Ketchup

Hola amigos!  Ha ha, just kidding, I hate Spanish.

Well, life goes on.  I'm surviving life post-apocolyptic bug problem, and it's getting a bit better every day.  Unfortunately last night my downstairs neighbors found two alive bed bugs in their living room, which is below my bedroom.  They hadn't had any bites or any in the bed, so we're hoping it's just a few stragglers that escaped from my poison-filled walls.  They had the exterminator come this morning, and he's coming twice more, though he doesn't think he needs to do my apartment again.  I'm thinking of buying this Diatomaceous Earth stuff and shoring up the walls of my room to prevent re-entry.  Why not?  And I haven't had any more problems, thank goodness.  My bed is an island fortress (so far.)

So this past weekend was a nice one.  Friday Hike and I just chilled at his place, beat that video game we'd been playing, and hung out.  Saturday morning he headed out to Atlantic City for another boys' party for his friend's 30th birthday.  I want him to go and have fun and have man time, but I do get slightly worried about, I don't know, STRIPPERZ and hoes and stuff.  But I trust him very much, so I try to banish those thoughts.  (I was just reflecting on that this weekend -- how far I've come from a year ago as far as trusting a man.  I really found the right one after the last fiasco.)  So I kept the car and off they went, and I spent the rest of my Saturday cleaning, doing laundry, and baking some sugar-free cookies for his Grandma's 92nd birthday party on Sunday.  (She's diabetic.)  I enjoyed myself very much!  Oh, and I walked up to Steinway to buy her a brooch from one of those costume jewelry stores, and wrapped it all up pretty and signed the card from us.  I felt very wifely. 

Sunday (after texting with Mom and calls with his sister-in-law), I drove to Flushing to pick up Grandma and then we headed out to Huntington to his mom's house.  I helped with some food prep and hung out with the family friends and a girl cousin I'd not met before who was very friendly, and I did his laundry in the basement (I didn't mind because it gave me an escape every once in awhile) and then the boys (he and his brother) finally arrived at about 4 pm, and we ate steaks and chicken and salad and all sorts of good stuff.  Then when it was time for dessert, we had a million things -- peach pie, blueberry tart, my cookies (they were a hit!  The biscotti was very good, if I say so myself.), ice cream cake, this grape/walnut/cream cheese concoction, etc.  I ate so much that I got a tummy ache, but it was all delicious and I was happy to have Hike back.  He looked so cute and was being very sweet, so I felt appreciated for what I'd done to help celebrate.  (He said he met me at the perfect time, which was a new one, and made me feel great.)

So I drove us home, since he was worn out and I love driving, and that was about it for the weekend!  This week I still have some errand-y things to accomplish, such as getting my Christmas present bracelet fixed (finally), bringing home the rug I ordered for my room, buying some slimming underwear for my bridesmaid dress, etc.  Tomorrow we're seeing our free Tuesday movie, and this one will be Cowboys & Aliens, so it should be fun.  I leave in two weeks and three days for London/Scotland, so I should start thinking about packing and planning for that, too!  I am getting very excited, though I plan on traveling with lots of garbage bags to stay as bug-free as possible. 

One good side effect of this stress is that I've lost some weight.  I have no idea how much, since I threw out the scale, but my clothes are fitting better, so that feels good.  It's probably partially due to my smoking again (I don't know how to handle stress without it yet), but I'll take what I can get.  In a week or so, or maybe right after my trip, I'll re-quit.  (I know a few of my friends will be smoking there, so maybe that's too tough to stop beforehand.) 

It's been a fun/crazy/fast summer, and it feels like it's starting to wrap up, but I did get in a good visit with Schmauren last weekend at the beer garden in Astoria, plus a nice trip to Vermont and I'll be international before it's over.  I'm also feeling very happy about my relationship, so I'm excited to see how that grows in the fall and winter, and plus, you know how much I love autumn and the winter holidays!