You're Never Too Old for Kid Day

A good twenty years ago I read somewhere about Kid Day. I think it may have been Sanity in the Summer, by Linda Dillow and Claudia Arp (a fabulous book by the way for all you moms with little kids.) The book was chock full of ideas on how to invest in your kids' lives during the summer months and not lose your mind.

I'd set aside little bits of money all year long, then when June came we'd take one day a week just for fun. Rarely did I allow the kids to bring along friends. Kid day was just for us, and for them to bond as siblings. A good thing since, being typical kids, they spent much of the other 6 days a week doing the typical bickering and blaming. I'd start summer with a list we'd made together - activities we wanted to do.

There were picnics by the pond, followed up with catching tadpoles in jars. Taking their first ride in a cab from Walmart to home. Entire days spent at the lake, swimming and playing in the sun. Local museums. Visiting residents of a nearby nursing home. History lessons were squeezed in at an indian mound near St. Louis. Putting on a play in the backyard and inviting the neighbors. All three kids still tell me they have great memories of kid day, and our girls have reenacted it with their own children.

So I realized a few days ago we can do kid day again, just Don and me! Now that he's retired we have an entirely open calendar if we're smart enough to realize it. We can also get so busy remodeling the house, working in the yard, running errands, that we work ourselves to death. So we agreed - a weekly kid day will be just the thing to keep us light hearted and having fun together. It'll also give us a great opportunity to learn the area we live in, and sometimes kid day might spill into two days so that we wander and explore all day, grab a B&B somewhere along the way and head back home the next day.

Last week was full of doctor appointments and errands and bills and laundry and such. So today is our first official kid day. We're headed to a famous german micro-brewery on the south side of Pittsburgh, for lunch alongside the river, then to see a matinee (we can do that now!), back home to grab a sandwich for dinner and then end our day by taking dessert to our daughter's house. Next week is our last one here in Pittsburgh, so we'll do something local again. Maybe drive up to Ohiopyle where we went camping so many times. Check out the rapids, grab an ice cream cone and head back home.

We're thinking future kid days will be to local antique stores, maybe wander into Louisiana or even Oklahoma, down to Waco, and sometimes just to take off in a direction and see where we end up. That might be the most fun of all. We've also gotten several mailings from the state of Texas that direct us to their local haunts and highlights. Where's the best barbeque? The best bluebonnet show? The best bird watching? (I might have to pay Don to do that last one with me.) Heck, we may even have a picnic by a pond and scoop up tadpoles to bring home for our grandkids to watch.

It's supposed to be sunny and in the 60's. Way too pretty to be inside working. Summer will be here before you know it, so if you have kids, check out the book. It's new for $29.00 or you can snatch up one of 29 copies for a PENNY. Even if you're the (pretty big) kid, go for it! It's been years since I rode in a cab!

Just Hate Me and Move On...

This is where I'm at right now. With my freshly retired better half.

See Don, See Bev - that's us, the two thin, fit people further down the beach. We're up early running our mandatory five miles barefoot in the sand, to keep our calves perfected toned. You just can't start your day any other way. No way can you just lie in bed, ridiculously late, then waddle off to the breakfast buffet. You absolutely will not find us sitting under those tiki umbrellas, being blissfully lazy.

That's me - absolutely me - lying in the hammock. But only because I needed a little rest from all that beach running. I managed to fit in 2,000,000 sit ups in the past nine months. I'm thinking of the yoga exercises I'm going to do as soon as I get out of this hammock.



So sweet - Don asked these guys to sing us a song or two, and we understood every single word. So we just started singing along, and they told us our pronunciation was spot on! If I wear one of those outfits, I'm going with the striped pants, because they're so slimming.




We're busy swimming laps up and down every single foot of these pools. It's nice that they're connected so we can do that. I'd never want to just hang onto the side of the pool, waiting for someone to bring me a little drink with an umbrella tucked in it. Or claim one of those poolside lawn chairs that barely dips into the water so you never get too hot. Just lie there reading some meaningless novel. I'd much rather swim up and down, up and down.


