To add to the happy ending of the Sara story, I called today and found out that she tested negative for feline leukemia and AIDS, and the vet will keep her and the kids in foster care until the kittens are ready to be adopted.

How cool is that?! That story just keeps getting better and better.

This morning started off with a scolding by Mr. Clean (a.k.a. the garbage man). He was a very tall, muscular, bald guy with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. I forgot to the drag the can out last night so was doing it this morning when the truck pulled up. I had a couple bags that wouldn’t fit in the can, and this apparently made me “over my limit”. He said he would do it this time, but only this time, and I apologized and told him it would never happen again…

It’s the only thing one can do when being reprimanded by such a person.

On Saturday, we celebrated Earl’s 34th birthday. He was up at 4am to go fishing, and I was out the door by 11:30 to get my hair done. I was delayed because of some sort of festival in town. I believe it was Puerto Rican Day - again. As I got in line to make a left turn through the intersection, three cop cars drove up and blocked the lane I wanted to turn in to.

Here is the chitter-chatter in my brain:

Oh freaking hell. Now I’m going to be late. Okay, so I cant go left... I can just go straight… fine. Let’s go…. We aren’t we moving… Why aren’t we moving? We are just sitting here… in this lane…. the lane we cant turn from… while the lane on my right is moving forward through the light… why aren’t we merging into that lane… Why are just sitting here??? Look at that! The cars behind me are backed all the way up to the Comfort Suits! Okay, the light just turned red… we better start moving when it turns green… Its green, here we go… why aren’t we moving… what is the major malfunction?? Who’s at the front of this line??? Hey you…. hey asshole! Merge your car… WHY wont you MOVE your car?? Red light… okay, green light…. WHY ARE WE STILL SITTING HERE??? I can’t get over… no one will let me over… why wont anyone let me over??? DAMMIT… the light is red again… now it’s green…. WHY ARE WE STILL SITTING HERE???? WHAT THE FUCK???? OH BLOODY HELL!

I finally caught a break in traffic and got in the right lane. Then the light turned red and I stopped right next to the poop head who refuses to merge. He appeared to be a little Paraguayan man, or something. There was a woman in the back seat eating a lollypop with her window down, so I took the opportunity to inform her of the problem her vehicle is causing.

“WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE??? YOU CANT JUST SIT THERE!! YOU HAVE TO MOVE YOUR CAR! YOU ARE BLOCKING EVERYBODY FROM MOVING! YOU CAN NOT JUST SIT THERE!!”

She looked at me and pointed at the cop car blocking the lane.

“IT DOESN’T MATTER - YOU HAVE TO GO STRAIGHT THEN. YOU CAN NOT JUST SIT THERE. YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT MOVING. YOU ARE BLOCKING EVERYBODY BEHIND YOU!!!!! MOVE YOUR CAR!!!!….

GODDDDDDD!!!!!!”

To my surprise, she actually nodded her head in agreement. Wow, I thought. I think I won! The light turned green. After I waited for the two cars running the red to get through, I floored it. In my rear view mirror I could see the Paraguayan car changed its signal from left… to right… and mush itself into moving traffic.

Thank God. Everyone in traffic that day can send me thank-you notes in the mail. And that’s all I have to say about that.

I had an hour to calm down while getting my hair done. The shampoo girl massaged the stress right out of my scalp. Getting your hair done is total therapy.

I left from there and headed to Wal-mart for Earl’s birthday presents. I soon became very frustrated with my shopping experience. I simply couldn’t find anything I was looking for, and it seemed to me that Wal-mart’s selection had diminished. I found him a pair of sandals, but ultimately had to go next door to T.J.Maxx for everything else.

At T.J.’s, I found him a pair of sneakers, a fishing hat with a wide brim, and a snazzy new wallet. Then stopped and picked him up his favorite tequila and some cigars, and headed on home.

Around 7pm, two other couples joined us and we went out to eat at Pickles. The food was way too expensive and not even that great - in fact, the best part of the whole meal were the freaking pickles - but the conversation and the company was priceless. Oh, and I just remembered, I had them wrap up two slices of Snicker Pie for Earl’s birthday cake that we never got a chance to eat… Guess I know what’s for dessert tonight. Going out to eat is so much fun and we will definitely not wait so long to do it again – somewhere else of course, with better, cheaper food… like Taco Bell.

Then we headed out for drinks at the new night-club/sports bar that opened up in the reconstructed part of the old steel mill. It’s the first taste we got of the new “pre-casino, everything has to have a steel mill theme, Bethlehem”. I have to admit, the club was way cool. What’s funny is you’d never know it was there as it just looked like the steel mill factory from the outside. Inside, they kept the industrial steel mill look with steel beams and pipes and stuff everywhere. And this club was HUGE. There were giant TV screens everywhere (two of them as big as my car), a restaurant, and an upstairs bar. And that’s just from what I could see from where we were standing. It was packed full of rich college kids spending mommy and daddy’s money on liquor. I think that besides the owner, we may have been the oldest people there. But it became apparent after our first round that this too, was way too expensive for us to enjoy for too long.

But I have a feeling that the prices were so high for a reason. They want the preppy college scene, not the locals. Except us, we’re good locals. They’ll be more than happy to take our all money.

This was the first night club I had been to in years, and it was exciting to be out. I’m just not used to paying that much for a drink. One of the most refreshing things was that it was a smoke-free club. I could breath, which was really nice. But soon enough, the group headed outside to the smoking patio. It smelled like either like a high school hallway or a dorm room out there - I can’t decide which one.

We moved on from that place to a small private club where the beers were a reasonable buck apiece. Same beer. One third the price.

Eventually we went home and chilled out to some music and more drinks.

It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do something like that. It felt really good to be social, but not so good on the wallet.

Needless to say, we spent Sunday festering. I managed to work out for an hour and 45 minutes, trying to get rid of all those pickles. It really is a shame - Even if the food is less than great, we still get to keep the calories. They should come up with a pill or something to fix that.

So there’s the weekend in a nutshell. Sorry there were no pictures folks. I still need to get a little diggy that'll fit in my purse for occassions like these. Oh man, now I'm pissed I don't have any pictures! I need to get a freaking camera.

Anywhoo, what did everyone else doo?

Incidentally, I was wondering if you guys would be interested in seeing some pictures from my folks farm of one of the calves being born. Some find it icky, others find it beautiful. I, of course, find it beautiful. So I will post them if you would like to see 'em. Heck, I might post them regardless. Its just so amazing to see how fast these babies are up and walking. And Molly the donkey is there the whole time helping. What a good donkey.