New Words

I read in the USA Today today (that's always funny when you say it out loud) that Merriam-Webster had announced its list of new words to be added to their dictionary. In honor of that I would like to add a new word to the English language.

grimme

Grimme is a combination of "grim" and "me," and is also pronounced that way (grim* me). A grimme is a person that sucks the joy right out of a room. They have no inner light and thusly see everything in the negative. If there is an opposite to "rose-colored glasses," a grimme is wearing them. They are the "glass half empty" people. They are all "woe is me" and expect the worst of themselves and others. Because of their negative nature, they distrust all occurrences and motivations. When bad things actually happen they are momentarily happy and filled with smug self-satisfaction.

I think we have all known a grimme or two. If you are lucky enough to have never met a grimme, you are lucky indeed.

A Squirrelly Meme

Lone Grey Squirrel had a neat little meme on his blog, so I thought I would do it.

5 Things I wish to do before I die.

1. See an Aurora Borealis

2. Visit Ireland

3. Visit Italy

4. Spend a week on a Really Large yacht

5. Visit with my childhood pal Jeanette

5 Things I Can Do.

1. Cook

2. Cheer people up

3. Find simple solutions to seemingly complicated problems

4. Keep people calm during a crisis

5. Find the funny side to almost anything

5 Things I Can't Do.

1. Sing (even though I know all of the words)

2. Complicated math in my head

3. Tolerate boorish behavior

4. Mornings

5. Remember names easily

5 Things that Attract me to the Opposite Sex.

1. A quick wit

2. A good voice

3. A sense of ease in their own skin

4. Elegant gentlemanliness (I may have made that word up)

5. A true ability to listen

5 Celebrity Crushes.

1. Matt Damon

2. Dermot Mulroney

3. Ron Livingston

4. Mark Wahlberg

5. Orlando Bloom

And The Cat Came Back

Elaine came back tonight. Rufus was at the door again and she didn't care but she will run away if she sees a person. I was able to take this picture by extending my hand out and because it's a digital camera I had the big LED (or LCD?) screen so I could see what I was doing without the kitten seeing me. She didn't react to the flashes either. It's hard to tell how really tiny she is in this picture, but that bowl is a small bowl, and those are regular sized bricks.

I guess I jinxed myself last week when I kept saying how happy I was that whatever animal took the tomato didn't damage the plant, because less than 12 hours after that post, a whole branch had been pulled down and broken. For some crazy reason I decided to put it in water. That was 5 days ago and my "hydroponic tomatoes" are doing okay so far. I did put a tiny pinch of Miracle Gro in the water.

I'm not a typical female when it comes to shoes, but I bought these yesterday and I really like them. The reason I am not really a shoe person is because I have Fred Flintstone feet. And yes, it is the same shoe in two different colors. I've been buying shoes that way since I was 9. I actually bought a shoe a couple of years ago in THREE different colors. That's just how I roll. Yabba dabba do!

Weekend Stuff

I'm going to do the weekend days in reverse order because Saturday's is a lot longer.
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Sunday: We had originally planned to visit my BIL on Saturday but we changed it to Sunday. He looked good. His scar is healing, but he's not really happy about the way it is affecting his hairline. I pulled up my blog on Lisa's laptop and showed him a lot of the nice comments from you guys. He was very touched. He tired out after about two hours and went back to bed. He seemed in good spirits and was very talkative before he got tired. I guess it will be a while before he is totally back to normal. I can't imagine the frustration he must feel after being a big tough firefighter/paramedic and now being a "patient." I think he will be fine though.

Saturday was "Suburban Wild Kingdom Day." Because I am the consummate health nut, the first thing I do when I wake up is put on the t-shirt and shorts I took off before I went to bed, cross the hall from my bedroom to the garage, open the garage fridge, pop open a diet decaf Pepsi, and smoke a cigarette. After a few puffs, I usually amble over to the garage door windows to survey the neighborhood. I was not expecting to see that lizard doing the same exact thing.

~

Friday night we had seen a tiny kitten walk across our front "porch." I put that in quotation marks because basically our walkway goes up to our door. There is no real porch. Apparently it is actually some sort of crosswalk for nocturnal animals. Before we went to bed Friday night, I put some cat food out there. On Saturday, the food was still there. Saturday night as we were watching The French Connection (The first time for both of us, how crazy is that!?!) I saw the kitten come up to the plate of cat food. We paused the movie to try to get a better look at the kitten. Rufus was parked with his face practically against the glass door, but the kitten didn't seem fazed by him at all. We very slowly snuck up and were peaking around corners. That kitten seemed too little to even be eating dry cat food, but he/she was really going at it. Finally, My Sweetie was able to sneak right up to the door and sit. After about 4 minutes he/she noticed My Sweetie and took off across the front of the house heading east. (My Sweetie named him Hubert but I think it is a girl and secretly named her Elaine.) I went into the garage and opened the side door which faces east and sat down to smoke and tried to be as quiet as possible hoping she would go by. After a few minutes I heard the small sounds of an animal approaching and was practically holding my breath. Well instead of a cute kitten approaching from the south, a big ugly possum popped into the light from the garage from the north. I was NOT expecting that. And neither was the possum. We met eyes and both freaked out. He turned around and went back north (into our backyard) and I jumped up and closed the door. I went into the house and My Sweetie said, "Did you see it?" I said, "The possum? Did you?" I thought he had been smoking in the backyard. My Sweetie, I mean, not the possum. I ran to the back door and we both watched the possum hightail it across the back edge of the yard.

~

I went back into the garage to get a beer and when I came out My Sweetie said, "NOW there's another cat out there that looks just like Rufus!" Sure enough, and it was weird, another strange cat was out there eating the cat food. The cat looked just like Rufus did about a year ago, which just means it was smaller. So there's "Faux Rufus" eating the cat food and two feet away on the inside of the door is "Real Rufus" watching all of this and about to go crazy. It was a weird visual. When we tried to get closer, Faux Rufus ran away. I put a bowl of water out after that and a little later F.R. came back for water. The runtime for The French Connection is 104 minutes but I think it took us almost 3 hours to watch it.

