I Could Be Rich

The following was in my email this morning!

My condolences to the late Mrs. Flora Peacock, (nice name!) but c'mon now! How can I pass up this offer?!?!?

There are so many holes in this story it isn't even funny, but that's the point. It IS funny; that's why I'm sharing the giggle!

Hello,

My name is Barrister Barry Wilson. I am the attorney of Late Mrs.Flora Peacock , who died in London UK. I have a business proposition for you.

Before the death of my late client, she lodged huge amount of money in an offshore account in UK, amounting to Ј3,000,000 (three million pounds)And the only person aware of the funds is me,being her lawyer.

Unfortunately, Mrs.Flora Peacock had no next of kin as she had no children and she didn’t appoint any inheritance. It is on this note, that you come in, I would like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin whom I will appoint and notify the offshore bank that you are the actual next of kin appointed by Mrs.Flora Peacock before her death. Please, have nothing to worry about, as I will commence processing all legal documentations certifying you as the Sole-Beneficiary to Late Mrs.Flora Peacock, Be rest assured that all documents will be processed according to the law.

If you agree to do this with me, we shall both share the total amount of Ј3m pounds 40/60 %, which means Ј1.2M( One million two hundred thousand pounds)for you, while the balance amount would be mine.If you oblige then kindly send me your full name, Age, address, telephone and country, in order for me to prepare the necessary documents for the funds to be released to you.

Kindly note that this transaction requires maximum secrecy. Kindly response to me xxx@inmail24.com (email address changed, just in case!) . I await your response.

RegardsBarry Wilson

I Need Eye Bleach

You know, once you see something, you can't unsee it!

Ron and I saw this commercial last night and I laughed so hard, I had Diet Pepsi coming out of my nose!

This is hysterical!

This Sucks!

I woke up this morning just after 4:00 am from a nightmare.

In the nightmare, some greasy looking kid on a bicycle stopped to talk to me as I was standing outside on the front porch. He was freaking me out, so I told him I was done for the night and I was turning in. I went inside, closed and locked the door and came upstairs to get ready for bed.

Then, I just KNEW he was in my house!

I tried to dial 911 on my cell phone but when they got on the phone, I just couldn't talk! So, here I am, in my bathroom (that has no lock on the door) with 911 on the phone and I'm scared shitless.

Then I woke up.

So, now an hour and a half later, I'm still shaking! When I woke up, my heart was beating almost out of my chest. I was too afraid to stay in bed any longer but I'm also too afraid to go downstairs. I am sitting up here listening for noises coming from downstairs. In a house that is over 100 years old, there are ALWAYS noises in this house! Add to that the gurgling fish tank downstairs and I'm always hearing something!

Ok, I don't need coffee that badly. I have no reason to go downstairs! I will sit up here with all the lights on and try not to be such a wuss.

That's it. I need to stop reading books about stalkers and killers and bad guys. What's left? Children's books and romance novels. Great. See Spot run!

Six Years!

July 16th, 2003. Six years ago, Ron and I moved in together!! And what a ride it's been.

We decided to celebrate yesterday as much as we could. We started with one of our favorite lunch time establishments.

The picnic table on the left is where we ate! We grabbed some Subway sandwiches and enjoyed one of the best views in all of Lorain.

Here is the view from our picnic table. Ok, I guess my picture would have been a LOT better without the garbage can front and center, huh?

And here is the rest of the marina.

We even had some company join us for lunch! I shared a few of my potato chips.

It took him awhile before he would come close enough to actually grab the chips. Hey, what can I say. It's hard to get distance with a light weight chip! The first chip for him was the hardest. Once he overcame the fear of me, the goodness of the Baked Lays Potato Chip won him over. He had no problem coming close to get his prize!

It was a gorgeous day yesterday. The rest of our plans included a nice dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Buca di Beppo's. Our plan was to leave early, run a few errands, then go to dinner. Once again, just as we were getting ready to walk out of the door, Ron's phone rang.

Ron got a support call. That's one of those calls that he only handles over the phone since it's somewhere in the country that's not anywhere near Ohio. This one happened to be in California. So, Ron starts his support call at about 4:00 but didn't finish until quarter after six! Bummer, dude!

I didn't want to run to Buca's at that time as it would be after 7:00 by the time we got there and we were hungry. So, we put in a change of plans and decided to stay close to home and had a nice dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. There are no great Chinese places anywhere near us, but I had a hankering for Chinese so we made the best of it.

The best part of the evening was when we got home from dinner. I'm not one that can walk by garbage in our yard. I need to pick it up and throw it away. Right in front of where Ron parks his van was a plastic grocery bag.

