A Pretty Boring Week

Well I haven't posted much this week, because honestly its been pretty damn boring. Here is basically how it went...

Monday: worked, went home, ate dinner, watched TV
Tuesday: worked, went home, ate dinner, watched TV
Wednesday: worked, went home, ate dinner, watched TV
Thursday: worked, went home, ate dinner, went to Seahawks preseason game

Okay well the Seahawks game was fun. My sister Jaime took me, because her husband couldn't go. And a Seahawks game with Jaime is always good for a few laughs. It turns out that she has a bad habit of throwing beers when the game doesn't go as planned. This time, it was a Raiders punt return for like 95 yards and a touchdown thanks to some spectacularly missed tackles on the Seahawks part. In the midst of her frustration she accidentally flung her Bud Light bottle a few rows ahead of her. Luckily it was plastic, nearly empty, and the folks ahead of us glared a bit but did not complain. And it really was an accident, and Jaime was certainly embarrased by it. But all in all, it was a good start to her football season, and I'm sure the folks around her wishing that it wasn't too late to change their seats!

9 Years

It is hard to believe that Jeramy and I have been married for 9 years today. So much has happened during that time and yet it has just flown by. Weren't we just in high school? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that Jeramy finally moved out into his own apartment scrimping by on $7.50 an hour? At the very least it seems like yesterday that we bought our house and he started his apprenticeship...but that alone was nearly six years ago.

I told him this morning that after 9 years, I am really thinking of keeping him for good. I mean its hard to get along with somebody else well enough to live with them, and I think that I've almost got him broken in. Plus he does a lot of wonderful things for me and yesterday is a good example.

When I woke up yesterday morning I wandered into the bathroom half-asleep. After um, relieving myself, I turned around and saw a gigantic, hairy wolf spider on the wall just above the toilet. It was about the size of my palm. I nearly screamed and ran out of the bathroom. Then I calmed myself down and thought through my options...

I needed to get Jeramy to kill it for me. But it was only 3:15am

I must kill it myself, but how?

I could use Jessie's vacuum method and suck it up. But it seemed too big for that and it might survive the suction and come back to haunt me later.

I could smush it with something but what? And what if I missed and it found some place else to hide?

I could use the other bathroom, but I'd have to walk by the spider to get my shampoo. And if he disappeared, I'd never know what happened to him.

So in the end, I woke Jeramy up. He didn't give me any grief, commented that the spider was indeed very large, killed it with rolled up newspaper and flushed the toilet. Unfortunately, the poor guy could not fall back asleep, but I am forever grateful to him for exterminating that and many other 8 legged creatures.

The truth is that I'm lucky to be married to an absolutely wonderful man. He is dependable...the type of guy that family and friends can always count on. He is always prepared. Seriously...during the Windstorm last December it was practically life as normal at my house despite 5 days without power. Or when the boat trailer's hub broke a few weeks ago, he had the back-up hub on and the trailer home within 45 minutes. Oh and he's very handy too...just look at my kitchen! And we're lucky enough to have so much fun doing things together whether its fishing, riding the motorcycle, quads, or camping. More importantly we share morals, values and a common outlook on life. Also, we trust each other completely, which has allowed each of us the freedom to pursue our individual interests in addition to doing the things we both enjoy together. We've grown up together, and unlike some couples who marry young, that has actually brought us closer together.

We don't have huge plans, but we are going out to dinner at Jimmie Mac's tonight. I have the day off today, and I plan on cleaning up a bit and going to see Becoming Jane. Jeramy might get off a bit early. It should be a fun, quiet evening together.

Also I've got an update on the Jeramy knee injury situation. He saw the orthapedic surgeon Monday who say that the PCL is only partially torn and that he doesn't recommend surgery at this time. We are of course very happy about this. At this point he is continuing physical therapy a couple times a week and will go back to the surgeon for a re-check. Plus he will be transferring out to the Valley job next week, which is convenient since he'll be much closer to all these doctors.

Why I Love...and Hate...3 Year Olds

Our friends have the most precocious 3 year old I've ever met. Because Ryan is an only child he is very comfortable interacting adults and does so with surprising competence. Plus he can recite all of the lines from the scene in Talladega nights where the obnoxious kids go off on their grandfather at dinner...seriously funny stuff.

We were all at dinner at mutual friends' parents' house last night. In the living room with about a dozen people watching Ryan looks at me with concern and says, "Jennifer you have an owwie (spelling?) on your face!"

I'm puzzled and say "What do you mean?"

He says "right there on your cheek!"

That's when it hits me. He's talking about the scab from a huge zit on my face. Crap. Leave it to a preschooler to remind me how badly I'm failing at hiding this huge blemish in front of a whole bunch of people. I mean its bad enough that I'm 29 with acne...but to have to explain this to a 3 year old with a peaches 'n' cream complexion in front of friends is a bit humiliating. At minimum it made it impossible to continue my ignorant delusion that maybe nobody noticed.

So I respond with, "Well Ryan, its a zit. Thanks buddy, for pointing it out."

Ugh...and I want one of these someday?

The Diagnosis is in

Jeramy just called me because the results from the MRI on his knee are in. It turns out that he has torn his Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). His next step is to meet with a surgeon to see if they want to go that route.

Of course, immediately following this news, I made my way to google to learn more. Most of the articles were impossible to actually understand, but this one was pretty good: http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/kneeinjuries/a/pcl.htm

Was that a Dinner Party?

Last night we had 2 couples over for dinner as we wanted to cook up some of the Halibut we caught in Westport. After everybody left, Jeramy looked at me quizzically and said with a tone of disbelief in his voice "Was that a dinner party?"

