'Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .

Well, technically, it's the afternoon before Christmas, and all is relatively quiet in the house. Except for the cats who are doing laps. I took a half day at work today, had a nice lunch with my fiend Kathy, bought one last final gift, and thought I'd sit down for a few before ousting Sophie from my overnight bag, so I can pack my warm fuzzies and Teddy, so I can go out to Wadesville for Christmas Eve/Day with the 'Rents.

The last couple of years, I AND the cats have gone out to Wadesville for Christmas, but last year seemed to be overly traumatic for Gizmo, so I figured my present to them this year would be that I'd let them stay home for the holidays. Besides, carting their litter box around is quite a chore.

So far this has been a very nice Christmas. I and most all of my friends decided to give each other time for Christmas. Becky and I went out for a nice dinner together and then over to her new home for a nice long chat. Jennifer and I went out for Garlic Chicken - in our continuing quest for the perfect Garlic Chicken - and shopping. Kathy and I had a nice sit down lunch today. Since none of us really NEED anything, this way we all got something we wanted, and the sizes and colors were perfect!

Yesterday I gave Steve (Boss #1) his present - a Pittsburgh Steelers Mr. Potato Head - he's a Steelers fan, duh. And I think it was well received. He immediately went into his office and put it together - it's sitting on his desk. I gave Carrie (Boss #2) her present - a beautiful snowglobe - today. So the only gifts I have left to give are for mom and dad. Christmas is really hard on me. I'm one of those weirdos who, after getting a gift for someone, HATES having to wait to give it to them. I've had Steve's Mr. Potato Head wrapped and under my desk for 3 weeks and it's been horrible... well, he was in Baltimore for a good part of that, but once he came back it was horrible!! :)

Well, I've rambled long enough. I suppose I should oust Sophie and pack my toys into my little red wagon and head west. Although I feel sort of guily leaving the kids here by themselves. I know they'll be happier.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family. Merry Christmas!

Dad's Oncologist Appointment

I just got back from going to the oncologist with the 'Rents this morning. The reason for the appt was because dad's nephrologist (?) said his problems going wee were cancer related, not bladder related. And then dad was in the hospital last month. So, the neph told the onc that it was time to start chemo.

We asked a lot of questions, got satisfying answers, and long story short, they'll insert a port in dad's chest first of the year (so they don't have to keep bothering veins) and then start chemo - about an hour once a week for a couple of months to see if it's going to help the wee problem. If the chemo does what we hope it does, it'll shrink the prostate and take pressure off of the tube thingee that goes from the bladder, thru the prostate, to the sea (so to speak), and he'll be able to wee w/o the catheter - in fact, his PSA levels are so low, that really whether or not he can wee will be the only way to tell if it's working. This particular chemo is NOT supposed to make him sick, or tired, or lose his already-thinning hair. After several weeks, he'll probably get tired and worn out, but..

We really like this doctor - he's down to earth and willing to just sit there and talk to us and answer our questions over and over again until we understand. I know I understand things better.

Christmas 2008 - halfway there...

So as of today, I am finished with my Christmas cards. I have all my presents bought; although there are a couple that need wrapping still, but do you know how hard it is to wrap with a cat in the house?!? Today was our firm's Christmas luncheon at the Kennel Club. I thought I might not be able to go because my father had an appointment with the oncologist today, but since we were blessed with some ice and since dad isn't all that stable, physically, at least... hahahaha. Where was I? Oh, yes, it's been rescheduled for tomorrow. So I was able to go to the luncheon. I enjoy going to these things - you get to sit and talk with people who you normally don't see much. And today, the food was pretty stinkin' good! (A couple of years ago, the pecan-encrusted chicken breast was tougher than shoe leather)

So tomorrow, I'll be leaving work about 10-ish to go to the oncologist with mom and dad and hopefully get some answers as to why dad's bladder appears to have gone on permanent strike. People keep asking me what I'd like for Christmas. I hate to be sappy, but I'd like dad's cancer to disappear and for the big strong daddy of my childhood memories to come back to us. Failing that, I just pray that the oncologist has some positive answers and suggestions. Pardon me as I wipe away a couple of tears. sigh..

Hopefully, after the appointment, dad'll feel like going out to lunch. Today is mom's birthday - and it occurs to me that I'm a horrible daughter... I talked to mom on the phone today and didn't mention her birthday or sing happy birthday to her. I'll have to call her here in a couple of minutes. There's a Los Bravos really close to the doctor's office, maybe we can have some queso dip (yum) and celebrate mom's birthday. I'm packin' her birthday loot around in my bag. Since dad hasn't been going anywhere without mom since he got out of the hospital a month ago, I'm doing his shopping and wrapping. Frankly, I think I deserve a medal for not opening and watching her Mamma Mia DVD!

Friday is our support staff luncheon and Secret Santa identifying. My secret pal suggested a scarf and gloves as a gift for her. If I had a wee bit o extra time, I'd have quick like a bunny knitted her a scarf. I can do scarfs really well. But I suppose that if I were to pick up my needles and start knitting and purling, I really ought to finish the pillow I started for my parents... or the other sock to match the sock I gave my mother last Christmas. Sigh..

Dear Santa,

Hello, it's that time of year again, where all good little girls and boys write to you with their Christmas wishes. I've been very good this year. Well, let's put it this way, I don't think there were any witnesses and no charges have been pressed, as of yet. I do have a passport now, however, and I am compiling a list of countries without extradition treaties with the US in case I have to make a run for it. Either way, as far as you're concerned, I think I fit your criteria for "good little girl," although I am not "little" in ANY sense of the word. Where was I?

Looking back at all my Christmas wishes over the years... BTW, thank you for the new fuzzy bunny slippers last year, the old ones were getting rather holey... But bunny slippers aside, I'm thinking that my priorities may have been slightly askew for some of the last 40 years, and hope to rectify those mistakes this year. Therefore, in no particular order, what follows is my Christmas list for 2008.

1) Better Eyesight - I know, it's not like I'm blind or anything. And thank God for the vision I DO have, but I'd like to be able to NOT have to fumble for the glasses each morning and I'd like to NOT have to remove the contacts each night. Ok, every other night. Don't get me wrong, I'm adorable in my current glasses - after years of Coke-bottle thick lenses, technology at least has given me that much. But just think how pretty my peepers would be without the vague "hey wait while my eyes focus on you or whatever you're holding" expression that shows up frequently. So, some Lasik surgery would be appreciated. Or some hunky eye surgeon who falls for me and offers to fix my eyesight and marry me all in one romantic swoop! :)

B) Minions/Henchmen - The villains on the old Batman TV show always had henchmen. The bad guys in James Bond movies always have henchmen following their evil whims and machinations. I want someone to do stuff for me. It doesn't have to be evil stuff - after all, I try to use my powers for good and not evil. (See first paragraph re: my "good girl" status.) But like the villains, there are things that need done and I just don't want to get my hands dirty. Like the laundry. Or mailing my latest Netflix movie back, so I can get the next one on my queue. And if said minion is hunky and falls for me and offers to keep me in the style to which I could easily become accustomed, mores the better!

Thirdly, Retirement - I told Steve (boss #1) a couple of years ago that my professional goal was to retire by the age of 42... 42 being my favorite number. I told him this with the thought that he, as my boss and a partner in the firm, could assist me in my goal by giving me whopping raises each year. Well, Steve has this insane idea that I'll work with him until HE retires and he's FOUR YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME!! So he isn't going out of his way to help my cause. Although I've gotten nice raises, they aren't boosting me toward the million dollar mark that I'd like to be at by now, and what with the economy in the dumper, I need help of a higher nature... I know several people who are retired and they thoroughly enjoy it, so I'm thinking that I could enjoy the heck out of not having to go to work all the time. I mean, I enjoy my job, and wouldn't mind working a few hours a week to keep my hand in, but .. I'm sure you know what I mean. YOU only work one day a year, am I right? Anywho... retirement would me to the next item on my list...

