A Quiet Memorial Day

We started the day off by having breakfast at a local diner. Nothing special. We then went to Home Depot because we need a certain wood protector for our newly purchased 6x12 trailer shown here.



We bought it on Saturday. It was just built last month and the man who owns the place where we bought it uses a certain brand of wood protector and we want to keep using the same brand. When we inquired about the protector at Home Depot, we were told to try Lowes. Not in my lifetime. I will never step foot into a Lowes store. Why? Because that is Jimmie Johnson's sponsor thankyouverymuch and you all know how I feel about him and his dang Lowes.

Our next stop was down the road at a plant/flower nursery where we bought two of these baskets for my front porch:





Our next stop was to find a microwave to replace the one we have that has gone insane. I swear it is possessed. It stops in the middle of cooking at times. And worse yet it starts itself when there's nothing inside. We found this one on sale at a really nice price.



It's stainless steel; I've never had one of them. It takes up less room than our current microwave but has a higher wattage and much faster cooking time. I like things done fast.

With all our goodies in tow it was finally time to go home and relax. We had also picked up lava rock for the gas grill which I haven't used since '04. I just wasn't in a grilling mood last year and made everything inside on my George Foreman grill. So I dusted off the grill outside, hosed it down (with the lid closed, of course), laid the new lava rock inside and turned it on. Nothing. I tried again and still nothing. OK time to call the husband (when all else fails that is what I do). He thinks the striker doesn't work anymore. So he lit it with my long butane lighter that I use to light my jar candles. And I took it from there.

All in all we had a nice quiet day, just the two of us.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning when I went out to feed the cats (with my camera in hand). Here's one of the triplets. It was all I could do not to scoop the little fella up and run.



But here is its mama and she takes good care of her babies. I know she wouldn't let me get too close to it.

What A Day

Yes, I most certainly did. Not that I wanted to. It just happened over the course of the day.

My first problem was when I wanted to open my email. A former co-worker sent me a movie clip. Well over 30 times. I don't know why or how it happened but it clogged up my email system so badly that it took me all day working on it to get it cleared up. And that only happened an hour ago at around 11:30 pm. I am surprised I am still sane. The darn things just would not download. If I told you all the things I tried, all the things I went through etc, well...we'd be here forever. I did everything but stand on my head. I finally went over to another site where my mail is via my provider and was able to clear that out. I never visit there because I am so used to my Outlook Express. When I opened it up I had no idea what I was doing and was not able to delete as I had gone way over my disk space. Needless to say, I really felt stupid because everything was changed around since I last visited there. Guess I should make it a habit to look in on it now and then. Eventually I managed to figure things out and was able to delete everything.

Well, the next nasty thing that happened was with the Indy 500. I was really happy to see Marco and Michael Andretti running in the top 10 for most of the day. Marco is only 19 and he is the son of Michael and the grandson of Mario Andretti. They live in Nazareth which is not far from where I live. I have been a huge Andretti fan ever since I first met Mario back in the early 70's. Fast forward to the race: Marco had just passed his father to take the lead in the last couple of laps. I was ecstatic to say the least, almost jumping out of my chair. I thought maybe Michael left him pass which was OK with me. At that point either one winning would have made me very happy. And then a robber came along just before the finish line and stole the win right out from Marco. Sam Hornish Jr. went on to win the race. How rude! Not a fan.

OK, so now we move on to making dinner. I made chicken in the oven. And I burned my hand. I hate when that happens.

Last but not least is the CocaCola 600. I didn't know if I even wanted to watch the race. I knew how it was going to end. And I didn't like that ending. A certain Lowes-sponsored driver has been winning at the Lowes track far too long. Enough so that he calls the track "his house". His house my foot. And I would personally like to plant my foot up his you know what. Well, the good part is he didn't win. I think we can now say that it is no longer his house. Kasey Kahne rules the roost for now. Thank you Kasey. My hero.

