Ouch. That Hurt.

In case anyone missed my big story of the week, I was in a car accident on Friday afternoon.

I was working diligently at the audit site on Friday. About one in the afternoon, I decided to run out to the closest fast food restaurant my GPS could find me, grab a fast sandwich and get back at it. Yes, I used the GPS since I am not familiar at all with the town in which I was working. Wendy's was 1.4 miles away and so that was the winner.

I went into Wendy's, ate my lunch and then headed back to the audit site. The street that the audit site is on is a four lane very busy street. I was in the left lane at a dead stop, with my turn signal on, indicating that I was trying to turn left. Again, it's a busy street and I was sitting there for awhile, waiting for traffic to break so I could make that turn. The next thing I knew was BAM. I was smashed into from behind. The speed limit on this street is 45 mph and I never heard her hit her brakes before impact. Based on the fact that I was sitting there for awhile waiting for traffic to clear, I am assuming she was doing at least 45 mph and just smacked me. I don't know if she was talking on the phone, or if she was texting or even if she was driving a Ford. I do know though, that she was cited for this accident.

My car was pushed quite a ways forward as I could no longer see the driveway I was trying to turn into. My seat was now reclined at about 45 degrees and I was in so much pain I could barely breathe. I have had back surgery in 2002 and now that was all I could think about since my back was absolutely killing me. I had the presense of mind to take the car out of first gear and put it into neutral and pull the emergency brake. The only thing I didn't do that I should have done was shut the car off.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialed 911. I know I was near hysterical so they tried to triangulate my position. The dispatcher mentioned an intersection of two route numbers that I did not recognize. Luckily, I knew the address of my audit site, and since I was right in front of their property, I gave her the correct address. I was assured help was on the way. I guess "on the way" is a relative term when you're in pain. It felt like hours, but I'm sure it was just minutes.

The paramedics and the police showed up together. I was taken out of my car in a neck brace strapped down to a backboard and taken to the nearest hospital. As a public service announcement, if anyone wants to take you to Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna Ohio, don't go. That's all I'm saying about that.

They finally after over four hours gave me a pain pill and told me I was free to go. Nothing was broken, just bumps and bruises. Ron was there with me, so he helped me get dressed and we were on our way home.

I still am not sure where my car is or what the damage is. I guess tomorrow when the insurance adjuster is on duty I'll find out more.

I hurt in places I didn't know I had. When I was in the hospital, my back was my major and only concern. Between yesterday and today the rest of the owies came out. My collar bone hurts, my neck hurts, the base of my neck hurts, my shoulder and my elbow, my back is killing me; yeah pretty much everything but my baby toe on my right foot. It hurts.

The weird thing is I feel guilty for hurting. You see people after accidents and there are bumps, bruises, stitches, casts, something. I have nothing. There are no casts, no stitches, not even a lousy bruise. But that doesn't negate the fact that I can't sit, I can't stand, I can't lay down. All that without a mark on me.

The audit site was over 60 miles away. I was terrified every single day of the drive over there and back home. People out there are idiots and I see evidence of this every day. People pulling in front of you, cutting you off, driving like maniacs. It took everything in me to keep going back day after day. And, what happens? I'm at a stand still in front of where I need to be. All I need to do is turn into the driveway and drive up past the pond and to the visitor's parking lot. Any idiot should be able to do that. I guess not me. She came out of nowhere and could NOT have been watching the road at all, and just HITS me.

So what do we learn from this? DO we learn that defensive driving pays off? No. Do we learn caution is always appropriate? Obviously not. We learn it doesn't pay to leave the house. Period.

Surreal

The current audit I am working on is a pretty far drive from home every day. I am out of the house before the crack of dawn, leaving between 6:15 and 6:30 am.

The only good side to leaving at this time of morning is the traffic is marginally less that I usually deal with and I get to witness a beautiful sunrise every morning. Or, at least until the sun gets high enough that it blinds me for part of the drive.

On the Ohio Turnpike, in between the I-77 exit and the Route 8 exit is a huge bridge. When I say huge, I really mean huge. It feels like it is a million miles in the air. I’m sure it’s not that high, but it is high! And, the road in this area is a few long meandering “S” curves. If it wasn’t for the ungodly hour of the morning, this would be a beautiful sight. But, I digress.

In the morning at this time of year, it is not uncommon for there to be low fog or clouds, at least until the sun comes up to burn them off. Driving east, you come out of a curve and see the beginning of the bridge and the part of the valley it spans. The valley looked like when you are in a plane over the clouds and all you see is the white puffy clouds below you but no land. That is exactly what this looked like! It was kind of awesome seeing the clouds coming up and around the bridge.

At least until I got on the bridge itself. That’s when I realized that the low cloud cover actually covered the road! Here I was breezing through one day last week at about 68 mph when suddenly it was all around me. I couldn’t see 20 feet in front of me. I slowed down immediately, hoping someone was going to pass me so I could just follow them! Unfortunately, everyone thought I knew what I was doing and they slowed down to match my speed and just stayed behind me. I definitely found out then just how easy it would be to drive off of a bridge.

Finally, reaching the other side of the bridge, the weather cleared and we were back up to speed. For a few minutes there, it was a surreal experience; or an episode of The Twilight Zone.

At least the drives to and from work are never ending sources of stories.

A Year Later . . .

Saturday was a family day.

First of all, Saturday was the one year anniversary of my Dad's passing. I can't believe it's been a year already. It feels like it was just yesterday. We wanted to commemorate this day and make it a day dedicated to Dad.

Brother Phil and I met up with brother Jim in Meadville PA, home of my favorite nephew! Thanks to Mike and Jenny who let us invite ourselves over and then put up with us as we used their house as a meeting spot to leave one vehicle and have a good potty break in the middle of our trip!

We left Jim's vehicle at Mike and Jenny's and headed on to Sheffield. Since we were concentrating on Dad today, we started with lunch at one of his favorite restaurants, Dutch Treat in Spartansburg PA. It's a quaint little place in the middle of Amish country, so you're sure to get some good old fashioned real food. No fru fru stuff on this menu. While you won't find quiche or lattes, you can be sure that meatloaf and coffee is on the menu. So, we had lunch and talked about Dad.

From Spartansburg, our next stop was Warren. Our Aunt Mary, one of Dad's older sisters, is in the Warren Manor in Warren. Since it was also her 95th birthday on Sunday, we stopped in with some flowers to do a little visiting and a little bad singing. Aunt Mary was trying to take a nap when we got there, but we quickly changed her mind on that idea! The aides came quickly to help her back out of bed from her afternoon nap and we sat and did enjoy a nice visit. Here is a picture of 95 years young with two of her favorite nephews!

That's Jim on the left, Aunt Mary and Phil is on the right. She thought Jim and I looked the same as the last time she saw us, but she was taken aback by Phil. She couldn't remember him having that much of a beard last time she saw him! I think that took a little for her to get used to!

We also got to meet Aunt Mary's room mate who is a lovely lady. It was just such a nice visit, and Aunt Mary was happy to see our motley crew. We left as they were started to get everyone together for dinner.

From visiting, we headed on to Sheffield to the local funeral home. In true family form, we were procrastinating with the ordering of the headstone. It only took us one year to the day, but we were finally there to finish off that business. Between the three of us, we chose a simple headstone that is similar to the rest of his family's markers that are at that cemetary. In this computer age, we were immediately given a computer drawn rendition to which we all made sure his name was spelled correctly and then Jim gave the official John Hancock on the form to have them go ahead with the stone! The stone should be in and installed in about six weeks.

From the funeral home, it was time to head to the cemetary. It was raining like the dickens but we stood there under umbrellas and again, just talked about and thought about Dad. Going back to the day a year before when we stood in those same spots. I still can't believe it's a year later already.

Shortly thereafter, it was time to head back to Meadville again. After a round of hugs playing catch with the kids and bathroom breaks, we were all back on our way. Jim headed back to Erie while Phil and I headed back to Ohio. It was a long day, but I'm glad I went.

Now, if I may be so bold as to speak for all of us, we miss you, Dad. There will forever be a hole in our hearts.

He's Heeeeeere!

Yes, he's really heeeeeere!

As of Saturday at approximately 12:30 in the afternoon, this was brother Philip, with brother Jim as copilot, driving to our house. After the countdown that started at over 800 days, the final day had arrived.

After a quick leg stretching break, the four of us headed to a storange unit to unload the trailer.

With four of us humping it, we had that trailer unloaded in an hour. A few things were put back into our vehicles that were heading back to the house.

I had picked up a ham and we all just sat and had a nice lunch and chit chatted. We just had a nice family kind of day. A lot of chatting, a lot of laughing and very little arguing. Hey, c'mon now! We are family. There has to be SOME arguing!

