The Song Remains the Same

I've always been a song person and a list person, so I've always had my lists of favorite songs. When I was growing up it was a yearly ritual to listen to Casey Kasem's top 100 countdown for the year. I would have a girlfriend spend the night on New Year's Eve and we would have snacks and our own notebooks, to write down the songs as they were played. And like watching American Idol today, there were the inevitable "Noooooo"s when we were shocked to hear a favorite song played at, say, number 65. The oddest thing was that nearly every year my favorite song came in second or third to my LEAST favorite song. I guess that was a sign of things to come. Plus it was a one radio station town, so there wasn't a lot of choice. If they wanted to play Delta Dawn every 30 minutes there was nothing to do but cringe and wait for time to pass. That was Goldsboro, N.C. Even after we moved to Durham, I continued my yearly ritual. For years and years my All-Time Favorite song was Diamond Girl, followed by Daniel.

As Radio stations like to play songs over and over, when I was a senior in High School and making my new start in Texas, KZEW - the morning ZOO - played Roxanne every morning while I was getting ready. That song was not only a great song but started my day. I just heard that song on the radio and realized that after all these years, all 27 of them, Roxanne is till my favorite song. It's just a great song and I think it reminds me of how I felt at the time. The word is evocative and I think all great songs, all of our favorite songs, take us to another time and place.

Diamond Girl slid way down my list over the years, although Daniel still places high up there somewhere. I have to admit I'd be hard pressed to make a top ten all time favorite list today, but I think I'd still put Roxanne as #1. Long Train Running would be up there somewhere from my memories of the beach summer of '73. And Unforgettable is my Dad song. Wow, I could go on and on, but I think everyone has a special relationship with their songs. Like they are family. Enjoy your songs, but if Delta Dawn is on your list, go away.

It's How You Use Them

Word usage has always been fascinating to me. It's okay to say we have been praying for my poor grandmother to leave her sick and ravaged body and pass on to the heavenly realms. But nobody's gonna say they've been praying for her to die.

It's the same thing.

The Rolling Blackout of My Brain

On Monday we had a record high temperature here in the metroplex. This overloaded the grid and the electric company decided to do rolling blackouts. It was about 4:20 in the afternoon and I was watching Oprah. Suddenly silence. All three cats perked their ears and looked around. At first I just thought it was one of those pop off/pop on things that happen sometimes. Well no pop on. It seemed weirdly quiet. The TV, clothes dryer and A/C all went out, and then there was just silence. I called My Sweetie - we have one old-fashioned corded phone in the kitchen that came with the house. I was going to replace it but it's one of those chalkboard box phones and when I took it off the wall I saw that the previous owners had wallpapered around it and the old wallpaper was there in a good sized square. So that's why it's still there. Anyway, I called him to report this information, which really makes no sense. Then I went outside to smoke a cigarette and heard the kids next door swimming in their pool. I stood up on the bench on the deck (and they are downhill from us) and yelled over, "Did your power go out?" The kid said, "Yeah it's out on the whole street." Well their dad works for the power company so I didn't see a reason to call it in.

Now here's the part where I got stupid. I realized that with no power I really didn't know what to do with myself. My dopey brain was going 90 miles an hour. I figured that if the power never came back on, we could stay at my Mom's house because they are out of town. I also started thinking I shouldn't be opening the fridge or freezer. So feeling all clever, I thought I should put beer in an ice chest and get ice from the ice dispenser so I wouldn't have to open the freezer. Yep, the ice dispenser needs electricity, Doh! So then I thought, "Well the water works, I'll finish up the kitchen." So I dumped a bowl of spaghetti into the garbage disposal. Doh! That also uses electricity. At that point I kinda gave up and called one of my girlfriends in North Carolina (on my weird corded phone) and talked until the power came back on. The power was only out for about 30 minutes. I didn't realize how doofy I could be in so short a time. Oh and it was about another hour after the power came back on before I remembered to turn the clothes dryer back on.

I didn't realize that my brain was tied into the power grid. But when the power went out, so did my brain. Doh!

