TGIF

It has been a long week, and I'm tired. Sam is gone for the evening, as usual. Our little social butterfly is rarely home on Friday evenings, and he has made plans for the weekend. Tonight he's at the Loons game with friends and staying overnight with his best bud, Nate. Joyce and Mike are both done with their respective college 2nd semesters, and they've been working full-time each day this week. They're not home yet because they're getting groceries for us on their way home. Words cannot express how much I love and appreciate those 2 youngins.

It's a beautiful evening, and Kev started mowing the lawn about an hour or so ago. Since he has made such an enormous lawn for us, it takes him quite some time to mow. I've been sitting at my computer trying to get up the energy to do something, like write a blog post... but instead I was playing Hoyle chess. Kev decided I was looking far too serious, so next time he drove by the window I'm facing, he waved at me in a very energetic way... and he was buck naked. Yes! I know! How cool is that?!! But alas, my new cell phone failed me. The photo save and erase buttons are on opposite sides from my old cell phone... so I deleted 3 great pics instead of saving them. *sigh* But oh my heck, I laughed. My hubby is crazy. Very cute also.

Mother's Day was awesome. Sammy made pancakes for breakfast. Extra wonderful. Extra wonderful with my brother, Jim's, maple syrup, too. Yum. My wonderful kiddos, and Kev, too, gave me a Zune. 4 gig! I was so excited and surprised. I want to download books. And use it for music from Joycie, too. But, I have been unable to download the software. My high speed dish Internet access just isn't high speed enough, I guess... it keeps timing out. I had to call them and ask for a CD, which they are mailing, but it is the older version software, so after I install it, I will have to download the upgrade. Fingers crossed. It's frustrating. I wanna use it so badly!!! And I can't yet. Grrr... And it is such a pretty, pretty pink! With a pretty white and pink case!

My sister, Kathy, called me yesterday morning on her way to work. We both drive M-20 and there has been construction along a part of it recently. Yesterday morning was windy. One of those huge black and white signs that reads, "Injure or Kill a Worker..." blew over right in front of her. Right. In. Front. Of. Her. Thankfully no one was in the left lane, and she didn't hit anyone as she swerved to avoid the attacking sign. Which would have otherwise surely injured or killed a worker on her way to work. Irony on a windy morning. Gotta love it.

Both Mike and Joycie have done very well on their grades this past semester. I think they feel like college is crawling by, but I cannot believe this college year is over. I'm so very proud of the both of them. They are also both doing great at their jobs; both working for the same start-up company. That's for another blog post. But again, I'm so proud of them.

I'm also proud of my niece, Michelle, who has graduated from college (look for pics later), and I'm so proud of her brother, my nephew, Michael, who has also completed his first year of college. Michael with a straight 4.0 GPA. My nephew is brilliant.

Joycie's good friend, Allison, got a nice surprise this week. Her sweetheart who is in the Navy and stationed in Italy came to see her here in Michigan. We get to meet him tomorrow evening, and I'm very much looking forward to that. Also to Joycie's homemade Mexican food. The girl can crank out the tortillas so wonderfully. Mike's momma, Izzy, has taught her well.

And can we all get a HALLELUJAH! that "Coach" is finally, finally voted off. He has been barf material all the way. When he told his "Assistant Coach" that "they" call me the dragon slayer, I actually did feel a bit of vomit in my throat. They didn't call him that, HE called himself that. Ugh. Gag. And did anyone else find it strange that everyone else had a family member visit, but not him? We have been muting or fast forwarding through the Survivor episodes now whenever we see his mouth moving. He would have been the ideal person to take to the final 2, though... who on the jury would give that conceited jackass a million bucks? No one. Stephen is one smart dude. I hope he wins the million just for getting Coach out. Though JT is awfully adorable...

And speaking of adorable... this week's Two and Half Men was awesome. I love the character, "Berta" (Conchata Ferrell, who plays the part perfectly!)... my favorite quotes from that episode: 1) Jimminy, I'm drunk, and 2) He digs the trench and you lay the pipe. Classic.

