Things change quickly here in the real world...

I remember when I was a kid, duck and cover exercises .. Oh, I know now that, obviously, they wouldn't have done a damn thing to save us, really... but it sure made you FEEL like it would. Flash forward 35+ years and I am wishing that duck and cover would make me feel safer these days... Have you been reading the news? North Korea has a whack job of a new leader, who thinks he needs to make his bones by threatening the world with nuclear annihilation... IDIOT...

I see photos of North Korean people and I have to wonder if they know. If they know that are being mislead? If they know that the "news" they read is propaganda? If they know the photos of US troops storming their shores are photo shopped?  Or are they beginning to be like the American sheeple and just blindly following because it's easier than thinking for themselves? Or maybe they have really been that sheltered, for so long, that this generation doesn't know any alternatives.. I cannot fathom that. Maybe because I am older and wiser now and the generation in power over there isn't even old enough to remember why there is a "neutral zone" between the two countries... I personally am not old enough to remember the Korean War but at least in my education, we covered it... I am not even sure they do anymore except in a blurb, in passing..

What's the old adage? Those that forget their history are destined to repeat it?

I am sure this will be a VERY unpopular stance, but, I vote we just turn the entire Middle East and North Korea both into very large sheets of glass... call it done and move on... Start over so to speak, with a clean slate and some INTELLIGENT leaders... Oh wait, that would infer that we have one and it is obvious right now, we don't. I sure hope this president we have, has some stones. I am afraid we are gonna need it..

I hope I am wrong but I see us fighting on multiple fronts and some other super power deciding now is a good time to "invest" in America.. so to speak...I don't want to learn Russian, or Chinese for that matter... I kind of like things the way they are and I really don't like "change"... Maybe that's why I didn't vote for him, either time. Maybe this is just one more good reason to leave MY guns the hell alone.. they are mine. I bought them. I shoot them. I clean them... and you can bet I can hide them too...

I read the news and I wonder about my fellow Americans... are they really that stupid? Or is it just that they are lazy? I know the gene pool could use some chlorine right about now.. You know how you "shock" a swimming pool? Maybe it is time to SHOCK the gene pool..... take away the warnings on every damn thing and let natural selection take it's course. I mean really... Do we really have to tell you that the HOT coffee you just ordered might be HOT? Or that the Preparation H cream you just bought is for EXTERNAL USE? Or that the hair dryer you use is not for use in the tub? This is the stuff I am referring too... Common sense is so rare any more it should be classified as a super power. 

Where do we draw the line? If the government/suppliers have to warn you, to save you from your own stupidity, then aren't you really too stupid to function in the real world? Now I am not referring to side effects of medications or anything like that.. I am talking about OBVIOUS things. Hot coffee = HOT... 

Someone please tell me that I am wrong and see if you can really back up your argument.. A lot of you have tried and failed... I am holding out hope. 

I really am a lucky person...

I have always had a lucky streak and this month has been good.. I not only won concert tickets from a local radio station, I just found out that I won this contest: Under the table and dreaming.....


I picked the Garden Blooms pattern... Whew heww... Thank you Stephanie.. I love your blog..

I will be blogging more as time goes on, I just have to get caught up first lol...

Well it's official...

The house has been sold and I am not the least bit unhappy about that... Oh I know I should be but I am not. I haven't lost one bit of sleep and I can assure you, I won't look back on this as anything but a learning experience.. I pity the poor person who purchased it though.. it is gonna cost them a chunk to repair everything that I couldn't...

Now it is time to make some other decisions in my life.. none that I can speak of on here yet.. It might jinx me in some fashion LOL....

I will certainly let everyone know once the plans are in place... :-) wish me luck!

Daily Ponderables...

Have you ever had one of those days that, no matter how hard you tried, the day just sucked anyway? Yep, that's today for me...

It wasn't but a couple of weeks ago that we lost a co-worker.. Tom, head of our catalog marketing. He and his wife Rebecca have more talent in their little fingers than anyone I will ever have the privilege to meet (http://rebeccazook.blogspot.com). Took the wind out of our sails...

Now today we lost another. A man that I had a great deal of respect for. A man who could cuss you and charm you all in the same breath.. Most people here were scared of Larry, he headed the finance end of our corporate office. At least those downstairs here (us peons) were anyway.. I never was. The first time he yelled at me, I gave it right back too him.. he just smiled. We never got cross ways again. After Larry had his stroke a few years back, it slowed him down physically but not mentally. He could pull numbers right off the top of his head and they were the right numbers...We were always leaving at the same time and we would joke about having a foot race... He always won by the way :-)

Larry put off retiring. He wanted to wait until his wife was old enough to draw her benefits and then they would retire together. He never got that far. He literally worked right up until he died. He was waving at us girls just yesterday, as he was driving out of the parking lot.