We figured after Don had worked for 33 years, it was okay to head down to Mexico for a week, as long as we worked at it - no goofing off, no sirree!

We absolutely are not going to eat a lot of fattening food, sip cold drinks, sleep in, walk the beach, dance in the evenings, check out the snorkeling in Cozumel. Not on your life. It's all work for us.

I Have Issues with Purse Organization...

so it takes me forever to choose a new purse. I not only have to find a color that makes my heart happy, it has to be the right size and the right price (Good night! Purses are expensive today!). Then I have to be that hated person who takes all the stuffing out of the purse, shoves it on the store shelf somewhere, and checks out the inside of the purse. Because it has to have enough pockets to hold all my stuff. Cute just won't cut it - it has to F.U.N.C.T.I.O.N.

And I absolutely can't live without all this stuff I carry around. Sometimes when I look inside my purse I think of Monty Hall and Let's Make a Deal - where he'd end his show, eating up that leftover time, asking women to pull strange things out of their purses. And I'd know I would have won because of course I have all those things he came up with. And it all has to be with me every single time I leave the house, and be organized so I can pull it out on a minute's notice. Because you never know when someone needs to hear the Gospel or receive CPR or see what colors go best with their skin tone, or sew on a button, or repair their glasses. You just never know!

One of my dearest friends travels with a debit card in her pocket and her cell phone in the other. No purse at all! It's amazing we're friends, being cut from such different cloth! Or maybe, just maybe she hangs with me because I haul around everything she could possibly need.

Alas - I've been yearning for a mustard yellow purse. I blame it on the lack of sun here in PA the past five months - my heart needed something bright and sunny looking and since the sky wasn't producing anything other than grey, a mustard yellow purse it was. It was starting to feel like time to put my brown Vera Bradley on the closet shelf. You can't carry dark brown in February in dreary Pennsylvania.

Payless was a dismal failure. Possibly because a salesMAN tried to help me choose and made me itch to get out of the store.

T.J. Maxx provided this good solution for a reasonable price. Once you grab a purse that is supposedly a good deal at $165.00 and put it back on the shelf, you can feel quite smug with a purse that only costs $39.99. But it had inside issues -not enough pockets to hold the categories of stuff I needed. There's the TOOL category - to repair eye glasses, remove stains, etc. The FIX MY FACE AND NAILS category - lipgloss, color, nail file and mascara for when mine gives up the ghost and flakes completely off and my eyes disappear. The MEDICINAL category - really in a whole class by itself - aleve and migraine excedrin, zyrtech, solution for itchy eyes, restless leg tablets for when you're going nuts in the middle of the movie you paid $9.50 to see, motion sickness pills and bands and bandaids, and to be mentioned delicately - upset tummy issues. Or if you're not delicate you just can't travel without some beano in your bag. You never know when someone's going to offer you an unexpected bowl of chili. VISION category - glasses and sunglasses and a spare pair of reader glasses. Gum and mints and cough drops and notecards and a cell phone and keys - the list is truly endless but it all has to be in there. And pens and pencils and highlighters - have to have them in multiples of each.

So I remembered my friend, Tris - who lives at a more highly evolved level of organization - telling me about this: Pursekets. So I ordered one to fit the medium bag for around $21.00 in a color that will go with any purse I carry. Including shipping it ran about $25.00.

It'll make choosing my next purse much easier. Maybe when I've lived in hotter than all get out Texas and it's August and I just can't abide anything bright and sunny looking, so I yearn for a frosty blue purse. And it made me feel quite smug to realize I don't carry the 'large category' of purse - all that stuff only equals a medium bag. So there!

I'm wondering what's in those large bags and feeling pretty sure Monty Hall would be giving the prize to someone else after all. But by golly - go ahead - just ask me. I bet I can find just about anything now.

Shopping for Shoes...

is a challenge for me. Not only do I wear a size that doesn't exist, 10 1/2, (trust me on this - they go from 9 to 9 1/2 to 10 to 11, completely skipping me), but with feet that size it's hard to see the reasoning of buying a pointy shoe that makes feet look even longer. Truth be told pointy shoes look to me like add the striped stockings and you have something that looks like the house fell on it.

