Variety is the Spice of Life, eh?

Ok, so it’s been a while since I was blogging. What follows is the variety-pack version of what’s been up with Rose:

Farmtown Addiction: I’m still severely addicted to Farmtown. And I got the Sibs addicted and they took their spouses’ Facebook accounts and created extra farms… which I think is cheating, by the way, but… And mom suggested that Farmtown might be something fun to entertain Dad, so we got him a Facebook account and a farm set up. And we all enjoyed chatting while harvesting each others’ crops. Now that Dad’s gone, we are continuing to farm his property and once we get him to level 28, where you can buy river bits, we are going to turn it into Fuzzbutt’s Memorial Garden. It’ll have rambling hills and a river, and trees and flowers and park benches and bunnies and cats wandering around. Dad would be proud.

Vampire Wars: Haley now has me and Holly addicted to another FB application – Vampire Wars. Not as involved as Farmtown, but still fun. But I logged on this morning and find out that someone put me on the hitlist! Why? I can only assume it was because I have a nasty habit of attacking more than twice. Haley says it’s ok to attack twice… and she has a habit of naming people to the hitlist, so I’d think she’d know. But yeah! Humpf.. I thought about tracking the person who put me on the hitlist down and killing her (figuratively speaking) but I decided to let it go. The best part of Vampire Wars is the minions:

Minions and Tiaras: Ok, my regular readers who commit my ramblings to memory will recall, no doubt, that for Christmas I humbly asked Santa for minions and a tiara among other things. Well my birthday was last week (#41 – only one year away from #42!!), and my boss’s wife (Shannon) and kids trotted into the office with a balloon flying and kazoos trumpeting and what to my wondering eyes should appear in the gift bag? A tiara!! and matching earrings. (Ok, they were the cheap-o kind you buy for kids, but I was thrilled!) I put the tiara on and wore it the rest of the day!

I broke one of the clip-on earrings trying to get it out of the package, but I quickly covered up my faux pas with the faux jewels so the kids wouldn’t notice. Shannon told me that she was sorry but she didn’t know where to get me minions, so I told her that that was ok because thanks to Vampire Wars I have plenty of minions! In fact, I’d gotten my first college fraternity just that morning! That earned me an odd look. :) My goal now is to get me a lawfirm – mwahahaha!! Steve (Boss#1) asked what their specialty was and if they were hiring. I don’t think he gets it.

My peeps at work took good care of me for my birthday. I honestly didn’t expect much, as they’d put on all but a 4-course meal for my 40th birthday last year. But I got to my desk and there were cookies, and donuts, and banana bread, and chips and salsa. It was, needless to say, not a Weight Watchers sponsored event. But it was my party so I ate what I wanted! Then mom came into to town that evening and we went to Logan’s for my birthday meal - the first of many upcoming events without Dad. And we cried a few tears, but for the most part we just had a good time talking.

The Friday after my b-day, my fiend, Jennifer, (whose birthday is the day before mine) and I took off work and spent the day together for a mutual celebration. We went to Absolute Beauty and I got a pedicure (see picture) and she got a massage (no picture available). Then we hit Yen Ching and dined on Crab Rangoon and Garlic Chicken. Now for years, our absolute favorite Chinese restaurant was the Panda, but it closed and we don’t know where the chef went…(I think we’d have followed him/her anywhere. But we’ve found a strong contender in Yen Ching. Although they don’t put enough spice/heat to it, so we have to order extra spicy. Which means we have to order LARGE glasses of ice water to drink!

After our delicious dinner, we went to go see the new Gerard Butler movie, The Ugly Truth. Now, I think I’ve mentioned in these pages before that I would pay to watch Gerard Butler read the dictionary for two hours… especially if he’s using his Scottish accent…(let’s say it together: “if it’s not Scottish, it’s CRAP!”). So with that in mind it was an enjoyable movie. The language was a bit blue at times, so it earned it’s R rating. Personally, I was hoping to see a little skin (his, not Katherine Heigl’s) for the R, but… It was predictable and your basic romantic comedy, so without GB, I’d have probably suggested we go see Harry Potter again, but with GB, the DVD will find its way to the Gerard Butler wing of my DVD collection. Heck if I still have the Tales of the Mummy movie where his character literally is killed in the first 3 minutes, I’ll get this one!

