Class Reunions, and other stuff

Last Friday and Saturday night I attended my 30th high school reunion events in Clarksburg. It was wonderful! I got to reconnect with my best friend from high school (the only person for whom I have ever been a bridesmaid) and lots of other classmates.
Friday night we had a dinner and dance at a banquet center....I got to dress up (which I don't get to do very often) and cut footloose on the dance floor to some good 80s tunes.
Saturday night a bunch of us met at a little bar downtown, but then decided we'd rather go out to the Red Caboose instead. It was a BLAST! I got to talk to more classmates and had some yummy shrimp scampi.
Two great things about the weekend: no one recognized me (and I was told several times that I look great, which made me happy and proved I have a long way to go in the humility department), and I didn't hear anyone complaining about people who like to do fun things that have no other purpose besides being fun. Quite refreshing.
Hopefully the ones of us who are still local will be able to get together more often!
Other random things:
I read somewhere that rickets is on the rise. Makes me glad I don't make my kids smother in those wetsuit-looking suits....I also don't contribute much to the financial success of the sunblock manufacturers.
Oregano and Barbecue are laying regularly every day now. :)
If anyone has any suggestions for dealing with a stubborn, borderline defiant, destructive, disrespectful child who never has any remorse or regret for misdeeds, please share.
I'm reading an interesting book right now about the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. Once I get this Blogger app figured out I'll post a link, but it should be on Amazon.
We have thunderstorms right now, and the wind is from the north which is pretty much opposite of the way it usually comes. We had hail the size of marbles!
I think that's it for now.
Happy Labor Day!

hailstones!

In Which I Ramble Disconnectedly

There's a good point here in this article; I'm one of those Christians who knows about the existence of a LOT of things that make some of my friends cock their heads and go "wha--?"
Things I shouldn’t know exist. | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff
Some of the things I know exist that I probably 'shouldn't' (although I risk being tyrannized by the shoulds) know about?  Pink, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Harry Potter, Lady Gaga, where to buy a good but relatively inexpensive strapless bra, the purpose of body tape (and where to purchase it), boutique denim.....

And as if that wasn't enough to think about in one blog post, here is a really sad story about what happened to a woman who tried (successfully, but REALLY, what she had to go through) to retrieve her miscarried child's remains from the hospital in order to give the baby a proper burial. That touched me because, way back in a previous life, I was pregnant and the baby died at 20 weeks in utero. The doctors tried all sorts of things to induce labor but nothing worked, so I ended up having a D&C.  I was young and confused at the time, and it never occurred to me to ask either the baby's sex or to have the body released to me so the baby could be buried. I did try not very long ago to see whether the hospital bothered to record whether the baby was a boy or a girl (because in God's Providence I happen to be friends with the wife of a person pretty much a grand poobah at the hospital in question), but records were searched and alas I will never know whether it was a Samuel or a Zoe. I'm not really even sure why that matters, but it does, a little.

I saw a guy running along the side of the road earlier today in Day-Glo green running shoes.

I met a gal for lunch today, with whom I went to high school. We hadn't seen each other in THIRTY YEARS (my heavens, there have been wars that were shorter.....). The server had to come back twice before we quit talking long enough to decide what we wanted to eat, and I'm surprised we ever got anything into our mouths. It was really great to reconnect with her, and I hope to be seeing more of her in the future. She said I haven't changed at all - she's a very good liar, ha ha!

Last Monday night was the university's Fall Fest thingy - they have bands come in and do concerts on the plaza of the student union, yada yada. Normally we can't get to bed until it's all over with, because we are about a quarter mile as the crow flies from the stage.  So our tradition the past three years is that we have Movie Night!  This year's movie was Soul Surfer, suggested to me by one of my Facebook (and real life) friends.  It's the true story of Brittany Hamilton, a young surfer whose arm was bitten off in a shark attack.  A really good movie!  My big thing about movies I let my kids watch is 'is it a movie that shows that perseverance, honesty and hard work are VIRTUES, and that doing the right thing is always THE RIGHT THING even though it's difficult?' This movie has that and more. Great scenery, good acting

'scuse me, there is a chicken in my dining room

now she is in the living room

and a wonderful story (even if the part where she gets attacked by the shark shows a LOT of blood, but it's all highly relevant to the story).

