This And That

I have a whole lot about nothing to say. I guess when you think about it, this is nothing new for me.

Let's start with our newest guest. To the right is a picture of a praying mantis and she was huge!

I do have a fascination about bugs, when they are outside. Sorry people, but if they are inside my house, there will be a war; a war that Ron must win. But outside, I am like a little kid as I can watch a trail of ants marching all day long.

This is the second praying mantis we've had at our house. They are just amazing bugs. They are so huge, how can I go for years and not even SEE one. It's kind of hard to hide a good four inches of bug.

Ron and I were outside this afternoon enjoying the day on the front porch. Ron went to reach down to the can where he puts his cigarette butts and there was the mantis. Of course, I had to run and get a camera. Eventually, this bug took the tour of our front porch. He went from by the butt can to on the back of the glider. Luckily, I was not sitting there at the time.

From the glider he went to the ceiling and kept creeping until he was right outside our door. I kept waiting for a knock!

Ron ended up cooking out on our little grill on the porch. The praying mantis crawled across the ceiling to get a good look at what Ron was cooking.

Speaking of dinner we did go all out tonight with some surf and turf and of course, some Fenik's corn. All I did was the corn and Ron handled the hard part. This was one fine dinner! And, before anyone asks, the two of us pigs left nothing on our plates so no doggie bags for anyone.

Lastly, something I've wanted to blog about but it just didn't seem to merit an entire blog entry.

Our closest neighbors are in their 90s. They are truly wonderful people and we enjoy their company immensely. So, when we're working around the house, we try to do for them as we do our own. Ron cuts our grass then cuts theirs. Our trees or bushes need trimmed, theirs gets trimmed too. Plus, he thinks my home made bread with extra raisins is just out of this world. I'll do just about anything for compliments like that. But, I digress.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Ron to trim a few branches from the neighbor's chestnut tree as they were hanging over our driveway. Here is a picture of the chestnuts on the tree; full of spines.

Ron went and grabbed the industrial pruners and I stayed there to point out which branches I wanted trimmed. Obviously my brain went on vacation without me because as soon as he cut the branch, my instinct was to reach out and grab it. Yeah, not one of the smartest things I've ever done. I ended up grabbing one of the chestnuts and now I have a hand full of spines.

This has to be two weeks ago and I'm still picking the spines out of my right hand. Being my right hand, it makes it doubly tough to try to pick them out left handed. And, these spines are almost invisible. I need to wait until the entry point of the spine gets infected, thus causing the spine to darken a little so that I can find it and dig it out. Trust me, this has not been fun. I've taken three out of my little finger so far and one out of the side of my palm. I think one or two more and I should be done with it. Yeah, see why I waited to tack this on to another blog?

There you go. Everyone updated on this and that.

Dang, I AM Old

Emmys, Oscars, VMAs, none of them matter too much to me. However, the next day I do like to surf the internet and check out who won what and more importantly, what were they wearing!

Granted I have no fashion sense of my own but I do consider myself the top judge on Project Runway as well as America's Next Top Model. I know, I know, I have issues. But, I digress.

I was looking around today to see what I could see on the 'net about last night's Video Music Awards. Granted, my taste in music runs the gamut from the 50s to the 80s with very little else thrown in there, so I really don't know too much about today's music.

I read about Taylor Swift (I have NO idea who she is) getting upstaged by Kanye West (whom I've at least HEARD about) and I think it was awful what he did to her. In case you missed what happened, here it is. You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. West.

Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage

Other than that, I was looking through the who's who and what were they wearing. C'mon now, some of this stuff has to just be made up! Am I really this old and out of touch?

Katy Perry - I've heard of her; I have no idea what she does or why she's famous.

Here are some I've NEVER heard of - Actress Leighton Meester, TV personality Kristin Cavallari (she's not on MY tv), Allesandra Ambrosio, Andy Samberg, Ashley Green, Chase Crawford, singer Adrienne Bailon (what does she sing???), singer Cassie (obviously no middle or last name needed here), FeFe Dobson (I can't make this stuff up!) and the list goes on and on. For real, has anyone ever heard of these people???

