August 29, 2006

• Holy crap, I’m finally updating!  Sorry about the lack of updates, but now that things are starting to get settled down and I’m starting to get readjusted to civilian life I can finally get back to Xanga and the rest of normality. 

  I finished up my latest military stint on August 18th, yeah, it’s only been 11 days but it feels like it has been a long time since I was down in Augusta.  I made the drive back to Indy in one long stretch with 3 or 4 quick stops for gas, drinks, and the bathroom.  I was planning on getting back at 12-1am, but pulled into Amanda’s work at 9pm….needless to say I was quite pleased with my last  minute route change, I have no doubt that it saved me a couple of hours.  The drive back wasn’t too darn bad, and my butt didn’t really hurt, but my arm did from rubbing against my center console for hours on end.  All that I have to say is thank God for Sirius radio!  It really makes the long trips more bearable.

  Now here goes a really quick recap of the last week and a half or so.  This is really quick….

  Friday:  Got home, sat at Amanda’s work for an hour and visited.  Went to eat at Perkins.  Stayed up really late since I was all worked up.

  Saturday:  I don’t remember…Amanda worked sometime during the day…I think that I just did some stuff around the house.

  Sunday:  Went back up north early in the morning to golf with my dad.  Went to a family reunion for a little bit.  Took some great pictures of my niece.  I managed to get back before Amanda was done with work.

  Monday and Tuesday:  Didn’t do too much.

  Wednesday-Friday:  Back to the daily grind of work and coming home. 

  Saturday-Sunday:  Went north for a wedding shower.  Hung out with CW.  Built a potato gun since we were in my old small town and there wasn’t anything else to do.  Stayed the night at my bro’s.  Visited family on Sunday. 

  Monday:  Back to work.  I cooked a nice meal with some really outstanding chicken.  Chicken breasts stuffed with swiss, sage, pepper, and red peppers…quick fried in olive oil and then basted in chicken broth.  Amanda even ate it, and she hates chicken.  I also made some real garlic mashed potatoes…they were really good.  I also made some caramel chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  I wanted to just get a ready made pack and bake them but it had been so long since I actually made cookies from scratch that I went ahead and made some.  They are yummy!  I spent way too much at the store, I about crapped my pants when my total was in the $90s, I guess that 6 bottles of wine, a potato masher, and a cookie sheet plus all the other groceries adds up really quick.  Between Amanda and I we finished off two bottles of wine, so we both slept really soundly!

  Today (Tuesday):  Today is my birthday.  Kind of a lonely one.  Amanda is working a long shift (14 hours) and I worked, got a haircut, and then came home.  I haven’t done much of anything since I’ve been home.  I did watch an episode of Prison Break.  Not sure what the rest of the night entails.  I think that Amanda is planning something since she asked me to go into work late tomorrow.  We’ll see what is up…no matter what it will be an improvement on an otherwise blah day. 

  Amanda and I have been busy looking at houses and builders.  It’s a huge undertaking finding something that we both like and also is in our budget.  We are finding a few things that fits what we are looking for…the sad thing is that no matter what we decide on we are looking at 5-6 months until we walk into the house and call it ours.  Oh well, it’s a small price to pay to get out of freakin’ apartments.  Speaking of apartments…I’m pretty ticked off at ours.  Our complex was sold and the new company got rid of all the excellent employees that worked in the office.  The new operators refuse to give us a short 4-6 month lease and are making us go month to month for $1100!  How absurd is that.  I’m so close to moving out and moving a large percentage of our stuff into storage just to spite the bastards.  I’d do it in September but we have 3 weddings and 2 bachelor parties that month so it will be too crazy.  If I’m still pissed around the middle of September I might think about doing that for October….bastards.

  It’s just really nice to be back home.  I am so relieved to be here and actually with Amanda.  It sucks being apart, although the absence this time was a little less bitter since we talked nightly and was able to see each other a half dozen or so times.  The temperature is a lot cooler here, but there is a tiny bit of fall in the air.  It’s kind of sad, I went from 30-40 degree weather here and skipped right over the summer and am into the beginnings of fall.  I haven’t had many full summers in Indiana since 2000…

  It’s nice to be home with our little pets.  Caden (our dog) has developed such a cute little doggie personality since I’ve been gone.  He is really quite spoiled, but he is pretty good overall.  He loves attention and has to be close to you.  He can’t jump on the couch so he isn’t always trying to get on your lap, but he has to be in the same room as you.  Stormie (the smaller cat) seems to be glad that I’m home.  She is always begging for attention from me, but I can’t give her too much because Caden gets all worked up if I pet or hold her.  Zoe (the big cat) is a little less stressed since I performed de-matting on her back.  I worked on her for a couple days and her fur is looking a little more normal. For some reason her hair just went to hell in the last 6 months or so…no reason why.  I did decide that we should try a different food because we did change foods right about the time that the mats started in.  We switched from a weight loss Iams to the multi-cat Iams.  I have no idea if that could do it, but cats are finicky and something like that could possibly do it.  We decided that we’d try out an indoor cat version of Eukenuba, we’ll see if things get better.  While the cats and dogs are doing good, the fish is a whole other story.  One fish died during the summer and I came home to a swamp in the fish tank.  I did a major vacuuming and a 1/2 water change (as opposed to the normal 1/4).  The water improved but a fish still died over the weekend.  Now we are down to one fish left.  I am debating about either getting rid of that fish and going with easy to care for tropical’s or getting a larger tank.  There has been some fish tanks on Craigslist recently, but no super deals so I’m not biting.  Sorry, but you have to sell your Wal-Mart aquarium for less than the price it is currently selling for at Wal-Mart if you want me to buy it!

  I think that for the next hour or so until Amanda is home I’m going to fold some laundry and maybe clean my bathroom.  My bathroom has kind of been the blackhole of all my accumulated junk while I was gone and since I’ve been back.  It’s bugging the hell out of me but I’ve been avoiding it.  It probably won’t take long to clean, but it’s the whole matter of deciding where to put all the stuff in there that is the major issue!

  Ok everyone out in Xanga land, have a great evening…I’ll update again and let you know what happens tonight!

  Here are some of my favorite photos of my little niece.  She is getting so big…I went from mamma and dadda to complete sentences with her!  Let me know if you like it posted as a video, or if you would rather have regular photos.  I just wanted to try the whole Xanga video thing.
  

  Ok, here is a little collage instead of posting all of them individually.

  

  • 9:34 pm
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