Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Now that I have patio furniture for my back patio I wanted to get some potted plants and make it really pretty. Friday right after work I headed over to Garden Ridge using the new 45 Toll Road (love it! saves 20 minutes getting to RR!). On the way there Mike called to say they were meeting at Dominics (awesome local pizza place owned by a brother and sister from Italy) and then his place to play on his Wii. I couldn't make Dominics since I was too focused on getting some flower pots, but I did make it for the Wii. That is one awesome gaming machine. I guess it helps that we played it on his 10ft theater screen so everything was life-sized. We played the basic sports package that it came with. I've got to say - graphics really don't matter as long as the game is FUN. If you aren't familiar with the Wii their big selling point is you hold the remote in your hand and the game recognizes your movement - so it's not just hitting buttons, it's actually your arm/hand movement that plays the game. We played Tennis and Golf, and using an extra second-hand remote we played the boxing game. Jayne and I KICKED ASS on the boxing game. If you strap weights to your wrists you could really get a workout! I kept trying to do an upper-cut but it wouldn't let me. But, you could dodge to the left and right and the game recognized what you were doing and made your screen fighter match your movement. Jayne was so entranced she went and bought one on Sunday.

Saturday after Orientation at the shelter I met up again with Mike and Annette to head over to Pflugerville. We met Jayne at Chuys (didn't even know there was one over there!) and then went back to Jayne's house to help her on some house projects. She had a boo-boo hand due to some ill-advised in-air plane repairs. She said she should have learned her lesson from Snakes on a Plane and always send the co-pilot! Some of the stuff she needed done required more than one person anyways. So, here's what we got done: hung a curtain rod above a large window in her family room, hung two faux-wood blinds up in the kitchen after removing the old ones, installed a ceiling fan, fixed her kitchen faucet which was spraying out water by tieing a baggie full of CLR to the faucet head and dissolving the calcium build-up, and trimming a large hedge in her backyard. While Mike and I did all that Jayne and Annette made very yummy snickerdoodle cookies. I will definitely have to the recipe for those. After that we played a few games of pool and then called it in early around 8:30.

I always have so much more motivation when it's someone else's house! I need someone to motivate me on my front yard work. Any takers? Any one? Any one? chirp chirp silence....ok ok. I met with my tree guy today and the new tree will be in on Monday. I was hoping to have it before I host Party Game Night on Friday, but oh well. He's also going to trim some trees in the back that haven't been done in a couple years. I'm hoping once the tree gets in that will make me want to spruce up the rest of the yard. I still haven't decided if I'm going to put in sprinklers or not.

Sunday I met up with Jayne and Gil at the Alamo and saw Hot Fuzz. Loved it! It's from the same guys as Shaun of the Dead which is one of my favorite movies. I thought it was hilarious. I hope it does well in the theaters. Jayne mentioned that she read my blog. The whole thing all at once. I can't even imagine how long that would take! I felt very special though. That was sweet of her...or maybe she was just hella bored! Hee. Hi Jayne! After that I headed to my neighbor Byron's house and spent five hours putting together a coffee table. I think I mentioned before going to the gem and rock shows and buying a bunch of sliced agates, jasper, and other random rocks. I'm going to inlay it into a table and pour epoxy over it that will make a glass-like surface. The table construction is going well. It's made out of oak and we basically got the thing totally constructed from all the raw pieces of wood. Now we just have to sand it a bit more, stain it, and varnish the hell out of it before we do the center rock piece. I want to take the time to do it right cause hopefully it'll last a long time. And since I'm not very gentle with my furniture it has to withstand feet and whatnot being put on it. I'm kinda nervous about the center rock piece cause if that goes badly the whole project is ruined. We're going to have to do some test runs before the actual table pour. I'll post pictures when I'm done (of course!). I've learned a lot of carpentry tricks from him. Maybe I'll make some other stuff too. I'll think about it.

Oh, for those interested baby Ian is doing well. He's over three pounds and did end up having to have heart surgery, but everything went well. Melanie and Dan bought a house in Pflugerville that I just found out today is really really close to where Jayne lives - same exit, different side.