Holy Quoting, Batman!

I'm quoted in my pal Donna Michaels' newest release, Valentine's Day Do-Over! Actually quoted! LOL Not that my quote is as awesome as if, say, Jennie Crusie had quoted, but STILL. LOL

So yes, my pal, Donna Michaels has a new e-release available on The Wild Rose Press. The little scamp didn't tell me I was quoted. She must've wanted to see if I was actually going to buy the book. hehehehe Well I did, so there! :-P~~~

Anyway, now that I've got my thrill on, I'll get down to the nitty gritty self-absorption that is my weekend review. Grab a snack and some coffee and hang in there. It's going to be a long one. Consider yourself warned. ;-)

So, I took a mental health day Friday. Not that I'm mentally healthier for having taken it but suffice it to say that I was in desperate need. Aside from the yuckiness that has been the past few weeks at work, I also needed that day to get my house in order. Meaning: I've been so lazy that the dishes were piled in the sink, the carpet and rugs looked more like the outdoors than the indoors and dust really shouldn't be four inches thick, right?

Normally, since it's just me and the pup, I don't really care. I mean, I care in the sense that cleanliness is important but not enough to kill myself daily to make sure the house is spic and span. I can live with dust and leaves and few mugs piled in the sink. However, Sis1 was coming to stay for the weekend and I don't relish her seeing my hovel in such a manner of disarray. (meaning: I didn't feel like hearing her mock my leaves, dust and dishes nor did I care to have her tell everyone ad nauseum how poor a housekeeper I am.)

So Friday was "shovel the crap out" day at Jana's house. I got up kinda early with the best of intentions to get my grocery shopping done early. Well, as many groceries as $25 can buy! Alas, I did not make it out the door until nearly 11:00. Lazy bum, that I am, I was enjoying the comforts of my pj's and the couch far too much to get out into the cold gray morning any earlier than that. Unfortunately, this made room for me to run into my mother at Wal-Mart who then decided that since I was there she actually COULD buy her refrigerated items and send them to my house for her to pick up after work. Not exactly what I had in mind as I'd envisioned me leaving the store (sans any refrigerated items of my own) to go and enjoy a leisurely lunch by myself at the Chinese place. Since that plan got busted all to hell, I decided to just run through Micky D's (a poor nutrition choice, I know) and grab some McNuggets on the way home. I forgot, of course, that at 12:00 there's no simple "run through" of anywhere in town.

I did finally make it home before all my mom's perishables were toast and only once the McNuggets were properly consumed did I hoist my lazy butt off the floor and set about cleaning. I washed all the dishes, cleaned the counters till they sparkled, mopped the kitchen floor...going so far as to pull the trash can out and mop beneath it! (I know, I'm supposed to do that every time I mop, right? Sue me.) Then moved on to the bathroom, cleaning and scrubbing until IT sparkled...then on to the vacuum which, I must say, was rather disgusting because I finally got around to changing the bag out. Ugh! Remind me not to let it get that full next time, will you?

So the house was sparkly, I was wiped out and the devil pup was thoroughly disgusted at having had to endure the entire process from behind the bars of her crate. And anyone saying how awful that is, try sweeping with a 12 lb. puppy attacking the broom and scattering the trash every ten seconds and see how long YOU last with her "help."

At anyrate, once we both finally calasped on the couch, it was time for Sis1 to arrive. And my mother to pick up her groceries and Emmy who was going home with her.

Sis1's birthday was Friday (she turned 33!) so she had a weekend full of celebratory plans, including an outing with friends Friday night. An outing I was invited to and decided at the last minute to attend. The next time I entertain that particular insanity, slap me upside the head, will you?

No, it wasn't terrible. Just...not great. First of all, her friends were eight o'clock getting there and we were both starving by then. When they finally DID get there, I may as well have been a houseplant for all the interaction they had with me. Even Sis1 sort of ignored me. And I do actually normally like, these particular friends for the most part, but I kinda got the sense that I was a party crasher, invitation notwithstanding. So, that was a bust. Sis1 enjoyed it, though, so I guess that's the important thing, right? It was her birthday, afterall. And I DID get a free and delicious meal out of it so I can't complain too much. ;-)

When we finally got home, I was sooooo tired. I swear, I'm getting so old. Staying out till ten o'clock wiped me out! And then, I had to stay up for an hour with the Devil Pup because she'd been in her crate all evening, bless her heart.

Saturday morning Sis1 had brunch plans with our great aunt. Supposedly it was only supposed to be our aunt and Sis1. So I got up and put the coffee on and ate my oatmeal while Sis1 got ready for her plans. Off she goes and I have the house to myself, thankfully. That is, until my mother decided she wanted me to go with her to look at trucks. (A local dealership was having a supposedly huge blowout sale and Mama wants a Toyota Tocoma.) So I put my ironing away, (yeah, I was ironing!) and went with her and Emmy, Sis 1 meeting us there shortly after. Didn't find Mama a truck but I found two vehicles I'd give my eyeteeth to have brought home. Well, three, actually. The first one was a navy blue '06 Chevy Malibu, the second an '06 Pontiac Grand Prix, silver, loaded and lovely...and the monthly payments as much as my rent. Third was a dark green '04 Jeep Wrangler. *swoon* Not that I do a lot of offroading but that thing was hot! Doubly so with it's nearly $600 a month payments!

