My world this week

Back road, Carroll county

Like the shed above, I am barely keeping my head above the weeds.

Welcome to my parlor

Photo Friday Challenge: Friend

Two words

Mechanical Bull.

Okay. That's not me. I am 46 years old and to be honest with you I ache enough in the mornings when I get out of bed. Even if I had ten shots of alcohol in me, my subconscious would tell me "Awww - Hell No! No way, no how!" I can only imagine the three that did ride the bull (bride-to-be was one of them) have to be feeling a form of whiplash today.

That is all for now. I am sorting through pictures and movies and sending to e-mail addresses.

Finishing touches

The finishing touches on my daughter's newly decorated bedroom.

A black vase with white swirls, white and black silk flowers with tall, silk black grass.
Check out that wild pattern on the comforter.

A tea lamp (in Oriental motif).

The rug. This is only the middle of it and it needs vacuumed. To me it looks like they skinned a cow. Ugh.

My precious eyes

That beautiful sunset last evening.

Here is that sunset I was trying to catch while walking the dogs at the park yesterday. Or, should I say dog and a half? LOL! What she lacks in size, she more than makes up for in energy. Good golly that dog can scamper.

My daughter told me the other day the pooches were out playing while she washed her bike and they found the bees underneath the back porch. The little one took off like a rocket, but Sable got stung a couple of times.

When I came home from work, Sable was rolling around on the living room floor playing with her little stuffed toy. She was fine. I didn't know if she might be allergic or not. She has never been stung before that I know of.

I read today that looking at the sun (even through a camera lens) can damage your eyes permanently. Yikes! I have been taking pics of the sun for a few years now. I think I better talk to my doctor or optometrist about this.

I made my first ever trip to Aldi's today. I never went before because I thought it was a place where you purchase in bulk amounts. I told my daughter "You have to go with me the next time! It is so cool. You put a quarter in to get a buggy and you get it back when you are done! You pick up empty boxes as you shop so you have something to place your stuff in." I probably looked a bit giddy. Of course I bought more than I planned. I was looking for coffee. I didn't purchase any there. I don't experiment when it comes to something as important as my morning coffee.

I tried a few different items. If we don't like them, I just won't buy them again. I guess they are cheaper, but if I catch the name brand stuff on sale - it looks like the same price. I also joined Sam's club this year. I went once so far. It is about 40 miles away where Aldi's is just a few miles.

Then we went school shopping. Two pairs of jeans, two hooded jackets and a tee shirt. (Previously we purchased a bunch of tee's). One pair of very expensive shoes and some underwear. New perfume. I hesitated on the shoes. I made my daughter go in every shoe store in the mall to see if she couldn't find another pair that she liked just as well for less money.

She turned her nose up at all the shoes. Her mind was set. Sigh. We saved some on the hooded jackets so maybe it all evens out. I would like her to purchase more jeans. She still has some old pairs from last year that she can wear. In my book you can't have enough jeans. I always like for her to have one outfit of dress pants and a nice shirt with nice shoes. Not this year. Nothing doing.

But... but! We get to purchase a dress! A dress! I am so-o-o excited. We have a wedding coming up and she actually wants to wear a dress with high heels. Oooohh! Squirming in my seat. Heels! She has never worn heels. This should be funny. I'll bet they come off after the first hour at the reception. Ha! Ha!

The bachelorette party is Saturday. Now, it has been a while since I have participated in a wedding. My friends that were going to get married all GOT married twenty-some years ago. My sisters also all got married thirty-some years ago. My niece married a couple of years ago, but did not have a party beforehand.

I am a little rusty on the bachelorette party. The guys are going to Canada on the 25th for their doings. Canada? I am going to try to find out why this week-end. Gambling? Special bars? Maybe I don't want to know. LOL!

A shot in each bar as we barhop? I don't plan to drink because I have to come home and answer to a fifteen-year-old. The party is about sixty miles away from my house. Now in my day the most risque thing we did was give the bride-to-be a teddy (or a naughty nightie as we used to call them). Today it probably comes close to those sex toy parties you have either gone to or heard about. Personally, I have a great time at those get-togethers. Hmmm. Should be interesting.