I learned a lot from Larry, maybe we will just call this another lesson learned. Maybe the most important lesson. I, for one, refuse to work right up until the end. Enjoy what you have, when you can. Never, ever put off your own happiness. Things will take care of themselves if you just have a little faith. If you get your ducks in a row, before it's "your time"... you will be fine. You might not be Bill Gates wealthy, but if your bills are paid and you have a roof and food... what the hell more could you want?

Wait... damnit! That is the same life lesson I learned from my daddy (miss you and love you lots)..!

Life is too damn short to work yourself to death or to be unhappy.

Daily Ponderings

Well it's official.. I finally got moved in to the boyfriends house. Of course moved in doesn't mean unpacked lol... Bless his heart. We are both independent and have been on our own for a while but he is adjusting well LOL...

Now I can spend my evenings getting everything unpacked and get my work area reorganized.. Maybe then I can sit down at get some work done. It is driving me NUTS!

Temps are climbing and the humidity is dropping so the grass fire threat is getting worse. Got some big uglies burning out in West Texas and in the Panhandle.. Sure hate to see the Summer get here. I hate the 100+ temps. I hate the electric bills that go with them lol... Gonna have to get a swimming pool at this rate :-)

The grandson now has two bottom teeth.. he is the greatest thing in the world. He is the happiest, funniest baby. He loves his Papa and everyone else ceases to exist when he is around lol... Sometimes I think the only reason he loves me is access to Papa :-) (not really)

My daddy would have been 74 years old this year. His birthday was Sunday the 10th. He sure would have loved his grand babies.. I sure am sorry that he didn't get to be here for them. My memories of growing up with the rest of my family is one of my greatest treasures. I hope it is for Caleb too when he gets grown...

I finally got quite a few rosaries done and even a few necklaces and "auto" rosaries.. you know, the kind that hang from the rear view mirror? I will have a few more pieces done before the show. I am working on some domino size pendants and some new earrings to add to the inventory...

Well it is time to go back from lunch.. talk to you next time!

Daily ponderings...

A few years ago I was blessed with winning a trip to Japan from EK Chain, one of our vendors. There was 16 of us all total and not a one of us spoke the language. The flight over was great. We had Japanese flight attendants who were the best in the industry. The service we received while in country, was the best I have ever experienced. Tipping is not permitted. On our last day there, I was speaking with the manager of the Imperial Hotel. I asked him why it was frowned upon. He stated, "Excellent service should be expected, not bought". I thought that was a pretty good answer.

We spent a week touring the chain factory and sight seeing. I was both amazed and disappointed. Of course I went thinking that what I would experience would be Japan of my history and school books. That Japan doesn't exist. Not in the manner in which we were taught anyway. What I did find was an incorporation of everything old, historic, and beautiful into a thoroughly modern economy that wants so desperately to be American. I was so surprised at the number of "American" businesses, IE.. The Hard Rock, 7/11, McDonalds, and so on...

I would dare say that 90% of the country does not speak anything but Japanese, contrary to what we have been taught. I think that the much younger generation might very well be bilingual, but the typical adult is not. We were lucky enough to have two wonderful young ladies that were bilingual as tour guides and they took us to some of the neatest, off the beaten path places..

We did discover that the "old school" Japanese businesses don't want Americans to come in. We found this out because we were trying to find a restaurant that served dumplings. As we came in with our guides, they kept waving "NO" and trying to hold the door for us to leave.  At first I was offended until I found out the reason. They don't like it because they don't speak English and are worried that a miscommunication would cause offense. See, Japanese people will not approach you or even speak to you, at all, unless you speak to them first and that is considered rude behaviour, to engage someone you don't know, in conversation. They won't even look you in the eye as they are afraid to encourage conversation.

The architecture was so neat to see.. you would see old, traditional Japanese structures, literally incorporated into the facade of new, modern, glass and steel buildings. Rather than destroy the old, they would just attach the new, right to it.

We stayed a couple of nights in a traditional Japanese, sleep on the bamboo mats, on the floor, hotel. Complete with the public bath (which I declined to try) and the beautiful gardens. I was worried that my 40+ year old bones weren't going to take sleeping on the floor as well as they used too. I have to admit I was impressed. I don't know if there is a secret to those mats but that was some good sleep.

On our trip we stopped in this little mountain town. I never got the name, I am sure I couldn't pronounce it even if I did. This town was literally built up the side of this mountain. Narrow, curving roadways, that led straight up the mountain and into the clouds. It was green, clean, and stunning. I bought a few things while we were there and we then headed off to Motegi for the Moto GP Race and the Honda Museum.

We spent the rest of the morning admiring Mr. Honda's legacy. The Honda Museum was the most interesting place.

