Happy Halloween Y'All!

We don't get as many children and teens as we used to a few years ago, but there are enough cuties to keep me happy! Here's hoping that all of your trick-or-treaters come by for treats instead of tricks!

I Am Still Wearing White Sandals

I thought that I should post something quickly tonight so that my millions of readers would know that I am still alive. Until today, the weather has been so hot that everyone around here is still wearing white shoes and summer clothes! Today however, we finally have some nicer cool weather. Highs around 83, Lows around 70. That is getting close to heaven on earth in my book... at least in terms of the weather. I hope we get a few weeks of this at least before it gets hot again!

I have been very busy getting my mom ready to move closer to me and into a retirement/assisted living complex. We have sorted through about a gazillion of her books. Yesterday and today we worked with a moving service for the elderly marking her things that will go with her, the things that will move to my house, and the things that will go to charity. There are still a lot of junk drawers that she has to sort through. I have told her to pick one a day and that should get her done by her packing date. I really don't want to pay movers to move empty cans, jars, old pieces of sting and dozens of unknown keys... to name but a few. I also suggested that her three or four old coffee makers that are no longer working or are missing parts might possibly go into the garbage and not on the truck to Clearwater!

It has been a chore, but I can't imagine how difficult it would have been without the Welcome Home service. When she moves into her apartment her bed will be made and everything will be put away for her. They worked up a floor plan for all of her things with her, took pictures of everything, and will make sure that everything is in it's proper place when she arrives. They were absolutely wonderful!!!!

On a lighter note... I have started "eating healthier" which is the current code for going on a diet with Weight Watchers. It is my hope that future pictures of me will look a little different...

On The Rant Again...

After the recent anniversary of 9/11, and news items such as football players involved in running dog fighting matches , the unending reports of vicious killings in the Middle East and Africa, and the continuous reports of senseless violence against people and animals in our own country, I thought the following quotes would be appropriate to post:

"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives." - Albert Schweitzer

"We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature." - Rachel Carson, American Author and Marine Biologist

"Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he's the one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot." - Mark Twain, American Novelist

Over the past few years we have had local news reports of teenagers breaking into pens and purposely torturing pigs and horses, shooting pet cats with arrows, and beating dogs nearly to death. I shudder to think what these "kids" will be like when they are adults.

There are times when killing someone or something is necessary, but I can't imagine ever being delighted over doing so. I can't begin to understand the mind of a terrorist. I will never understand how any sane person can take pleasure in murder or torture.

Long Day, Long Week

I didn't get out of work until 8:30 PM tonight. It was a long day to end a very long and tedious work week. I have been working on several projects at work and had hoped to finish them all by the end of my day today. No such luck. Monday will be here soon enough.

My mom has been having some difficulty with her medications... taking medicine and poor memory don't work well together. She also has a new prescription that seems to be making her sick. She spent one evening vomiting. It is very hard to be at work and at home and get the phone calls about what is happening with her when I can't drop everything and travel for 2 1/2 hours to be there with her. With my projects at work this week, it was very frustrating!

Mom has a spot in an assisted living community that will be available for her in early November. It is close to my home so it will be easy for me to visit her and take her out once she is moved. It is a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment and big enough for her to take her looms, and baby grand piano... both very important to her... as well as much of the furniture and belongings that she currently has in her home.

So... this weekend I will be helping her go through some of her things and pack up some of the stuff that she doesn't want to keep. I figure that as the things that she doesn't want to keep are removed from the house, the easier it will be when it gets down to the harder choices. Hopefully it will make her move much easier. I still have plenty of boxes and an ample supply of tape to get started. We'll start with sorting through her books...

Speaking of books... I am about to get settled in to read my new Harry Potter book. I just need to grab a nice cold beer from the refrigerator and change from my work clothes into some comfy pajamas. You all have a wonderful weekend!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice And Men...

Well, I'm sad to say that I am losing my roommate. It seems she and her man have decided to be just friends, so she is heading back to Georgia in the next day or so. She plans on getting a job and going back to school to study to be a nurse. She also plans on visiting in the future when she can (likely for the Florida/Georgia football match in October). So tomorrow after work we will float in the pool and enjoy some Mimosas. It has really been a lot of fun having her staying in my home.

Lately, I have been following the episodes of The Next Internet Millionaire on the internet. Mostly, I am interested in the program because my daughter Allison's boyfriend Charles is one the twelve people who made it as a finalist. I especially enjoyed watching episode 4 tonight because Charles, who won't eat fish, pork, or a lot of other things, ate 2 worms. Not only did he eat them, but the way he ate them was hysterically funny... to me any way! You can watch any of the episodes or auditions for the program by going to the following site: http://www.nextinternetmillionaire.com The first episode was a little too long and a bit boring, but sets up how the other episodes unfold. By episode two you really get to see some of the personalities (negative and positive) emerging. There is a new episode each week until the final one sometime in November. I will continue to watch to see what Charles gets to do next. But it will be difficult to top the worm-eating that debuted tonight!


