Tate Farms!

Today Laura, Sarah, and I took Warren to the pumkin patch at Tate Farms just outside of Huntsville. Pookie had so much fun!

It's the Great Pumkin Charlie Brown!

Perfect Playmates

It was too pretty outside to take a nap! Warren and his Puppa are inseparable!

Let's race!

Monkey see . . .

AWESOME!

This afternoon Laura, her grandmother, her aunt and uncle, and I all went to see the Broadway Across America performance of the Phantom of the Opera in Birmingham. It was the most amazing live performance I've ever seen. The music was great, the costumes beautiful, and the effects were out of this world! No pictures, not allowed. Sorry. If you have the chance to go, GO!

Oh Romeo's

Oh good grief I just got back from dinner at Romeos here in Decatur. I don't think I've ever had an experience at an eatery as I did tonight. I am so writing them a letter and I'm posting it here as well.

12 Oct 07

Dear Romeo's,

This evening my friend and I decided to dine at your fine establishment. I tried to talk her into going to Camino Real as it is my favorite restaurant, sometimes I visit as many as three times in one week, but no, she wanted to go to Romeos so I conceded. We arrived at 5:45 and put our name on the seating list as a party of four with the need of two additional high chairs. We sat patiently in the foyer until we began to notice that other similar sized groups were arriving after we did and being seated before we were. My friend approached the host to inquire how much longer it would be, noting that we felt like we were being skipped over. We had been skipped over but the host made excuses to the contrary. Why can't anyone just say "ooops"? This wasn't a big deal, it must happen often. We didn't have to wait a horribly long time. We just didn't want to sit there with our children playing in the fountain all night.

Finally we were seated in the bar area. There were better than half a dozen empty tables in the bar. Why were so many people waiting to be seated with all these empty tables?

Our drink orders were taken even before we could sit down and in no time were placed on the table in front of us. My glass of ice water was placed directly, and by directly I mean five inches from the edge of the table, in front of my friend's seven month old baby. As soon as the waitress let go of the glass the infant reached for it and spilled the freezing contents all over himself. The waitress huffed as if inconvenienced and went to get papertowels. Not once did the server offer an appology to the mother of this soaked child, as if it was this baby's own fault. I was floored. I would have appologized profusely every time I walked past the table. Of course I would have known better than to set a drink (or a loaf of bread with a sharp knife) in front of a young child.

As our orders were being taken, my friend and I asked for separate tickets. She and her two children and a to go order on one and my order with my daughter's and grandson's and a to go order on the other. I joked to the waitress that our men had to work late so we went to eat without them but felt guilty so we were carrying dinner home for them.

As our salad was arriving the children pointed out that their Sprites tasted funny. They were right, they were awful. We sent them back and the soft drinks were replaced. I was still waiting for a fresh glass of water.

The meals arrived as lovely and delicious as ever and we enjoyed them as we have each time we've dined at Romeo's.

Then the to go orders came in a big paper bag. They came in one big paper bag. We ordered them on separate tickets so wouldn't it make sense that we may need the dinners packaged separately? So we sent the server back to the kitchen to bag the meals separately. When he returned to the table with two bags he announced as he raised one bag that this was the Pasta Meatza. I took that bag and he gave the other to my friend.

After quite a wait the checks finally came. We scrutinized our charges. I seldom look at the bill, I just sign the credit card ticket and leave. My friend and I discovered that we were charged a quarter extra for the to go orders. It's not like you had to deliver them. Twenty five cents extra for not messing up a table and causing extra wear and tear on the flooring and -- it was the box wasn't it? It had to be the box. We ordered over sixty bucks worth of meal and were charged twenty five cents for the little foil cartons.

I arrived home and presented my husband with the Pasta Meatza he had been waiting for. He pealed the lid from the dish and -- I bet you can guess what happened then. Yes, he found my friend's talapia dinner instead. My husband's dinner was all the way across town sitting on the wrong dinner table.

I wish I had taken notice of the server's name but I sat facing the wall and had my back to her each time she came to our table. She'll be the one complaining about a twenty five cent tip.

I don't think my friend and our families will be returning to Romeo's for quite a while. We'll miss the Pasta Meatza but we can get better service at Taco Bell.

Sincerely,

[I did sign with my name and address but I'm not posting it here]

That's it. Goodnight.