Exhibited at the entrance of the Honda Collection Hall is this bicycle equipped with an auxiliary engine made from a small, remodeled unit that had served as a power generator for an old no. 6 military radio transmitter (October 1946). This engine marked the origin of Honda Motor, the start of a dream. "Yume," the character for "dream" in Japanese that is seen etched on the glass, is in founder Soichiro Honda's own writing. Honda's dreams were always grand, and in that spirit, he boldly took up the challenges before him.

I only made one purchase there. I purchased a Sterling Silver pin for my vest. It is the Yume, referred to in the picture above. That pin is my treasure, it signifies MY dreams.

It appears that a very large number of the things that I had the great privilege to see, may no longer exist. See, thanks to Mother Nature, it appears that the area from just North of Tokyo up to Sendai, has been obliterated. I am sure the Honda Museum still stands and that Motegi, the Twin Ring Moto GP track is still there but they did sustain some serious damage. That little mountain town, I cannot imagine survived the horrendous earthquake. I hope it did but I somehow doubt it. The amount of devastation that took place just astounds the mind.

We flew back on American Airlines with American flight attendants.. I have to say that the service coming back, SUCKED.. big time. Absolute night and day from their Japanese counterparts.

I am certain that the wonderful people of Japan will pull through this. They have survived utter devastation before. I know that I admire their hard work and tenacity. I admire the fact that they are not screaming for the rest of the world to come save them, even though we are trying. But I also know that they have a lifetime of hard work and sadness to get through.

Daily ponderings..

I have no idea where I got this need to create things. Sometimes it drives me nuts to have to do other things, like work lol... Even at work I am putting together ideas. This year the Fort Worth Art Goggle is May 14th, so I am scrambling, trying to get product made, working on new ideas, and trying to get moved at the same time...

After a long, hard Winter, I have the money to get caught up on my mortgage, but it appears that they don't want my money.. I cannot get ANYONE from Flagstar Bank to call me back. Not that I really WANT to keep that damn house but I was going to do the right thing, get caught up, let the kids live there for a few years, then sell it when the market rebounded better...

Looks like I may be putting the kids in an apartment and mailing the keys back after all. That might work out to my advantage anyway though... I will have Caleb around the corner. We will be close if we are needed.

Of course this all depends on what they find.. ugh I hate moving.

Ahhh... another day in paradise..

Just a shame we aren't all there right?? lol.....

After a weekend with the stomach flu, I have decided that being sick SUCKS...! I have also come to the decision that there are certain people in this world that were not graced with manners and common sense.. I have a few co-workers that are of the mind that demanding something will get them assistance faster or that waiting until the last minute to do something will prompt me to help them faster...... Not with me it doesn't. 

A lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part.

I hate moving... trying to organize the kids moving in and me moving out is a cluster... Starting to make yard sales piles and donation piles.. Not enough room for everything... Gotta take the motorcycle down to the boyfriends so he can get it inspected and out of the way... Still trying to get product made for the Art Goggle in May. Have some rosaries done and starting some jewelry.. just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day :-)

I will get some pictures up.. when I create that 25th and 26th hour...

New projects on the way...

I have been behind on keeping up with this because I am getting things settled.. Heather, Josh, and Caleb have been living here with me for a time and now they are taking over the house. I will be moving in with the boyfriend and with the price of gas, will be riding the motorcycle ALOT...

I have quite a few rosaries and necklace ideas that I will be posting on here and getting ready for the Art Goggle of Fort Worth in April..

Daily Ponderings.. Another fine day of home ownership adventures...

Yesterday (Thursday), I go up to check the mail. Fort Worth has our neighborhood setup to a central mailbox drop for the convenience of the mail carrier and mine is two doors up. So I go get the mail and I am walking back to the house, opening my water bill as I go. I step off the retaining wall about the time I notice that my water bill is 94.00. WTH?? It is only me living here. I don't have a sprinkler system. DAMN! SPLASH!. HUH??? Oh no... and that's when I notice that my side yard is a spongy lake. Not just a little wet.. No! No wonder my beautiful oak tree did so well this year.. ughh.. Ok, where is the water coming from? I notice that it is drier, closer to the house. Hmm.. so I turn back towards the meter box and the retaining wall and that is when I see it. There is literally water running out of the meter box.

Now my meter box has that HEAVY metal lid on it so I have to go get a screw driver to lift it off of there. Jeez... yep, it is full of water and mud. Crap! It is so full I cannot even turn the water off because I cannot find the turn off. Ok. Go call the city water department, so much for customer service.

The phone was answered by an obviously black woman. No big deal.. except she could care less about her job or my leak and was in no hurry to do ANYTHING.. twice on hold, she finally comes back and tells me that they will call me to set an appt.

Me: "REALLY? An appt?"

Her: "You obviously don't have water gushing down the street and your water pressure isn't affected so it isn't considered an emergency. They will call you and set your appt. tomorrow."