My Father

Wade H. S. Barger

(1940 - 2009)

My father passed away on Saturday, July 11th. He had been in the hospital for several days and despite all efforts to regulate blood pressure, blood sugar, and the frequency of diahrea (sp?), he just didn't improve. Finally, his heart just gave out on him. He'd been on chemotherapy since January and was just miserable. Although he kept his sense of humor to the end - joking with the nurses and us.

The memorial service was Wednesday, July 15th, and I realize that basically people come to those things for the living, but still there were people there that we hadn't seen for years and it was really touching to see everyone. Dad wanted to be cremated and for the service to be a party, instead of a depressing funeral. We did our best to follow his wishes and I think he would have been pleased.

I've been contemplating all week what to post in my blog regarding Dad's passing. And decided the best way was to share him with you. It may be a work in progress, as things will come to me in pieces, I'm sure, and also the tears will overwhelm me at times, too. But here goes:

Wade Barger was born in 1940 - the youngest of 9 children, only the second boy. Like me, I'm guessing he was a little spoiled. And like me, he was at home while the older children went off and got married and had children of their own. He grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois and a couple of years ago, he and I were driving around down there taking the tour of his childhood. Around every bend there was a pond where Dad went fishing or old Mr Whojiwhatsi's farm where Dad got into some sort of mischievousness with his posse. Honestly, I wasn't paying all that much attention and of course I regret that now, but what I took away from it was the sense of fun and humor that I saw in him everyday.

One of my favorite stories about his childhood was that when he was 5 or so, he, Granny and Grandpa Barger trekked out across country to go visit some relative in California. When they got to the Arizona/California border, they discovered that there was some law prohibiting taking produce into California and they had a bag of apples in the car. The three of them sat on the side of the road eating all of the apples instead of dumping the apples. I have this picture in my head. :)

Dad and Mom met in high school in biology class. He was the country boy and she was the townie girl. They ran off and eloped on April 1st of their Senior year, 1958 - yes, April Fool's Day. What a joke on them, eh? They moved to Washington DC after school and took jobs with the FBI. In 1961, they had what I like to refer to as their "starter" children, my twin sisters, Holly and Haley. Of course they were able to upgrade to their Cadillac child, ME, in 1968. I put this picture in because #1, I can; #2, I'm adorable in it; and #3, because my sisters will be thrilled! :)

We moved to Wadesville, Indiana in 1971 when Dad's job transfered him to Evansville. Me, being a city girl born and bred, I did not care for the country. In fact, I've been told that for the first year that we lived out there, I wouldn't leave the house alone - too scared of bugs.

In Wadesville, we had a big garden and Dad loved working in it. In fact, some years they planted upwards of 40 tomato plants! That man loved his tomatos. In fact, near the end, when everything else didn't taste that good to him, I brought home some tomatos from Mayse Farmers Market and sliced one up for him and he enjoyed it a lot.

Dad did his best to warp me starting at a young age. There was this radio comedian, Stan Freberg. Mom and Dad had a couple of his albums and we listened to them frequently. Because of Dad and Stan Freberg, I can't hear about the Gaza Strip in the news without singing, "doin' the Ga-ga-Gaza Strip!" Sorry, you'd have to know Stan Freberg to get it.

When Mom and Dad retired from American General in 2004, the Sibs got them a gnome as a retirement gift. See, Mom and Dad planned on travelling and I think the thought was that the gnome would stay behind and guard the place while they travelled. Quickly Gnarley the Gnome became Dad's good friend and he travelled along with Mom and Dad. Gnarley and the 'Rents travelled to Alaska and Canada, to Texas, to the beach. One year, for the ubiquitous Christmas card letter, dad wrote it from Gnarley's point of view and it was hysterical. Although I'm not sure what the people who received it thought.

In the last few years, especially after we knew that the cancer was back, he would call me at work, just out of the blue and for no particular reason. He started making sure he told me that he loved me before we hung up each time. I think it was during this time that he went from being my father to being a good friend, too.

I woke up one morning between Christmas and New Year this past season and I knew in my heart that Dad wouldn't be with us in 2010. I only mentioned this to one person, my friend Becky. She told me #1) not to dwell on that, of course, because it might spoil the time I did have left with him; and B) to jealously hold onto every moment with him that we were given. One of my biggest fears, as I think I've mentioned before, was losing either or both of my parents. My theory being that I'm too young to become an orphan. And whenever he'd talk about being ready to go or about how we should do things after he was gone, I'd tell him that he couldn't go yet. But then in February, after he was in the hospital, he called me into his room one evening and we had a heart to heart. I think that conversation was one of the best gifts he could have given me. I no longer felt the fear at the prospect of losing him. And I tried to spend as much time with him and Mom as possible.

