Scrappy, I'm watching your HammerHeads episode right now AIFG! You look lovely and your hair is gorgeous, and your DH is so darn cheerful I can't stand it. The blue on the house was pretty but I agree that the green looks better. Not done watching yet so I can't comment on the yard.

I have completely accepted that this first summer in Texas will be so uncomfortable for me I may need a fainting couch.

So, I'm reading scripts for a competition (not a script-reading competition. They're competing, not me). Anyway, I'm reading one, and it's interesting, and oh, hey, the two threads just kinda came together and then...ok, wait, she accused him of being Zeus (no, there are no other Greek gods in the thing), and then goes off to get shovels and it ends? What kind of an ending is that?

I mean, I like Primer as much as...ok, more than most people. I don't need tidy endings, and am down with mythology and symbolism, but, really, wtf, people? It feels like the end of act 1, rather than the end of the play.

Scrappy! Your yard is beautiful beyond belief! I love the whole Craftsman look, and the fencing and arch and deck and and and - wow. Just wow.

My dvr failed to record the Scrappy goodness! Bad dvr! Is there a repeat?

I have completely accepted that this first summer in Texas will be so uncomfortable for me I may need a fainting couch.

Oh, you will absolutely be miserable the first summer. But people adapt more than they expect I think.

I've lived in hottest desert and dampest PNW. In Phoenix, I'd set the air at 80 in summer and it was comfortable. Not cold, but comfortable.

In other msbelle-ish news, I just grabbed the last stockpiled toothpaste from my stash and the last (as far as I can tell though I thought there was one more) bar of soap went into the shower! It's only happy making to me, but it's pretty darn happy making.

Thanks, Zen. I honestly still can't believe how amazingly it came out. The whole experience was wonderful (albeit exhausting) and it made our little house look so unique and pretty. And this gorgeous yard takes WAY less upkeep than our old fugly yard with the lawn and the hedges.

I watched it this afternoon - you guys were awesome and I can't believe the result. Gorgeous!

The AC discussion reminded me that I had a new thermostat sitting in the hall closet waiting to be installed -- the old one was a programmable one, and it worked fine at switching things on and off appropriately, but had an unreadably tiny display and tiny buttons that were painful to push and at least one mystery button where you pushed it and it put the whole system into some kind of lockdown mode and you had to google every time to figure out how to reset it afterwards. And by "you" I mean "me".

The new one replaces all of that with a nice big backlit touchscreen. Installation took 3 minutes of labeling where the wires were connected on the old and hooking them up to the new one, and then 30 minutes of digging in the bottom of my underwear drawer to find where the packet of tiny screws disappeared to when I dropped it.

Need to see if I can find a repeat of the Scrappy show.

It's great that you have a boss who recognizes that "ridiculous and wrong headed" is cause to stop doing something, smonster.

I am indeed blessed. My boss and coworkers are a huge part of what has kept me in this job so long, in many ways.

Hallelu! I am home. Animals are being fed, and then I will feed myself. Waiting to hear if a cookout is still goin on. If not, I guess I will console myself with more Avatar: TLA and frozen treats. Unless you feel like company, Calli.

Your New Pet Wallaby

"Okay, fine, I know more than I've ever wanted to know about taking care of them. Why would I want one as a pet?"

Besides the "pet lawnmower" thing, they're just cool pets. They have good pet personalities. Pet personalities are important. Chimps, for example, have been known to eat people's faces off. In case you were wondering: that qualifies as a bad pet personality. Wallabies won't chew on your face so much as lick your hands and arms for minutes at a time. And before anyone in the back of the room raises their hand, no, they don't have some crazy alien acid spit, so: a rather good pet personality. They're social creatures, and will do well with other animals and people. They have big goofy feet, and tiny little t-rex arms, both bonuses.

...

There's also some behavior unique to wallabies and kangaroos. They like to play-box. Like Muhammad Ali boxing. You'll want to teach them not to do that as well. It's cute when they're little, but not when your fifty-pound adult wallaby wants your welterweight title while you're trying to watch Big Bang Theory. Also, they like water. They'll hop around in kiddie pools and things. If you happen to be taking a bath with the bathroom door not shut all the way, don't be surprised when you're quite suddenly joined by a hairy Australian...and I don't mean Russell Crowe. Unless of course you named your wallaby Russell Crowe...in which case, I don't want to know about it.