Cherokee Rose

Pie in my Boot

2012-01-16T22:48:00.002-05:00

Something strange is going on. Something really weird. And I cannot for the life of me figure it out. It's just too~too~too WEIRD! Okay, I already said 'weird' but I am stumped for another word.

Let me explain....

I have a pair of black winter boots that are on the floor in the coat closet in my foyer. I brought them down from upstairs awhile ago. I haven't worn them yet this year though because the weather has been so mild. The other day we actually got a little snow. I decided to run up to the gym for awhile and get a workout in. I decided to wear my boots.

I proceeded to put on one of the boots and there was something inside. I reached in and took out a piece of FREAKING PIE CRUST! It was a good inch and a half long and still soft not all hard and crusty like it had been in there for awhile. So I shook out my boot and some crumbs fell out. I proceeded to put the boot on again and still felt something. I was afraid to even put my hand inside at this point so I just shook it harder and ANOTHER PIECE OF PIE CRUST FELL OUT...about an inch long.

(I opted to wear shoes)

Yes...I had a cherry pie in the refrigerator. There were some slices gone because hubby had been eating it. I have not eaten any of it, due to the fact that I am on my winter diet.

I wanted to ask hubby if he had put the pie crust inside my boot....but how absurd would that be??? He was in the family room when the pie crust kept falling out of my boot and he just had a puzzled look on his face. I asked him how on earth did pie crust get in my boot....and he just shrugged and basically said he had no clue.

Had he been eating any of the pie?.....Yes
What did he do with the crust?......(Shrug)

Okay-------I'm going out on a limb here. I'm going to 'assume' that he didn't eat the crust and instead of putting it down the garbage disposal, he put it in the trash that is under the sink.

So...If I didn't put the pie crust in my boot (Which I didn't!!!)
And if he didn't put the pie crust in my boot...
And there are only two of us living in the house...

Well, there are the dogs, of course, but trust me, if they had gotten ahold of any pie crust it would have been devoured within minutes.

Okay....so it may or must have been a mouse!

But I'm trying to picture this....

Here's a little mouse climbing into the trash bin under the sink and grabs an inch and a half piece of soft crust and miraculously without it breaking off, he carried it out of the trash bin, jumped down to the floor, and then carried it in his little bitty mouth to wherever he goes to get out from under the sink and then scurried over to the closet and slipped under the door and deposited it inside my boot!!

THEN...he runs back under the sink, climbs into the trash bin again and grabs another piece and proceeded to carry it all the way to the closet to deposit it inside my boot.

Or maybe there were two mice....and they each carried a piece.

I don't know....

There is no other explanation. Cause it's either the mouse theory, or my husband put it there and either: 1.He's nuts and doesn't remember doing it; or 2.He's trying to make me think I'm nuts; or 3.I'm the one that put the pie crust inside my own boot and I AM nuts.

And if the answer isn't any of the above and if a mouse didn't do it, then I have no idea what goes on in this house when we are both away in Caseville. Just really weird!

Good Riddance 2011!

2011-12-19T00:06:00.004-05:00

The holidays are fast approaching. I can't believe it will be Christmas in only a week. I didn't have alot of Christas shopping to do this year, because we are spending the holidays at our cottage in Caseville. So this is the year that we just send the kids money and gift cards....which I sent out yesterday. One of our sons dropped by today with one of those nice Cheese and Sausage boxes by Hickory Farms. We'll take it with us and enjoy it. We did some house decorating on a small scale here at home. I only got down a few things from the attic...mainly the 3 trees; a small table tree for the dining room, a fiber optic tree for the corner in the living room, and a table top tree for the family room. Then through the summer I had picked up some nice Christmas things here and there that I put out, and I hit some thrift stores or my consignment store for a few things. We don't bother hauling down all the tons of boxes of stuff I have in the attic when we'll be in Caseville anyway. Then when we get back, I'll keep a few of the things but basically donate the rest back to charity or my Spring garage sale. Hubby only put out a minimal of lights for outside. The house will be dark during the holidays anyway. So Mr. Snowman stays in his box this year.

When I was in Caseville last time, I got all the Christmas stuff down from the storage attic we have over the garage and got everything set out...even the tree is standing. I just need to put the lights on and decorate. And do some outside lights and decorations. I hope we get some snow by then!

I'm leaving tomorrow and taking Keno, Mini Sue, and Junior (the Pigeon). Hubby will drive up by Wednesday. Once I'm gone, he'll start his Christmas shopping for me. I got all his stuff bought....some are already at the cottage and wrapped. There will be lots of presents! I love having a quiet Christmas in Caseville...but I also miss the get-togethers with the kids.

We'll be at the Eagles for New Years, I'm sure.

Been watching all the Christmas movies on TV...and ones I have on DVD or Video. Must have watched "White Christmas" 3 or 4 times. I never get tired of watching that movie. "Holiday in Handcuffs" is a favorite...and "Eve's Christmas"...and "Holiday Switch"...there are so many...and all the cartoons! I have a video of the old "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners" Christmas shows. I'm taking it to Caseville and we'll watch it there.

Then after the New Years, I'll stay some extra days and take everything down and put away, then I'll be back home. In February I start my tax job. And another year will be on it's way.

I sure hope 2012 is a better year than 2011. 2011 was not a great year...it was one thing after another...and money just flying out the door. Medical bills, car repairs, pump work at the cottage, plumbing bills...etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

And I recently learned my grandson got himself in some serious trouble....there was a trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to prison. So that's where he will spend the holidays, instead of with his family. Like I said, 2011 was not a very good year.

So HAPPY New Year pleeeeeaaaase 2012!!! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Or should I say Happy Holidays.....not sure why there's a difference to people. I mean, Holiday means Holy Day...so Holy Day or Christmas, same thing isn't it??

Anyway, see ya next year!

My Evening with Donny.....

2011-12-10T23:07:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday we had tickets to go to the Fox Theater and see the Donny and Marie Christmas in Detroit concert. I bought the tickets way back in May when I first read about them coming. The best available seats online were Main Floor but to the far left in about the 19th or 20th row.....or in the lower balcony, dead center in the second row. So we chose the option #2. We'd rather be in the center and only the second row than behind 20 rows of ppl looking over heads on the main floor. Although that isn't where we ended up sitting.....

We got to the theater in plenty of time...about 7:15. We looked around at all the souvenirs that were being offered for sale, although we didn't buy anything. We got a couple of beers and walked around enjoying the Christmas displays and the whole theater. I ran into a friend of mine and we chatted for awhile before finding our seats.

Now the last time we were at the Fox Theater we saw Bob Dylan a few years ago. Prior to finding our seats, hubby always has to use the restroom first. Apparently the men's room is down on a lower level and it took him awhile to find it and finally get back to the main floor where I was desperately waiting for him to return....because the concert had ALREADY STARTED....Dylan had come on and I missed it. He was probably into his 4th song by the time we go to our seats.

So this time, I told him I was not going to miss the beginning of the show so he better do whatever he has to do in time. Yeah....whatever....

We asked the elevator person if there were restrooms on the balcony level and he assured us that there was. So we went up. Then hubby wanted to waste more time looking down at the lobby from above. It was now 7:45 and I told him we better use the restrooms and get to our seats. The ladies room was right there...I was in and out. He was still standing there....waiting for me to return first. Then he proceeded to find the men's room. He was told it was upstairs, so off he went up the stairs.

I waited...and waited....and waited....I finally went up the stairs to look for him or to find the men's room. I found neither. The concert was starting. Donny and Marie were being introduced. They are singing Christmas songs. And I am still waiting.....missing the WHOLE DAMN THING.

I finally decided to go find my seat and he can just find me there. The usher proceeded to take me to my seat and there is only ONE SEAT. I explained that there is suppose to be two seats...where is my husband's seat? She asked me "Where is your husband".....I explain that I have no clue....he left for the men's room and has not been seen since. She needs to see his ticket.

So I go back and wait....Donny and Marie are probably into their 4th or 5th song by now. Way over on the other side I finally spot my husband coming down the stairway on that side. Finally!...I turn my head for a brief second and when I look back, he is no where!!! He is not walking across to where he should be meeting me. I am running up and down the stairs from one floor to the other trying to find his ass!

I am in tears and frustrated and mad as hell by this time!!

I proceed to go back and find..hopefully, the correct seats and he will be there. Lo and behold, he is there with another usher trying to figure out why there is only one seat available...same problem I had. So she took us to a Mezzanine row of seats and told us we could sit there. Technically, Mezzanine seats are a bit more expensive....but these seats were off to the right and not in the center like I wanted. And basically only a couple rows closer...our seats were second row Gallery, these were last row Mezzanine.

I was not real thrilled, but at least I could sit down and watch the rest of the show. Of course, they were done with the Christmas songs at that point and she had changed out of her red Christmas gown and was off to other songs. Luckily, they did resume more Christmas songs later in the program.

It was a really really good show! They had a video of Donny singing and dancing with his brothers on the screen, and Donny and 4 other guys were doing the exact same song and dance on stage...totally in sinc with the video. It was so cool.

Anyway....the next time we go to the Fox Theater for a show....I am getting my seat first, and then hubby can go wander around the floors and do whatever he does later. I am tired of always missing the beginning of concerts just because he can't find his way to and from a fucking bathroom like a fucking FIVE YEAR OLD!

Catching Up....

2011-11-14T18:45:00.004-05:00

I've been so lazy about posting anything on my blog. Guess that's what happens when Facebook takes over your life.

I had been up to Caseville for a couple weeks and took Mini Sue and Keno with me. Decided to leave Junior (the Pigeon) home with hubby. Hubby said that if he decides to drive up for a few days, he'll bring him. The first weekend was the Halloween weekend. I had my place all decorated with lights and pumpkins. I went up to the Eagles that Saturday night and then later my friend and I went up to the Port Elizabeth Grill for their Halloween party. We both just wore our Halloween sweatshirts, but most people wore really great costumes. Maybe one year we'll dress up too! There was karaoke and dancing. We don't sing, that's for sure...but we sure do dance! So we had alot of fun. Got home pretty late.

The following weekend was both the Holly Berry Fair and the Eagles was having a Spaghetti Benefit on the same day....don't know why, but they did. So I met up with another friend in town and we basically did most of the Fairs and then got lunch. I bought a few things....but wasn't looking for anything in particular. I got too much shit as it is. Mainly, I bought 5 jars of these pickles that this lady makes. Last year, I only bought one jar. Guess she is moving, so this will be her last year at the fair. Then after we had our lunch, I headed home to take a quick nap and then get ready for the Spagetti Benefit. There was a silent auction and I won a $10 Little Caesar's gift certificate (which we will use during the holidays when we are there); and a Xmasy Welcome wreath with a snowman wearing a Red Wings logo....(will probably give that to my son). Then my friend and I went into the lounge and drank beer the rest of the night. Got home pretty late again.

Rested on Sunday!

Drove home on Wednesday.

I am scheduled for a stress test this Wednesday....hopefully will find out why there was a glitch on my EKG.

Thanksgiving will be spent at my son and daughter-in-law's house this year with her family.

Hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving....

I'd Drive A Long Ways for a Good Apple!

2011-10-20T00:21:00.004-04:00

Okay...so I did alot of crying, whining and bitching on my last post, but it sure felt good to talk it out, even if it's just on a computer blog page. I know my life is pretty good. I may not be married to the most exciting or romantic man in the world...hardy-har-har...but at least he's someone I can count on. He's dependable and he's good at fixing things!! Which is great for me, cause I'm always breaking things.

So life goes on......

I drove up to Caseville last Thursday for a few days. I went by myself and left the dogs and the Pigeon home. It's nice to have the freedom to stop along the way and shop and not worry about the pets in the car. The Eagles Club was having an Ugly Sweater party on Saturday night, so I went up there wearing the most hideous sweater (in my opinion). It had huge sunflowers and bumblebees and lady bugs on it. But there were other hideous sweaters as well, so I didn't win...but we had alot of fun. There was a DJ and we all danced our asses off!

I got alot of yard work done while I was there.....and I put out all my halloween decorations inside my place. At night, I would light all my pumpkin smelling candles and just relaxed on the couch and watched TV in peace.

I left Tuesday. I decided to take a different route and drive past Caro and past Reese and go to Frankenmuth for a shopping trip. I mean, no dogs, no bird and no husband....I can drive aimlessly around and go wherever I want and shop and shop and shop!

One of the things that hubby wanted me to do is make sure I picked up some HoneyCrisp Apples while they are in season in the Caseville area. On my way Thursday I stopped at a big produce stand in Caro and bought 3 apples to try them out. Some years, the Honey Crisp apples are too sour and not a good batch. But these were perfect. So I made a mental note to make sure I stopped in Caro and buy a huge bag full of them on my way home.

Wellllllll, I was so excited to get to Frankenmuth I totally forgot to drive by the produce stand and get the damn apples! I was almost to Frankenmuth when I remembered. Should I turn around and go back??....20 miles or so? I figured that surely there must be some apple stands in the Frankenmuth area and I can take a chance and buy them there and hope they are of a good quality. I got to Frankenmuth and walked the whole town and shopped. But I never saw any produce stands. There was a Krogers....and I was so tempted....but buying apples at Krogers?, hell, I could do that at home.

So I did what a good wife should do. Hubby said to buy Honey Crisp apples and that is what I had to do. So instead of leaving Frankenmuth and driving south and getting on the expressway, which would be the faster way to go....I decided to drive ALLLLLLLL the way back to Caro and buy those damn apples! Luckily, the stand was still open when I got there and bought a big bag of them. Then I just drove home the way I always do.

Sooooooooo, after 40 years of marriage I get a day-old brat and he gets a whole bag of apples! Yeah, I know...I'm still bitchin' a little...

Disappointment...BIG TIME!

2011-10-09T02:19:00.003-04:00

So the last time I posted I mentioned how it was going to be our 40th wedding anniversary and how much I was looking forward to having a good time. The 40th anniversary is a milestone. Sometimes people plan big things like Caribbean cruises or have parties with family and friends. I've been looking forward to this anniversary for awhile. Two years ago when my husband happened to be in the emergency room the eve of our anniversary and we spent our 38th anniversary in the hospital (he was there for a week), I mentioned to him how I would like to go to Niagara Falls for our "40th", and he thought that was fine with him....well, he was under alot of meds so he probably would have agreed to a trip to Europe as well!

Anyway....during the last couple of years we lost our Lucky and got Keno, along with our Mini Sue, and now we also have Junior, the Pigeon...so it was highly unlikely that we would be going anywhere....except Caseville, our course.

I decided that the weekend of our 40th wedding anniversary could be spent in Caseville with our little "family" and the Kinde Polka Fest on Saturday and a dinner on our actual anniversary on Sunday would be just fine. I had planned on going to the "Fireside Inn" cause I love that place and we hadn't been there in a couple years and then it was with other ppl so even longer by ourselves. YES, it was going to be a really nice weekend for our FORTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.

But was it?????

NOPE>>>>>

Hubby decided to screw everything up....The Polka Fest evening was a disaster. We were home by 9:00....

Sunday, we weren't talking and I spent the entire day and evening laying on the couch. I warmed up a day old brat in the microwave and THAT WAS MY ANNIVERSARY DINNER!

Don't want to go into details here.....but trust me, this was entirely his fault. My friends were there and they can attest to that!

I was hurt beyond belief....

Anybody...Couples....are even lucky to have a 40th wedding anniversary. There are so many milestone anniversaries....the 25th, the 30th, the 40th, and the 50th. And you really can't count on the 50th....I mean, even if you make it to the 50th, one of you might in a nursing home...or even dead!!!

So the 40th is probably the last milestone anniversary that a couple can enjoy.

And I was so looking forward to it...I really thought it was going to be a really fun weekend...

But it wasn't...

It was nothing...

Apparently, it meant nothing to him..

Apparently, I wasn't worth it...

Apparently, 40 years of living with me was only worth a microwave warmed up brat.

Trying to get back in the Groove....

2011-09-12T18:15:00.003-04:00

I know it's been a little while since I last posted anything. Not a whole lot going on. Since I've been back I've been hitting the gym and trying to get back into my workout mode. I'm having trouble getting motivated. But I've been going and slowly working my way up to where I was in my workout routine. It's just that after 3 weeks of no workout at all, my stamina gets weak...and my muscles, I think. I know that when I'm in Caseville, I really need to get out the weights, get on my little stepper thingy, get on my bike, or just plain get off my ass and WALK. But I don't.

Speaking of Caseville....I think I forgot to mention the trouble I had with my car when I was up there last. It was the Cheeseburger Festival and the cars are backed up big time just trying to get through town. I was in the line and all of a sudden some warning light came on telling me to check my gages. Sure enough, two of my gages were all the way to the right...like in the red zone. One was for coolant and one was for oil. I knew my engine was overheating so I turned around and weent back home. I told hubby about it, but he was convinced that it must be a computer glitch and there is nothing wrong with my car. Although when he opened up the hood, the engine was really really hot. Whatever...

So later we both attempted to drive into town and again the warning sound went on and the same thing.....both gages were in the red zone. So he figured there must be a problem and I turned around and went back. Luckily, we had his car there to use so we weren't completely abandoned. But I don't feel comfortable driving his car so I used it as little as possible.

We ended up calling a tow truck and had my car towed to the dealership about 8 miles away in Pigeon. They had to keep the car a few days while they ordered parts. There was some cooling fan relay thing they had to replace, but the main thing was my oil pump was shot and had to be replaced...and that's a big job. That's the part they had to order. So over $700 later, I had my car back.

Holy Moley, I'm just glad that it didn't go out on me while I was on the road with two dogs and a bird in the car!!
_______________________________________

So last weekend was Labor Day and we decided to check out the Hamtramck Labor Day Polish Festival. We met up with my daughter-in-law and the kids on Saturday. Then we went back on Monday and caught a few of the musical acts I wanted to see. We saw The Contours (Do You Love Me), and Question Mark and the Mysterians (96 Tears) and Danny D who is a Rod Stewart impersonator and he was really good. I had a ball! We had alot of fun. We both bought a couple of Polish T-shirts that we will wear to the Kinde Polish Fest next weekend.

I'm leaving Wednesday for Caseville again for a couple weeks and hubby will drive up for the weekend. Next weekend is our wedding anniversary and we're going to go to that Kinde Festival on Saturday and out to dinner on Sunday (our anniversary). Then the following weekend the Eagles are having a 50's-60's dance and I got my ticket for that already.

Please Lord, no car problems this time.....and don't let me forget anything when I come back!

Home Sweet Home....Finally!

2011-09-03T00:27:00.004-04:00

You know how frustrating and scary it is when you are trying to find something that is really important and it just isn't where you think it should be....and you look everywhere and it's nowhere, and then you start to imagine that it's gone foreverrrrrrrrrr and you start to panic.

After we got through our son's wedding I drove up to Caseville for a couple weeks. Actually I just drove home yesterday...and also today....(explanation to follow)

When I got to the cottage I realized that I had left my two regular diamond rings that I like to wear on a daily basis at home. I have a two-row diamond ring I like to wear on my right hand and a diamond anniversary band that my husband bought me that I like to wear on my left hand. But for the wedding, I decided to wear my wedding rings...which I usually don't wear much and prefer the anniversary band. So anyway, I get up to the cottage and realize that I still have my wedding rings on and I didn't like the idea of my favorite diamond rings sitting home on my dresser. So I called hubby and told him to bring them when he drives up.

He got there a couple days later and he gave me a small white ring box with my rings inside. I promptly took off my wedding rings and put the other rings on my fingers. That was two weeks ago. Hubby came home last Monday and I decided to stay up and drive home Thursday.

Wednesday I did most of my packing and getting the place cleaned up. I was helping my friend work the bingo kitchen on Wednesday so I was rushing to get things packed up ahead of time. I also take alot of jewelry with me that I keep in this jewelry roll-up thingy I have....it has zippered compartments for jewelry and a couple places to slide rings on, etc. On my dresser I have all my earrings, etc that I had been wearing and I proceeded to put them inside this jewelry bag thingy. Also on the dresser is the little white ring box. I wasn't even thinking about my wedding rings. Maybe I assumed they were in my jewelry bag. I remember thinking that I don't need the ring box for anything and I may as well pitch it out. But then I remembered that it was my husband's and maybe he wants it back or needs it for something so I better pack it and take it home.

Okay....so I got everything packed and later when I got home from the Eagles, I started putting things in my jeep....Thursday morning came and I packed up the rest in the car and took off for home. I stopped at my condo and dropped off a big bag of trash. This worker guy was just picking the trash up in his truck and I handed it to him. On my way home, I remembered my wedding rings and I knew that I wasn't really sure that they were in my jewelry bag and then I realized that I had put them inside the little white ring box when I took the other two rings out. Okay...no problem.

Only, when I got home and started unpacking everything I never unpacked the little white ring box. I kept unpacking one thing and then another looking for the ring box and it was nowhere! Then I tried to remember even packing it and where I put it. I couldn't remember! And I knew I had thought about pitching it out....cause I thought it was empty. I had completely forgotten about my wedding rings. But I was sure that I didn't throw it out...at least I didn't remember tossing it in the trash. But at that point I wasn't remembering much of anything. I was starting to panic! I thought I had put it in this small tote bag with these purses I was bringing back home. I checked the inside of the red purse, empty...I checked the gold purse, empty...I checked the green purse, empty. WHERE THE HELL IS THE LITTLE WHITE RING BOX WITH MY WEDDING RINGS INSIDE??!!!

OMG...Did I pitch it out? I don't remember!!

My heart is racing....my mouth was so dry....I thought I was going to have a panic attack.

I told hubby that I have to go back to Caseville. I have to know for sure that I left it sitting on the dresser. Cause if it's not...then I have to go to the condo and get my trash out of the bin and check it. I'm thinking that the trash is going to be picked up in the morning and I have to check and know for sure whether it's there or not. I needed peace of mind to know that I didn't pitch it out if it isn't at the cottage. I NEEDED TO KNOW WHERE MY WEDDING RINGS WERE!!

So by 6:30 I was back on the road heading back up to Caseville. I got there shortly after 9:00 and first went to the condo. I had planned on staying there for the night since the cottage was all cleaned up. I dropped my stuff off and wanted to watch Big Brother on TV first but it wasn't on anyway...it was pre-empted with a football game. So I went into town and bought a Subway and rented a movie for the night. Then I drove over to the cottage. I really thought for sure that I had left the ring box on the dresser. I went into the bedroom and looked and it wasn't there!! I looked everywhere....under the bed, in drawers, in the closet...all over the cottage. I had packed some things that I had put in the attic and went up there and checked the bags. No little white ring box.

My phone rang and it was hubby calling hoping that I had found it. NOPE...no such luck. I told him to check the two bags of laundry I had cause maybe it got mixed in with the clothes to wash I had thrown on the floor. He checked...no ring box there either.

I knew what I had to do. I grabbed a flashlight and went back to the condo. It was around 10:30 at night by then. I walked over to where the two large commercial garbage bins are and pushed open the gate. I looked inside them and they were empty! Then I remembered there was a third one. I opened that gate and looked inside and saw mounds of trash bags. I found something to stand on and with my flashlight, I was able to lean over and push some bags around and I saw my black trash bag! I could barely reach it and I almost fell in trying to get the damn thing out but I managed. I dragged it out and took it back to the condo with me. I went through it painstakingly...I pulled out every last banana peel...every last eggshell and kleenex, etc. There was NO white ring box! Okay....now I know I didn't throw it out....so it HAS to be somewhere.

I went back to the cottage and looked everywhere again. I tried to relax. I watched the movie (The King's Speech) and tried to sleep on the couch. By 4:30 I went back to the condo where all my stuff was and tried to sleep on the couch there. I said a prayer to help me remember what I did with the ring box. The thought of my green purse kept popping into my mind. But I knew I had checked the purses. Then I remembered this smaller purse I had packed and I didn't remember checking that one. So I had a small bit of hope that maybe I had put it in there, although I doubted it. I think I dropped off around 5:30 or so and woke up around 8:30.

I eventually got back on the road and hit some garage sales and then headed for home. About 45 minutes into my drive, I remembered that I forgot to take the movie back. It was in my purse!! So I had to turn around and head back to Caseville to take the damn movie back!....Good Lord, am I ever going to get out of this town and get back home??!!

