Certain restrictions apply

Well hello there 2011. You arrived early, and I'm just not ready for you. Can you please go drive around the block a few hundred times? Thanks.

From my workday:

Purpose:
Confirm understanding of key activities for the next day and address any urgent hurdles to progress.
Provide clarity when path forward changes from previous plan/agreements.
Trying to focus on exceptions...no time to solve all problems

Julie T. would be the person.

Can you please let me know if you will need weekend support on January 8th and 9th? Management is trying to find out which clients will be working that weekend.

As a reminder, an implementation command center has been established to dispatch calls related to the implementation.

Once you have reviewed and submitted, your second level approver will receive an auto-generated email to complete the sign-off.

You recently reported a problem to I/S Service Delivery and we would like to invite you to complete a brief Customer Satisfaction Survey. This survey is your opportunity to tell us how well we met your needs and help us improve our service to you in the future.

My favorite Excel formula:

=IF(ISNA(MATCH(J2,Sheet1!J:J,0)),0,INDEX(Sheet1!L:L,MATCH('Sheet1 (2)'!J2,Sheet1!J:J,0),0))

Now then, don't you wish you were me???...

Overheard just now:

You know what. I'm sick of these people sending these emails to me. It's ridiculous.

From my head, not related to work:

"Madden had that look on his face like he was drinking a Dr. Pepper and somebody switched it out with iced tea but didn't tell him." I think I heard this one on NPR.

Nah nah nah nah. Nah nah nah nah. Hey hey hey. Goodbye. Been singing that in my head. When my kids were in elementary school, every year on the last day of school, staff members and some teachers would stand outside the door, hands raised waiving kleenexes (like a saber arch) and singing that lyric over and over as the kids walked out to the buses to start their summers. It was cool. Every time I think of that, I smile.

My 1999 Caddy DeVille had 4 gallons of gas left in it according to the dash info, and it beeped Empty at me two seconds later. She's a cranky old thing. So I paid about $3.20/gallon this morning, and Kev tells me it is now down to $3.01. Grrr.

Big flakes, little snow. Little flakes, big snow.
We had a mostly warm and rainy start of our weekend, but then it got cold again. It snowed on and off yesterday without much accumulation. This morning Kev was the first to leave the house, so he made fresh tracks all the way down the driveway and the road to M-20. His tracks down the road swerved from one side to the other all the half mile. He did that for me. So I called him and said, "Pretty!" Kev likes to do that with fresh snowfalls. On the rare occasion I'm the first to leave and it's a fresh snowfall, I make crazy tracks all down the road for him.

Mike was working on Joyce's Impala on Saturday, changing the oil and something with the brakes. (He's awesome that way!) It was late Saturday afternoon that the temp dropped so abruptly - within minutes it went from mild to very cold. It had been very windy all day, and with the drop in temp, the wind seemed to pick up. Kev was also outside, working on one thing or another, so he was standing not too far from the car. Mike was under the car, which was parked on the cement approach in front of our pole barn. Both Mike and Kev heard a huge BAM! A tree branch fell out of one of the oak trees and shattered the Impala's back window. Some of the branches that have fallen from those oaks are the size of small and not-so-small trees, this branch was probably about 8 or 10 feet long and about 6 or 8 inch diameter at base. Could have been worse. Mike was startled. As you can imagine.

Sam is doing well with his knee. He is at physical therapy right this moment. He's also able to walk around home now without the big brace on his leg, and that is a relief to him. He still must wear it anywhere outside and at school.



Kev and I drove around Mt. Pleasant on New Year's Eve trying to find a place to have dinner that wasn't a two-hour wait. We finally settled on Ruby Tuesdays, got our names on the list then went into the bar area to get a beer while we waited. We were standing at the bar when 2 guys left, so we quickly grabbed their seats. Then another guy asked one of the bartenders to turn the TV station to the Wings game that was just starting. While on our 2nd round of beer, Kev and I decided that we had the best seats in the house, so we ordered our dinner and ate it at the bar while watching the game. It was awesome. We had an excellent time. Even if NY won.

Blogging at work...

while in what is possibly the most boring meeting ever. EVER!
Where's a good head injury when you need one????...
AARGH!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Really?...

Just walked by a conference room with about 7 people in it, lots of talking, heard one woman say, "It's not like I'm commando or anything, jeez!" Followed by much laughter. I'm just not sure how to take that... am wondering very much exactly what they were talking about!

Saw a dude on a bicycle the other day. He looked like a skinny Jesus (lots of facial hair, long hair not in a ponytail), he was wearing a ballcap and a red & black nice looking backpack. Steering his bike with his right hand, and holding a microfiche reader with his left arm. Yes. A microfiche reader machine.

For some reason, at home the other day, someone, Sammy, I think, said something about wanting or should have bought a 6-pack... Kev lifted up his t-shirt and rubbed his belly and said, "I've got your 6-pack right here." Sammy said, "We said six-pack, Dad, not keg." Ha! Funny because Kev is not keg-like. Wouldn't have been so funny if he were...