We introduced Phil to the wonderful world of Wii! I'm glad I made that Mr. Phil Mii before he got here. We all bowled a bit, did a lot of laughing. I have a feeling that the Wii is going to get a lot of use from all of us.

Eventually, we ended up doing a grocery store run. Someone (perhaps most of us) came up with a great idea for the evening. Does anyone out there remember Phil's punch? Holy crap! We have a huge cooler full of punch. And, the four of us sure did get punched last night! To tell the truth, if you just raise the lid off of the cooler right now you can cop a buzz just from the fumes!

Now the bottom of the cooler is full of maraschino cherries. If they marinate just one more day in that punch, those cherries will be dangerous.

So, it was a quiet night at home last night. Now we just need time to get reacquainted, and get Philip moved in.

So, when anyone is in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hi! Philip is in the house!

That’s One Way To Shop

Wednesday really did turn into one of them days.

After work, I made a quick stop at Kohl’s that is close by the audit site before the long drive home. If anyone has shopped at Kohl’s, you know their aisles have to be the narrowest of any store’s aisles. At least their shopping carts aren’t as long as most. The carts are only about two feet long but four feet deep!

I was in a tight aisle looking at bedding when a lady pushing a shopping cart was trying to get through. Before I could move up an aisle to let her get by, she tells me never mind, she’ll go around. This lady was in her 60s and very nicely dressed. I smiled, said thank you, and went back to looking.

I finally found what I wanted and then moved on to the little rubber backed mats that were on sale. I just recently bought a new recliner and it just slides across the hard wood floor every time someone sits down or gets up. I thought maybe a rubber backed mat would help. I was looking at the different mats when who tries to get by me again? Nice dressed lady. We laugh that we’re both shopping for the same things today and we start to talk about the mats.

I tell her my purpose for the mat, and she gives me a look. You know the kind. When someone totally disagrees with you but won’t say so in so many words. She said it MIGHT work. Hmm. I’m not feeling great about my choice right now.

Anyway, I figured how wrong could I go with a $12 mat? If it doesn’t work, I’ll take it back. We were looking at some other little area rug things, some of which ran $60 and up for a little 2’ x 4’ or so. While they were gorgeous, it was much too big for what I needed, nor did I want to spend that kind of money. Nice dressed lady chose one though, and put her choice in her shopping cart.
Once I chose my cheap one, we both ended up walking towards the front of the store to the check outs. We chatted a little but once we neared the check out counters, she veered off, took her rug out of the cart and was pushing her cart in with the rest of the empty carts by the door. I thought that was strange, to take your cart back before you checked out, but what do I know.

Then I saw it. She pushed her cart in line with the rest of the empty carts, and with her $60 rug under her arm; she walked right out of the door! Who’d have thought?

I guess the saying is true; you can’t judge a book by its cover. Who’d have imagined this nicely dressed 60 something lady would be a run of the mill every day low life shoplifter.

Where Did All The Poop Go?

I know, sometimes I think about the strangest things. Right now I’m thinking about goose poop.


First, in case no one has had the opportunity to see goose poop, let me tell you, geese can poop! It’s not the normal bird white splatter on your shoulder or on your windshield. I don’t know what geese eat, but wow, they can have some monster turds.


The building where I am conducting the current audit has some gorgeous landscaping. It’s a long winding drive up to the administration building. On the way up this road is a huge pond with a fountain. It really is beautiful and very peaceful. Well, at least 50 geese have made this pond their home and I’m probably being very conservative with that number. When I’m driving up the road in the morning, the geese are in the pond or lazing on the banks of the pond. They are pretty much in the same place when I’m leaving here. Well, during the night, they must be walking all over the property up by the administration building. In the morning, all over the parking lot and all over the walkway up to the building, are covered with goose turds! You really have to watch where you’re walking or you’ll get a mess all over your shoes.


Yesterday morning, about 9:30 or so, I walked back to my car to get my printer out of there. In the two plus hours that I’ve been at work, someone had gone through and cleaned up all of the goose poop! Sort of like a Poop Patrol!


Part of me was thinking just how cool that was, that someone actually stayed on top of all of the poop. Then I thought again about it. I may think my job sucks, but at least I’m not picking up goose poop every morning. Eww.

Pull Over And Get Out Of The Car

Yes, those are the words I heard from our local police yesterday.

Ok, it was a driver’s license checkpoint, but still! I heard those words!

For real – have you ever heard of any city that does driver’s license checkpoints? In the afternoon? This is the second one I’ve been stopped for in Lorain.

They block off a couple of side streets to impede your running away, they post officers on a couple of other side streets to stop traffic and they block about two blocks in total on the main street which just happened to be the same street I live on, not two blocks up. They had most of the length of the park marked as the check point with at least 30 cruisers sitting there waiting to chase down someone who saw the checkpoint and then tried to avoid it.

When it was my turn for the officer to walk up to my car, I was polite, with my hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel, window rolled all the way down. When asked for my license, I explained it was in my laptop bag which was behind the driver’s seat. I asked him if I could get out of the car to get it. That’s when he told me to "pull over and get out of the car"!! See? I didn’t lie!

So, I was directed to pull over onto the grass in the park where I had four officers close by watching me take my laptop bag off of the floor of the car. Duh, do I really look like a gun toting crazy person? On second thought, don’t answer that!

One of the officers came closer, took a good look at my license, the one with the horrible picture, and said I was free to go.

I guess I got off easier than the guy that was parked next to me on the grass. The driver was nowhere to be seen and the tow truck was there hooking up to his car. Sucked to be him.

Mom Would Be Proud

Ok, other than my siblings, I don't know if anyone will appreciate this, but:

Yesterday, neither Ron or I wanted to cook dinner so we decided to go out. We went to a fast food BBQ place. Hey, it's not much but they have great pulled pork and Ron loves their ribs.

Anyway, we're at the counter placing our order when Ron tells me oops, he left his cash at home. His pockets are empty.

Being the ever helpful girlfriend that I am, I tell him it's ok, they take bank cards.

Then we get to the register and he tells me oops! He forgot his wallet!

Yeah, my Mom would have been so proud. And, yes, I bought dinner!

And Poof It Was Gone

There are favors you can ask almost anyone.

Then there are special favors that you can only ask of certain people. You know, like hiding bodies. Or moving furniture. This was one of those special favors.

As most of you know, my brother Philip is very soon moving in with us. My goal is to be ready. The mind is there but the body isn't so willing. I have a list of things I want done before the momentous day but the list isn't getting whittled down too quickly.

For instance, I recently bought new living room furniture. Two weeks after delivery the old futon was still taking up room in the dining room. This was getting pretty irritating. (Although, as a side note, I did take a nap one morning on the futon in the dining room! Because after all, how many of you can say you've napped in your dining room?!! But, I digress.)

Thursday night is our garbage night and the futon was the last piece left to go. No one seemed to want to take it, perhaps because of the size and weight. Also, I needed to clear out the spare room, hence to be known as Philip's room, because Friday was cleaning day and I wanted that room gone over top to bottom. So, Thursday night, I had a huge list of stuff that needed doing.

I called brother Michael. He is one of those kinds of people that you call for the special favors. Michael and Mary Jane were gracious enough to agree to this physical undertaking. The futon was first. It went out to the curb. I hated to do this as it had so many good memories associated with it. JoBeth and I plopped our asses on a lot of couchs all over Houston looking for the right affordable piece of furniture before we found this futon! It was hard to let go of it. But, my attachment to this inanimate object had to be overcome and out to the curb it went.

That was the big undertaking of the evening. Just ask Michael and Ron - that damn thing was heavy. I put a sign on it that said "FREE" hoping someone would take it and get some use out of it before the garbage men came and took it.

Once that was finished, we decided to get dinner. By the time we got home from dinner, the futon was gone! That took some doing because I don't think any of the neighbors just came and carted it away. Someone with a big enough truck and muscles was involved in that one. Hopefully, someone will get some good ass plopping use out of the futon.

After that, everyone did a great job in emptying Philip's room. The bed was dismantled and moved out as was Ron's dresser. The dresser moved across the hall to our room. The room got a great cleaning on Friday so now I'm that much closer to being ready.

Thanks family, for again coming through for me. Next time I need to hide a body or move furniture again, you know you'll be hearing from me.

At Least He Wasn't Shot

I know I live in a tough town. Businesses are closing left and right and there are no jobs in town. The high crime rate reflects the jobless rate.

I was reading the online version of our local newspaper today, the Lorain Chronicle-Telegram, and here the first paragraph sure sums up living in Lorain. He may have had the crap beat out of him, but at least he wasn't shot.

LORAIN — A man received four stitches to his upper lip Thursday after a street brawl on Lorain Drive, but at least he wasn’t shot.

Yeah. Thank goodness for little favors.

Meet Me At The Fair

Wednesday night we met up with Michael and Mary Jane and headed to the Lorain County Fair.