So I got back home hoping maybe hubby had found it but he hadn't. I told him about my checking these purses but I hadn't checked the small one. So I got it and opened it and it was empty...of course...I really didn't think it would be there. So I showed him how it wasn't in the gold purse and it wasn't in the red purse and then I grabbed the green purse, which has about 4 different pockets to open and I unzipped the one pocket to show him it wasn't in there either and when I opened it....THERE IT WAS!! THAT DAMN LITTLE WHITE RING BOX WAS INSIDE THE GREEN PURSE! Apparently when I had checked it originally I must have only looked inside 3 of the pockets and missed the 4th one.

So it was there all along...inside the green purse...the purse that kept popping into my head when I prayed for some kind of guidance of remembrance.

I opened the box and there were my wedding rings...Now I have peace of mind. Now I can get a good night's sleep. Now my husband can commit me where they put people with early onset of dementia!...Cause I can't remember a damn thing anymore!

The Wedding....

2011-08-16T19:18:00.010-04:00

So this has been a busy weekend for us. Saturday evening we drove to the church for the wedding rehearsal. It's the first time I met with the minister. My son had had some trepidations about marrying in the church. Some churches require several meetings beforehand and alot of questions are asked, and some even require you to attend meetings and attend church services beforehand for awhile. That is what my other son had to do before they got married (oh, and also give the proper amount of money each week!) Anyway, my son just didn't want to get into all that. So he wanted to get married in some small chapel nearby....very nondenominational.

She, however, wanted a church with a long aisle for her to walk down and big enough for everybody and large rooms for the girls to get ready in, etc. And I agreed. She was getting nowhere with my son and emailed me. So I told her to go ahead and have her grandmother make the arrangements cause I'll talk to him and he'll do it.

All it took was a couple emails from wise-ole mom and he finally agreed. So they had a beautiful church wedding on Sunday....and when she walked down that aisle I had tears running down my face. She was so beautiful...

Prior to the ceremony, they only had to meet with the minister a couple times; and yes, there was some online questionnaire with like 200 questions on it that they both had to answer and give to him. Alot of the questions were stupid as far as I was concerned. I would have answered "none of your business".

Anyway, back to the wedding....Her father came to the wedding(alone). He did not walk her down the aisle....she walked the aisle by herself. After the ceremony, he had his picture taken with her at the altar. We didn't talk to him. I didn't think he was going to be at the reception but he was there. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Again, we didn't talk to him. But she didn't do the father/daughter dance with him. Don't.know.why.I.didn't.ask....I mean, it's not like they are estranged. She and her daughter have been living with him and his wife since she's been divorced. She is only now just moving out.

So the wedding was perfect. The reception was perfect. I loved her dress and the dresses of her girls. Her daughter and a friend's daughter were flower girls. Noelle's dress and her daughter's dress were identical with the same color sash around their waistline which matched the color dress of her maid-of-honor. The other little girl's dress was also identical and her sash matched the bridesmaid's dresses. Just beautiful!

Here's a few pictures: (More pics in My Photo Studio)

The Bride and Groom....

The Wedding Party....

The Wedding Party by the Limo...

The proud parents...my husband and I

The Wedding Weekend....

2011-08-13T13:04:00.002-04:00

Okay....so who in the hell prayed for rain this weekend??? GRRRRRRRR. Tomorrow my son is getting married and the weather report is stating RAIN RAIN RAIN all day. It's already starting to rain now and it's all dreary.

Well, I tried to warn my son. When he gave me the date, I looked it up in the Farmer's Almanac and sure enough, it said 'Thunderstorms' for this weekend. I told him but he thought it was a bunch of malarkey....'how the hell would some farmer know that far in advance what the weather is going to be?' THE FARMER KNOWS....HE ALWAYS KNOWS!

Tonight is the rehearsal and I have the rehearsal dinner planned for a nice restaurant about 15 minutes away. They have a small banquet room in the back that they will let us use. I think there will be about 20 people.

But her dad and stepmom won't be there...

Her dad is an asshole and her stepmom is the bitch from hell....

Her stepmom has been trying to sabotage this wedding from the get-go. She likes having her and the granddaughter living with them. Guess it keeps their marriage together..having someone else in the house. And she resents my son 'taking them away from her...' She has been calling and texting horrid messages to my son. People have told my son how possessive and controlling she is and she is not very well liked in the family.

So my son basically said that she is NOT invited to the wedding. Of course, he can say what he wants but she is the wife of her father and I'm sure she will be there whether he likes it or not. The invitation was addressed to both of them. Well, apparently, (fiance told me), her father will be at the wedding but he will NOT be walking her down the aisle! And stepevilmom will not be coming at all!!

Hallefuckinlujah!! The fat cow is staying home...!!!

But I can't believe that her own father will not walk her down the aisle. Apparently, he has orders from Bitchwife, so he doesn't dare. Like I said, she is VERY controlling with everybody in her life...

My son's fiance was worried that if stepcow comes to the reception my son will make a scene. I said that it's not my son she has to worry about....Cause when someone pisses me off....when someone gets MaMa mad....when someone messes with one of my kids, then that person is going to have to deal with ME! I told my husband that if she is there, I am going to get a glass of red wine and 'accidently' bump into her...LMAO...and she better not be in the bathroom at the same time as me alone or she will find her head in the toilet..!!!!

Anyway, guess I won't have any fun flushing her fat face with toilet water cause she's not coming anyway. She must be scared of me....WHOOWHOOWHOO...

Rain or not, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Should be fun...I'll post pictures. Of course, not one of me holding the cow under water because she ainna gonna be there.....

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS...

2011-08-08T18:14:00.004-04:00

SIX MORE DAYS TO GO! Then Sunday my youngest son takes the plunge. Yes, there will be another wedding in our family...and that will be the last one!

So I gave up trying to comfortably fit into the dress I originally wanted to wear. I bought it in a little bridal shop in Bad Axe....a size 10, but for some reason it fits snug around the rib cage. I can get it zipped, but it feels too tight when I sit down. There's a jacket so it isn't real noticeable, but I don't feel very comfortable. So I've been working my bloody ass off the last few months or so...and basically getting nowhere. I lose weight, then go to Caseville and gain it all back. FRUSTRATING AS HELL!! I have a Plan B...you know, another dress I could wear. A size 10, as well, but it fits better. The one I want to wear is a light lavender color....Plan B is a real pale light grey...almost a white with a tinge of grey. Both are pretty.

So I'm talking with my son's fiance a few weeks ago and she shows me a picture on her phone of the bridesmaid's dresses....and....they are the EXACT SAME COLOR AS MY DRESS! Not close or almost the same....the EXACT same shade. She calls it Wisteria. I call it a light lavender. I knew her color scheme is basically pink and purple, but I thought it was a different shade of purple...darker. So I thought my light lavender dress would compliment.

I cannot wear the same color dress. It would look like I was trying to upstage her bridesmaid's dresses or something. And I don't want to look like I'm one of the bridesmaids. Not a good idea!

Oh well...just as well...I'll wear Plan B. But in trying to lose a few pounds in order for Lavender dress to fit better, now the Plan B dress is a little big...grrrrrrrr! But it has a jacket so it doesn't look too big. At least I can sit in it comfortably.

But I'll only be wearing it for the wedding and pictures and the first part of the reception. But once that music starts, I'm changing into my PARTY DRESS!! I'm not wearing a long dress with a long-sleeve jacket all evening. So I bought an adorable sleeveless black dress to wear for dancing.

So I have my dresses situation settled. I have all my accessories...shoes, earrings, bracelets, etc. I think I got it all covered.

I'll just be glad when it's over with....

My Dry week in Caseville....

2011-08-02T21:36:00.002-04:00

I just spent a week in Caseville and got back yesterday. We are having major well problems at our cottage. Had water when I got there, but the next day after I showered I noticed that the water pressure was getting weaker and weaker until I was getting nothing out of the faucets except sludgey stuff...yikes!

I called the plumber but he wasn't coming out until the next morning. My plumber is good but he only works mornings....then he heads up to the Eagles for lunch, etc and goes home for the rest of the day. Remember, it's a small town and that's how they do things up there. Luckily I have my little condo apartment up the road that I could go to.

So the plumber gets out the next day and found a lose tubing thingy that is attached to the pump....voila!, problem solved. He replaces part of it and attaches and tightens it up. Then he primed the well and started her up and the pressure started rising and I had water!

...at least for a few days anyway...

By Sunday I had noticed that my toilet hadn't filled. Didn't think too much of it cause it fills slow and sometimes I just have to get out the pitcher and fill the tank up myself. So I figured it will fill eventually and I left to go up to the Eagles for their Spagetti benefit dinner they were having. They also had a silent raffle and a 50/50 drawing. The benefit was to raise money to help someone who has cancer and isn't working.

Then after the dinner some of us went into the lounge and had a few drinks and I didn't get back to the cottage until close to 8:00. The toilet still hadn't filled and I turned on the faucet and NO WATER AGAIN. That's when I noticed that the pump was still running....running but not getting any water. I turned it off and had to wait until morning to call the plumber.

He came out the next morning but couldn't get the water up. He said that I have a deep well but a shallow pump and that alot of the shallow pumps are having problems getting water because of the low water levels what with all the dry hot summer we are having and lots of people using the water. Shallow pumps can only pump water that is down 25 feet....lower than that they can't pump it up....that's when you need a submersible pump, which most people have but we don't. He said that he has been replacing shallow pumps for people.

So that's what we have to do. Replace our pump with a submersible one. Well, I had to come home so they are ordering the parts and will have it replaced by next week. Then (hopefully), I'll have water when I go back up again in a couple weeks.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.....another major unexpected bill!! I swear, it's been one thing after another since about the middle of December. 2011 has NOT been a good year. What else can go wrong?? I mean, just before I left for Caseville we lost power for a few days....then we had plumbing problems here at home and now this. Probably gonna cost us almost two grand. Yeah, like I don't have better things to spend my money on!!!

Whatever....it's only money

And Life Goes On.....

2011-07-15T22:40:00.002-04:00

I don't know what that means...but it just popped into my head when I needed to type in a "Title" for this post.

I've been up in Caseville for almost 2 weeks for the 4th of July holiday and got back earlier this week. Hubby drove up for a good week before he headed back. My son and his fiance and her daughter came up to the condo for a long weekend. Happily we had good weather and was able to lay out on the beach and ride the jetski, etc. Well, at least THEY rode the jet ski....I think I've been on it as a passenger a couple times and that's all I need. I'm not a big fan of water toys...well, except maybe those blow-up rafts, they're kinda relaxing. But I don't find sitting on top of an engine powered vehicle skimming across the water at 100 mph very relaxing. Maybe not 100 mph but it may as well be. But some people like it....me, I'll stay on the beach.

Then, of course, I hit all the garage sales I could find. And as long as hubby was there to watch the dogs, I took off for some of the farther cities to shop. Mainly I wanted to go to Bay City and shop at Younkers...I love that store. It's affiliated with the Parisian stores we have around here. The charge card I have can be used at both. Anyway, they always have great sales and I had a 15% off all-day coupon that was burning a hole in my wallet.

One Friday night hubby and I went to the Eagles for dinner and I played some of the pull-tabs. Hubby thinks the pull-tabs are a big waste of money. I took a few bucks over to the machine and he told me to just give the money to him instead...haha. So I won a buck here and there and also got a $5 winner. I was ahead by $9. He took the $5 bill. I used $3 to buy a round of beers and decided to put the last dollar into the pull-tab machine and buy a $1 ticket.

He says to me..."I'll give you back this $5 for that ticket."

I thought a minute and said...."Okay"...and I gave him the ticket and took the $5.

And I was smiling cause I figured the ticket was probably going to be another loser or maybe just another $1 winner and I would be ahead with the five bucks.

So he grabs the $5 out of my hand and says..."I change my mind"...!! And he gave me back the ticket.

I ripped off 3 of the 5 tabs and on the inner side I could read the actual winning amount before I even ripped off the last two....and it said $200!!! OMG!! I looked up at him and he could see by the look on my face that it was a good winner....or that I was just bluffing.

I ripped off the last two tabs and sure enough, there was the American Flag!! Yep...The American Flag picture was worth $200 bucks!

So I showed it to him and he couldn't believe it....heeheehee...

He kept asking me if I was sure....and I told him to take the ticket to the bartender and she will give him $200. And that's what he did and sure enough, she gave him $200...!

So now he understands why I play that 'stupid' game.....
_________________________________

But then yesterday my bathroom sink is backing up....hubby plunges it and it gets worse. Water won't go down at all. This morning, it's still standing. So we call the plumber. He comes out and has to take the trap apart and snake it way back to get it unclogged. We now have clear running drains. The total plumbing bill was exactly $200!!!!

Can ya believe it???!!!

So ya win some, ya lose some.....bye-bye $200

The Case of the Missing Yellow Trash Can

2011-06-28T15:38:00.003-04:00

Hubby likes to keep things around....even when they are no longer of any use. I throw it out....he finds some place to put it (cause ya just never know when you might need it one day). I don't like old dirty things...I like to replace old dirty things with nice new clean things. I don't give a rat's ass if the old dirty thing still serves it's function. I don't want old dirty things in my house!...well inanimate object things anyway. I think I'll keep hubby around as long as he bathes once in awhile!

Good Lord, must have been a few years ago, I decided to get rid of the old plastic yellow trash can that sits under our sink. I mean, after awhile, it starts to get to the point where you just can't clean it anymore and yucky stuff sticks to the bottom....old brown dried up banana peels with pieces of old eggshells stuck to it, etc. You know what I mean....I'm sure some of you have something like that sitting under your sink right now. So I go buy a nice new plastic trash can and put it under the sink and threw the old yellow one out the door...into the trash....bye-bye stinky trashcan!

Well, imagine my surprise when one day I notice this pathetic looking trash can sitting on the side of my garage. How the hell did it get there?? Need I ask, I ask myself. Sure enough, hubby thinks there is nothing wrong with it and you can still put stuff in it, like sticks and yard waste or whatever. Alright....as long as it's not in my house.

So about a year ago when hubby was in the hospital and I was in control of Garbage Day, I took that old stinky, and now it is really stinky with old wet leaves stuck in the bottom, and I put it out with the trash.....AH-HA BYE BYE STINKY YELLOW TRASH CAN! So after the garbage truck leaves in the morning, I go out to put the regular big trash bins back and lo and behold, what do my eyes see?? That damn yellow trash can sitting there (and do I detect a smirky look from it??) WHAT?? Those stupid garbage guys didn't pick it up....they left it there. There was absolutely nothing in it for them to think it was just another trash container and I had it laying down with the garbage. Why the hell did they think I wanted it BACK!!?? So back to the side of the garage it went.

And I forgot about it for awhile....

Then about a month ago I was cleaning the side of the garage and there it laid in the wet muddy grass looking worse than ever. I poured out the rainwater and wet leaves and brought it inside the house where I proceeded to try and clean the damn thing. Not really sure why I was trying to clean it...guess I thought I could at least donate it to charity if I can't get the garbage guys to take it. It was so bad, it had permanent streaks of black marks on it. It was badddddd!

So I did what I had to do. I dried it off and snuck it upstairs in my room and hid it.....hubby totally unaware. Then when I had a chance, I got a pair of strong scissors and slowly cut that stinky yellow trash can into a dozen or so pieces. That plastic is hard but rubbery....took awhile but I got it all nice and cut up. Then I put all the pieces into a bag and stored it in my closet. Then the next time I went to Caseville, I snuck the bag into my jeep and off to Caseville it went.

And guess what I did with it once I got it to Caseville? That's right, I PUT IT IN THE GARBAGE! And the Caseville Garbage collectors picked it up and it's GONE GONE GONE from my life!!!!!

I'm sure hubby is still scratching his head wondering where the hell did that 'nice still-funtional' plastic yellow trash can went to. Did someone steal it??...How can it just disappear??? He hasn't asked me....cause he doesn't want to know.

I admit, every once in awhile I sneak a peek at the side of the garage just to make sure it hasn't come back. I mean...stinky trash cans are like cats...no matter where you take them to get rid of them, they always find their way home.

Caseville Blues....Car Repair Blues

2011-06-25T00:42:00.004-04:00

I've been gone up to Caseville and just got back Monday. Last weekend was the Blues Festival at the Bella Vista where my condo is at. So I mainly went up there for that. They put a huge tent up out on the lawn down by the beach and set it all up with tables, dance floor and a bar. I don't really know how much they charge to get into the tent because all of us owners can enjoy the music without paying to actually sit inside the tent. Plus, we have our own beer! Guess it's one of the perks of having a place there. So I hung out by the beach and talked with a couple of the other owners and enjoyed the sounds of blues....they had a couple of bands playing throughout the evening.

I spent some time up at the Eagles while I was there. There was a ladies auxilliary meeting that I went to...plus the Friday fish/hamburger night. Sunday the ladies put on a big Father's Day breakfast for the men. They get there really really early and prepare all the food and start serving around 9:00. Since I am NOT a morning person and didn't even get to bed til 2 in the morning cause of the Blues Festival the night before, I didn't help out.....but I did show up in the afternoon to sit in the lounge with the ladies and drink Long Island Iced Teas!

Had a good week and also got some yard work done when the weather was good. Left the dogs and the bird home with hubby.

So by Monday I headed home....

Then I hit the gym big time to work off the Long Island Iced Teas...

Yesterday I took my car into the dealership to have them check out a weird noise my car was making....noticed it when I was in Caseville and was almost afraid to drive home. Something weird was going on by the back driver's side wheel. Turns out it something called a Rear End Axle Pinion Bearings or something. Gonna cost me over a grand to fix it. And with the weekend now, it won't get done til Monday or Tuesday.

So I'm driving hubby's car in the meantime....

Tonight I went to my high school class annual get-together. Not a regular reunion...just a get-together for those who live nearby, in town, or just like to drive a long ways to come see everybody. We usually get around 20 people. But tonight we had the biggest annual turnout....35 classmates! We had a great time!

It's after 1 a.m. and I got my Zumba class tomorrow at 11:30 so I better get to bed....

Another Time...Another World

2011-06-13T15:13:00.006-04:00

A long long time ago there was a young maiden girl who at the tender age of 14 met a young, yet older, man of 20. He looked at her and knew she was the girl for him. She was flattered and quite taken with this man and also fell in love with him. During their brief courtship, she found herself 'with child' as they say. Far, far too young to be in that situation.....but they loved each other immenselessly. Her parents, although quite devastated I'm sure, understood...but more importantly they understood that this young man better marry their daughter! They married and at the tender age of 15, she became a mother for the first time. They had a little girl who they named after her. Then she became pregnate again shortly after and had another little girl.

The man found himself now to be not only a husband but also a father. He knew and understood the responsibilities....and he accepted them. He worked hard providing for his family. Every day he went to work in a factory and worked an assembly line.....every day.

She stayed home, and while she cooked and cleaned and changed diapers, she watched her friends date and go to proms and graduate from high school. Although there were many times she felt she was missing out on so much, she loved her husband and her family so very much.

The years passed and they had four more children....four sons to carry on the name. Their family was complete....six children. They had an enriching life....beautiful home and children as the man had provided well for his family through the years.

The children grew up and went on with their own lives...marrying and having children of their own. A few of those children went on to have children of their own, creating yet another generation.

There were trials and hardships along the way of their life together, but their love stayed strong and they can look upon their very close-knit family and be proud. Every Christmas ALL the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren spent the day together. It was truly a house blessed with four generations of people....all existing because of the love of one 14 year old girl and a 20 year old man many many years ago.

But this year, there will be one less. The 'young girl of 14' lost her soulmate of 50 years. The man had to leave his precious family. He had been ill. And his time and purpose on this earth had ended. His family will grieve...but the memories they will cherish forever. They will be okay. They are a strong family....and the love is abounding.

This is a true story. People I know. This is how it happened 50 years ago. Unfortunately this is probably not how it would happen nowadays.

In todays world, the 14 year old girl would have an abortion. Her beautiful daughter would have been eliminated and tossed away as trash. The 20 year old man would be arrested and have it hanging over his head the rest of his life. The existence of three more generations of beautiful people would not be. They would simply not even exist.

Unlike today, 50 years ago, people stood up and took responsibility. They didn't look for an easy way out.

And in the end they have been blessed.

As this family gathers to mourn and say good-bye to their patriarch, God will smile down on them....and he will be proud.

What did YOU do with it????

2011-06-08T22:55:00.006-04:00

I HATE when I can't find something. I know I'm always misplacing things. Guess I always have too much going on in my head...multi-tasking too much...and I get sidetracked easily. And, you know how it is, you put something somewhere not really thinking about it and then later you spend hours and days trying to find the damn thing....."What the hell did I do with it??!!!"

Alot of the time though I get lazy and set things down on a table with the intention of doing something with it later....or maybe I just want it where I can easily find it shortly cause I'll soon need it. That's when alot of things go missing. Hubby hates having stuff laying around on the table or kitchen counter.....so HE puts it somewhere....somewhere where HE thinks it should go. Then, of course, later when I go to get it, it's not there. Or worse, because it's not there, I totally forget about it....i.e. like a list, then off to the store I go and don't have it. Why?, cause it wasn't on the damn table near my purse and I forgot it.

So I get very aggravated with hubby for constantly moving my 'shit'. When I put something in a certain place, I expect it to be there when I want it. Simple as that!

So the other day I had a $200 check I needed to deposit. I put it in my checkbook so I'd have it when I got to the bank. We needed to write a check for the asphalt guy last Friday and I had it all written out except for the "To" part. When the job was completed, hubby took the whole checkbook outside to finish writing it. When I came into the kitchen, I saw the check sitting on the kitchen counter. I then went on the computer and he came and wanted me to fill in the rest so the handwriting would be the same (at their request). Later we went to the Irish Fest.

By Tuesday I decided to go to the bank. I take out my checkbook to fill out the deposit slip and NO CHECK inside. WHERE THE HELL IS THE CHECK??? I remembered seeing it on the kitchen counter Friday. I asked hubby if he had put the check back into the checkbook where I had it. He said he didn't remember.

We looked everywhere....all over the kitchen counter, where we keep the bills, under the breadbox, drawers, all my purses I had been using. Turned everything upside down. Couldn't find it. I figured it had probably been pitched out with some junk mail on the counter. I was FURIOUS with him for taking it out of my checkbook in the first place.

I yelled and cursed and basically told him he's an idiot....

I told him in no uncertain terms that I am tired of him moving my stuff. If I put something in a particular place, it's cause that's where I want it to BE!! STOP MOVING MY SHIT!!!

Did we eventually find the check?

Yep.....I found it laying on the floor underneath my chair in the family room. Apparently, when I was paying bills Sunday night, I had taken it out of the checkbook and it fell on the floor. Apparently, the check WAS put back into the checkbook afterall.

Now I had two options. 1. I could NOT tell hubby I found it where I apparently had dropped it Sunday night and then later slip it farther under the breadbox and pretend I find it later. OR 2. Fess up and admit that I was the one who misplaced it.

I fessed up. I showed him the check and explained where it was and how it got there. I laughed about it....hee-hee. All he said was "Oh yeah, it's funny now." And that's about all he said to me the rest of the night....

Ok....so maybe he wasn't responsible for the missing check this time....but trust me, there are LOTS of times when he is responsible for stuff I can't find and I don't say anything. So guess it kinda evens out....

(Next time I can't find something, I'm keeping my BIG MOUTH SHUT!!)

Heading Out....

2011-05-24T11:40:00.002-04:00

I'm heading out to Caseville for a week. I'm taking Keno and Mini Sue and Junior, the pigeon we have adopted! He's slowly learning to fly. I'm hoping that shortly after I get back, he'll be ready to be released....and he'll be on his own. I hope!! Right now, he has the run of the house. He totally HATES being in his cage. Except at night. Then he doesn't mind cause he just wants to sleep. And I put a blanket over the cage and he's fine til morning. But once we're up, he's ready to be let OUT! Then he just hangs around the house....walks around...picks at stuff he finds on the floors and hangs out with the dogs. The dogs are fine with him. All three of them will sit on the couch together. It's so funny...

