A Quiet Night Around The Fire

Guess who's home this weekend... Yup, heee's baaaaack.

Lenny came home for Thanksgiving and is here through the weekend. It's always fun to have him here... mostly. It's the little things that get to be very annoying. Like the kitchen sink that is currently full of raw chicken carnage from last night's beer-can chicken.
Yes, he cooked dinner. But is the aftermath worth it? That is the question. But that is just a small example. I'll leave it at that.

Because there was no wind last night, he made a fire. Great, I love sitting by the fire on a clear night, Dixie running around sniffing every corner of the yard (both the ground and the air) and listening to music or catching up or just enjoying the flames in silence.
Let's see... nice fire - check; clear night - eh, can't have everything; Dixie being her happy K-9 self, check; music - nope; catching up - kinda; silence - Hah!

Again, I say, I love when he comes home. The bigger the break between his visits, however... how shall I put it?
Having a fire is always nice - that's a given.
Catching up - nice when it's a dialog, not a monologue.
When the conversations are driven by spirits, it's a whole 'nother ball game.

It's quite comedic, for lack of a better term. He tells a funny story, then a semi-funny story. By the end of the night, those same stories have been heard dozens of times. So what appears to be a night full of tales and such is actually about 7 minutes of conversation on a loop. Another part of the comedy is the stance.
In the beginning he stands with drink-hand resting comfortably on his tummy, looking to you for confirmation or comprehension of whatever he's talking about. Later the stand becomes a swaggering walk with the drink hand now gesturing parts of the story. Finally, the walk ends with what seems like an impossible feat: he stands in one spot, feet planted, with body swaying to and fro, hither and yon and the drink hand now rests in a lowered position, close to the thigh, occasionally losing some of its treasured content.

Admittedly, the show that he inadvertently puts on can be quite entertaining, I just wish there was a mute button.

I Need Some Color

Hi, I'm just going to pretend no time has passed since my last post. Why not? What'll happen... someone will leave me a comment asking what the heck happened to me over the past few months! I think not.
I found out that a local Ace Hardware is going out of business and Everything Must Go. Excellent news to someone who has a whole house to fix. I've always thought Ace to be pricier than most chains (of course) and didn't find any extra customer service that I found at Menards, Lowes or Home Depot. But at $10 for a gallon of paint, color me pleased as peas to be a new customer. I need:
2 quarts grey matte
1 gallon ceiling white
1 gallon yellow satin
1 quart yellow satin
2 gallons sky blue (one satin, one ???)
1 gallon bright white satin
2 quarts light oak (or was it pecan) stain
2 quarts polyurethane
1 box of "sandy" additive
1 wide (5? 6?) inch brush
1 high quality 4" brush
40-60 grit sanding sheets for a "mouse" or corner sander
220 grit sanding sheets for a "mouse" or corner sander
a new sander
make it two (one belt, one mouse/corner)
window cling (you know, the kind for blocking wind)
3-way light bulbs
re-chargeable batteries (AA, AAA, 9V)
throw in some picture hangers and I think that'll do it.

Why are you still reading? Head on over before everything's all gone!