The Florida Trip

Don't get me wrong, I'm as sad as everyone else about the current state of the economy, but being a bit of a social phobe, I have to admit how much I really enjoyed the relative emptiness of the resort we visited. It was pretty obvious that the whole place is set up for crowds. Here are some examples:
1-The bathrooms at Citywalk were down long wide halls and had like a gazillion stalls.
2-The restaurants all had lighted signs announcing seating time and all said "0"
3-That book in the hotel room that explains stuff had "reservations recommended" for all of their restaurants and that was just silly.
4-I never had to wait for a beer, restroom or food anywhere.
5-We had outstanding service everywhere like they were so darn glad to see us.
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You know how when you have great expectations, you seem to get more easily disappointed? Well, to be quite honest, I was all, well it's not San Diego but I'll try to have fun. In other words, I had NO expectations and I had a GREAT time. Even my flight was fine and seemed short. And I loved my driver. He sounded just like Thomas Hayden Church (The cheater in Sideways) and I love voices and I loved that guy's voice, although I couldn't think of the actor's name at the time.
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The hotel was fun. It's like all these little buildings grouped around a large piazza with a little harbor with boats and ducks. The ducks were real. You'll see the "buildings" in later pictures. On the inside were a trillion photo op spots, so I narrowed it down to just a few:

After we walked around and explored the inside, we went out onto the piazza and settled at The Thirsty Fish. We were sitting outside enjoying all the great live music when these ducks came running up:

At first we couldn't figure out why they were so interested, then I remembered that My Sweetie had a got a bit of lime pulp on his lip and had grabbed it and tossed it. I guess that's all the ducks needed to see. We finally went to Sal's and had a light dinner and went to our room to watch "Saturday Night Live." Sunday morning, we went down to eat at the main place and this was my view from our table:
The birds were quite aggressive and one tiny bird settled on top of the seat next to me. I held up a thin french fry thinking he'd fly away, but no! He did a crazy hop toward me flapping like a madman and grabbed the whole fry! My Sweetie laughed and laughed at my shocked expression. Fortunately, the giant glittery silken ravens waited until we left the table to attack it. I would have taken a picture but My Sweetie took the camera back to our room to drop off a shot glass I had bought for Lo and to take some pics of me from our window. Here's three of them (I'm the tiny white line in front of the corner of the restauarant in the first one):

That left set of stools in the picture above is where we sat the night before with the ducks. The music was really great Saturday night. They had just played some song I loved and I thought how perfect it would be to hear "The Girl From Ipanema" and then thought better of requesting it since we were in Fake Italy and not Fake Portugal, then they played it. That was great. After lunch we walked over to the dock to take the boat to City Walk

City Walk was fun. They had music blasting all over the place and lots of fun things to look at and more photo op places like this giraffe:

There was an NBA store/restaurant/bar place that we stopped in for a beer and this was in the bathroom:

Mostly we hung out at Margaritaville although we did stop in at Bob Marley's bar. This is me looking indecisive on the "Porch of Indecision" at Margaritaville:

We were pretty buzzed when it was time to head back and when we walked up to the boat dock there was quite a crowd so we decided to walk all the way back. This was looking back at City Walk from the path:

And those two ducks in the lower right? They were on a boogie board! What the heck?:

We rested a bit after getting back or maybe went to the bar, then we ate and My Sweetie crashed. I watched The Queen on TV and went to bed. The next morning as we packed, I said, "I wish I had called the car service to get that cool man that sounded like that actor." He even let me smoke in the car. Then as I sat on the stone bench out front drinking my last beer, a car pulled up and it was him! And exactly at that moment I remembered the actor's name. We had a nice ride to the airport and a pleasant flight and had plenty of time to get ready to go downtown to see Carol Burnett. That will be my next post.

Ready to Roll

I'm pretty much packed and ready to head out in 9 1/2 hours to go to Orlando. It's supposed to be very gusty tomorrow so I hope my plane doesn't flip over when we're taking off. I sort of wish I hadn't watched the weather report. But I had to because I was going to leave Barney in the garage since we I will be gone only 52 hours. Unfortunately it's supposed to get down to 30° Saturday night so I will have to leave the cat door unlocked. I hope he doesn't do anything foolish. Orlando weather will be in the 70's and in the 50's at night. That sounds good. It was 84° here last Saturday and I got a lot of sun. Then Monday there was ice in the trees and we had freezing rain. I think it was 30° during the day and then on Wednesday it was around 70°. That's Texas weather for you. I'm looking forward to goofing around and doing nothing in particular in the Universal resort this weekend. I hope you all get to goof around and do nothing in particular this weekend too.

