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.

Drawing water

Here is my great grandfather drawing water from a well. I have no idea what year it is.

Techno Geeks

Above photo was taken November 2007. Nice drive, nice day.

We are currently dealing with new cell phones. My daughter picked a Blackberry Pearl. I get her hand-me-down. (Razr). Let's face it. I want it for a phone tool. Period. She IM's, texts, takes pictures. She can text quicker than she can talk. See Sunday's (7/06/08) comic strips "Foxtrot" and "Zits". It is a craze.

Summertime Blues

Once again Sable provided the backdrop for a photo of my flowers. She always knows just went to walk behind them (or in front of them). I checked back and have shown a photograph of all my flowers except the tiger lily. My hydrangea has about seven full lavender blooms on it, so I'll have to recapture it soon, also.

Whew. Another party in the past. I was wiped out. It was a great crowd and the weather was perfect. Half of the amount of people that I had last year. I had 20, and it was all family except for a couple and it worked out great. I had more than enough food and drink. The fireworks were not all that great except until the end. My dog decided to shoot across the yard and (almost) into the street during the show, but we stopped her. I have no idea why she was running or where she wanted to go. We have very little traffic, but I still didn't want her running into it.

I just finished cleaning up the kitchen today. Food that can be frozen has been put into the freezer. I gave as much away as I could. My Italian sausages in the crock pot were another big hit this year. I made double the amount as last year so that I did not run out. Everybody who wanted one, got one. I also fixed corn on the cob this year.

I may visit a brother who could not make it to the party and take him a basket of food. I was left with a lot of pop, also. I had tea and beer. People tended to drink that more than the pop. I have a going away party today and it's back to work tomorrow. It may take me all week to recover. I have been running on 5 hours of sleep an night for about four days straight. I always feel like I need a nap. My cats are trying to get me to, but I always see something that needs done.

One other thing that kept the level low this year was my party was on a Saturday night. Three sets of family had a party on Friday night to attend and they were not as into the drinking and craziness this year. So that kept it low key. (Probably to my advantage).

It was a great time and I am ready to enjoy the rest of July. I think I ate enough this week-end to last me all month. LOL! I didn't make it to the festival over the hill in our town, but my daughter went a couple of times. No pictures. I was just too darn busy. If my nephew or my sister sends any, I'll post one or two of them.

Welcome

Yes, it's "made in China." But, it was a gift. When I make a birthday list I usually ask for yard ornaments (mostly red, white & blue for my party) and I take what I get. I really like the sign and it hangs by my back door (friends and family know to use my back door) and welcomes everyone.

Well, the weather has dampened my progress again. Along with the rains come the headaches. Both daughter and I are experiencing general malaise because of it.

Although the weather channel did change Saturday's forecast to partly cloudy/sunny instead of isolated t'storms. We'll see.

Agape

In between mowing, weed eating, trimming, and pulling thistles yesterday, I took breaks inside the house and let the air conditioning cool me down. (I love it when the headaches go away!)

On one so called break, I played with the youngest of our feline clan (Titten). We purchased a feather toy at the pet shop on one of our many trips lately trying to get this aquarium up and running. My daughter has researched her project on the Internet to the point of obsession. It reminds me of the hypochondriac who has been given a medical book. They believe that they have every illness by reading the symptoms. Well, it's "her fish have this", or "she needs to do that", now she needs a new heater because she thinks the first one is malfunctioning. Good grief.

Here is the full photo of Titten biting the feather toy.

Morning light on a hydrangea

Yeah. I'm supposed to be cleaning out a back bedroom. You know how it is. It is vacation and I want to play first. I was outside for over an hour, capturing the light on my flowers. Until the ants got to me. I lay down to get shots of the flowers from underneath and while snapping the tiger lilies, I may have disturbed an ants nest. It didn't freak me out, I got some pretty good shots, but I still like the morning light peeking at this hydrangeas blossom through my huge lilac bush.

It appears as if we get a break from the rains today. My head is fuzzy from the last three days of taking migraine medicine. I hope it clears up soon.

Work had to call me yesterday for a problem. I had the solution on my PC. My co-worker in my office did not remember my password to get in. It is no wonder. I gave it to her six years ago. She sounded drunk on the phone. Slurred speech and she kept mixing her words up. She doesn't drink. She is on high levels of pain medication.

I wonder if I am the only one who notices it.

Well, I must get started. Time is marching on and is not waiting for me.

It's all about color

I'll finish this June out with a splash of color. All photos taken this month.

Gaillardia. Chosen for it's rust/orange shade. I like orange against the dark gray of my house color. Also chosen because it is a perennial and low maintenance.

I believe this "goatsbeard" chose me. It appeared in the landscaping and I left it there.

Hydrangea. Chosen for it's large bloom and color. I like blue, but I am still experimenting with the aluminum sulfate to get the right shade. I killed the new hydrangea this year by adding too much of the chemical and nearly did this one in. This one tripled in size this spring. I will add another one next year and keep trying.

Sigh. I know it is psychological, but really. Why is it I can jump straight up out of bed at 6:00 A.M. on a Monday morning while on vacation, but can barely drag my body out of bed if I have to go to work? Just the nature of the beast, I guess. Well, it looks like another day of thunderstorms here in eastern Ohio. Not like we have had much rain. And it isn't like my yard is a soggy mess. I have not had the chance to mow. (Mentally kicking myself). Little voice in Peruby's head, "Really? What about the flooding in the mid-west? You want to complain about your little bit of soggy ground?"

On second thought, nope. I'll be fine.

My hydrangea

My hydrangea bloomed a lovely lavender color this year. This one is only halfway done. I chose it because Sable decided to provide the deep black background when I shot this frame. She walked behind the plant just as the point and shoot Canon (famous for their delay) decided to finally capture the shot.

No quick action shots with a point and shoot digital. Miss the moment and it is gone.

