Running Out of Things To Do

Howdy gang!  I've got a few minutes to enjoy this brisk fall morning with my coffee, so I thought I'd take a break from watching the puglets unsuccessfully chase the squirrels in the back yard and check in with all of you re-clickers.

Just in case you're wondering, I'm doing pretty well.  After my visit to the doc the other day, I've been in a damn fine mood, feeling almost normal again.  I've got another appointment in a couple of hours over at the ghettofabulous walk-in clinic, which I'm not really looking forward to, but hey, gotta do what I gotta do.

I've been spending my week trying to come up with stuff to do to prepare for this trip next week, and I think I've run out of ideas.  Back in the day when I was working right up until the day I left for the Caribbean, it felt like I didn't have enough time to get things done and I always left with that nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something.  No chance of that now--I've been preparing so much that I'm damn near to the point of making up stuff to do.

I made my last purchases at Wallyworld yesterday, the main thing being wire clothes hangers.  All I have are those big plastic hangers, but those just won't do in my garment bag.  I've got about eight shirts, four or five pairs of pants, and a sport jacket that I need to go on hangers, and I've gotta have wire hangers to get them all in the suitcase.  Other than that, I picked up a few random items like moist towelettes and a small spray bottle, and now I'm pretty sure that I'm all set.  All I have left to do is pick up the clothes from the dry cleaner tomorrow and pack my bags.  Oh, and tomorrow I'm going with Sherry to get a manicure and pedicure too.

After that, it's the weekend.  I know, weekends don't matter much to me, but everyone else will be around goofing off, too.  Reverend Dave is coming up on Saturday, and then that evening we're having a bonfire/Bon Voyage party here at Amy's house.  We've got a group of eleven people going--Sherry & Steve, Cyndi & Tim, Amy & Scottie, Gaines, Reverend Dave, and me, then Mamasan and her friend Mary.  The cool thing is that ten of us are all on the same flight out of Nashville (Reverend Dave is flying out of Huntsville since he has to work on Monday back down in Sweet Home).  That should be a good time...

Anyhow, the party is obviously Caribbean-themed, and everyone is supposed to bring a dish.  So far, all I know is that Amy is making coconut chicken, and Mamasan is bringing the black bean & pineapple dip.  Other than that, I have no idea what we're having besides pina coladas.  I just hope it's not too cold that night, although a big bonfire and some tiki torches will take the chill off.  Even if it is cold on Saturday, I don't care, because next week it'll be nothing but sunshine and sea breeze.  I may even come back with a tan!

So besides cruise prep, I've not had a whole lot of really interesting things going on.  Now that I can drive again, I feel like a guy just let out of jail--I can go do anything I want!  Of course, I don't really have much disposable income, and everyone I know works during the day, so there ain't much I can do.  However, I spent damn near all day yesterday running errands.

I left the house around 10:00 o'clock in the morning and drove up to Madison to hit the Casual Male store.  I needed to pick up some more underwear, and figured that maybe I'd get a new Hawaiian shirt or something, too.  Unfortunately, all they had was winter clothes.  So I got my underwear, and then picked up a bathrobe and some long flannel pajama bottoms (it's cold in this house in the morning!).  But the purpose of the robe was two-fold; 1) I don't have one, and need one anyways, and 2) I'm going to use it for my Halloween costume.

We'll be on the ship over Halloween, and of course there is a costume party that night.  We've been going around in circles for months trying to decide what to wear that night, and I've decided to go as Hef.  I got the robe and pj bottoms, and instead of a heavy set of slippers that I'll likely never wear again, I'll just wear flip-flops.  Plus I have a pipe, and today while I'm out I'm going over to Party City to pick up a gray comb-over wig.  I've also got some of those office-style nametags, the ones that say 'Hello, my name is...' and I'll just write HEF on one and stick it to my robe.  I may roll up a Playboy and shove it in one of the pockets, and as a brilliant stroke of genius, I'm also going to pick up a few pink bunny ears at the party store to carry with me.

I can guarantee that I'll have and entourage of gals following me around at the party--and no, I don't mean my sisters, either.  Yep, it's gonna be a good time.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, too, because I know how you people get...

After getting my clothes/costume, Scottie called and asked if I wanted to meet up with him and Amy for lunch, so I hauled myself down to West End, down by Centennial Park, and we ate at Bombay Palace.  I can't remember ever having Indian food before, and it was pretty good.  They set it up as a small buffet, and I think I had a small sample of everything except one dish that had goat as the main ingredient.  Anyhow, the naan bread and the spicy dishes were really good, but they had this tomato chutney stuff that was amazing.  I could've made a meal out of that and the naan bread all by itself.  Good stuff, although it felt like everything they offered was spicy.  I wish I could've remembered the names of stuff we ate, because some of it was really tasty.  Scottie has lunch there about once a week and said that the menu changes every day, so you don't get the same thing every time.  I'd gladly go back and try it again though--maybe I didn't have very high expectations, but it was surprisingly good food.  

After lunch, it was back over to this side of town to hit Wallyworld and get my prescriptions filled.  I did the last of my shopping while waiting, and then finally got home around 2:30 in the afternoon.  I sat down to relax for a bit, and of course dozed off in the chair for a half hour or so.

Once I got up from my 'nap', I got busy in the kitchen preparing for dinner.  We were having some friends over to grill burgers, and we did those marinated dry-ranch burgers that Amy and Scottie came up with.  So I mixed all that meat up and set it to marinating in the fridge, then went out and got the bbq grill set up and ready to go.  After an hour or so, I made all the patties and put them on waxed paper, and did all the other prep stuff I could think of to get dinner ready.

Our friends came over around 6:30, and dinner was a hit--we had our grilled cheeseburgers, some baked maple/bacon beans, and some casserole-style mac & cheese.  It was damn tasty.  Amy also made an apple 'dump cake' and yeah, I had a small piece of that for dessert.  Guess that means I'm gonna be doing some extra walking today.  I don't care--it was good, and the nutritionist said I can 'cheat' a little when I go on the cruise anyways, as long as I'm doing my exercises.  I just told myself that I was getting a head start on my vacation.  Heh.

After dinner, we spent an hour or so laughing our asses off watching videos.  Did you know that with Tivo you can watch YouTube on your television set?  I didn't!  Well, because of that, we sat in the den cracking up, looking up our favorite videos.  I discovered that there were still four people in this world that had never seen the 'Yatta' video, which somebody sent me long before the days of YouTube.  I still have the old movie file somewhere on a hard drive, but now, anyone can see it.  For those of you who've never seen it, well, prepare to be shocked.  Seriously, it's five minutes of total WTF????  Here ya go:







Oh dear god--just watching the reaction on people's faces who'd never seen it before was absolutely priceless. I had to take a pain pill afterward because I was laughing so hard that it was just killing my chest.

Anyhow, now that you've seen that, here's a little palate cleanser--my new favorite song from Train, called Save Me San Francisco.  It's a catchy tune that I heard for the first time yesterday while I was out driving around.  It's not really much of a video, but the song is the important part.  Enjoy! 





Have a great day, y'all!

Mikey