Population: 2?

Everybody has that little voice in their head. I don't mean the one Oprah calls God. I mean that innocuous little voice that says things to you like "Don't forget to water the plants today." or "After this, you should unload the dryer before you clean the kitchen." Sometimes the little voice is very helpful and inventive like "Maybe you should add some fresh minced green peppers to that." This voice is also called your "internal dialogue." Today mine was a little weird. I was getting ready to go to the grocery store and I said (in my head) "Well do you want to stop by Papa G's for a beer on the way to the grocery store?" And then the answer (also in my head) was, "I don't care, it's up to you." If that wasn't weird enough, I then said (OUT LOUD) "Hey! There's only one person here!"
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On the other hand, I also tried to turn down the TV with the phone today.

Pictures, I have Pictures!

This one was taken on my birthday. This is Kate and me out partying at the Main Street Arts Fesival.

This a picture of the turtle my Mom gave me for my birthday last year. The dianthus was one of our "annuals" that came back this year. It was in a box like the one on top of the bench in the next picture but the box was busted from the hail.

This is the the trellis I attached to the end of the bench and my new tomato plant. The planter box on top of the bench has a bunch of baby dianthus plants coming in, but you can't see them from this angle.

There's my first little tomato. The plant on the left has four tiny babies now.

This picture was taken on Sunday afternoon. Early Monday evening it started pouring rain. Then the wind started going crazy and the next day all that was left of the umbrella was this:

I didn't mention it before because it seems like all I was talking about lately was the weather. Speaking of weather, when I got this last set of pictures, I still didn't have the hailstone pictures. There was ANOTHER disposable camera! It still has a lot of film left, so I guess those pictures will have to wait.

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I probably mentioned before about a possible trip to New York. It is now a done deal. I'll be there the weekend of June 8-10. We'll be staying at the Soho Grand. I looked it up on the internet and it is VERY NICE, but I must have laughed for 20 minutes when I read through the amenities:

"If travelers cannot bring their pets, the Soho Grand offers surrogate animal companionship in the form of a goldfish in your guestroom."

Sick Day for My Sweetie

My Sweetie started feeling poorly yesterday and by last night he was full-blown sick. He stayed home from work today. He sounds terrible and even had a fever, poor guy. The thing is, when he stays home sick I always feel unusually productive, so I got A LOT done. I tackled two projects that I needed to get to. One of them was hanging a corkboard in my laundry room. I'm very sentimental and hang onto all sorts of souvenirs like tickets to shows, movies, sports events and museums. I also keep postcards. Keeping stuff like that in a box is not very gratifying because I can't see it. On the other hand, that stuff can be pretty junky looking, so about two years ago I came up with the idea of a corkboard in my laundry room. Laundry rooms are generally not very entertaining. They are places where we HAVE to spend time doing chores. So about two years ago I got my board started. It filled up pretty quickly. Today I added a second board just for postcards, so I was able to spread out the tickets and things on the other one. It really IS nice to be in there doing laundry and be surrounded by these little pieces of paper that bring back pleasant memories. As for My Sweetie, I think he should stay home again tomorrow, but he's a bit of a workaholic, so I guess it's a "wait and see" situation. Although I hope he feels better, I kinda hope he will stay home so I can get more projects done.

The Camera Story

I've mentioned before that i should get a digital camera. Well here's what's going on with my cameras and pictures and whatnot. I take all of my pictures with disposable cameras. I have a perfectly nice Pentax elfina camera. Perfectly nice except it makes me look like I weigh 250 pounds. Two or three Christmases (is that a word?) ago, we were finishing up a disposable camera and the Pentax so My Sweetie took a bunch of pictures of Lolo and me in front of the Christmas tree. Well the difference was CRAZY! Like 75 pounds of crazy! Seriously. They are practically the same pictures, but side by side? Not-slim me vs. grossly obese me. I would show you the difference, but I am too vain to show the Pentax ones. Since those were developed I have only used disposable cameras for people pictures. Well going back to that, the reason I did not post my hail pictures is because apparently we had TWO disposable cameras floating around the house. One of them was not finished, so I got only the one developed on Friday. There were FOUR great pictures of My Sweetie and me from his birthday downtown, but since he does not want to be seen, there is no point in posting those. The cute picture that I thought was taken of my daughter and myself that night? Well, either I imagined that or someone else there took that with their own camera (or phone or whatever). There was one odd picture of Kate and me standing onstage behind My Sweetie at the Karaoke bar. I have no idea what that was about. Anyway, there were 11 left on the other camera, so I took several pictures of my new tomato plant and my newly cleaned deck (I did that on Saturday), so I should be able to get that film developed soon. Yeah, I really do need to get a digital camera. This is just getting silly.

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I had a perfect Mother's Day in that it went exactly as I imagined (how often does THAT happen?). My Sweetie dropped me off at Kate's - actually my Mom's house. In case I haven't mentioned it, Kate lives there now because my parents spend most of their time at their retirement place in North Carolina. Kate made a giant spread of everything you might want for chicken tacos. Before that we watched a movie (Big Business) that we used to love watching together when she was younger. It was a great day. It was like having another birthday. Oh I've explained this all out of order. My Sweetie dropped me off, we chatted, watched the movie, then My Sweetie came back for dinner with us. And we watched the "Survivor" finale. And I forgot to take pictures until the very end of the night. I think I took one of Kate. I REALLY need to get a digital camera.

