Another Post

Oh, my aching back. The bad back was a big fat drain on the enjoyment of the last few days in Florida.

When I got home is was hot in my house. About 87. Kelly had told us a story on the way home from the airport about how it was hot in Rita's house when he went there to paint. He went out in back and found a utility box that was open and a large plug-type contraption was laying on top of her a/c unit. After trying to notify maintenance and deciding that after hours they really didn't care; he put the pluggy thing into the box thing and the a/c started right up.

So, when it was hot in my house I called Rita and asked her to ask Kelly if he would come to my house and check for a pluggy thing. I saw that there are several utility type boxes behind my house but I didn't know which one it would be. Kelly came by and identified the box, managed to get it open and pulled out the plug. He didn't find anything wrong with the plug so he put it back in.

I opened my front and back doors and the weather had cooled down enough that I couldn't tell if the air was working or not. One big sign was that the unit behind my house was not cycling.

Then I opened my mail and found my Visa bill. My billing cycle ends on the 23rd and I usually have the bill before the end of the month, but holiday and all, it wasn't here before I left for Florida. After checking the bill I noticed that the due date was 6/14. It was by then 11:30 PM of 6/14. I went on line immediately to pay the bill. When I got to the confirmation part they said my payment would be posted on the 16th.

All of this was fixed today. I went to the doctor and after pushing and prodding and xrays that made me lay flat and roll over. All things that I could not do easily because my back hurt. Duh. He determined that I was not experiencing a muscle spasm at all (thus, why the muscle relaxers were not working) What is going on is that my spine is moving. My scoliosis is getting worse. He is setting me up for a couple weeks of physical therapy. Also for bone density and stress tests. I am waiting for his "girl" to call me and let me know when the appointments are.

I called the Visa people and asked them why my due date was so early this month. I told him this is one of the bills I usually pay out of my social security check and that doesn't even come until the 3rd wednesday. He changed by billing cycle to end on the 28th and my due date to be the 23rd of the following month. He confirmed that I had made my payment on line last night and said that when the late charge went on, he would remove it.

I called Family Heating and Cooling. They came out and found that my problem was a bad fuse. A part that cost $4.50. The service call, however was $80.00.

But, I'm all fixed and all is right with the world

Where to finish

A little ways down the beach (to our right, looking at the ocean) they were building on to the beach. We could watch the sand being blown onto the shore and then spread around by bulldozers. My dad would have loved watching all that. After a couple of days the yellow taped area moved closer to our strip of beach. The day before we left the yellow tape was right in front of our building, but the weather was bad that day and the day we left so they weren't working on it. I'm thinking the people who rented the week after us were in for a disappointment. The beach building was to make repairs for the damage caused by last year's hurricanes. And in the middle of it, here comes Arlene.

I didn't get down to the pool every day. One of the days I didn't go down, I was re-heating our Sunday roast for dinner. about 4:00 Monica came up and got our blender because Mitch was making Frozen drinks out by the pool. I put the roast on to heat at about 6:30. Every time I thought of joining them down at the pool, I figured that by the time I put shoes on and got down there they would be ready to come up. So I didn't. I ate my dinner at about 7:30. My two drunken sisters wandered in after 9:00.

One of the days I did go down was Wednesday. Hot Dog day. They don't cook the hot dogs out by the back of the pool (where the drinking party was) any more. They cook them up by the clubhouse. I had my hot dogs and stayed down the rest of the day. We had a family dinner in the club house at about 6:30. Everyone brought stuff and Monica made a barbequed briskit. Afterward, we played nickle dice.

Thursday night all the women (11, count them 11 - including Monica's friend Ginny) went to see the play Menapause, the Musical that was playing in Sarasota. We decided to go out to dinner first and they picked a restaurant that served drinks. As part of Kim's birthday present (her birthday is 6/8) John (her husband) rented a limo for us. It picked us up at Four Winds. We had a couple of drinks in the limo (I'm not sure who supplied the rum and coke but it was delicious). The driver dropped us at the Chart House where it was Happy Hour and early bird dinner prices. He gave Kim his number and she called him when we were ready to go and he took us to the theatre. The play was very funny and the limo was waiting for us when it was over. Angie (Mitch's wife) kept us all in the party mood right up to the time we were dropped off. I heard later that although some of us went to bed, others continued to party.

Saturday we went back to Monica's and the weather was cloudy and not so nice for the first couple of days. Monday me and Rita did get down to the pool for a while. Starting from Sunday I was suffering from what I thought was a muscle spasm in my back and it hasn't gone away yet.

But that's another post.

Where to start

Where to start? Where to finish?

First of all we arrived at Monica's condo on Tuesday the 30th. It rained every day we were there (not the whole day) and we never used her pool that whole week. We proceeded to Long Boat on Saturday (a mere 1 hour and 15 minute drive)

Some of you may be aware that there was a shortage of rooms there this year. Kim really wanted to rent an extra unit but there didn't seem to be one available. Alternate plans were made and it ended up that Danny and Janna were going to use the unit that Debbie usually uses and Debbie and her kids were going to spend the week at Monica's condo. Debbie invited her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to spend a long weekend there with them.

Now comes, one or two days before our week starts and Kim gets a call that a unit has opened up. She took it. Now Kim's family have three total units which gave Lauri and Austin one to themselvs. And thus, we enjoy the weekend.

Then comes Krista in the pool on Monday talking to a woman that says her group has to leave that day and would Krista like to use her room for the rest of the week. There are some huge teenagers in the Krista/Mitch unit. So Krista got the keys etc. from her and wanted to give Debbie first shot at it. So Monica called Debbie and since her company had left that day, she decided to pack up the kids and come on down.

It turned out that the free unit was a large studio (all in one room with a murphy bed and sofabed) Debbie has a couple of good sized teenagers also. Anyways, Brittany moved in with Laurie and Austin and Debbie and Ryan did fine it the studio and we all had a wonderful week.

to be continued

Gotta Love Her

Steph came over to swim today. She was feeling better than she had yesterday and we actually had a nicer sunnier day. She came with her friend Jen. Arn is working a lot.

I actually got a glimpse of the hidden benefits of a small piece of consistant upbringing. After she and Jen had been out of the pool for a while and were going back in, Steph took her towel and laid it out carefully on a lawn chair in the sun and asked her friend Jen "Don't you want to lay out your towel so it will dry?" My little heart went pitter-pat with pride. Her friend, of course, was having none of it and threw her towel on the nearest chair.

It really takes very little to make me happy.

finally spring

Well, its almost like spring here. We have had a couple of really nice days in a row. Maybe there is hope for swimming on Sunday.

I had a good weekend at Kewadin. I was ahead in single digit dollars. Tuesday Rita and I leave for Florida for a couple of weeks. Then we were supposed to go to a wedding on the 18th but we have cancelled that plan because Jeannette is going to be in Canada and Rita and I are both too wimpy to drive out to Howell by ourselves. But the weekend of the 25th I am going on an overnight to Little River (Manistee).

Rita got a new car yesterday. She got a red Focus. I just dropped her at the dealer so I haven't actually seen the car yet.

After Monday I probably wont be able to check the blogs so don't be posting any cute pictures or saying anything clever till I get back. OK?

Wipe Out

I got delusions of youth this weekend. Not young youth, just my early 60s youth. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I could do a 48 hour casino stint with hardly any sleep and still carry on with my life. Keeping in mind that my life is pretty sedentary. But Saturday night, after two casino's and after walking out on a terrible movie (Monster-in-Law) I was wiped out. About 9 PM I couldn't even sit up in my chair. My body was screaming "Are you trying to kill us? Go lay down old lady." So I did.

So next time you youngsters decide to pull an all-nighter don't even tell me about it because I will have forgotten how old I am and want to go with.

a very good weekend

In case y'all hadn't noticed from Erika's blogs, we had a very good weekend in Michigan. Mike and Mel arrived about 7:30 and after a brief stop at my house to pick up stuff, we headed up north. Gretchen did a good job of acting surprised. I got to see all of the room makeovers. Who would have guessed Gretchen could be a Suzie Homemaker.