Almost Horrible

One of my worst fears is finding a dead person, and being a Meals on Wheels delivery person sort of puts me in a higher category for that event. One of my ladies that died about 5 years ago died on the MOW person's watch that was either a day ahead or a day behind mine. I was just glad it wasn't me. For about 4 minutes, I thought today was the day.
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I don't go into the houses of all the MOW people. Some people just open the door and take the food, but some you walk in and take the food to some designated point. I have this guy that I'll call Sid Parker that is one of those that you bang on the door and let yourself in and keep announcing yourself because they can't hear very well. And those are the same people that always have their TVs on very loud so that doesn't help.
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So I walk in all "MEALS ON WHEELS!!" and then notice how quiet it is. Usually Always, his TV is blaring. My little brain alarm went off. Then as I reach his kitchen and look over the counter into the family room, I see he is not in his chair. He's always in his chair. I'm all "oh no oh no oh no...." in my head and then notice a bedroom door and a bed and what looks like a knee.
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I walked up sort of close to the door and loudly inquired, "Mr. Parker?" nothing. Again, "Mr. Parker? Mr. Parker?" and he never stirred at all. Then, "Sid?!" "Sid?!" and I was thinking, I do not want to go in there. Then finally he stirred and mumbled something like, "I fell asleep in my chair last night." I was SO relieved. I think I said something like, "I'm glad you're okay. Your food's on the counter and I brought in your newspaper." Then I practically ran out. I was so happy that he was okay. And happy today wasn't that day I have dreaded.

Welcome 2009!

I'm looking forward to the start of this year: All the TV shows coming back like "Monk," "Psych," "American Idol," "Lost" and "Damages" and a better school schedule for My Sweetie. He had Saturday classes last semester and it sort of dampened Friday nights because he had to study or do homework. This semeseter will be Monday thru Thursday, so we will have our weekends back. Yay. "Survivor:Tocantins" (pronounced TOKE-un-cheens) starts in February and looks like it will be a tough grueling trial for the crazy people that do this show. I LOVE "Survivor!!" I'm also thrilled about seeing Carol Burnett Monday night. And we have our reservations for our beach cottage in May so I'm very excited about that.

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But the biggest thing of all? In October I am taking my dream vacation of all time. Lo and I are going to do Halloween on Bourbon Street as Glinda and Dorothy!

We've talked about it for years but this year we are finally going to do it and I think it's going to be awesome. Welcome 2009, indeed.

Rethinking

So after my last post I am rethinking about seeing my old friend. I guess most people go through this at some point. I was in the shower today and I was wondering if they would even show up. First of all, we won't have a car. They would have to come and see us at the hotel. Secondly, his wife is the one I talked to last month and she didn't seem all thrilled about meeting me or anything. My friend, D, had throat cancer and almost died and not from the throat cancer, but from detoxing from alcohol while he was in the hospital. So he doesn't drink or smoke anymore. His wife said, "He can't go in a bar." Like she was his mom.
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And what would we talk about? Our history together is just that: History. And it's a partying crazy history. I doubt his wife would like to hear the Champagne Jam* story, although My Sweetie has already heard it and thinks it's funny. And now that I think about it D hates that story. As far as recent stuff, I sure as hell wouldn't ask something like "How did you guys meet?" because I know how they met and it's not pretty. We could talk about how smart we were in QPS**, but that would take about 15 minutes and then what? We certainly wouldn't reminisce about the story where the two of us cleaned up the beach house in 1978 while everyone was out because you would have had to have been there.
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And all that "So what do you do?" stuff would be uncomfortable because while My Sweetie has a nice job, he doesn't own a telecommunications company that his dad gave him. I suppose we could talk about Dad because that's the last time we saw each other, but D's wife never met Dad. As usual I'm sure I'm overthinking this. If they show up next Sunday I'm sure we'll have a pleasant visit and if they don't that will be fine too.
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*Champagne Jam was a concert in Atlanta in maybe 1979 that was one of those all day multiple band concerts. My high school boyfriend, myself and several other guys including D all went in someone's pick-up that had a camper on the back. It was a Saturday concert, but we left from North Carolina on Friday night. At some point we stopped to change drivers, pee and whatnot and shortly after we left the gas station, D was driving and everyone settled down to sleep. I was in the bed/camper part but for some reason started watching the road through the connecting window when I noticed some sign saying we were going north. Instead of sliding the window open and tapping D and telling him, I slid the window open and started yelling "D!! What are you doing??!!? You're going NORTH!!???!! Atlanta is SOUTH!!!!" I woke everyone up, freaked D out and he gave me hell about that for years. I still think it's funny.

**QPS (Quantative Physical Science) was an experimental science class in 9th grade that was the brainchild of some Duke University professors. Unfortunately, we were randomly placed in there and D and I were the only smart people and lab partners. We made like 112 on every test and everyone else made like 56. They probably discontinued QPS after that year.

2009 and I'm all Blabby

Happy New Year everybody! With all the news of Caroline Kennedy saying "you know" every three words it made me look at myself and I think we all use our own "padding." I call it talk padding. My own personal ones are "so" and "well" and because I pretty much type on here like I talk, I know you know I use those words A LOT. I guess the republicans are just getting back at the dems for the Sara Palin stuff. Oh and I also say "A LOT" a lot because of Stephen King's story about the horrible clown. I love that line in the show when the creepy dad says, "I worry about you A LOT." So blame Stephen King for that one. I don't know where "so" and "well" came from. (On a totally unrelated note, when my daughter was young she also started sentences with "well" except she always pronounced it as "wool" which always made me laugh.)

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Barney finally has figured out the cat door. It's been a long process. First, he thought it was a portal to hell. Then he thought it was a one-way door. Then he thought it was a one-way door the other way. Lolo and I have figured out that there is a direct correlation to a cat's stupidity and their sweetness. And, well, Barney is very sweet.