I am determined to finally start reading the latest Harry Potter book. It has been sitting in its box since the first day of distribution waiting for me to open it and start reading. Everyone that I have talked to that has already read the book has given it a thumbs up. I'll let you know what I think when I am done.

Anything Could Happen

I am looking forward to attending Blogstock '08 next summer. Although I know that I am going, I have yet to figure out what kind of accommodations I will be using. I'll have to ask Cliff if he is providing showers and toilets for everyone... perhaps a local motel will be my choice... with air conditioning! Knowing Cliff and Ralph, they will have everything well planned. It should be a fun time... but I am a little concerned about the toilets and showers...

Yup, I look forward to being let out of my cage! I have already used up this year's vacation days, so January will not be here soon enough! I am determined to plan better for next year's time off. I want to fit in a trip to Key West, Blogstock, a trip to somewhere I have never been before, and perhaps a short cruise. Key West can be a long weekend, but the others will take more time. I plan on taking my camera and getting lots of pictures... and lots of material for this blog. You never know... first I get dressed up as the Swedish Chef from the Muppets for "L"s house-warming-costume party... who knows what lies ahead!

will

Things Have Not Been Great...

...but I am still alive... and I have been trying to keep up with reading my favorite blogs even though I have not been posting.

The second baby bird died (was killed?) shortly after my last post. I found the little thing dead in the nest and mama bird no where to be seen. The next day the body had disappeared. It was sad... I had looked forward to watching the birds grow and leave the nest. Sigh.

My 82 year old mother has been having some memory problems and related health issues, so I have been trying to deal with that situation while still trying to figure out what to do about my own housing situation. Since I don't get alimony until the house sells, and the housing market does not look hopeful, it has been a bit difficult at times. I think that I may have figured a way to resolve some of that... it looks hopeful at any rate.

I now also have a roommate! Her name is Allison (same name as my youngest daughter) and she is the girlfriend of our new Youth Minister at church. I am really happy to have her here with me! She is a gem!

I am looking forward to attending Blogstock next year... I think it will be a wonderful time, and I look forward to meeting so many people in person that I have only known through blogs! Kudos to Ralph (Homespun Headlines) and Cliff Morrow(blog of the same name) for the idea and follow-through!

Things are looking brighter. I'll try to post more often so people don't forget me!

One Baby Bird

Well, we are down to Mama and one baby bird. I am not sure what happened to the other baby... one morning it was just gone. Sigh. Life is not always fair. I will continue to enjoy watching the little guy that is left grow. Look how big he is already! I haven't seen the male parent, but I hear him all the time close by in a tree.

They've Arrived!

Yes, we have two new baby Mourning Doves. If you look closely in the above photo, you can see one of the little heads peeking out from under Mama bird.

I have never been so close to newly hatched birds before. I am really excited! Yes, I know that probably means I lead a rather mundane existence, but it's okay for now. My next door neighbor suggested I name the mother bird, but I have not come up with anything yet. Suggestions are welcome. However, I have come up with names for the newly hatched... Heckle and Jeckle... just seems to fit.

Mama bird had gotten used to my presence until Heckle and Jeckle arrived. Now she is quite spooked about my being close to the nest. That is why I was able to get pictures of the babies. When I took the first picture, she flew from the nest and tried to do the injured-bird-to-distract-me-from-the-nest routine. I quickly closed the front door and left her alone. Hopefully, I will be able to get more pictures in a few days and as Heckle and Jeckle grow, but for now I don't want to panic Mama bird any more than is necessary to water the plant.

Convenient Birdwatching

I enjoy birds and am rather pleased to have such a close-up view of this rather dumb bird's nest. The nest is in a hanging planter immediately outside of my front door. I have to be careful not to spook mother bird every time I enter or leave the house. I took the picture of the eggs when mother bird got spooked when I was startled by almost stepping on an over 2 foot black snake slithering over my front door mat. I was not wearing shoes so it was not something I wanted to touch my bare foot!

To the best of my knowledge this bird is what is called a "Mourning Dove" and there are lots of them around. They seem to be fond of nesting in hanging potted plants. I keep trying to explain to her that I need to get some water into the pot to keep her "cover" alive. I am curious to see if these eggs will actually hatch. These really are very dumb birds.

Happy July 4th!!!