On the flip side of the coin are the people that were there that maybe shouldn't have been. Keep in mind, somehow these VMA awards are sponsored by MTV. You know, the channel that used to play music videos non stop. Anyway, two of the people that were there were Actress Faye Dunaway (Network, the original Thomas Crown Affair, Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown just to name a few) and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin who was on the crew during the first lunar landing; the second person to step foot on the moon. Why are these two people at the VMAs???

I am out of touch. I used to know all about this kind of stuff! I am old.

It Could Have Been Worse

From the "it could have been worse" files, here is one from my sister.

My sister Cathie lives in Ojai California. She lives in an out of the way spot that really is gorgeous. To show you just how gorgeous, the picture to the right is from the last time I went to visit her a couple of Christmases ago. This was the view out of my bedroom window!

From the main road that goes by her house, you take a private road that just goes to her house and I think one more behind her. Along this private road and down her driveway she has many pomegranate trees. I know this because at harvesting time, if the idiots by her don't strip the trees bare, she sends me a care package of pomegranates! (This isn't easy since she has to get them inspected by and approved by the Department of Agriculture to ship them! Thanks, Sissy!)

Anyway, she came home from work the other day and this is what she saw:

The entire tree was snapped right off from its roots and laying there. WTF??

First reaction is to swear and complain and wonder about some people. Especially on a private road, how could someone hit a tree in the middle of the day?

Cathie gets to her front door and believe it or not, someone left a note. Anthony took the back of an envelope and on it apologized profusely for knocking down the tree. He even left his name and phone number.

Of course, the naysayer in me said it was a bogus number. Cathie had more faith. The following day when she had a break, she called Anthony. Come to find out, he was driving down the road and had to swerve abruptly to avoid hitting what he thought was a coyote. I guess he figured out that the tree was better to hit than the animal.

So, Cathie made sure he was ok, (he was sore but ok) and Anthony again apologized profusely. I gotta give props to this guy. Most people would have driven off without a word, or if he left a note it was only because someone was watching and would leave bogus information to make it look good.

Anthony took it like a man, owned up to what was his responsibility and was willing to make right. Cathie thought no harm, no foul. The tree has been there for umpteen years, it's one of many, so as long as he's ok, she was ok to just move on from here.

I'm sorry that Cathie had a tree knocked out, and I'm sorry that Anthony is probably facing some fantastic car repair bills, but by leaving that note, it does start to renew my faith in human kind. After something bad happening, some people are actually out there that still do the right thing for no other reason that it's the right thing to do.

STOP THIEF!

Too late. The sons of bitches already broke in.

I went to go out today and what did I discover? Someone broke our garage door and had a field day inside the garage.

My garage door looks kind of like this, except that the second panel down is windows. The SOBs peeled back the weather stripping on the side and took apart a hinge enough to pop the panels from the hinges. That gave them enough room to fit an arm through and push the button to open the dang door. Of course, this was after they unscrewed the flood lights of the motion detector that is on the outside of the garage and put a wicker basket over the sensor itself.

The garage is a detached from the house and while it used to be a two car garage, one of the bays does not have a bay door. So my car is parked in one bay, the other bay is full of "stuff". To get most of it in or out, my car must be backed out of the garage.

What's in the other bay? Ron's motorcycle, the riding lawn mower, the hand mower, a big charcoal grill, tool boxes, etc etc etc. What is no longer in there? A snow blower we JUST bought last winter, an air compressor and a power washer. AARGH. I feel violated for sure, but overpowering that, I am just PISSED.

On the positive side, I could see that someone tried to get in my car. The doors were locked so at least a window wasn't broken to get in to steal my $10 umbrella in the back seat. Although they were nice enough to scratch my brand new bumper on my car getting something out.

This wasn't some kids going up and down the neighborhood looking for trouble. This was someone who picked US out and meant to do us harm. About a week ago, we saw that the flood lights had been unscrewed. The lights weren't taken out of the socket, just unscrewed enough to break the circuit.

Grr. Now what is the used value of these items? Enough to file a claim after my $500 deductible and watch my rates go up? Maybe this is the worst of it; knowing we're just screwed.

So now I just have to get over it. I hate this town; I hate this neighborhood. I will finish up this pity party with all of the outside lights turned on and then start anew tomorrow.