D) Time - specifically, to do what I'd like to do. I have books that I've never read. I have DVD's I haven't watched. I have a pillow and a sock that I really need to finish knitting. One of my memories of my grandmother is the bookshelves that she had filled with books that she never read. Her comment was that she'd read them when she retired. I don't know if she ever did. But if I could retire at 42, and if I had the good vision (see #1), I could start working on those books. One of the good results from the recent writers strike was that I had time to catch up on some of the shows I'd Tivo'd.

Finally, I think I'd like to have someplace to take that passport - Ideally, an English-speaking place, because my year of French in high school and my 2 semesters of Italian in college can't even help me figure out crossword puzzle answers. Although I am pretty good at Italian restaurant menus.

Well, Santa, as I'm not a greedy goober, I'll stop right there. I'll go bake some cookies and put them under the tree for you. I hope you don't mind the occasional cat hair - they are a wee bit unavoidable with Sophie in the house. Just consider it her love offering. She probably wouldn't mind a few less hairballs in the upcoming year. And Gizmo, well, you know Gizmo, he has simple tastes. He's just happy with a never-ending supply of plastic milk rings.
Merry Christmas, lovies, Rose

We Gather Together ...

So the Barger household had a busy turkey day. Both my sisters and their families (with the exception of a bro-in-law and a nephew who both had to work) came down to Southern Indiana for the holiday. We were gonna go up to Indy for the weekend, but then since dad was in the hospital, they came down. (And much to my cowardly lion's dismay, the three nieces and sister Ha slept at my place.)

Wednesday evening, I left work early, since both bosses were gone for the weekend, and I had OT I could sacrifice, and I went out to Wadesville for dinner with the 'Rents and Ho and her family. The meal was deer stew (bro-in-law Tom procured the main ingredient during hunting season last year) and homemade biscuits (with Ho's homemade elderberry jelly), and now that I'm thinking about it... why didn't any leftovers come home with me?!? Humpf! Natalie and I drove back to my place in order to be there when Ha and her two daughters got there. After the initial greetings and dumping of baggage, we were off on the ubiquitous snack run. Since I had instructions to pick up some last minute items for the next day, we hit a Schnucks in lieu of the usual Walgreens. I have to say that wandering thru a store with gaggle of giggling teenage girls (Sorry, HO2.0, you're still a teenager!) is quite the experience for me. And much like the pain of childbirth (or so I've heard), the pain of it disappears quickly and I blindly go forth for snackage with them each time they stay at my place like I don't know how insane it's gonna be. Sigh.

And one of them, as I'm deciding what flavor of Smirnoff Ice to buy, states quite loudly in the middle of the store... "Will we get to have some of them??" To which I responded... "Why, no, Strange young person! You're a minor and the legal drinking age in the great State of Indiana is 21, and you will not be legal for a couple more years." DUH! Goober.

Back at my place, we settled down to watch Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas - The Greatest Gift of All. Oh, look we're standing under the mistletoe. Well, this is awkward. tee hee!

Thanksgiving morning, I awoke and made the pumpkin pies, as my daddy says I make the best pies, and we were off - over Pigeon Creek and thru the trees to my parents' house we went. My and the sibs' plan was to make the dinner with as little stress and effort on mom and dad's behalf. And although we had to have mom make the dressing so it would be her usual FANTABULOUS dressing, I think we succeeded. Ho2.0 set out the gnomes' traditional Thanksgiving meal, and I do not have the pic from this T-day yet, as the pics were not taken with my camera - but a pic of a previous year's gnomes' thanksgiving is on the right. Once the gnomes had been taken care of, the rest of us chowed down.

Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, and (with the exception of Sophie and Gizmo, who couldn't make it for the festivities) sitting at that table were a big part of my blessings. I've been blessed with albeit weird, but loving, family and friends, a warm home, a good job with bosses who respect me, and more than what is necessary for my survival. One thing I was not grateful for was the migrane that hit me before the evening was over.

So when we made it back to my place, Ha and the nieces watched Casino Royale in preparation of our plan to go see Quantum of Solace the next morning. And while I, like every other red-blooded woman in the world usually wouldn't turn down an op to see Daniel Craig in the nude (even if he is being tortured at the time,) I drugged myself down and hit the sheets. But that just meant that I felt all the more ready to drool over him the next morning! Ho made the comment that the first time saw him without his shirt on (in Casino Royale) she had a hot flash! Here would be my opinion of Quantum of Solace: I enjoyed it very much. You really need to watch Casino Royale first, as this movie literally starts where the first one left off.. which is unusual for a Bond movie. And I agree with Ha that he could have had his shirt off more. And these movies are decidedly less campier than, say, the Roger Moore James Bond movies - which I grew up on, BTW, so for me, Roger Moore WAS James Bond. I know there are those who say Sean Connery is the best. But I grew up on Roger Moore and HE was James Bond to me. Now, (well, after Casino Royale, actually,) I can clearly state that Daniel Craig IS James Bond. Whoo ... I'm having a hot flash just thinking about it!

Anyway, after the movie, after lunch, after doing the dishes, Ho and Ha, et al., packed up and headed back to Indy. I'd had a very enjoyable time, but I was happy that they left, so I could go home and cuddle with my kitties, and not have to hostess. And I know mom and dad were exhausted by the time I left their house, but they had a good time too. Now we can relax some until Christmas.

The Official Obituary

Big Red, 6

Big Red passed away last week on Friday, November 14, 2008 as a result of a tragic accident at his workplace, KDDK, in Evansville, Indiana.

A service was held the same day, according to his religious beliefs. Burial took place later that day with parts of him being interred in Steve and Rosemary's trash cans, and the vacuum cleaner, according to housekeeping beliefs.

Big Red was born in 2002 in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he was a lively child, melting people’s hearts, but not in their hands.

Mr. Red chose not to work in the family business, but instead went to work as an M&M Mars spokescandy alongside his friends Yellow, Green, and Blue.

In the fall of 2006, Big joined the KDDK family, working as a candy dish, he could always be found on Rosemary’s ledge. He brought comfort and chocolatey goodness to all his co-workers and friends.

He is survived by his son, Red, Jr., and his grandchildren, the Mini M&M’s.

Memorial contributions can be sent to Chocoholics Anonymous.

"This Song has No Title" - Elton John

This week has been busy, still working more OT and coming home exhausted. Although today it occurred to me that since dad was in the hospital, we're having Thanksgiving down here this year instead of in Indy like was originally planned, and since mom doesn't have room for everyone to sleep at her house, the three teenage neices stay with me, and since I'm having guests who might not appreciate staying in a pig sty, someone ought to work on cleaning my apartment. I came home from work tonight and instead of turning on the tube (Must See TV, you know...) I put on my bat boppers (don't ask) and I've been doing laundry and herding dust bunnies. A couple members of the herd tried to break loose from the pack at one point, but I caught'em. Ok, I've been writing this blog for the last few, and I checked my email, and I wrestled with Sophie as I put clean sheets on my bed, but I've been working, too. Honest!

Anyway, one more day this week, then the weekend. Hopefully we'll all survive it. Me, I don't know. I'm afraid that I raised enough dust this evening that I may be attacked by the ghosts of dust buffalo all night. Where's the Benedryl??

My plans for the weekend include, in this order, Friday evening with the Cluck. I can tell you about them later; Saturday morning, an oil change - we're bordering on 5,000 miles here; go to Wadesville and help clean mom's house for T-day weekend; come back home and attack another room of my place. Somewhere in there, assuming Ho and Ha get me the grocery list, I'll be shopping for T-day weekend, and I really ought to get any remaining Indianapolis-bound Christmas presents bought so I can send them all back to Indy with Ho and Ha. And I wouldn't mind seeing the new James Bond film. Is it any wonder that I'm still reading the same book I started in September? And I STILL haven't watched that Netflix movie!

I'm going to finish blanket-a-fying my bed and hit the pillow. g'night.

"All the world's a stage.." As You Like It

So as I said, life had returned to a balance of sorts for Rose. So Tuesday of last week, the 11th, I guess, and I'm at work, happily (well, maybe that's an overstatement - how about resignedly) working some OT and my phone rings - it's mom and they're admitting my father in the hospital. He'd been problems going wee for the last month or so, and had had a catheter in for the last couple weeks. Well, not to go into too much gorey details, things stopped working correctly, and there was blood involved, and they hospitalized him to get it to stop.