I may not be a big one for fairs, but I was promised funnel cakes, and hey, who can resist a good funnel cake? So off to the fair we went.

The Lorain County Fair is one of the larger county fairs around here. Of course, the fairgrounds are huge and we ended up parking like a gazillion miles away from the gate. The coolest thing about this was they had rides to and from pick up points in the parking lot. All we had to do was remember that we parked near pick up spot #2. What I wasn't prepared for was our mode of transportation.

Here is a tractor, pulling a wagon of sorts. You climb up four steps into the inside of the wagon and there are two bench seats, one on each side running the length of the wagon. Ok, those were the safe seats. Then, on the outside on each side was another bench seat. On the way into the fair, we actually sat on the outside bench seat portion. Holy crap! I am such a pansy! This "ride" scared the crap out of me! Yeah, I know, I'm afraid of everything. But, geez. A wagon ride?

So, we made it into the fair and then the fun began!

Cows, pigs, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens and of course, my favorite, the goats! I don't have the discerning eye of the judges. I couldn't tell an award winner from his lesser cousin. But it was fun watching all the kids care for their animals, and keeping the pens cleaner than I would have believed possible.

There was just one glaring error here. Right outside of the barn housing all of the pigs was the pulled pork food wagon. Hello? Pulled pork? Do you think the pig closest to the wagon was sitting there thinking he was next? Man, that was just wrong.

That aside, we finished up checking out the livestock it was time to hit the midway. I did well curbing the spending, but I did walk away with one thing I can't do without. The roasted nuts. Two bags of pecans and one bag of cashews later, I came across a wagon of Indian jewelry. I'm not a big fan of jewelry. Most days I don't even wear a watch let alone anything else. But they had some bracelets that were really beautiful. The one I chose has a teardrop piece of turquoise in the middle and some very delicate filigree for the bracelet part along with a few beads. It's hard to explain, but I couldn't resist!

After that, Ron bought me my funnel cake, and my evening was complete.

It really was a great evening, and we had the most perfect weather night of the week.

Now for the down side. It was about 11:30 by the time we got home that night. I know that's not late for most people, but for me on a work night, holy cow! I can't tell you the last time Ron and I got HOME at that time of night! Unfortunately I felt like I smelled like a barn, so I had to hit the shower before getting to bed. That made it after midnight by the time we got to bed. Again, way too late for someone my age to be up on a work night.

To prove my point, I must have been half asleep when I went to leave the house in the morning. I got all the way to work before I realized I left both of my cell phones at home! It's a truly naked feeling to be without both of my cell phones! To tell the truth though, I kind of liked the freedom of it all; the freedom of not being tied to my phones. I guess I should be happy that I was awake enough to dress properly before leaving the house. All important articles of clothes on the right body parts and everything.

So there you have it. A late night, but a great night. And, as icing on the evening, I did have a funnel cake!

Another Good Saturday

We had another good Saturday over here.

Ok, we pretty much goofed off all day, but isn't that what makes it a good Saturday?

Since we were both up early we started our day with the breakfast buffet at Eat 'n Park. That's the best thing about this restaurant is their breakfast buffet. We ended up running a few errands after this, I guess the only necessary evil in our day. A quick stop at the bank, the Verizon store and the grocery store then we were back to goofing off.

Did I mention I even had time for a nap? C'mon now, if that doesn't make for a good Saturday, I don't know what does!

We finished our day with a motorcycle ride. We really had no plan on where we were going or what we were going to see, he just drove. Some times we'd come to an intersection and he'd ask me which way to go. As we all know I'm great at getting us lost, I did my best. Luckily Ron is great at getting us found so all went well.

We went exploring a road I've always wanted to explore. Nice road, sort of country-ish but in town. No for sale signs though. Somehow in our meanderings we ended up on the road that parallels the lake. That's always a beautiful ride. When our butts needed resting, we stopped at a park that is on the lake with a pier going out into the lake. On our way to walk out on to the pier, we were exploring the park itself. They have added a few features since the last time we were there. Like a few gazebos. We were checking out the plants around the gazebos as well, which all showed signs of some serious bug infestation. But hey, we were on an adventure, so who cared.

After exploring that area all we wanted, we started to head down to the pier. And then THERE it was! On the side of a garbage can was the HUGEST caterpillar I've ever seen! I was brave enough to put my finger close to the caterpillar just so that you could see just how huge this thing was.



Just when I thought we saw all of it, I moved to the side and saw the caterpillar kept going and going! It was a good five inches long. I'm not sure where it ended since it started under the lid and I wasn't getting that close to take a better look!



After we got home, we did a little research. I believe this is a cecropia caterpillar which, if successful, will turn into a cecropia moth, the largest moth in North America! Yeah, no kidding!

So there was our adventures for the day. Complete with cool bugs! There went the motorcycle tough girl image when you see me "ewwing" and "ahhing" over bugs. So much for my image. It was a very cool bug.

Only 20 Years Behind

Last Friday as I was on the road coming home from the audit, I was talking to Ron on the phone. Hey, I wasn't driving so I'm allowed to talk on the phone all I want!

Anyway, he informed me that there was a little problem at home, and the whozewhatzit was broken so we had no Internet at home. Until Ron could get to the store to buy another whozewhatzit, we wouldn't have any Internet either. He thought maybe he could work on it during the upcoming week.

Hello? No Internet? No Pogo? No email? I don't think so.

I begged that right after dinner we head to Best Buy for that whozewhatzit and get us back up and running. That was a good plan as far as I was concerned.

Best Buy is overpriced but they do have quite a selection of stuff I might need.

While Ron was off comparing whozewhatzits, I left and told him I'd either be in the CD section or the Wii game section. By the time he came over to find me, I already had a few selections picked out. Of course, he asked me what I bought!

I found two CDs in the "on sale" rack that I felt I had to have. One was by Guns 'n Roses and one was by Nirvana. Ron looked at my choices and said "gee, now you're only 20 years behind the times"! Ouch!! Hey, I can't help it, I like what I like.

Hopefully, though, I redeemed myself this week.

While out of town, I finished the book I was reading way earlier than I expected. I didn't pack a second book and I couldn't go two days without reading material. Right down the street was a Super Walmart. While I'm not a fan of Walmart, it was right there and it beat trying to find a mall or a Kmart. I headed in.

I chose the Dean Koontz book Odd Hours, the fourth installment of the character Odd Thomas. A mighty good choice if I do say so myself! After choosing the book, I decided to walk around the store for awhile. I found myself to be in the CD section again. I know, I just bought two new CDs, so why did I think I needed another? But, I caved into impulse buying and bought the newest Kid Rock CD. Say what you will, I love that guy!

Eclectic mix of tastes. I should be good on CDs at least for the next 20 years.

P.U.

Considering I am in a small town, the Hampton Inn I am staying at is always full.

I was in denial about having to spend another week here, so I never made my reservations for this week until last Thursday evening. By then, the number of available rooms was slim. The only rooms left were the smoking rooms.

First, I thought Ohio had gone no smoking. Why are there still smoking rooms? I was told the hotel is allowed to keep 10 smoking rooms available. Sucks to be me, I’m telling you. And, that’s a rotten loop hole.

The hotel will do what they call ionization on the room. It’s supposed to help with the smell. Let me tell you, it doesn’t. In my humble opinion, I think someone just goes through the room with a no name brand cheap Lysol type spray and does a little spritzing. It’s close to useless.

When I checked in last night, I walked into the room and was about knocked over backwards. The smell was horrendous. The front desk stated the ionization had taken place during the day but if I needed another one, she’d do it if I was leaving for dinner or she would put in a request for one to be done today while I was gone. I decided to forgo her suggestion and take matters in my own hand.

First things first. I went through my ritual of wiping down the room with my disinfectant wipes. I unpacked my bag, washed my hands and I was ready for dinner. I headed to the other side of town (a whole five miles away!) and had a pleasant dinner at Applebee’s. From there, it was across the street to the Super Walmart.

I bought some Oust spray (supposed to take out odors) and I was looking for some candles.

I was hoping for some pleasant smelling candles, but it seems that Walmart forgot to order those. The good news here is that they at least had a plethora of cheap candles. Instead of grabbing a couple of single candles, they had a gift set of five candles. There were three small ones, maybe two inches high in a glass holder and then two of the bigger ones in glass canisters with the glass tops.

I made my way back to the hotel. I had left the bathroom fan on hoping that might clear some of the smell. It didn’t smell like it did. I went to the window and figured it wasn’t very secure. Somehow, the little thingie on the top of the window that was supposed to prevent the window from opening just happened to pop off. Go figure! With that gone, I was able to open the window wide and at least let some semi fresh air into the room. I wish I’d have thought of that before I went to dinner!