You Never Know

I was thinking about the phrase "You never know," and I was wondering how realistic it was. I mean we use a lot of expressions that even have opposite expressions, like "He who hesitates is lost," and "Look before you leap." And then we have some whose meanings are more obscure than others, like "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." We basically get it, but it's not a good obvious one like "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

So back to "You never know." I was thinking is that really applicable in reality? So to test it, I tried the opposite approach of "You always know ______ ." And to be perfectly honest, all I could come up with (besides jokes like "half the new network shows will suck every Fall,") were "You're going to die," and "You have to pay taxes." So the expression "Nothing is certain but death and taxes" rings true. So if those are the only things that you can apply "You always know" to then I guess you can apply "You never know" to everything else. But, you never know.

Cinnamon/Tree Bark

Sometimes I realize I don't remember funny stuff, so I make notes. I just found one that says:

sneeze/toothpick/brick

My guess is I sneezed so hard, I was thinking I could have sent a toothpick through a brick. But that would mean I had a toothpick in my nose. Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. But even weirder is:

Tom Cruise/grin/dry skin/God

I wonder what that was. I need to make better notes.

Now I've Seen Everything

The following appeared in the Cheers and Jeers section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Saturday, April 8th:

Jeers: To the Star-Telegram for frequently running crossword puzzles in which a clue results in the answer, "Okie." As a native Oklahoman, I don't find it amusing. Would you run a puzzle in which the clue "Jew" resulted in the K-word or the clue "black" required use of the N-word? Every time I see "Okie" as an answer, I stop doing that puzzle and start thinking about finding an alternative source of news. --John D. Slack, Fort Worth

I sincerely hope this was a joke. Although, if so, I can't imagine how it got past the editors. Maybe it was sent as an April Fool's Day thing, but that was a week earlier. If it's a REAL letter, I find it highly offensive AND about the stupidest thing I've ever read. I'm curious to see if anything happens with it. Are people really that weird? And now that I think about it, if it were sent in as an April Fool's Day joke, I STILL find it offensive.

Caller ID?

Sometimes my Caller ID just says "Incoming Call." Then I think, "Wow! No shit, Sherlock! Thanks for the heads up."

Yeah, the RINGING was a BIG CLUE.

NCAA Wrap Up

So another season of college basketball is over and Florida won the title. Now I have to wait almost 8 months to see my next Duke game. During that time Coach K will be working his magic on the recruits and improving the play of the guys we have.

I don't feel TOO bad about my bracket play. I finished 18th of 41 (while My Sweetie finished 38th). At least I was in the top half. Brackets are funny. The only person to pick Florida to win came in 4th. The winner had Villanova to win and I think they lost back in January. I actually had Florida IN the final game, but they were supposed to lose to Duke.

J.J. Redick DID win the Naismith player of the year award. That is something to be proud of, and I'm sure his and Shelden Williams's jerseys (numbers?) will be retired. That championship sure would have been a nice capper for them both. And for me.

Oh well, I still have all my other Duke NCAA Championship memories. And the Duke women are playing for the title! ....And there's always next year.

Trying to Catch up to April

Wow, I can't believe April is here! The new kitty, Rufus, has been both exasperating and a great joy. I had forgotten how hard it is to teach a new cat all of the house rules. After all, it has been almost 9 years since I've done it. And Lilly was a very timid cat. Ole Rufus has boundless energy and curiosity. I have found him in the oddest places. Although I have taught him to use the scratch post, I'm still working on teaching where NOT to scratch. I replaced the hassock he was so fond of with a cat castle. He loves to sleep on top or just lay on top and look out the window, and Lilly likes to sleep inside. He really is cute.

My treadmill has been good for me. I actually enjoy just walking (treading?) along while I watch TV. I expect to drop 10 pounds pretty quickly. I've never had trouble shedding pounds as long as I was actually moving (as opposed to sitting on the couch and drinking beer). I have a specific weight and target date and I think it's quite doable. My target date is Memorial Day weekend. One extra benefit (besides the TV in front) is there is a ceiling fan just over the treadmill, so cool air is blowing on the back of my neck as I walk. It's a great set-up. The one downside is my right foot has not recovered 100%, so it's been a little stiff, sore and creaky since I started walking. But it's not enough to make me stop.

