TGIMITF!

Thank God I Made It Through Friday!

Last week was not one of my better weeks. I missed almost a half of a week of work due to a bug that got a hold of me hard. I should own some stock in Puffs Plus (thank heavens for that lotion!) but I made it through. I was taking one day at a time to try to make it to the weekend.

Friday finally came and with it came another freakin' blizzard.

I could live the rest of my life without ever getting in another car. I do what I have to do but I don't have to like it. Let me tell you, I am liking it even less in bad weather. I drove white knuckled all the way to work on Friday and that was just during the middle of the blizzard. It continued to snow all day long.

Well, I made it to work, a little late, but I made it. All the way there, I could only think that I was going to have to do it again at the end of the day. Holy crap, how was I going to get home?

Then it hit me. Why do I have to go home? I took a hot pocket to work with me for lunch. There are four boxes of Wheat Thins as well as some Pop Tarts in the snack cupboard (hey, we LIKE our afternoon snacks!), I had three bottles of Diet Pepsi in the fridge and there was more tea than I could possibly drink. I had my book and I had an Internet connection. For real, why would I have to go home? I could just spend the weekend at the office and just be the first one at work on Monday.

Who needs clean underwear or a toothbrush? For real!

My brother, I mean my boss, came through for me. He gave me a ride home Friday so I could have my eyes closed for most of the ride home and just pretend I was anywhere but in a car. Thanks, my brother!

Ron and I grabbed a couple of shovels this afternoon and headed out to break my car out of what I expected was a snow pile. While the snow plow driver did plow the parking lot around my car, once we got my car brushed off, I was able to get out of the spot without shoveling. Bonus!

So, I made it through Friday and now I'm getting ready to start it all over again. I'm finally feeling like a human being so things are definitely looking up!

I can't wait until I start bitching that it's too hot out there!

So, What's New?

I came down with something Thursday night. I had a horrible night and Friday was no better.

I got up Saturday feeling a little better, but still nothing to write home about. The weather finally had warmed up a little bit, so Ron and I went out to get a little taste of over freezing temperatures. We headed to one of our favorite spots, Lakeview Park.

As you can see from these pictures,


the weather finally felt a lot better than it looked. The sun was shining bright, and while the snow and the frozen lake is still a good reminder that we are still in winter, it was a good day to be outside for a change. We took our little ride and then came home to rest up.

About a month ago, our neighbor sold us a couple of tickets to a benefit dinner being held for a friend of his. The man had passed away from cancer leaving a wife and small children behind. Never ones to say no to a good cause, Ron and I scooped up a couple of tickets and decided last night to at least go for the dinner since we paid for it already.

We went in and walked around a little looking at the prizes for the Chinese auction. Hey, I am a sucker for a good Chinese auction!! Since I've never had a mani-pedi in my life, I put a BUNCH of tickets in on that one! One ticket went into the Harley Davidson lamp with promises from Ron that we wouldn't to display it in the living room, a basket of chocolate, some jewelry (that I never wear!) and assorted other stuff. They had a good array of gifts and I thought I placed my tickets wisely. So far, I haven't heard anything, so I am assuming I didn't win anything. Oh well, it was fun to play!

The tables were all set for eight people. We chose a table that already had a couple seated, who were around our age, maybe a little older. They said that another couple was with them, but we were welcome to join as well. I gotta tell you, we picked a great table! By the end of the night, we had eight people at our table and we had a ball!

The food was fantastic (luckily my stomach calmed down by now and I totally got to enjoy dinner) with some pulled pork, lemon chicken, ravioli with meatballs, Italian wedding soup, rice and beans, pasta salad, tossed salad, scalloped potatoes and I'm sure a bunch of other things I just can't remember now. Everything was truly delicious and made by friends of the family. There are some great cooks in this town!

A DJ was playing and people were up dancing and having a good time. Our ticket into the festivities got you four drinks as well from the bar. I'm telling you, we got our money's worth and I sure hope they made some money off of this benefit. They did a great job putting it together, for sure.

Unfortunately, you know you're old when I finally said to Ron "we need to go, it's getting too loud in here for me!" Yeah, I'm getting old.

We came home, my ears were ringing and I had lost my voice again from trying to talk to the people at our table and be heard about the noise of the DJ. Loud is one thing but this was crazy loud.

Maybe I over did it a bit by going last night, since I feel good for nothing today. So, I am planning a nice lazy day today. I've already thrown a bunch of stuff in the crock pot that we're going to call dinner and I'm staying in my jammies today.

It's been a pretty good weekend. Now a day of rest and we start all over again tomorrow.

He Does Have A Mean Streak

If anyone knows Ron, you know he is my exact opposite.

For as over the top, gregarious, loud and obnoxious as I am, Ron is everything but. He is so laid back, so calm, the glass is always half full kinda guy. Like I said, my total opposite. While I am ready to fly off of a handle, he is like whatever. So, that is Ron's temperament, in a nutshell. Most days, he keeps me sane, and probably out of trouble.

A little background. Ron is in the computer service industry. For one of his customers, he's on call 24/7. He's gotten called out of the house in the middle of the night more than once.

The company he works for is based out of California. There are other guys that also have accounts that have 24/7 coverage. So, between five or six guys in the company, nationwide, they take turns being on call for the whole company for after hours calls.

Once the corporate office shuts down at 5:00 pm Pacific time, their calls roll over to their answering service. If a call comes in, the answering service will route it to the person on call to triage the call. When Ron has been on corporate on call, Ron has been known to talk someone through a repair right over the phone. Other times, he will just schedule their local rep to be on site during business hours. And, for certain customers that need immediate assistance, he will push the call up the ladder with his company to get the appropriate person out of bed and on to the road.

When the corporate office turns the phones over to the answering service at 5:00 pm California time which is 8:00 pm Ohio time, you can almost set your clock on the week that Ron is on corporate on call that a phone call will come in from the answering service every night just to remind Ron that he is on call for the overnight hours. Yeah, no kidding, he got the memo.

I mean c'mon. Maybe a phone call on the night that you start on call just to remind you in case you didn't look at the schedule, but every night for a week??

The last on call week Ron had he was feeling a little punk one night. Shortly after dinner, he just went to bed. I was sitting in the office upstairs just before 8:00 when I actually thought about going into the bedroom and confiscating his phone so it wouldn't wake him up when it rang at 8:00. But, i didn't. Right on time, the phone rang, Ron answered it and just went off on the poor operator! I heard him yelling from out here!

How dare they call him so late! Didn't they realize that not everyone lives in California? He is in Ohio for crying out loud and it is LATE here! Now, remember, it was only 8:00 pm here! But, being woken out of a sound sleep, poor Ron was in the middle of his night. The operator must have thought he was nuts, but he apologized and hung up.

When Ron shook the cobwebs out of his head a little later that night, he realized what time it was even though his body felt it was the middle of the night. A case of regret washed over him and he just felt terrible.

He notified his corporate office about what happened, so if they got a complaint on him, he told corporate he deserved it. He was just not feeling well and he was out of it.

So, what happened for our mild tempered guy? The answering service changed their ways!! When he is on call now, they call him at 6:00 pm OUR time! They are not even on the clock yet in California, but they call him at 6:00 to remind him that he's on call.

Yeah, he doesn't get riled very often, but when he does, you remember it!! And you listen! I wanna grow up to be like him!

Here I Am!

Remember, my world has changed considerable lately! Being back to work finally, I am having a little trouble keeping up with everything and one of the things that has fallen through the cracks is blogging.

I will try to do better, but no guarantees!

For real, how do people do it? Up and at 'em to work every day, then come home and keep up with a house and still keep in touch with all the family and friends. Dang, it's hard working for a living! I don't know how I used to do it before, especially with all of the travel on top of that. I keep telling myself I'm just out of practice and that it will come easier. Yeah, I'm ready for that easier part. Any day now.

So, what have we been up to? I do have a few happenings in my life that I thought were blog worthy. Here is one of them to try to get me back to real time.

