Random stuff

Poor Mom, after all of that, she still has to have her spleen removed. Bummer. She should find out this afternoon when that will be.

We are having awesome weather this week! It's down right bee-u-ti-full! Low humidity, blue sky and in the high 70's. I think heaven will be like that.

Bras...WHY?
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/brassiere.htm
That's why. Phooey.

I think Elena Kagan looks like Brendan Fraser in drag;

The holiday weekend is fast approaching. I can't wait for the elephant ear I'm going to have at the local festival! Mmmmmmmmm. Oh and the homemade peach ice cream I'm going to make!

I think I might be getting over my kitten attention span. I actually read a book last weekend and I'm looking forward to watching Avatar! Oh, aaaand, I sent away for basic Quilling kit. I'm going to give it try. If you don't remember what that is, here you go;


You'll know if I like it because you'll be getting one for Christmas :-)

And I'm thinking about selling my scooter and getting a 'true' scooter. I think I'll ride a small scooter more because I would ride by myself around town. I wonder if I could find a lime green one?!

I added a link to the right called Easy recipes. It's the Busy Mom's Recipe blog. I'm not a busy mom but I like easy things when I don't feel like cooking. You might like it too.

I'll bee back tomorrow with the July is... post.

Miss me?

Whew

Got the mama all moved into her new place! And there were only a couple of issues. We had to call someone out to charge the AC, and the cable company had to drop a couple lines in because there were no cable outlets. The previous owner had Dish for years and years. Other than those chachingy things, everything else went hitch free. The movers did a great job for her. I got more done for her in 3 days than I did at our house in 3 months! It's a nice house, a good size and in a great neighborhood ~ only 6 minutes away from me!! I like that. Now when I make too much for dinner, I can just call her up and say "c'mon over"
I hope she doesn't miss her condo too much. It's hard to leave a place that you've been at for so long. Bill and I will probably never live someplace for 15 years. He gets too antsy.

Never mind on the pictures of the backyard trees...they were both gone when I got home. Can you believe it?!?!?! Seriously, within a 4 hour span of time, they got there, cut down 2 huge trees, cleaned everything up AND hauled them away! Really, I was stunned. The dogs just didn't know what to do for a couple of days. There's a path around the trees where they run and now that the trees are gone, they didn't know where to run! It was pretty funny to watch.

The fox is back and the woodchuck isn't. That happened last year too. Maybe the fox just needs to wander around the neighborhood for the woodchuck to be scared off? Now, if only we could get rid of what has turned out to be a gopher, in the front yard. He's destroying everything! Grrrrrrr

I'm almost happy to be back at work just so I can sit for awhile!!

stormy night

You just don't realize how big a tree is until it falls over.
Boooooooo! It used to be in the middle of our back yard. Now it's in the middle of our neighbors yard too. Well, if it had completely fallen over that is. But the big pine tree got in its way. So now, one side of the pine is bald...I'll take pictures later. Now I'm waiting for estimates. Ugh. On a happier note, at least we won't have so many trees now and after the sticker shock of removing them, my man will be super happy! hahahahahaha. Bee careful what you wish for honey :-) And speaking of my honey, poor guy. He's on call this week. He's been out working since 3:30 this morning. He sounds so tired.

In the last 32 hours, we've gotten 4 and a 1/2 inches of rain. Man did it storm last night! Wow. The drive in this morning was down right perilous in some spots. And closer to downtown there was some kind of underground explosion that closed streets and made traffic even worse! Geez, I was actually happy to get to work!

UPDATE;
Well, to take out both trees, the Maple that feel over and the Spruce it fell on...$1500. Ouch.
In case you're wondering what a good business venture would be, let me suggest tree removal!
Phooey.
Oh, but on the upside, we can plant grass in the backyard now!!!

Summer soltice

Today is officially the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. Here in Hoosier land, because our lawmakers can be wrong sometimes, we will still be seeing light in the sky until a little after 10pm. Why? Because they decided to put us in the Eastern time zone instead of the Central time zone. It's so weird to look out at the sunset...at 9:45!

This morning however, it's still night time out there ~ super dark, lots of lightning and thunder and POURING! I love a good storm. Oh, and the AC is out in our building. I'm sure it will be fixed soon but I'm very happy to have my little desk fan this morning.

It's going to bee a busy week for our family. Mom is moving into her new home on Thursday. She closes on Tuesday and then I'm taking Wed, Thu and Fri off to help her and make sure she doesn't rebel and takes it easy. I know the temptation will be great for her ~ to move boxes around etc. But between the man and I, I think we contain her :-)

Awwww

First and foremost, let the celebrations begin...class of 2010, YOU DID IT!!!
But secondly and just as wonderful, look at him will ya?!?!?! 45 pounds lighter than he was in September!! Wow. He looks GREAT. He says that ever since they jump started his heart and he's been feeling better, he naturally moves more. That combined with lots of fruit and veggies for snacking on and no more Big Gulps has certainly paid off. Life is sweet for da bubba :-)

(but I'm not sure about the nerdy glasses)

yummy food memories

Do you remember Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour???? Oh my gosh, we LOVED Farrell's! Besides being so fun and wild and crazy and loud, they had a really great candy shop on the way out. The best thing in it were GIANT jaw breakers. Honest, they were the size of a tennis ball. It took weeks to eat them. And they had these ribbons that said "I made a pig of myself at Farrell's" if you ate the "Zoo" Man they were sooo fun.