Hoping hubby will drive up in a few days....my son and fiance will be up. Hoping for a decent Memorial weekend!!

Hope everyone has a safe holiday....

Ciao....

Feeling Groooooovy!

2011-05-21T22:53:00.003-04:00

I'm finally feeling like my old self after a week of recuperation. Last Monday I went to my regular doctor. I was getting concerned because of the way i was feeling. I just felt real sluggish and tired all the time. He said that is normal. He did some blood tests. I bought myself a bottle of potassium pills and have been taking one or two a day and by Thursday I was feeling much better.

Friday I even went to the gym and worked out.....didn't do a whole workout....tried to take it easy a bit, but I felt good.

Friday night hubby and I went to Applebee's for dinner. The restaurant we went to is going to start a major remodeling next week, so all the great stuff and memorabilia that they had on their walls was all on the auction block. We put a bid in on a few items and ended up winning a couple items. I won a framed picture of Peter Fonda from "Easy Rider"....and a really nice picture of a Coupe DeVille that I think our son will like. Real authentic Applebee's decor!

Tonight I met a friend for dinner and drinks. Got home early. Think I'll watch a movie. Last night I watched "Passion of Mind" with Demi Moore.

I personally like Ashton Kutcher (her husband), but I think he's being a real scumbag for taking over Charlie Sheen's role on Two and a Half Men. I think he should have supported Sheen and stayed out of it. But Money Talks!!...and Money always wins in this world of greed we live in. Friendship and loyalty goes out the window for a buck.

My Non-Colonoscopy Experience...

2011-05-14T22:58:00.005-04:00

I just went through a harrowing experience while prepping for that dreaded colonoscopy. First let me say, that I ended up NOT having the colonoscopy done. Complications occured during the preparation. It was the worst and longest night of my life.

Wednesday I was drinking lots of water and eating jello and popsicles as instructed but in the evening I just started to not feel very well. I drank the last concoction at 10:00. BTW, the stuff I had to drink was fine. Unlike what everybody else was telling me how you have to drink this whole gallon of terrible tasting stuff, all I had to do was pour this small package of stuff into an 8 oz glass of water and drink it.....and it was tasteless. Easy as hell to drink like in 5 seconds. That part was no big deal.

Anyway, I drank the last pack of 3 at 10:00 and shortly after that the nausea started. I was to then drink 3 more 8 oz glasses of water before midnight. It was getting harder to drink them. I think by midnight I only drank about 16-20 oz by slowly sipping it down. I was feeling sicker and sicker. And then the vomiting started. But after midnight I couldn't drink any water at all. I couldn't sleep. I suffer from insomnia anyway and was afraid to take my usual sleep aid, so I was awake most of the night suffering. The more I got sick, the more dehydrated I was getting and the thirst was getting unbearable. By 2:00-3:00 I was so miserable. I almost wanted to just drink something and say to hell with it and cancel the whole thing, but I didn't. I was getting such a headache and kept putting a cold washcloth on my head.

At some point, I finally dozed off and woke up at 5:00. The headache was still there and there was this roaring in my ears and I was getting unsteady on my feet and feeling really dizzy and shaky. The nausea was still bad and I was still getting sick. After 6:00 I knew I had to go downstairs and start getting dressed to go. We had to leave by 7:00. My husband was up and when he saw me, he became alarmed and said that there is no way they are going to do the procedure in my condition. I was stumbling around. I had trouble walking. I had trouble even talking. My hands felt tingly and weak. I could barely get dressed. My mind was in a very confused state.

By 7:00 we left the house and my body was shaking uncontrollably by then. I was having trouble forming words to even tell my husband where to drive. Luckily, he knew the way. When we got to the Surgery Center, I was stumbling in the building making no sense at all to the receptionist and shaking so bad. She ran and got the doctor. I don't remember a whole lot after that. I know there seem to be alot of people around me. Someone gave me a juice box. I heard someone say "Call 911". Then paramedics were there asking me questions. I tried to get words out to answer but the shaking and trembling was bad. At some point, they put me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital. They connected me to an IV, I'm assuming. I don't remember much at that point.

I was basically crashing bad....

At the hospital ER, they determined quickly that I was suffering from Hyponatremia....my electrolytes were down; my sodium level had dropped to a dangerous level of only 115! Normal is between 135-145....anything below 125 is not good. At that point, I could have easily went into a coma and died. They hooked me up to another IV with sodium and potassium. They put about 5 blankets on me and one of the nurses kept telling me to breathe slowly. The shaking started to subside and I started to be able to talk better. They eventually gave me ice chips, then water and juice.

I was admitted to the hospital. They needed to slowly bring my sodium levels back up to a normal range. By evening, I was feeling so much better.

I was there for the night and they released me yesterday. I'm still not feeling 100%. I still seem to have a slight headache. With all the sodium, my blood pressure seems to be on the high side, so I'm working on getting that back down with my pills. I'm drinking Gatorade which is what I should have been drinking during the prep instead of just water and 7-Up.

I have nobody to blame but myself for what happened. Prior to prepping for this colonoscopy, I have been on a crazy diet and not eating much and using laxatives on almost a daily basis to help with weight loss. I guess using a bunch of laxatives prior to a prep involving alot of laxatives is NOT a good idea! They said at the hospital that with my personal overuse of laxatives my sodium level was probably already on the low side and when I did the prep, it pushed it to a danger level.

And there were other issues like not drinking Gatorade....but also one of my prescriptions with my blood pressure pills is a water pill. They knew at the Surgery Center what my prescriptions were. They should have instructed me to NOT take the water pill prior to the prep, but nobody told me that. So with the water pills in me, that also contributed to the dehydration problem.

So that was my experience....

I still have to reschedule the colonoscopy at some point. But I will be doing things different. I'm not using laxatives anymore...period. I won't take the water pills. I'll drink lots of Gatorade. Plus, I'll know the signs and symptoms. If I start to feel nausea or shaky or headachy....I'll simply quit the prep and drink water and eat and just call and cancel in the morning. But I'm sure, it'll be fine next time. I just screwed up. But God....I still hate the thought of going through that prep again with the fasting....UGH!!

Catching Up....

2011-05-11T16:43:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted anything since I got back from Caseville, so I'm just going to quickly update on a few things.

Tomorrow I'm having a colonoscopy done, so I'm prepping for that...and I'm so HUNGRY!! I can't even think straight....I'll be glad when it's done and over with and I can EAT!!

I stayed a few days longer in Caseville than I had intended. Some of the condo owners had scheduled an association meeting on Saturday and I didn't want to miss it. The main association member who owns about 75% of everything had decided to add an addition to the Florida Room that he doesn't even own. It is attached to his bar/lounge and he only leases it from the Association. In front of the Florida Room there was a patio and he decided to enclose it in. Nobody knew about this until owners started going up there and saw it. I am FURIOUS to say the least. My unit is right next to the Florida Room and I had a decent view of the water from my place, but with the patio enclosed, my view has been somewhat restricted. Basically, there is nothing we can do....it's done. What he did was clearly against the Michigan By-laws. We could probably get a lawyer but everybody else seems to be satisfied with his apology and 'he won't do it again'. Whatever! My son is the main one who is using the place now. I stay at my cottage and only use the condo for the beach and pool. So guess the view doesn't matter. It's just that I also feel that my place has been somewhat devalued because of the lack of view now. Anyway, so I went to the meeting and drove home the same day.

When I got home, I found that my son had rescued 'another' pigeon for us to take care of!! Back in October, 2007 he had rescued a pigeon that had flown into a windshield and brought her to us. I blogged quite a bit about my adventures with rehabilitating "Brinks" as we called the pigeon. We had her from October, 2007 until April, 2008 when we were finally able to release her. I had fallen in love with that little pigeon and it was so hard on me when I had to let her go. She basically lived in our upstairs and had total freedom to fly around. She had been ready to be released by November, but because of the hawks in the area and the weather I didn't want to. So she ended up staying with us all winter. Please go back in my archives during that time and read about her, and see her many pictures.

So anyway, apparently when my son was driving down Telegraph Rd, he saw this young pigeon fall out of it's nest under the overpass and hit the concrete below...and cars were whizzing bar and he was toppling around. So my son did a turnaround and went and rescued him and brought it to our house. He is a young pigeon without all his feathers and even still has some of that yellow fuzzy feathers that young birds have. We have a dog crate we keep him in and he is learning to eat and drink water and growing his feathers. Right now, he still needs to grow his tail feathers before we can release him. I'm going to have to take him back to where my son found him and hope he reconnects with his family. He won't be ready until after Memorial weekend, so I'll be taking him with me to Caseville. That's what I had to do with Brinks a few times.

I'm STARVING!! I'm trying not to think about my hunger pains...but it ain't working. I go in tomorrow morning at 7:30. Hoping everything is normal. It should be.

2011-04-26T20:39:00.005-04:00

Had a busy weekend. Saturday night we went to my neice's wedding reception. We would have loved to have seen the wedding but we just couldn't leave the dogs that long. As it is, we left the house at 5:00 and didn't get home until around 12:30 or so. We had a GREAT time! Got to see alot of people we haven't seen in a long time. My nephew was the photographer and he had one of those photo booths set up for people to have their pictures taken in. He made it himself. As a matter of fact, he had just completed it that morning! He's a pretty smart guy. Hubby and I went in and had our picture taken...

There's a staircase out in the main lobby so I had hubby take a picture of me on the staircase....and there's a piano there so he took a picture of me by the piano....this was all as were were leaving, so we had a few drinks in us by then...haha.

Then Sunday was Easter. I made a ham for dinner with all the fixings and we just spent the day at home.

Monday I hit the gym!!

Today I went to the gym twice......once to do my regular workout (resistence machines and treadmill)....and then later I went back to do the Zumba aerobics. Trying to get in as much gym time as I can.

I'm leaving for Caseville tomorrow for a week and I don't think they have the fitness center built yet in Caseville. They're suppose to but the last time I was up there they hadn't even broke ground yet. I'm going to try and get out and at least do some walking....weather permitting.

I have alot of yard work to do so hopefully, I'll get some exercise in that way. I'm thinking of leaving the dogs home this time. I'm only going to be gone a week. But I HATE leaving my dogs!! What to do, what to do.....

I know there is nothing for them to do up there and they have the whole summer to be going back and forth there. Keno loves chasing after his squirrels here at home. And all Mini Sue does up there is sleep under the bed. I don't think they like it up there. So maybe I'll leave them home....but I'll miss them so bad!! I don't like not being with my dogs. What to do...what to do....?????

Oops....Dancing With The Stars is on.......rooting for Kirstie and Kendra!!

DO I REALLY LOOK LIKE THAT?!!

2011-04-21T21:59:00.002-04:00

I had to go to Target to buy a few things that I needed, and naturally started looking at things that I don't really need....like clothes. But I just can't pass up those damn 'Clearance' racks. So I'm picking out this and that and decide I better try them on....and I truly HATE trying on clothes in those stores. I have to go into the fitting room where the dreaded fitting room mirrors are.

Why are fitting room mirrors so different from my mirrors at home??

At home I check myself out and I look pretty good.....okay, maybe not great, but certainly good enough to go to freakin' Target. I mean, at least I have make-up on and my hair is combed and I'm feeling pretty good cause I lost a few pounds and I'm wearing jeans that haven't fit all winter.

But then I go into the fitting room, turn around and see an old fat crone staring back at me....Yikes!...Where did SHE come from?

The point is that all store fitting room mirrors make a person look absolutely hideous and I can't figure out why.

First of all, they don't use 'skinny' mirrors....they use 'fat' mirrors. I see every fat cell. I look at least 10 pounds fatter than I did before I walked out of my house.

Then my beautifully made-up face is now all wrinkled up and sagging and I look like I just got out of bed.

So I turn around in disgust and take off my size 8 jeans that fit me just fine, thank you, and try on another size 8 pair of jeans and I can't even get the damn button buttoned....I can barely get them up past my now humongous butt. So go figure. Apparently you can actually gain weight just by entering one of their fitting rooms!

Then I try on the top which happened to be a size Small....why or why did I even think that it would fit, why did I bother to even take it in the fitting room...but it was on sale..and it was cute..and I was hoping. Reality Check: NO FUCKING WAY
I barely get it down past my boobs and it is so super tight. And I'm looking at myself in that stupid mirror and I've got this too tight, plastered to my body top on with a pair of jeans that looked like I had at least a dozen muffins hanging over the waistband. Not Good. Nope. Not working for me. But now I can't get the top off. So I got my head down and I'm yanking and pulling on it and clawing at it with my fingernails and inch by inch, it slowly came off. Whew! I settled for a Medium. It's a little snug but at least I can get it on and off okay. Decided I don't need the jeans.

Then I get the hell out of there....

I just wanted to go home and kiss my mirrors at home...at least THEY love me.

RIP tax season....(I'll be back)

2011-04-16T22:13:00.005-04:00

Well...It's been awhile since I last posted anything, but there just hasn't been a damn exciting thing going on in my life.

I've been working a couple/few times a week since it's still tax season. Monday is my last day. For those of you who may not know, but apparently Friday, Apr. 15, is some kind of government holiday (even though everybody else in the country has to work), so they extended the tax season to April 18. And we've been busy, busy, busy this year. And it's just me and my boss doing all the work.

I can't believe I've been working for the same CPA for well over 20 years now. I think I started working for him back in '87....hmmmmmm, I'll have to ask him Monday....my memory doesn't go back that far anymore. But he works for himself and does accounting the rest of the year for companies....but come tax season, he needs my help. It's a great job, to say the least! I work a 2/3 times a week for 2 months and then I'm off for 10 months to do as I please. Back when I was more ambitious, I use to work other part-time jobs and temporary jobs for a temporary agency. One good set-up I had was when I worked for the American Lung Association. I worked their busy season from end of April (after tax season) to end of June (school out, summer Caseville time), and September to December...then I was off for my tax seasonal job. Did that for a couple years. One tax season, I worked for my CPA, AND I worked a part-time job for Equifax at the same time. WOW....that is when I was really ambitious and could actually get up and function well before noon. I remember working jobs where I had to be at work at 8:30 in the freakin' morning!! I have no clue how in the hell I ever did that. I must have had a clone.

When I first started working for my CPA, I use to go in at 10:00 which wasn't too bad.....but at some point, when my body started to do morning melt-downs, I finally had to ask him if I could PLEASE start at noon, and I was willing to work til whatever time....6:00-7:00....didn't matter, but I could no longer do mornings.

I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!! But that is another subject...

So anyway, Monday is my last day and it's always a little sad when I work my last day. Damn....I like my office, and I love the kitchen/break room and really love the coffee! This is a new office for us and it's the first time I've ever had an office where the coffee is FREE.....well, at least for me....I guess my boss has to pay for it, but he told me to drink all the coffee I want and I do. And it's really great coffee....and there's even a TV in there. I'm going to miss it.

Through the years, we've been in several different locations and offices, and one year he had two offices and I worked both of them. But this place tops all of them so I hope he doesn't move again.

But I'll be back in 10 months!...and when I come back to work, it's like I never left. It's really funny how in all this time, my boss and I have never aged....weird....

Grrrrrrrrrrr.....Just grittin' my teeth....

2011-03-27T23:35:00.007-04:00

My son's fiance's shower was suppose to have been today. But due to some health issues with the bride-to-be's mother, she decided to postpone it for a later date....probably a good idea. I have no idea how many people they had to make phone calls to. I don't get that involved with bridal showers. There was nobody I was inviting so I didn't have to make last minute phone calls.

And they also decided to postpone the wedding as well. I'm not too happy about the date, but then again I wasn't very happy with the original date either. See, there are three...3 main big weekends in Caseville where we spend most of our time basically from May to September. There's Memorial weekend because it's the first real big holiday summer weekend and Caseville always has a city-wide garage sale in town and through the township, basically all the way down M-25 to Port Austin. And I like to have a garage sale at that time at least every other year, and this was the year I was planning on having it. But they decided to have the wedding on Memorial weekend. Fine....I don't have to have the sale...I can wait until next year....I can miss Memorial weekend in Caseville....no big deal....WHATEVER.

So I adjusted to that fact. I bought a nice lavendar springy color dress with long sleeves to wear cause you just can't depend on the weather in May. We've had beautiful warm Memorial weekends and we've also been chilled to the bone. I joined a new gym on a 3-month membership so I can lose a few pounds so the dress will fit more comfortably. Trying to stay away from burgers, fries and beer for a couple months. So I'm thinking that it will be nice to have the wedding the end of May and then I can relax and enjoy the summer and party and drink beer and eat lots of grilled burgers!

Okay....so now they decide to postpone the wedding.

The other two big huge weekends in Caseville are during the mega-huge-biggest damn festival in Michigan called "CHEESEBURGER IN CASEVILLE"!!! It's a 10-day event covering two weekends....probably 100,000 people come into Caseville at one time or another for it. This year is the 13th year and I've never missed a year since the first one. The first few festivals were held for only 4 days but it got so big with so many people that they extended it to 10 days so it would cover two weekends.

And I like to get up there that week before it starts and get down all my Cheeseburger decorations and get my place, inside and out, all decorated with my palm trees and monkeys and flamingoes, etc. And I get out my silly hats and beads, and by the time the first concert starts that Friday night, I'm all excited for the upcoming 10 days of PARTYING!

Well, the wedding is now being planned for the first weekend of the CHEESEBURGER FESTIVAL!

Of course, there were other weekends, but she didn't want to mess up her girlfriend's vacation plans.....or her daughter's vacation plans.....or her parent's plans for the Downriver Cruise they always attend....

...and they didn't want to have it during Fourth of July weekend or Labor Day weekend. I had suggested Labor Day weekend cause the summer is basically over anyway and I'm thinking.."Memorial weekend, Monday off for everybody".."Labor Day weekend, Monday off for everybody"...what's the diff?? See, they want to have the wedding on a Sunday to get a cheaper rate. But for some reason the 4th and Labor Day weekends are not an option.

So basically the only other two weekends to choose from would be the Telegraph Car Cruise that WE and members of OUR family like to enjoy.....or OUR Cheeseburger vacation weekend in Caseville...

So now I'll have to diet allllllllllllllllllll fucking summer...no partying, no beer, no burgers and fries.....no wine coolers.......no margaritas....no long island iced teas.........

I'll have to eat salads and eggs and cottage cheese. I wonder what cottage cheese taste like on the grill???? I'll have to eat rice cakes....and yogurt....(sniff-sniff).....

...and it'll probably be 95 degrees and I'll be dying in my long sleeve dress that I already bought....Maybe I'll wear my Cheeseburger hat....

Hell, they've both been married before....why don't they just go to VEGAS!? Send me a postcard.....I can read it while I'm sipping on my margarita sitting at the pool.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

2011-03-17T23:23:00.005-04:00

An exerpt from my facebook post to save time:

...."Jerry and I had a super fun time up at the AOH club....the Irish dancers were fun to watch...and the musicians playing Irish songs was so freakin' great....and I had Irish Stew and Jerry had ??french fries??...wtf??....whatever...he's Polish, so what does he know?????....he feels lost when there's no sausages...I told him to eat a hot dog , but he settled on French Fries."....
_____________________________________________

The AOH is an Irish club near us...the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It's a really nice club that really likes to PARTY!!....and I'm always up for a party...that's for sure. But I have to work tomorrow, so gotta cut my partying short tonight.

So I wore my Lucky Irish t-shirt....

and my green jacket and lots of green beads and Irish buttons.

Hubby wore his Irish sweater and the hat I bought him for Xmas with some green feathery stuff stuck in the brim.

WOW....We looked Irish!!...

I wish I had taken my camera...I couldn't believe all the green in that room...unbelievable!!

Anyway, we had a good time.....time for bed...gotta work tomorrow...bummer!!

Ciao...

Damn Dust Bunnies...

2011-03-15T09:31:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year when the sun comes through the windows in such a way in the morning that you can see all the dust on my tables in the living room....RATS!!...We rarely even use the living room and I tend to kinda forget about stuff like that. You know, stuff like HOUSEWORK....too many damn estate sales and sales going on everywhere. The only ones who do use the living room are my dogs, Mini Sue and Keno, and it's not like they would notice.

KENO: HEY MA!

ME: What do you want now Keno??

KENO: When the hell are you gonna get the dust off these tables?? Everytime I jump up on the table in front of the window to bark at 'Cider' when he runs by, I get my feet all dusty!

Yeah, right.....

And I don't remember the last time my hubby jumped up on the tables...

So now the jig is up. My lack of housekeeping skills is blaring at me every morning when I walk by the living room. So today I grabbed a dishtowel and quickly wiped away some of the dust before hubby gets up and sees it. Hell, he probably already has. Oh Well....

What does he DO all day when I'm not here???

Grab a dust cloth...grab the Pledge...do something besides working on those damn crossword puzzles!!!!

I gotta work today....so tomorrow for sure I'll get out the Pledge....

Then I'll watch Keno jump up on the table when 'Cider' runs by and watch him slide off!!...HAR-HAR-HAR....

You suck Mother Nature!

2011-03-11T08:32:00.002-05:00

Dear Mother Nature...

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Hey, we're six days away from ST. PATRICK'S DAY, for God's sake! In only two more days they are having a St. Paddy's Day PARADE!! So why am I still looking at snow all over my car this morning?!!???

ARE YOU F*&@#$G SERIOUS????

Why are you being such a BITCH this winter??

GO AWAY!!!!

We don't want you here anymore in Michigan....you are not welcome anymore. The beautiful snowflakes falling at Christmas time is so DONE!!!! I don't want to even SEE another snowman in my life!!!!!!

Is Jack Frost with you?......Is he the one really responsible for this?? Well, you can tell him that if I find him, I'm cutting off his snowBALLS, and I have alot of help with me.

Cause I'm not the only one who feels this way.....

We want to see sunshine, and tulips...good lord, my poor tulips buds are struggling to even breathe under that blanket of snow crap you just dumped on them AGAIN....

Hell, I'll even take your crummy rain compared to this bullshit you're still dumping on us.

It's getting old....real old...been there, done that kinda thing. You know what I mean??

We are only NINE....count them, NINE!....days away from what you call Spring..

BRING IT ON....already

(please!)

Just working....

2011-03-02T18:16:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a little while since I last posted anything, but there hasn't been much to post about.

I've been working a couple days a week and getting use to my new surroundings. Actually, I like my smaller office....it's all I need. I had complained to my boss about the radio/music blasting outside my office, so he must have said something...and now there is no music at all that I can hear. I'm sure that people there now think of me as the "bitch who hates music"....whatever. If I wanted to listen to music, I'd go to a bar.

Of course, down the hall from me is the kitchen/lounge area where there is a TV that sometimes gets a little loud. So I just turn the volume down and go back to my office. I'm now known as the "bitch who hates music AND TV".....

Sorry guys...I can't concentrate with distractions. I do more than just sit around talking on the phone and socializing. I actually do work. I am responsible for the tax returns of people. And there is no room for error when it comes to the IRS!

Maybe they'll find me a nice quiet office down in their basement...LOL

Shanty Days weekend....

2011-02-23T22:28:00.002-05:00

I drove up to Caseville last weekend for the Shanty Days winterfest. Actually, I left Thursday night after I got home from work. I don't like driving at night but it wasn't too bad. At least I didn't stop and shop along the way cause most places were closed by the time I drove by. So I got up there about 9:30 and saw that the place was just as I left it....no frozen pipes, etc. I always worry about that...or worry that the furnace stopped working. I have a breezeway where the half bath is and there is a separate wall furnace in that area, and I keep the thermostat set at about 42. Then there is the regular furnace for the rest of the place that I keep at 55-56. The thermostat only goes down to 55 so can't set it much lower. I would if I could....probably keep it at about 52 if I could. Hell, our thermostat for the main part of our house here at home is set at only 53!! But we have a separate gas wall furnace in our family room that we keep on and we keep a piece of plastic up over the doorway to contain the heat in the room, so we're nice and warm and cozy out there....which is where we are most of the time.

We take FAST bathroom breaks!...LOL

And we have electric blankets for sleeping, so we're toasty warm enough.

And we dress warm in the house!!

And our gas bills are still higher than they should be...damn gas companies!