It turned out someone was throwing Heather a surprise Baby Shower on Sunday and Erika and I crashed the party. It was a little embarrassing to come as an uninvited guest and walk away with a lot of their prizes. They had it at the local park. If any of you are familiar with that park, they have nice green hills. We should have a video of Mel rolling down the hill with Seanie (how is his name spelled anyways?)

I knew I wanted to take my family to Ponderosa for dinner but some of the food at the shower smelled so good, I had to try it. Then there were two kinds of cake so I had a small piece of each. Megan had nibbled and had some cake at the shower too. I didn't do justice to the buffet part of Ponderosa and Megan's comment was "I can't believe I was too full to get any desert." Gordon, however was in good form and did us proud. Even Jackson found a few things he would eat. Many of them tasted better after dipping them into Erika's chocolate ice cream. He seriously took pieces of bread and dipped into her ice cream. Then he moved on to other pieces of food he had laying around, some croutons, pieces of chicken and hamburger. We all thought it was way funnier than Erika did, it was after all, her ice cream.

Megan got to spend many many hours in the pool and practiced her mermaid skills. Jackson was fascinated to see her legs in the air. All the kids had a good time in the pool. It was nice to have that extra day on Sunday when the hotel was almost empty and our group were the only ones in the pool area.

Mike has been pretty quiet, but loosened up some playing with the kids in the park and in the pool.

Like I said, a very good weekend.

I hate when that happens

You know, when you go to bed, set the sleep timer on your TV and snuggle down. Then you toss and turn and can't sleep so you decide to go ahead and watch the shows you taped upstairs. Jeopardy, Survivor, Without a Trace. Then you get completely engrossed in a show and all of a sudden your TV shuts off. Well the first thing you think is "power failure". And all the time it takes you to figure out what happened, your tape is still rolling. I hate when that happens.

barbeque

What a great party Stephi threw. After a little mix up with the directions (my fault) we found the park and although it was cold it was not wet. The forecasters were wrong about the all-day rain. I have been to the West Branch 4th of July fireworks so I knew enough to bring my winter coat. There was a slew of Michigan sweatshirts (except mine was covered by my coat) so I was able to check on my family members from afar. Me and Rita stayed in our lawn chairs and ate and observed.

Gretchen brought Brian and Shawn and they seemed to have a great time. Jackson couldn't decide which direction to run first. There were so many kids to watch and try to follow. All the Nelsons were there. When I saw Lawson I asked "Which wife are you with today?" and he said "Let's see, who am I married to this week?" It was Janice. Mark and his wife of 12 years and their 3 kids were there. Brian (divorced from Margaret), and his 3 kids were there with his new girlfriend. Are you all sitting down? New girlfriend (of Brian, Dana's baby brother) had a grandchild with her.

There were various and sundry Winters relatives and it turned out we were celebrating Arn's birthday but Steph didn't tell us about that part. His relatives already knew tho. There were tons of food and it was a really terrific party.

What Would I Do

I like the idea of having a group of mentors in your own personal What Would _____ Do group. Kind of like phone-a-friends. Now, next time I find myself in the potato chip aisle, I will try to ask myself, What Would Kathy Do?

My trip to Niagara Falls was wonderful. This group I travel with are all a little older and slower (I might still be the slowest one getting off the bus though), but we do know how to have fun.

Jan shared Gene's grade-school knickname with us and that preoccupied the whole ride back. His knickname in grade school (because he was always so helpful to the nuns) was Suchy Sister Super Suck. Well the fact that Jan was an x nun got that twisted every way but loose.

The gambling was fun and my losses didn't exceed the Van Houten Recommended Daily Allowance. Lots of new kinds of machines (I can't think of any now except the Garfield ones) at the Seneca casino. It also turned out that the Seneca one was on the New York side of the Falls. I think that was my first time over the Rainbow Bridge. My first two times actually.

After stopping at the duty free Monday morning and loading up the overheads with bottles of liquor (that rolled around a lot by the way), when we returned to the hotel Monday night the hostess said "Oh, yeah - you will have to put your liquor in your suitcases because we have to go through customs a couple more times today. I guess it was ok to bring it back into the states but then we were coming back through Canada to drive home and we weren't supposed to bring it back into Canada again.

The Fallsview Casino in Niagara (Canada) was also the new one. I don't know why people always think bigger is better. Both casinos were huge, with hallways full of shopping and restaurants to walk through before you get to the gaming area.On Monday I ran out of energy before I reached my RDA and found a nice comfy seat in the food court and before long half of our group was congregated there to wait for the bus.

On Tuesday I reached my RDA by noon and the bus didn't leave till 2:30, but they had some very comfy wooden benches along the shopping corridor and I had a great people watching seat.I think Jeannette came out ahead and Jan and Gene hit $150.00 on the Texas Tea machine and he quit while he was ahead.Now, I'm looking forward to Kewadin on the 23rd.

California Visit

From Adrienne's and Marisa's comments on my last post it looks like they would like me to come out to visit during the time that Ris' baby is due. Don't you people understand that I am not a person that can come out to help? I am another person that gets in the way and needs to be taken care of. I was laughing about it with some friends at dominos today and one of them said "Tell them to call you when he's big enough to push your wheelchair."

I won't wait that long, but I don't want to be underfoot when all the excitement is happening either.

I just saw a cool Judge Mathis. I guy was suing for his engagement ring back because his fiance had a baby by somebody else. Judge said "Was your engagement already off when she got pregnant?" and he said "No, I never called the engagement off, I just wanted a break, but I never called it off." Judge said, you never called it off, and he said no. Good, says Judge, so you're still engaged and don't need the ring back. Case dismissed.

Longboat

Its official. Rita and I are flying to Tampa on Tuesday May 31st. We will be staying at Monica's at both ends of our week at Longboat Key which is June 4 thru 11 this year. We return to Detroit on Tuesday June 14th. Other planned trips are April 25th, an overnight to Niagara Falls and May 23rd, an overnight to Kewadin. So don't say you never know where I am.

The baby finger of my left hand is swollen like a sausage with what I suppose in arthritis. Its been about 4 days now tho and if it doesn't go away soon I may see a doctor. I went to Windsor yesterday and (apart from the pain which won't be mentioned here) the doggone finger made it very difficult to collect the coins when cashing out a slot machine. Aarrgh It never ends with old people.

Baptism

I know there are way more important things going on right now, but I think its interesting to note that while he was here last weekend, Jackson baptised my living room carpet. He is very fond of naked-baby play time and although Sandra kept thinking of more and more clever games to get him to come to her for diapering, he kept thinking of more and more clever ways to get away.

Full Mouth

I just picked up my new store-bought tooth. They connected it to all my other store-bought teeth. I still have some pain from the extraction that has settled into a quasi sinus headache behind my right eye and since my gums were still a bit swollen from the extraction I'm not sure if the pretend teeth are adjusted properly and may have to go back next week. Aarrgh

Congratulations to you Marisa as you enter this new and exciting chapter of your life.

And to end with a prayer May God grant the citizens of Glendale the wisdom to vote for Kathy.

The sound of frustration

It sounds like Aarrgh.

I saw my doctor yesterday and he wrote on his pad that the problem "has resolved, recurrance will require excision." Only he didn't say "the problem". He named the problem and he called in "cellulitis". That's a scarry word cause I have that stuff all over my body. aarrgh

Last October I had a root canal on my upper front tooth. Sunday it started to hurt. Monday I noticed that it was loose. So yesterday (it was Tuesday, right) I called the dentist to have it checked out. She said, "Can you come tomorrow at 3 pm?" I said I could and have been living my morning with that feeling of quivering anxiety that I was going to the dentist this afternoon. At about 11 am I got a call from the dentist's office confirming my appointment for tomorrow at 3. "No," I said, "its today at 3." "Oh no," says the girl, "doctor is not even in today, we have you down for tomorrow at 3". Aarrgh.

When I left the doctor yesterday, there was a light on my dashboard that didn't go out. I had no idea what the little symbol on the light meant so when I got home I dug out my owner's manual and found out that the symbol stands for emmision system. I planned to call the dealer tomorrow and get that checked out but now I have the dentist tomorrow. Aarrgh.

