Mmmm

When I was growing up, there was a neighborhood bakery in our neighborhood, Colonial Bakery. We bought all of our bread from there. It was nothing fancy, just their regular sandwich loaf (we asked for the loaves with the darker crust). They'd pick out a loaf for us, and put it on the slicer. That's how fresh this bread was! It did not stay on their shelves long and it was never cut until it was purchased. This stuff was just the bomb.

We've all been spoiled. Unfortunately, eventually Colonial Bakery closed. It was a sad day for all of Erie as far as I was concerned. And, since then, I can not find a decent bread. That was the only white bread I liked. Since there was no other white bread that I thought was palatable, I gave up on it and switched to wheat. Ron and I used to buy this 12 grain wheat bread that was bearable for awhile, but they seem to have switched their recipe recently, so it's not what it used to be.

Just the other day I went for groceries and spent almost 20 minutes walking up and down the bread aisle looking for a loaf of bread! Nothing looked good as none of it is Colonial Bakery bread and there are NO substitutes for it other than home made bread.

In a past life, I got a bread maker. I don't think I've used it since I've moved to Ohio, but I have it. It wasn't too hard to find, there in the baaaaaaack of the cupboard behind just about everything kitchen related I own.

I used to make bread quite often. There was a bread mix that I used to get at Target. It came in like a coffee can and was the easiest thing to use. You put water in the bread maker, then measured out how much mix for one loaf and turned the machine on. Ok, I also added raisins just because they make any bread oh so much better. I don't remember just how many loaves the can of mix made, but it was quite a few. And, it was vegan friendly for my frequent visitor who also loved fresh bread with raisins! (Hi, Jo!) It wasn't Colonial Bakery bread but it was really good.

Then, the bread mix changed. It was no longer vegan friendly and it was no longer sold in the coffee can. That was the end of me making bread.

The bug has hit me again after spending all that time in the grocery store the other day and just "settling" on a loaf.

Anyway, I got up this morning at Oh-My-God-O'clock (don't ask) and wanted to do something productive but quiet. So I dug out the bread maker and got to work. And, yes, I also added raisins!

Too bad this blog doesn't come with smell-o-vision because right now my house smells fantastic!

As a side note, I have been having a hankering for Chipotle's, one of my absolute favorite restaurants! Who can resist their chicken burrito with onions and peppers? Squeeze a little lime in there and I'm telling you it's close to heaven. Especially since they've finally put a Chipotle's near us over by the Midway Mall. There is no longer any excuse NOT to go to Chipotle's! Unfortunately, it's not one of Ron's favorite places, but he did give in to me and we had plans today, after his service call, to go there for lunch. I think my homemade bread just trumped Chipotle's and that's hard to do!

So, I'm going to go downstairs and slice up my bread, and grab the good Krakus Polish ham that's in my fridge (another taste of growing up) and enjoy a feast in my own dining room. If anybody wants some, you better hurry!

Making Mom Proud

One thing the girls in my family are known for: not being safe around sharp knives.

Tonight I was making orange spaghetti for supper. I was in the middle of chopping up one large onion. Before I knew it, there were two bandaids and one latex glove covering the bloody mess. At least I was able to not only finish chopping the onion, but I was able to finish making dinner as well!

Mom would be proud.

Medicine

Things are not great at our house.

Ron started last week with the creeping cruds. I caught up with him this week.

We are now on a liquid diet. Here is a picture of the liquids that we are taking. Hey, you choose your medicine, we'll choose ours!

The Hennessy is courtesy of Phil. Thanks, man. I knew you loved us!

Don't Look At Me!

Don't look at me! Yeah, this is what most people do when a camera comes out! Ron's son, Vince, was no exception!

Today was his last day with us, and I pulled out the camera. Here's what I got.

Today was a hard day. You don't want to start too much or go anywhere. You're just waiting for the time to go to the airport.

While waiting, the guys decided to watch a movie this morning. Since I now knew I had to be more clandestine in my picture taking, I had the camera hidden in my hand and took it as I walked by! Clever, huh? Sometimes being a little sly helps!