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I mentioned a while back that the San Diego trip wasn't happening this January. Three years in a row MY Sweetie has gone there for a MLB golf thing and then I join him for the weekend. This year it is in Orlando, Florida. This is a good thing. I have an old friend from junior high school that I've known forever that lives there. I haven't seen him since Dad died in 1998 and since then he had a bad cancer episode and surgery and barely made it, so I can't wait to see him. Also we will be staying at a fun-looking place. I'm sure it won't be as cool as the Gaslamp District in San Diego, but it will be nice to see my friend.

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I had a nice surprise Tuesday night when my daughter called and said she wanted to do Meals on Wheels with me. First of all she works nights and that requires getting up very early for her and second (of all?) she had just done it with me last Wednesday so I figured she was tired of me. But she showed up and we had a very nice day except for the grocery store which was like the 3rd level of hell. We joked about it afterwards saying "How many people would say that visiting someone in a nursing home/rehab place would be a million times better than going to the grocery store?" Just us I guess.

That's a picture of Kate outside of my tailor shop. There is a dog grooming place next door. She really loves dogs. She didn't get that from me. The reason we were at the tailor shop is I was getting some new black jeans hemmed. On January 12th we are going to the Bass performance Hall to see Carol Burnett. I had to get an "outfit" for the show and the black jeans are part of it. And if you are rolling your eyes about the jeans part, then you don't live in Texas. Black jeans are dress clothes here. Plus, the whole outfit is cute, but hard to explain, so you will have to wait.

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Scarlet tagged me with that six random things about yourself meme although I never follow the rules and tag other people and whatnot. I'm going to go ahead and do it here since I feel all writey.

1. I have severe social phobia anxiety and take medication for it. I was very close to being a complete shut-in until I got the right medication. When people meet me they always laugh and say "No way!" and it sort of irritates me. Yeah I'm very gregarious in person but it's the medicine and the beer.

2. My favorite celebrity moment was being onstage with Rodney Dangerfield.

3. I was mistaken for a boy a few times when I was a kid and although I dressed like a boy it was still somewhat traumatic. I always say I grew up in the Marcia Brady era but I looked more like Peter Brady. The worst moment was when one of my Dad's superiors asked, "Oh, is this your other son?" Dad said, "NO! This is my beautiful daughter!" The weird part is that I was embarrassed for my Dad. It was a very awkward moment.

4. This one is REALLY ODD: I've had several plastic surgeries (abdomen, upper eyes and breasts) but I just don't get fake fingernails. I don't even paint my nails. What's with the nails?

5. I love people and hate people. I'm a human-loving misanthrope. It's like I despise people as a whole, but love individual people. And I'm the same way with dogs.

6. Speaking of people, I used to have an "all or none" mentality about people. I've been working on that and have gotten better.

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Well it's 2009 and I need to go to sleep.

My Own Weird Interview

Xup just did an interview post that I saw a few years ago that's pretty interesting and the questions are supposed to be tailored to you. But you have to ask the blogger to send you the questions and Xup has a BUNCH of readers so I figured she would be bombarded with interview requests so I googled "weird interview questions" or something like that and found this site, so I thought I'd just answer some of those.

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If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be? Tom Sawyer because he had some great adventures

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If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you? Jodie Foster because I think she could do a great job and she looks slightly more like me than any other great actress.

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If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be? If I were dead it would be "She Knew How to Have Fun" but if I were still alive it would be "Steer Clear."

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If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs - such as food and water - were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you? Beer and Carmex

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If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time? I just put these two together because they would both be: Sit on a deck by the ocean and drink beer.

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If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be, and why? If they mean someone dead, my grandfather and if they mean someone from history books, then Mark Twain because he had lots of adventures and was very amusing.

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If you could compare yourself with any animal, which would it be and why? A cat, because cats like to play and be lazy.

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If anyone wants to actually e-mail me (geewits@yahoo.com) with 5 personal interview questions, I might actually try it.

And Another One Down

(Barney loves wrapping paper)