No News

I was reminded this morning why I hate to watch the news. I left the TV on all night and woke up to the news this morning and they were discussing the Michael Jackson case. Evidently the Judge is going to make a ruling soon about whether or not the "prior bad acts" can be introduced as evidence to this jury. One of the bases for the decision is whether or not the facts of the prior acts are more compelling than the facts from this act. My interpretation of this is that the more likely it is that he did the prior acts, the less likely it is that this jury will be able to hear about them. How does that make sense.

Adding insult

Lately my knees and ankles have been competing for my attention pain-wise. Not in pairs mind you but individually. Now my left elbow has added itself to the mix. As if all these aches and pains were not enough to remind me of my age, I suffered the following insult.

You know how when you have something in your eye, like an eyelash etc. One of the defense mechanisms is to hold your upper eyelashes and pull the upper eyelid over the lower eyelid and the invading particle is removed. Last night I felt something in my left eye. Nothing dangerous, just irritable. So I tried the above maneuver and found out I can no longer do that. I have so much loose skin on my eyelid; I can’t get hold of my upper eyelash without a mirror. Aarrgh

two more days

Only two more days of winter and it looks like we are going to get snow for both of them. We got snow last night but only on the grassy parts. Our sidewalks and pavement have declared themselves a no snow zone from now on (I hope). Gretchen's temp job ends today and I miss her already.

The hole in my belly has dried up and scabbed over and I have stopped covering it with a band aid. But I haven't started wearing clothes all day yet. I haven't worn anything but a nightgown since last Sunday when we had our Show-and-Tell party up at the clubhouse. La Dolce Vita.

I have been checking airfares for my upcoming trips but I'm not ready to purchase yet. I hate the thought of going to Florida this year with only Monica and Rita. I keep hoping that by some miracle, after Kathy wins her election, her first order of business can be to take a vacation and come to Florida with me.

When I am watching a sporting event and the action gets very frantic, I sometimes have to change the channel for a few seconds and then come back to see how it played out. That's how I feel about Kathy's election. As soon as I think about it I try to put it out of my mind because I want it so badly for her that I can't stand to think of it going any other way.

Medical update

Erika was a year old when my Gall Bladder was removed. That was way before they could do that with a couple of pinpricks. So I have had this six inch long raised scar on my stomach for 40 odd years. I started to get sharp "surface" pains when I was pregnant with Adrienne and have been getting them on and off ever since. Mostly off.

The difference this time is that the scar tissue started to rupture and I went to the doctor about it. I went to Dr. Rosario who did my surgery two years ago. The first thing he did was probe the opening with a Q-tip (ouch) and determine that the fissure did not go all the way through. That was a good thing.

He predicted a couple of outcomes. A) It would heal by itself or B) the area would have to be excised. Since A was my personal preference, I did not delve further into B. I have filled a couple of prescriptions for anti-biotics (pills and cream) and Dr. Rosario will determine on 3/29 whether we have achieved A or should proceed to B.

More

When the ship docked in Valpariaso they put our luggage on a truck and delivered it to the airport. They put our bodies on tour busses for a city tour of Valpariaso and Santiago. The tour started at about 8:30 AM on Sunday morning. We drove up and down the downtown streets of Valpariaso and saw all the official and important buildings including the Parliament building. Valpariaso is not the capitol of the country but that's where they hold Parliament. Our guide said its because it works better that way. The president and upper house members live in Santiago.

We followed the road to Santiago passing through a very nice resort town which has new high-rise condominiums that sell for between 20,000 and 40,000 US dollars. I learned on this tour why Chili is such a long skinny country. The guide described Chili as an island with water on one side and the Andes Mountain range on the other. He said they have closer ties to the far east than they do with Argentina. He said Argentinians are snooty because their economy is very good right now. Every time Chili's economy starts going OK, they have a flood, fire or earthquake or military coup.

The tour included a ride up San Cristobal Hill. (Looked like a mountain to me.) The guide said, "The Hill has something for everyone. When you are a child you come with your grandparents. Its a place for family picnics and having fun. When you are a little older and you don't want to go to school, you come to the hill and try to hide so the police won't take you back home. And you have some fun. Then when you are a little older, you come with your sweetheart and you have some fun. When you get older yet, you come with your secretary and you have some fun. Then when you get older, you bring your grandchildren and the whole family can have some fun."

The tour ended about 5:00 PM at the airport where we claimed our luggage and got in line at the Delta check in counter. Unfortunately there was a sign on the counter that they would open at 7:30 PM (Our flight didn't leave until 10:40 PM) The Delta counter did open at about 7 and took care of a lot of disgruntled passengers.

My suitcase is open and I have put away about 6 things. Maybe not so much put away and brought to the rooms in which they live (or on the stairway up which they will go) I have unpacked the house and bell I bought in Argentina. The house is on the kitchen table until it decided to jump onto the wall. The suitcase is still pretty full. I intent to take out any dirty clothes and throw them downstairs today, that should make a dent.

I don't want to overextend myself. I have tapes to watch.

Campaign upside

I wore my campaign button the whole cruise. Anytime anybody asked me about it I said if you know anybody in Glendale California, call them up and tell them to vote for Kathy. One person actually had parents that lived in Pasadena and promised to tell them to call their friends. Another on the last airplane said her cousin lived in Glendale. Then later when I saw her at the baggage pickup she said "There's the lady I have to call Ruth for and tell her to vote for Kathy."

Gene Suchy is excited that Kathy is running for office. He dropped a hint while we were with Monica and Rita about her aunts contributing to her campaign but they didn't bite.

Home really is Sweet

Now that everyone has seen my butt....

You probably noticed that I didn't get around to using my sisters' free minutes. There is so much that I saw and did. I did take notes, but my suitcase is still standing my the door and I can't refer to them right now.

After Puerto Madryn, we rounded Cape Horn and it was very exciting. I mean it just looked like mountains and landscape but it was exciting all the same. We saw beautiful glaciers. There were five major ones all named after the countries of the five men that explored them. The first one, Italia, was the most beautiful and went from way up, all the way down to the waters edge. What I didn't know previously is that a glacier is not an iceberg. Glaciers form between mountains, in the cleft sort of and down the sides. So that's the icy part. The rest of it just looks like a mountain with snow (ice) on top.

At our Ushuaia stop, we (Les MaTantes) took a cab to the Marshall Glacier and took a ride up the glacier on a ski lift. For your chuckle of the day, picture me and Rita trying to jump onto a ski lift that doesn't stop. Many people on the ship paid big bucks for excursions. Our cost was $10.00, US for the cab and $11.00 US for three lift tickets. About $7.00 per person. Everyone was so jealous.

The next day, we took a cab ride for $20.00 US per person to the penguinarium. After a 1 1/2 hour ride (one way) we found out that we still had to walk over a mile on a gravel path in order to actually see the penguins. I asked someone on his way back if it was worth the walk and he said it was a long way to go to see 4 penguins. So we didn't walk the extra mile. The poor cab driver tried to get us to go see the museum and/or the palace or cemetery (highlights of the city) but we declined. We did manage to see the whole city and lots of pretty countryside with ocean views on the long ride.

Two days were spent at sea going through the Straights of Magellan. Many people spent much of the day sitting on the decks outside but it was really cold and I spent more time in the Constellation Room which was right in the front of the ship on deck 11 and had floor to ceiling windows on three sides. There was a guide-type person who gave lectures (which I did not attend) and gave a running commentary over the PA when we passed anything pertinent.

One of the main speakers and personages on the ship was Patch Adams. If any of you saw the movie, I understand that he comes off as some kind of magnificent healer when played by Robin Williams. Well, in real life, he is a major jerk. I believe that he has done good deeds, and believes in healing through laughter or something, by being a clown. But it seems that he has accomplished nothing. He lost me when he told about the making of the movie. He said that he agreed to let them make the movie and they agreed in turn to build his "Hospital," where he would promote his healing ideas. He is something of a flower child (in his 60s at least) and doesn't believe in lawyers. Well, guess what. Not only did the hospital not get built but he said he never got $10.00 from anyone involved with that movie. I was not one of the people standing in line to buy his book to help contribute to the building of his hospital. If he couldn't be bothered to get a decent written contract regarding building the hospital in return for making the movie, he doesn't strike me as a good risk.

