Happy Birthday, Carol!

Today is my sister's birthday.  I called her early this morning but she wasn't home.  I sang the "Happy Birthday" song into her answer machine (that'll teach her for going somewhere on her BD) and then called her later in the day so we could talk.

She loved the earrings.  I thought she would.  We had a nice visit and I welcomed her to this side of the 50's.  She can get Sr. discounts in a few places now.  55 is just the beginning of those Golden Specials.  Gottschalk's (my favorite store) starts it's Sr. Specials at 55 - she was very happy to learn that today.

I went shopping later for my Mother's birthday which is a week from today.  I ended up getting her a pair of the Mystic Fire Topaz earrings, too.  I got her the round studs which I know she will enjoy.  I also made a copy of one of the pictures Den and I had taken on the cruise, framed it and put it in the package, too.  Mom's always love getting pictures of their kids.

I bought Bob Woodward's new book today.  State of Denial   is the name of it.  I read a review on line from the NY Times yesterday.  The review really perked my interest so when I saw it at Costco today I had to buy it.  The book is about the Bush administration and is the third in a series of books Woodward has written about this presidency.  The first two were more supportive.  This one takes a very critical look at several key players, especially Cheney and Rumsfeld. 

( http://journals.aol.com/thefeedblog/AOLNewsTheFeed/#Entry1878 ) Check out this site and watch the little video with Bob Woodward about a phone call he got from Cheney about this book. 

Anyone  who has read my journal for any length of time knows that I am not a fan of this administration.  I have never been.  I was sick when he was elected the first time and I can't wait until he leaves office.  I'm just worried silly about how bad the national debt will be when he finally rides off in the sunset and leaves us choking in his dust.  My other concerns are deeper and darker and I will keep those to myself.  I didn't post this to get into a political debate.  If anyone out there likes him, that's fine, I am all for freedom of choice.  Just do NOT post a comment in my journal defending him.  I'll just delete it.  You can post something in your own journal and I'll read it there.  That's your forum and your right.

Phew.....  enough about that.  Now - let's laugh about something.  Oh, my gosh, a friend sent me thee funniest email about a gal waxing for the first time.  It is pretty graphic so I am not going to post it, but if anyone wants a good laugh send me an email and I'll forward it to you.  I had tears running down my face.  It reminded me of the first time I used the product NADS.  Have any of you used that?  Some Australian woman invented it using only natural ingredients.  I swear it is the stickiest goop on the face of the earth.  My daughter and I ordered it and I decided, stupidly, to use it under my arms first. 

I got out the application stick, scooped up some of the goop and spread it under my arm.  Then I reached down to get the strip of cloth that you press on over the goop and then RIP off to remove the hair.  Well, I lowered my arm to do it and glued my arm to my body.  I could not lift my arm again to save my life!  If I tried it was like trying to pull the skin off my under arm and my side.  Luckily, I remembered the ad and knew that it would come off with warm water and soap so I got in the shower and rinsed it off with lots of warm water all the time thanking the good Lord that it wasn't wax.  When I got out of the shower, I put the lid on the NADs jar, put it back in the box and put it in a closet somewhere.  My Venus razor never looked so good.  Cari heard me yelling in pain and she never wanted to try it after my experience.   It took me another 5 years to get up the never to get my eyebrows waxed and that tiny little bit of waxing hurts like the devil -- but I still get it done about every 6 weeks now because I really like how my brows look.

I guess that ought to do it for one night.  Until later..........  ô..ô

Sunday Morning

I heard from some of my JLand friends in the UK about the skunk episode.  They don't have the little critters there so I'm going to be selling the house and moving there as soon as I can get thing settled.  LOL  Or maybe, I'll just trap a few and send them over so my friends there can have the joy and experience of getting to know skunk aroma.  Jeannette at Welcome to My Travels has had the unfortunate experience while visiting Wyoming, USA.  I know she would want her fellow countrywomen to share in that adventure.  LOL

Its a beautiful Sunday morning here in Southern California.  I've been up since 7:00 doing some cleaning and picking up. The house gets so dusty with all of the road construction and building going on just down the hill.

Bernice and her daughter, Tanya, are coming here around 11:00 today.  We are then going to go out to the cemetery and see Dad's grave marker which was set several weeks ago.  I'm going to pick up a pretty bouquet of flowers on our way to lay at the site.  After our visit, we will have lunch together and spend some time catching up. 

That's it for now.  I may add to this later in the day if I get a chance.

Until later                               ô..ô

 

SKUNKED

1:34 a.m. PST

I was sound asleep when the nasty scent of a skunk filtered into my room through the open window and woke me up.  Of course, Kasey hit the ground running and growling.  She was out the doggie door before I could even think about stopping her.

Bark, bark, bark! 

I grabbed my robe and followed her downstairs.  Luckily she didn't get sprayed.  The 'evil doer' let go of it's nasty spray somewhere else in the neighborhood and we just had the misfortune of having to smell it.