It's a challenge to find anything. Either the 10's hurt, or the 11's slip and slide. So I just don't buy shoes very much. Or I didn't. I started watching What Not to Wear, and seeing myself much too often, I realized I need to try a bit harder. There ARE a few stores that carry roomy 10's, and not-so-wide 11's - hoorah for Target and Kohl's and Kmart. (And if you happen to be tall and know of others, share the love.)


So I went on a 'hunt for pointy shoes' shopping trip. Everyone knows when a girl goes shoe shopping she needs a partner, to give constructive criticism. So I took someone with me. Here's what we agreed worked.



My shopping partner thought these would be a good basic with jeans. I would have preferred black and a bit more pointedy but this was the best I could find, so far.



We liked these better, being silver and goldish. I'm finding I can wear these a lot. I like the cute little bows and the height of the heel. Being 5'10" I can already tell who needs to have their roots touched up way too often, so I don't need a 3" heel on a shoe. With a husband who is 6'0", and isn't a thing like Tom Cruise, he agrees we should skip the 3" heels.



These were my favorite find of the day. No heel to speak of, but the illusion of one, and a very fun buckle. I have some very cute chocolate brown capris and a dark brown pencil skirt that might work well with these.
My shopping partner chose these. I offered him a latte but he insisted these were the payment he wanted for his shopping advice.Sure sign that he chose well - he wore them around the clock for three days, til they left circles around his ankles and I strongly suggested that we should take them off for a little while, just to let his skin recover. I do have to say I think the co-hosts of WNTW would agree they look marvelous with the outfit.  Total cost of our shoe outing - $46.00 - for four pairs of shoes. Thank you, Miss Kmart!

A Month of Love

I believe it was Augustus Caesar who decided to give January an extra day, extending it to 31. What was that man thinking? When January is finally, finally over it's time to celebrate. Maybe have a 'Good Riddance' party.

Ah February..... such a cute little month. The shortest. Being 5'10" I love anything short.  Punxatawney Phil lives not very far north of us, and I've always wanted to be there on February 2, in spite of knowing it's probably a day of revelry brought on by too much to drink. Phil will likely see his shadow but I get to see men standing around in black coats and top hats trying to hold that 50 lb rodent. Smile maker stuff for sure, in spite of the prediction of six more weeks of winter.

February is chock full of good stuff - candy hearts with cute little sayings on them, cookies cut out in heart shapes with pink icing, little kids making valentine's boxes out of a shoebox. Remember those? I wish I still had my valentine from Danny Bacon, who lived up the street on the corner and had strawberry blonde hair that stuck out in too many directions and enough freckles to share with another kid. I thought he was dreamy. Since he was my first kiss I sure do wish I'd saved his valentine.

February is my husband's last month of work. It's our last full month to live here in PA. It's my last full month to play with a certain little 3 year old boy who holds my heart. It's also my last month to enjoy this for awhile -

I bought six bottles of my favorite creamer in late December, before they quit carrying it, but alas I'm down to the last one. It won't be back on the shelves til November. Sad, sad. So I'm going to enjoy every single morning while it lasts in this red 'Love' cup.

A brand new month means I get to flip the calendar and when it's a Susan Branch, well that just makes it more fun! I can't get enough of her. Her handwriting just amazes me. Who writes like that? Interesting that I've noticed lately my handwriting is beginning to look exactly like my mother's. Susan Branch's is prettier, but I think I'll keep mine.

February is the month we're going on a retirement celebration trip to Mexico, so this is on my fridge as a motivation photo - anyone else do that? Not that my abs looked like that even when I was 16 but a goal is a good thing - something to aim for. Maybe I could call the project 'make belly button more shallow' rather than 'develop stomach muscles.'

