Well, I'm Off....

Yep....I'm off to Caseville for a week or so. I want to be back in time for Mother's Day weekend. I have lots to take up with me. I bought a new flat-panel TV for the condo. I got a new bedspread and mattress cover for the bed there. I have all those chickens to take up. They'll be clucking all the way up there, I suppose.

My friend from the Caseville area called and said she has been back from Florida for a month because her husband had prostate surgery a couple weeks ago. She's going to drive to Ohio and pick up her granddaughter and should be back by Wednesday. My other friend in Caseville is babysitting her grandkids and should be back by tonight for the Eagles meeting. Must be nice to be able to see your grandkids once in awhile.

Hubby isn't going because we ordered the new fence for the front and it's suppose to be delivered some time this week and he'll probably put it up over the weekend.

I still have to get my hair washed and get the rest of the stuff in my jeep. I sure hope it's a decent week. I need to get some yard work done up there. My grass must be a foot tall by now in spots. Well, maybe not that bad, but high enough it'll start bothering the neighbors. Damn grass! I wish they would invent something you could put on grass when you're away that would prevent it from growing. I decided I'm not having a veggie garden this year. One less thing to take care of up there. And I'm putting a bunch of mulch in the Mums area along side the cottage where I'm going to put my chickens....hopefully, no more weeds to pull there. I need less work up there and more fun...

Maybe I'll get to the library to use their computer while I'm gone. Have a great week!

I've been praying for Bret Michaels and hope he recovers with no ill effects. I've been watching Celebrity Apprentice this season and have been rooting for him.....just watched him tonight. Of course, the show was taped months ago.

GET BETTER BRET!!

Movies.....Fences.....and Chickens.....

We just watched a really good movie that I would strongly recommend. It stars Michael Douglas..."Beyond a Reasonable Doubt". Douglas plays a D.A. who this reporter guy suspects is making up evidence in order to get convictions. He decides to frame himself in a murder case in order to prove it. And everything starts going wrong and his girlfriend, the assistant D.A., is trying to help prove his innocence....and just when you think you have it all figured out, there's a twist. Good movie!
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We decided to take down the old dilapidated wood fence that is in front of our walkway and front door. It's been there for probably 40 years and it's rotting away. Hubby has parts of it held together with wire and there are years of paint peeling off it. I suggested a new paint job and more wire and maybe even some duct tape, but hubby thought it might be better to just take it down and replace it with a new vinyl one. Next to the fence on the one side there's an old overgrown bush that was helping keep the fence up, I think....gave the fence something to lean on in it's old age. So hubby cut the bush down...and the fence basically just fell over. So hubby got the rest of it down today and it looks a little bare now, but we have the new fence ordered and it'll be up before ya know it. There were about 3 sections of fence and I put it on Craigslist in the FREE section and we had alot of people calling to come take it away for us. It was gone by the end of the day. People will take anything if it's free.

I tried to sell my old computer chair on Craigslist for a lousy $20....I listed it at least 3 times and couldn't sell it. Hubby set it out at the end of our driveway with a FREE sign and it was gone....Guess "cheap" isn't good enough..."Free" is the keyword nowadays.
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I've been hitting alot of estate sales this weekend. I bought a bunch of chickens. Some lady apparently was a major chicken collector. And she had these pretty good-size chicken statues in her kitchen...like a foot tall or so. There were six of them that size and I thought they would look really good in my mum flower garden at the cottage in Caseville.....so I bought all of them. I went the day they were half price so it wasn't a bad deal. She had tons more smaller ones, but I wanted the big ones for my garden. My neighbor has one metal chicken in her garden, so my chickens will show her chicken who's the boss!...haha
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Another good movie to watch that I saw last night is an older movie (1996) with Anna Paquin (no relation, I don't think...cause that's my maiden name), and Jeff Bridges called "Fly Away Home"....a cute movie about these orphan goslings that think that she's their mama goose, and she and her dad are trying to show them a way to migrate in the Fall.

Note: Anna Paquin is from Canada and that's where my relatives are also from, so who knows???.....

Lots of Birthdays...

Yesterday was my niece's birthday....Happy Birthday Steph!

Today is my father's birthday.....Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my grandson's birthday.....Happy Birthday Jayden!

...And I'm sure it's lots of other people's birthdays too....so Happy Birthday Everybody else!!

