It's taxing day!

This morning I had such a horrible dream that I could scarcely wait to wake up. On TV there is a commercial for a Land Rover where this couple takes arm loads or bag of clothing to be laundered, obviously after some amazing adventure. After their 3rd visit, the proprietor of the cleaners gazes out the window at them getting back into their Land Rover, likely off on another adventure...as a giant, hairy spider climbs out from under the pile of clothing on his counter. I believe this ad influenced my dream!


In my dream, a bunch of my in-laws and my yet intact family were staying at what appears to be a cut-rate hotel or perhaps rental condos away from home. The details are now faded from my memory but the image of black, bulging spiders remain in my mind's eye, seeing them crawling around our rented space. Changing units made no difference as the units were in disrepair or were under renovation, even though we were staying in them. Maybe I am thinking about the units on our property which are being renovated and readied for occupancy. Who knows with dreams, right? Regardless, it left me feeling all creepy crawly this morning!                                
                         

The thing which dreams are made of.....

On Facebook this a.m. I noted my regret for missing the Space Shuttle Discovery flying away from Cape Kennedy on its way to its permanent home at the Smithsonian Institute. I had hopes that someone along the way would snap a photo of it flying over, piggy-back riding on a 747 jumbo jet. I won't worry about over packing again, if a plane can handle a load such as that! Anyway, my former scrapbooking friend, Kimberly, snapped a shot with her cell phone as it flew over her home in VA.                              
           
Sort of hard to pick it out, but there goes Discovery on its way to Washington, DC for safe keeping


Last night a well-known commentator, co-host on The Five (the token non-Conservative), Bob Beckel, was a guest on Sean Hannity's show, which airs here at 9:00 pm. He has worked in the White House and on presidential campaigns besides being a columnist and commentator. The radio host I listen to in the mornings, Neal Boortz, was also a guest on the show. Thinking they were still in commercial, Bob continued an animated discussion he was having with Neal and a female on the panel, and he let loose with a filthy, inappropriate word, even after the show came back. 


He was roundly scolded, asked to apologize and refused, so Sean apologized on his behalf. Bob refused also to believe it was aired and even after he was told he was on the air, would not apologize. Sadly, later, the other two guys indicated that if Bob was fired by Fox News for his antics and bad behavior, they would defend him. What????


This is greatly disappointing to me, that these fellows would defend Bob, which basically gives him permission to conduct himself in such a fashion again. On The Five, the producers and his fellow panel members are always after him to guard his tongue, watch his language, and not be insulting. They jokingly made up a giant jar, like from pickles, with a label stating "Bob's Swear Jar" on it. He has to put pennies in the jar every time he uses bad language.This sort of makes light of it, and besides that,  he fancies himself as a Christian. I want proof that he knows how to conduct himself not only in public, but on the air!! This annoys me! 


First of all, he is not usually swearing or cursing---he is using filthy or vulgar language. Swearing or cursing is actually taking the Lord's name in vain, or calling down God's damnation on people. Using the language of the streets, inappropriate words, is dirty talk and has no place in the presence of decent people. Many times, and, in this case, on Sean's program, his usage of the word made absolutely no sense at all in the sentence. Pig! 


It would seem that if a person can control their tongue and measure their words when the camera is on (or when decent people are around), they should be able to control it otherwise. All it takes is restraint, and practice. Erase those words from your vocabulary and you won't have an "accident" when the cameras are rolling and the mic is live! 


If a person has a paper dictionary in their bookshelves, or on the kitchen table, like my mom does, they can see the likely hundreds of other word choices available to use to express one's displeasure over another person's opinion or belief. Here's a challenge, folks---find another word!!!!! And, behave yourselves!!!

Day is done!

In more ways than one, these Days are done! Justin and I went grocery shopping after he got home from work. First he needed to shower to wash the labors of the Day away. Normally he likes to go to lie down for several hours but instead, once The Five (Justin teases me that The Five are my family, as his Grandma says the NCIS people on TV are her family!) was over, away we went to Publix. I had a $5 off coupon to use, if we purchased at least $30 worth of stuff. And we certainly did!


