The Newish Deck

I posted last month about having that old decrepit spa taken out of our deck. On Sunday a man and his grandson came over to remove that part of the deck. They arrived around 9:00 am and by the time I got up they had gotten pretty far along. I think I took these picture around 1:30 or 2:00:

The man was able to save the old steps that went off toward the back. This next pic is with all the old deck gone as well as the finished outside edge of the deck that was left. The guy did a really good job and I enjoyed watching him work. He had to do some strange angle cuts because the beams underneath the deck board were not square to the boards. I was really impressed.:

They left to go get some fill dirt and have a late lunch and pick up another person and after a second trip to get dirt, the hole was filled and packed down and the steps were reattached to the deck:

They actually finished as it was getting dark so I took these last two pictures (above and below) the next day after I rearranged all my flower pots.

I was a tad disappointed after doing my research and finding out that it would not be a good idea to resod now. So we'll have a big sandy dirt patch for our company. Oh well. We will resod in April and by sometime next summer the grass will look like it was there the whole time.

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I think I like my new smaller deck. And that's one more thing I could check off my list. Yay!

Yikes I've Been Busy

One of the reasons I blog is to keep a record because I don't write stuff down in a journal. My Sweetie said to me today, "You haven't posted in a while." I replied, "I got nothing to say." That's not really true. I was just being flip.
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On Thursday my daughter and I went to the country club to go over some questions we had. The girl who had been so awesomely sweet when we met with her before was not so much this time. She kinda killed my buzz. I realize that there was an event going on at the time but it was like she was a different person. That's a huge turn off for me. I want people to be consistent. Yeah I know there wouldn't be words like "moods" and uhm, other words like that if people didn't get wiggity and jiggity sometimes, but isn't that what she's paid to do? Be all chipper and stuff? When I was paid to be all chipper and stuff, you can bet your last twenty I was cheerful and helpful and all kinds of that.
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Other than that girl being Betty Buzzkill, it was a good meeting. We found out that one of the foods was not what we thought and changed that out and got to go over the layout of everything. They had actually done some remodeling and the set-up will be better than we were originally told. That was nice. Then my daughter was presented with the bill and she got a bit moody herself.
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So we stopped at a bar after that to unwind before we headed to to the tailor shop. That part cheered us up because it was the first time my daughter had the wedding dress on and it wasn't just a pile of material on the floor. That lady is really good. If you live in the east side of Tarrant county go to the tailor shop in Bedford at Harwood and Central.
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Saturday My Sweetie and I went to the optical place to pick out new glasses for him. Wow! He's going to be so cute! He gets the ones that turn into shades in the sun, so we have to wait a week. Then we went to the suit store and got him a suit and shirt and tie that will go really well with my dress. The shirt and tie I mean. The suit will go with anything.
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After that we went to the Hobby Lobby and I found some cool stuff including the pearl pins that I will need to to make the bouquet. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I'm going to make the bouquet. It will be easy after watching this video:

More Wedding Stuff (part: 517)

Today (Tuesday, actually) my daughter and I went to the wedding chapel. It's an old chapel that is on the national register of historical places. It's a non-profit wedding site where the moneys are used for preservation and renovation. I really liked it. And I scoped out a place to put a little ice chest for my beer.
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The picture above is one I found online of the bride's room. I was really looking forward to seeing it and I felt like I was in an old English Mary Stewart novel. I didn't realize until much later that I had never been in a bride's room. 49 years old, married three times, and never been in a bride's room. That seems a bit peculiar, doesn't it? Oh and that picture down on the right there (things I'm looking forwadr to:) is the actual chapel and that's what it looks like.
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The whole chapel was very quaint and lovely and I really loved the lady that was helping us. She will be there during the wedding to make things run smoothly. She was really fun and the three of us had some great laughs. I was the most impressed when she kept a straight face when my daughter told her the music she'd be using. My daughter wants bagpipe music playing before the ceremony. The groom and best man will enter followed by the maid of honor to Vivaldi's Summer. Then my daughter will enter to Vivaldi's Spring. There will be no music during the short ceremony. Then my daughter and her husband will exit the church to John Williams' The Imperial March (also known as Darth Vader's theme).
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We went to lunch downtown after we left the chapel and finally got a head count for the rehearsal dinner. I suggested a place and as usual my daughter was fine with it and called her future MIL to see if she was good with that. It wasn't until we got home that I told my daughter, "Now that it's a done deal, I have a confession. I picked that restaurant because I have a good memory of being there with Dad." I've been doing little things to make Dad part of the ceremony. The wedding weekend is also the 12th anniversary of Dad's death weekend. You may think it odd that I like that, but I do. My brother and my best friend will be here and they were also there. I'm thinking the three of us will have a special toast.
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Thursday we go back to the country club to go over last details and then go to the tailor shop to do the "after" dress fitting for the wedding dress. My best friend and her beau will be here in just two weeks and that is the kickoff of the official wedding week. Two weeks! You can't spell that without eek!

