Linda's here!

After a long day, especially for Linda, we are settled in our rooms and ready for sleep. Linda arrived on schedule, flawless traveling for her, thankfully. The only downside was a grumpy man seated next to her on the 2nd leg of the journey but hey, that's okay. His loss because he was out of sorts. It was the shortest flight of the day so it wasn't so bad but I know it's hard when the person in the next seat is unpleasant. But the ride to MKE went well, she got the car securely parked, got the shuttle to the airport, arranged for her wheel chair ride to the gates in each airport and settled in. Love when it all works out!

As for me, I had a meeting this late morning/early afternoon at The Club. The Republican Women's group had a speaker from the Secret Service who discussed one of the important aspects of their business (not only protecting the elected officials) which includes identity theft. That discussion left me feeling quite uneasy when he reported all the ways this affects people. Yikes! After the meeting, I asked him about the recent interlopers at the White House and he admitted it was embarrassing for the 'Service'. He went on to explain that the most recent case where the man got into the White House was not as bad as it seemed. The man was known to the agents, was a 'regular' person of interest to them. The decision was made to not sic the dogs on him on the WH lawn and also to not shoot him on the front porch in plain sight of people. I accept his explanation but we'll see what the press does with all this.

This afternoon when Linda and I were done watching The Five we walked over to The Club for Happy Hour. A few of my neighbors were there and we joined their table. Justin was making dinner for us so I wasn't going to order an appetizer but when the waiter said they were offering batter-dipped onion rings tonight, well, I gave in!  Oh, my! They were just wonderful---better than the strings I normally order. Linda and I shared the order and I offered some to my table mates as well. Only a couple people helped themselves. 

Our dinner was home-made chicken cordon bleu and was simply delicious. He uses a rotisserie chicken and then adds the other meat and ingredients. In no time at all he's got it put together and tastes great. We have enough leftovers from that for another meal this week. I hope we are home enough to enjoy it! We watched Jeopardy! together and then some Fox News and other shows before going to bed. Linda is setting her alarm to wake her for the sunrise in the morning. I hope she gets to see a nice one for her trouble!

On the bright side...

....Linda sent me this photo taken of my mom today at the booty parlor. They go together to have their hair cuts and then go to have lunch somewhere. Mom looks forward to their outings as does Linda. She no longer has her mother so she appreciates her time spent with mine. And I love it that she takes good care of my mommy for us! 

Isn't she cute?

Four years ago today....

....something happened that I might never get over, but I am getting better about it

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

What a nightmare!

Today was supposed to be simple fix, and a new bathroom vanity with sink in place. Or so we thought! Butch assured me I should go to Bible study, that he could handle it, etc. and I knew he could. He is THE MAN when it comes to the plumbing in this building, even though he is not technically a plumber or electrician. He is a handiman who can do about anything. When I left he was removing the ceramic tile from around the vanity top. On the way out I spoke to Connie about getting a key for Gus's unit as he was in CO, since the cut-off valve for the 'stack' with my unit is in his foyer. Who knew?? We all do, but Connie had to get the key from Hugh. As I walked away, I said to Connie, "I am sorry for making extra work for you...." and she said it was no problem. Little did we know!

*

During Bible study at Victory, I got a phone call from Maggie. I stepped into the narthex to take the call. She said, "Are you at home?" and I said I was at Bible study. "Did anyone tell you what happened?" Nope! It seems that Butch had shut off the water in Gus's unit for our stack as well as shutting off the main. Hugh was with him when he did this. Butch went upstairs to remove the offending valve and pop!, the pipe snapped and water was shooting everywhere. It seems there was yet another cut-off valve in Gus's unit which no one else knew about until today. Meanwhile, water is flowing into my guest bedroom, where Lynn just stayed, and also down the inside of the wall to the units below mine. I am so glad that I do not live on the 5th floor!