Why we have fun where I work

Overheard just now at work, where we hear EVERYTHING in our hive of little cubicles:

"Make no mistake, chocolate covered bacon is your friend."

Your. Friend.

!!!

Hello yourself

So yeah, anyway, I'm still breathing. This is a photo I just took this morning of the women's bathroom at work. As you can see, it is a long, narrow room. With a total of nine - count 'em, NINE - stalls, the last 2 being the larger wheel chair access types. So I enter the bathroom the other morning, and it is entirely empty. Like it was when I took this pic. This actually happens quite often. I select a stall mid-way down the row, and I am happily peeing away when I hear the bathroom entrance door open and the hurried click-clack, click-clack of shoes on the tile floor. With not even a slight hesitation, the woman pushes in the door of the stall I am in. While I'm peeing. The only closed door in the row of nine - count 'em, NINE - doors. Yes, I locked the door, but our door locks are meant to only keep the doors closed... if you push hard enough the doors will open as it's some kind of safety feature. And yes, she pushed well hard enough... HELLO THERE! CARE TO JOIN ME????...

How obtuse does one have to be to choose the only closed door in a row of nine stalls?

Happy times on the bed

Yesterday afternoon, I was laying down watching the wind blow on the pond and trying to settle my mind down. I've found that, lately, working on Excel spreadsheets tends to drive me a bit nutty after a while, vertigo-wise.

I got my boy to come in a give me hugs to make me feel better. I was playing around with Joycie's little Sony camera, and so I took a bunch of photos of us. We had us some fun!...













My boy has gorgeous eyes. And great hugs.

I got Mike to come and visit with me for a while, too. And when Mike's here with us, where Mike goes, there goes Reilly. That dog loves Mike. I mean, that Reilly loves our Mikey...



















I'm getting used to Joycie's little Sony camera. My Sony has really bit the dust, and it's not so fun using it anymore. Joycie bought herself a fantastic Nikon last fall, so her Sony has just been sitting there collecting dust. It's one of those little ones that fits in your pocket. Only a 3x zoom, which is pretty much nothing. I miss the 12x. But my old Sony was about 5 megapixels, while this one is over 7. Best part, it fits in my purse and I can take it with me easily everywhere I go. I did take my old Sony just about everywhere, but it's definitely not pocket size.

I am planning to replace the old Sony with something nicer, like Joyce's Nikon. But right now, I cannot afford it. I was hoping to choose a digital camera from the selection of 30-year service award gifts from the company where I work (yes! 30 freakin' years... I tells ya... times flies when you're having fun old!). The service award gifts you can choose from get nicer and nicer as your service years progress. They're given out in 5-year increments. Usually. But... one of the cost-savings measures our company has instituted recently has been to put the service award gifts on hold. Everything we can do, as a company, to save cash and ride out this economic storm is being done. So, I can't really bitch about not getting my 30-year giftie. But I admit, I am quite, quite sad. I was so very much looking forward to a nice, new digital camera. A free, nice, new digital camera.

But playing with Joycie's little Sony is kinda fun. She is retaining ownership; I am only borrowing it... she's made sure I Understand This Completely. Resting in bed yesterday afternoon (with the vertigo thing, sometimes I just have to get horizontal...), I took about 120 photos. I know, crazy. I think that's about 10 more than Joycie has ever taken with it! She always forgets to grab her camera. She and Mike worked all through their spring break week, so they decided to head to Chicago for a couple of days on the weekend (which was a week ago)... and she forgot her nice, new camera! Mike took a couple of photos with his phone... I will share those with you soon. He has the same phone as Sam, the Voyager Titanium I think it is... and it takes a nice photo. But I've made Joycie promise to just grab her camera and take it with her everywhere she goes. She has a good eye, and I love to see the photos she takes.

And as for laying in bed and having company... eh, that's pretty common around here anymore. Our family is close. We keep pretty much nothing from each other, we share all. No topic is taboo, no worries too small, no fart too loud, no burp unnoticed, no sore shoulder not massaged, no itch not helped to scratch, no burden we can't share, no joy we don't celebrate... all together. Everywhere and anywhere. Well, it is not limitless, but ya get the drift. We communicate. We respect each other. We want to and we must... for one thing, no door inside our house has a lock on it, not even the bathrooms.

Really big shew

This has been a heck of a week... I had mentioned that I had a bad reaction to the most recent antibiotic I was taking, and that I had gotten yet more meds to help that situation.

The meds to get over those other meds caused problems, too, so I've had to take... yep, more meds. [Insert scream here.]

Basically, I've been dealing with feelings of vertigo in varying degrees of intensity for the past 9, 10 or 12 days or so. And it sucks. To help calm down those awful feelings, I've had to take Antivert and Valium, as well as more Vicodin than usual.

Some young folks out there might be saying to themselves, "Whoo hoo! Party on!" To them I say, "Youth is wasted on the young."