Strange weather this week-end. Sun, rain, sun, rain, wind, rain, sun again. I hope it gets it all out of it's system by next week-end.

My daughter started her aquarium with a half dozen platies and a loach. She told the pet store to cancel the rope fish if they could. They said it wouldn't be a problem to sell it to somebody else if one came in. It would be too difficult to start out with a rope fish. And, the aquarium at 10 gallons may be too small. She has them named and gets enjoyment out of watching them. So far.

I bought Peru a new cage. She was due for one. Her old one is still good, I'll use it as a backup. This is all the start of our vacation week at home. Clean and straighten up.

Leave me alone

Titten was much happier when I took pictures of her after turning the flash off. First day of vacation. 10 days. One week til my party. I've had some cancellations this year. Oh, well. I guess I won't get the big turn out that I did last year, but it will still be a good time.

I watched The Bucket List. It was good. I like Morgan Freeman, Jack only recently do I appreciate his talent. For my daughter I rented Fool's Gold. How many times did Matthew get hit in that movie? I mean really? I place Kate Hudson (and Matthew, for that matter) right up there with Sandra Bullock. They play the same silly character over and over again. Rerun, rerun, rerun. No range. Don't stretch. Well, at least you know what you are getting with their movies. Light fun. No big surprises, there.

Clover field

Clovers in my back yard before I mowed this past week-end and before the heavy rains came.

The restaurant

A huge wind/rain storm came through while we were dining at the above restaurant. (Photo courtesy of my sister). A good show because we had a window seat. The show was much better than the food. I had flounder stuffed with crab meat. I didn't care for it. And the side dish of corn was gray in color and looked like it came straight out of the can. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago with green beans.

Why can't the local restaurants take a cue from the chains and fix the mixed vegetable medley with squash, zucchini and snow peas? Even fresh broccoli would be welcome. I am guessing that unlike chains, they do not have a clue to how many customers they will get in an evening and it would be too costly, I suppose.

Well, with storm after storm rolling through today, it was headache city. Nothing major, just annoying as all get out. I would be doing something, cruising along and then "boom" that jab of pain in the side of my head. Ugh. After 38 years of headaches (regular headaches for me started at 10 years old, migraines at 12) it just gets to be so old.

Four Years

Today marks four years of blogging. Sometimes I go back to see what was happening in my life a year, two years ago today. It gets pretty wild sometimes to look back. Wow. I have kept a journal on and off since 1986, but have not seen my notebooks in months. I have no idea where they are.

I am trying to battle a bit of a migraine today. I have dinner with family tonight out of town. They don't know about my blog, or if they do - they don't mention it. I check my stats now and again and it doesn't look like they are reading it. I don't share it with them.

My daughter fell asleep with a movie on. Woody Allen. Scoop. I caught it in the middle and have been watching it. I have never ever liked W.A. He plays such a bumbling idiot, but not in a funny way. I don't "get" him.

I guess I'll finish the show. Okay, it's over. Ha, ha.

My daughter has decided to spend her part of the "stimulation" check on a tropical fish tank and fish. We got the tank kit yesterday. The water has to acclimate and then we add fish. Three at first. She has ordered a rope fish. I am not keen on this, as I am not a fish person. Oh well.

Stormin' Norman

The neighbor dog ran over to visit Sable this evening. This was the best shot I got of him. Sorry about the slobber. He was in constant motion and it was dusk. Norman is not fixed. Sable is. He made a couple of advances and she let him know what was what.

He is huge. I've seen him several times across the street in the back of his yard, but up close I was just "Wow." And to top it off, he has 40 more lbs. to put on his owner said before he is full grown. Wow wee!

She finally got him settled down, we put Sable inside and she took Norman home. The neighbor on the other side came out with her dog and Norman went stormin' over there. She had (and I kid you not) a pink poodle. I was very tempted to walk over and ask her if I could get a picture, but they were a good distance away and I didn't want to traipse through my neighbor's yard. But really? A pink poodle? Then again, why not?

Stretching it

A few weeks ago, I caught this from one of our local schools. Schools are hurting. Is this what it is coming down to? One person to manage 5 libraries on 10 hours a week? Two hours at each library. Good grief!

Speaking of libraries.

I went to the library on my lunch hour. I like to test my web pages to see how they look from a foreign computer. I have a large monitor at home and I won't pull up my personal web pages at work, so it interests me to see my pages with a small screen. Like the library uses. Sometimes we have no idea our page looks gray instead of purple, etc...

I signed in and sat down at an empty PC. We were almost elbow-to-elbow. On my left sat a man and on my right sat a young lady. She was click-clicking away. I got down to it. I pulled up my sites and checked them for LINK errors, runaways and off-color pages.

A young man came up behind the girl and startled her. She began yelling at him "So nice to see you have time for me!" Then they started to whisper. After about 15 seconds the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke hit me. Remember we were elbow-to-elbow. They continued their conversation, trying to whisper but sometimes it grew louder. I fidgeted in my seat. The guy to my left got up and left.

To my right, the girl got up and the guy sat down. Cigarette smoke enveloped us. The girl stayed behind him and yak-yak-yakked. I cleared my throat. I fidgeted some more.

I had finished my job, so I signed out and left. As I walked away I saw her sit down in my chair. I made a remark to the librarian, "Libraries aren't what they used to be. It's kind of noisy." She looked up, "Noisy?" "Yes," I said and walked over to the magazine department.

One way I decided to save a few dollars was to stop all my magazine subscriptions. I didn't have a lot - only two. But Readers Digest made me feel like a criminal. They kept saying I was overdue, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't receiving any magazines, and they should not have sent any to me past my subscription date which I have no idea what it was, but I thought if you don't renew they bug you a couple of times and just stop sending the issues. I should have saved all the notices of "Delinquent Account!" that I received from them.

