She's Hollywood all the way!

My grand niece enjoying the tire climbing at Maize Valley Winery. She had a blast and crashed that evening. I am very comfortable with this kind of day. Reminds me of when I took my daughter to all sorts of activities, museums and such.

If I had a granddaughter, I would be broke for sure. Very thankful (for now) my daughter says she does not want children, but we know how that goes, right?

Heart breaker

His grandma said he kept moving his head to try to see what the painter was touching his face with. His Mom said he is a heart breaker. I thought it was a strawberry.  :D

Fire!

The cars before he ate them. And this is why they have a fire truck standing by. Two years ago - only a fire truck. This year, a fire truck and an ambulance. I hope it is just thinking safely and not because something happened before. A piece did fly off from one of the cars but we are sectioned off  by a caution tape and the distance must be okay because nobody was hit by the flying pieces.

And.....she's OUT!

All day at the festivities and she is out like a light. We came home and I fixed grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for everyone. This one ate four. Okay, let me repeat that - FOUR!

She was watching the movie WALL-E and I was busy on the computer, my daughter came through with her dirty dishes and said "She's out."  I said "huh?"  My daughter pointed and repeated "She's out!"

Yes, she was. LOL!

Here is the video of the creature eating the cars. Yet again, I found myself with a full memory card by the time I was needing to make a video and after kicking myself in the rear end (mentally) I remembered my trusty cell phone and pulled it out of my purse to make this video. It is over 8 minutes long and I had YouTube stabilize it for me (shaky hand).

The people noise you hear is not my crew. The little girl (above me) did not make one peep during the entire episode. You can hear me say a few lines, such as "That was close", "He is coming over to us" , "That's rude" and "What's he doing?"

Our other family members were somewhere else in the crowd as we all got separated for a bit.

The event is a sight to see and I highly recommend it for children and grand children. It looks as though this was their last event for 2013, but here is their web site.  http://www.megasaurus.com/. You can read about his history and photos and hopefully they will post the 2014 schedule soon.

Fun week-end planned

I get to have this one for the week-end. This photo was taken April 2012. She is my grand(great) niece. We are going here on Saturday. We are aiming to see the 'Megasaurus eat the cars' event. I don't like reading about them closing the gates if the crowd gets too large. That makes me a tad nervous that we may be turned away.

My sister wants me to pick her up at noon - first Megasaurus show is at 2:00 p.m. I am afraid the crowd will be too large to let us in. Drat! I don't want to disappoint. We are meeting about 8 other family members there who have family coming from New York state for the event.

It is a sight to behold. I saw it two years ago and I was in total awe.

Enjoyment

As my daughter did years ago, my great niece always brings a friend along when going somewhere with family. It is much easier for two girls to entertain themselves than for adults or one adult to constantly keep the child from getting "bored".

And, as with my daughter and her friend - the children enjoy the pool of the motel and the motel room romping just as much (if not more) than the scheduled activity. LOL!

Getting pulled over

There was no doubt this little tyke was the hit of the party Saturday evening. I need to get a shot of him in his duds. His mother dressed him up in a little golfer outfit. The dinner was at a restaurant at a Golf Course. Huh. Not a one of us golf. One nephew used to. Eh...

We had a great time. We were loud. There were 17 of us and two children. There was plenty of drinking. The drivers did not imbibe or only drank a couple. Such as I. One beer and I was like - give me ice water from now, on. I did taste my daughter's drink. Grey goose and vodka. Uh, no thanks! Yech!

On the way home I was to drop sister 1954 off at a bar and my daughter was anxious to get back - she had plans to go out and meet friends. We were chatting. At one time I looked at my speedometer and thought, "Oh, I am such a granny driver."  I thought perhaps my daughter would say something eventually. I really have slowed down even more since hitting the deer in 2009. Everything I see alongside the road is a potential deer.

So, I was very surprised when I was the one pulled over. I saw his lights in my rear view mirror. I pulled over immediately and glanced at the tail lights of the car in front of me. My first thought was 'I wonder what the guy in front of me did.' My second thought was 'I wonder what is going on that he (the patrolman) has to rush lights flashing.'

I giggled and said 'He is after ME!"  Like I was some giggly girl in high school and just found out a boy liked me. Good gawd!

He said I was doing "65" in a "55" zone. I said "Sorry, we were probably chatting and I didn't realize."  I could find my drivers license. I found an old registration but could not find proof of insurance to save my life. He said given the state of my car he was certain that I had insurance and let me go with a written warning.