How about Shakey's Pizza? How about Sambo's? Or Burger Chef!!!! Oh, and Sizzler! Are there still any of those around?

And a restaurant called Victoria's Station.

Then there was a burger joint called Fuddruckers. LOVED them. There are still a few of those around. I wish there was one in our city :-)

I guess you have to be older to have these memories...

Cop answer

The police-specific use of “cop” made its way into the English language in languid fashion. “Cop” has long existed as a verb meaning “to take or seize,” but it didn’t begin to make the linguistic shifts necessary to turn it into a casual term for “police officer” until the mid-19th century. The first example of “cop” taking the meaning “to arrest” appeared in 1844, and the word then swiftly moved from being solely a verb for “take into police custody” to also encompassing a noun referring to the one doing the detaining. By 1846, policemen were being described as “coppers,” the ‘-er’ ending having been appended to the “arrest” form of the verb, and by 1859 “coppers” were also being called “cops,” the latter word a shortening of the former.
From snopes.com

A rose by any other name...

Police Officers
Law Enforcement Officers
The Fuzz
the heat
Pigs
Smokey
Barneys
Five-O
Cops

I'm sure there are others, but today I was wondering why we call them Cops. Where did that term come from? Do you know? What's your guess...without looking it up. Click on remarks and tell me. I'll post the answer later.

hip hip hooray!

Mom gets to come home from the hospital today! Boy is she ready too! A week is a long time when you're just laying around in a hospital bed. Oh...I guess it's not really THAT long when you consider the options. I mean, even just 30 years ago, It would have been life threatening! Modern medicine is AWESOME. We're going to keep her for a day though. And Bud is going to bee super duper happy!! Poor fella. He's done pretty good though, considering his little world has been all shook up. Hooray for da mama! One more CT scan on Friday to get through and if that looks good, she's free! Whew.

Hunka hunka

Just in time for Elvis Tribute Week...

It's the Elvis Mr. Potato Head! I want one!!!

*sigh*

It's been a big week for cancellations.

The big "guy ride" has been postponed :-( One of them is having back surgery and will be busy w/rehab. I think they're looking at September now, which I think will be more pleasant for them since they're going south.

I had to cancel Mom's trip to sunny California for next week. It's looks like she's going to be in the hospital for a while longer. Da poor mama. She thinks they'll let her go Saturday ~ I'm not that optimistic. Of course, she thinks they'll let her go home tomorrow every day. Finally the doctor told her to stop asking when she can go. And poor Bud. He's a good boy though and he's settled in ok. Our routine is a different than what he's used to but he's giving it his doggie best. I'm going to give him a haircut this weekend.

And our anniversary plans for tonight have been postponed too. Duh. Happy Anniversary honey!! Wow, 21 years. Love rocks! There is no "traditional" gift for 21 years but the modern gift is brass or nickel. I think 21 years deserves better than that!

And even though it's not Friday ~ I had my Friday breakfast today. Maybe I'll go down and get some cookies later ~ cookies are little fresh baked celebrations!

Rascally critters

Let's start with the dogs. You would think I would have learned after the first adventure but I didn't. Remember when I told you about one of the dogs (Pepper) getting a bag of candy off the dinning room table?
Well, I put a bag of sugar free butterscotch candy on the table. The bag was not open. Every little candy inside the bag was individually wrapped.

Yup, one of them (Pepper) got the bag down and proceeded to eat all the candy. Now, this may not seem blog worthy until you see the pictures:

Let's take a closer look at those wrappers...

Notice anything unusual? In case you don't see it ~ every single wrapper is in tact. They took all the candy OUT OF THE WRAPPERS!!! The wrappers aren't chewed up or ripped apart. They are all nicely opened at the end. How in the hell did they do that?????? See...it is blog worthy! Oh, and yes, they were sick. AND their whiskers had to be washed several times because of all the stickiness. Yeah, they're cute but they are both rascals for sure!

Now lets move on out to yard ~ where a mole is making a home in our NEW LANDSCAPING! Seriously. Everywhere we put mulch is now lumpy with mole tunnels. It's amazing that such a little critter can create such a mess. Last night I spent a 1/2 hour pouring poison in the tunnels, in a dozen or so places. I'm gonna get that little sucker!

And...I know it's not officially summer but it is for me ~ I saw the first lightning bugs Saturday night! As far as I'm concerned, it is now summer :-)

Are you kidding me?!?!?!???

100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know

BOSTON, MA — The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know."The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."The following is the entire list of 100 words:

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

I know 43 of them. I can guess at another 13. That leaves 44 of them. Dang. I suck! And I think I do okay. But today's HS graduates can't even spell and American Heritage thinks they should know what all these words mean? I'll be using my dictionary later...after a six pack and a nap.