I was thinking of subscribing to the Large print edition when I start back up again, but now I just think I will read at the library. Because of their notices.

I grabbed the latest issue, shoved puzzle pieces away from my area and sat down. It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit in this part of the library. Maybe because there was nobody in here. They were all at the computers, I don't know. The magazine reading area is butted up against the video/cassette area. While reading all I could hear was slamming plastic DVD/video covers as browsers pushed them against each other looking for a movie. Holy cow! Slam, slide, slam!

I kept reading. Freezing and reading. Then a complete cackle of laughter broke out from the front desk. It was the librarians and a customer laughing up a storm.

Well, this library isn't what is used to be. That is for sure. I'll try a couple more in the area hoping to find one that will take me back in time to the good ole' days when libraries were a place of quiet reading, research and peace. But, I won't hold my breath.

A sigh of relief, but what the heck....

Watching television last evening, an AMBER alert came across the screen. My blood ran cold. Two little girls (sisters in fact) were missing. Believed to have been abducted. The above photo is NOT either of the girls. It is from my archives. As close to the 7 and 8 year-old range that I have in my files. That is the age of the sisters.

They are safe. But it was close. After reading more on the story this evening you just have to shake your head. The father left them with this guy who is 35 years old and he had been drinking all day. They had been swimming in his pool. He took them to a friend's house gave them pizza. Threatened them with a gun.

The police caught up with him and chased him in the woods or through a field. The girls are safe. The guy is in prison and a trial is set. A big sigh of relief. But, what in the heck? You just want to choke that father. No comment on what I want to do to the abductor. I am torn. I hate to wish pain and suffering on another human being, but sometimes I say "He'll get his in prison" and other times I cringe thinking about it.

Honeysuckle, honeybee

The pictures of a bumblebee didn't come out quite as well as this one I had of the honeybee. I think that is honeysuckle. There is honeysuckle in the hedge along my alley, and it smells quite nice. Years ago I went to Florida and coming out of the motel room one evening and taking a walk, I smelled the orange blossoms. How sweet and heady was that smell.

The other evening before the rains, I could smell the sweet and heady smell of honeysuckle. So, I needn't be envious of Florida and their evening scents. Ohio has it's own. The honeysuckle. Always planted near the outhouses along with the lilacs. Where the outhouses used to be, rather.

I had a free week-end and I thought to myself "I can finally focus on getting some serious cleaning and straightening up around here." First thing Saturday morning I hang the flag out for "Flag Day" and after coming inside I notice that my left muscle between my shoulder and neck (I think it may be the trapezius) is stinging and burning. I strained it again. For a couple of hours (along with Advil) I moped around and cursed the day. Then I got angry. I moved furniture around, I vacuumed, I cleaned, I straightened up. My neck was hurt anyway and I was bound and determined not to let this "free" time go by.

Edit: 8:50 p.m. As fate would have it, I happened to catch a Nature show later this evening on this bee about CCD.

From the album

The way we store photos now, on hard disk and not in an album. I don't know. It makes me think I should print them out and create albums and place them around on the coffee table when company visits. Because nobody jumps on my computer and just browses through my images.

I post some for folks to see but you never know.

I don't have a lot of fashion sense. This can be seen way back in 1972 (I would have been 12) when I actually thought that green socks went with this outfit? And WTH? Was I wearing the shorts backwards?

And this horse? She was my sister's. I never fully trusted that horse. She was the type that could work the bit between her teeth and take off with you. No amount of pulling on the reins could stop her. My horse riding days came to an end when she ran home with me trying unsuccessfully to stop her. She took the turn too fast and I landed under a pine tree. Unhurt but SO embarrassed. The neighbor had to bring the horse over from next door. My attempts to stop her made her go down the wrong side of the fence.

I'd been showing off. There were a few boys riding their bikes and I had to nudge Queenie into a canter to pass them up and she just wanted to go home. Everybody saw me take the dive.

I never really got on a horse again. A couple of trail rides (so my daughter could ride) but that was all. I know the old adage "You have to get back up on the horse" but I didn't care. My love affair with the horse pretty much ended that day.

Little mushrooms

I got the mushrooms last week-end as a gift. They go well with my gnomes. My patio will be full around the edge before very long. I have a few more in the house that I need to move outside.

I've been watching the news about the storms and flood in the Midwest. The horror of the boy scouts, the evacuations in the flooded cities. As I passed a gas station today I was wondering if a lot of the service stations would be going out of business. It seems so.

Sigh. I am reminded of the Anne Murray song. "I really could use a little good news, today."

Western Salsify

Well, the corner of it's puffy seeds, anyway. I know it is a weed, but I still like to take pictures of it. If you click on it, I uploaded the 1074 x 845 pixels picture. My camera takes the photo in a 2592 x 1944 (5.0 mega pixel) format. I usually change the size of it before I upload it. Usually I just post it using the 800 x 600 image size.

I've had this camera since 2003. My daughter's is a 7.1 mega pixel (waterproof up to 10 feet and one hour and drop proof up to five feet). I've considered purchasing another camera, but I am still having a good time with this one. And, I don't worry too much about if I knock it around a bit. It's been knocked around.

It's beautiful weather in the Tuscarawas valley. Still on the warm side. I need to mow, but had company this evening. By the time they left, I was out of the mood. No energy, I mean. So, I took the camera outside instead. Sable loves it when I get my "Crocs" on. She knows that I am not going away, but I am going OUT.

Before the rains

Yes the blooms were spectacular this year, but the rains came and beat my peonies to a pulp. The blooms were visible two, three days at the most and I didn't get many photos of them.

More rains brought in a cold front along with a doosie of a migraine this morning. I awoke at 6 a.m. and discovered the electricity was out. The wind was blowing. I stumbled around for a few minutes and then realized that I did not feel very well.

Stupid weather.

