Make a new plan, Stan!

I left the air conditioner set to 69 degrees last night and woke up freezing.

Kev and Sam are off on their boys weekend together, and Joyce and Mike spent the night over at Bay City, so you would think I'd have a nice, quiet evening with the house all to myself. But no. Murray and Ollie make a surprising amount of noise for 2 such small kittens. They are apparently curious about everything, and will try anything to investigate. Also, I deeply regret purchasing those cat toys Sam selected... the ones that have little bells or make noise.

Another purchase at PetSmart was a covered cat litter box with a swinging front door. We have this downstairs right now, and it will stay where it is until both kittens are done with their recovery from getting fixed and declawed (which won't happen for at least another month). Then it's going elsewhere. I don't really care where, just not in the far corner of our livingroom. A place where Wiley cannot get to it, preferably, since my formerly amazing dog has decided that litter-covered cat turds are treats. Gag.

I keep seeing this little Chevy S10 red pickup truck on M-20:


I am hating football season. Sam is doing two-a-days now, and his knee is a major source of pain. Along with other varied and many bruises and injuries. Like how his teammate managed to poke Sam in both eyes during practice. Sam's eyes were very red; it made me feel so sick to look at his eyes... words can't do it justice. So we made a trip to Urgent Care to check on any corneal damage. We had to go into the "eye room" where the doctor put that yellow dye in each of his eyes, then turned off the lights in the room and held the blacklight up to Sam's face. My freaky purple boy...


No lasting damage thank goodness. Unlike his knee, by the way. Our final visit to the surgeon a couple of weeks ago went like this: It Didn't Take. That's what the doc said. The cadaver ligament patch to Sam's PCL apparently didn't work. Sam was told to wear his brace and play football like he doesn't have a knee injury. All that for nothing. I can't explain how I feel because once again, words can't do it justice.

On my way home from work the other day I saw 2 young men walking on a sidewalk along M-20. Even from a distance I could tell they weren't the type of men I'd invite over to my house for a visit. As I got closer, I saw one of them, a very tanned, very skinny young man with is shirt off and thrown over his shoulders and his jeans so far down that mostly his entire boxer-covered ass was in view (how in the hell he can walk like that, I don't know)... anyway... he had a tattoo that was below his belly button but above his low slung boxers. That was the only tattoo I could see on his torso, and it was odd. Got me wondering... if it had been on his back, it'd be called a tramp stamp, so what is it called on the front?... this required an answer from the Internets! Go ahead, Google (or Bing or whatever) "tramp stamp" and perhaps you, too, will be educated as I was. I did not know it stood for something that specific to some people. And what is a male equivalent of tramp you ask?... there is none, i.e., "Words for a promiscuous woman are invariably derogatory, but words for a promiscuous man are frequently perceived as compliments."

I sure do see some interesting sites along M-20. A while back, on a very hot and muggy day, I saw an old man - he looked close to 80 years old - driving a lawn mower. This old guy had his shirt off, and the effect of gravity on an old person's body was in great evidence. He was bouncing along in his yard, at a pretty good clip, mowing his crappy looking yard without a care in the world. Oddly enough, it was kind of a rewarding site. I think he was probably going so fast so that he got a bit of a breeze, and he clearly didn't give a damn what anybody thought. I liked that. Made me smile.

I am still adjusting to my CPAP machine plus some other medical issues that are too boring to discuss, but my eBay phase continues. I like to choose a word, any word, and search all categories to see what is the most expensive thing. Try it, you will be astounded... or at least you will shake your head just a bit in disgust, as I do. Folks, there are some weird people out there. And also some islands for sale. With waterfalls!

One category is for selling gift cards and gift certificates. Like if you got a fifty dollar gift card to Appleby's for your birthday but you really just want the cash instead, then sell it on eBay! You will get $48.97 for it. Seriously. Perhaps even $49.97. If you have a Wal-Mart gift card or store credit (from a store return), you could even earn money! For some reason, Wal-Mart gift cards on eBay sometimes sell at auction for more then the value of the card. Will someone please explain that shit to me?! Crazy.

Speaking of crazy, I regret my search on the word "taxidermy"...







