WhirlyBird

Goodness, has it been almost a week already since I posted??? Good grief!

We had a pretty calm Easter. The highlight was def Brent getting the fun idea to hide the little bowl of plastic Easter eggs I have around our living room and making me hunt for them. I returned the favor and hid them in the kitchen, which is a much tougher place to find eggs!

From there the week has gotten unusual. Someone I work with pretty closely at work got fired bright and early on Monday morning and so the week was a bit strange. Full of drama and craziness, meetings and whispered conversations and just plain exhaustion. Today was her "come back and pack up your office and here's the corp credit card to go out to lunch with everyone one last time" day, so out to lunch we went and the whole day was just beyond draining. We went to Maggiano's, which is just really a bit overboard. Literally the 8 of us prob ate about half of what they brought, which is just crazy. They boxed everything up for her to take home to her family, but it just seemed so wasteful. And since I generally spend my lunch hour working out and then eating a light lunch of leftovers or a sammy, I was toast the rest of the afternoon after all that food. TOAST. But I had a meeting with someone about important stuff that needed to get presented and approved the rest of the afternoon so we muddled through it and "got-r-done". I walked out with my boss (who is great) and he was like HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND RELAX (he knows how much we work on our house) and so that is mostly our plan for this weekend.

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day here in Nashvegas. I had been "mocked" at work earlier in the week for the long sleeves and dark colors I was wearing, so I slowly introduced spring into my wardrobe (aka short sleeves) throughout the week and went crazy Thursday when it was in the neighborhood of 75 degrees. Thursday I wore short sleeves and skirt without tights, therefore officially ushering in spring. I'm pretty sure the city of Nashville got my memo because all the downtown fountains were turned back on for the season Thurs afternoon! And if anything declares the arrival of warmer temps, that's it. I strutted my pale legs around work all day and I even saw a few coworkers sporting sandals. We've been on lots of evening walks with Pippin this week exploring the neighborhood and checking out other people's houses, enjoyed the porch swing a few times and have had the windows and doors open all the time! Today the weather turned back to "chillier than I'd like" though, which pretty much stinks. It's 45 degrees right now at 11 pm, which is TOO COLD.









Our cherry tree in bloom:









We got a lot done this week on the walls - actually we got finished up. We put on the final bits of mud, primer and paint, I washed a ton of floors, did a dusting (but WOW we still need to dust, it just keeps settling back) and got cleaned up. Drywall dust is something that is just so impossible to clean up. We finally got the dining room a little more organized and it's just nice to have the house a bit more relaxing and not such a construction disaster and massive hazard. We still need to build the closet in the new front room and we already have the lumber (which is currently laying in our floor....) but we're going to work on replacing the baseboards in several rooms first, it just interests us more.












I only made it to the gym twice this week (EEK). Tues was a mess of reports needed immediately on basically no notice, so I skipped lunch, I take a class on Thursdays so I don't normally get to go then, and today was the going away lunch. Hopefully some of our evening walks will offset this lack of calorie burnage!!! BLAH! The whole "gym closed for asbestos removal" starts Wednesday, and I am not looking forward to that at all. I guess I'll try the Uptown (which is still downtown) Y. I think it'll be about a mile roundtrip walk for me, which will certainly cut into workout time since right now I literally walk next door to the Downtown Y!

The weekend has gotten off to a great start. Tom & Nicole were here house hunting for their big move so we got meet up tonight to hang out and have some dinner and have Pippin molest them for a while. Of course right now he is completely passed out. I think he has these massive stores of energy that he saves for whenever people come over. He's a total wild man....Anyway, we're looking forward to their impending move and they are going to be very, very nearby!!!!!

Tomorrow we really don't have any plans other than picking up our curtain fabric that's ALREADY come in and working some on our baseboards. Sunday we're going to the afternoon matinée of Rent. I can't wait!! Then we're having dinner later with a couple of friends I used to work with that we haven't seen in ages. She's been wanting to try Indian food and since that's one of our fave foods we're going to take her to our top Indian spot and just have a good time. And after this past crazy week I'm so glad we had a lot of "fun" built into this weekend!