Meals on Wheels went well last Wednesday. I went to Bennigan's and they had a new bartender named James. I liked him. I'll probably go there again this Wednesday because I stopped by Italianni's Friday after my doctor appointment. Also this Wednesday is My Sweetie's birthday. He's going to love his gift. He reads this occasionally, so I can't say yet what it is. Every year we have one birthday party for the 3 April birthdays of: My Sweetie, my brother-in-law and myself. My brother-in-law makes a killer crab boil (crab legs, shrimp, sausage, cob corn and potatoes) and I bring the cake. The party is never on anyone's actual birthday, so I usually do something odd for the message. Last year it read: "Happy Birthday Henry Mancini," because it WAS on HIS birthday. I haven't decided what to put for this year's message.

Well I feel pretty much caught up. Oh yeah, my team, Duke got knocked out too early in the NCAA, so I burned my brackets in the fireplace. I did check in on the computer (CBS Sportsline) every now and then and it looks like I'll finish in the top half at least (of 41 players). It was a tough year for brackets but someone has to win the pot. I would have loved that $410, though. Nice pocket change. Okay, now I'm caught up. But I still can't believe it's April already!

The Beginning of Some Ends (part 2)

I realized after posting part 1 of this explanation of how I got divorced twice, I was going into way too much detail. Maybe part of that is I don't want to really relive it all minute by minute, but anyway, I've decided to condense a bit more.

Well, I found out I was pregnant. The first person we told was my brother, as he was also our roommate. Then I called my Dad. Well Dad called the airlines right then and had a flight to come in the next afternoon. We had a weird weekend. Dad seemed okay about it, but my brother was FREAKED. So just before Christmas, we came home one afternoon and my brother had moved out without saying a word. And he took the couch. Well Husband #1 or H#1 did not have a job, (we were living off his inheritance) so he began job hunting. He was an EE and soon got a job at TI. He was to start work on a Monday in early January, so we realized we needed to get married before he started work. It was all last minute, and we were going to get married that Friday, then realized it was a Friday the 13th, so we went for Thursday the 12th. We decided this on Wednesday the 11th. The very next month, we moved to an apartment in a suburb just north of Dallas. We lived there until I had Kate. I don't know what you may know about stress, but I can tell you that it is not a good idea to move to a new house while you are in the hospital giving birth. I was in the hospital 5 days and during that time H#1 moved us into a nice little rental that belonged to his aunt.

I should mention here that the day I left the hospital with my new baby girl Kate was August 28. That was just over a year from meeting H#1 at the river. In other words, things had moved VERY quickly. We settled in and were doing okay, but wanted a larger place of our own. About a year later we bought a house. It was a fixer-upper starter and we spent a lot of time working on it, between that and taking care of Kate there was not a lot of free time.

I can't pinpoint a day or a thing, but suddenly I found H#1 very icky. He did that snot snort/hock/spit thing that I found overwhelmingly repulsive. His laugh made me want to gag. We had only one bathroom and he would come into the bathroom and poop while I was taking a shower. It's hard to feel clean when you smell poop. I noticed that although he was very nice to me, he was VERY rude to other people. Including my Mom. I think the clincher was when we were visiting his grandmother and he stepped out the back door onto a newborn kitten and killed it. I KNOW it was an accident, but it seemed so pointless and stupid on his part. Who doesn't look down when they step out of a door? Our sex life became horrible. One Saturday afternoon, I walked into the bedroom after having a shower, Kate was in the front yard playing with the neighbor kid and he said, "Kate's outside and you're naked, let's do it." I said, "Is that your idea of foreplay?" I was disgusted. Shortly thereafter I read a magazine article about sex and foreplay. It said to approach the subject when nothing is going on. On a nice weekend afternoon I said, "I want to talk to you about something." Then I very calmly said, "I would really enjoy sex more if there was some foreplay." He said "YOU,YOU, YOU. It's always about you!" I was in shock. And pretty much decided that was the end of that.......

Classified Ass

We interrupt my new series on how I managed to get divorced twice with the following post on treadmills:

Okay, it's not no much about treadmills as it is about classifed ads. More precisely, about my dealings with the classifieds while looking for a good used treadmill. I got the paper on Sunday and found the section titled: Sporting & Exercise Equipment. There were five ads for treadmills. I numbered them (1 through 5), and numbered a sheet of paper to take notes. I wanted to know A) the brand; B) model number; C) if the owner still had the manual. I figured I could then look up more information on the internet.

