gah.

i went home this weekend, again. friday was dinner with my parents, as usual, and just hanging out.

They live out in the country, well, 'out in the country' enough that they aren't on city water and instead have their own well. So, of course, the pump broke on Thursday night. So my dad stayed home on Friday so that the plumber people could come out at fix it. The pump wasn't actually broken, but their water pressure went way down cause there was a leak somewhere in one of the pipes. The plumbers brought out a big truck (which costs $500 just to have them bring it out to your house) to pull the pump up out of the well. And they did various replacing things, and the labor was around $500, and it was a 22 year old pump, so might as well have them put a new one in while they're at it, so the bill came to $1250, appx.

Needless to say, my dad was quite uptight about this. My dad is a worrier, and I have very much inherited (or learned) this trait from him. Anyway, all this work stirred the well up and got a bunch of air in the pipes, so they had to leave the water running all over the house to clean it out. But I knew none of this, so my dad got home from taking Erica to the barn at about 4:50, and noticed that the pump had stopped working entirely. He called the plumbers back and they came out after 5p on a Friday night, (bless them) and fixed the wiring that they had messed up, no charge and were off. But my dad got very uptight waiting for them and then it was a feat to get him calmed down.

Saturday was Miranda's birthday, and she had a party and I went and played and hung out and just general good. It was fun. We had balloons, which everyone blew up and then batted into each others heads repeatedly. There were movies (Karate Kid and then Rush Hour 2 (which, by the way is an awful awful movie and just don't ever watch it. even for the cool bamboo-scafolding fight scene and the bad-ass chick who beats the shit out of everyone and is very nice to look at) and then much much later A Life Less Ordinary). Also I stopped by Quality Dairy and got a pack of Swisher Sweets on the way over to their place. So we played poker with the pennies from the change jar, and I think I won - as per usual. Although we weren't particulary specific about the coins, we just split them up so they looked like we were starting with even amounts and then if somebody ran out we just plundered everyone else's stashes. But when we quit I definately had the most coin. I like winning at things.

Also on Saturday I went shopping with my mom. We actually bought very little. We kind of intended to do some christmas shopping, but we were also doing some sort of "potential shopping", so she could get an idea of what sorts of clothes I want right now. yes. That was fun. We quit when we started to get overwhelmed by shopping and mall and etc. and the rest of it was just wandering and trying things on and etc. But we quit before our eyes glazed over and we were irritated. So it was actually okay to be at the mall.

Shoes. I very much want shoes.

Also I happened upon my old vibrator that I had thought lost. It was in my sock drawer in the dresser in the basement. so now i have a good one again, and then a back-up.

also. well I don't know. lots of things. I stretched a canvas on Sunday, and that was the first I've done that. I'm excessively proud of myself for it too. I need a staple gun though, because even though it doesn't save much money, it saves a little. and it's putting things together, and I love to do that.

okay. many many frivolous things.

We had cream of broccoli soup for dinner last night and crusty baguette and this really really good salad dressing that my mom made which involved vinegar and oil and spices and stuff, but also water-chestnuts and fig pieces. it was delicious. and very good for dipping the bread into as well, and the soup was ridiculously good and i ate way too much food and then we had cake.

and then i decided to stay there and drive back in the morning so we decorated the christmas tree and then I studied for my russian final (which i just got back from and which went fine) and went to sleep. and then i got up before 6am this morning and drove in the dark with all sorts of fog everywhere and the chill and modest mouse playing and drinking coffee. and it was lovely. I very much like driving at night. It's so beautiful. It is one of the two primary reasons that I wanted to start painting. That and the palouse hills in Washington.

okay. this is ridiculously long now. i'm going to stop and go fiddle with other things until work is over.

and on.