So we went and saw Wicked; I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. But more on that later. The show was a little over 2.5 hours so by the time we got home Thursday neither one of us wanted to go to work Friday. While I goofed off all day, Kimmy was a bit more productive.

I’ve been learning a harsh lesson about home ownership.  It isn’t about bills, or the mortgage, or the incessant amount of junk mail you’ll get offering you life insurance, nope the important lesson that all young homeowners need to know is that crap will break;  and no matter how fast you fix things at least two more things will break in the meantime. So I thought I was doing pretty well with just the washing machine breaking. Now to be fair the washing machine isn’t exactly broken, it just sounds like a pair of noisy midgets are trapped in there and for amusement they bang their hammers like a screen door bangs in a hurricane. As near as I can tell (and I am no washing machine expert) it sounds like what passes for the washing machine’s transmission is slipping (why the hell do washing machine’s have transmissions? why can’t they just use a variable speed electric motor?) and on Monday I am going to pay sears $100.00 to confirm I am right. But like I said you fix one thing and two more things will break; well yesterday (my day off) I was actually trying to do things that weren’t work (even though I still did work) and after taking a rather late shower I noticed the floor around the shower was wet, and yep … some of the molding around the floor was rotting. Turns out my shower is missing the little sweep on the bottom of the door … you know the sweep that keeps it from leaking all over the floor!

Damn if it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

So Kimmy took the plunge and stepped one year closer to her thirties.

Along with celebrating at Flemming’s with expensive steaks; a birthday present that still hasn’t arrived; balloons; flowers; and cake … she also got the beginnings of our spice draw (I am really looking forward to the spice draw) and a decal for our backsplash.

I have to admit that I am always a little skeptical of things you just slap on and they stick but after a bit of thought stickers are the way to go. 10 years from know when we have kids and they are annoying enough that we feel the urge to change our backsplash from our loving statement about home to something more appropriate like “Sit down, Shut up, eat your food!”

Growing a year older is great for getting presents and cake and such but it is also a time for introspection. As you know doubt know Billy Mays died this past week. Normally Celebrity/Infomercial/TV People’s death very rarely ever enter my consciousness. Billy Mays was a bit of an exception; mostly because CNN/MSNBC felt the urge to shove it down my throat and because I watched Ghost Busters last night. Now as far as I know Billy Mays is not in Ghost Busters (which is still a great movie despite the bad special effects) but he was in many of the commercials that AMC used interrupt my ghost busting experience. Personally, I find it a bit eerie that there is a dead guy in my commercial interruptions … that and it just seems a bit crass somehow.

Right now I am sitting smug in my front yard watching a $4.00 piece of plastic I got from Lowe’s slowly water my front yard.  It’s constat tat-tat-tat is soothing and yet empowering at the same time.  Yep I am smug, I actually noticed that the grass was starting to will and that I probably needed to water before anyone else told me.  I are a powerful homeowner.  Now if only it weren’t so humid I would enjoy my front yard smugness a whole lot more.    And in the same moment as I stare at my front yard I feel an over whelming sense of damn there is so much to do.

Step 1) kill all the damn annoying mosquitoes.

Step 2) convince Kimmy she likes to work in the front yard.

Step 3) enjoy my beautiful front yard.