Well I made it through another Christmas without being crushed or melted. I think not having that family party was very relaxing and I was able to enjoy the holiday so much more. I had a really long fun day on Christmas eve. After Meals on Wheels, my daughter and I had lunch at La Bistro which is a really nice Italian restaurant that we used to frequent quite often when we lived closer. My Sweetie and I even went there for our second anniversary and one year we even did Christmas eve dinner there with my parents. They have a piano so that was a really fun night. For some reason, I had sort of forgotten about it, but what happened was, I needed to buy a Honey-Baked ham for Christmas day and the HBH store is right next to La Bistro, so that was very convenient. They have the best lobster bisque in the area, so I had soup and salad, which made a great (very early) appetizer for my Christmas eve dinner. And my shrimp boil was the best I have made. Everything was perfect. I hope I will be able to find that same shrimp and those same potatoes next time I make it.
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After we had lunch and lodged the giant ham in my little ice chest, we went to visit Myriam in her rehab place. She was glad to see us and happy to see the Cuban beach photo I had made for her (with a "Get Well Myriam!" printed on it.) Like so many other Cubans, she and her husband fled when Castro took over, but she will always miss the pretty beaches of her youth. The phone rang while we were there and it was her surrogate family calling to say they were on their way and she wanted me to meet them. They used to live across the street from her and she was their babysitter for years from the time the boy was a baby. And saying "the boy" is funny because this was a big giant guy although he was only 16. He looked so much like my daughter it was eerie. They just looked at each other for a few minutes. There's something about redheaded freckled people that just makes for a common kinship I guess.
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We left after they arrived and did a little shopping, hit a bar and then picked up the green beans for the next day. And yes, I can make green beans, but I really love the green beans from the Texas Roadhouse and was making it easy on myself since I was going to be making Alton Brown's macaroni and cheese. When we got home we wrapped some gifts and stuff until it was time to run down to Carole's. I was finally going to meet Carole's kids and she was meeting mine. I was a little nervous at first, but her daughter made me feel very comfortable. Some people are just natural social relaxers or something.
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After we came home and made the shrimp boil, we watched Burn After Reading. If you are a Coen brothers fan, you will LOVE this movie. I already want to watch it again.
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Christmas morning, I woke up too early and was going over the mac and cheese recipe and couldn't get back to sleep, so I finally got up. I made breakfast and My Sweetie and I exchanged gifts. My MIL called to say that the two oldest kids of my SIL would not be there as they would be with their dad. So I thought, "Well that's okay, there will be some good leftovers." Then I took my shower and started on the mac and cheese. When that was all finished and I was ready, we packed up all the food and gifts and headed to my MIL's house. When we got there she told us that my SIL was sick and she and her husband and youngest kid would not be coming. So I had a Honey-Baked ham for 10, and green beans for 10 and mac and cheese for 10. My MIL had made two pies and had two pans of rolls. For three people. Well that was just silly. Anyway, we decided to go visit Bill in his rehab place before we ate. I thought it was sort of odd that I ended up going to two different rehab places to see two different people two days in a row that happened to be Christmas eve and Christmas. I bet that won't happen again. And maybe I should have used some commas back there somewhere.
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Bill was rather chipper and it was good to see him again. Fortunately, as was the case with Myriam, he had no "roommate" at the time, so we had the room to ourselves. He asked us all "Don't I look much better?" and my acerbic MIL said, "Better than what?" I think My Sweetie said, "You look a lot better than you did in the hospital." and I think I said, "I'm glad to see you sitting up." The thing is, when we first got there the doctor was there. My MIL asked him why Bill was losing blood, and right there in front of everybody, he said, "Well often when you get this old and are catastrophically ill, your bone marrow shuts down and stops producing new blood." I was sort of mortified to hear that but Bill was just sitting there looking all chipper and all. I'm not a doctor, but I think it's probably not good if your bone marrow shuts down its production. So Christmas day was sort of a bummer.
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Christmas day ended up just feeling like a Sunday, so when I woke up this (Friday) morning, I thought it was Monday and was about to strip my bed because I wash my sheets every Monday. Fortunately I caught myself in time. Then I did that post Christmas gathering of the boxes and wrapping paper and bows and things. And I was glad it was Friday.
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I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and did not get crushed or melted.

Christmastime is Here

Wow, my Christmas was just made. Johnny Mathis was just on Leno and did a beautiful medley of "Christmastime is Here" with "White Christmas" with the accompaniment of only a piano. I really loved every second of it.
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On Sunday, my uphill neighbors with the barky dog that replaced the wall between our houses had a neighborhood open house. I got to see the lady again that pulled the glass out of my foot. I really liked her. She was fun. Mostly I just talked to Carole and her husband. The party ended abruptly when Mr. Uphill Neighbor (the WWII vet) took a nosedive into a wicker chair and got wicker splinters in his face and started bleeding profusely. I'm glad I did not see that. I probably would have cried.
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I went to the grocery store today and got everything for Christmas eve, Christmas day, and even remembered to get something for a Christmas breakfast. I used to get so caught up with my yearly Christmas party (that was always held a few days before Christmas) that when the actual holiday rolled around, we wouldn't have anything to eat. I'm so glad I'm not doing that party anymore. I was going to start a Christmas Day tradition of making the shrimp boil, but since we are doing the ham thing at My Sweetie's Mom's house, we are doing the shrimp boil with my daughter on Christmas eve. Also, my daughter is going to deliver Meals on Wheels with me on Christmas eve. I'm even going to wear my Santa hat. I'll have someone take our picture. Yes, probably a bartender.
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I want to wish everyone a very Merry Cristmas. I hope you have a fun and stress-free holiday.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Good The Bad and The Ugly (part:something)

I had such a good time Wednesday! My new friend and neighbor Carole went with me for Meals on Wheels. We did all the usual stuff and then visited my MOW lady in her rehab facility and I drove her around my old neighborhood. We are both Chatty Cathies and so the conversation never ends. Thanks Carole, that was fun!
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I got all my "long distance" gifts out on time, and Thursday night My Sweetie and I finished our Christmas shopping and went to Razzoo's for Cajun food. We also finally bought the pet door for between the house and garage. I installed it today, but Barney has not figured it out yet. I knew he would be timid about it, but he will catch on. As long as he's on the litter box side (garage), it's all good.
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Bill went back into the hospital last week because he skipped rehab and went straight home and that was not a good idea. He's now in the rehab facility and hopefully they will have him back in working order in a month or so.
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Rehab facilities have very small rooms.
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Although I send out a decent pile of Christmas cards each year we don't get a whole lot, but this year I've received two Christmas cards from people that I've never sent one to (an aunt and an old friend). What's that all about?
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I've been in a bad "spinning my wheels" phase where it feels like I'm doing a lot of stuff but not getting stuff done. I hope that goes away. Maybe if I mop my kitchen floor I'll feel better.
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Tonight on the local news, live, the reporter said, "The police believe that she took her own life and then turned the gun on her children." I burst out laughing and then felt terrible and then I laughed some more. Now that's UGLY. There's nothing like live TV.
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And now on a lighter note, I have to post my awesome Cristmas card link. Enjoy!