On Monday I called #5 as it was the only one that said "excellent condition." I got a recording that said, "If you're calling about the treadmill, call this number..." I thought that was goofy. So I called the second number and got another answering machine with the exact same voice saying to leave a message. I left a message. I also called ad #4 and talked to a foreign lady who knew nothing about the treadmill as it was her husband's. She did look on the thing and gave me a brand and model# although I could find nothing on the internet corresponding with what she told me. Meanwhile, I had found enough information to know that I did NOT want the treadmill in ad #2. I figured I would call ads #1 & #3 today.

Monday night, around 7:00, the phone rang. It was the voice from ad #5 (both answering machines). The only way to describe this old man's voice is that it sounded like someone with a thick Texas accent talking with a mouth full of mucus and marbles. First he said he had FOUR treadmills. That was a red flag, because to me that meant he was a junk dealer or something instead of just a regular person trying to get rid of a treadmill they don't use. I asked him for the models. All I heard was garble garble garble Proform garble garble garble. So I said, "What was that first one again?" I still couldn't understand his mucusy marbley speech and he spelled it for me. I wrote it down. Then I said, "What were the last two, because I know I don't want a Proform." In an irate voice, he said, "You don't want a Proform?" I said, "I've been looking on the internet and I don't want a Proform..." And was in the midst of again asking for the brands of the other two treadmills when he shrieked,"You don't want no treadmill!!" and hung up on me. Yep. He hung up on me.

Cut to 9:00 am this morning. The phone rings. I look at caller ID and it says "(something) vacuum" but I happen to recognize the phone number as the first number I had called to Mr. Mucus Salesperson of the Year. Of course, I didn't answer. I check the voice mail, and he's left this nice message. My Sweetie's voice is on our message, so he's all sir this and that about finding the number on his caller ID and was it about the treadmill yada yada. So I laughed and promptly forgot about it. Well okay, I went back to sleep, same thing. So this afternoon I'm dust/vacuuming the back of the TV and the phone rings and it's that guy again, so I answer it. I'm thinking A) this is the third time he's called this number, does he not recognize it? and B) I wonder if he'll recognize my voice. But after my hello, he very politely goes into his spiel about finding the number on his caller ID and was my call about the treadmill? So I said, "Yes, I DID call this number and was directed to the other number. I called that number and left a message. You called me back last night and hung up on me." And then I pressed "Off" on my phone. Somewhere between "...left a message. You called..." he started to speak, but I kept talking and then hung up. It was SWEEEET!.

You'd think that would be the end of this story. Oh hell no. So this evening I call ad #3. I said, "I'm calling about the treadmill." The man says, "We already sold it." I said, "Oh, well, I'm sorry to have bothered you then." He said, "Thanks for calling." End of transaction. I called ad #1. Again, "I'm calling about the treadmill." A woman basically shrieks, "I can't imagine why!!!" I said, "Excuse me?" I'm thinking here that I accidentally called some sort of group home. She goes berserk saying, "Why would you call today!!?? We put that ad in Friday!! We sold it the next day!! I said, "Well I got it from Sunday's paper." and while I was saying that she was still berating me. She said, "Well you should only call the day of the ad!! We sold that the very next..." I pushed the "off" button again.

I'm never using the classified ads again. I'm going to go to ebay now and look for a local used treadmill.

The Beginning of Some Ends

I used to read the blog of a young girl - close to my daughter's age. I would link to it, but she has since gone private. Apparently someone went off on her about something. Politics maybe. The reason I bring her up is that once she said something to the effect that she thought people were weak for dissolving their marriages. Apparently she was not over her parents' divorce. Her sentiments were sweet yet very naive. Well sure you could stay in a marriage if a gun were held to your head. I wanted to address my two divorces because in a post some time back, I may have come across as cold-hearted and flippant.