Heart Attacks and Moons

I had a minor heart attack today when I got an R.S.V.P. in the mail. When my daughter and I did the seating arrangements for the wedding, we squeezed everyone perfectly into 9 tables. On top of that, the R.S.V.P. said: 2 or 4. Really? 2 or 4? What kind of response is that? I couldn't find them on our table cards and they were not marked with a "T" on the original list so just as I was looking over everything, I finally saw the name and saw that we had already sat them as 4. Apprently they had verbally responded to my daughter. What a relief.
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Saturday night I took out my 5" telescope. I love astronomy but because of our location there is not a lot to see here. We're on the side of a hill, there are trees all around and there is an abundance of light pollution. But after reading about Jupiter making its closest pass in 47 years, I had to try. Jupiter is big and was easy to find without a telescope. It looks like a huge bright star. It rises in the east, southeast and goes straight overhead. After a lot of positioning and changing of eyepieces, we finally got a great view through the telescope that looked like this:

That's Jupiter with its moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It will be near the moon for the next couple of days. I don't have the proper equipment to photograph through my telescope, so I found that picture on the web, but that's exactly what we saw. If you have access to a telescope, try to get a look at Jupiter, especially on the 22nd when a faint Emerald disc will be nearby. That will be Uranus. Also on the 22nd will be a Harvest Moon. It's a great skywatching month, but watch out for mosquitos.

More Wedding Stuff

Today I made the wish cards:
Cutting out all those cards was tedious even with a paper cutter. And I killed two birds with one stone with this idea:

The cobalt blue wine glasses will be part of the centerpiece design and we needed something to put in them. We also needed placecards for the tables or table cards maybe since we are not having designated seats, just designated tables. I had to scrub out the top name for this post, but you get the idea. The lighting is poor on the wine glass but it is a very pretty cobalt blue all over.

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You will get to see the finished product of my tablescapes or centerpieces or whatever you call 'em after the wedding.

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My daughter came over this evening to see my ideas and as usual she was fine with everything. Then we started doing our head count and table assignments. We ended up with 9 tables not counting the wedding party table. The tables hold eight. I only knew enough people to assign three tables and Kate had to figure out the other 6. We'll get the seating chart for 9 tables next week and figure out the placement. I know who I want away from me and who I want near me. We named one table (for ourselves I mean, not for the placecard!) "The Baby Table" and that table will be as far from me as possible.

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I'm hoping there will be four tables at the front. And by front I mean by the wedding party table. Because there are three different parents' tables and I do not want to sit near them. I want to put the cool young people between my table and theirs. But if there are only three I'll put my ex next to me and put the groom's folks on the other side. I'll be in the front corner near "stage left" if you consider the bridal party's table the stage. Behind me will be other family and friends of mine and some leftover older dude. I'm also putting my second husband there because he's a nice fella and my friends and SIL will be nice to him.

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My table will have my husband's parents, Mom, my brother, Lo and her boyfriend, and My Sweetie and me.