And more craziness... people are quite creative in their endeavor to con you out of your cash...



Something wonderful awaits! Yes, wonderful cash for the seller from the sucker who won that auction. I also rediscovered this eBay category, which I had forgotten existed...



and I found these auctions...



I could not resist, and so I did a search for such craziness in completed auctions. Folks, there are some downright less than intelligent people out there...



One cent, ok maybe, for curiosty's sake... but four bucks on a mystery envelope? That's just dumb. So please see any of my 4,000 auctions for a mystery envelope. Momma needs a new car. But then I'm creating some pretty bad karma for myself, aren't I? Hmmm... but I can just buy some good karma on eBay!...



Whew!

Odds and Ends

I’ve been sick with a flu or cold or whatever the heck it is for so long, and with the Seriously Quite Majestic Cough I’ve had, I have been staying home from the office and working from home. For some reason, instead of sitting at my computer desk, I’ve been settling myself quite comfortably in the much-loved recliner with my trusty wood desk and my laptop with a 50’ cable attaching to the router (cable is faster than wireless at my house, and yeah, my cable speed wouldn’t blow you away). I find I have been working on and off pretty much morning, noon and night. The downside... after 4 weeks of this, I have discovered this comfortable position supports my neck perhaps too much. I worked in the office all day this past Thursday, and sitting upright with no neck support whatsoever just about did me in. I am still recovering and my neck is hurting. And I’m sitting in the recliner as I type this... Oy!

For some reason, I have been using “Oy!” a lot. Probably too much. But I am trying to clean up my language. 2008 found me cussing much, much more than I usually do, and I was fond of cuss words prior to 2008, so... Oy!

The other evening while I was working on my laptop, sitting in the recliner, and Kev had the TV on watching football stuff... the college boys’ Combine 24-7, then lately all the free agent stuff... It’s all a blur to me. But I did see one guy, a free agent named Albert Hainsworth, talking about his deal with the Redskins for a hundred mil. The money I’ve been hearing has been making me gag. Whatever. And then during Hainsworth’s talk about the deal, Kev said, “Yeah, and let’s not forget he’s the guy that stomped on a guy’s head.” WTF?!! says I. I mean, What the Oy!... So I Googled him. He did stomp on a guy’s head, an opposing team player who did not have his helmet on at the time. Actually, Hainsworth stomped once and missed Cowboy’s Andre Gurode’s head, so he stomped a second time and connected with the man’s face... Andre had to have something like 30 stitches and had blurry vision from the stomp. Lucky that was all. Hainsworth is 6’6” and weighs well over 300 pounds. This happened in 2006, so Hainsworth was maybe 24 years old. I don’t care how much he apologized, how much “anger management” or counseling he got afterwards or how he made amends... If you’re 6’6” and weigh about 320 pounds, you know damn well how powerfully strong you are. In my opinion, Hainsworth should have been kicked out of pro football never to return. I bet Gurode’s family and friends would agree with me. If Andre were my son, for example, I would be angered beyond belief to hear about this one hundred mil deal. Hainsworth should be forced to give half of it to medical research or medical facilities for head injuries.

Speaking of injuries, my Mom had knee replacement surgery this past Wednesday. The surgery went well, and Mom came home from the hospital yesterday. She is so strong. She’s the strongest 72 year old woman I know. Heck, she’s stronger than a lot of people I know who are 20 years younger. I know my Mom has dealt with pain most of her adult life, having had back surgery way back years & years ago. She’s done so much with pain that would put many people down. The way she’s handled this surgery is amazing, and the hip replacement surgery she had last year. My Mom is amazing! I wanna be like my Mom!

Kev is finally my age again. He turned 48 on March 1st. Sammy made him a coconut cake, from scratch, recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. I was sick, and couldn’t really taste how wonderfully yummy the cake was, but Kevin enjoyed it very much. Joycie & Mike drove into town and got wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, so dinner was nice, too... Kev likes those wings. Now Kev and I are the same age for about a month, until I turn 49. I think 49 is like 39; it’s just not real. When you’re 49, eh, you’re 50. Just admit it.