Yet more TV! I really enjoy the show The Big Bang Theory. The character Sheldon and his "classic pranks" is so funny. Bazinga! This recent episode where Wolowitz pretends to shoot a crossbow at Sheldon, with the added gesture of throwing the weapon down when he's done shooting it was awesome. And now we are saying Bazinga! around this house.

I used to cook a lot. I used to be known as a really good cook. But I haven't been cooking hardly at all in the past, oh... 18 or 20 months. It's another thing I keep hoping will return to "normal" one of these days. Meantime, I am recording a heck of a lot of cooking shows. My favorites are Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Giada and Tyler, and of course, Rachel, too... I have so many different episodes recorded on our DVR, and I rename them all just "Food" so they are grouped together. When I am feeling particularly tired out and yet still anxious (have that going on a LOT lately... work pressures, so much work backlog from last year... ugh), I love to watch Paula cook. Her Southern drawl is so soothing, y'all. And her food looks so good. I just wanna hug her. And then eat everything she's cooked up in her gorgeous kitchen. I think Paula Deen is probably the TV cook I most admire... her book, "It Ain't All About the Cookin'" is on my want-to-read list. I love watching the Barefoot Contessa episodes, too, also soothing. Her home is lovely. But it's all a little too... I don't know... too too... y'know?. Kevin likes it when I'm watching any Everyday Italian episode, and he'll actually watch them with me. I'm sure it has nothing to do with how gorgeous Giada is... (Kev calls her the little midget with the big knockers and the low-cut shirts.)

Wow. I watch a lot of TV. And right now, the Tigers are on it. See ya!

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.

Promenade 2008

My nephew, Michael, is a senior this year, graduating from high school... in ultra grand style. I've mentioned before that he won a prestigious scholarship; he is also Valedictorian of his class.

Michael has not been one for attending the formal dances at his high school, usually just not his style, but I was happy to learn he was going to his senior prom. And oh my heck, did the boy look good in his tux...



My sister, Kathy (his momma), and I got to join Michael and his friends at his friend, Rachel's, house before the prom to take photos. It's a really good group of kids, and don't they all look beautiful...



That staircase shot was fun. The boys all lined up from tallest to shortest on the steps (notice that Michael is at the top), and so the girls did, too, so they weren't necessarily standing with their respective dates. None of them cared. I think most of them were going with a friend as a date, not a romantic interest. Michael and one of his best friends, Aiyana, went together...



Aiyana's dress was beautiful, and she looked gorgeous...



Michael was in a good mood and took all the photography & posing pretty well, for the most part...



This is Michael and another very good friend, Rachel (at her house). Michael and Rachel, along with other friends in the group, are on the high school Forensics team. (They have state finals this weekend.) Both Michael and Rachel have done very well in Forensics.



I even got Michael to pose with his momma...



And with his insistent, pesky aunt (me)...



It was fun to go take photos there; all the girls looked beautiful. The boys did, too, but the girls and their colorful dresses and fancy up-dos and sparkly jewelry are what makes a prom.

Ever wonder why it's called a "prom"? I figured it was short for promenade, and Wiki agrees. It was interesting to learn that calling it a "prom" is a very American thing.

At our high school, the Prom is always held in the Spring, prior to graduation. We don't have a "junior" and a "senior" prom; this is the Senior Prom. I believe to purchase tickets, one must be a junior or a senior, so if a freshman or sophomore attend, then they must be a date of a junior or senior. It is usually the junior class that "hosts" the Senior Prom; so it's up to that class to handle the fund-raising for the event... which they are supposed to do throughout their high school years. Michael's class hosted Joycie's Prom last year. His class didn't do very well at fund-raising, and that prom took place at the high school. Usually, it is a more elegant venue. Michael's Senior Prom was at a The Skyroom at our local airport, and that's a nice place to hold a prom. Our high school names only a Prom Queen, not a king. Nominations are made and voting occurs the week of prom, with the Queen announced at the event. Our high school also holds another formal dance during the school year, and that one takes place in Autumn; it's called "Homecoming" and it's held during football season. Homecoming was always usually less formal than prom, but it seems lately it's become just as much of a formal event as prom.

