The first night was a little creepy, because it was my first night in the new house, the cats were freaked out, and I wasn’t accustomed to being in the house at night, and especially not at night by myself. All houses make noises at night, and the older the house the more it pops and settles. It was creepy being there alone that first night, and add to that the fact that the cats weren’t letting me sleep any more than 20 minutes at a stretch, and I wasn’t in the happiest of moods Wednesday morning.
I made it through the day, though – went to the pet store early, because I’d traded with the Wednesday morning person, and just as I was about to leave for the pet store, Fred called to tell me that the post office had called to let him know that the chicks had arrived. He left work, brought the chicks home to Smallville, set up the brooder (you can read more about it at his site), and went back to work. I finished up at the pet store, went to Madison to check my email and do some vacuuming, and went home to Smallville.
Wednesday night was a bit better than Tuesday – the cats let me sleep a little more, and I actually got a good night’s rest – and I woke up Thursday to do some more unpacking and wait for my Extra Special Guests to arrive.
Yes, that’s right – Nance and Rick came to visit! I swear to god, the only thing getting me through the whole moving hell was the knowledge that Nance and Rick were coming and I could stop with the unpacking and the crazy running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and just hang out and babble at Nance and Rick and relax.
The spud thinks Nance and Rick are funny.
You guys, I had SUCH a good time. Friday Nance and I sat around and babbled and babbled and babbled some more. In fact, Friday morning we babbled for two hours, then Nance said “Okay, seriously. We need to do a damn podcast!”, and so we babbled on for another hour before Fred showed up, then we had to end the podcast because he didn’t want to be part of it (PARTY POOPER). Nance listened to it and swears we didn’t sound like complete idiots, but we’ll see about that.
Sometime Friday night, Fred suggested that we play Trivial Pursuit. He dug out his ancient version of the game and we played, then I insisted that we run to Wal-Mart and get a version of Trivial Pursuit that wasn’t from the 1800s. We did that, and spent the evening playing a few more games. I don’t know who emerged the victor, although I do think that Fred and I won the first game and he’s such a poor sport that he danced around the room in victory. Nance and Rick won the next game (I think) and probably the one after that. By the time we were down to the last game it was late and we were all exhausted and I could barely keep my eyes open, but still didn’t want the evening to end.
Me tired.
By the way, I did try to insist that Nance and Rick stay with me in the Smallville house, and they were going to, except that I have no internet out there at all, and Rick needed internet for his schoolwork, so they stayed in a hotel.
Saturday Fred was going to work on painting the Madison house so that would be done and then all we’d have to do is replace the carpet in the computer room and upstairs, and the house would require nothing more than a good cleaning before we put it on the market. Only, after doing some puttying and caulking, he said “Fuck it”, and came over to Smallville. We took Nance and Rick to Decatur for lunch at Penn’s, where they got to appreciate the hamburgers Fred thinks are the finest foods on the face of the earth and with which I am completely unimpressed. Nance and Rick claimed to like the burgers, but I think they have better taste than that and were just saying it to be nice.
Ha!
We ended up spending the better part of the afternoon playing this game called CatchPhrase, a game I didn’t think I was going to like, and DIDN’T like at first, but once I got over being self-conscious I decided I absolutely loved it. It’s this game where you have to give clues to your partner to guess a word or phrase, and if they guess it you hand the little handheld computer thingy off to the other team to do the same thing, and all the while there’s a timer beeping, and as time is running out, it beeps faster, and it’s all very nerve-racking, but in a cool way. We played several games of that, and then Nance and I hung around the house and babbled while Fred and Rick did A Project involving the chickens and a bigger place for them to run around in.
We went out to dinner (where we were waited on by this kid who was a dead ringer for Willard from Footloose, bless his heart) then went back to Smallville and played about a thousand more games of CatchPhrase.
Here’s how one part of the game went. Fred was trying to get me to guess the word “lucky.”
Fred: A leprechaun brings you – ?
Robyn: Joy!
Fred: No. When you see a leprechaun you feel – ?
Robyn: Joyful!
Fred: NO. Someone who wins the lottery is – ?
Robyn: Wealthy! Rich! Has lots of money! Happy!
Fred: NO!
I did finally get it, but damn. I’m going to be teased about that forEVER.
Then there was the time, later in the evening, where I had to get Fred to guess “Jazz singer”, and it went thusly:
Robyn: You hate this music!
Fred: Country! Rap!
Robyn: No!
And then I, the least musical and most tone-deaf person on this entire planet, proceeded to SCAT. And Fred got it! Then we were laughing about it, and I took a drink of water and Rick said something that made me laugh just as the water entered my mouth and it went directly into my lungs and I made a complete ass out of myself by spitting water all over the front of me, and choking.
I am such a prize, I really am.
Also, two things of note: There was some journaller abuse going on, because when Fred gets excited he flails around a LOT, and he ended up kicking the holy hell out of poor Nance. Secondly, at one point Fred and Rick were on a team together and Fred was trying to get Rick to say “spread”, so he leaned back and spread his legs, and Nance whipped her head in the other direction so fast I think she gave herself whiplash because Fred was wearing shorts and she was afraid she’d see a little more of Fred than she’d bargained for.
The entire time Nance and Rick visited, Miz Poo was ALL OVER them. Miz Poo LURVES Nance and even though Nance had allergies going on (since everything’s blooming down here) and the cat hair wasn’t helping, she patiently petted Miz Poo for hours. I think at one point Mister Boogers showed up for some love from Nance, and I know Tommy settled in with Nance, then kindly farted on her.
Don’t you totally want to come visit us?
Also, Nance had me drooling with envy over not only Little Lulu her laptop, but also over her cool-ass Nikon camera with the monster zoom lens. She insisted that I give it a try (I didn’t want to at first, ’cause I was afraid I was going to hurt it), and I fell in love. Fred got to use it, too, and took some awesome pictures. Except for the cats in the carriers and Spot in the litter box, all the pictures in this entry were taken with their Nikon.
I think we need a camera like theirs. And I think Fred’s starting to agree with me!
Mister Boogers doesn’t know what those chirpy things are, but he does NOT approve.
They love to sit on the cat tree and watch what’s going on outside.
We don’t have nearly enough cat toys.
They can lay on the cat tree and watch what’s going on for HOURS.
Did I mention I LOVE this freakin’ camera?
Maxi doesn’t hate you… but she’s considering it.
(Rick and Nance took some of the pictures, and Fred took some (I think he took the bird in flight one, fourth from the bottom), and I took a few, too. It was a collaborative effort! Go check Nance’s entry for the best picture ever taken of Tom Cullen.)
They left Sunday morning, early, to head for South Carolina, and I missed them immediately. I don’t know when I’ve had so much damn fun, between the gossiping and the game-playing, and just generally hanging out, it was exactly what I needed, an interlude between the craziness of moving in, and the craziness of getting the Madison house ready to be put up for sale.
3/19/07