OCD lite

Memorial Day weekend- the official start of summer for us adults who have full time jobs and have done shares on the Shore, in the Hamptons or in the Pines- was quite fun this year.

The best part of course was spending the long weekend with the boys, the in-laws and my younger brother's family for Sunday brunch- more on the brunch later...

The 2nd best part was I got to drive my 22 hp, 46" dual blade cut, hydrostatic, 8" turning radius lawn tractor.  My brother the doctor (the smart one) asked if I listened to Kenny Chesney.  Duh!  Frack no!  I did listen to music but it was bravehound's Faster Still mix check it out, google bravehound- he is totally dreamy btw).  It was all going smoothly until (due to the meadow like conditions of the yard) I missed the black plastic drainage extension and ran it over gouging a huge chunk out of it making it virtually useless.

The 3rd best part was getting to use my grill- both sides, the charcoal and the gas- for dinner two nights in a row.

I picked the boys up Friday after I made dessert- chocolate cake with homemade peppermint butter cream frosting in the middle and dark chocolate frosting with blackberries on top.  When we got back to the cottage I fired up the gas side of the grill and threw on some sausages and poussin.  the boys and ST- being the juveniles they are- made jokes all night about the sausages and how ST clearly liked his sausage black.  I was constantly scolding them as my in-laws were dining with us and the husband just kept chugging his wine and stayed red faced the entire dinner, lol.  When ST and PJ left, PJ commented that the boys are not as naive and innocent as he thought.

Saturday morning I explained to the boys I would be cutting the backyard and because it was a meadow I would need them to rake it up and it would need a second cut.  I told them I would pay them $20 each for three hours of raking.  My youngest piped u that that was not even minimum wage to which I calmly replied it was on a tax adjusted basis as he we netting $20 for three hours of work which worked out to roughly $8.50/hr.  I then followed up with I could make the do the raking for free if I wanted to so take the offer.

I then spent the afternoon raking with the boys for a hour after it took me roughly two to complete the first rough cut.  I told them they could do the rest of the work Sunday or Monday and promptly handed them each $7.  My step father-in-law scoffed that I should have waited 'til they were complete before paying them anything, lol.

Saturday night I fired up the charcoal side of the grill and we had good old fashioned cheddar cheeseburgers and hot dogs.  Of course we had ice cream for dessert.  We then watched The Rite.  Colin O'Dongohue was quite hot in the flick.  The movie was pretty good for its genre as well.  My youngest decided not to watch it and went to bed early.

We also had all fresh veggies all weekend.  The husband asked me what I thought of joining the local produce co-op at the farm across the street.  I had been in one before in my first marriage and had fond memories of having fresh, local, organic produce all summer and told him yes, done deal!  He was shocked as he thinks I am anti-vegetable.  I told him au contraire.  I love fresh produce.  So we had lots of greens this weekend- bok choy, arugula, kale, broccoli florets, collard greens and broccoli rabe.  I really can't wait to see what kind we get for this weekend.

Sunday was very lazy as the heat- what happened to spring btw?- was almost oppressive and we do not have our a/c hooked up (we had to disconnect it back in December when we were putting in all the new kitchen appliances).  So once we get the electrical panel upgraded- hopefully by the end of June- we will have the a/c back working.  

Monday morning I put the boys back to work early to finish their indentured servitude  their three hour commitment for raking. That pretty much finished them up by lunch time, I made them shower and I got them back to their mom's house by 2 PM for her Memorial Day barbecue.  I then went back and continued raking for another hour or so until the husband said it was time to take a dip in PJ's pool.  That was very refreshing.  We were there for about a half hour and then back to the cottage only to discover we had guests.  The husband had mentioned friends may be in the area Monday afternoon and stop by.  The had just arrived when we got back.  I was horrified and looked at the husband hissing "Didn't you confirm this???"  He looked appropriately abashed and meek.  Our guests then apologized that they had not gotten back to the husband confirming their visit.  So, instead of doing a brick for training we sat on the screened in porch and had cheese and crackers and went thru two bottles of champagne, lol.  It was quite relaxing and nice until we hear someone knock at the front door and identifying themselves as the police.  WTF???  Apparently the oldest dog had somehow snuck out of the house and traipsed about a quarter of a mile down the road to be found by a cyclist.  Said cyclist called the number on his license but our cell phone were in the bedroom not with us on the porch.  Thankfully the officer- who was smoking hot- explained the situation asked to come identify the dog.  Yep, there was our oldest dog, siting in the back seat of the police cruiser with that "Hi, did i do something wrong" look on his furry face.