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On Tuesday we are going by the wedding chapel. My daughter has to pay them the final amount and I want to see the place. On Thursday we are going back to the country club for the seating chart and to go over some questions we have. 23 Days until the wedding. 19 days until my best friend Lo from N.C. arrives. 20 days until Mom and my brother arrive. That's not a lot of days, but I think I'm ready. I need a beer.

Can't Complain, It Would Be Rude

Sometimes I want to complain about stuff and then I think of all the people starving and without fresh water in countries and I feel like I'm a dick for complaining and then I think that's not fair because I'm a person and this is my existence and then I think I am selfish for even thinking about it and then I realize that this sentence has gone on way too long.
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I blame my second husband who is a very nice guy. Too nice - he was always depressed about the state of the planet and whatnot. He left his career as an engineer (hee hee that's sorta poetic) and became some sort of yoga zen master somewhere. At the time I found him tiresome for feeling the weight of the world and now sometimes I catch myself doing it and well, obviously it's all his fault. And who knew that shit was contagious?
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And all of this because I wanted to complain about the eviscerated mouse I found in my garage this morning. There was a head and then a partial body from the chest down with guts all spilling out. I have no idea where the shoulders and forearms ended up. Maybe Barney ate that part. It was really gross. I should be able to complain about that. I guess I just did.

The Terrible Irony of Domestic Violence

The radio station I listen to plays that new Eminem/Rihanna song quite often. The lyrics are very disturbing because as I've said many times, I am unable to grasp the concept of "loving someone so much you want to kill or hurt them." And the reason I put that in quotation marks is because it's too bizarre for me to think of as an actual thought.
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In the song he says something like: if she tries to leave me again I'll tie her to the bed and set the house on fire.
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Usually I just ponder these things and think they are bizarre. But yesterday I finally got it. It just came to me in a flash of thought. I understand what domestic violence is all about now. And it is a terrible irony.
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What happens is the violent person does not realize one of the very basic facts of life: One cannot control all aspects of life or control other persons. Heck, the serenity prayer, which is just really common sense, is pretty much all about that. So these ignorant pathetic individuals can't even grasp the simple fact that pure control is elusive. Therefore when something happens that they can't control, they lash out from frustration - and here's the ironic part: They act out violently because they don't even have self control. So they are furious because something happened that they couldn't control and yet they can't even control themselves. How ironic is that? And how awful.
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Anyway, that's what I believe domestic violence is all about. Maybe they should make kids recite the serenity prayer every morning before class. They can leave out the god part and call it the "Serenity Mantra" or something. Or maybe call it "The Wisdom Poem." It certainly couldn't hurt.

My WTF Week

What a crazy week! First the flooding. I saw pics on the news today of cars floating down streams, and also, after pics of cars up on sidewalks. And Wednesday I saw a crazy rescue of people from an apartment building that involved crossing over horizontal ladders from rooftop to rooftop and then another ladder down onto a firetruck.

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The second WTf was, of course, watching all those tornados live on TV. If you are new here, you need to read the post just before this one.
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My third WTF was this (Thursday) morning. Actually it started Wednesday during tornado time. My neighbor dude who has not spoken to me since his wife bitched me out for having to pay my cat's vet bill when their cat ripped up my cat, showed up at my door while I was tornado watching. He told me that a guy was going to come over to replace two posts on the fence between our houses. Well, the posts are on my side of the fence so I was all sure, sure, my gate will be open. I just wanted to get back to tornado TV. When I woke up the fence post guy was parked right in front of my mailbox. That always annoys the hell out of me, but probably not half as much as it annoys the mailman. Then I went to peek out the side window and saw a doofy guy slowly pounding the fence with a sledgehammer. I thought, "Who the F did he hire?" Finally the one guy moved his truck and they seemed to be doing decent work, but they left with one perfect post and one post that was only partially filled:

So there's like 4 or 5 inches left in the hole. Are they going to come back with more cement? WTF?
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The last one was I got a package today for my daughter. If you remember, we used my return address and mailing address for the wedding invites and R.S.V.P.s because my daughter "lives in an apartment" and doesn't "really check her mail" because she does everything online. So I got this package and sent her a text: You got a wedding gift from "the Taylors." She texted back: Who are the Taylors? I texted: That's your dad's cousin "Elizabeth." Then I was all WTF? I was married to this guy for only 4 years and she's been his daughter for 26 years. Why did I know who it was and she didn't? And she's the one who had the list and addressed everything. All I did was print the things and tie the bows. WTF?