Can You Say EWW?

I warned you that this was going to be an "eww" blog! We all know how I'm fascinated with bugs! Fascinated about outside bugs - inside bugs I'm fanatic about. But, I digress.

Last night, Ron went to go out on the front porch to have a cigarette. As an ex-smoker, I like to go outside with him and live vicariously through him. Plus, I love being the busy body of the neighborhood.

I think it was about 8:30 last night. It was getting dark and we were out there maybe 15 minutes or so. The light was on in the living room, so we were standing in the dark of the porch looking into the light of the room. I can spot an ugly bug a mile away!

I was doing a mini freak out and Ron didn't even see it! For real? It was right there on the screen door. After I pointed it out to him he realized that I wasn't going through that door for love or money. He decided to run around to the side of the house, go in the side door and come to the front and turn the light on so we could see it. As if I'd stay out there by myself. I ran around the house with him into the safety of the house.

We turned the lights on and what did we see? A katydid! As you can see against my finger, she was huge. Ron was brave enough to go outside and look. I stayed safe in the living room content to look out.

So, we grabbed a couple of pictures, turned out the lights and Ron came in to leave our katydid in peace.

I quit then and there living vicariously though Ron. I stayed inside where it was a little safer from the neighborhood killer bugs.

Belly Dancing Included

As you can tell, I've had a bit of a blogger's block. Too much of same stuff, different day. Then, this weekend happened, and now I have a lot to blog about!

My friends, David and Edna, now live in San Diego. They came back to Cleveland and Ron and I joined them for a weekend of celebrating. We started with a get together at Edna's parents' house on Friday. Edna's family is of Middle Eastern descent, so we were introduced to an entirely new way to party! And let me tell you, this family can party!

Dinner was catered by a local Middle Eastern restaurant. I don't know the name of it but the food was as delicious as it was different. I was very out of my box and tried everything that came in the door. First, I made sure that no fish heads or cow brains were used in the making of this food. I am NOT as adventurous as some in my family! Once I was assured that nothing out of the ordinary was in the food, I chowed down. I had an explanation of everything that was on the table, but now I couldn't tell you what anything was! Let it suffice to say, it was all good!

After dinner, entertainment was provided. Did I mention that this family knows how to party? The entertainment was not a rousing game of pinochle or even bocce in the backyard. The entertainment was a belly dancer! True story!

The music is fantastic and I dare you to listen to it without dancing in your seat or at least tapping your toes. The girl worked the crowd and as you can see, David was more than happy to dance with her as well. Don't think he was the only one, as most of the people there took their turns dancing with the belly dancer.

One of my favorite pictures, here is a picture of Edna, taking a picture of me, taking a picture of her! Kodak moment, huh?

Saturday, I was the numb skull that didn't take my camera with me. Saturday, we went to the St. Elias Church festival. We started with dinner under the tent. Since again, we don't know one food from another, Ron and I each chose a sampler plate. We were treated to stuffed grape leaves, stuffed cabbage rolls (not like our Slovak ones!), hommus, these meat or spinach pies and assorted other things that I had no idea what they were.

Edna's Dad was nice enough to give us instructions on the proper way to eat some of this food. For example, some things are to be eaten while being held in your hand, and not cut up with a knife and a fork. Also, the little chips that were on my plate were supposed to be put in this salad type thing I had and not just used to scoop up the hommus! Who knew? We took our instructions and chowed down with the best of them. All I can tell you is that both of our plates were empty when all was said and done.

Again, after dinner was entertainment. A band was there, playing Middle Eastern music. I can't tell you how they had the crowd going. There weren't many people in the chairs as most people were up on the dance floor either belly dancing or doing this dance where everyone was holding hands and snaking around the floor. I obviously can't describe it, but it was beautiful and very contagious. What started with three women by the end had maybe 40 people from the ages of 7 to 90!

What a great weekend. I got to learn so much about a culture that is so rich in customs and proud of their heritage. And, thanks to David and Edna for inviting us along to play their reindeer games this weekend! You guys definitely need to come to town more often!

Science CAN Be Fun

Since I can't carry a tune in a bucket, I find this fascinating.



