Buckle up. The ride to Snarkville commences in T -45 seconds. hehe

Time, thou art a precious and elusive thing. lol

Okay, so now that I have caught up with that badass, Time, I thought I might catch you up on the world according to Jana. (Like you care. lol)

So okay, let me just say, first and foremost that the dudes at Express Oil ROCK! They are the nicest, friendliest, most wonderful set of mechanics and car techs that I've ever dealt with. Every time I've ever taken my car there to be serviced, I've never had anything but really nice men who don't talk down to me or make me feel stupid. I like that they smile widely and honestly and let me know everything exactly as they're doing it. So, hat's off to ye wonderful Express Oil men out there. (Yeah, I went and had the oil changed in my car yesterday.)

Dudes at Gateway Tire? Not so much. :-p~~ Took my car in there yesterday to get it inspected (Is that just a Mississippi thing or do other states require yearly car inspections? I know Alabama doesn't. Hmmm...) I went in and told 'em what I needed. They told me where to go...well, which place to pull my car up, anyway. Then I waited and waited. Growled a bit and waited. Finally about 10 minutes (give or take) go by and dude finally comes around and starts inspecting it. He may have said hello. I don't think he did though. If he did it was surly and I've blocked it out. He's all business, short and to the point, takes my $5 and he's gone. So :-p~~ to the Gateway Tire man. Learn a "carside" manner dude. Better yet, go up to Express Oil and let them show you how it's done. hehe

So yeah, I took off work and hour and a half early yesterday to go get all that done and order some more propane for my heater at home. Cuz ya'll? It's cold with no heat. lol (I'll get to that in a second.)

So anyway, my weekend was, ugh! Tiring. Good. But tiring.

Friday, as you may remember (or not, cuz you prolly don't care) I took off work around 11:oo to prepare the house (and myself) for Sis1's arrival. Well, I went grocery shopping first and busted my wallet. (actually it was my plastic cuz I went weeeeeell over my budget due to having to buy Sis1 a birthday present and enough food to make sure she wouldn't complain about there being nothing to eat in my house...like she normally does. (I'm poor. I live and eat cheaply. Get over it.) Also busted my healthy eating requirements and bought a can of Pringles. (PMS is a bitch.) But I managed (just barely) to reign in my cravings and resisted going to McDonald's for lunch. (Oh how I wanted to though. A Big Mac? Soooooo the way to my heart. lol)

So anyhow, got home after the great spending spree and started cleaning. Mopped. Vacuumed. Didn't dust though. Cloroxed the toilet AND the tub. Made up Sis1's bed and got it all nice. Cleaned up her room and cleared the clutter from the living room and dining room. She had said that BIL (her hubby) wasn't planning on staying at my house so I threw all the junk in his room. (Yeah, they sleep separately at my house cuz I ain't giving up MY bed, the only full. They're used to sleeping apart anyhow due to his chainsaw snoring. lol) Of course, she called me about 4:00, after I'd already showered and started getting dressed for out night out, and told me that he WAS going to stay at my house.

Massive panic ensued. Can't you just picture me running around half dressed, wet hair and one eye made up cleaning franticly...shoving crap under the bed and in the closet and making the bed? Nah, I wouldn't want to picture that part either. Especially the half dressed part. Not. Pretty. hehe

Not. Happy. either. She sooooo coulda called me earlier cuz she knew THAT MORNING that he was going to stay at my house. She could have CALLED me. The cow. *snarls*

But all's well that ends well. I got his room cleared enough for him to have a path to the bed and sheets to sleep on. He's cool. He's just thankful he doesn't have to live there. lol

So we went out for supper to celebrate Sis1's b-day. (She turned 32 on the 26th. Yeah. I teased her about how OLD she's getting. No offense to anyone reading this who's 32 or older. hehehe) We met my great-aunt, Lynn and her daughter Mandy at Applebees. No, we didn't hang out with the old folks. Aunt Lynn, who is Daddy's aunt, is actually two years younger than my dad who is 51. Mandy is 20. Yeah. Aunt Lynn was a late in life Oops! baby. lol

We had fun. Drank mudslides. Ate yummy salads. Listened to Sis1 talk and yammer. Made fun of her. It was great. We stayed there yucking it up for about three hours, putting us home around 9:30. Jana was out LATE. lol (Yeah, I'm soooooo not the "out till wee hours" kinda gal. I like to be in bed no later than 11 and home no later than 8.)