If February wasn't wonderful enough already, there's the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, and the greatest Survivor ever is starting next week, then the Winter Olympics for two weeks. You can go here to find all sorts of fun things to celebrate in February. Fun stuff like Grapefruit Month, Boost Self-Esteem Month, Bird Feeding Month, Mend a Broken Heart Month, Rescued Rabbit Month, American  Heart Association Month (with February 5 being 'Wear Red Day'), Time Management Month, Relationship Wellness Month, Library Lovers Month, Return Shopping Carts Month, and maybe the best - Spunky Old Broads Month!

I need to get busy! Need to Tivo great shows, exercise, eat a grapefruit, be nice to me, feed the birds, hug someone hurting, eat healthy, wear red, keep my calendar, communicate with my hubby, go to the library, take back the cart, send valentines and address them in my mother's handwriting, bake cookies and ice them pink, kiss someone with freckles, and maybe my favorite - find a spare rabbit to rescue.

I'm pretty sure my husband and family would say I'm quite spunky enough, thank you very much! And we don't need a rabbit at this point in our lives, but maybe I could just sprinkle some carrots on the lawn.

What's not to love about February?

This Will Possibly Rock Your Pedicure Life....

Okay. I'm a little cheap. And I hate to be bored. And I find sitting long enough to have a pedicure a bit boring. And when you add the fact that it's winter and nobody sees anyone's feet I just hate paying for a pedicure right now. But I H.A.T.E. these little elements of torture. Because they are the length of a very small person's feet, and I'm not a small person. These do not fit size 10 1/2 feet, without a lot of pain.



This is the trick! Why on earth I didn't think to do this before?



Any scissors will do but kiwi green is much better in my book. Feel free to disagree.



Look how great this works now!



And really I'd rather spend the money on books. Because I'm cool that way.

P.S. Feel free to notice the fun shade of polish and cute pjs and not the crookedy toes so much.

Blissful Blogs Part 1

I mentioned here, previously, that I bought the book, Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey. Wonderful, wonderful book - not only full of great tips and inspiration for freshening up your own blog, but it features a number of wonderful bloggers. I subscribed to a good thirty of those I visited, for various reasons. A few stood out:

Heather Bailey - a fabric designer. If you're into sewing or crafting you'll love her blog. She offers a number of free patterns that print out nicely, on her sidebar. I'm especially in love with the square deal pincushion and bittie booties. She also has tabs that allow you to purchase some of her patterns, worth taking a look at. I'm so tickled to have found this blog; on visiting it I realized I'd sewn one of her quilts, "Fresh Cuts" (it's in Texas, waiting to be finished.)

Jenny Harris' blog, All Sorts is a wonderfully creative place, full of craft ideas, sewing, tutorials, etc. This post, from a year ago, shares her craft room (photo above) with us and it's full of wonderful ideas. The craft room in our home in Texas is just waiting for some splashes of color so this was a great find for me. I don't know that I can talk hubby into this wall color, but I do think the aqua and red look fabulously fun together. And look at that oh so cute ironing board cover -way more fun than my boring beige one. I think this is such a great use of a cabinet that could easily be found in a salvage store. Hmmmmm.

And this one, Raised in Cotton - Carol Spinski - well I'm going to be looking to make new friends when we move, and I'm pretty sure I'd absolutely love Carol in real life. Because she's real. She won't be helping you arrange your craft room but you'll feel better after a visit at her place. So that's it for now - a few for you to check out, browse around, enjoy and hopefully come away inspired like I did. I'll share a few more in a week or so, after you've had time to play at these three. Happy weekend everyone!

Reality TV and Channel Surfing

One of the fun asides, whenever we spend time with our grown kids, is getting to see what they watch on TV. After the usual shows we share, American Idol, 24, Lost and Survivor, they go off into a world Don and I are oblivious to. Our TV viewing is pretty boring by comparison.

Who knew? There are shows about motorcycles being repaired by family members who yell at each other a lot; babies being born and born and born; men who go out in the wild, on purpose, with nothing much beyond a pocket knife and a flint, knowing ahead of time they'll live off raw, still alive fish and lizards; people who turn in people who don't have a clue what to wear and are encouraged to throw out all their clothes and start over. Families who have as many kids as those giant cartons of eggs!