Now, I've previously mentioned that having something happen to either of my parents is not exactly a situation that's on my Top Ten List of things I want to have happen. But I did ok. And yes, I realize that HE was the one in the hospital, but this is MY blog and I'm the star! Sigh.. where was I? Oh, so we get him admitted and resting, they give him an IV and get ready to hook him up to the big catheter to flush out the blood and blood clots which have formed and mom and I left. Ok, now that sounds callous, but it was getting late and we needed to drive back to Wadesville to pick up stuff so mom could stay at my place, since I have an extra bed and I live about 5 minutes from the hospital.


Ultimately, dad was in the hospital from Tuesday until Sunday morning. Mom spent each night at my place and each day at the hospital with sickee. Gnarley the gnome graced dad with his appearance at the hospital, so while mom wasn't there, dad was still in good hands. I think every nurse who came in to check on him got to hear all about Gnarley. :)

But I think I handled it well. There was the first night that I came home with mom, got her settled on the extra bed, and then crawled into my own and started to cry. Gizmo, my cowardly lion, crawled up in my arms and stood for a second staring at me, nose to nose, then he curled up on my chest and purred me to sleep. But I kept myself busy being the family communications officer. Was that Lt. Uhura? I forget. Anyway I emailed the family and the peeps to keep them abreast and informed of our prayer needs. And there was the OT I was still working, and then going to the hospital and making runs out to Wadesville for stuff for mom and dad. And the run to Walgreens to buy dad a Twinkie. :)


So, after 6 pts of blood and a pt of plasma, several IV bags of Cipro (sp?), and five nights in the hospital, the bleeding was under control and he was able to come home. We got him settled on the couch, fed him, and he fell asleep. According to mom, he slept until bedtime when she poked him and told him to wake up and go to bed. She rested. I went home and rested... although I still haven't watched the movie I received from Netflix almost 2 weeks ago! Whew... time for a nap.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more..." Henry V

I haven't had much time to post lately. I was so happy and rested when I returned from my mini-vaca in September and then it hit the fan and it's been so crazy that I barely have time to think at night. For example - I'm still reading the same book that I started in Charleston, in September. And for anyone who knows me, you know that's just not ME!

So as I said, I get back and all is well. The next week, the woman who did subrogation at my firm went on a vaca. (Memo to self, never go on vaca again.) While she's gone, IT hits the fan and we find out that the client isn't too happy about her, and therefore our, performance. So I, having 10 years experience in Subroland and being its former sovereign, jumped into the breach. Resulting in a nice chunk of OT change for Rose - (hich went to help pay off the souvenir I brought back from Charleston. (BTW, got my annual raise in there, too, so the OT was post raise! :$) Where was I?

Oh, so the girl came back, let's call her BA, and found out about the fan (and what had hit it) - things looked like it would all work out, but then Chris came back. Chris being the partner in charge of the subro client. Chris likes meetings, so he started having meetings with everybody involved and by the end of the day, BA resigned. Sigh.. Remember, there's me with 10 years experience sitting here thinking all is well. I get in on Tuesday morning and find out about the resignation and that I'm going to have to continue life in the breach until we can get someone hired. Chris asked me if I'd like to return to my reign in Subroland and I graciously (as we former royals are wont to be..) said, "No, thank you."

Flash forward to November, no one's been hired. We've reorganized things so that there are three of us doing subro - with me in the lead. (Remember when I graciously told Chris, "No, thank you."? Yeah, I do, too!) I'm still working OT, but not in the vast amounts as before. I'm tired, but the remainder of my life was in balance, so fate decided to pour a little more coal on the fires of my life..

Alas, poor Big Red! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite comfort, of most excellent chocolate.

My apologies to Shakespeare for the title, but Friday, there was a loss in my life. Someone who, for the last year or so, had played an important role. He was a gift. Two friends went “antique-ing” (I’m pretty sure I never thought that I’d be saying those words) and saw him. They thought of me and had to get him for me.

He was just a ceramic red M&M candy jar… or maybe a cookie jar… I don’t know. But I brought him to the office with me and ever since, he’d sat on the ledge of my desk and contained comfort in the form of multi-colored, candy-coated chocolate. No matter the season, whether it was Easter pastels, patriotic Red, White and Blue, or Halloweenie colors, he was always prepared to help us get through the rough times. I know he was looking forward to Christmas, as the red and green M&M’s were already in the drawer from which he got his supply of chocolatey goodness.

Do you want the gorey details?? OK! So things have been very busy at work, and my usually chaotic desk was even more so. Steve (Boss #1) started cleaning a couple of files out of his office and began piling files and binders up on my ledge. When the pile got too high, gravity took over and a binder slid downwards, forcing the Thanksgiving rubber duckies and the pen container over and Big Red down, down, down. I find it ironic that the Law (of Gravity) killed him IN a Law Firm. But then I’ve been really busy and probably just need a good night’s rest. I’m sorry to say that despite my having my camera in my purse, I failed to get a picture of the accident scene. We were too busy trying to resuscitate him.

Cards and mementos of remembrance can be sent to me, his only surviving family member.
A friend sent me a card (about …arrgh.. 20 years ago) and I’ve attached it below because although it deals with chocolate chips, instead of M&M’s, the sentiment is similar.

Big Red - 200? - 2008 - Rest in pieces, Big Fella.

Burnin' Down the House!

Ok, so tonight, I leave work and call the 'Rents to see what they're up to. See, normally on Friday nights, they come into town and we have dinner together (i.e., Rose gets a free meal!) But they didn't call me before I left work, and I thought I'd check in... in case they were waffling about coming in, in which case, I'd try to tip them over into the free meal for Rose side of the fence.

Anywhoo.. my normal route home is Bellemeade Avenue. As I get onto Bellemeade, I notice two (ah ha ha) firetrucks on the road in front of me. I'm talking to dad and I'm telling him that I'm following two (ah ha ha) firetrucks down the road. He says that's fine as long as I don't follow them all the way to my house. Then the conversation disintegrates into to wondering if firetrucks from downtown would cover the area where I live. Meanwhile, the two (ah ha ha) firetrucks have driven off, and I continue meandering home.

I turn off of Bellemeade, onto my street, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? Two (ah ha ha) firetrucks in FRONT OF MY HOUSE! OMG!! WTF!!! Sigh.. My house has three apartments in it. I have one of the two (ah ha ha) downstairs apartments, and some YOUNG single mother just moved into the upstairs apartment. Turns out she was cooking something on her stove, and WHOOSH! FIRE!

I catch the girl who lives in the other downstairs apartment, like me, 40-ish (i.e., adult) and she tells me that all is ok, the fire is out, no damage done, but my apartment may be smokey. She said she'd just realized that I wasn't home and was planning on breaking down the door between our apartments to rescue my cats. Two problems with this...oh, I almost forgot (ah ha ha) ... 1) she's roaming around the front yard with her dog in her arms chatting with people; and 2) even if she got into my apartment, Gizmo (lovable coward that he is) was deep in hiding and she'd have never found him, and he'd have been one fricasseed feline!

It all worked out ok. My apartment doesn't appear to have the same vents as the upstairs apartment and the other downstairs apartments are on, so my apartment wasn't smokey. My Sophie girl was waiting eagerly for me when I walked in the door, but my chicken fricassee (Gizmo) was no where to be found. I'd assume that the sirens and lights of the two (... you know) firetrucks scared him and he ran under the hideabed. He's such a cutie.

What's green and skates on ice?

Ok, so you want the story about the eye patch. Arrgh!

Starting about 9 months ago, I began getting goo in my eye at night, more than your usual nightly eye-goo, and just the left eye. I saw my eye doctor, and he wasn't concerned enough to mention it. I saw my regular doctor and asked her, she said I had conjunctivitis and gave me eye drops.

As the months go by, the goo gets worse, and now it's in both eyes. Occasionally, I wake up with my eye matted together by dried goo.

So I decided to go see a real eye doctor... an opthamologist? Mom has one that she goes to regularly, so I made an appointment.

