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Sometimes we find Big Ugly Bugs (BUBs for short) in our house. Usually I find them already dead. But in the last few days I’ve seen more of them alive. This morning was an especially eventful start to the day.
I’m working from home, because everybody else seems to be. So I’m on the bed working away (seriously - we have wireless lan, I can do that), when a BUB crawls across the floor, over a few grandpa heads, towards phlome’s boot. I was getting nervous - because towards the boot = towards the bed = towards me. I figured he’d crawl across teh boot, but he crawled into it. So I grabbed the boot by the toe, and flug it into the hallway. The boot flew - the bug jumped, and landed where the boot was.
Round 1: BUB

The BUB reversed directions and crawled away from me - so I went back to work. I wish I could have said I killed, but that would involve getting entirely too close to it. I cannot deal with the BUBs. They’re big and ugly and crawly and creepy. When I say big, I mean at least as long as my pinky - and as big around as phlome’s thumb. So I’d say they’re about the size of Phlome’s thumb. Phlome does not have small thumbs. I know this does not help all of you out there - but imagine the size of an average man’s thumb - bugs should not be that big if they are ugly.
Ok - so later on I see another BUB - not quite as big. I sent Luna after it - she stared at it, stared at me, then walked away. She’s useless.
Later I was working and on the phone when a BUB crawled up on the bed!!!!!!! I threw a kleenex box at it. It crawled under the sheets. I ran into the living room.
Round 2: BUB

Then I called phlome to complain. He offered no sympathies and told me to just change the sheets. *gasp* how am I supposed to change the sheets when the BIG UGLY BUG is crawling around in them somewhere.
So I went into the room. Grabbed the corner of the top comfortershook and yanked. No bug. Threw it into the hallway. Grabbed the corner of the 2nd comforter (don’t ask why we have 2) shook and yanked. No bug. Threw it into the hallway. Grabbed the corner of the top sheet. shook and THUMP. BIG UGLY BUG lands with a loud thwap on top of my pillow. I coneinuted pulling the top sheet off and threw it inthe hallway. Then I called both dogs and tried to get them on the bed. Luna jumped on teh bed - the BUB crawled under the pillow. Luna went back to the window to watch for squirrels. *sigh* At this point I’m so desperate I decide we need a cat. i don’t like cats. i like BUBS way less though.
So I go to search the house for something usefull. Kitchen tongs too short. Ah ha - fireplace poker! I really need those fireplace tongs but don’t see any. So I use the poker to flip each of the pillows. No BUB. I assume it’s crawled off the edge of the bed somewhere and continue to clear the sheets/pillows of the bed.
BUB is MIA.
Round 3: Draw.

*sigh*
Now I’m working in my room for the rest of the day. i don’t see thme in here much. So my theory is that they want Luna’s dog food.

Ok - so it’s a huge pet peve of mine. Many people say the lack of cell phone etiqutte bothers them, but then I see them doing the same things that bother me. In no particular order:

1) When your phone rings, always step away from the crowd you are in. Don’t force those around you - friends or strangers- to listen to your conversation. It’s annoying, and for those of us who don’t like to evesdrop, it makes us terribly uncomfortable, as if we were being forced to evesdrop on a private conversation.

2) A face to face conversation should only be interrupted by a cell phone call very briefly, IF AT ALL. This applies especially when entertaining guests. Never should a call be taken at the dinner table. If you must take a call, step away, handle the discussion briefly and inform the caller that you are a) eating dinner, b) talking with so and so or c) entertaining guests (playing a game, watching a show w/ so and so etc.)

3) Talking on the cell phone when someone else is in the car. Never. It’s rude. See rule 1 and 2 for handling these calls. Do not make a call while riding w/ others in the car, unless to get directions/information about where you are going.

4) Don’t yell.

5) Public cell phone calls should be kept brief. If you want to have a long conversaiton with whomever you called, or called you, go somethere a little more private, like your own car, or a low traffic area.

As a side note - in most of these cases I suggest that you step away - it makes it clear that you are no longer participating in the current activity/conversation, and are clearly focused elsewhere. It also forces you to be more aware of your surroundings when on the phone. Thereby, making you a little more phone etiquette friendly.

Ok - so maybe I am guilty of some of these. But there you go - my new years resolution. Be more polite when using my cell phone.

Anyone have any additions to the list?

Oh - and since this post is moving my previous post down the list - see below for the story of Luna’s great adventure.

While this was a terribly fun holiday for me, I think Luna had more fun than anyone else.
My highlight of the whole time was having a fun dinner at Zio’s with friends from the blogworld and some friends from highschool.