After I open my suitcase, if I think of more stuff I will blog again.

Butt Shot

Lyle doesn't like it when I take naked pictures of Jackson, but goddamn he is the cutest little naked thing in the whole world and I can't help myself. I decided I could post it over here since no one could track this by searching for his name or anything. If they think they are getting a butt shot of mom, well their loss. You have to admit, of all the butts in all the world...

Purety Madryna

I am in Purety Madryna or something like that [ez note: I looked it up, it is Puerto Madryn, Argentina--the title of the post is linked to an itenerary of her cruise]. We went into town this morning and it was very fun.

When I left home, my back was in spasm. I could not move side to side or forward and back in any direction from the waist. I had wheenchairs at every airport. Once I was seated on the plane (I had window seats for both legs) I didn't have to move or get up for anyone. When the planes landed I had quite a bit of pain on the touchdown because of all the shaking.

After we arrived in Buenes Aires, Gene gave me some magic muscle relaxer pills. He gave me four of them and said they could be taken every 4 or 6 hours. I took one then.

The Hotel rooms were ready when we got there at about 11:am so we got a little rest before the city tour at 2:30. That took about 4 hours and when we got back to the hotel I took another pill. I could now move forward and back from the waist.

We (me and Wanda and Sara and Eda) booked a prepaid dinner from the hotel which was for a restaurant names Guardelitos. An authentic Argentinian restaurant. We got there about 7:45 and were too early they didn't start seating people until 8. They let us sit down tho and then came to the table at 8. We showed them the vouchers from the hotel and they didn't seem to know anything about it. Sara had brought the information letters that the hotel had given us describing what was included. It included an appetizer, salad, entree, desert and 1/2 bottle of wine. We couldn't make out the Spanish menu. Sara went and talked to the (I assume) manager and worked out a menu with him. She ordered burritos for our appetizer, garden salad, and beef for the entree. I was skeptical. Beef covers a lot of territory. It turned out to be some of the best steaks I had ever seen or eaten. At desert time I told them it was my birthday so my piece of desert came with a candle and everyone sang happy birthday to me. 8 other people from our group had gone there.

I took another one of Gene's pills before bed and I woke up completely cured. Now I just have normal back pain from walking etc., Boy this is a big ship and there is a lot of walking. I brought my cane with a seat and it has been very handy. I bring it every time I go off the ship. There are at least 4 other people here that have the same cane. I only get 10 free minutes so goodby.

I will try to use Rita's and Monica's 10 minutes another time

Ready

I am so ready I could sit the rest of the time at the airport gate. Anything not packed now will be done without. Passport, tickets, money those are the important things that I'm carrying with me.

I thought that I would leave some of the clothes I used in California right in their laundry bag and have them laundered on the ship but it turns out I am constitutionally incapable to packing dirty clothes. Fortunately, there is nothing in my constitutional makeup that will keep me from weating said clean clothes even tho they will not have been ironed.

I am carrying my Handy Seat Cane to take along on excursions. I don't have a book to read on the trip, everything I have here is hardcover. I may need to make a trip to the 25 cent used book store. Good thing I'm not at the airport gate.

whirlwind

My whirlwind home visit is well under way. I have gotten through my mail. Taken care of my bills and I think I have everything I need to file my taxes. I went out this morning and purchased the Tax Cut programs and am downloading updates now. It took longer to figure out and prepare the rebate forms (4 different rebates) than I plan to spend filing the taxes. I have watched 2/3 of my tapes and only have 8 hours to go. I was able to fast-forward several hours because I watched the shows with Adrienne.

I dozed about 15 minutes out of every hour yesterday. Even through the Super Bowl. I managed to miss all of the touchdowns except the last Eagles one. I didn't like any monkey commercials but I did like the clydesdales wanna-be's.

I have unpacked my California suitcase and brought (thrown) it down the basement and am well under way to packing my cruise suitcase.

Tomorrow is haircut and Windsor casino. Wednesday is laundry. Thursday is finish packing and Friday I leave at 11:30 am via Ken's Airport Shuttle arranged by Jan.

Under the B's

I needed B-15. The game was the checkmark. Three bottom Bs and the diagnal I-G and O. The prize was $3,000.00. Within about 8 numbers I was waiting. Only 2 Bs had been called. My chances were excellent. She called another number, and another. As long as she didn't call a B I was safe. She called another number and another. As more numbers were called my chances of winning by myself went down considerably. She called another number. Sure enough Ted units started to jingle. Another number, more Teds jingling. Another number. Finally a B. There were 8 winners. I wasn't one of them. Sigh.

Reality

I started watching a few new reality shows that I didn't hate. They are, Wickedly Perfect, Runway Project, The Will, and American Dream Derby.

The reality is that nobody promises to keep these shows on the air. After one episode of The Will (although it is listed in the TV Guide) there are no future episodes scheduled to air in my area, according to the Yahoo TV listings. It was replaced last night by a Cold Case episode.

Runway Project is on Bravo and they run it so often that I have lost track of the ones I have seen and the ones I have not seen. American Dream Derby is on the Games Show Channel and now there is another Apprentice starting.

I have been juggling my VCR programs all over the place but even if I record 8 hours on each VCR there is no way I can watch them all before I leave for the cruise and then re-juggle for the next 17 days after that.

Alas, I am going to have to let go of reality and settle for just taping the fiction of Coronation Street because that one is never repeated in re-runs.

Dirty Harry

Can you believe that dirty little prince. I am not of an ethnicity to be absolutely enraged but I am of a generation to be absolutely appalled and I can certainly understand the rage. When William abdicates those pictures of Harry with the swastika are going to come back and keep him from being king. Why are kids so stupid?

Happy Birthday Gretchen

First the sad news. Jacques (of Andree and..) passed away last Thursday. He has been sick for a very long time.

As Jeannette and I were leaving for the Casino Windsor today she mentioned that today was Elaine's birthday. No, I said, I thought she was born on Gretchen's -- Oh My God, this is Gretchen's birthday (Happy Birthday Gretchen) What a fine couple of mothers we are. God took care of my punishment for that.

Parallel Universe

My regular hygienist was out sick today and I had a substitute. It took a long time to get the nitrous oxide right. I don't feel like I am well under until I understand the secrets of the parallel universe. Once I get to that stage, things start to move quickly and the whole process seems to be done in no time.

I just talked to Steph. She was looking for scrapbooking help and I let her know that she really had the wrong Van Houten. I told her our senior scrapbooker was coming to town on the 22nd and she said she could pick you guys up from the airport. She can park in the employee lot and meet you at the gate (actually she said, at the plane in the jetway). Gretchen also mentioned coming down to see Kat et al and offered to go to the airport. I have let Rita know that she doesn't need to worry about driving down there in the dark on the 22nd and she was relieved.

My last layer of snow that I didn't shovel not only did not melt, it has turned to ice. aargh. But it will be warmer tomorrow.

snow again, naturally

Gretchen was here for a few minutes yesterday and she shoveled the first layer of snow. I did my layer before I went to bed. This morning all the schools were closed and I needed to shovel again. Laurie was due today but she rescheduled for tomorrow. Todays snow was really heavy and sticky. I had to hit the shovel against the ground to make it let go. The next layer is slight enough that I didn't shovel again and if the sun shines tomorrow it will disappear. I don't think there is supposed to be any more tonight. I hope not because my dentist appointment is very early (8:00 am) and I don't shovel that early.

Did anybody watch West Wing last night. I can't decide if they have replaced Stockard Channing with someone who is trying to imitate her voice or if she just had an extreme makeover.

Alone again naturally

Erika just lift after putting my house back together and installing my new printer (Jeannttte's old printer, she got one that scans and copies for xmas)

Lyle left more than an hour ago with Jackson and Erika is meeting them at Sandra's for lunch. Then she will continue home and Lyle and Son are staying another couple of days with Sandra. List is staying in town for two weeks and that should be a good distraction for Sandra so she is not expecting Dennis to walk in any minute. That may happen later.