We had already taken the garbage bins to the curb for garbage pick up, so I told Ron to go ahead inside if he wanted, I was running this garbage to the curb. But, I did ask him to please leave the door open.

Anyone who knows me knows that when we go out to eat, I never carry my phone. Also, since I don't carry a purse, unless I'm driving, I also never carry my keys! This is an important fact to note for the rest of this story.

So, Ron headed into the house while I went to the curb with the garbage. It was gorgeous outside, so I did a quick walk around and checked out the flower beds and the Rose of Sharon trees that are blooming. I couldn't have been out there five minutes. Then I headed into the house.

Guess what! I guess the honeymoon is OVER! Ron locked me out of the house! WTF?!?!?! Now, I have no phone, no keys, and there is no doorbell on the house. Remember way back when, when Ron's youngest son Vince, locked himself out of the house at night. He tried banging and banging on the door, along with throwing pebbles at our bedroom window to try to be let back in. Ha. He spent the night on the front porch!

I was hoping Ron would figure I was missing way before morning, but I was banging away on our side door for all I was worth. Aaah. He heard me.

Maybe it was a Freudian slip, maybe it was just habit to lock the door behind himself. Whatever, it made for a good laugh last night and more importantly, it made for a great blog story today!

Then We'll Start It

I've complained about our neighborhood before. We don't live in the best of neighborhoods; not all of our neighbors are stellar.

We see all kinds of things in this neighborhood and because of it, nothing is ever left unlocked around here.

Since we've purchased the bocce ball set, we've been playing it a lot in the yard after dinner. It's a great way to work off a little bit of dinner! You know what? Neighbors who have never talked to us before are talking to us. Total strangers walking by actually stop to chat a bit. Mostly about the game, but people are actually talking to each other. We've had a few people promise they are going to join us one of these days!

Kids are another story. They have no problem coming up to us and asking if they can play. We have one in particular who is our neighbor, a few houses away. Ray-Ray is getting to be a regular at our bocce games! I'm guessing Ray-Ray is about eight years old. But, he's extremely polite, extremely outgoing and has a great throwing arm! He's a lot of fun to have around.

Neighbors. Families.

Since we've started playing bocce, one of the neighbors has set up a corn hole game in their yard. A good way for a family to pass some time after dinner as well. Tonight, before we started to play, we heard someone in the area playing horseshoes. Another good game.

So, maybe, a better neighborhood starts with someone setting an example of a better neighbor. We're talking to the neighbors, and playing games. That's got to be a great start. Who knows? If this keeps up, maybe the one neighborhood Mom who is heard telling her kids repeatedly to "get your f-ing a$$ over here" will learn a little bit too.

It's gotta start somewhere. Why not here.

Perfect, Just Perfect!

Ron's sister Susan and her partner Georgia, hosted a family and friends picnic Sunday at one of the metro parks in Euclid.

We were actually in the reserved area called Rear Quarry Reserved Picnic Area - Euclid Creek. It was just awesome! There was a covered pavilion, numerous places for games or putting your lawn chair under the shade of some huge trees. The covered pavilion was complete with electricity and picnic tables, and the grounds also had water and restroom facilities.

Ok, I have to digress a moment. Restroom facilities is a loose label for what these were. They were a step up from just the regular job johnnies; there was a door, sort of a toilet but it was over a hole. Now, I've seen the episode of the X Files where some monster lived in the hole under an outhouse! I was a little afraid (ok, a LOT afraid) to hang my naked ass over this hole. I stood there debating how much I had to really pee. Finally, after two cans of soda and a bottle of water, my bladder gave in and I did hang my naked ass over that hole! This thing smelled much better than most outhouses I've had the pleasure of visiting, but still. You did what you had to do and got the hell out of there. That was the only downside.

Let's start at the beginning. Everyone was bringing something and Ron was requested to bring his famous ranch beans. There aren't many places that Ron's allowed without his beans! So, he cooked up a double batch of the vegan version of his ranch beans (our personal favorite version!) and away the three of us went.

Just as we were walking out of the door, Ron got called into work. Well, better now than when we're at the party. We loaded up the van and all of us went with Ron to the job site. Phil took a nap in the van and I read my book at the picnic table just off of the parking lot. Once Ron was finished, we were back on the road. We were a bit late, but not too late to enjoy the fun!

Aside from two tables of food (waaay too many to list! Waaay too many to eat too, since we got to bring home an entire left over dutch apple pie!) there was fun for everyone. Let's start with the Rocket Car! The Rocket Car was available for a few hours of fun! They would load up the car, go for a ride around the metro park and then head back in for the next group. You couldn't wipe the smiles off of the people that were coming off of that Rocket Car! Waaay too much fun.

