Pumpkins and Pictures...

I'm going to leave for Caseville tomorrow for a few days or so. The Eagles are having their district meeting on Sunday and they are always fun to go to. Lots of other districts will be there and people you don't normally see. And there will be lots of food!

Plus, I will get my lawn cut and maybe cut back some old flowers out of my flowerbed. Put away my deck chairs, and all the other deco things I have sitting on my deck. Summer is officially over, I'm afraid.....So depressing.

This weekend is also the PumpkinFest or OctoberFest or whatever they call it. I hear that the weather is suppose to be quite nice, so not sure if I will be wearing my long pumpkin/halloweenie sweater.

This is also the trip where I leave my doggies home. I have a few places I am planning on stopping along the way up there. I will be free to do as I please and stay as long as I like, etc.....no doggies sitting at the cottage moping cause I'm not there and crying and whining for me to come home....LOL

I finally got around to posting some pictures in my other Photo blog you can check out. I posted some of me with my dogs at the beach, and some cheeseburger pics. I'm going to put up some pictures of my grandkids once I get them downloaded into my computer.

So I'll be back early next week.....have a great weekend....

Tuesday.....

I can't believe it's Tuesday already. Last Saturday night hubby and I went to the Timberwolf bar and met my brother and his friend there to see KT's Alibi, the band that we saw about a month ago. Katie is his friend's daughter and she is a great singer. Her mother also sings at another restaurant close by. We'll have to go there sometime and watch her sing. I've seen her sing before but it's been years. Her daughter is very talented and has this really good band. Anyway, we all got something to eat and then watched the band and danced our butts off. It was loads of fun! Great music....

Sunday I was a bit hungover and slept til noon! Then in the afternoon I went shopping at Sears and bought myself a purse and earrings.
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Yesterday my daughter-in-law came over with the kids so we could see them. My son still isn't talking to us and they've been back from North Carolina since the end of March. I've tried a couple times to get together with my DIL but it didn't pan out, and I've been busy up in Caseville most of the summer. So she was finally able to drive over with them yesterday. We were thrilled to death to see them all. I made sloppy joes and I had some halloween things to give them. It was fun! We'll get together more often now I'm sure.

Don't understand what my son's problem is. He's an idiot.....For some reason he is telling his friends that I'm not proud of him or some such crap. What the hell is he talking about?? When he was in the army, I was always telling people how my son is in the army and showing them his picture and everything. And I even got a sign from the recruiters office that read "Home of a Soldier" and put it right in my front yard for all the neighbors to see. Yeah, I wasn't thrilled when he told us that he was going to....1. Quit his 10-year job....2. Give his house of 10 years back to the bank and let it go into foreclosure...and 3. Go into the army with his wife and kids and maybe go to Iraq!!! Yeah, maybe we are bad parents but we really got on his case about that decision. Then he starts skateboarding at the age of 42 and breaks his ankle while he is suppose to be 'a soldier', and then after months of healing he starts skateboarding again!...so yeah, I got on his case about that too....GROW UP!! So I'm the bitch from hell and he wants nothing to do with us now anymore. Whatever...

At least my daughter-in-law likes us and understands and she is going to let us see the kids once in awhile.
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Tonight I went over to a friend's house that I haven't seen in almost 6 years and she lives super close to my house. Her parents and my parents were best friends from years and years ago. Her mother was there at her house so I got to visit with both of them. It was a great evening! We had lots of laughs like we always do.....I sure miss the old days. When we were both divorced we would go out partying together....those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end.....da da da da...da da da da da da....We were a couple of really hot chicks back in those days!!!..LOL

Italian Tonight....

I've had a few days of having the house to myself for a nice change. Although I didn't do much except run around to estate sales and garage sales and all my favorite stores catching up on all the good sales out there. The weather has gone from cold to rainy to beautiful summerlike weather like we had today. The first day I was home, I put away all my summer shorts and most summery tops....and then today I was digging them back out. So typical Michigan Fall....

Hubby came home today so I made a decent meal. I made Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, garlic bread and a tossed salad with Italian dressing. Last night when I was by myself I fried up a whole can of spinach and ate it at 9:00. I had put in some onion and poured in some egg beater, so it was a little like a spinach omelet although it was 90% Spinach and 10% egg. Monday and Tuesday nights I just made a big salad.

Actually on Monday I was starving by midnight and decided I wanted to have some toast but I didn't have any bread in the house. I made a list of some groceries I needed and decided to hit the open-all-night Meijers and do some shopping. So I got dressed and with absolutely NO makeup on, I got in the car and drove to Meijers and was doing my grocery shopping at 1:00 in the morning....got home by 1:30 a.m. and put everything away and then I made myself some toast. Dammit, when I want toast, I want toast!!