Good bye Nasty Neighbas!

Oh look at this! The neighbors completely closed off! Life is wonderful again!

Queen of Hearts

Laura bought a new Halloween costume at the Halloween store in the mall where her aunt works. SHe tried it out at a Halloween kick off party thrown by the owner of Party Central and the Halloween store in the mall. She's so cute!

PUPPIES!

I almost forgot, Twyla's daschund, Ginger, had her puppies Saturday! They are so cute. One is red with a dark stripe running down her back like Ginger, and two are black with brown around the face. So cute!

Landscaping Weekend

It was a lovely weekend in Decatur, Alabama! The temp was in the high 80's with sunshine all around and a cool breeze to boot.

Hubby and I pulled out the ugly holly bushes in front of our house and yanked up the rotten landscaping timbers to replace with a stone flower bed border. Take a look. I layed every single stone myself perfectly if I do say so myself!


Hubby and I went shopping for new shrubbery to replace the hollys and came up with Wintergreen Boxwood in the back, Hellera in the center, and Blue Bog Andromeda in the front. The andromeda's will bloom next spring, I think. I hope they bloom all summer but I really don't know. It will be a surprise.


A couple of months ago my husband painted my shutters. They were sun dried and faded hunter green. Now they are sleek shiny black. Looks good with that new black roof. Now if I could only muster the energy to pull up all of the ivy around the pond and replace it with ferns, life would be great.

New Furniture!

I ordered furniture a couple of weeks ago from Rooms To Go on the internet. I didn't get to see it in person as the warehouse was too far away. When it came I was amazed! It was awesome. Great quality and it's huge! I used to have a great big bedroom, I thought. Take a look! We got the bed, two night stands, the chest and the dressor with mirror. Nineteen drawers! I had to get rid of my wardrobe and some of the other furniture in the room but that's ok. I've got drawers galore!

Beauty Day

Sarah came down Friday afternoon so we took her out to dinner at Romeo's. Romeo's is a new Italian restaurant in our neighborhood newly openned by the owners of our favorite Mexican restaurant here in town. It was AWESOME! I highly recomend it.

Since Sarah was here we made Saturday morning beauty time. Laura and I got up early and went to the tanning bed. We left Sarah and Warren home in bed. Sarah's pregnant and can't tan. Then stopped in at Sally's Beauty Supply afterwards. THe girls and I took turns highlighting each others hair and Laura waxed my werewolf (offense to werewolves not intensional) eyebrows. When I pulled the cap of fmy head I had these little blue yarn looking strands in my hair so I set off down the hall to scare someone. I'm not sure if my naked body or current hairdo was more scary but Laura seized the Kodak moment.

Pookie was not scared. He wanted blue hair too!

Neighbas Gotta Go

. . .Or at least their dogs.

Friday one of the dogs next door was loose again at about 4:00 when two of my daycare parents were picking their children up. One mother decided she had had enough and gave the animal shelter a personal visit.

An officer came out right away and knocked on my door. I walked him around the side of the house as he asked me for information on the owner and if he was home. I told him one of the owners was home but the other was taken to jail early this morning (I had nothing to do with that, really). I did not see the loose dog right away so I took the opportunity to tell him exactly how often these dogs (or one or the other) were loose and that I was tired of it. His response as he gazed in the dog's yard was, "I see problems already." He has no idea what problems go on over there. Before I was finished, from around the fence of the next neighbor's yard came the prodigal dog.

The officer tried to snare him with his noose but had no luck. The dog even showed his teeth at the officer. The animal control officer went to speak with the owner and then came over to speak with me.

I asked him why he wasn't taking the dog and he said because the owner was home and agreed to tie him up.

WHAT?! I asked, "Let me get this straight. You can come over here twice a week and ask that man to tie his dogs up and if he agrees that's it, no fine, no nothing?" Apparently so. I told the officer that if he doesn't take the dog(s) now they will be loose all weekend and might bite someone. He said he couldn't do anything.

The animal control officer's supervisor spoke on the radio just then and asked if he picked the dog up. He told him no and a short conversation ensued. Then the guy got in his truck and left. A minute later he was back parked in front of my house and the big boss at the animal shelter pulled up. They both went next door and had a short but very loud conversation with my neighbor Mr. Kennedy.

