Kittens

As I enter this I have a tiny purring black kitten in my lap that lunges for the keyboard periodically. I've never known one this small to be so totally focused on a goal! We should all be as focused!

The kittens have been such a joy! I had really forgotten how quickly they change and how very funny they can be! The one in my lap at the moment has been rescued from the bathtub and the trash can already today and the day is young!

They still are waiting to be integrated into the rest of the house. Smokey and Mercy did meet face to face in the bedroom door yesterday. Scared poor Mercy really bad. She ran and hid for a while. I keep thinking it'll be soon, but then I think about the hawks that live and hunt in this area and the kittens are smaller than squirrels! I leave the back door open when it's nice out...and, they dash so quickly at an opening door...not sure just what to do. If I let them out of here there are no other doors to close to contain them to an area...tried a gate. They scaled that in record time!

No real news. We went to 1/2 days this past Monday. I enjoy it, but I'm not quite sure how I'll hold up financially. I went ahead and renewed my drivers license and car tag yesterday, 'cause I had the money to do it and may not later. I have car insurance coming up soon, too. It's gonna be tight. Won't hurt for groceries...am stocked. May have to hit my change jar for pet food, thank goodness I have it!

I've taken Zocor for a week today. I am SO tired and wonder if that's not related to Zocor. My cholesterol was 306 and my doctor freaked out! He put me on 20 mg of the Zocor and that's the highest dose recommended for seniors. I'm rather small and react to drugs strongly. I've also modified my diet tremendously. Only whole grains, no suger, no refined carbs...mainly turkey and fish (grouper), no shellfish, more fruit than I'm used to and a fine assortment of fresh veggies. I've lost a few pounds as a perk, but I feel sure that between the diet and the drug my cholesterol level will fall nicely.

Helen's not doing great. She doesn't remember that she's just called. One day this week she called as I was walking in the door. Told her I'd just gotten home and she asked from where. When I said "work" she was totally puzzled because she thought it was the weekend. She tells me that she's been going to the doctor a lot to have her head x-rayed, but doesn't know why. So sad.

Not much to tell...

HWB's baby is two weeks old today. She's still in the hospital. Yesterday they were going to try to do a spinal tap. So far I don't know the results. Poor baby.

We'll be doing 1/2 days for the month of July. We'll be doing a 1/2 day today, too.

Prentice called night before last. He's still doing his father's roof. Said he may go to Vermont from there...then here to do the kitchen. Yeah!

Hot and dry seems to be the standard forecast here. Wish for rain!

Rosie will be 42 tomorrow. Hard to believe...seems just yesterday she was a tiny baby!

Baby

HWB's baby was a week old on Friday. Saturday she was hospitalized and is still there. She has blistering on her skin. I'm not sure where the blisters are as HWB has a hard time talking about it. She has not been diagnosed as of yet, though they have narrowed it down to several things...some of which are fatal and all have long-term problems, usually a much shorter life span.

There isn't even 1 pediatric dermatologist in the area and I was only able to find a small handful in the entire state. I found several hospitals that treat babies with the disorder, all far away. I feel they'll be going to Arizona or Minnesota, don't know when.

HWB told me yesterday that we'll be going to half days. He didn't say when...maybe today? It's so hot (101 yesterday, 86 at 11 last night and 78 now{6:45am}) and so dry. Business has come to a screeching halt. That's really going to hurt money-wise, though I'll love the time off!

The death of a friend

Martha Lynn Harris Kersey died Friday, June 8th. She was born January 6, 1941, here in Monticello. She was one of my bridesmaids when Bruce and I married 43 years ago.

It feels rather trite to post anything else right now.

and more rain...

We have had rain every day since Saturday. Not too much, just right...showers. Yeah!

HWB and wife had a little black haired baby girl late last Friday. About 3 weeks late. Suzanne.

Kittens are wonderful...they are both getting over colds. Hasn't slowed them down.

It's Raining!!!!!

Got up this morning at 5:30. Opened the back door to let everyone out and it's raining!!! Yeah!!!

Tropical Storm Barry is giving us rain and we so need it. No significant rainfall in this area since March 3rd. I just hope it continues long enough to make a difference!

Had thought I'd go to Thomasville to Lowes today, but think I'll just stay home and enjoy the rain!

The weather on the computer said the main part of the storm will miss us, we'll just get rain!!!

Blue moon?

When I got home from work Wednesday I had 3 packages in my carport...2 rather big ones and one small one. The small one was a slip cover for my chair and the 2 large ones were a cast aluminum table for the patio and an umbrella for the table.