Junior started 34th. Around halfway he had been running in the top 10 or so. I was happy. And then disaster struck. He pitted out of his box with one of the tires being right on the line. NASCAR said he had to pay a penalty for that so-called misdeed. He went a lap down. And when you receive a penalty you cannot get a lap back via the "lucky dog" rule. Drat. That is when I became very disinterested in the race. Later on I heard them say on my headphones that Junior was in 20th and on the lead lap. OK, now I am suddenly interested again. He worked his way up to the top 10 and at the end of the race he was in 11th place. Good, I will take that. We have to look at the big picture (The Chase).

So the day started very badly, went downhill, but ended not too bad. Tomorrow's another day. I hope that bowl of stupid ain't waiting for me.

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

I grew up on Westerns. I am still a big fan of them. I wear Western boots most of the time. So does my husband.

Every Saturday when I was a kid and a teenager my oldest cousin would take me to the local theater to catch the latest Western that was showing there. As a result I saw a lot of them. I had a lot of heroes but my all-time favorite back then was Roy Rogers.

TV Westerns? You bet. I watched practically all of them. And there were a lot. I was in heaven. Till the Western genre dried up. Then I wasn't so happy. Westerns also started disappearing from the big screen.

I watched Brokeback Mountain a few days ago and I must say, I will never look at cowboys the same way. I loved the movie ~ very poignant and yes, I cried at the end. I'm a Heath Ledger fan (I discovered him in A Knight's Tale, one of my all-time favorite movies) so that helped me to be able to digest the content of the film.

It certainly changed my way of thinking about cowboys though. Perhaps a better title for this post would have been "Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys."

Rude Awakening

We all go through life doing this, doing that, trying our best to eke out some kind of existence in our little piece of the world.

And then after all that living, planning, caring, you name it, life creeps up on you, whacks you across the face and you realize the end is closer than you think.

And when life finally grabs you and seeps out ever so slowly, you think to yourself:

In the end, nothing really matters...

We're born, we live, we die. That simple. Poof, you're gone.

Just Wondering...

...why do all those kids that do the Welch's Juice commercials sound alike but look so different? Could it be they are being voiced over by an adult talking like a child? I have been wondering about that for years. The kids change but the voice never does.

On another note, I cannot stand when this commercial comes on and I actually either leave the room or look away from the TV. Ugh!


But I absolutely adore this little fellow...I think I am in love. It must be the voice. Even though I have seen the commercials countless times, I still stop what I am doing and give him my full attention.

What The Hell Is This?

And for my second post on the same day...

I was looking over the photos involving Saturday's All-Star race and stumbled upon this one. Well, this certainly adds fuel to the fire, doesn't it?

Can someone please enlighten me as to what is going on with these two? Do they not hear the rumors? Or do they just not care.

Oh, and by the way, have they kicked JG to the curb or is he still "involved?" Not to mention "poor little Chandra" the emaciated one. Maybe that's why she doesn't eat ~ she keeps gagging everytime she sees those two together. (Well Chandra so do I, so do I.)

Sorry if I offended anyone with this post, but those two above infuriate me beyond words.

Finally On Top & Not The Bottom

This is my team and has been since the franchise started up back in 1962. I have stuck with them through good times and bad times...



I don't want to jinx them by writing too much here, but right now they are doing really, really well and are at the top of their division. I will be a Mets fan till the day I die.

I must admit I do miss Mike Piazza, who was a catcher for them last year. Very nice eye candy. He's with the San Diego Padres now and has also married a former playboy bunny, I believe.
Mike was with the Mets from 1998 to 2005 and amassed some amazing stats while with them.

So I will keep my fingers crossed and hope they continue to do well this year and at least get to the playoffs. I haven't had this much hope for them for so long and I truly hope and believe this is their year to shine. Really...they've been dull for so long I was beginning to think we were all losers. (Because my football team is the San Francisco 49ers and I won't even go there as to how they have been doing lately.)