So anyway....had a good time in Caseville. I didn't enter my chili in the chili cook-off this year. I decided to party up at the Eagles instead Friday night instead of sitting home making chili. They had karaoke Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night after about a couple of pitchers of beer, me and a couple of friends got up and sang "Rockin Robin"!.....Rockin Robin...tweet, tweet, tweet; Rockin Robin...tweet, tweet, tweet; Go Rockin Robin cause we're really gonna rock tonight!!!!

And that's what we did. WE ROCKED!!

But I think I should have stopped after the two pitchers. Saturday I felt like crap allllllll day....sick, sick, sick....I was a sick little birdie. I finally got into town later in the afternoon and went down to where the Polar Dip was being held and only caught the last two jumpers. Missed most of it. But I felt better later in the day and went back up to the Eagles for some more Karaoke and dancing fun.

Sunday I didn't do much all day....and I drove back home on Monday. Had to be at work by Tuesday.

So that is it for Caseville for quite awhile. I won't be getting back up there until the end of April...unless I can get a short weekend in. I'm busy now doing taxes until April 15. Then my neice is getting married April 23.

Then it will soon be summer!!...OMG, I can't wait. I am SO DAMN SICK OF THIS WINTER AND ALL THIS SNOW!!!

Today I put on my bathing suit and boots and went out into the snow and hubby took a picture of me....I posted it on Facebook. I won't jump into icy waters, but I can stand in the snow for a few minutes.

I rented the movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2" tonight since there is nothing on TV to watch except that stupid American Idol. Why don't they just get to the 20 contestants and get on with it??? How long has this show been on and they still haven't picked the contestants? Who the hell cares how you pick the contestents....just pick 20 and then start the show!!!

And "The Bachelor" is another waste of TV night on Mondays. Personally, I think Brad is a jerk and not even that good-looking. He has this menacing look about him with his eyebrows and big nose. I catch parts of the show here and there and some weeks not at all. Who cares who he picks. He won't stay with her anyway.

I watched "V" last night and then got all ready to watch "Detroit 1-8-7" and it wasn't even on!...just another dumb show came on in it's place. I was so pissed I was screaming at the TV!

Is there nothing good on TV anymore??

So most nights I go in my room with my warm electric blanket and watch "Lost" episodes. I just finished Season 3 and gonna start Season 4. That was the best show on TV. Nothing will ever top it or even come close.

Nite....

Toaster #4.....

2011-02-13T20:34:00.003-05:00

The last toaster I bought apparently wasn't the last toaster I bought. To refresh my memory here is where I stand. Toaster #1 was bought at Target...a cheapo $15 toaster that absolutely did NOT toast evenly meaning one side was toasted and the other side was burnt. Refunded toaster #1. Toaster #2 was bought at Sears...a pricier one at $50, but it just didn't look right next to my microwave. Refunded toaster #2. Toaster #3 was bought at Sears...the priciest of all at $55. It still didn't toast evenly but better than toaster #1 and looked much better next to my microwave than toaster #2. Tentatively and temporarily decided to keep it. But I was getting real tired of toasting a slice of bread and then having to turn it around and repop it back in for an additional 15-20 seconds to get the other side toasted enough.

So today I happened to be at K-Mart and decided to just 'look' at the toasters. There he sat....all nice and black just the way I like em, and he had all the right buttons I could push, and his price was oh-so right...$19.99!! He was a cheap slutty little toaster...and he wanted to go home with me!! He was talking to me...telling me how he'll perform to my satisfaction, telling me how he longed to get all hot and steamy for me and how he'd love to toast my bread. How could I resist him??? So I got out my money and gladly paid for his services...!!!

I wish you could have seen my hubby's face when he saw me walking in with that toaster box under my arm....hahaha... But better yet, you should have seen the expression on toaster #3 cause he knew he had been replaced! Hey buddy...if ya don't perform to my satisfaction, you gonna get replaced...

So I got out my vacuum attachments and cleaned out the toast crumbs the best I could and packed him up in his original box and styrofoam and off to Sears I went. Yep, I got my $55 plus tax back. And my cheap little toaster sits proud in my kitchen, looking perfect next to my microwave. And guess what??...I did the toast test and he even performed as promised....BOTH SIDES WERE TOASTED EVENLY!!!

Now I'm a happy toast-maker....

Toast anyone??

2011-02-08T23:26:00.007-05:00

My toaster died on me. The heating elements in the middle which toasts both pieces of toast went out so only one side of the bread toasted. So I had to toast one side, flip it over and toast the other side. I finally got out to buy a new toaster. I thought it would be easy to just pick up a new toaster...a nice cheap one that would basically do the trick. I mean, what is the big deal to toast a couple slices of bread??

Off to Target I went in search of the perfect cheap-ass toaster. I had to admit that the cheapest was $15 and wasn't what I wanted. I want a black toaster to match my microwave like I had. The next step up was $20 and it was black so that's the I bought....an Oster 2-slice black toaster with the bagel and cancel button. I took it home and put in a slice of bread to test it and basically had what I already had with my broken toaster. One side was toasted and the other was barely toasted. I set it up higher to a little darker and then one side was toasted and the other side was burnt. WTF?? Dumb-ass cheap toaster.

I cleaned out all the crumbs and took it back to Target...

So off I went to good ole reliable Sears. First of all, why in the hell is it so damn hard to find a BLACK toaster?? Most everything is chrome or brushed stainless steel or brushed chrome or whatever it's called. I know that alot of people like those stainless steel appliances which to me looks like they belong in a restaurant or a school kitchen...very commercial cold look if you ask me. So now all the small appliances are the SS look. The only reason why I want a black one is cause it sits next to my black microwave. My appliances are actually that bisquit color...a lighter shade of almond, I guess. Anyway, whatever....

I go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and basically see the same toasters as Sears with very little much else to choose from. Nothing cheap-ass....

I go back to Sears and debating between a black Kenmore, a black KitchenAid and a brushed chrome with some black in front. By this time, I have decided to pay more money at least in the range of $50 or so. I call hubby. I can't decide. So I'm describing them to him on the phone. I even put the phone up to each toaster and pushed the handle up and down so he could hear them..!! (I got a weird look from someone watching me holding a cellphone up to a toaster, like I was having the toaster talk to my husband..) I tell him that I should have brought a slice of bread with me. Then I would find an outlet somewhere and actually test it in the store. He said he really didn't think that would have been a good idea. He advises me to go with the Cuisinart, the brushed chrome one. I hang up. I am still not sure. I really wanted a black one and the other two were black. I didn't like the looks of the Kenmore one, even though it was the cheapest at about $35. I almost decided to just go and buy the KitchenAid but I went with what hubby said and bought the Cuisinart for $50.

I take it home and get it all set up next to my Microwave and I don't like it. It's too wide and squatty looking and I just don't like the chrome look. Even hubby said he didn't like it. So I packed it up and took it back to Sears.

Okay, so now I've taken back two toasters. Went from hoping to find a good cheap-ass one for ten bucks or so and ended up having to go over fifty bucks to get what I want.

I exchange the Cuisinart for the black Kitchenaid that I really should have gotten in the first damn place. Also, my dishwasher is a Kitchenaid so I know it's a good brand. The KitchenAid one is $55...so it better damn well work!

I take it home and get it all set up next to my Microwave and it looks great!! Now for the toast test. I put a slice of bread in and one side is perfect and the other side is a little less toasted...still not even. Although, not nearly as much difference as that cheap Oster one I first bought.

I'm toasted out......I'm keeping it.......I'll get use to the uneven toasting. I'll just butter the one good side and I won't even look at the other side. Cause I really hate when things don't match up.

Now you would think that all these toaster companies could come up with a way to toast both sides evenly. I mean, how f*****g hard can that possibly be?????

Super Sunday....

2011-02-06T23:53:00.006-05:00

Tonight was SuperBowl!!! The Packers won!!...Go Packers!!! We had a two-person, plus 2-dogs party! I served veggies and dip, crackers and cheese and chips and dip and made a pizza. Mini Sue and Keno loved it! I found the best frozen pizza ever!! (Notice all the exclamation points I'm using...(love exclamation points)) I went to Gordon's Foods and almost bought the Digiorno's pizza cause that has always been the best so far. This little old lady was selling these samples of things they sell in the store and she had these small samples of pizza that was really really good. So I put the Digiorno's back and bought those instead. They come 3 to a pack...full-size big ones...for $14.99. I baked up one tonight (15 mins) and got the other 2 still in my freezer for later. It comes with cheese and pepperoni so I added some onion, green pepper and mushrooms. It's better than Little Caesars which doesn't say much, I know, cause Little Caesars tastes like no-taste nowadays. Not like it use to be back in the day. But it is even better than Digiorno's!

Nothing tastes the way it did day back in the day, have you noticed???

I went to Big Boy's and ordered a Big Boy hamburger and it was a step above a Mcdonald's Double Cheeseburger that I could get for $1.19! It was so fuckin' bad, I couldn't believe it. Now Big Boy's has a day when you can build your own hamburger....and I heard that even THAT isn't that great. Hubby also informed me that arabs now own Big Boy's....no wonder. Glad that Indians don't own it or we would be eating soy burgers or some such crap since the cow is so sacred to them and all.
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Today I went to the show and saw Black Swan. Since it has nominations for the academy awards and golden globes, etc., I assumed that it was a good movie. FORGET IT!! It was one of the stupidest movies I've seen. It made no sense. Half the stuff was her fantasy or her imagination or whatever. She apparently was turning into a swan or something at the end. I have no idea. I think she dies...I think she stabbed herself but I'm not sure since it could have been a fantasy and wasn't real anyway.

I have no idea why the masturbation scene was relevant. I have no idea why she fantasized about her girlfrind going down on her....or maybe it was real and her friend was just trying to freak her out into THINKING she was there and she really wasn't.....I HAVE NO IDEA....stupid stupid movie!!!!!!

By the end of the movie, I could care less if she died or not....I just wanted to go home....
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Oh....first day of work went really well. Nice office building but my office is small but comfortable. I really liked the other place, and I think I'll like this place too. But this place has a radio playing through speakers up and down the hallways.....a speaker right outside my office. I find it so distracting. I cannot work with music. I can't sleep with music. I can barely tolerate music radio stations in my car. How the hell am I suppose to concentrate???????

Lucky time in Caseville

2011-02-01T19:24:00.002-05:00

I got back from Caseville yesterday. Just in time to hibernate here at home for the coming blizzard that is forecasted to started coming anytime soon. It's now 7:25 p.m. and I see no snow as of yet. From what I hear we'll be getting up to 3 feet of snow!!..LOLOL....well, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but 12-18 inches may as well be 3 feet. The way most weather reports are so inaccurate most of the time, I won't be surprised to see an inch on the ground in the morning....ho-hum...

I had a really good time in Caseville. A lot of partying and a lot of relaxing and watching TV. It snowed alot and I had my driveway plowed a couple times. I spent alot of time up at the Eagles....a meeting and partying in the lounge afterwards; bingo and partying in the lounge afterwards; and my friend's birthday was celebrated last Friday night. Oh my...maybe I shouldn't mix my drinks. I was having beer, Black Russians and Cherry shots. Next day didn't feel so hot and laid around the house all day swearing off booze FORRRREVVVVERRRR!! Even stayed home Saturday night and went to bed by 10:00 and didn't get up til Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Of course, by Sunday night I was wide awake and was up half the night watching TV.

Was lucky at Bingo and won $40 both nights I went....$80 total. Got a $10 pull-tab winner in the bar and alot of dollar winners...came out ahead of what I spent. But the best thing was for my Birthday friend. I got her 3 pull-tab tickets for her birthday and she won $125 on one and $5.00 on another! I had luck surrounding me that week.....everything I touched turned to gold..LOL Too bad I don't have a pile of gold sitting in my driveway instead of all that damn snow.

So with all my lucky winnings, I did alot of shopping in some of the nearby towns....Pigeon, Caro, Bad Axe....and spent every damn dime of it Plus more!
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My boss called me yesterday and I start my tax job Thursday! He moved to a new location which a bit closer for me to drive. I can't wait to see my new office. He's on the 6th floor though and I don't like being on high floors in buildings. So I'm a little nervous about taking the elevator that far up. Yes, I said 6th floor, not the 60th. I'm just a big baby when it comes to heights. I have a phobia about going up higher than 3 or 4 floors in an elevator. Years ago he had me deliver something to someone on the 10th floor or something and I had to take the elevator 2 floors at a time to get there. I get off, get back on, go up 2 floors, get off, get back on, and so on and so on until I got to the 10th floor. It's just a phobia so QUIT LAUGHING AT ME!!!

Busy Week......and Vacation Time!

2011-01-16T15:41:00.004-05:00

This past week I've been busy getting things done and seeing people so I can get up to Caseville for awhile before I start work.

Last Tuesday I finally got over to my daughter-in-law's house. Of course, there had to be a glitch. The battery was dead in my car when I went to start it! So I transferred all the gifts to hubby's car and took his. First time I've been there but it was easy enough to find. I stayed a couple hours and then headed back home before the snow came and hubby could get up to Sears to buy a new battery.

I took Keno to the vet for his annual check-up and he passed with flying colors. But I am so sick of these damn vets charging an arm and a leg for everything. A fecal test use to be around $20 or so. I was charged almost $40 this time!! I'm leaving their poop home next time and check it myself!!...LOL

So I got this 30% off coupon for Kohl's and they are having all these great sales anyway, so I've been shopping there quite a bit buying this and that...getting really good deals with the coupon on top of the sale price. The main thing I've been looking for is a winter purse. OMG, why oh why is it so damn difficult to find a purse that has all the functions I want?? I want a somewhat big purse, with an opening on the outside of the purse to put my car keys, a zipper pocket inside, a pocket inside to put my cell phone, a zipper across the whole top....I don't want all my junk hanging open...and most important of all above all else, A LONG ENOUGH STRAP so I can put it over my shoulder comfortably with my winter coat on. I don't want one of these damn purses with a little handle/strap that I have to carry my purse on the crook of my arm. That reminds me so much of my mother! Plus, we carry so much more in our purses than our mothers did. We have more than just a wallet and a hanky! My arm starts aching when I have it on my arm. I want it over my shoulder with my arms and hands free. Plus, I want one strap..not two..and certainly not those new types where the handles are rounded. They don't hug your shoulder and slip off too easily. So why is that so difficult?? Who the hell designs purses anyway?? Some man probably....then they stick a woman's name on the brand.

I finally decided on a taupe color one that matches my coat. I had to compromise on a few things. Outside smaller zipper pockets are on the side of the purse instead of in front. No zipper across the top, but there is a flap that closes so at least it's closed up. I love the handle though. It's one of those braided types that aren't slippery and don't slip off your shoulder. Not 100% happy with it but I like it and it'll do.

The color looks nice with my knockaround winter coat, but doesn't look so well with my nicer cloth black coat that I will be wearing sometimes to work. So I went to the consignment store and bought a cheaper black one that is simple, smaller, good handle, zipper across the top for work days. I just throw a few basics in for work....wallet, keys, hand cream...and that's about it.

Of course, hubby doesn't understand the need for a new purse. He asks me "what's wrong with the one you're using?" The one I'm using is a small December/Holiday type purse I use temporary. It only holds a handful of my things. So he asks me "well, what's wrong with the blue one you were using before?" Uhhhh, cause it's BLUE and my coat is taupe....doesn't match. I was using the blue one before I had to wear my winter coat....goes with jeans and jean jackets, etc. Now I'm wearing a BROWN COAT! Good Lord....

So now I'm all set to head up to Caseville for a couple weeks. I'll leave tomorrow. I got my jeep loaded with stuff I have to take. I'll be back home by the 31st. And I'll be busy there. I have an Eagles meeting, Bingo on Wednesdays, Saturday nights at the Eagles, a birthday get together at the Eagles, seeing friends, etc.

I am so anxious to get up there and have some relaxation time!

A Good Day for Soup....

2011-01-07T17:50:00.002-05:00

Today the snow came...and came...and came. I have been trying to get together with my daughter-in-law since before Christmas so I could give her all the Christmas gifts I have for her and the kids...and yes, even my oldest son who won't talk to me. It's been one thing or another. So today I was going to drive over while my son was in class at the ITT school he is attending..(being paid for by the army, or better known as WE THE TAXPAYERS). They have been back to Michigan since March and I haven't been to their house once yet, so I thought that while he was in class I would drive over, see the house and drop off all the gifts. I really wanted the kids to have their presents under the tree by Christmas morning, but since that didn't happen, then two weeks after Christmas will just have to do....although not quite the same as opening up presents under the magic of a Christmas tree. But I had no control over that.

But today it decided to snow....and I had a limited time limit as to when I needed to be there and be gone before idiot son got home from class...which was shortly after noon. So I get on the road around 10:00 and try and see if I can drive....but they live along ways away and I would have to get on the Expressway to get there. Driving was so-so until I hit North of Eight Mile...I don't think Southfield believes in salting their roads apparently. The roads were worse, slippery and traffic was going at 25 mph....and I hadn't even gotten on the Expressway yet....I had a minimum of a 35 minute drive and that's in good weather. I couldn't risk another accident and another claim to my insurance company, so I decided to turn around and go home. I'll try again next week. Damn, if I wait much longer, I may as well give them their Christmas gifts for NEXT Christmas!

So I came home and decided it was a good day to make a big pot of soup. Besides the ham bone I just put in the freezer from Christmas, I still had another ham bone from a ham I made last Easter....so I decided to use that one. I always keep a lot of extra meat on the bone before I freeze it, so lots for soup later. I got it simmering in my big cast iron dutch oven soup pot with an onion tossed in for awhile...and then threw in some potatoes, carrots, more onion, celery and a small jar of Northern beans, and I also put in a can of cream of Broccoli soup. Later I made a milk-base rue and thickened it somewhat with that. It was so GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!! We had it for dinner with chunks of sliced bread and cheese. It's suppose to snow all weekend so homemade hot steamy soup will be good to eat.
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I'm going to go watch an episode of "Lost". I got Season One and Season 3 for Chrismas. So I'm going to rewatch the series from beginning to end...I just need to buy the other seasons. With DVD's there's NO COMMERICALS!...so it's easy to watch 3 or 4 episodes at once. I'm on episode 9. That is the greatest series on TV EVER! It should have been a movie. I am really enjoying watching it again. A lot of those early seasons I forgot and now that I know how the last season ends, alot of what you see in the first season makes more sense.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T22:29:00.002-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I posted anything, but I've just been too busy with the holidays....plus, I've been having trouble with my lower back and it's hard to even sit very long at the computer.

We had a great Christmas. Christmas Eve hubby dressed up in his Santa suit and we walked over to a neighbor's house and had drinks and visited for a couple hours. I wore my Santa pants (red velour with white fur on the cuffs) and a red sweater. Very cute, if I do say so myself!

Christmas we spent all day opening up gifts. We probably had about 40 gifts altogether to open. We buy alot of crap for each other...LOL Let's see what did I get? Halle Berry 'Pure Orchid' cologne and lotion set; Breaking Dawn book; potholders and new kitchen towels; LOST, season one; various cocoas, candy and nuts; amythyst stone bracelet; Kid Rock CD; New address book; Journal/notepad; set of various pens; Irish beer; Chardonnay wine; and a few other things I can't remember. so I did pretty good!

Then the day after Christmas I woke up with really bad pains in my back and it just kept getting worse. By Tuesday I could barely walk. I had to use a cane just to try and get up from a chair or even the toilet! So I started taking lots of Motrin and these muscle relaxers my husband had.....and I soaked in a super hot tub of water. Wednesday I was better. Which was good, cause Wednesday the boys came over with their wife and fiance and her daughter.

We did our gift exchanging and had pizza and snacks. After a few rum and cokes my back was feeling even better...LOL. We had a good time.

Last night was New Year's Eve. Hubby and I went out to dinner at a new place that opened up this year just down the street from us. I had the Salmon dinner and he had the Shrimp dinner. Then we ordered Hot Wings to bring home for later. Got home and started watching all the New Year's Eve programs and celebrated at midnight with our dogs.

My back is still not 100%. I'm still taking Motrin for it. Hubby seems to think that the car accident I was in may have brought it on. But I've had this before. Of course, each time something brings it on...this time it may have been the jolt of when that other car slammed into me and spun me sideways. Although it was a couple weeks earlier that it happened before my back started acting up. Who knows.

So now it is officially 2011!! Hope it's a good year. I'll be going back to work next month for tax season. So I hope my back is 100% by then.

Night....

Santa is almost here!!

2010-12-21T23:48:00.003-05:00

Christmas is almost here! Are you ready?? I am all excited cause it's been two years since we've done Christmas here at home. Remember, last year we did Christmas in Caseville. So this year we're 'Home for the Holidays'. I love being in Caseville for Christmas, but I also love being home and seeing the kids and doing all the gift exchanging. That's why alternating our Christmases between home and Caseville seems to work the best.

Last year we put up minimal decorations at home because we were going to Caseville anyway....most of my stuff stayed up in the attic. This year we got it all down and did up the whole house, inside and out.

When we're in Caseville, we still decorate but not nearly as much....and we only buy gifts for each other. We send the kids money and gift cards. It's a much simpler, quieter and stress-free Christmas.

Instead of dreading the season, now I look forward to the hustle and bustle and all the decorating, cookie making, gift buying, etc.

And gift buying I did! I've been wrapping all the gifts I bought for everybody and I think I've got about 60 wrapped gifts in my bedroom! I think almost 20 of them are for hubby. We buy each other alot of gifts every year....whether we're home or in Caseville. It takes us all day to open them. We spend Christmas Day just the two of us. We'll get together with the kids sometime between Christmas and New Year's. They're busy with the 'other family' now that they are both with someone. And we like it that way. I love spending a quiet Christmas day alone with my husband taking our time opening our gifts.....and I'll make a ham for our dinner and lots of wine!

I hope everybody has a great Christmas!!

MY CLEVELAND ADVENTURE/MISHAP

2010-12-16T19:17:00.005-05:00

I finally returned from Cleveland yesterday. I left last Friday and was suppose to stay 3 nights at the Comfort Inn in Middleberg Heights and return by Monday. However, due to a mishap on my part, I had to extend my 'vacation' an extra couple nights.

The beginning of my trip was GREAT!....(before it turned into the trip from fuckin' hell) I got into town Friday about 4ish and got settled in my room. Didn't do a whole lot except pick up some take-out and watch TV. Saturday I was so excited to go see the actual CHRISTMAS STORY HOUSE! The exit that I had to take off the freeway is a little confusing and I was in the right lane and ended up going the wrong way which bascially brought me back to the other side of the expressway. I am so bad when it comes to directions....but I found my way back to the street that I was looking for and I was on my way to see THE HOUSE. As I'm driving down 11th Street I could see all these people gathered at the house and I knew I was there. And there it was!! Looking exactly like the movie. I found a place to park and first went inside the gift shop where it was crammed with people. I decided to shop later cause I wanted to get my ticket and go inside the house. It was so awesome. I took alot of pictures. I had someone take a picture of me standing next to the Leg Lamp in the window of the living room. The guy who bought the house did a great job of recreating the house interior. See, only the outside exteriour shots and one interior scene was actually shot at the house.....and scenes in downtown Cleveland and the department store, Higbees. The actual interior scenes were shot on sets that were located in Canada. The actor who played little brother, Randy, was there signing pictures for $10....but I didn't get one. But I talked to him. Then I went over to the museum across the street where the lady who played the 'elf from hell' was there talking to people and signing pictures and also the man who delivered the 'leg lamp crate' was there. He is actually is a neighbor who lives down the street. He said he was "in the right bar at the right time", when he got the small part in the movie...LOL After I left the museum I got in my car and left to go back to the hotel. Then I remembered that I forgot to go back into the gift shop where I wanted to buy a few things. No problem....I'll just stop there on Sunday on my way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and do it.

Yeah...no problem...