Ha!

I just wanna feel normal again.

And the dreams. Oy! I've had some really strange dreams...

Remember the Ed Sullivan Show?



When I was little, I remember watching that TV show a lot. I remember once there was a guy who came on the show, and he kept plates spinning, plates that were placed on top of long poles.



The guy would rush, rush, rush from one spinning plate to the next, giving them a spin to keep them going. That plate spinning thing was kind of popular way back then...



I remember being quite fascinated with the plate spinning. And these plates were china plates, none of those plastic plates like they have nowadays. What crap! Cheaters.

The plate spinning has been embedded in my brain forever. On days when I feel particularly hurried or stressed, with too many irons in the fire, my mind goes to spinning plates. This, of course, always occurs at work. With the week I've had, which required I work from home, since the meds I've been taking this week aren't recommended for driving (duh), I guess I've been feeling a bit stressed out. I woke this morning to a very vivid dream that included spinning plates. I kept trying to keep them going, but they kept breaking. And when they broke, they would somehow end up in my lap, not on the floor. But they must have broke on the floor, because I remember the noise they made falling and breaking. So, anyway, I had my lap full of all these broken plates, but I still had to keep the plates not yet broken spinning and spinning so they wouldn't break, but somehow not lose the pieces in my lap. And the broken plates in my lap were really heavy, and they hurt. I had dark bluejeans on, so I knew the blood wouldn't show that much, and I was so relieved that the blood wouldn't show.

And then I woke up. My heart was racing. And of course, yes, the first thing I did was check for bleeding wounds. And then I was like, "What? Huh?"



And then, "Whew!" And then, "Ah, noooooooo......." [Insert vertigo here.]

Yeah, and I don't think ya hafta be Sigmund Freud to figure this one out.

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.

high ate us

Seems like every time I sit down at my computer to do a blog post, I end up playing Spider Solitaire. And then I feel guilty for not working on my company laptop instead. It's very crushing to one's creative inspiration.

So... how 'bout some bullet points? Ok, sure.

• I cannot fecking believe it's December 6th. Already.


• I just finished a book on tape where the story's setting was Ireland, and now I keep using 'fecking' to describe many, many things. I also talked in an Irish accent for a while, which Joyce informed me was not an Irish accent and then she told me to knock it off.


• My Dad makes the best home-made bread (in his bread machine), and I just had 2 pieces toasted, with butter and honey. Heaven. Thank you, Daddy.


• Sammy had surgery on his right elbow on Wednesday, Nov. 5th, one day after his 14th birthday. The surgeon had to put a screw into his bone to hold the end that had broken off. He did not get a cast; he had a splint and a sling for a couple of weeks. He's now going to physical therapy... the elbow dislocation was the issue. The PT is to help him regain arm extension. Sam's hoping his arm will be ready in time for basketball... me, too. Otherwise, he will be very sad.


• Joycie turned 20 years old the day before Thanksgiving. Sometimes she seems more adult than I feel. Mentally, that is. Physically, I'm the oldest person on Earth.


• I came home from work yesterday and Joycie & Mike had decorated the entire house, inside and out, with all our Christmas decorations. And lit candles. The house looked and smelled so Christmasy wonderful. We're getting our tree Monday evening (Kev has to work this weekend, just like last weekend).


• It's snowing right now. Big, fat flakes. And it's really, really coming down! It is so beautiful.


• Speaking of creativity... my sister, Joie, has joined me at Space Studios the past month. She is making 2 large coil pots for lamp bases, and she's doing a superb job on them. They are going to be gorgeous.


• I saw a vanity plate the other day that read, FANILOW. When I got closer to the car, I saw her bumper sticker that read, I'm broke, single and love Barry Manilow. Wanna go out?


• I have a list of items I have yet to do blog posts on, and it goes all the way back to May. Criminey!


• I paid something like $1.40 a gallon for gas the other day. On one hand, I'm so relieved. On the other hand, I'm burning with anger. How can it have been over $5 a gallon just a short time ago?... Fecking criminals, that's how.


• Whenever I use "on one hand" and "on the other hand" I think of Randy Travis. Mmmmmm....


• Joycie's Mike is now an Uncle Mike. His brother's son was born the day after Thanksgiving. My fingers are itching to hold that newborn baby boy.


• I want Kenny to win Survivor. But I just love Bob. Detest Corrine. And if my man proposed marriage to me with that much bawling, I'd have to say... uh... no. I mean really. There's sweet... and then there's sappy.


• I've been listening to books on tape a lot lately. It's nice to be "reading" again. Joyce insisted I read "Twilight" so I tried. I got about a third of the way through it. I couldn't finish it because: a) it hurts my neck looking down to read and I can't seem to get the book at a good level with pillows for my trifocals so reading is not fun, and b) it was stupid. Sorry. I'm misunderstood and in high school and in love with a vampire. Puh-lease. Clearly, however, I'm in the minority. That is one popular book series, and movie. If you've read it and enjoyed it, fine. Now go read Kaye Gibbons' book "Ellen Foster." Your brain deserves it.