There are only a few things that smell any worse than skunk spray and they are too disgusting to even mention here.  If I could get rid of all of those cute little creatures I would do it in a minute!  Oh, I don't mean I'd kill them!  I'd have them trapped and send them to live in a forest somewhere where they could spray and not offend another human being.  It's such a shame that something that cute could smell that awful.

The stench has passed so I'm going back to bed with a hope and a prayer that the little rodant has toddled his black and white ass out of the area for the night.

Good night!

A Brighter Day

My wish came true!  I woke up feeling like my spunky old self this morning!  Thanks to a good nights sleep and 2 Aleve.   Ahhh, one can surely appreciate good health after a day like yesterday.  I'm going to take it easy today, though.  If I over do it, I may be sorry.

I got to talk to one of my favorite cousins this morning.  Dr. Frannie!  She's has a PhD in Industrial Psychology and up until a year ago worked for the U.S. Air Force as a civilian contractor.  Her job was so complicated that I just have a basic understanding of what she did and I'm not even going to try to explain it.  LOL  She's married to Dr. Dr. Jim who has 2 PhD's in what the heck I don't even know it's so complicated.  He works for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and contracts with other agencies he can't talk about.  Wooooooo.  LOL   They are both so brilliant it's almost scary but they are down to earth and wonderful.  I love them both to pieces.  They are gourmet cooks, love to travel, and Jim is a wonderful photographer.  He has children from a previous marriage and 2 grandchildren that they love to visit and spoil but they chose not to have children together because of their careers and other priorities.  We think any children from their combined gene pools would be so smart that it would be dangerous. There's not a head big enough to hold brains that big!  LOL 

Sometime I should write about all of my cousins.  I have an interesting assortment of them, 15 in all.  I had 17 at one time but 2 have passed away.  There are some very interesting characters in the bunch; some highly educated and successful, a few eccentrics, and an idiot or two (LOL).  Frannie is in the highly educated group and she's up at the top of the list if I put them in order of my favorites first.

I'm off to read some journals before I get lost in the day.

Until later                             ô..ô

 

Lost Day

I lost the entire day.  I woke up around 1:00 in the morning sick to my stomach and was up and down and in and out of the bathroom until after 8:00 this morning.  Once the stomach virus passed I felt like I'd been hit by a truck so I spent the rest of the day in bed drifting in and out of sleep.  Kasey spent the day right by my side which is her custom when I'm sick.  She's so sweet and I admit it was nice to have her warm little body tucked next to my ice cold feet.  No person loves us more than our dog does, that's for sure.  I'm headed back upstairs to take a quick shower and then it's back to bed.  I hope in the morning I'm back to my usual perky self.

Nighty night.

It's Already Thursday!

I haven't typed an entry since Sunday.  I've sat down to do it a few times but something has come up to interrupt me and I just haven't been able to get 'er done. 

Den's step-mom went home to Boise on Tuesday.  We sure had a good time while she was here.  Talk about easy to have around!  She was delightful.  Always happy, positive, and she enjoyed everything we planned. 

Yesterday I spent the day with my DIL, Shannon, packing up her kitchen, downstairs bathroom and pantries.  Her sister-in-law was there to help, too, which was nice.  We got a lot done.  I'm on call between now and the 14th/15th when they make the big move to help with anything that needs to be done. 

Today, I went shopping for my sister's birthday present.  I found a pair of Mystic Ice Topaz ear rings in 14k gold for her.  I bought a pair for myself in Alaska (where they call the stone Aurora Lights Topaz)   When she saw them she really liked them so I decided to get a pair for her:

 They are this color stone but in triangular shape setting.   She has green/blue eyes so I know they will look nice on her.  I think I may get another pair for my Mom's birthday which is a week after my sister's.

I made an appointment to have Andrew's 2 year portrait taken.  I have made this a tradition starting with Megan.  On my grandchildren's 2nd birthday, I have made an appointment with a photographer to have a special picture taken.  I then have it done in black and white tones and have it hand tinted using oil based chalks.  They have come out beautiful.  The photographer has old fashioned clothing and props she uses to make the pictures look antique and the kids have enjoyed their time with her.  When I had Nathan's done, I took Megan along and she took some of them together, too.  This time I will have her take some of all three together after Andrew's individual session is done. I posted 2 pictures from Megan's session as an example of her work.

Well, it's about time to light the bbq and get dinner on the table.  Cari and Sam are eating dinner with us tonight which is always nice.  I'll close for now but will return sometime in the near future with another not so exciting entry.

ô..ô

Sunday Morning Laugh

A guy is driving along a highway while talking on his cell phone. He is leaving a message on a friend's answer machine when he witnesses an accident.  Listen to his description of what he sees:

http://www.chumfm.com/MorningShow/bits/march24.swf