Photos from the Mother/Daughter Spring Fling

Click the photos to enlarge them, if you dare! Then arrow back to return to the posting....

Tamara, Carol, and Sue are in line to have some delicious finger foods before getting ready for the fashion show. The two ladies at the end of the line are guests of Janet's from the school where Janet teaches. The table was laden with wonderful treats, nothing too heavy for mid-afternoon!

This is the part of the show where Janet was introducing the models and telling the guests about how she had to keep encouraging the ladies to think "outside the box" when selecting their outfits to model-----"except for Kimmer who is already outside the box".....Hence, the place went wild! Personally, I find this outfit to be a bit tame...

Lynn and Anna Kuske modeled as a mother/daughter team, both of them slim and tall. I really wanted Anna to have that top for keeps but she said her mom told her 'no' to buying anything. Nuts!, because it really looked so wonderful on her!

Terri T. was the designated photographer as I was busy getting my clothes changed and such so she took some random shots of the crowd, as Janet kept everyone entertained between models. Judy J. is shown here next to Tina and behind Judy is Sandy, Julaine, Jen P. and her mom, Rose.

Another mother/daughter team were Jordyn and Tamara, Janet's daughter. Jordyn is an absolute natural at this modeling thing, complete with spins and holding her head to the side.

This photo was taken AFTER the show as I came back from the staging area. Terri snapped me strutting my stuff in my own clothes, that rascal! Whew, we were some hot mama's with the out-of-control A/C problem and the rapid wardrobe changes!

Here is my BFF, Judy C., with her granddaughter, Hanna, modeling their 'dressy' outfits. Judy is really outside the box in her floral sun dress and she said today that if she did not have to pay for a root canal, she'd have bought the dress!!! She's killin' me, what can I say???

This trio is Godmother Kim, Goddaughter Sarah, and her mom, Emily. I really liked these pants, gauchos, and Sarah liked the beaded medallion on my wrap top. Janet was correct, though, this outfit is really something I would buy and wear. Emily, too, as far as that goes, was quite comfortable with her wardrobe choices.

Oh, that LuAnn! Somehow we both ended up with the same top to model, and leave it to Suzanne to call out, "Hey, isn't that Kim's top?" This was outside LuAnn's normal attire but she reported tonight that she actually bought the capris because they fit so well and were stylish. Her mom-in-law, Fran, bought her outfit as well which at first she thought was too 'fancy'. It pays for Bealls to do these shows!

Here is a group shot of some of our guests, over fifty ladies were in attendance, including some from Victory Lutheran and Christ, Keystone. In the center of this photo is my friend, Stephanie, with the dark hair. She just blew me away yesterday by surprising me with a wind chime to replace the one that is crashing to the floor every now and again as the sun decays the strings holding the glass icicles. What a gem of a friend!!

Squinting against the sun

I hope you all liked the brief posting yesterday, I found it spoke volumes! As I am lying back on the bed with my balanced but bouncing laptop, the sun is reflecting off the water, making me squint. The good news is that it is also sort of hazy which serves to lessen the effect. The radio is talking to me this early a.m. while once more the TV is off the air as Comcast is working out the bugs of this conversion process. My guess is that no one in management took into consideration how my sleep would be disrupted by this change over!

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So far Mom was the only one to share a Justinism and when I spoke with her on the phone, she said she has sent me other comments that have not made it to 'press', as it were. I would certainly publish her comments so my guess is either she is not doing something right every time or it is just not getting to me. If you are sending comments and I am not getting them, please let me know, okay? Mom told me the other day that she bought Manny, the birthday boy, a large bottle of bubbles as the boys just love blowing bubbles. I reminded her of the time Justin got a huge bottle of bubbles for his birthday one year, when we lived on Kel Lane. He also have a little kids' pool in the backyard which ended being the recipient of the contents of that bottle!! What a slippery, slimy mess that was to clean up! Who would think that soap would make such a terrible situation????

