StayCay 2011

We had a magical week of doing all the wonderful things our great town has to offer but we never seem to find or take the time to pencil into our otherwise rushing and hectic lives.   Friday afternoon driving down MoPac from the office I felt a freedom I haven't felt in a long time.  I was on vacation and there was no packing, no schedule or plane to catch, no requirements or pressure, nothing to forget or accidentally leave behind... just me and my family and the 9 1/2 days ahead. We had a great weekend and starting Sunday afternoon, we surrendered any chores or tasks undone, unplugged the computers, put away our phones and really began to unwind.

We bought flowers for the house, we went on walks, we worked out together(!).  There were cocktails a with our 3 hour-long lunches and 2 hour long massages.  We shopped, went to the theater, watched a movie at home and had our morning coffee on South Congress with all the sounds of the bustle of the town around us and the people watching of (mostly visiting) people in our town.  We went to Zilker park and picnicked by ourselves and also with thousands of people.  We floated in the pool and let the Shorty play 'hooky' from the nanny and hang with Mom and Dad in the mornings and all day on Thursday and Friday.  We had a magnificent date night and I took the time to make a book for my kiddo which he is now carrying around with him like some kids carry around their blankie (which makes my heart swell).

More posts to come on our StayCay as it starts to wind down.  But frankly, bloggin is a favorite thing to do that I haven't had time to do lately so this is a fun nap-time thing.  I hope that as we re-enter regular life, we can incorporate more of our Staycation way of life into the everyday.  Great in theory... we'll see how it goes in practice.

Datenight

Cocktail hour at the Steven F with a lovely breeze (it's been ages since I've been here!!) followed by a delicious steak dinner at Perry's

Fun at the Zoo

We actually managed to arrive 20 minutes early (!) and patiently waited  (and actually had fun) in the parking lot before the Zoo to opened.  Yes, we were the first in line to get our tickets.

These giant turtles were intriguing but a bit intimidating, too.

The Lions were facsinating and one in particular (who were were able to be quite close to) was not having a very good day and growled in a low echo-y grumble with an occasional roar.  The monkeys were also quite entertaining and several showed an interest in our little monkey... which worked out beautifully.

this little video was on our way to the zoo.  good times:

(apologies for my pointy elbow on the left)

Cheers from the Driskill

Belvedere Martini up, dirty and wet. 3 blue cheese stuffed olives. with lunch.

after an hour and a half of yoga class: both vinyasa flow and wall yoga.

Mmmmmm....

Happy Monday!

Week over Week

As I sit in the dentist's chair waiting to learn the fate of an upper left molar, I'll attempt to explain why I think this week has got to be better than last:

1. After celebrating mr price's bday in lovely style... He became deathly I'll with the flu. poor guy; never seen him look so miserable. and it lasted alllll week. which meant a couple things: (1) he was in quarantine upstairs and i brought him food and drink, little more than sliding it on the bedside stand and bolting for the door for fear of catching this dreaded illness or worse... passing it on to the Shorty. (2) sick and in quarantine = needs help, not helping. so all morning, evening and middle of the night duties were passed to yours truly.
2. between the snow and the below freezing temps, there was quite a bit to maintain around the house - dripping pipes, running the pool pump, fishing leaves out of the pool (which involves holding a large aluminum pole for extended periods at below freezing temps and no, i did not stick my tongue on it), carrying the citrus trees to the cabana, and other manual labor.
3. still in the wrist brace
4. severe tooth pain brought on by a girl scout cookie. (they look all sweet and innocent...)
5. our cousin's dog had to be put down. broken hearts all around.
6. VERY heavy work load this week + a work event which meant having to stay late
7. earlier in the week I declined some additional (& substantial) volunteer work. by mid week I found myself having just agreed. hello rush advisor. what? yep. for all the fun I am SURE it will be; i still might be crazy.
8. the nanny missed monday due to a cut foot. while it was surely an accident, it totals a LOT of missed days. So tuesday involved a very serious 'talk' with her and the other nanny-share mom. no fun. but definitely necessary.
9. Friday was a 'snow day' funny thing about snow days when you work from home: NOTHING CHANGES other than it's cold and a bunch of other people are working from home who usually don't so conference calls start late, people no-show and progress is gerenally slower and more frustrating.
10. All weekend plans were cancelled - not just because or Mr. Price's aforementioned illness, but because all three other families ended up sick, too. Did I mention my hands are raw from contant washing?
11. this was the last week to get in all final details for a large fundraiser of which I am on the board. many emails and phone calls. see item #6 above which indicates: it is not ideal timing to need to wrap up a bunch of loose ends.
12. despite substantial effort - the car search is still no closer to closure. oh, and the cabana renovation has not had a finger lifted in it's direction... which leads me to additional odds and ends, but at this point i'm exhuasted myself.