I recently had a conversation at work about payroll and handling some things, and a person said something like, “...especially when we’re dealing with bargained-for employees...”. I hear this kind of comment pretty often working in a payroll setting. For some reason, there are a lot of folks who are anti-Union. For payroll, yes, Union employees are more work. But so are the other end of the spectrum, the special circumstances in a payroll system for the highly compensated employees also cause extra work. So why the negative feelings toward Union employees? I don’t get it. My husband is a Union member, so I am very pro-Union. I know Unions are not perfect. Is there politics? Is there corruption? Is there narcissism? Yes. Where there are humans involved in a group setting, those things exist. Become active in your local Little League board, and you’ll see all that. You can’t pin those negative characteristics on something as unique solely to Unions. Kev worked in a building where the building manager was a total asshole named Mark Wanus. If it hadn’t been for the Union, that jerk would have accomplished his goal of getting Kev fired. Wanus talked to the Union employees like they were trash, with total disrespect. If my boss talked to me the way Wanus talked to the Union employees, men and women, in that building, my boss’ ass would in the ringer with HR. So, yes, I am pro-Union.

It’s staying lighter longer. Lighter longer. Lighter longer. I love saying that. Spring is coming. I can’t wait. I go around humming sing-song “lighter longer” repetitively to myself, and it feels so good.

Reilly got a good brushing from Sammy yesterday, and it looks like he lost weight. The Furminator works so well. It’s funny, that dog adores Kev so much, and when Kev gets home from work, Reilly is beside himself with joy. But then, when Mike arrives, Reilly is overjoyed. Then Reilly follows Mike around like a shadow. He’s next to him or watching him constantly. He always sleeps with Sammy on Sammy’s bed... except when Mike’s here, then he sleeps near Mike. Reilly is totally in love with Mike. Just like Joycie.

Spread your wings, baby

I was trying to photograph the goldfinch pair, and got this photo...



I have a kazillion and one bird photos to sort through. You'll probably see some of them.

My nephew, Michael, moves into his freshman dorm room tomorrow. Very exciting! Michael is the one who was Valedictorian of his class & who got the wonderful scholarship at CMU. He told me I could post his Valedictorian speech on YouTube, so as soon as I figure out how to do that, I shall share it with you. Along with photos.

Sammy and Kevin just got home from Sammy's football practice. My poor boy could hardly walk. Two things happened tonight during practice, the result being both his ankles are very sore. He limped into the house, and watching him almost made me cry. So I got him soaking in the spa tub right now, with lavender Epsom salts, a vanilla laced hot chocolate and a ice water chaser.

I love it that Sammy loves playing football, and he's one of the bigger sized boys who does really well... but I hate it when he hurts. And that, most definitely, is part of football. Oy.

Speaking of hating... damn it all, but my vertigo is back. With a vengeance. It suckith mightily.

Speaking of loving... my Momma had hip replacement surgery 11 days ago, and she is doing so great! The surgeon said she needed it badly... she even had shards of bone pieces floating around that joint, with no cartilage left... bone on bone. And that's one painful thing. I sure hope I'm as tough as my Mom is when I'm her age. What a woman.

I saw two bumper stickers the other day that made me chuckle and then go, huh?... and hmmm... One said "Ask Me About My Grandcats" and the other said "I Love (heart) My Donkey".

Then I saw yet another personalized license plate (they are everywhere now, have you noticed???... you will now...), and this one I liked. It was "B QUIET". I really liked it. It was on a big SUV in the left lane, right in front of me, while beside me was some crappy car with a crappy teenager driving it with his crappy radio playing crappy music at a very LOUD volume. B QUIET indeed.

Our family loves TV. Big fans of TV. I found 2 shows recently on the USA channel. One is "Burn Notice" and the other is "In Plain Sight" and they're both great. Still enjoying "Saving Grace" (that Holly Hunter is ripped!) and "The Closer" immensely as well. We never seem to watch live TV now, though, and it's nice because it cuts down on the TV time... most of my screen time lately seems to be in front of my company laptop screen... *sigh* Oddly enough, I haven't been watching much of the Summer Olympics. (And I am not liking at all the stupid animal atheletes thing Google has going... must change my home page.) We usually do get into the Olympics a lot... just not this year. Don't know why. We're are watching TV... Kev has the Tigers on right now, recorded so he didn't miss the start of the game & zipping through commercials (and boring parts).