Updates

This is the latest update on my BIL. My SIL sent this out Wednesday. We are going to visit him tomorrow.

***
Happy 4th of July to you all!

Fortunately, there's not a whole lot to tell you about our boy. He is slowly, but surely, getting a little bit better every day. As some of you know, he's been up to Station 3 to eat or just visit a couple of times. Even that tires him out, and he has to come home and lie down. Today we drove to Granbury, and he got to see some of his family. That also wore him out. But at least he's trying! He has graduated to sitting up in bed for long periods of time playing his XBOX. It seems to keep his mind occupied for a while. However, I think he's also getting a case of cabin fever, and as wonderful as I may be :), he probably likes to see a few other faces than mine. So, if any of you fellas are out and about and have a few minutes, I'm sure he'd love the chance to visit with you!

Medically speaking, he got his staples out last week and the incision seems to be healing nicely. He is still receiving antibiotics through the PICC line at 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. I think he only has two weeks left of this! He has another Dr. appt. in about 3 weeks after he has a CAT scan, and I guess we'll know more about when he can come back to work then.

Thanks for your love, support and especially your prayers!! It has made all the difference in the world to us!

Love,
Lisa
*****

On the weather: Last night on the news they said that the airport (and we live next to the airport) had had rain 19 days in the last 20. All I could think was, "There was a day without rain?" It rained early this morning so now it's officially 20 of 21. There WAS sun today and I sat in it for a while. It was unusual, to say the least.

~

Some stupid stuff I have said recently: I was talking to someone in a bar and I was trying to tell them about that great cooking store and I said, "Have you been to Smith and Wesson?" Yeah, I meant Williams-Sonoma. Tonight I had Double Jeopardy on the tube. My husband came into the room to ask what I was watching. I said, "Double Jeopardy, the movie with Ashley Judd. You know, the one where you can't be twied trice for the same crime?" I felt like Elmer Fudd.

The Perfect Lunch

Today I had what I think of as "The Perfect Lunch." Not only is it tasty, but I think it appeals to me on an ancient, basic level. The meal is simply a leftover "oven-fried" chicken drumstick, cheddar cheese cut into small sticks, and an apple cut into slim wedges. Today I had a green apple, but any apple will do.

~

I think part of the appeal is knowing that if I could slice through time, stopping at any random place, I would find someone, somewhere, eating a chicken leg, an apple and some cheese. If I close my eyes, I can see myself as an ancient shepherd on top of a bright green hill eating this very same meal while keeping a careful eye on my sheep. I can be a ten-year-old kitchen worker, slipping away from the manor house with my carefully pilfered items to enjoy a lovely picnic by a babbling brook. I might be a big sweaty, blacksmith taking a break from the fires to enjoy this lovely lunch someone had packed for me that morning.

~

Remains of apples have been found in ancient Stone Age villages, cheese is guessed to be around 4,000 years old, and people have been cooking and eating birds for almost ever. The three make a great combination. So try this for lunch one day and let your imagination go wild.

The Animal Mystery

In the 15 or 20 minute "rain break" between the normal daily drizzle and the deluge that caused more flooding today, I decided to check my tomato plants to see if some were ripe. As I was walking across the deck I noticed what looked like an unripe cherry tomato in the corner of the bench.



Upon closer inspection, I saw this:

So apparently SOMETHING picked a tomato, carried it to the corner of the bench, took a bite and left it. I walked back over to check the plant for any damage and there was none. So whatever it was carefully plucked the one little tomato. What could it have been? Do squirrels eat tomatoes? Can a possum pluck a tomato without damaging the plant? Wouldn't a racoon have had a bigger bite and have just eaten the whole thing? Why would a squirrel pluck a tomato?

~

At least I had something to think about besides the weather.

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Oh and for 4TH OF JULY CLICK HERE. This is one of the coolest things ever. I found it many years ago. The more you click, the more fireworks. And they explode wherever you click. Happy 4th!

Wet and Tired Of It

I think this unrelenting wet weather is starting to affect me. I'm just really really tired of it. On top of the wet soggy mess that is the world around me, I am now getting mosquito bites on a regular basis. I thought when May ended, the weather would return to normal, but the rain continued through June and now it is supposed to rain every single day through Sunday. And probably after that. Our street is on the side of a hill with the yards cut out like stair steps and now My Sweetie is having nightmares that everything will collapse and all the houses will slide down to the bottom of the hill.

~

On top of the daily routine news about floods, lake levels, water rescues and weather forecasts, the latest thing is whether or not there will be any fireworks on Wednesday. Even if they can shoot off the fireworks, will anyone go? I imagine the best choice would be Lone Star Park (a horse racing park) because there is a lot of indoor seating, but the fireworks display is "weather permitting." Sigh.

~

Maybe I should rent one of those old movies about hot thirsty people trudging through the Sahara desert being hammered by the giant bright sun. Oh giant bright sun, how I long for thee.

My Crabby Week

I got new faucets for my "new" bathroom on Saturday, so Monday afternoon, I was ready to get to work. When I turned off the water at the first sink (the one above) I noticed the hot water valve was dripping a little. I figured it would stop when I turned it back on. It didn't. Then when I went to shut off the water under the second sink, the cold water knob stripped out and could not be turned off. It just went around and around. I like to think I can do most things, so it really irritated me to have to call a plumber. I figured shut-off valves were best left to the pros. I called my contractor guy (that did the shower) to get a reference. I called the place and the nice lady said she would have someone out tomorrow. I told her "afternoon." And then I had to leave the contents from both cabinets strewn all over for the night. I was only able to install the one faucet. That's why I was crabby on Monday.

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When I said "afternoon" she must have thought I said "after nine," because my phone rang at 9:40 and the plumbers were at my door. I had been asleep about 4 hours and 40 minutes. I wasn't happy. I told him he'd have to wait at least 5 minutes as I was sound asleep when he called. I jumped up, found something to throw on and made my bed. The guy was a nice old guy and I felt bad later because when I opened the door, I greeted him with, "I TOLD her AFTERNOON!" He was real sweet and replaced my two valves, offered to go ahead and put in the other faucet (I said "No, thanks."), and gave me a free part that might help when I tried to fix my MOW lady's leaking faucet the next day. He even tightened my liquid soap dispenser on my kitchen sink - after he'd written up the bill. I was pretty much awake by now and decided I could grab an afternoon nap. Well after lunch, I decided to get that bathroom finished and it took a long time, not to install the new faucet, but because I had everything out, I decided it could benefit from some organization. By the time all that was done and I had finished my regular chores it was too late to take a nap, So I was happy about the bathroom, but pretty crabby from lack of sleep.