(Oregano has been escorted back out to the yard where she belongs.  I have no idea who let her in.)

Speaking of chickens, we've gotten three eggs every day for three days straight, and Drumstick has developed a limp.  We don't know what's the matter with her, so we have her in the puny ward (dog crate next to the coop with a tarp covering it) to keep her from running around and perhaps injuring it further.  We're giving her yogurt as a treat for the extra protein. She hasn't laid a good egg in a couple of months, one of the limitations of this breed of chickens - they lay extremely well but their 'career' is rather shorter than that of heritage or non-production breeds. We'll always have a couple of Red Stars, but I'd eventually like to have six hens and the other four will be heritage dual-purpose breeds - Dominiques and either Leghorns or Orpingtons (most likely Leghorns because they lay white eggs and we've had some requests for those).

I have more randomness but I think I've blathered enough! One last thing: Birdman turned 14 on Wednesday (yikes).

The Slugs Come Out At Night......

Some more detailed (and less emotionally infused) information about slugs can be found here.

Monday night Birdman went outside to give Eli his final p-break before bedtime, and he called me to come outside.  When I went out the back door, he pointed at the side of the house next to the back door, where I saw what looked like a huge wad of snot suspended from more snot, with yet MORE snot hanging off the bottom end of the whole thing, and all of it gently waving in the night air.

But no.  It wasn't snot.  It was a pair of slugs.

Slugs being both boy and girl at the same time, I don't suppose I could say it was Mr. Slug and Mrs. Slug enjoying a romantic interlude in the total non-privacy of the wall of my house by my back door.  I never did figure out which one was being the male and which the female (because they didn't get any privacy after we realized we had an episode of "National Geographic" suspended from a string of slug-slime right outside the door).

This was interesting (in a gross sort of way).  I have never in my life seen anything as completely creepy and odd as these slugs 'having a moment'.

The pale string at the top of the photo is the string of slime that was anchored onto the siding just out of the top of the frame.

You can see how the slugs are curled around each other all lovey-dovey. (shudder)

That pale bluish blob there at the bottom?  That is the slugs' genitalia.  You can refer to the Wikipedia article I linked up there at the beginning of the post to see how this all works; I can tell you that from my observation, the article is accurate. (more shudders)

And what happened to our ga-ga gastropods?  After I went inside, Lightning McQueen took the salt outside and sprinkled them into oblivion.

I can only assume that they went happy.

A Seinfeld Post

Yes, that's a small praying mantis there on the corner of those icon prints!  (I wonder what it's doing......:))

I have a serious case of writer's block.

I cannot think of any one thing to write more than a few sentences about.  I think the humidity has mildewed my brain!

So, tonight you get a random mishmash of rather unrelated short paragraphs.  Comment on anything, everything or nothing - give me a prompt for a future post, even!

I've discovered that I much prefer yard work to housework.  I got the yard done in under 3 hours today, and it hadn't been done for almost 3 weeks!  Mowed (push mower, thankyouverymuch), trimmed, garden weeded (thank you Birdman) and flower beds neatened up.  Stuff looks better over here now.  I wish I could figure out a way to get some new grass growing inside the fence though; the chickens have really done a number on the grass!

Some people are very much not who they seem to be, and sometimes you don't find this out until later.

Had my very first Meemaw moment this afternoon!  He's an INSANELY CUTE baby; I have photos on my phone so they won't end up here until I email them to myself and then I'll post something. (and why did I title this post the way I did?)

I have a few ripe grape tomatoes, and one ripe Big Boy tomato, that I will pick tomorrow.  The butternut squash is still producing like gangbusters, and my eggplant is loaded with blossoms.  I have a bell pepper about the size of a child's fist, and green tomatoes on my other tomato plants.  I have to tie them up about every 3 days now.

We are still eating the produce I canned from 2009's garden.

