ho hum

I haven't written in a while because there's nothing going on at the moment except for the mundane. But I suppose there's no reason not to celebrate the everyday. So here's what's been happening lately:
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I don't have cable, but apparently something shocking has happened on Game of Thrones. I'm only halfway through the second book so I feel like it's dangerous to browse imgur and the like right now for fear of spoilers. People seem unhappy and I have no idea why.

And I'm trying my best to keep my ignorance.

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Here in north Texas, we're in a good place temperature wise. The days have been topping out at 90 degrees, so it's hot enough to do outdoorsy, beachy things without feeling like you're going to melt. This will all change in a month or less. There are some days in the summer I won't even go outside until after sunset. I'll walk outside to do something, get the feeling like I just stuck my head in an oven, and walk right back inside. But, we're not at that point yet, so I'm enjoying all the positives of warmer weather while I can. It's nice not having to wake up at 3 a.m. and put on my coat and scarf and gloves and wrap a blanket over my legs on the drive to work.

And flip flops. I missed wearing flip flops. Actually, I think I missed driving barefoot. I don't like driving in flip flops so I just slip them off when I get in the car.

Warmer weather also means bitey bugs are making a comeback. I already have a few marks on my feet. My lower back was itching like crazy and when I took a look at it in the mirror I saw this:

Come on. Isn't that bug bite in the perfect shape of a star? Just ignore the blobby mess underneath it. That's just my birthmark tramp stamp. Is it weird to share a picture of a bug bite on the internet? Probably, but I told you nothing much was happening in my life lately.
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I think it was way back in March that little white flags showed up in our alley way, followed by large green pipes. Like so:

I figured this was going to mean bad things. If the city wanted to do a construction project in the alley, that was just fine for everyone on the block but me. My house faces the alley way instead of the proper road, and the only way you can get into my driveway is via the alley. Since the alley is in the back of everyone else's yard, it's a mostly forgotten, overgrown area. I like to walk Reggie down there when I'm feeling too lazy for a real walk. Well, after months of looking at these pretty green pipes, the city finally decided to put them in the ground. It actually wasn't that bad. I couldn't get into the driveway for about five days, but the workers gave me plenty of notice so I could get my car out of the driveway so I wouldn't be trapped.

After about a week of of bulldozers and such, this is what the alley looks like from the same perspective as the previous picture.

I kind of miss the wild field look it had before, but it is an actual drivable alley now. I think they're almost done with all of the work. I'm hoping they clean up a bit; there's an uprooted tree and some limbs they took down that are still lying around. Ultimately, it wasn't as bad as a thought it was going to be.

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I'm still cooking once on my days off of work. The past few months, I've been cooking nothing but casseroles. They're easy and I get a lot of work lunch leftovers out of them. I'm wondering why my parents didn't do more casseroles when we were growing up. They had five kids and casseroles are a great make ahead type of meal. Instead we would have hamburger helper when they were short on time. Booh!

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School is almost out for the summer so Perry won't have any more jobs as a substitute teacher for a while. He hasn't found a full time teaching job yet, but he did get a job as a teacher's aide that he will start in August. It's a fourth of what a teacher would get paid, but it's still in his field and better than subbing.