Both my sister and daughter said there was no way it was ME doing 65. The more I thought about it the more I realized that they were right. I am a granny driver. I don't even go the speed limit. My daughter said he must have "clipped" the guy in front of us. Things were not so funny, then. What if he had given me a ticket? What are they now $120. Ten dollars for every mile over the speed limit? $100? I would have been pissed.

I had not been passed. In fact, I recall somebody pulling out in front of me shortly before the straight stretch. Ah, well. I did NOT get a ticket, but it un-nerves me to think that I can get a ticket because they "clipped" someone else.

And for ONCE sister 1954 did not have a beer with her in the car. She manages to sneak one in her purse from the bar almost every time.

I dreamt that the same guy pulled me over again. I killed him - with a machete knife and I was trying to get rid of his head.  OMG! WTH?! WTF?!  How angry WAS I?

Hoopin'

Another shot of my niece - the hoop girl. She has put the hoop away for a few months (until after the baby is born). It is a wonderful exercise and will probably help her to lose the baby weight. She may be one of the lucky few who won't have much weight to lose. She may be "all baby" - as they call them.

Julia Fractal

I was messing around with a new program I downloaded called Pinta. I opened a photo and chose edit. Then I chose julia fractal. From that image, I came up with the above. Just messin' around.

Survived

Survived another family reunion. This time with extended family members is so special to us, but alas - not everybody feels that way. Our attendance was so low this year we doubt we will have it again next year. Or, we need to change the format to a much less activity-based event.

Our first year we had over 150 attend, this year - maybe 38. It was our fourth one and the heat was so intense I believe some of us suffered a mild heat stroke. So many were dizzy and we just sat around limp. Not to mention the body odor. It was a good idea to choose burgundy color shirts for our matching tee shirts but not healthy. The heat was intense and with a dark, thick tee shirt on - well, you can imagine. Some of my family members refuse to wear them and opt for spaghetti straps and what not for a cooler outcome.

I certainly will have to do something next year. I have expressed my desire for an air conditioned building and having it inside. That seems to be the major reason for absenteeism. The blessed heat.

The party on the patio at the motel was rather tame, also. Just a few who wanted to burn the candle at both ends, and the staff finally moved them into the lobby because of motel visitors complaining. I had gone to bed long ago. I do not party any more. Especially since I am on this medication. I asked to try the bud light lime a rita. It was so delicious and I only drank 6 oz. but it knocked me on my butt. (Medicine intensified, I am sure). I am not one to follow the rules, but when I felt woozy - I stopped cold. I don't push it too much. (Any longer).

We had two siblings that could not make it this year. The first time all 8 of us have not been to the reunion. Well, the first reunion sister 1954 could not make it. Not because she did not want to, though. Most of us find it difficult to understand why they would not want to come to the reunion but you have to let stuff like this go and let people be. Their "excuse" was that they had to work but we all knew about the reunion months in advance. The actual date, anyway. And the ones who could not make it got days off just prior to the reunion and another one - they are going to the ocean in a week or two. So it isn't like they CAN'T get time off. They just decided not to. We held the reunion on a Saturday this year to make it easier for folks who have to travel and get back to work on a Monday. That backfired. All the ones who requested that option, did not show anyway. Claiming they had to work. What is up with that?

Whoops. I am not letting it go, am I?  My daughter showed up and the ones that did show - we had a fantastic time. When the heat was so bad, we got out the water balloons and the mister (sprays water). I find it nice that we have coolers full of water bottles in the same amount as soda. I did not drink one soda, all water. I crave a soda once in a while - but drink water all day.

The food was fantastic - a lot less to choose from - but there is still plenty to go around. Desserts were almost non existent this time. Some cookies, pies and nut bread and that was it. I made calico beans. Once I heard my nephew was bringing a generator (my sister told me he was bringing it for me so that I can have a fan on me) I grabbed the chance to make my beans. The generator would run fans and a crock pot or two on low. I am just grinning to think that he would bring that for me. I love that boy (he will always be my little boy to me) so much! Even though he and his mama are very close and I am so happy they are. For all the hell they have gone through with each other they are so very, very close. It just makes my heart burst.

I find it strange to hear stories about other families that do not step in and take a child if their sibling is having trouble or problems in their life. My sister has been in and out of prison and I had no problem taking her daughter into my home.  Her son was old enough to be on his own. When she moved back home in the early 80's I was working a daylight job. She was tending bar at night. I watched her little boy every night and cared for him. This is family. Her children are my children. That is how I feel. My sisters ALL feel the same way.