Birdman now has his own "room" in the basement.  I may or may not have posted that I had to separate the boys and that Lightning McQueen was sleeping on a pallet in my room........that was getting old.  So, since I was having Birdman clean up the basement anyway, I gave him a little extra motivation and told him he could set himself up a room down there, and bought him a portable closet and a lamp.  So now there are no overnight guests in my room, YAY!

I really need to start seriously shopping for a washing machine.  Going to the laundromat is faster than washing clothes at home, but it's not very convenient!

I am enjoying my new phone.  It does some neat stuff!  I downloaded a free app called "Daily Readings" from the market; it's published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and has the Saint(s) of the Day, the Epistle and Gospel, PLUS the fasting information for that particular day.  So far the readings match up with what's on my Ruthenian Byzantine wall calendar - some of the saints are different but that's to be expected.  Another neat app I have is "Out of Milk".  It's free too, and it's a shopping list app.  You can either manually enter the items you need from the store, or you can tap the barcode icon and then scan the barcode on the item with the camera on the phone!  There's also a To-Do List, and a Pantry List, and you can have multiple shopping lists (for example, one for the grocery store and one for Wal-Mart type items)

I read the other day that Apple, Inc. now has more cash than the US Government.

One of my favorite recently-discovered websites is The Art of Manliness. If you are a man, know any men, or have sons who are growing up to be men, I highly recommend it.  Chock full of excellent, sensible, PRACTICAL manly knowledge and skills.

So what do you want to read about here?  Leave a prompt in the combox and I'll accomodate as best I can.

West Virginia: Not Just for Hillbillies Anymore

I drove home from my retreat yesterday and reached the West Virginia state line shortly after noon.  Since this was the first time I'd passed the brand new Welcome Center/Rest Area with a need to use the facilities since it opened earlier in the year, I took the exit and parked as close to a (very small) tree in the hopes that maybe I'd get a square inch or so of shade over the car and it wouldn't be six billion degrees in there when I finished my business inside.

I pulled open the door to the building, and what is the first thing I see?

Keep in mind that this is WEST VIRGINIA.  A state with a reputation for citizens whose educational level is somewhere between house plant and second grade, where persons from more economically-advantaged areas think no one wears shoes, everyone walks around with a chaw in their cheek, and outhouses and cars on cinder blocks are common sights.  Coal is King here, at least in the southern part of the state - in my neck of the woods it's natural gas (and Marcellus Shale gas at that, if we can ever get the dang permits to do the fracking so the gas will come out of the ground).

WEST VIRGINIA, where you are either a Mountaineer fan or you prefer the Thundering Herd (rarely neither, and never both).

When I walked through the door into the building at the Welcome Center/Rest Area, the first thing I saw was

Two women.  One in full black burqa, the other in jeans and tennis shoes, but wearing an abaya and hijab.

Just FYI, in the 2000 Census the population of this state was estimated at about 2 million people.  Of the 46% of people who listed a religious preference on the census forms, only a little over 1,500 self-identified as Muslim.  West Virginia has 100 times the number of Methodists as Muslims, and over 95 times the number of Catholics. 

I'd be interested to know what you, dear reader, thought I was going to tell you that I saw.

I haven't decided what I will do about my blog while I'm out of town next week. I may post a series of short updates daily, or I could recycle some old posts.

Which would you rather see?

I'm leaning towards short daily updates, since I won't be without service (thank you smartphone). You all can read old posts without my help, since the archives are right over there on the sidebar.

I'll also be Tweeting stuff, so you could follow me over there for even more amusement. Just click the Twitter button at the top of the sidebar.

Tomorrow.....

Birdman has to be at the airport to go to a Search & Rescue Exercise at 0645.  Velvet and Lightning McQueen are going to go help with Kids' Day downtown.  I'm going to the laundromat then doing the yard and cleaning house.  I hope I remember to put dinner in the crock pot in the morning.

Oh, I'm still haphazardly shopping for a washer, but have decided to leave the actual decision and purchase until I get back from New York at the end of next week.  It won't kill me to go to the laundromat for a month or so.