Bob McFerrin Hacks Your Brain - Watch more Funny Videos

Picnic Lunch

Yesterday was supposed to be the last nice day this week. They are calling for thunder storms here for the rest of the week.

Ron and I decided to grab a few sandwiches and a couple of cans of Fresca and head out for a picnic.

I've posted pictures lately of a lot of our favorite lunch spots and this place is another one. We decided to go to Lakeview Park, right on the shores of Lake Erie. Lakeview Park has a picnic area, complete with grills, picnic tables etc, but we decided to just go alfresco. We just plopped down on the stairs that head down to the beach.

It was awesome! The sun was shining, a nice breeze coming in off of the lake, the lake was blue as blue can be. Suddenly, we had visitors.

One little bee. He was annoying, but we continued on with our lunch. Suddenly, another bee. And another bee. I don't do well with ONE bee, let alone a swarm of them. We both grabbed all of our stuff; half eaten sandwiches, bags, open cans of Fresca and we made the mad dash to the van.

If anyone saw us, you would think we were mad! I think we both ran in different directions, doing our best to ward off the swarm (ok, there were probably 10 bees, but that's a swarm to me!). We were zigging and zagging, arms waving like lunatics. I made it to the van first, and left Ron to fend for himself. Finally a minute later, he jumped in as well. The first order of business was to make sure no bees followed us into the van. Aah. Safe.

There was no way we were opening the windows in the van with the bees out there, so he turned on the van, turned up the A/C and we sat there at the beach finishing our sandwiches and soda. The true troopers we are, no food was dropped on the ground during the mad dash. Bonus!

We finished eating and then took a little walk around. This park has a lovely fountain that lights up at night and shoots water at least 20 feet into the air. During the day, it's not shooting water that high, but there is still a beautiful sight. Too bad my camera ran out of battery power after just one picture or else you'd be enjoying a few more pictures right HERE!

We each even through a penny into the fountain with a wish attached. It was a beautiful lunch in spite of the bees. If one of those pennies works out, it will be even better.

Honey Do? Honey Did!

To keep any household going, it takes a lot of work. There is the regular work like dinner to be made, grass to be cut, that kind of stuff. Then, there is the infamous "honey do" list. Personally, I think my "honey do" list for Ron is much shorter than most. As a matter of fact, I can't think of one item that remains on that list!

A couple of weeks ago though, there was an item on the "honey do" list.

Off of our kitchen we have a little room that we call our mudroom. This has our refrigerator, a pantry and a counter with cupboards. The door from the pantry to the outside is a good 3-1/2 feet off of the ground. When we first moved in, I vacillated between wanting just steps down to the ground to wanting a deck and then steps. Times have changed and other things were just more important. Now, it just is what it is until there is money to think about this option again.

Since it's so high up, the door is obviously pretty unusable. It became a great place to put my recycle bins in front of it.

Back to the "honey do" list. Late last fall, I noticed that the wood trim on the outside of this door was starting to peel. I asked Ron if one day he felt ambitious, if he'd do a little scraping and paint that little bit. It wasn't awful, but it was getting there. Through the winter and into the spring, it got a little worse.

Finally, a couple of Saturdays ago, Ron wanted a project and he picked painting that door frame. He was actually able to stand in the mudroom with the door open and paint all of that outside trim. With the paint wet, we just left the door open until it dried.

We did notice one thing though. We finally had a terrific breeze blowing through the house with this door open! Believe it or not, I have no windows that open on the south side of the house. And, the breeze seems to blow mostly around here south to north. I could open every other window or door here but nothing would really move in the house until that door was open on the south side.

We started to think: Wow. Do you think we should put a screen door there?? We've been in this house six years and this is the first time THIS subject came up! I just couldn't believe the difference that open door made.

Ron took that chat to heart and Sunday he was at the store buying us a door! Ron with my brother Phil's help, spent a good part of that Sunday installing the screen door. Isn't he a beauty??



Now I'm going to have to get steps there! And not just the one step that we put there as a joke!

This has really saved on the air conditioning bill. With us finally having air movement downstairs, it has been much more pleasant downstairs. Thanks, guys!