Moms

This seemed an appropriate picture for a Mother's Day post. This represents 4 generations of Mothers and Daughters. If I had to guess, and well I guess I do, I'd guess it was taken in late spring or early summer of 1991. The lady in pink is my grandmother who died last summer. She was not a pleasant lady. She had 5 children and obviously favored the eldest two: her only son and her first of four daughters. My Mom was the middle child. My parents met when Mom was 14 and Dad 16. My Dad was a very domineering and jealous person, but Mom actually preferred him to my grandmother and so they were married in 1955, just after she turned 17. My brother was born in July of 1957 and I came along in April 1961. I remember my first memory of my Mom. Dad had gotten my brother and I up very early to decorate the kitchen for Mom's birthday. I remember sensing the excitement and trying to figure out what was going on. Mom worked nights and would be coming in very early from work. She walked in, we yelled, "Surprise!" and I remember thinking, "Oh, THAT'S Mom." (She hates that story.) It seems she worked nights and slept during the day. We had a lady that stayed at the house during the day to clean and watch my brother and me. Like a duck I had attached to my brother and he is the first person I have clear memories of. In all fairness to my Mom, I was probably either 1 1/2 or 2/12 when that birthday party took place and was just starting up the synapses in my brain.
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We were not close when I was a kid. Mom always worked and when she wasn't working she had to be a wife. My Dad set all of the rules and those were the rules. Dad made all decisions regarding the children although Mom was allowed to cook for us. And do our laundry when we were very young. She had no interest in my friends or my Barbies. I remember one summer night when I was 12, I came in around 10:00 or 10:30. Dad was in the Dominican Republic for the summer. My brother was 16 and was who knows where. The house was quiet. Mom walked out of her room and said, "Where have you been?" I said, "Jeanette's. I'm always at Jeanette's." She said, "Do you always stay out this late?" I remember thinking it was the oddest question. Later she told me she thought she may have been suffering from depression that summer.
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At the end of that summer, my Dad changed careers and that November we moved to a much larger town 70 miles away. The pressures of his new job and the lifestyle changes took their toll on him over the next few years and he became more abusive to my Mom than ever before. In the spring of 1976, Mom finally made her escape. My brother was away in the Air Force and was kept in the dark about all of this until almost Christmas because "they didn't want to upset him." Meanwhile as part of Mom's escape plan, she accused him of asault (he did) and took out a restraining order so that he could not come back to our apartment. Unfortunately, Mom was in another town and the only person in the apartment was me, trying to finish up 9th grade. My Dad called my boyfriend's mom and they took me in for several weeks until Dad could find a place for us to live. So my first important shopping trip for a dress-up gown, for the Drama Club event at The Village Dinner Theater (we saw "Oliver!") was done with Mrs. York. Also I was in a play that ran for three nights and no one came. The last night of the play I burst into tears. No one knew what was going on except my friend Joan, who was also in the play. She told everyone and they all gave me their flowers. Man I felt so pathetic. It was sweet of everyone. Even the popular cheerleaders, who played saloon girl extras, gave me their flowers.
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There was no custody hearing or anything. I just knew I had to live with my Dad or my Mom would never be free. She needed a clean break and that couldn't happen if I were with her. I knew Dad would use me as an excuse to see Mom. I didn't see her a lot after that. She stopped by Sears a few times when I worked there when I was 16 and she once came to see me sing (in school chorus) at the mall near her apartment. Sometimes when my High School Boyfriend and I were going to Chapel Hill, we would stop by Mom's to say hi and a few times she invited me over for dinner. Then at the beginning of my senior year she called to tell me she was moving to Texas.
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I was already spiraling down into my anorexia when I got this news. I went to school for half a day, went to work at a job I hated (selling shoes at Montgomery Ward) and took ballet once a week. My diet consisted of a small glass of orange juice every morning with a vitamin and during the day, crushed ice. I did drink Pepsi, so I guess I was getting some calories there. When I felt hungry, I ate crushed ice. Sometimes I would eat some lettuce. I think Dad noticed something but didn't handle it well. I would come in around 10:00 at night and he would say he had made dinner and make me a plate. I would push it around and he would yell at me so I would cry and go to my room. In early January, I called my Mom and asked if I could come to live with her. I posted some of that here.
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After my freshman year at UNCG, I spent the summer with Mom. I was a chicken and didn't tell her until near the end of the summer that I wasn't going back to school. She did not take that news well and we were not getting along very well, so I went back to N.C. to live with my Dad. That's why I was in N.C. for the car accident. That next summer I came back to Texas for good. I went to the community college at night and worked for my step-dad full time during the day. At the end of that school year, when I was 21, I finally moved out on my own (okay, well, with a guy). The next year, I met Kate's dad and moved in with my brother and him. I got pregnant that winter and Mom was okay with it. One of her country club friends gave me a baby shower! I knew Mom did not like kids, so in an attempt to create some bonding, I named my daughter after my mother. The biggest surprise of my life came after the baby was born. My Mom, who is terrified of freeways, drove over to my house in Dallas every morning to help me. She would leave just before my husband got home, with dinner cooking and instructions on how to finish everything. She was awesome and I think that's when our adult bond as mother and daughter truly began.
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With the exception of my two divorces, we have not had any bumpy times and have become the best of friends. (Yeah Mom gets mad at me when I leave a husband - fortunately that won't happen again!) I really love my Mom and I'll miss her a lot on Sunday. They will be back in a couple of weeks and I did send her a nice gift. I want to mention that when I started this post, I did not mean for it to go in this direction and be so revealing, but that's where it went and that's where it will stay. I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

Some Follow-ups

I thought I'd post some follow-ups on stuff from former posts. About that trellis I attached to the end of the built-in bench on my deck: I put a large square container there and planted two container tomato plants in it. They are doing well and one has a little tomato already about the size of a large grape. I have no (memorable) experience with tomatoes. My first husband and I grew some in the ground back in 1986, but I guess he did all the work. Or I just don't remember much about it. My SIL stopped by on Sunday and told me we should get some special tomato plant food. I was just going to use miracle grow, but maybe I will check out this special food. I also planted verbena in a pot by the mailbox. We have a brick mailbox with a built-in planter, but I have never been able to grow anything there, so I put a pretty pot in there. We also had an odd spot in a bed out front where a bush used to be. I put a squat wide flower pot there with zinnias. They are doing well. Now I just need to take care of the rest of the backyard.
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The tendonitis in my shoulder seemed to be improving and then last night as I was reaching for something I had a sharp stabbing pain that made me cry out. That has happened many times today and is annoying as hell. This has put a crimp in things such as yard work and painting.
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About the painting: The base green is on, I just need to touch up spots that came up with the tape. I was going to do that on Saturday and then sponge on Sunday, but it was too humid. And I was tired from all of the noise and mess because of the roofing.
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The roofing: Our phone rang at 6:58 a.m. Saturday morning and since I had been asleep approximately 3 hours, I was in no shape to properly answer the phone. Then it rang AGAIN!!! It was our neighbor the roofer who asked if we could move my truck so they could park a trailer there. And they were out there waiting! They started a little before 8:00. It was noisy as hell, but I made myself sleep through it. I had really weird dreams, though. Because of the clear skylight in the master bathroom, we couldn't use that one all day. We now have a new roof, three new skylights and a new vent thing (for the attic fan) - another good thing if we ever have to sell the house. It was drizzly outside and with the skylight being off at times it was WAY too humid in the house to paint, so I will do all that next weekend.
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I'm going to drop off two rolls of film on Wednesday so I hope to have some good pictures to post at the end of the week. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics of the hailstones in the backyard and the pictures from My Sweetie's birthday downtown. I think there may be a good one of my daughter and me.
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The dress: Yeah that dress I ordered was a major disappointment. 1) it was not tapered at all like in the picture. It was one big rectangle with sleeves. and 2) the material was thin and cheap. If it had cost $15, I would keep it and have it tailored, but it just was not worth the price I paid, so back it goes. Sigh.
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I think that was everything that has been left hanging. If I forgot something, just ask.

By Request

Josie wanted to hear my "Red Truck Story." It's my only metaphysical experience. Here it is:
The custody arrangement for my daughter gave her dad summer custody. I got Kate every other weekend and for "up to 10 days of my choosing." It was summer, and it was my weekend, so on an early Friday evening, I hit the road to head for southeast Dallas. It was about a 39 mile trip during rush hour heading east on Hwy 30. There was a place I always stopped for beers (it was actually legal to drink and drive here back then) that was just a few miles from my house. This little store was just off of 820 south. I grabbed my beer and headed down the service road to get back on the highway. At the top of the hill before the access ramp was a 4-way stop. To the left is a bridge that crosses 820. Because of the hill of the service road and the arc of the bridge you really couldn't see much on the bridge. I pulled up to the 4-way stop, stopped and looked to my left. A large van pulled up at the same time. I was on a one-way service road so I only had two directions to check: my left and my right. There was no one on the right and just the van from the bridge on my left. This is where it starts to get weird.
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I've ALWAYS been one of those people that when at a 4-way stop, when the order is fuzzy, I shoot a certain look at the other driver and take off. Well, I looked at that driver and didn't move. Then my internal voice said, "What are you doing?" Then I looked at that driver again and they were looking at ME funny. So again, I was thinking "Why aren't you going? Why are you just sitting here?!?" It was like my brain couldn't figure out why my foot was not moving to press the accelerator and it was confusing the hell out of me. Then a small red truck came barreling through the intersection crossing right in front of me. They were in the lane to the left of the large van. I never saw that truck come across the bridge. I didn't see it until it flew right in front of me at about 45 or 50 mph.
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The van driver and I met eyes. We both had crazy eyes. I waved her through. Then I very carefully pulled through and very cautiously entered the highway. I was SO shaken up. I kept replaying that moment over and over in my head. If I had just proceeded as usual, that red truck would have slammed RIGHT INTO ME. And then: What made me hesitate? Why was I frozen and confused? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Although I was careful for the rest of that drive, I felt safe. I KNEW it wasn't my day to die.