We finished up the evening with the Chinese buffet. I dropped her off at the Park so she could spend time with her friends and I came home. Opened the mailbox and there was a bonus check from work that covered every penny I spent today with $50 to spare. Wow. You can't beat that!

All wrapped up.

This evening, Sable and I went for a walk at the park in a bordering town that allows dogs on a leash. I am watching my sister's dog, so she was on the expanding leash.

Here is what happened to me. But, there was a good reason. Honest.

This is the mischievous girl who tangled my feet.

I can only imagine that she was trying to keep up with this "hyper" other girl prancing around.

And, this was the reason for my distraction. I was trying to catch a couple of shots of the fading sunset through the pine trees, when I spotted this powered hang glider. I caught picture after picture, but of course - the first one is the best one. He (or she) was far away and when I zoomed in, it just became a blur against the sky.

The dog(s) are forgiven and I even laughed at myself. A couple of walkers were strolling past, but I didn't mind. Silly woman with silly dogs taking pictures of flying machines while the dogs tangle her legs in the leashes. Could have been the beginning of a bad horror movie. The next scene shows one of the dogs running away scared and yapping with half her leash dragging behind her. It would have to be that little squirt, because Sable can't run very well. Her back legs are not very stable. Not very stable, my Sable.

Kickin' it!

Germs?

No. Not germs. Gumballs in negative. Whatever bug had hold of me the past few days, I'm kickin' it to the curb! I was feeling so much better and I have not fixed any decent meal in a few days so we ordered pizza. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! Not for the others, but for me. Ohhh, the agony!

Four cats

Photo Friday Challenge: Four

I'm grumpy

Misery

My unplanned hiatus may be over. I don't know. I may not post again for another few days. I am grumpy. I am sick. My daughter taunts to me that I have mono. "Bite your tongue!"

The poor horse above is being tortured by dozens of flies. That would drive me nuts. As the horse and as the owner. My sister and I used to put this stinky stuff on her horse to keep the flies away. Dip it onto a rag and wipe Queenie's face with it. Queenie. That horse didn't like me.

Headache, earache, nausea, stomach ache. Alka seltzer, antacid. And the nasties. No flies, though. Yawn. I'm going to go back and lay down. Yuck.

Enough to give me heartburn

At the lake near Dellroy, OH

And this is just silly. I purchased some chewable rolaids yesterday. The usual box I buy has three packs in it, thus leaving an empty compartment. This pack had a special bonus and included the 4th pack in it. Would they remove the cardboard compartment and add the 4th pack? Heck, no! They have to build another bigger box and add the 4th pack to the outside of the regular box. How typical is that?

Fits right in.

Jasper snoozing on the new sheet set.

The sheet color was NOT my idea. Good grief, no. It goes with the black and white comforter that has been shipped but has not arrived yet and the black and white area rug which I have not seen yet.

But, Jasper says he is very comfortable with the new look and we think he fits right in.

I am NOT a voyeur!

A very private swim

Okay. Let's get one thing straight. It was no accident that I took this picture. However, this is a crop from a much larger picture. It just happened that my daughter wanted to go along with me today and we chose this very back, gravel road to scout the area for suitable picture taking.

I snapped my usual "shoulder shots". This one happened to be part of a much larger pond scene. Water and green. I did not even notice the couple swimming there until the man said "Hi there." I saw them right before he said anything and thought they were children. His voice was a deep baritone. As I drove on past I asked my daughter "Do you suppose they were skinny dipping?" She said "Probably."

Yeesh. Sorry folks. And, now I go and put you on the web for all the world to see. If the world happens to meander to my little corner of the world.

As it is, even the thought of a voyeur creeps me out!

Okay. A closer look at the larger picture shows a group of voyeurs sitting on the bank watching the couple swim.

And finally, the larger (complete) shot:

I doubt that there was any dipping going on, after all.

Backpedalling

An Amish house

Don't be mislead by the stories you read about how austere the Amish life is. Even the movie Witness was pretty plain. The Amish houses I see are darn pretty. They are great at landscaping around these parts. Notice the solar panels on top of the roof. Many have trampolines and basketball hoops. No electric lines running to the house, but I have seen a few mowing their grass with lawn mowers.

