Wendy's for dinner

We went to Wendy's for dinner one evening. I wanted their chili poured over a garden salad. Scott and Danny's thing to do is, the double burger with chili and fries and drink.
Any way...... we sat down to eat and Danny got up to get a spoon for his frosty. I asked him to pick up a fork and knife for me as well. Scott forgot a straw, he got up and Danny came back. As Scott was on his way back, I over heard the young man sitting with his back to me say " be more quiet, there are people sitting right here". So I turned to my right and saw two young ladies sitting to my right with the young guy. The young guy and one young lady had their backs to me. The other young lady sat facing me and she looked right at me when I turned to look in that direction. Scott sat down........
The young lady was about 15 or 16 as were the others.

My mistake........no young lady.......... her comment to the young man was extremely loud and she sounded angry ......"who cares what they think.....they're old farts anyway........."

Old farts?........Ol' farts?.......... when did we become old farts?

I turned to Scott to say something about this and realized while looking at him,... OK, ....yeah he did look like an old fart..... With his grey hair and some wrinkles... but.....when did we cross over that line? I don't remember having that celebration of becoming an old fart. I don't think I'm an old fart. When did our age become the old farts? I missed something. I'm not an old fart. My mind just kept racing these thoughts over and over in my mind....I'm not an old fart.
I said nothing to Scott and ate my food in silence.

Then as we got up to leave, Scott and Danny were already throwing their items out as I got up from the table. I pushed my chair in and said in a low voice " at least I never was a young piss ant"....

I only had one indication that they heard what I said.

When we were backing out of the space in the parking lot, the girl with her back to me fingered us.

It's nice to know that, .... we are the number one old farts.

Deer Hunting

For all of you who know Scott, he likes to hunt deer.
For all of you who don't know Scott, he likes to hunt deer.
Here in Georgia, it's now deer hunting season. He drives about three to four hours southwest of our place to hunt on another persons land. He has quite a few friends from Florida who meet at this same property. They all stay for the weekend. They have trailers set up and have a place to stay. They all pitch in and purchase food for the time they are there. They cook by the camp fire and shoot the breeze in the evenings. During the time when the deer are active, they choose a "deer stand" to sit in during the early morning hours and wait for deer to pass in front of them or around them to possibly shoot. So far I believe there have been three to four weekends of this. Last weekend, Scott chose not to go down to the lease. We were watching TV on Sunday night after dinner. Scott said he would like to have some pizza rolls to munch on. I told him there were some in the freezer. He got up to look and proclaimed that what was in the freezer was egg rolls not pizza rolls. He then decided to go to the local shopping store to pick some up. I was watching some of the programing for about a half hour and decided to pick up my book and read a little. About an hour into reading, I paused, looked at my watch and wondered to myself.....why....does it take an hour.... to buy pizza rolls? He must be talking to someone in the store or has been strolling around looking for something else to munch on........ He'll do that sometimes.... stroll the store just looking for some garbage food.

He finally came back home.... Motioned for me to come outside.
I said " it sure took a long time to get pizza rolls! Or did you get in a wreck!"
..... He said comm'ere.....and pointed to the front of his truck. I said " holy crap... did you hit a wall? What did you do? Oh my gosh..... are you OK? what happened?" He walked around the side of the truck, of course I followed and he pointed in the back of the truck..... I said " oh my god... you hit a dog...." He said "no!". ........ As I came around the full back of the truck, I could then see the "rack".

He never got the pizza rolls.....
He got his deer alright.......with his truck. This was one expensive deer...... $4500 dollars worth of front end damage.
He was 185 lbs.
Yes he took him to the processor to see what could be salvaged.
Yes, he kept the rack.
For those who want to know points.......I believe it was 7 or 8.

Not the way you want to deer hunt.

Mountain Music

Scott and I were asked to go to visit with some friends. We were going to meet ½ way. Our friends live in Illinois. So they asked if we wanted to meet in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg. Not knowing anything about either of the two we said it would be fine. All we knew about either was what was shown on commercials. Looked ok........ We went....... We drove up, around the mountains. Scott thought that would be quicker, it was, not by much. His GPS was telling him to go one way and he wanted to go another. He did not understand why the GPS was wanting him to go this route.

