Okay time for an update on things! First, the decorating has begun!

Before and After Weeding and Clipping

With the Lights

On Friday I finally tackled the front yard. I weeded it once this summer, but all the rain we got just made them grow back. It was a disaster, I had to weed, cut, then hedge the bushes by hand with little hand-held shears, as that’s all we had. Once the frosts begin hitting and killing the weeds, I’m gunna go pull and cut. Then I swear to holy baby Jesus that next spring we are hiring a landscaper to come in and just get it looking nice. I figure if they start it off, I can keep it up. Plus doing all that trimming and weeding just killed me, I was clogged up all night long!

I also had to restring all the lights on the bushes. The past year they sat there, and with the new growth, well they were buried in the bushes. Ripping them out I’m sure didn’t help my allergies either. Once I got them done, that’s when I quit as it was getting dark. They should be arranged a little more nicely, but once I cover the bushes with cobwebs it will look way better. John recently got purple lights, so I might try and mix a few of those in.

2008, Alien Mask From New Costume

This of course is what it looked like last year, and that layout was just built upon the year before. This year I wanna try and change things around a bit. Unfortunately half the porch is uncovered, so that limits what I can put in certain areas of the porch. The wind picks up this time of year, so that has to be thought of too. I bought only a few new things, I had to watch the money. I got 2 new tombstones, but will probably pick up a few more as they are cheap. This is to expand the graveyard, as well as the fact some of the older ones are on their last leg. I have to find bigger yard spikes to keep them firmly in the ground, the ones they give you are crap. Last year I had to use wire hangers (gasp!) and rocks to keep them in place. A trip to Home Depot will be needed for heavy duty wire I think. I got a zombie mask to make another zombie scarecrow, probably just another half-one to put in the grave yard. My most fun purchase was this alien costume for kids. I’m either stuffing it and putting on the porch somehow, or seeing if I can possibly hang it in the attic window. If I can do the later, I’ll put a green strobing light in the attic instead of the usual red.

I think I’m gunna attempt this year to move Jason in front of the door, put the large ghost to the left of the porch and the spiderweb on the open right side. I also want to see if I can hang the bag-o-bones up on the spiderweb like a human victim trapped in the web. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but never felt like taking the time to lay it out and really tie the bones on good. Again the wind is gunna be the problem.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Well I’m in Virginia as I have my appointment Monday with the dentist to get my permanent crown put on. Oh and yes, I did swallow the temp one, like a week ago. I was eating chicken and noticed it was suddenly gone. It’s in our cesspool by now I guess. Man I thought my tooth, well what’s left of it, was sensitive with that thing on. Let’s just say it’s been a fun week of wincing without it!

John’s sleep study is over. Someone asked in the shoutbox, he was diagnosed with a mild sleep apnea, but nothing life threatening. They are going to give him some stupid contraption to wear to bed to see if it helps him feel more rested in the mornings. My opinion remains the same though, you work 12+ hours a day 7 days a week, your gunna be tired no matter what. I’m still of the opinion that has to change, cause the older he gets, the worse on his health it will be.

Anyways, I’m now off to TRY my best to focus and finish editing my half of this article that is due in this week for publication. Well it’s due to the organizer of all the articles in a complication, he’s turning them in sometime later next month. Yeah I have a feeling we’ll be turning it in a week late though 🙂

I realized I had to do a post as it’s been almost a week! Bad me I know, but I don’t have too much to discuss.

First off, if you follow the tweets on the sidebar, you know we have had a “visitor” to the house. Last week I thought someone ran over a skunk outside the house. It happens from time to time living on a farm basically. Turned out I soon learned a skunk sprayed either a fox or the neighbor’s cat in the field. When I walked the dogs before bed, I could tell where the smell was coming from, and it wasn’t the street.

A few days later while returning from a nightly walk with the dogs, they went nuts right outside the back door. I saw something in the yard and realized what it was, the skunk! I got them in fast. I’m pretty sure it’s taken up residence in the bushes (ie overgrown forest) next to the house. Now at night I keep them from sniffing anywhere near the bushes. I fear it won’t be long before we are all sprayed one night :-\

In other news, oh yes, October is fast approaching, which mean Halloween! I never did get the yard landscaped like I hoped to. So I have to cut back the weeds at least, trim the bushes, and then I can start decorating next week! I have to be good and not go crazy with new purchases this year. I am only allowing myself to buy a Michael Meyers mask (to make a Michael scarecrow) and something new to hang in the attic window. I’m thinking a Yurei (funky white lady ghost alah “The Ring” or any of those Asian movies).