Heat drains me

A picture of the beautiful lake where I spent last evening. It was still over 80 degrees Fahrenheit when I arrived at the party. Yet, they felt the need to start a fire. Ugh. I moved my chair back as far as I could while still being a part of the group. Across the lake the pavilion had a band playing. They played a mix of Jimmy Buffet, Elvis, Alabama with a bit of The Electric Slide and The Macarena entwined into the evening.

My daughter went to a graduation party. It was way out in the country. I picked her up at a little bit after midnight. She wanted to stay all night. That would be 5 boys staying and 2 girls. I nixed it. She was a bit upset, but since she is 17, Mama still has the power.

I have about a half a dozen gnomes to add to my collection. My plants need all the help I can dig up. And, my collection of cosmetic bags has tripled. It is a strange collection. Some folks have a thing for shoes, some penguins, some folks like to collect dolls. Me? Cosmetic bags and totes. Who knew?

My daughter went with friends to see "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Me? I'll pass on Sandler. I don't recall liking any of his movies all that much. Not enough to spend money on.

And this billionaire is reminding me of the book I just read about Charlie Wilson. Corruption.

My air conditioner can barely keep up with the heat. It is draining. A "do nothing" day. I worked out in it yesterday and Friday. My arm will barely move because of all the weed eating. I don't normally do that. Growing up I mowed the grass, but didn't have much experience with weed eaters and trimmers. I have a slight fear of them. I tackled the weed eating yesterday. Things were messy around the sidewalks and now they are nice and trim. But my arm is paying for it. And the humidity. Yowza. I'll try to tackle my fear of the electric trimmer next week. I bought the tools but I have never used them. My sister ran the weed eater for me before and a friend did, but nobody has used the trimmers. I use safety glasses, but I wore short pants. My ankles were stung quite a bit to say the least. I also broke down and purchased a pair of Crocs. I've seen folks wearing them and had no idea how comfortable they really are.

My Grand Niece

Since my sister is her "Grand Mother", I get to be the "Grand Aunt". I like that. I always thought it was "Great Aunt." Here is the little one making a face at whoever she was going to throw the ball to at our Memorial day cook-out. She was quite the entertainer that day.

I saw her on Thursday night. We had ice cream. Her mother and grandmother (my niece and sister) were preparing for a garage sale for the week-end. I took a couple of boxes out to contribute to the sale. In the paper the next day, I read where some crazy guy held a young girl at gunpoint at another sale just around the corner from where were were. It happened earlier in the day. I was there in the evening. The young girl had a toddler with her at the sale, also. Fortunately, her grandfather was sitting in a secluded room of the house and came up behind the gunman and wrestled the gun from him. The story is quite moving.

We knew nothing about this story until last evening. My sister is finishing the sale today with her little granddaughter, but the guy is in jail. Tucked away. But scary to say the least.

I got the grass mowed last night. When I mow I wear headphones to drown out the awful noise of the mower. I hate loud noises especially the droning of the mower. At one point I heard the most awful screeching of tires. It brought neighbors out of their houses. I ran to the front yard certain to see some poor animal mangled in the road. I was so glad I tied Sable to the dogwood tree before I began mowing. My cats were all inside. I never let them out.

The entire road in front of my house was covered in smoke. Folks were standing on their porches looking around. I caught a glimpse of the old pick-up truck that laid the rubber. This young boy had stopped at our house to visit my daughter a week ago. She had not returned his call. I guess he was leaving his calling card. I just shook my head. She was at the movies with two other guy friends. I thought to myself and I "partially" quote Sugarloaf here, "You ain't bad kid, but I've seen it all before. Don't call us, child we'll call you."

Elder Gnome

Elder Gnome says, "Eh. Your hostas did well this year, but I've got bad news for that hydrangea behind me to my left. Well, I don't think he's gonna make it." "And put a small potted marigold in my basket, would ya? I'm a little off balance here."

Okay. This week-end E.G. I'll give you a flower of your very own.

Under my poppies

With my head lying in the grass - ick. I shot this poppy from underneath. I shared some sky view with a spider that I was trying to keep out of my hair. He (or she) was hanging off of another poppy and the breeze kept blowing it back off course and it would swing dangerously close to my hair. I have a photo of the spider, but it didn't turn out all that well.

The heavy rain beat the tar out of my poppies, so they don't look like this any longer. They lost most of their bright orange petals and lay half beaten down close to the ground. I hesitated about posting a photo of my poor hydrangea. The newest plant I purchased looked great for about 5 days and then it scorched. I believe it was the aluminum sulfate. I overdid it. I feel too bad to post it's photo online. How embarrassing.

My nephew just called me. He is off to Micro Center to purchase a new scanner and hard drive. I don't have a store close to me (well, not Micro Center) but I can order online. It is probably a good thing that I don't have a store like that close to me. I could browse for hours. At least at home I get sidetracked.

I purchased myself a little treat today. Melissa Etheridge's Greatest Hits "The Road Less Traveled". Back in 1988 I worked a data entry job on a midnight shift and this radio station kept playing Melissa over and over again. I had just returned from my life in Virginia and ended a long-term relationship. I was ready to move on. I also purchased "Eagles:The Very Best of". One of my very favorite songs is "Seven Bridges Road."

My daughter sits at her computer listening to her music and I have my headphones on listening to Melissa. We make faces at one another every now and then. At least we aren't separated with each being in their own room. We are both out in the family area. When she wants to talk I take my headphones off and listen.

We are having a great time with her driving everywhere. She had a job interview yesterday. She got her first taste of a young manager asking her all kinds of questions about how passionate she was about her shoes. My daughter wants a job for the summer. This shoe store wanted a passionate tennis shoe professional. Today we went grocery shopping. She saw a classmate and we talked and joked for a few minutes. He was just a doll. She left the store with stars in her eyes. I said "See? It's still raining men."

