I know this has been linked in a lot of blogs already, but I thought I’d continue to spread the joy. I dare you to watch this and not smile. I don’t think it’s possible.

After my little freak-out on Friday (a little aside: my first thought, after hearing about the billowing clouds of smoke enveloping our property was, "But they’re delivering the new washing machine on Thursday, where will we keep it if the house burns down?" I have my priorities, don’t I?), I spent the weekend, quite literally, chilling out. The air conditioner was blasting all day and even into the night both days, and I didn’t do much of anything. Once I knew we were probably safe and I would be able to drive home from work without worrying that I was going to encounter an inferno on the freeway, I decided a little relaxation was in order. So I stopped at the bookstore, where I browsed through cookbooks and magazines, eventually purchasing Julie & Julia. Then I stopped at a taco shop for Super Nachos, which have everything on them-beans, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, carne asada, and probably 3 other things I can’t remember now. I virtuously told them to hold the nacho cheese, but go ahead and keep the regular cheese on there. My willpower is impressive, no?

Since I was lazy, I have no finished projects to share, so I took a picture of one of my current works-in-progress:

Mr. Lucy found this at the side of the road with a ‘FREE’ sign on it, and thoughtfully brought it home for me. I’ve cleaned off as much of the flaking white, er, grey paint and cobwebs as I can and I’ve begun painting it a pale, pale blue. I’ve made a cushion but still need to cover it. I think that with the addition of lots of pretty, squishy pillows it will be a nice place to sit on our porch. Currently I would call it shabby-shabby, but I’m hoping to change the balance to more of a shabby-chic. It might just work, don’t you think?

Everything is fine, the fire is out although the air still smells pretty smoky. Kudos to the fire department who just attacked this fire and didn’t let it get too out of control! They did an amazing job. We are pretty relieved here in they hey lucy house. Now I just have to put away all the stuff Mr. Lucy packed in his car.

fire 7_14_2006
Originally uploaded by heylucy.

The latest news says the fire is contained. Big sigh of relief. I’ll still be watching the news to be sure I can make it home tonight.

I can barely type. I’m at work and Mr. Lucy just called from home. He has 15 minutes to gather whatever belongings he can grab and evacuate. There is a lot of smoke. There is a fire somewhere to the west, moving fast. There are planes dropping water. There are firetrucks on the road behind our house. Please don’t let it burn down.

UPDATE: Watching the news here. Things seem a bit more optimistic, the Fire Department has been very aggressively fighting this fire, about 6 planes and 2 helicopters are dropping fire retardent. Evacuations are voluntary, so that is also a good sign. My stomach has un-clenched a tiny bit.

Let’s lighten the mood a bit, shall we? This is a transcript of the message I left on Mr. Lucy’s mobile phone this morning when I got up (Mr. Lucy works at night), while standing cross-legged in the bathroom:

"Honey, I’m looking for a giant $10 package of toilet paper, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere."

Yesterday I asked him to stop for some toilet paper, because we were dangerously low, and he was kind enough to do so. I asked how much he spent at the store, so I could note it in the checkbook, and he said $48. "I just wanted toilet paper, what else did you get?" I asked. Well, the toilet paper alone was $10, he told me.  Now, I do generally buy the economy packs, but I don’t remember paying $10 for them. Six or seven dollars, surely, but $10?  How many rolls will $10 get you? Interesting question. I wouldn’t know the answer to that question however, because the giant package of toilet paper was still in the back of his car.

Here is a sneak peek at the pointy kitty I made for Backtack:

I am going to have to play the blonde card on this one. I thought we had to have our kitties mailed by June 10 (really, I was just so busy concentrating on all the rules-black & white, no more that 20% a third color, 5 buttons, a monogram…there just isn’t enough room in my brain sometimes), not sent so they would arrive by June 10. I actually was quite a bit ahead of the game and would have made the date easily, but I was planning on using this past weekend to make some other little treats to include, and obviously that didn’t work out too well. Ah well, I will have her in the mail in the next day or two, so hopefully she will arrive by Saturday, or Monday at the latest. I hope I don’t make the list of shame.

I really, really appreciate the kind words of sympathy. I would like to e-mail each of you personally with my gratitude, however my e-mail is yet again, not working, so I hope this will do. It’s very comforting to know that there are lots of people out there who understand what it is like to lose a pet. She was my friend and companion and my routines are all out of whack without her. There is just this absense that makes me ache. Dune is depressed, it’s like he is just pining for his Gigi. I hate it. Crap and darn-it, I miss my girl. We will get through this.