Finally, we headed out. We left a little early to hit the same restaurant we hit when Vince came to town. Cap'n Taco! I didn't want to send him home on an empty stomach and what better to eat before you fly? Tacos! Ok, maybe I didn't think that one through as well as I thought I did.

Before we went for tacos, I did get the the two of them to stand up together and pose for a picture. A little whining on my part went a long way.

After tacos we were heading to the airport. For a little fun for all of us we decided to park at the Park 'n Ride and take the train to the airport! (Ok some ideas I still take from brother Michael!) This was my favorite part of the day. Plus, you're spared the hurried hugs and goodbyes at the terminal and have time right at the airport to say the farewells. Since the guys didn't know I had the camera on me, I actually got a picture with both of them smiling!

It was a fast right from the Park 'n Ride to the airport, but we made the best of it. This way we were able to wait with Vince while he checked in and then watched him go through security.

I gotta tell you, it was a fast week. Unfortunately, Ron ended up sick through most of his vacation so the guys didn't get done as much as they'd hoped. Now Ron is feeling better and what sickness had left him has taken root in me.

But we did get to visit some family, and do a some site seeing, played a LOT of Wii and definitely ate our fill.

We just got the call a few minutes ago, and Vince has made it home safe and sound. It was a great visit, and now since Vince has his own key to the house, hopefully he'll feel free to use it again soon!

Terrific Tuesday

I gotta tell you, this is exactly why I love birthdays. All kinds of good things SHOULD and DO happen around your birthday!

As I've already posted, last Saturday was Ron's birthday. The three of us met up with our friends, Larry and Linda, and went to Jackalope's, our favorite restaurant, for dinner. We have never been disappointed with any food that has come out of their kitchen or service we've received. Plus the view can't be beat.

While we were there, we saw signs that Jackalope's was having an Easter brunch. While reservations were supposed to be needed, Sunday morning we showed up, hoping they could fit us in. Sure enough, they found a table for us. It was a great brunch, complete with a couple of mimosas! C'mon now, how can any day that starts with champagne and orange juice be a bad day?

Ron's best birthday present came on Monday. Ron's youngest son, Vince, flew in to town for his Dad's birthday! While it wasn't a surprise trip, it was sure the highlight of Ron's week. So, with Vince here for a week, there has been a whirlwind of activity around here. The boys are definitely ramping up the competition on the Wii system. I keep hearing "oh crap" or some variation of those words from each of them. It seems that they are pretty evenly matched and while one will win one game, the other seems to come back on the next. They have been a hoot.

The highlight for me was on Tuesday. My brother Jim was nice enough to drive all the way to Ohio again and join us for dinner. I made a mad dash to Sam's Club for some dinner supplies plus a trip to Fligner's for some great steaks. In my opinion, they are the best place to buy meat. We definitely weren't disappointed in the steaks they chose for me.

Ron and Vince were out in the rain on the grill with the steaks and portabella mushroom caps. Inside, I was on the steamed asparagus and fresh garlic bread. (I don't think I put too much garlic on there, but not everyone might agree with this. I thought it came out fantastic, but I might be biased here!)

For desert, we had some fresh strawberries and some leftover strawberry cake. It truly was a great dinner. After the dining room was cleared up and dishes were done, we got down to serious business.

Ron and Vince proceeded to the living room to pick up the Wii marathon. In true fashion for our family, Jim, Phil and I staked out the dining room table and broke out the pinochle cards! Ok, both of the boys had to be reminded of a few rules on how to play the game, but after that, the game proceeded.

It was strange. The three of us all recalled playing pinochle with Grandma, and when we'd argue about a hand or rehash it, we heard Dad's voice telling us he couldn't understand how we got enjoyment out of arguing over cards! Hey, it's how we grew up! The three of us enjoyed the warm fuzzies of the happy memories.

Best of all, is I won the pinochle game. Ok, maybe it was because they made keep score, but I think it was my superior pinochle playing. And maybe a little luck!

Yes, it was a terrific Tuesday.