~

Wednesday morning, everything was going fine until around 10:45 and my daughter had not arrived or called. She had been saying for a week that she was going to drive me for MOW. I couldn't even pack the truck, because I pack it differently for two people. She didn't answer the phones, so I figured I needed to leave. The phone rang and a very sleepy voice said, "I'm late." I said, "Well I have to go. Good-bye." Man was I crabby then. I made my deliveries and went back to Mrs. V's to try to repair her leaky faucet and it wasn't like her old faucet that I had replaced. I still had her old one and showed it to the plumber on Tuesday and he had told me how to fix it. And it WASN'T THE SAME. Now I was really crabby. I just turned it off at the shut-off valve (like I did last Wednesday) and told her I did the best I could. Then I went to the Mexican restaurant I discovered last Wednesday for lunch. The guy took FOREVER to take my order and they never brought my chips and salsa, oh wait it came after I said something AFTER I GOT MY MEAL. Wednesday did improve and I had a good time that afternoon at Italianni's.

~

Thursday I was just crabby because I had to go to the grocery store. I pulled my cart up to the checkout counter and the preppy young golf-playing father of two straight from central casting had left his cart at a jaunty angle blocking the aisle and the counter. He looked at me and at his cart and then turned back to his witty banter with the teen cashier. I kept looking at his cart and looking at him, but he never looked over again. Then in my Most Imperious Voice asked, "IS THIS YOUR CART?" He looked at the cart like he had never seen it and in a light sarcastic tone said, "Oh. Yes. Thank-you." What a tool.

~

Friday I wasn't crabby, I was just tired from being crabby all week. And today I was fine until about an hour ago, My Sweetie said he thought it would be fun to invite three of his co-workers over next Saturday for games and a cook-out. Guess who's the cook?

Teachers and Me (The Elementary Years)

My Second Grade Class. See the board with the eight figures in a circle? One of them was mine.

It was about members of the community and I drew a nurse.

Notice I'm right in front of the teacher's desk in the center? I look pretty cocky in my Brownies uniform!

I'm one of the few people I know that really enjoyed going to school. To me it was one long social experiment in Teacher/Student Relations. I really loved elementary school. We lived in a small community outside of a small town in North Carolina. We had two country stores, a volunteer fire department and an elementary school. The stores, and school were the sites of all community happenings. The firehouse could be rented for parties (my awesome 9th birthday party, in third grade, was held there - people talked about it for years) and they held an annual barbecue there. The Halloween carnival at the school every year was THE EVENT of the year. The school baseball field was also where the community Little League team practiced and played home games. And my Dad was the coach.

In first grade I shared being teacher's pet with my friend Cathy. I really hated writing and Cathy did most of my writing for me. It's not that I didn't understand words or letters - I was one of the best readers in the class - I just hated the actual physical part of writing. I'm sure the teacher must have known what was going on, but she never said a word. In second grade I was a MAJOR teacher's pet. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Lane actually gave me a gold bracelet (although I doubt it's real gold) when I finished sixth grade. I still have it. I believe my third grade teacher, knowing I had been teacher's pet for two years (it was a very small school), decided to teach me the harsh realities of life and consequently treated me like crap. It was shocking and disturbing after being so pampered by my first two teachers. I acted out a bit and used to spend lots of time making fun of her. In my innocent youth, making fun of her went like this: "I bet Mrs. Parker is George Washington's grandmother!"

My fourth grade teacher was a true anomaly: She treated EVERYONE exactly the same. I think I only ever had one other teacher like that. But that was not until my senior year in high school. And while she treated everyone with absolutely no interest whatsoever, the high school teacher treated everyone as if they were ALL the teacher's pet. He was an awesome teacher. He had even had a day named for him by the city of Fort Worth a year or two before I moved here. My fourth grade teacher was morbidly obese and I used to get distracted thinking, "Her ankle is bigger than my thigh." I wonder if she ever noticed me constantly looking back and forth between her ankles and my thighs? I saw her at my dance recital that Christmas and she acted like she didn't even know me. I walked right up to her and asked why she was there. She pointed to her daughter, who went to another school and was MY AGE! I don't know why that freaked me out. I guess because most teachers that had kids lived in the neighborhood and we knew who they were.

My fifth grade teacher gave me the crook-eye on the first day of school. She was the first teacher I encountered that had had my brother as a student. Although this didn't happen often, as we moved and there was a four year difference, I found it to be a mixed blessing. This was 1971 and the year they started busing. It was the topic of conversation all summer that they were going to bus in all these black kids from Fremont. There had only been three black kids in my class before this: Jody and Phillip, boy and girl twins that were the children of a wealthy black dentist, and Peggy, a very poor, very quiet girl. (Mrs. Lane, the teacher in the picture was always sneaking her bags of clothes and things.) Suddenly there were all these black kids that didn't want to be there. My fifth grade teacher was also black and I don't know if that helped or not, but there was a lot of tension. I talked to my Dad about it and he told me to figure out who the leader was and make friends with her. I can spot the alpha person easily and knew it was Belinda. I took his advice to heart and started making small talk with her whenever I could. The true breakthrough came the day of the talent show. When I pulled out my ballet costume in the bathroom, the Fremont girls went crazy. They loved the bright colors, the sequins and just the very glamour of the thing. I asked Belinda to help me get dressed. And that was the end of the racial tension. RIGHT THERE. I don't know what sort of student my brother had been for Mrs. Smith, but she always liked me after that.