The daycare parent that went up to the shelter called me and asked if it was all right if she borrowed my living room Monday afternoon. I agreed and she scheduled a meeting with the animal police and a few of the daycare mothers that wanted to see those dogs gone.

The animal control officer tried once again to talk Mr. Kennedy out of his dogs peacefully but the man isn't the conversation type so we held our meeting. Mr. Melson took statements from all of us and went back to file the complaint for a vicious animal hearing.

I don't know how long it's going to take but I know we are losing the dogs soon. Now, how to get rid of the people. I'm still working on that.

Pookie Turns Two!

Sunday was Warren's birthday. His aunts and uncles and cousins along with grandparents and Great PaPa met Warren and his mommy and daddy at a park in Nashville. We had Puppa's BBQ with potato salad and baked beans before diving into the cake.

Warren and his daddy played on the cool slide.

It was really tall!

Pookie, like his mommy, can make friends anywhere.

"Fireshuck!" The word of the week. Everything with wheels regardless of color is a "fireshuck".

Musical Mickey card from Nana and PaPa the Great.

Thomas (the fireshuck) cake!

After we finished with the cleanup we all headed up the interstate to the Nashville Zoo. It's a lovely zoo. It's kind of a wide open spaces rather than a cages kind of zoo.

Digging for gold?

Petting the goats.

Now this guy was presumably banished to the donkey enclosure. His friends warned him that if he was going to act like a jackass. . .

Nini and Pookie on the carousel.

Hiding out from the rain with Puppa.

New room!

I decided that since I had to completely repaint my room that I might as well try out a new color. Here it is "marzipan". It's sort of a green. To make myself feel better I ordered $3400 worth of bedroom furniture. It should be delivered September 17. I can't wait.

A picture is worth a thousand. . .

The sticker in the window is all it takes to identify this distinctive driver, obviously one of the more intelligent members of the Auburn Alumni Association.

ROLL TIDE ROLL

Out Out With You!

I dismissed the contractor and his goof ups! My heart could take no more. They had splattered the ceiling stuff all over my walls, doors, furniture, carpet which the contractor swore he couldn't see what I was talking about but I informed him that it shows up well in pictures, my furniture, my paintings, etc. The contractor sent a guy in to touch up paint everything.

Now, anybody that's ever tried to touch up paint knows that it doesn't work. You can have six cans of the same color mixed and you will get home with six different shades of the same color. I told Mr. Parker that the entire ceiling had to be painted and all four walls. He would not do that. He assured me that when the paint dried it would match. I assured him that he was full of shishkamooska and he and I both knew he knew better.

Finally I said look, I'm afraid to have you start anything in the bathroom or laundry room. Who knows what kind of trouble you could get into with all that woodwork and plumbing going on in there. My husband repaired and cleaned up the ceiling on the deck. How about if you just give this ceiling in my bedroom a good coat of paint to make me happy and I will repaint the walls myself. And that was the deal. He even threw in painting my bedroom door where it was splattered to boot. He SPRAY PAINTED it! He spray painted my bedroom door for Heaven's sake! Nobody spray paints a wood door! I went out in th egarage and dug around until I found the very can of paint that I had used when painting that door but he spray painted it instead.

Now Mr. Parker promises in time this wall will change colors and match all over. BS.

And this is that good coat of paint on my ceiling he promised. My daughter was a better painter than that when she was but 13. These people evidently make a living doing this.

SO, Mr. Parker and I sat down with the bill and the checkbook and he tried to convince me why I should write my check for $450 more than his original estimate. There were some things my husband asked him to do after the estmate was made and I know I was going to have to add something to his paycheck but he went on to show us little things he corrected while he was on the roof $25 here and $50 there that he didn't charge us for because of the leak problem and $415.82 he didn't charge for ceiling and wall repair. Oh my gosh how freakin' generous of him!

I am so done with this guy!

Laura's New Interest

Thursday night Laura and I were sitting at the computer filling out a profile at eHarmony. It's really long and it's not just rating 1-7 but there's some essay questions thrown in there as well. After about two hours of messing around with this we came up with a profile that suited her to a tee. But it's $59.99 to join for a month!

I suggested we move over to Lavalife.com. I've met some pretty interesting characters there and though she might too.