But some lovely things happened last week, too.

• Besides for the birthday celebration and the lovely new shoes that had their debut
• I had a lovely lunch on Friday with Arin, little Will and my babino at 34th St Cafe
• Late Saturday night while the babino slept and Mr. Price felt up to it...I saw a movie for the first time in ages. Loved the cinematography & lighting plus very interesting dialog and speed to The Social Network. It was pretty darn good I have to say.

So the bottom line: this week I'm looking for a multi-digit percent improvement over last and i'm pretty sure that can be achieved. =)

Sent from my iPhone

Beads, Blogs and Butts

I'll spare you the resolution talk... we know i don't believe in those anyway. but happy new year!

BEADS
While in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains I began beading Shorty's Christmas stocking (yes, the week after Christmas) but there was no getting to it sooner and it was a lovely thing to do while relaxing in NC. I haven't beaded since living in Dallas with the good ol' "Stitch and Bitch" group. For all the creations I made along the way, I was surprised to realize that I gave away almost all of my creations with the exception of a couple snowflakes I found shoved in with my bead and sequin supplies. It's still a work in progress, but the most time consuming part was designing and cutting out the items. So while i was at it, I cut out an extra set to make a 'kit' for future stockings. good times.

BLOGS
Sadly, though my mind has been cranking away on blog posts, i've not been cranking them out. it takes a lot longer and a lot more body involvement to type these days. However, i go back to the doctor at the end of next week and we'll see what he says about the hand/brace. cross your fingers!

BUTTS
And the most shocking post-holiday news of all: I have been working out. yep. gone twice now to my neighborhood non-chain gym and am 50/50 on enjoying it. However, i'm hurtin' today. Not because of the dinner last night celelbrating Mr. Price's company being funded. And not because the baby woke up after we got home and remained awake and unhappy until finally giving up around 3:30. I'm hurting because of Tuesday's equipment pilates class (my first ever! which I would have enjoyed, I believe, if not for the raging b!tches in the class that I had to contend with) and yesterday's 'boot camp' style class with an inspiring and energetic (but not obnoxious) teacher and interactive and fun class. Hopefully i'll keep it up! You never know. =) The fact that it takes under 6 minutes from my door to walking into the gym and thatI can go during the day while the shorty is with the nanny makes it much more likely that this could continue.


Hitting the ground running this week. It's been great to be back home and have a smooth re-entry into work after a couple weeks off. Thanks to CES, collegues both internal and external are all doin' it up in Vegas - leaving me to actually get some stuff done. yay.

Getaway

Our first night to both be away from the babino went quite well. I had a lovely visit to the spa and we had some quality time...albeit slightly missing that cute little fella. Props to the MIL for keeping him while we got some R&R.

The Very Hungry Caterpillars...

We have a meyer lemon and key lime tree in the backyard which Mr. Price has done a fine job at cultivating. About a year and a half ago, they were ready to be tossed out but now are thriving.

A couple weeks ago he noticed a dozen caterpillars suddenly appeared on the lemon tree, all about 3/4 an inch long and ~3cm wide. Then, not even 4 days later, those little caterpillars were now larger than my pinky finger.

So the Very Hungry Caterpillars have taken up residence on our lemon tree. In less than a week they have grown 4x and taken out quite a few leaves. We were shocked to see how quickly it has progressed. Tried to get a video of one of them chowing on a leaf but he was done by the time I got the camera and got outside. Pretty sure they are about to spin their cocoons. We considered plucking them all off, but figured at this point- may as well let them do their thing.

Of course we thought of the TriPrices and their insect interest and knowledge of crystalises and such. So I took pictures of the crazy little things and decided to document their progress.

and then....we apparently became obsessed. well, Mr. Price was, and now I'm along for the ride. We looked it up and check it out:

Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars and their later Butterfly form

after worrying we might have some massive moth colony in our backyard... looks like we are in for some 4 - 5.5 inch butterflies, 10-12 days after crysalis! guessing there are about a dozen back there. our lemon tree might be doomed, but it might be worth it for the 4 lemons it might have produced this year.