Sixth grade was all sorts of weird. The brother thing? Well, this teacher, Mrs. Howell, had LOVED my brother. And my brother is a truly gifted artist. For some reason Mrs. Howell must have thought artistic talent was evenly spread amongst families because she put me in charge of two bulletin boards in the room and one in the school's hall. The long board at the back of the room was always a Grandma Moses picture, like the one above, that we would distort to fit a long bulletin board. We were allowed to work on these boards DURING class. Fortunately I was allowed to pick a team. I wasn't stupid. Most people would have picked their friends. Not me. I picked the three best artists. I didn't want Mrs. Howell to know I didn't really have any artistic talent. Since I was in charge, I would tell everyone what they were going to work on. In this picture, for instance, I would have assigned myself the stream, bridge, and cabin in the upper right. I usually had Marty and Bruce draw the people and Donnell would have done the rest. My friend Cathy, the same one from first grade (she had moved away after first grade and just moved back) was furious that I didn't pick her to help. I wish I had pictures of those Grandma Moses boards. The small board in the room was the holiday board and I did that myself. I don't really remember what the one in the school hallway was about because we only did it twice. Probably something peppy for visitors coming into the school. Mrs. Howell was always happy with "my" work. She was such an elegant classy lady. I can still see her sitting up on her stool. A true Southern Belle.

Sixth grade was also the year when select students got to spend spring days in the library helping the librarian inventory the books. It was practically a rite of passage to be selected to sort and catalogue books in the spring. Well what happened was, they started a special program called "Special Achievers" that year. Every morning at 10:30, I had to leave my regular class and go to another room for an hour where I was joined by another sixth grader, two fifth graders, three fourth graders and a third grader. We did special field trips, learned how to write a research paper, took apart a lawnmower and other weird things. I kind of enjoyed the SA class, until spring. Well the library thing and the SA class were at the same time. I raised hell. I had to go into the principal's office. They finally made a concession that I could skip SA and work in the library once a week. The principal tried to explain how special the Special Achiever's program was. Then he said, "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but you scored higher on the standardized tests than anyone in the history of this school." He was right. He shouldn't have told me.

My Digital Camera and Other Stuff

First things first: My BIL was unexpectedly released from the hospital on Friday (they had been told it would be Saturday or Sunday). He had developed a bad staph infection around the incision on his head, but they sent him home with a PICC line in his inside upper arm. It's a sort of catheter-type device used for people that need regular injections. He will need regular antibiotic injections for four weeks, but they will not need a nurse to stop in since he is a paramedic and can do it himself. He sounds like his old self on the phone and is SO GLAD to be home.

I finally got my digital camera last week, but took a while to get around to figuring it out. This is the first picture I took. I had to crop it funny for this post because SOMEONE had not mowed in quite some time. (He blames the rain.) It's a Canon Powershot SD1000. It's TINY! I already lost it twice. The first time I had set it back in the box and couldn't see it. The second time I lost it, I was looking through the box again with my right hand when I realized it was in my left hand. It's about the size of a cigarette box. I told my best friend I should probably keep it in a Camel Lights box. I'd be less likely to lose it that way. That would also seem like a good place to hide it except cigarettes are so expensive these days.

Today we did our Annual Cat Room Spring Cleaning. I've mentioned my cat room before but I think it was over a year ago. People think I'm weird for having a cat room, and by people, I mean anyone that knows I have a cat room. It works for me. Cats are a rambunctious sort and if they were allowed to run free at night, I would wake up every time they did anything. ANYTHING. Also, I HAVE to sleep with my door closed and the cats would take turns crying and scratching to get in the room with us. Another reason is that cats are more likely to puke within the first hour or two of eating, so if they are going to puke, it's going to be in the room with the sealed concrete floor, not all over the house on my carpet or hardwood floor. Maybe I should have done bullet points, because I could keep going about why I have a cat room. Anyway, we did the BIG cleaning today and it took me THREE HOURS! In the middle of the room is a big green indoor/outdoor rug, so we took that out to the deck and sprayed it with anti-bacterial dishwashing soap mixed with water and then power sprayed it down with the hose. We vaccumed and swept and sneezed, oh my. Then I scrubbed the place down with Lysol. We threw some of the old stuff out and rearranged some stuff. And although I did it TODAY, I have some pictures because I have a digital camera now. Woo-hoo!

We moved the shelf out from the corner and stuck that cat house thing there. The cats like to get up high to look out the window.

I threw out the old sheet that was on the ottoman and covered it with a piece of old shower curtain (a cloth one) that I had been saving for a drop cloth or something. I used binder clips in the corners to keep it in place. I went ahead and cut out another one so that when this one gets icky, I'll toss it and have one ready.

This is the "food court." I like to keep a little separation between the food and water bowl or food somehow ends up in the water. I still haven't figured out how that happens.

This is Jake's bed. He likes to sleep up high (but not too high) on a pillow that has no room for the other cats to join him. The carpet is still drying out on the deck, but that should be back in tomorrow. The litter box is in the closet behind that yellow door. There are some large cardboard boxes in there with little doors and windows cut out, but they were not very photogenic - not that this other stuff was. I just thought people would want to know what the hell a cat room is.

Adventures in Babysitting

AJ and Me in September 2004

(I don't remember my hair being that short!)

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Last night was crazy and fun. My SIL has been almost living at the hospital since June 4th and she has 3 kids. Along with all the trauma of her husband's three brain surgeries, she has also been working crazy logistics moving all three kids around to various places. She finally hit a snag on Tuesday for AJ (aged 3) for Wednesday night. I said, "I'll keep him!" I think that once the words left my lips, it scared both of us. But being two crazy people we decided it was a good idea. A lot of you wouldn't think twice about keeping a three-year-old for the night, but me? Not so much a kid person. I knew it would be an adventure. I think the last time I spent the evening with a three-year-old was when my daughter was three and she'll be twenty-three in August. Some of the highlights:

• About 10 minutes into his bath he announced that he needed to "get out and pee-pee." I was very impressed because I had to watch my daughter like a hawk - she really really enjoyed peeing in the bathtub.
• I forgot about how "whys" three-year-olds are. The one that floored me was once he asked where Uncle "My Sweetie" was. I said, "He's in the bathroom." AJ asked, "Why?" I didn't even have a good answer. It's not a question I am often asked.
• When AJ got out of the tub and I dried him, I said, "Oh, your clothes are still in the living room." He took off naked for the living room and My Sweetie ran in and closed the front door. That still makes me laugh. God forbid a neighbor would pass by and see a naked three-year-old!
• AJ has the attention span of a gnat. It took longer to get the coloring book and open the crayons than it did for him to color. He colored a boy's pants leg blue - about a 1" X 1/4" area and he was done.
• My Sweetie keeps an old New Year's eve horn on the end table to blow at Rufus when he attacks Jake (he is not a yeller. MY Sweetie, I mean. Jake, he can yell.) and AJ found it. Yeah that was fun. He REALLY liked blowing the horn. As smart as I am it took about 15 minutes to come up with a good enough distraction to sneak the horn away. I quickly tossed it behind my back to My Sweetie and it disappeared. AJ forgot all about it until this morning, but I was honestly able to tell him I didn't know where it was.
• He wanted to watch Charlotte's Web but got bored after about 20 minutes so I gave him my bucket of little plastic farm animals. He got a kick out of matching the little animals with the characters. Then he wanted to watch Happy Feet. He got restless after about 10 minutes so I gave him two stuffed penguins to play with. I wonder if he thinks I have toys to go with every kid movie?
• He kept saying how soft our couch was so I thought that was a hint. I made his little bed on the couch, but he kept getting up and running around. I had already decided to sit with him until he went to sleep. Being the clever cat that I am I realized that "Frasier" was about to come on. I thought "If anything will put a three-year-old to sleep, I bet it's 'Frasier'." Don't get me wrong. I love the show. I think I own every season on DVD, but two men in suits discussing opera tickets? I just felt it would do the trick. Well it came on at 11:00. I switched over. Two minutes later AJ looked up at me and said, "I really like sleeping on your very soft couch." Then he rolled over to face the back of the couch. He was sound asleep at 11:07.
• This last part is CRAZY. I went to bed at 12:30!! (In case you don't know, when I "go to bed early" it's 2:00 a.m.) I was tired.

Lisa picked up AJ around 9:15 this morning. After they left, I remembered picking my daughter up from my Mom's house one time when Kate was about 3. Mom had kept Kate for the whole weekend (a VERY rare occurrence) and was ABSOLUTELY FRAZZLED when I got there. She said, "How do you do this??!! I couldn't get anything done. I couldn't even cook dinner. "StepDad" had to go out for food both nights!" I remember thinking she was silly. I said, "Mom you had TWO kids and you cooked dinner every night." She said, "But I'm a lot older now and don't have that energy." I really just thought she was being silly as hell. I get it now.

The Flooding Here

Because I was out all day on Monday, I missed all the news and had no idea how bad the flooding was late Sunday/early Monday, but the stories were picked up as far away as Canada. The Skyline Mobile Home park is the place I've mentioned a few times over the years in my blog. I ranted about the roads back in September 2005, and it is also the place where "Lenny and Squiggy" lived. I didn't see "Lenny" much after that post and I think it has been maybe two months since I delivered there. The bad news is "Lenny" lived AT THE VERY BOTTOM of that hill. By the creek. The creek that flooded. As bereft as he was after losing "Squiggy," if he was still there, he has now lost EVERYTHING. I'm going to contact MOW and see if they know anything. I can't even drive by there tomorrow because the place is closed to anyone that is not a resident and they have to show identification to get in. It's almost too much to think about. And a 4-year-old girl died there. Now I feel bad for ever making fun of the place. I think over almost 7 years, I've delivered to about 5 different homes there. Not anymore. The mayor is shutting the place down.

(Why is blogger so ornery tonight? My second link is showing up underneath my original post. Aaargh!)

About My BIL

This is the e-mail my SIL sent out tonight:


Dear Firefighter family and friends,

[BIL] had his surgery this morning as planned. The doc found a blockage in the shunt, cleared it out, and repositioned it. He seemed pleased with today's outcome.

[BIL] looked pretty good right after surgery in ICU. He called around 10 p.m. and asked if I would come up for a visit. He looked really good (considering) and was in good spirits. He said his head hurt alot but that it was just from the surgery, not like the pain he was having before. He said it felt different. Hopefully that's a good sign. I'm not sure how long he'll be in ICU, but I'll let you boys know as soon as he gets to a room.

Once again, thanks for your love, support and prayers!

Love to you all,
Lisa

Some New York Pics

This is me standing in front of the Hudson Bay at

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. I LOVED that place!

This isn't that bad for a disposable camera. The view through
the binoculars was GREAT!

This is looking to the left from the park. The park is on
the west side of the bottom tip of Manhattan,
so this picture is looking eastish.

This is looking to the right or west from where I was sitting in the park.

The open part where I was in front of the Statue of Liberty

was between these two areas.

Although the timing wasn't right to try to do the stage door autograph thing with Kevin Spacey, I was still stalking him in my own way.
He was actually inside performing when this was taken!

I wish someone had told me that I looked like I had just taken

a curler out of my bangs before this was taken!

The blue thing in my hand is the T-shirt I had just bought
for my BIL at this fire station.

It was closed but I took a picture anyway.

I LOVE this picture. The beads were in the doorway of the little alcove with the ice machine and soft drink machine. We had just walked out of the room and I jumped back there and said 'Take my picture!" Then some people came down the hall and I jumped out of there and hurried along.
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Some side notes: We didn't get to see Lisa, my SIL today after all, but My Sweetie talked to her and she managed to have a VERY long sleep, so I'm very happy that she got some rest. I haven't been able to talk to her yet to find out why BIL finally consented to the third surgery. I just hope they get the shunt positioned correctly this time and he can make a full recovery.
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On a lighter note, we had a salad with dinner tonight which included our very first homegrown tomatoes. I didn't expect them to be so tasty since we've had so much rain, but they were yummy.

Get Well Soon, BIL!

I was going to do my New York pictures tonight but I'm kinda blue and not in the mood. My brother-in-law, the fireman that makes the great shrimp boils and had brain surgery last week, had some complications, was re-admitted, had a second brain surgery on Monday, and has just today been moved out of ICU. So I'm not in the mood to chat or make funnies. We will see him tomorrow and if he feels better, I'll feel better.

