Happy AnniversaBirthday

Happy Anniversary to my parents! 46 years together without killing each other. I aspire to such a milestone.... 45 of those years was with me hanging around their necks.... Poor Mom was in the hospital on her first anniversary! Now days they throw you and the baby out in 24 hours or less it seems.... at least she would have been home.

Happy Birthday to my Dad.... it was in May but we celebrated today by taking him to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, MI. I felt inspired.... I have decided that I am taking up a new hobby.....

Sitting in airplane models..... ;-) We had a good time.... Dad, my sister, BB and sister's former boyfriend all went. We left Mom at home to babysit the dogs.

Happy Birthday to me.... 45 this week.. such a lot of life left to screw up!!

Happy Late Anniversary to my Aunt and Uncle C&C.... 48 or 49 years... They are on the way home from an (early) 50th Anniversary trip to Alaska....

Good cripes... the greyhound at my feet just farted..... I may pass out........

We celebrated (Mom, Dad, Sis, BB and me) tonight with dinner at the Cascade Road House in Grand Rapids (or there abouts). 3 walleye dinners and 2 prime ribs.... some crab cakes and coconut shrimp and popovers and bananas foster and Bailey's mousse and wine and good service (I'm sorry, I didn't catch her name). {{{{{BURP}}}}} None of us can move now.... Sister had already headed for bed to sleep off the effects of too much good food. The rest of us are draped over computers and books. If you are ever up Grand Rapids way.... stop at the Roadhouse....

The cholesterol is now clogging the arteries to my brain..... think I will go take my Alzheimer's test.....

Old dog, new trick....

Last weekend was fun.... hotter than Hades outside, so stayed in and played in the basement. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to disguise my boo-boos in the cabinet making department. The drawers don't fit well... umm.. well, they don't fit at all. I need some significant filler wood strips to get them to work right. So, taking a page from Dad's book, I measured many times. And measured once more, just to be sure. Then there was a bunch of horsing around with the table saw to figure out how to cut a piece of wood an inch and a half wide. Do you put the big part on the right side of the blade and let that 1.5" strip fall off as "waste"? Or do you try to set the fence to 1.5"? Much horsing around. Unable to decide, I revved up the table saw and tried it both ways. On several different pieces of wood. There was a little problem with binding.... I think there was smoke at one point. (but, unlike my father, I did NOT set off the fire alarm!) And then I tried it on some more wood. When I got up to my knees in sawdust, I finally had some strips that should've worked. Should have. I stuffed them into the cabinet with the drawer and they fit. They fit really well. They fit so well that I realized I had forgotten to leave room for the drawer slides. Back to the drawing board and more measuring. And what in the heck do you do with a measurement like 19/32??? After a short refresher in algebra and a lot of pencil lead, I figured I could use one strip 3/8ths of an inch wide and one 1/4th inch wide and fill just the right amount of space. Great idea. No 3/8th inch anything in the basement scrap pile. Rats. Will have to wait for a day when the weather is nicer (i.e.-not 412 degrees outside) to go shopping. So, I spent some time painting the baseboards and another little project for the backyard. (memo to self-need some of that quarter round baseboard footing stuff... get the primed stuff this time....) Finally decided to clean up. So I vacuumed. And vacuumed. And vacuumed some more. There was sawdust EVERYWHERE!!! I think I did every surface a dozen times. And no matter how much I cleaned, THERE WAS MORE SAWDUST!!!!!!!!! What the heck?? Just then, one of the catz made a weird noise and I whipped my head around to see what the ruckus was about and my head was instantly enveloped in a cloud of sawdust.... from my hair. Good grief!!!!!!!! I was a walking dustbag!!!! So I fixed that little problem (with apologies to Edvard Munch).

What a hoot!!! Or suck!!! It was a totally cool feeling. I wish I could clean the catz like this!!!!!!!!! But everytime I fire up the vacuum, they take off.... silly catz.

At least I figured out how to save my bathtub drain from a terminal wood clog! I will definitely be vacuuming my head again.