When I was 22, for some reason, I started thinking it was time to get married. I wasn't one of those girls that just dreamed of marriage all my life. As a matter of fact, I had turned down 3 proposals by this time and was living with a guy that I knew I did not want to marry (I guess that would be proposal #4 now that I think about it.) Yes, I know that one should not look for a husband while living with a guy, but that's what I was doing. I met a guy in a very random way.

It was 1983. Our neighbors across the way had always been friendly, but after my brother moved in with us, the wife became VERY friendly. We were invited to join them for a day of boating on the river. They had a fancy speedboat, I always thought it looked like a white shark's tooth. It only held four people - like a small car. The trick to this river place was that you could only get there by water. We all parked on the river and then went by boat to this special spot. It WAS a really nice spot, with feral horses constantly grazing nearby. We ended up setting up next to some people with jet skis. I went over to ask about them and that's how I met husband #1, or H#1.

For some reason I gave him my business card. He kept calling me at work. I was in outside sales, so these calls were just slips of paper to me. Finally, the secretary made an odd comment which led me to think I should call this guy just to tell him to stop calling. Well, what happened was, he invited me to a David Bowie concert. And this was 1983. I HAD to say yes. I didn't lie to the guy I was living with. I mean, it was David Bowie. On the night of the concert, I drove to a girlfriend's apartment that was just off the highway to Dallas and had H#1 pick me up there.

Compared to the guy I was living with, this guy seemed to have so much going for him, he was manlier, more confident, more mature, and had an engineering degree! My little 22 year-old brain was blinking "husband material" over and over.

My brother, live-with-guy and I were all smashed into a one bedroom apartment. We had already been apartment hunting. Finally, I just told live-with-guy, "Hey when my brother and I move out, you're not coming with us." I was much nicer than that and told him he was too good for me and all that stuff and what a great catch he would be for some chick. He wasn't thrilled, but when I spoke to him a few years later, he told me it was the right thing for us.

Basically, my brother and I moved into this new apartment with H#1 being there most of the time although he still had his other place. This was August of 83. In mid December, every time I jumped up from sitting, I had an awful pain in my abdomen. Finally I went to the doctor. I was pregnant.......

More on the New Kitty / Duke #1

Rufus has been a pretty good kitty. We took him to the vet on Saturday for shots and to have him checked out. That pretty much put him out for the rest of the day, but today he was all happy kitty again. In the middle of the day we let him out to meet the other cats. Apart from a few hisses from the older cats, there's been no real interaction. Mostly they just watch from a distance. Rufus has his comfort zone, certain areas of the house where he feels comfortable. Jake has mostly seemed a bit miffed at us for the whole thing. Lilly seems curious but also a little timid. She'll get close to Rufus for just a bit, then run off. Rufus seems to have a very healthy respect for both cats, which is kind of odd. I remember years ago introducing a new kitten to older cats, and he just wanted to play. The vet thought Rufus might be about 5 months old, which is older than we all thought. He loves to play with the mouse toys. He can play with one of those little mice for 20 minutes straight and he will bring it to you to throw. I think he's a happy kitty.

March madness is upon us and I was tickled blue when Duke was given the top seed for the NCAA tournament. Also we won the ACC tournament today. It was great but kind of emotionally wearing to watch Duke games 3 days in a row. Now the real madness starts on Thursday and I can't wait. Go Duke!!

Rufus Poopus

I usually like to post about my Meals on Wheels Wednesdays. I went to Italianni's for lunch and I was complaining to everyone that MOW went so smoothly, that I had nothing for my blog. What's that old saying? Something like "be careful what you wish for...?" I stayed at the bar until about 4:00, then ran some errands.

(Warning: Major Digression and back-tracking)
I took both rolls of film in so we could pick them up on our way out later. And man I am worse than I thought I was. There were pictures from my daughter's birthday and that was August 23rd! There were Halloween pictures, our anniversary, Christmas pictures, Valentine's Day flowers pictures. I really need to get a digital camera. Oh also my before and after painting pictures, but the after pictures were weird and the paint looks black. I'll just fix them on Photoshop and post them later.

Anyway, today was My Sweetie's niece's birthday and we were all doing the cake thing at my in-laws' house at 7:00. Our original plan (as we are late eaters) was to do the birthday party thing at 7:00, leave just after 8:00 and go to Red Lobster. Well, what happened was....

