Scary Kids

Last night Laura, her boyfriend, Sarah, and Warren went to a costume party. THey looked so cute I had to take pics.

Hmmm . . . she sure makes a good devil . . .

Laura, with a lot of help from Nana, made her own costume this year
and won the prize for best costume.

Pookie's first costume party.

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.