I wonder what it would look like if I used hair gel????

The view from 11....

..... is fabulous!! Like everyone else, the weather here has been crappy... we are finding bodies on ice all over the place....

I thought we would get a little relief tonight. Boy, WAS I WRONG!!!! I got to BBs place around 7:30.... humid beyond belief... had to be in the high 90's percent-wise with a temp to match (they kept swearing 80-something at the airport... my truck said 97). It was one of those instant-sticky days... I got out of the car and my (formerly) dry all cotton dress instantly stuck to every instantly damp body part it could find. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least Arizona was a dry heat!!! (LOL)

I staggered into the building and took my ride up to 11 and the elevator doors opened and WHAT A SIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The most beautiful thunderstorm was blossoming before my very eyes! I schlepped my stuff down the hall to the apartment, grabbed a diet Pepsi and planted myself back in front of the elevator windows.

I am totally fascinated by thunderstorms. I think in my next life I will be a meteorological and storm chaser. I could see me doing the"Twister" thing... I love watching tornados.... but... I digress...

Parked myself in front of the windows and watched an amazing lightning show.... watched the little pool girl empty the swimming pool 11 floors down, watched the wind pick up and stretch the flags out to their full size. Watched the trees bend over backwards. And watched the clouds above my head whirl and writhe and boil.... and watched the torrential downpour march across downtown towards me and my perch. I had the advantage over the guys watching a couple of floors down... they were outside.... but not for long. When the water got to the stage where it was coming down in sheets and I couldn't see out the window, I went into the apt. on the other side of the building... and watched the rain rain UP the side of the building.... I was totally into it!

And then BB came in.... totally soaked. He was in the fitness center across the street..... oops.

When we went out for dinner later the humidity had gotten worse and the temp hadn't dropped more than a few degrees. YUCK some more!!!!!!!!!!!! (I hate summer) (The only place worse to be than here is north central Florida... all the heat and humidity, none of the ocean breeze!)

The weathermen promise a better tomorrow. We shall see.

Blow me.....

It was a productive weekend....

We had to string an extra wire... but the results are totally wonderful!! The little hallway upstairs is the queen of dead air. Every summer day when I get home I just die of the heat traversing those 6 feet from the top step to the bedroom. So... I fixed it. I have been thinking of this for a while now..... but when I talked to the "experts" at the giant box store they couldn't come up with a way to wire a 3-way switch so the fan would be on all the time and the lights would work on the switch. I just thanked them for their time and told them I would call an electrician.

I called BB (Beloved Boyfriend) instead. He assured me it wouldn't be a problem. You just string a bypass wire. Like bypass surgery. [[[[[[DING DING DING]]]]]]]] {{{{{LIGHTBULB GOING OFF}}}}}} BB is sooooo smart.

So... he/we strung a new wire.... had to go to the box store to get some wire.. we wandered home with 500 feet of it. Can't ever have too much wire.... Strung a wire, hung a fan. If you have to buy a ceiling fan.. go Hampton Bay... far superior hanging mechanism to Hunter. Hunter should take lessons.

Then we went downstairs and rewired the fan I put in last weekend in the dining room. They blow sooooo good!!!! ;-)



All Lance, all the time on OLN TV!!! I love watching le Tour. I love listening to Bob mispronounce it. Congrats to George for winning Sunday. Prayers to the Australian women's cycling team who lost a member today when their group was run over by a new driver in Germany.

I have come down some in the food world today... yesterday it was angel hair with shrimp. Today it was Kraft mac & cheese out of the saucepan. Remind me to tell you the Kraft story...

---burp---

In the style of Flaurella.... angel hair pasta with tomato basil marinara and shrimp. My favorite dish.... ;-) It was the follow-up to baked spaghetti for lunch.


Tomorrow I will tell you all about my (our) weekend projects. hee hee hee

NEWS FLASH

.........BEST NEWS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My friend C has been kicked out of physical therapy and occupational therapy for doing so well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still doing a little speech therapy, but I GOT EMAIL FROM HER TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hubby is doing well and back at work full-time! Life is good.

