Sorry that I haven't been around

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't post for a couple of days. It's nothing serious. I've been out of town.

As you may recall, my week started with our trip to Oklahoma City being cancelled. I was looking forward to that trip. Hot tub, cable TV, someone else making breakfast, etc.... And rare Saturday off to do tourist stuff. But it was canceled, and it wasn't replaced with anything around here, so no money coming in either.

Sunday we got a call, and I was wondering what out of district place we would be going to for the week. No such luck. It was just the one day shoot for Monday, and it was something nearby. Something that didn't make a lot of money. But, some money was better than no money, so he agreed.

Tuesday and Wednesday we should have done housework or something useful, but we didn't. He spent most of the time blogging. And while I have been complaining most of the summer that it was too hot to do anything, the temperature went down just a bit, so I had to find another excuse for not doing housework. I borrowed the entire two year set of Space 1999 from my brother. Now, I won't say that Space 1999 is the worst sci-fi show that I have ever seen, but I do wonder if maybe it is the worst sci-fi series that I've even seen that was renewed for a second season.

We watched the end of the British version of Life on Mars, started watching the sequel, and watched the first episode of the American version. I thought a bit about the work that I should be doing, but except for cooking and washing dishes, I didn't actually do much of it. I feel asleep a bit earlier than I planned Wednesday night, watching an episode of Space 1999 that had Peter Bowles in it.

If I think that I should leave my husband a note about something, I put it in front of the computer. So Wednesday night he thought that he should do the same for me, so that I would see it first thing Thursday morning. Only he didn't use a new sheet of paper, but this paper that has been sitting here for weeks that we have scribbled phone numbers and little math problems and such. Somewhere amongst all of that, he writes something about going to Shreveport and needing to be up by 8am. I got up about six, but wasn't totally awake when I turned on the computer, and I didn't notice the message at all.

An hour later, my husband wanders in. This is still a bit early for him to get up. Silly me, I thought he was wanting to be friendly. But when I went to ask what he had in mind, he asks if I wanted to go to Shreveport. Still not quite awake, it takes a few minutes for me to get that he's really asking if I want to go to Shreveport, and if I do I need to get on with it cause he's leaving in an hour.

I didn't really have to do anything except take a bath and start putting stuff in the car. Since I'd thought that we would be going to Oklahoma City for the week, I already had my knitting and such together. An hour later we were headed out of the state.

I'm rarely ever hungry that early in the morning, but I guess just the rushing around like that is a bit of work, and we soon had to stop at a McDonald's.

Shreveport isn't that far away, but if we had known that we were going we would have left the day before. Another photographer had to cancel the last two days of his schedule because his house was broken into. That sort of thing aways sucks, but it sucks worse when you're out of town and then have to go home and lose two day's pay over it.

We were making good time, and I was thinking how that the trip wasn't that bad. I was thinking that until about the last ten minutes, and then I started to feel a bit sick. Still, I was glad to get to the motel and get into our room and such. I had forgotten to pack the pillows, which is bad and meant I would have a bit of a sore neck for a few days. And we didn't get a micro-fridge, but for two days I guess we can do without it.

And then it turned out that we were lucky to get a room in our budget at all, because Gustav was coming, and everyone from New Orleans wanted to go to Shreveport for the weekend, and some of them were already there.

We grabbed a Subway sandwich for lunch, which I didn't really feel like eating, but without the micro-fridge I was pretty much stuck with that for lunch and dinner both. Then he left for work, and I set up the knitting machine in the little space between the two beds. The cable wasn't great. There was no Sci-Fi Channel and most of the other stuff that I'd normally half watch while knitting. What I really wanted to do was go for a swim, but I didn't because either no one was in the pool, or this lonely guy was in the pool. What I needed was a family with kids in the pool, and they showed up later, but right after I noticed them it started to rain. No swimming for me.

The knitting was slow. I got little pieces done. With all the ribbing, my planned project is taking a long time. So I got two little pieces done when I'd hoped to get at least four pieces done and move on to the next stage. At this rate it would take a whole month of serious work, so I think that it will have to wait til next year. I was planning a Vampira/Morticia dress for the Halloween party. Good thing that I have a backup plan.

Friday we had fish and oysters for lunch. We should have gone to a casino and a local petting zoo, but we decided that could wait til Saturday morning. He went to work, and I finished up what little bit of knitting I got done and read for a bit. Again, no swimming, as I did not want to be in the pool either by myself or with lonely talk too much guy. I especially did not want to be in the pool with lonely guy after I heard someone else tell him that it was Friday and he might get lucky tonight.

Saturday I got up before he did and I tried to pack a lot of the van myself, except for the knitting machine and photo equipment. That left us time to spend ten dollars at a casino before we went to the little alligator farm/petting zoo. No, you don't pet the alligators. But they did have some baby camels. Anyway, right when we got there, we saw a bit of excitement in the pool where they keep the smaller alligators. Alligators usually don't do much except soak in the sun, but one of them started a fight. The larger alligators were interesting too, as they kept sneaking around under the duckweed. They were going to get fed in about an hour, but we decided not to wait. We headed home.

While the ride there had been a pleasant enough trip, the ride home wasn't as pleasant. Our short time at the gator place had left us a bit hot and sticky, and while the van's AC did not leave us hot, it didn't do much about the being sticky part. We should have gone to the gator place Friday morning and then gone back to the room for a bath, but we didn't do that cause we didn't know if it would just take an hour or if it was an all day thing or what.

On the way home we stopped for lunch at Bodacious BBQ outside of Tyler. What I really wanted was the Diary Palace in Canton, but we decided that a.) we were hungry and couldn't wait that long, and b.) it was First Monday and we needed to stay clear of Canton. So that was my first trip to Bodacious BBQ, and it will probably be my last. For the price, I wasn't impressed with it, and we had to wait too long. Traditionally, waiting is not something that you do at a BBQ place. Sure, if it is a popular place and you go to lunch you have to wait in line, but usually you get your food right after you wait in line. You don't wait in line and then get a number and wait some more. It isn't like they have to cook something special for you at a BBQ place like they would have to do at say a steakhouse. It's BBQ, and it was cooked yesterday, so all they should have to do when you order it is cut it up for you. So that's what usually happens at a traditional BBQ place, you wait in line, you place an order, someone cuts something and maybe weighs it, you walk past other things like potato salad and pie, and then you take everything to the cashier and pay for it, and then you find a table and eat it. You usually don't wait for your food unless you're at a place with waiters who take your order, and it still doesn't take too long, cause the food is already made. But here you stand in line, place an order, pay, get a receipt, and wait for them to call your name or number or whatever. Why? What were they doing back there? We could have drove on to Canton by now.

Okay, maybe it did not take long enough to drive to Canton, but it did take too long. And it was more than ten dollars for a plate, more than five for just a sandwich, and two dollars each for sodas. We didn't get much for our twenty dollars plus tax. And no hot rolls like at Spring Creek.

So we are back home now. I have already wasted another four hours of my life watching more Space 1999, but I'm afraid that I was too tired to do anything else. Next week things will probably go back to normal, but we still won't have money for a while. This sucks.

Also, one or two of you may have noticed a problem with my regular email. Apparently, I am over my band-width limit. What the hell is a band-width limit? Whatever the problem is, apparently it is something that is dealt with on a monthly basis, so tomorrow it will be a new month and everything should be okay. But for today I can only use the hotmail account, assuming that it still works. Sorry about that.