Caught on Camera

I realized last weekend that in the first 2 months of Jackson's life -- excluding any pictures my sister or sister-in-law took on their cameras- there are a total of 26 pictures with me and my baby- more than half of which are out of focus - and of the remaining half of those have other people holding him and my head popping out from behind. And of what remains, I'm partially unclothed (having just nursed) and not a picture appropriate for printing or framing.

Given that I have spent at least 95% of each day holding, loving or feeding this sweet baby, it's a little sad to me to look back at the pictures and see no sign that I was even around.

To help rectify this- Mr Price is going to make a concerted effort to take some pictures of the two of us. Such as this camera pic from last weekend:

The Holiday Hangover

Mr. Price and I have been hanging out and doing next-to-nothing for the past several days and it has been fantastic! We've run errands, gone to the theater and coffee shops, gone on lunch and dinner dates and have been generally connected at the hip. We did *finally* see the movie The Hangover - and it was hilarious. The pinnacle of each day has come along with the mailman delivering the day's supply of Christmas Cards... for which I have a mini-ritual-of-sorts for opening and hanging on the card curtain.

I've been completely off the communication grid for almost two weeks now! No email, no facebook, no anything-online... very limited phone (i keep leaving it upstairs and not checking it for days at a time). It's been one part weird and one part reprieve. However, i'm back to it this afternoon and enjoying it - glad to be catching up again.

Despite the fact that there has been little to NO partying in the line-up for me... i have been feeling progressively more and more hungover. However, with fewer weeks until delivery than innings in a baseball game - I'll just have to suck it up and deal. I am thrilled to report that in this morning's check-up I got some brilliant meds that should help with the seemingly never ending hangover (from the party I didn't get to enjoy) symptoms that continue to pile up. Even more good news: I'll get a cute little baby for my efforts ;)

One of the things I have done with Mr. Price is that we have set up our computers battleship-style and I've started sorting through the year's pictures(which is no simple undertaking). My hard drive is full, so I need to clear out a few more gigs before I can download the current pics on my camera. But as soon as I do, I'll get some pics on here of the recent holiday happenings. MAYBE I'll even do it before the year comes to a close!? Actually, on second thought, don't drink to that just yet -- unless, of course, it's hot chocolate. In which case... bottoms up, buttercup! I'm on my 4th cup today. Cheers.

Movin' on Up!

Where the hell have I been lately? Exactly. Oh, I mean, it rhymes with that.. er, um, I mean... I've been at work.
Lots and lots of work. and then working hard to try to relax a teeny bit for all the anxiety work is producing... but that's a bore. turning to much funner topics:

last weekend we **finally** moved furniture upstairs. YAY!! Mr. Price's 'twin' cousin came over --thanks, Eric!!-- and they moved the things he couldn't move on his own. There is now a lovely sitting area, a rug, a desk, lamps, bedside tables... it's all there. That's right, folks! In the words of Pinocchio, it's a "real boy" (or in this case, a real room). Woohoo!

Also, the rest of my closet was moved upstairs and although I now cannot wear 99% of my clothes, they are in one place where i can actually see them (ironic, eh? just in time to remind me of all the clothes that were shoved into a tiny closet space for so long...) On top of that, I did some serious maternity clothes shopping so it is actually a pleasure to get dressed in the morning - as I had started to seriously dread it.

Can't believe it took so long to crank out this post (can you imagine sitting on such an exciting update all week long??). But then again, I can. I am now severely behind on all things personal and until the quarter is over and holiday campaign planning is put to bed, I guess it may stay that way. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel... of this I'm reminded each day when I step upstairs and it is really, finally done.
Done done done.


(this is my happy face)

Repossession!

...that's right. We have re-possessed our home from the clenches of the City of Austin and their ability to tell us what we can and can't do in, on and with our house. Yep! Today, friends, we PASSED FINAL INSPECTION!!

Not without some quick thinking, acrobatics, diplomacy and ingenuity. Who knew so much was required of a building, mechanical and plumbing inspection? But when the City mandates some random code in which the lone person they send to your home is the police, judge and jury on what you can do...well, you end up with lawlessness.

Best summarized by the fact that after several protests and complaints (all of which were meet), he finally determined he couldn't pass us because... duh duh duh: the end of the EXTRA stair railing we had to install during the last renovation didn't connect to the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Funny, it was perfectly okay last time. And the time before that, and that.

Determined to pass today, Mr. Price persisted and the inspector made him drill a hole into the end of the otherwise lovely railing and make it touch the wall. Somehow, I don't think I can quite capture this with words. Here ya go:

Yep. that's right. THIS passes code. Really? because I am QUITE sure that is was much safer before.