A few weekends ago, our part of Ohio got dumped on. Phil was smart enough to get out of Dodge and go visit Erie for a week, right before the snow hit. That left Ron and I here. Personally, it wouldn't have bothered me in the least to be snowed in at the house for awhile. We had just been to the grocery store the night before so we were stocked on real food and snacks. We also had stocked up on beer and tequila so honestly, what did we need to leave the house for? Ron being the practical one reminded me that he is always on call and has to be ready to be somewhere within two hours so it might be a good idea to get dug out. Phht, I said. I didn't have to be anywhere in two hours! But, I was a trooper and decided to help him in spite of my reluctance. What a mistake.

We do have our riding lawn mower that has the plow attachment, but this snow was so deep and so heavy, there was only so much that poor plow could do. Plus, the plow was in the garage, which meant we had to get my car out of the garage to get the plow out. With a three foot drift in front of the garage, there was some serious shoveling to be done before we could even think about using the plow.

Ron started at the garage and I went down the driveway about 10 feet. We both started to shovel until we met in the middle. Finally, making enough room to back my car out and get the plow out, Ron jumped on the plow and got started while I kept up with the shovel working on the small stuff like our front porch. When he was almost done, we decided it was about time that I learned how to plow some snow. Just like cutting the grass, there were a few screams from me along with my fair share of giggles while I was driving. This time though, the snow drifts were so high, I think the neighbors didn't get a good line of sight to enjoy a good show. I was a little freer this time with my hooting and hollering!

Even with wheel weights and snow chains on the plow, I got the plow stuck a few times trying to push snow farther back to make room for more snow. Ron told me to use my own weight, and jump up and down on the seat to work myself out. If nothing else, I follow directions well! I bounced up and down for all I was worth. Yes, the neighbors really missed a good show!

It took us all afternoon, but we finally had the driveway dug out and Ron was able to get his van out of his parking spot. What a mess. Of course, since my acupuncture, I'm feeling better, so I totally over did it. My shoulders hurt so freakin' bad that I couldn't lift my arms at all for over a week. Even trying to raise a cup of coffee to my mouth was too much. It was a miserable week. But, I had to do what I had to do.

I know this is Ohio and I know this is winter time and I know my dream home is in Montana, but I'm telling you, I'm done with snow this year. I am struggling with the dichotomy of wanting to be in Montana and wanting to be done with snow!

So here is my return to blogging after a short absence. A story like everyone else has a story about too damn much snow. But, I do have more stories in me about more than just snow. I just need to make myself sit here and type them out.

I got a doozy coming up about Ron! Stay tuned!

Paperless Billing - Now With Paper

Isn't paperless billing supposed to be paperless? Well, not according to Capital One it's not.

I've had my Capital One card for years and for years I've chosen the paperless billing route. There's never much on my credit card. I go in every month and see if I have a charge; if I do, I set up the payment. Easy, right?

This month, I got a paper statement in the mail! Hello?? Paperless billing? I'm kinda pissed about this. Not only is my full name and address on my statement, but so is the entire credit card number. Now there is one more document I need to shred.

I called Capital One last night to express my dissatisfaction with the whole statement issue. I was transferred to another country to talk to a representative. He couldn't understand why this was an issue with me. After all, Capital One has a new statement format and they wanted everyone to see it. I tried to explain that I don't care about their new format since I never looked at their old one. I did NOT want a statement coming to my house. Ever.

Again, he said it was just this month to show off the new statements. I asked did they plan on mailing them now and again just to surprise me? He stated that yes, Capital One very well could mail statements now and again when they felt like it. Gee, I was getting no where. He couldn't understand why a little piece of paper was bothering me.

I started to think about that very thing last night. Why was it bothering me? Is it the fact that in my neighborhood, or any neighborhood, I don't want a piece of paper sitting outside unlocked with my credit card number on it? Is it because for years, I have not seen a statement come in the mail and suddenly there it is? Or have there been other statements that just didn't make it all the way to me? Does someone out there have my credit card number from a stolen statement that I wasn't expecting?

Have I been too indoctrinated into protecting my identity? When the bank sends you your ATM card, they always send your password under separate cover. Shouldn't I expect as much from my credit card company to not put all of my information on one piece of paper and mail it to me? Should I just say no big deal and move on? Am I over reacting?

Kudos To Target in Amherst

Ok, those aren't words that come out of my mouth often!

I'm not anti-Target, but I'm not exactly pro-Target either. K-mart is much closer, but Target is a bright clean lovely store. But, I've had an issue where they didn't stand behind their brand of items. That said, on the other hand, I LOVE some of their Archer Farms snacks. If you're ever at Target, the highest three highest recommendations I have are:

• Macadamia Nut Carmel Clusters
• Spinach and Artichoke Tortilla Chips
• Honey Mustard Savory Pretzels

I'm telling you, their snacks are good but these three are outstanding! RUN to your nearest Target and try them. They're a little pricey but I think these tidbits are worth it.

Now back to topic.

We were at Target on Saturday with a small list of stuff I wanted. One of the things was an accessory for our Wii, the Wii Motion Sensor. Damn Wii Sports Resorts game makes you spend more money for accessories. If I'd only known. But, I digress.

Like most stores, a lot of the gaming stuff is kept behind locks. If you go to Wal-Mart or K-mart, you have to hunt down an employee with a key to get your item. Target was different. There is a button at the end of the aisles that you can press to call for assistance. I pressed said button and was greeted with an electronic voice that stated something like they acknowledge that I need assistance and an associate would be with me in less than 60 seconds!

C'mon now, that's a bold promise for anyone to make! Being the smart ass I am, I timed the guy. If he wasn't there in 60 seconds, he was going to hear me give him a ration of crap over broken promises! Timer is going. I'm looking around. Ron is laughing. Work with me here, it looks like I was syncing up my watch for something important! Suddenly, I see an employee coming my way. That has to be coincidence! He can't be there because I called him! Sure enough, in 59 seconds since I pressed the button, he walked right up to me and asked "may I help you?" HA! He was extremely friendly and got a laugh out of the thought of me thinking Target was lying to me about him being there in under 60 seconds! I told him I was totally impressed with him on that, as well as impressed with Target. They definitely got Kudos from me for that.

We checked out of the store through a line with another great employee of Target's. She was personable, joked with us and was extremely pleasant while also being professional and helpful. Again, good for Target for hiring quality employees! It was just a great shopping experience at Target.

As we're walking out of the store, we hear someone shout out to us. What? We don't know than many people in Ohio! Who could know us at Target in Amherst? It was one of our neighbors from across the street! Even living just across the street, most times the most contact we have with him is waving at each other as one of us drives by. Well, the three of us stepped outside and shot the breeze for awhile. That was a nice catch up with him.

From Target we headed home. We did run another errand later to pick up some food at a new restaurant in town (I'm not ready to critique that one yet. I think we need one more try before I mention a name) then back home to eat a late lunch. It was now hours since we left the house for the first time and suddenly Ron realized that his work phone is missing! Not just the phone but the holster for it and everything! CRAP! This is not good. It's bad enough if you lose your personal phone but your work phone? Especially since Ron is on call 24/7. We both went into a panic mode.

First stop, outside. We had been in both of our vehicles yesterday, so Ron ran to his van, I ran to my car, and I called his phone, hoping one of us would hear it. His voice mail finally picked up but we heard no ringing. Maybe he lost it in the house!

We ran into the house and I called his phone again as we were sweeping each floor of the house. Suddenly, I hear "hello?" What????? My mind went blank. Finally I said, "um, we lost our phone today. Where is it?" to which she answered "it's here at the Target Store in Amherst!" Wow! She confirmed that she was in customer service and I said we'd be right there!

Sure enough, customer service had Ron's phone and his holster. We figured when he took his heavy jacket off in the store, he must have knocked the holster right out from his belt and we just never heard the dang thing fall. We asked if someone left a name when they took the phone to customer service, but no, they just dropped the phone off.

So, a huge THANK YOU to the person who handed Ron's phone in so that we could get it back in one piece. And, kudos to Target in Amherst. I may just have to change my overall opinion about you and start handing some more of my business over your way. Our experience with Target this week was definitely all good.

I Could Live Without It

When Phil has other plans and is not having dinner with us, we like to do something that Phil would not like. For instance, we'll have seafood or ethnic food. Monday night when he had other plans, Ron and I decided to go for Mexican food.