Long story short (too late! :) I have chronically irritated eyelids, which produce the goo. I had 2 weeks of steroidal ointment to put in - it made it feel and look like I had Vaseline in my eyes - and a $100 bottle (2.5 oz) of eye drops. My second appointment with the opth... he suggested a test - that I wear an eye patch one eye each night when i go to bed. I chose the left eye, as I'm fonder of my right, and now I'm AARGH'ing and AHOY MATEY'ing all over the place each night as I go to bed!

Interestingly enough, while I was in Charleston, no or extremely reduced eye goo in first the eye patched eye and then both eyes. I'm sort of scared that it's going to turn out that I'm allergic to my babies. Never fear, I will suffer copious amounts of eye goo for my babies... as long as they lay off Big Blue!!

So, in retrospect, the story isn't as exciting as I'd hoped. Hmmm..

Finally, in answer to the riddle: What's green and skates on ice? Well, the answer is Peggy Phlegm. hahahaha My sister wrote that joke, along with a drawing of Peggy Phlegm in a letter that she wrote home to us when she was away at college (DePauw University, Class of '83), and it's always struck me as funny. And since it's more appropriate and less offensive, religiously speaking, than my other favorite joke, I felt compelled to share it with you.

Back Home in Indiana

Day Four - 9/23/08:
The plan for the day, first we sleep in, then go have a nice breakfast. I'm sorry to say I can't remember where that was, but it was VERY GOOD, if I remembered, I'd give them a shout out. But I did see a "Stewart/Colbert 2008" magnet on the cash register when we paid our bills. I want one! But the lady couldn't tell me where to get one. Sigh.

We still had some time before I needed to be at the airport, so we went back to Donna's and took a nap. Well, I didn't actually nap, but I did snooze some. I had probably just gotten to sleep when the alarm went off and we hoisted ourselves back into the car and drove to the airport. The entire time in Charleston had been wonderful, but now, as we were driving to the airport, was the prettiest. The sky was blue, the clouds were wispy fluff, and the breeze was cool, and I was having to leave. But that was ok. I had two four-footed sweeties waiting for me.
The flights were unremarkable, the best kind, and after getting back to Indy, I hopped into my car and drove home.

Now it's the next day. I slept in and then cuddled with Sophie and Gizmo, I've uploaded my pics and written my blog, I've dumped the dirty undies in the laundry and unpacked all my free cat food, I've sorted the junk mail from the good and caught up on my soaps. I don't have to go back to work until tomorrow, so I suppose I need to take advantage of the day and maybe clean house some. Later

Charleston - Take 3

Day Three - 9/22/08:

After eating the last of Donna's birthday cake for breakfast, the plan for the day was to do the tourist thing. So wipe the cake crumbs off, tied up our comfy walking shoes and were off!

A girl I work with, Kelly, had recommended going to Magnolia Plantation just outside of Charleston. We had a coupon and we could get a AAA discount, we were game. Of course we forgot to use the coupon and ask for the discount, but neither of us was really surprised. We chose not to tour the house. Once you've seen one old house, they're all the same. The gardens were beautiful. They weren't the type of gardens I'd seen before where everything was plotted out with paths between things. No, these gardens were planted amongst the trees and bushes, you'd walk along a path thru the trees, and then you'd come to an area with some statues, plants, a bench, and maybe a small pond. The breeze blowing thru the trees was beautiful and I could just see myself (because I KNOW I was born in the wrong era) as a genteel southern lady (because I'd have been rich, not poor!) walking thru the gardens and sitting on a bench reading a book as the peacocks wobble by. It was lovely. Sigh.

Of course we hit the gift shop. Because one of my family's many mottos is "Never skip a gift shop." And I'm glad we did. This was the nicest gift shop. In fact I found the perfect thing to get for my friend Jennifer who's mother passed away this past week. Several years ago, when my mother's mother died, my father's sister sent a beautiful angel statue to the funeral. It stands on a shelf in mom's living room, and when I see it, I think of both Grandma and Aunt Mary (who has since passed away), so I thought it would be nice to get something similar for Jennifer - not so she'll think of me necessarily, but ... I don't know.. she's not a plant person, and flowers don't stay for very long, so.. Anyway, the great thing is that the shop ships so I didn't have to worry about how to get it in my luggage for the flight home!

After gift shopping it, we headed back to the car and back to downtown Charleston for more sightseeing. Of course, before taking a walking tour of downtown, we were hungry. So we went to Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company. I'd never been. And honestly, I've never seen Forrest Gump all the way thru. I've seen bits and pieces, but not the whole thing. Still the food was delicious and the atmosphere was fun.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down the streets of downtown Charleston. Saw some beautiful churches, visited some gorgeous graveyards, and just enjoyed the day.

Before going back to Donna's, we went to Blu Gorilla and made inquiries about my getting my tattoo. I didn't know how much it would be or how long it would take. Long story short, it didn't take very long, it didn't hurt like I thought it would (but then after 10years of electrolosis, I guess I'm immune to the pain of needles), and I'm very happy!!

After finishing at the Blu Gorilla, we went to Barnes and Noble for a little shopping therapy and then went back to Donna's to review our purchases. Tomorrow, I would be returning back to Indiana and real life. Big Blue and I hit the pillow and slept soundly.

Charleston - Part Deux

Day Two - 9/21/08:

After a good night's sleep, I woke up without having one of my furry feline friends pawing at my face and meowing at me. It was nice, and yet I missed them. But I was at the beach, so I decided to make the best of it! HA!

Donna told me about a restaurant that a friend had recommended to her and now she goes there about once a week. She said while it looked like a dive, it had incredible food. I asked, "when can we go?" So we were off and heading to Momma Brown's BBQ. The fried chicken was possibly the best I've ever had, and the bread pudding. Oh, man. If I'd brought a purse, I'd have stuffed a couple of pieces in it to smuggle it out. It was EXCELLENT! I did have some of the BBQ, it was a vinegar based bbq, and I can't say it would be my fave. That would have been the chicken. Oh, and the mac and cheese! Yummers!

After lunch, we hit Wal-mart. For what, I can't recall. But then we headed to the beach. I took a wonderful jaunt down the beach, took the ubiquitous photo of my toes in the sand and water (yes those stark white legs are mine), and had Charleston Epiphany #1. See, I've always known that I'm a beach person. And I'm thinking how is it that I, a true beach person, could have been born in Indiana. Then it hit me, DUH! I wasn't born in Indiana. I was born in Washington DC, just a short jaunt from... get this... a beach! So, I'm thinking that my parents truly screwed up my beach-related destiny by deciding to move me, at the tender age of three, to the Mid-West, hours from a beach. Whew... epiphanies are exhausting, so I meandered back to where Donna was sitting and laid down on my towel for a short snooze.

Post-snooze, Donna and I were talking and the subject turned to tattoos. I mentioned that I'd wanted to get a tattoo for quite some time, but I was chicken to go do it by myself beings as tattoo places aren't usually the nicest place for a girl to go alone. So we chatted about what I'd want and where, we went to her office and used the computer to research some designs. I decided what I wanted, and I was thinking about getting it on my wrist, so it would look like a bracelet from far off. We talked about maybe me going and doing it while in Charleston. After our research session and a car tour of the place where Donna works, we contemplated dinner. I had thoughts of a burger, so Donna suggested Five Guys. It was a A+ cheeseburger!

After a burger, fries, and sweet tea, we headed to Blockbuster to rent a movie. Of course, the problem here is that Donna likes movies that have a redeeming quality about them, you know? And I'm rather shallow in my movie choices, you know, Office Space, Zoolander, Batman, or anything with the Rock in it. But we ended up agreeing on In Bruges. We'd both seen the previews and thought it showed potential. It was great. First, Colin Farrell, need I say more, ladies? It was funny, it had redeeming qualities, though I have to say I would not have ended it quite the way it did, but then it really ended the only way it could. Oh, and we watched the special features. One of which was called "F***ing Bruges" - we didn't know what to expect, but what it was was a montage of every "F-word" in the movie. We watched it once, laughing the entire time, and then we watched it again, this time counting them. For those who are interested, there were 97!