The preacher at the funeral service was very good and didn't try to pretend that he had known Dennis personally but incorporated stories of Dennis' life that he gleaned from Audrey, Lyle, Lisa and Sandra. Unable to sleep one night Sandra sat at the computer and wrote a synopsis of their life together and he used a lot of that.

The luncheon was at a Marriott hotel in Ypsi. Lyle took over the job of flowers and Cornell took over the job of the luncheon so Sandra was able to exhale and just let things happen for a while.

Jackson delighted everyone and was in turn delighted by the other children at the luncheon. They were all able to run faster than him so sometimes he was only able to catch up when they were on their way back.

My house is going to be very quiet for a couple of weeks until Erika and Jackson come back for their trip to California. I will just sit in my chair and doze until that happens.

happy new year

Hope you all had a nice passage into the New Year. I slept through mine.

The wedding was very nice yesterday. Did any of you know there was a city in Michigan called Argentine. That's where the reception was. It is a suburb of Fowlerville. The newlyweds are moving to Fayetteville, North Carolina where husband is stationed. He has two more years to serve and is very sure that he will be deployed at least once more to the Middle East. His last tour of duty was in Pakistan.

When I got home there was a dinosaur towel hanging in my kitchen, but baby was already in bed. Rita and I just got back from the funeral home and Dennis' wake. Jackson was getting pretty tired and miserable and Erika was contemplating bringing him back here for a nap. I wish I was able to be more help in coping with him myself and I could have brought him back and kept him here for the rest of the evening. Another drawback of having your babies late in life. Grandmas are useless.

Mother and child just walked in so I guess he is going down for a nap. So far, he's not crazy about the idea.

Efficiency

I get more done before breakfast.....

I exchanged one of the pair of jeans at K Mart, I ordered the flowers for Dennis, I picked up a wedding card for tomorrow and I filled up my gas tank. Filling up the gas tank wasn't on my "things to do" list but when I went out of the complex the gas station I go to most often which has been at $1.69 for months was at $1.79. Then, a relatively new station at the corner of Ford and Wayne was (and I still don't understand this) at $2.45. No kidding, $2.45 Regular, $2.55 and $2.65 higher grades. So when I passed a station that was still at $1.65 I grabbed it.

Ringing in the New Year

I thought I would update my blog from Erika's house but it turns out I have a hard time typing on her laptop, especially with little Jackson happy fingers wanting his turn.

I had a great Holliday with everybody around and then spending a few days at Erikas. Besides all the good Jackson time, we did get out to the Casino and went to see The Aviator yesterday.
I left early this morning to avoid all the rain and thundershowers that were predicted and I did avoid them. They were supposed to start here in Westland about noon but there's nothing yet.

I got home to three package deliveries inside my screen door. Even the one that said "Adult Signature Required". Not that I mind. It saved me a trip to Romulus to pick it up at the DHL depot. The first package (3 scripts) which had been sent "overnight" on the 22nd was delivered on the 28th according to their email notification. Express-scripts tried to charge me an $18.00 delivery charge but I called them this morning and they are taking it off. One of the packages (2 scripts) was delivered by USPS and in it one of the caps had broken and the pills were all over the bottom of the package. Only two capsules were actually broken but did it make a mess.

Our weather is on a roller coaster. We were below 0 last weekend and are expecting the 50s tomorrow.

Best Laid Plans

When I returned from shopping early this morning my plans were well laid. I planned not to leave the house until after Christmas. They predict 6 inches of snow tonight.

The purpose of my annual doctor visit is to refill prescriptions. I get my prescriptions by mail order and going to the doctor on 12/9 and then mailing the scripts in was cutting it pretty close. I had almost enough of my 4 maintenance meds to get through tomorrow (one of them ran out yesterday). I got a call from Express Scripts on the 14th saying they had received my order and were processing it. I figured no problem. Today I got a call from them saying that the prescriptions hadn't been filled out properly and they hadn't been able to verify everything with the doctor so they were sending out the 3 (of 6) that were ok and had to void the other 3 and were returning them to me. WHAT? WHICH 3? I had to give her a secret password before she would give me any further information.

She told me which ones, some of them didn't even have the name of the drug on them. I asked if I could get the doctor to call today could it be fixed. Well, she said, the ones that were voided would have to be rewritten. Couldn't they be called in, I asked. She didn't know but gave me the confirmation number to have the doctor ask for when he called in. I got in the car and drove to the doctor's office. I had no hope that my doctor would be in but its the office girls that do everything anyways.

They put me in touch with the girl (don't know if she was a nurse or not) that could help me, and she pulled my file and said that the pharmacy had faxed all 6 prescriptions back to the office and she personally had fixed them and faxed them back the same day, on the 14th. I asked if she would call them while I was there and tell me what they said. She was on the phone for a long time (I love her) and finally told me that all 6 prescriptions were being processed and I should receive them in 3 to 6 business days.

We have a lot of days coming up that are not business days, so she called Meijers for me and ordered a 14 day supply of the maintenance drugs. Then an hour long trip to Meijers (the street traffic, the parking lot traffic and the foot traffic in the store) and I'm all set for a couple of weeks.

The upshot is that there was a message from Express Scripts when I got home saying that this was a courtesy call to let me know that they had received my order on the 15th and it was being processed.

Aaargh

Frozen Mess

Remember when the temperature was 2? I had two 8/packs of plastic bottles and 2 12/packs of canned Diet Pepsi in my trunk. Now I have two 8/packs of frozen pepsi bottles and a big mess of frozen and broken cans all over the trunk. I couldn't figure out what the funny looking thing at the back of the trunk was. It looked like a small gas cap. It was the top of a pepsi can that had come clean off.

From this morning's shopping I left the chips and the crackers. At least they won't burst if they freeze.

Wayward Chocolate

Last night, in the spirit of not making too many trips, I brought three Hershey Kisses back to my chair with me as I came back from the kitchen. I like to unwrap them and line them up on my end table. then I bite off all of their peaks before I let each bottom half melt in my mouth.

Sounds good, right? Well, as I was unwrapping the third one, the chocolate morsel slipped off my lap. Just then the phone rang so I didn't follow its progress with my eyes. After conversing with Rita about her heat going off, and if the repair people didn't come out right away, of course, she should come to mine, I decided to go after the wayward chocolate (title bit).

I never found it.

I went out early this morning. The temperature was 2. I parked in the best space and had the store to myself.. No glittery top but KMart had twill pants on sale. I like their pants, they come in petite and all have pockets. I bought two pair in the spring (navy and white) and although they were comfortable when I tried them on, they fit better standing up than sitting around all day. The blue ones anyways. The white ones still have the tags on them. So I tried on a size bigger in black and beige. They were very baggy and dragged on the ground. So I ended up with two pair of Chic jeans (dark denim and black) that I like very much.

Then I went to Windsor Casino today and tomorrow. The bus arrived at the casino at about 2:00 and by 3:10 my money was all gone. All of my money and the $25.00 they gave me. I sat in the lobby for about 20 minutes contemplating how long the day was going to be without a TV or even a book.

Then I decided to act as tho it were tomorrow and I went to the bank machine and took out another $40.00. (I keep a canadian bank account for gambling purposes). Then I went and played downstairs and things started looking up. I was actually getting money back once in a while and almost holding my own.

The bad news is that downstairs the machines are still all coin and not ticket. So to avoid carrying so many coins I started playing quarters. I did OK on them and ended up at the poker machines. Tomorrow's money dwindled at a much slower pace and near the end of it, I hit 4 aces (which pays $40.00). I cashed in my coins and went back to the lobby for the last half hour to wait for the bus.

Now, I don't even have to leave the house tomorrow and I'm $5.00 ahead.

Baby its cold outside

I decided it was time that I bought a new glittery dressy top. The 14 day South American cruise has 4 or 5 formal nights and I haven't had anything new for years. Plus I am going to a wedding on January 1st for Nicole Beauregard (daughter of Paul who is son of John Robert) and I could wear it then. I went to Catherine's a couple days ago, armed with a 30% coupon and found nothing I liked. I planned to go to the Mall this morning (early before it got crowded) but like the title says, baby it was cold outside.