So to explain this next part, I have to go back to a couple of days prior. Wednesday Sis1 emailed me to confirm our plans for Friday night and mentioned that her hubby was home and might make the trip with her. I emailed her back asking if he was going to stay at my house. I was really trying to discourage her from him staying with me. Not because I don't like him. He's actually a really great guy. But he has a tendency to gripe about everything related to my house because it's substandard compared to the kind of house he's used to. (It's old, drafty and somewhat outdated. Hot water heater is persnickety and my main heat source is a propane space heater in the middle of the house.) I mentioned how he complains of how cold my house is. She emails me back and says she figured he would stay with his dad and stepmom and then asks me "Do you not have any heat?"

Now, I admit. I'm a little...err...defensive when it comes to my house. It's MY house. Nobody gripes about it but me. Ya know? Kinda like how you can badmouth your own parents but let anyone else badmouth them and you're on them like white on rice? Yeah. And she's disparaged my house more times than I can stand so this was my snark back:

"I have the same heat I always have but he always gets so cold in his room during the winter and I can't afford to buy another little heater. That's all I meant. I don't think I'd be living there if I didn't have ANY heat."

Yeah. You can hear the "dummy" in there that I silently called her. And this is what I sent Mama right after that while I was griping.

"Your daughter. *shakes head* I swear sometimes she just doesn't use her noodle. Remember I told you I had asked her whether or not [BIL1] was going to stay at my house? I had mentioned that he complains how it's always so cold. Well, this was her response. Notice, particularly, the question in bold.

Just what kind of hovel does she think I live in???"

Well, guess what happened Friday night when we got home from supper. You guessed it. The heat was gone. My propane tank was almost on E (well, it doesn't literally have E on it, but it was down to like 10 or 15) and the space heater wouldn't stay lit. This is me, blushing. =:-O. Fun, right? Grrrrr...

Fortunately, no blood was shed. Sis1 and BIL1 both took it in stride and reassured me that it wasn't THAT cold. And fortunately, it wasn't. This weekend was rather warm. Plus, I have two electric "tower" heaters that I use in the bedrooms. BIL1 assured me that given enough blankets he'd be fine though because (get this) he likes sleeping in the cold. Oh yeah? So that's why he bitches every other time he's had to stay there. *rolls eyes* But I'm just grateful that I didn't have to kill them. Horizontal stripes make me look ten times fatter. hehehe

So Saturday dawns and apparently my tummy decided belatedly that it doesn't like that Asian Chicken salad that I ate for supper the night before and so it protested. Painfully. After about 30 minutes of tossing and turning in bed at 6:00 in the morning, I decided, to hell with it, I'd just get up and go watch CMT to take my mind off the pain. Lucky for me I did that. Not only did it distract me from the pain, but it also was the only 30 or 40 minutes that I had to myself for the rest of the weekend. (Well, other than to sleep.)

Sis1 stumbled out of her room and onto the recliner sometime after 7:00 and immediately requests coffee and breakfast. So, I roll my butt off the couch and bake chocolate chip muffins and listen to her talk. And talk. And talk some more. (She never shuts up. Seriously. She even talks in her sleep.) The morning is spent lazing around in our pj's eating muffins and Sis1 talking until I finally scoot her into the bathroom to get her shower. Ah...blessed 30 minutes of peace. Or not. BIL1 got up. Luckily he, like myself, isn't much of a talker upon first waking, though. This is around 10. We're supposed to be at my folks house for lunch around 12...we get there sometime after. Sis2 and her hubby actually beat us there!