Since our favorite Mexican place closed up about a year or so ago, and the restaurant that replaced it made both of us sick, we only have one Mexican restaurant that we really like but it's in Vermilion. Monday night we wanted to stay closer to home than that.

There is a chain restaurant, Don Tequila, in our area on Cooper Foster Road. We had been there probably three years ago. We weren't overly impressed with the food, however we did have a great time with the people sitting at the table next to us! You all know how I love to talk to strangers!

But, since the food was just mediocre, we never had any strong desire to return to Don Tequila. However, they have closed down their old restaurant on Cooper Foster Road and built a brand spanking new one over on Kresge by the Giant Eagle. We've been watching the construction and for some reason, I thought I wanted to try it again after it re-opened. Monday was our opportunity.

First let me say, the place is absolutely beautiful. I love the decor in there and I couldn't even explain to you the booth backs and the chair backs. Each one was different and you have to see them to appreciate them; gorgeous! We had a very nice server who offered suggestions and helped us through the menu. Now, here is my critique.

I'm not that crazy about authentic Mexican food. I was spoiled with the Tex Mex in Texas. I could eat that all day. But authentic Mexican, bleh. Not my favorite. Usually the margaritas are what make the dinner experience worthwhile. So, let's start there.

Even though we ordered the top shelf margaritas, they sucked. They were way too sour. Lime margaritas should be a little on the sour side but these were ridiculous. We had ordered a half of a pitcher to split between the two of us and we did NOT empty the pitcher. That alone could have made this blog appear in the pages of "That's Just Wrong!".

The food I usually order in Mexican restaurants is fajitas. You can't go wrong with some sliced steak, some onions and peppers, a little salad, guacamole and sour cream all wrapped up in a soft tortilla shell. This was a horrible representation of a fajita! Well, perhaps if you liked really spicy it might be good. I don't like spicy. My freakin' mouth was burning by the time I was done! Yeah, too much for me.

So, even though they seriously upgraded the building, I still didn't care for the food or drink. Yeah, I am crossing that one off of the list of restaurants to go to in our area. It's back to Vermilion to hit a good Mexican restaurant, Tijuana Grill. Now that's good eats.

Buzz Kill

Ok, here I go, bitching about my job already.

You know, the day to day stuff, I'm ok with. If anything comes up I don't know about, I email Mike about it and he answers via email or video chat. So far, so good.

But what happened today really came out of left field. Then again, maybe I was warned that this could happen during one of my talks with my brother/boss that first week.

I was sitting in my office, minding my own business, working on paperwork. The guy that works in the shop came in and we were chatting a bit. We started talking about family. We talked siblings, and he asked about my husband. I was dumb enough to tell him that Ron and I aren't married, just living together.

Holy crap, did I open the flood gates!

I have learned this afternoon that I am a horrible person and I am going straight to HELL. I do not pass Go, I do NOT collect $200. Straight to HELL. I've been lectured on the evils of fornication (obviously he's been doing it wrong) for way too long this afternoon.

Keep in mind, there are only four people that work in this building, and that includes me and my brother. That sure does keep the options low for people to talk to during the day. Besides, I have to deal with him every day on a business level. So, I tried to be the bigger person; I ignored him. I kept working away all the while trying to tune out talk of the second coming, the Antichrist, passages from the bible, the rapture, how people like me will not be saved. Oh, the horror.

I believe in live and let live. I have my own set of beliefs that I refuse to shove down your throat and I expect the same level of respect from you. You ARE entitled to your opinion and I wish you a long and happy life within your beliefs. I just don't want to be lectured about them and have them forced upon me.

Like I said, I tried to just ignore him and let him rant and rave and go on with his lecture. Whatever. Until he crossed the line.

When he got to the point that the people in Haiti were getting what they deserved because there is so much voodoo there, that went over the line. And, at that point, he was lucky my fat ass didn't come across my desk and punch him right in the nose.

I took the wuss way out. I texted Ron via the internet and said it was an emergency to please call me and keep me on the phone for awhile. A few seconds later, my cell rang and of course, I answered it. Poor Ron was trying to think fast on his feet to keep me talking about nothing for the next five minutes. Luckily, bozo took the hint and didn't wait around any longer and went back to work.

I need to grow a set of nads and figure out a way to tell this idiot to F-off while maintaining a working relationship with him the next time he tries to start this conversation again. With the small number of us, I definitely can't have any animosity in the work place. But I'll be damned (or so I've been told) that I'm going to take that crap from any punk.

So, F him. No one should have to live through what the Haitian people are living through. I don't care if you pray to God, Allah, Jesus, Mohammad, a tree, Buddha or not at all. The people of Haiti need all of the help they can get.

Please give to the Red Cross or to the charity of your choice.

My Week In Review

In case anyone missed it, I am employed once again!

I have finished my first week of work and what a week it was.

It is so difficult to try to wrap my mind around concepts that I haven't thought about in over a year. Some of it is coming back easier than other parts of it. Heaven help my brother, he had a tough week of trying to teach me what I need to know while trying to get everything he had to do while getting ready to leave the country for 2-1/2 weeks. I think after this past week we both have a few more gray hairs!

We went through a lot of information every day. I came home every night with brain cramps! I was exhausted mentally and physically even though I sat most of the day. I'll tell you one thing, I slept like a log every night this week!

Brother Michael and I are trying to get used to working together. We are learning each others idiosyncrasies. For example, when he gives me "the look" over his glasses, I know I'm in trouble! I've either put a mental block against something he's trying to teach me or else I've gone over the line on something. Hey, I have definitely learned "the look" this week! It's all good though; we'll get there.

One thing about this job though is that it has really put me in a nostalgic mood.

My first job ever was when I was 15 years old and my sister Barbara was the office manager at the Erie Cab Company. Actually, the name of the company at the time could have been a number of things. The business changed names back then more often than some people change their underwear. But, I digress.

A little background: I grew up in the days of Twin Tech. My high school was split into two sessions, one session beginning the school year going 8-5 Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The other session would start school 8-5 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. In the middle of the school year, each session would switch. Granted, you ended up for half of the year going to school on Saturdays, but you only went three days a week. For four hours of the day you would have the normal academic studies of math, English, chemistry, whatever. The other four hours would be in a particular field of study. My choice at the time was medical assistant. Some of the other choices were diesel mechanics, business, cosmetology, welding and a bunch of others. Supposedly we would be ready for life after school! Anyway, you went three days a week with the idea that in your junior and senior years you would be out in the world working on the days you weren't in school.

While I didn't originally get a job in medical assisting while in school, my sister Barb hired me. She hired me at age 15 to do her grunt work. Keep in mind, this was in the days before having computers at work; everything was done by hand. (If you read my last post, you know I AM old!) I could never explain to you the crappy job of typing by HAND all of the 1099s and W2s with the five carbon papers put in between the copies. Holy crap. At the end of January, I'd work with carbon papers so much, my fingertips would be constantly black. What a mess. I had to keep drivers records by hand, payroll was done by hand.

The first computer we got took up half of the room and was loud. I did progress from grunt to accounts receivable. I got to take it over by the age of 18 and run with it. How crazy is that? I learned so much from Barbara throughout those years. I learned all about how business works and accounting overall. And, we did it all on hand ledgers. Those were the days.

Now working for my brother, the comparisons are sometimes so strong they come up and smack me right in the face. Working for a sibling in a building that is very reminiscent of the Erie Cab Company. Ahh, those were the days. I have been so nostalgic this week that I can't tell you how often I've picked up the phone wanting to talk to her and tell her just how much she is on my mind.

Anyway, on to bigger and better things. I am learning my new job. Not as quickly as I'd hoped, but I'm learning. My big test came on Friday when I was alone in the office for most of the day as Michael have left in the morning for his trip to China. I was so nervous, I was throwing up in the morning! But, I put on my big girl pants and went on to work. I may not have done everything perfectly or even correctly, but I didn't kill any one and I didn't burn the building down. All in all, I'd say that was a pretty successful day.

The good news about this job is that we have decided that there will be no TPS reports. They have been deemed unnecessary! A silver lining in every cloud!

January 16, 1963, 11:25 a.m.

Holy crap! It's my birthday!

If you know me, you know that my birthday is the most important day of the year for me. It's one day that is just for ME!