Kitchen Decorating

 A while ago I Tweeted that I'd ordered, and picked up, enlargements of some snapshots from Walgreens, and that I was very happy with them.  Some of you may have wondered:

• what I photographed
• why I ordered enlargements
• where I was going to hang them

Well, now you know!  I took over a hundred pictures when we went to the Indy 500 this year, and I chose 17 of the best ones and got them enlarged and printed to put on the walls of........my kitchen! The frames are the very least expensive Wal-Mart sells; I like how they don't overpower the pictures.

You can't see very well, but I have a snapshot of ALL THREE of the four-time "500" winners; A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. At the very top is a large frame in which I mounted our tickets and camping permits from the past two years.

You can see the edge of the curtains in the picture; it's black and white gingham (very difficult to find.  Most places only have black and ivory).  I have white walls, cabinets and appliances, and black commercial vinyl tile on the floor.  The lower part of the walls is beadboard wainscoting, painted RED, and separating the red from the white is a nice black chair rail.

The color scheme matches a Hoosier cabinet I picked up at a tag sale several years ago. 

When I realized that I'd accidentally painted my kitchen in IndyCar colors, I decided to make that the 'theme' of the room.  Who needs boring apples or cherries when you can have race cars?  And yes, I am completely aware of the coincidence of having the colors of a HOOSIER cabinet be the inspiration for the room.

I have fabric to make slipcovers for the chairs too.  Red and white indoor/outdoor upholstery fabric with a floral design for the seats and backs, and the skirting will be black.  Topstitched in white jeans thread.  The only other things I'm going to add are a fake 'diner menu' laminated to a collage photo to put on the table, and next year when we go to Indy I'll pick up a set of flags in a holder to mount above the door on the wall.

Now that I'm on the downhill slide of doing this room, I'm almost ready to start on the dining room.  Any suggestions for a theme?

Will It Ever End?

I'm going to a conference and retreat next week, and am really beginning to wonder when I am going to get everything ready to go.  I still have to make a trip to the grocery store, pick up one more load from the dry cleaner (vestments that have to go with me, they were supposed to be ready on Wednesday but now they say tomorrow, ARGH), do laundry one. more. time, mow and trim the yard, clean my room, start packing my clothes, yada yada.........

This is supposed to be my vacation, even though I'm usually kept pretty busy during the actual event.  I go up a day beforehand to get the chapel arranged and then I get to spend a half day in the little town, visiting the yarn store and the old-fashioned five & dime and just relaxing before the conference and retreat starts.

At the rate things are going now I'm going to need another vacation just to recuperate from getting ready for this one.

I Can't Stop Laughing

The End of an Experiment

Lightning McQueen asked me to cut his hair today.  He said his head was too hot.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the HUGE pile of hair that ended up on the kitchen floor.

He says he feels much cooler now.

This is My Story and I'm Sticking To It

I was up till way past midnight last night waiting for the boys to get back from their Altar Boy day in Pittsburgh - they got to see the Pirates whomp the Cubs, YAY - so I am pooped.

Coming up, a product endorsement for something you have to have seen on TV.  You've probably also laughed at the commercial, just like I did, until I bought one (knowing I could return it if it wasn't as advertised).  

And a post about our visit this evening to a local Roman Catholic parish for Saturday Vigil Mass (we'll be on our way to Pittsburgh to take Birdman to the bus tomorrow at our Ruthenian Byzantine parish's Divine Liturgy time).

Have a fantastic Saturday night; I'm going to go get some much-needed zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Another experiment

I am composing this blog post on my phone.  If I could figure out how to print from here, I'd only need the laptop for my business bookkeeping, tax returns and managing the photos from my camera.

Maybe this photo will help some of you who are enduring a heat wave right now. :)

Experimenting!

Over the next few days I'll be accessing the internet using my phone' mobile hotspot. I'm also going to experiment with blogging by email (for draft posts).

I need to decide what we're going to do to celebrate Independence Day - we're all going to be in the parade on Monday afternoon, so I suppose we'll have a grill-out on Saturday or Sunday (but I think there might be a surprise from my mom in the works for Sunday afternoon, SQUEE).