So that was my WTF week. I hope my weekend is mellow and someone fills in that hole.

Whoa! Whoa! Tornados!

All of these pictures are from today (Wednesday I mean - as usual I am posting after midnight). I spent a whole hour glued to the TV watching tornados form. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. I watched the live feed from chopper 8 and then from their TV tower as funnels formed, touched ground, swept across the land throwing up all sorts of debris and then letting go and retracting back into their giant wall cloud.

Usually when we marvel at modern technology, it's the internet or cell phone or digital video we are talking about, but this was just regular old TV news with their live feed from chopper 8.

It was certainly an hour like I've never spent before. And I hope I never get to see anything like that again.

The Short Long Weekend

For a four-day weekend, it sure went by quickly. My Sweetie took Friday off and we did MOW together, had lunch, ran home for a little bit and then drove across town to visit my FIL in rehab (from breaking his hip in case you forgot). Then we headed over to My Sweetie's mom's house to visit with her and his aunt and uncle who were here from Michigan. We were having a great time but had to leave at 11:00 because I didn't have a crazy pill with me.
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While we were visiting we asked them to come by the house on Sunday before their flight back as we live right by the airport, so I spent Saturday cleaning the house. Then we ate out, and got flowers to replace the dead ones outside as well as hitting the grocery store.
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On Sunday I made a veggie tray with homemade ranch and a fruit platter with whipped cream. We had a fun visit and got to sit outdoors because the weather was so lovely. And every morsel of food was eaten. I don't even know how everything got eaten because it seemed like we were all outside all afternoon. A little while after aunt and uncle left for the airport, My Sweetie took his mother home and then grabbed some barbecue on the way home.
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On Monday I pretty much napped all day off and on. I finally showered and we went out to eat and hit the grocery store again. Now he's in bed and the long weekend is over. But what was really cool was I never cooked. I don't think I've gone 4 days without cooking dinner unless I was out of town or recovering from surgery. It was really nice. Now I realize I have a very positive thing to look forward to on the long wedding weekend. No cooking. Or at least not very much. Sounds like a plan.

The Here and Now

I realized this afternoon that I was always thinking about either the wedding weekend or things I need to do to the house before the wedding weekend and how I never seem to be in the here and now. I did finish the veil and I think it came out well.:

I know you loved my old painted styrofoam wig head jammed onto an old lamp base. That's how I roll.
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I still can't figure out how to photograph Austrian crystals. I tried two different things:

I guess the beauty in Austrian crystals is the motion of colors as you move. Maybe the only way to show them off would be to make a video. I should have thought of that before.

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Tuesday we took the wedding dress to the tailor's shop. She is a very sweet lady. And smarter than both of us put together. I've used her many times and her prices have always been very low, but I had never before encountered her wiseness. So here is the dress:

We're not going to tie the bow how it is tied in the picture. I was just in a hurry to get out of the way of the tailor lady.

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I've been trying to think of how not to think about wedding stuff all the time. Of course just thinking about how not to think about it is thinking about it. I think maybe I should use a little notebook and write everything down. But then again, when my North Carolina family is here, I don't want to flip open a notebook and say, "We are having this quiche and fruit for lunch and tonight we will eat at Dos Posados. Between meals, we should chat and be jovial and have fun." I don't even know what time I should get up on the wedding day. And what about lunch for Mom and my brother on that Friday when I'm delivering Meals on Wheels? I'm stuck in the little details. My brain hurts.

