Who Is That Girl?

I am too damn cute!

Well, at least back when I graduated from Holy Family School in Erie, PA waaaaay back in 1977 I was cute! Here is the proof!

Lucky for me, Mom had me write all the names of the kids on the back of the photo. I actually remembered most of them, but I'm telling you, there area few names on there that I don't remember at all. The memories have come flooding back.

Who can forget Monsignor Meko? Recently, I just found my First Communion picture. There is Monsignor, standing in that exact same spot as are the rest of us, only we are a lot shorter. Wow.

Thanks to brother Jim for finding this gem!

Extra points to anyone that can pick me out of the line up!

Well, Poke Me With A Needle, Again And Again And Again

Let's go back in time.

I was still living in Erie when I hurt my lower back in the early 1990s. I did the usual treatments for back problems from therapy to traction to praying. Nothing worked and back then there were NO stories of successful back surgeries so that option was off the table.

Fast forward five years or so and I am living in Houston Texas. I was to the point with my back that I literally could not walk. Someone suggested an acupuncturist to me and having nothing to lose (and still refusing surgery) I agreed. It was one of the best decision of my life.

Let me talk a moment about Dr. Huang. He was the real deal. He was direct from China, barely spoke English, and nothing in his office, including his medical degree, was written in English. His English was good enough to understand my pain though. I was practically carried in to his office on a Monday, I had additional appointments the following Wednesday and Friday and my last appointment was the next Monday. That made four appointments in a week. On that second Monday, I literally danced out of his office. He was my miracle worker! Every few months, I'd go back for a booster treatment. One treatment was generally enough and for years, that was my routine. Dr. Huang really kept me living my life.

I moved to Ohio in December 2001, and now no more Dr. Huang, and I quickly got to the point where I could barely walk and I definitely could not sit in a chair. Call me racist, but I did NOT want a western doctor coming at me with any needles. I wanted authentic and in the Cleveland Ohio area I had no hope of finding someone I would be comfortable with.

I did however, end up hitting the jackpot in picking a surgeon to finally take care of the problem in 2002. I'd suffered 10 years with this and enough was enough. Dr. Roberts was truly a miracle worker and even waking up in the recovery room, the first words out of my mouth were "oh my God, it doesn't hurt any more!". That was something. Recovery wasn't a cake walk, but in a few weeks I was back to work and back to living life. I have always called Dr. Roberts a miracle worker.

Then along comes my freakin' car accident. This time, it's not my lower back but my mid back. Once again, I've done everything they've asked. I did the therapy, I did the tests, I did the pain blocks, I did the prayer. Nothing worked. I ran out of patience, I wouldn't go through the pain of further treatment nor did I have to money to pay for further treatment. And, my old miracle worker, Dr. Roberts, doesn't feel I am a candidate for surgery so that is not an option. I was done. I figured all I needed was to rest and let my body heal itself in its own time.

Well, it's now a year later. Am I better than I was a year ago? You betcha. Am I back to where I was before? Not by a long shot. There is still daily pain that most days is at least manageable. But don't for a minute think that it's ever gone. So now what.

I've actually talked to Ron about going back to Houston to find Dr. Huang again. If he worked a miracle on me before he can do it again. Ok, that wasn't feasible since there is no way I could travel that far, or afford the dang trip! But, Ron did his research and suggested an acupuncturist in the area, maybe 20 minutes from me.

Now, I'm not going to give out his name yet, but by looking at his website, to me he doesn't even look old enough to shave yet! He is not Chinese as I'd been hoping for, but he is licenced in the state of Ohio and a nationally certified acupuncturist. He has also been to China several times for training. He's not authentic, but I guess he's as close as I can find in BFOhio.

I am biting the bullet and even though he is not covered by insurance, I am going to try a few appointments. My first one is on Monday. It's going to be a LOT less painful that those damn pain blocks. Or at least it had better be!

So, I'm going to give this new guy a try. What have I got to lose?

Whew. At Least That's Over

Today was my anticipated first call in for an interview with a head hunter. Well, the call in wasn't what had me worried like the damn testing they wanted to do on me. This was not a stellar day in oh so many ways.

I didn't get much sleep last night, mostly due to my nerves. I ended up on the couch watching TV and finally napped there for awhile in the early morning hours. I was so tired today!

My appointment was originally scheduled at 11:00 am. A little side note here, Phil has been in Erie this past week. When Ron came home yesterday, he parked in the driveway to do a little work on his van. He ended up leaving the van right there in the driveway since Phil was gone and he thought no one else would need the drive way.