Anyway, reunions are a special time for me. I grumble about them. I grumble about the heat. I grumble about the work. I grumble about the money - not so much because to me, complaining about money is vulgar. If you want a wonderful time - sometimes it costs a lot of money. But (to me) you cannot put a price on family and love.

Last, but not least - headache update. Although I did not have a migraine, I had a very bad headache through out the week-end. I attribute that to sleeping (or NOT sleeping) in a motel, the heat and the upset in the schedule. And driving long distance. If I were still on my migraine medication, I certainly would have taken one. Although the pain I felt was not a classic migraine, it was bad enough to warrant a migraine pill. The migraine pill would have knocked it out of the park. Alas, I did not and just kept taking Advil which was not touching it. Many more of my relatives were suffering, too.

This morning. No headache at all. I have taken this Monday off from work (recovery day!) and will releax, wash clothes and enjoy my daughter and her beau's company. The laughter is rocking the Peruby household once again. Quiet time is over. And... the dogs come back today. Ugh!

Somebody got me a good one. I thought it was an actual photo. Even though the whole time I was wondering, how the heck do they get on the swings?    http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/12/04/01/. Good one!

Colors

I was never a fan of Mike and Ike candy. My brother would have it around when I lived at his house and you know - if it is just sitting there you are going to take one or two. Well, they grew on me. I think it is the sticking to my teeth part that I do not like. Same thing with gummy bears. I never liked them until one group of friends would give a bag to each other every birthday and open them at the party and I would eat one or two.

I was so disappointed with my candy the other day. The candy in the photograph. Stale. No good. I am going to throw the entire box away. It was only 99¢, so it is no great loss. I guess I will stick to sweet candy. At least I can still eat chocolate even if it does go stale.

For a Windows-based machine, to get the cent sign, hold your Alt key down and using your keypad, press 0162. Let go of all keys and there you have it. For Mac (as I understand it) you can use the Option or shift keys - there is a keyboard viewer and character map also. I understand it is much easier and user friendly on a mac.

To play, you can open up Notepad and try a bunch of numbers while holding down the Alt key. Or just "google" ASCII and ANSI Character chart. They work on facebook, too. Have fun. §

My new tablet

I received a card that turns my Nook into a Droid tablet. Works very well. Now, I have a tablet and I can download an app to e-read. Sweet! I am going to be using this device a lot more than I used to. I could never find the time to read a book. Now, I can take the tablet with me to meetings and have access to my messages, the web and the office documents. I could do all that on my phone, but that screen is small.

Oh, and games. My nephew mentioned Angry Birds and since I have never played, I thought I would download and give it a try. It reminds of lobbing bananas at a Gorilla on a city building. An old DOS game that came with Nibbles. That was my favorite. Did not care for Gorilla and I do not care for Angry Birds. I tired of it quickly.

I fell asleep during "Hugo".  Sorry. It rates high up there in the ratings, but I was bored. It could also be that I am not getting enough shut eye. I did have company in and out this past week-end and I fixed a LOT of food. I think I peeled 20 pounds of potatoes. No wonder my wrist hurts.

Don't hate me

For bringing you this link to a big time-waster but fun game. If you enjoy hangman, you may like this one, though the words are a bit odd.

http://www.dedge.com/halloween/

I am on my 12th hour of watching all five dogs. I am betting the kids do not pick them up Sunday night but sometime Monday because they will be too tired from driving all day. I have to admit the dogs were quiet mostly during the night. I heard a whimper here and there and maybe two sharp barks.

I may have a few good stories to tell you. I already have a stoved pinkie finger. That is weird. When growing up we always said "stove a toe" or "stove a finger". That got me wondering where this term came from and what it means.

The best I can come up with is - it came from the word "stave". The dictionary gives a definition (number nine) for stave as:

9. (Scot); to sprain (a finger, toe, etc)

Last evening the neighbor dog ran over to say hello and my daughter's German Shepherd (maybe 8 months old, but getting big) opened up a big can of whoop-ass on him. He was all like WTF?!

The next time we went out he stayed on his side of the yard behind some big stones as if to say, "I'm fine right here, thanks!"

It was awesome!

I am so glad I stayed later into the evening to watch this car-eating megasaurus. I was so amazed! It gave a really good show. First it bit a car in half, then it moved on to this red car which was full of pumpkins. It took a big bite of pumpkins, spit them out - then caught the entire patch of pumpkins in the car on fire, roasted them - then ate them. The car was still burning when it was over and the fire men had to put it out.