When I thing of the words "dinner party" I get visions of fancy food, wine and conversation about current events. Anybody who knows Jeramy and I realizes that we are nearly the antithesis of these things. So perhaps that is why our version of a "dinner party" involves fish and chips, heniken, and conversation about how to make a Suzuki Samurai off-road capable.

Another Monday

Well there was a change (for the better!) in our commuting arrangements during the I-5 construction fiasco. Although he can't ride his Kawasaki in because of where the foot pegs sit, he can ride the Harley in. So that means I am free to work 4 10 hour days starting around 4:30am every day. I am definitely looking forward to have Wednesday off this week and next, but it was definitely difficult to drag myself out of bed at 3am. I did go to be at 8pm last night at least.

But of course this morning it seems that the commute isn't so bad after all. Jeramy said that he has never gotten to work faster. Let's just hope that everybody doesn't abandon their alternative arrangements after hearing this good news!

Luckily it wasn't hard to go to sleep that early, because I was up at 4am both Saturday and Sunday to go fishing. Overall we were pretty productive and caught a total of 8 pinks and 1 coho on our boat, with 6 of the pinks being ours. I lost a fish Sunday, which Jeramy is sure must have been a big one even though it was only on for a minute, so I got to hear about it for the rest of the day. Apparently when I lose a fish the assumption is that I did something wrong...why is the possibility that we just never had the fish hooked well so improbable???

Other than that my weekend consisted of shopping (I got a great new pair of jeans!), going to see the Bourne Ultimatum, cleaning, and trying to learn to knit socks on 2 circular needles.

Oh and did I mention that I saw a scooter gang coming up the hill from Redondo on the way to the grocery store on Sunday. What is a scooter gang, you ask? Well apparently (and I say apparently because I draw this from observation only) a scooter gang is a bunch of guys who ride around in a group on scooters. It's very much like a biker gang, except the riders tend to lack beards, tattoos, leather, and scantily clad women. I'm also better than instead of frequenting bars you'll find these groups at Starbucks or Panera.

What an exciting life I lead.

The Commute from Hell will Commence in 24 Hours

Apparently the expansion joints on I-5 northbound need to be replaced between Spokane street and downtown. Which is good, because its nice to have well maintained freeways. I only wish they didn't have to shut down half of the northbound lanes for over two weeks because this won't be pretty. In fact the words "unprecedented gridlock from Seattle to past Tacoma" apparently communicate the most optomistic description of the anticipated state of the commute

WSDOT is trying their best to get people to use mass transportation during the construction. Ironically I, who vanpools to work every day, will be hitting the road in my car as my fellow vanpoolers have all decided to either go on vacation, work from home or take the train. Unfortunately my boss nixed the work from home option, so I had decided to work 4 10's from 4:30am - 3:00pm every day until...

Jeramy's knee. It now appears that he will be back at Harborview during the next couple of weeks. Normally when he works at Harborview he commutes on the motorcycle so that he can park on the job site, but he can't bend his knee enough to get on the bike. The alternative is to drive the car or truck but that requires parking at a garage several blocks away, and with a hurt knee I really can't see Jeramy making that trek up and down the incredibly steep James street everyday. So the alternative to the alternative is that I drop him off. Which is normally fine, except that this precludes me from working 4 10's.

So please pray for some miracle of knee healing. Because otherwise, I'm afraid that Jeramy and I might kill each other during these lengthy hours of our impending commute.

Update on Jeramy

He went to the occupational medicine doctor yesterday afternoon about his knee. They were able to do a lot more for him than the ER. The doctor said that there is fluid build up behind the knee, and that if it doesn't get better in a couple weeks they'll need to do an MRI to see if anything is torn. They also gave him a new knee brace to use rather than the immobilization device. Oh, and they increased his restrictions at work...now he can't stand or walk for extended periods of time either. I know it is really a pain for him to be so limited, but he's pretty determined to make sure this knee heals well. It's kind of an important body part, especially for somebody in construction.

On other fronts, I've started knitting my first pair of socks. They're a little tricky with the double pointed needles and all, but I seem to be making progress.

What I Get for Whining...

Well I learned my lesson about whining that we weren't going to get to fish this weekend due to Jeramy working. Friday evening at the end of a 12 hour day, Jeramy got hurt at work. A carpenter left a board out that bowed up in the sun, and Jeramy tripped over it and sprained his knee. He tried to hold off on getting any treatment with the hope that it would heal quickly and he could work this weekend. But by 2am Saturday morning, it hurt bad enough that I took him to the ER to get it checked out. Nothing is broken, but he has to wear a brace on his knee to immobilize it and help it heal. We've been told that it could take several weeks for this to heal. Ugh!

So not only did I not go fishing, but Jeramy didn't even get the planned overtime pay.

I used the time at home to get some crocheting done and finished the purse I've been making. The strap is a little longer than I would have liked, but it is cute and sturdy. I just need to line it and then it's ready to go.

I Guess I am Difficult to Please

I'm always wanting Jeramy to give up his evenings and weekends to earn overtime pay. He's kind of a high maintenance guy financially, and so its nice when he kick's up his contribution to our monthly income at little inconvenience to me.

But, I also like going fishing. And I don't know how to work the fishing polls or downriggers very well. And I certainly cannot back a boat trailer down a boat ramp or even hook it to the truck for that matter. So if Jeramy's working, Jen isn't fishing.

So it sounds like fishing for this weekend may be out. He's working late tonight and definitely tomorrow. Maybe Sunday too. In fact it sounds like he may be working a lot of overtime for the next few weeks. If this wasn't peak fishing season for salmon, I'd be ecstatic. Like I said, you just can't please me.

Happy Birthday Jeramy!

Today is Jeramy's 29th birthday...yes he has now joined me in the last year of his twenties. I made the poor guy go to work today, but we'll be celebrating tonight by going out to eat and getting dessert with friends.