My first choice to tackle was the slip cover, boy, what a chore! Took quite a while, but it fits and does make a major difference! Yeah!

Then I drug the 47 pound box with the table in it to the patio and spent a little over 2 hours putting it together. It's square and black and sharp! The umbrella was a snap, thank goodness!

Then it was time to water my garden which is all in containers...squash, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and a gazillion herbs. Got a kink in the hose and did a little flip/snap thingy to unkink it. Snapped the faucet off the house and had a MAJOR geyser of water spewing from the house to the concrete patio. My first thought was to put the faucet back in. Tried and tried, but it had broken off and there were no threads left. Got soaked and fixed nothing. Ran into the house and called my plumber...goat his answering machine on both numbers. Left a frantic message. Ran out to the water main and once I got the top off could find nothing that remotely resembled a cut off valve...just the dial spinning at top speed! Back to the phone. Called my back yard neighbor (County property appraiser) thinking he would know what to do, but he wasn't home. Called HWB, not in...called one of the guys from work, not in...called Ann, she had no ideas. Called the police. They contacted a city worker who finally came out and cut the water off at the main. Then the plumber called back and said he'd be over as soon as he jumped into his pool.

When the plumber got here it was pitch black dark and there's no light in the area where the broken pipe is. So he capped it off and said he'd send one of his guys on Thursday to replace it. And he turned the main back on.

Was hot, sweaty, tired and thirsty when he left. Went to the kitchen for water. Opened the refrigerator door to get a bottle of water out and a large plastic bowl of slaw fell out and landed upside down and splattered all over Shirley and me. Scooped Shirley up sprayed her off in the sink, put her outside and then cleaned up. What a MESS!

When I woke up Thursday morning both my cable TV and my Internet service were down. These are not connected things and of course I found this quite a puzzle. Called the cable company (on hold for almost 10 minutes), reported the outage.

Left for work early and stopped by the grocery store to get Milk Bone Dog Biscuits for Chuck (HWB's dog). The power had been out at the store and they didn't have the registers booted back up yet. Waited a few minutes, gave them some money (said to let me know if it wasn't enough) and headed to work.

The computers were down at work!

Pittled around until time to make my morning run. Was standing in line at the bank when I was hit by a migraine so bad that I thought I'd be sick right there. Made it back to work and came home early.

As soon as I was able to fall asleep the phone rand, Ann. Then the plumber came and put a heavy duty faucet on the house (total bill $95.00). Then I did sleep an hour or so.

This morning I'm better. Can still feel where the headache was, but better.

I'm blaming the full moon!

Catching up

Since I last posted we've had Mother's Day and Memorial Day...both of which constituted a command appearance in Tallahassee.

Mother's Day was, of course, at the country club. Mother, Bert, Nancy P., Nancy & Mark and I attended. Good food and fun company. Both Rosie and Prentice called...LOVE hearing from them! Prentice is going to do my kitchen for me!!!!! I'm thrilled!

Yesterday was Memorial Day. Once more at the country club. This time it was different. It was a wonderful bar-b-que cooked outside and eaten outside. Nice weather, clear (no smoke) and breezy. Had to fuss at Mother. She jumped on Nancy (verbally)...I told her in private not to do it anymore. Hope it works, she hurts Nancy's feelings so badly and so often. I blow up at her when she pulls that stunt with me, but Nancy internalizes and stews.

Got two kittens last week. A little grey tabby and a little grey-black thing. Not from the same litter, in fact not even from the same towns. They get along quite well and are (as kittens are) a hoot! They are living for now in my bathroom. Thank goodness it's very large and they have lots of romping room. They were both 6 weeks old on Friday and are just too tiny to be loose in the house. Too many places for them to get stuck or lost. Them come into my room with Shirley to play...they LOVE Shirley! Goodness and Mercy are afraid of them!!! Oh, Smokey and The Bandit!

HWB's baby still hadn't arrived as of last Friday. The first due date was the 11th, then they changed it to the 19th. Told HWB when I left on Friday that maybe the baby (don't know the sex) would wait until this coming Thursday...full moon.

Had Nancy over for a little cookout on Sunday. Actually grilled! Hot dogs and hamburgers. Had slaw, yellow rice and black bean salad, baked beans, curried deviled eggs and sweet tea. Nancy brought cherry ice cream and brownies. Good eats!

Hope to post a little more often now that my new computer is acting better.

EEK!

