{So Many Hats}

AJ Here... from the road again!

Yep, just a traveling fool!  Mom and I are with Poppa Mac on the way to New Jersey!  The Army came and packed up most of his stuff but his "essentials" still fill a fairly good-sized U-haul trailer that we are now dragging behind his truck. The trip didn't start out too well.... we landed in Dallas on Friday, laden with camera equipment and a small suitcase with our clothes, and were prepared to wait a few hours for our ride to arrive. Bad luck for us, Poppa Mac had to go to the emergency room for his feet again and did not get out of El Paso like he was supposed to so....... we ended up grabbing a shuttle and heading for a hotel just off the airport. We were supposed to wait there and we thought it was only until that night but unfortunately it didn't turn out that way and we were there until Sunday morning.  Sigh. it was a really nice hotel room but after that many hours it got a little boring.  Mom read and slept and walked to Dennys for dinner but she wouldn't let me go with her. i watched a lot of TV but there weren't that many good channels... no E! or Disney so I got bored.  Mom and I watched the drag races, we LOVE that... we sent text messages to Grampa but he had his phone off so he didn't answer us. Of course, chances are he would not have answered us anyway! I had a scary moment though, when my friend Ashley had her car explode during qualifying runs.... she was OK though... whew! Kinda sad that we don't get to go back to the Nationals this year, but maybe next year!

So we are driving... we made it into Tennessee last night, Mom had a big scare though, she totally thought she had left her BlackBerry and her wallet in a bathroom in Arkansas but it turned out that she had put it down in the back end of the truck to wash the windshield and had forgotten.  I am not sure what made her feel more stupid, the thought that she had left it in a bathroom or the finding it in the truck. Pretty crazy. I kind of thought it was funny 'cuz if she had left them in my shell where they belonged then she would not have lost them.  What? She didn't think I might have had to go to the bathroom too? Of course it wouldn't be the first time she had left a phone in the bathroom... she did the same thing in the Dallas airport the year she went to Summit with Brion and Connie... she figured it out when she got on the airplane... she is SO lucky that they let her off to go get it, and that it was still there when she got there. She will never learn.

Anyway... we tried to go to Graceland this morning but found it to be a bit on the expensive side since we aren't really Elvis fans. It was cool though, I had my picture taken with a little blue Elvis Ty beanie baby. Too funny.  Poppa took a picture but I can't quite post it yet, but I will try later.  Anyway.... we are trying to get to Roanoke, Virginia tonight... we are listening to the Harry Potter audio book while we drive.... we have an ice chest full of food in the back end and it seems to be going well.  Mom is pretty excited... as soon as we drop of Poppa Mac's stuff we get to go to Maine for the wedding and that should be pretty awesome.  None of us have ever been to Maine before and the pictures should be awesome. Plus after the wedding Mom and I are going to go to see Aunt Sandy in Baltimore for her 40th birthday.  Party, party, party. Then it is back to Washington and Mom has to go to work. Yep, she actually got a job again so she is pretty excited about that =) Ok... nothing too exciting here, but just wanted you to know what was going on.  See you all soon! Peace out my friends!!

Spider Update

In case you were wondering.... Eric came home and used the "big" bathroom and noticed that the shower curtain was all askew and decided that I must have taken a shower. He then noticed Charlotte in the corner of the shower and decided she must not have been present earlier or I would not have taken said shower.  He left the bathroom, got halfway through the house, and reconsidered.  He then returned to the bathroom and killed Charlotte.  It all came together for him after he read my previous story!  Just thought you should know that the shower is now safe for human use!!!!

Why Blog?

So... why do people have blogs? To inform? To entertain? To stay in touch? To mock? To inspire? All of the above?  I am not sure.  I pay $8.95 a month for a blog that I hardly ever write on anymore.  I let life overwhelm me, I lost my sense of humor, and I quit sharing.  So, no promises, but I will try to do better, and I will let AJ write when it is appropriate as well.  He has a lot of stories and pictures to share from these last 3 years.  Today I was in the shower and a set of circumstances caused me to think that you, my faithful two readers may get a kick out of it... if you even check in here anymore since it has been so long since I have written.  But here it is, to mock, to inform, to entertain, to whatever... I give you the Spider-Shower Chronicles.