Well, so I don't know if this makes sense or is just me really rambling. Hopefully, I've shared my Dad - a loving, funny, if rather wacky guy. He will be missed.

Is There a 12-Step Program for Farm Town?

I have come to the conclusion that I have a highly addictive personality. It isn’t drugs or alcohol that I’m addicted to, though, or even chocolate! It’s Farm Town. And I bet at least some of you know what I’m talking about.

It’s an application on Facebook and it started out innocently enough… someone sent me the gift of a chicken. I like chickens so I accepted it, rather than ignore it, and was automatically set up with my own farm. Still, all was well. But then I figured out that I could plant crops and harvest them for money and then plant more. Before I knew it I had a whole bunch of grapes planted. But then there was the heartbreak of going back to my farm the next day and discovering that all of my grapes had rotted.

So I learned and became better, stronger, richer.

Oh, I made the mistake of wasting my initial profits on material things, like fences, and pathways, only to realize that the ground underneath them was far more valuable to my farm’s future. I sold those things and tilled up the land to plant more crops.

One of my “neighbors” told me about how to hire myself out to earn money harvesting other farmers’ crops. While my crops grew, I prostituted myself at the Marketplace begging other farmers to hire me.

Then I noticed that I was planning my day around my crops and when they would need to be harvested. I actually woke up at 4:50 AM one morning because I had grapes that needed to be harvested. Going to my sister’s in Indy for the weekend? I had to harvest my crops and plant longer growing crops for the weekend, in case I wasn’t able to get back to my farm.

I come home from work at night and before even checking to see if I have any mail, I’m turning on the computer to warm up so I can get to the farm that much quicker. Last night, I didn’t have dinner until after 8:30 pm because I was more concerned with the status of my farm!

Finally, I got to a high enough level that I can buy more property to make my farm larger. So now all of extra profits get saved for buying more land!

Like all other things, this too shall pass, but until then, if you need me, odds are you can find me either on my farm or in the market place. I’m saving for a farmhouse. (I suppose that up until now, my little avatar has been sleeping with the chickens.)

Je-fuh-fuh Dun-HAM

These good-looking gentlemen are, from the left to the right: Peanut, Jeff Dunham, and Jose the Jalapeno on a Stick. Haley and I went to go see Jeff Dunham and his crew of stuffed friends Sunday night at Roberts Stadium in Evansville.

The show started at 5pm and we got there about 4:30. We had seats on the floor, row 16, so they were pretty good. But before going to find our seats, we each indulged in a strawberry daquiri - a large one. The glasses had to be at least 18 inches tall, but they were skinny, so they only held about 2 cups of frozen goodness. And they had the world's longest straws in them!

Normally, at this point, I would attach a picture of said frozen goodness along with the abnormally big straw, but unfortunately Haley forgot her camera (and I didn't bother to remind her because the woman takes her camera EVERYWHERE!) and my good camera is not just an expensive paperweight, and the cheap-o camera that I got to replace it seems to be incapable of taking actual photos! (or at least decent ones) Sigh.

Where was I? Oh, so at 5, the "guitar guy" comes on stage as the opening act. The first I'd seen or heard of the "guitar guy" was on the Jeff Dunham Christmas Special. He is really good - good on the guitar and funny in his own right. He played for, I dunno, maybe a 30-45 minutes. Then we had a "15-minute" intermission. I put " "'s around that because it felt like much longer than 15 minutes.

But finally Jeff Dunham came out. Haley tried gallantly to take even just one decent picture for my blog, but again, my cheep-o camera lived up to its reputation and took only CRAP! We had Walter, Achmed the dead terrorist, Peanut and Jose.

Speaking of Jose, Achmed is my favorite, but Jose is my second... he's green and spicy, and I enjoy chicken on a stick, so what's not to like!? Again, speaking of Jose, though, I took a "Which Jeff Dunham character are you most like?" quiz on Facebook and the result was Jose because I'm "quiet, mellow, and laid back. You keep your cool in stressful situations and don't get too riled up over things. Sometimes people make fun of you because you talk with a funny accent or have unusual attributes (like being on a stick), but you always manage to get the last laugh.."

