coffee…more coffee…was up several times in the night due to cats that kept whapping little jingly-balls up against the bedroom door. When I finally got up and threw the balls into the living room so they could play there, one of them comes trotting back down the hallway immediately with one in his mouth. Then drops it at my feet. Then sits, looking up at me.
He wanted to play fricking FETCH at 4 in the morning.
The only fireworks we saw/heard last night was sirens for an hour, as every firehouse and ambulance bay emptied out for 20 miles around, even the Navy ones. It was just one car, and just one flatbed, but it required 2 lifeflight helicopters and a total shutdown of the major highway for several hours. The newspaper here sucks, though, and no local news station, so I don’t know any more about it than I did last night after I went outside to see what happened.
Odd tidbit about roaches
The ones we call Germans, small with two black racing stripes
In Germany they call it the French Cockroach
Oh the things you learn in pest control class
JIM
GUESS WHAT I JUST FOUND?!?!?!
Yep. My original postbox key 
Obviously don’t care about THAT now, but attached to it were my house keys, which is nice, 'cause now I don’t have to make duplicates.
Somehow, they were in a…coat. Which is odd, since I haven’t worn a coat here since, oh, January…
Ummm, so what’s the length/course of an international roach race? Flat or hills? All left turns like Nascar? :rolleyes:
Weird day today. Very busy and largely spent on the phone.
I cannot be bothered to think of anything to make for dinner so mr ems is taking me out for dinner. He is working out right now but he needs to hurry up as I am starvink! I am very grateful tomorrow is Friday.
swampy, the spousal unit and I wouldn’t have gotten frisky in your moat/pool, so there! 
And as tired as we are, there ain’t a frisk in us…
We did sleep in, then went to breakfast, followed by a quick trip to Lowe’s for some more tiles and stair nosing so we could finish the stairwell. Once we got home, I started painting the risers on the steps and all of the trim using semi-gloss. FCD made the trim for the door, then built brackets and shelves for the landing. Daughter showed up and helped her dad, then helped me paint. Once we were all totally exhausted, we went to a new BBQ place in town (it wasn’t all that good) then came home to veg in front of TV. Daughter just left for home and I’m about to go downstairs and put one more coat of paint on the shelf supports so we can install them tomorrow.
With luck, we can finish the stairwell at long last tomorrow - I thought it was a 2-day project. Tomorrow is day 5. So much for my powers of estimating. Maybe on Saturday we can finally start tearing out the boat’s innards. Oh, and we didn’t go see fireworks, nor did we hear any firecrackers in the neighborhood. Quite surprising.
That’s all I’ve got. Hope you all had a wunnerful day. Laterz!
Last night during the 4th celebration Ken & I were sent to a quadruple shooting in a rough area of NW DC. Imagine 30 nervous cops surrounded by more illegal fireworks than I have ever seen or heard in my life. We’re talking professional grade stuff here.
One guy half a block away kept lighting off what sounded like quarter sticks of dynamite in a dumpster - it sounded like a car bomb going off. Seriously, someone could have started shooting at us and we’d only know it when the bodies started to fall.
And I found it hilarious. I could not stop laughing. The whole thing was too damn surreal.
Oh BTW I ran into the PIO mentioned earlier and I tried to say some nice things but no dice, he’s pissed. Oh well.
Spidey
The race begins in your kitchen, continues in any direction,with any kind of turn and ends in your left ear. BANG that was the starter pistol.
Seriously the guy who taught my class was a blast, funny and smart. He used memorable descriptors like racing stripes and they stuck, I took the class 15+ years ago. Do not ask me about rats
JIM
Supposedly the World’s Greatest Barbecue Joint, the Shack, closed because some rats dragged a rack of ribs across the kitchen floor, and were noticed by the Health Department.
So.
What about rats?
Yeah, I want to know about rats, too.
No rats, no bugs, just 2 of my “just friend”:)'s cats.
Flytrap, yep. Some days I feel like the son of The Most Interesting Man In The world.
Really I promise you don’t want to know
His dad had a pest control company and he started to work for him when he was young, got a call from the port of Corpus Christi, load of grain, hundreds of tons, unclaimed at port for months. Millions of rats. They gassed the warehouse and went in with shovels and made piles of dead rats twenty feet high,which they doused in kerosene and burned. The burning took several days. The smell caused him to retch, as he was telling the story over twenty years later. I told you gross, kerosene, rotting rats and hair. Nasty
JIM
Blurf.
I have a very mundane announcement to make: I just made the final payment on the Family Truckster.
You’re a woman, doesn’t count.
Gratz Bobbbbbb blows bubbles in honor of the paid truck.
Viva San Fermín y todo eso.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 75 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of 94 and possibly rain later today. Why am I up when I don’t have to be you ask? Well, cause I’m goin’ over to large and in charge Cordele, Jawja to the biiiiiiiiiiig state farmer’s market to get some fresh veggies and such. Don’t know if I wanna buy like bushels of stuff to “put up” as I have not done that in a couple of years bein’ as it’s a lot of work. Also, I usually get pretty good fresh produce stuff in the sto’ lately. I may, however, get some corn to “put up” cause it’s nice to have sometimes. I’m goin’ over in just a bit cause I like goin’ early when stuff is bein’ brought in fresh. I definitely see a watermelon, a canteloupe or two and hopefully some honeydew melon in my future.
Yay for paid off Family Truckster BBBobbio!
Now I shall go purtify and head on over to the market.
Happy Firday Y’all!
Can I recommend a good mechanic for you? Because you know full well that now it’ll break down and start leaking from various mysterious places… 
I woke up early and decided I needed to read my funnies before I fell too far behind, so my sweetie is snoozing, I’ve got the sprinkler watering the front lawn, and I’m surfing in peace. Once **FCD **drags himself out of bed, we’ll *FINALLY *finish the stairwell. I’ve got a little more painting to do, he’s going to install door trim and 2 shelves, we’re going to put tile on all the steps, then he’ll caulk around the tile and I’ll install the light fixture at the base of the stairs. So finally and at long last, the stairwell will be done. Who’d’a thunk that which I expected to be a 2-day chore would take 5 days??? :eek: OK, we did expand the scope, but still…
It looks like we’re in for 3 more days of killer heat, then a week of temp relief. Rain would be nice, too, but I’m not holding my breath. Summer sucks - have I mentioned that recently??
All the same, Happy Firday, all!!
Up, caffeinated off to irk.
Congrats, BBBobbio!
YAY for a fully owned Family Truckster!
YAY for finishing projects
BOO for dead rats twenty feet high
BOO for triple digit temps with matching humidity
also BOO for my tummy bug keeping me housebound
I am at irk, it’s lunchtime, I am staying in the office because it’s bucketing down outside. Silly me, it’s summer in the UK. What else did I expect?
Yay for the truckster, VBob, but boo to everything else!
Wait, the season is relevant?
d&r
(I lived Up There for a couple of years so yes, not only do I know the season is relevant, but some parts are decidedly and unashamedly sunny, legend notwithstanding)