Let the emails, phone calls, smoke signals, text messages and happy thoughts begin!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

I AM EMPLOYED!!

Yes, read that again. Finally, I am once again a contributing member of society. I have an honest to goodness, income generating, tax paying, job. And, I started it on Saturday.

After countless resumes sent out, I finally received and accepted an offer on Saturday morning. I walked into the office, hugged my new boss, accepted the offer and we started working. Hugged my new boss? Yes, hugged him. Ok, he's my brother!

I am not above a bit of nepotism. I've done it before. I used to work for my sister Barb for almost 10 years. She's who taught me most of what I know. But, on to my brother.

He is one of the owners of a manufacturing company here in the area. A position has opened up in his organization and he was crazy enough to think I was right for the position! Hey, all of my family has a few loose screws, but I think that's why we all get along so well.

There are a handful of good news/bad news about this position.

Good news: I have a real job with real income.
Bad news: I now have to go back to setting an alarm to get up in the morning.

Good news: It's good to get back to work since my brain has been going to mush from not having to think about too much.
Bad news: I think I've forgotten most of what I used to know.

Good news: I already started my new job on Saturday. I got the tour of the place, I got to drive a jitney (SHH! Don't tell anyone! That's supposed to be a secret!), I learned about relieving raw material inventory while building finished goods inventory, I posted the Accounts Receivable and made the daily deposit, I posted an Accounts Payable ACH payment and even got a shipment ready to go out on Monday. I think there was even more that I did, but that's off the top of my head.
Bad news: My brother is going back to China on Friday for a few weeks so I have a limited time to learn what I need to learn before he's gone and I am working without his side by side help. Yeah, that scares me a little bit!

Good news: I love to blog.
Bad news: It's impossible to blog about your boss being an asshole when he reads your blog! I love you, my brother! I'm sure we'll have our bad days, but I won't be able to just call him by a pseudonym and vent here. That's ok though. I'm sure we'll be able to work through any major problems and as long as he doesn't have PMS on the same weeks that I do, all should be manageable in our worlds.

So there you go. I am finally working again. One of the things that I do love about this position is that I will have my fingers in a lot of different things. That makes for much more interesting days. When all you do is one thing in a day, life can be boring. But when I'm doing receivables, payables, shipping, receiving, purchasing, cleaning the toilet, whatever needs done, that makes for some good days.

I have my own office, my own bathroom. That's moving up in the world!

To celebrate my first day of work, Michael even brought donuts into work. C'mon now, any job is about the perks! Donuts are a freakin' perk! Even better than that, he bought dinner. We had planned on hitting a great Chinese restaurant by his house and have Ron and Phil meet up with us at his house for family dinner and new job celebration. Here is what my fortune cookie said:

The hard times will begin to fade. Joy will take their place.

Amen to that. People, I am EMPLOYED! Let the joy begin!

I'm Cured!

I have been having a painful, almost paralyzing, need to get a cat. Pay no attention to the fact that I'm allergic to them (so is Ron). If I could have found the Lorain County Humane Society a few days ago I would have come home with a cat regardless.

Well . . . THIS might just have cured me of that need.



Possessed Cat Makes Freaky Noises - Watch more Funny Videos

A Day Of Firsts!

In my 46 years (almost 47, thank you very much!) on this earth, there are still a few things I've never done before. One of those things is get a manicure!

My hands have not been one of my best features every since I developed Dyshidrotic Eczema almost 30 years ago. When I'm having an outbreak, I do everything I can to hide my hands from sight. At the moment I'm in what I call my remission phase, but that too shall pass. The only evidence now is I have issues with the nail growth due to the eczema.

Anyway, I don't give my hands much thought. Then came Christmas! For Christmas, I received this nail care collection from Seacret.

Since I've never had a manicure, it took me a few days to pick up the box and pull out the directions and start from scratch on how to give myself a manicure. Here is my right hand before playing with my new nail care toys.

I started with the buffing pad. There are three different colored surfaces that I liken to different grits of sandpaper. In a specific order, you take this buffing pad and one color at a time buff all of your nails. If done properly, here is what it should look like!

Do you see how nice and shiny my nails are? All this without nail polish! This is all just with the buffing pad! Here are both hands together, bottom one done, top one undone with Phil's ankles in the picture! Hey, I needed a button pusher for the camera and Phil was willing!

The best part of this story is that I started with the buffing of the first color, after reading all of the directions of course. It was decided that since Ron was the expert here, he should finish my nails. Why, you ask, is Ron the expert? Believe it or not, in his previous life, he's HAD an actual manicure! This is one man who is very secure in his masculinity!

Besides that, when he was at the mall, (I have NO idea when that happened!) the salesgirl not only did one of his fingernails for him, she made him do another one so that she knew he knew how easy it was. She must have been one heck of a hand holder, because she sold him on the collection! I'm not complaining though!

So, there you go. Ron gave me my manicure. Is that the bomb or what?? Thank you honey! You did a GREAT job! And, here are both hands done! I gotta tell you, this is the first time since I was 17 years old that I thought my hands looked pretty. That alone is worth its weight in gold.


I gotta tell you, if Ron's job ever gets eliminated in my life time, if someone we ALL learn to fix all there is to fix on a computer, a server, a printer or a robotic library, Ron definitely has a new career ready. We've already talked about how I need to make an appointment for my next manicure in two weeks! I just hope I can afford his rates.

Congratulations, Hawk!!!

Today Andre "The Hawk" Dawson was inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame!! And, deservedly so.

Andre Dawson won the National League MVP in 1987 while with the Cubs. What made this such a feat was the fact that the Cubs were in LAST place in their division. I don't know if it's been done since, but he was the first player to win MVP while a member of a last place team. In his 20 year career, he hit 438 homers and 1,591 RBIs. He was a great ball player and definitely a bright shining spot in the Cubs' history.

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a HUGE Chicago Cubs fan and have been for more years than I'd like to admit.

Only once in my life, so far, have I made it inside of my Mecca called Wrigley Field. The day I was there, before the game, I walked down the stands to as close to the field as I could get. Andre Dawson, right fielder for the Cubs, was standing at the rail talking to a few people.

I stood there, soooooo close to the greatness that is Andre Dawson, waved my arms like an idiot, while screaming ANDRE! ANDRE! ANDRE!!

Finally, probably to shut me up, he waved back. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Andre "The Hawk" Dawson waving at ME in none other than Wrigley Field. One of my best days ever, for sure!

Congratulations, Hawk. You earned it.

I'm Sure This Was Ron's Fault!

As I've written previously, ever since our garage was broken into, Ron has put an alarm on the house and the detached garage.

Now, we've had some growing pains getting used to turn on and turn off the alarm. We all have key fobs on our key chains to make it even easier to turn on or turn off the alarm. The guys seem to carry these fobs in their pockets and sometimes their movements set the alarm when it shouldn't be set! I, on the other hand, have my fob on my key chain but tend to forget to turn off the alarm before I hit the button to open the garage door. Yeah, I do love that siren.

There are two options to set the alarm. One option is the home setting where all of the doors and window sensors are active and the other option is the away setting where all of the doors and window sensors are active as are the motion detectors downstairs.

Even though the motion detectors are downstairs, we turn the alarm on to the home setting at night so if anyone raids the kitchen during the night, or when Phil goes down for breakfast in the morning, the alarm doesn't go off. The away setting is only for when we're all out of the house.

Yesterday evening, Ron went up in the attic for a cigarette and when he sat down, something in his pocket hit the key fob and I heard the alarm get activated. He futzed with the alarm upstairs and then again on the second floor where our alarm base is, setting it correctly. Or so we thought.

Picture this: it's after midnight and everyone in the house is sleeping but me. I'm in the office watching TV and playing Pogo and I was hearing funny noises in the house. While that's not altogether unusual, sometimes it is unnerving. I was trying to ignore the bumps in the night when an emergency unfrosted strawberry Poptart, toasted hard, hankering overtook me. Hey, my Poptart addiction is just one of the manifestations of my obsessive behaviour. You never know when an emergency unfrosted strawberry Poptart, toasted hard, hankering will take over my body. There was nothing that was going to get that hot strawberry goodness out of my head other than going downstairs, opening a packet and throwing it in the toaster on level 5.