Okay one of the kids kept yelling about "the cat." My in-laws hate cats and have trapped many feral cats and taken them away, so I really wasn't paying that much attention. Well this was NOT a feral cat. The sweetest little black kitten was in their back yard, desperate for attention and trying to get in the house. And this cat was not even afraid of those loud kids. My brother-in-law had tried placing him over various fences to send him back on his way, but he would have none of it. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Sammy before, but he was my beloved cat that we had to have put to sleep in January of 2004. Sammy was all black with just a few little hints of white spots. Well, so was this kitty.

I took it as a sign. My Sweetie said, "We can't take this cat, it's probably someone's pet." Well what sort of pet owner has a very skinny bony cat desperate to get in someone else's house? If the kitty looked well fed, I would never have considered bringing him home. Well this was NOT a well-fed cat. This was a hungry cat. Not anymore.

Rufus is now laying by my feet. We're going to start him out here in the bar room. There are French doors into the living room, so Jake and Lilly have seen Rufus. And Rufus has seen them. There's been some hissing through the glass and a lot of under-the-door sniffing. I AM going to check the paper and internet every day for the next two weeks. If someone is looking for Rufus, they are going to have to drive all the way over here to get him. I have a feeling that as skinny as he is, no one is looking for him.

Okay, I left out the hideous part. Rufus started out a bit jumpy in the truck. It's about a 30 minute ride. He settled down after about 5 minutes, although he did poot once and man, was it stinky. He spent most of the ride just laying in the space behind the driver's side. Well when we got to about 5 minutes from the house, he climbed into my lap and and perched on my left thigh. I was thinking how calm he was. Then I thought he pooted again. THEN I felt a hideous warmth on my left thigh. Yes, Rufus pooped on my left thigh. The smell was horrific, but the concept of it was worse. I grabbed some paper towels, rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I said, "Grab the cat!" I jumped out, ran in the house and threw my jeans in the wash. I washed my hands 4 times and Sea Breezed my leg twice. And then I smelled some coffee. (In case you didn't know, smelling coffee will get any nasty smell out of your brain and nose.) Yep. as Bob from "Survivor" would say, "Rufus 'dropped a deuce' on my leg." YUCK! But if you think about it, it's a lot easier to put your jeans in the wash, than de-funk your truck's carpet. I guess he did me a favor. Sort of.

Anyway, he is the cutest thing ever. Now I need to get film to take pictures of him. And I'll try to get them developed before Halloween.

The World's Thickest Wall

The reason I have not posted in a while is because I have been painting. And of course, it seemed like a small job. When I was thinking about doing it I mean, not now. Square footage wise it's probably only. . . , well actually I suck at that type of guesswork. Anyway, it's just one wall and it's not even a full wall. It's a strip of wall over the inset wetbar and built-in bookcase (or in our house, a videocase), the two strips of wall on the sides of the wetbar and the backsplash behind the bar and under some cabinets. It doesn't sound like much, but what happened was...

Well, I decided to paint over the existing grasscloth wallpaper, as I thought it would make for an interesting texture. To paint over wallpaper, one must use an oil-based primer. Oil-based stuff terrifies me. Oil-based stuff is FOREVER. So that first night, with the first coat, I studied my entire surroundings after EVERY SINGLE brush stroke. And when I say first coat, I must mention that I did not consider it that at the time. I just thought I was doing the primer. The next morning is when I fully realized that it was the FIRST coat of primer. That grasscloth is quite the thirsty vixen. That next day, I decided to use the 3" roller instead of a brush and that part wasn't as bad. So 7 or so hours later, I'm all ready to roll on my first coat of Glidden's Deep Garnet. A lovely deep dark red.

I, of course, knew that painting the deep red over the white primer would take two coats, but at least now I was working with water-based paint. When you splatter that, you can clean it right up with a paper towel and a little spit. (Trust me, spit works better than water for that.) I did the second coat (except the edging) Tuesday night.

Well here it is Thursday night and I have some more spots that are lighter to touch up. I'm going to do that just as soon as I hit the "Publish Post" button. I seriously thought I would have this completely finished when My Sweetie got home from his business trip Wednesday night. Nope. But I have decided, that no matter what, I am taking all the blue masking tape down tomorrow and cleaning up all this mess. If there are still some slightly lighter spots I will just learn to live with it.

