Almost Friday

We survived the latest onslaught of tornado weather. My heart breaks for all of those people who lost friends and family and their homes. This weather is insane and it scares me. We had a couple of frightening moments this afternoon where the storm really picked up, we had wind and hail, and Bruce saw a few of our roof shingles go flying across the yard. He ran upstairs into the attic and yes indeedy we had some water leaking in, trying hard to make water stains on the newly painted kitchen ceiling. But he caught it in time, buckets were put in place and then it was all over in just a few short minutes. Hopefully we can get this fixed this weekend. We don't have any more rain in the forecast for a few days. At least we had both made it home from work and were not out driving in that downpour.

Speaking of things that scare me....I saw the first snake of the season today. Ugh....I feel a shudder that goes down to my bones. I was at a customer's house delivering a package and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the biggest snake I have ever seen. Not length-wise. I have seen longer snakes. But this was the fattest, thickest snake ever. I am grossing myself out just writing about it. Out of some sense of morbidity I looked it up online just to see what kind of snake it might be. From pictures and descriptions it was a cottonmouth (aka water moccasin). They tend to be hugely fat snakes, and they are very poisonous. Glad I made it back to my car with nothing worse than a giant case of the heebie jeebies. The customer wasn't home, but I might tell him just as a warning that he has a giant poisonous snake slithering around his porch. Also? And I am trying HARD not to think too much about it.....Bruce found a snake skin in our attic when he was up there putting a bucket under the leak.

On a happier note (one that doesn't give me the creepy crawlies), one week from tomorrow I will be in Indiana with all 3 of my kids. That makes me happy. And Erica called this afternoon to say that her interview at the NIH is scheduled for May 16th.
Which also happens to be her birthday. And because I am a slightly superstitious kind of person, I take that to be a sign of good luck. I will be waiting impatiently that day to see how the interview went. I asked her if she could call me and then tuck her "connected" cell phone into her pocket so I could "hear" the whole thing, but she declined. LOL. You know its kind of crazy, but I had a friend who actually did that with her son when he was driving for those first few times out by himself. He had to keep the phone on, connected to Mom, on the seat while he drove. HAHA. Funnier still, Stephen actually did that quite a bit only the phone was connected to my mother's phone. He had a habit of pocket dialing his grandmother while he was out and about. She would call me later to say she heard music and kids laughing but he wouldn't answer her when she kept calling his name. Too funny!

Auto Pilot

I am on "auto pilot" this week. Nothing much is going on. I am ready for my short vacation to visit Stephen and Hannia in a week. Until then I am just biding my time. And after that? After we get back from Lafayette....? I don't know. I told Stephen tonight that I am not really thinking beyond that. Both of the kids are poised on the brink of some big changes. Erica will be finishing up her PhD over the next few months, and where she will end up doing her post doc is anyone's guess. She has an invitation to interview at the NIH in DC in a month or so (no exact date is set yet, but she is excited). Will she be in DC? She is talking about a post doc in Durham, and also Montana.....who knows.

Also up in the air? Stephen and Hannia. Purdue really cut funding due to financial hardships. He is planning to leave after this semester is over. The funding for research is just not there. Its too late to apply for fall semester to any place else.....so the plan is that he is going to start applying for jobs over the summer. And then another school in a year. No idea whatsoever of where the kids are going to end up. It could be one place while he works over the next year, and then another when he finds the right PhD program a year after that.....? No idea what is going to happen, but the one thing that both of them seem absolutely certain of....they WILL be someplace else before another winter sets in. Apparently Indiana weather is NOT appealing to them. Too cold. Way too much snow.....So.....?

Anyway, it will be a summer of decisions for the kids. My instinct is to brood and worry, but there is nothing I can do. I can't help out or figure out the best places for them. All I can do is wait for news and hope it all turns out well. It will. I am sure of that. It will be exactly what it is supposed to be for everybody. But if you could all send out some happy thoughts that wonderful opportunities open up for everybody, that would be much appreciated.

Things I just don't understand:

Here are some things that I just don't understand. Maybe someone can enlighten me?

1. This past Friday evening Parkers BBQ was OUT of BBQ. ??? What the heck? Bruce and Jerry were able to drive across town and find some at the other Parkers but do you have any idea how long that delayed Barb's corn sticks? And how on earth can a BBQ place that specializes in BBQ run OUT of BBQ. Thats like Burger King running out of burgers. Oh wait....Stephen and I had that happen once. LOL.

2. I give linen 3 stars as a fabric. It would get 5 stars for its comfort and ability to "breathe" in hot weather, but its capacity for wrinkling makes me have to detract a few stars. I own it, I wear it sometimes, but the fact that it wrinkles if you look at it hard just makes it less appealing. Still, we stopped at a dress shop in Morehead City and they had some nice linen casual clothes. But...and I don't get this...ALL of the linen tops had LONG sleeves. Why? If its hot enough for linen then its too hot for long sleeves. Needless to say I left without buying anything.