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Another story from when we lived on Kel Lane, when Justin was 5 years old. We had sold our home in Villages of Fireside and had no standing homes to move into so we ended up renting back a home we had built in a partnership with the Sarnelli's. It was a corner lot with the backyard having many trees left standing. My former spouse cleaned out the 'woods' making it almost parklike. One day we took a family outing to St. Augustine and toured the Huegenot Cemetery which Justin found immensely fascinating. On the ride home, Justin suggested that we cut down all the trees in our backyard and 'put in a cemetery'!! His father thought that Mr. Sarnelli might not like that idea very much......I promise you, he would not! Today, Tony's own son lives there with his family, which I think is sort of cool.

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The weather for tomorrow does not sound good, heavy rains and 'threatening' weather heading our way from Atlanta. Yikes! What will we do for recess at the kindergarten then? Perhaps I should take along a video for them to watch...oh, wait, I gave away most of the kids' themed video, VHS tapes...Maybe I can get the kids to take a nap! They like to remind me that they are too old to take a nap, add a chuckle to that statement. Then I tell the kids that I am 54 and am NOT too old to take a nap! No chuckle added there...At least the threatening weather is lowering the temps a few degrees, only going to be around 88 this week. Yesterday was 93 and the A/C at church had a hard time keeping up.

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Sunday afternoon was our Spring Fling with a great group showing up to spend this time with our sisters in Christ. It was a mother/daughter themed-event and when Janet asked me to lead the prayer, I incorporated this into the prayer. We are all daughters of the Lord, so even if I have no mom or daughter to take with me, I have my Sisters to share this special time. There were several ladies who came without 'adopting' a mom or daughter which is wonderful, plus we had guests from our 'sister' congregations, Victory and Christ Lutheran, at our tables. The A/C was not up-to-snuff in the Fellowship Hall, having had to reset the breaker at one point during the setting up process. I blamed the little tea candles for the heat but no one else seemed to go along with that thinking. Having to dress and undress for the fashion show had me sweating, too, so in the photos, which will be posted later, you will notice I have a glow about me! My guess is that the A/C will be blowing out plenty of cool air today for Bible study with fewer bodies in the room and lower outside temperatures.

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Since it was such a lovely day yesterday, the evening was quite pleasant as well. My neighbors and I spent several hours on the sundeck enjoying our social time, with even Ellen and her daughter, Maggie, coming down to join the fellowship. Ellen has had some back troubles again so it was nice she was able to venture out for some air. It was 9:30 before folks went inside. Hopefully no one missed dinner last night! I had a slice of pizza about 5:00 pm, taking it out of the 'wave just as my friend, Jen, called. Instead of calling to have dinner, though, she was calling with other news, so I went ahead and ate my slice. You know my rule: if someone calls to have dinner, turn off the stove, put on the shoes and out the door you go! It was okay, though, to eat at home because I was weary after my full day at church and since I did not eat much at the Fling, was hungry at 5:00 pm. For my real dinner then, I decided to just have some leftover crackers and pretzel chips from my finger food dish I took to church, served with chicken salad.

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When I was ready to leave for church in the morning, where I got to hear our former pastor singing on the video again, it took both hands and a foot to open my kitchen door! Since it was so humid inside and out, the door swelled and would not open at first. Of course, I could have used the front doors but I persisted and got the kitchen door opened. When I got home from church, it took my thundering hip to push the door open, which made me decide to turn on the A/C to get the humidity down. By the time I came back in the evening from the Fling, the door opened without resistance and the A/C turned off again. Mission accomplished!

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I nearly forgot to mention something: last week I had a number of people's friends from Facebook reach out to me and ask me to "Friend" them. I cannot tell you how much I love that. One girl wrote that she liked the things I posted when writing to our shared friend, Hope in NYC, found them uplifting, so asked if she could be my friend, too. Nice! We can be someone's friend without ever meeting them in the flesh and have a beneficial effect on others without sometimes knowing it. Keep that in mind, my friends, when you post something on Facebook.....keep it positive and 'Hope'ful!

A wake-up gem to start your Sunday!

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalm 139:7-10

This is so cool!