Meals On Wheels: Only one interesting thing happened Wednesday. This was with the lady that I've only mentioned as being the lady that lives in the gated apartments with the crappy security keyboard system. Well I've never really spoken to her. So this time I asked about her dog. She said it was a Shih Tzu. So I was telling her that my mom had one and she closed the door. She. Closed. The. Door. In my face. Right in the middle of a sentence. Yeah, that was different. I went back to Italliani's for lunch and Bobby grilled me as to where I had been the last two weeks, so I just told him that 2 weeks ago I had overslept and was too grungey to come there and that last week I had a craving for ribs. Both of those were true, just not 100% of the truth.

Okay now I realize that I am just putting off the painting. Tomorrow, I will take my after pictures and hopefully get my film developed this weekend. Still putting off the painting. Okay. Time to paint.

Eleven Dollars and Change

My Meals on Wheels drive started out this morning with my driving by a landscaper dude who was on a riding mower right by the street and hearing a rock hit the side of my truck. I'm guessing the irritation of that made me clench my thighs together. Well I was holding a plastic bottle of water between my legs which I had opened but not drunk from and I apparently compressed the bottle enough to make the water gush out the top and onto my jeans. Not a great start. The next fun thing was when I reached the first apartment complex. This is the one I mentioned sometime back that has reserved parking and the only unmarked spaces are in Cleveland. By now I was just parking on the main road and walking into the complex. The walk is about the same as if you walked out your front door, crossed the street and walked two houses down. If you lived in a normal house, that is, and not on some rolling 8 acre estate with a 400 yard driveway. So I'm holding my tray in my left hand, raise my right hand to knock and happen to glance down at the tray. My first thought was, "Oh no! I brought the wrong cookie!" I was looking at the chocolate/chocolate chip cookie which was for "regular" clients and this lady was "diet." So then I see the diet cookie and think, "Oh, I just put both on there." But something wasn't right. THEN I noticed there was no hamburger bun. Because you know how easy it is to confuse a large chocolate/chocolate chip cookie for a hamburger bun. So then I had to walk all the way back to my truck and then back to the apartment. And did I mention my foot is still not 100% healed and does not care for shoes? I was at least glad that I noticed all this BEFORE I knocked.

Last Wednesday I went to Friday's for lunch. I didn't realize how long it had been since I was there until I complimented Sarah on her new hair color and she said it had been like that for nearly a year. Well she let slip that Chad, my favorite Bennigan's bartender, was back on Wednesday lunch, so I went there today. I love (LOVE) their ribs.

In my last post I mentioned how my brain has some sort of First Glance Dyslexia. I was going to count my cash today at Bennigan's and when I pulled my money out of my pocket, two ones were folded together exactly as in the picture above (which is an actual scan) and my brain said "Eleven dollars." Another example is a large sign at the intersection of Denton Highway and Watauga road (or Mid-Cities boulevard - geez I HATE streets that change their names every couple of miles). When I first looked at that sign, I thought it said, "Push For Cash." So I was sitting at the light thinking, "What the hell does that mean?" Of course, when I looked at the sign again it said, "Posh Car Wash." This has been happening to me for at least 30 years and is usually very amusing. I'm going to try to start documenting them.

I think it''s odd that I've never heard of this before. I wonder if it's a documented thing and has a scientific name? Speaking of things that may be unique to me, I realized that in all my years of reading and hearing about people's pet peeves, I have never seen mine mentioned. I'll call it The Door Stop. It's when you are walking into a public building and the people just in front of you walk through the doorway and stop. TWO INCHES IN!! Oh My God. That drives me completely insane. And people do it ALL THE TIME! The worst sites are restaurants and department stores. I notice it is particularly bad in touristy places. I can't for the life of me figure out what these people must be thinking. "Okay, I'm in. Must stop moving." or "Oh I better freeze here in the doorway in case I need to bolt." It's also a close relative to people stopping suddenly on a busy sidewalk or in a busy mall, which I guess could be called The Sudden Walk Stop.