Ok, so we got there. oh….my….gosh…
Well, I don’t know how many of you have been there or how many like it, but, here goes.

It was awful ! It was like riding through a permanent carnival. With sooooooooo many go cart tracks and sooooooooo many mini golf courses. Oh my gosh. There must have been fifty of each in each town. And then there are the shows.

Ok, this is the kind of town our friends like. We don’t care for this kind of “things to do”.

Well, we played cards for awhile, then we walked the town for a couple of hours. Our friends went to a show one evening and we went to the Bass Pro Shop! Now ! that’s our kind of walking around. We went back to the hotel and played more cards. When the men went to play golf, (not mini golf) the women went to town to the area called “the old Mill”. It was a lot of craft type stores. So I had a great time. More cards in the evening and then on our last day there, I said I would like to go find a water fall. So we asked at the front desk and they pointed the way to one just a couple of miles from the hotel. We hiked 1.2 miles up to the water fall. Our friends only went part of the way. Not realizing they were more than ½ way there, they turned around and went back to the car. It was almost worth the walk. A water fall is music to my ears. However, when you are under them or near them, you can’t hear very much, unless you talk loud or yell.

On the way home, we followed the GPS monitor. What….a….trip. Yes, it took us longer to go home but well worth the time. It took us through the mountains with quite a few stopping points to take pictures. Here are two of the best. (Scott missed his calling).

What the almighty has made………

Awhile

It’s been a while since I bloged and I am just enjoying the cooler weather we are having. I’ve been doing some reading lately…. Mainly everyone’s blogs.

Beauregard party time

Well, it was the family gathering for another party.

Mom has now had 75 birthday parties.

Quite a few family members were there. Karen and her two boys, Sean and Ryan.

Ryan is in orange on the left
Karen and Sean are in the
Picture to the right.

Myself, Scott, our son Daniel was working.

Duane and his wife Debbie with their daughters Tracy and Amber were there. Tracy's husband was working somehow Amber did not get in any of my pictures.

Debbie and Tracy to the left

Duane is in the yellow shirt with Dad Behind him.
Scott is to the right of Duane.

Dawn and Mark were there.

Tim and his son JP were there.

Tim to the left with the birthday girl.

There was swimming during the day and the bar-b-q in the evening with cake and presents.

Hope everyone will enjoy the pictures. Here is one of the five of us.

Dreaming in a dream

Does anyone know someone who interprets dreams?

I get very frustrated in a dream only to find out it was a dream.

I had fallen asleep, and started to dream...... that I was going to bed and had fallen asleep. I found someone in my house who was not supposed to be there. I was scarred and started screaming.... as I hollered for Scott he came running..... He was shaking me saying wake up, it's only a dream......it was very hard to wake up because then I realized......that was a dream and I was still screaming and then Scott really woke me up saying that it was a dream.

For a while I stayed awake....... I don't like it when I dream in a dream.
Has anyone else had this experience?
Does anyone know what this means?

Baggage pick up

I have found I am blogging about as much as Aunt Monica or Uncle John. So I was told I needed to step it up....


Recently my mother went on a trip to Detroit. On her way back, she was to bring some kielbasa home. I was instructed to pick mom up at the airport, specific date and time.... Not a problem.. I arraigned my schedule to be at the airport. Well, the day came to go to the airport. Mom called me and said, "I'm not on the plane, however, my bags are on. This means the kielbasa is on it's way. Can you go to the airport and pick up the bags?" Again.......no problem.

At the specified time, I was at the airport to collect the bags. I was afraid if I did not look like the people who had gotten off the plane, they may not let me take the bags. So I asked around to find out which carousel the bags would be on. I was instructed to carousel seven. No one was even around number seven and there were no bags around number seven. I kind of stood around number six and then finally backed off toward a wall. I was thinking that the plane had not yet shown up and I was early.

I stood by the wall and was watching some policemen with a search dog. They would take a piece of luggage from this stack about 20 feet away from where I was and then have the dog sniff that bag and walk on. I watched this go on for quite a few bags.

I was getting quite impatient that the carousel had yet to turn and that people were not showing up to retrieve their bags from the flight Mom was supposed to be on.

