Spiffy Arrogant Melon Shoes

**Next In Line, Please...
I have been notified that I am now indeed having an affair with yet another of my coworkers (quite possibly even as I write this). For those of you keeping score at home, this would be, by my best estimation and recollection, my 9th 'other woman' in 13 years. I guess that would explain what happened to my back. It's also no wonder I'm so tired all the time....

**I have also been informed (by a completely different source) that since tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, it's time for 'us' (translation: me) to give the dogs a bath. Oh. Freakin. Joy.

**Dawn Of The Dragon
All the rough forms are just about completely blocked in on Jo's Dragon, and once I'm relatively happy with all the proportions and such, I'll be starting the detail carving. I may just be able make my deadline. Whenever that is.

**Men In Black
Friday morning we get to plod over to H+R Block to pay people far smarter than us to do our taxes. I am so not looking forward to this. In essence, we now manage to fill a small suitcase with all sorts of receipts, charts, graphs, and small, cranky Peruvian accountants, in order to basically break even after it's all said and done. And that's if everything goes right. Still, plus or minus a few hundred bucks is a good way to end up for the year. I have only the faintest recollection of what it used to be like to sit down and be able to complete my own taxes on a single sheet of paper with a single W-2. At least Carmie, our tax preparer, is cool. She's been doing our taxes for years now. And she always has things in her office for me to play with. I'm just hoping the slump in the economy will have some type of positive effect on our return this year, as that would be about the only good thing it's done for us.

**The only thing worse than getting a call from a telemarketer is getting a call from a telemarketer in training.

**It Wasn't Me, I Swear!!
A recent gift from Viva promises to keep my dogs happily flatulent for a long, long time to come. At least soon I should be able to open the windows in the house to clear out the low hanging cloud of funk nasty toxic fumes continuously emanating from their asses. Unless I die of asphyxiation first....

**Putting Money In The Ground
Red coneflowers? Hardy bamboo? Ferns? Maybe some black elephant ears? The first plant catalog of the season arrived yesterday. This is something I really should not be looking at when we're trying to keep a handle on the budget. Plus, I have basically been banned from converting any more of the yard into space for plants, which totally screws up my idea for getting rid of all the grass. Now, if I just happened to have a bit more yard with a south facing, I'd be sure to find a way around that ban. I guess this year I should just content myself with redoing the front of the house and seeing how far I can get my banana plants to grow. If they managed to survive the winter, that is. But what fun is that? I recently had the thought of putting an arbor up over the front stoop for the summer, and planting some nice climbing vines over the top of it. That would tend to make that area a bit more habitable when it gets really hot out. Might be a good place to make use of some more morning glories. Not that I wouldn't rather plant my pumpkins there, but there would be some weight issues to deal with. Still...
In the end, I hope I may be able to squeak some money out of the budget to just do my usual and buy seeds.

**I need to run out to Menard's and get a new light fixture for the closet before Sheri has a fit.

**Sniff**Sniff**
For some people, pictures seem to be the best way to retain memories. I've noticed I have a really strong link between scent and memory. I remember how the grade school would smell on the first few days of a new school year. I remember how Aussie hair care products smell because that's what Amy used to use. I remember how English Leather smell because I used to practically bathe in it before going out. I kinda remember how the breathing treatments I used to get when I was in the hospital as a kid smelled/tasted. Vanilla has proven to be a big memory key for me as well. And even though I never knew what it was called, I would remember the smell of Morgan's perfume, should I ever smell it again. Odd things to remember. But there they are.
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