Friends, Decorating, and my deck is still not finished!!!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity at G's House. My friend from Orange County came to see us, and we took her to New Orleans for the weekend. To say we had a fabulous time would be an understatement. Even though we have spent time together before, we have always stayed close to home. Needless to say, while out in New Orleans, she was pretty much recognized everywhere we went, and mostly by men. How many do you know that would actually tell you they watched Housewives of Orange County? Apparently there are a lot, especially in New Orleans. In many cases, the husband recognized her before the wife did. It was interesting to say the least. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I had dinner for the first time ever at Brennan's and it did NOT disappoint! That may have been the best meal I have ever eaten, and I know it was the most expensive!

Once that trip was over, it was on to decorating for Christmas, which is completely done, and has been for over a week now. I don't like having to do this over Thanksgiving, so I do it before that holiday, so I can actually enjoy four days off work, and I did enjoy it very much... I am in the process of now trying not to buy the grandest kids ever too much useless stuff for Christmas. And it is H-A-R-D!!! I love buying for them, but it is not sensible and I don't want them to be expecting cars and rolexes before they are teenagers!

And, the deck that was supposed to be done two weeks ago, is still not finished, and I don't know when it will be finished. This carpenter has done lots of work for us in the past few years, but this is probably his last gig at my house. For two weeks he was "going to get started tomorrow," and when that never happened, I started sending him text messages to let him know I was PISSED, and then he finally showed up late one Friday to "mark it off." He actually worked through the weekend, including Sunday, but it was very slow going. He is very thorough and a perfectionist, but sometimes he carries it too far, and gets stuck on something no one can perfect. He worked again the three days before Thanksgiving and left with the assurance he would return on Saturday and would work Saturday and Sunday to FINISH THE PROJECT!!! And, he didn't show up at all on Saturday. He called around noon and said he was headed home to change clothes and then would be over to work. HE NEVER SHOWED AGAIN!! Sunday I sent him a not-so-nice text message and he showed up an hour later with some lame excuse. He did work until dark, but it was very slow going. He did work som e Monday, and didn't show up until 2:00 yesterday and didn't show up until noon today. So, this 3 or 4 day project has turned into a 3 or 4 week project and it is STILL NOT FINISHED. I am having company this weekend and need it to be done by tomorrow so I can at least clean up the outside area before my guest arrive. I am not getting my hopes up that this will happen. I am barely talking to him at this point because I am so completely frustrated with him. My mother-in-law would say "this too shall pass" and it will, but I need it to hurry up and pass so we can move on to something else!!! I have to mop every day to stay on top of the large quantities of dirt three dogs and a husband track in every time they go in and out the back door. And, now that I have vented about that, I feel much better.. at least until I get home and see how much/little progress he has made today. Happy Hump Day!!!