Brunch Sunday kind of pissed me off.  My sister-in-law and the husband set the time for 11 AM.  So we of course were all set for our guests to arrive at the stated time only to get a text message- mind you not a phone call- at 11:06 from them saying they were just leaving.  Roughly 45 minutes later they showed up.  Now I have been there with young kids and know that it is not always the easiest thing to get them ready when you want them to be and get going on time but that means you knew at roughly 10:30 you were not going to be on time and you could have sent a text then.  I really was not in the mood to comment on the whole situation to my brother as he can sometimes get overly sensitive about things like that at times.  But, when you are not even out of the house at the time you are supposed to be somewhere a phone call is in order not a text message.  The husband knew after they left I was pissed and tried to assuage my anger but I just needed to be angry for a while.  It was great seeing them though and their boys are really cute and my sons had fun with them.

Brian Stann- holy woofiness!  Not only is he a Marine (apparently all Marines are bottoms too according to Mr. Clifford) but he is a war hero who served in Iraq and a smoking hot MMA fighter who had quite an impressive win this weekend. 

I have been watching Game Of Thrones on HBO mostly because my secret mancrush at work is a huge fan of the book series and told me I would love it and should watch it.  It is pretty good even though it had a somewhat similarly slow star a la Boardwalk Empire.

So last night I read how supposedly Greece is essentially going to give up its full sovereignty and allow outside international forces bureaucrats to take over basic government services.  Really?  Why did you even bother fighting the Ottomans for independence  let alone the Third Reich?  I personally think if that happens you will see extremely violent civil unrest in Greece- not just everyday violent civil unrest that goes on now in response to austerity measures but is ignored by the MSM as the MSM is fully co-opted by the internationalist financial oligarchs running everything.

I think at times I have some mild form of OCD.  What leads me to this conclusion is the following situation:  The third stall in the bathroom at work.  The coat hook on the interior of the the door.  It is always coming loose for some reason or another.  So when I happen to use it and I notice it is loose the first hing I do- even if I am about to crap my pants- is take out my Leatherman Micra and open it to the Philips head screwdriver and tighten the damn thing.

I knew I should have waited for a sale or at least the Rapture

I slept in this morning as I knew I was not going to the dojo- sweep the leg!- tonight due to my elbow issue.  It was nice to get up a bit later.

I am torn about the impending end of the world this Saturday evening at 6  PM on the dot.  Apparently it will be caused by a rolling earthquake.  I am torn because it will screw up our social plans for Sunday and yet excited as it means come Sunday I will have all the full rights of all other Americans- like legally marrying who I want to- as the ones who oppose it and do everything to stop it will be raptured and sitting in a gleaming cube that is 1,380 miles high, wide and deep.

It also means we will not have to worry about peak oil or greenhouse gases.  The concern over the EU falling apart will be moot.  If Harold Camping is correct it also means I and everyone else will only have five months left.  Am I the only one thinking road trip?  I did find- and join- a post rapture looting group though, so I got that going for me.  The other negative is I just bought our riding mower- a 46" cut with a 22 hp engine- and our grill.  If I had only known I'd have waited until Sunday to go find one and loot it while God wasn't looking...

I hit the gym after work today.  There were some serious hot guys there.  My bike ride after lifting was only made passable by staring at Princeton.  I usually see him there in the mornings but it appears he now goes in the evenings.

Tomorrow I will be having drinks with a kid from my alma mater who has this ridiculous idea of trying to get into my line of work.  I believe he is not of age to legally consume alcoholic beverages but he has assured me he can pass for said age.  Does that mean I am contributing to the delinquency of a minor?  

This Saturday will be quite busy.  The husband is doing a tri on without me- I only do one a year and that slot is currently filled.  He is not doing it solo though as he is joining my brother in the one he does annually.  So I will be his crew for the race.  Then I will be using my riding mower for the first time to cut the meadow.  I am looking forward to that.

Sunday - assuming there is no Rapture- JW, JD, Rf and RS are coming down to the cottage and we will be going to see The Grounds For Sculpture and then having dinner.  I will be using the new grill for dinner that night.  I may not need propane though as there is the possibility there will be hellfire everywhere.

So I read the other day that the EU is considering a soft restructuring for Greece.  What the hell is a soft restructuring?  Is that like almost pregnant?  I asked my bond friend what it meant and he said immediately nothing unless you own CDS but 12-18 months down the road it is exactly the same thing.  The other term I heard was reprofiling.  Isn't that a violation of the Greeks inherent rights?  I thought profiling was bad yet the EU wants to reprofile Greece?  Hmmm, clearly there is no ACLU in Europe.

A baby fox is a kit

The weekend was quite relaxing regardless of the crappy weather.  The boys both had school events until after 9 PM so the husband and I just had dinner with ST and PJ.

