We still miss her dearly.

I’ve got a million little things to share, including new pictures of Maui and some funny video from Wes’ birthday party a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this picture taken outside of our townhome. Little dude was hanging out in my window box of lettuce. I saw online that they eat bugs and lizards. Now I know why I hadn’t seen to many lizards around our door lately. Haven’t been too many bugs out their either. Too bad he doesn’t eat the squirrels who have been munching all the leaves off my Rose of Sharon! heh :P

Our power went out last night early this morning around 2:00 ante meridiem. I heard a loud “pop” before everything that was running in the house powered down, including the HEPA filter in the room adjacent to our bedroom and T’s c-pap machine. It was SO quiet and REALLY dark. You don’t realize just how much light the power strips and alarm clock give off until they go out.

Worried that the new 9v battery backup I put in the alarm clock wouldn’t work and wake us up in time for work, I made Tim get up and stumble downstairs in the dark to get his cell phone so we could set its alarm as a backup.

I woke up again around 4:30 ante meridiem when the power returned. Kitten was so confused both times… “sweet! is it time to get up and play now? oh, no?? really?? you’re sure? well, okay… sigh”

Probably the most difficult thing of 2008, despite all the job stress for both of us, was the loss of so many friends. There was a point where we were going to scream if we had to go to another funeral. Losing our two cats not even four months apart was probably the most difficult though. People say, “they’re just cats,” but honestly these two kitties were a huge part of our family. It was really tough.

Upsides of 2008, and there were quite a few: the chance to see family and friends throughout the year, Tim hiking a nice chunk of the Appalachian Trail, Aaron’s doctoral graduation (prolly the highlight of 2008), Court’s Mom’s cancer remission, Rachel’s pregnancy, and other cool things that aren’t at the top of my tired brain right now.

2008 = done. 2009 = hope.

mort, mortimer, mortis, morty, morty-mort, buddy, dude, The Dude, dudey, buddha, boodie, buddha-boy, boodie-doodie, lunch box, bud, bub, fat-boy (by aaron), boy, tha’boy, mr. man, son.

We’d anticipated heavy traffic on the interstate but certainly didn’t plan on the ’stop-go-stop-go-stop-go-stop-friggin-go’ traffic that turned 40 miles into nearly two hours. *well, suuurprise!* There were more than a few moments when flipping a u-turn across the “grassy knoll” and heading home almost became a reality, but we soldiered on and eventually traffic eased up a little bit once we passed Zephyrhills.

We stopped in a nameless armpit of a town south of Z-hillz for gas and ::shudder:: fast food (since we’d skipped dinner to get on the road as soon as possible). We were in and out of there as fast as we could possibly could, since the “local color” was out en force, whoopin’ it up for the holiday- doing donuts in the McD parking lot with giaganticon 4-wheeled trucks emblazoned with stars-n-bars (niiiice).

We’d planned on arriving there by 10ish but the way things were progressing (or not), our arrival would be delayed to around the same time Jay got off duty at 11pm, which was fine.

TOTALLY bored about 35 miles outside of Ft. Myers and with a strong need to entertain myself, I started to annoy Tim by calling out the remaining mileage every time we passed a mile marker. Not too long after I called out “20!” the car made a LOUD popping noise.

Stacey: What was that??!

Tim: Did you hear that??!

Stacey: Was that the Timing Belt?? Did the timing belt just blow on my gorram station wagon??!

(the car starts to decelerate)

Tim: Sounds Like…

Stacey: I thought Ford just checked our engine!

Tim: Yeah, well if this trucker over here in our blind spot doesn’t let us over, this situation could get pretty interesting…

Stacey: Define Interesting…

Tim: Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die?

Stacey: Just get us to the side of the road…

Tim (deftly threading the needle between two semis): That part will happen pretty definitely…

It was only approx. 38 degrees out and LUCKILY Tim was fully outfitted in his warm North Face hiking fleece and Keen hiking shoes, so he was able to hike a half mile to figure out which mile marker we were closest too (I’d forgotten which one we’d passed in all the excitement). He called the marker number in to Jay, who in turn very kindly called dispatch and had them send a wrecker.

The wrecker, with tow lights flashing, Jay, with his FWC lights flashing, and Lorraine, with her hazard lights flashing, all showed up at the same time! Lorraine loaded us up and took us back to their place while Jay and the tow truck driver followed. Upon arrival, the boys helped the tow truck guy unload the car into a parking space outside the building and it wasn’t long before we were all hanging out in the living room having a good laugh about the whole situation. So what if our 4.5 hour drive turned into 7.5 hours, we were finally at our destination!! :D

As I grabbed the last bag, one of the farmers was trying to get her truck out through the gate so I stopped, opened it up all the way for her, and moved the radio flyer wagons to the side so she wouldn’t have to get out. She waved an enthusiastic ‘thanks’ as she drove on through and after she passed, I grabbed the bag bag and started through the gate.

The second I stepped across the invisible line into the market proper, the guy playing guitar up on the stage, as if on cue, broke into an instrumental rendition of the Firefly theme song! hahaha! I couldn’t believe it! It was awesome! Tim was in the car so I had no witnesses, except for the Amish guy and his wife who smiled at me as I passed their table (they were probably laughing at the stupid grin plastered on my face). haha

As we drove home, we waited at a new light on 43rd and watched a GIAGANTICON pickup truck (seriously, it was a BIG truck- the guy was truly “compensating” here) try to make a u-turn through his green arrow. The truck was so big, he had to stop, shift into reverse, stop, shift into drive, go forward, stop, shift into reverse, stop, shift into drive, and finally swing around.

We both started howling in laughter. Me: “C’mon, jump the friggin’ curve, it’s not THAT high!” Tim: “Why spend THAT much money on a vehicle THAT large if you’re not even gonna attempt to navigate a little urban landscape now and then??”

Our light turned green and we caught up to Truck Guy just in time to stop and wait for him to sloooooooooowly take a wide right turn into an apartment complex. Tim: “Careful, don’t hit the curb there buddy…” We can almost hear the ‘cha-ching’ cash register noise as his truck burned through two gallons of gas making it through this second turn.

I begin to accelerate and only get about 10 feet before Tim shouts, “Holy Crap! LOOK AT THAT!” I glance over just in time to see an orange and white cat, the size of a german shepherd, intensely balanced on four paws, all tippy-toed and hump backed, with tail sticking straight out behind him, seriously working something out of his system directly in front of the bank sign- an unmistakable feline commentary on the current state of the economy.

We decide to stop at Harbucks for coffee.

With a score of 98%, I’m finding this endlessly funny. :)

On our way home, we pulled into our complex just in time to see a red tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) sitting on top of a young squirrel while simultaneously fighting off a giaganticon raven who was trying to help himself to Hawky’s hard-earned meal. We stopped the car and watched for a minute. Both birds looked up at us like, “WTH are you looking at??!” Hawky took advantage of Raven’s momentary distraction and flew off with limp squirrel in tow. Raven took off after them in hot pursuit.

I wonder if Elaine from FCLA had a similar, exciting experience in her bird-watching class this morning! At least we didn’t have to get up at 7:30am! haha ;D

“No you idiot! Hawks EAT squirrels!!” sayeth the animal guy at minute 6:53 of this mashup of Seinfeld clips from the “Kramer/Merv Griffith Set” episode:

P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the kind sentiments about Pris last month. It helped- thanks.