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Well at least this evening, I did get to be in the here and now for just a little while. I came out of the grocery store and saw this:

I did take my time. I love rainbows and I enjoyed the moment. I was in the here and now for just that little while. And it was good.

What's Hapnin'

Two Fridays ago I went to Razzoo's for lunch and coming out of the bathroom I saw my little flag. I had made those for 4th of July to hand out to my Meals on Wheels people and I had an extra one and gave it to the girl bartender that day. I thought it was sweet that now it's part of the restaurant decor.:
My husband's out of town so this seemed like a good time to paint the other hallway. I thought I'd be further along, but I do have everything prepped and can roll out of bed later today and get started.
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And Saturday I found shoes for my Mother of the Bride dress:

I found that picture on the internet. The real shoes don't have that peachy glow. They are a cool grey knotted Thai silk. And they are Rocket Dogs! I thought that was crazy. They are very pretty but I haven't a clue as to how to walk in them yet. I will practice every day.

Friday! Now Ten Degrees Cooler!

What a difference a week makes. Last Friday was around 103° and the forecast for today is 93°. It was so hot last Friday that after MOW I didn't even eat lunch where I wanted to eat lunch. The place I wanted to eat lunch is in a sort of strip mall area and I would have had to park far out in a flat open parking lot. The place I actually chose for lunch was an individual restaurant where I could park near the door, and walk over a little bridge that crossed a cute little pond with fountains in it. It was an easy choice.
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And then I got home and these poor three fellows were working in my back yard:

That one guy was wearing a long sleeve shirt. And those dust masks? I ran those out to them. They were sawing through the fiberglass spa and pulling their shirts up and holding them over their faces. I felt so bad for them. I ran in the garage and grabbed those masks. Then I came back inside and made large cups of ice water for them.
I was so happy when I saw them pulling out the bottom. And now we have a big open sand pit.:
You might think Barney would be using that for nefarious purposes, but he thinks it is still a water hazard. I know this because I tried to put him down in there and he reacted like it was water and scratched the bejeebus out of me.

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Our original plan was just to put 16 new long boards across that spot, but we decided to have all of that part of the deck removed and resod the yard with grass there. That will make the deck smaller and therefore cooler in the summer. When I designed that deck I didn't know the rule of heat. That deck was too big and our backyard was about 6° hotter than my neighbor's backyard. As Dad used to say, "Live and learn."

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But that project is for next month and for now I'm just happy that it's 10° cooler.

The Good With The Bad

We had a fun birthday dinner night with my daughter, her fiance and her best friend (the maid of honor to be) but on that same day, my father-in-law fell and broke his hip.
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My daughter loved the little crown and flashing light button that I bought for her. I told her, "I have no memory whatsoever of my 26th birthday, so I want to make sure you remember yours." Of course the fact that her wedding dress came in that day will probably make her 26th birthday more memorable than the silly fun items I bought at the party store.
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Tuesday early evening my father-in-law had surgery on his hip. He was not a good candidate for pins and so they cemented his hip back together. We spent an hour at the hospital with my MIL waiting for my FIL to come out of surgery and then the three of us went out for dinner. We got back just minutes before he was taken to his room. He was pretty out of it from the morphine but at one point he asked if he was at Cattleman's Steak House. He seems to be doing okay.
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After our seriously hot 107° degree day on Sunday, a norther came through and Tuesday saw a high of "only" 90°.
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My brother and Mom have made their flight reservations for my daughter's wedding in October. That's exciting. And they will be here a little longer than I had originally thought. I'm looking forward to their visit.
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Oh and we had our hot tub removed. I''l post about that next time. I'm tired.