Just another wacky Wednesday

As usual, my Wednesday was long, but it was all really funny to me. It started out bad. The phone rang 10 minutes before my alarm was to go off (don't you HATE that?) and it was the insurance claims lady. I've mentioned before (probably 800 times) that I AM NOT a morning person. She was all explaining stuff and asked for the name of our mortgage company. I felt stupid for not knowing. I've had various fiscal responsibilities in my 3 marriages from doing everything to doing nothing, and I'm at the doing nothing phase again. So I told her to call My Sweetie at work and then I couldn't think of his number and had to get out of bed and go all the way across the house to find it on my cell phone. I bet she was rolling her eyes the whole time. MOW went fine, "Lenny" was back home from the hospital (he had had diabetic complications) and my 97-year-old lady was out of bed and sitting in a chair for the first time in a month. You know the old saying, "out of the mouths of babes?" well "and very old people" should be added to that. She seemed so happy to see me and then looked at me funny and in her thick accent said, "Why does your face look fat?" Her son seemed embarrassed, but I thought it was hilarious. I said, "Well I do feel kind of bloated. My rings felt a little tight when I put them on." I thought that would be the end of that. Then HE said, "Are you having your period?" Oh. My. God. I still can't believe he said that. I just looked at him cooly and said something like, "Pfffft, I'm too old for that."
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Yesterday, Lolo and I were discussing the pros and cons of having a camera phone. Then I saw something today and decided I need to get one. Two houses down from one of my MOW stops was a house with EXTERNAL bamboo blinds. That was weird. I have got to get a camera phone. Speaking of phones, I sent my second ever text message today which was "call me" and it took me about 15 minutes. I did figure out how to put the space in there, so I was pretty proud of myself. Slow and steady wins the race. That's my new mantra. I find it very calming.
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I always stop at this dive bar for two beers before I go to lunch and the bartender who is A YEAR YOUNGER than my daughter was in there with her 12-day-old baby. The crazy old man from last week came in while I was over looking at the baby and sat in MY seat. I said, "You're in my seat!" and he moved. He's very odd. Just as I was leaving he said he had five children aged 7 to 33. That was too weird. I wish I had not told him I was there every Wednesday. I have a feeling he will be there every Wednesday now. He's okay, he just has weird mannerisms. At least he gave up the barstool.
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I went to Friday's for lunch and ended up in a rousing trivia game (the NTN game) with the bartender and another man. The bartender kinda reminds me of Cheech (and/or Chong). He was pretty serious about his trivia though. And the other man had the most annoying voice. If I had to guess, he was one of those 60's hippies. He spoke in a flat monotone and spoke QUITE OFTEN. I kept expecting him to add "dude" at the end of each sentence. Oh, and I won all the trivia games.
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I went to Italianni's after that and found out my favorite old bartender is back (he had moved to Colorado). I also invented a great drink. I think I'll call it a "Washington Apple Splash." It's a Washington Apple on ice with a splash of club soda. Yummy. It was so funny when I asked the new bartender (not the Colorado guy) if he had met my daughter yet. Two different people said, "She was in here Monday night." Small world. My Sweetie called and asked where I was. He was freaking out because there was another tornado watch. I wasn't worried because it was very light outside.
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I hit the grocery store on the way home (shudder), made it home, and shortly thereafter we started with "The Weather" again. All of the local channels were discussing 90 mph winds and tornado conditions. My Sweetie was freaking out, but after that hail storm from hell, none of it bothers me anymore. I was on the phone with my friend Kim (see side note*) and my daughter called on my cell phone. She was concerned about "the weather" and had a long drive home. I told her to stop by to wait it out. Sure enough, it started to get bad. There was no hail and no tornado but the straight line winds and flooding caused LOTS of damage. It was weird seeing all the cars in the water on the news. Who are these people that drive into water? Flooding kills more people than any other weather condition. Geeez.
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I'm sure I left out a bunch of stuff I'll think of later, but on *A SIDE NOTE: I got a gift box from my friend Kim yesterday. It had three smaller boxes inside. I was on the phone with Lolo as I opened the boxes. The first box had a really cool cell phone holder/clip with a Duke logo. The second box had a lovely gardenia-scented candle. I opened the third box and said, "What the hell is this? It looks like drug paraphanalia?" I described it to Lolo and we had a good laugh. It was a ceramic ring that you place on a light bulb and gardenia-scented oil to pour into the ring. Seriously, if you've never seen that type of thing before, you'd be confused, too.
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One last thing: Blood Diamond: Good movie.

Finally!

The insurance claims adjustor finally came out today. Our neighbor the roofer also came over. She (the claims adjustor) cleared us for a new roof. That means the wait will probably be a bit longer than if we were just going to get the skylights fixed. I really hate having that skylight covered. I didn't realize how much light we got from it. The other thing is I finally started painting the green (Northern Glen) on my bathroom walls. I did the cutting, or edging or whatever you call it. Most people roll first because that's easier and more gratifying, but I like to edge first, so that when I roll tomorrow, I will have full green walls. On Monday I will do any last touch ups, and if I don't do it on Sunday I will put the mini-blinds back up. I like to open the windows when I shower and I miss that. I've temporarily taped wrapping paper cut to fit on the windows and it's silver wrapping paper that says "wedding" all over, so it's amusing, and lets some light through, but I like to be able to look outside while I shower. I'm not going to sponge until next weekend because when I went to the doctor on Monday he said I have tendonitis in my right shoulder, so I want to give it a few days to recover. I did ice it today after I finished painting. And I'm not going to sponge the inside of the windows. I painted them the sponge color (Irish Paddock) and am going to leave them flat - that's why I can go ahead and put the mini-blinds back up. I hope I like the sponge pattern. I went to two places and wasn't thrilled with the sponges but I finally picked one out. Anyway I'm just glad that some things are finally (FINALLY!) getting done. But there will always be the next project. And yes, there IS a next project. Ack!

The Blogger Kinship

Tonight I found out in the most horrific way what my fellow bloggers mean to me. Magazine Man, who I've been reading for almost two years has suffered a terrible blow. Both of his parents were killed in an awful car accident on the way to see their new grandaughter, who was born last Saturday. They were also to take part in their older grandson's first communion and their granddaughter's 6th birthday. The accident was so bad it was on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/26/indiana.tollroad.ap/index.html I was so floored when I read his post, I cried uncontrollably. He has told so many great stories about his childhood and family that I felt like I had lost people that I knew. Please send your warmest thoughts, prayers or whatever your spiritual inclinations deem appropriate to this man and his family.
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Rest in Peace Doug and Mary.

I.Am.Dumber.Than.A.Spoon

For absolutely no particular reason, which is why I do most things, I decided to send my first text message today. I had made tuna to have tuna sandwiches for dinner. My daughter just started a new job that requires 9 weeks of (8 hours a day) training. She loves my tuna. I figured since she is always reading text messages, it would be the easiest way to get her attention when she had a break or was finished for the day.
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It didn't start out well. I found the text message part on my cell phone easily enough but I couldn't quite understand the prompts. Also because my battery was low I decided to do this standing at the bar where I keep my phone plugged in. So I'm standing there pushing button after button trying to figure out what to do. After about 15 minutes, I think I've got it figured out. The only thing is, I don't know how to make spaces between words. So I typed: Madetunawantsome? I was actually pretty proud of myself for finding the question mark. Finally, I pressed the send button. My house phone rang immediately. I thought that was odd. Then I answered and a female computer voice said something like, "A text message has been sent to this land line. Would you like to hear it?" So I pressed # or whatever it told me to do and this female computer voice said "mad-et-oohna-want-some." I laughed and laughed. It sounded like an ancient curse (I've been watching a lot of "Buffy" lately). But I was very frustrated.
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After trying and trying to figure out how to change the phone number for the message, I decided to try a different approach. Instead of going straight to the texting part, I went to my phone contacts section of the phone. I scrolled down to my daughter's name, found a text option, typed out: Madetunawantsome? again and then hit "send." A screen came up and said message sent to ########. I can't put the actual number, but I had sent it to my daughter's home phone!!! At this point, I was sweating and flustered, so I went for a fresh beer and a smoke.
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I had probably wasted about 40 minutes of my life by this point. I came back in, sat on the floor, took some deep breaths and tried again. I never did find out how to make a space, but I found the period button. So after making sure I had Kate's cell phone number, I typed in: Made.Tune.Want.Some? It was enough. She got the message. A short while later, I got the message: Yes.
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When my daughter arrived I told her the whole story, which she thought was funny. She said, "It's like you were sending a telegram. I'm surprised you didn't put 'stop' between the words." Yeah, here's my next one:
Im.Stupid.Stop.Sending.Text.Messages.Stop

I'm 46!

