Fugitive Friday

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

What am I  thankful for....? 
That you guys keep coming back to read my ramblings! 
Have a wonderful, stuffing filled, cranberry dribbling, gravy drenched day! 

Wordless Wednesday

PS 15 Crestwood, NY (my first public school)

I Dreamed I Buzzed My Hair!

ACK! Not my best look........ :(

What I’m Reading….

Or should I say what I just finished reading.

Because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next and couldn’t put it down!  Now I’m sad it’s over!  

(I always feel that way when I finish a book that has totally involved me.)

All in the Leaves is about a young independent woman, Anna, who just needs a little nudge to build the life of her dreams.

That nudge comes in the form of a tea leaf reading.

And the fun ride starts there.

Anna and her best friend Chloe travel the countryside looking for the perfect venue for their business (I won’t give it away…) and meet an interesting cast of characters.

I won’t let the cat out of the bag, but I’ll just say I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the UK with my new friends Anna and Chloe!

Available on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony and Waterstones.

Fugitive Friday

Harriet

Harriet was the kind of kid that always had something better than you did.

HER house was better than yours.

HER mother’s car was better than your mother’s.

HER toys were better than yours.

SHE got a better grade in arithmetic than you did.

HER life was infinitely better than yours.

Yada yada yada………….

It used to drive us all nuts!

But we never said anything to challenge her because in a way we felt sorry for her.

She didn’t have a father.

Her mother worked so she was a latch key kid (before ‘latch key’ was a phrase.) We thought this was the reason for her outlandish lies.

One day when she told the whopper of all whoppers I couldn’t take it anymore.

And I called her out on it.

Her RICH MILLIONARE uncle had died and left all his money to her and her mother.

She was a millionaire!

She kept insisting it wasn’t a lie.

And she could prove it.

She showed us a clipping from the newspaper…………..

It was all about a millionaire related to a local family who had died and left his entire estate to this local family….Harriet and her mother!

The ONE time I decided to call her out on her preposterous lies (and we ALL knew they were lies) the ONE time and it turned out to be true!!

Lesson learned….lesson TOTALLY learned.

Wordless Wednesday

Art courtesy Son2 (circa 1999)

Paul Bunyan aka Husband

Back in the olden days, during the fuel shortage of the seventies, we heated our house with an airtight stove.

Husband and a friend would go upstate to said friend’s family property with a big ‘ole rental truck and two chain saws.

To cut trees.

They cut enough wood to supply both our families stoves for the winter.

Since moving to a subtropical climate our need for heating has significantly changed.

But Husband likes to keep his hand in the old traditions……

Here’s our ‘cord’ of firewood for the winter!

Just enough for one fire in the fire pit and we’ve satisfied our ‘need’ for the year! 

the drainpipe to the right will give you perspective........

My Life in Laundry

I was introduced to the thrills of laundry while living in my parents’ home. The washer and dryer were in the basement. The dark, dank, musty, creepy basement. I avoided doing laundry for as long as possible before being forced to go into the bowels of the house.

Then Husband and I moved to The Apartment.

They too had laundry facilities in the basement.

Except this basement was the extreme of basements.

The machines were located at the far end of the building. You had to walk through a myriad of connected rooms to get to them. Dark, unlit, creepy, scary rooms with shadowy corners where who knows what kind of muggers, rapists and axe murderers lurked.

I opted for the Laundromat down the street.

It really wasn’t much better, but at least it wasn’t in a basement!

Then too, I waited until I was out of clean unmentionables before I deemed it necessary to go. (I even bought us extra undies to prolong the task!)

The last time I went to the Laundromat, I found a guy fondling my aforementioned unmentionables as he pulled them out of the dryer.

It was then that Husband came up with the scathingly brilliant idea to get an apartment sized washer and dryer.

(It was written into our lease that this was strictly forbidden.)

But we did it anyway. And to make sure it was undetected we went to extremes to put carpet pieces under and over and around said machines to muffle any telltale noises that might give us away.

These two little mini machines were workhorses. They moved with us to our house and lived a long and meaningful life for our growing family.

The only problem was….with two little boys and a ‘handy’ husband I was constantly doing laundry. The machines could only hold so much.

Then one day the inevitable happened.

We gave them a dignified burial and went off to find new machines.

While we were at the store, the heavens parted, angels sang and the rays of the sun illuminated a ‘Laundry Center’.

A stacked full size washer/dryer.

Husband reconfigured the laundry room and I fell in love.

 I wasn’t constantly doing laundry anymore!

Fast forward to the present….when we moved into this house we bought a new washer and dryer.

Maytag.

Let me just say their commercials are total LIES!

These machines have broken down and needed more repairs than all of our previous machines combined!

The washer broke down the first week!

The repairman said it was a bobby pin lodged in the motor. 

I never even owned a bobby pin! 

Fugitive Friday

Wordless Wednesday

I Cleaned the House

Mystery Solved

So, the answer to the ‘what the hell is it?’ question is……….

Cookie Dropper! 

"This simple engineered cookie dropper works wonders. Just scoop up the dough, press the slide and voila! There is no muss or fuss and your hands never touch the cookie dough. It makes quick work of making cookies. It can also be used for slicing butter or a cheese ball."

Amazon review By DB on March 19, 2012

(I'm actually a little disappointed. I thought it was going to be something much more intriguing! LOL)

Mystery Utensil?

While sifting through the cutlery at the thrift store yesterday I stumbled upon this:

For 25¢ I couldn’t resist.

But I have no idea what it is or what it does.

NO clue! Not even an inkling what it could be.

Anyone?

Beuller?

Please feel free to educate me, or at least give possible suggestions.

It’s driving me crazy!

Update: Husband did a Google search and found out the mark on it, a chicken in a nest, is the logo for Pampered Chef....So I guess that narrows it down to a kitchen utensil.......?

Wordless Wednesday

Why I Can’t (read: won’t) Go to the Doctor

I’ve done something to my thumb. Thumb, wrist, finger…..in that area.

I must have pinched a nerve or something.

It’s numb and hurts at the same time!

It’s been several weeks now and it doesn’t seem to be resolving itself.

I should go to the doctor about it.

But I can’t.

And here’s why.

I have ‘issues’.

Nothing major, just the usual…….aging, haven’t been very diligent about caring for myself, high blood pressure, overweight, cholesterol…..the usual stuff.

PLUS at my last checkup she says I’m working my way towards diabetes.

(Which runs in my family but I can’t blame it entirely on them……)

So what do I do to help myself?

Nothing, of course.

I mean, I did lose weight (which I have now put back on because when I’m in pain I self medicate, and my go to ‘drug ‘of choice is food!)

If I go to the doctor the first thing she’ll say is, “You’ve gained the weight back!” and I’ll feel guilty.

And then she’ll say she wants blood work to check my A1C and tell me I need to go on diabetes meds.

And I’ll feel guilty.

And she’ll tell me to exercise more. 

And I’ll feel guilty.

Then she’ll probably tell me to go see specialist about my thumb and it will all cost me more money and the resolution will be, “You pinched a nerve. It needs time to heal. That will be $$$$$, please.”

And I’ll feel guilty.

For not waiting for it to heal on its own, for spending $$$$ unnecessarily, and for being such a wimp!

And that, my friends, is why I won’t go to the doctor.

I can’t take that much guilt!

So Much Trash….So Little Time!

Fugitive Friday