One of the random things that I missed while I was gone was my shower.  There is nothing particularly glamorous about my shower, it isn't a glorious oasis with natural stone tiles or dual massaging shower heads, or a jetted jacuzzi tub, it's a normal, everyday shower in a small, cramped, everyday bathroom.  BUT! It has awesome water pressure and the hot water lasts a LONG time... mostly due to the fact that when Eric went to Iraq in 2003 the FIRST thing that happened, I mean, like as in the day he left practically, the hot water heater ruptured and dumped its entire contents across my beautiful hardwood floors.  So I got a large, quick recycling, heavy duty replacement and my showers are awesome.  Usually.  The only thing that dampens (ha ha) my enjoyment in the shower is the fact that my bathroom does not have a working vent fan and we have a ceiling mold problem.  But, I know that there is intent to repair, and that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm. Usually.

Today, I stepped into my always hot, always high pressure, slightly moldy ceilinged (yes, that is a word) shower and commenced to shower.  As I often do at this time, I looked toward the ceiling to see how the mold is doing.  Has it spread, is it darker, is it lighter, what will I treat it with this time..... except on this particular day, in this particular shower, in the top right hand corner of the shower, is a spider.  And she isn't dead. 

Now those of you who know me well know that I HATE SPIDERS.  We aren't talking slight dislike, would prefer not to see, gently brush them away, we are talking run screaming in the opposite directions, smash them with shoes, holler for help, spray them with agent orange, HATE spiders.  So I am immediately concerned.  The spider, let's pretend she is sweet and innocent and call her "Charlotte," is up in the upper left hand corner of my shower.  Directly to the right of my shower head.  Not cool.  I am already totally immersed in my shower, and have put shampoo in my hair.  Somehow I need to find a way for Charlotte and I to peacefully co-exist for the next 5 minutes while I rinse my hair, apply conditioner, rinse my hair and can escape.  There will be no leisurely enjoyment of the water pressure, no shaving of the legs, no lingering in the steam, I must get out of the shower alive.  So I cautiously turn my body so that my hair is in the spray, but my eyes are on Charlotte, and rinse.  She sees me.  She wants to be friends.  She starts waving her little legs at me in what appears to be a friendly salute but in which I know is a desperate attempt to lure me into false security so that she can drop on me from above and bite my now clean flesh.  I don't wave back.  I stare at her and wish fervently for a removable shower head so that I can retreat to a safer portion of the shower.  I continue to rinse.  Good grief, how could I allow my hair to get so long as to need so much shampoo?  Charlotte tires of waving to a non-responsive victim and begins to slowly inch toward me across the top of the shower.  "No, no" I exclaim... "No, no, stay there, no, no!" She doesn't listen and continues to close in.  ITT... intent to touch for those of you who have NOT seen Night of the Museum II - Battle of the Smithsonian.... I jump from the shower and stand dripping on the bathroom floor.  Max comes into the hallway and looks at me, head cocked, ears up as only a chihuahua can do and you can almost hear him thinking... "What IS she doing, why is she doing it without her fur on and who IS she talking to?"  I ignore Max and concentrate on Charlotte.  She crawls all the way across the top of the shower to the right hand corner as I watch, dripping on the bathroom floor and praising the Lord that the kids left Sunday so as not to have to witness this insanity.  She stops, and hovers as it slowly dawns on me that if I return to the shower, she is now ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE TUB!  I can easily watch her, rinse my hair, do the conditioner and get out.  Yep, I can do it!

I step back into the shower, re-close the curtain, edge along the curtain back to the spray, and resume my hair care.  Charlotte watches me.  I know she is watching me watch her, I can feel her eyes on my almost like 8 hairy, tickly, creepy legs.  This in NOT an enjoyable shower.  I reach behind me for the conditioner, dump some in my hand, apply to my hair, count rapidly to 100 and figure "good enough".  I just start to tip my head back into the spray, still watching the corner when Charlotte decides she hasn't had enough fun with me, crawls about 6 inches back towards me and DROPS FROM THE CEILING.  I scream and jump from the shower.  Now ALL the dogs are in the hallway staring at me and barking as I stand dripping on the bathroom floor.  I can hear Charlotte laughing as she raises herself back up to the ceiling.  As it dawns on me that I have a dish sprayer in the kitchen sink, and that I haven't seen a spider out there yet I concede this round to Charlotte... but don't worry, next time I go to the shower, I will have a shoe.  Or a removable shower head..... you know the song... "down came the rain and WASHED THE SPIDER OUT."  Until next time friends.... may your burdens be light, and your showers be empty!