UGH! So I ask her that once the leak is fixed, how do I go about getting my bill adjusted?

Her: "We aren't going to adjust your bill. Your responsible for the full amount."

Me: "If that leak is inside that meter box, I don't think so."

Her: "The City of Fort Worth is not going to adjust your little bill because of a minor leak and if I send someone out and they find the leak is on your side of the meter, you will be responsible for repairs."

Me: "Your not serious?"

Her: "Hmphh"

Me: "Let me explain something to you.. First and foremost, when I get done with your supervisor, about your piss poor customer service and attitude, I will get my bill reduced. It is up to you which news channel I call to get this resolved?"

Her: "Have a nice day." click she hangs up..

I could describe the words that came out of my mouth at that point but if you know me? I don't have to.

I then called back and got a very sweet, very helpful, customer service rep on the phone and she made sure that the field supervisor would be here first thing this morning. BLESS YOU! She also made sure that the customer service supervisor was aware of the previous call... Thank you.

I call in and take the day off because who knows how long all this is going to take.

It wasn't long after 9 am that I noted a water dept truck out front so I went out to meet the guy. He had just finished pumping the water out of the box when I got there and I looked down and knew right away, this was going to be all mine to deal with.. Now mine is a shared meter box with my neighbor and the water guys told me that it wasn't all mine.. Yes I did have a leak but so did my neighbor. Hmm... ok, so we go get the neighbor and we are talking with the wife. He explains how we both have leaks and told us that he DID NOT recommend us using the city service to fix it as it would be VERY expensive. That was nice of him.. I talked to the neighbor and they were about to head out of town and if I wanted to get some estimates, then we might just split the bill. Even better!

I called my wonderful AC guy to ask for a referral for a good plumber and he gave me the name of one. I called and YIKES! Not only did he not do FREE estimates but it was 375.00 for leak detection and just to show up! Uhhh NO! that isn't happening. So I head over to the Superpages.com website because I have seen the commercials on tv. I immediately find a plumber that does free estimates AND he can be right over. Nice.

He gets there and he locates the leak and gives me an estimate for my side. 275.00 if we dig it, 500.00 if he does.. OUCH. Jeez.. The neighbors husband comes out to ask what was going on? He was waiting on the city to come by because he called them yesterday because he had a leak.. Umm yep, we know and your wife (who is standing right there) has already talked to me and the city guy.. That's why we are getting estimates? He just nods and smiles... this is not very promising.. The plumber looks up at him and informs him that he does have a leak but it isn't anywhere near the meter box. It appears he might have either a slab leak or line leak under his driveway.. 1500.00+ dollars to start with...

Ummm no offense but we aren't splitting this bill!

The plumber leaves and I call the boyfriend to inform him. He decides to come up and have a look. When he gets there, he decides he will dig it and save the extra money. God love him. :-)

He dug it and man that was an eye opener. Another rigged issue from the previous owner.. We called the plumber and he came right back out and took care of it. He was even nice enough to drop the bill by another 25.00 AND gave me a warranty. Nice!

Well if you made it this far, thank you for your interest... Talk to you later..

Daily Ponderings... The joys of homeownership continued...

Welcome back, I must not have bored you to tears with the previous episode.. We left off at the carpet adventure.. After I loaded in the new flooring, I convinced the boyfriend that he loved me enough to install laminate flooring.. Ha! I bet that doesn't happen again lol... In all actuality, the laminate went fairly smooth for two people that have never done this before :-) Of course I bought enough for the living and dining rooms and down the hall. Problem is, I didn't get enough at that moment to finish the hall. Of course at that point the economy was starting to tank and I got paniky. I held off buying any more flooring to finish out the house, thinking this was a temporary dip in the economy.. Boy was I wrong.. without going into details, just know that I sell motorcycle parts and a motorcycle is considered a luxury. Guess what moves to the back burner in a bad economy? Yep, the luxuries.... Here we are nearly two years later and they say the recession has ended. Really? I will say that things have improved but they are by no means good. Anyway.. I will say that at least my cats are having the time of their lives on the new floor... Remember the movie, Over the Hedge? Yep... more pad and less claw Hammy....

Now when I bought the house, the only screens it had on it were on the very front... The bedroom windows are the side to side sliders and good lord that is a pain making screens for, but I did it. Things are looking up... Somewhere around January, I came home one day and it was COLD outside.. I thought it felt cool in the house but since I had just came in, I didn't really think about it. Although around 3 in the morning, I realized that both cats are burrowed under the covers and it is downright frosty in the house. Uh oh. Not a good thing since the heater is set on 72. Luckily, the next day, my mother put me in contact with a GREAT AC/heat repair guy... Bless his heart he came straight out and found the problem in no time. Lucky for me it is was just some fuses and he had them replaced within an hour and didn't charge me my right arm and left leg for the service.. Bless you Mike!

