It's a sign...

A sign...


Of what I am not sure...


Maybe that I am getting older and losing it....


Not that I ever had much of it to begin with....


Or maybe that I did not need half of the things on that list....


The list...


That I made right before I headed out to run errands at lunchtime....


That I got to the store and could not find....


...anywhere....


Checked my pockets....


Checked my purse....


Checked again....


The list....


That I pulled out of my pocket as soon as I got back to my desk...


Damn...

Why I should have chosen the iPhone....

A short time ago, I was given a choice...


Droid or iPhone....


I chose Droid....


Now I am sorry....


Because Droid is not compatible with this awesome app....


Check it out...


Before you go to sleep tonight...


Especially if you love sleeping to the sights and sounds of thunder storms...


Yes, I said sights and sounds...


Hear the thunder and see the lightning flash...

StormAsleep  

This awesome app was developed  by none other than LDBoy...


With some help from a friend....


I am so proud!


I wish I could say I taught him everything he knows...


But that would be a big, fat lie....


And Moms and nuns do not lie...



But check out  StormAsleep  and let me know what you think...

Working for a living....

I have come to dread Monday mornings...

and Tuesday mornings...

and Wednesday mornings...

and Thursday mornings...

and Friday mornings...

Saturday and Sunday are ok, tho....

Not to be outdone by her mom....

My daughter CareBear and son's girlfriend (Marge) have teamed up on an awesome and crafty blog....


You can visit them at:

http://craftpond.com/

Tell them I sent you....


I think my CareBear is trying to out-blog me...


In addition to the craft pond, she still has her photography blog

http://aphotoforyourthoughts.wordpress.com/

And rumor has it that she is blogging somewhere about the joys of being a young American housewife....

Hmmmm......

Fun fact:

Having an orgasm at least three times a week cuts in half the likelihood of death from coronary heart disease.

I have a lot of catching up to do....

I am not as thunk as you drink I am ....

I love an off-site boss who sends her direct reports coconut rum cake....


And I love it even more when the birthday boy puts the cake in the fridge and forgets about it....


....i.e., lets it age for a couple of weeks....


We are feeling no pain in the office this afternoon....


Where is the breathalyzer when we need it????

Chi-town....

Seems I drafted this post In October but never posted....
What was I thinking????
Well, here you go.....

It's not Asheville, but....


CareBear and K thought they had an opportunity to move to North Carolina....


But that fell through...


Long story....


That ends with another reason to love corporate America...not....


But one door closes....


And another opens...


So CareBear packed her bags and moved with her love to Chicago....


For 4 months anyway...


And I am on vacation...


In Chicago....


Where it is raining as much as (or more than)  it is back in Cleveland....


But we are having fun....


Saturday night we hit the Rivers Casino and had a fun time losing a (very) few bucks...


Sunday we found a bar that hosted the Chicago Browns Backers and (Carrie and I) watched the Browns kick some Dolphin Tale....


While K watched his Lions kick the crap outta the Vikings...


Monday was heaven....at Gino's East....


Tuesday was a stay in and avoid the rain and be lazy day....


Wednesday was a let's find the nearest mall and do some window shopping day...


Which brings us to today...


Today Carrie and I got up early and headed to Milennium Park...


To watch the sun come up over the lake....


And see ourselves in the cloud sculpture that looks like a bean...


And now the clouds and rain are back....


So we are relaxing on the couch...


Watching daytime tv....


My kind of vacation...

I am still here....

I know I have been gone awhile....


I quit posting because people were reading my blog and giving me grief about what I wrote about them...


Guess what????


I do not care anymore...


This is my outlet....


...or at least one of my outlets...


For all the shit I deal with as I go through life....


And since I have not been dealing so well without blogging....


I am back....


Hear me roar...


If you do not like what I say, ignore me....


... or whatever....


If I talk about you at least I am thinking about you:)


And I most likely love that you are in my life in some way....


Even if it is just to provide some good blogging material....


And I intend to catch up with my blogger friends, too...


I realllllly miss you guys....

Just so you know what I am talking about....

As I get older...

My texting may take on a whole new meaning...

But rest assured, I am not there yet....

Really....

• ATD: At The Doctor's
• BFF: Best Friend Fainted
•  BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
•  BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
•  CBM: Covered By Medicare
•  CGU: Can't get up
•  CUATSC: See You At The SeniorCenter
•  DWI: Driving While Incontinent
•  FWBB: Friend With Beta Blockers
•  FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
•  FYI: Found Your Insulin
•  GGPBL: Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low!
•  GHA:Got Heartburn Again
•  HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement
•  IMHO: Is My Hearing Aid On?
•  LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
•  LOL: Living On Lipitor
•  LWO: Lawrence Welk's On
•  OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
•  OMSG: Oh My! Sorry Gas
•  ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
•  TTYL: Talk To You Louder
•  WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
•  WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again
•  WTP: Where's The Prunes?
• WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil
• GGLKI: Gotta Go Laxative Kicking In

Thanks to my friend Sandy for sharing....

Creativity at it's finest....

So it is Halloween weekend...


Again....