..........My sister did not finish Harry Sunday afternoon like I predicted. She got didn't get done until 10:30 p.m. EDT Sunday night. She took a major chuck out of Saturday to buy a new van. It's got all the bells and whistles. She named it Blue Belle. I don't think I have ever named a vehicle in my life (at least not for long enough for me to remember it now).

............No rain yet. We had a cold front today... high was only 90 or so. County south of here is being declaired a disaster area for crops. It's supposed to be 100 and humid on Saturday. Think I will work in the basement.

..........My pansy's look horrible. Why do they get so spindly? The heat and my erratic watering isn't helping. However, on the other side of the sidewalk, the wild flowers (and misc. weeds) are looking not too bad. I need some drought tolerant perrenials to plant in front of the evergreen bushes. Zone 5. Any suggestions?

...........I have not started my Harry Potter book yet. I am trying to wait until next Monday. Jury duty.

...........I bought 4 of my favorite bras last weekend. (Replacement time. Again) $168. I almost fell over. BB was totally cool about it. Even walked thru bras and panties with me. Didn't blush too much when I flashed the clerk when she asked me what I was looking for (I had the model(?) number, she wanted a picture. I obliged.)

...........$2.32 a gallon here. Am thinking I need to trade into a smaller vehicle. AAARRRGGHHH! I HATE cars. I HATEHATE sitting down into cars. I HATEHATEHATE trying to get out of a car gracefully ( a feat I am certain is only accomplished by women 5'1" or shorter). Guess I will quit buying so many bras.

NOTICE TO ALL FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Beginning now, my sister will be totally unavailable until Monday morning when she will be forced to return to work. I fully expect her to have finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by Sunday afternoon.

She is, as I type, getting ready to drive to the store and pick up her copy of the book.

I will wait until Tuesday or so... when the crowds die down. ;-)

Tonight I will just watch the television reports......

Sleep, or the lack thereof...

Why is it, that by the end of the week, all I want to do is sleep? I try to go to bed at the same time each night. I usually get 8 hours of sleep a night. Remember Tuesday? I said I was tired and went to bed? It took me all of 3 minutes to pass out. And I was still tired the next day. Sheesh. And if I keep true to form, I will stay up until 2 am Friday night reading and my "primed for day shift" body will dutifully wake me up by 8 am. (grumble grumble grumble)

Speaking of weather, which we weren't, but we will, can I tell you how much I hate humidity? Last summer we were spared the humidity, the weather was cool.. .I wore slacks to work all summer.... this summer is revenge. No rain, high humidity (78% tonight) and high temps. I feel sticky. And tonight, it was just cool enough that I felt that cold, wet chill. Yuck. WHERE IS FALL??

Oh, well. Tomorrow is Friday. The boss is gone. The underboss is gone. The upper boss is gone. Just me and the troops. The department summer party starts in the afternoon. And BB will be taking one of the kids to Indiana so I won't see him until Saturday. I feel a short day coming on.... heh heh heh I should go rest up. heh heh heh

Wouldn't want to be tired, now would I?

That was fun!

I am a statistic! Probably not on the bell curve!! Hee hee hee... I am prolly just like everyone else.. .I blog because I can.... ;-)

I got rear-ended today. And, NO, it wasn't by BB! She was trailer park trash in the worst Jerry Springer way... dense as a rock too. Put me in a bad mood. No damage to my car. Don't give a rip about her car (80's era Olds or some such). She wasn't paying attention. Dim wit.

Have a friend in North Carolina who totalled his Pathfinder last weekend... oops. He is fine. Truck is dead!

Short blog tonight... am tired... spend all of last night dreaming of Escher and going around and around in one of his paintings. It was exhausting. Am ready for bed now...

Do as I say, not as I, um... do

So, I finally took my own advice. Or my own harping....

While I was off on vacation, I painted the vanity, light fixture and medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom. (and painted and painted and painted and painted.... forgot to put a coat or 2 of primer on the cheap-ass wood) And while I was busy painting my fingers green, I dumped the contents of all the vanity drawers and med cab into a cardboard box.