• My sister, Kathy, just called me. (Hi, Sicko!) (She's got a bad cold.) She asked me what I was doing, and I said, "I am actually typing up a blog post!" That's what she was calling me for... to tell me to update my blog and that it's not Halloween anymore and it's not even Thanksgiving. Ha! Like I hadn't noticed. I noticed, I noticed. I'm just in denial. Christmas is NOT in 19 days.


• Is anyone else creeped out by the Grey's Anatomy story line of Izzy with her dead fiance? Ew. I mean the guy's a hunk and all, but... ew.


• Two things I heard at work recently that made me laugh. 1) I'm all stuffed up; I think I'm allergic to this place. 2) I'm not afraid of work, I'll lay down right beside it & fall asleep.


• At work lately there has been a huge focus on safety. Well, there has always been a big focus on safety where I work, but lately it's been even more pronounced. I totally agree with it. But... we all received an e-mail on Tuesday, Nov. 4th... Election Day, which was an unusually warm Nov. 4th... this is the text of it, verbatim, typos and all: "The nice warm temps have given us the extra time needed to complete those last few tasks that need completing outside at work and at home. Don't let the distractions of hurrying home to do that job take your focus off of the task at hand while at work, the same while finishing up the jobs at home. The nice warn temps can bring out the conversations while you are working, Stay focused, enjoy the last of the warm weather, and put the finishing touches on those tasks to be prepared for the winter ahead. As election day is upon us, there are a lot of people driving around, waiting in long lines and rushing to get to their next destination. Please take time today to look for extra hazards and slow down as this is a busy day for all." Seriously. You can't make this shit up.


• Mike, Joycie and I are going shopping today together so Joyce can spend her Michael's Craft Store gift card we gave to her for her birthday... on scrapbooking stuff. And then lunch.


• And then home and nap. (For me.)

A long post, just like make-up sex

So I haven't been posting much on my blog lately. I think it's not only because I'm so swamped at work and then so tired out when I'm home, that the little free time I seem to have at home, I end up doing work at home, and then my brain is too tired to feel creative at all... so writing a post, even logging onto my home computer seems like too much work... And I enjoy this blog, so then it's just more negativity in my life. And then it seems like just one more thing on my 'to do' list. And then I feel like I miss it. And then... well, ya get the picture.

So here's a long post for today, and I promise a joke at the end. A joke! At the end! So maybe not so much like make-up sex (I hope, for your sake).

My dear, dear Sony is currently sitting in my LaSabre at a garage while my car is getting repaired... we took it in for a $400 pump thingy and it's turned into a $2,000+ whatever thingy. Shit.

We dropped the car off yesterday afternoon late, and I was home before I realized my camera was still in it. I am missing my Sony. I take it with me everywhere I go, usually. Since I've had it since May of 2006, it's basically a really old fart of a digital camera now... and she's been through some rough times. I lost the button to push to take a photo over a year ago, and handily set up a paperclip to work instead. Works fine, and cheaper than what they wanted to repair it. But this past Saturday morning, while at Sammy's last football game of the season, I dropped my Sony. From the very top of the bleachers all the way down to the bottom underneath onto pavement. So now I'm missing the wheel to change selections and the push thingy for zoom. But the stem of the wheel thingy is still in place, and I can turn that, so that's ok. And another paperclip can be utilized to zoom in and out (I used a safety pin at the game).



Seriously, is that one helluva camera or what?! Still works great. I took a ton of photos at Sammy's game... here's our Big No. 68 on the team...





And in this one, he's the one nearly horizontal, next to No. 24 on top of some opponents dressed in blue.



Go Sammy! It was an awesome game. The team they played has remained undefeated for the past 3 years we've played them and all this season... until Saturday when our boys beat 'em. Whoo hoo.

After the game, Sam and Kev left for Ann Arbor to go to the U of M and State game. They had a blast. Kev wore his Michigan garb and Sammy his State, and they watched State win. I stayed home, alone because Joycie & Mike were with Mike's family at a wedding in Kalamazoo. So I made a cake for Sammy...



Then Sunday, Kathy called me on her way home from Mt. Pleasant, heading west on a rainy, stormy cloudy day, shot with sunshine here and there. She was fortunate to see one of the most outstanding rainbows she's ever seen, vibrant colors. Plus a triple rainbow, and then further west, the vibrant rainbow from end to end, the whole arc. I told her, see that's why I take my camera with me everywhere I go! And I ran outside into the cold wet grass and out by the pond, but no rainbows to behold at our house. It was pretty, though, and windy. Sunshine came through for a little bit.



And Reilly came out to greet me...



But I could almost hear him thinking, are ye daft, girl? it's freezing out here. Right you are, old boy. In we went.

Kev bought me a present this past week, as a sweet surprise. This is my new CO2 BB gun.



Works great and I can pop those chipmunks and squirrels in the butt and they know I mean business now. I love it.