Happy Weekend!!

Happy Easter!

We've had a super productive weekend so far, and we have one more day left tomorrow! WOO HOO!

Even with Thurs night being Lost night, aka the only night we make time to watch a show when it actually comes on, we still managed to get some of the new walls primed and painted which is SO EXCITING! (And BTW, what an odd episode of Lost!! And we have to wait SO LONG for a new one! That wouldn't be a big deal if 24 was on this year, or the Office, but Lost is the only good show on this year!! And poor Russo, after making it through all this!!! Maybe she really will be Ok.)

Friday am we got up bright and early and took Pippin on a long walk around the neighborhood, then we came back and I mowed the yard in a T-shirt and shorts and then got our lawn chairs out so we could stretch out in the warm, 72 degree sun and knock some albino off our skin. We are SO PALE! It felt so great to stretch out in the sun. I brought my little budding seedlings out to soak up the sun and they are all really starting to grow! For the afternoon we swapped and Brent weeded the yard while I did some painting inside and started washing the floors from the absolute mess. We still have several walls not finished yet, but the main visible living areas are done. We had a total of 10 sections of new wall, and we're down to 3 that are not finished, so we're getting very close. And then we had to stretch out in the yard and enjoy the lemonade I made before showering up for some shopping. (My apologies to all you Yanks who have snow this weekend. That must suck. =) ) We also bought tickets to see Rent next weekend (yay!!!) and also to see Jesus Christ Superstar in a few weeks. FUN!

My parents came up today, so we did some fabric shopping last night to narrow down some options for the curtains we want my mom to make for our living room. Our massive windows and high ceilings make buying curtains off the rack impossible (well, more unfeasible). Ones we like are $170 A PANEL for the size we would need. So, yeah, no. We got fabric for the 4 panels we need for less than two off-the-rack panels. It's a gorgeous silk in a beautiful aqua-ish color that matches our new leather furniture perfectly. So with my mom here we did all the measurements and placed the order for the fabric we needed and did some other shopping errands around town. AND, we used their truck to get rid of one more of our couches!!!! Thank goodness! I think Pippin was sad to see one of his couches go, but he'll survive! Once we put one more coat of primer in the dining room we'll be able to put the couch we bought for that room back in JULY in there and our den will be nice and no longer over furnished! We also found a great little pub-style table for our kitchen this weekend, so we've had a great weekend of shopping and getting a lot of little projects done.

We've got a few things on tap tomorrow, a few more little projects to wrap up and it's time to put some weed and feed on the yard with the cute little spreader we bought tonight. We have massive plans for getting our yard in gorgeous shape this summer. Besides last year's kitchen reno, landscaping our back yard is way up there on things that are important to us. We want an outdoor living space with a great outdoor kitchen, so I'm really looking forward to getting some of these indoor things done so we can start working outside and ripping apart the deck. We're also going to this open house tomorrow, how beautiful. It's a few blocks down and the asking price per sq foot is nuts but I hope they get it because that's always great for us!! There's a lot of custom things in it, so hopefully we'll get some great ideas.

Here's a few pics of recent progress:

Here's a door we were making narrower, all mudded up












And here it is now, sanded, primed and painted! We're putting the molding on it tomorrow












Here's the main wall we built, that was a huge opening. In this one it's mudded up










And here it is now, primed and painted and with the molding back up. When he was putting the trim back on a piece slid and knocked a scratch in the while so that's what the white spot is now. Figures! Brent's already fixed it now. It's come a long way from where it was a few weeks ago when it was a large opening!













Yeah, our whole house is covered in dust from the sanding. It's a mess!!!












Happy Easter everyone!!! I think this was random and rambly, so sorry! I am SO sleepy!!!

Shortie loves a Short Week!!!!

It's the weekend!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! Thankfully I work somewhere where we get Good Friday off, so tomorrow is our first official holiday of the year. YEAH! And, it's supposed to be 70-something and gorgeous so that rocks! Brent doesn't get the holiday, but he has loads of vacation so he's taking it off. We've got to mow tomorrow, our yard is CRAZY! We have tons of flower-weeds blooming and our grass is SO TALL!