That's Just Wrong, Page 19

I don't have a restaurant level stocked kitchen. I have an average woman-who's-trying-to-emulate-Betty-Crocker type kitchen. My kitchen is stocked with most of the normal stuff. I know, I don't have a hand potato masher much to someone's dismay, (I prefer my hand mixer for the job) and I could use a few little things yet, but other than that, I'm jiggy with what I have.

One of the things that was on my list of stuff I wanted was another dutch oven. It's one of those things I only needed occasionally, namely when I'm making lasagna. After all, the sauce is being made in one dutch oven and I'd have to dig out my big soup pot just to do some pasta.

About six months ago, Ron and I bought another dutch oven! The other day I went to make lasagna and I think this might have been the third time I've used this pot.

With my sauce simmering nicely, I brought out my new dutch oven to start the pasta. Water and salt in, the pot was on the stove. About five minutes later, I look in the pot and what do I see? A bunch of little spots on the bottom of the pan that look like rust. That can't be! I figured someone just didn't clean the pot well and I must have missed it.

I dumped the water, scoured the pot, washed it really really well and started again. Water in, salt in, heat on. Again, in about five minutes, what looked like rust was all over the bottom. I dumped out the water and here is what I'm left with:

This is totally disgusting! There has to be something inherently wrong with the pan. However, after six months, I guarantee you that I no longer have the receipt. I don't even remember where I bought it from.

I did some internet research over the weekend. The bottom of the pan says it's a Chefmate. This brand, I believe is made by Ecko exclusively for Target. I can't find a website for Chefmate so I'm going to try contacting Ecko.

My original dutch oven I bought in 1993 and it's still going strong. This one, three uses and it's rusted? That's just wrong.

When Life Hands You Lemons . . .

. . . Make lemonade.

I needed to be reminded of this point this week. You see, I've had a really bad week. I don't know if it's just one event that made me feel this way, or just the compilation of a whole bunch of little things.

For example, I've been told once again this week that I'm not worth talking to about a job opening that I'm more than qualified for since I don't have a degree. I made a barely edible enchilada casserole but had to throw the Spanish rice away (even though I've made these two dishes dozens of times before), I was making home made bread in the bread machine when someone unplugged the bread machine instead of the coffee pot and I had to throw the whole batch away, I hurt so much more than usual this week, I'm frustrated, I'm disillusioned, I'm not returning emails or phone calls. I'm just not happy this week, after just a little bit of everything. I'm overwhelmed, I want to take my toys and go home and just be left alone.

I've even been so crass as to hang up on my sister after telling her that I'm just in a poopy mood and don't want to talk. Can you believe it? Well, I guess everyone was a bit tired of my mood this week.

Friday, I was walking past the front door when I saw someone walking up the steps onto the porch. That's not too unusual, Ron gets a lot of packages delivered to the house, replacement parts he needs and such. Only I see this guy has a big vase of flowers in his hand. Excuse me? You must have the wrong house. Sure enough, they had MY name on them. That's the flowers at the beginning of this blog! Cool, huh? The best part is that you need to look closely at what's in the vase - lemons!

They were from my sister Cathie in California, just reminding me that someone in California loves me. I called Cathie right away, just crying. You shouldn't be so terrible to the people you love that they feel they have to do whatever it takes to get you to snap out of it! Ok, I get it! Life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

I had a good cry on her shoulder (unfortunately, she was at work!) and I started to feel a little better. I need to just move on.

Then, Ron came home from a service call carrying these!

Yeah, he knows my favorite flower! So many bonus points for that! I didn't realize I was being that ornery that not once, but twice in one day, people are trying to cheer me up. Ok, I get it. Its time to put on my big girl pants, take a couple more Aleve, send out even more resumes, dust myself off and quit feeling sorry for myself.

So, now I want to apologize for everyone that I was a bitch to this week. I am truly sorry, and I will try to be better.

One day at a time. But I will tell you, it's really hard to be sad when you have these gerber daisies looking at you from your desk. Life will go on.

I've Tumbled Dry

It doesn't take too much to overwhelm me some days.

I dedicated Tuesday to doing laundry. I was on a roll with it, too. I stripped the bed to the bare bones and threw it all in the wash.