I had a fun birthday. I had phone calls that were expected and not expected. It started out as a lazy day. My Sweetie brought my lunch, which was nice because he never comes home for lunch. Then I watched my soap and took a couch nap. After that it was pretty much phone stuff. I think I talked to my Mom for almost an hour. I also had a great chat with my best friend. The weirdest one was a call from my brother. I don't really care for him and am waiting for a HUGE apology, so I was very surprised when he called. I talked to him for a long time because I was dreading the saying goodbye part and was afraid he would say, "I love you." And no way could I say it back. So finally I said, "Well thanks for calling, that was sweet!" and I hung up. I couldn't even say that my daughter was here because she dislikes him more than I do and I was afraid he would ask to speak to her. The good part of the conversation - because I am all about good parts - is that i found out some neat stuff about my 11-year-old nephew.
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My Sweetie, my daughter, and I went to Mercado Juarez. They have the best salsa in the universe. After dinner we went downtown for the Main Street arts festival. I thought it would be okay at night but I was wrong. There were hordes of people and people with kids and strollers and it was after 9:00. WTF?!? Who has children out after 9:00 at a street festival? I finally forced myself to relax and we found a good spot to hang out near a great jazz/pop band. I was a little disappointed that a lot of the arts vendors were shut down when we got there. I guess it IS a long day for them. I was going to get myself something to be from my Mom because she sent me money. Oh well.
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My daughter needed to use the bathroom, so I said, "Let's go in the Marriott." It was the hotel we stayed in for My Sweetie's birthday two weeks ago, and I knew where a public bathroom was. It was fun being back in there. She was nervous at first and I said, "just act like you belong."
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We went to the Flying Saucer after that. We didn't stay long and headed home to drop off Kate. Then My Sweetie and I went to our neighborhood bar to play the NTN trivia game. It was very frustrating because the questions were awful and it was my birthday. I never did win, but I broke 10,000 - which is always my goal for that game. The good part is we took lots of pictures along the way. I hope some of them are good.
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So now I'm 46.

Yes, We Have No Segues

I'm not usually someone who likes to talk about their physical attributes, but I had a nice surprise yesterday. I wanted to order this dress from TravelSmith.com (thanks jammie j!), and I was confused about their sizes. I looked at their sizing chart and went into our guest room (also my sewing room) to take my measurements. Although the numbers are large, (yeah, I know I need to lose 10 or 15 pounds!) I was pleasantly surprised to find out that: my bust and hips are the same size AND my waist is 9 inches smaller. I was always told a perfect figure meant the waist was 10 inches smaller than the other two, so I was only an inch off. Ideally all three of my numbers should be about 4 inches smaller, but I still thought it was pretty cool that I had that balance. And thanks again J for that website. This dress is about the same color as my eyes and is wrinkle-free. I'm going to wear it in New York in June.
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Because I am so NOT computer (okay, internet) savvy, I've been putting all my photos on this computer. I realized the other day that if My Sweetie decides to get a new computer, all my blog pics would be dust. I just started a yahoo picture thing. That dress up there is my first one from that account. Now I need to go back and replace every single picture on my blog. Although I'm not as picture posty as some people, I think it's going to be a long and tedious task. I transfered 83 pics so far, but I don't think I have all of them on there. Yeah, this is gonna be some fun.
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Meals on Wheels was bittersweet in two ways: I had three weeks in a row with my daughter, but she starts her new job on Monday. On the plus side, after her 9 weeks of Monday through Friday training, she will have Wednesdays off. The other one is that one of my original ladies is dying. I know I shouldn't be sad, because she is 97, but I will miss her. I was surprised that she was still alive today. I hope her son calls me when she goes. She is one sweet lady.
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I'll be 46 on Friday. I wish I knew how to act 46. I'm the most childish person in the universe over the age of 12. Oh, except for that guy on Pegasus 12.

Still With the Holes in My House

We haven't had anyone official out yet, but our neighbor, a roofer, went up on the house with My Sweetie this evening. He says we can get our whole roof replaced. He's going to meet with My Sweetie and the claims adjustor tomorrow. I have a feeling the insurance company is going to say "No" to the whole re-roofing thing, but what do I know? The thing is I don't like this neighbor guy. I don't have a legitimate reason not to like him as we really don't know any of our neighbors - I just get bad vibes or something. Several years ago, the guy replacing our hot water heater recognized the guy's truck over there and said, "Is that 'whatchamacallit'?" And I said, "Yeah." And hot water heater guy said he used to work for my neighbor. I said, "Really, I don't like him." And the hot water heater guy said, "Yeah, he's an asshole." I hope I'm wrong about him because My Sweetie seems determined to let him do the work. I just hope if he does NOT get approval on the roofing, he will replace our skylights in a timely manner. I have the feeling he just wants the roofing job.
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There was another storm system this evening and ping-pong and golf ball sized hail were reported west of us and of course, the storm was moving east. I was dreading it, but all we got was rain. Our tarp is still holding up. I wonder why hail is always described as various sized sports ball? If you've seen a large hail stones up close, they look more like heads of cauliflower than balls. I guess it would be too confusing to describe hail as a "two-inch cauliflower head" or a "three-inch cauliflower head."
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Sunday was very nice and I actually sat in the sun doing nothing but listening to music and drinking beer for a whole 50 minutes. Then I did a little project on my deck. I attached a metal trellis to the end of one of the built-in benches. I'm going to put some sort of climbling plant in a pot there. I hope it looks nice. If it looks nice, I'll take a picture. It will probably take a month for it to start climbing well, so I guess I better get something planted there soon. A couple of planter boxes were damaged by the hail as well as two resin chairs.
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Monday brought nice weather again so I tackled a project I thought of a couple of months ago. We had a lovely Rose of Sharon tree that died a couple of years ago that had a whole border thing around it with pebbles inside. We did some goofy quick fixes over the last two years like putting some large potted plants in there, but it just looked stupid, so I decided to let it be reclaimed by grass. I also have a very bad problem area in a raised box: no matter what I do, these horrid weeds grow in profusion in one large spot. I decided to relocate the rocks from the old Rose of Sharon bed to the raised planter. Basically I spent about 2 hours or more hauling rocks from one place to another. I kept thinking "Isn't there some sort of insect that spends its whole day moving rocks from one place to another?" The raised box looks really nice now, but the old bed still needs work. My Sweetie will have to remove the old metal border. I tried to pull at it with a pry bar, but I just don't have the arm strength.
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The weather is supposed to be sunny and 74 degrees tomorrow for Meals on Wheels. My daughter is going to go with me one last time before she starts her new job on Monday. I hope everything goes well with the insurance guy tomorrow and the roofing guy. I'm not positive, but I think all work will be done from the outside. I hope so. If we get a new roof though, I wonder how the cats will act?

