Necking for senior citizens

Spent the whole day watching tv, trying not to move my neck. Didn't pick up my book during commercials, put my crocheting (afghan for Elise) across the room so I wouldn't pick it up by accident, didn't come over to the computer, BORING. If any of you ever have to try this, let me give a little piece of information I certainly never thought of. When you start to nod off and your chin gets closer and closer to your chest, that is bending your neck and the twinge will wake you up.

As my reward, today I can look up and I can look down and I can look this way and I can look that way. I can't look behind me, but who really needs to do that anyways. I am ready to resume normal activity and see what happens. I have to be limber for my dentist appointment tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow evening I am going to Stephanie's new appartment . They are having family over for hot dogs etc. This makes me think that they have yard space suitable for barbequeing. The directions I have for getting there sound easy enough. I also got a call from Arn saying that Steph had to give up her cell phone, so the only way to reach them was thru Dana.

My dryer will be delivered between 1:00 and 3:00 this afternoon. It's very pretty. It's going to feel out of place in my basement, poor thing.

Keeping my powder dry

I did go back to Sears but this time I was armed with some model numbers and prices off the internet. I didn't see the salesman I talked to yesterday so already I felt reassured. There were two models on sale that I was interested in and I was glad that I could look at and compare them in person. The price differential was only $20.00 and I got the higher one. It had one extra knob on the top which to me was almost a deal killer (I like on and off) but the door opened down as opposed to sideways and I liked that part.

The dryer should be delivered and installed tomorrow. My salesman's name was Paul and he was my new best friend. Then as I was signing the credit card receipt he mentioned how glad he was that I came back after I had told him yesterday that I was going to shop around.

In other news, I have a huge pain in the neck. I think it might be from being caught in a draft at Kewadin but its lasting an awfully long time. There are many ordinary things that I am surprised I use my neck for. Like driving, typing on the computer, reading, and crocheting. I have been doing these things with impunity and last night I was beyond pain. It is much much better today and my plan is not to agrivate it. This will be my last trip to the computer today and I will spend the rest of the day watching tv without moving my head.

Comic dryers

Oh, my God. I will not tape Comics one more time. I just saw a promo for the show featuring the dog and I'm afraid that might contaminate my tape.

I went dryer shopping this morning. I went to Best Buy and the sales guy was busy so I just looked around and there were nothing but electric dryers so I left. I went to Sears and the sales guy devoted himself to me and I couldn't stand him, so I left. I will try Lowe's this afternoon if I can make myself go back out.

The Sears guy (when talking about delivery and installation which was way too much money to please me) asked did I have a shut off valve and copper pipes because if I didn't they would not install it. I asked, how would I know if I had that and he said "You can see can't you." That's pretty much where he lost me. If I end up going back to Sears I would want another sales person. I don't remember what the guy looked like and certainly didn't get his name or anything so I figure I will have to go for a female sales person.

I did go downstairs and saw the shut off valve and copper pipes. At least I saw copper and there were three shut off valves, one of which I'm pretty sure is for the outside water faucets so the other two must be washer and dryer, right?

Amish comics

Amish in the City is over. Everybody said goodbye, cry, cry, cry. One of the Amish kids took his GED while in the house and passed it with flying colors and has decided he wants to go to college. Of the five amish kids, that one wants to go to college, the other two boys want to move back to the country (they've had enough city life) but not to the Amish and the two girls want to pursue, nursing and other city options. None of them ruled out returning to the Amish some day, but just not yet.

I was getting pretty tired of the Last Comic Standing and adding Carrot Top was the last straw. With him and Jay London on the same show it has freed up a slot in my VCR programming.

Yeaa Chip, Boo Drew

I was hoping for the Cowboy on BB but, oh well. Gretchen had a good idea that the whole 13 member cast should have to get together now and watch all episodes of the show. They could make a whole new show about it. I would watch their collective reactions to each show every week.

The ending of the race had me crying copiously. I was so glad for Chip and Kim. They were a great racing couple. No whining among them and in the end it was Kim's shrewd assessment that got them ticketed on the best flights.