Well... I finally got around to emptying the box on Sunday and putting everything away.

Did you know.... I had a bottle of aspirin that expired in 2002? Anti-diarrhea pills that pooped out in 2003? Migraine meds from the 90's? There were several more meds that went into the wastebasket... zinc oxide from 5 years ago, gas-x tabs older than the bubble gum still living in my stomach from grade school, pseudophed that was so old you couldn't even make meth from it. And to think I moved all this crap INTO my house 2 years ago. Am I a packrat or what???

I also took a hard look at what was in the drawers and the hall closet that related to the bathroom.

Gone are the curling irons of 6 different sizes (my hair is shorter than my boyfriends), the headbands, the curling iron wall holder, the blow dryer diffuser, the wart remover (2 different kinds), emery boards of questionable age, assorted hair goo-gaws and some unidentifiable stuff.

All gone.

It's amazing how easy it is to navigate thru the drawers now!!! ;-)

I should really clean more often.

NOT!

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it!!!! Go look!!!!! I upgraded my website!!!
http://www.traumanurse.info
It's SOOOOOO pretty!!! And I'm pretty sure all the links work!!! YIPPEE!!!

I may have to put up a personal site..... heh heh heh

Ta-Ta for now.... go clean your medicine cabinets!

The drought runs wild!

Hmmm...... my blog is getting to look like the plants around here..... We had rain on the 4th, hard and didn't sink in much, and spotty... it poured at BBs place and barely got wet at mine. I hope Dennis delivers on Tuesday!!

Well, let's catch up, shall we? The 4th and the parade. It was lovely!! The view was fun (11 stories up) and it was a HUGE parade. About an hour and a half. Fortunately, I had a coffeepot (and bathroom) close at hand. I took tons of pics, which I intended to post here (they even had a float with square dancers on it!) but I failed to operate BBs digital camera correctly and only took one pic. Rats. Guess I need to go out and get one of my own and read the directions!

All the people who use I-355 and I-290 will be happy to know I am no longer driving 55. I keep up with traffic once again! (Wouldn't that be a kick in the head... get pulled over and get ticketed for driving 55 in a 45 work zone and another ticket for obstructing traffic for driving 55. That would be my luck!)

I see NBC is using the "You don't know psychiatry" clip from the stupid short movie star to promote their cutting edge interviews. BLECH! May be time to switch to CBS.

I think I am getting lazy. I just came off an unscripted vacation, worked a total of 3.5 days this week and decided to not make any *to do* lists for the weekend. A couple friends of mine are in Chicago to go bike riding tonight. I was planning on going. *Was* being the key word. I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm and the bike is covered in sawdust. And I didn't feel like staying up all night (then I would **really*** not get anything done) to ride... it starts at 1:30 am and goes till dawn. We did it a few years ago and had a blast. -sigh- maybe next year.

Although, I will say that this weekend isn't a total waste. I finally sat down and did the tutorial for the website building program I have and I should have my new trauma nurse site up ..... ummmm ..... soon..... maybe tomorrow??? or if not tomorrow, next weekend. It's amazing how fun it is to create that stuff when you know how all the tools work! sheesh....

And, I installed a ceiling fan in the dining room (only room besides the kitchen and bath that has an overhead light). I can't believe I bought a place with no electric boxes in the ceiling. Now I get to pay for an electrician to come and string wires and pound in boxes. Rats some more. I also put in a new light switch (the old dimmer wouldn't have worked well). Man, was that a piece of work. It looked like there were 85 or so wires stuffed into the wall behind the dimmer. And not a black and white for me, but red and black. The white ones were stuffed in the back of the box. Have no idea where they go/went. But, the fan seems to be doing fine. It doesn't wobble. All the speeds work. The lights light up. And the switch in the wall hasn't caught fire (yet).

Have you ever noticed how cute sleeping catz are? (giggle) And how well behaved?

