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I feel like its been raining for 40 days and 40 nights, but in actuality, its only been raining since 4am.  I know this because I was sleeping peacefully when all of the sudden *CRACKBANG* a huge lightning bolt sounded as if it hit something about 30 feet from where I was sleeping.  It scared the bejesus out of me and woke me up.  I was wide awake and then went to the bathroom came out and turned on the weather channel.  There was a really bad storm that was moving through.  Then the next thing I heard was the wind.  It was howling like as if we had a hurricane going on outside.  Crazy.

I ended up going back to sleep after that for a little bit.  Then my alarm went off at 6:15; then 6:25, then 6:35.  I hit the snooze probably about 10 times before 7am.  I finally got up and got ready.  I had to go outside to take out the garbage (because surprise!  Rich didn’t do it.) and there were huge branches that had fallen down from the bad wind.

This is the second time we’ve had extensive tree damage over the last week.  On Friday night there was a bad storm that blew through Sweet Valley, you should have seen how many branches and sticks and leaves I picked up after that.  I am surprised that we have any trees left.  I was going to take a picture of the pile, but we ended up burning everything in the firepit Saturday night. 

I don’t know where I’m going with this story really.  I didn’t get enough sleep and I’m grouchy.  Its supposed to rain all day today, tonight, tomorrow then finally clear up sometime for Friday.  What a crappy way to end the week. 

Oh, and the weatherman are predicting like 4-5 inches of rain out of all of this.  So now we are under a flash flood/flood watch. 

From The Times Leader:

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued an

Lat… Lon 4096 7622 4100 7623 4113 7616 4164 7553
      4164 7548 4131 7546 4121 7552 4121 7556
      4112 7564 4113 7570 4109 7577 4105 7577
      4100 7574 4090 7603

112 PM EDT Wed Jul 23 2008

Lat… Lon 4099 7622 4113 7624 4114 7630 4120 7633
      4130 7633 4155 7623 4200 7594 4199 7549
      4165 7547 4112

1018 am EDT Wed Jul 23 2008

>>>>Which leads me to this question?  Because I love asking questions today.  How do I get to Dallas (Sweet Valley) from Wilkes-Barre if there is major flooding again like there was in 2006?  If I remember correctly, the Cross Valley was closed because Toby’s Creek overflowed, and the "back way" Washington Ave-Huntsville Rd was closed because they were afraid the dam was going to burst and it was overflowing onto the roadway.  Hell they even closed all the bridges over the Suquehanna.  That leaves Rte 11/29, but doesn’t that flood too? 

I am screwed the next time we have major flooding.  I guess I’ll have to sleep in my car.  With the ants.

(notice how I didn’t say "If we have major flooding" i said "when" because you know damn well its going to happen again)

Wilkes-Barre’s Ruth’s Chris steakhouse just opened last week.  It’s up by Mohegan Sun.  I’m not sure if its connected to the new casino or is a seperate building.  I haven’t been there yet.  What puzzles me is….can people around here afford to go to this restaurant?  If you’ve never been to a Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, I’ll fill you in.  ITS EXPENSIVE.  Don’t get me wrong, the food is excellent, probably one of the best meals you’ll ever have (besides Fogo De Chao, but that’s another story).  I don’t think many people in this area can afford a 100 dollar dinner.  That would probably be the lowest cost of a bill for food and drinks, btw.  The cost only goes up from there depending on what is ordered.  I guess this is why Ruth’s Chris aligned itself with the Casino.  Once you hit it big on the slot machines you can go next door and buy a fancy schmancy dinner.  I am not kidding when I say the food is expensive.  At least for this area anyway.

Do we really need anymore restaraunts?  Yes.  Yes.  For the love of god yes.  That’s not my answer, that’s the franchise/chain answers.  I personally feel we don’t need anymore food places.  Like everyone in Wilkes-Barre is going to weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds in a years time.

Highland Park Blvd/Mundy Street/Kidder Street has become a who’s who of chain restaraunts. 

Lets see if I can remember them all, shall we?

There’s a:  Denny’s, Wendy’s (2), Long John Silvers, McDonalds, Burger King, Dough Company, Pizza Hut, Lonestar Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesday’s just closed so that doesn’t count, TGI Fridays, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, Bennigans, Logan’s, Old Country Buffet, a Chinese Buffet, Chicago Uno Grille (that may have closed), Bob Evans (closing), Applebee’s, Grotto Pizza, Chili’s, Wegman’s Market Cafe, The Mall Food Court, Cracker Barrel, Ground Round, KFC, La Tolteca, Arena Bar, Friendlies, Red Lobster, we had a "Boston’s" but that closed and a Portofino is opening up soon in its place, Outback Steakhouse, Red Robin, Panera Bread, Quizno’s, and Starbucks (*phew* I think that’s all of them, although I keep coming back as I remember more)

These are all within a 5 mile or less radius.  Seriously.

We. don’t. need. any. more.  I will however go to Ruth’s Chris, because I enjoy it there and we can afford it (once in a while anyway).

My next question is this:  How long until we have our own Ikea?  Hey!  Ikea, are you listening????  Pay attention.  We NEED you.

The Mountain (102.3) just called on my cell phone.  Apparently, I just won two tickets to see Weird Al Yankovic. 

Bwahahaha.

Big trucks should not be allowed down Huntsville Rd - Washington Ave (aka the back way to Dallas from Plymouth).

I’m just saying is all.

I got behind 3 big trucks this morning, all going under the speed limit, all not used to the road, all pissing me off.  All I could smell the entire way down the mountain was burning brake pads.  It smelled so bad for so long I started to taste it in my mouth.

Burned brakes do not taste good in case you are wondering.

Gabby and Owen go to a sort-of upscale daycare center in the Back Mountain.  It costs a lot, (but not as much as the last train wreck place they were at in Wilkes-Barre) I’m not going to lie…but the care is excellent.  I have had significantly less problems since I switched centers when we moved.  This place has less Keystone Stars than the last place they were at and is not NAEYC accredited like the last place was, but somehow this new daycare still manages to be far superior in all avenues. I do not get calls in the middle of the day telling me that one of my children has snot running down their face.  The last center would call me if my child blinked at them the wrong way.  I really did get the snot call one afternoon while I was working for The Company.  "Um, what do you want me to do, can’t you wipe it?  I can’t leave work over a booger."   I would love when I’d get a "friendly reminder" that my child was out of diapers or wipes the morning of me dropping them off, instead of the night before.  One morning I got a note that Owen was out of diapers.  Of course, this was after he pooped his pants on the way to daycare.  Luckily I had some Gabby-sized diaper in my diaper bag - they didn’t exactly fit snugly but I made do.  It was too close of a call.  Of course then I was late to work because I had to run to the 24×7 Wal-Mart in W-Barre Twp because it was the only place open at 7am that sold diapers.

Can you see my frustration with that place?  Its a whole ball of wax I’d rather not get into because it pisses me off that much.  Even months after pulling my kids out of their care.

At any rate.  A lot of the parents at the new daycare are upper-middle-class to rich.  Its hard to keep up with the joneses when all of the kids your son/daughters class are dressed in Gap, Polo, Ralph Lauren etc designer labels (I shit you not).  One of the boys in Owen’s room yesterday had a birthday party.  I would assume that there was either a cake or cupcakes to be had, but in addition each of the kids in his class got a "goody bag".  Like the Mother must have spent at least 10-20 dollars per kid.  I’m not totally sure how many kids are in Owen’s room either, so this could add up fast.  Owen came home with the following in his bag:  2 mylar balloons, A coloring book, crayons, a bubble bucket, flash cards and something else that is escaping my mind right now.  Plus the gift bag itself.

Like holy crap.  I was only going to bring in Cupcakes for Owen’s birthday (2 weeks away), but now I feel like I have to do more.  I am not a millionaire and I don’t have the time or energy to put together gift bags.

Does anyone have any brilliant ideas of what I could do besides bringing the cupcakes (because I was going to do that anyway)?  I don’t want to spend a fortune.  I’m going to give a call to the daycare now and see exactly how many kids are in Owen’s class.  Keep in mind, I’m not too crafty of a person when suggesting ideas.

Update:  Just got off the phone with the daycare, there are 8 kids in Owen’s class.

For the last half hour there’s been a noise outside that I could only describe as what my 1999 Neon sounded like when I put the air conditioner on. 

"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL SQUEEEEE

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL SQUEEEEE"

For the love of god.  Just put that car out of its misery already. 

Where’s the advil?  Is it 5pm yet?

Testing posting blog entries from WordPressDash Mac widget.

I edited this video with iMovie.  I was going to try to do it with Windows Movie Maker (like I did with the Gabby video) but because my camera records clips in a quicktime format (.mov) I was not able to import the clips.  Yeah, apparently the nazis over at Microshaft only allow .wmv’s and mp4s, etc.  No quicktime for you!  Do you know of any cameras that record video files in .wmv format?  Because I don’t.  DIAF, Microsoft.

Anyway, this is the 4th of July fireworks display we had in our backyard this year following the cookout.  We have an acre so there was plenty of room to set them off safely. 

However, these folks below make us look like ammatures:

Damnit.

As of 1pm the Hanover Twp Recycling Guys/Garbage Men/Police Officers/Volunteer Firefighters haven’t been down my street.  This means my 2 FULL recycling cans are still sitting in front of my house (unless the’ve come since then).  I was planning to pick up the EMPTY cans at lunch, but that didn’t happen.  Now there is a frigging monsoon outside which means:

A)  My cans are either going to be empty and full of water or full of recycling and full of water.

B)  The contents of the FULL cans will be blown over and I’ll have to clean up the mess when I get there.

C)  The cans will be EMPTY, but will have blown down the street by the time I get back there to pick them up.  I’ve never seen it so windy here.

Why does god hate me?  Why?

I am in heaven this week.  My favorite reality shows are back!

1. Dog the Bounty Hunter premiers tonight at 9pm on A&E.
2. Project Runway premiers tonight at 9pm on Bravo.
3. Big Brother premiered Sunday night at 8pm.  Its back to its normal Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule.

Where to begin, where to begin, where to begin……

I am also digging this "Flipping Out" show on Bravo TV.  I happened to be watching an old episode of Project Runway on Bravo on Saturday and this came on afterwards.  It cracks me up.  7/22/08 Edit:  Apparently, I’m not the only one.

Oh.  And I’ve been trying to call my Mom and Dad’s cell phones to wish my Mom a Happy Bday since 9:30 am.  It goes right to voicemail (meaning its shut off).  I wouldn’t be so worried about it, but knowing my mother she’ll call me and be like "Did you forget today was my birthday????" and lay a huge guilt trip on me.  Its like, I’ve been trying to call you for hours now.  What’s the point of having a cell phone if it is NEVER ON?!  Grrrr….