I still haven't seen anything on TV or in the Guide about a new Race starting soon.

Kewadin and dryers

Kewadin was great. How can so much fun be so tiring. I always have trouble sleeping before a trip of any kind so I didn't sleep more than a couple of hours on Sunday night. Monday night Jeannette and I were both wiped out by 10:00 back in our room and after setting the sleep timer, fell asleep during the poker reruns. (By the way, Yeaa Annie Duke) Shortly after my regular 4:45 bathroom break I was jarred by some really loud country music with intervals of commercials for products that could only be sold by the decible. If I turned on my right side, thus covering my good ear, the noise was somewhat muffled. For some reason, God found it amusing to put my good ear on my bad side so that wasn't a long term solution. I thought about calling the desk, or pounding on the wall but I didn't want to disturb Jeannette who seemed to be sleeping through it. After a really long time it stopped. The silence was golden. I was rudely awakened by the same stuff at 5:50 and at about 6:15 I went out in the hall and knocked on the door of the offending neighbor. I knocked a couple of times and pounded a couple of times. No answer. When I got back into the room, I figured Jeannette had been disturbed by this time and I called the front desk and asked if there was any way they could get the people in room 501 to turn down their radio. The answer was, "We can try."

Then for the next 15 minutes or so we could hear the sound of their phone ringing as well as all the radio sounds. By this time we decided to be up, and at 7:00 we called the friends we came with (Jim and Eileen) and made arrangements to go to breakfast and start the day.

So back home in my own little bed, I had a great night's sleep and felt wonderful this morning. I have taken care of 3 things on my to-do list and as soon as I finish this post the productive part of my day is over.

As for the dryer, Jan Suchy told me the most knowledgeable person on the maintenance staff about appliances was Ross. So I called him this morning and described my problem. He didn't think he would have proper access to needed parts and suggested an appliance repair place he was familiar with. I called them. It seems the words "pilot light" is what threw everybody. I guess gas dryers don't have pilot lights any more and haven't had for some years now. The guy asked me how old it was (its about 25 years old) and suggested that I should be in the market for a new one. So that's where I am.

Surviving dryers

Vanauatu has a lot of tribal rites that I can live without. That part was pretty stupid for as much as they hyped it. At the first tribal council they said it was like day 3? Does that mean that they all survived without any drinking water for 3 days? And they never mentioned any of that. I would rather have seen a lot more of their day-to-day stuff than "rites of passage".

Thank you, Marty for the diagnosis on my dryer. I haven't tested it out yet. But I have learned that there are folk here that hire the maintenance people on their own time to do odd jobs and when I get back from Kewadin on Wednesday I'm going to give that a try.

Monica has gone back to Treasure Island hoping that the hurricane season is over for Florida. She said that Debbie has severe structural damage to her house (in Deltona) and they are living in a hotel until the end of September.

I am content with the last two standing on BB. Again, would rather have had more footage of the jury house than more speeches about "why you think the HOH should choose you". Those speeches are just so repetitive and useless. But maybe they are keeping the good stuff for people who pay for it on the internet.

Mirna and Shmirna were on Mad TV last night. Anybody catch them?

Moms and fossil

Credit where due - way to go Fossilman.

Those trading moms - That stuff has got to be scripted. And the writers are very silly. Why would they put a 2 year old husband and a 3 year old teenager on the same show? Those ladies were actually glad to be home.

I have often had a pretty low opinion of the people with whom we share this planet, but this is pretty sad. The mothers-in-law seem to make out the best in these things, money-wise and dignity-wise so if any of you are ready to apply for the show, let me know and I'll be glad to move in for the duration.

Diane is still the dumbest thing on BB, but I'd still rather see her win than Drew.

Chip and Kim look pretty good for AR, but I'm really sorry Colin & Co. didn't get eliminated. Their revenge could be a factor.