So the rest of the day went well. I played with (and pissed off) Emmy (who'd stayed with my folks) and got to spend some time with Sis2 (who I hadn't seen since New Years) we ate really good food. AND I got to eat cheescake and icecream. All low fat/low sugar. No worries. My grandparents came by for cake and icecream and to give Sis1 her b-day present. So it's all good. Till BIL1's dad calls and wants them to come out to spend a couple of hours with them. Sis1 got pissed and I got a ride home with Sis2 and BIL2. hehe Wasn't noooooo way I was going to have to leave so early just so they can go to his folks' house. So I got rid of the mouth of the South and got to visit quietly with my mom and Sis2...and get in trouble with BIL2 in teasing Emmy about putting bugs in her milkshake. He started it! hehehe

By the time I got home Saturday night I was just exhausted. Being around people for that many hours at a time just drains me. Like literally sucks all the life out of me. So I passed out on the couch for about thirty minutes before getting up and going to bed. Sis1 and BIL1 hadn't yet made it back from his dad's house so I could sleep in peace. And boy did I. I was sleeping so good that I didn't even hear them come in!

Sunday morning I slept in till about 7:30 before dragging out of bed. I should have stayed in there a little while longer just to get my groove back but I didn't. I was hoping that if I beat Sis1 getting up, I might have a few minutes of peace before starting the day. No such luck. I was just filling the coffee pot for coffee when she comes strolling into the kitchen with a cheery "G'morning." I think I may have growled and waved. One thing about me that she can't seem to figure out is that I. Am NOT. A morning person. At. All. Don't speak to me until I speak to you first. She doesn't get that though and me just out of bed is not a happy camper. But she greets me, I growl and wave and she turns the TV on. Grrr...Not. Ready. For TV. *sigh* Then asks me what's for breakfast. I started to tell her to swim to China and find out but instead I offered to fix her an omelet. Specifically asked her if she wanted peppers and onions on it. She says yes. What does she do to the peppers when I give her her omelet? She picks them off. WASTES MY PEPPERS! And fresh bell peppers ain't cheap, folks.

But to just top off the whole morning she's taken residence on MY SPOT of the couch. MY SPOT. Everyone knows this is my spot. Strangers off the street see the way the cushions curve to hug my butt and know that that is MY SPOT. But she is sitting there all skinny and pepper picking off and not even really enjoying it to it's full potential. And it's from my spot that she informs me that she is playing hookie from church after she specifically requested the day before that we go to "my" church instead of Mama and Daddy's like Mama wanted us to. Backslider.

Anyhow, I went to church, talked to Jesus and then came back and BIL1 is actually up and showered and dressed. Wonder of wonders. Do we make it to Mama and Daddy's by 12:30 like they wanted us to? Noooooo. Sis1 wanted BIL1 to see a certain video on the CMT countdown. A vile putrid video, if you ask me. No offence to Trace Adkins, who I usually love, but that song and video of his...."Honky Tonk Badonk a Donk" is just wretched and should be banned from all the world. Blech!

Emmy called from Mama and Daddy's to light a fire under us. lol

I drove my car out there this time since they'd be leaving and going back to Bama after lunch. And guess what. The check engine light came on in my car. *howls and whines and cries* Now, actually, it's all my fault cuz, well, I hadn't had the oil changed in like, well, AT LEAST 6 months. And I hadn't checked it since before Christmas. Sure enough, it was like dangerously low so Daddy poured a couple of spare quarts in there and then lectured me but good on proper car maintenance and ordered me to have the oil changed the next day. Out of defiance I waited till yesterday. hehehehe

I had a real Awwwwe moment though Sunday afternoon. Emmy and I had gone outside to move my car out of the way (I had parked it wonky and wanted to avoid a lecture on hogging the driveway) and as we were walking back up to the house and she looks up to me and says, "You're the best buddy I ever had. I've never had a buddy like you before." Say it with me now. "Aaaaawwwwweee" Made an old gal's eyes tear up, it did.

So that pretty much brings us up to speed on the happenings of my life. I'm sure I've missed something crucial. Two days distance causes memory lapses, you know.