Foto Friday

This is a sad day, everyone. Well, technically, I took this picture last weekend, but waited for today to post it, because it’s a photo. Last Sunday was a hard day for the McSnailingtons. (Yup, this is another post about them!) We came home, and as we were walking to our apartment, there was a pile a little bit from our door:

Yes, there was a McSnailington massacre. I don’t know who did it, I don’t know what happened, we just found them this way. I didn’t want to touch them, in case any were alive, so I just left them after snapping my picture. I didn’t want to disturb! Interesting, though, when I came out later that evening there was a snail on our doorstep. I wished I had snapped a picture, but I didn’t have a camera handy. I assume that the snail was Edgar, trying to ask for help. I didn’t move him, of course, you never want to move them, and I shut the door. When I came out the next morning, he, along with the rest of the snails, were all gone.

I hope that they all got out to safety, and in case any of them lost their lives, I hope they got a proper funeral service from their kind. Now that the snailocaust is over, I haven’t seen any snails since then. I’m sure they’re just laying low, avoiding making themselves noticeable. I’m still not sure if this attack was human, or if the OSnailahan’s had something to do with it. I’m keeping my eye for my tiny peeps…if ever I can help them.

The Neighbors

I don’t know many of our neighbors. I’ve seen one of them at church, and a few outside, walking about. I’ve talked to one of them, they’re fans of RSL like Husband and I are. But other than that, I’m not really sure who any of them are. Its not that I’m unfriendly, its just that I don’t know that I need to have a friendship with these guys that extends beyond a friendly wave and a ‘hello’.

Husband is out of town yet again this week. Last night, after I’d finished with all my errands, I was calming down for the evening, watching a bit of TV. I had turned off all the lights, except for my bedroom, and I was in there, watching and working on some craft projects, when all of a sudden, the doorbell rang. I look at the clock, and its a little after nine. At first, I thought it might have been Sister coming to visit me, she said she might smuggle over her adorable dog. (Miniature Doberman Pincher, so cute!) But as soon as I thought that, I realized, Sister doesn’t ring the doorbell, so I knew it couldn’t be her. So I finally creep over to the door, and attempt to look out the peephole. And…I’m not actually tall enough to see out of the peephole. I was on my tippy-toes, trying to see, and I couldn’t get to that height. So I rolled the dice, and just opened the door, even though I was scared to do so. Come on, a random doorbell, I can’t see who it is, it’s night time, I’m alone? Of course I was scared!

And there stood….the neighbors that live above us, or as I have dubbed them, The Peroxide Family. I’ve seen them at church once, and around the neighborhood a few times, and they are a family of blondes. Which is fine, except that while the children are naturally blonde, the parents have white/blonde-ish hair that is very much fake. But that’s ok, I don’t judge them on that. I judge them on being quite noisy. They live in the apartment directly above ours, and they are quite loud. The kids are jumping everywhere, and clomping down when they walk, which I keep trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, like, maybe the ceilings/floor are thin, but still, my goodness. I always know when they are home, and what they’re doing when they are there.

Anyway, the point of their visit was to tell me about some cat food the children had spilled on our patio. They came to tell me sorry, and that they’d clean it up tomorrow. They asked if I had been asleep, since all the lights were off, and that’s when I realized I am an old lady, turning off the lights at 9. But that’s ok, I embrace it. So after the tiny children apologized, they went on their way. Truthfully, had they not told me they spilled it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. I rarely go out to the patio, but that was nice of them anyway. And it was nice to see them face to face, since I’ve really only seen them from behind. Also, after they left, it took about 20 minutes to get my heart rate to normal. I really need to not be so scared when I’m home alone.

Foto Friday…Harry Potter Friday…

All right, so this technically isn’t really a legit Friday entry, but I’m combing my life of tradition (Foto Friday!) with my love of Harry Potter. And thus it begins.