As for the visit from Vince, all is going extremely well. He is a very laid back kid. I can call him a kid since we've decided he is exactly half my age. Yeah, somehow this should end up in the "that's just wrong" category but I digress. He's very agreeable to any idea as to what do to or where or what to eat. He's on vacation, and that's pretty much all he cares about.

And all I care about is his visit absolutely made Ron's birthday. And that's what it's all about.

The Perfect One!

Yes, we were bowling! And, the birthday boy has bowled a perfect game!!!

You can't tell here, but actually, the game before, he ended up with nine strikes in a row. On top of that, this game was 12 more, making a whopping total of 21 strikes in a ROW!

Of course, we were smart about it and stopped playing immediately!

Way to go, honey! What a great game!

Happy Birthday, Ron!!

Well, it's 22 minutes into his birthday and we've sung (loudly and badly!), opened presents, hugged, kissed, and already have a strawberry cake baked! That's a darn nice start to a birthday, if you ask me!

Saturday, we are going to Jackalope's for a birthday dinner; sitting outside, watching out over the marina. If anyone is around, stop by and join us in wishing the birthday boy another year of health, happiness and success.

Happy Birthday, honey! May the best be yet to come!!

And Yet Another Update!

Perhaps I should wait to blog until I have all of the facts!

Our furnace guy got here this afternoon. He said he usually just takes the recommendations of the gas company employee and changes whatever parts they have listed on the red flag. However, after looking at our furnace, he said it was just a pipe that was so loose, it was almost disconnected totally. After tightening the pipe, the bill came to $104. A LOT better than the $400 more he would have charged had he changed the part we called him to change.

Here's to someone actually looking and fixing what's wrong and not what will get him more money.

That made today a little more bearable! Go me!

Can You Smell It?

Well, I could smell it.

Ron and I had just carried the laundry down to the basement so I could start the washing. I smelled gas. Not very strong, but I could definitely smell it. So could Ron. He immediately started looking for leaks at all of the connection sites. Nothing.

I called Columbia Gas. The woman on the phone had me scared to death by the time I hung up with all of the warnings and "advice" she gave to me. The hell with all of the rest of her warnings; Ron and I just evacuated knowing that Columbia Gas was on the way. We waited on the front porch for the cavalry to arrive. (Before anyone thinks we left Phil to go down with the house, he wasn't home!)

Our technician showed up quickly and the lines downstairs were tested with a sniffer, and he couldn't detect any gas leak. Then the fun began. A test of the pressure did find that there was a leak somewhere in the house as the pressure dropped after a three minute test. Not good. After much up and down the basement stairs for Ron and our technician, we ended up with three red flags. THREE.

The first was because we have a flex hose going from the gas line in the basement up through the floor to the gas stove in the kitchen. I guess it has to be a hard line, not a flex hose. Ok, that wasn't our original problem, but since he was here, he had to write it up.

Second was a problem with the furnace. If there is a problem, there is a gadget on all appliances that should automatically shut them down so the flow of gas stops and doesn't fill up the house. That gadget is broken on the furnace, so it is allowing gas to leak out. Not good. This needs to be fixed immediately. We have a call in to a furnace guy. The technician wouldn't even hook the furnace back up until this is repaired, so let's hope that it doesn't get too cold until I can get this fixed. The good news/bad news is that it's a part that can be replaced for a couple of hundred bucks. Big yuck on that part. But at least it doesn't warrant a whole new furnace.

Last red tag issue was our water heater. I blogged recently that while doing laundry one other day, we heard a scratching from something that had gotten into the exhaust vent. Well, whatever was in there ended up blocking the vent, thus allowing carbon monoxide into the basement. I guess when it rains it pours. The gas company wouldn't hook up the water heater either. At least Ron was able to fix this problem and remove the poor dead bird. Luckily, I didn't have to look at this part. Poor Ron did go above and beyond the call of duty on this one. Ugh. At least now we have hot water.

I should have just held my breath and ignored the smell. Or else not thought about being productive and doing laundry. Oh the joys of being a home owner.

Update!

CUBS WIN!!!! 4-2!!!!!