So Sunday I am real excited about going to the Rock and Roll H/O/F and going back to the Christmas Story gift house. As I get off the same exit off the freeway I knew I didn't want to be in the right lane again and end up going the wrong way like I did on Saturday. Now it is raining...my wipers are going....my side windows are fogging up and so is my back window. I get my defrosters going. This intersection is very confusing...it is NOT a normal intersection. Hard to even explain it. There are like three ways you can go.....an arrow on the street in the right lane shows you can veer right. An arrow in the middle lane shows you can go straight ahead on Quigley Ave. Another arrow in this left lane shows you can veer to the left to go down this sidestreet. Now there is this round tall grassy area to my left that the left lane goes around to go down this side street, 14th St. According to my map I'm thinking that I don't want to go down a sidestreet. I thought it best to stay in the middle lane and just go straight where it would take me to another street that would take me to the Christmas Story House. Now there is NO light at this intersection. I am concentrating on staying in the middle lane and I'm looking at the straight arrow on the street and I keep driving. And my visibility through my side window is zero. As I'm driving through there is a major BAM!!! into my car which pushed my car sideways facing this weird round tall grassy area, and since my foot was still on the accelerator I drove right up over the curb and into this grassy area where I finally put the brake on. I'm thinking "WTF!!!!"....I assumed that someone must have ran a light or something and ran into me. I didn't even know where he came from. I only was aware of these 3 lane options in front of me. Well, apparently cars that are coming down that sidestreet can also veer to their right and go around that weird round thing in order to bring them into the intersection which they can get to the expressway. In other words, at the end of 14th Street, it forks....it goes to the right and also a road that goes to the left so it goes around this weird round grassy area. I am not familiar with this intersection. Until last weekend I've never been there before.

Anyway, I get out of my car and the other guy is pulled over and there is another guy who witnessed everything who is also there. They are both young in their very early 20's. Very nice guys. But at this point, my car is stuck in this wet grassy area cause it's still raining. Both of the guys helped push my car out of it back onto the street. They said that I had to get my car out of there fast cause I can get a fine if a cop sees it there. The one guy told me that I had ran a stop sign. I said "What stop sign??" I never saw a stop sign. In Michigan, when you get off the expressway there is usually a light at the intersection. I saw no light....only these arrows and I was following the arrow. The other driver had damage to his left headlamp area of his car and his hood was a little off. I took a couple pictures. My car, however, didn't even have a scratch on it!...no dents, no scrapes, absolutely nothing. They couldn't figure it out. They figured that his car (a small Toyota Corolla) must have hit my back left wheel which spun me. So my rim or wheel got hit...not any part of the body of my car. Boy, was I lucky!....or so I thought. So the guy is real nice and said that we can just exchange information and not bother calling the cops cause if we did, I would get a ticket. Wow, his car is damaged because of me, and he is worried that I might get a ticket!! So no cops...no ticket...no points.

We exchanged info and are about to leave when a cop sees us and stops. OH NO! The guy told me not to worry...he'll tell the cop we are done here and everthing is okay. Which he did. And the cop was okay with it and left!! He never even talked to me. Never even asked me for my driver's license or registration. He never even asked us what happened. Just wanted to be sure that everything was okay. And he left! Cool!!

So we're done and he said he'll call me the following day to give me more info of his. He also told me to stay to the left and go down that side street and it will take me to the Christmas Story House easier. So I did. But as I'm driving I could hear this "...flap, flap, flap" sound coming from my back tire/wheel. OH NO! I'm thinking that I'm getting a flat tire. This neighborhood is not the best and I'm all alone with NO CELL PHONE CAUSE I WAS STUPID AND LEFT IT BACK AT THE HOTEL ROOM! So I pull over into this store/gas station at this corner to check my tire. It looks fine to me. So I'm thinking that maybe there is mud in it from that muddy grassy area that my car got stuck in. So I keep driving. It does not sound good and I get worried. I skip the gift shop...I skip the Rock and Roll H/O/F and I take a big chance and get back on the expressway to get back to the Hotel. I am like about 15 minutes away. I stay to the right and am driving the minimum of 40-45 miles an hour. Luckily, I get back to the hotel.

I asked someone inside to come watch my tire as I drive around the parking lot. He tells me the tire has a wobble to it. So I know that something is wrong. Maybe the rim got bent or something. The hotel tells me of a place near the hotel that is open on Sundays....Mr. Tire. I go there and explain my problem. I leave my car there and get a hotel shuttle back. He can have his mechanic look at it on Monday. I tell the hotel I need to stay another night. He calls me on Monday and tells me that my axle is bent and I also needed a rear support somethingorother...basically the whole part that connects the tires, I guess. The dealer doesn't have the axle in stock and due to the bad weather we were starting to have, he wasn't sure when the manufacturer could get one to him. Mr Tire guy calls some salvage yards and finds one that will fit my car at a lower price than the dealer....he actually got the whole rear end assembly or whatever he called it. Then he had to attach my brakes and wheels to it. Oh, also my rotor was off and he had to put a new rotor on. Anyway, he couldn't get the part from the salvage yard until Tuesday. So I tell the Hotel I will be staying ANOTHER night.

In the meantime, I have no car...and I'm stuck in a hotel room. I'm on vacation and can't do a damn thing! Luckily, the hotel is in walking distance to a K-Mart and alot of restaurants...and McD's and Burger King, etc. So I spent some time shopping at KMart and eating at McD's. Tuesday I walked to Max and Erma's for lunch. So all I could do was shop and eat.

Plus, I spent alot of time on my cell phone calling my AAA, the other driver, the Tire place and my husband. I was constantly 'waiting' for a call back from somebody.

They got my car fixed and done by 4:00 Tuesday. I left Wednesday morning and couldn't get home fast enough.

Now I'm dealing with AAA. I faxed them the bill from Mr. Tire. They have talked with the other guy. The problem is that Michigan is a 'no fault' state...Ohio is not. The other driver is a young guy with an older car and he only has Liability insurance...no collision. In Ohio if it isn't your fault, the other guy's insurance pays for your damagaes. That is not how it works in Michigan. If AAA does not pay for his damages, then I am responsible. The accident is my fault...there is no reason why it should come out of his pocket. So we are still dealing with that part of it.

I am so stressed!!!

But we went Christmas tree shopping last night and I have a real tree in my family room now. We still need to get the time to decorate it. I am so far behind in my stuff to do for Christmas. I need to get my shopping done! Good God, Christmas is almost here!!!

Christmas decorating and Car Problems...

2010-12-09T23:17:00.002-05:00

Wow.....I know I haven't been posting since I got back from Caseville. I just keep forgetting. Got back last Thursday. We were only in Caseville for a few days...long enough to get my mums cut back and winterize a few things. I left the furnace running when we left.

I had hubby go up into the attic and get all my Christmas decorations down. I swear that I am going to start downsizing some of this Christmas stuff. I eliminated quite abit of things. I took some stuff to this consigment store. And I took another box full to the Salvation Army. And I have some stuff I'm going to sell at my next garage sale. But I still have too much stuff! I have some things I put out but I'm not packing it up again....it's going too. If I can just STOP BUYING MORE CHRISTMAS CRAP, then maybe I can get it cut down some.

Anyway, I have my house decorated and it looks so nice. Hubby still needs to do the outside lights. And we decided to get a real tree this year, so we'll go get our tree next week. I have the majority of my Christmas shopping done and I've already started wrapping some things. I'm just loving Christmas this year! Since we do Christmas at home every other year now, it's been 2 years since I went all out with the decorating, the gift buying and having the kids over. So I'm looking forward to everything instead of dreading it like I had started doing. Then next year, it will be nice and simple with us going to Caseville and getting away from it all and just shopping for the two of us. (Kids get gift cards then)

Our attic needs more insulation badly. It's been years since we put some in. So now that all the decorations are down, hubby has been busy putting in 15 rolls of insulation. He finished today and I can feel the difference. Maybe lower our heat bills..! Hope, hope...
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So last Tuesday I'm out and about and all of a sudden my windows started steaming up and I couldn't see a damn thing. I had my defroster blasting and it wasn't doing much....just getting worse. I had to pull off and wipe the windows down myself so I could see. Then I noticed smoke coming out of the vents. I turned the blower off and pulled off the road. Couldn't call hubby, cause OF COURSE MY CELL BATTERY WAS DEAD! So I let the engine cool a little and then drove home. My heater core was gone! We had to have my jeep towed to the dealership. That was Tuesday. I finally got my jeep back tonight....Thursday. Over a thousand dollars! Of which, most of it was for fuckin LABOR....I guess they had to tear the whole dashboard out to get to it...a big job.
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Tomorrow I'm going to Cleveland for a few days. You ever watch A Christmas Story? Well Cleveland is where the house is at and some guy bought it and renovated it like the movie and now does tours. There is even a museum and gift shop. Also, Ian Patrella who played the little brother, Randy, is going to be there conducting the tours. We are big fans of the movie. Every Christmas it's on TV for like 24 hours straight and we watch it over and over and over...and when it's done, I pop the DVD in and we keep watching it!!

Have a nice weekend....

I Survived Black Friday...

2010-11-28T00:11:00.002-05:00

Black Friday was crazy! I can't believe all the people, men and women, who either stay up and never sleep or get up very early with hardly any sleep, and go shopping at 3-4-5:00 in the morning!

And I was one of them...

I went to bed at 11:30, woke up at 1:00, couldn't sleep so I got up at 2:00 and decided to go to Kohl's which was opening at 3 a.m. I got there just as they were opening the doors. The parking lot was full and people were lined up at the door all the way down to almost where the movie theater was. It took me awhile to even get in the store.

The main thing I wanted were these boots. The regular price was $50 and the early bird sale on them was $19.99, plus I had a 15% coupon to use which brought it down to only $17. They came in either grey or black and I really wanted the grey pair but none in my size left by the time I got in the store and found my way to the shoe department. I've been in that store a million times, but I was so sleep-deprived I couldn't even remember where the damn shoe department even was and I was wondering aimlessly through the store and finally had to ask someone. Anyway, luckily the black ones were still available in my size. Then I started wandering aimlessly again looking for these Muc-Lucs I wanted and I even had cut the picture out of the paper of them and had written 'Kohl's' on it. I finally asked a sales person and she didn't even know what they were and couldn't find them either. Turns out Kohl's wasn't selling them....it was another store! So by the time I decided I better get in line cause I had to be at Sears by 4:00 the line was so long and I knew there was no way I would make it to Sears by 4. I also knew that if I put the boots back, they would be gone before I even got out of the store.

So I decided to hide the box with the boots. I found a king-size comforter way down on the bottom shelf and I slid the box behind it. Then I scurried out of the store and drove to Sears just in time for the doors to open. The TV I thought I wanted turned out to be too small so I nixed it and drove back to Kohl's to retrieve my boots (which were still there behind the comforter!) and I got in a line that was now 3 times longer than it was before. It took exactly one hour before I reached the checkout line at 5:30.

Then I decided to go to Target which had opened at 5....but the lines there were so long I decided to not even buy anything. I was in no mood to stand in another line for an hour.

I grabbed a cappacino and drove home by 6:00 and went through the ads again trying to find which store had the Muc Lucs....it was Parisian....so off I went to Parisian where I then sifted through 3 boxes of Muc Lucs trying to find a pair I like in my size and BINGO..I found a pair!...They are more conservative than some...basically black and grey.

Got home around 8:00, laid down for a bit...got up at 9:30 and by 10:30 I was off to Office Depot where I bought a new printer.

Then I went to Westland Mall for awhile.

By evening I was dragging my butt. I had been shopping since 3 in the morning with one hour's sleep in me.

Went to bed by 11:00 and that was my Black Friday experience...
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Today I went to Barnes and Noble to see Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans of 'Days Of Our Lives'). She was there doing a book signing with a couple other guys. The guys had a 45th anniversary book on Days and she had a receipe book. I bought both books. And stood in line to see and talk to her. She is such a gracious lady...so very very nice and pleasurable.

Remember a while back I had went to Art Van and saw 'Daniel and Chloe', also from Days....I'm a big Days fan. Started watching the show back in the middle 70's.

Anyway, I had someone take a really good picture of me standing with her...but later when I was trying to zoom in to get a closer shot, I accidentally clicked the Delete button!!...instead of the OK button and I lost it...Gone...just disappeared. I knew immediately what I had done and could have cried I was so upset. I've done tht before with a couple pictures. Damn!..you'd think I would know better by now. Anyway, I know a friend of mine deleted all her pictures by mistake and took her camera some place and they retrieved them for her, so I'm going to look into trying to get it back. Hopefully, I can. In the meantime, I took the memory card out of my camera and I'll use a different one.
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Hubby and I are leaving for Caseville tomorrow. We have to be back home by Thursday for a Xmas festivities thing going on here in our hometown.

Ciao

Turkeys....Real and Frozen ones

2010-11-23T23:11:00.007-05:00

So is everyone ready and prepared for Thanksgiving? It's that time of year when we all stop our daily routines and join our families and reflect on all the reasons we have to be thankful. Right now, I'm just real real thankful that I am NOT a turkey!

There's a turkey farm a few miles from me and everytime I drive past it I see all these hundreds of white turkeys strutting around and playing and feeling free like they don't have a care in the world. I thought about them today and didn't dare drive past cause I know that alot of them will already be missing out in the yard. After Thanksgiving when I drive by, it is barren and free of turkeys. By then they will be nothing more than old dried up carcasses being tossed into people's garbage cans.....

.."sniff...sniff"

(poor little turkeys)

I don't buy my turkey from that turkey farm. I bought mine from Kroger's and everybody knows that frozen store turkeys aren't real.....they come that way from China or some place....already wrapped up and frozen. So I can cook up and eat my store-bought turkey guilt-free!!
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We decided to spend Thanksgiving here at home instead of at the cottage cause I don't want to miss all the great deals that are to be had out there in shopping land on Black Friday and Saturday. I am looking forward to getting all the ads Thursday so I can scour them for the best buys in town. When we are in Caseville I miss all that unless I want to drive 35 minutes to go to Walmart...cause that's about the best you're gonna get there....or I could drive an hour and a half and go to the malls in Saginaw. Nawwwwww.....I'll stay home.

But by Sunday we are gonna hit the road and head to Caseville for awhile. I need to get my mums cut back and next Tuesday is the last yard waste pickup so I have no choice but to get up there. We won't stay long. We can't now anyway...not with these cats that keep hanging around that we now feel responsible for cause their mother just abandon them here with us last summer.

Mums

The Cats

These cats are mainly living in our garage right now and I bought a nicer enclosed bed for them but hubby said he can make one out of a cardboard box so I'm going to take the one I bought back. And we even have a heating pad for them in their bed. (No wonder they won't leave!) So when we go to Caseville we have to put out food in one of those big food thingys and hope it lasts them until we get back. So we can't stay that long.

So have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone and happy shopping!!

Rotten Apples

2010-11-17T18:37:00.003-05:00

Why are husbands such idiots?????

My refrigerator was starting to get a smelly odor the other day and I decided it was best time to clean it out. I always like to get it cleaned out good before Thanksgiving cause of all the leftovers I'll have...I need the room.

So I'm throwing out some stuff and in the fruit bin, I had some apples I had gotten from a produce stand in Caro. There were alot of apples and I went through them and found some of them in not so good-eating condition....basically getting bad or rotten in spots. So I took them out of the fridge. I figured they are still good to give to the squirrels, so I left them on the counter for my husband to do something with them. There were maybe 4-5 apples.

Today I'm putting some groceries away and I see this bag in there. I open it up and there are the rotten apples! What the hell are they doing back in my nice clean refrigerator?? Of course, I knew WHO obviously must have put them in there, so I confronted hubby and asked him why he put the bad apples back in the fridge. I told him he was suppose to give them to the squirrels. I admit I said as much in a somewhat wifey-snotty way and now he isn't talking to me cause he thinks I'm being a bitch. I take rotten food OUT of the refrigerator, and he puts it back in....and I'm the bitch cause I think that's stupid?? Who exactly is the stupid one here...the one taking rotten food out or the one putting it back in???

Anyway, his explanation as to why he put the rotten apples back into the refrigerator was that he doesn't want to give the squirrels all the apples at once, so what else is he suppose to do with them?

Now THAT is a loaded question. If I told him WhAT he could do with those apples, he would be picking apple seeds out of his butt right now!!!!

FIVE YEARS...

2010-11-16T18:43:00.002-05:00

Hey.....November 12 was my 5 year anniversary of when I quit smoking!..Rah, Rah, Rah....

That's when I bought my new cottage in Caseville and I knew I didn't want to smell it up like the condo, so I had no alternative but to quit and that's what I did.

Ion Foot Detox....Amazing but True

2010-11-12T18:41:00.007-05:00

Has anybody heard of this new thing called the Ion Foot Detox? Well, there is a place in Caro near Caseville that is called Body Awareness and they do this foot detoxing thing and massages, etc. I had talked to a lady who owns a business there in town who had it done and it sounded impressive and I was dying to try it. Apparently, our bodies are full of toxin crap from all the shit we put into it like meds, food, alcohol, tobacco and stuff we put on our skin like lotions and deodorants, soap, etc and even the air we breathe. We eliminate toxins in a natural way everyday but you can be surprised at how much toxins get left in our body...and that is what eventually gets into our organs and can cause all kinds of problems, not to mention serious stuff like cancer. (Let's face it, cancer of the kidneys, liver, pancreas, etc probably start off with toxins.) Maybe because of gravity, these toxins eventually build up in our feet and that is alot of why our feet hurt when we walk.

They came up with those foot detox foot pads that have been selling. You put one of the pads on the bottom of your feet and when you wake up in the morning and take it off, it is black with toxin crap. So this Ion Foot Detox procedure basically does the same thing but better....it pulls the toxins out of your body through your feet.

You put your feet into a tub of warm water with sea salt and then they put this electrical array thingy in the water. Then they turn it on the positive for 15 or so minutes and then switch it to the negative charge for 10-15 minutes and then back again to the positve..(or is it vice versa??..whatever) You start out with clear water and it ends up very very yucky...yellowy, brownish, blackish goop...and other stuff comes out like white yeasty stuff or little black balls and even these little tiny things that she said are freakin' PARASITES!...scary stuff.

So when I was in Caseville, I made an appointment and my girlfriend went with me to see it done....then I made another appointment and we both had it done at the same time. Her yuckies were even different from my yuckies...They say that with each time you go, more and more stuff will come out.

Where does it all come out....from the pores of your feet, of course. Like when you take a shower and clean your feet and then wear sandals or shoes without socks and eventually you can see the inside of your shoes getting yucky.....or when you sweat and you get yucky stuff on your clothes....that's toxins coming out of your pores.

Some of the change in color of the water immediately can be somewhat attributed to the water/salt/metal array combination, but the yucky stuff is coming from your feet pores. At least that's what they say. I have another appointment. I am somewhat skeptical. I have been reading scam stuff about it, but also I have read a lot of good stuff and great testimonies from people who have experienced the healing effects from it.

My feet feel great afterwards....my girlfriend who has had foot pain said she is free of the pain for awhile. I have been sleeping better. This one testimony said that he had a friend who had chronic knee pain and after a couple treatments, the pain in his knee was gone. But mainly, it is just plain better for your body and much healthier to rid your body of these toxins...

Here are some pictures of my feet in this yucky water after the treatment was over....

The first treatment....

Closeup of the toxins being drawn to the electrical array that is pulling them out...

After the second treatment...

She said that each treatment will draw more and more toxins out of your body. It's gross but amazing....

It may be a scam as some are saying, but I see results and the crap that is in that water is not just rust from the combination of the water, salt, and the metal array. There is real shit in there! After my last treatment, the woman showed me these real small rice-like things that she said were parasites. She assured me that everybody has parasites in their bodies and that's why it's important to get them out.....YEAH!!, I AGREE....I'm telling you, it's gross stuff that comes out. My girlfriend had a lot of white yeasty stuff come out. I mean, you can see it!

Anyway, I'm a believer so far. I have another appointment when I go back the end of November. I'm trying to find a place around here that does it. There's a place way out in Sterling Heights, but that's too far to go. I guess I could always buy the pads...

Pumpkins, crafts and fun with friends....

2010-11-10T23:36:00.013-05:00

I stayed in Caseville for 2 weeks and I'm back now.....for awhile anyway. I decorated my place and carved a pumpkin for halloween. I didn't dress up the doggies this year. But I just had to get a picture of Mini Sue and Keno sitting by the jack-o-lantern.

Saturday night was the halloween parties night, so I met up with my friend at the Eagles early in the evening. I just wore a halloween shirt and my pumpkin sweater and I even had a light-up pumpkin purse.

Then about 9:00 we headed to the Port Elizabeth Grill where they were having a DJ with karaoke, and sexy Lou and his cronies also came up cause they all like to sing. Me and my friend don't sing.....we just like to dance and sometimes do back-up vocals!.....everybody was dressed up in costumes, even the DJ was dressed up as Alice Cooper and he looked just like him. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture...

Oh well....next year

A friend of mine from here in the city drove up. We met for lunch in a town near Caseville and she followed me back to Caseville to see my cottage. We went up to the Eagles in the evening and talk about 'Beginner's Luck'......

.....the eagles have these pull-tabs that I love to play. You can buy either 50 cent ones or $1.00, $2.00 or $5.00 ones. I usually always play the 50 centers or sometimes I play a $1.00 one once in awhile. She never played them and I had to explain to her how they work. So she decided to play two $2.00 ones for 4 bucks. And she wins $150!!!!!!!.....like I said, 'Beginner's Luck'....it was unbelievable, I was shocked! I was so happy for her!!

So the next day we went into town for the Holly Berry Fair craft shows. She couldn't stay long cause she had to get back on the road for home, but we went to the one at the Roller Rink, hit a few stores in town and then she had to leave for home. I went up to the school for the other big craft show but didn't buy much. Later that evening, I went up to the Eagles for awhile.

I also got my leaves raked and mulched and pulled the flowers out of my flower beds. I felt bad pulling them out cause alot of my flowers were still blooming and my garden still looked nice. But they're going to die anyway and I needed to get back home so out they went.

I left my mums along the side of my place until next time cause they are blooming really nice for Fall and look so pretty....

So now I'm back home. Mini Sue has a vet appointment tomorrow for her 6-month check-up. She'll be 11 years old on Sunday and I want to be sure she is healthy. I'll have blood work done and all her lymph node glands checked. It'll be 2 years since I lost Lucky to canine lymphoma on Nov 13, Saturday....and I'm keeping close watch on Mini's health now that she is getting older. Better safe than sorry.....nip it in the bud as Deputy Fife would say. If there is even the tiniest hint of a problem, I want to know before it gets to the terminal stage. I want Mini Sue to live to be 100...well, in dog years anyway!

BOO BOO BOO....Happy Halloween Too

2010-10-24T22:53:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow I'm off to Caseville for a couple of weeks. I'll be taking Keno and Mini Sue this trip. And hubby should be coming up soon as well. I have an Eagles meeting Tuesday night and Saturday is the Halloween parties night everywhere. Hopefully, the Eagles will have something going on. I'll just wear a halloween shirt...most people don't really dress up, although some come in costume when they come in from other bars. Still fun....

Then the following weekend is the Holly Berry Fair and they'll be at least 3 craft shows going on in town. I missed it last year because we had tickets to see Bob Dylan at the Fox....so I'm looking forward to going to the craft shows this year. I think it was just a couple years ago that I ended up in bed for a week with pneumonia....so I missed the craft shows that year too! Well, this year I'm going to all of them. The stores will be decorated with Xmas stuff and some will participate in the cookie walk and serve delicious cookies.

Then I'll head back home....probably the second week of November. Mainly, I have a lot of yard work to get done. I need to get the lawn mowed and mulch up whatever leaves have falled...maybe bag some...and I still have some outdoor stuff to put away like all my chickens I have on the side of my place. I got old flowers to cut down in my flower garden. Of course, I'll wait to cut my mums back much later in the month of November.

I have my absentee ballot filled out and ready to drop off at the township hall tomorrow before I leave. I went to a Rally today at one of the local parks here. The guy who is running for office in our district was there and Brian Calley who is running for Lt. Governor was there. I got t-shirts and lawn signs to put up. Not a very big turnout but it was nice to be part of it. Met some nice people.

Went to Target today to return what I thought was a movie DVD that the disc wouldn't work in either of my DVD's.....turns out it wasn't a movie DVD, it was for the computer, some kind of computer game based on the movie 'UP'. Since I had opened it, they would only exchange it and I didn't want a game!...I wanted the movie! So now I'm stuck with it. And I also had bought a DVD movie from an estate sale over the weekend and when I went to watch it, there was NO DISC INSIDE!! When oh WHEN will I ever learn to open and check to make sure the disc is iside???!! I have done this so many times, but usually with CD's. My own stupid fault. Paid $2.50 for an empty box...