I should put together some sort of costume...


Just in case I decide to go to one of several Halloween parties that I have been invited to...


Or better yet, to get a discount at one of the cafes as I go crawling this weekend....


I have pondered several ideas....


Pepe Le Pew (aka the closer, because a lil whiff of Pepe and everyone would leave the party/cafe)..


A repeat of last year's Trailer Trash Mother-in-Law (still have most of that gear)...


Black-eyed Pea (great suggestion from a co-worker)


But I have settled on a twist of my co-worker's suggestion...


Are you ready for it????


Black-eyed Susan....


What could be easier?


I am going out at lunchtime to get a name tag and some eye makeup....


Assuming my clumsy self does not take a fall in the meantime and create my own black eye....


And no, I do not need anyone to punch me, thank you very much, for the real effect- I am ok with using makeup....


I may even wear a yellow hoodie for added effect....


And, the awesome part of this is that if I decide to go out with friends, we can easily all wear name tags and black eye makeup and go as a bouquet (or field) of Black-eyed Susans....


Discounts all around....


Happy Halloween, blogger friends!!!!

Hmmm....

I admit....


Sometimes....


When things at work seem really awful.....


I think about quitting to become a Walmart greeter....

Woman accused of choking Elyria Walmart greeter gets jail

Maybe I will rethink that....

Happy National Coffee Day...

Survey says...


Writers are No. 4 on the list of professionals who need coffee to get through their day...:)

Survey: Scientists, marketing professionals need coffee the most

I did not need a survey to know that... 

Not sure I will ever learn...

I was looking at my blog and realized that a couple of posts did not... post, that is...


Not sure what happened.


But I wrote this post in early July and will post now because it did not post then....


And I will try to post again soon about my further cafe crawling/casino hopping adventures...

I have a couple of vices....One, as you know, is gambling...A couple of weeks ago, when I was attempting to satisy this particular vice, someone knocked me on my butt in the casino parking lot....

Some would have taken that as a sign from above that maybe I should give up this vice...
I did not see it that way...

I am still attempting to recover from that little incident...

I would probably recover quicker if I did not have such an aversion to doctor/hospital visits, but that is a topic for some other post...

Another vice of mine is drinking...As in alcohol...Not that I am an AA candidate...Yet....
 

But I do like a beer or two a couple of times a week...

Or a glass (or bottle) of wine or two a couple of days a week...

Or a shot or two or three or four a couple of times a month or so...

Anyway...

I was in the local Big Bird grocery store the other day and decided to pick up a bottle or two of something that would satisfy this vice...

As I am pushing my cart in that direction, I see another customer coming at me with her cart...

Unfortunately, there was a display shelf of wine between us....

And she was not looking where she was going...

She slammed into the wine display....

Several bottles came flying at me....

Several more bottles crashed on the floor in front of me...

 I jumped out of the eay as best I could...
 

Considering I was still nursing my foot from the previously mentioned encounter with someone else who was operating a vehicle without looking where they were going...

Let me just say that wine bottles do not hurt as bad as automobiles...

I walked away with a couple of minor cuts...

Again, some would have considered that incident as a sign from above that maybe I should give up that vice....

But not this someone...

After all, vodka and cranberry sure help dull the pain...

And the frustration...

Because the someone driving the cart conveniently disappeared down the next aisle...

And I was left trying to convince the two young store employees that, even though I was the one bleeding on their floor, I was not the one who ran into the display...

I should have asked to see a manager...

But I just wanted to be on my way...

Maybe I should just stick to coffee...

Okay, I admit I am over 50....

But what am I supposed to do with the doggie in my purse????

AARP: Once you're 50, goodbye Jell-O shots, saying panties plus other dos and don'ts

Showing off my baby girl....

Ok, so that is not my baby girl or grandbaby girl in the pic...


But it is my baby girl behind the camera...


CareBear has started a blog about what she loves to do best...


And she does it beautifully...


A picture is worth a thousand words...


Or, as she says....


A photo for your thoughts....


Check her out...


I think you will like what you see.

It's nice to have a Dad who can help....

A couple of weeks before my Ford Taurus POS took to the junkyard in the sky....

G-Man's car took a turn in the same direction.

He and I and his dad (mostly his dad) had dropped several hundred dollars into maintaining that POS over the last few months...

And G-Man, being a college student has less money than his Mom....

But unlike his Mom, he has a Dad who can, and does, help at times...

And this was one of those times....

Dad decided that he wanted a small truck for his farm...

And if G-Man did not mind sharing a little, Dad would purchase a truck and put G-Man on the insurance as long as G-Man paid the insurance premiums....

What a deal....

Too good to pass up....

Of course, the truck is Dad's, so when Carebear or LDBoy need to borrow the truck....

G-Man will hand it over and borrow one of their vehicles in the interim....

No problem....

And when Dad decides he wants to drive the truck for awhile, because, after all, it is his and, according to G-Man, it is a chic magnet....

G-Man will drive Dad's Subaru ....

Dad informed G-Man last evening that he needed to borrow the truck for a few days over the next couple of weeks....

And so G-Man will be driving a Subaru....