Ok, there is the update!

Today was opening day. It might have snowed all day here in Ohio, but in Houston it was bright and sunny. The bright spot here in Ohio was that the Cubs won over the Astros. But, as always, it's also a melancholy day.

Who can watch opening day without thinking of Mom? How many times did I pick up the phone to call Mom and say "did you see that?" The realization that she's not there to answer is sometimes a hard reality that still comes up and smacks me in the face.

Thanks to my sister, Cathie, for filling in via instant messenger tonight. She took over Mom's roll with her appropriately placed "Holy Cow"s and "Way to GO"s. Thanks for watching the game with me, Sissy. It was a huge help!

Now in the words of Harry Caray, "Holy Cow! Now let's get some runs!!"

It's Finally HERE!

Yes, opening day of baseball is HERE! Today! In seven minutes actually!

In case you're new here, I am a huge Chicago Cubs fan. The Cubs are starting their season this year down in Houston, Texas, my old home.

I have a friend in Houston, Robert. We talk smack about baseball as often as we can. He's started already. He woke me up this morning, talking crap about my beloved boys in blue.

Sorry, Robert. The 'Stros are going down! Oswalt can't help you today!

GO CUBS!

I Was WAAAY Too Cute!

C'mon now, was I a cutie patootie, or what??

This is me (on the RIGHT) and one of the two dogs we had briefly while I was growing up. This one is Rags. Rags was half sheep dog and half poodle. Hey, somehow it worked. What I remember most about Rags is that when it was time to walk him, he took the rest of the kids for a walk! Seriously, he would drag them from here to there and back again. It was not easy to walk this dog. Well, for me it was! For some reason, he knew there was no way I could keep up with him, so he'd walk like a little old man with me. I could hold the leash with one finger and he'd never get away from me. Dang. How could I go from dog tamer to being so terrified of them now? Go figure!

Anyway, I was going through some old junk the other night and I came across this picture. I remember my t-shirt! This was a hand me down from my sister, Cathie. The front said over and over "sock it to me" from the old Laugh In show. I loved that shirt!

Now here's a segue from this picture to what happened to me today!

I'm not a big breakfast eater, but I do enjoy an Eat 'n Park breakfast buffet now and again. I've been having a hankering for their buffet. I don't know if it's at all Eat 'n Parks, but the one by us only has the buffet on Tuesday and Saturday and then a brunch on Sunday.

So I talked to Ron and Phil and even got them to agree to go to Eat 'n Park for the breakfast buffet this morning. Not much, other than food, would get the three of us out of the house at 7:30 in the morning!

So far, so good. We were all up, dressed and out the door. We even had a great breakfast. And then, the horrible event occurred. The server brought us the bill. She charged us for THREE senior breakfasts! HELLO????

Ok, Phil I can see. (Sorry, brother.) But Ron doesn't exactly look like he's a senior citizen and I sure as heck don't!! In spite of the picture above being taken in 1968 when I was five years old!

Looking back, I guess I wasn't too offended. I did take the discount!

Neighborhood Watch

One thing about not working, you need to find other things to do to occupy your day.

My crocheting is coming along nicely, thank you very much! I'm over half way done with the whole thing and I'm impressed with myself.

So now I've also taken on the job of watching the neighbors. Hey, I can't help it. My crocheting chair looks out of the window so it's not my fault that I happen to take notice of the goings on.

Like the other day for instance. I was sitting in my chair, and what do I see? Across the street, a man is sort of walking down the road. When I say sort of, it was more like stumbling rather than actual walking.

This is an old neighborhood. There are alleyways through almost all of these blocks. The alleyway that goes across the block across the street is used a lot. I see cars coming and going through there all the time. This poor guy fell right at the end of the alleyway.

At first I almost thought he tripped. I waited for him to get himself up, but no, he seemed to be down there for the count. By the time I rallied the guys to go and check on him, he was working himself to a sitting position. Finally he did get himself up and continued stumbling his way back down the street. Yeah, you could miss good fun like that if you weren't watching!

