Nada

zilch, originally uploaded by duncan.

Jon and I went to the bank, then went to FedEx and we just next day aired our last mortgage payment to Chase.

So the number you see in the photo is the amount of personal debt we have.

Yes, I'm gloating. And I'm also feeling the loss of the weight of debt. I have owed money one way or the other since I was dumbass enough to apply for a MasterCard in college.

In all honesty the business loans are not separate so there's still that obligation. But, if the business decided to close yesterday we have enough assets that even at fire sale prices we could call it even.

*Whew*.

Short Subjects

B Fun 2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I hope everyone enjoyed 'DrinkTalk like a Pirate' last Friday. I did not because I'm sticking to my diet and beer does a number on my resolve.

Fall is my favorite time of year in Alabama. Winter is cold without the fun of snow, Spring is tempermental with the tornado sirens going off at least once a week, and Summers are sticky hot. Fall means cool mornings, tolerably warm days, and pleasant evenings. And lower power bills.

Brenden and I went to the nearby park Sunday morning. I noticed, as I have many times recently, that my nose is working at almost %100 capacity. After going so long without a sense of smell it is still a novelty to be able to smell the grass, trees, even the stagnant water in the creek and the mold and mildew on the park benches. Paradoxically it's easier for me to eat less now because I smell more. I had a tough time when I couldn't smell controlling my eating and I think it was because I had to eat a ton of food to get any flavor at all.

Another paradox: when I get that urge to snack I read cookbooks. For some reason it curbs my desire to eat. Not because I'm revolted; matter of fact I usually get to planning the week's dinners. But I don't snack.

Brenden is exhibiting better control of his bodily functions. We are going to bite the bullet and take the gate off of his door this evening and encourage him to go to the bathroom at night by himself. Jon is stressing that he will get into the kitchen and do something silly like chop onions or something so we'll put the gate on the kitchen at night. I figure if B tries to climb that the ensuing crash will be enough to wake us up.

County Fair

08, originally uploaded by Mike to the D.

We took Brenden to the Cullman County fair last night. He was in Valhalla, of course. The three of us did a few rides together but I was surprised at how many rides were aimed at little people his age. He went, all by himself, on a mini-rollercoaster called the Dragon Wagon, and several variations of a merry-go-round (including a real merry-go-round). He and I went on one of those that spins you around while spinning your seat around (a scrambler?) and he loved it! No puking incidents.

Overall his behavior was great with only a few incidents of innattentionitis. He of course had to be carried out crying once we ran out of money, but still it wasn't a complete meltdown and once we got to the car he resigned to going home.

He did talk me into stopping so he could have some chocolate milk, and I finally got to try a diet Sierra Mist. I love Sierra Mist and am on the hunt for a diet anything that I actually can stomach. The SM diet stuff is pretty tolerable!

When we put him to bed, he got out again and asked me to come back in his room ("Momma, come here please!")

I did and sat down on his bed and he climbed in my lap and hugged me. After a while (like I'm going to stop him from doing that) he pulled away and said "Truck Broken".

I had busted a tail light by misjudging backing up and hit the company van. Whoopsie.

I said, "Yes, but daddy fixed it today, remember?"

He poked a finger in my chest and said "Truck broken! Mama broken Truck!!"

I laughed, agreed that mama broken truck, and tucked him in. He's so much fun right now.

Adding the Oatmeal

Adding the oatmeal, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Short Bites

Dad and Ilu stopped by on Saturday on their way to Oklahoma - dad looks great; he's dieting and has lost a lot of weight he put on as a result of chemo. Brenden remembered them from our visit last May. I showed him a pic of him and Ilu making oatmeal cookies together and he pointed at her and said "Beebop!" (That's their nickname for B).

I'm going to close the pool in a couple of weeks. It's been a cooler summer than normal and it's just getting too chilly. Brenden doesn't want to swim as much as he used to.

Brenden's speech has improved in leaps and bounds in the past month. We went shopping last weekend and he was pointing out to me where he gets his hair cut, his preschool, and of course McDonald's and Burger King. The point is I understood what he was saying.

What I'm Watching:

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is back, hooray! Kinda weak start back from the awesome FBI dead pool cliffhanger from last season but so what.

Lost won't start back until next year, boo, but in the meantime I'm giving Fringe a try (J.J. Abrams created both shows). It's kind of X-Filesy. The pilot ranged from so-so to pretty interesting so I'll stick around for a while. Besides, the obligatory mad scientist character is a protagonist so that's something in its favor.

Feasting on Waves Alton Brown's new 4-part series on the Food Network: he's sailing from island to island in the Caribbean and investigating local cuisine. I am so impressed that he managed to wrangle a paid vacation in such a manner! Like I am, he's totally fascinated /stymied by the fact that so much of the fish served in caribbean dishes is dried, salted cod, usually imported from Canada.

I have 2 weeks to go for new episodes of Life, hooray! I have to wait until January for the last Battlestar Galactica eps. Boo!