This afternoon I ran out of work a few minutes early to get my car renewal tags. Literally that is one of my least favorite things to do each year. It's such a pain to get through emissions, go get your tags, etc etc because naturally they have regular office hours, when are all of us regular office people supposed to make it there??? On Monday I went through emissions, my goal this year was to not wait until the last week of the month like EVERYONE and hopefully avoid the lines. I noticed they're open until 6 on Monday, so I left work around 4 and was only the 3rd car deep in my line, so that went heavenly!!! Actually getting the tags is where I usually go astray. The normal office is on 2nd, which is literally less than a mile from where I work. BUT, it's going through some big renovations and the temp office is on the North side. Still only a few miles from work for me - but miles absolutely CLOGGED with traffic. And when I went last year (yeah, it's a LONG renovation) I got lost, didn't make the right "curve", ended up across the river back in my OWN NEIGHBORHOOD before I realized how lost I was, called Brent while further lost in the projects, and then arrived at 4:35 while my car was overheating. And they close at 4:30. Seriously, I begged the guy to let me in and he wouldn't. Today I ran out of work at 3:45, threw my due library books in the bin while trying not to be crushed by the bus, and made it through GOBS of traffic and got there at 4:15! No getting lost, no overheating car, no tour of the projects and no drama!!! AND I was so glad I went to day because they had a big sign on the door about being closed tomorrow. Score ME for getting it done more than a week early!!!!

It took me forever to get back home though. Some sort of Olympic Soccer Qualifying is going on at the Stadium, and Brent is now also stuck in the traffic. BOO TO TRAFFIC ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

My parents are coming up Saturday. It's time to get some fabric for curtains for our living room, and we need the expert sewing skills of my mom. Having an usual house means all our curtains have to be custom. Most stores don't carry the length we need, and the ones that do are wicked expensive. At Expo curtains our length are $150 - a PANEL. We need 6. You do the math..... So yeah, we save a bundle thanks to mom and her craftiness!

And of course we're still drywalling. We're getting close, and are now in the sand, prime, touchup, mud, sand, prime repeat phase right now. EVERYTHING in our house is covered in dust. It's so gross and just not "comfy" feeling, but hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have the majority of it done. I've got a camera full of pics to upload, so I'll try to get to that this weekend.

And everyone at work is talking about the gym being closed for 11 days! Some of our are going to exercise together during that time, so some "plans" are being made to check out the Uptown Y and maybe exercise at Centennial Park, so we'll all get it done. It's crazy the level of panic that's erupted at work about the Y being closed! I had 3 meetings the morning after the announcement, and in all 3 of them that was the first thing being talked about, BEFORE work stuff! It's great to work somewhere where so many people work out and look at it as a very serious part of their day. I figured a few people would be as upset as me, but I figured a lot would be like "well, I'll just eat out or surf the net during that time", but I haven't heard one person say that, which is great!!! I need to get a 6-miler in myself this weekend for the upcoming half I'm thinking about this spring. I had two great 4 milers already this week, plus one other workout, so this week is going smashing!

Happy Thursday everyone!!!!! It's LOST night, who in the world is going to die???? I hope it's Juliette!!!

Rae

Going Green

Happy St Patty's Day!!! I hope you've had a good and safe one! We've been celebrating since last Sat, when we went to a St Patty's party at a friend's house. Her invite said there would be green food and beverages, so in the spirit of the party I dyed my choc chip cookie green. And then our waffles Sunday morning. And then I made shamrock cookies last night....that I also died green. And to top them all, the mashed potatoes on top of our shepherd's pie tonight....green. And now I am officially out of green food coloring! I think at some point Brent was worried I'd be dying my hair green, but I think I'll stick with my Irish themed red. BUT, we do have yellow and blue food coloring, so if worse comes to worse, we can make some green. It's been a great St Patty's 08 and it was much fun giving out shamrock cookies to my fellow green clad coworkers today.