I went to get in the car last night to roll up the windows and a VERY industrious spider had built a web across the window.  Since my car has no frame around the glass, the web was actually anchored to the steering wheel, the inner door frame and the seat back.  And naturally I went right through it.

I screamed.

Actually I screeched.

Then I grabbed the nearest handy instrument of arm-extenderness, an ice scraper hanging on the fence that hasn't made it indoors for the summer yet, and eliminated the web (and hopefully evicted the spider).

Never a dull moment.

And we ran a load of towels today, and yes, the washing machine IS leaking.  And not from the inlet hoses or drain hose.  Now I have to debate whether to talk to a handy neighbor (who will probably come try to diagnose/repair the problem for free or a minor amount), or try to find a not-exorbitantly-priced repair service (which of course will have to be paid TWICE, once to diagnose and again to repair).  Decisions.......

Hurry Up And Come Over,

my house is CLEAN.

Well, the downstairs is, except for my desk area which is never clean for more than 2 minutes.  The upstairs is still a Superfund site, and the basement is still a mess (and now I think the washer has sprung a leak, ARGH).  But the "public" areas of the house are neat and relatively organized.

I finally finished editing the photos I want to put up in my kitchen, and found the black trigger cloth to complete the chair covers - my kitchen chairs are gold and brown, which doesn't go with red, black and white.  I bought red and white print awning fabric to pair with the black trigger, and will make slipcovers!  Now I just need to compose a diner-style menu and have it laminated for the table, get a sign made and I think that will be it.

Anyone know what kind of bugs these are?  They are thick in the flower bed beside my driveway.

Here's my house.  The hens are inside the picket fence there in the right foreground.  My garden is there at center-right (the moundy-looking plants are lavender MMMMMMMM they smell good).  The main part of the house dates from before 1900 - probably before 1880 but I haven't had time to go to the courthouse to trace the deeds yet.  The flat-roofed addition is from the 1970s (if the date on the inside of the toilet tank is to be believed).  There is a full standup basement under the main house, and also a usable (but as yet only partially finished) attic too.  I have some neat architectural features on the inside I'll have to photograph and post here sometime.

Hope everyone had a good weekend - tomorrow might be another Mute Monday, and then Tech-Free Tuesday again.  Have a peaceful and blessed week, readers!

Apologies, but

if I try to post anything tonight it will just turn into a huge furious rant, which would very likely hurt the feelings of the one or two local friends who read here (although no hurt would be intended).

So I will just tell you that I finally managed to go to the optometrist today and am back in contacts (with cheapie reading glasses).  My face looks nekkid, but I can SEE again!

(And everyone knows that 'men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses')


And that it rained this evening.  It should be pleasantly easy to weed the garden tomorrow.  I promise to take pictures.

Thanks for sticking with me.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for future posts, please let me know!  It's my blog, but it's not a completely selfish effort.

Have a good Friday night!

Well. What Next?

I need to write a post about Lightning McQueen's 4-H presentation.

I would like to write about something very bittersweet, but worry that it's too personal.

But right now I'm kind of stuck.  I have no idea what to write!

I don't have a husband to write about, good OR bad.  My kids are, well, kind of ordinary, and I don't want to write too often about how aggravated I get with them sometimes for fear I will get the reputation of "horrible mommy blogger". Plus there are only so many times you can post about sibling bickering before it starts wearing thin. I could write about work, but really my work is 99% really boring pants and suits, and only 1% gorgeous designer gowns and opportunities for me to work my creative magic.

I could write about the hens, but I have decided NO MORE HEN POSTS until Oregano and Barbecue start laying.

I could also write about the realities about being a single parent. You really have no idea.  All those single moms who do interesting things like shop with friends, and date, and go to dinner?  That is not me.  I have a completely different life.

I do plan to put in the garden tomorrow, so there's that.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.

What do YOU want to read?

