Christmas after Easter and catching up on things...

Laurie's been up here all week. It's been fun having Evil Seester around. Except she sort of got sick, so the girls haven't been doing much crafting.

Then we had some electrical problems. The hot tub just shut off while Laurie was still in it. And the heater, too. So I went to the breaker box and...


I moved that black widow with a stick. I was so brave.

Then I flipped the breaker and saw pretty blue flashes and smelled burning plastic and heard a horrendous noise. Something wasn't right.

So one call to the Home Warranty folks - for an exterminator and an HVAC service call.

They sent an electrician who traced it to some sort of heater on the compressor. I don't know, it's all ball bearings these days.

Jake and his buddies/band mates took a break while the power was off to toss the old bee around.




This was in one of the Easter baskets from Sunday...



It looks to be an Easter dreidel made in China.

Back in February, we joked with Frank and Marla that we had to exchange Christmas gifts before Easter. At the time we thought it was funny, but the reality is we finally got around to it last night. We've both been really busy and sick off and on. I wish we did it tonight instead so I could have had two more glasses of wine and stayed another few hours. But it was fun.





We got Frank a "Red Neck Flashlight" It's pretty much a match on the end of a stick. It goes with the "Red Neck Windchimes" we got him last year. That was beer cans and shotgun shells.

Frank grilled some steaks from an organic pen raised non hormone treated cow that he personally butchered. It was fantastic. Something was different, I can't quite put my finger on what, but it just tasted better. We were supposed to have some boar as well, but it was just too much food. I really want to taste wild boar so I can brag about it to my World of Warcraft pals.

And there's not much I need in the way of cooking tools or things for entertaining, but Frank and Marla hit on the perfect thing...

I really needed steak knives.

Anyway, I've got a quick trip coming up. Bopping down to Houston for a day and then right back. Not much in the way of pre-flight anxiety at the moment, but I'm sure it will kick in tomorrow.

Jake went to a friend's birthday party in Petaluma and then is going to visit with his Bio-Dad for the weekend.

The girls got their nails done today and I took them to dinner at Ting's - the (relatively) new Thai place down by the golf course. And they rented a chick flick or two. So I'm gonna go kill some wild boars and dragon whelps. Hopefully Auntie Lisa, Uncle Dave, and Chris will be there waiting for me.