So tonight I made a nice dinner.

My week in Caseville

I drove home yesterday and I had basically a nice time in Caseville...for the most part anyway. That first Tuesday I went to the auxilliary meeting at the Eagles and drank beer with the girls afterwards....helped out in the kitchen with my friend for Wednesday's bingo night. Thursday I went into Bad Axe and did some shopping. I went into Peebles and bought a few things and ordered a pair of slacks for tax work and had them reserve a shirt at their Caro store that I can pick up on my way home on Monday (which I did). I just LOVE that store. It's a really nice store...on par with Kohl's or some of the better stores....otherwise, all there is there is Walmart and KMart or Fashion Bug. They carry better things like Fashion Bug but they also carry designer and designer fragrances as well. Really CLEAN store and nice fitting rooms.

I also got the yard mowed and put away most of my outdoor statues for the winter.

Then hubby came up Thursay after I got back and I made hamburgers for dinner. Friday I went to a $5.00 jewelry sale they were having up at the hospital in Pigeon. They had some really really nice stuff. I got cheap and only bought myself 3 things....an ankle bracelet, a pinkie ring and one of those flat style wallets. They had a few other items besides jewelry. I am kicking myself for not getting myself a watch and a couple other items I ended up putting back. Everything was $5.00 a piece....WOW!

I made a frozen lasagne I had gotten at Walmart for dinner which may or may not have poisoned us....I'll explain later...

Saturday was our anniversary and we drove to Kinde for the Polka Fest. I wasn't really feeling up to par that day for some reason. I didn't have much of an appetite so when we went into the only decent restaurant in that tiny town to eat, the Polish Buffet didn't really appeal to me so we passed. Nothing on the menu appealed to me, so we passed. All we ordered was 6 pierogies and split them...3 apiece. Then we went to the polka tent and they had some really great polka bands. They had 3 stages set up with equipment so they could go from one band to the other. There were two huge tents put together....one with the bands with a big wooden dance floor and the other for sitting and eating and drinking. We had beer and I only ordered french fries. Didn't even feel like a Polish dog. They had free cake so we got a couple pieces and that tasted good. Got home after midnight and had a champagne toast.

Next morning I was sicker than a dog!!!! I was in bed or in the john all day. I couldn't eat anything....just some broth. At first I thought it was the champagne on top of the beer but hubby didn't think so....not if I was sick that many times. He kept asking me what I ate. I hadn't eaten much on Saturday. I took my temp and it was 100 degrees so I was running a slight fever. I definitely had something. I slept all day and all night.

Monday I felt fine......hubby was up all night sick as a dog!!!...Even Mini Sue got sick Monday morning!!!!...and she's a dog!!! What in the hell???

Hubby thinks it was the lasagne we had on Friday. He said he had some Sunday and he gave some of it to Mini Sue. Then he was sick in the morning and so was she.

Who the hell knows.....probably just a 24-hour stomach flu bug and just a coincidence that Mini Sue got sick too...

Or maybe it was the $6.00 Walmart frozen lasagne. That stuff probably came from China and you know what they (China) did to our pets a couple years ago with their tainted dog and cat food. Anyway, I put what was leftover in the freezer and I'm going to throw it out next time I go up.

So I drove home yesterday and hubby should be back by Thursday or Friday. Then hopefully, we are going out Saturday to see KT's Alibi, the band we saw last time.

Actually he still owes me a nice dinner!! I still want my anniversary dinner!!

So that was my week in Caseville....

The Week Ahead....

I'm driving up to Caseville for a week. Hubby will drive up in a couple days. Next Saturday is our wedding anniversary and as much as I hate spending it in Caseville because there aren't any nice places to go, I still decided to go anyway. The small town of Kinde is having a Polka Fest and we've never been to it...well, once a friend and I went but only caught the last day and most of the vendors were gone and she's too cheap to pay to get into the polka tent so we didn't stay very long. But hubby and I have never been to it and actually listened to the music. So that's what we are going to do. It should be different and fun. I guess he use to play polka music on an accordian back when he was a kid.

Another thing we might do if the weather is bad or too cold to be outside is that the Eagles are having a 50-60's dance that we could go to. I don't know why they scheduled the dance the same weekend as the Kinde thing.....and it's also the same weekend as the Born to be Wild festival in Elkton. But we won't be going to that, I'm sure.

So I got my bags packed and the dogs are waiting. They can't wait to get up there to see their neighbor buddy Trouper. I really hope the weather is nice. I have some outside work to do as well. I need to start putting away all my outdoor figurines, etc.