Lord knows these Mets are long overdue. The team, that is...because most of the players are new this year. I think they may have finally spent their money wisely on their choice of players this year.

They are known as The Amazin' Mets and in 1969 when they won the World Series, they became known as The Miracle Mets. They also won the World Series in 1986. Let's hope there is another one in the not too distant future!

I Am Royally Pissed

Why?

Because...#1) That idiot won the All Star race, and

#2) Someone switched drivers on me and I voted for Dale Jarrett in the Most Popular Driver contest.

How it happened I don't know. They used my secondary email address that I only use for voting in that particular contest. I haven't retrieved my mail from there in such a long time, that they shut it down and bounced all messages back to their senders. That may have given someone a clue that they could use it, I don't know. I am assuming that is what happened.

The mail that goes to that email address is all SPAM. Nothing worth reading, so I never did. I didn't know that after four months of inactivity they deactivate it. And it's been a looooong time since I checked the mail there. So, I suppose, it is my own fault.

Not to worry...I know how to outsmart those thieves, but I'll never tell.

Mennonites In Belize

Belize, as you know, is a small country located in Central America.

To find out that Mennonites inhabit that part of the world was a bit of a shock to me. And they've been there since the early 50's.

However, once I thought about it...it made perfect sense to me. Their simple values are being overrun here in the States by our "I want it, and I want it now" attitude. The temptations here are just too great. So, to instill their traditions and teachings etc. in their children, they go to other "low profile" countries and take up residence.

I don't mean to put them down or put down any countries that they move to, live in, etc. Actually, I admire them. They don't need "things" and get along quite well amongst themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if we all could accomplish that in this country?

Brazen Little Bugger

Around here we call this guy a groundhog, but in most circles they are known as a woodchuck. Either way, I don't cotton to liking them very much.

They dig holes all over the place; one resides under our deck with an escape hole somewhere under there. They come out at dusk to eat their greens. I usually see one right outside the kitchen window. I tap on the window and whoooom! off he goes under the deck.

This guy lives under a small pile of lumber behind our shed and off to the left of where I feed the cats. He has three escape holes. I guess he's not taking any chances. This is the only day that I saw him do this. He was about 10-12 feet away from me while I was feeding the cats. I "talked" to him (I am assuming it's a him ~ could be a her) and he never moved.

Since that day I have gone around the other side of the shed to burn some trash; he must have been sunbathing because as soon as he saw me, he took off like a bat out of hell whistling all the way. A very shrill whistle. I almost jumped out of my skin. Have you ever heard a groundhog whistle?

I think there may be more than one under that woodpile because this one is quite small yet. Their population around here just keeps growing. We've been "putting up" with them since moving here in '86. You can't get rid of them because more will just take their place. At least they don't eat the cat's food like the skunks have been doing during the night.

Speaking of skunks...we used to have a little one visit us almost every night during the summer. I remember one time I went out to feed the cats (way before we had the current crop). I kept the food in the shed back then. I went in to get some, turned around and was ready to walk out when the little skunk appeared right outside the door in my path. Yikes! My husband wasn't home and I had visions of spending the night in the shed. I started talking to him and telling him to go back to his momma. Eventually he left so I must have gotten through to him. He knew I was no threat to him because I was the one in the corner, not him.

Dreary Days Ahead

This is my droopy tree thanks to all the rain we are receiving. This is what I see when I look out the kitchen window. I shot both these yesterday. See that old truck there? That's where one of the cats had her kittens and there are currently 5 little ones residing in there along with Mama.

It's a wet, soggy day out there. And I hear tell it will be this way all week. That really does wonders for my well being. Not. It just makes things worse for me. So here I am, alone in this house until my husband comes home tonight. No one to talk to. Now it's just me and the TV and my good old friend, Mr. Computer. Without those two I think I would go insane.

I thought things were supposed to get better as one gets older. How can anything get better when your loved ones (human and animal) keep leaving?