With the weather as hot and dry as it is now work is even slower than it would normally be this time of year.

Yesterday I was looking for something to do (I can only surf the net for so many hours a day without going totally batty!), so I decided to clean out the refrigerator at work. I found things from Easter still in there! Then I found a white kitchen trash bag that I didn't recognize. Tried to pull it out, but it was quite heavy, so I just pulled it forward enough to look in it. My mistake! It was a rattlesnake...bigger around than my upper arm. Scared the pea turkey out of me!!! Stuffed it back and closed the door...left HWB a note on his desk and just had the heeby jeebies for the rest of the afternoon. I sure hope it's gone when I get in this morning!

Hot, hot, hot

All last week we got up into the 90's...they're saying this morning it'll be only in the 80's! Thank goodness! I started using the air conditioner last Sunday. I hate that!

I'm getting ready to pay my electric bill, $50.71...bet it'll be the last one that low for a while...oh well.......

Not much going on, working, cleaning house, trying to stay on top of the yard work (being very sparing with the watering).

Our local Congressman called yesterday (old classmate) and invited me to join him and some other classmates at his house for dinner....just couldn't. Had just taken the garbage out to the road and was dirty and sweaty from yard and house work and still had a multitude of things to do in order to make my week doable. Was offered a rain check. Accepted.

One more episode of Survivor on Thursday and then the finale on Sunday. Always hate to see each season end!

The Beach

Oh, it's over! It went much too quickly! Our beach vacation is now in the past...it was wonderful!

Thursday Nancy and I set out in two cars for St. Teresa. We each had a dog and enough supplies to last us through hurricane season!

It was around 6:30 when we got there and had to turn on the power to the house and the pump house and then turn on the water, so it was 7ish when we got the cars unloaded, etc. I made a vat of Mexican pasta salad and that was just right for supper (and 3 more meals!) and I took the little tv and dvd player from here so we were delighted to put our feet up, eat and watch Survivor! Actually the reception with rabbit ears was just awful, but we got enough of it to sorta follow the game and see who got voted off (Mookie!!!!). Then we sat on the porch and froze to death while we watched the storm (no rain of course, just major wind) blow in.

Neither of us knows how Friday passed as quickly as it did...we walked the dogs on the beach several times (plastic bags in pockets), ate, napped, ate, carried an 8' ladder through the woods to look through the windows of a house that's for sale, ate, rocked on the porch and then it was time to cook out. Nancy brought her grill and supplies along with two beautiful steaks which she grilled to perfection. She made her famous baby greens, blueberry, feta, pecan salad with videlia onion dressing and loaded potatoes! My one contribution was Texas toast that I grilled and it was good! We ate and watched "Two Weeks Notice" and had trouble keeping our eyes open!

Two of Nancy's friends came down Saturday morning and we ate and played bridge from 9am till 5pm. Then we went back to Panacea and ate at the Harbor House. Fantastic seafood, great service and a table over looking the water! Saw something none of us had seen before, this big machine with long arms scooped up boats from the water at the pier and loaded them into little cubby holes stacked 4 or 5 deep! Fun to see! After dinner Donna and Noreen went back to Tallahassee and Nancy and I took our loaded take out boxes and went back to the house. We watched "The Devil Wears Prada" and drank wine until 12:30, that's very late for both of us!

The refrigerator died sometime Friday. Luckily each of us had taken a cooler and the BP down the road had ice.

We saw a bald eagle, many woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, wrens, terns, cranes, and several formations of pelicans that flew right in front of the porch lots of times! We saw porpoises directly in front of the house a few times and a funny little lizard with markings on his back like a rattle snake and horny protrusions all over his head! Great fun!

Sunday was another beautiful day, just much too short! We left at 3:30 and Shirley and I were home by 5...not bad! We are both looking forward to doing this again sometime...hope it's soon!

I'm so glad I took today off from work, too! I am SO tired even after a good nights sleep and every part of me hurts from my feet (I'm sure from walking on the beach so much) to my neck and everything in between!

Even though it was wonderful, it's sooooo good to be home! (Goodness and Mercy sure are glad we're home, too!)

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's birthday. It actually isn't until tomorrow...she'll be 82. It's funny, I was trying to think of something pleasant to say about her...she'd like this...she looks remarkable for her age, dresses beautifully and finally changed her hair-do. Okay, except for the hair-do part she'd like that. Nancy and I drove down to the Seineyard and met Mother and Bert. As usual, we pigged out and had major leftovers to bring home. I just had shrimp, scallops, grouper, fries and a hush puppy for breakfast (wonderful) and there's still more left for lunch!