In NOT FUN AT ALL news, we got an email that the Downtown Y THAT I GO TO EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK DURING LUNCH (except Thurs) is going to be CLOSED from April 2 through the 13th!!! WHHHHHAAAAAT???? They're in the middle of massive remodeling and expansion (it'll be double the size when they're done next year) and it's a disaster every day. It looks much like our house - wiring hanging, new walls gone every day, dust everywhere, but who cares???!!! They had said during the remodel that there would be no closed days......but this is super early on and is ELEVEN closed days!!! This really stinks, with everything going on here if I don't get my workout in at lunch, it usually doesn't happen. I think I may just change in the office bathroom and do some working out on the streets of the 'Ville.

We got a lot of good drywalling done this weekend, and a few of the new walls have primer on them now. Yeah!!! We also checked out the new restaurant on our street (MadDonna's) which was totally average, went back to our new Calypso Cafe (which is always awesome), and got a few other things done around the house. I got my seedlings started (indoor) tonight, so hopefully I'll have tons of fresh herbs before you know it!

Ok, that's all! Have a great week everyone!

CSI: Nashville

You know that old saying about "if you don't like the weather wait 15 minutes and it'll change"? Yeah, that totally applies to Nashville. Fri-Sat snow, warm and melty by Sat afternoon, Sun it was perfectly spring and Brent was already back in shorts and the last two days have been so pleasant that I've had the kitchen screen door open while I cook dinner in the afternoons. And I am LOVING the new Daylight Savings time!! It really gives me more time after dinner to get Pippin out for a walk, which he and I both need. Brent had a 7 pm photography club meeting tonight, so I made a quick London Broil and roasted green beans and we were finished with supper by 6:30 so once he left Pippin and I went for a mile walk - and it wasn't even dark yet!!! Love it!

Flowers are still in bloom, the quickie snow doesn't seem to have hurt them too badly, oddly enough. We have a tiny little remnant of our snowman left, but it's more of an ice blob, although with our great 50-60 degree temps it's really crazy that any of him is left.

Speaking of......imagine our surprise when I opened the blinds bright and early at 7 am Sunday....only to see our snowman's head no longer on his body - but moved across the lawn, with is hat removed!! Someone had beheaded our snowman!!!!! The horror!!! Personally, I think it's someone we know - a lot of people have trouble figuring out how to get in our front gate, so if you're an a)idiot and b)not that into hurting an innocent snowman you would be easily deterred from this quest. AND, we may (or may not) have rolled some people a few months ago who live a few blocks away and have yet to retaliate..... Hmmmmmm......

Anyway, it was fun watching all the walkers and runners enjoy our snowman over the weekend, and as I was putting the snowman's head back on I had two cars pull over and tell us how great it was, so it was worth it for sure!

No exciting workout news. I did 4 miles today at lunch which went really well, and yesterday I did 15 mins on the elliptical and 20 mins on the machine created by Satan - the stairmill. That thing makes we sweat more than any run ever has, it is purely from the Devil.

Ok, clearly I have nothing interesting to say! Take care!!!!

Final Snow Pics

Now that Blogger is working again, here are the rest of our snow pics from "Winter Storm 08".








After lunch we quickly made our snowman. The sun was out, the sky totally clear and the snow was melting FAST. In the time it took us to eat some soup our grass was really starting to show through. And our 4 layers from the morning weren't necessary, neither was a jacket. So, in order to build a snowman the caliber we wanted we had to "borrow" some extra snow from the elementary school across the street. Our wheelbarrow was very handy, but the bottom ball needed to rolled across the street. Unfortunately, it didn't all make it across the road and traffic ran over what we couldn't get!












Regardless, he turned out AWESOME! Taller than me (although that isn't saying much) and the accessories totally made it. The daffodils in my yard were already blooming, so we have him a bouquet and a neighbor brought by some little flowers off a tree blooming for his "lapel". Our snowman was the talk of the corner for the afternoon, we had all sorts of people pull over to look at it and talk to us! Too fun. Everyone around here loves a little snow. One neighbor pulled over and asked me if we had even gone inside yet because he had seen us outside at midnight the night before. =)
































And Pippin - well, he's been the "fashion" dog of the East-side all day. This morning he was layered in a sweater, coat, and scarf. He hates his boots so I didn't make him wear those. But everyone loved his scarf.....I just took one our extra ones and wrapped it a few times and tied it LOOSELY around his neck.
