She rolled her starry eyes. "I don't want a boyfriend, Mom."

That is A-Okay with me. I just want her to feel good about herself and to keep on smiling.

Okay, back to my music. "Baby you can sleep while I drive..."

All apologies

With sincere apologies to all parties, tell me if the above photo (at a quick first glance) does NOT look like Michael Douglas hugging Dakota Fanning? Well, it DID to me. LOL! I thought maybe it was a prison movie of sorts with the blue clothing.

No? How about that feathered-back hairstyle from the 70's ala Angel-fashion?

Fruit Pizza

This is from last week-end. The black things are blueberries, not black olives! Even though an olive is a fruit, I did not even think of putting them on this pizza. We have strawberries, kiwi, mandarin oranges and blueberries. I didn't even add the raspberries. It was overloaded as it was. I used the sugar cookie crust and the pie was gone in no time.

I am in a situation at work where I have to take the high road. Again. Since I work with the schools, we have started our summer hours. We knock an hour off the end of the day and go home an hour early. The organization that I work for staggers their hours. Some folks work 7:30 to 3:30 and some work 8:00 to 4:00.

Since our office has two workers, I always worked the late shift. My co-worker logs in from home to make it look like she is at the office at 7:30 and she strolls in at 8:00. Most of the time after I arrive. She still leaves at 3:30. I still stay until 4:00.

She is the ultimate kiss-ass. She doesn't care who knows it. She brags about playing up to the boss. She makes me ill.

So, it is the high road. I will feel better about myself. I will work all my hours and not cheat the organization OR my co-workers. The ones who also work their full shifts. Hey, I'm feeling better already.

Miserable

Do these kids look like they are having any fun?

Another story from the book

Here is a yard ornament from my sister's house from last week-end. This blue orb is in her "touch-me-not" flower bed. Those flowers are just plain fun. We had them all over when we were growing up and as far as I can tell, she is the only sister that has continued the flower in our family. The seed pods burst when you squeezed them. There are dozens of little pods, so the flowers still thrive. I remember them from my childhood days.

Another story from the book, "Charlie Wilson's War." It was rather well-known around the Washington D.C. circuit not to make an enemy of Charlie Wilson. He was known for being a ruthless person. If you didn't do things his way, he got even with you.

I don't recall who had the say over who rides in the airplanes that a Congressman will ride on when going to a foreign country, but whoever it was put his foot down and would not allow Charlie's one girlfriend to ride on the plane. (Not Herring). Wives, family and assistants can go, but there was a rule that didn't allow friends and such. Most of the time, they let it slide. But this one guy didn't. It made Charlie angry. He was heading for Pakistan, so he called the King of Pakistan who flew his own private jet to pick Charlie and his lady-friend up so they could ride together. I don't know. Must have been some mile-high club quota that they had to ride together.

Anyway, Charlie fixed the airlines. He made an assistant ride in the government plane with the luggage and he made the plane ride right alongside the plane from Pakistan just to carry the luggage and the assistant. The assistant (a man) was in tears pleading with the pilots and the crew not to be angry at him - that Charlie was making him do this.

And, he held them up so that the crew and pilot missed some kind of company picnic. Now that I recall the story, it may have been the CIA's plane.

The movie made more of Herring than the book did. Herring moved on to a more wealthy man after she got the ball rolling with Charlie and Afghanistan. Charlie didn't stay true to one woman for very long. Not very surprising there, given his character type. Boozer, womanizer, party goer, spender, swindler, ... makes a great representative for the government.

I didn't really mean to sound cruel when I suggested that Julia Roberts should not have played Herring. If you look at photos of Herring, she looks pinched and fake. She looks as if she has china doll features and is delicate. Julia, on the other hand looks healthy, strong and natural.

Poppy Trio

Doin' their stuff

Whatever it is that ants do to peonies. Must be something sweet on the bud of the peony to attract them. I will have nice big fluffy pink blooms by the week-end. Some are bursting. And, my poppies are blooming, I'll have photos of them, too.

Trimmed front bushes

On May 20th I posted a photo of my front bushes before they were trimmed, here is the after shot. Much neater. Not a great amount taken off, but they do look better. This photo was taken before I mowed. Which I did this evening.

I was able to watch "Mad Money" last evening. In bits and pieces between chores and company. It was an okay movie. There were a couple of parts that made me laugh. But, don't they record the serial numbers of the money before they destroy it? Wouldn't they have that as hard evidence? I don' t know.

It is raining men. Or, half-grown men anyway. The word is out that my daughter is single again and after about a month of her being depressed and very down, they are crawling out of the woodwork. Old boyfriends, new boyfriends and just plain guy friends. I have not heard her laugh and carry on so much in weeks. Mom is trying very hard to reign her in. No rebounds! There is no hurry. But, to a 17-year-old it would be the epitome of disaster for her boyfriend to be seen with another girl before she can find a guy. I guess.

Oh. And we are driving, now. The little green car is now the proud owner of a window sticker that states very matter of factly "STUDENT DRIVER." Which to Mom means "BACK THE F&*$ OFF!" Very exciting 'round here.

My take on "Charlie Wilson's War"

Why do they hate us? I finished reading the book "Charlie Wilson's War" and this is my version of what I got from the book:

Before Charlie Wilson got involved with the Soviets invading Afghanistan the US CIA was pussy-footing around the issue. Sending just enough so that it looked like we were helping the Afghanistan cause, but not enough to really help them at all.

It was suggested that the CIA wanted revenge on the Soviet Union. They wanted this to be their "Viet Nam." They wanted to bleed the Soviets dry as they had done to America during the Viet Nam war.

So when Charlie came with his group, of course he thought he was doing the right thing. As did the group that assisted him. It was indeed horrible what was being done to the Afghanistan people.