Saturday Laura informed me that she had received an email from a guy whom allegedly spied her profile on Lavalife and wanted to get to know her. He's cute, he's hot, and I hardly got the chance to use my computer all weekend! Those two chatted on Yahoo Messenger sun up to sun down and then continued the conversation over the phone.

"Oh Mama, he's so nice and he wants to kiss my neck all the way down to my waist." Actually I think she said lower than that.

They have a pending date at Camino Real this week. He has to be out of town some of the week so the date is not set. More on this later.

This morning before Laura got up, Lando called her. He wants to see her tonight to talk about "them". He wants to be Laura's "one and only" he says. I told Laura that didn't sound like a good idea at all. She said she just wants to hear him say how much he screwed up and for him to call the other woman and tell her how much he lied to her as well. Laura says she wants that other woman to know what kind of person Lando is. I told Laura that it was not likely that the other woman cared.

I assured Laura that hearing Lando admit what a fool he was would be pointless and would not change him . I told her it really wouldn't make her feel any better either.

Laura giggled, "Talking to Jon makes me feel a lot better."

Laura's big new smile

Laura finally made it home around 9:00. As she walked in the door I told her I was starting to worry. She slumped down solemnly on the couch. Ten seconds or so ticked back very slowly while in my mind I'm repeating, "Don't take him back. Don't take him back. Don't take. . " Then she sprung from her seat with a giggle and ran out of the room shouting, "I've got to go check my Yahoo Messenger!"

The Good News

Sarah's pregnant again!

She should be due early to mid May, about two months after Ricky is scheduled to go to Afganistan. Kind of sucky timing but that's the way it goes.

This weekend Sarah handed over her dog, Zoe, to my sister, Pat. Pat fell in love with the dog the minute she saw it and told Sarah that if she found she couldn't keep it to let her know. Sarah has had a hard time with the dog in an apartment so she decided pat would be better for Zoe.

Enter the Boss

Tuesday, in the middle of the children's naptime of course, Chris Parker came to the door wanting me to show him the damage. I walked him through the house pointing out all the damage (waling up all the kids) and all he could say was, "No problem, no big deal, no big deal, no problem."

I wanted to scream, "IT IS A BIG DEAL! MY BEDROOM IS DESTROYED! MY HOUSE IS A WATERY MESS AND NOW I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MOLD." Never once did he apologize.

OK, so he comes back Wednesday with a guy whose going to do the work on my room. I showed him the way back and asked his name. I told him that I don't usually drag a man back to my room without first knowing his name--or at least his email address.

Dude went outside to wait in his car for Chris to return with the piece of sheet rock and a couple of gallons of paint.

Before they got started on my room it was necessary to move some furniture and trees out of the way. I was in the living room feeding a baby when Mr. Parker called out to me. "We need you to come move some things in here for us." I thought he meant my rechargeable vibrator that was plugged into the wall and sitting on my nightstand but it was the jewelry he was concerned with.

He gave me this story about some woman accusing his guys of taking a bunch of video games from a past work site. He had to pay her for the loss since he couldn't prove they didn't. He doesn't watch much People's Court I take it. Any way, I turned to him and assured him that I was going to frisk them before they left.

They were here until 7:30pm replacing the ceiling and blowing the cottage cheese up on it. Before they left they asked if they could leave all their stuff where it was (the furniture displaced and trash all over my bedroom) until tomorrow when they'd be back to finish. I agreed believing that they truly would be back the next day to finish.

I must have scared them off. They did not show up Thursday or Friday.

Friday morning as I was getting dress for work I walked into my bedroom from the adjoining room looking down at the carpet. I stopped, backed up, and looked again. The freak had only covered part of the carpet and there was a line where he sprayed the ceiling crap on the carpet (the white celing cottage cheese texture stuff had my tan paint color mixed with it so the ceiling would be easier to paint).

See the lines?

There's a trail of painted footprints out my bedroom door, across my deck, and down the steps.

Goofus Roofus

Seems all I do any more is complain. I'll not disappoint you with this entry. I've got a complaint.

A couple of weeks ago we finally got a check from the insurance company to repair damage to our roof cause by a hail storm in April 2005. Yes, sixteen months it took. Thanks ALFA. We hired Parker Contractors to do the work and they started Tuesday, August 14th. We chose this company because a couple of our neighbors had used them last year when they had their roof fixed. One guy up on the roof in record setting above 100º weather.