I hope that you have all had a wonderful holiday! We had a bit of rain, but there was still a lot of fireworks going off around here. I enjoyed dinner with my Italian neighbors and generally relaxed today. Tomorrow it is back to work!

Back At Work After A Great Trip To Austin

I has a wonderful mini-vacation in Austin, Texas over the Memorial Day weekend. It was fun playing tourist in a new place and learning a lot about Texas history. Below are some of the pictures I took that actually came out...

If you are ever in Austin, this building is a must! It is 3 stories of Texas history and quite intriguing! I knew very little about Texas history before this trip and could only retain a small portion of what I saw. My tour guide is quite a history buff, so that made it even more interesting to listen to his comments along with seeing and reading the exhibits.

This is a poor representation of a beautiful floor in the main lobby. I was so enthralled with everything, I forgot to take more pictures!

On the way from the museum to the state capitol, we passed the Diocese of Austin building...

and this statue... It is hard to see, but besides the book he is also holding a set of keys in his lower hand. Guess who!?!

Approaching the state capitol which my tour guide explained is actually larger than our capitol building in Washington DC.

My great tour guide/history buff

It is amusing to see these two portraits next to each other!



I was surprised to see the legislative session in gear on a Saturday of a holiday weekend!

This picture was taken at a wonderful Bistro that served German, Hungarian, etc. foods. It was scrumptious! I had something called Jaegerschnitzel, a cucumber salad, and fresh baked apple strudel. Yummy! Here my hosts, the Young brothers, are getting ready to enjoy their meal. Bryan, on the right, also fixed some great food at his home. We had steak at one meal, Brautwurst with a mustard and onion sauce at another, and on my first night there, Bryan took me to a great Mexican restaurant where I had the best chili rellenos I have ever had!

One of the highlights of my trip was to view the emergence at sundown of the largest urban bat population that happens to reside under a bridge in Austin. This picture was taken prior to the bats leaving the bridge. I don't know what these kayakers were thinking, but at least they had the good sense to be wearing jackets and hats!

It was hard to get a picture of the bats, but here you can see some of them. Once they start coming out they just keep coming! They stick together in a long snaking "flock" and then another, etc.

The low clouds in the night sky here are actually clouds of the bats... and at the same time, more bats are still coming out from under the bridge! It is quite a sight.

So now I am back at work. I am behind, but rejuvenated. It is crunch time to get the new accounting program that has just been installed in my new computer up and running and finish the budget. I am getting it done, but it will be close! I have never been this late with the budget before, but I will have it ready shortly in both formats... the old system and the new!

I Figured Out The Problem

Rats! No comments? Well, thanks to Cliff Morrow and Possum, I was alerted to the fact that readers were not being able to leave comments on my last two posts. It took me a few minutes to figure it out but you should now be able to leave comments on my posts again! Evidently I have to mark a setting with for each post to allow comments. It used to be that the general settings covered such things... not anymore. I suppose there is some logical reason for the change, but I have yet to discover it.

I May Never Get Out Of Bed Again!

Yup, I definitely love the new bed. I borrowed the foot stool from the family room to make it easier to into the bed, so that has helped a lot. Both of the cats seem to agree with me since both of them have spent most of the last few days on the bed. Koko prefers being on top of the layers of pillows and pillow shams... sort of the "Prince and the pea" Siamese cat.

In case you think that I am exagerrating about the height of the bed, just look at where the top of the night stand is in comparison to the top of the bed. But it's what I wanted, and the price was right so I am a happy camper!

Only 4 1/2 days until I leave for vacation! I guess I'll get out of bed for that! <:8 )~

Smoke Got In My Eyes...

but I still managed to sell some things on Ebay, buy some things on Etsy.com, work, take some computer training for some new software at work, and do some improvements on the house. The fires in Georgia and Florida have been pretty bad this year. We had one very bad day where the smoke was so this you couldn't see much more that 25 yards away. A week ago yesterday I had a layer of ash on my car. Most of that was from the fires in northern Florida and southern Georgia. Pinellas county where I live was especially bad due to the wind patterns bringing the smoke to us. Last night and this morning there was a bit of hazy smoke, but it wasn't very bad. Maybe I am just getting used to the smell of smoke.

The day lilies that I planted have sent up bloom stalks and should be blooming in a day or so. I hope that means no more trips to the chiropractor. I am planning a short vacation trip to Texas and don't want anything to interfere with my having a great time!

I found a great place for upscale used furniture on consignment in Tampa called The Missing Piece. I bought a set of table and chairs for Allison and a Rice bed for myself. I figured it was time to give up sleeping on a blow-up bed. Since I bought a bed, that meant that I needed to buy a mattress and box springs for the bed. Now I find that I need a step stool to get into the bed since the mattress level is so high. Actually, I love it that way! And where did I find a step stool? Well, on Ebay, of course! Next, I will get some of the furniture that I have in storage and don't want to keep and see if I can sell it through The Missing Piece.