As I write, I am seeing the end of an afternoon movie on TBS called "My Prince and Me", a silly little flick that takes place mainly in WI. A spoiled heir to the Denmark throne sneaked to college in the USA to try to be 'normal' and expected to see more wild college life as is shown on 'late night channels'. He did not expect to meet a decent girl on track for med school and fall in love, her not being aware he was royalty. At one point her roommate encouraged Paige to invite "Eddie" to her home for Thanksgiving, in Manitowoc!!!! Get out!!! I wonder if there are actually dairy farmers in my hometown named Morgan...hmmm? Paige ended up following him to Denmark after he was called home to take his father's throne. They were engaged but then she decided that being a queen might not be for her, since she wanted to be doctor and not conform to the life of royalty. She went back to WI to graduate and is busily having her photos taken with her roommates and fellow graduates (say 'cheese curds!'), when she hears her former fiance quoting from Macbeth. He came to her graduation!!! He declared he would wait until she finished medical school and said together they can change the way the monarchy is treated and acts. Now, whether that happens or not, is left for a sequel, but I was just blown away by having the queen of Denmark (not the one in WI) come from my hometown. Something else to brag on in Manty!

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My thermostat in the hallway reports it is 81 in my house today and I am lovin' it! The doors are all open but there is little breeze right now. Somehow the boats are managing to catch the wind as the river is dotted both directions with lovely sails. There might just be a regatta going on today and it is a glorious one for it. Suzanne was in Fernandina yesterday setting up the booth for the TV station, getting ready for the Shrimp Festival. My family used to go there years ago and see the reenactment of the pirate battles, hear the cannons blasting, eat good food and enjoy the art fair, etc. It is a good weekend for such an event. Now there are about two dozen boats sailing passed my windows. Fantastic!

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I heard wedding music earlier and I knew there was going to be a 'big' wedding this weekend, as one of the Club owners was on the sundeck last night. We were all hoping the rain would come last night and spare the families of having to resort to Plan B----and it did! We had a nice thunderstorm, no hail or damage here but further west the counties were under tornado warnings or watches. It lost its steam by the time it got this far east, I guess. It made for good sleeping though, falling asleep to rain.

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I did have to rely on my phone alarm to wake me this a.m. and am thankful that I thought to set it last night. Otherwise I might have slept through my breakfast with Terri T.! Some mornings this past week I was up before 6:00 a.m. but today I felt like I wanted another hour or so. What is up with that??? Anyway, we met at Grumpy's at just after 8:00 and sat there, talking, 'til nearly 10:30! Nice long breakfast, we were almost hungry for lunch when we left. Thankfully I was full enough to not buy foolishly at Publix, my next stop before going home. The frivolous purchase was ice cream bars, but it was a planned purchase and not impulsive. The soda was on special today, buy two 12-packs and get the third one free so that is why the 2nd trip to the store this week. Also, I needed to get a few items to serve at the ladies' group Spring Fling on Sunday, where I will be modeling the outfits from Bealls. Must remember to take a pair of my new shoes along to pull the 'get-ups' together!

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My friend, Betty, and I were planning to have dinner together at Koko's but her grandkids decided to come over for a visit, so I yielded to them. No worries, I will not be hungry because last night I was lured to Papa Murphy's where I bought a Chicago-style pizza for me, and a gourmet garlic chicken pizza for Jessica. She never tried a Murphy's so this was a real treat for her, and for me. Last night was the final opportunity to get the sale price on the chicken pizza and she loved it. Whether Travis had any I do not know because she sent me a text message after 9:30 to say she loved it. Not sure if he was home yet at that hour or not. Mine is larger, being thicker so will take me days to eat it. I hope it reheats well and won't get too tough.

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Before we ate, a large group of our Owners came and went from the sundeck for several hours. Including the baby! Jessica was trying to keep Beckham awake and Maureen, the official grandma in the bunch, kept him occupied. At a certain point, Jessica took him inside to swaddle him which is really calming for him. It just blows people away, especially the mama's, to see a baby all wrapped up like that but, as I told the gang, it worked for baby Jesus!

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The night before, our newest Owners, one a re-owner, came to see my house. They live in an end unit on the south and have a different view than does mine. Bob and Rosemary immediately fell in love with the place, loved the decor and the scenery. Bob, who lived in this building before, was part of the reason I bought here in the first place, as I remembered his home years ago. Even though he lives here again, he was awed by the views, front and back, looking out over the pools. Last night his wife, Rosemarie, told me again how beautiful my home is and again I thanked her for her compliment. They said it was charming and homey--nice!