There are shows about people whose houses have mold growing places beyond the shower curtain and pets who use the entire house as a litter box; wives who agree to care for bratty children, leaving behind their own well-behaved kids;  preachers who yell and have crazy hair; people talking about famous people, even though all their lives are the same - make money, spend more, marry, cheat, divorce, repeat.

It's amazing to realize those 200 channels the cable guy told us about are alive and well with regular viewers, and some of the shows are fun, fun! Our all time favorite was about some guy who had a miniature horse as an indoor pet and had white carpet. 

I came home from my last trip to Texas with three new shows to record on our Tivo - 'How Clean is Your House?' (not very or really, depending on what you're comparing it to).

'Man 'vs Wild'. I LOVE this show - the host, Bear, fascinates me. Why the participants of Survivor don't watch all his reruns before they head off to the island mystifies me. He clearly shows how to snap the head off a lizard, give it a squeeze then pop it down the hatch. I have to wonder if I'm the only person on the planet who knits while watching.

My new favorite - 'What Not to Wear'.  I'm convinced I can clean myself up a bit if I watch enough episodes of this show, and once in awhile I feel good, knowing ahead of time, why something is awful. Right now I'm on a mission for a pair of pointed toe size 11 shoes, knowing ahead of time they will make my feet look like size 12. Even when you're 5'10" with size 11 feet, apparently the rule still stands - look as tall and thin as you can. I wonder if that means I should be wearing v-necks so my already too-skinny neck will look even skinner. I'll have to watch more episodes to find out.

Of all the shows we've watched, the least realistic to me was 'wife swap'. I can believe people will jump out of planes and eat raw lizards, they will scream at each other over motorcycle parts (I find that very believable actually), they will refrain from cleaning their house, treating it as one big potty or ash tray, they will throw away all their clothes to get a card with $5000 wardrobe allowance on it, but nobody, absolutely nobody would leave their well-behaved kids to go spend time with someone else's brats.

When I had finally trained our kids to behave in Walmart so that we could buy school supplies for everyone, or to spend time at their grandparents' home for a week and not kill each other, when we got dinnertime down to an event where nobody cried and/or was sent to bed without eating, well there's just no way I would have agreed to take on teaching that to someone else's kids again.

That's a bit too unrealistic for me.

Finally the Countdown Begins!

Don gives notice today. Not going to work anymore. Last day to get up at 5:45 am, grab his lunch box, warm the car and head out the door will be February 26 - that's 43 days from now.

So we're going to dinner tonight to celebrate - a nice, quiet Italian restaurant where they let you test the wine (a treat when you're used to wine from a box), the waiters have white towels draped over their arms and everyone speaks in hushed tones. Perfect for dreaming and planning and looking ahead together.

I'm giving him this little present (found at Bed, Bath and Beyond BTW),

to take to work Monday and put on his desk. A good reminder we're in the countdown mode and that's something to celebrate for sure! He told me last night he cannot really believe most women look forward to their husbands retiring. I assured him that's not the case with me - hurry up, be done - we have things to do, places to go, people to see and countless adventures ahead of us! I want to be sure he knows I can't wait for us to get started together.

Blissfully Lazy Green Monday

After nine hours of sleeping in my own little bed, I finally crawled out at NINE FORTY FIVE A.M.!!!! When you sleep in that late you might as well be lazy the entire day, or at least that's my line of reasoning. In my defense, I went to bed at 12:45 a.m. Poor hubby also went to bed at that awful hour and got up at 5:45 a.m., four hours before me. (Note to self - be extra nice to hubby!)

In the spirit of keeping it real, these are the shoes I plan to wear for 90% of my day. The only reason they won't be worn 100% of the day is that I plan to pull on my red Land's End snow boots later, and go build a snowman with my favorite 3 year old boy in the world, Landon. We made a 'build a snowman' date earlier this week on I Chat (!!!!!! wonderful discovery, I Chat !!!!!). Green slippers make me happy. (Note to self - thank hubby again for the green Christmas slippers.)