Watched some of the new season shows. Everwood is OK. Vegas made me really not care and LAX is right up there with Vegas. If anything else opens up for Mondays I'll be happy to give it a try.

dryers and electricity

Kelly just stopped over to look at my dryer. It stopped heating in the middle of my first load yesterday. I had everything hanging around the basement on hangers to dry. He brought all those upstairs for me before he left too. He got the pilot light lit but it wouldn't stay on. So now I don't know whether to call a repairperson or just look for a new one. This one is pretty old. I moved it from Navy and I don't remember how long I had it there. In any event, now that my clothes are clean and I don't need no stinken dryer, I have a while to make that decision. This week I won't just throw the flyers from Lowes and Best Buy out without looking at them.

College Football - Credit where due, good job Notre Dame. Also, I got to see Ohio State get their game winning field goal with 2 seconds on the clock. I want to know why Western Michigan didn't get a basket attached to their goal posts like the guys that beat them 63 to 0. And the South Carolia team; are they serious. With those black shirts and pants at best it looks like they are playing in wetsuits and at worst, with the black helmet too, they look like aliens running around on the field.

It would seem that Russion tennis is no longer just a pretty face. At least not just one pretty face. Nobody even mentioned Anna K this week.

I lost electricity twice yesterday. Just long enough apart that I had made my way through the kitchen and living room resetting everything. Upstairs never gets reset until bedtime. I always wait a while to make sure its going to stay on. I was in the middle of resetting the programs on my living room VCR when it went out again. I couldn't believe it. Lucky for them, I make a list of what I want to tape upstairs, downstairs and kitchen when the new TV Guide comes out so I still had that list to work from. I don't think I will ever throw out those lists again.

BB - best case scenario. Nikomis wins the veto and throws Diane's butt off.

No Joe

Well, Joe was scheduled to clean today and I haven't heard from him. I'm afraid our relationship is over. I have been getting the hint that he was moving on to bigger and better things for several months now. So I am back in the market again. The Suchy's like their lady so I am planning to ask them for her number.

I was interviewed via phone for the local newspaper yesterday. They are covering the issue of handicapped parking at the Westland Library and I am on record over there as having complained about it. There must have been a lot of us complaining because the City is actually contemplating change.

First they took out Agasi and Roddick and now Davenport and Capriati are gone. Is there no end. Where do I complain about that?

the Real World of slambonis

The hurricane Francis has reached New York and its raining in Flushing Meadows. That is giving the commentators plenty of time to exhaust the controversy from last nights Serina, Jennifer match. I haven't heard whether there has been a conclusion to the question about the chair umpire as to "was she blind," (bad line call -- the linesperson called the ball in) or "was she stupid" (bad score keeping). Either way, Pat McEnroe said she most definitely will never umpire another singles match. Why the lady would still be working in tennis is a mystery to me. I would be interested in knowing whether these officials, linespeople and umpires are paid professionals or just volunteers.

The rain delay has also given me an opportunity to channel surf with a much farther reaching surfboard. I discovered the Daily Show at 10:00 AM and West Wing at 11. I watched something on E yesterday about past episodes of Real World that piqued my interest and lucky me, the new season of Real World, Philadelphia started last night. I was there. Its no Amish in the City, but it could be a filler while I tape the stuff I really like.

As I go back and forth to the U. S. Open I see they are using something to dry off the tennis court that they are calling Slambonis and look like the Ice Zambonis but seem to work like a riding hair dryer.

Tom Cruise can still run and Ken still rules

Usually the cordless phone in my bedroom lives in its cradle. But, when I'm expecting a call and don't want to wake my guests (like this weekend) I keep it right next to the bed. After the weekend had passed it forgot to jump back into its cradle. So when Elise called me a 9:00 am Monday morning, while I had one foot in the shower and one foot out, I got back to the bedroom , picked it up and just had time to hear and say hello before the phone died. So I went into Gretchen's room where there is a land-line phone to call her back. That's one of the things that got unplugged when Jackson was roaming. While I was looking for the end of the plug the phone rang again and the answering machine in the kitchen picked up. I considered coming downstairs and calling her back, but once I come downstairs of a day, I rarely go back up. That would mean forgoing the shower. While considering all this I found the end of the phone cord and plugged it back in just as it rang again. Elise is very persistent. So we made our plans and my day started.