Oh Well...

Have a Happy Scary Halloween!!

Fish dinners, Irish Music and "Freeze!"

2010-10-24T01:07:00.003-04:00

I posted some pictures of the wedding in 'My Photo Studio' blog that you all can check out....(just click on the link on the right side).

Last night hubby and I went to this Irish club near us for their fish dinner. It's called the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Since I have Irish ancestry I really would like to get involved in going here like I do with the Eagles in Caseville. So we went to check it out. For $8.50 each we got an all-you-can-eat fish buffet with all the extra's.....they even had CURLY FRIES!!...I ate way too much....there was so much food and desserts. I talked with some members there that also have a place in Caseville. We ended up in the bar area drinking and talking with some Irishmen and listening to Irish music being played by the members there with various instruments...they were very enjoyable to listen to....a relaxing atmosphere. Got home around midnight.

Today hubby went to my son's house to put some moulding back on. My son had all new floors put in his new house and he had to take all the moulding off. He had ceramic tile put in the kitchen, living/dining room area, hallway and foyer. When you walk in the front door now all you see is beautiful ceramic tile throughout. And he had new carpet installed in the great room in the back of the house and up the staircase and all the bedrooms upstairs. So hubby has to reinstall all new moulding downstairs where the tile was laid.

I went to the Cider Mill in Northville and bought some spice donuts and cider and they have craft booths set up and I bought a necklace and ring. Then I went home and decided to drive to my son's house and buy dinner for my husband....but when I got there he was already gone. Apparently, I found out later, I must have missed him by minutes. I got back on the Xpressway and drove back home and got home maybe 5 minutes after he did. And my son's new house is a long ways away...maybe a 1/2 hour drive or more. Waste of fuckin' gas!!!!!

So anyway, Hubby told me that when he was at the house he had left the front door open for some air and breeze. While he was working on the molding he said he thought he saw someone run across the patio from the doorway. Next thing he knew, two cops came in the house through the open front door, looked at him and yelled FREEEZE!!...He's like...WTF?? Apparently, a neighbor saw the open door, called the police and reported that someone had kicked in the front door and was inside. They could hear pounding and thought someone was ransacking the place. When the cops came in, hubby is standing there with a hammer in his hand!!...LOL....he dropped the hammer and put his hands up. OMG!! He explained who he was and luckily there was a utility bill there with my son's name on it and my husband showed his driver's license with the same last name. They went through the whole house checking it and apparently believed his story....thank god....or I would be bailing him out of jail right now for 'breaking and entering'.....

But I am glad that the neighbors there are looking out for the house while it is still empty....kudos to the neighbors!

2010-10-19T19:33:00.005-04:00

I had a big weekend. My middle son got married! He and his girlfriend of 8 years finally tied the knot on Saturday, October 16, 2010. They picked Sweetest Day because that was the day of their first date 8 years ago.

Friday night was the rehearsal which went very well. As the groom's parents, we were in charge of the rehearsal dinner. We reserved a separate room off the main dining area at Max & Erma's for our dinner. Besides the bride and groom, us and her parents, there were also 8 attendants and their spouses and families....about 26-27 of us. We had an open menu and an open bar so everybody could order whatever they wanted. The restaurant made everything so perfect. The room was set up beautifully with decorations on the tables, etc. We had a really nice time. The bride gave her girls their gifts. I think my son was going to give his guys their gifts in the limo the next day.

Saturday we got to the church and the photographer was taking pictures of the guys outside and included us in the traditional groom and his parents pics. Then they all had to scurry back to a room in the church to hide cause the bride and her girls were coming. The wedding started on time and it was so beautiful. I was so choked up when she started her walk down the aisle with her parents. Lots of pictures were taken afterwards by the professional photographer and all of us too. I'll have to post some more pics in my Photo Studio blog later when I have more time.

Then the limo took all the attendants around to various locations for some pictures. One of the places they went was to Comerica Park where they had pictures taken in front of the big Tiger! They said that there were about 6 other bridal parties there doing the same thing.

Later the reception was held and it was a blast! Lots of good food, booze and dancing. Everybody had a great time. The majority of the people there were from her family. I invited a very small group of people....a few best friends and aunts and uncles. My two nephews were in the bridal party so of course they came and the rest of their family and guests...and that was it for our group. Maybe 100 people were there and I only invited about 20!...I think we had 2 1/2 tables and the rest were all her family and friends. Who the hell even knows that many people???....Haha

....and no, I did not invited my oldest son who is not talking to us anyway. I felt bad that my daughter-in-law couldn't come, but there was no way I even wanted him to even know about the wedding....So he didn't even know that his own brother got married last Saturday....oh well....that's what happens when you treat your family like shit.....or at least your own mother since she is the one making out the guest list!!!

Anyway, we got home sometime after midnight and I stupidly decided to have a few more drinks and next thing I knew I went to open the back door to let the dogs out, lost my balance and fell right into my beautiful ceramic floor lamp and it went crashing to the floor and broke!....Oops....

Should have went straight to bed.....and skipped the 'few more drinks'....

Sunday I was pretty much in bed all day...

Yesterday I met a classmate from out of town for dinner and drinks.

And THAT was my weekend!!

Tuesday Night at home...

2010-10-13T00:08:00.003-04:00

Well I've been home about a week now. I ended up coming back home on Wednesday instead of Tuesday because an acquaintance of mine from years ago passed away and I wanted to go to the funeral home to pay my respects. She was only 72 and a very class act lady. Now both she and her husband are both gone. Life is so short sometimes.

I left the doggies at home this trip so it was kinda nice cause then I can stop at more places along the way and not have to worry about leaving them in the car. The Eagles had their district meeting and that was alot of fun. I donated a couple of pumpkin pies and helped clean up afterwards. Think there were about 75 people who came from various other clubs in nearby cities. After the meeting some of us went into the lounge and had a few pitchers of beer to relax and chill.

My friend from the Caseville area had an accident with her car when she was shopping in Bay City. She was parked behind some big semi trucker at a light waiting for the light to change, and she sees that his back-up lights go on and she didn't even have time to react. He proceeds to back up and turn and rams right into her car!...What an idiot!! Apparently, there was a produce store at that intersection and he has to stop as far as the light, in order to back up and turn into the store driveway and he didn't bother to see if anybody was behind him apparently. and get this!!!.....my friend called the police and he came and he didn't even give the guy a ticket! Now if I did that...stop and then back up and hit somebody, I sure as hell would have gotten a ticket. But guess the cop decided to give the guy a break since he drives for a living...blah, blah, blah...

But my friend only has PLPD and no collision insurance. She's gotten a couple estimates of $2500 or so to fix her car. She's trying to get the company to pay for it...but it'll probably snow in hell before that will ever happen. Of course, like I told her, if you want to be able to have your car fixed if it is in an accident, then you HAVE TO HAVE COLLISION INSURANCE ON IT!....otherwise, it's tough luck. You get what you pay for. People try and save a few bucks by not paying for collision, then they cry when they are in an accident....boofuckinhooooo...

So I've been back and as soon as I get back, the weather turns gorgeous. We're actually having 70-80 degree weather in October....must be Indian summer.

Last Sunday I went to the Plymouth Chili Cook-off in Plymouth and met up with my brother there. It's a super big festival and all the bikers show up. He drove his Harley and we took a spin on it. Lots of food and great music. We went into one of the local bars and had a beer.

Hubby and I are picking up a dresser/chest that I bought at an estate sale over the weekend for my son. He saw it but when he went back to buy it the sale was closed for the day. So he called me and wanted me to go back the next day and buy it for him. He got a good deal. It's a nice chest for $50. He's slowly getting his new house painted and furnished. They should be able to move in pretty soon. But he still has to sell his current house!

Looking forward to a busy weekend...

Pumpkins and Pictures...

2010-09-29T23:57:00.003-04:00

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.....

2010-09-28T23:33:00.003-04:00

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....

2010-09-24T00:17:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-21T11:52:00.002-04:00

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....

2010-09-13T10:54:00.003-04:00

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....

2010-09-11T23:10:00.006-04:00

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....

2010-09-11T22:42:00.002-04:00

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....

2010-09-10T18:34:00.002-04:00

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....

2010-09-09T18:41:00.002-04:00

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....

2010-09-08T17:53:00.003-04:00

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:

2010-09-04T01:17:00.007-04:00

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

Changing the World by Pastor Blue Jeans....

2010-08-31T11:02:00.006-04:00

I found an inspiring blogger that I would like to share one of his older posts with everyone who happens to read my blog. He is a pastor at a Methodist church in New Jersey and calls himself Pastor Blue Jeans. I like helping homeless people and those less fortunate than myself so I enjoyed reading this post of his.
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Changing the World
It's funny how the Spirit works. We have been talking on and off about ReThinking Church for 6 months or so at West Grove. At times I feel as if I have been simply spinning my wheels at times, yet today something happened.

We activated something we are calling the Brown Bag Brigade at church. It is a group of volunteers who come in and make some brown bag lunches for us. Today we decided to make 50 bag lunches to coincide with the Change the World event that was being promoted throughout the United Methodist Church.

We themed our day's events around Feeding the World. We also had a group at church holding a bake sale to raise money for an organization that is focusing on solving the problem of childhood hunger.

So with the Brown Bag brigade activated it was my job to find a place to deliver the brown bag lunches. I figured that it would be easy to find a group in the area that was in need of some lunches. However, as the lunches were being made I found myself scrambling to find a place that could use the lunches. I told Ginny off handedly that I would simply let the "Spirit" lead me. I was trying to be funny, as often happens God had other ideas.

It was then I remembered several stories I had read in the newspaper recently about a place called Tent City in Lakewood. It was described as being off in the woods and a place where people who were homeless or transient would try and find some community and safety and help.

So with the lunches packed I headed off on my quest to find Tent city and it was not exactly easy. I traveled up and down the streets of Lakewood, I stopped in the local laundromat and stopped a few people on the road and still could not find anyone that could give me directions. I finally made a phone call to a colleague of mine from Lakewood and he was able to give me directions.

I found the entrance into the woods where I was told that I would find Tent City, as I went down the long dirt road I realized that my little car was probably not the best vehicle to be making this trip. I finally pulled up into an opening in the woods and I came upon what I can only describe as a little community.

All around me I found various homemade structures and a few vehicles as well as several chickens. As I got out of my car I soon found myself talking to two of the most engaging gentleman that I had ever met, Danny and Stormy.

Stormy was a former resident of Tent city who now had a place of his own. Danny was a resident of Tent City. They seemingly were great friends and shared with me a little of their stories. I found myself just standing there listening and sharing with them and became more and more encouraged. I was encouraged with the spirit of these men and of the sense of community that I felt as I stood there with them and a few other people.

I hope that today was the beginning of a relationship of sorts between myself, Stormy, Danny, West Grove and the people of Tent City. However that turns out I do know one thing, today was truly a Change the World event. My world did change just as it does every time that I trust God.

So I ask you, did you help Change the World today?
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I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did. He and his wife took a trip to Jerusalem last Feb/Mar and wrote about his trip and how he walked in the same places that Jesus walked. Interesting reading as well.

I need another pair of shoes like I need.........

2010-08-30T23:29:00.005-04:00

I went to PayLess Shoes today to look for these shoes that my girfriend in the Caseville area wants but she can't find them in her size at the Bay City or Saginaw store. So my store has her size and I called her and left a message but she hasn't called me back yet. They are having a BOGO sale and they have the cutest little black shoe/boots with a sexy heel that I want to buy so I figure if she wants me to buy her the shoes then I can get the boots half off....but I'll split the difference with her and we can both save. I may go tomorrow and buy the boots whether I hear from her or not. I WANT THESE SHOE/BOOTS!! I was wearing shorts when I tried them on and damn....they looked so damn cute even with shorts on. I want them...I HAVE TO HAVE THEM!! I'm gonna buy those cute little black boots and wear them with my jean shorts....with Fall coming, it will look so much sexier than wearing sandals. Of course, I have to lose a few pounds or my big huge ass will take away the sexy look.....

My "Cheeseburger Days"

2010-08-28T23:22:00.005-04:00

I've been back from Caseville since Thursday and the "Cheeseburgers in Caseville" 10-day event was a total blast! We were busy pretty much every day.

Friday.....Hubby came up and we went to the concert in the park and watched the "Tribute to the U.S. Armed Forces" and then "Marty Viers and the Music Doctors" play onstage. Afterwards they had the 'spectacular laser light show' which was pretty awesome to see. I had 2 cheeseburgers on this first day of Cheeseburger....one in town at the Key North place and one at the concert.

Saturday....I went to the animal clinic in town and watched the "Whooz Dog Got Talent" combined with a pet fashion show. People had their dogs dressed up and had them perform their favorite tricks. Keno can do a 'high five' and smile with his teeth but he won't do it on command in front of anybody when you want him to so I didn't bother entering him. Mini Sue doesn't do much of anything except lift her left paw up to get a treat. I didn't stick around for the whole thing cause it was so damn hot out. So I left after awhile and drove up to the school where they were having a craft show going on.

We decided to skip the Saturday night concert in the park and went up to the Eagles instead to have one of their cheeseburgers. And I had a Walking Taco earlier in the day. I love those!

Sunday.....Didn't feel good at all Sunday and layed around most of the day.

Monday.....Went into town to the village park and watched the kid's parade and the caribbean street dance with dancing, limbo and hula hooping. I had a hot dog at the Key North place.

Tuesday....My son and his girlfriend were up and we all went to the Wooded Island as they call it and watched the "Sea Cruisers" play 50's and 60's music. They were pretty good and did a great rendition of 'Johnny Be Good'. I bought their CD. We got Cheeseburgers from the 'Brew Moon' place near the Wooded Island. They had really good burgers and onion rings.

Wednesday....Parade Day! The new rule this year is that nobody can start setting their chairs up in their favorite spots until 6:00 a.m. the day of the parade. In years past, there are chairs all over town and in the streets as early as Monday! So I got up at 6:00 in the morning and drove into town with our chairs and got them set up in the Village Park in our favorite spot...front row seats! Then later we went up to sit and wait for the parade to start. Son and his g'friend and her daughter and neice also came. It was the best parade ever this year. It was almost 2 hours long with lots of really neat floats. My favorite was this giant pig that shot water out of it's butt at the crowd...LOL. Had a cheeseburger from the beer tent.

After the parade I took hubby home and then I went up to the condo where the kids were staying and partied with them and some of the owners at a bonfire until 2:30 in the morning!!

Thursday.....Thursday night I went up to the park to watch the concert. "The Mysterians" were playing. Way back in the day "? and the Mysterians" had a one hit wonder called "96 Tears". Well...same band but without Question Mark. And they played "96 Tears" twice. I just LOVE that song!! It was exciting to see them perform it. We had cheeseburgers at the Key North place in town.

Friday.....I went over to my girlfriends house for awhile. And later hubby and I and my son and his girlfriend and the girls all went up to the Fireside Inn for pizza. Then later that night hubby and I went to the condo and partied with them and some renters until 2:30 in the morning again! Drank waaayyyy too much beer AGAIN! Had a cheeseburger and a Walking Taco in town.

Saturday.....First the kids came over and we barbequed burgers, brats, chicken and steak, and then we all went to the main park to watch the last concert of the festival. It was a band called "Jimmy and the Parrots". It's the first time they have played the Cheeseburger festival. The park was jammed with people for this last concert. And this band totally blew everybody away...they were THAT good! They did some Jimmy Buffett tribute songs for the occasion but they also jammed out alot of great tunes. When they did a Journey song the crowd went crazy. And they also did the old tune "Wipeout" by the Ventures and I couldn't believe the drummer's drum solo. OMG was he good! He was flying on those drums and lights were flashing and it was just so amazing to watch him. I swear, he's the best drummer I have ever seen. And they even did some Beatles' tunes. They were really rockin' the place, that's for sure.

Sunday.....The last day of Cheeseburger came to an end. Hubby was worn out and decided to just chill at home. I went into town to see the classic car show at the county beach. And then I walked through town one last time taking it all in and I had one last cheeseburger. Then I went home and started taking my decorations down. Well, actually I went home AFTER I watched my son get his car towed out of the lake! He was trying to get one of his jet ski's out of the water and backed in too far and got stuck. So by trying to save $7.00 to do it at the marina, he ended up paying $120 to get his car out of the water. Oh well.....

And that was our Cheeseburger week in Caseville.

Hubby left for home on Monday and I stuck around for a few more days getting things cleaned up and I got together for lunch with my girlfriend. Then I drove home on Thursday.

We decided to stay home for Labor Day weekend. Then we'll probably head back up and spend our anniversary (9-18) going to the Kinde Polka Fest....or maybe the 50's-60's dance at the Eagles which is the same night. And then also that same weekend is the Elkton "Born to be Wild" festival when all the bikers come into town and everybody parties in the beer tent. Damn....just too much going on in the same weekend. I can't be everywhere at the same time!!! I wish they would space things out better. But summer is ending and there are just so many weekends left to get all the festivals and partying in.

I hope the weather stays good...

Good weekend...

2010-08-08T21:26:00.003-04:00

Last night was fun. Hubby and I went up to this local bar and grill where we met up with my brother and a friend of his and his son and his girlfriend. His friend is a local singer at a nice restaurant and her daughter is in a band called "KT's Alibi", and they were playing at Timberwolf last night. They are a really really good band. She is a super singer just like her mother. She does Madonna, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson...some old motown...and alot of new songs..some I didn't even recognize cause I've been so out of the loop. They don't have music at the Eagles in Caseville and that seems to be the only place I go to anymore. I haven't seen my brother in a very long time since he lives so far away from me...but he called to say he was going to be in town and I thought it would be fun to get out and hear a good band for a change. And they were also doing a breast cancer auction to raise money. I think they raised $1000 last night.

Tomorrow I go in for my bone density test....and Tuesday I'm leaving for Caseville. It's time for the "CHEESEBURGER IN CASEVILLE" week! It'll be a busy week. I'm going to get there before the weekend to start getting my cottage all decorated with my monkees, palm trees, parrots, lights, etc.....and hubby will get up there by Friday. We'll be busy hanging with friends the first weekend, and then my youngest son and his girlfriend and her daughter will be up by the following Monday at our condo for the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to it but it also marks the beginning of the end of summer. By the time I get back home, it'll only be a couple weeks til Labor Day....BOOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I'm just loving this summer and I don't want it to end. The weather has been great. And I love the heat...better than the winter cold...and I got A/C anyway.

So today I start washing clothes for the trip and I got water all over my laundry room floor....WHERE THE HELL IS IT COMING FROM??? Hubby found that there is a major leak in the pipe of our laundry tub where the water drains...it's like pouring out. So another problem to deal with...

The kitties are still around...sometimes the mama cat comes by. But then sometimes they are gone for a day or two, but then they come back. I bought another one of those feeders that you put lots of dry food in and it lasts for awhile...so that makes two I have for them when we leave. They'll be left alone for almost 2 weeks depending on when one of us gets home. I'll worry about them, but they will have two feeder containers of food...water...and they can always hunt for mice like their mama does. And if they are gone when we get back, then they're gone....

Gonna go watch Madmen...this is the first season I am watching it so I'm trying to figure it all out and who is who...but seems like a good show.

Doctor, Doctor, Give me some news.....

2010-08-04T00:32:00.004-04:00

I had a doctor's appointment today to have my blood pressure checked and adjust my meds. I think their nurses or whatever you call the girls that come in to take your BP must be fresh out of nursing school. So she comes in and takes my BP and says it's 118 over something....and I told her 'no way' cause it's never been that low and I had just taken it before I came and it was my usual 140 over 85. So she tries the other arm and this time she tells me it's 110 over something! What??...Maybe I'm dead and don't know it.

Well, Doc comes in and he's looking at my chart and shaking his head. I told her what the reading she just told me she got and he even said 'no way' and he took it again himself and it was 140 over 85 or thereabouts. I told him they need to train their girls better on how to take a blood pressure.....

So he adjusted my meds cause I told him the new ones he had me on was causing swelling in my legs. Hopefully, these are better.....but then I'm reading the CAUTIONS and SIDE EFFECTS on this sheet they give ya and it says something about 'avoiding the sun and tanning booths'!....and 'avoid alcohol' while taking this med......yeah right! He knows my lifestyle in Caseville....tanning and drinking beer. Whatever! Anyway, I'll give the new meds a try but I ain't changing my lifestyle.

And he gave me a different statin drug for my cholestrol even though I don't think I really need it anyway. I told him to first see what the blood tests say and then see if I even need it. Well, he gave me one anyway....suppose to be a lower type of statin or something. I just better not get muscle pain in my back, hips and down my legs like before or I'll stop taking that prescription as well. I quit the other one way back in March. He said I should have called him. But I knew if I called, I would have just been told to make an appointment and I don't have time for appointments. He's lucky I come in when I do....

Okay....so then I go to the lab department to get my blood drawn....and again, another incompetent nurse or whatever they're called does it. She draws the blood and doesn't have me put pressure on the spot and hold my arm in the air for awhile....no, she just pulls the needle out and slaps a gauze and tape over the 'hole' in my arm. So while I'm driving home, it starts bleeding like a mother-youknowwhat, and I have to pull off into a parking lot and stop and I have blood all over my arm, my hand and on my clothes! Luckily, I had some napkins in the car and put pressure on it and put my arm up for a few minutes and it stopped bleeding. WHO THE HELL IS WORKING IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION NOWADAYS??

I still have to get a bone density test and I made another appointment for that next Monday. I haven't had one in a few years. There again, I know I have some osteoporosis and I'm suppose to be taking meds for it and I did for awhile but didn't like the side effects so I quit taking them....have refused to take them for a couple years now. I told my OB/GYN that there is no sense in me having a bone density test done and waste my insurance company's money cause I ain't gonna take the meds for it anyway. So I've been taking lots of calcium these last couple years or so, so I'm curious to see if it has made any difference, so I will get the test done. But no meds......not unless they have perfected the drug. Actually, when was the last time you have even seen a FOSAMAX commercial on TV??? Been quite awhile cause I guess somebody figured out what a useless drug it is anyway...it causes too many other problems.

But other than that, I'm healthy as a horse as they say......

Just another typical Weekend....

2010-08-01T23:19:00.002-04:00

So I went up to Caseville last Monday for a few days. I spent most of Tuesday cutting the grass, weedwhacking and edging. The ladies Eagles meeting was Tuesday night so I went to it and after the meeting we all go into the lounge and drink beer...haha.

Wednesday it rained some but I made it to bingo but didn't win the $3000 jackpot. Some rich real estate lady won it which bummed everybody out. I was hoping that if I didn't win it, or my neighbor didn't win it, then someone who really needed the money would win. Oh well....

Thursday I drove home.

Friday night hubby and I went over to our neighbor's for a few beers....and a few more until the wee hours. He has a nice covered patio in his backyard.

Last night I met up with my friend. Originally we were going to go to Greenfield Village but changed our minds and decided to try this new place that opened near her house and had dinner and drinks and talked for a few hours. Well, I had dinner and she had a beer. I wasn't in the mood for beer last night....too much the night before I guess...LOL

The kitties are still hanging around....well, two of the kittens and the mama cat. We don't know what happened to the cute little kitty. After we got back from our week in Caseville we never saw her again...just the mama and the two little tabbies. It's amazing how the two kitties look so much like the two cats we use to have years ago. They died at ages 18 and 19. The one kitty looks like Tiffany Sue and the other looks like Ashley Court so I call them Sue and Court just like I did with our other cats. But they are still wild and won't let us touch them. My husband tried to pick one up and she scratched the hell out of his arm. They will come out for their dishes of food when he is standing there, but if I try to stand there with them, they run under the house and just peek out at me. The one little kitten seems a little more braver and he is trying to let him/her touch him....he gets near enough to put his fingers out to touch but then he/she backs away and when he stands back up, she comes back to the dish. At least she doesn't run under the house when he gets near her. Maybe slowly we can get them a little tame so I can find a home for them eventually.

I know, I know....they ALREADY HAVE A HOME!!....Well, I mean a DIFFERENT home!