All I can do is have faith that things will get better and try not to dwell too much on the past. This latest blow will be with me for quite some time.

But as they say, the sun will come out tomorrow...well, maybe by the weekend, if we're lucky.

I Have A Headache

I recently had a huge problem trying to post something I had set aside in draft mode. Once I got it to post I realized there was some gobbledygook letters that needed to be deleted from the finished product. And I couldn't figure out how to do it. I tried printing the drafted product but I couldn't do that either. Somehow I managed to get it copied. I don't remember how, although the last paragraph was dropped off. And the last sentence. Luckily I remembered what they were.

So, from there I now had to delete the post and rewrite it. But I couldn't get the photos downloaded onto the post. I tried several times before I just plain gave up. At one point I thought I had lost the whole thing...again. By then, the beast in my head was just starting to wake up. I don't get headaches anymore, but the problems I encountered were catastrophic.

OK, so now I get everything in order (I thought) and I realized a new thing. I can actually preview what I saved to draft mode. How can this be? I could never do this before. And there across the top of my screen was all the things I had before my new template was put in place. And I thought "Oh no, I lost my template." So, I went to look. Nope, everything seemed to be ok yet. I shut the computer down, started it up again, went to look. Yep, everything still seems ok. Well, now I am perplexed. Totally. Just what the heck is going on.

I started hitting tabs. Duh...I hit Edit html and up pops my icons that go with my new template. Everything is back to normal. Being a bit nosey, I then hit the tab Compose and voila! There are the old icons. So I think I can go back to using italics and bold and all that good stuff. See, I can't do that with the new template, as it governs what I can and can't do.

So I decided to give it a try by typing this and putting it into draft mode and see just what happens. It may be for naught if this all goes back to being governed by my template and takes away the italics etc. Won't that be a kick in the ass.

In Memory Of Jasper

Rest in peace little one

1995-2006

Should It Stay or Should It Go?

I must decide what goes and what stays ~ and where to put what stays.

I throw things out on a daily basis mostly. But then "stuff" comes in on a daily basis via the U.S. mail. Like magazines and catalogs I never asked/sent for. Catalogs that state "This could be your last catalog unless you place an order now." And I never do. But they just keep sending them anyway. Why? Can't they take a hint?

But that's just a tiny amount of my clutter. I hate to throw anything out, really. Like my Mom used to always say "You never know when you're going to need it." Except that some of the things haven't been needed in so long that they are now possibly antiques.

But I am slowly coming to terms with throwing things out. We have what I call a third bedroom. It is anything but. Last year I actually cleared it out. However, my living room suffered because that was my "staging area." The boxes of things I put there were just by the front door, ready to go to wherever they needed to go. I don't have to tell you that they never left the house. Just where did they go? Back into the third bedroom. Why? Because it was Christmas and we needed space to put the tree by the front window of that room. Back to square one. Oh, but at least now the things are in boxes.

Sometimes it just overwhelms me tremendously. Needless to say, the stuff must go this summer.

We used to go to yard/garage sales. A lot. And we bought. A lot. And I thought, why am I doing this when I have enough of my own stuff to get rid of. So we stopped going to them. Best decision I ever made. Well, almost the best.

My house is not messy, it's just not "everything in its place" tidy. I have what you call organized clutter. And I do intend to conquer this problem of mine. But how can I do that when one thing goes and another takes its place?

While getting my thoughts together for the subject matter, I Googled "clutter" images and this is what I found:


I damn near laughed my ass off. And that's a lot of laughing.

I Have An Excuse

Sorry for not posting as much as I used to, but I have a very sick bunny on my hands and have been playing nursemaid.

We took her to the vet Saturday morning. They took X-rays and drew blood. That came back today and she is normal except for being anemic. So this Thursday she will get a Vitamin B shot for that and it should make her feel better and give her more energy.