One Hailacious Evening

They kept predicting bad weather and boy were they right. Around 6:30 this evening (Friday night - I'm posting this late so this will probably show up as a Saturday post) the sirens went off. We keep a little closet in the middle of the house ready for tornadoes. Several tornadoes had already been sighted west of us. Then the hail started. We watched it at first, but the hailstones got bigger and bigger and louder and louder so we got in the closet. It was crazy loud like thousands of people shooting guns all at once. Two giant ones popped right through our living room skylight and into our house leaving one giant hole and a smaller hole - the smaller hole is about the size of a dessert plate.
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So we are in the closet and it is hailing all over our living room floor. (Is hailing a word?) It finally started to let up and we came out of the closet and saw the mess. It was still raining IN OUR HOUSE. I started running around grabbing things like tarps and buckets and mops (oh my!). Well My Sweetie was not into having rain in the living room. He decided to go onto the roof to cover the skylight. While this was a good idea, housewise, I didn't see it as a good idea, Sweetiewise. It was still raining and there was some thunder and lightning in the distance, not to mention the roof being soaking wet. He stuffed his jacket with what he thought he'd need and I made him swear to forget about it if he had no traction on the roof. I made sure he got up the ladder okay, but now I was more nervous than I was during the storm. I stood under the skylight watching when he cussed very loudly. My heart jumped and I'm like "WHAT!?! WHAT!?!" He said, the duct tape wasn't sticking. I yelled "Would clothespins work?" He said, "No, what about alligator clips? Don't we have some?" Well they're called "binder clips," but I knew exactly what he meant and ran around gathering some up. I then ran out in the rain and threw them up to him, one at a time.

They worked fine. For a while. Then the wind picked up. My Sweetie found some more somewhere and went BACK onto the roof and added the other ones. That was several hours ago and they are still holding, but it is supposed to be very windy tomorrow. He hasn't been in the attic yet to see if there are roof leaks. He'll do that tomorrow. We were pretty much spent at this point, but I cooked dinner. He also spent a lot of time on the phone with our insurance company. They were overwhelmed with calls. I told him, well if they want to take their time, they just may end up replacing our flooring in here. There is hardwood AND carpet under the skylight - it's where they meet. The skylight over the kitchen table is also broken, but only on the outer layer - I didn't even know they HAD two layers, but the skylight in the bathroom made it through unscathed. There may be just one dent in my truck, but it was getting dark and it was hard to tell. My daughter's car was here, because she met her date here, and I think it made it, but daylight may bring a different story (like with my truck).

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I was glad the cats were in their room this whole time, but I was afraid old Jake (the eighteen-year-old) might have had a heart attack. He is very weather sensitive. After we got back to some semblance of normalcy, I let them out. They were thrilled with all the strange stuff and loved playing with the tarp. I'm just glad we're all okay. I saw pictures of the tornado damage on the news, and it was awful: 18-wheelers tipped over, buildings flattened, the whole roof of a church gone. As of 10:30 p.m., there was only one death reported, but several injuries. It could have been worse. And now we have two holes in our house.

The Five Long Days

Wednesday: My daughter came over for Meals on Wheels Wednesday morning. We had a pretty short route - I guess because of the Easter holiday. I had holiday meals to give out, so it was nice to have an extra set of hands. I didn't have "Squiggy's" partner so if I don't have him again I will call MOW to check up on him. I also didn't have the sweet old Mexican lady that adores my daughter so much, but we checked her street and her son's car was there and it looked like another car was there so I'm guessing she had other lunch plans. It was a gorgeous day and one of my ladies, who doesn't do much moving around, was out in her yard wacking at weeds with her cane. That was awfully cute. It's one of those metal type canes with "legs" at the bottom. She was in a good mood. That was so nice to see. Kate wanted to eat lunch outside so we went to Abuelo's which has a really nice patio area. We lucked out and had a fun waitress. After lunch, we still had some time before our hair appointments, so we hit Italianni's for some drinks and flirting (on Kate's part) with one of our favorite bartenders. When we got to the salon, I explained the change I wanted to my hair. He put the color on, I moved to another seat and held my breath for the part that was coming up: seeing my daughter's hair wacked off. She had printed out the rules from the "Locks of Love" website and was ready to go for it. It all happened pretty quickly and then I watched Tyler clip away at her hair. He did a fantastic job! I don't think Kate has had hair that short since she was 9, but it looked great. Then it was my turn. Well just for a slightly different cut. He did a great job. I thought we were the two cutest redheads in the world! On the way home we stopped to order the birthday cake for Saturday's party.
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Thursday: After I woke up (I always sleep until noon or so) My Sweetie, who had the day off and had been waiting patiently for his gift, got to open his present. I got him a private boxing lesson at a real boxing gym! He is a giant boxing fan, is always shadow boxing all over the house and talking about boxing. I knew he'd love this gift. He thinks he even knows the gym owner from high school. We had lunch and I got ready and packed and we headed downtown to the Marriott (pictured above). We settled in and headed out. First, we stopped off on the 5th floor to check out the smoking area. It was a nice area by a pool and had speakers playing great music. Then we headed out to the Flying Saucer, one of our favorite drinking spots. We settled in at the bar and had a good ol' time for several hours. We met a guy from Dallas who was in town for a wedding shower/party thing. He said the funniest thing. We were discussing European travel and food. He said he had been to Spain and that the food was pretty good but "Everything was ham and something else." That really hit my funny bone. I laughed so hard. That still makes me laugh. Our new saying is "Everything was ham and something else." I love it! After that we had dinner at Chili's because it was across the street from our hotel, changed, and went to City Streets to dance and play. City Streets is a cool place. It has a classic dance music section, a hip-hop club, a karaoke bar, and a pool-hall type room with live music. We had a blast.
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Friday: After a nice room service brunch, I couldn't take it any longer. I said, "I have to tell you something. I contacted D and invited a bunch of your co-workers to meet us for happy hour at 8.0 for happy hour." 8.0 is a really cool bar downtown. I'm not a good secret keeper and My Sweetie is not a surprise lover so I figured this was a good time to let it out. He was actually tickled and called his assistant at work to see if he needed directions or anything. We were just going to spend the afternoon walking around downtown and My Sweetie wanted me to buy some little gifties for myself at the cool shops, but the weather had turned. The temperature dropped like crazy and the wind picked up. We did walk around a little and I did buy a neat mini-poster from the movie The Outlaw with Jane Russell which is already hanging over our bar. I also bought a cute green beaded anklet. And we had some beers at Risky's - it was fun reminiscing there about our various lunches and whatnot from 1995 and 1996. (That's actually where we were sitting when they read the O.J. Simpson trial verdict.) We headed back to the room to drop off our purchases and brave the chilly wind to head back out. One of his co-workers was already at 8.0 when we got there and then they just kept showing up over time. Along with my daughter. Most of My Sweetie's co-workers are guys so my duaghter became the "Belle of the Ball." It was fun to watch. After many rounds of drinks, we headed over to City Streets. Next is when Hell froze over. My Sweetie got up, IN FRONT OF MANY CO-WORKERS, and sang in the karaoke bar! I couldn't believe it!! I was so shocked. And then, well, and then, HE DID IT AGAIN! It was crazy. Over time people started splitting up. Some people loved the hip-hop club, but we both found the bass speakers in there were unnaturally shaking up the marrow in our bones. We did dance some in the classic disco part, but I barely remember it. At some point we stumbled out onto the street and went for a late night snack before calling it a day.
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Saturday: They were having the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure run this morning and I felt sorry for them because when I woke up at 9:22 a.m., I looked out the window AND IT WAS SNOWING!!! In April in Texas. Snowing. We didn't see that coming. We checked out at noon and there was a huge crowd waiting for their cars. It reminded me of trying to leave a cruise ship and if you've ever done that you know how hideous THAT is. So I did something unheard of. In practically my pajamas - sweats and a t-shirt - and just my jacket, I went across the street for a beer at Chili's. I felt so weird in there in my house clothes, no shower, no make-up, crazy hair and all. Not to mention watching the snow flurries. My Sweetie said he would call when he got the car so I could meet him outside. My phone rang. It was not him. Instead his sister was calling to see if we were okay with postponing the birthday party/shrimp boil for a day. It was awesome! We were so dead and hungover we were more than happy to wait a day. We would have made poor conversationalists! I spent the whole afternoon laying on the couch watching 3 episodes of my soap that I had missed. That night we watched the TV shows we had recorded like "Survivor" and "Numb3rs." We were brain dead. I think the only things we said to each other were, "I'm glad the party was postponed."
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Sunday: I got up, wrapped two gifts and we headed over to Mansfield, Texas. The house seeemed very quiet. We found out the two oldest kids were at their Dad's and the baby was sick in bed. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see my niece's reaction when she opened her (belated) birthday gift. She's 13 and we got her an iPod. Oh well. My brother-in-law, the fireman loved his t-shirt. I always get him a fire and rescue t-shirt. This one was from the Cherokee Nation. I have so much fun picking those out every year. I got some nice gifts and so did My Sweetie. My Mother-in-law kept saying, "You're really 46?" And I kept saying. "I will be on the 20th." It seemed to freak her out. The shrimp boil was excellent as always, but I think the crab legs were the biggest ever. THEY WERE HUGE. This time I brought home some leftovers and I had an awesome lunch today. Oh and everyone laughed at the birthday cake that I brought with the caption "We are Old" along with a some rosettes.
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Well that was our birthday weekend. I have a feeling My Sweetie will always remember his fortieth birthday. I hope so. And I hope he likes his boxing lesson.