He is obsessed with finding the perfect floor appliance for my rooms as he is not a fan of my vacuum cleaner. However, I am a fan of my Sears canister machine, called Dummy, which is a name acquired back in the mid-70's when 'we' had our first Sears canister vacuum. Our next door neighbor, Jim, with whom we shared a driveway, would take his dog out for a walk and call to him, "Come on, Dummy, come on", attempting to sort of harshly whisper to BeBe, to hurry the him along. So, as my sister, Kerry, who lived with us, and I would use the canister vacuum, pulling it behind us, we'd say, "Come on, Dummy, come on!" My former spouse would also use that expression when vacuuming, even when we had the central vacuum system, pulling the hose around behind us. 


So, where was I going with that? Oh, yes, Justin wants to get a cordless device to use for the quick touching up or for the dusty/hairy floors in my bedroom and bathroom. The other rooms are likely dusty, too, but this is the room I live in and it annoys me. He did find one, a vacuum with a Swiffer as part of it, but it was over $30 at the grocery store. You know it's cheaper at Home Depot or Wal*Mart. I passed on his suggestion, but he can get one for himself for Mother's Day!
                                     
Justin and I stocked up on a few things we needed and somethings we didn't. We enjoy the BO/GO bins and deals, but I refuse to buy things I won't eat or use just because of the deal. Last year I bought two bags of Dove Dark Chocolates from these bins, and I still have two pieces left from the bag I kept. The other bag went to Gretchen for her birthday, and it's nearly birthday time again! 


He got some bread to make sandwiches with, taking peanut butter and jelly ones for his lunches or breakfast when he's working. Bread is getting expensive, too, but it was BO/GO, so why not? We bought other items to use with some of the groceries Randy left for us, so we will be enjoying a nice batch of Velveeta Cheese with Ro-Tel Tomato dip for our BO/GO Frito Dippers. We will party hearty! I guess Randy made his own mac 'n cheese using the Velveeta cheese food, buying his stuff at the big box stores. Such a big block of cheese we have---maybe we should try making our own mac 'n cheese!


During the Day, I printed off postcard invitations for the Mother's Day weekend breakfast for the Ladies' Group. I will miss out on this outing at Honey B's, owned by relatives of the Sister's Tea Room ladies. Janet will have to be the leader in my absence and won't mind one bit! She is going to use a devotion based on "Life as a Cupcake" so she asked me to incorporate a cupcake into the invitations. No worries, I love playing with my Google images!
                                    
Michael lead our Bible study this morning, a new topic which escapes my memory at the moment. Oh, I remember: "Bear Each Others Burdens", which is a topic I find interesting. He will be the leader until May, and then, mid-month, his Call expires. Rats! I guess that would not prevent him from leading Bible study because we had lay people as leaders in the past.  


Only five of us went to Longhorn where I ordered the steak and baked potato. Makes such great leftovers when I use the oven to reheat it...oh my! One unfortunate thing happened today, though, with our waiter of choice, Jason. When he was bringing our tickets to us, for payment, he whispered in my ear that he is getting ready to move and having trouble getting his security deposit together, so 'anything extra you can give me will be greatly appreciated...'. Oh yes, he did! He wanted to me to tell the other ladies (I must be the boss of the group!), so I did. This bugged me, though, and I gave my standard tip. Not sure what the other ladies did, but I found this off-putting. As boss of  the group, I think I will recommend we not ask for his area any longer because of his request. Tipping for service is one thing, tipping for a security deposit is quite another!

A quiet Sunday

We had a good house, so to speak, for our Sunday worship, the Sunday after Easter. Also generally known as "No Show Sunday" as one of the poorest attended of the year, GS had a reasonably well attended service, including some more visitors. On Easter we had quite a number of guests, perhaps due to the mass mailing and delivery of 'invitations' left on door knobs in some of the communities around the church. During the service, Robbie, The Maestro, sang Psalm 63, which had been introduced to us by our former pastor years ago. The congregation joined the refrain and I have been singing it in my head all day long: "In the morning I will sing, I will sing glad songs to you, I will sing glad songs of praise to you..." Sigh....