When the Rocket Car's tour of duty was up, an artist came in to set up shop. This guy was drawing cartoon caricature of anyone that would sit still long enough. The guy was really good and it was amazing how fast he could draw someone up!

Aside from these two headliners, there were games for kids and of course, we took our bocce set. After we got done eating, Ron and I along with Ron's cousin Tom and his wife Margie, headed up the hill to find a flat spot to play a game of bocce. Tom is one of my favorite people as this man has such a sick sense of humor! He takes all the crap I can dish out at him and then shovels it all right back at me. None of it malicious, all of it in fun. I always have fun when Tom and Margie are around!

While I've never been able to beat Ron one on one at Bocce, in teams, we played the girls against the boys and of course, woman power came out on top! It was a close game and a well played game, but the ladies did win with 12-10. I may never play bocce again so I can remain on top!

After eating and after bocce it was time for relaxing. Groups of people sat in the grass, at picnic tables or just in lawn chairs in the shade, catching up on each other while the kids went on a treasure hunt, or on the swings or playing games or just running around. It was great to see some people that we only see at Christmas dinner. Of course, the promises were made that we need to get together soon. I just hope it happens!

It was a long day but a great day. The weather was perfect, the entertainment was awesome, the food was spectacular and of course, time with friends and family.

The best thing I learned at this party is that Susan and Georgia know how to throw a first class party! The ladies did one fantastic job! The next party I throw, I'm definitely calling on them for planning details.

I Should Have Opened The Door

This is an owie. This is what happens when you don't open the oven door all the way before you try to take the sweet potatoes out of the oven! Let this picture save you from the same thing happening to you.

Ok, I took one for the team, but it was so worth it. Brother Jim came to Ohio on Tuesday for a family dinner. We had a good reason for this get together. I had bought a ham. It was on sale. Hey, I had a hankering for it. That was a good enough reason for us!

The weather on Tuesday was gorgeous, so Jim had a good day for travel. We got some good one on one time, some good porch time and of course, some good eating time.

I had the on sale ham in the crock pot, I did my new dish of pasta and brussel sprouts (yum!) and of course the sweet potatoes.

I was just trying to brown the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes and I didn't want to wait any longer. I opened the oven door just part way and reached in. Yes, my arm ended up hitting the inside of the oven door. I guess no dinner is complete without a little blood being shed by the cook, huh?

Owie aside, it was a great dinner, great conversation, and great company.

Thanks again, Jim, for making the trip! It's always great to see you!

Coexist

I'm not a big fan of bumper stickers, but when I saw this one, I had to have it.

Since I've put it on my car, I've already had someone pull up along side of me at a traffic light to ask where she could get one too.

I think it's an important message. If anyone else would like one, you can get yours here. They have a ton of cool stuff on their website.

In the words of John Lennon,

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

Now That's A Weekend

Happy Fourth of July!

Around here, I think we had a pretty good weekend. Kinda laid back, kinda quiet but all good.

Saturday morning didn't start out so well as Ron got a service call at about 7:30 am. Since I didn't want him to suffer alone, I went along with him for the ride. While he goes into his client's building, I wait in the van with my cup of coffee and my book. He's not usually all that long, plus the weather was gorgeous, so it's all good. Besides, I hooked a free breakfast out of him when he was done with the service call. Bonus!

Ron and I tag teamed on the cooking duties for the holiday. We did some of the normal holiday fare. Ron got the grill out and did some portabella mushroom for portabella sandwiches, plus Smith's hot dogs, IN the skins. Damn, that was good.

From the kitchen, I made the corn on the cob and I cut up a bunch of fresh fruit for a fruit salad. I'm telling you, it was all good! The three of us ate like kings! Happy birthday, America!

This year, our neighborhood was LOUD with celebrations of the exploding kind.

Every holiday there is some neighborhood fireworks happening. This year, people must have had bonus money to spend on this stuff, or else someone was handing it out for free. It went on for hours. And, it wasn't the cheap bottle rockets and firecrackers. The sky was lit up with star bursts galore. I couldn't believe it.

Sometime after midnight, Ron and I went to sit on the front porch while he had a cigarette. All you could smell outside is that like sulfur smell that you smell when someone lights a match. And, with all of the gunpowder exploding, there was a haze all over. It was thick enough to cut last night, like a war zone! It even got hard to tell the firecrackers from the gunfire! I didn't hear of any fatalities or injuries in the neighborhood from last night, so this was much better than most holidays.