Hubby had me buy sardines and he's been mixing sardines with their dry food and they are just loving it....they are never going to go away I'm afraid...
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Tuesday I have a doctor's appointment and my doctor better change my blood pressure pills cause these new ones he put me on in January are not suiting me at all....I keep getting alot of swelling in my feet and ankles and even into my calves now if I sit too long. When I got back from driving from Caseville my legs were so swollen I even took pictures to show him. So I stop the pills for a few days and no swelling. I even sat at the restaurant last night for over 3 hours and no swelling. But I had to take a pill today because my BP was 158/98...then later it went down to 128/85 after the pill. I want to go back on the one I had before cause I had no swelling with those. These new pills he put me on are a different dosage and a generic brand so they are cheaper. Forget cheaper....I'll pay the extra money....cause I don't think that swelling in the ankles and legs is a good thing.

And I have to tell him that I stopped taking my cholestrol pill last March because it was causing me to have muscle pain...he won't be too happy to hear that...so I'm hoping that my cholestrol blood check is okay. I've cut out eggs big time in my diet.

Watched Big Brother tonight and Undercover Boss and Mad Men....a decent TV night for a change. Tomorrow is the finale of The Bachelorette! Who will Ali choose?????

Cruise Night Saturday Night

2010-07-25T21:17:00.003-04:00

Doncha just love the old classic cars?! That's one nice thing about summer....you can get the old classic car out of the garage or barn or storage or whereever people store them during the winter and get them out on the road once in awhile. That's what I love about the cruise nights. Last month I went to the Downriver Cruise and last night it was the Telegraph Cruise in Dearborn. We got down to our spot in front of the old bowling alley, right next door to White Castle shortly before 6:00. We would like to go earlier but we were getting rain and storms were predicted and nobody really knew if it was going to be a bust or not. I had heard that earlier in the day it seemed like a ghost town along Telegraph Road...not alot going on. But it cleared up later in the day so we headed down. Instead of the storms we ended up with beautiful evening weather. The people were out and the cars were out and it was a true cruise party. Eventually a lot of our family showed up with their classic vehicles....a '68 GT Mustang, an '88 Mustang and my son came with his '64 Chevy Impala that he just recently acquired. We had a really really good time last night. Thankfully, it never stormed! Oh, and I got my White Castle cheeseburgers!

My sister-in-law and I standing by her husband's '68 Mustang...

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Then today I decided to go to the show and see "Inception" with Leonardo Dicaprio and it was a total waste of time. This stupid movie was 2 1/2 hours long! Plus, the theater was ice cold...the temp in there must have been near 50 degrees and I was freezing. I almost walked out a couple times, but I knew if I did then I'd be awake all night wondering how the hell this movie ended and if it ever made sense or I'd end up wasting another 4 bucks and renting it when it came out so I could find out. So I decided to stay and endure it. Lord, it was a godawful movie. It made no sense to me at all. Who the hell writes this crap??

Anyway, I'm driving to Caseville tomorrow for a few days to get my lawn cut...and I'll do bingo Wednesday night cause the jackpot is up to $3000 and then I'll drive home on Thursday. I'm meeting a friend on Saturday. I think we're going to go to Greenfield Village for the day....not sure yet.

I'll write when I get back....

Ciao

Friday Night LIVE........

2010-07-24T01:30:00.005-04:00

Yeah...It's Friday night and I'm still alive so I guess that's a good thing. Hubby and I went up to our local bar and grill in town and bought some fish dinners. We got a pitcher of beer and then bought individual beers cause I really prefer my 'light' beer. I played the Keno and didn't win a damn thing. I couldn't believe that none of my numbers would not come up tonight! So I lost about $13....We sat out on the covered patio but we sat near the open window area and it started pouring rain and thundering and lightening and it was really bad so we had the waitress shut the window area down a little so I wouldn't get so wet from the rain coming in. When it cleared up she opened it back up.

That's about it......It's Friday night...it rained and thundered and lightening and I survived. Tomorrow is the Telegraph Cruise so we will be going down to our favorite spot in front of the bowling alley and next to the White Castle and watch the old classic cars drive by. And we'll eat lots of greasy White Castle burgers. I use to own a '55 Chevy....a '62 Mercury Comet....a '66 Corvair and hubby use to own a '68 Camaro and a '40's something Mercury I think. So we love the car cruises. Right now I'm driving a 2002 Rosy Red Jeep Cherokee!!...and one day even IT will be a classic.....

So tomorrow I'll get the chairs in the jeep and pack the cooler with ice and beer and we'll have a good time.

Tigers and Lions and Bears.....OH MY!

2010-07-21T18:14:00.003-04:00

I went to the Detroit Zoo yesterday and had a nice time looking at all the animals and letting them look at me. I must have walked 10 miles it seemed, but then when I got to the end I decided to buy me a big-ass ice cream cone....I know, not too smart....I put all the calories back in that I had just walked off. Oh well...

I was disappointed that there were a few animals I couldn't see cause they just weren't around. I didn't see any bears....I barely caught a glimpse of the gorilla as he was sauntering away out of sight....I didn't see any polar bears swimming....and of course, there are no more elephants to see cause they shipped them off to California where it is much better for them. I guess Winky passed away a couple years ago.

My favorite was the MEERCATS! I think they are just so damn cute!
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I thought the cats were gone, but they ARE BAAAAACCCKK....Mama kitty and two of her kittens were around last night. The third little cute one is still missing. Haven't seen them yet today....maybe later. I have no idea where they go when they are not around here. Maybe Mama kitty has another home somewhere.
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I've been listening to, watching and reading "The DaVinci Code". I have the audio book in my car CD player and I'm listening to the story....then I was anxious to see it played out so I watched the DVD on TV....and then I bought the book so I'm also reading parts of it. I should be an expert on this movie when I get done! It's an interesting story....although I don't understand what all the controversy was about...I mean, it's a FICTIONAL book. Dan Brown didn't write it as fact. God, some people are stupid. But it's a damn good fictional book. But I admit that there COULD be some truth to it....ya never know!! After all, Christ was human, wasn't he?
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Oh, my aching back....

2010-07-18T23:18:00.002-04:00

My lower back has been acting up again...damn! I replaced both of my too-soft mattresses for hard-as-a-rock firm ones and I am sleeping more comfortably now; but while I was in Caseville I wanted to take a bike ride and needed to put air in the tires. So while I was crouching by the tires trying to put air into the tires, I wrenched my lower back when I went to stand up. I could feel it and knew I was in trouble. So I came home whining and moaning about my back and hubby now thinks that all this mattress replacing was a waste of time and money. It isn't the mattresses now....it's cause I screwed up my back when I was crouching down trying to put air in my tires!!! So's anyway...Motrin was not helping....Ibuprophen wasn't helping...then hubby suggested Tylenol...yeah, like plain ole Tylenol is going to do anything. But I was desperate, so I went to Rite-Aid and bought an extra strength one (650 mg) and I've been taking 2 tablets every 8 hours and I have to admit that my back is much much better. Better by maybe 50% so I'm still babying it and taking my Tylenol.

Although if it doesn't get 100% better I'm thinking of trying acupuncture. I drove by a building advertising acupuncture to quit smoking, back pain, and even weight loss!! So I'm thinking about checking it out. Maybe I can lose some weight that way. Nothing else I'm doing is working. Before I went to Caseville I was walking and bike riding and lost about 8 pounds....then I went to Caseville. No walking, no bike riding, beer drinking, cheeseburgers, ice cream, beer drinking (oh, I already said that) and eat, eat, eat, and I think I gained 10 lbs. And now I have to baby my back so I'm afraid to ride my bike or do much walking yet either.

I told my husband that I never had a freaking back problem until we bought the cottage. I was blaming the mattresses but I think it all started cause of those damn flower beds that I have to get down on the knees and weed all the time. My back can't take much more. He suggested I pull all the damn flowers out and fill the whole thing in with mulch and let it all go to hell. I'm thinking about it. I mean, I NEVER pulled weeds before in my life until I bought this place. The first summer I had the place, I thought they were just some nice plants growing in my garden until my neighbor informed me that they were weeds and I needed to pull them out cause they were choking the mums. Well, I pulled them out and planted more flowers but then the weeds just came back which puzzled me. I guess I thought that once I pulled them out, they were gone forever....WRONG! I spent all summer pulling weeds. The next summer I pulled and then put in Preen which helps alot but those damn weeds still sneak in here and there. This summer I put mulch on the side flower bed and that is helping although I still had some weeds to pull just before I came home. See...besides pulling my back when I was trying to put air in my tires...I also weeded my flower gardens just before I came home....no wonder my back is bad. It's those damn weeds!

I should hire a gardner....yeah right...LOL

Happy Friday!

2010-07-16T20:46:00.006-04:00

I know I haven't posted anything for awhile. I've been in Caseville for the past couple weeks and just got back yesterday. I had my birthday (yippee yippee) while we were in Caseville and I had a really nice birthday with hubby. First we went out to dinner at this nice restaurant in Caseville...first time we've been there with the new owners and it's really nice with tablecloths on the tables, etc. Then we went up to the Eagles for drinks with my girlfriend. After we left the Eagles we decided to stop at the Bella Vista lounge for a couple more drinks. We haven't been in there in years. That's where my little one-bedroom condo is at....there's a restaurant/bar/lounge there. I use to go in there alot when I used the condo cause they have music and a friend and I use to love to go there and dance. But that was eons ago. So anyway, hubby and I decided to stop in and see if anything has changed. There weren't very many people in there at first. We got in there about 10:30. I remember in the 'old days' the place would be packed every Fri and Sat night in the summer....but not anymore. Not with the cops waiting to haul your ass in for having a good time....and the no-smoking has killed whatever business there was left anyway. I think there were about a half dozen people in there....very sad. But by midnight a party bus pulled up and over 30 people came in and the place started rocking. Although we left shortly after they got there. Guess it got too noisy for us...lol

I guess you can bring coolers and drink on a party bus. They were showing us pictures from their cell phones and the bus even had a pole for the girls to dance on...haha. It looked like a lot of fun. But I don't really understand why you can drink on a bus....but passengers in your car can't drink. I mean, you can't have any open containers of alcohol in your car, but a bus can have coolers with beer and alcohol and people drinking and partying....and NO SEAT BELTS EITHER. I don't understand that....

4th of July weekend was great. My son and his girlfriend, her daughter and a cousin came and stayed at the condo. They got there late in the afternoon on Saturday cause she had to work part of Saturday. But we all got together in the evening and went down to the beach and watched the fireworks. Sunday, I spent the afternoon on the beach with them. He had the jetski out and he had brought up another jetski that he ended up selling while he was there. Hubby didn't see them on Sunday cause he has to stay out of the sun and doesn't do the beach thing. We had a family barbeque planned for Monday and taking the kids in town for ice cream, etc, but those plans went a little haywire. So we did a quick lunch barbeque on Tuesday before they had to leave.

Monday my godson and his brother were coming to the area and he wanted to stop by and have me meet his brother. He has been looking for his brother for a long time. They were separated when they were ages 5 and 2 many years ago and were each adopted to separate families. He finally found him!! It turns out he lives about an hour or so from where my cottage is.....and my godson grew up near where my cottage is also. Now my godson lives in Wyoming but he was so excited to finally find his 'little' brother (who is not so little anymore...haha) that he drove almost 2000 miles to get here and meet him. So anyway, Monday they drove up to the thumb area so he could introduce him to his family and wanted to stop by my cottage so I could meet him as well. The last time I saw his brother, he was 1 years old! Their mother was a school friend of mine in the old days. She adopted them out when she couldn't take care of them anymore.....A long story. (Actually my godson and I reunited just a couple years ago through his searching.) So anyway, it was exciting to finally meet this long lost brother and also to see my godson again.....so like I said, the 4th of July weekend was great!!

So now I'm home and today the bathroom sink was plugged up bad and hubby took the pipes apart and figured there was just hair in there, but it was way more than that. He finally had to call in a professional plumber who basically had to use the little snakey thing....but it's all fixed now. I HATE plumbing problems!
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MY SON CLOSED ON HIS NEW HOUSE TODAY!!!!!! So it's a done deal. They are so excited. He's going to replace some carpeting and do some painting before they move in. Now he has to sell the other house. He has someone who is interested in looking at it. I'm hoping he'll get lucky. He has a nice house.

A Sixty's Weekend....

2010-06-27T00:24:00.009-04:00

what a weekend! Last night I went to Karl's Cabin for my annual high school class get-together that we have been having every year for quite awhile. We had a good turnout of local people who showed up. We were talking about how close our class is. Very few classes keep in touch and have yearly get-togethers like we do. We have a very strong bond. I mean, we all grew up together.....we spent our primary years together...we just didn't graduate and then go our separate ways and maybe see each other once every 5 years or so. We're closer than that. We had some new people which is always nice.....and this one girl's husband came by himself cause she was in Florida.....that was so nice. He didn't even graduate with us!...but he still came cause we are such a cooool bunch of people. This young guy who worked there came into the room and asked to look through our yearbook....although looking at our yearbook can be a bit depressing. It's hard to even recognize anyone anymore. Damn....the Class of '64 is turning 64!!!

"WHEN I'M 64"....by The Beatles....

I remember when I was a teen going to the teen dances and the Beatles first came on the scene....one of the local DJ's was there MC'ing some bands and I asked him if he could get the Beatles to come to our teen club and this is exactly what he said....and I quote...."..by next year, nobody will even remember them"......LOLOL...LMAO!!!!!!!! So what the fuck did he know anyway???

Obviously, they never made it to our teen club, but they did come to Detroit at the Olympia Stadium and I got standing-room only tickets which cost me a whopping $2.00 and I went and saw them....couldn't hear a damn thing....but at least I saw them. Still got the ticket. Couple years later, I saw them again.

"Those were the days my friend....."

Today I drove to Fort St. and partied with my son and his fiance's family and friends at the Downriver Cruise Fest. I got there around 2:00 and didn't leave until after 10:00. Drank alot of beer....had me some passion fruit vodka and Pepsi and totally got a little blitz. I was going to drop in at my cousin's bar a couple miles down the road, but I was told that there was no place to park anyway, so I went straight home...probably a better decision.

So another nostalgic evening....saw alot of classic cars. Saw cars I or we use to actually own back in the day. I use to own a '55 Chevy...a '62 Mercury Comet...a '66 Corvair (don't laugh), hubby use to own a '68 Camaro, and an old old Mercury...like a '40 something...I forget...I wasn't around in those days. Hubby is really really old....like 90 or 100...hahaha....just kidding. He just had an old car for the purpose of owning an old car I guess. Maybe a '49 Mercury or maybe that's what his brother owned cause they both owned really old Mercurys. WHATEVER! They are ALL old nowadays....even the Jeep I'm driving is old...

It was a fun day and evening ..... lots of good memories ..... lots of good times

Hubby didn't go....he stayed home laboring to put a fence up in front of our front walk. Told him to spend the lousy $250 for the installation, but noooooooooooo he can save us $250. So far he ended up hiring some guy to dig the post holes...$100....so guess now we are really saving $150. Once he gets the posts in then the fence guy has to come and measure between the posts so he can custom make the fencing part that goes in between the posts. Problem is that it is so hard to get ahold of this guy. I had hoped to have it done before Memorial weekend and now it's almost 4th of July. I just hope it's done by Halloween so I have some place to set my pumpkins up against!.....

Blues Festival...??

2010-06-22T00:33:00.003-04:00

I just drove back today from Caseville. I am getting really pissed at all the damn road construction between there and here...it's ridiculous. I take a different route to avoid construction and just run into more traffic jams and more construction. I'm afraid it's going to be like that all summer. Every freakin year there is road construction somewhere between here and Caseville....always along my road route.

So anyway....I had some work done in my bathroom at the condo. I had taken the wallpaper down and needed some wall patching and painting done....and a few other minor things. So everything is done now and it looks nice. It will take a bit of getting use to though because it's a darker color than what my walls were before with the lighter wallpaper. The color is called "RoseBisque"...so it's kinda like a brownish rose or a burnished rose. A very pretty color. I was able to put up my towel rack and this other shelf thing, but I need hubby to put the medicine cabinet back up and the shower curtain. I tried to put the shower curtain back up myself but it's one of those tension rods and when I was trying to turn the rod to tighten it against the wall, it was taking the paint off!!!....so I had to retouch the spots and just left it. Hubby needs to nail these caps on the wall to slip the rod into.

The Blues Festival was Saturday night so I spent most of the evening at the condo. I was hoping that more owners would have been there but there were only a couple. Usually there are 3-4 different bands. I remember one year the first band was more of a rock band but the rest were bluesy. I was disappointed in the bands this year. They were all more like country rock bands. I didn't hear any Blues, that's for sure. I mean, they were good and nice to listen to, but that's not what it was suppose to be. It's suppose to be a BLUES Festival. There was a tent set up and he was charging $15 a person to get in. Of course, those of us owners who have a place there and even renters who are renting a place don't have to pay. We can sit outside the tent and enjoy the music. But I'm sure that couples who were paying $30 must not have been too happy when they realized that there was no Blues being played. It was basically the same type of music you can hear in any local bar.

Well, I got my yard mowed anyway.....and paid the guy who painted my bathroom. So it wasn't a wasted weekend.

This week I have a dentist appointment.....and a high school annual gathering on Friday and the DownRiver Cruise on Saturday. Then I'll head back up to Caseville by Wednesday for the Fourth of July holiday. My son and his girlfriend and her daughter will be at the condo and he'll get the jetski out. Maybe this time I'll get on it. That thing scares the bejesus out of me.....I don't like fast things on water where I could fall off and sink like a stone to the bottom of the depths of hellish water....life jacket or not....I know I'll sink and besides, I'll get my hair wet!!

The kitties are still around....they come out from under the house every once in awhile to see if the magical bowls of food are out. I was watching them tonight playing. Hubby said that they come out after the sun goes down and play for awhile. I saw the 'papa cat' too. We know he is the papa cause one of the kitties looks just like him. The other two look like 'mama cat'. It's nice that he stops by and checks on his family.....so we got the whole family now....mama cat, papa cat and the three little kittens. Damn, I don't know what we are going to do when we all have to be in Caseville for the holiday. Who is going to feed my cats??!!!

HOLY HOUSE!

2010-06-17T10:06:00.003-04:00

MY SON GOT THE HOUSE!! His realtor called him yesterday and the bank accepted his offer. I am so excited for them. It is a really really nice house. I'll have to post pics later.

Well, I'm off to Caseville for a few days for the Blues Festival on the Lake at the condo. Hubby decided to stay home....someone has to feed these damn cats!!

Be back by Monday...

Ciao

HOLY KITTENS!

2010-06-16T19:30:00.004-04:00

I warned my husband that there were cats living under our house. I could hear them and I once could even hear meowing. I told him to block the broken window that leads to the crawl space.....and, of course, he didn't. So now I've been seeing this cat going in and out of the window and then I thought I saw a little cat following close behind. Well, today I saw mama cat and THREE kittens with her coming in and out from under our house. They look to be about a couple months old and one was still trying to suckle on her. I'm sure that her milk is all they have to eat and I have no idea what she is living on. Hubby said he saw her drinking the water that was dripping on our driveway from my AC.

Now I know I shouldn't do this or they will never go away....but I don't think they are going anywhere soon anyway....so I put out a bowl of milk and mama cat ate it right up. Then I went to the store and bought more milk and a big bag of cat food and I put out a bowl of food for them. One by one they came out and sniffed and investigated these mysterious bowls of food and started eating. I'm sure that it's the first real food that those kittens have eaten since they've been born.

Now they are real comfy.....they have a nice dark place to sleep and they have magical bowls of food appear out of nowhere for them.

Anyone want a kitten??

Houses....

2010-06-15T23:10:00.008-04:00

My son put an offer on the house he wants. Hopefully, he will get this one. I know there is already another offer but the bank will consider all offers. The house needs painting and carpet cleaning and maybe some carpet replacing but that's about it. It's in really good condition and a beautiful home. It's perfect for them. I talked to his fiance Sunday and she just LOVES it!

SO PLEASE PLEASE LET THEM GET THIS ONE!!

Here is what he has been bidding on, and how cheap houses are going for nowadays:

First house he put an offer on......Price: $109,900
Sold for $95,000
His offer was too low.

....this house needed a ton of work inside. He knows the guy who bought it and the guy put almost $20,000 worth of work into it. Now he is reselling it for $165,000.

This is the second house he put an offer on.....Price: $124,900
Sold: ???
His offer was too low

....this house only needed carpets cleaned and walls painted. A very nice house.

This is the short sale house he was hoping to get....Price: $110,000
Bank refused his offer

...this house was in perfect move-in condition.

This is the house he now has an offer on.....Price: $115,000

...this is a lot of house for the money...it originally sold brand new in 2002 for almost $200,000!!

Hopefully, he'll get this one. He put a really good offer on it. If not, there are always more and more houses going into foreclosure every day. Someone else's loss is someone else's gain.

Home sweet home....

2010-06-13T23:30:00.002-04:00

I've been back home since last Tuesday. Our Memorial weekend was really good. I had my little garage sale and only made $75....but I was only open for one full day on Thursday, 1/2 a day on Friday because I was out doing garage saling myself, and I opened a couple hours on Saturday. The last 45 mins of my sale I was giving most of my stuff away....FREE STUFF!, and I got rid of most of it. I took what was left up to the thrift store in town. My neighbors were open the full 3 days and only made $200. It was really slow most of the time because the weather was nice and everybody was at the beach.

And that's what I did Sunday.....my son got his jetski out of the my garage and got it in the water so we spent most of the day on the beach. My middle son and his girlfriend didn't come up.....we were disappointed. He said maybe another time.

Let's see...what else did we do.....we all went out to dinner Saturday night and grilled on Sunday. Hubby and I went up to the Eagles a couple of nights. I planted 3 flats of flowers in my garden. Then mainly we did some work at the condo after our son and his girlfriend left. Hubby put a new faucet on the sink in the bathroom. He also put in a ceiling fan and horizontal blinds in the living room. I stripped off all the wallpaper in the bathroom. Right now, I have a guy working in the bathroom, patching and painting the walls and ceiling. It should be done by the time we get back up there this weekend.
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It doesn't look like my youngest son is going to get that house he had put a bid on a few months ago. It has been pending waiting for the approval for the short sale from the bank. Well, the bank finally decided that it wanted much more money. It will not agree to my son's offer, which was actually the asking price that the realtor had put on it in the first place. The owner is steaming mad. He threatened the bank that he will trash the place and let it go into foreclosure!...then it won't be worth anything. I'm sure he won't, but he was mad at the bank. He wants to get the house sold and move to New York.

So anyway, he is looking at other houses again. He found a couple more that they both like, one in particular. So tonight hubby and I went with him to see them. They are both nice. I wish we could sell our own house and buy the smaller 3 bedroom one...it would be perfect for us! So he wants to put an offer in on the other bigger 4 bedroom house. It is bank owned and apparently there is already one offer on it but they are still accepting more offers. So it will be another waiting game.
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My poor Mini Sue has Fleas!! And she is scratching and driving herself and me crazy. I'm going to go to the vet tomorrow and get her some of that flea stuff to put on her neck....and I'll do Keno too cause I'm sure he has a few of his own!

We, or maybe just I alone, are going to go up to Caseville this weekend for the Blues Festival that our condo association has every year out on the lawn by the lake. It's usually held the first weekend of June but it has been moved to the middle of the month. Last year it was freezing cold and I couldn't even go outside to listen to the music. I had to sit in the condo with the door open to hear it. So I'm hoping it is much nicer this time. They usually have 3 bands play. There is a tent set up with tables and a bar; but, of course, the condo owners can hear the music without having to pay for a ticket to get into the tent....We just bring our chairs out with our coolers and sit on the grass and get a free show!!

It'll be a short trip....probably back home by Monday.