Big Birthday Weekend

I won't be able to post for several days so I realized I needed to get something up. Tomorrow my daughter is going to drive me for Meals on Wheels and then I am getting my hair done and she is going to do the "Locks of Love" thing there. She has really long, thick beautiful red hair. It's going to be weird to see her with short hair. Thursday is My Sweetie's 40th birthday so we are going to spend two nights in a hotel in downtown Fort Worth to play and party. We'll get back on Saturday and then have to drive to Mansfield for our annual 3-Way Birthday Party. Every year, My Sweetie's, my Brother-in-law's and my birthday are celebrated at one big family event at the BIL's house. He makes a HUGE pot of crab/shrimp boil with sausage, new potatoes and corn on the cob. It's AWESOME!
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I'm really looking forward to hanging out downtown. We LOVE downtown. That's where we met. My knee isn't 100% recovered form my ice incident in January, but I plan to go dancing Thursday night. We're staying at a different hotel than the one we've stayed at in the past so that will be interesting. I thought it would make his 40th birthday more memorable if we stayed someplace different. I can't wait to tell you what his birthday present is, but he reads my blog. It's really cool. Speaking of cool, after a muggy 83 degree day, it's suposed to drop to the low 60's for the next 3 or 4 days. Nice.
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And speaking of weather, we had a week of dark dreary stormy weather last week. Then on Saturday, it was bright and sunny and everything was bright and green and lush. Spring has sprung! We took all the plants out of the garage and put them back on the deck. Now I just have to remember to water them. The downside of the whole "spring has sprung" thing is that there seem to be trillions of bugs outside. Trillions.
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And on bugs, my bite is doing better. It doesn't have the crazy itch. And lets me sleep at night. It's still a red lump about 1/2 inch in diameter, but the "nipple" is gone and I had to apply the cortisone only once today.
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If you're an "American Idol" fan, wasn't Melinda Doolittle overwhelmingly awesome tonight? WOW. She really blows me away. Plus the music tonight is my favorite style of music: Classic jazz standards. I LOVE that stuff. We also started watching "Dancing With The Stars" this year. It's a fun show. I'm not sure why we never watched it before. Heck, we didn't even watch the first season of "American Idol." Maybe we are late TV Fad bloomers.
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I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and a great weekend. I hope My Sweetie has a fun and memorable 40th birthday. I'm looking forward to the shrimp boil. I always bring the cake. This year the inscription on the cake will be "We Are Old."

Ouch! I want to scratch!

Early Friday afternoon I was chopping up some cucumber for my lunch when it felt like something was crawling on the left side of my forehead. I had the knife in my right hand and was holding cucumber parts in my left hand. I brushed the back of my left hand over the "tickly spot" on my head. As my hand left my forehead and was headed back to the cucumber, I felt a sting. Unfortunately, I reacted on instinct and immediately brushed the back of my hand against my hip without looking first. You know the "GET IT OFFA ME!" instinct. When I looked at my hand there was just a tiny gray smudge. I felt like I had been bitten or stung by something so I washed my hand and put some benadryl cream on it. I then continued making my lunch and went about my day.
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I forgot all about the whole incident until Saturday evening around 6:30. I was talking or watching TV or something when I realized I was scratching the hell out of my left hand. Once I realized what I was doing, I remembered the Friday event. I looked and sure enough there was a bump there. I put some more benadryl cream on it but it would not stop itching. Later, we were watching Children of Men and I realized I was having a hard time following the action because of the itching so I did my usual: I froze it. When I have a mad itch I hold ice on it until it becomes comfortably numb. Well that worked and again, I forgot about it. Until it woke me up after I had been asleep only two hours. I got up and applied more benadryl cream and willed myself to not think about it and go back to sleep. (That was a funny internal process!) Two hours later, the itch woke me up again. This time I got up and made another ice thing (one cube, with one layer of paper towel topped with one layer of cling wrap). I laid in bed and held it in place until I couldn't stand it anymore and went back to sleep.
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This afternoon I decided it might be a fire ant bite so I decided to treat it like one. I swathed it with alcohol, cleaned a needle with alcohol and stabbed it. And squeezed and squeezed. Then more alcohol. That's usually the end of the itching for me with fire ant bites. I went about my business of sanding my bathroom walls (yes, still doing that). As you might have guessed, the mad itching returned. Right now it looks like a Barbie boob - if Barbie were an A cup and had a really bright nipple. I am currently treating it with 2.5% hydrocortisone cream and that is helping. I'm leaning now towards some sort of spider rather than a fire ant. Next time I will look before I react. At least I'll know what I'm dealing with.

Normal Again?

I just want to thank everyone who comments here. My week was awful until today and the fun comments on my last post did make me feel a little better every day. If this is a taste of what menopause is going to be like, I am SO NOT looking forward to THAT.

Monday I had awful free-floating anxiety and as much as I tried to rationalize everything, I just couldn't shake it, which made me feel depressed. Tuesday morning I had a long awful dream involving losing my daughter (who was about 10 or 11 in the dream, although she's actually 22) in Greece. An old friend tried to help me find her and we looked and looked and I never did find her. It was a VERY LONG and tiring dream. I wasn't blue on Tuesday, but still had the anxiety and tenseness all day which lead to feeling tired and worn out. On Wednesday, I felt tired and aggitated. My Meals on Wheels delivery did NOT go smoothly. We had flowers to give out for Easter and they kept falling over and spilling water in their box and it seemed like the glass vases were going to break every time I hit a bump. On top of that, I had a new person, read my mapsco wrong and had to keep pulling over to look at the map. I made it through that by making myself laugh with this thought, "This day sucks. I embrace the suckiness of this day." Once I came up with that mantra, I felt better. I went straight home after lunch and took a two hour nap. My daughter came over with dinner and we watched Beaches. (My Sweetie had a vendor engagement, poor thing - he had to go spend several hours in a platinum club box at a Dallas Mavericks game.) My daughter is a HUGE Bette Midler fan, but had never seen Beaches. She got mad at me at the end when it made her cry - but in a funny way.

This morning I dreamed I was doing some sort of commando raid (I think I had a machine gun) with some people in a nice big house and we all got killed. Then we were revived as zombies, so we had to get wigs because dead people don't have hair. I got to pick out my hair. I just pinned it right to my head. Then we decided to stay in that house and run it as a Bed and Breakfast and I was going to be the bartender. I went to the kitchen and was mad because there were dirty dishes in the sink. But wait, the absurdity doesn't end there. So me and the other zombies are all out in the back yard and all these random pieces of tan paper start raining down from the sky. One of the other zombies says, "I think they are giving us a ticker-tape parade!" And I said, "Or maybe the rest of the world has been blown to bits and this is the fallout." Then I woke up. And oddly enough, I felt normal again.

Separated at Birth

I saw Quentin Tarantino on Leno tonight and I kept thinking, "Oh, my! He looks like that puppet." Josie has done several "Separated at Birth" blogs so I have to give her credit for making me think of it. Oddly enough, I checked her blog before I posted and she had just posted another one! In case you're not familiar with the image on the left, the puppet's name was "Madam" and she was part of the team of "Wayland Flowers and Madam." They even had a TV show in the 80's. I was never a fan and don't particularly like puppets as entertainment. Well, maybe the scene in The Sound of Music: That's pretty cute. Anyway that was the closest picture of Quentin I could find, but he has lost weight in his face and really looks like that puppet.

Latest Goings On

On the bathroom saga: I finally got to roll the first coat of primer on Thursday. I RAN OUT OF PAINT. I was not expecting that. I guess there is a lot more wall in there than I thought. My Sweetie brought me a new can of primer today. I have one small wall section and all of the edging or cutting (whatever you call it) left to paint. I had some buckling and peeling, which I expected. My contractor from the shower job had told me that he was surprised that the walls had not been primed. Saturday will be 1: fixing all the bad spots and 2: finishing the edges with the primer. I was really not expecting to need two gallons of paint. Now I know to get two gallons when I lay down my first coat of green. It was great to finally see the walls all one color. That weird 135 degree corner I had to totally redo came out fine as did the "horrible wall section from hell" that had given me so much trouble when I was stripping the wallpaper. My daughter came by tonight and was impressed with my work. I'm looking forward to the next step. Well, except for the ladder part. I get vertigo on ladders. Maybe I can stand on a chair.
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Strange Birthdays: Thursday was my 2nd husband's 50th birthday and it freaked me out all day. I just can't believe he is 50. My first husband turned 50 last October and that didn't phase me at all. I don't know why I was so weirded out. I did call my daughter and Mom to remind them to send 2nd Husband an e-mail for his birthday. He was a really sweet guy. My Sweetie will be 40 on April 5th and that seems odd too. I guess the round numbers just stand out more.
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March Badness: I really sucked in the March Madness brackets this year. As of right now I am only one person away from being on the bottom of about 50 people (that guy must feel worse than I do!). I DO still have my Final Four teams eligible, but that could change this weekend.
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Drink to my health!: About an hour ago I noticed there was a voice message on my cell phone. What is this? No one leaves messages on my cell phone. It was from my gynecologist's office. I had a PAP smear on the 14th and I asked "So what happens if I'm still shedding endometrial cells?" and he described something so horrible, my brain just went "FRIP, FRIP, FRIP." It involved an IV, general anesthesia, a D&C and whatnot. I don't even remember what the procedure was called. BUT. The message on my cell phone said my PAP smear was normal. That was awesome!

In Memory of "Squiggy"

I found out today that one of my Meals on Wheels people died last week. I didn't know these guys very well even though they were on my route for almost 3 years. I've never really mentioned them before, just mentioned the horrible construction that seemed to take an eternity in their trailer park. I think that was back in 2005. Their trailer was paint-balled last year in yellows and greens and I remember feeling profoundly sad that some punks probably did that because they knew a gay couple lived there. I can't say the man's name because of MOW confidentiality, but he always reminded me of Squiggy from "Laverne and Shirley." I used to refer to his partner and him as Lenny and Squiggy (not to them of course) even though the Lenny one didn't really look like Lenny.
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On a few occasions when "Squiggy" answered the door, when he wasn't heavily medicated, he was quite talkative. He told me that he had spent several years in a wheelchair and had been told at one point that he might never walk again. They did have a ramp to their door. Squiggy was always on his feet when I saw him, except one time he answered the door from the floor. I was alarmed but he assured me he had just fallen upon answering the door and it was quite common for him. He once told me that he needed more back surgery but just didn't want to go through that again.
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I asked his partner today what he had died from. He told me that his teeth had gone bad and turned septic and that it had entered his bloodstream. He said he refused to go to the hospital. He put on his best favorite outfit and laid on the bed and died.
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I knew something was wrong when I knocked on the door and heard, "Come in!" I had never entered their home before. It was a giant mess as if it had been ransacked. "Lenny" told me he was going through "Squiggy's" things. He told me Squiggy was 52 and that they had been partners for 31 years. He was so sad. He said, "If he had gone to the hospital they could have given him an antibiotic IV." I told him that I knew someone who had died of the same thing IN the hospital. Very little solace, I'm sure. But Lenny did admit that poor ole Squiggy was just worn out.
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Rest in Peace, Squiggy.

These Vagabond Shoes

Live from New York!: My Sweetie came home from work on Friday and announced that we would be spending a weekend in NYC in June. I was completely taken aback. For years I wondered if I would ever see New York again. I went two years in a row to see Duke play at Madison Square when I was a teenager. I haven't been since. At first I was excited, then I felt very nervous and self-conscious. All I could think was, "I'm too fat to go to New York and I don't know what to wear." Plus, after reading Overheard in New York, I thought, "I'm going to be one of those bumpkin tourists that New Yorkers make fun of!" I am the most casual of dressers and have been wearing the same old summer shoes for about 4 years. I will definitely need new stuff. After giving it more thought, I figure that there will be MOSTLY tourists in New York on a weekend in June. Maybe I can just blend in. I hope they will all be fat. And have thicker southern accents. And bad shoes.

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Light at the end of the tunnel: Tomorrow after a little more prep work, I will be putting a coat of primer on my bathroom walls. I can't wait! I still can't believe I started this renovation last June. That's CRAZY! I may need to do some more wall work, but at this point I decided that having the walls all one color would help me to see what else I may need to do. I did put away the power sander today and my shoulders were so thankful. That thing really "put some hurtin' " on my shoulders and upper arms. My mudwork seriously improved over time and I think my corner work came out pretty well. I had one regular corner and an odd corner - 135 degrees - which needed a lot of work. (By the way, I just had to draw a picture and access the tiny geometry part of my brain to figure out the angle of that odd corner.) I can't wait to get that coat of primer on. I may even get up early. Yeah, right.

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Weird thought: I was wondering something odd the other day. If a wasp were in your car and you noticed it after driving several miles, stopped, and let it out, would it find its way back home? Or would it wander around aimlessly and die? Or would it just start a new life in its new location? Does anyone know an entomologist?

A Snake Story

My Father-in-law, "Froggy" sent this story to me today so I asked if I could post it on my blog. He's a real Texas "Good Ole Boy" and has millions of stories. Here is his snake story:

I don't know how many of you saw the news about the pipeline fire in Parker County, Texas. It is located on my former in-law's ranch just north east of Lake Weatherford. The ranch was purchased by Bill McDavid in 1961 and named the Bull Goose Ranch. Soon after he purchased it, we discovered what came to be known as the "snake pit." The former owner (s) had dumped their garbage and trash in a gully formed by erosion. I had discovered and dispatched a world record western diamondback rattlesnake at the site and my mother-in-law gave orders for the den to be destroyed. The trash attracted rodents, a smorgasbord for the snakes.

At that time, we loaned our cosmetically challenged used cars to undercover DEA agents. They needed cars that blended in with the surroundings on stakeouts. In exchange they gave me some tear gas bullets in .22 and .38 calibers. I fired several of these rounds in to cracks around the pit without any results. One of the agents gave me a half dozen tear gas grenades which he said should do the job.

My father-in-law flew up from Houston one day with Alan Shepard, the astronaut, his partner in banking, cattle and some quarter horses. He wanted to know about the snake pit and I told him about the tear gas grenades. He wanted to watch so we loaded up and went to the ranch.

Erosion had created a cave which I suspected housed the serpents. I very carefully climbed the wall leading up to a large crack where I planned to toss the grenades. My father-in-law and Alan were standing, looking over in to the pit to watch. I pulled the pins on the grenades, and tossed both of them in to the crack. The wind was blowing just right to force the gas to the back of the cave. It was also blowing just right to spread the gas where Alan and Bill were standing in business suits. They backed away but not quick enough. They were hacking and sneezing and were still suffering on the way back to town. I noticed that I was also feeling the effects. We decided the gas had impregnated their clothing. A stop at Bowden's department store for a set of khakis for both men and finally some relief.

We didn't see a single snake as a result of the tear gas. I decided more drastic steps were needed and assembled the things I would need. Five gallons of gasoline, about twenty feet of half inch copper tubing, a funnel and matches. With the help of one of my employees who wasn't too keen on snake killing, we poured the gasoline down one of the cracks where the tear gas had exited. I poured a long back trail of fuel, tossed a match and ran. I can only describe the results as a miniature Hiroshima Atom Bomb blast. The fire only burned for a few minutes and we looked over the edge to check for survivors As far as we could tell, there were none. There were pieces of snake and some things we thought might be large rats. To my knowledge, there have never been any more snakes in that area.

Froggy

OUCH

PLUS

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Humming Christian Music Dentist With Needles and Drill

EQUALS

(=)

THIRD LEVEL OF HELL

Pictures!!

I finally got my pictures developed. I had two rolls so there was a LOT of stuff. My Sweetie will not let me post his picture so I can't post the REALLY hot one of him in San Diego which I am going to frame. Or our anniversary picture - we have our picture taken every anniversary to add to our wedding photo album. Or the cute ones of us in San Diego, although I did put one of me from one of those down below. I think I'm going to make it my new "me" picture on my profile.



Here it is! My new shower! See the light? The floor and the back of the niche were done with the little tiles that make the border trim. Or whatever it's called. The new showerhead that came with the handle is very cool looking but I love my old water massage, so I'll just save it in case we ever sell the house.

This is my Very Dorky Christmas Pajamas photo, complete with dorky Christmas socks. I do have two legs. I just always sit on my left leg. I don't know why.

This was taken at a restaurant in San Diego. I love the sidewalk seating in the Gaslamp District!

This is Jake being ultra hip with his shades on. He's 18-years-old now. Old enough to vote! This is what cat people do to their cats. If you are not a cat person, you won't get it.

I love this picture of Jake and My Sweetie resting cheek-to-cheek on the couch.

I think this one speaks for itself. It was fun getting to see the Hotel Del again. It hadn't changed a whole lot, but is apparently about to. There were signs in the "mall" area. It's all changing to offices or apartments or something. I forgot.

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It was great finally getting the pictures back. In this age of instant video/photo gratification, it's still fun to get pictures back that were taken two and three months ago. You gotta love that "oh Yeah! I remember that!" factor.

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Friday my daughter took me across town to get My Sweetie's birthday gift. He will be 40 on April 5th so I wanted something really special and I came up with something I thought was AWESOME. I wish I could share but he reads this sometimes. I can't wait to tell you after his birthday! After our little trek we did some happy hours and I met one of her new friends. She seemed like a really nice girl.

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The bathroom is finally moving forward. We got a lot done today. I'm already doing mud work and wall repairs. I will probably do my primer coat next weekend. This week is going to be all fun and games what with getting my crown replaced on Tuesday and my pap smear on Wednesday. Plus I wonder how long it will take me to get over this lost hour from Daylight Savings. I just lost it a few hours ago and I miss it already. The weekend has been good so far. I hope today will be as productive as yesterday!

One of My Jobs

There's an ad on TV that's currently running where a guy talks about all the different types of bosses he's had and I thought, "Hmmm, that would make a great post." And that made me think of all the jobs I've had. And that made me think of this old newspaper clipping I had of me running camera for a cable show. It was in the Dallas Morning News and I was all proud of myself for being in the paper. At the ripe old age of almost 20 I had already been to Times Square on New Year's Eve, been to a Super Bowl and been interviewed on a local TV station and on a radio station (Yeah I was like Forest Gump like that). I was so tickled about being in the Dallas paper, but when I showed people the clipping they all said the same thing. "What's with your lips?" Here's a close-up:

Maybe it's not that clear in this old clipping, but I was doing this weird lip-pursing thing. And that was the only remark I got. I was more excited about being in the paper than I was about being on TV or the radio because, because I had something to keep. People didn't have VCR's when I was on TV, so if you didn't see it, you didn't see it. I didn't see it.

What happened was, I was majoring in Media Productions at Tarrant County College and I was hand-picked by my teacher to intern at Storer Cable. It was fun, I earned credit towards school, and they kinda promised me a job. It's funny when I look back at it, but after the semester was over I kept phoning my contact at the cable company saying, "So where's my job?" I think they hired me because they were tired of my phone calls.

It was a fun job for the most part. It was a combination of running local programming (basically putting giant videos into a machine and logging the times for the FCC) and doing local video productions. I hated covering city council meetings, but I loved taping the chamber of commerce luncheons because they were at fancy country clubs and we got to eat there for free. I guess the highlight was taping the Texas high school football playoff (or championship?) at Texas Stadium. Not that I'm a Cowboy's or even a football fan - it's that as I stood in the camera niche in the stadium I kept thinking of all the professional cameramen who had stood in the exact same spot. Plus we had access to the whole press area. I was walking around thinking of all the famous people who had been in the same spots. Howard Cosell and all kinds of people. And it even snowed a little that day (just flurries), so it was all happy crazy. I also met the first guy I lived with on that job. At the ripe old age of 21 I finally moved out of my parents' home. We weren't madly in love, we were just tired of living "at home" and so far from work. It was a "live-together of convenience." I always wonder what happened to that guy. He was really sweet.

Bad Tooth News: I will see the endodontist today to either clear me for a filling replacement and a crown or a root canal. I vote for the first option. Wholeheartedly. And that's all I have to say about that.

Tidbits

My Father-in-law wanted me to make this pic for him. I have no idea why. I should have done something with the skin tones, but I'm lazy. What do you think? I made it from this:

and this:

Some TV Commentary: We, okay, I sucked at this week's American Idol castoff picks. My Sweetie had Ajay and Leslie, so he got one each. His other picks were Haley and Sanjay. I had Sanjay, Phil, Gina and Sabrina. My Sweetie: 50% Me: zilch

I've been reading a lot about how "Lost" fans are so furious this season. I guess I'm not a rabid enough fan to be all mad about it. We just watched this week's episode tonight and I really liked it.

The bathroom saga: I did some preliminary mud/wall stuff today. So far so good. I also took my second nighttime shower so I got to enjoy the light in the new shower again. I loved it! Tomorrow I will peel more tiny wallpaper bits and ponder getting the filling replaced in my bottom right first molar. Wow I actually realized there is something worse than peeling those last stubborn wallpaper remnants!