My use-to-be-army-son and his family are back from North Carolina cause he decided that army life just isn't his thing, I guess....Of course we told him that when he made the stupid decision to join 3 years ago, but hey...what the hell do we know?? He was going to join the army and make the army his career....he was going to get an army education and have a great place to live and raise his family...he was going to do this for his son. Yeah, well guess army life just didn't suit him, so to hell with his family and now he wants to be back in Michigan where he can hang out with all his loser friends. He should fit right in with them.

My daughter-in-law called me Monday and said she wanted to see me and said for me to meet her and the kids at her sister's house today...Thursday...Jayden's birthday. I had a card I was going to send to him, but since I was going to see him I decided to not send it and wait to give it to him, and I picked up a little something for him to unwrap. I almost bought a cake but decided to wait until I was sure I was going. I had some other plans but rearranged my schedule so I would be available all afternoon. I was anxious to see the kids. DIL was suppose to email me her sister's address...simple enough I would think... but after that phone call I never heard anything back from her even after sending a couple emails to her. I waited around today and heard absolutely nothing. So I didn't get to see Jayden on his birthday. I haven't seen him in almost 2 years. But guess that's my own fault since I'm such a bitch of a mother....

Anyway, if they want to see us, they know where we live. I'm not making special arrangements anymore.
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I'm done with American Idol now that good ol' Timmy T'Urban is gone....booofuckinhoooooo

UPDATES

UPDATES:

1. They never called me on that mattress set I wanted....bummer! I probably should have just went and bought the whole damn set and then sell the pieces I didn't want or need. But then I would have had to rent a whole truck to get it all home. We could have brought the mattress set home in my son's truck. Oh well, another day, another estate sale, another mattress deal somewhere.

2. Mini Sue is still squinting somewhat and it's been two weeks since she injured her eye and a week since I took her to the vet. The vet said to just keep putting the drops in and I have. Sometimes she opens it up pretty good like when she sees food in my hand....and sometimes she has it half closed. I don't know what's going on, but I can't afford to keep paying these damn vet bills. So I'll give it more time.

3. Went to my OB/GYN and insisted on one of those C-125 blood tests for ovarian cancer. I told her I have unexplained bloating and made up a few more symptons so she is going to test for it and I had blood drawn. I'll get my bone density test along with my mammogram in October. So results for that will have to wait....gotta comply with the insurance rules. I told her about the muscle pain I got when my doc put me on those statin drugs for cholestrol and that I took myself off them and refuse to take them anymore. She agreed and told me to start taking Red Yeast Rice along with Fish Oil and that will help keep the cholestrol down. So I'll give it a try.
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Hubby and I went to a church rummage sale Thursday night. It was kind of a presale thing that they open to the public but the prices are double of what they will be on Friday....but it was worth it. We got alot of really nice stuff. I bought a bottle of PRADA cologne!...about 80% full. It was marked $1.00 so it cost me $2.00...what a deal!! I love the scent. Brand new in a box on ebay, it's $85-$90.
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The weather here is crappy cold and windy and I'm gettin' real tired of it!!

If my honesty pisses people off, then so be it...

Just thought I'd get that off my chest.

Tax Season is Over....

Today turned out to be my last day of work for the tax season. So that's it til next year. Working tax season helps the winter go by faster. Cause it seems like I just started and now it's April already. I still have to get my own taxes mailed in....tomorrow for sure.

Tomorrow I have a doctor appointment with my OB/GYN for my annual checkup. Hope everything is normal. I'll get a bone density test done too....I'm hoping that all the calcium and Vitamin D I've been taking for the last couple years has made a difference.

Watched the American Idol results show cause nothing much else was on. "The Notebook" was on ABCFAM channel but didn't think hubby would want to watch that, so we watched AM Idol. On www.votefortheworst.com their choice to vote for and try and keep on the show for as long as we can is Tim Urban. Since there was going to be two contestants eliminated this week, Tim's chances didn't look so good, and we were all encouraged to give Tim as many votes as we possibly can; so last night (although I still have doubts about the validity of our call-in votes), I dialed over 200 times voting for good ol' boy Tim. AND HE MADE IT!!! He gets to move on to next week. Maybe we really do have voting power with our call-in votes.

Adam Lambert performed on the show and I had forgotten just how good he is. He is a true entertainer....maybe I'll get his CD afterall.