Well, the jig is up. Checking my stats today I found that a family member read my blog. Or a future family member. Sigh. I guess I may have been fooling myself thinking I could remain anonymous. Of course, some of them could have been reading it all along, but I have watched my stats pretty close. I compare them to my stats on my photo web page and yep. There it was. I hurried back a month or two and re-read my entries hoping beyond hope that I didn't say anything to offend. I may have in one post. Re-sigh.

That will taint what I say here, although I have been being very careful. You know how you aren't supposed to talk about work and co-workers.

So, here's to blogging. I imagine that somebody somewhere has typed up a blogging etiquette. Like never blog while drinking, or never blog in anger. How about: Never blog when driving? LOL. Okay, that last one was a joke. But seriously. Now, I will have to check my stats daily to see if they return.

I imagine my niece and nephew have returned from Spain. She has some great photos on her photo blog from the journey. She mentioned that it was hot, hot, hot over there. The pictures remind me of a dry, desert region.

You know, just as a side note. Don't you wish that the dictionary used here to check spelling would add the word "blog" ? I keep clicking Learn. Maybe it will stick this time.

Well, howdy do!

Miniature burro near Charm, Ohio

I met some family at the Chalet in the Valley restaurant near Charm Ohio yesterday. We had a nice meal but better conversation. The place was not as crowded as what I expected. There were a few out of state license plates in the parking lot.

After our meal, I meandered over to the nearby pasture and put a quarter in the feed machine. I placed the bucket under the spout and maybe ten kernels of field corn rolled out along with my quarter. I put it back in and turned the knob again. Another ten and my quarter. Again, and once more. That's all you get for a quarter. About 40 kernels. The little goats were running to me as soon as I picked up the bucket.

As for the burro, he (could have been a she, I didn't look) was not interested in the corn. Just wanted a pat on the nose. I haven't been up close to a burro in years. Since my last visit to a petting zoo, I suppose. Probably five years or more. This one has the image of a cross on it's back. Very friendly little things. I could see another goat across the field. It appeared as though he was tied to a dog box of sorts. He may have been the mean one.

On the other side of the restaurant was a field with one horse. He was up by the fence and I walked over to say hello. He was completely miserable. They had cut off all of his forelock and the flies (there must have been a hundred of them) covered his face. It must have been maddening. All the poor thing could do was dip his head and rub his face against his front legs. His tail wasn't going to reach that far around. If he had his forelock at least he could shake his head and the hair would swing around and shoo them away. He needed to find a buddy and they needed to stand side by side, head to butt so they could swish each others' faces with their tails.

But, I didn't see any other horses in the field. Just the ones tied at the front that went with the Amish buggies. They were harnessed up and on the other side. Beasts of burden.

Private II

This one was taken about two months ago on one of my drives through a neighboring county. I stopped to look at a pretty field of wild flowers and carefully began stepping through some tall grass and I came upon...well....something private.

Is it my imagination or is the one on top smiling? Click on the picture for a close-up and I think you will see for yourself.

I could have used this one for the Photo Friday Private theme, but didn't think of it. Sigh.

Oh, back to that!

So, after the hot weather passes and we are a bit back to normal, Friday at work starts out strange with the electricity being off for three hours. Do you ever realize how quiet it is when the electric is off? The UPS kept the servers up and running. Not that it mattered to me because my PC and my Linux server were down. No UPS there.

With all of that weather talk behind us and things picking back up around lunchtime, what else is there to do or talk about?




Oh, yeah. Back to that.





Only in America, right?





You know what I'm talking about.





You get an e-mail at the end of the day. It's frolicsome Friday. Everybody wants to get out from behind their desks and cut loose. We finish the week off with....





What else? Bush Bashing!

I'm not even sure this is right. But, if you want to see for yourself, you can here. And to capture the screen shots like I did, I use this nifty little product. Except I got it back when it was a free version. I have never needed to upgrade. The old version does what I want perfectly. I never run a computer/laptop without it. That and Irfanview.