But nonetheless, once he witnessed the uglifying of the railing (and creation of a new hazard) - he passed us.

Done. Done and Done.

Mayberry?

I started this post awhile back and never finished it. On a walk tonight in the dark, already, at 6:30. Not all of the few street lights in the 'hood are working at this time yet (strangely, because one would THINK that light sensors are a better approach than timers, but whatever... after all, it is the City of Austin we're talking about here) - but I saw shadow of a guy on a walk carrying a grocery bag on the other side of the street. Probably the 10th person or so we'd seen on our short stroll, but then he came into view of the one streetlight working for a couple blocks- and it was my Dad! YAY! Good fun. He invited us over for dinner but we were already prepped for scallops and green beans. Anyway... the point is that the encounter reminded me I had this unfinished post. So, here it is:

Original Post date and time 10/14/09 9:13PM

Came home tonight and before pulling in my driveway, saw my neighbor Will walking Emma (their yellow lab) and stopped to chat for a minute. Caught up on each other's plans for the weekend and other small talk.

Got in the house and Mr. Price was already home and wanted to go on a walk! So we suited up and headed out in a matter of minutes. Got to the front yard and saw our neighbor John walking his pup. John worked with the Mister back in the day at the firm and we love seeing his post-firm happiness and free time. We all revel in it =) He's quite excited for our pending shorty and had a bunch of questions about how I'm feeling and how the little guy is doing. Of course wanted to be reminded of his approx due date. Lovely conversation and they were off to continue their walk.

Took a lovely tour around the neighborhood - passing the TriPrices house and waving and chit-chatting with other folks. Everyone seemed so cheery and relaxed.

A couple blocks from home and hear a bike coming up behind us. Then we hear in a familiar voice "I thought that was you two! You're walk is a bit different than usual..." It was my Dad! He was riding his bike to the store and detoured a block when he saw us =) So he rode in circles around us until we made it to the driveway. He was going to come in and see the new sonogram pictures, but by the time we made it to the house, we'd all forgotten and he peddled on down our street to the store.

Oh, but we're not done yet.. the along comes another neighbor ending his run and stops for a minute to talk home renovation progress (they, too, are doing some work on their house).

Seriously, are we in Mayberry or what? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

It's All Uphill From Here!

It was a truly lovely birthday in spite of my first birthday surprise: getting sick on birthday eve and losing my dinner (to the point that I wondered if I threw up the baby) starting at approximately 12:08. My first birthday 'gift' was Mr. Price putting the barf bucket by my side of the bed just in case. Good times. Oh, and don't forget the extra pillows so I could 'sleep' sitting up. Didn't sleep much at all and felt like hell all night long. Good news: no fever. But I did wonder if maybe my body was just rejecting the 30s?

So from this perspective, it was all uphill from here, right? I mean, when you start the bday off puking (and NOT because you had too much fun and were over-served)- it can't get worse, right? Well, in this case, it didn't; i'd already hit bottom. (whew)

Definitely didn't go to work becuase I still felt like hell in the morning -and here's where it starts to turn around-- Mr. Price stayed at home with me. I finally got to sleep around 7am and slept on-and-off until 10, then got breakfast in bed (can't get enough of those honey nut cheerios lately!). Eventually got dressed and we went up to Central Market to get lunch which was tasty - even if I was still slightly queasy... I figured it was better to eat through the pain ;)

Followed by some light shopping, my side-kick in tow and repeating that it was my birthday and I got to pick. Worn out, I headed back home and much to my dismay had to take some work calls/shoot off some emails and try not to be too annoyed. Thankfully, I had a hard stop with work due to a 3pm doctor's appointment (which came in handy given the prior night's events). But I DID take the calls from bed and Mr. Price DID bring me my favorite tea, with my fancy honey, in my favorite mug. So that takes the edge off, you know?

GOT to love those wonderful ladies at my Doc's office. Nothin' but love for them!! =) I was feeling a better by then anyway, but two of them squealed and hugged me when they saw me which ABSOLUTELY made my day!! **I later suggested to Mr. Price that we take the first letter of each of their names and come up with middle name for Shorty. But for some reason, he didn't go for that idea... go figure**

Anyway - great appointment. All is well and we heard shorty's heart on the doppler (and a couple swooshes and kicks which impressed her) and we were about to leave and she found a sticky note in my file that said I get a 'free' sonogram for fun. WOOHOO!! So that was LOADS of fun. I had just accepted the fact I wouldn't get to see him and BAM! on goes the sono gel and there he was in all his glory. GOOD times, folks. GOOD times. She sent us home with some pics from the sonogram.

