As You Wish

OMG! OMG! I know I am a loser, but I absolutely love watching So You Think You Can Dance. It is another reality show on tv about dancers and it is one of my favorite things on right now. The show has a tour of the top 10 dancers and guess what?... It is going to be in Reno November 30. Tickets go on sale August 11th at 10 am and I am pretty sure I will be the first one to buy tickets. I am so freaking excited right now I am stumbling over the letters on the keyboard.

Andrew's birthday is in November so guess what else...Happy Birthday to you Sunshine!

After my last post I was reminded of another story about my precious letter opener.

I believe it happened sometime last week when my boss was sitting straight across from me at my desk in silence. He noticed he had some unopened mail and instead of using words to ask for what he wanted he just slid his hand over the top of the envelope as if he were opening it and made the noise "sssshhhick." For some strange reason I understood what he wanted and handed him my trusty letter opener.

Maybe I am just easily amused, but I found this quite funny. Speaking of easily amused, I have another quick story to tell. The door that goes from my office to the shop only opens if you turn the knob to the left. It never fails every time my boss goes to open that door he runs into it before realizing he must turn the knob the other direction. Every time!

Gotta love the little things in life.

So once again...you know I'm crazy right?

If you were not already aware I am a very jumpy person and I guess you could say I am also a little paranoid. Even the littlest things will get a good 3 foot jump out of me. For example I know Andrew is in the house because I just stopped talking to him to go to the kitchen. Not even a minute later he "sneaks" into the kitchen behind me and pokes me or says my name. This is always followed by a jump, scream, and a pain in my chest. Don't ask me why, but this is what happens. It used to bring tears to my eyes when something would startle me. It wasn't necessarily crying, but more along the lines of watering.

Whenever I have to stay at home alone overnight, or anywhere for that matter, to be comfortable I need to have a sharp object somewhere in my vicinity just in case. Occasionally Andrew has to go work in Carlin and he stays overnight which leaves me home alone. One of the first times I had to stay by myself I will admit I was a little nervous, so I decided to keep something sharp by the bed. My "weapon" of choice happened to be a pair of scissors. I forgot the scissors were there and when Andrew came home he questioned them. I explained to him my paranoia and he replied, "How are you going to protect yourself with a pair of dull scissors?" The right answer (or at least the answer that would make sense to Andrew) would have been "it just makes me feel more secure." The answer I actually give is "I would stab or cut the intruder." Thinking about this now it does sound silly, but it made sense at the time.

My most recent encounter with needing a sharp object was yesterday at work. I was alone (which isn't new because I am at work by myself quite often), so I made sure all of the doors to the shop were locked. A couple of hours later I heard a noise in the shop, so instantly my instinct to think the worst kicked in. I decided I should probably go check it out, but first I needed some kind of protection. I looked at my desk and saw the letter opener which has a pretty good tip on it and I stuck it in my pocket. Of course there was nothing out there and I didn't have to use the letter opener, but at least I was prepared.

When I told Andrew about my ordeal he once again asked the logical question, "What would you do if you came in contact with someone?" (Note: my memory is horrible, so these quotes may not be word for word.)

I answered, "I would stab the person."

Andrew - "What if they had a gun?"

Me - "I would run, its harder to hit a moving target."

Andrew - "What if they had a knife, would you have a knife fight?"

Me - "If they are close enough to stab me I would stab them."

Andrew - "Where would you stab them?"

Me - "In the eye."

So...if you are ever thinking about sneaking up on me be careful because I might have a sharp object (or something of the sort) in my pocket and I might have to stab you in the eye. You have been warned!

I have lived with Andrew for a while now and as far as I know he likes having me around. The thing he doesn't like is my hair. Let me rephrase that...he doesn't like the trail of hair I leave behind.

A few places you will find my hair:
When I wake up in the morning there is always hair on my pillow and along the entire bed (including Andrew's side). When I take a shower my hair comes out in handfuls and clogs the drain. I have to clean out my brush at least three times every time I brush my hair. I'm sure there is more to tell, but I will spare you.

I think the breaking point for Andrew was last night. While he was helping me with laundry he held up one of my shirts and just stared at it. When I noticed what he was doing I looked to see what he was looking at...it was a piece of my hair wrapped up inside my shirt. He is amazed by the fact that after going through the washing machine and dryer the hair is still intact. The major issue here is this is not the first time this has happened and it will definitely not be the last. He has found my hair in his clothing tons of times and I think he has a phobia of loose hair. When he sees my loose hair in random places in the house it invokes his gag reflex. Don't worry though he has not thrown up yet.