With a bumper sticker....

Needless to say, I will not be borrowing G-Man's wheels....

Not that I am all that against legalizing hemp...

I just do not proclaim it on my bumper....

Any more than I proclaim that I no longer go to church on Sunday....

Or that I did not vote in the last election so none of this mess the country is in is my fault...

Or....

Well, you get my drift....

I am not surprised....

It's kind of like asking for directions....

Report: Men are more likely to be struck by lightning

I have no further comment...

Phat Phil Returns....

I got a note from Phat Phil recently....

He shared a story with me about a friend of his...

His story kind of reminded me of some Peyton PHlaCe Antics....

Seriously...


I feel a little like Ms. Ant...

I guess I'd better change my attitude..

Until recently, Ms. Ant arrived at her place of work very early everyday and started work immediately. She produced a lot and she was happy to do so.  She enjoyed her job.

Mr. Lion, the CEO of the company where Ms. Ant worked, was surprised to see that Ms. Ant worked without supervision and yet produced so much....

And he could not help but wonder how much more Ms. Ant would produce if she were supervised...

So, Mr. Lion recruited Mr. Cockroach, who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing extensive reports.

Mr. Cockroach's first order of business was to set up a clocking-in attendance system.

And, of course, he needed to hire an admin person to write and type his reports, and...

He recruited young Mr. Spider to manage the archives amd monitor all phone calls.

Mr. Lion was delighted with mr. cockroach's reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and analyze trends so that he could present them at B of D meetings.

Well, Mr. cockroach needed a newer/better computer and a laser printer to prepare those graphs...

And someone to manage the new IT department...

Enter Mr. Fly....

Ms. Ant started feeling the pressure. She used to be so relaxed and productive.  But now she had a plethora of paperwork and meetings to attend which got in the way of her "real" work.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lion decided it was time to put someone in charge of the growing department. And for that position, he hired Mr. Cicada...

Who also needed a compter and carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office...

And a personal assistant, who he brought from his previous place of employment, to help him prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan.....

Ms. Ant was not liking the idea of coming into work anymore. She was not having a bit of fun.

Mr. Cicada noticed that department morale was down and convinced Mr. Lion of the absolute necessity of a climatic study of the office environment.

However, after reviewing the increasing costs for running the department and realizing that production was down, Mr. Lion decided it was time for an audit....

So....

He hired Mr. Owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant. to perform the audit and make suggestions....

Mr. Owl spent the next three months in the department and produced a 6-volume report....

Mr. Owl's conclusion: The department is overstaffed.

And who is the first to go????

Ms. Ant of course....

Because of her lack of motivation and negative attitude...

Sometimes it pays to have a little extra padding....

A friend and I made a trip to visit Houdini and a few other friends Saturday....


At Presque Isle Downs near Erie....


We got there about 11:00 AM and were walking from my car to the door....


Chatting away....


About what time and where we should meet for lunch....


When all of a sudden, my coffee and I were flying through the air....


Ok, maybe just my coffee was flying.....


But I felt like I was flying....


Actually I was hitting the ground....


Apparently another Houdini visitor saw someone leaving an awesome close-up spot....


So he backed up a little to make room for the leaver (new word) to back out... 


He backed up right into me....


I took a pretty good tumble....


I am hurting today in places I did not know could hurt....


But I lived to tell about it....


Obviously....


It could have been worse....


Much worse....


I could have been so small that he did not feel the hit and I could have been under his truck/van/suv....


Yeah, I am not sure what kind of vehicle it was he was driving, other than that it was something that he obviously could not see out of the back of too well...


Or I could have still been in my car....


In my brand new car....


And it would have been smashed instead of me....


Things could have been worse....

Sibling Rivalry....

So....

As you know if you are a follower...

There has been a bit of sibling rivalry among my siblings...

But nothing compared to the sibling rivalry among my grandbabies...

Or should I say my grandduckies...

LDBoy and MGirl acquired 2 ducklings a couple of months ago...

One of them died within a couple of days...

So the they got 2 more....

Because apparently ducklings do better when there are more than one...

And duckling farms only sell them in pairs...

Pairs being the key word....

Unfortunately...

For one of the ducklings...

Once they were big enough to be left alone, unsupervised in the back yard....

That is where they made their home...

Or LDBoy made a home for them...

He would go check on them every morning....

Bring them food and fresh water....

And they would all be happy to see him....

One more than the others....

That should have been a clue...

Because one morning there were only 2 ducks happy to see him...

The previously happiest to see him was not happy about anything....

Except that maybe it was know in ducky heaven...

From all appearances, it died a violent death....

Which surprised LDBoy....

He thought he had built them a nice home...

Well protected from the outside elements...

A safe haven from cats and foxes and raccoons....

And whatever else roams the night...

He watched for a couple nights and noticed a few predators attempting to get at the surviving ducks....

Attempting being the key word...

He had built a good home...

That is when he realized that ducks are only happy in pairs...

Three is not company....

Three is a crowd....

One of them had to go...

So they made it happen...

Kind of makes you not care anymore if some night hawk grabs the other two...