And I have a funny story with Kev... the other evening we sat down to watch a recorded episode of CSI, it was Episode 2 of Season 9, and I was reading the description about it, how a girl jumps to her death from a tall building and lands on a bus... and I said something like, well, this sounds... and before I could finish, Kev says, "flattering?"...

Well, it cracked me up.

The other day, I had this e-mail conversation with a guy I work with... something else that made me laugh...
      ____________________________________________
      From: Julie
      To: JT
      JT & A. , I need to skip today's update meeting. Sorry for the short notice. I was out sick yesterday & Tuesday, and now have some urgent catching up to do.
      Thanks,
      Julie
      ____________________________________________
      From: JT
      To: Julie
      Hi Julie - I hope you're doing okay now. Was your dementia acting up again? Ugh :(
      Try not to press yourself, k?
      I know I have a ton of things to respond to you on; just have to unbury myself from qtr end & that transfer I did for ya.
      Talk to you soon
      ____________________________________________
      From: Julie
      To: JT
      Oh, JT, you just provided me with what will likely be my only laugh of the day!!!!!!
      I have vertigo, not dementia! Though maybe dementia ain't that far away in my future.............
      I think I had a stomach flu, combined with the still present vertigo. It was yukky.
      I owe you stuff, too. Maybe we can talk one day next week.
      Have a good day!!!
      Julie
      ____________________________________________
      From: JT
      To: Julie
      Y'know, as soon as I sent that reply, I knew it was wrong - duh!
      Hee-hee; glad you're better though :)
      You have a good day too!
      ____________________________________________
      From: Julie
      To: JT
      I wonder if I could retire early if I have dementia..........
      What were we talking about?
      Who are you, again?
      Where am I?
      ____________________________________________
      From: JT
      To: Julie
      Can you hear me now?


And now for the joke I promised:
A cabbie picks up a Nun. She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver won't stop staring at her. She asks him why he is staring. He replies: 'I have a question to ask you but I don't want to offend you.' She answers, 'My son, you cannot offend me. When you're as old as I am and have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I'm sure that there's nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive. ''Well, I've always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me.' She responds, 'Well, let's see what we can do about that: first, you have to be single and second, you must be Catholic.' The cab driver is very excited and says, 'Yes, I'm single and Catholic!' 'OK' the nun says. 'Pull into the next alley.' The nun fulfills his fantasy, with a kiss that would make a hooker blush, But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying. 'My dear child,' says the nun, 'why are you crying?' 'Forgive me but I've sinned. I lied and I must confess, I'm married and I'm Jewish. 'The nun says, 'That's OK. My name is Kevin and I'm going to a Halloween party.'

Coz I haven't done 'em in a while... bullet points!

• I had to change my password at work. My previous password was “athome04” which I created earlier this year when I found out my medical leave was going to be extended, and “athome04” meant I’d be working “at home until early April.” After April passed by and I was still stuck at home, it just got too depressing to input that password all the time.



• My cell phone ring tone song for when Kev calls me is “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.” It makes me happy. Like Kev does. (Most of the time anyway.)



• For Joycie, I have a theme from the movie, “Braveheart,”... “A Gift of a Thistle,” which totally fits her... it’s beautiful and haunting in a way only Irish ballads can be. Like my beautiful, moody daughter.



• For Sammy, I have the theme from the movie, “Caddyshack,”... “I’m Alright”... don’t nobody worry about me, and that’s my boy through and through!



• Mike’s cell phone ring tone song for when Joycie calls him is “I Think I Love You.” Awww...



• Posted on the inside door of each stall in the women’s bathroom at work is a sign that reads, “Please be sure to flush the toilet. Be considerate of others!” I don’t know what is worse, those signs or the fact that they have to be posted. Or the fact that some people still don’t pay attention to them.



• A friend of mine here at work saw I was at my desk in my dinky little cubicle this morning and said, “Hi, Julie!” Only she didn’t say it, it was more like she hollered it out sharply... and it scared the livin’ piss outta me... so I jerked my head around, and... OWWWWW!!!!! She didn’t mean to startle me. But now my neck is hurting so badly that I just wanna lay my head on my desk and bawl. Seriously, I am writing this blog post only because I’m waiting a little bit for the Valium I had to ingest to take effect... and I don’t feel quite capable of concentrating right now. So I guess I will open my mail next. (Yuck.)



• I used to use an old-fashioned letter opener to open my mail... but since I work in the area of payroll taxes (employer compliance), I get a lot of incoming mail. A veritable shitload, I tells ya. So a few years back, I had an epiphany and ordered those openers that have little razors in them so you can just zip, zip, zip open envelopes. Also, they are a beautiful shade of blue. I loves ‘em.



• I just attended a department presentation. It included a congratulatory celebration for 3 people who led and finished some big projects. For each of the 3 people, someone presented for them by giving a short talk about the projects and the person. One woman talking used the word “project” about a kazillion and one times... which, of course, made sense, because it was about the person doing the project. But... instead of pronouncing it pruh-ject like usual (when it’s a noun), she pronounced it prō-ject, with a long o, like in oh, no!. She didn’t pronounce it prō-JECT like “you must project your voice out to the audience” (like when it’s a verb), she went with PRŌ-ject. Over and over and over and over and over... PRŌ-ject, PRŌ-ject, PRŌ-ject, PRŌ-ject. Little things like that make me forget to listen to what the person is saying, and instead, I start to wait for the next instance of PRŌ-ject. *sigh*

Mornings are best

Mornings are definitely best for me. It’s not just that I’m getting older (but that’s probably part of it, too), but my neck pain is more manageable from about 5:30am to about 11:00am. Not that I totally can’t stand it the rest of the day, but it’s just better in the mornings.

Since starting back to work in May, it’s been more difficult. I’m only working in the office 3 days each week for 4-hour stints. I do a lot of work from home, also. Actually, on the days I don’t go into the office and only work from home, I can put in more than 8 hours of work and get a ton of work done. When I go into the office, though, I would get home and more than one time, would just fall onto the sofa or the bed and stay there for 2, 3 or 4 hours... ugh.

I worked from home all day Monday and yesterday. Monday afternoon about 3pm, I went and laid down on my bed for a short rest. Sometimes it gets to the point where IJUSTHAVETOLAYMYHEADDOWN! And when those times happen, my lovely, lovely memory foam pillow is calling me.

Other times, after working at my desk for a few hours, I can tell I need a break, and the recliner in the living room calls out to me. Like yesterday... I didn’t realize how much time had passed, so I was at my desk for several hours. Suddenly, I was like, SHIT. Ow. Pain. Upright too long. So I hobbled like a very-old-person-walking-on-thin-ice-like-it’s-gonna-break-any-second on over to the recliner and carefully lowered myself down onto it and laid my head back against it’s wonderful comforting softness. Ahhhhhh...

But then, I remember... I need pain pills and I need them now. Do I get up? Are you kidding? I holler... Sammy! (pause) Sammy!! (pause) SAMMY!!! Usually he’s nearby, like up in his bedroom. Most of the time he’ll come out of his room and start directly down the stairs saying, “What do you need, Momma?” Because by now, my sweet, caring son knows the drill. “Tylenol, Vicodin, water,” I say. And he gets it for me. Other times, he’ll come out of his room and stand at the top of the stairs and says, “What?!” He is 13, after all.

So Monday afternoon when I laid down on my bed (ahhhhhhhh...), I holler... Sammy! (pause) Sammy!! (pause) SAMMY!!! I hear him at the top of the stairs, “What?!” I say, “c’mere.”

“What?!”

“C’MERE!”

He comes into our bedroom and asks what I need. I said, “please, honey, just come lay down with me for a minute, I need a Sammy-hug.” (Sammy-hugs are getting less popular now that he’s 13; he loved giving them when he was little.) I can tell he’s not happy. “Please,” I say, “I’m really hurting right now.” (I pull the guilt card, oh yeah, I do.)

So he lays down next to me and hugs me, and I say, “Please just rub my neck for a minute.” He does. Ahhhh... He’s not super good at it, mostly because he really doesn’t want to do it. I mean, he cares about me and all, but y’know... So after about 1 minute, he kinda stops. I sigh. Even one minute is so very nice. For some reason, my son's hands, large for a 13-year-old (he's always been one of the tallest, biggest boys in his class), anyway, Sam's hands are always warm. When he was little, he usually didn't want to wear mittens or a hat in cold weather, or often not a coat, either, for that matter. And his hands would always be so warm.

Sam says, “Mom, are you ever without pain?”

“No, Sam,” I say, “I guess I’m not. I guess I haven’t really thought about it minute-by-minute, but yeah, right now I’m always dealing with some level of pain.”

So we talk. He asks how long it will take to 'get over this', and I tell him I guess about a year from the second surgery is what I hear. He says that sucks. I agree. He asks if I have to take pills for all that time, and I tell him I hope not. I hope I can get to a point where I won’t need them.

We stopped talking and just laid there, and after a while, I said, “You know, there was one time recently when I wasn’t really feeling pain. At Applebee’s when we went there after Michael’s graduation.” (I still have to post about my nephew, Michael’s, graduation commencement, but afterwards, while Joyce and Mike were still at Bay Med, Kevin, Sammy and I took my sister, Kathy, my brother-in-law, Bob, and my niece, Michelle out to Applebee’s to celebrate. Michael appeared for a minute, before he had to leave for the all-night seniors’ party. It is kind of like a tradition... does twice make it tradition? Hmmm...)

Sam laughed and said, “Oh, yeah. Those Perfect Margaritas.”

If you like margaritas, then you must find an Applebee’s near you and try their Perfect Margaritas. Seriously, they don’t call 'em perfect for nothin'.

I smiled and sighed and said, “Yes.”