So I watch the security people move another bag...... Hey.... Wait...that looked like mom's bag........I walked over toward the bag... the policeman told me to get back and leave it there. I told him, "that's my bag!" He said, "leave it there for a minute...we're doing some training." I asked if there was a second bag with a gold ribbon on it? He said "yes," and pointed to the bag stack that was 20 feet away from me. He said I could go get that one. He mentioned that the dog kept going over there and they needed to find out why.

(I'm guessing they thought there might have been drugs in them)

I told them that there was polish meat in one of the bags.

They said that is not what the dog was looking for but they all burst out laughing.....

I took my meat and left.............

geraniums Continued from Mom

The geraniums continue to survive.

I have picked, plucked and watered Mom's geraniums as she is out of town attending to another family member requiring aid.

When Mom and Dad bought this place in Georgia, the statement was how wonderful it would be not to have to tend to the yard work..... apparently potted plants are different, however they are still like having a pet, when you go out of town......you have to get a sitter.

So I am doing my share and bringing in the mail and watering plants, so far.... they live......

CHEAPER CHECKS PLEASE

Wow, I had to reorder checks recently.
I remember when I used to pay $17.00 for a box of checks.
I would order two boxes at a time. I would receive 50 checks per bound, a total of 400 checks. I know the checks had been going up in price however, over the years they have been decreasing the amount of checks per box. I did not realize it until the price was $45.00 for two boxes and I am only receiving a total of 240 checks. I was not happy and told the woman on the phone, “I know this is not your fault, do you realize that this is what they did with the 16oz can of food in the grocery store? They increased the price and reduced the amount in the can.”
Guess they are going to get me one way or another.

Oh, by the way, those who think the price I am paying is totally outrageous, I pay extra to have top stub checks.

Free Flowers

I had gone grocery shopping. Out side of the store they had a huge display of flowering plants. On the inside, they had potted flowers. I wasn't sure of the difference. The ones on the inside were however more expensive.

I took a basket and proceeded back outside to pick up a few inexpensive plants. I was pleased with my choice of three which would have amounted to around ten dollars.

As I was walking through the store, I was stopped by a woman who looked very surprised at my choices and said OH! You're a gardener?!! Do you know if "Blankity blank blank" (I don't even know what kind of plant she asked about now). if it comes back each year or not? I said I had just (no lie) asked a neighbor the same question not more than an hour ago. She planted hers last year and it came back this year, bigger and stronger, however I did not see any of those out front of the store. The woman told me " that's because I took the rest of them, Here." (she handed me one) It had a sticker on it that said $.50. I was shocked. She said they always put out the plants that are no longer blooming out side and they are all marked down. Her basket was full of plants. I told her I would just go out front and check that out. She said, "no, I took them all. You can have this one".

So I took the plant, did my shopping and then proceeded to the area where they would have these discount items. I had also picked up some wilted tulips for $1.00. That's all that she left. She aparently is not a bulb person. What a find. I'm going to keep my eye open for more buys like this.

By the way this was not in the same area as the new beautiful flowering plants. They, the new ones distracted the unknowing consumer from the wilting out of season ones. But , I now know to watch for these.

WHAT'S IN A NAME

I just realized that everyone had updated their blog after the Easter holiday. So I now feel compelled to update mine.

When reading some of the response to blogs, I read one from Adrian with reference to what I believed was a grocery store.

OMG... How could anyone, name their food business ...."Ralph's"... Who would ... (if given a choice of other places).... actually shop at a place for food called "Ralph's" Or am I the only one who knows about vomiting to be called ralphing?

The blue birds are back

Well, they're baaaaaack....

When we moved into our house approx three and a half years ago, we also had five existing bird houses on the property. They were spread amongst the hard wood trees in the back of the property.

One little red house has lost its bottom. No doubt, probably to termites. You'll also notice the little red house is in close proximity of the church.

There is one that looks like a miniature mail box. Never been occupied. Just like the housing market, This one has been foreclosed on and no one will ever occupy it due to it's construction. It is a metal house. Sort of like the old style trailer homes like Mom and Dad and numerous Aunts and Uncles had when they were younger. Probably the low rent area of the trees.