The highlight of Friday was when the husband and I pulled back into the driveway of the cottage and there was a kit, aka a baby fox.  He or she was just sitting in the driveway and slowly sauntered  off to behind our dogwood tree then went off into the meadow.  We did not see the parent but it had to be around.

I said meadow and not yard because we pretty much have a meadow currently, lol.  The grass is easily above my knees.  I also noticed that we have several different types of grasses in our meadow. 

I had called the lawn cutting service several times last week to get them to come and cut the grass.  They have yet to show up.  So finally the husband has relented to my point of view and agreed that we are getting a riding mower.  Whoo hoo!  I am going to get a 42" cut at least 17.5 hp which should do the trick.  I will also probably have to get a push mower to get around under all the trees.

We are also going to get a grill.  I am getting the dual heat source type- the one that has a propane side and a charcoal side.

I made a chocolate layer cake with whipped cream in the middle, dark chocolate frosting and strawberries on top.  It was quite the hit to top off the husband's awesome roast chicken, asparagus salad and wild rice pilaf.

I was quite surprised to hear ST say he was looking forward to seeing the boys for dinner and he was bummed they were not joining us.

I picked up the boys early Saturday morning.  We then kind of hanged out and watched some tv then we went to see Priest in 3D with ST.  We stopped off first to grab lunch at a Mexican place and even though the boys said they were not hungry they both ate, lol.

The movie was ok.  It would have been much better if my future ex-husband Cam Gigandet had repeated his bare ass scene from Burlesque but sadly that was not to be.  He wasn't even shirtless!

Saturday night the husband made spaghetti and meatballs.  The meatballs had pine nuts in them and they were really good.  I had never had them that way before.

Sunday the weather really sucked.  So we decided to see Thor.  That movie made up for Cam not being shirtless when I got to see Chris Hemsworth shirtless in low rise jeans.  Holy Mother of God!  And you could tell he was not wearing underwear.  The movie was actually pretty damn good and I loved the cameo by one Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.  Jeremy Renner will make an excellent Hawkeye.

I dropped the boys off at their mom's house.  The husband and I then had sushi for dinner and I caught an early train back to the apartment.  Catching an earlier train means I got to watch "Game of Thrones" live and that was worth it as I got to see the actor who portrays Theon Greyjoy in a full, frontal nudity scene- WOOF!

DSK- already the "he was set up" theories are swirling.  Ok, I am as cynical and jaded as the next person who occasionally puts on a tin foil hat but I cannot see how this whole thing is set up as there are way too many moving parts and too many people involved.  Why did he leave behind his cell phone and other personal items if he was already scheduled to fly out at that time?  It definitely throws a wrench into Europe's plans to continue bailing out everyone and kicking the can down the road.

In case you missed it because there is a new media circus going on, Tepco now admits that maybe- just maybe- the fuel has melted in more than one reactor...

I worked construction for two years and I learned how to whistle at hot chicks- it is an all-American, red blooded male thing to do.  Sometimes my rough edges poke thru the semi-polished facade I have acquired living in NYC for over twenty years- like this morning.  As I was walking though the terminal to my bus this morning I noticed a hot guy in a suit and let loose with a whistle, lol.  I have no idea if he heard it or realized it was directed at him but it was a completely all-American red blooded male thing to do to make ones approval of something pleasing to one's eye know.

The Week In Review

Last week was really busy actually.  I did not hit the gym or the dojo- Cobra Kai never die!- because of the spill I took on the bike.

Tuesday after work I had drinks with my cousin who get me into the business.  It was great catching up with him on everything.  He only gets to town once a year as he would most likely die due to his inability to show self restraint when it comes to certain things such as alcohol and illegal narcotics, lol.

Wednesday after work MP gave her birthday gift tot he husband- tickets to the Kylie concert.  She used to be neighbors with Kylie's tour manager when she lived in London.  The seats were frackin' awesome!  We also were going to possibly meet Kylie but MP's friend had to leave immediately and there was a screw up with us getting the wrist bands to enter.

Wednesday night was quite interesting as I had to get up in the middle of the night to take a leak only to stop right into a pile of a dog shit one of the kids left at the foot of the bed.  Do you know how hard it is to walk to the bathroom very carefully with dog shit on your foot after many drinks at a concert?

Thursday night I was off to see The Airborne Toxic Event with a friend from work.  They have a new album out and the concert was great.  The only thing was that going out to two concerts sequentially  at my advanced age is not as easy as it used to be.  Thankfully I was not getting up early and dragging my sorry, old ass to the gym.

Friday after work it was right down to the cottage as we had CC and his bf AA visiting for the weekend.  I of course made dessert as soon as I got there and then mopped the floor as dark wood floors show all the kids paw prints. 