We only made him wear his "Frosty the snowman" hat for a couple of pictures, and then our snowman got to wear it, which Pippin didn't mind AT ALL.








And here he is looking fashionable for the neighborhood this afternoon. While we built our mega-snowman he stretched out on the porch and enjoyed the warm afternoon and sunshine.












And now the snow is all gone. Crazy, the whole thing lasted less than 24 hours and I think we managed to get enjoyment out of every quick minute of it!!! Our snowman is still there and tall, but his eyes and buttons won't stay, and the only snow we have left in the yard is in the shady bits.

At least we got one snow this year!!!! And thank goodness it was a Saturday so we could enjoy it!!!

3 inches of JOY!

It didn't stop snowing until around 8 or 9 this morning, giving us our biggest snow since 2003 and around 3 or so inches in our yard, maybe more. We haven't done the measuring tape thing yet, but the news reports between 2-4 in our area so I'm sticking with a 3 average.

And it's been FUN! We played for a while at 9 last night, when it first starting accumulating. Later we had all our windows up while we were watching TV so we could enjoy the beauty when a couple of our friends went walking by a little after 11 to see if we were still up. They were so bundled up we thought they were kids from the next block until we figured out who they were! And thank goodness we weren't "nekked"!!! So, we had a snowball fight in our front yard until around midnight, much to the entertainment of passing cars. And considering in the past year we've had late parties, laid hardwood floors until 4 am, built fences until past midnight and are constantly hammering SOMETHING into the wee hours, I doubt any of our neighbors thought anything out of the norm was going on at OUR place.

The yard after the snowball fight last night & snowballs stuck to the house:








The yard this morning, pretty well filled back in: !









And then when the Pippers got me up for his ritualistic 7 am poop (#$#$@$#@!!!), even though it was well after 1 when we went to bed it was time to play in all the snow!!! All our tracks from the night before had mostly been recovered and it was time for new ones. So we all bundled up and I swear Brent wore so many layers that he probably was sweating. I had two layers on Pippin plus his scarf, making for one cute picture and a lot of cute looks. He hates the snow but loves to walk, so he put up with it. We walked to the bakery to get some fresh Drew's Brews beans (SO GOOD!!!) where Pippin provided much amusement to everyone inside, because THAT was where he wanted to be!!!! So much so, that one of the customers inside happened to be a photographer for the Tennessean, out taking pics for the paper, and he came out to snap his pic. (Have I mentioned how uber cool our neighborhood is??? This never happened in the 'burbs.) By this time Pippin was a little past pissy, so he didn't cooperate much and I have no hope that he'll be on the cover of tomorrow's paper, but you never know. I sent a few pics to the newschannels because down here they LOVE to show the locals pics on all the channels.

Since then, we've been napping, watching TV and drinking coffee. This afternoon we need to build a snowman QUICK, because the sun is way out and this won't last long. And we need to get our obligatory snow shoveling pic for Shore Turtle. 'Cuz I know it will make him smile/laugh. And prob all these pics will make you Yankees laugh because you guys NEVER post snow pics, but then again I won't be posting any 110 degree temp pics this summer, so it's all fair in the weather world.

Have fun!!! I have more pics but Blogger is being a pain in the you know what, so they'll have to appear later!!!

SNOW!

It's really, really coming down here in Nashvegas! We already have more snow than we've had in several years (right now we have about an inch) and it's not supposed to stop for HOURS!

We've been out to play once, and here's a video of Brent taking video of a car driving by when I surprise him with a snowball. Surrrrprise!

And here are Pippin and I heading out to play in it. The ski goggles that have previously only been used in photography sessions came in super handy. Apparently I am quite intimidating in them as the pizza delivery guy said "Please don't get me, I'm just carrying pizzas" as he walked by when I was making snowballs.









