Another Post Full of Miscellaneous Unrelated Information

I have driven in most of the largest cities of this continent and am still amazed at the stupidity/audacity of drivers in Memphis. People never use a turn signal, speed limits aren't even "guidelines", yellow lights are the signal to speed up, no one checks their blind spot, and having someone cut you off from the right while they themselves are cut off from the left while someone from behind you decides to zoom across 6 lanes of traffic and over a bit of grass to get an exit is perfectly normal. Last night, however, we were so shocked by a driving incident that we laughed all the way to our destination. In fact, Hubband, who reads the blog about once a year, turned to me after the incident and through gulps of laughter said "You HAVE to blog THAT".

We were driving to Sears last night to ogle dishwashers and refrigerators. Sitting at the corner of Dunn and Getwell, waiting for the truck in front of us to turn left so we could turn right, we were honked at by the car behind us who apparently didn't see the HORDES of traffic (full on rush hour folks...) rushing by. There were about 3 cars on Getwell in the center lane trying to turn left onto Dunn, so the car in front of us couldn't even turn into the turning lane if the near lanes were clear (which they werent), let alone get all the way across 5 lanes of traffic to go left. The car behind us kept intermittently honking until finally the truck ahead turned left INTO oncoming traffic, zoomed the wrong way for about 100 feet swerving to miss oncoming cars and then jumped into the center turning lane before cutting off a mercedes in the right hand lanes. Now, why was this somewhat frightening occurence funny? Because she did the whole maneuver IN FRONT OF A COP who literally glanced over at her as he continued on his merry way, HE EVEN SHRUGGED AS HE PASSED OUR CAR!

I never want to hear someone complaining about driving in some sort of traffic again. I would choose LA or Manhattan over Memphis anytime.

Since the weather has gotten cooler, Ive been turning the air off and opening our brand new beautiful windows. Not only does this air out the house and save us electricity, the cats ADORE it. The window to the left of my desk looks out at the fence and the trunk of what is arguably one of the biggest trees Ive ever seen barring a redwood. Its limbs cover all of our house and about half of our neighbor's house (and yes, we know that's unsafe... trying to figure out how to get rid of it!). Squirrels LOVE this tree, and the kits will sit on the edge of the desk frozen into strange and wonderful poses while quacking nearly uncontrollably at the furry varmints who sit on the fence and quack back. When both sides tire of that game, the cat in question invariably wanders to the window on the right side of my desk, which faces our front yard and provides a suitably all-inclusive view of the neighborhood. As of right now, Obie has the place of honor and is presiding over it with equanimity if not grace.

My father in law was here this weekend and we had tons of fun. He'll be coming back through briefly tonight, and will share dinner with us, my high school friend Krissa, and our new friend from church, Rachel. Everyone but Hubband and I are pretty much full on vegetarian (no flesh, but cheese and milk ok), so I decided I would do one of our favorite "mexican" meals which include enchiladas with lashings of cheese, onions, sauce, and other goodies, and my mom's green chile rice. I very carefully planned out how many servings I would need, bought ingredients, and brought them home to realize that Im going to have to paw through all my kitchen boxes to find dishes big enough to use to cook them in! I am so used to having all my casserole dishes, mixing bowls, etc. that I didn't even realize that they aren't yet unpacked.

We applied for a home renovation loan yesterday... have heard nothing yet which I hope is good news. I figure no news is better than "no" news. :-)

I tried a new type of coffee yesterday and it made me miss my pumpkin spice from Fox Pointe. And APricot Creme... sigh. I think I'll have to order some for my bday. :-) OH! Speaking of that auspicious entering the next decade kicking and screaming day... it appears that my "twin" sister will PROBABLY be able to spend our bday here! WITH US! TOGETHER! WHEEEEEEEEEE. Im trying not to get my hopes up because I, of all people, know how plans can be thwarted. But I am going to go research all the fun things we can do here in town... and look up spas.... and maybe even take a little foray into the world of tatoo parlors because we think that this may just be the right time to get our first tattoos....maybe.