As a follow up on my last post, here are the pictures (because yes, I am soooo following up, how proud of me are you?)

Paul asked to see my favorite chair. Here you go, in all it's glory. It's a recliner and it's super comfy and it's practically covered with laundry right now, which is another reason it's my favorite - it makes the perfect sized laundry basket for clothes waiting to be folded! :-)

stacey wants to see my medicine cabinent so here you go! It's actually the only medicine cabinent in the house and it's in the guest bathroom so it's filled with all the easy stuff the guests can see or general household stuff everyone might need. I don't have a REAL one in my bathroom!

Tara wants the closet so here it is. My side is the left and the middle. Steve has the right. He doesn't have that many clothes anyway ... or shoes, for that matter, considering all the ones on the floor are mine save for three or four pairs.

Duke wants to see my favorite book. Well, here's my favorite books of the moment because seriously, one or two favorite books is not happening with me. I am a HUGE bookworm and have to be dragged out of Barnes and Noble. So you're getting six of my favorites from the past few years and they're such a broad range (I know, I know, there's even some "chick lit" in there but sometimes a girl needs a light and fluffy read!).

Wedding Season by Darcy Cosper, The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Liner Notes by Emily Franklin, The Color of Light by Karen White, The Inferno by Dante Alghieri and The Lovely Bones by Alice Siebold.

That is all for now. I've got a lot more to update on but later, I promise.

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you're interested in/curious about - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favorite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an LJ entry. That way you get to know a little bit about my life.

So I had another one of my "Kristy" moments today, as Steve likes to call them.

I'm standing in this little convenience store in a tiny podunk town on the way from Myrtle Beach back to Charleston. I'm staring at the candy aisle with a wicked craving for Goldenberg's Peanut Chews and I can't seem to find them. And when I think about it, I haven't seen them anywhere down here.

So he's standing next to me and I'm bitching because I think I've found another food that I like that we can't get down here. And I grab a 5th Avenue, which at the time, seemed like the closest thing to what I wanted.

"Why don't you get a Butterfinger?" he says. "It tastes the same but you get more."

I stare at him like 'Duh!' and say "Because I want peanut butter and chocolate and a Butterfinger does not have peanut butter."

And he's quiet and just stares. "Uh huh," he says quietly.

"Is not!"

"What do you think it's made out of then?" he asks, incredulous.

I glance at the package and see "Crisy, Crunchy, Peanut Buttery" right on the package. And I sputter and say, "I ... I ... don't know. I just thought ... WELL IT DOESN'T TASTE LIKE PEANUT BUTTER."

And he stares. Then things start clicking and I say, "Well, yea, Butter Finger, peanut butter, it all makes sense now."

But I stick with my Fifth Avenue and we head to the car. About ten minutes down the road, he asks "So seriously, what did you think it was made out of?"

"I never knew. I always thought the butter meant butterscotch," I said.

And I didn't even look over at him because I knew he was staring at me and shaking his head with that shit-eating grin on his face and I so wasn't going to admit that once again, I proved my lack of common sense.

As Steve said, something's gotta go to make room for all that intelligence! :-)

In other news, I am insanely pissed off because our beloved leader has decided at eight o'clock, DURING SWEEPS & SEASON FINALE WEEK, to spend twenty minutes to however long addressing the nation about immigration legislation. Part of me cares about that, but not enough to let it pre-empt my Monday night. Because seriously, tomorrow was the ONE FRICKING NIGHT I was looking forward to - what with the season finale of Prison Break at 8pm and the FINAL TWO HOURS of Grey's Anatomy from nine to eleven. So now I have to figure out what I want to skip. Do I watch the last part of Prison Break or the first part of Grey's Anatomy? I'm thinking I'll miss the GA ONLY because you gotta see the end and you can usually pick up on what's going on halfway through.

But seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?!!?!