The next bit of fun happened to be caught by Phil. It was after dark, and he went downstairs for something. Once downstairs, he saw the police activity right on our corner. Of course, we all went running!

On the ground on the corner was a guy and a bicycle. In the street were two police cars and one ambulance. Our first thought was that he was hit by a car. But, there were no other vehicles in the immediate vicinity. For all I could tell, it was the same drunk I saw earlier laid across the alleyway. It was dark, so it was hard to tell. The end of that story was the ambulance left without him and the two police cars also pulled away without him. I know, I know. If I'm telling a story, I should have more details than this.

Lastly, we have one of the trouble houses in the neighborhood. This house was filled with teenagers who did love to point their stereo speakers outside and dance on the porch to the volume at full blast. Yeah, we all love that, don't we? I guess if that was the worst that they ever did, I should consider myself lucky.

Well, last weekend, it seems that they have moved out. On Sunday I believe it was, there was about five or so bags of garbage outside. Then, every day, the pile has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. Keep in mind, garbage around here doesn't get picked up until early Friday mornings. Well, we've been looking at this all week. And, of course, the never ending line of lookie-loos that come routing through the garbage looking to take away anything they can. Bags are torn, crap is blowing loose all over. What an eyesore.

Now you can see our yard. Crap from across the street has blown all across our yard shown here. This is putting it lightly. I took this picture a few days ago. Today I went out to pick up all of the crap and you'd be surprised at what I found!

Now, we police our yard often. The street we live on is relatively busy, and people seem to love to drive up and down throwing crap out of their windows. Common items in our yard are cigarette packs, beer bottles, liquor bottles, candy wrappers. I've also found condom wrappers, condoms (I don't want to know), homework, utility bills that aren't mine, among other things. Keep in mind, I do put protective gloves on when I clean up the yard. Part of my germ phobia!

Today's bounty had new items. I can't be sure they were all blown over from the garbage heap next door or if they were items thrown from passing cars. Today, I found a dip stick. You know, that thing in your car that you pull out to see how much oil is in your car! I also found two sets of wiper blades, in their package. Too bad they were too small to fit any of our vehicles. I also found a wheel that looks like it came from a coffee table or something of the sort. That I'm guessing was chucked from across the street. All in all, I had one garbage bag full of crap.

Tomorrow morning the garbage men come. It will be interesting to see how much is left on the ground and how much is actually picked up.

Yeah, watching in this neighborhood is definitely an interesting experience!

WTF??

C'mon now, if this had been the rule 20 some odd years ago, none of us would have graduated! This is ridiculous!

Not Fair

Sunday night, I was tired. I was yawning by 7:00 and it didn't get any better as the night wore on.

Finally at about 10:00, I headed to bed. I read for awhile, (Robin Cook's Vector in case you're curious) and was asleep probably between 10:30 and 10:45.

Then came 12:30 am and I was awake. Not just a little awake like I need to pee and then I'm going back to bed. No, the kind of awake that you know it's going to be awhile until your head hits the damn pillow again.

Basically, I had a two hour nap. It's now 2:24 am and I'm bored. There are two other people fast asleep in this house so I'm trying to stay relatively quiet. There is only crap on tv and none of my favorite informercials are playing.

As a side note, c'mon now, there are a couple of informercials that are really good! Not good as in I'd like to buy that, but good as in they are definitely entertaining. One that comes to mind is that Magic Bullet. This informercial takes place in someone's kitchen supposedly, with bunch of their friends sitting around at the counter.

There is a British guy and a blonde girl. This Magic Bullet is supposed to replace your food processor and a bunch of other kitchen appliances. They make an omelette, frozen drinks, grind coffee beans, make pesto sauce among other things. I think the best part of this infomercial is one of the "guests" of this couple demonstrating this appliance. She is just like my Aunt Aggie! Right down to the house dress and cigarette hanging out of her mouth! Yeah, that's why I like that one.