Our busy time at the nursery is done...hate that! I absolutely love it during the busy time. I still enjoy it because of the people there and the surroundings, but I am crazy bored now. I'm not good at busy work and am tired of surfing the Internet for 6-7 hours every day.

I'm really considering early retirement. I could do that September 1st...just couldn't live on the amount of money I'd receive. Sure wish I could find something to do to bring in enough money to make the difference in SS $'s and real life!

Haven't done anything toward remodeling the kitchen yet...wish Prentice were here. I know he could do it and I know I'd like it. I'd like that entire room gutted and redone. It's sorta an awkward room, open on both ends and taller than it's wide. Wish there were a tv program to do it for me!

Finally had to break down and get Shirley a new harness. After she was spayed a few months ago she really puffed up! Now she knows how I feel! Of course when she hurt her hip that slowed her down considerably, but it's well now I think. Anyway, she now is the proud owner of a lovely hunter green harness and it looks soooo good on her!

Wild weather!

On March 3rd we got under an inch of rain. We didn't get more until last night. We got about an inch. We've been so cold that I've built fires and so hot that I entertained the idea of turning on the air conditioner (but didn't!). Now it's cold again and I'll have a fire going for at least the next three nights! Crazy!

Lately it's been impossible for me to get on blogspot to post. Then today I tired once more and did.

Last Sunday was Easter and after almost 4 years I finally got to meet my new step sister. She and my sister have the same name, so that shouldn't be a problem. We had a good time and good food.

Missed work Monday because of a weather induced migraine and even though I went to work on Tuesday the dumb head ache lingered until Thursday in one way or another, mainly visual.

Friday we closed at 1pm for an employee cookout. I did everything but the meat. We had pheasant, wild turkey, quail and venison along with a giant salad, baked beans, rolls and brownies. It was good and I came home at 3:30. Not bad.

Next Saturday we're doing Mother's 82nd birthday and then the following weekend is the beach! Sure am looking forward to that!

Spring Gardens

The azaleas made one of their best shows this spring...I so enjoy this yard! Three sides are bordered with 6'-8' tall azaleas in coral, white and purple. Everything was in bloom at once with the red buds and dogwoods dripping with wisteria and orange trumpet vine and spirea blooming all around and, of course the camellias! Of course I took no pictures, just hope the mental image lasts!

Now I'm waiting for the hydrangeas, irises and crape myrtles to do their thing! Ain't spring grand!

Reconnedted, finally!

It's been a couple of weeks or so since I've posted.....dumb computer was in and out of the shop and then was totally dead for a while. Finally I went to Tallahassee Saturday and got a new one. A nice little Gateway desk top variety that no other hand or brain has interfered with. I guess this is the first new computer I've had and getting it all set up and on line was a major challenge.

Actually, the set up part was a piece of cake except for the monitor...I couldn't get the base attached. It took several attempts with breaks in between before it finally dawned on me that perhaps I should turn it around and try it that way. Presto! went right in! It's one of those skinny LCD monitors and it's absolutely amazing how much more desk top space is available now!

No real news. Work was CRAZY busy for a couple of months, now (as of Friday) it's dead! Of course, the weather plays a major part in that. We are quite dry and hot...88 yesterday and it's been several weeks since it's rained and the weatherman just said there's none in sight this week! In fact he said "get your sprinklers out"! I'm doing a little hand watering, nothing else.

Mother and Bert will not be going to Italy after all. Mother had an incident last week. She woke up with the room spinning. Bert ended up calling for an ambulance and they went to the emergency room. They found nothing wrong, gave her a shot and a prescription and sent her home. Bert told Nancy that there was no way he'd take her out of the country and risk something like that or worse happening. They'll do something in the states.

Helen's still hanging in there. A few weeks ago she went to the doctor for testing and they found that she's diabetic. She's not eating right and probably won't. The tumors are slow growing, but they found they had increased in size. Her memory is so severely impacted. It's quite painful for me to talk with her. In one conversation she'll repeat herself many times and each conversation is a repeat of the last 100.

I've had a hard time getting on Blogger lately, not to read blogs, but to post. I've tried several times from work and off and on yesterday. This is this first time I've been able to log on. Wonder if they're having problems?

Saturday morning in Tallahassee

Yesterday I met Mother and Nancy at Bradley's Country Store at 8:00 for breakfast. We each had a Pepsi and a 12" country sausage with sauteed onions on a bun! Good eating! We sat out under a very old oak tree to eat at a picnic table that looked like it grew there! The weather was perfect and we really did have a nice time.