With a clean bill of health (I might have lost my dinner, but no swine flu here!!) Mr. Price suggested I move up the time on my massage appointment (which he suggested I call and set-up earlier in the day) and lo-and-behold: they could take me early... and I was dropped off right after the doc. WOOHOO. AND THEN - my massage lady didn't have anyone after me and decided to 'just keep going' as she told me later. WHAT!?! when does that ever happen?? She didn't even know it was my b-day. YAY for pre-natal massage. Even if you do have to lay on your side. =)

Got picked up from that by Mr. Price... in... MY CAR!!!! it is finally done. A month in the shop and wowza- it looks great. I missed it. But at the same time, after being all repainted and shiny, we're thinking of selling it while it is in such good condition. hmm. something to think on.

Don't forget that approximately a MILLION wonderful friends remembered me and sent me notes, messages and voice mails to wish me a happy day. Okay, maybe not a million, just enough, and those few are certainly WONDERFUL! So I kept checking my phone and seeing more and more sweet messages.

Went home, changed, headed out to Hudson's on the Bend for dinner. Mmmmmm. Given that I was feeling better, we decided to press on with our plans. -oh, but it gets better! We had some extra time before our reservation, so... Mr. Price smartly suggested we stop by the baby super-store to try to figure out what we need for shorty. (I'd already been and started the process with sister Kim)

YAY! why so excited? Lately, I have suddenly felt the urge to figure out what we need to get and make the choices of what type/kind/size/quantity of the seemingly never-ending list of baby things. You know I'm a list maker and this for me is bringing order to chaos. We are making decisions. We are picking things out. We are making a list. Ahhhhh.....

Then on to dinner. And a superb dinner at that. Lobster, Duck, fancy shrimp thingies with fancy sauce and an ancho paste (the 'ancho paste' thing obviously stuck with me...) and then... stop it. really? get this: our kitchen back (in some restaurants this would be the bus boy, but at Hudson's it takes more skill and attention) decides he wants to TREAT US to dessert! what!?! then our uber-professional waiter comes over and says something about it is an occasional perk they get to do and our guy was pulling that card for us! he said to pick what ever we wanted (i knew from the beginning of the night) but then they brought an extra THIRD dessert. WHO DOES THAT!?!?! I want to put them and the nurses/PAs and the masseuse all on a boat and throw a big party for them!

To top it all off, when we got home, Mr. Price had gotten me some Divine bath potions, candles and such from my favorite: L'Occitane and a little bath caddy for the tub so into the tub I go for a nice long soak. Mmmmm...

It was a happy birthday to me.

When it rains....

The past couple weeks have been the definition of 'murphy's law': if i can happen, it will. and apparently, it will all happen at once.

Besides everyone at work going COMPLETELY INSANE... (i cannot recall a time where things were so stressful that i literally woke up in the middle of the night stressed-- almost panicked-- from things at work)

And without getting into the weeds, I offer a sampling of what has been has transpired at our house:

-the tree that fell on my car has turned into the body shop and the insurance company fighting it out. if you'll recall, it rained a TON the weekend the tree fell... resulting in water and electrical damage on top of the body work needed. it's been a month, i still don't have my car back and won't for another week at best. really tired of the truck, but just glad that Mr. Price is dealing with the many phone calls back and forth, appointments to meet the adjusters, etc.

-the cat got sick. arm swollen like the Michelin man. i will spare the nasty details. i can't really help out given the whole prego thing - so again, Mr. Price having to step in and take care of things. including the miserable trips to the vet.

-the pool converter (?) broke - meaning the pool pump cannot run. with all the rain, kinda need that pump running! the first pool repair guy took a piece of the converter (to get a replacement part) then goes AWOL - doesn't show up when he said he would and doesn't answer nor return calls. find new pool repair guy and learn that pump is shot - need new pool pump AND converter. he vanishes for over a week. pool turns green and is full of leaves. again, Mr. Price busy finding, calling and scheduling pool people. anyone - help. please. we'll pay you, just fix what you said you were going to. show up when you said you would.