In attendance were:
Red
Sleepwalker +Luigi
Zero + (hmmm, does Zero’s gf have a nickname?)
Phlome + the Squid + me
My cousin
and Another friend from HS, who Sleepwalker may have a nickname for.

Ok, but back to Luna.

First of all Luna loves to go anywhere - though once in the car for a long trip, she just sleeps - which makes for easy traveling for us all.
X-mas eve and morning, was rather dull for Luna, hotel, then out to my grandparents where she had to be tied up outside. She didn’t take it too badly, but she wasn’t thrilled about the situation. Then that afternoon we went down to Phlome’s hometown, and Luna got some table scraps and met new people. The real fun came the next day though. Sunday morning she was behaving well, so we let her off the leash, and she stuck by us pretty well. But then she saw the horse! After pleading with me with her puppy dog eyes, I went out in the pasture with her. Where she trotted up to the horse and with her paws down in front and her tail waggin in the air, she playfully barked at the big doggy with a long face and hooves. The horse nickered back, and much doggy horsey playing ensued. Luna would bark at Buddy (the horse) and get him to chase her, then turn around and chase the horse. They both seemed to be really enjoyng themselves.

But then it was time to go inside and get ready to go. My mom came down to meet Phlome’s parents. First we visited with his mom, then we loaded up the squid and Luna and headed over to his Dad’s. There luna found even more fun! Phlome’s dad has a backyard farm, full of peacocks/hens, guineas, chickens, various other fowl and a racoon. The racoon was up in a cage, so Luna didn’t pay much attendtion, but oh those birds! She chased all the peacocks up to the rooves, and then got into the chicken coop and chased the chickens around the backyard.

Mom and I had to head back to T-town, so we left. Phlome later told me that Luna caught herself a chicken or two (not sure if it was the same one twice or 2 different chickens).

Since Phlome had to head up to Tulsa the next day, and dogs are verbotten at my mom’s house, he left Luna w/ his big bro’ Monday night.

That night we recieved the frightening news from his brother than Luna had broken her leash and gotten out of the not quite so securely fenced in back yard. Big bro saw her and tried to get to her, but Luna would have nothing to do with him. Later that night we talked to Big Bro’ again, and he said she was laying down near the backyard fence, but when he went out to her she ran off again.
The next morning, he said she was there again - seemingly waiting for us to come get her.
So after a Goldies burger lunch, and dropping the squid off at her grandmothers’ we drove the 2 hours down to see if Luna was still patiently waiting. We turned onto the road where Big Bro lived, and there she was. Trotting down the road taunting a chained up dog. When she saw us get out of the car, she stopped ears perked, tail tentatively starting to wag.
…I wonder, did she not recognize us yet, or was she afraid she would be in trouble…
So I started walking towards her, and she slowly came towards me, as she got closer, she started to trot faster, until she got right up to me, and she jumped up on me. If she were the type of dog to lick, I’m sure I would have been covered in doggie slobbers, but she’s not a licky dog. Then I put her down, and pointed to the car, where Phlome was opening the backdoor, she ran and jumped right in.

So now, Luna’s home safe. Monday night was rather rough, I was angry but had no one to be angry with, and scared that we might have lost her. But once Big Bro said she was hanging out near the house, I felt tons better. And even better when she jumped up onto me, and then jumped into the car.

So that’s a brief summary of Luna’s great adventure.

I’m trying to finish up all my xmas wrapping today. As soon as Phlome makes it home we’ll pack up and head on up to OK for the weekend, with plans to return sometime tuesday.

For those of you who are up in Tulsa, we may try and get together Monday night - something casual, just dinner, perhaps at spaghetti warehouse.

Back to wrapping…

Neko brought up something in her last comment that I haven’t expressed explicitly yet. This whole engagement pendant has created an awefull lot of questions. I have had several very confused looks from folks, when I explain that Phlome didn’t get me a ring.
One friend even thinks that we’re not really engaged since I’m not wearing a ring. A co-worker asked if I was going to set the pendant into a ring, then when I said no, he said “You are going to be getting a ring though, right?”. I said, well eventually, when we get married we’ll have rings, but not an engagement ring. Why is doing something slightly different so baffeling to everyone! Shame on us for being non-traditoinal. Would a non-diamond ring have been less confusing, than a diamond pendant? Do I need to go buy a CZ just to get people to accept that we are engaged? I fear having to explain this to my grandparents. So far 1 co-worker, a few strip-club girls (waitresses and dancers), and now Neko, have expressed that they like the idea of something different. Now, I understand that many of you out there completely understand, and think it’s a good idea as well - but in general, more people are confused about the whole thing. Even those that have expressed that they like the idea, have required an explanation as to why I don’t have a ring, before they can accept it. *sigh*

