The insurance adjuster called last night pretty late. He was very nice and polite, and let me ramble on forever about how much I loved my Hilux and how I was never gonna find another '81 if he totalled it, and how superior the '81 22R is to other years of the 22r, and he informed me that he needed to do some market research before he reached a decision (aka he couldn't easily find a price and needed more time to poke around online and find one.) He asked about the new carb, and I ran down the list of upgrades/fixes I'd made. He told me that if it gets totalled that having receipts for those things would be in my interest. $400 carb, $200 installation, $300 floor pans, $100 exhaust bits, etc etc etc. Thankfully I have receipts.
Neutral news overall, good that he was polite and caring and doing his research. I thanked him for working hard, anyone that is still working at 830pm when you know their day starts at 8am deserves a big thank you.
In positive news, I've been peeking a bit online and have found some options for vehicles if all else fails. IF it gets totalled, we'll see how much they offer me. Then I'll try and figure out what I can afford. Stress, bummertown, but relieved that things are happening.
In commuting news, I got hit by a goose today as I rode too close to a flock of Canadian geese roadside (traffic wouldn't let me move over into the lane). As the geese took flight, they flew into me and into cars that were already going really slow, noone was hurt, the geese were unphased. It was so slow motion and hilarious that I LOL-ed for a good while down the road.
Here is a funny video of the dogs. We took them for a walk around the neighborhood after the hurricane and I guess they got really hot (it wasn't that hot outside, they're just used to jumping in the pool after walks...spoiled dogs.)

There was a large, fresh water puddle by the curb and Dottie threw herself in it.
Egon followed suit very quickly.


So ridiculous, we had to laugh and laugh. Then we bathed them when they got home.

The hurricane Irene came to visit Virginia.
In addition to the tradgedy of my favorite record by the Kinks now having a skip, this happened....

AND IT MAKES ME VERY SAD

no really, i cried about it. i've sunk so much $$$$ and time into this truck, and i guarantee you the insurance company will declare it totaled instead of fixing it.

bummmmmmmmed x 1,000,000,000,000 squared.
i know it could've been worse, my house could've gotten chopped in half, but i'm still fucking sad.
now i get to bike commute again an hour to work each way, and i'm trying really hard to be posi and look at it as more of an adventure ride than a sweatfest. MTBing is awesome and i get to take a fun, chill ride to work, with not too many hill climbs. (though the climb into my neighborhood is rated cat 5, which seems shocking but funny.) i'm trying to avoid the negative, so unless you have something posi to say, go away. seriously. i may just walk away from some conversations today.

oh lard!
this week we had an earthquake! first one i've ever experienced, and it was pretty cool! scary in the moment, but cool once i realized it was a leetle one. 5.9er.
in other news, my friend from philly recently moved into my neighborhood with his SUPER BITCHIN 64 GMC Handivan. i was thinking about this awesome van i remember from childhood, the era when we lived in the cambodian/vietnamese/white trash neighborhood known as Crestview (Pat lived there too, we went to the same elementary school where there were literally kid gang fights). fresh from the sandhills of north carolina, my mind was blown by the Roach Coach.

i was little, less than 5 years old, but its been engraved in my mind ever since then. i google image searched it, and sure enough, found some pictures of it. i had to call my mom to ask some questions, to make sure i wasn't crazy, if i'd really found photos of it, and sure enough its the real deal.

i remember being real embarassed about the lady with her boobs out.

but i DEFINITELY don't remember the lambo doors. mom swears that she saw it cruising around town within the last five years, i've been meaning to make a craigslist post looking for it.

in less exciting for me but great for cats news, i got a new piece of cat furniture!

and they like it!

especially brown cat, who likes to sit in the top and peer into the house from his perch.
so i guess the calamity of the earthquake and the intense nature of the thunderstorm that flooded my truck cab last night and the impending crash of hurricane irene, all the cool bugs are coming out.

haven't seen a single mantid in the yard, which has been a megabummer. well, until now that is.
this dude was creepin on the back door.

lurka durka, lookin at me all upside down and backwards. what a creep.
i first saw this spider when it was leetle, and teeny, and now its FUCKINGHUGE.

which is cool. i really like garden spiders, they're the only really big orb weaver we have here in virginia.
anyway.
if a tree falls on our house this weekend, i'm sure i'll post pictures, but it might take a little while to update if that same crushing tree smashes the computer or interrupts our wifi. just so you know.

seems about right.

welly well. as always things have been stupid busy.
i had time off last week to keep an eye on miss Dot, she got FIXED.

she was under the weather after surgery, but still managed to act a fool.

her little scar looked gnarly. its much nicer looking now, light pink and really healing well.
laaaast monday i took the day to try n chill, and enjoy some "do what i wanta do" time, and i went swimming and then got lunch and icecream with patty p and doodooberry and rachel.
the icecream part was amazing.

i want to eat every flavor. homemade, fresh mexican icecream!

after ice cream it was just dog time, all the time. making sure they weren't ruckusing too much, which is like, impossible.

unless they are sleeping, which i encouraged heavily during her heal time.
worked a whoppin three day workweek, which was hateful anyway.
then saturday, we took egon on his first boat adventure.

HE WAS A FREAK!
Not more than a few moments in the water, in the middle of the deep and wide James River, we passed a few geese (he really wants to eat geese) and he nearly jumped ship to go get them.
Crazy level noted, we tried to keep a tighter grasp on him. We were adventuring downstream and passed a group of about ten vultures, which kept flying away as we approached to a little tree further down the stream. Dummies. About the third time this happened, Egon just straight up lept out of the boat and into the river. ARGH! he was wearing a little harness so we just grabbed his ass right up, but it was a little panic inducing. Fool ass dog.
After that he sat in my lap and we headed for shallower waters, ones where maybe we could see the bottom and it wasn't so murky.