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While movie watching today, I also managed to prepare an Outreach mailing complete with hand-addressing, my personal touch. Yesterday I printed off several copies of the church newsletter because it seems having too many photos in this edition prevented it from going out (hotmail accounts mainly) or taking a long time to download. I will have to keep that in mind for next month! The church office photocopies the newsletter for those without Internet but black and white does the photos little justice. I will hand-deliver the color copies to a select few tomorrow morning, and for anyone else who wants one!

One more thing...

...I was thinking about Justin and something he told me in the parking lot at church Thursday, after Bible study. He was the one with the time crunch, since he had to go to work but still, "he had words left over". This was something he had told me when he was a little boy. I had gone into his room to tell him one more time to stop talking and go to sleep!!! "But, Mom, I have words left over...." Yes, when he was tested for admittance to St. Johns when he was 5, the assistant Headmaster called me to report that although Justin was polite, well-mannered, and all that, he DID have a problem---"Justin exhibits some verbal over-flow...." What?!? Have you ever heard of such a thing? What a way to phrase it! Go ahead and say it, Mr. Edwards....he is just like his mother!!! This verbal overflow made Justin a perfect candidate for the pre-k program ( and another year's worth of tuition!) where the teachers would work with him to dial it back some. Didn't work....

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Back to the the parking lot (I digressed (over-flowed)).....Justin was excitedly telling me about the comic books characters, picture my eyes glazing over, and still trying to absorb what he was telling me. Then he launched into why he was doodling something on the napkin during Bible study. I did see him write a few things but paid little attention to what it was, figuring it was stray thoughts. Well, he had come up with the idea, shared with me before, for designing a glow-in-the-dark paint for cars so that no matter what, they can be seen at night. A safety issue, not for the person driving the glowing car, but the other drivers being able to see them. He had asked his friend, the civil engineer, what the painters use on the roads to mark the lanes and arrows and found out it was plastic. This is his mind going......

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Justin asked me, as one subject flowed into another, if I knew the expression 'aliens and robots'. I said I had heard it but he offered the explanation for me. He said, "Mom, you and I are aliens...." which I could have easily told him. But, wait, there's more. "Some people go through life looking either straight ahead, or side-to-side. Aliens look up and all around....." I was just given a great compliment, I think! He related a recent experience with his robot friends---this past weekend the three guys had gone to the fairgrounds downtown for a Wing Fest, where area restaurants and vendors gathered to sell their wings. It turned out to be too rich for their blood so they went to The Landing instead. They were heading for the American Cafe and got separated in the crowd gathered for a free concert. Justin positioned himself on the stairway leading to the restaurant where they were headed and could see his buddies, but they could not see him. He waved his arms and tried to call out over the band, but to no avail. They were looking straight ahead for him, or side-to-side, and not up. Huh....As Justin put it, "What was our goal? To get to American Cafe. That is where they should have looked, and not at people's shoulders and backs!" Robots vs. aliens. I just hope and pray I never get separated from Justin in a crowd and not be able to find him, and become less alien!

Justinisms

One of my more faithful readers commented (thanks, Darla!) about how she finds Justin and me amusing. Really, Darla, you would be amazed at just how funny this kid is, without even trying. Or so sweet. Make no mistake, he gave us wwaayy too much grief regarding doing homework and chores, oh my goodness, he was much/is less than inspired. We often wondered where he got this work ethic and attitude because his father and I were all about work and our business, but Justin was not. But he would use his being very bright to figure out ways and plans to avoid work, or to streamline it, anything he could do to get out of it!