Finally, we spent the wekeend in Myrtle Beach and last night, we headed out to Broadway for Bike Week. That, my friends, is a sight to see. Nothing like hanging out with some beer, walking the strip and hearing the rumble of the bikes go past.

We've been spending our time gravitating between tourists and people who are just so insane from staying the house that they need to get out and go, somewhere, anywhere, any place that we can explore in our new surroundings.

This past weekend wasn't any different. We checked out a local dive bar on Friday night. To mine and Steve's chagrin, it ended up being a bar that served, not a restaurant with a bar, like we had orginally thought. So essentially, our dinner plans were ruined, a bit. I guess you live and learn on that one.

We spent Satruday with the comic relief that is my family. They really need their own TV show because just the act of going to the Air Force Base to buy a new washer and dryer, since the old one completely crapped out on them, was enough for a sitcom. My dad grumbled about the price and reserved the right to grumble the rest of the day. Steve bolstered his grumblings by pointing the much cheaper and much less frills edition sitting right next to it. My mother spent twenty minutes convincing my dad of the quality of this fancy washer & dryer set (it's the Whirlpool Duet for any of you housewife mavens who know the glory of these appliances) when she really didn't need to because at this point, she had already twisted his arm, or had already decided to do it anyway and once she decides to do something, well, there's no turning back. There was then another thirty minutes or so of loading them into the back of a friends pickup then getting them home and fitting them in the utility room after the old ones had been moved out.

Sadly, I missed that spectacle as Steve and I headed our own way and wandered around downtown, checking out the sights. I took quite a few pictures and hopefully, will have them posted sometime soon. This town is a goldmine for photographs and I plan to exploit it for all its worth.

That evening, we met back up with my parents at Boone Hall Plantation for an evening picnic and fireworks all backed by the strains of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. There was wine and beer and cheese and crackers and dinner and picnic baskets and blankets. And the sunset was silhouetted behind the old oak trees draped with Spanish moss and kids ran around and played and flung glow bracelets in the air. Everyone was there and it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable Saturday nights I've had in awhile.

But it wasn't until Sunday that it struck me. We went to the 19th Annual Blessing of the Fleet over by Shem Creek, where they have a seafood festival and bless each of the shrimp boats for a prosperous season as they float past the banks. After that we headed to the beach and came across the kite festival, with a good dozen or so colorful kites floating through the air. Then we walked along the beach for about an hour with the surf lapping at our feet.

And as we drove back home, the wind blew my hair because we were in the Jeep with the top off. The sun sparkled and we crossed the bridge and on either side of me was palm trees and the marsh. And in the distance I could see the new bridges that have a become a NEW symbol or Charleston and I grinned at Steve and said I was happy here. And we stopped at stop sign then headed over the other bridge. And with the wind blowing and the all to familair strains of Skynard so appropriately floating out of the radio, I finally felt at HOME.

Side note: I'm liking The Rising Tied by Fort Minor. I'm anticipating hearing Goodbye Alice in Wonderland by Jewel. And I seriously cannot wait for the new Dixie Chicks album, Taking the Long Way. I also think Lisa Lampanelli is hysterical along with Lynne Koplitz. I'm in love with Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, CSI and ER. Audiobooks are a great new find, particularly Smashed by Koran Zalinkas. I have Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman waiting on me.

And my iPod is my best friend!

Still trying to get paperwork and bills settled. They're slowly coming together.

Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes! I will be back a little later this week to hang out a bit more on the Internet.

For now, I leave you with some cheesy lines from The Wedding Date with Debra Messing. We watched it last night and while I felt it to be such a stereotypical chick flick, the chick part of me couldn't help but let my heart melt.

And I think I'd miss you even if we never met. - Nick Mercer

I'd rather fight with you than make love with anyone else. - Nick Mercer

And finally, a rather ingenious little toast that I may very well use for all of my girlfriends because it applies completely.

Here's to the husbands who've won you, the losers who've lost you, and the lucky bastards who've yet to meet you.