26 Years Ago Today

In the wee morning hours of August 23rd, 1984, I was having a bad dream. I dreamed I was back in my 9th grade Algebra class. There I was sitting in my regular seat behind Jackie. It was one of those very realsitic dreams. Mr. Wilson's classroom was perfectly recreated. There was no dream-like quality to it. I started having bad cramps and was horrified. I knew the cramps meant that my period was starting right then and there and I knew I did not have any tampons with me.
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After a few agonizing minutes, I woke up and was so relieved that it had been only a dream. I let out a deep sigh of relief when I realized I was at home in my bed. Then as I started to happily drift back off, I realized that the cramps were not part of the dream. They were real. As I was half asleep, it took me a few minutes to realize what was going on. I was already 9 days past my due date. Yep, those weren't period cramps. I was getting ready to have a baby.
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We got up, called the doctor and grabbed my bag and headed for the hospital. It turned into a long day. One of the funniest parts was when they were making me walk the corridors pushing my rolling I.V. I ran into one of my Lamaze classmates. Her husband was pushing her down the hallway. She was holding her new baby boy and they were heading home. After we chatted for just a few minutes, the went on their way. When she was maybe 15 feet down the hall, she said to her husband, "She looked terrible." Her husband was all "Ssssshhh. She might hear you." Which I did. It didn't upset me at all. I don't know why but it made me smile. There's nothing wrong with looking terrible when you feel terrible.
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At noon I went back to my room to watch my soap and some nurse came in there and was all, "You need to be walking." I said, "Too bad. I'm taking this hour off of walking to watch my soap." People can argue with me all day, but they can't make me do something I don't want to do. She finally gave in and promptly at 1:00 she was right there. Fine with me.
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Later that afternoon, they started talking "Ceasarean" and I would have none of it. When they sent someone in to shave me for surgery, I was all, "No. I'm going to have this baby naturally." Finally someone came in with dire predictions and warnings and guilt-tripped me into okaying the C-section. Which of course led to my classic stupid question that I asked in the operating room: If I'm having a C-section, why am I still having labor pains?
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It took longer than usual for me to wake up in the recovery room, and they were starting to get a little concerned, but I've always believed I was just getting in some make-up sleep from having gotten up so early. I finally woke up and my husband gave me the news: It's a girl! My parents popped in and then left to go eat dinner. They tried to get my husband to go with them. We both thought that was weird. Anyway, they finally wheeled me to my room and we stopped by the nursery and they handed me my 9 pound, 14 ounce prize:

So that's what I was doing 26 years ago today. 26 years. Wow.

And in this corner...

Dad would have been 74 on Wednesday, the 18th. I have been thinking about him a lot lately. Today there was a crazy burst of rain on a burning hot day and a truck made a quick turn and spun out. I immediately thought, "If Dad had taught you to drive, you would have known better."
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We watch a crazy reality show and we were discussing how shocked this one broad will be when she sees herself and I said, "You never know how you looked until you had your picture took." It was one of Dad's favorite sayings and it's not really about photography.
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I can't begin to describe how much I love that picture up there, because Dad absolutely lived in that corner of his kitchen. He was a stand in the corner dude. I ran across an old picture from maybe 1990 when I was married to my second husband and he was standing just like that in our house! I couldn't believe it.
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I miss Dad all the time. When I hear a funny joke, I want to call him and tell him. Or if I have a gap in a childhood memory, I want to call him and ask him. When Duke wins a basketball game I want to call him and discuss it.
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My best friend and I met through Dad but became best friends after he died. Dad would have been so tickled by that. Here's a bit of that history from an old post:
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In case anyone doesn't know the history of Lo and Me, we had met once for about 20 minutes at my Dad's house while he was napping in his recliner and then we smoked together by the bar at my Dad's retirement party (and she also drove us there). She was very helpful that next week, because my Dad died at his retirement party and I was staying at his house working on funeral arrangements and stuff with my brother. This was October 1998. In May or June of 1999, I was still suffering from post-traumatic stress from Dad's death and DREADING the anniversary of his death, so I called Lo and told her how I felt and asked if she'd like a trip to Vegas for that week. We didn't really know each other, but she had known Dad for years - she was a neighbor, and had been so helpful after his death, it just seemed like a good idea to me. We have a 14 year age difference, but I didn't even think about that. She flew into DFW and we flew together to Vegas and made a memory to last forever. It was just the beginning of many trips and a very long friendship.
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Dad left me with so much, and I appreciate all of it - but I sure miss him.