I went to leave this morning just after 10:00 am and I jumped into the van so I could move it to the back and guess what? The van had a battery that couldn't have been any deader! There was not one amp, ohm, spark or whatever in its body. My first thought was "shit". True story. That was my first thought. My second thought was that this was my out. I didn't want to go anyway. So there. Phht.

I came back in the house and upstairs to tell Ron about his van. Heaven love him, his first thought was maybe he could push the van out of my way so I could get out! For real? PUSH the van? While I appreciated his can-do attitude, I said to him that I am not meant to go to this appointment at this moment. I firmly believe something bad would have happened to me had I forced the issue and had him push the van or if I drove out over the yard instead of down the driveway, something bad would have happened. The worst part about this is I was really have a great hair day! Trust me, that doesn't happen often!

So, I call my contact and explain my unusual situation. I'm still thinking of just cancelling at this moment but instead just asked for an extension. I rescheduled for 2:00 pm and hoped like heck that Ron could get his van started and moved in that time. Sure enough, the second time was the charm.

I actually found my way there in plenty of time.

First order of business was filling out 27 gabillion forms. From an I-9 to a W-4 to a skills evaluation and my favorite, the repeat of everything on my resume. Once all that was filled out, I had to step into the computer room where a PC had been set up just for me with an accounts payable test and an excel test. Ok, I was as ready as I could be.

I started with the A/P test. I think there was like 37 questions, and I had 30 minutes to complete it. The good thing is that as soon as I submitted an answer, it told me immediately if I was right or wrong. That was kind of cool. I thought I breezed through ok, missing about five of them. More on that later!

The excel test was really easy until they got to the graphs and charts section. I got lucky on a couple of them as they were pure guesses and just flubbed the rest. Out of 50 questions, about 15 were about graphs and charts. I've never used them so I knew this would be my down fall.

After an hour of testing, I was called in for the face to face. He asked me how he thought I did and I told him that I missed a few in A/P that I didn't agree with their answers. I told him I think his questions are dated and in today's market, with all of the changes in A/P, some of those things just never happen. I've spent the last six years educating companies on Best Practices and trust me, some of their answers were no longer considered Best Practices.

So, I argued my point with him and I'm not sure I got brownie points for that or not. I did find out though that the national average on this test was a 68% and I scored an 84%. He was totally impressed with my score, but I feel that at least two questions I got wrong would really have made that number a lot better! Oh well.

As for Excel, that national average was 70% and I scored a 74%. He was happy about that as all the questions I missed were about the graphs and charts and I said I've never worked with them. He felt that few companies asked for this expert level on Excel and my intermediate level was more than adequate.

So, I guess I tested better than I thought I would. He felt confident that he could do something for me, but in this economy I still have my doubts. But, here's hoping.

So there. I lived through my first interview in a long time. Thanks to my good friend, Maura, I always thought I was pretty good at interviewing. Here's hoping I am ready and this little practice will make perfect on the interview that will really count; the one that lands me a job. A girl has to have a dream after all.

It's A Start

As most of you know, I have been out of work for awhile. Ok, a long while; just over a year. A long freakin' time.

Not for the lack of trying though. I do send out resumes daily, I just can't get anyone to want to talk to me. What's up with that? I'm mostly a very nice person! I can be nice. Once in awhile anyway.

I fall into a niche that is hard to place lately in this employers' market. I have tons and tons of experience, but no piece of paper that says I have a degree. For some reason, many companies (my last employer included) would rather have that piece of paper versus some one that actually knows what they are doing.

But, I digress.

So here I am, humping for a job. I'm still geographically challenged as in it's too difficult to be in a car for long, but the 401k has already been cashed in and I need a freakin' job.

Now for the good news/bad news.

I finally have an interview tomorrow. Before you get too excited, it's only with a head hunter. And, one I've worked with before and not all that thrilled with, but desperate times call for desperate measures. They are one of the largest placement agencies in the accounting industry.

Now on to my dilemma. I have a two hour interview scheduled for tomorrow as they insist on testing all applicants. C'mon now, for real? Just talk to me face to face. I used to be able to talk with anyone about almost anything. But testing?

Have I mentioned that I've been out of work for over a year? Some days I don't remember my own name let alone the things I need to remember. I am too rusty to be tested about about how to spell my own name, let alone anything important.