Another goodie that I love to watch but do not want to buy is the GT Express 101. I think what I like about this is the hostess, Cathy Mitchell. I'm not sure what makes her the "kitchen expert" that she is reported to be, but I'm telling you, I could watch her demonstrate this dang contraption until the cows come home. My favorite is the chocolate cake she makes and puts a small candy bar inside for a "surprise". The only thing that's a surprise is that the candy bar somehow doesn't melt and just ends up a lump inside of the cake. Classic!

My last favorite informercial is the spray on make-up. No longer just for Tammy Faye Baker, now we can ALL apply it with a spray hose! I can't find a link to it now, but I'm sure most of you have seen it. Again, I could watch this stupid thing over and over.

So, if I gotta be up all night long, the least they could do is play my favorite informercials. I know, I have digressed off topic. What do you expect from me? It's almost three in the freakin' morning!

Beat That

This is a new record!

With gas prices what they are, I at least stretched my dollar as far as it would go.

I had filled up my gas tank on the morning of my car accident, 9/19/08, at over $4 a gallon I might add. That tank of gas lasted me until 3/10/09! Can you believe it? As an added bonus, I only spent $1.79 a gallon on the fill up!

Now that's making my money last.

Of course, getting lugged around by Ron and Phil has also helped in my cause. I am not going to ask them how much more gas they've used carting me around!

If You Hear Me Scream, Come Running

Yesterday was laundry day.

While Ron was humping the laundry downstairs for me, my job was to open doors and turn the lights on. As soon as we got downstairs, I thought I heard a noise. I am especially attuned to strange noises in and around this house. As you know, it's not unusual for a noise to be "strange" around here!

But I heard a noise, something like a scratching. Since it is my belief that unless it's paying rent, it doesn't live here, whatever was scratching I knew didn't belong. I put a death grip on Ron's arm and said "listen!" Sure enough, a scratching was coming from somewhere.

Ron hunted down the noise while I got in my ready-to-make-a-run-for-it stance. He finally followed the sound to the source. As best as he could figure, a bird was caught in vent from the hot water tank! Geez, that ain't good.

My first question of course was "could it get into the basement?" Ron thought the opening on our side was too small for a bird to get in. I remember when we had the bat in the basement. Reading up on bats I remembered that a bat needed a hole smaller than a dime to wiggle into. I was kinda worried this might be a bat!

Ron assured me that it was probably a bird and he was just trying to find his way back out, not into the basement. Sometimes, Ron can be very convincing. He offered to take the whole thing apart and get the bird out, but then I feared that it might not be a bird and whatever it was, could end up in the basement. What a dilemma!

So, Ron stayed with me in the basement while I sorted clothes and got the first load going. Shortly after that, he headed out for awhile. Holy crap, I was on my own to deal with the noises in the basement!

When it was time to go back downstairs, I told Phil the onus was on him to keep me safe. I told him, "If you hear me scream, you better get your butt down to the basement!" He did come and check on me during my first trip downstairs, but I'm happy to report that I hear no noises. After doing six loads of laundry, there were no scratching or banging noises in the basement. I am hoping that the bird or whatever did find its way out and it's not stuck in the vent. Yeah, that's it. It found its way outside again.

Just in case; if anyone hears me screaming down there, please come running!

Itches And Stitches

You know, getting fired from your job, really plays havoc with a blog. Being cooped up all the time, it's hard to come up with a blog story!

Here's what I do have. A story about itching and a story about stitching. First the itching.

About a month ago, I got a new pair of blue jeans. Way cool, huh? Well, I wore these jeans for two days, before I washed them. I developed a terrible itch that I was blaming on the new jeans. It's right where the waist band hits, about an inch wide strip, but here's where it gets weird. I itch half way around my body along that line. From where my belly button is all the way around my left side back to where my spine is. I itch. I itch bad.

I really did blame it on the unwashed jeans. I thought maybe some fabric dye, or just the roughness of the new jeans was irritating me. Unfortunately, it's now a month later and I still freakin' itch! At times it's almost unbearable.

I've had Ron check me over pretty closely. He can see no rash, no bug bites, no irritation other than my scratch marks. I've work old and worn jeans, but I still itch. I've worn elastic waisted shorts and I still itch. I wear no pants, but where my shirt touches that half band area, causes me to itch. I've tried hand cream, Gold Bond powder and even Benedryl ointment. Nothing is making it better. It's bizarre.