Although the weekend was a vacation bust, we are going to have one massive fun time playing in the snow tomorrow.

Vacation - Canceled

Yup, no vacation this weekend. BLAH. All night last night they were flashing winter weather advisories here, and talking about that we will actually, really get snow today (4 inches!!!) The snow isn't expected until late afternoon, but that would affect the later flights out today. And when I got up at 4:05am the 6:00am flight had already been canceled. Not good.

I took my shower anyway, and when Brent got out of the shower at 5:00 am he checked our 8:00 am flight status. Canceled. Sigh.

And knowing about 4-6 flights after us to DFW got canned yesterday, I knew chances of us landing a spot on the 10, 12, or 2 flights would be slim to none. And once this arrives this afternoon, nothing will be leaving out of Nashville to ANYWHERE. So, I did what I figured was best and called Travelocity to see if we could just cancel the whole thing.

As part of a last minute package you're warned 500 times that nothing is refundable, transferable, or open to changes. Period. They even tell you that when you call the 1-800 number before you ever get a human. In India. But in the world of business you're taught that EVERYTHING is worth a try, and that was my goal. At least get some $$ back.

After 25 minutes on the phone with a girl in India, at 5 am this morning, we were able to get a full refund!!! At one point she told me our flight left on time yesterday (!!!!!) at which point I went nuts and told her I had pictures of our flight being canceled, and the mile long line of fellow stranded travelers ('cuz you KNOW we have pics!!) and that everything to DFW was canceled yesterday, and then she realized she had typed in the wrong date. But, she was a sweet girl and when I asked her what the weather was where she was at she warmed up and left the script for a minute. And she REALLY started to like me when I told her how much we loved Indian food and maybe we could come visit her instead. Southern charm people, southern charm. So, in the end we lost $10 on our rental car and $3 in parking, plus a day and a half of vacay because there's no way we're going to work today.

And we're thinking that when we DO get to visit Texas, we may pick some other city because this just didn't go well. For now it's back to sleep, pick Pippers up when the vet opens at 8 and enjoy the snow here, in Nashvegas. And next time maybe we'll go to Milwaukee.

Vacations are Overrated

Snow and Ice in Dallas = all flights out of Nashville to Dallas, canceled. And of course we didn't realize that until we went to check in. 1hr 20 mins later, $3 of pointless parking, 2 crowded economy bus rides from hell later, and we're re-booked to tomorrow morning at butt crack early 8:05 am. And do you know when the same front coming through Dallas is coming through here? Yup, you guessed it. It will be a Christmas miracle if we EVER make it to Dallas. All flights that connect to Dallas were also full, so we were pretty much out of options. (Although we did look into the flight that connected through Chicago, because being stranded there would've been RBF fun.)

So, we we went out for TexMex here and came home and passed out in a lonely, Pippin-free, packed and cleaned house. In sunny, warm, 50-something degree Nashville. And tomorrow morning at 0:30 butt crack we'll try again. And in a little while I'll try calling the rental car company again because in the midst of crisis I REALLY could not deal with them and their complete inability to speak audible English.

T-48 hours

until we leave for Dallas!!! YAY!!! After my one hour of mandated drywall mudding tonight, I've been printing out all our confirmations and a bunch of maps to the sights we want to visit (Fort Worth Stockyards, FW Museum of Modern Art, FW Zoo, Dallas Aquarium, Dallas Botanical Gardens, GALLERIA, where JFK was shot, SOUTHFORK, and a ton of other places.) Who knows if we'll fit them all in, but as long as we eat some awesome Texas food nothing else really matters! And, we may even have a fun blogger meetup with some great Texas bloggers.