Um, "T" accounts anyone? I don't think I could do one to save my life right now. Does it go from WIP into inventory? Out of cash into WIP? What is the dollar cut off that determines if you wire payroll taxes in 24 hours versus three days? Can I even spell general ledger anymore let alone manage one? Due diligence? Best practices? Huh? Me?

O M G. I am literally shaking in my boots (ok, actually socks) over here. I've been away too long and I'm terrified to jump back in. But, I need to do something.

If you can keep a happy thought or say a prayer or call in a few favors for me; please do what you can. I feel I need all the help I can get. I'll update you after the interview. Wish me luck!

New Doesn't Mean Good

The other day, our faithful, old, Proctor Silex coffee pot bit the dust.

There was no warning; it just happened. Ron tried to make our morning pot of coffee and waited the appropriate ten minutes for it to complete the cycle and alas, only 1/3 of the pot was done and it was cold. Dang, this wasn't good. I believe Ron tried a little CPR or something but the old boy was finished.

Truth be told, I've had this coffee pot close to forever. It has to be at least 15 years old. It really did have a good life and has been a true and faithful companion/helper for all of that time. But when he blew, he blew.

Keep in mind, we are plain coffee drinkers. I don't do espresso or cappuccino or any of that. Plain old Maxwell House coffee in our plain old Proctor Silex coffee maker. No bells and whistles, just an on/off switch.

Ron headed to Target and came home with a lovely Mr. Coffee set up, no bells or whistles, just a nice pot to brew us some joe. Wow, were we wrong.

We have not had a good pot of coffee since we lost our old friend! I know seasoning has to have something to do with it but geez! I did clean the old pot often so it can't be that much seasoning in there! I run vinegar through the works now and again and the pot itself gets run through the dishwasher.

The new pot is the same size, a 12 cup pot, and it uses the same sized filters. I'm not sure what's up with the new contraption, but I miss my coffee. Waking up in the morning just isn't the same.

Just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. If anyone out there is making a good pot of coffee in the morning, please give us a call. We'll even bring our own mugs.

That's Just Wrong, Page 20

Recently, Ron took me to dinner to one of our new regular places. We had a nice dinner and when the bill came, Ron took out his credit card.

Neither of us sign the backs of our credit cards as we want to be asked for ID. Ron even goes as far as to write on the back of his card "check ID". When Ron pulls out his credit card, he always pulls out his driver's license as well and submits them together.

The waitress brought the bill back with the credit card and driver's license on the tray and the bill to be signed on top of plastic. As Ron grabbed the bill to sign it, for some reason, I grabbed his license and his credit card. Don't ask me why, but I was just looking over his plastic while he figured out the tip and signed the bill.

One thing stood out on his driver's license. It lists his eyes as . . . . GREEN.

Hello?? How many times have I talked about Ron's baby blue eyes? I tell him all the time that all he has to do is bat those baby blues and he can have just about anything he wants. I pointed out that his license can't be correct stating that he had green eyes! How could he NOT have noticed this before?

Very calmly, Ron informed me that the reason the license stated green eyes was because he HAS green eyes. WTF?

Granted, I am color blind but I have lived with this man for over six years and knew him a few years before that! How could I NOT know what color his eyes were?

My second reaction after the initial shock wore off was to ask him why in the hell in the last six years he couldn't mention that I had his eye color wrong! He shrugged and just said "eh, it wasn't important".

I am at a loss. How can I not know the color of the eyes I look into every single day?

I am so sorry, honey. Color blind or not, that's just wrong.

Where Were Those Wild Things?

Where the Wild Things Are. It's a movie. It's one dumb ass movie.

Ron and I had date night tonight. We did an early movie, see link above, and then went to dinner.

The movie is supposedly adapted from a children's book. I thought I was a half way intelligent adult and I happen to enjoy quite a few "children's" movies. This should have been a slam dunk.

Can someone please explain this waste of celluloid to me? If you haven't seen it; don't. But in case you still want to, I won't say too much to give away any plot lines (as if there were any). I want you to be able to hate this movie on your own without too much influence from me.

For real. What did I get out of this movie? Here is what I saw:

When you have a fight with your Mom, run away from home and tell lies to everyone. That will make all in your world all right until you finally get back home and your Mom falls asleep on the kitchen table.

The freakin' end.

No More Leaves For Me

Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Ohio. Believe it or not, the temperature was in the low 70s. Fantastic, especially for the end of October!