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As far as coming out with funny things, my mom often recalls her favorite episode, one of his "Justinisms", as they came to be known. The three were of us were driving down one of our incredibly busy streets heading toward home one afternoon when Justin was about 4 or 5 years old, I think. At this time, the area of this road had few businesses or dining establishments on 'the way home'. Justin announced that he had to go potty, to which I said there was no place for me to stop right now, he would have to wait until we got home. I was not lying, there was nothing on the southbound side of Blanding, not even a gas station, for a long stretch. From the backseat he heaved a great sigh and said, "Okay, then. I'll just hold my knees together and pray....". After a beat, Mom and I just lost it, laughing, and I decided I had better find a place to turn around and go back the other way, crossing three lanes of traffic, to find him a bathroom!! We needed one now, too!!! Holding our knees together and praying, we went potty at the Hardee's.

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Mom sewed clothes for the kids in our family, and for Justin, camp shirt and short/slacks sets were wonderful. One day he opened a 'care package' that we had picked up at the post office, mailed by his grandma to him. She would draw pictures of "ephaloes" (elephants) for Justin, his favorite animal since he was little, and one of those was in the care package, too. He pulled out a couple new outfits, perhaps even a pair of pj's, and hugged them. I said, "The Lord has really blessed Grandma's hands so she could make these for you...." to which he agreed. We drove a bit down the road before he announced, "The Lord has blessed the hands of the banner makers, too...", referring to the cross-stitched banners hanging in our church. Yes, the Lord does bless the hands of Twila and also June, who used to help with the banners. It just blew me away that he would even think of that. Every now and again when I look at the banners which remain hanging in the church, I think of his remark, which I have shared more than once with Twila, whom he considers his 'other' Grandma!

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Justin used to tell us his dreams, just like I do! He would sit at the breakfast table and relate the entire dream, pausing as he tried to remember, or so we thought, the highlights of his dream. At one point I realized he was embellishing this particular dream, making a story out of it (likely not eating breakfast and time was of the essence, of course). I said, "Now I think you're making stuff up..." to which he replied, "I'm just adding details for interest...." Again, Mom and I were dissolved in laughter. "I'm just adding details for interest..." Love it! I wish we would have harnessed those dreams/stories back then!!!

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There were countless examples of Justinisms, but I think the one I remember now was not that long ago. It was spoken when our friends, the Prange's, were visiting us from Morton Grove. In fact, that visit was about 5 years ago next month, as today is my great-nephew, Manny's, birthday! We showed the Prange's photos taken at Manny's baptism and one of the pictures showed Gabe, who is only 16 months older than his new brother. Gabe was born with a moustache and sideburns, very attractive on an infant. Justin piped up, when showing the photos, "You'd think Gabe would shave for his brother's baptism!" Of course, we chuckled here at my house, and I was told by Pete that their entire visit in Florida, that line was the highpoint! He said they'd be driving down the road and one or the other would say, "You'd think he'd shave for his brother's baptism..." and just lose it. They probably had to hold their knees together and pray,too!

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Okay, family and friends, can you remember any other Justinisms from little boy on up? You would think his mom would never forget them, but somehow, I have. We should have written them down, right? Now is my chance if you can jog my memory....

Busy, busy, busy

There is a man on the radio right now, a guest on one of the programs, whom I would love to kiss 'n hug if I had a chance. What he has to say is so profound to me, talking about the Founders and so on, what some of the earlier mindsets were back in earlier days of our nation. The guest referenced a speaker from those days who preached about how folks were 'worshiping the golden calf', caring more about their stuff than they did about their religious roots, saying the people worshiped their prosperity rather than the Lord who provided it for them. Is that not the truth?!?

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Presently, besides my laptop playing the radio show for me (is it still radio if it is a podcast???), there is substantial hammering, pounding, and prying going on below me. It seems my neighbors might be replacing their ceiling or something. I saw planks lined up against the rail on the 2nd floor, dark stained strips which could become a ceiling...Won't I be surprised if if it is actually the floor being done? If so, then why did it sound like they were hitting the bottoms of my feet? Guess I could go down there and check it out, I suppose. On the first floor, one of the Owners is having a wood deck being built over his tiled patio, for some reason. It is possible the wood brings the height/level up to match the doorway to accommodate his motorized chair. Saws and hammering is taking place below my window and below my bed!

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Yesterday, Justin was here to clean and check items off the 'honey-do' list. Instead of coming on Thursday as originally planned, he came Wednesday since he could not do the job he had been assigned. His father is moving into the small home we own in Brookstone and work is going on to freshen the interior as it shows its age plus wear and tear from the various renters. Justin's job was to pressure wash but there was no water service as it was disconnected by the tenants and not restarted until today. His father is in the southernmost part of the state right now so Justin has to open the house and lock it back up at the end of the day. Including this a.m. before Bible study, which was highly inconvenient as Justin had to run way over there and back again before 10:00 a.m., something he was not prepared for until the phone call came to let people in!

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Justin is optimistic that the market is turning around, at least the one he is directly involved with, but after talking with Joanne this a.m. and hearing her stories, I have my doubts. The Realtors must work and work and work in order to put a deal together, having to negotiate with lenders on a property, sometimes more than one if the Seller has a second mortgage as well....yikes! It might take as long as 4 months before a package can be put together, since many of the sales are in foreclosure or being sold short. Miss Chardonnay has had a few recent contracts and for that we all rejoice, since some of them are nearby and affect the 'comps' on our properties. If any of us here decide to list our condo for sale, the Realtors will refer to the MLS to see what the sale price was for area properties, and determine the selling price for ours. At this point, it matters not what we actually paid for the property, it is about how much it will sell for now. If there were no sales around here, that is not a good thing! Poor Joanne, no wonder she is sick....Still on IV antibiotics which she can stop and start on her own since she was also a nurse. She was going to the doctor this a.m. and said it just wears her out to get up and dressed and out the door. Barely up and already planning her nap...I get that!

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The river, and the skies above it, are busy with boats going up and down the river, many of them working vessels, with helicopters and planes in the air. Choppers are flying just above the surface, at least it appears that way from here, and moving along quickly. Between the motor boats and the saws and the pounding and dogs barking, it sounds really quite alive around here. I am sure Justin has plenty of noise too with his pressure washer going. He has called me a couple times since we parted company at Victory with various fun facts or something important to tell me. The last call he made was trying to get me to download some additional podcasts but I was unable to do so. He said he will come next week to set it up for me, speeches from the recent CPAC gatherings. I would LOVE to have them but could not get them to load.

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When he was here to clean yesterday, he kept venturing into my room to talk to me, which really tickles my funny bone. It is like he bubbles over with stuff. At one point he stood in the river room door way and just gazed at my book shelves, saying, "You have a lot of books..." as he reached for one of my favorites, "Eats Shoots and Leaves", which used to have a place of honor on my dresser. One day he had walked in, picked it up and after looking at it, said, "You are such an English person!" since this book is about punctuation and grammar. He pulled that one from the shelf yesterday and again told me how because of me, he had won a trivia contest in one of their hangouts. He knew what the subject matter was in that particular book, and no one else did! You're welcome, Justin!

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Even though I was listening to the radio on-line as he worked, he kept coming in to ask me to look up different songs on the computer, ones he had heard on American Idol (yes, he is a fan....) so I can listen to them. Or, he would relate an entire episode of a TV show to tell me the punch line. Again, I love it! We had a misunderstanding though, regarding an item on my list. I had twice now requested that he vacuum the face of my dresser and the bathroom vanity. When he left my room without doing that, packing up the vacuum cleaner and such, I reminded him about doing it. He claimed he had, even though I was right here and saw he did not. Upon further discussion, he did not know what the face of the dresser or vanity were----he was going around the base where they met the floor, thinking that was the face. Instead of vacuuming, then, he took the Pledge and physically dusted the dresser fronts and the bathroom vanity, a more thorough job than the dusting brush would have provided. In the building business, that would fall under 'scope of work', making sure the contractor knew what was expected of them! I was not angry and neither was he, just was sort of a learning thing for us both. Huh....

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He had to be my teacher, too, today, besides the failed download attempt. He was playing trivia at Applebee's last night and said he was the only one in his group who knew about the universes of the superheroes. Um, what? That was a 20 minute explanation in the church parking lot as he described which heroes were Marvel Comics while others were DC Comics, and they will never battle each other as they are in separate universes. Good for you, Justin, for knowing that trivia! But, he could not explain why Superman does not have a good sense of humor! (Seinfeld trivia, bring it on!!!!)