I am still trying to get some things sold on Ebay, but, like I said before, it gets very time-consuming. I have missed keeping up with my favorite bloggers and reading comments on my non-existent posts. I am not sure how soon things will settle down for me. The house has still not sold, although a family that looked at it on Thursday came back today for another look. I figure that is a good sign. I have mixed feelings about it selling, of course, but at least I should be able to enjoy the pool for part of then summer. Who knows what will happen?

I will try to post again soon... I need to get back into the habit!

OK, Here We Go...

You see, it all started with an innocent purchase on ebay. I love bargains. I especially love finding a bargain on something that is hard to find. Ebay has lots of bargains. Ebay also has lots of neat things that are hard to resist. So I chose not to resist some of them. That was the easy part. Now, in order to shop for those bargains as well as pay for an upcoming trip, I have decided that I need to sell things on ebay as well. That is not difficult... time consuming, but not difficult.

So, what is the difficult part you ask? Well, the difficult part is trying to do any of the above when my internet cable decides not to work for more than 30 seconds on any given day... and most days of late seem to have been "given" days! This also makes it difficult to post to this blog, or for that matter, to communicate with many people in a way I that I have become accustomed to communicating. My internet cable problems are not new... they just have gotten worse this past month. Three houses on my side of the street (mine being one of the three) all go out at the same time every time. It has taken no less than twenty different repair techs to figure out the problem. This is the second day in a row that my internet is working, so I think they may have finally decided that they are tired of visiting the most pleasant people who live on my street. Neighbor Rosie got the cell phone number of the last tech so he will get a personal call if the cable internet service does not continue to work. Possibly it was the flames emerging from her eyes as she spoke to him that did the trick.

I have actually made a bit of fun money by buying and selling on ebay. I have sold some of my teapot collection (I needed to downsize), resold some extra pieces of sterling that I bought on ebay (buy in big lots, sell individual pieces, and you can pay for the original purchase!), and sold some Longaberger baskets that I decided not to use as gifts. I even went to a garage sale this past Saturday with a friend to look for some things I could resell on ebay. I got a pretty First Edition Reed and Barton silver bell for the whopping price of fifty cents! It just needed some silver polish. I am so proud of this find that I may just add it to my bell collection and not sell it after all! If you ever want to look me up on ebay to see what I am selling my ID is Peggy2292.

So what else has been going on in my life? Well, here it is in an abbreviated form...

work
ebay attempts
call for Roadrunner repair
wait for Roadrunner tech guy to show up
work
ebay attempts
call for Roadrunner repair
work
wait for Roadrunner tech guy to show up
ebay attempts
etc., etc., etc.
housecleaning madness to get ready for a showing of the house
sore back
chiropractor
work
ordered day lilies from ebay arrive
get soil and manure for planting lilies
sore back
work
follow up on items I sold on ebay
several visits to post office to mail ebay packages
work
ebay attempts
call Roadrunner repair line
plant some daylilies
really sore back
can't move
chiropractor
speak ever so politely with Roadrunner tech guy
chiropractor
work
can't move
chiropractor
finishing planting day lilies with daughter Allison's help
work
chiropractor
glare at Roadrunner tech guy
back still sore
right knee swollen from lower back being out of alignment

limp, limp, limp
chiropractor
work
housecleaning madness to get ready for a showing of the house
sore back
can't move
chiropractor
sit in meetings all day on uncomfortable chair
sore back
chiropractor
work
another set of day lilies arrive
Okay, enough. I think you get the idea. NO, I don't plant the new day lilies until tomorrow.

I promised some pictures of my pottery purchases. "L" has one of the pieces. Here are a couple of photos of some others...

Some recent Mr. Koko pictures as his commentary on life (arrived at after 16+ years), along with an appropriate Douglas Adams quote...

"There is a particular disdain with which Siamese cats regard you. Anyone who has walked in on the Queen cleaning her teeth will be familiar with the feeling." Douglas Adams

Tomorrow, daughter Allison comes over to help me plant the 50 new day lilies (Stella Doro) that arrived yesterday. This batch will go in front of and to the side of the taller ones that we previously planted. Some of them will also go in the front planter and get distributed to neighbors. Buying a lot of 50 was a real bargain!!! Well, maybe not if you figure in the possible chiropractor bills... but then Allison will be helping!

I will be trying to catch up with eveyone's blog posts over the next few days, but I will also try to get another post in tomorrow... after the day lilies are planted, but before I can't move.