April rolls around and so far, so good... I am headed for work one morning and notice there is water under my garage door. WTH? I go back in to check and discover a hose to my hot water heater has split and is spewing water everywhere. Oh and it is above the heater so I have to go out to the curb to shut the water off... Now this isn't a problem.. I know how to do that. I open the meter box lid and MOTHER OF GOD! I have never in my life seen so many fire ants... The entire meter box is one big fire ant bed.. Now I know they didn't move in there at that level overnight. So does this mean that the meter man has NOT been reading the meter? Now we have a problem... The boyfriend comes over and fixes the water line and I call the water department. The man on the other end informs me that he doesn't deal with fire ants and that it was my responsibility. Now a little common sense please. YOU put in the meter. YOU put in the box that holds the meter. YOU come out every month and read the meter, I don't. YOU turn my service on and off as needed. Therefore, it would be YOUR responsibility to clear the meter so that you can read it and not ESTIMATE my usage. Because when you do come out and read my meter and I have the water bill from hell? Guess which news channel I am going to call first?... Yep, I thought you would see things my way. Thank you..

Well the ants got cleared and low and behold I DID NOT get a huge water bill. Nice... Now that everything is dried out and seems to be working normally...

The next month, one morning, I go to take my usual shower. My shower is one of those, one handle turn left or right for cold or hot type? It has a push plunger to turn the shower on or off. Push in for shower, out for bath... easy? No. It has always been real hard to pull out for the bath setting but I got the hang of it. As I am turning on the water, I notice that a stream of water is shooting out the plunger. Hmm... I push in the plunger and the stream lessens but not completely. Ok, I can deal with this... Don't know why it is doing it but ok...

About a month later, I get in the shower and push in the plunger. It pops right back out. I push it in again.. It pops all the way out, and I mean ALL THE WAY out.. it lands in the bathtub. Hmm... I turn the water off and put it back in. I put it in and hit it. It stays in, PERMANANTLY... Oh hell, at least I can still take a shower. Now what the hell is the name of that part and where do you find one? Not at Lowes or Home Depot. I actually had to find it at one of those online specialty plumbing shops... at least it isn't expensive.

Well, I will finish the story later... Thanks for visiting...

Daily ponderings....

Do you remember the movie "The Money Pit"? For those of you that don't, feel free to go to IMDB.com and read about it... it is about a couple buying their "dream home" and the comedic pitfalls of restoring it. Now in the real world, I would expect to find more problems as I dismantle and reassemble a house, but I am not doing that. I am simply living in this house from day to day. I have lived in this house for 2.5 years and I can assure you that not one of those days has gone by that I didn't worry about something else that is going to break, fall off, and/or quit working. Let me begin at the beginning, 2.5 years ago, April 2007.

I had never bought a house, by myself and really, nothing big I ever did in my life, came off smooth as glass and without a hitch. I should have known, right off the bat, that when this did, I was in for trouble. Finding the house was fast. The purchase was fast AND smooth. I got a great interest rate and payments that I could easily afford. The finance company sent out an inspector and everything checked out, not one problem. I should have known...

I closed on the house in April of 2007 and a week later I was moving in... and that is where everything started going wrong! Now the boyfriend is all in helping me move and I have had a head start packing.

We are moving in the very first load and as I go to unlock the door, we can't?  Why not? It worked fine the day before? Hmmm.... go around to the back of the house and go in the back door, only to find out the tumblers have locked up on the front door lock, now what? Damn! Ok, get the door open and at least get the truck unloaded, then one of us is off to Wally World for new locks... done. Whew, what an adventure. Since we didn't get the beds moved and the set up, I stay at the apartment, one more night..

We spend the next day, ALL DAY, moving, EVERYTHING...Lowes delivers and sets up my brand new refrigerator, whew hew.... Exhausted but happy, I fall into my bed, in my new house, and I am out like a light. I am expecting the best night of sleep in a very long time. No one walking on my ceiling.. No strange car door noises. I have no idea what time was, when I am woke up by the most horrible, banging and clanging AND it is inside the house!  I jump up and hit the light only to discover that the ceiling fan/light is swinging wildly around the room and about to take flight. I kill the fan at the wall and try to figure out what the hell caused this. Oh, did I mention that I have 17 foot ceilings throughout the house? Yeah... Ceiling fans on 5 foot down rods.. NICE....

Ok, I don't have a ladder that will reach that high yet, but what the hell, right? Life is just one big adventure and this is but another curve in the road. We get up the next morning and discover that the brand new refrigerator is not cool. Hmmm... Ok, so this ISN'T a problem with the house per se, BUT..... Now in Lowes defense, they were Johnny on the spot and came out within hours with another brand new fridge and we were good to go. All better and I am starting to relax....of course that was until I priced 12 foot ladders! Have you seen the prices of those things? Man they are proud of them. Well that is just gonna have to wait.