Now, I've had trouble before with melting a mattress pad in the dryer. Yeah, don't ask; I think I was lucky to have not burned down the house with that one. So as not to repeat that mistake again, I decided to actually read the washing directions on the tag.

Wash in warm water, no bleach, gentle cycle. Check.

Tumble dry. Huh?

Does any one's dryer have the specific instructions to "tumble dry"? Mine doesn't. I have high, low and fluff. Damn. At 46 years old, you'd think that this wouldn't just get the best of me, would you!

Fluff = tumble dry? Close enough. I set it and tried to forget it. I went upstairs and thought about the fact that this is one of those occasions I want to call my Mom for advice. Since I couldn't do that, I did the next best thing. I called my sister, Cathie!

Two intelligent grown women should have been able to figure this out. Lucky for me, Cathie knew that the fluff cycle of the dryer does not use heat. Rats, there I went back down two flights of stairs to correct that.

So, after much discussion, we decided that "tumble dry" just means to turn the freakin' dryer on! Why couldn't they just say that? That took six flights of stairs and numerous phone calls to figure this out.

On the plus side, the mattress pad is now spring fresh and clean. And that's what it was all about.

It's A Bug!

We have a ton of lightening bugs in my neighborhood. That's a good thing when it's night time and they are flittering through the yard. It's not a good thing when it's caught in a spider web outside of my window!

It's Friday afternoon and I'm sitting here enjoying watching the Cubs kick the Pirates' ass (hey, the Cubs lost every game this week. We were DUE for a win!) when I happen to see this lightening bug outside of the window.

Now I know, some of you out there are thinking I immediately called for Ron to come running and kill it. Well, if you thought that, you'd be partly wrong.

First, I don't' like killing any bug outside. That's where they belong and as long as they stay out there and don't come in the house, they are free to go about their business. But as a big kid at heart, I do love our lightening bugs. I begged Ron to get out there and save it from the web!

Seeing as how this bug is about 30 feet off of the ground, Ron said to forget about it. He wasn't doing anything for the bug. Dang.

So here I sit, fascinated by the poor thing struggling against the huge web. So far, there is no spider coming out to see what he caught for dinner which is a good thing. I don't want to see that.

I'll keep happy thoughts that the lightening bug can escape his prison and that the Cubs can break their losing streak.

Mom Would Be Proud

Can you believe it's been 12 years? I can't believe Mom's been gone that long.

Obviously, Mom has been on my mind today. I wanted to do something in honor of Mom, but what to do?

I cleaned the worst room in the house, the office! I threw out crap, shredded old paperwork, dusted and even washed the window. The office is CLEAN! What would have tickled Mom more than someone cleaning.

Yeah, Mom would be proud.

I miss you...

Don't Order The Wonton

For my one brother that absolutely loves wonton soup - I'd be careful from now on if I were you!


see more Fail Blog

Yes, We're Really Old!

Again, going back to a previous post, I've mentioned that the three of us like to go to Eat 'n Park for the Tuesday morning breakfast buffet. All three of us go, we get the senior priced breakfast, and I'm not too proud to take the discount!

Tuesday morning, the three of us were there chowing down. We always have the same server and she knows us too well. When we walk in, she brings the tray with three waters, two coffees, two milks and a little cup of mustard that Phil wants for his sausage! Like I said, she knows us.

They have music playing over the speakers all through the restaurant. As Ron and I were going through the buffet, the song "Smokin' In The Boys Room" by Brownsville Station was playing. Our server was standing over in the corner laughing over the words to this song. If you've ever heard this song, you can appreciate that yes, they are funny. She had never heard such a thing on the radio before.

We started laughing - not only have we heard the song before, we probably knew most of the words! We said that song was out when we were kids. Yeah, no wonder she believes that we should get the senior discount!

Walgreens Update, Finally!

About a month ago, I posted about a trip to Walgreens where they wouldn't sell Ron cigarettes on a credit card without Ron buying an additional item on the credit card.

It took a month, but I finally got a response this morning!

The manager of the store called me. He asked me to tell him the story again, so I repeated it to him. There is a link to the previous story above if you need a refresher on the story.

