Just a Little Stitious

As Michael Scott once said in The Office, "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious."

Frankly, Friday the 13th had nothing on me this year... hobbling around with a broken bone caused indirectly by an almost all-black cat. One would hope I'd be just about out of bad luck. I say "hope" because if I say I am then, well, it's not quite midnight yet. Still early enough to jinx myself.

I don't put much stock in superstitions so I purposely go out of my way to avoid them. Oh wait, that does sound a little stitious.

Let's just say I had my usual casual Friday... a stop at the walk-in clinic on the way to work to seek pain management help, then a full work day waddling around the office (and appreciating elevators and escalators), then out for fish with our friends across the street. You know. Just a normal Friday.

After hearing of unlucky family members dealing with flooded basements after yesterday's rains came – north and west, not here – I was hoping this Friday the 13th would be remembered for a long, steady rain. Ball players and race car drivers wouldn't be happy. But the grass would rejoice. My flowers would gasp for a drink and smile. And our neighbors – and all farmers in our area – would breathe a sigh of relief.

But of course, that sounds too good for Friday the 13th. Hopefully Saturday the 14th will deliver.

I would like to just put my feet up (doctor's orders anyway) and watch it unfold. I'll just keep that almost-black cat from walking under a ladder or, heaven forbid, my recliner.

Fingers crossed... salt thrown over shoulder... good night.

The Flooded De-Nile River

Dwight from The Office knows everything about everything. So, unfortunately, his assessment of a Wisconsin "spring" is right on. Go back to your beet farm, Dwight!

Meanwhile, hubby and I are in the world of make believe. It's supposed to be baseball season so we grilled out brats tonight for supper. There should be 5 games this week so we'll pretend that only half will be canceled. (Only Monday and Tuesday are officially postponed right now).

And we'll ignore the latest forecast...

Dang. You know me. I can't ignore anything purple! According to the weather dudes, who still trying to figure out women (i.e. Mother Nature), several rounds of showers are likely through the weekend, with the heaviest Friday into Friday night. This combined with snow melt may create flood issues. 

Oh, because I was just thinking we needed one more issue!

Baseball is supposed to play in Abbotsford Friday night – that's somewhere between the 2.02" and 2.66" marks. And supposed to play a double-header in Nekoosa on Saturday – that's between the 2.45" and 2.51" marks.

Oh goody.

Pass me another brat, please. We've got some major denial to practice!

A Quiet Evening at Home

For some reason, what appears on the surface to be a quiet evening at home, is sort of chaotic in how it gets there. I think the only reason it was quiet is because each of us was off on a different tangent, doing our own thing in our own corners of the house.

Carter was on a mission to finish a book so he could test on it tomorrow. He practiced his trumpet, ate his supper then said he was going to his room to read at 7 p.m. until it was done. He just finished about 10 minutes ago.

It's Thursday night so hubby didn't want to miss one of his favorite shows, The Office. He watched that down in the basement where there were likely to be fewer interruptions. Later, he proofed an English paper son #2 emailed him. Then he got his "stuff" together for an early morning road trip. He's leaving at 4:30 a.m. to head up to my neck of the woods, Rice Lake, to visit a job site for photos and a story. So he's trying to force himself to fall asleep at my bedtime. It ain't working.

The second reason Jim relegated himself to the basement is so that I was upstairs on Schwan's watch. I didn't mind. Then I got the couch and blanket to watch Grey's. It never fails, though. The Schwan's Man always shows up during Grey's. I thought if I had my list ready, it would be a quick order and he'd be gone. But we had to talk football and baseball and weather. We're so close, ya know!

The strangest thing about our evening at home together is that both the boys are in bed before me. And I could actually sleep in tomorrow since I just have to walk to my desk and not drive an hour to it. It sounds good, but it's not.