Of course, that's what I did. However, as soon as I got to the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner, BLAM! The alarm was going off, the lights were flashing off and on, I didn't know what the hell was going on! This is what separates the girls from the women! Do I search the downstairs to find the breach in security or do I run upstairs, look at the base to see where the breach is and make the guys get up and take care of it? In case anyone had any doubt, I ran like a little girl up the stairs to check out the base.

Based on the lights lit on the base of the system, what tripped the alarm was me getting in sight of the motion detector. Duh. What happened after this, you ask? Well, not much. I reset the alarm, counted a few extra gray hairs in my head, got my heart rate slowed down to sub sonic speed, noted that NEITHER of the guys got up during the hub bub, then I went downstairs to toast my damn unfrosted strawberry Poptarts hard.

Aside from the extra gray hairs, my Poptarts were soooo worth it the extra excitement. That is some darn awesome strawberry goodness.

That's Just Wrong, Page 21

Where do I start this blog? Let's start with my buddy Howie Mandel here on the right.

I can relate to Howie in more ways than one. I have an understanding of his OCD. From the obsessive thoughts that are sometimes hard to get out of my head to the compulsive behavior and heaven help me, the germ phobia.

Now segue into my love of the library which can sometimes be the antithesis of my need to protect myself from germs.

Has anyone gotten a book from the library? No one knows what people do when they read public books. I have had pages freakin' stuck together. For real, I do NOT read the kind of books that you would expect to have pages stuck together. I have found what I believe to be pubic hair between the pages of library books as well as other bodily fluids and excretions. Ugh. From someone suffering from her own form of germ phobia, this is NOT good.

Anyway, I have a list of books that I want to read. I have a dozen or so authors like John Sandford, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell and David Baldacci just to name a few. I have lists printed on the works of each author I am currently reading and order them from the library in the order that they were written. I would never read an author out of order! One of my compulsions. Anyway, in between the authors I read, I come across a book that I hear about on line or on TV and I order it from my local library.

One of these books was the one shown above by Howie Mandel. It's a memoir of his life struggling with his ADHD, OCD and of course his germ phobia. I'm telling you, I could so relate to many parts of this book.

Anyway, I picked this book up from my library on Friday. Now, a book about a germ phobic being read by a fellow germ phobic should NOT be is this condition:

I have no idea what in the heck was spilled on this book but I actually had to argue with myself on whether or not to walk out of the library with this book! This is not one to read in bed since there is no way the bottom of this book is touching my bed, bedclothes, blankets, or even me. I read it sitting up while holding it away from my body. And, I washed my hands . . . A LOT.

I give this book two clean thumbs up. It was a good read that had some comedic parts but was a touching story of a man trying to live his life and raise his family in spite of the obstacles set in front of him. Howie Mandel's "Here's the Deal, Don't Touch Me". Get it from the book store, order it from Amazon, just don't order it from the Lorain County Library.

Defacing any book, let alone a library book, is just wrong.

Had To Move To Plan B

Look at this picture. Do you notice anything? Is there something missing here? Any one??

Yeah, that's what I thought. I've been looking at this hole in my kitchen toy cupboard for a few days now. For the life of me, I can't think of what it is. Bread machine? Bottom right, check. Bread slicer, steamer? Top left, check. George Foreman grills? Bottom middle, got it. Waffle irons? Top right, yeah, got two of them. What the heck is missing on the bottom left?

I even called Ron into the kitchen. I know I don't have that many toys in the kitchen, or at least not as many as I'd like, but c'mon, not even I would leave a space this big without storing something in there. Ron came over and looked and also drew a blank. No idea what was there. He even thought that perhaps that spot was always empty. Yeah, he's a guy; he didn't see anything wrong with a huge hole in a storage cabinet!

I let it go. I figured it couldn't be too important otherwise I'd know right off what was missing.

Fast forward a few days. I took a beef roast out of the freezer downstairs on Saturday to defrost it for Sunday. I thought, throw a roast in the crock pot and be done with working hard to get dinner on the table. I do love my crock pot!

Sunday morning, I was up and started working with the roast around 11:00 am. I had the roast seasoned and browning in a pan. That's when it happened. I went to the cupboard to get my crock pot out and what did I find? The empty hole in the cupboard! DUH!

It all came back to me. We had my family's Christmas dinner on Tuesday, December 29th. We carried Ron's famous vegan ranch beans to the party in my crock pot! When we left, we left the crock pot there with promises of getting together soon to retake possession of the crock pot. Yeah, who thought, huh?

So here I am, a roast already seasoned and browned and it's 11:30 am. What the heck am I to do? The old me would have made someone drive the seven miles to my brother's house to pick up the dang crock pot. But the new me came up with plan B. I decided to put the roast in a baking dish, put some tented foil over the roast and throw it in the oven on low and let it cook that way all day. I am good, huh?

I set the oven at 250 degrees, put the roast and some beef and veggie stock in, tented the foil and threw it in the oven. I honestly had no idea how long to cook this so I warned the guys that dinner could be ready at any time; not necessarily our regular dinner time.

I peeled and cut some potatoes and carrots to add into the roast at about 3:00. When I took the foil off of the roast, I could see the bone in the roast sticking out of the meat and the meat looked like it was falling apart already! I had to get the veggies in. Once I have a plan, it's hard to do a plan B on more than one portion of any activity! I've already used my one plan B up for making dinner!

I threw the veggies in and hoped that the meat would hold up until the veggies cooked. By 4:30 I could smell dinner all through the house. I was afraid any longer and dinner would just burn. So, like the old people that we are, we had dinner last night at 4:30 pm!



It was freakin' awesome! This had to be absolutely the best roast I've ever made. The meat absolutely fell apart and the veggies were cooked perfectly. We may have eaten on old people time, but we sure ate like we all had healthy appetites. Here is what was left when we were done.

So while I didn't have my crock pot, my plan B sure did work out well.

Say Hello, Say So Long

My friends, David and Edna, now live in San Diego. Between email, cell phones and video chats, we stay in touch as much as we can. So, talking to them recently, I knew they planned on staying in California this holiday season. There were NO plans on coming home this year.

Let's start with the day after Christmas. I had a lazy day and in the middle of the afternoon, David called me to wish me a happy holiday. Did I mention that I was having a lazy day? It was so lazy in fact that I was back in bed taking a serious nap. So, I'm woken out of a dead sleep by this phone call. Some days David is a bit off the wall when you're awake and sober! Waking from a dead sleep, it's sometimes hard to be on the same page with him.

All I know is that he kept saying "what's that noise?" I kept hearing someone knocking on his door. I told him to answer his damn door and the knocking would stop! He then told me it wasn't HIS door that had the knocking!

Luckily, Ron was wide awake during this time, heard the knocking for real and not just in my phone, and ran down the stairs to open the door. Sure enough, there was David and Edna at our door! Ron let them in, (hey, they were carrying TWO pies!! Of course, we'd let just about anybody in who was carrying TWO pies!)

Ron came running upstairs to tell me to get dressed because David and Edna were downstairs. I was still shaking the cobwebs from my head as I told him they couldn't be! I was on the phone with David after all! Surprise, surprise, they snuck into town without telling anyone and they were indeed downstairs.

Did I mention they brought pie?

So we had a great visit in our dining room, having coffee and eating pie. Now that was worth being woken from a nap for!

Last night we were hooking up again, this time including Edna's parents, Nick and Sally for a party at Lone Star Steakhouse.

Here is Sally and Nick:

The guests of honor, David and Edna!

Last but not least, I tried to take a picture of me and Ron! I'm the one you can barely see in the bottom corner of the picture! My niece JoBeth is the champ at taking pictures like this. Obviously, the length of my arm just isn't right. Either that or I can't aim. Yeah, one of those!

We were there for good times, for sure! We enjoyed the party, and even the food. Granted, I barely got pictures of the appetizers before the plates were empty.

Then, back to Nick and Sally's for Arabic coffee and good times.

We all had a great evening and now it's time to say so long, for now. Until the next visit, or until Ron and I knock on YOUR door with pies in hand!

New Decade Brings Changes

Since it's a new decade, I thought this blog needed a new look. So, here it is!