For lunch, Justin, the Chappell's, and I went to eat at Applebee's because Judy had a coupon to use. In my Sheldon-mode, I had trouble deciding what to order since they did not offer the potato skins on their menu. I did spot the orange chicken which turned out to be quite tasty. We each had something different, so it was probably good for us to change it up a little. Judy's sandwich was a fried green tomato with turkey sandwich, which left her somewhat disappointed. For one thing, it was not easy to eat, sort of fell apart in her hands. Justin had some sort of tortilla sandwich served with homemade potato chips were simply marvelous. I might go back just to have some of those! Mike had some sort of wrap of which he ate every morsel, so I was the only one with the to-go box.


Yesterday afternoon when Justin came home from the movies, I asked him if he was still celebrating Greek Easter at his father's house. He had completely forgotten about it, so had to check with them to find out if it was still on. A week ago there was question regarding their celebration would be last weekend or this one, and it ended up being sort of both. Because Justin was overfull from our feast at The Club or simply didn't feel well, he did not make it on Sunday to his father's house, so went on Monday night instead. Tonight they will have some traditional Greek foods except for lamb...he brought home some baklava, pastiche, and some other delicacies.


I didn't think I would find it weird to have my neighbor gone, but it is. After spending so much time in proximity to each other those couple of days before he left, it seems strangely quiet now. No unexpected ringing of the doorbell or trips upstairs to receive his castoffs. Justin and I went up to got a laundry basket full of stuff from his fridge and freezer, and a couple days later, he brought stuff from his cabinets. He left a stack of unmatched dinner plates in the cupboard, and as tempted as I was to grab them, thought better of it. Not like me at all! So, anyway, it seems, as I said, strangely quiet around here without that flurry of activity, or the lack of it!!!!, going on. Facebook shows he made it to CA for a wedding on Saturday but if I was a betting woman, would have thought he wouldn't be there on time.


If there is one thing Justin and I know how to do, and do well, it's packing boxes to move. Not as though it is for a grade or anything, but to be organized and somewhat orderly is important for my peace of mind. My neighbor's process was far too disorganized to suit me. His "I'm almost done" was so far from what I would consider almost done it made my head spin. As I told Linda via our chat, it made ME nervous and I am not the one moving!


Justin used my car on several occasions this weekend, between going to the movies with Jesse, then to play games at his friend's house, and again today after church. My gas tank indicated the use so I gave him my debit card to have him fill it up on his way to his father's house. As I came down the hill toward my parking area after church, the little gas light came on, and the dreaded ding sounded. Yikes! 
                 
Not making so many trips to the Southside really helps to stretch the tank of gas out for me. But I sure do miss going to Trivia with Stephanie! She misses me, too, as she indicated on Facebook this evening. If only she could make it to Thursday's Bible study...but she works during the day!


I cannot believe how many 'reality' shows there are on TV these days. There is no aspect of daily living that escapes the camera, and is made into a show people will watch. From giving birth to being a butcher, it qualifies as being considered entertainment. The reality show I watch is Fox News and the occasional episode of "Law & Order"! Those other shows are so staged, as Justin can personally attest.


The other day Justin was lamenting that his "Extreme Home Makeover" T-shirt had a stain on it. He expressed how he liked having it as his souvenir from working on the site. At first he was resentful being 'volunteered' to help on the framing crew, and was downright scared. He didn't know the first thing about framing and now he was going to be expected to be one! Justin softened after he was able to convince his two buddies to go with him, making it more of a fun thing than scary. 


Well, the man who hosts this nationally televised program (for one of the broadcast networks) needed a bunch of guys to be doing some 'work' behind him as he introduced a scene. Justin and Jesse were two of those who got busy in the background, marking off squares on a sheet of plywood, and then using the SkilSaw to cut them out. Over and over... for no particular reason other than to look as though they are busy building a dream house for this lady and her foster kids. Thankfully a program like that one does not feel the need to add salty or filthy language to keep people watching.


Tonight I caught up on some of my Internet TV show, watching a wonderful segment featuring only individuals who had come to America seeking asylum or safety from communist/socialist/fascist regimes. Wow! Talk about powerful stories! Either the guests themselves, or their families had emigrated here and cherished the liberties afforded them in the USA. Almost to a person they cautioned against our nation turning into the type of regimes left behind them, as they see things going that direction. It can be insidious and it can be blatant. About half the guests mentioned their concern with the government-run school systems being the starting point for the ideology. What a good but frightening program THAT was!