2010-05-25T00:14:00.004-04:00

I got back from Caseville last Thursday. I got all my yardwork done and I had a couple nice days to do it in. When I got home, I had gotten an email letting me know that a second cousin of mine had passed away. She was actually my dad's first cousin. We had met through our mutual genealogy researches several years ago. She was a cousin I never knew I had. And she lived right here in my town just a few miles away. We had a mutual interest in our family roots, and she had pictures to share. I am so glad I had gotten to meet and know her. She was 88 years young. And you would never know it. Her daughter has a cottage on the lake, and she even had her own jetski!...and she loved to Kayak! She had a real zest for life. She was like a woman 1/2 her age. She was amazing. She always loved reading my blog. I'll miss you, Dot!!

Anyway, I'm leaving again tomorrow for Caseville. My neighbors are having a garage sale starting Thursday, so I figured I may as well set up a couple of tables and sell a few things myself. I have a concrete patio area that is right next to their driveway, so I'm going to have it there. Mainly, I'm going to sell DVD's, CD's and video movies and few other items.....not a big sale this year. So I'm off tomorrow and hubby will drive up by Thursday for the Memorial Weekend. And my son and his girlfriend will be at the condo. My middle son and his girlfriend MIGHT come up too. He stopped by tonight and still wasn't sure what he wanted to do Memorial weekend. We're hoping he'll come up. He hasn't even seen our cottage yet! He says it's been 10 years since he's been to Caseville. So it's about time, I say!!

I have a headache. I think it's the humidity. Today it was hot and humid. We finally put on the AC. Yep....summer is here!!!!!!!!

Caseville grass cutting time....

2010-05-17T22:20:00.003-04:00

It's been a couple weeks since I cut the grass in Caseville, so I'm athinkin' of drivin' up there tomorrow and cut it. Cause otherwise, it'll be next week by the time I get up there for Memorial weekend and that will make it 3 weeks since it was cut. So I'll drive up for a couple days. I'll be back by Thursday. So it better not rain!

Then I'll drive up next week for the holiday weekend and stay a couple weeks. I'm sure that my youngest son and his girlfriend will come up. He better, cause he needs to get his jetski out of my garage and take it to the condo. I sure hope he winterized it right and he can get it started.

I went to Fashion Bug today. I had gotten a couple bras there that I really, really liked and wanted to get a couple more while they are still on sale....plus, I had a $10 coupon which made it a better deal. I bought a couple tops, too. I am boycotting WIRE bras! I can't stand wearing them anymore. I can't stand how they dig into my ribcage and pinch me. So I have switched to the wireless types, and I love them....so much more comfortable. And the ones I found at Fashion Bug are far more superior than the ones I've bought at Sears. I highly recommend them. They are a Softcup and come in all sizes. There....I just pitched their bras. They should pay me...haha
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I'm watching Animal Planet right now and it's about the investigation of PetLand. I know that there is one near me and people are always picketing it. Breeders and puppy mills should be banned. People need to stop buying from breeders. They are showing this one breeder who admits that she has puppies put down all the time if she doesn't think they are top quality to bring in the money. These places are BAD. It is so sad seeing the conditions these poor dogs are in and the situations they have to endure, the cages they have to live in 24 hours. They need to ban pet stores, cause they buy from the breeders and are only in it for the money. They encourage puppy mills. STOP BUYING FROM BREEDERS....There are plenty of good dogs that need homes and would love to be 'rescued' and given a good home. Just ask Keno! Of course, the little puppies sitting in a pet store also want a good home, and it's not their fault how they were bred. But PetLand is the worse.....they sell sick dogs.

Saturday.....

2010-05-16T00:31:00.004-04:00

GO TIGERS!! Tonight they won another one of their 'coming up from behind' games that they have been famous for this season. We decided to watch a DVD movie tonight and they were losing 1-6 so we figured they'll lose this game anyway, so let's watch a movie. We watched a movied called "Civic Duty" with Peter Krause and it was a pretty good movie. Basically about after 9-11 and this guy gets paranoid when a middle-eastern guy moves in an apartment downstairs from him and he is convinced that the guy is a terrorist and things go from bad to worse....and the arab guy is innocent...or is he???? Well, ya just have to see the movie to find out.

So we watch the movie and when it's over, I flip on the baseball channel thinking that the game is probably over anyway, and much to my surprise I see that the score is tied and they are going into the 11th inning!...what did we miss?? It must have been a good game afterall. And then more innings to come and the winning run is walked in!!! Hoorayyyyyy Tigers!! Glad I didn't miss ya...
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Today was a decent day for outdoor work and I decided that today is the day that I am going to get the landscaping on the side of my house done. Last year we tore out the old overgrown bush and I thought hubby was going to lay new sod down but he never did...and I decided I wanted more than just new sod anyway. I'm sure hubby didn't wake up this morning thinking that we were going to landscape the side of the house, but I did! First, I went to a church rummage sale and hit a few garage sales and then I knew I had to get home and start my project. So I came home and informed hubby of my plans and he starts freaking out about what all I am about to do. I got the shovel in my hand ready to dig in and he starts asking me exactly what I'm planning on doing. Well, to be perfectly honest I didn't really have a clue, but I knew I was going to do SOMETHING....anything is better than weeds. Well, I kinda had a plan that involved mulch or stones and shrubs or bushes and flowers. He had a plan that involved those landscaping bricky things. So we went to Home Depot and bought some landscaping bricky things, a couple of golden-colored shrubs, and bags of brown mulch. And Preen.....I put preen in everything, cause I'm not going to work my ass off and then have the weeds undo everything I did. So I weeded and preened. We laid the landscaping bricky things, planted the shrubs and laid the mulch and it looks really really good. We still have some plants we have in our yard that we are going to dig up and transplant there and I'm sure some gnomes will sneak in and lurk in the area. I already have this big weird looking wire frog that I got at an estate sale last year that I put there and it holds a planter....but hubby hates it and says that he is sure that someone is going to steal it one night and it will soon be gone....LOL

So that's what I did today.....I got the landscaping on the side of my house DONE DONE DONE!!
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Update on the house my son is trying to buy. Short sales are a big pain in the ass to say the least. The bank likes to give everybody a hard time, but things are slowly moving along. They are insisting on another appraisal to make sure that they can't get more for the house....but it has entered, what they call...'the equator system', and I guess that means the ball is rolling or some such crap.

Happy Mother's Day weekend...

2010-05-08T00:32:00.003-04:00

I drove home from Caseville yesterday after spending a very busy week and a half there. Hubby says that the weather here wasn't all that great, but we had very nice weather in Caseville. Well, one day we got some cool rainy weather, but most of it was sunny and warm. I even got to wear shorts for a few days.

I got a ton of yard work done at the cottage. I cut the lawn 4 times! I pulled all the weeds in my mum garden on the side of the cottage and laid down mulch and the chickens I bought at that estate sale. They look so cute there....love my chickens! I took out all the stones around the pump house, pulled weeds and laid more mulch there. I pulled all the weeds in my vegetable garden and filled it in with mulch. I'm not doing a veggie garden this year. I also pulled all the weeds in my flower garden in front of my deck.

Then I spent a couple days at the condo taking down my storms and putting in the screen windows, vacuuming everything, cleaning the bathroom....plus, I put a new bedspread on the bed and I set up my new TV that I had taken up. I bought a flat-panel TV to replace the one that was in there. I told the office that they can come get the old one if anyone wants it. It's fairly new...I just bought it at Walmart about 4 years ago.

I did do some relaxing things too....like going to the Eagles, shopping at Bad Axe and Bingo on Wednesday nights. I even won $20!

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I bought a pair of those new Skecher Shape Ups shoes...you know, the ones that they've been advertising on TV that claims to tone your legs and butt. I just love them! I've been wearing them all day. They feel strange when you first walk with them on and it takes a bit of getting use to the feel but they are fun to wear. Go to a store and try them on and you'll see what I mean. By the end of the day, I could feel my muscles in my legs so it's a good workout wearing them. They come with a DVD that explains how they work and the proper way to walk when you wear them and some exercises you can do with them on.

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Hubby drove to Ohio today with our youngest son to pick up a truck that he was buying that he found on Craigslist. He sold his truck that broke down on the freeway a couple weeks ago. And he found a deal on another truck that he used to make money on. Basically, buying it cheap and reselling it for more. So with his profits he bought another truck for himself. And here's the funny story that my husband told me when he got back::::

:::::They get down there and my son is looking the truck over and found something familiar with the truck. So he asked the guy if he had replaced a tail light and the guy was surprised that my son would even know that...cause he did. So my son asked the guy if he had bought the truck from a guy named Ed, and he did! Apparently, there was a truck near him here in Michigan that my son looked at about 4 months ago but the guy wanted too much money for, so he passed on it. This was the SAME TRUCK!! The guy said he had bought the truck a few months ago from a guy named Ed, who lived in the same city that my son first saw the truck here in Michigan! My son recognized some things on the truck and he knew it had to be the same truck and it is.....weird!! So he could have just bought the truck a few months ago and saved himself a long 3 hour drive to Ohio....haha. But he got a better deal....plus, this guy had put brand new tires on the truck, and gave him the old tires which he will now sell on Craigslist and make part of his money back.

Guess it was just meant to be for him to have this truck....

Well, I'm Off....

2010-04-27T09:24:00.004-04:00

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!

2010-04-26T00:11:00.002-04:00

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.....

2010-04-24T23:03:00.004-04:00

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...

2010-04-22T22:04:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-18T20:00:00.003-04:00

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!!

2010-04-16T02:05:00.001-04:00

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

Just thought I'd get that off my chest.

Tax Season is Over....

2010-04-14T22:15:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-10T23:34:00.009-04:00

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!!!!!!

2010-04-07T22:28:00.004-04:00

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...

2010-04-01T23:26:00.003-04:00

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....

Smelly Gas....and glue for dinner....

2010-03-28T00:02:00.006-04:00

Today our town had their annual HHW....Hazardous Household Waste...dropoff. There's a list a mile long of stuff they don't want you to just throw in your trash (like I do most of the time, I admit), but instead they want you to put it all in your car and come to their site and drop it off. Hey...sounds good. I have a few old TV's I want to get rid of. Hubby has this car that's been sitting in our garage for probably 5 years now not running. So he decided to drain the gas out of it and he put it all in about 4 gas cans to take up to the HHW site.

I had already been there earlier and waited in a long line of cars all filled with things like old paint, varnish, car oil, anything toxic in bottles that you shouldn't pour down your drain (like I do most of the time, I admit). I was starting to feel a bit guilty with just my 3 old TV's. So I told them that I have some gas I'm going to be bringing up later.

By the time hubby and got there later the line of cars was so backed up that we must have waited and slowly crept along for over 1/2 hour. In the meantime, my low-gas dinger sound went off. I totally forgot to put gas in my car! So we're creeping along and my gas is getting lower and lower. And in the meantime, the gas fumes from all the cans of gasoline in the back of my jeep was making me nauseous and I was getting a headache. We had put all the windows down, but it was getting stronger and stronger and we were getting colder and colder with the windows down. And my car was getting weaker and weaker from the lack of gas in it's gas tank. I asked hubby if we could take some of the 5 year old gas in the cans and just pour it in the tank and get the hell out of there! I guess, not a good idea....

Just as I was getting near the fainting stage, we finally made it to the end where someone took the cans out of my car. But hubby wanted the cans back, so we had to wait for them to pour the gas into something else and bring us back the smelly gas cans. I finally made it to a gas station and by the time I got home, I was literally sick of smelling gas.....ewwwwwwww!!
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Tonight I decided to have some deli macaroni with the chicken tenders and fries I was going to have for dinner. I went up to the local store and didn't want to wait in the deli line, so I decided to just grab some already in a tub in the cooler thingy. Usually, they USE to fill tubs of macaroni, potato salad, cole slaw, etc from the deli and put it out for sale in the cooler areas, but they have since changed things around....and I hate when they change things around!...so now they have this prepackaged crap in the coolers. I bought one of those thinking it was the deli macaroni. We had it with our dinner, but I told hubby that I was taking it back cause it tasted like crap. I told him that it tasted like old glue to me. Of course, he thought it tasted just fine since he has no sense of taste or smell anyway! Trust me, it tasted like horsey glue crap....

So I took it back to the store. I told the guy that it was that prepackaged crap and that it tasted like glue. He looked at me like he thought I was nuts, but he gave me a store credit for $1.99. Then I went and waited in yet another line and finally got DELI macaroni. I haven't tasted it yet since I have lost my appetite from all the smelly gas and gluey tasting mac from before. I'll try it tomorrow.

Wednesday ramblings.....

2010-03-24T23:36:00.003-04:00

Son is still waiting to hear about the house he put the offer on. It looks good so far. The seller agreed to it and signed the papers, but now it has to be presented to the bank for approval because of the short sale. The listing agent took the house off the website so as not to generate any more interest from others. My son put his offer in on Saturday and by Monday there were two more offers from buyers who didn't even go inside the house! They saw the pictures online and probably checked it out from the outside and put an offer on it. The listing agent said that my son was the only one who actually made an appointment and went inside. This agency is real hard to get ahold of for some reason. And I'm sure people were trying to get ahold of somebody. Also, my son has worked with this agency when he sold his first house. So he is actually a past client of theirs. So the owner of the agency is giving him first chance. Basically, it's his as long as the bank agrees to everything.
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It was a beautiful day today!! I got out and did my 3 mile walk. Things should start slowing down at my tax job. Most of our clients are done, just the ones who always wait until the end of March to get their stuff in. I got mine done! I just have to print it out and get it mailed in. My son had to get a corrected W-2 because his new second job that he started in November got his social security number wrong. I talked to him today and he said he has it. Can't get his taxes done until I have the right W-2!

He got a job doing security at a high school which is nice cause he works school hours and is off when there's no school. So he'll have the summer off and basically will just work his regular Brinks job then. I guess occasionally they do random locker searches....and this girl was getting all hyper about it....and it turned out she had drugs in her locker! They had cops and drug-sniffing dogs in for that and the dogs were going nuts at her locker...haha.

It's Saturday...

2010-03-21T00:07:00.002-04:00

Today hubby and I went to look at another house with my son. A new house went on the market overnight in the area that he's been looking. So he called his agent and made an appointment to look at the house. We met him there and were just as impressed with the house as he was. He decided to make an offer on it. He's already put offers on two houses that didn't pan out so we're hoping he gets this one. Time will tell. It's another short sale deal, so the bank has to approve the sale.

We went to an estate sale on the way back home and I found a cute cabinet/dresser for my cottage up north. I'm going back tomorrow for the 50% off day. They had literally hundreds of CD's. I bought a K.D. Lang CD and I'm hoping to get more tomorrow for half off.

I took Mini Sue to the pet store and she saw her teacher from when she took her lessons a year ago. Maryanne even remembered her. As soon as she saw her she said, "MINI SUE"!

I took her to the vet last week for her vaccines and a check-up. I decided to have a complete blood work done on her just to be sure that everything is normal. We got the results back and everything is in the normal range.....YES!!

So I finally decided to go to the show and see "Shutter Island" and it's off....guess I missed it and I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD. So we watched an older movie with Michael Keaton "The Good Cop". There is absolutely NOTHING on TV tonight. There is never anything good on Saturday nights. Saturday night is always movie night.

I think I ate too much popcorn.....

My St. Paddy's Day evening...

2010-03-17T23:14:00.005-04:00

I worked until 5:30 today so by the time I got home and changed clothes, redid my makeup and put the dogs out, it was close to 7:00 by the time we got up to O'Malleys for our St. Paddy's dinner. The place was packed and we walked around the two main areas trying to find a place to sit....and no place at the bar either...and then we spotted our friends, Bill and Joanne and there were two empty seats next to them at their table. They had ordered the corn beef and cabbage and it looked really good so that's what I got. So the three of us had the corned beef and cabbage and hubby orderd FISH AND CHIPS....who the hell orders fish and chips on St. Patrick's Day?? Joanne thought it was even weird that they even had it on the special St. Patrick's Day menu.

I had my first beer in over 2 months!!!!! I wanted an Irish beer so I ordered two Killians and later a Guiness. Couldn't believe the prices when we got the bill.....the Killians were $5 a piece and the Guiness was $6.25!! Holy Hell, I could have bought a whole 6-pack for that price.....wtf???

But I won our dinner anyway. Bill and I played the Keno and my 3 numbers (7-11-14) came up and I won $27! Then after they left, I played two numbers (4-22..my dad's birthday) and it came up twice and I won another $22.....won $49 altogether!!...Hey, it paid for our dinner and my extravegant drinks.

We got home in time to see the results of American Idol. Why oh why am I wasting my freakin' time on this show????? I have already missed most of it due to the fact that I would rather watch ANYTHING ELSE, but I did my best to watch it last night....literally running back and forth between my TV in my family room and my TV in my living room...(I was taping Lost so couldn't just change the channel)...and I know which ones will stay for awhile without my vote. So I decided to vote for the one girl that I think will need the votes and I would like to see stick around for awhile before she'll probably get voted off anyway....Lacey. So I gave a lot of votes for Lacey last night....and some to Michael and some to Crystal. Well, tonight Lacey got voted off!! WTF....Why did I bother? God, I hate this show....

OK....THAT'S IT....I went to the Votefortheworst website and they are telling us to vote for Tim cause he's the worst. That's who I thought for sure would get voted off this week, but no...talented Lacey got voted off even with my votes. So guess what???? Guess who's getting my votes next week??? To hell with the whole show...I'm voting for TIM URBAN...."helmet head" as they call him. They have a picture of Darth Vader with his hair on the website..haha. www.votefortheworst.com...I love their website.

Personally, my choice for the worst would be Andrew Garcia....

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY....

Oh, I had my "kiss me, I'm Irish" button on and this guy asked me if I was really Irish and I told him about my Gr-Gr-Gr-grandparents being from Ireland so he gave me a kiss!..

There's a Green Beer out there waiting for me...

2010-03-17T09:25:00.006-04:00

So Happy St. Paddy's Day to everyone! I've been on this no-beer diet since Jan. 2 (lost 8-9#'s so far), but tonight I'm celebrating my Irish roots. Hubby and I will go out to this Irish bar near us, and I'm having Irish Stew and green beer! But after tonight, I'll go back on my no-beer diet for another month or so.

I'm from the Mahoney clan of Clare County, Ireland. Here's a picture of my great-great grandmother, Kate Mahoney, and her mother Mary Mahoney:

I guess that's the biggest picture I can get....

Even my dogs celebrate St. Paddy's Day. Today Mini is Mini Mahoney and Keno is Keno Kilarney!...Hahaha

We're also hoping to see some Caseville/Eagles friends at the bar. They have a place near Caseville and are Eagles members, but they live near us....Bill and Joanne. I guess they were there last year and spotted my hubby when he went to use the men's room but that was when we were just leaving. So tonight we'll look for them.

I'm working today but I have tomorrow off which is good. I'm wearing green today...

Cheers...

Down Memory Lane....

2010-03-14T12:48:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I drove out to a couple of Estate Sales in the vicinity of where I grew up as a teenager. I couldn't believe the one house....only in my wildest dreams could I ever live in a house like that!...must be nice. So anyway after the sales I came back home down the road that took me to my old street to the house my dad built.

Back around 1959/1960 my parents decided to move out of the city. My dad wanted to buy himself an acre of land and build his own house and have chickens and horses. He was in the building business, so between himself and his friends he built a 3 bedroom ranch with a family room and fireplace on an acre of land. Back then the lots were selling and other homes were being built here and there. It was in a township with lots of trees and dirt roads. I distinctly remember the summer the house was ready and we moved in. I was 14. Also, just down the street lived a super good-looking guy who happened to be 15.....just my dad's luck!!...haha. Super good-looking guy ended up being my on again/off again boyfriend for the next 4 years. He had a motor scooter and he would ride down to our house, pick me up and off we'd go riding down the dirt roads. And we spent many lazy summer afternoons taking walks up and down that old dirt road. We'd walk to the end of the road, turn right and walk to the railroad tracks and then walk back.....probably did that a zillion times. School days I would walk to the corner where there was a little 2 pump gas station and get the school bus that would bus me to the high school in the main city. It was very rural, rustic and serene back in those days.

My dad built himself a small barn in the back with a corral and he bought himself his first horse, Pixie. He had a sign made up that he hung up over the barn and it read "Pixie's Ponderosa". He loved to ride his horse and he'd ride her down the road to another friend's place that owned a horse farm. Later her bought "Amber" but she was a little too fat for him, so he put her on a diet. But she still kept gaining weight. He finally began to suspect she might be pregnate...called in a vet...and sure enough, she was pregnate! She fouled a little filly soon afterwards. One morning, he went out to the barn to feed her and there she was nursing her filly.

Behind our land there was a woods and next to our lot, there was nothing but field to the main road. We were very isolated and we liked it that way. But pretty soon word came that crews were coming in and cutting down the woods behind us and apartment buildings were going to be built. And the expressway was going to be coming through on the other side of the apartments. And the nice empty field next to us was being sold and since it was also on a corner and on a main road, a theater of some type was going to be built there. Progress was coming to our little quiet piece of heaven. That's all my dad needed to hear. He sold the house, bought a few acres about 5 miles down the road and built himself another house. By that time, I was married, so it was just he and my mom who lived there. They were happy there until another more mightier intrusion interrupted their peaceful lives....cancer. My wonderful father passed away in 1979 at the young age of only 52.

Okay....so anyway....yesterday I drove down my street to see my old house. Of course, now the road is wider and paved. Apartment buildings and roads are looming over the back of the lot. A GFS store and parking lot is right next door to our house where the empty field use to be. The "Center Stage" and parking lot use to be there but they tore that down and now there are stores. Across the road where there use to be houses down to the corner, well...all the houses are torn down (including super good-looking boyfriend's house) and more parking lots and stores all the way down to the corner on the main road.....that same corner where the little 2 pump gas station stood where I and my BF would wait for the bus.

My father's house is now basically surrounded by "progress" as they call it. There is no rural rustic feeling anymore and the serenity is gone. What stands now is a symbol of the greed in this country...build more stores, spend more money, buy more crap, and the American dream has become an American nightmare. Well, I still have my dreams and my memories of those long-ago days when time seem to stand still and there was something special to remember many years later.

American Idol Results.....and man jokes

2010-03-11T22:22:00.005-05:00

Watched American Idol tonight and most of my favorites are staying in the game. I was sad to see Todrick go cause I think he probably had more talent than the rest of them put together. And I felt bad for Alex because I really think that he has an unusual voice that sometimes reminded me a bit of Dylan. Let's face it....if American Idol had been around back in the 60's, most of our legendary singers probably wouldn't have even made it to Hollywood week! I'm glad to see that Crystal made it through, however, she seems a bit gloomy to me....didn't see her even crack a smile when Ryan told her she made it to the top 12. I couldn't really judge the girls though because I only saw them sing one time....and I think I missed most of the guys one night. There are other better shows on TV to watch.

I picked up some books at an estate sale last weekend. One of them is called "Truly Tasteless Disadvantaged White Male Jokes"....inotherwords, stupid man jokes.

..."WHAT DO MEN AND BEER BOTTLES HAVE IN COMMON?"

..."THEY'RE BOTH EMPTY FROM THE NECK UP.."
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...."WHAT'S THE ONLY THING THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T TAX?....

...."A PENIS, BECAUSE 95% OF THE TIME IT'S INACTIVE, 5% OF THE TIME IT'S IN THE HOLE, AND IT'S GOT TWO DEPENDENTS AND THEY'RE BOTH NUTS."
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...."WHAT'S A REDNECK'S IDEA OF A SEVEN-COURSE MEAN?"

...."A HOT DOG AND A SIX-PACK."
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...."WHAT DO YOU CALL THE USELESS PIECE OF FLESH AT THE END OF A PENIS?"

...."A MAN"
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Good-nite....

One year ago today.....we got KENO!

2010-03-07T17:57:00.005-05:00

One year ago today (well actually March 8th but it was on a Sunday) we picked up our little Keno and brought him home. I remember being so excited that I could hardly wait to leave to go get him. And we hadn't even seen him yet. We had only seen a few pictures of him that the Rescue place had put on the internet in hopes of finding him a new home. But we fell in love with him sight unseen and knew that he belonged with us.

I took this picture shortly after he came to our house. He was so scared. But now he runs the house...haha. He knows that he is in his forever home.

Yesterday I saw an ad on Craigslist where somebody is trying to find a home for their 3 year old female Chihuahua.....I mentioned it to hubby.....he won't even look at her picture...LOL