Note: the first bits of this rant are basic ‘weekend update’, fairly boring household stuff. If you don’t feel like reading such blah faire, at least skip down and read my really tremendously wonderful exciting news – you’ll know it when you see it, it has LOTS of exclamation points!


Well, there’s lots of small news… I spent the weekend furiously trying to get things done around the house. I have been trying to replace the trap under my kitchen sink to no avail. I am trying to replace the old and busted metal pipes with some new plastic hotness*, but I can’t seem to get just the right parts to go back in there. Grr. I am probably going to have to break down and call… * duhn duhn DUHNNNNN! * the Landlord and get him to send his son to fix it. Bluh. It’s not that I dislike them, it’s just having anyone else in my house, especially making noise and mess SUCKS. I turn into Rainman when this has to happen. It’s gonna’ be REALLY bad when they have to come fix the bathroom floor, but it has to happen. I bought a shopvac to try to help me handle the TREMENDOUS volume of dust and doghair. It’s funny, now that I have a vacuum that works and works for my house, I like vacuuming. Weird, huh? It cuts the work time down to a fraction, and now, when I try to clean up dust and hair, I’m not just shifting it off of the stuff, up into the air, up my nose and back onto the SAME surfaces. It’s really frustrating when you realize that you are just more evenly distributing the yuck. Yuck.
I also bought some good natural – yet serious – household cleaners to help fight the mold and mildew, some things made out of real orange, lemon and pine oil. That way, after I get some of the stuff out of the house (I also finally rented a small storage space and have begun to move some of my seasonal and extraneous things into that – thanks again for the moving help on Monday, Wetrats, Jamie, X and Erin!) I can vacuum the spaces, and kill the mold and mildew. Yuck and yay.
In other household related oog, I found when attempting to FINALLY turn on the big heater that the gas hadn’t been turned on at the tank. So… I turned it on, and tried ALL day yesterday to get the pilot lit. I finally convinced the lady at the place*** to have a repair technician call me in an attempt to walk me through the steps that he might take if he came out. He did, and I learned all about thermal valves and switch contacts, and got the heater working. I can’t believe that they trusted me with something so dangerous, but hey – they’d even let me have a KID if I wanted one! What are people THINKING? ;)

I also shopped for groceries, did laundry, cooked big for the Mississippi party (more on that later) and cooked meatloaf for mine and x’s lunches for the week, did laundry, got plastic for the windows (x gets that job though, moowahahaha!), took out the garbage, and began the dreaded organization of the summer/winter gear.
That’s all the basic stuff.

On Friday night I took part in a revival of the Upstairs Gallery’s annual Coffeehouse Poetry Night. I used to be one of the honored regular readers, but since the gallery closed to move to a new building, the Coffeehouse – along with all the other wonderful art and programs they have there – has been delayed for the three years of renovation and planning. I was happy when Betsy called and asked if I’d come read, and double-delighted when she suggested that she and I do a piece together to open up the show! We spent two weeks writing back and forth via e and came up with an excellent piece. I’ll try to remember to post it here for your perusal. I have already posted the other things I read, but Chris’ dad read several of his, and there is one in particular that I will ask for a copy of so I can share it with y’all.
All in all, it was a good night. I wasn’t feeling very well, but the work was good, the art show currently installed is amazing and the company was excellent and so were the brownies. Mm! Now that’s a good way to fundraise, if you ask me.

The Mississippi party was Sunday. For those of you who don’t know, a few weeks ago a stranger came into the library, a nicely dressed elderly man with a particularly lovely accent. He said “Rumor has it that you’re from Mississippi…”. Well, ‘turns out he was a messenger from the lovely couple who organize this function where 250+ people from my home state get together for a potluck dinner. Yeah! I was instructed to invite any other Mississippians I knew and to bring a dish that was a homestyle favorite. I decided to bring a big pot of cabbage and sausage, and two big pones of cracklin cornbread. I got there late, and by the time I arrived, most folks had already eaten. My pot of cabbage went almost untouched, but that’s ok, ‘cause X and I love it, and it goes well with meatloaf. The cornbread however, was a HUGE hit! One woman even came to me and said “I’m leaving here to go to my brother’s birthday party, and I was wondering if I could take him a couple of pieces of that good cracklin’ bread! We haven’t had it in years and he would love it if I brought him some!” Several people asked to take a piece home, a few others found room for that instead of another dessert, and a couple of folks just stood by the pan and nibbled until it was all gone, save one piece, which I took to Stewart. : ) Yes, I am a proud Southern girl, I could just picture daddy smiling down on me and my DURN good cornbread, if I do say so myself!
I met several nice people, none from Hattiesburg. They must’ve left early. It was a pretty day, and a nice visit. The food wasn’t too bad, either! ;)

Ok, now for my REALLY BIG NEWS:

I GOT TO DRIVE AN EXCAVATOR YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is a picture of the very model I got to drive – WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can you believe it?!?!? It’s a dream come true! I was working on the sink and took a break to go and check the mail and I saw that they had a boom truck across the street, unloading sheetrock for S&A’s renovations. I’d never seen one with a forklift/claw on it before, so of course I was intrigued. I stood and watched for a minute, then went back to my work. When I discovered that my tailpipe needed to be shorter, I went over to ask Michael if I could borrow a saw. He cut it once, it was still too long, so when I went back and asked him to cut it again, I said “I really just came over to get a closer look at the boom truck.” He laughed and said “You really like all this stuff don’t you?” I said yes, and he said “Well, you oughta’ see if John’ll let you drive his machine.” I thought he was joking, but he started walking down where John was digging. The next thing I knew, he’d backed it up to a flat place, and I was climbing into the cab!!!
John was a very nice and patient guy – especially after I told him that the first time I saw his machine parked in Steve and Alli’s lot, I climbed up on the bed of the transport and just LOOKED at it. Maybe that, or maybe he was amused by my SURELY idiot-like, ear-splitting grin!!! John actually owns this machine, and his very neat workman’s chambrays and clean white Santa beard reflected the excellent condition of that nice machine. I knew that it was a big deal for him to trust me up there, and I tried to let him know how grateful I was
He let me work all it’s functions, and let me dig some dirt and put it back and scrape it flat. I got to spin it around and drive it back and forth. It was Sam-heaven! I was only up there for a few minutes, but those were definitely some of the best, most exciting few minutes of my entire life! YAY, ME!!!!!!! Only thing is, I’m HOOKED now. How will I get my next fix?! Chris pointed out that now that I know how to drive one, it will be MUCH easier to steal one, MOOWAHAHAHAHA! * cough! * Ahem. I mean, ‘Haha! Isn’t that funny? Steal one! Ha! As if!’ :mmmmm… traaaaaaackhoe….
: )

Well, that’s all my basic news, weekend update, etc.
If you have any digging that needs to be done, call me! I’m ready!
Much love, and more road equipment,
-Sam