Penny Candy

I miss penny candy. When I was a little kid we had a little store in our community. Going to the store was really the only thing to do besides just playing or exploring the woods. My parents had a charge account there. They would send us quite often to get bread or cigarettes or soft drinks. That was a bitch for the first several years because it was quite a walk, but at the end of third grade we moved right across a dirt road from the store. Everyone called the store "Leroy's" as in "I'm going to Leroy's" even though I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name on the sign. Leroy was the nice old man that ran the store. He probably wasn't really old because his youngest daughter was just a year older than my big brother. But anyone older than my parents always seemed old.
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The door to the store was like a regular house door. There was a wooden door with windows and a screen door. When the weather was nice the wooden door stayed open and you entered through the screen door. The door was in the center of the building. When you walked in you were facing the counter. On the right against the front wall there was one of those drink fridges that are about 3 feet high with the doors that slide open and you reach down inside for your drink. That always felt so good in the summer and I'd always stick my whole head down in there. Usually someone was sitting up there, so when you wanted a drink, they'd have to hop off. I spent quite some time sitting up there myself.
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In the back right of the store was a bench and a little short table with checkers and a few chairs. That's also where the big brown metal furnace was. That was a cozy place to hang out in the winter. The cold drink machine tops were the best place to sit in summer. And speaking of summer, on the left front wall was the slide top freezer - much like the drink coolers. It contained frozen popsicles and fudgesicles and ice cream sandwiches. Good stuff on a hot summer day. Except a good third of it ended up melting all over you.
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The best part of the store was down the left of the front counter area. It was a glass paned box framed in dark wood strips and filled with penny candy. I loved the variety. On any given day, if I had a dime, I'd get: 3 Pixie Stix, 2 Bazooka gums (I loved the Bazooka Joe comics!), 2 creme filled caramels (like in the picture at top), 2 fireballs, and a grape gumball. I mixed it up all the time and sometimes I might just be in the mood for 10 Pixie Stix or 10 fireballs.
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There were some items in the wonderful glass box that weren't penny candy, like baseball cards, candy cigarettes and seasonal items like the "edible" wax teeth at Halloween. I remember when Leroy got the wax "pop" bottles. You bit off the top, spit it out and poured the quarter ounce of fruity sugary liquid in your mouth and life was good. I used to even buy baseball cards because I loved the gum and I loved the way the cards smelled. And it was something to read.
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Every once in a while I think about those caramels and fireballs and grape gumballs and really wish I could walk across a dirt road and get a little brown paper bag full of penny candy. Or maybe I'd really just like to step back in time and walk through that screen door into Leroy's. Good times. And good memories.

Crispy Critters (Day 21)

After talking about my flowers the other day looking like crispy bits of a brown paper bag, I thought I would take some after pictures. And by after, I mean after 21 days of triple digit temperatures. I didn't take any pictures of all of the fried plants, because I don't have before pictures of all of them.
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The picture below shows my before of the mixed pot of calibrachoa. It was a mix of dark blue. tangerine and scarlet (their words, not mine and by their I mean the folks that printed the plastic description thing that comes with the plant) next to the after picture: The funny thing is, that dude is actually making a comeback. It looked worse than that a week ago. I moved it to a shadier spot that might also pick up some extra water from the yard sprinklers. And that petunia in the turtle? Not only has that been dead for a while but one of the poor turtle legs died and broke off from heat exhaustion. I can fix it with Gorilla Glue, but that's right! ding! ding! ding! It's too hot to do that right now. And for some reason I am amused that I will fix a turtle's leg with Gorilla Glue. Gorillas and turtles. Oh and I was not compensated for mentioning and linking to that glue because I don't even know how to do that. I just think its a good product.
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These next pictures are really sad. These were my petunias and that unknown plant that even my blog readers could not help me with. We'll call the unknown plant Ralph.
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In the before picture Ralph is on the bottom and the purplish petunia is on the top and they are switched in the after picture.:

As you can see if you look at the top right, Ralph is still okay. Ralph has like a bottom cabbage growth after a time and then I cut away all the tall stuff and he starts all over. That happened last year too. Plus, Ralph lived through our record breaking frigid winter and crazy snows we had last year. Ralph is TOUGH! The petunias, not so much. And that's not even a good rendition of the yellow petunia. It was huge and gorgeous before the mad heat.