-the marble under the tub cracked. cracked big time. Mr. price calls the tile people - who explicitly told us that wouldn't happen because they would lay the tile 'right' and guaranteed it. for two years! (it's been two weeks?) they no-show the first appointment (which he hustled from across town to meet them at). they eventually reschedule and bonus: the guy shows up this time(!) and they offer to fix. no problem, we'll just have to get a plumber back in to remove the tub so they can get under there. oh, any buy more marble, lest you forget.

sound like fun yet? if you've got a running list, that would be... expensive, annoying, time-consuming issues with: the Car, the Cat, the House, the Pool. What else are we missing?

i suppose there were other relatively minor things, but i think you get the picture.

Inspection update

After some confusion and me staying home to wait on him so that he could no-show - the Inspector finally showed up! Breakdown goes like this:

Electrical Final = PASSED!
Plumbing Final = Failed.
Mechanical Final = Failed.
Can't call for the Final Building Inspection until those three finals are passed.

All we need to pass the plumbing is a silly (and ugly) overflow switch off valve on my otherwise beautiful faucet on the clawfoot tub. Mr. Price already trippity-tropped on down to Lowe's and picked up this $30 part and installed it. Ready to
call for inspection again!

Mechanical - need a bit more:
-extra decking in the attic (isn't that building/framing?),
-the vent flew to be moved to a different angle (there's a whole calculation and it's a massive pain to deal with... cutting new holes in the roof, patching the shingles, etc)
-find a 3rd party inspector to test all vents and such (this is going to take some time...)

Did I mention that we can't 'move in' until we pass final?

When our king sized new bed arrived a couple weeks ago, I dare any inspector or other city representative to tell me I can't sleep in it. but nonetheless - we can't move other furniture up there or look like we're living in up there. which is driving me nuts. I AM READY FOR THE MASSIVE FURNITURE MOVE AROUND in this house. let's GO already!

To help the cause - Mr. Price did make a plea to the last inspector that he has 'a pregnant wife who is chomping at the bit to move up there' so we got unofficial approval to live up there (i.e. we don't have to take our toothbrushes and towels, etc back downstairs each time an inspector shows up) but we can't "move" up there yet.

Tyler's very bad, horrible, terrible, no good day

he REFUSED to come out of the carrier. they finally had to take it apart to get him out...

it then took three people to hold him still. bless his heart.

Fun at the vet!

Poor Tyler.  Poor Joe.  They had a less than optimal day.

I think you can *pretty much* figure out the story based on this picture, but I'll post more soon

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: J Price
Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:50 PM
Subject: Fun at the vet!
To: E Price

Sent from my iPhone

Sweet Surprise

That clever Mr Price tricked me into fetching something for him from the fridge when I got home today. Much to my surprise, instead, there were some "hey-thanks-for-growing-our-kid" flowers in there!

Awwww

Wedged right in there between the mini Sprites, the organic milk, the calcium-enriched OJ, some ginger ale and chocolate icing. Now if that fridge doesn't scream "pregnant lady lives here!" ... i don't know what does.

Good times, good times...

Sent from my iPhone

Shower Story

It's been awhile since my last 'gross' post - but what can I say, this one just fell in my lap.

So as previously mentioned, my car got smashed by a massive falling tree limb. With the rain we've gotten over the past few days (yay for rain!) we realized that the damage also included pulling the door away from the frame just enough to no longer be water-tight. Therefore: raining outside = raining in the car. Awesome. --but this is just background building up to the funny part-- So sweet Mr. Price scurried to get the car into the shop only to get a "CUBE" of a car. Strange little thing that it is-- i've actually never seen a real-live car that so closely resembles a cartoon-mobile.

While the cartoon-mobile is entertaining, it doesn't exactly feel like a fortress of security. Therefore: (per Mr. Price) I am in the truck until further notice. =)

Meanwhile: Manager Man (who is more like a brother than a boss) was giving me a hard time yesterday for my nails. Well, really just my thumb nail. Admittedly, it was way too long, but i kept forgetting to cut it and thinking that it would break off like all the others did last week. So I was already self-conscious of it. this morning he teases me again. rat farts!

--okay, set-up is done. starting to feel like this has been a long haul for a short slide. oh well, too late now--

So i go to the truck to leave to get lunch today and... lo and behold! there is a nail clipper! way to go Mr. Price! how handy. so I pick it up to go to town on my thumb nail - bring it over my lap and... a confetti-like shower of nail clippings! so gross, but i suddenly can't stop laughing. looked at the clippers and they were some fancy kind that has a 'clip catcher' (think along the lines of a hole punch).

anyway- there's the short slide. i'm quite sure this story didn't convey nearly as funny as it was to me at the time. surely just as gross. but man, i AM still laughing on the inside.