Saturday Stuff

Gorgeous, sunny, breeze-kissed, blue-sky day.... it's days like today when I wonder how in the world anyone could live anywhere else but right here!

The contractor showed up right on time this morning. What a guy! I have put his company's name and phone number in my book and I will be calling them for any sort of home repair from now on. And, of course, whenever we've found a good service company, we've always told our friends, and they tell their friends...

I spent part of today wrapping up Christmas gifts. I didn't realize just how much I had in all of those shopping bags. I thought I would have to do more shopping for my sister, but I had lots of little gifts in there for her. I found lots of little gifts for everyone, so holiday shopping for this year is done, done, done. Anything I buy between now and December 31st will be for next year. I hear you laughing... but remember what they say: "She who shops first gets the best stuff." (I just made that up. Not bad.)

While I was looking in the Christmas bags in the storage closet, I found two Halloween gifts for my little 13-yr-old friend "C." They were buried underneath her Christmas things, which can only mean that I bought them after Halloween last year. I had already mailed C a cute Halloween card with ghosts on it, and here were two Halloween gifts-- with ghosts on them. I called her house and asked her mom if I could drive over quick to give C the gifts.... and off I went and had a nice visit and watched C ooh and aah over the ghosts.

C is our special friend and she is just the most joyful little girl. She's 13 going on 14, not 13 going on 37. I met C years ago when I was a reading tutor at our local grammar school. She was one of my students and we just 'clicked.' When the school year ended, I continued to meet with C every week of that summer and we went to the library for books and then out for lunch. When my husband and I met C's parents, we all clicked and became friends. We've been clicking ever since.

My husband and I have taken C with us for afternoons out at the zoo, or a movie or just out for ice cream. We took her to our favorite restaurant for a fancy grown-up dinner when she turned 13. She is just a joy. And she has been a joy since the first day I met her when she was in the second grade... she's in the 8th grade now. Over all these years, C has met just about all of our friends and everyone agrees-- she is just a special little girl. My husband and I couldn't love her any more if she were our own.

My husband will be home from New York tomorrow night. I wonder if he realizes that every blessed thing is out of his closet and will stay out of his closet till the work on the shower is finished next week. I told him I had to clear out that closet, but it's a shock even to me when I open that door and find nothing in there.

I've been opening that closet door every day and spraying the open wall with bug-spray. I don't want spiders who may have made a home in the attic to discover the open wall and start to explore down here. As much as I've gotten used to the frogs and lizards in southeast Texas, the sight of a spider gets me crazy. All those legs-- they move so fast and you can never tell which direction they're heading. And of course, if my baby cat finds a spider, he will catch it in his mouth and carry it to me. ("Look at what I found for you, mom!")

So I'm hoping the ant spray that I found in the garage will work on the spiders as well. After all, spiders can't read what's on the can. And the spray certainly smells bad enough to kill more than just a tiny ant.

My friend A stopped by this afternoon. She and her husband leave tomorrow on a cruise, for their 25th anniversary. Twenty-five years. The "Big 2-5." We spent nearly two hours in my breakfast room, just catching up with everything that's gone on during the week. She's busy with her schedule, I'm busy with mine... no matter how we try to keep up, the days just disappear somehow. We talked about Thanksgiving and Christmas... she has everything set for Thanksgiving... I've got everything just about set for Christmas. We're both having Open House holiday parties (on different nights) and the invitations are all set. And she said the same thing I'm always saying-- once Halloween gets here, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just a heartbeat away.

I had planned to watch The Apprentice tonight-- they've been showing a re-cap of Thursday's show on Saturday night-- 15 minutes of re-cap, followed by the un-cut time in 'the boardroom' for the rest of the hour. I just peeked at the television guide and they don't have The Apprentice listed for tonight. I hate when the networks change schedules like that. And wouldn't you know it--- the one blessed television show that I like and watch, and it's missing from tonight's listings. All I can say to the network person who made that decision is "You're fired!!"

Now you know it's a really slow night for me in Clear Lake if all I had to look forward to tonight was the re-cap of The Apprentice. Not much happening today... just a lot of small stuff.