I probably need to wear real shoes (versus slippers) when we go out to dinner tonight. We always, always have a 'catch up' dinner out when we've been apart for a bit - no TV, no dishes, no distractions. Our 'catch up' dinner usually includes a glass of wine and italian food somewhere that isn't noisy. Maybe I have some green shoes in the closet for our dinner date?

The photo of this cup is a bit blurry, but I went with it, continuing in today's spirit of laziness. Three cups, with peppermint creamer. I bought six containers of it while it's still available in the grocery, and considering the shelf life I'm wondering if I can grab a few more and make it through March without running out before we move south. Green coffee cup makes me very happy too.

This book, Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey. I saw it on Deb's website and found it at Barnes and Noble this week, in the craft section BTW, not computers, which made me love it immediately. Deb's blog is very appropriately featured in the book. If you haven't read it, do - it'll make you happy - promise.

I spent the entire plane right home last night reading it, underlining, making notes, etc. Buy it on Amazon and save $5.00 over what I happily paid because I had to have it then, for the plane ride home. Continuing with the lazy theme, this morning I treated myself to two solid hours of updating my bloglines with a new section - Blogging for Bliss and subscribing to about twenty of the blogs featured in the book. Beautiful blogs, inspiring blogs, creative blogs, funny blogs. That the book is soft green makes my happy cup overflow.

Blissful Monday everyone, whatever color yours happens to be!

Winner of Book and Change of Plans

So Jill, of Find Us Faithful won the book on knitting toys - sounds like she's already a knitter and ready to jump into making gifts for little ones - congrats Jill.

Well, we bailed on the Mexico trip. Thank goodness we had the cash back insurance so we rebooked it for early March, and are instead headed to our house in Texas for a week on the lake. That should be super fun - the lake is full, there are no boxes to unpack, Don has yet to drown a worm in the lake and I imagine he'll enjoy that. I think he's planning to fish with our son Dan right after we land in Texas, stop for a quick shopping trip at Bass Pro and then drive to the lake. You know, men never, ever seem to have enough rubber worms!

I'm planning to pack some yarn and needles to while away hours while he's on the lake fishing and maybe, just maybe trim the front hedges that have been bugging me for a solid year. We've got steaks in the freezer just waiting to grill, there are a couple bottles of good wine in the kitchen, what else do we need?

We're talking about running down to San Antonio and seeing the Alamo for ourselves, and I think we also get to watch our two grandsons play their last soccer game of the season, and squeeze in a family dinner too - so there you go.

Being together - that's what really matters, not where we're at. It's all good! I'll be back in a week with some show and tell photos. xoxo

Hysterical - if you're a bit deranged....

We booked a romantic, exotic trip for just the two of us about two months ago. Here's where we chose:

We're scheduled to arrive this Sunday mid-day, right about when Hurricane Ida should be 'brushing' Cancun. Crazy, crazy! You should not have to watch the weather channel 48 hours before boarding a flight, trying to decide whether you want to spend money to go somewhere the hotels will have their windows boarded up. What a sense of humor God has! We'll see if we get to pull this off or not. One thing's for sure - if we go ahead, it's bound to be memorable! And likely not so crowded...

It's Been Forever Since I've Given Anything Away!

and I realized I accidentally ordered two copies of this book: Knitted Toys, 21 easy-to-knit patterns for irresistible soft toys' by Fiona McTague.
Any knitters out there who might like to have it? There's still time for whipping up a few of the projects and tucking them under the tree. Not that I'm mentioning being prepared for Christmas yet. Because it's still a whole 55 days away.

Leave me a comment, with a way to contact you, and I'll draw a name on Saturday, November 7 and pop it in the mail.

PS: I actually got featured in my yarn shoppe's 'finished projects' - a first for me. Hopefully I'll be stopping by soon for more photo shoots of items off the needles and ready to put under the tree...

