The Longest Week...

Well - I don't know about y'all but this week was long. I mean, I should probably capitalize that word - Long. I have noticed a pattern though; it doesn't matter how fast or slow the work week passes, the weekend will always fly by. Monday through Friday crawled by at the pace of a snail, each day, each hour passing like the slow flow of molasses oozing from a tree trunk. Each hour passed with the tedious drip, drip, drip of time until by Friday afternoon I thought I'd go mad if the clock didn't switch to five.

I feel like this week will start in much the same pattern - when you're anticipating something, the clock always manages to creep along. I suppose we'll see just how long it can take three days to pass; and I know that once I get to Virginia the following four days will become a blur, because time flies when you're having fun!

Stepping back though - we have an office mascot! I think he is the most awesome thing ever (as long as he is on the outside of the glass) and love when the lizard comes to visit. My office mate swears that it gives her anxiety attacks but I'm thoroughly thrilled with it. Especially because it makes my office mate squirm - I need an extra laugh or two every once in a while.

The office lizard - he needs a name.

Cherry Limeade Sparkler from Taco Bell - this thing had a wicked kick. Yikes.

My co-worker's son; he is three and was schooling me in Angry Birds on Tuesday afternoon.  I mean, literally. Who knew a three year old could be so good at this?

Tuesday at work I had stumbled upon a recipe that made me drool just looking at it on the page - bacon wrapped BBQ chicken tenders. I did a whole post on those and let me tell you what, they were delicious. I walked on the treadmill like the dutiful girl that I am but with every step I knew I was closer to getting done and cooking some finger-lickin chicken. And that is exactly what I did. Trust me, I completely get the irony of walking for 45 minutes and then cooking a supper with bacon and barbeque sauce and cheese. I also got over the irony and tore it up. Ha!

Of course, this one wanted a bite.

So. Stinking. Good.

Wearing my rainbow jewelry on Wednesday - gotta love it.

Rocking his new Snoopy collar on Wednesday morning after a bath on Tuesday night.

Ah Superman - you're looking awfully good to have been around for 75 years.

Oh the adventures - I promise, long ago I wasn't nearly as clumsy and klutzy as I've apparently become. I was putting away dishes on Wednesday night and I put a red ceramic bowl into the cabinet, just plopped it down and turned around to say something to the dog. It happened almost in slow motion, just like you see things happen on TV or in commercials; I saw the bowl slip off the shelf, hit the counter and spin sideways into the floor and all I could do was brace for impact. And impact it did, with a loud crash that resulted in pieces of bowl going all over the place. Watson tore out of the kitchen like he was being chased and I jumped back and hollered - I'm sure to be a fly on the wall would have been pretty funny.

Having a dog though, again I think it's similar in some ways to having a kid. As soon as Watson decided he wasn't going to be smacked on the head by falling ceramics, he crept back into the kitchen to check things out - which meant I kept having to tell him "back up, if you step on this you'll get hurt, please move!" And like a little kid, he only barely listened - until I poked my finger on a shard of glass and hollered again, then he moved away. It was barely pricked but it bled like I'd tried to take off the end of my finger. Good grief. After the band-aids and pills fell out of the cabinet too, I just decided it was time to give up and go to bed before I hurt myself worse. I'm telling you - too much excitement. ;)

The hazards of being clumsy.

Something large and feline decided my car would be a good place to hang out.

Office lizard!

On Thursday, my friend Kristen came to visit and we decided we would take it upon ourselves to investigate what might have left the giant tracks on my car during the night Wednesday. We joked that we were doing CSI: Animal Edition and used out smart phones and a tape measure to check some things out. What did we learn? The prints on my car were about 3 and ½ inches wide, which according to the interweb means that it is a cougar. I don’t know about that – the most recent cougar sighting near MS has been in LA. It’s not impossible but we decided it was probably a large bobcat.

Either way – I know those were some big footprints! Once we decided it was a bobcat, we read up on them and discovered they are nocturnal and crepuscular; do you know what that means? I didn’t until Thursday night. I now know that means they roam/hunt in the hours of dawn and twilight as well as into the night. We decided to scoot back inside, taking Watson with us and we locked it up and settled in to watch movies. No sign of the creeping cat on Friday morning but it was fun to speculate as to what might have been….

Measuring prints...

Not exactly small feet - if you're a cat...

The least helpful member of the CSI Team. I guess he decided he'd supervise.

The office lizard is actually an office chameleon! Even cooler!!

Friday night house guest.

Friday night – I’d seen that we were supposed to get some storms but I didn’t think it would be anything too fierce. I guessed wrong on that account because by about 8 PM, things were pretty crazy. I think it was lightning about every 20 seconds and I just knew at any moment my lights were going to go off and Watson and I would be plunged into darkness. Amazingly, the lights only dimmed a few times but never actually went out. Now my TV did give up the ghost at about 8:20 and so Watson and I had to content ourselves with listening to some music until the storm passed at about 8:45.

I’ve always know my dog was afraid of bad weather but Friday night was almost comical (had I not been a little nervous myself it would have really been funny). He tensed up the closer the storm got to us and once it was in full swing, he made every step I made, right on my heels and when I finally sat down on the couch, he made sure to wedge himself between me and the blanket and hide his head. It was worse than I must have realized because after the storm passed, the weatherman was saying thing about widespread power outages, winds in excess of 68 MPH and hail. I’m glad we were spared the worst.

The stages of escalating terror...

Dear Weather Channel app - I think you are very wrong. It can't be fair outside and also sound like the world is coming to an end..

Houston - we have reached full blown terror mode. Hide until further notice.

The storm receding into the night...bye-bye!

Hello leftover tree limb from the storm...

This leaf was plastered to my car - I thought it looked cool.

On Saturday afternoon, I went to see Man of Steel again. Yes, you read that right – I’ve now seen it twice. I think it is just that good and I needed my Superman fix just one more time. I used to get a weekly dose of the caped crusader with Smallville but I haven’t had that in awhile, so I wanted just a bit more of the man in tights. It was just as good the second time and I may have caught some nods to Smallville as well as other characters in the DC universe (anyone else notice that the satellite that Supes & Zod crash into says Wayne Enterprises? Just me? I’m a nerd…its okay.) The second film has already been green lit – so that means more Superman in the near future – and I’m always okay with that.

Stumbled on these at the store - they are delicious. Yep!

So good. So, so good.

That’s about all folks. Like I said, long week – probably because it was so uneventful. This week is sure to speed by since I’ve got lots of wonderful things planned. I swear, there has got to be something to time travel and whatnot because I’m convinced that time just moves differently depending on your circumstance. I’ll leave you to ponder that one and get back to you later!