Other than that, I really don't have much to blog about today. Ron and I were planning a nice drive to his home town of Barberton, which is about an hour plus to the south east of us, just for a day out. After all, my back is doing better so we thought we'd road test it!

Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating. It's only 18 degrees out here and we're expecting one to three inches of snow today! That does NOT make for a great day to travel! After all, how could I enjoy my walk around Lake Anna when it's that cold? I'm telling you, it can't be done.

So, no Barberton Chicken today for us. No Sweet Henrie's Ice Cream. Hey, it's never too cold for Sweet Henrie's! But since we're not going, I don't get to get any Sweet Henrie's today. That's a huge bummer. And, of course, no Lake Anna.

So, what is a girl to do on a cold blustery day in Ohio? I'm cleaning my house. I know, it sucks, but it needs to be done.

That's is why on a day I am cleaning the house, I look for happiness where ever I can find it. And today, that happiness is a new look to my blog! Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it's 2010? Doesn't it seem like just yesterday that most of the world was panicking over Y2K? I rang in 2000 in Houston Texas, huddled in my apartment afraid with most of the world that planes were going to come crashing out of the air and that the world as we know it would no longer exist. I know, the biggest non-event ever, huh?

And believe it or not, it's 10 years later. An entire new decade. And, a time for firsts.

My FIRST New Year's resolution! I've never done this before because I've always thought it silly. No one should promise life changing events with a hangover. That just seems like a recipe for disaster to me. However, I am not hungover so I am ready to make a life changing promise to myself.

Before you get too excited, this is not going to be a vow to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy or any of those things I SHOULD be resolving to do. No, this is more personal and frankly a bad habit of mine that is getting on my nerves already.

Here we go. I resolve to STOP dropping the F-bomb!

C'mon now, where did that come from? In my younger years of tending bar, I picked up that bad habit. Hey, I heard it every night so much that I started saying it myself. I haven't tended bar in 20 years so that's not my excuse any longer. (Wow! 20 years? It still amazes me sometimes that I got old! But, I digress.)

I've only heard Ron drop an F-bomb a few times with one of those times being when he put his finger through a table saw. My brother Phil lives here now and while he's been known to drop an F-bomb, it's not the most predominant word in his vocabulary. So, why do I do it? Where did I re-pick that up from? Well, I don't know, but it HAS to stop. Even I'm tired of hearing me say it.

So there you go. I have publicly resolved to stop dropping the F-bomb. I need some kind of repercussion for messing up. I'm not sure what that's going to be yet, but please, if you hear me slip, remind me of this post. This is my start to trying to be a better person in 2010!

Happy New Year to all. May this be a healthy and prosperous year for us all.

I Did It In 24 Words

I stole, I mean borrowed, this an idea from my nephew Michael a few years ago. I thought I'd revisit it again this year.

So, here is my year in 25 words or less:

i was fired via fedex
crocheted a lot
cubs' season sucked
learned to cook
cathie visited
found acupuncture again
finally pain free
still unemployed

Ok, not a stellar year, but nothing catastrophic for me. Then again, that pain free part is worth the world to me. And, I'm hopeful that 2010 will be a winner! A new beginning and I am full of hope.

As a side note, today would have been my sister Barbara's birthday. Happy birthday, my sister. After all of these years, I still miss you terribly.

Please Explain: Red Lobster

We enjoyed some Christmas booty gift card goodness tonight!

One of our presents this year was a Darden gift certificate. In our area, this is good at Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze (one of our FAVORITE places, but it's way on the other side of Cleveland), Olive Garden and LongHorn Steak House.

Ron and I decided to go out to dinner tonight but we didn't want to drive too far. Hence, Red Lobster.

If you've never been to a Red Lobster, let me give you the run down. It's a national chain with decent food. Is it exceptional food? No. Is it good food? Yes. I think it's a little high priced as I've had better seafood for less money, but it's ok once in awhile. Or, when you're enjoying Christmas booty gift cards!!

But, back to the restaurant. What I can't understand is that this restaurant is packed; all of the time! No matter when you drive by Red Lobster, the parking lot is packed. If you do find a place to park, the restaurant always has a line of customers waiting for a table.

I don't get it. Overpriced, albeit decent food but a constant line to get in? The high point of going to a Red Lobster has to be their service. We've been there twice now in the last month and I'm telling you, they have some of the best servers in the business. Each server made sure that our dining experience was the best it could be. She educated us on the choices available, made a few suggestions to help our decision making process and even scored us some extra rolls.

Ok, Red Lobster cheddar biscuits, rolls or whatever they are, are absolutely some of the best things I've ever had! We had a couple left over after dinner and Alicia, our server, suggested a bag to take the biscuits home. When she brought the to go bag for us, she even threw in a couple of extra biscuits for us! C'mon now, that's a SCORE!

So there you go. It was a very nice dinner, a great evening out with my honey. So, location was a deciding factor for us going to Red Lobster, but what about the other 50 people waiting in line to get a table? On a Wednesday night? I don't get it. Tavern on the Green is closing tomorrow but Red Lobster in Elyria Ohio is raking it in hand over fist.

It has to be the servers.

A Sight Rarely Seen

Yes, it's true. Phil shoveling snow!

If you didn't see it, you might not believe it. But, yesterday we couldn't get the riding lawn mower/plow started. The battery finally died to the point that it couldn't even be charged with our battery charger.

Yes, I know it's December and we do live in Ohio. But, that first good snow fall still comes as a bit of a shock. I took the second picture when it wasn't even snowing at its worst yesterday! Just after this picture, it did get so bad outside that I couldn't see this fence across the street. Luckily it didn't last too long like that, but long enough to have to get the snow off of the driveway.

So, I grabbed a shovel and started the job by hand. If anyone has seen our driveway, it's a good long one, plus the parking pad behind the house.

You know my back is feeling better when my happy ass is out there shoveling! So, I did part and then Phil came home and took over the shoveling duties.

Phil even suggested the picture of him shoveling to commemorate the occasion! Great job, my brother!

Winner Winner Turkey Dinner!

Anyone who is as addicted to the Food Network like I am can tell I watch Guy Fieri with that title! Is he the bomb or what?! But, I digress.

The turkey came out great! Here is the turkey still in the pan before carving. It was a beauty to behold.

The three of us macked on a dinner of roasted turkey, stuffing, home made gravy made from pan drippings (a FIRST for me!), mashed sweet potatoes and creamed spinach. It was a great meal.

I'll tell you one thing, the triptophan from this turkey really hit me between the eyes. I picked up the kitchen, and pretty much just put the carcase in the fridge. I usually clean off the carcase the night I make the turkey but I was just too tired.

Ron and I came upstairs and I tried to play Pogo and I tried to watch TV but I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I ended up laying down for a 15 minute power nap. Man, that helped like no one's business!

So now I look around my house and what do I see? It desperately needs cleaned, top to bottom! Is it going to get done today? Oh heck no. That's what Mondays are for. Today, I am going to relax, and crochet my heart out while watching trash TV. Now that's what holiday weekends are all about.

Santa Was Here!

In case any one out there doesn't know it, Santa lives here in the off season! The heck with the cold of the North Pole. In truth, Santa loves Lorain! Here he is coming out of his room last night, on his way to Bay Village to spread the Christmas joy!

For Christmas Eve dinner last night, we went all out. With no family left, all of the old traditions are lost forever and some times I miss that. So, since I didn't have the traditional Slovak Christmas Eve dinner of babulki and sweet rice last night do you wanna know what we had? Pizza! Yes, pizza!

Unfortunately, we weren't thinking too clearly about a need for pizza on Christmas Eve. We started with one of our new favorite places in town, Selenti's Pizza. They closed at five o'clock. That sucked at 5:30 when I was trying to call for pizza! Plan "B" was to just go grab a couple of $5.00 pizzas from Little Caesar's Pizza. Wrong. They were closed already as well. What the heck! Luckily Ron was thinking and came up with Plan "C"! We headed over to Georgio's for the $3.99 pizzas! In a pinch, they were just fine.

After dinner, Santa headed out on his present delivering mission. When Santa got home last night from delivering all of the toys, we had our Christmas. If I do say so myself, I made out pretty darn good!

From the dutch oven that I wanted to fru fru girl stuff to my Wrigley Field sign and "bear hug" night shirt! Hey, a girl should ALWAYS know which direction to Wrigley Field. This could be our year! But, I digress.