If you learned anything from this post I hope it was: Do not stop in doorways! Well, and two ones is not eleven dollars and a chocolate/chocolate chip cookie is not a hamburger bun. But you probably knew those last two.

Weird Headline

I misread things all the time. I always have to look at signs and headlines twice. I found this one really troublesome to my brain:

Ape guru develops coffee certification scheme

I haven't read the story. I just like the headline.

Is it just me?

Crazy Weather

(a part of my back yard in late Spring)

We have a nicely landscaped back yard. I don't know how it exists. Today was close to 80 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 35 degrees. How are these plants dealing with this crazy weather?

Roses for Me!

Wow! I actually got a dozen roses today from My Sweetie. I was so surprised. Then he was surprised that I was surprised. And I was surprised that he was surprised that I was surprised.

Anyhoo, I LOVE my roses! And I WAS surprised.

Let The Games Begin

I've been very busy doing major house cleaning. I usually spend the two weeks after Thanksgiving doing major cleaning for my annual Christmas party and well, if you've been reading this, you know I broke my foot the week before Thanksgiving. So the clutter was driving me mad, but now the house is almost better than usual. I'll recap the last few days:

Wednesday: Meals on Wheels was short and sweet. I didn't have the lady in the apartments with the convoluted security system, so everything went very smoothly. I arrived at my usual lunch place and everything was pleasant as usual. My daughter called and showed up just as I was through eating and finished my meal. (That may sound strange but the food is great and the portions are ridiculously large.) She looked really nice. Chris the magician did some great new tricks. Well, then the guy I met last week that I thought was so cool showed up and unfortunately, just after my daughter went back to work, he, the bartender and myself got into the most ridiculous political argument ever. I decided when I started this blog not to discuss politics, so I'm sticking with that and I won't go into it. I'll just say I'm right and they were stupid. And it annoyed the hell out of me. So basically instead of going there every Wednesday, I've decided to do a weekly rotation with the two restaurants I used to frequent and a third restaurant that I haven't picked yet. That way, I'll only hit every place once a month. Also I'll have a lot more options for lunch. I like this new plan. I'm thinking Red Lobster for my 4th place because I really should eat more fish, but it's still up in the air.

Thursday: I pretty much finished up the bar room. We call this room the bar room, but it doesn't really describe it. It does have a wet bar along the short wall and a separate standing bar. I use the freestanding bar as a craft station. For some reason I can not explain, I like to stand to do things and this bar is perfect for that. Also the sink in the wet bar is great for crafting that requires water or rinsing (for paint brushes and such). This room also has the two corner desks with computers, a TV and a stereo. It also has a half wall (by the wet bar) of built-in shelves which house our DVDs and videos. Well I totally digressed. Anyway I cleaned and de-cluttered the hell out of this room, whatever we should call it.

Friday: More intensive cleaning and de-cluttering. This time it was the bedroom. I actually found the receipt from the birthday cake I bought last April. That's really pathetic. And then Friday night we watched the opening ceremonies for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Okay I have to comment on that now.

What the hell was going on there? Brian Williams was all "Debbie Downer" during the part where the athletes file in. Every other country that arrived, he would talk about the bad political happenings going on there. Man, it was annoying! We noticed after a commercial break he stopped talking at all and we were making jokes about how they got rid of him. Bob Costas was giving OLYMPIC facts and telling OLYMPIC stories about the countries. Yeah, that's what the Olympics are about. I don't want to hear every horrible story about a particular country. Hell, we get that on the regular news and in the newspaper every day. Other than that we are very excited that the Olympics have started. And we saw Chad Hedrick (from right here in Texas!) win the first gold medal for the U.S. That's good stuff.

Speaking of sports: Duke had it's second game vs. Maryland today. At Maryland. It was great. We won 96-88 and never trailed. When we played Maryland at home last month the Cameron Crazies chanted "You're not our rival, you're not our rival," so today we kept chanting that. We really get into these games! The team is playing better and better and a spot in the Final Four looks very likely right now. For the next two weeks, the only thing we will watch besides the Olympics are Duke games. I don't know how we're going to keep up with "Lost" and "Survivor," but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Anyway, that's what's been going on and as they say, "Let the Games Begin!"