So, keeping the window open for an hour or so did help. After that, I went through the room spraying my Oust all over. I gave the curtains a good dose as well as the bed and parts of the carpet. Yes, I was a crazy woman. Once the window was shut, I lit the candles. (Thanks, Ron! I’m glad you left your lighter in my car!) Ok, I only lit the three little ones; for now. I had one on each bed side table and one on the table next to the dresser with the television.

With all of that, the room was a little more livable. Before I went to bed, I blew the candles out and gave the room another good spraying of the Oust. I know, I’m probably killing myself with the fluorocarbons or something but geez, it was hard to breathe in there. This morning, I gave another good spray with the Oust and here’s hoping the room will be more pleasant when I get there tonight. Maybe I won’t need the passion fruit scented candles tonight!

Um, if someone gets a slightly used gift box of five passion fruit scented candles for Christmas, at least you’ll know they were pre-used for a good cause!

Harry Potter Puppets

Go ahead. I dare you to get this song out of your head once you've heard it!!

(psst, Michael J! I had to have additional Ron help since I needed a more hands on instruction to make it work!! Thanks for trying! I am close to hopeless!)

Day Of Fun

Ron and I had a total goof off day.

We headed south to his hometown of Barberton. From our house, Barberton is just over an hour away.

The first thing we did was hit one of the town's famous chicken joints for some Barberton Chicken. I don't know why this town has the market cornered on fried chicken, but they are famous for it. But I do know why it is so tasty. If you read the link to Wikipedia, there ain't nothing healthy about this meal! They keep out the health, keep in the taste. Anyway, we had a great lunch.

From there we headed to buy flowers. We had a few flower giving opportunities coming up so we were stocking up. But, lo and behold, what was next to the flower store? A Best Cuts! Ok, it's not a top of the line salon, but for real. All I needed was a trim. How can they screw that up?

So, five minutes and three inches later, we were out of there and next door to the flower store. We made our choices and were on our way to Barberton Citizens Hospital to see Ron's Uncle Paul and drop off our first bouquet of flowers. We sure did surprise him! For a sick guy, he did his best to pass back every zinger we threw at him. I thought he looked very good and was on top of his game with the jokes and jabs. Talking with Uncle Paul is always an event as he's a man with a dry wit and a quick verbal jab. We sat with him and his wife and daughter for quite awhile, just catching up and telling stories and jokes. Finally, Uncle Paul was looking pretty tired so we hugged and said our good byes and let him get some rest.

From the hospital we were over to Ron's brother Wes's house. After all, tomorrow is Wes's birthday so we couldn't let this occasion go by without a howdy from his favorite brother! Ok, Ron is Wes's only brother, but I digress! Again, we sat and visited for awhile before he was whisked off by his family for some birthday love. Happy Birthday, Wes!! I won't even tell how many candles are on the cake this year!

After that it was to the cemetary. Today is 12 years since Ron's Mom passed away and we went and paid our respects. After a nice talk with Mom, a little headstone cleaning and some flower arranging, we were heading home.

We had a beautiful day for a drive. The drive home was mostly uneventful. We made it home safe and sound, unpacked the car and raced to be first in the bathroom. Once business was taken care of we went outside to sit and relax a bit on our own front porch.

It was strange weather out there. The sun was shining, but the rain was coming but only in a mist. It wasn't bad until that wind started blowing with it blew with a vengence. We just sat out there and marveled at the strange weather. Then, Ron saw it. If you look closely, you can actually see a double rainbow as the second one is to the right of the first one and a lot lighter, but it is there.

So there you go. A great day followed by a rainbow. You can't beat that.

That Had To Hurt

My contact at my current audit is a hoot!

At least once a week, she and I like to head across the street to the Mexican restaurant for a few margaritas to "discuss" the progress of the audit. Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

This week, my boss had joined us at the audit. The only down side to that is when he goes, he picks me up as I'm sort of on his way. It's still a couple of hours from my house, so it's better to take one car than two. Unfortunately, then I am without a car.

Anyway, Thursday my contact stated that we should do margaritas at 4:30 when she gets off of work. While I thought that was a great idea, I knew my boss had made reservations for us for dinner that same night. There is only one fine dining restaurant in this town, and by golly we felt that we needed to eat there.

The boss's view on Thursday evening was that since the restaurant was close to the job site, we just work late and then head over to dinner instead of heading over to the hotel and then come back for dinner. I informed him at lunch while his idea was good, I had a better idea.

I told him about the margarita plan. I said instead of working late, we actually leave 1/2 hour early, head across the street, have a few cocktails and then head for dinner. He said he'd think about it.

At about 4:00, I went upstairs where the boss was working and told him if he wanted to work late, he was welcome to it. I, on the other hand, was going to join the contact for drinks. He could either call me when he was ready or we can just agree on a time and I'll meet him at the car at the appointed time. He thought a second and said that no, margaritas sounded like a much better idea than working tonight! Bonus!

I told him we were leaving at 4:30 so be downstairs and ready!

Then I headed back downstairs to tell my contact we were all in for a walk across the street. However, when I got downstairs, the entire department was in an uproar and my contact was not doing well. Come to find out, she went to walk out of her office when her phone rang. While running back into her office, she kicked the chair that was on the side of her desk.

Now, like most women, she had kicked her shoes off under her desk so she was actually running back in barefoot. Her little toe went on one side of the chair leg while the rest of her toes went on the other side of the chair leg. In the couple of minutes since it happened, her toe was already turning colors.

One of the ladies in the department offered to run her to the ER as the consensus was that everyone heard a "crack" when it happened. So much for our margaritas! She went to the ER and I ended up working late anyway!

Come to find out the next day, she not only broke her little toe, she nearly broke it off. A picture of the x-ray showed that the bone of the little toe down by where it connects to the foot was cracked almost all the way through. Plus, the hit literally ripped the toe. They didn't stitch it back up since the doctor felt that would be a very irritating place to have stitches, under and between your two toes. They cleaned and bandaged the laceration, taped the two toes together and sent her off with antibiotics and pain pills.

So, for once, I talk the boss into leaving work early and actually goofing off for an hour. Then, the contact had to cancel. Dang, that hurt.

Charlie Bit Me!

Charlie Bit Me!

This is just too funny! Being the baby of the family, I can appreciate that devilish grin on the baby!

I Know I’m Gonna Get Blamed For This

I’ve spent enough nights in hotels (and not in a good way!) to pretty much know exactly what to expect when I walk into a room. That way, if anything is out of place, I know it immediately.

I have a ritual of sorts whenever I walk into a hotel room. First I check for unwanted visitors. I heard a story about a friend of a friend of a friend that walked into his hotel room at the end of a work day and someone was hiding in the room. Supposedly this intruder beat the crap out of him and robbed him. Well, tell me a story like this and it sticks with me. Every time now that I walk into a hotel room alone, I have to do the sweep first. That’s looking in the closet, on the other side of the bed and even in the shower to make sure I’m alone in there. Last night, I did that.

Then, I unpack. The first thing out of my bag will be my disinfectant wipes. I wipe down the room from the remote control (huge eww!), the telephone, the buttons on the TV and the a/c, the door handle and lock, the bathroom fixtures, toilet handle, light switches, desk top and the top of the night table. Yes, anal retentive. Then, I unpack my clothes and put them in the drawers or hang them in the closet.

Then I’m ready to go get dinner!

Last night, I went through my routines. However, before I even started, something was terribly wrong with my room!

Every hotel room, be it a Motel 6 or the Hilton, will have some kind of cookie cutter pictures hanging on the walls. That’s what was missing in my room; the pictures. These are usually bolted to the walls (yes, even at the Hilton) to ensure no one packs them as extra items in their suitcases. So, now I have no pictures and some really bad patch jobs on the bolt holes where pictures used to hang.

When I left for dinner last night, I stopped by the front desk. I told them about the missing pictures and that I was afraid I was going to be blamed for stealing the bad art! I was assured that maintenance had removed the pictures as some of the rooms are going through an upgrade which will include a paint job and new pictures on the wall. Whew!

I’m still checking my bill carefully on Friday. I have a feeling that somehow, this will still be my fault!

I Met New Friends!

Friday night, July 25th, Ron and I went to dinner with friends of ours, David and Edna. We had reservations at our favorite place, Jackalope's. Jackalope's has some great tables outside, overlooking the marina. However, the outside was all filled up so we were seated inside. We had one of the two tables in the back corner, that had full windows on two sides so we still had a great view of the lake and marina with none of the flies outside.

I was sitting with my back to the other table in this back corner. They were much further into their meal than we were, and after we ordered, they had the dessert tray at their table picking out their dessert. Who can resist a tray full of scrumptious desserts? And, we all know how I love to talk to strangers, so I did what I do naturally. I turned around and butted into their business!

There were three people at the table behind us. There was Tammy, who is about our age, and her parents, Jim and Judy who I am guessing are in their mid 80s. The four of us tossed around the pros and cons of all the desserts on the tray, (I always vote for the cheesecake, just in case you wanted to know!).