There were many lucky events that helped Charlie to run his covert operation in the 80's. Two major ones were the Iran-Contra affair and Chernobyl. Both events took the limelight away form anything going on in Afghanistan.

After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan (a few years after Charlie and his helpers working hard to get sufficient weapons over there) the militants felt as if they were forgotten. Then they found out that America had used them as a revenge tactic against the Soviet Union. As if the Americans were not really interested in helping them (at least until Charlie came along) and used them as pawns in a horrible war to bleed the Russians.

The militants asked for aid to help rebuild their country after the Soviets left. Of course we supplied "our kind" of aid. Medical supplies and hygiene. The last thing the men wanted was for us to educate the women and teach or to provide them with health care. Next would be "sex education" and "family planning". It was a disaster and they began attacking our AID vehicles and people.

After supplying the mujaheed with millions of dollars every year (Saudi Arabia matched us dollar for dollar) to fight the Russians our government stopped cold turkey one year - 1991. Charlie managed to sneak a bill in and in 1992 the US gave Afghanistan 200 million. The Russians were gone, the mujaheed were fighting amongst themselves.

And, they were trafficking in drug trade. Huge.

What would come out of the rubble? What hole the CIA left in Afghanistan with the millions of dollars of weapons hidden in the mountains and caves drew Muslims from far and wide to this beginning of a mighty and fearsome group of jihad.

Charlie regrets nothing. He firmly believes that this action in the 80's prevented WWIII. He may well be right. It could be that the CIA thought the mujaheed would burn themselves out after America pulled out their gravy train. Didn't happen.

It seemed to the Islams that the Soviet Union wanted world domination in so much as attempting to claim all the oil fields of the Middle East - beginning by wiping out Afghanistan. Then, the Islams believed the the US was after world domination and wanted to claim the oil fields. They claim they can topple one super power, they will topple another. They claim it was Allah that helped them to win, not the millions of dollars pumped into the cause or the stash of technically advanced weaponry by America and Saudi Arabia.

Memorial Day Tribute

Today I chose to research and read about women who have fallen in the line of duty. My tribute is for Sharon Lane. She was from Canton, Ohio. She was a tireless nurse in the Vietnam war. She fell on June 8, 1969 shortly before her 26th birthday from shrapnel from a rocket that landed in the hospital she was working in.

Come on, keep up!

She has four legs, I have two. We went visiting over the week-end and folks who have never seen her or have not seen her for a long time said "That is one fat dog!" I say "She isn't fat, her legs are short!" My daughter says "She's fat because Mom keeps feeding her people food!"

Okay. I'll start again. No more people food. Well, no more after the left over eggs and bacon we gave her a few moments ago. Somebody gave her a green onion Saturday and she was sick all day Sunday. Sigh. Drunks. This photo was from early Sunday morning.

And, before the Amish buggies whisked by us on their way to Sunday services. Sable was quite frightened of them. I don't sleep well at other folks' houses so I was up early Sunday and decided that it was such a beautiful morning and I was out in the country, why not take a walk and get some photos along the way? That is exactly what I did. On the way back to my sister's house the Amish came trotting up the road and poor Sable thought she was done for.

I did not have a collar or a leash on her. She can barely walk some days and she listens to me very well. Not one car came along the road. The country road pictured above is where my sister has lived for more than 35 years. There were perhaps 3 houses back then. Now there are a dozen.

Living in the "sticks" has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. You can think of the advantages. The beautiful scenery. On my walk I was drowning in the smell of sweet country grass and woods that I do not recall smelling for quite a long time. It was very heady. The solitude and the serene atmosphere. The privacy. All wonderful perks.

The downside for me would outweigh the advantages. Poor roads and difficulty getting out in the winter. Isolation from medical help and the law. (might be an advantage to some not to have the law around! LOL!). Telephone, cable and electrical problems. It is a fact. The utility companies do not give folks like this as much attention as they do for people in town. There is not enough money coming from the end of this long and isolated lane for them to put in decent equipment or to spend any significant amount of time repairing things.

My sister has a satellite dish for television. She had a phone with a "party" line until the mid-80's. Do you remember a "party line?" It was very bizarre to me. Sometimes she would want to make a call and when she picked up the phone, you could hear other folks talking. You would either ask them to get off the line or try again later. Wow. She has a private line now, but sometimes when her telephone is out, she doesn't even know it until she picks it up to make a call. When somebody calls her, it just rings and rings when her phone is down. Forget cellular phones out here.

Internet is very new to her and completely erratic. She has been without service for a week now until the company she hooked up with (wireless) gets over their cold and can come out, climb her old T.V. antenna and troubleshoot the problem. He has been out a dozen times to work on her signal. Or lack thereof. I told her when the trees started to fill in, she would be down a lot. She is up high on a ridge and this company could "see" the water tower in town so they set her up with wireless. That was the middle of winter. She is frustrated to say the least.

When her electricity goes out, it is out for hours. I love the country. It's a nice place to visit. Now, excuse me while I go and check Sable for ticks. Ugh.

Cheese Ball

For years. I wish I had kept count. I do know that I have dozens of little glass Kraft Old English jars in my cupboards. Dozens. I would give them away, I even threw a few away. Cringe. Solid glass. They make great juice glasses. Two ingredients in my cheese ball. Two. Not counting the walnuts and maraschino cherry. Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Old English jar cheese. With a dark blue lid.

You will see some recipes that add garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce. All are okay, but I find out you really don't need them. I always serve my cheese balls with Keebler's Club crackers. They are the firmest cracker that will withstand a cheese spreader pushing on it. Ritz and Townhouse crumble under the pressure. They taste just as good, but club crackers are tougher.