Be Prepared to Roll Your Eyes

That's the computer that we have connected to the internet. That's where I sit to post on my blog and read your blogs,

That's the computer that I download photos from my camera and do my Photoshop stuff on. (Yeah, I just ended a sentence with a prepostiion but I think southerners are allowed to do that.) Well both of those are PC's. I was a Mac person in the old days. When I used to work, and really I did, I was a graphic artist. (Oh my, I'm listening to a Christmas music station and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is being sung duetically(??) by Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart and it is giving me brain damage.) Oh, so I was a graphic artist so of course I was all Mac.

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Anyway, I have this great CD with over 10,000 clip art images and it CAN NOT be opened on a PC - I tried everything! So I set my old Mac G3 up in the former cat room:

Now here's the really stupid part. To access an image, I have to open it on the Mac, save that on a floppy disc, put that disc in my imaging computer, do whatever I want to do to it, save it to a USB memory stick, and then plug that into this computer. So it takes 3 computers for me to do stuff. How stupid is that?

Being Jolly Through The Crap

Anyone that has been reading my blog for any amount of time knows that I am a positive, glass half full type of person. The yard sale was a total bust. Although it was mostly sunny and warm, the wind was CRAZY. 20 - 30 m.p.h with gusts up to hell. I already stated that we live on a cul-de-sac, so I was counting on the external signs and my Craig's List ad. Well when My Sweetie went to grab us some lunch he found that both of our signs had blown away. Not only that, but one of our metal spikes WAS BENT!! From a cardboad sign!! That's how strong the wind was. It was crazy constantly running across the yard gathering things back up. And I think it is instinctual when it is that windy to want to go home. Anyway the yard sale sucked for the most part and the worst part was I found out after my very nice trip to visit Mom that my step-dad was very disappointed with my efforts for all of their house stuff. The people that are close to me that I told were very, uhm, disgruntled about his attitude, but it just made me sad. I don't believe in what-ifs, but I do wish now that I had let them hire someone to do all the work that I did. Oh well.
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I was so blue after the "yard sale" I did my thing of making lemonade from lemons and decided to give Carole something she had admired. I also made a pretty arrangement from some gold and red poinsettias in a red and gold vase for my MOW lady. We visited her for a while in her rehab place and then went to visit Bill in the hospital. Visiting people in hospitals can put things in perspective no matter how crappy things have been. And things have been really crappy.
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It seems like we spent a FORTUNE on home repairs this year. It was always something. I could probably go back through my blog and get a good idea of how much we spent, but I really, really would rather not.
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And cats. Oh my. We've had terrible luck with our cats. I gave Rufus to my daughter and then he "disappeared" and Maxie and Lilly had to be put to sleep and then Barney was just injured twice. He's fine now, thank goodness, and just as sweet as ever.
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I have to keep reminding myself of the good stuff from this year. The State Fair was great and I really loved our beach cottage. But I have to say that the two best things from this year were: 1) My Sweetie went back to school to get his degree and 2) I made a new friend. Those two things are really big and I think outweigh all the crap.
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I'll be more postive later. I hope.

The Very Last Thing

I've been working my butt off getting ready for the yard sale that takes place nine and a half hours from now. This is the very end of selling Mom's things. Mom had a crazy amount of Christmas stuff and I didn't think it would sell in the summer so I waited. The sale was supposed to be in November at my MIL's house, but Bill got sick and that went away, so I finally decided to just go for it here. I live at the top of a little hill on a cul-de-sac, so I hope signs and the Craig's list ad will generate some traffic. Wish me luck!

My Pretend Mountains

A few times a year we get a weird purplish low wall of clouds. Today there was one in the east. When we get those I always pretend I live somewhere where there's a giant mountain range in the distance. I bet there really is a place that looks like that and they really are mountains. It's after 4:00 a.m. and I just finished my garage/Christmas sale signs and I was going to post about that and about poor Barney being attacked again last Friday (don't worry, he's NOT going back outside AND the neighbors paid for it) and about my favorite MOW lady being MIA and some other things, but like I just typed, it's after 4:00 a.m. And I just yawned.

Blech Blech and Blech!

I was watching Jay Leno and Paula Deen was on there showing Jay how to make stuffed shells and she kept licking her fingers. Stuff a shell, lick her fingers, stuff a shell, lick her fingers. It was really really grossing me out. I had to turn off the TV. I googled "Paula Deen licking her fingers" and found some chat page about it. Why would anyone DO THAT?

Friends

I was thinking today about my three favorite girlfriends. Actually I was wondering why a 47-year-old would refer to her women friends as girlfriends, when I realized I could categorize my friends. There is my Wise Friend, my Party Friend and my Stupid Friend. Then I started thinking that I am probably my Wise Friend's Stupid Friend and my Stupid Friend's Wise Friend and it made me wonder if my Stupid Friend has a Stupid Friend where she is the wise one? And does my Stupid Friend's Stupid Friend have a Stupid Friend? I'd hate to be on the bottom of that heirarchy. Now I wonder if my Wise Friend has a Wise Friend where she is the Stupid Friend? Probably not, but you never know.