It was great having CC and AA down for the weekend.  They were excellent guests and we had a very relaxing time with them.  I found out AA is another upstate boy and he went to the same school as my brother and father.  He also initially studied to be a horticulturist so he was a huge help with all the plants and trees in the yard and he gave some good advice to the husband.

Saturday we took them to the local college and checked out the art museum on campus.  It was fun but I have difficulty faking that much interest in art, lol.

Yesterday we actually did a bike ride.  I mapped out a nice 18 mile ride avoiding completely the road I had my spill.  It was actually a good ride and I completed it in about a hour.  The husband however did not complete it as he ended up with a flat tire around mile 13.  So this time I got to ride and get the truck and come back to pick him up.

Ok, in case anyone thinks that Greece restructuring or lengthening their maturities is not the same as default- it is.  Restructuring debt or lengthening maturities of debt are nice, polite phrases for default.  It will happen.

I agree with President Obama that releasing the photos of Osama Bin Laden would do nothing.  People who think it is all a conspiracy will not have their minds changed regardless.

To quote REM- I am, I am Superman...

The weekend was pretty good.  I worked from the cottage Friday as I had a wake to go to (a co-worker's father) on the shore.  Rather than do a lot of extra driving I asked the boss if it would be ok to work from home.  I then went to the wake in the afternoon.

We had dinner with ST and PJ at the cottage with the boys.  Actually the boys only had dessert with us as they had gone out to celebrate their great report cards.  My youngest had straight As and my oldest had straight Bs.  I had made dessert- this double layer chocolate cake with strawberry filling.  Sadly I put too much of the strawberry filling in it so the top layer kept sliding off.

Saturday the husband and I did quite a bit of gardening.  The front bed now has no weeds, Russian sage ( the purple variety), bleeding hearts, some thing that has tons of golden flowers, several types of ornamental grasses and some other plants I have no idea about, lol.  Oh and tons of fresh mulch too.  

The oldest brought his air soft gun which is basically a BB gun light.  He went after the geese in the back yard.  I regaled him with stories of the BB gun fights I and friends had growing up.  I then on a whim asked him what it felt like to get hit with air soft ammo.  He kindly and grudgingly obliged and the fucker stings!  Holy shit.  I don't recall a BB stinging that much, lol.

Saturday night we went and saw Dylan Dog:  Dead of Night.  I liked it, my youngest liked it, my oldest thought it was ok and the husband thought it was boring.  He commented it would make a great series on the SciFi channel.  Brandon Routh is hot and Sam Huntington basically had the same role as he plays on "Being Human."

Sunday we decided to do a brick as part of the training for our upcoming race.  We mapped out a 15 mile ride and started off well.  About one third into the ride I swerved to avoid a very large pothole only to hit another and go into a ditch and then go flying (literally I was airborne) over the handle bars.  I got up and barked at the husband "We are finishing this ride!"  He snapped back at me "We need to check out your bike first the tires could need be straightened out!"  Well the front did and it was flat so our ride was over.  the husband rode back to the cottage, got the truck and came back to get me and my bike.  As I was waiting every cyclist who rode by stopped to make sure I was ok and one driver stopped.  He asked if I was just resting or injured.  I told him I had a flat and was waiting for my ride.  He then informed the driveway about fifty yards away was a private residential health care facility he was the director at and if I needed anything stop in.  It kind of creeped me out and made me think maybe it was a mental institution.

We got back to the cottage,  I realized I had a nice chunk missing from my palm and the left side of my back was definitely sore.  I took my shirt off only to see I had major abrasions from my shoulder down to my hip- ouch.  I showered up, used a lot of hydrogen peroxide and got dressed.  I dropped the boys off at their mom's house and came home just to go and do a five mile run.  I have issues I know...

Ok so now that Osama Bin Laden is dead does that mean that Greece won't default, unemployment will drop precipitously, housing will enter a new upturn and banks can go back to real accounting (aka mark to market) not the fake ind they have been using (aka mark to make believe)?  NO!  This does not change anything and when some strategist from a major commercial bank says this marks the end of the war on terror he should be publicly humiliated.

I was disturbed by the crowds of people gathering in various places around the country to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden.  It seemed somewhat un-American to celebrate an enemy's death.  It seems like things that happen in third world countries- the whole firing guns of in the air, etc- not in our country.  All I could think of was the famous picture of the couple kissing in Times Square at eh end of WWII- you know, Americans celebrating the end of hostilities.

Just saw the Red Bull ad featuring Ryan Doyle and woof- the guy is smoking.  Speaking of woof, so looking forward to seeing my future ex-husband Cam Gigandet in Priest.