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.

Panorama

I didn't even know my cell phone camera could do this. I was relaxing out in the back yard a few days ago and was messing with my cell phone and the camera. Left to right:  the very edge of my patio. My neighbor's duplex (two very sweet ladies live in them). My little gray house (with all the garbage cans - yes I am trashy). The road where you can see the duplex across the street. My other neighbor's house - two story gray (also super nice people, I am blessed!). The huge pine tree that provides us beautiful shade during the hot summer months. The little white house on the other side of my neighbor's house and my neighbor's garage with the orange/red wheel barrel leaning up against it.

Where in the hell are my dogs?

Coming Up

We are starting to plan our second annual reunion. We don't feel the need to travel down to West Virginia this spring to scope out a spot. The spot is the same as last year. We are going to have an ice breaker the evening before the event, though.

The food, my God, the food! As you can see, we are big eaters. No alcohol. I'm not sure, but the night before may be drinks - I didn't think about it. Not sure if it is in a social hall that allows alcohol or not.

The entire family and booze do not mix well. There are bound to be plenty of fights if alcohol is involved. Best we leave that out of it, but I can't control that many people. We do well enough choosing a park that does not permit the stuff. Now, for my patio party of 40 and less, I can serve alcohol and control the people. I have certain family members who do not drink that would be there to help me and though I may be the youngest in my immediate family I can whip their asses. Ha, ha! Right! Actually I have thrown men twice my size out of a house. They run from me. They were not related to me, though. I was a real peach when I drank whiskey, let me tell you. Most people had to tell me what I did and it was not pretty. I was a mean drunk.

So most of us - if we can't drink - we eat. Trade one addiction for another. I am so glad my drinking days are over. Or appear to be. We never know when that monster will rear it's ugly head again.

Just as my shoulder is healing, I decide to mow last evening. I had to take a break in the middle, but I finished it. My shoulder did not bother me one bit.

My boxer followed me into the bedroom when I got home from a hair appointment this evening and as I bent down to pat him on the head and give him a little lovin' he decides to jump up and onto the bed. He didn't make it. His hard head hit my jaw bone directly under my right eye. I thought he had busted it.

I cursed at him and fell onto the bed. He sulked away. I felt bad and of course it isn't broken, but that is the third time I have had a hard collision of some sort with him. Holy cow!

I certainly hope there is no mark on my face tomorrow. I have a big regional meeting and I have to be there. I can see me trying to explain a big bruise or red mark on my face to people. I am always getting cuts and bruises on my arms because of clearing the yard and brush and rough housing with my dogs. Sigh. Whatever.

Nope. No mark or bruise. It barely hurts now.

Now, to go make it up to the sorry, sad pooch. He is a lot like Eeyore. He is! He hangs his head down (droopy like) and sulks just like the donkey.

Dressage

No, I know that (dressage) isn't the correct term for this class of horse show, I was referring to the gentleman at the lead. He was quite the looker, most of the others were dressed in Western flash, you know rhinestones and neon silk shirts. If I remember correctly, this duo (trio?) pulled a second place in this event.

The fair (and it's greasy food) is a distant memory. I am catching up on my sleep (one night I think I slept nine hours - almost a record for me). My feet are still hurting. As soon as I get paid this Friday I am off to buy new shoes for work, play and walking. They have to tie on the top is what the doctor says. Wear a shoe that does not let the foot separate from the shoe bottom when you walk (flip flops are horrible!). I despise flip flops. In a couple of weeks I will take my new shoes and have the doctor slip the insert into them and cut it to fit my shoe I will wear the most. I guess that would be my work shoe.

After that is taken care of I have a few more medical procedures. I am hoping that the main one does not require a hospital stay. It is just minor and will hopefully make my life easier. I keep telling folks by Halloween I should be feeling much better. Maybe I'll even be able to do more yard work by then. I hated letting that go this summer. When I have the pups outside, I'll pull weeds and trim some around my Hosta. My moon flowers are doing so well in front of the patio, I am going to keep the big set of them there and let them take over as much as they want. The smell in the air at night is heavenly. It covers up what the pups are doing. Ha Ha!

The pups had their second set of boosters yesterday. They are 8 and 8.5 lbs, now. (When we first took them in mid-July they were 2.25 and 2.50 lbs). They are getting taller, leaner and can run like little rockets. We may have over-watered them.