A Fun Meme (99 Things)

I should go to bed, but Ian had this cool meme and I just had to do it. The rule was just to bold the ones you've done but I'm going to take it a step further and red (as in STOP) the ones I will never ever do and green (as in GO) the ones I really want to do. Here goes:
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1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (I sang a few times but don't know if that counts)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (hiked up some but don't think I started at the bottom)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (does asking some guys in a pick-up to give you a lift in the back of their truck back to your hotel in Vegas after you walked to a store and bought a case of beer and realized it was too heavy to carry back count?)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason (not sure if "gotten" means received or bought, but I've done both)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (I've always said the only way I would fly in a helicopter was if I were being Care-Flighted to a hospital)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (but I didn't go inside because it was too soon after 9/11)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I thought this was fun. Feel free to do it. It was funny because I had actually forgotten for a few minutes that I had been in an ambulance because I was unconscious at the time.

Apropos of Whatever

Half of the Meals on Wheels people were particularly chatty today and my route seemed to take FOREVER. When I got to the last house with the "special" John Malkovich lookalike, he clapped his hands in glee.
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When I stopped at my post-MOW bar for my two beers, the bartender told me she was downloading 80's music because Wednesday nights are now "80's Music Night!" and last Wednesday she did not have a lot of songs that were requested. At first I said, "Eeeew, I'm not a giant fan of 80's music." Then I started asking her about different songs and bands and she started taking notes. Who knew I was an expert on 80's music?
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On my way to that auction place to FINALLY GET MY CHECK, I noticed this nice view of downtown Fort Worth:
This was very interesting to watch:

If they gave out prizes for backing a truck with a 7" clearance, this guy would win first place. The sound of those trees clattering against the passenger side was pretty loud.

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I've been wearing my watch for a month and it was always 6:30 until today.

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That jewelry guy must get pretty lonely because we talked forever. I learned a lot about jewelry metals.

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There has been a lot of information out about how companies are not charging higher prices for stuff, just giving you less product. Not my beer. Now a case has THIRTY CANS. Life is good:

I have to wonder if this rare alignment of Jupiter and Venus is affecting cars:

I must have seen 4 or more cars today with their right wheels on the paint. It was very strange.

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I call that hardened icky part that comes out of a lotion pump dispenser a "lotion booger."

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The lady at the catfish place always knows exactly what I want. I like that.

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I didn't win the lottery again today and was irritated for about 3 minutes.

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The name of the bank on the check from the auction guy is "Viewpoint Bank." That sounds like a made up TV series bank name. When I go to my bank (a real bank) to deposit it, I'm actually going to ask the teller if that's a real bank.

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Leonard Pitts, in a recent column about George Bush, used the phrase "reign of error." I thought that was very clever.

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I've been forgetting to write down my spoonerisms but I did one today. I had already been down the soft drink aisle, then (across the store) the coffee aisle, and could NOT find the bottled Starbucks mochas. I was back on the soft drink aisle when I put both hands on the side of my head and said (out loud): Why are they so fard to hind?!?" Then I blinked and said, "What did I just say (again out loud)?" I'm glad no one else was on that aisle.

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I've always wanted to coin a great phrase, but let's face it, "lotion booger" doesn't hold a candle to "reign of error."

December 02, 2000 - 2008

Somebunny left this by the computer for me to find this morning. Now you know why I call him My Sweetie.

My Thanksgiving Beach Trip

Since I didn't answer any of the last comments, I'll start with that. I didn't mean pics and details of the shower, I meant of the trip. I should have taken a picture of the shower but never remembered to pack my camera in my shower bag. It's a nice park bathhouse. The shower stalls have an outer curtain opening into a space with a built-in bench and some hooks for your stuff and then there is another curtain that opens into the spacious getting wet area. It's all brightly white painted cinder blocks and has wonderful water pressure. Oh, and for Lone Grey Squirrel, it was the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling." And here are my pics:
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Mom had the bed made up for me and all it needed was my sleeping pony to make it perfect:

There was a little table and two chairs to the right of the bed, one of which I used for a luggage rack:

The bed was a bunk with a single on top. This is the foot of the bed and pretty much the rest of the tiny cabin:

Mom was so sweet and funny and wanted to drive me in her car to my cabin on the first night. She asked me twice. This is a picture of the distance from her front porch to the cabin:

The large bulding behind the tiny cabin is the office/gameroom/church/laundromat/library/vending area and has some bathrooms. This is Mom and me in front of her place. My Step-Dad made that pelican post with the giant ropes. I love it:

This is Belle the horse. I went in Mom's backyard to take a picture of the goats, horse and pony back there and this horse came RIGHT up to me. I'm terrified of horses but I actually touched her head.