*

By the time I got home, folks were busily mopping, sopping, hustling, wet vacuuming in all three units to try to get the water up. Tracy's, just below mine, got the worst of it, with inches of water on her hardwood floors in nearly every room, and water running out her doors. I feel sick just writing about it. It was great the way everyone pitched in to help, and I even sent Justin a text asking him to come over. He was helpful with the heavy lifting and such, and giving hugs to highly distraught mama!

*

On the way home, I had the presence of mind to call my friend, Aaron, who does water remediation and he was geared up to get over here and start working. In about an hour he had fans and blowers and dehumidifiers going in the units. Conversations and such have taken place with the various insurance companies and now we wait and see how the floors and such respond to the dehumidifiers. Tracy and Cassidy are staying at the Holiday Inn, since their house is non-habitable right now, with all the fans and such running, and their kitchen torn apart. They can certainly use my kitchen for cooking and their insurance pays for the hotel.

*

There is so much more to tell but I am incredibly tired and hurt all over from hauling boxes and bins, more work than I do in an entire year. Tracy insisted on us going to La Napolera for margaritas and dinner, and I grabbed the bill. After all, it's the least I can do after this terrible ordeal. I am so tired, must go to sleep. Please ask the Lord to allow Tracy's floors to be okay for the most part and say a prayer of thanksgiving for my wonderful, helpful neighbors who came to the rescue today, and for Connie, too!

Getting all excited!

I am so excited that Linda is coming!!  She arrives on Wednesday afternoon, scheduled in such a way that I can still attend my Republican Women's meeting, pick her up from the airport, and get back in time to go to Happy Hour at The Club. That is the plan unless there are some flight delays or traffic interfering. Justin has gotten the guest room all straightened away while I did the bathroom polishing for her visit. We want our friend to be comfortable and cozy!

Linda likes to have breakfast so I have the coffee maker out and running through its cleaning processes.  Linda and I had to replace the previous coffee maker a few visits back. It only gets used when company is here. I run some vinegar through it the first time and then water with vanilla flavoring the second time. Oh, how pleasant the house smells after that! Always triggers the idea of company coming to me...She said to only get a few bananas for her breakfast and eggs. Linda will fry an egg to have on toast and some fruit, taking care of herself, since she gets up much earlier than do I. She sets her alarm to see the sunrises which is quite a worthwhile sacrifice of sleep to see.

I dashed about with the dusting wand to freshen things up. The last time it was done so thoroughly by the nice Haitian lady, Marys, only a month ago. Not having had the doors open reduces the amount of added dust to the surfaces so the dust wand handles it nicely. Justin has his fancy schmancy vacuum cleaner to touch up the floors, but not until the last moment so they stay nice. People at the pool are counting the days with me, knowing how excited I am for Linda to get here. I am always like this before company comes!  Ollavan is especially happy because Linda brings her cheese curds from WI!

Bad football day...

...but nice day at the gallery! Sadly, I did not win any prizes at Great Hang Ups for my entry in the photography show, "My Home Town", but it's not too late for people to vote for my piece. It is most certainly true that it's an honor to be nominated, or, juried in, as the case might be. Whew! I am presently 6 for 6, with one being shown at the Thrasher Horne Center in 2008. Not yet having a submitted piece juried out. So, I am careful what and where I enter exhibits. Keeping my head down, as it were. 

Morning Lights The Club

This photo was taken in September of 2010 before The Great Flood happened. Kerry, my sister, was here visiting from WI and was on the bulkhead fishing in the early morning hours. Usually I was yet in bed at this hour of the day and didn't see The Club in this light. Had to grab the shot and am so glad I did. She caught some fish and I caught this photograph!

While we were having the opening reception, the Jaguars were struggling to get some points on the board against the Colts. People have been clamoring for a change in quarterbacks since the preseason with the coaching staff resistant to bringing their rookie in so quickly. The Packers were having an equally hard time as well, with both teams ending up with losses when it was all over. Ugh! I did get to see the fly-over jets in formation going up the river as I drove to Great Hang Ups. Earlier in the week the Met Life blimp flew over The Club, supposedly here for the first home game of the season. 