Oh my! The horrible storms plaguing our nation...My sister in Oshkosh filled me in on the forecast for their region and my niece in Sheboygan commented on the thunderstorms and winds in their area. Hopefully they won't have hip-high hail drifts as TX had Thursday, or the damage hail can cause. Even the regular-sized hail stones wreak havoc but to have them come the size of a baseball---that would be deadly. 

Paul is pitching to Sarah, on their quiet cul de sac

Speaking of baseballs, my goddaughter, Sarah, is quite the softball player, with her daddy serving as a coach on the team. The Cardinals won a championship of some sort last season and are doing great again this time. Emily posted a video on Facebook of Sarah and Paul playing catch in the yard, and I was amazed at her mad skills. But, sadly, after church when they went to Sonny's for lunch, Sarah got sick and was still vomiting this evening. Emily posted a photo of the two cats, including Boots Day, and the dog, hanging around the sofa where Sarah was lying, keeping an eye on their little girl. Hopefully it's only a short bug and she is back on her feet in the morning!

Photos from Laura and Rick's visit

Laura was fascinated with our map of the "Lahaie Day World Travels" so she asked Justin and me to pose with it. If you click the photo, you might make it large enough to see the pins, red and yellow heads, pressed into the map, to show the places we or I have been. 

I don't know why this photo has not been taken by me, but Laura captured it perfectly!

Laura snapped Rick standing in the river room doors, gazing across the river, just after sunrise

This is a shot of the river room and my bedroom doors as the sun was coming up

                                 

This is what Rick was gazing at!

Here is Laura's picture taken from the 3rd floor over toward The Club

       Another view of the water from the river room

This makes my heart happy!

My young friend, Christie, daughter of my scrapbooking guru, Cindy, is working and living in Paris for a year as an au pair. While yet in high school Christie had worked at State Farm, continuing her education at UNF and working at the same time. Besides all that, she became quite an accomplished baker and cake decorator, does fabulous presentations when she does so. Over the years, she had taken a couple trips overseas and decided to try getting a position as an au pair, landing an assignment in Paris. 

We can keep up with her as she resides in France and is able to travel around the countryside. Her schedule is flexible enough to allow this. The photos she posts of the sights are incredible (add photographer to her list of accomplisments!) 

Christie's birthay was this past week and her parents flew over there to spend it with her, and take in the sights. Yesterday, Christie sent me a message via Facebook, reporting that her mom and she were thinking of me as they toured the fabulous "Opera Populaire' of "The Phantom of the Opera" fame. She posted the photos showing me the things I would enjoy seeing in person. How nice of them to think of me this way!!! Christie and I share a love of the movie and the play, and the Opera Populaire!

In the top frame the elegant staircase is shown, featured in the movie, where the song "Masquerade" was performed. In the lower left frame is "Box 5, shall remain empty for my viewing" as demanded by the Phantom. In the right frame, the crystal chandelier is hung from the frescoed ceiling in the theater. "Gentlemen, please, a little illumination!" (cue haunting organ music.....)

The best laid plans...

...are made! After some ado, I have finalized my travel plans to WI in May. Going alone this time, as Justin has to work, I decided to use my earned miles from Delta to purchase the ticket. In order to do that, I had to contact the Sky Miles department to find out how to transfer the miles from Justin's "account" into mine, since those miles are actually mine in the first place. 

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Delta directing me to their website and followed the step-by-step directions on how to go about transferring them. In the past I had done this but simply could not remember nor find out how without their guidance.

Of course, it costs money to transfer the miles from account to account (ugh!) but it was far less than the cost of a round trip ticket. This process took a bit of time, and I used it to make sure that I was doing everything correctly and not causing myself any mix-ups. 

Once that was complete, the miles showed up in my account and I was free to make the reservations. Well, from one day to the next, the amount of miles needed for the flights on the days I had chosen had increased!!! Those snakes!! I had to be in Manty on the 11th, for sure, so that day had to stay fixed but I extended my time by a day or two. Finally, I managed to find a schedule that worked with my miles.

Twice I went through the entire process and got to the page where I had to click "Continue to Confirmation" and twice, it went blank. Eventually I would get a message reporting "Unable to Process", and if this continued, I should contact them using a toll free number. At one point in my frustration Justin said, "I think you better call the number..." My cheerleader suggests throwing in the towel---but he was right.