Of course there's a reason why I am sharing a roof story with you. Last night while we were gone it rained really really hard for not much longer than ten minutes. When I came home I piddled around cleaning the kitchen then watched a little TV. Mr. Dubbs went on to bed. When I could hold my eyes open no longer, I went back to my bathroom to begin my usual nightly routine. My face washing stuff was in the shower so I stepped on the mat then stepped in the shower to reach the bottle. The mat was saturated. I wondered why but figured Rick had taken a shower before bed. He had been swimming so this seemed logical.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth, admired my amazing face in the mirror, popped out the contacts, and then flipped the light switch Two steps from my bed my feet splashed. Never a good feeling. I woke my husband and told him I was turning on the light and he needed to look because I couldn't see. And there it was.

That's Walmart brand paint holding that sheet rock up. I paint a lot and I always use Walmart. You can see just how strong it is.

I didn't sleep all night for worrying about the ceiling falling. In the morning, before the roofer showed up, I took pictures of all the damage. Upon closer inspection in the daylight, I found damage in every room on the back side of the house.

My bedroom

In the bathroom the water must have rushed through the exhaust fan. THere wasn't much evidence on the ceiling, just the soaked bath mat.

My laundry room

The siding on the ceiling of my deck came loose and newspaper insulation, wet newspaper insulation washed down the side of the wall warping and staining my painting and covering pl;ants below.

The openning in the wall between my office and kitchen just a couple

of feet from two computers.

After taking my pictures I stood at the front door waiting to confront the roofer guy. He apologized many times as he slipped back out the door but never once said, "Don't worry, we'll fix it." That's all he had to say to make me feel a little better. Of course I knew they would be fixing it. They wouldn't be getting their check until it was fixed. Mr. Chris Parker, I asume is the boss guy, never showed his as.....face all day.

Some time late Monday afternoon, three layers of trusty old Walmart semi-gloss acrylic paint relented. Do you know what's in your attic?

About a foot of newspaper confetti type insulation covers the floor of mine! There is an air vent in the floor in the doorway where my husband is standing. When it was blowing, and with 100º+ temperatures the air blows constantly, my whole room was a freakin' giant snow globe! I do regret not taking that picture. What a mess. It took us over two and a half hours to clean it up.

The Neighbors Gotta Go

I have got to vent. I am sick and tired of my neighbors! Many time I have had to call the police about those two outside in the driveway or middle of their yard screaming and physically fighting with each other. Early in the morning, mid afternoon, and wee hours of the morning they are out there pounding away on each other and screaming language to profane for this websites audience.

The first time I called the police there one of my daycare mothers came in asking if I knew this toddler that was walking up and down the driveway crying for her mother. I brought her into my home to keep her safe. Apparently the dad had taken the other three children to daycare but this child was still asleep and so he left her home alone. I called DHR first and they said someone would be right out here. Thirty minutes later DHR called me back and asked me to call the police. I told them no, you call the police, I'm busy with my own daycare children. I called the police anyway and they told me to call DHR. I told them no, I was busy with a daycare and they needed to come see about this child.

Multiple times in the last three years since they've lived there, by the way, it's a rental house and the house number is 911. Go figure. Anyway, One time they woke me up at 3:00 something in the morning. My bedroom is on the total opposite side of the house and yet they woke me out of a dead sleep. I yelled out the door for them to go in and give the neighborhood some rest. He threatened me in his usual vulgar language so I went back inside and got the cordless phone and called 911 from my porch where he could hear me. They continued to fight with all four children screaming and crying in the driveway.

Before the officer arrived, and I know this because I was sitting in the room closest to their house eaves dropping, I overheard Shamika (I think that's her name) yelling at Nick, "You know she calling the police."

He responded with, "I'll F*** her up and her husband too."

They continued to fight and I continued to listen until I heard, "Well I aint the one goin' out and gettin' someone pregnant." Oh, so that's what this was about.

The officer arrived and asked, "What's going on here?"

Nick: "Nothin' officer we just haveing a little argument. Everybody has arguments [keep in mind it's 3:00 something in the morning and they are outside doing this]. That old lady [that what?!] is always calling the cops on us."