I had the bright idea that I wanted to do something outside and that something was to rake leaves. Believe it or not, at my age, I have never raked leaves before. Until I moved into this house, I always had lived in an apartment, so there were no leaves that I had to rake. Since moving into this, my first house, I just never got around to raking. I always traveled a lot with work and when you're only home on the weekends, the last thing I wanted to do was yard work.

So, Friday was the day. I went into the garage and grabbed the broom and the rake. (By the way, Ron must have bought the rake because I never bought one!) I looked all over the rake for instructions, but believe it or not, there were none. I'm a half way intelligent person, I should be able to figure this out, right?

I started in the driveway. Keep in mind, on the side of the driveway is my neighbor's chestnut tree that is dropping leaves by the second. I started with the broom trying to brush all of the leaves towards the front lawn. For someone with a case of CDO, or obsessive compulsive disorder, but in alphabetical order, the way it should be, raking leaves when the wind is blowing is probably not a good idea.

I finally figured out that it's not like vacuuming. I can go over and over the same spot as many times as I want and it will NEVER be free of leaves. The damn things just keep coming and coming and if they are not freshly dropped from the trees, the freakin' wind is f*ing with me and just depositing them right back in my driveway from the piles I just swept together. This is just SO wrong.

Case is point is this little hole by the gas meter. It was a smaller hole, but the gas company enlarged it for free when they replaced our faulty riser just a few weeks ago. Supposedly they are to come back and replace the piece of concrete they cut out, but they said maybe in the spring. Yeah, right. But, I digress.

I worked hard at getting all of the leaves out of this little hole and believe me, there were a ton of them. Now look. WTF? Once I rake, it should stay raked, right??

Now, on to the front lawn.

In our area, it seems that people don't bag up their leaves. They create huge piles of leaves by the curb and a big truck comes by and has this huge hose and they suck the leaves up into the truck. Ok, remember, first time home owner. This is still all new to me, so if you've ever heard of this before, you have one up on me. I thought this was an awesome idea.

Anyway, that was my goal. I was going to rake all of my leaves into piles by the curb and hope the truck was going to come by my house one of these days to suck up all of my leaves. I was so proud of myself. I had four piles, all about knee high, over by the curb.

Then Friday night we really had a wind storm go through here. That can sure mess up the feng shui of your leaf piles. As of this morning, here is what is left. For real!

And, if you look to the right of the tree lawn to the front yard, there are more leaves on my grass! C'mon now! Again, this does not go well with my CDO.

So what was the outcome of all of this? I really over did it Friday and my back has definitely been protesting. I mean it protests no matter what I do but this was really over doing it. I have spent most of my time since raking laying on the couch trying not to move while pumping in the Aleve. I should have known better.

But to be honest, I did have fun Friday. It was great to be outside in the warm weather and it was great to get the feeling that I was actually accomplishing something in between my fits of redoing the same patch of driveway or grass over and over and over again. And, for a little while, I was really proud of what I accomplished.

Today while I was outside taking pictures, I think I solved the mystery. The mystery of how my yard could go from piles of leaves to looking like this.

I think my leaves all blew across the street to this neighbor's. I hope they enjoy them as much as I did!

Family Time

It has been a crazy week!

My sister Cathie flew in to Ohio last Sunday for a vacation. It's been a long time since all remaining siblings were in one place at one time. We had that opportunity this week for the first time since 1997. That's a long damn time.

Anyway, Cathie flew in last Sunday. I told her I'd pick her up at the airport and she wouldn't miss me, as I'd be the one crying. Hey, I can't help it. I'm an emotional kind of gal.

I got to the airport and stood at baggage claim next to the line of limo drivers. Sure enough, as soon as she texted me that she was on the ground, the crying started. I haven't seen her since Christmas 2007 and talking almost daily just isn't the same! The limo drivers were all giving me funny looks but who cares! I waited. And I waited. None of us are as young as we used to be but for crying out loud, if she walked any slower, she'd have been walking backwards! I swear!

We finally got our huge sister hug and the tears started to flow in earnest. Luckily, I had the foresight to put tissues in my pocket. We gathered ourselves up and got her bag and headed out.

As a side note, if you haven't been to the Cleveland airport in awhile, it's totally changed. There is a lot of construction going on both in and around the airport; what a mess. But, I digress.

From the airport, Mike, Mary Jane, Phil and Ron met us at a BBQ place not too far from the house for dinner, Moosehead. It was a great dinner. We laughed and giggled and hooted and hollered until they kicked us out to lock up the restaurant.