I hate Fall....I dread Fall.....too much freakin' yard work...

I'll be back in a week.

But on a Serious Note....

Today is September 11 and it is a hard day to remember. I remember the anger I felt that day. I remember how totally pissed off everybody was that day. I am watching rebroadcasts of the televised events of that day. I hear people saying how angry they are and saying how we should "kill those bastards" and "blow them all away"....

May we Never Forget....

But alot of people have unfortunately....

All I hear is people bitching about us being in Iraq...about us being in Afganistan....about how much money these wars are costing us...

Good Lord people, why in the hell do you THINK WE ARE THERE???? HAVE YOU ALL FORGOTTEN?????

OH....but the tax dollars that it is costing us is apparently too high for some of us....

"Yeah...let's go get those bastards..", until it starts actually hitting us in our bank accounts...

Freedom isn't free....

It may cost us all a dollar or two....


And considering the lives that men gave up in past wars...the Civil War, World War 1, World War 2, the Vietnam War, Korea, etc, etc, etc,...the lives those men PAID for OUR freedom.....and all some people do now is bitch about how much MONEY this war is costing us.....How pathetic....

I remember 9/11...and I know why we are there...and I will gladly pay for it....

A Day in the Life of Me....

I traced the toll free number online and found that it's a debt collector called Allied something. We better not hear from them again or they will get an earful of very vile, obscene, obsenities screamed in their ear and I hope I'm being recorded.....and they can put THAT in their pipe and smoke!!!
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JOKE OF THE DAY:

Sign on a sperm bank door: Thanks, and come again....

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What did I do today...?

1. Got up and watched 9/11 events

2. Took some clothes to Salvation Army

3. Put gas in my car

4. Went to the library

5. Went to Aco

6. Went to Krogers

7. Went to a garage sale

8. Went to my son's new house....but wasn't there.

9. Went to Mcdonalds

10. Went to Meijers

11. Went to K-Mart

12. Went to son's current house....but wasn't there.

13. Went back to son's new house....he was there...had a beer

14. Went with son to Home Depot

15. Went with son to Lowe's

16. Went back to new house...saw son's fiance and daughter...had a beer...

17. Left and went back to K-mart for a refund.

18. Got sliders at White Castle

19. Drove home.....

20. Went on computer...watched Big Brother live feed....typing blog....

What's left to do....?

1. Go to bed....

2. Watch a movie.....

3. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Gettin' Weirder....

Now this is weird....For a little while now we keep getting phone calls with the caller ID saying 'toll free' and it's an 866 number so I don't bother answering it. But they keep calling...sometimes 3 times a day. So finally I get disgusted and I pick the damn phone up and say "HELLO!!!!", and some guy asks for a Cheryl..just "Is Cheryl there?", and I tell him 'no you have the wrong number', and I hang up. So that should be that....but today the phone starts ringing and it's the same freakin' number calling. So I answer it again. Some chick asks again if Cheryl is there. Then I get mad, and I tell her NO and that I am sick of them calling me umpteen times a day. She tells me that my number was given to them as a reference. So I asked her what name does she have....and she says Cheryl THOMAS.....that's the same last name as this mess we just got straightened around with DTE!! So I told her that we already had a mess with a Thomas person that we are just now straightening out and we don't know anybody named Thomas. So she said she would remove our number. So they shouldn't be calling back anymore...

BUT what is it with this THOMAS person???.....So now people have OUR phone number looking for his wife or something????

Personally, I think it is a setup scam from DTE trying to see if he really lives at our phone number....trying to see if we are just scamming them or something trying to get out of paying their bill.....BUT they said Cheryl not the guy's name...so who is Cheryl??...maybe his wife? I mean, if they were trying to trick us into admitting that he lives here, then why didn't they just use HIS name and not some woman's name??

Too weird.....

DTE mess solved, We Hope....

Finally got all that DTE mess straightened out....we hope. I've been working on getting everything together for that Affidavit we had to fill out and we had to go have my husband's signature notorized and then off to the Detroit office. After sitting for over a 1/2 hour we finally go to speak to someone who actually knew what he was doing. He understood the situation and he said that it was totally unnecessary for us to have to fill out an ID Theft Affidavit and he apologized for it. He called several people on his phone to make sure all the records were straightened out. Apparently, it was DTE who linked the two similar social security numbers together probably 4 years ago when this connection all started and it has been in their system that way ever since. The only difference between the two SS numbers was one number....all the other numbers were identical. You would think that our government would NOT issue SS numbers that similar. And then with the first names being the same, it was confusing. So he took this other guys social security number off our accounts and took my husband's off his.