My favorite part was that I'm usually picking up between 20 and 30 bottle rockets out of the yard the morning after fireworks. Today I picked up a total of three bottle rockets and a couple of M80 wrappers. Bonus for me!

So, it was a good Fourth of July around here. Good food, good family, no damage.

Sunday again the weather was fantastic! We do love to spend time on the front porch in good weather. Directly across from the porch before the street is a large maple tree. We were sitting on the porch when Ron pointed out something on the side of the trunk of the tree. We couldn't believe it, but it was a bat! Now, we've fought with bats in our house before, so I was a little nervous that perhaps this little guy was scoping us out again. I grabbed my camera and got a little closer. Hopefully you can see the little guy just under the leaves on the left side of the trunk.



He was really small. I'm not sure what a good size for a bat is, but he just seemed small. After taking a few pictures, the bat started to go around and around the trunk of the tree. He climbed slowly down the trunk then, and ended up in the grass.



Not that I'm a bat expert, but I've heard that if a bat falls to the ground he cannot fly away. He needs to get up into the air in order to attain flight. Once I saw him in the grass I kinda knew that this little guy wasn't doing too well. My first thought was what can we do to help him! Ron gave me a little talking to that if he's sick, he's sick and there is nothing we will be able to do to fix that. As if to prove his point, the bat crawled out into the street!




I thought it was a suicide mission myself.

After our bat excitement, I went inside to get dinner started. I was trying out a new recipe and I was anxious to get going. Before anyone asks, no, I did NOT cook the bat! We had pork with artichoke and capers! Yes, I AM getting to be Betty freakin' Crocker over here!



If I do say so myself, this was one of my best dinners. The pork loin was so tender and how can you go wrong with artichoke hearts and capers? Three happy tummies over here tonight.

After dinner, Ron and I hit the yard for a few rousing games of bocce. The good news here is that in our first game, I came the closest to beating Ron than I have ever been before! He won 12 - 9!! Hello?? I was almost double digits! I sure did give him a run for his money that game! The second game was more like it with his winning score of 12 - 4. Yeah, I suck, but we had a lot of fun.

That was our weekend. Aside from a bat dying in front of us, it was a darn good weekend. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.

Word Of Warning!

Some one I know just left today for China! Here's hoping HIS receipt doesn't look like this when he gets back! ;-)



see more Fail Blog

The Glass Menagerie

Wednesday night, Ron and I went to the theater.

The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival is putting on two plays this summer, The Glass Menagerie being one of them. Since the price was right (free!) I got us a couple of tickets.

I decided I wanted to see this production because first, I love live theater and second, it was free! I knew nothing about The Glass Menagerie but have heard of the author, Tennessee Williams. But, it was live theater and it was free.

It was a very moving performance. Taking place in the slums of St. Louis in 1937 it was a story of a different time. A story of trying to do right by your family but always seeming to come up short. It's a story of guilt for not being able to measure up.

Support your local theater; you won't regret it.

If you're in the neighborhood of Oberlin, I'd suggest picking up a couple of free tickets. Take your own tissues though; you'll need them.

I'm Done!

I'm finally DONE!

This is the first afghan I've ever finished! This was definitely challenging, but I'm so excited it's finished!

In my humble opinion, I think it came out great! While I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do with it, at least it's done.

I came a far way from February when I started!

Before anyone gets too worried, I have about four other projects in the wings waiting to get started. Now the problem will just be picking out the next one!

That's Just Wrong, Page 18

After dinner tonight, Ron and I went out to run a few errands.

I wanted to stop at Walgreen's and Ron wanted to stop for cigarettes. Since Walgreen's is closer, we stopped there first.

I got my few items and as I was checking out, Ron said since we're here, and Walgreen's sells cigarettes, he might just as well get them at Walgreen's. (Hello?? I thought that all pharmacies stopped selling cigarettes! But, I digress.)

When I finished checking out, Ron asked for his smokes, then pulled out his credit card. The cashier told him that he can't JUST buy a carton of cigarettes on a credit card, he had to make an additional purchase of anything else. Hello?? No.

Yes. She could not let him buy JUST a carton of cigarettes on his credit card; he had to make an additional purchase.

This is beyond absurd.

We asked to talk to a manager figuring she had to be mistaken about something. The manager was "too busy" to come to the front of the store, but he called her on the phone. I heard her side of the conversation, so I know she relayed the message correctly. With the manager supposedly on the phone, she said that while they don't allow cigarettes only to be purchased on a credit card, he would allow it just this once.