We have a DVR with Dish Network, and I just did the thing where I hooked up an external hard drive to transfer shows over to it from the DVR, so I can record and store to my heart's content... And make it worth the one-time activation fee of about forty bucks. I've been doing a lot of research on the 'net, hoping there was a way to use that hard drive on my computer to burn some things to DVD, but alas, no. Oh, well. Though I have read of some problems retrieving the recorded events (getting back to the DVR from the hard drive), but I've experienced no problems. I am recording a LOT of stuff... hoping that one day in the not too distant future I will be able to watch all these episodes and movies I'm recording. Sammy and I have a saying going... "Things'll be fine in '09!"

Here's hoping, baby. Fly away vertigo, fly away.

Can't teach an old dog...

new tricks... That saying has been going through my mind so much lately. Ever since the "fall back" of daylight savings time occurred, I have been waking up at 4:00am. Every morning, even weekends. My alarm is set for 5:30am, but I wake up at 5:00am... which is now 4:00am. My mind is trained and is apparently too old and stubborn to be flexible to the idea of daylight savings time. Nice.

Joycie wanted to sleep in yesterday, but she was up by around 9:00am. She has to get up early for classes, which she's been doing since the end of August. And now her mind is trained. I find this very entertaining. Welcome to adulthood, baby.

Kev and Sammy drove down to Ford Field yesterday to watch the Midland High football team lose to Detroit Martin Luther King in the Div. 2 State Championship. It was a great game to watch. The boys had a great day together, including stopping in Saginaw for dinner at Hooters.

I've long been against Hooters and other establishments of their ilk. Something about having boobs as the primary reason for a restaurant's existence just doesn't float my boat. Sammy likes having dinner there. Very much. Of course, he's 13 years old. Go figure.

This morning I pointed out to Kevin that the Hooters girls are all around the age of his daughter. How's that feel? He would not want his daughter working there... 'nough said.

We used to have a Mexican restaurant in town called Chi-Chi's. I believe it was a chain that went under. They had great nachos and margaritas, though. We used to go there pretty often. Then a guy I worked with at the time, who is Latino, told me that in Spanish, chi-chis means titties. After it closed and then they turned the Chi-Chi's building into a Buffalo Wild Wings, I wasn't sad to see the sign change. Every time I looked at the Chi-Chi's sign, I thought Tit-Tit's. Unappetizing. Oh, and p.s., Buffalo Wild Wings' chicken wings are about 500% better than Hooters', just so you know.

Kev just told me that Sammy's PE teacher, who is one of our high school's varsity football coaches, told Sammy to get his buddies and they all need to lift weights three times a week after school. Sam is in 7th grade, and he's clearly already being groomed for Varsity football. I'm just not sure how I feel about that. Sammy loves playing football. And basketball. I just don't want those team sports to define his high school years. Sam is a pretty smart kid, the straight-A's type, and he has a lot of interests besides sport. Like girls. And music, reading, movies, hunting, shopping (yes), video games, myspace & IM'ing... and cutting, splitting and stacking wood with his Dad. I read that bit over, and I think I don't need to worry about Sammy. But I will.

I just made our second pot of coffee. Both kids still sleeping. I started writing this post an hour ago, but have stopped and come back to it several times. Kev is watching the Midland game that I recorded for him yesterday, and as I type this he's explaining to me how different it is being there vs. watching it on TV with the announcers. (Yes, honey, I'm listening.)

Big No. 45

Sammy is on the 7th grade football team, and they play on Saturdays. The team won their first 2 games, but they lost yesterday. I think the team they played against had some pretty big boys on it and they're a good passing team, but I was still surprised at the loss. But... ya can't win 'em all.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a football game, sunny, warm and breezy. Our Sammy played a good game. He's one tough boy...





Joycie came home yesterday, went to Sammy's game with us and stayed over night. She wore his jersey at the game...





Kev took Sammy out hunting yesterday evening for the youth hunt weekend...