That process had me repeating my selections into the phone to the mechanical voice asking me questions and then I was directed to a live operator. It didn't take long for someone to come on the line and she started working on this before I even said "hello"! I heard my name, and as I said "yes", she was rattling away with her questions. Where do you want to go? When do you want to come back? Are you flexible? (NO! I am as stiff as board, thank you!) She was able to maneuver things around to allow me to travel the day before I actually must be there (whew!!) and arranged for me to come home again two weeks later. 

I did make her laugh, though, as she was being strictly business with me. She asked if I wanted an aisle seat and I told her I prefer a window seat. Mrs. Singh asked if I wanted a full reclining seat or not, and I told her I did not recline at all. "I already look like a sack of potatoes in the seat, I don't need to lay back and make it worse!" Finally, the ice was broken, so to speak. 

Lickety split my itinerary was e-mailed me, after she had to charge me $25 for using her services to make the arrangements. Wait just a doggone minute!!! What? I explained to her how twice I tried to do it myself and the website threw me out, referring me to her department in the first place..She apologized that she could not refund the fee, and thanked me for my business. 

Well! I was glad to be able to inform Justin my arrangements for travel were made and he would be able to take me to the airport on his day off, a Thursday. This is good! When he heard I was charged for the help making the reservation, he agreed this was not right. I told him I was writing a letter, and off I went to do so. 

I wrote to the same man, Neil, who helped me with the miles transfer info, explained how I am usually not a grump but holy cow!, it was not my fault I needed to call for help. They could not process, but I could!! This a.m. I had an e-mail from another fellow/department telling me my fee would be refunded to my account and apologized for the problems I had making the online reservations. There! THAT, my friends, is called 'good customer service'!

On the drive to choir last night, I called Mom to make sure she checked her e-mail for my itinerary and such. Since I was driving I could not look at my copy, but tried to recall for her the times, etc. She wished I came earlier or a day sooner, but I explained I had to take the times and dates available for using my miles. I did the best I could so as not to miss my friend, Christin's, appearance in a show on Friday evening. She is singing the lead in "The Sound of Music" and I am going with a group, including several from my family, and Linda J.!                                                                         
                                               
My sister, Lynn, is being feted at a special banquet, celebrating her retirement from LTC on the same night that I arrive in MKE. Because of that, Lynn is not available to collect me. I told Mom that was fine, I would ask someone else or use the shuttle service. Mom offered to treat me to the shuttle ride and I accepted her offer. That is so nice of her! Mom will be Lynn's special guest at the banquet, which I find incredibly wonderful---for them both! 

I am also going to miss attending Mom's Ladies' Aid banquet that same afternoon (is that all they do up there is eat???) and while I would enjoy seeing the ladies and all that, it just won't work out. I am not doing one thing to mess with my reservations, now that I have them!!!

The smoke and ash situation

The sun is making a futile attempt to shine through the layer of smoke which hung over the river this early morning. As you can see, or not see, the land on the opposite side of the water is not visible. Later in the morning, the wind moved the smoke away and it was bright and clear until the cloud of smoke moved in. The sky went then from this pinkish/blue haze to more orange/brown looking. 

Here comes the spooky smoke blanket which moved in late morning, which caused alarm for Connie. Since the sky was so orange in color, coming from the south/west, she was concerned that fire was not far behind. She had me check the Internet to make sure everything was okay, plus I checked the weather reports which did not indicate any fires in the Orange Park area. This heavy blanket moved in and lasted well into the evening, leaving its stench to choke us. 

 This was the view from the courtyard as I left to go to choir at 6:15. The sun was trying to push its way free of the smoke cover but just looked bright orange instead. The colors inside the house all afternoon were foreign ones, sort of casting an eerie glow to the rooms. Even Justin noticed how 'weird' it felt, having this blanket of smoke rolling around us. 

Click photo to enlarge

When I got down to my car, making my way through the "flurries", I discovered an accumulation of ashes on the sill of my car window. This had taken place since late afternoon after I got home from giving Randy a ride back from his storage unit after he parked his motorcycle there. So, in less than 4 hours time, the ash rained down all around us. Hack hack cough cough....