Excuse me but you seem to have left your knife in my back

It was a bit of a rough night here. I found out that one of who I thought was my dearest friends betrayed me. The grief that I feel is not the betrayal, it is the loss of the friendship. Yes betrayal is bad, but the cost of that betrayal is higher.

Even if we get past this event, the friendship will never be the same. Nor will it be stronger and that is a character flaw of mine. I am a loyal person, much to a fault and in friendship, I expect loyalty (and tolerance :-) ) in return.

If you remove the loyalty factor, what do you have? Kind of a void with maybe a few good time bumping around in it. I do have better ways of amusing myself looking into the nothingness to see if something is there.

I don't know if I will miss my friend. I will miss what was.

You are Outta Here

So we were to meet the grading contractor at the new house. Today was to begin the final grade and landscaping for closing in September. What a fiasco.

So Charles & I show up at our agreed to time and wait and wait. Finally Keith shows up about an hour late and apologizes for being late. We walk one more time through everything he has agreed to in the cost of the bid (which we have everything in writing...thank God.) I notice he starts interjecting comments such as "If I do it this way, it will look a lot nicer but it will cost you more." We politely decline each time. We leave after going through everything.

We had to run out there to pick up a toy Kai left later this afternoon and the grading guy has his very rude and belligerent brother with him. The guy starts screaming at us! He says he needs double of what his brother agreed to (in writing) or he was walking off the job. I was so proud of my husband, this guy was looking for a physical altercation and Charles dismissed him like a housefly. Charles kept telling him no, it's not going to happen.

After 20 minutes of in your face confrontation with this tool, Charles finally looks at him and says You're Outta Here...thanks but no thanks.

My husband is a class act. He never once raised his voice or his fist. But just with his demeanor he let them know who was in charge.

We are now looking for a grading contractor. The fun never ends on this project.

An Infestation of Koala Bears

I went out to the new house yesterday and things are looking pretty darn good. I expect that we will be in sometime around mid to the end of September. It's been a long two years waiting.
While I was out there, an exterminator the builder sent showed up. I was chatting with him and he said it is standard with my builder to spray the vents & such to ensure that there is no infestation.

Zoinks what an ugly word, infestation. No matter what you associated with it is ugly. An infestation of spiders, infestation of bugs, etc. It conjures up gross. You never hear of an infestation of puppies or ponies. Can you imagine an infestation of Koala Bears? Flip on the light and all these cute little things go scattering for cover? You wouldn't be mortified, you would probably just stand there and go "Awww, aren't they cute?".

My random thought of the day.

Crash, Bang, Boom, Buzzzzz

Unfortunately, Friday we had a severe storm roll through and our beautiful Bradford Pear split in half. So this weekend was spent chopping, sawing, dropping and yanking various and assundry tree parts to the dump. Funny, I was very sad when it happened but you know, it really opens up the front of the house and you can see the front. It also adds more light to the front rooms of the house.

Brandon and Cameron turned 24 Saturday. We celebrated in our "traditional" way with a dinner at Red Lobster. It is kind of comical because none of us really care for Red Lobster but we have made it there every July 22nd since we moved here. (With the exception of the year both of them were in Iraq and Afghanistan.) It truly makes me happy to see them doing so well as adults. I miss having them as little boys though.

Speaking of little boys, Kai was carefully writing on a sheet of paper and then asked "How do spell stink?" I told him and he finished writing and went upstairs to what I thought was his room. Nope, he left a note for his brother...."You stink Jase."

Hey Cameron got to meet the Governor of Virginia. I asked him if he told the Governor I did't vote for him. He wasn't amused.


I got a call from a women's voting group to write an article for their newsletter. Cool. She had read my previous article about apathy and the American voter and wanted me to tailor it to their group. (I guess I am to be a harbinger of bad tidings if they don't get off their duffs.) So we went through a few questions and then I asked what format and the deadline. Her response? "Oh, I really don't care. Whenever you can get it here." Hmm, sounds like apathy runs amok.

Is It Fall Yet?

The heat here is oppressive. It is almost painful to go out. I kind of feel like a vampire when I go outside during the day. Shrinking from the sun. Remind me, dear reader, when it is 20 below and we are all playing peoplecicles, that I groused about the summer. :-)

Today was the distinct pleasure of redoing my lighting fixture package with the builders sub. I thought it was completed but it turns out, I got someone else's order. They didn't have very good taste in lighting.

Just a few more weeks until school starts. I am kind of sad. My littlest one will be starting kindergarten. No more babies in the house, no more toddlers, just kids.

Like Lemmings Running Off A Cliff

So the real estate market here took a nose dive...a very VERY large nose dive and the panic sets in.

My neighbors a block away, in desperation (their house hasn't sold in two months) lowered the price of their house over $100,000. Oh what a joy, it immediately lowered my house price. (Yes, dear reader, we are selling.)

A decision had to be made and we made it. We are renting this one out until an upcycle in the market. Thank you Mssrs. Greenspan and Bernanke for single handedly stopping the housing market.

So This is My Blog

My first blog entry. Not bad. Let's see how my postings progress in time. I am very new to blogging but I think I am going to dig it.