Opening Pandora's Box

A day or so ago, while I was knitting away at my favorite yarn store, I noticed the music was really nice. You know how sometimes you go to a shoppe and whatever station they've chosen is either obnoxious or there are tons of commercials, etc? Which reminds me, a couple of years ago I went to Forever 21 to buy a gift card for my sweet daughter-in-law. She loves that store. I can see why; it has trendy stuff at great prices. I also noticed I HATED the music. I mean really hated it! But then she's in her 20's and I'm well dug into my 50's. So I learned a lesson that day - if you hate the music you probably shouldn't be buying clothes there, which is another soap box I've preached from before but anyhoo...

so the yarn store had this great music playing and I commented on it. The teacher told me it was Pandora.com. Apparently there's a website where you can go and put in a favorite artist or a genre and they will create a playlist for you. I believe it will only play for an hour at a time, then you have to click and tell it, in Oliver Twist fashion, "please, sir, may I have some more?".

I typed in Turtles. Does anyone else remember The Turtles. Every time I hear a song "So Happy Together" I'm back in Beaumont, Texas, on the street behind ours, holding hands with Carolyn and Rose and Patricia, skipping down the street, singing at the top of our lungs. Just makes me happy, as does "Daydream Believer". I'm pretty sure I still have a crush on Davey...

So take a run over, check it out. I'm not skipping down the street, holding hands with girlfriends anymore, but I sure did have fun vacuuming the apartment today to Herman's Hermits and the Beatles and such!

Pandora.com - good stuff!

Thank You Jules!

A new dress to wear - with my favorite color - kiwi green. And a steaming bowl of GRITS - how fun is that?

Thank you Jules for dressing me up. Much appreciated!

Mac or Not?

I'm still in Texas but finally, after three weeks, headed back home to Pennsylvania tomorrow. Home sweet home. Being gone for three weeks will make you miss the place your favorite coffee cup, robe, books, yarn stash, husband and family members are - not in that order BTW.

So once I'm back home, it's time to deal with my computer. Here's what mine looks like:

Not pretty but it works and I'm thankful for that, but we need a longer term solution. Our family is getting on the Mac wagon, and I'm wondering - should I? We? Don does not love the idea, but agreed to whatever I decide since I'm the one on it most of the time. I figure by the time he retires next spring I should be competent enough that I can show him around. While I was in Texas I used Sarah's Mac and didn't find it any different at all, as far as the internet went. I hear you don't  have to load a lot of anti-virus protection stuff... apparently Macs don't get the flu like regular PCs. 

I'm also considering going back to a desk top because the monitors are as big as our TV screenand I'm semi-blind. Macs not only don't get the flu supposedly, they also have cool stuff so I can see friends and family and chat with them I guess. Or something like that.

So - I need opinions. Anyone out there try a Mac and NOT like it? Anyone go to a laptop and then back to a desktop and wish they hadn't.

I've got about $1500 to spend. What do you think? When I get back home from all my wanderings I need to deal with this, because clearly the setup I have right now is less than perfect. 

Hotter than Heck!

Leaving PA, the temperature was in the 80's and the sky was overcast. The paper said Texas would be 102.

102. ONE HUNDRED TWO DEGREES...... That level of temperature is usually followed with white lies about how it's dry heat and so it doesn't feel so bad.

102 feels hot, there isn't dry enough air to calm that down to feel like the 80's. I happen to be one of those crazy people who really, really loves the heat and really, really dislikes being cold, at all. I also hate wearing jackets, so it makes winter in PA a challenge. But then, you can't walk around naked in the south either, at least not in most parts, so that could be a problem. Once you're stripped down to a certain level, there's not much else you can do except stay inside and suck on popsicles.

So how hot is too hot? What do you think? And how hot does it have to be before you turn on the AC, curl up next to it and suck on popsicles too? Or do you have a better remedy for feeling like you're about to melt...

Red Welted Native

Two days ago I made the stupid mistake of sitting on the swing in our lakehouse backyard while barefoot. I spent approximately three minutes without shoes. In that time I felt two teensy, tiny pinches on my feet - one on a right foot toe and one on the top of my left foot.

Within five minutes they stung like nobody's business, so I went inside and grabbed one of those little vials, where you crush them and green stuff oozes out. I smeared my feet up with that green stuff, feeling very smug that I'd jumped right on the problem and that was that.