So I sat and dozed in my comfy chair and am now contemplating venturing out assuming most people are having dinner at this hour and it shouldn't be too crowded. Its still really cold and my shopping strategy is that I drive up to the store, and if there is no really close parking I move on to the next until I park really close or I come back home.

It would be a shame to venture out there just to drive around and come right back home. I'd better wait until tomorrow morning.

Finishing touches

Gretchen and Gordon just left here. She had a job interview and my guess is that now they are headed for a meeting before going back home. They put some finishing touches on my basement cleanup. Adrienne did the rough work while she was here. I haven't been down there to see how it looks yet but I did check that the lights are out. Something I failed to do before Adrienne left last week.

Gretchen said they broke down the boxes but left them stacked into two boxes pending my intended move. She also checked into old typewriters on ebay and all those advertised had been refurbished and none of us wants to bother getting a refurbisher.

As for the inexplicable crying. I remember periods of my life when crying was the most fun I had all day. It stops when its no fun anymore. Unfortunately that point comes for the bystander way before it does for the cryer.

New Dog in the Neighborhood

My next door neighbor, Carol, has a new dog. I haven't seen such a cute dog since Baily. He reminds me of Baily except his hair is short and curly. He's an all white, squirmy, little ball of fur. He reminds me of Cookie across the alley. I asked what kind he was and Carol said he is a special breed called Daisy (dog's name is Casey) bred for people with allergies. The breeder is in Grand Rapids and has a web site called daisydogs.com. Carol is going to be a very good mom.

The Holliday Park policy is no pets for new move-ins but if you had a pet and it dies you have a specific amount of time to replace it. I drove security Wednesday night with a lady that had only been here for 2 years and was getting a kitten. I had no plans to turn her in or anything but she continued with the explanation that she had been so depressed since her husband died last October that her doctor has written a prescription for a kitten and our board of directors is processing it. She is very excited and can't wait to get it. I'm happy to know there is a loophole for people who need it. I thought the no-pet policy was kind of harsh.

I'm Healthy

I had my annual doctor visit today and he said my tests were all excellent. I was able to answer no to all the questions about irregularities and allergies, they took bloodwork (those results in a few days) and an ekg and chest exray. I got to the exray place and it goes like this:

Are you having chest pains
No
Any caughing or congestion'
no
Do you smoke
no
Did you ever smoke
No
So why are you having the chest exray today
I figure its because I have Medicare

The facts that I can't stand more than 2 minutes, or walk more than 10 feet without sitting down, or the pain in my neck (which is almost all gone). Those are things that just happen.

So if my bloodwork is ok, he'll see me next year.

Haunted Pictures

One of the pictures on my picture totem must be haunted. This is the third day in a row that the thing has fallen down. I picked it up on Monday and yesterday Gretchen was here to set it back up. Today I picked it up, left it folded in thirds and leaned it up against the wall. I can see that one of the pictures has come loose from its frame but its between the folds and I don't know which one. This time, also, one of the hinges came apart and I picked up a couple of loose screws.

There is a carpet cleaning guy working next door and going back and forth to his truck and he is wearing only a t-shirt and shorts. It wasn't that warm when I went out this morning.

In case I forget, if anyone tries to use my Catch Phrase game and can't make it work, I have turned one of the batteries backwards because it kept going off by mistake.

Normality

Whatever that is, I am close to achieving it. From the time I dropped Adrienne at the airport, I didn't leave the house until yesterday afternoon. And I went to a Mall. As soon as I got home I crawled back into my chair and dozed the rest of the day. Now today, I've been up and out to the store and I even had breakfast. I fixed toast. That's the most complicated thing I've fixed for days.

The Flight of Time

We were having fun and time flew. The same airport that gave her to me two weeks ago swallowed her up again this morning. I thought I would come home and sleep for a week but so far not.

I am catching up on tapes I'm up to Boston Legal from 11/21. And speaking of tapes, I had forgotten one of the hazards of a cleaning person is that the aerials on the non-cable TVs gets moved around in the cleaning process so when I tried to tape The Apprentice last night I got staticy stuff with no sound. Lucky for me, the Apprentice is repeated tonight at 10 on CNBC.

The drive to the airport this morning was achieved at half-speed since the roads were coated with a thin layer of ice. But the sun is shining now.

Stephanie fixed Lasagna for dinner last night. I ate Lasagna for the first time in my life and it was way better than I would have expected. She told me her ingredients and I was fine with them. I would still never order it out though. After dinner we had a good game of Trivial Pursuit (20th Century) and me and Steph were being soundly defeated by Adrienne and Arn until I started listening to Steph more and accepting her answers, then we caught up. We still lost tho. Arn and Steph on a team together would have been pretty near unbeatable.

BTW I caught a Wave yesterday at Motor City to the tune of $80.00.

St. Vincent de Who

I will never give anything to those people again. They picked through all the stuff and left a big pile of garbage on my front lawn. They took only the things that looked like new and were still in the boxes. It was already almost dark when we got home and the task of cleaning all that up looked overwhelming. I called Jeff first because he has a truck. He wasn't home so I called Kelly. He wasn't home so I called Arnie. Arnie came to the rescue. Adrienne put what she could into my car and took it up to Salvation Army. There were some pretty big things (bed frame, table leafs etc) left that she didn't think would fit in the car. She was hoping Arnie would have an idea how to transport them. Before she got back, I was in the kitchen and there was a knock on the door. It was Arnie. He said, "Its all loaded up, where am I taking it". What a guy. We love him.

Amazing Amazon Daughter

This amazing daughter of mine is slowly filling my living room with stuff from my basement. Three corners of my basement are empty. I'm not sure if we'll get to the fourth corner tonight or not. All the stuff is going out on my porch tonight (or early tomorrow) and St. Vincent De Paul said they would pick it all up tomorrow. Isn't that great.

Others have blogged about the wonderful time we had all last week and the fun continues. When we got home on Monday, the HP maintenance guy was just putting the finishing touches on my bathroom repairs. He had stopped the leak (the other guy must have loosened it instead of tightening it) so I have hot and cold running water in my upstairs sink again. I have a bright new toilet with no cracks. The bad news is that the tank is a little rounder and doesn't follow the same lines that were painted around the old tank.

We spent the day at Windsor today and it was lots of fun. Jeannette came with us and nobody made any money and I was the biggest loser. Tomorrow its Greektown (the bus leaves Westland at 9:30 AM) and then Rita is taking us out to Red Robin for dinner. St. Vincent dp will have removed all the stuff from my porch by that time. Thursday morning at 8:00 AM when Joe* (pronounced Laurie) gets here, Jeannette is picking us up and we are going to Motor City. She (J) must be home in time to pick up her grandchildren (Elain's kids) from school so that should get us home in time for Adrienne to get some packing done before we go to Stephie's for dinner. Adrienne has prepared a Cherry Pie Cake for desert at Steph's and the house smells wonderful right now.

Smeverages

OK, Steph and Arn drink Cherry Coke, Jeff and Dana drink Diet Mountain Dew. They each drank one. That's the last time I run out and buy a 12 pack of something and I don't want anybody to do that for me either. Sometimes water is a very cool drink. Other than packing up all the undrunk pop to bring to Gretchen's today, the Pizza Party was a great success. Kelly didn't show up but Erika's friend Anna did. Steph brought me a gift of an electronic Catch Phrase and we played that last night. Poor Anna was recouperating from surgery and we made her laugh too hard anyways. One of the funniest was, the word was test tube and the giver said "you can make babies in this" and Jeff said "the back seat of a Camero".

We never missed a beat in the game while Jackson crawled around at will choosing who he wanted to be near. Adrienne never missed a turn and managed to clean up the whole kitchen while we were playing. Its so easy to give parties with daughters around.

Unleaky leak

The previous chapter of this saga is in the Amazon Reader blog because somebody put these buttons too close to each other.