Any itch remedies would be appreciated.

On to the stitches side of this story.

As most of you know by the towels you've received from me recently, I've taken up crocheting again while I've been laid up. The towels just weren't challenging enough any more plus I have more finished towels here than I have people I know. (If anyone needs more, let me know!)

I've eluded to a new project in my previous blog post. Here's the story.

I bought a few books of patterns for afghans. I picked probably the hardest one in there, but it is so the most beautiful of them! Here is a picture of a work in progress, to give you an idea.

Here is my workspace! The afghan is a bunch of squares with raised pansies. Then you sew the squares together and voila, an afghan is made!

I need 54 squares. In the middle I have a bag with all 54 centers. On the right is one completed square! Underneath all of that is my instructions.

Each square is done if four parts, as there are four colors in each square. The center, the pansie petals, the leaves and then the outer square.

This picture was taken a few days ago, so now I'm up to two completed squares, probably 20 or so completed with the pansie petals and a few more with the green leaves. It's like I'm on a mission with this thing.

If you gotta be laid up, it's good to have a hobby. I've read more books than I can count since I've been off, so this is a nice addition to occupy my time.

Anyone need an afghan? This is definitely one I will do again!

Plan "C" Just Isn't As Good As Plan "A"

Today was a plan "C" day.

Originally, we started out with plans to have my brother-in-law, Bill, come for the day along with my brother Jim. I was so looking forward to a day of family, and laughs, and reminiscences, and hopefully edible food.

Stuff happened, and Mr. Bill had to back out of family day. That's ok, on to plan "B", the one where brother Jim would make the trip and all the fun previously planned would still come to fruition. Well, once again, stuff happened.

Jim happens to be on vacation this week, and do you want to know how he's spending his week of vacation? Home, sick. Ugh, that boy sounds absolutely horrible. Needless to say, there was no Jim today. However, the guy is really sick and in no mood to cook. So, if anyone is in the neighborhood of his house, please stop by! He is in need of some chicken soup, or a sandwich, or a hot meal. Something he doesn't have to cook; ready to eat. But, for your own health, leave it in the porch and call and tell him it's there. Sorry, brother. It's the best I can do to help you out from here!

There you go. That's how you get to plan "C". What was plan "C"? Movie day!

It started with Ron finding something to watch on tv while I made us sandwiches for lunch. Air Force One with Harrison Ford (his best movie, in my opinion!) was just starting on one of the cable channels. We watched maybe the first 10 minutes, and decided it was going to be hunker down and enjoy a movie day. But, if we're going to enjoy a movie, I'd rather it not be on a cable channel all chopped up and full of commercials. I happen to own a copy of this movie. Ok, it's a VHS but I still own it!

I grabbed the movie and my newest crocheting project (a whole other story) and we watched the movie from the beginning. Dang, that is one GOOD movie! I almost broke Ron's hand a few times, but we enjoyed the movie.

We did decide to get something productive done between movies. We tore the fish tank apart and gave it a good cleaning. Poor fish. They needed a good scrubbing. Now the fish are fat and happy and clean!

Once work time was over, we were back to movie time. We went through our video collection and chose The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis as our second feature. Need I say any more about Bruce? Wow.

So, there was our Saturday. I missed out on family day. And, now I'm afraid to fly again and afraid of the dark again. Plan "C" kinda sucked in hindsight.

Feel better, Jim! You were missed!

My Two Cents Worth

Ron and I went to see Gran Torino today, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.

I have been a huge fan of Eastwood's ever since he got out of the spaghetti westerns. I gotta tell you though, this was the worst waste of celluloid I've seen in a long time. This was one piece of crap movie.

Could he have hired ANYone that could act??? Grandma was ok, the rest of the cast should be arrested for impersonating an actor. Geez.

If you haven't seen it, don't. If you have, well, like us, there went two hours that you will never get back.

This has been my two cents worth.