This better be our last trip down there. Our next bills better be right or we may have to get an attorney.
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These two kitties/cats are still around. The other night I heard meowing under the house and the next day there was growling. Some big orange cat came running out and I chased him away. The one kittie was around but I couldn't see the other one. I put out food and still only one. I thought maybe the big cat got him and he was dead under the house. Later in the day, my husband found him sitting up in a bushy tree thing by our garage. Guess he ran up the tree to get away from that big cat and was sitting there all day cause he was too scared to come down. But he came down eventually and now all two kitties are still hanging around. They are both males, so I'm hoping they will go away chasing females eventually. They are still wild and we can't pick them up. The one is a little friendlier and sometimes you can pet it when it's busy eating. But the other scaredy cat one won't let you anywhere near him. Everytime I drive into the driveway I see them run like hell under the house. That's where they were born, and that's where they think home is, I guess. Mama cat is long gone....

That's about all....

September Blues....

The Labor Day weekend was weird. I think maybe we had a good day in there some where. It was windy as hell, I know that....and cloudy....and cold. I'm glad it's over and now we may as well get on to Fall so we can get to Halloween, my favorite time of the year!...and then to Christmas, my other favorite time of the year!....then tax season and I get to work and get checks....and then before ya know it, summer will be here again...YAHOO!

But no sense in getting ahead of myself...it's still only September 8.

I watched the Jerry Lewis Telethon like I do every year, and like every year I always try and stay up as long as I can to watch it all night long. This year, I did pretty good. I was wide awake at 3 a.m. and going strong at 4 a.m. and still perky and alert at 5 a.m.....then it was after 6:00 and I'm still up and now I'm getting worried cause if I don't get some sleep I'll feel like shit the next day. So by after 6:30 I decided I better get to bed but I left my TV on but couldn't sleep, so I finally turned off the TV and probably fell asleep by 7 a.m. Then I woke up and looked at the clock thinking it was probably noon and it was only 9:00! Oh well, 2 hours of sleep is better than nothing. So I got up, turned on the TV, made myself a cup of coffee and continued to watch the MDA telethon.

By afternoon, hubby and I decided to drive down to my youngest son's new house and see the progress they have been making. I had some king-size pillows I wanted to take down anyway for him. So I took a break from the TV and we went. Wow, I was impressed with what he had done. He tore out all the carpet and put in new, but mainly he had ceramic tile laid in the foyer, living/dining are and kitchen and 1/2 bath. It looks really sharp. He has a great room in the back of the house where he put in new carpet. And new carpet up the stairs, the hall and all 4 bedrooms. He got some major deals on the carpet...and he was able to use the padding that was already there. And his cousin installed the tile. So cost-wise he did real good. The one huge tall wall by the fireplace in the great room still has to be finished painted. He did what he could reach, but the damn ceilings in that room must be 14 feet high so he has to get a scaffold or someone to finish it. He still needs to put in new molding around the tile and then he can start moving stuff in and finish the painting in the bathrooms later. I'll have to post some pics once I get them downloaded.

Tomorrow we are going down to the DTE office again for the third f'ng time and take the paperwork in. It's so freakin' stupid. Most of what they ask on the forms don't even apply to our case....so I just wrote a long explanation and they can figure it out. This is NOT an ID theft...so "No, we did not file a police report...we do not plan on filing a police report....No, we are not planning on prosecuting anybody...No, we don't have any paperwork proving fraud on someone's part,....No, our credit cards were not stolen....No, our bank accounts were not compromised....No, No, No to most of their stupid questions."

I was planning on leaving for Caseville by tomorrow but guess not now...so I'm planning on leaving by Monday. Then hubby will come up shortly cause the following Saturday is our 39th wedding anniversary! We are planning on going to the Kinde Polka Fest unless it turns out to be too cold and then we will go to the Eagles 50's 60's dance they will be having on the same day.....OR we could go to the Harley Born To Be Wild festival in Elkton and party with the bikers in the beer tent!! (Guess which one we WON'T be doing) Though the beer tent in Elkton would probably be more fun than the polka tent in Kinde. I know, cause my girlfriend and I use to go to the Harley festival every year. Once it fell on our anniversary like this year and I left him home and still went.....BAD BAD GIRL (slapping myself silly!)!! Well, this year, I'll be polka-ing with the old polish guys I guess....OH, forgot that's my husband...

Out of here....Big Brother's on tonight

Why checking your credit reports is a good idea:

Today was a great day!! We have two major problems going on that we have been dealing with for a month now and one of them just got fixed!!

Actually it's a problem that occurred 4 years ago that we thought we had corrected, but it came back to bite us in the ass a month ago.

Let me explain....

