The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

My mother, is nearing seventy, and is defiantly not a little old lady. I hope I look exactly like her at seventy, because really, she looks fifty. And acts like it. I was feeling like I should give her a call today, so phone her I did. Only to find out that she and my father had invited their priest over for dinner and my ever-precious mom tried to bribe him with pie. Now guaranteed, she is famous for her lemon meringue, but still she’s bribing a priest here. I asked if she tried for an indulgence, but the humor seemed to be lost on her.

In her defense, it wasn’t a specific bribe, just “will you do anything I ask you to for more pie” type of bribe. So, not only is my mother bribing old men to do her bidding, my parent’s priest is addicted to lemon meringue pie like heroin. I figure there are worse things in life. Like building your own house.My boyfriend, Kevin, (I’ll give you his name, because I’m sure he’ll pop up now and again as he is really the only person I see on a daily basis other than my sasquatch-esqe neighbor) and I are building a house, well, we’re not actually building it yet, but, we’re trying to research the idea and schedule it to be built. And it’s a damn nightmare. Expenses these days. I actually sat down and talked to a guy who is licensed by the state to pour and mold concrete (for foundations and such) who, admittedly said, “I have a great excavator, I go in and pour my concrete and watch it dry. I’ll give you his name if you want to hire him too”. So, in my terms of thinking, this guy just said he doesn’t do anything except watch concrete dry, and I could pay his excavator to do some outstanding work. Which in lieu of a cheaper concrete bill, I’d gladly do. Too bad the concrete bill was going to be $36,000. No wonder houses cost so much. I really think this guy was as lazy as some people I know (pointedly me), and I know if I didn’t really feel like doing something, I’d quote a million dollars for a job, and hey, if someone said yes, I’d get a million dollars. And I’d sure like to have a million dollars. To build my house.I haven’t really dealt with any of the other contractors though. There’s really a lot to consider when building a house. You need a well guy, a septic guy, a drywaller, an excavator etc. etc. and Kevin has been dealing with all of that. I help when I can, but when it comes down to it, I don’t know my arse from a hold in the ground when it comes to home construction. So, I try to comfort him after a day on the phone and say, do you want me to bake you a pie?