We interrupt this blog......

to bring you this important public service announcement:

I am generally a rather thick-skinned person.  Having gone through my elementary and secondary school years being teased about everything from my physical appearance to my intelligence, I finally learned a few years ago (or so I thought) to let others' opinions of me roll off like water from a duck's back.  Same with thinly veiled comments made not to me but in my hearing, that belittle and deride choices I've made, the background to which the speaker has no clue.

That's not to say that stuff like that doesn't hurt, it does.

Now, if I were a perfect person, I'd just decide not to be bothered by things that would hurt and insult someone who isn't perfect.  I could just chalk those comments and digs up to the fact that the person really didn't realize that what they just said was hurtful, or that I somehow ended up on the receiving end of that link to an article or video because the sender forwards a lot of stuff on to me, and temporarily forgot that maybe I'm passionate about that issue in the opposite direction.

Not to say I don't ever want anyone to disagree with me.  I'm just coming from a different place than a lot of people I know, and so I see some things differently.

Fact is, I'm divorced.  Quite necessarily and happily.  If you don't know the backstory, get to know me well enough to ask, and I'll be happy to tell you.  In the meantime, please don't have a loud conversation with a mutual friend about how you don't see how anyone could ever do anything so evil as get a divorce WHILE LOOKING AT ME SIDEWAYS.

Another fact:  I'm proud to have served the USA as an honorably discharged, decorated member of the US Army.  I spent a year at an "expendable" artillery base at the eastern edge of Europe as part of that service.  An "expendable" base is one that is a giveaway to the enemy (at that time the Soviet Union) in the event of shots-being-fired hostilities arising. So I guess you could say that while I was never in a war zone, I was in harm's way during that time, and I was there willingly.

Fact #3: I personally find it next to impossible to evangelize when I am surrounded by people who are just like me in terms of faith and belief. I find it much easier to pray for people if I've met them AND I KNOW WHO THEY ARE.

Final fact (for this post, anyway):  I'm doing the best I can, with what I've been given to work with.  Sometimes that's more than enough, but sometimes it isn't.  However, God is always right on time with just what He knows I need. You might not make the same decisions as I, given the same circumstances, but right now my circumstances are mine, not yours.  Please don't judge me. Or pity me.  Or for that matter, admire me.  Given a do-over I'd certainly make different choices, and I can tell you positively that the way things are is certainly not the way I intended for them to be.  It isn't easy, but it is what it is.

Thank you.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Road Trip!!

We're off this Thursday to Indianapolis and the Auto Racing Capital of the World, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the Centennial Race Weekend!

I don't have a mobile hotspot for my laptop, and no smartphone, so the blog will be on vacation as well.  However, if you want to know what we're doing, I will be Tweeting, hopefully pretty regularly.

I promise to take lots of pictures; this will be our first Carb Day, and we're also excited about the chance to get driver autographs on Saturday - each of us has a plain white t-shirt and a Sharpie marker.  I plan to put the shirts in shadowbox frames and hang them in my kitchen along with assorted other Indy 500 memorabilia that we collect along the way.

I'll be meeting up with the recipient of the Centennial Socks, and have a bunch of other swag to give her along with the socks.  I hope she likes what I chose for her! (Can't tell, because she might be reading this, teehee).

So everybody play nice, go read my old posts, and I'll be back after the weekend!

Totally Uncompensated Product Endorsement

Bath Fitter is da BOMB.

 Here's my ugly 70s tub and shower in the downstairs bathroom.  A total mildew factory, impossible to keep clean, and the drain was always so s-----l-----o------w.

 Midway through, my bathroom looked like this.  I think this is an improvement, considering how I despised the old tub.

 And here's my new seamless large-footprint shower!  SQUEE!

In short, our Bath Fitter franchise is everything their ads say, and more.  The worker was quiet and neat, and really did clean up after himself.  He even left us the old copper and brass to take in for recycling. I'd definitely recommend them.

The faucet is really neat; you set the water temperature with one lever and then turn the water on with another, so you can get the temp adjusted perfectly and every time you turn on the water it goes back to just that temperature!  No more fiddling and guesswork!  And the drain actually DRAINS.  And it's not slippery.  And it doesn't get water all over the floor.

I love my new shower!