With Joycie's senior prom last year, I thought her prom days were over... but her and Mike are going to his senior prom next weekend. Her dress is beautiful; it's a gorgeous shade of kelly green. I told her yesterday that she looks like an elvish princess in it; she told me to be quiet. It is a good color on her, though. I'm looking forward to taking more photos. Mike and Joycie are joining a big group of Mike's friends, and Joycie knows some of them. I would think it would be a little nerve wracking to go and not know most of the people at the prom, but Mike's high school is so big, no one knows everyone there. (Unlike our high school, where everyone knows everyone!) Anyway, as long as Joycie's with Mike, she'll have a good time.

And as for the Forensics finals, I wish I could go! But it's being held in a city that's a few hours' drive away, and I just can't make that kind of road trip yet (with my neck still causing me pain, especially since I'm almost completely off the Vicodin... yay! but the pain is worse for it... boo hiss). I didn't get to see Michael do any of his Forensics competitions this year, and he was taking first at every event. He has a good chance of doing super well at state finals. I think he's also planning to be participate in Forensics at CMU; hope so, because then I can hopefully see him compete again. I'm so proud of my nephew, Michael!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Good-bye to the Rodeo



One of the decisions we made during our discussion about Joycie moving back home (as soon as her apartment lease is up) was to sell the adorable, yet major gas-guzzling Isuzu Rodeo for a more gas-conscious car. Since Mike knows tons about vehicles, he and Joycie jumped right on it, and they began looking. We wanted a nice used car with hopefully less than 80,000 miles on it, something not too small so I would feel better about all her M-20 and highway driving. Mike's dad, Mickey, told us about a good used car at Roger McIntosh Chevrolet way over in Linwood... from our house, that's about an hour drive. As I'm an the sole owner of the Rodeo (only my name is on the title), I had to go to the dealership also. (Which is ok as far as my "home-bound" requirement goes... because I talked with the nurse about having to go to the Secretary of State's office to get my new driver's license that's due this year, and she said if I have to go out to sign legal documents or stuff like that, it's ok.) Anyway, Mickey was right, they had a beautiful 2005 Impala in great condition. One owner, a single mom, who put a lot of highway miles on it taking her son to his moto-cross (?) meets. It has about 70,000 miles on it. It also has a hitch, because she had a small trailer for the bike. The Impala is a V-6, and Mike said it could easily handle a trailer. The woman took great care of the car, and it shows. The interior is really clean and looks almost new... in fact, the back seat looks brand new, coz I don't think they ever used it. The dealership put new tires and brakes on it, and they detailed it, also.



It's beautiful! It's that "Laser Blue Metallic" color that changes from dark blue to purple, depending on the light. It's bright. At the dealership, Kev was talking about our vehicles now that we own, and he determined that Joycie should drive my 2002 LeSabre while I should get the nicer, newer 2005 Impala. Joycie has never done well hiding her emotions, and you should've seen the look on her face! Though it does seem strange that my 19-year-old daughter is driving a much nicer, more valuable car than what I drive, I have no desire to give up my LeSabre. Or to drive a brilliantly colored car that screams, "look at me! look at me!" Joycie was super relieved and hugged me Big Time.

As I signed all the many, many documents for transferring titles and plates, my Vicodin started to wear off. We still made time to stop at "Judy's Famous Pies" which was just down the road. We did this on Mike's suggestion, and if he hadn't went on and on about how wonderful Judy's pies were, we wouldn't have stopped... from the outside, it doesn't look much like a place that would have food I'd want to eat. But the inside was very nice and smelled heavenly. And oh! the pies! I have no words to do the pies justice, and I didn't have my camera. If you are ever near Linwood, go there; 11 South Huron Road. Don't go to Rosie's Pies & Bakery, which is further down Huron Road, go to Judy's. That's Mike's advice. (Apparently Rosie and Judy are sisters and used to work together, but had some falling out, so Rosie opened up her own pie shop.) We went home with one of Judy's coconut cream pies, and it had to be 7 or 8 inches high in the middle... I'm not kidding. It was The Best coconut cream pie I have ever had in my life. I am so very, very glad that Judy's Famous Pies is an hour's drive from my house. We will be going back there, just not real soon. Seriously, if you like pie at all, even only slightly, go to Judy's... you will LOVE her pies.