After the movie, I hit the pillow. I tried to go to sleep, but I had a difficult time unwinding, I blame the very good, but strong tea from dinner that I'd taken home in a to-go cup and drank all thru the movie. So while I'm laying there in the dark, with my eye-patch on... (long story, I'll cover that later in a non-vacation-related blog entry).. I had Charleston Epiphany #2... see, I still knew I wanted the tattoo, and I knew what I wanted, but I just wasn't sure about the where. My epiphany was that I now knew where it needed to go. Finally, I fell asleep. zzzzz...

On the Road Again

Day One - 9/20/08:

So my friend Donna moved to Charleston, SC last year, and she told me I was welcome to come down and stay with her if I wanted to come visit Charleston. I made the momentous decision to do it. First I found super cheap airfare, flying from Indy to Charleston and back for $181. Of course I had to drive up to Indy, but that only takes one tank of gas, about $60, and that was much less than what I saved by not flying out of Evansville.

Once I'd bought the airfare, I have to admit to being nervous about going. Not the flying part, I'm ok with that, although I did make the mistake of watching all the History Channel's shows about 9/11 the night before flying out. Yup, that was a mistake, but no. I was nervous because it'd been a while since I'd spent any quality time with Donna, and what if I got there and we hated each other?

Anywho, so Friday (Sept. 19th), I packed my bags in my little red wagon and drove up to Indy and spent the night at my sister Holly's house. She drove me to the airport on Saturday morning and I was off.

Ok, another bit of background... our family keeps gnomes. We travel with them, we give them as gifts. Well, Friday was Donna's birthday, and she had a new home/apartment in Charleston, and she was letting me stay with her, so I decided she needed a gnome. The only concern was getting the gnome past security... (see, I didn't want to have to buy him a ticket.) So, dateline, Indianapolis International Airport. I'm in the security line. I take off my shoes, which fortunately didn't smell too bad since it was early in the morning. I put my Ziploc baggie of liquids, shoes, and carry-on bag (with gnome safely tucked inside) on the belt to go thru the scanner. As my carry-on goes thru, I see the two guards looking at the picture and pointing. One of them hits a button, a light goes off and the machine starts beeping. She asks, "who's bag is this?" I hold up a hand, knowing that Gnorm has got them suspicious. She tells me that they're going to have to run it thru again. Ok.. While it's running thru the second time, the other guard whispers to the first one that it's a garden gnome. I say, "yeah, it's a garden gnome." He comes over to hand me my bag and we had a nice chat which led to his telling me that this wasn't the first gnome he'd seen. Whew! One gnome thru security - one hurdle down.

After a short layover in Cincinnati, I arrived in Charleston International Airport. Now, this airport, considering it is an "international" airport, really isn't all that big. Sort of the same size as Evansville's airport, but the place in the food court sold me the tastiest, thickest Oreo milkshake I'd ever had. It was wonderful. I got the milkshake because my flight got in shortly after 2pm, but Donna didn't get off work to come pick me up until 3pm. So I bought me a magazine and a milkshake and watched people while I waited.

While I was waiting for the milkshake, some woman who obviously worked in the airport was there too, waiting for her coffee. We chatted and she mentioned that I was coming to visit Charleston during a "cold snap." I mentioned this to Donna when she picked me up. She laughed and said that the people down there all think it's cold - (it was in the 70's.)

I'm happy to say that my concerns about me and Donna hating each other were unfounded. The minute we saw each other, it was like no time had passed at all! Whew... hurdle two over..

She took me by Hairy Winston - the pet store where she has a part time job. Despite a decided bias in favor of the canine, rather than feline, populace, it was VERY nice. Me and Sophie and Gizmo had recently had our 2nd Anniversary together and I bought them a nice toy as an anniversary gift. I also got myself a new friend... I call him Big Blue. Technically, he's a dog toy, but he's SO cute, and upon bringing him home, both Giz and Soph have played with him.

Where was I? Oh, so after a wee bit of shopping and meeting Donna's peeps, we went to dinner. Since I'd only had an English muffin and a milkshake all day, I was hungry. We went to Coconut Joe's and sat on the balcony overlooking the ocean. The breeze wafting in was wonderful. And my Jerk Chicken was pretty good, too!

After dinner, we went to Donna's house. She lives in a downstairs apartment of a two-story house, one block from the ocean, on Isle of Palms. And the best part is the screened-in porch. We sat out on the porch for a couple of hours, just talking and enjoying the breeze. Thus ended day one of my whirlwind trip to Charleston. BTW, Donna enjoyed receiving a gnome. Although I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm weird... but then surely that wasn't exactly news to her, right?

Rumors of My Death...

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated" -- Mark Twain

or

"I'm not dead yet!" -- Tammy Wynette

Ok.. that second one isn't really a quote from Tammy Wynette.. it was from a Saturday Night Live skit that always made me chuckle. Anyway, it has been two months since I've sat down to this blog. I know my millions of fans must be wondering as to my status. There's no way I can cover the time completely, but here's a glimpse of Rose's June and July, in no particular chronological order.

First, I turned 40 on July 22nd. Age is all in the mind, and I have a childlike mind, so this child did not have a problem turning 40. However, age also seems to be in the knees, and I definitely don't have the knees of a 40 year old. Possibly a 60 year old. My birthday started out with balloons, Star Wars thingees hanging over my desk and "Over the Hill" boppers for me to wear. Also, the people I work with brought in a veritable smorgasbord of goodies. Greg said that if entrance into Heaven depended on how much food is brought in for your birthday, that I was guaranteed entrance! A nice thought. :) Steve, was out of the office, but he emailed me that my gift would be delivered later in the day by "visitors." No, he wasn't predicting an alien invasion, his wife and twin toddlers brought me in my birthday loot. From Steve, a gift card to Absolute Beauty because I like to go there for pedicures because they have this sinful chair that you sit in whilst your tootsies are being pampered, and I love my tootsies. Oh, and from the girls, a pair of pink fuzzy bunny slippers. They are so soft and adorable. Gizmo attacked them when I was wearing them later that evening. I think it's because they have whiskers, fake though they may be. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the slippers. :)

Steve had a BIG arbitration the week before my birthday (actually it ran over into the week OF my birthday, too!), and the two weeks before that, I was working 60 hour weeks. The OT was very nice, especially since my car and renters insurance came due in August, but I was so tired when I got home at night, sometimes at 9pm, that I'd go straight to bed. I swear one night I came home and the cats acted like I was a stranger. Sort of hurt my feels... but then I was so tired, I didn't care all that much! Finally the OT was over and I was able to relax, and things started to return to normal for Rose when all of a sudden... you guessed it. I got sick. I shoveled down the echinacea and the Tylenol like it was going out of style, but today is day 12 and I'm just now to the point where I feel human.

Mixed into all of that time was a family reunion. I had a really good time. Me, my sister Haley and several of our cousins just sat around telling stories. The food was good and the weather could NOT have been better.

One Saturday I drove up to Terrible Haute and met Haley and her daughter, my niece, Hollian for lunch. We went to Moggers which was originally owned by Hollian's great, great something. After a wonderful burger, Hollian and I came back down to Eville. Actually I took Hollian to my parents house where she stayed for a few days to help them around the place. Hollian is an IU sophomore who has no clue what she wants to be when she grows up. I'm told that at one time I wanted to be a gas station attendant.. but then the self-serve gas station came along and spoiled my hopes and dreams. Sigh. After a couple of days working around the ol' homestead, Hollian came into the big city and stayed with me for a couple of nights. I have satellite and she only has two channels (Fox and PBS, I think) at her home, so she had fun watching the Colbert Report on Comedy Central and an I Love the '80's marathon on Vh-1. Poor child.

When the week was over, Mom, Hollian and I drove up to Haley's house partly to return the child home and partly to see her sister Brynn (high school senior, this fall) as the eponymous Fiddler in Shelby County Community Theatre's production of Fiddler on the Roof. Brynn did a marvelous job! We were very proud.

Again, this does not begin to cover my last two months... in there I've seen The Dark Knight three times (and am willing to go with anyone who hasn't been able to see it yet... :) and I saw Mamma Mia (thoroughly enjoyed it, despite Pierce Brosnan's NOT being a great singer) and I read the new Janet Evanovich book, Fearless Fourteen, along with several others. Oh, and I didn't even mention the Golden Poop that Haley got me for my birthday! Sigh.