When the garage was changing our oil today on the Civic and checking over a few things, they realized we need a new water pump. I can't believe a vehicle with just 186,000 miles would need anything new. But whatever. Here's your 500 bucks. Unfortunately, they can't install the new pump until tomorrow so with Jim leaving town, I am without wheels.

Good thing I recently subscribed to a special GoToMyPC connection so I can work from home. (It's quite handy!) I might actually be more productive. I'll have only the cat to talk to and I won't be distracted by those tempting chocolate treats at my desk.

See? There's a bright side to everything. I just hope in the future that my expensive "surprises" are more in the line of jewelry or clothes or airline tickets -- not water pumps.

Change of Seasons

We're officially into autumn now. I wonder if that is what had me feeling under the weather today. It certainly wasn't something I ate. We had a great meal last night of steaks on the grill and baked potatoes (yes, completely baked this time in my magic potato bag!). Maybe my body can't handle such a great home-cooked meal!

Something's not right. My back has been hurting since I returned from my wild weekend. Perhaps I was too wild. More than likely, it was just too much time in a car. But worth it! Today I was feeling just plain ol' icky. Like I wasn't going to keep my food down. But I did and I got through work and am looking forward to some quiet couch time this evening.

I do hate to say goodbye to summer -- my favorite season (when I get to golf, that is). I like the fall, too, with its mild temperatures, brilliant colors and, typical of me, the return of Grey's Anatomy (2-hour premiere tomorrow night!) -- and our other shows on hiatus for the summer.

Besides our new-found love of Mad Men, Hubby and I like watching our Monday night comedy lineup together. But we each claim a TV on Thursday nights when both The Office and Grey's are on. I like The Office, too, but usually have to catch that online. Jim, on the other hand, has absolutely no desire to see (or hear about) what he missed on Grey's!

Too bad there's nothing on tonight. I really need to lay down. I guess I can always watch a movie. I'm sure Dirty Dancing is on somewhere... (sob, sob)

Life is GREY-t again

It's a grey, foggy day. Perfect! Oh, it feels GREY-t to be talking about a NEW episode of Grey's on a Friday morning. I have missed that!

Yes, after 5 long months of waiting, we finally got to watch a new one last night! Our overall consensus among us Grey's fans here at work was that we didn't really mind that nothing major happened on the show (as in no big hook-ups or anything). We were just thrilled to be watching again!

Carter, who has been rolling his eyes every time I've mentioned Grey's this week, even sat down to watch part of the show. Once he saw the intestine part, he was a little freaked out. During commercial, he says, "Ohmigosh! I can't believe that. Intestines in the hands! Intestines in the hands!" I think he had a new-found respect for me that squeamish Mommy could handle a show like this. I did confess I have to cover my eyes sometimes... as in sometimes during every episode (but not during the McDreamy or McSteamy parts, though!).

Our post-show debriefing talk today was about how we still don't really want the Rose and Derrick thing to work out. And what is Derrick really thinking? Is this serious? There's no other "relationship" on the show to root for right now. That's weird. For me, it was disappointing that they showed Bailey's son in two scenes but didn't acknowledge what was going on with hubby -- a key story plot in the November cliffhanger. Hmmm. We'll have see on that one.

OK, so of if you are not a Grey's fan (and shame on you), you are completely bored right now and I give you credit for still reading.

Jim got home from Kansas City after 9 so I taped The Office for him while I was watching Grey's. Figures both of "our" shows happen to be on at the same time so good thing we are one of those typical American families with 2.3 TVs (or is that kids?).

We have a firm rule that during that 8 o'clock hour, there is no talking, no interruptions. Carter knows better. Unfortunately not everyone does. The phone rang at 8:10 last night and I said, "Who would dare call during Grey's?!" Some people just don't get it.

One sad thing I realized today is that without having Grey's to watch each week, I have actually had 20 extra hours available to me -- almost the equivalent of whole day -- and I can't think what I did with them. I'm guessing I filled them with searches for show spoilers and mindless blogging about a TV show most of you don't care about. Thanks for reading. You're too good to me!