Oh for God's sake!

This morning I could hear them out there at 6:30. I thought it was just a loud verbal argument that ended when he screeched out of the driveway and floored it until his exhaust left black stains in the road. He was taking three of the children to school. Don't you know they were scared.

As soon as he returned (in the same manner in which he left) the fight resumed with the youngest child there in the middle of it screaming and crying and it was physical this time. Right there in front of my daycare children and their parents arriving around 7:45. I called 911. One of the daycare dads answered and recognized me immediately. I did not call DHR. I regret that. I was so angry with my neighbors behaving that way infront of my daycare children. They are violating my basic right to quiet enjoyment of my own property. The police do nothing but send one of them away for 12 hours but 12 hours and aminutelater the one is back.

And they have these dogs over there. No fence, just a bunch of dogs tied up here and there and a couple in a little dog pen. They get loose regularly and I have had to call the animal shelter to deal with them on several occasions because my daycare children and their mothers are afraid of the dogs. Today one was loose and it took a bath in my goldfish pond tearing up my waterlily and my zebra grass and killing at least two fish.

The neighbors gotta go!

Another Sad Day

This weekend we helped My daughter Sarah and her husband Ricky move to Clarksville Tennessee. I've been really dreading this day for some time but it turns out they are not but three hours away and there is plenty of shopping, a zoo, and an awesome winery between here and there.

But the move was torturous for my sweet child who is used to everything going pretty much her way.

As soon as Sarah learned Ricky was to be asigned to Ft. Campbell Kentucky she called the base looking for housing. The base was full so she used the internet to find housing close by in Clarksville. Sarah found a lovely little mobile home/prefab housing community complete with ball fields, fishing ponds, playground, and a security gate. She and a friend took a trip up there and secured one unit. There was no deposit and free first month's rent. Cool deal, she thought. A week before the move Sarah called Bells Crossing with a couple of questions only to find that they had rented the home to someone else.

Sarah was livid. She was to pick her husband up at the Nashville airport the next evening and only had a few days to find new accomodations. And she did. Sarah was not happy with the choices she had but took an apartment that seemed nice and neat at the time.

The move was scheduled for Wednesday, they thought, but a communication failure cause the Army to not be able to Move Ricky and Sarah that week and they were left on their own to rent a truck and pack up all their belongings.

That was some fast packing! They did it mostly on their own. My husband Rick and his Dad, Richard, drove the U-Haul to Clarksville while Ricky and Sarah each drove their own cars. They arrived at the apartment complex and called the manager for an appointment. They were to meet at the management company's office and get the key at noon. They signed paperwork and left with their keys. Once at the apartment they unlocked the door to find it crawling with roaches! Sarah flipped out! They called management and were told the maintainance man was on vacation. Oh poor Sarah. Nothing about this move had gone right so far.

Laura and I had lagged back in Decatur for a few hours thinking it best to keep the dog and Warren out of the way. We spent the morning allowing Warren to spend a little time with my parents. They are going to miss him so much. We finally left at about noon and were stopped for lunch just south of Nashville when we got the call. Sarah was trying to tell me the situation between wails bless her heart. She told me that her dad and her Papa were going to have to move all her stuff in with the roach family because the truck had to be returned that day before the U-Haul place closed.

By the time we arrived with the boy and the dog, Rick had been to the store and bought almost $40 worth of bug bombs and sprays and was ready to set them off. We ate at Olive Garden after locating a motel that was simpathetic to the situation enough to let the dog spend the night.

We drove home Saturday night and returnnned Sunday morning. That's a lot of driving for one weekend. Sunday morning we helped Sarah clean while Ricky reported in to Ft. Campbell. I took the kitchen, Sarah took the bathroom, and Rick was left in charge of the boy and the dog.

The kitchen was dripping with roaches! Even after three bombs in this little bitty apartment, there were still plenty of live ones creeping around unfazed. The dishwasher was full of them and even the refrigerator. I always thought that if any place was safe it was the fridge. Nope, guess not. Sarah took zillions of pictures and I know you would love to see them but I don't have any right now.

When Rick started having a hard time entertaining Warren he decided to move the TV over to the wall with the cable outlet and set it up so Warren could watch a video. The electrical outlet did not work and neither did the other outlet on that same wall. We had to dig up an extension cord and run it over the door and under the window to the next closest outlet.