They saw a couple of doe, but no fresh venison. Kev had to go into work last night, as he's on midnights now. Joycie and I watched a couple of movies together, while Sammy was on the computer. It was real nice to have Joycie home for the evening.

So now it's already well past noon on Sunday. Both Joycie and Sammy slept in late... Joycie got up shortly after noon, and then she left right away because she has a bunch of homework yet to do. Sammy just came in from spending a lot of time out on the trampoline, and Kev is sleeping. I've already done a bunch of laundry, with a bunch more to do. Plus a bunch of paperwork today - both personal and work-related. It's nice to have the windows open and the fresh air pouring through the house.

I love weekends. (I'd love 'em more if Kev didn't have to work some of them.)

Football Saturday, the score

Isn't this a gorgeous sky?



A beautiful day for football. We played over in a town nearby, and the day went great. This is Big Sammy No. 45...



Looking tough on both offense and defense... he played almost the entire game...



Hot and sweaty, and in great form...



Our boys won the game...



The sky had predicted the outcome...

Football Saturday

This afternoon is the first official game of the 7th grade football team, and Sammy is getting ready right now. It's a gorgeous day for a game.

This year, the team got new jerseys and new helmets. Not surprisingly, they had no helmet that would fit Sammy. This happened in 5th grade, too... the youth sized helmets are just too small for him. So in 5th grade, the coaches took a varsity helmet that fit Sammy, removed the heavy metal face guard and put on a lightweight plastic face guard from a youth helmet. Sam used that the past 2 years. But that helmet is black, and all the new helmets are gold. So the equipment manager ordered a new, gold helmet just for Sammy.



Sammy said it made his head feel HUGE...



He wore it for 2 practices, and it really was too big for him. During the 2nd practice, he pancaked a guy and then took a roll, during which the too-big helmet caught on his shoulder pads and yanked his neck... He hurt Big Time. I met Kev and Sammy at the high school, and then we spent the next several hours in the ER.



Not a good night. Well, part of it was good, I guess.. x-rays showed no bone damage. Sam pulled a muscle in his neck, and he was off football for a week. And he hated that. He missed the opening season scrimmage. When he finally began practicing again, he was still hurting, but he's playing today. Thanks to one of the dads on the team who owns his own body shop, he also will look like the rest of team... he took Sammy's old, black helmet home and painted it gold. It looks so great! They put stickers on it and everything... Sammy was super happy. He looks good for the game.

More autumn photos

Sam's last football game was yesterday. They won, so their record is 5 wins, 1 loss. Very good season. It was a cold, cold day, but no rain, thank goodness.

The homecoming parade and game Friday evening was also very cold, with rain mixed with snow, then lots of rain at the game. The parade is definitely not as nice with such cold, crappy weather, but we had fun anyway. Kev is getting pretty good at holding out the camera and taking our picture together.



I didn't stay for the football game Friday night... if my kid's not playing, I'm definitely a fair weather fan.

This is a photo I took of the last rose of the season. All the rose hips are bright orange now. Pretty.



And this is Reilly, who is just way too cute. I love how he'll look me right in the eyes.



He's so cute, I forgave him once again for rubbing his neck in turkey poop, and gave him a nice long bath yesterday evening. Sammy was gone to stay overnight at a friend's, Kev was out bowhunting until after dark and Joycie was at the homecoming dance, then she stayed overnight with a bunch of girls at her friend, Kara's house. Or should I say Her Majesty's house... Kara was crowned Homecoming Queen. Homecoming post showing my beautiful girl next...

Lost weekend

So far, so sucky.

Sammy had a football game yesterday... in the rain... and both Kev and I missed it. Kev is on his day-12s weekend, and he couldn't get anyone to cover for him so that he could go to Sam's game. This is the first time he has missed one of Sam's football games since the boy started playing 4 years ago.

I'm at what is hopefully getting to the end of a bad cold. It was one of those colds you could feel coming on for days & days, and then when it finally hits, it hits Big Time. Mine hit about 1pm on Friday. I remember very little of yesterday. Ugh.