I had put up two of my own houses last year. One received as a Christmas present and the other purchased at an antique store. The purchased one was a wooden purse with a latch for a closure. (not foreclosure) I had modified it with a hole in the siding and waa...la.. instant bird house. I put them both on the market right near our drive way in the back. I never used any signage or advertising: the purse is now occupied by the finch family. The gifted house, is still up for sale. I will do a lease purchase if anyone knows someone who would like the house. The brown one on the right. Please note it is in a subdivision and in a non gated community. The pool is in close proximity.

We believe the blue bird family is back from winter vacation and reoccupying their original house. This is not the variety of "blue bird" that everyone knows of. The type of bird... "I'm not sure of". I'm a non discriminating landlord. They just happen to have blue feathers. They have brought another family with them and they have all been moving in for the last few days.

I'm sure within a few weeks, our yard will have much to sing about.

Amanda

Just a note for all of you out there Amanda is back on line again. If you care to go to her blog. If you no longer have her on your favorites, you can click on her name to the side of my blog.

PACZKI DAY

OK so who remembers this and who still celebrates it? I know my mother's sister does.


Detroit
Michigan's first Catholic settlers were French, but the Fat Tuesday celebrations of modern times in Detroit stem from more the recent influence of the Polish Paczki Day. Locals flock to the local bakeries of Hamtramck to enjoy the large round Paczki doughnuts filled with raspberry, prune or vanilla cream. The colder climate of Michigan does not lend itself to a Carnival type celebration but the local media outlets do make a spectacle of Paczki day every year.

Anyone still celebrate pancake day? I know Ihop does down here however I think they are missled as to the meaning. They call it customer appreciation day.

For Sale

I had not posted a blog since the Open House/Oscar Nite at Mom & ?Dad's? place.

I have been quite busy with putting 18 townhomes on the market.
It seems the housing market is starting to pick up once again. Not that prices are going up, they are staying the same so far.
Interest rate has dropped again, this should get those sellers and buyers out there.

Since our visit to Tim's house, Mom and I have somewhat completed my kitchen, we painted over the wall paper, put up a new border and valances and I bought a new throw rug. Everything else in the kitchen stayed the same. The only part we forgot was behind the refrigerator.

We then painted the 1/2 bath on the first floor.

With the exception of my laundry room, the first floor is complete.

I'm trying to keep up with Tim however, my projects involve paint, paper and fabric, not wood.

A Night at the Oscars

Last night was a wonderful party, held at the new ranch condo's that Mom and Dad just purchased. It was an open house, the theme was an "Oscar Night at the Meadows of Jodeco".

It was amazing.

They had the bright lights that circled around in the sky. They were right at the entrance to the subdivision, letting you know you had arrived!

The main street was lined with luminaries (little white bags with a candle inside). As you drove up to the brightly lit building (club house), it really made you feel special.

There were gentlemen out front to open your door and valet park your car. (we did not do this part, we parked at Mom's)

As you walked up the front walk, they had a red carpet with stars on it. Mom and Dad, had their own star (on the walk of fame).

There was a woman taking pictures as you walked on the red carpet.

You were also met by "Joan Shivers" who was dressed in an Oscar gown and doing interviews. She stopped us and said to Mom, "It's not who you are, but who you are wearing!, Who are you wearing?" She talked a mile a minute and was very funny. The woman really looked like Joan Rivers. (I found out later she was a hired actress who did this for parties)

We went inside and signed in. There was a man doing caricatures in the fitness room. He was very good.

There was picture taking with Elvis, John Wayne and Marylin Monroe.

They had music, food and door prizes.

The music was fun and the food..........omg........there was so much food. Hard to choose what you wanted to eat. Then, all the desserts. WOW!

When they were giving out the door prizes, they would call the persons name as you would walk up to receive your prize, they played theme music. After you accepted your prize, there was canned applause as well as everyone in the room clapping.

When they were finished with the door prizes, they were giving out the Oscars. They had some of the home owners fill out some forms a while back a little background information and they read them out loud and presented them with a gold foil covered, chocolate Oscar. (again the music as they went up to accept their award and more applause)

We left the party as they started the music for the nightly dancing. It was "quite a performance".