Justin made mini-cherry pies for me to take along to the opening reception. He is a sweetie for doing this for me. This a.m. he made mini-pizza muffins to take along for tailgating with his friends, always a hit. His muffin pans get a workout around here. I did manage to secure a few of the pies to bring back home with me plus a few pieces of others' treats to enjoy when watching the end of the game. Next week will be a dandy football Sunday with two games on for us to watch---the Packers and the Jags both aired locally! We will be couch potatoes here and perhaps pizza eaters, we'll see!

Going a bit bug-eyed

As I am seated at my desk eating dinner (Justin is gone for the evening) I am also staring at a screenfull of faces looking back at me. Justin wants my computer to be backed up in such a way that if he threw it into the river, I would not be missing anything. That sounds a bit dramatic to me but I get his point. He wants to make sure I don't ever lose my photos. My computer has multiples of many of my pictures simply because when I've gone from machine to machine over the years, the photos were moved en masse with the documents being transferred. It is labor-intensive to sort through them, let me tell you.

So, my technology guy, Justin, got me set up with Picassa on my big computer, transferring or saving all my photos there. One of the blessings of Picassa is that it offers face recognition so it's my job now to assign a name to every face that shows up on my monitor. The thumbnails show up 28 at a time, and include faces in crowd photos which is quite annoying. 

The doors on the Baptistry 

Last night Justin spent some time on it and the software was even picking out faces impressed on the Baptistry doors in Florence, Italy. That's easy enough to just click the 'x' in the corner and eliminate it. He scolds me for taking so many pictures at the pool, claiming they are all the same. For all I know, they might be!

Time spent in the kitchen

My house smells so good today from the food cooking. And I did it myself this time. Brought out the slow cooker and started cutting up vegetables and dropping them into the broth. I got a recipe for pasta fagioli from Facebook, a favorite from Olive Garden. I got out my Pampered Chef blitz hacker to chop up the carrots and onions so I made quick work of that. Once all the ingredients were in the cooker, it was full to the top.

At one point my doorbell rang multiple times which tells me Connie is at the door. Yup, she had a delivery from the UPS man. She will often intercept him and bring the packages up herself if she knows we're home. What a surprise for her to find me toiling in the kitchen! The box she brought contained Justin's newest purchase, yes, something with a plug, but not a communication device. Instead, he bought a sandwich maker, used for making grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh, that guy!

Tonight he was going through my photos on the computer and telling me about a program where all the photos will be grouped together by person, by date, by location, etc. which will make it easy for him when it's time for my funeral. Yes, we are morbid like that. I told it was lame of him to have me doing the leg work on this project. Justin was telling me that when I die and he inherits this place, the first thing he is going to do is get rid of all the kitchen tools and start over new. I begged him to spare the Princess House and Pampered Chef items, and he said he would. But everything else is gone. 

He told me that the sandwich maker was coming and I said, "Oh, good! another kitchen appliance!" He knows that I have a low tolerance for things being kept on the kitchen counters and he said he was going to put it there. At that point I declared that this was a mad plot by him to hasten my demise so he can throw my stuff out. Some of the kitchen stuff is nearly antique, gifts from my shower and wedding, and until they fall apart, I am keeping them! Even if it kills me!

I wish this photo showed more of Linda---it would be perfect to see her face, too!

While playing with the pictures he found one particular shot of me taken at Alayna's graduation party. Linda's husband was playing with my camera and got Linda to do something to me. He was counting to three and then on three she was to yank down the front of my shirt. Grabbing at my top in laughter and surprise, my mouth is open. He said that this is my perfect picture for my funeral, and if Peggy, my dentist, is there she can say, "Those are MY teeth!" Oh, that guy!