Fun With Photoshop

In honor of Jazz posting her first picture of herself, and my New York trip, I thought I would turn Jazz, Josie and myself into Rockettes. Okay, I just felt like doing something weird. But it was fun. (And we have awesome legs.)

The pre-pictures post about NY

No, I didn't attend Kevin Spacey's play. I found this ticket in the bathroom of the bar next to the theater. The ticket was for 2:00 and it was 3:30, so I figured it was okay to keep it as a souvenir. I couldn't help wondering what happened to the person who left their ticket in the bathroom, though. Do you suppose they were able to get in?

My plane was late getting in on Friday and the driver was not waiting for me. He may have gone out to smoke. Meanwhile the car service and my husband were freaking out thinking I was lost. I never felt lost. When I didn't see my driver, I simply walked over to my luggage carousel, went out for a smoke then came back in to the place where the drivers hang out. And then he was there.

It was rush hour so the normally short ride to the hotel was not that. I didn't mind. I liked the scenery, but I really did want a cold beer. Once I finally got to the hotel I had about 15 minutes to get ready for dinner, so a shower was out, but there was beer on ice in the room (YAY!). I put on my new clothes, freshened my face and tried to make my hair presentable. We went down to the bar to wait for Kevin and his date and after a drink realized they may not know to meet us in the bar. Sure enough the phone rang and they were waiting outside. We went to Mulberry Street (best known as Little Italy) for dinner. The street is closed off on the weekends so walking around was easy. We went to Angelo's and got a little table outdoors. Kevin pulled out all the stops so we had all sorts of stuff from appetizers to desert and of course a bottle of wine. I had some buffalo mozzarella (awesome!) and then for my main course I had a baked stuffed artichoke. Kevin's friend Diana was a real joy. She was very cute and animated and reminded us of Holly Hunter. Those were the best hours of the whole trip. We could not have been in better company. After a LONG time at Angelo's we went to our rooms for a few minutes and changed into jeans and met again and walked to the Broome Street Bar, where we continued our loud laughing and talking party. I was sad when the night came to a close, but we were all tired.

Saturday started out nice. I think Robert F. Wagner Jr. park must be the best-kept secret in NY. If I had had time I could have spent hours there. The harbor view was breathtaking. There were day cruises passing by alongside yachts and sailboats. And The Lady was out there in full view. We had lunch al fresco and again it was a great meal. My meal included tempura battered red pepper strips and I think they should be a staple at all restaurants that serve fried finger foods. They came with my fish and chips. The Jewish museum was closed, which makes sense because Saturday is their Sabbath. We took a cab from there to Times Square and sometime shortly thereafter My Sweetie decided without warning to apply for a name change to: My Boring Stick-In-The Mud Husband That I Was Stuck With for the Rest of the Afternoon. Example: Me, "Oh here's a nice bar, I'm going to stop in for a beer and rest my feet." He, "(Siiiiiiggggghhhhhh) What time is it?" I pretty much decided to ignore him after a few of those lovely exchanges and just amuse myself. We went by the Atinson Theater, where I posed with a poster of Mr. Spacey. Then we ran across a fire station (or ladder company as they're called there) and picked up a T-shirt for my brother-in-law the firefighter that just had brain surgery. Hello Deli was closed but we took some pictures and the CBS store was next to it so I got a Letterman Show T-shirt. We caught a cab to the Boathouse in Central Park and it was the only time I had to stand in line for a bathroom, the whole visit. I grabbed a beer at the bar to drink while I waited in the long line. Then I ambled over to the piano player and had him play "Unforgettable," while I finished my beer. That's my "Dad Song," and I teared up a bit because I missed my Dad and MBSITMH was irritating the hell out of me. We walked from there to the Met.

I had no idea the Met was going to be that big (and SO LOUD). It was HUGE (or as Donald Trump would say, "Yooge!"). After a long while visiting ancient Egypt, I decided to head for the rooftop bar. That Man I Was With decided to visit Greece and Rome and meet up with me later, which was FINE with me. When I got up there the view was so spectacular my first thought was to call him and tell him what he was missing, but then I remembered I was mad at him and decided it would bring me evil pleasure to tell him about it at some far distant point in the future. Well oddly enough he showed up about 4 minutes after I got there. He may have sensed at this point that if we split up, he might not see me again for 6 hours. And I HAD thought about it. After my beers and smokes I headed to my favorite section which is old European portraiture. I LOVE that stuff. After staring into the faces of old dead people for a couple of hours, which doesn't sound as good on paper as it actually was, I decided it was time to head back to the room, change clothes and find some dinner. We did have a long talk after dinner and I told him how he sucked the joy right out of my day. He had a million different explanations, but the most important part is that he was sincerely contrite.

Sunday was just about getting ready and going to the airport. The weather could not have been better the whole weekend. I was never chilly or hot. Being outside at home today in the hot muggy Texas weather made me realize how great the weather had been there. I had a good time, but I'll always wish I had had a better time. At least I have Friday night and the great art and spectacular views to remember. I'm glad I'm home though. I'll have all my pictures Wednesday night. I took almost two rolls.

New York, New York and Eye Drops

The New York trip is almost upon me. My Sweetie is going tomorrow and I'm leaving Friday morning. I said I was going to talk about celebrities. Well, what happened was, after I found out we were staying at the Soho Grand I noticed it was in every People magazine. Unfortunately, the "celebrity" names were young girls more famous for being wasted or wearing tiny jean shorts in a redneck car movie. One of My Sweetie's co-workers did ride in an elevator there with John Malkovich. And Josie said she saw Tom Hanks in Central park. I had hoped to see some high caliber celebs. Kevin Spacey, my all time favorite male actor (along with Jimmy Stewart), is there this weekend and I'm thinking about trying to see him at the stage door. The only thing is, I once ran into Bette Midler and I was a total blathering idiot. What with my anxiety and panic disorder, I'm afraid if I actually SEE Kevin Spacey I'll just slobber or stutter or something. Or have a heart attack. And what if I'm actually in the elevator with a famous person? I think I'd react like Niles Crane in "Frasier" when he meets up with the old high school homecoming queen.

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Yeah, I know they are "just people," but how often do you spend two hours or $8 to watch a "just people" perform in a movie? I'm at the point now where I hope I DON'T see any celebrities. Except Kevin Spacey. He's awesome.

