Flower

i thought it was a good idea at the time....
we keep the house and garage closed up during the hot of the day to try to keep it a bit cooler.  so last night when it started cooling down, i opened one of the garage doors, and the back people doors and turned on the ceiling fan on the covered patio.  there was a pretty good breeze and i thought why not open the back garage door a bit and let the wind blow through. 
yeah
about 9:30 or so i went out to close it, and as i came around the corner into that shed area i flipped on the light and walk towards the half opened door.  that was when i saw the black fur.  with the big white stripe down the middle and up the fluffy tail. 
i'd like to tell you  i reacted with all my normal calmness.
but we know that wasn't going to happen, you should know me better than that.
i think my screaming and running away really, really fast probably scared him more than he scared me and he never had time to stink.
so picutre if you will, butch relaxing, beer in hand, watching the nationwide race on tv, and i come racing in from the garage screaming.....SKUNK..............SKUNK...........SKUNK IN THE GARAGE!  ....SKUNK IN THE GARAGE!!!
you think he'd be used to it by now.
of course he thinks i'm crazy until he walks in there and cautiously (why take chances in case the crazy blonde is right) looks around to see the skunk on the other side of the mower. 
HA!  SEE?
at this point i'm looking through the window of the outside patio door.  way out of the line of fire (jumping up and down).  so butch backs out and comes around and says, just leave him alone, he'll go out on his own.
well, yeah, eventually!
an hour or so later he went out (with me trailing at a safe distance) and carefully looked around and of course, our little visitor had gone on his way.  we he looked around and under things with a flashlight to make sure we didn't lock the little sucker in the garage.
i think i'll make sure i put the doors down before it gets too dark from now on.  thankfully one of us didn't have to make a middle of the night run for tomato juice while the other stood nekid in the garage stinking.
and i think i pulled a leg muscle since i don't think i've moved that fast in a long time.

pirates in the castle....
skunks in the garage.

4th of july

this was butch's solution to me not letting him drag me and 2 chairs onto the roof to watch the fireworks....

it was after this that he remembered he had his own fireworks.  he'd had them in a closet for probably the last 4 years.  i really thought he'd forgotten about them, but no, he remembered.  all i can say is that the rain gauge will never truly hold water again, since being used as the holder for bottle rockets.  after watching him run around and try to find something better, against my better judgement, i suggested the bucket o'sand that we use for cigarette butts. according to him, it worked great, he could aim them.  which made me ask why several went over the house and in to the front yard?  i gave up the camera at this point cause i was worried enough to watch him without documenting the accident.

The Great Retirement Cook-Out



It's official-the cake says so!



Daren smoked pig.  B flew up from palm beach.  Connie fell out in wal-mart and wasn't allowed to fly.  R&V were on their last weekend leave from hope lodge.  k3, r&r plus lily made the drive.  butch bought a ton of beer, and i made 2 gallons of margaritas.  We were ready!!

We had a really beautiful day for a cook-out.  a bit warm, but not so you couldn't stand it.  We ate, drank and made merry.  someone kept moving my big girl sippie cup with the pink lid causing me to call amber alerts to find it.  Wanda found out k3's ron was a damn steeler fan too.  i'm not sure which one put a child up to rubbing the steelers huggie on me, but i'm betting they were both involved. 

butch was always on the move and happy to have everyone here, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, kids, dogs and even an appearance by cheba the cat.

1st shift showed up after noon.
2nd shift showed up just before dinner
1st shift left after dinner

3rd shift arrived just before dark

2nd shift left about the dark thirty
somewhere around midnight the margaritas ran out
3rd shift left at 3am
yeah, 3 o'freakin clock

we loved every minute of it!

 B-the beginning of the party pic

Mr Peach Fuzz and crew

Odie deDog, Jac and 2 Lilys

 Pulezzee gimme some cake

 3rd shift-just getting started (either that or they were trying to dance)

 trying to get a picture of the 3rd shift partiers is like herding cats!

this is b at the end of the party-

you know, where she loves everybody and has to sit on their lap!