We found a nice sandbar and hopped out to eat lunch, and let Egon get buckwild.

He finally learned to fetch toys in water.

And he wanted to do it nonstop.

We had to enforce little breaks so he could catch his breath.

He's gotten to be a pro swimmer. The plan is to get that guy a life vest, so he'll float regardless. He leaps into the water now, I bet he'll jump off all kinds of things once he has a lifejacket and learns that he floats.
He took off into the water, swimming to get a group of whitewater rafters that had just come down the fall line and were passing thru. Seriously. What was he gonna do once he got to them? I had to dive into the river and swim after him, haul his ass back to shore. TOTAL MANIAC MODE.
After the stinky river adventure (and worries of brain melting amoeba infection) we gave that dude a BATH.

And then he slept for two days.
Seriously, he would follow you around the house but his eyes were squinty and sleepy and he'd almost fall asleep just standing here.
Sunday and Monday were intense workdays for me. I woke up at 7am both days and started sewing by 8am latest.

Dottie helped quite a bit, as always.

After a 10 hour day Sunday and a 13 hour day Monday (with some screwing around mixed in, changing pandora stations, making lunch, taking dogs outside, swiffering and cleaning random things) my back and neck was broken and I had produced a SHITTON of stuff. 11 hats (10 pictured, I know) and seven tool rolls. Tool Rolls are going to the moped shop in NYCITY (get a rope!) and hats are for a bike shop in town. Stoked, but tired.
For some reason I can't stop beating myself up that I didn't finish 10 tool rolls, but whutever, I busted ass and got a lot done.
Now I'm back at jobjob, and shockingly, I sure do wish I was home instead. What a suprise?

Somehow snuggling with this thing beats out jobjob, sitting on the phone all day and catering to rude folks. Shocker?

ha!

shit! things have been busy, head spinningly whirlwind busy!
first, there was canning!

crystal came over to help me learn some canning stuff. julie was there too, but she was fresh from knee surgery and did not can, she hung out and provided excellent commentary.

there were dill pickles, sweet pickles, pickled beets, and pickled watermelon rind! it will be awesome in a few more days, when they are ready to eat.
after the pickling, we got vietnamese for dinner. on the way, we passed this

which looked super cool. nay, amazing.
the next morning was pats bikini carwash.

look at that wutang W!
dang!

LYLAS ladies but damn, my truck hood is all scratched up now. fuck.

there were "sponge-kini's" for the ladies that volunteered to wash cars. total ridicoulous times.
remember that video, "put em on the glass" by sir mix a lot? no? here it is. its also sort of nsfw, beware. boobs.

it was inspiring.

some dudes even brought a dirtied up truck!


and that thang got dun up right, son

there were matching kente cloth xxxl nylon windbreakers worn by the lovely Candy Rain (nsfw) ladies from NY.

a motorcycle or two or more got washed.
brad d even helped out with the bikini part!

hubba hubba!

things got really ridiculous.

it was an excellent benefit. made some loot to finish up the concrete around Pats pool so the dudes can drain it and start skating it next month. yay!

monday i went swimming, then went to chicken fiesta for lunch/dinner, then to get ice cream at this little shop that makes everything fresh.

look at those popsicles, the organization and colorfulness is so rad, i love it. makes me happy to just see them. oreo popsicles? yes please.
met travis' dog, who is cute and sweet but timid.

she growls like a maniac when she plays, sounds fierce but is a weenie.
i picked up Dottie from the vet, post lady part removal, and hung with the dogs yesterday. they were all so tired, even Egon just wanted to snuggle.

it was nice, considering the scale of migrane i had all day.
i dragged myself outta the house (reverberating eyeballz and all) and did groceries. lo and behold, check out the level of amazing of the van that parked near me.

i mean, its dream worthy. i almost left a note on the windshield that just said "your van is badass, party on dude."

if you have time, peep the "all sizes" of the side profile pics in Flickr, the bubbles and cubes were supes tight.
seriously, dream worthy. note the terrible parking job.
then on that great note, i went to bed early and woke up full of dread for the next days workday. oh well. work is never a fun party.

this week has, thank goodness, flown by.
the future called

and it wants its tacos back!
stupid me, i was on the other line and couldn't answer the phone fast enough.
what is taco world? there's certainly nothing popping up on google, esp not in richmond.

the dogs had a cage fight last night. seriously, life with these two is so ridiculous. its like a shark cage!

dottie goes into fixin surgery monday, maybe she'll stop humping the dudes so much.

i mean, seriously, this is so awkward.

i started some avocado trees from seeds, they take like three freakin months to germinate, but the first one has made it through its primary leaves and is doing a second, much fuller set. i also read a lot about them, and apparently growing them from seed is kind of dumb. according to scientists, tree by tree varies as to the quality of fruit, some are horrible and inedible nasty, others are great. trees from good nurserys are grafts, so the fruit quality is guaranteed. also, we are zone 7 here, which means that we get heavy frosts. you have to protect the tree sapling from frost for the first bunch of years, and it won't produce fruit for 7-15 years. uh, so you wait 7-15 years, and maybe get crappy fruit. bummer. since i've already started em, i'm just gonna roll with it. plant em in the side yard and go from there. if they make it, rad, if not, fuckit.

mega fabric score this week means big sewing this weekend. i'm off four days, so really i should be able to produce a ton of stuff. i hope. i really want a tanktop (like dress length almost) from this stuff, i lovelovelove it. also, it will make rad hats. i want to retire from jobjob and sew for the rest of my life, it will happen. i will make it so.