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Other stuff: My brother-in-law had brain surgery Monday morning and had a seizure at the end of surgery and then another one in post-op. It's a Texas law that you can't drive for 6 months after a seizure. He's a fireman/paramedic. He and my sister-in-law had their house up for sale and her ex-husband has served her with papers over custody of their two shared children which includes an injunction over the sale of their house. Man, she is going through hell.

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One of my Meals on Wheels ladies called me yesterday and asked if I would bring her some allergy eye drops. I brought them and then SHE WANTED ME TO PUT THEM IN. That creeped me out but I did it. She's the same lady that I installed a bathroom faucet for on the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend although I just realized I didn't post about it. I have three bruises from that. It was a very tight little vanity.

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I woke up to thunder on Sunday (yawn, again?) and realized the house was crazy quiet. I got up and My Sweetie told me the power had been out for a couple of hours. I went back to sleep for a couple of hours, got up, realized the power was STILL out, stumbled into the garage and put about 10 beers into an ice chest with a bag of ice (we keep all our drinks in a fridge in the garage). He said, "Well it's good you have your priorities straight." The power was out for about 7 hours, but I had cold beer.

The New Bathroom

This is the ugly purple wallpaper from hell. And if anyone reading this has this wallpaper, I do NOT apologize for saying that. This is HIDEOUS! Get rid of it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. And that border. What the hell?!?

This is my new green sponged wall. I moved the towel rack to the other end of the tub, because unlike most people, when I sit in a bathtub, I do not want to gaze upon a towel. That bright spot is from the skylight. I didn't really notice it at the time.

I have to admit it is hard to take pictures in there because it's all angly (angley?) but this was taken a little farther back than the one above. Now when I sit in the tub I can look at pictures of Muir Woods. Guess what time I took this picture?

I took this next picture while standing in the bathtub. I love my new mirrors. There used to be a whole wall mirror there, but I went with the small framed mirror, because it's the cool thing to do. And this is also a good view of how the new color looks against the new shower.

Speaking of the new shower, here is a good shot of the light in there:

This last picture is of the one unfinished space around the toilet where the mural that I mentioned here will go.

Next I need to replace the faucets with the same ones I put in the other bathroom. I mentioned it here. And there's a picture of the faucet there because I have apparently reached my picture limit on this post. I hope you enjoyed my before and afters.

I found some good NY clothes today and my BIL survived his brain surgery so I have lots to post about this week before my NY trip.

Crafty Me

This is a picture I found on ebay, but it looks sort of like a shelf I am about to discuss. I can't remember when I first got that shelf and I don't even remember the original color, but I have a shelf kinda like that. Mine is wicker and has some sort of open weave ribbon as the linings around the edges. I may have posted before about how many times I have moved (A LOT). I would paint that thing to match wherever I was and I always used it in a bathroom. My first specific memory of it is when I rescued it again.

When I left my first husband I didn't take much: just my Granny's bedroom furniture, a chair, and some special Christmas ornaments. A year or two later after his current wife moved in, I pulled up to the house to pick up my daughter and there was a giant pile of "junk" sitting out front for the garbage men. Right on top was that old shelf, so I snatched it up and stowed it in my car before I even knocked on the door. I think it was white then, but I'm not sure.

I believe I painted it a light shade of brown and just set it on the toilet tank in my second husband's house. I had one of those telephone booth bathrooms at the time: tiny shower, toilet and sink coming out of the wall, with no vanity. That was probably in the very early '90's. When My Sweetie, my daughter and I moved in together in January '96, we all had our own bathrooms. Mine was all black tile with pearl-like "marbling" through it. That's when I painted the shelf black.

We moved into an apartment in the early summer of '98, and because the apartment had no color scheme, I did not re-paint that shelf. I don't even remember where it was in that apartment, but then again, I only lived there for about 4 months before my Dad died, and although I've mentioned that my Dad died at his retirement party, I still haven't posted about it, so I don't have a link, but suffice it to say, I wasn't quite myself for a long time.

I didn't realize this story was going to have such a long shelf-life (ouch, ouch! worst pun ever!!) Okay so we moved here and if you have followed any of my stories about the HORRID PURPLE WALLPAPER FROM HELL, then you will understand why I didn't repaint the shelf, because WHY ON EARTH WOULD I TRY TO MATCH CRAP? So getting to today: I was thinking, "Okay, if I want to put this shelf back up, I will need to paint it brown or something." Because my new bathroom is all about Muir woods and the forest, the black shelf, it does not match. Well what happened was, I pulled out my crafty paints and found one called "metallic solid bronze." I "dry brushed" that bronze paint over that black wicker and it came out looking really cool. It won't be in the "after" pictures though, because they were already taken. Oh and I will have those tomorrow! Yay.

Cool Moon

If you have 3D glasses, and who doesn't, this moon looks really cool. There is a much larger picture here. I check NASA's "Astronomy picture of the day" or "APOD" post EVERY day (there's a link there on the right). I love that stuff. Every once in a while they have an anaglyph (That's a fancy NASA word for 3D because being NASA people they have to use sciencey sounding words), so I keep my 3D glasses in the pen cup right here next to my beer. For some reason, I also tried looking at it with the glasses turned around, meaning blue on the left and red on the right and guess what I saw? Yep, it was going the other way. And if you are wondering where to get 3D glasses, I'm guessing a book store or comic book store. Enjoy!

The End Is Near

I took this picture in Muir Woods in the summer of 2001. It is the picture I selected for my little mural that will go behind the toilet in my bathroom. I am so glad that room is almost done. I started tearing down the wallpaper last June, took a break because of the summer heat, started again, broke my foot, took another break for Christmas, then I tore my MCL, took a small break while my shower was being replaced, and now, it is finally almost done. Today I put up the new mirrors. Last weekend we put up the closet doors which were very freaking heavy (they are mirrored). I was going to wait to say anything until I took the after pictures, but I got excited making the mural picture. The mural wallpaper guy was very nice and helpful. I have to call him back tomorrow to figure out how to send the VERY LARGE mural file. And the sponging? It is gorgeous! It came out even better than I imagined. Now I'm just at the decorating stage. I should have pictures very soon. Oh and I want to caulk around the vanity backsplashes, but I'm not in a hurry and that won't really show up in the pictures anyway. I also framed a cute little watercolor print we got at Muir Woods and I'm going to fill a nice multi-pic frame with Muir Woods photos to go over the tub. Uhm, did I mention the whole theme/decor thing for the bathroom was "Forest?" When I showed My Sweetie the picture for the mural he made a slightly crude but funny joke. Something like, "It will be like being in the woods. We'll be bears."