So Joycie drove Sammy to the high school and watched his game as the sole family cheering section. She and Sam both came home soaking wet & cold. I remember that because there was a brief spat over who got to shower first. Umm... duh. The boy, obviously... he was, in addition to soaking wet & cold, quite muddy. His team won, and Sam had some good moments. Wish I had been there.

And today is October 1st. I repeat, October 1st. That's a big day in our family because it's Opening Day of Bowhunting Season... Kev's passion. And he had to work. This is the first opening day that he's missed in so many years that I can't remember how far back. He should be out in the woods.

And all I can say to finish up this bummer of a post is thank God for coffee. Warm, wonderful coffee on my raw, aching throat.

Rainy football Saturday

Today was the first game of the 6th grade football team that Sammy's on... and it rained during the entire game. Lightly, so it wasn't that bad, but steady. And it was a bit windy, too... so it was wet & cold. And FUN. The boys played so well, including our big defensive backer. They won 32-6. Sammy made some great tackles.

Kev wanted a photo of him to put in his locker at work, so we made him get in full gear before we left for the game.


Of course, Sammy felt like I was taking too many photos. So this is what I got.

He sure is a cute weisenheimer...

Joycie left yesterday evening with her friend, Allison, & Allison's mom, Sue, to go to the Wheatland Music Festival for the weekend. Gary, Allison's dad, went up early to secure a good campsite. They're in tents, so they can be closer to the action. And it rained Big Time last night. I talked with Joycie this morning, though, and they stayed dry. She's having a blast.

Kev is now downstairs doing one last attempt to fix our dying dryer. It screams when it's turned on and will only dry clothes in gentle mode... which can take a few hours if it's towels or jeans. And since it no longer will turn itself off... no problem. We've had this set of Maytag washer & dryer for over 20 years. Got our money's worth out of 'em, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure we'll be buying a Maytag dryer tomorrow.

I finally found some johnny-jump-ups (violas) for my rock garden, and I actually got them planted last night, along with some perennials I've been procrastinating on... Kev & Sammy went to the football game, Joyce had left for Wheatland, and I was home alone. I have been sick with some kind of stomach flu or something for most of the past week... and haven't felt like doing anything. I left work early Friday, came home and laid in the hammock on the porch with Reilly for company (and warmth, the breeze was persistently cool). After a couple hours, I felt better. That evening, I grabbed a pillow and asked Reilly if he felt like another nap... It was a gorgeous evening. We had just settled in the hammock when Barney gave a little whine, and then another. Reilly perked right up and whined back to him. Oh, alright! I got up and let Barney and Betty out of their run, so the 3 could play. They were so dang happy. So... I started puttering around with the plants, and next thing I know, I'm planting with a mission. Got almost everything in the ground; just a few more small things, plants I got from my sister, Kathy. And I felt so much better! I think I sweated all that creeping-crud-flu stuff right out. This morning, I could tell I was better. Ahhh.... finally.

And it was great timing... coz it's been raining ever since I got those plants in the ground.

One long post for August...

Go on, get yourself a fresh cup of coffee or something equally nice to drink, sit back, get comfortable... coz this is gonna be a long post.

AUGUST REVIEW IN PHOTOS

Sam and his friend, Cody, after a tiring game of badminton... and the geese in the background had kept them company most of the day, but all left a few days later.


Sam and his friend, Zack, spent a fun day at the county fair.













I have been spending a little bit of time over at my folks' on the West 20, where the plant life is lush and the wildlife abundant. They have something like 3 doe that have twin fawns and a couple of doe with single fawns. The kids and I came across this doe & her twins.



We also came across some beautiful wild flowers. Like this cardinal flower that stands out in all the greenery.



Gorgeous.



There are a lot of clumps of wild delphiniums this year, too.



The fungi have been loving this hot, humid August weather. This is a photo of something my Mom said she thought is called "Devil's Angels" and it's a very poisonous fungi. It was there one day and gone the next... there wasn't even any remains of it... like it turned to dust and was gone. My photos all turned out imperfect, so I wanted to get another shot... too late. So here's the best of what I took.



My sister, Janet's, pole barn has a beautiful flower border.



