Well, I guess Bill’s back in the swing of things and so is the bitch. Just a few minutes ago I heard yelling between a female and a male, which I thought was the bitch and cock, but nope. The male, who I could barely hear over the bitch, was Bill. And since the cock’s obviously pissed off at its bitch at the moment, Bill looks like he’s taking the bitch off this morning. First the bitch loads up its animal, then they all leave, and Bill returns with the animal till they go get the bitch at the end of the day. I just saw the bitch slam one of the doors in a very angry fashion. Is this bitch ever happy? I’ll bet most of her fits and yelling are in regard to me. Yes, she’s naturally a hell of a mean, aggressive, boisterous, selfish, rude bitch, who doesn’t give a damn about anyone but herself, but I’m sure some of the yelling is in the hopes of me hearing it and being woken up by it. Well, take my word for it, you scrawny little sack of bones, if you were waking me up, you’d be outa here flat on your ass before you even knew what hit you! Your eviction is just a phone call away if that’s what it ever came down to, you little witch bitch!

It’s really too damn bad this bitch loves noise, cuz with the roofing adventure that’s about to come down, the whole block’s gonna be hearing it get torn up and replaced.

My ear is blocked. The good one, I mean. It seems that since getting the bad one fixed, the good ear’s giving me problems, but as a rule, most of us must be compensated like I’ve said a million times. I put some ear wax removal, some alcohol, and some peroxide in it, but it isn’t loosening up whatever’s stuck down there, so I’ll just let it work itself out in its own time.

Tom’s at the end of his cold now, which I’ve been fortunate not to catch. He’s mainly left with a bad cough.

Tom’s using the same dumpster service he used when he ordered a dumpster to clean out Ma’s house, and he’s having a dumpster delivered here between noon-3:00 tomorrow. This weekend’s when he’ll be tearing the old roof off, then Monday-Wednesday is when the new one goes on. The crucial part as far as rain goes is when he’s stripping the old roof and there’s nothing at all there to keep the rain out, but since it rarely rains on the weekends, he should be in luck and I hope God’s on our side and will help us help ourselves.

I don’t know if all the racket will draw the kid into ball games or what, but we’ll see. I wonder if they’ll think we’ve moved and that the city bought our house when they see the dumpster?

Andy called to let me know he’s so happy in life now and loves his new job. Whenever he’d get customers complaining of him being rude at restaurants, he’d get fired for it, but now, all he has to do is turn them over to customer service. His job is to refill medications, not answer questions, so when this woman was being all snotty to him, he did what he was told to do and he just turned her on over to customer service. So, he’s glad he doesn’t have to deal with these rude assholes.

Yesterday we went shopping and it was a fun day. I had great doll luck!

First we went to the bookstore to get some books. They didn’t have a copy of that book that was misnumbered, but the guy, who’s the same guy that’s always been there when we’d go there, gave me a credit slip for $5.50 and told me to keep the book so we could trade next time I go there.

Then we went to the Metro Mall which was closed, so we stopped at a fast-food drive-through to kill time. Then we went to Sears, cuz Tom had to replace something, but I waited in the car. When the mall opened, we found that they had no dolls, so then it was off to the Christown Mall where they had 3 really nice dolls. The best one there, which was Spanish or maybe even oriental of some kind, was out of my league at just over $400. There was another black or Indian doll that was nice, but she wore a hideous outfit. Then there was Bailey. Beautiful, long-haired Bailey for $283. Although yet another blue-eyed blond, she was so beautiful so I told the lady there that I wanted to check out one more store but may be back to buy her.

So then it was off to Dolls, Bears & Surprises to look at their large dolls. Obviously, neither the guy that works there nor the woman that works there knows much about what they’re doing, cuz the 28” dolls they had were $500. Not $300-$400. There was one large one that was OK, and a couple of other medium-sized ones that were nice, too, with nice faces, but they were all $500. He said in a month or so he’d have 36” dolls coming in from Germany that’d be $350. Well, this guy doesn’t always know what he’s saying when it comes to height and prices, and the woman doesn’t quite know her dolls either, cuz Patrice was there and I’ll bet you she was there all along. That’s OK, though, cuz I’ll have her sooner or later, but guess who else was there as a nice surprise bonus? Rapunzel herself! So I bought her, and now I’ll only be ordering one more doll from Ashton Drake. One more for a while, anyway, and I’m thrilled that my doll purchases are going as planned.

So, excitedly, it was back to get Bailey, but the gate was down over the store entrance. It’s only run by one person, so she obviously had to break for lunch or to use the bathroom, so we went into Walmart to look at their digital cameras which don’t use film, which Tom’s gonna be getting with his money, and we went into Radio Shack, too, but they didn’t have any.

By then, the store was open again and I bought Bailey. I couldn’t resist that sweet, angelic face and that long straight hair. I could’ve dropped the lollipop doll and gotten the Spanish one in the back of the store, but I said nah. And besides, she was a little over my limit cuz she wasn’t just $400. She was $435. However, I do intend to get a doll of some kind of color someday, be it black, Spanish, or Indian.