Oh well, I'm back, baby! So everyone can relax. All is right with the world and Rose will continue to blog. Catch ya later!

Weekend Wrap-up

This has been a rough week and I'm glad it's over.

At work, I spent 95% of the week typing /summarizing medical records for one of Carrie's personal injury defense cases. The plaintiff who's records I was typing is in his 60's and when all was said and done, we had over 45 pages of typed notes summarizing all of his records. Oiy! And then as I'm just about finished with that project, Steve comes out and tells me that next week, we'll be knee-deep in preparing for his arbitration in July! I'm thinking I could have gladly NOT thought about that over the weekend.

I had an appointment with my dr this week. What with my high blood pressure and other ailments, she likes to see me every 4 months or so, so it was a usual thing. But the unusual thing was that this time I had news, I'd joined Curves and was regularly working out. I was SO excited to tell her. She comes in and first thing, she notices that my BP was down and mentions that. She asks if I've been doing anything different and I took my opening and told her I'd joined Curves. At this point, I expected even a half-hearted kudo, but no, her response is to ask me how many days I'm working out. I tell her 3-5 depending on my schedule, but usually at least 4. Again... kudos? No, then she says, well, on the days you aren't working out, you need to be taking at least hour long walks and watching what you eat. I'm like, wait a minute. Last time I was here, she was all but begging me to just do something! And now, she's wanting it all in a blink of the eye? So this basically just pisses me off and I don't even mention the laundry list of things I wanted to discuss with her... like this thing that has appeared in the last couple of weeks under my left eye, or the fact that I've been waking up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat off and on for the past couple months,.. or the unusal mood swings I've been having. No, I was in the middle of one such mood swing and unfortunately for my list it happened to be a pissy mood. Sigh. Oh, and did I mention that she was 45 minutes late for my 8:15 am appointment?? How do you get THAT far behind by 8:15?

So the next day, I'm in a better mood. I had an appointment with my hand dr. I've got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and a worker's comp case over it, and yikes! Anyway, my CTS has been much better of late, and I truly believed that the doctor would agree and release me. And that's what he did. So now hopefully we can get the worker's comp case resolved and we can get all of that behind me. Of course, the next couple of days, my wrist was hurting as I was doing nothing but straight typing on those medical records, but that's not unusual.

So then the next day, Thursday, what I had been waiting to have happen, but as of Thursday was officially three weeks late, finally happened. And I felt HORRIBLE!! I could barely get out of bed. Before work, I hit a CVS to buy drugs and Ho-Ho's, and after taking said drugs and eating said Ho-Ho's and drinking a big ol' chug of Diet Mt. Dew, I was feeling more human. I ended up being late for work, but I was pretty sure that it would be forgiveable as they'd have had to shoot me and put me out of their (and my) misery otherwise.

Friday was the best day of the week. I was exhausted, but I finally finished the medical summary. I was back to my usual non-moody self, and even though there was the possibility that I might get called into work to help one of the attorneys on Saturday, I wasn't too concerned because I never end up getting OT when I'm told in advance to expect it. And as I'm sitting here at 2:37 pm on Saturday afternoon, that attorney hasn't called me to ask me to come in, so I'm good. I went and got the oil changed in my buggy this AM, after waking up at a leisurely 9am. I've cleaned the litter box, am in the process of doing laundry, and am shifting thru the apartment killing dust bunnies. Ok, not really killing them, but herding them into the trash can. Despite being 91 degrees outside, it is beautiful and the breeze is blowing.

There was one down moment. Mom called last night to let me know that my cousin, Sandy, had passed away yesterday evening. She'd been battling a brain tumor since October. It seems so short of a time. At the last family funeral in September, she was fine. My earliest memories of Sandy were when I was little and we'd go down to Granny Barger's to visit in Eddyville, Illinois. Sandy (who was very close in age to my parents) would drive me and my sisters in her car (in my memory it was a convertible or jeep or something) to Lake Glendale and we'd play on the beach there. The soundtrack that was playing was Three Dog Night - usually Shambala. That memory comes to me whenever I listen to Three Dog Night. Mom wasn't sure when the funeral would be, probably Monday or Tuesday, but I'll take off and go with mom and dad to say goodbye to Sandy.

Gary, I Love You

So first, while mom and I were in Fishers this past weekend (and my sister's house was hit by lightning?), I guess there was a bad storm here, too. And it knocked out my internet at home. I'm super concerned about my Webkinz and their garden. Sigh.. I couldn't call until I got to work on Monday and got on the internet at work and printed off my bill (since I have paperless bills) to get the customer service phone number and my account number.

After work Monday, I went to Curves and by the time I got home, I was exhausted, so I didn't call. I called Tuesday after work and Curves, and spoke with a very nice lady in the Phillippines, and after trying all sorts of things, she set me up for some test and told me that someone would call me back after the test to tell me if they figured it out. Didn't make sense to me, but again, I was tired and in a mood, so I didn't really care.

Tonight, Wednesday, after work and Curves, I got home to a message from my DSL company telling me that according to their diagnostic, my internet is working fine. I go in to check it, and it's still down. Sigh. So I called the Phillippines again. Well, I assume it was the Philippines. Anyway, this time I talked to Gary and we figured out that the storm had made my modem reset. So after walking me thru resetting it, I was up and running. Before hanging up, I told Gary that I loved him. He told me not to tell his wife, and I promised him that it was our secret. So if you're reading this, Gary's wife, I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

I logged on, and sure enough, my garden was dead. It looked like a weird version of the elephant burial ground scene in the The Lion King, only instead of elephant skeletons, there were skeleton-esque pumpkins and tomato plants. I did have a cabbage to pick. Snuffles was very happy to see me.

I'm logging off to go to bed. As I fall asleep, I'll be thinking of Gary. :)

Natalie - Who Knew Ya Had it in You? :)

So this past weekend was my niece Natalie's graduation from high school. Mom and I drove up to witness the blessed event. Dad wasn't feeling too great and travel just exhausts him, so he and the gnomes stayed home.

Now, Natalie is a sweetheart, but from what I've gathered, her studying skills leave something to be desired. And there was some question of whether or not she'd missed too many days of school this year to actually graduate. But nevertheless, like hopeful pilgrams, we trotted out to the Pepsi Collesium at the State Fair Grounds to be there, just in case. :)

No, she graduated and we were very proud. I took pics, but due to the size of the place they are rather dark. After the ceremony her father and I trotted out to find her in the melee and grab her before she turned her gown in for her actual diploma. But wouldn't you know it, the turd already had dumped it. So I didn't get a pic of her in the gown, but we do have some pics in the hat and holding onto the blessed piece of paper.

I don't recall my high school graduation very well. (That being SO many years ago and all.) But this one was very nice. The speeches weren't as boring as they could have been. And considering there were like 500 kids graduating, it didn't take THAT long to shuffle them through. I did take a book however, so after the B's were over, I read until I started hearing W's and then I put my book away.

One really good thing came out of it, though. The very last person in line was someone named Nargis (yes, that was her first name!) And when I heard that, I thought, what a wonderful gnome-gname! And since part of my graduation gift to Nat was a gnome of her very own that she could take to Purdue with her (assuming they'll still take her despite her grades.) Uh.. lost my train of thought there.. oh, yeah, so it was a perfect name. After Nat opened the bag with the gnome in it, I told her she'd need to name it and then humbly suggested Gnargis. Everyone agreed that it was a fine name.

Back to Holly's house which, BTW, had been hit by lightning the previous night (almost made me wee in my nephews bed!) and had the AC, the hot tub, and the stove knocked out. We survived, but as a part of the soiree in celebration of Nat's graduation, Holly was making ribs, and that required an oven. Now, we could've just gone and picked up a bucket of fried chicken, but Ho's ribs are really pretty stinkin' good! So she packed up the ribs and the "Uncle Ben's Special Mop Sauce" that she'd made (and that's our Uncle Ben, not the rice guy) and trotted it all over to Haley's house and Ha babysat the ribs under Ho's specific guidance. And they were MARVELOUS. The only downside is that I didn't smuggle any back home with me in my bag. Sigh..

Indy Jones is Back!