Marty, the manager, assured me that this was NOT a policy at the store and the cashier was incorrect. I told him that at least two employees attested to the fact that an additional item had to be purchased if he was using a credit card. Marty was floored.

He was very apologetic, especially for the fact that it took a month for this issue to hit his desk. He offered to make it right with me, but I told him that I was just ticked off that night and wanted him to know he let a $50 sale walk out the door. As I told him, I still love the store, it's right in the neighborhood, we still shop there regularly and they absolutely have the best milk prices around.

I'm glad he finally called though as I just wanted to make sure he heard my complaint. He is supposed to be addressing it with his staff so I'm jiggy with it.

Hall Of Shame, Page 2

How far they have fallen.

We used to have a favorite Mexican restaurant in Lorain on West Erie Avenue. Well, Mexican food isn't my favorite, but if you have a good margarita to back you up, I could love your restaurant! This restaurant was called El Castillo Grande and it was. It was a huge castle looking building, right on the lake. They had a fantastic bar room in the back of the building, with the wall all windows so you could sit and look out over the lake. It was beautiful. Plus they had great margaritas and their staff was always super. We've taken almost everyone we know to The Castle at one time or another.

Then, they closed.

What the heck? That bar room alone should have been a gold mine for them. The bar room AND their margaritas? I couldn't imagine what happened.

So, it was closed for a few months. Then the signs came up that they were reopening as another Mexican restaurant. I did miss that bar room looking out at Lake Erie. It's finally reopened, as El Arriero. They've even tried to improve on a good thing! They knocked a hole in the wall of the bar room and put a door out there. Outside of the door they built a beautiful wood deck.

We went to El Arriero about a month ago. The deck wasn't ready yet and they didn't have their liquor license in yet. But, we ate there anyway. Ron had a good meal and I ordered the Hawaiian Fajita. It was a chicken fajita but it also had shrimp and pineapple in it. I gotta tell you, this was one of the best fajitas I ever had! I'm not even a big fan of shrimp but I loved it.

Unfortunately, when we're almost finished with dinner, it started to hit me. I was not feeling well. Half of my lower lip went numb on me; it felt like I'd had a shot from the dentist. The stomach distress though was beyond belief. Let it just suffice to say that I was one sick puppy. The numb lip made us think allergy. To what? While I don't eat shrimp often, I've never gotten sick from it. Besides, I've eaten more than my share of crawfish in my day and I've never gotten sick from them. They are basically shrimp, but the freshwater version. Anyway, somehow I lived through that day.

Now it's a month later. The liquor license is in and the deck is built. After the movie on Saturday, we wanted to give it a try. It was a spectacular day so we asked for a table outside. I wish I would have had my camera because Lake Erie was flat, calm, blue as blue can be. It was unbelievable. Then we ordered.

As good as the Hawaiian Fajita was, I was afraid. I chose another dish. Ron, however, wasn't afraid. He ordered the Hawaiian Fajita, since he remembered how good it was when I had it!

So, let's start at the beginning. Chips and salsa. They have to have the worse salsa of any Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. It's just too sweet. Salsa should have a little kick to it and this was basically tomato juice, a few onions and some cilantro. Not good.

On to the margaritas. Um, yeah. Not good. This had the worst sours mix in there I think I've ever tasted. I do consider myself to be somewhat of a margarita aficionado and in my expert opinion, this just sucked. That should have been enough to put this on the "do not go" list of restaurants.

Then it happened. After we got home, Ron started to feel ill. A few hours later, he's almost doubled over with stomach pain. Yeah, been there, done that. He did make it through the night and then he felt a lot better. But trust me, nothing in that restaurant, even the view, is worth getting that sick over.

Shame on you, El Arriero. Two strikes and you're out. Here are two patrons that will NOT be back.

Oh, Harry

I have been a big fan of the Harry Potter books for a long time now. As a matter of fact, in case no one noticed the list of what I'm reading lately, posted to the left, I am now reading the Harry Potter series from the beginning, for the third time. That is just some great writing!

I am now in the middle of the third of seven books. Even though I've read them twice before plus seen the movies, there is quite a bit I've forgotten. Regardless, since book six was recently released as a movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I've wanted to see it.