In our young married days, the Van Houtens and the Sylvesters did a lot of socializing and they have lived in the same house this whole time. There is no excuse for how lost I got going over there. I stopped two little boys on bikes and asked about her street, Madison and they had never heard of it. I knew I was in the right neighborhood. There was a tow truck and driver at the next corner and I asked them. They never heard of it either. The tow truck operator was nice enough to let me use his cell phone and I had to call Elise for directions. Of course it was easy once I remembered the one little turn I had missed.

We had a nice leisurly breakfast at Rex's. A nice family restaurant right on the corner of Michigan and Wayne Rd. (which reminds me, I forgot to have my leftover french toast and ham this morning)((yes, I did remember to bring it home)). Elise and Larry have recently returned from a trip to Montreal and a visit with Les MaTantes so she had news and pictures. The three remaining active MaTantes are Julia (84) Frieda (86) and Monique (88). The inactive MaTante is Marie-Claire (80) who is paralized and in a nursing home.

Conversation turned to games and they mentioned dominos. I said I had some and would be happy to teach them to play. So we decided to call Jeannette and invite her to a game after the movie. Elise drives a top-end Cadillac with all the bells and whistles including GPS. What a wonderful and fun thing. And, boy, do I ever have two sisters that need that.

We went to see Collateral, that's how I know that Tom can still run. Don't let the grey hair fool you. It was very good. Way too much background music while people just looked at each other that I would have cut out but maybe there are folk who like that stuff.

We picked up Jeannette after the movie and played dominos in the enclosed-porch type screen room that the Sylvesters had build onto the side of their garage. A very cool place in every sense of the word.

So, now, I just watched last nights Jeopardy and Ken still rules.

Mel's here and Jackson loves her

Mel is here and Jackson is very excited to see her. He wants very much to show her two teeth before she leaves. He was heartbroken that the second tooth didn't come out last night. He was trying so hard to push it out he was just inconsolable.

It was a pretty good visit all around. Both Jackson and Mel did nighttime very well. Mel got to play with her "babies" in the water. Bryan (5) even swam some. I just saw a little piece of it so I don't know how good he really was. Joshua is a cutie and fell in love with my right leg. He's at the "kiss the baby" stage (15 mos) but Jackson bobbed up and down a lot and I was afraid one of them would get hurt. But everyone survived. We had about 16 people up at the pool and one of the lifeguards heard thunder and everyone had to get out. The kids played on the green for a while then it started to rain lightly. We pretty much gave up and Gretchen and her crowd came home and changed to go up to Chucky Cheese. Jackson was napping so me and Erika and Rita sat under the tree till he woke up.

While the rest of the crowd was at CCs is when Jackson tried so hard to push that tooth out. Poor baby was miserable till we got the Tylenol. Then he was happy and playful when everybody came home. All the foreigners drove home last night and it was just family here overnight. We rousted everybody to go out to breakfast this morning. After breakfast the Gerth clan went to see his family and Jackson gave his tooth another try. Poor baby again. Its so hard when you know they are in pain and can't help them. Erika packed him up and got him in the car right after his dose of tylenol and hopefully he will sleep on the way home.

Now I'm all alone again and will probably need a nap before long. I'm supposed to go out with Elise and Larry tomorrow. I would like to go see Papparazzi but I don't know what they have already seen.

Too Much Too Fast

I just watched the Renovate my life with the Biggins family. Good Lord. Who in that family is going to take care of that house. Are they nuts? I would be very interested in a follow up show on them in a year. Also, how does this impact the money she won on the other show?

Saturday plans: I will pick up Mel whenever she calls, Erika and Jackson will be here sometime mid-morning. Stephanie and Arn and Dana are coming about 3:30 and Steph is bringing pop she has leftover from the festivities. I'm not sure yet what to expect from the West Branch contingent