I'm Off!

Well I'm off to the North Carolina coast in just 9 1/2 hours. I'm gonna miss reading blogs and TVgasm and other related internet doodads. My Mom does have a wireless laptop connection so I may be able to check out a few things although she says it is horribly slow. I hope to have lots of fun. And now I REALLY REALLY need to get some sleep!

A Moment of Silence (Before We Weep)

I got this e-mail the other day:

Dear Valued Customer!
Thanks for doing your shopping online at Albertsons.com. In an effort to focus our attention on our in-store shopping experience, this service will no longer be available in your area as of July 21st. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Although we'll be discontinuing this service, we want you to know that Albertsons values your loyalty. We understand that grocery shopping is just one of the many things you need to accomplish in your day. That's why we're committed to providing you with clean stores, fresh products and superior customer service.In short, the best shopping experience possible.We hope to see you in your local Albertsons store soon!
Albertsons, LLC
New Ideas at Work

I love that line "We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you." They have no idea. Grocery stores are HELL for me. Sometimes I'm okay if it's just a few items and I'm on my way home from Meals on Wheels, but in general, not so much. Usually after spending 3 hours "getting ready" to go to the grocery store, when I finally get there I am okay at first. Invariably I reach critical mass and a little sing-song voice in my head starts up with "I want to get out of here!" which plays over and over, usually with a little chorus of "I want to go home, I want to go home." I've even caught myself singing it out loud. Many times I've come very close to abandoning my cart and just running out of the store. Sometimes I just get very close to the breaking point and realize I need something on the other side of the store and I just can't seem to make it over there and just decide I don't need it. It's like trying to wade through a bog. Inconvenience? Ah, hell no, just a MAJOR crimp in my life. My Sweetie, who knows me so well, has tried to reassure me and said he would take me on the weekends, but then I feel bad because he works all week.

Saturday evening we made a short run to Tom Thumb and as we were getting close to check-out time he asked me if I wanted to wait in the car (I usually say yes) but I said, "No, I'm okay." I made it through the trip and we are pretty well stocked for a while. I'll be mourning the loss of having my groceries delivered for a while, but I will just have to get over it. I guess grocery shopping can become part of my Wednesdays out, but that may make me dread Wednesdays. In any event, it is what it is, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I think, for now, I'll just concentrate on my trip to North Carolina and seeing my beloved Atlantic Ocean. Aaahhh, I can almost hear the surf and the seagulls.

Hollywood's Happy Couples

I usually wash my sheets every Monday, but on July 3rd, I thought I'd wait one more day. I knew my Sweetie would be home on the 4th and I had wanted to flip and turn the mattress for some time. Also, I figured this would be a good time to remove both mattresses and vacuum under the bed. I'm ashamed to say this but we have not done this in the 5 years since we've lived here. AND we have three cats. I was dreading what we would find. I imagined gross dried old hairballs and such. What I did NOT expect to find was a 1998 People Magazine. I can't for the life of me figure out how it got there. Not only that, but it was not from the last place we lived, it was from THE ONE BEFORE THAT! I seriously can't imagine how it survived two moves and ended up under my bed. But enough about that. The cover really floored me.

I don't know how clearly the picture is going to show up, but I'm sure you can see the headline and the line beneath it and the main picture. "Stars Who Beat The Odds and Make Love Last." That really kills me. Not one of the three couples are still together. In case you can't see the couples on the bottom right corner, they are (from left to right): Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi and Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. We know Tom and Nicole are being cool for their kids. I imagine Brooke and Andre are still friends or at least not enemies, but Baldwin and Basinger freaking HATE each other! That quote from Tom & Nicole: "We will be on our honeymoon the rest of our lives" is not exactly false. I guess they are - just not with each other.

I just wonder why they picked these three couples for their cover. Inside, for the story, they also feature Steven Spileberg & Kate Capshaw, Harry Connick & Jill Goodacre and Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson along with several other couples that (as far as I know) are still very happily married. Of course they also feature Ted Turner & Jane Fonda and Harrison Ford & Melissa Mathison.

Here are some quotes: Kim Basinger says about Baldwin, "He trusts me to the ends of the world and I trust him." Brooke Shields on Agassi, "He was more important to me, ultimately, than anything else."

As for the"Weddings of the Year!" section featured in the top right corner, that's Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, who are still together. Inside the magazine, the only "wedding of the year" couple that jumped out at me was Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. Not together.

Everyone (well except Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston, who went around saying stuff like, "Well we'll just see where this adventure takes us.") expects to be married forever. I'm really the last person who should say anything about these couples since I've been divorced twice. At least I was lucky enough to go through my divorces in private. If it ever comes up though, I will NOT make any grandiose pronouncements about the state of or future of my marriage to ANYONE. But I CAN say that My Sweetie and I will never get divorced. Hee hee hee. No, seriously. But that's off the record.

Going to the Beach. . .

I'm really looking forward to my beach trip and I think Mom is just excited as I am. She called today and we went over important details like does she have a large ice chest? Check. Does she have a small ice chest? Check. I told her I was bringing a bunch of movies and her reply was a less than enthusiastic "Oh, okay." I know she probably could, but I can't converse all day long for several days in a row. And they don't have cable. Besides, I think watching movies with someone is a good basic way to create a shared experience. I guess we'll see how that goes when I get there. She really is more of a walk around person and I'm more of a sit around person, so I guess I'm just going to do a little more moving around - which is what I would do if I were in Vegas or New Orleans or wherever. Well except Hawaii. Hawaii was a lot of very pleasant balcony sitting around. But I digress. The trip is almost just a week and a half away, and I'm pretty excited. They've had their trees and bushes put in and she can't wait for me to see them.