So yeah. I went home without any new keys, too. lol

Fast forward a few hours (you don't really wanna know about my third trip of the weekend to Wal-Mart and the consequential Subway sandwhich, do you?), Sis1 is back from wherever she went off to after the truck shopping, we're both getting dressed for our big evening out. Our great aunt calls her and this phonecall bugs me for two reasons. A.) Because my aunt wants to know why I didn't join them for brunch. See, I was under the impression that I wasn't invited! And you know what response Sis1 gave her when she asked? She said I had just wanted to be lazy and hang around the house. Color me miffed. So okay, Sis1 obviously didn't want me along. That's fine. I didn't really want to go to brunch anyway. But THEN B.) she tells me after she hangs up that our aunt almost had our cousin (her daughter) convinced to join Sis1 and myself for supper but the cousin decided to head on back to Jackson earlier than she'd planned. So Sis1 had apparently invited our cousin to the supper I was treating. Um, yeah. Not so thrilled with this. Not to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed seeing our cousin but since when does the non-treating party get to invite people to outings?

Color me pissed.

I seethed quietly over it as we drove to town. Sis1 didn't have a clue that I was even the tiniest bit upset. Of course, I didn't really want her to know because I wanted her to enjoy her evening out since it was her birthday outing, but you'd have thought she'd have picked up on it a little bit. Observant, she ain't.

I decided before we got to the restaurant, though, to just let it go. I wasn't fair to either of us to spend the night seething over something that couldn't be changed and was likely as innocent as a newborn baby. I can't believe she'd intentionally try and hurt my feelings. She just has this way about her where she doesn't always see the bigger picture and how the things she says or does might affect everyone around her. So I let it go and actually ended up having a lovely time.

The restaurant was packed when we got there. We'd both forgotten that there was a homegame Saturday night and everyone was trying to eat before heading to the coliseum. Once we finally got seated, though, we ended up with a cutie pie of a waiter. Dimples that would make a corpse blush and a flirtatious grin that had me so flustered that when I ordered my garlic mashed potatoes it came out garlish macked potashtoes...or something along that line of garlbedness. lol

Oy!

But the steak was to die for, the potatoes, yummy...not to mention how utterly divine the fried mushrooms were! Oh, and the cheesecake and coffee...Picture me swooning right about now.

And then we went to the theater to catch a movie only to realize that we were an hour early. Darn those wonky show times and our idiocy for not, you know, calling to get showtimes. *rolls eyes* So we waited in the truck until about 20 minutes to show time. We went to see Jennifer Garner's newest release, Catch and Release, a divinely wonderful film on so many levels. We laughed, we cried, we got angry, we gasped...just go see the movie, okay? It rocked. hehehehehe

Another late night to which these old bones are still protesting.

Sunday...have I ever mentioned how much I can't stand being spoken to or even hearing anyone's voice before I've at least been up an hour? I have? Well, I wish one of ya'll would tell that sister o' mine cause, yeah. If I'd had a skillet handy Sunday morning I'd have slapped her with it. Giggling and squealing with the Devil Pup while I'm trying not to keel over the coffee maker. Glaring doesn't work either.

She did make it up to me by baking cinnamon rolls and even went so far as to put mine on a plate for me. Ain't that sweet? lol

We all ended up at church, Sis2 and Goofus, as well. I sat on the back pew with Emmy, Sis2 and Goofus with the folks, Sis1 and the grandparents on the pew in front of us. Mama said she almost had to get up and take us out a couple of times. Sis2 and Emmy are SUCH a bad influence on me. Giggling, writing and stuff while I'm trying to pay attention. The preacher even glared back there at us a couple of times.

He musta forgave me, though, cause he hugged me. hehehehehe (He was in a huggy mood, though, so don't get your glee on, yet, Trix! He hugged my mom and sisters, too.)

So then we all (the assorted family) gathered back at the folks' house for the last hurrah of Sis1's birthday weekend extravaganza of eating. Daddy grilled shrimp and handburgers and Mama made all the fixin's to go with 'em. We had cheesecake. It was all good.

Except...The Devil Pup. LOL She barked her little head off at my grandparents and great-aunt (not the great aunt of the brunch). She hasn't seen any of them since Thanksgiving so the little ding dong barked at 'em. She's so silly. And annoying.

Some other stuff happened that I won't go into but woke me up at two this morning bugging me but it wasn't anything major in the long run. Just some family stuff that bugged me.

So anyway, got home around 7-ish last night, fed the DP who conked out shortly after and there-ends my weekend.

Hope all ya'll had a good one!