Monday Cathie and I spent the day being tourists in Lorain. From Lakeview Park to the Black River Landing and most of the places in between. Just about any place I've talked about going, I took Cathie to see. Even my local library!

We tried to go back in time for dinner. We bought the fixings to make City Chicken, hopefully like Mom used to do. The only problem was, we really weren't sure what it was that Mom did. We went to the meat department at Fligner's and picked up veal cubes, pork cubes and the wooden sticks to make the "legs". I trusted Cathie with a knife and she cut the cubes of meat to a more appropriate size while I jabbed at them with the sticks. After all was said and done, I have to admit, we were damn close to the way Mom used to make them! Way to go, Sissy! We make a great cooking team! Mom would have been proud.

Tuesday found us teaming up again in the kitchen as we had our friends Larry and Linda over for dinner. Again, lots of laughing, lots of joking and believe it or not, another great meal.

Then here is what happened on Wednesday:

Jim came from Erie, Michael came over and for the first time in a long time, we were all together. Good, bad or otherwise, we were all together. The old stories were told and retold. It's amazing that five of us have five different versions of some of our histories. That aside, I think a great time was had by all.

After all of the laughing and arguing and eating and story telling, Jim headed back to Erie with Cathie in tow. They had a whirlwind few days planned, touring New York and Pennsylvania. I can't wait to hear their stories when they return sometime Sunday evening.

Now after all of that, here is my public service announcement.

If anyone has an older brother, give him a good noogie. For real. Who'd have thought that at our ages, we'd still be pestering each other like this. Let me tell you though, that this simple act did me wonders. This has renewed my soul, just a little bit.

So follow my advice: if you have an older brother, give him a noogie. (Look out Phil, I'm not the only one that has you as an older brother!)

It Wasn't Me

Ok, this made me laugh so hard, coffee came out of my nose.

For real!

Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping

I'm A Snoop

I didn't realize how much fun, and how rewarding, snooping can be. I don't mean like snooping in someone else's medicine cabinet although I hear that can be its own kind of fun. I mean snooping in my own house.

I have issues with my basement. I can muster up some courage to go into the basement if it is during the day. But there are two rooms in the basement that I will NOT go into, day or night, alone. It has nothing to do with any ghosts that I believe live in this house but because of BUGS. Namely, spiders. Can you say EWW??

The first of these off limits rooms is a dry cellar that is directly under the front porch. It's called a dry cellar, but it's really not. When it rains, we get water in there. It normally is a little damp and dampness in my mind equates to bugs. There are some shelves in this dry cellar with some odds and ends on it and an oak barrel (it was there when we moved in!) and old sink (again, from when we moved in) and that's about it.

On the other side of the basement is the old coal room. Years ago, this house used to be heated by a coal furnace. The coal truck would back up the driveway, there is a little door on the side of the house that they'd open the door, put the slide in the door and the coal would empty from the truck, down the slide and into the coal room in the basement. From there, you would shovel out the coal and shovel it into the coal furnace. Sounds like a lot of work to me! This is a very dark room as there are no windows in it and the walls are cinder block. Damn scary to someone with arachnophobia! No way I'm going in there, with or without Ron!

So, Sunday afternoon, I was putzing in the basement. Ron happened to be in the basement having a cigarette, so I asked him to go into the dry cellar with me. I haven't been in there in a long time and I just wanted to look around. You wouldn't believe what I found in there!

I found a box that I packed up when I left Houston. All the breakables in the box were wrapped in pages from the Houston Chronicle dated October 14, 2001. It's sad I've never opened that box since then! I lived in an apartment here for a couple of years and never opened it at the apartment. Then, in this house for almost six years, and the box was in the basement. Right now, a few things have been thrown out, one thing was broken and the rest is in the dishwasher. Bonus for me.

Speaking of bonuses, I really hit the jackpot in the dry cellar while snooping. I found a box full of goodies! There have to be 20 balls of crochet thread! Plus, books and books of crocheted doily patterns as well as a home made book of favorite crocheted doily patterns!

For the life of me, I could not remember getting this box. I looked at the writing on some of the pages and couldn't recognize the writing. My first thought was that I got it from my sister in law, since both of us had crocheted doilies throughout the years. According to Mary Jane, they weren't from her. This was a mystery. When I saw my name written on the box, I was really stymied! My mind was just drawing a blank.

Finally, going through the books in the box, I saw a name written on one of the books. Lil! My friend Jeff's Mom! I have a huge box of goodies and I am ashamed to say that I don't really remember getting the box. And WHY did I put this in the dry cellar? I have no idea how long it's been there, but I'm telling you, it was like Christmas here yesterday afternoon!