Allow it? Do you want my $50 or not??? (I know, a ridiculous amount for cigarettes!)

We said forget it; any other store would be happy to take his $50.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. When I got home, I went to www.walgreens.com and found the customer service link. I wrote a note asking why if we purchased an additional fifty cent pack of gum this purchase would be approved, or if we purchased $50 of other merchandise instead of cigarettes, it would be approved. WHY would they not just sell the damn smokes!

This makes NO sense to me. If you don't want to sell cigarettes, DON'T. If you're trying to bolster sales with this ridiculous rule, STOP. You just let $50 in sales walk out of the door on principle.

If I get a response from Walgreen's, I'll post it here.

As far as company policies go, That's Just Wrong.

Lorain International Festival

Lorain doesn't have much to brag about, or be proud of, but they sure make up for it with the yearly Lorain International Festival. They do this festival right and it is a blast every year! This year was the 42nd annual festival and the spot lighted country was Puerto Rico.

I don't even know where to begin. First off, when you walk in, the first thing you come across are the food booths. There are booths down both sides of the main entrance. I couldn't take a good enough picture of the whole thing so you could see the vastness of this site! There are 40 food vendors and we did our best to hit as many of them as we could! So you get an idea, here are two pictures that at least show some of the nationalities represented.

Americana and Croatian:

Puerto Rican and Mediterranean:

We walked up and down both sides of the food vendors. Twice! And here is a sampling of what we enjoyed.

Chicken on a stick, Philippines (you can see I started eating it before I took the picture!):

Jambalaya, Creole:

Noodles and Cabbage, Hungary:

Pierogi Pie, Poland:

Potato Pancakes, Russia (these were deep fried and freakin' awesome!):

Funnel Cake, Dutch (duh! can you go to a festival and NOT get one??):

There is just so much to do at the festival besides eat and watch the people. There is a whole section of attractions for kids. This is a new addition this year and judging from the amount of kids in the area, I'd say it was a hit!

They have also in the last few years added some much needed seating. You are welcome to bring your own lawn chairs, which many people did. They have a ton of picnic tables, some out in the sun and others in the shade. Here are a few in the shade.

After we ate, we took a nice walk up and down the river. If you read one of my recent blogs, you may recognize this bridge. The pictures I took of the bridge before came from the other side, facing south. Now we are on the south side, facing north. You can see a few boats pulled up and parked for the festival right here on the Black River!

I don't know why, but I was surprised to see the Coast Guard boat patrolling the waters. There is actually a Coast Guard Station on the other side of the bridge, right by where Ron and I had our picnic the other day. I've just never seen them on the river before. Hey, I like taking pictures, so I took a picture of them!

Just as I turned my back and we went to walk over to the main stage, I heard a siren. Yeah, he was pulling another boat over! That was awesome! I have never seen a boat get pulled over before. Of course, I had to capture the image to share with y'all! I'm not sure what they were pulled over for, but it didn't stop us from yelling "book 'em, Danno!" Yeah, I know, we're corny and most people probably won't even get that joke. But it made us laugh.

As I was saying, over to the main stage. There are events planned all day long on the main stage. During the day, they change out every 30 minutes. Late afternoon and evening, there will be regular concerts. While we were there, we got to see Zoomba from Sheffield Lake. This is a dancing group from the representatives of Puerto Rico. The beat of the music had a lot of people chair dancing, toe tapping or dancing in the grass right along with them!

After the Zoombas, there was some country dancing.

Ok, the best part of the country dancing was this guy that was dancing on the grass in front of the stage. Look in the middle of the picture, he has on his white cowboy hat, light blue pants and a black leather vest. He was up there shaking his money maker for all he was worth! Hey, maybe the guy visited the beer tent a few times too many, I don't know. All I know is that he was having a great time and we were all having a great time watching him! He definitely knew how to get down with his bad self!

It was a great day. I ate too much, watched a ton of people, watched kids get their faces painted (Ron was going to buy a paint on tattoo for me, but I chickened out!), sat and enjoyed the entertainment. If anyone is near Lorain tomorrow, stop by before the event closes.

Admission is $1.00 for adults. I think there is an additional fee for the children's attractions. Of course, you pay for food, but the rest of the entertainment is free. It's well worth the trip to the Black River Landing. They are open on Sunday 12 - 6. If you don't make it this year, mark it on your calendar for next year. It's SO worth the trip! It's usually held on the last weekend before the 4th of July weekend.

If anyone goes on Sunday, look for us! We'll be there!

Prickley Pear Cactus

I have a prickly pear cactus growing on the side of my house.