After almost 20 years, the new, long-awaited Indiana Jones movie came out last weekend – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To be honest, I went into this movie not expecting it to be as good as the originals. And in some ways, I wasn’t disappointed. I seem to recall the older movies having more humor in them and the Nazis always made such good bad guys, but then the flaws of the older movies may have been forgotten in the distance of time.

The action started out quickly when, in the very first scene, the bad guys broke into the infamous Area 51 in Nevada, with Indiana Jones tied up in the trunk of their car, to steal an artifact. The viewer’s first glimpse of our hero is, after he is dragged out of the trunk, his shadow as he puts “the hat” back on his head in that oh-so familiar way. Very thrilling!

In this movie, Indiana Jones, like his portrayer, Harrison Ford, is older. The year is 1957 and instead of the Nazi’s, the baddies are Russian Commies! The head bad guy is, in fact, a woman, played by Cate Blanchett. As a bad guy, she was pretty good, even though she sort of reminded me of Natasha (as in Boris and Natasha from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle shows) only with shorter hair. She dressed more like Fearless Leader, though. But I digress. Anyway, she is roaming around the world searching for artifacts with paranormal qualities.

Jones quickly meets “Mutt” Williams, played by Shia LaBeouf (you might remember him from the movies Transformers or Holes), who’s character may or may not be Indy’s son with former love Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say.. DUH! :)
The ultimate quest for the movie is this crystal skull that needs to be found and returned to its rightful owners. They find the skull pretty quickly, but then the Russians find them and so begins the fun of trying to outwit the Russians while keeping the skull in their possession, and finding the place to return it – all of which is done in true Indy style.

As I said, I didn’t go into this movie expecting it to be the best, but it was very enjoyable. My favorite is still the 3rd movie, The Last Crusade, but this one is certainly better than Temple of Doom and will have a spot waiting for it on my DVD shelf when it comes out.
Two thumbs up!

Happy Memorial Day

As I sit here with bags of frozen veggie on my shoulders trying to cool down the sunburn I got on Saturday, I thought I should share about my Memorial Day weekend. For someone who originally had no specific plans for the weekend, I've been busy.

Saturday, I headed out to Wadesville. I'd been told that the yard really didn't need mowing, but that there were plenty of other things to do. We put newspaper and straw around the tomato, pepper and cucumber plants in the garden. Then I pounded stakes into the ground and we put cages around the plants. That of course has a two-fold purpose: 1) to help the plants grow upwards, and 2) to keep the cats from laying all over the plants because for some reason they think the plants are put there for them. A third, and more important purpose, as far as I'm concerned, is that by doing so, I earn a summer long supply of cukes and tomatos! So after that, I pruned and deheaded the snowball bushes and the forsethia (sp?) bush. Finally, we decided that since we won't be in town next weekend for me to mow, if I didn't mow this weekend, we'd need one of those big knives (whose name escapes me), you know the ones they use to whack their way thru the jungle in movies... anyway, we'd need one of those to get to the mailbox, so I mowed the lawn. Needless to say, I was TIRED by the time all of this was over, and I was sunburnt. I'm very fair skinned, and I know all about sunscreen, but I grew up in the 70's when the perfect female as blond and suntanned Farah Fawcett, so I want a tan. Stupid, yes, but... I have this desire to be tan. DON'T JUDGE ME! :)

So Sunday, after church, I went and bought some Solarcane (or CVS's version of it) and Mom, Dad and I went to go see Iron Man. Haley was right, it was a very good movie. And Robert Downey Jr. is hot. Machete! That's the big knife I was thinking of... Anyway, Iron Man was good and we went out for ice cream afterwards. I wanted to dunk my shoulders in said ice cream, but forced myself to withstand the temptation.

Today, I slept in until about 8. Not sure why, but Sophie allowed me to sleep in, maybe she realized it was a holiday. We had plans to go out to lunch, my Aunt Marilee and Uncle Doug were taking the 'Rents out for a belated anniversary present, and then we were all going to go see the Indiana Jones movie. Until it was time for them to pick me up, I sifted the litter box and took out the collective trash. Then I made a very momentous phone call.. See I have Dish Network, and I get their "Top 100" channels. But every month they give a couple three free channels to try to encourage you to upgrade to the next level. Well, one of May's free channels has been the Turner Classic Movie channel, and I've taped all the Saint movies, a bunch of cowboy movies for dad, a bunch of Alfie Hitchcock movies, and a variety of stuff for mom. We discussed it and figured we should investigate what the difference is between what I currently have and what I'd have to get to get TCM for good. So I called and the difference wasn't that big, and now I get several other new good looking channels, too. But the part that really wigs me out is WHILE I'M ON THE PHONE, she turns a switch, and I turn on the tv and I have all those new channels. How freakin' cool!

So then we had lunch at Red Lobster and then went and saw our movie (more on that later) and now I'm back here with quickly thawing veggies on my shoulders, and I'm it's time to decide what to have for dinner! :)

Hope all had a Happy Memorial Day.

TGIF! (or, Stop the World, I Need a Nap!)

I am SO sore and tired this morning. Remember, now, part of why I joined Curves was to NOT feel like an old woman as I tromp thru my daily life. And remember that I sort of took it easy last week due to the sore joints/cholesterol medicine thing. Well, both last night and Tuesday night, I worked out back at my usual pace, and both this morning and Wednesday morning, it was all I could do to get out of bed. Working out is supposed to make me feel great and peppy, right? Well, there was no pep in me this morning when I was crying while the alarm went off. Although I did have a slight smile when I turned it off and realized that I could turn the alarm off entirely until Monday night.

Anyway, in honor of the holiday weekend, Curves is closed until Tuesday, so I can't work out Saturday (like I normally would) or Monday (like I normally would), so I'm thinking I might as well just take the week off next week since after a long weekend of no exercise (well, no organized exercise, I'll still mow the lawn), when I start back on Tuesday, I'll be half dead . Was that all one sentence? Hmm.

But on Wednesday of next week, it'll be my one-month weight/measure day... and we'll find out just how much/little effect all this has had.

Yes, I AM Almost 40, What's it To You!?

Ok, so I've written before about my addiction to Webkinz. Well, I really am not that bad anymore. Really! But they just recently came out with a dragon Webkinz, and he's SO cute (see pic). My long-time fans know that I LOVE dragons... cute dragons, not the fierce mean ones. And I have a collection of MANY dragons, I can generally count on getting one dragon for either birthday or Christmas each year.

So, knowing that they were coming out soon, I headed to my local Hallmark store to see if they were in. They were not, but I was told they were expecting a shipment and they would take my name and number. They could not guarantee me one, but they'd try. The very next day (Wednesday), I got a call that my Dragon was in!! I was so-o-o happy. After work, instead of going to work out (yeah, I have my priorities straight), I went and picked up my dragon.

I rushed home and entered the code and named him Snuffles. I don't know, I just find a nifty dichotomy in naming such a fierce creature as a dragon a cute and fluffy name like Snuffles. I'm odd, what can I say. Anyway, the little cartoon dragon that plays online is just adorable. I've created Snuffles a sort of castle room. And he is currently wearing boppers.

Anywho, I just had to share the new light of my dragon collection.

I hope I haven't broken any rules by putting the pics in here - my apologies to Ganz, if I have.

Epiphany!!

I'm so very excited. I was sitting at my desk this morning when it occurred to me that Monday is Memorial Day! And more importantly, this upcoming weekend is a THREE-DAY WEEKEND!! Whoo hoo!
My neice Natalie graduates on Saturday May 31st, so I guess I just thought that that was Memorial Day weekend.

Now that I've got a clue, I get to figure out what to do. My sister highly recommends going to see Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. She says he's hot, and she likes that he's over 40 and playing a superhero. I already had plans to go see the new Indiana Jones movie, despite early panning by critics. And then there's always the ubiquitous mowing of my parents' lawn. Curves is closed Saturday thru Monday for the holiday, so I can skip working out without any guilt.

Speaking of Indiana Jones, last week I bought the first three movies on DVD. I already had 1 and 3 on VHS, I never really cared for #2, but when I decided to replace my VHS with DVD, I figured I ought to get the complete set. Anyway, maybe I should schedule a marathon some evening to watch all three of them before going to see the new one.