Maybe for that reason, I put the box away when I got it, because it was meant to be found on a day that I needed to find something that happy. Then again, maybe it was Lil herself stopping by to say hello. I know she was on my mind all day yesterday. And now today my mind is filled with creating these beautiful doilies. Here's hoping my bifocals will allow me to crochet with the thread again!

So there you go. Start snooping in your own house. You never know what treasures you will find.

Where's George?

I have a little bit of CDO. That's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but in alphabetical order, the way it should be.

I know I'm not as bad as most obsessive compulsives, but I definitely have my issues. One of the ways that this manifests is in my following of one of my favorite websites.

www.wheresgeorge.com

Where's George tracks currency. I know it sounds silly, but I am totally addicted to Where's George.

I suggest that everyone should start their own addiction to this website. Follow the link above and register for an account. Not to worry, it doesn't take but a minute. Then, start entering your one dollar bills.

You can enter any denomination, but I hold my addiction to just ones. You enter what year is on the bill. Then, you enter the serial number, complete with the alpha characters before and after the number. A box is provided for a note to go with the bill. Personally, I like to keep track of where I got the bill and I write that in. For example, I will write that I got the bill in change from the local post office in my city, or something similar. I am extremely anal about not spending a dollar bill before I can enter it into Where's George!

After I'm done entering my bills, I write on the bills. Please don't tell anyone because I'm not sure how the feds feel about me marking up their bills! I've seen some people purchase a stamp to promote this website, but I just like to take my favorite pen and write along the bottom margin of the bill, the website address of www.wheresgeorge.com.

Then I wait for the emails to come in. Where's George will automatically send an email when someone else enters your bill into their system. This was more common back when I was traveling and would spend my ones all over. But, now I still get excited that a bill I entered in Brunswick Ohio is in Portland Maine. Or how about my bill that I entered in Lorain Ohio that was last reported in Kenosha Wisconsin. Or, one of my favorites that I entered while staying in a hotel in Pittsburgh that later showed up in Erie Pennsylvania! See why I'm addicted? Where's George also writes statistics on your bills in more ways than I can ever explain in here. It is any anal retentives dream come true.

So, try it. Tell me if you like it. Just don't blame me if you get addicted too. And, if you see one of my bills with the writing across the bottom, please enter it into Where's George. I need some emails in my inbox!

We're Watching You

Call it shutting the barn door after the horse got out, but Ron has been working on protecting us from any future break ins.

We now have an alarm system. If you know Ron, this isn't just any run of the mill system, either! He has numerous components hooked up, and seems to be hooking up more and more each day. As each component is hooked up, there is a learning curve.

Like for example, remembering to turn on the alarm system when we leave. Or, remembering to turn it off before we open a door. Yeah, little things.

I said it was an alarm system. Aside from the plain old alarm that will go off should someone breach an opening, the system will also turn on and off lights for you, there are inside motion detectors and outside motion detectors. Some of the motion detectors also turn on the recorder on the cameras to tape whatever tripped the sensor. Pretty cool, huh?

Then of course, there are the cameras themselves. We have watched the activity (actually inactivity!) on our television as well as our computer monitors. This can be a whole new type of reality TV addiction for me. It's a darn addicting show, let me tell you.

Let's go back to the learning curve. Over the weekend, Phil had gone running around town. While he was gone, Ron and I decided to head out ourselves. Before we left, I sent Phil a text message letting him know we were leaving, so when he got home, he should turn off the alarm before opening the door.

Too bad I didn't take my own advice.

Ron and I ended up getting home before Phil. Since we took my car, I stopped to let Ron out of my car by the side door of the house before I pulled my car into the garage. I even reminded Ron that he should turn the alarm off before unlocking the side door . . . just . . . as . . . I . . . reached . . . up . . . and . . . opened . . . the . . . garage . . . door. DANG! Sirens, horns, lights flashing! A lot of to do in our neighborhood just because I forgot to wait for Ron to shut the alarm off before I opened the garage door! Yeah, that's hooked up to the alarm too. With all that hoopla going on, it's sure hard to get your head together enough to remember how to shut off the alarm. If nothing else, the neighbors now know we really do have an alarm.

So we are wired up. And, remember I said we also have cameras. So, the next time anyone drives by our house, make sure you wave. Chances are, one of us are watching on one monitor or another!

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.