The good news is that Gretch and Gordon stopped by last night and he turned off the water intake valve that was leaking and my pan was dry this morning. Gordon called down from upstairs "which one" and I said "the one under the cold water faucet" so I'm assuming that's the one he turned off. While it did take care of the leaky problem, it is the hot water that doesn't come out and the cold water runs fine. Go figure.

Beverages

My pizza party Saturday night is still growing. I know the kids (Steph and Arn) don't drink diet pop, but do they still drink Mountain Dew? That's the regular pop I plan to pick up for them. I'm pretty sure Jeff drinks Mountain Dew also. I asked Steph to bring her 90s Trivial Pursuit game.

I just called maintenance to remind them about my leak in the upstairs bathroom and to let them know that there is now a water spot on the kitchen ceiling and a crack in the kitchen wall. I asked that someone at least come over and turn off the water at that sink. I tried last week to turn it off and I can't turn the knobs.

OMG a week

I just noticed that my own post was a week ago. It just seemed too mundane to keep saying, I'm waiting for this or that repair person. But I'm still waiting for a repair person. The water is leaking under my upstairs vanity and has been for a week. Its seeping under the carpeting in the hallway and starting to get squishy. I reported it to the maintenance department last Friday but its not a big priority with them. Every once in a while I think about the possible damage to the hardwood floor under the carpeting, possible mold damage to the carpeting, possible damage to the bathroom tiles at the puddle spot, but not my problem. Also, while Laurie was cleaning last week she mentioned that my upstairs toilet has a good size crack on the outside of the bowl. I told them about that last Friday also.

Rita is coming with me to dominos tomorrow afternoon. I think she will like it.

TV Guide still driving me crazy. I watched the debut of Biggest Loser (some of it anyways) and decided I didn't like it. Then I caught the second (or third) episode on USA last week and liked it. So I taped it this week. Tuesday night from 8 pm to 9 pm just like it said in the book. Then the tape cut off right in the middle of the weigh-in. Why are they trying to alienate us? I don't imagine any of you watched that and know a)which team won and b) who was voted off?

One of the things I am going to have to figure out is what to tape while Adrienne is here and we are out gallivanting. Keeping in mind that we only have choices of 7 program slots and 8 hours of tape in each of three rooms. (4 if I use Gretchen's room) Before Adrienne and I leave for Gretchen's house on Sunday we are going to have to do a spreadsheet on this.

Speaking of Gretchen's (and Sunday at Gretchen's is just a way-station to Monday at Kewadin), Caroline (y'all remember Caroline, Rita's traveling companion for years) has given me some of her unused food coupons for Kewadin. The significant part about that is that Caroline is not a giving person. She is of my Dad's generation and doesn't let go of things easily. So I think its very nice of us to give her this opportunity to be generous. I was very grateful to her and will express my extreme gratitude again when I tell her how happy we were to use them. Rita told me she will give me hers also and I already have about 30.00 worth. How on earth will we ever use all those food coupons, hmmm. I vote we let Gordon hold on to them.

I also have a coupon from Bay Mills that they may or may not honor since it won't be my birthday month.

After a West Branch Thanksgiving and an Indiana weekend, we get home on Monday and need another spreadsheet to work out when we can watch all those tapes. Because we have Windsor on Tuesday (everybody with influence remind Adrienne not to forget her birth certificate), Greektown on Wednesday and Motor City on Thursday.

So, I have to sit here in pure boredom for another whole week. Except for dominos tomorrow. Oh and Tuesday Jeannette and I are going to Windsor and it turns out a whole group of people from Holiday Park are going that day too.

TV and Joe

Ever since the cable came back on I have been unable to get channel 2, (fox). There are only a couple of things I care about on channel 2 so its no big loss, but I pay those people every month to get all those channels and I want them. I am waiting for the cable guy now. He is supposed to be here before noon.

In better news, I have a new Joe. Her name is Lauri and she is working her magic as I type. I don't know if she will want to come this early every time. That might be a problem for me getting out of her way, the library doesn't open until 10. Today, since I am waiting for the cable guy, I will stay here and see how she does anyways.

What kills me about this election is the information that the thing that brought out so many voters is the moral issues. I wish some newsmagazine would pick out a few of these people who say they are concerned about morals and do a hidden camera story about their personal morals. I think most of them would be revealed as hypocrites.

cable company

Regarding my cable problem

on reflection in my bed last night I wondered if a connection behind my TV might have come loose and should I check that before I call the cable company. Thinking about the size of the TV and the difficulty of getting behind it I had almost decided not to check it and just call the cable people and let them come out here and check it. Then I got a good night's sleep.

Then this morning; thinking about how much they might want to charge me to come out and check my connections I decided to try to pull out the TV and check them myself. Really not as difficult as I had thought. It turns out there is room to sort of swivel the TV without actually having to remove it from its cubby hole. But the connections were fine.

I did call the cable company this morning and waited 17 minutes for Tiffany to say "Well Ma'am we are experiencing difficulty in your area and we are working on it." Arghhh.

A Blustery day

They said on the news that Saturday was going to be a very windy day. I hardly took notice knowing that it had nothing to do with me. Then about 1:15 pm everything in my house shut down. When this happens I usually hold my breath for a minute hoping that it will go back on fast enough to retain the programs on all my electronic stuff. When it lasted more than 5 minutes I thought Oh Shucks. I had already reset the clock and VCR (including adjusting the recording programs) upstairs to reflect the new time and would now have to do it again. Once I got over that disappointment I picked up a new book.

When I started to get hungry I went through all the usual, I'll just have..... Everything I was just going to have required a burner, microwave, toaster or something. So I waited. Maybe the power would come back on before long. It started to get dark.

Rita, who did not lose power, brought over a fluorescent lantern that she had and offered to take anything from my freezer that might spoil. Like if I had Ice Cream or anything. She wanted to make sure that I knew that ice cream wouldn't last very long so if I had ice cream she would take it for me. I assured her that I had no ice cream and as long as I didn't open the freezer everything should be fine. When she came over I had been reading by the light of two candles on my side table. The lantern was a bit better. The instructions said it should last 6 hours. After 3 hours the light was dim enough that the candle power beat it out. So I went back to candles.

I realized that I was still hungry and settled for crackers with peanut butter. The peanut butter jar was low. Did you ever try to scrape the bottom (and sides) of a peanut butter jar by candlelight? Just can't do a good job.

You want to see something funny? Picture an old lady who needs two handrails to make it safely upstairs trying to go upstairs with two lit candles and an open can of Pepsi. I left one candle burning as a night light figuring that even if it burned out, when I woke up it would be daylight. I woke up when the candle got far enough to the bottom that it shattered the candle holder and the pieces fell onto the desk. There was no flame by that time so not to worry.

It was daylight when I woke up, but still no power. I gleaned another couple of crackers worth of peanut butter out of the jar before I threw it away. Rather than sit around powerless all day I decided to go to the casino and took the windsor bus trip.

When I got home about 8 pm. the power was back and had been since about 5. Long enough to heat up the house and cool off everything in the fridge. The freezer stuff is just fine.

Now my TV is all messed up. The channels are coming in fuzzy and then disappear alltogether. The cable ones are not coming in at all right now. They were fine when I first reset the channels. I don't think there is much I can do about it tonight, I'll call the cable people tomorrow.

Drugs have worn off

My root has been cannelled and all the numbness is gone. Seems like a trip to the dentist used to leave one unable to eat or feel your lips for hours and hours. Even with the nitrous and novacain I still can't help crying. This Endodontist was a new person and he was feeling bad. He asked me if my eyes always tear up and I said "only when I cry".

I heard a piece on NPR about our Proposal 2, regarding a constitutional ammendment banning same sex marriages. It seems Michigan already has a law banning same and the passage of this proposition will not change things considerably. Nobody mentioned that without the ammendmant the existing law would be subject to challange in the courts.

I have received my official letter from the membership committee. As of November 1st I am on the waiting list for transfer to 34721 Spring Valley.

Racing again

I just saw a promo for and met the contestants on Amazing Race 6. It starts a week from Tuesday on the 16th. There is the requisite old couple in their 60s, more than one modeling couple, a sister team and some party people.

