Cars, Business, Wasps, Screaming, and Camping

Once again, I find myself in the situation that a lot has happened in my life and I'm behind on posting. I've written a summary in prose for those of you who don't want to read the novel:

Mr. B's Outback had just gotten fixed and gone to Pueblo,
It got into a fight with a hailstorm and to more fixing insurance said "no",
Went car shopping & tried to trade in the '93 trooper C4C,
Found it wasn't eligible due to procrastination by Mr. B,
Then went Rolla on a business dealing,
Mr. B found a wasps' nest in the kitchen ceiling,
Had to beg Q for assistance due to husband's vanity,
Q of course came through and saved my kitties and my sanity,
Mr. B freaked out and decided to clean basement,
Apparently got rid of my stuff with permission and still hasn't f-ing apologized,
Got off the plane just in time to fight with husband,
Packed my crap post haste and almost decided marriage was canned,
Briefly discussed if free education was prudent,
Got accused by Mr. B of being perpetual dirty-hippie student,
Went camping one hour later with Q, Munchkin, and spouses,
Banned fighting for the weekend even though all men are louses,
Had 6 hours to share alone with Mr. B on Sunday,
Then we both woke up and went our separate ways.

And the long version:

Well, in case I didn't say this already, Mr. B's Outback had just gotten fixed from the run in with the deer when he drove it down to Pueblo and got stuck in a hail storm. It didn't do any real damage, but apparantly it dinged every exterior portion of the shell of the car to the extent that insurance called it a total loss: cost of repair exceeds total value of car. So we took a settlement and now have a no-value dinged up car.

Realizing we were nowin possession of two cars in need of replacement, we decided to make a move on Cash for Clunkers because my trooper is 16 years old and gets 15 miles to the gallon. Well, thanks to the fact that my husband dragged his butt getting it registered (and had me driving it without registration for 3 months without knowing it), we have not technically "owned" this vehicle for 1 year so it does not qualify. And my husband's procrastination has finally screwed us over in the form of losing a $4,500 coupon for a new car.

I went to Rolla, MO for my first business trip last week; I feel I should note here that they took really good care of us because the flights and hotels were awesome. On Wednesday morning I get this phone call just as I walk through the door to my first meeting:

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Oh, hey Mr. B--unless something serious is happening, can I call you back around lunch?"

"Oh, um, well...I woke up this morning and there's wasps inside the house?"

"Inside the house?"

"Yeah they're coming through a hole in the kitchen ceiling."

"Uh...okay."

"Can I take care of this when I get home tonight?"

I laugh. "Not unless you want to come home to a house full of wasps--they could swarm and kill our cats. You need to take care of this like now."



Said in irritated tone: "Well, Alula, what do I do?"

I sit there in stunned disbelief for a moment. Then I respond: "Well hon, I'm in Missouri right now, so you're going to have to take care of this one by yourself."

"By doing what?!"

"Call someone."

"Who?!"

And about this time, in my head, I'm going well, there are bugs in the house and you don't want them there...who the bleep do you think you call? I say: "I'm guessing anyone from your dad to 911 depending on how many there are and what they're doing. Jesus--just assess the situation and take care of it. Or keep calling responsible adults until you find one that can help you!"

And I hung up and went to my meeting. I text him that he needs to call Orkin and then let it go. I call his father a little later to be sure he isn't suffering death by wasps alone in our home. Turns out Mr. B has gone to work.

The irony of the situation? I call Q later and she starts with "I got this frantic call from your husband earlier. He needed to know what to do to get wasps out of the house..."

The wasps really freaked him out. Orkin came the next day and gased the invaders and the nest, which was apparently inside our kitchen ceiling. We're still dealing with stragglers trying to rebuild.

Apparently Mr. B thought the basement was too dirty for Orkin to see (no kidding, that was his reasoning) so he "cleaned" it. By breaking a lot of my stuff and donating some of it without permission. I'm still not okay with it and much screaming ensued.

Then when I got home I saw the real damage and there was more screaming. And then I tried to talk to him about how my work is now offering to pay for me to get a PhD--literally pay for it. And pay me regular salary in addition and accomodate my scheduling needs for school. Mr. B said I can't do it because I was "going to become a permanent student" and blah blah blah. We were both pretty pissy and yelly and angry.

Then we took a fifteen mminute breather, started over, and just packed our crap and went out to the camp site where Q and Munchkin and spouses were waiting. We had a lovely weekend of geocaching, s'mores, and freezing our chicklets off. The tight sleeping arrangements of our tent allowed me the perfect excuse to get an albeit amature form of revenge on my husband by breaking gas while we were forced to spoon.

Then we got home, watched some TV, fought a little more, went to bed, and woke up. Now I'm back at work and he's back in Pueblo and we're getting along fine and missing each other terribly. I'm exhausted and I have to plan Movie Night for tomorrow and my family is not making things easy.

Ociffer and Snow were having a rough time of it with Post Partum Depression--she kicked him out and basically absconded with his child for a couple of weeks only allowing him visitation. According to my mom they're "doing better now". God bless him, I hate to see my brother going through these situations. My sister is having some sort of issue now too that she won't tell me about, and my cousin had her baby--another August baby--a healthy little girl. And my grandmother wants to spend more time with me, which I feel guilty about because she lives literally on my same block and I have like no time. I'm setting something up with her for later this week.

Alula