Dave is horrified to hear the goings on around here…not only was his French press taken on a camping trip (a big no-no – it should never have left the safe confines of the kitchen) but it was shattered in the gale force winds that tore through our campsite after I spent two days carefully stowing and protecting it. Then today a huge roach scooted around the kitchen and I broke a broom trying to kill it. Mom was here and laughed watching me perch on the sofa trying to herd it out like a chicken or something. Once I got it under the broom I thought I could send it out the door in a straight shot – well, I’m no hockey player. It did not go straight out. Oh no. It darted under a sofa and I had to herd it back out again. When I finally got it outside, I beat the heck out of it and broke the broom long before I broke his carapace. The legs were still kicking after I dropped a planter full of concrete chips on it. How disgusting! I can’t wait for Dave to get back and pounce on them with his bare hands (well, he does usually have a dozen or so paper towels wadded up as protection). He crouches like a tiger, stalks his prey, then leaps with precision. I’m usually perched, breathless, waiting and watching. He is so good – he never chases me with them. I know he understands I would truly scream and have a heart attack. My BROTHER, on the other hand, chased me all over our 6 acre farm with daddy longleg spiders. He was so bad! That’s when I started running. It wasn’t until much later I ran for pleasure, not dread.

Our homeowners association had its annual meeting tonight. I made kalua pig and rice for our potluck and we had a really enjoyable time getting our business done in the pool area. We elected new board members (I am one of them) and approved a change to our bylaws that I researched and drafted to allow us to appoint and compensate one of the board members as a resident manager. We transitioned to self-management over the last few months to reduce our costs and impart more of a community feel to the management of the association. Everyone is very pleased with the changes around here, and I am gratified that all my hard work reviewing the budget, soliciting bids for contractors, etc. has paid off for all of us. Our fees were reduced more than 7% this year! Sammy came to the meeting for a while (Mom was watching him for me) and enjoyed taking “minutes.” This week I have to go and review documents to decide which ones should be retained and which can be shred so that we can further reduce our expenses. One of our big line items was storing paper…ugh. I proposed a bonfire at the annual meeting, but that didn’t turn out to be feasible 😉 I’m looking forward to the coming year as we tackle some long-standing issues and make some improvements to our pool area. The association is small, but everyone is really great and willing to pitch in. We’re very lucky.