About three of four years ago, I was at Mike and Mary Jane's, and Mike gave me a leaf from his prickly pear cactus. He said to just drop it on the ground and forget about it. Yeah, like anything could be that easy!

I dropped it. And watched it. And it got ugly. It shriveled up, and looked dead. I thought the heck with it, I was just going to throw it out. I tried to pick it up but it was rooted on the spot! It might look dead, but it had some strong roots. Obviously, I left it here.

I am so glad I did! This thing is gorgeous when it's in bloom, and right now, it's in bloom! This first picture I took about 10:00 this morning.

This next one was taken at about 12:30 in the afternoon! Holy cow! What a different in just a couple of hours!

I know, I know, I desperately need some fresh mulch around here. Aside from that, isn't this gorgeous?

Here is a close up of the bloom. I think this year, I'm going to take a couple of leaves and put them in the front of the house too. This is the easiest plant I have in the flower beds!

Picnic Day

It's a beautiful day here in Lorain!

After Ron's service call today, we headed to Subway for a sandwich and took it to yet another park here in the area. This is Riverside Park and it's right on the Black River, just before it empties into Lake Erie.

It's not a huge park, but there is a small play area, a couple of covered areas with picnic tables, a few grills and a walkway next to the river. It's a very pleasant place, very peaceful.

The bridge in this picture is the bridge on Route 6 that goes over the Black River. It is a draw bridge and will open up in the middle when any big ships or tall sailboats go through the river. That's quite a sight to see. Here we are looking south and Lake Erie is behind me a little bit, to the north.

After we ate, Ron and I headed over to the walkway by the river. Again, we are looking south, and that is the same bridge as in the last picture.

I love being down here when the bridge goes up! Ron and I were on the other side of this bridge a couple of years ago when the bridge opened and what came in from the Lake? The Brig Niagara from Erie! Being born and raised in Erie, that was quite a sight for me to see. Yes, I got choked up. It was something to actually see her sail as all of my life, that ship was always in dry dock. Way to go, Erie. That was a great accomplishment! She is beautiful!

Back on topic, you can see Ron as I face north towards Lake Erie. You can't really tell in this picture, but beyond the green, straight ahead, is Lake Erie. You can get a good view of it when you're on the bridge from the last two pictures!

C'mon now, the pictures at least are a lot better than they were before Ron putzed with my camera! These are much better than my last batch!

We just spent part of the afternoon walking up and down here on the waterfront. While we're walking, suddenly out of nowhere I see this kid in a canoe. From where I was, he looked to be about twelve! I'm not sure how old he was, but he was already by me when I decided to take his picture.

I'm not sure where he came from, but he was heading from the lake into the river. Now here's a great adventure for a young man. Whatever he was doing, I hope he was having a great time! Now Ron and I are in talks to go rent a kayak and take a trip on the river ourselves. Never being in a kayak before, I'm not sure if we can handle it. I'm much more of a canooer than a kayaker, but we'll see. Could make for a great day!

So there you are. When we finally ended Ron's lunch hour, we drove over that bridge shown in the top pictures. I lifted my camera out of the window and up as high as I could an took a picture. You can see Lake Erie just after the bend in the river. Very cool.

So much for our little lunch time adventure for a Tuesday. The International Festival is coming to the Black River Landing this week. Stay tuned for more pictures.

In Our Own Back Yard

Friday we had a bright spot in between all of the rain we've been having. Ron and I decided to take advantage of it!

We headed out to Lakeview Park right here in Lorain! How often do you ever become a tourist in your own city? I'm telling you, if you don't, you should. The beauty in our own back yard so to speak was astounding.

We go to Lakeview Park often. There is public access to the beaches on Lake Erie as well as picnic grounds, bocce courts (see last post!), a restaurant and this gorgeous rose garden. As many times as we've been to this park, I don't think we've ever walked through the rose garden. Friday we made up for it!

Let me first say that I am no photographer. I have a couple of digital cameras but other than pointing and clicking, I really don't know what to do with them. I think I had some settings wrong since a lot of my pictures were just washed out you couldn't tell what was in the pictures! So, bear with me. They pictures aren't great, but you get the idea.

Above is the entrance to the rose garden. Immediately behind me is parking and on the other side of parking is the beach and then Lake Erie. So, not only are the roses gorgeous, the rest of the scenery is just as spectacular.

There is just about every color of rose in this garden.

The garden is made of up rows of concentric circles. Each section of a row will have another type and color of a rose. Here you can kind of see what I'm talking about with the rows.