As expressed above, I love Harry Potter. I didn’t hop on the HP wagon until book 4. Before then, I’d heard of it, but was like, meh, I don’t need to read a book about children and magic. But then Little Sister had the first four, and told me to read them. I read them all within about a week, and loved them. Book 4 is still my favorite, of all of them, I could read that one over and over. But I still love them all.

I’ve been on a few different sides of being the HP fan. I’ve been the regular fan, reading all the books, getting them as soon as they come out (literally, at midnight, I’ve gotten them) and I’ve worked retail when they came out, and had to work the midnight shift to sell them to other fans, ones who had actually dressed up for the events. A lot of retail people hate to work these types of events, but I loved them. Being around the people who love the books enough to be there right as soon as they’re released – it’s a great feeling for everyone there.

So tonight I’m going to the last Harry Potter movie. I’ve seen every single one, opening night, and I am really looking forward to this. I finished the 7th book again this weekend, I re-saw the first Deathly Hallows movie last night, so I’m totally ready. I am excited to see this – to finish out this chapter of my life with a movie that will satisfy my Harry Potter cravings. Luckily, I own all of the books and movies, so if ever I need to visit Hogwarts again, I can do so.

And luckily, no one died

Ladies and Gentlemen, I did something this weekend for the first time. (waiting for the applause to die down) All right, now that we have that out of our systems, I’ll continue. For some time now, Husband has been wanting me to go rafting. He was a rafting guide for a long time, he loves the river, the outdoors, etc. I think he first asked me to do this the second weekend after we’d started dating. I, however, am crazy scared of water. Yes, I’ll admit this right now, I hate water. I can’t swim, I don’t like water, we just don’t get along. But finally, almost a year later, I have given in. I finally said yes to rafting.

We went to Idaho for this, to the Payette river. I get to the river, I get on my lifejacket and make sure it’s extra secure on tight. One of our friends that was going with us secured it on for me, and then gave me all sorts of helpful trips for my first time down the river. I’ll share those now. If ever you fall out of the raft, and you can’t get back in right away, point your feet downstream as the current takes you, until they can get a rope to you. If you can make it back the boat after you fall out, when you get there, you need to have your back to the boat, and they’ll pull you up by the shoulder straps of your lifejacket. He then demonstrated that for me on dry land. The guy giving me these tips was 6’6”, and with me clocking in at an even 5’5”, he had plenty of room to do so. These tips were terrifying to me, because I guarantee that if I fall out of the raft, I will do none of these, I will sit there and scream and then promptly drown.

After a while, we finally get going. I was right behind Husband, who was in the lead on my side of the raft. We had 7 adults in the raft, 3 to each side and our “guide” on the back. (he had done the river before, and was there to guide us through it, but he was a friend of ours) We also had 2 children, a 7-year old and a 4-year old. I was relieved to have them in our boat, because they wouldn’t do anything crazy to risk the lives of tiny children. We successfully made it down the river, and it took us about an hour to do so. We got drenched, then would dry out before another rapid came along, and this cycle continued to the end. I had a lot of fun, despite my fear, but man did it wear me out.

We went only once on Saturday, and then did another run down the river on Sunday, before we had to drive back. This time, we had 2 less adults in the raft, but the kids were still with us. On this run, as we went over a particular rapid, our boat rose up in the front, like normal, but as we went up a little, the wind caught the boat, and we were at almost a 90-degree angle. Being thrown to the back of a raft, while watching the front continue to rise up? Terrifying. But having the raft go back down, with no one being thrown out? Awesome. I’d do this again.

Foto Friday

Last night, as I was walking to my car, I glanced over at a nearby bush, and I found out where the McSnailington’s live. They were everywhere. On every branch, all over the grass, my gosh. As I was inspecting the bush, I saw a baby baby snail hanging out. I tried to take a picture of it, but I don’t know how well you can see it. The first picture is the original picture, and the next one is cropped around the snail, hopefully to let you see it a little better. He was adorable, and I named him Henry.