I was concerned about Warren chewing or sucking on stuff that still had poison residue on it so I asked Sarah to start throwing stuff in the washing machine beginning with the throw pillows on the couch. I've seen Warren chewing on mine and it was a concern for me at the time. The washing machine was loaded and turned on. Two minutes later the kitchen was sitting in a puddle. Sarah decided this was a good time to get out the checklist provided by the management company and start making notes. We were a little scared to put the clothes in the dryer.

AND THE NEIGHBORS! They would be good competition for my neighbors on the NE side (the one's whose house number is 911). Sarah put a little welcoming bench outside her door as did a couple of other tennents in the building. Sarah and Ricky went out to pick up breakfast and come home to find her neighbors all sitting on her bench. Then she discoveres that someone has picked all the little snap dragon blooms that had just openned up the day before. Another nightbor discarded his motor oil bottle in her rubber tree pot and still another neighbor walked off with her lovely little dishgarden that had been a gift from her grandmother's funeral earlier this year. Stole it in broad daylight!

What a weekend. We left them with a livable place, still a lot of work to do but we thought they could handle it from there. I also left Sarah with a lot of advice on getting out of her lease early. She should have no trouble at all.

Sad Day

Laura and Lando have been having some relationship problems for a couple of months. I'm not going to go into the details because it's still so fresh and painful for them both. A couple of Sundays ago Laura called me crying and asked if she could come home. Of course I said yes. Then she asked if I could come pick her up because she was too upset to drive. Of course I said yes. I hung up the phone and grabbed Sarah who was sitting on my porch smoking.

We high-tailed it over to Laura's apartment about a quarter of a mile away. The way Laura was crying on the phone I was concerned that she and Lando had been in a physical fight. But no, thank goodness, he probably wouldn't do that but one never knows.

Laura got what she would need for a few days and rode home with me. Sarah drove Laura's car for her. Just as we were getting Laura's stuff into the house along comes Lando. Laura said she didn't want to talk to him right now so Sarah came running in the house shutting the door tight and yelling at Laura, "Don't you make me give his necklace back or anything like that. You know I'm not good at that!"

A bit of history: When Laura was in middle school, probably 13 years old, she met a boy that wanted her to be his girlfriend. Laura told him he would have to quit smoking (yes, he was just 13 too). He agreed to do so because my little princess was such a hot catch. One afternoon Laura caught word of this boy, whose last name caused us to jokingly call him "Moose", had been smoking in the boys' room at school. A teacher walked in on him so he put the cigarette out in a garbage can, which as you might guess, started a fire. Laura broke it off with the boy immediately. When Moose came over to the house to talk to Laura, Laura handed Sarah (then nine years old) the friendship necklace he had given her and instructed Sarah to return it to him. Sarah was outside for quite a while. Then she came back in the house just bawling her eyes out crying, "But he looked so sad," and pleading for Laura to give him another chance. Thus, "You know I'm not good at that."

I laughed so hard. Later in the evening it occurred to me that a week prior Laura had taken her engagement ring for it's every 6 months inspection. The diamond had slipped down a little in the setting so it was sent off for adjustment. I know it was mean but I couldn't help myself. I told Sarah that laura wanted her to pick the ring up at the jewelers on Tuesday and take it to Lando at the apartment. She screamed "Nooooooo! I can't do that. Are you serious? Noooooo!"

Last Saturday morning Laura called me at 8:00. I knew something was up just because it was 8:00am and she's not usually up that early. "What are you doing today mom?" I told her I planned to do some more painting on the daycare room. She asked if she could come over to help. When she got here she told me of another episode with Lando and that she was now ready to move out for good. We discussed how we were going to manage that now that it was nearly 10:00 and the men in our family probably already had plans. On our way to rent a storage building for her stuff we decided that she would just go back to the apartment for one more week and by next Saturday we could have help lined up. At noon my husband called to tell us that he would have help at the apartment a little after 1:00 and we got her furniture moved that day. It took a few days longer to get the rest of her stuff out. Three of my four bedrooms are now floor to ceiling with boxes. Ugh.