Sammy said, “Yes, those 3 Perfect Margaritas.”

Um, no... I tell him that I had only 2. The 3rd one the waiter delivered was for Aunt Kathy. A 3rd one probably would've put me on the floor.

Sammy said, “That night was so much fun.” I heartily agreed with him, and we talked for a while about how much fun it was.

“We should do that again soon,” he said. I heartily agreed with him.

It was a plan, not a promise

I mentioned in an earlier post that we finally got our big room in the basement painted & carpeted, and Kev finished putting up all the baseboards & trim around the windows & doors. The ceiling will be next, when we get the moola to do it. I'll post photos sometime soon... when we get it arranged nicely. It's still kind of a mess right now.

To prepare for the carpet installation, everything in that big room (about 42' x 18') had to be removed... so we stuck it all into either my craft room or the utility room. We've moved out some of the big stuff, like the sofas and the TV... but for the rest of the stuff, I wanted to do some major sorting. There were some things I came across that I not only forgot I owned, but I wondered why I was keeping them. I'm such a packrat. So I decided to make a change...

Joyce and Mike both want to earn money this summer. I told them that if they set up and ran a garage sale, they could split the profits. I suggested this Memorial weekend would be a great time to have a sale, because of all the traffic there would be on M-20.

Truthfully, Joycie did most of the setting up work last week, because Mike was at school and over in Bay City. Kevin, Sammy and I helped her. It was a TON of work getting everything out, dusted off, set up and priced. Ugh. We came up with a bunch of stuff, and then Joycie's Gramma and Aunt Janet gave her a bunch of stuff to sell, too (and told her to keep the money).

We ran an ad in the local paper and put a sign out at M-20... & another sign at the end of our driveway. (We have a long driveway, and you can't see the house from the road.) We started the sale Friday morning with plans to run it through Monday.

I got up early Friday morning to go down to the corner (1/2 mile) and set the sign on the side of M-20. Kevin was leaving for work; the lucky boy got stuck with a 16-hour shift Friday. He stopped and chatted with me while I pounded into the ground the 2 hockey sticks I sawed up for sign posts (they were part of a group I bought way on sale, and who knew they made hockey sticks for lefties?!). While I was pounding, a white van turned onto our road. I told Kev to watch and see if he pulled into our drive, and Kev told me he didn't. But he did. He was driving back out our driveway as I was driving back in... with the garage doors and the house wide open and 2 sleeping kids upstairs. Kinda freaked me out. Also, the van's windows were so darkly tinted that I couldn't see into them. But, no drama. I think the guy saw the baby stuff and left. (Yes, baby stuff! With our baby being 13 years old... I finally agreed to get rid of some stuff.)

So Joycie and I did her garage sale Friday, and Mike arrived mid-afternoon.

Having a garage sale is a lot of work and really, really, really boring. My idea that Memorial weekend would be a good time to have one turns out to be a pretty crappy plan. Sure, we live out in the country, but we just haven't had many shoppers. So when Mike's mom called him Saturday afternoon and asked if they could skip the sale Sunday and join his family out at a lake on a pontoon for the day, I said go on ahead. I told them I'd watch their sale Sunday. Then I found out it would require my watching it Monday, too. What the heck.

So here I sit, comfortable at our picnic table with my laptop. Since I'm outside, I rigged up a box lid taped to my laptop cover to shade it, and I have to say... it works like a charm. They should make laptops with a slide out cover for working outside. (I'm guessing that's not an original thought, and the invention is likely already patented.)

I was up and opened yesterday by 7am and working on my laptop until about 6pm. I got so much work done (company work), and it felt good. Very few interruptions by shoppers, but those that came did some good shopping. Kevin suggested I bag the sale for today, but I told him that I not only kicked ass on work yesterday, but that I really enjoyed working outside doing it. It is gorgeous, partly sunny and breezy. Absolutely gorgeous. Getting some of my backlog of work done in this kind of setting... heaven!

The one thing I do regret is that I am kind of tied down... I wanted to paint a couple more coats on this old wood desk I started painting on Friday, but I can't because someone may show up. It's an old desk that I bought at a garage sale ages ago, and it was in pretty crappy shape then. I painted it a dark green and dark blue (body blue, desk top and drawer fronts green, & it looked really good), but those colors do not go well with our new basement walls of Apricot Butter. I keep an old Mac computer on this desk, and I want to continue to do so. The Mac is chock full of cool games. And I had this gallon of red paint... so I'm painting the desk red, and it's going to look great down in the basement. But red paint is difficult... I've got 2 coats on the desk now, and it will need at least another 2, maybe 3. That's red paint for ya.

I also wanted to do some weeding in my flower and herb gardens. But those are out back, and it's too much of a hassle... I could leave Sam in charge of the sale, but I don't think that's fair. He'd be a little out of his league, and being in charge of a garage sale with strangers coming up is just not something I'd do to him.

But I get to work on my laptop. Thank goodness I sprung for that wireless router.