Stupid is as Stupid... is

Ok, so as I already mentioned, my doctor doubled my cholesterol medicine, I had side effects, and she took me off of them. Well, this morning, I went to go take my pills and I realized as I was refilling my pill dispenser for the week that last week when I sat there and picked/tossed out the cholesterol meds from the days last week, I actually tossed out one of my blood pressure meds. Sigh.. I have a good excuse, though, see, my blood pressure pills used to be yellow, and the cholesterol meds (prior to the doubling) were pink. On the day I got the doubled Rx for the cholesterol meds, I also got a refill on the BP meds. The new doubled meds were now white and the refilled BP meds were pink. So it made perfect sense to me that I remove the big pink ones that looked exactly like (only bigger) the little pink ones that my cholesterol meds previously looked like. Does that make sense?
Anywho, this morning, I made this realization, and filled my dispenser correctly. So today is my first day without the meds that were making my joints ache. I guess that's why my knees were never feeling any better.
I know, it's a duh moment for Rose, but who's really surprised? :)

T.G.I. Saturday!

So I was supposed to participate in a walk for (against) juvenile diabetes today. One of my nieces and a nephew were even going to come down to Holiday World and hang with me for the day. I was really excited about it, and I think Natalie and Duncan were too. But as I mentioned previously, I've had this knee and hip pain, and although it is feeling somewhat better, there was just no way I had any business walking a mile, let alone walking around Holiday World. So I had to cancel my walking plans and dash Natalie and Duncan's hopes and dreams of a Saturday with their favorite aunt! For those who sponsored me, I'm sorry I didn't get to go walk, but your donations went to a good cause and thanks.

As it turned out, despite being deprived of my presence, Natalie managed to buck up and go to HW without me. She and a friend came down, had a good day at HW, and then drove to my place, via Kentucky (don't ask!), to spend the night.

It's was a beautiful day here in So. Indiana. I went to Curves this morning for a slow workout - I don't want to lose the ground I may have gained already. Then I went to mom and dad's to mow their yard. This was the 4th Saturday in a row that I've mowed their yard. I enjoy it, the breeze as I ride around listening to my mp3 player, but you'd think I hated it by the way I've been treating their mower. Two weeks ago I managed to dent some wheel inside the blade housing, and couldn't finish the lawn. Dad fixed it with no lasting damage, but then last week, after filling the gas tank, I failed to put the gas cap back on, so for like the first hour as I'm bumping around I'm smelling gas... I thought I'd got it on me, but no, it was just escaping out of the tank! I got the gas cap back on and finished the yard. Dad makes the comment that he hopes I didn't get gas in the tank. (Not that I have any clue as to exactly what that would do, but..) The important thing is I don't think I did any lasting damage to the mower today! Whew!

Curves

It's been a while since I blogged. :) But I've been busy.. I made a dramatic decision a couple of weeks ago. I joined Curves. I'd been thinking for a while that I needed to do something, and then my doctor who had recently put me on cholesterol medicine DOUBLED the dosage because it wasn't working well enough. So I'm sitting in the Pharmacy area at Sams and thinking that something has to give. I had already talked to a lady at my office who goes to Curves, and she'd given me a Guest Pass, and I knew that the place was open until 7pm, so on my way home from Sams, I drove by it, and then I went in. I talked to the trainer, Lola, and she's very nice and excited about me joining (yeah, I know, she's paid for it, but still). Anyway, after talking to her, I decided to do it. I had to break down and put the membership fee on my credit card. That hurt because it's been almost 2 years since I've used my credit cards. But May was(is) a 5 payday month for me, so I decided it would be alright.

So now, a little under three weeks later, I've been going pretty regularly, a minimum of 3 times a week, and last week I went 5 times! I'm enjoying it and it's making me feel somewhat more energetic.

On a side note, that cholesterol medicine has had a side effect of giving me INCREDIBLE knee and hip pain, so I've had to discontinue it entirely and slow down a little at Curves until the pain goes away, but that' s ok. I figure the exercise will do its job and I won't need the cholesterol medicine at all pretty soon!

OMG! It's a Festivus Miracle!

First, to sketch in a little background, as it were... I moved into my apartment Sept of 2005. At that time, the woman who lives in the other first floor apartment was driving a white Plymouth Acclaim (or the Dodge equivalent) and around Christmas time, said white vehicle had a flat tire in our parking lot. After that, it NEVER moved. After about a year, I pointed this out to the landlord, stressing that it made the place look.. uh.. white trash. After two years, I'd given up. Frankly, I didn't even see it anymore, unless the parking lot was really full, affecting my ability to get into my parking spot.

Well, so tonight, I come home and uh.. something's wrong.. uh.. am I at the wrong place? No... the white car.. it's GONE!!! I felt like it was my birthday (July 22nd, BTW:) and Christmas all rolled together!! It's a Festivus Miracle! I've been airing my grievances about the stupid car for years and it was surely a feat of strength to get through the past 2 1/2 years of having the hunk of junk there. Whoo hoo!

I've Got the Happy Secretary's Day Blues...

Ok, this week has not been good. Yesterday, Steve (boss #1) yelled at me, and made me cry. Now I know that he's been in a mood and has been having a stressful week, and it wasn't really ME that he was yelling at, but the client whose crappy mess we were having to deal with, but I've been very hormonal and emotional, and it was all I could do NOT to burst into tears while he was standing there at my desk. Fortunately for both of us, he got a call and went back into his office to take it, and I was able to sniffle in private. Carrie (boss #2) noticed and came out to ask me what was up... Because he's generally very even tempered and never speaks a cross word. Thank goodness, he left early after that.

So this morning, I got to work, Carrie had a secretary's day (or Administrative Professional, whatever) card and gift for me. The card made me cry. Then mom called me to tell me it was a beautiful morning, and I started crying. By the time Steve got there, I was in dire danger of me bursting out in tears if he looked at me wrong. He brought me in some beautiful flowers. Of course then he tells me that he'd forgotten it was secretary's day until he was driving in (I gather he heard it on the radio) and he was surfing the net on his blackberry as he was driving in. And then it occurred to him ... oh, I guess THAT's why we're having a luncheon today... secretary's day.. DOI! My question is... why tell me this? Sigh.. Why do men have to be like that? Sigh..

Anyway, we seem to have made it through the day, he spent most of the day behind his closed door, so I was able to deal with my own issues. Then about 3:30 this afternoon, he comes out of his office and his mood is lifted. He's back to his usual self. I think the aliens must've returned him and taken his evil twin away. Whew!

Indiana's Primary - May 6th

Ok, so like for the first time since I remember, the presidential candidates may not be already decided before the Indiana primary. Of course, I realize that, as I'm typing this, people are voting in the Pennsylvania primary and it may all be moot by the end of the day. I'm sort of undecided. I'm rather a-political. I don't consider myself one way or the other, although if pinned down I'm independent with sort of conservative leanings. But then I have unconservative leanings too. Basically I waffle. Ummm... waffles...

Anyway, a few of weeks ago, Hillary Clinton came to town. She spoke at one of the local high schools. I didn't care. I can't explain why, I just don't like her. She's shifty.

But last night, I heard on the news that Barack Obama was coming to town tonight to speak at Roberts Stadium.. with musical guest John Mellencamp. Now first I find this amusing that Clinton speaks at a high school with what? maybe a 1,000 people? And Obama is speaking at the Stadium with the potential of probably 15,000, I don't know how many it seats. So I'm inclined to go. To hear what he has to say. I've really only heard the soundbites on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, so the responsible thing is to listen, right? But this morning, they announce that the doors won't even open until 7:30 pm, and you know he'll be late, Hillary was over an hour late, 'cause he'll be coming from Pennsylvania. So it would be a late evening, and I'm a slug. I like to be in bed by 9:30 pm so I can turn the lights out and go to sleep at 10:00 pm!

They're saying it'll be televised - I'm not sure where... hopefully CNN since that's the only cable news network I get. And why is CNN the only news channel I get? with the last cable company, I had more news channels than I had sports channels and it felt like I had a million of them! Where was I? Oh, so I'm thinking I'll watch it on CNN, either that or watch TV Land and munch on some waffles.