I do enjoy having Laura here with me. She's really good company and a lot of fun. I think we are going to start a diet and walk together. We both need to lose a lot of weight. I lost 45 pounds back in 2006 but 15 pounds have already come back. I need help!

The split up went very smoothly, like adults should do things. The couple had been together almost 4 years and lived together a year and a half so the division of belongings wasn't so easy. Laura still has the apartment key. Perhaps we'll send Sarah to return it.

Lock up your toys ladies!

From our very own Decatur Daily


Smokes, sex toys reported stolen

ATHENS — An Athens thief may have sex and smoking on the brain.

According to police reports, someone stole six packs of cigarettes, a 12-ounce bottle of lubricant, two vibrators and $40 in cash from a home on Garrett Drive.

According to the homeown-
er’s report, the theft occurred in June.

Reports say the thief also made off with a debit card and driver license.


Y'all know this wasn't me. I don't smoke.

The Fat Boy

Oh gosh, I finally rode the motorcycle!

A little over three years ago, January of 2004, My husband came with a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle. "Look what I got us honey!"

I was irate! $18K for a motorcycle we didn't need or have the money for. "Oh but we do have the money for it," says hubby. "I took money out of savings to pay off the truck so that I could downgrade the insurance from full coverage to the minimum liability so now we still have close to the same payment." I'm sure it all broke even in his mind but I didn't think we needed such a risky toy and I couldn't help but notice it came with but one helmet. What happened to "us"?

But that was ok. Hubby went out and got himself a toy for spending his free time, Carol went out and found herself a new pastime as well (but that's a story unsuitable for this "G" rated blog).

I didn't say much at the time about the motorcycle but a couple of months later hubby and I got into one of those silly arguments that I can't even remember how it started but it eventually circled around to, "Oh yeah, well you get nuts everytime I spend $100 on groceries and stuff at the store. You are constantly fussing at me that we don't have any money to spend so don't write any checks. Then you come home with a new motorcycle (and not a cheap one either it had to be the best) without even discussing it with me?"

Hubby's defense, "Well, I wanted it."

I screamed, "Well I'm tired of that Mustang. There's no room in the trunk even for a couple of suitcases so we can't go anywhere and no one can sit in the back seat, no one with legs anyway. I've really wanted a new Escape for sometime now but you don't see me running out and buying one."

Which led back to a previous argument that everything we own, the children's cars, his truck, my Mustang, his Mustang, and now this motorcycle is in his name. Everything except the house. If something should happen to him, say he splattered his brains all over the highway riding that donorcycle, the rest of the family would be in quite a nasty financial state for quite some time.

The next day hubby called me from the Ford dealership, "What color did you say you wanted?" A few minutes later Rick brought home a brand new green Escape along with the sales lady carrying the paperwork for me to put it in my name. He's so good, sometimes. I was delighted with the Escape but I sent the sales lady back.

Three years four months later, on a Friday afternoon in early May, hubby comes home from work, sits down and announces to me and the girls that he's in love with a Fat Boy. Laura and Sarah did not know that a Fat Boy was a Harley-Davidson rather than an obese homosexual. Both announced that they needed to leave. Ha ha silly girls.

The next morning while I was otherwise disposed or more accurately, elsewhere indisposed, hubby zipped up to the H-D dealership and traded his bike for a pearl white Fat Boy. When I returned (make-up smeared, hair slightly askew) hubby was grinning from ear to ear next to his new toy.

Memorial Day weekend hubby asked me to ride out to the cemetary with him on the motorcycle. Somewhere over the course of the last couple of years we had aquired a second helmet and Rick had just finished installing a passenger backrest so I reluctantly agreed. It was but ten miles or so. I could handle it I guessed.

Barely. I could barely handle it. I had forgotten my fear of speed, skin, and asphalt. WHen I was 14 or 15 I took my trusty little skateboard to Joe Wheeler State PArk. I proceeded to ride from the golf course entrance all the way down a steep slope curving sharply to the right. It was probably a nutty endeavor from the get go but I was doing well until a motorcycle came suddenly around the curve and honked. I found myself face down on the concrete with my shirt slightly torn, my bra slightly torn, and my airbags skinned as well. Riding on the motorcycle, especially when looking down at the pavement blurring beneath, reminded me too much of that fall. I held my breath, closed my eyes, and held on for dear life!