Oh my connie, he owes you big time.

I have no water. We had a water pipe (outside thankfully) bust and had to turn off the main. I showered in my neighbors outdoor shower since this happened after working on the lawn for a couple hours.

I also thought it was Sunday and put all my recycles and garbage out for Monday. Good grief. They're staying there.

In good news, my 3rd season Soap DVDs arrived today and the boys can't wait to watch them after loving 1&2.

I'm amazed that there was an outdoor shower available. You live in some neighborhood!

Edited to note that my amazement in no way negates the suckiness of no water. Despite the neighbor's cool outdoor shower, you have my sympathies.

Today we went to the memorial service of an amazinfg woman. Not someone I knew well, but Marge wasa woman you had real conversations with the first time you met. She was also the well loved matriarch of her family. her family talked a lot about how they wewre made to go to family reunions - and how greatful they were for them . I was thinking of VW - and the pain she went thru when she last got her family together , but that she was thinking about doing it again. Do it, if you can.

Jilli, give us the title of the novel. Now.

You mean the silly gothic romances I picked up today? Um ... Thornyhold (I bet I misspelled that) and Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart, and a hardback collection of six gothic stories (including somthing by Victoria Holt, IIRC) that I bought purely on the strength of the cover illustration: a huge, looming castle in the background, storm clouds, and a dark-haired woman in an amazingly frilly, multi-layer Victorian nightgown (with a red cloak over it!) running away from the huge, looming castle. I started giggling every time I looked at it.

Next time, though, there's a big computer box in the basement. A couple of holes and bada bing, bada boom, Kara's your punkin.

No idea how I'll explain it to Pete, but I'll worry about that later.

I have no water. We had a water pipe (outside thankfully) bust and had to turn off the main...

Am I the only burn-out here who thought "gee, that's a bold thing to keep outside" and "why don't they have any water because their bong broke?" before getting to the end?

Hec, I'm sending no-broken-player-ma to you, and Emmett's team, and am so glad he didn't clear your desk while having a tantrum. :)

Only one minor injury, curiously to Emmett's teammate named Aidan (sure to confuse the skimmers now). He got hit with a pitch on the arm, but shook it off (as coach's like them to do), then stole second and came around to score.

Otherwise we totally crushed the other team. I had all our best pitchers lined up (which is the thing about our team - we've got a lot of kids who can throw hard strikes. Usually you're lucky to have one per team.) We won 10-1 tonight. Emmett played very well, and Ellen (the girl who had to take a two week break because she'd gotten ball-shy) had an excellent game, getting a key out in the infield, getting a hit and stealing second (her first this year). Fun! And all the other parents helped out since our regular manager, Tim, was gone this weekend.

I'm totally wiped though. Waiting for JZ to come home from her all day circus benefit performance. She's got to take public transit through some skeezy neighborhoods to make it home.

Well, we just had some excitement! Lemme break this down for you:

11pm - Val falls asleep on the couch.
11:05pm - Emily attempts to wake Val from her deep sleep to get her to move from the couch to her bed.
11:07pm - Val plops into bed.
2:01am - Val hears something in her room fall, which awakens her. She thinks it's the cat, so rolls over and goes back to sleep.
2:02am - Val has an unsettling feeling after not hearing more things fall (must *not* be the cat*, so she puts on her glasses.
2:02:02am - "EMILY! EMILY! EMILY" she screams as she flies out of her room after seeing A MAN ON HER FIRE ESCAPE, AT THE WINDOW! (Val lives on the third floor.)
2:02:05am - Emily, startled by the woman screaming bloody murder, tries to find out what's going on, but all Val tells her is, "CALL 911! THERE'S SOMEONE TRYING TO BREAK IN THROUGH MY WINDOW! THERE'S SOMEONE ON THE FIRE ESCAPE!"
2:02:10am - "911, what is your emergency?"
2:03am - "Are they still there?" asks the operator.
2:03:30am - Emily goes to check. Yup they are. Emily bangs on the window and shouts, "HEY!" She is told they'll "get down."
2:07am - The officers are downstairs. Must go get them.
2:07:27am - The officers are confused by where the fire escape is. They decide the best way is to go through Val's room.
2:07:29am - For the first time in a long time, Val's first thought is not, "Oh my! But, my house is a mess!" and it's not because the house is clean.
2:09am - Officer opens Val's window and yells at the kid. "What's your name?" "I live downstairs. My name is Lee _______." Officer to Val, "Is that your neighbor?" Val to officer, "Well, we've never met, but that's the name of one of the people that lives on the second floor. Officer to Lee, "Wait there. We're coming down."
2:15am - Val and Emily laugh and laugh and laugh (What do they say, "If you don't laugh, you'll cry").
2:17am - Emily offers to make Val some tea.
2:30am - Val starts breathing again.

Turns out they were hanging a sign. A radio station sign or something. AT 2AM!

Ack, VW. That's scary, and bizarre. I'm glad it turned out not to be anything dangerous.

Yeah, it was pretty clear after my major freakout that they weren't anything dangerous, but the police, at that point, still had to come. But, at 2AM?! You don't go on other people's fire escapes that are attached to their BEDROOMS!

You shoulda seen me bang on the window. I was rather proud of myself.

Actually, I felt kind of silly, but it did seem like the thing that needed to be done, since "Excuse me, that's our fire escape. Who are you, exactly?" didn't seem quite the right followup to the earlier screaming. Or the right intro to the fact that soon, the police were going to show up and be all "Hey, buddy, what's your problem?"