Updates

Been busy as heck. No, been busy as hell. Work has kicked my butt all the way to Iraq and back again this week. And then when I thought things were finally settling down... I got kicked to the moon.

So, updates.


The garden:

It's growing and doing it's leafy thing. We pulled off a bunch of yellow beans today, with the help of a bouncing, buoyant Risa Roo, so that the plants would get bigger instead of trying to put off fruit. ...beans... fruit. Whatever. But seriously, it's growing and doing well. Looks like a bumper crop of zucchini is going to come in, which is going to make for some interesting meals around here.


The raccoons:

Last time I wrote, we'd put out a trap for the coons. Baited it with a can of tuna. And promptly caught a cat.

The same night though, Mom heard a ruckus on the porch roof. Or the porch roof rafters. It wasn't my party to hear, since I live on the other side of the house, but I hear tell it was quite the showdown. And the raccoons haven't been heard from since.

So they're either lying really, really low, and running silent like a submarine, or they've moved on to greener pastures. I'm hoping it's the greener pastures thing, because pretty soon someone is going to have to stick their head up into the garage attic and take a look around.


The jeep:

Still has narcolepsy, or some other undiagnosed automotive medical disorder. Seriously, I know a fair amount about cars and the best I can come up with is narcolepsy because the jeep just randomly stalls out with no hint it's coming. I'll be running down the road at 70 miles an hour, full power, full everything, and a tenth of a second later, the jeep has stalled out, no lights, no gauges, no indicators on, so I pop it into neutral and restart it. It always starts. Every time. Of course the same stall can happen at idle at a red light, too, but I really like the challenge of the high speed stall out to keep me guessing.

So here's the skinny:

2000 jeep wrangler, 4.0 liter, sahara edition

111,000 miles on it

I've changed out the crankshaft positioning sensor, the throttle positioning sensor, the fuel pump and the camshaft positioning sensor. I've always had regular maintenance done on it, and aside from a leak at the rear differential, everything is running in top form right now. The check engine light came on last Sunday, and I was thrilled. Turned out to just be a random misfire, which did me no good, because it's not really a spark plug issue. And then the check engine light reset itself and went back off, a day after I had the code read.

So yeah, as I said, it's narcolepsy. She just forgets what she's doing and falls asleep.


Work:

Chaos, mayhem and madness prevail. I'm working Iraq hours right now, for Victory Junction pay. I could work 100 hours a week for the next month and still be 3 months behind. Spring is so much fun. So if you feel like planning swim lessons for about a hundred communities across Houston, or typing up some more in-service training, let me know. You can also plan additional lifeguard classes, if you're feeling really froggy.

Right now I'm just holding steady over at the office. I think I'm getting close to even, and then I have a weekend like this one, with green pools, fighting instructors and sexual harassment. So tomorrow I'll fire someone, because gay or straight, you do NOT get flirty with your students. EVER. And seriously, if you're a big, fat, hyperactive chipmunk, don't think it's cool either, to email a picture of yourself without a shirt on to another instructor. That's just disgusting on about a thousand different levels. I hear I have the picture in my email at the office, too, and I refuse to check it because I don't want to have to bleach my retinas.


Relaxation:

Uhm, I made cake balls.

Cake.

Icing.

Mixed together and shaped into little balls.

Covered in melted chocolate.

Damn, they're good.


And apparently if you're in Dallas, you can charge the moon for them. http://cakeballs.com/

I always thought they were rather pretentious in Dallas. This just confirms it....


And now I really want some super duper thin onion rings. Is 9:30 too late to make them? Really? You sure?