I think I’ve destroyed my mother today.
She won’t let Luna stay in the house when we come visit. It’s going to be friggin’ freezin’ this weekend. I told her we’re better off staying at a hotel that allows pets. I also told her that Phlome and I are not comfortable at her house, and that Luna was just the final straw. Why is it that I forced Phlome to succumb to uncomfortable situations at my house, but when she starts making my dog unhappy, I draw the line. I may need to work on my priorities a bit.
I do love you, Phlome, promise. I also think this engagement thing, has changed my priorities in general. It’s hard to explain, but now that Phlome has officially declared his intent to make an honest woman of me - he’s my immediate family. My blood family is now my extended family. And Luna’s our baby. How dare she make me leave my baby out in the cold winter night! Not to mention she’d probably still make Phlome and I sleep in seperate rooms. Something that has irked us for sometime now. I hate having to pretend that there is something wrong with us, and we have to act all Puritanical when we go home.

Have I told you how much I hate the holidays. I hate that I hate the holidays. They used to be such good times, filled with good memories. I cannot retrieve a single good holiday memory that lasts more than a couple minutes from the last 10+ years. Some may blame growing up and dissolusionment, some may blame petty jealousy, I personally blame one asshole of a man for my mother’s unhappiness, and the distruction of our one time great and close relationship.

I look forward to future holidays with my new family, where I can once again create happy holiday memories.

Oh god I’m depressing myself. I better stop here.