So there you go. It's finally Christmas Day, the turkey is roasting in the oven and we're all still in jammies playing on our computers. I feel the love here, huh?

Brother Jim will come to town on Sunday for a few days of laughing, arguing and family time. I'm saving the turkey pot pie dinner for him! And for the record, I make a darn good pot pie!

So that's all the news worth printing here from Ohio. May we all find peace and happiness in this Blessed season, and throughout the New Year.

Another Good Visit

My friend from when I was in diapers, Maura, and her husband John, come up almost every year from Florida at Christmas time.

It's usually a stop to see his family in Virginia, her family in Erie and a stop to see me in Ohio on their way home! What a trip, huh? Especially for Floridians in the winter time!

Well, this year, the huge storm that hit the east coast has put their trip in peril. They tried to make it to Virginia as planned, but Virginia was virtually closed. His family told them to turn around, there was no way they were making it in the weather. So a last minute change of plans turned out to be good for me. They headed westward, missed some of the horrible weather and they were able to make it to Ohio instead.

We had a few days of giggles (no matter how old we are, Maura and I ALWAYS giggle!), lots of catching up, cooking and bread making. I'm telling you, it was a good visit!

I even had Maura go with me to my acupuncture appointment. All I had to worry about was her charming Frank, my acupuncturist, into letting HER put in the needles! Yeah, I didn't think about that until I was on the table already! Fortunately for me, Frank kept control of the needles and all was good in my world.

So, after forty six years of friendship, we actually found a few things to do together that we've never done before, namely, the acupuncture. And they've said it couldn't be done!

So, that's been my week. I've been having fun with visitors and celebrating the Season. What else can a girl ask for?

Public Service Announcement

This is just a public service announcement. This is free of charge and meant only to educate my readers so that you don't have to find this out on your own.

If you bake potatoes in the oven, when you use a pot holder to take a potato OUT of the oven, please make sure you place said spud on the counter securely. That is my advice to you.

I happen to know from experience that if that potato is NOT on the counter securely and it happens to roll off of the counter and on to the floor, it will freakin' EXPLODE when it hits the floor.

Now, Ron was nice enough to point out that at least that meant that the potato was done, that didn't help with the clean up which by the way was a good six foot radius from the point of impact. Have you ever tried to clean up hot baked potato from your floor? Yeah. Not pretty.

I Need A Salon

I have been talking about needing a haircut for a couple of months now. It's just not something that was important enough to be put into my budget.

However, it's been a year since my last hair cut, my ends were so dry and yucky, I just had to bite the bullet and go for a cut.

The last place I went to for a cut was a salon in the area. The girl that did my hair was wonderful, and listened to what I said and cut my hair exactly like I wanted it! I just love it.

She called me a few months later and told me that she had left the salon and gave me the number of her next salon. I actually gave her a call there about a month ago, and came to find out she's no longer at THAT salon either. Grrr.

Since I've moved to Ohio, I've just gone to a Best Cuts or something similar for a hair cut. But, you get what you pay for. These places mostly seem to employ people right out of school and not all that sure what to do with their scissors. I actually broke down on the last hair cut, paid a few extra dollars and loved the results.

Since I couldn't find my stylist again, I decided to give that salon another try.

I found their phone number on the Internet and called them last Friday hoping to get in sometime in the week before Christmas for a hair cut only. I couldn't believe the rigmarole I had to go through to get a freakin' haircut! The way she was talking, I am assuming that I was talking to the owner.

Owner: Can I help you?

Me: Yes, I'd like to make an appointment for next week to come in for a hair cut.

Owner: Um, well, which stylist do you normally go to?

Me: I don't have a particular stylist in mind. Are you accepting new clients?

Owner: Well, yes, but you'd have to call the individual stylist on their cell phones to make an appointment.

* * * * * * * * silence * * * * * * * *

Me: Is there someone you recommend?

Owner: Well, I guess you could call (unintelligible). Hang on while I find her number.

Me: Could you spell her name for me?

Owner: (with disgust) It's C - L - Y

Me: Thank you. (duh, why couldn't I figure that out?)

So, I wait and wait, not understanding why I can't make an appointment just calling the main line to the salon.

Owner: The number is xxx-xxxx.

Click.

Damn! Maybe I've just been watching too many episodes of Tabatha's Salon Takeover (don't you just LOVE that show?????) but this is piss poor customer service.

I hung up with what I am assuming was the owner and decided to just go back to Best Cuts. Ugh, my second mistake.

I finally went for my cut on Thursday.

The girl that did my hair was very perky and personable and a pleasure to chat with for the 10 minutes I was in her chair. She told me that she's been working in this Best Cuts for six years now and was very happy there. I thought that was a darn good sign that she wasn't just out of school and has at least six years experience! I wanted a basic cut. I wanted about five inches chopped off, a few layers put in and long bangs. I hate having to trim bangs every two weeks to keep them out of they eyes or to prevent them from flipping. Not for me.

So, my glasses are in my hands so I can't see a thing, she's cutting away and chatting and I have no idea what she's doing. At the end, she asks me what I think so I put my glasses on and give it a quick once over. The length is right where I wanted it, a few layers in there, eh, it looked ok to me.

Friday night we go to dinner with our friends, so I thought I'd get a little dolled up. I had a little product in my hair and thought I'd go all out and even run the curling brush through it. That's like a curling iron, but it's a brush instead of just an iron. It saves me on having any burnt ear lobes!

The first section of hair I grabbed at the crown of my head, I couldn't believe how uneven this was! It was a good inch higher on one side than the other. What the hell! I know little to nothing about hair cuts, but even I could tell that something was wrong! It's funny because when I came home on Thursday, even Ron mentioned that the haircut didn't look straight. I kinda brushed that comment off thinking it's cold out, some of my hair is probably inside of my jacket, he's just not looking at it right. Man, he sure ended up knowing what he was talking about.

Each section of my hair seemed to be off. I had a heck of a time rolling any of the sections around that damn brush! Oh well.

Now that I have a little curl, a little hair spray, it doesn't look horrible, but I know it's a crap haircut. I know I should go back and make her fix it, but I'm kinda afraid to go back there again and let her at my hair! She may be nice, but she sucked at cutting my hair!

So . . . where do you go to get a decent hair cut? I don't do color, or extensions or foils or any of that other magic. I just want a decent hair cut. Am I asking too much?

The Laws Of Physics Did Not Apply

Yesterday, I had a hankering for supper to have some comfort food.

There are a handful of things I make for comfort food (remember my orange spaghetti stories!) and one of the things on my list is our potato pancakes.

Now this is a relatively simple dish, but it is time consuming. First of all, you need the perfect grater, which is shown to the left. This grater has to have the exactly right sized holes and not all graters do.

Some have said that I should move up to the food processor age and do my pancakes that way. But, i say nay to that. I don't think the food processors grate the potatoes to the correct consistency. You have to have THIS grater.

Along with the correct grater, you need the perfect potatoes. You can't just decide right now that you want to have potato pancakes. You have to decide you're going to have them about three to four weeks from now. You really need old Idaho potatoes - the more eyes on them the better! New potatoes just don't work right, just ask my sister Cathie. She had an entire batch she had to throw out because new potatoes suck in pancakes.

It's a simple recipe. Grate as many potatoes as you're going to eat, then do a few more because these are great to munch on each time you walk through the kitchen after dinner.

Add an egg or two, some salt and pepper to taste and then flour. You add enough flour so that when you put a spoon full of the mixture into the hot Crisco, it doesn't spatter from too much water in the batter. That's it. Really easy. The hard part is frying all of the pancakes in the hot oil. There's nary a pancake dinner that goes by that I don't have at least one burn from the grease. But, it's so worth it.

Now with three of us here, I make a lot more pancakes than I used to. The best pan to fry these pancakes in is a cast iron skillet. I have one cast iron skillet that is 10" big and I fit four pancakes at a time. That's just too slow to feed three of us.

So, I grab my 10" stainless steel fry pan and put four more pancakes in there. They do fry up ok in the stainless steel, but it's a lot slower. I will get two batches made in the cast iron skillet in the time it takes to do one batch in the stainless steel skillet. Well, a little help using the stainless steel is better than nothing.