Without a Paddle Totally sophomoric comedy starring (get this) Seth Greene, Dax Sheppard, and Mathew Lillard. About as stupid as you would think, but it was funny! And it got the taste of 28 Weeks Later out of my brain.

What I'm Sorry I Watched

Sanctuary, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

28 Weeks Later: I enjoyed the first movie, 28 Days Later, about a man in a coma who wakes up 28 days after a plague has swept England. A virus called Rage started infecting people, and the infection is rapid (less than 30 seconds after mucosal/wound contact with blood or saliva) and the symptoms are extreme acts of violence.

Fun, yeah? I don't know, the first movie was harrowing but enjoyable, the second movie is just harrowing. 28 Weeks Later takes place (duh) 28 weeks after the initial infection. Since the spread of the infection was so rapid it was rather easy to keep the infection confined to England, and since victims of Rage had no intelligence left to take care of themselves they eventually starved to death, so people are attempting to repatriate.

Bad crap ensues when they find what they think is a survivor, but turns out she's a carrier. She has the virus but shows no symptoms. Her husband sneaks into her quarantine and gives her a kiss (neither know she's a carrier). Really bad shit ensues, and some military types try to get the 2 kids (uh oh!) of the unfortunate couple out of the area because the repatriation population are rapidly going bugshit. The military types think the kids might have the genetic answer to their mom's immunity to the symptoms of the virus.

Look, I'll spoil it now: rage-infested dad hunts down his kids. Little boy is infected before big sis manages to shoot dad dead. Little boy, however, is immune to the effects, like his mom, but is now carrying. They make it to the helicopter waiting for them (all the people who tried to protect them got offed) and the pilot, out of compassion, flies them over the channel into France. He never knew about the carrier in the first place.

We don't know the ultimate fate of the kids, but 28 days later continental Europe is overrun with bugshit Europeans. The End.

I made Brenden sleep in my bed Saturday night. I STILL HAVE the heebiejeebies. Horror movies just ain't no fun any more.

Quick Update

B bugging Kitty, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Brenden enjoys preschool. Yay!

Jon fixed the pipe on Wednesday so we have water again. Yay!

That is all.

My Husband the Engineer part 395

Dada and B getting wet, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I don't give my SO enough credit sometimes. Did I tell you about the time he fixed our car with a bottle cap? RLY! The shifter went out on our Saturn, and he Jerry rigged it with a bottle cap to get it home. He replaced the cap with something more suitable, but I'm sure the dealership would have charged us $700 for what he did with a couple of screwdrivers and stuff we had in the garage.

So anyway, yesterday morning I was pulling the garbage bin out to the curb and I noticed a nice big damp spot in our yard. Now our yard resembles the Sahara because of a big honking oak tree that is notoriously thirsty. It was so thirsty that last year during the ongoing drought it started to kill our neighbor's yard.

I realized that the damp spot started and went downhill from our water meter (uh-oh) so I pointed it out to Jon. I called the utilities folks when I got to work, and they promised to check it out. I get no call back from them, but when we get home, the mud around the water meter has been disturbed so they must have been by.

Jon decided to do some digging and after some agonizing arguments with tree roots he discovered that there is a foot of desintegrating pipe that runs from the meter into some PVC pipe that is between the meter and our house. Translation = the leak is our problem, not they city's. I can accept that but THANKS FOR TELLING US, TWITS!

We have a friend that works for a different township's utilities (I'm sure they are all nice guys and would have called us in this situation to say "not our problem") so Jon talked to him. I was was wondering; don't they make metal pipes out of brass? In this case our friend informed us it was galvanized steel. Galvanization involves coating with zinc to improve corrosion resistance, but I guess after 30+ years even galvanized steel pipe, buried in ACIDIC SOIL, will rust a teensy bit (the pipe just about broke apart at the touch - pictures to follow).

Of course we turned off the water to our house while Jon took that foot-long section of crap off the meter. We were hungry and running out of daylight so Jon and Brenden (who was helping by throwing clods of mud around the yard) jumped in the pool and washed up. We went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse (mmmmmmm steak), then hit Lowe's. Jon will fix it after work tonight.

I figure even if you throw in the cost of dinner and the parts, Jon saved us about a $1000+ in plumber's bills. I heart my husband.

Wii!

Wii!, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Jon bought a Wii and I'm not that impressed, but then I'm not a big console fan. I prefer games on the PC. We'll see, though, because Brenden and I had fun playing the bowling game.

We had a decent Labor day weekend. Nothing was accomplished and it was too cold to swim (thanks, Fay and Gustav!).

Brenden starts speech at the elementary school today - when he turned 3 he became eligible to take his lessons through the school. Speaking of, he's working hard now on repeating new phrases that we use like 'shaving cream' and 'railroad crossing' and 'GODDAM' which is totally my fault.

He also starts a pre-school program, from 9am - 1pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the local Methodist church. I can't wait until he tries out some of his new phrases on his teachers!

We signed him up so he can spend time with kids his own age. He is a gregarious kid and will play with anyone who will play with him. Hope he has fun!