Hell

I keep seeing this headline..."A guy says he had a heart attack and went to hell. Here's what he saw."

I finally caved and read it. 👀 It turned out to be one of the best laughs I've had in weeks. Here is the link to the article;

A Guy Says He Had a Heart Attack and Went to Hell in 2016. Here's What He Saw. (msn.com)

Now, I don't want poo poo his experience, and it does sound pretty horrific. But here's the thing, the "guy" is a priest. Toward the end of the article the priest says his hellacious near death experience made him realize he needed to forgive people who had wronged him, instead of hoping for their punishment.

Ummm, seriously?! You're a freakin priest and you were hoping for people to be punished? Yeah, there's a reason you went to hell, dumbass.

Rodents and other small mammals *REVISED 3/27

We don't live in the country. We don't live in an urban area either. I guess that makes us suburban?

Anyway, there is a lot of wildlife around us. Most of it is totally ok with me. Well, I don't appreciate the racoons eating all the bird food and/or pooping on the roof of the house, but other than that, I don't mind too much. 

Last Fall though, some small critter has taken up the interior of our living room wall, as its home. It drives my fella crazy! He can hear it, scurrying around in there. It's become our mission to seek out and destroy the culprit! Mwahahahahaha

First, we plugged up all the obvious holes we could find outside.

Then we set out mouse traps. After a week, we didn't catch a single thing.

Then we drilled small holes in the wall and squirted cayenne pepper in the walls. That worked for a second.

Then we started looking for poison. You would be so surprised to find that that's not a very likable way to get rid of an animal. So we opted for the humane way - trap it in a cage and release it back into the wild, far away from US.

Monday night he put the cage up in the attic. Tuesday morning he found a mouse in there! 

(3/22) Tuesday night he put it back in the attic. Wednesday morning, another mouse. 

*(3/23) Wednesday night he put it back in the attic. Thursday morning he found a mouse in it! 

*(3/24) Thursday night he put it back in the attic. Friday morning he found a mouse in it!

*(3/25) Friday night, back in the attic. Saturday morning he found a ground squirrel in it.

*(3/26) Saturday night he put in back in the attic. Sunday morning her found a mouse in it.

Honestly, I thought that it was probably going to be a chipmunk up there. Nope. I bet there are A LOT of mice up there! Shoot. I hope we can catch them all. I'm super happy though that they haven't found a way into the house. If that happens, trust me, death is imminent!

*I'm pretty sure the ground squirrel was the culprit in the wall. That sucker was PISSED off in that cage! Since we're still catching mice, I guess this qualifies for an infestation. Ewwww. The little squirrel kind of boogered up the cage though so we're switching over to a bucket trap. the bucket trap is a lid that fits on any 5 gallon bucket. I has a swinging flap on the top so when a critter steps on it, it flips 'em down into the bucket. Pretty cool. I'm so NOT happy about this mouse thing. Grrrr.

Vacations

Do you like planning your vacations? Or are you one of those people that will happily go along.

I like the planning part almost as much as the actual vacation. I like finding the places to go or see or stop at. This year we are combining a road trip and visiting family into a 2 week vacation. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois in 4,000+ miles By the time this trip is over, my fella and I will have been to 34 states, together! That's so cool! 

Along the way we will go to/see/stop at;

the National Cowboy Museum

a couple of vintage motorcycle museums along the way

an old stage coach stop

Fort Reno

Cadillac Ranch

The Big Texan Steak House - they have a 72oz steak that you can have for free if you can eat it in an hour! 4 1/2 pounds of beef. It's $72. Since 1960, 11% of the people who have tried, succeeded. I could do it. hahahahahahahaha

Santa Fe - really looking forward to this!

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

The Continental Divide

Winslow Arizona - because of the song...you know, "standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see, it's a girl my lord in a flatbed ford slowing down to take a look at me..." Sorry honey, but I have to.

Several of the trading posts along the way

Ghost towns!

fun route 66 things

Bryce canyon

Old train rides in old cities

seeing family, on both sides

Yep, the planning is fun 😊

Brits

My fella and I are watching a British show called, The Great Pottery Throw Down. It's a reality show about, hahahaha, pottery. At first, we chose to watch it because we don't know anything about pottery. Now we do! It's all very complicated. There are contestants who are mostly home 'potters.' Every week they are challenged to create something different. Did you know there were so many different kinds of clay? And glazes? It's really interesting. There's a host(ess) and 2 judges. One of the judges is chap named Keith Brymer Jones. I love him. He's SO emotional - it's delightful. Whenever one of the potters makes something beautiful or different, he get's all teary! It's fantastic, his passion.

Anyway, it's the first British show I've actually watched and I just want to say, Brits are very quirky and easy. Brits seem to be so much more light hearted than we are. They aren't nearly as hung up on sex or cussing or fashion as we are. It's really nice! Oh sure, I know it's just tv and they're probably all on their best behavior, but still. We're on season 3 and every group so far has been charming. I'm going to look for some more British shows and check it out 😊

Favorite Days

Do you have favorite days in your memories? Not necessarily the best day(s), but your favorite. I guess they could be the same though. Like, getting married was a best day for me but it isn't really one of my favorite days. It was stressful and a blur.

The first favorite day/memory I have is when my mom took me to see the original Doctor Doolittle, at a movie theater, for my ninth birthday. It was just her and me. It was very special to me. I remember it being a big theater - do you remember those? She laughs about that because she says she did it because she couldn't afford anything else. 

Another favorite day of mine was when I took my kid brother to Venice Beach. I was 23, he was still 17. It was a Saturday and I didn't have anything to do and neither did he so I said, hey! let's go to Venice Beach! Neither of us had ever been. We had a blast! We saw some of the craziest things!! We even saw the chainsaw juggler - before he was famous. There was a lot of crazy stuff to see on Venice Beach.

The morning I fell in love with my husband. I thought I was going to burst, like I'd just had 10 pots of coffee and I might shoot off into space. That was the best feeling ever!

Seeing the play, Jesus Christ Superstar, with Ted Neeley. For me, it would've been like seeing Yul Brenner in The King And I. And then meeting him after the show. It was awesome. He was so kind and generous with his time, to everybody who had stayed behind to meet him. When I asked him to sign my program, he asked me where and I said, oh, anywhere is fine. He said, "no, you pick a page. It will matter to you later."

I had another favorite day with my brother too. I want to say it was about 20 years ago. Mom and I were in California visiting and he and I went out for the day. Mom was with her childhood friends, Bonnie and Tom. My brother and I just spent the day together driving around San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. It was a super fun day of eating, drinking, laughing and being brother and sister!

Our honeymoon when we arrived in Cabo San Lucas - before it was a thing, when it was still a little seaside town in Mexico. There was the restaurant, The Giggling Marlin, glass bottom boat tours, white sandy beaches, blue waters. It was my favorite honeymoon stop.

The first time I ever saw Garth Brooks in concert. It was in Kansas City. He had already retired but did these 9 shows in 2007. My fella drove with me 500 miles so I could do this. He was awesome. My fella. Oh, yeah, Garth too.

There are plenty more but these are the ones that always pop into my head.