Saturday, Ron and I went to the movies! This movie has just come out in the last couple of weeks, so I was really surprised that there were only five of us in the theater! I waited a few weeks so that there weren't hundreds of people in the theater, but I expected more than five.

There was a lot of the story line I had forgotten, but there was still a lot that I remembered. It was a long movie and at this moment, I'm hard pressed to say if I liked it or not. There was a lot from the book that wasn't covered in the movie, obviously. But the dark feeling of the story line as well as the characters growing up I thought was captured very well.

I'm not sure how the reviews went on this movie. I thought it was kind of odd that when the movie was over, five or six kids came in to pick up the theater and make sure everyone leaves. A couple of them asked us if we enjoyed the movie. I said that yes, I did! And, if they heard anyone screaming, it was me!

They all guessed what part I screamed at, and they were all wrong. Without saying too much, when the hand came out of the water, (which I KNEW was going to happen!) I screamed like a little girl! Yeah, I belted out a good one. The ushers laughed, surprised that was the part that made me scream!

Yeah, I think I liked it. I don't know if I'd sit through another 2-1/2 hours to watch it again, but now I'm anxious to get to book six and read what really happened. Hopefully, when the hand comes out of the water in the book (and I KNOW it does!) I won't be screaming again.

Ear Bleach?

Friday I was doing a little cleaning around here. One of the things I was trying to get accomplished was washing the windows in the kitchen and the mudroom.

Most of the newer windows are made so that you can wash both the inside and outside of the windows from inside of your house. I pull the window up just a tad, slide a couple of clips and the window folds right down so I can wash the outside part. Nifty.

And, for as long as I can remember, whenever I had to clean, I had to turn on some music. Loud music. And, of course sing along. Well, "sing" is as close as I can get to what I actually do. Some have called it caterwauling. Whatever.

So, there I am, at the back of the house washing the mudroom window. The window is wide open, the boom box is playing loudly the soundtrack of Wicked and here I am trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to sing Defying Gravity. Whatever, I'm belting it out for what I'm worth.

Then, there he was.

The mailman puts our mail in the box on the side of the house. Then, he continues down our driveway, across the back of the house, through the yard and over to the houses on the side street next to us. As he was walking across the back of the house, he kinda stopped and looked at me. Perhaps he was trying to figure out if he should call 911 due to someone dying in the house! No, just me, trying to sing.

Yeah.

Um, sorry, mailman. I know at this moment he's probably still searching for some ear bleach. He may NEVER get that sound out of his head again! Too bad - I was having fun.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Wednesday would have been my Dad's 85th birthday. In honor of Dad, we celebrated his life with visits from my brothers Jim and Mike and of course, the three of us here. I think a good time was had by all!

When this clan gets together, it can get a little goofy. For example, this is what happens when you let your brother Mike play with your camera! Here's looking at you, baby!


Jim actually smiled for the camera!

Even Phil found a smile for the day!

Ron was in charge of the grill. We had enough hot dogs and hamburgers to almost feed the neighborhood!


Add that to the roast I did in the crockpot, and there was truly too much food for the five of us. Everyone got to go home with left overs.

And, before you ask, I had defrosted the roast on Saturday for Sunday's dinner, forgetting that we had plans to go out. Ok, fine, it would hold until Monday. Well, change of plans; we got free tickets to the Lake Erie Crusher's game! Bonus! So, now the roast was held over to Tuesday and I HAD to cook it already. Hey, no one was complaining and we ended up with an eclectic mix of food. And, it turned out to be one of the best roasts I ever made!

Two brothers, enjoying dinner.


Mike and I trying to show Ron some love at the table. I know, we're just so not right. Look out, Jerry Springer! We're ready to be booked on an episode or two!

As for the food, we also had some corn and I cut up some fresh fruit as well.

When all was said and done, we lit the candles for Dad, and Phil being the closest to 85 got to blow them out. And, as far as I could see, there was no extra spit on the cake and he got all of them in one blow. Way to go, brother!

Thanks to everyone for coming over and enjoying the dinner and family time.

I miss you, Dad. Happy Birthday.

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.