Biopsy Results? The phone rang this afternoon: "Hi, I'm Nurse Confusing. Your lab results came back negative. We need to make an appointment so you can discuss treatment options." I said, "Treatment for what? Didn't you say negative? Doesn't negative mean I DON'T have cancer?" I could hear her shuffling papers and she confirmed the tests were negative, but she wanted me to make an appointment. So, I'm pretty sure I don't have cancer. I thought the whole thing was pretty weird. My appointment is not until the middle of August, so I will tell the doctor about her phone manner.

Life's a Beach!

I'm pretty excited. In a few hours short of two weeks from now I will be in North Carolina, about 7 miles from the beach. My Mom and Step-Dad have parked their pull-out fifth wheel at a permanent spot down there. My Step-Dad is coming back for several weeks to do some work, so I'm going to go down and stay with Mom for a week. My very best friend, Lolo, is going to take a long weekend to visit with me for the first 3 or 4 days, and I think my friend Kim may visit after that. I'll have to write down all my favorite blogs because I have them on bookmark here. Also, I don't even know my password for my own blog, so I guess I'll have to figure that out if I want to post from my Mom's computer. I'm terrible with passwords. I once had the password "chair" on a website because that's the first thing I bought from them. I've been trying to be more consistent, and maybe my blogspot password is the one I've been using lately. I don't even know how to find out except trying to get on it from another computer.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing, smelling and hearing the ocean. I LOVE the ocean. Not so much getting into the ocean, more seeing, smelling and hearing than FEELING. And I'm looking forward to some great seafood. The only negative aspect of the trip is having to visit my grandmother. I mentioned her on this_.post . She is doing poorly and is not a very pleasant person. I realize that I would not exist if she didn't exist, but I never liked her. I was a bed wetter as a child and when I had to stay with her she made me wear diapers at bedtime. And I'm sure it didn't help that Granny (my paternal grandmother) spoiled the hell out of her 4 grandkids. The comparison between the two was like night and day. Plus with Grandma I was just one of - okay I have no idea, but my guess is - 15 grandkids. With Granny (to use a Star Trek term) I was "Three of Four." I really miss Granny. She was so cool. She introduced me to some great books. And we used to love watching "Perry Mason" together.

So less than two weeks and all I have to do is get my hair colored and buy some beachwear. I'm getting my hair done Wednesday after Meals on Wheels. I have no idea when or even from where the beachwear will be purchased. I guess I should figure that out.

TV Stuff: The first Big Brother was GREAT! I'm really looking forward to all the killer backstabbing and plotting. I wasn't expecting such an intense first episode. Also the season opener of Monk was good, but my new favorite summer show is "Psych." We really enjoyed it. It was odd that I had read good and bad reviews and kinda felt like I would like it based on the premise but it was even better than I thought. It airs Fridays at 10:00 E / 9:00 C. It is fun stuff. Yay finally some good summer television!

Oh and in two weeks, I'm going to the beach. Double Yay!

Invasion of the Sticky Paws

I finally got the pictures developed of Rufus. In the first picture he is lying on the hassock that was intended for the cats (and the other cats enjoyed lying on it and looking out the window) but Rufus decided it was also a scratch post, so I replaced it with The Castle. In the 3rd frame he is on top of one of the library shelves. He's not allowed up there anymore, but he was spoiled when he was new. That painting is a painting of my Dad that his friend Henrik Ravn (a Dane) painted when they were working in the Dominican Republic together back in '72. Dad said they would hang out every night and drink and talk. Dad imagined that canvas must be about 1/4 inch thick because Henrik just kept painting over and over it. Oh and that's Lilly's rump peeking out of the inside of the castle.

Speaking of Rufus, I discovered the joys of stickypaws . My best friend, Lolo, told me about this product and now, thanks to Rufus, Sticky Paws is starting to take over my house. It seems like every couple of days I'm putting a new strip someplace. I've always bragged about how easy it is to train a cat to use a scratch post. Now, I'm eating crow. Lilly really spoiled me for cats. She is a VERY good cat. I trained Rufus the same way I trained Lilly and he DOES use the one scratch post, but he's not into exclusivity. So every time I catch him having a go at a piece of furniture I jump up and grab the Sticky Paws. He's also a paper chewer, which drives me crazy. He'd go crazy if he were allowed in the bathroom with all the bits of stripped wallpaper on the floor.

Speaking of wallpaper, it is slow going, but it's going. I did a goofy little drawing on artpad to show my progress. It's here: http://artpad.art.com/?j1tber8n55o I've never linked to artpad before, so I hope it works. As you can see - if it works - I am no architect. It's not straight or to scale. The two "done" sections are completely done from floor to ceiling, although there are several other areas that are at least half stripped. I should scan a piece of the wallpaper just to show how freaking hideous it is, but I can't tonight because My Sweetie is asleep and I don't want to go in there. It sure felt good today to have those two sections totally cleared. I won't be doing any more until Thursday. Monday I'm going to make quiches - for some reason, that's an all-day affair. Tuesday (the 4th!) will be a fun day with My Sweetie and Wednesday of course is Meals on Wheels day.

I'm looking forward to a bunch of TV shows coming up: "Big Brother All-Stars," "Monk," and the new show "Psych." The only fresh programming we are currently watching are "Meercat Manor," "The 4400," and "The Dead Zone." We like "Rescue Me," but always forget to watch it. We watch a lot of "Frasier" on DVD. And every 3 days or so we get our Netflix movie. We just watched Omega Man. I forgot how dated it looked, but it's still fun.

Happy 4th of July and make your own fun fireworks here: http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html