For now, I still have all blondes, but I finally have brown eyes which Rapunzel has. Her dress isn’t as bad as it looked in the catalog. It’s dark green with gold accents on the sleeves, in the front at the bottom, and in the flowers that are on the sides and bottom of the dress. I don’t know what you’d call the thing on her head, but it’s a combination of the same material that’s in her dress, and there are a bow and pearls too, that circle down over her forehead, with a diamond in the center.

They pulled hairs at the sides back into a swirl of curls at the back of her head that looks nice, and there are short curls that frame her face, too. Anne and Jessica have a yellow-blond shade of hair, but Summer Dream, Rapunzel, and Bailey have a darker blond. Especially Summer Dream and Rapunzel. Rapunzel’s was a bit frizzy when I got her, so I steamed it to smooth it down. It’s wavy, and if you pull it straight, it’s a few inches past her feet. Left alone, though, it’s to the hem of her dress, which goes down to her shoes, which are quite fancy. They’re black with gold circles. Although she’s about the same height as Summer Dream and taller than Jessica, her face and arms are thicker, which I like better. She may even be thicker than Anne. Jessica’s 14”, Anne’s 17”, Rapunzel’s 19”, Summer Dream’s 20”, and Bailey’s 24”.

Their prices in the mall store are weird too, cuz they had dolls smaller than Bailey that weren’t nearly as nice as she is, for $400 and up. She wasn’t in any fancy costume, though, just a sleeper, so maybe that’s why.

Bailey. Isn’t that an odd name for a girl? Sounds like a boy’s name to me, but it’s better than Gertrude. Anyway, Bailey’s not as big as I expected, but big enough. Standing up straight, she’d be 24”. Bailey doesn’t have a stand. She’s a sitting doll. She’s also the most flexible and realistic looking, next to Summer Dream. Her head moves and her arms and legs do too, but her legs are permanently bent at the knees. She’s proportioned really well, and her hands and feet look just like a real toddler. She came barefoot in light blue pajamas of light cotton material (1 piece), with matching light blue bows in her hair at the sides of her head above her ears. She’s my first doll who’s not wearing a dress, and this is two dolls wearing light blue and three wearing blue altogether that I have.

I polished her fingernails and toenails red. I’ve never seen doll eyes as real-looking as hers. In her eyes, you can see the flecks of colors that real eyes have. They’re not just one solid color with a black dot in the middle.

She’s got the best hair of them all which I do believe is human. It’s nearly to her knees. Her hair is straight and non-frizzy. I love it.

It’s hard at this point, to decide who’s my favorite, but it ain’t Jessica or Anne. I’d say it’s Bailey.

Jessica, Anne, and Summer Dream are in the music room now. Rapunzel’s got Anne’s spot in the living room and Bailey’s sitting on the recliner in the bedroom. When I get the three more dolls I hope to get, two of them will go in the music room to stand on the vanity with Anne and Jessica, and Patrice will be the one to stand in the bedroom, or maybe I can make room for her at the side of my monitor. Patrice is looking upward so I don’t want her up too high. Besides, if she’s up too high, you can see where her head attaches to her neck. I’m surprised her neck and upper body aren’t all one piece like Rapunzel’s and Summer Dream’s are.

So I’ve got Patrice on her way in December, I’ll probably order the lollipop one, and I’m hoping to get Edie with any birthday money I may get. If anyone beats me to her, I’ll turn the money into CDs, but we’ll see. Edie has that Spanish look, and the store still has two of her just like they did when I got Anne.

I can’t believe I already have 5 dolls and 1998 isn’t over yet! I didn’t plan on having my 5th doll till maybe mid-2000 if I were lucky, but after I get the next three I hope to get, I’ll probably take a break for a while. Yes, there are so many more I’d love to have, but they’re pretty expensive! Most of the dolls I’d want that aren’t from Ashton Drake are $400-$500. We’ll just have to wait and see how much money’s left over from buying new furniture for the new house. If there’s any left over, maybe I’ll get another big doll or that gorgeous pink, shiny southwestern wall hanging I saw for $400 marked down from $600. I plan to stop in a southwestern store anyway, for lamps and a few decorations to really give the new place that southwestern look in the midst of these dolls and pictures of pianos and stuffed animals and stuff that has nothing to do with the desert at all.

Later…

Yesterday was great for shopping weather-wise, cuz it was cloudy and cool. Because it’s always so hot and so sunny here, it’s a nice change to not be sweating my ass off and to not have the sun blaring in my eyes. It’s cloudy and cool today too, but the weather channel says it’s to clear up for the weekend, as is usually the case. This is the one weekend where I won’t wish it’d rain.

Tom’s feeling better and got some of the roofing stuff. He needs to get more stuff, but his car can only hold so much.

I moved Bailey out into the living room. She’s sitting on the speaker now, and Rapunzel’s on top of the TV.

I began scanning more family pictures and I may scan more. I figured what the hell, there’s room for it, and it’s always nice to have them backed up on the computer.

What happened to Andy? He leaves me a message saying how happy he is, then not even 12 hours later, I get a frantic message from him. Well, he wasn’t frantic, but he sounded anxious, depressed, and on the verge of panicking. I didn’t even know he left a message early this morning till a couple of hours after he left it. I was either listening to music or in the tub when he called, then I didn’t notice the caller ID box blinking right away. All he said was he thought I’d be awake and could really use someone to talk to. I called him back at that point but got no answer, so hopefully he took care of whatever the problem was, then went to work.