My friend who flew off the motorcycle is doing well. She was scheduled to be discharged from rehab this weekend. Her dad says she is doing very well and should be well enough to go back to work part-time in a couple of months. She has many months of out-patient rehab to do, but at least her brain things seem to be all intact!

Oh, yeah.... the job interview?? Those people are more disfunctional than a Jerry Springer family. I think I'll opt out this time around. Too bad.... it would have been a cool place to work.

(yawn) Time to go to bed. BB didn't shut off his alarm yesterday and it went off at 7:15 this morning. I am pooped.

More RATs later....

Happy July 4th!

Happy July 4th!! After 2 months of sunshine and dry weather, it's overcast and raining today. We'll take it... the grass is brown!

BB lives on the parade route so will hang here and enjoy the view from 11 stories up.

Hope your 4th is happy and fun and without sparkler burns!

Celebrating the 4th

This land is your land, this land is my land.... celebrate however it feels good to you!! So far, I have gone from idyllic contentment to being a pariah.

This is the idyllic part. I ventured down to my parents summer place yesterday. I loaded up on newspapers and grabbed the computer and drove 65 miles southwest of the Chicago burbs, to the middle of a little forest in the middle of a cornfield and plopped my butt in a chair. I didn't move for several hours. Neither did any of my family members (sister pictured above on the left). The weather was perfect. The company was perfect. The conversation (or lack thereof) was perfect. We read the papers and chattered about how we hope 'War of the Worlds' flops at the box office. All of us believe in 'better living through chemicals' and have no use for the garbage flowing from the movies 'star'. Our fondest wish is for him to suffer a psychotic break and require the use of psychotropic medications. heh heh heh... If there is anything we can do to help the cause, let us know!! FREE KATIE!!! Although, BB had what is probably the most correct view of the whole sad situation. She is half his age and many times removed from his earning power. She's selling out for $$$ and fame. Not a bad deal.... dump the old man after a few months or years (after you are established, of course) and find someone real.

But, I digress. The food fest was already underway when I arrived at lunchtime. Mom had made custard... perhaps my mostest favorite homemade dessert ever!! I wolfed down a fair share. Munchies continued with Hershey's Nuggets with Macadamia nuts, Peanut M&Ms, the little carmel thingies with the white stuff in the middle. Washed it all down with pop. Eating continued with Swedish Meatballs for dinner (Christmas leftovers). They were totally fab! Took a tiny breather from eating to do dishes and then got into the heavy stuff.

Kay brought a new game for us to play called Sequence. Easy to look at, hard to do.... will keep the Alzhiemer's disease at bay for a looooong time, that game. The munching started with peanut M&Ms, Nuggets and carmel thingies... then my sister found the Fritos. To which we **had** to add cheese dip. And then I found the saltwater taffy. And then we gave up and moved the chocolate to the table. (Standing up to grab it off the counter was too much effort!) And we ate and ate and ate. (BURP) We were bad, but it sure tasted good.

We were going to be good today, but I discovered the mini doughnuts this morning. I ate so many that I couldn't finish my breakfast. I think I have consumed my calorie allotment for the week. Oops.

So, I decided to do some penance... hahahaha-sounded good, didn't it??!! Actually, I decided to try an experiment. In this day and age of high gas prices, and given the fact that I drive an SUV, I decided to do a gas mileage experiment. On the way to BBs house, I drove 55 miles per hour while on the expressway. 15 whole miles. OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!! I was passed by every vehicle out there. EVERY vehicle. And I am sure I was cursed by most. I felt like a pariah. I *WAS* a pariah. The speed limit was 55 on this road. I was the only one even close to 55. After 10 miles I was totally convinced I was going to be pulled over for impeding traffic. But, I learned a little about my truck. At 55, I average 24.5 miles per gallon. At 65, it's about 19mpg. Which, if I were to take a 2000 mile highway trip is a difference of about 24 gallons of gas. Or, at $2.25 per gallon, about $54. Which translates to a savings of 2.7 cents a mile or about 40 cents per trip to BBs house.

It ain't worth it. Next time I'll eat Macadamia nut Nuggets and travel with the pack.