I tried to get photos of some of the beautiful hummingbirds at my folks' but none worthy of posting. Will try again... But I did get this shot of one of my very favorite birds, a Mourning Dove.



And while shooting photos of the hummingbirds, I saw this guy. I remember as a kid trying to catch these little lizards, and the first time one's tail came off, I freaked. They grow back. Or so I'm told.



The apple trees are producing well... here's one of our winesaps.



And the peach trees I planted last year are giving us peaches, too.



Tons of wild blackberries.



And one big spider made a home near my front porch. The web was very large, about 18 inches wide and over 2 feet long.



There was a weird extra heavy duty weaving down the middle... I don't think I've ever seen a spider web with that in it before. I wonder what it's about, why the spider did that...



I think spider webs are beautiful. Though, I would be the first to admit that I am not a fan of spiders... they kind of give me the creeps. I see no reason to change that opinion.



But I like catepillars. I found this guy on the bottom of a chewed-upon milkweed leaf.



Oh, so many more photos I could share... I've taken about 800 photos this month alone, and that doesn't count the "Annual Homes & Gardens Tour" photos.

THE REST OF THE STORY

My Uncle Joe, my Dad's younger brother, died this month. It was unexpected. He had surgery a while ago and was recovering slowly, but his death did not seem eminent. Uncle Joe died peacefully in his sleep at home of heart failure. He was 74 years old.

I haven't seen very much of Uncle Joe for quite some time. I remember more times with Uncle Joe and Aunt Lorene from when I was a kid. I also remember when I saw him a few years ago, after not seeing him for a very long time, and I was surprised at how much he looked and sounded like my daddy. My Dad is the middle brother, and he's 76; Uncle Don is 78.

Uncle Joe was, and his family are, very fervent Baptists. That was some funeral. Long and lots of Amens and pounding on the pulpit and shouts of Hellfire threats. I have to say it wasn't to my taste. Don't care much for being threatened. I'm sure the pastor is a good person and all that, but really... I feel that such judgmental attitudes just don't seem very Christian. The pastor told some story about just being in NYC and seeing 3 teenagers on the subway "dressed in the way of the world" (which I'm pretty sure was Not Good), and then he went on to say they were "be-bopping" (yes, he used that word) to music plugged into their ears, and how it was Such a Shame those teenagers are so unaware of God and Christ in their world. WTF?!! He saw them on a subway, and by this he somehow was able to ascertain the 3 "worldly" teenagers are destined for Hell. For all he knew, they may have just come from volunteering at the local homeless shelter. But they were dressed in a manner of which he did not approve and they were dancing, so thus, they deserve damnation. What an asshole.

It was so bizarre... feeling so sad and mournful about the loss of Uncle Joe, but feeling so disgusted by the sermon and all the congregation there agreeing with their outspoken, "Amen, Brother" and "Yes, Pastor, Amen" etc etc etc... ad naseum.

Those of you who are fortunate enough, like me, to have a Dad who is wonderful and lovable, go now, and hug your Dad or call him and tell him you love him. If you, like my cousins, have lost your Dad, tell him you love him anyway.

FOOTBALL

Can't not mention football! August starts the football season. Practices are in full swing, and Sam's new, white practice football pants are no longer, and never will be again, that white.



My 11-year-old son needed new cleats... and we had to buy him size 11.5! Men's size 11.5... our big-footed boy.

PLANTINGS

We've been finishing up some landscaping around the homestead. Well, really, it's been mostly Kev. Lots of new hostas. Love those plants. We also tore everything off my rock garden, and I once again can actually see the rocks. Looks so nice. The ajuga had covered it like a green carpet. I got some half-dead marigolds for next to nothing ($2 a flat), and once I put them in the dirt, they perked right up. I bought some cardinal flowers to plant near our pond, and some Russian Sage, and other perennials. And I recently stopped by Lowe's again and got quart-size potted perennials, many kinds, for forty-nine cents each. Forty-nine cents. Wowza. Home Depot had some beautiful plants, same size, on sale for $2.50 each... but I got them to match Lowe's price, so I bought some at each place & drove home with 120 plants. Yessiree.

And now, do yourself a big favor and click the link to Chelle Belle and read her "Welcome Back!" post.