This machine was just delightful and we were standing way back. I can only imagine what it was like up closer. The day was gorgeous. My sister and I started at one. Drank a bottle of wine and had a bite to eat. Then we met the group with kids. There were 12 of us altogether.

It got a little warm for me and I neglected to wear a hat. This is a kid oriented event. There were kids everywhere. They had a huge mountain of hay bales for them to climb on (the big rolled kind). They had goats for them to feed. They had a peep show (little baby chicks). There were duck races where the kids have to pump the water to make the water go faster. There were pig races. I did not get to see this. One announcement stated that even though it was very nice outside for us, it was a bit warm for the pigs. Of course there was the pumpkin shooter. I want to tell you what. When they shot the pumpkin WAY out with 37 pounds of psi you would lose the pumpkin in the distance before it landed. They were shooting the little pumpkins that people use to bake pies with.

I could go on and on. This farm is adding also. The new feature this year is a Gem Mine. The kids get to mine for pretty stones in a fake mining mill. It costs extra. Hayrides, corn maizes to get lost in... and more.

The place was understaffed. I asked a worker (plunging the toilets) if they paid her enough to do that. She snapped back at me "The FARM doesn't pay anybody enough to do ANYTHING!"  Ouch. The rumor is that the FARM is very stingy and greedy. The lines in the winery were long later in the day. It looked like everybody was drinking wine. Most tables had little children and all the adults were drinking the wine. You had to wonder who in the heck was driving home.

There were people walking around the ground with a bottle of wine in one hand and their little plastic cup in the other. Children were everywhere. The cigarette butts were flying. My niece was worried about a butt hitting her little toddler in the stroller. She is a smoker but she walks away from the crowd (and mostly away from her children) to smoke. She always asked one of us to keep an eye on her children while she and my nephew went away to smoke. And they stand in one place while they are smoking.

They took their van full and left in the afternoon to feed their crew at a fast food restaurant. The winery had food but the only edible choice for children was a $3 pb&j. You can bring your own food in. Not sure if you can bring in coolers of beer. I did not see anybody do that. But I did see a lot of stuff people brought in for their children.

There is a lot more to this place and you can read all about it here:  http://www.maizevalleywinery.com/

Family Fun day

Going to a vineyard today with family for some fall fun. I have not been here before, so this will be a first for me. I am looking forward to the above machine shooting pumpkins at a van out in the cornfield. The kids (grand nieces and nephews, now) will be looking forward to the car eating mechanical dinosaur.

I know you are tired of hearing me say it (or seeing me print it) and I am tired of saying (typing) it: I still can't find my stupid camera battery charger. I want to take pictures but yet I am also free from the task of hanging that thing around my neck and trying to get good pics. Without the camera I can just enjoy myself. But still... I want pictures to post and to enjoy later.

So much! No time!

The father (I think it was the father) of this little tyke let me take his photograph. I was waiting for friends to arrive for dinner and was enjoying the outside (between raindrops).

I have so many stories since I posted last week. Ouch! I never go a week between posts, I don't think. I would have posted Thursday or Friday but as we all know - Blogger took a tumble! That does not bother me so much except for the fact I wanted to comment on some bloggers posts when the ideas were fresh in my mind.I should have created a text file in Notepad with my comments so that I could go back and comment later. Drat!

I left all of you with my so-so experience at the Gervasi winery. Came to find out that the caramels I purchased at the gift store were SUPPOSED to have coffee beans in them. I am such an idiot! I chewed a couple with the caramel when I needed that boost of caffeine. It worked. It was a bitter bean but it gave me energy. Then I threw the rest of the box away. Yuck!

The manager finally returned my call yesterday - a full week after our dinner. I was at work and busy with a school so she left a message. She wanted to wait that long to see if any other customers called in to complain.I am sure she, the owner and their lawyer were going over what she would say exactly. Anyway, nobody else called them and she hoped that all of us were feeling better and perhaps it was a stomach bug that was going around the house. What? She just assumed we were a family and all lived in the same house? Whatever! I touched base with my friends and they are all better and they all agree - no more Gervasi's. And we are telling everybody we know.

Now, Saturday the 7th. I managed to watch the Derby before taking off to see "The Wizard of Oz" - the production playing in my home town where I got to help paint the set. Oh my, it was fun. My nephew/sister/niece called that morning to let me know that they were descending upon my home later that afternoon. I told them I was going to kick their ass! I had e-mailed them two weeks ago and said to please let me know if they were coming into town this week-end so that I could arrange to get them tickets to the show. Since I had not heard from them - I did not get the tickets. Well, it took some fancy footwork and phone calling on my part but I got us all in and we loved it! 

Oh, and poor Toto took a tumble! They used a live Yorkshire Terrier for the show. The dog was amazing. He was in almost every scene. He was quiet. He was calm. He was beautiful. I asked a friend who built the set "Did they drug the dog?" He said "No, the dog is always like that!' Anyway during our showing when the Winkie takes Toto from Dorothy in the witches castle, Toto decided he had enough of that stupid basket and jumped out and fell down a couple of steps. Well, a little dog like that it could be serious. He was fine. He rolled over a couple of times, stood up - shook himself off and trotted away. Everybody in the audience gasped. But, all good news. The dog is fine. They did use a stuffed animal in a couple of scenes.

We went out to eat afterwards and continued our raucous fun.

Whew, enough for now.

Pixy Stix

Who didn't like the pixy stix? Everyone I know loves them. I also like their cousin Fun Dip.

I had an outrageously fun time with family last night celebrating 3 of our 8 March birthdays. We had 16 people at Red Lobster. We were loud and we made quite a mess. They had 4 servers to take care of us (shhhh... they really screwed stuff up, but it all worked out in the end).  I had a mango mai tai I am enchanted with the mango since I ate at an Indian restaurant about six years ago and fell in love with the mango lassi.  Anytime I see a drink with mango in it, I have to try it.

Although I quit drinking rum many, many moons ago - I gave this drink a whirl. Loved it! I always drink just one and then switch to water. Mostly because of the overpricing of alcoholic beverages in restaurants.

But the grande finale was the tops. My little grand nephew (who will be 5 next month) upchucked all over the sidewalk outside the restaurant. A huge mess. It was closing time and we were the last ones to leave so no other customers would see it before they ate. He started in the lobby with a little mess and my sister ran him outside. My family was howling. By the time I got outside they had the little tyke in the car. I hope he felt better.

He was so cute. He came down to our end of the table where my daughter, her boyfriend and another friend were drinking IBC rootbeer out of the bottle. My grand nephew thought they were drinking beer and he said "You can't drink beer!" They finally convinced him it was root beer and he drank bottle after bottle. He was swigging it like a seasoned drinker chugs beer. He stood at the end of the table and took a big swig, then waved his hands around and told us something funny. We were cracking up.

I think the biggest problem was the fact that it felt about 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the restaurant. It may have been a ploy to get us to leave. We asked them three times to cut the heat. It kept pouring out of the vents like there was no tomorrow. I think we all got a little sick with it being so warm.

Chuckles

I remember this candy but I don't remember eating it. I never chose it. I don't know why. I sure would try it, now. I doubt that it had the "Fat Free Candy" remark on it back in the 60's. Maybe it should have. I was very young then and didn't have to worry about fat.We ran off any extra calories. We were outside moving, moving, moving. Sigh.

Nobody wants to go outside this week. It is still pouring buckets. I have water everywhere (but in my house, thank goodness!) I mean in my yard. The earth is but a sponge. It is like walking on a muddy sponge out there. The dogs are not happy, either. Now my sister tells me snow by tomorrow late afternoon - evening. We sisters were supposed to meet for dinner. We have about a 40 minute drive for us all to meet in a central location. Double drat!

My work presentation is a week away. My Linux one is Wednesday and my filter one is Thursday. I am not worried about the filter - I know that stuff pretty well. Linux (Ubuntu) - I am getting the hang of. My area is CUPS (Common Unix Print System). Not so familiar with that! I'm trying, though. Most of my spare time has me with my nose stuck inside a Linux Administration book or my eyes fixed onto an Ubuntu command line prompt or desktop screen. I did not anticipate so many work problems to crop up and I thought I would have more time to work on this at the office. Not to be! Best laid plans! All that jazz.

Oh, and 'best laid plans' from this poem by Robert Burns. For a better translation - go here.

sno-caps

I know these are still around. I still buy them from time to time. I like them and my daughter likes them. I pass them up anymore for something more - like something with peanut butter. I have not had sno-caps in ages. And, how about the big size ones? Not the package - the actual candy. The size of quarters with those snow sprinkles on top!

It is pouring rain here in Ohio, again. A cold, steel rain. My dogs stick their noses over the edge of the porch and give me an incredulous look. No way! Sigh. I could drag them around the yard, walk them up and down the alley. All I am doing is wasting my time.