3. We had a nice brunch at Chef's 505 this morning before Dad and Barb left to drive back to Danville. They had a huge pile of shrimp (and mussels, but um, yuck). They did NOT have cocktail sauce. We had to ask for it 3 times before they finally were able to round some up. Maybe not everybody uses it as a shrimp dip, but honestly? I don't remember EVER eating shrimp without it. The fact that it wasn't already out on the buffet is something of a faux pas. The mimosa's were pretty good though so that helped make up for it. A little. But how does an upscale restaurant "forget" cocktail sauce when serving shrimp?

4. Why do weekends go by so much faster than week days?

5. Why do outside cats always want to be IN, and indoor cats always want to go OUT??

Well, I am absolutely certain that there are lots more things that I absolutely do NOT understand but I can't think of them at the moment. I hope you all have had a nice Easter weekend. We had a good time, but Monday is coming for us all to quickly.

Happy Easter 2011

I hope everybody has a wonderful Easter weekend. Its not the same without little kids and easter baskets and chocolate bunnies and egg hunts and all of that fun stuff. Still, we went with Dad and Barb down to Morehead City and had a really delicious lunch at the Sanitary Fish Market. My shrimp and scallops were amazing. And we got to meet friends of Barbs, Tommy and Carol. They are a really nice couple who have a home down there near the beach. Barb hadn't seen them since Stephen and Hannia got married 3 years ago. We hit a couple of the cute little shops there, and rode around and took a "home tour" of the gorgeous houses on the waterfront in Beaufort. It was a nice day.

Tomorrow we have reservations for the special Easter brunch at Chef's 505. The one time we did that, it was really good. I hope it doesn't disappoint. They only do a buffet brunch twice a year....Easter and Mother's Day. I managed to get our reservations, but the guy on the phone said the spots were filling up quickly. I think Dad and Barb are driving back to Danville tomorrow afternoon. No eggs or chocolate bunnies for us though. It makes me a little sad........

A lesson in futility

I have a little Easter centerpiece decoration for our dining room table. I fix it, put the little tree back up with all its tiny spring decorations, put the candles back upright, and make sure they are straight. And no matter how many times I do this, within a few hours I come back to find this:



And THIS is my suspected culprit.



See? She even looks guilty, doesn't she????

We survived the storms....

We survived the storms that tore through our state (NC). I swear we were so lucky. We had tornadoes touching down all around us....in Raleigh, Wilson, Farmville, and Kinston. A lot more hit further north. There was tornadic rotation over Greenville, we could see it from our house, but I don't think it ever touched down. We had high wind and the clouds were churning like mad. We barely even got rain here. A few brief downpours that lasted only a couple of minutes here and there. I read that Kinston, or was it Vanceboro? had hail that was an inch and a half in diameter. No hail here thankfully.

The whole thing lasted about 2 hours. Several storms moved through one right after the other. But we managed to stay in this safe little path as they passed over just east or west of us. Bruce spent a good part of the evening outside just watching how crazy the sky looked. I ran in and out but the wind was chilly and I just wasn't into it enough to stay out there for long at a time.



This is one of the pictures we took of the tornado passing over Greenville. You can see the darker patches that reach down from the bank of storm clouds. It was so loud outside. There was a long rumbling of thunder that never seemed to stop. It just kept growling and roaring with no breaks in the sound. Crazy.



Because we were directly in between 2 separate storm cells, getting the outskirts of the action, we would occasionally catch of glimpse of blue sky in the midst of an angry rolling bank of clouds. It didn't last for long. A glimpse here and there and then it would disappear as quickly as we saw it.

Anyway, having seen a lot of coverage of how awful it was for so many people I am just so thankful we were spared the worst of it. I know its crazy, but I kept thinking about our cats and what in the world would we do if our house was flattened.
How could I keep them from running away scared into the storm? And where in the world would we stay while our home was rebuilt (or repaired)?? I don't know many hotels that welcome 4 pets for an extended visit. I have no idea what we would do, but we would need to stay around here to work, and to supervise the rebuild and all.
Bruce suggested that I get the cats in to the vet to be microchipped. You just never know, living here in tornado/hurricane country when a disaster might rip through and pets get out and run away. I mean, we DID have a huge pecan tree fall through the house once....and that was one night I would never want to repeat again in my life.

Storm

This deadly storm that killed 16 people so far is on its way to us right now. Within an hour or 2 of hitting. We have gotten stuff out of the yard, flowerpots off of the porch, and so forth and so on. I hope my little garden plants survive the wind. They are just too small to stake up yet. Also? I hope we have no loss of electricity. The power can go out for next to nothing here....although I will say that it has gotten better in the past few years. I have loads and loads of laundry to do (stripping beds and stuff), so I just want to be able to be done with it.

Anyway, the approaching storm is cramping my style this weekend...LOL. Can't be outside (well, Bruce did do some yardwork earlier this morning, but its growing darker and the winds are really picking up), don't want to shop or run errands and get caught in a downpour, so I am just hanging out catching up on house stuff. Boring for a Saturday that I actually have OFF. Ok, I am not going to complain anymore. I am thankful to NOT be out there working when it starts. Hoping that the Greenville carriers all make it back in safe and sound before the s@$t hits the fan, so to speak. Be careful ya'll. And yes I definitely said "Ya'll". I'm a southern girl and am entitled.