It's just beautiful! From the entrance, I turned around and took a picture. You can see just how close we are to the water. Unfortunately, when I tried to take pictures of the water, they were all washed out. Inside of that arch, at the end of that black pier coming from the right is a lighthouse. Yeah, that didn't come out at all!

When we got home, Ron did futz with the settings on my camera, so hopefully next time there will be better pictures.

The roses themselves were indescribably. Here are a few examples:

One is even more beautiful than the next, for sure.

It was a great day in our neighborhood. We walked all through the garden. It was a magical place; a peaceful place. I know I will be back there soon if for nothing else, to stop and smell the roses.

Game Night

Anyone that knows me knows that I love games. I love card games, board games and heaven knows I love computer games, especially Pogo! But, I digress.

Tonight after dinner, Ron and I made a trip to Target. We were just putzing for the evening, no real shopping mission in mind. I do like to walk through the seasonal section, just because. I usually never buy anything, but I like to look!

What we saw first was some hula hoops. Hey, in Wii Fit, I am a champ at the hula hoop, even at expert level. I can do this! So in the middle of Target in front of anyone that wanted to watch, I hula hooped. Well, I tried anyway. I have come to find out that in real life I suck at hula hooping! But at least there are a handful of shoppers and who ever was manning the ceiling cameras that at least good a good story to tell people after watching me tonight.

Target was having a sale on bocce balls! The game of bocce is also called lawn bowling. Sort of a cross between shuffleboard and curling. We don't have the levelest of lawns, but with our new bocce set, Ron and I hit the yard and played a couple of games of bocce.

Ron kicked my ass for both games we played, only because after two games it got too dark to see any of the balls! But again, we were entertainment for the neighbors. I knew one house of neighbors was watching us, but then another neighbor yelled out his window asking us about the game. Yes, whether hula hooping or playing bocce, we are entertaining!

So, we have started to practice. We will take on all challengers. If nothing else, it is a great way to spend an evening.

Tomorrow we plan on going to Lakeview Park. They actually have a bocce court there and we want to take advantage of a really flat surface. We enjoy the wonders of all of Lakeview Park, some of which will be featured in the next blog.

Eww!

I have a lot to say today, so let's get this ball rolling!

Wednesday, Ron had a late afternoon service call. We decided that once he was done, he'd come home, pick me up and we'd go to the Olive Garden for dinner. Hey, I happen to love the Olive Garden, plus we have a gift certificate to go there. Bonus!

Ron called when he was on his way home. I finished getting ready, and right about the time I expected him home, I decided to go outside and wait on the front porch for him. We have a front door that has three locks. We have keys for none of them! So, if we're leaving the house and not just going to sit on the front porch, we come and go via the side door. By the way, here is a picture of the view from our front porch, while I was sitting on the glider! This has nothing to do with this story, I just love my front porch and my maple tree! (oops! I took this picture this morning and now I see that you can see our recycle bag still sitting there! Oh well. At least we recycle!)

Anyway, I left the house through the side door and walked to the front porch to wait for Ron. As I was walking, it had just started to sprinkle outside. Not too bad, I wasn't going back inside for my umbrella.

I went to the front porch and sat down on the glider, watching traffic. The rain picked up. And, then it really got freakin' serious. It started to rain harder than I've ever seen it rain before. Sitting on the glider, I was starting to get wet! I walked to the other side of the porch and I was still getting wet! It was crazy and I was stuck!

Ron finally pulls into the driveway, barely cracks his window down and says something silly like "ready?" HA! I told him that no way in heck was I walking the four feet required to get into the van! He turned the van around and had the passenger door right next to the foot of the steps. I still didn't move until it let up some.

Traffic was horrendous as all streets were flooded and lights at major intersections were out. I am not a good passenger and I was freaking out on my side of the car. Finally Ron suggested just going to a restaurant that was just coming up on the street we were on instead of driving all the way to the Olive Garden. Fine by me! Rosie's usually has good family type food. We haven't had a bad meal there. Until Wednesday night that is!

We shouldn't have changed our original plan. Rosie's was not on their game Wednesday night as both of our soups were cold as were both of our meals. Finally the waitress just stopped coming to our table because she knew she was going to be carrying something back! Not our best night.

Anyway, the following morning, we had these bugs all over our house. We had no idea what they were, but in telling the story to my brother Michael, he thought they might be Mayflies. Sure enough, a little Internet research showed that of course, Michael was right!

These two were from inside of the house looking through the screen at a couple of them.

From tip to tip these things are maybe two inches long! On the north side of the house, every screen has some of these things on them. When I went outside to try to get a better picture, there were hundreds all over the outside of my house, all on the north side! Here is one from the outside.