Our Family's Centenarian, Gramma T.

This past February 21st, Kevin's grandmother (his dad's mother), who everyone calls Gramma T., or Great-Gramma T., had her 100th birthday.



Gramma T. has been in a nursing home for so many years now that I can't remember how long it's been... she's not healthy and her mind is very rarely in the present, and I don't think she knows who she is most of the time... but she made it to 100 years of age. I remember once talking with her about how she wanted a party if she made it that long. Sharron, my mother-in-law, told me she thought Gramma T. knew what was happening, that she knew (at least for a moment) that she'd turned 100.

The 4 of us all missed the party... I was at Covenant hospital having my 2nd "emergency" surgery that evening, Kev was with me, and Joycie was at home with Sammy. I was sorry to have missed that party. I'm not sure, but I think Kev was a little relieved not to go (not that he would want me to have surgery as an excuse). Kev prefers to remember Gramma T. the way she was, and not as this tiny, 80-pound little mound of bones and flesh in a wheelchair who can do nothing for herself and would not know him at all. The last time he saw her, she kept calling him by her dead brother's name, and it was disturbing to Kevin. I understand. Gramma T.'s children all visit her and take care of her, and some of the grandchildren, too. But Kevin won't. This is how he thinks of her... this is a photo I took of Gramma T. and Joycie when Joycie was about 5 years old, so close to 15 years ago.



That photo has been on our fridge ever since I took it, before the age of digital cameras. I took it down this morning to scan it in for this post, and then I put it back where it was. And that's where it'll stay.

Return to Snow

Kathy and Michelle (my sister and niece, aka Chelle-Belle) spent Chelle's college spring break week together at a condo on Amelia Island in Florida, near the Georgia border. Chelle is blogging about it, so check out her link below. They had a wonderful time together. It makes me want to go on a trip with just Joycie and I... before time and the changes it brings makes it unlikely we'll be able to do a trip like that together, just the 2 of us. I got to see their photos yesterday, and they are beautiful. The sand, sky and ocean... nice! I also got to see the shells they collected, and Kathy let me choose one. I liked the ones that have been broken and so it is just the inside part, smoothed by the sand and water... as soon as I got home with it, I stuck it into my cacti dish...





I like how the shell and the cacti are mismatched, but beautiful together. Right this moment, I'm looking at the dish and the window behind it is all white because it's snowing heavily.

Proud of Our Michael

I had previously mentioned that my nephew, Michael, won a Centralis Gold scholarship.

Our high school actually had 2 seniors that won a Gold, which is outstanding. We're not that big of a high school, and so to have 2 seniors win... well, kudos to The Creek! They put an announcement on the school web site, though I have removed reference to the other winner because I don't know how that family would feel about being on my blog...



We are all so very proud of Michael. I know he worked very hard to earn that scholarship, and I decided I wanted to get him something to commemorate it. This is the thing I've been trying to find, and then win, on eBay for a while now. I gave him a Waterman fountain pen...



He was happy with it. It's not exactly like my Waterman fountain pen, but it's close.

I told Michael that he has some great things to say, and now he can write them with grandeur. I feel like there is something a bit special about using a nice quality fountain pen; it's makes even a mundane grocery list seem special. Kathy told me that Michael had a form he had to fill out for CMU about the Centralis scholarship (she thinks it has to do with an announcement about it or something like that), and he used his fountain pen on the form. Cool.

Oh, and also, that thing Michael is sitting on is Kathy & Bob's new, beautiful sofa.

News & whatnot, worthy of bullet points

• This is gonna be a long post. So, depending upon your preference... sorry! or... you're welcome!



• I've been given some beautiful flowers from family and friends. Giving flowers to people when they're recuperating from an illness or surgery is a fine tradition... coz these have been really cheering me up! There are a lot of Peruvian lilies in these 4 bouquets, and I looked up the meaning... Peruvian lilies mean "friendship and devotion."





