Our weekend began on Friday morning. I was allowed the luxury of sleeping until 10am. Apparently, I needed it. We ran a bunch of errands and bought iphones. They are awesome. I'm really enjoying playing around with mine so far. There are wi-fi networks everywhere. It's set with Cupertino CA defaults for the time and the weather and I just deleted those. I live in Alaska, and don't need to know that there are places where the temperature is in the 70s while I shiver as I experience 25 degree weather and wind.

Saturday night we went to go see "Mamma Mia!" at a local theatre that has a full restaurant and serves beer and wine with the show. I reserved a cozy little two person booth for us the day before. It only cost $5 each. The only snafu was that the theatre had sold our booth twice. I think management got it sorted out for the other couple who had purchased the same booth as us. We went to go see the show in Vegas last year and had a good time. The movie was good, but it doesn't compare to the live show in Vegas. The cheesiest parts were when Pierce Brosnan was singing! There was a lot of laughter in the theatre during his serious songs! He's too much James Bond for that to be taken seriously.

Today, I went to play tennis with a friend of mine. We plan to play every Sunday. We first met in high school and re-connected at a group tennis lesson this summer. Afterwards I got a massage that was a birthday present from akdidge. There was some noise in the hallway during the massage that sounded like furniture was being moved. It turns out, there was a problem with a door hinge, so that everytime some one walked through the door, the door slammed. This got me a discount, which I didn't ask for, but I do appreciate. I'm now sitting at home doing laundry, wondering where the time has gone.

Only two more weeks and I'll be in California! It's not 25 degrees there! Yay!

Akdidge and I were getting ready to go out on the town for some boring errands. I was standing in the kitchen and heard a funny noise. I looked and there was water coming out of the cabinet underneath the sink. I opened the cabinet and there was standing water in there. Everything under the sink was drenched. Now, we had just replaced the faucet last weekend due to a slow leak. This was no leak. This was a waterfall. We had to pull everything out and got bath towels to clean up the water. After determining that the leak was coming from the base of the faucet, Akdidge called his buddy who installed the new faucet for us. He came over and it turns out there is one little piece of plastic that keeps the water from spraying all over the inside of the cabinet. This had come off. He put it back on, but there's always the chance it will come off again. At least now we'll know to watch for it and how to fix it if/when it happens again. At least it was a slow Saturday morning when this happened. These types of things always seem to have really good timing when they happen in my life. Guess I'm just lucky like that.

I woke up around 2am or so because: #1 the wind was blowing really hard and #2 the dog was in the bedroom giving himself a bath. His licking is really loud. I can tell the dog to be quiet, but I can't do much about the wind. All I had to do was whisper the dog's name twice and he stopped his bath. On the news they said winds gusted up to over 100mph. Given all the shingles in our yard and the fact the super heavy grill had moved about 10 feet and was upside down, I can definitely believe it. Trees broke off and landed on vehicles and houses. There is a shingle stuck in the side of our house up on the second storey. The dog wanted to be around me in the middle of the night. This is unusual. When my husband got up to go work some OT, he placed the dog-sheet on top of the bed and invited the dog to join me. He quickly did and pressed into me. We stayed that way for a few hours. The wind was blowing so hard the bed was shaking. It can get windy at our house, but I've never experienced it this strong before. I got up when my alarm went off to take the dog to the day spa. His shedding was getting to be too much for my man, so the dog was getting a low shed bath. The dog stuck very close to me. Very big change in personality for him. The dog likes me, but he's pretty independent. When it came to leave, he wouldn't come down the stairs! Not even for a biscuit. This has never happened before. I had to put the leash on him and drag him (gently of course) down the stairs! After bringing him home, once he came upstairs, he wouldn't go back down. Not even to go for a walk! That's his absolutely favorite thing to do. Akdidge got the dog to the landing and he only had a few steps left. He was fighting like crazy, so Akdidge started petting him and said he was shaking. I opened the front door and the dog quickly exited and then seemed just fine. I figure this fear will take care of itself because the dog door to the back yard is downstairs. Unfortunately, I think we're going to see some anxiety from him for at least a little while. This may be a long weekend.

This last month has been really busy, which I'm really happy about. Lots of good things happened. This past week, my brother's kids came to visit for a week. He's supposed to have them for the whole summer, so I don't really know why they only came for a week, but I try to stay out of that stuff. They definitely do grow up fast, so everytime I see them, the first 15 seconds or so I'm shocked by how they're the same, but at the same time, not really. We went to the state fair with the three of them, my brother, his wife, and their baby. That made 8 people in our group. It was really busy, so we did get separated a few times, but I think in the end it was fun for everyone.

The next day was Monday August 25 which was my 30th birthday. Yeehaw. I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese and then after dropping them off at my parent's house, I sped home to get ready for my husband. He arrived about 90 seconds after I did, so I didn't have time to do anything. He brought me a dozen red roses, several movies, and then took me out to dinner at a fancy place where we lived it up a little. Unfortunately, we both had to work the next day, so we couldn't stay out too late. We discovered that one of the kids had left their sweater at the house, and my dad drove over to pick it up. I figured that I should take a look around to see if they forgot anything else. That's when I discovered that someone had closed off the dog door, leaving the dog trapped inside all day. That certainly explained the dog's anxious behavior. I figured he felt left out of the fun. Turns out, he just had to pee.