We started talking table to table and found out the three of them were there celebrating Tammy's birthday! Ok, anyone that knows me knows how much I love birthdays! How could I stop myself from breaking out into song? I started a loud (and probably not good) rendition of "happy birthday". I guess I was infectious since the two other tables closest to us joined in with the singing! C'mon Tammy girl! This day only comes once a year! Enjoy the adulation of perfect strangers!

So that started it. I am a nosey person and I like strangers. We kibitzed over their dessert and then they gave their commentary on our dinner choices. (which were one rack of lamb, two lobster pastas and one pork loin with apple chutney) We just had a nice time interjecting opinions and comments throughout the evening with these people.

It really was a fun evening not only with David and Edna but with our neighboring table as well. After our dessert was served (yes I got the cherry cheesecake!) Tammy and company were getting ready to leave. We were all talking and decided that we should do this again! Introductions finally went around and we decided that we are going to meet up again on the 25th of next month! So, on August 25th, we have a reservation for all of us to sit at one table and enjoy a meal together!

See what I get for talking to strangers? We get dinner reservations at my favorite restaurant and hopefully a great new tradition of dinner with new and old friends. It doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas in July

Yesterday was July 25th.

In honor of this auspicious day, one of the local radio stations here, WDOK 102.1 FM celebrated Christmas in July.

I'm not much for listening to the radio. The only time I listen is in the car. And, in the car, I'm a channel flipper. I listen to a song on this station then if I don't like the next song or if it's time for a commercial, I move on to the next station.

I was flipping through the Cleveland stations yesterday and I came across the song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas". As one living away from home for awhile, that one always makes me cry. I'm wondering what the heck is going on that this song is playing now. So, while I'm not one for Christmas carols, I decided to listen a little longer to see if someone just f-ed up or if that song was playing on purpose.

Sure enough, when the crew started talking after the song, it was time for the intro into the weather. The DJ that was introducing the weather girl and he started with "wow! way to go! You are the only weather forecaster in the area to get last night's weather correct!"

To which the weather caster replied "Yeah, no one else saw this blizzard coming. It hit fast and it hit hard. The current temperature is 20 degrees with it expected to drop tonight to below zero. And, don't bother checking with the TV, I'm telling you now, ALL SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED!" I was howling in the car!

So, it was a Christmas in July gag. But, I gotta tell you, I gotta give out props to WDOK. They kept with it all day as Christmas songs were still playing on my way home from work last night.

Then again, this is the same channel that plays nothing but Christmas carols from Thanksgiving day to Christmas day. I haven't listened to the radio this morning, but I'm hoping it was just a Christmas in July prank and not that they are starting the carols earlier than Thanksgiving this year.

Here's Another One

Yes, one more thing on the list of things I'm afraid of. And, taking a page from the blog book of my brother Michael, I must post pics!

I just got done doing an audit this week. The ladies room at this facility has like six or seven stalls. It's a large bathroom. The last stall scares the crap out of me, no pun intended!

Here's a picture of the toilet.

It's a pretty basic toilet. There is a thingie on the wall with a tube that comes down and under the toilet seat. It looks pretty harmless, right? Well, let's look a little closer at this one, shall we?

What the hell is that little tube coming from under the lid and what is it doing going up my ass? Is there a camera on the end of that thing? Is there a knife in there to do an ass biopsy or something? None of the other stalls have the little thingie pointing up like this.

Yes, this scares me. I refused to pee in here.

If you think I'm scared, you should see the other people in the bathroom as I'm taking flash pictures in this stall.

Yeah, well, whatever. It needed doing. This needed to get out to the public. This almost deserves it's own "that's just wrong" page. Just one more thing to scare me.

Fish Update!

It’s been at least a couple of weeks since I’ve updated on the fish tank and I thought I was due!

Awhile back, we were down to one male silver molly. We started with black mollys, silver mollys and dalmatian mollys. He was our lone survivor out of all of them. Eventually I thought he was lonely and needed a girlfriend. We searched and searched and if we found any silver mollys at all, they were boys not girls. Finally, we found four little girls that we thought our male would love. We were excitedly awaiting babies!

When you buy the mollys they are very young. It takes a few months for them to mature and we were waiting patiently, as was our male. We were finally rewarded a couple of weekends ago with our first sighting of tiny silver molly babies! It seems that when our platys have babies, the babies are very good at hiding. Our first sightings of the platys are when the babies are about ½ inch long or so. These mollys were tinier than that! And they were everywhere. That didn’t last long as we spent that first weekend watching all of our other fish feeding on the babies. The first one was is hard to watch. After that, it got to be "oops, there went another one". We had to lose about 40 or 50 babies that first weekend.

I don’t want to do breeder tanks. I want nature to take its course and what survives was meant to survive. So far that has kept our tank in some sort of check (as well as keeping our angel fish, the biggest baby eater, fat and happy!) as we end up with maybe one baby per hatching or whatever you call it.

That might have changed. While the molly babies are very brave and out into the middle of the tank to get eaten easily, somehow a bunch of them have survived. We now have at least eight babies in the tank right now! And they are fast little suckers and getting bigger every day. We’ve watched other fish chase them but so far, these new babies are winning.

All of that fish loving must have been too much on our original male as he curled up under a rock and died before we noticed the first babies. What a way to go though, huh? We did get one male along with the four females so now the girls won’t be lonely.

Recently, we’ve been talking about more fish. I kind of want to try to put more angel fish in there as I think our one angel needs a companion. Ron’s not so sure about that idea. We put a lot of money into angel fish that didn’t last a week. Luckily, I was on travel that week so I didn’t have to see Ron take all of those fish out of the tank.

We’ll see what happens. For now, the tank is still bringing us a lot of enjoyment. At least enough enjoyment right now to make it worth cleaning all of the poop out of the tank! Once that joy is gone, you can bet the tank will be gone, baby fish or no baby fish.

That's Just Wrong, Page 15

There is a side story about taking Ron to the ER last night.

You have no privacy at the ER. You are put in a room with two or three stations with curtains separating each station. In our room was another gentleman, a few years older than us, also there for a Workman’s Comp issue. He and Ron got to be fast friends, swapping injury war stories back and forth. Unfortunately, in our three stations room was a mother with a two year old little girl.

The little girl was just cute as a button. Unfortunately, her mom wasn’t. Again, with no privacy in the ER, we heard her story. As the story went, her two year old had a difficult night sleeping the night before. With a night full of coughing, hacking and congestion, I guess that 7:00 pm the following night was the perfect time to take this baby to the ER to get that checked. Perhaps her pediatrician was busy all day for a sick baby. Yes, there is sarcasm here. This mother was FAR from a candidate for Mother of the Year.

We sat and listened to her yell at and berate this baby for hours. From "shut up" "be quiet" "stop crying, there’s nothing wrong with you" "stop acting up" yeah, you get the picture. That was all also coupled with quite a "SMACK" sound we heard. And then those awful words "you want to cry? I’ll give you something to cry about." My heart just went out to that little girl. She wasn’t bad at all. She was two, sick, and bored in the ER. I think with all that into consideration, she was perfect. It was her mom that was the problem with all of the yelling.

They took the little girl for a chest x-ray and then pretty much discharged her with a prescription for antibiotics. Then the horror really hit home. Suddenly mom informed the nurse who was signing them out that her water just broke. Holy crap, she’s procreated again? Some little child was coming into a very unfair world.

Now I know that with this information you could make the argument that mom wasn’t having the best of days either. She was probably tired, cranky and uncomfortable. I tried to think of that as well. Regardless, there was no reason to treat her child the way she was treating her.

You know, just because you CAN get pregnant, doesn’t mean you should. You have to pass a test to drive a car. You have to pass a test to be able to cut someone’s hair. Unfortunately, there is no test to say someone is fit to be a parent. That’s just wrong.

He'll Do Anything To Get Out Of Shopping

The plan for tonight was to head out to dinner after work followed by an exciting trip to Sam's Club and maybe the grocery store as well. Yes, we are wild and crazy people over here.

Ron got a late service call so I actually got home before he did. I asked him to call me on his way home and then we could decide on where to meet up for dinner.

I did get a phone call but it sure came with a change of plans. Ron was on his way home but he needed a ride to the hospital, not to a restaurant. Oh crap!

I wanted him to pull over and I'd go pick him up but he said he had cut his finger and he could make it home on his own. Fine. I'll just play chauffeur to the hospital. I grabbed our books, a cold soda and waited for him by the door. Good thing I grabbed the books. Have you been to the ER lately? Holy crap. Makes me afraid to have a heart attack. but, I digress.

