Pickles & Dimes

Thank you so much to everyone who left comments or sent us emails regarding Jason’s uncle. We both really, really appreciated it.

His funeral was huge. He was the pillar of the community; a former wrestling coach, Navy veteran, and former member of the sheriff’s posse (for real), who was known by everyone.

At one point, the line of people coming to pay their respects was well around the block. Both of his sons are wrestling coaches, and every member of their teams showed up; it looked like something straight out of an inspirational sports movie, complete with an “ohmigod, that’s awesome” choked-up feeling.

Jason’s uncle was in a motorcycle accident 24 years ago that left him in a coma for nearly 90 days; it’s weird to think that merely shoveling a sidewalk would be his last act. And it’s going to be weird to go to a family function and not have him ask me inappropriate questions or flip off anyone who tries to take his picture.

Rest in peace, Burt. You will be missed.

The last few days have obviously been less than happy. Throw in $1,000 of repairs needed for Jason’s car and a cyclical fight that won’t release Jason and I from its good-mood-sucking rut, and I’ve been feeling kinda miserable.

So I think our latest purchase of a 20-game season ticket package for the Twins was well worth spending a chunk of our wedding money. We’d have spent that amount of money buying tickets to individual games anyway, but I knew we were goners when the non-pushy saleswoman told us where our seats would be, and invited us to sit down in them.

That’s like handing someone a newborn puppy at the pound and daring them not to adopt it.

So, we’re now the proud owners of Section 140, Row 3, Seats 10 & 11 for 20 games this season. We’re in left field, right next to the foul pole, but in fair territory.

Rows 1 & 2 are kept empty, presumably so fans can’t interfere and perform a Bartman. So we’re in the first row. We can even put our feet up (as long as the security guard who looks suspiciously like Gary Busey isn’t working our section).

Seats 10 & 11 are the last two seats on the row. We’re on the aisle. With only 11 seats in the row, if people act the way they should, we should presumably only have to stand up for four people when they need to get food or beverages or relieve their miniscule bladder. (There’s nothing I hate more than standing up multiple times for someone who can’t coordinate their food & beverage and continence needs during a game. Ask Jason!)

So there’s our bit of happiness in an otherwise sad week.

On Friday night Shauna and I welcomed a new addition to our little family. We now have a 20 game season package to see the Twins at the Metrodome this year.

Please help us welcome Section 140, Row 3, seats 10 and 11. They hold a special place in our hearts.

Pictures to follow.

Posting is going to be light for a bit; we found out that Jason’s uncle (and godfather) died unexpectedly this morning after having a heart attack.

I ended my perfect week off yesterday by cleaning up cat puke seven times, courtesy of Abby.

Seven times. The first few times (well before 6:00 a.m. of course), we felt annoyance. Then, after incident number #3, we felt bad for her. She’s alright now, but after incident #7, we were almost at Emergency Vet Level.

Completely unrelated, we are almost out of Resolve Carpet Cleaner. (The house is 90% Not Carpeting, and yet nearly every time, she puked on the area rug or the couch or the carpeted stairs or the chair, and almost (before I rudely pushed her off mid-hork) the bed).

Use the hardwood, cat!

Also, completely unrelated, we’re almost out of paper towels.

Anyway, it was a perfect week off and Jason did a great job posting in my absence. I really wish he would do it more often, since it is our site, but I’ll take what I can get.

(For those of you who requested a Jason-version of “My Life: a Children’s Book,” you’ll get it. Out of all the things we do on this site, those entries are the most labor-intensive, and Jason didn’t have time to do it because his workplace is a little more stringent with the whole “working” concept. Stay tuned.)

People at work have been asking me what exciting place I visited for vacation, and they’re visibly disappointed when I tell them, “Nothing. I stayed home. It was awesome.”

But it was. A whole week to myself to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. It was fantastic. I could’ve done a whole YEAR of it and never gotten bored. (Whenever I tell anyone this, they always say, “Oh, I think you’d get bored after a YEAR.” And I always think, “Oh, the HELL I would NOT.”)

I did a lot of napping and picture-taking and reading (4 books) and scrapbooking and knitting and organizing (which is like crack to me) and lunching with a good friend, and it was the best time ever. And at one point, while I was reading in bed under the comforter, Sunny crawled underneath the covers and laid across my hip and when I peeked at her, she was fast asleep with what looked like a smile on her face.

But it’s good to be back.

Mainly because people don’t realize I’m back.