Four years ago we kept getting notices from a collection agency addressed to somebody else but coming to our address. At first I ignored them, but after a few I decided to call this agency and let them know they had the wrong person. This person had the same first name as my husband and a very similar social security number...just one number different. Apparently, some clerical worker at the agency typed the SS# wrong for the credit report on this guy and, or course, it was my husband's credit report that they got since she had typed HIS SS# by mistake...being one number off. So they see the same first name and thought they had the right guy, especialy since this other guy's last name was Thomas which sounded like a middle name anyway. They get our address off the credit report and started sending the notices. When it was determined that there had been an error in the SS#, we didn't get anymore notices....problem solved....or so we thought....

Now four years later....last month....we get our DTE energy bill and it's like over $3600!!!! Hubby told me that he thinks maybe we are using the A/C too much when he handed me the bill....hardyharhar! There was over $3500 of past due charges being transferred to our account from some unknown address in Detroit. We're thinking WTF!! I mapquest this address and actually drove to it to check it out and see who lives there. Hubby wouldn't go. It was in a super super bad area of Detroit. I was scared to death. My heart was pounding just being in that neighborhood. It looked like nobody was even living at the address so I didn't bother knocking on the door and just got the hell out of there. Of course, even if there had been anybody living there, I still would have gotten the hell out of there. Hubby called DTE to find out what the hell was going on and we were told to go to one of their offices in Detroit. So we went down there which is in the same vacinity as the old abandoned train station on Bagley. You could see the station in the near distance.

So anyway, we sit for awhile until they call us and we got to speak to one of their representatives. She was confused as to what was going on too. She said that it appeared that a bill was also sent to the owner of the house. It was a rental. She then read the name of the renter and guess what....yep...same guy's name from 4 years ago! We explained the problem we had with this guy's name and this collection agency 4 years ago and she said that it appears that because of that error, his SS# and my husband's SS# are now 'linked' together. She checked HIS account and could see that his SS# was different than my husband's but similar. So when DTE sent for a credit report on this guy to get an address, even using his actual SS#, they got my husband's credit report intead because the two are linked now. But since this matter has already been turned over to the Account Recovery department she told us that we would have to call that department and get it straightened out. She also advised us to get copies of all 3 credit reports and we will have to get this guy and his SS# off or this will happen again.

We went home and hubby called the 800 number she gave us and was told that an ID Theft Packet would be mailed to us in 5-7 days and for us to fill it out before anything can be done. We waited 7 days and then were gone for a couple weeks in Caseville and when we got back...still no packet in the mail. So I call again and was told that it was requested and that we should have gotten it. He gave us another 800 number to call. I called and was told that we have to PICK IT UP AT THE BAGLEY OFFICE! They do not mail it out. So now a month after all this crap started we have to drive back down to the Bagley office where we started in the first place and pick up these papers. Talk about red tape and getting the runaround!

Before we left for Caseville we called and requested my husband's credit reports. Everybody is entitled to one free set once a year. There are 3 of them. Two of them were fine....but Experian, the one that DTE gets, has this guy's name, addresses, phone numbers and a COUPLE of collection agencies on it! OMG! What a mess...

I wasn't going to deal with it until I got back from Caseville. So I went to Caseville, ate lots of Cheeseburgers and drank tons of beer...and I forgot about it for awhile. But now I'm back and I have to deal with it. Yesterday is when we picked up the ID Theft papers. Today I called Experian. I thought it was going to be another runaround and red tape but it was actually very easy. The woman could easily see the problem and she simply deleted everything that had to do with this guy. She sent us a copy of my husband's 'fixed' credit report through email and now it's fine. She is also sending him his new credit score. With all that crap on his credit report, it was really low, like in the poor range....now it is fine again.

I feel so relieved. That part is fixed. His credit is back to good standing. No more linked SS# with this loser guy.

But now we have to fill out these papers and deal with DTE....but now that it is off my husband's credit report, they have no reason to bill us this guy's past due account. And when they check, they can see that his SS# is different. We'll get it straightened out, I'm sure.

But I advise everybody to get a free copy of your credit reports and check it out thoroughly. Online I had read that linked SS#'s are a common problem. When I first called Experian and explained the problem, he immediately transferred me to a different department...so they even have a separate department to handle linked SS#'s on credit reports. That's probably why it was simple to fix. They handle it all the time. Forget freecreditreport.com....cause it's not free. There is an 800 number you can call to get your once a year FREE ones.

So half the problem has been fixed...my husband's credit....and I'm sure DTE will get it straight now.

Anyway, I didn't sleep well last night worrying about all this, so I better get to bed.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Support Jerry's kids.


Ciao