That's about all....night

Tonight my hubby and I took my youngest son and his girlfriend and her daughter out to dinner. We went to Brann's which is the same place that hubby and I went to awhile back where I didn't have a decent plate to eat off and had to use one of the little "rolls" plates. Tonight I ordered my own meal (not a 'to share' one like before...hence hubby got a plate and I didn't) so I had my own plate....yippee! I told my son about what happened before and he said I should have asked for another plate.....duh, yeah I coulda but I refused cause it was the principle of the matter!

But tonight I still had a couple complaints. First, the guy brings us rolls and no plates to put them on. I had to ask him for plates. He brings us TWO plates. There are five of us. Luckily, hubby had a small plate under his bowl of soup he could use, and little Alexis didn't really need a plate, and son's girlfriend used her salad plate to put her roll on. OMG, what is it with this restaurant and their plates?? I know times are bad, but wouldn't ya think that a restaurant should at least have enough plates for their customers?? ((and waiter is probably thinking..."what's with this stupid bitch..she has to have a plate for every single thing she eats!!"))

Second complaint,,,,I love to play the Keno and I filled out my slip and handed the waiter guy my five bucks and the slip and he took off with it and I never saw him again....at least not with my player ticket. After about 15 minutes of impatiently waiting and watching the Keno numbers coming up and sitting there with no ticket my son's girlfriend finally went to the bar area and retrieved my ticket for me. Of course, by then two sets of numbers had already been picked that I had totally missed and didn't even have the fun of watching them with my ticket....I mean, that's the point of playing...having your ticket of numbers and watching the numbers coming up on the screen. Well, the first two round of numbers, my ticket was sitting on a bar somewhere. At least I got to watch the last three sets of numbers come up and I did win TWO BUCKS!....yahoooo...!!

I went on Ebay and bought a t-shirt with "KENO!" on the front....it's perfect when I go places with my little dog, Keno...haha

Ok, so yesterday little Mini Sue was still squinting her right eye...then she wasn't squinting...then she was....then she wasn't....then she was. So do I call the vet and make an appointment?? or not?? I called the vet and made an appointment for 10:00 this morning...and I am SO NOT A MORNING PERSON, but I have estate sales to go to so I figured better get her in there early. I got up at 8:00 this morning and she is hardly squinting at all....maybe a little. By 9:00 I was thinking of cancelling the appointment but by then she's squinting more, so I figured..."what the hell"...I really need to have it checked out just in case. So off to the vet she went. The doc could see that she had a superficial 'thingamajig" on her eye but that it was healing nicely. She put some numbing stuff in her eye to make it feel better and told me to keep doing what I've been doing and it'll be fine. And that cost me $69....and tonight she is hardly squinting at all....and laughing at me for being such a paranoid doggy mama.

I went to a couple estate sales today. I have regretted selling my good firm mattress for this "plush" piece of crap since I have had nothing but back pain for the past year and a half since I've had it. I need a firmer mattress. So at this one estate sale they are selling a whole 1940's style bedroom outfit for $695. The mattress set is a Beautyrest FIRM and is exactly what I want...but I don't want or need the whole damn set. So I told them that I only want to buy the mattress set. This set is in like-new condition. I think it was in a spare bedroom. I've looked at Art Van and found the perfect firm mattress and THIS mattress is exactly like the one I was looking at at Art Van. So I want it! I left them my name and phone number if they decide on Sunday to sell it separately. Personally, I think they would make more money selling me the mattress set and then pricing the rest individually. When I left today, it was already at 30% off....tomorrow it will be at 50% off...$350 for the whole bedroom set. I just want the mattress set! I'm hoping that they call me tomorrow.

I worked Friday and I don't go back in until Tuesday and THAT will be my LAST day!! Hoorah!!...no more work til next February!! I got the best damn job in the whole fuckin' world!!!!!!

