Funny gag gift

First, let me apologize for the blurry photo. Taken with my cell phone at a work party and my hand was not very steady. (no alcohol involved, we ARE an education institution after all) but plenty of laughter and just plain jitters.

We were to purchase a "gag" gift for five dollars and take to the party. I thought this one was particularly creative. The gal opened her gift and it was a pack of batteries and as she moved the tissue paper aside on the bottom of the box it says "Gift not included."  Loved it!

I do not have any excuse for not posting very much. I guess I just have hit another dry spell. My posting is motivated by my need to put something down, so I guess I'll just have to wait for inspiration or until my feelings prompt me to write.

A new Grandma

Sister 1956 with her darling first grandchild.

My sister has waited a long time for a little girl. She always was ready to watch my daughter for me when she was little and now she has a baby girl of her own. She had her son in 1978 and he has become a father for the first time. To say she is ecstatic would be an  understatement. She deserves every nanosecond of this bliss.

More than 20 family members are gathering for dinner tomorrow night. (Not counting wee ones). Sadly the wee one pictured above will not be able to make it - she is also a "first" grandchild on the Mommy's side and has relatives coming in from out of state to meet her.

I gave the restaurant warning. I asked, but they are not going to open up the back dining room for us, so we will be placed out in the middle of the regular dining area. The poor people around us - because we are a loud group. I will take cake. Maybe balloons. We have 8 (or is it 9) birthdays in March. I need to charge the camera battery.

An addict is an addict is an addict

I tell everyone "I hate to shop."  Actually, I am an addict. Probably. I don't know. I am a binge shopper. I was a binge drinker. You can go through life and never have a drink again. You can't go through life and never shop again. Not realistically. I have to be very careful when I shop.

I don't quit.

Christmas is the hardest. I have to start late because I do not quit. I have to keep buying gifts for people. I love to give, give, give.

We are having our annual family party tonight. At a restaurant. A record 40 are showing. There are a few friends coming, but still...mostly family. And their significant others.

And, babies. We have new babies this year. YAY!

Out of the immediate family two nephews cannot make it.

All 8 children will be there. I have to find my cameras and get them charged up!

I stole a couple of games from the party I went to on the first and I made up one of my own. I watched The Grinch carefully and came up with 10 wacky questions about the show. From the easiest "What color is the Grinch?" to the hardest "How many years has the Grinch put up with the Who characters making noise?"

We are in a new restaurant this year. They have promised us a private room. I tell them that there will be singing, laughter and noise. I don't want to disturb the other patrons.

Hopefully, I will have some pics to post tomorrow.

My black babies

I did not take pictures Saturday night. I don't know why. I did not even think about it. My niece 1982 snapped this one of my babies. I had 23 show up from the family. My daughter had an after-the-family-leaves party for her age group. 21 - 23 crowd. From what I could see, she had about a dozen. She came in and chased me out of her bed at about 5:00 a.m. I was sleeping in her room with the window open so I could keep an "ear" out for their noise level. At 2:30 she had the group move inside the garage to continue.

I am just concerned about the one neighbor lady whose bedroom is almost butt up against my patio. She is 95 and has had many falls the past few years. She has somebody staying with her. I heard a man coughing while I was hosing off my patio Sunday morning.

I felt great the next day. No headache. But then again, I only drank a couple of the Bud Lite Lime-a-ritas that are kind of popular right now.

That sky

I grabbed a shot of the sky Saturday evening. I was at a Jimmy Buffet tribute party where the dj played mostly JB songs. I have no idea what that flash of fire or light is just off-center to the right. I was trying to get a shot with no people in it.

It was a beautiful evening. We were celebrating my birthday (2 months late). Hey, I'll take what I can get these days. I was spoiled beyond belief as is the way with this group of friends who have been gift giving since the late 80's. I joined them around 1992. When you reach  a certain age most people no longer get gifts on their birthdays. Only one of us have a significant other. None of us have married. Only I have a child. There are stragglers. My sister joins us now an again. She is married and has a grown son. None of us are gay. That I know of. I figure I would know by now - we have all spent so much time together. We are just a group of old maids. Two came very close to marriage. Whoops. Make that three. I have been engaged twice.

Ah, well. We have good times. Of the group - the original six of us have worked at one certain location. It just went out of business - putting three of my friends out of work. The other three of us had moved on long ago. Only one is  not currently working. I believe she is using her unemployment and furthering her education to obtain a new job.

I believe that leaves every place I have ever worked at - out of business/gone. Let me think. Oh...there is an ice cream stand I worked at when I was 17. It still operates. And Ponderosa. I worked there one summer. All the rest... gone.

Headache update - a bad one Sunday - but only took Advil. It was from lack of sleep. Too much caffeine the evening before. I do not drink alcohol while on this new medication. So THAT is not the reason for the headache. LOL!

Okay. I have rambled on long enough. Ciao!

I'm back in the saddle

This festival of hippies? You can have it. I was not impressed.  Quite the opposite, in fact.

The wedding was wonderful.

I am just posting a few sentences because I had a massive four day migraine hit and am just now able to function thanks to First Care and tramadol HCL.  No thanks to my doctor's office who would not see me until 10:30 tomorrow morning. Boo!

I have been a patient for over ten years. Maybe four or five times have I called in those ten years asking to be seen right away due to some pain or ailment. I think they could have done better.

My migraine was not responding to any Imitrex or Advil that I would throw at it. I had a thunderclap episode that I have had before but not as severe. It was followed by severe vomiting and a massive migraine. It scared the bejesus out of my daughter. I was beside myself with pain. It was 1:30 a.m.

I am stubborn about going to the ER.

I will post more about the event when I am feeling better. The highlights for me were the people who brought their dogs.

Then and now

Perhaps as a young teen? Here is my oldest brother hamming for the camera in some younger by-gone days.

And here is a more recent photo. I guess I will find out today if he still has the beard and long hair. Sometimes he just shaves it all off and starts over.

He turns 70 today. He was born on St. Patrick's day and his name is Patrick. But that is not why. He is named after his great grandfather on our Mother's side. My Mom was raised by her grandparents.

I'll get back to the sauces maybe tomorrow. Or, I may have some shots from our big party today. Hoo Rah!

That is over with

The weather turned  lousy. It poured snow down all day and we had a little bit on the roads. People travelled miles to get to the dinner and some got lost. It was a new location this year out in the middle of nowhere. My car and the two following me had to detour around a wreck, an SUV had slid off the road.

It was too hot in the banquet room. The food was so-so and nobody could hear. I had to shout in my loudest voice to be heard above the din. I had a royal headache by the end of the night. The six kids that did show up got showered with gifts and I hope they had fun.

I was rotten this year and sent all kids home with a can of Silly String. Not to be used in the car on the way home, I told them. 

Not sure if we will have it at this location next year or not.

I was tired and had a bad  headache all the next day. I drank only iced tea. I had the mild cod with mashed potato and vegetables. 

My daughter had a new beau. I have nothing to say. I have to adjust.

I do not have one piece of decoration up. I do not have a tree up. I did get the tree delivered Friday night. A pre-owned seven foot tall pre-lit artificial tree. Zoinks!

My living room is full of totes from my daughter's back bedroom (where I stored all my stuff when I had my new floor put in) and her totes from her boyfriend's house. 

My two smaller dogs, Cheech and Chong are back.

My beautiful boxer decided that his territory was not properly marked and proceeded to leave his urine all over every tote in the living room.

I have to find the energy and back muscle to move all the totes into the basement and then get the tree inside the house and put up. My back starts to vibrate like a tuning fork after lifting and moving about two totes. This  is from helping my daughter move her bed and computers and desk and chest of drawers back into the house. Her ex boyfriend dumped everything into our garage. I am thankful he brought her stuff back at all. He could have tossed it out into the yard.

My daughter has wanted out of her relationship for a long time. She always gave the excuse that nobody was there to help him with his new German Shepherd puppy. His cousin and partner are moving in next week.

I really liked her ex boyfriend but I was also torn because both of them are so young. She is twenty and he is twenty-one. They have been dating for 18 months. They are so young to be so serious. He wanted to start a family, she is not ready.

Meanwhile I have to finish shopping, wrapping and fixing food. I work all week.

I am tired and am going to bed. My finger is stinging. For the most part my headache is gone but I recognize a four day migraine when I feel one. It is all just part of the routine. Second verse, same as the first. This ain't my first rodeo.

Back in Black

This is a photo from my daughterś clothesline when I visited her house one day last week. All black. That is what she wore in high school and she has not changed much. I do see some color, though.

I do like AC/DC (the band). \Back in Black\.

I do not get to enter quotation marks, the tilde, the comma, the percent sign or the top carrot (or however it is spelled). 

I am not able to add updates or new features or any new software because I cannot recall my admin password for this  ubuntu machine that I am using.

 I wonder what the odds are of me finding the notebook I used when I set it up. That will have the password recorded. 

I am missing my computer. I know I have an extra video card around here somewhere and I can always pop out the card in this ubuntu machine and try it, but I had a very special ATI Radeon gaming video card. Bleh! It had itś own fan. Stupid Nook!

My party on Sunday the 4th was great. We got a little rain. I caught the food on fire on the grill about 5 times. I am not an expert at the grill. The corn was fantastic! Yummy yum, yum, yum! I want to eat all my corn on the cob off the grill, now. 

I had 18 people here. I made 19. I did not have a headache this time until I had to get gas in the gas can for my daughter. She had parked her car at my house to drop off the corn, but was worried she would not make it to a gas station. When I picked her up from work, I got gas in the can and put it in her car so she could make it to a gas station with no worries. The gas smell is still in my car and I had the can in the trunk. Ugh!

Sable and Slade loved the party. I do not think they moved very much the next day. I got a present from my nephew. An Apple TV.  I am fairly certain he wants to convert me to apple products. Now I am debating on whether I buy into the Netflix program again or not. They made me angry by making a lot of movies :unavailable: for such long periods of time I got tired of waiting and rented them.

My nephew says something about cable companies going by the wayside(as far as television goes - they will still provide Internet access, etc...). I can follow him on a lot of stuff, but I was very tired that night (after my party) and could only follow some of what he said. I may absorb it over the next year or so as I get to using this device more.

I have had dr. appointments, court hearings and dinners the past few days and am unable to get the time to fight with this ubuntu machine to get any posts made. I can just barely get my e-mails read and answered and facebook taken care of before I silently scream and leave the room. The court hearings and dr. appointments are nothing major. Just little bumps in the road.

I said before that September looks to be one crazy month and so far I only have a couple of free Sundays left for me. I like my :down: time. Just me and myself by myself. Sitting around reading or watching TV. Not moving my car - not having to go anywhere. Sigh.

And it does not help any that work is crazy crazy right now. I am trying so hard not to panic. I find myself clenching my jaw (which may be what started that horrible tooth/jaw pain a month or so ago). I am having some sensitivity with that tooth. The dentist x-rayed it but he did not see a crack. I do not know what is up with it, but when I push up on the tooth with my finger it hurts. I know +Then stop pushing up on the tooth, Peruby!+

Man, it sucks not having quotation marks. I wonder....

Here goes... ¨  heh, heh!  ¨  quotation mark - see?  ¨  ~  Tilde (tilda)  - see? heh, heh.  ``^^&&$%^&&==()+_´´´;;>><<..??

Okay. I have to type a few of the special characters twice before they will show up. I wonder what they will look like after I post? Am I putting some sort of html code in front of the character so that it comes out weird looking?

Cripes! I don´t know. There is the apostrophe! It was looking like this:  sisterś, now I can do this... sister´s house.

I am seriously delirious right now!

I got nuttin'

I got nuttin' you guys. So I slapped a picture of Slade being bored here. I have been reading books on my nook and not spending much at home time on the computer. I am planning one last malware post about how to avoid the suckers but I want to get it right (or as right as I can) before I give any advice.

As I say - I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night. LOL!

Oh, and crazy me volunteered to host the Labor Day cook-out for the family. This Sunday. I have to buckle down and find that damn camera battery charger. Grrrrr! It is my chance to have my Independence Day party do-over!

Somebody did this

It was not me. I took it off later in the evening. He left it on there during the party.  He may have thought it was just a collar and did not notice or feel or see the flags. He was the life of the party. He is bushed in this photo. Cheech and Chong came for a visit and he and Cheech ran around the yard in their crazy way they used to until poor Slade just plain tuckered out (as seen here). Although this time they had to dodge coolers, lawn chairs, people, other dogs and dog cables. It proved to be quite entertaining.

Me, on the other hand. I was in pain (head,back,legs and feet) and no amount of medicine was helping. With 35 people in attendance somebody always needed something where I had to get up and move. In my opinion it was the worst party I have thrown, yet. My sour mood and attitude (which I tried many times to change) put a damper on the whole thing. Grrrr!

Deflated

I just managed to crawl to my computer keyboard and touch up this picture I lifted and post it here. I suffered a massive migraine the day of the party and during the party and it really ticked me off. What can you do? I had taken all the medicine I possibly could and I felt horrible. It was a strange party. I had 35 show.

I got all my sistuhs with me

I could not imagine my life without my sisters in it. My mom had 8 children. Three boys and five girls. I am taking the photo and the four ladies above (outside of my daughter) are my life. Left to right, sister 1954, sister 1949, sister 1944 and sister 1956.

All four will be at my party today. And one brother. Many nieces and nephews and a handful of friends. I will have my camera out. I have noticed that recent years I have not taken many photos of the event. This is my 7th Independence day party. Held on the night that my town lets off their fireworks.

I provide the main food dishes, most everybody brings a covered dish. I supply soft drinks and some beer and most everybody brings their own alcohol. We make our own entertainment. There will be ping pong, badminton, corn hole and Frisbee tossing. I have a craft table set up for small children. My record is forty. I am not certain I can beat that number.

Smooth

It looks smooth, but the dirt is already driving me nuts! I bought a swiffer last night at the store and can see that I probably will have to dry sweep every day with these pests... pets. 

I should just get big fluffy socks and spray them with a nice cleaner (that is approved for this type of floor) and just slide around.

I got up from the table yesterday and (since it was within two hours of their feeding time) all the cats scrambled to the kitchen thinking they were getting some grub. This startled the boxer who was sleeping in the chair and in his foggy state forgot there was no carpet to stop his bound out of the chair and the massive canine slid all the way across the floor and I thought for certain he was going to wipe out the TV because he slid right into the TV stand landing up against it with a great big thud.

I cursed and he scrambled to get up and ran to the kitchen door and hung his head. I think he woke up, then.

I was speaking to my neighbor yesterday. She mentioned that it was her ninth wedding anniversary. They married the summer I moved into my house. What! That can't be! I've been here nine years? NINE years! I was in shock the rest of the evening.

This is all I can write today as my head is pounding for the second day in a row.  Advil is not touching them (and they are not a migraine). I know I need more sleep but if you can't sleep, you can't sleep. I'll try a nap later. This is all normal before my annual blow out.

This cat....

....is going to hurt me someday. And I don't mean his claws. He has that uncanny knack of sensing and then moving in every direction my feet aim to go. Do you have a cat or cats like this? I swear they are psychic in this area. I go to walk around them or over them or past them and they know just where my foot is going to land and then they make sure they are occupying the same exact spot!

It is a well-known fact in physics that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Is this the Pauli exclusion principle? 

Anyway, my cat is out to kill me. Or at least maim me.

I finished reading my first book.  Are you there Vodka? it's me, Chelsea. She is a bit crude but I like her. I catch her show now and again "Chelsea Lately".

I will be moving on to Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking".

You all know what I am doing, right? I am stalling. As usual before my big party. I need to do a million things and I am (of course) stalling. Sigh. I notice that I am getting more adept at stalling every year. The idea of this post came when I went to refill my coffee cup and Casper nearly caused me to end up on the floor. Well, I did not have any recent photos of him so I had to go back into my photo files and well, you know. I spent at the very least two hours there reminiscing. Sheesh.

It starts...

My tiger lilies. At least the ones that are not getting choked out by the Gaillardia flowers. I must separate them and replant a lot of them to other areas.

Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet and don't look now,  but I think I have found some moonflower sprouts by my bushes in the front of the house.  Don't look! I told you not to look! You will scare them away!

For those of you who have been around for a while you know that I used to have a huge cluster of moonflower plants. I did something wrong two years ago and lost it. A few stragglers ended up in front of my patio and produced a couple of plants. I see no sign of them in front of the patio, now. Now that I found them in the front of the house - maybe? I am so excited. I love them. I never had them until I moved to this house in 2002. They were the most wondrous smelling night flower ever.

Also for those of you who have been around a while, you may remember what is coming up. I have an Independence day blow-out every year. I skipped the year 2009 because of my daughter's graduation party was two weeks earlier. Who can forget the sumo wrestling mat? Oh what fun. If you want videos, go to youtube and search for "sumo wrestling new philadelphia ohio".  We are the videos with the huge red and blue striped mat.

You can see from the videos how very hard it was for the ones who had to keep picking them up. They became very tired very quickly. It was warm out. The really nice thing was the company left the mat and suits until Monday evening. My party was Saturday and I told my neighbors (who had a small party Sunday) to have a go at it. Hilarious!

It flattened the grass a little (yes, the mat did move a few feet) and it cost a couple hundred - but it was SO worth it. People talk about it still. I wanted to do something different for my daughter's party and in 2005 we rented a tent for my niece and her party and this company had some fun inflatable games that it rented.

Well, back to my blow-out. The invitations are made, I just have to mail them out. It will be July 2nd this year. I always coincide my event with the fireworks display. We can see the higher ones from my front yard (for those of us too drunk to walk over the hill to view them). My town also has a big festival in the park that week-end. 

I plan to have a craft and coloring table set up for kids. They always want to throw the Frisbee and play badminton with the adults and sometimes it looks as if they are going to get hurt. I hope to distract them with their own little play area this year.

My daughter and niece used to play a Sega Genesis video game of "The Lion King". I am not one to play video games, but I think to master the game you have to begin over and over again. This particular game said "It starts..." when the game restarted. I must have heard that phrase a million gazillion times!

Well, I have stuff to do, so I will catch you all later.

From the same cloth

Whoops. I must have created this photo in a biggie size. Oh, well. The two above are brothers. Four years apart. Yesterday was the first birthday of the one on the left. We are celebrating on Sunday with a big family get together.

Both different. Both adorable. Their poor Mother. My nephew's wife. She had a son from a previous relationship. He is just starting his troublesome teen years. And my nephew (her husband). All those boys in the house with no other female companionship. It would drive me nuts!

Sister 1949 has stayed at their house before due to inclement weather because she works close to where they live. She is not my nephew's mother. Well  not THIS nephew. She said she is so impressed with how he really  helps out around the house and with the boys. Washing clothes, bathing the boys. I can only imagine the amount of work that needs to be done in that household.

My dinner plans are canceled for this evening. Outside it looks as if we only got about 3 inches of a very wet snow. So far. We are due to get more. No schools have canceled,  yet. I have been awake since 2 a.m. I must stop the late afternoon caffeine fixes I have been treating myself with. Sigh.

I have a birthday party on Saturday and one on Sunday. I was hoping for a calamity day today so I could really sink myself into learning and developing my presentation. What will be, will be. I feel the headache starting. Maybe I can get back to sleep. I've already been drinking coffee. Nuts.

Santa Baby

Did some arts and crafts with friends a week or so ago. We all sat around a big ping pong table. Most of them used glitter pens and markers. I used up all the white felt and stole all the white cotton balls.

By the way, my least favorite holiday song is "Santa Baby". Hate it. I despise the lyrics and it totally goes against my nature. Oooh! Buy me this! Buy me that! I only love you if you give me material things! A ring, yes a ring! Boo boo be do! (retching).

I am not feeling any better at all. I think I am getting worse. Have the big dinner party tonight.33 is the latest count. My daughter's boyfriend will drive (deer on a dark county road at night) and I'll let the 20 year old eyes take care of the spotting. I'll be snug in the back seat with no worries. I might drink some of the bourbon that Tabor suggested. If I can keep it down.

I am not used to riding in the back. It is a forty minute drive. I'll hope for the best.

The adult game we are playing goes like this. I took construction paper and cut it in half - long ways. I put the first letters of the first line of a Christmas song on each one. I have about 40 of them.

For example, the song "Away in a Manger" looks like this on the card:  AIAM. They have to guess the song. Not so easy. Here are some, can you guess them?

1.  TFNTADS

2.  STNWTTLL

3.  DTTS

4.  DTHWBOH

5.  GGROBAR

6.  OLTOB

7.  SNHN

8.  HTHAS

9.  JTTW

10.  GTIOTM

11.  FTSWAJHS

12.  HYAMLC

13.  IDOAWC

14. OCAYF

15. WWYAMC

Jive Talkin'

For my friend's birthday bash she requested a little disco music. I found some. I don't have much of that flavor of music in my stash. Maybe five songs or so from (please let us forget) that era.

Had a wonderful day with friends at the camp grounds yesterday. Could not have asked for a more pleasant day. It was beautiful outside. Just beautiful.

Driving around on the golf cart we drooled over the camp sites that were for sale. So nice! So shady. Not many were lakeside, and some were downright shabby. Ah, well.

We will survive! We did survive the disco craze. LOL!

Monkey See

The visit with my sister, nephew and niece went very well. I had a house full Sunday. My daughter and her beau were here as well. My niece picked the meal for the day. Little pizzas made with split English muffins.

As for the monkey picture? It is kind of funny to me how the adults have more fun with the kids toys that I bought for my party than the kids did. The kids just kind of shake their heads and look strangely at us. Hmmm.