I can't tell you how many batches I've made this way in my years of cooking. Piece of cake, I could do it in my sleep.

Well, yesterday I was like in the twilight zone or something as something just wasn't right.

The potatoes are regular Idaho potatoes from Sam's Club. I thought they were at least three weeks old, but maybe they weren't. They felt ok as I was peeling them but when I went to grate them, they were softer than I expected. Usually your arm gets pretty damn sore grating through all of them spuds so I end up calling on Ron and Phil to come down and take turns grating. This time, I did the entire batch by myself. The potatoes almost felt like they wanted to melt right through the grater. It was strange.

Anyway, I got all of the ingredients in the bowl, it's all mixed up well, a good quarter inch of molten grease is hot in both of my pans and I'm ready to start. I place four spoons of mix into the stainless steel pan, and flatten them into thin cakes with the spoon. Check. I repeated this process in the cast iron pan. Check.

To keep the frying even, I will turn them about 180 degrees in the pan during the frying since with a gas stove they tend to cook faster towards the middle of the pan than on the outsides of the pan. I went to check the stainless steel pan and the bottoms of all of the cakes were very browned. Not burnt, but definitely ready to turn over in the pan! What? I don't even have one batch done yet in the cast iron skillet! From the hot oil, the pancakes go onto a plate with paper towels to get off some of the grease them I put them in a cake pan in a warm oven just so they don't get cold while I wait for all of them to be done and we can all eat together.

Both pans were frying these pancakes faster than I have ever fried them before. I figured it would be well over an hour of frying with the amount of batter I made and I was DONE in 35 minutes.

It has to be some freaky ass spuds that I was using. This pancakes should be nice and flat and crispy and golden brown on both sides. I had the brown part down flat but these damn cakes were not crispy.

It was just down right weird. I have never had my potato pancakes fry up like this. Now, don't think we wasted all of these sub par patties. They all got slathered in Log Cabin syrup and devoured and all of the extras seemed to disappear through the night as well. They were ok, but they weren't really good. I did not feel comforted.

I am disappointed. I just bought a new bag of spuds from Sam's Club on Tuesday. Maybe I should just get another new bag to use in our day to day cooking and leave the ones from Tuesday alone and make pancakes for my birthday dinner on January 16th (hint, hint!). Hmm, that's not a bad idea! They better come out a lot better than this batch did.

A Face Is Worth A Thousand Words

While I have been known to be technologically challenged I gotta tell you I am a HUGE fan of video chatting. This technology just blows my mind.

I don't have very many friends or family near me any longer, so this is the best (and cheaper than a plane ticket!) way of staying in touch.

I'm old enough to remember that the way I used to have contact with my sister Cathie was via snail mail. Once a week, I'd write a letter to her. There was no spell check, and sometimes I couldn't remember what I told her in my last letter and would repeat it in the next one.

From there we went to email. A little faster and even better, I had a record of what I had written about.

Then, on to cell phones. At least I didn't have to worry about my long distance bill any longer! If the written word was good, the phone call was even better. But now . . . . we . . . . have . . . . VIDEO CHAT!!

I have video chatted, in real time, with my sister Cathie in Ojai California, with my best friend in Kissimmee Florida, with my niece and her family in Rochester New York, and thanks to a sleepless night for my brother, a great video chat from China! Talk about reaching out to touch some one. Way awesome.

Now let's talk about my good friends, David and Edna who have now moved to San Diego California. Again, numerous emails go back and forth as well as phone calls. I finally talked them into a trip to their local Best Buy for a video camera. Too bad we didn't tape ME trying to be THEIR technical support to get them hooked up. Yes, we had to call Ron in for an assist! With Ron's help, we got the two of them up and running and videoing.

It's been a blast to get rid of those 2500 miles, give or take, and be able to hold a real conversation with the four of us. So now who could we convert next?

Edna's parents, Nick and Sally, live here in Ohio. While Nick does do some things on the computer, he's even less savvy with it than I am. I thought with David and Edna now so far away, her parents might appreciate being able to see their baby face to face as well.

Ron just set up Nick's brand new computer recently, so I knew they were set with hardware, other than the camera. When David provided the camera, we headed over to Nick and Sally's. Ron was installation of hardware and I was software support.

Now, I have to tell you something about these people. They are absolutely the bomb! I didn't think when we made plans to head over to set them up for video chatting that they were providing dinner. You all know how I feel about free food! I am ALL for it!

We sat down to dinner, and Nick said that Sally wanted to cook American food for us, but he thought we could have American food any time. So, Sally cooked their Arabic food for us. I gotta tell you, one dish was better than the next! I am glad Nick got to overrule Sally on that one!

I'm not going to pretend I knew the name of any of the dishes or every thing that was in each dish, but in layman's terms, we had some sort of stuffed squash, stuffed eggplant, a rice dish and a sauce with tomatoes that went over ALL of it! There was also a side dish of these spicy pickled veggies with carrots, celery, pepperoncini and I don't know what else. Just hearing that was spicy, I didn't taste that one, but Ron loved it!

So, we had a great dinner, complete with some good wine! I tried to be a good guest and got up to start doing to dishes. Nick would have none of it. Ok, fine. At least I can stack the dishes for him. NOT! According to Nick, if you stack the dirty dishes, then you have to wash BOTH sides of the dish instead of just the side you used. C'mon now, is this man GENIUS or what?!?!?

So after dinner, we got to work.

Well, Ron got to work, I watched. He got the hardware all set up and then I went in and wrote out step by step instructions for Nick on how to get into Gmail and then how to start a video chat. (By the way, sorry Nick. I seem to have stolen your pen after writing them directions! Not to worry, I'll take good care of it!)

Now all we had to do was wait for the California people to get home from work. Darn that time difference! Finally, a few phone calls to help everyone get on the same page and we were up and running!

As soon as both ends were set up and everyone could see everyone, there wasn't many a dry eye in the place.

Ron and I excused ourselves and let the family catch up face to face.

Video chatting - a face really is worth a thousand words.

Is It Christmas Already?

Can you believe it's that time of year again?

Yesterday we celebrated Ron's family Christmas gathering.

We went to the Sand Run Metro Park and had rented the Shady Hollow Pavilion which is a beautiful log cabin complete with kitchen facilities, inside bathrooms, wood burning heater, tables, chairs and what a view. The place was perfect for this gathering.

A park ranger even stopped in every few hours to add more wood to the fire for us. What service! With a fire roaring, plus 30 or so people in the cabin, it got pretty toasty in there.

As you can see, even Phil went in costume! Sammie and Caleb were thrilled to see Santa, but nothing like little McKenna who thought this was her best day ever with her new best friend Santa! She has her head laying over on Santa's hand and I wish I had a picture where Santa went for a walk with the kids and McKenna was holding on to him as if her life depended on it! Way too cute!

We all ate our fill (of course, Ron took his famous Ranch Beans!), had a great time with family. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that one of the brightest spots here is seeing Ron's cousin Tom and his wife Margie. I've mentioned before that Tom was made for picking on! And, boy did he fulfill his duty yesterday! Anyway, the kids all enjoyed opening their presents, as did the adults.

For this gathering, each couple has to make a home made gift for each other couple. I crocheted a little present for everyone, someone else made home made salsa (YUM!), someone else made home made note cards from photos and drawings. This packet even included pens and stamps! Way cool. There was a tortilla soup mixture to make your own cup of soup, complete with a Christmas cup! My personal favorite (sorry but it's true!) is Sarah Beth's home made buckeye candy! I tell her every year that if she quits making that candy, I'm not going to any more parties! They are absolutely the bomb!! So you get an idea of home made gifts.

It's a great idea on a gift exchange. It's something personal from everyone and it comes from the heart.

After the gift exchange, we had our second annual white elephant gift exchange. Every adult brings in something small and we pick numbers to see the order we pick presents. The best part is that if someone before you picked a great prize, you can steal their prize instead of picking a new present from the stack. This year everyone was way too nice. There was minimal stealing. Last year, presents were flying back and forth all over the room! Oh well. There is always next year.

So there you go. Like it or not, Christmas time is indeed here.

If anyone else making buckeyes, please invite me! I travel for candy.