The strangest thing is today, Ron and I went to go out for breakfast. There are still a ton of these on the outside of our house, but now most of them are wingless and their bodies have changed to a light yellow or tan in color. I'm going to have to do more reading on the Mayfly. It is weird.

But, for now, we are covered in bugs. Eww.

Napa Valley Box Company

I have nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's been quiet here.

There has been nothing blog worthy going on around here. Other than watching my beloved Cubs tank it on the field, it's been quiet here in Lorain. Let's see what I can pass along from my life here.

Last weekend, Ron and I went for a nice long walk at one of the local metro parks. I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the best parts about Ohio is their metro parks system. There are numerous parks around and they are all fantastic in some way. This time we chose Bur Oak as our starting point.

We walked over two miles and just totally enjoyed the day. Unfortunately, I think that was more than Ron's rib was ready for, and he had a bit of a set back in his healing journey. While the day was beautiful, the only Kodak moments were the four caterpillars that were on the walk way as we were walking out. They seemed to all be the same species; dark brown or black, spiny, with a row of red dots down its back. And me without my camera! I know, I know. The story is nothing without pictures. I tried to find a picture of it on the net to add to this story, but I didn't have any luck. I guess my description will have to do.

Long walk aside, it was a quiet week. I did cut the grass all by myself this week! I was pretty proud of myself on that one. Before you ask, this was not Ron talking me into helping him white wash the fence. I really wanted to learn how to use the riding lawnmower and I did it. I didn't do it Ron's way I'm sure, but I got the job done. I am busting over here I am so proud of myself!

This weekend, Ron got to run away and have a "guys' weekend"! I think all guys need that now and again. A place where they can burp, fart, scratch their balls and just be guys and not worry about things like chewing with your mouth shut or putting a napkin on your lap.

Ron, and our friend Larry, went with Steve to Michigan where Steve races boats. Sort of like stock car races, but with boats. Yeah, that is as much as I understand, so don't ask me for clarification. Ron and Larry were going to be part of Steve's pit crew. Like I said, a guys' weekend.

Friday morning, I ran him to Larry's house so that I could have Ron's van for the weekend if needed. (My car is out on loan!) I figured that as long as I was dressed and mobile, after dropping Ron off I was going to run a few errands. What a mess I got myself into.

My first stop was my local library. An easy in and out. My problem was trying to get out of the parking lot. There is one driveway for inbound traffic and one driveway for exiting. These lanes are clearly marked with signs and painted arrows. It should be a no brainer. I guess I need to start looking for people that can't read signs at the library since not one but TWO cars coming in the exit almost creamed me. Yeah, my fault. I wasn't watching for traffic coming the wrong way. Silly me.

I then went to Home Depot and Lowe's. From a woman's point of view, stick with Lowe's. I spent way too much time at Home Depot walking up and down aisles looking for the part I wanted or an employee to point me in the right direction. Luckily, a guy shopping at Home Depot and I started talking. I was telling him what I was looking for and that I wasn't having any luck finding it. He was more than helpful, we talked about my options and then he gave me some good advice. He directed me to Lowe's.

The trip to Lowe's was a bit harrowing with one car almost hitting me when they couldn't read road signs and pulling into Lowe's I almost hit a woman that was exiting in the entrance lane. She was a bit shocked to see a big red van coming at her and she started screaming at me to watch where I was going. Ok, by now I was in a mood. I rolled my window down, stopped next to her and informed her that if she kept her ass on the other side of the boulevard where she belonged and not in the incoming lane, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to scare her.

At least the Lowe's employees were 100% better than the ones at Home Depot. I must have walked by five employees and not one of them passed me by without acknowledging me AND asking if I was finding everything I was looking for. Awesome customer service. I was directed to the correct aisle, but I didn't find exactly what I wanted. That wasn't their fault; it was mine for being indecisive.

That was way too much angst for me in a couple of hours of running errands. I hate being on the road, I hate driving and I am not all that fond of people at the moment. So, I came home, parked his van, and while Ron was away, I had a Ree weekend. It was marvelous!

I spent quality time with my heating pad, I played Pogo, I watched stupid TV, I read a lot, played Wii (and won EVERY game, thank you!) and just relaxed. I think it was a good weekend.

So, there you go. Not really anything blog worthy, but I made a blog out of it anyway. Now I'm sitting here just waiting for Ron to get home. Maybe this week I can find something fun to write about! Maybe this could be my week to hit the lottery. If that's the case, my next post will come from Cancun. Now that will be exciting!