I just finished reading the book about CC Pyle and the Bunion Derby Foot Race. I spotted it on the "New Arrivals" section at the library, and snapped it up. I'd say it was pretty good, it's crazy to imagine people setting off for a cross country run back in 1928. Living in an old house (late 1880's-early 1890's, we're actually not sure when our house was built) has given us massive appreciation for older things, so I can't imagine attempting something like that back in the days of cotton running gear and generic shoes. It was pretty tough for me to keep up with all the names in the beginning of the books, and some sort of Jane Austin-esque cheat sheet in the back would've been helpful, but the overall story was enjoyable and pretty entertaining. These guys really endured a lot over the course of the race, and for really not much prize money. So, I'd definitely recommend this as a good read for your running book collection.

That's all! I had a terrible 4 mile run yesterday, and a great 4 mile run today. Go figure, you just never know!! And now our 70's are gone and we will have some snow flurries tonight. BLAH March!! And our daffodils are blooming, poor flowers! Gotta run, Pippin has some serious gas so it's time for me to move away from the puppy!

Reason #547 to ALWAYS look your best

Hey everyone!! Just a super quick post to tell you about the MASSIVE excitement we had today, all the rest of the weekend update (and fun pics we've taken this past weekend) will just have to wait. But I just had to share our BIG excitement from today.

SO, this weekend has been GORGEOUS here in Nashvegas. Yesterday was 60-something and awesome, and today was 74 and DELICIOUS outside. We grilled out some turkey burgers and ate on the deck to enjoy the day, but since our major project right now involves building walls, the bulk of our afternoon was spent inside mudding drywall and working on that stuff. Around 3 we ran out of mud and made the executive decision to call it a day, and take Pips for the walk he'd been dying to go on down to the ice cream shop in our neighborhood, and just enjoy the rest of the beautiful day. So, I changed out of my grungy, mud covered work clothes and put on an old running TShirt and some pretty frumpy black cotton shorts and a super old pair of sandals. And of course I had my hair up in a ponytail. At least I had makeup on. Naturally, looking so hawt a national TV crew was destined to find me.

Now, we knew Last Comic Standing was in Nashville filming. Our neighborhood's Google board had called everyone to come out at 1:30 to the weenie stand on our street because they were doing neighborhood shots, but we had eaten there yesterday and were working on our house, so we didn't go down. And by this point it was after 3, so they were surely long gone. Um, yeah. Famous last words.

We stopped at the monthly craft fair on our way down, and then Brent stood outside the Ice Cream Shop with Pippin while I went in to get our goodies. The line was RIDICULOUS, as is likely to be expected on such an awesome day. There was an annoying dad and his son who completely held up the process to the point of mass confusion, but finely I got us each a cone and was making my out through the crowd, only to basically kick the SAME annoying kid out of the door to get out of there. And then, Bill Bellamy nearly ran me over. Literally. After a few very loud and pointed "EXCUSE MEs" to the rude kid standing smack dab in the middle of the door, I'm walking down the steps and look up to see a camera crew, and Bill Bellamy running up the stairs to the ice cream shop. I tried to keep my cool because OMG I WANT TO BE ON LAST COMIC STANDING, but as soon as I made it past the camera I looked at Brent to make sure he had seen what just happened!! He told me they had done 3 takes and I was in the 3rd, so I REALLY, REALLY hope my frumpy ass gets on the show!!!! I have a 1 in 3 shot if they take that scene.....He said there were some people sitting in the middle of the first shot, so maybe I am less offensive in my junky clothes.

The filming from Pippin's perspective:








Bill Bellamy is in the green shirt, talking to the camera:








Filming - in the one on the right the cameras are pointed right at me

So then we stood and just watched them for a few minutes. Then we saw this truck of crap go by, and I thought OH NO!, please don't let them get that on tape and document every Southern stereotype imaginable! Luckily they didn't get it on tape, but when Bill saw it go by he yelled out (and I quote) "Hey man, I got some more shit you can put on your truck." It was hilarious. He really is quite attractive in real life. And buff.

So anyway, we've been talking about it ALL DAY!! I mean, we've been on the local news SEVERAL times through running, but this would be NATIONAL. HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE???? Pretty freaking, I'd say. I love not living in the suburbs.
And here's what Pippin thought of the whole experience:

Ok, that's all. Time for bed, real people get up at 5:15am to get ready for work. 'Cuz no one is paying our bills but us!