Thankfully I have thick hair and I have some to spare, but it is still quite annoying. Just to clear things up Andrew does like my hair but "only when it is attached to my head." So...the next time you see me if I am bald it is because I finally lost it all or Andrew couldn't handle it anymore and he finally shaved my head.

For the past 3 days the a/c hasn't been working at our house. Do you know how much it sucks to be in a house, in Nevada, with out a/c? Well I'm here to tell you that it is no fun at all. We had a couple of fans to blow around the hot air, but really it didn't help. So for the past 3 days Andrew and I have been a sweaty, sticky, grumpy mess. Thanks to Andrew though the a/c is now working again and the house doesn't feel like a sauna.

On Saturday the furnace was making a disgustingly loud metal on metal noise which made it difficult to lay in bed and relax. We went to investigate and came to the conclusion that the motor was shot and it was going to need a new one. I know what you may be thinking, "Why would you be using a furnace in the middle of summer?" Apparently it does make sense because the furnace is hooked to the central air and you need the motor in the furnace to make the central air work. After talking to the hardware store about getting a new motor they said it would have to wait until Monday because the guy that takes care of these things only works Monday through Friday. Well of course that is how it would work because things only go wrong on weekdays, ha! (I was being sarcastic just then if you couldn't tell.)

Monday came around and we got a new motor, took it home, hooked everything up, turned it on and...the horrible metal on metal sound came screeching from the furnace again. WTF? Andrew took it all apart again and figured out it wasn't the motor at all it was the gerbil cage (or whatever it is called) that houses the motor that was making the noise. We went back to the hardware store to see about a new squirrel wheel (also known as a gerbil cage) and thankfully I knew the guy that was working and he gave us a different one in exchange for our piece of junk one. Once again we went back home, put everything back together, and to our anticipation it worked. We will no longer be baking ourselves. Yay! Not that being in 95 degree heat inside the house was a big deal (sarcastic), but I would much rather it be cooler in the house than it is outside.

After that ordeal was taken care of Andrew and I put together our new table and end table. It only (sarcastic) took about 3 hours for us to put both of the tables together, but it was worth it. Is it weird that I am excited about tables? Oh well I don't care, I know I am crazy and I am ok with it.

Now maybe Andrew will let me paint inside the house...

I read this on Anna's blog and it reminded me that my mom is just as silly.

Several times while I was still living at home with my parents my mom would say, "Allison will you put the dishes in the microwave?"

Me - "Sure...then what do you want me to do?" (All said in the sarcastic tone that children have toward their parents.)

Mom - "Oh you know what I mean."

If you haven't caught on this means that she wants me to put the dishes in the dishwasher. My mom says things like this all the time, but I still love her.

We are still alive! We went outside today and the fires are almost gone. There are still a few spots on the mountain that are burning, but for the most part the skies are clearing up. Andrew and I went to lunch with my mom and it looked like the firemen were doing a pretty good job handling our fire situation.

After lunch Andrew and I drove up by my bosses house to take a look at the damage. Thankfully his house was still standing! The fire reached the fence of his backyard and stopped there. Some of you may have heard of the fire that terrorized Tahoe just a week and a half ago...well my boss also has a house in Tahoe. He was a very lucky man twice because the fire in Tahoe was just down the street from his house and the fire in Winnemucca was just behind his house. After talking to him briefly he told us that a couple of houses down from his a barn burned down and the fire went over the man's house and burned the trees in the front yard (the man's house didn't burn at all).

So...Winnemucca will live to see another day. Hurray!

I'm not sure about the rest of Nevada, but we arrived back in Winnemucca around 7:00 pm Pacific Time and the fires were ablaze. The sky was covered in dark smoke from all of the fire that was around our poor pathetic town.

My boss and a friend live in one particular area of town and it isn't looking good for them. They are both on vacation, so they are not around to enjoy the bonfire (I know, that was a bad joke). When we got into town we drove toward where they both live and the roads were blocked off, so we couldn't see how far the fire had gotten. The mountains along one whole side of town were burning.

We got home and decided cooking was out of the question, so we decided to order pizza. I called Round Table and the boy on the other end of line told me, "Um, I'm sorry but we had to send our delivery drivers home because they are being evacuated out of their houses because of the fire. We won't be making any more deliveries tonight, but you can come pick it up." Um...I don't think so, if I'm too lazy to make my own dinner I am definitely too lazy to go pick it up. No worries though because Pizza Hut delivered and we did not have to starve. Yay!

I will post an update later as long as I am not scorched during the night.