After we ate we walked across the road to let Maria potty and to look at some goats in the field...the goats were a hoot! They had wide rather high ramps that they were playing on, butting each other off and running up and down. Fun to watch. Mother said she couldn't walk the whole way (maybe 50 yards) so she went back and sat in her car until we got back. Then we sat back out at the picnic table and talked for a while more.

Mother had called earlier in the week and said she was going to have my kitchen remodeled. Yeah! I did tell her I thought it was a wonderful idea, but I would have to have final say on style and color. She very begrudgingly agreed.

So when we left Bradley's I followed Mother to Lowes...only she got confused and sorta turned around and had to pull over and I had her follow me. Anyway, we got there. We looked at lots of styles and when she saw what I had in mind she seemed less worried. My back was bothering me and I suggested that we each take some brochures home and look at them and then on another day we could look again. We did get a light for the dining room, but she called a while ago and suggested that I put it in the funny little room off the kitchen and go with another one we saw for the dining room...think she's right. I'll have the kitchen, dining room, funny little room and the kitchen painted all the same color...sorta a moss green, nice depth and rich color. I want to have the carpet ripped out of the dining room and of course the floor in the kitchen redone. The window over the sink also needs to be replaced.

This is rather exciting! I'm going to have to have an electrician put a 220 outlet for the stove on the opposite wall of the kitchen and they'll have to do wiring for the hood and the dishwasher and hang the two light fixtures and put an outlet on the front porch and put a light outside the french doors and I have two light bulbs that have to be changed.

Then I'll need a painter and a plumber!

I'm afraid this may become a bigger project than Mother thinks it will be. Those walls in the kitchen are plaster and I'm afraid that when the cabinets are taken down it'll all come down too and then there's the sheetrock thing that'll probably have to happen. Also, the floor isn't level at all and it needs to be jacked up...could be a very major undertaking!

Leah Jane had a brunch for Ann's birthday today. We began with Blood Marys and ended with birthday cake with a lovely casserole and sausage and biscuits and hot fruit in between! There were 6 of us and we laughed and ate and had fun!

We had a storm!

We all knew on Thursday morning that a storm was coming...we talked about it at work and it was on the radio and tv.

When I got home a little after 1 on Thursday I cleared the patio of furniture and plants and things...just put them against the house and shrubbery in the back, brought some of the little things in. The only thing I left in place was the rug that I have out there.

I sat bolt upright in bed at 2 am Friday morning thinking that something had fallen on the house. The wind and rain was Charley loud and then another giant boom of thunder with the lightening happened and the power went off. The storm really didn't last all that long, maybe an hour or so and then it was just hard rain.

This mornings paper said that it still hadn't been confirmed that at tornado had touched down in Jefferson County, but the physical evidence pointed in that direction. Any way, we were without power county wide for 6+ hours. After seeing what happened in Andolusia, AL I think we should all count our blessings!

The power came back on around 9:40 am yesterday morning. Then I showered and dressed and went to the bank. They had only been open for about 1/2 hr. when I got there and the line was a million people long! I waited. Deposited my paycheck (such as it is!) and headed to the Social Security office in Tallahassee.

Turns our that when I got there they hadn't been open very long either. Seems there were pocket of power outages all over Leon County too. My sister said here power went off just long enough for her to have to reset her clocks, but then stayed on.

Anyway, since I moved into the house about 2 years ago I haven't gotten a statement of benefits from SS and seeing as how I'm turning 62 this year I thought it was time to make sure that I really was still in the system and I need to know what I can expect to draw if I do take early retirement. I'll only have SS and have no savings or other source of income. The young fellow that waited on me was rather condescending and a little less than helpful at first. I told him I wanted to change my address with them (I'd already tried on the phone and on line and since I'm not at present receiving benefits I had to wait until the IRS notified SS about a change of address). Well, damn it, I just didn't care for that! The IRS has managed to find me to deliver tax return forms for two years, but it seems they still hadn't told SS that there was an address change. This sightly bored young man gave me the same run around. And finally I said, "Just when do you think they'll get around to sending me this information? I'm thinking about taking early retirement this year and I need to be able to make some plans." With that his head whipped around to me and he looked at me and said "Just how old are you?" and I said "I'll be 62 this year." At that he became quite chatty and helpful. Changed my address in the system, printed out an estimated benefit statement and gave me some advice. The way things look I'll really have to keep working full time...and I'm just so tired!