• One bouquet is missing from that photo; my friend, Sandy, sent me a gorgeous bouquet in a small white basket. When we brought the flowers home from the hospital, we covered each of them (the basket from Sandy and 2 vases, those 2 on the left in the photo above) really well in plastic bags because it was so very cold out. The flowers in the basket must have been more tender, because they didn't recover from the cold ride home from the hospital. I was sad about that, but at least I got to enjoy them while in the hospital.



• In my department where I work, anyone in a hospital stay traditionally receives a bouquet of flowers from "the department." Since I knew I was going to be a recipient, I talked to the woman who handles the flower thing in our department, and I requested that instead of having flowers delivered to me in the hospital, to spend that money on donuts for everyone at work. I figured I would get a bouquet or 2 from friends or family while in the hospital anyway, and since my mom and sisters are allergic and would be visiting me, I thought one less bouquet might be a good idea. It worked out well, too, because the flowers I got in the hospital consisted mostly of those beautiful Peruvian lilies, which are easier on the allergies than some other varieties of flowers. The folks I work with got donuts this past Monday, and I heard they were well received. Fun!



• My niece, Michelle, had her 21st birthday recently, and the family gathered to wish her well and have cake & ice cream. Michelle's recent beer pong table artwork was my inspiration for her birthday present from us... a martini set, a bottle of Blue Sapphire gin, a bottle of olives, some fancy toothpicks and that little olive dish I made. Chelle doesn't care for olives, but the olive dish can hold fruit on toothpicks, too. Also, Joycie & Mike put together a little notebook of martini and cocktail recipes for her... it was fun! Happy Birthday, Chelle Belle!











• Just before I went into the hospital for surgery, my sister, Kathy stopped by with a sack full of DVDs for me to watch during my recuperation at home (and I've already enjoyed a few; good choices!). She also gave me a beautiful gift... Kathy said it was my "feel better gift," and I just LOVE it. It's this beautiful snowflake pattern afghan that Kathy spent hours crocheting. Note the lovely detail, like the pretty edging. It's made from an oh-so-soft yarn, and it drapes on me like a form-fitting hug of softness. I love the shade of blue... skies and snowflakes. I'm lucky to have such a talented sister, aren't I?!







• Other big news this week is that my nephew, Michael, won a coveted CMU Centralis Gold Award scholarship. We are all so very, very proud of him. The Centralis competition is a great deal of work. It began with something like 2,000 students taking the initial writing competition, then they selected a few hundred to go through the 2nd phase of the competition. It is an honor just to make it to that 2nd round. In that phase, the student had to prepare a set of papers... I'm not sure exactly what all of the requirements were, but I know that one included submitting a sheet of paper with a single sentence describing yourself. Think about it. I think writing that one sentence would be very difficult. Another requirement was a one-page description about yourself, in any format you wanted... since Michael will be pre-med, he did his like a medical chart, and it was very cool. Very smart and talented. Though he doesn't seem to want to share it often enough, Michael's creativity and "right brain"* activity results are keen, as is his sense of humor... coz you just know any young man that can make a face at you like this when you're taking his photo has a streak of fun in him a mile wide...





• Even making a face like that, Michael is a handsome fellow.



• Michael and Michelle each got a sweet little digital camera for Christmas from Kathy & Bob (their parents). I've seen some beautiful photos that Michelle has taken, and I'm actually using this one, below, for my desktop background. I got it from one her blog posts. I love that I can see the field in the drop of water. Michelle will often post some of her beautiful photos on her blog. Joycie has told me that Michael has some beautiful photos that he’s taken posted on his facebook, including a photo of the Midland Tridge that Joycie said looked like a professional photo. I, of course, would love to see those photos of Mike's, but facebook is not like myspace, and I cannot get to his profile, or whatever it's called, to see his posted photos. *sniff*





• A couple of weekends ago, when I was working on something particularly difficult and frustrating (from my job, that I was working on from home), I ended up cleaning out my rolltop desk... in an effort, I'm sure, to avoid the work. Kevin gave this rolltop desk to me as a gift after Joycie was born, and I've always loved it. It sets in a corner in our bedroom. It has lately, though, become the dumping ground of various things having no set destination in our home. For some reason, I felt a cleaning out mood settle on me strongly when I started to go through this desk. I threw out enough stuff to fill 5 plastic grocery bags. Those who know me and my packrat inclinations were likely just now very impressed with that statement (as well they should be). I also found some items that I didn't realize I had been missing... like this beautiful Waterman fountain pen that Kev gave me years ago. I removed the dried out ink cartridge and put in a new one, and it works like a charm, a lovely flowing charm... I love writing with it.