Things rocked along for a couple of weeks and I was really just beginning to think that we had passed the worst... ahhh but I was wrong.. Mother Nature hadn't had her turn at me yet. It was nearly a month after I moved in we had some huge storms roll through. No tornadoes, but 60+ mph winds are bad enough. Of course the hail was HUGE and did I mention my house has a skylight in the bathroom? Yep, who ever thought of skylights in Texas should be shot. Yep, two holes and it was leaking like a sieve. Lucky me, at least the skylight is over the tub :-)... Of course that was all before I walked outside to go to work and discovered that half my fence was on the ground. Really? Could this day get any better? Wired up the fence, the boyfriend climbed on the roof and patched the skylight.. joy..

Of course when you buy your first house you have to buy all the trappings of home ownership... Lawn mowers, weed eaters, that sort of stuff. I prefer a light weight, electric weed eater. No biggie. Got a good one on sale for CHEAP. Saturday morning, I am out doing the new home owner thing... I mow and dutifully put away the mower and break out the weed eater and plug it in. Hmm... nothing. I make sure I have a good connection on both ends of the cord, yep we are good. Hmm... still nothing. I unplug and plug into the lower plug.. Nothing. I unplug and move to a totally different plug. STILL NOTHING... Ok, now I am irritated. I have to literally plug in, inside the garage and run the cord around one side of the house. I plug in, inside the garage (thank God for long extension cords) and GET NOTHING.... $(#&*&%*()#(*$!!!

I throw my hands up, put everything away, call the boyfriend, fuss and cuss, and then go take a shower. After the shower, I plug in the hair dryer. NOTHING!! Ok, now I am seeing RED... NOTHING WORKS.. Oh that's an exaggeration, all the other plugs in the house work.. all the ones farthest from what I NEED! I turn around and hit the light switch and realize it is REALLY warm... Now that worries me. Crap... I know plumbers. I know AC guys... I don't know an electrician to save my life. CRAP!

Long story short, I got all that taken care of. I should be happy. Things are finally starting to rock along and I decide I want laminate floors in the house. Not really something I had planned on but it appears the prior owner had cats. ALOT of cats, I eventually found out (via my ever so helpful neighbors). What they didn't tell me was that apparently she kept a bunch of them in the house. Not that cats in the house is a problem. I have two very old, very cranky, part human, cats. But it becomes a problem when your cranky cats decide they have to cover the odor of the other cats. ARGGHHH... nasty, nasty, nasty! Oh and don't believe everything you read. Odor eliminators and pet stain removers? Not so good on cat stains. I tried everything I could find. I read suggestion on the internet and not one thing worked. So my solution? Rip out the carpet and put down laminate. Not a bad idea since one room with the carpet problem was the dining room.. Who, in their right mind, puts carpet in a dining room? Really?

So out comes the carpet. The boyfriend and I spend one weekend ripping the carpet out of the dining room, the living room, and down the hall. UH OH... not a good idea... who would have thought that this was the original carpet from when the house was built, in 1984?? YUCK, EWW, NASTY, NASTY, NASTY!! I cannot get that carpet out fast enough. Good lord how many cats did she have??? Carpet is now curbside in the very hot Texas, early summer heat. Lord am I glad they came around and got that stuff within a day or two. Age, cat urine, and God knows what else, simmering in the Texas sun was starting to get ripe. I am thinking the trash guys don't get paid near enough for the stuff they have to deal with...

So the carpet is out and I spend a day or two just scrubbing the fool out of the floor. I put down some stuff that was recommended to deodorize the cement underneath and then seal it so there is no more smell. It worked!!! Hurrah! Something actually worked as advertised. Now all I have to do is get the flooring and I am set. So, off to Lowes I go, in search of the perfect color for the perfect price.. I found it!! Oh my goodness it is EXACTLY what I wanted, so I buy tons of it and head home. I am unloading it into the garage and neatly stacking it. Did I mention that those boxes of laminate are not only VERY heavy, but bulky too? Just an FYI... when you drop one on your toe? Either pray for steel toes or be prepared for one nasty and extremely painful bruise... and when it is your big toe? You feel it every step for weeks!

Oh and in case I forgot to tell you.. I am not the least bit savvy enough to install flooring myself.. Oh, not to say that I couldn't figure it out, but that's what boyfriends are for right?? Love you honey!

I am sure this has been some long reading so far, but since we haven't even gotten to the first year of ownership, I will leave the adventures of flooring for tomorrow... If I haven't bored you to tears so far, please drop back by tomorrow for more.

Daily Ponderings...

Wow it has been a busy 2 months. On July 11, 2010 I was given the most wonderful grandson in the world. Caleb Thomas Wright... he is the absolute love of my life, without a doubt... He was born on 07/11. He weighed, 7 lbs 11 oz.