Private Journal

Photo Friday Challenge: Private

And to my left

Casper sits at my feet.

I put a small rug down for my cat to lay on in an attempt to stop the shedding onto my bedroom carpet. Does it help? No. The fur just rises up and settles everywhere. As does my dog's black fur and my other 3 cats, and the bird feathers. I think in five years I will just move out and leave behind one big hairball.

I have one more free week-end and then five week-ends in a row I have something to go to. Two week-ends have two events in them. That really makes the time go fast. So after the dust settles I will be in the middle of September. The older I get the more I appreciate my "down" time.

Since I have one child, a lot of people have mentioned to me about how lonely I am going to be after she grows up, moves out and gets a life of her own. If my job remains stable, I anticipate travel. I do like to travel. My sisters have been bugging me to go with them but it requires an overnight stay or two and at this point in my life I don't like leaving a 15-year-old girl alone by herself. I had my niece stay a couple of times, but she has her own life now.

So, when my daughter is grown - I am hitting the road. Work will keep me busy during the week. I have friends and family who all live an hour to two hours away for week-end jaunts, and I should have 20 days of vacation a year by then.

As soon as I finish this post I am sending an e-mail out to the theater here in town. I was always the "art" student that had to draw and paint everything in high school, so I plan on using my humble talent behind the scenes there. Even if it is just moving the props around, I plan on getting involved. My therapist is pushing me to. My Mom was a "homebody" (a.k.a. recluse) and she doesn't want me to get too much in the habit of staying at home all the time.

I can keep myself occupied with painting, drawing, reading, writing, movies, the Internet, pets, plants.... the list goes on and on. She said I need "balance". I will try. I have another secret. For family I have no problem jumping up and going to meet them or get together with them. But I have to force myself with friends. I hope that doesn't sound selfish or snobbish. I don't mean it to. It just doesn't come easy for me. I know that it is important and after I left my last job ten years ago, I realized that this group of gals was far too important to leave behind. We get together every month or so.

Well, I am going to see if it has cooled down any at all outside so that I can get my grass mowed.

Looking over to my right

Peru in her (his?) cage.

When I post my blog, I sit at my desk in my room. If I look over to my right (in front of one window) I see my bird in her (his) cage. Whatever IT is. Sometimes I have to cover the poor thing because IT won't stop chirping. Sometimes covering doesn't stop it.

I stopped at the farmer's market tonight. Sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes and canteloupe. I fixed the first three along with mushroom hamburger steak. I even got a compliment from my daughter. (although she did mention that I should have fixed mashed potatoes - good grief!).

My nephew is always appreciative, but my daughter rarely says that any food is good. I'll cut up the canteloupe later. I have to be careful because I can eat the entire thing. And then boy do I get heartburn. I add some salt but I suppose like a green pepper it just really messes with my stomach. If it is to the point where it melts in my mouth I have to be especially careful. I will have the entire fruit gone before I realize it. Then I start looking for my rolaids chewables.

The custodian and I have been talking up a storm at work the past two mornings. It is as if we are both sorry that we disagreed with one another. He is so polite and funny.

I also bought some aluminum sulfate for my (rusty) hydrangeas. The garden center told me to add it after it cools down tonight so I don't scorch them. I already figured that. I am to look for a fungus also.

It is just too hot to mow the grass. It is going to have to wait until the end of the week.

Do you know anybody who drives a Pontiac Grand Am? My sister has a 2000 model and the gas pedal stuck on her yesterday. Scary! I looked up recalls on the Internet and it talked about the gas pedal sticking in hot (ambient?) weather on the 2003 models, but I told her to tell the dealer that they should fix it for free since it was a big thing for the '03 model. She later told me that when they called, the dealer told them they were aware of a problem and to bring it in.

Ambient means surrounding, encircling. I guess they mean hot conditions.

So, when were they going to inform the purchasers of the '00 cars? After so many accidents? Be careful out there. In this heat things are starting to stick all over the place. Gumming up, I suppose.

Belated

I was saddened to read about the passing of Mandarin Meg. Questions swirl in my head, but all in all - this was one loved person to have touched so many in so many ways. Where do we go from here?