• My step-mother-in-law, Sharron, gave each of us some CDs this Christmas onto which she had burned jpg’s of scanned old photographs. This included a CD of photos of Kev since the time he was a wee little baby. And wasn't he a cute one? (he still is!) What a great idea, huh. I know that must have taken Sharron hours and hours. We've been enjoying them immensely.















• My BFF, Sandy, and her husband, Brian, purchased some property a while ago, out in the country about an hour or so from their current home. Right now, they live in a nice house on the usual, small lot in a nice neighborhood in Hurst, Texas, which is situated between Dallas and Ft. Worth. They’ve been living in this house for years. The area is all one big metropolis. The 5 acres they bought is a very different setting. Sandy sent some photos of their land to me a long time ago, and I'm gonna surprise her now by sharing them with you. It's beautiful Texas acreage. These photos, below, were taken in late November of 2005. Brian has been working on clearing the property where they will have their house built, along with Brandon's help on occasion. They signed with a builder just recently, and if ground hasn't already been broken for their new house, it will be soon. Very exciting!















• I'm sure that Shadow and Scout, the 2 black labs that let Sandy & Brian, and often Brandon, live with them, will love the new life ahead of them out on that 5 acres. The first 3 photos below are Shadow, and the next 3 are the younger Scout... aka Shad and Scouty.















• I've been trying to convince Sandy to do a blog while their house is being built... it's not too late to start, Sandy!



• I found these photos of a praying mantis that I took on August 10, 2007, and never did anything with them... I noticed the bug at the entrance to Space Studios, and this is the first tan colored one I've seen. Cool, huh. I think they're neat bugs.









• I've been writing this post pretty much all day long, with many, many interruptions, pauses, little naps and the like. Just now, Kev changed the dressing on covering the railroad tracks on my neck. They are itching so much! So I’ve had my fingers on them, and there are a couple of staples I think I’ve just about worked out of my skin, which is probably not good. But it itches like crazy! So this time, Kev dabbed the site with hydrogen peroxide to kill any germs from my constantly pick-pick-picking-scratch-scratch-scratching fingers. OMG, that felt so good. It feels good when he slowly pulls the old dressing off, too, even though the tape pulls at my skin & hair. Anything to make it feel something other than itchy. So now I’m all bandaged up again and am trying very hard to keep my fingers busy typing instead of sneaking up to the back of my neck.



• We keep all of our wound treatment supplies, like gauze, bandages, band-aids, ointments, tapes, etc. in a large, square pink Victoria’s Secret gift box. It’s one that held a birthday gift for Joycie a couple of years ago. It’s such a pretty box, and it’s also nice & deep so it holds quite a bit. So whenever one of us is cut or scraped or otherwise in need of that type of first aid care, we say, “go get the Vicky box stat.”





• My sister, Janet, & her husband, Bob, made us a big pot of chili, and we've been enjoying it very much. Yesterday evening, we made taco salads with it, and they were so dang good. We haven't had a taco salad in ages. Kev and I had another taco salad for lunch today, and Kev said, "remember when we used to make taco salad all the time?" I was thinking the exact same thing. We used to make taco salad at least once a week. I guess we eventually got tired of it, and then forgot about it. Taco salad season is definitely upon us once again. Yum.

Happy Birthday, Kathy!

My sister, Kathy, is having her 49th birthday today. (or is it tomorrow???...)

Happy Birthday, Kathy! You old fart! We may both be getting old, but I will always be younger than you. Ha!

49. Gee whiz. You are FORTY-NINE YEARS OLD, Kathy. Oh, golly... I should have gotten you a cane for your birthday. Next year for sure! Coz then you'll be 50!

Even though you're so very, very old, I still love you, Kathy dear! Mostly because you gave me a beautiful niece and nephew...



hee hee