Arrrrrr...today be Talk Like a Pirate Day....

so, avast ye scurvy wenches and bilge rats, grab some grog and go pillage ye neighbors house.

Or just talk funny all day and drink lots o' beer!

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog at all...*insert sad face here*...I have, however been reading a bit at night and have finished Ted Dekker's Sinner. Interesting book, I'll get a review up soon. I'm currently reading Guernica, and liking it.

Its the end of summer here, although you'd never know by the weather. My youngest the *gulp* cheerleader had her first home football game yesterday afternoon...it was so hot! I don't care if I look like the dork parent of the ages, next week I bring an umbrella for shade! Her Freshman football team won 46-0, so I felt sorta sorry for the other guys. They drove 2 hours in traffic and then got spanked. Either our little Freshman team is really really good or the opponents was really really bad.

When fall starts to loom on the horizon, our thoughts turn to .....home repair and remodeling. Hey if spring can turn a young man's fancy to love, then fall can turn an older persons fancy to paint, demolition and rebuilding.....right? After living here for 10 years and re-doing most of it, we're finally getting ready to start the kitchen. Negotiation has ensued.

The problem is that my DH wants state of the art and expensive, I however, am pretty much sick of cooking after roughly a gazillion years of it and would rather have fun with the money. (I think our roles are reversed?) I still love to cook "occasions" like Thanksgiving, etc. but after 33 years of cooking, oh say...2-3 meals a day...and during said meal at least one person will probably look at the food and say...."ewwwww, do I see onions? or tomatoes? or whatever the hated veggie of the month is" (unless its spaghetti or tacos and really how often can anyone eat spaghetti or tacos....) I'm done with it. I'm tired of the day to day cooking, I swear if I lived alone I'd live on microwave popcorn and cold cereal.

I especially love the weekends, where the simple question, "What would everyone like for dinner?" becomes a two hour debate and decision. C'mon people....its a meal....its not like we're not gonna just do it all over again tomorrow.....argghhhh.....Weekdays are easier, I have to come up with the ideas, but nobody is around to stop me and once its cooked, they gotta eat it or starve!

Okay...enough ranting about kitchens!

Our eldest daughter moved back in and has had all her stuff in storage for the past few months. It seems like such a waste to pay money for that, so we're moving her furniture into the house and I've been rearranging and selling off some of my stuff that I'm tired of anyway. We'll use her couches until she moves back out and then I'll find something I like for our family room.

In addition, we've been waterproofing our deck, just in case it *snicker snicker*, should happen to rain this winter.....*guffaw guffaw....I don't even remember what rain looks like! But hope springs eternal!

We're taking part of a wall down to open up the kitchen a bit. This wall had oak paneling and mirrors on it when we moved in 10 years ago. DH always liked the wall, and I always detested it. The oak was stained this horrible black-red dark dark brown color and sealed with gloss urethane. Looked like the 1980's gone wild. We finally took off the paneling and mirrors last weekend in preparation to tearing part of it down, and I promise I'll never ever say nothing could look worse than what I have again. Under the paneling was the most attractive gold, orangish brown foil Fleur-de-leis wallpaper you've ever seen. It must have looked smashing with brown shag carpet. So now when you walk in the front door, instead of being instantly transported to the 1980's, you go straight back to the 70's. Polyester anyone????

Oh boy.......