On the way to our neighborhood hospital, I found out the story. He was lifting a floor tile to see if there were some coax cables running under the floor. (don't be too impressed, I just asked him again what he was doing! I never would have used the word "coax" in a sentence of my own free will.) Anyway, he lifted the one tile which was very heavy. Unfortunately, the tile slipped out of his hand and smashed his finger between two tiles. Something had to give and it wasn't going to be the steel tiles. Unfortunately, it was his finger that had to give.

The security guard at his client's office did a good patch job wrapping up his finger. It got him home with no more blood on his pants. This is where I took over and to the hospital we went.

The wait was horrendous. I couldn't believe so many people were in the ER at 5:30 in the evening. And to be honest, not many of them looked like they needed an ER.

The final score was three stitches, one dressing and 30 antibiotics. Since his finger actually got smashed and not just cut, it sort of exploded. Unfortunately, they didn't deem him worthy of something for pain. So, right now, the Lidocain is starting to wear off and he is feeling the pain.

So, send your get well wishes to Ron. Poor guy is not having a good week!

Me And My Big Mouth

Friday night Ron and I went to one of our favorite Friday night dinner places. Yes, Popeye's Chicken, up on the Turnpike!

Since this is a rest stop, there are actually about five places you could choose to order dinner from, and then common seating in the middle where you could sit and enjoy your food.

Ron and I picked up or chicken dinners and grabbed a table. As I love Popeye's spicy chicken, before my meal was over, I was heading back up to the counter for a soda refill. There was a gentleman just getting his food from the Popeye's counter and heading to the soda machine. I waited for him to get his soda and said hi just to be friendly. He looked at me with this huge grin on his face and told me a story.

He said he was from Indiana and he and his wife were just returning from a trip to New York. (I don't know if it was the state or the city, but I digress.) He told me that he had purchased some scratch off tickets in New York and had just scratched them off while he was waiting on his dinner. He told me he just won $1500!! He had a grin that a plastic surgeon couldn't have taken off his face, he grabbed his soda and went to find a table.

I am a very empathetic person, so I am thrilled for him! The more I think of it, the more I want to tell him to turn his butt around, he's only about 2-1/2 hours from the state of New York, he should go and turn that ticket in! So, now I grab my refilled soda and heading back to our table I see this guy sitting in the next table from ours. On my way to our table, I had to stop at his.

I apologized for interrupting his dinner with his wife and I offered my congratulations again on his good fortune. Before I could say anything else, he got a wide eyed look on his face and said "um, she doesn't know yet!" OOPS!

So, to the fellow at Popeye's Chicken at the Turnpike rest stop: Sorry for ruining your secret! I guess now you have to share it with your wife thanks to me and my big mouth!

For Once, I Knew The Answer

Sunday, Ron and I went to the local grocery store for restocking. When we were about 1/3 of the way through the store, I decided I should pull out my list to make sure I didn’t forget anything. This was a lesson in pulling out the list sooner than 1/3 of the way through.

On the list was potatoes and of course, that is way in the front of the store. So, Ron kept going while I ran back for a bag of spuds. I take my spud buying very seriously. Once you decide on which price you are willing to pay for potatoes, the sniff test begins. I will pick up each bag, put my nose up to it and sniff. My sister Barb taught me this trick years ago, and I still abide by it.

So, I start smelling bags of potatoes. When I finally find one I like, I grab it and go to put it in the cart. Suddenly behind me is a kid, who in my estimation is 18 or 19 years old. Very shyly, he tells me that he’s never bought potatoes before and was wondering why I was smelling them. Aha! Time for me to pass along the knowledge torch!

I told him that a bag of potatoes should smell like good fresh dirt. He got that look on his face like I am nothing more than another crazy adult over 30 and he said "No, really. What are you smelling in the potatoes?"

I explained to him that since the potatoes came from the dirt, a good bag of spuds will smell like that good clean dirt. If a potato is going bad in the bag, you will sure smell it. In my opinion, once one goes bad, they all will go bad quickly.

I must have sold him on the idea because he then picked up a small bag of potatoes, brought it to his nose and gave it a good strong whiff. I asked him what it smelled like. He smiled and said "dirt"! I told him that he chose well then and that was a good bag of potatoes!

I know I’ve stopped people in the store before when they were picking out something I was unfamiliar with. One thing that comes to mind is pineapple. No matter who is buying it, they all have their own way of judging ripeness. But, I digress. For once it was my turn to impart a little wisdom to the younger shoppers.

So there is my tip for the day. If it smells like dirt – buy it!

What’s In A Name?

The 21st of this month is my five year anniversary at this job. You would think that after five years at a job, the company I worked for would know my name, wouldn’t you?

Yesterday afternoon, my boss called me. He stated that the corporate office contacted him about how to spell my name. Hello? Have I not been here for the last five years? So, since he said he wasn’t sure, he called me to verify. Now, it’s not my last name they are having trouble with (and yes, it’s a doozy in and of itself). They wanted help with my FIRST name.

Five years. Valued employee, huh?

It’s Been A Good Week For Visitors

I have been very lucky this week!

Tuesday night, my brother Jim came to Ohio to spend a few days with us. If that wasn’t great enough, Mary Jane and her grandson, my great-nephew, Evan came over for family fun time Tuesday night as well! Now, Evan is six and full of energy and spunk and fun. He’s also way above me in just about anything that has to do with technology. I was apprehensive, but excited, to play Wii with him! He did let me know that his Wii is better because he has a large screen HD TV and I don't, but he'd try to make do with what we had.

The first thing you do the first time you play Wii is you have to make a Mii. A Mii is a little icon version of yourself to represent yourself in the game. You can customize it from the size and placement of your eyebrows to a mole on your face to what hair style and color, eye shape, nose shape, just everything! So, Evan made his Mii and actually, it looks remarkably like him. So cute!

Well, Evan and I played a quick game of Mario Brothers (my games are always quick when I’m playing Mario Brothers! I suck at it, that’s why!) Then, we bowled a game. In spite of my previous 297 game, Evan gave me a run for my money at bowling and I was lucky enough to beat him. Just by a few pins, but I beat him! It’s hard to get too excited over about winning – against a six year old!

After that, Evan and Uncle Jim were going to play some Wii. Now, Jim has never played Wii before, so Evan was going to show him how. The first thing to do is it make a Mii for Uncle Jim. With Evan at the controls, he made an Uncle Jim Mii aptly named UJ. Now, this was all Evan’s doing. He picked the features, and even chose to put a hat on UJ since Jim almost always wears a baseball cap. Cool that Evan noticed that.

Then, he got to the body shape of the Mii. There are two parts to this. How tall is your Mii and how wide is your Mii. Evan made UJ as tall as it would go. But, as far as wide goes, Evan left UJ just where the Mii was – skinny as a rail! We asked Evan if that’s really what UJ looked like and Evan very seriously said “Sure! UJ is very tall!” How awesome is that?! Through the eyes of a six year old!

I think Evan is our resident Wii expert. He kicked UJ’s butt while playing tennis. The kid has an impossible to return power serve! Then they switched to baseball.

In baseball, one person will pitch while the other bats. When you’re batting, you bat for all the players of your team coming up to the plate. When you’re pitching, you only pitch and the computer takes care of the players in the outfield.

When pitching, the pitch comes as fast as you can throw your arm. If you throw slowly, the pitch will stay in the 60s in regards to mph. Should you put some force behind that throw, your pitches will go up into the 90s! We gave UJ the basics about throwing your arm and he started the game against Evan. Evan promptly had to admonish UJ to not pitch over 86 mph as that was as fast as he could hit a ball! (and he wasn’t kidding!) If the pitch speed went over 86 mph, UJ got an earful from Evan! If it was below 86 mph, Evan swung and if it went into play, fine. If it went foul or he missed it, he took it in stride as part of the game. As long as it was thrown in his range! You should have heard him yelling respectfully at UJ to slow it down! Too funny. I should have run up and gotten my camera but I was having too much fun watching this to leave the game.

So, this was our fun Tuesday night. After dinner, Grandma and Evan packed it up and headed for Elyria and Ron, Jim and I sat around the table shooting the breeze for a few hours. It was nice to just sit and talk and catch up and laugh and giggle and bullshit for the evening.

Last night after dinner, Jim and Ron took over the Wii! The guys played all evening until Jim had to leave for Erie. When Ron came upstairs, he said his arm was a little Wii sore after all that playing! I can only imagine how Jim feels after his first night of playing!

So, we had a great time with our visitors. Now, it’s peace and quiet for the holiday weekend I think. I know I could use a little R & R.

Puffs Of Air – Activated

I am home safe and sound from vacation. We had a great time (aside from me cheating at Yahtzee, right Maura?!!) and even got to see quite a few sights in Florida. Aside from the heat which got the best of me on Saturday, I have no complaints.

I do have a good story about coming home on Sunday morning.

I did have an early flight on Sunday morning so I am with little sleep and a lot of sadness that vacation is over. Maura dropped me off at the Tampa airport then she headed back to Kissimmee. Meanwhile, I made my way through the airport and over to security. Did I mention I was half asleep?