After the point at which the show normally end, he came back out to say that he'd gotten so many emails from people asking him to bring out his Bubba J character, that he'd have a little more, but Bubba J hadn't been in his act for a while, so he (Dunham) was going to have to use his notes! Turned out the audience knew all the punch lines and said them before Bubba J could... which I think really amazed him.

Anyway, the show was very good! My cheeks hurt so much by the end of it just from laughing so much.

Amy Howard is Trying to Kill Me

The aforementioned Amy, a friend from church - a good Christian girl, mind you... emailed me to ask me if I would be interested in joining her for the local YMCA's Jump Start Training sessions for a mini-marathon that they will be sponsoring later this year. Basically, the sessions are Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:00 pm and Saturday morning at 7am.

Well, first off, I didn't get said email until Wednesday this week, so I missed the Tuesday session - not that I'd have gone anyway, as I weigh in on Tuesdays. Then on Thursday, well, it was sprinkling when I left work and so I managed to convince myself that they wouldn't have it. :)
Friday night, after I got off work, I went by the Y to sign the waiver and get my info. Unfortunately, I was informed that they don't cancel due to weather unless there's lightning. sigh

This morning, my alarm went off at 6am, since I knew that I'd need more than a couple of minutes to become human before setting off. My cats laid there on the end of the bed looking at me through heavy eyelids as if to ask me if I were crazy. (The answer of course would have been "yes.")

I got to the Y about 10 minutes 'til 7 and there was probably 75 people there - I'm guessing that Evansville is having an episode of mass hysteria, but it wasn't mentioned on the news. Hmm. Amy arrived and told me that she planned on being in the run/walk group, as opposed to the running group and the walking group. For obvious reasons, I was in the walking group.

I started out walking near the front of the group, and I kept up with them for about 4-5 blocks, but then slowly people started passing me. By the time I finished the walk for the day, 1.25 miles, I think I was at the very end, or darned close.

I went home to get some stuff before going out to Wadesville to visit the 'Rents, and I swear I could barely get out of the car. And as I was driving, every time I came near a red light or some other reason to slow down, I almost cried because it involved moving my foot from the gas to the brake!

Now, at 7:30 pm, after a nap and a good meal at mom's, my legs and footies are no longer threatening mutiny, but I think I heard some ominous rumblings from them when I only contemplated taking a walk tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, after my experience this am, I'm wondering what it was exactly I did to make Amy decide to kill me by suggesting this whole thing. I mean, I'm a sweetheart! I'm funny, intelligent, and easy to get along with. WHY??

Defying Gravity

I am a member of the online survey group e-rewards. The most recent survey I took was to watch a one-hour tv show entitled Defying Gravity.

Basically, the plot is as follows: It takes place in 2052, and we have 9 astronauts beginning on a 6 year space voyage to the other planets in the solar system. Within the first, say, 48 hours, the mission commander and one other guy come down with convenient heart problems so their alternates had to be zoomed up on a shuttle to switch out with them. The two alternates are the only two surviving members of a mission to Mars from ten years earlier, where they had to leave their other two members there to die, and of course there's some underlying mystery about the hows and whys of that mission. Also, the guy in charge of mission command back on Earth is not a nice fellow and he has MAJOR issues with Donner (played by Ron Livingston of Office Space fame), even planning on firing him as soon as someone else can be "brought up to speed."

Meanwhile, there's another mystery going on about this mission in general. Something that the mission commander knew about and his alternate is told about, but the remaining crew members won't learn about until Day 43, when they get to Venus. (Duh, duh, dun!) And there's the obligatory sexual tension amongst several of the crew members - 6 years is a long time, after all.

All in all, I enjoyed the show alot. It was sort of slow starting... after the scene where they left the 2 crew members on Mars, that is. But it grabbed me, especially with the mystery about the mission. I don't know when or if this show'll ever really be on the air, but assuming it isn't opposite something like Lost or 24, I think I'll set my Tivo to watch it. Two thumbs up!

Weighing in

Ok, YEAH! I weighed in this evening and after gaining a pound last week, I lost THREE!! whoo hoo! Now, I just need to keep it up. And I need to put on my walking shoes and ipod and walk!

The nursey chick who comes to our office each Tuesday took my BP this am and it was 106/60!!

Yeah ME!!