It was strange that I didn't see any deer on this trip but I saw a fox and I have never ever seen a fox in real life. We also saw something cross the road in front of us on the island but we couldn't agree on what it was. I thought it was a jackrabbit and Mom thought it was a coyote. Maybe it was just a very weird cat. I commandered the golf cart on Thursday afternoon (my Step-Dad left to go fishing with his son and stay for a few days) and kept it until I left. Here it is parked in front of the tiny cabin:

The actual Thanksgiving part was on Thursday at 1:00. They have a screened-in building with three rows of picnic tables and a fireplace for these group events. Mom made an apple walnut cake and squash casserole. Earlier on Thursday while she was finishing up, a lady named Edna stopped by to chat. She said she was taking collards. I will love her forever. Collards are not a Texas thing, so I had not thought of them, but after she said they would be there, I decided not to eat much of anything else. This is part of the spread at the place:

The turkeys were on another table. There was fried turkey and several flavored barbecued turkeys. This is my Step-Dad cutting up a turkey. Mom is just over his shoulder wearing red:

I had one section of fried turkey wing, about two tablespoons of mac and cheese, two tablespoons of Mom's squash casserole and three large helpings of collards. They were beyond awesome. I wish I had some right now. I went out to sit on the golf cart after I ate, to smoke a cigarette and saw this thing flying over someone's camper:

I certainly wasn't expecting to see a Canadian flag and sort of felt like Jazz was admonishing me for smoking. But I got over it. That's when my Step-Dad left and Mom and I went to visit very old friends. I met my friend Janice in 4th grade. Her big sister Linda met my brother in 8th grade and they fell in love, so we all knew each other. And one of my brother's older best friends dated her older sister. They are married now and have a really nice cottage on a canal on the island. Their parents were there and lots of other relatives that I got to meet for the first time. It was a nice visit but Mom and I started to feel like we were intruding on a family thing so we didn't stay too long. On Friday, my bestest best friend came down from Durham.

Mom dropped us off at a bar to watch the end of the Duke game while she ran a few errands. We watched the end of the game and played a lot of fun songs on the juke box. Some guy bought us a round of drinks and some guy (maybe the same?) made us roses out of cocktail napkins:

It really looked a lot nicer, but this was after it spent the night in my purse. We had all meant to go see the Christmas flotilla of boats on the intracoastal waterway, but we lost track of time so we went to a restaurant and had some great seafood. Then we hit Buddies, a bar on the beach by the cottage I rented last June. I don't know how long we stayed there, but then we went back to Mom's for a while and then took the cart down to sleep in the tiny cabin. Mom made us breakfast on Saturday morning and then Lo had to take off to visit some relatives. I got ready and Mom took me to the airport and it seemed like I had just gotten there the day before. Time really does fly when you're having fun and I had a LOT of fun.

Tiny Cabin Fun

After I finally got on a plane in Charlotte after missing my connection Tuesday afternoon. My first night in the tiny cabin was fun. Mom has a little Toshiba DVD player so I watched an episode of "Buffy" before I went to bed. And I had forgotten how much I really love these showers. I must have stayed in there this morning for 30 minutes. I will have pics and details later.

Cold Giant Lizards

(These screen captures came out pretty small so you will need to click on them if you want to see them larger or as in my case, be able to read them.)
This is the forecast for my trip to North Carolina. Mom seems to think I am going to freeze to death in the tiny cabin and has wrangled extra blankets from my aunt that lives in Wilmington. Yeah 31° is cold, but I am very hot natured. Mom is cold natured so I guess she is thinking I will be as cold as she would be. I will not. I'm not even taking a coat. I have a few sweaters and sweatshirts and some little tops to wear under them and that's all I need. I've always been jealous of women with artfully layered tops because the very thought of wearing two tops at once makes me sweat. I had meant to go shopping for some new winter tops but never got around to it so I will be wearing my same ol' old stuff. I hate shopping. I will have access to a washer and dryer so I will do my usual thing of taking about 3 outfits and washing and wearing them again. That's me, the ol' wash and wear.
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Speaking of screen captures, (what? No?) have you ever been scrolling down a page and ran different parts of sentences together in your brain? I did that with this page:

I thought I had read "Dinosaur tracks found on Mars."

Thoughts While Waiting

It's kind of funny that I spent my first 12 years just 85 miles from the beach and yet I've never been there in the winter. My Sweetie asked me the other day, "What's the beach like this time of year?" I said, "I have no idea." Being the eternal optimist, I am thinking that if I go at low tide, I will have all the good shells to myself. I am just now starting to think about my trip. I get my hair done this afternoon, Saturday I take Barney to get his stitches out and Monday I have my dental cleaning. Tuesday I fly to N.C. My bestest friend Lolo will be there on Friday to watch the Duke basketball game with me at some bar and she is going to spend the night with me in the tiny cabin.

Mom's birthday was yesterday and she turned the big SEVEN-O. I can't wait to see her. Although we talk on the phone A LOT, I haven't seen her since June. We have no plans for Thanksgiving because Mom, like me, is a Thanksgiving Rebel. We may have seafood or pork barbecue. I also have no plans for Wednesday, but I may see my old friend from 4th grade if she drives down from Goldsboro. I'm looking forward to seeing the beach in winter, seeing Mom and Lolo and having no particular plans. I think I need that.