I am in the security line to get through x-ray. One by one, we hand our boarding passes and our drivers licenses over to the security guard, and he tells us which x-ray line to get into for the next step. The closer I get to the guard, I more I hear a female computerized voice saying “puffs of air – activated” followed by a few sounds like “puff, puff, puff, puff”. At first I am blaming lack of sleep. But sure enough, every couple of minutes, there it is again, “puffs of air – activated.” Finally, I see x-ray line number six starts with this phone booth like contraption. People walk into this phone booth; you hear “puffs of air – activated” then the “puff, puff, puff, puff” while you see the person’s hair flying every which way and their clothes billowing like crazy. A minute or so goes by and the front of the phone booth contraption opens and the person walks forward to the actual x-ray.

Being the nosey person I am I had to ask about this. When it’s finally my turn to hand over my boarding pass and license for inspection, I asked the guard what’s with the puffs of air. He tells me that the air puffs will reveal any explosives on the person. Being naïve about so many things, I looked at him in wide-eyed wonder and said something like WOW! He asked me if I’d like to try it! Proving that I wouldn’t make a good terrorist, I said “Sure!” (Then again, if I said no at this point, would he have made me go through a full body cavity search? I wasn’t taking any chances!) So, he tells me to wait in line number six.

I wait for a few people to go through the phone booth and it’s finally my turn. My shoes and my laptop are already on the belt being x-rayed. I step into the phone booth, put my feet in the little painted feet on the floor and wait. Suddenly, I hear it. “Puffs of air – activated” followed by “puff, puff, puff, puff”.

My hair goes flying, my shirt flies up and I can’t do anything but start to giggle! The more I giggle, the harder I start to laugh. Since laughter is contagious, when the phone booth finally opened to let me out, I am laughing so hard that this caused the security guard outside of the phone booth to start laughing too.

I showed him my boarding pass and while he’s inspecting it, I thank him. He asked what I was thanking him for and of course I told him because that was the most fun I’ve had at six in the morning in a LONG time! So, he got a laugh out of it and I sure got a laugh out of it and everyone found out that I’d make a terrible terrorist. No poker face.

The flight home was uneventful except for the landing. Once we were getting down to the altitude of lowering the landing gear, the weather was really rough. I was starting to look for the airsick bag when he finally put the plane down. We were all safe and sound, but it was a heck of a final descent into Cleveland.

I got to finish my vacation over Mike and Mary Jane’s house, who were hosting an early 4th of July party.

The house was full of their kids and spouses and of course, their grandkids. Aside from a few showers that insisted on coming through, it was a great party. Then again, with this bunch, how can it be anything but a good party!

So, that was vacation. Now I am ready for the next one!

Congratulations, Mr. Phil!!

Today is the big day. Today is the day that someone has been waiting on for a long time.

My brother Philip is officially RETIRED!!

His last day of "work" was last Thursday and today he went in to sign the final papers. That's it. No more grind of employment. No more schedules. No more deadlines. No more work travel. No more blowing things up and getting paid for it.

All kidding aside, congratulations, Phil. You worked long and hard to get here and you definitely deserve hitting this milestone in your life. May you enjoy a long and prosperous retirement.

Next stop - LORAIN! C'mon home!

I’m On Vacation, Day Two

We had a slow start today but once we got moving, we sure did move!

The first thing we did was headed over a BIG bridge over to St. Petersburg. Here is a picture of us getting to the bridge.

The bridge spans Tampa Bay and St. Pete’s is on the other side of Tampa Bay from the city of Tampa. It’s a big bridge, about 10 miles long. When you start seeing all of the warning signs to check your gas level before entering the bridge you should worry! But I went out of the box and agreed to go over the bridge!

Maura and I, aside from being friends, are also distant cousins. We have another cousin that lives in St. Pete’s. As soon as we crossed the bridge, Maura called Joe to see if he was working. Unfortunately, he was, but we didn’t let that stop us from stopping at his work to say hi! Luckily, he was able to spend a little time with us and we exchanged hugs and had a nice little chat. He was booked up for tonight, but we are going to try to hook up tomorrow for lunch.

Since Joe had to work, we went back to our adventure. After all, we were on vacation!

We stopped for lunch, then drove around and looked around town. We came across the beautiful park in the middle of town that was small but so quaint. There was a round pond in the middle of the park that had a gorgeous fountain in the center. For as many pictures as I've taken today, I didn't take any of the fountain. Duh. But, as we were looking at the water, we noticed things sticking up from the water. There was one thing that between the two of us we can’t decide what it was. But, we did see quite a few turtles in the water! Here is a picture of the turtles:

You can see the both of them about in the middle of the picture, one right over the other. The lower one you can kinda see the outline of the body in the water, but the shadows hide the body of the upper one.

This park had a gorgeous tree on the one side. This tree had to be a good 30 feet around and 80 feet high. The top was full of green leaves but hanging from the branches were these rope like growths. Some of the “ropes” would twist themselves into knots and some would grow straight down. It was awe inspiring just to stand beneath this tree. Here are some pictures of the tree trunk and the ropes coming down. Unfortunately, I couldn’t back up far enough to get a picture of the whole tree.

Here is a picture of a lizard on the tree! He is pretty much right smack dab in the middle of the shot. Anywhere there is ANY vegetation, you will find these lizards. They range from about three inches in length from nose to the tip of their tail to maybe six or seven inches. They are awesome! I keep catching movement out of the corners of my eyes which is scaring the crap out of me but they are still awesome little things!

When we walked to the back of the tree, we saw what I think was an Ibis. It was digging into the vegetation at the bottom of the tree for bugs. He wasn’t camera shy and he wasn’t too people shy. Here’s a couple of what I think is an Ibis.

From here we went to St. Pete’s Beach. It is hotter than Hades down here, but when you’re this close to the Gulf of Mexico, you HAVE to stop to look at it! Maura actually took her shoes off and went walking in the water a little but since I head sneakers on, I just left them on and passed on the dipping of the toes.

It was pretty overcast today but it was still gorgeous to be out on the white beaches watching the majesty of the water. Here are a couple of pictures of the Gulf, and on one of them you can even see the parasailers out over the water.

Coming back across the bridge after our day at the beach, you can sort of see downtown Tampa in the haze of the overcast day towards the left of the frame.

We took a rest at the hotel and got our legs back under us and got some air conditioning all around us. The hell with Al Gore, after a day at the beach in 90+ degree weather with HIGH humidity, we turned the A/C down to 65 and cooled off.

Before the day was over, we had another rousing round of Centipede then went out looking for dinner. We even found time to stop at Pier 1 and Wal Mart! Is this a great vacation or what?!

For now, that is it. I will be back to blogging when I get home and am able to write about our next adventure. And, believe me, there will be more adventures!

I’m On Vacation!

My best friend lives just outside of Orlando Florida. I live just outside of Cleveland Ohio. That is just too far apart for two people that have been best friends since we’ve been in diapers.

So, this weekend, Maura and I have decided to both run away from home for the weekend. We left our men and home and she and I met up in Tampa Florida! I flew in on Thursday morning and Maura picked me up at the airport. From there, the fun has begun.

The first thing we did was went to lunch. We laughed, we giggled and we ate. We went to the hotel to try to check in but we were early. Had our room been made up, we would have been let in but unfortunately, housekeeping didn’t make it that far. We needed to wait about an hour and a half for our room to be ready. Fine, I’m sure we can find something to do.

We are in one of the nicer hotel chains so we decided to just walk around the hotel and find what is where. The first thing we found was the game room. Believe it or not, there was an old Atari game in there called Centipede! Now, way back when in the olden days, when Maura and I started on our road to ruination, we realized that bars had great games. You could find Pac-Man at Brother-In-Laws right on 29th and Reed and you could find Centipede at Smugglers down at the dock. Ok, the fact that they also had beer there along with the games also became known to us. But, that is a story for another day. Just let it suffice to say that we learned about beer and we learned about Centipede. With so many memories rushing back to us, we had to turn a few dollars into tokens and play some Centipede! It’s a good thing there were no other people in the game room. We were loud and obnoxious and were having a great time! Yes, the vacation sure started out well.

From there we found the bar that just opened and was having happy hour. Well . . . WE were happy so we stopped in there! And yes, that’s all I’m going to say about that one.

We finally made it up to our suite. We have a very nice suite with living room (perfect for playing Rummikub!) and a separate bedroom. There is a balcony off of the bedroom but the bad thing about that is our view is the wall of the building next to us. The good thing is that no one can look in our room so we don't have anyone complaining about seeing us. Here is our balcony and our view but looking way to the side.

We rearranged the furniture in the living room for perfect game playing space. We do have our Rummikub and we have Yahtzee and Sequence. We started playing yesterday and never stopped. Finally, we did get hungry and just didn’t feel like going back out. Here is a picture of what was left of our first vacation dinner!

