bring on the gingerbread lattes, scented candles, peppermint shnapps, baileys, christmas cookies, and good cheer!