The real irony in this situation is that my daughter was working for 7/11 when she got pregnant with him and her room number at the hospital was 117... LOL Guess who has new lottery numbers! I love that picture... He is such a serious little guy... I call this one my thinking man.

They grow so absolutely fast, I had forgotten how fast. In two months, he has just amazed all of us.

He holds his head up so well and has nearly turned over twice. He is so alert and I love the giggles. He is just like his mother though.. Two months and already refusing formula so we are having to improvise. He is lactose intolerant (sorry kiddo), so milk is out. Even 2% messes his tummy up.

I was watching the Today show the other morning and came across something that I found interesting. Since Calebs eating habits are having to change, I saw Norah O'Donnell and her husband making baby food. My first thought was how ambitious this must be lol.... After watching her husband make one recipe in 15-20 minutes, making enough for a month, I thought I would give it a go. Apparently they put all these quick fix recipes in a book and I went to Barnes & Noble (LOVE that store) and bought it. Here is a screen shot of the cover if your interested.

Apparently you can freeze this in ice cube trays (interesting) and then package it in plastic and it will last up to 6 months. No chemicals, no junk, just good old fashioned, Grammy cooked food :-)

I will keep you apprised of how this goes...

On another note, I have finally picked my camera back up and started shooting again. I don't know why I quit but I have missed it. There is a wonderful website that an artist friend of mine turned me onto. It is where you can upload your artwork, any kind, and sell it. They will frame it or anything else you want done for a fee. I uploaded 100 pictures to start with. Most are works that I have done in the last few years on road trips. When I get a good scanner, I will work on the others I have done over the years. Here is a link to my work: Susan Ayers at Fine Art America

Please feel free to look through the pictures and let me know what you think.

I will update more regularly and let you know how the baby things are going...

Catching up... Daily Ponderables...

Wow it has been awhile hasn't it?? Lots going on and has happened... New grandson! Welcome to the love of my life: Caleb Thomas...

My little thinking man...

The boyfriend won a trip to the Laguna Seca / MotoGP race in Monterey California.. Whew heww... the flights are gonna suck, terrible planning on their part, but the weather is supposed to be AWESOME.. daily high of 68? I could get used to earthquakes for that weather. Gonna check out the Monterey Aquarium, Fishermans Wharf, and having dinner at Bubba Gumps... Bike night on the Wharf, Saturday night should be cool...I will have lots of pictures when we get back so stay tuned...

Daily ponderable

I bought my home in April of 2007. As a new homeowner, I of course, did not have all the tools available for things like yard work and such. So I hired a company called Green Thumb Landscape out of Fort Worth to take care of everything for me, and they did really good work. I actually met them when they did the commercial work for the apartment complex I lived in prior to buying the house. In October of 2007, I cancelled their services for the Winter, obviously I won't be needing them full time and anything that does come up, I could handle by that time.

One day in November, I came home to find that they had stopped by and took care of my lawn. Work that I DID NOT authorize. It looked good and I was going to let it go that I didn't request this work, UNTIL I went to go into the backyard through the gate. That was when I noticed that they had managed to rip the gate off the hinges and had just leaned it back up against the fence before they left. I was angry beyond belief... No note, no phone call, NOTHING.

I called the office and spoke with the secretary and advised her of the problem. She assured me the crew supervisor would call me right back. That was November of 2007. I called repeatedly over the next six months and spoke with various individuals in the office with no luck. I even emailed the company "president" to no avail. After 6 months I had the gate fixed myself and just decided that, this battle I didn't pick and to let it ride. Then I got a bill in the mail. A BILL! A bill for services rendered, 32.87. REALLY????

It is on now....

Included with the bill is a postage paid envelope to mail the payment in. Every month I wrote on the bill and mailed it right back to them. I wouldn't hear from them for a month or so then another bill would arrive. Same story. Then one day I got a call from an attorney... really? You were retained on behalf of Green Thumb for a 32.87 bill? I let him have it... I absolutely unloaded on him about the gate, the unauthorized work, and the continuous billing for the unauthorized work??? OMGD, lol he stuttered and stammered and said that he would "check into this" and hung up. I didn't hear a thing for almost 6 months.

About a month ago I got another bill. It had been one of "THOSE" days and I had reached my limit. I logged onto the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and filed a complaint. I found that Green Thumb WAS NOT BBB associated but had other complaints filed and resolved via the BBB. Good... here goes.

I received a phone call yesterday from the BBB. A wonderfully nice young lady asking if I had received the email with the results of their investigation. I had not. She emailed it again and stayed on the line with me until I received it. WOW! Customer service at its finest. The result of their investigation was a letter from the owner of the company. Long story short: He claims this was the first he had heard of this problem and as a result in the downturned economy, he had let all his office staff go. He was happy to remove me from his books and assured that I would hear nothing more from them.