I’m seriously beginning to think we have a ghost cat problem! Percy has become more and more of a bed hog and cuddler than ever before, and it all seems to have started when Lance died. Before Lance died, Percy would occasionally hop on the couch with me at night, or if I was sick and on the couch during the day come lay with me. That was about it. Lance was always the people cat. He was the one always on the couch. He was the one that would nudge you to pet him. He was the one who broke into the bedroom in the morning to come sleep with me.

Well since he died in April, Percy has seemingly taken over that role. He almost every morning breaks into the room to sleep with me after John gets up and leaves for the day. More recently he’s started coming in at night too! He’s also become more and more of an aggressive “pet me now!” kitty by doing the head bumping and face rubbing thing on your hands. Well last night when I refused to pet him cause it was time to go to bed . . . he began nibbling on my fingers!

Why is that important? Well first of all, he’s never done that before. Second, Lance used to have this toe fetish. If there were bare toes available, he’d nibble on them. He would often do it should he want petting and you weren’t accommodating him. I think I might have to take Percy to a pet psychic and possibly find a pet exorcist!

Post Note: Don’t get me wrong, I love that Percy has become possessed a people cat, as none of the other cats in the house are very people social. Plus Percy has always been “my” cat, he comes to me for food and attention. However, I still think he’s possessed!

Oh yes, I think my life is officially complete. Lynda Carter herself touched me, and in a very good way.

I look goofy as all hell, and my cheeks somehow became fatter than a chipmunks, but I met her and damn if she doesn’t look good! She must be on that Suzanne Sommers life plan or something.

She was in town doing a signing at a local Barnes and Noble for her new CD. She’s also on tour with a show of her own, in very select cities. I might try and see her when she’s in Washington. I don’t know why the hell she got booked in Cherry Hill, NJ for this signing, seems Philly would have been a bigger market. But who cares really . . . I met Wonder Woman!

Here is a quick photo I took of her standing. See I told you, gurl looks good! Not sure about that skirt though 😉

So I figured I best make a blog post, even a small one, about the weekend and my birthday. It was good, but not the party night it could have been. I had a crappy appetite all week and some stomach problems, probably left over from my cold. So I just didn’t feel like eating much of anything. Without eating, I sure can’t drink 🙂 So we just did dinner and hung out with a few friends.

John got me this wireless mouse type thing, wireless headphones for the TV (you know, so I can come to bed and watch TV rather than stay downstairs in the living room and do so) and this fun little dragonfly remote control toy that flies around.

I picked up two Wii games for myself 🙂 “Cursed Mountain” and “Muramasa.” I’ve only played the first so far, which is a creepy ghost game. Loves it! Next Month “Ju-On” and “Silent Hill” also come out for Wii, and I can’t wait for those two. Loving all the horror games coming out lately, just in time for Halloween.

Tomorrow I head to Virginia to finally get the much postponed dental work done. Not thrilled, as I just got my appetite back. I probably won’t feel like eating to much after the work. Mainly because I always pull those temporary crown/caps off.

So I survived my night alone in the house with the animals and the ghosts. I ended up having a “Mr. Belvedere” marathon 🙂 However I didn’t get to bed till 4am, thanks to finally taking some drugs. John goes in for a 2nd one of these this Sunday. I’m totally knocking myself out way earlier in the night this time! That or throwing a party 🙂

Let’s see, the boycott of said establishment is almost a month in now. Of course someone came to me this morning pleading with me to just make two small changes to said website, because there was a price error. This error wasn’t my fault, it was theirs. I contemplated fixing it for one second, then decided not to. That would be me caving, and them realizing they could just continue to milk free services out of me. I think I’ll tell them “If that error costs you money, take it out of the asshole’s paycheck, and let him this is what happens when you treat people like shit.” Frankly I think I need to up this ante to make them realize I’m done with their establishment. I’m still hosting their site on my dollar, perhaps I need to give eviction notice 🙂

Changing topics, I fired off 78 pages to my adviser yesterday, and am trying to get another 100 edited and out by this weekend. I’m also hoping he’ll have some suggestions on how to cut the size down as I still have another chapter of 200 some pages also coming. I need to get the size down, as it will take my committee too long to read it (just like it’s taken me too long to write it).

Related, the paper my adviser and I gave in HotLanta (remember that trip from hell?) is set to be published. That’s another deadline to add to my plate, I have to get it ready by the end of September. We can expand on the original paper fortunately.

Finally Saturday is my birthday. I turn the big three four. The weather looks to be nice. As it stands it looks like I might be doing dinner with friends in Philly and then maybe a night of dancing. However more than likely things will fall through and I’ll end up sitting at home as usual.