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I just checked and it's supposed to be 104° today (Sunday, I mean even though I'm still Saturday night until I go to bed). I'll try to stay indoors as much as possible so I don't end up like my plants. Who wants to look like crispy bits of a brown paper bag?

Family Stars

One of the things we did at the beach cottage in May was play Trivial Pursuit. But it wasn't regular Trivial Pursuit, it was some sort of juvenile version. At first we thought it would be so easy we changed the rules, but after we finished that first game, we went back to original game rules.
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Sure some of the questions were really easy, but because none of us were actual juveniles, we did not know, for instance, the name of Strawberry Shortcake's best friend or house or whatever. So then the game just became funny, because for the most part either everyone knew the answer or no one knew the answer. And we were playing in teams.
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I have such good memories of some of the questions coming up that sounded something like, "What was the name of Snargle Runkle's puppy?" There would be a dead silence, we'd all look at each other and then all burst out laughing.
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I always played on a team with my nephew A.C. He's the one that I won my very first game of Cranium with a year ago when we were all together in the North Carolina mountains. When someone got the question "How many planets are in our solar system?" He and I both immediately asked, "What year did this game come out?" He not only knew that Pluto was recently downgraded to a dwarf planet but that it is actually smaller than our other dwarf planet Eris and that both are part of the Kuiper belt. So depending on the year of the game, and the perspective, the answer is either 7, 8, or 9.
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A.C. pointed out the Milky Way Galaxy of stars to me last year when we were in the mountains. Because I developed my love of astronomy in my later years and live in such an overly lit metroplex, I had never seen the Milky Way except in photos. It was truly beautiful. I'll never forget that. Also on that trip, my nephew was openly impressed that I had both a planisphere and a compass - not to mention that I had a great telescope at home.
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His 15th birthday is the 26th of this month and for his gift I bought the family a membership to the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I hope they will get to take him there often and I hope he enjoys it. I really love that guy.

The August Baked Blahs

Well my official annual summer torpor (or ennui) has officially started. If you have been reading me for a long time, you know this happens every year. It's rough watching the nightly news and see the weather man excitedly predicting that the temperature will come down to 100° maybe this weekend. Yes you read that right: come down to 100°. And maybe.
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Yippee. Nearly all of my flowers now look like crumbly bits of a brown paper bag. And I watered them every single day. But as we like to say around here, "Well it's just too hot."
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Every day I wake up and think of all the things I want to do and then I just don't quite get to them. Oh, I'm doing all the neccessary things: cook dinner every night, clean the kitchen, wash the sheets every Wednesday and deliver my MOW food every Friday, but other than that? Not so much.
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My house was so messy last Thursday when the termite guy came for his annual inspection that I thought it would be funny to mess with his head and tell him I was the live-in housekeeper. But I didn't. (Ennui.)
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The one project I do want to get to soon is my daughter's wedding veil. Carole's daughter gave us her wedding veil and I have great plans for it. My mother had a gorgeous necklace and earrings set of Austrian crystals from the 1960's. My daughter is going to wear the necklace and I deconstructed the earrings:
That left me with 36 gorgeous Austrian crystal beads in two different sizes. And by the way, Austrian crystals are really hard to photograph. I took maybe 10 pictures trying different things and this was the best I could do. And that picture doesn't look at all like how the crystals look to my live eyeballs.
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So I have a plan for doing beadwork onto some as yet unbought and imaginary thing that I will magically find at the fabric store. This will be on top of my daughter's head attached to the veil. That's my plan, anyway. But the thing is, it's too hot to go to the fabric store. Or do pretty much anything really. I'll get around to it later.