She recently lost the use of her front legs, and everyone is trying to figure out why. She is on two antibiotics in case there are any infections going on inside her, and also an anti-inflammatory to combat against her arthritis. She is 11 years old. She is my bestest friend and she gives much love and affection; and she enjoys receiving it too.

So the past week has been kind of rough for me. We are not out of the woods yet, and we may never get out of the woods with her. So I have been giving her as much attention as I possibly can. I also have to feed her (or at least have the food right in front of her) and see that she takes in enough water.

She's in good spirits and is just like her old self except for the loss of her front limbs. They think she may have injured herself recently. I don't know how because she is an in-house rabbit and is in a large dog pen. She used to come out of the pen every time I changed her papers and that was in the morning and in the evening. And then with the arthritis I guess it was too much of a hassle to jump out and back in again so she stopped. But three weeks ago, she did jump out and scared me to death, and maybe she just jumped out wrong or something. We don't know.

All we can do now is make sure she is pain-free, well-fed and loved beyond anything you can imagine. We've been doing a good job of that all along.

So say some prayers for my little companion.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!

Glory hallelujah! The boy done finally won a race.

Congratulations Dale Jr. May there be many more to follow. We knew you could do it.

Let me just say, if I were a nail biter I wouldn't have any nails left. Starting with the time he moved to the front, I counted the seconds between each lap. You wanna talk about nerve-wracking? Whew boy! I am so happy I could sh...well, you know what I mean.

High Gas Prices?

This is the mode of transportation my husband was using to get to work. Every time he filled up it was another $50-60 worth of gas.



This is what he is using now to combat the ever-rising high gas prices:



He has had the bike for a couple years now, and he had been using it for work during summers past. Hopefully, our gas expenses will drop lower than what they were. Duh...of course they will.

The Day After

After yesterday's race I needed a little humor in my life. But now that I am all calmed down and past what happened with that blown engine, it is time to move on to the upcoming race at Richmond International Raceway.

But before we do that (did you honestly think I was over yesterday this quickly?), let me just say this: I DETEST HENDRICK RACING ~ ESPECIALLY THAT JOHNSON FELLOW!
ok, I feel sooooo much better getting that out in the open. Know what? I don't like his crew chief either, or his owner for that matter. Maybe more so than the driver. At least two of them have a 'history.'

As soon as the winner's car crossed the finish line, the TV was turned off in disgust. Let them throw his victory in my face? I think not! Yeah, maybe I am a sore loser in some of your eyes. Anybody else (well, other than a Hendrick driver) and I would not have felt so badly that Junior's engine did him in. I just don't like the fact that when one of their drivers wins a plate race that they are so arrogant about it.

I know DEI has to step up their engine program. No doubt about that. And I can't say I wasn't a little leery about the outcome of the race with all the pre-hype about it: being a huge "Earnhardt weekend" and with everyone thinking and saying that it was a 'given' that Dale Jr. would win. I hoped he would too, but deep down I was just a bit worried that something would go wrong. And it certainly did, only not how I expected.

I hope that when DEI tears down that engine that it was a result of his earlier 'backward' spin and not something someone had done to it. Yes, I know it was an impound race, but stranger things have happened when others are worried about how they will do against Dale Jr. in a restrictor plate race.

Disclaimer: This is my theory only ~ please do not interpret it any other way.

It Just Was Not To Be

'Tis a very sad day in Earnhardt Land, particularly the Junior Nation.

A blown engine.

'Nuff said.

Let's Try This One More Time

(Photo courtesy of Harold Hinson Photography and Budweiser Racing)

Due to rain, Sunday's race at Talladega Speedway was postponed until today at noon.

I am so glad I will be able to see the entire race, and I remind everyone of yesterday's scripture since it was twofold: for all to read, and to ride with Dale Jr. in today's race.

Above is another shot of the Budweiser #8 Black and Silver Chevy. Let's hope it finds its way to Victory Lane just like the #8 Black and Silver Bass Pro Shops Chevy driven by Martin Truex Jr. did on Saturday in the Busch race.