Had a nice time in Caseville for the few days I was there. Weather was nice, rainy, then nice again. Did some yard work. Visited with my neighbors. Watched alot of TV. Sunday the Hallmark channel was running a marathon of Janette Oke movies from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m......7 movies total, starting with "Love Comes Softly". I've listened to the first 3 books on tape....and I've seen the movies of #1, #2, #3, and #6, but this is the first time that I was able to watch all 7 in a row. So basically, I laid on the couch all day Sunday watching the Hallmark channel. I even missed "The Amazing Race"! I did take a break during one of the movies and took little Keno for a walk cause it was so nice outside....and I needed some fresh air cause I found myself dozing on the couch and missing parts of the movie anyway...haha

Mini Sue hurt her right eye while I was there and I didn't have her eye drops with me. So Saturday night, I drove to Bad Axe (30 min drive) to go to Walmart and buy Systene eye drops for her. It's expensive stuff and I have it at home, but it wasn't doing me any good at home, so I had to buy another one. It was $7.99 the last time I bought it at Walmart last October, and now good ole Walmart raised the price to $10.29 or something. I thought they are suppose to LOWER prices....whatever....still cheaper than Walgreen's which was $10.99. It's not her prescription vet stuff, but it was better than nothing. So I was putting that in her eye all weekend. I don't know what happened. She and Keno were outside running back and forth along the fence with the dog next door and next thing I knew she was going in the house. I didn't think anything of it. I just thought she was done playing. Later I saw that she had her right eye closed and squinting. I don't know if Keno got her with his paw again, or she ran into a stick on the ground or something. Since I've been home, I've been putting her dilating drops in and the antibiotic drops. She's still squinting somewhat but I think it's getting better. If not, then it's another expensive trip to the vet. Cause it can't heal if there is dead tissue over the cornea. The vet has to numb her eye and scrape the dead tissue off...then it will heal. I'm hoping it heals by itself okay. Poor baby girl...
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I watch American Idol occassionally this year. I watched "Dancing With....", and "Lost" last night and flipped to "American...." a few times and caught a couple songs. Just not really into it cause it's such a farce and basically a Fox production of whatever they want it to be. I doubt very much if people's phone calls really count for much. Anyway, I watched the results show tonight and it was so freakin' obvious that the whole thing of 'Michael being in the bottom 3, and then being the one with the lowest votes, so he can sing for the judges to "save" him, and then "TADA"....the judges SAVE HIM!!!' was such an obvious FOX stunt for the drama I guess. I hope Michael was told in advance of what they were going to do. I don't believe for a minute that he would have been 'voted' off. Trust me, the phone call votes don't count anyway. Simon and FOX runs this whole show...

I really hate this show.....and what's with all the theatrics? Simon complained that Michael's song was too theatrical, and then they have singers and their own theatrics on the Results show the next night??? WTF?? Lets's face it, it was a setup because they knew what they were going to do on the results show...put Michael in the bottom and have Simon save him. Woohooo! I only watched it cause hubby is addicted to it and there was nothing else on. If I'm watching something else, he goes in the computer room and watches it there. He watched all the lame audition shows. I caught maybe a couple of them.

BTW, Michael and Crystal are the ones I think should be in the final two. Casey is fun to watch...he's good....but not good enough to win on this show. He's more like a Daughtry. He'll do much better on his own. He doesn't need AI or Simon or Fox Network.

I love Daughtry! He's the best they've ever had on any of their shows, and he didn't even win. Yeah, he was 'voted' off at one point. He didn't need them. When I do my 3 mile walks, I listen to Daughtry on my Sony....the first CD....I like his second CD but I think his first is his best.

Anyway, that's my opinion...

A little Easter Vacation...

It was such a beautiful day today....summer is just around the corner. I unpacked some summery clothes and packed away more winter crap. I took my bike out for a ride. It'll probably snow tomorrow....

I hope not...

I'm working tomorrow but after I get home from work, I'm leaving for Caseville for a few days. I need to get up there and shut my furnaces off. I don't want them kicking on at night when the temps drop. Don't think I have to worry about my pipes freezing anymore. My friend in Caseville sent me an email telling me that my neighbor a few houses down recently had a chimney fire and there was considerable damage. They had to move out while his house is being repaired/rebuilt. I just feel better when I know my furnaces aren't running. I have my main furnace and there's another one in the breezeway where my 1/2 bath is.

I'm taking the dogs with me. Hubby is staying home cause he has some outside projects he wants to do in the yard. I'll probably have to work Tuesday so I'll probably be back by Monday.

My son is still waiting to hear about the house he put an offer on. The seller has accepted, but everybody is waiting for the bank to accept it as a short sale. The problem is that there are two banks involved cause the guy also had another loan against it. So even if the main bank agrees, the second bank may not. I don't know how all that works. It's just a waiting game.

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE....