“Syrup, line one. Syrup, line one.”

Yes, the temp receptionist is still here. Yes, she still makes the same, dreary, monotone phone announcements. We THINK she meant Sarah, but it sure did sound like syrup.

When I got here, my favorite new consultant pain-in-the-ass asked me if I had traded my car, because he saw some white car (you’d think a man would be more specific) with stickers on the side windows that said RIP and in the back window it said “Grumpy Kim”. Oh ha ha ha. Let me pause a moment to laugh…

Then the mutant decides to use my phone, so he plops down in my guest chair, spins the thing around and thinks to ask me if it’s okay after he’s already dialed out. Then he proceeds to grab my notepad from in front of me to jot down a number from his voice mail, then makes another call to chat up his wife. To top it off, the freak starts picking dust and lint off my mouse pad, I guess because it is near the phone… nevermind that I’m sitting at the desk trying to use the computer at the time. I moved the mouse over and touched his hand then jumped in surprise and thought “OH GOD EWW EWW EWW” as I managed to just say “sorry, didn’t see you there.”

Anyway.. seems my brother-in-law has just bought himself a Goldwing. Looks like I’m being surrounded by motorcycles, and will probably just have to break down and get one, or else be left behind on all the road trips.

Well, managed to accomplish my major mission for the week, which was clean out that long-lost storage building I’d been paying for in Chattanooga for the last three years. Found a good home for my couch and other unwanted furniture, nearly cried as I went through boxes of cassettes which I decided to trash, and managed to trim the remainder of stuff down to just over one carload. Unpacked most of the stuff into the living room last night, so I can go through it and perhaps give away some more items, but still have three leaf bags of teddy bears in my trunk.

JamesT’s fam made it to town Friday night, as scheduled, but didn’t manage to bring their motorcycles. Once they arrived, we managed to find time for some fun, including two late night trips to the Billiards club, a sad day of miniature golf, some nummy homemade ice cream at a 6th of July bash, and then finished off a nice homemade cherry cobbler. JT’s cousin Jenny talked a blue streak about how cool her bike is, and she wears enough Harley Davidson stuff to work at their store, collects their coffee mugs, wants to buy a big gaudy keychain with their logo and a skull on it, but she said she’d never own one of their motorcycles. Go figure. She further stunned us by not recognizing a Pearl Jam song off Ten that came on at the Billiards club, and by the reactions, I think she nearly got booted from the family for the infraction. Of course, she also managed to get the only hole in one at mini-golf, which as her boyfriend predicted, became her mantra for the rest of the night. “I don’t have to do well at pool… I got the only hole in one.”

Also was lucky enough to visit JT’s best friend Nick and his fiancee, Mandy, one good time before we come back up for their wedding next weekend. Heard all about their wedding plans, honeymoon plans, and the house they just closed on and will be moving into when they get back. All this stress and Mandy is trying to quit smoking cold turkey. Like I told her, if she can make it through a wedding and moving w/o a cigarette, she’ll probably quit for good.

So, JT and I figure we have one last week to come up with a good reply for all the “so when are you two getting married” questions we expect next weekend. During a relaxing evening at the apartment pool last night, I think we narrowed it down to either we go buy fake rings and just wear them and tell people that we did it months ago, or else JT goes in for a matching toe ring to mine, and we tell people we were privately married and wear subtle toe rings so nobody harasses us. Something like that….

We dunno… I guess the best answer is “we talked about it, and we’ll do it when the time is right.”

Oh well.. that’s enough babble for now. Time to pretend to work some more.