I have discovered that it isn't worth walking into a party or a get together sans cheese ball. I can't handle the look of disappointment on some folks faces. Because it is so darn easy for me to make one, I just take one, regardless. The very few times I have been asked "Did you bring your cheese ball?", and I didn't, just to see their faces fall - reminds me each and every time. Just do it. Just make one. Sometimes it does not turn out very well, but they don't care. It usually tastes the same. The one above came out near perfect. The weather has to be right. Maybe the ingredients have to be fresh. I have to leave the cheese out just the right amount of time before I mix them together. Too long and I will have soup. I have to leave it uncovered in the refrigerator just the right length of time or it will have a hard crusty edge. Yuck.

This is for tomorrow's cook-out at my sister's house. I am travelling to another sister's house today for a visit. We are going to make a fruit pizza to take to the cook-out. I have never made one, so I hope to take pictures.

Tabor's post for Saturday, May 24th reminds me of the chapter I read in "Charlie Wilson's War" by George Crile. Seems Charlie drank too much one evening and drove to his townhouse. Leaving Washington D.C. towards Virginia he hit another vehicle. He kept driving to his townhouse. He had to look out his driver's side window to see the road. That is how smashed up the front end of his car was.

Beside the fact that this is a horrible act of irresponsibility (especially for a man of Congress), what bothered me the most was how it was handled. Or, how it wasn't. He was scheduled to fly out of the country the next day. He hid from the police by not answering his door. He called his assistants (or whatever they were) and it was swept under the rug. The driver of the other car was not injured. I think. It wasn't real clear. His car was smashed up pretty bad and Charlie's people paid for the damage. Charlie laughed about it later. I have only followed the next chapter where he gets to go on out of the country as scheduled. It appears as if nothing happened at all. Not a thing was done to this S.O.B. This was NOT in the movie.

Get this. "Federal law prohibits local authorities from arresting a national legislator on his way to or from Congress." When Charlie called his lawyer from his townhouse (while the police were banging on his door) the lawyer advised him to drive directly to Congress the next morning and they couldn't touch him. Then there was a fine line about hitting the car in one police station's jurisdiction and his townhouse being located in another. Wilson had friend's on the police department. He told them that he was saving the world from Communism and HAD to catch the plane in the morning and that there might be substantial raises in store for the District police. Charlie recounted this statement years later and laughed about it.

The Pentagon provided an escort officer to take him to his plane. His administrative assistant handled everything for him. He told the police and the press and the boy who was driving the car that "Charlie thought he'd hit a bridge railing and came on home." Which means that the Congressman would NOT have checked to see if the driver of the car was okay. Wilson laughed later saying that the kid was new in town and didn't know that he could have really caused some problems for him.

Oh, and the administrative assistant? He finally had it with Charlie. He moved along to another position later. He had fixed everything for Mr. Charlie Wilson one too many times.

This sickens me. I said it after I watched the movie and thought maybe I would feel different after I read the book. So far, I don't. "Charlie Wilson is NO hero."

Peeking Gato

42 days ago I was packing my sister's crap up. Gato was supposed to help me, remember? Well, here he is, goofing off. "Get out of there, Gato!"

My computer at home is acting wonky. My video card died on my Linux server at work. Or, something. I connected my PC monitor to the server and it did the same thing. The graphics are gone and completely screwed up. I set up a Linux server and learned just enough so that I could get a web page running and ftp. I went to load java on the browser and it all went downhill from there. Crapola. I never had the graphics right anyway. Not that into Linux troubleshooting.

My daughter passed her permit test today. I told her if she got her permit, I'd let her get her nails done. Talk about Mama bird pushing the baby out of the nest. I am reduced to bribing. She chose black nail polish. Then she went job hunting at the mall. All the ones who were listed as hiring told her "Go on-line and fill out an application. We don't give out paper applications anymore."

She refuses to work around food. Tell me about it. I can barely get her to make her own macaroni and cheese. The one time I went to show her how to bake a frozen pizza she dropped it between the inside of the oven and the oven door. How the heck? It wasn't easy, but she managed to slide it right between and the pizza ended up (still frozen) sliding into the door on the bottom. Yeah. A real disaster in the kitchen.

While waiting at the mall I started reading "Bringing Down the House." So much more interesting than "Charlie Wilson's War." But, I am still reading it, too.

Bringing Down the Ho

What a title for my blog, eh? Well, that is the e-mail from my library. I had reserved another book from one of the movies I saw last month. "21" is based on the book "Bringing Down the House". They abbreviated. I found that amusing where they decided to cut the word off.

Here is another shot of my shrubs before they were trimmed. This is the long shot going up the front sidewalk. He couldn't cut back too much because there is a lot of dead brush underneath. He was afraid he would kill them. He especially made some room for the azaleas to breathe. See how the one on the left is scrunched up?

I am plodding through the middle of "Charlie Wilson's War." I am at the boring part where the author is giving background information on some of the CIA members. I need to wrap up that book and dig into the one I picked up today. I didn't even crack "Schindler's List", yet. I know the movie was titled "list" but I thought that I read somewhere the book was "Schindler's Ark." Huh.

June looks to be full of graduation parties. Some years I have more than others. A big wedding coming up in October. We've been waiting for this couple to marry for a long time. My nephew is a perfectionist. I guess he wanted to wait until he graduated college and obtained a more stable job. The girlfriend pushed the "ultimatum" button last winter and she got her ring at Christmas. Well, it must have been good luck for him. He just graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree (with distinction) and landed a brand new job.

I went grocery shopping this evening. I tried to cut back and buy smarter. I've been so annoyed with prices that I have put off going for a while. So, we were out of a lot of stuff. So much for savings. Reminds me of the 80's when I first moved out of state away from family and had to watch every penny at the grocery store. Gas was cheap back then. I try to break up my shopping. Dairy, fruit, canned goods and vegetables at the grocery store. Boxed goods and toiletries at the Wallet-mart, and meat at the meat store. If I go on separate days I spread it out over a period of time instead of punching a hole in the checkbook all at one stop.