My hard drive has been periodically squeaking lately. Anybody know what that means. Also every once in a while (like this morning) the computer is off when I get up. I don't turn it off at night.

I've got about one more hour before I have to leave for the dentist and root canal. Yuch.

Immagine me, a guru

There is actually someone that knows less about computers than I do. I am Jeannette's computer guru. We got her all installed with aol tonight and she is happy as a clam. She has never really had actual internet with her Juno, just email. She is very excited that the aol welcome screen shows you the current weather etc.

She was here when I was talking to Adrienne on IM and couldn't believe we were able to have a "real time" conversation. She is excited about that and has already tried it with me since I got home.

Now, if we could only find a way to incorporate her existing address list. I showed her how to use the aol help and its on her to-do list for tomorrow to ask aol how to do that.

Thinking family

You guys are the best at thinking red. We have the St. Louis/Boston world series and now St. Louis doesn't have to win anything any more. We want Boston all the way. In 4 please. If St. Louis wins one the Bostonians will get nervous.

I ran into Susie (Suchy's cleaning lady) this morning and told her I was still in the market if she knew anybody. I had already asked her but she didn't have time to add new clients. She said she is thinking of getting a helper and taking more jobs. I told her to keep me in mind.

I did my absentee ballot yesterday. I hadn't heard one word about it but we have a proposal on the ballot for same sex marriage. It says "This proposal would amend the state constitution to provide that "the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose." Should this proposal be adopted?

I have zero trust in my fellow Michiganians to expect the correct outcome of this proposal.

Good Job, Keep Thinking Red

We did so good getting Boston the AL Pennant. Now we have to think red for the cardinals on the St. Louis uniforms.

Think Red

We all have to think Red for Boston tonight. I have always felt a little bit guilty since Detroit beat them out in 1968. Now they finally have another shot against many odds.

Baby Steps

I don't mean to steal Erika's thunder by posting this before she did but I am just so geeked. Jackson took two (count them - two) baby steps toward Lyle last night. He had been taking one a couple of times between the ottoman and chair and such, but he was examining the buttons on the DVD player last night and Lyle held out his arms and Jackson took two steps to him. It looked like he didn't even have to think about it.

I had such a great visit this weekend. Jackson is just wonderful. Look at me, I'm preaching to the choir.

We had Erika's movie thing at Sammy's house on Friday night. The movie we saw (Casa de los Babys) should only be seen for the purpose of having a discussion. If you see it on your own and have noone with which to share interpretations, there's just no point.

We went to the Casino and discovered that Harrah's has redecorated their lobby area and have added a 50s diner. We ate there on our way out and it was very good. So that will be our Indiana Casino of choice if we get to one while Adrienne is here.

I told Erika that Adrienne and I are driving down there with her (separate cars) the weekend after Thanksgiving so that if she and Lyle wanted to plan themselves an adult outing, Adrienne could handle the running around part of the babysitting and I can give the hugs.

transfer

I submitted my papers for transfer yesterday. After receiving all my quarterly investment statements I was armed with my financial information necessary to do that. The Unit I am requesting transfer to is Kitty-Korner from Rita and now all I have to do (assuming that my request is approved) is wait for the lady that lives there to move out or die.

Broken In

Finally broke in the dryer. For the first load I forgot a dryer sheet. First time in a long long time that has happened to me. This dryer has a cool down period before the buzzer goes off (oh, first time in a long long time for a buzzer too) so everything was nice and cool. I'm used to hot clothes. I just had to take out one nightgown and all the underwear came with it. If it had been dark out, I could have lit up the whole basement.

Toilet repair guy plunged and flushed. He didn't see any seeping water so I must have immagined it. The heck with them. What do I care if the floor gets ruined. One of the tiles behind the toilet is cracked to I don't think the seepage I noticed was the first time.

Today is Kelly's birthday. His email is kjsheedy@netzero.net

Wet and Dry

You teen people who don't post because nothing is going on in your lives just keep reading my blog and see how boring life can really be.

I lugged my laundry down (as far as the kitchen) this morning. I was going to use my new dryer for the first time. I have been feeling pretty good, leg-wise lately and figured I could do a few trips to the basement today. I am incredibly lazy and any misc. pain is a good excuse to put off most tasks. But today I get to be relatively pain free and still indulge my laziness.

I noticed last night that when I flush my upstairs toilet, the bowl fills up and then water seeps out onto the floor in the back. Not all the water, just some of it. So I called maintenance this morning and she is sending someone out, maybe even today. So, on the assumption that when they come they will have to turn the water off... and nobody wants the water to get shut off while they are doing laundry... See where I'm going?

The sacrifices I make.

Endurance and other TV

I have become a big fan of the Saturday morning kids show, Endurance 3. Its like a kids version of survivor except I think they are fed regularly and have sleeping quarters. They complete missions in teams of two (boy, girl) and the winners send two opposing teams to the Temple and only one team returns.

This week they picked their teammates and one poor girl had to team up with "girly boy", Marvin (or Melvin or something). He's way more "girly" than any of the girls and should provide some comic relief.

I don't mean to make fun of him, I'm sure his mother loves him and I would be very happy if he proves me wrong and wins the whole thing.

I liked the outcome of the Complex Malibu. Its not so much that I was hoping they would win, I just hoped nobody else would.

I also came across a show on TBS called The Mansion where a team of 8 or so are completing renovation challenges for prize money, and the foreman of each challenge has to distribute the money at their discretion in predetermined amounts. The last foreman kept all the money. She has some p-o'd teammates.

I'm Impressed

Finally some media political commentary that was actually helpful. Last night after the VP debate they showed a comment by Cheney saying that it was simply not true that he had ever accused Saddam Hussein of being responsible for 9/11. Then NBC cut to an interview on Meet the Press from 2003 where he said exactly that.

Then this morning on NPR they explained Cheney's comment that even though he was President of the Senate he had never met John Edwards until yesterday. They said that Cheney had met very few Democrats and that he mostly went to the senate to preside over the Republican luncheons.

Maybe I will start paying more attention to the media. Then again, maybe not. I managed to pick up these gems at my current level of attention.

In other news. The dryer saga continues. It seems that a delivery truck has damaged some shingles on our carport in Lot 12. Since I was the only one to have a delivery last Thursday (the damage was noticed on Friday) the consensus is that it was the Sears delivery truck at fault. I have called the delivery people and lodged the complaint but the problem is that no one saw it happen. The truck people said they would have someone contact me within 48 hours. When that didn't happen, I called them again and you'll never guess what. They had no record of my call. I gave them the name of the girl I talked to but that didn't help. Now I have a new name and they have another 48 hours to get back to me.

In health news. Last Saturday I determined that I would call the doctor on Monday about my neck pain. By Monday I no longer thought that was necessary. Today my neck and legs were in such good working order I even went shopping and I learned that my back pain is just waiting there in the wings for me to be able to walk far enough or stay on my feet long enough for it to engage. The good part about that is that when I sit down it goes away.

So life is good.

A Winters' Night

We just spent a great evening at Stephanie's. Rita came with me and we were the only ones there out of Steph's generation. They had about 10 friends over, most of whom were helping them cook and set up.

We had burgers and french fries and salad with all the trimmings for each. We had multiple choices of fruits and melons for desert and then in the middle of the Trivial Pursuit game she made some chocolate chip cookies. I was teamed with Bryant for the TP and we had the most pies when the game broke up.

She has a passable two bedroom apartment. It was very hard to find. The layout of the property reminds me of beach rentals and such. A low flat building with about 4 apartments in it built out behind the main house. It is enough in the country that they have horses next door.

The address of the main house is 14170 Huron River Drive, Romulus, MI. Her new phone number is 734 229 0325.

Arn is still working at the hospital and she is working at the airport doing menial work on Northwest airplanes. She didn't seem to get a lot of hours, and she said they didn't pay much. But after the probationary time, if she gets on full time, the benefits are pretty great. Including, but not limited to, free flying advantages for family members (grandparents included).

We can be proud of our Steph. She picked a good husband and has very nice friends.

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