A Most Hideous Week

My hideous week started two Monday nights ago. It was POURING rain and there was a slight chance of hail during the night so I decided to put Barney in the garage. He has a big doghouse, but I imagined that since it was raining so hard he was getting splashback in there. As I was carrying him in I thought he had a small wet leaf on his coat. When I got him into the garage, I saw he had a hole in his side. It was about the size of a penny and really gross. It seemed like I was looking at his muscle in there. I'm very queasy about stuff like that.
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When I woke up on Tuesday I called the vet and took him in. They said it was a bite and had abscessed. They explained that an underskin had pulled way down and it had to be pulled up and stitched. And they would also put in drainage tubes. I left him there and drove down to Chili's to eat some lunch and drink some beers and wait for their call. I waited there until they called and then went to pick him up. He was all droopy and pathetic. I left him in his carrier and then grabbed his doghouse and dried it and put it in the garage with a giant clean towel inside. I set up his food and water and a litter box and let him out. He was all druggy and woozy and running into stuff with his "bonnet."

I had some pain medicine that you inject into his mouth and 20 (TWENTY) pills to give him over 10 days. (Pilling a cat is not pleasant. It was easy the first few days when he was sick, but now it's a bitch.) I stayed up with him way too long Tuesday night so I called Meals on Wheels and left a message explaining the situation and told them to get a sub for me.

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My original plan for Wednesday had been to do MOW and then visit Bill because I had not seen him in over a week. When I woke up, I checked on Barney and decided he would be okay to leave for a few hours to visit Bill that afternoon. Except I couldn't leave the house. I tried three times. I haven't had an anxiety attack like that in AGES so it was very disheartening. Each time I thought, "Okay, I'm ready now" and head toward the door and start to shake and feel sick. I couldn't post about any of this at the time because it was all overwhelming.

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On Thursday, I was able to make it to the hospital. I had a nice long visit and happened to be there when the heart doctor came in. He has the bedside manner of Darth Vader. I hadn't thought of the expression "whithering glance" for years until that doctor gave me one when I asked a question. I was so pissed at his response, I said, "Hey! I had to ask." I wanted to throw something at his head. Anyway what he said at the time (to Bill) was, "I'll pencil you in for Tuesday afternoon to go back in if your lung has not healed by then." Well it didn't and they did. It was at 2:00 this (Tuesday) afternoon and it reportedly went very well. They opened him up, found the hole in his lung, did two quick stitches and closed him back up. I'm going to visit after MOW today.

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On Saturday, I took Barney to get his tubes out. He gets his stiches out this coming Saturday.

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Sunday we had a nice visit with Bill at the hospital.

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I hope MOW and my errands go well today. A funny thing that happened was that in phone calls, Mom was getting Barney and Bill confused with each other. She thought Bill had tubes taken out on Saturday. I still don't know what exactly caused the panic attack but I hope I don't have another one. Those things suck.

"6 Things" with a theme

Urban Animal just did one of those "6 things" posts where you list 6 quirks and I thought maybe it would be fun to do this with a theme. I chose "sleeping" but go ahead and do this with any theme you want: travel, clothes, bananas, sick days... whatever you come up with.
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Here are six of my sleeping quirks (and I had to really narrow this down):

1. I use two zip-up pillow covers between my pillow and pillow case. It's a hassle every Monday when I wash the sheets, but I feel like my face needs to be that far away from the pillow to thwart the dust mites.

2. When it's chilly, I make a "hat" around my head with the beadspread (pictured above - the bedspread is light green, the other part is a quilt my grandmother made for me in 1984).

3. I have to start out on my right side (also pictured above).

4. I have to have a glass of water, a tube of Carmex, and a box of Kleenex next to me.

5. At home I only sleep in panties. If it is really really cold, I add socks.

6. If someone calls and wakes me up and asks me if they woke me up, I always say, "Yes, but it's okay, I'll go right back to sleep." And I do.

My Tune, it has Changed

People have been ragging on Oprah for several years especially on certain blogs and I always felt I had to defend her. I even did this post a little over a year ago explaining why I liked her so much. Now, not so much.

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As I do not have official transcripts from her show, I will give my version of it. It was several weeks ago. I haven't really been watching it a lot this season because I seem to always have something else to do between 4:00 and 5:00, but I have caught several shows. One day I caught one that totally changed my opinion.

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Oprah comes out and starts talking about the new album by Il Divo. She says something like: "I just heard this song yesterday and I HAD to have them on today. It took a lot of phone calls to track them down, but we found them!" She's all grins and giggles and asks, "So where were you when you got the call?" One of the European dudes says, "We were at the airport in Houston. We had just performed there after a long tour and were on our way back to Europe to visit with our families." OUCH!! All I could think was, poor guy! That's awful. Oprah did not even catch it. His comment just bounced right off her bright green ego bubble. She was even more grins and giggles then, like LOOK WHAT I DID!! My admiration for her went "fwoomp" up in smoke like a simple magician's trick.

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Really what it did was break my heart. There's nothing sadder than having someone you admire disappoint you. These guys had been on a long tour and were on their way home to their families and she HAD to have them on her show the next day? What??!! Why? It's bad enough these poor guys work for Simon Cowell - who is a barrel of fun on "American Idol," but I wouldn't want to work for him. Then Oprah makes the call and says jump and they have to jump. It made me sad, but I'll get over it. Hopefully.

Sold?

My parents have accepted an offer and signed a contract!! The buyers have a closing date on the house they are selling of November 21st. They are pre-approved and hopefully all will go well with their sale and they will turn around a cut a check to my parents and that will be the end of THAT. I was supposed to go over there one more time to change the settings on the thermostat and sprinkler system, but unless we get a freeze warning before then, I am NOT going. Yay!!