The Velcro Mystery

John Glenn in the Friendship 7

(Thanks to osu.edu)

Velcro. What David letterman always refers to as "The miracle fabric of the '80s." It's funny to think that velcro was once new to me, and yet, so many young people have never known a world without it. The odd thing is I SHOULD have known about it all my life.

I recently acquired a big pile of old National Geographics. I was reading through a June 1962 article about John Glenn's famous orbit around the Earth in the Friendship 7. This passage really caught my attention:

"The inside of the capsule hatch is covered with a pad of fabric lined with thousands of miniature loops. Each piece of equipment has its own pad with countless tiny hooks.

On the ground the camera would be too heavy to hang on the door, but, weightless, it needs only to be pushed against the pad, and it sticks like a burr in lamb's wool."

And that's all it had to say about that. No mention whatsoever of the word "velcro" and, you know, they were actually EXPLAINING what velcro is. So NASA was using velcro in 1962. I was BORN in 1961. Why did it take so long for me to hear about velcro? Was it a secret?

Getting Excited About My Trip (Ya Think?)

The Loeb Boathouse in Central Park

I couldn't sleep this morning and My Sweetie was playing a video game on the TV so I decided to do some more perusing of New York stuff. It will be a very short trip so I want to pack in as much as possible without it feeling like work. I think I have a plan now. (I'm too casual to call it an itinerary, besides I don't want to look up how to spell it. It looks okay to me, though.) My plane will land on Friday (the 8th) at 4:10. This seems like a very bad traffic time, so I have no idea how long it will take to get to the hotel (and did I mention our hotel has smoking rooms! It's the only place we will be able to smoke indoors in the whole city). The good news is I will have a car and driver to meet me. That's so much better than having to get a cab. One of My Sweetie's business associates is going to take us out to dinner so that will also be nice: No thinking on our part. No plans after that. It will be a VERY long day for me, so I'm hoping to go to bed early (for me) because Saturday is our only real day there.

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My Saturday plans are to wake up, get ready, and grab a cab for Robert F. Wagner Jr. park. There we should have great harbor views (meaning Ellis Island and Liberty Island) and I'm going to take my binoculars. We will also visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage, which will probably make me cry, but that's okay. Next, we will take a cab back to our hotel to rest my feet, smoke and drink some beers (Hey it's MY vacation too!) and drop off the binoculars. Times Square will be our next stop, because although I did the whole New Year's Eve on Times Square back in 1978, My Sweetie has never been to New York. That's also why we are going to go to that park to see the Statue of Liberty - I went all the way up it back then. Thank goodness he hates boats and doesn't actually want to take the ferry over there. (Wow. I never thought I'd appreciate the fact that he hates boats. I LOVE boats.) After Times Square we are off to the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park - for more drinking of course. The view. I meant we are going there for the view. We plan to walk from there through Central Park to the Met. We LOVE art museums. I imagine we will be there for many hours. And did I mention it has a bar? Actually I think it has two or three. How perfect is that? Look at fine art, have a glass of wine, look at fine art, have a beer. I could do that for hours. And the museum is open until after 8:00 p.m. That's the part of the trip I am most looking forward to. After that, we have no plans at all. We don't even have dinner plans. I like it like that.

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Sunday, we really won't have much time between check-out and having to get to the airport, so we'll probably find a nice outdoor cafe to relax and rest our feet. It will go by pretty quickly, so I hope to take good pictures. My next post about this trip will be about our hotel and celebrities. Oh NO!!!

Art Envy

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, but I must admit to art envy. When I see posts by people of their paintings (and you know who you are!) I'm a bit jealous. I can't help it. I grew up with a big brother that could sketch anything he saw. My brother is an incredible artist, although he's done NOTHING with it. If I had his talent, oh well, I'll not go there. The painting above is an oil of my Dad, done by an old friend of mine. She did it in 1992. He never had it framed so when he died suddenly in 1998, my brother and I decided to have it framed for his memorial service. His service was on Friday afternoon. We went to a frame shop on Thursday. We walked in, picked out the perfect frame and they said, "Okay, this will be ready on Monday." I burst into tears, explained our situation and they said, "Well can you come back in 2 hours?" It just so happened there was a Chili's in the same parking lot, so that was not a problem. But I digress.

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I guess I'm just naturally attracted to artists. Most of the stuff in my house is by people I know and love. I even have a rare (or the only) oil painting in existence by my Mom. I have a lovely pastel by my step-mother and a few drawings by my brother. I have THREE paintings by the artist that painted my Dad, including one of her self-portraits. She and I met in a ballet class and took several dance classes over the years. Unfortunately we lost touch about 4 years ago. She's a professional artist and her paintings are very expensive so I guess I got lucky (although Dad did pay for his portrait). His portrait now hangs in a prominent spot in our library. I have pictures of that somewhere.

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Back to art envy. To be fair to myself, I can be creative. Some of my stuff: killer personalized birthday cards, bathroom wall sponging, a nice shadowbox frame of Hawaii mementos, a really cool panda and bamboo drawing on the thigh of a pair of old jeans (yes, it was the early 90's) and my very favorite: I used S-shaped styrofoam packing peanuts and gold acrylic paint to replace a missing corner of a gold ornate frame on an old painting of my Dad (not the one above). The thing is, I can't just paint a picture of something. So even though it's a deadly sin, I have to tell you artists that I am jealous. Okay now I have to show you one big thing I painted. Several houses ago, my daughter's closet door and bedroom door were next to each other in the corner. I decided to paint this Snoopy and Charlie Brown on the doors (you can see the doorknobs). So this is my one painting: