Picture this....

My neighbor, Hugh, saw fit to put up our giant flag on Monday in recognition of the take-down of OBL. It was a patriotic event worthy of such recognition.

Bruce, the window cleaner, supervises his helper from below as Steve climbed the 40' ladder to wash my sliding glass doors from outside. Bruce told me he is a student at FCCJ or whatever it's called now, studying flying. Eventually he would like to become what is considered a bush pilot for doing mission work.
Here Steve is making long-arms in order to scrub my doors, removing the baked-on insects and bird poop. I know he was so glad to be done with that job and come inside to wrestle with my tip-out windows, trying to get them to snap back in again!!

The baby ducks, also known as ducklings, are having a good training session with their mothers, as they learn the fine art of paddling like nuts under water while looking completely relaxed on the water. There are a total of 18 babies and they all seem to get along nicely.

Hanna had a birthday celebration at Koko's, one of my favorite places, and was joined by her family, and me! Here is Hanna with her auntie, Christine, with a little bit of Daniel's face behind the soy sauce.

To my left was Judy C., and then Hanna's uncle, Roger, with the three of us not pictured. In this shot is Daniel, his cousin, Caitlyn, then Michael C. and Suzanne. John, Hanna's daddy, arrived a bit later and sat next to Suzanne on the end of the table. The kids really enjoyed the 'show' of having the food prepared in front of them, and I enjoyed the company and my leftovers!

Happy Mother's Day

Or better yet, Happy 3^rd Sunday in Easter. Justin and I enjoyed worship this a.m. at Victory, following the Order of Service from the CW Supplement including Baptism. We sang a wonderful hymn, “This Joyful Eastertide” which Rachel also played during the recessional. As Pastor greeted us at the door, he said, “Thank you for adding your voice today”, I am sure not only for the hymns but the somewhat unfamiliar singing portions of the Supplement liturgy that Victory does not normally use. It was great to see Linda O. and Frieda again, and I asked Linda if she was getting sick of me. She said she never would but is storing up these now regular visits to last her while she is away. It spoils me to see her these days because I surely will miss her when she’s in CO.

Suzanne and family were at the second service as were Stephanie and Erica, and Rita and Jon. I got to see them all! At the door, my friend, Ed, directed me to the counter in the narthex where the moms could select a pin from three different styles. It seems Suzanne and I both chose the same one—the Christian fish with a tiny ‘diamond’ in the tail! I just love it and am glad to have it!

Justin and I came home after church where he presented me with a bouquet of ‘day’ lilies, a perfect card, perfect!, as well as carefully chosen gifts. He withdrew them from the bag for me as he had no tissue paper for his gift bag: first, he gave me a bag of Ghiridelli Dark Chocolate with Raspberry squares (“something without crumbs” he told me), and “if you DO have something with crumbs”, he handed me a can of pressurized air to clean my keyboards. Only yesterday I was wishing I had some because I exhausted my supply and my keyboards need attention. (How did he know this????) Next he pulled out a lovely bottle with an expression printed on it saying “Family: The ??? that bonds” (I cannot remember exactly what is printed under ‘Family’). Then he handed me a bottle of French vanilla oil and reeds to put into the oil, then, into the bottle. He suggested I put it on the shelves in the dining room but if it’s okay with him, I will keep it on the mantle in the family room. Oh, how I love the scent of vanilla, and I love that he knows this. And the final gift was small bottle of hand sanitizer! How funny is that?

My issue with ‘used books’ brought my mom great delight as she told me on the phone yesterday that she never heard anything so ridiculous as that. When we walked to The Club, I mentioned to Justin about Rachel and the yard sale books, etc. and he told me his Harry Potter Books get dirty and such too, splashed with soda and full of crumbs and dirt. His own books he is talking about, to say nothing about what happens to books in the library or bought at sales. Funny, but he didn’t think it was quirky at all, but proceeded to launch into ‘salesman mode’ on the values of a Kindle.

At lunch, we discussed Kindles, after I told him about the conversation I had with Linda O. about them. He feels I would be happy with one, the pages look like book pages but does not feel he would like the being read to part of the deal, thinking the voice might be too mechanical. He is accustomed to downloading books as read by the author or someone else with inflection and all that to make it less boring sounding. I will ask Lisa what she thinks about it, if the mechanical voice is a problem for her or not. If she gets through so many in a month’s time, I would say it is NOT a problem!

Oh, and another funny thing he said to me to, as we walked to the buffet table, was “You learned about being sanitary at Shady Lane…” which I confirmed with him, and was precisely how I ‘defended’ myself to my mom. Ask anyone who has been a guest in my home---it was not safe to leave a glass sit somewhere or a used tissue not immediately disposed. You would not want to see me in a hotel room with my Lysol can and wipes either. Justin mentioned something about using a black light in a hotel room and then said, “But I never would order room service again, when you see how germy the telephone is!” This conversation over our wonderful Mother’s Day lunch, all because he gave me hand sanitizer!

It was great to see so many people at The Club that I knew, including Jacob, the bartender/beverage manager, who stopped at the table to greet us. I introduced him to Justin, and Jacob told Justin I was a ‘sweetheart’. Aw, so nice! Since I have been back in the choir, I am not available for Happy Hour events so don’t see the staff very often. That will change once the cabana opens. Many of the waitstaff came over to say ‘hello’ and share hugs, most delightful! At the table adjoining ours was my friend, John, whose family owns and runs the cemetery. It was great to see him again, and he was blown away by how ‘big’ Justin has gotten. He said to Justin, ‘Lookin’ good my man!’ John suggested I stop by some time when he’s on the property, so we can talk like we used to do. Since I am not there every day anymore…..

Don 't forget to write!!!

Too late now....I failed to write a diatribe today, spent almost all of it reading. I am nearly bug-eyed and have the most tired peepers. Happy Mother's Day everyone who is a mom or has one!

I hope no one grows weary of seeing this adorable face, today wearing his breakfast of oatmeal with something else mixed in....can't remember what, but he likes it!

My little paws are freezing

Am I lame or what? It is 'only' in the low 70's today but now the sky has some blue showing through which is a great relief from earlier in the day. The last downpour was at about 3:00 pm and now the sun is out. A couple hours ago I strolled out in my slippers to the mailbox, which amazingly enough, was empty. I wonder how often this happens since generally speaking, I do not go there on a daily basis but besides awaiting a check, some new books are coming my way.

Yesterday I had a conversation with Linda O. regarding the pros and cons about switching to a Kindle. With neither of us having one, we had little more than conjecture regarding our opinions. She loves the 'idea' of holding a book in her hands, kicking back in a chair and reading. Now, whether she could do the same with a Kindle or similar device, or not, I guess only a person who has one could report. Lisa, my niece, has such a device and it reads to her while she goes about her business at home with the boys, or folding wash or whatever. Hands' free reading cannot be beaten, it seems, in her case.

When I had dinner a few weeks ago before the symphony with Rachel and Suzanne, we were discussing books, with Suzanne being a worse reader than am I. Rachel is a voracious reader and remarked about getting books at yard sales or from the library. I asked her, "Doesn't it bother you know that someone else touched those books before you did?" and she said, "Not until right now....." Thanks alot, Kim! Then, a few days after that discussion, Justin gave me a coffee-table book to look at, a 'used book', and I got busy with the soapy water to clean off the cover before I cracked it open, gingerly touching the pages. Later, I wrote to Rachel on Facebook and told her how I was thinking of her as I scrubbed the book Justin gave me. We shared a chuckle over that. She is a nurse, for goodness sake, she must know about germs, right?

Not long ago Justin told me he bought me something at Publix, from the sale bin---a small bottle of hand sanitizer in spray form plus wipes attached. Since he has not given it to me yet, my assumption is that he used it himself, since he's nearly as bad as I am about having clean hands. You're welcome, Justin!

I mentioned all that because I am awaiting the delivery of two new books to add to my bed! It was humorous when pulling my bed together in the morning on Monday, I counted 8 books on my bed, besides periodicals, stacked on the passenger side. One of them was my hymnal because I had been doing some research on Saturday. After the window cleaners left on Tuesday, I could clean off my bed where I had piled stuff from the window shelving, some of the books were also relocated.

Justin had to work on Thursday so he had to miss Bible study again. Hopefully next week some of the heat will be off of him and he can join the group once more. We did have a good crowd, though, as Linda and Frieda came, as did Emily, who joined us on her day off from work. When I arrived, the folding for the bulletins was already done, and Pastor put one together for me so I could see which hymns were to be sung. That would be my determination as to whether or not Justin and I attended Victory on Mother's Day. "You're a hymn snob!", Rita told me once. Yes, I am! The choices were good so I will drive once more to Southside for worship and then we will come back over here to have lunch at The Club. After lunch we will see "Atlas Shrugged". I passed on several opportunities to see the movie since we wanted to go together and I did not want to see it without him. Looks like it will be a good day! Last year for Mother's Day we cleaned out my closet after lunch---this will be more enjoyable, I think.

Okay, back to Thursday---Linda asked me to have lunch with them---Frieda was hungry for Chinese food. Usually we go to the China Buffet in Argyle when Frieda is here but Linda said she does not eat so much any more so a menu place would be good. We chose PF Chang, as you saw in the photo. Rita and her visiting sister, Bonnie, asked me to join them for lunch at a Mexican place (Cinco de Mayo celebration) but I had already accepted Linda's invite. I just ate with Rita on Tuesday night, but I had also eaten with Linda that day...hmmmm....Rita's other sister works for a pharmaceutical packaging place in MI so she brought a bag of over-the-counter medications to give away, mostly cold medications and such. However, when I looked through it, I found two boxes of antacids which I nabbed for Justin, since Tuesday I had to go door-to-door in my building looking for some Tums for him. He had such bad heartburn from the stress, his soda was coming up into his throat. Hugh gave me a bottle of fast-dissolving Tums, which really did the trick for Justin. So, now I will have some on hand for him should the need again arise. Also got a bottle of low-dose aspirin for myself which I take at bedtime. Too bad she didn't bring me some of the Mega-Reds that are so expensive at the store, but I should not complain about free, right?

To warm my house, I put a roast in the oven this afternoon. As it cooked away, I added a bag of baby carrots to have with my dinner. After a certain point I could smell something funky and discovered the juice was overflowing the roaster and making a mess on the floor of the oven. Phew! The carrots were soft so I took the roaster out of the oven and set the oven to CLEAN mode right away. That stinks even worse and is REALLY warming my kitchen. Tomorrow I will likely put the roast back in to bake some more, as it was a bit tough. First I can cut it up a bit so the juice has access to more portions of the meat. Guess I will have to wipe out the ashes left from the cleaning before starting the oven back up again. And not repeat the overflow thing!

Here's a new take---I'm cold!

Sorry this is so dark, but the waiter took the photo for us, against the light, as we were dining al fresco at PF Chang Thursday after Bible study. Linda O., me, and Frieda, waiting for our lunches.

Yesterday was nice out, today, not so much, only 72 degrees, overcast, and a bit drizzly

Somewhat reflective

This a.m. I start out with tears in my eyes, but most of them are from laughing. In listening/watching yesterday's radio show this morning, the guys were playing a montage of the boo-boos the anchors and reporters are making in mixing up the names of the president and Osama bin Laden. The solution to me was simple: One is a last name and the other a first name. Make a choice and stick with it! Use either both guys' first names or both guys' last names, or the entire name to end the problem. All the guys I listen to on the radio, either Internet or actual, took a turn messing it up, as did many others the past few days. Even the crawl at the bottom of the newscasts messed it up on occasion, which is worse yet than speaking it. One late night comedian stated in his monologue, "Man, this is rough week to be a news anchor!"

One thing I have to say about all this is I am glad I never had to live in a 'mansion' like OBL did! This is not what I would consider to be palatial but I guess compared to a cave in Afghanistan, this was plenty opulent!

It is interesting to hear how many months of surveillance and such took place prior to the raid, with the capability of satellites and such. It brought to mind when I traveled to Santorini in 2007. Justin was able to watch our ship pull into the caldera and had wanted me to stand on the deck and wave at him. I could not do that because of having to be at a certain point on the ship to catch the tender to the island but otherwise, how cool would that have been??? Such are the capabilities of modern technology...

One of the guys this a.m. remarked about how many 1000's of searches were done on engines Sunday night and Monday, records showing by primarily the younger teens, to find out who in the world is this Osama bin Laden. They did not even know what all the excitement was about, but still partied in the streets. I am not terribly upset about the celebrations, because folks did present the American flag, sang the National Anthem, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Perhaps not in every venue but I did see some of that broadcast over the air waves. The news was enough to pull folks away from 'Celebrity Apprentice' and into the streets to jump around in joy. In fact, one lady at Monday Bible study did make the remark in passing that she wished the announcement could have been after the "you're fired!" ending of that TV show. Ugh, really? Yes, really!

Did 'we' really do our young people a favor if we sheltered them from the horror of the terror attacks on our nation, if now, they do not even know why our military men and women are in battle? Good intentions often lead to poor results, and while the past few days people have been excited about being Americans and feeling patriotic, today it will be all about NOT wearing USA garments or showing your American pride. Today is instead Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican day of celebration. Actually, it is more an American excuse for a party, and, according to Wikipedia, marks a battle victory against the French, and is basically uncelebrated in Mexico. So there! But, immigrants from Mexico, both legal and illegal, will be allowed to sport their country's colors and insignia, but it will be considered an affront to wear USA or a flag on one's lapel. Welcome to America!

Talking soup today

The sky is full of clouds but somehow it is still bright enough to cause me to squint a bit. No rain in the forecast today so am not sure what the deal is with the clouds. Perhaps to make it more comfortable for those working outdoors, like Connie, our maintenance lady at The Palace, who is pressure washing. That makes me a bit envious because I used to so enjoy pressure washing, but right now, don’t think my back or legs would care much for that type of activity. Truly I cannot wait for the pool temperatures to be warmed up to where I can tolerate, so I can get back in the water and thrash around like a manatee!

After the window washer guys left yesterday, I began to move things around in my room, having tried to clear the path to the windows for their ease of access. It is absolutely disgusting how filthy it is in out-of-the-way places discovered when furniture and computer towers are moved around. I would hate to think about what’s under the washer and dryer, although new floors were put in those rooms not terribly long ago.

Thinking about my dryer---I went into the laundry room to pull out a pair of capris waiting in the dryer for me, and also grabbed three nightgowns to put away. Man, I really go through the nighties around here! Or, I do loads of wash so seldom that the nighties pile up. This scenario is more likely the case as I don’t accumulate great mounds of dirty laundry like families would. There are plenty of towels around here so it would take a very long time to exhaust every last one of those. Running out of clean nightgowns, though, makes me do a load of laundry!

So, since Justin is quite horrendously busy these days, I will have to drag the vacuum cleaner out myself and this would probably be even a better job than would he do. My son sometimes accuses me of being too particular about some things, like when a rug is crooked on the floor (does not line up with the floor boards or ceramic tile grout lines) or piles of dead blind mosquitoes accumulate behind my desk! The other day I dripped rice pudding, unbeknownst to me, across my bedroom floor up to my desk. I discovered the problem when I removed the dish and found a big, sticky mess under it. The spots on the floor did not appear until they dried and gathered dirt on them, like fluorescent paint! Yech!

Oh, I had to laugh at myself just now---I was going to go into the kitchen to find something to eat for breakfast, and saw that it is nearly 11:30 a.m. I can find something to eat, instead, for lunch. Perhaps my beef barley soup leftover from yesterday would be good! My friend, Linda M., wrote on Facebook about how she made some barley soup recently and added a can of Italian diced tomatoes. As I said to Linda M., something is wrong with me because I thought this sounded just too delicious!

On Facebook yesterday afternoon I got a message on my ‘Wall’ from a friend in Manty, Barb. She said that her quote from the wrapper of her Dove chocolate said, “Live well, laugh often, love much”. Barb said it made her think of me so she wrote to tell me about this. First of all, I did not know there are messages inside the wrappers, so I had to go look, several times!!! Secondly, I have such a necklace that my sister, Lori, gave me a couple years ago. Right now I am not sporting the necklace because the chain broke but feel I must get it repaired since Barb wrote to me!

The reason I even have a bag of those Dove chocolates is that they were in the BO/GO bin at Publix a couple weeks ago. I got one bag for Gretchen, her favorite treat of all time, and kept one for me. Dark chocolate is healthful, especially since I do not eat them all in one sitting. “Only” 210 calories for 5 pieces plus the health benefit can’t go wrong!

Last night we came in 3^rd out of three teams playing Trivia. Where did everyone go??? It seems the team, the Flab Four, area radio personalities, was busy with a movie premier somewhere but am not sure why the other teams did not come. We stunk on ice for the most part, and as I told Mom during my ride home, too many heads might affect our outcome. Sometimes we are so very sure of an answer only to find out it is wrong. The guys, Justin, Ron, and Jesse, plus Rita’s son, Sumner, were all stumped by the three sports questions. Because we had so large a number, 9 people playing, we had to sit in the back of the restaurant where the roar of the A/C makes it very hard to hear and concentrate, and discuss. Hence, we ‘only’ came away with the $10 third place prize, and we will gladly accept it!

Poor Justin, as we were leaving the diner, asked me if he could borrow $20 from me, as he was going to be overdrawn and had no money. He is supposed to be earning unemployment benefits but had a glitch, which he claims is resolved, and is not being paid for his work to help his father get ready for this auction coming up on the weekend, all the moving, hauling, toting, and stress. He was nearly in tears of frustration about the whole thing so, me being a softy, said I would help him out. But I only had a few dollars in cash, not enough to help him, so he found a VyStar on his cell phone, just down the street, and he led me there so I could withdraw cash. I could have gone across the street to the gas station to their cash machine but he did not want me to pay a fee for the withdrawal. He simply must get a real job somewhere, and he said he wants a job where he has to shower in the morning before work, instead of after work. And THAT is why he should return to college and get a degree!!!!!

Angelo almost does not look real, he is just a little doll!