Work is going well. Schools are starting back up and techs are anxious to get their networks started out on the right foot. The filter is a big part of that and I am busy making up "how to" documentation. I really enjoy doing that. Step by step instructions with pictures.

I talked to an old friend this evening. I've not seen her since the spring. She has 14 cats, only 2 inside. She thinks some dog is getting the baby kittens. I could not let that happen. For starters I'd be getting a slew of them fixed. The ones I couldn't get fixed, I'd be taking to a shelter. But, she was raised different out in the country.

Her grandson started 4th grade today and she had to tell me all about it. Her older granddaughter is out west and is in dire straits. Seems she is pregnant with her boyfriend's baby. He happens to be married and is staying with his wife. She (my friend's granddaughter) was staying with his sisters, but they kicked her out. Now she is staying with one of her boyfriend's buddies. Yikes. My friend is so angry and upset with her. She won't listen to reason.

On the movie front, we watched "Identity" last week. It was a thriller. Remember "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie? Or it's other name "Ten Little Indians"? It kind of reminds you of that story. It has John Cusak so it was great in my book.

What a mess

I don't like to clean gutters

I don't have a fear of heights. Well, maybe I do. But not six or eight feet off the ground. I don't fear that. I really need to clean my gutters so I guess I'll get the ladder out this week-end. This is my patio during the rainstorm. That's where my daughter and I spent the evening Wednesday watching the storm. Sirens were blaring all over town, but we stayed put.

My neighbor asked me if I wanted him to clean out my gutters? The really bad one was on the side of the house where he could see it. That does it! I'm going to figure out some way to reach that side and clean it. I may have to buy a new ladder. I am considering sitting my 6 ft ladder on a table to reach. Sigh. I know. I won't do it. Dammit.

It was very nice of him to offer, but you have to know me. It was an insult to me. It made me feel inadequate. I thanked him profusely and his offer still stands, but I cannot ask for help from anybody. He said "I work for beer!" I laughed.

I am going to watch very closely. When he leaves (hopefully for a golf outing) I am going to get up there and clean them out. What a mess.

I have a horrible case of plantar fasciitis in my left foot. It came about from doing so much work the week before the graduation party. It flared up and has not let up since. My days have been sheer misery. Hot, sweaty, grimy and in pain. I am certainly not getting the Miss Congeniality award this week.

The setup

OH. MY. GOD.

"What HAVE I gotten myself into?" was the first thought that went through my mind.

Sister 1956 came up on Friday afternoon to help me prepare for the party. She was a godsend. Come Saturday morning we were on the patio taking a quick coffee break. My neighbor was having work done on the back of his garage. Trucks pulling up in the back alley were nothing to cause alarm. Two very cute guys came around the patio and I thought they might need our cars moved so they can have better access to my neighbor's garage. Nope. They were there to set up the sumo mat. Five hours early!

My daughter was STILL in bed. She said she peaked out the window, saw one of the cute guys and nearly broke her neck trying to get outside before they finished. Yeah. That's my girl.

Exposed to the elements

Every summer I place my old CD player out on my patio. I get it out before my party so we have music. It sits in the middle of the patio so if rain comes in on either side, it usually is safe. This past week we go such a downpour it got wet. Whoops. I am giving it a good week of sunshine to dry out before I try it this week-end.

Not been blogging because I have been reading. I checked out "The Mistress's Daughter" by A.M. Homes and "Crazy in Alabama" by Mark Childress. Funny thing is the movie "Crazy in Alabama" came on the other day and I had to watch it. I liked it. Melanie Griffith has a black wig, and I am not sure why. Her character in the book was blond. So far. Maybe she dyes her hair. I have not gotten very far.

And, I have been fixing a friend's laptop. She had a very annoying problem. The browser kept opening up and starting by itself. Window after window would open up at random. It was very annoying. I finally fixed it using a program called Malwarebyte Anti-malware from "www.besttechie.net". Great program. Fixed it after trying many other promised fixes.

And, I had unexpected company come to town. She is an older friend that isn't doing well, but tries to get out once a year with her daughter and grandson. This year they went to Amish country and stopped in to see me for the day. She can't breathe well in the hot, humid air.

So, July is flying by. As I knew it would after my party.

Running on empty

Time to refuel

Nothing much, tonight. I am tired from my late night last night. Moving slow and thinking even slower. Need sleep. Hopefully I won't sleep a few hours and then awaken at three or four in the morning and can't get back to sleep. I hate when that happens.

I am hoping to get out this week-end and get some good photos of the little bit of color out there on them Ohio hills. I do have a 75th surprise birthday party to go to. Other than that, maybe I can catch up on my yard work. It looks like we will have about five pumpkins from our surprise patch. I mowed around the vines this time. The pumpkin is more important that the grass underneath it. For now. I have not been in the mood to do any fall or Halloween decorating. Hell, my patio still has red, white and silver stars on it from the July 4th cook-out. Good grief!

Hey there country bumpkin

How do you like my green pumpkin?

We can all thank our lucky stars I didn't pursue writing songs, eh? I didn't plant this vine. It grew of it's own free will. I do put pumpkins on my patio in October, so a seed must have found its way to the ground and nature took its course. As nature will do. It has taken over the front of my patio and threatened to take over the side. It is currently in a war with my newly planted moon flower on the East side of my patio. The moon flower is not giving way.

A few more little pumpkins have started here and there, but they die off. Probably because I keep sweeping the vine up and out of the yard, thus crushing or twisting the vine. I am surprised this one got as far as it did. I don't see me having a great bounty for decorating with.

I missed an opportunity to go with family to Amish Charm today. From the photos my sister sent it looks like they had a lovely time. I am still hacking (coughing) pretty hard. Today I did what a lot of folks believe in. I sweat out my cold. I mowed the grass, I raked, I swept and I am exhausted. I was sweating something awful. And the good clean air that my lungs did breathe, couldn't have hurt me any, either. I took my time. It took me twice as long to mow. But, that was mostly because it hasn't been mowed in so long.

Tomorrow my daughter is getting her red part in her hair re-colored. Oh, I know. I went up and down and inside out trying to figure out what I was going to do. I even did "this". Oh, I am wicked. But in all reality, her hair looks horrible. It does not look like the picture in the above link at all. (I planned to take a recent photo of my daughter's hair and post it, instead.) Fact is, I have not gone "live" with that URL yet, anyway. Since they made the remark about her hair, she has been washing it in very hot water in an attempt to get the red to fade quickly. The end result being, it is a very faded red color.

So, we go tomorrow to see what damage control the hair stylist can come up with and a more "natural" shade of red. However, I am still amused at how the Administrator came up with the color "fuchsia" for her hair. My daughter wishes she could have fuchsia in her hair! The salon won't do those "wild" colors. They can't guarantee the color will remain. They actually call that red a natural color. Whatever, I am tired of the subject, as I am sure so are you.

The kittens are adjusting very well. They still need to learn a few fundamentals. Stay off the dining room table. Do not get under my feet when I am walking. Do not climb up my living room curtains. (Already snagged, sigh). One day, when I do not have any pets, I am going to have beautiful carpet, beautiful drapes, beautiful furniture, nice smelling house.... aw, who am I kidding? I am the cat lady.

I'm nervous

10 days. I have 10 days before my party. I've been working in the basement. So nice and cool down there during these hazy, hot and humid days. I have the vents turned off but it is still nice and cool. I created another Power Point layered photo with my purple twirlers. Added bubbles from Paint Shop Pro and using the green lush leaves of my back hedge as the background. I like purple and green together.

I've asked for another week of vacation. If it is approved that will mean I am off from 3:00 p.m. Friday the 29th of June until 8:00 a.m. on Monday July 16th. That is 400 hours. Giggle, giggle.

Spiral layers

This is a photo of four images of my spiral twirlers on my patio. Using MS Power Point and Irfanview. Layering is so much easier with PP.

I watched Deja Vu. Reminds me of one of my favorite books, Einstein's Universe by Nigel Calder. The movie was a bit far fetched, if you ask me. It was a stretch of the imagination.

There was a period in my life where I kind of dropped out. 21 to 23 years old. I hibernated in my Mom's house and read and read and read. I wrote poetry. I went inside myself. I was probably clinically depressed but if I was, I pulled out of it. I read a lot of Carl Sagan during this time frame also. I read books on nuclear power plants. I read a superb collection of art books. (My Mom's library and the public library). No Internet back then.

My Mom and I canned tomatoes during the summer, and we went places. I am not sure what my brothers and sisters thought of this time in my life, I guess they just let me find myself. They were busy with their own lives. I think they were glad I was there to keep Mom company.

I thought and thought and thought. I was fascinated by life and the universe and religion.