Sigh. Almost everybody is pinching all over America. We are a bruised nation. I can see the other countries now, throwing their heads back and sniffing, saying to themselves "It's about time America felt some pain!" We are the "preps" at school who are finally getting theirs.

Before the trimming

Here are the front bushes before they were trimmed on Saturday. I don't have the "after" photos yet. I need to get out there tomorrow or this week to get those. It looks like a beautiful week-end coming up. I am booked every day except for Monday. Shh. Don't tell. I imagine I will have my nephew and daughter here and we will cook on the grill. That's okay. That I can do.

The gazing ball in the middle was made for me by a good friend. The base has chipped away. She told me I could leave it out all year long. :( The ball is still beautiful and perfect but it is attached to the base. They are ceramic. I have no idea how to separate them without destroying the ball.

Of course when I do outside work, inside work gets neglected and vice versa. I just got my kitchen cleaned up for the umpteenth time. It seems like I just can't keep up with it all and work full time too. Don't even look at my car. I took it in today for a new timing belt and meant to clean it out before letting the garage have it all day. Oh my. It was messy.

Poppy pod

One set of poppies will be blooming shortly and there are about 15 pods on the plants. I hope at least 10 bloom at the same time. Big bright orange blossoms. My peonies are coming along also. My azaleas were great this year.

I can barely move. Did a lot of yard work today. Put another hydrangea in the ground and flooded both my older plant and the new one with the the sulfur that will hopefully make them very blue. I'll take pictures if they bloom.

I have notified all family and friends that our town is setting off fireworks on Saturday the 5th this year and to mark it on their calendars. I want them to make it if they can.

My daughter and I watched "Boys Don't Cry" this week-end. I don't really like movies like this. I do think that Swank did an outstanding job portraying a boy. It bothers me that there are still folks that treat others so cruelly.

Baby of Audrey II

My peonies remind me of the blood-sucking plant from "Little Shop of Horrors". I have titled this one the baby of Audrey II. We like this movie. Levi Stubbs, the lead singer of The Four Tops played the voice of Audrey II. "Feed me! Feed me!"``

I received a letter from my sister. Sure enough, as soon as she is tucked away behind bars, the wife of the father of her daughter (the child with autism) files for adoption papers. My sister has access to a dinky typewriter and the number "1" does not work, so she mailed me the letter and asked me to re-type it. Which I did without hesitation.

Still dark and wet here in Ohio. I have flowers to plant, maybe tomorrow. A lot going on this week and the weather is not co-operating. I guess I'll be planting in the rain.

I am off to Amish country tonight to feast and shop. I doubt that I'll purchase anything, though. After purchasing the gas and my meal, I'd better save my money to pay bills. I'll still have a good time because I will be with great friends.

An interesting sentence from "Charlie Wilson's War":

"A bizarre mix of unsophisticated weapons was being handed over to tribesmen in sandals with no formal military training." (mujahideen).

And, this one:

"CIA strategists accepted the invasion as an unfortunate, irreversible fact of life."

Us Country Folk

I met my sister after work today and we went to a little fair in a nearby town. She worked at the Post Office there today and found out they were having their little town fair this week. She told me to meet her and we would go down, get some fair food and listen to the evening entertainment which was a Lip Syncing contest.

Even before the show this girl stood out. She had just come down the big slides. She won the lip syncing contest. Guess what song? Hank Juniors "A Country Boy Can Survive." She was cute.

I was going to work through my lunch today - just because I didn't want to go anywhere and I checked my personal e-mail. The library had notified me that "Charlie Wilson's War" was waiting for me. I booked it for the library (like that? My Mom would) and picked it up. I started reading it and could hardly put it down to go back to work.

I left it in the car and I suppose after my computer work is caught up I'll retrieve it and read until probably midnight tonight or so.

Here is something weird and off the wall. I dreamt that I had sex with Simon Crowell last night. I don't normally say the "F" word, but WTF?! I don't even watch American Id0l.

Ugh, sorry. I just Googled his picture. Not pretty. My deep fried veggies are trying to come back up. And, it is Cowell, I guess. Cripes. I slept with the man, you would think I could get his name right. LOL!

Glorious

My magenta azaleas are blooming all out this year for the first time in six years! I trimmed them back a good bit last fall and I guess maybe that is was did the trick. I dunno. I'll do the same this year hoping that I have found the key. My Mom didn't grow azaleas.

I have a new azalea bush to plant (my daughter got me for Mother's Day). It's a beaut.

One Touch

I have mentioned before that I am a "Hard Sell." I am very skeptical. I see something on T.V. and I say "It doesn't work like that!" More or less trying to convince my daughter not to fall for any sale pitch.

At a friend's house I had the chance to use the above can opener. I ran out and bought one. So much for my wisdom, eh? It works differently than any other opener I have owned. It removes the entire rim from the can. I sit the opener on top of the can and push the big black button. It starts itself, it moves itself and it stops itself. I found out at my friend's house not to even bother touching it until it stops itself. I tried to stop it and it would not let go of the lid. Now, I just push the button and forget about it until it stops. I pick the opener up with the lid and it drops the lid.

The can is a little funky afterwards though. It loses it's shape a bit without the rim of the lid. It is kind of cardboardy and wobbly. I think that it promises no sharp edges, but I have not tested it yet. I am still a newbie with it.

Dinner tonight: Tuna Noodle casserole. No peas. What the heck?

Facing me

The Eagle is not facing an olive branch or a talon of arrows. It is facing me. How long can I try to dodge it's gaze? This one looks a little weary and sad.

I couldn't get the book "Charlie Wilson's War" from the library. I had to order it from another. I am second on the list to reserve it. I did pick up a couple I wanted to read or at least look over. Along with that a couple of books on managing people and one bio of Rain Pryor. "Fair Game" by Valerie Plame Wilson and "Schindler's List".