Tuesday was really busy because we had to drive in rush hour traffic to pay my husband's cell phone bill and then go vote. From now on, we're paying all of our bills electronically. Wednesday was awesome. We went to go see Terry Fator at the state fair. He won America's Got Talent last year. I enjoyed every minute of the show. What made it even better is that I got to experience it with the man I love. I've spent a lot of years alone and doing things by myself, so I'm very happy to have someone to share my life with.

Friday was amazing. We were both off from work, so I was reading the newspaper and akdidge was on the computer. I glanced up, saw a picture of our governor, and the headline that she is McCain's VP pick. I couldn't believe it. How incredible! On all of these national news programs they're talking about HER and they're talking about US. I never expected this in a million years. Completely surreal.

I wanted to be home in time to listen to a particular talk radio guy when his show came on in the afternoon, so I decided to go work out around noon time. When I started driving my car, something didn't feel right. I wasn't sure what. When I was at a red light, a lady jumped out of her vehicle, ran over to me and said, "you have a flat tire." Fortunately, I was right next to a gas station. After running over a beer bottle and maneuvering around a group of large people with large vehicles who apparently had a fender bender and decided the proper response is to block the free air, I finally was able to fill the flat tire. I could clearly see the problem. There was a screw in my tire. Coincidentally, there is a tire place in the same parking lot as the gym I was going to. All I had to do was stop at the tire place, go work out as planned, and then pick up the car after paying a measly $20 for a tire patch. When my husband got home, I told him what happened. He was mighty impressed. Not only did I not call him to come and rescue me, I didn't have to call a tow truck. I would avoid that even if a gas station hadn't been nearby. I have a spare tire and necessary tools in the trunk. Chances are, I wouldn't have to change it myself anyways. All I'd have to do is get the stuff out and look perplexed. Men tend to line up to help me, which I do appreciate, but it is kind of funny.

 I'd make a reality show about seniors. They can be really funny and often have lots of stories to tell. Many of them are on fixed incomes, so if they can make a little extra money by sharing their lives, I think it would be a great thing. I think it'd be perfect. I'd watch.

Monday night. Perfect time for a nap. There's just something about staying awake all day that makes me so tired. I got to nap while laying on my husband. He says that I was twitching and that I pretty much always do when I'm sleeping. I wonder if it's like when the dog dreams. He was kind enough to stick around until I woke up, even though he had to go to the bathroom. Now that's LOVE. 

I'm skipping my aerobics class again and not planning to go for a few weeks. We actually got some sun yesterday. Of course, it was 9pm on a Sunday, but that's usually when the sun comes out where I live. My man is playing our Wii. I admire his dedication. He plays way more than I do. He gets his Wii fitness age everyday. I do mine about once a month. He's at the pro level for Wii tennis now and much better than me. We're going to be doing tennis lessons for real here next week at a fitness club. I'm looking forward to it, but I also know I like to be lazy and spend my evenings dozing. My husband and I work in the same building with slightly different schedules. The two weeks we have the lessons we're going to be commuting together. I like it when we do that and I think we should do it everyday. Maybe this will be the start of a brand new habit. When I drive to work by myself, I feel like work starts when I back out of the driveway. When we ride together, work doesn't start until we get to the building. 

Okay, kids. That's enough for now. Nighty night.

 Been kinda busy lately. I guess that's good since it's summer. My husband and I went to visit his parents over 4th of July weekend. He's an only child. My parents have four children to divide their attention, but they just have him. We went fishing a couple of times and I caught my first halibut. That felt awesome. We were on a rocky boat in the ocean, and I was definitely feeling sick, so after I caught my fish, I was ready to go. I also caught a cod and two of the people on the boat each caught a shark with green eyes. We boarded the dog for the time we were gone. He hasn't had a kennel cough vaccine in a few years, but the people at the kennel said they would give him the shot. Turns out, they need it about a week before they board otherwise it doesn't do any good. My dog is coughing and it sounds really weird. The vet prescribed some antibiotics so he doesn't get an infection. I'm very glad that I'm at a time in my life where I can spend $104 for medicine for the dog without putting it on a credit card. 

Another weekend is coming to an end. My husband and I got to spend quite a bit of time together. I absolutely love spending time with this man. I know I won the lottery when it comes to husbands. It's such an awesome relationship and unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  

 I'm working just two days this week. This is because I worked on Saturday and I work a schedule where I get every other Friday off, and since the 4th of July is that Friday, we get the Thursday before off. After work tomorrow, I don't have to go back until July 8. Yay! We're going fishing for halibut. I've never caught a halibut before, so I'm hoping to catch something large. 

That's what she said.  

It's summertime in Alaska. Our great reward for sticking it out during the winter. Endless evenings, and temps in the high 60s to low 70s. Well, not this summer so far. We've definitely got the daylight, but not the warmer weather. We've had a couple of great days, but if memory serves, those were work days and by the time I got home, it was cloudy and windy. I sure hope we get some nice days soon. We haven't even been able to play golf yet. If we didn't mind going in the rain or even when it was windy and cold we could have gone, but somehow that doesn't sound like much fun. 

On the upside, we might be taking a vacation in November to someplace warm and sunny. If I get my way (and I often do) we'll go to California for a week. What are we going to do there? Definitely some DISNEYLAND!