Left there and went to K-Mart and Walmart. Got pet food and kitty litter.

Got to my sister's house around 1:30, just as she was pulling into her driveway. We sat and visited for an hour or so and then went to pick up Maria from the vets. She was there to be spayed. Well, it turned out that she has a blood clotting factor problem and they didn't do the surgery. She's to be on medication for 3 weeks and then they'll check her again and probably do it then.

We took Maria back to her house and then went shopping at High Cotton!! Love that store! and, everything in the store was 20% off! Didn't get much, a candle and a pair of dish towels, oh, and we both got cards for Mother and Bert's birthdays! They're hoots! Had fun.

Then, we went to the Outback Steakhouse...got there at 4:20 (gift certificates from the Merrit Island group) and ate hardy!!!

Got home at 6:30 and was POOPED!!

Fell asleep in my chair watching tv and woke at 10 and got in bed. Didn't get up until 10 this morning. It's 4:15 in the afternoon and all I've done today is put the patio back together and clean the stove top...I've not even finished the newspaper!

Thank goodness tomorrow's Sunday!

Company!

Tuesday night Prentice and Cynthia came to visit on their way back to NC.
It was good to finally meet Cynthia and as always WONDERFUL to see Prentice!

Wednesday morning before they left out they came by my work and got a glimpse of the nursery where I work. It's never easy seeing someone you love leave, but it was easier for me for them to leave from where I work than from home...it's always so empty at home...at work I had work.

Our weather has taken another wierd turn. Yesterday it was hot! I tried to sit on the patio to read the newspaper and had to keep chasing the shade!

It's winter here!

We had really become quite complacent here about the weather! Just because it has been so spring-like that everything is in bloom and we've been wearing light weight clothing we forgot that it's only February! NOW we remember! It's cold!

Every night I carry in 3 armloads of fire wood and use it all! I'm so glad I got the long cord of wood back when folks thought I was nuts to worry about it, because it's at a premium now and hard to find. I'm keeping the thermostat set on 60 and with a roaring fire we are staying quite cozy.

Last night I did add another comforter to the bed, but with Shirley, Goodness and Mercy on the bed with me I probably could have done without it. However, they are saying that tonight and tomorrow night will be much worse.

Had to make a mad run to Tallahassee for HWB yesterday. He's selling things on e-bay and had promised a fellow that he'd overnight a dumb golf club...our Post Office closes at noon on Thursdays as well as the bank. So I missed my afternoon off, but at least it was out of the office! Got back to the office at 3:15 and home before 3:30.

No plans for the weekend, I'd thought I'd take Nancy her birthday present which finally came in, but I used my Tally trip yesterday to drop it by her house. What a relief! I'm looking forward to staying in and vegging all weekend! Maybe I'll finish that new Stephen King book I've been reading for weeks. It's very good, I just don't have much spare time!

The animals are in heaven with their new fenced area...Mercy goes out a lot, but is always ready to come in when I whistle.

Two New MOTHER stories

Last Saturday Mother, Bert, Nancy and I had lunch together at the Seine Yard in Woodville. Lunch was wonderful as always and we had a very nice visit.

As Nancy, Bert and I were having dessert Mother suddenly piped up with "I haven't had chocolate this year"...I thought just a moment and told her that that wasn't true...about a month ago Mother, Nancy and I had lunch together and afterwards went back to Mother's house where she took a large box of chocolate out of the freezer and we sat out on the porch and pigged out! Then two weeks ago after shopping the three of us went to Ruby Tuesday's and Mother was the only one who had dessert...a giant chocolate cake thing with ice cream and stuff and she finished it all! After I reminded her about those two times that I knew of she said "Oh, does that count?"!

The restaurant was quite crowded when we were ready to leave. Nancy and I dodged the crowd and got to the front quickly, but were stopped by a large crowd coming in. As we stood there waiting to get around I felt a little tug on my sleeve. I looked down and it was Mother. She said "I'm Jane Fl*****r", I smiled and said "I'm Jane C*******d. She got a strange look on her face and said "Oh, I looked across the crowd and saw you and thought 'I think I know that lady, she sure looks familiar.'"!

They are going to Italy in May. I hope Bert keeps a close eye on her...she may get lost!

Yesterday was my 3hr. off day. I cleaned out the carport, moved my old wood pile to the new one, did some weeding and planted a couple of crape myrtles. My arms and shoulders ache this morning!

Yeah! It's FRIDAY!!!