I can live with that. Sometimes it pays to be the squeaky wheel...

Daily Ponderable

Well I haven't been keeping up with this as I should have and I apologize. The start of the season has definately been hectic but that is a good thing... People are buying and not just basic core maintenence product. LOL of course that includes me.. The pickup coil went out on the bike. The second time in three years.. Oh well, that's part of riding..

Rode a couple of times last week but it has been raining for days so that's out for now... April Showers....

Getting my financial house in order finally now that sales are back up. I am ripping out yucky "trees, shrubs, and retaining walls" that the previous owner put in. I thought I was going to have to leave some of them for privacy but it turns out my new neighbors want to put up a privacy fence between us... Yippee, that means all that shrubbery gets to go away.

Working on replacing the fence around the rest of the house but that is VERY expensive so it is going to be a few panels and posts at a time until I get it all done.. I will post some before and after pictures once I get started...

Lifes updates

Well, it finally happened! I got to meet my wonderful son Ben! He surprised me last Friday. He was on his way back to San Antonio from Colorado and he stopped here and stayed the weekend..

He is such a wonderful young man and his adoptive parents did a great job raising him. We sat up late and talked, getting to know each other. I am so proud of him.  He is smart, good looking, and outgoing.. I am sure they are extremely proud of him.

We went to lunch in Springtown with my mother and my daughter Heather..

He and Bill hit it off and I am so glad.. They even fixed my bike :-)

He headed home on Sunday and I missed him before he was even around the corner.. but that's ok... he will be back.

Thank you Ben, I love you.

Daily ramblings...

Yep, I let the blog slide again... but now I am back.

There are a lot of things going on in the news. Everything from the earthquake in Haiti to voting in Mass. to replace Kennedy. You know, that was a nice thing to see. The people made their point I think. On the one year anniversary Obama, the people said enough. That really was comforting. I figure if the blue bloods of Boston are willing to show their displeasure with this government, why the hell can't everyone else? I hope that it opens the eyes of some of the "old school" politicians. I hope that they see that the people have the final say.

What scares me about this is to know that the Democratic defeat in Mass. of just one Senator can have such an effect on things. One person can make or break a bill. But that's a good thing. It just proves that one vote, one person can and does make a difference. Of course they don't have the Electoral College to contend with but....

That is something that needs to go away. Back when it was implemented, it was necessary and it has since served its purpose. It has now outlived its usefulness and does nothing more than lend credence to conspirator theorists about who "really" won...

Ok I am off my soapbox now lol... I know that Obama and the media claims that the recession is ending and that everything is headed back in the "right direction". I am not so sure about that. I still have dealers that are closing their doors. Dealers that employ people in small town America. Dealers, whom their employees and their customers have come to rely on. Dealers that have been in business for 20+ years, who are not able to maintain under the current economic conditions. How sad is that? What happens to them?

I know in theory that the customers and the business they were doing does not go away. It only shifts to another dealer, but some of these guys were the only game in town or the only dealer for MILES...

The Indy trade show is next month and that is usually the jumping off point for the season. For most dealers, if they can hang on through then, they will be ok. Others? One can only hope.

If your one of my dealers reading this? I have faith in you and I can assure you that I will help you any way that I can, help you with pricing, with ideas, or just to listen.

Daily ramblings

I am beginning to feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz... I don't think we are in Texas anymore Toto... Where did this weather come from??? 11 degrees.. really? Ughhhh... I am so ready for Spring.

I am ready to ride my motorcycle.

I am looking forward to the Indy show too this year for a change. Of course not going last year might have helped that lol.... Motorcycle show in Indianapolis in February? Who in their right mind thought that one up?

Oh well... Off to work I go!

New Year, new plan...

Well here it is a new year and a new decade. Good riddance to the last decade.

Now is the time for new thoughts and new actions. I cannot decide exactly which path to take yet but I am most certainly taking a turn.

I did manage to quit smoking last year. One good thing... Now I just have to work on the weight that came with quitting. No, I am not one of those who makes a "resolution" to lose weight. I quit making resolutions New Years 2000. No, I am resolving to make some changes to my behaviour and activities. Doing that, the weight will take care of itself.

Other decisions aren't so easy and clear cut. Change careers or not? Move?

I have been playing with the idea of going back into law enforcement. Not as an officer but as a dispatcher. Part of me misses it. The pay was ok, the hours sucked, but you always felt like you made some kind of a difference. That is the part that I miss.

I love what I do now, the money is good, the hours are better, but, you don't make a difference. Not to anyone. I haven't felt like I have accomplished anything in a very long time and I think that is what is eating at me.

You know how you feel like your just wandering through your life? No objective? Not accomplishing anything? Yep, that's me. No worries though, I will decide what to do.

I have a whole NEW decade to work through it. Happy New Year..