It was just a great first day of vacation. We watched crap TV, played games, laughed, cried, caught up, told stories and just got to be face to face friends which is something we don’t get an opportunity to do often enough. Next up, day two!

I Am The Champ!

Let's talk about Wii bowling!!!!!!!!!!! Do you love our Miis or what? By the way, that's me on the left!



Can you see who bowled a 297?!??!? ME!!! That's who!!!!

I was on FIRE! We obviously were playing a little Wii after dinner and we decided to bowl a game. We're both on a semi injured list from this damn game. My shoulder isn't getting any better and now Ron has Wii elbow but at this point, it's worth it!

Anyway, I was playing this morning before work (yeah, I'm addicted) and I thought I figured out something about bowling. You know it's all about finding your mark and figuring out your swing. Like I said, I thought I figured out what I was doing wrong.

So, after dinner tonight, I'm going to try it out. Sure enough, I started with a strike. Then another. Then another! Next thing I knew Ron was just shaking his head and I had 11 strikes in a ROW. Unfortunately, I choked on the last ball and only got 7 for a total of 297!

The first thing we did was grab our phones and take pictures of the scores. The picture I took is somehow lost in my phone as I don't have a clue where it goes when you take it. Ron on the other hand was nice enough to get it from his phone to my desktop so I could put it on the blog.

I have finally found a game I can kick Ron's ass in! (Can you tell we are competitive?!) Now, there is a thought in my head here. I may never bowl again! How the heck can I beat that score?

For now I will revel in . . . being the champ!

Wii've Got It

Yes, Ron got us a Wii! It arrived yesterday and since then we've already made a trip to Best Buy to get another game controller and more games.

It's really a scary game system. It is yet another wireless connection to the Internet so from our Wii in the living room, we can download updates for the game as well as buy new games, we can check the weather or find the latest news stories. A scary feature for a game!

One of the cool features is the Mii. That is a little animated figure you create in your own or your imagined likeness. Mine is similar to me, less a few pounds! You pick our your own facial features, hair style and colors and you name your image. Then every game you play, your little person is there in the game. Yeah, a fun feature!

I've learned a few things too. I can knock a full grown man OUT in three rounds (Boxing game). I can beat Ron in Bowling most of the time! I take second place in the rest of the games, but in Bowling, I am the bomb. My highest game so far is 212. However, for someone with a newly injured right shoulder, this perhaps wasn't the brightest thing I've played. Bowling might just have put me back a few days in recovery for sure. Oh well. I beat Ron so it was worth it!!

The 9-ball game is going to take some learning curves. We have the idea down but the view of the table in the game is taking some getting used to. Just when I think I have a shot lines up, I am waaaaay off.

The Golf game, on the other hand, I think has made me a believer in the game! I haven't exactly been tearing up the links, but I have been having one heck of a time trying.

The Boxing game may be just what I need to work off a few work tensions. And, for some reason, Ron has been a little wary of me since he watched my knock out performance! Fear me, people! PMS and a Wii can probably be a dangerous combination!

So, slowly but surely we are heading into the technology of the 21st century. While I'm climbing up to the new status of Wii owner, I think I'll make sure my insurance payments are current. After all, I'm bringing my old and tired muscles with me into the Wii generation.

Friday The 13th

I'm not usually a superstitious person, but I have a bad feeling about today.

I've written before about my OCD and having to look out of my bedroom window whenever I am getting in or out of bed.

This morning, I woke up before my alarm since my bladder was calling me. I looked out the bedroom window and there was one of the neighborhood cats laying out in my driveway. I think it's a feral cat as most of the time I see it up in the pine tree in the yard next door. He's always around somewhere. I also believe this is the cat that has been using the corner of my garage as a scratching post.

Anyway, this cat was laying in the driveway, kind of next to Ron's van, in a weird way. He looked like he was kinda in a "splat" position. He didn't look comfortable, he just looked like he collapsed in my driveway!

Crawling back into bed after relieving that bladder problem, I looked again out the window. Sure enough, the cat was still there; it wasn't a dream.

Ron was also awake so I told him that I think we have a dead cat in the driveway. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea either! I lay there thinking - who do you call for such a thing? I didn't think I could just grab a shovel and put him in the trash before the garbage guys pick up. That would just be all kinds of wrong. I also didn't want to take said shovel and dig a hole in the flower garden. But I obviously didn't want to leave him where he was either. Do you call 911? Animal control? I was getting myself all worked up over here!

About 15 minutes later, my alarm went off. Getting out of bed, I looked out the window again. The cat is gone. The neighborhood large dog was still tied up so it wasn't him!

So, I got all worked up over nothing. The cat was just taking a nap in my driveway.

While I may not be superstitious, I still think this is a bad omen. I have a feeling today is just going to go down the crapper from here!

Stay tuned.

I Need A Ride Home

The worst part about working for a living is the driving. I am to the point that it is taking everything in me to be in a car any more.

I hate driving. I hate it. People are idiots whether they are in Fords or not. I hate driving to the grocery store, to dinner, or on the highways and freeways. The car was the worst invention we have had to date.

This morning, coming to work, I was driving in on the Turnpike. In the right lane, is a car carrying semi. You know, the ones that load two stories worth of new cars on the backs of the semis? One of my many fears happens to be these semis. I'm always afraid a chain will snap and the last car that looks like it's barely on there anyway will come crashing down onto the road and into me. Whenever I am behind one of these semis, I will do my best to go around and get away from him.

So, into the middle lane I went and got around him. Shortly after that, I came to the construction sign that read left two lanes will be closing in one mile. Fine by me, I am back in the right lane anyway.

The closer I get to the one lane section, the more the traffic slows down. As we are crawling on in single file, the traffic suddenly stops. I can't see why we are stopped as there are so many vehicles in front of me, I just know I'm not moving. So I start looking around. I happen to look in my rear view mirror and what do I see bearing down on me? That car carrying semi. And he is coming up fast. I have nowhere to go as the barrels to the left of me won't let me go left and the car ahead of me is stopped like the car ahead of him, etc etc etc.

I start pumping my brakes so that hopefully he will see the red lights flashing and realize we are stopped. It doesn't seem as if he's paying attention. He is getting closer and closer and very quickly. When they say that right before you die you see your life flash in front of you, they aren't lying.

I left my lane, drove onto the berm and then on to the grass heading for the woods. I thought that was better than getting creamed by the semi. Sure enough, as I start moving over, I hear the screech of this idiot's brakes. I'm into the grass and he heads onto the berm so as to miss the car that was ahead of me. We are now three wide on a one lane road as the semi ended up pulling up along side me on my left, and to the right of the car that was in front of me.

Needless to say, I cried the rest of the way to work. Now I'm here and for once, I don't want to leave. Putting my life in danger for this job is so not worth it.

I know, I need to suck it up and get over it. Or I need to win the lottery. But in the mean time, can someone come pick me up? Or better yet, send a helicopter for me?

Faux Pas

Ok, GPS unit or no GPS unit, I am still getting lost.

Saturday we had given the fish tank a good cleaning. That's some hard work since it's a 65 gallon tank. We are climbing up on chairs in order to reach down to clean the gravel and to put the plants back in the tank. When all is said and done, we were both wet, sweaty and hungry.

While Ron was putting away the cleaning supplies, I was going to run and get us lunch. Ron chose from our book of menus a restaurant called Gyros and More. I know that's what he chose since he handed me the menu, told me what he'd like and I ended up calling our order in. I was told lunch would be ready in 10 minutes, so I rushed to put shoes on and I was out the door.

I walked into a restaurant, and asked for our order. I was told they had no order under my name. C'mon now, I called it in myself! I talked to a girl just 10 minutes ago and asked for a couple of sandwiches. Of course, I was told no women were working in this restaurant at this time. Now I'm freakin' out. Of course, I have no cell phone with me as I rarely carry it when I'm out. That might have to change!

I look down at the counter and see their menus sitting there. "Cruisin' Chicken". Yeah, close but no cigar. I was supposed to be at Gyros and More! DUH! How do you back pedal that one to a kid that doesn't want to be at work anyway that without sounding like I'm the idiot. You don't. I ate my crow, apologized for the brain fart and I was back out the door. I pulled out of Cruisin' Chicken and moved on down the road to Gyros and More who of course, has my order ready for me.

Not only did I eat some crow with a kid at the first place, but now I have to face the music when I get home and Ron says he was starting to worry about me since it took me so long to get back.

Yeah, I gotta learn how to lie. I came right out with the story of going to the wrong restaurant first and arguing with the Cruisin' Chicken employee, and how I may not be allowed back in that place for awhile! One little faux pas. Maybe next time I'll make Ron go get lunch. I shouldn't be allowed out alone!