Oh - and before Red gets too fiesty: The pendant. We’ll take a better one with the new camera and post it as well.

~~~~~~

I have all sorts of things to blog about today. So I think I’ll start with the most recent, and then see if I can remember anything else.

For NYE the Shady Manor crew and friends are heading down to Shreveport to get drunk and possibly gamble. But since none of us are from that area, and we don’t know anyone down there, we don’t really know where to go or what to do outside of the casinos. If anyone has any night club suggestions, please let us know. In the meantime I’ve been checking out various visitor guides to get an idea of what kind of options we have. I found a review of a club that just made me giggle:

User Reviews (1 review)
0 of 1 found this review helpful.

5 stars out of 5 starsI really like this bar
Reviewer: Patrick & Brannon - October 09, 2004
The crowd is really good, great bands, good service, and lots of single womens
Pros:
Good People
Cons:
niggers next dooor
Visit date:
October 2004
Drink price:
$2-4
Well, I guess you just can’t have it all, now can you?

Here’s another, that I think we will just HAVE to visit:

Yes, there are gay people here!

Nightlife Spot:
Central Station
Type:
Nightclub
Description:
This very hidden gay club is in the boarded up remains of a train station. Once you go inside around back you’ll enter the odd world of Louisiana queerness. Half of the place is dedicated to country music (Imagine big black men in hip-hop gear line dancing), while the other side is…well, more cosmopolitan. Everybody’s friendly, and you’ll have a great time for only $5!

Ok - so that’s the Shreveport planning part of my post. And I’m kinda out of the mood. Later I’ll post about my new partner in crime against the Fascist Regime that Arby’s has become since their cancellation of the potato cake.

Oh - and Phlome and I got a new digital camera last night - hopefully we will be posting pics soon.

Friday night was fun and interesting in down town fort worth. Saturday was a fun night out w/ Ruby and her hubby. So there’s a very brief summary of the weekend.

And I got my hair died red. Professionaly. I have a hair stylest now, his name is Chris. He likes my new red hair too.

Oh, what a night.
Late December back in 2004.
What a very special time for me,
‘Cause I remember what a night.

Lots o’ news but due to the many distractions last night, we didn’t upload any photos. I’m hoping Zero will upload the pic on his camera (hint hint, zero ).

So first of all. All day yesterday, Phlome was trying to keep me from getting my hopes up about picking up my pendant last night. All sorts of reasons that we might not be able to get it (might not be ready, too much to do last night, too much traffic out by the mall etc. etc.). Well I get home and the boys had already moved just about everything off of the carpeted areas of the house except the furniture. You see, today the carpeters are coming to lay new carpet. A nice pretty grey blue - to replace the poo brown which has various red ink stains, beer stains, wine stains, who knows what else stains. Oh, and btw, the red ink stains are from Luna in her chew-everything-she-can-get-her-paws-on stage. Her paws were red for a week too. Ok, so anyway. Phlome says if we get everything moved (except furniture which the carpeters will move) we just might be able to go out to the mall and eat dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse while we’re out there. Yay! So I scrambled around moving stuff, even moving some furniture (ok so it was a small end table, but I moved it!). Then we three piled into the diamond snatching saturn, and Phlome got a call from the jeweler. She called to say the pendant had just been delivered, and we could come pick it up whenever we were ready! It was 6:30. Phlome tells the jeweler it will still be a few hours since we’re going to eat dinner first. I scowled at him. “It’ll still be there after we eat,” he reminds me. So I resigned myself to dinner before the pendant. Then just as we were taking the exit to the mall and the restaurant, Phlome says, “Do you want to eat first or get the diamond first.” Silly boy. Stupid question.
So I got to go get my diamond, which is beautifully set in a lovely white gold setting w/ filigree along each side. I looooooooove it! I wish I could post a picture so you could see it. Hopefully I’ll remember to tongiht, before we go out. I’m wearing it right now, and have showed it off to everyone as they come into the office! BTW, there’s only one other person on my side of the office so far, and it’s almost 10am. But I’ve also been over to the IT side to show it to the girls over there.

Ok, so back to last night. After we got home I wrapped some presents, did some xmas cards and let Luna outside while I showered before going to bed. At one point I heard her barking like crazy, so I figured she’d treed the chupacubra again and thought nothing of it. Then it was quiet for an aweful long time. So long that I forgot she was outside. When I rememberd, I went to the back door and called for her, but no Luna. Mira then got excited and went outside. I called for Luna again, and heard some buckets out by the garage fall over. Then I rememberd we’d left the garage door open. All sorts of things went through my head. I couldn’t see very far into the back yard and I was barefoot, so I ran to get my shoes. I though Luna had gotten herself tangled in something in the garage, and Mira was barking at her, probably trying to get back at her, since Luna does pick on her an aweful lot. So as I’m getting my shoes, I express my concerns to Phlome, who also gets his shoes to go check on the dogs.
I get to the back door and I see Luna, standing over something small and motionless. THE CUPACUBRA! I shout to phlome, that Luna’s got something, and I think I just saw it move. He runs to get his flashlight. And Sure ’nuff. Luna’s got herself an opossum. AKA cupacubra. (not to be confused with the famed Chupacabra of Mexico and South Texas). A full grow’d ‘possum. Luna did not want to abandon her catch. But she also wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not. Finally phlome convinced Luna she could go inside, and he’d handle the evil chupacubra.
Phlome thought it was near death, but I saw very little blood, and you know how ‘possums are, they like to play ‘possum. So I convinced him to just leave it be for a little while and if it was still there in half an hour, he could dispose of it as he saw fit. An hour later it was gone. So either I cursed the poor thing to crawl off and die a slow agonizing death, or it was playing ‘possum and I saved it’s life. I prefer to think the latter. I’m sure if it crawled of somewhere to die, Luna will let Zero know this afternoon.

We did get a pic of the chupacubra/opossum, and I hope we can upload it soon too.

Sorry for the mega long post again, I’ll try to ease up on them for a while.

Well I’ve got all the christmas shopping done that i’m gonna get done. I probably mentioned this around this time last year, but our family started doing the draw a name technique for xmas, so we can all save alittle money. I drew my grandfather’s name. I got him this playing card set from thingsremembered. And an OU travel mug.
I got my mom 2 PeachTruck Republic CDs and an OU Travel Mug.

I of course can’t say what I got phlome for chirstmas, and everyone already knows what he got me. I got the squid some fuzzy posters and markers. Though I’m tempted to pick up a few more ‘little’ things for her.

I’m a little disappointed by the lack of comments on my Busey post. But seriously if you get bored, check out buseyworld - it’s funny.

Ok - so obviously my previous post was entirely too long.
So here’s something shorter…

Well, a few posts back I said something about how I get Nick Nolte, and Gary Busey confused nowadays. Evidently I’m not the only one:

“…you know that famous mug shot of a frightful Nick Nolte following his arrest a while back? Well, Busey sorta looks like that all the time. He has clearly abused substances one day too long, barreling around his beachfront pad with all the predictability of a malfunctioning smoke alarm that could go off at any moment. He utters quasi-psycho homilies like “Men are failed women at birth” and “Friends are just enemies in reverse.” And Busey may be the only man alive for whom eating oysters can be made to look like a violent act.”

From here

And just in case you need a little more Busey inyour life: www.buseyworld.com.

If you go to the Jake Busey page (that’s Gary’s dopelganger son), you’ll see that the author postulates that GaryBusey - NickNolte = JakeBusey. It’s a truely revolutionary theory.