The next morning I woke up to my feet feeling like they were on F.I.R.E. Because they were. Fire ants fire. A nice little blister on top of each spot where I'd been bitten, and big red lumps under the blisters. Which I promptly popped open with all the scratchin I was doing under the covers in my sleep.

A day later I still have big red lumps, and little blisters continue to reform every day. Which I continue to scratch til they pop and bleed and ooze and are completely lovely.

So much for smugness and green oozy goo. So much for going barefoot around here, ever again.

Welcome to Texas Bev. Being a native doesn't count for much when you've been gone for 40 years. After I moved out the fire ants moved in and they're here to stay.

Wonder if anyone around here ever lays a blanket down on the grass, for an evening under the moonlight? Bet they don't twice.

Maybe it's the Contents of the Fridge....

It's started - clearing out what we don't want or need. Seventeen ads on Craig's List today!

This refrigerator went on Craig's List tonight, after my cell phone was turned off. The calls will start in the morning because the whole world seems to love stainless. This fridge is 1" too wide for the spot at our lakehouse, so it has to go. I loved it, especially the fun pizza compartment in the freezer section. That's why I chose it. Hopefully they make one a lot like it, only 1" skinnier.

Please excuse the mess. Seriously, I probably have two ketchups and mustards and bbq sauces, and whip cream. And can you see that we're just a wee bit addicted to carbs. When that whole Adkins diet thing came out, it passed us right by.

It's actually a bit embarrassing to have this many groceries when it's just the two of us. I may need to think about that fact, actually.

My sister, Barb is probably hyperventilating, seeing the inside of this fridge. (Barb, please show it to Krissy, who will love me even more for being a fridge slob.) This is what a fridge looks like when you buy groceries but are too busy to cook, or always gone because people are looking at your house at 6 pm, and you're at Wendys. There is actually some organization to it - freezer has a coffee shelf, an ice cream shelf (we really like ice cream), a potato shelf, and proteins. The fridge has a dairy and egg shelf, a beverage and giant jar of salsa shelf, a VERY large bread shelf, and then a place for leftovers. So theoretically it's organized, it just appears to be a huge mess.

This white fridge went on Craig's List earlier this evening, and I swear I could have sold it 10 times. We asked $75 for it, because it's 15 years old and sucks energy, and I don't need it.

But I do have to wonder if it's the price or the contents....


I had a bunch of men call for this one, makes me wonder if they think it comes as shown.

Dorky Schmorky Birthday Goodness

My birthday was two days ago, and I was showered with all sorts of goodness - the day started with a surprise birthday party, hosted by my daughter, Leslie, who gathered my friends for a breakfast brunch. Hard to have a day go wrong when it starts with champagne! My boyfriend got me a 'boyfriend watch' and I love it! Being half blind I can actually see what time it is. The counter is covered with sweet cards, there were presents to open, dinner out for chinese food, and many phone calls from family and friends. Good stuff.

Well, my sister, Barb sent me a package that arrived a few days early, and I set it in the kitchen to wait for my big day. By the time my birthday arrived I couldn't wait to open it and see what goodness was inside.

When you have four brothers, and you're the two girls in the family, it makes being a girl special. Barb and I never actually dressed alike when we were growing up but that's because we're five years apart. For some completely cheesy reason, as we got older, we thought it was fun to pick same outfits and wear them out in public now and then.

I know - we know. It's really dorky. We still like it. Twins born five years apart.

So when I opened this, it just tickled me.

(I cannot take a photo of myself, either I look like I have a double chin, Dolly Parton physique or the flash blobs out everything. This was after a good 20 attempts.)

This one is my sister, Barb's:

When I travel to Colorado later this summer, you can bet I'm taking it with me to visit my sister, and we'll find some place fun to go for lunch, dressed as twins (born five years apart.)

Dorky schmorky! Seriously, either one of us could get hit by a bus tomorrow, in the meantime there's something very fun-loving about dressing alike and going out in public together, with a devil-may-care attitude!