I also get to watch a lot of bird action. I have some photos I'll have to post later. Right away on Friday morning when we opened the garage doors, we had some Swallows that kept flying in and out of the garage. I haven't seen Swallows around our house before, so I was thrilled. They would land in the garage, and I was so happy... tried several times to get photos before I finally was able to do so. But then the bird shit on the stemware we have for sale was kind of a downer. Now I chase the little buggers out as soon as they come in.

Mike and I watched a couple of Robins going at it for a while on Saturday. They were seriously scrapping. Flying at each other and making a racket big time. The 2 of them were like a ball of furious feathers. Then they'd separate and land on the ground a few feet away from each other, wait a bit and go at it again. I was like, "holy cow!" Mike said, "Robins do like to fight each other; they must talk a lot of trash." Cracked me up.

You can't fix stupid

My sister, Janet, sent the story below to me by e-mail, and it's awesome... enjoy!

First-year students at Cornell University Vet school were receiving their first anatomy class, with a real dead cow.

They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet. The professor started the class by telling them, "In Veterinary Medicine it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor: The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the animal body."

For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the dead cow, withdrew it and stuck it in his mouth. "Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students.

The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the anal opening of the dead cow and sucking on it.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said, "The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention. Life's tough, but it's even tougher if you're stupid."

Schtuff...

I've been playing around again with a masthead idea. This would likely fall under the category of "too much time on my hands" but I'm still thinking on that... there may be a better song title to capture my current experience. Anyway, do you like it? Why a pumpkin? Just coz I like pumpkins... I have a thing for 'em.

I'm currently working again on my desktop computer, which I adore. My lovely, fast, reliable computer. I'm sitting upright in my desk chair, no recliner! Though I can't really stand it for long...

My company laptop that I've been using has decided to become slower than molasses in January. I've been trying to keep up on some things, as I've mentioned before, including e-mails, and also some reports that I would normally run daily off from a secure web site. I was up early this morning, around 5:30am, and I made myself a pot of coffee, got all settled with my laptop in the recliner. I thought to myself, this morning, it will work. Boy, was I wrong. I spent 45 minutes just trying to get to the reports web page, and I finally gave up. Did the same thing about 3 times yesterday. Investigation will commence soon. I'd like to keep up on those reports, otherwise it's gonna be a bitch when I have to do a ton of them at once. Ugh.

Kevin never did end up meeting up with Bob & Janet at the game hunting expo yesterday. Instead, he took Sammy with him, and I think they got there at about 1pm. They didn't stay super long, and on their way back home, they stopped and got some groceries for Kevin to make dinner. He took foil and made little pockets of potatoes & onions, and some with peppers, with butter & a few spices, and grilled them, along with 3 very, very nice New York strips. The steaks were excellent, as were the potatoes. Sammy, Kev & I had a superb dinner together. Followed by cheesecake. What a man!

Yesterday afternoon, my brother, Jim, and my sister-in-law, Sue, drove up to visit with me. They live about an hour away, and they decided it was a nice, sunny day for a drive, and I'm so glad they did! I had the 2 of them all to myself. It was such a nice visit.

I've been getting into little drawers and things, lately. Not really sure why. It's not really that I need something more to do, I have plenty on my little "to do while recuperating list," which I'm finally kinda sorta feeling like getting back to...

The top, tiny drawer of my jewelry chest was one of my recent snoopings. It had in it a red and white pacifier with a baseball motif... the last of Sammy's binkies that I couldn't bear to throw away. I also have in there some awards (pins and charms) that I won in high school... 2 of them are for typing and shorthand. Yes, they're old. I also have one of my Dad's military dog tags from when he was in the Army during the Korean war. I can't even remember how I ended up with it, but I know I've had it most of my adult life.

In that little drawer, I also found a baby bracelet. Way back when us kids were born, the hospital didn't print out a plastic arm &/or foot band. They strung glass beads onto gold elastic thread, using white beads with black letters to spell your last name, and then on each side of the last name, a little row of small beads, either pink or blue. I suppose how many little pink or blue beads depended upon how long your last name was. I remember us kids getting into that baby stuff where these bracelets were, and I talked with my Mom about it yesterday when I saw this little bracelet. She said she had tried to keep us out of that stuff, but we all got into it, and she's not sure where a lot of it is now. She used to have our baby shoes, too. For example, I don't think she knew I had this little bracelet. Funny thing is, the one in my drawer has little blue beads on it. Since I'm the youngest of 5 kids, and there's only 1 son... I somehow ended up in possession of Jim's baby bracelet. Weird, I know. And I've had it for years and years and years. I don't know why yesterday it suddenly struck me that, hey, the beads are blue, so it's Jimmy's bracelet and certainly not mine. When Jim and Sue were here, I found a box for it and taped it shut and gave it to Sue. It's only right that they should have it, and I know Sue loves that kind of stuff. Sue said she thinks she has a pink one like it, and she's going to look for it. It'd be cute to have the 2 bracelets displayed together.

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.