Avoiding Biloxi, Reveling at the Fisher House

I'm writing from Biloxi, Mississippi. There is nothing notable here except several casinos and Keesler AFB. I have to admit that I like Keesler a lot (of course, I've found that I like most AF bases that I visit except Edwards (sorry, Heather)). The place we are staying at is called the Fisher House and it's actually pretty neat. It's a non-profit bed and breakfast/hotel that is for Air Force families to stay in while someone is in medical recovery. Since Kevin is getting corrective eye surgery, we qualify to stay here. It is exactly like staying at some one's house: there's a huge kitchen for guest use, washer and drier, Internet, even popcorn (my fave!). The guy in charge cooks dinner sometimes, so tonight we're having spaghetti (if we don't decide to go somewhere else). And the best part: it's alllllll free. Completely free. Free rooms, free food, free internet, free laundry, free popcorn. It still amazes me. They welcome donations, but you don't have to donate anything (but don't worry, we will). It's amazing. Really. So despite my disappointment in Biloxi, I am impressed by Keesler and by the Fisher House. This set-up follows the general rule that AF bases are nice, but the towns surrounding AF bases are crappy. Biloxi and Keesler are no different. So now I'm going to return to my lazy Monday afternoon happily surrendering to my inability to do anything productive.

Just moseying right along

Well, it may not be raining jobs in my neck of the woods, but it is raining travel opportunities. So when opportunity knocks, I like to swing open the door in welcome! Kevin and I are going to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi so that he can have corrective eye surgery (something similar to Lasik). The surgery process will occur over Labor Day weekend so we decided to take a jaunt to New Orleans while we're over there. Then in October Kevin's going to a work conference in Las Vegas that'll last a week so I'm going with him then, too. And in between I'm going to visit my friend Kelsey in Georgia while her husband is on TDY. The traveling apparently is not ending with summer. But that's okay. Oh, and we also got a new desk for our office. As soon as I'm done arranging the stuff around it, I'll post a picture. It's pretty nice and according to Kevin, we got a great deal!

The spiders are out to get me.

Okay. Anyone who knows me knows I'm afraid of spiders. Really really really really afraid of spiders. I know they are only the size of my finger tip (shudder), but in my world they take up half of the room that the two of us (i.e. me and the spider) are in. It's like they have a force field around them that saps any kind of intrepid attempt I may make to try and squash them.

And lately it seems that they have all conspired to come and terrorize me. It has rained a lot (which I'm sure has nothing whatsoever to do with this) lately and so all the spiders have decided that our house is their life raft. So do they think to politely stay hidden in corners and under things so that I can remain blissfully unaware of their existence? No. They have all decided that the safest place to stay away from the rain is on the floor on my side of the bed. There are more than 1000 square feet of great hideouts all over this house and for 3 - count them, THREE - mornings now I wake up and find myself stranded in my own bed without a spider-slaying prince to come and save me. So I've had to take my own safety and sanity into my own hands. After praying fervently that the spider doesn't move - because you know it's worse when you've seen one and then it's not there anymore and you don't know where it went - I gallop to the closest can of spider killer, spray a nice puddle onto the carpet (screw the fibers, I'm saving my life here), then watch in horror and joy as the thing twitches to death. Then I let it crustify for a few hours, then vacuum it up.

But it doesn't end there. I was mowing the backyard today and I saw the hugest brown spider EVER. Then I saw like 5 more. They are the size of baby frogs. That's big. BIG. So now I'm afraid to cut the grass or even go in our backyard.

So that's my story. The spiders are out to get me.